Christ's endurance, resurrection, and the church's hope

He speaks of the eternal waiting of the righteous as his own, and of the prayers through which they will hear God accomplish the ascent from Hades, the life made secure forever, and the firm standing in that life amid gladness, brightness, and hymns to God (Psalm 40:1; Psalm 40:2). Such was also the cry in Psalm 29 (30): “I cried to you, and you healed me; you brought up my soul from Hades; you saved me from those going down to the pit” (Psalm 29:3-4 [30:3-4]), and what follows (Psalm 40:2; Psalm 30:12). In these words he clearly referred Adam’s condition to himself. Then, after bringing in the resurrection, he says at the end: “So that my glory may sing praise to you, and I may not be pierced with sorrow” (Psalm 30:12).

For the things of Christ extend to the salvation of all; they neither happened for his own sake nor stand in him alone. Therefore Paul says: “If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised” (1 Corinthians 15:16). For if the end for whose sake the cause would have existed had not come about, Christ's resurrection would not have been that cause. The mystery is fearsome: the destruction of death and the ascent of souls from Hades, which is the true hopes in God. About this hope Paul speaks, joining faith to it and bringing in love toward the one who has granted such great gifts and extends the good things forever. “These three remain,” he says: “faith, hope, love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

In this, he says, the blessed person places hope in God and seeks eternal things, not being enticed by what appears for a short time nor turning aside from the true good to falsehood. For everything that people think they procure by themselves is falsehood; only what comes from God is true. And he demonstrated this through the whole ordering of human affairs, refuting all human things and bringing in the perfect good that comes from himself.

By speaking of himself he reveals the church, and he presents us as needing mercy so that we may remain in grace. The request for mercy is powerful, because it is said to go not to human beings but to him. For in this way we human beings obtain what comes from God: Christ, on our behalf, is the one who receives the good meant for us, as he says: “And I make a covenant with you, as my Father made with me” (Luke 22:29).

For there is no power for salvation in the church of Christ except what comes from God, since we have neither weapons nor money nor surrounding walls nor control of land nor anything of the kind that the Jews had (Psalm 40:13). So it is a wonder, and no less than any of the other wonders, that people warred upon by countless nations, unarmed, unprepared, and non-resisting, remain and increase Such was the wonder of the bush that burned and was not consumed, and this was a figure of Christ conquering through suffering. For the church that suffers and is not destroyed bears in itself all the proofs of wisdom and the clear marks of help from above.

To these ends, he says, the church will advance, having first become poor and come through great poverty in the world, and having been enriched by the power that comes from you and glorified by the help that comes from you, which she asks not to delay (Psalm 40:17). And because of the request it will not delay, as it is said: “The one who is coming will come and will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3).

This psalm is also joined to the same theme. For it presents the person of the Savior, the remembrance of the passion, the prediction of the resurrection, and the return to heaven (Psalm 41:1; LXX 40:1). Just now, then, he was saying: “I am poor and needy,” and it would fittingly be brought in as spoken especially by him concerning himself (Psalm 41:1; LXX 40:1).

Even if understanding is good concerning all who are poor in the world for the sake of righteousness—and understanding consists in considering such poor people rich—yet the one who knows and understands the truly rich one who became poor for our sake is truly blessed (Psalm 41:1). And all blessedness follows the knowledge of God.

Again the one who suffers on behalf of human beings speaks of human sins as his own, and he seeks for himself the mercy upon them that comes to us (Psalm 41:4). He dissolves the contempt of those who do not know him by revealing his glory—upon himself according to his own power, and upon us according to the grace of Christ (Psalm 41:4).

For this was eagerly pursued, he says, first by the invisible powers, then by the visible Jews, to cast out the true king from his natural rule, thinking to take possession of an inheritance that did not belong to them (Psalm 41:5). Therefore they said: “Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (Mark 12:7).