Augustine on Psalm CIV
Trinity 19 Home
O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Source: Sacramentary of Bishop Gelasius of Rome [494]. Cranmer in 1549 reversed the order of mercy and our inability. [Barbee and Zahl] One is reminded again of our Lord's promise send the Comforter to direct us, and of Isaiah 64:6 we are all as an unclean thing... our righteousness is as a filthy rag.... We, of and by ourselves, are not worthy to stand before God - not even to see him, until we are perfected by his grace. For he is "of purer eyes to behold iniquity" [Hab 1:13]
Job xxiv. 1, Ephesians iv. 17 & St. Matthew ix. 1
Psalm cxiv, cxv | cvii
Homily
Psalm 114
Ephesians iv. 17
THIS I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that yet henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
St. Matthew ix. 1
JESUS entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.
Scripture from 1928 Book of Common Prayer and KJV
Barbee and Zahl: The Collects of Thomas Cranmer
Augustine
Psalm CXIV
1. The river Jordan, when they were entering across it into the land of
promise, when touched by the feet of the priests who bore the Ark,
stood still from above with bridled stream, while it flowed down from
below, where it ran on into the sea, until the whole people passed
over, the priests standing on the dry ground. We know these
things, but yet we should not imagine in this Psalm, to which we have
now answered by chanting Allelujah, that it is the purpose of the Holy
Spirit, that while we call to mind those deeds of the past, we should
not consider things like unto them yet to take place. For "these
things," as the Apostle saith, "happened unto them for ensamples."
2. "When Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from among
the strange people" (ver. 1), "Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His
dominion" (ver. 2); "the sea saw that and fled, Jordan was driven back"
(ver. 3). Think not that past deeds are related unto us, but rather
that the future is predicted; since, while those miracles also were
going on in that people, things present indeed were happening, but not
without an intimation of things future....Some things he has related
differently to what we have learnt and read there: that he might not
truly be thought to be repeating past acts rather than to be
prophesying future things. For in the first place, we read not that the
Jordan was driven back, but that it stood still on the side nearest the
source of its streams, while the people were passing through; next, we
read not of the mountains and hills skipping: all which he hath added,
and repeated. For after saying, "The sea saw that, and fled; Jordan was
driven back:" he added, "The mountains skipped like rams, and the
little hills like young sheep" (ver. 4): and then asketh, "What aileth
thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest: and thou, Jordan, that thou wast
driven back?" (ver. 5). "Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and
ye little hills, like young sheep?" (ver. 6).
3. Let us therefore consider what we are taught here; since both those
deeds were typical of us, and these words exhort us to recognise
ourselves. For if we hold with a firm heart the grace of God which hath
been given us, we are Israel, the seed of Abraham: unto us the Apostle
saith, "Therefore are ye the seed of Abraham." ...Let therefore
no Christian consider himself alien to the name of Israel. For we are
joined in the corner stone with those among the Jews who believed,
among whom we find the Apostles chief. Hence our Lord in another
passage saith, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold;
them also I must bring, that there may be one fold and one Shepherd."
The Christian people then is rather Israel, and the same is
preferably the house of Jacob; for Israel and Jacob are the same. But
that multitude of Jews, which was deservedly reprobated for its
perfidy, for the pleasures of the flesh sold their birthright, so that
they belonged not to Jacob, but rather to Esau. For ye know that it was
said with this hidden meaning, "That the elder shall serve the
younger."
4. But Egypt, since it is said to mean affliction, or one who
afflicteth, or one who oppresseth, is often used for an emblem of this
world; from which we must spiritually withdraw, that we may not be
bearing the yoke with unbelievers. For thus each one becometh a
fit citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, when he hath first renounced
this world; just as that people could not be led into the land of
promise, save first they had departed from Egypt. But as they did not
depart thence, until freed by Divine help; so no man is turned away in
heart from this world, unless aided by the gift of the Divine mercy.
For what was there once prefigured, the same is fulfilled in every
faithful one in the daily travailings of the Church, in this end of the
world, in this, as the blessed John writeth, last time. Hear the
Apostle the teacher of the Gentiles, thus instructing us: "I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were
under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same
spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they
drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was
Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were
overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples."
What more do ye wish, most beloved brethren? For it is surely
clear, not from human conjecture, but from the declaration of an
Apostle, that is, of God and our Lord: for God spoke in them, and
though from clouds of flesh, yet it was God who thundered: surely then
it is clear by so great testimony that all these things which were done
in figure, are now fulfilled in our salvation; because then the future
was predicted, now the past is read, and the present observed.
