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

'For these,' he says, 'shall bind with iron fetters the hands of those who seem to be glorious among them,' not permitting them to do the things which, before being bound, they were doing wickedly and to the harm of many.

And the holy do not carry out their vengeance and reproofs, or the imposition of bonds, without judgement, but by a written verdict, bringing forth the establishment of true doctrines and the overthrow of falsely-named knowledge from the written oracles.

I am not unaware that some of the interpreters took the exegesis historically, fabricating for themselves victories over certain visible enemies, and trophies, and songs of triumph.

But indeed the apprehension of God through the divine Scriptures is a firmament of the power of God, yet it is not itself the very power of God.

The power of God came to men when they partook of the Holy Spirit.

For 'Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you' was said to the apostles by the Saviour, and also, 'But tarry ye in the city until ye be clothed with power from on high.'

Whenever, then, someone firmly guards this power that has been given to him, keeping it with attentiveness, he, coming to be in its firmament, praises God from whom he received this divine power, and will say: 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.'

Then, since they are ruled by the Saviour of the power in whose firmament they praise Him, perceiving the almighty acts of sovereignty by which He royally creates, provides, benefits, and chastises, they praise Him for His acts of power.

For instance, the wise man, understanding that the judgements of God are unsearchable and His ways past finding out, praises Him whose judgements and ways are incomprehensible, according to the multitude of His unsearchable judgements, as he says: 'O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God,' and, 'Thy knowledge has become too wonderful for me.'

'It is exalted; I cannot attain unto it.'

For however great a multitude of it I may comprehend, it becomes mightier than I, so that I can no longer keep pace with it, since it is infinite and incomprehensible.

He who is not ashamed of Jesus and His words, but with boldness clearly and with a loud voice sets forth the matters of theology, praises Him and His Father with the sound of a trumpet.

Whence also the heralds of the truth have a commandment, in order to proclaim the teaching more boldly and clearly, to lift up their voice as with a trumpet.

It has therefore been said to them: 'Blow the trumpet, proclaim in Zion, in My holy mountain.'

But also the resurrection of the dead—that it may become fearful to all who rise—is signified by a trumpet, of which he says: 'For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,' and in another epistle: 'With the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God He shall descend from heaven,' unto the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ.

As, then, the command of the resurrection, made manifest to all unto the rising of the righteous and the unrighteous, is made known by the loud-voiced instruments, it is fitting that the praises of God also be brought forth by the same instrument.

'Praise Him with psaltery and harp.'

What the psaltery and the harp are, and what difference they have from one another, has been stated in the foregoing.

God must therefore be praised, singing with the spirit and with the mind.

For the spirit and the mind sound together from above, from God, on account of the loftiness of the doctrines.

Through all the power of the soul and of sense-perception they are struck like taut strings.

For the soul was rendered as a harp in the passages read beforehand.

But if, through every activity of each member, it is strained after the different manner of a harp and struck, one would not err in praising God through every action done by means of the body.

Those who carry about in the body the dying of Jesus, by the very act of having put to death their own flesh, praise Him with the timbrel.

It has been interpreted earlier what this timbrel is, when the passage was set forth: 'In the midst of the maidens playing timbrels.'

For this body, when the soul takes it up again out of the resurrection, is a maiden playing the timbrel as she proclaims the praises of God in the assembly of the heavenly ones, together with the myriads of angels keeping festival; so that this is what is signified by the phrase that follows, which runs: 'Praise him,' as with a timbrel, 'so also' with a dance.

For after the resurrection the soul dances together with the powers and with all the higher creation, having taken up, in place of a corruptible and weak and dishonoured and natural body, a body that is incorruptible, powerful, glorious, and spiritual.

But to praise with strings and organ can mean the same as to praise with the psaltery and the lyre; for perhaps he called the lyre 'strings,' and the psaltery 'organ.'

For perhaps he called the lyre 'strings,' and the psaltery he called 'organ.'

I consider that by his being praised 'on well-sounding cymbals' this is signified: that one must also, with the voice according to utterance, hymn the Lord through the discourse concerning God.

One may understand this from the words of the Apostle, who writes thus:

'I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.'

For if, he says, I speak not with the mind but with the tongue, without interpreting each of the things spoken by the tongue, when the hearer receives only the voice without the understanding — so that the speaker seems to him a barbarian, since he has perception only of voice and sound — then to him one becomes a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, striking and merely buzzing about his ear.

Let us therefore give glory to God, and in our utterance also imitate the perfect and righteous men.

For concerning each of these it is said: 'The discourse of a godly man is ever wisdom.'

Likewise also: 'The mouth of the righteous shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak of judgement; the law of his God is in his heart.'

That is to say, with mind and tongue and mouth he hymns God.

By 'well-sounding cymbal' he meant the melodious and musically ordered voice that signifies matters with utter clarity.

And the same he calls a 'cymbal of jubilation,' as being brought forth in triumph over enemies who have been captured and brought underfoot.

When God shall be all in all, the passage set before us will be fulfilled.

For, helping our weakness, he grants us the understanding of a divine breath, even as it is written concerning the first man: 'He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.'

For life, and the fountain of life, is he who said 'I am the life' — concerning which life it is said to the Father: 'With thee is the fountain of life.'

The breath of this blessedness-making and sanctifying life, coming into man, will render his soul alive, so that he who has attained it may say in thanksgiving: 'My soul lives unto him.'

This gift, he alone and he wholly will enjoy who has received the word of Jesus and believed in the Father who sent him.

For the Saviour says: 'He who hears my words and believes on him who sent me has eternal life.'

This breath, together with the Spirit, God extends to those who have risen above the things of sense and who trample upon them, who are called his people, as the prophet said concerning him: 'Thus says the Lord God, who made the heaven and established the earth, who gives breath to the people that are upon it, and spirit to those who tread upon it.'

And it was also said by one of the ancients: 'It is the breath of the Almighty that teaches me.'