Salmos 139
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Salmos 139:1
"Lord, Thou hast tried me, and known me" (ver. 1). Let the Lord Jesus Christ Himself say this; let Him too say, "Lord," to the Father. For His Father is not His Lord, save because He hath deigned to be born according to the flesh. He is Father of the God, Lord of the Man. Wouldest thou know to whom He is Father? To the coequal Son. The Apostle saith, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." To this "Form" God is Father, the "Form" equal to Himself, the only-begotten Son, begotten of His Substance. But forasmuch as for our sakes, that we might be re-made, and made partakers of His Divine Nature, being renewed unto life eternal, He was made partaker of our mortal nature, what saith the Apostle of Him? He saith, "yet He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and was found in fashion as a man." He was in the Form of God, equal to the Father; He took upon Him the form of a servant, so as therein to be less than the Father. ... — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:2
"Thou hast known My down-sitting and Mine up-rising" (ver. 2). What here is "down-sitting," what "up-rising"? He who sitteth, humbleth himself. The Lord then "sat" in His Passion, "up-rose" in His Resurrection. "Thou," he saith, hast known this; that is, Thou hast willed, Thou hast approved; according to Thy will was it done. But if thou choosest to take the words of the Head in the person of the Body: man sitteth when he humbleth himself in penitence, he riseth up when his sins are forgiven, and he is lifted up to the hope of everlasting life. Lift not up yourselves, unless ye have first been humbled. For many wish to rise before they have sat down, they wish to appear righteous, before they have confessed that they are sinners. ... — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:3-4
"Thou hast understood my thoughts from afar; Thou hast tracked out my path and my limit" (ver. 3); "and all my ways Thou hast seen beforehand" (ver. 4). What is, "from afar"? While I am yet in my pilgrimage, before I reach that, my true country, Thou hast known my thoughts. ...The younger son went into a far country. After his toil and suffering and tribulation and want, he thought on his father, and desired to return, and said, "I will arise, and go to my father." "I will arise," said he, for before he had sat. Here then thou mayest recognise him saying, "Thou hast known my down-sitting and up-rising." I sat, in want; I arose, in longing for Thy Bread. "Thou hast understood my thoughts from afar." For far indeed had I gone; but where is not He whom I had left? Wherefore the Lord saith in the Gospel, that his father met him as he was coming. Truly; for "he had understood his thoughts from afar." "My path," he saith; what, but a bad path, the path he had walked to leave his father? ...What is, "my path"? that by which I have gone. What is, "my limit"? that whereunto I have reached. "Thou hast tracked out my path and my limit." That limit of mine, far distant as it was, was not far from Thine eyes. Far had I gone, and yet Thou wast there. "And all my ways Thou hast seen beforehand." He said not, "hast seen," but, "hast seen beforehand." Before I went by them, before I walked in them, Thou didst see them beforehand; and Thou didst permit me in toil to go my own ways, that, if I desired not to toil, I might return into Thy ways. "For there is no deceit in my tongue." What meant he by this? Lo, I confess to Thee, I have walked in my own way, I am become far from Thee, I have departed from Thee, with whom it was well with me, and to my good it was ill with me without Thee. ... — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:5
"Behold Thou, Lord, hast known all my last doings, and the ancient ones" [Psalm 139:5]. You have known my latest doings, when I fed swine; You have known my ancient doings, when I asked of You my portion of goods. Ancient doings were the beginnings to me of latest ills: ancient sin, when we fell; latest punishment, when we came into this toilsome and dangerous mortality. And would that this may be "latest" to us; it will be, if now we will to return. For there is another "latest" for certain wicked ones, to whom it shall be said, "Go ye into everlasting fire." [Matthew 25:41] ..."You have fashioned me, and hast laid Your hand upon me." "Fashioned me," where? In this mortality; now, to the toils whereunto we all are born. For none is born, but God has fashioned him in his mother's womb; nor is there any creature, whereof God is not the Fashioner. But "You have fashioned me" in this toil, "and laid Your hand upon me," Your avenging hand, putting down the proud. For thus healthfully has He cast down the proud, that He may lift him up humble. — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:6
"Thy skill hath displayed itself wonderfully in me: it hath waxed mighty: I shall not be able to attain unto it" (ver. 6). Listen now and hear somewhat, which is obscure indeed, yet bringeth no small pleasure in the understanding thereon. Moses, the holy servant of God, with whom God spake by a cloud, for, speaking after human fashion, He must needs speak to His servant through some work of His hands which He assumed, ...longed and desired to see the true appearance of God, and said to God, who was conversing with him, "If now I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself." When this he desired vehemently, and would extort from God in that sort of friendly familiarity, if we may so speak, wherewith God deigned to treat him, that he might see His Glory and His Face, in such wise as we can speak of God's Face, He said unto him, "Thou canst not see My Face; for no one hath seen My Face, and lived;" but I will place thee in a clift of the rock, and will pass by, and will set My hand upon thee; and when I have passed by, thou shalt see My back parts. And from these words there ariseth another enigma, that is, an obscure figure of the truth. "When I have passed by," saith God, "thou shalt see My back parts;" as though He hath on one side His face, on another His back. Far be it from us to have any such thoughts of that Majesty! For whoso hath such thoughts of God, what advantageth it him that the temples are closed? He is building an idol in his own heart. In these words then are mighty mysteries. ...They who raged against the Lord, whom they saw, now seek counsel how they may be saved; and it is said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, and your sins shall be forgiven you." Behold, they saw the back parts of Him, whose face they could not see. For His Hand was upon their eyes, not for ever, but while He passed by. After He had passed He took away His Hand from their eyes. When the hand was taken from their eyes, they say to the disciples, "What shall we do?" At first they are fierce, afterwards loving; at first angry, afterwards fearful; at first hard, then pleasant; at first blind, then enlightened. ... — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:6
What man, then, is there who can comprehend that wisdom by which God knows all things, in such wise that neither what we call things past are past therein, nor what we call things future are therein waited for as coming, as though they were absent, but both past and future with things present are all present; nor yet are things thought severally, so that thought passes from one to another, but all things simultaneously are at hand in one glance;-what man, I say, is there that comprehends that wisdom, and the like prudence, and the like knowledge, since in truth even our own wisdom is beyond our comprehension? ...And do such as we are, think, that in so great infirmity of mind we can comprehend whether the foresight of God is the same as His memory and His understanding, who does not regard in thought each several thing, but embraces all that He knows in one eternal and unchangeable and ineffable vision? In this difficulty, then, and strait, we may well cry out to the living God, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: it is high, I cannot attain unto it." For I understand by myself how wonderful and incomprehensible is Thy knowledge, by which Thou madest me, when I cannot even comprehend myself whom Thou hast made! And yet, "while I was musing, the fire burned," so that "I seek Thy face evermore." — On The Trinity 15:7.13
Salmos 139:7
Behold you find that the runaway in a far country cannot escape His eyes, from whom he flees. And whither can he go now, whose "limit is tracked out"? Behold, what says he? "Whither shall I go from Your Spirit?" [Psalm 139:7]. Who can in the world flee from that Spirit, with whom the world is filled? [Wisdom 1:7] "And whither shall I flee from Your Face?" He seeks a place whither to flee from the wrath of God. What place will shelter God's runaway? Men who shelter runaways, ask them from whom they have fled; and when they find any one a slave of some master less powerful than themselves, him they shelter as it were without any fear, saying in their hearts, "he has not a master by whom he can be tracked out." But when they are told of a powerful master, they either shelter not, or they shelter with great fear, because even a powerful man can be deceived. Where is God not? Who can deceive God? Whom does not God see? From whom does not God demand His runaway? Whither then shall that runaway go from the Face of God? He turns him hither and there, as though seeking a spot to flee to. — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:7-8
