Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.

Our wish, you see, is to attain to eternal life. We wish to reach the place where nobody dies, but if possible we do not want to get there via death. We would like to be whisked away there while we are still alive and see our bodies changed, while we are alive, into that spiritual form into which they are to be changed when we rise again. Who wouldn't like that? Isn't it what everybody wants? But while that is what you want, you are told, Quit. Remember what you have sung in the psalm: "A lodger am I on earth." If you are a lodger, you are staying in someone else's house; if you are staying in someone else's house, you quit when the landlord bids you. And the landlord is bound to tell you to quit sooner or later, and he has not guaranteed you a long stay. After all, he did not sign a contract with you. Seeing that you are lodging with him for nothing, you quit when he tells you to. And this, too, has to be put up with, and for this, too, patience is very necessary.

Psalms 119:20 · 2 passages

My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.

The right will is, therefore, well-directed love, and the wrong will is ill-directed love. Love, then, yearning to have what is loved, is desire; and having and enjoying it, is joy; fleeing what is opposed to it, it is fear; and feeling what is opposed to it, when it has befallen it, it is sadness. Now these motions are evil if the love is evil; good if the love is good.What we assert let us prove from Scripture. The apostle "desires to depart, and to be with Christ." And, "My soul desired to long for Thy judgments;" or if it is more appropriate to say, "My soul longed to desire Thy judgments." And, "The desire of wisdom bringeth to a kingdom."

But what is loved by loving, if love itself be not loved? Whence by consequence that stranger upon earth, after praying that the commandments of God might not be hidden from him, wherein love is enjoined either solely or principally; declares that he desires to have a love for love itself, saying, "My soul has coveted to have a desire always after Your judgments" [Psalm 119:20]. This coveting is worthy of praise, not of condemnation....

Psalms 119:21

Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.

"You have rebuked the proud: and cursed are they that do err from Your commandments" [Psalm 119:21]. For the proud err from the commandments of God. For it is one thing not to fulfil the commandments of God through infirmity or ignorance; another to err from them through pride; as they have done, who have begotten us in our mortal state unto these evils....But consider now, after saying, "You have rebuked the proud," he says not, Cursed are they that have erred from Your commandments; so that only that sin of the first men should come into the mind; but he says, "Cursed are they that do err." For it was needful that all might be terrified by that example, that they might not err from the divine commandments, and by loving righteousness in all time, recover in the toil of this world, what we lost in the pleasure of Paradise.

Psalms 119:22

Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.

"O turn from me shame and rebuke; for I have sought out Your testimonies" [Psalm 119:22]. Testimonies are called in Greek μαρτύρια, which word we now use for the Latin word: whence those who on account of their testimony to Christ have been brought low by various sufferings, and have contended unto death for the truth, are not called testes, but by the Greek term Martyrs. Since then ye hear in this term one more familiar and grateful, let us take these words as if it were said, "O turn from me shame and rebuke; because I have sought out Your martyrdoms." When the body of Christ speaks thus, does it consider it any punishment to hear rebuke and shame from the ungodly and the proud, since it rather reaches the crown by this means? Why then does it pray that it should be removed from it as something heavy and insupportable, save because, as I said, it prays for its very enemies, to whom it sees it is destructive, to cast the holy name of Christ as a reproach to Christians....For my enemies, whom Thou enjoinest to be loved by me, who more and more die and are lost, when they despise You…

"O turn from me shame and rebuke; for I have sought out Your testimonies" [Psalm 119:22]. Testimonies are called in Greek μαρτύρια, which word we now use for the Latin word: whence those who on account of their testimony to Christ have been brought low by various sufferings, and have contended unto death for the truth, are not called testes, but by the Greek term Martyrs. Since then ye hear in this term one more familiar and grateful, let us take these words as if it were said, "O turn from me shame and rebuke; because I have sought out Your martyrdoms." When the body of Christ speaks thus, does it consider it any punishment to hear rebuke and shame from the ungodly and the proud, since it rather reaches the crown by this means? Why then does it pray that it should be removed from it as something heavy and insupportable, save because, as I said, it prays for its very enemies, to whom it sees it is destructive, to cast the holy name of Christ as a reproach to Christians....For my enemies, whom Thou enjoinest to be loved by me, who more and more die and are lost, when they despise Your martyrdoms and accuse them in me, will indeed be recalled to life and be found, if they reverence Your martyrdoms in me. Thus it has happened: this we see. Behold, martyrdom in the name of Christ, both with men and in this world, is not only not a disgrace, but a great ornament: behold, not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of men, "precious is the death of His Saints;" behold, His martyrs are not only not despised, but honoured with great distinctions....

Psalms 119:23-24

Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.

