Commentary on the Psalms 48

Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures unto the age.

Having spoken above of the beneficence of God shown toward men, he now discourses also concerning the greatness of his mercy, not measuring it—for that is not possible—but wishing to set forth its magnitude by that which is boundless; and he calls upon all to give glory, summoning them and saying:

For his mercy endures unto the age.

But what does 'unto the age' mean? It means, he says, that he does not at one time do good and at another withdraw, nor at one time show mercy and at another cease—which is what happens in the case of men, who are hindered by suffering, cut short by poverty, impeded by illness, and not permitted by the pressure of circumstances;

but God is not such; rather, he shows mercy continually, and never ceases from doing this, even though he accomplishes it in diverse and manifold ways.

Ever, therefore, he shows mercy, and never stays from doing good to men.

Then, having said that he shows mercy without ceasing, he displays also the proofs of that mercy, and of the fact that his mercy abides perpetually, drawing his demonstration from the things that are seen:

and since he was leading them by the hand toward godliness, observe how again he directs his words against the gods of the Greeks, once more employing that same condescension.

For what does he say? Give thanks to the God of gods, adding after each one, 'For his mercy endures unto the age.'

Now in the former psalm he said that he is above all the gods;

but here he says yet more—that he is even their Lord and their Master, whether you speak of the idols or of the demons.

For even though the demons are dishonored and have given offense, yet they are slaves and are subject to him.

For this reason, therefore, give thanks, he says, because you have a God who is above all, to whom none is like, the Master of all, the Lord of all.

And yet he is called the God of those who are well-pleasing to him, as when he says:

I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

How then does he here say that he is God of the demons? But that is meant in one sense, and this in another.

For there it was that he might set forth his intimacy with them, and his great love toward them;

but here it is that he might make known his supremacy.

To him who alone does great wonders;

for his mercy endures unto the age.

Since he had declared that he is Lord of the gods, and Master, he now furnishes the proof for that declaration, and establishes what was said, again proclaiming him from his power.

And he did not say, 'To him who has made,' but 'To him who makes,' showing him to be continually doing good, and working wonders, and accomplishing marvelous things.

And he sets down these two things as his special prerogatives: that he acts, and that he alone acts;

or rather three things, and four;

for both that he acts, and that he works wonders, and great wonders, and that he alone works them.

But these things are said not to set aside the Son, but in contrast to the demons.

And let us see what these wonders are, the great ones, which he alone works.

And yet, at the outset, he did not discourse to us about power, but about lovingkindness and goodness.

For he says, 'Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.'

How then does he here fall into the discourse about power in what follows? Because these wonders are not of power only, but also of lovingkindness.

And showing what the wonders are, he goes on to say:

'To him that made the heavens in understanding; to him that established the earth upon the waters.'

Another version: 'To him that pressed the earth firm beside the waters; to him that alone made great lights, the sun for authority over the day, the moon and the stars for authority over the night.'

These things, even though they display his power and his wisdom, nevertheless also reveal his great lovingkindness.

For their coming to be so great, and beautiful, and enduring, proclaims his strength and his wisdom;

but their coming to be for our sake, and for our need, proclaims his lovingkindness and his unceasing goodness.

Do you see how his mercy endures for ever? For he made them not for ten and twenty years, nor for a hundred, and two hundred, and a thousand, but he extended them through the whole of our life.

Therefore, to make this plain also, he adds in each verse, 'For his mercy endures for ever.'

And what is truly astounding: that he both made and gave them from the beginning when they came to be;

yet when man transgressed, not even then did he cast him out;

but the very things he had given him when he had not sinned, in these he allowed him to dwell even after the sin, and

did not hinder his use of them after that sin.

And he made not one heaven only, but also another, showing from the very outset that he does not leave us upon the earth, but will translate us thither.

For if he were not going to translate us thither, for what purpose was even a heaven brought forth? For surely this element was of no use to him;

but, willing to translate thither those who are from the earth, he prepared the dwelling-places.

Wherefore the Prophet also, knowing these things, adds to each, 'His mercy endures for ever,' being amazed at his lovingkindness.

'To him that established the earth upon the waters.'

Behold again here too the lovingkindness.

For since we became mortal, and were placed amid many needs, not even so did he forsake us, but even here he has given us a fitting lodging-place for the intervening time, and he has filled the earth with so many tokens of his lovingkindness that it cannot even be set forth in words.

The prophet at any rate, having plunged into the abyss of these benefits, and having beheld the boundless sea, sprang back, crying aloud and saying:

'How are thy works magnified, O Lord!'

