Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 6/24

'My heart became like melting wax in the midst of my belly.'

But even the sweetness of the heart, like wax, was present; it was melted when it became food, and passed into the belly.

He speaks of the thoughts made fine by continual meditation, so as to be distributed toward the constitution of the one who is nourished.

Here by 'name' He means glory, according to the saying, 'I have manifested Thy name to men.' For He made His glory clearly known, not only in that He is Father, by saying and teaching so, but also by making manifest both His gentleness and His glory to us who have become His brethren according to that He became like us.

For He said, 'Thus God loved the world, so that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.' And in yet another way He has manifested to us the glory of the Father.

For as many as have beheld the Son with the eyes of the understanding, possessing an authority most befitting God and an all-conquering power over all things, have beheld the Father and have known Him.

Accordingly He Himself also said, 'He who has seen Me has seen the Father.' But also:

...a wrinkle, but holy and without blemish. He indeed hymns the Father, making His glory manifest.

The psalm at hand has the same meaning as the things said at the end of the psalm before this one.

For those from among the Gentiles who have believed, having become taught of God according to what is written, having eaten and been filled spiritually, recognize the giver of the saving food, and call Him shepherd and nourisher; and indeed He says that, being one through faith and belonging to one flock:

'The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing.'

Those who through Christ have been folded into the divine courts, and are shepherded by Him, think great things;

and they have obtained as guide not merely some one of the saints, as Israel had Moses, but of shepherds the chief Shepherd, and of teachers the Instructor, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.

And knowing this they say, 'I shall lack nothing';

for Christ is all-powerful, and He makes abundant the supply of His own gifts of grace to those who have come to know His manifestation.

'In a place of green pasture, there He has made me to dwell.'

Since the words 'The Lord shepherds me' are an utterance fitting for sheep, those shepherded by Christ continue in the figure of the word, and add further the good things that have come to them from the shepherd's skill, naming them 'green pasture' and 'water.'

A 'place of green pasture' might be understood as the ever-flourishing oracles of God, the holy and God-inspired Scripture, which nourishes the hearts of believers unto spiritual manly vigor;

and the 'water' the living and life-giving supply of the Holy Spirit.

Or perhaps more properly a 'place of green pasture' is paradise, from which we have fallen, into which Christ leads us back and makes us dwell, through the water of rest, that is, through baptism.

'For unless one be born of water and spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' 'For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death.'

Since we are baptized into the death of Christ, baptism too shall be called a shadow of death and an imitation of it, which one ought not to fear.

The 'shadow of death' might also be understood as the natural and common death, in contrast to the voluntary death—I mean that of the soul—which is not a shadow of death but true death.

'Thou hast prepared before me a table over against them that afflict me.'

Having tasted the evangelical table, those from among the Gentiles who have believed say to Christ, who set it before them, that 'The table which Thou hast prepared for us is contrary to the table of the Greeks.'

For the wise men among the Greeks taught us nothing of what is necessary;

but rather they oppressed and afflicted us in famine and in scarcity of every profitable learning.

But the divine and sacred table, the God-inspired Scripture, is contrary to that corrupting and unnourishing table of those who afflict us, being rich and costly, and having a great variety and setting-forth of dishes, that is, of viands.

For there are in it very many admonitions, and saving ones, revealing the true good life, and bearing us toward spiritual well-being.

And perhaps this too is what the believers say: that 'Thou hast prepared for us a spiritual table, so that having eaten and grown strong, we may be able to come out against those who once afflicted us.'

For spiritual good nourishment, having well strengthened the soul, makes it able to withstand both unclean spirits and teachers in error.

But also the mystical table, the flesh of the Lord, makes us strong against the passions and against demons.

For Satan fears those who partake of the mysteries with reverence. 'And Thy mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life.'

It shall wholly follow those sanctified in Christ and counted worthy of the gifts from Him, so that they even touch the sacred table, are anointed on the head with oil, and indeed drink to fullness from the choicest cup—which is to come to be in rich participation of perpetual gladness.

For this, I think, is what it signifies: to be, as it were, pursued continually and in all the days of the age by the mercy of God.

For the grace given by Christ to the saints is inalienable, and His gifts and calling are without repentance.

Accordingly the divinely-inspired Paul writes to those thus honored, that they receive an unshakable kingdom;

for it is not possible to fall away from the good things that shall be given;

for most firm and unshaken is the hope of the saints.

And the ancient law too, though having a shadow and types, and not the very image of the realities, obliquely intimated the immovability of the saints' hope;

for it commanded that on the Sabbath no one should go forth from his own tent, but rather abide contentedly in it, and remaining within, take delight in the things already provided;

and this was a riddle of the fact that in the mansions above the saints shall abide perpetually;

for from thence have fled away sorrow and grief and sighing.

Fittingly then do those say who have hung their hope upon Christ, and who expect to come to be in the mansions above, that mercy shall wholly follow them unto ages of ages.

And some have understood the mercy of God to be Christ Himself, who through His incarnation pursues, until He should overtake all those who are to be saved.

And simply, since it is not so much from works that we can be justified, as from the grace and mercy of God;

for this reason the believers fittingly call upon the mercy of God, and take refuge in His compassions.

In the foregoing psalm, those from among the Gentiles were brought in rejoicing and, as it were, thinking great things, because they had been called by Christ through faith, and because they had become partakers of the gifts from Him;

but in the present psalm there is introduced the person of saints who initiate into the mysteries, or even of the Holy Spirit Himself, proclaiming that all that is under heaven has been caught as in a net through faith in Christ.

And it prophesies also concerning the reception, and moreover introduces teaching, how the believers too may become worthy of the heavenly tabernacles.

But let us see what the great and sacred and most admirable proclamation is.

'He has founded it upon the seas, and upon the rivers He has prepared it.'

The phrase 'He has prepared it upon the rivers' signifies that He set it in order;

for once the earth had come to be, and was marvelously suspended over the abysses, it was necessary that it be made full of drinkable waters by God, so as to be able to nourish the things upon it.

But spiritually the apostles might be understood as the 'rivers,' who with intelligible streams flood all that is under heaven,

and convey the word from heaven and from above to those upon the earth.

'Innocent in hands and pure in heart.'

...that he who is about to ascend into the intelligible mountain of the Lord must be blameless both in body and in spirit;

'innocent in hands,' that is, without blame in the practical life;

'undefiled in heart,' having in accord with the outwardly manifest conduct the inner spiritual brightness that reaches even to the mind.

For the word leads up to the mountain of God the one who is pure through all things, who has defiled his soul neither in knowledge, nor in thought, nor in deeds unto the end, persisting in evils.

'Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty.'

And to the present war and trophy of victory on behalf of humanity.

From this we understand that the mystery concerning Christ was not manifest to all the powers above, but only to those which were taken up for the ministry of the matter, as Gabriel and those at the nativity who said:

And since they also heard the Spirit saying, 'Lift up the gates, and the King of glory shall enter in,' perhaps they debated who this might be and of what sort—seen as man, so far as pertains to the nature of the flesh, yet said to be the King of glory.

What then does the Spirit say to them? 'You are in doubt,' He says, 'and do you wish to learn who this is? Hear then, that this is the King of glory.'

And it introduces also an exhortation profitable to all men;

and the present psalm is especially fitting for those called from among the Gentiles, and it has much sequence with the one before it.

For in that psalm there was a calling of the nations and an initiation into the mysteries, teaching through the Holy Spirit who then might have access to the city above: namely, those who are innocent in their hands and pure in heart, and that Christ would make a way for the nature of man to ascend on high, having gone up before us into the heavens as our forerunner.

But in the psalm now before us, the person of those who have been called is introduced—that is, of all who have been gathered together in faith unto spiritual unity.

And it seeks to be directed by God who has called it toward the pursuit of what is profitable and necessary, and it pledges its sincerity.

For hear what those who, after turning back from error and all becoming one choir, say:

'Make known to me Thy ways, O Lord, and teach me Thy paths.'

This is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High. For those who of old ran in the ways of the devil now diligently seek out the ways of the Lord—that is, the ordinances of the Gospel and the manner of a life befitting holiness.

For these are the paths of the Lord.

And the Law has a shadow and a foreshadowing of the truth;

but the Gospel is itself the truth, into which they beseech to be guided by God.

And Christ too is truth, and the Father brings to Him those who seek Him through faith.

For so, somewhere, He says to the Jews:

'No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.' And perhaps also the tutelage of the Law is called a way and a path of the Lord, leading to the truth—that is, to Christ.

For concerning Him Moses wrote.

'Make known to me, then, the shadows in the Law, which portray the truth in figures,'

and he prays to be guided into the truth itself, lest, being deceived, he should prefer falsehood in its stead.

'Remember not the sins of my youth nor my ignorances.'

having been called from among the nations, since the Lord says:

'Declare thou first thine iniquities, that thou mayest be justified'; and for this reason they come forward confessing that they have sins of youth, whether of the body or of the mind—that is, of folly;

for every sin springs from folly;

and even if one who is aged should sin, this very thing makes him youthful and most foolish—that he sins;

wherefore such a one is called young, like that prodigal in the Gospels;

for he too was named the younger son.

And though we are liable to punishment and judgment for our many transgressions, count us worthy of remembrance before Thee;

not for our works—for on account of these we should justly have been punished—but only for Thine own goodness and for what befits Thee, that Thou hast mercy on those who fall down and seek the loving-kindness that is from Thee.

'Not for your sakes do I act, but for My name's sake.' Observe too that we are caught in wrongdoing either because we do not know the divine law, or because we are unwillingly forced into things that are not pleasing to God.

'Remember not the sins of my youth nor my ignorance.' And Job, since God is good and does not overlook the weakness of our nature, all but even reproaches Him, when He is about to withdraw and hold back from remitting his sins:

'Why hast Thou not made forgetfulness of my iniquity, and cleansing of my sin? All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.'

Those who believe are able to understand even the hidden things, according to the saying: 'But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory.' But concerning those who do not believe it is said:

'Unless ye believe, neither shall ye understand'; thus the Jews remained untaught.

The most holy Paul says that a veil lies upon their heart whenever Moses is read.

Those, then, who have been called from among the nations through faith, as already made wise through the illumination of the Spirit and understanding the ordinances of the Gospel, say that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth;

not according to the Law of Moses, which was severity and shadow.

For there was no mercy for those who transgressed the commandments of Moses;

for they died without compassion on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Nor indeed were the things of the Law truth;

for the Law was a shadow and a type.

Therefore those from among the nations, contrasting the things that came through Christ with the Law, say that His ways are mercy and truth;

for how is it not mercy, if the commandments of Christ call men to the remission of sins and bring redemption to those who were tyrannized over by sin and Satan? And those who have believed in Christ serve in truth, not offering according to the sacrifices in the Law by means of blood and smoke;

but rather accomplishing the spiritual manner of life well-pleasing to God, and offering up the fragrance that comes from good works.

But to whom the ways of the Lord may become mercy and truth, they make plain by saying: to those who seek out His covenant and His testimonies—that is, to those who hold fast to Him and have chosen to love Him by keeping His commandments, and not indeed to those who are disobedient and shake off the commandments given by Christ;

nor even to those who have suffered such a thing as the Galatians did with regard to the shadows of the Law, going backward after their faith.

'If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.' And again:

'Ye are estranged from Christ,'

'whosoever of you are justified by the Law; ye are fallen from grace' with such persons. The ways of the Lord would not be mercy and truth, nor would any benefit come therefrom.

In place of, 'I waited,' that is, 'I expected' Thee to be a helper to me.

'Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence.'

Now the person here introduced seeks to be judged, yet not concerning the offenses committed.

For it is not likely that a man, sick with much weakness toward transgression and not wholly free from stumblings, should say boldly, 'Judge me, O Lord.' He does not, then, ask to be judged concerning his transgressions, but only concerning the fact that in no way did he consent with the Jews who acted impiously against Christ.

For as one attested by a good conscience, that he has both a sincere mind and is wholly delivered from the perverseness of the Jews, he says:

'for I have walked in innocence';

by 'innocence' meaning the not sharing in the baseness and the madness of the Jews.

'Think ye of the Lord truly, and in singleness of heart seek Him.' For He makes Himself manifest to such as these, as to the man born blind.

Therefore to believe in Him in innocence and singleness of heart would be the procurer of every good.

'Hoping in the Lord, I shall in no wise be weak.'

'I shall not shrink back, I shall not go astray;

but I shall hold my request secure, having registered my hopes in Thee;

for I have Thee, who dost strengthen me.'

He who has his hopes upon himself or upon any other would be made weak;

but he who hopes upon the Lord would not be shaken at all.

'If Thou examine,' he says, 'the passions of my soul, Thou wilt find that, resting upon Thy mercy alone, I hold every labor of the mind;

and doing this, I shall be well-pleasing before Thee, having loved Thy truth.'

The psalm now before us will fit also the person of the new people, perfected through faith in Christ.

For here is introduced one who is spiritually playing the man, who has fixed upon Christ his hope in all good things, and who meditates above all on being unbroken amid labors, and who beseeches to be directed by the laws that come from Christ and to be carried along upon the straight road.

For having foreknown, through the illumination of the Spirit, the things that were to come, and knowing well that he would be appointed to reign over those of Israel, but would also assuredly fall into unexpected trials, wars, and battles, and into the waves that come from circumstances (for many are they who without restraint plot against those so illustrious, and, as it were, gird their loins beforehand)—and beholding the things to come as already present and at hand, and preparing his own heart to suffer, and making the help that comes from God his unbreakable weapon, and expecting that he would altogether prevail over those who fought against him, he offers up his prayer.

'For He hid me in His tabernacle; in the day of my troubles He sheltered me,' and so forth.

These verses must also be applied to those who have been called through faith, and it must be said that whenever any heap up afflictions and persecutions upon them, then God—as Moses says—just as an eagle shelters its nest, so, spreading out His wings, receives them, and does not permit those who wilfully do evil to prevail against them.

For this, I think, is what he means by 'tabernacle' and 'the secret places of the tabernacle.'

And by 'Rock' we say is meant here either the unbreakable and unshaken firmness of mind unto endurance, or Christ, upon whom we all are stayed;

for He Himself is the strength of all, the immovable foundation.

Having therefore come to be in Him, we are exalted through both faith and sanctification.

For there is nothing lowly in Christ;

rather, His oracles bear those who are devoted to Him upward to the heights;

and I say 'to the heights' with respect to virtue, and because there is nothing that is cast down among the saints, according to what is written, that 'the mighty ones of the earth belong to God; they are greatly exalted.'

The present psalm is sung in the person of those who have believed in Christ, calling upon God for help through supplication;

and at the same time it makes an indictment of the folly of the Jews, and departs from fellowship with them, and seeks to be made a close kin to Christ—spiritually, of course.

By 'the cry' here we do not mean a lofty or loud voice (for it is unfitting for the saints to pray in such a way), but the intensity of the mind, firmly and without distraction fixed upon God.

And though it is unaccustomed among the Jews to lift up the hands in time of prayer, it is a well-practised custom among those in Christ;

for by the stretching out of their hands they display the precious form of the saving Cross,

confessing by the very deed that they are consecrated to Christ, making His Cross their boast.

For inasmuch as we have become partakers of His sufferings, taking up our own cross and following Him, according to what He Himself says, we are shaped into the figure of the Cross.

Yet we do not pray in the corners of the broad streets after the manner of the Jews, so as to be seen by men, but in the holy temple of God we lift up our hands with restraint and offer our petitions;

'For My house,' says God through the prophet, 'shall be called a house of prayer.' (From Saint Cyril, from the interpretation of the twenty-seventh Psalm.) The way of the Lord is good, cleansing not so much the flesh as souls—this is the gospel proclamation;

and we say that this same thing is also the path that brings one straight to the goal.

For there is nothing crooked in it, but it is like a certain straight and royal and well-trodden highway, having nothing rough or difficult, but rather straight and easy to travel for those who have chosen to live piously;

'O Lord, in Thy will Thou didst furnish strength to my beauty.'

In the case of a body, beauty is understood in a certain way.

For very many of its parts contribute together to the result of the one beauty—such as the eye, the eyebrow, the cheeks, and the rest.

In the same manner we also conceive of spiritual beauty;

for it is one thing gathered together from many virtues into a complete perfection.

And in the place of the eye we set faith;

as in the place of the mouth, the word that is uttered in speech, and the rest in due proportion.

Yet, in order that beauty may come upon the soul and a power capable of accomplishing what is needful, we have need of the divine grace for this.

So then, just as above he said that 'life is in His will,' so now he exalts God through thanksgiving, saying: 'In Thy will Thou didst furnish strength to my beauty.' 'I was fair,' he says, 'according to my nature, but I became weak because, through the plotting of the serpent, I was put to death by the transgression.'

'Strength'—that is, the strength that is effective in doing what is needful.

Every soul, then, is fair which is beheld in the due proportion of its own powers;

since the beauty of a body too is the due proportion of its members.

And he who perceives his own virtue sends up this thanksgiving voice.

We must therefore take forethought for beauty, so that the bridegroom Word, receiving us, may say:

'Thou art all fair, my neighbour, and there is no blemish in thee.' 'Shall the dust give thanks to Thee? or shall it declare Thy truth?'

For those who have once died shall cease—perhaps even from giving glory—and can add absolutely nothing to what they have wrought, but rather remain in the state in which they were overtaken, and await the time of the universal judgement.

Therefore the living, who still have the power to do good, whenever they fare well, will bless Thee, even as I do.

'I wish to learn what benefit there is, either to me or to others, from my blood; or what more there will be from my going down into corruption?' PSALM 30.

'let me never be put to shame.'

It is the voice of one being tempted, yet not yet cowering, that is, not yet brought down to unmanliness, but rather anxiously watching lest somehow he become inferior to the one persecuting him.

'In Thee,' he says, 'have I hoped'; for if Thou dost not help, useless is any covering for salvation.

Blessed, then, is he who has removed himself from every hope in the things of this world, and holds God alone as his hope.

For as 'cursed is the man who has his hope upon man,' so 'blessed is he who is supported upon the Lord.'

For hope in God does not admit of any divided allegiance;

nor does the Lord consent to supply His help entire to the one who at one time has hoped in riches and human glory and worldly power, and at another puts Him forward as his hope;

'let me never be put to shame.' 'I have been shamed,' he says, 'having sinned; but I beseech Thee that the shame may not remain upon me for long, on account of the trust that has arisen in me toward Thee.'

'Look not, then, upon my sin, but upon the lawlessness of those who persecute me.'

wherefore let him supplicate never to fall from this.

And he who has hoped to attain the end laid up for the saints knows that he shall never be put to shame.

'In Thy righteousness deliver me, and rescue me.'

That is, 'In Christ deliver me from the captivity of the devil, and I shall be rescued from the punishment in Gehenna.'

For He has become for us righteousness;

for there is no other name given among men, in which we must be saved.

'and apart from Me you can do no good thing. And for the sake of Thy name, Thou wilt guide me and nourish me.'

These things too follow upon the contemplation that precedes them.

For having named the God of all things his stronghold and refuge, he makes it clear by adding that for the sake of His name—that is, of His glory—He guides and nourishes those who have become His own out of a sincere mind and steadfast love, and who have chosen to think and to do the things that please Him.

And exceedingly well is it said, 'Thou wilt guide me and nourish me'; for virtue is not brought to perfection otherwise than through two things—I mean, knowledge and spiritual strength.

deeming himself worthy to obtain it, yet for the sake of the divine name.

'Into Thy hands I will commit my spirit.'

And in respect of the mind, lying in wait for his soul, they sought to seize him in sin;

for many are the snares of this life, even to the very last breath.

As one warred upon, therefore, in respect of his soul—for the saints have little care for the body—and fearing to be wounded by the deceivers, he commits his spirit to God, calling His providential powers 'hands.'

This present saying the Saviour too used when He was nailed upon the Cross.

Now 'spirit'—at one time Scripture calls the mind by this name;

as when the Apostle says concerning the virgin:

'That she may be holy in spirit and in body.' At another time it means the soul, as in James: 'Just as the body without the spirit is dead.' And at another time it means the conscience that is joined with the soul, as in: 'Who knows the things of a man, except the spirit that is in him?' But the passage before us may be understood according to all three ways.

'Thou hast set my feet in a spacious place.'

If, then, the 'spacious place' is the same as the broad way, which is love of pleasure;

the righteous one gives thanks because, while dwelling in the earthly place, in which, on account of the vices that lurk within, living is perilous, he has obtained a firm standing so as not to be carried hither and thither by the passions.

But if he speaks of the 'spacious place' as something praiseworthy, he confesses his thanks that, though afflicted, he is not straitened, being enlarged and enduring patiently in his toils.

'Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am afflicted.'

For perhaps someone will say: 'How is it that he who says his own feet stand in a spacious place here says that he is afflicted, as though he had fallen into forgetfulness of what he said?' What then shall we say? He is indeed aware of the grace that comes through Christ, and has marvelled at the manner of the help;

but as one who has not yet, as it were, obtained it, he recalls the accounts and remembers the evils that were before the grace, so that He who saved may be marvelled at all the more greatly.

And what the affliction is, he expresses more at length.

'Beyond all my enemies I have become a reproach,' and so forth.

And even if it be taken as referring to the one who makes confession in the psalm, both the words before these and those now present set forth his great affliction.

'For I have become,' he says, 'a reproach among my enemies,' as one who cuts himself to pieces in vain, and 'a terror to my acquaintances and neighbors,' who feared, I suppose, that I might even perish because of the misery visible in my confession before God, and because of the excess of the repentance I displayed;

worn down with sackcloth and ashes, weeping night and day, and consumed by such grievous toils.

And those who beheld me fled far from me, having despaired of my salvation as of one already become a corpse;

perhaps saying that I was going mad, and that I had no desire at all to go on living.

So that they even consigned my affairs to oblivion, and supposed that I was a useless and ruined vessel.

For as they fled, I passed into oblivion, just like a dead man indeed.

And I seemed to be cast away, like the most dishonorable of vessels, worth nothing, and for this reason no longer sought after.

'I have been forgotten as a dead man, out of mind.'