The psalm’s theme, in fact, is clear: it is uttered on the part of David himself when he suffered the effects of the sin with Bathsheba. On falling foul of every harsh, grievous and painful incident on that account, remember, he then identified the sin as the cause, especially on hearing that the Lord has taken away your sin.^[1] You see, while he received the gift as coming from a loving Lord, he thought it behooved him not to forget the sin but instead to advance in virtue with the degree of determination he required to be preserved from committing such a sin against so good a lord. But on being caught up in the events involving Absalom in particular, he believed the outcome was God’s abandoning him and realized the sin was most of all to blame. He therefore asks God to be completely reconciled to him and not forsake him but to lift the weight of misfortune that was proving too heavy for the strength of the sufferer.

The forgetfulness of God [would be] a very serious thing, even temporarily. It would mean death, the loss of immortality.

How long will you turn your face away from me? God no more turns away his face than he forgets, but Scripture adopts our human idiom. God is said to turn away his face as long as he refuses knowledge of himself to a soul whose spiritual eyes are not yet pure.

He asks for the appearance of Christ whom he already foresaw. For his face is what was capable of being seen with the eyes of the body, which that holy man with this general longing rightly desired to look upon. Such a face deemed it right to save the world by his heavenly appearance.

Whence comes his knowledge that God had forgotten him, does the text say? Since he knew also when he remembered him, and he was wise enough to know what forgetting meant and what remembering. Not like the majority of people, who, when they are wealthy, when they enjoy a good reputation with people, when everything goes favorably for them, when they better their foes, then think God remembers them. Hence neither do they understand when it is God forgets them. They do not recognize the sign of God’s remembering, you see, nor do they grasp the sign of his forgetting. . . . Nothing, after all, brings remembrance by God so much as doing good, being sober and watchful, practicing virtue; likewise, nothing prompts forgetting so much as living in sin and giving oneself to greed and rapacity. So for your part, dearly beloved, when you are in trouble, do not say, God has forgotten me, but when you are living in sin and everything is going favorably for you. After all, if you knew this, you would quickly abandon evil things.

Just as the sailor on leaving port wanders in every direction and the person deprived of light bumps into many things, so too the one who encounters God’s forgetting is caught up constantly in worries and cares and sorrows.

At first this one makes many plans in his soul, but in the end [see v. 5], he rests in the great plan of God for everyone, whose spirit is in the root of Jesse.

Just as when God defends us and stands by us, everything damaging is removed from us, so when he keeps his distance and forgets us, our soul is cut in two, our heart plunged in sorrow, those who do harm fall on us and life becomes craggy and precipitous. Now, this is allowed to happen for our advantage, so that through the whole of it those more indifferent people may be goaded into becoming more zealous and return to the condition from which they fell. Your falling away will instruct you, after all, Scripture says, and your wickedness censure you.^[1] And so even abandonment by God is a form of providence. You see, when the one who exercises providence and care is slighted, he ignores and abandons us to some extent so that at that point indifference may be expelled and the negligent may turn more zealous.

By night I am overwhelmed by my problems, in the grip of discouragement like a kind of sleep. But if the light of your assistance shines, it will disperse the darkness of trouble and put an end to the sleep of discouragement. If, however, you delay your help, I am afraid the sleep will turn into death, as the distress becomes stronger than my resolve.

The face of God, full of light, is a certain power looking to confer gifts, by which each partaker will be enlightened, as if they were enjoying the rays of the sun. But if one has turned away, his spirit lives in the shadows without light; because the eyes within, namely, the thoughts of the mind, can see nothing. When one persists in sin, more and more shadows come, because deep within him the face of God remains turned away.

If you are blind and unenlightened, lighten your eyes that you sleep not in death. In God’s Light see light, and in the Spirit of God be enlightened by the Son, that threefold and undivided Light.

The eyes of the heart . . . sleep in death when they are closed by the pleasure of the flesh and the light of faith is buried. This is the sort of sleep in which the enemy rejoices.

We must understand the eyes of the heart here: he is praying that they may not be closed by the pleasurable myopia of sin.

Is God a light to enlighten the eyes of the body or the eyes of the intellect? The prophet says of the latter, Enlighten my eyes lest I sleep in death. I think it is clear to everyone that we would not say that God performs the work of the sun and assigns to another the task of enlightening the eyes of those who will not sleep in death. God, therefore, enlightens the mind of those whom he judges to be worthy of personal enlightenment. But if God illuminates the mind according to the statement The Lord is my light,^[1] then we must assume that he is apprehended by the intellect and is invisible and incorporeal, because he is the light of the mind.

The right sight of the eyes hidden within is to be able to see plainly and subtly, insofar as is allowed, whatever considerations there may be concerning the words of God. For we see through a mirror in an obscure manner and we know in part,^[1] but he who discloses the recesses of the darkness^[2] sends the light of truth to those who wish to gain a knowledge concerning him rightly. It is necessary therefore that we prostrate ourselves before God saying, Give light to my eyes that I may not sleep in death, for to slip away from the rightness of holy doctrines would be nothing else except to sleep in death, and we depart from this rightness when we do not follow the divinely inspired Scriptures.

Since the misfortunes and the tribulations render the sun, which is a source of pleasure to everyone, dim and faint to me, he is saying, free me from the misfortune so that I may see good things as they naturally are and not as the tribulations represent them.

As we sin, the adversary becomes haughty and domineering over us, and we are pressed down by our sin; this is really the nature of sin, to cast down and to oppress the spirit.

If someone withdraws himself by a single mental step from the Lord’s strength, then he inevitably steps into the devil’s trap.

What is the meaning of I have prevailed over him? That even if he is not absolutely strong, yet he has proved strong against me. Our defeat clothes him in strength, makes him look strong, powerful and invincible. Do you see that when we sin, not only do we shame and destroy ourselves and fall headlong into death, but also we declare to be strong and powerful the foes by whom we are defeated. And not only this: we also bring them to a state of joy and exultation. Bless me! What stupidity! What madness! To be of assistance ourselves to our enemies and make their soul rejoice and exult through the pain and distress they cause us! See how absurd it is. Whereas we should conquer the enemy (His swords have finally failed, remember, and the godless has been destroyed^[1]), whereas we should conquer, we are beaten; and not only this, but we make him appear powerful and strong. Nor does the extent of our madness and extreme derangement stop at this point: We prove the cause of bringing him to a state of joy and exultation. Sin in reality is the height of madness and extreme evil. . . . Let us . . . give thought and expend effort lest we puff the enemy up, lest we show him to be strong, lest we give him joy; instead, let us do the opposite, make him humble, lowly, weak, dejected, gloomy. You see, if he were to see sinners reforming, all these things would happen together.

It is clear also from this that he uttered this psalm after the sin: he relies not on his righteousness but on mercy and says it is in this that he trusts.

In this I trust, that I shall receive forgiveness of my sin, in that I hope in your mercy through which you have worked salvation for all people.

When a righteous person has not been shaken but has stood firm in the Lord, he or she must not claim credit for it; pride itself may shake such persons loose, even while they are boasting of not being shaken.

Do you see a hope-filled soul? He asked, and before receiving he gives thanks as though having received, sings praise to God and achieves all that had been anticipated.

The love of God is a spring shower of virtues under which a blessed desire begins to bud and holy action bears fruit. This love is patient under adversities in this life, temperate in prosperity, powerful in its humility, joyful in affliction, benevolent toward enemies, and overcomes the wicked by its goodness. From this source, even heavenly creatures are constantly ignited by God’s love as a restoring flame, a growing desire for salvation. To summarize all of this with a phrase from the Apostle: God himself is love.

Hope in God’s mercy, have no doubts, and you will gain your request completely; once gained, however, do not prove ungrateful for the favor and unappreciative but make a record of the kindness and offer it as a thanksgiving song to the Lord.