Homilies on the Psalms 1 part 2/12

For he who glories in earthly wealth, and he who cherishes the short-lived honor of men, and he who trusts in bodily advantages, has for himself a glory that does not rise up toward heaven, but remains behind in the dust.

"Arise, O Lord, in your wrath;

be exalted at the utmost bounds of my enemies."

The Prophet prays that the mystery of the resurrection may already be at work, for the abolishing of their sin;

or he prays for the exaltation upon the cross, which was to take place after the wickedness of the enemies had been raised to its utmost limit.

Or again, "Be exalted at the utmost bounds of my enemies" suggests some such sense as this:

and may you cut short its continuance by your chastening blows.

"And awake, O Lord my God, according to the ordinance which you have commanded."

But it can also be taken with reference to the then-present state of affairs of the Prophet, who entreats God to awaken for the avenging of the ordinance which he had commanded.

The ordinance was, "Honor your father and your mother," given by God, which his son transgressed.

"For it is not me," he says, "that you will avenge, but your ordinance, despised, which you yourself commanded."

"And the assembly of peoples shall surround you."

Punish, then, his wickedness, so that a great assembly of peoples may surround you.

"And for its sake, return to the height."

For the sake of the assembly that surrounds you, which you acquired through your gracious condescension and dispensation, return to the height of glory which you had before the world came to be.

In many places of Scripture the teaching concerning judgment is interspersed, as being most necessary and most cohesive for the instruction in piety of those who have believed in God through Jesus Christ.

But since the teaching concerning judgment has been written in many different ways, it will seem to those who do not carefully distinguish what is signified to contain some confusion.

"For he who believes in me is not judged;

but he who does not believe has already been judged."

But if he who does not believe is like the ungodly, how is it said that the ungodly shall not rise in judgment? And if believers have become sons of God through faith, and are for this reason worthy themselves also to be styled gods, how is it that "God stood in the congregation of gods, and in the midst he shall judge gods"? But it seems that "to be judged" is sometimes taken by Scripture in the sense of "to be tested," and sometimes in the sense of "to be condemned":

in the sense of "being tested," as in, "Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence;"

but in the sense of "being condemned," as in, "For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged;"

"for if we examined ourselves," he says, "we would not be subjected to condemnation."

Again, it is said that the Lord will enter into judgment with all flesh;

that is, in the examination of the deeds done in life, he submits himself in every particular to judgment, and sets his own commandments over against the deeds done by sinners, defending himself with proofs that he has done everything within his charge for the salvation of those being judged, so that sinners, being persuaded that they are guilty of their sins, and accepting the divine sentence, may willingly submit to the penalty imposed on them.

There is also another meaning signified by the word "to be judged," as the Lord says:

"The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment, and shall condemn this generation."

For he says that those who turn away from divine teaching, who have no love for what is good, and who have wholly turned away from the instructive doctrines of wisdom, will, by comparison and contrast with those of their own generation who excelled in zeal for what is good, receive a heavier condemnation for what they neglected.

But I think that not all who have taken on this earthly body will be judged alike by the righteous judge, because the external circumstances that befall each of us, differing greatly, cause the judgment of each to vary.

For the concurrence of things not in our power, but which surround us involuntarily, either makes our sins heavier for us, or lightens them.

For let it be supposed that the thing being judged is fornication.

But one man sinned in this, having been reared from the beginning in wicked ways;

and with revelries and shameful tales.

But another man, having many things urging him toward what is most excellent—upbringing, teachers, the hearing of more divine words, salutary readings, the admonition of parents, narratives shaping him toward dignity and self-control, a restrained way of life—then, having been carried down into the same sin as the other, and rendering an account of his life, how shall not such a one justly be deemed worthy of a heavier punishment than the other? For the one will be accused only for the saving resources sown in his thoughts, as one who did not put them to sound use;

but the other, in addition to this, will be accused also as one who received much cooperation toward salvation, and yet, through intemperance and inattentiveness in a very brief moment, betrayed himself.

Likewise, he who has been reared from the outset in piety, and has escaped every perversion in the doctrines concerning God, and has been trained also in the law of God which condemns every sin and calls one to its opposite, will not have the same defense for idolatry as one who has been brought up by lawless fathers, from among nations taught from the beginning to practice idolatry.

It will be judged one way for the Jew, and another way for the Scythian.

For he rests upon the law, and boasts in God, and approves the things that excel.

