Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 7/40

for they are bound one to another, so that each is attested as to what it is by that which is joined to it.

To one who has given care to his own understanding, they are more to be desired than the things held precious among men.

For he who has withdrawn his desiring faculty from gold and precious stones will, in his longing for that which is truly good, expend it wholly upon the things truly to be desired, and will perceive them to be sweeter than honeycomb and honey, the sweetest among sensible things.

And he will apprehend the sweetness of the aforesaid things not by bodily taste but by a divine sense.

'These indeed the servant of the Lord will keep.'

'For Thy servant keepeth them.'

saying this not concerning himself alone, but concerning every servant of the Lord.

If for the keeping of these things something temporary and sensible were to meet him in return, the recompense would not be great;

but since the recompense for keeping them is supramundane and supracelestial, it follows that it is great.

The manifest sins that are carried into effect everyone will know, but rare is he who will detect the transgressions committed in secret, in the reflections and reasonings.

for the word 'Who?' here signifies the rarity.

Paul at any rate, being conscious of nothing against himself, yet knowing that it is rare to be aware of the aforesaid transgressions, said, 'Yet by this I am not justified.'

Accordingly, next after 'Who shall understand his transgressions?' there stands 'Cleanse me from my hidden faults.'

as though the righteous man were saying almost this: since it comes to pass that in the hidden reasonings of the heart there is a defilement which not only others but I myself am ignorant of, do Thou take it away, being the knower of hidden things.

For it comes to pass that this defilement, unless it be done away, when it grows intense becomes an occasion and pretext for my being taken captive under alien powers.

Sparing therefore Thy servant, suffer him not to be taken captive under alien powers, having cleansed him from his hidden things.

For the sins committed in secret, if not cut out, might one day pass over into actual sin, through which one will fall in with things alien to God — whether affairs, or wicked powers.

And God will spare His own servant, seeing that He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for all;

for the sparing of the Son would have been the destruction of all, whereas the not sparing was unto the salvation of all becoming reality.

And the Son Himself will be free from all harm, being in no way whatever of a nature to receive it.

And by 'great sin' he means the one carried into effect.

For if I should not be cleansed from my hidden things, these transgressions, persisting, transfer into an evil deed, and I become liable to a great sin.

Whenever these things are wrought in me by Thee, then the sayings of my mouth — which I have brought forth in praying to Thee, in hymning Thee, in giving Thee thanks — are unto good pleasure;

and 'unto good pleasure' are the sayings that are worthy of acceptance.

The meditation of my understanding, taking place in reasonings and thoughts, being free from every blemish, is before Thee continually.

Yet the blamelessness of my meditation has come from no other source than from You, who have cleansed me from my hidden faults.

With You helping me, O Master, I fall to none of those who wage spiritual war against me.

But if, through my own inattention, it should happen that I am caught by my adversaries, do You ransom me from those who have prevailed, being found at once my helper and my redeemer.

Cheering the one who is afflicted, either the reason dwelling within the soul or the Holy Spirit rousing him says:

May the Lord hear you in the day of affliction.

Through his progress the afflicted one learns not to grow faint, nor to cast down his hopes, but to cling to God through prayers;

for prayer is what leads God to hearken.

He therefore exhorts the afflicted one to prayers by saying:

May the Lord hear you in the day of affliction; may the name of the God of Jacob shield you.

The appellation of God that has been made proper to Jacob, being a shield, is yours.

But one must inquire why, seeing that God gave His oracles to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, it is the name of the God of Jacob, and not of the God of Abraham or Isaac, that shields the afflicted one.

It has come about that, since his life is a symbol of the athletic manner of conduct, the afflicted one, being trained to endure in afflictions and to contend against them, is shielded by the appellation of the God which is Jacob's, so that, having become a supplanter after his manner, he may supplant and throw down the things that afflict and the evil spirits that work them.

