Homilies on the Psalms 1 part 11/12

For those whose life has been filled with dead works arising from every sin, of these the houses are tombs forever.

For he who has become dead through transgressions does not inhabit a house but a tomb, since his own soul has been deadened.

For Jacob, guileless in character and simple, inhabits a house — of whom it is written that he was "an unfeigned and good man, dwelling in a house";

but the utterly wicked man inhabits a tomb, not even laying down a foundation of repentance from dead works, but resembling a whitewashed tomb;

which appears splendid on the outside, but within is full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

If, then, someone who believes in Christ does not render deeds consistent with his faith, this man — through having attended to wicked doctrines and through misconstruing the intention of Scripture — hews out for himself a tomb in the rock.

"Their dwellings are to generation and generation;"

that is, their tombs are their houses forever.

Then, explaining what he means by "tombs," so as to show that he speaks concerning the bodies in which souls that have been deadened through wickedness dwell, he added to these:

"Their dwellings are to generation and generation," following the usual custom, human bodies always being called "dwellings."

"And these have called their names upon their lands."

The name of the ungodly is not in the book of the living, nor is it numbered with the Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in the heavens;

but their names remain behind on their earth, because they preferred this transitory and short-lived life to the eternal dwellings.

Do you not see those who build in the cities marketplaces and gymnasia, erect walls, repair aqueducts — how their names have been attached to these earthly constructions? Already some, having stamped their own designations even on herds of horses, have contrived that their memory should be extended far alongside their lifetime;

and displaying magnificence even in tombs, they have left their names behind on their monuments.

These are they who mind earthly things, and who reckon the glory here below and being remembered among men as sufficient for themselves for blessedness.

And if you see any of those who think great things of themselves on account of falsely-named knowledge, and who assign themselves to assent to certain wicked doctrines, and who, instead of the name of Christians, name themselves after one of those who have headed heresies — Marcion, or Valentinus, or someone of those now prevailing — know that these too "have called their names upon their lands," having assigned themselves to corruptible and altogether earthly men.

"And man, being in honor, did not understand;"

"he was compared to the senseless beasts, and became like them."

"This way of theirs is a stumbling-block to them;"

"and after this they will take delight in their own mouth."

Man is great, and a merciful man is precious, having his preciousness in his natural constitution.

For what other of the things on earth has come to be according to the image of the Creator? To whom has been granted rule and authority over all creatures — those of the land, of the water, and of the air? He has been made a little lower in the dignity of angels, on account of his conjunction with an earthly body;

Man, then, He made from the earth, and His ministers a flame of fire;

For He breathed into his face;

that is, He deposited a certain portion of His own grace in man, so that by the like he might recognize the like.

But nevertheless, being in such honor from having been fashioned according to the image of the Creator, he has been honored above heaven, above the sun, above the choruses of the stars (for of the heavens, has it ever been said that they are the image of God Most High? And what image of the Creator does the sun preserve? What the moon? What the rest of the stars? They possess bodies that are lifeless and material, only luminous, in which there is nowhere mind, nor deliberate motions, nor the freedom of self-determination;

but they are slaves of the necessity laid upon them, according to which they always revolve unvaryingly around the same courses);

Man, then, having been advanced in honors above these things, did not understand, but abandoning the following of God and the being made like to the Creator, having become a slave of the passions of the flesh, "was compared to the senseless beasts, and became like them;"

now like a horse mad after females, neighing after the wife of his neighbor;

and now like a ravening wolf lying in wait for the possessions of others;

and at other times, through deceit toward his brother, likened to the cunning of the fox.

And it is the height of senselessness and brutish irrationality, in truth, neither to perceive one's own constitution from the beginning — having been fashioned according to the image of the Creator — nor to be willing to understand the dispensations of such magnitude that have come to pass on his behalf, and at least from these to recognize his own worth;

but rather to be forgetful that, having cast off the image of the heavenly, he took up the image of the earthy.

And so that he might not remain in sin, for his sake the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and humbled Himself to such an extent as to become "obedient unto death, even death of the cross."

If you do not remember your first origin, take from the price paid down on your behalf a notion of your dignity;

You were bought with the precious blood of Christ;

do not become a slave of sin.

Understand your own worth, so that you may not be likened to the senseless beasts.

"This way of theirs is a stumbling-block to them."

