Expositions on the Psalms 1 part 13/23

He heightened the manner of his appeal for compassion, by calling the enemies 'wild beasts',

since those who have sinned possess some claim to forgiveness through confession.

And this he prays: that Israel should not perish in the same manner - and indeed this is what happened.

For even many myriads of those who crucified him believed and were saved.

Look upon your covenant,

Here again is another manner of appeal for compassion:

for from the very things by which he showed himself good toward them, in making a covenant with them, from these they draw mercy to themselves.

for the dark places of the earth have been filled with houses of iniquity.

Even though many houses have become full of darkness because of the iniquities committed by them against you, O Lord,

yet let not the whole people be turned away, nor be given over to shame.

For some had within themselves a hope of salvation, who indeed were saved through the apostles, and especially through Peter in his first public addresses, so that they came to number about three thousand, and five thousand, and tens of thousands.

[The poor and needy shall praise your name.

When those worthy of salvation, he says, had been saved, the poor in spirit - that is, the choir of the apostles, according to the saying, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit' - offer up to you the doxologies that are fitting.] Arise, O God, judge your cause,

Beseeching the punishment of those who deceived the people, he rouses God to act.

Remember your reproach,

Again, by pointing to his own being reproached, he calls upon God for pity.

Unto the end. 'Do not destroy.' A Psalm of Asaph.

In this psalm the person of the apostles is introduced, exhorting men to cease from impiety, and setting before them that fearful and divine tribunal.

We will give thanks to you, O God,

These words the Savior speaks, in compliance with their promise.

The earth melted, and all who dwell in it,

and this is said in a negative sense, to show the punishment that came upon them.

I have established its pillars.

The pillars of Jerusalem are the holy apostles, according to what has been said:

'Pillar and foundation of the truth,'

'And when James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, came to know the grace given to me...'] I said to the transgressors:

Here again it is the person of the apostles, exhorting men to cease from impiety.

[And he humbles the Jewish people because of its pride,

but exalts the one from the nations because of its humility.] Do not lift up your horn on high,

For indeed horned animals take great pride in their horns.

And the text charges them not to increase their lawlessness through arrogance, nor to move their tongue against God.

For neither from the risings, nor from the west, nor from the desert mountains...

By 'the risings' he means the east, from which the sun goes forth, and by 'the west' he means the evening region;

and by 'the desert mountains' he means both the northern and the southern regions;

for these are uninhabitable because of the excess of cold and heat.

Do not transgress the law, then, he says, since no one in the whole inhabited world could escape the notice of God by saying anything blasphemous against him.

This one he humbles, and that one he exalts.

Being, he says, a good judge, he humbles the impious, but exalts those who are humble in heart.

And these words must be understood also with reference to the two peoples - I mean the Jews and the one from the nations -

for the one has been humbled because of its arrogance,

while the other is exalted because of its humility.

For he himself establishes kings and removes them; he raises the poor from the earth, and lifts up the needy from the dunghill.

But indeed, having humbled those of the circumcision, he exalted those from among the nations.

For there is a cup in the hand of the Lord, full of unmixed wine mixed with spices.

There is a cup, he says, in the hand of the Lord, into which, pressing out as it were the fruits of each man—both the good and the evil—and mingling the good with the evil, he makes it full.

Then those from whom the dregs are not poured out—that is, those in whom the sins remain—these shall drink it down;

that is, they shall be made drunk with their own evils.

just as, indeed, the saints also shall drink the cup of life in the kingdom of heaven with the Lord Jesus, according to the word of the Lord himself:

'But I will exult for ever; I will sing to the God of Jacob.'

Since, he says, whenever I partake of the cup of life, gladness shall come to me from it.

'And all the horns of sinners will I break in pieces.'

If, when sinners are humbled, the horn is raised on high, then clearly, when the saints are exalted, the horns of sinners shall be broken.

Who then would the sinners be, but the evil demons who oppose the men of God? 'And the horn of the righteous shall be exalted.'

By 'horn' he means the kingdom, or rather the dominion.

Since, then, he says, whenever the righteous receive strength—the evil powers, that is, having been destroyed—then, even then, the wonders of God shall be shown forth.

A Psalm of Asaph, a Song concerning the Assyrian.

This psalm too holds to the same subject matter as the preceding one;

for it too recounts the things concerning the divine tribunal.

'God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.'

By 'Judah' and 'Israel' here he means the soul that has come to know God;

for this is the true Judah and the true Israel.

'His place has come to be in peace.'

For if this is written concerning the Judah above, from which pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled away, then clearly it shall be a place of peace.

