Allegorical Exposition of the Psalm 27 Concerning Christ
Expounding
this psalm additionally concerning Christ, the sense of the title will
be: "At the end, a psalm of David," that is, this psalm is fitting for
Christ before He was anointed the second time, that is, before He was
glorified in body. For the first anointing is the glorification of His
soul, which He had from the beginning of His conception in the Virgin.
But His second anointing is the glorification of His body, which He
received in the resurrection. Concerning glorification, John says: "The
Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."
Ps 27:1 Christ
as man thus says: "The Lord," that is, the divine Trinity, "is my
illumination," because He illuminated my entire created wisdom and from
the creation of my soul, He illuminated it with the light of glory and
beatific vision. Here it should be considered that there was in Christ
uncreated wisdom, which is the same as the divine essence and the person
of the Word, and through this Christ actually knows whatever is
possible, and the Holy Spirit—indeed, this wisdom is one in three
persons. There was in Christ uncreated wisdom, and this was manifold.
For He had the wisdom of the homeland or of the blessed, knowing all
things in the Word through the union of the divine essence with His
intellect in the manner of an intelligible form. He also had infused or
poured-in wisdom, and from the beginning of His conception in His mother
He knew all things in their proper natures through intelligible species
co-created with Him. Besides this, some attribute to Christ as man
acquired or experimental wisdom, and He progressed, not however by
learning from others, but by His own discovery; and thus the natural
light of the agent intellect abstracted intelligible species from
phantasms and deposited them in the possible intellect, and through this
mode He acquired science, for the natural perfection or operation does
not seem to have been lacking to the soul of Christ. For as Damascene
affirms: Nothing of what God implanted in nature was lacking in Christ.
On
account of these sciences bestowed on the soul of Christ, the Savior
says: "and my salvation," and He Himself is my created happiness—"whom
shall I fear?" No one, unless I willingly wish to assume the passion of
fear, just as I assumed the passion of sadness when I began to be
sorrowful and sad; and these passions, just as He assumed them
willingly, so He deposited them by His own command.
"The
Lord is the protector of my life" in a most singular and excellent way,
guarding me inwardly from the evils of guilt and danger, for such
things could not be in Me, and outwardly from injuries to the body,
except insofar as human redemption required Me to suffer. For when the
Jews sought to throw Him down and stone Him, Jesus hid Himself, the Lord
protecting Him. Also when the demon left Him on the highest mountain,
immediately angels came and ministered to Him. "Of whom shall I be
afraid?" What? Neither the Jews, nor the Gentiles, nor the tempter devil
will I fear according to the manner aforesaid.
Ps 27:2 "While
evildoers approach against me"—the Jews with the pagans seizing Me and
on the night before the passion, "to eat my flesh"—that is, to kill Me.
"Those who trouble me, my enemies, have been weakened and have fallen."
We see this fulfilled in the Jews, the enemies of Christ. For weakened
in faith and losing grace, they fell from the scepter and every
principality, losing all the honor of the law.
Ps 27:3 "If
camps should stand against me"—the battle lines of the Jews who before
Herod and Pilate stood strongly crying "Crucify Him"—"my heart will not
fear" them who can kill the body but cannot prevail against the soul.
"If war should rise up against me"—if persecution, they striving to
crucify Me—"in this I will hope," in such a moment I will trust in the
Lord that I will be victorious, that is, that death will be destroyed,
sin removed, the world redeemed, demons cast down, on the third day I
will rise and will judge.
Ps 27:4 "One
thing"—a certain principal thing—"I have asked of the Lord," this grace
perseveringly praying for one thing: "That I may dwell in the house of
the Lord all the days of my life"—that is, that through grace I may
dwell in the hearts and in the Church militant and may reign through
faith. For Christ as man frequently prayed for the salvation of the
world, that God might open the hearts of men to receive the indwelling
of Christ through faith; indeed, for this purpose, that He might dwell
in us. Therefore Christ says to Peter: "I have prayed for you that your
faith may not fail." For we are the house of God and of Christ His Son,
in whom Christ desires to dwell. Therefore the Apostle says: "Christ as a
faithful Son was over His own house, which house we are, if we hold
fast our confidence unto the end."
"That
I may see the will of the Lord"—therefore I asked to dwell in the house
of the Lord, that I may see the faithful obedient to the divine will.
For often the divine will is taken for the effect and sign of the divine
will, as the Apostle says: "This is the will of God, your
sanctification." And in the Lord's prayer we say: "Your will be
done"—that is, may Your precept be fulfilled. "And may visit His
temple"—that is, may I enter human minds through grace and the Holy
Spirit and remain with men through My sacraments. Whence Christ speaking
to the Church says: "I am with you all days even to the consummation of
the world."
Or
thus: "That I may dwell in the house of the Lord," that is, that I may
ascend to the heavens and sit at the right hand of the Father. For
Christ sometimes prayed for the glorification and exaltation of His
body. "That I may see the will" fulfilled by all the citizens of heaven,
who all obey God at a nod. "And may visit His temple"—that is, that I
may send holy angels from heaven to visit and guard the Church militant.
Or that I may send the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to the apostles and
other disciples, which I cannot send unless I first ascend, as it is
written: "Unless I go away, the Paraclete will not come to you."
Ps 27:5 Finally,
I reasonably pray: "For the Lord Himself has hidden me in His
tabernacle"—in the shadow and custody of divinity in which, as in a
tabernacle not made with hands, all the blessed dwell, "in the evil
day," that is, on which the Jews persecuted Me. As it says in the
Gospel: "But Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple." And Luke
says: "He passing through the midst of them went His way." For His very
divinity made His body invisible to those who were trying to harm Him.
"He has protected me in the secret place of His tabernacle"—in Himself
and in intimate contemplation of Himself. For the very person of the
Word protected in all things the man whom He assumed. God is rightly
called the hidden tabernacle, because thus it is read concerning Him:
"Truly You are a hidden God, the God of Israel."
"On
a rock," that is, in the immovable charity of God and neighbor and in
certain confidence in His name, "He has exalted me" from every defect
and vice, establishing me in Himself, in which to be established is to
be most exalted. And that is, "on the day of resurrection He has exalted
my head," that is, Myself (for He puts the part for the whole), "above
my enemies," that is, above the aerial powers which I conquered and
above the Jews who caused Me to be crucified.
Ps 27:6. "I
have gone around" when I was conversing among men, through Judea and
other lands, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and healing the
sick, as Peter testifies concerning Christ, saying: "He went about doing
good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. And I have
immolated in His tabernacle," that is, in the synagogues and in the
temple of Jerusalem, "a sacrifice of jubilation," that is, of hard and
lofty rebuke or of devout working for their conversion and divine
praise. This Christ most frequently offered to God.
"I
will sing and will say a psalm to the Lord" through Myself and through
My ministers, praising and venerating God. Therefore the Savior says: "I
do not glorify Myself, but I honor My Father."
"Hear,
O Lord" Father, "my voice with which I have cried to You," offering to
You the aforesaid sacrifice of jubilation, and assist the world through
incessant grace. "Have mercy on me," liberating Me from the troubles of
the present life, "and hear me" for the salvation of the world. "My
heart has said," that is, My mind has always spoken to You interiorly,
contemplating and praising You incessantly. "My face has sought You,"
that is, My whole intention has always sought the honor and glory of
Your name.
"Your
face," that is, the clear and blessed vision of Your essence, "I will
seek" not that You may show it to Me, since from the beginning I saw it
in person as a perfect comprehensor, but that You may show it to the
elect for whose salvation You sent Me. This is what Christ says:
"Father, I will that those whom You have given Me may see the glory
which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of
the world."
"Do
not turn away Your face from me," rejecting these prayers which I pour
forth, "nor decline in anger from Your servant," that is, on account of
the sins of men do not defer fulfilling what I ask for them. I who have
taken the form of a servant am Your servant, concerning whom You said:
"Behold My servant, I will uphold Him." Again: "Behold, I will bring
forth My servant the Orient and will take away the iniquity of that land
in one day," namely on the day of His passion.
"Be
my helper, O Lord" Father, cooperating in all things. "Do not forsake
me" in the hand of the wicked or in the sepulcher, "and do not despise
me," that is, My mystical body, namely the Church, for which I suffered,
"O God my Savior," that is, salvation insofar as I am man.
"For
my father and my mother"—the Hebrew people from whose seed I was
born—"have forsaken me," because they did not wish to receive Me, as it
says in the Gospel: "He came unto His own and His own received Him not."
"But the Lord has taken me up," raising Me to an immortal state and
converting the Gentiles to Me.
"Set a law for me, O Lord," etc. He prays this verse for the mystical body which He loved as Himself.
"Do
not deliver me into the souls," that is, into the power of the Jews,
not that I may not die at all, but lest I be held in death, "because
unjust witnesses have risen up against me." We commemorate that this was
fulfilled in Christ at the time of the passion, as it is written: "When
many false witnesses had come, at last false witnesses came saying: 'We
heard Him say, I am able to destroy the temple of God and in three days
rebuild it.'" "And iniquity has lied to itself"—that is, falsehood
deceived and condemned them, and this did not harm Him but was the cause
of great merit.
"I
believe to see the good things of the Lord"—the grace and gifts of the
Holy Spirit "in the land of the living," that is, in the Church
militant. For therefore I deigned to suffer that they might participate
in celestial goods and lead a heavenly life in the world. Or thus: "I
believe" to receive "the good things of the Lord," that is, the
accidental reward "in the land of the living," that is, in the homeland,
and also to see with My eye the glory of God in its effects. Therefore
in this verse Christ touches upon the form and reward of His passion.
But it is not fitting for Christ to believe with faith which is a
theological virtue, since He did not have such faith, but "to believe"
is taken in this place for any knowledge, so that the sense is: "I
believe to see," that is, I know I will see.
Finally,
Christ consoles and encourages His faithful lover and says: "Wait for
the Lord, act manfully," which verse with the others now transcribed has
been sufficiently explained in the preceding exposition.
Behold,
this most beautiful psalm which at its beginning raises the mind to the
Lord, excites confidence, excludes inordinate fear. Therefore, in order
to attain good things, let us most devoutly sing this psalm. It seems
very suitable and fruitful and fitting that it be sung devoutly and
intently by anyone against the darkness, terrors, and snares of the
night.
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