And He sends help from the sanctuary, either from the heavenly temple (for among the Hebrews the temple is called 'holy'), or from the Holy One, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, of whom it is said:

God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from the overshadowed, densely wooded mountain of Paran.

But this interpretation will be confirmed from the verse that follows.

For 'From Zion may He support you,' inasmuch as from there the Saviour shines forth upon the race of men, according to the words 'Out of Zion is the comeliness of His beauty.'

But the first sense would also be attested, God supporting from Zion the heavenly one.

The result will be your deliverance from affliction, so that in thanksgiving you may offer a sacrifice, that God may remember all your sacrifice thus presented, being spiritual.

But also 'may He accept your whole burnt offering and make it fat';

for perhaps the name 'sacrifice' applies to the lifeless things brought to the altar, whereas the whole burnt offering is a living victim.

God gives according to the heart of the one who prays, whenever he asks for such things as are both fitting for God to give and profitable for the one who receives.

For the request concerning these things, when made rightly, will have God as its provider.

'And may He fulfil all your counsel';

that is, may He fulfil the counsel, meaning the purpose rightly formed.

And a purpose is fulfilled whenever one does not err in his deliberations, but those things come to pass which he had previously purposed.

And this is that concerning which it has been said:

Behold, there is born to us this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.

'Salvation' is said to mean the deliverance by which one is saved, to whom God hearkens in the day of affliction, over which salvation there will be exultation.

And in the name of the Lord our God shall we be magnified.

While others are magnified over worldly affairs, we shall 'be magnified in the name of the Lord our God.'

And the word 'we are magnified' signifies progress in that which is truly good.

In this very way Isaac too, as he went forward, became greater, until he became exceedingly great.

And one is magnified in the name of the Lord by accomplishing the works of a genuine and perfect servant.

It is a great encomium of the one of whom the discourse speaks, that all his petitions shall be fulfilled by the Lord, since he asks for nothing of those things which God does not grant.

And the fulfilment of petitions is the coming to pass and coming into existence of those things for which one has made his request.

The voice of Christ is at one time understood of the priest, at another of the king, and at another of the dispensation of the Word of God according to the flesh;

one will say that it was spoken of David, another of Hezekiah, concerning whom he has also taken the subject-matter of the psalm, and another that it was spoken of the dispensation in a human manner.

But perhaps, since all who believe fill up the body of Christ, according to the words 'So also is Christ one body, but many members,' Christ is said to be saved whenever those who have become His body and members have salvation.

And it is well said also, 'Now I have known';

for 'now,' that is, in the present age, we know Christ to be saved, in that from this present time He receives the pledge of salvation.

He hearkens to Christ according to every interpretation previously stated.

And the right hand of God, that is, His Word, works salvation, not as it may chance, but in mighty deeds, like a most excellent general or king.

Understanding 'horses' as the frisky passions upon which the opposing powers mount, and 'chariots' as the conspiring of the impulsive passions in which they make ready against us;

but even if these trust in these things, yet for us the appellation of God is an invincible means of defence.

The one who has been established as king upon Mount Zion is properly and truly a king, rejoicing with a divine joy from the power of God present with him.

And let the whole psalm be interpreted concerning Christ the King and the one who reigns together with Him, so that we may not be compelled to indicate this at every phrase.

The one who does not accomplish the desire of the flesh walks by the Spirit.

This one, being blended with the Spirit, receives the desire of his heart from God.

For he who has abstained from the objects of fleshly craving receives from God, who fills his desire with good things, those things which the heart, that is the mind, craves.

But indeed, one who has obtained the things he needs has not been deprived by the Lord of the request of his lips.

From the words 'For You have anticipated him with blessings of goodness,' using the causal conjunction 'for,' he showed that he rejoices and exults at having been anticipated with blessings of goodness.

And the words distinguishing them from blessings that are not of goodness are added here, 'of goodness';

for Jacob, blessing his sons, in the manner of a blessing said that certain toilsome things would befall his sons, as the saying 'Cursed be their anger.'

