詩篇註釋殘篇 第 1 章 第 13/40 段

The holy one, therefore, who slays serpents and scorpions according to the authority he has received from Jesus, and who moreover avenges all disobedience, being a spiritual deer, hastens to track out divine springs of waters—such as God who says, 'They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water'; and the Savior, concerning whom it is said to someone, 'Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom'; and the Holy Spirit, concerning whom it is announced, 'Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him, there shall be in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life.'

And perhaps every God-inspired Scripture is a saving spring.

The earnest one's disposition toward God, then, is likened to the deer's longing for the springs of waters.

And since he knows that in the present life he approaches God through a mirror—the 'face to face' being reserved for the things that come after—he prays that a season may come in which, having gone, he may be seen before the face of God.

Since the law is said to contain wholly a shadow of the good things to come, and the feasts on which the males were seen before the face of God are shadows and symbols of feasts to come, he prays to come to the spiritual feasts, that he may perfectly be seen before the face of God, who is none other than the image of the invisible God.

He who weeps not in vain but from disposition, in laboring for virtue's sake, that man shall be nourished on his tears after the manner of bread—not only in bearable circumstances, which he calls 'day,' but also in the circumstances of adversity, which he names 'night.'

Those who are deceived in all things err also in supposing God to be in a place.

Reproaching, at any rate, they say, 'Where is thy God?' For along with this longing, my despondency and my being reproached by those who held me down—as though there were none to help—were intensified;

and in addition to these, the memory of the things accomplished in those places for Thy worship.

And the phrase 'These things I remembered, and I poured out my soul upon myself' means 'I was dissolved from despondency.'

For since I make progress and am not yet perfect, and the tabernacle is a symbol of progress, as has often been said, on this account I am troubled;

yet the tabernacle that is according to God wondrously carries one on to the house of God Himself—that is, to the perfection in which we dwell where God is.

And I will pass through in the place of the wondrous tabernacle, even to the house of God, in a voice of exultation and holy confession, according to the sound of those who keep feast spiritually;

for those who keep feast spiritually resound, exulting and giving thanks.

'If I should come to be in the land of Jordan'—that is, if I should be counted worthy of holy baptism—'then will I remember Thee.'

And they interpret 'Hermoniim' as 'way of the lamp,' inasmuch as holy baptism opens to them a way of illumination and of radiance unto mind and heart.

The cataracts of God are the most profound discourses concerning Him, or else the divine prophets.

The teaching of Jesus, then, being itself a deep, calls upon the deep taken from the ancient Scripture.

And perhaps too, since the judgments of God are a great deep, it is suggested that some judgments depend upon others, and those in turn upon yet others, all of them deriving their cause from the Word of God, who is called a little mountain.

For 'a great mountain,' he says, is God the Word, but 'a little mountain' by reason of the voluntary self-emptying which He endured for our sake.

All Thy surgings and Thy waves passed over me.

Since human life is figuratively a sea, the man who does not suffer shipwreck upon it but sails a straight course, having had experience of the swelling triple-waves that arise from the sea's tempest, when he comes to the harbor of salvation will utter this verse.

For he did not say, 'They pass over me,' but 'They passed over.'

We have all clearly apprehended concerning God that He is merciful, but we do not all see how He shows mercy.

For often, being displeased that the things done according to His mercy are painful, we do not even reckon them to be mercy.

But he who has apprehended that everything God brings upon us He brings for our profit, that man will see that He reveals in the night His mercy which He commanded by day.

For he who says 'Why hast Thou forgotten me?' is confident that he has done nothing on account of which God forgets him.

And since I go about mourning while an enemy oppresses me, I inquire what is the cause of this, so that, if it should proceed from myself, I may do away with it through repentance.

For we have all clearly apprehended concerning God that He is merciful, even though we do not all see how He shows mercy.

For often, being displeased that the things done according to His mercy are painful, we do not even reckon them to be mercy, and for this reason we say:

'Why hast Thou forgotten me?' But he who has apprehended that everything God brings upon us He brings for our profit will say nothing of the sort, unless he does so in working out his own repentance.

By the 'bones' of the soul that go before are meant her vigorous doctrines and her powers.

Since, then, it often happens that the bones are crushed by clever sophists, the deceivers reproach, saying nothing else than 'Where is thy God in whom thou boastest?'—saying that he has been schooled in His wisdom. But concerning this suffering also he converses with his own soul, declaring, 'Why art thou exceeding sorrowful? Hope in the Lord, make confession;'

for His countenance shall assuredly shine upon thee—no other than that of the truth—so that, having the truth that is from God, thou mayest be able to undo the deceits of those who crush the bones set before thee.

It could be the Lord's own person that speaks these things;

and by 'an unholy nation' He would mean the Jewish people, and by 'an unjust and deceitful man' Judas.

One must attend to why He said the nation was 'not holy' rather than 'unholy.'

For perhaps, not cutting off the hopes of repentance, and by saying 'not holy' hinting that, if it should turn back through repentance, it would become holy.

Another interpreter introduced the person of the Savior speaking to the Father the words in the psalm, naming the Jews 'an unholy nation' and Judas 'unjust and deceitful;'

but he was unable to harmonize what is said with what follows;

for how was it possible for Him to say:

'Send forth Thy light and Thy truth,' and what follows? Since the Savior is the true Light and Himself declares that He is the Truth, those men who lived before His coming, having learned from the prophecies that the light and truth of God would shine forth, entreated that the light and the truth be sent through the Incarnation, so that they might be led by them to the holy mountain—the loftier doctrine concerning the Trinity—and to the eternal tabernacles.

The light is not other than the truth in essence (for the Son of God is both), but only in conception;

for insofar as it frees from shadow and falsehood it is truth, but insofar as it frees from error and ignorance it is light.

The word 'I will enter in' is not said incidentally;

for he who, from the perceptible altar, has taken a representation of the intelligible one, will enter in to God Himself, invisibly offering up sacrifices upon it.

'To God who gladdens my youth,' which stands opposed to the old man;

for only he who is young in spirit and in mind, being akin to the new man and to the newness of the spirit, enters in to God who gladdens such youth.

Those who wish to malign the divine Scripture as not being precise in its expressions and meanings, and who make use of the present phrase which says 'O God, with our ears we have heard,' assert:

'For who, in hearing, does not hear with his own ears?' But from the very things by which they wish to malign it, they have the refutation of their own folly.

For what those who chant declare is this:

those who hear rationally hear not with the common organs of sense that are called ears, but with the ears proper to human beings—just as musical men also used to say:

'With the ears of musical men the lessons of music are heard.'

'Our ears'—in reference to nothing else than that, distinguishing them from the common ones, they say 'With our ears.'

In concert with these is the saying, 'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.'

Our fathers have declared to us.

Either the fathers in the way of instruction proclaimed divine things, or the forefathers proclaimed the deeds done in their days.

With reference to the mind of Israel: after they had betrayed the Savior and been destroyed by the hand of God, those from among the nations were planted, by divine catechesis, in the God-inspired Scriptures.

Having afflicted the peoples of the circumcision, God cast them out from the sacred instruction of the Law.

And not by the law of war did those from among the nations who believed conquer and inherit the land just now spoken of.

'Neither did their own arm save them'—that is, their own labor.

For by grace they have obtained salvation, by Thy right hand and Thine arm—that is, by the only-begotten Son.

And the enlightenment is that which enlightens, being Thy countenance, because Thou wast well pleased in them to save them by grace, not from their works, lest they should boast.

Concerning the salvations of Jacob—who supplants base things whereby he is saved—God commands the holy spirits who are sent forth to minister for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation, that they should swiftly proceed to succor and to render the aid that comes through themselves.

Just as to certain irrational animals God has given a defensive horn, that they may ward off the things able to harm them, so to the saints the horns are the powers of Jesus, by which they gore their enemies.

Wherefore also all the animals that use horns, being clean, are either brought up upon the divine altar or become food for the portion of God.

God thrusts one away from Himself not always because of sin, but also for other causes which He Himself knows.

And not everyone who turns back to the things behind undergoes this blameworthily;

for if someone, having left the base things, should flee far, withdrawing from them, this man, turning back to the things behind toward what he has forsaken, falls into destruction.

But if someone, having left Zion—that is, virtue—should hasten toward the vice called Babylon, in turning back to the things behind he takes up a blessed matter;

yet those who speak the foregoing words, since they came to be among the enemies, in turning back to the things behind fell into blameworthy things.

Those who speak these things, being certain holy ones, seem, much like the one 'led as a sheep to the slaughter,' to have been given up 'as sheep for eating,' becoming food for those who receive their words and manner of life unto profit;

but also among the nations these were scattered by God, cast down after the manner of seed like a husbandman's sowing, so that, transforming the nations, they might bring them to the same quality as themselves.

For one must not heed those who say that God's portion was scattered among the nations after the manner of captivity.

'It was not,' he says, 'in taking a price for the people that Thou didst sell them, but on account of the sins which they committed they became subject to their enemies;'

for by their sins they were sold, according to the prophet.