"Princes also did sit and speak against me: but Your servant is exercised in Your statutes" [Psalm 119:23]. Thou who desirest to know what sort of exercise this was, understand what he has added, "For Your testimonies are my meditation, and Your statutes are my counsellors" [Psalm 119:24]. Remember what I have above instructed you, that testimonies are acts of martyrdom. Remember that among the statutes of the Lord there is none more difficult and more worthy of admiration, than that every man should love his enemies. [Matthew 5:44] Thus then the body of Christ was exercised, so that it meditated on the acts of martyrdom that testified of Him, and loved those from whom, while they rebuked and despised the Church for these very martyrdoms, she suffered persecutions....

Daleth

Psalms 119:25

DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

"My soul cleaves to the pavement: O quicken Thou me according to Your word" [Psalm 119:25]. What means, "My soul cleaves to the pavement, O quicken Thou me according to Your word"?...If we look upon the whole world as one great house, we see that the heavens represent its vaulting, the earth therefore will be its pavement. He wishes therefore to be rescued from earthly things, and to say with the Apostle, "Our conversation is in heaven." To cling therefore to earthly things is the soul's death; the contrary of which evil, life is prayed for, when he says, "O quicken Thou me."

Psalms 119:26

I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.

For what he was by himself, he confesses in the following words: "I have acknowledged my ways, and You heard me" [Psalm 119:26]. Some copies indeed read, "Your ways:" but more, and the best Greek, read "my ways," that is, evil ways. For he seems to me to say this; I have confessed my sins, and You have heard me; that is, so that You would remit them. "O teach me Your statutes." I have acknowledged my ways: You have blotted them out: teach me Yours. So teach me, that I may act; not merely that I may know how I ought to act. For as it is said of the Lord, that He knew not sin, [2 Corinthians 5:21] and it is understood, that He did no sin; so also he ought truly to be said to know righteousness, who does it. This is the prayer of one who is improving....

Psalms 119:27

Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.

Finally he adds, "Intimate to me the way of Your righteousness" [Psalm 119:27]; or, as some copies have it, "instruct me;" which is expressed more closely from the Greek, "Make me to understand the way of Your righteousnesses; so shall I be exercised in Your wondrous things." These higher commandments, which he desires to understand by edification, he calls the wondrous things of God. There are then some righteousnesses of God so wondrous, that human weakness may be believed incapable of fulfilling them by those who have not tried.

Psalms 119:28

My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.

Whence the Psalmist, struggling and wearied with the difficulty of obeying them, says, "My soul has slumbered for very heaviness: O establish Thou me with Your word!" [Psalm 119:28]. What means, has slumbered? save that he has cooled in the hope which he had entertained of being able to reach them. But, he adds, "Stablish Thou me with Your word:" that I may not by slumbering fall away from those duties which I feel that I have already attained: establish Thou me therefore in those words of Yours that I already hold, that I may be able to reach unto others through edification.

Psalms 119:29

Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.

"Take Thou from me the way of iniquity" [Psalm 119:29]. And since the law of works has entered in, that sin might abound; [Romans 5:20] he adds, "And pity me according to Your law." By what law, save by the law of faith? Hear the Apostle: "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works. Nay: but by the law of faith." [Romans 3:27] This is the law of faith, whereby we believe and pray that it may be granted us through grace; that we may effect that which we cannot fulfil through ourselves; that we may not, ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish our own, fail to submit ourselves unto the righteousness of God. [Romans 10:3]

Psalms 119:30-32

I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.

But after he had said, "And pity me according to Your law;" he mentions some of those blessings which he has already obtained, that he may ask others that he has not yet gained. For he says, "I have chosen the way of truth: and Your judgments I have not forgotten" [Psalm 119:30]. "I have stuck unto Your testimonies: O Lord, confound me not" [Psalm 119:31]: may I persevere in striving toward the point whereunto I am running: may I arrive whither I am running! So then "it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." [Romans 9:16] He next says, "I will run the way of Your commandments, when You have widened my heart" [Psalm 119:32]. I could not run had Thou not widened my heart. The sense of the words, "I have chosen the way of truth, and Your judgments I have not forgotten: I have stuck unto Your testimonies," is clearly explained in this verse. For this running is along the way of the commandments of God. And because he does allege unto the Lord rather His blessings than his own deservings; as if it were said unto him, How have you run that way, by cho…

But after he had said, "And pity me according to Your law;" he mentions some of those blessings which he has already obtained, that he may ask others that he has not yet gained. For he says, "I have chosen the way of truth: and Your judgments I have not forgotten" [Psalm 119:30]. "I have stuck unto Your testimonies: O Lord, confound me not" [Psalm 119:31]: may I persevere in striving toward the point whereunto I am running: may I arrive whither I am running! So then "it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." [Romans 9:16] He next says, "I will run the way of Your commandments, when You have widened my heart" [Psalm 119:32]. I could not run had Thou not widened my heart. The sense of the words, "I have chosen the way of truth, and Your judgments I have not forgotten: I have stuck unto Your testimonies," is clearly explained in this verse. For this running is along the way of the commandments of God. And because he does allege unto the Lord rather His blessings than his own deservings; as if it were said unto him, How have you run that way, by choosing, and by not forgetting the judgments of God, and by sticking to His testimonies? Couldest thou do these things by yourself? I could not, he replies. It is not therefore through my own will, as though it needed no aid of Yours; but because "You have widened my heart." The widening of the heart is the delight we take in righteousness. This is the gift of God, the effect of which is, that we are not straitened in His commandments through the fear of punishment, but widened through love, and the delight we have in righteousness....

He

Psalms 119:33

HE. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.

In this great Psalm there comes next in order that which, with the Lord's help, we must consider and treat of. "Set a law for me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall seek it always" [Psalm 119:33]....

Psalms 119:34

Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

"Give me understanding, and I shall search Your law, yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart" [Psalm 119:34]. For when each man has searched the law, and searched its deep things, in which its whole meaning does consist; he ought indeed to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind; and his neighbour as himself. "For on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." [Matthew 22:37-40] This he seems to have promised, when he said, "Yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart."

Psalms 119:35

Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

But since he has no power to do even this, save he be aided by Him who commands him to do what He commands, "Make me," he adds, "to go in the path of Your commandments, for therein is my desire" [Psalm 119:35]. My desire is powerless, unless You Yourself makest me to go where I desire. And this is surely the very path, that is, the path of God's commandments, which he had already said that he had run, when his heart was enlarged by the Lord. And this he calls a "path," because "the way is narrow which leads unto life;" [Matthew 7:14] and since it is narrow, we cannot run therein save with a heart enlarged....

Psalms 119:36

Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

He next says, "Incline mine heart unto Your testimonies, and not to covetousness" [Psalm 119:36]. This then he prays, that he may profit in the will itself.. ..But the Apostle says, "Avarice is a root of all evils." [1 Timothy 6:10] But in the Greek, whence these words have been rendered into our tongue, the word used by the Apostle is not πλεονεξία, which occurs in this passage of the Psalms; but φιλαργυρία, by which is signified "love of money." But the Apostle must be understood to have meant genus by species when he used this word, that is, to have meant avarice universally and generally by love of money, which is truly the root of all evils. [Genesis 3:5] ...If therefore our heart be not inclined to covetousness, we fear God only for God's sake, so that He is the only reward of our serving Him. Let us love Him in Himself, let us love Him in ourselves, Him in our neighbours whom we love as ourselves, whether they have Him, or in order that they may have Him....

Psalms 119:37

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

The next words in the Psalm which we have undertaken to expound are, "O turn away my eyes, lest they behold vanity: and quicken Thou me in Your way" [Psalm 119:37]. Vanity and truth are directly contrary to one another. The desires of this world are vanity: but Christ, who frees us from the world, is truth. He is the way, too, wherein this man wishes to be quickened, for He is also the life: "I am the way, the truth, and the life," [John 14:6] are His own words.

Psalms 119:38

Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.

"O establish Your word in Your servant, that I may fear You" [Psalm 119:38]. And what else is this than, Grant unto me that I may do according to what You say? For the word of God is not established in those who remove it in themselves by acting contrary to it; but it is established in those in whom it is immoveable. God therefore establishes His word, that they may fear Him, in those unto whom He gives the spirit of the fear of Him; not that fear of which the Apostle says, "You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;" [Romans 8:15] for "perfect love casts out" this "fear," [1 John 4:18] but that fear which the Prophet calls "the spirit of the fear of the Lord;" [Isaiah 11:2] that fear which "is pure, and endures for ever;" that fear which fears to offend Him whom it loves.

Psalms 119:39

Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.

"Take away my reproach which I have suspected, for Your judgments are sweet" [Psalm 119:39]. Who is he who suspected his own reproach, and who does not know his own reproach better than that of his neighbour? For a man may rather suspect another's than his own; since he knows not that which he suspects; but in each one's own reproach there is not suspicion for him, but knowledge, wherein conscience speaks. What then mean the words, "the rebuke which I have suspected"? The meaning of them must be derived from the former verse; since as long as a man does not turn away his eyes lest they behold vanity, he suspects in others what is going on in himself; so that he believes another to worship God, or do good works, from the same motive as himself. For men can see what we do, but with a view to what end we act, is hidden....

Psalms 119:40

Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.

"Behold, I have coveted Your commandments: O quicken Thou me in Your righteousness" [Psalm 119:40]. Behold, I have coveted to love You with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and my neighbour as myself, but, "O quicken Thou me" not in my own, but "in Your righteousness," that is, fill me with that love which I have longed for. Aid me that I may do that which Thou chargest me: Yourself give what Thou dost command. "O quicken Thou me in Your righteousness:" for in myself I had that which would cause my death: but I find not save in You whence I may live. Christ is Your righteousness, "Who of God is made unto us wisdom," etc. [1 Corinthians 1:30-31] And in Him I find Your commandments, which I have coveted, that in Your righteousness, that is, in Him, You may quicken me. For the Word Himself is God; and "the Word was made flesh," [John 1:14] that He Himself also might be my neighbour.

Vav