詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 4/24 段

The arm of this sinner is broken by the Lord, and his sin, when sought, is not found.

'His sin shall be sought, and shall not be found.'

The sin of the sinner who does evil deeds—may it not be found on his account; that is, it shall justly be blotted out.

'You shall perish, O nations, from his land.'

For in his kingdom they shall be cast into the eternal fire.

By 'nations' he means the unclean demons, and not the men for whom there was hope of being saved, being justified through Christ by faith.

For how could he have prayed that the unbelieving nations too should hasten to destruction? 'The Lord heard the desire of the poor.'

This was their desire: to be counted worthy of the good things to come;

for, preparing themselves for this, they made their heart ready to endure all things.

And what sort of desire was this among those still wandering astray? We say, then, that when the arm of the wicked one had been broken and no longer worked in them—as of old their lying in ignorance of God—the nations were called to the desire for salvation through Christ and for the knowledge of the truth, and they had their heart most ready to believe in him.

'To judge for the orphan and the lowly, that he may no more add to boast proudly.'

According to the anagogical sense, the poor and the lowly are those who have not yet believed.

For these he prays that Christ may become judge, condemning Satan but justifying those who had been deceived.

For when this has come to pass, no man upon earth would boast proudly any longer—nor would Satan himself, who is called 'man' on account of the weakness that is in him;

for no one is anything at all as compared with the divine strength—or else, simply put, every man who is a servant of the devil's malice and an instrument of his wishes.

For such a one will no longer be haughty in prevailing over the weaker.

'How will you say to my soul?' and so forth.

Now the aim of the Psalmist is clear;

for he says that he has put his trust in the Lord.

But the verse that follows brings us various meanings.

For it gives rise to the supposition that he is conversing with certain persons, and as it were rebukes them as they say to him:

This, then, is one interpretation;

For when a temptation is pressing and a war is about to be stirred up—whether spiritual perhaps or perceptible—he attempts to teach how we ought to be disposed, transferring the discourse to himself, and says:

'In the Lord I have trusted.' Having brought the discourse to a halt at this point, he addresses those who are accustomed to exhort people in distress:

'How will you say to my soul?'—that is, 'What are the things which, were you to suggest them, I might justly commend? "Flee to the mountains like a sparrow"? Let such things be spoken to me by you,' he says.

For it is fitting that those who trust in God should fly up spiritually and dwell among the holy mountains—that is, contemplate the manner of life of those saints, carefully examine the ways of their good repute, and thus walk in the footsteps of their conduct.

And we say that the holy mountains are the holy prophets and the righteous.

If, then, anyone should fly up like a sparrow and settle upon these spiritual mountains, he will assuredly see that they have become resplendent—not through any strength within them, but because they had trusted in the Lord.

And in yet another way, those who trust in the Lord must fly up like a sparrow to the mountains.

And we say that the mountains are the virtues, which have nothing that is cast down to the ground;

sending our thoughts on high and thrusting away the grovelling character of earthly affairs, we shall be invulnerable to the pleasures that lead to evil.

For behold, the sinners have bent the bow.

But according to the anagogical sense, he says that the spiritual ascent unto the mountains is necessary, inasmuch as the sinners have bent the bow and are already made ready for battle.

For with these words they were provoking him to flee, asserting that, unless he should flee, the sinners would shoot him down in the dark of the moon, that is, secretly and as in the faint gleams of moonlight.

For such are the darts of the spiritual enemies.

For hiding himself in the gloom, the evil one shoots down the fair body of the Church.

And sinners would also be those who persecute the faith, and those who without restraint plot against them that wish to live in holiness.

That they may shoot down in the dark of the moon the upright in heart.

The bows of the enemies are made ready in the dark of the moon.

And thus he named the darkness that runs beneath the moon and casts its shadow upon it.

Then, therefore, do the sinning demons wage war.