And if any such lesser thing be set before him, God anticipates the king and his imitator with blessings of goodness, raising him up to the supramundane promises, of which he is already now to become a partaker in pledge.

From his own works and pursuits is one crowned.

Assuredly he who has justly pursued justice will receive the crown of righteousness, and he who has rightly glorified the Trinity will obtain the unfading crown of glory.

And one who has luxuriated in the Lord is shielded by a crown of delight, and he who has been saved by grace receives a crown of graces upon his own head.

But also he who has treasured up, together with gold and silver, precious stones, shall be crowned by the precious stones he has wrought, God bestowing upon the head of his soul the crown made of precious stones;

and to a divine power adorned with every virtue it is said, 'You have been bound about with every goodly stone.'

Therefore the God who crowns will, in mercy and compassions, crown with a crown made of precious stones, just as He crowns with hope those who wait eagerly upon Him;

for the Lord of Sabaoth is the crown of hope, woven with glory.

And since the Apostle writes to his own disciples, 'My joy and crown,' it may be that Christ's acquaintances too, being precious stones by reason of their vigorous virtue, once woven into a crown shall rather be set upon the head of Christ, since Paul says to his disciples, 'My joy and crown.'

He asked life of You, and You gave it to him.

If the one of whom the discourse speaks be the imitator of Christ, then to him who asked for life, God has given eternal life;

for 'the free gift of God is eternal life.'

But if he says it concerning Christ, that to Him who asked for life the Father gave it, it was in order that He might make the dead alive.

Length of days for ever and ever;

in addition to having asked for life, he also asked for length of days, that he might possess it immortally and without end.

And he too receives length of days who has illumined for himself the light of knowledge, so as to have each doctrine of the truth illumined;

for each circumscription of an understanding is a kind of day.

The salvation of God procures great glory for the King who has risen from the dead, and for everyone who has risen together with Him.

'Glory and majesty You shall lay upon Him' — this glory, that is, the glory pertaining to the resurrection.

The word 'You shall lay upon' signifies that even before this glory He had another, according to the saying, 'I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.'

Therefore what is fitting concerning the Saviour has come about in great things.

For what is greater than to raise the dead and to walk upon the sea, or than the like wonders of His? But indeed, when He too rose from the dead, what is fitting for Him was accomplished in great things;

for He was taken up into the heavens and sat down at the right hand of the Father, since 'You will grant Him blessing forever and ever.'

...of the Father, according to which He blesses those who draw near to Him; and then above all, He who was made a curse for us redeemed us from the curse of the Law, so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles.

'You will make Him glad with joy in the presence of Your countenance.'

Just as from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ the same grace and peace are given, so it comes to pass that the same joy arises from God and from His countenance;

and the countenance of God is the express image of His substance.

And these things will come to pass concerning the King who hopes in the Lord God, who obtains the things hoped for.

For having come by experience to the things expected, He is made glad in the presence of the countenance of God.

Since Your countenance is Your image, and this image is God the Word, the King, coming into the presence of this countenance, is designated His temple, and being conformed to Him, is made glad with joy.

Having received oil from the Most High by being anointed with the oil of gladness, He holds the priesthood which comes from the anointing as inviolable, being a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

For that He is not shaken shows that He will not have a dignity that is temporary, from which He could be shaken by changing into something else.

The hand of God is found, not against some, but against all the enemies of God, either bringing punishments upon them or making war upon those who set themselves against the divine Law, according to the saying, 'The Lord fights with a hidden hand against Amalek.'

And perhaps here He can call 'enemies' those who introduce the denial of providence and embrace godlessness.

For upon these, who do not acknowledge God, the hand may be found afflicting them and bringing chastisement upon them, so that then they may know that God presides over all things.

Here He calls 'those who hate God' the sinners.

For if in the one who keeps the commandments the love of God is perfected, according to the saying, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word,' it follows that the one who does not keep the word and the commandments of God hates God.

