Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 8/24

None of those who live according to the flesh, but if there be anyone among the spiritual and one approved as a lover of that admirable life, he will say:

In the Lord shall my soul be praised. For those who have a mind that is merely animal and earthly have their glory in their shame. For the work is not of him who wills, but the grace is of Him who directs aright.

Let the meek hear and be glad.

Let the meek be glad over the words that profit the soul, and indeed let them rejoice in them.

For those who are wise in heart are lovers of wise words, and they welcome exhortations toward good things without any grudging.

Magnify the Lord with me.

He takes to himself a share of this working.

Draw near to Him, and be enlightened.

Those who wish to say anything concerning the divine and supreme Nature think or say nothing about it that is base, that is, befitting men, or otherwise resembling created and made nature, but only such things as are the more exalted on high, and are present in none of the other things.

God is sought not by place, since the Divine is not in a place, but is outside all circumscription, filling all things; but by disposition, evidently, and by the manner of one's worship.

For He is found through both practical virtue and doctrinal orthodoxy, according to the doing of judgment and righteousness. As long as anyone is walking in the ways of vileness and in the mire of the fleshly desires, he does not yet come to God;

but when he becomes a worshipper of God, and thirsts for the good, and renders his mind expert in every virtue, then he comes to God.

He exhorts those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to draw near to the Lord and to come close to the rays of His Godhead, so that, being illumined by this approach, they may take into themselves the grace of His enlightenments.

The Lord heard him.

If anyone is humble-minded, for him God opens wide the ear;

and He grants his requests most readily, so as to deliver him out of all his afflictions.

The angel of the Lord shall encamp, and so forth.

To the saints when they are tempted He sets angels who sharpen them for manly courage, and who are able to drive off the assaults of those who would take advantage of them;

for the mind of man alone would not have withstood so great an onset of enemies.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Just as the tastings of foods clearly present the sweetness of the quality that is in them together with their pleasantness, so also concerning the divine gifts mere promises do not so much interpret their power;

but if it should somehow come about that some come even to the experience of them, then indeed they will know, and that most clearly, the working of the grace that is in them.

Therefore to those who have not yet tasted of the serenity of God it must very earnestly be proclaimed:

Taste and see, that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who hopes in Him.

What then, indeed, is that which lies beyond, in the way of gentleness and lovingkindness, of Him who altogether stretches out His hand to those who love Him? For he who has placed his hope upon Him would be in every way and altogether thrice-blessed.

For it is good to hope in the Lord, he says, rather than to hope in princes, in whom there is no salvation. Frail and easily shattered is hope in man;

but the hope that is in the God of all is secure and enduring in every way and altogether.

Fear the Lord, all you His saints.

To those who are already holy and good in mind, and who know the God of all, He fittingly cries out: Fear the Lord, all you His saints. But perhaps someone will say this:

Then how, tell me, does He utter to those already sanctified the words, Fear the Lord? For is it at all possible that certain ones are saints, who do not yet have the divine fear within themselves? And then, how is this not absurd? For they first feared, and thus afterward became saints.

And the order of things requires this very argument.

What then do we say? He has here placed the word Fear in the sense of Marvel, that is, Be astounded.

Just as, of course, the prophet Habakkuk, marvelling at the dispensations of our Saviour, says, O Lord, I have heard Thy report, and was afraid;

I considered Thy works, and was amazed. The rich became poor and hungered.

and that the one who lived in luxury lacked even scanty bread.

For there is nothing secure or firm in human affairs.

Those who seek God, that is, those who love Him and are eager to follow in His footsteps and who wish to accomplish those things in which He Himself delights (and it is evident that this means every kind of virtue), would never at any time be in want of the necessities for life.

There is a rich distribution and a partaking of earthly things as well;

second, not to speak evil against the brethren;

third, to make the lips cease from all deceit;

fourth, abstinence from all evil, and the practice of good;

upon all these, to hold fast to peace;

and the practice of these things He says is life and good days.

Who is the man that desires life?

Who then, he says, is the man—that is, the rational and understanding one—who indeed also wishes to gain life unto ages without end, and to attain unceasing and long-lasting prosperity? Let him come to listen to my words, let him take up the law in simplicity, let him settle within himself the saving instruction.

For there have been prepared for the lovers of the life lived according to the law those things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not come up upon the heart of man.

Only let the one who is being taught be a doer of works.

For he who has learned, but then does none of the best things, is like poor and brackish soil, which receives seeds from the husbandmen, but brings forth absolutely nothing.

