Homilies on the Psalms 1 part 6/12

But if he finds an impenitent heart, a proud mind, unbelief regarding the age to come, fearlessness of judgment, then he loves judgment upon you.

For just as a skilled and humane physician first tries, with fomentations and gentle poultices, to reduce the swelling;

but when he sees the tumor resisting stubbornly and stiffly, he casts aside the oil and the gentle treatment, and thereafter chooses the use of the knife.

He loves mercy, then, toward those who repent;

and he loves judgment also toward the unyielding.

Something like this Isaiah too says to God, that 'your mercy is by weight.'

For he too presents mercy accompanied by judgment, God measuring it out by scale and number and weight, according to each one's worth.

The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.

Here mercy is disjoined from judgment.

reserved for a fixed and appointed time.

Here, then, there is mercy without judgment;

for he came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

But there judgment does not exist without mercy, because a man cannot be found clean from defilement, not even if his life were but a single day.

So that if anyone sees wickedness spreading day by day, and the mortal race of men, so far as concerns their sins, deserving countless deaths, he will marvel at the riches of God's goodness, and at his forbearance and long-suffering.

Being on earth, however, we are in need of mercy.

For those in heaven are worthy to be called blessed, but not to be shown mercy.

Or perhaps it is because of the condemnation brought upon us as a result of sin that we are called 'earth,' we who have heard from God, 'You are earth, and to earth you shall return;'

we who are full of the compassions of God;

For when we were dead in our sins and trespasses, God, having had mercy on us, made us alive together with Christ.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

Where are those who despise the Spirit? Where are those who separate him from the creative power? Where are those who cut him off from his conjunction with the Father and the Son? Let them hear the psalm saying:

By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

For the Word will not be thought to be this common speech, composed of nouns and verbs, nor will the Spirit be thought to be a vapor dissipating into the air;

but rather the Word who was in the beginning with God, and the Holy Spirit, who has properly obtained this appellation.

As, then, the creative Word established the heaven, so the Spirit who is from God, who proceeds from the Father (that is, who is from his mouth, so that you may not judge him to be something external and belonging to created things, but may glorify him as having his subsistence from God), brought together with itself all the powers within it.

By the Spirit, then, all the heavenly host was established;

that is, they possess their vigor and fixity and firmness in sanctification, and all the virtue befitting the holy powers, from the assistance of the Spirit.

Here, then, it is written: 'the Spirit of His mouth.'

But elsewhere we shall find 'the Word of His mouth' also spoken, so that the Savior may be understood, and His Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father.

Since, then, the Savior is the Word of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of His mouth, and both cooperated in the creation of the heavens and of the powers in them, therefore it is said:

By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of His mouth all their host.

For nothing is sanctified except by the presence of the Spirit.

For the angels, then, the creating Word, the Maker of all things, provided their passage into being;

but the Holy Spirit conferred sanctification upon them.

For the angels were not created as infants and then, being perfected by gradual practice, thus became worthy to receive the Spirit;

but rather, in their first constitution, and as it were kneaded into the very lump of their being, they received holiness bestowed upon them together with it.

He gathers the waters of the sea as in a wineskin; He lays up the deeps in storehouses.

He did not say, 'Gathering the waters of the sea as into a wineskin,' but rather, 'As a wineskin,' thus gathering the waters of the sea.

Consider with me the nature of a wineskin: at one time it is distended, when the skin is stretched taut by the air enclosed within it;

but at another time it contracts, when that which was stretching it recedes.

So too the sea at times is inflamed and seethes, growing savage and swelling under the winds;

but at other times again, under calm, it subsides into lowliness.

As a wineskin, then, so the Lord contracts and lowers the water of the sea,

raising it up again—as when the Red Sea, with no one dividing it and no one holding it together, stood upright of itself, bound as it were in some wineskin, since the divine command did not allow it to pour forth.

'He lays up,' it says, 'the deeps in storehouses.'

It would have been more consistent, with respect to the common understanding, to say, 'Laying up the treasures in the deeps';

that is, holding His own riches in mystery.

But as it is, he says that the deeps themselves are, as it were, treasures worthy of the divine storehouses.

Might it not be, then, that the words concerning the divine judgment, being ineffable and incomprehensible to human understanding, are called 'deeps,' since the reasons according to which He administers each thing are stored up in the knowledge of God alone? For that the judgments concerning each thing are called an 'abyss,' we have been taught in another psalm, which says:

Your judgments are a great deep.

If, then, you inquire why the life of the sinner is prolonged, while the days of the righteous man's sojourning are cut short; why the unjust man prospers, while the righteous man is afflicted; why the child was snatched away before coming to maturity; whence come wars; why shipwrecks, earthquakes, droughts, and excessive rains occur; why the destructive things that befall men have come to be fashioned at all; why one man is a slave and another free, one rich and another poor (and there is likewise great difference even in the matters of sin or of right conduct themselves—

for the woman who is sold to a brothel-keeper is in sin out of necessity;

whereas another, having found from the start a good mistress, was reared together with her virginity)—why is the one favored, while the other is condemned;

and what is the recompense from the Judge in each of these cases—

taking all these things into consideration, reflect that the judgments of God are a deep, and, being enclosed within the divine storehouses, are not easily grasped by ordinary men.

When, then, we are counted worthy of face-to-face knowledge, we shall also see the deeps that are in the storehouses of God.

But by gathering together what is said in Scripture concerning wineskins, you will come to a fuller understanding of the prophetic intent.

Those, then, who are being renewed day by day, and who make room for the new wine from the true vine, are called, in the Gospel, new wineskins;

but those who have not yet put off the old man are old wineskins, unable to be entrusted with the reception of the new wine.

For no one puts new wine into old wineskins, lest the wine be spilled and those wineskins be utterly ruined, no longer deemed worthy of any pardon, should they spill the good and new wine.

For new wine must be put into new wineskins.

The new and spiritual wine—seething with the Holy Spirit, the mind of truth that never grows old—must be put into the new man;

who, because he always bears about in his body the dying of Jesus, might justly be said to be a new wineskin.

Let all the earth fear the Lord;

and let all the inhabitants of the world be moved because of Him.

Since the fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding, let those who are minded toward earthly things be instructed through fear.

For fear is necessarily taken up as an introduction to piety, while love, thereafter taking over those who have been shaped by that disciplined fear, brings them to perfection.

To all the earth, then, the word enjoins fear.

'And let,' it says, 'all the inhabitants of the world be moved because of Him.'

As if to say: let every movement, whether carried out according to the mind or according to bodily activity, be enacted by them according to the will of God.

For thus I understand the phrase, 'Let them be moved because of Him.'

As if to say: let not even the eye move without God;

let not the hand be moved without God;

let not the heart devise things that are not pleasing to God.

And, in short, let them be moved by nothing else at all, nor let anything else stir them, except the fear of God.

For He spoke, and they came to be;

He commanded, and they were created.

In answer to the two preceding statements he has added two more:

corresponding to 'those who dwell in the world' is, 'He spoke, and they came to be'; 'He commanded, and they were created.'

Since man is composite, made both of the earthly formation and of the soul dwelling within the body, that which was formed out of the earth is called 'earth,' while the soul, which has been allotted its manner of life within the body, is called 'the one dwelling in the world.'

Fittingly, then, to the earth is assigned the phrase, 'He spoke, and they came to be';

for our formation, which is from the earth, the word 'came to be' applies;

but for that which was created according to the image of God, the word 'was created' applies.

But since 'creation' is often used with reference to transformation and improvement, as in, 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation';

and, 'That He might create the two into one new man';

perhaps, then, 'came to be' is said with reference to man's first coming into existence;

while 'was created' is said with reference to the second, through the grace of Christ—that is, regeneration.

And by as much as God's command differs from a mere word, by so much is the difference between creation and mere coming-into-being.

The Lord scatters the counsels of the nations;

This is an explanation of what precedes, showing how God created those who had believed in Him, by scattering the senseless counsels of the peoples, which they held concerning idolatry and every vanity, and by nullifying the counsels of the rulers.

For at the resurrection, the counsel of the nations was scattered—of Pilate and the soldiers, and all who were active concerning the cross;

and the counsels of the rulers were nullified—of the chief priests and the scribes and the kings of the people.

For the resurrection dissolved all their scheming.

But if you go back through history and consider all that God has done in each instance concerning the unbelieving nations, you will find that the saying holds great force also according to the literal sense.

For when Jehoram son of Ahab reigned in Israel, the king of Syria, son of Hadad, having led his army with great force and a heavy hand, besieged Samaria, so that necessities failed them, and a donkey's head was worth fifty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of dove's dung, five shekels of silver.

Then, therefore, in order that the promise of Elisha might be fulfilled, the counsels of Syria were scattered, and they fled, abandoning their tents and all their possessions, leaving behind such abundance in Samaria that a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel.

Thus, then, the Lord knows how to scatter the counsels of the nations.

Whenever, therefore, you hear someone threatening great things, and promising to bring upon you all manner of afflictions, losses, blows, or deaths, look to the Lord who scatters the counsels of nations and brings to nothing the reasonings of peoples.

"But the counsel of the Lord abides forever;"

"the thoughts of his heart to all generations."

Do you not see the doctrines of the nations, this vain philosophy, how subtle and elaborate they are in their inventions of doctrines, both in logical theorems and ethical prescriptions, and in certain natural theories and other doctrines called "epoptic" (of the higher mysteries)? How has all of it been scattered and rendered useless, while the truth of the Gospel alone now dwells in the world as its citizen? For "many are the counsels in the heart of man;"

"but the counsel of the Lord shall prevail."

And it is indeed necessary, if the counsel that comes from God is to remain settled and firm in our souls, that human reasonings first be scattered beforehand within us.

For just as one who is about to write on wax first smooths it beforehand, and only then impresses upon it whatever figures he wishes;

so too the heart that is going to receive the divine oracles clearly must first be shown to be purified from contrary reasonings.

"The thoughts of his heart to all generations."

The elect peoples—to whom two covenants have been granted—may, in accordance with the phrase "the thoughts of his heart to generation and generation," since "generation" is named twice, likewise be understood as two thoughts also;

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance."

No one calls blessed the people of the Jews, but the people chosen out from among all peoples according to merit.

For we are the nation whose God the Lord is;

we also are the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance;

a nation, because we have been gathered together out of many nations; and a people, because we have been called in place of the people who was cast off.

And since "many are called, but few are chosen," he calls blessed not the one who was called, but the one who was chosen.

"For blessed is he whom he has chosen."

And what is the cause of this blessedness? The inheritance of eternal goods that is hoped for.

Or perhaps, according to the Apostle, since "when the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel shall be saved," he first calls blessed the fullness of the nations, and then Israel who is saved afterward? And clearly it is not just anyone who is saved, but only the remnant according to the election of grace.

"The people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance."

"The Lord looked down from heaven;"

"he saw all the sons of men from his prepared dwelling place."

Those who remain in their own proper dignity, and do the things befitting human nature, the Lord watches over from above;

but those who have been carried down to the utmost extremity of wickedness he visits in another way, by himself coming down.

For, he says, "the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has grown great, and their sins are exceedingly great."

"I will go down, therefore, and see whether they are doing according to the outcry that comes to me;"

"He came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built."

But here it says, "The Lord looked down from heaven;"

"he saw all the sons of men."

Consider the lofty spectator; consider him who stoops down from above to look closely into human affairs.

Wherever you may go, whatever you may do, whether in darkness or in daylight, you have the eye of God watching over you.

"From his prepared dwelling place."

No curtains are drawn together to conceal it;

the dwelling place of God is ready for viewing.

"He watches over all the sons of men."

Not even one escapes his sight;

neither darkness, nor concealing walls, nor anything else is an obstacle to the eyes of God.

He is so far from failing to see each individual thing that he even watches over the hearts, which he himself fashioned without any admixture of what is worse.

God, the maker of mankind, fashioned the heart simple, preserving in itself the image after which it was made;

but afterward we ourselves, through entanglement with the passions of the flesh, made the heart variegated and of every sort, corrupting its God-like, simple, and uniform character.

Since, therefore, he is the maker of hearts, for this reason he also understands all our works.

By "works" we mean also words and thoughts, and, in short, every motion of man whatsoever.

For with what disposition and to what purpose—whether for the pleasing of men, or for the service of the commandments given to us by God—only he who understands all our works knows.

And we do not lose the reward even for a cup of cold water, because the Lord understands all our works.

"A king is not saved by the greatness of his power;"

Neither an array of military strength, nor the walls of cities, nor a phalanx of infantry, nor cavalry force, nor the equipment of naval power procures salvation for a king.

For the Lord sets up kings and removes them, and there is no authority except that which is ordained by God.

A king, then, is saved not by great power, but by divine grace.

So that for these also the saying holds true, that "by grace you have been saved."

Nor does the farmer obtain his portion of the harvest so much through his agricultural diligence, as through God who causes what is cultivated to grow.

"For neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth."

But if the heart of the king is in the hand of God, he is saved not through his armed forces, but through divine guidance.

And it is not just anyone who is in the hand of God, but he who is worthy of the title of king.

Some have defined kingship as lawful authority, or as rule over all that is not answerable to sin.

"And a giant shall not be saved by the abundance of his strength."

By "giant" he means the one who relies on natural strength and bodily vigor.

Neither, then, does the king have sufficient help for salvation from his armed forces, nor is the brave man sufficient to provide for himself in all things.

For all human things together are weakness and incapacity when compared to the true power.

"and out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise, that you might destroy the enemy and the avenger."

For divine grace shone forth especially when it worked in infants and the foolish.

"A horse is a vain hope for safety;"

"neither shall it deliver anyone by the abundance of its strength."

The horse has been banished from the use of the saints.

And neither does Israel, when prospering in wars, ever appear to have made use of cavalry power, nor did any of the saints individually accept the use of horses as fitting;

But Pharaoh makes use of the horse, and the arrogant Sennacherib prides himself greatly on his abundance of horses.

but all who rode upon Sennacherib's horses fell into a slumber;

Wherefore also the law given through Moses, legislating concerning kings, says, "He shall not multiply horses for himself."

"Neither shall he be saved by the abundance of his strength."

"For when I am weak," he says, "then I am strong."

For an abundance of bodily strength is an obstacle to the salvation of the spirit.

Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him.

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous;

but here it says instead, "upon those who fear him."

Whenever we look toward the Lord, and our eyes are turned toward him, so that we might say:

"Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters, so our eyes look to the Lord our God" —

then, as it were, we draw the eye of the Lord toward the visitation that concerns us.

Upon those who hope in his mercy.

This shows the humility of those who serve the Lord, how they hope in his mercy.

For he who does not trust in his own valorous deeds, nor expects to be justified by works, has as his only hope of salvation the compassions of God.

For whenever he calls to mind the saying, "Behold, the Lord, and his reward is with him, to render to each according to his work," and reckons up his own evil deeds, he indeed fears the punishment and cowers before the things threatened;

but so as not to be swallowed up by grief, he is of good hope, looking toward the compassions of God and his loving-kindness.

And he hopes that his soul will be delivered from death, and that he will be kept alive by him in famine.

"But our soul waits for the Lord, for he is our helper and our defender."

The word carries an exhortation to endurance;

so that even if at some point we are overtaken by one of the things that afflict us, we may not be separated from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, but may endure hardships with our whole soul, awaiting the help that comes from God.

"For in him our heart shall rejoice, and in his holy name we have hoped."

This is in harmony with what was said at the beginning of the psalm:

"Rejoice greatly in the Lord, O you righteous";

and, "In him our heart shall rejoice."

And it seems to me that in accordance with this the Apostle also said, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us";

and, "And not only so, but we also glory in tribulations."

He does not merely make a display of it, but with full joy welcomes the ill-treatment suffered for the name of the Lord: "Not only," he says, "do we endure, but also, In him our heart shall rejoice, and in his holy name we have hoped."

It is enough for us to be called Christians in order to escape all the malice that comes from our adversaries.

The name of God is said to be holy, not at all because the syllables themselves possess some sanctifying power, but because the entire property of God, and the concept of the things especially contemplated concerning him, is holy and pure.

"Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, even as we have hoped in you."

Do you see how skillfully he prayed? He made his own disposition the measure of the supply of God's compassions.

"Let your mercy upon us," he says, "be as great as the hope that we have already laid up before you."

And all our hope is to return to rest, so that, our body of humiliation having been transformed, we may perceive it as having become conformed to the body of glory.

The sense of the psalm draws upon two occasions.

For he altered his countenance both when he conversed with Abimelech the priest, concealing his flight while pretending to be zealously carrying out a royal command — at which time he also took the loaves of the presentation, and the sword of Goliath;

and he altered his countenance also when, cut off in the midst of enemies, he perceived them conversing with one another and preparing themselves to do him harm.

For, it says, the servants of Achish said among themselves:

How then does the title name him Abimelech, while the history hands down Achish as the name of the king of the Gittites? We have received a certain account, come down to us by tradition, that the kings of the foreigners had a common name, Abimelech, while each also bore his own personal appellation.

Just as one may also see in the case of the Roman Empire, where they are commonly called Caesars and Augusti, yet possess other names of their own.

Such also is the name Pharaoh among the Egyptians.

For it appears that Pharaoh was also the name of the one who reigned in the time of Joseph;

Pharaoh, too, was the king of Egypt who arose four generations later in the time of Moses;

Pharaoh, too, was the one in the time of Solomon;

for it says, "He took the daughter of Pharaoh";

and the one in the time of Jeremiah's prophecy was also called Pharaoh.

So too was there an Abimelech in the time of Abraham, and one in the time of Isaac;

for concerning Abraham it is said, "And Abimelech spoke, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the commander of his army, to Abraham, saying";

and again concerning Isaac:

"And he remained there a long time."

"And Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking down through the window, saw Isaac playing with Rebecca."

But Achish is the name handed down by the history, which was his own name, attached to him from birth.

It says, "his spittle upon his beard";

so that Achish said to his servants:

"Why do you bring him in to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow in to play the madman before me?" And thus, being released from there, he escaped, it says, to the cave of Adullam.

Having thus escaped from great danger, he sends up this thanksgiving to the God who delivered him.

"I will bless the Lord," he says, "at all times."

That is, letting no occasion pass without blessing, but referring the origin of both great and lesser matters alike to God.

"I will not consider," he says, "that things come about by my own diligence, nor happen by mere chance, but I will bless the Lord at all times" — not only in the prosperous circumstances of life, but also in times of hardship.

Instructed by this, the Apostle says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks."

Do you see how great this man's love was? He did not despair at the continuance of evils, when he had been driven not only from his homeland, and kinship, and household, and possessions, but also, having been given over to enemies by necessity, was on the point of being torn apart by them.

How long would the continuance of evils last? He did not despair at the prolongation of affliction, knowing that "affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces proof, and proof produces hope."

For indeed, to those who are well prepared, afflictions are, as it were, a kind of athletic nourishment and training exercises, advancing the contestant toward his ancestral glory;

namely, when, being reviled, we bless; being slandered, we exhort; being oppressed, we give thanks; being afflicted, we boast in the affliction.

For it is shameful for us to bless God in more favorable circumstances, but to be silent in gloomier and more burdensome matters.

But then we must give thanks all the more, knowing that "whom the Lord loves he disciplines";

"and he scourges every son whom he receives."

For how can the praise of God be continually in a man's mouth? When he engages in ordinary and worldly conversation, he does not have the praise of God in his mouth.

When he sleeps, he will surely be silent.

But while he is eating and drinking, how will the mouth perform the praise? To this we say that there is also a certain intelligible mouth of the inner man, by which he is nourished, partaking of the word of life, which is the bread that came down from heaven.

Concerning that mouth the Prophet also says:

"I opened my mouth, and drew in the Spirit."

To that the Lord also invites us, to keep it wide open for a more abundant reception of the foods of truth.

"Open wide your mouth," he says, "and I will fill it."

For whether the righteous man eats or drinks, he does all things to the glory of God.

Though such a one sleeps, his heart is awake, according to what is said in the Song of Songs:

I sleep, but my heart is awake

For for the most part, the phantasms that occur in sleep are echoes of the thoughts of the preceding day

My soul shall be praised in the Lord

Let no one, he says, praise my own device, by which I was saved from dangers

For salvation lies not in the power of man, nor in wisdom, but in the grace of God

Let not the rich man, he says, boast in his riches, nor the wise man in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength;

but let him who boasts, boast in this, in understanding and knowing the Lord his God

the praise of the Gospel? He who is your fellow servant and minister in the Lord

If, however, someone is praised for bodily beauty, or for the distinction of his parents, his soul is not praised in the Lord, but each such person exists in vanity

For neither do the intermediate arts possess what is truly praiseworthy — pilots, physicians, orators, or architects who build cities, or pyramids, or labyrinths, or any other costly or excessively massive constructions of buildings

Those who are praised for these things do not have their own soul in the Lord

For surely one who serves a king will not think great things of himself merely because he has been assigned to this rank of service;