Commentary on the Psalms 5 part 1/2

To the end, concerning the winepresses.

Another version: A victory-song concerning the winepresses.

Another version: To the giver of victory, concerning the Gittite instrument.

But the Hebrew has: Lamanasseh, al haggittith.

O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name in all the earth!

Another version: How great is Thy name!

In the psalm before this one he was saying:

I will give thanks unto the Lord according to His righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High;

here he fulfils the promise, offering up a hymn to Him.

And in that psalm the things said are, as it were, from a single person;

for 'O Lord my God,' he says, 'in Thee have I hoped; save me.'

For 'O Lord,' he says, 'our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name.'

But give me silence, and listen with exactness.

For if in a theatre, when the satanic choirs are singing, there comes about deep quiet, so that those pernicious songs may be received;

and this, though the choir is composed

of mimes and dancing men, with some profane fellow and harp-player leading the chorus among them, and the melody being satanic and pernicious, sung by a defiled and wicked demon;

here, where the choir is of holy men, and the choir-leader is the Prophet, and the melody is not from satanic energy but from spiritual grace —

But the One who is sung is no demon, but God.

How ought we not to furnish much stillness, and to listen with awe? For we have become fellow-choristers with the powers above.

For indeed the choirs on high, and the Cherubim and the Seraphim, have this as their work: to hymn God without ceasing.

From these choirs they also appeared upon the earth, singing together with the shepherds who kept watch in the fields.

Let us therefore give heed also to this song.

Now those who hymn an earthly king discourse to him concerning his dominion, concerning his trophies, concerning his victory; and they name the nations that have been vanquished, calling the kings sackers of cities and conquerors of barbarians, and all such things.

Such a song, in some sort, does this blessed man also sing.

For he recounts victory and trophy, and the abolishing of wars—not of such kinds, but of ones far more grievous.

For to all the others who do not believe in Him, He is Lord in one way only; but to us in a twofold way:

both by making us out of nothing, and by being known by us.

And observe how, from the very opening, he sets forth the sum of the benefaction.

For if you learn how He became your Lord—that He appropriated to Himself and made alive those who were alienated, and dead, and put to death—you will see well that this is the sum of the benefaction.

Struck with amazement, then, at this, the Prophet says:

How wonderful is Your name!

that is, exceedingly wonderful.

But how wonderful, he did not say;

for neither was he able to measure it, but he represented the intensity and the surpassing greatness of it.

Where now are those who pry into the essence of God? For if, merely by uttering His name, he was so amazed as to be struck out of himself,

what pardon could those men obtain, who claim to know His very essence, when the Prophet was not even able to learn how wonderful the name is? How wonderful is Your name!

For in this name death was destroyed, demons were bound, heaven was opened, the gates of paradise were flung wide, the Spirit was sent down, slaves became free, enemies became sons, strangers became heirs, and men became angels.

Why do I say angels? God became man, and man God;

heaven received the nature that is from the earth;

the earth received Him who sits upon the Cherubim, together with the angelic host.

The middle wall of partition was taken away, the fence was broken down, the things that were divided were made one, the darkness was quenched, the light shone forth, death was swallowed up.

Pondering all these things and more than these, the Prophet cried aloud, saying:

How wonderful is Your name in all the earth!

Where now are the children of the Jews, who shamelessly set themselves against the truth? For I would gladly ask them, concerning whom these things are spoken.

Concerning the Almighty, they will say.

But His name was not wonderful in all the earth.

And Isaiah bears witness, saying:

Because of you My name is blasphemed among the nations.

But if those who served Him became a cause of His being blasphemed, where was there anything wonderful? For that it is wonderful by nature is plain;

yet among men at that time it was not wonderful to the multitude, but even despised.

But when the only-begotten Son came, everywhere His name became wonderful, together with Christ.

From the rising of the sun, He says, even to its setting, My name has been glorified among the nations.

In every place incense is offered to My name, and a pure sacrifice.

The whole earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

Our fathers acquired false idols.

Do you see that all the things that have been spoken are concerning the Son? For it was His name that became wonderful in all the earth.

