Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 15/40

As regards the literal sense, a brother may be one of the same lineage and of the same father, while the son of one's mother is one born of the same womb, even if he should be of another father.

He, therefore, who is so disposed toward brothers, whom else will he be able to love? But as regards the deeper meaning:

since the discourse is addressed to a Jew who offers to God burnt offerings and sacrifices in a sensible manner, it must be said that this is spoken in the person of God to him: 'Sitting there, O you, concerning the letter of the Law, you speak against your brother who is minded and lives according to the spirit of the Law;'

and know that this one is also the son of your mother;

for from the same purpose were conceived both the spirit and the letter of the Law.

And you cause the son of your mother to stumble, setting as an offense and a stumbling block the manner of life that is according to the shadow and to the fleshly circumcision.

'These things you did, and I kept silence.'

God's silence is said to be his long-suffering toward sinners;

for whenever he punishes them at the very time, he is not silent, but pronounces against them what they must suffer.

This is also the sense of the saying, 'I have kept silence from of old; shall I also always keep silence and forbear? says the Lord.'

To the one being reproved, therefore, he says:

'These things you did'—the sins mentioned before—'and I kept silence,' through my silence and long-suffering granting from afar a place for repentance;

and whereas you ought to have profited from such silence, you on the contrary supposed lawlessness in addition to the evils you already had, according to which you think me to be like yourself;

for you thought that I, rejoicing in the things you do, would not proceed against you.

You who through sloth have taken on forgetfulness of God, receive understanding of the things spoken, taking note that even though I am long-suffering toward sins, I do not rejoice, nor do I do this as one who is wicked, but out of goodness and innate kindness I hold out, through deferring the punishment, an occasion for repentance.

For if you will not consent to understand, the lawless one—or lawlessness—seizes you, and there is none to deliver;

for God will deliver those who are involved in evils but have repented.

Indeed, those who make confession do so over things that have ceased and are no longer being enacted, saying [their confession];

for it is not possible to confess these things while one is still practicing them.

That is, the [sacrifice] of praise, hymning and speaking rightly of God, glorifies him;

for the sensible [sacrifice] rather dishonors him, introducing God as needy and requiring the savor of burnt fat.

Not here, in the sensible worship, but there, in the praise that consists in truth, is the way which God shows, illuminating his salvation—the only-begotten Son, who is Saviour—or salvation itself;

for the salvation of God signifies at one time salvation, and at another time the Saviour Christ.

But take heed lest from this an occasion arise for treading down David;

for God having justified, there is none who condemns.

And with reference to this—that he numbered the people contrary to the will of God—yet in such a way that he did not persist in the sin.

For being so great and so eminent a king, when reproved for that in which he had sinned by a man of private station, he not only was not angered, but even reviled himself, so that the prophet who reproved him said:

'And the Lord has put away your sin.'

For the saying, 'And the Lord too showed it,' makes clear that David himself, by the most vehement repentance, brought back and undid his sin.

We shall say, then, that other people fall down when they sin, but the saints, running the course of salvation, if ever, being human, through inattention they should stumble, do not fall down but persevere in the course; so that, since the course remains uninterrupted, they seem not to have stumbled.

And for many other beneficial reasons the sins of the saints were recorded, of which this is one.

For since, when called to imitate those who possessed surpassing virtue, people shrank back and made the excuse that the saints were of a divine portion and incapable of sin, while they themselves, not being such, were powerless to imitate saints so great;

hence Providence granted that an occasion of sin should come to pass concerning them, so that, just as they are teachers of virtue, so too they might be teachers of repentance, when those being instructed then succeed in this once they have acted.

And perhaps too these men, so great as they were, having reached the summit of virtue, seemed to have arrived at this by their own power and not by the co-working of God.

So that they might not fall into self-conceit, divine grace for a little while looked away, so that, having slipped, they might seek the helper of their own weakness, having come to a perception of it.

And this psalm has been recorded as the fiftieth not without purpose.

For the number has a harmony with mercy and remission, since, if the writing Spirit had preserved the sequence of the history, it would have set before this one the fifty-first and the fifty-second and those following in order.

For the fifty-first has a title containing the slander of Doeg the Syrian;

and this history is prior to David's kingship.

And that of the fifty-third contains the slander of the Ziphites to Saul concerning David, as being hidden among them;

and this narrative too took place before David's kingship, whereas the union with Bathsheba took place when David was reigning.

If, then, the sequence of the history had been preserved, this psalm would not even have been ranked as the fiftieth after those.

