Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 9/24

For, as I said, certain of the Pharisees, coming to Christ the Saviour of us all and clothing themselves with a reputation for a love of learning, feigned to speak well of Him, and brought to Him most gentle words — not blessing Him in truth, but that they might ensnare Him and catch something from His mouth, according to what is written;

but they were confuted, when Christ said:

'Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites?' 'You have seen it, O Lord; do not keep silence.'

'O Lord, do not depart from me.'

He asks from the Father that a movement be made against those who had committed outrage upon Him.

And He all but solemnly protests, saying:

'You have seen, O Lord; do not keep silence.' For He wishes that God and the Father should no longer bear patiently with them, but should as it were rise up against them, and, drawing in His long-suffering, exact from them the penalties for the things unholily committed against Him.

And He says these things though not being Himself inactive;

for neither does the Father judge anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.

And in saying 'Do not depart from me,' He shows plainly that it is a very great provision toward salvation to have present and shielding one, and one alone — the God of all.

For those who have obtained a participation in Him will in every way and altogether prevail over their enemies, and will nobly beat back the assaults of those who war against them, and will never be destroyed, once they have come to be under His protection.

'Judge me, O Lord, according to your righteousness.'

God and the Father pronounced a holy judgment concerning the Son;

for He did not permit those who had impiously assailed Him to make their attempts against Him unceasingly, but rather quenched their laughter.

As a righteous judgment He asks that which is most befitting to the Father's righteousness: that those who killed Him should not be permitted to revel in their spitefulness against Him, nor to gloat over Him who had suffered, and this to the uttermost.

'Let them not say in their hearts:'

'Aha, aha, so would our soul have it.'

'Aha, aha, so would our soul have it.' For if Christ had remained merely in being crucified and dying, those who slew Him might with some reason have said this;

'Aha, aha, so would our soul have it,' and moreover this: 'We have swallowed him up.' But since they themselves have fallen into every evil, their whole land being burned down and war consuming those within it;

while He who suffered is glorified, God the Father saying to Him:

'Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession'; and furthermore this:

'thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.' The arrogance of the Jews has fallen, their pride has been brought down to the ground, and they did not exult over Him, nor indeed had they strength to say:

'We have swallowed him up.' 'Let those who desire my righteousness rejoice and be glad.'

) No less does the force of these words extend to every single one who desires His righteousness, and who love the peace that is with Him;

to whom He wills that both exultation and gladness be given, supplied, that is, through Him from God the Father.

For it is written concerning every righteous man:

'For upon their head shall be praise, and gladness shall lay hold of them.' Yet what sort of righteousness this is, of which the psalm now speaks, must be inquired into.

For the Law spoken to the ancients through angels, with the all-wise Moses mediating, seemed to be a teacher of righteousness to us, yet not of the more perfect righteousness.

Therefore also the divinely-inspired Paul says that it is not blameless, being a figure of a second righteousness, namely that which is in Christ, which is brought in through the evangelical ordinances and is most perfect.

This righteousness, then, let those who desire it rejoice, he says, and be glad.

'Those who desire the peace of His servant.'

) If any of those of the blood of Israel should honour the peace that is with Him, these, having left behind the figures and the shadows in the Law, have passed over into the truth, which is righteousness.

This the most holy Paul teaches, saying:

'We are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles;

yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified in Him.' But if perhaps those called through faith should be understood as being of the Gentiles, they too have embraced the peace toward our Lord Jesus Christ—so he says—having leaped over the deceit that separated from Him, and having dissolved the enmity, and having removed from the midst that which intervened, to whom also the all-wise Paul addressed himself, saying:

'And my tongue shall meditate on thy righteousness, all the day long thy praise.'

) Behold for me again in these words the person of humanity being most excellently formed in Christ.

For since He became as we are, on this account also, quite fittingly, as one who has entered into the measures befitting a servant, He promises to fulfil human righteousness.

And the work of the righteousness that pertains to us is to make our meditation—and this continually—upon the doxology that befits God and is owed to Him.

Christ promises also to bring up to the Father, as a kind of spiritual sacrifice, the doxology, His praise throughout every day.

And indeed to those of the blood of Israel, if they chose to render thank-offerings, the shadow of the Law commanded the sacrifice of oxen, or perhaps the slaughter of sheep, or the offering of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and wafers and fine flour mingled with oil;

but in Christ it was not fitting that the figures should be seen to hold sway.

) And thus, in a more historical sense; but in a loftier sense the psalm contains an accusation of the pride of the people of the Jews, and a refutation of their wickedness, and moreover a hymning of the righteous judgments by which the Lord saved that which is under heaven;

and in addition to these, a thanksgiving to the Father for those benefits He bestowed through the Son;

and upon all these, a prayer securing against falling into pride.