"...if our heart think ill of us," i.e. accuse us within, that we do not the thing with that mind it ought to be done withal, "greater is God than our heart, and knoweth all things." Thou hidest thine heart from man: hide it from God if thou canst! How shalt thou hide it from Him, to whom it is said by a sinner, fearing and confessing, "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? and from Thy face whither shall I flee?" He sought a way to flee, to escape the judgment of God, and found none. For where is God not? "If I shall ascend," saith he, "into heaven, Thou art there: if I shall descend into hell, Thou art there." Whither wilt thou go? whither wilt thou flee? Wilt thou hear counsel? If thou wouldest flee from Him, flee to Him. Flee to Him by confessing, not from Him by hiding: hide thou canst not, but confess thou canst. Say unto Him, "Thou art my place to flee unto," and let love be nourished in thee, which alone leadeth unto life. Let thy conscience bear thee witness that thy love is of God. If it be of God, do not wish to display it before men; because neither men's praises lift thee unto heaven, nor their censures put thee down from thence. Let Him see, who crowneth thee: be He thy witness, by whom as judge thou art crowned. "Greater is God than our heart, and knoweth all things." — Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 6
Salmos 139:7-8
...whither was He sent except to the place where He already was? For He who says, "I fill heaven and earth," was everywhere. But if it is said of the Father, where could He be without His own word and without His own wisdom, which "reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly ordereth all things?" But He cannot be anywhere without His own Spirit. Therefore, if God is everywhere, His Spirit also is everywhere. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, too, was sent thither, where He already was. For he, too, who finds no place to which he might go from the presence of God, and who says, "If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I shall go down into hell, behold, Thou art there;" wishing it to be understood that God is present everywhere, named in the previous verse His Spirit; for He says, "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" — On The Trinity 2:5.7
Salmos 139:8
"If I go up," says he, "to heaven, You are there: if I go down to Hades, You are present" [Psalm 139:8]. At length, miserable runaway, you have learned, that by no means can you make yourself far from Him, from whom you have wished to remove far away. Behold, He is everywhere; thou, whither will you go? He has found counsel, and that inspired by Him, who now deigns to recall him....If by sinning I go down to the depths of wickednesses, and spurn to confess, saying, "Who sees me" (for "in Hades who shall confess to You?" ) there also You are present, to punish. Whither then shall I go that I may flee from Your presence, that is, not find You angry? This plan he found: So will I flee, says he, from Your Face, so will I flee from Your Spirit; from Your avenging Spirit, Your avenging Face thus will I flee. — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:8
For this reason, of course, it was not enough for Jesus to say, "I will that where I am they also may be," but he added, "with me." For to be with him is a great good. For even the wretched can be where he is because wherever anybody at all may be [there] he also is; but the blessed alone are with him, because they will be unable to be blessed except by his action. Or has it not been truly said to God, "If I ascend into heaven, you are there; and if I descend into hell, you are present"? Or on the other hand is Christ not God's Wisdom, which "reaches everywhere by reason of its purity"? — TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 111:2.3
Salmos 139:9
This plan he found: So will I flee, saith he, from Thy Face, so will I flee from Thy Spirit; from Thy avenging Spirit, Thy avenging Face thus will I flee. How? "If I take again my wings right forward, and abide in the utmost parts of the sea" [Psalm 139:9]. So can I flee from Thy Face. If he will flee to the utmost part of the sea from the Face of God, will not He from whom he fleeth be there? ...For what are "the utmost parts of the sea," but the end of the world? Thither let us now flee in hope and longing, with the wings of twofold love; let us have no rest, save in "the utmost parts of the sea." For if elsewhere we wish for rest, we shall be hurled headlong into the sea. Let us fly even to the ends of the sea, let us bear ourselves aloft on the wings of twofold love; meanwhile let us flee to God in hope, and in faithful hope let us meditate on that "end of the sea." — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:10