Being instructed from the law, and continually charmed toward the common notions, and being trained in the prophetic and legal writings, if he is found to have stumbled unlawfully, his sins will be reckoned much more grave.

But the nomadic Scythians, reared amid savage and inhuman customs, habituated to plunder and violence against one another, possessing an unrestrained temper and being easily provoked to mutual outbursts, accustomed to settle every quarrel by the sword, and taught to resolve their conflicts by blood—if they show any kindness and goodness toward one another, they prepare for us, by their own good deeds, a heavier punishment.

Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my innocence that is upon me.

But to one who considers it fairly, the prophet will be found far from such a disposition.

"Judge me, O Lord," he says, "according to my righteousness."

"Great," he says, "is the discourse concerning righteousness, and hard to attain are the limits of perfect righteousness."

For there is a righteousness even of angels, far surpassing that of men; and if there is any power above the angels, it too has a superiority of righteousness proportionate to its greatness.

And the righteousness of God himself, which surpasses all understanding, is ineffable and incomprehensible to every created nature.

Judge me then, O Lord, according to my own righteousness—

that is, the righteousness attainable by men, and possible for those who live in the flesh.

And according to my innocence that is upon me.

For thus especially is the disposition of the speaker established, being very far from Pharisaic pride.

For he calls his own "innocence" a kind of integrity and inexperience in matters useful for knowledge, according to what is said in Proverbs, that "the simple believes every word."

Since, then, we men out of inexperience unguardedly fall into many things, he entreats God and asks to obtain forgiveness on account of his innocence.

From this it is clear that the things said present the humility of the speaker rather than pride.

"Judge me," he says, "according to my righteousness, and judge me according to the innocence that is upon me."

Weighing my righteousness alongside human weakness,

and having taken note of the simplicity of my ways, do not condemn me as sinning, as though I were shrewd or keenly observant in the affairs of the world.

Let the wickedness of sinners come to an end.

He who prays this is plainly a disciple of the evangelical precepts.

For he prays on behalf of those who wrong him, asking that the wickedness of sinners be bounded by some limit and end.

as one praying for those who are ailing in body might say:

"Let the disease of the sick come to an end."

For in order that sin, creeping further like gangrene, may not spread, he who loves his enemies and wishes to do good to those who hate him prays to God that the further spread of sin be halted and bounded, and for this reason prays on behalf of those who wrong him.

The righteous man is called "upright";

and upright is the heart that has been set right.

What then does the prophet's prayer intend here? For he prays that one who already possesses uprightness may be guided aright.

For no one could say that there is anything crooked or perverse or knotted in the righteous man.

But perhaps the request is necessary on behalf of the righteous man, that the uprightness of his purpose and the unperverted quality of his judgment be guided by the guidance that comes from God, so that he may never, through weakness, swerve from what is, as it were, the rule of truth, nor be harmed by the enemy of truth through perverse doctrines.

God, who justly tries hearts and reins.

Since Scripture in many places takes "heart" for the governing faculty of the soul, and "reins" in many places for the desiring part of the soul, here too it signifies the same thing.

that is: "O God, judge me both concerning the doctrines I hold about piety, and concerning the passionate movements of my soul."

for you are the one who tries hearts and reins.

"Trial" properly means the investigation brought against those being examined by judges with every form of torture, so that those who conceal within themselves what is being sought may, under the compulsion of pain, bring to light what is hidden.

For in the unerring examinations of the Judge, our thoughts are tried, and our deeds are tried as well.

Let no one, then, forestall the true Judge, nor let anyone judge before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and manifest the counsels of hearts.

In trying hearts and reins, therefore, God manifests his own justice.

Thus the heart of Abraham was tried, whether he loved God with his whole soul and with his whole heart, when he was commanded to offer up Isaac as a whole burnt offering, so that it might be shown that he did not love his son more than God.

Jacob too was tried when he was plotted against by his brother, so that his brotherly love, unblunted amid so many sins of Esau, might shine forth.

The hearts of these men, then, were tried;

but the reins of Joseph were tried, when, his licentious mistress being maddened with lust for him, he preferred the dignity of chastity to shameful pleasure.

He was tried for this purpose, that the spectators of God's judgment might agree that the honor given to him was justly bestowed, because his dignity shone forth exceedingly in such great trials.

My help is from God.

Properly, in wars, at the assaults of the enemy, those under attack seek out help.

So here too, one who perceives his own invisible enemies, and sees the danger threatening him from the foes encamped around him, will say:

"My help is not from wealth, nor from bodily resources, nor from my own power and strength, nor from human kinship, but 'My help is from God.'"

But what kind of aid the Lord sends to those who fear him, we have learned elsewhere, the psalm saying:

The angel of the Lord will encamp round about them that fear him, and will deliver them.

Who saves the upright in heart.

He is upright in heart who does not have his reasoning inclined toward excess or deficiency, but directed toward the mean of virtue.

For he who turns aside from courage toward the lesser extreme is warped by cowardice;

while he who is stretched too far toward excess inclines toward recklessness.

As the straight line, when broken, bends toward the hollow side—

so too the crooked heart, now lifted up through arrogance, now brought low through griefs and contractions.

God is a righteous judge, and strong, and longsuffering, and does not bring wrath every day.

This the prophet seems to be speaking against those who would one day be troubled at what had happened, as it were calming men's agitation, lest they lose faith in the providence over all things, seeing a father unavenged at his son's rebellion, and the wickedness of Absalom prospering in what he had set out to do.

God is a righteous judge, and strong, and longsuffering, and does not bring wrath every day.

Nothing that happens, happens without judgment, but God measures back to each according to the measures with which he had beforehand measured out the actions of each one's life.

Since, then, some sin has been committed by me, I receive in return according to my own desert.

Do not, then, speak unrighteousness against God.

for God is a righteous judge.

Nor think so meanly of God as to suppose that he is powerless with regard to vengeance.

If you do not turn back, he will sharpen his sword.

The word is threatening, leading those who are slow toward repentance to conversion.

He does not immediately threaten wounds and blows and deaths, but the sharpening of weapons, and as it were a certain preparation for retribution.

For just as those who polish their weapons thereby signify their impulse toward war, so too the word, wishing to indicate God's movement toward inflicting punishment, said that he sharpens his sword.

He has bent his bow, and made it ready, and in it he has prepared instruments of death.

It is not some bowstring that draws God's bow taut, but a punitive power, at one time drawn tight, at another relaxed.

The word, then, threatens the sinner that the things that will be sent forth for punishment are already prepared for him, if he persists in sin.

For he has prepared instruments of death in his bow.

The instruments of death are the destructive powers directed against the enemies of God.

He has made his arrows for those who are burning.

Just as fire was made by the Creator for combustible matter;

for it was not created for the adamant, which is not melted by fire, but for the wood that is consumed by burning;

so also the arrows of God were made by him for souls that are easily kindled, in which much combustible material apt for destruction has been amassed.

Those, then, who have beforehand seized and taken hold within themselves of the fiery darts of the devil—these are the ones who receive the arrows of God.

He has made his arrows for those who are already burning.

The soul is burned by fleshly passions, and by longings for money, and by fiery angers, and by griefs that scorch and melt away the soul, and by fears alien to God.

He, however, who is unwounded by the arrows of the enemy, and clothed in the full armor of God, remains untouched by the death-bearing arrows.

Behold, he has travailed with injustice, he has conceived trouble, and has brought forth iniquity.

As far as the order is concerned, the wording seems to be confused;

since pregnant women first conceive, then go into labor, and finally give birth;

but here first comes the labor pain, then the conception, then the birth;

yet with regard to the conception of the heart, it is expressed most vividly.

For the irrational impulses of the unrestrained, and the frenzied and maddening desires, were called "labor pains," because they arise in the soul with sharpness and pain.

In accordance with such an impulse, he who has not gained mastery over wicked designs has conceived trouble;

and he who has kindled into flame the wickedness in his heart through evil deeds has brought forth iniquity.

"The child," it says, "is not mine, but has become son of the father to whom, through sin, he adopted himself."

Behold, then, he travailed with him through injustice, and conceived him—as though the devil, having led him into his own most intimate parts under the womb of his own disposition, carried him in the womb;

then he brought him forth, making his iniquity manifest, because the rebellion against the Father was proclaimed beforehand to all.

He has dug a pit, and hollowed it out.

We do not at all find the word "pit" used in a favorable sense in the divine Scriptures;

just as, on the other hand, "well of water" is never used in a bad sense.

For it is a pit into which Joseph was cast by his brothers;

and when it is struck, "From the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive woman who is in the pit."

I was reckoned among those who go down into the pit.

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water.

and going out to a well, Moses rested.

And we receive a commandment from Solomon to drink waters from our own vessels, and from the wellsprings of our own wells.

And the Savior converses with the Samaritan woman by the well concerning divine mysteries.

We consider the reason why pits are assigned to worse things, but wells to better things, to be this:

the water in pits is acquired from without, falling from heaven;

whereas in wells, veins of water, buried before those places were dug, become manifest once the mounds of earth covering them, and whatever substance lies upon them—which is all just soil—are removed.

And so also in souls there is, as it were, an excavation, into which better things fall, being altered and counterfeited, whenever someone turns the notions of good things that have fallen into him toward greater wickedness, twisting them, and toward things contrary to the truth, having taken no thought to keep anything good as truly his own.

And again, there are wells, whenever, once the worse coverings are removed, light shines forth, along with a fountain of drinkable water in word and in wholesome doctrines.

Drink waters from your own vessels, and from the wellsprings of your own wells.

For thus we shall be reckoned children of those who dug the wells—Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

But a pit must not be made, lest we fall into the excavation, in accordance with what is said here, nor let us hear the things written in Jeremiah as a reproach against sinners, God speaking concerning them—the very words we cited a little earlier:

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water for them.

Lord, who shall sojourn in your tabernacle, or who shall dwell on your holy mountain? Wishing to describe for us the perfect man who is destined to attain the beatitudes, the word, employing a certain order and sequence in the things considered concerning him, has made its beginning from what is nearest and first.

Lord, who shall sojourn in your tabernacle? "Sojourning" signifies a temporary manner of living, indicating a life that is not settled but transient, lived in the hope of a passage to better things.

It belongs to a holy man to pass through this life as a sojourner, while hastening toward another life.

I am a sojourner with you, and a stranger, as all my fathers were.

[Abraham did not possess] land [of his own], but when he needed a burial place, he is seen to have acquired it for silver;

the word thereby showing that while living in the flesh it is fitting to be a sojourner, but that upon passing from this life, one is to rest in one's own proper places.

It is truly blessed not to be fused to the things on earth as though they were one's own, nor to cling to the things here as to some natural homeland, but to know one's fall from better things, and, bearing the burden of this sojourn here as the consequence of a sentence, to dwell as a sojourner in the manner of those who, banished by certain judges for certain offenses, have been driven out from their native land into exile.

Rare, indeed, is such a person—one who does not attend to present things as though they were his own;

who knows the use of wealth to be but temporary;

who reckons bodily health to be short-lived;

who recognizes the flower of human glory to be unstable.

Who then shall sojourn in your tabernacle? God's tabernacle is the name given to the flesh, granted by him to the human soul to dwell in.

Who will treat this flesh as something foreign? Just as sojourners who lease foreign land cultivate the region according to the will of the one who leased it to them;

so also the care of the flesh has been entrusted to us under a contract, so that, having labored over it fittingly, we may render it fruitful to the one who gave it.

But if the flesh is worthy of God, it truly becomes a tabernacle of God, through his indwelling in the saints.

Such, then, is the flesh of the one who sojourns.

And who shall dwell on your holy mountain? The earthly-minded Jew, when he hears "mountain," runs off in thought to Zion.

Who shall dwell on your holy mountain? He who has sojourned in the flesh shall dwell on the holy mountain.

That mountain signifies the region beyond the heavens, the illustrious and radiant realm;

concerning which the Apostle says, "You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, in which is the festal gathering of angels, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven."

Whenever, then, someone passes through this flesh dispassionately, sojourning in it as in something foreign, and not clinging to it as his own, this man—having put to death his members that are upon the earth, and having thereby accomplished sanctification—is worthy of dwelling on the holy mountain;

and also the verse, "How beloved are your tabernacles, Lord of hosts," [applies to him].

There too, love toward one's neighbor—by the same principle as that dwelling on the mountain—together with the friendship gained from the mammon of unrighteousness, causes us to dwell.

For make for yourselves friends from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that, when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.

Concerning that manner of life, the Lord said, in the form of a prayer, "Holy Father, grant that where I am, they also may be."

Rare, too, is the one who both sojourns in the body and dwells on the mountain.

"Who shall sojourn?" and "Who shall dwell?"—like "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" and "Who will declare to you that the fire is burning?" and "Who will declare to you the eternal place?" and "Who then is the faithful and prudent steward?" Perhaps, too, this "Who" is interrogative, as of one seeking an answer from the holy Lord with whom he converses.

To whom the divine voice, resolving the question, says what? "He who walks blamelessly, and works righteousness."

If the blameless man is one who lacks none of the good things, conducting his life without stumbling, free from all wickedness, what difference does he have from the one who works righteousness? Does he, then, express the same meaning in a twofold expression?

That is, does he mean to carry out the deed together with the reasoned principle of righteousness?

For example, the layman does something medical that brings benefit to the sick, but such a person has not done it in a medical way, since he has nothing of the art accompanying the action.

He, then, who is "walking blameless" is the one who is perfect in mind;

and he who "works righteousness" is, according to the Apostle's word, the Lord's workman who need not be ashamed.

But attend to the precision of the wording.

He did not say, "Having walked blameless," but, "Walking blameless";

nor, "Having worked righteousness," but, "Working [it]".

For it is not a single act that makes the virtuous man perfect, but it is fitting that the activities according to virtue should extend throughout the whole of life.

Speaking truth in his heart, who has practiced no deceit with his tongue.

Again, here too, "speaking truth in the heart" and "not practicing deceit with his tongue" have the same relation to one another

as "being blameless" had to "working righteousness."

For just as there the text presents both the one who is perfect in secret and the one who prospers in practice, so also here, since what is spoken comes out of the abundance of the heart, the word flowing as it were from the fountain of the inner disposition, he first spoke of the truth in the heart, and then of the guilelessness in the word effected through the tongue.

one, the apprehension concerning the things that lead to the blessed life; the other, sound knowledge concerning whatever pertains to [ordinary] life.

That truth, then, which is in the heart of the perfect man as a co-worker of salvation, must be handed on to one's neighbor without guile in all things;

but in the affairs of [ordinary] life, if the virtuous man should somewhere fall short of the truth, this will be no hindrance to him with regard to the things set before him.

For how many stadia there are of land or sea, and how many of the stars are in motion, and by how much one surpasses another in speed—if we do not know the truth in these matters, it will in no way hinder us from attaining the blessedness of the promises.

Perhaps the text also presents to us something of this sort, that it is fitting to speak the things concerning truth, that is, the mystical things, not to everyone, but to one's neighbor;

that is, not to disclose them to random persons, but to those who have shared in the mysteries.

But if our Lord is Truth, let each of us have this truth impressed and, as it were, sealed upon his own heart;

concerning which, speaking to ourselves in our hearts, let us not adulterate the word of the Gospel when we announce the message to our neighbors.

Who has practiced no deceit with his tongue.

In many places Scripture denounces deceit as an enemy of God.

"May the Lord," it says, "utterly destroy all deceitful lips;"

Everything superior is said to be adulterated by admixture with something inferior, just as wine is adulterated by mixing something worse into it, or by diluting it with water;

and gold is adulterated by combination with silver and bronze;

so also truth is adulterated, when words of ill repute are interwoven with the holy words.

Nor has he done evil to his neighbor.

As to whom the text means by "neighbor," none of those who have heard the Gospel's answer to the one who asked has any doubt;

"And who is my neighbor?"—to whom the Lord told the parable of the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho;

"Which of these seems to you to have become his neighbor?" And that man answered, "The one who showed mercy to him."

For through these words he taught us to consider every man our neighbor.

not to withhold anything that is due;

not to wish him evil;

not to indulge envy toward the good fortunes of one's neighbor.

whether he himself did nothing worthy of being reproached by those closest to him, and therefore received no reproach from them; or whether he himself reproached none of those closest to him who are found in human failings, or in bodily disabilities, or in some other deficiencies of the flesh.

For neither ought one to reproach the one who sins, according to what is written:

Do not reproach a man who is turning away from sin.

For we have never known reproach to be employed for the benefit of those who err, since the Apostle, in his instructions to his own disciple Timothy, permitted rebuke and exhortation and reprimand, but nowhere admitted reproach, as being contrary to that purpose.

And it seems that rebuke has as its end the correction of the one who sins, whereas reproach comes about for the disgrace of the one who has stumbled.

But to reproach poverty, or lowly birth, or ignorance, or bodily infirmity is altogether unreasonable and foreign to the virtuous man.

For those things that befall us not by our own choice are involuntary;

and for involuntary deficiencies it is fitting that the unfortunate be shown mercy rather than be treated with insult.

In his sight the evildoer is set at naught;

but he glorifies those who fear the Lord.