詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 20/24 段

So that Ethiopia may stretch out her hand before God, whether in prayer, or also in offering gifts to the King — both the fragrant spices of true religion and the gold of the knowledge of God.

"Upon Israel is His majesty, and His power is in the clouds."

For the holy apostles, tracing their descent from Israel, made manifest the mighty work of God through the miracles which they wrought.

And those who came after them, having received the gift of teaching, like certain clouds drawing up the rain from the sea of the all-holy Spirit, bring irrigation to mankind.

In another sense, the great deeds of God are made known to the most contemplative Israel, and His power to him who is set above earthly things.

"Wondrous is God in His saints, the God of Israel."

Those who love virtue, by living well through themselves, make God to be praised in song; and they alone marvel at God, inasmuch as they are able to perceive His majestic acts of providence.

He, then, who is the God of the spiritual Israel — which is the same as to say, the God of the saints — will strengthen also the new people, so that they may both speak and do all things for His glory.

And He will give power to be delivered from the error of idols, and strength to remain in the blameless faith of Christ;

He who is well-disposed toward His people, inasmuch as He both formed them and formed them anew, and deemed them worthy of so many good things.

The psalm contains a prayer of the Saviour offered in the person of humanity, and it plainly recounts the causes for which they contrived for Him death upon the cross, and moreover the Passion itself, and the calamities that would befall the Jews after the Passion;

and in addition to these, an introduction to the evangelical way of life, and the teaching of worship in spirit and in truth, in which it also brings the psalm to its close.

That every prayer which the Saviour prayed, He prayed in the person of human nature, this very thing He indicates at the end of the psalm, saying:

"For the Lord has hearkened to the poor, and has not despised His prisoners." For at the consummation of the present age God the Lord appeared to us, and we underwent the spiritual change — not falling from good things to worse, as also happened in Adam, but being removed from every evil to every good.

And Paul too writes concerning Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that in the days of His flesh He offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death.

With sweat, an angel strengthening Him, being in agony, He prayed the more earnestly. "Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even unto my soul."

It seems likely that these things are spoken also in the person of the Lord, when, having become man, He humbled Himself even unto death.

For since He suffers pain on our behalf, He fittingly also prays to be delivered from the trials which, like a torrent, flooded over His soul.

And Jonah too, the type of Christ, says, "The water was poured about me, even unto my soul." And in Job:

"You have come upon the fountain of the sea, and you have walked in the tracks of the abyss" — by which the regions of Hades are signified.

"I have come into the depths of the sea, and the tempest has overwhelmed me."

(Cyril, Eusebius, Theodoret.) He varies the discourse with diverse images, finding no image worthy of the miseries that oppress the captives.

He hints also at the regions of Hades, into which the Saviour alone descended and passed through.

The word "I have come" is like the saying, "I lay down my life of myself." For Christ willingly underwent death, which He calls a tempest.

It is a fitting utterance also for one who has suffered shipwreck of all virtue together:

"I have come into the depths of the sea, and the tempest has overwhelmed me. O God, you have known my folly, and my trespasses have not been hidden from you."

(Cyril, Gregory, Eusebius.) Or, the meaning is: Even if there were certain trespasses on account of which they nailed me to the cross, perhaps you, O God, were the first to know them — you from whom nothing can be hidden;

for the cross of the Lord became to the Jews a stumbling-block, but to the Greeks foolishness.

They called the Passion of Christ foolishness, and the cross weakness.

"You then, O Father," He says, "have known the dispensation wrought through the cross;"

and He says this because He became obedient to the Father even unto death, and that the death of the cross.

And the words "My trespasses were not hidden from you" are like the saying, "Him who knew no sin He made to be sin for us." "I became estranged from my brethren."

Whoever is truly God-fearing and holds an upright, unadulterated faith may use such an utterance;

and when the glory of God is being held in contempt, then let even the law of love toward the brethren stand idle;

and let the God of all alone be loved, and above all things;

for to Him we owe our very life.

