Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 16/40

For indeed these too forsook her, having seen her acting lawlessly and contradicting, because lawlessness and toil contrary to praiseworthy pleasure had come to be in her midst together with iniquity, so that usury and deceit did not fail from her broad streets, the inhabitants dealing deceitfully through the wicked things they devise, and toiling by taking upon themselves the burden of wickedness, which is compared to lead.

Or one must suppose her 'broad streets' to be the souls that, through love of pleasure, broaden themselves by traveling the broad and spacious road — that is, the inglorious and passion-ridden life.

And by ever abiding in these, the toil about evils and the deceit about deceptions bring to fulfillment the words: 'Usury and deceit did not fail from her broad streets.'

The words 'my familiar' stand for 'one known by me' — 'who together with me made sweet my food,' along with the other disciples nourishing me with good works.

For the one who has not tasted the words of life is dead.

Those who live in this way go down into Hades.

For it is not possible for those living the common life to go down into Hades, since no body can come to be there together with which one has the common life.

Since, then, Judas and all the people of the Jews had the instruction of the Law and the Prophets, when death comes upon them — the death that follows sin — they go down alive into Hades.

Consequently the following verse too is spoken: 'For wickedness is in their dwelling-places, in their midst.'

For even if they had experience of the life-giving Scriptures, they did not dwell but only sojourned in them, because they had wickedness in their own midst — that is, in the ruling faculty.

For 'in the midst' is said of the whole living being.

'I cried out to God, and I had my voice heard by the Lord.'

For only the one who cries out to God is heard by the Lord.

For not everyone who cries toward God cries out to him.

Concerning the Sodomites it is written, 'The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has been multiplied' — of those not crying out to God.

Since the discourse of a godly man is always wisdom, being godly and always recounting wisdom, the psalmist says:

As I declare these things, God will hear my voice, receiving and (so to speak) delighting in my voice that has recounted all things.

He says that God 'is subsisting' before the ages, but not that he 'came to subsist.'

For if he had said 'came to subsist,' then he too, having a beginning, would have subsisted formerly, existing within some measured interval.

For this reason, then, he said 'He who subsists,' positing his subsistence as without beginning and eternal; while by 'before the ages' he lays down a beginning for the subsistence of the ages.

One must understand 'the ages' as being extensions of created things.

And the Savior too, being eternal from the Eternal, is before the ages, in that the ages themselves came to be through him.

And Paul too says, 'And he himself is before all things.'

And 'He who subsists' is equivalent to and the same as 'before all things.'

For he did not say, 'And he came to be before all things.'

And the Savior too, concerning himself, did not say, 'Before Abraham came to be, I was,' but 'I am.'

Of sins, some are hard to heal or even incurable, while others are curable.

And concerning the curable ones, it is possible to find a ransom — the sacrifice offered for sins, but also almsgiving and fasting together with prayer (for these deliver from death); but for those who have sinned incurably, there is no ransom or price of deliverance to lay down.

For if a man sins against a man and they pray concerning him, there is a ransom for these.

But if against the Lord God, who shall pray for him? For of such there is no ransom.

'He stretched out his hand' in requiting things worthy of what they had done.

For since they became betrayers and murderers of Christ, having committed irreconcilable lawlessness, they were seen to be worthy to fall under punishment.

They were therefore taken captive by the Romans, so as to be enslaved and thrust out of the land that had nourished them — which had never happened to any other nation.

For they profaned the covenant of God, not receiving but even slaying the one prophesied by it.

And perhaps also, since the covenant according to the sensible order was ordained to be kept up to a certain time, when the time was fulfilled in which it had to be changed from what is according to the flesh to what is according to the spirit, by remaining in the typical worship they profaned his covenant.

Therefore also, stretching out his chastising hand, he gave them over, so that his wrath came upon them to the uttermost; under this wrath they were also scattered, no longer gathered together in his own land, but dispersed among every nation.

These things the wrath of God's countenance brought upon them, since, when his countenance shone forth and appeared, they did not receive it.

For though they were reckoned to be soft and smooth, because they set themselves forth with hypocrisy, they were in fact deadly darts, full of poison.

But there are also those who interpret these things concerning God thus:

God drew near his own heart, condescending to men and bringing forth words that, like oil, heal and loose the pains of those who are suffering.

But these words, softer than oil, are found to be darts to those who despise them, chastising the despisers.

And in many places the term 'arrow' is applied to chastisements; and 'arrow' and 'dart' are the same thing in respect of their subject.

God, not permitting the righteous to be shaken, will bring down into the pit of destruction those who have profaned his covenant—a pit contrary to those wells from which the Word commands us to drink life and incorruption.