5. Hear what is even more wonderful, that the hidden and veiled
mysteries of the ancient books are in some degree revealed by the
ancient books. For Micah the prophet speaketh thus. "According to the
days of thy coming out of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things,
etc. ...In this Psalm, therefore, although the wonderful spirit
of prophecy doth look into the future, yet it seemeth, as it were, to
be merely detailing to the past. "Judah," he saith, "was His sanctuary:
the sea saw that and fled:" "was," "saw," and "fled," are words of the
past tense; and "Jordan was driven back, and the mountains skipped, and
the earth trembled," in like manner have a past expression, without,
however, any difficulty in understanding by them the future....For
though it was so long after the departure of that people from Egypt,
and so long before these seasons of the Church, that he sang what I
have quoted; nevertheless, he witnesseth that he is foretelling the
future without any question. "According to the days," he saith, "of thy
coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous
things." "The nations shall see and be confounded." This is what is
here said, "The sea saw that, and fled:" for if in this passage,
through words of the past tense the future is secretly revealed, as is
the case; who would venture to explain the words, "shall see and be
confounded," of past events? And a little lower down he alludeth
more clearly than light itself to those very enemies of ours, who
followed us flying, that they might slay us, that is, our sins, which
are overwhelmed and extinguished in Baptism, just as the Egyptians were
drowned in the sea, saying, since "He retaineth not His anger for ever,
because He is of good will and merciful, He will turn again, He will
have compassion upon us, He will drown our iniquities: and Thou wilt
cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
6. What is it, most beloved? ye who know yourselves to be Israelites
according to Abraham's seed, ye who are of the house of Jacob, heirs
according to promise, know that even ye have gone forth from Egypt,
since ye have renounced this world; that ye have gone forth from a
foreign people, since by the confession of piety, ye have separated
yourselves from the blasphemies of the Gentiles. For it is not your
tongue, but a foreign one, which knoweth not how to praise God, to whom
ye sing Allelujah. For "Judah" hath become "His sanctuary" in you; for
"he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly,
and by circumcision of the heart." Examine then your hearts, if
faith hath circumcised them, if confession hath cleansed them; in you
"Judah" hath become "His sanctuary," in you "Israel" hath become "His
dominion." For "He gave" unto you "the power to become the sons of
God." ...
7. But I would not that ye should seek without yourselves, how the
Jordan was turned back, I would not ye should augur anything evil. For
the Lord chideth those who have "turned" their "back" unto Him, "and
not their face." And whoever forsaketh the source of his being,
and turneth away from his Creator; as a river into the sea, he glides
into the bitter wickedness of this world. It is therefore good for him
that he turn back, and that God whom he had set behind his back, may be
before his face as he returneth; and that the sea of this world, which
he had set before his face, when he was gliding on towards it, may
become behind him; and that he may so forget what is behind him, that
he may "reach forward to what is before him;" which is
profitable for him when once converted....
8. "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence
of the God of Jacob" (ver. 7). What meaneth, "at the presence of the
Lord," save at the presence of Him who said, "Lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world." For the earth trembled; but
because it had remained slothful, it was made to tremble, so that it
might be more firmly fixed at the presence of the Lord.
9. "Who turned the hard rock into standing waters, and the flint stone
into springing wells" (ver. 8). For He melted Himself, and what may be
called His hardness to water those who believe on Him, that He might in
them become "a fountain of water gushing forth unto everlasting life;"
because formerly, when He was not known, He seemed hard. Hence
they who said, "This is an hard saying, who can bear it?" were
confounded, and waited not until He should flow and stream upon them
when the Scriptures were revealed. The rock, that hardness, was turned
into pools of water, that stone into fountains of waters, when on His
resurrection, "He expounded unto them, commencing with Moses and all
the prophets, how Christ ought to suffer thus;" and sent the
Holy Ghost, of whom He said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me,
and drink."
Let us pray in the words of Augustine.
Turn we to the Lord God, the Father Almighty, and with pure hearts offer to him, so far as our
meanness can, great and true thanks, with all our hearts praying his exceeding kindness, that of
his good pleasure he would deign to hear our prayers, that by his Power he would drive out the
enemy from our deeds and thoughts, that he would increase our faith, guide our understandings,
give us spiritual thoughts, and lead us to his bliss, through Jesus Christ his Son our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[A prayer which he was wont to use after his Sermons and Lectures.]
NPNF (V1-08) St. Augustine
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