And if one should look upon the sun, and the moon, and the ordering of the seasons, he will again behold all his lovingkindness.

For not in a small measure do these elements contribute to the good order of life, and to life itself, nourishing us, ripening the fruits without which it was not possible to live, marking out the seasons for us, characterizing the hours, distinguishing the courses of day and night, guiding travellers of land and sea, and furnishing ten thousand other services.

Have you seen how his mercy endures for ever, and how the Prophet adds this to each of the verses? Another interpreter, instead of 'for authority over the day,' said 'to prevail over the day.'

Another: 'for authority in the night.'

'To him that smote Egypt with their firstborn;'

'and that brought Israel out from the midst of them.'

'With a mighty hand, and with a lifted arm.'

He continually recurs to the wonder that took place in Egypt, because of their great ingratitude, and because they were forever hearing of these things and forgetting them.

And no small sign of mercy is this also;

for this delivered those men from captivity, from slavery, and became for those who came after an occasion for the knowledge of God.

And here he hints at yet another thing.

And what was this? That even after that plague, it was a work of His own power to deliver them from bondage, when He had shaken them with fear and drowned them in the sea.

He says this so that none of the more foolish sort might suppose that, when He commanded them to take the gold and the silver vessels, He commanded it out of weakness.

For indeed He did this too because He willed to be in every way terrible to His enemies, and to show that both by power and with authority He is able to accomplish all things, both to deceive them and to outwit them.

For the things He did openly, He did not do them on the ground that He was unable to deceive;

and the things He did by deceiving, He did not do them on the ground that He was unable to take them openly, but in each of the two ways He was displaying His own strength.

That this too instilled great fear into the foreigners, hear what the soothsayers of the Ashdodites say afterward:

'This is the harsh God who smote Egypt, and when He had mocked them, then He led them out.'

Do you see how, on this very account, they tremble before Him—because of the theft, because of the deception, because they made use of them? 'To Him who divided the Red Sea into parts.'

For some say that there did not come to be a single road, but that at each tribe the water was cleft, so that many crossings were made.

But all these things, though they displayed great strength and made Him appear terrible and great, nevertheless also possessed great lovingkindness—not only toward those who enjoyed His benefits, but, had they been willing to give heed, toward His adversaries as well.

For He did not simply drown them,

but only after so great a display of wonders, when they willed to make their reckless assault upon the waters;

for they ought—even had they been more senseless than all men—by considering both the former things and those now present and before their very eyes, to have been astonished at His strength, and to have worshipped, and to have ceased from their untimely contentiousness.

But they, seeing the whole creation transformed according to His will and warring against them, not even so left off from their madness, but even while beholding that paradoxical wonder, dared to venture upon that strange and novel journey.

Therefore the deep also becomes a tomb for them;

for what came to pass was not a work of nature, but of a divinely-sent stroke;

for this very reason, in a brief moment of time it wrought opposite effects;

and it was not cleft into one part only, but according to the number of all the tribes.

And at each of the signs he makes mention of mercy, because this above all was of earnest concern to God—that, since the wonders came about through the elements, the things that happened might not be reckoned to belong to some natural sequence, but to the inclination from on high which works the wonders in a paradoxical way.

This very thing also came to pass in the case of the sea, and it became manifest—not from its happening then, but from its no longer happening after that;

whereas, on the contrary, the things that happen naturally are wont to be accomplished continuously and frequently and in due season.

'And to Him who led Israel through the midst of it;'

'for His mercy endures forever.'

Do you see how justly he says at each verse, 'For His mercy endures forever'? For all these things were displaying His unbroken watchful care.

For though the events had their end, yet the memorials of them furnished those who came after with abundant ground for the knowledge of God.

For indeed, being handed down in memory to their descendants, they led them by the hand to much love of wisdom.

And besides, it was not the case that those things alone were done and God's watchful care then ceased, nor did the deeds of His lovingkindness halt at the Egyptian events; but every season and all time have, stretched out through them, the tokens of His unspeakable lovingkindness.

For which reason he too, being astonished, continually adds, 'For His mercy endures forever.'

And rightly did he add, 'To Him who led Israel through the midst of it;'

since this too belonged to the power of God.

For it was not enough that the sea receded and made the passage easy for them;

but rather this very thing would most of all have astonished them and frightened them and kept them back from daring, by instilling much cowardice through its paradoxical character;

but it belonged to the power of God that even after the withdrawal of the sea He instilled courage into them and persuaded them to cross that new and strange road.

