To Marcellinus 1 part 1/2

I admire you, dear Marcellinus, for your resolve in Christ.

For you bear the present trial nobly, even though you have suffered much in it, and you do not neglect your spiritual discipline.

For when I inquired of the man who carried your letter how you were faring even after your illness,

I learned that you devote your leisure to the whole of divine Scripture, but that you apply yourself most frequently to the book of the Psalms, striving to grasp the meaning contained in each psalm.

And for this reason, then, I commend you, for I too have a great longing for this very book, as indeed for all of Scripture.

For being so disposed, I once fell in with a certain industrious old man, and I wish to write to you also what he, who had mastered the Psalter, recounted to me concerning it;

for his account has a certain charm and persuasiveness, together with sound reasoning.

All our Scripture, my child, both old and new, is God-inspired and profitable for instruction, as it is written;

yet the book of the Psalms holds, for those who give heed, a certain persuasive feature of its own.

For each book serves and proclaims its own particular message;

thus the Pentateuch tells of the origin of the world and the deeds of the patriarchs, of Israel's exodus from Egypt, and of the ordering of the Law;

the books of Kingdoms and Chronicles tell the deeds of the kings;

and Ezra tells of the release from captivity, the return of the people, and the rebuilding of the temple and the city;

the Prophets give prophecies concerning the coming of the Saviour, reminders concerning the commandments, rebukes against transgressors, and prophecies for the nations.

But the book of the Psalms, like a paradise, sings of all that the others contain within them, and again, singing along with these, it also displays its own.

For it sings the matters of Genesis in the eighteenth psalm:

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands";

"The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein;

for he has founded it upon the seas."

"When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion."

And it sings these things also in the hundred and fourth psalm:

"He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he had chosen;

he set among them the words of his signs, and his wonders in the land of Ham.

He sent darkness, and it grew dark; and they rebelled against his words.

He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.

Their land brought forth frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.

He spoke, and there came the dog-fly and gnats throughout all their borders."

And altogether one may find this whole psalm, and the hundred and fifth, written concerning these same things.

And matters of the priesthood and the tabernacle it sounds forth in the psalm "On the going out of the tabernacle," the twenty-eighth psalm:

"Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of God, ascribe to the Lord young rams, ascribe to the Lord glory and honour."

And the matters of Joshua and of the Judges it somehow shows in the hundred and sixth, saying:

"And they established cities for habitation, and sowed fields, and planted vineyards";

theirs was the land of promise.

And speaking continually in the same psalm:

"And they cried to the Lord in their affliction, and he saved them out of their distresses";

this signifies the book of Judges;

for then, when they cried out, he raised up judges in due season, and saved the people from those who oppressed them.

And the matters of the Kingdoms it somehow sings in the nineteenth psalm, saying:

"These trust in chariots and these in horses, but we will be magnified in the name of the Lord our God.

They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright.

O Lord, save the king, and hear us in the day when we call upon you."

And the matters of Ezra it sings in the hundred and twenty-fifth of the Songs of Ascents:

"When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like those who are comforted";

and again in the hundred and twenty-first:

"I was glad at those who said to me:

Let us go into the house of the Lord.

Our feet were standing in your courts, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city whose fellowship is complete in itself;

for there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, a testimony for Israel."

And the matters of the Prophets it signifies in nearly every psalm.

Concerning the coming of the Saviour, and that, being God, he would come, it speaks thus in the forty-ninth psalm:

"The Lord will come manifestly, our God, and will not keep silence";

and in the hundred and seventeenth:

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.

God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us."

And that this one is the Word of the Father, it thus sings in the hundred and sixth psalm:

"He sent his Word and healed them, and delivered them from their corruptions."

For the God who comes is himself also the Word who is sent.

And knowing this Word to be the Son of God, it sings the voice of the Father in the forty-fourth psalm:

"My heart has uttered a good Word";

and again in the hundred and ninth:

"From the womb before the morning star I have begotten you."

For what else could one call the offspring of the Father but his Word and his Wisdom? Knowing this one to be he to whom the Father said:

"Let there be light, and a firmament, and all things," this book too contains it, saying:

"By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the breath of his mouth all their power."

Nor was it ignorant of him as the Christ who comes;

but it speaks most especially concerning this in the forty-fourth psalm:

"Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever;

a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity;

therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows."

And lest anyone suppose that he came merely in appearance, it indicates that he was to become man, and that this very one is he through whom all things came to be, saying in the eighty-sixth:

"A man, even a man, was born in her, and the Most High himself has founded her."

For this is equivalent to saying:

"all things came to be through him," and "the Word became flesh."

"Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, for the king has desired your beauty."

For this again is like the words spoken by Gabriel:

"Hail, O favoured one, the Lord is with you."

For having called him Christ, it immediately also made clear his human birth from the Virgin, saying:

Behold, Gabriel calls Mary by name, though he was a stranger to her by birth;

and having said that he was to become man, it consequently also signifies that he was passible in the flesh.

And seeing the plot that came from the Jews, it sings in the second psalm:

"Why did the nations rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ";

and in the twenty-first it tells of the manner of his death from the person of the Saviour:

"You have brought me down to the dust of death;

for many dogs encompassed me, the assembly of evildoers surrounded me.

They pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones.

They themselves looked and gazed upon me;

they divided my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots."

And what else does the piercing of the hands and feet signify but the cross, of which it speaks? Teaching all these things, it adds that the Lord suffers these things not for his own sake, but for ours.

And again it speaks from his person in the eighty-seventh:

"Your wrath has lain hard upon me";

"What I did not seize, I then repaid."

For not as one liable to it did he die, but he suffered for us, and bore upon himself the wrath against us on account of our transgression, as it speaks through Isaiah:

"He himself took our infirmities";

and on our part, when we say in the hundred and thirty-seventh psalm:

"The Lord will repay on my behalf";

and the Spirit also saying in the seventy-first:

"And he will save the children of the poor, and humble the slanderer, for he delivered the needy from the hand of the mighty, and the poor who had no helper."

"Lift up your gates, O rulers, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall enter";

"God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet."

And it proclaims his sitting, and says in the hundred and ninth:

"The Lord said to my Lord:

Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet";

and in the ninth it cries out the destruction that came upon the devil:

"You have sat upon a throne, you who judge righteousness;

you have rebuked the nations, and the ungodly has perished."

And that he received all judgement from the Father, it did not hide, but foretells him also as coming to be the judge of all, in the seventy-first:

"O God, give your judgement to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son, to judge your people in righteousness and your poor in justice";

"He will summon the heaven above and the earth, to judge his people.

And the heavens shall declare his righteousness";

"God stood in the congregation of gods;

in the midst he will judge the gods."

Moreover, the calling of the nations can be learned from it in many places, but most of all from the forty-sixth:

"All you nations, clap your hands, shout to God with a voice of rejoicing";

"Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down, and his enemies shall lick the dust;

the kings of Tarshish and the islands shall offer gifts;

the kings of the Arabs and of Sheba shall bring gifts;

and all the kings of the earth shall worship him, all nations shall serve him."

These things, then, are sung in the Psalms, while in each of the other books they are proclaimed beforehand.

And he said again, not in ignorance, that in each book of Scripture the same things concerning the Saviour are signified in a special way;

and this is the message common to them all, and the one and the same harmony of the Spirit.

For just as the matters of the other books can be found in this one,

so too the matters of this book are often found in the others.

For Moses too writes a song, and Isaiah sings, and Habakkuk prays with a song.

And again, in each book one can see both prophecies and laws and histories.

For the same Spirit is over them all;

and according to the distribution of his gift to each one, each one serves and fulfils the grace given to him, whether it be prophecy, or lawgiving, or the recording of history, or the grace of the psalms;

and since the Spirit is one and the same, of whom also are all the distributions, while it is itself undivided by nature,

this Spirit is wholly present to each, but according to the ministry the manifestations and distributions of the Spirit come to each;

and furthermore, according to the need at hand, each one often ministers the word, as the Spirit supplies;

so that, as I said before, Moses, while giving the law, sometimes also prophesies and sings, and the prophets, while prophesying, sometimes also give commandments:

"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean";

"Cleanse your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem."

For thus the book of the Psalms too, having what is proper to songs, that which in the other books has been set forth at length, these same things it sings in its own broad utterance with melody, as has been said before.

It even gives law at times:

"Cease from anger, and forsake wrath";

and, "Turn from evil and do good;

seek peace and pursue it."

And it sometimes records history concerning the way of Israel, and prophesies concerning the Saviour, as was said before.

