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1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. 2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. 3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. 4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. 5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! 6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. 7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. 8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly. 9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. 10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. 12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes. 13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. 14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. 16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. 17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. 18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. 19 I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me. 20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. 21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. 22 Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies. 23 Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. 24 Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors. 25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word. 26 I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes. 27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. 28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word. 29 Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously. 30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me. 31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame. 32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. 33 Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. 34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. 36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. 37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. 38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear. 39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good. 40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness. 41 Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word. 42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word. 43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments. 44 So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. 45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. 46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. 47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. 48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. 49 Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. 50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. 51 The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law. 52 I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself. 53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. 54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. 55 I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law. 56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts. 57 Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words. 58 I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word. 59 I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. 60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. 61 The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law. 62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. 63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. 64 The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes. 65 Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word. 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. 68 Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. 69 The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. 70 Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law. 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. 72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. 73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. 74 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word. 75 I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. 76 Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant. 77 Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight. 78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts. 79 Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies. 80 Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed. 81 My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word. 82 Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me? 83 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes. 84 How many are the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? 85 The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law. 86 All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me. 87 They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts. 88 Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. 89 For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. 90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. 91 They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants. 92 Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. 93 I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me. 94 I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts. 95 The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies. 96 I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad. 97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. 98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. 100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. 101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. 102 I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. 103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. 105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. 106 I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. 107 I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O LORD, according unto thy word. 108 Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me thy judgments. 109 My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law. 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts. 111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart. 112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end. 113 I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love. 114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word. 115 Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God. 116 Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope. 117 Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. 118 Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood. 119 Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies. 120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments. 121 I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors. 122 Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me. 123 Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness. 124 Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes. 125 I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies. 126 It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law. 127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. 128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way. 129 Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them. 130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. 131 I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments. 132 Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. 133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. 134 Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts. 135 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes. 136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. 137 Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments. 138 Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful. 139 My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. 140 Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it. 141 I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts. 142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth. 143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights. 144 The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live. 145 I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes. 146 I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies. 147 I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word. 148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word. 149 Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O LORD, quicken me according to thy judgment. 150 They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law. 151 Thou art near, O LORD; and all thy commandments are truth. 152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever. 153 Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law. 154 Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word. 155 Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes. 156 Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments. 157 Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. 158 I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word. 159 Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness. 160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever. 161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. 162 I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. 163 I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love. 164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. 165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. 166 LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments. 167 My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly. 168 I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee. 169 Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word. 170 Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word. 171 My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes. 172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness. 173 Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts. 174 I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight. 175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me. 176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 119:1-8
And as he is Firstborn among brothers and rose from the dead “the firstfruits of them that slept”; so, since it became him “in all things to have the preeminence,” therefore he is created “a beginning of ways,” that we, walking along it and entering through him who says, “I am the Way” and “the Door” and partaking of the knowledge of the Father, may also hear the words, “Blessed are the undefiled in the Way,” and “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:1
From its commencement, dearly beloved, does this great Psalm exhort us unto bliss, which there is no one who desires not....And therefore this is the lesson which he teaches, who says, "Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord" [Psalm 119:1]. As much as to say, I know what you wish, you are seeking bliss: if then you would be blessed, be undefiled. For the former all desire, the latter fear: yet without it what all wish cannot be attained. But where will any one be undefiled, save in the way? In what way, save in the law of the Lord?...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:1-8
What is so generally or so forcefully commanded as obedience, by which the commandments of God are observed? Yet we find that it is the object of petition. “You have commanded your commandments to be kept most diligently.” Then follows, “O! that my ways may be directed to obey your decrees. Then shall I not be confounded, when I shall look into all your commandments.” He [the psalmist] begged that this thing be fulfilled by him, which he stated God had commanded.

[AD 735] Bede on Psalms 119:1-8
Jesus said, “If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” This statement of our Savior is very helpful for salvation, and we must ponder it attentively. We will be blessed if we know the heavenly commands, yet still more so if we eagerly pursue in our works the things that we know. One who neglects to keep his known commandments is not capable of being happy; one who scorns finding out about these [commandments] is separated much further away from the heritage of the blessed. The psalmist agrees with this. Weighing the hearts of mortals and in like manner perceiving that everyone loves happiness but few ask where it is, he clearly testified as to what is the greatest happiness of human beings in this life, saying, “Blessed are those who are undefiled in the way, who walk in the Lord’s law.” And lest it be supposed that this way of the undefiled and blessed can be laid hold of indiscriminately by the ignorant and the untaught, he subsequently continued and said, “Blessed are they who search his testimonies and seek him with their whole heart.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:2-3
Listen now to what he adds: "Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and seek Him with their whole heart" [Psalm 119:2]. No other class of the blessed seems to me to be mentioned in these words, than that which has been already spoken of. For to examine into the testimonies of the Lord, and to seek Him with all the heart, this is to be undefiled in the way, this is to walk in the law of the Lord. He then goes on to say, "For they who do wickedness, shall not walk in His ways" [Psalm 119:3]. And yet we know that the workers of wickedness do search the testimonies of the Lord for this reason, that they prefer being learned to being righteous: we know that others also search the testimonies of the Lord, not because they are already living well, but that they may know how they ought to live. Such then do not as yet walk undefiled in the law of the Lord, and for this reason are not as yet blessed....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:3
It is written, and is read, and is true, in this Psalm, that "They who do wickedness, walk not in His ways" [Psalm 119:3]. But we must endeavour, with the help of God, "in" whose "hand are both we and our words," [Wisdom 7:16] that what is rightly said, by not being rightly understood, may not confuse the reader or hearer. For we must beware, lest all the Saints, whose words these are, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;" [1 John 1:8-9] may either not be thought to walk in the ways of the Lord, since sin is wickedness, and "they who do wickedness, walk not in His ways;" or, because it is not doubtful that they walk in the ways of the Lord, may be thought to have no sin, which is beyond doubt false. For it is not said merely for the sake of avoiding arrogance and pride. Otherwise it would not be added, "And the truth is not in us;" but it would be said, Humility is not in us: especially because the following words throw a clearer light on the meaning, and remove all the causes of doubt. For when the blessed John had said this, he added, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." [1 John 1:9] ...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:4
What means, "You have charged that we shall keep Your commandments too much"? [Psalm 119:4]. Is it, "You have charged too much"? Or, "to keep too much"? Whichever of these we understand, the sense seems contrary to that memorable and noble sentiment which the Greeks praise in their wise men, and which the Latins agree in praising. "Do nothing too much.". ..But the Latin language sometimes uses the word nimis in such a sense, that we find it in the holy Scripture, and employ it in our discourses, as signifying, very much. In this passage, "You have charged that we keep Your commandments too much," we simply understand very much, if we understand rightly; and if we say to any very dear friend, I love you too much, we do not wish to be understood to mean more than is fitting, but very much.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:5
"O that," he says, "my ways were made so direct, that I might keep Your statutes" [Psalm 119:5]. Thou indeed hast charged: O that I could realize what you have charged. When you hear, "O that," recognise the words of one wishing; and having recognised the expression of a wish, lay aside the pride of presumption. For who says that he desires what he has in such a manner in his power, that without need of any help he can do it? Therefore if man desires what God charges, God must be prayed to grant Himself what He enjoins....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:6
"So shall I not be confounded, while I have respect unto all Your commandments" [Psalm 119:6]. We ought to look upon the commandments of God, whether when they are read, or when they are recalled to memory, as a looking-glass, as the Apostle James says. [James 1:23-25] This man wishes himself to be such, that he may regard as in a mirror the commandments of God, and may not be confounded; because he chooses not merely to be a hearer of them, but a doer. On this account he desires that his ways may be made direct to keep the statutes of God. How to be made direct, save by the grace of God? Otherwise he will find in the law of God not a source of rejoicing, but of confusion, if he has chosen to look into commandments, which he does not.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:7
"I will confess unto You," he says, "O Lord, in the directing of my heart; in that I shall have learned the judgments of Your righteousness" [Psalm 119:7]. This is not the confession of sins, but of praise; as He also says in whom there was no sin, "I will confess unto You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth;" [Matthew 11:25] and as it is written in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, "Thus shall you say in confession, of all the works of God, that they are very good." [Sirach 39:15-16] "I will confess unto You," he says, "in the directing of my heart." Indeed, if my ways are made straight, I will confess unto You, since You have done it, and this is Your praise, and not mine....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:8
Next he adds: "I will keep Your ordinances" [Psalm 119:8]....But what is it that follows? "O forsake me not even exceedingly!" or, as some copies have it, "even too much," instead of, "even exceedingly." But since God had left the world to the desert of sins, He would have forsaken it "even exceedingly," if so powerful a cure had not supported it, that is, the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ; but now, according to this prayer of the body of Christ, He forsook it not "even exceedingly;" for, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." [2 Corinthians 5:19] ...

Beth

[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Psalms 119:9
To sum up, David in the Psalms speaks about obedience: “How shall a young person keep his path straight?” The answer comes immediately: “By keeping your Word with his whole heart.” Jeremiah says, “These are the Lord’s words: do not follow the paths of the Gentiles.”

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 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.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:9
"Wherewithal shall a young man correct his way? Even by keeping Your words" [Psalm 119:9]. He questions himself, and answers himself. "Wherewithal?" So far it is a question: next comes the answer, "even by keeping Your words." But in this place the keeping of the words of God, must be understood as the obeying His commandments in deed: for they are kept in memory in vain, if they are not kept in life also. But what is meant by "young man" here? For he might have said, wherewithal shall any one (homo) correct his way? Or, wherewithal shall a man (vir) correct his way? Which is usually put by the Scriptures in such a way, that the whole human race is understood....But in this passage he says neither any one, nor a man, but, "a young man." Is then an old man to be despaired of? Or does an old man correct his way by any other means than by ruling himself after God's word? Or is it perhaps an admonition at what age we ought chiefly to correct our way; according to what is elsewhere written, "My son, gather instruction from your youth up: so shall you find wisdom till your gray hairs." [Sirach 6:18] There is another mode of interpreting it, by recognising in the expression the younger son in the Gospel, [Luke 15:12, etc. who returned to himself, and said, "I will arise and go to my father." [Luke 15:18] Wherewithal did he correct his way, save by ruling himself after the words of God, which he desired as one longing for his father's bread....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:10
"With my whole heart," he says, "have I sought you; O repel me not from Your commandments" [Psalm 119:10]. Behold, he prays that he may be aided to keep the words of God, wherewith he had said that the young man corrected his way. For this is the meaning of the words, "O repel me not from Your commandments:" for what is it to be repelled of God, save not to be aided? For human infirmity is not equal to obeying His righteous and exalted commandments, unless His love does prevent and aid. But those whom He aids not, these He is justly said to repel....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:11-12
"Your words have I hid within my heart, that I may not sin against You" [Psalm 119:11]. He at once sought the Divine aid, lest the words of God might be hidden without fruit in his heart, unless works of righteousness followed. For after saying this, he added, "Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me Your righteousnesses" [Psalm 119:12]. "Teach me," he says, as they learn who do them; not as they who merely remember them, that they may have somewhat to speak of. Why then does he say, "Teach me Your righteousnesses," save because he wishes to learn them by deeds, not by speaking or retaining them in his memory? Since then, as it is read in another Psalm, "He shall give blessing, who gave the law;" therefore, "Blessed are You, O Lord," he says, "O teach me Your righteousness." For because I have hidden Your words in my heart, that I may not sin against You, You have given a law; give also the blessing of Your grace, that by doing right I may learn what Thou by teaching hast commanded....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:13
"With my lips have I been telling of all the judgments of Your mouth" [Psalm 119:13]; that is, I have kept silent nothing of Your judgments, which Thou willed should become known to me through Your words, but I have been telling of all of them without exception with my lips. This he seems to me to signify, since he says not, all Your judgments, but, "all the judgments of Your mouth;" that is, which You have revealed unto me: that by His mouth we may understand His word, which He has discovered unto us in many revelations of the Saints, and in the two Testaments; all which judgments the Church ceases not to declare at all times with her lips.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:14
"I have had as great delight in the way Your testimonies, as in all manner of riches" [Psalm 119:14]. We understand that there is no more speedy, no more sure, no shorter, no higher way of the testimonies of God than Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." [Colossians 2:3] Thence he says that he has had as great delight in this way, as in all riches. Those are the testimonies, by which He deigns to prove unto us how much He loves us.. ..

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:15-16
"I will talk of Your commandments, and have respect unto Your ways" [Psalm 119:15]. And thus the Church does exercise herself in the commandments of God, by speaking in the copious disputations of the learned against all the enemies of the Christian and Catholic faith; which are fruitful to those who compose them, if nothing but the ways of the Lord is regarded in them; but "All the ways of the Lord are," as it is written, "mercy and truth;" the fullness of which both is found in Christ. Through this sweet exercise is gained also what he subjoins: "My meditation shall be in Your statutes, and I will not forget Your word" [Psalm 119:16]. "My meditation" shall be therein, that I may not forget them. Thus the blessed man in the first Psalm "shall meditate in the law" of the Lord "day and night.". ..

Gimel

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Psalms 119:17-21
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?

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Psalms 119:17-21
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.”

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:17-21
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.”

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Psalms 119:17-21
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.

[AD 420] Jerome on Psalms 119:17-21
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.

[AD 420] Jerome on Psalms 119:17-21
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 Moses29 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.

[AD 420] Jerome on Psalms 119:17-21
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.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:17
He had said, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? Even by keeping Your words." Behold he now more openly asks aid that he may do this: "Reward," he says, "Your servant: let me live, and keep Your word" [Psalm 119:17]...It this reward that he asks, who says, "Reward Your servant." For there are four modes of reward: either evil for evil, as God will reward everlasting fire to the unrighteous; or good for good, as He will reward an everlasting kingdom to the righteous; or good for evil, as Christ by grace justifies the ungodly; or evil for good, as Judas and the Jews through their wickedness persecuted Christ. Of these four modes of reward, the first two belong to justice, whereby evil is rewarded for evil, good for good; the third to mercy, whereby good is rewarded for evil; the fourth God knows not, for to none does He reward evil for good. But that which I have placed third in order, is in the first instance necessary: for unless God rewarded good for evil, there would be none to whom He could reward good for good....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:17-21
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.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:17-21
Our wish, you see, is to attain to eternal life. We wish to reach the place where nobody dies, but if possible we do not want to get there via death. We would like to be whisked away there while we are still alive and see our bodies changed, while we are alive, into that spiritual form into which they are to be changed when we rise again. Who wouldn’t like that? Isn’t it what everybody wants? But while that is what you want, you are told, Quit. Remember what you have sung in the psalm: “A lodger am I on earth.” If you are a lodger, you are staying in someone else’s house; if you are staying in someone else’s house, you quit when the landlord bids you. And the landlord is bound to tell you to quit sooner or later, and he has not guaranteed you a long stay. After all, he did not sign a contract with you. Seeing that you are lodging with him for nothing, you quit when he tells you to. And this, too, has to be put up with, and for this, too, patience is very necessary.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:17-21
The right will is, therefore, well-directed love, and the wrong will is ill-directed love. Love, then, yearning to have what is loved, is desire; and having and enjoying it, is joy; fleeing what is opposed to it, it is fear; and feeling what is opposed to it, when it has befallen it, it is sadness. Now these motions are evil if the love is evil; good if the love is good.What we assert let us prove from Scripture. The apostle “desires to depart, and to be with Christ.” And, “My soul desired to long for Thy judgments;” or if it is more appropriate to say, “My soul longed to desire Thy judgments.” And, “The desire of wisdom bringeth to a kingdom.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:18-19
"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....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:20
But what is loved by loving, if love itself be not loved? Whence by consequence that stranger upon earth, after praying that the commandments of God might not be hidden from him, wherein love is enjoined either solely or principally; declares that he desires to have a love for love itself, saying, "My soul has coveted to have a desire always after Your judgments" [Psalm 119:20]. This coveting is worthy of praise, not of condemnation....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:21
"You have rebuked the proud: and cursed are they that do err from Your commandments" [Psalm 119:21]. For the proud err from the commandments of God. For it is one thing not to fulfil the commandments of God through infirmity or ignorance; another to err from them through pride; as they have done, who have begotten us in our mortal state unto these evils....But consider now, after saying, "You have rebuked the proud," he says not, Cursed are they that have erred from Your commandments; so that only that sin of the first men should come into the mind; but he says, "Cursed are they that do err." For it was needful that all might be terrified by that example, that they might not err from the divine commandments, and by loving righteousness in all time, recover in the toil of this world, what we lost in the pleasure of Paradise.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:22
"O turn from me shame and rebuke; for I have sought out Your testimonies" [Psalm 119:22]. Testimonies are called in Greek μαρτύρια, which word we now use for the Latin word: whence those who on account of their testimony to Christ have been brought low by various sufferings, and have contended unto death for the truth, are not called testes, but by the Greek term Martyrs. Since then ye hear in this term one more familiar and grateful, let us take these words as if it were said, "O turn from me shame and rebuke; because I have sought out Your martyrdoms." When the body of Christ speaks thus, does it consider it any punishment to hear rebuke and shame from the ungodly and the proud, since it rather reaches the crown by this means? Why then does it pray that it should be removed from it as something heavy and insupportable, save because, as I said, it prays for its very enemies, to whom it sees it is destructive, to cast the holy name of Christ as a reproach to Christians....For my enemies, whom Thou enjoinest to be loved by me, who more and more die and are lost, when they despise Your martyrdoms and accuse them in me, will indeed be recalled to life and be found, if they reverence Your martyrdoms in me. Thus it has happened: this we see. Behold, martyrdom in the name of Christ, both with men and in this world, is not only not a disgrace, but a great ornament: behold, not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of men, "precious is the death of His Saints;" behold, His martyrs are not only not despised, but honoured with great distinctions....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:23-24
"Princes also did sit and speak against me: but Your servant is exercised in Your statutes" [Psalm 119:23]. Thou who desirest to know what sort of exercise this was, understand what he has added, "For Your testimonies are my meditation, and Your statutes are my counsellors" [Psalm 119:24]. Remember what I have above instructed you, that testimonies are acts of martyrdom. Remember that among the statutes of the Lord there is none more difficult and more worthy of admiration, than that every man should love his enemies. [Matthew 5:44] Thus then the body of Christ was exercised, so that it meditated on the acts of martyrdom that testified of Him, and loved those from whom, while they rebuked and despised the Church for these very martyrdoms, she suffered persecutions....