But the hearer of words who is also a doer of deeds may fittingly be likened to a fruitful and most fertile soil.

Who is the man that is heavenly-minded and wise, who desires life — not this common life which even the irrational beasts live, but that true life which is not cut short by death? And that true life is Christ.

Therefore our very way of conduct in Him is the true life.

Keep your tongue from evil.

Now to set a door upon the tongue, and not to allow the words that proceed from us to go forth unseemly, is an achievement and a good fruit of a wise and holy soul.

One must renounce, above all else, slander and false oaths, whisperings, backbitings, revilings, foul speech, idle talk, and buffoonery.

Rather one should bless and not curse, and should as it were tune the tongue to hymns of praise to God, speaking truth to one's neighbour, and restraining the lips from speaking deceit.

Turn away from evil, and do good.

Since the beginning of the taking up of good things is the withdrawal from evils, there are times when a man does no evil, yet neither does he do good.

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are toward their supplication.

The Lord watches over the righteous, and counts worthy of oversight from on high those who do His will.

And He opens wide His ear to the entreaties that come from them.

He also turns His face upon the workers of wickedness — not that He might rather benefit them through His oversight, as indeed we said in the case of the righteous, but that He might blot out from the earth the memory of them.

And by 'earth' is meant not at all that which lies beneath our feet, but rather that of which the Saviour speaks.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. For the city above is not accessible to the wicked, nor shall the inheritance of the saints be apportioned to any of those who love sin.

For there is no share for the believer with the unbeliever, according to that which is written.

Therefore, He says, the Lord watches over the righteous, evidently with a gladsome look, just as a loving father keeps watch everywhere lest somehow they stumble upon the offences of this life,

or the snares of the devil, or lest they be taken captive in his nooses.

Rather, being strengthened by the grace that is from Him, they may run through with ease every one of the excellent things.

That God most readily assents to the entreaties of those who love Him, and brings to fulfilment for them their much-desired requests, He shows clearly.

There are gifts equal in rank and equal in weight — I mean God's hearing the prayer of the righteous, and His delivering them not merely from one, but from every affliction whatsoever that may befall them.

And by this He greatly profits them.

For He establishes them in well-doing most boldly and vigorously, so that they enter upon it not carelessly, nor negligently and slothfully, but count their body worthy of the most eager zeal, and rise up to the longing that they must endure suffering for the sake of accomplishing whatever is pleasing to God. Out of all their afflictions He delivered them.

Not from one, but from every affliction of theirs did He deliver them.

For He establishes them most boldly in well-doing, rising up to the longing to endure suffering.

Here He endeavours to show that God is not absent from the saints, but rather is with them continually.

For 'I am a God who draws near,' He says.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

The workers of wickedness ever gnash their teeth against those who accomplish the evangelical life, and rage against them like wild beasts.

And Satan too incites men to heap up the afflictions of the saints; yet out of them all the Lord will deliver them.

But out of them the Lord will rescue them.

The Lord keeps all their bones.

By 'bones' He means the powers of the soul, those directed to every noble and good deed.

For just as, without the perceptible bones, the human body could not hold together, so neither could the soul of a man accomplish any of the good things, unless it has its own energies robust and in no way shattered.

In those who love sin and pleasure, and are entangled and crushed in the turmoils of the present life, in what state now are the bones of the soul? But those of the saints the Lord keeps, so that none of them suffers any shattering whatever,

whether the malignity of the devil be brought against them, or wicked men stir up against them tumults and calamities and persecutions.

'For woe to the world,' says the Saviour, 'because of offences;

for it must needs be that offences come.' And none of those who hope in Him shall go astray.

To do no wrong at all would befit none of those upon earth.

For we all stumble in many things; and, 'No one is clean from defilement, not even if his life upon the earth be but a single day.' This has been reserved for Christ alone, the Saviour of all;

for He was God in a form like ours.

Yet we too shall be outside of transgression, if we renounce the grievous and unbearable sins that lead to death.

For not every sin is unto death

(he adds, according to the voice of the holy one).

Enter not into judgement with Your servant. For he who is judged prevails, and easily gains the advantage over his accusers, showing them to be themselves guilty.

But those who wronged Christ may be understood, as I have said, as the multitudes of the Jews.

For the Father sent the Son after the servants, to ask from them the fruits of the vineyard;

but they, though they saw the heir, rendered to him evil for good. Fight against those who fight against me.

Consider then how they fought against Him, casting Him out, so far as in them lay, from being God and Son of God.