For they cannot shoot the righteous in the light, but in the darkness of ignorance, whenever a cloud of sloth comes upon us and dims the light of our moon, that is, works upon the mind.

For the things which thou didst set in order, they themselves have pulled down.

But according to the anagogical sense, he shows plainly that Satan, warring against God, together with the wicked powers that are with him, plots against those who have chosen to live rightly.

For their aim is to overturn that which is built up by God, and to set themselves against His will.

For the enemy, he says, has cast man down into corruption, though he had been fashioned unto incorruption.

For the throne of lawlessness, that is, Satan, frameth trouble by commandment.

But what did the righteous one do? The Lord is in His holy temple, and so forth.

For while the devil, he says, endeavours to pull down whatever God, by legislating and teaching, would set in order for the salvation of those upon the earth, what did the righteous one do? He who dwells in His own temple, who has heaven for His throne — His eyes look upon the poor man.

And the looking-upon here signifies His watchful oversight.

And He saves altogether by watching over, and sets a man outside the snare.

And He looks upon the poor man, that is, upon him who is poor in spirit.

For upon whom, He says, shall I look, but upon the humble and quiet? And whenever the divine Scripture makes its discourse concerning God and then makes mention of bodily members, let not the mind of the hearers come to anchor in things perceptible; but from things perceptible, as from fitting likenesses, let it ascend to the beauty of things spiritual, and let it conceive of God as beyond shapes and quantity and circumscription, beyond form and the other things that attend upon bodies.

For He is above all understanding.

But we speak of the things concerning Him after the manner of men.

For there was no other way for us to conceive of things that are above us.

Eyelids, then — that is, eyes — are said to be the beholding activity of God, howsoever it may be conceived according to His own nature.

And He examines, that is, exactly searches out and considers, both the righteous man and the ungodly.

And to the one He apportions the helping hand, and He puts light into his mind, that he be not shot down in the dark of the moon.

But the other, as one who goes unbridled, He lets go over rocks and precipices.

His eyelids examine the sons of men.

When it is the time of judgment, He uses His eyelids as a token that signifies threat.

For we too are wont to raise these up when we are angered.

But indeed also whenever we wish to look closely at something.

He made mention of a bride, as of things befitting anger and judgment rather than marriage and joy.

Or the eye signifies the unerring nature of God.

A spirit of the tempest is the portion of their cup.

And by 'cup' here he names punishment, as in: The cup is in the hand of the Lord, whereof the sinners shall drink.

Now the cup of the righteous carries them off unto salvation.

For it produces gladness and life, according to: I will take the cup of salvation. But the cup of the sinners bears them down unto death, and has a flame that cannot be lulled to rest.

For it is fire, brimstone, and a spirit of tempest; that we may understand that, just as a wind falling upon a flame rouses it up and bears it off somehow more active, so too the wrath of the Judge, like a spirit of tempest falling upon those being punished, renders the retribution ever unquenchable.

For the Lord is righteous, and He has loved acts of righteousness.

That is to say, equity, which is then most of all preserved and made manifest whenever those who for God's sake have humbled themselves are exalted with good things.

And again, those whom the devil had exalted are in turn humbled by punishments.

For this uprightness God beholds and inhabits.

The lovers of unrighteousness, therefore, shall be punished.

But He watches over the upright man, that is, the holy and undistorted one, who makes the divine law a kind of rule for his own conduct and life.

Unto the end, concerning the eighth.

The psalm before us is also sung as containing a demonstration of goodwill and genuineness toward God.

And the words of the psalm would befit also every saint who has a bright and eminent life, and who cares not only for his own soul, but is also grieved at the ignorance of them that have gone astray, and yearns to see them too submitting to God.

And the force of the song contains an entreaty against every unjust and wicked man, the double-minded and inconstant, the false-speaking and the buffoon, one reared up in guiles and deceits.

And it seems somehow to cry out also against the wisdom of the Greeks.

And it makes mention also of Christ the Saviour of us all.

And it contains also a promise, as coming from Him, that He would very soon be present to succour those who are being defrauded by the devil.

And it is sung concerning the eighth, in which took place the resurrection, and the calling of the Gentiles, and the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the spiritual circumcision, that is, the circumcision in spirit.

And the prophet prays to be delivered from the wicked generation.

And this would be the generation in the time of our Saviour Christ, concerning which He Himself said:

The men of Nineveh shall judge this generation. He begins the song, then, thus.

Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed.

And he says that he himself — that is, all those of whom the discourse treats — has need of the guarding hand, that is, of Christ; and not the Jews alone, but also those throughout all that is under heaven.

For He Himself is the expectation of the nations, according to that which is written.

For the truths have been diminished from among the sons of men.

And false too are all the things of the Greeks — their wisdom and words and life.

And of things true, that is, necessary and profitable, one could find nothing among them, seeing that they have deified the creation, having forsaken Him who is God by nature.

The truths, therefore, have been diminished among them.

Each one has spoken vain things to his neighbour.

Each one spoke vain things to his neighbour, gathering together the plots against our Saviour.

And the poets and prose-writers among the Greeks, in no way concerning themselves with being truthful, have composed without scrutiny whatever seemed good to them, having one aim only: to make a display of eloquence.

May the Lord utterly destroy all deceitful lips, and the boastful tongue.

But according to the anagogical sense, how is that tongue not boastful which dared to say to the Saviour: By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority? And of the audacity of the Jews is also the saying:

Our lips are our own.

'Who is Lord over us?' — as though those men reasoned thus, namely that they had licence to say whatever they pleased against the Saviour.

'Our lips are our own.' That is, we ourselves have become the inventors of fine speech.

) That is to say, we ourselves have become the inventors of eloquence.

'Because of the misery of the poor.'

) Here, then, the person of those who make supplication now retires from view;

and He Himself, who receives the petitions, makes answer, promising to those who ask both His coming and the bestowal of His aid.

And by 'the needy' He names the poor in spirit, whose very groaning He hears, saying, 'I will arise.'

'Now will I arise,' says the Lord;

'I will set him in salvation, I will deal boldly in it.'

And by no means do we say that the 'arising,' or rather the 'rousing up,' is bodily; rather it is as it were His inclining thenceforth of His will to extend to the labouring a saving hand.

) But according to the higher (anagogical) sense, the salvation that comes through Christ was made manifest to all, and heard by all;

for it was proclaimed to all the earth with boldness.

'The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire.'

For it is in no way diseased, but is so bright and so purified as to seem to be silver — and that not once refined by fire, but many times over;

for this, I think, is what 'seven times' signifies.

) But to the Jews He gives reproach through Isaiah, saying:

'Your silver is rejected' — that is, the word of faith is stamped awry and counterfeit, failing to preserve the exact impress of the royal image.

'Thou, O Lord, shalt keep us, and shalt preserve us.'

) But according to the higher sense, the Prophet prays to be delivered from that generation of the Jews at the time of the Saviour — the faithless, murderous, and adulterous generation.

'The ungodly walk round about.'

) But according to the higher sense, for this reason He says, 'Thou shalt keep us,' since the ungodly encircle us round about, plotting against our salvation.

) He sings this psalm, having come into repentance for his sin, and at the same time proclaiming to us the good tidings of salvation, through which we have received a pattern of how, when we have fallen into sin, we ought to draw near to God.

'How long wilt thou turn thy face away from me?' and so forth.

) God turns His face away from sinners — doing what? Judging them unworthy of His watchful care.

And this above all is what brings sorrows upon my soul.

'Sorrow in my heart daily.' These things were written for our admonition, teaching how we ought to repent over our sins, using the present words as though they were medicines.

Or else by 'forgetting' He means the delay of help, and he entreats not to be utterly stripped bare of the divine providence.

) He asks God concerning these matters, not as though God were the cause, but as one able to prevent them by the inclination of His own power.

