As has already been mentioned in our explanation of Psalm 6, eighth refers to our eternal rest, since there is no eighth day in this world. After the seventh day, the week begins again with the first day. In the seven day weeks of this world, the number is plural, but the eighth day is singular because it is not followed by another day. Therefore the force of the psalm should be made clear so that the heading may be understood more easily through the actualization of its purpose. By such initial wording, the prophet asks that the iniquity of this world be destroyed in order that it may be possible to attain to that truth of the future promise.

The prophet prays in this psalm to be delivered from the evil generation, of which at the time of our Savior Christ’s dispensation the Lord said, The people of Nineveh will stand in judgment with this generation and will condemn it.^[1] For how are they not guilty and worthy to be effaced, in that they vainly conspired against the truth? . . . Because of the wretchedness of the wicked and the groaning of the poor in spirit, he promises that he will rise and make his salvation clearly manifest to all people, as also his pure words, silver tested and proved by the earth, which is purified sevenfold. And not only will he save [us] from the impious who encircle [us], but he will also increase for us immortal life like his hill, after renewing the body of our abasement in the form of his glory, as it is written.

Since he was observing that this world burdens souls, he asks the Lord to be saved. He knew that genuine medicine can only be found with God.

There is no righteous one left anywhere, he said, who can become the author of my deliverance. Truly I lack a Savior, and since there is none, you yourself, Lord, be my Savior.

The truth by which the souls of the saints are enlightened is one in number, but because there are many souls, it is possible to speak of many expressions of the truth in them, just as there are many images of the one face in a hall of mirrors.

Regard for truth is in danger of being snuffed out, with everyone, you might say, suffering from distrust in one another. . . . They pretend friendship and perform the actions of enemies. . . . Some use their lips to direct falsehood into their neighbor’s heart; others return the compliment.

First the righteous fail, then the truth is diminished. Not only is there no truth among the righteous, there is no holiness among honest people. Now, since the righteous have failed, truth is diminished. Perhaps the poverty of righteous people is the reason why so many heresies have shot up.

We shall take care to have nothing base spring from our hearts, nothing blasphemous fly from our lips, nothing harmful harbored in our thought. The prophet condemns not only what offends the ears but also the attitude that some people cherish in their minds. With deceitful lips and with a double heart they have spoken evil things. Deliberations, too, then should be listed among the faults of an insolent tongue. Whatever you speak in your heart you are confessing to the Lord, because God is the Searcher of hearts. Since you cannot hide even your thought from him, can that which you shout aloud remain hidden from him or excused? Reflect on this.

There is a double heart there, not a simple one; it is not what it has within itself that it utters outwardly. The double heart, once upon a time, received this damning judgment: Deceitful lips in heart and heart have spoken evil. It should have been enough to say, In the heart they have spoken evil. How are lips deceitful? What is deceit? When one thing is done openly, another covered up. Deceitful lips mean a not simple heart; and because it is not a simple heart, that is why in heart and heart; that is why in heart twice over; because it is a double heart.

We find many who occasionally mix poison with sweet words in one and the same conversation and enter into conflicts by feigned persuasions to peace. What can be more unfortunate or dangerous than the case of those people who with all the ardor of their deceitful tongues plot against someone’s life? Why do they fail to consider the prophet’s psalm, which states, May the Lord destroy sinful lips. Do you perceive under what a curse one lives who is contriving one plan in his heart and placing another on his tongue?

Do you see the solicitude of the inspired author, how he prays for them? The remark is not against them, no, but on their behalf. He did not ask for them to be destroyed, note, but for the evil to be done away with. He did not say the Lord will destroy them, note, but the deceitful lips. Again, he asks for the destruction not of their being but of their tongue, their folly, their deceit, and for an end to be put to their arrogance.

Consider the piety of the speaker, for he does not direct his prayer against people, since many of them needed to be converted, but against the vices themselves.

