The clause, says Aben Ezra, is contrasted with the

thought of a previous verse:

"If Thou,

Aben Ezra.

Lord, shouldest mark iniquities."

The Targum is quite literal :

66

"And He"-emphasised, as in the Hebrew— "shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." Targum.

tine.

This is an appropriate place for reverting to the fact, that this one of the Gradual Psalms is also the sixth of the Penitential Psalms of the Christian Church. It will at least form a memoria technica for remembering its place in the series of Gradual Psalms, to record S. Augustine's observa- s. Augustion that a Penitential Psalm is the eleventh of the Gradual Psalms, the number eleven conveying the mystery of transgression, as that lying next beyond the number ten, which conveys the mystery of obedience (Ten Commandments). Notice the eleven curtains of goat's hair that were to be made (Exod. xxvi. 7) for the tabernacle; and S. Augustine's disquisition upon it in his treatise De Civitate Dei, lib. xv. cap. 20. Contrast the eleven descendants of Adam through sinful Cain, enumerated in Gen. iv. 16-22, with the ten descendants of Adam to Noah through the Godfearing line of Seth, in Gen. v. 3-29.

U

CHAPTER XVIII.

PSALM CXXXI.

A Song of Degrees of David.

1. LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

HUMILITY is the precursor of mercy. The Psalm is spoken by David about himself; but it is placed here amongst the Gradual Psalms as applicable to the exiles in Babylon. As David bore himself humbly, so also must Israel in their Captivity, and this will be the most certain guarantee of their ultimate deliverance, according to Isa. lvii. 15: "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive

the heart of the contrite ones."

Rashi illustrates

Rashi.

the humility of David by the modest character of the appointments of his residence and Court, all of which were in remarkable contrast with the sumptuous expenditure of his son Solomon. The latter says of himself: "I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits; I made me pools, of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees. I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings, and of the provinces : I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts." (Eccles. ii. 4-8.)

The two clauses, my heart is not haughty, and, nor mine eyes lofty, express two distinct things, says Aben Ezra. The former repudiates pride as it exists secretly in the heart; the latter, as it shows itself in outward bearing. Radak also concurs in this exposition. Several of the Christian writers have it too.

Both Aben Ezra and Radak think it necessary to observe that the word for "exercise myself" () is intransitive, though it belongs to the Pihel modification which usually carries a transitive sense. Aben Ezra quotes two passages (Ps. xxxviii. 7; Job xxx. 28)-I may add that there are several others-where the same form has the intransitive force; though he subjoins that if it be taken as a transitive verb, then "my heart" must be understood—I have not trained my heart.

Radak.

The great matters Radak understands to be the mysteries of the Godhead. In handling these the Psalmist had conducted intellect modestly and reverentially.

The Targum adds nothing but the enlargement of the title :

"A song which was sung upon the steps of the abyss. Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor

Targum.

mine eyes lifted up, and I have not walked in great matters and in wonders beyond me."

The place of the Psalm, as pointing to the twelfth of the degrees of Christian virtue, cannot be better illustrated than by the words of the commentary that carries the name of S. Jerome. It is a Psalm,

"which in the person of the Prophet exhibits to us the humility which Christ in the flesh was about to carry."

S. Jerome.

The extension which S. Augustine gives it is admirable: "For we have often warned you,

beloved, that it ought not to be received as

sS. Aug. En.

ad loc.

the voice of one man singing, but of all who are in Christ's Body."

An objection is anticipated by Dionysius the Carthusian. Humility is the basis and foundation of spiritual progress. True:

Dion. Carth.

yet humility, as it is described in the Psalms, properly occupies a late place in the rank of virtues. For it is the matured, developed, practised humility of the advanced saint, who for the glory of God and the building of Christ does not shrink from describing even his own attainments: as S. Paul, "I have laboured more abundantly than they all;" (1 Cor. xv. 10;) and Job, "My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live." (Job xxvii. 6.)

The case of Pilate is adduced by Cassiodorus as an example of one who exercised himself in great matters, when he said to our Blessed Lord, "Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify