Psalm 122 [MT 123]

...Let this singer ascend; and let this man sing from the heart of each of you, and let each of you be this man, for when each of you saith this, since ye are all one in Christ, one man saith this; and saith not, "Unto Thee, O Lord, have" we "lift up" our "eyes;" but, "Unto Thee, O Lord, have I lift up mine eyes" (ver. 1). Ye ought indeed to imagine that every one of you is speaking; but that One in an especial sense speaketh, who is also spread abroad over the whole world...

What maketh the heart of a Christian heavy? Because he is a pilgrim, and longeth for his country. If thy heart be heavy on this score, although thou hast been prosperous in the world, still thou dost groan: and if all things combine to render thee prosperous, and this world smile upon thee on every side, thou nevertheless groanest, because thou seest that thou art set in a pilgrimage; and feelest that thou hast indeed happiness in the eyes of fools, but not as yet after the promise of Christ: this thou seekest with groans, this thou seekest with longings, and by longing ascendest, and while thou ascendest dost sing the Song of Degrees.

"Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him." Elsewhere, it says, "The eyes of the Lord are on the just," but here, "on those that fear him." When we look upon the Lord and our eyes are on him, so that we say, "Behold as the eyes of the servants are on the hands of their masters, so are our eyes unto the Lord our God," then, we, as it were, draw the he eye of the Lord to watch over us.

What does he mean then by saying, "for he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet"? Is the Lord to reign only until his enemies begin to be under his feet, and once they are under his feet will he cease to reign? Of course his reign will then commence in its fullness when his enemies begin to be under his feet. David also in the fourth Song of Ascents speaks thus, "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us." Will the prophet, then, look to the Lord until he obtains mercy, and when mercy is obtained will he turn his eyes down to the ground, although elsewhere he says, "My eyes fail, looking for your salvation, and for your righteous promise"? I could accumulate countless instances of this usage and cover the verbosity of our assailant with a cloud of proofs; I shall, however, add only a few and leave the reader to find similar ones for himself.

The tax collector in the Gospel, therefore, acting properly, "did not wish even to lift up his eyes," but on the other hand, the disciple who is present with Jesus would reasonably lift them up when he is given the command, "Lift up your eyes and see the fields, that they are already white to harvest."2The prophet, too, says, "Lift up your eyes on high." But in addition, in Psalm 122 (LXX), which is the fourth song of the gradual psalms, the prophet, when he has lifted up his eyes to God in a fitting manner, says, "To you who dwell in heaven I have lifted up my eyes. Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a handmaid are on the hands of her mistress, so our eyes are on the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us." And if we must also show more clearly for whom it is now proper to imitate Jesus by lifting up his eyes, in that he also lifts up his eyes, and for whom this is not proper, but who, like the tax collector, should not only stand far away from the temple but also not wish to lift up his eyes, we will quote the words of Daniel about the lawless elders who lusted after Susanna. The words are as follows: "And they perverted their own mind and turned their eyes away that they might not look to heaven or remember just judgments." These words should be taken along with the following remarks made about Susanna, "But she, weeping, looked up to heaven, for her heart trusted in the Lord." Notice in these words that those who perverted their own mind turned their eyes away that they might not look to heaven, but she who trusted in the Lord looked up to heaven as a result of her trust in the Lord.

What then followeth, since he hath said, "Unto Thee do I lift up mine eyes"? (ver. 2). How hast thou lifted up thine eyes? "Behold, even as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress: even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us." We are both servants, and a handmaiden: He is both our Master and our Mistress. What do these words mean? What do these similitudes mean? It is not wonderful if we are servants, and He our Master; but it is wonderful if we are a maiden, and He our Mistress. But not even our being a maiden is wonderful; for we are the Church: nor is it wonderful that He is our Mistress; for He is the Power and the Wisdom of God...When therefore thou hearest Christ, lift up thine eyes to the hands of thy Master; when thou hearest the Power of God and the Wisdom of God, lift up thine eyes to the hands of thy Mistress; for thou art both servant and handmaiden; servant, for thou art a people; handmaiden, for thou art the Church. But this maiden hath found great dignity with God; she hath been made a wife. But until she come unto those spiritual embraces, where she may without apprehension enjoy Him whom she hath loved, and for whom she hath sighed in this tedious pilgrimage, she is betrothed: and hath received a mighty pledge, the blood of the Spouse for whom she sigheth without fear. Nor is it said unto her, Do not love; as it is sometimes said to any betrothed virgin, not as yet married: and is justly said, Do not love; when thou hast become a wife, then love: it is rightly said, because it is a precipitate and preposterous thing, and not a chaste desire, to love one whom she knoweth not whether she shall marry. For it may happen that one man may be betrothed to her, and another man marry her. But as there is no one else who can be preferred to Christ, let her love without apprehension: and before she is joined unto Him, let her love, and sigh from a distance and from her far pilgrimage...

"For we have been much filled with contempt" [Psalm 123:3]. All that will live piously according to Christ, must needs suffer reproof, [2 Timothy 3:12] must needs be despised by those who do not choose to live piously, all whose happiness is earthly. They are derided who call that happiness which they cannot see with their eyes, and it is said to them, What do you believe, madman? Do you see what you believe? Hath any one returned from the world below, and reported to you what is going on there? Behold I see and enjoy what I love. You are scorned, because thou dost hope for what you see not; and he who seems to hold what he sees, scorns you. Consider well if he does really hold it...I have my house, he has boasted himself. Thou ask, what house of his own? That which my father left me. And whence did he derive this house? My grandfather left it him. Go back even to his great grandfather, then to his great grandfather's father, and he can no longer tell their names. Are you not rather terrified by this thought, that you see many have passed through this house, and that none of them has carried it away with him to his everlasting home? Your father left it: he passed through it: thus thou also wilt pass by. If therefore you have a mere passing stay in your house, it is an inn for passing guests, not an habitation for permanent abode. Yet since we hope for those things which are to come, and sigh for future happiness, and since it has not yet appeared what we shall be, although we are already "sons of God;" [1 John 3:2] for "our life is hidden with Christ in God:" [Colossians 3:3] "we are utterly despised," by those who seek or enjoy happiness in this world.

"Our soul is filled exceedingly; a reproach to the wealthy, and a contempt to the proud" (ver. 4). We were asking who were "the wealthy:" he hath expounded to thee, in that he hath said, "the proud." "Reproach" and "contempt" are the same: and "wealthy" is the same with "proud." It is a repetition of the sentence, "a reproach to the wealthy, and a contempt to the proud." Why are the proud wealthy? Because they wish to be happy here. Why? since they themselves too are miserable, are they wealthy? But perhaps when they are miserable, they do not mock us. Listen, my beloved. Then perchance they mock when they are happy, when they boast themselves in the pomp of their riches! when they boast themselves in the inflated state of false honours: then they mock us, and seem to say, Behold, it is well with me: I enjoy the good things before me: let those who promise what they cannot show depart from me: what I see, I hold; what I see, I enjoy; may I fare well in this life. Be thou more secure; for Christ hath risen again, and hath taught thee what He will give in another life: be assured that He giveth it. But that man mocketh thee, because he holdeth what he hath. Bear with his mockeries, and thou wilt laugh at his groans: for afterwards there will come a season when these very persons will say, "This was he whom we had sometimes in derision."...

But concerning true patience, worthy of the name of this virtue, whence it is to be had, must now be inquired. For there are some who attribute it to the strength of the human will, not which it hath by Divine assistance, but which it hath of free-will. Now this error is a proud one: for it is the error of them which abound, of whom it is said in the Psalm, "A scornful reproof to them which abound, and a despising to the proud." It is not therefore that "patience of the poor" which "perisheth not forever." For these poor receive it from that Rich One, to Whom is said, "My God art Thou, because my goods Thou needest not:" of Whom is "every good gift, and every perfect gift;" to Whom crieth the needy and the poor, and in asking, seeking, knocking, saith, "My God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the lawless and unjust: because Thou art my patience, O Lord, my hope from my youth up." But these which abound, and disdain to be in want before God, lest they receive of Him true patience, they which glory in their own false patience, seek to "confound the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his hope." Nor do they regard, seeing they are men, and attribute so much to their own, that is, to the human will, that they run into that which is written, "Cursed is every one who putteth his hope in man." Whence even if it chance them that they do bear up under any hardships or difficulties, either that they may not displease men, or that they may not suffer worse, or in self-pleasing and love of their own presumption, do with most proud will bear up under these same, it is meet that concerning patience this be said unto them, which concerning wisdom the blessed Apostle James saith, "This wisdom cometh not from above, but is earthly, animal, devilish." For why may there not be a false patience of the proud, as there is a false wisdom of the proud? But from Whom cometh true wisdom, from Him cometh also true patience. For to Him singeth that poor in spirit, "Unto God is my soul subjected, because from Him is my patience."