Expositions on the Psalms 1 part 8/23

'Together the fool and the senseless shall perish.'

Together, he says, both the wise and the foolish will be handed over to destruction;

for they differ from one another in nothing, being alike idolaters.

'And they shall leave their wealth to strangers.'

For they were unwilling to make it their own through benefaction toward those in need.

'And their graves are their houses forever.'

'Their dwelling-places unto generation and generation.'

The tents, he says, in which they dwelt while living will pass from one person to another through the generations;

for this is also what he said above, that 'they will leave their wealth to strangers.'

'They called their names upon their lands.'

and those upon the earth called them by their own names, founding cities named after them.

'Man, though in honor, did not understand.'

He states the cause of their falling into pride: the desires of the flesh.

And this is what it means not to understand their own honor — namely, that they have been made according to the image of God.

Like the senseless beasts, they exchanged dwelling on earth for the heavenly tabernacles, and graves for the life that comes from God.

'This their way is a stumbling-block to them.'

Divine Scripture is accustomed to calling each person's life a 'way,' and also the time of each one's life.

This way, then, he says, they made rough and hostile for themselves, since they had thought nothing upright.

But while they were stumbling on it, they did not perceive the stumbling-blocks.

'But afterward they will approve with their mouth' — instead of: they will confess, having repented, for having traveled such a path — at a time when they will no longer have opportunity for repentance.

Since they were unwilling to be under the good shepherd, but, having cast away their own honor, corrupted their bodies like the beasts;

for this reason they have become the flock of Hades, so that henceforth he, shepherding them, will lead them away to his own pastures — some into the eternal fire, some to where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and some into the outer darkness.

'And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.'

No longer, as when they were in the present life, do they rise up against the pious;

but on the contrary, those who have been deemed worthy of the time of morning and of the new light will have dominion over the impious.

'And their help shall grow old in Hades.'

All their help, he says — that is, the strength which they had from glory — will be dissolved by death.

For 'shall grow old' is put in place of 'shall be dissolved.'

'But God shall redeem my soul from the hand of Hades, when he takes me.'

God, he says, will redeem the soul of me who says these things, so that it may not be led away together with them and be desolated along with the sheep of Hades.

'Do not be afraid, when a man becomes rich.'

Having learned, he says, what the end of the impious will be, do not count blessed those who grow rich in this life, nor be afraid as though shut out from all hope, nor be despondent as though deprived of great present goods.

Know well that redemption from death and eternal life await you;

whereas he who is deemed happy by the many on account of wealth and glory, and on account of falsely-named wisdom, will have nothing more;

for he will be led away naked, stripped of all the things of this life.

'For when he dies he shall not take all things with him.'

This alone, he says, the godless seemed to gain from wealth: that their soul was blessed in this mortal and temporary life.

since those others praised them and called them blessed on account of the goods which they seemed to possess.

'Nor shall his glory descend with him.'

Since all things are temporary, he says, such a person will then render thanks to you, the Maker, when you multiply the things belonging to him.

'He shall go in unto the generation of his fathers.'

He will imitate, he says, the zeal of his fathers, and, being descended from evil men, will succeed to their wickedness.

'Forever he shall not see light.'

For those who think in this way have become blind in their souls, neither having been illumined by the light of knowledge in this mortal life, nor being about to be deemed worthy of the eternal light in the age to come.

The foremost among the Jews, neglecting virtue, supposed that it consisted in reciting the laws by rote and proclaiming them, and in offering sacrifices,

but the reading of the Law and the offering of sacrifices are the fruit of virtue already present within;

and to do those things alone, without that virtue, is like anointing oneself for wrestling, yet neglecting the actual bouts of wrestling from which the crown comes.

'He that is lawless, who sacrifices a calf to me, is like one who strikes down a man,' and so forth.

Therefore he portrays the Word figuratively, and introduces God coming from heaven, sitting in judgment, and judging the rulers of the Jews: 'The God of gods has spoken.'] The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and called the earth

The saints are 'gods' in relation to God;

but when are they called by God, except when, having become man, He spoke and called together all the earth? And what did He speak but this: 'Go, make disciples of all the nations,' and this:

For from the Zion above He will also make His second coming.

[Out of Zion is the perfection of his beauty

'Out of Zion,' he says, signifies the former coming;

at His first coming, then, and at that glorious theophany, He kept silent while being judged by men, nor did He make His own divinity manifest;

but when the second [coming] arrives, He will come manifestly, and will not keep silence;

rather He will convict the world of its sin.

For if God will come manifestly, and Christ is God, then 'manifestly' indicates the flesh.] God shall come manifestly

for it will not be secretly, as at the former coming;

but, as He Himself says, as lightning that fills [the sky] from the east even to the west.

Our God, and He shall not keep silence

It is not, he says, that just as formerly He kept silent before the impious, so also He will do then;

a fire shall burn before Him

fire, that He may hand over those deserving it on account of their impiety.

Similar to this is the verse: 'Before him a river of fire was drawn forth,'

'for,' he says, 'a river of fire flowed forth before him;'

his throne was a flame of fire, his wheels a burning fire.

The fire signifies either the light that comes from Him;

for the intelligible light that comes through faith leads to the knowledge of Christ, of which the pillar of fire that guided Israel by night was the type;

or [it signifies] that the Savior rekindled us, who had grown cold toward every sin, unto eagerness for every good work,

casting in, as it were, an intelligible fire — the participation in the Holy Spirit.

'I came to cast fire upon the earth;'

for we have become alive by the Spirit, as many as have been deemed worthy of such grace;

for we are baptized in Christ, according to the word of John, with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

And one of the prophets also said

that He goes forth like the fire of a refiner's furnace, and like the fullers' herb;

and He shall sit refining and purifying, as silver and gold.

For the power of the Holy Spirit melts away every impurity within us.

But it profited the synagogue of the Jews nothing, since they did not receive this grace; concerning them God says in Jeremiah:

'The bellows failed because of the fire, the lead was consumed;'

in vain does the silversmith refine silver;

their wickednesses were not melted away.

He shall call the heaven from above,

Formerly those on earth were 'portions of foxes,' as he says somewhere in the Psalms, serving unclean spirits, and in each place regarding as god whatever seemed [fit to them],

but the Savior appeared and flashed upon us the light of the true knowledge of God; He turned back what had gone astray, bound up what was sick, and, like a good shepherd, drove away the beasts from the fold of the sheep;

He sanctified them by the Spirit, secured them with angelic powers, and set over them, throughout all the earth, holy initiators into the mysteries.

'He shall therefore call,' he says, 'the angels in the heavens, and those chosen on earth for the apostolate, so that He may judge His people.'

For the apostles brought those who obeyed to God, but handed over those who disbelieved to Satan, saying, as it were:

'Walk, then,' he says, 'in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled.'

To the Jews, at any rate, who disbelieved, they say:

'It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first;'

'...you judge yourselves [unworthy] of eternal life — behold, we turn to the Gentiles.'

And that angels cooperate with those who initiate others into the mysteries and with their disciples, Paul makes clear when he says:

'Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are about to inherit salvation?' This also the ladder made clear, which Jacob saw reaching from earth to heaven, upon which the Lord rested, while angels ran up and down upon it.

'The Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him, and shall deliver them;'

through these, then, they too cooperate and themselves discern the people.

He shall call the heaven from above

'The righteous,' he says, 'those who pursue a heavenly citizenship, He will gather into the abodes above,'

and the earth, to judge His people.

He says He will gather sinners and all who are upon the earth, in order to separate the righteous from those who are not such.

'Gather unto Him His holy ones,'

the word is addressed to the angels, according to what was said by the Lord:

'And He shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather the righteous from the four winds of the earth;'

those who made a covenant with Him over sacrifices.

By 'sacrifices' he means the spiritual sacrifices.

