Salmos 119
Ambrose of Milan · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Salmos 119:9
Let us listen, then, to the master of precaution: "I said, I will pay attention to my ways"; that is, "I said to myself: in the silent biddings of my thoughts, I have enjoined on myself, that I should pay attention to my ways." Some ways there are that we ought to follow; others as to which we ought to pay attention. We must follow the ways of the Lord and pay attention to our own ways, lest they lead us into sin. One can pay attention if one is not hasty in speaking. The law says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God." It said not "speak" but "hear." Eve fell because she said to the man what she had not heard from the Lord her God. The first word from God says to you, Hear! If you hear, pay attention to your ways; and if you have fallen, quickly amend your way. for "how does a young person amend his way; except by paying attention to the word of the Lord?" Be silent therefore first of all, and listen, so that you do not fail in your tongue. — On the Duties of the Clergy 1.2.7
Salmos 119:17
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." — On the Holy Spirit 2.4.29-31
Salmos 119:28
I bid you, therefore, be considerate enough to regard in a natural sense our plausible discourse and to weigh our statements in simplicity of mind and with attentive intellect. Do not follow the traditions of philosophy or those who gather the semblance of truth in the "vain deceit" of the arts of persuasion. Rather, accept, in accordance with the rule of truth, what is set forth in the inspired words of God and is poured into the hearts of the faithful by the contemplation of such sublimity. For it is written: "Strengthen me in your words." "The wicked have told me fables but not as your law, O Lord. All your statutes are truth." Therefore, not the nature of the elements but Christ himself, who created the world in the abundance and plenitude of his divinity, should be our standard in the examination of what was created and in the question as to what natural power is able to achieve. The people who beheld with their own eyes the miracles related in the Gospel of the healing of the leper and that of giving sight to the blind did not regard these as a medical process but rather, marveling at the power of the Lord, "gave praise to God," as it is written. Moses did not follow the calculations of the Egyptians and the conjunctions of the stars and the relations of the elements when he stretched out his hand to divide the Red Sea, but he was complying with the commands of divine power. Hence, he says, "Your right hand, O Lord, is magnified in strength. Your right hand, O Lord, has broken the enemy." To him, therefore, you faithful people, lift up your mind and bring to him all your heart. God does not see as people do: God sees with his mind; people see with their eyes. Therefore, people do not see as God does. Pay attention to what God saw and what he praised. Do not, therefore, estimate with your eyes or weigh with your mind the problem of creation. Rather, you should not regard as a subject for debate what God saw and approved of. — The Six Days of Creation 2:1.3
Salmos 119:36
Therefore, as I am about to speak of what is useful, I will take up those words of the prophet: "Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to covetousness," that the sound of the word useful may not rouse in us the desire for money. Some indeed put it thus: "Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to what is useful," that is, that kind of usefulness that is always on the watch for making gains in business and has been bent and diverted by the habits of people to the pursuit of money. For as a rule most people call useful only what is profitable, but we are speaking of that kind of usefulness that is sought in earthly loss "that we may gain Christ," whose gain is "godliness with contentment." Great, too, is the gain whereby we attain to godliness, which is rich with God, not indeed in fleeting wealth but in eternal gifts, and in which rests no uncertain trial but constant and unending grace. — On the Duties of the Clergy 2.6.26
Salmos 119:37
Therefore David, who had experienced those very glances that are dangerous for a man, aptly says that the one is blessed whose every hope is in the name of God. For such a person does not have regard to worthless things and follies if he always strives toward Christ and always looks on Christ with his inner eyes. For this reason David turned to God again and said, "Turn away my eyes, that they may not see vanity." The circus is vanity, because it is totally without profit; horse racing is vanity, because it is counterfeit as regards salvation; the theater is vanity, every game is vanity. "All things are vanity!" as Ecclesiastes said, all things that are in this world. Accordingly, let one who wishes to be saved ascend above the world, let him seek the Word who is with God, let him flee from this world and depart from the earth. For one cannot comprehend that which exists and exists always, unless he has first fled from here. On this account also, the Lord, wishing to approach God the Father, said to the apostles, "Arise, let us go from here." — FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 1:4
Salmos 119:57
The possession of God is owed to such as these, as Isaiah says: "This is the inheritance of those who believe in the Lord." Very aptly does he say, "This is the inheritance," for that alone is the inheritance; there is no other. The inheritance is not a treasure that people stumble on blindly, and passing things have not the quality of an inheritance. The only inheritance is that in which God is the portion, as the Lord's holy one says: "God is my inheritance," and again: "I have become an heir of your precepts." You see what are the possessions of the just person: God's commandments, his words, his precepts. In these he is rich; on these he feeds; with these he is delighted as if by all riches. — Letter 82
Salmos 119:68
If the soul, with its capacity for pleasure and delight, has tasted this true and highest good and has adhered to both with the means at its disposal, putting away sorrow and fear, then it is wonderfully inflamed. Having embraced the Word of God, it knows no bounds, it knows no satiety, and says, "You are sweet, O Lord, and in your joy teach me your laws." Having embraced the Word of God, the soul desires him above every beauty; it loves him above every joy; it is delighted with him above every perfume; it wishes often to see, often to gaze, often to be drawn to him that it may follow. "Your name," it says, "is as oil poured out, and that is why we maidens love you and vie with one another but cannot attain to you. Draw us that we may run after you, that from the odor of ointments we may receive the power to follow you. — Letter 79
Salmos 119:71
Sin abounded by the law because through the law came knowledge of sin, and it became harmful for me to know what through my weakness I could not avoid. It is good to know beforehand what one is to avoid, but, if I cannot avoid something, it is harmful to have known about it. Thus was the law changed to its opposite, yet it became useful to me by the very increase of sin, for I was humbled. And David therefore says, "It is good for me that I have been humbled." By humbling myself I have broken the bonds of that ancient transgression by which Adam and Eve had bound the whole line of their succession. Hence, too, the Lord came as an obedient man to loose the knot of human disobedience and deception. And as through disobedience sin entered, so through obedience sin was remitted. Therefore, the apostle says, "For just as by the disobedience of one man the many were constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many will be constituted just." — Letter 83
Salmos 119:91
If we are to believe this [that God knows the past, present and future] about the ages, much more must we believe it about the day of judgment, on the ground that the Son of God has knowledge of it, as being already made by him. For it is written, "According to your ordinance the day will continue." He did not merely say "the day continues" but even "will continue," so that the things that are to come might be governed by his ordinance. Does he not know what he ordered? "He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed the eye, shall he not see?" — Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.4.198
Salmos 119:103
The soul presses forward for a glimpse of hidden mysteries, to the very abode of the Word, to the very dwelling place of that highest Good, and his light and brightness. In that bosom and secret dwelling place of the Father the soul hastens to hear his words, and having heard them, it finds them sweeter than all things. Let the prophet who has tasted this sweetness teach you, when he says, "How sweet are your words to my lips, above honeycomb to my mouth." What else can a soul desire when it has once tasted the sweetness of the Word, when it has once seen its brightness? When Moses remained on the mountain forty days to receive the law, he had no need of food for the body. Elijah, resting [under a broom tree], asked that his life be taken away from him. Even Peter, foreseeing on the mountain the glory of the Lord's resurrection, did not wish to come down and said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." How great is the glory of that divine Essence, how great the graces of the Word at which even angels wish to gaze! — Letter 79
Salmos 119:105
"Therefore will I remember you, O Lord, from the land of Jordan and Hermon." Therefore, one who is troubled, if he takes good counsel, goes out from Egypt and follows the way of light, for Hermon is interpreted to mean "way of the lamp." And so, go out first from Egypt, if you wish to see Christ's light. The Canaanite woman went out from the territory of the pagans and found Christ; she said to him, "Have pity on me, O son of David!" Moses went out from Egypt and was made a prophet and sent back to the people, that he might free their souls from the land of affliction. Moreover, the lamp is in the body of Christ, and this is the lamp that shows you the way. For this reason also holy David says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet," a lamp, because it has enlightened the souls of all people5 and shown the way in the darkness. The way of the lamp is the gospel; it shines in the darkness, that is, in the world. — Interrogation of Job and David 4:4.14
Salmos 119:120
O the divine mystery of that cross, on which weakness hangs, might is free, vices are nailed and triumphal trophies raised. So that a certain saint said, "Pierce my flesh with nails for fear of you"; he says not with nails of iron but of fear and faith. For the bonds of virtue are stronger than those of punishment. Lastly, Peter was bound by his faith, when he had followed the Lord as far as the hall of the high priest; no one had bound and punishment had not loosened Peter, who had been bound by faith. Again, when Peter was bound by the Jews, prayer loosed him, punishment did not hold him, because he had not gone back from Christ. — On the Holy Spirit 1.9.108
Salmos 119:164
Frequent prayer also commends us to God. For if the prophet says, "Seven times a day have I praised you," though he was busy with the affairs of a kingdom, what ought we to do, who read, "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation"? Certainly our customary prayers ought to be said with giving of thanks, when we rise from sleep, when we go forth, when we prepare to receive food, after receiving it and at the hour of incense, when at last we are going to rest. — Concerning Virginity 3.4.18