Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 38/40

For even if the bones of each of us were scattered beside Hades, yet I hope that, having gathered them, Thou wilt restore them to their proper concord and harmony;

and when this has come about through Thy goodness, not only shall my soul not be destroyed, but it shall even be saved, since Thou keepest me from the snare which they have set for me.

And not from this alone, but Thou wilt also keep me from the stumbling-blocks of those who work lawlessness.

And perhaps the snare set for me by the wicked is the deception according to false doctrine, while the stumbling-block of those who work lawlessness is moral vice—the unstable one being made to stumble whenever he sees many acting lawlessly.

A witness to this is the saying, 'Because lawlessness shall be multiplied, the love of many shall grow cold'—a proof that even the deceitfully constructed snare is the falsely-named knowledge, from the words: 'They strengthened for themselves an evil word; they told of hiding snares.'

If it be spoken concerning the devil, the exposition will be of this sort:

[his aim is] to make [men] out to be sinners, only those escaping it who are able to say, 'For we are not ignorant of his devices';

whence also, having caught many, he deifies his nets, which he has used for the hunting of the deceived—as it is written in the prophet concerning God's snare and the drag-net and the casting-net.

'But even if sinners shall fall into his casting-net,' yet I, having withdrawn from all material things, am alone by myself, until I pass beyond this perishable life and the multitude of evils, and am joined to the Lord so as to become one spirit with Him.

No one recognizes the wisdom of the material and foolish, since concerning the wise man and wisdom they have not even the beginning of comprehension—only the wise recognizing both themselves and those like them.

'Since therefore,' he says, 'there was none who recognized me, I considered toward the right hand'—upon which I gaze, having formerly attained the contemplation of them—so that, having become still wiser, my heart might come yet more to the right hand, beholding no longer anything sensible but all things intelligible.

And since everyone who sins flees from God—as is shown from its being said after the transgression, 'And Adam and his wife fled from the face of God'—he who no longer sins but has attained sinlessness will say, 'Flight has perished from me,' that is, wickedness has perished from me, into which those who flee from God hide themselves and withdraw.

Wherefore also 'there is none that seeketh after my soul,' which has been made manifest to God and has stood before Him.

And the word 'seeking out' indicates an intensification of the search;

that which is lost is sought and sought out.

And to be lost and to have fled are the same thing.

And he who has come to be in wickedness, when he begins to repent, flees from it;

for it says, 'Flee idolatry,' and 'As from the face of a serpent, flee from sin.'

And he intensifies his flight day by day, through progress being drawn far away from the habit he has left behind, so as to come to the most unalloyed virtue; and then, standing firmly in the good, he will say, 'Flight has perished from me';

for I no longer have sin pursuing me, nor him that seeks out my soul, which has come to be in the stronghold of piety.

And according to the anagogical sense, wickedness and all impiety, like some prison, encompassing the souls within, held them fast;

from which prison each soul sends up the prayer set before us, so that the Lord, having consented, has come to lead forth the bound from their bonds and those sitting in darkness from the prison-house.

The third psalm is inscribed, 'A psalm of David, when he was fleeing from the face of Absalom his son'; but here it is 'When his son was pursuing him.'

And it is not so terrible to flee from someone as it is for that one to pursue.

And it is possible to flee even out of mere suspicion; but that the pursued one is driven along makes plain the cruelty and savagery of the pursuer.

Being in need of many things, I have taken refuge in Thee, knowing with exactness that Thou wilt fill me with all the things in which I am lacking, having given ear to my supplication in the truth—in Thine only-begotten Offspring, who said, 'I am the truth.'

Or, since for the present I worship in image and shadow, I pray that what is lacking to me may also be given.

And this is to pass beyond the typical service so as to approach Thy naked truth, that I may worship Thee in spirit and in truth.

'Hearken unto me in Thy righteousness,' having justified me in it.

For my own righteousness will be reckoned as nothing over against Thee.

Wherefore also I entreat that Thou enter not into judgment with me;

for I am Thy servant, and I am afraid to be judged with Thee or before Thee.

For Thou examinest not the words or the deeds alone, but also the intention from which these proceed;

whence none of the living, even if he possess the loftiest virtue, will be able to be justified before Thee.

With a disposition that speaks truly they say, 'All our righteousness is as a filthy rag before Thee';

but we are justified freely by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ, having the righteousness which apart from the law has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Or perhaps, since he who believes in Him is not judged, he prays to receive perfect faith from Him, that he may attain to not being judged.

