Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 24/34

He treads and runs upon it.

And he will delight in his way.

It is also possible to say this, namely that:

He whose steps are directed by God wills the way of God, into which He leads him, upon which He guides and escorts him.

So even if it should ever happen that he falls, he is not utterly cast down.

When he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down.

Take for me an example such as this:

Let there be some excellent runner, having swiftness of foot by nature and consummately trained in the art of running.

This man, being quick at running and having the feet of the inner man well exercised, should he ever stumble while running, in some measure takes but a slight sensation of the stumble.

For he is not overturned, nor does he himself, as though struck down, buckle and cease from the course.

So even if it should ever happen that some slip occurs, he is not utterly cast down.

Judas slipped from the way of truth and fell down.

Having fallen headlong, he burst asunder in the midst.

But he would not have fallen headlong, had he not been utterly cast down.

When he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down.

Even if some stumble occurs, he does not give place to the devil, so that the latter should altogether overthrow and cast him down.

Someone looked upon a woman with desire, as far as the first onset of passion.

He seemed to fall, but he was not utterly cast down.

For when he yields to follow the reasoning, and the desire for her beauty overcomes him, then he has been cast down, then he has fallen.

Such are the elders who raged madly against Susanna.

For the Lord upholds his hand.

The 'hand' often signifies action, the active power.

Upholding his active power, He does not permit him to fall down completely.

He finds where he may rest his hand.

And the Lord becomes his stay, according to what was said before this:

And the Lord became my stay.

He masters his creative power, so as to declare:

Behold the mastery: and the seed of the ungodly shall be utterly destroyed.

And it comes to pass unto God.

The 'seed' stands for the offspring of the ungodly.

But the 'seed' can also mean, as it were, the disposition of the ungodly.

And it is utterly destroyed to their profit.

So that it may not bring forth anything yet remaining, the seed is utterly destroyed.

The righteous shall inherit the earth, and shall dwell forever and ever upon it.

Upon the earth that has been spoken of.

The mouth of the righteous shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment; the law of his God is in his heart, and his steps shall not be tripped up.

The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps shall not be tripped up.

The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom.

When the wise man has been illumined, he brings forth luminous words:

A man's wisdom shall make his face to shine.

He who speaks this wisdom has the face of his mind illumined.

For the discourse of the godly is always wisdom.

And again, he who speaks — he who obeys the one who says:

Open your mouth with the word of God, saying:

I opened my mouth and drew in breath — such a one speaks wisdom.

The mouth of the righteous, then, shall meditate wisdom.

He always meditates on things wise, not only the contemplative truths of godliness, but also the wise things pertaining to practice.

His tongue speaks judgment.

He utters all things with discernment; he brings forth no idle word.

For he knows that by his own words a man is justified, and by his own words he is condemned.

For this reason he speaks with discernment.

And just as the reasonings of the righteous are judgments — for the thoughts of the righteous are judgments —

they do not have reasonings that are cast about at random, but ones that are judged and examined and set to rule.

From such judgments a discerning word too is brought forth.

And for this reason the tongue of the righteous speaks judgment.

For if he speaks the things he thinks, and he thinks reasonings that are judged and examined, then his word too is of such a kind.

And for the rest, he renders the cause:

His law is not in his ears only, but in his heart.

For God gives His laws into the heart, and inscribes them upon the understanding.

In him, therefore, whose heart has been filled with the law of God, for this reason he both meditates wisdom and speaks judgment.

But once this has been established and set right, his steps are not tripped up.

He walks straight ahead, he does not stumble; he has, so to speak, wings upon his feet.

And he who has wings upon his feet does not slip, does not fall.

The wise man, then, has shod himself with the readiness of the gospel of peace.

The readiness of the gospel becomes sandals for the feet of the righteous man.

For these sandals are winged, bearing him upward.

God therefore also says to the soul:

He entrusted the putting-on of this sandal to no other, but He Himself shod it upon him.

Now the hyacinth loves to imitate the color of the heavenly ether.

"With an ethereal sandal, therefore, I have shod you."

The sinner considers the righteous man and seeks to put him to death.

He considers him, not that he may imitate him.

Paul writes to those who are in Christ:

"considering one another to provoke unto love and good works," and the rest.

They consider one another, that they may imitate one another;

"For obey those who lead you, who have spoken to you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their manner of life."

Here the act of considering is praiseworthy.

But the sinner considers the righteous man, not that he may imitate, not that he may welcome him, but that he may put him to death.

And the sinner puts the righteous man to death in two ways:

if he draws him away from righteousness, he puts him to death; or he puts him to death by treacherously bringing death upon him, as the elders devised to do against Susanna.

"But he will not forsake him into his hands, nor condemn him when he is judged by him."

Even if he sets upon him, he will not forsake him into his hands.

We have spoken of a distinction in the term "forsaking."

By those who plotted against him, he was not forsaken into their hands;

for then he would have been forsaken, if He had done to him what they wished.

The martyrs were slain by certain men, yet they were not forsaken into their hands.

But then they would have been forsaken, if they had offered sacrifice.

When the sinner is judged against the righteous man, the righteous man is not condemned.

The elders were judged together with Susanna, and she was not condemned when they were being judged;

for those men were shown to be false accusers, liars.

"Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land."

Even if the things troubling you are many, even if many are the foes who wish both to harm and to destroy you, yet wait for the Lord and keep His way, so that it may be said:

for then He will exalt you, and you shall inherit the land.

He made clear the prize of endurance, namely that:

He will make you lofty, He will take you up on high, He will conduct you into heaven itself.

"When the sinners are utterly destroyed, you shall see it."

You shall see the sinners being destroyed, and you shall know yourself to be one who has inherited the land.

Because you waited for the Lord and kept His way, you did not fall beneath them.

"I saw the ungodly exalted on high and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon;"

"and I passed by, and behold, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found."

Often the ungodly reckon themselves great and lift themselves up like the cedar in Lebanon.

It is also possible, since it is said with the article, to understand it of the devil himself, that:

"I saw him lifting himself up against all the others, saying:"

"I will seize the whole inhabited world with my hand; as abandoned eggs I will take it up, as a nest I will grasp it" — you know that whoever comes upon a nest easily takes the eggs.

Even if they had just become newly hatched chicks, still he prevailed over them, since they could not have a strong, upward-soaring flight.

Out of great boastfulness and rashness he thus supposed that he held the inhabited world — that is, all men — in his power like lifeless eggs, like nestlings that cannot be lifted up but still remain in the nest.

I saw, then, this ungodly one who says:

"By my strength I will act, and by the understanding of my wisdom I will remove the boundaries of nations and plunder their strength" — I saw him exalted on high.

I passed over in thought to the life that comes after these things, to the reckoning of Providence, and I no longer saw him, nor, when his place was sought, was it any longer found.

Ungodliness will cease; ungodliness will no longer exist.

It is not among the immortal things, just as concerning righteousness it says:

"Righteousness is immortal."

"Like the cedars of Lebanon"? — Often by this wood He signifies the proud:

"And the Lord will shatter the cedars of Lebanon."

There are also praiseworthy cedars.

By this name He signifies those who are great in this life:

"Open your doors, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars."

Because the great ones have been greatly laid low.

He called the great ones cedars.

There are, then, also praiseworthy cedars, but the discourse is not now about these.

"And I passed by, and behold, he was not."

I passed by in my understanding and saw that he was not.

I saw him growing bold through wealth, through human authority.

I passed by in reasoning and saw that the ungodly man is not among the things that abide.

He is still exalted on high like Lebanon and its cedars;

for I sought his place among the things that exist, and I did not find it.

God has made all things very good.

"Out of the mouth of the Lord shall not come forth the good and the evil."

It does not mean that neither the good nor the evil comes forth, but rather that the good comes forth from the mouth of the Lord, while the evils do not.

For this reason there is no place for evils among the things that exist:

For God has made all things very good,

and He takes no delight in the destruction of the living.