And besides this, seeing Him to be the accomplisher of stupendous miracles, they dared to disparage Him, saying, 'By Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, he casts out the demons.'

'And woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you neither enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.' They kept saying, no doubt, to the crowds concerning Him:

'Why do you listen to him?' Pour out the sword.

That He did not simply send a sword against them, but as it were poured it out like the flood of a river, we shall behold without effort, when we measure out the calamities of the Jews.

For after the cross of the Saviour, they became the work of the sword;

for they were consumed by the swords of those who burned down their cities together with their villages.

And this too the Saviour foretold to them, saying:

'When you see Jerusalem encompassed by armies, then you shall say to the mountains:

Fall upon us.' For to such a degree of wretchedness and irremediable calamity were the affairs of the Jews brought down, that it would have been far better for them to be crushed by rocks and mountains than to fall upon the savage swords of the murderers.

And that they were also shut in — that is, besieged — the account of the history concerning them will again teach us.

Therefore, He says, shut in, over against those who pursue me. Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my soul.

Those who set for the Saviour so bitter a snare, and — so far as in them lay — one from which there was no escape, as though casting Him into the nooses of death, were put to shame and confounded, when as God He shook down the might of death and raised up His own temple.

For He returned to life from the dead, and ascended to the Father and God who is in the heavens.

Then indeed, then, they were put to shame and confounded, as I have said;

and they were also turned back to the rear.

Let them be turned back to the rear.

But since they did not receive the faith, but rather from the opposite intent sought His soul, they were turned back to the rear;

for they became castaways, and, hateful to God, they fell away from intimacy with God, remained without a taste of the good things of the divine sojourn, and besides all this, every kind of irremediable calamity was brought upon them.

And that which was written concerning them was fulfilled:

'As you have done, so shall it be to you; your recompense shall be repaid upon your own head'; and again, 'Woe to the lawless one; evils according to the works of his hands shall befall him.' For to relate what things they suffered would be, I think, superfluous to those who know.

To be ashamed and confounded, and moreover to fall backward, befell also those unclean spirits themselves, and above all Satan, whose stratagems the Jews followed when they delivered up to the cross the Author of life.

One might say, I think, and not wide of the mark, that the force of the verses set before us fits the unholy heretics as aptly as could be.

Rather they were scattered, and became sojourning strangers and wayfarers, flung about in every direction.

They would then be like chaff, borne away by every wind and easily toppled.

For thus somewhere the Psalmist too speaks concerning them in another place:

'Not so the ungodly, not so; but rather like the chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the earth.' And an angel of the Lord pressing hard upon them.

And what is still more grievous than this:

For when the angel falls upon them and heaps up every affliction against them, they will lie subject to the uttermost calamities of all.

So too, we say, were the firstborn of the Egyptians destroyed;

and indeed also the hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians, when Rabshakeh let loose his blasphemous words and impiously waxed insolent against the divine majesty.

'For an angel of the Lord went out,' it says, 'and slew from the camp of the foreigners one hundred and eighty-five thousand.' Let their way become darkness.

'I have come as a light into this world.' The Jews, therefore, having disobeyed the True One and closed the eye of their own understanding, have remained in darkness.

And this the prophetic word cried aloud to us of old:

'For when they waited,' it says, 'light became darkness for them;'

having awaited the dawn, they walked at an unseasonable hour. And 'when they waited' he says in the sense of 'when they expected.'

And an angel of the Lord pursuing them.

They slip and fall, therefore, and walk in darkness, an angel of God driving them even to this.

For the rational and holy powers do not cooperate with them, as I said;

rather they set themselves against them as against those hated by Christ and driven out from intimacy with Him.

For without cause they hid destruction for me.

Having nothing to charge Him with, they descended into such perversity of thought, and indeed such audacity and unholy daring of deeds, that they even fixed for Him a snare of death and corruption.

'Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?' Now where there was no finding of sin at all, there beyond all doubt the hatred of the persecutors is utterly without pretext.

Their murderous rage has no seat or footing, that is, no occasion.

In vain they reproached my soul.

Did they not reproach His soul without cause and in vain, at one time affirming that He was a Samaritan and a wine-lover, at another saying that He had a demon and led the crowds astray, and indeed that He worked the divine signs by Beelzebul? Would not the Jews then be caught having spoken insolently against Him rashly and in vain, and having uttered iniquity against God, lifting up their horn on high, according to the word of the Psalmist?

'Let a snare come upon him which he does not know.'

