On the Inscriptions of the Psalms 1 part 6/9

for this teaching of the Spirit was itself the "melos," as Symmachus names it.

Since such a division is found in many parts of the psalmody, it should suffice, having provided through what has been said a general approach to the understanding of the diapsalma, no longer to go through all the diapsalmata individually with precision.

For it would be at once tedious and superfluous to dwell lingering on things already known, prolonging the discourse by means of what is already agreed upon.

CHAPTER 11. But one might also reasonably raise this further question: why in the world the order of the psalmody is at odds with the sequence of the historical narrative.

We say, then, returning to the first aim of our discourse, that none of these things is a concern to our Teacher.

For, I think, one must call the Holy Spirit "Teacher," just as the Lord says:

"For he will teach you all things."

To this guide and teacher of our souls all other things seem secondary matters, while his earnest concern is to save those who wander in the vanity of life and to draw them toward the true life.

And natural and necessary is that order which, proceeding by sequence, brings to success the thing pursued.

Just as, then, in the case of stone-carvers, the aim of their labor is to make the stone resemble something among the things that exist, yet the work does not begin at once from the final result, but the craft imposes upon the undertaking a certain necessary order, without which the thing aimed at could not come about;

for it is necessary first of all to break the stone away from the rock to which it is naturally joined;

then to cut away the protrusions of the useless parts that jut out irrelevant to the imitation of what is proposed, and thus by the work to hollow out those parts of the stone;

and when these have been removed, the shape of the living figure begins to be seen in what remains — that figure with which the craftsman is concerned;

and after this, with certain finer and smoother tools, to scrape and smooth away the roughness of the stone, and then to impress the likeness of the archetypal form upon what remains, and afterward to brighten it and make the surface of the stone smoother — by which means the craft knows how to bestow such adornment upon the work;

in the same manner, since our whole nature has, as it were, been turned to stone through attachment to matter, the Word who carves us toward the divine likeness proceeds by a certain path and sequence toward the end of his purpose, first separating us, as it were, from a certain connatural rock — I mean wickedness — to which we had been joined by a certain relation;

then he cuts away the superfluous parts of the material;

after this he begins to shape, toward the likeness of the goal, that which lies within, by removing what hinders the imitation;

and thus, by the finer teaching of thoughts, scraping and smoothing our understanding, he then, through the forms of virtue, shapes Christ within us;

in whose image we were from the beginning, and to which we are again becoming.

What, then, is the order of the carving of our souls? In the first section of the psalmody we were cut off from a life in wickedness;

and in what follows, through a continuous sequence, the imitation was advanced toward perfection.

The order of the psalms, then, is composed as it is, since the Spirit's concern, as has been said, is not to teach us bare history, but to form our souls according to God through virtue,

so that it seeks the sequence proper to the sense of what is written in the psalms, not as the historical sequence would have it.

For just as, in the example we have set forth concerning the carving, the craft has need of many tools for the completion of the statue (and these tools are not alike to one another in the form of their shape, but one is fashioned in a spiral at its tip, while others have a saw-toothed edge;

others are fashioned in the shape of a chisel, while for others the form has been curved round into a semicircle);

and all these, and such like, each serves the craftsman at its own proper time) —

so also for the true Master who skillfully carves our souls toward the likeness of the divine, the psalms have been prepared as, so to speak, certain stone-carving tools, and the need of the work brings the use of these tools into their proper order.

And it is no concern to the craftsman to inquire meticulously which of the tools was forged before the other, so as to require that what was first in manufacture should also be first in the cooperative work of the carving.

For he who attends to the need does first, second, and however many in number, that which the need dictates.

Whether, then, the matters concerning Goliath and Saul stand among the first, or the matters concerning Absalom and Uriah, and the words of Hushai, and the encounter with Bathsheba, stand among the last, none of this is of concern to him who forms our hearts through these things, but rather how, through each of them, some cooperation toward the good might come about for us.

It is toward this that the sequence leading to salvation looks, and the order becomes most excellent for the things that thus work together with us toward this very end.

For instance, the first psalm separated man from his connatural bond to evil;

the second showed to whom we should cling, foretelling the manifestation of the Lord through the flesh, and showing that this is blessed — to put one's confidence in him;

as for one who, through faith, reigns together with the true Christ, the enemy does not attempt to cast him out of that dignity from without, but rather by becoming, out of that very person, something [contrary to it].

For the enemy has no strength against us from any other source, nor are we cast out of our dignity by anyone else, unless we ourselves become the parents of the evil offspring through a wicked travail.

who rises up against our kingship, and then rebels against us, seizing power for himself, whenever he defiles those women dwelling with us in the open, having wrought the abomination;

that is, whenever he makes public the corruption of our virtues, with which we once dwelt together.

Since, then, in the first psalms our strength has not yet been so hardened for the contests as to grapple face to face with the assaults of the adversary, the text has shown us, through the example given in the title, that fleeing from the onset of such a one contributes no little to the safety of those under attack—teaching you this: that whenever there arises for you an Absalom who flourishes in wickedness as in flowing hair, the fratricide, who has raged madly against your honorable marriage and your undefiled bed, flee, as the Lord says, from city to city. For it is in fleeing from the face of Absalom—such a son—that one is able, by means of the three darts, to destroy the enemy who had gathered his forces to himself with the aid of the tree that had bound up in itself his wicked hair.

And surely it is altogether clear to you what riddle is signified through the history: what that tree was, to which the hair of wickedness was nailed—which the apostle calls the handwriting of sins, as he says that this too he has taken out of the midst, having nailed it to the cross, that is, to the tree.

And what is the triad of darts that strikes the heart of the enemy at its very center, by which comes the death of the last enemy? So that our thought concerning the dart may become fitting for us, let us attend to the prophecy of Isaiah, who speaks in the person of the Lord: 'He made me as a chosen arrow, and in his quiver he lifted me up.'

This arrow, then, is the living Word of God, and 'sharper than any two-edged sword.'

And the Word is Christ.

And by this name the mystery of the Trinity is confessed.

in which we are taught both him who anointed, and him who was anointed, and that by which he was anointed.

For if any one of these were lacking, the name of Christ would not stand.

This name, then, when it is lifted up in our quiver—that is, when it comes to be in our soul through faith (for the soul is the quiver of the Word)—then it becomes destructive of him who rises up against us and pursues us, whose destruction is in the tree.

For this reason, after fleeing in due season from him who rises up (who is one in nature, but becomes a multitude through evil confederacy), and after saying, 'Those who afflict me are multiplied, and many rise up against me,' and whatever else the psalm contains in what follows in sequence, then comes the beginning of victory.

For timely flight from those who rise up becomes the cause of victory over the enemies.

For this reason the psalm that follows next bears the title 'Unto the end.'

And the end of every contest is victory, as our discourse has already explained systematically concerning these matters; and once you have tasted victory, successive victories over the enemies follow one upon another.

For in the first victory, when the pleasures of this life vie with the goods of the soul, in you the inclination toward the better things prevailed over material deception.

For having condemned those who seek vanity and love falsehood, you exchanged your attachment to visible things for the desire of the invisible.

In the next psalm, you conquer in another way.

For there being two contending with one another over the divine inheritance—the one putting forward the law, you putting forward faith—the righteous umpire of the contest gives you the prize of victory over him, so that the pure state of your soul becomes for you the rising of the sun, once the darkness that ushers in the dawn, which the psalm calls 'morning,' has departed.

And thus one may always find victory accruing to the contestant out of victory, the achievements that come from victory ever advancing toward what is greater and more illustrious.

being brought to completion by means of what has already been accomplished.

For he who has come to know the inheritance also makes mention of the Eighth.

which is both the limit of the present age and the beginning of the age to come.

And it is peculiar to the Eighth that it no longer grants time for the preparation of good or evil to those found in it, but renders back the sheaves of whatever seeds a person has sown for himself through his deeds.

For this reason it ordains that repentance be exercised here in this life (since in Hades such diligence is unavailing), so that one may be trained by these same victories.

Again the discourse sends you forth to other contests.

Again it anoints you for the onset of temptations.

For that same enemy, that Absalom, as though born anew out of ourselves, arms the war against us—a war whose murderous rage against us is turned aside by our own good counsel concerning the matter, or rather, by the alliance that comes from God.

For ascribing to God the cause of the good things accomplished for him through the words of Hushai, he has offered this thanksgiving.

But it would be superfluous to set out for you the details of the history with precision.

Yet it would be worthwhile to apply the riddles of the history also to the life lived according to virtue.

How the counsel that saves us becomes a noose for the adversary.

And this saving counsel is recorded, in part in the history, in part in the psalm.

But our aim is to understand the connected sequence found in the order of the Psalms, through which we are led forward to the Good.

Let us, then, understand here the counsel that destroys him who plots against us.

What, then, is this counsel? To regard it as an equal wickedness both to begin an injustice and to avenge oneself upon the one who began it.

For he assesses for himself the utmost penalty, and becomes the arbiter of the punishment against himself, if he should be found to have exchanged evil for evil as in a transaction, rendering back to those who first gave it that which he received.

And thus, after these contests, he is again shown to be victor.

For there follows the title 'For the winepresses,' which points beforehand to the end.

And the end of contests is victory.

But to expound again the meaning of 'For the winepresses' would be superfluous for our discourse, since it has been sufficiently made clear beforehand in what was examined in its proper place.

And just as, after the first flight from Absalom, the soul is deemed worthy of victory by discerning vain pursuits from true realities, so also now, after similar contests, employing the discourse 'For the winepresses' as an ally against the adversary, it becomes victor by destroying the enemy who is at once also an avenger.

who for this reason is named both enemy and avenger, because his very lures toward sin are, to those who perceive them, the bitterest punishment.

and the very means by which he deceitfully draws a man into partnership with evil are themselves that harshest kind of punishment.

Thus the divine apostle interprets this meaning, saying that they were 'receiving in themselves the due recompense of their error.'

For what other device for punishment could be more severe than the impurity attending shamefulness, which the workers of shamefulness bring about in themselves? He, then, who has destroyed in his own life the power of such a one—who punishes the one who has fallen into wickedness by that very participation in wickedness—beholds the heavens, and the majesty enthroned above the heavens, and the dignity of our nature: over what things it rules, and among what things it is ranked.

For by this same nature it both rules over the irrational creatures, and, being made nearly equal to the angels by comparison, is made only a little lower.

It is reason, then, through which comes both dominion over these creatures and kinship with the angels.

having been trained by victories, to sing 'For the hidden things of the Son' through harmonious and melodious contemplation.

And again, having conquered the beast lying in ambush against us in hidden things, so that no boast of the enemy against us any longer remains ('that man may no longer add to boasting greatly upon the earth')—then, through the victory that comes to you next in sequence, having a more perfect trust in God, you say, 'I have trusted in the Lord.'

In the victory that follows, you will again call to mind the Eighth, in which the boastful tongue, and the deceitful lips, and the madness against God are utterly destroyed.

And those will be kept safe from this generation, even forever, who do not walk about in impiety on every side, but hold to the straight way, which God has inaugurated for us as a new and living way.

And why need we go through each point in detail, since the order and title of the Psalms sufficiently show forth for you beforehand the progress of this approach toward the better—the interpretation of the titles set forth in the preceding discourses contributing no little to such understanding for us?

CHAPTER 12. But since the first section of the ascent through the Psalms has been completed, in the fortieth Psalm there occurs again a resumption of the beatitude, the discourse now defining 'blessed' for us in a different way than at the beginning.

For in the first psalms, to depart from evil was what was blessed;

but here, to recognize the good is pronounced blessed.

And the nature of the Good—or whatever word or thought it may be possible to discover even beyond this—this is the Only-Begotten God, who, though rich, became poor for our sake.

Whose poverty in the flesh, shown to us through the evangelical history, the discourse here foretells, pronouncing blessed the one who has come to know that poverty with understanding;

who is poor according to the form of a servant, but blessed according to the nature of the Godhead.

For the discourse, having named him needy and poor at the beginning of the psalm, says at the end of this section:

'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from age to age. Amen, amen.'

He, then, who has attained this height, begins another ascent.

For having left behind his father Korah—who through pride rose up against the priesthood and for this was burned up with fire, swallowed by a chasm, and made an underground dweller because of sin—he adopts himself, through faith, into the true Father, understanding how great is the difference between becoming a child of God and being reckoned a son of the apostate Korah.

Having attained, then, the goal of victory, and knowing how great is the difference between this and that evil father, and having devoured and consumed within himself every beastly and venomous thought after the nature of deer—to which belongs an innate power of destroying serpents—he also imitates the deer in its thirst, and is disposed thirstily toward the divine springs (and this would be the divine nature), which is one, yet is contemplated in a Trinity.

'For as,' it says, 'the deer longs for the springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.'

Then it consoles the thirst that is bound up with desire, and, hastening to attain what it longs for, and reckoning even the brief delay in sharing the good things a calamity, says both in the middle and at the end of the psalm: 'Why are you downcast, O my soul?' and 'Hope in God'—

[hope] which truly guarantees to us the good enjoyment of the divine hope.

And thus it proceeds to what follows, in which, through the divine altar, it becomes young again;

and again, in the psalm after that, the discourse makes victors of those who trace their lineage from Korah,

showing that favor with God is not blunted by the ignoble birth of one's fathers.

‘...us, and hast put to shame those who hate us,’ he passes on to the Song for the Beloved, so that those who had formerly sprung from the apostate, and then, having become victors over the evil one, might through understanding arrive at the goal of victory.

For [the title reads]: 'To the end, for understanding, a song for the beloved.'

in which we are also taught who he is whose throne, from eternity, rules over the things that are, and who the virgin is who is led as bride to him for life together with him, being deemed worthy of this honor in no other way than by forgetting her father.

And having dedicated this song to the Beloved, he again proceeds, in a song of victory concerning the sons of Korah, to advance the discourse through more hidden matters.

For the title of the psalmody is 'concerning the hidden things.'

in which, having passed through in his discourse the roaring of the waters and the tumult of the nations and the summoning of kings and the shaking of the earth, and having said that the Lord of all power is with us—

through all these things he foretells the manifestation of the Lord in the flesh, when the nature of demons resounds and is troubled, and the mountains too pass away—the earthy dispositions of wickedness which seemed to men of old to be immovable and unchangeable.

And the river of gladness gives joy to the city of God, and the Most High sanctifies his own tabernacle, and whatever else belongs to this sequence—by which, through these enigmas, the discourse foretells the hidden things.

Again the discourse moves on to another victory, at which all the nations applaud and greatly exult, because 'God has gone up with a shout of triumph.'

And the meaning of this 'ascension' is surely quite clear to you through Paul's interpretation, who says that it is not possible to ascend unless the descent should first lead the way.

...who [bids all] to sing. Having exhorted all to sing with understanding, he passes on in his discourse to a loftier condition, making the second day of the week the subject of the song.

Now this [second day], if it be considered according to the first constitution of the world, is the making of heaven and firmament, and the separation of the waters above heaven from those upon the earth.

But if you look toward the gospel, this is truly the day that has fashioned heaven for us.

For if the firmament is named 'heaven' by God, and Paul understands the firmament to be faith in Christ, then heaven is truly created for us according to faith, when the dejection of the Sabbath has passed away—

and the mystery became trustworthy for us: 'concerning him who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord'—who is indeed truly a great Lord, and greatly to be praised.

and whatever else the psalm contains in due sequence concerning that divine city, which it names both 'a mountain well-rooted' and 'the joy of the whole earth' and 'the mountains of Zion.'

concerning which he relates, above all, the most paradoxical thing of all: that she who was once 'the side of the north' has now become 'the city of the great King.'

'and God is known in her citadels'—clearly signifying by these things, in his discourse, the wonder that concerns the Church.

For the northern region of the earth belongs to the shadowed and frozen places, ever remaining without light and without any share in the sun's rays.

For this reason the opposing power is signified under the name of 'the north.'

She, then, who once dwelt in the north and was its 'side,' having been transferred out of the dark and frozen life, becomes the city of God and the dwelling-place of the kingdom, in whose citadels God is known.

By 'citadels' he means the outlines of buildings in a square shape, by which he obscurely signifies, through this enigma, the firm and lofty tower-structures of the virtues that are beheld in the souls of the saints—since God is known only in such lives as these; and what follows is in harmony with what has already been set forth.

'For in her the kings were gathered together.'

For it is not the concourse of those who are enslaved, but of those who reign, that populates that divine city.

'Who,' he says, 'having seen it, so marveled.'

And he relates the cause of this marveling: that those who formerly dwelt unworthily in this city, when it was 'the side of the north,' were troubled and shaken, and trembling seized them—and not trembling only, but also pains resembling the birth-pangs of a woman in labor.

having come about through the violent wind that shatters the ships of apostasy that wickedly ride high upon the sea of life.

'For with a violent wind,' he says, 'thou shalt break the ships of Tarshish.'

And he who keeps in mind the narrative of the Acts is not ignorant of the violent breath that was made known to the disciples in the upper room.

And he who has attended to the prophecy of Jonah knows very well that, having turned away from God, he seeks a ship sailing to Tarshish.

Then the discourse, as though divided between two persons, in what precedes assumes the character of the one who foretells, but in what follows plays the part of the voices of those who received the word.

For he speaks, agreeing with the truth of what has gone before, as if having learned what was said from someone else: 'As we have heard, so also have we seen.'

'in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.'

Wherefore he also represents those who beheld with delight what they had heard as exhorting one another.

And the exhortation was: 'Encircle Zion, and encompass her.'

'Recount it in her towers.'

'Set your hearts upon her power, and consider closely her citadels.'

and whatever else the discourse contains in due sequence.

After this, in due sequence, the proclamation of the word travels through all the earth; and just as, before the confusion of tongues, there was one lip for all and one voice, so now too all the nations and the whole inhabited world and all mankind become one hearing and one heart, since one and the same word resounds in all.

For having gathered together, all at once, the whole of human nature as into one assembly, and having set the whole world about himself as a single theatre, he proclaims the word aloud to all in common, saying: 'Hear, all ye nations,' he says, 'give ear, all ye who dwell in the inhabited world, both the earth-born and the sons of men, whether one among you happens to be rich or happens to be poor.'

For by these three pairs he comprehensively takes in all the diversity found in human life.

In the first pair he says 'all nations' and 'those who dwell in the inhabited world.'

so that by the name 'nations' the boundaries of places are signified, while by the phrase that follows, the inhabitants of those places.

And by saying 'earth-born' and 'sons of men,' he distinguishes the fleshly and earthy and more irrational from those who are being saved and who possess in themselves a certain character of human nature.

And the proper character of man is likeness to the divine.

And the inequality of life in respect of poverty and wealth is the most general cause of the varied and manifold irregularity found in the affairs of human beings.

Who is this who addresses so vast and so great an audience? Who else but the one who bears witness of himself that he will speak wisdom and understanding? And surely it is he who possesses the Spirit of wisdom and understanding—this great grace, achieved through attentiveness and meditation—who speaks these things.

For he did not say that the mouth was opened before the ear had first inclined to the word set forth in a comparison.

'My mouth,' he says, 'shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart, understanding.'

and first: 'I will incline my ear to a parable, and then I will open my problem upon the psaltery.'

What, then, is the understanding, and what the problem? God's creation, he says, knows no making of any evil day, as the account of the world's origin attests; but sin has made the day of gladness into a day of fear and punishment—a day which it would have been possible not to fear, were it not that the serpent who watches for our heel, whose name is 'lawlessness,' has encompassed the whole course of life round about, terribly bristling on every side with his own dragging motion amid the varied scales of the passions, and grown rough.

Then, having divided the whole psalmody in two, in the first part he sets down counsel not to look to anyone else as a redeemer.

Do men spend their lives in labors, as though expecting always to live? How is it that those who see those before them dying do not expect the corruption that comes through death? And [he shows] that they are truly foolish indeed and senseless who do not know that, after this present life, they will leave their wealth to others, while they themselves will dwell forever as sojourners in tombs—they who did not inscribe their names in the heavens through the higher life, but who, longing to become famous on earth, have made themselves nameless in the city above.

And the cause of all these things is that man does not understand his own dignity, but has voluntarily been dragged down to bestial pleasures, becoming enslaved to the throat and the belly and the filth that comes after the belly.

This is the [content of the] first division of the psalm.

But the remaining part has its subject matter in other things.

And again the discourse comes round to the same statement—prophecy, I think, thereby philosophizing to us that the first cause of the entrance of evils is that man was reduced to the level of a beast through the more animal-like passions.

But when the cure of such an evil had come to us by grace, through him who visited human nature in compassion, [some], having again forsaken the good shepherd, are shepherded by death, inclining themselves not toward the heavenly pasture but toward the pasture in Hades, becoming sheep of Hades.

For he says: 'Like sheep they were placed in Hades; death shall shepherd them.'

And thus, for a second time, through sin, there comes about again a numbness toward the honor that had come to us by grace, and a downward drift toward the irrational life.

For everything that comes to be outside the true Word is irrationality.

And the irrational and the senseless is the peculiar property of the beast.

CHAPTER 13. To record with precision, word for word, each particular matter contained in the psalmody would be superfluous, since it is quite easy for anyone who wishes, on the basis of what has been said, also to understand the matters that have been passed over.

So that I think there is no need to prolong the discourse with much speaking.

For to know how to cleanse oneself of evils becomes the preparation and the ground for unceasing victory over the enemy.

For since the struggle we have in this life against the ruler of this darkness, and against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly places, is unceasing—