The generations of the world are ordained for salvation;

there is no kingdom of destruction nor of Hades upon the earth.

Keep innocence and behold uprightness, for there is a remnant for the man of peace.

Turn away from evil and do good, and dwell for ever and ever.

Keep innocence, behold uprightness, being set outside all wickedness.

That man, then, is innocent according to the sense here signified.

He who possesses virtue beholds also uprightness.

For there is a remnant for the man of peace.

It is impossible for the man of peace to be utterly done away with.

Even if he be forsaken, yet he still has a remnant.

But the transgressors of the law shall be utterly destroyed together.

The transgressors of the law are destroyed all at once;

for this is what it means for them 'together' to fall into destruction.

The remnants of the ungodly shall be utterly destroyed.

But there is a remnant for the man of peace.

The remnants of the ungodly shall fall prey to destruction.

But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.

Even if the righteous should at some time seem, when plotted against, not to have obtained the salvation that comes from men — as did Abel and however many other righteous men were plotted against — yet their salvation is from the Lord, the eternal salvation, not the temporary one.

And He is their protector in the time of tribulation.

Even if a time of tribulation should overtake them, He is their protector.

He holds forth His own shield on their behalf, so that they may remain altogether unwounded — not indeed in body, but in soul.

And the Lord will help them and deliver them.

In helping them He delivers them.

Even if not here, yet they shall at some time be delivered;

for even if they be plotted against for godliness' sake and should seem to die, yet not ······

But this is truly to be helped by God, to be delivered by God.

He has both: in helping He delivers.

He delivers them from the grievous things that beset them ······

And He shall rescue them from sinners and shall save them, because they have hoped in Him.

... salvation than Him, He shall rescue them from among the sinners and shall set them outside of all ·····

And here too he who harms the righteous, as he supposes, harms himself.

He who touches you is as one who touches the apple of His eye.

He took this example in order to show that the one who ····· is harmful to himself.

He does not affect that man, but himself.

How do we understand the bow? — the ruling faculty that is stretched taut ·····

For a remembrance concerning the Sabbath.

O Lord, rebuke me not in Your wrath.

Remembrance (anamnēsis) differs from reminding (hypomnēsis);

for one is reminded when another ····· to another.

... when he recalls the former things of his own, he remembers.

Thus, at any rate, some have spoken of the ····· lessons.

Those who wish to be saved come to the knowledge of the truth.

To come to knowledge is the same as to come to remembrance.

For a man remembers that which he knows.

No one is said to remember that which he ·····

They recognized Joseph, and he called them to mind.

If he takes a remembrance concerning the Sabbath, he has the beginning of some good thing.

The Sabbath signifies rest ·····

He does not keep Sabbath in the six days, but when he passes beyond these and ·····

This world, in which we pass our time, the things that are seen and temporary, came into being in a hexad of days ·····

But when he passes beyond these things and henceforth lives in a manner above the world and above the heavens ·····

... to heaven, then it is that he keeps Sabbath.

This is the Sabbath-keeping in the proper sense.

For he who walks upon the earth yet has his citizenship in the heavens, this one ·····

And he shall at some time begin also ·····

There they have their heart and already keep Sabbath — the delightful, holy Sabbath unto God ·····

Come unto Me, all you who are weary ·····

... I am and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.

We keep Sabbath in a figurative sense (tropology), but truly ·····

They are not the originals — this is plain.

But if the feasts and the new moons and ·····

... to them the Sabbaths also — these Sabbaths are but shadows.

... which comes to the people of God, to have rest.

For a remembrance concerning the Sabbath.

O Lord, rebuke me not in Your wrath.

The Sabbath, then, was called to remembrance, in which no servile labor ······

... should he be brought in there, he remembers the most excellent things there ·····

For thus shall genuine repentance be shown forth.

He seems to do this in a feigned manner.

One must therefore presuppose genuine repentance.....

So that it may be seen of what greatness and of what beauty it is.

O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath, neither chasten me in Thine anger.

