Augustine of Hippo

"I have laboured, crying, hoarse have become my jaws" [Psalm 69:3]. Where was this? When was this? Let us question the Gospel. For the Passion of our Lord in this Psalm we perceive. And, indeed, that He suffered we know; that there came in waters even unto His Soul, because peoples prevailed even unto His death, we read, we believe; in the tempest that He was sunk down, because tumult prevailed to His killing, we acknowledge: but that He laboured in crying, and that His jaws were made hoarse, not only we read not, but even on the contrary we read, that He answered not to them a word, in order that there might be fulfilled that which in another Psalm has been said, "I have become as it were a man not hearing, and having not in his mouth reproofs." And that which in Isaiah has been prophesied, "like a sheep to be sacrificed He was led, and like a lamb before one shearing Him, so He opened not His mouth." [Isaiah 53:7] If He became like a man not hearing, and having not in His mouth reproofs, how did He labour crying, and how were His jaws made hoarse? Is it that He was even then silent, because He was hoarse with having cried so much in vain? And this indeed we know to have been His voice on the Cross out of a certain Psalm: "O God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" But how great was that voice, or of how long duration, that in it His jaws should have become hoarse? Long while He cried, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees:" long while He cried, "Woe unto the world because of offenses." [Matthew 18:7] And truly hoarse in a manner He cried, and therefore was not understood, when the Jews said, What is this that He says? "Hard is this saying, who is able to hear it?" We know not what He says. He said all these words: but hoarse were His jaws to them that understood not His words. "My eyes have failed from hoping in My God." Far be it that this should be taken of the person of the Head: far be it that His eyes should have failed from hoping in His God: in whom rather there was God reconciling the world to Himself, [2 Corinthians 5:19] and Who was the Word made flesh and dwelled in us, so that not only God was in Him, but also He was Himself God. Not so then: the eyes of Himself, our Head, failed not from hoping in His God: but the eyes of Him have failed in His Body, that is, in His members. This voice is of the members, this voice is of the Body, not of the Head. How then do we find it in His Body and members?...

"O God, You have known mine improvidence" [Psalm 69:5]. Again out of the mouth of the Body. For what improvidence is there in Christ? Is He not Himself the Virtue of God, and the Wisdom of God? Does He call this His improvidence, whereof the Apostle speaks, "the foolishness of God is wiser than men"? [1 Corinthians 1:25] Mine improvidence, that very thing which in Me they derided that seem to themselves to be wise, You have known why it was done. For what was so much like improvidence, as, when He had it in His power with one word to lay low the persecutors, to suffer Himself to be held, scourged, spit upon, buffeted, with thorns to be crowned, to the tree to be nailed? It is like improvidence, it seems a foolish thing; but this foolish thing excels all wise men. Foolish indeed it is: but even when grain falls into the earth, if no one knows the custom of husbandmen, it seems foolish...Improvidence it appears; but hope makes it not to be improvidence. He then spared not Himself: because even the Father spared Him not, but delivered Him up for us all. [Romans 8:32] And of the Same, "Who loved me," says the Apostle, "and delivered up Himself for me:" [Galatians 2:20] for except a grain shall have fallen into the land so that it die, fruit, He says, it will not yield. [John 12:24] This is the improvidence. "And my transgressions from You are not concealed." It is plain, clear, open, that this must be perceived to be out of the mouth of the Body. Transgressions none had Christ: He was the bearer of transgressions, but not the committer. "Are not concealed:" that is, I have confessed to You, all my transgressions, and before my mouth You have seen them in my thought, hast seen the wounds which You were to heal. But where? Even in the Body, in the members: in those believers out of whom there was now cleaving to Him that member, who was confessing his sins.

"For because of You I have sustained upbraiding, shamelessness has covered my face" [Psalm 69:7]. No great thing is that which is spoken of in "I have sustained:" but that which is spoken of in "for Your sake I have sustained," is. For if you sustain because you have sinned; for your own sake you sustain, not for the sake of God. For to you what glory is there, says Peter, if sinning you are punished, and you bear it? But if you sustain because you have kept the commandment of God, truly for the sake of God you sustain, and your reward remains for everlasting, because for the sake of God you have sustained revilings. [1 Peter 2:20] For to this end He first sustained in order that we might learn to sustain..."Shamelessness has covered my face." Shamelessness is what? Not to be confused. Lastly, it seems to be as it were a fault, when we say, the man is shameless. Great is the shamelessness of the man, that he does not blush. Therefore shamelessness is a kind of folly. A Christian ought to have this shamelessness, when he comes among men to whom Christ is an offense. If he shall have blushed because of Christ, he will be blotted out from the book of the living. You must needs therefore have shamelessness when You are reviled because of Christ; when they say, Worshipper of the Crucified, adorer of Him that died ill, venerator of Him that was slain! Here if you shall blush you are a dead man. For see the sentence of Him that deceives no one. "He that shall have been ashamed of Me before men, I will also be ashamed of him before the Angels of God." Watch therefore yourself whether there be in you shamelessness; be thou boldfaced, when you hear a reproach concerning Christ; yea be boldfaced. Why do you fear for your forehead which you have armed with the sign of the Cross?...

"An alien I have become to My brethren, and a stranger to the sons of My mother" [Psalm 69:8]. To the sons of the Synagogue He became a stranger...Why so? Why did they not acknowledge? Why did they call Him an alien? Why did they dare to say, we know not whence He is? "Because the zeal of Your House has eaten Me up:" that is, because I have persecuted in them their own iniquities, because I have not patiently borne those whom I have rebuked, because I have sought Your glory in Your House, because I have scourged them that in the Temple dealt unseemly: [John 2:15] in which place also there is quoted, "the zeal of Your House has eaten Me up." Hence an alien, hence a Stranger; hence, we know not whence He is. They would have acknowledged whence I am, if they had acknowledged that which You have commanded. For if I had found them keeping Your commandments, the zeal of Your House would not have eaten Me up. "And the reproaches of men reproaching You have fallen upon Me." Of this testimony Paul the Apostle has also made use (there has been read but now the very lesson), and says, "Whatsoever things aforetime have been written, have been written that we might be instructed." [Romans 15:4] ...Why "You"? Is the Father reproached, and not Christ Himself? Why have "the reproaches of men reproaching You fallen upon Me"? Because, "he that has known Me, has known the Father also:" [John 14:9] because no one has reviled Christ without reviling God: because no one honours the Father, except he that honours the Son also. [John 5:23]

"And the disciples remembered that it was written, 'The zeal for your house has eaten me up.' " For by zeal for the house of God the Lord cast those men out of the temple. Brothers, let each and every Christian in the members of Christ be consumed with zeal for God's house. Who is consumed with zeal for God's house? One who strives that all things that he, perhaps, sees are wicked there be corrected, [who] desires that they be improved, [who] does not keep quiet. If he cannot improve it, he suffers, he moans. The grain is not shaken out elsewhere than on the threshing floor; it puts up with the chaff that it may enter the storehouse when the chaff has been separated. You, if you are grain, do not be shaken out elsewhere than on the threshing floor in front of the storehouse, that you may not be picked up by birds before you are gathered into the storehouse. For the birds of the sky, the powers on high, are on the watch to snatch something from the threshing floor, and they snatch only what has been shaken out from there. Therefore let zeal for God's house consume you; let zeal for God's house, in which house of God he is a member, consume each and every Christian.

"And I have covered in fasting My Soul, and it became to Me for a reviling" [Psalm 69:10]. His fasting was, when there fell away all they that had believed in Him; because also it was His hunger, that men should believe in Him: because also it was His thirst, when He said to the woman, I thirst, "give Me to drink:" [John 4:7] yea for her faith He was thirsting. And from the Cross when He was saying, "I thirst," [John 19:28] He was seeking the faith of them for whom He had said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." [Luke 23:34] But what did those men give to drink to Him thirsty? Vinegar. Vinegar is also called old. With reason of the old man they gave to drink, because they willed not to be new. Why willed they not to become new? Because to the title of this Psalm whereon is written, "For them that shall be changed," they belonged not. Therefore, "I have covered in fasting My Soul." Lastly, He put from Him even the gall which they offered: He chose rather to fast than to accept bitterness. For they enter not into His Body that are embittered, whereof in another place a Psalm says, "They that are embittered shall not be exalted in themselves." Therefore, "I have covered in fasting My Soul: and it became to Me for a reviling." This very thing became to Me for a reviling, that I consented not to them, that is, from them I fasted. For he that consents not to men seducing to evil, fasts from them; and through this fasting earns reviling, so that he is upbraided because he consents not to the evil thing.

