Humility And The Law

Vide humilitatem meam et eripe me: quia legem tuam non sum oblitus Multa quidem nobis atque magna sanctus propheta fidei confessionisque suae toto in psalmo proposuit exempla: per quae formam in se ipso caeteris credendi, agendi, intelligendi, ignorandi, sperandi, precandique constituit, evangelicum virum perfecta legis observatione consummans. Et quamquam omnia, quae vel divinae voluntati placita, vel humanae spei proposita sunt, aut agat aut testetur aut speret; meminit tamen in quo observantiae genere mandatorum omnium caput ac summa consistat; scitque quid a Domino suo, etiam ab ipsis, quibus committendae claves coelorum erant, Apostilis quaereretur. Namque cum inter se opinionibus ac studiis dissidenerent, sibique singuli principatum humana contentione praesumerent, dum praestantiorem se caeteris unusquisque esse aut optat aut poscit; Dominus meriti hujus ac nominis praemium unde petendum esset ostendens, ait: Qui vult esse ex vobis major, fiat omnium minimus: omnis enim qui se humiliaverit exaltabitur, et qui se exaltaverit humiliabitur. In humiliatate scilicet docuit omnia fidei nomina et praemia contineri. Utilissimum itaque est, obedienties divinis praeceptis omnem intra se ipsos homanae insolentiae ac petulantiae inanitatem fractam protritamque cohibere, seseque, Dei et magnificentia et miseratione reputata, intra humilitatis modestiam continere. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis,Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum CXVIII Source: Migne PL 9.632a-b

Look on my humility and deliver me, because I have not forgotten your law. 1 Many great things the holy prophet by faith and confession throughout this Psalm gives to us as examples, through which, by the pattern of himself believing, doing, understanding, forgiving, hoping, and praying, he establishes in others, and so improves the evangelical man in the perfect observation of the Law. And though everything which either pleases the Divine will, or is proposed of human hope, he may do, or bear witness to, or desire, however he also remembers what in the general observation of the commandments is the head and summit of everything,; he knows what he should seek from his Lord, even as those to whom were committed the keys of heaven, the Apostles. For when among themselves there was a difference of opinions and wishes, in each contention they presumed a single human principle, which stood forth as more excellent than the rest regarding what they should wish and request, and the Lord spoke of the merit of this and revealed the reward that should be sought, saying: 'He who wishes to be great among you, let him be the least of all.' 2 'Everyone who humiliates himself will be exalted, and he who exalts himself shall be humbled.' 3 He openly taught that in humility is found every glory of faith and reward. And thus obedience to the Divine precepts is most profitable, for it breaks and grinds down the inanity of human insolence and petulance, and in itself reflects the magnifence and mercy of God, which the modesty of humility contains. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 118 1 Ps 118.153 2. Lk 22.26 3 Mt 22.12