Since we have fallen, most lamentably, under the aforesaid things through the course of our life, being put to shame all the day long, we have our shame before us, the disgrace of our face covering us, so that we no longer have boldness to behold, with unveiled face of soul, the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.

From the voice of him who reproaches, and after the manner of one raving and babbling, he perceives his shame to be before his eyes the whole day long.

And from the enemy who shows himself terrible of countenance and pursues him, shame covered his face.

It is the voice of those who have taken up perfect courage;

for though many and diverse afflictions came upon them and forced them to forget God, on the contrary they called God to mind, so that each one might say, 'In affliction I remembered the Lord.'

God turns aside the paths of a certain one from His own way, delivering him over to the desires of his own heart and to a reprobate mind.

A place of affliction is the region about the earth and the subterranean realm;

where those are brought low who have experience of the body of death.

The impressions in the heart, which must also be addressed in what follows.

If indeed these things be spoken figuratively, that which is signified is of this kind:

Since we are clothed about with dust, compounded of pleasures and the other passions, on this account 'our soul has been brought low to the dust,' we having become cast down upon the ground; but also 'our belly has cleaved to the earth,' since we feed on nothing heavenly but, like the serpent, eat earth all the days of our own life.

But if the passage before us be expounded according to allegory, the soul, as it enters into the body, will say: 'Our soul has been brought low to the dust.'

This same soul also, having fallen from the blessed and heavenly life, in setting its mind on things below will say the words: 'Our belly has cleaved to the earth.'

For it is nourished on nothing other than earthly things.

They say these things, deeming themselves worthy to obtain help and redemption for no other cause than for the sake of his name.

And they would say these things also to the Saviour, who tarried in the heart of the earth in the season of the Passion, that, having risen, he might furnish succour, and, giving a ransom, might make his soul a ransom for many.

And he does these things for the glory of his name.

The goal for those who advance and pass from quality to quality is to press on toward the best of qualities, according to which they may be shown forth as incorruptible and immortal.

This, then, being the end, 'For those who shall be changed'—that is, for those who have been altered and made zealous out of base men—the sons of Korah, transforming all things into understanding, bring forth a song concerning the Beloved, sounding it aloud.

And the Beloved here is the only-begotten Son of God.

For this Beloved, then, a song of victory is sung, on behalf of those whom he changed, having given incorruption in place of corruption.

If it be the person of the Father, he would say: 'Since I alone am good, it is necessary that the Word also, who came to be from my substance, should be good.'

But if it be the prophet who is speaking, we say: 'Since the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good, it is necessary that he too who has been nourished on fornicating foods that hold much good should belch forth a good word.'

For just as he who has eaten an apple sends forth a belch redolent of apple, so he who has eaten good things so as to make his soul luxuriate in good things sends forth a good word, belching it out.

As, therefore, in the case of this quality of food the result comes about, so also in the case of spiritual teaching he belched forth such things as he had also fed upon.

They themselves also writing down certain instructions.

For just as the word of the Gospel, being likened to a grain of mustard seed, if it meet with cultivation, becomes greater than the human words that are called garden herbs because of their transitoriness, so what the Word of God writes with his own reed he demonstrates opportunely, showing these things, in contrast to the writings of men, to be such as lay hold of the reasonings and settle down within the souls.

Those who hear the words of Jesus, which are 'full of grace,' will speak the passage before us.

And it has often been shown that 'lips' are used in place of 'words.'

And the phrase 'is poured out' declares the abundance of grace.

In harmony with this is: 'I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh,' and 'The love of God has been poured out in our hearts.'

For in these too the abundance of the Spirit and the riches of the love from God are declared.

On account of this grace, then, that was poured out upon your lips, 'God your God has blessed you,' having borne witness to your good stewardship unto all eternity.

Since the things of generation are worked about the thigh, and shameful desires spring up around these parts, there is need of the cutting word that is called a sword, that, girded about the thigh, one may cut off the licentious pleasures.

The virtue that attends upon sinlessness.

And it is clear that the thigh is a symbol of the things aforesaid.

For indeed Abraham also, when sending his servant on a betrothal errand, says: 'Put your hand upon my thigh, and I will make you swear by the God of heaven.'

Perhaps, on account of the Saviour who was to come from him according to the flesh, the Word who became flesh can be the flesh in question.

It is understood, then, and believed that the Word is a sword, and the flesh a thigh, inasmuch as the flesh has its origin from thence.

And this one, toward whom the Word is directed, having escaped all weakness, is mighty, having as beauty and comeliness the splendour of the Godhead.