And the heavens shall declare His righteousness

He means that the holy ones of the former people should, before the coming judgment, cease from the sacrifice of the slaughter of irrational animals, and take up instead the sacrifice that is according to understanding and knowledge.

And upon these things the heavenly powers hymn the Judge, because He began with the holy ones; and the heavens proclaim His righteousness, rejoicing together in their salvation.

But the dwelling place of the earth shall be allotted to the order [of people] not deemed worthy of the heavenly calling.

Here he clearly calls Christ 'God';

for the Father has given all judgment to the Son.

And if the Father has given all judgment to the Son, and God is the Judge —

'Hear, my people, and I will speak to you;'

making a fresh introduction of legislation, so that no one might suppose the word to be merely human, or that of some angelic power, He places first: 'I am God, your God.'

Do not think that I am a different one, because I am legislating different things today;

but I am that very one who through Moses legislated concerning sacrifices.

And I call you to witness that you will not be condemned for transgressing the laws given through Moses.

For I am the one who there too ordained things for my servant's benefit, and now I testify this: that there is no necessity for you to keep the ordinances concerning sacrifices.

For even if you do not offer them, they stand as though already offered.

For your whole burnt offerings are before me continually, even if they are not offered.

But if you are altogether eager to bring these forward as though they were something precious and necessary, hear plainly that I will receive none of these from you,

since even the animals grazing in the fields, oxen and cattle, and the birds of heaven, and the beauty of the field, are all mine, and I stand in need of nothing.

And even if I should ever have need of food, I am not so needy as to ask such things from you;

for the whole inhabited world is mine.

What pleasant sacrifices, then, will you sacrifice to me? Praise, hymnody, and the confession of divine truth.

And when you fulfill these, then, as one who has fulfilled a divine law, you will receive in return the answer to your call.

And to show which people he is addressing, he adds:

'Israel, and I will testify to you.'

Then he shows his own lordship:

'I am God, your God, who freed you from Egyptian slavery, who granted you the sea as a road, who nourished you in the wilderness, who gave you that law.'

For do not, then, suppose me to be a different lawgiver merely because you observe the difference of the laws.

That is, the one who from the beginning until now has displayed great wonders to your race. 'I will not reprove you concerning your sacrifices.'

I am not, he says, charging you with neglect of sacrifices;

but I charge you not to define righteousness by these.

But to the sinner God said:

'Why do you recount my ordinances?' Here he calls the interpreter of the divine Scriptures a sinner.

'Praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner.'

For if he transgresses all the commandments, and practises every kind of wickedness, and renders his tongue deceitful,

why does he also carry the divine Scriptures on his lips? 'You supposed iniquity, that I would be like you.'

In the past, he says, I was long-suffering, but I will not do this now;

for I will set forth, for your conviction, your own sins, which you indeed supposed no longer to exist, and never to come into anyone's remembrance;

but I, as God, will bring them out into the light, and they will be set before you;

not hiding them as you do, and thereby becoming like you.

And I will bring them forward, so that, by making them known, I may pour shame upon you.

'I will reprove you, and set your sins before your face.'

'Understand this, then, you who forget God.'

As one who loves mankind, after the reproof he adds also exhortation, giving room for repentance.

Understand that I am long-suffering not because I rejoice in what has been done by you, but because I am giving a time for repentance.

But if not, the lawless one — that is, iniquity itself — seizes us, with no one to rescue us.

For I rescue those who perceive in what evils they are, and who cease from them and say:

'We have transgressed the law, we have done wrong, we have acted impiously.'

For it is not possible for one who still does evil to make confession.

'Lest at any time he seize you, and there be none to deliver.'

Lest, he says, death should take away the soul, repent;

for there is none to deliver those who are held fast in Hades by their sins.

For the soul is seized, as one who has utterly fallen away from God.

'A sacrifice of praise shall glorify me.'

He repeats what has been said, exhorting them to perform the rational service of worship.

