詩篇註釋殘篇 第 1 章 第 21/40 段

Not only here is God called the 'Holy One of Israel,' but also in the passage 'You provoked the Holy One of Israel'—clearly it is those who sin who provoke him.

The rational soul is redeemed, since Jesus gave his own soul—itself likewise rational—as a ransom for it.

For in the very manner in which, redeeming the bodies of men, he himself gave a body of the same essence on their behalf, so, redeeming rational souls, he laid down a rational soul on their behalf.

Argument: This psalm would not refer to Solomon the father of Rehoboam, but to the one who is called 'spiritual' in this way, because of the transfer of the name; for it is interpreted in the Greek tongue as 'peaceable.'

For it is interpreted in the Greek tongue as 'peaceable.'

And who is this but the one who says, 'My peace I give to you,' namely Jesus? Concerning him the Theologian writes, 'For he himself is our peace,' and, 'He preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, having broken down the enmity that divided the Greeks from the Hebrews,' so that one flock and one people might be constituted out of the nations and the Jews.

Thus shown to be peaceable through the works he accomplished, he is the one born according to the flesh from a virgin, from David.

At any rate it is written concerning him, 'The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David.'

'To judge your people in righteousness' (that is, clearly those from the circumcision) 'and your poor with judgment';

and these are those from the nations who come to the gospel, named 'poor' because of their poverty arising from unbelief and wickedness.

But whether those who are moderate in disposition can be 'poor of God,' according to 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' consider further.

He commands those of greater natural endowment through virtue—called 'mountains' and 'hills' because of their height—to take up peace toward the people.

And if the 'mountains' and 'hills' happen to be archangels and angels, the whole human race is the 'people' toward whom they are called to make peace, since Jesus, through the blood of the cross, made peace between the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, when previously the things on earth were in dissension, through wickedness, toward the things in the heavens.

Since, then, the one crucified was sacrificed as the Lamb of God, that he might take away the sin of the world, when the sin of those on earth was dissolved, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth are made at peace, joy coming to pass in the heavens before the angels over those who repent from sin.

But if Moses and the prophets are signified through the 'mountains' and 'hills,' let them take up peace toward the people from the nations who had been unbelieving, knowing that they themselves proclaimed beforehand concerning this calling.

Then, since even among those who possess virtue some have it more and some less, those who possess it more—as being lifted up to a greater degree in practice and in the knowledge of truth—must be called 'mountains,' while the inferior are termed 'hills.'

And it is the work of the one who has received from God the judgment and the righteousness to judge the poor of the people.

And these are those who cling to the letter and the shadow of the law, ever named 'poor' because they have not the wealth that sees keenly according to the spiritual law—the wealth possessed by those from among the Jews who believed, among whom are also the apostles.

In addition to this, he also brings salvation upon the sons of the needy;

and these are those who from idolatry have come to the faith of Jesus, their begetters having been 'needy' in respect of superstition.

Therefore he will save not those who remained in the polytheistic error, but their sons who repented.

When these have been delivered and saved by the judge who came also to save, the one who oppresses all through false accusation is humbled, so as to be crushed under the feet of the saints.

For it is said to the righteous, 'And you shall trample the lion and the dragon,' and to a 'man' also (indeed to every false accuser), if it be said, 'He shall turn away false accusations.'

The same as 'He shall endure with the sun' is what was said to him, 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,' and 'Before the moon, generations of generations' is the same as 'Before the age he founded me.'

'He shall continue together with the sun' is also said concerning the flesh which he united to himself, animated by a rational and intelligent soul;

for it continues together with the Sun of righteousness because of the indivisible union.

But also 'before the moon'—which has an analogy to the intelligible sun—there is a 'generation of generations,' in that through him and in him is established the Church, composed of all men who have generation.

For these have their existence from generation to generation according to succession.

It is presented from the Song of Songs that the Church is like the moon;

'Who is this that looks forth as the dawn, fair as the choice moon?' As the rain coming upon the earth is the cause of good fruit, so the coming of the Savior to men came to pass for the sake of the produce of righteousness.

And it must be said that the fleece signifies Israel, while the earth denotes the nations.

Since first he came down upon the fleece, then from there upon the earth.

For when Israel disobeyed, so as not to receive the one who had come, there was a transference of the rain to the earth, so that all the men upon it might be moistened—or rather watered—from the drops, for the purpose of bringing forth spiritual fruits.

When the Savior has come, righteousness will spring up like light, being practical virtue, and together with it the peace that is fitting—that which is established in an evangelical manner through faith in Jesus toward the living—having a great abundance, so as to extend even to the consummation of the world.