Or perhaps by 'the pit of destruction' he means Hades, into which those who have been corrupted in their mind are brought down by God, being handed over by his verdict and judgment.

Those whom he prays may be brought low by God, who exists before the ages, we shall understand to be the Jews.

For they opposed the will of the Only-begotten, not fearing God but even profaning his covenant.

the blood of the righteous being poured out upon the earth.

And these same men are also men of deceit, ever approaching the Saviour and the saints treacherously.

These, then, he prays may not attain even to the half of their days.

For since, having turned away from the day that is constituted by the shining of the true light, they devised for themselves a supposed day of illumination through mythical traditions; and since it is an evil thing that their days should be fulfilled in these, he entreats that their days be cut short in the middle, lest ever, having reached the half of their days, the Sun of righteousness should rise upon them, so that they should come to be in the Lord's day.

And with regard to the literal sense, one might press the matter to yield the following:

Since in this life the ungodly, persisting in an unrepentant disposition, do many evils, God, sparing them, deems it fitting that, at the midpoint of human life, they be snatched from life, so that they may be punished for few sins and not for many.

While these things are so disposed, he says, I have my expectation and hope upon you, O Lord.

Scripture sets 'to be trodden underfoot' in the sense of contempt, just as it is said of the salt that has become foolish, 'They cast it out'

to be trodden underfoot by men'; and concerning the one who holds Christ in contempt it is written:

'Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be deemed worthy who has trodden underfoot the Son of God?' And so the holy one too, being held in contempt by the man who through his baseness is such—according to the saying, 'Where there is strife and jealousy among you, are you not carnal, and walking according to man?'—deems it fitting to be shown mercy by God.

But this man, being unremittingly hostile and murderous, all the day of this life afflicts and wars against the righteous, in no degree willing to be peaceable.

And since in the parable of the tares the sower of these is interpreted as the evil man, the devil, consider whether the foregoing might also be said concerning him.

'Having begun to do this from long ago,' he says—or perhaps, having fallen from a loftier day and life—they have come to the point of being my enemies.

Those who have fallen into wickedness God saves freely, receiving nothing from them.

'For behold,' he says, 'you were sold for your sins, and you shall not be redeemed with silver'—being saved not by works but by grace.

The phrase 'for nothing,' then, signifies that he grants them salvation without anything being given to him in exchange.

It is the voice of one who speaks boldly to God.

For he who lives not to sin but to God makes his own life manifest to God through the very works, proclaiming it by disposition and by deed.

The saying that is brought forth upon God and for God's sake is praiseworthy; likewise also the word.

Either, then, in parallel he predicates 'the saying' and 'the word' of one and the same thing, or he applies such designations to one thing and to another.

For since the saying is a part of the word, one who is being introduced into the fear of God, not yet able to share in the fullest word, begins from a saying, that is, from a partial word.

Indeed, first the word of the Lord comes upon Jeremiah, and after this the word of the Lord comes to him.

And in Isaiah he says, 'Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word.'

And the word of the Lord is heard by the one who is at the introductory stage through it.

But if anyone should object, saying that a saying is given to those who preach the gospel with much power, let him know that those who now know and prophesy in part receive a saying with a view to the coming knowledge and teaching, when the perfect word shall be given to them, the perfect knowledge shining forth so that the partial is done away.

Accepting, therefore, both the introduction and the fullest visitation of the word, he praises God with saying and with word.

By 'flesh' he means either the man, or that flesh whose mind is enmity against God, since it is not subject to the law of God.

For he who is in this flesh cannot please God.

He therefore fears lest flesh should do anything to him who is in the Spirit, inasmuch as he has put to death the works of the flesh:

He who prays, when he is disposed in a manner corresponding to what he promises through his prayer, has within himself the vows of praise which he will render to God.

And the vows of praise are those concerning praise;

for just as someone vows to do or to render to God this or that, so someone vows to praise God.

And since it follows for one who is put to death that he be lamented and that tears be shed over him, and since none other laments the one who has died in respect of the soul than the man himself, fittingly, after the soul has been delivered from the intelligible death of ignorance concerning God, his eyes too have been freed from tears.

And he delivered his feet from stumbling, having shod them with a sandal that raised them up and set them above the earth.

'For I,' says God, 'have shod you with hyacinth-blue.'

And the hyacinth, imitating the body of heaven, signifies the soul that wears a heavenly sandal, which is none other than the readiness of the gospel.

When, therefore, he who is shod is lifted up, it follows that his feet are delivered from the stumbling that pertains to matter.

One is delivered from the aforementioned harmful things so as to be well-pleasing to God, both living and enlightened.

