Commentary on the Psalms 38

When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became like those who are comforted.

Another translator says: When the Lord shall turn back the captivity, we shall be comforted.

The word 'captivity' is single in its utterance;

for there is also a good captivity, as when Paul says, 'Taking captive every thought unto Christ';

and there is an evil one too, as when he says:

'Leading captive silly women laden with sins.'

There is a spiritual captivity, concerning which he says:

'To proclaim release to the captives.'

There is a perceptible captivity, that which comes at the hands of enemies.

For those who take certain men by the law of war often even spare the ones they have captured;

and even if they order them to carry water, to hew wood, and make them keepers of horses, they have done no harm to their soul;

but he who is taken captive by sin acquires an unsparing and barbarous mistress, who drags him down to the most dishonourable of deeds.

For this tyranny knows not how to spare nor to show mercy.

Hear then how, having taken the wretched and miserable Judas captive, it did not spare him, but made him a sacrilegious man and a traitor; and after he had accomplished the sin, it led him into the theatre of the Jews and laid bare his transgression, and not even so did it allow him to reap the profit that comes from repentance, but led him away before repentance, bringing him to the noose.

For she is a harsh tyrant, laying down wicked commands and putting to shame those who obey.

Therefore, I beseech you, let us flee her dominion with all diligence, and let us war against her, and never make terms with her, and once set free let us abide in freedom.

For if these men, delivered from the barbarians, became like those who are comforted, much more ought we, freed from sin, to rejoice and leap for joy, and to preserve this delight undying, and not to mar it nor to defile it again by attempting the same evils.

We became like those who are comforted.

This the other translators say;

But what does 'comforted' mean? We were filled, he says, with rest, with gladness, with delight.

Then was our mouth filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation.

Then shall they say among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things to be with them.'

The Lord has done great things to be with us.

It contributes not a little toward a change for the better, to rejoice at deliverance from captivity.

And who does not rejoice at this? he says. The fathers of these men, when they were delivered from Egypt and were brought over from that bondage to freedom, out of the utmost ingratitude murmured amid the very good things themselves, were discontented, were angered, and continued in restless vexation.

but we rejoice and leap for joy.

They tell also the cause of their joy.

We rejoice, he says, not only because of the deliverance from our troubles, but also because from this all men shall know God's providence toward us.

For then, he says, shall they say among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things to be with them.'

The Lord has done great things to be with us.

The repetition is not set down without purpose, but for the sake of showing forth the great joy that they had.

For the one is the utterance of the nations, and the other again is their own.

but by the word 'He has done great things' they wish to set forth the marvel, full of wonder, through the very naming of the act of magnifying.

Do you see, that what I have continually been saying, that through this nation the whole world was being instructed, both when they were led away and when they were brought back? For their return became instead of a herald.

For indeed the report of them went about everywhere, making manifest to all the loving-kindness of God;

seeing that the wonders which had come to pass concerning them were, in very truth, great and marvellous.

For Cyrus himself, who held them captive, let them go, though no one requested it, but because God had softened that man's mind;

and he did not simply let them go, but also with gifts and presents.

'Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the torrents in the south.'

How is it that, beginning the psalm, he said, 'When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,'

but here he says, 'Turn again'? As one discoursing concerning what is yet to come.

For the other translator especially leads us to this, in that he did not say, 'When he turned again,'

since the matter was then only receiving its beginning, and the whole was not accomplished at the outset, but there were many stages of their return;

for there came about a first, and a second, and a third.

Or else it is that he prays for the deliverance to become complete.

For indeed many of the Jews desired to remain behind in the land of the barbarians;

wherefore, longing for this to come to pass with earnestness, he says:

'Turn again our captivity, as the torrents in the south';

that is to say, with much rushing force, with much vehemence thrusting and pressing onward.

Wherefore another translator also, setting forth this very thing, said, 'As the downpourings.'

Another, 'As the channels.' Another, 'As the outflowings.'

'They that sow in tears shall reap in exultation.'

This was indeed spoken concerning the Jews, but it might well find place to be said in many other cases also.

It has splendid recompenses for the labours;

and we must first toil and endure hardship, and then seek repose.

For one might see this coming to pass everywhere, even in the affairs of daily life.

For this very reason he too led his discourse to these things, I mean to sowing and to harvest.

For just as the sower has need of toil, and of hardship, and of sweat, and of winter's storm;

so too does he who pursues virtue.

For nothing is so unsuited to ease as man.

For this very reason God made the way strait and afflicted.

Nay rather, not only the things of virtue, but also the affairs of daily life he rendered laborious, and these far more so.

For both the sower, and the builder, the traveller, the woodcutter, the craftsman, every man, if he is to reap anything useful, has need of toil and of hardship;

and just as the seeds have need of rains, so we have need of tears;

and just as the earth has need to be cut and broken up, so also the soul, in place of the mattock, has need of trials and afflictions, that it may not bear evil weeds, that its hardness may be softened, that it may not run wild.

For indeed the land also, if it be not worked with much care, brings forth nothing sound.

What the Prophet says, then, is this:

that we ought not to rejoice only over the return, but also over the captivity, and to give thanks to God for both.

'Just as, then, those who sow,' he says, 'though they labour, afterward enjoy the produce;'

'so also you, when you were departing, imitated the sowers, being afflicted, buffeted, oppressed, bearing the winter's storm, the war, the gloom of clouds, the frost, pouring out tears.'

For what the rain is to the seeds, that are tears to those in affliction.

'But behold,' he says, 'you have received the recompense of those labours.'

'They went forth going and weeping, casting their seeds; but coming they shall come in exultation, bearing their sheaves.'

He is not discoursing about grain, but about affairs of life, teaching the hearer not to be dismayed in afflictions.

For just as the sower does not grow weary, even though his burdens be many, because he keeps his eyes fixed on the fields waving with grain;

so too the one who is afflicted ought not to be discouraged, even though his sorrows be many, since he awaits the harvest and considers the profit that comes from the affliction.

Knowing these things, then, let us also give thanks to the Master both for affliction and for relief.

For even though the things that happen are diverse, yet each one looks toward one and the same end, just as the sowing and the harvest do;

and let us bear our afflictions nobly and with thanksgiving, and our seasons of relief with the giving of glory;

so that we may also attain the good things

that are to come, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages.