Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 2/3

Do you see the whole inhabited world being instructed, had they but been willing, by means of the holy men? And before these, moreover, the flood and the confusion of tongues were sufficient to rouse up their understanding.

For lest what had happened should through lapse of time fall into oblivion, the place received its name, and thenceforth is called Babylon, from the confounding of tongues, so that the hearer, guided by the name, might come back to the beginning of the events and might learn the might of God.

In this way too all those who dwelt in the West learned all these things, associating with the Egyptians for the sake of trade.

But otherwise, in the beginnings and at the outset, there were not even many nations in that part of the inhabited world;

rather, the great multitude of people and the throng were gathered together in the regions toward the East.

For indeed Adam too came forth from there, and the generations of Noah dwelt there, and after the tower they were there, and they went to and fro yet more toward the East.

Yet nonetheless in every generation God appointed for them teachers: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Melchizedek.

Wherefore this prophet also, from the things that came to pass toward the holy men, leads up those who live in wickedness, saying:

Know that the Lord has made His holy one wonderful.

What is the meaning of, He has made wonderful? He made him who is devoted to Him marvellous, notable, illustrious, conspicuous.

From the servant, then, and from the things that befall him, learn the power of the Master.

He did not say merely, 'He has given a good thing,' but 'He has made it marvellous,' showing that He gave it with much wonder, with much of the working of paradox.

So too it came to pass in the case of Abraham.

For not only did God restore his wife to him untouched, but He also made the man himself an object of wonder;

so that the gift consisted not only in his suffering no dreadful thing, but also in his becoming illustrious throughout Egypt.

For the one thing—that he suffered nothing distressing—came about through his own righteousness;

while the other—that he returned thence amid marvels—came about for the benefit of those people.

This happened in the case of the three young men, this in the case of the lions, this in the case of the sea-monster and Jonah; and everywhere He saves with a wonder—not all men simply, but the holy one.

Do you see how, together with the knowledge of God, he also frames an exhortation to an exact life, teaching us to place our hopes of salvation not only in the goodness of God, but also in the virtue of our own works? 'The Lord will hear me when I cry unto Him.' Having said that He made him marvellous, he does not stop there, but names yet another kind of prosperity.

What sort is this? To have God perpetually as one's ally and helper, and everywhere present at one's side.

For He does not do this once, and twice, and thrice, but perpetually, he says, if only we call upon Him;

and observe here again the swiftness.

For just as above he said, 'When I called upon Him, the God of my righteousness heard me,'

so also here: 'When I cried unto Him.'

How is it, then, that many are not heard? he asks. Because they ask for things that are not to their profit.

For here the not being heard is better than the being heard.

So then, even when we are heard, let us not rejoice on that account alone;

but even when we are not heard, let us on that very account also glorify God.

For either we are not heard because we ask unprofitable things, and we gain by not receiving;

or we ask carelessly, and by the delay of the gift God wisely trains us in perseverance;

and this too is no small gain.

For 'if you,' he says, 'know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more our God,' who understands how to give, and when to give, and what to give.

Since Paul also asked, and did not receive;

and Moses too, and God did not grant his request either.

Let us not, therefore, withdraw when we are not

heard, nor grow distressed and numb, but let us persevere in constant waiting and in asking.

For God does all things for our profit.

'Be angry, and sin not;'

'the things which you say in your hearts, be pierced with compunction upon your beds.'

What I said before, this I say also now.

For since he is about to lead them by the hand toward the knowledge of God, he first frees the soul from its diseases.

For he knows that a corrupt life becomes a hindrance to exactness in the lofty doctrines.

Which very thing Paul also hinted at, saying:

'I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.'

'As unto babes in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.'

'Concerning which we have much to say, and hard to explain in words, seeing you have become dull of hearing.'

'This people seeks Me, and desires to know My ways, as a people that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the judgment of God.'

'Sow for yourselves unto righteousness, kindle for yourselves the light of knowledge.'

And Christ, teaching, said:

'Everyone that does evil hates the light, and comes not to the light.'

'How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and seek not the glory that is from the only God?' And again:

These things his parents said because they feared the Jews, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.

Nevertheless many believed in Him, yet because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him.

And everywhere one may see that a corrupted life becomes a hindrance to precision of doctrine.

For just as rheum, settling upon the clear pupil of the eyes, darkens and clouds the organ that gives light, so too a reasoning that is seized by wickedness darkens and maims the understanding.

Therefore the Prophet also, knowing this, says:

Be angry, and sin not.

For he does not do away with anger, since it is useful;

nor does he cut off wrath, for it too is profitable when directed against those who do wrong and against the slothful;

but rather he does away with unjust anger, with irrational wrath.

And just as Moses, when he entered upon moral discourse, made this the very first beginning of his lawgiving, saying, 'You shall not kill,' so too does this Prophet;

but this one does even more, inasmuch as the things of piety had also become more clearly known.

For the one cuts off murder;

but this one restrains even the mother of murder, namely anger, which is the root and the fountain of the evil.

Therefore Christ also, restraining anger, said:

Whoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to the hell of fire.

Be angry, and sin not.

For it is possible even to be angry justly;

since Paul too was angry with Elymas, and Peter with Sapphira.

But I would not call this simply anger, but rather wisdom, and solicitude, and stewardship.

A father too is angry with his son, yet out of care for him.

That man is the one who is angry without cause, the one who avenges himself;

but he who sets right the affairs of others, this man is the gentlest of all.

Since God also, when He is said to be angry, is not angry in defense of Himself, but in correcting us.

Let us therefore also imitate Him.

For to proceed against wrongdoing in this way is divine;

But God differs from us not only in this, that He is angry justly, but also in that anger is not even a passion in respect of God.

Let us therefore not be angry without cause, we also.

For anger was implanted in us for this very reason: not that we might sin, but that we might restrain others who sin;

not that it might become a passion and a disease, but that it might be a remedy for the passions.

Consider then the excess of wickedness, when the remedy becomes a poison, when through that by which we ought to be setting right the wounds of others, we work wounds instead;

as if a man, having taken a knife in order to cut away the festering sores of others, should recklessly cut himself in pieces, making ulcers all over his body;

or being a helmsman, should by means of the rudder sink the

vessel, by the very means through which he ought to have been cutting off the force of the disorderly winds.

Such a thing too is anger: a useful instrument, that it may rouse our sluggishness, that it may put vigor into the soul, that it may make us more vehement in our indignation on behalf of those who are wronged, that it may make us avengers against those who plot evil.

For this reason indeed he says, Be angry, and sin not.

But if this were not possible, He would not have commanded it.

For no one commands things that are impossible.

Introducing, then, an apostolic law, and an evangelical wisdom, and having said the very same things as Christ, he adds another exhortation, speaking thus:

The things which you say in your hearts, be pierced with compunction upon your beds.

What is the meaning of what has been said? For it seems to be obscure.

In the time after supper, he says, when you are about to retire to sleep, when you are about to lie down, and with no one present there is deep quiet and a profound calm since none disturb you, then set up the tribunal of your conscience, demand from it an accounting, and whatever wicked things you devised throughout the day, whether stitching together deceits, or tripping up your neighbor, or entertaining corrupt desires, bring these forward into the midst during that hour of stillness, and setting your conscience over these unseemly reasonings, tear them to pieces, exact justice of them, and stretch upon the rack the mind that has sinned.

For this is what is meant by 'Be pricked in your hearts'—that is, 'Prick, sting the things you said in your hearts throughout the day';

that is to say, 'The wicked counsels you reasoned out, these you are to punish and exact retribution for upon your beds, in the time of that stillness';

when neither a friend disturbs you, nor a servant provokes you, nor a throng of affairs presses upon you, then render an account of the things done during the day.

And why did he not say 'of words and deeds,' but 'of wicked thoughts'? Because he teaches this out of abundance.

For if we must punish even wicked counsels, so that they do not come out into action,

how much more ought we to bind the soul tight over deeds and words.

Let this be done each day, and do not fall asleep first, O man, until you have reckoned up the faults you committed during the day;

and you will assuredly be more reluctant on the morrow to attempt the same things.

And just as you do in the matter of money—not enduring to let two days pass without settling accounts with your servant, lest confusion arise through forgetfulness—do this also with regard to your actions each day;

in the evening demand of your soul a reckoning, condemn the reasoning that has sinned, hang it up as upon a cross, torture it, and give it charge no longer to attempt the same things.

Do you see the excellent physician's art, how he has employed both preventive and corrective remedies? For to charge us not to fall into sins holds the place of a preventive remedy;

as when he says, 'Be angry, and sin not';

but the words, 'The things you say in your hearts, be pricked with compunction upon your beds,' are a corrective remedy.

For after the sinning, he again applies remedies, introducing the healing from the sinner himself.

Let us therefore apply this healing, which involves no difficulty.

But if the soul cannot bear to remember its faults, being ashamed and blushing, say to it:

'There is no gain to you from not remembering, but rather great harm.'

For if you do not now remember them within yourself, then, before the eyes of all, your sins will lie exposed to you.

But if you now reckon these things up, you will both be quickly rid of them, and will not readily fall into others.

For the soul, dreading the evening judgment, lest it be caught again under the same sentence, and be stretched out and scourged, becomes more reluctant toward sin;

and so great is the profit of the practice, that if we do it continually for but a single month, we shall thereafter establish ourselves in the habit of virtue.

Let us not, then, overlook so great a good.

For he who has here set up this tribunal will not give…

For if we judged ourselves, we should not be judged;

but being judged, we are chastened by the Lord, he says, that we may not be condemned with the world.

That, then, we may not be condemned, let us do this.

'Offer the sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord.'

Do you see the sequence of most excellent counsel? Do you see the exhortation brought to completion? For having pricked them with compunction over their sins, and having made them more reluctant to attempt the same things again, and having raised up the incorruptible tribunal, and having demanded an accounting of the things done in life, thus he leads them on to the working of virtue.

For the abstaining from evils is not sufficient by itself, but there must also be added the working of good things.

Wherefore also, going on, he exhorts, saying:

'Turn aside from evil, and do good.'

For indeed, idleness in virtue also knows how to bring on punishment, not the working of wickedness alone.

Since those men too who did not feed the hungry, nor give drink to the thirsty, nor clothe the naked, did not rob, did not overreach, did not take what belonged to others;

but because they did not work mercy, for this reason they are delivered over to the immortal punishment and to the torment that has no end.

Whence we learn that abstaining from evils is not for us the beginning of salvation, unless there be also present the acquisition of good things and the working of virtue.

For this very reason the Prophet also, having led them away from wickedness through compunction, and having made them more fit for the working of virtue, and having softened the hardness of their mind, and having rendered it tender through compunction, introduces the discourse concerning righteousness, and says:

'Offer the sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord.'

What does 'Offer the sacrifice of righteousness' mean? Pursue righteousness, present righteousness;

this is the greatest gift to God, this the acceptable sacrifice, this the offering that has much to please him—not the slaughtering of sheep and calves, but the doing of just deeds.

Do you see the polity of the Church sketched out beforehand from of old, and how, in place of those sensible things, the spiritual realities are the objects of pursuit?

By 'righteousness' here, as I said before, he does not mean the partial virtue, but virtue in its entirety;

for which reason too we call a man 'righteous' who possesses within himself the whole of virtue.

This sacrifice needs no money, no knife, no altar, no fire;

it does not dissolve into smoke and ash and savour of burnt fat, but is content with the disposition of him who offers it.

To this neither indigence becomes a hindrance, nor poverty an obstacle, nor place, nor any other such thing;

but wherever you may be, you will be able to offer it, becoming yourself at once priest and altar and knife and victim.

For such is the nature of things intellectual and spiritual;

they possess greater ease, requiring none of the outward toil.

For he who through a righteous manner of life has won Him to be gracious and well-disposed, has the greatest ally, an aid that cannot be overcome, and abundant support from that quarter.

Did you see the fruit of the sacrifice standing at the very doors? Did you see the treasure of good things at once budding forth in abundance? For he who has God as his ally, whom shall he thenceforth fear? No one.

And this too is no small virtue, to be confident in Him, and to have put one's trust in Him.

For along with righteousness He also requires of us this virtue: to have trusted in Him, to have hoped in Him, to place confidence in none of the things of this life, but, withdrawing oneself from them all, to fasten the mind upon that place.

For the affairs of the present life resemble dreams and shadows, and are even feebler than these, appearing and flying away in the same moment, and, in their very presence, breeding many tumults for those who possess them;

but the hope that rests on God is immortal, unchangeable, immovable, admitting no alteration, establishing in all security, and rendering invincible

the one who employs it with exactness and with the disposition that befits it.

'Many say, Who will show us good things? The light of Your countenance, O Lord, has been signed upon us.'

Having completed his exhortation concerning morals, and having led them on to the knowledge of God, and having set in motion every means capable of rousing the mind of those who had gone astray, and having above all displayed His tender care from His concern for those devoted to Him and His providence toward them, he now sets down a certain objection introduced by the weaker and grosser sort, and says:

'Many say, Who will show us good things?' It is not the few, the genuine and approved, and those who know how to practise wisdom, who say these things, but the diffuse multitude, the undiscerning throng, that which is nailed fast to folly.

And what is it that he means? 'Who will show us good things?' There are certain people who say this: some slandering God's providence, and others being lovers of pleasure, of ease and of riches, of glory and of dominion, who, being enamoured of these things, speak in this fashion:

'Where are the good things of God? I am in poverty, and in sickness, and in wretchedness, and in the utmost hardships, and in insults, and in false accusations;

while another is in prosperity, and in luxury, and in dominion, and in glory, and in wealth.'

And some seek only these things as good, passing by the things that are truly good—I mean virtue and the love of wisdom;

while others, as I said before, from this very ground also slander the providence of God, saying:

'Where is the providence of God, when so great a confusion arises in life, and the greater number are in poverty and want and the utmost of evils? What proof is there of His tender care?' For those who say these things do the very same as if someone at steady and cloudless noonday should demand to see the sun, and should be in doubt about the light.

And the Prophet, pointing this out, and bringing forward the swiftest solution, said:

'The light of Your countenance, O Lord, has been signed upon us.'

He did not say 'has shone,' but 'has been signed,' making clear that, just as what is stamped upon the forehead is plainly visible to all, and it is not possible for it to escape anyone's notice—nor can anyone fail to perceive a countenance full of light and sending forth its rays—

so, he says, neither can Your providence be hidden.

For just as a light that has been signed—that is, imprinted and engraved upon a countenance—is plain to all;

so also is the providence of Your loving-kindness.

For by 'light' here he means Your succour, Your tender care, Your alliance, Your providence.

Then, having declared this, he adds the demonstration as well.

And what sort of demonstration is this? 'You have put gladness into my heart.'

Having censured the irrational multitude, he draws his proof of God's providence from those who have understanding and are sound of mind, and says, 'You have put gladness into my heart';

that is: You have taught me to love wisdom, to despise the things of this life, to know the things that are true and abiding;

You have lifted me up with good hopes, You have led me by the hand toward the life to come;

before the enjoyment of the good things, You have raised me on wings by the expectation of the good things.

For if a man who is about to inherit riches, or even to enter upon a very great office, is set upright by expectation not only at the time of enjoyment, but even before the actual experience, luxuriating the whole time under the influence of hope;

consider what manner of man he is likely to be who expects the living and immortal kingdom, and those good things which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man.

You have put gladness into my heart.

And this was a mark of the greatest providence, that He should have prepared and made ready those things beforehand.

But if the grosser sort, who are but flesh and fastened to the earth, give no heed to these things, then the disturbance and the tumult arises not from Him who made the promise, but from their own ingratitude.

And he did not say simply, You have given gladness, but, Into my heart, showing that gladness lies not in outward things,

neither in slaves, nor in gold and silver, nor in garments,

nor in a loaded table, nor in the greatness of power, nor in the measure of one's house.

For such gladness belongs not to the heart, but to the eyes alone.

At any rate, many of those who possess these things reckon life not worth living, and carry about in their soul a furnace of despondency, being flooded by the multitude of their cares and pressed down by continual fears.

But for me, he says, gladness lies not in these things, but in the heart that reasons, in the mind that is bodiless and that pictures to itself the things that are bodiless.

So that if present things gladden you, and from them you learn the providence of God,

much more should you come to understand it from the things to come, inasmuch as those are better, more abiding, and cannot be taken away.

For if your being in wealth and prosperity persuades you of the providence of God,

much more should being rich in heaven lead you to this conviction.

But if you should say, And why then are these things laid up in hopes and unseen? I would answer this, that we the faithful, above all, reckon the things that lie in hope to be more evident than these evident things;

for such is the full assurance of faith.

But if again you should say, Why do we not receive our recompense here? I would answer this, that this is the season of the wrestling-pits and of the contests, but that other is the season of the crowns and of the prizes.

And this too was the work of God's care, that He allotted the toils and the sweats to this brief and perishable life, but extended the prizes and the crowns into the immortal and ageless age.

And besides, at the time when the many were more weakly disposed, He gave them also these sensible good things.

The people of the Jews, at any rate, He led by such a manner of governance.

For wealth flowed in upon them, and their life was extended to old age, and every disease was kept out of the way;

and the destruction of enemies, and profound peace, and trophies and victories, and fair children and many children, were present to those who obeyed God, and all such things besides.

But when our Lord Jesus Christ came, calling us to heaven, and persuading us to despise the things here, and implanting in us the love of those things above, and severing us from the affairs of this life,

with good reason these present things have been contracted, while in those things above lies all the wealth, seeing that we have become perfect.

Since in the case of children too, fathers provide such things to those who are still smaller—shoes and clothes, and trinkets of gold, and bracelets;

but when they have grown up, they take these away from them and give them other, greater things: distinction on the tribunal, splendor in the city, freedom of speech in the royal courts, offices and positions of power, leading them away from all childish vanity.

So indeed did God also do:

leading us away from those small and childish things, He promised us the things that are from the heavens.

Therefore do not be all aflutter over these things that flow and run past, nor be faint-hearted.

Neither has He left you without a share even of these.

For since it was needful that we, who are clothed with flesh and bound together with a body, should not be wholly without these things either, He also supplies them to us richly.

For this reason the Prophet also, having touched upon that form of providence which is lofty and full of wisdom, and having said, You have put gladness into my heart, adds this too, saying:

They were multiplied from the fruit of their grain, and wine, and oil.

And in saying this he sets in motion no small part of His providence from this quarter—the providence that appears even in the things that are seen.

For when he says grain, and wine, and oil, and the abundance in these, he speaks also of rains, and the good tempering of the seasons, and the wombs of the earth, and its birth-pangs and its bearing, and the outpouring of the air, and the sun's course, and the moon's revolutions, and the dance of the stars, and summer, and winter, and autumn, and spring, and the art of husbandry, and the fitness of implements, and the swarm of the other arts.

For unless all these things run together, it is not possible for the fruits to be brought to their perfection, nor to be gathered in.

So then, when he says grain, and wine, and oil, he gives the wise man an occasion to understand the whole even from a part, having spread out a sea of God's providence that appears in the things perceived by the senses. (11)

For this reason Paul too, when delivering a public discourse somewhere and reasoning concerning His providence, took up his argument from this same point, saying:

Giving rains and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

But since the Prophet is sparing of words, passing over all the rest that he might have mentioned—the autumn fruits, the tree-fruits, the kinds of plants, the kinds of seeds, the kinds of herbs, of meadows, of flowers, of gardens, and whatever else there is—he sets down the things that hold life together, the things also necessary for our living, making from these the others also plain.

Which things He does not even give us simply, but in abundance, and every single year.

But if at times He does withhold, in this too He again displays His providence, rousing the many from their sloth and stirring them up to seek these good things from Him.

But if some should say that it is not God who gives rain, but the idols,

let us ask them: whence is this evident? 'Because,' says he, 'the poets have declared that it is Zeus who sends the rain.'

But these same poets have also declared that he is an adulterer, a corrupter of boys, a slayer of his father, and guilty of other charges no less than these.

'But these,' says he, 'are not true.'

For if you accept the one, you must of necessity accept the others too;

but if you cast out those, then this one too must go along with them.

For we, when we bring forward witnesses to the power of God, accept everything that is said by them concerning Him.

Therefore you too are compelled to accept him as an adulterer, and all the other things said by them concerning him, and from this to learn that such charges are far removed from any divine power, and that such a one could not be a god.

But the myth falls foul of itself, and the falsehood is refuted by its own self, and even against your will to accept this, it altogether casts out the poets.

And that, once those are cast out, all that is yours will be gone, is plain.

For indeed it was they who invented and imposed the names of these gods;

which is what one of the philosophers among you also has said.

But if, leaving them aside, you should run to allegories, this is what I will ask you:

what then is Zeus? 'The seething substance,' says he, 'and the region above the air, and what they call the aether, so named from its seething and burning.'

Therefore it is not a rational substance possessed of discernment, but an irrational one.

For that the nature of the air possesses neither reason nor reflection is plain to everyone, and everyone knows this, even were he more senseless than the stones.

So that by now Zeus has been done away with, and his substance has vanished.

For if Zeus is air, and the air is that which we have described, then from this side too the myth will be gone.

And if he is air, he neither became the father of anyone, nor begot any substance such as they fashion the sun to be, which they call Apollo and say is his son;

for neither does the sun possess any reasoning, nor understanding and mind, but it too is a work of nature, led and carried round by the law which God appointed for it at the beginning.

Besides, the raining is not of the aether, but of the clouds receiving the water either from the sea, or from the waters that are borne from above beyond the heaven, as the prophets say.

And if you disbelieve the prophets, we furnish clear and manifest signs, which show above all that they became God-inspired, and spoke nothing to us of their own devising, but were breathed upon by that divine and supra-heavenly grace.

For everything spoken by them has come to its fulfilment, and all has come to pass according to the truth of the facts, whether you choose to handle the old things or the new.

For all that was spoken by the prophets concerning the Jews received its fulfilment, the outcome of which is before all men.

...to the New, which things especially show that each Scripture is divine.

And if it is divine, then all the things said in it concerning God are true.

Do not, then, doubt concerning the providence of God, but marvel at His tender care, that although there are both wicked and good, He has set the inhabited world and the sun open to all, and gives the rains.

But if He allows some to remain in beggary and poverty, He allows it while setting their soul aright, making their disposition more given to true wisdom.