God, who administers our affairs, hinders us as we walk through wickedness, placing stumbling-blocks and obstacles before us, so that, having departed from a life of irrationality, we may afterwards take delight in our own mouth — having believed with the heart unto righteousness, and confessed with the mouth unto salvation.

Paul was persecuting, he was ravaging the Church of Christ, he had let loose his course toward wickedness;

but afterwards he took delight in his own mouth, proclaiming in the synagogues, "That this is the Christ."

"Like sheep they are laid in Hades; death shall shepherd them."

But those who are brutish and compared to the senseless beasts — like sheep having neither understanding nor the power to defend themselves — the enemy who plunders them into captivity has already cast down into his own stronghold, and has handed them over to death to be shepherded.

For death shepherded from Adam until the polity according to Moses, until the true Shepherd came, who laid down His own soul for the sheep, and thus, raising them up together with Himself and leading them out from the prison of Hades into the morning of the resurrection, handed them over to the upright — that is, to His holy angels — to shepherd them.

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

For to each of the faithful there is an angel yoked alongside, worthy to behold the Father who is in the heavens.

These upright, then, having been set free from the most bitter slavery, will rule over them; and they will rule over those who came to be in the morning, that is, over those who have come under the rising of the light.

Observe the whole sequence of the scriptural words.

Man, being in honor, did not understand;

he was compared to the senseless cattle.

He who, by his constitution, possesses what is honorable, but through the sin dwelling in him does not perceive himself - this man was compared to the beasts.

Then, because he alienated himself from the Word of God and became irrational, the enemy, seizing him like a shepherdless sheep, placed him in Hades and handed him over to death to be shepherded.

And no longer death, but life;

no longer a fall, but a resurrection;

no longer falsehood, but truth.

And their help shall grow old in Hades.

Either it speaks concerning death, which, with all its help, was unable to hold fast to those it shepherded, on account of him who destroys the one holding the power of death;

whose whole help is old and feeble.

And then the help of men deceived in mind will be exposed - of those who think highly of themselves on account of wealth, and glory, and power.

It shall grow old in Hades, their weakness being exposed.

Or is it perhaps that the help of the righteous, who have been redeemed by the Lord, will be extended even into Hades?

For they have not yet received the promises, since God foresaw something better concerning us, so that those who received the promise beforehand should not be made perfect apart from us.

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

He clearly prophesies the Lord's descent into Hades, who, together with the others, will also redeem the soul of the Prophet himself, so that it should not remain there.

Do not fear when a man becomes rich, or when the glory of his house is multiplied.

Do not fear, he says, when a man becomes rich.

This proclamation, too, is necessary for those who inhabit the world - for both the earth-born and the sons of men, rich and poor alike.

Do not fear when a man becomes rich.

When you see, he says, an unjust man growing rich, and a righteous man becoming poor, do not be afraid within yourself;

do not be terrified in your mind, as though there were nowhere any providence of God overseeing human affairs;

so as also to watch over our own affairs.

For if there were providence, apportioning to each what is his own, so that the righteous - those who know how to use wealth - should be rich, and the wicked - those who have wealth as an instrument of their own wickedness - should be poor...

Since, then, there are many among the nations and among the earth-born who hold such notions, and who, on account of the apparent unevenness in the distribution of life's affairs, suppose the world to be without providence;

it is to these that the discourse speaks, restraining their undisciplined agitation;

these he had also called, in the introduction, to the hearing of the teachings.

Or perhaps he addresses specifically and alone the person of the poor man, saying:

Do not fear when a man becomes rich.

For these are the ones who most of all need consolation, so as not to cower before those who are prominent.

For there is no benefit, he says, to the rich man when he dies, since he is not able to take his wealth with him;

who indeed gained only this much from his enjoyment - that his soul, in this life, was called blessed by flatterers.

But in dying, he says, he will not take with him all this array;

he will scarcely take a garment to cover his unseemly parts;

and this, only if it seems fitting to the servants who are laying him out.

It will be a welcome thing for him to obtain a little earth;

and this too given to him out of pity by those who bury him, who provide him these things out of respect for our common human nature, not doing him a personal favor, but honoring humanity itself.

Do not, then, be fainthearted about present things, but await that blessed and unending life.

For then you will see that poverty, and lack of renown, and deprivation of luxury turn out for good to the righteous man.

And do not now be troubled at the things reckoned good, as though they were unjustly apportioned.

For you will hear how it shall be said to the rich man:

You received your good things in your life;

but to the poor man, that he has had his fill of evils in his life.