Let such, then, be the common grace of the Spirit present among all, and let it be found at work in each, and the same among all, as the need may require and the Spirit may will.

For more or less makes no difference in this matter, provided each unfailingly fulfils and perfects his own ministry.

But the book of the Psalms, even so, has again a certain grace of its own and a special distinguishing feature;

for in addition to the other things in which it has relation and fellowship with the other books, it has besides this its own marvel, that it also contains, depicted and shaped within itself, the movements of each soul, together with their changes and corrections;

so that whoever wishes may take from it and consider himself as in a boundless mirror, and there is written the very way of fashioning oneself.

For in the other books one only hears the law commanding what one must and must not do;

and one listens to prophecies, so as merely to know the coming Saviour;

and one attends to histories, from which one can come to know the deeds of the kings and of the saints.

But in the book of the Psalms, besides learning these things, the hearer also perceives and is taught in it the movements of his own soul;

and furthermore, with respect to whatever he suffers and is held fast in, he can again take from it the image of the words;

so that he does not merely hear and pass on, but it teaches him how he ought, by speaking and acting, to heal his passion. For in the other books also there are restraining words forbidding base things;

but in this book it is also shaped out how one must abstain;

for example, it is a precept to repent;

and to repent is to cease from sin;

but here it is also shaped out how to repent, and what one must say in repenting.

And again Paul has said:

"Affliction works patience in the soul, and patience proof, and proof hope, and hope does not put to shame."

But in the Psalms it is written and engraved how one must bear afflictions, and what one in affliction must say, and what after the afflictions, and how each is proved, and what are the words of those who hope in the Lord.

Again, it is a commandment to give thanks in everything;

but the Psalms teach also what one must say in giving thanks.

Then, hearing from others:

"All who wish to live godly will be persecuted," from these we are taught also how those who flee must call out, and what words those who are persecuted, and who after the persecution are delivered, must offer up to God.

We are commanded to bless the Lord and to give thanks to him;

but in the Psalms we are shaped in how we must praise the Lord, and with what words, in speaking them, we may fittingly give thanks.

And in every case one would thus find the divine songs laid out with reference to us and to our movements and conditions.

And those who hear consider themselves to be those very ones of whom the word speaks, and they come, even to the point of admiring and emulating the deeds set forth, to imitate them.

Whoever takes up this book goes through the prophecies concerning the Saviour, as he is accustomed in the other Scriptures, with wonder and worship, but he reads the other psalms as being his own words;

and the one who hears them is pierced, as though he himself were speaking, and he conforms himself to the words of the songs as being his own.

And for the sake of clarity one must not hesitate, following the blessed Apostle, to take up the same point and say it again.

Very many are the words of the patriarchs, and they are their own, spoken by them;

and Moses spoke, while God answered;

and Elijah and Elisha, sitting upon Mount Carmel, called upon the Lord, and always said:

"As the Lord lives, before whom I stood today."

And the words of the other holy prophets are, foremost, those concerning the Saviour;

and then there are very many addressed to the nations and to Israel.

And yet no one would ever speak the words of the patriarchs as his own, nor would anyone dare to imitate and speak the words proper to Moses, nor those of Abraham concerning his servant born in his house and concerning Ishmael, nor the matters concerning the great Isaac, even if the same need and necessity should overtake him, would anyone dare to speak them as his own.

And even if one should suffer along with those who suffer, and should at times take on a longing for what is higher, never would he say, as Moses did:

"If you will forgive them their sin, forgive it;

but if not, then blot me out of your book which you have written."

Nor again, taking the words of the prophets as his own, would anyone blame or praise, for doing the like, those whom they blamed and praised;

nor would anyone imitate and say, as his own word: "As the Lord lives, before whom I stood today."

For indeed, the one who reads these books is manifestly speaking the words not as his own, but as those of the saints and of those signified through them.

But the Psalms—and this is the marvel—after the prophecies concerning the Saviour and the nations, the one who recites the rest is speaking them as his own words, and each one sings them as having been written about himself, and receives and goes through them not as the speech of another or as signifying about another;

but he is disposed as one speaking about himself concerning himself;

and whatever the things spoken are, these he offers up to God as one who himself did them and speaks out of himself.

