Augustine of Hippo

"Lo, we heard of the same at Ephrata" [Psalm 132:6]. What? A place for the Lord. "We heard of it at Ephrata: and found it in the plains of the forests." Did he hear it where he found it? Or did he hear it in one place, find it in another? Let us therefore enquire what Ephrata is, where he heard it; let us also enquire what mean the plains of the forests, where he found it. Ephrata, a Hebrew word, is rendered in Latin by Speculum, as the translators of Hebrew words in the Scriptures have handed down to us, that we might understand them. They have translated from Hebrew into Greek, and from Greek we have versions into Latin. For there have been who watched in the Scriptures. If therefore Ephrata means a mirror, that house which was found in the woodland plains, was heard of in a mirror. A mirror has an image: all prophecy is an image of things future. The future house of God, therefore, was declared in the image of prophecy. "We have found it in the plains of the forests." What are the "plains of the forests"? Saltus is not here used in its common sense, as a plot of ground of so many hundred acres; saltus properly signifies a spot as yet untilled and woody. For some copies read, in the plains of the wood. What then were the woodland plains, save nations yet untilled? What were they, save regions yet covered with the thorns of idolatry? Thus, though there were thorns of idolatry there, still we find a place for the Lord there, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. What was declared in the image to the Jews, was manifested in the faith of the Gentiles.

"We will go into His tabernacles" [Psalm 132:7]. Whose? Those of the Lord God of Jacob. They who enter to dwell therein, are the very same who enter that they may be dwelt in. You enter into your house, that you may dwell therein; into the house of God, that you may be dwelt in. For the Lord is better, and when He has begun to dwell in you, He will make you happy. For if you be not dwelt in by Him, you will be miserable. That son who said, "Father, give me the portion of the goods," etc., [Luke 15:12-20] wished to be his own master. It was well kept in his father's hands, that it might not be wasted with harlots. He received it, it was given into his own power; going to a far country, he squandered it all with harlots. At length he suffered hunger, he remembered his father; he returned, that he might be satisfied with bread. Enter therefore, that you may be dwelt in; and may be not your own, so to speak, but His: "We will go into His tabernacles. We will worship on the spot where His feet stood." Whose feet? The Lord's, or those of the house of the Lord itself? For that is the Lord's house, wherein he says He ought to be worshipped. Beside His house, the Lord hears not unto eternal life; for he belongs to God's house, who has in charity been built in with living stones. But he who has not charity, falls; and while he falls, the house stands....

"For Your servant David's sake, turn not away the face of Your Anointed" [Psalm 132:10]. These words are addressed unto God the Father. "For Your servant David's sake, turn not away the face of Your Anointed." The Lord was crucified in Judæa; He was crucified by the Jews; harassed by them, He slept. He arose to judge those among whose savage hands He slept: and He says elsewhere, "Raise Thou Me up again, and I shall reward them." He both has rewarded them, and will reward them. The Jews well know themselves how great were their sufferings after the Lord's death. They were all expelled from the very city, where they slew Him. What then? Have all perished even from the root of David and from the tribe of Judah? No: for some of that stock believed, and in fact many thousands of men of that stock believed, and this after the Lord's resurrection. They raged and crucified Him: and afterwards began to see miracles wrought in the Name of Him Crucified; and they trembled still more that His Name should have so much power, since when in their hands He seemed unable to work any; and pricked at heart, at length believing that there was some hidden divinity in Him whom they had believed like other men, and asking counsel of the Apostles, they were answered, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." [Acts 2:38] Since then Christ arose to judge those by whom He had been crucified, and turned away His Presence from the Jews, turning His Presence towards the Gentiles; God is, as it seems, besought in behalf of the remnant of Israel; and it is said unto Him, "For Your servant David's sake, turn not away the presence of Your Anointed." If the chaff be condemned, let the wheat be gathered together. May the remnant be saved, as Isaiah says, "And the remnant has" clearly "been saved:" [Isaiah 10:21-22] for out of them were the twelve Apostles, out of them more than five hundred brethren, to whom the Lord showed Himself after His Resurrection: [1 Corinthians 15:6] out of their number were so many thousands baptized, [Acts 2:41] who laid the price of their possessions at the Apostles' feet. Thus then was fulfilled the prayer here made to God: "For Your servant David's sake, turn not away the presence of Your Anointed."

"The Lord has made a faithful oath unto David, and He shall not repent" [Psalm 132:11]. What means, "has made an oath"? Hath confirmed a promise through Himself. What means, "He shall not repent"? He will not change. For God suffers not the pain of repentance, nor is He deceived in any matter, so that He would wish to correct that wherein He has erred. But as when a man repents of anything, he wishes to change what he has done; thus where you hear that God repents, look for an actual change. God does it differently from you, although He calls it by the name of repentance; for thou dost it, because you had erred; while He does it, because He avenges, or frees. He changed Saul's kingdom, when He repented, as it is said: and in the very passage where the Scripture says, "It repented Him;" it is said a little after, "for He is not a man that He should repent." When therefore He changes His works through His immutable counsel, He is said to repent on account of this very change, not of His counsel, but of His work. But He promised this so as not to change it. Just as this passage also says: "The Lord swore, and will not repent, You are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec;" so also since this was promised so that it should not be changed, because it must needs happen and be permanent; he says, "The Lord has made a faithful oath unto David, and He shall not repent; Of the fruit of your body shall I set upon your seat." He might have said, "of the fruit of your loins," wherefore did He choose to say, "Of the fruit of your body"? Had He said that also, it would have been true; but He chose to say with a further meaning, Ex fructu ventris, because Christ was born of a woman without the man.

What then? "The Lord has made a faithful oath unto David, and He shall not shrink from it; Of the fruit of your body shall I set upon your seat. If your children will keep My covenant and My testimonies that I shall learn them, their children also shall sit upon your seat for evermore" [Psalm 132:12]. If your children keep My covenant, their children also shall sit for evermore. The parents establish a desert on behalf of their children. What if his children should keep the covenant, and their children should not keep it? Why is the happiness of the children promised in relation to their parents' deservings? For what says He, "If your children will keep My covenant, their children also shall sit for evermore"— He says not, if your children keep My covenant, they shall sit upon your seat; and if their children keep My covenant, they also shall sit upon your seat: but he says, "If your children keep My covenant, their children also shall sit upon your seat for evermore"— except because He here wished their fruit to be understood by their children? "If your children," He says, "will keep My covenant, and if your children shall keep My testimonies that I shall learn them; their children also shall sit upon your seat:" that is, this will be their fruit, that they sit upon your seat. For in this life, brethren, do all of us who labour in Christ, all of us who tremble at His words, who in any way endeavour to execute His will, and groan while we pray His help that we may fulfil what He commands; do we already sit in those seats of bliss which are promised us? No: but holding His commandments, we hope this will come to pass. This hope is spoken of under the figure of sons; because sons are the hope of man living in this life, sons are his fruit. For this reason also men, when excusing their avarice, allege that they are reserving for their children what they hoard up; and, unwilling to give to the destitute, excuse themselves under the name of piety, because their children are their hope. For all men who live according to this world, declare it to be their hope, to be fathers of children they may leave behind them. Thus then He describes hope generally under the name of children, and says, "If your children will keep My covenant and My testimonies that I shall learn them, their children also shall sit upon your seat for evermore:" that is, they shall have such fruits, that their hope shall not deceive them, that they may come there where they hope to come. At present therefore they are as fathers, men of hope for the future; but when they have attained what they hope, they are children; because they have brought forth and produced in their works that which they gain. And this is preserved unto them for the future, because futurity itself commonly signifies children.

"I will bless her widow with blessings, and will satisfy her poor with bread" [Psalm 132:15]. Every soul that is aware that it is bereft of all help, save of God alone, is widowed. For how does the Apostle describe a widow? "She that is a widow indeed and desolate, trusts in God." [1 Timothy 5:5-6] He was speaking of those whom we all call Widows in the Church. He says, "She that lives in pleasure, is dead while she lives;" and he numbers her not among the widows. But in describing true widows, what says he? "She that is a widow indeed and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day." Here he adds, "but she that lives in pleasure, is dead while she lives." What then makes a widow? That she has no aid from any other source, save from God alone. They that have husbands, take pride in the protection of their husbands: widows seem desolate, and their aid is a stronger one. The whole Church therefore is one widow, whether in men or in women, in married men or married women, in young men or in old, or in virgins: the whole Church is one widow, desolate in this world, if she feel this, if she is aware of her widowhood: for then is help at hand for her. Do ye not recognise this widow in the Gospel, my brethren, when the Lord declared "that men ought always to pray and not to faint"? "There was in a city a judge," He said, "which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him day by day, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary." The widow, by daily importunity, prevailed with him: for the judge said within himself, "Though I fear not God; neither regard man, yet because this woman troubles me, I will avenge her." [Luke 18:1-8] If the wicked judge heard the widow, that he might not be molested; hears not God His Church, whom He exhorts to pray?