After his extensive accusation, he showed the remedy for sin, namely the enjoyment of the mysteries.

For that truly is a sacrifice of praise, glorifying God.

since then, praising together with the angels, we stand also together with creation.

'And there is the way in which I will show him my salvation.'

In the sacrifice of praise, he says, is the way of salvation that comes from God.

'When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.'

He sings this psalm as a confession containing two charges: the bloodguilt of Uriah's murder, and adultery with Bathsheba.

He also shows all men repentance as the way of salvation, a kind of art for continual victory over the enemy.

For he who continually practises and rightly performs this always becomes victorious over the one who is ever wrestling against him.

He also introduces redemption through baptism, saying, 'You shall sprinkle me.'

Indeed, he also teaches that the gift of prophecy has been preserved for him; for he does not ask as one deprived of it, but implores that it not be taken away, saying:

'Do not take it away from me in return.' He also introduces, through holy baptism, the prophecy of the redemption from sins that was to come for all mankind, and the teaching of worship in spirit.

And everywhere you will find him seeking to atone for the two transgressions.

'Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy.'

As for a great sin, he begs to obtain the great mercy of God.

'And according to the multitude of your compassions, blot out my transgression.'

For it belongs only to the compassions of God to wash clean the hands stained with bloodguilt.

And expressing more clearly what he means, he says:

Here too he asked for an abundance of cleansing, in order to show everywhere that his offense was great;

'And cleanse me from my sin' — that is, the sin of adultery.

'For I know my transgression.'

And this he said with reference to the murder.

'And my sin is before me continually.'

Up and down he turns over the memory of the sin committed in adultery, as one that neither lets him alone nor departs, but is continually present with him and chokes him.

'Wash me yet more from my transgression, and cleanse me from my sin.'

It must be known that sin is a falling away from the good;

Lawlessness is transgression concerning the divine law;

and each of these two has its own origin,

But they also converge upon the same point:

for when one sins, he fails of the goal that accords with nature and is set within nature; for to human nature the goal is to live according to reason, [nature] being situated far from irrationality.

Likewise, the one who acts lawlessly also transgresses the law given within nature, living without restraint.

Well, therefore, did the apostle John, the disciple of Christ, bring both of these together as one and the same thing, when he said:

'Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness also;'

Sin corresponds to lawlessness.

For everyone who is lawless sins, though it is not the case that everyone who sins is lawless.

'Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness also.' 'Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what is evil before you.'

Though he had hidden himself from the eyes of all in the transgression, he did not escape your eyes alone.

'And I have done what is evil before you.'

For having enjoyed many good things from you, I repaid you with their opposites.

And he does not say this as though he had not wronged Uriah;

for how could that be? But rather that the greatest transgression had been dared against Him—against God, who had chosen him and made him king from a shepherd;

or, since although he had hidden himself from the eyes of all, he did not escape the eyes of God, but was convicted through the prophet;

or, it means that as king he was not subject to the law of men, but as a God-fearing man he was subject to God alone;

or, since none among men rebuked him, but God alone corrected him.

'That you may be justified in your words.'

'You reproved me,' he says, 'through the prophet, when I had transgressed the law;'

'and you, being just, and always delivering me from my enemies, and having honored me both with kingship and with prophecy;'

'but I am profane and a man of blood.'

'And that you may overcome when you are judged.'

A demonstration, or rather a confession, of his sins.

'For behold, I was conceived in transgressions, and in sins did my mother conceive me with longing.'

Since God's principal purpose was that we should not come into being through marriage and through corruption;

but the transgression of the commandment introduced marriage, because Adam acted lawlessly, that is, set aside the law given to him by God.

All, therefore, who are born of Adam are conceived in transgressions, falling under the condemnation of their forefather.

And 'in sins did my mother conceive me' signifies that Eve, the mother of us all, was the first to conceive sin with longing, as one inflamed with desire for pleasure.

And from the outset he weaves his discourse, wishing to show the greatness of God's gift.

