Category Archives: Old Testament

“Seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14)

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Saint Peter (c. 1468) by Marco Zoppo, depicting Peter holding the Keys of Heaven and a book representing the gospel, bound together with his epistles.

“Turn from evil and do good: seek peace and pursue it.” (Psalm 34:14) This verse can be paired with Psalm 37:28: “Turn from evil and do good, and dwell in the land forever.” God promises his people that if they turn from evil, i.e. repent (literally, “change direction”) and seek to do good, embracing peace, then they will dwell in the Promised Land forever. Embrace the relationship with God and dwell in his land of plenty; refuse to repent and experience exile and expulsion from the Promised Land just as Adam and Eve experienced expulsion from Paradise.

“Seeking peace” and “doing good” are poetic equivalents in these two verses. If we seek peace with our neighbors, especially those who disagree with us, and try to live in harmony with all creation then we will be doing good. Seeking peace necessarily involves seeking the welfare of our neighbors: feeding, visiting, caring for those in need. We express this liturgically by sharing the Kiss of Peace at the Eucharist; we express this at other times by serving at a soup kitchen or helping someone vote or giving a lonely–difficult?–person a phone call.

A few verses later in Psalm 37, we also read: “The righteous shall possess the land and dwell in it forever.” The righteous are those who repent, the ones who turn from evil. The righteous are not the people who never make mistakes; the righteous are the people who admit they have “missed the mark” and change direction in order to try again.

The apostle Peter refers to this verse from Psalm 34 in his first epistle:

“He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile: let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:11)

The apostle quotes these lines as he concludes urging his readers to have compassion and brotherly love for one another. There is no other way into the Promised Land, the Kingdom of God. Having entered the Kingdom, there is no other way to remain there but to keep changing direction and realigning ourselves with the peace, compassion, and harmony that is Divine life.

Daughters of God

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At left, Mercy and Truth as women, veiled with wimples, labelled MISERICORD and VERITE, stand facing, grasping each others hands. At right, two women kiss, Justice, wearing hat, holding sword with right hand, and Mercy, wearing hat, and holding casket with both hands. They flank Gabriel, back-turned, raising scepter with left hand, kneeling, looking up toward Trinity in arc of Heaven. (Book of hours (Ms. Pierpont Morgan Library. M.73) (Paris, France, ca. 1475.)

“Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” (Psalm 85:10-11)

These four virtues–mercy, truth, righteousness, and peace–are often referred to as “the four daughters of God.” The virtues come to be seen as personifications, four celestial women, similar to angels or archangels. The most important contributors to the development and circulation of the motif were the twelfth-century monks Hugh of St Victor and Bernard of Clairvaux. (Christian thought might have have been inspired by an earlier eleventh-century Jewish Midrash, in which Truth, Justice, Mercy and Peace were the four standards of the Throne of God.)

The four daughters might sometimes be thought to be gathered around Christ on the Cross as they–all four–are manifest in differing ways by the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. The verse, “Truth shall spring up from the earth and righteousness … look down from heaven” might also be associated with the Nativity of Christ and his–Truth’s–springing up on the earth and being laid in a manger while Righteousness–the other persons of the Holy Trinity–look down on the scene in Bethlehem. The association of the four daughters with the Incarnation is underscored because they also appear in two sermons by St. Guerric of Igny on Luke 2 “for February 2:

“In this gathering [of the Virgin Mary, Christ, St. Joseph with SS. Simeon and Anna] finally mercy and truth have met … the merciful redemption of Jesus and the truthful witness of the old man and woman. In this meeting, justice and peace kissed when the justice of the devout old man and woman and the peace of him who reconciles the world were united in the kiss of their affections and in spiritual joy.” (Sermon 16.6)

“Rightly then are compassion and truth or faith joined together, since in all our ways–unless compassion and truth meet–it is to be feared that sins will be increased rather than purified…. [There is no forgiveness] if compassion is lacking faith or faith, compassion.” (Sermon 18.5)

The motif of the four daughters of God was influential in European thought. In 1274-76, Magnus VI of Norway introduced the first “national” law-code for Norway and makes prominent use of the allegorical four daughters of God: Mercy, Truth, Justice, and Peace. These daughters have the important role of expressing the idea—which was innovative in the Norwegian legal system at the time—of equality before the law.

The motif changed and developed in later medieval literature, but the usual form was a debate between the daughters (sometimes in the presence of God):

about the wisdom of creating humanity and about the propriety of strict justice or mercy for the fallen human race. Justice and Truth appear for the prosecution, representing the old Law, while Mercy speaks for the defense, and Peace presides over their reconciliation when Mercy prevails. *Michael Murphy, ‘Four Daughters of God’, in A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, ed. by David Lyle Jeffrey (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992), pp. 290-91. )

This psalm is also often suggested in traditional prayer books as a preparation for receiving Holy Communion. The communicant prepares to join the fellowship of the daughters of God by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.

St. Francis Takes Refuge in the Cleft

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St. Francis, with the wounds of the stigmata visible on his hands and foot, kisses the foot of Christ on the Cross in this detail from a 13th century image in the Arezzo basilica of St. Francis.

St. Francis of Assisi is known for many things. Several episodes in his life have become part of popular culture, some still associated with his name while his connection to others has been forgotten: how many remember that the Christmas manger scene–the creche–was “invented” by St. Francis in 1223?

“For in the day of trouble he [the Lord] shall keep me safe in his shelter; he shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling, and set me high upon a rock.” (Psalm 27:7)

As I was reading the psalms last week, I was reminded of another incident in St. Francis’ life. In the autumn of 1224 (the year after he organized the first creche), St. Francis received the stigmata (meaning “brand” or “mark”)–the five wounds of Christ–although this was not generally known until after his death in 1226. The stigmata is commonly referred to as “the wounds of love” described by the bride in the Song of Songs 2:5. The groom then tells the bride, “Come, my dove, in the cleft of the rock…” (Song of Songs 2:13-14).

We are told by St. Gregory of Nyssa that this cleft “is the sublime message of the Gospel” and the person who loves God is not coerced to take refuge in the Gospel but must freely choose to love God and the Good News; St. Gregory points out that King David “realized that of all the things he had done, only those were pleasing to God that were done freely, and so he vows that he will freely offer sacrifice. And this is the spirit of every holy man of God, not to be led by necessity.” What is coerced is not love. Love must be freely given and freely received. Taking refuge in the rock is to freely give oneself to God and to be freely received by God.

The psalm refers to this same idea: the Lord will protect his friend, his beloved from danger by sheltering the beloved in the “secrecy of his dwelling,” the cleft “high upon the rock.” Readers–such as Augustine of Hippo–understood this psalm to promise freedom from sin to the beloved of God; the one who loves God would be kept safe from the danger of damnation even if slain by enemies.

Medieval poets often identified the “cleft in the rock” mentioned by the Song and the psalms with the wounds of Christ, especially the wound in Christ’s side made by the spear. Early Christian authors, such as St. Methodius of Olympus, preached that “Christ slept in the ecstasy of his Passion and the Church–his bride–was brought forth from the wound in his side just as Eve was brought forth from the wound in the side of Adam.”

The stigmata was the seal of St. Francis’ love for God and God’s love for Francis. It was in the refuge of this love that Francis found the safety to love the world which was in such need.