Psalm 83 [MT 84]

If therefore you feel the passions of this world, even when you are happy, you understand now that you are in the winepress....If therefore the world smile upon you with happiness, imagine yourself in the winepress, and say, "I found trouble and heaviness, and I did call upon the name of the Lord." He said not, I found trouble, without meaning, of such a kind as was hidden: for some troubles are hidden from some in this world, who think they are happy while they are absent from God. "For as long as we are in the body," he says, "we are absent from the Lord." [2 Corinthians 5:6] If you were absent from your father, you would be unhappy: are you absent from the Lord, and happy? There are then some who think it is well with them. But those who understand, that in whatever abundance of wealth and pleasures, though all things obey their beck, though nothing troublesome creep in, nothing adverse terrify, yet that they are in a bad case as long as they are absent from the Lord; with a most keen eye these have found trouble, and grief, and have called on the name of the Lord. Such is he who sings in this Psalm. Who is he? The Body of Christ. Who is that? You, if you will: all we, if we will: for Christ's Body is one....

"How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts" [Psalm 84:1]. He was in some tabernacles, that is, in winepresses: but he longed for other tabernacles, where is no pressure: in this he sighed for them, from these, he, as it were, flowed down into them by the channel of longing desire.

To the choirmaster, for the winepresses, a psalm of the sons of Korah. There are three psalms which are inscribed "for the winepresses": the eighth, the eightieth, and the eighty-third. The eighth is inscribed to David, the eightieth is inscribed to Asaph, the eighty-third is inscribed as of the sons of Korah. I give you a certain rule, so that you may know what you ought to observe in the Scriptures. Whatever psalm is inscribed as of the sons of Korah has nothing sad in it, but always signifies joyful things.

For since Korah and Dathan and Abiram acted against Moses, and were punished by the Lord, the sons of Korah, who did not follow their father, were blessed with eternal joy. And since Korah is interpreted "skull," and it is plain that the skull signifies the place of the resurrection, whoever is a son of Korah is a son of the resurrection. And whoever is a son of the resurrection can have nothing that is sad.

How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts: my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. Then it is said, "Blessed are they who dwell in your house." See that there are three things: the tabernacles, and the courts, and lastly the house. How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. What are these tabernacles? Let us look at the Gospel, whether it may offer us some meaning. The Lord speaks, and says: "Make yourselves friends of the unjust mammon, that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles." What is it that fails? This, that is, the unjust mammon. May they receive you into the eternal tabernacles. You see, therefore, that the unjust mammon fails in this world. Yet consider that this unjust thing prepares righteousness. In the Hebrew tongue riches are called "mammon": not gold, as some suppose. Of the unjust mammon. There is also a certain saying of the philosopher that is true: "Every rich man is either unjust, or the heir of an unjust man." For this reason the Lord and Savior says that the rich enter with difficulty into the kingdom of heaven. Someone may say: How did Zacchaeus enter into the kingdom of heaven, who was rich? But he gave away his riches, and at once he exchanged his riches for the kingdom of heaven. He did not say, Whoever are rich shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he said, that the rich enter with difficulty into the kingdom of heaven.

How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. Others desire possessions, others the riches of this world, others to hold office in the churches of this world, and to have some glory among men: for me this alone is my desire, to see your eternal tabernacles. Those tabernacles are beloved to me, where there is a gathering of virtues, not of vices. My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. This is my only desire, this is my only love, that I may see your courts. See the order. First he desires the tabernacles, tabernacles which have no foundation, tabernacles which are quickly changed. For a tabernacle is always being changed, and is carried from here to there. But the courts are indeed not the house, yet they have some foundations, and from the court we enter into the house. Therefore this man first desires the tabernacles, and afterward faints and melts with love that he may see the courts: and when he has been in the court, then he says: "Blessed are they who dwell in your house."

Long ago, when we spoke about the eightieth psalm, we said that the title of the eighth psalm, and of the eightieth, and of the eighty-third psalm — that is, of this one — is inscribed "for the winepresses." So we said that winepresses are like granaries, in which the crops are stored away. So let us see what he says.

How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. These, then, are the winepresses in which the spiritual grain is to be stored. "Make for yourselves friends out of the mammon of iniquity, that they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles." How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. How beloved are the tabernacles through which a man is carried over from earth to heaven. My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. Happy is that thought which by day and by night desires the tabernacles of the Lord. He who is a sinner, when death comes, does not think about these tabernacles, but about punishments: he does not consider the kingdom of heaven, but dreads the flames of hell. My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. See with what love, or with what longing, the mind of the holy man is wounded for the courts of the Lord. Beautifully has he said: I gaze upon the doors, and what the house is like inside I do not know.

And what follows? "My soul longeth and faileth for the courts of the Lord" (ver. 2). It is not enough that it "longeth and faileth:" for what doth it fail? "For the courts of the Lord." The grape when pressed hath failed: but for what? So as to be changed into wine, and to flow into the vat, and into the rest of the storeroom, to be kept there in great quiet. Here it is longed for, there it is received: here are sighs, there joy: here prayers, there praises: here groans, there rejoicing. Those things which I mentioned, let no one while here turn from ashamed: let no one be unwilling to suffer. There is danger, lest the grape, while it fears the winepress, should be devoured by birds or by wild beasts. ...

My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God. It is difficult that both the heart and the flesh of anyone should agree together in common. For if, according to the apostle, the spirit fights against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, how does he here say: My heart and my flesh have exulted? This no one can say, except him who is fixed with his whole mind in the love of God. My heart and my flesh. This is what he says also in another place: "My soul has thirsted for you, how manifoldly my flesh for you." And my flesh. This is the flesh that desires the Lord, of which it is said in another place: "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." But that flesh, of which it is said "All flesh is grass," does not desire the Lord. My heart and my flesh. Show me some abstinent man, who reckons the death of his flesh to be the gain of his soul. And these are the fastings and the afflictions of the flesh. Finally, what does the apostle also say? "Whom I have handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved." Unless the flesh has died, the spirit cannot be made alive. For this reason the apostle also says: "When I am weak, then I am stronger." Let each one consider himself, when he is wearied and worn out with fasting, how the soul flourishes, how the mind considers nothing else except God, how it always says: How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts.

My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God. Listen, heretic, to what he says. How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts: he is speaking of the kingdom of heaven. "There are many dwelling-places with my Father," the Lord says in the Gospel. My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord: these are the courts in which the saints will dwell for eternity, which the prophet desires. My heart and my flesh. You see, then, that both the soul and the flesh alike desire the kingdom of heaven. But if the flesh is dissolved into the air, if it will not rise again, as the heretics suppose, how does the flesh of the prophet desire the kingdom of heaven? My heart and my flesh: because they have labored together, together they await the recompense. If the labor is shared, why should the reward not be shared? I beg you to hear me with indulgence. The flesh labors more in the present age than the soul: because the soul commands, the flesh serves. One thing is the labor of the servant, another the delights of the one who commands. The soul desires the Lord: the flesh fasts, the flesh lies on the ground in the cold, in prison it is scourged in martyrdom, it is beaten, it is condemned — the injury is the flesh's. The soul indeed grieves: but grief does not reach it except through the flesh. But someone may say: How does the apostle say that "flesh and blood shall not obtain the kingdom of God"? Do you wish to know how it is written? Listen to the Lord speaking in Genesis: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, because he is flesh." Why? For what is this? You made the flesh, and do you accuse and condemn the flesh? But what God says is this: my spirit shall not remain in these men, because they do not live according to the spirit, but according to the vices and will of the flesh. Let the apostle too give his testimony: "Whoever are in the flesh cannot please God." If all who are in the flesh cannot please God, how did Paul himself, who is speaking, please God? How did Peter or the rest of the apostles and the saints please him, whom we cannot deny to have been in the flesh? Just as the same apostle again says: "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit." They were in the flesh: and how does he say, You are not in the flesh? Because you do not live according to the flesh, because "our citizenship is in heaven." For we who in this age "are pilgrims away from the Lord" do indeed walk on the earth, but we hasten toward the things of heaven: because here we have no home of our own, but are strangers and pilgrims, just as all our fathers were.

You have heard a groan in the winepress, "My soul longs and fails for the courts of the Lord:" hear how it holds out, rejoicing in hope: "My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God." Here they have rejoiced for that cause. Whence comes rejoicing, but of hope? Wherefore have they rejoiced? "In the living God." What has rejoiced in you? "My heart and my flesh." Why have they rejoiced? "For," says he, "the sparrow has found her a house, and the turtle-dove a nest, where she may lay her young" [Psalm 84:3]. What is this? He had named two things, and he adds two figures of birds which answer to them: he had said that his heart rejoiced and his flesh, and to these two he made the sparrow and turtle-dove to correspond: the heart as the sparrow, the flesh as the dove. The sparrow has found herself a home: my heart has found itself a home. She tries her wings in the virtues of this life, in faith, and hope, and charity, by which she may fly unto her home: and when she shall have come there, she shall remain; and now the complaining voice of the sparrow, which is here, shall no longer be there. For it is the very complaining sparrow of whom in another Psalm he says, "Like a sparrow alone on the housetop." From the housetop he flies home. Now let him be on the housetop, treading on his carnal house: he shall have a heavenly house, a perpetual home: that sparrow shall make an end of his complaints. But to the dove he has given young, that is, to the flesh: "the dove has found a nest, where she may lay her young." The sparrow a home, the dove a nest, and a nest too where she may lay her young. A home is chosen as for ever, a nest is framed for a time: with the heart we think upon God, as if the sparrow flew to her home: with the flesh we do good works. For you see how many good works are done by the flesh of the saints; for by this we work the things we are commanded to work, by which we are helped in this life. "Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the poor and roofless into your house; and if you see one naked, clothe him:" [Isaiah 58:7] and other such things which are commanded us we work only through the flesh....We speak, brethren, what ye know: how many seem to do good works without the Church? how many even Pagans feed the hungry, clothe the naked, receive the stranger, visit the sick, comfort the prisoner? How many do this? The dove seems, as it were, to bring forth young: but finds not herself a nest. How many works may heretics do not in the Church; they place not their young in a nest. They shall be trampled on and crushed: they shall not be kept, shall not be guarded....In that faith lay your young: in that nest work your works. For what the nests are, what that nest is, follows at once. Having said, And the dove has found herself a nest, where she may lay her young; as if you had asked, What nest? "Your altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God." What is, "My King and my God?" You who rules me, who has created me.

