詩篇講道 第 1 章 第 5/12 段

'I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have upheld me, and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.'

How is he who dwells in the heights exalted by those who have been allotted the lowly region? For if God is above in heaven and you are below on earth, in what way could you exalt God? What, then, does the prophet's promise mean? Is it not, perhaps, that he is said to be exalted by those who are able to think great and God-befitting thoughts concerning him, and to live for the glory of God? He, then, who hastens with understanding toward blessedness, exalts God;

while he who turns to the opposite course—which it is not even lawful to say—as far as it depends on him, abases God.

And we, as it were, put upon God every condition that suits our own circumstances.

Whenever, then, perceiving the harm that comes of sleep, we say:

'Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord?'—yet 'he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.'

And certain others, as it were, turn away the eyes of God, on account of the shamefulness of what they do, unworthy as it is of the eyes of God;

who, having repented, say:

'Why do you turn away your face?' And besides these there are others who have been cast out of the remembrance of God, and, as it were, bring it about that he forgets them;

who say, 'You have forgotten our poverty and our affliction.'

And, in short, men fashion the things said of God in a human, passion-like manner, making God for themselves to be such as each one has beforehand prepared himself to be.

I will extol you, therefore, O Lord, for you have upheld me, and have not let my enemies rejoice over me, bringing nothing low or groveling into my life.

And whence do I have the power to exalt you? Because you anticipated me and upheld me.

He has spoken the word 'You upheld' emphatically, meaning 'You raised me up' and made me higher than those rising up against me.

As if someone, taking by the hand a child inexperienced in swimming, should lift him up higher than the water.

He, then, who has recovered from his fall by the help of God, promises out of gratitude, through good works, to exalt God.

Or as when someone supports a weakening wrestler who is in danger of falling, and raises him above his opponent, thereby giving the one occasion for victory, while taking from the other the joy over his fall.

Now it is not the afflictions brought upon the saints for the sake of trial that procure joy for our invisible enemies;

but rather, when we despair under affliction, and our thoughts are straitened, when we grow weary before the constant recurrence of hardships—then they rejoice, and clap their hands, and exult.

his flesh boiled forth with matter and worms;

yet this was not joy for the adversary.

But if, yielding to his sufferings, he had uttered some blasphemous word at his wife's counsel, then the enemies would have rejoiced over him.

This was true also of Paul, when he was hungry, and thirsty, and naked, and buffeted, and toiling, and homeless;

he bore these struggles in such a way that he could speak of them with disdain, saying:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" "O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you healed me."

Blessed is he who recognizes the wound deep within himself, so that he is able to come to the Physician and say:

"Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled;"

and, "I said, O Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you."

Here, then, there is thanksgiving for the healing that was brought upon him;

For, he says, "O Lord my God."

God is not the God of all, but of those who have been made his own through love.

For he is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

But if he were the God of all, this would not have been attested of them as something exceptional.

My God has helped you.

The phrase "O Lord my God" is therefore an inward, heartfelt utterance, and fitting for the prophetic disposition.

"I cried out to you, and you healed me."

Nothing came between my voice and your grace, but as soon as I cried out, healing drew near.

"For while you are yet speaking," it says, "I will say..."

One who prays to God, then, must utter great words, so that healing may rise swiftly upon us.

"O Lord, you brought up my soul from Hades."

Concerning this healing, he who descended through weakness into Hades, but was brought up from Hades by the power of him who on our behalf wrestled down the one holding the power of death, gives thanks to God.

"You saved me from those who go down into the pit."

In many places, "pits" is the name given to underground excavations, designed for the imprisonment of captives.

For thus it is said in Exodus:

"From the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive woman who was in the pit."

But they also cast Jeremiah into a pit;

and out of envy, Joseph's brothers shut him up in a pit that had no water.

Every deed, then, either drags us down below, weighing us down through sin, or lifts us up on high, giving us wings toward God.

You saved me, then, who was formerly living an evil life, by separating me from those descending into that darkened and frigid place.

This, then, is the meaning of "You upheld me":

that is, You brought me back from my downward course, so as to give my enemies no occasion to rejoice over me.

What he says elsewhere, therefore—"Making my feet like the feet of a hind, and setting me upon high places"—he calls this ascent to the heights "deliverance from the pit" and "being upheld."

"Sing praise to the Lord, you his holy ones."

It is not the case that whoever utters the words of the psalm with his mouth thereby sings praise to the Lord;

but rather, those who offer up their psalmody from a pure heart, and who are holy, preserving righteousness toward God—these are able to sing praise to God, fittingly following the spiritual rhythms.