Daleth

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:25-28
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.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:25
"My soul cleaves to the pavement: O quicken Thou me according to Your word" [Psalm 119:25]. What means, "My soul cleaves to the pavement, O quicken Thou me according to Your word"?...If we look upon the whole world as one great house, we see that the heavens represent its vaulting, the earth therefore will be its pavement. He wishes therefore to be rescued from earthly things, and to say with the Apostle, "Our conversation is in heaven." To cling therefore to earthly things is the soul's death; the contrary of which evil, life is prayed for, when he says, "O quicken Thou me."

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Psalms 119:25-28
Now the very faithful emperor came boldly within the holy temple but did not pray to his Lord standing, or even on his knees, but lying prone upon the ground he uttered David’s cry, “My soul cleaves to the dust; you give me life according to your word.”

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Psalms 119:25-28
“And you,” it says, “may dwell securely in your land.” The wicked person is never secure but is always disturbed and wavering. He is tossed about by every wind of doctrine to deceitful error, by the craftiness of people. However, the just person who observes God’s law dwells in security on his land, because he governs his body in fear of God and brings it into subjection. His understanding is firm when he says to God, “Strengthen me according to your words, O Lord.” Strengthened, secure and well-rooted, he dwells on the earth, founded in faith. His house is not built on sand but is established on solid ground.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:26
For what he was by himself, he confesses in the following words: "I have acknowledged my ways, and You heard me" [Psalm 119:26]. Some copies indeed read, "Your ways:" but more, and the best Greek, read "my ways," that is, evil ways. For he seems to me to say this; I have confessed my sins, and You have heard me; that is, so that You would remit them. "O teach me Your statutes." I have acknowledged my ways: You have blotted them out: teach me Yours. So teach me, that I may act; not merely that I may know how I ought to act. For as it is said of the Lord, that He knew not sin, [2 Corinthians 5:21] and it is understood, that He did no sin; so also he ought truly to be said to know righteousness, who does it. This is the prayer of one who is improving....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:27-28
Finally he adds, "Intimate to me the way of Your righteousness" [Psalm 119:27]; or, as some copies have it, "instruct me;" which is expressed more closely from the Greek, "Make me to understand the way of Your righteousnesses; so shall I be exercised in Your wondrous things." These higher commandments, which he desires to understand by edification, he calls the wondrous things of God. There are then some righteousnesses of God so wondrous, that human weakness may be believed incapable of fulfilling them by those who have not tried. Whence the Psalmist, struggling and wearied with the difficulty of obeying them, says, "My soul has slumbered for very heaviness: O establish Thou me with Your word!" [Psalm 119:28]. What means, has slumbered? save that he has cooled in the hope which he had entertained of being able to reach them. But, he adds, "Stablish Thou me with Your word:" that I may not by slumbering fall away from those duties which I feel that I have already attained: establish Thou me therefore in those words of Yours that I already hold, that I may be able to reach unto others through edification.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:29
"Take Thou from me the way of iniquity" [Psalm 119:29]. And since the law of works has entered in, that sin might abound; [Romans 5:20] he adds, "And pity me according to Your law." By what law, save by the law of faith? Hear the Apostle: "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works. Nay: but by the law of faith." [Romans 3:27] This is the law of faith, whereby we believe and pray that it may be granted us through grace; that we may effect that which we cannot fulfil through ourselves; that we may not, ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish our own, fail to submit ourselves unto the righteousness of God. [Romans 10:3]

[AD 235] Hippolytus of Rome on Psalms 119:30
He who loves truth, and never utters a false word with his mouth, may say, “I have chosen the way of truth.”  Moreover, he who always sets the judgments of God before his eyes, and remembers them in every action, will say, “Thy judgments have I not forgotten.” And how is our heart enlarged by trials and afflictions! For these pluck out the thorns of anxious thoughts within us, and enlarge the heart for the reception of the divine laws. For, says he, “in affliction Thou hast enlarged me.” Then do we walk in the way of God’s commandments, well prepared for it by the endurance of trials.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:30-32
But after he had said, "And pity me according to Your law;" he mentions some of those blessings which he has already obtained, that he may ask others that he has not yet gained. For he says, "I have chosen the way of truth: and Your judgments I have not forgotten" [Psalm 119:30]. "I have stuck unto Your testimonies: O Lord, confound me not" [Psalm 119:31]: may I persevere in striving toward the point whereunto I am running: may I arrive whither I am running! So then "it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." [Romans 9:16] He next says, "I will run the way of Your commandments, when You have widened my heart" [Psalm 119:32]. I could not run had Thou not widened my heart. The sense of the words, "I have chosen the way of truth, and Your judgments I have not forgotten: I have stuck unto Your testimonies," is clearly explained in this verse. For this running is along the way of the commandments of God. And because he does allege unto the Lord rather His blessings than his own deservings; as if it were said unto him, How have you run that way, by choosing, and by not forgetting the judgments of God, and by sticking to His testimonies? Couldest thou do these things by yourself? I could not, he replies. It is not therefore through my own will, as though it needed no aid of Yours; but because "You have widened my heart." The widening of the heart is the delight we take in righteousness. This is the gift of God, the effect of which is, that we are not straitened in His commandments through the fear of punishment, but widened through love, and the delight we have in righteousness....

He

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:33
In this great Psalm there comes next in order that which, with the Lord's help, we must consider and treat of. "Set a law for me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall seek it always" [Psalm 119:33]....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:34
"Give me understanding, and I shall search Your law, yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart" [Psalm 119:34]. For when each man has searched the law, and searched its deep things, in which its whole meaning does consist; he ought indeed to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind; and his neighbour as himself. "For on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." [Matthew 22:37-40] This he seems to have promised, when he said, "Yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:35
But since he has no power to do even this, save he be aided by Him who commands him to do what He commands, "Make me," he adds, "to go in the path of Your commandments, for therein is my desire" [Psalm 119:35]. My desire is powerless, unless You Yourself makest me to go where I desire. And this is surely the very path, that is, the path of God's commandments, which he had already said that he had run, when his heart was enlarged by the Lord. And this he calls a "path," because "the way is narrow which leads unto life;" [Matthew 7:14] and since it is narrow, we cannot run therein save with a heart enlarged....

[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Psalms 119:36-40
Next you say, “and all his pomp.” The pomp of the devil is the craze for the theater, the horse races in the circus, the wildbeast hunts and all such emptiness, from which the saint prays to God to be delivered in the words, “Turn away my eyes that they may not behold worthless things.” Avoid an addiction to the theater, with its portrayal of sinful conduct, the lewd and unseemly antics of actors and the frantic dancing of degenerates. Not for you, either, the folly of those who, to gratify their miserable appetite, expose themselves to wild beasts in the combats in the amphitheater. They pamper their belly at the cost of becoming themselves, in the event, food for the mouths of savage beasts; of these gladiators it is fair to say that in the service of the belly that is their god they court death in the arena. Shun also the bedlam of the races, a spectacle in which souls as well as riders come to grief. All these follies are the pomp of the devil.

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:36-40
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.

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:36-40
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.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:36
He next says, "Incline mine heart unto Your testimonies, and not to covetousness" [Psalm 119:36]. This then he prays, that he may profit in the will itself.. ..But the Apostle says, "Avarice is a root of all evils." [1 Timothy 6:10] But in the Greek, whence these words have been rendered into our tongue, the word used by the Apostle is not πλεονεξία, which occurs in this passage of the Psalms; but φιλαργυρία, by which is signified "love of money." But the Apostle must be understood to have meant genus by species when he used this word, that is, to have meant avarice universally and generally by love of money, which is truly the root of all evils. [Genesis 3:5] ...If therefore our heart be not inclined to covetousness, we fear God only for God's sake, so that He is the only reward of our serving Him. Let us love Him in Himself, let us love Him in ourselves, Him in our neighbours whom we love as ourselves, whether they have Him, or in order that they may have Him....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:37
The next words in the Psalm which we have undertaken to expound are, "O turn away my eyes, lest they behold vanity: and quicken Thou me in Your way" [Psalm 119:37]. Vanity and truth are directly contrary to one another. The desires of this world are vanity: but Christ, who frees us from the world, is truth. He is the way, too, wherein this man wishes to be quickened, for He is also the life: "I am the way, the truth, and the life," [John 14:6] are His own words.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:38
"O establish Your word in Your servant, that I may fear You" [Psalm 119:38]. And what else is this than, Grant unto me that I may do according to what You say? For the word of God is not established in those who remove it in themselves by acting contrary to it; but it is established in those in whom it is immoveable. God therefore establishes His word, that they may fear Him, in those unto whom He gives the spirit of the fear of Him; not that fear of which the Apostle says, "You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;" [Romans 8:15] for "perfect love casts out" this "fear," [1 John 4:18] but that fear which the Prophet calls "the spirit of the fear of the Lord;" [Isaiah 11:2] that fear which "is pure, and endures for ever;" that fear which fears to offend Him whom it loves.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:39
"Take away my reproach which I have suspected, for Your judgments are sweet" [Psalm 119:39]. Who is he who suspected his own reproach, and who does not know his own reproach better than that of his neighbour? For a man may rather suspect another's than his own; since he knows not that which he suspects; but in each one's own reproach there is not suspicion for him, but knowledge, wherein conscience speaks. What then mean the words, "the rebuke which I have suspected"? The meaning of them must be derived from the former verse; since as long as a man does not turn away his eyes lest they behold vanity, he suspects in others what is going on in himself; so that he believes another to worship God, or do good works, from the same motive as himself. For men can see what we do, but with a view to what end we act, is hidden....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:40
"Behold, I have coveted Your commandments: O quicken Thou me in Your righteousness" [Psalm 119:40]. Behold, I have coveted to love You with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and my neighbour as myself, but, "O quicken Thou me" not in my own, but "in Your righteousness," that is, fill me with that love which I have longed for. Aid me that I may do that which Thou chargest me: Yourself give what Thou dost command. "O quicken Thou me in Your righteousness:" for in myself I had that which would cause my death: but I find not save in You whence I may live. Christ is Your righteousness, "Who of God is made unto us wisdom," etc. [1 Corinthians 1:30-31] And in Him I find Your commandments, which I have coveted, that in Your righteousness, that is, in Him, You may quicken me. For the Word Himself is God; and "the Word was made flesh," [John 1:14] that He Himself also might be my neighbour.

Vav

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:41
"And let Your loving mercy come also unto us, O Lord" [Psalm 119:41]. This sentence seems annexed to the foregoing: for he does not say, Let it come unto me, but, " And let it come unto me."...What then does he here pray for, save that through His loving mercy who commanded, he may perform the commandments which he has coveted? For he explains in some degree what he meant by adding, "even Your salvation, according to Your word:" that is, according to Your promise. Whence the Apostle desires us to be understood as the children of promise: [Romans 9:8] that we may not imagine that what we are is our own work, but refer the whole to the grace of God....Christ Himself is the Salvation of God, so that the whole body of Christ may say, "By the grace of God I am what I am." [1 Corinthians 15:10]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:42
"And so shall I make answer," he says, "to them that reproach me with the word" [Psalm 119:42]. It is doubtful whether it be "reproach me with a word;" or, "I will answer with a word;" but either signifies Christ. They to whom Christ crucified is a stumbling-block or foolishness, [1 Corinthians 1:23] reproach us with Him; ignorant that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us;" [John 1:14] the Word which "was in the beginning," and "was with God, and was God." [John 1:1] 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 "if they had known" the Word, "they would never have crucified the Lord of glory." [1 Corinthians 2:8] ...Therefore, when the Psalmist had said, "I will make answer unto them that reproach me with the word:" he at once adds, "For my trust is in Your words," which means exactly, in Your promises.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:43
"O take not the word of Your truth away out of my mouth even exceedingly" [Psalm 119:43]. He says, 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 "even exceedingly," 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, [Matthew 26:70-75] and by confessing was afterwards crowned. The whole body of Christ therefore speaks....Next follows, "for I have hoped in Your judgments." Or, as some have more strictly rendered it from the Greek, "I have hoped more;" a word which, although compounded in a somewhat unusual way, yet answers the necessary purpose of conveying the truth in a translation....Behold the saints and the humble in heart when they have trusted in You, 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 Your grace a more solid support, because they have lost their own pride.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:44
"So shall I always keep Your law" [Psalm 119:44]: that is, if You will not take the word of Your truth out of my mouth. "Yea, unto age, and age of age:" he shows what he meant by "alway." For sometimes by "alway" is meant, as long as we live here; but this is not, "unto age, and age of age." For it is better thus translated than as some copies have, "to eternity, and to age of age," since they could not say, and to eternity of eternity. That law therefore should be understood, of which the Apostle says, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." [Romans 13:10] 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, "world without end.". ..

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:45
"And I walked at liberty: for I sought Your precepts" [Psalm 119:45]...."And I walked at liberty." Here the copulative conjunction, "and," is not used as a connecting particle; for he does not say, and I will walk, as he had said, "and I will keep Your commandments for ever and ever:" or if this latter verse be in the optative mood, and may I keep Your law; he does not add, And may I walk at liberty, as if he had desired and prayed for both of these things; but he says, "And I walked at liberty." If this conjunction were not used here, and if the sentence were introduced free from any such connection with what preceded, "I walked at liberty," 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 has 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, You heard me, "And I walked at liberty;" and so with the remaining expressions which he has added to the same purpose.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:46
"I spoke of Your testimonies also," he says, "before kings, and I was not ashamed" [Psalm 119:46]: as one who had sought and had 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 does avow that he was speaking, are in Greek styled μαρτύρια, a word which we now employ instead of the Latin. The name of "Martyrs," unto whom Jesus foretold, that they should confess Him even before kings, [Matthew 10:18] is derived hence.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:47-48
"And I meditated," he says, "on Your commandments, which I have loved" [Psalm 119:47]. "My hands also have I lifted up unto Your commandments, which I have loved" [Psalm 119:48]; or, as some copies read, "which I have loved exceedingly," or "too much," or "vehemently," as they have chosen to render the Greek word σφόδρα . 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, [Romans 5:5] and enlarges the hearts of the faithful. But he loved, both in thought and in acts. With a view to thought, he says, "And I meditated:" as to action, "My hands also have I lifted up." But to both sentences, he has annexed the words, "which I have loved:" for "the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart." [1 Timothy 1:5] ...The following words, "And my study was in Your statutes," relate to both. This expression most of the translators have preferred to this, "I rejoiced in," or "I talked of," a version which some have given from the Greek ἠ δολ

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:49
"O remember Your word unto Your servant, wherein You have given me hope" [Psalm 119:49]. Is forgetfulness incident to God, as it is to man? Why then is it said unto Him, "O remember"? Although in other passages of holy Scripture this very word is used, as, "Why have You forgotten me?" and, "Wherefore forgettest Thou our misery?". ..These expressions are borrowed from moral discourses on human affections; although God does 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, "O remember," the desire of him who prays is displayed, because he asks for what was promised; God is not admonished, as if the promise had escaped from His mind. "O remember," he says, "Your word unto Your servant:" that is, fulfil Your promise to Your servant. "Wherein You have given me hope:" that is, in Your Word, since You have promised, You have caused me to hope.

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on Psalms 119:50-53
We are instructed in all this, but the prophet has already experienced it. He says, “This hope has consoled me in my humility, for your word has given me life.” The hope is the hope that God has implanted in him. It has consoled him “in his humility,” that is, when he is spurned, mocked, vexed by injustices, dishonored by insults, for he knows that he is soldiering through his present trials. But the hope instilled by the Lord consoles him in these wars endured in his weakness, and he is lent life by the utterances of God. By these he knows that the glory of his weakness is outstanding in heaven. He knows that his soul, renewed by the utterances of God, contains within it, so to say, the nourishment of eternal life. He lives by God’s utterances and is untroubled by the empty fame of the proud, for he knows that his need is richer than their wealth. He knows that his fasting is abundantly fed by the blessing of heaven and the gospel, that his humility will be rewarded by the glorious prize of honor. So he added, “The arrogant mock me without restraint, but I do not turn from your law.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:50-53
So there you are, I have said a few words to prevent the boats from sinking. Something much more dreadful happened at that catch of fish, and that is that the nets were broken. The nets were broken, heresies arose. What else, after all, are schisms, but tears of the fabric? The first catch of fish has to be endured and tolerated in such a way that nobody grows weary, even though it is written, “Weariness has taken hold of me because of sinners who forsake your law.” It is the boat crying out that it is being overloaded by the mob, as though the boat itself is giving voice to these words, “I have become weary because of sinners who forsake your law.” Even if you are being overloaded, always see to it that you do not sink. Bad people are to be put up with now, not to be separated and cut off. “Mercy and judgment we shall sing to the Lord.” First of all mercy is extended, and later on judgment is exercised; separation will happen at the judgment. Now may the good person listen to me and become better; may the bad person too listen and become good, while it is the time for repentance, not for sentence.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:50
"The same is my comfort in my humiliation" [Psalm 119:50]. Namely, that hope which is given to the humble, as the Scripture says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble." Whence also our Lord Himself says with His own lips, "For whosoever exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted." We well understand here that humiliation also, not whereby each man humbles 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; [Sirach 2:4-5] whence a little after this Psalm says, "Before I was troubled, I went wrong."...And 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: "In your patience shall you possess your souls;" 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. [Luke 21:17-18] This hope was given to Christ's Body, that is, to the Church, that it might be a comfort to Her in her humiliation....This hope He gave in the prayer which He taught us, where He enjoined us to say, "Lead us not into temptation:" [Matthew 6:13] 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: "For Your word has quickened me." Which they have rendered more closely who have put not "word," but "utterance." For the Greek has λόγιον, which is "utterance;" not λόγος, which is "word."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:51
The next verse is, "The proud dealt exceeding wickedly: yet have I not shrinked from Your law" [Psalm 119:51]. By the proud he wished to be understood the persecutors of the pious; and he therefore added, "yet have I not shrinked from Your laws," because the persecution of the proud attempted to force him to do this. He says that they dealt "exceeding wickedly," 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 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.. ..

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:52
"For I was mindful of Your judgments from the beginning of the world, O Lord, and received comfort" [Psalm 119:52]; or, as other copies have it, "and I was exhorted," that is, received exhortation. For either might be rendered for the Greek pareklhqhn. "From the beginning of the world," that is, from the birth of the human race, "I was mindful of Your judgments" upon the vessels of wrath, which are fitted unto perdition: "and I received comfort," since through these also have You shown the riches of Your glory on the vessels of Your mercy. [Romans 9:22-23]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:53-54
"Weariness has held me; for the ungodly that forsake Your law" [Psalm 119:53]. "Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage" [Psalm 119:54]. This is the low estate, in the house of mortality, of the man who sojourns 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, [Luke 10:30, 37] 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.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:55
"I have thought upon Your Name, O Lord, in the night-season, and have kept Your law" [Psalm 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, "until 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." [1 Corinthians 4:5] In this night, therefore, man ought to remember the Name of the Lord; "So that he who glories, may glory in the Lord." [1 Corinthians 1:31]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:56
Considering this, he adds, "This was made unto me, because I sought out Your righteousnesses" [Psalm 119:56]. "Your" 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, "ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." [Romans 10:3] Others have better interpreted these righteousnesses, as those whereby men are justified for nought through God's grace, though by themselves they cannot be righteous, "justifications." But what means, "This was made unto me"? What is "This"? It is perhaps the law? As he had said, "and I have kept Your law;" to which he subjoins, "This was made unto me," meaning, "This was made my law." We must therefore enquire first what was thus made unto him, next in what manner, whatever it may have been, was made unto him. "This," he says, "was made unto me:" not "This law," for the Greek, as I have said, refuses this sense. Perhaps then, "This night:" since the preceding sentence stands thus: "I have thought upon Your Name, O Lord, in the night-season:" and the next words are, "This was made unto me:" since then it is not the law, it must truly be the night which is thus spoken of. What then means, "I had the night-season: for I have sought out Your righteousnesses"? Rather light had come unto him than night, since he sought out the righteousnesses of God. And it is thus rightly understood, "It was made unto me," 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....

Cheth

[AD 345] Aphrahat the Persian Sage on Psalms 119:57-62
In petition one asks for mercy for one’s sins, in thanksgiving you give thanks to your Father who is in heaven, while in praise you praise him for his works. At a time when you are in trouble, offer up petition, and when you are well supplied with good things, you should give thanks to the Giver, and when your mind rejoices, offer up praise. Make all these prayers of yours with discernment to God. See how David was always saying, “I have risen to give thanks to you for your judgments, O just One.” And in another psalm he said, “Praise the Lord in heaven, praise him in the heights.” Again he says, “I will bless the Lord at all times, and at all times his praises are in my mouth.” Do not pray using only one kind of prayer, but pray them at different times.

[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Psalms 119:57-62
Let each of these considerations find entrance into your mind and check the swollen growth of wrath. By such preparations and by acquiring such dispositions, we quiet the leaping and throbbing of the heart and restore it to tranquil steadiness. This, indeed, is the implication in the words of David: “I am ready and am not troubled.” You must, therefore, repress the violent and frenzied movement of the soul by recalling the example of saintly people. How gently, for instance, the mighty David bore the fury of Shimei. He did not allow himself to grow angry but turned his thoughts to God, saying, “The Lord has bid him curse David.”

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:57-62
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.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Psalms 119:57-62
Accordingly, let us condition ourselves to not be easily distracted from the task of approaching God constantly with our prayers day and night, and especially at night. Night is the time when there is no one to hinder us, when there is great peace of mind, when there is complete repose. It is also the time when all turmoil is left outside the house, when no one is likely to put us off or distract us from entreaty, and when our mind happens to be set at rest and is able to propose everything precisely to the physician of souls. I mean, if blessed David, king as he was as well as inspired author and beset with so many worries, clad in mantle and crown, could say, “At midnight I rise to praise you for the rulings of your justice,” what should we say who, despite leading a private and carefree life, do not even do the same as he? In other words, since by day he had much on his mind, a great mass of business, terrible confusion, and could not find a suitable time for the proper kind of prayer, he prayed during the time of respite that others devote to sleep, lying on soft beds, tossing and turning. On the contrarythe king, though caught up in such responsibility, devoted the time to prayer, conversing privately with God, directing sincere entreaties to him of the most intense kind, and thus he achieved whatever he set his mind to. Through these prayers he was successful in wars, inflicting defeat and adding victory to victory. He enjoyed, you see, an invincible weaponry, an ally from on high sufficient not merely for battles conducted by human beings but also for the cohorts of the demons.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:57-59
Let us hear what follows: "I have promised to keep Your law." What means, "My portion, O Lord: I have promised to keep Your law" [Psalm 119:57]; save because the Lord will be each man's portion then, when he has kept His law? Consider therefore what he subjoins: "I entreated Your face, with my whole heart:" and saying in what manner he prayed: "O be merciful," he says, "unto me, according to Your word" [Psalm 119:58]. And as if he had been heard and aided by Him whom he prayed unto, "I thought," he says, "on my own ways, and turned away my feet unto Your testimonies" [Psalm 119:59]. That is, I turned them away from my own ways, which displeased me, that they might follow Your testimonies, and there might find a path. For most of the copies have not, "Because I thought," as is read in some; but only, "I thought." But what is here written, "and I turned away my feet:" some read, "Because I thought, Thou also hast turned away my feet:" that this may rather be ascribed to the grace of God, according to the Apostle's words, "For it is God who works in us." [Philippians 2:13] ...

[AD 700] Isaac of Nineveh on Psalms 119:57-62
Prayer offered up at night possesses a great power, more so than the prayer of the daytime. Therefore all the righteous prayed during the night, while combating the heaviness of the body and the sweetness of sleep and repelling corporeal nature. And this the prophet also says, “I toiled in my groaning; every night I will wash my bed, with tears will I water my couch,” while he sighed in fervent prayer. And again, “At midnight I arose to give thanks unto Thee for the judgments of Thy righteousness.” And for every entreaty for which they urgently besought God, they armed themselves with the prayer of night vigil, and at once they received their request.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:60
Lastly, when he had received this blessing of grace, he says, "I was ready, and was not disturbed, that I may keep Your commandments" [Psalm 119:60]. Which some have rendered, "to keeping Your commandments," some "that I should keep," others "to keep," the Greek being τοῦ φυλ

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:61
But in what manner he was ready to keep the divine commandments, he has added, in these words: "The bands of the ungodly have surrounded me: but I have not forgotten Your law" [Psalm 119:61]. "The bands of the ungodly" are the hindrances of our enemies, whether spiritual, as the devil and his angels, or carnal, the children of disobedience, in whom the devil works. [Ephesians 2:2] For this word peccatorum is not from peccata, "sins;" but from peccatores, "sinners." Therefore when they threaten evils, with which to alarm the righteous, that they may not suffer for the law of God, they, so to speak, entangle them with bands, with a strong and tough cord of their own. For "they draw iniquity like a long rope," [Isaiah 5:18] and thus endeavour to entangle the holy, and sometimes are allowed so to do.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:62
"At midnight," he says, "I rise to give thanks unto You: because of Your righteous judgments" [Psalm 119:62]. This very fact, that the bands of the ungodly surround the righteous, is one of the righteous judgments of God. On which account the Apostle Peter says, "The time has come when judgment must begin at the house of the Lord." [1 Peter 4:17] For he says this of the persecutions which the Church suffered, when the bands of the ungodly surrounded them. I suppose, therefore, that by "midnight" we should understand the heavier seasons of tribulation. In which he said, "I arose:" since He did not so afflict him, as to cast him down; but tried him, so that he arose, that is, that through this very tribulation he might advance unto a bolder confession.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:63-64
For I imagine that what follows, "I am a companion of all them that fear You, and keep Your commandments" [Psalm 119:63], does relate to the Head Himself, as it is in the Epistle which is inscribed to the Hebrews: "Both He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.". ..Therefore Jesus Himself speaks in this prophecy: some things in His Members and in the Unity of His Body, as if in one man diffused over the whole world, and growing up in succession throughout the roll of ages: and some things in Himself our Head. And on this account, that since He became the companion of His brethren, God of men, the Immortal of the mortal, for this reason the seed fell upon the earth, that by its death it might produce much fruit; he next adds concerning this very fruit, "The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy" [Psalm 119:64]. And whence this, save when the ungodly is justified? That we may make progress in the knowledge of this grace, he adds, "O teach me Your righteousnesses!"

Teth

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:65
"You have dealt in sweetness with Your servant: according unto Your word;" or rather, "according unto Your utterance" [Psalm 119:65]. The Greek word χρηστότης has been variously rendered by our translators by the words "sweetness" and "goodness." But since sweetness may exist also in evil, since all unlawful and unclean things afford pleasure, and it may also exist in that carnal pleasure which is permitted; we ought to understand the word "sweetness," which the Greeks termed χρηστότης, of spiritual blessings: for on this account our translators have preferred to term it "goodness." I think therefore that nothing else is meant by the words, "You have dealt in sweetness with Your servant," than this, You have made me feel delight in that which is good. For when that which is good delights, it is a great gift of God. But when the good work which the law commands is done from a fear of punishment, not from a delight in righteousness, when God is dreaded, not loved; it is the act of a slave, not of a freeman.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:66
"O learn me sweetness, and understanding, and knowledge," he says, "for I have believed Your commandments" [Psalm 119:66]. He prays these things may be increased and perfected. For they who said, "Lord, increase our faith," [Luke 17:5] had faith. And as long as we live in this world, these are the words of those who are making progress. But he adds, "understanding," or, as most copies read, "discipline." Now the word discipline, for which the Greeks use παιδεία, is employed in Scripture, where instruction through tribulation is to be understood: according to the words, "Whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and scourges every son whom He receives." [Hebrews 12:6] In the literature of the Church this is usually called discipline. For this word, παιδεία, is used in the Greek in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the Latin translator says, "No discipline for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous," etc. [Hebrews 12:11] He therefore toward whom the Lord deals in sweetness, that is, he in whom He mercifully inspires delight in that which is good, ought to pray instantly, that this gift may be so increased unto him, that he may not only despise all other delights in comparison with it, but also that he may endure any amount of sufferings for its sake. Thus is discipline healthfully added to sweetness. This discipline ought not to be desired, and prayed for, for a small measure of grace and goodness, that is, holy love; but for so great, as may not be extinguished by the weight of the chastening:...so much in fact as to enable him to endure with the utmost patience the discipline. In the third place is mentioned knowledge; since, if knowledge in its greatness outstrips the increase of love, it does not edify, but "puffs up." [1 Corinthians 8:1] ...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:67
"Before I was humbled, I went wrong; wherefore I have kept Your word" [Psalm 119:67]; or, as some have it more closely, "Your utterance," that is, lest I should be humbled again. This is better referred to that humiliation which took place in Adam, in whom the whole human creature, as it were, being corrupted at the root, as it refused to be subject to truth, "was made subject to vanity." Which it was profitable to the vessels of mercy to feel, that by throwing down pride, obedience might be loved, and misery perish, never again to return.

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:68-71
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.

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:68-71
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.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:68
"Sweet are You, O Lord;" or, as many have it, "Sweet are You, even Thou, O Lord" [Psalm 119:68]. Some also, "Sweet are You," or, "Good are You:" as we have before treated of this word: "and in Your sweetness teach me Your statutes." He truly desires to do the righteousnesses of God, since he desires to learn them in His sweetness from Him unto whom he has said, "Sweet are You, O Lord."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:69
Next he says, "The iniquity of the proud has been multiplied upon me" [Psalm 119:69]: of those, that is, whom it profited not that human nature was humbled after it went wrong. "But I will search Your commandments with my whole heart." Howsoever, he says, iniquity shall abound, love shall not grow cold in me. [Matthew 24:12] He, as it were, says this, who in His sweetness learns the righteousnesses of God. For in proportion as the commandments of Him who aids us are the more sweet, so much the more does he who loves Him search after them, that he may perform them when known, and may learn them by doing them; because they are more perfectly understood when they are performed.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:70
"Their heart is curdled as milk" [Psalm 119:70]. Whose, save the proud, whose iniquity he has said has been multiplied upon him? But he wishes it to be understood by this word, and in this passage, that their heart has become hard. It is used also in a good sense, and is understood to mean, full of grace: for this word, some have also interpreted "curdled."...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:71
"It is good for me that You have humbled me: that I might learn Your righteousnesses" [Psalm 119:71]. He has said something kindred to this above. For by the fruit itself he shows that it was a good thing for him to be humbled; but in the former passage he has stated the cause also, in that he had felt beforehand that humiliation which resulted from his punishment, when he went wrong. But in these words, "Wherefore have I kept Your word:" and again in these, "That I might learn Your righteousnesses:" he seems to me to have signified, that to know these is the same thing as to keep them, to keep them the same thing as to know them. For Christ knew what He reproved; and yet He reproved sin, though it is said of Him that "He knew not sin." [2 Corinthians 5:21] He knew therefore by a kind of knowledge, and again He knew not by a kind of ignorance. Thus also many learn the righteousnesses of God, and learn them not. For they know them in a certain way; and, again do not know them from a kind of ignorance, since they do them not. In this sense the Psalmist therefore is to be understood to have said, "That I might learn Your righteousnesses," meaning that kind of knowledge whereby they are performed.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:72
But that this is not gained, save through love, wherein he who does them has delight, on which account it is said, "In Your sweetness teach me Your righteousnesses:" the following verse shows, wherein he says, "The law of Your mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver" [Psalm 119:72]: so that love loves the law of God more than avarice loves thousands of gold and silver.

Jod

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 119:73
But though we were to allow some prerogative to the Protoplast as having been deemed worthy of the hand of God, still it must be one of honor, not of nature. For he came from the earth, as other people, and the hand that then fashioned Adam is also both now and ever fashioning and giving entire consistency [same human nature] to those who come after him. And God declares this to Jeremiah, as I said before: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you”;25 and so he says of all, “All those things have my hand made”; and again by Isaiah, “Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, and he that formed you from the womb, I am the Lord that makes all things; that stretches forth the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself.” And David, knowing this, says in the psalm, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me”; and he who says in Isaiah, “Thus says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be his servant,” signifies the same. Therefore, in respect of nature, Christ differs nothing from us though he precede us in time, so long as we all consist and are created by the same hand.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:73
..."Your hands have made me, and fashioned me" [Psalm 119:73]. The hands of God are the power of God. Or if the plural number moves them, since it is not said, Your hand, but, "Your hands;" let them understand by the hands of God the power and wisdom of God, both of which titles are given to one Christ, [1 Corinthians 1:24] who is also understood under the figure, Arm of the Lord. Or let them understand by the hands of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit; since the Holy Spirit works conjointly with the Father and the Son: whence says the Apostle, "But all these works that one and the self-same Spirit:" [1 Corinthians 12:11] he said, "one and the self-same;" lest as many spirits as works might be imagined, not that the Spirit works without the Father and the Son. It is easy therefore to see how the hands of God are to be understood: provided, at the same time, that He be not denied to do those things through His Word which He does by His hands: nor be considered not to do those things with His hands, which He does through His word....But is this said in respect of Adam? From whom since all men were propagated, what man, since Adam was made, may not say that he himself also was made by reason of procreation and generation from Adam? Or may it rightly be said, in this sense, "Your hands have made me, and fashioned me," namely, that every man is born even of his parents not without the work of God, God creating, they generating? Since, if the creative power of God be withdrawn from things, they perish: nor is anything at all, either of the world's elements, or of parents, or of seeds, produced, if God does not create it....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:73
Without doubt, if what I said is true and you not only heard this true thing but also understood it, two things happened there; distinguish them, hearing and understanding. Hearing occurred through me; through whom did understanding occur? I spoke to the ear that you might hear; who spoke to your heart that you might understand? Without a doubt, someone also said something to your heart so that not only did that sound of words strike your ear but something of truth descended into your heart. Someone spoke also to your heart, but you did not see him. If you understand, brothers, your heart has also been spoken to. Understanding is a gift of God. If you understood, who spoke this in your heart? He to whom the psalm says, “Give me understanding that I may learn your commands.”

