Psalms 23:3

The first mode of the Lord’s operation mentioned by us is an exhibition of the recompense resulting from piety. Of the very great number of testimonies that there are, I shall adduce one, thus summarily expressed by the prophet David: “Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord , or who shall stand in His holy place? He who is guiltless in his hands, and pure in his heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, or sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. He shall receive blessing from the Lord , and mercy from God his Saviour. This is the generation of them that seek the Lord, that seek the face of the God of Jacob.” The prophet has, in my opinion, concisely indicated the Gnostic. David, as appears, has cursorily demonstrated the Saviour to be God, by calling Him “the face of the God of Jacob,” who preached and taught concerning the Spirit. …

In Isaiah: “In the last times the mountain of the Lord shall be revealed, and the house of God upon the tops of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall come upon it, and many shall walk and say, Come, and let us go up into the mountain of the Lord, and into the house of the God of Jacob; and He will tell us His way, and we will walk in it. For from Sion shall proceed the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke much people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and they shall no more learn to fight.” Also in the twenty-third Psalm: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent in his hands, and of a clean heart; who hath not received his life in vanity, and hath not sworn craftily to h …

In the Epistle of John: “If our heart blame us not, we have confidence towards God; and whatever we ask, we shall receive from Him.” Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: “Blessed are they of a pure heart, for they shall see God.” Also in the twenty-third Psalm: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? The innocent in hands and of a pure heart.”

And yet the passages are true which he goes on to adduce by way of answer, saying: “The Saviour in the gospel declares, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.’ David also says, ‘Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent in his hands, and pure in his heart;’ and again in another passage, ‘Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good and upright in heart.’ So also in Solomon: ‘Riches are good unto him that hath no sin on his conscience;’ and again in the same book, ‘Leave off from sin, and order thine hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from wickedness.’ So in the Epistle of John, ‘If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God; and whatsoever we ask, we shall receive of Him.’” For all this is accomplished by the will, by the exercise of faith, hope, and love; by keeping under the body; by doing alms; …

I suppose, too, that there is a difference between one who is upright in heart and one who is clean in heart. A man is upright in heart when he “reaches forward to those things which are before, forgetting those things which are behind” so as to arrive in a right course, that is, with right faith and purpose, at the perfection where he may dwell clean and pure in heart. Thus, in the psalm, the conditions ought to be severally bestowed on each separate character, where it is said, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent in his hands, and clean in his heart.” He shall ascend, innocent in his hands, and stand, clean in his heart, the one state in present operation, the other in its consummation. …

3. “Who shall ascend into the mount of the Lord?” Who shall ascend to the height of the righteousness of the Lord? “Or who shall stand in His holy place?” ( ver. 3 ). Or who shall abide in that place, whither He shall ascend, founded above the seas, and prepared above the rivers?

11. Who then will lead us to such a company of angels as this? Who, coming with a desire for the heavenly feast, and the angelic holiday, will say like the prophet, ‘I will pass to the place of the wondrous tabernacle, unto the house of God; with the voice of joy and praise, with the shouting of those who keep festival?’ To this course the saints also encourage us, saying, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob.’ But not for the impure is this feast, nor is the ascent thereto for sinners; but it is for the virtuous and diligent; and for those who live according to the aim of the saints; for, ‘Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place, but he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not devoted his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. …

74. I know Whose ministers we are, and where we are placed, and whither we are guides. I know the height of God, and the weakness of man, and, on the contrary, his power. Heaven is high, and the earth deep; and who of those who have been cast down by sin shall ascend? Who that is as yet surrounded by the gloom here below, and by the grossness of the flesh can purely gaze with his whole mind upon that whole mind, and amid unstable and visible things hold intercourse with the stable and invisible? For hardly may one of those who have been most specially purged, behold here even an image of the Good, as men see the sun in the water. Who hath measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with a span, and the whole earth in a measure? Who hath weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? What is the place of his rest? and to whom shall he be likened?

The object of the apostle in thus writing was not to introduce the diversity of nature, but to exhibit the notion of Father and of Son as unconfounded. That the phrases are not opposed to one another and do not, like squadrons in war marshalled one against another, bring the natures to which they are applied into mutual conflict, is perfectly plain from the passage in question. The blessed Paul brings both phrases to bear upon one and the same subject, in the words “of him and through him and to him are all things.” That this plainly refers to the Lord will be admitted even by a reader paying but small attention to the meaning of the words. …

41. Then you have in the fifteenth Psalm: “Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle, or who shall rest upon Thy holy hill?” It is not that no one, but that he who is approved shall dwell there, nor does it say that no one shall rest, but he who is chosen shall rest. And that you may know that this is true, it is said not much later in the twenty-fourth Psalm: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place?” The writer implies, not any ordinary person, or one of the common sort, but only a man of excellent life and of singular merit. …