Augustine of Hippo

"O learn me sweetness, and understanding, and knowledge," he says, "for I have believed Your commandments" [Psalm 119:66]. He prays these things may be increased and perfected. For they who said, "Lord, increase our faith," [Luke 17:5] had faith. And as long as we live in this world, these are the words of those who are making progress. But he adds, "understanding," or, as most copies read, "discipline." Now the word discipline, for which the Greeks use παιδεία, is employed in Scripture, where instruction through tribulation is to be understood: according to the words, "Whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and scourges every son whom He receives." [Hebrews 12:6] In the literature of the Church this is usually called discipline. For this word, παιδεία, is used in the Greek in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the Latin translator says, "No discipline for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous," etc. [Hebrews 12:11] He therefore toward whom the Lord deals in sweetness, that is, he in whom He mercifully inspires delight in that which is good, ought to pray instantly, that this gift may be so increased unto him, that he may not only despise all other delights in comparison with it, but also that he may endure any amount of sufferings for its sake. Thus is discipline healthfully added to sweetness. This discipline ought not to be desired, and prayed for, for a small measure of grace and goodness, that is, holy love; but for so great, as may not be extinguished by the weight of the chastening:...so much in fact as to enable him to endure with the utmost patience the discipline. In the third place is mentioned knowledge; since, if knowledge in its greatness outstrips the increase of love, it does not edify, but "puffs up." [1 Corinthians 8:1] ...

"It is good for me that You have humbled me: that I might learn Your righteousnesses" [Psalm 119:71]. He has said something kindred to this above. For by the fruit itself he shows that it was a good thing for him to be humbled; but in the former passage he has stated the cause also, in that he had felt beforehand that humiliation which resulted from his punishment, when he went wrong. But in these words, "Wherefore have I kept Your word:" and again in these, "That I might learn Your righteousnesses:" he seems to me to have signified, that to know these is the same thing as to keep them, to keep them the same thing as to know them. For Christ knew what He reproved; and yet He reproved sin, though it is said of Him that "He knew not sin." [2 Corinthians 5:21] He knew therefore by a kind of knowledge, and again He knew not by a kind of ignorance. Thus also many learn the righteousnesses of God, and learn them not. For they know them in a certain way; and, again do not know them from a kind of ignorance, since they do them not. In this sense the Psalmist therefore is to be understood to have said, "That I might learn Your righteousnesses," meaning that kind of knowledge whereby they are performed.

..."Your hands have made me, and fashioned me" [Psalm 119:73]. The hands of God are the power of God. Or if the plural number moves them, since it is not said, Your hand, but, "Your hands;" let them understand by the hands of God the power and wisdom of God, both of which titles are given to one Christ, [1 Corinthians 1:24] who is also understood under the figure, Arm of the Lord. Or let them understand by the hands of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit; since the Holy Spirit works conjointly with the Father and the Son: whence says the Apostle, "But all these works that one and the self-same Spirit:" [1 Corinthians 12:11] he said, "one and the self-same;" lest as many spirits as works might be imagined, not that the Spirit works without the Father and the Son. It is easy therefore to see how the hands of God are to be understood: provided, at the same time, that He be not denied to do those things through His Word which He does by His hands: nor be considered not to do those things with His hands, which He does through His word....But is this said in respect of Adam? From whom since all men were propagated, what man, since Adam was made, may not say that he himself also was made by reason of procreation and generation from Adam? Or may it rightly be said, in this sense, "Your hands have made me, and fashioned me," namely, that every man is born even of his parents not without the work of God, God creating, they generating? Since, if the creative power of God be withdrawn from things, they perish: nor is anything at all, either of the world's elements, or of parents, or of seeds, produced, if God does not create it....

"They that fear You," he says, "will see me, and be glad" [Psalm 119:74]: or, as other copies have it, "will be joyful: because I have hoped in Your word:" that is, in the things which You have promised, that they may be the sons of promise, the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations are blessed. Who are they who fear God, and whom will they see and be glad, because he has put his trust in the word of God? Whether it be the body of Christ, that is, the Church, whose words these are through Christ, or within it, and concerning it, these are as it were the words of Christ concerning Himself; are not they themselves among those who fear God?...The same persons, who see the Church and are glad, are the Church. But why said he not, They who fear You see me, and are glad: whereas he has written, "fear You," in the present tense; while the verbs "shall see," and shall "be glad," are futures? Is it because in the present state there is fear, as long as "man's life is a temptation upon earth;" but the gladness which he desired to be understood, will be then, when "the righteous shall shine in the kingdom of their Father like the sun." [Matthew 13:43] ...

"O let my heart," he says, "be unspotted in Your righteousnesses, that I be not ashamed" [Psalm 119:80]. He returns to the words of His body, that is, His holy people, and now prays that his heart may be made unspotted, that is, the heart of His members; "in the righteousnesses of God," not in their own strength: for He has prayed for this, not presumed upon it. In the words he has added, "that I be not ashamed," there is a resemblance to some of the earlier verses of this Psalm. Whereas there, in the words, "O that," he signifies a wish, he has here expressed himself in the more open words of one praying: "O let my heart be sound:" so that in neither of these two sentences, each of which is one and the same, there is found the boldness of one who trusts in his own free will against grace. While he says there, "so shall I not be confounded:" he says here, "that I be not ashamed." The heart then of the members and the body of Christ is made unspotted, through the grace of God, by means of the very Head of that Body, that is, through Jesus Christ our Lord, by the "laver of regeneration," [Titus 3:5] wherein all our past sins have been blotted out; through the aid of the Spirit, whereby we lust against the flesh, that we be not overcome in our fight; [Galatians 5:17] through the efficacy of the Lord's Prayer, wherein we say, "Forgive us our trespasses." [Matthew 6:12] Thus regeneration having been given to us, our conflict having been aided, prayer having been poured forth, our heart is made unspotted, so that we be not ashamed. [Luke 6:37-38]

Caph

"My soul has failed for Your salvation: and I have hoped because of Your word" [Psalm 119:81]. It is not every failing that should be supposed to be blameable or deserving punishment: there is also a failing that is laudable or desirable....For it is said of a good failing: "My soul has a desire and failing to enter into the courts of the Lord." So also here he says not, fails away from Your salvation, but "fails for Your salvation," that is, towards Your salvation. This losing ground is therefore good: for it does indicate a longing after good, not as yet indeed gained, but most eagerly and earnestly desired. But who says this, save the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people, [1 Peter 2:9] longing for Christ from the origin of the human race even unto the end of this world, in the persons of those who, each in his own time, have lived, are living, or are to live here?...The first seasons of the Church, therefore, had Saints, before the Virgin's delivery, who desired the advent of His Incarnation: but these times, since He has ascended into heaven, have Saints who desire His manifestation to judge the quick and the dead...."And I have hoped because of Your word:" that is, of Your promise; a hope which causes us to await with patience that which is not seen by those who believe. Here also the Greek has the word ἐ πήλπισα, which some of our translators have preferred rendering by, "hoped-more;" since beyond doubt it will be greater than can be described.