And that the number has an analogy with mercy: the Saviour, teaching about remission, introduced debtors liable for fifty and for five hundred denarii, remission being granted to both because of the fifty and its kindred number that was owed;

and this is the five hundredth.

Indeed, the Passover, when the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world has been slain, and when he who accomplished the remission has risen from the dead, we the people pass fifty days rejoicing, being counted worthy of the fiftieth day of the outpouring of the Spirit.

And what is called among the Hebrews the Jubilee is the festal year that comes every fifty years, in which the remission of debts and the liberations of the Hebrews and the restorations of possessions are confirmed;

hence it is fitting also that David's psalm concerning repentance be ranked as the fiftieth.

And it is composed of seven sevens and a unit, so as to be a number of a week of weeks.

It was fitting, then, that in a set of weeks he who casts off the burden and the work of sin should come to be.

He who repents vehemently and loves the fruits befitting repentance asks also that the great mercy from God may come upon him, since repentance without God's mercy does not suffice, nor does God's mercy suffice without the change of mind that lies within our power, for salvation.

Just as dyes hard to wash out become faded not by one washing but by many, so too the great transgressions are wiped away by the many compassions of God.

Lawlessness is constituted [by transgression against nature], but by transgression of the law sin is constituted;

yet in either case he deems God worthy—God who is able to wash it away and cleanse it—to wash it out and cleanse it from the aforementioned settled disposition.

But he who holds before him the sin once committed would not endure to commit another;

for it is by forgetting the former ones that we commit others.

In so far as being a king, he was not subject to human law; hence he sinned against none of the lawgivers, nor did he do the evil in the sight of any of them;

but since, besides being a king, he wishes also to be god-fearing, he was subject to the law of God;

therefore he also sinned against God alone, and did the evil in his sight.

Since God said that the mind of human beings is more inclined toward evil things, and the saying 'There is no one who will not sin,' even the perfect themselves being sinners, God is justified in his own words, in which he said that all had turned aside and together become worthless;

and by this he also prevails when he is judged against human beings, demonstrating them to be sinners.

In harmony with these is the saying, 'If we say, We have not sinned, we make him a liar;'

for if he declared, against all who are inclined toward sin, then he who boasts of sinlessness, so far as concerns himself, declares God to be a liar.

He who has been trained in the sophistic discipline for the hunting of truth, having come to know its greatness, obtained a perfect love toward it;

for those who have exercised themselves in falsehoods, having become more keen-sighted, behold the wonderful beauty of truth—such as are Moses and Daniel.

For after being tried by sophistic arguments, having ascended to true wisdom itself, they obtained a testimony from God as being perfect sages, God having revealed to them the hidden and secret things of his wisdom, so that nothing was any longer obscure or overshadowed for them.

Attaining this same disposition, David too uttered the verse before us.

He who has genuinely drawn near to the typical Passover is cleansed by the blood of the lamb that is in us, hyssop being applied, as is written in Exodus;

but he who has received the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, being washed by the blood from his slaying, is made whiter than snow.

And both took place concerning David;

for he was sprinkled with hyssop (the blood of the typical lamb) and was washed by Jesus so as to be whitened more than snow;

and here it signifies a spiritual snow.

It has already often been said that the bones are doctrines and powers of the soul;

these are humbled by sin and by sophistic sorcery.

But when God has made joy and gladness to be heard, the humbled bones shall exult.

And sins are blotted out by the participation in the virtues;

for as knowledge, coming into the soul, blots out and makes ignorance disappear, so by the presence of perfect virtue every sin is blotted out.

'If you blot out all my sins that are inscribed by their impressions upon my heart, you create a clean heart in me, deprived of all evil,' but also 'And renew an upright spirit within my inward parts.'

And the inward parts of the soul are the right notions and diligent conceptions, concerning which he says:

'And all that is within me, bless his name.'

And an upright spirit is either the Holy Spirit, or the right conscience, or that which he calls the spirit of the man that is in him.

It should be noted that the word 'created' does not signify a bringing into being, but a certain relation intensified in those in whom it may come to be present.

While the diligent stand without interval before the face of God, only the sinner is cast out and thrust away from it.

'But me, who am encompassed by the divine contemplation of you, do not judge to be such as to be cast away from your face;'

'but also do not take from me the Holy Spirit which you have caused to dwell in me, so that I should be stripped bare of it.'

Addressing the Father, he says, 'Restore to me the exultation of your salvation, that you may also uphold me with a governing and perfect spirit.'

And in either case here too he means by 'spirit' either the Holy Spirit that rules and governs, or the man's own spirit that is in him, being other than the man's soul.

And this governing spirit, according to the former interpretation, extends stability and confirmation to those in whom it may come to be present.

And in the superscription of the psalm we were saying that God sometimes overlooks the diligent so that they may commit sin, in order that, repenting in deed, they may also display the teaching concerning repentance.

Behold, then, here too what was said is confirmed;

for through the confession made to God he undertakes to teach the lawless the ways of God himself, so that, having set foot upon these, even if at some time they acted impiously, they may through their negligence turn back to him.

For just as they have as an imitation and pattern of the best life those who have lived aright, so too those who have gone astray concerning knowledge have to imitate him who comes to repentance, who, being impious toward God, turns back;

'Since through the deadly sins I have committed I am full of bloods, from these deliver me, O you who are once for all God, and our God too.'

And perhaps David too asks to be delivered by God—being the God of his salvation—from the blood of Uriah and of any others who died together with him.

Our word, called 'my tongue,' in ever uttering concerning your righteousness, shall exult in your righteousness.

But God opens the lips of that man who has received a word in the opening of his mouth, for which reason his mouth too shall proclaim the praise of God, ever praising and giving thanks to him.

He who is making confession concerning his own sin, why does he wish to speak concerning Zion and Jerusalem? But since we said that he was by no means harmed by having stumbled in the strenuous course, for this reason, still possessing a prophetic disposition and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, he prays and prophesies, saying, 'Do good to Zion in your good pleasure'—Zion that has become a son to you and draws near to the Spirit;

'but also the walls of Jerusalem are being built up.'

And these are the guardings of angels, or the establishment of indestructible doctrines.

He speaks of the righteousness that is established through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe.

And this righteousness proves to be a spiritual offering and whole burnt-sacrifices, as also the words, 'Offer the sacrifice of righteousness.'

But they shall also bring up to the spiritual altar the labouring calves that draw the plough—souls that are none other than the souls of the martyrs, which are seen to be borne up to the heavenly altar and offered upon it after the manner of calves.

For in the Revelation of John the souls of those who had been beheaded for the name of Jesus and for the testimony of him are beheld beneath the heavenly altar.

But what pretext must one supply for so great a tragedy but the herdsman of the irrational beasts? For he was a chief of the herds of mules.

David, then, understanding his great wickedness, or the devil who stirred up the envy in him, uttered the words of the psalm as though addressing one who was present.

The word 'Day' here signifies manifestation, or the whole time during which he acts lawlessly.

The words of engulfing are those that bring punishment, since 'engulfing' signifies chastisement, as also, 'The lips of the fool engulf him.'

And Doeg, then, the Edumaean, being truly interpreted as 'earthly,' ever shaken because he is unstable;

for Doeg is interpreted as meaning 'unto tossing'—he who, having wrought a slander against the servants of God, loved a deceitful tongue and, together with it, words that engulf him.

The Gospel too shows that chastisement is an engulfing, saying of the one who causes a little one in the Church to stumble,

that a millstone turned by a donkey shall be hung about his neck.

Because he has loved harmful things utterly—that is, completely—He shall pull you down as one not well built up, and moreover shall pluck you out as one badly planted, He who declares, 'Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.'

But He shall also make you migrate from the sacred tabernacle, casting you out and driving you into exile from that tent whose priests you have slandered and led to death; yes indeed, 'And your root from the land of the living.'

For even though he was an Edumaean, yet you had become a proselyte to Israel through instruction in the Law, and had been planted in the tabernacle and in the land of the living;

for if he had had no reverence toward the God of Israel, he would not have come into the sanctuary, busying himself there.

And the things said against this man will fit all who fall away from piety.

The very devout, whenever they see some falling from virtue into wickedness, take fear lest they themselves should suffer the same things.

But these would also mock the one who has been caught, as though laughing over him, saying, 'This is the man who did not make God his helper;'

for otherwise he would not have slandered His servants and attendants.

You will compare with these the words, 'He who rejects you rejects me.'

By 'giving thanks to God' he signifies thanksgiving for God's having made him, perhaps for having granted what he asked or what he had set before himself.

For he had set before himself the purpose to flee from Saul.

'But I will still wait,' he says, 'upon your name until I attain it, because it is good and full of goodness before your holy ones;'

for those who have practised holiness perceive the goodness of your name.

For this man of whom the discourse speaks appears not to preserve his common sense.

For knowing that the notion of God has been laid down in every soul, yet embracing godlessness, it was to none other than his own heart that he said there is no God.

And thus the foolish devil said there is no God, not to that heart which is alien to himself (this is the one dedicated to God), but to the heart which had come into being out of himself through sinning.

