Psalm 127 [MT 128]

"Blessed are all they that fear the Lord, and walk in His ways" [Psalm 128:1]. He speaketh to many; but since these many are one in Christ, in the next words he speaketh in the singular: "For thou shall eat the labours of thy fruits."...When I speak of Christians in the plural, I understand one in the One Christ. Ye are therefore many, and ye are one; we are many, and we are one. How are we many, and yet one? Because we cling unto Him whose members we are; and since our Head is in heaven, that His members may follow....Let us therefore so hear this Psalm, as considering it to be spoken of Christ: and all of us who cling unto the Body of Christ, and have been made members of Christ, walk in the ways of the Lord; and let us fear the Lord with a chaste fear, with a fear that abideth for ever....

When he says, "Blessed are all who fear the Lord," he shows that they are not blessed who fear with troubled mind the dangers of the world when temporal property is lost. For those dangers make people wretched when they torment them with groundless fear. They have no advantage, but rather a dimunition. They do not know an ascent, but rather destruction. In contrast, the fear of the Lord descends from love, is born of charity and is begotten of sweetness. A pious fear comforts the fearful and refreshes the afflicted, and does not know how to lack joy unless such fruit of fear has been put aside. About this fear it is written, "Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord." How advantageous fear is, if children are taught by it! What sort of learning there is which is given with sweet affection!

Blessed are all who fear the Lord. Just as no one can say 'The Lord is my portion' except the one who has no other portion in the world, so the one who fears anything else outside the Lord does not fear the Lord. Indeed, the Savior himself says: 'Do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear him who can kill both body and soul in hell.' You see, then, that whoever does not fear the Lord fears some other thing outside the Lord. The one who fears the Lord, what signs does he have? Those who walk in his ways. There are many ways, and many ways lead to one way. Indeed, it is also said in Jeremiah: 'Stand in the ways of the Lord, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and you will find the way, and you will walk in it.' See what it says, Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and you will find the one way, and walk in it. See how through many ways we come to one way. This is also said in the gospel in other words, under another meaning of the parable, concerning that merchant who had many pearls, who sold them, and bought one most precious pearl. What it says is this: Stand in the ways, that is, have very many pearls. Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord. Beautifully it says eternal, lest we should think that at the coming of Christ the law and the prophets were brought to an end. But see what it says. Stand in the ways, in the law and the prophets. Stand in the ways; do not so believe in the one way that you abandon the many ways; but stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord. Ask the paths of the Lord, what Jeremiah said, Isaiah, Ezekiel, what the rest of the prophets said. Ask the paths. It is better said in Greek τρίβους (tribous): for a path (semita) is so called from the fact that it is worn (trita) by the heel of those walking. And what is said is this: Ask the paths, that is τρίβους (tribous), which the foot of the Lord wore down: seeing that the Lord too walked in them. But when you have asked for the eternal paths of the Lord, and through those paths you have found the one way, which says 'I am the way and the life and the truth,' walk in it. See the mysteries of the scriptures: see in the simple words of the scriptures very many sacred meanings, in the ways and paths, in the law and the prophets. It did not say, walk, but, stand: do not abandon the law nor the prophets. Yet when you have found those ways, through these ways walk in this one way.

Blessed are all who fear the Lord. Those who fear the Lord, what reward do they have? What crown? Let us see what praise they have, what reward. Blessed are you, and it shall be well with you. I have already spoken about blessedness; I am asking what this blessedness is: the one who fears the Lord, what blessedness does he have? Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house; your sons like young olive shoots around your table. I think that, with Christ favoring us, we all fear the Lord. Then do we not have this blessedness? For it is written that whoever fears the Lord has this blessedness: Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your sons like young olive shoots around your table. So then, is the man who has one son, and the man who has two, not blessed? For what does it say? Your sons like young olive shoots around your table. Unless we have so many sons that they encircle our table, will we not have the blessedness of the one who fears the Lord? Isaac did not have this blessedness: for he had two sons, one of them utterly wicked, Esau, for whom it would have been far better had he never been born. But he had one son, Jacob: so then did he not have the blessedness? because one son could not encircle the table. Virgins, then, do not fear the Lord? For what is said, that the one who fears the Lord should understand blessedness? Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house; your sons like young olive shoots around your table. John did not have this blessedness, both Johns, the evangelist as much as the baptist: for each of them was a virgin. Paul did not have this blessedness, who says: 'I wish, moreover, that all were as I am.' You see, then, that wife and sons must be understood spiritually; otherwise, unless we understand them spiritually, the angels do not have this blessedness, because they do not have sons. Let us return, therefore, to the order of the reading.