"And I covered my soul with fasting, and it became a reproach to me."

And yet He bore the reputation of a glutton and a wine-drinker among the malicious;

how then does He now say that He was reproached as one who fasted? To this it must be answered that on rare occasions, when invited, He went to the banquets, both He Himself and His disciples.

But those who slandered Him made use of these words, being ignorant of the rest of the time of His manner of living.

Yet let the continuous forty-day fast suffice for proof.

And these things were fulfilled also at the time of the Passion, when, the Bridegroom being now taken away, the disciples fasted; so that it is likely that He too, foreseeing the Passion and the evils that would follow for the Jews, afflicted His soul with fasting;

for fasting is a check upon the swelling that arises from the irrational passions.

(Cyril.) Certain persons laugh at the labours of the saints, and make the things that are truly to be admired into an occasion for reproaches.

"And I made my garment sackcloth, and I became to them a byword."

And the Saviour too makes confession and is ill-treated on our behalf;

for the sackcloth hints at a harsh manner of life and at mourning.

But this too became a byword to the Lord, that is, an occasion of reproach.

For it is customary for the base to reproach the good on account of the hardships which they endure;

and it is likely that Christ, after being put to death, became a byword to the Jews;

as though to say, "May our enemy suffer such things as also He who was crucified."

But according to some, by the sackcloth is signified the body, which is hard and resistant;

for it was on account of the vesture of the flesh that the Lord was reproached.

"They that sat in the gates talked against me," and so forth.

(Cyril.) And the Jews reproached Christ both at their drinking-parties, making Him the subject of drunken tale and mockery, and in their conversations with one another they derided Him.

For the assemblies of those who had no proper business found leisure to occupy themselves with Him, and they chattered — that is, spent their idle time — and continually made Him the subject of their talk.

"And they that drank made songs against me."

He says these things, intimating the utterly grievous shipwreck of the Synagogue of the Jews, and deprecating being drowned together with them in the abyss of ignorance. "But I, in my prayer to you, O Lord."

(Cyril and Theodoret.) Symmachus renders it:

"But my prayer is to you, O Lord." When these things happen, He says, I fix my eye upon you, and I await the help that comes from you.

And the Saviour too might say to the Father:

Even though they mocked me, and repaid me evil for good, yet even on their behalf I will not cease to make my prayer to you.

And this is plain from the fact that the evangelist has set Him forth as praying even upon the cross on behalf of those who crucified Him.

Then He sets down next also the very words of the prayer.

For God the Father was well pleased to sum up all things in Christ;

and to sum up is to take up again and restore the nature of things to what it was in the beginning.

And He calls "good pleasure" the counsel of God, that we should be saved, which seemed good to Him.

"That He might redeem those who were under the law." Having come for this, He says:

"A time of good pleasure" is like the saying, "The hour has come." "In the multitude of your mercy hearken to me, in the truth of your salvation."

And this you will do, having saved me — who died on their behalf — through the resurrection.

For on their behalf I take upon myself life and salvation;

for together with me shall be made alive those who were dead through sin.

The only true salvation is that which comes from God, the salvation wrought by physicians and generals being but a type of it.

'Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.'

The Saviour also asks to be delivered from the Jews, who hated him because he reproved to their very face the wickedness hidden in their depths.

Or by 'deep of waters' he means death and the temptations which in Christ we overcome.

For in that he himself has suffered, having been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

'Let not the tempest of water overwhelm me,' and so forth.

(Of Cyril and Eusebius.) By 'tempest of water' and 'deep' and 'pit' he seems to name either the dangers that arise in being tempted, or at times even Hades itself.

'Thou hast brought up my soul from Hades'; like those who have fallen into a pit whose mouth has been stopped up.

Saying, 'Let me be delivered from the deep waters,' and what follows.

For death, having prevailed, swallowed up the other souls, and the pit held them fast, having shut them in with its own mouth.