"I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall rejoice and sing" [Psalm 132:16]. We are now at the end of the Psalm; attend for a short space, Beloved. "I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall rejoice and sing." Who is our salvation, save our Christ? What means, therefore, "I will clothe her priests with salvation"? "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." [Galatians 3:27] "And her saints shall rejoice and sing." Whence shall they rejoice and sing? Because they have been clothed with salvation: not in themselves. For they have become light, but in the Lord; for they were darkness before. [Ephesians 5:8] Therefore he has added, "There will I raise up the horn of David" [Psalm 132:17]: this will be David's height, that trust be put in Christ. For horn signifies height: and what sort of height? Not carnal. Therefore, while all the bones are wrapped up in flesh, the horn goes beyond the flesh. Spiritual altitude is a horn. But what is spiritual loftiness, save to trust in Christ? Not to say, It is my work, I baptize; but, "He it is who baptizes." [John 1:33] There is the horn of David: and that you may know that there is the horn of David, heed what follows: "I have ordained a lantern for mine Anointed." What is a lantern? You already know the Lord's words concerning John: "He was a burning and a shining light." [John 5:35] And what says John? "He it is who baptizes." Herein therefore shall the saints rejoice, herein the priests shall rejoice: because all that is good in themselves, is not of themselves, but of Him who has the power of baptizing. Fearlessly therefore does every one who has received baptism come unto His temple; because it is not man's, but His who made the horn of David to flourish.

"Upon Him shall My sanctification flourish" [Psalm 132:18]. Upon whom? Upon Mine Anointed. For when He says, "Mine anointed," it is the voice of the Father, who says, "I will bless her widow with blessings, and will satisfy her poor with bread. I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall rejoice and sing." He who says, "There will I raise up the horn of David," is God. He Himself says, "I have ordained a lantern for Mine Anointed," because Christ is both ours and the Father's: He is our Christ, when He saves us and rules us, as He is also our Lord: He is the Son of the Father, but both our Christ and the Father's. For if He were not the Father's Christ, it would not be said above, "For Your servant David's sake, turn not Thou away the presence of Your Anointed." "Upon Him shall My sanctification flourish." It flourishes upon Christ. Let none of men assume this to himself, that he himself sanctifies: otherwise it will not be true, "Upon Him shall My sanctification flourish." The glory of sanctification shall flourish. The sanctification of Christ therefore in Christ Himself, is the power of the sanctification of God in Christ. In that he says, "shall flourish," he refers to His glory: for when trees flourish, then are they beautiful. Sanctification therefore is in Baptism: thence it flourishes, and is brightened. Why has the world yielded to this beauty? Because it flourishes in Christ; for, put it in man's power, and how does it then flourish? Since "all flesh in grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the grass."

Let the Psalm tell us what they are like. "As the ointment on the head, which descended to the beard, to Aaron's beard, which descended to the fringe of his garment" [Psalm 133:2]. What was Aaron? A priest. Who is a priest, except that one Priest, who entered into the Holy of Holies? Who is that priest, save Him, who was at once Victim and Priest? save Him who when he found nothing clean in the world to offer, offered Himself? The ointment is on his head, because Christ is one whole with the Church, but the ointment comes from the head. Our Head is Christ crucified and buried; He rose again, and ascended into heaven; and the Holy Spirit came from the head. Whither? To the beard. The beard signifies the courageous; the beard distinguishes the grown men, the earnest, the active, the vigorous. So that when we describe such, we say, he is a bearded man. Thus that ointment descended first upon the Apostles, descended upon those who bore the first assaults of the world, and therefore the Holy Spirit descended on them. For they who first began to dwell together in unity, suffered persecution, but because the ointment descended to the beard, they suffered, but were not conquered....