For Your magnificence has been lifted up above the heavens.

Another translator renders it: 'Who hast set thy praise above the heavens.'

For since he had made mention of the earth, he transfers his discourse also to heaven;

which indeed he is always wont to do, showing the whole inhabited world giving praise to its own Master.

And it is this very thing that he shows here too when he says: Marvellous below, marvellous above.

For not men only, but angels also, hymn the things that have come to pass, and give thanks for the benefits bestowed upon mankind;

which indeed they did from the very beginning, when they set up a choir upon the earth.

Either, then, he means this, that the angels also sing, or he wishes to set forth His greatness.

For whenever Scripture wishes to say something great, it brings before us the distances between these elements;

'According to the height of heaven from the earth.'

'As far as the east is distant from the west, so far hath he removed our iniquities from us.'

Here, then, he is amazed at the things that have come to pass, how great they are.

For the nature which was lower than all things He set higher than all.

'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise.'

Another translator: 'Out of the mouth of infants thou hast founded strength.'

And what he means is this: that Thou didst most of all display Thy strength from this quarter, when Thou didst set in motion Thy invincible power, and didst make clear and articulate the lisping tongue unto that glorification.

For it is the hymn-singing of the children, which took place in the temple, that he here proclaims beforehand.

And why, pray, passing over the other miracles—the raising of the dead, the cleansing of lepers, the driving out of demons—does he make mention of the miracle of the children? Because those other things had happened even before this, and though not in this same manner, yet they had happened, and had some kinship with it, even if not in the mode.

For indeed a dead man was raised in the days of Elisha, and a leper was cleansed, and a demon was driven out in the days of David, when Saul was possessed by a demon;

but a choir of sucking children then for the first time uttered its voice.

In order, therefore, that the Jew might not shamelessly assert that these things had been spoken concerning matters in the Old Testament, he selected a sign that then took place for the first time and alone.

In another way, too, the things that happened were also a type of the apostles;

for these men also, being exceedingly infants, and more voiceless than the very fish, drew in the whole inhabited world as with a net.

And that this in particular is the power of God, see the prophet saying this very thing in the Old Testament concerning His Father.

For discoursing with Moses, He says:

'Who made the dull of hearing and the deaf, the seeing and the blind?' And again:

'Giving clear tongues to those of stammering speech.'

'The Lord giveth me the tongue of instruction, that I should know when it is fitting to speak a word.'

'Come, let us go down and confound their tongues.'

Great, therefore, and mighty is the demonstration.

For in the case of the other miracles, even if unreasonably, yet in their shamelessness they suspected that some one was at work;

but here they had nothing to say, since nature itself, bare and by itself, was contending.

For this reason he did not simply say 'of babes,' lest anyone should suppose that he meant the guileless and the more simple-minded;

but he added 'and of sucklings,' characterizing the age by the addition of the reference to the breast.

For he does not simply say 'of babes,' but 'of those at the breast,' who had never yet partaken of solid food.

This, then, is not the only marvel, that they sent forth a voice, and a voice clearly articulate, but that it was also laden with countless good things.

For the very things which the apostles did not yet know, these children were hymning.

From this he also hints at yet another thing: that those who approach the doctrines must become children in their understanding.

For 'unless one receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child,' he says, 'he cannot enter into it.'

He states also the cause on account of which this marvel came to pass:

for the other miracles took place not for the sake of the enemies, but so that those who drew near might enjoy the benefit, and that others might be instructed.

This alone came to pass, but it was also so that the enemies might be silenced;

concerning whom another prophet also, declaring them more precisely, says:

For it was they who had bound Him and led Him to the cross,

That Thou mightest destroy the enemy and the avenger.

So as to still the enemy and him that avengeth himself, meaning here the Jewish people;

For they drove out Christ as an enemy, yet they pretended that they did this as avengers of the Father.

For this reason, depriving them of this excuse, He said:

He that hateth Me hateth My Father also;

He that believeth in Me believeth in Him that sent Me;

in every way joining the Father to the honour and the insult shown toward Himself.