And 'Prosper on your way' is to be read as equivalent to 'Grant a good journey.'

And in addition to these things, reign over those who have been smitten with longing.

And the cause of your reigning is the perfection of virtue, not in practice alone but also in knowledge.

For the phrase 'for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness' signifies this.

For it says: reign, to the end that the truth may be known and that meekness and righteousness may be rightly established among those under your rule.

'And your right hand shall guide you wondrously.'

He who does all things according to God is guided wondrously by the right hand that is practised in noble deeds, using it as guide of the way that leads to the Saviour.

And the Saviour also, dexterously accomplishing his marvellous mighty works, is guided wondrously by his own right hand.

The words of the mighty Christ smite the hearers after the manner of sharpened arrows, so that they prefer above all things the following after him.

Wounded by these arrows, the apostles, casting away all that lay at their feet, judged it good to follow him.

But also the peoples who formerly held an evil standing, in that they were settled amid wickedness, being smitten by these arrows fell under him—that is, they were made subject to him and came to be beneath him.

The enemies of the King Christ are all those who sin.

When, then, the aforesaid arrows come to be in the heart of these, they fall away from their enmity, bending the knee before the King.

Or perhaps the peoples who stood 'in the heart of the enemies of the King,' being confirmed according to the purpose of their enmity, when struck by the arrows fell under Christ, having fallen down into the heart of his enemies.

But if these things be spoken with reference to the only-begotten Son of God, then the Son of God, having hated the lawlessness that held sway before his sojourning, and having loved the righteousness that springs from faith by his coming, gave himself, by the Father's good pleasure, to become man and to be anointed with the oil of gladness—that is, with the Holy Spirit.

The garments of Christ, being at once royal and hierarchic, breathe forth myrrh on account of the death which he took upon himself (for this spice is applied to the dead who are buried); but also of stacte, being an extract of myrrh, because the death of Christ had something more, having come to pass for the salvation of others and for the dissolution of the devil; and of cassia, on account of his word which is fiery.

For this ointment is heat-producing.

The garments of Christ, therefore, are the things reverently spoken of him as of God.

Since, then, he took to himself, along with the other things, also this—to be hymned as one who was valiant even as a dead man—it is fitting that the aforesaid things breathe forth from his garments.

In harmony with this is: 'The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.'

By 'kings' here we must speak of those who reign together with Christ, of whom he himself is King of those who reign.

These very ones, being daughters held in honour by him who is hymned, gladdened the King Christ 'from the heavy ivory palaces.'

And by 'heavy ivory things' you will mean the lofty theological doctrines.

For the ivory, being a tooth, is a symbol of speech.

For the teeth too are organs of the voice.

And 'heavy things' are the great houses.

The soul that has truly become the consort of Christ, the true King—that is, the Church—is named 'queen' because of her being the bride of the King, standing at his right hand in that she occupies a station on the right, having her foundation in virtue and faith.

And she also has garments interwoven with gold, having put on Christ.

And she is clothed round about and adorned with varied colours, having taken up the manifold wisdom of God.

And one must not stumble if he himself is both bridegroom and garment.

For according to one relation and conception and another these things exist, just as he is found in the Gospels to be both shepherd and lamb and a thousand other things.

For it is God who addresses the Church gathered from the nations, whom he also names his daughter.

'Having received my words, O daughter, hear and behold their meaning, giving heed to them.'

For yet the more will you desire to incline your ear, so as to hear them more fully and more thoroughly worked out, and to long for them.

And there will follow for you a forgetting of your kinsfolk, since you will no longer wish to keep about you their customs and ancestral ways.

And you will forget also the house of your father, who begot you according to the wickedness of the devil.

'On this account I call you, daughter,' God says to her, 'that you may do the things commanded you.'

Since my Son, being King, has desired the beauty that resides in you, who have come to be according to my image and likeness—yet this very King who desires your beauty is not one of your peers.

For he himself is your Lord.

For he is not an angel, nor an archangel, nor any other that is a created being.

For to Him indeed all render worship.

Since, then, to be worshipped belongs to God, know that the King who desires your beauty is God, He who is also your Lord.

For being a daughter of Tyre because of the superstition you held, you were called my daughter, so that all the rich of the people bring their entreaties before your face.

For of the people from the circumcision, all who are rich according to faith and the truth of the Gospel come to you, entreating your face because you have become the consort of the King.

For just as of old those from the Gentiles who came to the worship of God became proselytes to Israel, beseeching his face, so now those from among the Jews who repent take refuge in the Church of the Gentiles, asking to be received by her.

'All the glory of the king's daughter is of Heshbon.'

'Heshbon' is interpreted as 'reasonings' (thoughts).

And the King of the reasonings that are righteous is the Lord.

The glory, then, of the daughter of Tyre who is here celebrated is from no other source than from the King of the reasonings.

One should know that in many places of the Scriptures gold is taken in place of intelligible (spiritual) substance, as will be shown in due course.

Since, therefore, into the virtues that are her garments there is also woven the discourse concerning intelligible realities, especially that concerning the Trinity, she is clothed in golden fringes, which are embroidered in varied fashion because of the manifold and multiform character of Christ's teaching.

Since the wording has an obscurity, we shall take its meaning from another passage.

In the Song of Songs, interpreting the differences of the souls that come to Christ, the Word says:

'There are queens and concubines and maidens without number.'

so that it is said of this one: 'The daughters saw her and blessed her; the queens and concubines praised her.'

It is made clear from these words that of the souls coming to Christ, some who do not yet have the season for marriage are maidens; but of those who have already joined themselves to Him when He has been united to them, some who are noble and have risen above the world that came into being in six days are the 'Sixty queens', while those who have received the eighth-day circumcision and still have the spirit of servitude are the 'Eighty concubines'.

But she who surpasses them all, being made perfect according to the Spirit so as to be the perfect dove of the Word, is the glorious Church, she who has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Praising this Church, the Psalmist in the verses before this now says that after her the maidens shall be brought to her bridegroom King—those who formerly had no fitting season of wedded life, but now, because they have been perfected, are led into the bridal chamber, so that having slept with the King they may be taken up to become members of the one perfect bride, no longer being others alongside her as when they were imperfect.

Even if there are many incorrupt souls whom it is customary to call virgins, yet not all are at once carried to the King, but those who have drawn near and become close in disposition to the perfect bride.

Well too is the phrase 'They shall be brought':

for those who have no experience of the bridegroom Word are not able of themselves to go to Him;

rather, those who have handed over to them the preliminary instruction lead them to Him;

and these are the Law and the Prophets.

Since nearly everything of the psalm is spoken to Christ, this verse too would say that: in place of the fathers you had according to the flesh—that is, those from the circumcision—there were begotten to you sons of the same race who have embraced the Gospel word.

And these you have appointed as rulers over all the earth, saying to them: 'Go and make disciples of all the nations'—witnesses of Him, having become the deputies of the King unto the ends of the earth.

For this reason the peoples shall thankfully give confession, not for one or a second age, but even unto the age of the age.

For the confession over sins we are not now permitted to name here.

For that takes place once and not unto the age of the age;

for only in this age is it possible to repent and to make confession.

But if another manuscript has 'They shall be remembered' in place of the text, it means: those appointed by you to rule shall be remembered of your name in every generation and generation, in that your kingdom extends unto all the ages.

It is customary to call 'hidden' those things spoken obscurely by reason of some dispensation;

for according to this the wisdom of God too is hidden in a mystery;

thus also 'The treasures of wisdom and knowledge' are said to be 'hidden'.

There is, then, an end also of these hidden things, as it were a purpose: either to escape the notice of those unworthy of the knowledge of divine things, or that those who have a longing to lay hold of divine knowledge, giving themselves to labours and disciplines, may attain their goal.

God is not the God of all, but of those who have renounced every human refuge and power.

For those who take refuge in God have all security and power by partaking of Him, so as to say with the Apostle:

'I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.'

'A helper in the afflictions that have found us exceedingly.'

The word 'exceedingly' is placed ambiguously:

for either He is an exceeding helper in the afflictions that find us, or He is a helper in the afflictions that find us exceedingly.

'Mountains removed into the hearts of the seas'—we must not suppose these to be the perceptible parts of the earth, but wicked powers being removed into the souls that are troubled by the surging waves of the passions, where there is a briny draught of vice and a bitterness of character.

Indeed the Saviour too said to the disciples: 'If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, nothing shall be impossible for you.'

And the mountain pointed out by the Saviour is nothing other than the opposing power.

For concerning the demon that causes the moon-sickness (epilepsy) He again said: 'If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there'—comparing the most perfect faith to a grain of mustard seed.

For the Apostle also says: 'If I have all faith so as to remove mountains.'

By His might the wicked spirits were troubled, being driven out of the souls and bodies they had previously held.

For these mountains, priding themselves greatly upon themselves, when they suddenly saw the One driving them out with authority, fell into confusion.

By 'city of God' one must understand either the Church or the heavenly Jerusalem to be meant.