[AD 450] Peter Chrysologus on Psalms 119:73
Futile is the act of the father and mother, unless the Creator’s work and will also touch the offspring. “Your hands have made me and formed me.” And elsewhere it is written, “You have formed me and have laid your hand on me.” Therefore, we do not owe our birth and life to ourselves, but we owe them entirely to our Creator.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:74
"They that fear You," he says, "will see me, and be glad" [Psalm 119:74]: or, as other copies have it, "will be joyful: because I have hoped in Your word:" that is, in the things which You have promised, that they may be the sons of promise, the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations are blessed. Who are they who fear God, and whom will they see and be glad, because he has put his trust in the word of God? Whether it be the body of Christ, that is, the Church, whose words these are through Christ, or within it, and concerning it, these are as it were the words of Christ concerning Himself; are not they themselves among those who fear God?...The same persons, who see the Church and are glad, are the Church. But why said he not, They who fear You see me, and are glad: whereas he has written, "fear You," in the present tense; while the verbs "shall see," and shall "be glad," are futures? Is it because in the present state there is fear, as long as "man's life is a temptation upon earth;" but the gladness which he desired to be understood, will be then, when "the righteous shall shine in the kingdom of their Father like the sun." [Matthew 13:43] ...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:75-76
"I know," she says, "O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in Your truth You have humbled me" [Psalm 119:75]. "O let Your merciful kindness be my comfort, according to Your word unto Your servant" [Psalm 119:76]. Mercy and truth are so spoken of in the Divine Word, that, while they are found in many passages, especially in the Psalms, it is also so read in one place, "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth." And here indeed he has placed truth first, whereby we are humbled unto death, by the judgment of Him whose judgments are righteousness: next mercy, whereby we are renewed unto life, by the promise of Him whose blessing is His grace. For this reason he says, "according to Your Word unto Your servant:" that is, according to that which You have promised unto Your servant. Whether therefore it be regeneration whereby we are here adopted among the sons of God, or faith and hope and charity, which three are built up in us, although they come from the mercy of God; nevertheless, in this stormy and troublesome life they are the consolations of the miserable, not the joys of the blessed.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:77
But since those things are destined to happen after and through these, he next says, "O let Your loving mercies come upon me, and I shall live" [Psalm 119:77]. For then indeed I shall truly live, when I shall not be able to fear lest I die. This is styled life absolutely and without any addition; nor is any life save that which is everlasting and blessed understood, as though it alone were to be called life, compared with which that which we now lead ought rather to be called death than life: according to those words in the Gospel, "If you will enter into life, keep the commandments." [Matthew 19:17] ...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:78
He then goes on as follows: "Let the proud be confounded, for they have unrighteously practised iniquity against me: but I will be occupied in Your commandments" [Psalm 119:78]. Behold, what he says, the meditation of the law of God, or rather, his meditation the law of God.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:79
"Let such as fear You," he says, "and have known Your testimonies, be turned unto me" [Psalm 119:79]. But who is he who says this? For no mortal will venture to say this, or if he say it, should be listened to. Indeed, it is He who above also has interposed His own words, saying, "I am a partaker with all them that fear You." Because He was made sharer in our mortal state, that we might also become partakers in His Divine Nature, we became sharers in One unto life, He a sharer in many unto death. He it is unto whom they that fear God turn, and who know the testimonies of God, so long before predicted of Him through the Prophets, a little before displayed in His presence through miracles.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:80
"O let my heart," he says, "be unspotted in Your righteousnesses, that I be not ashamed" [Psalm 119:80]. He returns to the words of His body, that is, His holy people, and now prays that his heart may be made unspotted, that is, the heart of His members; "in the righteousnesses of God," not in their own strength: for He has prayed for this, not presumed upon it. In the words he has added, "that I be not ashamed," there is a resemblance to some of the earlier verses of this Psalm. Whereas there, in the words, "O that," he signifies a wish, he has here expressed himself in the more open words of one praying: "O let my heart be sound:" so that in neither of these two sentences, each of which is one and the same, there is found the boldness of one who trusts in his own free will against grace. While he says there, "so shall I not be confounded:" he says here, "that I be not ashamed." The heart then of the members and the body of Christ is made unspotted, through the grace of God, by means of the very Head of that Body, that is, through Jesus Christ our Lord, by the "laver of regeneration," [Titus 3:5] wherein all our past sins have been blotted out; through the aid of the Spirit, whereby we lust against the flesh, that we be not overcome in our fight; [Galatians 5:17] through the efficacy of the Lord's Prayer, wherein we say, "Forgive us our trespasses." [Matthew 6:12] Thus regeneration having been given to us, our conflict having been aided, prayer having been poured forth, our heart is made unspotted, so that we be not ashamed. [Luke 6:37-38]

Caph

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:81
"My soul has failed for Your salvation: and I have hoped because of Your word" [Psalm 119:81]. It is not every failing that should be supposed to be blameable or deserving punishment: there is also a failing that is laudable or desirable....For it is said of a good failing: "My soul has a desire and failing to enter into the courts of the Lord." So also here he says not, fails away from Your salvation, but "fails for Your salvation," that is, towards Your salvation. This losing ground is therefore good: for it does indicate a longing after good, not as yet indeed gained, but most eagerly and earnestly desired. But who says this, save the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people, [1 Peter 2:9] longing for Christ from the origin of the human race even unto the end of this world, in the persons of those who, each in his own time, have lived, are living, or are to live here?...The first seasons of the Church, therefore, had Saints, before the Virgin's delivery, who desired the advent of His Incarnation: but these times, since He has ascended into heaven, have Saints who desire His manifestation to judge the quick and the dead...."And I have hoped because of Your word:" that is, of Your promise; a hope which causes us to await with patience that which is not seen by those who believe. Here also the Greek has the word ἐ πήλπισα, which some of our translators have preferred rendering by, "hoped-more;" since beyond doubt it will be greater than can be described.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:81-86
What order does God impose on you? “Love me. You love gold, you will seek gold, and perhaps you will not find it. Whoever seeks me, I am with him. You will love honor, and perhaps you will not find it. Whoever seeks me, I am with him. Who has loved me and has not attained me?” God says to you, “You wish to make [someone] a patron or a powerful friend of yours; you solicit him through someone else inferior. Love me,” God says to you, “there is no soliciting of me through anyone; love itself makes me present to you.” What is sweeter than this love, brothers? Not without reason you just heard in the psalm, “The unjust have told me of delights, but not as your law, Lord.” What is the law of God? The commandment of God. What is the commandment of God? That new commandment that is called new for the very reason that it renews: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” Hear that this is the law of God. The apostle says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.” This is the consummation of all our works, love. There is the end. Because of this we are running; to this we are running. When we come to it, we shall rest.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:81-86
The true martyrs are those of whom the Lord says, “Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice’s sake.” Therefore, it is not those who suffer for the sake of injustice and the impious division of Christian unity, but those who suffer persecution for justice’s sake who are truly martyrs. Hagar suffered persecution from Sarah, yet the one who persecuted was holy and she who suffered was sinful. Is that any reason for comparing the persecution suffered by Hagar to that with which the wicked Saul afflicted holy David? Obviously, there is a very great difference, not because David suffered, but because he suffered for justice’s sake. And the Lord himself was crucified among thieves. But, though they were alike in suffering, they were different in the reason for suffering. Therefore, in the psalm we must understand the voice of the true martyr wishing to be distinguished from false martyrs: “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy.” He does not say “distinguish my punishment” but “distinguish my cause.” For the punishment of the wicked can be the same, but the cause of the martyrs is not the same, and their cry is, “They have persecuted me unjustly; help me.” The psalmist thinks himself worthy of being justly helped because they persecuted unjustly, for, if they persecuted justly, he would not be worthy of help but of chastisement.

[AD 735] Bede on Psalms 119:81-86
“And Joseph called his name Jesus.” “Jesus” in Hebrew means “saving” or “savior” in Latin. It is clear that the prophets most certainly call on his name. Hence these things are sung in great desire for a vision of him: “My soul will exult in the Lord and take delight in his salvation.” “My soul pines for your salvation.” “I, however, will glory in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Jesus.” And especially that [verse]: “God in your name save me!” as if the [prophet] would say, “You who are called Savior, make bright the glory of your name in me by saving [me].”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:82
"My eyes," he says, "have failed for Your word, saying, O when will You comfort me?" [Psalm 119:82]. Behold that praiseworthy and blessed failing, in the eyes again, but his inner eyes, not arising from infirmity of mind, but from the strength of his longing for the promise of God: for this he says, "for Your word." But in what sense can such eyes say, "When will You comfort me?" save when we pray and groan with such earnestness and ardent expectation? For the tongue, not the eyes, is wont to speak: but in some sense the voice of the eyes is the longing of prayer. But in the words, "When will You comfort me?" he shows that he endures as it were delay. Whence is this also, "How long, Lord, will You punish me?" And this is done either that the happiness may be the sweeter when deferred, or this is the sentiment of those who long, since the space of time, which may be short to Him who comes to their aid, is tedious to the loving. But God knows what He does and when, for He "has ordered all things in measure and number and weight." [Wisdom 11:18]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:83
But when spiritual desires burn, carnal desires without doubt cool: on this account follows, "Since I have become like a bottle in the frost, I do not forget Your righteousnesses" [Psalm 119:83]. Truly he desires this mortal flesh to be understood by the bottle, the heavenly blessing by the frost, whereby the lusts of the flesh as it were by the binding of the frost become sluggish; and hence it arises that the righteousnesses of God do not slip from the memory, as long as we do not meditate apart from them; since what the Apostle says is brought to pass: "Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." [Romans 13:14] "And I do not forget Your righteousness:" that is, I forget them not, because I have become such. For the fervour of lust has cooled, that the memory of love might glow.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:84
"How many are the days of Your servant? When will You be avenged of them that persecute me?" [Psalm 119:84]. In the Apocalypse, [Revelation 6:10-11] these are the words of the Martyrs, and long-suffering is enjoined them until the number of their brethren be fulfilled. The body of Christ then is asking concerning its days, what they are to be in this world, and that no man might suppose that the Church would cease to exist here before the end of the world came, and that some time would elapse in this world, while the Church was now no more on earth; therefore, when he had enquired concerning the days, he added also respecting the judgment, showing indeed that the Church would exist on earth until the judgment, when vengeance shall fall upon Her persecutors. But if any one wonder why he should ask that question, to which when asked by the disciples, their Master replied, "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons;" [Acts 1:7] why should we not believe that in this passage of the Psalm it was prophesied that they should ask this very question, and that the words of the Church, which were so long before uttered here, were fulfilled in their question?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:85
In what follows: "The wicked have told me pleasant tales: but not like Your law, O Lord" [Psalm 119:85]: the Latin translators have endeavoured to render the Greek

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:86
Lastly, he adds, "All Your commandments are truth: they have persecuted me unjustly; O be Thou my help" [Psalm 119:86]. And the whole sense depends upon the foregoing: "How many are the days of Your servant: when will You be avenged of them that persecute me?" For that they may persecute me, they have related to me these pleasant tales; but I have preferred Your law to them, which on that account has pleased me more, because all Your commandments are true; not as in their discourses, where vanity abounds. And for this reason "they have persecuted me falsely," because in me they have persecuted nothing save the truth. Therefore help Thou me, that I may struggle for the truth even unto death; because this is at once Your commandment, and therefore it is also the truth.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:87
When the Church acted thus, She suffered what he has added, "They had almost made an end of me upon earth" [Psalm 119:87]: a great slaughter of martyrs having been made, while they confess and preach the truth. But since it is not in vain said, "O help Thou me;" he adds, "But I forsook not Your commandments."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:88
And that She might persevere unto the end, "O quicken me," he says, "after Your loving mercy: and so shall I keep the testimonies of Your mouth" [Psalm 119:88]; where the Greek has Μαρτύρια . This was not to be passed over in silence, on account of that sweetest name of Martyrs, who beyond doubt when so great cruelty of the persecutors was raging, that the Church was almost made an end of upon earth, would never have kept the testimonies of God, unless that had been vouchsafed them which is here spoken of, "O quicken me after Your loving-kindness." For they were quickened, lest by loving life, they should deny the life, and by denying it, should lose it: and thus they who for life refused to forsake the truth, lived by dying for the truth.

Lamed

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:89
The man who speaks in this Psalm, as if he were tired of human mutability, whence this life is full of temptations, among his tribulations, on account of which he had above said, "The wicked have persecuted me;" and, "They have almost made an end of me upon earth" [Psalm 119:89]; burning with longings for the heavenly Jerusalem; looked up to the realms above, and said, "O Lord, Your word endures for ever in heaven;" that is, among Your Angels who serve everlastingly in Your armies, without desertion.

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 119:90-96
But that the providence and ordering power of the Word also, over all and toward all, is attested by all inspired Scripture, this passage suffices to confirm our argument, where people who speak of God say, “You have laid the foundation of the earth, and it abides. The day continues according to your ordinance.”

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:90-96
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?”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:90
But the next verse, after heaven, pertains consequently to earth. For this is one verse of the eight which relate to this letter. For eight verses are appended to each of these Hebrew letters, until this long Psalm be ended. "Your truth also remains from one generation to the other: You have laid the foundation of the earth, and it abides" [Psalm 119:90]. Beholding therefore the earth next after heaven with the gaze of a faithful mind, he finds in it generations which are not in heaven, and says, "Your truth remains from one generation to the other:" signifying all generations by this expression, from which the Truth of God was never absent in His saints, at one time fewer, at one time more in number, according as the times happened or shall happen to vary; or wishing two particular generations to be understood, one pertaining to the Law and the Prophets, another to the Gospel....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:90-96
We answer them: You have Christ’s baptism; come, in order to have Christ’s Spirit as well. Be afraid of what is written: “But anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to him.” You have put on Christ in the form of the sacrament; put him on by imitating his example, “since Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, so that we might follow his footsteps.” Do not be people who “have the form of piety but deny its power.” What greater power could piety have than the love of unity? It says in the Psalms, “I have seen the end of every consummation; your commandment is exceedingly broad.” Which commandment, if not the one about which it says, “A new commandment I give you, that you should love one another”? Why “broad,” if not because “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts”? Why “an end of every” consummation, if not because “the fullness of the law is love; and the whole law is summed up in this” that is written: You shall love “your neighbor” as “yourself”? The way you people, though, love your neighbors as yourselves, is that while you do not want anything bad to be believed about you, which has neither been seen nor proved, you are happy to believe about the whole world what you have neither seen nor received any proof of.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:90-96
Let us run, therefore, my brothers, let us run and let us love Christ. What Christ? Jesus Christ. Who is this? The Word of God. And how does he come to the sick? “The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us.” What Scripture foretold was, therefore, accomplished: “Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” Where does his body lie? Where do his members toil? Where ought you to be so that you may be under the head? “And penance and remission of sins is to be preached in his name through all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Let your love be spread about there. Christ and the psalm, that is, the Spirit of God, say, “Exceedingly broad is your commandment”—and someone or other puts in Africa the boundaries of love! Extend love through the whole world if you wish to love Christ, because Christ’s members lie throughout the world. If you love apart, you have been divided. If you have been divided, you are not in the body. If you are not in the body, you are not under the head.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:90-96
You have heard in the psalm, “I have seen an end to all perfection.” What had this person seen? Had he climbed, do we suppose, to the peak of some very high and very sharp mountain and had he looked out and seen the perimeter of the earth and the circles of the whole world and therefore said, “I have seen an end of all perfection”? If this is praiseworthy, let us seek from God eyes of flesh so sharp that we may look for some exceedingly lofty mountain that is on earth from whose top we may see an end of all perfection. Do not go far. Look, I say to you, climb onto the mountain and see the end. Christ is the mountain. Come to Christ; you see from there an end of all perfection. What is this end? Ask Paul. “Now the end of the commandment is love, from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith.” And in another place, “But love is the fulfillment of the law.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:91
"Day continues according to Your ordinance" [Psalm 119:91]. For all these things are day: "and this is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it:" and "let us walk honestly as in the day." [Romans 13:13] "For all things serve You." He said all things of some: "all" which belong to this day "serve You." For the ungodly of whom it is said, "I have compared your mother unto the night," do not serve You.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:92
He then looks back towards the source of this earth's deliverance, which caused it to abide when founded; and adds, "If my delight had not been in Your law, I should perchance have perished in my humiliation" [Psalm 119:92]. This is the law of faith, not a vain faith, but that which works through love. [Galatians 5:6] Through this grace is gained, which makes men courageous in temporal tribulation, that they may not perish in the humiliation of mortality.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:93
"I will never forget," he says, "Your righteousnesses, for with them You have quickened me" [Psalm 119:93]. Behold how it was that he did not perish in his humiliation. For, save God quickens, what is man, Who can indeed kill, but cannot quicken himself?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:94
He next adds: "I am Yours: O save me, for I have sought Your righteousnesses" [Psalm 119:94]. We must not understand lightly the words, "I am Yours." For what is not His? Why then is it that the Psalmist has commended himself unto God somewhat in a more familiar sense, in these words, "I am Yours: O save me;" save because he wished it to be understood that he had desired to be his own only to his harm, which is the first and the greatest evil of disobedience? And as if he should say, I wished to be my own, and I lost myself: "I am Yours," he says, "O save me, for I have sought Your righteousnesses;" not my own inclinations, whereby I was my own, but "Your righteousnesses," that I might now be Yours.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:95
"The ungodly," he says, "have awaited me that they might destroy me; but I have understood Your testimonies" [Psalm 119:95]. What means, "that they might destroy me"? Did he then fear that he should perish altogether at the death of his body? God forbid! And what means, "have awaited me," save that he should consent with them unto iniquity? For then they would destroy him. And he has said why he has not perished: "I understood Your testimonies." The Greek word, Μαρτύρια, sounds more familiarly to the ears of the Church. For though they should slay me not consenting unto them, yet while I confessed Your testimonies (martyria) I should not perish; but they who, that they might destroy me, were waiting till I should consent unto them, tortured me even when I did confess them. Yet he did not leave that which he had understood, looking on it and seeing an end without end, if only he should persevere unto the end.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:96
Lastly, he next says, "I have seen an end of all consummation: but Your commandment is exceeding broad" [Psalm 119:96]. For he had entered into the sanctuary of God, and had understood the end. Now "all consummation" appears to me in this place to signify, the striving even unto death for the truth, [Sirach 4:28] and the endurance of every evil for the true and chief good: the end of which consummation is to excel in the kingdom of Christ, which has no end; and there to have without death, without pain, and with great honour, life, acquired by the death of this life, and by sorrows and reproaches. But in what he has added, "Your commandment is exceeding broad;" I understand only love. For what would it have profited him, whatever death impended over him, in the midst of whatsoever torment, to confess those testimonies, if love were not in the confessor?...Broad therefore is the commandment of charity, that twofold commandment, whereby we are enjoined to love God and our neighbour. But what is broader than that, "on" which "hang all the Law and the Prophets"? [Matthew 22:37-40]