For he who has thought ill concerning God also comes into all other wickedness;

for casting piety out of his own soul, he has cast out together with it every virtue that follows piety as its queen.

Those, then, who through folly say there is no God have corrupted their own judgement in the lawless deeds which they wrought, from which they became abominable—that is, they became objects of abomination.

Either while all sin, or even those who seem to do good—not doing it properly and truly, but doing it that they may receive at least a type of it through a mirror and in a riddle.

The present verse introduces God as one who exercises providence, not only over things in heaven but also over things on earth;

for He is said to look down providentially from heaven upon the sons of men, not regarding them merely outwardly according to the body, but also according to the hidden things of the heart.

He looks down, then, upon the sons of men, that He may see whether there is one who understands through doing good and who seeks after God through examining the truth.

But it is after a human manner and from what we ourselves know that His peering down from heaven and His seeing whether there is one who understands is spoken of;

for by a great, so to speak, application of His gaze He has knowledge of that which is hidden from all.

And from the passage before us we learn that sin is constituted by the transgression of law, from which it follows that there is nothing evil by nature;

and this turning aside is sin, being a failure to reach the straight way.

And at the same time those who turn aside also became useless;

he calls him useless either according to the domination of the passions, or according to the ignorance of one who does not understand, being confounded by passing from one set of affairs to another, in that he has not mastered the knowledge of even one thing.

According to each of the aforesaid interpretations, the phrase 'not so much as one,' being added, signifies either that there is not even one who does good, or that there is not even one who does a single good thing.

Since wisdom shall not enter into a soul that devises evil, they shall not know the things which it is fitting to know according to divine knowledge.

For it must be read not as a question but as a declaration.

The phrase 'There they feared with fear where there was no fear' can be referred to the age to come;

there, where you have fled from pain and groaning and grief, one ought to have had confidence.

In this condition, then, where there is no fear, those who bring upon themselves the things for which they shall be chastised shall be afraid.

And for this reason they shall be afraid, because God has there made manifest those who here became hypocrites and had as their aim to please men, scattering their bones—doctrines and pursuits, offspring of vice and self-conceit, and the imaginings of a base soul.

For even if here they seemed to be something to the men whom they pleased, deceiving them, yet being brought to nothing by God as though they were nothing, they were put to shame.

And perhaps those who actively work wickedness shall also meet with the chastisements previously proclaimed.

But those who in a man-pleasing manner feign virtue shall experience no other chastisement, once their hypocrisy has been exposed;

for instance, he who does almsgiving in order to be glorified by men shall not be chastised by fire or any other such thing (for he did show mercy), but shall be put to shame, being shown to have shared his goods with the poor not for God's sake but for men's.

For sin is that which takes captive those who commit it.

But when forgiveness of sins is granted, Israel is made glad and Jacob rejoices, in like manner to those who rejoice in the heavens over one sinner that repents.

Christ is the power of the Father.

And this One shall judge the hidden things of men; and he entreats that he may be handed over for examination not to other judges but to the power of the good God;

for he knows that he will obtain pardon for the things which were overlooked, and that vengeance will be executed against those who ravaged him without cause.

He asks that his prayer may become acceptable, and that he may receive the things for which he prayed.

But also, as one who has drawn near to God through good works, he says, 'Give ear to the words of my mouth.'

For no one who utters an idle word, or a shameful one, or who speaks some other evil thing, wishes God to give ear to his words; but only he, and everyone, who speaks what is true and pious.

By 'strangers' he means those who have a purpose contrary to the earnest, and by 'the strong' he means the wicked demons.

Since they did not set God before them, having turned away from him and given him their backs, they rose up against the righteous man and sought his soul.

He confesses that he has God as helper—perhaps the Father and Lord who takes hold of his soul—so that he may mean the Son, who 'shall turn back the evils upon my enemies;'

for the harmful things which they have wished to bring upon me, these He turns back upon them, the Lord having so judged.

In harmony with this is the saying, 'Do to him in the manner in which he wickedly purposed to do to his neighbour.'

And the truth of God, convicting them of being liars, destroys them if they are such;

for the holy one prays not that they be utterly destroyed, but only insofar as they are such.

And these things having come to pass, coming to thanksgiving by free choice, 'I will sacrifice to you willingly'—no necessity or force calling him to this, but a readiness that is self-commanded.

Offering up a prayer to God, he entreats Him to draw near to him, that He may receive into His own ears the prayer which he has brought to Him.

For He who is near to the one speaking gives ear, receiving the word into His ears.

Attend to me as I lift up holy hands without wrath or dispute, presenting myself before you in an orderly and reverent manner, and hearken to the words which I send up from a pure conscience.

The enemy can be the same as the sinner, the distinction being merely one of relation.

When, therefore, the sinner brings affliction through the wicked deeds he does, and the enemy of the truth utters godless things, then: 'I was grieved in my meditation, and was troubled.'

Here 'meditation' (adoleschia) signifies prayer, just as in the first book of Kingdoms, when Hannah says: 'Out of the abundance of my meditation I have prolonged my speech until now.'

For she says this concerning her own prayer.

Seeing the enemy uttering proud things and afflicting the sinner, as I meditated toward God in prayer, 'I was grieved.'

Seeing those of the same substance and same kind as myself fallen into the depth of wickedness, so as even to be troubled at the mutability of nature, I wondered: might not I too undergo this same turning?

Perhaps too he is grieved and troubled in a most caring way, seeing the base ones going astray, just as a father grieves over a son who has gone mad.

For indeed some hold that this psalm is spoken in the person of Christ according to his humanity, to whom it is fitting to grieve over those who are harmed.

Every diligent person understands that it is one thing to sin in thoughts, which is even bearable, and another thing to sin in deed and words, which is both perilous and grievous.

Therefore, whenever it happens that a disturbance and harm arise in one's thoughts, guarding them within himself he neither utters a word — for the fault is in secret — nor acts them out effectually, knowing that the thought is sometimes curable, though sometimes incurable.

Wherefore he says: 'My heart was troubled within me.'

For I did not give expression to the trouble, nor did I do anything in accordance with it; but even when the dread of the death that follows sin fell upon me, I held it fast within myself.

For it happens that dread appears outwardly and the one so revealed becomes a stumbling-block to others.

As for 'Fear and trembling came upon me, and darkness covered me': since human nature has within it the passible element — which some call the irascible and the concupiscible — even if one advances in virtue, the passible element not being abolished, it happens that he comes to be in what is called 'pre-passion.'

Indeed, the person here set before us, being thrust about by the voices of the enemy and stirred up by the affliction of the sinner, had its inherent passible element aroused, so as to fear and to fall into trembling and to be covered by the darkness of perplexity.

For here the word 'darkness' signifies dizziness of vision.

Since many afflictions surrounded him, he prays that there be given to him the perceptions of the Spirit, which lift up and raise on high — allegorically named 'wings of a dove.'

These wings make one fly aloft, so that, having come to rest there, the one who has flown up may pass the remainder of his life free from care, keeping Sabbath — the tender and blessed Sabbaths of God.

The expression 'to put to flight' signifies pursuing and turning to flight those who are driven off.

The one who speaks the psalm therefore says:

'Behold, I have gone far off' — that is, driving the enemy and the sinner far away, so that, they being expelled, I might lodge in the wilderness — that is, rest in a peaceful condition.

But if here 'to flee' properly signifies fleeing, the righteous one will say: fleeing and going far from those of the circumcision because of the boastfulness that attends them.

'And I lodged in the wilderness' — the church of the Law and the Prophets.

These things fit most especially the Christ according to the dispensation.

For doing these things symbolically, it is recorded in the Gospels.

Concerning this wilderness there is also: 'Rejoice, O thirsty wilderness,' and 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness.'

Agreement for an evil purpose is a dreadful thing, and, on the contrary, a great good is the dissolution of those who have agreed together for evil.

In the building of the tower, by having one voice and a single lip, all were hindered, being held fast in the greatest impiety, so that they no longer had unanimity of speech.

For what they were about to do impiously out of their agreement, this they did not accomplish, their tongues being divided.

And here too, then, the one praying desires that the tongues of those who have agreed together against him be divided, the tongues being drowned — that is, made to vanish.

And Paul too, knowing that at times the discord of the base among themselves is profitable, while making his defense on the steps, set the Pharisees and Sadducees at variance.

This can be referred back to the 'Behold, I have gone far off in flight, and I lodged in the wilderness,' the two verses lying in between having been spoken — from 'I waited for the God who saves me' up to 'Divide their tongues' — so that the meaning may be such as this:

Since in what was reckoned the city of God, Jerusalem, I saw lawlessness and contradiction — of those acting lawlessly and contradicting the truth — I went far off in flight from her, so that, having come to be in the church gathered from the nations, which is called a wilderness, I might lodge in her, resting and passing the night among those who believe.

Since continually, by night and by day, they act lawlessly and contradict in the city, so that the city is encircled by lawlessness and contradiction and by the army that came upon her because of these evils, the lawlessness and the contradiction reached even to her walls — to the holy apostles who were guarding her.