For he will not have reverence toward these as toward the words of the patriarchs and of Moses and of the other prophets;

but rather, the one who sings these things takes courage to speak them most especially as his own and as written about himself.

For the Psalms contain both the one who kept the commandment and the one who transgressed it, and the deed of each.

And it is necessary that every man be held within these, and that he speak the words written concerning each, either as one who kept the commandment or as one who transgressed it.

And it seems to me that these become for the one who sings as a kind of mirror, so that he may perceive in them both himself and the movements of his own soul, and thus, having become aware, may utter them.

For indeed, the one who hears the reader receives the song as though it were spoken concerning himself;

and either, being convicted by his conscience and pierced, he will repent, or, hearing of the hope in God and of the help that comes to those who believe, he rejoices as though such grace had come to him, and begins to give thanks to God.

So then, when one sings the third psalm in regard to his own afflictions, he considers the words in the psalm to be his own;

and then he recites the eleventh and the sixteenth as expressing his own trust and prayer;

and the fiftieth psalm he speaks as being himself the one uttering his own words of repentance;

and the fifty-third, the fifty-fifth, the fifty-sixth, and the hundred and forty-first—when one sings these, it is not as one persecuted by another, but as being himself the sufferer that he conforms himself, and sings these words to the Lord as his own.

...that the movements of our soul are to be perceived, and that all these psalms are spoken concerning us, and are our own as our own words, for the recollection of the movements within us and the correction of our manner of life.

For the things which those who sing have spoken can also become types and characters of ourselves.

And this again is the grace of the Saviour;

for having become man for our sake, he offered up his own body for us unto death, that he might deliver all from death;

and wishing to show us his own heavenly and well-pleasing manner of life, he depicted it in himself, so that no longer might any be easily deceived by the enemy, having as a pledge for their security the victory over the devil which he won on our behalf.

"Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart."

And one could not find a more perfect teaching unto virtue than that which the Lord depicted in himself.

For whether it be forbearance, or love of mankind, or goodness, or courage, or mercy, or righteousness, one will find all these to have been realized in him, so that nothing is lacking unto virtue for the one who considers him.

For knowing this, Paul said:

"Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ."

The lawgivers among the Greeks have grace only as far as speaking;

but the Lord, being truly Lord of all and caring for the works he had made, not only gives law, but has also given himself as a pattern, that those who will may know the power to do.

For, to put it more persuasively: all divine Scripture is a teacher of virtue and of true faith;

but the book of the Psalms has besides, in a way, the image of the conduct of souls.

For just as one who enters into the presence of a king is shaped both in bearing and in words, lest, by speaking otherwise, he be cast out as untaught;

so the divine book first reminds, through the reading, the one who runs toward virtue and wishes to consider the Saviour's manner of life in the body, of the movements of the soul, and so thereafter shapes and teaches those who engage with such words.

There are then—that one may observe this first about the book—some psalms spoken in narrative, some in exhortation, some in prophecy, some as in prayer, some in confession.

Those in narrative are: 18, 43, 48, 49, 72, 76, 77, 88, 106, 113, 126, 136.

Those as in prayer: 16, 67, 89, 101, 131, 141.

Those as in entreaty and prayer and supplication: 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 15, 24, 27, 30, 34, 37, 42, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 63, 82, 85, 87, 137, 139, 142.

And the one as in entreaty and thanksgiving: 138.

Those as in entreaty alone: 3, 25, 68, 69, 70, 73, 78, 79, 108, 122, 129, 130.

And those in confession: 9, 74, 91, 104, 105, 106, 107, 110, 117, 135, 137.

Those having confession combined with narrative: 9, 74, 105, 106, 117, 137.

The one having confession and narrative together with praise: 110.

And the one in exhortation is: 36.

Those in prophecy: 20, 21, 44, 46, 75.

And the declaratory one with prophecy: 109.

Those that are hortatory and as if urging on are: 28, 32, 80, 94, 95, 96, 97, 102, 103, 113.

And one that is hortatory with a song was uttered: 149.

And those describing the virtuous life are: 104, 111, 118, 124, 132.

And those proclaiming praise are these: 6, 112, 116, 134, 144, 145, 146, 148, 150. And the thanksgiving ones are: 8, 9, 17, 33, 45, 62, 76, 84, 114, 115, 120, 121, 123, 125, 128, 143.

And those that cry out a beatitude are: 1, 31, 40, 118, 127.

And another, showing forth zeal with a song: 107.

One that is hortatory unto courage is: 80.

And those accusatory of the ungodly and lawless are: 2, 13, 35, 51, 52.

And one is of invocation: 4.

And those that proclaim things desired in prayer, as 19 and 63. And those proclaiming words of boasting in the Lord are: 22 and 26, 38, 39, 41, 61, 75, 83, 96, 98, 151.

And those that are reproving are: 57, 81.

And those that speak words of a hymn are: 47, 64.

And the one of jubilation and concerning the resurrection: 65.

And another speaks words of jubilation only: 99.

Such, then, being the arrangement of the Psalms, it is thereafter possible for those who engage with them to find in each, as I said before, the movements and the condition of their own soul, and thus, concerning each, the type and the teaching;

and what one may say so as to please the Lord, and by what words one may correct oneself and give thanks to the Lord, so as not to fall into impiety by speaking against such things.

For not only for our deeds, but even for an idle word, we must render an account to the Judge.

If, then, you wish to pronounce someone blessed, you have how it must be done, and on what grounds, and what one must say: psalm 1, and 31, and 40, and 111, and 118, and 127;

and if you wish to censure the Jews' plot against the Saviour, you have the second song.

And if you are persecuted by your own people, and have many who rise up against you, say the third psalm.

And if, being thus afflicted, you called upon the Lord, and being heard you wish to give thanks, sing the fourth, and 74, and 114.

And if, still seeing the evildoers wishing to lie in wait, you wish your prayer to be heard, rising early at dawn sing the fifth.

And perceiving the threat of the Lord, if on account of this you see yourself troubled, you can say the sixth and the thirty-seventh.

And seeing the grace of the Saviour extended everywhere, and the race of mankind saved, if you wish to address the Lord, sing the eighth.

But if again you wish to sing a vintage song, giving thanks to the Lord, you have again that same eighth, and the eighty-third.

And upon the enemy's being brought to nought and the creation saved, not boasting in yourself, but knowing that the Son of God accomplished this, say the ninth psalm, which is spoken concerning him.

And if someone wishes to trouble you greatly, do you hold your trust in the Lord, and sing the tenth.

And when you see the pride of the many and wickedness abounding, so that nothing holy is found among men, do you flee for refuge to the Lord, and say the eleventh.

And when the enemies' plot drags on, do not lose heart as though forgotten by God, but call upon the Lord, singing the twelfth.

And when you hear certain people blaspheming against Providence, do not share in their impiety, but entreating God, say the thirteenth and the fifty-second.

And further, if you wish to learn what kind of person is the citizen of the kingdom of heaven, sing the fourteenth.

You have need of prayer on account of those who set themselves against you and besiege your soul: sing the sixteenth, and the eighty-fifth, and the eighty-sixth, and the hundred and fortieth.

But if you wish to learn how Moses prayed, you have the eighty-ninth.

But you have been saved from your enemies and delivered from those who persecute you: do you too sing the sixteenth psalm.

You marvel at the order of creation, and at the grace of Providence toward it, and at the sacred ordinances of the Law: sing the eighteenth and the twenty-third.

And seeing people afflicted, encourage them, praying for them and speaking to them the words in the nineteenth psalm.

You see yourself shepherded and prospered by the Lord: rejoicing over this, sing the twenty-second.

The enemies are about you, but you, lifting up your soul to God, say the twenty-fourth, and you will see them sinning in vain.

The enemies persist, having nothing else but their hands full of blood, seeking to drag you off and destroy you; do not give judgement to man (for all things human are suspect),

but asking God to become your judge (for he alone is just), say the words in the twenty-fifth, and the thirty-fourth, and the forty-second.

...so that the enemies become as encampments, despising you as though you were not yet anointed, and on this account wishing to make war;

do not cower, but sing the twenty-sixth psalm.

And since the nature of men is weak, if again those who plot grow shameless, lest you give your attention to them, cry out to God, saying the words in the twenty-seventh.

And if you wish, in giving thanks, to learn how one must make offering to the Lord, sing the twenty-eighth with spiritual understanding.

And furthermore, dedicating your house—both the soul which receives the Lord, and the bodily house in which you dwell bodily—give thanks, and say both the twenty-ninth and, among the Songs of Ascents, the hundred and twenty-sixth.