Psalms 132:18

"Upon Him shall My sanctification flourish" (ver. 18). Upon whom? Upon Mine Anointed. For when He saith, "Mine anointed," it is the voice of the Father, who saith, "I will bless her widow with blessings, and will satisfy her poor with bread. I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall rejoice and sing." He who saith, "There will I raise up the horn of David," is God. He Himself saith, "I have ordained a lantern for Mine Anointed," because Christ is both ours and the Father's: He is our Christ, when He saveth us and ruleth us, as He is also our Lord: He is the Son of the Father, but both our Christ and the Father's. For if He were not the Father's Christ, it would not be said above, "For Thy servant David's sake, turn not Thou away the presence of Thine Anointed." "Upon Him shall My sanctification flourish." It flourisheth upon Christ. Let none of men assume this to himself, that he himself sanctifieth: otherwise it will not be true, "Upon Him shall My sanctification flourish." The glory of sanctification shall flourish. The sanctification of Christ therefore in Christ Himself, is the power of the sanctification of God in Christ. In that he saith, "shall flourish," he refers to His glory: for when trees flourish, then are they beautiful. Sanctification therefore is in Baptism: thence it flourisheth, and is brightened. Why hath the world yielded to this beauty? Because it flourisheth in Christ; for, put it in man's power, and how doth it then flourish? since "all flesh in grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the grass."

Therefore He showed that for the sake of men He desired to have Himself revealed by a lamp to the faith of those who believed, that by means of the same lamp His enemies might be confounded. There were enemies who tempted Him, and said, "Tell us by what authority doest thou these things?" "I also," saith He, "will ask you one question; answer me. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?" And they were troubled, and said among themselves, "If we shall say, From heaven, he will say unto us, Why did ye not believe him?" (Because he had borne testimony to Christ, and had said, I am not the Christ, but He.) "But if we shall say, Of men, we fear the people, lest they should stone us: for they held John as a prophet." Afraid of stoning, but fearing more to confess the truth, they answered a lie to the Truth; and "wickedness imposed a lie upon itself." For they said, "We know not." And the Lord, because they shut the door against themselves, by professing ignorance of what they knew, did not open to them, because they did not knock. For it is said, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Not only did these not knock that it might be opened to them; but, by denying that they knew, they barred that door against themselves. And the Lord says to them, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things." And they were confounded by means of John; and in them were the words fulfilled, "I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame."

We speak to your charity in the house of God about what the present Psalm has reminded us. Who is it that says: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. His enemies I will clothe with shame; but upon him my sanctification shall flourish; and what is that lamp which he has prepared for his Christ; and who are the enemies of his Christ, whom he clothes with shame through that lamp; and what is his sanctification, who prepared a lamp for his Christ, which will flourish upon his Christ. In all these words, it seems clear and open that he says here: For my Christ; for nothing else is to be understood than Christ the Lord and our Savior. Therefore, when exploring, as God grants, the depth of this meaning, we find that God the Father says this. Therefore, God the Father, that is, the person of God the Father speaks through the Prophet: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. However, it is not necessary to explain to Christians that the Son of God is also the Christ of God. Having found the person speaking, let us see what the lamp prepared by God the Father for Christ the Son is. The Lord himself speaks about John the Baptist: He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. Therefore, he called John a lamp, kindled from the source of light. To bear witness to the truth. For men lay in this blindness and in this infirmity of the inner eye, so that the sun of righteousness would be sought through the lamp. For if anyone had a clear eye of the heart, he would first gaze upon it, nor would he seek a lamp for its testimony. For when he had said about that lamp: You were willing to rejoice for a while in his light; but I, he says, have greater testimony than John. Therefore, a lamp was kindled for the weak in the night. And how did he kindle it? […]

A lamp was therefore prepared for Christ our Lord, John the Baptist; his enemies, slanderous questioners, retreated confused when the light of the lamp was brought forth; it was fulfilled: I will clothe his enemies with shame. But we, brothers, recognizing through John the Baptist the precursor the Lord, and even more through the testimony of the Lord himself, of whom he said: I have a greater testimony than John, believing in Christ, let us be made the body of his head, so that Christ may be one head and body; and in all of us having been made one it will be fulfilled: And upon him shall my sanctification flourish.

His enemies will I clothe with shame, With the garments of shame, as the Targum; very different from the clothing of Zion's priests; all that are incensed against Christ as a King and Saviour shall sooner or later be ashamed; either here, when brought to a sense of their evil, to repentance for it, and faith in him; or hereafter, at the resurrection, when they will rise to shame and everlasting contempt, and when they shall see him come in the clouds of heaven, in power and great glory, to judge the world in righteousness, Isa 45:24; but upon himself shall his crown flourish; being crowned with glory and honour, as he now is at the right hand of God, he reigns, and will reign, till all his enemies become his footstool; his throne is for ever and ever, and his kingdom an everlasting one; and will be very flourishing in the latter day, when his subjects shall be many, and when there shall be an abundance of peace and prosperity, and of that no end; the crown of the Messiah shall flourish on him as a king, shine out and be very conspicuous, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret the word used; and so his crown as a priest; the same word is used of the holy crown of the priests put upon the mitre, on which Holiness to the Lord was inscribed; and the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, render it, "my holiness"; and, as his own crown is a never-fading one, such an one he will give to his ministers, and all that love him appearing, 1Pe 5:4.