For the judgment comes upon those who loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

Therefore, when God hearkens to someone in His own righteousness, He does not enter into judgment with him;

for that one is His servant, doing all these things that have been enjoined upon him.

To be humbled to the earth as regards one's life is to look upon the things below and to set one's mind on the things upon the earth.

For just as the life of those who lay up treasure in heaven and there keep their heart is uplifted and exalted, so he who lays up treasure upon the earth and keeps his mind upon sensible things is humbled, having his life in the earth.

And 'in dark places,' it says, 'of the age' (there where the world-rulers of this darkness rule), so that the one who is caught becomes like the dead of the age.

And these are they who are called the sons of this age; save that he who has lamented these things is not dead of the age, but has become as one dead to the age.

Therefore the spirit that accompanies him for the sake of help also grew despondent over him — that spirit which is called 'the spirit of the man that is within him.'

For since it saw that the man who was being helped by it had fallen in with the aforementioned troubles, it reasonably grew despondent and disheartened, inasmuch as it alone knew what pertains to the man.

It is through this waterless land, and through souls that are likewise waterless places, that the unclean spirit passes, finding among them neither dwelling nor rest.

Yet even if they happen to be waterless in that they are deprived of the foul waters, nevertheless they still pursue the Lord, so as to find him ready at dawn, when he will also come to them as the early and the latter rain.

Therefore they will also become well-watered, having in themselves springs of living water welling up unto eternal life.

And since the Holy Spirit does not remain where there is sin, having said, 'The enemy has pursued my soul,' and what follows, he is wary lest, on account of these things, the spirit that was then present with him should abandon him — so that the present passage is equivalent to 'Do not turn away your face' and 'Take not your Holy Spirit from me.'

For no one who is in God's sight and possesses the Spirit is cast off at once for sinning; rather it is he who intensifies his sinning so as to consolidate it into a most vile habit.

For then such a one will be cast out from the divine countenance and would be deprived of the Holy Spirit.

Nevertheless, even if the one who is in such a state is not stripped bare of the Spirit, still he grieves it while it is present, through his sinning.

To me who am in the beginning of the day illumined by you, and who have begun to be shone upon by the rising of the Sun of your righteousness, make your mercy heard.

speaking about it in this way, according to my capacity and my hearing.

For then, having been benefited by the hearing about it, I shall be able to make progress, so as even to long to see it.

And I shall obtain the sight of it too, when together with all who share the same zeal I shall entreat and say, 'Show us, O Lord, your mercy.'

For it becomes visible then, when one receives it as something heard, being not in ignorance but at the beginning of knowledge — which he indicated by the word 'in the morning.'

And perhaps, when one has trodden the former ways — Moses and the Prophets — according to the saying 'Stand in the ways and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord,' after his journey in them, seeking the good way he will say to its Father, who alone knows the way that is a Son, 'Make known to me the way in which I should walk.'

Therefore, with the Father's assent, manifesting herself she will say to those who are worthy, 'I am the way.'

For no one comes to the Father except through me.

His soul having been pursued by a single enemy, as he said just now, he now entreats to be delivered from a multitude of enemies.

But these differing expressions are not in conflict;

he called his army 'enemies' in the plural.

And he demands most justly to be delivered from the enemies, since he took refuge with no one else but with him alone.

'Teach me,' he says, 'not only to know but also to do your will;'

for the knowing of it apart from the doing is not what sanctifies and makes blessed, but rather its being enacted and performed.

Therefore the Savior also says, 'Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.'

And it is clear that the one who does God's will also knows it — not so at all with the one who knows and does not do.

With this agrees the saying, 'Learn to do good.'

And what this learning of the divine will is, the following phrase indicates — namely, that it is the guidance of the Holy Spirit into the upright land.

For he who has learned God's will in the ethical virtues will be guided, by the gift of God, by the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth.

And the upright land is the good and pure heart, in which the seed that is Jesus, or the seed of the meek, will bear fruit.

'Teach me to do your will,' that I may accomplish your law — which is nothing other than your will — no longer in a figurative way but spiritually;

and having advanced this far, may I be guided by the Holy Spirit in the upright land, thereafter examining the truth face to face.

In some copies, instead of 'Your Holy Spirit,' there stands 'Your good Spirit;'

from which it is established that the holy is good and the good is holy — good not by participation in goodness, but by being such according to essence, just as it is also holy.

And indeed it is said of him, 'Holy Father,' and 'No one is good except one, God.'

And the Son too, being from one who is good and holy, is said to be good and holy.

For the sake of your name that has been invoked over me, I am styled yours.

You will make me live in your righteousness, justifying me according to it;

for thus it will come about that I live in it.

And it was fitting that he inclined 'You will make me live' toward future time, since here, just as we possess the other good things partially, so also we possess life partially, and shall live perfectly at that time when Christ, who is our life, is made manifest;

for he himself is the righteousness of God, in which the one who has attached himself to it will live.

Since everything that is good and beneficial comes to men from God, whatever the saints possess concerning such things, they give thanks to God, knowing him to be the cause of good things.

Behold, therefore, David too, waging war against his enemies and being experienced in warfare — by which the invisible and various foes are overthrown and struck down — blesses God who has become his teacher in the knowledge of such wars, so that the fingers and hands of the inner man skillfully lay hold of the weapons of defense, by which it is possible to strike and wound the champions of wickedness and of falsely-named knowledge, both wicked men and demons.

The constitution of men, being composed of a corruptible body and an immortal soul, has — in respect of the immortal and intellectual soul — reasoning and knowledge of the Cause of all things; but in respect of the body it is nothing, and is likened to vanity, being compared to the easily-moved and easily-vanishing shadow of the day of man's life.

Nevertheless, even though the soul's power is intellectual, still it does not conceive or reason about God just anyhow, but because he himself supplies to it the good things.

For it was not said, 'What is man, that he should know you and reason about you?' but 'that you are known and reason on his behalf.'

For the Savior manifests himself to those who have been prepared for this, and in this way he is said to be known by them.

And having been known and beheld according to intellectual contemplation, he shows the Father also, in that he himself is seen;

for 'He who has seen me has seen the Father,' and 'No one has known the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him.'

Thus the Father too, having the Son in himself, reveals him to the one who wills no longer to have knowledge through flesh and blood, but from God.

The passage before us can also signify the Savior's sojourn from Mary, when, bowing the heavens which are his own workmanship, he came down in order to come forth from her.

Then, since having come down for the benefit of all he overthrew the harmful demons — invisible destroyers of men — together with all their host, he is said to have touched them, because of their boastful and arrogant nature, they being called 'mountains.'

then, since it was not gold and silver that were purified and made bright by the assault of fire in them, but thorns and thistles and wood and grass and stubble, they were made to smoke by his touching them — he who came to cast fire upon the earth.

And he scattered them by the flashing of lightning, though they were of one mind and gathered together for evil.

And lightning is the manifestation of the divine Word, rousing to fear those who oppose it.

But also, having sent forth arrows, he threw them into confusion.

And by the arrows he signifies God's chastisements, as Job also says, 'He has shot me with his arrows,' and 'For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose wrath drinks up my blood.'

And if one refers these things to the second coming of the Lord in glory, he will find the sequence of the following verses to fit all the better.

And if certain arrogant persons — being reckoned mountains because of this insolence of their boastfulness — should slander providence, saying that it does not exist at all, on the ground that God, being in his exalted station, has no care for men nor gives any thought to them at all, then he who wishes to bring them to a perception that God cares even for the things upon earth would pray, saying to the Lord:

Bow your heavens — in which alone they say you are — and come down by your providential Word, laying hold of them painfully, so as to make all the material things in them, being burned up together, turn into smoke.

And consequently what follows will also admit its interpretation according to this sense.

Those who have fallen away from having God as Father are alien sons, in that they have become a brood of vipers, or offspring of the devil.

These, evidently — the alien sons — are harmful and destructive both in understanding and in deed, primarily to themselves, and then also to those who follow them.

Whence, both in what they say and in what they think impiously and ungodly, their mouth is said to speak vanity; and in what they do that is forbidden, their practical power — which they suppose to be a right hand, imagining that they act praiseworthily — is full of iniquity.

These things, then, which they utter in vanity, and those over which they are disposed impiously and ungodly, prove to be 'many waters;'

for through what they teach they wish to imitate him who said, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink,' and 'Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, in him it will become a spring of water welling up unto eternal life.'

And observe indeed in these words that the water which Jesus gives is one;

and this was the Spirit which those who believed in him were about to receive.

The waters of the heterodox, by which they imitate the giving-of-drink that comes from the Lord, are many, because they are various and discordant and are not referred to one single end;

for the ends and the beginnings of their notions are diverse.