For the snare which they did not know, and the calamities which they never expected would befall them, these overtook them.

For they have been cast out from leading the peoples, or rather from being their fellow-destroyers; becoming the prey of enemies they were captured, and were plundered, and what indeed of the uttermost evils did not befall them? And let the hunting-net which they hid catch them.

The hunting-net which they hid for Christ, this caught them, and they fell into their own snare.

For they were caught, as I said, subjected to the penalties, and fell beneath the net of the divine wrath;

for as the author of Proverbs says, 'Not unjustly are nets spread for winged creatures;'

'for they themselves who share in murder store up evils for themselves;'

'and the overthrow of lawless men is evil.' And again it is written:

'He who rolls a stone rolls it upon himself.' But my soul shall rejoice in the Lord.

I say that we must keep in mind the words which I spoke at the beginning of the psalm.

For I said that the person of Christ is introduced against the impiety of the Jews, all but crying out, yet not declining words befitting the affliction, and speaking in many places rather in a human than in a manner befitting God, on account of the mystery of the economy in the flesh.

For behold, behold, here too He says that He rejoices in the salvation of the Father, as one plainly saved by Him.

And we shall find the holy apostles themselves, who were also eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, and true stewards of the sacred proclamations, saying that He was raised by God and the Father, and received glory and lordship, His enemies being subjected to Him.

'All my bones shall say,' and so forth.

Whenever He says something concerning Christ in a human manner, this we seize for our own benefit.

And what then does He say? 'All my bones shall say:

Lord, Lord, who is like you?' As though He had perhaps said:

'With all my power and strength, and from the very depths of my marrow, as it were, I will make my confession;'

he ascribes to Him who rules and reigns over all things an incomparable gentleness and love for mankind.

Delivering the poor from the hand of those stronger than he.

The saying is general and true concerning all.

For him who is poor in spirit,

who is lowly in mind and has placed all his hope upon God, they oppress and plunder, leaping upon him like savage barbarians—wicked men, ministers of diabolical schemes, filled to the full with demonic madness;

and in addition to these, the very most savage multitude of the unclean spirits itself.

For they gnash their teeth at those who desire to be approved and who bend a docile neck to the divine laws.

Yet by no means does the outcome of affairs come about wholly according to what seems good to them;

for the all-powerful Word of God saves the righteous.

Unrighteous witnesses rose up against me; they questioned me about things I did not know.

Here Christ clearly makes mention of the impiety of the Jews, and draws up a catalogue of the outrages committed against Him.

For the teachers of the Jews slandered Him when they brought Him before Pilate.

For they brought in certain false witnesses;

for they said to the peoples under their hand:

'They repaid me evil.'

For while He did good, they reviled Him; while He called them to salvation, they cast stones at Him; while He admonished them with all wisdom and set them upon the paths that lead to godliness, the wretches insulted Him, and moreover plotted against Him, so as even to contrive childlessness for Him. And childlessness for my soul.

It is customary for divine Scripture to call those who are being instructed 'sons,' according to the discipleship they bear to those accustomed to initiate them into the mysteries.

And so the divinely-inspired Paul, writing to certain people, says:

'For in Christ Jesus,' he says, 'I begot you through the Gospel;' and indeed to the Galatians as well:

'My little children, for whom I again travail in birth, until Christ be formed in you.' And the disciples of the holy prophets—those who were near to them and attended upon them by disposition and by learning—were also called sons.

For that those who were allotted to lead the Jewish ranks would not permit any to be made disciples by Christ, this too would be plain from this without any labor.

'I humbled my soul with fasting.'

And of what kind the manner of mourning is, among those who are accustomed to lead the holy life aright, this verse makes exceedingly clear.

'For I humbled my soul with fasting,' he says.

And from this he straightway shows the fruit of mourning, and the profit of those holy sweat-labors. My prayer shall return into my own bosom.

'For my prayer,' he says, 'shall return into my bosom'—that is, it has not become ineffectual or unfulfilled before God, but rather acceptable, and as it were given back into my own bosom.

We are somehow accustomed to receive into our bosom the gifts offered by anyone whatsoever.

For that God accepts the supplications of the holy, how could anyone doubt? Since He plainly says at one time, 'Cry out to me and I will hearken to you;' and at another again to each of those who bring supplications:

That is: 'When I prayed, I received my petitions from God, and filled my bosom.'

This would signify that those men remained in their sin;

for they gained nothing, he says, since by the excess of their folly they made their own prayer, as it were, recoil back upon themselves.