He will give thanks to you, when you do good to him.

Concerning the man of dust, who reckons as good only the advantages of this life - wealth, and health, and power - concerning this man it says that he will give thanks to God, when he prospers;

but in adverse circumstances he lets loose every kind of blasphemy.

For, leaving the poor man aside, he now directs his discourse toward God;

including in the accusation about wealth also this - that he gives thanks to God only in prosperity, but when certain gloomier circumstances beset him, he no longer remains the same.

For such is also the accusation the devil brought against Job - that Job does not worship the Lord for nothing, but has wealth as the wage of his piety, and so forth.

You shall enter unto the generation of his fathers.

I think this is said concerning the sinner - that he knows God only to the extent that the custom of his fathers has handed down;

but by his own power of thought he acquires nothing more, nor does he add anything to himself toward the knowledge of the truth.

So then, he says, you, O God, come to him only to this extent, and the notion concerning you existing in him is only as great as existed in the generation of his fathers.

And here too it sets forth the great sluggishness of mind - wholly earthly and flesh-loving - in the one who wallows in wealth and luxury, and whose mind is stifled by the cares of life.

For those who entrust their guidance to blind teachers have deprived themselves of the enjoyment of the light.

But the saying, 'You shall enter unto the generation of his fathers,' also has this sort of sense:

that is, those who have been overtaken living an evil life and holding ancestral doctrines, yet estranged from true piety - these you do not only punish, but you also seek out the originators of the wicked teachings.

And this is what is meant:

You shall enter unto the generation of his fathers.

not only he who is culpable in his conception of God, but also the one who led them toward this destruction.

Such also are those who have inherited the wickedness of their forebears and hold it as something hard to wash away, because it has been confirmed by long habit.

He shall never see the light, forever.

For they are sent into the outer darkness;

there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth;

and this they suffer according to the righteous judgment of God, since in this life, by doing base deeds, they hated the light.

Man, being in honor, did not understand;

he was compared to the senseless cattle, and became like them.

Man, who was made a little lower than the angels, concerning whom Solomon also says:

Great is man, and precious is a merciful man;

This man, because he did not perceive his own dignity, but submitted to the passions of the flesh, was compared to the senseless cattle, and became like them.

Looking to the eagerness of your hearing, and to the weakness of my own strength, there came to me the image of a child—now somewhat more grown, yet not weaned—troubling its mother's breast, which sickness had left cold and dry;

to whom, even if the mother perceives that the springs of her milk are dry, yet being pulled and torn at by him, she still offers her breast;

not that she may nourish the infant, but that she may stop him from crying.

And so, even though our own resources are dried up by this long and manifold illness of the body, nevertheless what is set before you—offering not a worthwhile enjoyment, but some assurance—is presented to you, because the abundance of your love is satisfied even with the mere sound of our voice, to soothe its longing for us.

Let, then, the Church of God be addressed, and let her be taught to say what we were just now saying:

So that perhaps the sense of the psalm does not even allow us to plead illness as an excuse, seeing that affliction procures help, and is not an occasion of weakness.

It is fitting, then, for those who have been cast off because of their sins, and then received back again through the loving-kindness of God, to say:

O God, you have rejected us, and you have thrown us down;

you were angry, and you had compassion on us.

But rather, since our discourse has, in due sequence, come upon the sense of the psalm, come, let us take up its exegesis briefly.

The historical narrative of the psalm before us, word for word, according to the title, has not yet, even now, been found recorded anywhere among the inspired histories;

yet its equivalent will be found by those who search diligently, in the second book of Kingdoms, where it is written:

'And the sons of Ammon sent, and hired the Syrians of Rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand men;'

'and Joab saw that the battle was set against him face to face, and he chose men out from all the sons of Israel, and they arrayed themselves against the Syrians.'

'And the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated before Israel, and they went over to Israel, and served them.'

With this passage of the history we find the title of the psalm to correspond;

yet it is worth asking why it begins with lamentations and dirges, when it ought to be full of joy and good cheer over the successes achieved.

For the voices of those who are celebrating a festival are one thing, and those of the downcast are another.

Now the theme of a victory celebration belongs to the whole people—not to soldiers only, but also to farmers, and merchants, and craftsmen, and all who share in the good things of peace.

How then, 'O God, you have rejected us, and you have thrown us down'? And yet he had taken up those who were victorious.