Now as to what 'unto the end' means, it has been said many times, and to repeat the same thing is perhaps tiresome.

For God said concerning him to Samuel:

for the force of it contains a censure of those who have wholly inclined toward transgression,

then it crowns the serenity of God with the praises that befit it, and renders lovers of the great bounty that comes from Him those who serve Him single-mindedly and have dedicated to Him a life proper to Him.

And toward the end, it makes plain the things that shall befall the lawless;

driving from every side both himself and those who will encounter him toward a holy and unprofaned life.

And he begins the prayer thus.

'The transgressor says within himself that he will sin;

there is no fear of God before his eyes.'

) That is, he supposes that no one sees his counsels;

and once he has set his purpose upon transgressing, he places the fear of God outside his eyes.

And we call transgressor the one who has utterly renounced the divine laws, so as not even to be willing that they exist, and who lives a life altogether insolent and abandoned, running as it were irreversibly toward the diving-board of Hades and toward the snare of death.

The sacred Scripture makes mention somewhere of those accustomed to live thus, and speaks concerning each one so:

'Depart from me, I do not wish to know thy ways.' Such a one, it says, has been blinded, and with the eyes of his understanding does not see the fear of God, through which there would arise both an ardent longing for good works and a certain irresistible and unassailable eagerness toward the necessity of living splendidly.

For those who are sick with the fearlessness of God do not shrink from any form of wickedness;

yet often through fear or shame, being hindered by their neighbour, they conceal it, unable to bring it forth.

'Because he has acted deceitfully before Him.'

He assigns another cause of the sickness just now spoken of by us.

'For he has not walked,' he says, 'with truth in the eyes of God.'

For this, 'He has acted deceitfully,' would signify, I suppose.

And it very often follows for those accustomed to transgress, both to wish to have some reputation of equity in the eyes of men, and to feign that they are good, while working deceit as it were and guile, not seeking to be seen as what they truly are, but rather stealthily filching the reputation of equity.

And one might see such a man even in the very things whereby he is ashamed to seem to be evil, thereby marking out the joylessness of his own life.

For if he knows that sin adorns, how does he account it a thing to be fled from? But if he blushes at his own ways, he casts a vote against himself in the charges of transgression.

'Behold truly an Israelite, in whom is no guile.' 'That he might find out his iniquity and hate it.'

) If he had the fear of God before his eyes, he would have found out his own iniquity and hated it, so as both to depart from the inclination toward base things, and to shift his mooring toward the working of good, and, as it were from an abyss of evils, to be able to be brought up toward a good and virtue-loving disposition and life.

'He did not wish to understand how to do good.'

) It is a very great thing toward the weight of accusation, not even to endure to learn in what manner one might be kind and a worker of good;

and it would be a clear demonstration of having slipped down to the lowest bottom of baseness, not even to be willing, so to speak, to touch with the tip of one's finger the sacred lessons, through which a man might gather up within himself the knowledge that carries us up to all the noblest things.

Uninstructed, then, is the transgressor, and altogether without share in the lessons that lead to salvation and life.

'The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.'

And he chatters idly in this way and everywhere makes his speech counterfeit, so that it is seen to be full of both iniquity and deceit;

of iniquity, as in the case of the Jews, on account of the insults which they brought upon Christ;

and of deceit, because, wishing to ensnare Him, they approached with fair words.

'He devised iniquity upon his bed.'

) For those who yield to the sacred laws, who are accustomed to sweat over boasts befitting holiness, who live the glorious and blameless life, honour the Saviour of all with the fitting doxologies;

'For at midnight,' he says, 'I rose to give thanks unto thee for the judgments of thy righteousness'—that is, encountering the divine Scriptures, they fill their own mind with every spiritual fragrance, and busy themselves about the paths that lead to all good things, and search out minutely in what manner they might become better than themselves, running toward the knowledge of equity together with holiness-befitting splendour.

But the base and lawless spend the time of quietness upon wickedness, and, defiling their own heart with schemings toward every sort of base thing, bring forth the fruit of their outlandish thoughts almost as soon as the day dawns upon them;

for they stand ready upon a way that is not good.

'He stood upon every way that is not good.'

) Their mind advances so far in baseness as never even to feel disgust at wickedness.

For those accustomed to transgress have not become haters of outlandish things;

For they would not have done these things, being those who are said to hate.

O Lord, Thy mercy is in the heaven, and Thy truth reaches unto the clouds.