And the one who thus hates is said to have perished.

Since, then, there is an expectation that the Saviour, who is the right hand of God, will come to seek and to save that which was lost, it is fittingly said:

In what way 'hand' differs from 'right hand' according to the Scriptures must be considered.

He assigns the 'hand' to punishments, as in 'Your hand utterly destroyed the nations,' and 'Now, stretching forth My hand, I will smite you' (for indeed, 'the hand of the Lord it is that has touched me');

but the 'right hand' He assigns to salvation and the other good things;

for 'His right hand saved Him,' and 'The right hand of the Lord has wrought power,' and 'The right hand of the Lord has exalted me,' and the like.

Fittingly then, here too He says that the 'hand' is found against the enemies, punishing them, but the 'right hand' finds out those who hate, so that, being found, they may no longer be in perdition.

The words 'You will make them' I think are to be referred to the enemies, whom, because they have been given over to punishment, He will make 'as an oven of fire' — not always and to infinity, but until the time of the shining forth of the divine countenance.

And here too 'the time' signifies, not a span of time, but the particular condition of those who are able to receive the countenance of God.

And I think that the name of 'the oven' has not been taken up in vain;

for just as an oven is not kindled in vain or at random, but for some good end — the baking of bread or some other such thing — so also God sets the punishments with a view to such a time arriving, according to which they will be able to look upon His countenance.

Those who take their rest in wickedness and false opinion, being charmed by pleasure, God will throw into confusion in His wrath, being thrown into an uproar at the expectation of punishment.

And these, being so disposed, a fire shall devour — by no means a bodily fire, but that which follows upon the disease of the soul: either, when the soul repents of the evils it has done, the very repentance devouring it like fire; or the displeasure begetting in it a fire analogous to the diseases of the body.

Just as to those who have eaten, so to those who have nourished wickedness and evil doctrines, there will follow from these foods a corresponding fire, which shall devour them — not consuming the substance of their soul (for that is imperishable), but the quality according to which they have become wood, hay, stubble, chaff, and tares — so that, when the things that have supervened have been consumed, the substance that received them may be seen pure.

And here too it is shown that not their substance perishes, but the things they have wrongly borne as fruit;

and these are wicked dispositions and evil deeds.

Just as plants bearing perfect fruit put forth, from the very fullness of that fruit, seed for the production of other plants like themselves, so those who have borne fruit in wickedness and impiety sow the seed of teaching for the making of others wicked and impious like themselves.

The seed of this man God shall destroy from among the sons of men.

'They inclined evils against Him' — either godless doctrines concerning Him, or ascribing to Him the cause of wickedness;

and it was the traitors and those manifestly shown to be His enemies who turned evils aside against the Saviour.

It is to be noted that evils are accomplished by way of deviation and not by way of straightness, as are good things.

And in all things the wicked, being perverted, undertake even things impossible;

for they devise treacherously against Him who suffers no harm.

And perhaps every wicked person, in the things by which he sins, devises a counsel that cannot stand, since wickedness is unstable and does not endure.

'In Your remnants You will prepare their countenance.'

Those who are unable to see the countenance of God, because they do not have a pure heart, He sets to contemplate the things behind Him, the created works that come after Him, so that, beholding His creation, they may gain a conception of Him — that, having cast off the things through which they were unable to have a pure countenance, they may, drawing near to God, behold the very countenance of God itself.

'And in Your remnants You will prepare their countenance.'

And the 'remnants' of God are the things higher than His perceptible creatures.

'Since, condescending to our weakness, You have taken up something weak which is stronger than men, having been crucified out of weakness, Be exalted in Your power.'

'To sing' is to be understood of contemplation, but 'to make melody' of acting according to virtue.

Contemplating, then, the intelligible meaning of Your mighty deeds, and acting in accordance with them, 'We will sing and make melody of Your mighty deeds,' which You performed mightily as a trophy-bearing King against the devil and the opposing powers.

The 'help at dawn' is accomplished when the Sun of righteousness rises and prepares the beginning of day;

for the rising of the true Light, having put an end to the night of ignorance and error, has caused a spiritual dawn to shine forth.

And this dawn, having begun, will arrive at the end of perfect illumination, for the sake of which illumination all the other spiritual things were spiritually accomplished — because it is the end, for the sake of which all the other things exist, while it itself exists for the sake of nothing, which they also call the ultimate object of desire, because there is nothing higher than this which one could desire, since it is the most final good.

The superscription, then, of the present psalm is 'unto the end, concerning the help at dawn, for David' — that is, for Him who according to the flesh came to be from his seed.

And this too is to be observed: that the psalm preserves one speaking person from beginning to end, no change whatever being found regarding the speaking person.

And since the New Testament took expressions from this psalm as spoken by Christ, it is necessary to interpret the whole of it from the person of Christ.

And we will point out the expressions which the New Testament made use of, as we come to them.

It is to be noted that He has used the nominative case instead of the vocative;

for instead of saying, 'My God, my God (Thee), why?' He said, 'The God, my God';

and it is customary for Scripture in many places to do this.

What He wishes to say, then, is this:

'The universal and true God, being my God, attend to me who am warred against and have fallen in with many toilsome things;'

'For why have You forsaken me?' — the voice of one inquiring into the reason for the forsaking.

For since He was conscious in Himself of the utmost purity (for He knew no sin), He understood that He had not been forsaken on account of sin, but for something else profitable to the whole.

This, then, He wishes to be made manifest — that He suffers not on His own account, but on account of those who behold Him;

for having come to know that it was on their account that He was forsaken, they will sing His praise as Saviour.

For just as we speak of a 'reason' (logos) of heaven according to which it came to be, and a 'reason' of the sun on account of which it exists, so also we shall speak of a 'reason' of transgressions, and not that the Saviour took the transgressions themselves into His own body.

And these 'reasons' of the transgressions His body bore before the Passion; but having risen from the dead, when He is also said to have been saved, He had the reasons of the aforementioned sins far removed from His salvation, having stripped off the principalities and authorities that work the transgressions, when He triumphed over them, making a bold display of them upon the cross.

Not only when toilsome and gloomy things surround me is it, allegorically, 'night,' and 'I cry to You, my God,' that I may not suffer anything; but indeed even when the things concerning me are bright and radiant, again 'I will cry out,' that nothing harmful may come to pass through elation.

These things the Saviour speaks when confessing on our behalf.

'Yet while I cry aloud thus, I know that Thou wilt hearken to me.'

For it must be read with a slight pause.

'And in the night also I will cry,' not because folly is imputed to me, since the surrounding circumstances are grievous, and many in such straits are so darkened that they are ignorant even of this very thing—what one ought to say in crying out to God.

For I myself know for what cause a nightlike condition surrounds me.

'And the fathers from whom I am according to the flesh' (these are the patriarchs) 'hoped in Thee,' awaiting my shining forth.

But having hoped, they were not disappointed;

for they were delivered from death and from the devil, since I ransomed and rescued them.

For they too, crying out to Thee, obtained the salvation that is through me and from me.

For they were not put to shame in hoping in Thee;

for they received in full the things of their hope and expectation.

But let those take note who say such things—those who profess to be learned in the Law, yet hold false opinions concerning Providence.

For one might say the same things about Isaiah being sawn asunder, and about any others who have suffered for the sake of piety.

For we say that to be rescued and saved from the surrounding afflictions is not to come to be outside of them, but to bear them manfully and patiently, so that the mind is not harmed nor the right purpose driven out by the hardships.

At any rate, we say that the martyrs of the truth, who suffered countless things and died amid the torments, were rescued and saved from their tribulations.

For those who got outside their troubles by means of denial were not only not rescued and saved from the trials, but were even swallowed up by them.