Death is a pit having a mouth, having from the beginning of the age swallowed up all who fell down into it, and after swallowing them shutting its own mouth, so that none should run back to life.

'But upon me,' he says, 'let this not come to pass.'

And he says 'tempest,' hinting at the utterly grievous shipwreck of the Synagogue of the Jews, and deprecating that he should be drowned together with them in the abyss of ignorance.

'A tempest sank me,' he now says;

'Let it not overwhelm me': since it is possible for one who has been submerged to swim up again, he prays not to make trial once more of the things he has experienced.

I know also of other waves and a fearful surge rising up against the soul, that which springs from the passions of the flesh; against these one must be unapproachable, and in no way be filled with the bitterness that comes from them;

but ever, while praying, to say:

'Let me be delivered from the deep waters,' and what follows.

'Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is good.'

'Turn not away thy face from thy servant.'

(Of Cyril and Eusebius.) Since the Father too, on account of the transgression in Adam, had turned away from the nature of man, for this cause Christ entreats the Father to turn his face back again toward it, and not to continue in wrath, by a metaphor drawn from those who in their anger turn away their face.

The turning away of God is his forsaking.

'Because I am afflicted, hear me speedily.'

Hear him, then, saying plainly:

'For my iniquities are gone over my head;'

'like a heavy burden they weighed upon me.' Therefore draw near to him who says:

Christ too might say to the Father:

'On behalf of the common possession, man, I am afflicted, that I may set free the captive taken from among us.'

'And hear speedily,' since the mystery concerning him has need of speed.

'Attend to my soul, and redeem it.'

The Saviour too might say to the Father:

And what then is the manner of the redemption? The justification in Christ, the salvation through faith, the forgiveness of transgressions through holy baptism.

Thus of old he redeemed those of Israel, as in shadows and types prefiguring for us the mystery of Christ, and that which was unknown to the angels.

'For my enemies' sake deliver me.'

The Saviour also, from the injustice we have suffered at the hands of our spiritual enemies, from this rouses the Father to mercy toward us.

But if anyone should be perplexed how Christ, having made so many requests, did not escape the temptations, let him hear that he prayed as man not to enter into temptation; but since it was expedient that he suffer for our salvation, he accepted the sufferings, choosing the divine will above the human.

'For thou knowest my reproach.'

The Saviour too says to the Father: 'Thou knowest the reproach with which I was reproached for thy name's sake, the shame which I endured for thy truth, the confusion which I underwent for thy glory.'

For those who afflict me, who buffet me, who crucify me, do all things before thine eyes.

'My soul looked for reproach and misery.'

Hence Christ too recounts the Passion, which the evangelists also plainly recounted to us.

But there was none to grieve with him nor to comfort him, because the disciples too had fled, each to a different place.

'They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they made me drink vinegar.'

(Of Cyril and Theodoret.) 'And my very food,' he says, 'they made bitter and grievous;'

for even the most pleasant food is without delight to those who eat in pain.

The blessed evangelists too note that, when Christ was thirsty at the time of the cross and asked to drink, they brought him vinegar mingled with gall;

'and having tasted it,' it says, 'he would not drink; that the Scripture might be fulfilled,' this very psalm-word.

'Let their table before them become a snare.'

(Of Cyril and Theodoret.) Thus also Symmachus rendered it:

'Let their table before them become a snare and a punishment;' so that hereby also may be comprehended and signified the things that were to befall the Jews after the Passion.

May they endure things like to those which they contrived for me to undergo.

'For woe to the lawless one, for evil according to his works shall befall him.'

'Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not.'

(Of Cyril and Theodoret.) Bring upon them the gloomy cloud of the temptations, that, being able from nowhere to look up toward the illumination of the divine mysteries, the wicked Jews may wickedly perish, on account of their own folly and their exceeding lack of restraint toward disobedience.