For this is what the removal of the moon signifies.

We were saying that the moon denotes the Church.

For the moon receives a borrowed light from the sun and does not have it of itself, as the Church, insofar as it is on earth, knows in part and is not genuinely illumined as a whole, being destined at length to be one day according to the sun, when the perfect comes.

For by that Word by which the knowing in part is abolished, it will bring in the unsurpassable knowledge.

Thus the lunar condition of the Church will be done away, when it comes to be according to the Sun of righteousness, the righteous who fill up the Church shining forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

In the Song of Songs is the perfection of the bride;

and the Church itself, after much progress, will be according to the sun.

For who is this, he says, who peers out like the dawn, having the beginning of illumination, after which beginning she is destined to become, like the moon, full of light? For this is the church.

When those of the nations called Ethiopians — on account of the blackness they had from impiety — fall down before the King in the manner of repentance, then the enemies of the King, namely the Jews, shall lick the dust.

And it is well put too, that the Ethiopians fall down before Him;

for to fall down in the presence of the King who sees hidden things signifies genuine submission.

It is possible that even in the enemies of God a perception of repentance appears through their licking the dust;

for the action is that of those bending the knee.

Now Tarshish is interpreted as 'reconnoitring of joy,' when the friends of virtue and piety reconnoitre joy, so that each of them may one day be able to hear, 'Enter into the joy of your Lord.'

When those thus contemplative have their gaze fixed on joy, the reigning kings will bring gifts — namely those whom they rule.

And these are souls that stand firm and unmoved, even if the sea foams and stirs up its mighty waves against them.

To these the Saviour says, 'Be renewed unto me, O islands,' being made new by the newness of the Spirit, bearing the new man who is created according to God.

In addition to these kings, the kings of the Arabs and of Saba will offer gifts — namely those who come to the evening of the wicked life, so that the light of the impious is darkened from them.

And it could be that one who is transformed into an angel of light — falsely, and to the point of deceiving — is really the sun.

For 'Arabs' is translated as 'sunset' and 'evening.'

Together with these Arabs and many others, the repentance of Saba is offered;

and the name is interpreted as 'conversion.'

It is possible to understand as those worshipping Him and offering gifts the teachers of all the nations, that is, the apostles and disciples and their successors;

for they offer as gifts to God the people whom they have won.

And if each of the faithful also brings gifts — praiseworthy deeds and a true mind — they, like kings, present their own gifts to the one and only King of all.

And His name is inscribed as honoured in the presence of those whom He has delivered from so many evils.

The holy men, having learned that none of created beings will ransom men from the wickedness that holds them fast — since all had turned aside and together become worthless — kept sending up prayer to the Father continuously and without ceasing concerning the One who is able to deliver from the hand of the mighty and to become the cause of eternal salvation, at one time saying, 'Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation,' and at another, 'Send forth your light and your truth.'

They prayed in the words of the psalm, saying, 'O God, give your judgement to the king, and your righteousness to the son of the king.'

And they glorify Him all day long — that is, throughout the present age, or throughout the enlightened life of those who bless Him.

The tops of these mountains are the fulfilments of the prophetic proclamations, having reached which the one foretold has become a support upon the earth.

For those whom Jesus made to bear fruit through His coming — faithful men — possess both a multitude and a greatness of deeds and contemplations;

and the witness of this is, 'The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; like a cedar in Lebanon shall he be multiplied.'

When, therefore, the fruit of the support of all things had thus been multiplied and exalted, those Jews who disbelieved the Saviour shall spring up out of the city of Jerusalem like grass out of the earth — thus named, and very justly so, because of their being easily withered and quickly dried up.

Since they have become flesh in their mind-set, disbelieving the Saviour and receiving glory from one another but not seeking the glory that is given by God alone, they shall spring up like grass of the earth;

for 'all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass.'

For it did not say they would 'flourish' but that they would 'spring up.'

And it is well put too, that those of whom the passage speaks spring up like grass 'from a city' and not 'in a city.'

For having hastened, in life and in mind-set, to be outside the spiritual city Jerusalem, they were dried up like the easily-withered and quickly-drying grass, while the one who remains within the city suffers nothing of the kind;

for 'he that dwells in Jerusalem shall not be shaken for ever.'

The tribes that are blessed in Him — being the nations — count the One who blessed them blessed, saying, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of the clear-sighted race, who alone has done wondrous things,' having set us free from idolatry and from the worship of destructive demons;

for truly wondrous is each of the things that have come to pass for the calling of the nations.

And do not let the addition of the word 'alone' trouble you;

for it is not opposed to, 'The Son can do nothing, unless he sees the Father doing it;'

for 'whatever the Father does, these things the Son likewise does.'

For the word 'alone' and all such expressions, when taken with reference to the Godhead, signify Father and Son, as is established from the prophet;

where it is said to the Father, 'And the men of Saba, the lofty ones, shall pass over to you, and shall worship you, and in you shall they pray, because in you is God, and there is no God besides you;'

'for you are God, and we knew it not, the God of Israel, the Saviour.'

But what is the glory whose name is blessed, or which He accomplished when, at His coming, He made those who repented glorious and honoured out of dishonoured and inglorious men? It is possible to call His glory even the renowned death which He endured for the salvation of all things;

for the words 'Jesus was not yet glorified,' and 'We see Jesus, who was made a little lower, crowned with glory and honour on account of the suffering of death.' But if that also is His glory whose name is blessed for ever — concerning which Paul writes, 'The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us' — give it your attention.

For above all we find this glory, and the proclamation concerning it, forever hymned, since Peter said:

thus speaks the witness of His sufferings, 'And a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.'

And 'Israel' too is interpreted as 'one seeing God.'

Therefore, understanding the One whom they see, they know that He is good.

And even if He provides something gloomy and unpleasant to men, they know that He does this for their benefit and unto salvation, and the steps by which they had advanced and made progress are not shaken.

Since those of whom the passage speaks are held not only in the vice of conduct but also in impiety, it follows that they have clothed themselves with injustice and with moral evil in general, and along with it impiety, thinking impiously about all doctrines.

Their injustice will come forth as out of fat — coming forth then, when it is carried out in action, no longer remaining in thoughts alone.

Having first disposed themselves according to vice, they established the evil not for themselves alone, but longing to be harmful to others also;

wherefore, after passing into a disposition of vice, thinking in wickedness they spoke deceitfully, as though speaking good things.

'They were lifted up,' he says, so as even to speak unjust things against God and to slander His creation and His providence, such as those who ascribe to the movement of the stars the things that come about by free choice, who also deify the stars and set the creation above the Creator, and 'set their mouth against heaven.'

They were dragged down — rather, cast down — inasmuch as they let their tongue, which they had whetted against the Most High, pass over upon the earth, so that all who hear may know that they philosophize vainly and impiously against God and against His providence.

When the impious had spoken arrogant things, the people of God found an occasion for conversion, desiring to enjoy those luminous contemplations which the passage calls 'days.'

And the word 'here' — where the God who speaks this is present — is like that which was said to Moses, 'But you, stand here with me.'

Those who wish to cast out providence and who have spoken injustice unto the height, put forward such arguments as these:

How is it possible that God knows human affairs? Does He have some sensory, organic faculty? Does His understanding receive impressions of things seen and heard, so that, having come to know them, He may dispose them providentially and at the same time royally, leading them wherever He wills? But having first said, 'How shall God know?', they confess that they do know God, yet are ignorant of the manner of His knowing.

After this they even say that He is ignorant, saying, 'Is there knowledge in the Most High?' They have gone astray, supposing that He has a disposition according to quality.

For He is the Father of wisdom and of truth and of divine knowledge.

It is said, at any rate, 'The Lord is a God of knowledge,' and 'He who teaches man knowledge,' and 'The Lord knows the thoughts of men.'

And how, being one who both teaches and gives, is anything lacking to Him? Now it belongs to a passion of resentment to wish each to obtain according to his desert, since the one who is truly wise does not place prosperity or adversity in pleasant or painful things, but rather places the one in the possession of virtue and piety, and the other in the deprivation of these; since, therefore, to each class there befall things both unpleasant and painful, it is no longer as to the pious or the sinners that these things befall the former and those the latter.

This very point is established by the passage before us, so that, after the troubling things have been stated, a pious resolution may be brought in. Something of this kind God says in Malachi:

'You have wearied me with your words, and you said, In what have we spoken against you? And you said, He who serves God is doing it in vain;'

'and behold, we count strangers blessed, and all who do lawless things are being built up; they resisted God and were saved, and we who serve Him have nothing more, although we go as suppliants before His face.'

And to those who say these things He adds, after other words, 'You said, Everyone who does evil is good in His sight, and in them He Himself took pleasure.'

This concerns the age to come, how the lawless and the impious shall be punished, while the righteous shall receive divine promises.

