Expositions on the Psalms 1 part 3/23

I did not use these words in vain, but because I had experience of your loving-kindness;

for you heard me pleading many times.

God is entirely an ear, as one who hears all things.

["I have cried out," and what follows.

I do not cry out in vain, but since you have often heard me, I ask now also to be heard.

And crying out to God is also intensified understanding.] ["Their fat they closed up"

"Fat" signifies the most intense prosperity of the enemies.] "They have set their eyes to bow down to the earth."

"Your sword against the enemies of your hand."

Every soul of the righteous, and especially of those who draw sinners from impiety to the fear of God, is, as it were, a sword sharpened against the spirits of wickedness.

Who, then, could the enemies of God's hand be, other than those who resist faith in his Only-Begotten, who is indeed also his hand? "O Lord, divide them off from the few upon the earth."

He prays that the impious be separated from the few, as if to be divided in some manner.

But who are 'the few' but those concerning whom it has been said:

'Many are called, but few are chosen'? And 'their belly was filled with your hidden things.'

They enjoyed, he says, all things precious;

therefore they also kicked back in this way, so as even to transgress the law.

'Of your hidden things' instead of saying, 'with those punishments of which you hold knowledge in secret—I myself do not know [what they are]—fill their bellies with these,' speaking periphrastically in place of 'them.'

'They were sated with sons, and left the remainder to their infants.'

They were filled, he says, with every transgression, and this they passed on also to their children.

[And this they left to the infants of their sons, that is, down even to their descendants.] 'But I shall appear in righteousness before your face.'

I shall not be made like those men, he says, nor shall I be sated with the same things;

but I shall be filled with your glory through righteous works.

The psalm contains the uprising of enemies and the calling upon God for an alliance, the descent of the Only-begotten and his ascension, and, after the ascension, the deeds wrought against the demons, and the rejection of Israel, and the calling of the Gentiles.

The phrase 'out of the hand of his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul' would be referred to the intelligible enemies and their ruler.

'I will love you, O Lord, my strength;'

'the Lord is my firmament and my refuge.'

Perceiving the benefits of God—which is the greatest gift—he dedicates to him love, I mean;

which the Savior also placed first among the commandments.

'Praising, I called upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies.'

Here we are taught, on the one hand, to confess thanks for the good things already given;

and, on the other, again to ask for the things that are lacking.

Then he narrates the manifold uprisings of the enemies.

'The pangs of death encompassed me.'

He makes mention here, he says, of no mortal war at all, but of unseen powers encircling his soul from within.

'And the torrents of lawlessness troubled me.'

'The pangs of Hades encircled me;'

'the snares of death came upon me beforehand.'

'The torrents of lawlessness' are the lawless thoughts;

and these same thoughts are also called 'pangs' when they linger within us, and again 'snares,' putting us to death through sin committed in act.

'And the earth was shaken, and became tremulous.'

He introduces the things that came to pass then, at the descent of the Lord;

for all who dwell on the earth were moved;

and every land was filled with the report concerning him.

'And the foundations of the mountains were troubled.'

'Mountains' are the evil powers that lift themselves up against the glory of God.

And by 'their foundations' he means the thoughts that lie deep within them.

'And they were shaken, because God was angered against them.'

'Smoke went up in his wrath.'

Being angered, he says, he quenched their fire, by which of old they used to burn up men.

And he sets forth the smoke as a symbol of this.

'And fire shall blaze forth from his face.'

For these things the Son of God works invisibly against the opposing powers, quenching their fire with another fire that is better and more powerful.

[For the demons, seeing the Lord at his coming, were burned from before his face.] 'Coals were kindled from him.'

Those who were illumined through participation in the divine fire.

'And he bowed the heavens, and came down.'

He most clearly prophesies the descent of the Lord.

And it may well be indicative of the word:

'He humbled himself unto death.'

'And darkness was under his feet.'

This signifies the hiddenness of his journey in the dispensation, and the invisibility of God;

so that we might not, through what he has said, be drawn into corporeal notions.