And how were the Jews not darkened, having not received the Sun of Righteousness? For after they delivered the Lord of all to the cross, the sun set for them, and in the daytime the light grew dark, a clear sign that the souls of those who crucified him were spiritually darkened.

For a hardening in part has come upon Israel, and a veil lies upon their heart, and having eyes they see not, because they refused the true Light and willingly closed the eyes of the heart.

'And bow down their back continually.'

(Of Cyril and Theodoret.) 'And dislocate their loins continually;'

'Let the fury of thine anger overtake them.'

By 'fury of anger' he called the sharp and grievous punishment.

And upon those who crucified him the fury of the divine anger was poured out, not in part as often, but utterly, and every kind of punishment overtook them.

'For whom thou hast smitten, they have persecuted.'

(Of Cyril and Theodoret.) 'Thou,' he says, 'exacting from me the penalty of my drunken outrage, didst deliver me as it were to certain executioners, the Babylonians;'

This cruelty of theirs the God of all also denounces, and says:

'I delivered them into thy hands, but thou didst not show them mercy;'

'thou didst make heavy the yoke upon the aged, and hadst no pity on the young.' But if the word concerns those who crucified him, this is a setting forth of the cause on account of which they shall suffer such things.

It is like that saying in Zechariah:

'I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.' For having permitted the Son to suffer, he himself is said to have delivered him up.

The Son too suffered, yet not of necessity but willingly; for His Passion was for the world a means of salvation.

For His Passion was to Him salvation for the world.

This One, therefore, he says—He who, according to Thy good pleasure, was given over to blows because of the Passion—they themselves did not receive, but drove Him out somewhere beyond their own salvation.

It was not, therefore, because the Father delivered up the Son unto death, as had been foreordained, ordering all things for the better, that those who served this counsel would on that account be free of blame.

For they did not resolve to do this out of a zeal to please God, but transgressing by the self-moved counsel of their own soul and marshalled by murderous envy, they carried it out.

Then he adds: 'They added to the pain of my wounds.' For while He humbled Himself, they clothed Him about with death;

or, because they not only killed Him but also slandered and falsely maligned His resurrection.

For this reason he again invokes against them what follows.

'Add iniquity upon their iniquity.'

(Of Cyril and Eusebius.) This he says on account of the addition made to Jerusalem.

By 'iniquity' he called the punishment brought upon them because of their sin.

But if the word concerns those who crucified Him, then to the iniquity done against the Lord they will add yet another iniquity: having slain James the son of Zebedee with the sword, the brother of the Lord with wood, and Stephen with stones.

Or the one iniquity is that they did not receive the truth when it came, unlawfully clinging to the shadow of the Law;

and the other iniquity is that, having been driven out of Judea and out of that typical worship, they perform it where it is not lawful.

'Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous.'

And even the crucifiers, though at first they were enrolled on account of their fathers who live before God—so that the promises were given to them also—yet, since they dared such things, they will fittingly be blotted out, nor will they be enrolled before God with the chosen righteous who are worthy of the life that is with Him, since they refused the Author of life and salvation.

For what is spoken in the imperative form must be understood as a prediction.

And the book of life is the remembrance and the knowledge of God.

Blessed, therefore, is he who is deemed worthy of the writing in the Jerusalem that is above.

'I am poor and in pain; Thy salvation, O God, has upheld me.'

The phrase 'I am poor and in pain'—this signifies something spoken in the person of the captives.

'Seeing me in poverty and searched out amid many sorrows, Thou hast counted me worthy of Thy salvation.'

The Lord also says, 'I am poor,' in that He emptied Himself and became man;

and 'in pain,' in that He endured the cross and the blows from the Jews, saying to the Father:

'Thy salvation, O God, has upheld me.' This too He speaks in a human manner, yet everywhere He has kept the manner of the divine economy;

for it was fitting that, having become man, He should also be said to be raised by the Father.