'For behold, you have loved truth; the hidden and secret things of your wisdom you have made known to me.'

'You, Lord,' he says, 'who are truth itself, loving truth, and wishing us to live in truth, will cleanse us from the ancient sin;'

'and thus you will cleanse us with hyssop, so that we shall be made whiter even than snow.'

By hyssop he likens the operation of the Holy Spirit, which is warm and wipes away all the filth that is in us.

[The cleansing will come about through hyssop, that is, through the Holy Spirit;

for hyssop is a purifying herb.] And 'the hidden and secret things of your wisdom you have made known to me' shows that God, through the Holy Spirit, revealed to him all the things that were to come, as many as He had appointed in His own wisdom.

'You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed.'

greater still, in that you granted certain purifications in the law, effected also by the sprinkling of hyssop;

according to this same purpose, then, grant to us now also the like things, you who are the same God.

Or he seems to be hinting at some mystery.

For since Moses in Egypt commanded that the blood of the sheep be sprinkled on the doorposts by means of hyssop, we too have been purchased with a more precious blood,

hinting at the cleansing that would come upon all through the blood of the true Lamb, Christ, and longing, as it were, to obtain this, which alone can truly wash clean and make one whiter than snow.

'You shall make me hear joy and gladness.'

'You will again prepare,' he says, 'through the Spirit, for me to hear the joy and gladness that shall be in the last times.'

And what else could this be but that knowledge concerning the resurrection, which he taught when he said, 'The humbled bones shall rejoice'? And when shall our decayed bones rejoice, if not at the time of the resurrection, at which, as another prophet says, 'Our bones shall spring up like grass'? 'The humbled bones shall rejoice.'

'The strength of my soul shall rejoice,' since previously it had been weakened by sin.

'Turn away your face from my sins.'

Again he runs back to confession.

'Create in me a clean heart, O God.'

'Renew,' he says, 'my soul, which has grown old and become decayed through sin.'

'And renew a right spirit within my inmost parts.'

Secure my mind, so that it may no longer be easy for it to fall into sin.

'And do not take your Holy Spirit away from me.'

Again he prays that the prophetic spirit may come to him.

For it had left him on account of his sin.

'Restore to me the joy of your salvation.'

This is applied to the whole human race.

By 'the joy of salvation' he means the coming of the Lord, according to what was said by Simeon:

'For my eyes have seen your salvation;'

and he himself also prays to partake of it.

'And uphold me with a governing spirit.'

What he above called 'a right spirit,' here he calls 'governing.'

'For if,' he says, 'having delivered me from sin, you again bestow upon me your Holy Spirit,'

'then indeed shall I again teach transgressors to walk in your ways.'

'Deliver me from bloods, O God, the God of my salvation.'

Again he offers supplication concerning the murder of Uriah, that he might be delivered from the defilement arising from it;

or rather, 'from bloods' means from the sacrifices offered through blood, as what follows in the psalm shows when it says:

'For if you had desired sacrifice, I would have given it,' and so forth.

'My tongue shall rejoice in your righteousness.'

Symmachus rendered this as follows:

For I will not keep silent, having enjoyed forgiveness, but I will continue praising you and recounting your graces.

Since, he says, you have refused the sacrifices under the law—for they cannot take away sins—for this reason I have offered you that which you loved.

And this is the sacrifice offered through repentance and a contrite heart.

Do good, O Lord, in your good pleasure to Zion.

Here by Zion he means the Church.

For when God the Father was pleased to recapitulate all things in his Son, then he also gave his good promises to his Church.

And let the walls of Jerusalem be built.

By the walls of Jerusalem he means the holy ministers who fence about his Church.

Then you will delight in the sacrifice of righteousness.

When, he says, you do good to Zion and the walls of Jerusalem are built, then, yes then, sacrifices will be offered—not those of blood, but those of righteousness, that is, clearly, those of praise.

By 'oblation' and 'whole burnt offerings' he likewise signifies the offerings of righteousness and the bloodless sacrifice.

And these too are of righteousness, so that all things are of righteousness: sacrifices of righteousness, oblations of righteousness, whole burnt offerings of righteousness, calves of righteousness.

Someone went and reported these things to Saul.

But it also bears reference to the person of the Jewish people and of Judas.

It also contains a promise of the good things to come, and the establishment of his saints in the house of God, by saying:

But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God.

'Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty one?' He directs this word either to the Syrian himself, or to the devil who worked in him.

Like a sharpened razor you have worked deceit.

He says this because he, as it were, shaved and cut off the whole city of the priests.

You have loved wickedness more than goodness.

For he did wrong by bearing false witness against the priest and all the rest who were with him, saying against him things that had not been done.

You have loved all words of engulfing ruin, a deceitful tongue.

For everything he did was for the sake of plotting, both out of envy and unto the death of the priest and of all the rest who were put to death with him.

For all at once, by his own words, he engulfed the whole city of the priests as it were in the deep.

These things might rightly be said also of the rulers of the Jews, and indeed of Judas himself.

May he pluck you out and remove you from your dwelling.

For they were removed from their sacred tabernacle, having become captives on account of the cross inflicted against the Lord.

And your root out of the land of the living.

This is like, 'Let them be blotted out of the book of the living.'

These things might rightly be said also of the rulers of the Jews and of Judas himself, because they loved harmful things 'to the end,' that is, 'utterly.'

For when the impious are destroyed, the righteous become fearful.

And you, he says, are the one who endures these things.

but the righteous, that is, your people, upon seeing your destruction, will be seized with fear.

For the punishment inflicted on you is enough to make them afraid as well.

and yet you were about to suffer such things on account of the benefit you had done to them.

Behold the man who did not make God his helper, but hoped in the abundance of his riches.

For the traitor loved rather to receive gold than to have Jesus as his helper.

And he was strengthened in his vanity.

And he grew strong to fulfill his vain heart, and, not repenting, he did not cease from his impiety.

But he hoped in the abundance of his riches.

He rightly called wealth and power 'vanity,' from the very nature of the thing.

For the glory of those who believe in Christ is ever-flourishing.

it is love, joy, peace, and so forth.

Having this fruit, then, within himself, the saint said:

But I am like a fruitful olive tree.

He likens himself to a fruitful olive tree, since, mercy having prevailed in him, the rest of the virtues followed accordingly.

Thus we also call Job courageous, and Joseph self-controlled, and name the rest of the saints after the virtue that prevailed in them. 'I have hoped in the mercy of God for ever.'

The divine Scriptures call the Lord 'the mercy of God,' because through him mercy came to be for us.

For he recapitulated all things in himself, and remade their very elements.

And I will wait for your name, for it is good before your holy ones.

In your name, he says, may I have confidence, and this I will proclaim before all your saints.

For the matter will be for me both good and beneficial.

He sings the present psalm on behalf of the chorus of the apostles and of those who believed in Christ,

who indeed exulted and rejoiced.

'Maeleth' is interpreted 'chorus,' or rather 'choral dance.'

He necessarily speaks of the things before the Lord's coming, in order to show how great is the benefit of his coming.

One should know that the thirteenth psalm also contains this whole same sense, and almost all the same words,

so that from that psalm the interpretation may become clear to those who seek it.

The fool said in his heart.

God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men.

Since they did not consider that God oversees human affairs, judging with righteous judgment and restraining every unlawful deed, for this reason God looked down from heaven.

For this clearly signifies the Lord's coming among men.

All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not so much as one.

These things are not said by way of exaggeration.

For nothing is said by Scripture in exaggeration, but everything is said with truth.

All the Jews, then, turned aside from the way that says—

Hence they also became useless, since they were unwilling to receive it, no one doing what is good.

For in ignorance of him they all happened to be hardened by the letter of the law.

When the Ziphites came and said to Saul: