Verse sixty-nine

"The iniquity of the proud shall abound upon me, but with all my heart I will test Thy commandments."

This verse and the next show how human vain contributes to moral perfection. In the hands of God, they also turn into instruments for the education of man and the teaching of his goodness.

The Saviour told the holy apostles, and in their person to all the faithful, that He would take them out of the world and that for this they would be hated by the world. If, says He, you were of the world, the world would love you as its offspring; but now, since I have taken you out of the world, the world will not cease to hate you. And so it always happens: whether or not a zealot for pleasing God comes into contact with the people of this world, the mere fact that he is such turns away from him those who live in self-gratification. And this is understandable: he denounces them with himself. They cannot deny that they themselves should be like him; But they can't stand it when they are reminded of it. And even though he says nothing to them, the thought of him, and even more so his presence, disturbs their consciences, which begin to gnaw at them; So he is to blame. Without meetings, hostility to him goes dull through the heart; but at the first meeting he is revealed by ill-will and a desire to interfere with everything and harm him; Desires turn into deeds, and the further, the more. Without guilt, a guilty God-fearing person is showered on all sides with reproaches, vainness, insults, insults. He cannot but see this, and although he endures it with good humor, he righteously testifies before God that it has multiplied against him, and human iniquity is multiplying more and more.

"Multiply." The prophet does not complain, but only testifies to this, in order to say: they are mine, and I mine. "The more diligently one works for the Lord," says St. Ambrose, "the more he arouses his enemies, like that courageous fighter who challenges against himself the most numerous rivals, so that, having overcome them, he may acquire the brightest crown of righteousness."

"Not true." That's what is encouraging that it's not true. That you endure sorrows, says St. Peter, do not worry much about this. Only take care that it is not through any fault of your own. But if you suffer only because you zealously serve the true God, then rejoice. "If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are near: for the glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you. Inasmuch as ye partake of the passion of Christ, rejoice, that ye may also rejoice in the appearing of His glory that rejoices" (1 Pet. 4:13-14).

"Proud". The prophet calls proud in general those who live in oblivion of God, who do not want to know the commandments of God, but at the same time those who are strong in the earth, who hold some kind of power in their hands, or the noble and the rich. And in ordinary sinners, in their bad external circumstances, pride is the main cause of sin, and even more so in those who for some reason are higher than others. Man becomes conceited, and forgets God, and begins to despise His law. Then all God-fearing people and strict fulfillers of God's commandments no longer like him. But no matter how angry they are, I will "test Thy commandments with all my heart." "No matter how much unrighteousness increases," explains Blessed Augustine, "my love for Thy commandments will not fail. Thus says he who is sweetly taught in the justifications of God. Sweet are the commandments of God to him, and he examines them with love, so that he may do what he knows and learn what he has done; for what is known is more perfectly known when it is fulfilled by deed."

"I will test" — I will examine and delve into the meaning of Thy commandments, in order to understand them in all the breadth of Thy will, expressed in them, without obsessing them or shortening them, only because I encounter obstacles and that this is contrary to the sons of the world. As I know, so will I do, that is, I will show the experience of fulfilling Thy commandments perfectly, in the face of Thy enemies and all righteousness, who hate me also. For this I determine myself, that I may always be faithful to Thy commandments, not taking into account the opposition of the proud; I will even learn from them, for this must be and is Thy true will, against which they rebel more. And I will still learn from what I will invent how, in spite of their opposition, I will always carry out the works that are pleasing to Thee.

Verse Seventy

"Be as sweet as a child, their hearts, and learn Thy law."

What has come out of the multiplication of unrighteousness by the proud and of faithfulness to the commandments of a God-fearing man? "Their hearts have become hardened or fat, but this one has fully learned the law of God.

"The heart is damp", hardened like cheese. Milk, thickened and hardened, becomes cheese, so the heart of the proud, which is soft by nature, hardens with unrighteousness. "They stretched their pride to such an extent," says St. Athanasius, "that their hearts became like cheese." "This is similar," writes Theodoret, "to the prophetic saying: 'For the heart of these people is hardened, and their ears are heavy, and their eyes are swept' (Isaiah 6:10); it is also similar to what is said about Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus: "Pharaoh's heart shall be hardened" (Exodus 8:19). For this reason the prophet says: they have a stubborn heart, and they themselves have transformed its softness into coarseness, just as milk is thickened and damp, but I melted, learning Thy law." The meaning of this is one and the same – stubborn resistance to God and God's orders: "Grow thicker, wider, and forget God who created him" (Deuteronomy 32:15). "The heart of the saints," says St. Athanasius, "is refined, but the heart of the proud is thickened." This is the case with the poor human heart, because it is not led into the sphere in which it should be by nature; So it shrinks. "Milk," writes St. Ambrose, "is by nature pure, pleasant to look at, and mobile, and when it spoils, it turns sour. In the same way, the human heart is by nature pure, soft, warm, but when vice is mixed into it, it grows cold, hardened, and darkened. Milk, oxide, sits down and no longer has its usual pleasantness; In the same way, a man, as long as he is not damaged by iniquity, is pleasant in words and in manners, but when he deviates into unrighteousness, he changes, for his heart becomes different. Unrighteousness compresses it, and, instead of pleasant goodwill, it is filled with the bitterness of ill-will. Thus the heart is soaked in pride and hostility, when its natural meekness, which exudes kindness, is damaged by the leaven of malice and deceit."

The heart hardens from the first experiences of unrighteousness, and then becomes more and more hardened; the end of this is a state of hardening. In contrast to this, the God-fearing one, under the influence of unrighteousness, develops a training in the law, an agility for every good, and firmness in carrying out the good deeds that are begun to the end. And since he stood in the good not only out of a sense of duty, but with all his heart, out of love for it, and especially for Him Who gave the law, the more he becomes tired of it, in spite of his fierce resistance to it, the warmer the heart is warmed by love, the softer it is, and the more warm-hearted a person is. He himself is always warm and spreads warmth around him.

The prophet says: "Learn," I have learned, learned, discussed everything, or studied everything by deed, and I know it firmly, keeping it in my heart. Whatever I come across, there is no need to rack my brains to see what is best to act: my heart itself will tell me. Just as from a vicious heart, according to the word of the Lord, evil thoughts proceed at various meetings, so from a good heart proceed good thoughts, indicating what good and how one should do in certain circumstances. "Learn" reminds us of the Apostle's words about the senses trained in the reasoning of good and evil. Thus, it is justified by the very deed that the unrighteousness of the proud, directed, by God's permission, to those who fear God and keep His law, is, according to His providential dispensation, a school for teaching the latter in good. And the prophet, saying that he has learned, testifies that the goal of education has been achieved, that this school really brings those who enter it to the point that requires study and for which they are introduced into it.