“Behold yourselves, O Asaph, congregation of the Lord. "Exult ye unto God our helper" (ver. 1). Ye who are gathered together to-day, ye are this day the congregation of the Lord, if indeed unto you the Psalm is sung, "Exult ye unto God our helper." Others exult unto the Circus, ye unto God: others exult unto their deceiver, do ye exult unto your helper: others exult unto their god their belly, do ye exult unto your God your helper. "Jubilate unto the God of Jacob." Because ye also belong to Jacob: yea, ye are Jacob, the younger people to which the elder is servant. "Jubilate unto the God of Jacob." Whatsoever ye cannot explain in words, ye do not therefore forbear exulting: what ye shall be able to explain, cry out: what ye cannot, jubilate. For from the abundance of joys, he that cannot find words sufficient, useth to break out into jubilating; "Jubilate unto the God of Jacob."”

“"Take the Psalm and give the tabret" [Psalm 81:2]. Both "take," and "give." What is, "take"? What, "give"? "Take the Psalm, and give the tabret." The Apostle Paul says in a certain place, [Philippians 4:15] reproving and grieving, that no one had communicated with him in the matter of giving and receiving. What is, "in the matter of giving and receiving," but that which he has openly set forth in another place. [1 Corinthians 9:11] "If we have sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things." And it is true that a tabret, which is made of hide, belongs to the flesh. The Psalm, therefore, is spiritual, the tabret, carnal. Therefore, people of God, congregation of God, "take ye the Psalm, and give the tabret:" take ye spiritual things, and give carnal. This also is what at that blessed Martyr's table we exhorted you, that receiving spiritual things ye should give carnal. For these which are built for the time, are needful for receiving the bodies either of the living or of the dead, but in time that is passing by. Shall we after God's judgment take up these buildings to Heaven? Yet without these we shall not be able to do at this time the things which belong to the possessing of Heaven. If therefore you are eager in getting spiritual things, be ye devout in expending carnal things. "Take the Psalm, and give the tabret:" take our voice, return your hands.”

“"Sound the trumpet" [Psalm 81:3]. This is, Loudly and boldly preach, be not affrighted! As the Prophet says in a certain place, "Cry out, and lift up as with a trumpet your voice." [Isaiah 58:1] Sound the trumpet in the beginning of the month of the trumpet. It was ordered, that in the beginning of the month there should be a sounding of the trumpet: and this even now the Jews do in bodily sort, after the spirit they understand it not. For the beginning of the month, is the new moon: the new moon, is the new life. What is the new moon? "If any, then, is in Christ, he is a new creature." [2 Corinthians 5:17] What is, "sound the trumpet in the beginning of the month of the trumpet"? With all confidence preach ye the new life, fear not the noise of the old life.”

“"Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on our festival day of good omen. Because it is a command for Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob." God ordered the priests to use the trumpets. They reminded the people of the trumpets used on the mountain: when the God of all spoke on Mount Sinai, [Scripture] says, there was a loud noise of the trumpet. So when the priests used the trumpets, they reminded the people of that appearance. Consequently, they were right to command those who had been granted return and had enjoyed the divine assistance to make use of the trumpets along with the other instruments.”

“"Sound the trumpet at the beginning of the month, on the day of your notable solemnity." We must also consider that we are commanded through the instruments of the musical discipline both to play the lyre for the Lord and to observe the day of solemnity, so that every action of ours may be directed to the Lord and offered to his ears in most pleasant music, just as musical instruments are directed towards a sweet-sounding melody and coalesce smoothly into one harmony. For there is great power and delightful knowledge in that discipline, which the teachers of secular literature (as God graciously granted them to know, since he bestows everything that is useful) made able to be discerned through their theoretical writings, namely those things which in the nature of matter were previously held in secret. Therefore, the first division of this discipline is harmony, rhythm and meter. The second is a division of instruments into percussion, stringed instruments and blown instruments. The third is divided into six harmonies. The fourth is divided into fifteen tones. Thus, the power of all that most beautiful discipline is explained by such distinctions of ancient teachers; we read in the secular books that many miracles have occurred through these means. But—to omit the legendary tales of secular literature—we read that David drove a demon from Saul by his melodious harp and the divine Scripture attests that the walls of Jericho fell straightaway by the sounding of the horns, so that there can be no doubt that musical sounds often accomplish great and powerful deeds, at least if the Lord orders and permits them.”

“"Because it is a commandment for Israel, and a judgment for the God of Jacob" [Psalm 81:4]. Where a commandment, there judgment. For, "They that have sinned in the Law, by the Law shall be judged." [Romans 2:12] And the very Giver of the commandment, the Lord Christ, the Word made flesh, says, "For judgment I have come into the world, that they that see not may see, and they that see may be made blind." [John 9:39] What is, "That they that see not may see, they that see be made blind," but that the lowly be exalted, the proud thrown down? For not they that see are to be made blind, but those who to themselves seem to see are to be convicted of blindness. This is brought about in the mystery of the press, that they who see may not see, and they that see be made blind.”

“"A testimony in Joseph He made that" [Psalm 81:5]. Look you, brethren, what is it? Joseph is interpreted augmentation. You remember, you know of Joseph sold into Egypt: Joseph sold into Egypt is Christ passing over to the Gentiles. There Joseph after tribulations was exalted, and here Christ, after the suffering of the Martyrs, was glorified. Thenceforth to Joseph the Gentiles rather belong, and thenceforth augmentation; because, "Many are the children of her that was desolate, rather than of her that has the husband." [Isaiah 54:1] "He made it, till he should go out of the land of Egypt." Observe that also here the "fifth of the sabbath" is signified: when Joseph went out from the land of Egypt, that is, the people multiplied through Joseph, he was caused to pass through the Red Sea. Therefore then also the waters brought forth creeping things of living souls. [Genesis 1:20] No other thing was it that there in figure the passage of that people through the sea foreshowed, than the passing of the Faithful through Baptism; the apostle is witness: for "I would not have you ignorant, brethren," he said, "that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." [1 Corinthians 10:1-2] Nothing else then the passing through the sea did signify, but the Sacrament of the baptized; nothing else the pursuing Egyptians, but the multitude of past sins. You see most evident mysteries. The Egyptians press, they urge; so then sins follow close, but no farther than to the water. Why then do you fear, who hast not yet come, to come to the Baptism of Christ, to pass through the Red Sea? What is "Red"? Consecrated with the Blood of the Lord. Why do you fear to come? The consciousness, perhaps, of some huge offenses goads and tortures in you your mind, and says to you that it is so great a thing you have committed, that you may despair to have it remitted you. Fear lest there remain anything of your sins, if there lived any one of the Egyptians! [Exodus 14:29-30] But when you shall have passed the Red Sea, when you shall have been led forth out of your offenses "with a mighty hand and with a strong arm," you will perceive mysteries that you know not: since Joseph himself too, "when he came out of the land of Egypt, heard a language which he knew not." You shall hear a language which you know not: which they that know now hear and recognise, bearing witness and knowing. You shall hear where you ought to have your heart: which just now when I said many understood and answered by acclamation, the rest stood mute, because they have not heard the language which they knew not. Let them hasten, then, let them pass over, let them learn.”

“"He turned away from burdens his back." Who "turned away from burdens his back," but He that cried, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden"? In another manner this same thing is signified. What the pursuit of the Egyptians did, the same thing do the burdens of sins. As if thou shouldest say, From what burdens? "His hands in the basket did serve." By the basket are signified servile works; to cleanse, to manure, to carry earth, is done with a basket, such works are servile: because "every one that doeth sin, is the slave of sin;" and "if the Son shall have made you free, then will ye be free indeed." Justly also are the rejected things of the world counted as baskets, but even baskets did God fill with morsels; "Twelve baskets" did He fill with morsels; because "He chose the rejected things of this world to confound the things that were mighty." But also when with the basket Joseph did serve, he then carried earth, because he did make bricks. "His hands in the basket did serve."”

“All this, from the beginning of the Psalm up to this verse, we have heard of the oil of the press. What remains is rather for grief and warning: for it belongs to the lees of the press, even to the end; perchance also not without a meaning in the interposition of the "Diapsalma." But even this too is profitable to hear, that he who sees himself already of the oil may rejoice; he that is in danger of running among the lees may beware. To both give heed, choose the one, fear the other. "Hear, O My people, and I will speak, and will bear witness unto thee." For it is not to a strange people, not to a people that belongs not to the press: "Judge ye," He saith, "between Me and My vineyard."”

“In distress, you called to Me, all of you. You called from the distress of the labor of the burdens of Egypt, and I released you. I answered you in secret with thunder You called in secret between Me and you, but I answered you with a voice of thunder; I made known My might and My awesome deeds in public. I tried you by the waters of Meribah, forever Although it was revealed and tried before Me that you were destined to provoke Me with the waters of Meribah. So it was taught in Mechilta (Exod. 19:2).”

“"Israel, if you shall have heard Me, there shall not be in you any new god" [Psalm 81:9]. A "new god" is one made for the time: but our God is not new, but from eternity to eternity. And our Christ is new, perchance, as Man, but eternal God. For what before the beginning? And truly, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." [John 1:1] And our Christ Himself is the Word made flesh, that He might dwell in us. [John 1:14] Far be it, then, that there should be in any one a new god. A new god is either a stone or a phantom. He is not, says one, a stone; I have a silver and a gold one. Justly did he choose to name the very costly things, who said, "The idols of the nations are silver and gold." Great are they, because they are of gold and silver; costly they are, shining they are; but yet, "Eyes they have, and see not!" New are these gods. What newer than a god out of a workshop? Yea, though those now old ones spiders' webs have covered over, they that are not eternal are new. So much for the Pagans.. ..”

“Who, then, is this one cast down from his divine preeminence and removed from the limitations of creation? The matter is completely inconceivable, and there is no discernible place or manner of speaking of someone in between creator and creation. Although they dislodged him from the throne of divinity, they have arrived at a point in their teaching that they call him the Son and God and think that he is to be adored although the law openly proclaims, "The Lord your God shall you worship and him only shall you serve," and although God said to the Israelites through the voice of David, "There shall be no new god among you, nor shall you adore a foreign god."”

“All perverse valuations of worldly natures are prohibited. Now every perverse valuation of creatures proceeds either by reason of sublimity, or by reason of sufficiency, or by reason of delight. In the first way it is the idolatry of the proud; in the second way it is the idolatry of the avaricious; in the third way it is the idolatry of the lascivious. Against the first the Prophet says: There shall be no new god in you, nor shall you adore a strange god.”

“I would therefore beseech you, Pammachius, as a foremost lover of learning, and Marcella, as an outstanding examplar of Roman virtue, men who are bound together by faith and blood, to lend aid to my efforts by your prayers, in order that our Lord and Savior might in His own cause and by His mind make answer through my mouth. For it is He who says to the prophet, "Open thy mouth and I will fill it" (Psalm 81:10). For if He admonishes us, when we have been hailed before judges and tribunals, not to ponder what answer we are to give to them (Luke 12:11-12), how much more is He able to carry on His own war against blaspheming adversaries and through His servants to vanquish them?”

“For if there be error in you, You will not worship a strange god. If you think not of a false god, you will not worship a manufactured god: for "there will not" be in you any strange god. "For I am." Why would you adore what is not? "For I am the Lord your God" [Psalm 81:10]. Because "I am I that Am," and indeed "I Am" He says, I that Am, over every creature: yet to you what good have I afforded in time? "Who brought you out of the land of Egypt." Not to that people alone is it said. For we all were brought out of the land of Egypt, we have all passed through the Red Sea; our enemies pursuing us have perished in the water. Let us not be ungrateful to our God; let us not forget God that abides, and fabricate in ourselves a new god. "I, who led you out of the land of Egypt," says God. "Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it." You suffer straitness in yourself because of the new god set up in your heart; break the vain image, cast down from your conscience the feigned idol: "open wide your mouth," in confessing, in loving: "and I will fill it," because with me is the fountain of life.”

“The door to wisdom is a yearning for it and a powerful desire. Hence the Psalm: "Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it." That is the road by which wisdom comes within me, by which I go into wisdom, and wisdom comes into me, and likewise charity. Such wisdom cannot be obtained without supreme mutual pleasure, but where there is supreme mutual pleasure, supreme yearning must have come first.”

“"And My people obeyed not My voice" [Psalm 81:11]. For He would not speak these things except to His own people. For, "we know that whatsoever things the Law says, it says to them that are in the Law." [Romans 3:19] "And Israel did not listen to Me." Who? To whom? Israel to Me. O ungrateful soul! Through Me the soul, by Me the soul called, by Me brought back to hope, by Me washed from sins! "And Israel did not listen to Me!" For they are baptized and pass through the Red Sea: but on the way they murmur, gainsay, complain, are stirred with seditions, ungrateful to Him who delivered them from pursuing enemies, who leads through the dry land, through the desert, yet with food and drink, with light by night and shade by day.”

“"And I let them go according to the affections of their heart" (ver. 12). Behold the press: the orifices are open, the lees run. "And I let them go," not according to the healthfulness of My commands; but, according to the affections of their heart: I gave them up to themselves. The Apostle also saith, "God gave them up to the desires of their own hearts." "I let them go according to the affection of their heart, they shall go in their own affections." There is what ye shudder at, if at least ye are straining out into the hidden vats of the Lord, if at least ye have conceived a hearty love for His storehouses, there is what ye shudder at. Some stand up for the circus, some for the amphitheatre, some for the booths in the streets some for the theatres, some for this, some for that, some finally for their "new gods;" "they shall go in their own affections."”

“"If My people would have heard Me, if Israel would have walked in My ways" [Psalm 81:13]. For perchance that Israel says, Behold I sin, it is manifest, I go after the affections of my own heart: but what can I do? The devil does this. Demons do this. What is the devil? Who are the demons? Certainly your enemies. "Unto nothing all their enemies I would have brought down; and on them that oppress them I would have sent forth My hand" [Psalm 81:14]. But now what have they to do to complain of enemies? Themselves have become the worse enemies. For how? What follows? Of enemies ye complain, yourselves, what are you?”

“"If my people listened to me, if Israel traveled in my ways, I would have reduced their foes to nothing and laid my hand on those afflicting them." If they had adhered to my advice and followed my commandments, I would easily have destroyed their foes. "To nothing" suggests the facility—in other words, easily and without trouble I would have been able to bring about their ruin in an instant.”

“"The enemies of God have lied unto Him" [Psalm 81:15]. Do you renounce? I renounce. And he returns to what he renounced. In fact, what things do you renounce, except bad deeds, diabolical deeds, deeds to be condemned of God, thefts, plunderings, perjuries, manslayings, adulteries, sacrileges, abominable rites, curious arts.. ..”

“"The Lord's foes were false to him." Aquila … put it this way: "in their hatred they will deny the Lord." By denying Christ the Lord, they brought hatred on themselves, and by being false to him and to the existing covenants they made themselves enemies of the Lord. After the giving of the law, [Scripture] says that the people replied, "All that the Lord God has said we will do and listen to." While their promises were of this kind, their words were the direct opposite—they crucified their own Lord when he appeared and received a penalty for their impiety, namely, eternal ruin. This was true not only of them but also of Arius, Eunomius, Nestorius and the devotees of their teachings.”

“"And he fed them with the fat of wheat." He led them into the land of promise. He fed them, not with manna as in the desert, but the wheat that had fallen, that had risen again. "And he fed them with the fat of wheat." Be sure you penetrate the mystery in the scriptural words: "With the finest of wheat." Does wheat have fat? Does it also have intestines? The prophet wanted to show the abundance and richness of spiritual grace, and hence he called it fat. "And with honey from the rock he would fill them." He is the wheat; he also is the rock who quenches the thirst of the Israelites in the desert. He satisfied their thirst spiritually with honey, and not with water, so that they who believe and receive the food taste honey in their mouth. "How sweet to my palate are your promises, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Lastly, that is why our Lord ate honeycomb after the resurrection and was satisfied with honey from the rock. I am going to tell you something new. The Rock himself ate honey in order to give us honey and sweetness, so that they who in the law had drunk myrrh, or bitterness, might afterwards eat the honey of the Gospel.”

“..."And He fed them of the fat of wheat, and from the rock with honey He satisfied them." In the wilderness from the rock He brought forth water, not honey. "Honey" is wisdom, holding the first place for sweetness among the viands of the heart. How many enemies of the Lord, then, that lie unto the Lord, are fed not only of the fat of wheat, but also from the rock with honey, from the wisdom of Christ? How many are delighted with His word, and with the knowledge of His sacraments, with the unfolding of His parables, how many are delighted, how many applaud with clamour! And this honey is not from any chance person, but "from the rock." But "the Rock was Christ." How many, then, are satisfied with that honey, cry out, and say, It is sweet; say, Nothing better, nothing sweeter could be thought or said! and yet the enemies of the Lord have lied unto Him. I like not to dwell any more on matters of grief; although the Psalm endeth in terror to this purpose, yet from the end of it, I pray you, let us return to the heading: "Exult unto God our Helper." Turned unto God.”

“As inducing strength, the seven virtues are represented by the seven loaves of the gospel, from which the whole body of the elect is fed. For the philosophers, these four virtues became stones, but they are actually seven breads of life. Moses' five loaves were made of barley, but the seven loaves of wheat of the evangelical teaching were made out of the fat of the wheat.”