For perhaps he who is conceived from seed, being brought to term in the womb, when the time of birth is fulfilled, is thrust forth to the outside by the womb itself.

But the Saviour alone the Father drew out from the womb of the Virgin, no seed having been cast into her from without, but the divine offspring being drawn forth from her very self.

To other men, hoping and expecting the things to come comes upon them after the fulfilment of reason, when they have reached the appropriate age.

But the infant from Mary alone, from its mother's breasts, hopes for perfection;

for it has God as its hope.

For never was He in wickedness, whereas all men, after ignorance and evil, embrace the good.

And showing this, Isaiah said:

'Before He knows good or evil, He rejects wickedness so as to choose the good.'

Before the Incarnation, Jesus bore only the intimate relation toward the Father;

for God was His Father, and He the Son of God.

But from the time that, having become flesh, He came forth from the womb, He had the relation toward the Father which is toward God.

'Even though Thou art always my Father, yet Thou didst also begin to be my God from my mother's womb.'

When affliction is present, God, being present with one, is able to grant endurance so that the afflicted one bears himself nobly; but when God is absent, the surrounding troubles are strong.

The one who speaks the psalm, then, prays, becoming a pattern for us men and teaching us thus to pray in trials—that such things not be done to him in circumstances in which God may withdraw, but that, God being present, he may wrestle down those who stir up affliction.

For if God should depart from anyone, there will be no helper for that one.

The 'calves' would be the evil powers that operate about earthly and bodily things (for this animal is a tiller of the soil), while those that champion false opinions through deceitful arguments and sophistries, goring like bulls, are 'fat,' being so on account of their supposed erudition and the affected elegance of their speech.

It is also possible that the Jews, who according to the Law sacrifice oxen, being named 'calves' from the things they practise, hostilely encircle the Lord;

and Pontius Pilate and any others in positions of authority, being goring bulls, are eager to surround Him.

The Saviour might say these things also concerning His body, the Church, seeing men who grovel on the ground and till the earth warlike encircling His body: 'Many calves have encircled me.'

And having seen the rulers, who profess the wisdom of this age, running about His body, He will say:

and presenting the savagery of their wickedness and their readiness to afflict, He says:

'They opened their mouth against me like a ravening and roaring lion.'

For their mouth opened to seize those who are deceived is the sophistical word.

But perhaps 'Like a lion that ravens and roars' is referred to the devil, from which lion the good Shepherd tore out two legs and the lobe of an ear, since the lion had swallowed, through disobedience, the ear of the man's soul, and through the legs, its walking.

Since those who have believed are the body of Christ, having taken up into Himself the sufferings of the believers, He says that He has suffered these things which befall those who fill up His body.

Since, then, the sheep endured scattering when the shepherd was smitten, He says, 'I was poured out like water;'

for water that is poured out is scattered.

But also concerning the apostles He says, 'All my bones were scattered;'

for they are His bones, on account of their firmness and their holding together the whole body.

Perhaps someone's heart becomes melted like wax in the midst of the belly, whenever he sees those whom he travailed for and begot enduring calamity.

Since, then, the things foretold happened concerning the disciples of Jesus, His heart, being disposed toward them with love, and set on fire, took on the affection of wax in the midst of the belly, feeling compassion together with those He had begotten.

But also the sweetness of the heart, which was like wax, was melted, when it became nourishment and passed into the belly;

for they cast down into the belly the thoughts of the heart, nourished like wax, melting and being refined through continual meditation, in order that it might be distributed for the constitution of the one nourished.

But also the strength, brought into the furnace of life, was dried up like a potsherd;

for after the trial of afflictions, one who is as it were kindled out of a furnace takes on the dryness of a potsherd, being no longer moistened like clay by the moisture of the clay and by the fluidity of pleasures.

The hearers being scattered and no longer present, for whom the tongue was active in teaching and discoursing, it would be rendered inactive, cleaving to the throat;

'Dust of death' should perhaps be understood as that which is named by Paul 'the body of death;'