Psalm 142 [MT 143]

Let then our Lord speak; let Christ with us, whole Christ, speak. "Lord, hear my prayer, receive with Your ears my entreaty" [Psalm 143:1]. "Hear" and "receive with ears" are the same thing. It is repetition, it is confirmation. "In Your truth hear me, in Your righteousness." Take it not without emphasis when it is said, "in Your righteousness." For it is a commendation of grace, that none of us think his righteousness his own. For this is the righteousness of God, which God has given you to possess. For what says the Apostle of them, who would boast of their own righteousness? Speaking of the Jews, he says, "they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." [Romans 10:2] ...You are perverse, because you impute what you have done ill to God, what well to yourself: you will be right, when you impute what you have done ill to yourself, what well to God....Behold, "in Your righteousness hear me." For when I look upon myself, nought else do I find my own, save sin.

"And enter not into judgment with Thy servant" (ver. 2). Who are willing to enter into judgment with Him, save they who, "being ignorant of the righteousness of God, go about to establish their own?" "Wherefore have we fasted, and Thou hast not seen; wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and Thou takest no knowledge?" As though they would say, "We have done what Thou hast commanded, wherefore dost Thou not render to us what Thou hast promised?" God answereth thee: I will give to thee to receive what I have promised: I have given thee that thou shouldest do that whereby thou mayest receive. Finally, to such proud ones the Prophet speaketh; "Wherefore will ye plead with Me? ye have all transgressed against Me, saith the Lord." Why will ye enter into judgment with Me, and recount your own righteousnesses? ..."For before Thee every one living shall not be justified." "Every one living;" living, that is, here, living in the flesh, living in expectation of death; born a man; deriving his life of man; sprung from Adam, a living Adam; every one thus living may perhaps be justified before himself, but not before Thee. How before himself? By pleasing himself, displeasing Thee. Enter not then into judgment with me, O Lord my God. How straight soever I seem to myself, Thou bringest forth a standard from Thy store-house, Thou fittest me to it, and I am found crooked. Well is it said, "with Thy servant." It is unworthy of Thee to enter into judgment with Thy servant, or even with Thy friend. ...What of the Apostles themselves? ...That ye may perceive it at once, they learnt to pray what we pray: to them was given the pattern of prayer by the heavenly Counsellor. "After this manner," saith He, "pray ye." And having set down certain things first, He laid down this too to be said by the leaders of the sheep, the chief members of the Shepherd and Gatherer of the one flock; even they learnt to say, "Forgive us our debts." They said not, "Thanks be to Thee, who hast forgiven us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors," but, "Forgive, as we forgive." But surely the faithful prayed then, surely the Apostles prayed then, for this Lord's Prayer was given rather to the faithful. If those debts only were meant which are forgiven by Baptism, it would befit catechumens rather to say, "Forgive us our debts." Let the Apostles then say, yea let them say, "Forgive us our debts." And when it is said to them, "Wherefore say ye this? what are your debts?" let them answer, "for in Thy sight every one living shall not be justified."

And so, my glory and my life, God of my heart, I will lay aside for a while all the good deeds that my mother did. For them I thank you, but now I pray to you for her sins. Hear me through your Son, who hung on the cross and now "sits at your right hand and pleads for us," for he is the true medicine of our wounds. I know that my mother always acted with mercy and that she forgave others with all her heart when they trespassed against her. Forgive her too, O Lord, if ever she trespassed against you in all the long years of her life after baptism. Forgive her, I beseech you; "do not call her to account." "Let your mercy give your judgment an honorable welcome," for your words are true and you have promised mercy to the merciful. If they are merciful, it is by your gift; and "you will show pity on those whom you pity; you will show mercy where you are merciful."

And now, to summarize briefly and comprehensively the idea I have of the virtue that belongs to right living: that virtue is charity by means of which we love what we should love. This is greater in some, less in others, lacking in still others; its fullest measure, beyond which there is no increase, is found in no one as long as he lives the life of a human being. As long as it is subject to increase, the defect by which it is less than it ought to be is accounted as vice; by reason of this vice "there is no just person on earth who will do good and sin not"; because of this vice, "no one living shall be justified in the sight of God"; because of this vice, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us"; because of it, also, however much progress we have made, we still have to say, "Forgive us our debts," even though in baptism all our words, deeds, thoughts have been forgiven. Therefore, he who sees rightly sees where and when and whence that perfection is to be hoped for, to which no addition is possible. But, if there were no commandments, there would certainly be no norm by which a person might look into himself and see what he should avoid, what he should strive after, what he should rejoice in, what he should pray for. Commandments, then, are highly useful, if only because free will is thereby given the opportunity of doing greater honor to the grace of God.

Now, whether there ever has been, or is, or ever can be, a man living so righteous a life in this world as to have no sin at all, may be an open question among true and pious Christians; but whoever doubts the possibility of this sinless state after this present life, is foolish. For my own part, indeed, I am unwilling to dispute the point even as respects this life. For although that passage seems to me to be incapable of bearing any doubtful sense, wherein it is written, "In thy sight shall no man living be justified" (and so of similar passages), yet I could wish it were possible to show either that such quotations were capable of bearing a better signification, or that a perfect and plenary righteousness, to which it were impossible for any accession to be made, had been realized at some former time in some one whilst passing through this life in the flesh, or was now being realized, or would be hereafter. They, however, are in a great majority, who, while not doubting that to the last day of their life it will be needful to them to resort to the prayer which they can so truthfully utter, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us," still trust that in Christ and His promises they possess a true, certain, and unfailing hope. There is, however, no method whereby any persons arrive at absolute perfection, or whereby any man makes the slightest progress to true and godly righteousness, but the assisting grace of our crucified Saviour Christ, and the gift of His Spirit; and whosoever shall deny this cannot rightly, I almost think, be reckoned in the number of any kind of Christians at all.

[Nearly always the Psalmist is the indignant plaintiff, sure that his own hands are clean.] There are, indeed, some passages in which the Psalmists approach to Christian humility and wisely lose their self-confidence. Thus in Psalm 50 (one of the finest) God is the accuser (6–21); and in 143:2, we have the words which most Christians often repeat—"Enter not into judgement with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." But these are exceptional. Nearly always the Psalmist is the indignant plaintiff.

But if someone asks why God predicted all the things predestined and still did not promise all the predestined things, we answer that it cannot be called a promise unless when it is predicted that something is going to be done, what is done can be of use to the one to whom it is promised. What is promised is always something of a gift but not always something of a judgment, since the gift of what is promised always brings happiness while the severity of a judgment sometimes saddens.As the prophet, fearing something of this sort, pours out his prayer to God: "Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you." For he knew that all would have to be restrained by the equal chain of punishment unless God, in those whom he willed, made mercy surpass judgment. Justification and glorification that do not exist in a human being from a human being, but from God, have been both predicted and promised because they were to be of great benefit to the saints.

It is clear from all this that there are two kinds of perfections in holy Scripture, and two kinds of justices and two kinds of fears. The first kind of perfection, and its comparable truth, and perfect justice and fear, which is the beginning of wisdom, are compatible with the virtues of God; but the second kind of perfection, which befits not only human beings but also every living creature, and our weakness, according to what is said in the Psalms: "In your sight no one living shall be justified," is the kind of justice that is called perfect, not in comparison with God but according to the knowledge of God. Job, Zachariah and Elizabeth are called just, according to this latter type of perfection, which can change on occasions into injustice, and not according to the former type, which can never change, of which it is said, "I am God, and I change not."

Atticus: From this it is clear that people are called righteous and said to be without fault; but that, if negligence comes over them, they may fall. [It is also clear] that a person always occupies a middle place, so that he may slip from the height of virtue into vice or may rise from vice to virtue. He is never safe but must dread shipwreck even in fair weather. Therefore, a person cannot be without sin. Solomon says, "There is not a righteous person on earth that does good and sins not." Likewise in the book of Kings [2 Chronicles]: "There is no one that sins not." So, also, the blessed David says, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from hidden faults, and keep back your servant from presumptuous sins." And again, "Enter not into judgment with your servant, for in your sight shall no one living be justified." Holy Scripture is full of passages to the same effect.

In another way tears flow, proceeding without any consciousness of deadly sin, yet still from the fear of hell and an awareness of that terrible judgment. With such terror, the prophet was struck and prayed to God, saying: "Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight shall no one living be justified."

Now the Prophet, moreover, said that he had done two things: "I have considered the days of old, and I have called to mind the years which are past in which the men of old pleased God", and through the remembrance of these two things "I am filled with fear at the way in which the righteous men pleased God, and at the way in which I have provoked [Him] to wrath. I have given my seasons to reckoning, and my hours to counting, I have meditated upon the days which have passed, and upon the years which I have lived in the world. I have considered with what I have provoked Him, and what sins I have committed, the things in which I have sinned in act, and the things [in which I have sinned] in thought, and the things [in which I have sinned] with [my] hearing and with [my] tongue. And when I meditated upon these things I said, Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight can no man living be justified." To such resemblance doth the word of the Prophet call us, and he delivered unto us this type of instruction. We must reckon the hours and the seasons, and in what we have provoked [Him], and the things upon which we have meditated; for if those who practise the trafficking of [this] world reckon up their income and expenses each day, and what they gain and what they lose, how much more is the spiritual merchant who goeth forth in quest of heavenly riches bound to do this?

"For the enemy hath persecuted my soul: he hath humbled my life on the earth" (ver. 3). Here we speak, here our Head speaketh for us. Manifestly both the devil persecuted the Soul of Christ and Judas the Soul of his Master: and now too the same devil remaineth to persecute the Body of Christ, and one Judas succeedeth another. There lacketh not then of whom the Body too may say, "For the enemy hath persecuted my soul." For what doth each one who persecuteth us endeavour save to make us abandon our heavenly hope, and savour of the earth, yield to our persecutor, and love earthly things? "They have laid me in dark places, as the dead of the world." This ye hear more readily from the Head; this ye perceive more readily in the Head. For He died indeed for us, yet was He not one of the "dead of the world." For who are the "dead of the world"? And how was not He one of the "dead of the world"? "The dead of the world" are those who have died of their own desert, receiving the reward of iniquity, deriving death from the sin transmissed to them; according as it is said, "For I was conceived in iniquity." ...In dying, saith He, I do the will of My Father, but I am not deserving of death. Nought have I done wherefore I should die, yet is it Mine own doing that I die, that by the death of an innocent One, they may be freed who had wherefore they should die. "They set me in places," as though in Hades, as though in the tomb, as though in His very Passion, "as the dead of the world."

"And My Spirit within me," saith He, "suffered weariness" (ver. 4). Remember, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Here we see one voice. Do we not see plainly the transition from the Head to the members, from the members to the Head? ...

Let that foe of yours upbraid you, but do you not upbraid him. Regard his words as a training ground in which to exercise philosophy. If you have not been pierced, you are still unwounded, and, if your spirit suffers some injury, confine the hurt within yourself; for the psalmist says, "my heart within me is troubled," that is, he gave no outward expression of his feelings but repressed them, as a wave that breaks against the shore and subsides. Quiet your heart, I beg you, when it howls and rages. Make your passions honor your reason, as an unruly boy respects the presence of a venerable man.

But we too were there. He goes to the members. "I have called to mind the days of old" [Psalm 143:5]. Did He "call to mind the days of old," by whom every day was made? No, but the body speaketh, each one who has been justified by His grace, who dwelleth in Him in love and devout humility, speaketh and saith, "I have meditated upon all Thy works:" plainly because Thou hast made all things good, and nothing would have stood fast, which was not established by Thee. Thy creation is made a spectacle unto me: I have sought in the work the Artificer, in all that is made the Maker. Wherefore this, to what purpose this, save that he might understand, that whatever there was of good in himself was made by Him. ...Look back then upon the Framer of thy life, the Author of thy substance, of thy righteousness, and of thy salvation: "meditate upon the works of His hands," for the righteousness too which is in thee, thou wilt find to pertain to His hand. Hear the Apostle teaching thee this, "not of works," he saith, "lest any should boast." Have we no good works? Plainly we have: but see what follows; "for we are His workmanship," saith he. "We are His workmanship:" perhaps in thus speaking of workmanship, he meant to mention the nature whereby we are men? Evidently not: he was speaking of works. But let us not make conjectures; let the text go on, "for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Think not then that thou thyself doest anything, save in so far as thou art evil. ..."Work out your own salvation," saith the Apostle, "with fear and trembling." If we do work out our own salvation, wherefore with fear, wherefore with trembling, when what we work is in our own power? Hear wherefore with fear and trembling: "for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do, of His good pleasure." Therefore "with fear and trembling," that it may delight our Maker to work in the lowly valley. ...

"I stretched forth," says he, "my hands to You: my soul is as a land without water to You" [Psalm 143:6]. Rain upon me, says he, to bring forth from me good fruit. "For the Lord shall give sweetness, that our land may give her fruit." "I have stretched forth my hands to You; my soul is as a land without water," not to me, but "to You." I can thirst for You, I cannot water myself.

Put two people together; one wants to go to the show, the other to church. They are joined in body, separated by their desires. The first is like the salt water, the second appears as dry land. How can we prove that this land is dry, which signifies people desiring good things? The psalmist says to God, "My soul is like land without water to you." My soul has thirsted for you; it is thirsty, it is dry, it is segregated from the waters of the sea. It must not bother about not yet being segregated in the body; its desire has already made the separation. Some desire God, others desire the world.

"Speedily hear me, Lord" [Psalm 143:7]. For what need of delay to inflame my thirst, when already I thirst so eagerly? Thou didst delay the rain, that I might drink and imbibe, not reject, Thy inflowing. If then Thou didst for this cause delay, now give; for "my spirit hath failed." Let Thy Spirit fill me. This is the reason why Thou shouldest speedily hear me. I am now become "poor in spirit," make Thou me "blessed in the kingdom of heaven." For he in whom his own spirit liveth, is proud, is puffed up with his own spirit against God. ...

"Turn not Thou away Thy Face from me." Thou didst turn it away from me when proud. For once I was full, and in my fulness I was puffed up. Once "in my fulness I said, I shall never be moved." "I said in my fulness, I shall not be moved," knowing not Thy Righteousness, and establishing mine own; but "Thou, Lord, in Thy Will hast afforded strength to my beauty." "I said in my fulness, I shall not be moved," but from Thee came whatever fulness I had. And to prove to me that it was from Thee, "Thou didst turn away Thy Face from me, and I was troubled." After this trouble, whereinto I was cast, because Thou didst turn away Thy Face, after the weariness of my spirit, after my heart was troubled within me, because Thou didst turn away Thy Face, then became I "like a land without water to Thee: turn not Thou away Thy Face." Thou turnedst it away from me when proud; give it back to me now I am humble. Because, if Thou turn it away, "I shall be like to them that go down into the pit." What is, "that go down into the pit"? When the sinner has come into the depth of sins, he will show contempt. They "go down into the pit," who lose even confession; against which is said, "Let not the pit close her mouth over me." This depth Scripture calleth mostly "a pit," into which depth when a sinner hath come, "he showeth contempt." What is, "he showeth contempt"? He no longer believeth in Providence, or if he do believe, he thinketh that he has no longer aught to do with it. ...

"Make me to hear in the morning Thy mercy, for in Thee have I hoped" [Psalm 143:8]. Behold, I am in the night, yet "in Thee have I hoped," until the iniquity of the night pass away. "For we have," as Peter saith, "a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts." "Morning" then he calleth the time after the end of the world, when we shall see what in this world we believe. But what here, until the morning come? For it is not enough to hope for the morning; we must do somewhat. Why do somewhat? God is to be sought with the hands in the night. What is, "with the hands"? By good works. Since then we must thus hope for the morning, and bear this night, and persevere in this patience until the day dawn, what meanwhile must we do here? lest perchance thou think that thou wilt do aught of thyself, whereby thou mayest earn to be brought to the morning. "Make known to me, O Lord, the way wherein I must walk." Therefore did He kindle the lamp of prophecy, therefore did He send the Lord in the vessel, as it were, of the flesh, who should even say, "My strength is dried up like a potsherd." Walk by prophecy, walk by the lamp of future things predicted, walk by the word of God. ...

"Deliver me from mine enemies, O Lord, for unto Thee have I fled for refuge" [Psalm 143:9]. I who once fled from Thee, now flee to Thee. For Adam fled from the Face of God, and hid himself among the trees of Paradise, so that of him was said in the Book of Job, "As a servant that fleeth from his Lord, and findeth a shadow." He fled from the Face of his Lord, and found a shadow. Woe to him, if he continue in the shade, lest it be said afterward, "All things are passed away like a shadow." The rulers of this world, of this darkness, the rulers of the wicked; against these ye wrestle. Great is your conflict, not to see your enemies, and yet to conquer. Against the rulers of this world, of this darkness, the devil, that is, and his angels; not the rulers of that world, whereof is said, "the world was made by Him," but that world whereof is said, "the world knew Him not." "For unto Thee have I fled for refuge." ...Whither should I flee? "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?"

"Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God" [Psalm 143:10]. Glorious confession! glorious rule! "For Thou," says he, "art my God." To another will I hasten to be re-made, if by another I was made. You are my all, "for You are my God." Shall I seek a father to get an inheritance? "You are my God," not only the Giver of mine inheritance, but mine Inheritance itself. "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance." Shall I seek a patron, to obtain redemption? "You are my God." Lastly, having been created, do I desire to be re-created? "You are my God," my Creator, who hast created me by Your Word, and re-created me by Your Word. "Teach Thou me:" for it cannot be that You are my God, and yet I am to be my own master. See how grace is commended to us. This hold fast, this drink in, this let none drive out of your hearts, lest you have "a zeal, of God, but not according to knowledge." [Romans 10:2] Say then this: "Your good Spirit," not my bad one, "Your good Spirit shall lead me into the right land." For my bad spirit has led me into a crooked land. And what have I deserved? What can be reckoned as my good works without Your aid, through which I might obtain and be worthy to be led by Your Spirit into the right land?

Let us entreat the help of the grace of this Spirit in all our actions, dearly beloved. Let us all, individually and collectively, say to the Lord, "Let your good Spirit lead me in the right way." And so it will come to pass that the one who came down on the apostles and declared to them the things that were to come may disclose also to our minds the joys of the life to come. May he kindly set us on fire to seek these joys, with the cooperation of the one who is accustomed both to promise and to give him to his faithful, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

It can be proved, too, that just as the Father is good and the Son is good, so the Holy Spirit is good. Of the Father, the Only-Begotten speaks in the Gospel: "One there is who is good, that is God." Of himself he says, "I am the good Shepherd." So, too, of the Holy Spirit, David in his psalms says to the Lord, "Your good spirit shall lead me into the right land." Just as it is said of the Son, "The word of the Lord is right," so of the Holy Spirit it is said, "Renew a right spirit within [me]."

Listen, then, with all your power, to the commendation of Grace, whereby ye are saved without price. "For Thy Name's sake, O Lord, Thou shalt quicken me in Thy righteousness" (ver. 11); not in mine own: not because I have deserved, but because Thou hast mercy. For were I to show mine own desert, nought should I deserve of Thee, save punishment. Thou hast pruned off from me mine own merits; Thou hast grafted in Thine own gifts. "Thou shalt bring forth my soul out of tribulation." "And in thy mercy shalt bring mine enemies to destruction: and thou shalt destroy all them that afflict my soul; for I am Thy servant" (ver. 12).

"And in your mercy shall bring mine enemies to destruction: and you shall destroy all them that afflict my soul; for I am Your servant" [Psalm 143:12].

The examples which (in me at any rate) can hardly fail to produce a smile may occur most disquietingly in Psalms we love; 143, after proceeding for eleven verses in a strain that brings tears to the eyes, adds in the twelfth, almost like an afterthought, "and of thy goodness slay mine enemies".