Expositions on the Psalms 1 part 17/23

For the prophets, humbling themselves, said in prayer:

And you, O Lord God of Israel, attend to visiting all the nations.

Let this be written for another generation.

The prayer contained in this psalm, and the promise concerning the nations that is here prophesied, has been given to the Jews as though inscribed upon a stone pillar, to be kept for the new Israel and for the generation that is according to Christ.

And the people that is being created shall praise the Lord.

For he has looked down from his holy height.

He sets before us the cause of the calling of the nations.

And this is the appearing of our Savior Christ, which he brought about by bowing the heavens.

And who are the fettered, but those whom the demon who hates what is good has bound tight with the chains of sin? 'To loose the sons of those condemned to death.'

The sons of those condemned to death would be those from the nations, inasmuch as their fathers died in their own sins, still worshiping idols.

That his name might be declared in Zion.

And he says this is the cause of the descent, that the Church might learn to hymn his name.

When the peoples are gathered together as one.

The prophets, having seen through the Spirit the gathering of the nations to the Lord, themselves also entreated to be deemed worthy of this blessed sight and of the outcome of these things.

He answered him in the way of his strength.

The prophetic choir is the one who responds — or rather, questions God.

He calls his coming upon earth 'the way of his strength.'

For he came that he might bind the strong man.

Declare to me the fewness of my days.

'Declare to me,' he says, 'what sort of thing our life is.'

For he was praying to see whether his life would reach as far as those days in which the Only-Begotten, having become man, was to appear upon earth.

Take me not up in the midst of my days.

By 'half of his days,' that is, of his life, he means the portion spent thus far in looking toward the manifestation.

He was praying, then, that his whole span of time might be fulfilled;

and, if it were possible, that his life might be extended, so that he might also be counted worthy of the very outcome of these events.

For thus his whole life would have been brought to fulfillment.

Your years are unto generation of generations.

The prophetic choir, knowing through the Spirit that it would not live to reach the consummation of these events, says:

But I shall fall asleep, since I am mortal;

They shall perish, but you remain.

But the heavens, even though they are a great and extraordinary creature, will nevertheless also be subjected to corruption.

But this corruption will become for them a renewal;

for they will be rolled up, being changed into a better form.

The sons of your servants shall dwell securely.

For when the heavens are rolled up and a new creation comes to be, then indeed — then — the sons of your servants, coming to be in the eternal tabernacles;

and these would be those who have come to believe through his holy apostles.

And their seed shall be established forever.

The seed of the holy apostles is the evangelical and saving proclamation, which abides forever.

The new people from the Gentiles is taught by this to sing hymns to God, who has wrought such great benefits.

These benefits are the abolition of sin and the boast of the resurrection.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

He rouses himself to the hymn, putting forward the blessing of God as a good remedy for his own salvation.

For the things in which God was about to show mercy to the people, he is glorified by a judging righteousness, both freeing them from corruption and granting the kingdom of heaven;

so that this hymn now set before us fits all alike.

And all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

He lingers over his own exhortation to the hymn, knowing that he owes this in return for God's great benefits.

For the one who is mindful of the divine benefits will not cease singing this hymn.

And forget not all his recompenses.

For he repaid us, in place of the great sins which we had committed, with goodness, mercy, and compassion.

Who is gracious toward all your iniquities.

These are God's recompenses concerning us:

that first he established a propitiation for our sins;

and second, he healed our infirmities;

fourth, employing his own loving-kindness and mercy and compassion, he crowned us with the grace of adoption as sons;

fifth, he filled us with spiritual good things, giving himself to us as the bread of life.

Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's.

God renewing our youth like the eagle's, through regeneration.

This signifies to us the grace of the resurrection.

He likened those being renewed to the eagle, which is the highest-flying and most kingly of all birds, and alone able to gaze steadily and brightly upon the rays of the sun.

The Lord executes mercies and judgment for all who are wronged.

This Lord, he says, who by his mercy has granted us the aforesaid things, is the very same one who of old judged a righteous judgment, and redeemed the sons of Israel out of Egypt, and gave to Moses and to all the people knowledge of his commandments.

The Lord is compassionate and merciful.

For these very things have been the cause of such benefaction both of old and now, as Moses also said:

The Lord is longsuffering, and abundant in mercy, and true;

These, then, are his powers which he made known to Moses, called 'ways,' and the virtues by which he governs all things.

He will not be angry to the end.

Even though, he says, he was angered on account of the transgression in Adam, and condemned the race to death;

yet he does not extend his wrath to the end;

for he shone forth in the last times, unto the abolishing of corruption.