) For if, when we are godly, the enemy is brought low, then plainly, when we sin, he is exalted;

for the exaltation of Satan is the humiliation of men;

since, just as God is said to be exalted in our salvation, so the devil is said to be lifted up in our destruction.

'It is enough for him,' he says, 'that he was once exalted, when I was brought low through sin.'

'Why is he exalted against me so greatly? Lest I ever sleep unto death.'

) By 'sleep' he named sloth, in which we are tossed about by the fantasies of this life, and idle, sprawled out and lying upon the couch of pleasure.

So then, that the grievous death may not follow upon the sleep of sloth, he prays that his eyes may be enlightened — that is, the senses of the soul — that they may behold the truth.

'Those who afflict me will rejoice, if I am shaken.'

) Just as an athlete, once he has leapt out of the arena, is defeated, so also the believer, having let go of what he received from the beginning, is shaken and falls.

Let us not, then, be changed, lest we bring joy to our enemies.

'I will sing to the Lord who has dealt bountifully with me.'

) This too is to be understood, as in the former case, not that the prophet does not now know, but that he will sing more perfectly as he advances and is brought to completion.

And to whom will he sing? Plainly to his Benefactor, who both formed him and formed him anew.

'And I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.'

) Blessed is he who sings praise with the spirit and with the mind, knowing to whom he sings, and confirming by his works that he understands.

For he who sings thus cleaves the heaven, mounts above the clouds, and stands before the Most High, to whose name he makes melody, with nothing to hinder him.

'The fool has said in his heart:' ...

) This is the very summit of all wickedness.

For to suppose that there is no God, but that the whole came to be of its own accord, has become the beginning of all licentiousness and lawless deed.

But what is 'He said in his heart'? Since of words one kind is uttered (spoken aloud) and another is inward, the prophet speaks not of the uttered word, but of the opinion within the soul.

For 'he said in his heart,' that is, he reckoned, that there is no God.

And everyone who sins without restraint, showing contempt by his deeds, even if he does not say it in words, yet by those very deeds and by the perversity of his life all but cries aloud, 'There is no God.' For those who are wont to live as though God does not oversee them, and who do all things heedlessly, by their very deeds and doings deny God.

'They have all turned aside, they have together become worthless; there is none that does good.'

) You will understand these things also as applying to the Gentiles;

for the flesh that is from the earth grew sick with the law of sin within it, and the human mind, exceedingly prone to swerve toward evil from its youth, according to what is written.

And they turned aside into countless ways of error and destruction, and by the works of shame became worthless, and there was none that did good.

'Their throat is an open grave,' and so forth.

'Shall not all the workers of iniquity know?' (

) This verse is to be read as a question.

For since he had said that 'they have all turned aside and work iniquity,' now he says:

And shall these not come to know the Lord and believe in Him? Yes, assuredly, many will believe;

but there are also those who will remain in unbelief, and will persecute and tyrannize over those who have believed in Christ.

'There they were in dread with fear, where there was no fear.'

) For the Psalmist condemns such men.

The Jews, at any rate, who remained in unbelief, were terrified with a startled fear which they ought not to have feared.

And what was this senseless fear? They were in dread lest, by receiving Christ and believing in Him, they should give offence to God.

But the force of the verse might also be spoken concerning those who have believed, so that what is meant is something of this kind:

The Law, he says, of Moses wrought punishment;

but the fear of Christ is pure, for it has disposed us to fear the Father as sons.

After that time, then — namely that in which the Manifestation took place —

they shall fear with a fear where there is no fear — no fear, that is, arising from legal threat, but rather the reverence that better befits free men.

'Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel?' (

See how he thirsts for the Lord, and how he cannot endure the delay of him who was about to come, at the very time when the salvation of God the Father was to shine forth, that is, Christ.

He calls him the salvation of Israel, because he came, in a primary sense, chiefly for Israel's sake.

'I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' Or in another way:

For, as the divinely-inspired Paul writes, to the Jews belonged the promises, the giving of the Law, and the covenant, and the fathers, from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came.

'Who shall dwell in your holy mountain?'

The holy mountain is the kingdom of the age to come;

a mountain, because of its height and its being lifted up above;

holy, because in it no profane person dwells.

He therefore who sojourns in this present life, and uses the present manner of living as a shadow and as grass, only in passing, this man shall be able to encamp, that is, to dwell, in the kingdom to come.

But who is such a man, and living in what manner, the words that follow in the psalm declare.

'And he did not take up a reproach against those nearest to him.'

The saying has a certain obscurity;

for it is unclear whether he did not receive reproach from those nearest to some, or whether he himself did not take up reproach against them. And for my part I think that it is fitting for those devoted to righteousness that both should apply to such a man.

For it is the fruit, unto the perfection of gentleness, so to order one's life with reverence that one is neither reproached by others, perhaps for laxity in the noblest things, nor himself reproaches others, even if somewhere they should fall and stumble;

for the nature of man is sickly, and falls easily into transgression.

The setting-at-nought is not from a haughty mind, but rather from one that hates evil and abhors wicked things.

'Keep me, O Lord, for in you have I hoped.'

Again, this too befits the form of the servant;

and it discloses at the same time the justification that is in faith through confession.

He directs his words to God and the Father, not so much on his own behalf, but for our sake and on our behalf, as one of us, on account of the dispensation.

He therefore names the Father 'Lord,' because he himself came to be in the form of the servant.

And he asks that he himself be kept, on account of the Church, which is his flesh.

For his flesh is the Church;

and reasonably he asks that it be kept;

and both the Church and its keeping may be referred to his own person.

He also sets down the reason why he must be kept;

and in saying 'myself,' he means the Church.

'You are my Lord, for you have no need of my goods.'

And in the Gospel he said:

'I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.' And now, as having become man by nature, he calls the Father his Lord.

And by adding, 'For you have no need of my goods,' he showed the unprofitableness of the legal worship.

For by 'goods' here he named the sacrifices offered according to the Law, which he appears not to accept;

for the word of faith does away with those.

'Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, and drink the blood of goats?' And again:

'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me.' And see that freedom from need belongs to God alone;

but the others that are called lords have need of the things brought to them by those under them, such as the tillage of their servants, the building, and the rest.

This, then, Christ also sets down as a proof that the Father is truly Lord: that he has no need of the goods offered by him, that is, by his flesh, the Church.

And indeed, even if the Son prays, even if he weeps, even if he entreats, the Father has no need of such goods;

for knowing all things, he neither has need of prayer, nor requires prophetic words.

'To the saints who are in his land.'

He says that the saints are those who have been sanctified in the Spirit;

and the 'land' is the Church of Christ.

And 'he made marvellous' is set down in the sense of 'he showed' or 'he glorified.'

And 'his' signifies the Father;

so that the whole is thus: to those sanctified in faith he made known the will of the Father.

'Their infirmities were multiplied.'

While the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ had not yet been made manifest, sins and passions were multiplied.

After these things, when salvation had been made manifest, they hastened unto knowledge and to the putting-away of evils.

But some have taken these words to signify the manifold idolatries and infirmities of the nations, from which those who turned became saints of God;

concerning whom he spoke of 'the saints who are in the land,' who also quickly departed from the idols, or from their toilsome labours.

Or of their infirmities that were before faith, once the wills of the Saviour had been made marvellous in them.

'I will not gather their assemblies from blood.'

If one should wish to understand these things as spoken of the Jews, the verses are to be read declaratively, as of God plainly proclaiming the causes of the rejection of Israel.

'I would not gather their assemblies,' he says, 'nor would I any longer even make mention of their very names through my lips.'

And for what cause? 'From blood,' he says, that is, because they were occupied with much blood and slaughter.

