Commentary on the Psalms 49

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

Great was the longing of these men for their city, great their yearning for the return.

For so long as they had their good things in hand, they continued being coy and behaving insolently;

but when they were cast out of them, then at last they were brought into a state of desire.

For it was on this very account that He cast them out, in order to raise them up to a greater longing.

And this God is wont to do in many places.

For whenever, while luxuriating in His good things, we fail to perceive them, He sets us in a wilderness bereft of them, so that, chastened by the deprivation, we may seek again the enjoyment of them.

But wherefore did they sit by the rivers? Inasmuch as they were captives, and had been taken from a hostile land, they were quartered outside the walls and the cities.

Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our instruments.

And wherefore did they carry their instruments with them as they departed into captivity, when they were not going to use them? This too was ordered by God, so that even in a foreign land they might have reminders of their former polity, and might be the more stung as they beheld the symbols of that worship.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us words of songs;

Sing us a hymn from the songs of Zion.

No small profit did they gain even from this, from the barbarians pressing upon them and desiring to hear the songs that came from them.

And behold from this also how great an amendment they received from the captivity.

For those who had danced away and leapt aside from their own worship, and in every way had trodden down the ordinances, employed such exactness in the foreign land, that even with the barbarians pressing upon them and threatening and hemming them in on every side and desiring to hear, not even so did they gratify their desire, but rather preferred the Law and kept it with exactness.

But as for the phrase 「they that led us away,」 another rendered it 「they that vaunted over us,」 all but declaring this:

Those who before this trampled upon us and rose up against us have become in time so mild and gentle and tame, as even to desire to hear our songs.

But nevertheless these men did not yield.

Do you see how tribulation makes men strong? how it makes them contrite? how it breaks the mind? For indeed they wept, and kept the Law; and those who, while the prophets wept, laughed and made a mockery and scoffed, these now, with no one to remind them, turned themselves to tears and lamented.

From this the enemies also gained great things.

For indeed they saw them not weighed down by the captivity, nor bewailing their servitude, nor their sojourn in a foreign land, but the falling away from their own worship.

When we remembered Zion.

For indeed they do not lament in a chance way, but they make this their very task.

Therefore also at the beginning he said, 「We sat down, and we wept,」 that is to say, for this reason we sat together in company, so as to stir up laments and wailings.

But wherefore was it not permitted to sing in the foreign land? Because profane ears ought not to hear those ineffable things.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? That is to say, it is not permitted to us to sing.

For even though we have fallen away from our fatherland, yet we abide keeping the Law, and guarding the exactness of it.

So that, even if you have mastery over our bodies, you shall not prevail over our resolve.

Do you see a soul becoming a lover of wisdom through tribulation, and lifted higher than its terrors? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.

Let my tongue cleave to my throat.

Behold from this also how great the change.

For indeed those who, hearing day by day that they would fall from the city, took no thought of it, now imprecate curses upon themselves, if they should forget her.

But what is the meaning of, 「Let my right hand be forgotten」? My strength, he says, my power, let it forget me, and let me become voiceless from the magnitude of my woes, 「If I do not remember thee」;

if I set not Jerusalem before me as at the beginning of my joy.

What is the meaning of, 「If I set not Jerusalem before me」? I will not merely remember thee, he says, among other things, but also in my hymns, and in my songs.

The phrase 'Let me set it forth beforehand' means 'Let me strike up a prelude.'

For they utter the word of those who yearn exceedingly, or rather of those who love passionately and are aflame with desire for her.

Let us all give ear to these things, and let us be instructed.

For just as these men, once they had been cast out, then began to seek after her,

so also many among us will suffer this very thing on that Day, when we are cast out of the Jerusalem which is above.

But these men, when they were cast out, still had hopes of return; whereas for us, once we have been cast out, there is no returning again.

For 'their worm shall not die,' He says, 'and their fire shall not be quenched.'

Therefore we must attend more carefully to our own affairs, and so order our present life that we may not become captives, nor strangers, nor foreigners to that mother-city.

'Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem;'

'those who said, Rase it, rase it, even to its very foundations.'

And this word too belongs to those who are aflame with love for the city.

And what they mean is this:

'Exact justice from those who were not willing to hold back until the city was captured, nor to be satisfied with its overthrow, but who stood over it and said:'

'Raze it, until not a foundation-stone be left in her.'

For they desired that not even the very substructures of the city should remain, but that even her foundations should be torn up.

These were the Arabians, who at that time joined with the Babylonians in attacking the Jews, whom the prophet also continually mentions and severely accuses, because, though bound to them by a just kinship, they proved more bitter than the enemies themselves.

'O daughter of Babylon, the wretched one'—

Another version reads, 'She that shall be plundered.'

Here, showing the might of God—not in the deliverance from evils, but even in the very plotting of those who made war—the prophet foretells the calamities that shall befall Babylon, and calls her wretched on account of the evils that shall overtake her; and in this too he instructs the Jews, showing that the power of God is stretched out over every part of the earth.

'Blessed is he that shall repay you your recompense, which you have repaid to us.'

Another version reads, 'Which you did to us beforehand.'

'Blessed is he that shall seize and dash your little ones against the rock.'

Even though these words are full of much wrath and of much chastisement and vengeance, nevertheless they are the utterances of the suffering of those who had been led captive, who demand a great vengeance and some strange and extraordinary punishment.

For the prophets often speak not from themselves, but recounting the sufferings of others and setting them forth in the midst.

For if you seek his own mind, you will hear him saying, 'If

I have repaid evil to those who repaid me,' and if he went beyond the measure allotted to him by the laws.

But when he recounts the sufferings of others, he depicts their wrath, their anguish;

which very thing he has now done also, bringing into the midst the desire of the Jews, who extended their anger even to those of tender age.

But the things of the New Testament are not of this kind;

rather, we are commanded even to give drink to and to nourish our enemies, and to pray for those who spitefully use us.

And this we do because of the ordained legislation.

And what is this legislation? 'For unless your righteousness exceed,' He says, 'that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.'

Let us therefore display great earnestness, and keep every commandment with abundance, seeing that henceforth we live as citizens of heaven upon earth, and dance in company with angels.

For thus shall we also attain the good things that are to come;

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