'He mounted upon the cherubim and flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds.'

By these words he signifies his ascension;

by 'cherubim' and 'wings of the winds' he means the cloud [which received him up;

or the swiftness of his manifestation, the speed of his coming and his help], concerning which it is written in the Acts:

'And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.'

'And he made darkness his hiding place.'

[This signifies] the unseen and hidden sojourn of the Savior among men.

'His tabernacle was round about him.'

By 'his tabernacle' he signifies the holy Church, in which he has promised to make his dwelling.

And 'round about him,' he says, according to what has been said:

'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.'

'Dark water in the clouds of the air.'

He says this because the words concerning him lie obscurely among the prophets, who were also called 'clouds.'

'At the brightness before him the clouds passed by.'

The light, he says, of his manifestation made the prophecies manifest.

[And since threats too are contained in the prophetic words, he hinted at these as well through the hail and the coals.

Or thus: from the shining forth of the preaching, the apostles, going before him after the manner of clouds, watered the world.

And the hailstones are forms of punishment warding off those who disbelieve.] 'Hail and coals of fire.'

And just as, when freeing Israel from the Egyptians, he rained down hail and fire, so also, when freeing all the nations from the slavery of the demons, he rained down hail and coals of fire.

And these would be the punitive powers, by which he brought down the intelligible Egyptians.

And the fountains of the waters were seen

After the destruction of the enemies, the fountains of the waters were seen;

that is, the saving word of the Gospel, which also became the foundation of the world;

for upon it we have been built up.

Understand by 'fountains' the holy prophets, inasmuch as they well up the saving word.

For thus it is written concerning them:

'And you shall draw water with gladness out of the fountains of salvation.'

And by 'the foundations of the world,' understand the Scripture of the all-wise Moses.

For we have found it laid down therein, first of all, as the foundation of faith and the knowledge of God, travailing together with the prophets, in types, with the mystery of Christ.

'Were seen,' then, is used instead of 'were made manifest.'

That is, understand by 'fountains' and 'foundations of that which is under heaven' the holy apostles;

for they too well up the saving word, and they laid down the faith as a foundation for that which is under heaven.

And again, understand by 'fountains of waters' and 'foundations of the world' the saving baptism.

'At your rebuke, O Lord'

One must supply the sense: 'the aforementioned enemies were destroyed.'

'At the blast of the breath of your wrath'

God does not punish sinners immediately;

rather, he proclaims beforehand the punishments of his wrath;

'For I will chasten them in the wrath of their affliction.'

And this is what it means for him to breathe forth the spirit of his wrath.

'He took hold of me out of many waters'

By 'waters' he means the trials.

By 'waters' he means the trials.

'He took me,' that is, he took hold of human nature;

for on the day of Pentecost about three thousand souls were baptized by the apostles. 'He shall deliver me from my mighty enemies, and from those who hate me.'

He has passed on to what was done concerning his sin and his repentance.

What he says is this:

a support, since I was about to be overturned and to suffer a great fall, had I, after my sin, fallen into complete apostasy.

But nevertheless he will deliver me completely, granting forgiveness of sin at the prophesied time of his coming, and the Lord will do this, dealing kindly with me, 'because he took delight in me.'

For if he had not taken delight in me, he would not have sent his prophet to me.

'And the Lord will reward me'

'I am persuaded,' he says, 'that at the time of his righteous judgment, not remembering my sins, he will reward me according to my righteousness.'

For weighing my other deeds done in righteousness against my sin, as though on a balance, he will find them far outweighing the sin that befell me.

the practical purity of hands signifies that his practical deeds, having remained unstained, are accomplished out of a most excellent disposition. 'That all his judgments,' and so forth—

Those who have slipped must raise themselves up again through subsequent right actions.

Even though his judgments are unsearchable and, on account of their incomprehensibility, resemble an abyss, still they are all present before him who is beloved of God. 'With the holy you shall show yourself holy'

Rightly have you deemed me worthy of your beneficence;

since, being righteous, you know how to be holy with the holy.

For if I had remained in my sin and suffered complete corruption, I know that you yourself, the great judge, would have brought upon me your judgment corresponding to my sin.

But since I have kept your ways, for this reason you, who are holy with the holy and blameless with the blameless, will not deal with me according to the perversion that befell me at one time, but according to my life thereafter, and you will grant me recompense in your tribunal according to my righteous way of life. 'For you will save a humble people'

He refers this to the company of the apostles.

'And you will humble the eyes of the proud'

This applies to the Pharisees and scribes.

'For you will light my lamp, O Lord'

'O my God, you will illuminate my darkness'

'You will dispel,' he says, 'the ignorance that is in me.'

'For in you I shall be delivered from a marauding band, and by my God I shall leap over a wall.'

'For my enemies,' he says, 'surrounded me, so as to shut me in.'

By 'marauding band' he means the pleasures, and by 'wall' the devil. 'My God, his way is blameless'

Here, he says, he censures the thanklessness and the wickedness and the disobedient disposition and the hardness of the ungrateful, thankless, hard-hearted Jews.

Since they laid hold of our Savior Christ, as one acting contrary to the divine law,

and indeed they also reviled and slandered his words as blasphemous, saying to one another, 'He blasphemes.'

'For who can forgive sins?' Thinking these things out of an evil conscience and wicked reasoning against the Lord and God of all, and reckoning what they reckoned—

'His words are refined by fire'

And his words concerning this matter are like refined silver, pure of all blame, tested, proven.

'For who is God besides the Lord? Or who is God besides our God?' For the Word of God alone is true God, wherefore he is also Only-Begotten, because he alone is God even as the Father is.

Having spoken of Christ as being God by nature, he now says, 'Or who is God?'—meaning that the Father alone is God in the same manner as he is.

'Yet for us there is one God, the Father;'

for there is no other God, such that one god would grant this petitioner's request, and another that petitioner's.

But perhaps he also set forth the two verses in parallel;

'Thus,' he says, 'the true God, as I had trusted, girded me with power for victory, and set for me an unharmed path in the things to be done.' 'The God who girds me with power'

'Until you are clothed with power from on high'

'And he made my way blameless'

That is, through the ordinances of the Gospel he prepared me to run a blameless course.

'And setting me upon the high places'

'Making my feet steadfast'

For the saints are destroyers of venomous passions;

for they received power against the intelligible serpents, and for this reason they are likened to deer;

for these too are destroyers of the sensible serpents;

'For by stretching them out in prayer, I prevail over my adversaries.'

And you made my arms a bronze bow.

Having made the powers of the soul manly, after the manner of a bronze bow.

Teaching that he will be successful in battle, and setting his arms as a bow, making them, as it were, bronze in strength.

Or he means: he made the powers of the soul manly, after the manner of a bronze bow.

Bronze is a symbol of the practical life.

'You have shielded me,' he says, 'through your salvation.'

And this is the coming of the dispensation. [And your discipline set me upright.

He means the discipline that belongs to the gospel;

or he means the training that comes from the law;

As if to say: 'While benefiting me in all things, you also gave laws, through which I was trained in what was needful.'

For learning from it that one ought not to do wrong, I abstained from doing so.

But so that I might not again be harmed by such leniency, you supply sufficient help, granting me room to move; or he calls 'discipline' the instructive teaching, according to the saying:

or the laborious training, according to the saying:

'Do not despise the discipline of the Lord.'] And your right hand upheld me.

And your discipline set me upright completely.

That is, evidently, the teaching of the gospel.

And this very discipline of yours will teach me.

The phrase 'And this very discipline of yours will teach me' belongs to Theodotion, in place of 'Your discipline set me upright completely,' as it stands in the Seventy.

You have enlarged my steps.

For you set my feet upon a rock, which is our faith.

And my footsteps did not falter.

For by removing the stumbling-blocks and snares which the enemies were laying, he made our path secure.

[You have enlarged my steps.

'Having removed,' he says, 'the stumbling-blocks and snares which the enemies were laying, you made my way free.'

For by receiving rest after the labors of virtue, the footsteps are made strong;

for he set our feet upon a rock.] I will pursue my enemies.

As one equipped by divine grace for the race, he is confident of victory.

I will crush them, that they may not be able to stand.

It is freedom from the passions that accomplishes the crushing of the enemies.

And you girded me with strength.

Again he ascribes the whole of the victory to him who gave the strength.

And you made my enemies turn their backs to me.

That is, 'you put them to flight.'

For it is characteristic of those who flee to show their backs.

Our enemies the demons show their backs when they are no longer able to cast passionate thoughts into the soul.

And you utterly destroyed those who hated me.

Saul, Ahithophel, Absalom, and countless others.

They cried out, and there was no one to save.

He says this concerning the perceptible enemies, speaking as it were in the person of the Lord.

For neither did the foreigners, calling upon their own gods for help, enjoy their providence, nor did Saul, Absalom, Shimei, and the rest of the Israelite enemies have God as their ally.

And I will grind them fine as dust.

'They will vanish utterly away,' he says, 'since your grace works together with me.'

Deliver me from the contentions of the people.

This is still spoken with the Lord turning his face away because of the disobedience of the Jews, while asking for the nations as his inheritance.

You will establish me as head of the nations.

Therefore the prophecy is fulfilled through him who was born of him according to the flesh.

He who as God has always ruled over all things, but after the incarnation also received the willing servitude of those who had believed in him.

A people whom I did not know has served me.

For turning away from the disobedient Jews, he asks for the nations as his inheritance.] This does not signify ignorance, for as God he knows all things;

but that those who at various times did not obtain kinship with me would be foreign and strangers, and far removed from what is properly mine.

Alien sons have dealt falsely with me.

He who was called firstborn son, Israel, was called, because of unbelief, an alien son.

Alien sons have grown old.

Everything that grows old is near to vanishing away.

The Lord lives, and blessed be my God.

Fittingly he exclaims, 'The Lord lives.'

Since he had just mentioned the contentions of the people, in which they cried out, 'Away with him, away with him!'

And let the God of my salvation be exalted.

'Even though he humbled himself,' he says, 'taking the form of a servant, yet he is exalted.'

Similar to what has been said is the text, 'God highly exalted him, and granted him the name that is above every name.'

God who grants me vengeance.

Clearly, from the unbelieving people of the Jews.

And having subjected peoples under me.

'The nations,' he says, 'were subjected to Christ.'

My deliverer from my enemies.

He is speaking of the rulers of the people of Israel.

From those who rise up against me.

[My deliverer from my wrathful enemies.

The wrathful enemies are the Jewish people, who mocked him, calling him a Samaritan.

The unjust man is Judas, or Pilate, who punished him without cause.

Since you have accomplished such and such things, says the prophet, I will confess you through them, when you yourself, O Lord, call the nations, while they sing the hymns which I have composed.

Not only this, but I will also magnify, he says, the salvations of the king over these very nations;

the salvation which he wrought in the midst of the earth.

'I will magnify'—that is, I will proclaim it openly to all.

Since he also accomplished this, he says, by showing mercy upon his anointed people;

for we have been anointed unto a royal priesthood.

The present psalm contains introductory instruction, spoken in the person of the apostles to the nations.

The heavens declare the glory of God.

For his invisible things are perceived from the creation of the world, being understood through the things that are made—both his eternal power and divinity.

Day unto day utters speech, and night...

Day, he says, and night, orderly and harmoniously yielding their courses to one another, proclaim their Maker through the very facts themselves.

There are no speeches nor words.

The reading is to be taken with a pause [a comma] here.

But if it is read as a continuous negation, the sense is cut short;

Are there not, then, certain things which, though uttering no voice, proclaim their craftsman? Indeed there are: for from a well-fitted ship the skill of the shipwright is evident;

and likewise in the case of other things as well.

Do not, then, the aforementioned works likewise proclaim their Maker by their greatness, beauty, and harmony,

so that their proclamation runs throughout their whole inhabited world.

In the sun he has set his tabernacle.

But where did he set it, if not in the heaven and firmament already mentioned? This dwelling he also called a bridal chamber.

Just as day and night proclaim the Maker by their orderly concord, so too the sun, by running its course with a certain harmony, makes known the power of him who commands it.

The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls.

As those from the nations, already instructed by the aforementioned elements that the Maker is one, are then taught also the evangelical law, so that the souls of all the nations may be converted to the truth.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making the simple wise.

which the Only-begotten testified concerning himself, saying:

'I have come as light into the world;'

and, 'I came forth from the Father, and I have come.'

[‘Making the simple wise’—confirming the apostles; or by ‘the simple’ he means those who became infants and fools in Christ, and men untrained in wisdom.] The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

That is, the justification that took place in our case.

For having judged our case, he cast out the ruler of this age, giving us gladness in the heart.

The commandment of the Lord is radiant, enlightening the eyes.

He means the eyes of the understanding, which sends forth its beam from afar.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever and ever.

This is said in contradistinction to the fear that comes from the Law;

Our purity consists in abstaining from sins;

for, he says, by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.

And since this fear is eternal, in whomever it exists, it also makes them eternal.

In keeping them there is great reward.

For the reward of keeping them is what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man.

[For your servant keeps them;

The new people, initiated into the evangelical law, having declared that they keep the true judgments, offer up a prayer, both that the reasoning of their mind be found pure, and likewise that they be delivered from the demons without.] Unto the end.

It is also referred to the person of the apostles, as spoken on the day of the cross.

May the Lord hearken to you in the day of affliction;

may he send you help from the sanctuary, and sustain you from Zion;

These words would be spoken for the consolation of the despondent, either by the Word dwelling within the soul, or by the Holy Spirit.

The one who is afflicted has need of prayer, and of not casting down his hopes;

for thus does God become attentive.

We will exult in your salvation.

The Son is the Father's salvation in the world;

the cross is the Son's salvation in the world.

[We will exult in your salvation;

The salvation, he says, which you have given to the human race, you have made manifest to all through your resurrection.] May the Lord fulfill all your petitions;

What were the petitions, if not, 'Holy Father, keep them from the world';

concerning priests and kings, or on account of the Lord's economy and resurrection according to the flesh;

or also because, as we are being saved, he himself says that he is saved—since, being of one body, he will indeed have care for it.

For at present we know Christ to be saved, in that from now on we receive the pledge of salvation.

You have saved by the might of your right hand;

or he foretells beforehand the divine signs of Christ.] 'Now I know that the Lord has saved his Christ'—as one already enlightened by the Spirit concerning the things of the resurrection.

with the mighty acts of the salvation of his right hand.

For here he signifies the deeds, in that he extends the powers of his right hand to those who draw near.

[Those, he says, trusting in these, have fallen;

these trust in chariots, and those in horses;

Just as, in saving Israel from the sensible Egyptians, he cast Pharaoh's chariots and his host into the sea, so too, in saving the race of all men from the intelligible Egyptians, he shattered their chariots.

And this psalm too the aforementioned companions of the king offer up, as he now rejoices because of the salvation, born of his seed, given to the world.

For this was what he desired in his soul, and prayed to receive.

Which, once given, became for him like a crown of precious stone, glorifying his head;

And this salvation became for him not only a crown, but also life, and length of days, and glory, and majesty, and gladness, and joy, and hope, and mercy unshaken.

O Lord, the king shall rejoice in your strength;

for you would grant him blessing forever and ever.

In all generations, he says, he shall be celebrated in song and much spoken of, having received from you such great boldness.

For 'with your countenance,' Symmachus rendered 'in the presence of your countenance.'

He says that now he will have gladness, and continual delight of countenance, that is, by obtaining your favor.

The cause of these things for him was his having put his trust in you.

'You will make him glad with joy in your presence.'

The Son is the countenance of the Father.

'He who has seen me,' he says, 'has seen the Father.'

With him we are about to rejoice in heaven, as groomsmen with the bridegroom.

'For the king hopes in the Lord, and by the mercy...'

He is superior to those warring against him, because he enjoys your grace.

He enjoys this grace, trusting in no man, but relying solely on hope in you.

'Let your hand be found by all your enemies.'

The word is addressed to the Lord himself, on account of what was done against him by the Jewish people.

[And he says that he will hunt down those who have sinned,

for if the love of God is perfected in the one who keeps the commandments, it is clear that the one who does not keep them hates;

and such a one is also said to have perished.] For you will make them like a fiery furnace at the time of your presence.

That is to say, instead: 'You will show them to be sharers in fire.'

For this is what they have stored up for themselves against your second appearing, when you will render to each according to his works.

'The Lord in his wrath will trouble them, and fire will devour them.'

By 'wrath' he means the punishment that will come upon them because of their insolence toward him.

'You will destroy their fruit from the earth.'

That is, the evil words and the evil devices.

These are the plots devised by them, which have also been abolished through the resurrection.

[That is, the teachings and godless doctrines which, after their death, God, being good, hands over to destruction.] 'And their seed from among the sons of men.'

It is a benefit to fall away from sins and from evil thoughts.

For an evil thought is the seed of sin.

Symmachus interpreted it thus:

'For you will make them turn back,' that is, behind and a mere appendage of the nations.

'Among your remnants you will prepare their face.'

You have left for them, he says, a time of turning back, for repentance.

And this is the calling and the turning that comes after the fullness of the nations.

[You will make the unbelieving Jews

Those from whom God turns away, he makes into a back, unable to be a face, so that, by contemplating the things behind through the works of creation, they might again be brought back to him.

For those who, because they do not have a pure heart, are not able to see the face, are appointed to contemplate his back parts, that is, the works of creation which came into being after him;

so that, by beholding creation, they might gain some conception of him, and, drawing near to their God, might see the face of God.

And the 'remnants' of God are the things that are above sensible/perceptible creatures.

'Be exalted, O Lord, in your power.'

He clearly prays that the second coming take place for this very reason:

'We will sing and make melody of your mighty works.'

The psalm now before us is sung concerning 'the help of the morning.'

That is, that he freed us from night and from diabolical darkness, when the Only-begotten Word of God shone forth as 'the dayspring from on high,' according to what is written.

Or, he also names the time of the Savior's resurrection 'the help of the morning.'

For he rose while it was still deep dawn, having opened up for human nature the way unto incorruption.

Christ sings this psalm in the person of humanity.

And he clearly recounts to us also what befell him at the hands of the Jews at the time of the cross: 'O God, my God, attend to me;'

'why have you forsaken me?' He asks for the watchful care that comes from the Father, transferring our condition onto himself, so that [Ambr.: for we were the ones formerly forsaken, but now we have been taken up and saved,

He says these things — and so forth] — in order that he might put an end to the curse, and turn the Father's face toward us.

For it is we who became the ones turned away from and forsaken, because of the transgression in Adam.

'Far from my salvation are the words of my transgressions.'

Observe again the person of humanity in Christ, entreating to be delivered from faults, that is, from transgressions and the words concerning them.

The Savior says these things in the person of humanity, in place of saying:

'My God, my God.'] 'My God, I will cry by day, and you will not hear, and by night, and it is not folly for me.'

It must be read with a light pause.

And he signifies to us that the fruit of prayer is not without benefit.

That is, I know clearly that I will indeed cry out, and he will hear.

For indeed, dwelling among the holy ones who have set their mind on you, you become their praise and glory.

'But you dwell in the holy place, O praise of Israel.'

He who is praised by Israel:

'Our fathers hoped in you; they hoped, and you delivered them.'