But if one should say that he must be understood also concerning the nations, take it in some such way as this.

For since, he says, they hastened toward faith, and without delay received the Lord who had shone forth, and ran to his divine light, 'shall I not gather their assemblies?' And it is to be read as a question and with a comma:

'But yes, I will gather,' he says, 'from blood;'

that is, since all had been slain and much of their blood poured out, while Satan was carrying them off to destruction, and the herd of demons was a ruin to them.

And the herd must be borne down into Hades;

concerning them and Satan:

'He who seeks out their blood has remembered;' and the text, 'Like sheep they were laid in Hades;'

'death shall shepherd them.' For he himself was death, that is, Satan the author of death, shepherding them, and shutting them up as in certain folds in the recesses of Hades.

'Since then,' he says, 'their blood was much, and since they hastened unto faith, should I not reasonably, having mercy, gather their assemblies?'

The divine Cyril, however, wishes the verses to be read as a question.

For since, he says, those called from among the nations hastened toward faith, shall I then not gather their assemblies? And 'from blood' is in the sense of, 'Since all had been slain.'

'I will not pour out their drink-offerings of blood.' Of old the Jews poured out libations to God according to the Law, and the Greeks to their idols.

'But I will deliver new mysteries to all, and a bloodless sacrifice, no longer accepting the libations according to the Law.'

'The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup.'

And by 'cup' he names the inheritance given to him by the Father, as being able to gladden him, since the former was not such—that is, the inheritance of Israel—but rather hateful and abhorred.

Since, therefore, the Church gladdens him, he calls it a cup.

For Isaiah once said to it:

'And as a young man rejoices over a virgin, so shall the Lord rejoice over you.' The lines have fallen to me among my mightiest possessions.

A 'line' is a measure, as it is written in the Gospel according to John: 'For God does not give the Spirit by measure.' Or perhaps the measure is named not with respect to the knowledge itself, but with respect to the one who receives it, because he is not capable of receiving a greater knowledge.

For it is one and the same rain, yet it is measured out according to the vessels that receive it.

My inheritance is most excellent to me.

The first inheritance, that is, Israel, was not most excellent, but rather even hateful to God.

But bound to Christ by the cords of love and by a most intense disposition is, as a choice portion, the Church from among the nations, which he fittingly calls most excellent;

for in it there is great obedience and docility, and a spiritual beauty shines forth, adorned with every virtue.

Or perhaps the 'lines' do not signify the bonds of love, but are spoken by way of a metaphor drawn from land-surveyors;

namely, that 'the Father measured out the inheritance to me with lines, and enclosed it with boundary-markers, and walled it about round on every side, and made it secure, so that the most excellent and paternal inheritance which is with me should no longer be plundered—the inheritance into which the lines of my allotment have fallen, that is, whatever was allotted to me.'

The inheritance belongs to rational nature, or is the contemplation of the ages that have been and that shall be;

and the inheritance of Christ is the knowledge that comes from God.

I foresaw the Lord before me continually.

This is similar to that Gospel saying which declares:

'I am not alone, because my Father is with me.' Now insofar as Christ is understood as God, he himself is the one who upholds and sustains all things;

but insofar as he has become man, it would befit him also to say that he has the Lord at his right hand, that he may not be shaken.

For he is conformed to the measures of humanity, and is not ashamed of what befits the self-emptying, on account of the economy of salvation.

'I was expecting,' he says, 'that my Father would help and would not allow me to be overthrown.'

The phrase 'He is at my right hand' he used in place of 'He helps me,' naming the help from the right and better side.

But consider how our nature has become approved in Christ;

we who had been cast out on account of the transgression in Adam were brought into the presence of the Father, and we came to have him defending and upholding us.

Let us, then, always have God before our eyes, and let us so think of him as present and helping, that we may not be moved from what is fitting;

but may the devil, who opposes us from the right, be brought to nought;

and may we not receive the curse which Judas receives, which says: