Psalms 141:6

14. Thou dealedst with me, therefore, that I should be persuaded to go to Rome, and teach there rather what I was then teaching at Carthage. And how I was persuaded to do this, I will not fail to confess unto Thee; for in this also the profoundest workings of Thy wisdom, and Thy ever present mercy to usward, must be pondered and avowed. It was not my desire to go to Rome because greater advantages and dignities were guaranteed me by the friends who persuaded me into this, although even at this period I was influenced by these considerations, but my principal and almost sole motive was, that I had been informed that the youths studied more quietly there, and were kept under by the control of more rigid discipline, so that they did not capriciously and impudently rush into the school of a master not their own, into whose presence they were forbidden to enter unless with his consent. …

4. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall by inheritance possess the earth:” that earth, I suppose, of which it is said in the Psalm, “Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” For it signifies a certain firmness and stability of the perpetual inheritance, where the soul, by means of a good disposition, rests, as it were, in its own place, just as the body rests on the earth, and is nourished from it with its own food, as the body from the earth. This is the very rest and life of the saints. Then, the meek are those who yield to acts of wickedness, and do not resist evil, but overcome evil with good. Let those, then, who are not meek quarrel and fight for earthly and temporal things; but “blessed are the meek, for they shall by inheritance possess the earth,” from which they cannot be driven out.

1. The title of the Psalm is, “For her who receiveth the inheritance.” The Church then is signified, who receiveth for her inheritance eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ; that she may possess God Himself, in cleaving to whom she may be blessed, according to that, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.” What earth, but that of which it is said, “Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living”? And again more clearly, “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.” And conversely the word Church is said to be God’s inheritance according to that, “Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.” Therefore is God said to be our inheritance, because He feedeth and sustaineth us: and we are said to be God’s inheritance, because He ordereth and ruleth us. …

11. “For such as shall bless Him shall inherit the land” ( ver. 23 ), that is, they shall possess that righteous One: the only One who both is truly righteous, and maketh righteous: who both was poor in this world, and brought great riches to it, wherewith to make those rich whom He found poor. For it is He who hath enriched the hearts of the poor with the Holy Spirit; and having emptied out their souls by confession of sins, hath filled them with the richness of righteousness: He who was able to enrich the fisherman, who, by forsaking his nets, spurned what he possessed already, but sought to draw up what he possessed not. …

10. “The righteous shall inherit the land” ( ver. 29 ). Here again let not covetousness steal on thee, nor promise thee some great estate; hope not to find there, what you are commanded to despise in this world. That “land” in the text, is a certain “land of the living,” the kingdom of the Saints. Whence it is said: “Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living.” For if thy life too is the same life as that there spoken of, think what sort of “land” thou art about to inherit. That is “the land of the living;” this the land of those who are about to die: to receive again, when dead, those whom it nourished when living. Such then as is that land, such shall the life itself be also: if the life be for ever, “the land” also is to be thine “for ever.” And how is “the land” to be thine “for ever”?

6. “Unto thee have I cried, O Lord: I have said, Thou art my hope” ( ver. 5 ). When I endured, when I was in tribulation, “I said, Thou art my hope.” My hope here, therefore I endure. But “my portion,” not here, but “in the land of the living.” God giveth a portion in the land of the living; but not something from Himself without Himself. What will He give to one that loveth Him, save Himself?