And from here the evangelical polity is proclaimed, of which the choir that is according to God took the lead—poor in spirit—which enters giving thanks for the salvation that came to it from the Only-begotten.

And it promises to offer no longer the sacrifices through blood, but rather those through praises and spiritual sacrifices.

'I will praise the name of my God with a song.'

...of the captives who promise to hymn God after their return.

'And it shall please God more than a young calf.'

That is, one three years old and perfect;

for such were the sacrifices according to the Law.

And it should be known that a male calf was then sacrificed, whenever the Synagogue fell into sin;

and it was offered also on behalf of the high priest.

Since, then, the chief priests and rulers were gathered together against Christ, and stirred up those under their hand against Him, and became the cause of their sin, and these had need of the cleansing through the Law—'It is not,' He said, 'a perceptible calf that I offer, but the pure and bloodless sacrifice which I have established in my own Church.'

'Let the poor see it and be glad.'

And the apostles also say, concerning those who through them believed in Christ, that, having learned these things, the poor in spirit shall exult.

'Let the heavens praise Him, and the earth, the sea,' and so forth.

(Of Cyril and Theodoret.) I summon, he says, the whole creation into fellowship of the hymnody, even the very elements;

for one tongue does not suffice to recount the divine graces.

And this too became an achievement of the sojourning of our Savior, who joined those on earth to the spirits above, that one and the same worship might be rendered by all.

And if those in the heavens rejoice over the salvation of men and praise God for this, how much more shall those very ones who have been saved upon the earth praise Him who saved them.

Let all things praise Him, the things above and the things below.

For from the more principal things he included also the particular things.

And he said 'in the sea,' since in the islands also they were to receive the salvation of God.

'For God will save Zion, and the cities of Judea shall be built.'

'And the seed of His servants shall possess it.'

In a loftier sense, Zion is the Church of the saints, whose cities also were built—the souls raised up from the slipperiness of unbelief through confession;

for 'Judea' is interpreted as 'confession.'

And their seed are those who through them believed in Christ.

For thus it came about that the hostile demons set against her were put to shame, while those who rejoice at her salvation were made glad.

'Let those who seek my soul be ashamed and put to confusion.'

In a loftier sense: let the demons, who were exalted and rejoiced over the fall that befell me of old on account of the curse of death, no longer have dominion over me.

For he does not pray against those who plot after money, or concerning boundaries of land, but against those who plot against the soul—that is, demons and the wicked, unbelieving men who cooperate with them.

'Let them be turned backward—those who say to me:'

(Of Cyril and Theodoret.) Those, he says, who take pleasure in my misfortunes, let them be turned to flight with shame, seeing my change, and let them not enjoy their merriment.

For 'Aha!' is a word men are accustomed to say whenever they obtain something pleasurable.

And the demons say this too when we sin;

and there are times when they even burst out in laughter, mocking us.

...a good thing, together with the willingness to be ashamed.

'But I am poor and needy;'

And perhaps these things are said also in the person of the people of the nations—who are poor and needy because of sin and impiety—entreating that the help of Christ be hastened, and that the spiritual enemies be put to shame.

'In Thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me.'

(Of Cyril and Basil.) The righteousness of the Father is the Son, through whom we were delivered from the sin that held us fast unto corruption.

He, then, who has his hope in God shall not be put to shame unto all eternity;

just as one who trusts in something else, when he falls away from his hope;

for 'he who trusts in riches,' it says, 'this one shall fall.'

'And put not your hope in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.'

'And cursed is he who has his hope in man.'

But blessed is the man who has set his trust upon the Lord.

'And I too, therefore,' he says, 'if I had fastened the hope of my soul upon a man at all, or upon any other of those treacherous and unreliable things, I should deserve to be put to shame.'

'But if I have disregarded all other things, and have leaned my whole confidence upon Thee alone, let me never, O God, be put to shame for ever.'

'And remembering Thine inborn righteousness, which apportions to all according to their desert, deliver me from the men who assail me, or from the demons, and pluck me out of their malignity.'

'O God, give Thy judgement to the king.'

) And what judgement is it that he has received? As the blessed Paul said in a few words, that it pleased God and the Father to sum up all things in Christ.

'Let the mountains take up peace for the people, and the hills righteousness.'

'He shall save the sons of the poor.'

) And who then may be the poor here signified, and who are their sons—this it is needful to consider.

By 'the poor,' then, he names the holy apostles;

for they were poor in spirit;

He has therefore saved us, the sons of the poor, justifying us according to the Spirit in faith and sanctifying us.

) The word 'He shall abide together with' means that God who is at once also man is extended alongside all time;

for even before the moon He was, from generations of generations.

'In His days shall righteousness spring up, and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away.'

) In the days of Christ righteousness shall rise upon us through faith;

and abundance of peace, through our conversion toward God.

And in addition to these things, the devil is furthermore taken away in turn.—[

] Observe how he did not say that the moon is 'taken away,' but that it is 'taken away in turn';

for inasmuch as he had already destroyed man, the devil is in turn destroyed.

[ And in another sense, throughout the whole inhabited world the ruler of the night, the devil, was being glorified, being represented figuratively by the moon, which is set to rule the beginning of the night, giving a spurious light—the wisdom of the world;

but He who takes away the sin of the world abolished this one's glory;

in whose days righteousness sprang up through faith, and abundance of peace through the conversion toward God.

And rightly is it said, 'shall be taken away in turn';

in return for the man whom he destroyed, he shall himself be destroyed.] [And He shall have dominion from sea

to sea? First he defines for us the boundaries of the land of the Jews;

then, he says, His kingdom shall also be extended throughout the whole inhabited world.

Now the boundary of the land of the Jews, on its more northern side, lies along the sea by Palestine and Phoenicia;

and on its more southern side, again lies along the Salt Sea, that is, the Red Sea.

He therefore defines the measure of the land of the Jews, and says:

He shall have dominion from sea to sea. But this is a small thing for Christ, the Saviour of us all;

for it was not fitting that the measure of His kingdom should be confined to the land of the Jews alone.] [ Before Him the Ethiopians shall fall down.

He says that by 'Ethiopians' in these words are to be understood, in a spiritual sense, those who have a darkened heart and are, as it were, blackened in their mind;

and by 'enemies,' those who set themselves against the unfailing proclamation, and who for the present war against the truth.

For those who of old hated Christ and held a hostile mind toward Him—that is, those who war against the truth by worshipping lifeless idols and being subject to Satan—shall lick the dust; that is, they shall fall to the earth, worshipping Him, evidently, and, as it were, rolling forward upon their knees.] Kings of Tharsis

) 'Tharsis of the nations' refers to Ethiopians.

Moreover 'Tharsis' signifies the hyacinth colour, as we have it in the prophet:

'Their likeness is as Tharsis.' And in Jonah it signifies also the city of Tarsus.

Sabba is a city of India, from which the queen of the South came to Solomon.

'For He hath delivered the poor from the mighty one.'

) All shall worship, being set free from the bitter tyranny of the devil;

for he called him 'the mighty one,' and 'the poor' he called human nature, as having then been left desolate of God.

[ And whom does he here call the poor and needy, except plainly the people from among the nations? For thus the Saviour also made mention of them, saying through the voice of Isaiah:

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me; He hath sent me to preach good tidings to the poor.' For those who went astray were poor, having neither the wealth that comes from virtues, and being deprived also of the true knowledge;

and, as the blessed Paul says, they were without hope, and without God in the world.] And they shall pray concerning Him continually.

Of Cyril and Eusebius.) And who are those who pray, except plainly ourselves who have received His faith? For lifting up our prayers to God, we ask that the supply of good things be given us through Christ.

'Let His name be blessed.'

) For where is Christ not present, or what nation has not been honoured by such a calling? 'Before the sun shall His name endure.'