'And his dwelling place is in Zion.'

He means the intelligible Zion, that is, the one above, or else the soul of the saints.

[His place has come to be in peace.

The Hebrew has 'Salem,' and the other translators have rendered it thus:

In this—whether it be the soul, or the Church, or the Jerusalem above—the fiery darts which the evil one sends are broken.] 'There he broke the might of the bows,'

By these he signifies the opposing powers;

which are broken, once the saints obtain by lot the dwellings there to inhabit.

'Thou dost wondrously give light from the everlasting mountains.'

By 'everlasting mountains' he means the heavens.

God enlightens us from above, having sent down the Spirit to us from the heavens.

'Thou art an exceedingly great illumination from the mountains of capture.'

'Thou dost wondrously give light from the mountains of the hunt.'

'Thou art wondrously fearsome from the fruitful mountains.'

['Thou dost wondrously give light from the everlasting mountains.'

From there he sends down the Holy Spirit, from the everlasting mountains;

he means Zion, from which they supposed that God, setting out, did these things;

where indeed a temple had also been built for him.] 'All the senseless in heart were troubled,'

Those who have not received the illumination that comes through the Spirit shall be thrown into confusion and turmoil when the divine tribunal appears.

'They slept their sleep, and found nothing.'

Having surrendered their life, he says, to negligence and indolence, at the time of the divine judgment those who were once rich in this mortal life found themselves holding nothing in their hands.

For how could they have found what they had not worked for? 'All the men of wealth, with their hands—'

'All the mighty men, their hands—'

The strength of their hands, he says, profited them nothing, by which they had expected to seize all wealth.

And teaching why on earth they profited nothing from this, he added:

'At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, those who rode upon horses slumbered.'

The just verdict against them having been rendered, he says, they were given over, as it were, to sleep and stupor;

that is, they were not able to lift up their heads.

But who are these but those who ride upon horses? Now Sacred Scripture is accustomed to call 'horses' those who have turned aside toward pleasures without restraint;

according to the saying, 'They became as horses mad after females;'

'each one neighed after his neighbor's wife.'

'Thou art fearsome, and who shall withstand thee?' For if he shuts against a man, who shall open? according to the word of Isaiah.

'From heaven thou didst cause judgment to be heard.'

They shall have no defense, he says, when they are punished;

for he had proclaimed to them beforehand the things concerning the divine tribunal.

By 'earth' here he means the whole nature of mankind, which shall also be afraid at that time.

For there shall be no one at that time who shall not fear, when that day has come upon them.

[For being, he says, the God of heaven, thou didst judge, and didst make the judgment manifest, punishing the enemies of Jerusalem.] 'When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth.'

The divine tribunal, he says, shall render salvation to the meek;

just as, indeed, it also renders punishments to sinners.

'For the inmost thought of man shall give thanks to thee.'

We shall stand before that fearsome judgment seat, called to account not only for what we have done, but also for what we have purposed.

'And the remnant of thought shall keep a feast to thee.'

'The remnant of thought' is the reasoning that has been purified, according to the 'remnant according to the election of grace.'

Since, then, he says, if at that time the reasoning is found pure, then, even then, may it partake of thy feast.

['For the inmost thought of man shall give thanks to thee:'

reasoning and thought shall give thanks to the Lord at the time of judgment, when even hidden things are led in triumph.] 'Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God.'

The discourse turns to exhortation.

Since the things spoken of, he says, shall come to pass at the divine tribunal, for this reason, while you are still in the present life, vow to the Lord to be diligent in good works, and do not delay to render the payment of these.

And they shall bring their gifts, having been struck with terror by the wonders that have come to pass.

'To him who is fearsome, and who takes away the spirits of princes.'

"Promise," he says, "to do good, knowing that when you have come into that place you must offer your own deeds to God as it were gifts."

But God is so fearsome that even from those who began of old and became wicked, the spirit will be taken away.

For at that divine and fearful judgment seat, from each of those who have sinned, what was given through baptism is taken away.

And this is what the Lord said:

Unto the end, for Idithun, a Psalm of Asaph.

Idithun, having heard the things said concerning the people of the Hebrews:

"Why, O God, have you cast off forever?" — he grieved exceedingly and was troubled, lamenting their utter rejection.

Then Asaph composes for him a psalm, teaching him that in matters concerning these things one must take refuge in God alone, and from him find consolation:

With my voice I cried out to the Lord; with my voice to God, and he gave heed to me.

In the day of my affliction I sought God; with my hands, by night, before him, and I was not deceived.

So great, he says, was the affliction that surrounded my soul, that I not only made supplications by day, but also spent the very time of the nights in prayers.