And behold the precision of the Prophet.

He said not, That Thou mightest punish, but, That Thou mightest destroy;

which the other prophet declares more plainly, saying, That Thou mightest still, that is, to do away with their shamelessness, not to instruct them;

Beholding therefore such a wonder, and having nothing to reply, they turned upon Him, saying:

Hearest Thou not what these are saying? Whereas they ought thereupon to have worshipped and marvelled, they were instead in great perplexity, and though bound to say to one another, each to his neighbour, 'Hearest thou not what these are saying?', they gave themselves up and said to Christ:

And for what reason was no voice of angels brought forth? Because that would have seemed to them to be a phantom;

but against this they had nothing to reply.

And what was it that the children said? Nothing burdensome, nor grievous, nor able to smite them, but rather something declaring the concord with the Father.

Blessed, they said, is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.

At that time, then, He put down their shamelessness, but afterward the city too fell, and there is no part of the inhabited world untouched by the calamities of the Jews;

but like a maimed body, they have been scattered everywhere, displaying their wounds;

and just as judges, when they have executed many murderers, impale one, so that even after their death, as though the punishment had just now been inflicted, it may bring the living to their senses;

so too here, not the dead but the living He made an example to all, by scattering them abroad;

and they who once inhabited a single land are now scattered over every part of the earth.

And if thou shouldest ask the cause, thou wilt find no other, save the crucifying of Christ.

For why, tell me, has this not happened in this way before? But even if it did once happen, they were confined to one nation, and for a few years only;

but now it is not so, but they are punished without end.

And if thou shouldest ask them, Why did ye crucify Christ? they say, As being a deceiver and a sorcerer.

Then for this ye ought to have been honoured, and to have received a larger territory, as having pleased God.

For he who slew a deceiver and a sorcerer and one who set himself against God, slew an enemy of God;

and he who slew an enemy would justly be held in good repute.

But now Phinehas, in order to slay one harlot, so gained favour with God as to be counted worthy of the priesthood and of such great honour;

but ye, who ought to have been held in far greater repute than he, if indeed ye slew a deceiver, wander about everywhere, vagrants and without a city.

So that ye have suffered these things for no other reason than that ye crucified your Protector and Benefactor and the Teacher of truth.

For if He were a deceiver and one set against God, and, not being God, wished to be God, and drew to Himself the reverence due to the Father, then ye ought to have gained even greater repute than Phinehas and Samuel and all those men, having shown such great zeal for the law.

But now, the things which ye never suffered while worshipping idols, committing impiety, slaughtering your children—these things ye now suffer, and there is no release from your troubles, but ye are wanderers and fugitives and vagrants, enslaved to the laws of the Romans, ye traverse land and sea, exiles and cityless, homeless and reduced to bondage, cast out from freedom and fatherland and priesthood and all things,

having formerly been cast out, scattered in the midst of barbarians and countless nations, hated by all men, abominable, and exposed to all for ill-treatment.

For ye did not receive the prizes because ye slaughtered the enemy of God;

For the things which ye now suffer belong not to those who slay the enemies of God, but to those who make away with His friends.

But, good sir, we do not say these things, they reply;

It is because of our sins that we suffer these things.

'Do you now make confession, you who are disobedient?' And for what sins? Tell me.

Surely it is not now for the first time that you have sinned? On the contrary, you have now even become more moderate.

But this is what I would ask of you:

Why is it that, though formerly you were always sinning, you nonetheless met with God's loving-kindness, whereas now you no longer do so—and, what is still more astonishing, now that you are sinning less? For in those days you were being initiated into the rites of Baal-Peor, you worshipped the calf, you slaughtered your sons and put your daughters to death, and this while you were enjoying signs and wonders.

But now, though you see no sea being parted, no rock being split, no prophets appearing, and though you no longer enjoy the accustomed providence, you nevertheless display a greater moderation.

Why then is it that, when your sins are fewer and your self-control is greater, the chastisement and the punishment are greater? Is it not plain even to those who are utterly senseless, that it is because your present sin is greater? For so long as you sinned against fellow servants—slaying and stoning the prophets—you obtained pardon.

But when you stretched out your hands against the Master, thereafter the wound became for you incurable.

For this reason four hundred years have now passed since even the very soil of the city was made desolate, the priesthood was destroyed, the kingship dissolved, the affairs of the tribes thrown into confusion, and all those august and splendid things brought to nothing, so that not even a trace of them remains among you.

But at the beginning, even when the temple had been torn down, the prophets remained, and the supplies of the Spirit, and miracles.

But now, so that you may clearly learn that God has turned Himself away from you perpetually, these things too have been done away with;

and slavery, and captivity, and the ruin of all things have overtaken you, and—hardest of all—the abandonment by God.

And God has done just as one might do who, when a thankless slave has often been scourged and yet not corrected, strips him of his garments and lets him go wandering naked, destitute, a vagrant, begging and driven off on every side.

But formerly your condition was not such; rather, there were prophets among you, both in Egypt, and in Babylon, and in the wilderness.

Moses in Egypt; in Babylon, Daniel and Ezekiel; and again in Egypt, Jeremiah.

And miracles upon miracles, and the nation grew ever more illustrious, since your captive kings came to be exalted above others.

But now all those things are gone, and the punishment is harder than the former ones—not only in the length of the time, but also in the great abandonment.

For what reason then, tell me, when you sinned more grievously, did you enjoy such great providence,

whereas when, as you say, you were even zealous on behalf of the Law, you suffered worse things? For from this you condemn God of injustice, as though He honored you while you sinned, but dishonored you while you did right.

For if, as you say, you did away with a deceiver and did what was right,

then, if God is righteous—as indeed He is righteous—He ought to have honored you, not to have chastised you.

But if He does chastise you, it is plain that your present sins are more grievous.

And if you are not now impious, nor do you sacrifice your children as before, what other sin is there on account of which you have suffered worse things? Or is it not plain that the audacity of the cross is the crowning point of your evils? This has destroyed you more utterly than idolatry, than the making of the calf, and than the slaying of children.

For it is not the same thing to slaughter one's own son and to crucify one's own Master.

For this reason, when you were slaughtering your sons, you enjoyed loving-kindness;

but when you crucified the Son of God, who is also your own Master—

How many years are there from the Exodus out of Egypt until the coming of Christ? I think there are fifteen hundred years and more.

How then did He bear with you throughout all those years while you were sinning, but now has cast you off, at the very time when He ought most of all to have crowned you, even if you had sinned much? For your achievement, you say, was very great indeed, if you slew a deceiver.

Besides this, you also think you now keep the Sabbaths, and you do not worship idols, and in other matters you contend eagerly to observe the Law.

Therefore, at the very time when your life is better and your achievement, as you say, is so great, then it is that you suffer the utmost calamities.

What could be worse than this madness? What worse than this folly, that while wishing to make a defense on your own behalf, you blaspheme against God? For if the sin against Christ is not greater than all those others, but rather, as you say, a just deed and a righteous achievement, why on earth does He chastise you when you do right, but spared you when you were sinning? For this is a thing that not God—nay, not even any man who has his wits about him—would ever endure to do.

But what do they say in reply to this? 'We were cast off in order that we might become teachers of the whole world.'

These things are nonsense and idle chatter.

For those who are to be teachers must first themselves have attained to right conduct, and only then be sent forth to this task—

such as were the prophets and the apostles.

But when they themselves are perverted and full of every wickedness, how could they ever have been put forward for the work of teaching? Let us, then, look at what kind of life they led before this time.

For we shall find that they were more savage than wild beasts.

For indeed they became slayers of their fathers, and murderers of their children, and idolaters, and covetous men;

and the prophecies are full of these charges against them.

And Jeremiah, making plain their lustfulness, said:

They became like lustful stallions;

each one neighed after his neighbor's wife.

What is worse than this uncleanness? For they did not consort with one another's wives as men do;

and for this reason he called their madness a neighing.

And he charges them not only with fornication, but also with adultery, and that committed shamelessly, just as among the brute beasts.

And another prophet says:

'They went in unto the woman, hanging up curtains; both son and father to the same handmaid.'

Was it for this, then—tell me—that he sent you as teachers: that we might learn fornications and adulteries, and that father and son should share the same bed? And what of Ezekiel? 'You have not even done according to the customs of the nations,' he says.

Was it these men, then, worse than the nations, that he sent as teachers? Tell me.

And who could bear to speak of their bloodthirsty deeds? For they slaughtered their sons and daughters to the demons, and burned them up.

David too shows this, saying:

'And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.'

Was it for these things, then, that he sent them—that human nature might learn this, that one must slaughter sons and daughters? Are you not ashamed, do you not hide your faces, in fabricating such nonsense? For yet another says:

'They mingle blood upon blood;'

'and cursing, and lying, and theft, and murder, and adultery are poured out upon the earth.'

And another says: 'You had the countenance of a harlot; you became shameless toward all.' And yet another again:

'Your rulers are like the wolves of Arabia.'

'There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.'

'They have all turned aside, together they have become unprofitable.'

Was it these things, then, that you went forth to teach—shamelessness, folly, fornication, adulteries, murders, every way of wickedness? Will you not cease compelling us to parade your evils in public? You who are 'borne from the womb, and instructed even unto old age';

you who are blind, and cast one another into the pit.

For 'if the blind lead the blind,' he says, 'both shall fall into the pit.'

You who day by day enjoyed the prophets, yet never became any better—were you to be teachers of others? Will you not cease from prating such things, and come to recognize your own wickedness? For this it is that has ever destroyed you—the not

willing to know even the ground of your own sins.

For this reason—just as judges do, when they command those who are being scourged to be followed by heralds who cry aloud and declare the causes of the stripes, 'Let none be thieves, let none be robbers'—

so also God, parading you everywhere, commanded the prophets to follow you, declaring the cause of the punishment.

For everywhere throughout the world they are bound together with you, and even now they still cry out against you.

And should you enter into the synagogues, you will hear them continually speaking these very words.

And David indeed says, sketching out that robbers' tribunal of Caiaphas:

For having said, 'Let us break their bonds, and cast away from us their yoke,' he added:

'Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his fury.'

And Isaiah, having said that 'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter,' added:

'And I will give the wicked in exchange for his burial, and the rich in exchange for his death;'

and again elsewhere, discoursing concerning the vineyard:

'I waited that it should bring forth righteousness, but it wrought iniquity, and not righteousness, but a cry.'

And what kind of cry? 'Crucify, crucify!'

'Therefore I will pull down its hedge, and it shall be for a trampling;'

'and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.'

It was not for this reason, then, that you were scattered abroad, but because of the deeds dared at the cross;

and this too is clear from the prophets.

And that you may learn the power of Christ, and that you may be taught through your own experience what you were not instructed in through the prophets, behold at least the very events themselves bearing witness.

For what the Law taught you, this the power of Christ has accomplished abundantly, out of its own overflowing fullness.

For as long as you had the Law, you nevertheless committed murder, and slew your children, and committed adultery;

but when the Sun of righteousness shone forth, and many of your evils were diminished, and you came to lead a more temperate life, being reformed by your zealous rivalry toward us.

For this reason He scattered you abroad, that you might know what manner of commonwealth He has planted upon the earth;

and He destroyed the Temple, drawing you away from wickedness even against your will.

And where the Temple was destroyed, there also was Christ buried, so that those who came to His tomb might behold the trophy of His power, and see standing firm the word which says:

'There shall not be left here one stone upon another.'

For everywhere are His trophies, and the memorials of His power.

But if, as you say, He was impious and an adversary of God, then even if you had sinned ten thousand times, not even so ought you to have been punished in this manner;

lest anyone should suppose that you are paying the penalty on His account.

Or have you not heard God saying, when you were in captivity, that 'It is not for your sake that I act, but for My own sake, that My name be not profaned'? And yet at that time your wickedness was stretched to its utmost.

'But nevertheless,' He says, 'lest the barbarians should think Me weak, I pass over your sins, and I save you.'