For he himself knows our frame.

For he had compassion on us as his own creation and the works of his hands.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting.

And showing mercy unto thousands to those who fear me.

And his righteousness is upon the children's children of those who keep his covenant.

For being holy, he rests among the holy — evidently, that is, among the angelic powers.

The Lord has prepared his throne in heaven.

He rests, he says, upon the spirits above;

and yet he stands apart from his own kingdom.

For he himself is the one who exercises dominion over all things, as God.

And his kingdom has dominion over all things.

And the Lord holds sway also over the worthy.

Bless the Lord, all you his angels.

For if this is their service — to praise and glorify God;

then the soul too is commanded to do this very thing — the Psalmist indeed always bidding it also to give glory — evidently so that it might attain the same dignity.

For those whose pursuit is the same also have the same dignity.

Bless the Lord, all you his hosts.

Not only are angels called to the praise, but also whatever other heavenly order there is, whether thrones, or principalities, or powers, or dominions.

And all these orders he signified to us through the term 'hosts.'

It is untitled among the Hebrews.

That he exercises providence not only over the heavenly and aerial things, but also over the earthly things, even the smallest among them;

so that he does not neglect even the most lowly of animals, but provides for these as well.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

O Lord my God, you are magnified exceedingly.

He clothes him with praise together with doxology, as with some garment.

Wrapping yourself with light as with a garment.

From the light conceived in the mind he begins to weave the hymn for him.

And just as it is said elsewhere that he dwells in unapproachable light, here this same light is said to be worn as a garment.

Stretching out heaven like a skin.

At once he set forth both the shape and the ease with which the Creator worked.

For just as it is easy for a man to stretch out a skin, so also it was for God to make heaven, which did not exist.

At the same time he also hinted at another lofty thought: that we are journeying toward another life, and present things are a shadow of things to come, and we have not yet arrived at the inner sanctuary, but are still in a tent in the present life.

Thus, when heaven is changed, there will be another manner of life, and a portion better than the present one.

For there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

But let us hear what things the prophets say concerning heaven, so that we may stop the mouths of those who pride themselves greatly on their beard;

who, uttering whatever comes to them, even say that heaven is beneath the earth;

against whom the prophet, standing firm, said:

Stretching out heaven like a skin.

The 'skin' is not some sphere, according to their nonsense;

but if it resembles anything, it resembles something round and hemispherical.

Which, then, another prophet made clear when he said:

He who set up heaven like a vault, and stretched it out like a tent for those who dwell upon the earth.

And again, that it is not made to whirl about;

thus says the prophet, He who fixed the heaven fast.

And also setting forth its extreme fineness, he said, Heaven was made firm like smoke.

He who roofs his upper chambers with waters;

he shows that the masses of water are not carried about in the air at random;

but that it has itself been roofed by the harmonious arrangement of the clouds concerning these things — 'He who makes the clouds his mounting-place.'

He who extends the works of his providence even as far as their clouds.

For he has put 'mounting-place' in place of 'providence.'

He who walks upon the wings of the winds.

but he himself becomes, as it were, their charioteer, by mounting upon their wings.

He who makes his angels spirits.

He makes, he says, the angels light and aloft.

And his ministers a flaming fire.

Thus Moses saw the angel speaking to him in a flame of fire.

He who founded the earth upon its stability.

After showing the Creator's providence in heaven, he proceeds also to speak of his providence over the things on earth.

This very thing: that though it is solid and heavy, it has been set upon a moist substance.

The deep is his covering, as a garment.

He speaks here of the element of earth itself.

And he says that, as with a garment, he wrapped the earth with the deep, encircling it entirely on the outside with water.

Waters will stand upon the mountains, and so forth.

'Like mountains,' he says, the waters of the deep rise up, lifted high, and as it were threatening to flood the earth;

'but at your nod, and by your power, which is also signified through the thunder, they withdraw,' he says;

or perhaps he says that the thunders too came to be for this reason, so that the waters of the deep might take a certain fear from what happens.

But if those waters endure this, much more must we undergo the like.

Mountains rise up, and plains sink down.

'The waters, when lifted high,' he says, 'might well be likened to mountains;'

but when spread out flat again by fear of you, the ground becomes, as it were, level and even.

For you have established for them a place which they cannot pass beyond.

You have set a boundary which they will not pass.

Similar is what was said to the sea through the prophet:

Thus far you shall come, and no farther;

but within yourself your waves shall be broken.

Waters will pass between the mountains.

for having made them, he also nourishes and gives them drink.

They will give drink to all the wild beasts of the field.

Thus he also cares for irrational animals, creeping things, and beasts, supplying to these as well what is useful for life.

Wild asses will look for it in their thirst.

And this too is a work of your providence: that waters are given not only at the seasons of the torrents, in the ravines and in the sun-scorched places, but also amid the mountains, so that the tame animals may escape the wild ones and find rest in due season.

Watering the mountains from his upper chambers.

For he waters mountains and plains not from the springs in the ravines, nor from the rivers flowing over the earth, but by supplying sufficient rains from above.

From the fruit of your works the earth will be satisfied.

Just as he gave the supply of waters, so also he provided that the earth should nourish.

He who makes grass spring up for the cattle, and green plants for the service of men.

To bring forth bread from the earth.

For all those things benefit us for our own sake.

The trees of the plain shall be satisfied.

These things have come to be for very many other purposes as well, of which we too have experience — and also for the sparrows, for their nests.

The dwelling of the heron takes the lead among them.

He says that the nest of the heron takes the lead among the sparrows themselves, because, occupying the tallest of the trees, it nests for the most part among the firs, which are the tallest of all trees. 'The high mountains are for the deer.'

And to the deer, he says, He has given the mountains as a refuge, so that they may escape the more savage beasts.

The rock is a refuge for the hares.

Just as He gave the mountains for the safety of the deer, so too He gave the clefts of the rocks for the hares.

From the midst of the rocks they will give forth their voices.

Clearly, praising the One who saves.

He made the moon for seasons.

He returns again to the providence exercised in the heavens.

The sun knew its setting.

It too, obeying a divine command.

You appointed darkness, and it became night.

He says this so that we might not suppose that the maker of the day is one, and the maker of the night another.

Man shall go forth to his work.

Men were prevented from going out upon the roads and from the cultivation of the earth.

But now it goes forth by night, seeking food from God;

since the earth did not, for their sake as well, cause grass or green plants to spring up.

How greatly magnified are Your works, O Lord!

Having gone through his discourse concerning providence, he turned the discourse into a hymn to the Creator, thereby giving the hearing, as it were, a rest through this.

Then again he comes to another part of providence, declaring to us the passage through the waters;

which could never have come to be, had not God's providence steered it therein.

It is indeed an exclamation of wonder: 'in wisdom the Lord has made them all';

for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

He has inserted, into the discourse concerning the sea, the mention that was made of the dragon;

saying that it was brought forth for no other purpose than to be sported with.

And fittingly he made mention of this in the discourse concerning the sea;

inasmuch as our whole life too is a kind of salty sea, buffeted from every side and convulsed by wild waves.

All things wait upon You.

For whether men, or herds of wild beasts, or cattle, or reptiles, none of them could be nourished in any other way, unless He supplied the necessities of life.

You will take away their breath, and they shall perish.

The Lord shall rejoice in His works.

he wrought this, having renewed our nature.

For by these words he signifies the knowledge of God that is to come upon men, when God will rejoice — not at being worshiped, but at seeing them being saved.

He who looks upon the earth, and makes it tremble.

He appends the universal judgment, which will also bring fear upon all who are on the earth.

For there is no one who does not dread that dreadful and divine tribunal.

He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

By 'mountains' he means the opposing powers, which He will also set ablaze at the time of judgment, of which the smoke is a symbol.

May my meditation be sweet to Him.

He speaks of what he has chosen: to desire only to praise God — which will indeed please the very One who is praised.

Let sinners vanish from the earth.

Clearly, at that time.

'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'

and let the lawless be, so that they exist no more.

Clearly, they shall vanish from the portion of those who bless God.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

For He Himself will remove it from the lot of the wicked, and will cause it to be counted worthy of that of the saints.

Now 'Hallelujah' is praise offered to the Invisible One.

It is said that the angels praise God with this very word, just as the cherubim [cry out]:

And this the holy fathers have handed down, having themselves heard it, just as Isaiah heard it from the seraphim.

Give thanks to the Lord, and call upon His name; declare His works among the nations.

In this psalm the Holy Spirit commands the holy apostles to make manifest to the people from the nations all the wonders which the Lord worked at His coming.

Glory in His holy name.

For praise and glory belong to those who recount the excellence of God.

Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

He teaches how great a benefit arises from giving thanks.

For if you seek Him, he says, there will come upon you both the gladness of mind, and the strengthening and glorifying of our head.

Remember His marvelous works which He has done.

For these also worked many wonders through the Son of God.

He commands their heralds to hand these things down to the nations, since they are ignorant of them, in addition to what was accomplished by the Savior in the New Testament — that is, whatever His mouth has decreed through both the Old and the New.

