Commentary on the Psalms 20 part 2/3

But here it comes upon me to groan, that many even of those who hope for the things to come imitate, in this respect, those who have no hope whatever concerning the things to come—building tombs, making splendid monuments, burying gold, and passing their goods on to others, being in this respect worse than they.

For he who expects nothing after this, even if he too acts unreasonably, yet because he expects nothing, labors diligently over present things;

but you, O man, who know the life to come and those ineffable good things, according to that Gospel saying, that 'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun'—what pardon could you have? what defense? and what punishment would you not justly undergo, squandering everything here upon the dust, upon the ashes, upon the monuments, upon your enemies, upon your foes? 'They have called their lands after their own names.'

Behold yet another kind of folly—to attach their own appellations to buildings, and fields, and baths, and to think to reap thereby the greatest consolation, and to pursue the shadow instead of the truth.

For if you long for perpetual remembrance, do not attach names to buildings, O man, but raise up trophies of good deeds, which

both preserve your name in your present life, and prepare for you, in the life to come, an immortal rest.

If you long and desire remembrance, I will teach you the true and clearest way;

for nothing so makes a name immortal as does the nature of virtue.

And this the martyrs make plain; the relics of the apostles make it plain; the memory of those who have lived in virtue makes it plain.

How many kings have raised up cities, constructed harbors, and, having attached their names to them, have departed? Yet they gained nothing thereby, but are passed over in silence and given over to oblivion.

But Peter the fisherman, who did none of these things, because he pursued virtue and laid hold of the most royal city, shines brighter than the sun even after his death.

But what you do is ridiculous and full of shame.

For these monuments will not only fail to make you illustrious, but will make you ridiculous, and will open all men's mouths against you.

For your buildings, which in time might have allowed your covetousness to be given over to oblivion, stand everywhere like pillars and trophies of your covetousness.

'And man being in honor understood not;'

'he is compared to the senseless beasts, and is made like unto them.'

Here it seems to me the Prophet at last laments, that the rational living creature—the one to whom even the kingdom over the earth was entrusted—has declined to the baseness of the irrational beasts, toiling in vain, contriving things contrary to its own salvation, pursuing vainglory, going after covetousness, laboring at things without end.

For the honor of man is virtue, and to think wisely concerning the things to come, and to order all his affairs with a view to that life, and to look down upon present things.

For the life of the irrational beasts is confined within the present existence;

but ours journeys toward another and better life, one that has no end.

But these men, who know nothing about the things to come, are worse than the brute beasts.

And not these only, but also those who live together with a corrupt manner of life, who through their wickedness become serpents and scorpions and wolves, and oxen through their senselessness, and dogs through their shamelessness.

For what, tell me, is more senseless than those who busy themselves about tombs and monuments, and stand agape after the naming of names by others? For nothing produces remembrance, but virtue alone—not a house, not a statue, not a plaything, nor any other thing of the kind.

For the one is the work of the carpenter's skill, and the other of the sculptor's, but the man himself is the work of nature.

For this very reason the Prophet calls him without reason, like the beasts;

since, having placed himself beneath the yoke of senselessness, he is led along in a state worse than the brute beast.

For the beast, at least, is useful and serviceable for farming;

but this man, having subjected himself to senselessness, has in this respect become even worse than the beast.

For since he had spoken above of the grossness of their mind, its earthiness, its groveling character, and their unprofitable toil after riches, wishing also to heighten the accusation against such men, he sets forth as well the benefits that come from God—which the prophets are wont to do in many places.

For Isaiah too, when about to accuse them, first tells of the honor bestowed by God upon the Jews, writing thus:

I have begotten sons and raised them up;

And here likewise, indicating by a single word the benefits granted by God to the race of men, he says: Man, being in honor, understood not.

And of what honor does he speak? Hear him speaking in another psalm:

You have made him a little lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor.

Then, explaining the honor, he adds:

You have put all things in subjection under his feet—all sheep and oxen;

and moreover the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

For indeed this is a very great honor—that God entrusted to him the scepters over all visible things, and this while he had as yet achieved nothing.

For before he had yet fashioned him, God said:

Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness.

Then, interpreting the phrase According to the image, he added: And let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the beasts of the earth, and over the birds of the heaven.

And this small creature, but three cubits in stature, and so much inferior to the brute beasts in bodily strength, He made higher than all by the kinship of reason, bestowing on him a rational soul—which is above all the proof of honor.

For through this he has built cities, cleaved the sea, adorned the earth, discovered countless arts, and gained mastery over the wilder of the brute beasts; and—greatest and first of all—he came to know God who made him, and was led by the hand toward virtue, and knew what is good and what is not so.

Of all visible creatures he alone prays to God, he alone has enjoyed revelations, and this too he alone;

he came to know many of the unspeakable mysteries, he was instructed in the things that are in the heavens;

for his sake the earth, for his sake the heaven, for his sake the sun and the stars;

for his sake the courses of the moon, and the differences of the seasons and the solstices;

for his sake the births of the fruits, and the plants, and so many kinds of the brute beasts;

for his sake apostles and prophets were sent, for his sake angels were oftentimes dispatched.

What need is there to say much? For it is not even possible to go through them all.

For his sake the only-begotten Son of God became man, and was crucified, and was buried; and those awesome miracles after the resurrection came to pass for his sake.

For his sake was the law, for his sake was paradise, for his sake was the flood.

For indeed this too is a very great form of honor—to set him right both through benefits and through punishments.

For his sake, throughout all the time before, there were countless dispensations.

And even the judgment itself that is to come takes place for the sake of the honor shown to him.

Wherefore Job also says, What is man, that You have brought him into judgment? just as elsewhere this same psalmist says:

What is man, that You are mindful of him? For his sake again the Only-begotten will come, bestowing countless good things.

For some good things He has already given, those bestowed through baptism, and through the mysteries, and through the rest of the sacred initiation; and He has filled the earth with other wonders as well;

and other things He has promised to give: the kingdom of the heavens, and life eternal, and to make them His heirs, and to prepare them to reign together with Him.

If we endure, we shall also reign together with Him.

Considering all these things, then, the Prophet with good reason compares to irrational beasts those who have handed over so great a nobility to wickedness, and who have deserted to the passions of those creatures.

Other prophets also do the same, wishing by the comparison to shame the shameless hearer.

One of them says: 'They became as lust-maddened horses';

another says, 'The ox knew its owner, and the ass its master's crib,' speaking thus more severely than David.

For David says, 'He was compared to the senseless cattle, and was made like unto them';

but that other prophet says that they had become even more irrational than these;

for those creatures knew their owner, 'but Israel,' he says, 'did not know me.'

And in another place, too, a certain other wise man, showing the sluggard to be worse even than the ants, and slothful, and being destroyed by idleness, sends him there to learn to love labour, saying, 'Go to the ant, O sluggard, and be zealous for its ways.'

For that creature, though it has no farmland, nor anyone compelling it, nor being under any master, prepares its food in summer, and lays up a great store at harvest time.

And again he bids him go to the bee;

'Go to the bee, and learn how she is a worker;'

for her fruit is the beginning of sweet things, whose labours both kings and common men take for their health.

'Your rulers are like the wolves of Arabia.'

And another says, 'You have sat in the wilderness like a crow.'

Zacharias says, 'Serpents, brood of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?' And yet another again:

'They have hatched the eggs of asps, and weave a spider's web.'

And elsewhere this same prophet says:

'The poison of asps is under their lips.'

And again, 'Their fury is according to the likeness of a serpent.'

He casts down him who is so great, so exalted, and who wears so many diadems, to the baseness of the irrational beasts.

Wherefore also in the present psalm, having selected two forms of wickedness, and leaving the rest for the hearers to reckon up, he thus brands those who are caught in them.

For what could be more irrational than a man who runs about the whole world in vain and to no purpose and to the harm of his own head, and gathers boundless riches, not for himself, but for others whom he does not even know, and often for enemies and plotters? And well did he say:

'They shall leave their wealth to strangers.'

For what is more senseless than when these men endure the toils and the sins that come from the gathering, yet yield the enjoyment to others? Then, bringing into the midst, along with the love of money, also vainglory, he brands them with much vehemence, saying:

'They have called their lands after their own names.'

What again is more irrational than these, who entrust their memory to stones and timber and lifeless matter, and commit their own glory to them? For indeed they have overthrown whole estates, and stripped widows, and plundered orphans, so as to make a splendid house for the worm, and to build for the moth and for corruption gleaming enclosures, thinking that by these their memory would become immortal—men whose very bodies could not hold together for the least moment of time.

'This their way is a stumbling-block to them.'

What way is this, tell me? The zeal for such things, the vain toil, the great madness for money, the insatiable drunkenness of glory;

and even before the punishment to come, he says, it becomes here a stumbling-block and a hindrance to them.

No small stumbling-block, then, no small hindrance, no small obstacle is this way to the working of virtue.

Wherefore he says, 'This their way is a stumbling-block to them.'

And well did he call their way a stumbling-block to them.

They bind themselves; they shackle their own feet.

'And after these things they shall take pleasure with their mouth.'

The most grievous thing, and the cause of the rest of the evils, is this which he has said.

For those who sin in such ways, and transgress and thus play the fool, count themselves blessed, and admire themselves, and declare themselves to be objects of emulation, and are pleased with the things they do;

but consider how great an increase of wicked desire vice receives when it is praised even by those who practise it.

For if, even when reviled, even when insulted, even when reproved, even when scourged, torn, and hated by the conscience of those who are in any way sober, it yet so shamelessly flourishes and increases day by day;

then, when not only are the things that would restrain it absent—such as accusation, the reproof of conscience, the taking hold of what is done, the repenting in the midst of deeds, the sinking down in shame, the hiding of the face, the groaning, the lamenting—but the very opposite of all this occurs, and those who practise it praise themselves, and weave encomiums of themselves, and think themselves better than others in this very thing, and after the doing praise what has been done—for this is what it means, 'And after these things they shall take pleasure with their mouth'—

to what depths would they not be turned aside? For they are so deranged, so out of their senses, that even after the fulfilment of their desire—when above all they ought to be ashamed at seeing their own transgression—they exult, they hold their heads high, they are pleased with what has been done.

Before the deed is done, sin conceals its own hideousness, veiling its loathsomeness with the intoxication of pleasure;

but when it has been done, and the pleasure of the desire has withdrawn little by little, and the accusation of conscience comes upon it, scourging the reasonings when they are stripped bare,

then most of all its harmfulness becomes manifest.

But these men, not even after they have accomplished their aim, but when they see their wealth swollen high, their tombs raised up, their vain buildings completed, though then at least they ought to be pierced with remorse and to groan, these men even after this, after the work is finished, after the fulfilment, then sicken all the more grievously.

Since then what comes from themselves is gone, there follows next what comes from God.

For just as those who condemn themselves for the sins they commit, by anticipating it, ward off the sentence that comes from God, even as Paul also says,

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

so those who are incurably sick and who sin, yet do not condemn themselves for the offences they have committed, with great vehemence draw down upon themselves the punishment that comes from God.

Since then these men also, either plundering what belongs to others, or squandering their own goods in vain and to no purpose, which ought to have been spent on the poor, waste them instead on tombs, and worms, and moths, and do not repent of what has been done, but remain incurably diseased, hear what happens next.

What then happens? They are given over to the punishment that comes from God:

'Like sheep they are laid in the grave.'

Here he does not indicate by the name of sheep their gentleness, for what could be more savage than those men, who look with indifference upon the naked bodies of the poor and their bellies wasting with hunger, while they adorn houses destined for corruption, for the worm, and for the moth? but rather the ease of their destruction, their utter ruin in a sudden onset, their being an easy prey to those who plot against them.

For nothing is weaker than a man who lives together with wickedness.

This too is what these men shall suffer;

and thus they shall be cut down, thus they shall utterly perish, and shall depart into Hades easily, readily, swiftly, without effort, as sheep that are slaughtered.

This is death, or rather a thing far more grievous than death.

For after such an end an immortal death awaits them; therefore they are nowhere seen departing into Abraham's bosom, nor into any other place, but into Hades, the name of punishment, of chastisement, of utter destruction.

And their end here is cheap and contemptible, and their sojourn there is full of chastisement.

Thus it is our custom too to speak concerning those who perish easily:

'Such a one was slaughtered like a sheep.'

For since they lived like irrational beasts, they also perish like irrational beasts, having no good hope concerning the things to come;

and not this only, but also that it is unto their harm.

Here it seems to me he is speaking of death, of the destruction there, of the punishment, even as he says also in another place:

'The soul that sins, that soul shall perish;'

not signifying the abolition of its existence, but indicating the punishment.

And he continues in the metaphor of the expression.

For since he had said 'sheep,' he showed also their shepherd.

And who is this? The venomous worm, the unending darkness, the indissoluble bonds, the gnashing of teeth.

Behold them, therefore, punished on every side.

In their life, because they were hindered from virtue, because they became slaves and captives of wickedness, and toiled a superfluous and ridiculous toil;

at their end, because they perished simply and as it chanced;

in the time after their end, because they are held fast forever by destruction.

'And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.'

Since many of the grosser sort, who have advanced to the insensibility of stones, have no clear nor distinct hope concerning the things to come, but gape after the things present and the things seen, he strikes such men with awe by way of enigma.

Then, having briefly hinted at the things to come by enigma, he again transfers his discourse to the meanness and punishment which befalls them in the present life, showing their weakness, their meanness, their contemptibleness, and that even if they be rich ten thousand times over, even if they be clothed with power,

they are in the rank of slaves and bondmen to those who pursue virtue.

Therefore he says, 'The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning,' that is, quickly, continually, and they shall need neither time, nor toil, nor any delay.

For such is the nature of things, that wickedness is enslaved to virtue, and trembles at it, and is afraid, even though wickedness have ten thousand disguises and many false colourings, while virtue be naked, contending by herself alone.

'And yet we see the contrary,' someone says, 'these men prevailing over those.'

But let us not regard the error of the judgement of the multitude;

For this is the verdict of a mistaken opinion.

But let us sift out the right judgement of the matters themselves, and you will see that this account prevails.

For suppose there be some wicked master, and a good servant.

Or rather, if you will, let us carry the argument up to another and greater illustration.

Suppose there be a wicked king, and a good private man; let us see who is lord of whom, and where the marks of mastery shine forth.

Who is the one that rules, and who is the one that is ruled?

How then shall we know this? Let the king command the private man to do some wicked thing, full of transgression.

What then will the good and obedient private man do? Not only will he not yield, nor obey, but he will even try to draw the one commanding him away from his purpose, even if he must die for it.

Who then is free? The one who does what he wills, and does not even fear the king;

or the one who is despised by his own subject? And, lest we should carry the argument forward upon an indefinite example, was not the wife of Potiphar, the Egyptian woman, a queen? Did she not rule over all Egypt? Did she not have a king for her husband? Was she not clothed with great power? And what of Joseph? Was he not a slave? Was he not a captive? Was he not a purchased household servant? Did she not arm herself with all her array against the young man, not entrusting the war to another, but coming herself into the battle-line? Who then was in slavery at that time, and who in freedom? She who begged, and entreated, and supplicated, and became the captive not even of a man, but of a most wicked passion;

or the one who despised both diadem and sceptre and purple robe and all that pomp, and who beat back her devices? Did she not go away foiled, and become once more the slave of another passion, of irrational rage, of murderous fury;

while he went out bearing ten thousand crowns upon his head, and in that very slavery showing freedom shining forth all the more? Chapter 10.

For nothing is so free as virtue, and nothing so enslaved as vice.

For this reason also, in another place, someone says:

'A wise servant shall rule over foolish masters.' For just as a captive, even though he possess untold wealth, is for this very reason most of all easy prey to all;

so too the one who is taken captive by the passions is more worthless than a spider's web.

And what of war? Do we not see these prevailing? And what of affairs and counsels? Does not their word stand, even though no one obey it? And what of the things that come after? Did not the rich man, like a beggar, ask for a drop, and not obtain it? While the poor man, since he was earnest and virtuous, was he not in the greatest prosperity, having the same portion as Abraham? And what of the apostles? Were they not, though bound, scourged, and suffering ten thousand terrible things, victorious over those who did these things to them? Consider, at least, into how great a strait they cast them, so that those men said:

'What shall we do to these men?' And yet they held them bound, and seized in the midst of tribunals;

and the ones stood in the rank of judges and rulers, while the others stood in the rank of those being judged; yet nonetheless these prevailed over those.

And everywhere, if one should examine the matter with exactness, he will see the virtuous man prevailing over the wicked—with the mastery that is properly so called, not that of the many which is false, mistaken and easily refuted, but that which is fixed and immovable.

'shall grow old in Hades.'

Not only shall they be easily overcome here, with no one warding off harm, no one stretching out a hand, lying exposed to all, but—what is yet more grievous—not even there shall they have anyone to stand by them, and help them, and stretch out a hand, and console them in their punishment.

Thus, at any rate, neither were the wise virgins able to help the foolish, nor Abraham the rich man, nor Noah and Job and Daniel their sons and daughters.

For the word 'shall grow old' means 'shall become weak,' 'shall be brought to nothing';

for that which grows old and ages is near to vanishing away.

'They have been thrust out from their glory.'

That which they most of all desired, for the sake of which they did and busied themselves with all things—that they might, even after death, enjoy much glory through their riches, through their buildings, through their tombs, through the names inscribed upon the tombs;

and of this too, he says, they shall fall short—which grieved them most while they were living and learning these things.

For such buildings are accusations against those who have departed.

For even though the body be hidden in the earth, yet nonetheless the stones send forth a voice, accusing them day by day of their cruelty, of their shamelessness, proclaiming them the common enemies, drawing all who pass by ever into curses, and charges, and slanders.

What sort of glory then is this—to leave behind an accuser that does not keep silent, but through the very sight of it opens the mouths of all, and against those who built it makes a most vehement plea before all who behold and pass by? What could be equal to this folly, when men make the very things by which they are punished, by which they are put to shame, by which they are accused, by which even after death they are dug up again by many;

the very things from which come to them curses, and slanders, and ten thousand charges, both from those who were wronged and from those who were not wronged? 'Nevertheless, God shall redeem my soul from the hand of Hades, when He takes me.'

Having spoken of the wages of the wicked, the earnings of sin, he speaks also of the rewards of the good;

which is the custom of both himself and the other prophets, that they may regulate the hearer from both sides, both from the punishment of sins and from the rewards of virtue.

'The things of those, then,' he says, 'are such:'

dishonour, vain toil, folly, ridicule, shame, utter destruction, death, retribution, unceasing punishment, liability to insult, the having fallen away both from glory and from security, both while living and while dying, being slandered, being accused, finding no consolation in their evils.

But our things are wholly the opposite: release from punishment, freedom of soul, security, glory, honour.

For all these things he hinted at when he said:

'Nevertheless, God shall redeem my soul from the hand of Hades, when He takes me;'

here calling by 'Hades' the punishment, those unbearable pangs.

Consider too how great are the tokens of this honor, not by this alone, but also by what is added.

For 'when He receives me,' he says, 'then I shall see Him more clearly than now.'

For now we walk by faith, not by sight; but then face to face.

And when the soul is redeemed, the body too will share in these good things.

'Be not afraid when a man grows rich, or when the glory of his house is multiplied.'

Since these things are so, he says, why do you dread present circumstances? Why does poverty grieve you? Why do you fear the man of means? You have heard the things concerning the resurrection, and the receiving of good things, and the punishment of the wicked. Why then do you still dread mere shadows? For the abiding and firmly fixed things are those yonder;

but these things here are like flowers that wither away.

Therefore, leaving aside all the rest, he leaped upon the very citadel of evils, the desire of wealth;

for once this is cast down, the rest are also demolished along with it.

'And how,' he says, 'am I not to fear those who have such great power?' Their dominion is but for a season, their strength lasts a single hour, their prosperity passes away; riches, and wealth, and all that great honor imitate shadows and dreams.

'For when he dies he shall carry nothing away.'

'nor shall his glory descend after him;'

setting forth the reason why one should not dread the things that are but for a season.

Death has come, he says, and cut the root, and all the foliage together with the leaves has been brought down, and the house lies open to be plundered by all.

Just as sheep and goats set upon a tree that lies fallen after it is felled, so also in the case of those who are thus rich, many of their enemies, many of their friends, many of those they have benefited, are found ravaging what belonged to them;

and he who was clothed with so much, and had so many cupbearers, cooks, mixing-bowls of silver and gold, so many acres of land, houses, slaves, horses, mules, camels, whole regiments of household servants, departs alone, and no one goes away with him; nay, he departs without even taking those very garments.

For the more splendid the raiment wrapped about him, the more lavish is the banquet he goes off to prepare for the worm, and the greater the covetousness he stirs in the grave-robbers, and the greater the plot he provokes against his wretched body.

For by the very things with which he adorns himself the more, by these he contrives that he himself be the more grievously outraged, arming and summoning against himself the hands of those who dig up the tombs.

but here he vaunts greatly, and puffs himself up, right up to his death.

Yet many, indeed, do not even last until their death;

but when certain plotters have fastened upon them, they have suffered things more grievous than a thousand condemned criminals, being stripped of their goods, wrapped about with dishonor, and made to dwell in prison.

For he who yesterday rode in a chariot is today in chains;

he who yesterday was waited on by flatterers is now surrounded by executioners;

he who was fragrant with perfumes is drenched round about with blood;

he who reclined upon a soft couch is flung upon the hard ground;

he who was attended by all is despised by all.

But even until death, the trappings of his funeral are splendid and conspicuous.

And what is that to him who no longer perceives it? The stench is the greater, the loathsomeness the more, the envy the fiercer;

for even after his death there is unceasing war against his children arising from that very extravagance.

And mark the exactness of the phrase, and the intensity of its wisdom.

For he not only smites him by the fact that his wealth does not travel abroad with him, but even here he strips him of all illusion, and shows that it is not even wealth at all, not even when its possessor enjoys it.

For he did not say, 'When his glory is multiplied,' but, 'The glory of his house.'

For all these things which I have enumerated—fountains, and walks, and baths, gold and silver, horses and mules, and carpets and garments—are the glory of the house, not of the man who dwells in the house.

For the glory of a man is virtue, wherefore it also travels abroad together with its possessor.

But this other thing remains the glory of the house;