But in doing these things, I did not run in vain, I did not toil in vain; and this is the meaning of "I was not deceived."

My soul refused to be comforted; I remembered God, and was glad.

Of human consolations, he says, I would endure not even one;

but the remembrance of God alone became for me the gladness of my heart.

I mused, and my spirit grew faint.

When, he says, I relied on human reasonings;

for this is what "I mused" means — then indeed, then also I was brought down into faintheartedness.

My eyes anticipated the watches of the night; I was troubled, and I did not speak.

For this, he says, causes trouble — when the enemies have seized beforehand the places of our watch-posts;

that is, the battlements of the walls.

Those things, he says, I pondered within myself, and I was troubled at how God once helped the people, but now has cast them off.

And this stirred up despondency in me — the fear that their rejection might become perpetual.

I called to remembrance those ancient days.

This is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High.

Stirring up, he says, my thoughts concerning the rejection of the nation, I understood at last that this change which came upon the nation, from good things into evil, happened for no other reason than through the right hand of the Most High.

For I will remember, from the beginning, your wonders.

I considered, he says, how many good things he himself showed to them, and what evils they repaid him in return.

And I will meditate on all your works.

Even if they acted thus, he says, yet I would recount, from the beginning of the benefits you began toward us, even to the end;

that is, I will consign none of the good things done among us to oblivion.

O God, your way is in the holy place.

By "holy" he means either the sanctified company of the apostles, among whom he was performing his marvelous divine signs;

or the Father — for none comes to the Father except through Christ, who is truly holy as God.

You redeemed with your arm your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph.

For to them first he proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven.

The arm of the Lord, that is, Christ.

The waters saw you, O God, and were afraid.

And when did the waters, having seen him, fear, except when he rebuked the sea and it was silenced? The clouds gave forth a voice.

For your arrows also went forth on their way.

By "clouds" here he means the holy apostles, who minister the heavenly and evangelical word;

and by "arrows," the workings of the Holy Spirit.

The workings wrought upon your holy disciples have become audible to the whole inhabited world.

But it should be known that he himself is also called a "chosen arrow" by the prophet Isaiah.

The voice of your thunder was in the wheel.

By "thunder" he means the evangelical word, which resounded throughout the world under heaven.

And by "wheel" he means the life of men;

as one may also learn from Ezekiel.

Your evangelical word has been handed down to the whole human race.

Your lightnings shone forth to the world.

And who might the lightnings be but those who flash the intelligible light upon us — the holy apostles and evangelists? To whom the Savior said:

You are the light of the world.

The earth was shaken and trembled.

Instead of: The saving proclamation has become audible to those throughout all the earth, through which also a holy fear seized all, according to the saying:

In the sea was your way, and your paths in many waters.

By "sea" he means the world, and by "many waters" the various races of men in it.

Since Christ commanded, saying to the apostles:

Go, make disciples of all nations.

and, "Behold, I am with you all the days;"

they ran throughout the world under heaven, and proclaimed to all nations, the Lord being with them invisibly, clearly, according to his unfailing promises;

"And your footsteps shall not be known," because of the invisibility of the Lord's journeying with them.

Yet he alone, as God, also made his journey upon the visible sea, as the evangelist says.

You led your people like sheep.

And just as sheep do not know where they are going nor where they journey, so you yourself led us, employing for this purpose such ministers as Moses and Aaron.

"I remembered the works of the Lord" — he offered this in answer to:

"I remembered God, and was glad."

For being reminded of these things, he says, I was comforted in mind and was glad.

For considering how many and what great things came to be for us through your help, I was persuaded that you, who had done so many things for our salvation and for the deliverance from those who then held us captive, would not now endure to overlook us entirely while we are in slavery and captivity and calamity.

Asaph sings this psalm, exhorting the new people to attend to the evangelical law, and accusing that old assembly of the Jews, who, having been benefited by him in many ways, remembered none of it, but rather turned their thanksgivings into the opposite, repaying the Benefactor with ingratitude.

Attend, O my people, to my law.

And to what people does he give exhortation, if not to the people from the nations? And to what law does he urge attention, if not to the evangelical law? That the nations are his people, the prophet Zechariah says:

Incline your ear to the words of my mouth.

For, he says, listen eagerly to what is spoken by me.

I will open my mouth in parables.

The evangelist clearly explained this as fulfilled, when the Lord spoke the many parables in the Gospels.

And our fathers have told us.

Whatever we were taught by hearing from the fathers, he says, all these things we have come to know through his works and his presence.

It was not hidden from their children unto another generation.

Not to another generation, he says, but to their own children, have all the mighty works of the Savior been accomplished;

therefore they did not cease proclaiming beforehand to them the praises of the Lord and his mighty deeds.

And he established a law in Israel.

He gave a law, he says, to their fathers, and the tabernacle of testimony, disciplining them so that through the law they might come to know the Savior who, in due season, sojourned among the race of men.

By these he signifies the holy disciples of the Savior, who report to their sons the wonders which Christ accomplished;

That is, to those who through them have come to the faith.

And that they should not forget the works of God.

These things they will recount to them, through which they will be able to set God alone as their hope.

That they should not become like their fathers.

The apostles, he says, will proclaim the praises of God to those disciplined through him;

so that they may both seek out the commandments of God, and not imitate the wretched folly of the fathers.

For that generation, he says, did not have a heart upright toward God, nor did its spirit have faith with God.

A generation that did not direct its heart aright.

For they did not acquire firm faith in God, being unwilling to walk the straight path, but having a mind opposed to the divine ordinances.

The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting with bows.

By the single tribe of Ephraim alone he signified the whole people of Israel who had split off from Judah.

For these are the ones who set up the calves, and departed from the worship according to the law.

Having touched upon the wickedness of the fathers, he next enumerates the whole of their evil, both the abundance of good things from God toward them, and their unbelief toward God, and the destruction that overtook them on account of these things;

so that, being disciplined by these things, they might flee the evil jealousy.

They did not keep the covenant of God.

He speaks of the new tradition of the Gospel, and of this saying:

Behold, the days are coming, and I will make with them a new covenant.

And this is the rendering of the cause, that, having not kept this — which is the new law of God — they turned back in the day of battle.

For they did not believe him when he said:

I came forth from the Father, and I have come.

but they took up war against God.

And they forgot his benefits.

And yet, he says, though having received many benefits, they cast them all away from memory.

And the proof of this is their handing him over to Pilate.

They forgot how he went about doing good to them all, and healing those oppressed by the devil.

The wonders which he did in the sight of their fathers.

Thus, he says, they forgot the benefits and the wonders of Christ, just as, indeed, their fathers also forgot the things that happened in Egypt, when God set them free.

For something of this sort seems to be indicated by the phrase, In the sight of their fathers;

They have become like their fathers in kind, sharing the same evil jealousy;

and just as those forgot God, so also these.

Having divided the sea, he led them all across.

From here he begins to recount the wonders of the former redemption.

For when the Red Sea was divided into many divisions, and the waters were being separated and lifted up on each side, raised on high, he enclosed them, as it were in a wineskin, by a certain divine power, so that, spreading out, they might not flood the multitude.

He delayed a little, and, as it were, checked his beneficent hand.

And he gave them the bread of heaven.

Not only, he says, did he nourish their bodies with the manna, but he also nourished their souls by a certain rational and heavenly power;

just as, indeed, he also nourishes the angels.

And this may also be seen from the conjunction, in that he says, as it were by way of inference:

And he gave them the bread of heaven.

And it is no less possible to learn this also from the Apostle, who said concerning them that they ate spiritual food.

And this was what is now called the bread of angels.

And winged birds like the sand of the seas.

Here he speaks of the quail.

While the food was still in their mouths.

For the food became for them a condition of choleric illness, since they had wholly and utterly inclined toward gorging themselves on meat.

And he remembered that they are flesh, a spirit that goes and does not return.

He had mercy on them, he says, even though he saw that they had wholly turned aside toward the flesh — that is, toward minding the things of the flesh — and had a spirit that continually went after the desire of the flesh, and did not turn back to repent and to seek God with the whole soul.

For he himself is compassionate and merciful.

They did not remember his hand, the day on which he redeemed them from the hand of the oppressor.

Having recounted the good things given to them in the sea and in the wilderness, he now recounts another manner of benefaction.

And these are the terrible things that beset their enemies;

namely, the turning of the river into blood, and the dog-fly, and the frog, and the mildew, and the locust, and the hail, and the frost, and the fire, and the sending of the evil angels;

and the rest, up to the destruction of the firstborn.

He made a path for his wrath.

But while keeping these safe, by giving an outlet to his wrath, he did not spare the souls of these — namely, of the Egyptians — from death;

for he handed them over to the destroyer.

And he brought them into the mountain of his sanctuary.

He means Jerusalem, and the temple built in it thereafter.

This mountain, which his right hand acquired.

For he himself is Christ, the right hand of the Father, who of old also went before the people, and allotted to them the land of promise.

And he cast out the nations from before their face.

The Amorite and the Hittite, and the others named in what follows.

And he allotted them their inheritance with a measuring line.

That is, the inheritance of those seven nations who were driven out and destroyed.

For they inherited the cities and the houses of those who had been cast out.

Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God.

He signifies the idolatry that occurred in the time of the judges, and that in the time of the kingdoms.

And they kept not his testimonies.

But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully, even as their fathers did.

Just as their fathers, he says, made the calf in the wilderness, denying their redeemer,

so also these again set up heifers and offered sacrifice, forsaking God.

For they provoked him to anger with their high places.

For upon every mountaintop they sacrificed to unclean demons, as the prophet Hosea says.

God heard, and disregarded them, and utterly despised Israel.

For they were delivered up into various captivities.

So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh.

For the tabernacle was formerly in Shiloh, when Eli and Samuel served as priests.

By 'tabernacle' he means the ark, which was taken away by those men — the five satraps who had seized it.

And he gave their strength into captivity, and their glory into the enemy's hand.

Their strength, and indeed also their glory, was the ark, which was given over into the hands of the men of Azotus.

He gave his people over also unto the sword.

For being led away captive, they were dying, with no one to help them, because their able-bodied men had already been consumed beforehand by fire.

Their priests fell by the sword.

He means the sons of Eli the priest.

And their widows made no lamentation.

For they perished together with their husbands' destruction, and were joined to the death of the men, not even being granted the tears due to the dead.

And he smote his enemies in their hinder parts.

He says this because he smote the Azotians and the Ascalonites in their hinder parts, until they sent away the ark.

Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph.

He says this because Shiloh was within the portion of Joseph.

But he chose the tribe of Judah.

One must know that he chose tribe instead of tribe, that of Judah instead of that of Joseph;

and place instead of place, mount Zion instead of Shiloh.

And he built his sanctuary like that of a unicorn.

By 'sanctuary' he means the divine temple built in Jerusalem;

and the unicorn is an invincible beast, because it bears a sharp horn upon its forehead, and with this destroys all other beasts.

He says, then, that when the divine temple was thus built, all the nations appeared inferior to the power dwelling within it.

He took him from following the ewes great with young.

That is, those bringing forth and delivering their young.

From his skill in shepherding, he says, and his knowledge of how to keep watch over the ewes that were bearing young, God rightly took him up and made him also a shepherd of the rational flock.

To feed Jacob his servant.

That is, he became for them a teacher of good ways, through which he showed that he had instructed them.

And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

By 'the skilfulness of his hands' he means every action done in a fitting manner.

He sings this psalm on behalf of those who were bitterly slain in the times of Antiochus,

asking also, through supplication, that vengeance be taken for the bloodshed committed against the nation, the calamities being turned back, evidently, upon those who brought them about.

O God, the heathen have come into thine inheritance.

For Antiochus, having brought in many troops, entered Jerusalem and burned the divine temple.

They have defiled thy holy temple.

Behold, he says, others have taken hold of what is yours, and what is yours is held fast by foreigners.

They made Jerusalem into a watchman's hut for guarding fruit.

That is, a place built of gathered stones, where the keeper of the fruit has his hut.

The dead bodies of thy servants have they given as food to the birds of the heaven.

The flesh of thy holy ones, to the beasts of the earth.

For how are they not holy, those who poured out their blood for the keeping of the Law — among whom were the Maccabees? 'Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?'

Be jealous, he says, on account of thy name which is blasphemed by the enemies.

O remember not against us our former iniquities.

By 'former iniquities' he means the sins committed in Egypt.

'Where is their God?' Even if, he says, the multitude of our sins hinders our salvation,

yet for thy name's sake act on our behalf, because of the reproach which they bring against thee, because of the blood of thy servants that is shed, because of the groaning of those who are in chains.

According to the greatness of thy arm preserve thou the sons of those appointed to death.

By the power of thy arm, he says, save those who were left over from among the slain.

According to the plain sense of the wording, he asks that mercy be shown to those enslaved by the Assyrian;

but according to the higher sense, on behalf of those who endured the intelligible captivity, after the cross suffered against the Lord, at the hands of the intelligible Assyrians and of their very ruler — I mean Satan.

He therefore puts forward this supplication, asking that the manifestation of our Savior come to pass, and the liberation of the whole race of Israel.

Give ear, thou that shepherdest Israel.

Thou that sittest upon the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh.

In the march of the tabernacle, three tribes went forward: Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.

Three others followed, toward the south:

that of Ephraim, that of Benjamin, and that of Manasseh.

And upon the golden cherubim above the ark was the glory of God;

for it went before them in their march.