I want to stress what I think that we (or at least I) need more; the joy and delight in God which meet us in the Psalms, however loosely or closely, in this or that instance, they may be connected with the Temple. This is the living centre of Judaism. These poets knew far less reason than we for loving God. They did not know that He offered them eternal joy; still less that He would die to win it for them. Yet they express a longing for Him, for His mere presence, which comes only to the best Christians or to Christians in their best moments. They long to live all their days in the Temple so that they may constantly see 'the fair beauty of the Lord' (27:4). Their longing to go up to Jerusalem and 'appear before the presence of God' is like a physical thirst (Ps. 42). From Jerusalem His presence flashes out 'in perfect beauty' (50:2). Lacking that encounter with Him, their souls are parched like a waterless countryside (63:2). They crave to be 'satisfied with the pleasures' of His house (65:4). Only there can they be at ease, like a bird in the nest (84:3). One day of those 'pleasures' is better than a lifetime spent elsewhere (84:10).

In heart, let us migrate from living in this world, from which we are rapidly going to migrate in the body, that that heavenly dwelling may receive us, concerning which the apostle says that we have an eternal dwelling from God, a house not made by hands, in the heavens. Concerning this dwelling it has been written: "Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise." There, just as there is an eternal dwelling, so there is eternal praise. Those who live there always praise God because they are always exulting about God and in God; and just as for those who give praise, there is the sweet eternity of a holy dwelling, so the eternal sweetness of giving praise remains for those who dwell there.

For indeed the sparrow has found itself a house, and the turtledove a nest where she may lay her young. This is what the Lord says in the Gospel: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests." For indeed the sparrow has found itself a house. He gave a comparison from an everyday example. Because he had said, How beloved are your tabernacles, which my soul longs for, and my flesh desires the kingdom of heaven; he gives a comparison, and says: The birds are free, and although they wander through the air, yet they remember their nests, and return to them. If, then, sparrows seek out their nests, why should the human soul not seek the dwellings prepared for it by the Lord?

Your altars, O Lord of hosts. What is to be understood by, For indeed the sparrow has found itself a house, and the turtledove a nest where she may lay her young: your altars, O Lord of hosts? What is the connection? It hangs upon what came before. My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord: your altars, O Lord of hosts. John in the Apocalypse saw the altar of the Lord, beneath which were the souls of the righteous. For he says thus: "I saw beneath the altar of the Lord the souls of those slain for the word of the Lord and the testimony of Jesus." They were beneath the altar of God, because they had been offered up in martyrdom for Christ; for the victim of the Lord and Savior deserved to be beneath the altar in heaven.

For indeed the sparrow has found itself a home, and the turtledove a nest for itself where it may place its young. For the moment let us interpret it simply. See what he says. I desire, O Lord, your eternal tabernacles: my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord: I desire to have some seat and little nest for my soul and my body. The birds which wander freely here and there, yet after they have flown, have a place and little nests where they may rest: how much more ought my soul and my flesh to prepare for themselves a place, where they may be able to rest? Now let us ascend to something higher. "In the Lord I trust: how do you say to my soul, Migrate to the mountains like a sparrow?" See therefore, that no one migrates to the mountains, except him who is a sparrow. And the turtledove a nest for itself. This is the turtledove, of which he says in the Song of Songs: "The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land." The turtledove a nest for itself. The turtledove is an animal of chastity, the turtledove does not dwell in low places, but always makes its nests for itself in the lofty trees. As therefore the sparrow and the turtledove, most chaste birds, make their nests for themselves in the higher places, so therefore the tabernacles and the courts and the house are not on this low earth, but on high, that is, in the kingdoms of heaven. Finally, see what he says. Blessed are they who dwell in your house. In the tabernacle we do not dwell, but we sojourn. And as long as we are in the court, we do not dwell, but we sojourn: for from the courts we pass into the house. But when we have come into the house, what is said? Blessed are they who dwell in your house. The house, which has a foundation: because from the house it is not permitted for us to go out, but from the courts it is permitted.

..."Blessed are those who dwell in Thy house" (ver. 4). ...If thou hast thy own house, thou art poor; if God's, thou art rich. In thy own house thou wilt fear robbers; of the house of God, He is Himself the wall. Therefore "blessed are those who dwell in Thy house." They possess the heavenly Jerusalem, without constraint, without pressure, without difference and division of boundaries; all have it, and each have all. Great are those riches. Brother crowdeth not brother: there is no want there. Next, what will they do there? For among men it is necessity which is the mother of all employments. I have already said, in brief, brethren, run in your mind through any occupations, and see if it is not necessity alone which produces them. Those very eminent arts which seem so powerful in giving help to others, the art of speaking in their defence or of medicine in healing, for these are the most excellent employments in this life; take away litigants, who is there for the advocate to help? take away wounds and diseases? what is there for the physician to cure? And all those employments of ours which are required and done for our daily life, arise from necessity. To plough, to sow, to clear fallow ground, to sail; what is it which produces all these works, but necessity and want? Take away hunger, thirst, nakedness; who has need of all these things? ...For instance, the injunction, "Break thy bread to the hungry." For whom could you break bread, if there were nobody hungry? "Take in the roofless poor into thy house." What stranger is there to take in, where all live in their own country? What sick person to visit, where they enjoy perpetual health? What litigants to reconcile, where there is everlasting peace? What dead to bury, where there is eternal life? None of those honourable actions which are common to all men will then be your employment, nor any of these good works; the young swallows will then fly out of their nest. What then? You have said already what we shall have; "Those who dwell in Thy house are blessed." Say now what they shall do, for I see not then any need to induce me to action. Even what I am now saying and arguing springs from some need. Will there be any such argument there to teach the ignorant, or remind the forgetful? Or will the Gospel be read in that country where the Word of God Itself shall be contemplated? ..."They shall be always praising Thee." This shall be our whole duty, an unceasing Hallelujah. Think not, my brethren, that there will be any weariness there: if ye are not able to endure long here in saying this, it is because some want draws you away from that enjoyment. If what is not seen gives not so much joy here, if with so much eagerness under the pressure and weakness of the flesh we praise that which we believe, how shall we praise that which we see? "When death shall be swallowed up in victory, when this mortal shall have put on immortality," no one will say, "I have been standing a long time;" no one will say, "I have fasted a long time," "I have watched a long time." For there shall be great endurance, and our immortal bodies shall be sustained in contemplation of God. And if the word which we now dispense to you keeps your weak flesh standing so long, what will be the effect of that joy? how will it change us? "For we shall be like Him, since we shall see Him as He is." Being made like Him, when shall we ever faint? what shall draw us off? Brethren, we shall never be satiated with the praise of God, with the love of God. If love could fail, praise could fail. But if love be eternal, as there will there be beauty inexhaustible, fear not lest thou be not able to praise for ever Him whom thou shalt be able to love for ever. For this life let us sigh.

Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord: that is, in the Church, whether the present one, or "the church of the firstborn." Forever and ever they will praise you. See what kind of office the martyrs have: it is that of the angels too. What they do in heaven, then, this we imitate on earth. So when we are called to the psalms and neglect them, we despise the praises of God.

But how shall we come thither? "Happy is the man whose strength is in Thee"(ver. 5). He knew where he was, and that by reason of the frailty of his flesh he could not fly to that state of blessedness: he thought upon his own burden, as it is said elsewhere; "For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly house depresses the understanding which has many thoughts." The Spirit calls upward, the weight of the flesh calls back again downward: between the double effort to raise and to weigh down, a kind of struggle ensues: this struggle goes toward the pressure of the winepress. Hear how the Apostle describes this same struggle of the winepress, for he was himself afflicted there, there he was pressed. ..."Miserable man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord." ..."For I delight in the Law of God according to the inner man." But what shall I do? how shall I fly? how shall I arrive thither? "I see another law in my members," etc. ...And as in the words of the Apostle, that difficulty and that almost inextricable struggle is alleviated by the addition, "The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord;" so here, when he sighed in the ardent longing for the house of God, and those praises of God, and when a kind of despair arose at the feeling of the burden of the body and the weight of the flesh, again he awoke to hope, and said (ver. 5), "Blessed is the man whose taking up is in Thee."

Blessed is the man whose help is from You; he has disposed ascents in his heart, in the valley of tears, in the place which he has appointed. Since blessedness is nothing other than the enjoyment of the highest good, and the highest good is above us, no one can be made blessed unless he ascends above himself, not by a bodily ascent, but by one of the heart. But we cannot be raised above ourselves except by a higher power lifting us up. For however much the interior steps may be disposed, nothing is accomplished unless divine help accompanies them. But divine help accompanies those who seek it from a humble and devout heart; and this is to sigh toward Him in this valley of tears, which is done through fervent prayer. Prayer, therefore, is the mother and origin of the upward-lifting. Therefore Dionysius, in his book On Mystical Theology, wishing to instruct us in mental ecstasies, first sets forth prayer. Let us therefore pray and say to the Lord our God: Lead me, O Lord, in Your way, and I shall walk in Your truth; let my heart rejoice, that it may fear Your name.

Blessed is the man whose help is from you. We indeed desire your tabernacles and courts and house: but this very thing, that we may be able to attain it, is not of our own strength, but of your help. He has arranged ascents in his heart. Who has arranged ascents in his heart? Blessed is the man whose help is from the Lord: he has arranged ascents in his heart. Whoever is holy is daily stretched out toward the things before, and forgets the things that are past. For this reason there are also said in the Psalter the fifteen psalms of the steps, and the first is said, "To the Lord when I was in tribulation I cried out." And in the second, "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where my help shall come." And in the third, "I was glad in the things that were said to me." And he always proceeds, and advances, and ascends to loftier things. What he says is this. He has arranged ascents in his heart. Happy is he who daily advances, who does not consider what he did yesterday, but what he may do and advance in today. The holy man places ascents in his heart, the sinner descents. As he who is holy daily advances, so he who is a sinner daily decreases. Blessed is the man who arranges ascents in his heart. See the sequence of the Scriptures.

Blessed is the man whose help is from you. To begin is ours, to help is God's. He has arranged ascents in his heart. Daily he thinks how he may ascend, not how he may descend. Whoever is a sinner puts not ascents, but descents, in his heart. That is why Jacob too saw the angels ascending and descending. He has arranged ascents in his heart: what is his own — he thinks the good, but the accomplishment he leaves to God. It is ours to arrange, his to bring to completion.

What then does God supply by His grace to him whom He taketh hold of to lead him on? He goes on to say: "He hath placed steps in his heart." ...Where does it place steps? "In his heart, in the valley of weeping" (ver. 6). So here thou hast for a winepress the valley of weeping, the very pious tears in tribulation are the new wine of those that love. ...They went forth "weeping," he says, "casting their seed." Therefore, by the grace of God may upward steps be placed in thy heart. Rise by loving. Hence the Psalm "of degrees" is called. ..."He hath placed steps of ascent to the place which He hath appointed" (ver. 7). Now we lament; whence proceed our lamentations, but from that place where the steps of our ascent are placed? Whence comes our lamentation, but from that cause wherefore the Apostle exclaimed that he was a wretched man, because he saw another law in his members, warring against the law in his mind? And whence does this proceed? From the penalty of sin. And we thought that we could easily be righteous as it were by our own strength, before we received the command; "but when the command came, sin revived; but I died," saith the Apostle. For a law was given to men, not such as could save them at once, but it was to show them in what severe sickness they were lying. ...But when sin was made manifest by the law given, sin was but increased, for it is both sin, and against the Law; "Sin," saith he, "taking occasion by the command, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence." What does he mean by "taking occasion by the law"? Having received the command, men tried as by their own strength to obey it; conquered by lust, they became guilty of transgression of this very command also. But what saith the Apostle? "Where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded;" that is, the disease increased, the medicine became of more avail. Accordingly, my brethren, did those five porches of Solomon, in the middle of which the pool lay, heal the sick at all? The sick, says the Evangelist, lay in the five porches. In the Gospel we have and read it. Those five porches are the law in the five books of Moses. For this cause the sick were brought forth from their houses that they might lie in the porches. So the law brought the sick men forth, but did not heal them: but by the blessing of God the water was disturbed, as by an Angel descending into it. At the sight of the water troubled, the one person who was able, descended and was healed. That water surrounded by the five porches, was the people of the Jews shut up in their law. The Lord came and disturbed this people, so that He Himself was slain. For if the Lord had not troubled the Jews by coming down to them, would He have been crucified? So that the troubled water signified the Passion of the Lord, which arose from His troubling the Jewish people. The sick man who believeth in this Passion, like him who descended into the troubled water, is healed thereby. He whom the Law could not heal, that is, while he lay in the porches, is healed by grace, by faith in the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. ...

In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set. Where "in the valley" is said, it is necessary that we understand, by contrast, also the mountain. Therefore whoever arranges ascents in his heart, where has he been placed? In the valley of tears. Let us consider that we are in the valley: we are not on the mountain, we are not in paradise, in the height of paradise; but in the lowliness of the earth, the accursed earth, which brings forth for us thistles and thorns, which is the serpent's food, of which it is said to Adam, "You are earth, and to earth you shall go." As long, therefore, as we are in the valley of tears, we ought not to laugh, but to weep. For this reason the Lord also says: "Blessed are they who weep, for they themselves shall laugh." For the time being, therefore, we are in the valley of tears, and this world is a world of tears, not of joy. We ought not to laugh, since this world and this time is of tears, that other is of joy. In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set. What is it that he says, In the place which he has set? In the place, that is, in the valley of tears. In the place which he has set: God has set us for the contest, that we may always fight in this. This place, therefore, that is, the valley of tears, is not of peace, is not of security, but of contest and of wars.

Let us see where he arranged the ascents. Listen to what he says: In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set. We read in the book of Judges, when the angel came and preached repentance to the people, saying, You have forsaken the Lord, and the Lord will forsake you; and when the people heard this they wept, and that place was called the Valley of Tears. We have recalled the old history, so that we might flee heresy. But by the valley of tears we can understand, spiritually, this present age. For we are not on the mountain, that is, in the kingdom of heaven, but in the valley, that is, in the darkness of this world; and by our error we have been cast out of paradise with Adam into the valley of tears, where there is repentance, where there are tears. In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set. What did he say? The place which God has set for the contest: so that here we may contend against the devil, against sins, that in the heavens we may be crowned. Why, then, did he give a contest of fighting? Could God not have given us life without a contest? But he gave it as a president of the games; he gave a stadium, where we might wrestle against the vices: so that afterward he might deservedly crown us, not sleeping, but laboring. What follows?

In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set. Where "in the valley" is said, it is necessary that we understand, by contrast, also the mountain. Therefore whoever arranges ascents in his heart, where has he been placed? In the valley of tears. Let us consider that we are in the valley: we are not on the mountain, we are not in paradise, in the height of paradise; but in the lowliness of the earth, the accursed earth, which brings forth for us thistles and thorns, which is the serpent's food, of which it is said to Adam, "You are earth, and to earth you shall go." As long, therefore, as we are in the valley of tears, we ought not to laugh, but to weep. For this reason the Lord also says: "Blessed are they who weep, for they themselves shall laugh." For the time being, therefore, we are in the valley of tears, and this world is a world of tears, not of joy. We ought not to laugh, since this world and this time is of tears, that other is of joy. In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set. What is it that he says, In the place which he has set? In the place, that is, in the valley of tears. In the place which he has set: God has set us for the contest, that we may always fight in this. This place, therefore, that is, the valley of tears, is not of peace, is not of security, but of contest and of wars.

For indeed he who gave the law will give blessings. Someone may say: In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set for the struggle, that is, for the contest. Why has he set us for the struggle? Why has he willed us to fight? The psalmist himself has answered himself, and says: For this reason in this place he has willed us to fight, that he may be able to bestow crowns. For indeed the lawgiver will give blessings. This lawgiver, that is, our judge of the contest (agonotheta), for this reason has willed us to fight, that he may be able to bless us. See the sequence. But what are the blessings of this judge of the contest? They shall go from strength to strength. Here they conquer, that there they may be crowned. If here a man appears strong, there he becomes more robust. They shall go from strength to strength. Therefore, unless here we have had strength, there we cannot have greater strength. For he did not say, they shall go from weakness to strength: but, they shall go from strength to strength. Do you wish to be strong there? First be strong here. Do you wish to be crowned there? Fight here. They shall go from strength to strength. We can also say it another way. "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." He who has had strength here, will have that same strength there also. They shall go from strength to strength. What gain will they have, when they have gone from strength to strength? what reward will they have? The God of gods shall be seen in Zion. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they themselves shall see God." It suffices for the victors, it suffices for those who have fought, the face of Christ: to see God is an infinite crown. The God of gods shall be seen in Zion. How great a joy it is, how great a happiness, to go from strength to strength, and to have this very reward, that we may be counted worthy to see Christ!

In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set. We read in the book of Judges, when the angel came and preached repentance to the people, saying, You have forsaken the Lord, and the Lord will forsake you; and when the people heard this they wept, and that place was called the Valley of Tears. We have recalled the old history, so that we might flee heresy. But by the valley of tears we can understand, spiritually, this present age. For we are not on the mountain, that is, in the kingdom of heaven, but in the valley, that is, in the darkness of this world; and by our error we have been cast out of paradise with Adam into the valley of tears, where there is repentance, where there are tears. In the valley of tears, in the place which he has set. What did he say? The place which God has set for the contest: so that here we may contend against the devil, against sins, that in the heavens we may be crowned. Why, then, did he give a contest of fighting? Could God not have given us life without a contest? But he gave it as a president of the games; he gave a stadium, where we might wrestle against the vices: so that afterward he might deservedly crown us, not sleeping, but laboring. What follows?

For indeed he who gave the law will give a blessing: therefore he gave a place for contending, so that afterward he might give a blessing, he who had given us the law of the contest. They will go from strength to strength. You see that the sense fits together. They will go from strength to strength: therefore they fight here, so that there afterward they may be crowned. They go from strength to strength. He did not say, they will go from weakness to strength: for unless they have been strong here, they will not be stronger afterward. But someone may say, God is merciful. But see what follows: The Lord loves mercy and truth. He is indeed merciful, but also truthful. When you hear "merciful," you ought not to be careless, because there follows, "and truthful." Again, when you hear "truth," do not despair, do not think God to be only cruel: because mercy tempers truth. For "the cup in the hand of the Lord is full of mixed wine, and he has poured out from this into that": that is, from mercy he has tempered truth, and from truth mercy. The God of gods will be seen in Zion. When they have gone from strength to strength, then the God of gods will be seen in Zion. To whom is glory forever and ever. Amen.

It was fitting for the perfect Leader to show himself when there was opportunity to run toward the prize: and this is in the end of times, yet before the terminus, and in the approach to the final judgment, so that, spurred by the fear of judgment and drawn by the hope of reward and animated by the perfection of his example, we might vigorously and perfectly follow the Leader from virtue to virtue, until we arrive at the prize of eternal happiness.

Christ was such a Center in His ascension. Likewise the Christian must rise "from strength to strength," and not stand still at the terminal point of virtue, for by so doing he would cease to be virtuous.

Whoever therefore wishes to ascend to God must, having avoided the fault that deforms nature, exercise the aforementioned natural powers toward reforming grace, and this through prayer; toward purifying justice, and this in conduct of life; toward illuminating knowledge, and this in meditation; toward perfecting wisdom, and this in contemplation. Just as therefore no one comes to wisdom except through grace, justice, and knowledge, so one does not arrive at contemplation except through clear meditation, holy conduct, and devout prayer. Just as therefore grace is the foundation of uprightness of the will and of clear illumination of reason, so first we must pray, then live in holiness, third attend to the spectacles of truth, and by attending ascend step by step, until one arrives at the lofty mountain, where the God of gods is seen in Sion.

The Old Testament proclaimed the Father openly and the Son more obscurely. The New [Testament] manifested the Son and suggested the deity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit dwells among us and supplies us with a clearer demonstration of himself. For it was not safe, when the Godhead of the Father was not yet acknowledged, plainly to proclaim the Son; nor when that of the Son was not yet received to burden us further (if I may use so bold an expression) with the Holy Spirit; lest perhaps people might, like persons loaded with food beyond their strength and presenting eyes as yet too weak to look at the sun's light, risk the loss even of that which was within the reach of their powers; but that by gradual additions, and, as David says, "Goings up, and advances and progress from glory to glory," the light of the Trinity might shine on the more illuminated. It was for this reason, I think, that [the Holy Spirit] gradually came to dwell in the disciples, measuring himself out to them according to their capacity to receive him, at the beginning of the Gospel, after the passion, after the ascension, making perfect their powers, being breathed on them and appearing in fiery tongues.

And again, from the thought of those joys he returns to his own sighs. He sees what has come before in hope, and where he is in reality....Therefore returning to the groans proper to this place, he says, "O Lord God of virtues, hear my prayer: hearken, O God of Jacob" [Psalm 84:8]: for Jacob himself also You have made Israel out of Jacob. For God appeared unto him, and he was called Israel, [Genesis 32:28] seeing God. Hear me therefore, O God of Jacob, and make me Israel. When shall I become Israel? When the God of Gods shall appear in Sion.

"Behold, O God our defender. And look on the face of Your Christ" [Psalm 84:9]. For when does God not look upon the face of His Christ? What is this, "Look on the face of Your Christ"? By the face we are known. What is it then, Look on the face of Your Christ? Cause Your Christ to become known to all. Look on the face of Your Christ: let Christ become known to all, that we may be able to go from strength to strength, that grace may abound, since sin has abounded.

Our protector, look, O God, and look upon the face of your Christ. See what he says, And look upon the face of your Christ. And a man prays, that the Father may look upon the face of the Son. But see what he says. Since the apostle said, "Do you seek proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?" and again the Savior himself said, "He who receives you receives me," therefore this is what he says: Look upon us: for in us you look upon your Son, who dwells in us.

"For one day in Your courts is better than a thousand" [Psalm 84:10]. Those courts they were for which he sighed, for which he fainted. "My soul longs and fails for the courts of the Lord:" one day there is better than a thousand days. Men long for thousands of days, and wish to live here long: let them despise these thousands of days, let them long for one day, which has neither rising nor setting: one day, an everlasting day, to which no yesterday yields, which no tomorrow presses. Let this one day be longed for by us. What have we to do with a thousand days? We go from the thousand days to one day; let us hasten to that one day, as we go from strength to strength.

I want to stress what I think that we (or at least I) need more; the joy and delight in God which meet us in the Psalms, however loosely or closely, in this or that instance, they may be connected with the Temple. This is the living centre of Judaism. These poets knew far less reason than we for loving God. They did not know that He offered them eternal joy; still less that He would die to win it for them. Yet they express a longing for Him, for His mere presence, which comes only to the best Christians or to Christians in their best moments. They long to live all their days in the Temple so that they may constantly see 'the fair beauty of the Lord' (27:4). Their longing to go up to Jerusalem and 'appear before the presence of God' is like a physical thirst (Ps. 42). From Jerusalem His presence flashes out 'in perfect beauty' (50:2). Lacking that encounter with Him, their souls are parched like a waterless countryside (63:2). They crave to be 'satisfied with the pleasures' of His house (65:4). Only there can they be at ease, like a bird in the nest (84:3). One day of those 'pleasures' is better than a lifetime spent elsewhere (84:10).

Sometimes with no prompting from tradition a second meaning will impose itself upon a reader irresistibly. When the poet of Psalm 84 said 'For one day in thy courts is better than a thousand', he doubtless meant that one day there was better than a thousand elsewhere. I find it impossible to exclude while I read this the thought which, so far as I know, the Old Testament never quite reaches. It is there in the New, beautifully introduced not by laying a new weight on old words but more simply by adding to them. In Psalm 90 (4) it had been said that a thousand years were to God like a single yesterday; in 2 Peter 3:8—not the first place in the world where one would have looked for so metaphysical a theology—we read not only that a thousand years are as one day but also that 'one day is as a thousand years'. The Psalmist only meant, I think, that God was everlasting, that His life was infinite in time. But the epistle takes us out of the time-series altogether. As nothing outlasts God, so nothing slips away from Him into a past. The later conception of the timeless as an eternal present has been achieved. Ever afterwards, for some of us, the 'one day' in God's courts which is better than a thousand, must carry a double meaning. The Eternal may meet us in what is, by our present measurements, a day, or (more likely) a minute or a second; but we have touched what is not in any way commensurable with lengths of time, whether long or short. Hence our hope finally to emerge, if not altogether from time (that might not suit our humanity) at any rate from the tyranny, the unilinear poverty, of time, to ride it not to be ridden by it, and so to cure that always aching wound ('the wound man was born for') which mere succession and mutability inflict on us, almost equally when we are happy and when we are unhappy.

For better is one day in your courts above thousands. See what he says, "one day." Someone thinks it should be understood thus: It is better for me to have a little in the kingdom of heaven, than here the whole, that is, in this world. This understanding, indeed, is not a bad one. But let us say: If it could happen that someone should be for one day in the kingdom of heaven, and afterward be cast down headlong, he would rightly say: Better is one day in your courts. But now, in that he says "one day," this is what he says: The kingdom of heaven is one day; it does not have night and darkness, but always there is light. He therefore who has been for one day in the kingdom of heaven, is always there.

I have chosen to be an outcast in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. This is what the Savior also says about John: "Amen I say to you, that among those born of women there is not a greater than John the Baptist." Then he says that he himself is an angel. And then he says: "But he who is lesser in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." The sense there is this: John is greater than all men, and, if you wish to know, he himself is an angel; but this one who on earth is an angel, is the least in the kingdom of heaven, that is, he is lesser than the angels; but he who is lesser in the kingdom of heaven, that is, the angel, is greater than this one who on earth is greater than all. This, therefore, is now what the prophet says: I have chosen to be an outcast in the house of my God, that is, I have wished to be the least in the kingdom of heaven, rather than the first in this world. I have chosen to be an outcast in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. Consider what he says, Rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. Tabernacles have no foundation, but they pass away: yet he who is a sinner never merely sojourns on the earth, but dwells in it and possesses it.

"I have chosen to be cast away in the house of the Lord, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners" [Psalm 84:11]. For he found the valley of weeping, he found humility by which he might rise: he knows that if he would raise himself he shall fall, if he humble himself he shall be exalted: he has chosen to be cast away, that he may be raised up. How many beside this tabernacle of the Lord's winepress, that is beside the Catholic Church, wishing to be lifted up, and loving their honours, refuse to see the truth. If this verse had been in their heart, would they not cast away honours, and run to the valley of weeping, and hence find in their heart the way of ascent, and hence go from virtues to virtue, placing their hope in Christ, not in some man or another? A good word is this, a word to rejoice in, a word to be chosen. He himself chose to be cast away in the house of the Lord; but He who invited him to the feast, when he chose a lower place calls him to a higher one, and says unto him, "Go up higher." [Luke 14:10] Yet he chose not but to be in the house of the Lord, in any part of it, so that he were not outside the threshold.

For God loves mercy and truth. Two things God loves, mercy and truth. If he were only merciful, he would provoke us all to sins: if he loved only truth, no one would have hope of repentance. For this reason he seeks two things, and tempers the one by the other. If you are a sinner, hear that God is merciful, and do not despair, and do penance. But if you are righteous, do not be negligent, because God is clement: since God is also just, and loves truth.

The Lord will give grace and glory. He did not say, He will give glory and grace: but what did he say? The Lord will give grace and glory. First he forgives sins, and afterward he crowns.

He will not deprive of good things those who walk in innocence. It has it better in the Hebrew: "in perfection." For innocence is not a perfect virtue: since he who is innocent, unless he also has prudence, is not of perfect and consummate virtue. For this reason he also says in the Gospel: "Be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves."

..."Because God loveth mercy and truth" (ver. 12). The Lord loveth mercy, by which He first came to my help: He loveth truth, so as to give to him that believeth what He has promised. Hear in the case of the Apostle Paul, His mercy and truth, Paul who was first Saul the persecutor. He needed mercy, and he has said that it was shown towards him: "I who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show forth all longsuffering towards those who shall believe in Him unto life eternal." So that, when Paul received pardon of such great crimes, no one should despair of any sins whatever being forgiven him. Lo! Thou hast Mercy. ...Lo, we see that Paul holdeth Him a debtor, having received mercy, demanding truth. The Lord, he says, shall give back in that day. What shall He give thee back, but that which He oweth thee? How oweth He unto thee? What hast thou given Him? "Who hath first given unto Him, and it shall be restored to him again." The Lord Himself hath made Himself a debtor, not by receiving, but by promising: it is not said unto Him, Restore what Thou hast received: but, Restore what Thou hast promised. He hath shown mercy unto me, he saith, that He might make me innocent: for before I was a blasphemer and injurious: but by His grace I have been made innocent. But He who first showed mercy, can He deny His debt? "He loveth mercy and truth. He will give grace and glory." What grace, but that of which the same one said: "By the grace of God I am what I am"? What glory, but that of which he said, "There is laid up for me a crown of glory"? Therefore "the Lord will not withhold good from those who walk in innocence" (ver. 12). Why then, O men, are ye unwilling to keep innocence, except in order that ye may have good things? ...Thou seest wealth in the hands of robbers, of the impious, the wicked, the base; in the hands of scandalous and criminal men thou seest wealth: God giveth them these things on account of their fellowship in the human race, for the abundant overflowing of His goodness: who also "maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and causeth it to rain upon the righteous and upon the sinners." Giveth He so much to the wicked, and keepeth nothing for thee? He keepeth something: be at ease, He who had mercy on thee when thou wast impious, doth He desert thee when thou hast become pious? He who gave to the sinner the free gift of His Son's death, what keepeth He for the saved through that death? Therefore be at ease. Hold Him a debtor, for thou hast believed in Him promising. What then remains for us here, in the winepress, in affliction, in hardship, in our present dangerous life? What remains for us, that we may arrive thither? "O Lord God of virtues, blessed is the man that putteth his hope in Thee."

O Lord of hosts. See what he says, O Lord of hosts. Therefore when we have any sins in us, God, who is the Lord of hosts, is not our Lord: because the Lord is not the Lord of sinners, but of the righteous. Blessed is the man who hopes in you. He hopes in the Lord, who has no conscience of sins, who lifts free eyes to heaven. This man hopes, who knows that he has not offended his Lord.