As if to say: command them to keep the royal laws.

His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.

By 'wonders' he means the miracles that took place, such as walking upon the sea, raising the dead, and the rest;

and by 'the judgments of His mouth,' the words which He spoke when driving the unclean demons out of men;

O seed of Abraham, His servants; sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.

Again, the word is addressed to the apostles, so that it means:

As being the seed of Abraham and his servants, and being sons of Jacob and his chosen ones (for he himself chose them), 'declare among the nations that he is the Lord our God.'

And they went about from nation to nation,

From the nation of the Babylonians to that of the Palestinians.

And he rebuked kings for their sake,

Abimelech, concerning his outrage against Sarah.

'Touch not my anointed ones.'

Those about Abraham were also 'anointed ones,' because they had been deemed worthy of the appearing of the Word of God in visions.

And he called a famine upon the land,

He brought about the famine by [divine] dispensation, so that, through it going down into Egypt and being increased, they might in due course receive back the land of the promise.

He broke every staff of bread,

This is what usually happens in famines by God's wrath: that people, though eating, are not sustained.

Until his word came,

He speaks of the fulfillments of the dreams.

weeping in his struggle for his life, until the appointed time of the dreams arrived for them to be fulfilled.

To instruct his rulers according to his own will,

Is not their interpretation from God? For he did not interpret the dreams for Pharaoh, unless God had granted him the ability to understand them.

And Israel entered into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth:

Of this one [Ham was descended] Mizraim, which is interpreted 'Egypt,' from whom also [comes the name of] the land.

When, therefore, Jacob entered Egypt, it is likely that Ham, being the grandfather of Mizraim, had already settled in Egypt, while Canaan dwelt in Palestine.

For 'Israel went down into Egypt with seventy souls,' says the Scripture.

'And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.'

Ham begot Canaan, and Canaan begot Mizraim, who is interpreted 'Egypt.'

And he increased his people greatly,

So that Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, said:

'Behold, now this nation multiplies greatly and is stronger than we.'

But they would not have grown and become strong, had they not obtained the protection of Joseph and the favorable reception of Pharaoh.

And he turned his heart to hate his people,

Since, from being honored by the Egyptians, they fell away into the same idolatry as theirs, for this reason he arranged that they should be hated and heavy labors laid upon them, so that, being afflicted, they might take refuge in God, and the promise made to Abraham might find opportunity to be fulfilled.

'He sent Moses his servant,' etc.

For to Moses and Aaron alone did he reveal by his word the [sign] of 'into blood,' and the other signs.

He sent darkness, and it grew dark,

Since the Egyptians, forsaking the Creator, worshiped the creation, for this reason he punished them by means of that very creation — I mean, by air, fire, earth, and water.

He turned their waters into blood,

For he changed not only the color of the waters, but also the very quality of their taste;

so that all the kinds of fish perished.

In this psalm he enumerates the sins of the former people, teaching how their rejection also came to pass.

First, they embittered him while crossing the Red Sea, saying:

'Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that he brought us out here to perish?'

second, they tempted God in the wilderness;

third, they provoked Moses to anger in the camp;

fourth, they made a calf at Horeb;

fifth, they despised the desirable land;

sixth, they were joined to Baal-peor;

seventh, they provoked him at the water of contention;

eighth, by not destroying the nations which the Lord had told them [to destroy], but even worshiping their idols, so as even to bring their own children to them as a sacrifice.

'Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.'

'Blessed are those who keep judgment,' etc.

For these alone are worthy to speak of the mighty acts of the Lord — those who do the things judged by God in the Scriptures, who accomplish all things with judgment and reason, and who always keep the judgment of God before their eyes.

For these, accordingly, are also doers of righteousness, accomplishing what is just in deed.

'Remember us, O Lord, in the favor shown to your people.'

Here the person of the Jews is introduced, praying to share in the salvation given to the Gentiles.

'Water covered those who afflicted them,'

for the mixed multitude that went out with them did not belong to those who afflicted them, but to those who believed.

'And they believed his word, and sang his praise.'

'And they sang his praise' —

[that is,] when the women who danced with Miriam went out, saying:

'And they tempted God in the waterless place,'

As for the phrase 'and they tempted God in the waterless place':

for they provoked him to anger immediately after the Red Sea.

'And they exchanged his glory for the likeness of a calf that eats grass,'

'Had not Moses his chosen one stood in the breach,'

'If indeed you will forgive them their sin, forgive it;'

'but if not, blot me also out of this your book which you have written.' 'And they despised the desirable land.'