When the Lord wipes out those things that are base, he will destroy those very things, so that when those things that have come on a person unexpectedly have been destroyed, the foremost creation of God whom the baser things had overtaken may take up the higher things.

With mouths agape they heedlessly utter whatever occurs to them, scornful of divine long-suffering and giving no thought to their falling under the lordship of God.

Our lips are our own; who is our master? These are words of insane and deranged people. For this very reason Paul says the opposite to them in the words, You are not your own; you were bought at a price,^[1] and bids them not to live for themselves. Your lips are not yours, he is saying, but the Lord’s. He it was, in fact, who made them, who fitted you together, who breathed life into you. But you—what do you have? Not all that we have, by contrast, is ours; for even the possessions we have others have entrusted to us, and the land we lease others have given to us. Exactly so has God let these things out on lease to you, not for you to bear thorns but to convert the seed into something useful; not for you to make folly flourish by them, not for deceit but for humility, benediction and love. He gave you eyes, not to indulge in unrestrained gazing but to embellish them with temperance; and hands, not for striking but for giving alms.

This . . . should be taken as spoken in the person of God the Father who deigned to send his Son for the sake of the poor and needy, that is, those who suffered need and poverty in lacking spiritual good things. . . . He is understood to have put into Christ whatever relates to the taking away of the wretchedness of the poor and the relief of the destitute who are groaning.

I will arise is a metaphor to indicate that the one who is not familiar with the human need to lie down out of weakness does in fact rise up. But he says I will arise, I will appear and be manifest in the Son. For the strength and majesty of the Father and of the Son are one and undivided. For the Father appears and is manifest in the Son, as Christ himself says in the Gospel: He who sees me sees the Father also.^[1]

Since he said that the Lord’s sayings are pure and unmixed with falsehood, he goes on to say that as silver brought into contact with fire is found to be purified of every defilement, so also such commands of God emerge sincere and unaffected by falsehood. The phrase seven times means repeatedly, his meaning being that it is exceedingly pure and untainted with falsehood.

In the same manner silver is purified by fire after it is drawn through the flame two or three times, nor is that enough, but again and again being purged thoroughly by the furnace, never will it have any false or foreign material, so also the words of the Lord genuinely spoken are full of truth, as pure and undefiled, including no falsehood.

Although they may be beautiful, the words of those who stand apart from Christ are not pure but interspersed with innumerable lies; the words of the Lord alone are pure, in which there is no lie mixed, and they are true as silver purged and proven in the furnace. When anything is declared with them, it is never to be rejected in doubt.

The words of the Lord are pure words. By pure he means without any alloy of deceit. These words of the Lord are words tested and proved through hardships, purified seven times: by fear of God, by devotion, by knowledge, by fortitude, by deliberation, by understanding, by wisdom.

When Israel had left Egypt, God forbade the people to even touch the mountain where he was giving the Law, because they were far from being on fire for the Lord. He did, however, call the blessed Moses to that mountain. Moses was totally committed to him and clung to his grace, so God said, Let Moses alone draw near.^[1] So Moses climbed up the mountain into the cloud, and although that mountain smoked with the heat and presence of the Lord, Moses was unharmed. Rather, through the words of the Lord, which are pure silver refined in a furnace, he came down more pure than when he went up.

Guarded by your grace we shall not only escape the wiles of the present generation but shall also be provided with everlasting salvation.

Here he consoles us in tribulations while [in heaven] he establishes us in the security of eternity. Here he helps us, but there he glorifies and crowns us. In this way, a most devoted Creator preserves us here in order that we may not perish and that he may bless us there so that we can no longer be miserable in any way.

Even if the godless and demons and agitators surround us, even if they besiege us and cut us off, you will render us superior with your help.

The wicked walk in a circle so that they are never able to arrive at the right path, since crooked paths are always associated with bad character. . . . For this reason, they are not able to attain the rest of the eighth day, for they are always turning backward like wheels.

When you care for us, even if we are abandoned among those guilty of hostility and scheming, we emerge superior on account of the care of the Most High.