Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 15/24

For they are not divided into disunion;

so that, though they be countless, they are and are named one.

Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear.

Those who lead the bride initiate the queen into the mysteries and are eager to render her most wise, and they sing to her the things by which she will be most pleasing to the Bridegroom.

The word comes forth for them even now, in fitting order;

then, in this way, comes the being in consideration of the things that have been said;

and after this, the inclining of the ear—that is, henceforth to bring forward that which is altogether obedient.

And they call the Church a daughter, inasmuch as through them she has been adorned for the Bridegroom who is from above and from the heavens—that is, for Christ.

For they have become fellow-workers of God, ministers of God, reconciling to him, through faith and holy baptism, all that is under heaven.

And forget your people, and the house of your father;

and the king shall desire your beauty;

for he is your lord;

In these words the utterance of the holy prophets, very aptly and clearly, hints at the Church gathered from the nations.

For the Holy Spirit would not have said to those of Israel, 'Forget your people and the house of your father'; but to those coming forward from among the nations these things might reasonably be spoken, seeing that we were once senseless and children of wrath, inscribing the devil as our father, while our whole people was godless and idolatrous.

Since, therefore, the Church upon earth has been transformed from such a condition, the word fittingly addresses her, declaring to her:

'Forget your people and the house of your father.' So too was it once said to Abraham:

'Go out from your land and from your kindred, and from the house of your father, and come into a land which I will show you.' And it has been preserved among us even to this day, that those who turn to the knowledge of the truth ought in a certain manner to forget the house of their first father and his people.

Accordingly, those entering upon the saving baptism, and then turning toward the west, we exhort to cry out:

'I renounce you, Satan, and all your works, and all your angels, and all your pomp, and all your service.'

And what reward the daughter of Christ shall have in doing these things, he next sets forth, saying:

'And the king shall desire your beauty, for he is your lord.' For if, he says, being cleansed you put away the memory of your former evils, and taking up again the natural beauty of the soul which was made after the image of God, you shall have the Beloved of God as your suitor;

for the great king himself shall desire your beauty;

and he will deign to be styled your Lord, though he is king of all his saints.

In place of 'They shall worship him,' Aquila rendered, 'And she worshipped him';

and Symmachus, 'And worship him';

having shown yourself worthy of worshipping him, while he calls her to give ear.

But others say that she is so called according to foreknowledge.

within, in tassels of gold;

Hidden, he says, is the adornment of the Church, being unto the mind and the understanding.

And the tassels, or fringes, are the manifold virtues, all but suspended, as it were, from the multitude of the saints.

'Instead of your fathers, sons were born to you; you shall appoint them as rulers over all the earth.'

Of old, those of the tribe of Judah reigned over Jerusalem;

and those who attended in the holy tabernacle were appointed to judge;

'For the lips of a priest,' he says, 'shall keep judgment, and they shall seek the law from his mouth.' But when the shadow had been withdrawn and the worship in spirit had shone forth, the world had need of more radiant judges, and to this henceforth the divinely-inspired disciples were summoned.

'Instead of your fathers, sons were born,' that is, they obtained the rank of the fathers.

'You shall appoint them as rulers'; which also came to pass;

for we have been made rulers, and we have obtained as ecumenical judges the holy disciples, by whose ordinances the very mystery of Christ is proclaimed.

Since they themselves are also stewards of the saving word, and expounders of what must be done, rejecting what is spurious, and counselling what is profitable.

Therefore it must be construed thus: the sons shall be born instead of your fathers.

Christ created the two peoples into one new man, making peace and reconciling both in one body to the Father.

From these and from those the fullness of the Church is understood.

The prophets, then, say to her:

'Instead of your fathers, sons were born to you'; and by these words they seem to make mention of the holy apostles and evangelists.

For the fathers of the synagogue of the Jews were Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and after them the patriarchs and the prophets;

but since the Lord, being God, appeared to us, the divinely-inspired disciples have been ordained by him as fathers of the Church, and have come to stand in the rank of the first.

For how can one doubt that the divinely-inspired Abraham was father of both the nations and the Jews? For of Israel he became father according to the flesh;

but for those of the nations, through promise;

for it was said to him, 'I have made you a father of many nations'; for they followed in his footsteps, being justified by faith, and since they became believers, they were blessed together with him.

In the rank of fathers, then, the all-wise disciples have been set for the Church.

True, then, is that saying of Paul: 'For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers;'

'for in Christ Jesus, through the Gospel, I begot you.' And indeed the wise John also, throughout, speaks to those who have believed in Christ as to children.

'They shall remember your name in every generation and generation.'

For even though they have departed from the affairs that concern us, they still remember Christ even so, and they have deposited the sacred mysteries in holy books, and to this day they proclaim him to be God.

Of Cyril and Basil. Even if the whole earth, he says, should be stirred up against us—that is, those who dwell in it—and even if those who wish to raise up their own perversity against our proclamations should so far prevail as to be able even to remove mountains and cast them into the sea, yet for our succour the all-powerful right hand will suffice, setting beyond all tumult those who are dedicated to God;

and smoothing the steep places, and turning the difficult into ease, and making passable that which is raised on high, and bringing down the haughty brow of the proud.

And by 'waters resounding and troubled' you will understand the multitude of the nations;

for thus the God-inspired Scripture is wont to call these things;

for thus it says somewhere also concerning Nineveh, that 'Nineveh, her waters are like a pool of water.' And another of the holy prophets also said:

'Thus says the Lord who rules over many waters'—meaning the nations.

For Christ has reigned over all the nations.

Of Cyril and Basil. 'But also the mountains,' he says, 'were troubled in his might.' And by 'mountains' he means those who are perhaps somewhat more conspicuous among those in the world, and who, upon empty little glories

[upon empty glory] think great things of themselves.

But these too were troubled and rose up in revolt against the holy mystagogues.

Yet the accursed Satan wronged them in nothing;

for those who at the first leapt upon the holy mystagogues ... the nobility that is in Christ, and became lovers of the evangelical decrees.

Such is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High. 'The rushings of the river gladden the city of God.'

That Christ too was named a river in very many places of the sacred Scriptures, the lover of learning surely knows full well.

For he himself said concerning us through one of the holy prophets:

'Behold, I turn upon them as a river of peace, and as a torrent overflowing the glory of the nations.' And he says 'I turn' very aptly indeed;

for his course, he says—that is, his way—was toward those of the blood of Israel;

but since they thrust away the faith, and deemed the partaking of his sacred streams worthy of no account, for this very reason and quite fittingly he inclined toward us who have been called from among the nations, and became for us a river of peace and an overflowing torrent. 'The Most High sanctified his tabernacle'; and we affirm that his tabernacle is none other than the Church herself.

For he dwells in holy and devout souls, declaring them holy by making them partakers of the Holy Spirit.

'God shall help her toward the morning.'

The city of God is helped as the day draws near.

But there is another reading, which says:

'God shall help her with his countenance'; for he preserves her beauty unwounded and incorruptible—the spiritual beauty, that is—whenever she receives disturbance from her adversaries.

For as long as a soul keeps its faith blameless within itself, and clothes itself with the adornments of every virtue, it possesses the spiritual beauty in which Christ himself also rejoices.

But if it is carried away from what is fitting, straightway it acquires what is unsightly and unpleasing.

But the Church, he says, will not suffer this;

For her beauty preserves her.

By the 'face' of the Church one might understand her leaders, whom He also strengthens vigorously, that they may be able to take up the work of preaching.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our helper.

And if anyone should wish to take it also in another sense, he would not be devoid of good thoughts.

For the Lord of hosts came to be with us when He became like us, taking the form of a servant and being found in fashion as a man.

For then He took hold of us and saved us when we were in peril;

for He delivered us from sins and corruption, and from being oppressed by enemies, both perceptible and spiritual.

He saw the Emmanuel born of the Virgin, and therefore he cried out prophetically:

The Lord of hosts is with us; showing that this is the very One who appeared to the holy prophets and patriarchs.

Our helper, he says, is not some other God beside the One handed down by the prophets, but the God of Jacob, He who in the divine oracle conversed with His own servant, saying:

I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Come, behold the works of the Lord, the wonders which He has set upon the earth.

not to Judaea alone, but indeed made known to all who dwell upon the earth through the evangelical proclamations of the holy ministers, who, traversing all that is under heaven, made manifest the admirable power and pre-eminence of Christ—on the one hand recounting the things done through Him, and on the other accomplishing wonders in His name.

But if anyone should say that those called from among the nations ought to learn the works of God—that is, the visible creation, which possesses much that is worthy of wonder and is not far from marvels—so that all may know that He is the Maker of all things, he would not err from what is fitting.

To the end, concerning the sons of Korah.

It is inscribed 'concerning the sons of Korah,' not as though the ode came into being wholly on their account, but because through them they were appointed to minister in the offering up of the ode.

It is the persona of the holy apostles, as of those already commanded to make disciples of all the nations, and to baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And since faith became the mediatrix of very many great goods for them—for through it they were called to the adoption of God, to partaking of the Holy Spirit, and became partakers of the divine nature, and were enriched with the grace of the gifts from heaven, and became sharers of the hope of the saints—for this very reason, and quite fittingly, they charge them to keep festival, saying:

All you nations, clap your hands; shout unto God with a voice of exultation.

The cause of the festival is that Christ became known to all throughout the earth as being this very thing which He is in truth—namely King, and God, and Most High, and terrible;

yet King of the nations not as one who received the beginning of His kingship over them when He gained the mastery over them, but because, being Lord of all and King as God, He set even them under the scepter of His own kingdom, having removed the tyranny of those who of old held sway.

The psalm is a song of victory.

As though the adverse powers had fallen, then, he bids the nations to sing.

And they shall shout for joy as those who have conquered in Christ.

He has subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.

He has chosen for us His inheritance, the beauty of Jacob which He loved.

For they say that the peoples and nations under the feet of the saints are Satan himself and the evil powers with him;

Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. And they marvel exceedingly at the Saviour's magnanimity, that by the just decree of God all the privileges of those of Israel, and the things promised to them by God, have rather been given to those of the nations, inasmuch as they have embraced the faith and have come to know their Benefactor.

And indeed, concerning this very divine proclamation it was somewhere said by the holy initiators to those of the blood of Israel:

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

but since you thrust it away and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations;

for thus the Lord has commanded us. They rejoice, therefore, as having received from Christ to be His portion, and to be reckoned as also within the beauty of Jacob.

For of old the Lord's portion became His people Jacob, the line of His inheritance Israel;

to be His measured portion and His inheritance.

And in another way too you will understand that, in addition to the multitude of the nations, they have also had Jacob himself under their feet—that is, those of the blood of Jacob;

for even if not all of Jacob has believed, yet the beauty of the whole people has run out to this end, that you may perceive the remnant.

For it is consistent to think that the more understanding among the flock of the Jews believed in Christ, having grasped from the Law and the Prophets the mystery concerning Him, and through the things which Christ both said and worked as wonders.

And so Philip said to Nathanael:

We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets wrote—Jesus the son of Joseph, who is from Nazareth. Then in reply to this the other said:

Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? For as soon as he heard 'Nazareth,' he sprang up to the beginnings of knowledge and exactness concerning Christ.

This we affirm to be the beauty of Jacob.

For those thus disposed, even as Nathanael himself, the true Israelite in whom there was no guile, might fittingly be called the beauty of Jacob, and indeed be beloved by God—they who together with these were made subject to the holy initiators.

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

Sing praises to our God, and so forth.

They declare those on earth to be fellow-dancers with the holy angels in heaven, and, having tuned as it were one lyre, to strike up a rhythmic and melodious song, rejoicing that, having fulfilled the economy on our behalf, He ascended to the Father and God in heaven, having become as it were a kind of firstfruits of humanity renewed unto incorruption;

for this too we have gained as riches in Christ.

Sing praises, then, he says, and yet again sing praises, and make your hymnody unceasing.

For God has gone up with a shout, and the Lord with the sound of a trumpet—God not being one and the Lord another, but one and the same;

for the glory of lordship altogether follows upon being God, just as, of course, being God follows upon Him who is Lord by nature.

And since he makes mention both of a shout and of the sound of a trumpet, we who are minded and speak the things of Christ ascend to thoughts such as these.

For He ascended into the heavens now to appear before the face of God on our behalf; but to the spirits in heaven He was a strange sight—a man resplendent in God-befitting glory, and seen in pre-eminence beyond words.

It was necessary, then, that the powers above should be initiated by the Holy Spirit into the mystery that, being God by nature, the Word of God became man.

For this reason too He commanded them both to lift up the gates on high, and indeed to know clearly that He who in a form like ours was ascending was God, ascending into the glory befitting Him alone and essentially inherent in Him. For it said: Lift up your gates, O rulers, and be lifted up, O everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in. And when the spirits above asked, or even hesitated because of not knowing clearly who this King of glory is, they learned that He was the Lord of hosts, and the Lord mighty in battle.

And the all-wise Paul also writes:

That now unto the principalities and powers might be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which He made in Christ. The intelligible powers, then, were taught to shout to Him, and in them there was, as it were, the piercing sound of some trumpet—the revelation through the Spirit, unveiling the profound mystery of the Incarnation.

It was necessary, then, that those who had been saved should shout together with the spirits above, and sing praises continually, and offer to Him hymnody that never grows still.

However, by saying 'He went up,' they teach that He came down.

For understanding it thus, the all-wise Paul too says:

Now this, 'He ascended,' what is it but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? And again:

He who descended is the very One who also ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. Because God is King of all the earth, sing praises with understanding.

The Son is acknowledged as God and King not over Judaea alone, but indeed already over all the earth.

there is a great and measureless multitude of the nations, of those who are throughout all that is under heaven.

Sing praises, then, with understanding—that is, employing an understanding befitting holy things, and rightly comprehending the mystery of Christ;

for it requires a wise mind and heart.

For thus somewhere the prophet also says:

Who is wise, and will understand these things? and prudent, and will know them? But I think that we ought to approach the matters before us with yet another sense.

Sing praises, then, and give glory;

for God has reigned with understanding over all the nations.

And the phrase 'with understanding' stands in place of 'with wisdom and a certain ineffable economy.'

For truly the mystery of Christ is full of wisdom.

God sits upon His holy throne.

The God-inspired Scripture names heaven the throne of God;

and not that we should conceive of anything bodily (for the Divine is not ordered according to our manner, being altogether incorporeal and beyond comprehension), but rather it is customary for Scripture to name His kingship by the throne.

and it is customary for Scripture to name His kingship by means of the throne.

When, therefore, heaven is said to have a throne, it must be understood that by this His rule over the holy angels is fittingly signified.

And those also who have believed in Him have become His throne, they who are also holy, inasmuch as they have obtained the washing away of their sins and have their hearts anointed by the working and grace of the Holy Spirit.

And thus they have also become partakers of His divine nature.

Since, therefore, the Only-begotten Word of God has rested even upon us who are on earth, the Spirit-bearers say this also rejoicing:

that He sits upon His holy throne, that is, He rests upon those who are His own acquaintances, and He is in us, just as, indeed, He is also among the spirits on high.

But if anyone should wish that by the throne there be signified the firmly established and altogether unshakable nature of the kingdom of Christ, he too will understand rightly in this way;

for there shall be no end of His kingdom, according to the voice of the angel.

The princes of the peoples are gathered together with [the God of] Abraham, for the mighty ones of the earth belong to God: they are greatly exalted.

In these words the inspired disciples seem either to make plain their own proclamation, or rather, as in the manner of prophecy, to foretell the multitude of holy shepherds who would come after them.

For they became princes of peoples, they themselves first, and after them, and in succession, others also, very many and wise, eager to follow after their piety and to proclaim everywhere to all men the divine and angelic message.

These, then, were gathered together, that is, they came together, or rather they came to agreement in one common faith and in oneness of soul; and I would add, in oneness of speech as well;

for there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one is the word held by all concerning Christ among those who rightly understand the mystery concerning Him.

But if some misrepresent and pervert the truth, yet with such we have no discourse, they with whom Christ abides;

and He is not a recent God, but that very one who is also the God of the forefather Abraham.

Thus were the princes gathered together, those concerning whom our discourse has just now been, together with the God of Abraham.

And that they became distinguished and looked up to by all men, Christ bestowing on them to be such, they make clear, saying: The mighty ones of God, that is, those having spiritual manliness, the most valiant warriors, those who set themselves against the perversities of the devil and resist the empty babblings of the foolish talkers, are greatly exalted from the earth;

that is, they would not be thought of as lowly and undistinguished and cast aside, but as having ascended on high in virtue, and having a life set apart on high and not accessible to the many.

Or perhaps too the saying that they are exalted from the earth signifies that they have a mind not fixed upon earthly affairs, but looking down upon fleshly things and gazing upward, precisely because of their desire to attain the height of doctrinal skill and practical refinement.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.

And He is great as Lord, inasmuch as He has also been begotten of the great God and Father.

For He said: The Father who has given them to me is greater than all. For if the title has extended to others, and some of the spirits in heaven and of those on earth have been called great, yet it is by participation and imitation of Him who is properly and truly and by nature great that they too have gained the appellation.

No longer is God great over Judaea alone, but also over the sanctified mountain, that is, the Church, because of the loftiness of the doctrines concerning God.

Rooting the exultation of all the earth, the mountains of Zion, the sides of the north.

And He is indeed the exultation of all the earth.

'My exultation, deliver me from those who have surrounded me.' For gladness and exultation, and the ground of the highest joy of heart, is Christ to those throughout all the earth, removing from us all dejection and wiping away the tear, according to the voice of Isaiah.

For he said: Death prevailed and swallowed up, and again God took away every tear from every face. And how He is the exultation of all the earth has been clearly stated.

But it is necessary to note that the law given through Moses also commanded that a lamb be slaughtered at the side of the altar facing toward the north, the type intimating that

Christ would turn toward the northern parts of the inhabited world, and would henceforth advance upon them, and would grant them His oversight, according to what is said in the Psalms:

His eyes look upon the poor. God is known in her palaces.

We say that 'palaces' are named as the most notable of the towers, such as would be within the enclosures of walls.

There is therefore nothing unlikely, since the Church has once been named a city, in saying that her palaces are the holy apostles, or rather the teachers and initiators of the holy Churches throughout each successive age.

These, like towers, have risen above the rest, and are more conspicuous, and are as it were the buttress of the whole body of the Church.

In these palaces, then, everyone who has strength recognizes Christ, whenever He upholds her—meaning clearly the Church—

distributing from on high, ever to those set over her, and indeed ever everywhere showing them to be superior to their adversaries.

This too, moreover, must be known in addition to this:

for they say that 'palaces' are not only the towers on the walls, but also certain of the ships that are well and skillfully fitted out.

And to these too, in turn, the heads of the saints must be likened, precisely because they all but sail everywhere and convey the cargo of piety to all men;

such as was the inspired Paul, running from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum and preaching the Gospel of Christ.

and indeed also the dragon which He formed to be mocked;

conveyors of the sacred proclamations;

and the dragon lying in wait for them, namely Satan, whom the saints who are called ships have also conquered, since Christ bestows on them help sufficient for salvation.

The rest is similar to the first.

and it is said to be a part of Ethiopia.

And the city Tarsus is called Tharseis by Jonah.

As we have heard, so also have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.

(Of Cyril and Theodore.) The enemies of the Church ran together as though to make war;

but when they beheld the invincibility of her who was being warred against, they were struck with amazement, and ceasing from warring and casting, they cry out:

'As we have heard, so also have we seen';

for not wishing to accept the predictions concerning her, we ourselves have beheld the truth of those things.

But how could they say, 'In the city of our God,' had they not become believers? For those who confess Him to be at once God and Lord of hosts [signify] that they altogether have faith firmly established in themselves. But where did they see the promise fulfilled, except in the Church, which is the city of God? As much as we hear of God through faith, these things we know assuredly through a pure life, receiving the proofs through freedom from passion.

We have received, O God, Your mercy in the midst of Your temple, and so forth.

The 'we have received' in these words is to be taken either instead of 'we have surmised, we have conceived,' or 'we have been disposed firmly and fixedly,' that Your mercy will altogether and in every way belong to those who have come to be in the midst of the temple.

For we do not say to the unbelievers that the participation in the gracious gifts from God will be apportioned to them, but to those who have already believed.

For it was said to those of old: My Spirit stands in the midst of you, take courage. And likewise also in those things before this: God is in the midst of her, she shall not be shaken. According to Your name, O God, so also is Your praise unto the ends of the earth.

It is customary for the divine Scripture to call glory 'name';

and it says that the good report concerning Him follows upon the glory of God, both proportionately and fittingly;

for He is hymned by all upon the earth according to the height of His pre-eminence.

For what indeed do we say when hymning Him?

O God, who shall be likened unto You? And:

What God is great, as our God is? Yours are the heavens, and Yours is the earth;

the inhabited world and its fullness You have founded.

Yours is the day, and Yours is the night;

You have established the sun and the moon. And simply, we hymn Him as God and Lord of all things.

And they marvel at yet another thing besides these;

for they say that the right hand of God and Father is full of righteousness, that is, of just judgment.