But some, hearing the words 'Thy truth reaches unto the clouds,' and being deceived thereby, declared that the things beneath the moon are without providence.

Yet in this manner some, fleeing the grossness of the literal sense, ascend to figurative interpretation, calling the heavens the angels who are in the heavens, the clouds the prophets, the mountains of God the rational and lofty powers, or men who have been lifted on high by virtue.

But in the present passage such things would not be understood as fitting to the occasion.

For the mercy of God is not in the holy angels alone, nor does the righteousness of God come to pass only in those who have reached a height by virtue; rather, the grace of the divine gentleness is extended unto all men.

But he says that the mercy of God is in the heaven, and that His truth has been raised as high as the clouds, and that His righteousness resembles even the mountains, so that through the things named we may understand what is lofty, exalted, and transcendent.

For what is loftier than heaven and clouds and mountains? And what he sets forth is of this sort:

The merciful, he says, and true and righteous One knows not only how to have compassion, but also, as the true One, He hates those who harbour deceit in their mind and are nurtured in guile.

And as one possessing righteousness—which contends with the exceedingly lofty mountains—He will assuredly bring to the good the distribution of gifts fitting for them, but to the wicked in turn a penalty of equal weight.

Men and beasts shalt Thou save, O Lord.

And here too there is something similar to Paul's saying;

for since he was about to relate the salvation of the two peoples—who are also signified by the 'men' and the 'beasts,' by 'men' those of Israel as instructed from the Law and understanding the things that matter, and by 'beasts' those of the Gentiles as more irrational.

For those of the Jews, having been taught the mystery through the Law and the prophets, fell away;

but those of the Gentiles, who had never even heard, were taken up beforehand.

Thy judgments are a great deep, that is, altogether incomprehensible and past finding out;

for to choose to pry busily into the things beyond the human mind is perilous and hurtful.

Seek not the things too deep for thee; and again:

Be not over-wise, lest thou be confounded.

Here again one may behold the surpassing greatness of God's serenity and the incomparable excellence of His gentleness.

not to men only, but indeed also to the irrational animals themselves.

For He said somewhere also to the divine Jonah:

Thou hadst pity on the gourd, for which thou didst not labour, neither didst thou toil, which came up in a night and perished in a night;

and shall not I spare Nineveh, that great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of men, who cannot discern their right hand from their left, and much cattle? And He is marvelled at also through the lyre of the psalmist, as He who makes the grass to spring up for the cattle and green herb for the service of men.

Yea indeed, when He appointed the law concerning the Sabbath and the utter necessity of doing no work at all, making plain the reason, He says: That thy manservant may rest, and thy maidservant, and thine ox, and all thy cattle.

But if it seems in any way to be at variance with what has been said, that which was uttered through the voice of Paul—

How hast Thou multiplied Thy mercy, O God!

When the Word, being God, shone forth upon those on the earth in the likeness of men, and endured death for the salvation of all—death, that is, according to the flesh—then also was the mercy of God multiplied.

For no longer did He merely redeem Israel, as of old through Moses, but the grace of salvation has been extended unto all men, gathering them as with a net through faith unto the knowledge of the truth and of Him who is God by nature, and drawing them near through sanctification unto God and the Father.

In the shelter of Thy wings shall they hope.

We have therefore come to be under wings, that is, under the shelter that is in Christ, so that we may say the words in the Song of Songs:

In His shadow I desired, and I sat down. And the Saviour Himself somewhere says:

I am like a spreading juniper. They have indeed come to be under His wings.

The mercy also has been multiplied, according to the manners we have just now spoken of.

In Thy light shall we see light.

If the Son is Light from the Light of the Father, when was His light ever not in the Father? For just as to give light is inseparable from fire, so also is the light begotten from Him inseparable from the Father.

Extend Thy mercy to them that know Thee.

He lifts up a prayer on behalf of those who love the Lord and who have come to know His manifestation.

For whom it would befit to be in every good thing and to delight in the gifts that come from Him;

for those who know Him, then, he entreats that mercy be extended;

but for those upright in heart, His righteousness, according to which the things deserved shall be apportioned to them.

Yet the second would not be others beside the first;

that is, the upright are not other than those who know Him.

For it follows upon the knowledge that comes from God that one also has an upright mind, that is, one in no way perverted.

Those who have knowledge alone, that is, faith, are justified and saved by mercy;

but those who also have uprightness in their deeds receive the crown of righteousness, that is, of the holy verdict.

Let not the foot of pride come to me.

He asks to be outside of the passion.

While Thou extendest Thy mercy to me who know Thee, and reachest forth Thy righteousness, that is, the holy verdict, may I never slip down into any crookedness of thoughts, so as to choose to think proudly and to walk in arrogance, and to tread that path so perilously set.

Nor let an unseemly deed move me from my standing before Thee.

And let not the hand of the sinner shake me.

The hand of the sinner is diabolical activity;

the hand of the sinner is that of the covetous man;

the hand of the sinner is that of him who gives gifts unto corruption and receives them;

the hand of the sinner is that of the priest who brings the unworthy to the altar.

That we be not shaken by this hand, that is, not turned aside, let us also pray;

for the vigilant must be steadfast and unshaken in righteousness, even though others transgress the law.

There are fallen all the workers of iniquity.

(Of Cyril and Chrysostom.) He said 'there' in the sense of 'from this thing,' that is, from pride;

'where,' so that the meaning is of this sort:

May I not be there where those who are shaken fall, and having fallen are cast out, and having been cast out are no longer able to return.

Or 'there,' that is, in the life to come, according to the saying:

There shall be weeping. They were cast out, and shall not be able to stand.

which indeed Israel according to the flesh has suffered; for it committed intolerable outrage against Christ, the Saviour of all.

This psalm is ethical, containing healing instruction for our soul, introducing to the new people abstinence from evil deeds and the practice of good ones, persuading by both—by the hope laid up for the good and by the punishment reserved for the wicked.

And he does this at a fitting time;

for in the preceding psalm there was a most vehement denunciation of every lawless man;

but in the present one he brings us admonition, drawing us away from doing the same as those men, and raising us up toward what is better.

For I would not say that the temporary prosperity of the evildoers is in any way worthy of emulation by those who wish to live in a manner befitting holiness.

But one ought rather to consider to what an end it will come for them, to have chosen to live wickedly and to be out of tune with God. Be not envious of evildoers, neither be thou envious of them that work iniquity.

And again, do not imitate or call blessed such men when you see them flourishing; for they bloom but for a little while, and then wither away.

For blooming only for a short season, they are dried up.

What, then, is there to envy in those who, having flourished for a little while, are tomorrow cast into the furnace, as the Saviour says? For I would by no means declare the transitory prosperity of evildoers to be in any way worthy of envy for those who desire to live in a manner befitting holiness.

Rather, one ought to consider to what sort of end it will come for those who have chosen to live wickedly and to be out of tune with God.

Therefore do not envy such men, he says, nor be provoked to imitate those who love sin.

Even though they may seem to possess the pleasures of this present life, and even if you see the ungodly prospering, flee from becoming like them, looking to the things that are to come.

For their affairs will not remain in this state forever.

For like grass they shall soon be dried up.

He exhorts us to flee wickedness, which is the falling away from all good, sketching out its end.

What is so quick to wither as the grass of the field and the nature of a garden herb? For after blooming but briefly, such things fade away.

So too, somewhere, he speaks concerning those who are splendid in the world:

Let them be like the grass upon the housetops.

For the grasses that spring up on housetops, having no root, are both barren and, for this very reason, all the readier to wither.

One ought not, then, to envy these things, some of which are cast away in dishonour, while others are delivered to the fire, having ceased from their transitory prime, like the herbs of green grass, whose use lies in their being green.

For to these the prosperity of men bears likeness, on account of its rottenness and its transitoriness;

and because the fire of Gehenna awaits it.

But it is a thing befitting holiness to envy those whom the perpetual glory from God attends, vying with the splendour of their noble deeds.

Hope in the Lord, and do good, and dwell in the land.

things kept and treasured up with God.

Or else he has set 'dwell' in place of 'you shall dwell.'

And by 'that land' he clearly means the one promised to the meek, in which, once you have come to be, you shall be shepherded, he says, upon its riches.

And the riches of the land of the meek—that is, of the city above in the heavens—is the abundant provision of divine graces, and the possession of perfect fullness in these things.

Perhaps he likens the transitory life to a tent, and wills that we should use it as a tent along the way, ruling over it rather than being ruled by it, and using it for what is profitable rather than for pleasures;

for in this way we shall be shepherded under the good Shepherd.

If there be any riches among men, it is that of the divine doctrines; and gathering the fruit of this, we may say:

The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing. Delight yourself in the Lord.

And those who delight themselves in Christ, and hold their mind full of the graces that come from Him, when His good will is brought to fulfilment, show forth to God their own way—that is, the manner of their conduct—naked and unclothed.

Delight, therefore, as I have said, is to have dwelling within one the Word of God who gives life to all things, the bread of life that came down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Having Him within themselves, they shall by all means receive the requests of their own heart, and then they will be able also to reveal to Him their way.

For the God of all watches over the holy conduct of those who revere Him, but turns away from those who have chosen not to live rightly. Reveal your way to the Lord, and hope in Him, and so forth.

Be, he says, made manifest in walking the way that is pleasing to Him—that is, showing your own conduct to God naked and unclothed.

And what will He Himself do? In the age to come He will make it manifest;

and He will render it, as it were, conspicuous, not permitting the beauty of your good life to remain hidden.

For your righteousness shall be clear to all, shining forth like light, like the light of noonday;

and 'noon' is the name given to the very midmost point of the day;

and He will judge you to be worthy of the light there.

Submit to the Lord, and make supplication to Him.

He Himself will show you to be worthy of the light in the age to come; but you, here, submit to Him.

And each of these two things would befit, above all, the supplications of the saints and those accustomed to practise goodness.

For in submitting to the Lord is understood the fulfilment of every commandment;

for he who delights in the Master's will, and does not accept enduring the reproach of disobedience, yields to His laws and, tender and docile, bows his neck beneath them.

And in making supplication to Him consists the giving of glory, and the offering up of well-ordered songs, with prayer interwoven, and as it were a kind of spiritual incense, the brightness of good works being wafted together as a sweet savour before God.

By 'submission,' then, he here means the withdrawal from evils;

for no one who sins has submitted to the Lord.

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath.

The precept is profitable, and most fitting for those who are submitted to God.

For it is needful, he says, that they be gentle and well-composed, holding tranquillity in their mind, ever loving the calm that comes from long-suffering, and departing from the surging waves of anger.

For it is written that anger destroys even the prudent.

And a wrathful man is unseemly. For of the passions, some do not fall upon many, but even ordinary men have cast them off as they advance in progress;

but this defiling passion, anger, inflames even those who seem to be prudent;

and it troubles, not some men while sparing others, but I would venture to say all men, except the perfect—if indeed anyone perfect be found.

Do not be jealous so as to do evil, for those who do evil shall be utterly destroyed.

It is profitable for lovers of learning that the words which bring benefit concerning the same matters should be lodged in the mind again and again.

This is precisely what the Psalmist now does, turning over and over, up and down, this wise and worthy-to-be-heard saying;

I mean the saying, Do not be jealous so as to do evil, that you may not perish root and branch from the earth;

for indeed those who do evil shall be utterly destroyed in the age—clearly the age to come.

And to be utterly destroyed is to fall away from God.

Wickedness is a peculiar evil, distinct from the other sins;

wherefore the Scripture admirably called the sinner one thing and the wicked man another:

Break the arm of the sinner and the wicked man. And certain writers have not ignobly defined wickedness as the voluntary doing of evil;

for it is one thing to do evil in ignorance and as though overcome, and another to will this very thing, to do evil deliberately;

which is indeed wickedness, on account of which the devil too is called wicked.

But those who wait for the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

Since we are somehow accustomed always to withdraw from evils, being driven toward the better by the fear of punishment, and to be urged, by longing for the graces that come from God, toward living lawfully—for this reason the Psalmist, having shown the ruinous end of evildoers, adds that those who wait for the Lord—that is, those who by steadfastness and endurance achieve a life of good repute—shall inherit the earth;

which is not a portion of this earth that has come under the curse, which he who tills it eats in sorrows all the days of his life, but that earth which has been prepared for the saints.

For their inheritance is the fair city of the saints, holy and above.

For there they shall be together with the choirs of angels, ceaselessly giving glory to the God who bestowed the inheritance and became for them the provider of graces surpassing speech.

And just as the Saviour is wisdom, word, peace, and righteousness, so also He is endurance.

And now, what is my endurance? Is it not the Lord? From whom it is possible to draw and to receive all things which, according to the Scriptures, Christ is said to be.

For as by participation in Him we become righteous and wise and are at peace, so also by participation in Him we endure.

Be still, therefore, waiting patiently and looking for God, and not being troubled by present things.

And yet a little while, and the sinner shall not be.

Yet a little while, and you shall not see the sinner existing;

for he shall be overtaken by the end of his life, and together with his flesh he shall barter away all those good things which he seemed to have possessed.

For very brief indeed is the life of man, and the span of the life in the body is contracted and short.

Therefore neither shall he himself, who has been overtaken by the end of his life, behold his own place;

for he shall assuredly pass over into Hades, nor shall those still living recognize his place any longer.

Those who are minded toward worldly things, and have bound their own mind to the turmoil of the present life, and are entangled in the snares of accursed love of the flesh, are always somehow enraged against those who lead a holy and choice life, and they reckon the lover of righteousness to be an enemy.

But the meek shall inherit the earth.