"But I with My prayer with You, O Lord" [Psalm 69:13]. But I was with You. But how? With You by praying. For when you are evil spoken of, and know not what you may do; when at you are hurled reproaches, and you find not any way of rebuking him by whom they are hurled; nothing remains for you but to pray. But remember even for that very man to pray. "But I with my prayer with You, O Lord. It is the time of Your good pleasure, O God." For behold the grain is being buried, there shall spring up fruit. "It is the time of Your good pleasure, O God." Of this time even the Prophets have spoken, whereof the Apostle makes mention: "Behold now the time acceptable, behold now the day of salvation." [2 Corinthians 6:2] "It is the time of Your good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of Your mercy." This is the time of good pleasure, "in the multitude of Your mercy." For if there were not a multitude of Your mercy, what should we do for the multitude of our iniquity? "In the multitude of Your mercy; Hearken to me in the truth of Your Salvation." Because He has said, "of Your mercy," he has added truth also: for "mercy and truth" are all the ways of the Lord. Why mercy? In forgiving sins. Why truth? In fulfilling the promises.

"Save Me from the mire, that I may not stick" [Psalm 69:14]. From that whereof above he had spoken, "Fixed I am in the clay of the deep, and there is no substance." Furthermore, since you have duly received the exposition of that expression, in this place there is nothing further for you to hear particularly. From hence he says that he must be delivered, wherein before he said that he was fixed: "Save Me from the mire, that I may not stick." And he explains this himself: "Let Me be rescued from them that hate Me." They were themselves therefore the clay wherein he had stuck. But the following perchance suggests itself. A little before he had said, Fixed I am; now he says, Save Me from the mire, that I may not stick: whereas after the meaning of what was said before he ought to have said, Save Me from the mire where I had stuck, by rescuing Me, not by causing that I stick not. Therefore He had stuck in flesh, but had not stuck in spirit. He says this, because of the infirmity of His members. Whenever perchance you are seized by one that urges you to iniquity, your body indeed is taken, in regard to the body you are fixed in the clay of the deep: but so long as you consent not, you have not stuck; but if you consent, you have stuck. Let then your prayer be in that place, in order that as your body is now held, so your soul may not be held, so you may be free in bonds.

"Let not the tempest of waters drown Me" [Psalm 69:15]. But already he had been drowned. "I have come into the depth of the sea," you have said, and "the tempest has drowned Me," you have said. It has drowned after the flesh, let it not drown after the Spirit. They to whom was said, If they shall have persecuted you in one city, flee ye into another; [Matthew 10:23] had this said to them, that neither in flesh they should stick, nor in spirit. For we must not desire to stick even in flesh; but as far as we are able we ought to avoid it. But if we shall have stuck, and shall have fallen into the hands of sinners: then in body we have stuck, we are fixed in the clay of the deep, it remains to entreat for the soul that we stick not, that is, that we consent not, that the tempest of water drown us not, so that we go into the deep of the clay. "Neither let the deep swallow Me, nor the pit close her mouth upon Me." What is this, brethren? What has he prayed against? Great is the pit of the depth of human iniquity: every one, if he shall have fallen into it, will fall into the deep. But yet if a man being there placed confesses his sins to his God, the pit will not shut her mouth upon him: as is written in another Psalm, "From the depths I have cried to You, O Lord; Lord, hearken unto my voice." But if there is done in him that which another passage of Scripture says, "When a sinner shall have come into the depth of evil things, he will despise," [Proverbs 18:3] upon him the pit has shut her mouth. Why has she shut her mouth? Because she has shut his mouth. He has lost confession, really dead he is, and there is fulfilled in him that which elsewhere is spoken of, "From a dead man, as from one that is not, there perishes confession." [Sirach 17:28] ...

"Hearken unto me, O Lord, for sweet is Your mercy" [Psalm 69:16]. He has given this as a reason why He ought to be hearkened unto, because sweet is the mercy of God....To a man set in trouble the mercy of God must needs be sweet. Concerning this sweetness of the mercy of God see ye what in another place the Scripture says: "Like rain in drought, so beautiful is the mercy of God in trouble." [Sirach 35:20] That which there he says to be "beautiful," the same he says here to be "sweet." Not even bread would be sweet, unless hunger had preceded. Therefore even when the Lord permits or causes us to be in any trouble, even then He is merciful: for He does not withdraw nourishment, but stirs up longing. Accordingly what says he now, "Hearken to me, O Lord, for sweet is Your mercy"? Now do not defer hearkening, in so great trouble I am, that sweet to me is Your mercy. For to this end You deferred to succour, in order that to me that wherewith You succoured might be sweet: but now no longer is there cause why You must defer; my trouble has arrived at the appointed measure of distress, let Your mercy come to do the work of goodness. "After the multitude of Your pities have regard unto me:" not after the multitude of my sins.

"Give heed to my soul, and redeem her," does need no exposition: let us see therefore what follows. "Because of mine enemies deliver me" [Psalm 69:18]. This petition is evidently wonderful, neither briefly to be touched upon, nor hastily to be skipped over; truly wonderful: "Because of mine enemies deliver me." What is, "Because of mine enemies deliver me"?...I see no reason for this petition, "Because of mine enemies deliver me:" unless we understand it of something else, which when I shall have spoken by the help of the Lord, He shall judge in you, that dwells in you. There is a kind of secret deliverance of holy men: this for their own sakes is made. There is one public and evident: this is made because of their enemies, either for their punishment, or for their deliverance. For truly God delivered not the brothers in the book of Maccabees from the fires of the persecutor. [2 Maccabbees vii] ...But again the Three Children openly were delivered from the furnace of fire; [Daniel 3:26] because their body also was rescued, their safety was public. The former were in secret crowned, the latter openly delivered: all however saved....There is then a secret deliverance, there is an open deliverance. Secret deliverance does belong to the soul, open deliverance to the body as well. For in secret the soul is delivered, openly the body. Again, if so it be, in this Psalm the voice of the Lord let us acknowledge: to the secret deliverance does belong that whereof he spoke above, "Give heed to my soul, and redeem her." There remains the body's deliverance: for on His arising and ascending into the Heavens, and sending the Holy Ghost from above, there were converted to His faith they that at His death did rage, and out of enemies they were made friends through His grace, not through their righteousness. Therefore he has continued, "Because of mine enemies deliver me. Give heed to my soul," but this in secret: but "because of mine enemies deliver" even my body. For mine enemies it will profit nothing if soul alone You shall have delivered; that they have done something, that they have accomplished something, they will believe. "What profit is there in my blood, while I go down into corruption?" Therefore "give heed to my soul, and redeem her," which You alone know: secondly also, "because of mine enemies deliver me," that my flesh may not see corruption.

"You know my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame" [Psalm 69:19]. What is reproach? What is confusion? What shame? Reproach is that which the enemy casts in the teeth. Confusion is that which gnaws the conscience. Shame is that which causes even a noble brow to blush, because of the upbraiding with a pretended crime. There is no crime; or even if there is a crime, it does not belong to him, against whom it is alleged: but yet the infirmity of the human mind ofttimes is made ashamed even when a pretended crime is alleged; not because it is alleged, but because it is believed. All these things are in the Body of the Lord. For confusion in Him could not be, in whom guilt was not found. There was alleged as a crime against Christians, the very fact that they were Christians. That indeed was glory: the brave gladly received it, and so received it as that they blushed not at all for the Lord's name. For fearlessness had covered the face of them, having the effrontery of Paul, saying, "for I blush not because of the Gospel: for the virtue of God it is for salvation to every one believing." [Romans 1:16] O Paul, are not you a venerator of the Crucified? Little it is, he says, for me not to blush for it: nay, therein alone I glory, wherefore the enemy thinks me to blush. "But from me far be it to glory, save in the Cross of Jesus Christ, through whom to me the world is crucified, and I to the world." [Galatians 6:14] At such a brow as this then reproach alone could be hurled. For neither could there be confusion in a conscience already made whole, nor shame in a brow so free. But when it was being alleged against certain that they had slain Christ, deservedly they were pricked through with evil conscience, and to their health confounded and converted, so that they could say, "You have known my confusion." You therefore, O Lord, hast known not only my reproach but also my confusion, in certain shame also: who, though in me they believe, publicly blush to confess me before ungodly men, human tongue having more influence with them than promise divine. Behold ye therefore them: even such are commended to God, not that so He may leave them, but that by aiding them He may make them perfect. For a certain man believing and wavering has said, "I believe, O Lord, help my unbelief." [Mark 9:24]

"In Your sight are all they that trouble Me" [Psalm 69:20]. Why I have reproach, You know; why confusion, You know; why shame, You know: therefore deliver me because of mine enemies, because You know these things of me, they know not; and thus, because they are themselves in Your sight, not knowing these things, they will not be able to be either confounded or corrected, unless openly You shall have delivered me because of mine enemies. "Reproach my heart has expected, and misery." What is, "has expected"? Hath foreseen these things as going to be, has foretold them as going to be. For He came not for any other purpose. If He had been unwilling to die, neither would He have willed to be born: for the sake of resurrection He did both. For there were two particular things known to us among mankind, but one thing unknown. For we knew that men were born and died: that they rose again and lived for everlasting we knew not. That He might show to us that which we knew not, He took upon Him the two things which we knew. To this end therefore He came. "Reproach my heart has expected and misery." But the misery of whom? For He expected misery, but rather of the crucifiers, rather of the persecutors, that in them should be misery, in Him mercy. For pitying the misery of them even while hanging on the Cross, He says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." [Luke 23:34] What then did it profit, that I expected? That is, what did it profit that I foretold? What did it profit that I said to this end I had come? I came to fulfil that which I said, "I waited for one that together should be made sorrowful, and there was not; and men comforting, and I found not:" that is, there was none. For that which in the former verse He said, "I waited for one that together should be made sorrowful," the same is in the following verse, "and men comforting." But that which in the former verse is, "and there was not;" the same in the following verse is, "and I found not." Therefore another sentence is not added, but the former is repeated. Which sentence if we reconsider, a question may arise. For were His disciples nowise made sorrowful when He was led to the Passion, when on the tree hanged, when dead? So much were they made sorrowful, that Mary Magdalene, who first saw Him, rejoicing told them as they were mourning what she had seen. The Gospel speaks of these things: it is not our presumption, not our suspicion: it is evident that the disciples grieved, it is evident that they mourned. Strange women were weeping, when to the Passion He was being led, unto whom turning He says, "Weep ye, but for yourselves, do not for Me." [Luke 23:28] ... Peter certainly loved very much, and without hesitation threw himself to walk on the waves, [Matthew 14:29] and at the voice of the Lord he was delivered: and though following Him when led to the Passion, with the boldness of love, yet being troubled, thrice he denied Him. Whence, except because an evil thing it seemed to him to die? For he was shunning that which he thought an evil thing. This then even in the Lord he was lamenting, which he was himself shunning. On this account even before he had said, "Far be it from You, O Lord, merciful be to Yourself: there shall not come to pass this thing:" [Matthew 16:22] at which time he merited to hear, "Satan;" after that he had heard, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona." Therefore in that sorrowfulness which the Lord felt because of those for whom He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do:" [Luke 23:34] no companion He found. "And I waited for one that together should be made sorrowful, and there was not." There was not at all. "And men comforting, and I found not." Who are men comforting? Men profiting. For they comfort us, they are the comfort of all preachers of the Truth.