'Send forth, therefore,' says the psalmist, 'the hand that makes and preserves all things, in order to draw me out and rescue me from the many waters and from the hand of the alien sons.'

For 'the alien' is to be understood as common to both, applying alike to sons and to waters.

It is possible to take 'to be rescued out of many waters' as meaning to be delivered from the evil powers and from the devil, the king of all who are in such waters; and 'to be plucked also out of the hand of alien sons' as meaning to be delivered from those who are energized to work through men.

For each of the ten commandments is a string musically fitted upon the whole instrument.

Those who hold sway perceptibly over the nations and over the inhabited world.

For if a king is not saved by his great strength, then the kings who are saved have their kingdom from God.

And well too is it said, 'To Him who gives salvation to kings.'

For since they always have their being-saved from Him, He has not ceased giving salvation, but has ever given, and will give, and does give it.

The same things hold also concerning Him who redeems, who has not redeemed, and who will yet redeem.

One must make use of the things set forth for the turning-away of worldly adornment.

For concerning the women of the Church, Paul writes that, praying with modesty and self-control, they should adorn themselves with the works of piety, and not with the putting-on of gold and pearls and the braiding of elaborate hair.

You will observe that what has been said applies also to the heterodox.

For their word is sharpened after the manner of a sword, to wound and to slay those who have not put on the whole armour of God.

And those aforesaid alien sons, who are given to speaking vanity, wield this wicked sword.

Their sons can be the divine conceptions which they possess, comparable to newly-planted saplings, whose strength lies in youthfulness but not in maturity; while their daughters turn out to be the phrases they bring forth, decked out and adorned with smooth composition and with the songlike quality of their diction.

Wherefore they are a likeness of a temple, but not a temple.

For they do not have within themselves a divine mind, as do the words of the divine Scriptures.

For these are a temple of God, who is found within them by those who read them aright.

He exalts God who theologizes rightly and truly, apprehending great and lofty things concerning God.

The praise here set forth is uttered by him who, through works and faith, has become a child of Abraham, whose God — the Author of all — confesses to be his, saying to him, 'I am your God.'

This man, having become a man of God by God's being named his own, and having fled from every wicked kingdom, is ruled as king by God Himself; whence also he will be able to say, 'You yourself are my King and my God.'

And since he has an immortal soul, he is able to say, 'I will bless Your name unto the age, and unto the age of the age.'

He blesses the name of God and of his King who, in bearing that name, does and says and thinks the things proper to the divine appellation that has been invoked upon him, beginning to bless from the present age with a view to doing so unto the coming age.

For if now, knowing in part and partaking of the good in a partial way, he blesses the name of his Benefactor, how much more will he bless it when the perfect Good has come, and the knowledge of God face to face.

It might also be said, concerning those who have believed from the circumcision and from the nations, 'Generation after generation shall praise Your works' — works that are fittingly praiseworthy by their very nature, seeing that even the Maker Himself beheld with a divine gaze that they are very good.

The holiness of God is none other than that of the Saviour.

For He is the sanctification who sanctifies those who draw near to God, to whom it is said, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'

The glory of this holiness is magnificent.

As many, therefore, as have partaken of the holiness of God, and of His glory as well, are transformed and magnificently hymn Him whose holiness and whose magnificent glory it is — not with bare utterance, but before this by works and by a right disposition, holily and gloriously, yea magnificently, conceiving and acting and speaking.

The glory of the holiness of God may mean the saying, 'He shall glorify Me' (that is, the Paraclete), 'for He shall take of what is Mine and shall declare it to you.'

Wherefore all who have heard Him declaring, in the giving of a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge, shall speak of His holiness.

'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,' and 'Shout unto God with a voice of exultation, for the Lord Most High is terrible' — these they will say practically and through a right mind (for through this very fearing of God and having surpassing reverence), to Him they will tell the power of His terrible works.

Then, having been benefited by the sinlessness that goes with virtue, they fear His greatness, and 'They shall tell the power of Your terrible works' — they shall recount them, knowing that this power is boundless and has no limit.

For they recount it not as having circumscribed and delimited it by their understanding, but as surpassing all comprehension of any created being.

For the Son alone knows who the Father is, and the Father knows who the Son is.

But even if the Son reveals the Father to whomsoever He will, yet He makes Him manifest only so far as is attainable to created beings to see, according to the proportion which each one has by way of prior preparation.

