詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 3/24 段

Since it is the custom of the God-inspired Scripture to take 'to judge' either in the sense of passing sentence, or in the sense of governing and presiding over cities or lands—as in the saying, 'Be instructed, all ye that judge the earth'—it must be said that, the name of the nations having been blotted out for ever, and every diabolical rule and authority having been utterly abolished in righteousness, Christ shall reign and hold dominion.

and holding sway over all things;

for he has reigned over all that is under heaven.

You may also understand the verses in this way:

namely, that he who overthrew the tyranny of the devil, and delivered the whole region under heaven from that one's malignity, shall himself come in due seasons in the glory of the Father, that he may judge the world in righteousness.

For the Father hath given all judgment to the Son, and we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ.

'And the Lord became a refuge for the poor, a helper in due seasons, in afflictions.'

For what poor man does he speak? For him who is poor willingly and for God's sake.

For in return for voluntary poverty God bestows his own riches upon such a one, and in the time of affliction is found to be his deliverer and helper.

These things are also to be understood by way of anagogy: that to the people poor in spirit—that is, to the people that were destitute before the sojourning of our Saviour—no ambassador, no angel, no other rational power or authority gave help, but the Lord himself, the bestower of the spiritual riches, himself gave help 'in due seasons,' that is, in the acceptable time of affliction he saved them in season.

And what was the affliction? The intolerable sin that hung over them like a burden, so that each of those who had come under it cried aloud, 'Mine iniquities are gone over mine head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.' And Satan himself was heavy, and more oppressive than any burden, bearing down upon them together with his wicked host.

When therefore the region under heaven was pressed down and as it were crushed, the Lord in season visited those on earth, and in the day of salvation gave help.

But the accursed demons falsely charged that the dispensation had not been accomplished in due time, saying:

'Art thou come hither before the time to torment us?' But, O most wicked ones—one might say—not before the time rather, but in a good season and in affliction he gave help to us, and the Saviour and Lord of all became a refuge.

'...in thee': they that know thy name.

But who are they that hope in him and know his name? Those who bow their neck to his ordinances.

And this he himself will teach, saying:

'He that loveth me keepeth my commandments.' 'For thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.'

He asserts that he holds the matter by experience, and that he knows it to be unshakable.

For true is the word of Jeremiah, that 'Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope;

and he shall be as a tree flourishing beside the water.' So also another says:

'Look at the generations of old and see: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or who called upon him and he forsook him?'

'Sing psalms to the Lord who dwelleth in Zion.'

If then God is said to dwell in Zion, we do not understand this to happen in a sensible manner, according to the suppositions of the Jews;

for God does not dwell in earthly Zion, nor in Jerusalem alone;

but we say that Zion is the spiritual Church on earth, which is also understood to be the sister of the Church above.

And it would be fitting that both the Church above and the one on earth be named Zion;

for Zion is interpreted 'watch-tower';

and this is both the one and the other.

God therefore dwells in Zion, not being circumscribed (for he fills all things), but as it were taking delight and resting in her.

'For here,' he says, 'will I dwell, for I have chosen her.' For he departed from the synagogue of the Jews, saying:

'Behold, your house is left unto you.' But the Church from among the nations was enriched with him, to whom the Psalmist says:

'Hearken, O daughter,' and what follows, 'for the King hath desired thy beauty.' And to those who dwell in this Zion—that is, to those who have obtained mercy and been saved through faith—it belongs no longer to offer animal sacrifices;

but since the things of the law have passed over into spiritual worship, they are to send up songs to God, and to sing psalms to him, offering sacrifices of praise;

and to sing psalms, speaking his mighty deeds and his achievements alone.

'Declare among the nations his doings.'

the artfulness of the dispensation of the flesh;

For very deep is the discourse of the mystery, and only in part apprehensible by subtle inquiries, and receivable by faith;

for great is the wonder in it.

'For he that requireth their blood hath remembered.'

And in what manner? For he became man, and, taking upon himself the likeness that is according to us, he endured the cross, that he might purchase all men with his own blood, and might snatch from the diabolical snares those who had been caught in them.

'He hath not forgotten the cry of the poor.'

But by way of anagogy he here names as 'the poor' either those from among the nations, or the saints who oftentimes entreat on their behalf;

the former, as not possessing the spiritual riches (for those who do not know at all the God who is by nature, what spiritual splendour could they have?);

the latter, as having a humble and lowly mind.

If then we say that the saints are the poor, he has not forgotten their cry, which they have made, oftentimes entreating God the Saviour of all to visit the region under heaven and to lay hold of those on the earth, saying:

'Thou that sittest upon the cherubim, shine forth;

stir up thy might, and come to save us'; and again:

'Lord, bow the heavens and come down.' But if we understand the nations to be the poor, since no one could point to them as ever having uttered any cries on their own behalf (for how could they have called upon a God whom they did not know?),

we say that the cry from them came about through deeds rather than words.

For every unrighteousness, so to speak, all but cries out against the one who commits it, and brings supplication on behalf of those who are wronged, proclaiming the cruelty of the offender, and rousing to succour the one who is able to defend.

At any rate, the blood of him who was slain by Cain cried out against Cain;

for he said that it speaketh better things than that of Abel.

For the one condemned the murderer, and, as it were, sent up a voice that accused him; but the other became the world's salvation, and called down upon it remission of transgressions.

For the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, even as it is written.

For just as the blood of Abel is said to have cried out to God—not that it in any way possessed a voice of its own, but as it were because God abhorred the outrage of the deed—so too may one understand it also in the case of those who worship demons.

so too may one understand it also in the case of those who worship the demons.

For if they do not know the God of all, and for this reason did not cry out to him, but because they have been overreached by Satan, through him after a fashion they raise their cry over the matter, altogether asking for succour upon themselves.

Have mercy on me, O Lord; behold my humiliation.

But according to the anagogical sense, the Psalmist, having made mention of the cry of the poor which God did not forget, straightway introduced what manner of cry arose from the poor among the nations.

For as those now enlightened and sobered, who have condemned the deceit of the demons and come to knowledge of their plotting, so as to reckon among enemies those formerly worshipped, they beseech to obtain succour from on high, and say that they have been humbled—not by their own nature (for God created man for incorruption, unto good works), but by the plotting of their foes.

For by the envy of the devil, death entered into the world.

for you, who are able to raise up out of the gates of death those taken captive by them,

Now the gates of death are the evil powers, which bring down into the depth of death those who have come under them, and also the manifold sins, from which God delivers those who are entangled in them.

And by the daughter of Zion they name the Church on earth, that is, the earthly counterpart of the Church of the firstborn which is in the heavens;

for it has been made after the likeness of that one.

For see, says the Scripture, you shall make all things according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain; for the tabernacle was a type of the Church.

I will declare your praises, and all of them without exception, so as in no way to fall short in doxology.

And by this they seem to signify that it befits not those outside the Churches, but those who enter into them through faith, to give glory;

You who raise me up out of the gates of death.

For indeed the apostate dragon himself, the inventor of all vileness, and the evil powers along with him, might not unfittingly be called the gates of death;

for they bring down to the plank of Hades and to the depth of death those who have come under them.

And by the gates of death might also be understood the manifold sins, and indeed also the wise men among the Greeks, who shield error with their arms and are zealous to embellish the ugliness of idolatry with their own eloquence. We shall exult in your salvation.

But according to the anagogical sense, those from among the nations gladly welcome the dispensation which God and Father wrought in Christ, having appointed him Saviour and Redeemer to the whole world;

for he was pleased to sum up all things in him, both the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth.

Therefore drawing near through the faith, as being able to bring them in at the gates of the daughter of Zion.

And everywhere the Scripture names Christ as salvation.

At any rate it is sung as from the person of certain who have thirsted to behold his manifestation;

But according to the anagogical sense, one must call the nations the unclean multitude of the demons, who did indeed contrive for the Saviour, as they supposed, the corruption that comes by death.

They themselves generalled the frenzies of the Jews, setting up as their minister that most thievish disciple;

but they themselves were rather ensnared than he who endured the plot from them.

For he bought out with his own blood the world under heaven, and freed it from the malignity of the devil.

For being about to endure the cross which was salvation to the world, he said:

Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the ruler of this world be cast out. And, If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto myself. And the persecutors too suffered these very things which they had contrived for the many.

In the works of his hands.

But according to the anagogical sense, righteous judgment having been passed, and punishment brought upon those who committed unholy deeds, the Lord is recognized by those who have believed in him as being just, holy, and mighty;

for the sinner was caught in the works of his own hands.

For either the sinner, having fallen as into some snare in the hands of God, pays the penalties of his impiety, or, having stumbled into the works of his own hands, he shall be caught;

for he who digs a pit for his neighbour shall fall into it.

And it is a judgment truly just, that those who contrived death for man should be caught in it themselves, God turning the deceit against the one who devised it;

for each one is bound fast with the cords of his own sins.

or he names the people of the Jews as the sinner, and that most fittingly;

for they remained in their defilements, not having received the grace that scours clean, and died in their own transgressions.

And the sinner might also be called Satan, the inventor of sin, who by righteous judgment was caught, having stumbled into his own works;

for he contrived indeed, and came to be under the feet of the righteous.

Let the sinners be turned back into Hades.

But according to the anagogical sense, out of very great love for God, those who have believed seem to invoke a curse upon those who set at nought the manifestation of Christ and the grace so greatly to be prayed for, through which they were able to be shown forth as heirs of the kingdom of the heavens.

for in no way do they keep God in remembrance in their practice, but are outside of all virtue and beneficence.

For the poor shall not be forgotten unto the end.

But according to the anagogical sense, here he names as the poor either simply all the saints, who hold a lowly and humble frame of mind, or those called from among the nations, who of old were in want of every good thing.

These, he says, shall not be forgotten unto the end;

for there has been remembrance of them with the compassionate God, and they have been called through Christ unto knowledge, having loosed off the yoke of the ancient deceit.

Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail.

But according to the anagogical sense, he prays that the Only-begotten may shine upon those on the earth and be roused up, so that that haughty-minded devil (whom for the present he also calls a man, because of his weakness, and because before God he is altogether as nothing, but as it were ranked among the earthborn) may no longer raise his brow the higher, nor appear mighty.

Let the nations be judged before you.

But according to the anagogical sense, he prays that there may come to pass the judgment of the nations which shall be unto salvation;

For let the nations be judged, he says, not that they may pay the penalties of their offences, but that they may be recognized as having been wronged, and may come to be outside the hand of the one who tyrannized over them;

so that the judgment here is the righteous judgment of God, according to which the nations have been shown mercy and called unto the divine knowledge of him.

Let the nations know that they are men.

But what he says is this:

Many have lost even this: they have forgotten their nature, they have run aground into madness, they have been ignorant of themselves.

Do you see how he makes his supplication on their behalf, and deems it worthy that their madness be set right? For to be ignorant of oneself is graver than the utmost madness and frenzy;

for the one is a necessity of the body,

but the other is of a corrupted will.

But according to the anagogical sense, he prays that Christ may be established as lawgiver to the nations;

and he adds the reason for which he prays this;

Let the nations know, he says, that they are men. For before coming unto the knowledge of the truth and bowing their neck beneath the yokes of the Saviour, they lived out a beastlike life, being nothing else but flesh, and, like grazing cattle, given over to the pleasures of the belly;

Man being in honour understood not; he was compared to the senseless beasts. But through Christ they were brought back to an understanding befitting men, and by the evangelical ordinances they are guided straight unto virtue.

Why, O Lord, do you stand afar off?

But according to the anagogical sense, he prays that the calling of the nations, which shall come to pass a little later, may be hastened.

And this the arrogance of the devil brought about for him, or else it is thus:

Why do you stand afar off, as it were removing yourself from those who are wronged, and permitting those who plunder your possessions to overreach them, and do you not rather draw nearer through your succour, but overlook the sorely afflicted, and that when the season calls you to bring aid? For mercy befits none other than those who suffer.

Therefore the affliction, as being at a critical moment, asks for help.

For those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And the saying has been framed as though it were spoken of us.

For God has not departed; rather He fills all things, and nothing is void of Him.

But if He is said to stand far off, do not conceive of a distance as in place—for the Divine is unbounded—but understand it according to this: that He has permitted us to be wronged and to suffer, not granting His aid; and it is in this sense that He is said to stand far off.

In this way indeed He is said to stand far off.

Again, God stands apart from us, as it were, by the difference of nature.

For great is that which lies between God and creation, and the difference is beyond all comparison.

It seems, then, that here he is calling the Only-begotten Word to the Incarnation; for thus did He who was far off become near to us, in that, being God by nature, He became flesh.

For thus did He who was far off become near to us: that, being God by nature, He became flesh.

And the mystery of the economy in the flesh was accomplished at the fitting time, when the world under heaven had also come to the very limit of evil, the enemies having contrived against it every manner of plot.

'While the ungodly man is exalted in pride, the poor man is set ablaze.'

Not only in being wronged in human affairs, but also in being provoked to sin;

with Satan prompting him to emulate the lawless one.

The saying, therefore, is true, and is spoken against every boaster and cruel man, who consumes the weaker with inescapable acts of greed, as with fire.

For those who have cultivated this earthly, demonic, and unspiritual wisdom boast on this account, and set ablaze those poor in mind—that is, they render them sons of Gehenna—pleading on behalf of falsehood, embellishing deceit with their eloquence, and thereby leading many astray.

Such men are caught, as though fallen into a snare, in the counsels of the deceivers;

for whatever those men counsel becomes a trap and a noose to the weaker.

In another sense, Satan is the proud one;

and since he is such, so long as it was permitted him to do this and to exalt himself over those on the earth, every poor man was set ablaze—that is, he who is in want of understanding and destitute of spiritual strength;

for the arrogance of the evil one becomes a burning to the poor people.

'For they are caught in the devices which they imagine.' And who are they that devise? Either the very inventor of sin himself, and the world-rulers of this world, whose devices and evil deeds and machinations against all men are snares to those who are taken;

or else those who are defrauded are themselves caught in their own devices;

for whatever they plot will surely turn against themselves.

To speak, then, as it were in summary: he entreats that the boastful dragon and the wicked powers with him be removed from the midst—those by whose devices the poor man is set ablaze, being thrust down toward every kind of baseness;

through his not knowing who is God by nature, nor being directed toward the good by the divine laws.

'Because the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul.'

To this point, he says, of baseness and wretchedness of affairs have human things been brought down, in the ungodly man's being exalted in pride, that there is absolutely no one who takes charge of well-doing; but, on the contrary, those who follow the desires of their own souls are even praised by all—men who perhaps even glory in evil and think highly of themselves for being wicked, no one deriding them, but rather blessing, or rather praising them.

'The sinner has provoked the Lord.'

And you may understand it also in this way: that he provoked the Lord by mocking the words concerning His providence and His judgment.

Indeed, many, on hearing something of this kind, at once laugh;

and to this must be joined also the phrase 'According to the multitude of his wrath,' so that the whole may read thus:

'For the sinner,' he says, 'has provoked the Lord, storing up for himself a multitude of wrath';

for the word 'his' is to be taken of him who provokes Him.

Then the phrase 'He will not seek out' is to be read with a pause;

so that the sense may be as follows:

Is it, then, that the one provokes God and kindles for himself the multitude of wrath, but the other does not?

The sinner does indeed provoke God, not having Him in his mind.

But what then? Will God not seek out, at the time of judgment, when both the multitude and the kindling of His wrath shall be? 'God is not before him;'

'his ways are profaned.'

For he who does not know that there is a God, neither knows that He is a Judge.

In the case of men, then, the foregoing words of these verses may be understood thus: that of every lover of sin, who looks upon transgression without restraint and has wholly inclined himself to provoking God because he does not have Him before his eyes, the ways—that is, the deeds—are utterly profaned and full of uncleanness, defiled with the mire of baseness; and they look, as it were, toward the abolition of God's judgments, that is, His laws.

But spoken of Satan, these things have much probability;

'God is not before him.'

[Of every man who loves sin, and looks upon transgression without restraint, and has wholly inclined himself to provoking God through not having Him before his eyes, the ways—that is, the deeds—are utterly profaned and full of uncleanness, and are defiled with the mire of baseness; and they look, as it were, toward the abolition of God's judgments, that is, His laws.

For every sin fights against the aim of the sacred ordinances.] 'He shall have dominion over all his enemies.'

Satan will not have dominion over all his enemies.

But all the righteous are his enemies; will he then have dominion over all these? Clearly he will not have dominion in every matter, but in some;

for Christ alone did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. But of him whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness and deceit—

And indeed the mouth of the devil is filled with bitterness and deceit;

and moreover he lies in wait for the poor, to kill them by means of his own snares.

And the phrase 'with the rich'—what else might it mean but those who are rich in evils? For these indeed cooperate with the devil against the poor in spirit.

And you may understand these things also of the heretics.

For just as the terrible and bitter serpents have all their strength in their bites, so also do these men;

for they are full of bitter words and accursed thoughts and deceit and guile, and have travail under their tongue.

For the voices of the unholy crush the hearts of the more simple through guile and deceit, oftentimes carrying them away to things not lawful.

And most accursed of all is Satan's craftiness and deceitfulness;

for thus he carries a man off into transgression, the evil one whispering into mind and heart, ever pleading on behalf of evil, and calling the bitter sweet—both he himself and the imitators of his malignity;

for their work is to trip up the good and to slay the innocent;

lying in wait in secret places, that is, hiding their wickedness, and by whatever means they can, veiling their evil.

For those who deceive the upright often feign to be kind;

then, cleaving close, they entwine the venom of deceit, and little by little steal away the mind of the guileless, carrying them off to their own places.

Yet they do this, not against all indiscriminately, but rather against those whose mind is poor—those, that is, who have not the wealth that comes of prudence.

For this, I think, is what is signified by 'His eyes look upon the poor man. He lies in wait in secret as a lion in his den.'

For as for him who lives in virtue, even if he draw him aside for a little, yet in the end, once he is sober and has withdrawn, he does not prevail over him;

but the man poor in virtue and without understanding, whenever he manages to draw him in, taking him into the cavern of wickedness, he devours—just as a lion in secret devours a sheep.

And what does 'he lies in wait as a lion' mean? For they say that in the mountains the lion lies quiet in his own den, and, as it were, conceals himself, lest by his appearance he should scare off any of the other animals which he makes his food;

but when he sees his prey come near, springing up at once he roars mightily, and having thundered unbearably he leaps upon it and seizes whatever is at hand, having first unnerved it with terrors.

'For a lion shall roar,' he says, 'and who shall not fear?' Like a lion, then, Satan lies in wait to seize the poor man;

for he dreads the resistance of him who is rich in virtue;

but those who are in want of understanding and of spiritual strength he seizes most readily, and makes his catch a sweet one.

And exceedingly many are the snares of the devil, and, among the rest, this one—the not knowing Him who is God by nature.

The phrase 'He will crouch down and fall' must be understood in two ways.

For either, when the ungodly man gains mastery over the poor, everyone who has suffered this—having come under his hand and tyranny—will crouch down and fall;

that is, he will be brought low and will lie as it were upon the ground, resembling those who have fallen dead in war.

Or the ungodly man himself, when he has gained dominion over the poor—that is, over the weak—will fall;

for he said in his heart:

Satan too supposed that he would gain mastery over the poor, since God no longer looked upon the earth but had turned entirely away and cared nothing for those upon it.

'Let your hand strike down,' he says, 'and let it henceforth be lifted up, bringing the scourge upon transgressors,' according to what is said through the voice of Isaiah:

'For all this his anger has not turned away, but his hand is still uplifted'; for the hand of those who smite is always in some way raised on high.

For if you understand the verse thus—or rather, in yet another way the hand of God is his all-powerful, living, and self-subsistent power, that is, the Son, who, being lifted up for our sake and having endured the precious cross, was glorified.

For in this way he abolished the power of death and brought back the nature of man from corruption into incorruption and immortality;

for through the Son he accomplishes all things.

For thus, somewhere, God the Father says:

'I with my hand established the heaven.'

'For what cause did the ungodly man provoke God to anger?'

Now the lawless man says these things—he who plunders, who is grasping, who pays no penalty;

but the prophet, refuting his opinions, sets forth the teaching concerning God's long-suffering.

For that man says that God has turned away his face so as not to see;

but you are long-suffering until they themselves fall into your hands.

It is not others who send us into the hands of God, but each one is all but led there by his own transgressions.

The phrase 'for what cause' does not belong to one who is in doubt, nor who is ignorant of the reason for which the ungodly man dared to provoke God, but rather to one who is explaining it.

The first verse, then, is to be read as a question and with a slight pause, so that we may make the second the giving of the reason.

But the ungodly man supposed within himself that God neither seeks out nor watches over human affairs.

Yet that he had strayed from the truth and had been carried far from knowing the gentleness and love for mankind that is in God—the facts themselves will cry aloud of their own accord.

For God in no way neglected the things here below, but sent from the heavens his Son to seek what was lost, to turn back the one who had gone astray, to strengthen the weak, and to deliver the broken from sickness.

'To you the poor man has been left.'

He means the weak and the helpless man, who seek help from you alone;

for he is able to save the poor and the orphans.

And these would very fittingly be those who have not yet come to know the God who is God by nature and in truth;

poor, inasmuch as they do not possess the wealth that comes from divine and sacred gifts—that is, from a holy manner of life and a life according to Christ;

and orphans, inasmuch as they have not yet obtained God as their Father.

Those, therefore, who have not yet believed, nor possess the rebirth from water and the Spirit, would surely be understood as orphans.

For formerly, when all were acting lawlessly, you alone were the helper of the orphans;

but now there are also your own—those who keep the commandments of the law.

'Break the arm of the sinner and the wicked man.'

And so great too was the sin of Satan, that, when it was searched out by God, it declared him deserving of the utmost punishment;

and therefore his arm was broken and grew feeble—that is, his power against us.

Yet the petition is befitting of holiness, and the substance of the prayer is full of all praise.

For it is holy and useful for all of life that the arm of every sinner be broken—that is, his power;

for they use it for nothing else than to crush the poor.