How many here stand fresh from fornication, how many from theft!

How many are hiding deceit, how many are hiding falsehood in their hearts!

They think they are singing psalms, while in truth they are not singing at all.

For the text calls the holy one to the singing of psalms.

"A bad tree cannot bear good fruit," nor can an evil heart bring forth words of life.

"Make the tree good, therefore, and its fruits good."

Cleanse your hearts, that you may bear fruit in the Spirit, and, having become holy, be able to sing wisely to the Lord.

"And give thanks in remembrance of his holiness."

He did not say, "Give thanks to his holiness," but, "to the remembrance of his holiness";

For here "confession" is taken in the sense of thanksgiving.

Give thanks, therefore, that you have come to be in remembrance of his holiness;

you who formerly, by sinking deep into wickedness and being defiled with the impurities of the flesh, had fallen into forgetfulness of the holiness of him who made you.

Therefore, for the atonement of your sins, confess the wrongs you have previously committed amiss.

"For wrath is in his indignation, and life is in his will."

First he spoke of the grim matter—wrath in the indignation of God;

then the more cheerful matter—life in his will.

For "indignation" is the judgment that certain grim things be brought upon the one deserving them, while "wrath" is already the suffering, the punishment brought by the just Judge according to the measure of the wrongdoing.

What I am saying will become clearer by an example.

Having noted the inflamed and festering part, the physician determines that an incision is necessary for the patient.

This is what Scripture calls "indignation."

After the physician's decision concerning the remedy, there follows the action that carries out what was determined, and the blade cutting and causing pain to the one being operated on.

This is what has been called "the wrath of God."

Come, then, to the passage before us, and you will discover the coherence of its meaning.

"For wrath is in his indignation."

That is, punishment according to the righteous judgment of God;

"But life is in his will."

What then does he say? That what God wills is this: that all should partake of his life;

but the circumstantial afflictions are not brought about by his will, but are inflicted according to the desert of those who have sinned.

Life, then, God grants to each by his own will, but wrath each one stores up for himself, "in the day of wrath and revelation and righteous judgment of God."

It is customary for Scripture to place the grievous things before the more pleasant;

because enjoyment is sweeter when the things that cause grief have gone before it.

"For I will kill," he says, "and I will make alive."

For he himself causes pain, and again he restores;

"He has struck, and his hands have healed."

He lets the afflictions come first, so that the graces may become more lasting for us, once we have vigorously striven to keep what has been given.

"Weeping shall lodge in the evening, and joy in the morning."

Remember the time of the Lord's passion, and you will find what is signified.

For in the evening weeping lodged with the Lord's disciples, when they saw him hanging on the cross;

but joy in the morning, when after the resurrection they ran about with joy, giving one another the good news of the vision of the Lord.

Or perhaps, universally, this age is called "evening," in which those who have wept blessedly will be comforted when the morning comes.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

"Blessed are those who weep, for they shall laugh."

Those, then, who spend the days of this age—already at its consummation and declining toward its own setting—in weeping over their own sins, these shall rejoice when that true morning comes.

"For those who now sow in tears shall reap in joy;"

"But I said in my prosperity:"

"I shall never be moved, forever."

Just as a city's prosperity is the abundance of goods for sale in the market, and we say a land is prosperous when it has yielded abundant crops;

so too there is a certain prosperity of the soul, one that is filled with works of every kind;

which must first be tilled with diligence, and then be enriched by the abundant streams of the heavenly waters, so that it may bear fruit thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold, and obtain the blessing that says:

"Blessed are your storehouses, and your remaining stores."

He, then, who perceives his own stability will speak with confidence, and will affirm that he will not be overturned by the adversary, like a full field which the Lord has blessed;

"Lord, in your will you granted strength to my beauty."

Those who have spent much labor on the examination of the account concerning the virtues have said that some of the virtues consist of theoretical principles, while others are without such theoretical principles;

for instance, that prudence consists of theoretical principles, in the domain concerning good things and bad things;

and temperance from that concerning things to be chosen and things to be avoided;

and courage from that concerning things fearful and things not fearful;

but beauty and strength are virtues without theoretical principles, following upon those that arise from theoretical principles.

For according to the due proportion and harmony of the soul's theoretical principles, some of the wise have understood beauty;

and according to the effective accomplishment of what is suggested by the theoretical virtues, they have understood strength.

Yet, in order that beauty may also come upon the soul, and a power capable of accomplishing what is needful, we need divine grace for this.

As, then, he has said above, "That life is in his will;"

so now he exalts God through thanksgiving, saying, "In your will you granted strength to my beauty."

For I was beautiful by nature, but weak because of having been put to death in transgression through the plotting of the serpent.

To my beauty, then, which I received from you at my first formation, you added the power to perform what is needful.

Every soul, then, that is contemplated in the due proportion of its own faculties, is beautiful;

but true beauty, and most lovely, contemplated only by the one whose mind has been purified, is that which pertains to the divine and blessed nature.

He who has gazed intently upon its splendors and graces partakes of something from it, as if being dyed with a certain vivid radiance upon his own countenance, as from some tincture.

Hence also Moses, by partaking of that beauty while conversing with God, had his face glorified.

He, then, who perceives his own virtue utters this word of thanksgiving:

"Lord, in your will you granted strength to my beauty."

But just as beauty and strength, being without theoretical principles, follow upon the theoretical virtues, so also there are certain vices without theoretical principles, namely ugliness and weakness.

For what is more unseasonable and more hideous than a soul given over to passion? Look, I bid you, at the one who is enraged, and the savagery within him.

Behold the one who grieves, and the abjectness and collapse of soul within him.

And as for the one enslaved by lusts or gluttony, or terrified by fears, who could even bear to look upon him? For the disposition of the soul passes through even to the extremities of the body;

just as, then, the traces of the soul's beauty also shine through in the demeanor of the holy person.

We must, then, take care for this beauty, so that the Bridegroom, the Word, upon accepting us, may say:

"You are all beautiful, my companion, and there is no blemish in you."

"But you turned away your face, and I became troubled."

"As long as," he says, "the rays of your visitation shone upon me, I continued in a stable and untroubled condition;"

but when you turned away your face, the passionate and disturbed state of my soul was exposed.

God is said to turn away his own face when, in times of circumstance, he abandons us to trials, so that the vigor of the one who struggles may be made known.

If, then, the peace that surpasses all understanding guards our hearts, we are able to escape the disturbance and confusion of the passions.

Since, then, the turning-away stands opposed to the will of God, while disturbance stands opposed to beauty and comeliness and strength;

disturbance, then, would be a shame and weakness of the soul, arising from estrangement from God.

Let us pray, then, that the face of God may always shine upon us, so that we may be in a demeanor befitting the sacred, and gentle, and in every way untroubled, out of readiness for what is good.

"For I was prepared," he says, "and I was not troubled."

"To you, O Lord, will I cry, and to my God will I make supplication."

It has often been said concerning crying out to the Lord, that crying out belongs only to the one who desires great and heavenly things.

But if someone should ask God for small and earthly things, he uses a small and low voice, one that does not reach the heights, nor come to the ears of the Lord.

"I subdue [my body]," lest, my blood being in good condition and boiling over, an abundance of flesh should become an occasion for sin.

Do not pamper your flesh with sleep and baths and soft bedding, always repeating to yourself this saying:

"The Lord heard, and had mercy on me;"

"the Lord became my helper."

After recounting what it was that he had cried out to God, immediately perceiving God's assistance, and urging us on to the making of similar petitions, he says, "The Lord heard, and had mercy on me;"

"the Lord became my helper."

Let us also, then, pray, and cry out with the spiritual cry, asking for great things, not striving on behalf of the flesh ("for those who are in the flesh cannot please God"), so that the Lord may hearken to us as well, having mercy on our weakness, and that we too, having enjoyed the divine help, may say:

You have turned my mourning into joy for me.

Joy from God does not come to just any soul, but if someone has wept much over his own sin, with strong lamentations and unceasing dirges, making mourning for himself as though for one who had died, for such a person the mourning is turned into joy.

That there is a mourning worthy of praise, the children sitting in the marketplaces show, who say:

"We wailed to you, and you did not mourn;"

"we piped to you, and you did not dance."

Now the pipe is a musical instrument that makes use of a cooperating breath for its melody.

For the prophetic words exhort us to the well-ordered activity of holy prophecy, which is called dancing.

But the prophets also wail to us, summoning us to mourning, so that, coming through the prophetic words to an awareness of our own sins, we might lament our ruin, subduing our flesh with toils and hardships.

For such a one, then, the mourning garment is torn away, which he had put on while lamenting his own sin,

and there is put on him the tunic of gladness and the garment of salvation, these radiant, festal wedding garments, adorned with which one who has come from the bridal chamber will not be cast out.