And again, in another place, he [David] ascribeth blessedness to the man who feareth God, and he maketh known what good things the fear of God worketh in him that feareth [Him], saying, "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord", and here the fearer of God is accounted blessed. And although our Lord ordained blessings for other things, the prophet David accounted blessed the fearer of the Lord. "Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the way of the wicked", and it is well known that he walketh not in the way of the wicked because he feareth God. And again he saith, "Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt correct, O Lord, and whom Thou shalt teach Thy law", and it is manifest that the fear of God teacheth the laws, and that the man who feareth confesseth his correction. And again he said, "Blessed are those who are without blemish in the way, and who walk in the law of the Lord", and here again the fear of the Lord preserveth [a man] from blemishes, and urgeth him to walk in the way of the law. And again he saith, "Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and whose sins are covered", and it is well known that here also the fear of God bringeth to repentance, through which the forgiveness of sins is given, and through the suffering and tears which are produced by the fear of God the form of a man's sins is covered before his eyes. And again he saith, "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord, and who walketh in His ways", and here again the prophet David sheweth that a man walketh in the way of the commandments through the fear of God. And in another place he saith concerning him that feareth the Lord, "He taketh heed to the commandments which are given by the Lord."

"Blessed are all who fear the Lord." The inspired word declared blessed not the one from Abraham's stock or from Israel's seed but the person adorned with the fear of God. Blessed Peter also says this in the book of Acts: "In truth I grasp the fact that God shows no partiality, but in every nation the person fearing him and performing righteousness is acceptable to him." The inspired word also gave a glimpse of the character of the fear of God, adding "those walking in his ways": 2 "Not everyone saying to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in heaven." So it is typical of those fearing the Lord not to stray from the ways of God but to travel in them without fail.

"You shall eat the labours of your fruits" [Psalm 128:2]. And ye, O thou, you many who are One, "You shall eat of the labours of your fruits." He seems to speak perversely to those who understand not: for he should have said, you shall eat the fruit of your labours. For many eat the fruit of their labours. They labour in the vineyard; they eat not the toil itself; but what arises from their labour they eat. They labour about trees that bear fruit: who would eat labours? But the fruit of these labours, the produce of these trees; it is this that delights the husbandman. What means, "You shall eat the labours of your fruits"? At present we have toils: the fruits will come afterwards. But since their labours themselves are not without joy, on account of the hope whereof we have a little before spoken, "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation;" [Romans 12:12] at present those very labours delight us, and make us joyful in hope. If therefore our toil has been what could be eaten, and could also delight us; what will be the fruit of our labour when eaten? "They who went weeping on their way, scattering their seed," did eat their labours; with how much greater pleasure will they eat the fruits of their labours, who "shall come again with joy, bearing their sheaves with them"?..."Blessed are you, and well shall it be with you." "Blessed are you," is of the present: "well shall it be with you," is of the future. When you eat the labours of your fruits, "blessed are you;" when you have reached the fruit of your labours, "well shall it be with you." What has he said? For if it be well with you, you will be happy: and if you will be happy, you will also have all well with you. But there is a difference between hope and attainment. If hope be so sweet, how much sweeter will reality be?

You will eat the labors of your hands. Many, not understanding, have interpreted this passage otherwise: 'You will eat the labors of your fruits.' Indeed the Latin copies have it thus: You will eat the labors of your fruits. But we read it written thus in the Hebrew: You will eat the labors of your hands. For who eats the labors of fruits? Surely it ought to be understood the other way around, that someone eats the fruit of his labors, and not the labors of his hands. For it is understood the other way around. For it can rather be said that someone eats the fruit of his labors, and not the labors of fruits. Since, therefore, it is written thus in the Hebrew, You will eat the labors of your hands, I think that in Greek too the Seventy translators translated this passage well. For in the Hebrew tongue the hand is called IAD; but in this passage it does not have IAD, but CAPH. And CAPH is translated καρπός (karpos)—not καρπός in the sense of fruit, but some part of the hand: seeing that καρπός in Greek means the joints (ἄρθρα, arthra). This we have said concerning the translation. You will eat, therefore, the labors of your hands. 'Whatever a man sows, this also will he reap.' Behold the man, and his works. So then we too will eat the labors of our hands. In the hands, works are understood. You will eat the labors of your hands. Someone may say: So then, are we going to eat after the resurrection? For this is said of the blessed man, You will eat the labors of your hands. I say this plainly, that man is composed of two substances, that is, of soul and body. The soul is immortal, but the body is mortal. What is mortal must of necessity have mortal food also; but what is immortal, that is, the soul, which is immortal, must have immortal food also. Do you want to know that the soul too has its own food? The Lord and Savior says it, when he was hungry. What does he say? 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me.' Do you want to know what food the soul has? The prophet too says to us: 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.' For just as the body, unless it receives its food, dies: so also the soul, unless it receives spiritual food, dies. Why do I say all this? Because some are accustomed to say: I do not need the holy scripture, it is enough for me only to fear God. And we have said this for this reason: as there are foods for the body, so the holy scriptures are foods also for our soul.

Let us now come to the words, "Thy wife" [Psalm 128:3]: it is said unto Christ. His wife, therefore, is the Church: His Church, His wife, we ourselves are. "As a fruitful vineyard." But in whom is the vineyard fruitful? For we see many barren ones entering those walls; we see that many intemperate, usurious persons, slave dealers, enter these walls, and such as resort to fortune-tellers, go to enchanters and enchantresses when they have a headache. Is this the fruitfulness of the vine? Is this the fecundity of the wife? It is not. These are thorns, but the vineyard is not everywhere thorny. It hath a certain fruitfulness, and is a fruitful vine; but in whom? "Upon the sides of thy house." Not all are called the sides of the house. For I ask what are the sides. What shall I say? Are they walls, strong stones, as it were? If he were speaking of this bodily tenement, we should perhaps understand this by sides. We mean by the sides of the house, those who cling unto Christ...."Thy children." The wife and the children are the same. In these carnal marriages and wedlocks, the wife is one, the children other: in the Church, she who is the wife, is the children also. For the Apostles belonged to the Church, and were among the members of the Church. They were therefore in His wife, and were His wife according to their own portion which they held in His members. Why then is it said concerning them, "When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall the children of the Bridegroom fast"? She who is the wife, then, is the children also....

Next: "Your sons will be as olive shoots around your table." In regards to Wisdom, the wife, rightly are the children called "sons," not "daughters." By the male sex strength of mind is often indicated. Or it may be because whenever this sex is named, it embraces both male and female, as elsewhere he says, "Blessed is the man who fears the Lord." Not only is a man blessed who fears the Lord, but also a woman is blessed who fears the Lord.

Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house. Solomon says that he wished to take wisdom as his bride. He says also in another place concerning wisdom: 'Love her, and she will embrace you: encompass her, and she will keep you.' Let us too, therefore, take this wife; let us hold her in our embraces, let us never let her go from our bosom, let her never flee from our hands. If this wife is always in our embrace, we will make from her sons: not daughters, but sons. Indeed, it is said here too: Your sons like young olive shoots around your table. Could it not have said, your daughters? or could it not have said τὰ τέκνα σου (ta tekna sou), so that both men and women might be understood? But see what it says, your sons. He who has wisdom as his wife does not make from her daughters, but sons. He has nothing soft, nothing dainty, nothing tender, nothing effeminate in his mind. Do you suppose it is for some other reason that the saints are written to have had not daughters, but sons? Let us read Genesis: for there the order of the generations is preserved. Holy Abraham had Sarah as his wife, had Hagar as his concubine, had afterward Keturah. From two wives he begets sons, he makes no daughters. Let us come to Isaac. Isaac too makes two sons, he has no daughters. For he was holy, and had in himself nothing soft and tender and effeminate, but all manly and firm. Blessed Jacob has twelve patriarchs as sons; and he has one daughter by the name of Dinah, which is translated cause, quarrel, strife. Indeed he had one daughter, and twelve sons; and on account of one daughter such great wars arise in Shechem. Jacob had never said: 'I am afraid, you have made me hateful.' He speaks to Levi and Simeon: 'Levi and Simeon, let my soul not come into their counsel.' Why? because as men they wished to plead the cause of a woman. Why have I said all this? Because the saints do not have daughters, but have only sons. I tell you a new thing, new to those who do not know it; but for those who read the scriptures, and read them diligently, not new, but the very thing they know. Jacob had twelve sons as patriarchs: Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Levi, Issachar, Asher, and the rest up to twelve. Read in the account of the generation, and you will never find that any of those twelve great patriarchs made a daughter, but all of them sons. I will tell you one, lest perhaps you forget. Asher had a daughter, Sarah. Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter: so among the twelve patriarchs one patriarch had only one daughter. Why have I said all this? So that we ought to understand sons and daughters in the scriptures spiritually. Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house. Like a fruitful vine. A fruitful vine has very many clusters, so also our wife, that is, wisdom our wife, who is the bride. Indeed, it is written in another place: 'Come my sister, my bride.' Lest in the fact that it had said, bride, you should understand something shameful, sister is joined, so that all shameful love may be excluded. Come my sister: for the love is holy, and therefore I call you sister. And my bride: therefore I call you bride, so that I may have a wife, and from you make many sons, many sons like clusters from a vine. Just as a vine has various clusters, and there is indeed one root, but it spreads its tendrils far and wide, here and there, and the tendrils themselves have their own fruits, and in the fruits themselves are the clusters, and one cluster is larger, another smaller, some grapes are larger, others smaller; so also from wisdom, which is our wife, provided that we never let her go, many clusters are born, that is, very many virtues, holy thoughts, splendid works. Your sons like young olive shoots around your table. We read in another place: 'And wine gladdens the heart of man.' We read also in the Song of Songs: 'Come, brothers, drink and be inebriated.' And wine which gladdens the heart of man. This fleshly wine does not gladden the heart of man, but overwhelms it, and makes it mad. Indeed, it is written that those who are powerful should not drink wine. The apostle too writes that we ought not to drink wine and eat flesh. Again it is said to us: And wine gladdens the heart of man. But it speaks of a spiritual wine, which, if anyone drinks it, he is immediately inebriated. All of you, that you might let go of your possessions and your parents and your children and your kinfolk, drank wine, and being inebriated for Christ began to be mad. Does it not seem to you to be drunkenness, does it not seem to you to be spiritual madness, to despise delights, to seek out squalor, to flee the cities, to pursue the deserts, to know no affections, to ignore the nearness of the flesh, and to know Christ alone? Indeed, the apostles were inebriated with this wine, and therefore it is said of them: 'They are full of new wine.' For they had not been inebriated from the old law, but from the gospel. Noah too, I think, was inebriated in this way with this wine. Your sons like young olive shoots. To nothing else are our sons compared except to young olive shoots. It did not say, to the old olive tree, but to the young olive. Just as there too, concerning the drunkenness of the apostles, it does not speak of old wine, but of new wine, so here too it says young olive shoots: young olive shoots, which are wholly green in the youth of the gospel, young olive shoots full of light. Oil has this nature, that it seasons food, that it provides fuel for light, that it restores an anointed body wearied by a long journey, as it were, to its former toil and to health. Indeed, whoever is weary, and is anointed, as it were recovers his former vigor. Do you think that wine and oil are named here without a reason? It could not have said honey, nor other aromatic spices, nor another tree, but only the vine and the olive. These are the remedies of our life, the vine and the olive, wine and oil. In wine, severity; in oil, mercy. Indeed, that man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, who had been wounded, the Samaritan, that is, the guardian, poured into him nothing except wine and oil. Wine, the severity of the precepts, astringent wine; so that whatever there is of bad humor, it may burn out and consume. But since human frailty cannot bear the truth—'for if you should mark iniquities, Lord, Lord, who shall endure it?' for if the Lord should be only just, we cannot live—therefore to his justice, that is, to the wine, the oil of mercy has been added.

But in the Psalms too, finding something similar, they slip into the same error: "your wife", it says, "like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table", up to that place where it says: "may the Lord bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good things that are of Jerusalem". Therefore, when Jerusalem has been furnished and restored to its ancient state, then the holy one will see the good things which the Scripture mentions. Those who understand Jerusalem spiritually, and know that it is said of her: "which is heavenly, which is above, which is our mother", will see her good things, of which we have often spoken, and that which we have now cited from the psalm: "your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table".

...Such children ought therefore to be "around" the Lord's "table, like olive-branches." A complete Vine it is, a great bliss: who would now refuse to be there? When thou seest any blasphemer have a wife, children, grandchildren, and thyself perchance without them, envy them not; discern that the promise hath been fulfilled in thee also, but spiritually. If therefore we have, why have we? Because we fear the Lord. "Lo, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord" [Psalm 128:4]. He is the man, who is also the men; and the men are one man; because many are one, because Christ is One.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. We have already spoken much, let us hasten to the end.

"The Lord from out of Sion bless thee: and mayest thou see thee good things that are of Jerusalem" [Psalm 128:5]. Even to the birds was it said, "Be fruitful and multiply." [Genesis 1:22] Dost thou wish to hold as a great blessing what was given unto birds? Who can be ignorant, that it was given indeed by the voice of God? But use these goods, if thou receive them; and rather think how thou mayest nourish those who have been born, than that others may be born. For it is not happiness to have children, but to have good ones. Labour in the task of nourishing them, if they be born; but if they be not born, give thanks unto God. ...Thy children are infants: thou dost caress the infants: the infants caress thee: do they abide thus? But thou wishest they may grow, thou wishest that their age may increase. But consider that when one age cometh, another dieth. When boyhood cometh, infancy dieth; when youth cometh, boyhood dieth: when manhood cometh, youth dieth; when old age cometh, manhood dieth: when death cometh, all age dieth. As many successions of ages as thou wishest for, so many deaths of ages dost thou wish for. These things therefore "are" not. Finally, are children born unto thee to share life with thee on earth, or rather to shut thee out and to succeed thee? Rejoicest thou in those born to exclude thee? Boys when born speak somewhat like this to their parents: "Now then, begin to think of removing hence, let us too play our parts on the stage." For the whole life of temptation in the human race is a stage play; for it is said, "Every man living is altogether vanity." Nevertheless, if we rejoice in children who will succeed us; how much must we rejoice in children with whom we shall remain, and in that Father for whom we are born, who will not die, but that we may evermore live with Him? These are the good things of Jerusalem: for they "are." And how long shall I see the good things of Jerusalem? "All thy life long." If thy life be for ever, thou wilt see the good things of Jerusalem for evermore....

May the Lord bless you out of Zion. Out of this Zion? And how does another prophet say 'Zion shall be plowed like a field'? The Lord also says: 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you.' Indeed, when the Lord had drawn near to Jerusalem, and had seen it, he wept. But when he wept over it, surely he wept over it because it was about to fall, as though about to perish. Indeed, what does he say? 'Rise, let us go from here.' And in another place, what does he say? 'Your house shall be left to you desolate.' So then, in what it says, May the Lord bless you out of Zion, it does not mean this Zion, which we see to be desolate. The gates themselves and the field itself and the ruins themselves signify the wrath of God. Even if we do not know it, the very eyes cry out the wrath of the Lord. May the Lord bless you out of Zion. Zion is translated watchtower, Jerusalem is translated vision of peace. If our soul has a watchtower, if it is on high, if it thinks not of earthly things, but of things sublime: if our soul has the vision of peace, that is, if Christ, who is true peace, dwells in it, he himself will bless us. If Christ dwells in us, we too will be Zion, and we too will be Jerusalem.

For, "if in this life only," saith the Apostle, "we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." [1 Corinthians 15:19] For what reason were the Martyrs condemned to beasts? What is that good? Can it be declared? by what means, or what tongue can tell it? or what ears can hear it? That indeed, "Neither ear hath heard, nor hath it entered into man's heart:" [1 Corinthians 2:9] only let us love, only let us grow in grace: ye see, then, that battles are not wanting, and that we fight with our lusts. We fight outwardly with unbelieving and disobedient men; we fight inwardly with carnal suggestions and perturbations: we everywhere as yet fight. ...What sort of peace then is this? One from Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is interpreted, A vision of Peace. Thus then "mayest thou see the good things that are of Jerusalem," and that, "all thy life long-and mayest thou see," not only thy children, but, "thy children's children." What meaneth, Thy children? Thy works which thou here dost. Who are thy children's children? The fruits of thy works. Thou givest alms: these are thy children: for the sake of thine alms thou receivest everlasting life, these are thy children's children. "Mayest thou see thy children's children;" and there shall be "peace upon Israel" [Psalm 128:6], the last words of the Psalm....

And may you see the sons of your sons. I am speaking to you. If by my discourse I instruct you, I have seen my sons: if you instruct others, I have seen the sons of my sons. Let us pray, therefore, to the Lord, that we may have sons, may have grandsons, and may always have much offspring. Let us hasten to make such sons: this union is holy. I tell you a new thing: without the embrace of a wife many such sons are born. Peace upon Israel. Israel is translated, a man seeing God. See, therefore, what is said. Peace upon Israel: upon those who have a mind seeing God. If my mind has the vision of God, if I always see Christ, I will not see others. Whoever has Christ in himself, has peace in himself. 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you.' Although there are many persecutions, although there are many who persecute, yet in whomever Christ dwells, that one always has Christ.