For indeed, with the waters heaped up on either side, they needed a lofty and noble soul, so as not to fear the crossing, nor to suspect that the deeps, being heaped up on either hand, would come upon them and drown the whole army.

'And who shook off Pharaoh and his host into the Red Sea.'

Wishing to show the ease of the drowning, he made use of this expression.

But do you consider how, together with His power and His indignation, He also displayed His long-suffering, in that He did not destroy them beforehand—although they were so shamelessly and contentiously disposed—until, of their own accord, carrying themselves along, they willingly cast themselves down headlong.

Nor is the army punished without cause;

but since they shared in the sins and took part in the pursuit, they share also in the punishment and the retribution.

'To Him who led His people through the wilderness;'

For His mercy endures forever.

This was no less a wonder than leading them through the sea.

For even though there lay dry ground beneath them, able to bear the encampment, nevertheless there were many other things that afflicted them.

For all these things were sufficient to consume them and to hand them over to a most grievous death: famine, and drought, and thirst, and a sunbeam pressing upon them hotter than was fitting, and

multitudes of wild beasts, and the utter lack of all necessities.

And you know how many things a man requires.

And yet, though stripped of all those things, having neither shelter, nor food, nor sufficient clothing, nor sandals, nor anything else of the kind, they walked through all that wilderness as though dancing in the midst of cities.

But consider for me how many wonders that took place in the wilderness he passed over, and the leadership of a people through so many years;

and he mentions only two wonders, those which came to pass in the days of those kings.

For passing over the mention of that strange table, the marvelous covering, the lamp that was never seen to fail, the durability of their garments, the sandals that never wore out, the springs from the rocks, and the other new and marvelous things by which He made their journey easy for them, he mentions only two: how He destroyed the kings of the barbarians, and how He set up the trophy of victory and granted them the triumph, leaving the rest to the hearer to recount with exactness.

To Him who smote great kings,

and slew mighty kings:

Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan.

And upon each of these he adds, 'For His mercy endures forever,' showing that even though enemies succeeded enemies against them, yet no one overpowered them.

Why so? Because they continually enjoyed His lovingkindness.

For this is what he hints at when he says repeatedly, 'For His mercy endures forever.'

And gave their land for an inheritance, an inheritance to Israel His servant.

The benefaction is twofold: both to prevail over the enemies, and to become masters of what was theirs.

For this too was a matter of great power: not merely to cast out the inhabitants, but also to be able to take possession of and to prevail over another's land.

Then again, showing this more plainly—that they became lords of these things not by their own worthiness, but solely by His goodness—he added:

For in our low estate the Lord remembered us;

making clear that it was not in our right deeds, nor in our prosperity, but in our low estate,

our calamity was enough to bend Him toward us, and our suffering of evil.

Since even from the beginning, when He was delivering them out of Egypt, He did not say, 'Seeing I have seen their advancement toward the better';

but, 'Seeing I have seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt.'

And He redeemed us from our enemies.

So that he might not recount one by one the wars, the assaults, the victories, the trophies, again passing over a whole string of achievements in a single phrase, and leaving aside the particular things done for the Jews, he comes to His universal providence, saying:

He who gives food to all flesh.

Therefore the yield of the fruits belongs neither to the earth, nor to the waters, nor to the winds, nor to the sunbeam, nor to anything else, but the whole is His.

And observe here too not only His power, but also His unspeakable lovingkindness.

For what Christ says—'He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust'—

this same thing he too hinted at here, saying:

He who gives food to all flesh;

that is, not to the righteous, nor only to those who do well, but also to sinners and to the ungodly, and to the whole nature of mankind;

which most of all proclaims His lordship.

Do you see that for this very reason the psalm was composed—so as to lead us by the hand to the knowledge of God? For this reason indeed, both when beginning he began from things universal, and when ending he came to a close in these same things;

for above he spoke of the sun and moon, and lightnings and rains, which come not upon a part only of the inhabited world;

and at the end he ended with the food common to all.

Then, having established from these things the universal providence, he added:

Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His mercy endures forever.

For from these things that also is plain, that He is Master of all things, both the things above and the things below, and that everywhere the works of His providence

and of His tender care are stretched out on every side.

Let us therefore offer up thanksgiving to Him for all things, for the blessings common to all and for those that are our own, for His goodness, for His love toward mankind, for His power, for His tender care; and let us continue doing this without ceasing, even as the Psalmist also says, 「Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever.」

For this is a sacrifice, this is an offering; this above all things renders Him gracious to us, and makes us to enjoy His good will:

which may it be granted to us all to obtain, by the grace and love toward mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of ages.