Psalms 119:18

Therefore, let us fall, if it is necessary, into your detractions so long as the church, which has already turned to Christ the Lord, may know the truth of the Word that is completely covered under the veil of the letter. For thus the apostle said, "if anyone turns to the Lord, the veil will be removed; for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Thus, the Lord, the Holy Spirit, must be entreated by us to remove every cloud and all darkness that obscures the vision of our hearts hardened with the stains of sins in order that we may be able to behold the spiritual and wonderful knowledge of his law, according to him who said, "Take the veil from my eyes, and I shall observe the wonders of your law."

We should ask the Father of the Word during each individual reading "when Moses is read," that he might fulfill even in us that which is written in the Psalms: "Open my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law." For unless he himself opens our eyes, how shall we be able to see these great mysteries that are fashioned in the patriarchs, that are pictured now in terms of wells, now in marriages, now in births, now even in barrenness?

And what wonder is it the Spirit works life, who enlivens as does the Father and as does the Son? And who can deny that giving new life is the work of the eternal Majesty? For it is written, “Give life to your servant.” He, then, is enlivened who is a servant, that is, a person, who before he did not have life but received the privilege of having it.Let us then see whether the Spirit is enlivened, or himself giving life. Now it is written, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” So, then, the Spirit enlivens.
But that you may understand that the enlivening of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is no separate work, read how there is a oneness of quickening also, since God gives life through the Spirit, for Paul said, “He who raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you.”

God does not wish us merely to listen to the words and phrases contained in the Scriptures but to do so with a great deal of prudent reflection. Therefore, blessed David frequently prefixed to his psalms the expression “a meditation” and also said, “Open my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law.” And after him, his son also pointed out by way of instruction that one must seek for wisdom even as for silver, or, rather, to trade in it more than in gold.

Hear me, therefore, my fellow servant, my friend, my brother; give ear for a moment that I may tell you how you are to walk in the holy Scriptures. All that we read in the divine books, while glistening and shining without, is yet far sweeter within. “He who desires to eat the kernel must first break the nut.” “Open my eyes,” says David, “that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Now, if so great a prophet confesses that he is in the darkness of ignorance, how deep, do you think, must be the night of misapprehension with which we, mere babes and unweaned infants, are enveloped! Now this veil rests not only on the face of Moses but on the Evangelists and the apostles as well. To the multitudes the Savior spoke only in parables and, to make it clear that his words had a mystical meaning, said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Unless all things that are written are opened by him “who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens,” no one can undo the lock or set them before you.

Now it was in the law and in the prophets that he was foreordained and prefigured. For this reason too the prophets were called seers, because they saw him whom others did not see. Abraham saw his day and was glad. The heavens that were sealed to a rebellious people were opened to Ezekiel. “Open my eyes,” David says, “that I may behold wonderful things out of your law.” For “the law is spiritual,” and a revelation is needed to enable us to comprehend it and, when God uncovers his face, to behold his glory.

This is true wisdom in a person: to know that he is imperfect; and, if I may say so, the perfection of all the just, living in the flesh, is imperfect. Whence, also, we read in Proverbs: “To understand true justice.” For unless there were also false justice, the justice of God would never be referred to as true justice. And the apostle continues in the same passage: “And if in any point you think otherwise, this also God will reveal to you.” It is a strange thing that I hear. He who but a moment ago had said “Not that I have already obtained it or have already been made perfect”; he, who was the chosen vessel, who dared to say with the confidence of Christ dwelling within him, “Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?” and yet frankly confessed that he had not been made perfect, now ascribes to the multitude something that he specifically denied to himself, and he associates himself with the others and says, “Let us then, as many as are perfect, be of this mind.” But he explains in the following verses what he meant by this statement. Let us, he says, who wish to be perfect, according to the measure of human frailty, be of this mind, that we have not yet obtained it; that we have not yet laid hold of it; that we have not yet been made perfect. And because we have not yet been made perfect, and, perhaps, think otherwise than is demanded by true and perfect perfection, if we think of and understand anything that is different from what is consistent with the knowledge of God, this, also, God will reveal to us, so that we may pray with David and say, “Open my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law.”

Terrified by my sins and the dead weight of my misery, I had turned my problems over in my mind and was half determined to seek refuge in the desert. But you forbade me to do this and gave me strength by saying, "Christ died for us all, so that being alive should no longer mean living with our own life but with his life who died for us." Lord, I cast all my troubles on you and from now on "I shall contemplate the wonders of your law." You know how weak I am and how inadequate is my knowledge: teach me and heal my frailty. Your only Son, "in whom the whole treasury of wisdom and knowledge is stored up," has redeemed me with his blood. "Save me from the scorn of my enemies," for the price of my redemption is always in my thoughts. I eat it and drink it and minister it to others; and as one of the poor I long to be filled with it, to be one of those who "eat and have their fill." And "those who look for the Lord will cry out in praise of him."

"Open Thou my eyes, and I will consider wondrous things of Your law" [Psalm 119:18]. What he adds, "I am a lodger upon earth" [Psalm 119:19]: or, as some copies read, "I am a sojourner upon earth, O hide not Your commandments from me," has the same meaning....