Since the belching that occurs perceptibly has fullness as its cause (for one who is filled with food sends forth breaths bearing the exhalation of the quality of what has been eaten), it would be consistent to say that he who is nourished on the words concerning the goodness of God, being filled from these spiritual foods, intensely belches forth the remembrance of God's goodness, which is able to equal the divine benevolence.

But since it is profitable, together with knowing God to be good, also to have a right conception of His justice according to which He judges, following upon 'They shall belch forth the remembrance of Your goodness' he added, 'And in Your justice shall they exult.'

The justice of God may be His only-begotten Offspring, in whom they exult who have obtained Him 'who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.'

For because it was by the goodness of God that He was sent to preach release to the captives, redemption came to those freed from captivity; and these, remembering the goodness of God that had come upon them, belch forth the remembrance of it.

But also, having perceived that they were justified, since He who redeemed them became to them righteousness also from God, they exult in this righteousness which is of God.

It is possible also to understand that every practical virtue, and moreover the righteousness which comes through faith in Jesus unto all who believe, is signified in the passage set before us.

Of all things that God has made through His Word and His Wisdom, He has dominion and rules; whence also He is the Almighty.

Since, therefore, the ages too, being a part of all things, have come into being by God through the Saviour, according to the Scripture which says, 'Through whom also He made the ages,' He reigns over all of them as well.

And what is theologized by Paul also harmonizes with what has been set forth, running thus:

'To the King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only wise God.'

For to reign over all the ages and to be King of the ages are one and the same.

Consider whether it is said of the Son, 'Your kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages,' since He reigns over the house of Jacob, His kingdom having no end.

For having dominion over all things that have come to be through Him, and reigning, He reigns unto the ages.

Whence, as of the other attributes belonging to the Father, so also He shares in the appellation 'Almighty.'

If, then, the Father is King of the ages, and the kingdom of the Son is a kingdom of all the ages, His kingdom is fittingly without beginning and without end, He reigning both before the ages and after them.

For 'The Lord reigning for the age and beyond the age and yet more,' and 'Our God is King before the age,' that is, before every age.

In accordance with His kingdom, His dominion too extends unto all generations.

And He rules as master over those who are under time and generation, but reigns as king over those who have risen above temporal things, through their looking to the things unseen and eternal.

'And God is faithful in all His words.'

This is said, not that they offer Him something from faith or in faith, but that He is worthy to be trusted.

At any rate, everything that He says comes to pass, according to what is written: 'He Himself spoke — will He not do it? or shall He speak, and not abide by it?'

Whence it is also said, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.'

In addition to being faithful in His words and holy in all His works, He imparts to them the holiness that is from Himself.

For just as He is holy in those who partake of His holiness, and the Saviour is wisdom in those who are wise according to Him, so the Lord is holy in all His works, which have become holy through fellowship with Him.

And those who sin actively are cast down.

Yet helping both, He upholds the one and raises up the other.

And how does He uphold? By commanding each one, 'You shall not covet your neighbour's wife,' and what follows; and by exhorting, through a wise man, 'Let not the desire of beauty overcome you.'

The falling might be those who sin in matters of conduct yet still hold to Christianity, while those who are cast down are those who have apostatized from it.

Or, the falling are those who sin in practice, while the cast down are those who go over to the heresies of the impious.

'In all His ways' which He traverses, providing and administering, judging, doing good, showing grace, chastising, He is found righteous.

'For God is faithful, and there is no injustice.'

And if one should also call His ways the virtues (for they lead to Him the one who journeys both practically and intellectually), in these too He is shown to be righteous.

At any rate, no one living diligently and according to virtue blames Providence, but rather one who is base, having walked outside His ways.

'For a man's folly ruins his ways, and he blames God in his heart.'

And since His ways are also called the commandments given by Him, He would be recognized as righteous, having measured them out to the capacity of those who receive them.

But he who says that human nature is incapable of virtue, or that fate constrains men into sin, will be declaring that God is not just in the ways which He has laid down by law.

He is said to be near to those who call upon His name.

wherefore also, as they make progress, they go on to call upon Him in truth;

for to call upon the name of the Lord is the more elementary thing, while those who call upon Him are perfect;

For it says: Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those who call upon His name — they called upon the Lord, and He heard them; thereby marking off those who did this genuinely and not by mere chance.

It is possible to say that those who live according to the letter of the law call upon the name of the Lord, while those who follow the newness of the Spirit call upon Him in truth, fittingly worshipping Him in spirit and in truth.