and by repentance turn away the wrath, the punishment is stayed: so also if He promises blessings, but they who are to receive the promises appear unworthy, the promise is revoked). As far as He is concerned, He has promised them for all days: but by their own wickedness they interrupted the gift. I say these things so that we may not despair when He threatens, but by repentance turn away the wrath; nor on the other hand grow slothful when He promises blessings, but by zeal and diligence in ordering our life, provoke the promises into action. For unless we do this, the promise alone does not suffice to save us. For He also promised Judas that he would sit upon a throne with the eleven disciples: yet he did not sit; and the cause was not He who promised, but he who showed himself unworthy of the promise. Wherefore let us too, having the promise of the kingdom, not be sluggish and idle, but bring our own efforts as well, that we may be able to attain eternal blessings, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
ON PSALM CXXVIII
A ...let Israel now say. 2. Frequently have they warred against me from my youth: and they could not prevail against me. Another interpreter says, (a) But they could not prevail against me. This Psalm also is connected with the former. Since the building was being interrupted, and the work was not being brought to an end, he leads them into good hope, that they might not despair; he bids them, from the past, to be of good courage concerning the future, and teaches them to say these words. Which are these? That although they had frequently attacked them, they could by no means overcome, nor did they win a complete victory. And yet, he says, they took captives, and led them into a strange land, and were victorious in many wars. And at that time, they overcame mostly not by their own strength, but because of the sin of the Jews. Yet for all that, the victors did not remain so to the end. For they could not entirely destroy the race, nor completely overturn the city, nor utterly ruin the nation, but after they had prevailed for a little while, God conceding it, they were defeated again. How, however, were they defeated? By the Jews returning to their former prosperity. Signifying which, another interpreter said, But they did not prevail against me.
3. Upon my back have sinners wrought, they have prolonged their iniquity. What is this? Not rashly, he says, and by chance did they lay snares, but they practiced and devised many things, framing guiles and attacking in secret. For that, Upon my back, signifies either fraud and festering malice, or force and violence. This is to say, They set out to break my power. Another however, for, Wrought, said, They plowed (b), to show that they put effort into preparing snares for the just. They have prolonged their iniquity. What is it that he says? It shows that they not only attacked with great force, but also with great perseverance, as those who spent a long time in that affair, and considered it their work to lie in wait, and persistently continued in it. But this availed them nothing, for they were restrained B not by our strength, but by the power of God. Wherefore, showing Him who raises up the trophy and grants the victory, he subjoined:
4. The Lord is righteous, He has cut down the necks of sinners. Another, however, for Necks, said, Ropes (a), signifying the snares, the assaults, the machinations. Rightly, however, he said not, Dissolved, but, Cut down: to show more clearly that He did this, rendering their counsels utterly useless. For when the city began to be built again, many from all sides made attacks, wasting away with envy: and they did not do this only once or twice, but very frequently. This very thing also happened in the Church. For when it began to spring up, all assailed it with persistence: in the beginning, indeed, kings, peoples, and tyrants: but afterwards the snares of the heretics: and the greatest, a varied and manifold war was stirred up from every side: but yet it did not prevail: but the enemies were routed, and the Church flourishes.
5. Let them be confounded and turned backward, all who hate Sion. Another, Let them be subverted backward (b). 6. Let them be as the grass of the housetops, which before it is plucked up, has withered : With my fist. And with my bosom, he who gathers the sheaves. Upon you. We have blessed you in the name of the Lord. He concludes the exhortation with a prayer, leading the hearer to confess by the narrative of things past and by his prayer, and showing the unjust cause of the war. For out of envy and hatred they undertook the war: and therefore he says: Let them blush and be turned backward, all who hate Sion. Not only, he says, let them be conquered, but shamefully and ridiculously. Then, when he had said, Let them be as the grass of the housetops, he persists in the simile, not merely comparing them to grass, but to grass which is upon the roofs. For although that which is in the rich field also flows away quickly; yet wishing to show how vile the adversaries were, he compares them to the grass which is upon the roofs: so as to show from both sides how fragile and caducous they are, namely, both from the nature of the grass, and from the nature of the place. Such, he says, are the assaults of the adversaries, which have no root, nor foundation: which seem to flourish for a little while, but afterwards fail, and fall away of their own accord. Such is the prosperity of those who live in wickedness, such is the pleasure of the things of this life: for it is at once seen and perishes, as a thing which has neither foundation nor power. And therefore our mind is not to be applied to them, but by considering how transient and fleeting they are, those things are to be desired which are eternal, immortal, immovable, and into which no change falls: which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.