For he who is well-pleasing to God does this in the light of the living; and everyone who partakes of God both lives and is enlightened.

For he himself, being life, is the light of men, according to the saying, 'And the life was the light of men.'

The reduplication shows that both in this life and in that which is to come we have need of God's mercy.

And by 'the shadow of the wings' he calls the divine guardianship.

But if the shadow be distinguished beforehand from the truth, what he means is something like this:

while I am in this life, I am in the shadow of the wings, hoping to come even upon the wings themselves, having been given wings by virtue and by spiritual understanding.

And the wings of God are either his protective powers or the high-soaring conceptions concerning him.

The passing away of lawlessness shows that it is temporary;

and Paul, indeed, in the Epistle to the Hebrews writes that the enjoyment of sin is temporary.

As, therefore, it passes away, so also lawlessness is something that began from a certain time;

for concerning a certain form of it, it has been said:

'It neither was from the beginning, nor shall it be unto the age.'

And not in vain did he say 'the Most High.'

For since lawlessness is a creeping and earth-grovelling thing, he who longs to be rid of it cries out to the Most High, so that, being lifted up on high by his cry, he may come to be far from the harmful beast.

He who was sent from heaven to save is the Lord, who says, 'I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will.'

For God sent forth this one, being his Word, and healed those who had been wounded by their corruptions, as David himself says elsewhere.

But one might inquire concerning the being-sent 'from heaven,' whether it signifies a local sending forth from the bodily heaven.

For it would seem unreasonable to attribute a local descent to God.

Does not, then, the word 'heaven' signify the incorporeal and intelligible substance, according to the saying, 'Lay up treasures in heaven,' and, 'God is in heaven above'?

He, therefore, who was in the form of God and equal with God, taking the form of a servant, came to men.

And this is what 'to send from heaven' means: that God the Word should become flesh and, being seen upon earth, dwell among men.

Peter, initiating us into the same mysteries concerning the Holy Spirit also, writes: 'These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.'

For the Spirit, being sent forth in that it is an intelligible substance, took up its dwelling among men, among those who preached the gospel to you.

Those who before this trampled me down by holding me in contempt were made into a reproach, when God sent from heaven that I might be saved.

For having seen the Son of God caring for my salvation, I beheld those who behaved disgracefully and were reproached, having trampled down him whom God saved.

Not having stated what it was that was sent from heaven, he now interprets it, that it is mercy and truth which delivers his soul that had come to be in the midst of enemies who trampled upon it.

And these, on account of their wildness and savage temper, are 'lion cubs.'

But mercy is not different in essence from truth.

'Sleep' often signifies rest, as in the passage, 'In peace I will both lie down and sleep.'

Even if I was troubled while being trampled by enemies and dismayed by the lion cubs that seized me in their midst, yet the trouble did not remain.

For I fell asleep while troubled; I did not remain troubled and awake, but I fell asleep, having cast off the trouble.

A symbol of this was the woman held fast by a spirit of infirmity, bent over and utterly unable to raise herself up, whom Jesus loosed from the snares of Satan, she being a daughter of Abraham.

And perhaps also everyone who minds the things below has his soul bent down, unable to look upon the things above, insofar as it is in such a state.

By 'peoples' you should understand those from the circumcision, and by 'nations' those who repented from the idols, so that they became one Church.

Those who have loved the Lord in incorruption, having come to the end of not destroying the pillar-inscription, raise it up well by the deeds they perform.

For just as those who do the contrary practice these things wickedly and set up a forbidden pillar—of which the Law says, 'You shall not make for yourself a pillar which the Lord hated'—showing that everyone who practices forbidden things raises up a base life after the manner of a pillar;

therefore also you will fittingly say that the one who does good things sets up a pillar, which is a symbol of the contests he has struggled through.

For this is the fruit of righteousness, as also in Proverbs:

'To understand true righteousness and to direct judgment aright.'

But he who joins sins together weaves in unrighteousness by working evil without interruption.

Equivalent to this is the saying, 'Each one is bound fast by the cords of his own sins.'

Not in vain is 'in the earth' added to 'you work iniquity.'

For even if someone commits iniquity in his heart, he works it out 'in the earth,' that is, concerning material things.

But those who dare to slander the Scriptures have also torn this phrase to pieces, saying that it is not possible to go astray from the womb and to speak a lie;

for they say that sinning completes the account.

To these it must be said that they have not understood this custom of Scripture:

the newborn infant is receptive of virtue and of vice in potential, then receiving in actuality whichever of these two dispositions when it comes to have knowledge of good and evil;

for then also the account is fulfilled, when one begins to act according to virtue.

He is said to have done good 'from the womb of his mother.'

Such is what Job says:

'If I ate my morsel alone and did not share it with the orphan—

for from my mother's womb I guided them and nourished them as a father.'

And these too, then, concerning whom the discourse is, having advanced toward the fulfillment of the account, began to act from a place of error.

And to speak according to the very word signifies to have uttered falsehoods.

But perhaps, as in the preceding verse, we might say there is also another begetting;

those born from a base teaching had, from the very womb that bore them, both the going astray and the speaking of falsehoods.

For if ever an enchanter, according to his own skill, should bring forth some charm able to lull it to sleep, if it were to hear, it stops up its ears so as not to hear the voice of the enchanter, which is a drug prepared by a wise man.

And these too stop up their ears—not the ears of sense-perception but those of understanding—so that they may not hear those who bring forth the wise, prophetic, and apostolic charms.

'Of a drug' must be read as standing in apposition, that is, he is drugged in a connected sense and not in a merely verbal one.

And this God does for them as a benefaction, so that they may not, by devouring the men deceived by them, become liable to an excessive punishment; and so he crushed their molars, that they might not bite nor devour.

And it must be noted that, according to Scripture, molars differ from teeth;

for the teeth are the cutters and dividers of the food, while the molars are those that chew and grind it smooth.

And just as water passing through some channel, not remaining but being dispersed, is brought to nothing and becomes contemptible, so also these will be reduced to worthlessness, having nothing firm and abiding, but having received for a season a watery and fluid life.

And previously we said that his 'arrows' signify his chastisements, while the 'bow' is that from which the arrows are sent forth;

these are the discerning, judging power of God.

This bow, then, he will bend, not slackening it until those who are struck grow weak;

but their growing weak is for their good, since the strength they had toward vice is being brought down.

And just as melting wax is destroyed insofar as it is meltable and has thickness, when the underlying first substance changes into fire, so those who are base, having experienced chastisement, being melted, cast off the thickness that comes from a wicked disposition.

But before chastisement there is the true light, which is the sun of righteousness;

for after chastisement it is not possible to approach the radiance of the intelligible sun.

So that, when the chastising light fell upon them, those who had fallen into chastisement did not see the sun.

But those who have understood their own passions, which are more allegorically named 'thorns,' will not experience the wrath that chastises; whereas before understanding those things spiritually called thorns and brambles, they will be swallowed up by wrath as though alive;

for they will be seized by wrath not as living, but as being like those who are alive.

For 'to swallow up,' according to Scripture, signifies to master and to conquer, since that which is swallowed up is already mastered and conquered.

Indeed, even the mortal is swallowed up by life, life mastering and conquering death.

He rejoices not by gloating, but because he himself is not subject to punishment, and he purifies his own deeds, becoming more secure.

Though only Saul was pursuing him, he prays to be delivered from many enemies.

Perhaps, then, calling in the plural those enemies against himself—namely the spear-bearers who conspired with Saul, or the wicked demons working upon him—he prays to be delivered from them;

and he entreats to be ransomed from these who rise up against him, praying perhaps for the coming of the One who is to arrive to give his own soul as a ransom for many.

'Workers of iniquity' are those who do the things the Law forbids; and since murder is among the forbidden things, those who set themselves to slay men, on account of the cruelty in them, are 'men of blood.'

He who is not maltreated by them, God covering him, is delivered from those who work iniquity; and moreover he who is not handed over into the hands of those willing to shed his blood is saved from murderous men.

For he who does not work iniquity but is disposed contrary to those who do it has been delivered from a practical disposition toward transgressions, just as, again, he who is outside a murderous intent is saved, not being numbered among murderous men.

Since, when the devil and his angels work in men the doing of iniquity, men act lawlessly, he prays to be delivered from the devil and from those who, together with him, go before in the working of iniquity.

From the beginning the devil sins.

For as he goes before, these follow after in sinning, in whom he works.

By a thought he became a traitor, having followed the reasoning about betrayal toward which he was running, from the one who urged him on to this.

And it is well that the word 'men' is added to 'murderous';

for it belongs not to just anyone, but to one strong and perfected in evils, to shed the blood of a man.

As far as concerns the intent and cruelty of Saul and of those sent by him to seize him from his own house and to put him to death, he says, 'They hunted my soul,' even though by the power of God he was saved through the marvelous stratagem of his wife.

The verse might be interpreted concerning invisible enemies who are zealous to hunt the soul, those who made Saul a murderer against David, who was in all things blameless toward him.

And by 'mighty ones' who set upon him he indicates the king and those of his party; but as to the deeper sense, the principalities and powers and the world-rulers of this darkness.

And it is well said also, 'I ran.' For when the course has been completed, so speaks the voice.

For when one has completed the course, then comes the utterance.

For just as to be doing and to have done are not the same, so also to run and to have run are not the same.

At one time he says, 'I so run, as not uncertainly,' and at another, 'I have finished the course,' since he who has finished the course is no longer running.

But someone will object to what has been said, bringing forward the confession made concerning the sin against Uriah, since indeed he confessed to God, saying, 'Wash me more and more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.'

Now the deed concerning Bathsheba took place, and the confession followed, after the death of Saul.

Since this is true, how did the one who, while Saul was still living, was being persecuted, say, as though he had already finished the course, 'Without iniquity I ran and directed my way'? In reply to the objection it must be said, first, that he declares he directed his service both toward Saul and toward him without iniquity, so that that man plotted against him in vain; and then also thus:

up to the time when he then ran without iniquity and directed his way, all that he had accomplished had been rightly ordered.

But since every created man, being wholly mutable, afterwards, having stumbled, most readily repented;

and from this very fact it is shown that he had no practice or habit of sinning.

Since the aforesaid enemies persist in their zeal against me, rise up, meet them to help me, no longer being patient with them.

I entreat you, having risen up to meet me, to see that it is not on account of any provocation on my part that they thirst for my blood, since I did not sin against them.

For neither my iniquity nor my sin summoned them, but their envious passion, being grieved at our good repute.

To the prayer concerning himself he joins the petition on behalf of all the nations, being at once a lover of mankind and a prophet.

For having foreknown prophetically the calling of the nations, he beseeches the Lord, the God of the divine powers, and also the God of Israel, that giving heed he would visit the nations, so that he might heal them, who fare ill through idolatry and the worship of demons.

And the visitation of the nations comes about when the divine Word is sent to heal and save all from the corruptions that had beset them.

He is, then, a physician of souls, healing those who are broken in heart.

He calls him God and Lord of powers, that is, of the holy rational living beings and the heavenly hosts.

And as he is God of these powers, so also he is God of the discerning men who are called Israel, which in the Hebrew tongue means God.

David, being persecuted by Saul on account of the aforesaid envy, knew that he would be the successor of the kingdom.

And having beheld prophetically what was to be, and from having been anointed for this by Samuel, yet even though he had thus been fully assured, he did not kill him, though he was often delivered into his hands, wishing to receive the kingdom lawfully from God in exchange, and not by attacking and treacherously slaying.

From this resolve he says, 'O God, my strength, I will keep it for you,' not choosing to usurp it for himself, but awaiting to receive it from you;

for by many trials you prove to be both my God and my protector.

For even if I am not by my own strength worthy to receive the kingship, yet your mercy, going before me, will show me among my enemies how they will be chastised, falling under punishment, while I shall receive the kingdom from you.

And according to the deeper meaning, he who, like Abraham, holds his kingship from God;

for it is written that certain men said to the patriarch, who did not rule in a perceptible manner, 'You are a king from God among us.'

Reigning in a way pleasing to God, he will say, 'My God, my strength, I will keep it for you';

for you will bring into the kingdom those Corinthians who said, 'Would that you did reign, so that we also might reign with you!'

He deems it fitting that the enemies who assail him be rebuked by God, but not put to death.

For he knows that, if they die remaining wicked, they will have a cessation of the divine law; but if scattered by the power of God and given over into captivity, they will groan to God, having had experience of affliction.

He wishes also that they be brought down from the height of the pride they possess, the Lord who shields him and offers up the supplication accomplishing this.

For utter vengeance disposes and drives one toward despair.

And that David interceded for this because he spared them, so that being brought to sobriety by the more moderate punishment they might be watchful, he adds what follows:

for if they are scattered, they are at once both punished and yet able again to be gathered when they have repented.

And likewise he wishes them also to be brought down, that is, humbled, for 'the sin of their mouth, the word of their lips,' this being profitable both to those themselves who are humbled and to the greater number, so that these are not provoked to emulate those who speak in pride and utter unjust things.

For those who have spoken with pride are those who have lied against the righteous;

when they receive an outcome contrary to their deeds, being caught in the pride of their own words, they are convicted as lawbreakers, having been taken.

From the present passage too we must refute those heretics who suppose that the Creator is vengeful in disposition.

God is angry not that he may destroy, but that he may show mercy.

With this agrees, 'I will bless you, O Lord, for you were angry with me unto salvation.'

For if he is angry unto salvation and for the sake of showing mercy, his anger is not a passion but is employed usefully.