Mkk

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:97
We have frequently admonished you, that love was to be understood by that praiseworthy breadth, by means of which, while we do the commandments of God, we feel no straitness. On this account also after saying above in this great Psalm, "Your commandment is exceeding broad:" in the following verse he shows wherefore it is broad: "what love have I unto Your law, O Lord!" [Psalm 119:97]. Love is therefore the breadth of the commandment. For how can it be that what God commands to be loved, be loved, and yet the commandment itself be not loved? For this itself is the law; "in all the day," he says, "is my study in it." Behold how I have loved it, that in the whole day my study is in it; or rather, as the Greek has it, "all the day long," which more fully expresses the continuance of meditation. Now that is to be understood through all time; which is, for ever. By such love lust is driven out: lust, which repeatedly opposes our performing the commandments of the law, when "the flesh lusts against the spirit:" [Galatians 5:17] against which the spirit lusting, ought so to love the law of God, that it be its study during the whole day....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:98
And he then adds: "You have made me to understand Your commandment above mine enemies; for it is ever with me" [Psalm 119:98]. For "they have indeed a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge," etc. [Romans 10:2-3] But the Psalmist, who understands the commandment of God above these his enemies, wishes to be found with the Apostle, "not having" his "own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, which is of God;" [Philippians 3:9] not that the Law which his enemies read is not of God, but because they do not understand it, like him who understands it above his enemies, by clinging to the Stone upon which they stumbled. For "Christ is the end of the law," etc., [Romans 10:4] "that they may be justified freely through His grace;" [Romans 3:24] not like those who imagine that they obey the law of their own strength, and are therefore, though by God's law, yet still endeavouring to set up their own righteousness; but as the son of promise, who hungering and thirsty after it, [Matthew 5:6] by seeking, by asking, by knocking, [Matthew 7:7] as it were begs it of the Father, that being adopted he may receive it through His only-begotten Son....His enemies sought from the same commandment temporal rewards; and therefore it was not unto them for ever, as it was unto this man. For they who have translated "for ever" have rendered better than they who have written "for an age," since at the end of time there can be no longer a commandment of the law....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:99
But what means the following verse, "I have more understanding than my teachers"? [Psalm 119:99]. Who is he who had more understanding than all his teachers? Who, I ask, is he, who dares to prefer himself in understanding above all the Prophets, who not only by speaking taught with so excellent authority those who lived with them, but also their posterity by writing?...What is here said, could not have been spoken in Solomon's person....I recognise plainly Him who had more understanding than His teachers, since when He was a boy of twelve years of age, Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and was found by His parents after three days' space, "sitting in the temple among the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions." [Luke 2:42-46] The Son Himself has said, "As My Father has taught Me, I speak these things." [John 8:28] It is very difficult to understand this of the Person of the Word; unless we can comprehend that it is the same thing for the Son to be taught as to be begotten of the Father...."He took upon Himself the form of a servant;" [Philippians 2:7] for when He had assumed this form, men of more advanced age might think Him fit to be taught as a boy; but He whom the Father taught, had more understanding than all His teachers. "For Your testimonies," He says, "are my study." For this reason He had more understanding than all His teachers, because He studied the testimonies of God, which, as concerning Himself, He knew better than they, when He spoke these words: "You sent unto John, and he bore witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man," etc. [John 5:33-36]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:100
But these teachers may be understood very reasonably to be those aged men, of whom he presently says, "I am wiser than mine elders" [Psalm 119:100]. And this seems to me to be repeated here thus, that that age of His which is well known to us in the Gospel might be called to our remembrance; the age of boyhood, during which He was sitting among the aged, understanding more than all His teachers. For the smaller and the greater in age are wont to be termed younger and elder, although neither of them has arrived at or approached old age; although if we are concerned to seek in the Gospel the express term, elders, more than whom He understood, we find it when the Scribes and Pharisees said unto Him, "Why do Your disciples transgression the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread." [Matthew 15:2] Behold the transgression of the tradition of the elders is objected to Him. But He who was wiser than His elders, let us hear what answer He made them. Why do ye also, He asked, "transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" [Matthew 15:3] ...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:101
But what comes next, does not seem to apply to the Head, but to the Body: "I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your words" [Psalm 119:101]. For that Head of ours, the Saviour of the Body Himself, could not be borne by carnal lust into any evil way, so that it should be needful for Him to refrain His feet, as though they would go there of their own accord; which we do, when we refrain our evil desires, which He had not, that they may not follow evil ways. For thus we are able to keep the word of God, if we "go not after our evil lusts," [Sirach 18:30] so that they attain unto the evils desired; but rather curb them with the spirit which lusts against the flesh, [Galatians 5:17] that they may not drag us away, seduced and overthrown, through evil ways.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:102
"I have not shrunk," he says, "from Your judgments: for You have laid down a law for me" [Psalm 119:102]. He has stated what made him fear, so that he refrained his feet from every evil way....Thou, more inward than my inmost self, You have laid down a law within my heart by Your Spirit, as it were by Your fingers, that I might not fear it as a slave without love, but might love it with a chaste fear as a son, and fear it with a chaste love.

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 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!

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:103
Consider then what follows: "O how sweet are Your words unto my throat!" [Psalm 119:103]. Or, as it is more literally rendered from the Greek, "Your utterances, above honey and the honeycomb unto my mouth." This is that sweetness which the Lord gives, "So that the earth yield her increase:" that we do good truly in a good spirit, that is, not from the dread of carnal evil, but from the gladness of spiritual good. Some copies indeed do not read "honeycomb:" but the majority do. Now the open teaching of wisdom is like honey; but that is like the comb which is squeezed from the more recondite mysteries, as if from cells of wax, by the mouth of the teacher, as if he were chewing it: but it is sweet to the mouth of the heart, not to the mouth of the flesh.

[AD 465] Maximus of Turin on Psalms 119:103
I say that in this mystical number the children of Israel came to Marah, where they were not able to draw water because of its bitterness—for the spring had water but no sweetness; it was delightful in appearance, but not sound for tasting—but when Moses threw in a piece of wood37 they drank the water made sweet in its smoothness, for the mystery of the cross took away the harshness which the noxious water carried. I think that this occurred to provide a type. I think that the bitter water of Marah is the law of the Old Testament, which was a harsh law until it was moderated by the cross of the Lord. It ordered, “An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,” and offered no consolation of mercy with these harsh commands. But indeed where it was tempered with the wood of the gospel’s suffering, at once it changed its bitterness into sweetness and offered its sweetened self for all to drink, just as the prophet says, “how sweet are your eloquent sayings to my throat, more than honey and honeycomb to my mouth.” Sweet indeed are those eloquent things which they command: “If someone strikes you on the jaw, offer him also the other; if someone takes your tunic, give him also your cloak.” Therefore, this is that bitterness which was changed into sweetness, that is, the austerity of the law was tempered by the grace of the gospel. The letter of the law is bitter apart from the mystery of the cross. The apostle speaks of this: “The letter kills.” But where the sacraments of the passion are joined to it, every bitterness is spiritually suppressed. And the apostle says concerning it, “But the Spirit makes alive.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:104
But what mean the words, "Through Your commandments I get understanding"? [Psalm 119:104]. For the expressions, I have understood Your commandments: and, "I get understanding through Your commandments;" are different. Something else then he signifies that he has understood from the commandments of God: that is, as far as I can see, he says, that by obeying God's commandments he has arrived at the comprehension of those things which he had longed to know....These then are the words of the spiritual members of Christ, "Through Your commandments I get understanding." For the body of Christ rightly says these words in those, to whom, while they keep the commandments, a richer knowledge of wisdom is given on account of this very keeping of the commandments. "Therefore," he adds, "I hate all evil ways." For it is needful that the love of righteousness should hate all iniquity: that love, which is so much the stronger, in proportion as the sweetness of a higher wisdom does inspire it, a wisdom given unto him who obeys God, and gets understanding from His commandments.

Nun

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Psalms 119:105-108
Nevertheless, I remember, when we explained that verse of Psalm 118 [LXX], in which it is written, “Your law, Lord, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths,” we showed the difference between “lamp” and “light” as best we could. For we said that “the lamp” was allotted “for the feet,” that is, the lower parts of the body; but “the light” was given “for the paths,” which “paths” are called in another passage “eternal paths.” Therefore, because according to such a mystical understanding this world is understood as the lower parts of creation, therefore “the lamp” of the law is mentioned as having been lit for these who are in this world as the feet of the whole creation. But the eternal “light” will be for those “paths” through which each one in accordance with his merits will advance into the future age.

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:105-108
“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.

[AD 410] Prudentius on Psalms 119:105-108
Behold a stone is set for us, a stumbling block,
Against which vanity may strike,
A sign unto the faithful, scandal to the lax,
The one it fells, the other guides.
The blind one feels his way with slow uncertain step
And runs into what’er he meets.
The lamp of faith alone must shine before our feet,
That footsteps may unswerving be.
The foe assails and carries off the wanderers
Who in the darkness go astray,
A demon who devours the wheat speeds on the way
For pilgrims passing to and fro,
A thief who tampers with the fertile fields of Christ
By sowing in them barren oats.
A demon who devours the wheat spread on the way
For pilgrims passing to and fro,
A thief who tampers with the fertile fields of Christ
By sowing in them barren oats.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:105-108
Is anybody, I mean to say, in a position to have both the will and the ability, unless the one who granted us the will by calling us also helps us to have the ability by inspiring us? The fact is, his mercy gets in ahead of us every single time; to call us when we were lacking the will and then to ensure we obtain the ability to do what we will. So let us say to him, “I have sworn and determined to keep the judgments of your justice.” I have indeed determined, and promised obedience because you have ordered it; but because “I can see another law in my members fighting back against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin that is in my members,” “I have been utterly humbled, Lord; give me life according to your word.” Look, “to will is available to me”;14 therefore, “approve, Lord, the voluntary offering of my mouth,” so that your peace may come on earth to people of good will.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:105-108
A most holy and solemn day has dawned for us to rejoice in, and one that is very special and glorious for this church as its crowning ornament, seeing the most blessed Cyprian filled it with the light for us by the glory of his sufferings. For praising this revered bishop and venerable martyr no tongue would be sufficient, not even were he to praise himself. So in this sermon of mine, which I am paying to your ears as something owed you on his account, please acknowledge the loving readiness of my will, rather than demanding an effective display of any skill. Thus it is, you see, that when the holy praise singer perceived himself to be less than capable of praising God—for which, indeed, not just speech but even any thought is insufficient—he said, “Make the voluntary offerings of my mouth acceptable, Lord.” Let me too say the same; let this also be a sign of my devotion, and even if I am not equal to explaining what I wish, may there be an acceptable offering in the fact that I do wish.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:105
"Your word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths" [Psalm 119:105]. The word "lantern" appears in the word "light;" "my feet" are also repeated in "my paths." What then means "Your Word"? [John 1:1] Is it He who was in the beginning God with God, that is, the Word by whom all things were made? It is not thus. For that Word is a light, but is not a lantern. For a lantern is a creature, not a creator; and it is lighted by participation of an unchangeable light....For no creature, howsoever rational and intellectual, is lighted by itself, but is lighted by participation of eternal Truth: although sometimes day is spoken of, not meaning the Lord, but that "day which the Lord has made," and on account of which it is said, "Come unto Him, and be lightened." On account of which participation, inasmuch as the Mediator Himself became Man, He is styled lantern in the Apocalypse. [Revelation 21:23] But this sense is a solitary one; for it cannot be divinely spoken of any of the saints, nor in any wise lawfully said of any, "The Word was made flesh," [John 1:14] save of the "one Mediator between God and men." [1 Timothy 2:5] Since therefore the only-begotten Word, coequal with the Father, is styled a light; and man when enlightened by the Word is also called a light, who is styled also a lantern, as John, as the Apostles; and since no man of these is the Word, and that Word by whom they were enlightened is not a lantern; what is this word, which is thus called a light and a lantern at the same time, save we understand the word which was sent unto the Prophets, or which was preached through the Apostles; not Christ the Word, but the word of Christ, of which it is written, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"? [Romans 10:17] For the Apostle Peter also, comparing the prophetical word to a lantern, says, "whereunto ye do well that you take heed, as unto a lantern, that shines in a dark place." [2 Peter 1:19] What, therefore, he here says, "Your word" is the word which is contained in all the holy Scriptures.

[AD 500] Desert Fathers on Psalms 119:105
Somebody asked Antony, ‘What shall I do in order to please God?’ He replied, ‘Do what I tell you, which is this: wherever you go, keep God in mind; whatever you do, follow the example of holy Scripture; wherever you are, stay there and do not move away in a hurry. If you keep to these guide-lines, you will be saved.’

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Psalms 119:105-108
If we notice carefully, we will realize that what our Lord said to the blessed apostles also refers to us: “You are the light of the world,” he says, “and no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel but on the lampstand, so as to give light to all in the house.” Now, if the head’s bodily eyes refuse to show the way to the rest of the members, the whole body walks in darkness. Similarly, if priests, who seem to have the function of eyes in the body of Christ the head, have been put on a lampstand in the church but are unwilling to shine in God’s house and have ceased to show the light of doctrine to the whole church, it is to be feared that some of the people may become involved in the darkness of error and fall into some abyss of sin. The fact that the Lord said his word is a lamp is not a trite utterance, for we read, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, O Lord.” Now, profits of the present world are understood in the nature of a bushel. Who, indeed, puts a lamp under a bushel, except the person who darkens the light of doctrine with the profits of material advantages and fears to preach the truth lest he have less of the temporal possessions he desires? Thus, a person puts a lamp under a bushel if he prefers material to spiritual gains.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:106-107
"I have sworn, and am steadfastly purposed to keep Your righteous judgments" [Psalm 119:106]: as one who walked aright in the light of that lantern, and kept to straight paths. For he calls what he has determined by a sacrament, an oath; because the mind ought to be so fixed in keeping the righteous judgments of God, that its determination should be in the place of an oath. Now the righteous judgments of God are kept by faith; when, under the righteous judgment of God, neither any good work is believed to be fruitless, nor any sin unpunished; but, because the body of Christ has suffered many most grievous evils for this faith, he says, "I was humbled above measure" [Psalm 119:107]. He does not say, I have humbled myself, so that we must needs understand that humiliation which is commanded; but he says, "I was humbled above-measure;" that is, suffered a very heavy persecution, because he swore and was steadfastly purposed to keep the righteous judgments of God. And, lest in such trouble faith herself might faint he adds, "Quicken me, O Lord, according to Your word:" that is, according to Your promise. For the word of the promises of God is a lantern to the feet, and a light to the paths. Thus also above, in the humiliation of persecution, he prayed that God would quicken him.. ..

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:108
"Make the freewill offerings of my mouth well pleasing, O Lord" [Psalm 119:108]: that is, let them please You; do not reject, but approve them. By the freewill offerings of the mouth are well understood the sacrifices of praise, offered up in the confession of love, not from the fear of necessity; whence it is said, "a freewill offering will I offer You." But what does he add? "and teach me Your judgments"? Had he not himself said above, "From Your judgments I have not swerved"? How could he have done thus, if he knew them not? Moreover, if he knew them, in what sense does he here say, "and teach me Your judgments"? Is it as in a former passage, "You have dealt in sweetness with Your servant:" presently after which we find, "teach me sweetness"? This passage we explained as the words of one who was gaining in grace, and praying that he might receive in addition to what he had received.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:109
"My soul is always in Your hand" [Psalm 119:109]. Some copies read, "in my hand:" but most, "in Your hand;" and this latter is indeed easy. For "the souls of the righteous are in God's hand: [Wisdom 3:1] in whose hand are both we and our words." [Wisdom 7:16] "And I do not forget Your law:" as if his memory were aided to remember God's law by the hands of Him in whose hands is his soul. But how the words, "My soul is in my hands," can be understood, I know not. For these are the words of the righteous, not of the ungodly; of one who is returning to the Father, not departing from the Father.. ..Is it perhaps said, "My soul is in my hands," in this sense, as if he offered it to God to be quickened? Whence in another passage it is said, "Unto You, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul." Since here too he had said above, "Quicken Thou me."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:110
"The ungodly," he says, "have laid a snare for me: but yet I swerved not from Your commandments" [Psalm 119:110]. Whence this, unless because his soul is in the hands of God, or in his own hands is offered to God to be quickened?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:111
"Your testimonies have I gained in heritage for ever" [Psalm 119:111]. Some wishing to express in one word what is put in one word in the Greek, have translated it hereditavi. Which although it might be Latin, yet would rather signify one who gave an inheritance than one who received it, hereditavi being like ditavi. Better, therefore, the whole sense is conveyed in two words, whether we say, "I have possessed in heritage," or, "I have gotten in heritage:" not gotten heritage, but "gotten in heritage." If it be asked, what he gained in heritage, he replies, "Your testimonies." What does he wish to be understood, save that he might become a witness of God, and confess His testimonies, that is, that he might become a Martyr of God, and might declare His testimonies, as the Martyrs do, was a gift bestowed upon him by the Father, of whom he is heir?...But even their wish was prepared by the Lord. For this reason he says he has gained them in heritage, and this "for ever;" because they have not in them the temporal glory of men who seek vain things, but the eternal glory of those who suffer for a short season, and who reign without end. Whence the next words, "Because they are the very joy of my heart:" although the affliction of the body, yet the very joy of the heart.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:112
He then adds: "I have applied my heart to fulfil Your righteousness for ever, for my reward" [Psalm 119:112]. He who says, "I have applied my heart," had before said, "Incline my heart unto Your testimonies:" so that we may understand that it is at once a divine gift, and an act of free will. But are we to fulfil the righteousnesses of God for ever? Those works which we perform in regard to the need of our neighbours, cannot be everlasting, any more than their need; but if we do not do them from love, there is no righteousness; if we do them from love, that love is everlasting, and an everlasting reward is in store for it.

Samech

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:113
"I have hated the unrighteous; and Your law have I loved" [Psalm 119:113]. He says not, I hate the wicked, and love the righteous; or, I hate iniquity, and love Your law; but, after saying, "I have hated the unrighteous," he explains why, by adding, "and Your law have I loved;" to show, that he did not hate human nature in unrighteous men, but their unrighteousness whereby they are foes to the law, which he loves.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:114
He next adds: "You are my helper and my taker up" [Psalm 119:114]: "my helper," to do good works: "my taker up," to escape evil ones. In the next words, "I have hoped more on Your word," he speaks as a son of promise.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:115
But what is the meaning of the following verse: "Away from me, you wicked, and I will search the commandments of my God"? [Psalm 119:115]. For he says not, I will perform; but, "I will search." In order, therefore, that he may diligently and perfectly learn that law, he bids the wicked depart from him, and even forcibly drives them away from his company. For the wicked exercise us in the fulfilment of the commandments, but lead us away from searching into them; not only when they persecute, or wish to litigate with us; but even when they court us, and honour us, and yet expect us to occupy ourselves in aiding their own vicious and busy desire, and to bestow our time upon them; or at least harass the weak, and compel them to bring their causes before us: to whom we dare not say, "Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" [Luke 12:14] For the Apostle instituted ecclesiastical judges of such causes, forbidding Christians to contend in the forum. [1 Corinthians 6:1-6] ...Certainly, on account of those who carry on law suits pertinaciously with one another, and, when they harass the good, scorn our judgments, and cause us to lose the time that should be employed upon things divine; surely, I say, on account of these men we also may exclaim in these words of the Body of Christ, "Away from me, you wicked! And I will search the commandments of my God."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:116-117
"O establish me according to Your word and I shall live: and let me not be disappointed of my hope" [Psalm 119:116]. He who had before said, "You are my taker up," prays that he may be more and more borne up, and be led unto that, for the sake of which he endures so many troubles; trusting that he may there live in a truer sense, than in these dreams of human affairs. For it is said of the future, "and I shall live," as if we did not live in this dead body. While "we await the redemption of our body, we are saved by hope, and hoping for that we see not, we await with patience." [Romans 8:23-25] But hope disappoints not, if the love of God be spread abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. [Romans 5:5] And, as though it were answered him in silence, Thou dost not wish to be disappointed of your hope? Cease not to meditate upon My righteousnesses: and, feeling that this meditation is usually hindered by the weaknesses of the soul, "Help me," he says, "and I shall be safe; yea, I will meditate in Your righteousnesses always" [Psalm 119:117].

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:118-120
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.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Psalms 119:118-120
In our affairs, beloved, we have great need of perseverance. And perseverance is the fruit when [Christ’s] teachings become deeply rooted in us. No assault of the wind will be strong enough to uproot the oak that has sent its roots deep down into the depths of the earth and has become firmly encompassed by them. Similarly, no one will be strong enough to overpower the soul that is nailed down by the fear of God, because to be nailed down is to be more securely fastened than to be rooted. In fact, the prophet prayed for this when he said, “Nail my flesh with your fear.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:118
"You have scorned all," or, as it seems more closely translated from the Greek, "You have brought to nought all them that depart from Your righteousnesses: for their thought is unrighteous" [Psalm 119:118]. For this reason he exclaimed, "Help Thou me, and I shall be safe; yea, I will meditate in Your righteousnesses always:" because God brings to nought all those who depart from His righteousnesses. But why do they depart? Because "their thought is," he says, "unrighteous." They advance in that direction, while they depart from God. All deeds, good or bad, proceed from the thoughts: in his thoughts every man is innocent, in his thoughts every man is guilty....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:118-120
For even Job himself is not silent concerning his own sins, and certainly our friend [Hilary] is right in his judgment that humility can by no means be placed on the side of falsehood. Therefore, whatever Job confesses, since he is a true worshiper of God, he undoubtedly confesses it sincerely. And Hilary, when he explains the verse of the psalm, in which it is written, “You have despised all them that fall off from your judgments,” says, “For if God were to despise sinners, the judgments would indeed despise everyone, for no one is without sin. But he despises those who fall away from him, who are called apostates.” Notice how he does not say that no one was without sin, as if he were speaking of people of the past, but no one is without sin. On this point, as I have said, I have no quarrel. But if someone does not yield to the apostle John, who does not himself say, “if we say that we had no sin,” but, “If we say that we have no sin,” how will he be ready to yield to Bishop Hilary? I raise my voice in the defense of the grace of Christ, without which no one is justified, as though the free will of our nature were sufficient. Indeed, it is Christ who raises his voice in defense of this; let us submit to him when he says, “Without me you can do nothing.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:118-120
For the first covenant, which was made with the first man, is just this: “In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die.” Whence it is written in the book called Ecclesiasticus, “All flesh waxeth old as doth a garment. For the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shall die the death.” Now, as the law was more plainly given afterward, and the apostle says, “Where no law is, there is no prevarication,” on what supposition is what is said in the psalm true, “I accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators,” except that all who are held liable for any sin are accused of dealing deceitfully (prevaricating) with some law?If on this account, then, even the infants are, according to the true belief, born in sin, not actual but original, so that we confess they have need of grace for the remission of sins, certainly it must be acknowledged that in the same sense in which they are sinners they are also prevaricators of that law which was given in Paradise, according to the truth of both scriptures, “I accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators,” and “Where no law is, there is no prevarication.” And thus, because circumcision was the sign of regeneration, and the infant, on account of the original sin by which God’s covenant was first broken, was not undeservedly to lose his generation unless delivered by regeneration, these divine words are to be understood as if it had been said, Whoever is not born again, that soul shall perish from his people, because he hath broken my covenant, since he also has sinned in Adam with all others.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:118-120
After those words on which we have been commenting, Paul continues and says, “Now the law entered in that sin might abound,” but this does not apply to the sin that is derived from Adam, of which he said above: “Death reigned through one.” Clearly, we must understand by it either the natural law that was known in those ages among all who had the use of reason or the written Law that was given by Moses but that could not give life or set people free “from the law of sin and death” that came down from Adam. Rather, it added an increase of transgression: “For where there is no law,” says the same apostle, “neither is there transgression.” Since there is a law in human reason, written by nature in the heart of everyone who enjoys the use of free will, and this law suggests that a person do no evil to another that he would not wish to suffer himself, therefore, according to this law all are transgressors, even those who have not received the law given by Moses, of whom the psalmist says, “I have accounted all the sinners of the earth liars.” Not all the sinners of the earth have transgressed against the law given by Moses, but unless they had committed some transgression they would not be called liars, “for where there is no law, neither is there transgression.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:119
The next words in the Psalm are, "I have counted," or "thought," or "esteemed, all the ungodly of the earth as transgressors" [Psalm 119:119]. In the Latin version many different renderings are given of the Greek ἐ λογισ

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:120
The grace of God, then, being known, which alone frees from transgression, which is committed through knowledge of the law, he says, in prayer, "Fix with nails my flesh in Your fear" [Psalm 119:120]. For this some Latin interpreters have literally rendered the Greek καθήλωσον, which that language has expressed in one word. Some have preferred to render by the word confige, without adding clavis; and while they thus desire to construe one Latin by one Greek word, have failed to express the full meaning of the Greek καθήλωσον, because in confige nails are not mentioned, but καθήλωσον cannot be taken but of nails, nor can "fix with nails" be expressed without using two words in Latin....Hath he added, "For I have feared Your judgments"? What means, "Fix me in Your fear: for I have feared"? If he had already feared, or if he was now fearing, why did he still pray God to crucify his flesh in His fear? Did he wish so much additional fear imparted to him as would suffice for crucifying his flesh, that is, his carnal lusts and affections; as though he should say, Perfect in me the fear of You; for I have feared Your judgments? But there is here even a higher sense, which must, as far as God allows, be derived from searching the recesses of this Scripture: that is, in the chaste fear of You, which abides from age to age, let my carnal desires be quenched; "For I have feared Your judgments," when the law, which could not give me righteousness, threatened me punishment....For the inclination to sin lives, and it then appears in deed, when impunity may be hoped for. But when punishment is considered sure to follow, it lives latently: nevertheless it lives. For it would rather it were lawful to sin, and it grieves that what the law forbids, is not lawful; because it is not spiritually delighted with the blessing of the law, but carnally fears the evil which it threatens. But that love, which casts out this fear, fears with a chaste fear to sin, although no punishment follow; because it does not even judge that impunity will follow, since from love of righteousness it considers the very sin itself a punishment. With such a fear the flesh is crucified; since carnal delights, which are forbidden rather than avoided by the letter of the law, are overcome by the delight in spiritual blessings, and also when the victory is perfected are destroyed.

Ain

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:121
"I have dealt judgment and righteousness; O give me not over unto mine oppressors" [Psalm 119:121]. It is not wonderful that he should have dealt judgment and righteousness, since he had above prayed for a chaste fear from God, whereby to fix with nails his flesh, that is, his carnal lusts, which are wont to hinder our judgment from being right. But although in our customary speech judgment is either right or wrong, whence it is said unto men in the Gospel, "Judge not according to the persons, but judge righteous judgment:" [John 7:24] nevertheless in this passage judgment is used as though, if it were not righteous, it ought not to be called judgment; otherwise it would not be enough to say, "I have dealt judgment," but it would be said, I have dealt righteous judgment....

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:122
He next says, "Take off Your servant to that which is good, that the proud calumniate me not" [Psalm 119:122]. They drive me on, that I may fall into evil; do Thou take me off to that which is good. They who rendered these words by the Latin, calumnientur, have followed a Greek expression, not commonly used in Latin. Have the words, Let not the proud calumniate me, the same force, as, Let them "not succeed in calumniating me"?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:123
...To prefigure His Cross, Moses by the merciful command of God raised aloft on a pole the image of a serpent in the desert, that the likeness of sinful flesh which must be crucified in Christ might be prefigured. [John 3:14] By gazing upon this healing Cross, we cast out all the poison of the scandals of the proud: the Cross, which the Psalmist intently looking upon, says, "My eyes have failed for Your salvation, and for the words of Your righteousness" [Psalm 119:123]. For God made Christ Himself "to be sin for us, on account of the likeness of sinful flesh, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him." For His utterance of the righteousness of God he therefore says that his eyes have failed, from gazing ardently and eagerly, while, remembering human infirmity, he longs for divine grace in Christ.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:124
In connection with this he goes on to say, "O deal with Your servant according to Your loving mercy" [Psalm 119:124]; not according to my righteousness. "And teach me," he says, "Your righteousnesses;" those beyond doubt, whereby God renders men righteous, not they themselves.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:125
"I am Your servant. O grant me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies" [Psalm 119:125]. This petition must never be intermitted. For it suffices not to have received understanding, and to have learned the testimonies of God, unless it be evermore received, and evermore in a manner quaffed from the fountain of eternal light. For the testimonies of God are the better and the better known, the more understanding a man attains to.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:125
There has to be a distinction between the law and grace. The law knows how to command; grace, how to help. The law would not command if there were no free will, nor would grace help if the will were sufficient. We are commanded to have understanding when the Scripture says, “Do not become like the horse and the mule that have no understanding,” yet we pray to have understanding when it says, “Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.” We are commanded to have wisdom when it says, “You fools, be wise at last,” but we pray to have wisdom when it says, “If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach.” We are commanded to have continence when it says, “Be prepared for action,” but we pray to have continence when it says, “As I knew that no one could be continent except God gave it, and this also was a point of wisdom to know whose gift it was, I went to the Lord and besought him.” Finally, not to be too lengthy in listing all the rest, we are commanded not to do evil when it says, “Decline from evil,” but we pray not to do evil when it says, “We pray the Lord that you do no evil.” We are commanded to do good when it says, “Decline from evil and do good,” but we pray to do good when it says, “We cease not to pray for you, asking,” and among other things that he asks he mentions, “That you may walk worthy of God in all things pleasing, in every good work and good word.” As then we acknowledge the part played by the will when these commands are given, so let him acknowledge the part played by grace when these petitions are offered.

[AD 435] John Cassian on Psalms 119:125
The blessed David asks the Lord for that very understanding by which he can recognize God’s commands, which he well knew were written in the book of the law, when he says “I am your servant: O give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.” Certainly he was in possession of understanding, which had been granted to him by nature, and also had at his fingers’ ends a knowledge of God’s commands which were preserved in writing in the law. Still he prayed to the Lord that he might learn this more thoroughly because he knew that what came to him by nature would never be sufficient for him, unless his understanding was enlightened by the Lord by his daily illumination, to understand the law spiritually and to recognize his commands more clearly.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:126
"It is time," he says, "for the Lord to lay to His hand" [Psalm 119:126]. For this is the reading of most copies: not as some have, "O Lord." Now what is this, save the grace which was revealed in Christ at its own time? Of which season the Apostle says, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son." [Galatians 4:4] ...But wherefore is it that, seemingly anxious to show the Lord that it was time to lay to His hand, he has subjoined, "They have scattered Your law;" as if it were the season for the Lord to act, because the proud scattered His law. For what means this? In the wickedness of transgression, they have not guarded its integrity. It was needful therefore that the Law should be given to the proud and those presuming in the freedom of their own will, after a transgression of which whosoever were contrite and humbled, might run no longer by the Law, but by faith, to aiding grace. When the Law therefore was scattered, it was time that mercy should be sent through the only-begotten Son of God.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:127
"Therefore," he says, "I love Your commandments above gold and topaz" [Psalm 119:127]. Grace has this object, that the commandments, which could not be fulfilled by fear, may be fulfilled by love...Therefore, they are above gold and topaz stones. For this is read in another Psalm also, "Above gold and exceeding precious stones." For topaz is a stone considered very precious. But they not understanding the hidden grace which was in the Old Testament, screened as it were by the veil (this was signified when they were unable to gaze upon the face of Moses), endeavoured to obey the commandments of God for the sake of an earthly and carnal reward, but could not obey them; because they did not love them, but something else. Whence these were not the works of the willing, but rather the burdens of the unwilling. But when the commandments are loved for their own sake "above gold and exceeding precious stones," all earthly reward compared with the commandments themselves is vile; nor are any other goods of man comparable in any respect with those goods whereby man himself is made good.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:128
"Therefore," he says, "was I made straight unto all Your commandments" [Psalm 119:128]. I was made straight, doubtless, because I loved them; and I clung by love to them, which were straight, that I might also myself become straight. Then what he adds, naturally follows: "and every unrighteous way I utterly abhor." For how could it be that he who loved the straight could do anything save abhor an unrighteous way? For as, if he loved gold and precious stones, he would abhor all that might bring loss of such property: thus, since he loved the commandments of God, he abhorred the path of iniquity, as one of the most savage rocks in the sailor's track, whereon he must needs suffer shipwreck of things so precious. That this may not be his lot, he who sails on the wood of the Cross with the divine commandments as his freight, steers far from thence.

Pe

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:129
"Your testimonies are wonderful: therefore has my soul searched them" [Psalm 119:129]. Who counts, even by their kinds, the testimonies of God? Heaven and earth, His visible and invisible works, declare in some manner the testimony of His goodness and greatness; and the very ordinary and accustomed course of nature, whereby the seasons are rapidly revolved, in all things after their kinds, however temporal and perishable, however held cheap through our constant experience of them, give, if a pious thinker give heed to them, a testimony to the Creator. But which of these is not wonderful, if we measure each not by its habitual presence, but by reason? But if we venture to bring all nature within the comprehensive view of one act of contemplation, does not that take place in us which the prophet describes, "I considered Your works, and trembled"? [Habakkuk 3:2] Yet the Psalmist was not terrified in his wonder at creation, but rather said that this was the reason that he ought to search it, because it was wonderful. For after saying, "Your testimonies are wonderful," he adds, "therefore has my soul searched them;" as if he had become more curious from the difficulty of thoroughly searching them. For the more abstruse are the causes of anything, the more wonderful it is...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:130
"When your word goes forth," he says, "it gives light, and makes His little ones to understand" [Psalm 119:130]. What is the little one save the humble and weak? Be not proud therefore, presume not in your own strength, which is nought; and you will understand why a good law was given by a good God, though it cannot give life. For it was given for this end, that it might make you a little one instead of great, that it might show that you had not strength to do the law of your own power: and that thus, wanting aid and destitute, you might fly unto grace, saying, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak.". ..Let all be little ones, and let all the world be guilty before You: because "by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified" in Your sight; "for by the Law is the knowledge of sin," etc. [Romans 3:19-21] These are Your wonderful testimonies, which the soul of this little one has searched; and has therefore found, because he became humbled and a little one. For who does Your commandments as they ought to be done, that is, by "faith which works through love," [Galatians 5:6] save love itself be shed abroad in his heart through the Holy Spirit? [Romans 5:5]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:131
This is confessed by this little one; "I opened my mouth," he says, "and drew in the spirit: for I longed for Your commandments" [Psalm 119:131]. What did he long for, save to obey the divine commandments? But there was no possibility of the weak doing hard things, the little one great things: he opened his mouth, confessing that he could not do them of himself: and drew in power to do them: he opened his mouth, by seeking, asking, knocking: [Matthew 7:7] and thirsty drank in the good Spirit, which enabled him to do what he could not do by himself, "the commandment holy and just and good." [Romans 7:12] Not that they themselves who "are led by the Spirit of God," [Romans 8:14] do nothing; but that they may not do nothing good, they are moved to act by the good Spirit. For so much the more is every man made a good son, in proportion as the good Spirit is given unto Him by the Father in a greater measure.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:132
He still prays. He has opened his mouth, and drawn in the Spirit; but he still knocks in prayer unto the Father, and seeks: he drinks, but the more sweet he finds it, the more eagerly does he thirst. Hear the words of him in his thirst. "O look Thou upon me," he says, "and be merciful unto me: according to the judgment of those that love Your Name" [Psalm 119:132]: that is, according to the judgment You have dealt unto all who love Your Name; since You have first loved them, to cause them to love You. For thus says the Apostle John, "We love God, because He first loved us." [1 John 4:19]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:133
See what the Psalmist next most openly says: "Order my steps after Your word: and so shall no wickedness have dominion over me" [Psalm 119:133]. Where what else does he say than this, Make me upright and free according to Your promise. But so much the more as the love of God reigns in every man, so much the less has wickedness dominion over him. What else then does he seek than that by the gift of God he may love God? For by loving God he loves himself, so that he may healthily love his neighbour also as himself: on which commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. [Matthew 22:37-40] What then does he pray, save that God may cause the fulfillment by His help of those commandments which He imposes by His bidding?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:133
This free will will be free in proportion as it is sound, and sound in proportion as it is submissive to divine mercy and grace. Therefore, it prays with faith and says, “Direct my paths according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.” It prays, it does not promise; it confesses, it does not declare itself; it begs for the fullest liberty, it does not boast of its own power. It is not everyone who trusts in his own strength, but everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” Therefore, those who believe rightly believe that they may call on him in whom they have believed and may be strong to do what they have learned in the precepts of the law, since faith obtains what the law commands.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:133
When, however, you hear, “Sin shall have no dominion over you,” do not trust in yourself in order that sin may not dominate you, but trust in him to whom that holy one was praying when he said, “Direct my steps according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.” Lest, perhaps, when we have heard, “Sin shall not have dominion over you,” we should exalt ourselves and attribute this to our own strength, the apostle saw this and added at once, “Since you are not under the law but under grace.” Grace therefore causes sin not to have power over you. Do not, then, trust in yourself, lest thereby sin have much more dominion over you. And when we hear, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you shall live,” let us not attribute this good to our spirit alone, as if through itself it could do these things. For, lest we enjoy that carnal feeling, our spirit being dead rather than a death-dealing one, he immediately added, “For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God.” So, when by our spirit we put to death the works of the flesh, we are impelled by the Spirit of God, which grants the continence by which we restrain, master and overcome sexual desire.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:134
But what means this that he says, "O deliver me from the calumnies of men: so shall I keep Your commandments"? [Psalm 119:134]...Did not the holy people of God much the more gloriously keep the commandments among these very calumnies, when they were at their hottest in the midst of tribulations, when they yielded not to their persecutors to commit impieties? But, in truth, the meaning of these words is this: Do Thou, by pouring upon me Your Spirit, guard me from being overcome by the terrors of human calumny, and from being drawn over to their evil deeds away from Your commandments. For if You have thus dealt with me, that is, if You have in this manner delivered me by the gift of patience from their calumnies, so that I fear not the false charges they prefer against me; among those very calumnies I will keep Your commandments.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:135
"Show the light of Your countenance on Your servant, and teach me your statutes" [Psalm 119:135]: that is, manifest Your presence, by succouring and aiding me. "And teach me Your righteousnesses." Teach me to work them: as it is more plainly expressed elsewhere, "Teach me to do Your will." For they who hear, although they retain in their memories what they hear, are by no means to be considered to have learned, unless they do. For it is the word of Truth: "Every man that has heard and has learned of the Father, comes unto Me." [John 6:45] He therefore who obeys not in deed, that is, who comes not, has not learned.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:136
"My eyes have descended streams of waters, because they have not kept Your law" [Psalm 119:136]: that is, my eyes. For in some copies there is this reading, "Because I have not kept Your law, streams of waters" therefore "descended," that is, floods of tears.. ..

Tadze

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Psalms 119:137-143
Do you want me to show you how the fire goes out from the words of the Holy Spirit and ignites the hearts of believers? Hear David speaking in the psalm: “The declaration of the Lord has set him on fire.” And again in the Gospel it was written, after the Lord spoke to Cleopas, “Was not our heart burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?” Whence will you burn? Whence will “the coals of fire” be bound in you who are never set on fire by the declaration of the Lord, never kindled by the words of the Holy Spirit?

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 119:137-143
For this is the divine promise: “The Lord shall fight for you.” Henceforth, although afflictions and trials from without overtake them, yet, being fashioned after the apostolic words and “being steadfast in tribulations and persevering in prayers” and in meditation on the law, they stand against those things that befall them, are well-pleasing to God and give utterance to the words that are written, “Afflictions and distresses are come on me, but your commandments are my meditation.”

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:137-138
Thus, then, as if giving a reason why he had cause to weep much, and to mourn deeply for his sin, he says, "Righteous are You, O Lord, and true is Your judgment" [Psalm 119:137]. "You have commanded Your testimonies, righteousness, and Your truth exceedingly" [Psalm 119:138]. This righteousness of God and righteous judgment and truth, is to be feared by every sinner: for thereby all who are condemned are condemned of God; nor is there one who can righteously complain against the righteous God of his own damnation. Therefore the tears of the penitent are needful; since if his impenitent heart were condemned, he would be most justly condemned. He indeed calls the testimonies of God righteousness: for He proves himself righteous by giving righteous commandments. And this is truth also, that God may become known by such testimonies.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:139
But what is it that follows: "My zeal has caused me to pine" [Psalm 119:139]; or, as other copies read, Your zeal? Others have also, "The zeal of Your house:" and, "has eaten me up," instead of, "has caused me to pine." This, as it seems to me, has been considered as an emendation to be introduced from another Psalm, where it is written, "The zeal of Your house has eaten me up:" a text quoted also, as we know, in the Gospel. The two words, however, "has caused me to pine," and "has eaten me up," are somewhat like. But the words, "my zeal," which most of the copies read, occasion no dispute: for what wonder is it if every man pines away from his own zeal? The words read in other copies, "Your zeal," signify a man zealous for God, not for himself: but there is no difficulty in using "my" in the same sense...The Psalmist's jealousy is therefore also to be understood in a good sense: for he adds the cause, and says, "Because mine enemies have forgotten Your words."...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:140
Then considering with himself with what a flame of love he burned for the commandments of God: "Fiery," says he, "is Your word exceedingly, and Your servant has loved it" [Psalm 119:140]. Justly jealous was he of the impenitent heart in His enemies, who had forgotten God's word; for he endeavoured to bring them unto that which he himself most ardently loved.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:141
"I am young, and of no reputation; yet do I not forget Your righteousnesses:" not as my enemies, who "have forgotten Your words" [Psalm 119:141]. The younger seems to grieve for those older than himself who had forgotten the righteousnesses of God, while he himself had not forgotten. For what means, "I am young, yet do I not forget"? save this, Those older than me have forgotten. For the Greek word is νεώτερος, the same as that used in the words above, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" This is a comparative, and is therefore well understood in its relation to some one older. Let us therefore here recognize the two nations, who were striving even in Rebecca's womb; when it was said to her, not from works, but of Him that calls, "The elder shall serve the younger." But the younger says here that he is of no reputation: for this reason he has become greater: since "behold, they that were first are last, and they that were last first." [Matthew 20:16]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:142
It is no wonder that they have forgotten the words of God, who have chosen to set up their own righteousness, ignorant of the righteousness of God; [Romans 10:3] but he, the younger, has not forgotten, for he has not wished to have a righteousness of his own, but that of God, of which he now also says, "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is the truth" [Psalm 119:142]. For how is not the law truth, through which came the knowledge of sin, and that which gives testimony of the righteousness of God? For thus the Apostle says: "The righteousness of God is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets." [Romans 3:20-21]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:143
On account of this law the younger suffered persecution from the elder, so that the younger says what follows: "Trouble and hardship have taken hold upon me: yet is my meditation in Your commandments" [Psalm 119:143]. Let them rage, let them persecute; as long as the commandments of God be not abandoned, and, after those commandments, let even those who rage be loved.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:144
"Your testimonies are righteousness unto everlasting: O grant me understanding, and I shall live" [Psalm 119:144]. This younger one prays for understanding; which if he had not, he would not be "wiser than the aged;" but he prays for it in trouble and hardships, that he may thereby understand how contemptible is all that his persecuting enemies can take from him, by whom he says he has been despised. Therefore he has said, "and I shall live:" because if trouble and heaviness reached such a pitch, that his life should be terminated by the hands of his persecuting enemies, he will live for ever, who preferrs to temporal things, righteousness which remains for evermore. This righteousness in trouble and hardship are the Martyria Dei, that is, the testimonies of God, for which Martyrs have been crowned.

Koph

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:145
...He who sings this Psalm, mentions such a prayer of his own: "I have called with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord!" [Psalm 119:145]. For to what end his cry profits, he adds: "I will search out Your righteousnesses." For this purpose then he has called with his whole heart, and has longed that this might be given him by the Lord listening unto him, that he may search out His righteousnesses...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:146
"I have called, save me" [Psalm 119:146] or as some copies, both Greek and Latin, have it, "I have called to You." But what is, "I have called to You," save that by calling I have invoked You? But when he had said, "save me;" what did he add? "And I will keep Your testimonies:" that is, that I may not, through infirmity, deny You. For the health of the soul causes that to be done which it is known to be our duty to do, and thus in striving even to the death of the body, if the extremity of temptation demand this in defence of the truth of the divine testimonies: but where there is not health of the soul, weakness yields, and truth is deserted...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:147
"I have prevented in midnight," he says, "and have cried: In Your words have I trusted" [Psalm 119:147]. If we refer this to each of the faithful, and to the literal character of the act; it oft happens that the love of God is awake in that hour of the night, and, the love of prayer strongly urging us, the time of prayer, which is wont to be after the crowing of the cock, is not awaited, but prevented. But if we understand night of the whole of this world's duration; we indeed cry unto God at midnight, and prevent the fullness of time in which He will restore us what He has promised, as is elsewhere read, "Let us prevent His presence with confession." Although if we choose to understand the unripe season of this night, before the fullness of time had come, [Galatians 4:4] that is, the ripe season when Christ should be manifested in the flesh; neither was the Church then silent, but preventing this fullness of time, in prophecy cried out, and trusted in the words of God, who was able to do what He promised, that in the seed of Abraham all nations should be blessed.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:148
The Church says also what follows, "My eyes have prevented the morning watch, that I might meditate on Your words" [Psalm 119:148]. Let us suppose the morning to mean the season when "a light arose for them that sat in the shadow of death;" [Isaiah 9:2] did not the eyes of the Church prevent this morning watch, in those Saints who before were on earth, because they foresaw beforehand that this would come to pass, so that they meditated on the words of God, which then were, and announced these things to be destined in the Law and the Prophets?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:149
"Hear my voice, O Lord, according to Your loving-mercy; and quicken Thou me according to Your judgment" [Psalm 119:149]. For first God according to His loving-mercy takes away punishment from sinners, and will give them life afterwards, when righteous, according to His judgment; for it is not without a meaning that it is said unto Him, "My song shall be of mercy and judgment: unto You, O Lord;" in this order of the terms: although the season of mercy itself be not without judgment, whereof the Apostle says, "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord." [1 Corinthians 11:31] ...And the final season of judgment shall not be without mercy, since as the Psalm says, "He crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness." But "judgment shall be without mercy," but "unto those" on the left, "who have not dealt mercy." [James 2:13]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:150
"They draw near, that of malice persecute me:" or, as some copies read, "maliciously" [Psalm 119:150]. Then they that persecute draw near, when they go the length of torturing and destroying the flesh: whence the twenty-first Psalm, wherein the Lord's Passion is prophesied, says, "O go not from me, for trouble is hard at hand;" where those things are spoken of which He suffered when His Passion was not imminent upon Him, but actually realized. "And are far from Your law." The nearer they drew to the persecuting the righteous, so much the farther were they from righteousness. But what harm did they do unto those, to whom they drew near by persecution; since the approach of their Lord is nearer unto their souls, by whom they no wise are forsaken?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:151
Lastly, it follows, "You are near at hand, O Lord, and all Your ways are truth" [Psalm 119:151]. Even in their troubles, it has been a wonted confession of the saints, to ascribe truth unto God, because they suffer them not undeservedly. So did Queen Esther, [Esther 14:6-7] so did holy Daniel, [Daniel 9:4, 16] so did the three men in the furnace, so do other associates in their sanctity confess. But it may be asked, in what sense it is here said, "All Your ways are truth;" since in another Psalm it is read, "All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth." But towards the saints, All the ways of the Lord are at once mercy and truth: since He aids them even in judgment, and thus mercy is not wanting; and in having mercy upon them, He performs that which He has promised, so that truth is not wanting. But towards all, both those whom He frees, and those whom He condemns, all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth; because where He does not show mercy, the truth of His vengeance is displayed. For He frees many who have not deserved, but He condemns none who has not deserved it.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:152
"From the beginning I have known," he says, "as concerning Your testimonies, that You have grounded them for ever" [Psalm 119:152]...What are these testimonies, save those wherein God has declared that He will give an everlasting kingdom unto His sons? And since He has declared that He will give this in His only-begotten Son, he said that the testimonies themselves were grounded for ever. For that which God has promised through them, was everlasting. And for this reason the words, "You have grounded them," are rightly thus understood, because they are shown to be true in Christ. [1 Corinthians 3:11] Whence then did the Psalmist know this in the beginning, save because the Church speaks, which was not wanting to the earth from the commencement of the human race, the first-fruits whereof was the holy Abel, himself sacrificed in testimony of the future blood of the Mediator that should be shed by a wicked brother? [Genesis 4:8] For this also was at the beginning, "They two shall be one flesh:" [Genesis 2:24] which great mystery the Apostle Paul expounding, says, "I speak concerning Christ and the Church." [Ephesians 5:32]

Resch

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:153
Let no man, set in Christ's body, imagine these words to be alien from himself, since in truth it is the whole body of Christ placed in this humble state that speaks: "O consider my humiliation, and deliver me: for I forget not Your law" [Psalm 119:153]. In this place we cannot understand any law of God so suitably, as that whereby it is immutably determined that "every one that exalts himself, shall be abased; and every one that humbles himself; shall be exalted."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:154
"Avenge Thou," he says, "my cause, and deliver me" [Psalm 119:154]. The former sentence is here almost repeated. And what is there said, "For I do not forget Your law," agrees with what we read here, "Quicken me, according to Your word." For these words are the law of God, which he has not forgot, so that he has abased himself, and will therefore be exalted. But the words, "Quicken me," pertain to this very exaltation; for the exaltation of the saints is everlasting life.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:155
"Health," he says, "is far from the ungodly: for they regard not Your righteousnesses" [Psalm 119:155]. This separates you, that what they have not done, you have done, that is, you have regarded the righteousnesses of God. But "what have you that you have not received?" [1 Corinthians 4:7] Are you not he who a little before said, "I will keep Your righteousnesses"? Thou therefore hast received from Him, unto whom you called, the power to keep them. He therefore does Himself separate you from those from whom health is far, because they have not regarded the righteousnesses of God.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:156
This he saw himself also. For I should not see it, save I saw it in Him, save I were in Him. For these are the words of the Body of Christ, whose members we are. He saw this, I say, and at once added, "Great are Your mercies, O Lord" [Psalm 119:156]. Even our seeking out Your righteousnesses, then, comes of Your mercies. "Quicken me according to Your judgment." For I know that Your judgments will not be upon me without Your mercy.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:157
"Many there are that trouble me, and persecute me; yet do I not swerve from Your testimonies" [Psalm 119:157]. This has been realized: we know it, we recollect it, we acknowledge it. The whole earth has been crimsoned by the blood of Martyrs; heaven is flowery with the crowns of Martyrs, the Churches are adorned with the memorials of Martyrs, seasons distinguished by the birthdays of Martyrs, cures more frequent by the merits of Martyrs. Whence this, save because that has been fulfilled which was prophesied of that Man who has been spread abroad around the whole world. We recognize this, and render thanks to the Lord our God. For thou, man, you have yourself said in another Psalm, "If the Lord Himself had not been on our side, they would have swallowed us up quick." Behold the reason why you have not swerved from His testimonies, and hast won the palm of your heavenly calling amid the hands of the many who persecuted and troubled you.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:158
"I have seen," he says, "the foolish, and I pined" [Psalm 119:158]: or, as other copies read, "I have seen them that keep not covenant:" this is the reading of most. But who are they who have not kept covenant, save they who have swerved from the testimonies of God, not bearing the tribulation of their many persecutors? Now this is the covenant, that he who shall have conquered shall be crowned. They who, not bearing persecution, have by denial swerved from the testimonies of God, have not kept the covenant. These then the Psalmist saw, and pined, for he loved them. For that jealousy is good, springing from love, not from envy. He adds in what respect they had failed to keep the covenant, "Because they kept not Your word." For this they denied in their tribulations.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:159
And he commends himself as differing from them, and says, "Behold, how I have loved Your commandments" [Psalm 119:159]. He says not, I have not denied Your words or testimonies, as the Martyrs were urged to do, and, when they refused, suffered intolerable torments: but he said this wherein is the fruit of all sufferings; for, "if I give up my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing." [1 Corinthians 13:3] The Psalmist, praising this virtue, says, "Behold, how I have loved Your commandments." Then he asks his reward, "O Lord, quicken me, according to Your mercy." These put me to death, do Thou quicken me. But if a reward be asked of mercy, which justice is bound to give; how much greater is that mercy, which enabled him to gain the victory, on account of which the reward was sought for?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:160
"The beginning," he says, "of Your words is truth; all the judgments of Your righteousness endure for evermore" [Psalm 119:160]. From truth, he says, Your words do proceed, and they are therefore truthful, and deceive no man, for in them life is announced to the righteous, punishment to the ungodly. These are the everlasting judgments of God's righteousness.

Schin

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:161
We know what persecutions the body of Christ, that is, the holy Church, suffered from the kings of the earth. Let us therefore here also recognise the words of the Church: "Princes have persecuted me without a cause: and my heart has stood in awe of You" [Psalm 119:161]. For how had the Christians injured the kingdoms of the earth, although their King promised them the kingdom of heaven? How, I ask, had they injured the kingdoms of earth? Did their King forbid His soldiers to pay and to render due service to the kings of the earth? Says He not to the Jews who were striving to calumniate Him, "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's"? [Matthew 22:21] Did He not even in His own Person pay tribute from the mouth of a fish? [Matthew 17:24-26] Did not His forerunner, when the soldiers of this kingdom were seeking what they ought to do for their everlasting salvation, instead of replying, Loose your belts, throw away your arms, desert your king, that you may wage war for the Lord, answer, "Do violence to no man: neither accuse any falsely: and be content with your wages"? [Luke 3:14] Did not one of His soldiers, His most beloved companion, say to his fellow soldiers, the provincials, so to speak, of Christ, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers"? Does he not enjoin the Church to pray for even kings themselves? [1 Timothy 2:1-2] How then have the Christians offended against them? What due have they not rendered? In what have not Christians obeyed the monarchs of earth? The kings of the earth therefore have persecuted the Christians without a cause. They too had their threatening words: I banish, I proscribe, I slay, I torture with claws, I burn with fires, I expose to beasts, I tear the limbs piecemeal. But heed what he has subjoined: "And my heart has stood in awe of Your word." My heart has stood in awe of these words, [Matthew 10:28] "Fear not them that kill the body," etc. I have scorned man who persecutes me, and have overcome the devil that would seduce me.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:162
Then follows, "I am as glad of Your word as one that finds great spoils" [Psalm 119:162]. By the same words he conquered, of which he stood in awe. For spoils are stripped from the conquered; as he was overcome and despoiled of whom it is said in the Gospel, "except he first bind the strong man." [Matthew 12:29] But many spoils were found, when, admiring the endurance of the Martyrs, even the persecutors believed; and they who had plotted to injure our King by the injury of His soldiers, were gained over by Him in addition. Whoever therefore stands in awe of the words of God, fearing lest he be overcome in the contest, rejoices as conqueror in the same words.

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 119:163-165
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.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:163-165
The seven loaves signify the sevenfold working of the Holy Spirit; the four thousand people, the church established under the four Gospels; the seven baskets of fragments, the perfection of the church. This number, you see, stands for perfection extremely often. I mean, how come it says, “Seven times a day shall I praise you”? Is a person going wildly astray who does not praise God that number of times? So what else can be the meaning of “seven times a day shall I praise you,” but “I shall never cease from praising”? You see, when he says seven times he signifies the whole of time; that is why the ages unfold in the weekly round of seven days. So what else can “seven times a day shall I praise you” mean but his “praise is always in my mouth”?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:163-165
But whom does the church burn as the moon by night? They who have caused schisms. Hear this very same thing stated by the apostle: “Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is scandalized and I am not burned?” How then is there no scandal in him who loves his brother? Because he who loves his brother endures all things for the sake of unity, because in the unity of love is brotherly loving. If some wicked person or other, or someone supposedly or allegedly wicked, offends you, do you desert so many good people? What sort of brotherly loving is it as has appeared in these people? When they accuse the Africans, they have deserted the world. Were there no saints in the world? Or was it possible for them to be condemned by you unheard? But, if you loved your brother, there would be no scandal in you. Hear the psalm, the one that says, “Much peace have they who love your law and there is no scandal to them.” It said that they who love the law of God have much peace and for that reason there is no scandal to them. Those therefore who suffer scandal lose peace. And who did it say do not suffer scandal or do not cause it? Those loving the law of God.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:163
"As for iniquity, I hate and abhor it; but Your law have I loved" [Psalm 119:163]. That awe, therefore, of His word did not create hatred of those words, but maintained his love unimpaired. For the words of God are no other than the law of God. Far be it therefore that love perish through fear, where fear is chaste. Thus fathers are at once feared and loved by affectionate sons; thus does the chaste wife at once fear her husband, lest she be forsaken by him, and loves him, that she may enjoy his love. If then the human father and the human husband desire at once to be feared and loved; much more does our Father who is in heaven, [Matthew 6:9] and that Bridegroom, "beautiful beyond the sons of men," not in the flesh, but in goodness. For by whom is the law of God loved, save by those by whom God is loved? And what that is severe has the father's law to good sons? [Hebrews 12:6] Let the Father's judgments therefore be praised even in the scourge, if His promises be loved in the reward.

[AD 749] John Damascene on Psalms 119:163-165
Obtain the same thing for yourself and strive to advance toward it; for it is able to raise you from earth to heaven. You will not advance in it without preparation or [solely] by chance. First cleanse your soul of every passion and wipe it as clean of every evil as a newly cleansed mirror. Remove far from you every recollection of wrong and anger, which most of all prevents our daily prayers from reaching God. Also remove from your heart the offenses of everyone who has ever sinned against you. Giving wings to your prayer with mercy and compassion for the poor, approach God with fervent tears. Praying in this way you will be able to say with the blessed David, who, although he was king and burdened with countless cares, cleansed his soul of all passions: “I hated and abhorred iniquity, but I loved your law. Seven times a day I praised you because of the judgments of your righteousness.” My soul kept your testimonies and I loved them very much. Let my prayer draw near to you, Lord; enable me to understand your word.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:164
Such was, assuredly, the conduct of the Psalmist, who says, "Seven times a day do I praise You, because of Your righteous judgments" [Psalm 119:164]. The words "seven times a day," signify "evermore." For this number is wont to be a symbol of universality; because after six days of the divine work of creation, a seventh of rest was added; [Genesis 2:2] and all times roll on through a revolving cycle of seven days. For no other reason it was said, "a just man falls seven times, and rises up again:" [Proverbs 24:16] that is, the just man perishes not, though brought low in every way, yet not induced to transgress, otherwise he will not be just. For the words, "falls seven times," are employed to express every kind of tribulation, whereby man is cast down in the sight of men: and the words, "rises up again," signify that he profits from all these tribulations. The following sentence in this passage sufficiently illustrates the foregoing words: for it follows, "but the wicked shall fall into mischief." Not to be deprived of strength in any evils, is therefore the falling seven times, and the rising again of the just man. Justly has the Church then praised God seven times in a day for His righteous judgments; because, when it was time that judgment should begin at the house of God, [1 Peter 4:17] she did not faint in all her tribulations, but was glorified with the crowns of Martyrs.

[AD 500] Desert Fathers on Psalms 119:164
Bishop Epiphanius of Cyprus, of holy memory, was told this by the abbot of his monastery in Palestine. ‘By your prayers we have kept our rule; we carefully observe the offices of terce, sext, none and vespers.’ But Epiphanius rebuked him and said, ‘Then you are failing to pray at other times. The true monk ought to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). He should always be singing psalms in his heart.’

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:165
"Great is the peace," he says, "that they have who love Your law: and there is no offense to them" [Psalm 119:165]. Does this mean that the law itself is not an offense to them that love it, or that there is no offense from any source unto them that love the law? But both senses are rightly understood. For he who loves the law of God, honours in it even what he does not understand; and what seems to him to sound absurd, he judges rather that he does not understand, and that there is some great meaning hidden: thus the law of God is not an offense to him...

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:166
"I have waited," he says, "for Your saving health, O Lord, and have loved Your commandments" [Psalm 119:166]. For what would it have profited the righteous of old to have loved the commandments of God, save Christ, who is the saving health of God, had freed them; by the gift of whose Spirit also they were able to love the commandments of God? If therefore they who loved God's commandments, waited for His saving health; how much more necessary was Jesus, that is, the saving Health of God, for the salvation of those that did not love His commandments? This prophecy may suit also the Saints of the period since the revelation of grace, and the preaching of the Gospel, for they that love God's commandments look for Christ, that "when Christ, our life, shall appear, we" may then "appear with Him in glory." [Colossians 3:4]

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:167-168
"My soul has kept Your testimonies, and I have loved them exceedingly:" or, as some copies read, "has loved them," understanding, "my soul" [Psalm 119:167]. The testimonies of God are kept, while they are not denied. This is the office of Martyrs, for testimonies are called Martyria in Greek. But since it profits nothing, even to be burnt with flames without charity, [1 Corinthians 13:3] he adds, "and I have loved them exceedingly."...For he who loves, keeps them in the Spirit of truth and faithfulness. But generally, while the commandments of God are kept, they against whose will they are kept become our foes: then, indeed, His testimonies also must be kept courageously, lest they be denied when the enemy persecutes. After the Psalmist, then, had declared that he had done both these things, he ascribes unto God his having been enabled to do so, by adding, "because all my ways are in Your sight." He says therefore, "I have kept Your commandments and Your testimonies; because all my ways are in Your sight" [Psalm 119:168]. As much as to say, Had You turned away Your face from me, I should have been confounded, nor could I keep Your commandments and testimonies. "I have kept them," then, because "all my ways are in Your sight." With a look favouring and aiding man, he meant it to be understood that God sees his ways: according to the prayer, "O hide not Thou Your face from me.". ..

Tau

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:169
Let us now hear the words of one praying: since we know who is praying, and we recognise ourselves, if we be not reprobate, among the members of this one praying. "Let my prayer come near in Your sight, O Lord" [Psalm 119:169]: for, "The Lord is near unto them that are of a contrite heart." "Give me understanding, according to Your word." He claims a promise. For he says, "according to Your word," which is to say, according to Your promise. For the Lord promised this when He said, "I will inform you."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:170
"Let my request come before Your presence, O Lord: deliver me, according to Your word" [Psalm 119:170]. He repeats what he has asked. For his former words, "Let my prayer come near in Your presence, O Lord:" are like what he says, "Let my request come before Your presence, O Lord:" and the words, "Give me understanding according to Your word," agree with these, "Deliver me according to Your word." For by receiving understanding he is delivered, who of himself through want of understanding is deceived.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:171
"My lips shall burst forth praise: when You have taught me Your righteousnesses" [Psalm 119:171]. We know how God teaches those who are docile unto God. For every one who has heard from the Father and has learned, comes unto Him "who justifies the ungodly:" so that he may keep the righteousnesses of God not only by retaining them in his memory, but also by doing them. Thus does he who glories, glory not in himself, but in the Lord, [1 Corinthians 1:31] and burst forth praise.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:172
But as he has now learned, and praised God his Teacher, he next wishes to teach. "Yea, my tongue shall declare Your word: for all Your commandments are righteousness" [Psalm 119:172]. When he says that he will declare these things, he becomes a minister of the word. For though God teach within, nevertheless "faith comes from hearing: and how do they hear without a preacher?" For, because "God gives the increase," [1 Corinthians 3:7] is no reason why we need not plant and water.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:173-174
"Let Your hand be stretched forth (fiat, be made) to save me, for I have chosen Your commandments" [Psalm 119:173]. That I might not fear, and that not only might my heart hold fast, but my tongue also utter Your words: "I have chosen Your commandments," and have stifled fear with love. Let Your hand therefore be stretched forth, to save me from another's hand. Thus God saved the Martyrs, when He permitted them not to be slain in their souls: for "vain is the safety of man" in the flesh. The words, "Let Your hand be made," may also be taken to mean Christ the Hand of God...Certainly where we read the following words, "I have longed for Your salvation, O Lord" [Psalm 119:174]: even if all our foes be reluctant, let Christ the Salvation of God occur to us: the righteous men of old confess that they longed for Him, the Church longed for His destined coming from His mother's womb, the Church longs for His coming at His Father's right hand. Subjoined to this sentence are the words, "And Your law is my meditation:" for the Law gives testimony unto Christ.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:175
But in this faith, though the heathen rage furiously, and the people imagine a vain thing: though the flesh be slain while it preaches You: "My soul shall live, and shall praise You: and Your judgments shall help me" [Psalm 119:175]. These are those judgments, which it was time should begin at the house of the Lord. [1 Peter 4:17] But "they will help me," he says. And who cannot see how much the blood of the Church has aided the Church? How great a harvest has risen in the whole world from that sowing?

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 119:176
At last he opens himself completely, and shows what person was speaking throughout the whole Psalm. "I have gone astray," he says, "like a sheep that is lost: O seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments" [Psalm 119:176]. Let the lost sheep be sought, let the lost sheep be quickened, for whose sake its Shepherd left the ninety and nine in the wilderness, [Matthew 18:12-13] and while seeking it, was torn by Jewish thorns. But it is still being sought, let it still be sought, partly found let it still be sought. For as to that company, among whom the Psalmist says, "I do not forget Your commandments," it has been found; but through those who choose the commandments of God, gather them together, love them, it is still sought, and by means of the blood of its Shepherd shed and sprinkled abroad, it is found in all nations.