And how did he throw down those whom he had so greatly increased, adding to them weapons, and chariots, and horses, and subjects, and tributary territory—all Arabia, Phoenicia, and Mesopotamia? It is worth considering whether the words contain some ingratitude.

For he who first destroyed Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen; and who again enslaved the king of Syria who had come to the aid of the defeated one, making him tributary, and in a single turn of fortune slew twenty-two thousand of his men; and who won a third victory, defeating the sons of Ammon who had arrayed themselves at the gate of the city, through Joab the commander-in-chief, who, dividing his force in two, met some face to face, while going around behind and overpowering the rest—

how is it that, after such deeds of valor, he utters words so gloomy and downcast, saying:

O God, you have rejected us, and you have thrown us down;

you were angry, and you had compassion on us? But the occasion of the inscription on the monument was indeed that time of the successes;

but the force of what is written has its reference toward the end.

By 'the end' is meant that which is destined to come to pass at the consummation of the ages.

And it is possible to understand this altogether simply concerning the whole race of mankind, since the benefit proceeding from the psalm extends to all.

For we are beings who are being changed and who will be changed—who preserve neither the same bodily condition, nor stand always firm in the same mind, but are altered in body according to the changes of our ages, and shift in thought according to the vicissitudes of circumstance.

For we are one thing as children, and another as youths, and yet another when we have become men, and again when we have grown old we are altered altogether.

And we are one thing amid the more cheerful circumstances of life;

and we become other than ourselves when we encounter harsher turns of the times;

one thing when sick, and another when in good health;

one thing at weddings, and another in mourning.

Or else, because it was not said, 'for those who are being changed,' but 'for those who shall be changed,' and the expression bears the mark of prophecy—since the time is bent toward the future—it is more consistent to understand by 'those who shall be changed' those yet to come, who, having abandoned the vain custom of their fathers, will regulate their manner of life by the precision of the Gospel.

The psalm, then, was not written for the Jews of that time, but for us who were to be changed—who exchange polytheism for piety, and the error concerning idols for the knowledge of him who made us;

for us who choose lawful self-control instead of unlawful pleasure;

who take up psalmody, and fasting, and prayer in place of flutes, and dances, and drunkenness.

So if someone said that the psalm was written for us, he would not miss the truth.

But the psalm is also written 'for an inscription on a monument';

that is, let the hearing of it not be a mere passing matter;

nor, just as things written on perishable material quickly come to vanish, should you likewise engrave them for a little while in your own mind's memory, and then allow them to become blurred and vanish;

but have them inscribed as upon a stele in your soul;

that is, fixed unmovably and firmly established in the memory for all time.

But if the Jew should thrust us aside as strangers to what is written, let us confound him from the very things that are written—

[showing] how it gathers together things that were divided, calls together those who were far off, and makes the many one through faith in Christ.

It named Ephraim, and took up Judah as well;

and it threatens to tread upon Idumea;

and it proclaims the good news of the subjection of all together—

'Unto me the foreigners have been subjected.'

'You have rejected those who removed themselves far from you, in proportion to their sins.'

'You have thrown down the structures of our wickedness'—benefiting us through our weakness. 'You were angry'—when we were by nature children of wrath, having no hope, and without God in the world.

'You had compassion on us'—when you set forth your Only-begotten as a propitiation for our sins, that in his blood we might find redemption.

And we would never have recognized these benefits being conferred upon us, had you not given us to drink 'the wine of compunction.'

By 'wine' he means the word that brings the hardened heart to awareness and compunction.

'You have given to those who fear you a sign, that they may flee from before the bow.'

Moses marked the doorposts of the Israelites with the blood of the sheep;

but you gave us as a sign the very blood of the spotless Lamb, slain for the sin of the world.

And Ezekiel says that the sign was given upon the foreheads of their faces.

'Go,' he says, 'after him, and strike;'

'Slay to utter destruction the old man, and the young man, and the infant, and the virgin, and the women;'

'but do not go near any on whom the sign is.'

'God has spoken in his sanctuary: I will exult, and I will divide Shechem.'

Shechem is the choice piece of land given by Jacob to Joseph, a type of the covenant which was thought to have been granted to Israel alone.

'This special covenant, then, and this inheritance of the people, I will bring to division, and make common with the rest.'

That is, the whole inhabited world will be divided, as it were by lots, among the local communities in each place.

Then he who makes peace, whether of the things on earth or the things in the heavens, will also join together what had been separated;

and having broken down the dividing wall of partition, he will make the two one.

Mine is Gilead, and mine is Manasseh.

Gilead is a descendant of Manasseh.

so that he might show the succession of the patriarchs to be fitting in God's sight, from whom Christ came according to the flesh.

And Ephraim is the support of my head.

He joins together the parts that had been torn asunder, through concord.

Or, as another of the translators renders it, 'a basin for washing.'

that is, the outcast man, who is under threat of not entering into the Church of the Lord.

'For the Moabite and the Ammonite shall not enter, even to the third and to the tenth generation, and for ever.'

Yet since baptism holds the remission of sins, and becomes for those in debt a source of freedom from care, showing forth the redemption that comes through baptism and the reconciliation to God, he says, 'Moab is a basin for washing,' or, 'a basin of freedom from care.'

All the foreigners, then, submitted, bowing beneath the yoke of Christ.

For this reason he shall cast his own sandal upon Idumea.

And the sandal of the Godhead is the God-bearing flesh, through which he trod among men.

In this hope, the Prophet, calling blessed the season of the Lord's sojourning among us, says:

'Who will lead me into the fortified city?' Perhaps he means the Church:

'City,' because it is a community lawfully inhabited;

and 'of fortification,' because of the encompassing wall of faith.

Whence one of the translators rendered it most clearly: 'into a city fenced all round.'

'Who then will grant me to see this great spectacle, God sojourning among men?' This is what was spoken by the Lord:

'Many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things you see, and did not see them.'

Let us not seek help from strength;

nor from the well-being of the flesh;

let us not deem it right to obtain support from any of the things that are reckoned illustrious among men.

It is not in an abundance of wealth, not in a mass of power, not in the height of glory that mastery is attained; but out of exceeding affliction the Lord grants his help to those who seek him.

Such was Paul also, making his own afflictions his boasts.

'When I am weak, then am I strong.'

since affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not put to shame.

Do you see where affliction leads you? To unashamed hope.

Are you sick? Take heart, for 'whom the Lord loves he disciplines.'

Are you poor? Rejoice, for the good things of Lazarus shall be your inheritance.

Are you dishonored for the name of Christ? Blessed are you, for your shame shall be changed into the glory of an angel.

Let us persuade ourselves, brothers, in time of trial, not to run off after human hopes, nor to hunt for our helps from that quarter, but to make our supplications with tears and groanings, with diligent prayer and vigorous watchfulness.

For this man receives help out of affliction—he who despises human help as vain, and is steadied by the hope set upon him who is able to save us, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages.

both the thirty-eighth psalm and the one now before us.

It was given, however, to Idithoun for his own benefit, for the correction of the passions in the soul, and for melody over the people;

through which both God was glorified, and those who heard the harmony had their characters set right.

For Idithoun too was a sacred psalmist, as the history of Chronicles bears witness to us, saying:

'And with them Heman and Idithoun, with trumpets and cymbals to sound aloud, and instruments for the songs of God.'

Concerning endurance, then, each of the two psalms makes its chief business, whereby the passionate part of the soul is restrained, and, all pride being banished, humility is established.

For it is impossible for one who has not accepted being subordinate and last in relation to all, ever to be able either to master anger when reviled, or to prevail over trials through long-suffering when afflicted.

For he who has achieved the utmost humility, having already, in cases of reviling, judged his own lowliness to be even greater than the reproach, will not be moved in soul by words of dishonor;

but if he hears himself called poor, he knows himself to be a beggar, in need of all things, and dependent on the daily supply from the Lord;

and if he hears himself called lowborn and of obscure origin, he already holds it settled in his own heart that he was made from clay.

'For when the sinner rose up against me,' he says, 'I was struck dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things;'

'Yet all things are vanity, every man living;'

then, 'he heaps up treasure, and knows not for whom he shall gather it.'

But in the psalm now before us he begins in a manner of perplexity, as it were conversing with his own soul, as following on from what has already been said.

For it is impossible for the soul to be ruled both by sin and by God;

'Shall not my soul be subject unto God? for from him is my salvation.'

He has stated the reason for his zeal concerning subjection:

namely, that salvation is from God.

Or, 'From him is salvation';

since, foreseeing prophetically the grace of the Lord's incarnation that was to come, he speaks these words:

namely, that we must serve God and love him, who bestowed upon the human race so great a benefit beforehand, that he did not even spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.

For it is the custom of Scripture to call the Christ of God 'salvation':

'for my eyes have seen your salvation.'