So then, at that time He saved you though you were transgressing the Law, that His name might not be profaned;

would He not now have done the same? For even if you had sinned ten thousand times, you ought to have suffered no such thing—if indeed Christ were a deceiver—so that none might think you had suffered these things on His account, but rather you ought even to have been saved;

but even if you did deserve to suffer, as I said before, yet not at that time.

But now these things came to pass all together at once.

For when the Cross had gone forth, a little while after the apostles went out, and immediately a grievous war was kindled against that city;

and that which is in the Gospels—'Woe to those who are giving suck and to those who are with child'—and all those things came to fulfilment in deed;

and the word, 'Then shall there be tribulation, such as never was,' was fulfilled.

For indeed women ate their own children, and the enemy ripped open the bellies of the dead, and barbarian fire was spread everywhere, and all things were full of blood, and there were strange tragedies, and the whole inhabited world was filled with the calamities of the Jews.

Considering these things, then, come to know your own Master.

Did you not slaughter the prophets? Did you suffer any such thing? Did you not overthrow the altars? Did there befall

upon you any such calamity? Did you not worship the calf, and get yourselves initiated to Baal-peor, and become ignorant of your own nature? Did you not undergo the trial of such enemies? Were you not, in the very midst of My benefactions, saved even while being ungrateful? Whence, then, come to you these endless evils? Is it not utterly plain that it is because the sin was dared against the Master, not against the servants? Wherefore there is for you no release from the evils that hold you fast, nor shall there be.

For if there were, the prophets would have foretold it.

But as it is, they spoke of the captivity, yet of the return nowhere at all—and this though they continually mingled good things with the punishments, and appointed set times.

For indeed Jeremiah appointed seventy years, and Daniel likewise three weeks and a half;

and concerning Egypt it was said that they should be in bondage four hundred and thirty years.

But concerning this captivity there is set down nowhere any time nor any end, but 'your house is left unto you desolate,' and day by day your affairs go on unto the worse.

Reckoning up all these things accurately among yourselves, and from them enlarging your argument—for 'Give occasion to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser'—you shall be able to convict their shamelessness and their ingratitude.

'When I look upon the heavens, the works of Thy fingers.'

Another version: 'For I behold the heavens.'

'The moon and the stars, which Thou hast founded.'

Having said, 'Thou hast destroyed the enemies,' he furnishes also the proof of this glorious victory.

'For Thou,' he says, 'who wast crucified, who wast slain, hast been revealed as the Maker of the inhabited world.'

Showing thereby that formerly not many knew this, yet afterwards all shall know it.

And for what reason did he not go through all the parts of the created world? Because, having gone over the more important of the visible things, there was no need of teaching about the rest.

To such a degree, then, were the enemies overthrown, that He who was driven away and slain by them was revealed to be the Maker of all things visible.

And for what reason did he not say, 'Of Thy hands,' but, 'Of Thy fingers'? Showing the visible things to be the work of the smallest exertion of power, and the marvel of the creation—that though hung aloft, the stars do not fall down;

and yet it is not the nature of foundations to hang above, but rather they are by nature made to lie beneath.

But the Master-craftsman, the Creator, who works wonders as well, has in the visible things wrought most of them beyond the sequence of nature.

And why does he say nothing about the incorporeal powers, and demonstrate the Creator's handiwork from that source? Because for the present this was the matter of concern, that they should learn about the visible things.

For this reason his Father also, discoursing with the Jews time and again, does not say:

'I made the angels and the Cherubim';

but rather, 'I stretched out the heaven';

'my hand laid the foundation of the earth, my right hand made it firm';

and he always expends his whole discourse upon the visible things, ordering all for the salvation of those who hear.

For being rather dull of understanding, they were led on more readily by the things that are seen than by the things unseen.

For this reason Paul too, whenever he came forward and addressed the people, would begin his exordium from the visible creation, saying:

'The God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all things that are in them';

and from the yearly rains, and from the race of mankind, he always frames his discourse.

For if I say that he made the Cherubim, I have need of a twofold demonstration: both that the Cherubim exist, and that he made them;