{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/108/1080137.htm","path":"chr/ecf/108/1080137.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/108/1080137.htm","text":"50. \u201cO remember Thy word unto Thy servant, wherein Thou hast given me hope\u201d (Psa. 119.49). Is forgetfulness incident to God, as it is to man? Why then is it said unto Him, \u201cO remember\u201d? Although in other passages of holy Scripture this very word is used, as, \u201cWhy hast Thou forgotten me?\u201d 5198 and, \u201cWherefore forgettest Thou our misery?\u201d 5199 \u2026These expressions are borrowed from moral discourses on human affections; although God doth these things according to a fixed dispensation, with no failing memory, nor with an understanding obscured, nor with a will changed. When therefore it is said unto Him, \u201cO remember,\u201d the desire of him who prayeth is displayed, because he asketh for what was promised; God is not admonished, as if the promise had escaped from His mind. \u201cO remember,\u201d he saith, \u201cThy word unto Thy servant:\u201d that is, fulfil Thy promise to Thy servant. \u201cWherein Thou hast given me hope:\u201d that is, in Thy Word, since Thou hast promised, Thou hast caused me to hope.\n51. \u201cThe same is my comfort in my humiliation\u201d (Psa. 119.50). Namely, that hope which is given to the humble, as the Scripture saith: \u201cGod resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.\u201d 5200 Whence also our Lord Himself saith with His own lips, \u201cFor whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.\u201d 5201 We well understand here that humiliation also, not whereby each man humbleth himself by confessing his sins, and by not arrogating righteousness to himself; but when each man is humbled by some tribulation or mortification which his pride deserved; or when he is exercised and proved by endurance; 5202 whence a little after this Psalm saith, \u201cBefore I was troubled, I went wrong.\u201d\u2026And the Lord Jesus, when He foretold that this humiliation would be brought upon His disciples by their persecutors, did not leave them without a hope; but gave them one, whereby they might find comfort, in these words: \u201cIn your patience shall ye possess your souls;\u201d and declared even of their very bodies, which might be put to death by their enemies, and seemingly be utterly annihilated, that not a hair of their heads should perish. 5203 This hope was given to Christ\u2019s Body, that is, to the Church, that it might be a comfort to Her in her humiliation.\u2026This hope He gave in the prayer which He taught us, where He enjoined us to say, \u201cLead us not into temptation:\u201d 5204 for He in a manner implicitly promised that He would give to His disciples in their danger that which He taught them to ask for in their prayers. And indeed this Psalm is rather to be understood to speak of this hope: \u201cFor Thy word hath quickened me.\u201d Which they have rendered more closely who have put not \u201cword,\u201d but \u201cutterance.\u201d For the Greek has \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd, which is \u201cutterance;\u201d not \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2, which is \u201cword.\u201d\n52. The next verse is, \u201cThe proud dealt exceeding wickedly: yet have I not shrinked from Thy law\u201d (Psa. 119.51). By the proud he wished to be understood the persecutors of the pious; and he therefore added, \u201cyet have I not shrinked from Thy laws,\u201d because the persecution of the proud attempted to force him to do this. He saith that they dealt \u201cexceeding wickedly,\u201d because they were not only wicked themselves, but even tried to make the godly wicked. In this humiliation, that is, in this tribulation, that hope comforted him which was given in the word of God, who promised aid, that the faith p. 569 of the Martyrs might not faint; and who by the presence of His Spirit gave strength to them in their toils, that they might escape from the snare of the fowlers. 5205 \u2026\n53. \u201cFor I was mindful of Thy judgments from the beginning of the world, O Lord, and received comfort\u201d (Psa. 119.52); or, as other copies have it, \u201cand I was exhorted,\u201d that is, received exhortation. For either might be rendered for the Greek pareklhqhn. \u201cFrom the beginning of the world,\u201d that is, from the birth of the human race, \u201cI was mindful of Thy judgments\u201d upon the vessels of wrath, which are fitted unto perdition: \u201cand I received comfort,\u201d since through these also hast Thou shown the riches of Thy glory on the vessels of Thy mercy. 5206\n54. \u201cWeariness hath held me; for the ungodly that forsake Thy law\u201d (Psa. 119.53). \u201cThy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage\u201d (Psa. 119.54). This is the low estate, in the house of mortality, of the man who sojourneth away from Paradise and the Jerusalem above, whence one going down to Jericho fell among robbers; but, in consequence of the deed of mercy which was done him by that Samaritan, 5207 the statutes of God became his song in the house of his pilgrimage; although he was weary for the ungodly that forsook the law of God, since he was compelled to converse with them for a season in this life, until the floor be threshed. But these two verses may be adapted to the two clauses of the preceding verse, respectively.\n55. \u201cI have thought upon Thy Name, O Lord, in the night-season, and have kept Thy law\u201d (Psa. 119.55). Night is that low estate wherein is the trouble of mortality; night is in the proud who deal exceeding wickedly; night is the fear for the ungodly who forsake the law of the Lord; night is, lastly, the house of this pilgrimage, \u201cuntil the Lord come, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God.\u201d 5208 In this night, therefore, man ought to remember the Name of the Lord; \u201cSo that he who glorieth, may glory in the Lord.\u201d 5209\n56. Considering this, he addeth, \u201cThis was made unto me, because I sought out Thy righteousnesses\u201d (Psa. 119.56). \u201cThy\u201d righteousnesses, whereby Thou dost justify the ungodly; not mine, which never make me godly, but proud. For this man was not one of those who, \u201cignorant of God\u2019s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.\u201d 5210 Others have better interpreted these righteousnesses, as those whereby men are justified for nought through God\u2019s grace, though by themselves they cannot be righteous, \u201cjustifications.\u201d 5211 But what meaneth, \u201cThis was made unto me\u201d? What is \u201cThis\u201d? It is perhaps the law? as he had said, \u201cand I have kept Thy law;\u201d to which he subjoins, \u201cThis was made unto me,\u201d meaning, \u201cThis was made my law.\u201d We must therefore enquire first what was thus made unto him, next in what manner, whatever it may have been, was made unto him. \u201cThis,\u201d he saith, \u201cwas made unto me:\u201d not \u201cThis law,\u201d for the Greek, as I have said, refuseth this sense. Perhaps then, \u201cThis night:\u201d since the preceding sentence stands thus: \u201cI have thought upon Thy Name, O Lord, in the night-season:\u201d and the next words are, \u201cThis was made unto me:\u201d since then it is not the law, it must truly be the night which is thus spoken of. What then meaneth, \u201cI had the night-season: for I have sought out Thy righteousnesses\u201d? Rather light had come unto him than night, since he sought out the righteousnesses of God. And it is thus rightly understood, \u201cIt was made unto me,\u201d as if it were said, It became night for my sake, that is, that it might profit me. For that low estate of mortality is not absurdly understood as night, where the hearts of mortals are hid to one another, so that from such darkness innumerable and heavy temptations arise.\u2026\nLuke 21:17, 18.\n568:5204 569:5205 569:5206 569:5207\nLuke 10:30, 37.\n569:5208 569:5209 569:5210 569:5211\n[He says: \u201cSince the Greek hath not \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03cc\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9, that is, acts of righteousness; but \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03ce\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1, acts of justification.\u2026For the Greek words whence these Latin words have been translated, sufficiently declare that it could not have been said of the law, for the word law is in Greek of the masculine gender, and the feminine pronoun is used in the Greek text as well.\u201d\u2014C.]","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VIII: Expositions on...","type":"page"}