"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.

Thus, in life everything depends on the spirit with which the accidents are met. None of them, by their nature, leads to evil: evil comes from arbitrariness. What did Pentephri's wife do harmful to Joseph? "Nothing. She only showed his chastity in greater splendor, and others themselves ask for sin. Be firm; and external events that can lead you into sin will not only not harm you, but, on the contrary, will serve to strengthen you more in good. One stability will pave the way for another, and so on. In the end, steadfastness in good will be obtained – not easy, but loving, heartfelt, attracting.

Verse Seventy-One

"It is good for me, for I have humbled me, that I may learn by Thy righteousness."

Just as a person who has successfully completed a course in an institution expresses heartfelt gratitude to those who taught him, so the prophet, having passed through God's school of moral education through the sorrows of life and the vains of people, thanks God, Who led him into this sorrowful path of study and led him through it with success. When he says: "That I may learn," he does not indicate God's goal in his humility, but testifies to its attainment. His thought was as follows: the Lord led me into this school in order to teach me; I have taken this course, and now, thank God, I am taught; otherwise I would not have learned.

St. Athanasius writes: "It is as if the prophet says thus: I am pleased in infirmities, in insults, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, only that I may appear worthy of Thy justifications, seeking that which is otherwise impossible to learn."

"The prophet," says Theodoret, "prescribes gratitude to the physician for his cruel healings, having ascertained that he has restored his health." The Lord could teach without leading to deprivation and sorrow, but righteousness and goodness demand it. A sinner who repents and reforms, that is, learns the commandments, goes from the realm of sin in the opposite way to how he plunged into it. Loving sin, he acquired sinful habits for himself and became attached to a multitude of things that satisfied these skills. Such things are valuable in his eyes. The Lord removes this illusory value from them by taking them away, showing by deed how insignificant they are and how much they sin, acting to please people. For this he repays by repenting, enduring in vain from people, sometimes even from those whom he had previously pleased. Deprivation and vain are a path of purification.

Let us also recall the tactics of the enemy, who intervenes everywhere with his malicious intentions. As long as the penitent and reforming person has not yet evaporated sympathy for the objects of passions, so long does he hope to bring back to himself the one who has fled from his region, arousing evil thoughts and desires. But when this sympathy is exhausted, and sobriety and purity are established in the heart, then this method of seduction no longer gives him any hope of success. He turns to someone else: I didn't have time to draw him into lust, well, I'll arrange things in such a way as to draw him into hatred. To do this, he raises against his dislike people who are at his side; And so they begin to heap insults, ridicule, insults, oppression, persecution, all kinds of untruths, sometimes even not understanding why they do this. But the worker, who understands whence all this comes and for what purpose, endures everything complacently, and, no matter how sensitive the vain may be, tries in every way not to fall into enmity towards anyone and thus not to allow the enemy to triumph over him and not to deprive him of the fruit and all the previous labors undertaken in the struggle against lust. The Lord Himself, who allows such temptations, helps him to resist. Then the enemy ceases to fight him from this side as well, seeing that his attacks prepare only crowns for the worker, and his evil intentions are not aided. When the enemy lags behind, then human vain ceases: some are reconciled to him, others leave him alone, moving away from him.