.....then he offers on behalf of sin.

I will take thought concerning my sin.

Because I am a sinner, chasten me.

Having called to mind his own sin, he says these things.

He knows sin in one sense, but in another sense he does not understand it.

For in so far as he has experience of it, he knows it; yet he does not understand it.

But if he had understood that it is harmful and destructive and brings about the greatest ruin, he would have understood it.

It is possible, then, that one who takes experience of sin knows it in one way and yet does not understand it in another.

The man conformed to Jesus is said neither to have known sin nor to have committed it.

But according to the other signification of 'to know,' no one knows it more than He.

Did he know it? 'O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath, neither chasten me in Thine anger.'

Often some wrath and some blow that comes upon a man shows him to be a certain sinner.....

.....he was dragged down into great impiety, he was delivered to the Assyrians, to the Babylonians under their hand.....

But that the handing over of Israel did not happen by chance, but on account of foregoing sins:

Jerusalem hath sinned a sin; she is become as a thing unclean.

She sinned a great sin, and did not merely sin, but sinned a sin.

Jerusalem hath sinned a sin.

When, therefore, someone falls, on account of foregoing sins, into grievous reproofs.....

Do not once and for all rebuke me, nor once and for all fail to chasten me, .....

All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.

The reproof that is by light, that is by teaching.....

The holy man does not decline such a reproof.

Again, one is chastened in anger, .....

In ignorance he acted wickedly and thought wickedly.

He wishes to be reproved in the manner that has been said.....

But this reproof is spoken not in wrath, but for perception.

Sin being made manifest and.....

The matter of wrath is the lesser, just as the reproof is less than the toilsome chastening.

Speaking in the person of those overtaken by evil, he says:

May the Lord chasten us before.....

.....the judgment upon us; make plain to us the punishment that awaits those.....

.....threaten us—yet do not bring the substance of the threat into effect—and.....

.....in judgment, reveal to us also, by way of a settled verdict, what must be done.

The priests in the temple profane the sabbath and are guiltless? .....

In this manner it is profaned; they are said [to profane it] because they work.....

.....performing the sacred service, they seem to profane the sabbath.....

Or perhaps according to the supposition of the.....

'Thy disciples, plucking ears of corn on the sabbath, do that which it is not lawful to do on the sabbath'—He spoke this saying to show that.....

the priestly duties, and they are not liable to transgression.....

.....those who suppose [it to be so]; but they are guiltless.

So that he who does these things does not transgress the sabbath.

.....to the world and to activity and to desire.....

For 'come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'

the higher anagogical sense, which the divine [interpreters] call.....

and the sabbath-rest that is to be spoken of.

Just as one who walks upon the earth has his citizenship in heaven, so one who is still in the world comes to be above his works and keeps sabbath.

The sabbath did not simply forbid work, but servile work.

But the priestly elevation, being above the world, makes men free.

They are not works of God as servile works are, not the works which God performs, but those which He commands to be performed by those who obey Him.

It shall receive not something else in place of the corruptible, but the corruptible itself changed into incorruption, and the animate itself become spiritual.

The other [aspect] of the body is incorporeal.

If, then, anyone should say that it is a different body which we shall receive back, he does not know what he says.

For in both cases he set down 'body.'

It is sown a corruptible body, it is raised an incorruptible body; it is sown a weak and dishonoured body, it is raised a strong and glorious body; it is sown an animate body, it is raised a spiritual body.

In a certain sense, then, that which is raised is also different from that which has fallen.

But if he says that, if there is an animate body, there is also a spiritual body, he speaks of the difference in respect of conception, and says:

The spiritual is not first, but the animate; afterward the spiritual.

The 'first' and the 'afterward' seem to be two; but I speak of two in this way, as if I were to say that the man is first an infant, then a child, and the child is not first but the infant, and I do not by any means speak of two hypostases, nor do I speak of two men, but of one.

Just as the ages of life do not make him who advances in age to be of a different essence, but the change or alteration comes about by way and by disposition, so also from the child a man comes to be, and the man is not a different man beside the child, but the same man.

One then truly and bodily comes to be in heaven and keeps sabbath, no longer walking upon the earth while having his citizenship in the heavens, but already seated in the heavenly places, already dwelling there under the great High Priest who hath passed through the heavens.

And that the affairs of men did not begin from evil but from virtue, he says by way of reminder concerning the sabbath.

When someone comes to be in virtue, he is reminded that he once was in it.

It remains for me to wish to hint at a profound teaching.

If the beginning of men and of the soul is from this present life, then evil is prior to virtue, and virtue is a thing subsequently taken up.

We have a life that is with the body; we have also a life that is without it.

And that, having cast off the body, we come to be in an incorporeal life, is surely plain to everyone.

But let it be inquired whether this soul existed even before the body.

It is not evident, however, but let it be inquired into and examined.

If, then, the life of the rational being derived from the material life, then vice would be prior to virtue;

for we see that reason begins its course having first been filled up out of vice.

But if, as the truth stands, virtue was prior to vice—for God made man upright, yet they themselves sought out wicked reasonings—

then observe that the seeking out of wicked reasonings comes after uprightness.

And it is virtue that produces uprightness.

'Man, being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and became like them.'

He has come to man; but from the human state he has descended into the bestial.

And in general, indeed, the good things are always prior to the things that are blamed.

Skill must exist before bad craftsmanship; to know a thing erroneously comes after knowing it rightly;

for how could we say at all that this man is in error, unless we knew what is right? For this reason, then, [it comes] to a remembrance concerning the Sabbath.

And since to keep the Sabbath is to pass one's life in virtue, and to live pleasingly to God, and to render service by doing the things that God wills, human life had its beginning from virtue;

but this does not appear in the more bodily life;

for virtue is a thing to be received by those in the body; it is a thing to be taught.

Hence the one who comes to be in the good is being reminded of it.

What is the number thirty-seven?—You cannot apply it to everything.

Now someone might say this, that thirty-seven is composed of two holy numbers;

for the number three is also praised in Scripture.

Indeed, at any rate, he who tithes brings only one of the fruits of the holy land as he offers;

for one yields a hundredfold, another sixtyfold, and another thirtyfold.

And so that we may not always be saying the same things, it must in all cases suffice to say that the number three is holy, whether it be taken among units, or among tens, or among hundreds.

For it has often been said concerning this number too, that it is incorruptible, that it is virgin, that it is without father and without mother.

'O Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor chasten me in your anger.'

He does not decline to be reproved or chastened altogether, but [declines it] in wrath and anger.

For it is possible to be chastened rationally and knowledgeably, in which sense the holy one prays—or [rather] praises and blesses—saying:

'Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O Lord, and teach out of your law.'

He showed that this chastening comes about by way of teaching.

But there also often comes about a reproof and chastening through wrath and anger, through griefs, through bitter things.

And there also often comes about a reproof, whenever by argument the fault in which he stands is demonstrated to the one who is accountable;

'Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.'

The wise man reproves the one who is less wise, even one who is, as it were, a beginner.

'But all things, being reproved, are made manifest by the light.'

And many say such things concerning reproof, that a reproof is, as it were, a syllogism of contradiction.

Suppose, for instance, someone is in vice.

By bringing to bear syllogistically the argument that distinguishes vice from virtue, and by coming to know the good, he takes into his mind an apprehension of the evil.

And this reproof is not one that comes about in wrath, but in chastening;

for since the knowledge of opposites is one and the same, if we come to know the good, we have gained knowledge of the evil.

And it is possible to take the examples from the Scriptures;

the Ninevites had come to be in great vice, so that the outcry of their wickedness went up to God, calling forth punishment and requital.

But God sent forth a proclamation of repentance.

They were chastened, they were reproved—not in anger or in wrath.

The Sodomites, for instance, were reproved and chastened in wrath and anger.

He does not, then, wish to be reproved by these means—though he would by no means decline to be reproved knowledgeably.

'For your arrows have been fixed in me.'

For this reason I decline the reproof that is in wrath and the chastening that is in anger, since your arrows have been fixed in me.

I have received knowledge of the punishments that are brought upon the undisciplined, upon those who accept no reproof.

And in many places of the divine discipline, the arrows signify the punishments;

as when Job, being in many griefs, might say that:

'The arrows of the Lord are in my body.'

That fearful ulceration he called the Lord's arrows, being lodged in his body.

And by this expression he introduces [the doctrine of] providence.

These painful things, such as arrows wounding me, have not been laid upon me apart from the decree of God;

for they are the arrows of the Lord, whose wrath drains my blood;

'whenever I begin to speak, they goad me.'

And observe, indeed, that he called that painful thing and that evil ulcer the arrows of the Lord.

In the great [song] of Deuteronomy God says that:

'I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour the blood of the slain.'

In many places, again, the sword signifies punishment;

'for if,' he says, 'you are not willing and do not hearken, a sword shall devour you.'

Of such a kind also is what is said in Isaiah:

'My sword has been made drunk in heaven,' which is to say:

the punishment has laid hold even of certain heavenly beings.

And if God cast into eternal bonds the angels who did not keep their own dominion, then the sword of God—that is, the avenging power—has been made drunk even in heaven.

And understand the same things here also;

if someone who seems to have his citizenship in heaven, being a heaven so as to declare the glory of God, should suddenly and unexpectedly fall under punishment, then in heaven the sword has been made drunk—among those who profess to hold a heavenly citizenship.

'The sons of the kingdom, you shall be cast out into the outer darkness.'

But it is also taken in a praiseworthy sense;

'Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty one; peoples shall fall beneath you.'

Your words, which wound unto desire and love, are sharpened.

For you are mighty, and mightily you send forth your words, and you wound unto love those who are struck by them.

Straightway, then, the soul that has experienced this—that is, the Church—says:

I am wounded with love.

There are, then, arrows that are praiseworthy, and there are also those that are blameworthy.

But since these were named together with wrath and fury, they are not such as wound unto desire and love, but such as produce a perception of the evils that beset a person.

And you have laid your hand upon me.

In many places, again, the punishing power is signified by the name of the hand of God, as when he says to Pharaoh:

as when he says to Pharaoh:

Now, stretching forth my hand, I will smite you.

Behold, the hand of the Lord shall be upon your cattle that are in the fields;

for thus were those cattle given over to destruction.

Your hand utterly destroyed the nations.

When the active and creative and protecting hand of God is named, it is called the right hand.

This hand, then, leads one on as a guide unto salvation.

So he who has received experience of being led by the hand of it says:

You have taken hold of my right hand—that is, of the practical power for good deeds.

And there is no healing in my flesh because of the face of your wrath.

The name of the flesh, being of manifold use according to Scripture, signifies various things.

Sometimes the flesh is spoken of as signifying our sensory disposition:

I will draw out from them their heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh—by 'heart of stone' he means the foolish understanding, deprived of all perception.

In its place a fleshly heart is put in—one that is perceptive and pliable to the laws of God.

So that which is pliable and perceptive is often called flesh.

But flesh is also spoken of as being distinguished over against spirit.

By 'spirit' he means the mind's disposition, and by 'flesh' that which is set in contrast to that disposition.

When, therefore, someone thinks and acts and lives according to the things of the flesh, he is far from the spirit.

But when he follows the spirit—the right disposition, and especially that which partakes of the Holy Spirit—then he renders the flesh idle.

Concerning such flesh, and the spirit set over against it, he says:

But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit.

And yet they were in the flesh; they were still burdened with the body.

By their disposition they had come to be outside of it.

And just as one walking upon the earth can have his citizenship in heaven, so one still dwelling in the flesh comes to be outside of it, whenever he follows the spirit.

And this is what is called the reasonable departure.

But some, not understanding in what sense the wise have spoken of a 'reasonable departure,' when often asked, say:

that they have removed themselves from life either by reasonings or by the passions of the flesh.