It is possible to understand 'And I was scourged all the day long' with such a meaning as this:

Having said, 'Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart,' and what follows, and having realized that I ought not, in my agitation, to have said this, I was scourged by the reasoning of piety, being reproved and rebuked by it all the day long.

In harmony with the passage before us is also this: 'I saw the impious highly exalted and lifting himself up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found.'

For God set at naught the image of the man of dust, not allowing him to enter into the heavenly city.

For this belongs to those who bear the image of the heavenly One.

Well is it said, 'I became like a beast before you.'

For in comparison with the Father of wisdom and the God of knowledge, all created beings are without knowledge, according to what was said by Moses—who indeed saw the God-Word—'I am slow of speech.'

For how could even the most eloquent man not be found without speech when compared with the Word? For this reason it was again said by the same Moses, 'I am not able, neither yesterday nor the day before, since you began to speak to your servant.'

'I am feeble of voice and slow of tongue.'

For he did not simply say that he was feeble of voice and slow of tongue and not sufficient to himself before—for he was eloquent—but rather he added, 'Since you began to speak to your servant.' In the same way Abraham also said to the Creator, 'Since I have begun to speak to the Lord, though I am but earth and ashes,' which he did not perceive before he spoke to God. And it is set forth through the words 'I became' that he was not disturbed as though by any sin among men, but rather that he does not so regard them as one who brings them under his own wise providence.

It is not for any ordinary person to say 'I am continually with you,' but only for the one who possesses virtue and piety in an orderly and even manner, rather than one who attains uprightness by fits and starts.

Since God is not in a place, no one is separated from him spatially, but by the disposition and condition whereby the unjust and wicked is conceived as far from the just and good One who is the cause of all.

And since drawing near to him by the reception of virtue saves the one who approaches, while departing from him by having acquired vice and impiety brings destruction—

to be far from God is the same thing as to sin.

Fittingly, then, it is said that 'Behold, those who make themselves far shall perish'—not those who once made themselves far—since those who have sinned do not perish if they put an end to their sinning through repentance.

In the same way also, 'He who commits'—but not he who once committed—'sin is its slave.'

While many have raised long and abundant discourses concerning the essence of the good, the wise man set forth its existence in few words, saying that to be good is properly to cleave to God and to place one's hope in him.

It has already been said that the virtues and the introductions to perfection are the gates of Zion; and every soul that comes into being according to Zion and lives in her keeping is called a daughter of Zion.

He inquires what is the cause of falling among those who beset him, that by hindering it those things which are present for its sake might depart together with it.

God thrusts away the sinner, though that one has first severed himself off—

'For him who comes to me I will in no wise cast out,' said the Lord.

Do not conceive of the wrath and anger of God as being after our own likeness;

for concerning God there is no human passion, but by the words spoken he hints at that surpassing turning-away which he says the sheep of his pasture must endure.

And the pasture of God is the oracles of the Spirit—the law, as it were, and the prophets—in which, like a shepherd, he pastures the righteous as sheep.

Taken according to a higher contemplation, the whole life of men is understood as a sea.

God strengthened this sea in his own power so as to bring it from a great tempest and most violent storm into fair weather and calm, that those who tread upon it might walk as though on dry land, according to what was said: 'He who turns the sea into dry land.'

Since there are many heads not only of many dragons but even of one dragon, the Savior crushed together the many heads upon the water—the water being understood as vice, or as the unstable and troubled affairs of life.

For in such water the dragons work harmfully, and the one who is preeminent among them is that one concerning whom it is written that he is king of all that are in the waters and that he dwells in the sea.

For this is the great and spacious sea;

showing the turmoil of affairs and the vice, he says: 'In it small creatures swim among the great, and ships pass through,' so as to mock the dragon in it, which was formed for this very purpose.

The rulers of this age are those who profess wisdom, and with them the principalities and authorities, the world-rulers of this world, and moreover the spiritual forces of wickedness and the whole throng of demons and hostile powers; and the heads of these dragons are divinations, sorceries, auguries, and whatever contributes to idolatry, and also false doctrines and abominable deeds.

It is the work of the Savior alone to shatter the heads of the aforesaid dragons.

not from any other place, but precisely where they seemed to be strong.

Then, since he did not crush together only the heads of the dragon but also put to death the whole of him, he gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples.

For it was fitting that none other should be filled with his flesh and parts than the peoples of the Ethiopians, being through ignorance sons of darkness and of night.

For just as all the sons of light are nourished by the flesh of Jesus, which is true food, so that from the very use of that eating they are enlightened and made whiter than snow, so too the children of darkness—Ethiopians according to the inner man—shall be fed upon the draconian flesh (the forms of vice and false doctrine), when they are given over to the desires of their hearts unto uncleanness, and further to passions of dishonor and a reprobate mind.

He began the reckoning from spring, to indicate that the year begins from spring, the month of new things beginning from the vernal equinox, which Moses proclaimed to be the beginning of months and the first among the months of the year.

The enemy who reproaches the Lord is the devil, and the foolish people is the throng of the other invisible and wicked powers.

The enemy Caiaphas the high priest reproached the Savior Christ, and the foolish people of the Jews provoked his name, crying out, 'Away, away, crucify him.'

The passage before us is not true if it is understood of perceptible wild beasts;

for many perfect men, witnesses of the truth, were devoured by wild beasts.

One of these is Satan, as Peter the apostle writes: 'Your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.'

And the poor of God can be those who for his sake have abstained from wealth, according to those who said, 'Behold, we have left all and followed you'; while in another sense the poor of God are those who have cast away the wealth of vice that lay in false doctrine.

But whether those now named the poor of God are the same as the poor in spirit, consider.

After these things he beseeches God to look upon the covenant which he made with the fathers about Abraham, that he might not utterly forsake those of his seed;

and it must be said that those darkened in the earth are filled with dwellings of iniquities;

for these draw near to the earth.

If to corrupt and to destroy in many places in the divine Scripture means to sin, then incorruption and the possession of it signifies virtue as well;

for 'Grace,' he says, 'is with those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.'

And since the one who has begun a good work must bring it to completion, that is, carry it through to the end, it is said, 'To the end, do not destroy,' fleeing corruption until the end, that no one may remain in it but may remain in incorruption.

And this achievement is great, wherefore a Psalm of a song is sent up at its fulfillment.

Having reached the end of not destroying, incorruption having been achieved, we shall thankfully confess to you, O God, as the cause of the good things that have existed and been accomplished;

for with you and from you these things are confirmed.

And in addition to the good things accomplished, we desire to receive others also;

we shall confess concerning the things that have existed, and we shall call upon your name in order to receive still others.

But if those who confess and call upon are perfect, they confess for the things they have received in full, calling upon for their preservation, that the things given by the heavenly Father to those who ask him might remain with them until the end.

And Didymus likewise expounded in accordance with these things.

To dwell in the earth is for the most part taken in a bad sense, just as to sojourn is taken in praise;

for 'Woe,' he says, 'upon all who dwell in the earth,' and 'From the face of the north the evils shall be kindled upon those who dwell in the earth.'

Since, therefore, dwelling in the earth is a base thing, it comes to pass that a man is made gross from minding the things upon the earth and doing the aforementioned works of the flesh, and from being subject to its mind, which is enmity toward God because of dwelling in the earth.

This grossness that arises from vice, according to which the heart of the people under indictment was made gross, the fiery teaching of the Savior melts away—concerning which he said, 'I came to cast fire upon the earth.'

And since vice must be consumed not only by that which melts it, but also by the free choice of those held fast in it, it is enjoined to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit and to walk by the Spirit, that 'you may not fulfill the desire of the flesh.'

And by the pillars of that very melted earth he means those who possess a vigorous and true mind, or the heralds of the truth, whom the Savior—who establishes them in the order that here exists, setting them firm in the house of God—makes stable.

Having made firm the pillars of the Church, I exhorted the rest not to transgress the law.

And it might be spoken to the faction that rose up in rebellion and exalted itself against Christ, on account of whom their earth and all who dwell in it were melted.

But moreover, through the apostles he testified to the nations throughout the whole inhabited world not to transgress the law nor to speak unrighteousness against God by clinging to the polytheistic error.

As stated above, to dwell in the earth is for the most part taken in a bad sense, while to sojourn is taken in praise.

For 'Woe,' he says, 'upon all who dwell in the earth,' and 'From the face of the north the evils shall be kindled upon those who dwell in the earth.'

For he who minds the things upon the earth and does the works of the flesh is made gross—the mind of the flesh being enmity toward God because of dwelling in the earth—according to the words, 'He grew gross, he became broad, he grew fat';

such were those who shut up their fat in the earth, and concerning whom it is said, 'Their unrighteousness shall come forth as out of fat.'

But this grossness that arises from vice, the fiery teaching of the Savior melts away, for he said, 'I came to cast fire upon the earth.'

But since vice must be consumed also by free choice and not only by that which melts it, we are commanded to put to death the deeds of the body and to walk by the Spirit, that we may not fulfill the desire of the flesh.