Now listen who may bring us there. The very same One whose face in wrath we wish to flee from. For what follows? "Even there shall Your hand conduct me, and Your right hand lead me" [Psalm 139:10]. This let us meditate on, beloved brethren, let this be our hope, this our consolation. Let us take again through love the wings we lost through lust. For lust was the lime of our wings, it clashed us down from the freedom of our sky, that is, the free breezes of the Spirit of God. Thence dashed down we lost our wings, and were, so to speak, imprisoned in the power of the fowler; thence "He" redeemed us with His Blood, whom we fled from to be caught. He makes us wings of His commandments; we raise them aloft now free from lime....Needs then must we have wings, and needs must He conduct us, for He is our Helper. We have free-will; but even with that free-will what can we do, unless He help us who commands us? — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:12
"For darkness shall not be darkened by Thee" (ver. 12). Do not thou then darken thy darkness; God darkeneth it not, but enlighteneth it yet more; for to Him is said in another Psalm, "Thou, Lord, shalt light my candle: my God shall enlighten my darkness." But who are they who "darken their darkness," which God darkeneth not? Evil men, perverse men; when they sin, verily they are darkness; when they confess not their sins which they have committed but go on to defend them, they "darken their darkness." Wherefore now if thou hast sinned thou art in darkness, but by confessing thy darkness thou shall obtain to have thy darkness lightened; by defending thy darkness, thou shall "darken thy darkness." And where wilt thou escape from double darkness, who wast in difficulty in single darkness? ...Let us not "darken our darkness" by defending our sins, and "the night shall be light in our delight." — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:13
"For Thou, O Lord, hast possessed my reins" [Psalm 139:13]. The Possessor is within; He occupies not only the heart, but also the reins; not only the thoughts, but also the delights: He then possesses that whence I should feel delight at any light in this world: He occupies my reins: I know not delight, save from the inward light of His Wisdom. What then? Do you not delight that your affairs are very prosperous, times fortunate to you? Do you not delight in honour, in riches, in your family? "I do not," says he. Wherefore? Because "You have possessed my reins, O Lord; You have taken me up from my mother's womb." While I was in my mother's womb, I did not regard with indifference the darkness of that night and the light of that night....Now, having been taken up from the womb of that our mother, we look on them with indifference, and say, "As is His darkness, so is also His light." Neither does earthly prosperity make us happy, nor earthly adversity wretched. We must maintain righteousness, love faith, hope in God, love God, love our neighbours also. After these toils we shall have unfailing light, day without setting. Fleeting is all the light and darkness of this night. — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:14
"I will confess to You, O Lord, for terribly have You been made wonderful: wondrous are Your works, and my soul knows it right well" [Psalm 139:14]. Aforetime "Your knowledge was made wonderful from me, it had waxed great, nor could I attain unto it." From me then "it had waxed great." Whence does "my soul" now "know right well," save because the "night is light in my delight?" save because Your grace has come unto me, and enlightened my darkness? save because You have possessed my reins? save because You have taken me up from my mother's womb? — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:15
"My bone is not hid from You, which You have made in secret" [Psalm 139:15]. "His bone," he says. What the people call ossum, is in Latin called os. This is the word in the Greek. For we might think the word os is here the one which makes in the plural ora, not os (short), which makes ossa. He says then, I have a certain bone (ossum) in secret. For this word let us prefer to use; better is it that scholars find fault with us, than that the people understand us not. "There is then," says he, a certain bone of mine, within, hidden; You have made within a bone for me in secret, yet is it not hidden from You. In secret have You made it, but have You therefore hidden it from Yourself? This my bone made by You in secret men see not, men know not: You know, who hast made. What "bone" then means he, brethren? Let us seek it, it is "in secret." But because as Christians we are speaking in the Name of the Lord to Christians, now we find what bone is of this kind. It is a sort of inward strength; for strength and fortitude are understood to be in the bones. There is then a sort of inward strength of the soul, wherein it is not broken. Whatever tortures, whatever tribulations, whatever adversities rage around, that which God has made strong in secret in us, cannot be broken, yields not. For by God is made a certain strength of patience, of which is said in another Psalm, "But my soul shall be subjected to God, for of Him is my patience.". ..Wherein do you glory? "In tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience." [Romans 4:5] See how that strength is fashioned within in his heart: "because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." So is fashioned and made strong that hidden bone, that it makes us even to glory in tribulations. But to men we seem wretched, because that which we have within is hidden from them. "And my substance is in the lower parts of the earth." Behold, in flesh is my substance, yet have I a bone within, which You have fashioned, such as to cause me never to yield to any persecutions of this lower region, where still my substance is. For what great matter is it, if an Angel be brave? This is a great matter, if flesh is brave. And whence is flesh brave, whence is an earthen vessel brave, save because in it is made a bone in secret? — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:16
..."Thine eyes did see Mine imperfect one, and in Thy book shall all be written" (ver. 16), not only the perfect, but also the imperfect. Let not the imperfect fear, only let them advance. Nor yet, because I have said, "let them not fear," let them love their imperfection, and remain there, where they are found. Let them advance, as far as in them lieth. Daily let them add, daily let them approach; yet let them not fall back from the Body of the Lord: that, compacted in one Body and among these members, they may be counted worthy to have that said of them. "By day shall they wander, and none among them." "The Day" was yet on earth, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Whence He said, "Walk while ye have the day." But "by day shall" His imperfect ones "wander." They too thought that our Lord Jesus Christ was only man, that He had not within Him the hidden Godhead, that He was not secretly God, but that He was that only which was seen: this they too thought. ...But what is, "In the day they shall wander"? Shall they perish? Where then is, "In Thy book shall all be written"? When then did they "wander in the day"? When they understood not the Lord set upon earth. — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:17
And what followeth? "But to me Thy friends are made very honourable, O God" (ver. 17); those very ones, who "wandered in the day, and none was in them," became Thy friends, and were made very honourable to me. That bone was made in them in secret after the resurrection of the Lord, and they suffered for His Name, at whose death they had been amazed. "Mightily strengthened were their chieftainships." They became Apostles, they became leaders of the Church, they became rams leading their flocks, "mightily strengthened." — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:18
"I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand" [Psalm 139:18]. By means of them, who "wandered in the day," lo! There has been born all this great multitude, which now is like the sand innumerable, save by God. For He said, "they shall be multiplied above the sand," and yet He had said, "I will number them." The very same who are numbered, "shall be multiplied above the sand." For by Him is the sand numbered, by whom "the very hairs of our head are numbered." [Matthew 10:30] "I have risen, and yet am I with You." Already have I suffered, says He, already have I been buried; lo! I have risen, and not yet do they understand that I am with them. "Yet am I with You," that is, not yet with them, for not yet do they recognise Me. For thus do we read in the Gospel, that after the resurrection of oar Lord Jesus Christ, when He appeared to them, they did not at once know Him. There is another meaning also: "I have risen, and yet am I with You," as though He would signify this present time, wherein He is as yet hidden at the right hand of the Father, before He is revealed in the brightness, wherein He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:21-22
And then He tells what meanwhile, during this whole time when He already has risen, and remains still with the Father, He suffers by the intermixture of sinners in His Body, the Church, and by the separation of heretics. "If Thou, O God, shall slay the sinners (since You shall say in Your thought, Depart from Me, you men of blood), they shall receive in vanity their cities" (ver. 19-20). The words seem to be connected in this order; "If Thou, O God, shall slay the sinners, they shall receive in vanity their cities." Thus are sinners slain, because, "having their understandings darkened, they are alienated from the life of God." [Ephesians 4:18] For on account of elation they lose confession, and so they are slain, and in them is fulfilled what Scripture says, "Confession perishes from the dead, as from one that is not." [Sirach 17:28] And so "they receive in vanity their cities," that is, their vain peoples, who follow their vanity; when, puffed up by the name of righteousness, they persuade men to burst the bond of unity, and blindly and ignorantly follow them, as being more righteous....But now the Body of Christ, the Church, says, Why do the proud speak falsely against me, as though I were stained by other men's sins, and so, by separating themselves, "receive in vanity their cities"? "Have not I hated those who hated You, Lord?" [Psalm 139:21]. Why do those who are worse themselves require of me to separate myself in body as well as spirit from the wicked, so as to root up the wheat, together with the tares, before the time of harvest, that before the time of winnowing I lose my power of enduring the chaff; that before all the different sorts of fishes are brought to the end of the world, as to the shore, to be separated, I tear the nets of peace and unity? Are the sacraments which I receive, those of evil men? Do I; by consent, communicate in their life and deeds?...But where is, "Love your enemies"? Is it because He said "yours," not "God's"? "Do good to them that hate you." [Matthew 5:44] He says not, "who hate God." So he follows the pattern, and says, "Have not I hated those who hated You; Lord?" He says not, "Who have hated me." "And at Your enemies did I waste away." "Yours," he said, not "mine." But those who hate us and are enemies unto us, only because we serve Him, what else do they but hate Him, and are His enemies. Ought we then to love such enemies as these? Or do not they suffer persecution for God's sake, to whom it is said, "Pray for them that persecute you"? Observe then what follows. "With a perfect hatred did I hate them" [Psalm 139:22]. What is, "with a perfect hatred"? I hated in them their iniquities, I loved Your creation. This it is to hate with a perfect hatred, that neither on account of the vices thou hate the men, nor on account of the men love the vices. For see what he adds, "They became mine enemies." Not only as God's enemies, but as his own too does he now describe them. How then will he fulfil in them both his own saying, "Have not I hated those that hated You, Lord," and the Lord's command, "Love your enemies"? How will he fulfil this, save with that "perfect hatred," that he hate in them that they are wicked, and love that they are men? For in the time even of the Old Testament, when the carnal people was restrained by visible punishments, how did Moses, the servant of God, who by understanding belonged to the New Testament, how did he hate sinners when he prayed for them, or how did he not hate them when he slew them, save that he "hated them with a perfect hatred"? For with such perfection did he hate the iniquity which he punished, as to love the manhood for which he prayed. — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:23
Since then the Body of Christ is in the end to be severed in body also from the unholy and wicked, but now meanwhile groans among them, what does the "love of Christ among the daughters, as the lily among thorns"? [Song of Songs 2:2] What are her words? What her conscience? What is the "appearance of the king's daughter within"? Lo, hear what she says. "Prove me, O God, and know my heart" [Psalm 139:23]. Do Thou, O God, Thou prove me, Thou know; not man, not an heretic, who neither knows how to prove, nor can know my heart, whereas You prove, and know that I consent not to the deeds of the wicked, while they think that I can be defiled by the sins of others; so that, while I in my long wandering do what I mourn in another Psalm, that is, while I "labour for peace among them that hate peace," until I come to that Vision of peace, which is called Jerusalem, "which is the mother of us all," the city "eternal in the heavens;" they, contending, and falsely accusing and separating themselves, may "receive," not, evidently, in eternity, but "in vanity, their cities." Why this? Observe what follows. — Exposition on Psalm 139
Salmos 139:24
"And see," says he, "if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" [Psalm 139:24]. "Search," he says, "my paths," that is, my counsels and thoughts. What else says he, but "lead me in Christ"? For who is "the way everlasting," save He that is the life everlasting? For everlasting is He who said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." [John 14:6] If then you find anything in my way which displeases Your eyes, since my way is mortal, do Thou "lead me in the way everlasting," wherein is no iniquity; for even "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins;" [1 John 2:1-2] He is "the Way everlasting" without sin; He is the Life everlasting without punishment. — Exposition on Psalm 139