Sackcloth is a helper toward repentance, being a symbol of humility.

"For long ago," He says, "sitting in sackcloth and ashes, they would have repented."

And since the Apostle, with unveiled face, is transformed into the same image from glory to glory, he calls the grace given him by the Lord his own glory.

"That my glory may sing praise to you,"

Let the one, then, who sings praise with the spirit, say:

"That my glory may sing praise to you, and I shall no more be pierced with grief."

"No longer," he says, "shall I do things worthy of being pierced with compunction and having my heart stabbed at the remembrance of my sin."

"O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever;"

For since you gave me the forgiveness that comes from repentance, and brought me back to glory, taking away the shame that comes from my sins, for this reason I will give thanks to you for all ages.

Could there ever be so great a span of time as could bring upon my soul forgetfulness of such great benefits? BY THE SAME AUTHOR, ON THE THIRTY-SECOND PSALM

"Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord;"

"praise befits the upright."

The word "exultation" is customary in Scripture, signifying a most radiant and joyous condition of the soul over things worthy of good cheer.

Rejoice, then, you righteous, in the Lord;

not when your household affairs prosper, not when you are in good bodily condition, not when your fields abound in fruits of every kind;

but because you have the Lord, such in beauty, such in goodness, such likewise in wisdom.

Let the joy that is in him be sufficient for you.

And one who exults with gladness and joy over something highly prized seems to rejoice in Him in just this way.

If ever, falling upon your heart like a light, a sudden thought of God has arisen and shone about your soul, so that you loved God and despised the world and all bodily things, then from that faint and brief image recognize the whole condition of the righteous, who steadily and unceasingly accomplish their joy in God.

For that exultation falls upon you but rarely, according to God's dispensation, so that through a small taste it may bring you to remembrance of what you have been deprived of;

but for the righteous, the divine and heavenly joy is enduring, because the Spirit dwells in him once for all;

and the first fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.

The Lord is, as it were, a place capable of containing the righteous;

in whom it is altogether necessary that the one who has come to be there should be of good cheer and rejoice.

The righteous also becomes a place for the Lord, receiving Him within himself.

The one who sins gives place to the devil, disobeying him who says:

"Neither give place to the devil."

"If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place."

Having come to be, then, in the Lord Himself, and, so far as we are able, beholding His wonders, let us in this way gather joy for our hearts out of contemplation.

"Praise befits the upright;"

And Paul rebuked the python-spirit, lest the holy one be commended by an unclean spirit.

Such also is: "But to the sinner God said:"

"Why do you recount my statutes?" Let us, then, be zealous to flee every crooked and knotted work, and let us set our mind and the judgment of our soul straight, like a true rule, so that, having become upright, the praise of the Lord may become fitting for us.

For just as the serpent who led the way into sin is called crooked, and the sword of God is brought against the dragon, the crooked serpent, because it makes many swervings and turnings aside in its course,

for as it is dragged along, the trailing body of the serpent is drawn unevenly over the ground, the forward parts rushing one way, the parts that follow inclining sideways, and again the hindmost parts turning to the opposite direction.

So that the one who follows the serpent will show his own life to be crooked and uneven and full of contradictions;

but the one who walks after the Lord God makes his paths straight, and the tracks of his feet upright.

"His face has beheld uprightness."

If two straightedges are set alongside one another, their straightness fits together with each other;

but if a warped piece of wood is set alongside a straightedge, the crooked thing is found not to fit together with the straight.

Since, then, the praise of God is upright, there is need of an upright heart, so that praise may become fitting to it and be matched with it.

But if no one can say "Lord Jesus" except in the Holy Spirit, how could you bring forth praise, not having the upright spirit renewed within your inward parts? "Give thanks to the Lord on the harp; sing to Him on the ten-stringed psaltery."

First one must give thanks to the Lord on the harp;

that is, one must render the activities performed through the body in harmony.

For since we sinned in the body, when we presented our members as slaves to sin unto lawlessness, let us also give thanks with the body, making use of the same instrument for the undoing of sin;

or, equivalent to that testimony, through confession afflict your own body.

And then, after this confession, you are worthy to sing to God on the ten-stringed psaltery.

For perhaps the psaltery is said to signify the mind that seeks the things above, because the construction of this instrument has its resounding power from above.

The works of the body, then, give thanks to God as it were from below;

but the mysteries proclaimed through the mind have their occasion from above, as it were resounding through the spirit.

The one, then, who looks to all the commandments, and makes, as it were, a harmony and concord of them, this one sings to God on the ten-stringed psaltery, because the general commandments written at the first giving of the law are ten in number.

"Sing to the Lord a new song."

That is: Do not serve God in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit.

The one who does not take the law in a bodily sense, but recognizes its spiritual meaning, this is the one who sings the new song.

And the new and ever-renewed song that has taken us in succession is the teaching of the Lord, which renews our youth like the eagle's, whenever we destroy the outer man, and are renewed day by day.

But also the one who stretches forward to the things ahead is ever becoming newer than himself.

So that the one who is always becoming newer than himself sings an ever newer song to God.

And what is newer is called either that which is unusual through familiarity, or that which has recently come into being.

If, then, you recount the wondrous manner of the Lord's incarnation, which surpasses all nature, you sing a newer and strange song;

and if you set forth the regeneration and renewal of the whole world that had grown old through sin, and proclaim the mysteries of the resurrection, then in this way too you sing a new and fresh song.

Sing well to him with a shout of triumph.

Hear the command.

with an undistracted mind, with a sincere disposition

Just as good soldiers, after their triumphs over enemies, offer up hymns to the one responsible for the victory,

Be of good courage, he says, I have overcome the world.

What man is able to wage war against the evil one, unless, taking refuge in the protection of the commander-in-chief of the host, we from there, by the faith we have in him, strike our enemy and shoot our arrows? Sing well, then, with a shout of triumph.

Now the shout of triumph is a certain inarticulate sound, resounding together in harmony from those who lock shields with one another in battle.

Sing, then, in harmony and in unity of spirit, and in the union brought about through love.

What then must we say as we sing? That the word of the Lord is upright.

Upright too is the Word who is destined to be glorified, the Word of the Lord, who was in the beginning with God, and was God.

And all his works are in faithfulness.

What does he mean? Heaven is a work, earth is a work, the sea is a work, the air, all inanimate things, animate things, rational beings, irrational beings.

How then are all things in faithfulness? What faith is there in inanimate things? What faith is that of irrational creatures? What faith is there in a stone? What faith is there in a dog? Neither the inanimate nor the irrational is in faith.

Yet the statement excluded nothing, but embraced everything, when it said:

All his works are in faithfulness.

What then does he mean? If you look, he says, at the heaven and the order within it, it is a guide to faith;

for through itself it reveals the craftsman;

and if you look at the arrangements concerning the earth, through these too your faith in God is again increased.

For it is not by observing God with fleshly eyes that we have come to believe in him, but by the power of the mind we discern the invisible through the things that are seen.

All his works, then, are in faithfulness.

Even if you examine a stone, it too has some proof of the power of the one who made it;

and so too an ant, a gnat, a bee.

Often the wisdom of the creator shines through even in the smallest things.

For he who spread out the heaven and poured forth the immense masses of the seas is the same one who hollowed out the finest sting of the bee like a tube, so that through it the venom might be poured out.

All his works, then, are in faithfulness.

Let nothing be a pretext for your unbelief.

This happened by chance, and that occurred spontaneously.

Nothing among existing things is disordered, nothing indefinite, nothing that has come about at random, nor anything carried along by chance.

Or, 'an evil coincidence,' or, 'an unlucky hour.'

These are the sayings of the uneducated.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall without the divine will.

How many are the hairs of the head!

Not one of them is forgotten.

Do you see the divine eye, how nothing of the smallest things escapes its oversight? The Lord loves mercy and judgment;

the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.

If God's judgment existed by itself, rendering to us severely according to our worth, in return for what we have done, what hope would there be? Who of all would be saved? But as it is, he loves mercy and judgment.

Having made mercy, as it were, his assessor, set forward before the royal throne of judgment, thus he brings each one to judgment.

If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, O Lord, who shall stand? Neither is mercy without judgment, nor is judgment without mercy.

Before judgment, then, he loves mercy, and after mercy he comes to judgment.

These are yoked together with one another, mercy together with judgment;

so that mercy alone might not produce laxity, nor judgment alone bring about despair.

The judge wills to have mercy on you, and to impart to you a share of his own compassion;

but if he finds you, after your sin, humble, crushed in heart, having wept much over your evil deeds, having unashamedly made public what was done in secret, having begged the brethren to labor together with you toward healing—if he sees you altogether become an object of pity, he supplies to you his mercy without stint;