['As a neighbour, and as a brother.']

That is to say, their mind remained unbending and without compassion toward them.

'But I,' he says, 'did not know.'

And what did I not know? Namely, the cause for which the scourges were being brought crashing down;

for having nothing, as I said, of which to accuse Him, they raged madly against Christ.

And indeed He said plainly:

'Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?' Therefore, he says, I knew no sin of my own.

'They tempted me, they mocked me with mockery.'

He who is conversant with the evangelical writings will find that the Jews dared even this against Him who called men to life — that is, plainly, against Christ.

For they heaped upon Him countless and bitter afflictions;

and in many places they came to Him, calling Him 'Teacher,' while all the while contriving snares and nooses.

For together with their own disciples they sent the Herodians, saying:

'We know that you teach the way of God in truth, and that you care for no one;

for you do not regard the face of man.'

'Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?' And at times, bringing forward questions of the Law and fashioning for themselves a pretence of a love of learning, they sought to catch something from His mouth, as it is written:

'Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites?' For it was not possible to escape the notice of Him who looks into the heart and the reins, and who knows hidden things.

That they also mocked Him is by no means hard to see from the things written concerning Him.

For the Saviour and Lord of all said:

'Amen, amen, I say to you:

he who hears my word and believes on him who sent me has eternal life'; and He added, 'He shall never see death, for ever.' But they came against Him hard and insolent, and out of exceeding great folly, not understanding what was said, resisted, saying:

'Abraham died, and the prophets died, and you say:

"If anyone hears my word, he shall never see death, for ever"? Whom do you make yourself?' [So then, at one time they tempted Him, at another they mocked Him, gnashing their teeth against Him, having their heart filled full of diabolical madness and demonic savagery.]

'But, O Lord,' he says, 'when will you look upon it?' And consider with me here again the form of the humanity, and the measure of the self-emptying, most carefully preserved;

so that once more Christ Himself might be found a pattern of gentleness;

for although able, as God, to mete out a penalty equal to the Jews' outrages, He refers the necessity of doing this to the Father, so that to us also there might rightly be spoken that word through the divinely-inspired Paul:

'Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give place to wrath.' 'Restore my soul from their malice.'

Having everywhere made mention of the impiety of the Jews, and having said very many things concerning the saving Passion, he has of necessity introduced, through the sense of what lies before us, also the discourse concerning the resurrection from the dead in His case.

For by the grace of God He tasted death for every man, according to what is written.

Yet He did not remain held fast by death.

Therefore, even if the Father is said to have restored Him, we affirm that this too was accomplished in the Son;

for He is the wisdom of God and the power of the Father.

'My only-begotten from the lions.'

By 'lions' he means either the wicked and adverse powers, which all but roared aloud against Christ;

or perhaps also the very teachers of the Jews.

For thus does He make mention of them, saying through the voice of Isaiah:

'My inheritance became to me as a lion in a forest;

it uttered its voice against me;

therefore I hated it.' And He calls His own soul 'only-begotten,' setting 'only-begotten' in place of 'beloved';

for the only child among children is somehow always held in the greatest love.

'I will give thanks to you in a great Church; in a mighty people I will praise you.'

In these words He names as the 'great Church' that which is gathered from the nations;

and very fittingly so, as one abounding in a countless multitude, and in this respect also surpassing the nation of the Jews.

For the spiritual worship is in superiority over that which is under the Law, and the truth over the things in shadows;

therefore the word 'great' might reasonably be understood both according to multitude and, over and above this, according to virtue.

And it is called a 'weighty people,' inasmuch as it has been rid of Jewish levity, and does not have that easy proneness to be swayed, nor is it carried about by every wind, but rather stands firm, and keeps its steadfastness unshaken in faith;

therefore they endured even the contest unto blood, bearing witness to Christ, and have kept that which is written:

'Strive for the truth even unto death.' 'Let not those who unjustly are my enemies rejoice over me.'

'Those who hate me without cause, and wink with their eyes.'

For it was on no ground that they persecuted the Lord — that is, having no occasion at all against Him for which those who winked with their eyes ought to have been seen to hate Him.

For when they fell in with Him, as I said, calling Him 'Teacher' and saying that He taught the way of God in truth, they were conversing with one another, altogether in mockery no doubt, and betraying their hypocrisy, by way of excuse for not seeming to say anything true concerning Him — because they were willing to call Him 'Teacher.'

'Because to me indeed they spoke peaceable words.'