{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/108/1080136.htm","path":"chr/ecf/108/1080136.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/108/1080136.htm","text":"42. \u201cAnd let Thy loving mercy come also unto us, O Lord\u201d (Psa. 119.41). This sentence seems annexed to the foregoing: for he doth not say, Let it come unto me, but, \u201cAnd let it come unto me.\u201d\u2026What then doth he here pray for, save that through His loving mercy who commanded, he may perform the commandments which he hath coveted? For he explaineth in some degree what he meant by adding, \u201ceven Thy salvation, according to Thy word:\u201d that is, according to Thy promise. Whence the Apostle desireth us to be understood as the children of promise: 5180 that we may not imagine that what we are is our own work, but refer the whole to the grace of God.\u2026Christ Himself is the Salvation of God, so that the whole body of Christ may say, \u201cBy the grace of God I am what I am.\u201d 5181\n43. \u201cAnd so shall I make answer,\u201d he saith, \u201cto them that reproach me with the word\u201d (Psa. 119.42). It is doubtful whether it be \u201creproach me with a word;\u201d or, \u201cI will answer with a word;\u201d but either signifieth Christ. They to whom Christ crucified is a stumbling-block or foolishness, 5182 reproach us with Him; ignorant that \u201cthe Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us;\u201d 5183 the Word which \u201cwas in the beginning,\u201d and \u201cwas with God, and was God.\u201d 5184 But although they may not reproach us with the Word which is unknown unto them, because His Divinity is not known unto those by whom His weakness on the Cross is despised; let us nevertheless make answer of the Word, and let us not be terrified or confounded by their reproaches. For \u201cif they had known\u201d the Word, \u201cthey p. 567 would never have crucified the Lord of glory.\u201d 5185 \u2026Therefore, when the Psalmist had said, \u201cI will make answer unto them that reproach me with the word:\u201d he at once addeth, \u201cFor my trust is in Thy words,\u201d which meaneth exactly, in Thy promises.\n44. \u201cO take not the word of Thy truth away out of my mouth even exceedingly\u201d (Psa. 119.43). He saith, out of my mouth, because the unity of the body is speaking, among whose members those also are counted who failed at the hour by denying, but by penitence afterwards came again to life, or even, by renewing their confession, received the palm of martyrdom, which they had lost. The word of truth, therefore, was not \u201ceven exceedingly,\u201d or, as some copies have it, even every way, that is not altogether taken from the mouth of Peter, in whom was the type of the Church; because although he denied for the hour, being disturbed with fear, yet by weeping he was restored, 5186 and by confessing was afterwards crowned. The whole body of Christ therefore speaketh.\u2026Next followeth, \u201cfor I have hoped in Thy judgments.\u201d Or, as some have more strictly rendered it from the Greek, \u201cI have hoped more;\u201d 5187 a word which, although compounded in a somewhat unusual way, yet answers the necessary purpose of conveying the truth in a translation.\u2026Behold the saints and the humble in heart when they have trusted in Thee, have not failed in persecutions: behold also those who from trusting in themselves have failed, and nevertheless have belonged to the Very Body, have wept when they became known unto themselves, and have found Thy grace a more solid support, because they have lost their own pride.\n45. \u201cSo shall I alway keep Thy law\u201d (Psa. 119.44): that is, if Thou wilt not take the word of Thy truth out of my mouth. \u201cYea, unto age, and age of age:\u201d he showeth what he meant by \u201calway.\u201d For sometimes by \u201calway\u201d is meant, as long as we live here; but this is not, \u201cunto age, and age of age.\u201d 5188 For it is better thus translated than as some copies have, \u201cto eternity, and to age of age,\u201d since they could not say, and to eternity of eternity. That law therefore should be understood, of which the Apostle saith, \u201cLove is the fulfilling of the law.\u201d 5189 For this will be kept by the saints, from whose mouth the word of truth is not taken, that is, by the Church of Christ Herself, not only during this world, that is, until this world is ended; but for another also which is styled, \u201cworld without end.\u201d 5190 \u2026\n46. \u201cAnd I walked at liberty: for I sought Thy precepts\u201d (Psa. 119.45).\u2026\u201cAnd I walked at liberty.\u201d Here the copulative conjunction, \u201cand,\u201d is not used as a connecting particle; for he doth not say, and I will walk, as he had said, \u201cand I will keep Thy commandments for ever and ever:\u201d or if this latter verse be in the optative mood, and may I keep Thy law; he doth not add, And may I walk at liberty, as if he had desired and prayed for both of these things; but he saith, \u201cAnd I walked at liberty.\u201d If this conjunction were not used here, and if the sentence were introduced free from any such connection with what preceded, \u201cI walked at liberty,\u201d the reader would never be induced by anything unusual in the mode of speech to think he should seek for some hidden sense. Doubtless, then, he wished what he hath not said to be understood, that is, that his prayers had been heard; and he then added what he had become: as if he were to say, When I prayed for these things, Thou heardest me, \u201cAnd I walked at liberty;\u201d and so with the remaining expressions which he hath added to the same purpose.\n47. \u2026Whence after he had said, \u201cAnd I walked at liberty,\u201d he subjoined the reason, \u201cFor I sought out Thy commandments.\u201d Some copies have not \u201ccommandments\u201d but \u201ctestimonies:\u201d but we find \u201ccommandments\u201d in most, and especially in the Greek; and who would hesitate rather to believe this tongue, as prior to our own, 5191 and that from which these Psalms have been rendered into Latin? If then we wish to know how he sought out these commandments, or how they ought to be sought out, let us consider what our good Master, who both taught and gave them, saith: \u201cAsk, and it shall be given you.\u201d 5192 And a little lower, \u201cIf ye then,\u201d He saith, \u201cbeing evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him.\u201d 5193 Where He evidently showeth, that the words He had spoken, seek, ask, knock, belong only to earnestness in asking, that is, in praying. Moreover, another Evangelist saith not, He will give good things to them that ask Him; which may be understood in many ways, either as earthly or spiritual blessings; but has excluded other interpretations, and very carefully expressed what our Lord wished us to pray earnestly and instantly for, in these words: \u201cHow much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.\u201d 5194 \u2026\n48. \u201cI spoke of Thy testimonies also,\u201d he saith, \u201cbefore kings, and I was not ashamed\u201d (Psa. 119.46): as one who had sought and had p. 568 received grace to answer those who reproached him with the word, and the promise that the word of truth should not be taken from his mouth. Struggling for this truth even unto death, not even before kings was he ashamed to speak of it. For testimonies, whereof he doth avow that he was speaking, are in Greek styled \u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03c4\u03cd\u03c1\u03b9\u03b1, a word which we now employ instead of the Latin. The name of \u201cMartyrs,\u201d unto whom Jesus foretold, that they should confess Him even before kings, 5195 is derived hence.\n49. \u201cAnd I meditated,\u201d he saith, \u201con Thy commandments, which I have loved\u201d (Psa. 119.47). \u201cMy hands also have I lifted up unto Thy commandments, which I have loved\u201d (Psa. 119.48); or, as some copies read, \u201cwhich I have loved exceedingly,\u201d or \u201ctoo much,\u201d or \u201cvehemently,\u201d as they have chosen to render the Greek word \u03c3\u03c6\u03cc\u03b4\u03c1\u03b1. He then loved the commandments of God because he walked at liberty; that is, through the Holy Spirit, through whom love itself is shed abroad, 5196 and enlargeth the hearts of the faithful. But he loved, both in thought and in acts. With a view to thought, he saith, \u201cAnd I meditated:\u201d as to action, \u201cMy hands also have I lifted up.\u201d But to both sentences, he hath annexed the words, \u201cwhich I have loved:\u201d for \u201cthe end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart.\u201d 5197 \u2026The following words, \u201cAnd my study was in Thy statutes,\u201d relate to both. This expression most of the translators have preferred to this, \u201cI rejoiced in,\u201d or \u201cI talked of,\u201d a version which some have given from the Greek \u1f20\u03b4\u03bf\u03bb\u2122\u03c3\u03c7\u03bf\u03c5\u03bd. For he who keepeth the commandments of God, which he loveth, both in thought and in works taking delight in them, is exercised with joy, and with a certain abundance of speech, in the judgments of God.\nSupersperavi. Gr. \u1f10\u03c0\u03ae\u03bb\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03b1; literally, as he takes it, \u201cover-hoped.\u201d\n567:5188\nThe phrase in s\u00e6culum s\u00e6culi is that which we usually render \u201cworld without end,\u201d or, \u201cfor ever and ever.\u201d\n567:5189 567:5190 567:5191\n[A noteworthy tribute to the Septuagint as compared with the Vulgate.\u2014C.]\n567:5192 567:5193 567:5194\nLuke xi. 13. [The sevenfold gifts.\u2014C.]\n568:5195 568:5196 568:5197","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VIII: Expositions on...","type":"page"}