This is the fifth accusation, following upon the Red Sea, the wilderness, the outrage against Moses, and the calf at Horeb.

For when the spies returned, speaking evil of the land, they turned the rest of the people away as well, except Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

'And they murmured in their tents,'

when the spies came and perverted the resolve of the people.

'And they were joined to Baal-peor.'

This is an idol of the Ammonites, called by the Greeks Cronos.

And Phinehas stood up and made atonement.

When he killed the Midianite woman together with the man who had committed fornication.

And they played the harlot in their own practices.

The books of Judges and of Kingdoms teach these things: how they were handed over at different times to different peoples—Moabites, Ammonites, Amalekites, Midianites, and Philistines—being disciplined by that handing-over.

And those who hated them ruled over them.

The Babylonians and the Assyrians prevailed over the Israelites on account of their transgressions.

But they provoked him with their own counsel.

He was sweet to them out of his loving-kindness, but they compelled him to appear bitter toward themselves.

And again he saved them, as only a Savior would.

but they perished, having impaled themselves upon deeds of destruction;

until, doing this many times, they perished at last.

And the word 'many times' is similar to:

'How often I desired to gather your children together!' And likewise:

'And they were humbled in their iniquities'—like the saying, 'But you were not willing.'

For while bringing chastisement upon them, he again imparted his loving-kindness;

but they repaid him by treating him as an enemy.

And he made them objects of compassion before all who had taken them captive.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

After the rejection of the Jewish people, he fittingly signifies the calling of the Gentiles, which came about through the apostles.

From the east and the west, and from the north and the south.

And who are those gathered from the four regions of the inhabited world, if not all the nations that had long been destitute of the fear of God, and had not partaken even of a drop of divine moisture, but were in great thirst? 'They found no way to a city of habitation.'

For they had no good manner of life, but were in great error.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.

For they had no bread to strengthen a man's heart;

nor the living water, concerning which it has been said:

'Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst forever.'

And he guided them into a straight way.

Namely, faith in himself.

That they might go to a city of habitation.

He means the Church, or the heavenly Jerusalem.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercies.

And who is that soul, if not the soul of those concerning whom it has been said:

'Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them'? 'And he filled the hungry soul with good things.'

That is, evidently, the spiritual bread.

Sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.

You would not err in calling 'the shadow of death' idolatry and the deeds done in godlessness;

for these are the things that separate us from the true life;

and we were formerly subject to these, because we provoked God and irritated the counsel of the Most High.

We, like blind men, passing our life in darkness and the shadow of death, our soul's rational faculties fettered and maimed, exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed beasts.

Bound in poverty and iron.

Each man is bound tight by the cords of his own sins, being destitute of every good and noble thing.

Because they rebelled against the words of God.

In no way accepting the divine law, but attaching themselves beforehand to the wise men of this age.

And they provoked the counsel of the Most High.

And what was the counsel of the Most High, if not his will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? 'They grew weak, and there was none to help.'

For no one had the power to bring about the destruction of sin.

And he saved them out of their distresses.

For what greater distress is there than to be enslaved to evil spirits in ignorance of God, and in poverty of soul, and in the destitution of wickedness? 'And he broke their bonds asunder.'

The word 'broke asunder' indicates the sudden and total abolition of sin.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercies.

He has said the same things a second time concerning his benefactions.

For he broke down the gates of bronze.

This signifies the Savior's descent as far as Hades, which having accomplished, he threw open the gates of Hades, which had long been shut fast to all with unbreakable bonds.

For there was no way back for those who wished to return;

but he himself said to those in bonds:

'Come forth'; and to those who are in darkness, 'Reveal yourselves.'

Their soul abhorred all food.

For there was no word able to nourish them.

And the gates of death are the sins that lead to death.

And let them offer to him a sacrifice of praise.

He transfers the discourse to the holy apostles:

'He turned rivers into a wilderness.'

He speaks of the once-flowing but reprobate race of the Jews.

For those who were formerly wasting away with famine and lacking spiritual food, he settled in those very rivers.

He means the synagogue of the Jews.

For the demons were the inhabitants of that earthly commonwealth;

and it was impiety that bore fruit in it.

But the apostles dried it up with the salt of their teaching, concerning whom he says:

'You are the salt of the earth.'

He turned the wilderness into pools of water.

He signifies the people that comes from the nations;

for the prophecy is mixed, bringing forward the persons of the two peoples:

the rejection of the one, and the entrance of the other.

And they established cities to dwell in.

Evidently a good and heavenly commonwealth. And he sowed fields and planted vineyards.

You will understand the fields from him who said: