In the previous psalm the completion of that tent in which we live in our time of warfare was celebrated, but now we have the dedication of the house that will abide in everlasting peace.

Blessed David did not build the divine temple, nor do the verses of the psalm fit the builder. So by reconsecration of the house he refers to the restoration of human nature that Christ the Lord accomplished by accepting death on behalf of us, destroying death and giving us hope of resurrection.

He sings this psalm after he was saved from sin and his soul was renewed by repentance. . . . And he gives thanks and prays for the future, that he may be in safety and be established as a type of virtue for the others.

The dedication of the house of David is understood as the resurrection of the Savior, in which all bodies are dedicated. . . . This psalm is about the time of the passion, the resurrection and the consummation of the age.

The physical structure of the body is, speaking figuratively, a harp and an instrument harmoniously adapted for the hymns of our God; and the actions of the body that are referred to the glory of God are a psalm, whenever in an appropriate measure we perform nothing out of tune in our actions. Whatever pertains to lofty contemplation and theology is a canticle. . . . Accordingly, since this was entitled A psalm of a canticle, we believe that the expression suggests action following contemplation. This psalm of a canticle, according to the title, embraces certain words of the dedication of the house. And the speech, in its material form, seems to have been delivered in the time of Solomon, when the renowned temple was raised, and to have been adapted to the harp; but, in its spiritual meaning, the title seems to signify the incarnation of the Word of God and to make known the dedication of a house, which same house had been constructed in a novel and incredible manner. We have found many things in this psalm announced by the Lord in person. Or, perhaps, it is proper to consider the house as the church built by Christ; just as Paul writes in his letter to Timothy: In order that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.^[1] The dedication of the church must be understood as the renewal of the mind, which takes place through the Holy Spirit in each individually, of those who make up the body of the church of Christ. It is a divine and musical harmony, which includes not words that gladden the ear but those that calm and soften the wicked spirits that trouble souls that are exposed to harm.

So now it is the whole Christ who speaks. . . . You have given them no joy at my expense, those who throughout the world have constantly attempted to crush me with every kind of persecution.

The more anyone strives toward the Lord, the more he exalts the Lord and is himself exalted. On this account also the psalmist says, I will extol you, O Lord, because you have upheld me. One who is holy extols the Lord; the sinner brings him low.

Human nature did not beseech God and look for reprieve from destruction; rather, it constantly fell to wailing and weeping, with death in view and no expectation of resurrection. Accordingly, the psalmist made mention of the tears and laments that occur with the sick and dying to show the ineffable lovingkindness of God . . . [by which,] without being invoked and seeing only the wailing, he took pity on what was happening and gave a reprieve from death.

No one is able to exalt God unless God has lifted him up. For we are lifted up on high through the cross of Christ, who said, When I will have been lifted up, I will draw all to me.^[1] We exalt the Lord who himself exalted the Father, and as much as he has been in him, he shows the Father to the ones who believe. He teaches that there are certain invisible enemies of the human spirit who envy the salvation handed over to them by God. They lie in wait, and they observe whether an error, fall or mishap should happen, which, if it would, straightway they mock that salvation as if joyful with the wrongdoing, against which mockery he bears up with strength if they will see that salvation illuminated by divine steps. He thanks God because God did not allow him to be cast away but corrected him from his fall. One who realizes this clearly exalts God and protects the worthy teaching that comes from God. Such a person lives a life of wisdom and keeps his spirit in all excellence. He exalts the one who lives within him.

You have rescued me from the condition of profound blindness and the lowest slime of corruptible flesh.

One does not sing to the Lord by simply uttering the words of the psalm with his mouth, but all who send up the psalmody from a clean heart and who are holy, maintaining righteousness toward God, these are able to sing to God, harmoniously guided by the spiritual rhythms. How many stand there, coming from fornication? How many from theft? How many concealing in their hearts deceit? How many lying? They think they are singing, although in truth they are not singing. For the Scripture invites the saint to the singing of psalms. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit,^[1] nor a bad heart utter words of life. Therefore, make the tree good and its fruits good.^[2] Cleanse your hearts, in order that you may bear fruit in the spirit and may be able, after becoming saints, to sing psalms intelligently to the Lord.

All who are mindful of the mercy of God confess him.

By wrath he refers to punishment and retribution, by wrath the divine Scripture meaning not only the initial response but also lasting anger. So by wrath he refers to the awful process of vengeance, and by anger the effect it rightly has on sinners, the terms being interchanged as usual. . . . He takes vengeance when angered and is beneficent by purpose and intention.

In the same way that wrath arises from the indignation of God, so even life is generated from his will. If life indicates knowledge, . . . then wrath denotes lack of knowledge. Death is a turning from life. Wrath, then, indicates death, a deprivation of contemplation.

In God’s wrath is anger, but in his will is life, because his will is life. . . . He is led to anger because of our sin. And although mourning will continue all night, in the morning he makes for us a rejoicing, when through repentance we strip off the burden of evil.

Now, things turned out like this both in the case of Hezekiah and in the case of the salvation of everyone. After the Assyrians applied those awful threats and moved the city to weeping, they sustained the blow at night, and in the morning they filled with good cheer those whom they had forced to weep. The divine Isaiah brought Hezekiah the sentence of death in the evening, and towards morning brought him in turn the good news of life. And it happened likewise in the case of the salvation of everyone: the sacred apostles and the believers along with them lamented the passion of the Lord, but toward morning the women came and brought the joy of the resurrection.

We weep only until that morning of resurrection gladness, looking to the joy that blossomed in advance in the early-morning resurrection of the Lord.

The world was cursed by the death of Adam, but life is revealed in the rising from the dead. Weeping will tarry till evening. . . . But we will have joy in the morning. In the early rising, as the shadows of the earth are ended and the time of morning rising arrives, the beauty of our faith stands.

As the prosperity of a city is dependent on the supply of goods for sale in the market, and as we say that a country is prosperous that produces much fruit, so also there is a certain prosperity of the soul when it has been filled with works of every kind. It is necessary first for it to be laboriously cultivated and then to be enriched by the plentiful streams of heavenly waters, so as to bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold and to obtain the blessing that says, Blessed shall be your barns and blessed your stores.^[1] One, therefore, who is conscious of his own constancy, will say with sure confidence and will strongly maintain that he will not be turned away by any opponent, like a full field that the Lord has blessed.

Without your power I cannot rise from my fall. Bring it to pass that the grace of my soul shine out again, not averting your face as previously.

They who are engaged in the examination of the reason for virtues have said that some of the virtues spring from contemplation and some are noncontemplative . . . beauty and strength are noncontemplative virtues since they follow from the contemplative. . . . But, for this, namely, that beauty may exist in the soul and also the power for the fulfillment of what is proper, we need divine grace. . . . For I was beautiful according to nature but weak, because I was dead by sin through the treachery of the serpent. To my beauty, then, which I received from you at the beginning of my creation, you added a strength that is appropriate for what is proper. Every soul is beautiful that is considered by the standard of its own virtues. But beauty, true and most lovely, that can be contemplated by him alone who has purified his mind, is that of the divine and blessed nature. One who gazes steadfastly at the splendor and graces of it receives some share from it, as if from an immersion tingeing his own face with a sort of brilliant radiance. . . . Moses also was made resplendent in face by receiving some share of beauty when he held converse with God. Therefore, one who is conscious of his own beauty utters this act of thanksgiving: O Lord, in your favor, you gave strength to my beauty.

When from time to time you averted your face from me in my sin, I became distressed, as the light by which I knew you was withdrawn from me.

God is said to turn away his face when in times of troubles he permits us to be delivered up to trials, in order that the strength of him who is struggling may be known. . . . We pray always for the face of God to shine on us, in order that we may be in a state becoming to a holy person, gentle and untroubled in every way, because of our readiness for the good. I am ready, he says, and am not troubled.^[1]

I acknowledge the one responsible and shall not be reluctant to admit that all the good things I have are from you.

Crying out to the Lord is the sole privilege of one who desires great and heavenly things. But if anyone asks God for trifling and earthly things, he uses a small and low voice, which does not reach to the height or come to the ears of the Lord.

I hear the voice of your firstborn, my Head who is to die for me, as he prays, To you, Lord, I will cry, and with my God I will plead.

God first predestined us and then called us. . . . Can he abandon those whom he has honored with his mighty benefits even to the point of their reward? . . . Can Christ then condemn you, when he redeemed you from death and offered himself on your behalf, and when he knows that your life is what was gained by his death? Will he not say, What profit is there in my blood, if I condemn the one whom I myself have saved? . . . Can he give a sentence that is very harsh when he prays continually that the grace of reconciliation with the Father be granted us?

The Lord’s descent to earth was not useless, for it gained the whole world! Nevertheless, even after his coming in the flesh, sinners would rather be without his flesh than profit by it. You see, he took pleasure in our salvation and thought of it as a distinctive victory for himself. [By contrast], he considered our destruction a sad loss. . . . He praised those who doubled the grace he gave, both the one who made ten talents from five and the one who made four talents from two. Both of them had done the right thing and had profited from it. But he threw out the one who hid the talent.^[1]

You have torn up the sacking that cloaked my sins, the sad garb of my mortal state, and have clothed me in the first robe, the raiment of undying happiness.

The joy of God is not found in just any soul but, if someone has mourned much and deeply his own sin with loud lamentations and continual weepings, as if he were bewailing his own death, the mourning of such a one is turned into joy. . . . The mourning garment, which he put on when bewailing his sin, is torn, and the tunic of joy is placed around him and the cloak of salvation, those bright wedding garments, with which if one is adorned, he will not be cast out from the bridal chamber.

Mourning turns to joy and the understanding of God to action.

We have a basis of high repute in the evidence given by the God of all of his great affection for us: God so loved the world, Scripture says, that he has given his only-begotten Son so that all who believe in him may not perish but have eternal life.^[1] O Lord my God, I shall confess to you forever: not only in the present life but also after the resurrection I shall offer hymns to you, constantly recounting your extraordinary and ineffable gifts.

This is my glory, Lord my God, that forever I may confess to you that nothing I have derives from myself but that all good things are from you, who are God, all in all.

When you granted me pardon because of my repentance and led me back into glory, taking away the shame of my sins, for this I shall give praise to you for all eternity. In fact, what space of time could be so great, that it could produce in my soul forgetfulness of such mighty benefits?