Commentary on the Psalms 4 part 3/3

And he calls the arrows instruments of death.

Just as the instruments of farming are the things that accomplish farming;

and the instruments of sailing are the things that equip us to sail;

and the instruments of weaving are the things that make weaving possible;

so also the instruments of death are the things that work death.

Then, interpreting what the instruments of death are, he adds, 'His arrows,' showing the swiftness of the punishment, whenever He wills it.

But what does 'for those who are burned' mean? It means those who are being punished, those who are being chastised.

Then is the fire not enough, but arrows too are needed? You see that everything is spoken metaphorically and vividly, and in such a way that through all these things fear may be increased? For what he says is of this sort:

He has prepared the punishments for those who are about to be punished.

But had he not spoken thus, he would not have struck with such force.

Yet now, by making mention of arrows, and sword, and bow, and the releasing and drawing of the string, and the instruments of death and of burning, by the variety of the terms he has heightened the anguish.

Then, again consoling the fear, he added, 'for those who are burned.'

For lest any of the more foolish should suppose that he is bringing his hand against all men and has armed himself against all, he added, 'for those who are burned.'

This is what Paul also hints at when he speaks concerning the ruler:

'For he does not bear the sword in vain.'

But if in the case of rulers the sword accomplishes this and instills fear, how much more in the case of God.

And this too is a mark of no ordinary love for mankind: to instill fear through words and to magnify the punishment, so that one may not come to the actual experience of these things.

For this reason he stretched the bow, for this reason he made ready, for this reason he set the arrows in place, for this reason he prepares himself for the punishment: that he might not come to the punishment.

And he magnifies the discourse: by the word 'he will make it flash' displaying the vehemence and the sharpness of the punishment;

by 'he stretched it,' the nearness;

by 'he prepared,' that it will surely come to pass unless they change;

and by 'for those who are burned,' pointing out those who are liable, so that being instructed through all these things they may restrain their wickedness.

But if these things came from wrath and anger, he would not have forewarned those upon whom he was about to lay his hand.

For wrath does not permit this;

but on the contrary it does the opposite, and most of all when it is at length at its very height, and in the chastisement, and in the making ready of the punishment.

At any rate, enemies, even when they wish to bring on the punishment, not only do not announce it, but even attack in concealment, so that those who are about to be punished may not learn of it and guard themselves.

But God is not like this; on the contrary, he does the very opposite of all this:

he foretells, and he defers, and he strikes fear through words, and does everything so as not to bring on the things he threatens.

This he did also in the case of the Ninevites.

For there too he stretched the bow, and made the sword flash, and prepared the arrows, and yet did not bring on the blow.

Or does it not seem to you that the words of the prophet were a bow and an arrow and a whetted sword, when he says:

'Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown'? But he did not let the arrow fly;

for it had not been made ready in order to be released, but in order to be held in reserve.

For soldiers arm themselves for this purpose, that they may punish;

but God is not so; rather, having by fear made men more temperate, he holds back the hand of punishment.

For the fear that comes through words is a mark of great love for mankind; and the more terrifying the things he says, the more it is out of much gentleness that he utters them.

Since fathers too, when they do not wish to punish their children, dispel their anger through words;

so he too, since he does not wish to punish, magnifies the fear through words.

He says that he has prepared hell also, in order that he may not cast into hell;

and for this very reason many sayings about punishment are laid up in the Gospels, more indeed than those about the kingdom.

For since in the case of the more insensible the promise of good things does not so much draw them toward virtue and lead them away from vice as does the fear of painful things,

for this reason he dwells more upon these things, and sets them forth continually.

Let us not therefore grieve when we hear burdensome words;

but reflecting on both his long-suffering and his righteous judgment, let us neither despair of salvation;

here indeed displaying his great long-suffering, but there handing over to the experience of chastisement those who have not profited from it here;

and in order that this may not happen, let us here and now ward off the punishment.

But the Hebrew, instead of 'He travailed,' has 'Jebal, He conceived trouble.'

He dug a pit, and hollowed it out, and shall fall into the ditch which he made.

Another version: 'Into the destruction which he wrought.'

He said that God stands ready for punishment;

he said that He lets loose the chastisements.

By this he brought the hearer to sobriety, holding suspended over him the wrath from on high.

He instructs him further from the very facts as well, showing that even before the punishment the wickedness itself is a chastisement.

This very thing Paul too indicated when he said:

'And receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was fitting.'

And he brings into their midst those who have suffered the utmost from their wickedness. For since the greater part of the more dull-witted are then especially brought to their senses, when they see those who have suffered,

for this reason he sets them too before their eyes.

So too Christ does: having discoursed much concerning hell, He also brings into their midst those who are cast there;

as, for instance, the rich man in the account of Lazarus, the foolish virgins, and the one who buried his single talent;

and, in the present life, those who were buried under the tower, and those whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices.

So too Peter, having discoursed much concerning hell, then most of all struck them, when he brought before their eyes those who had been chastised, and displayed before their sight the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira;

which very thing Paul also did in the case of the sorcerer.

And in yet another way he establishes such a point, when he calls to mind those in the wilderness, speaking thus:

'I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and were all baptized into Moses, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink;'

'but with the greater part of them God was not well pleased, but they perished and were overthrown.'

For since he was discoursing of things to come—I mean hell, and chastisement, and punishment—he draws his demonstration of those things from things past, bringing into their midst the very ones who had been chastised: those destroyed by the serpents, and those destroyed by the destroyer.

This very thing David also does here, whether he is speaking concerning Ahithophel or concerning Absalom.

Some, then, say that it was spoken concerning Ahithophel.

For it would not have belonged to the same man to say, 'Spare me the young man Absalom';

and after the calamity, 'Who would grant me to die instead of you?'—and yet now be saying these things.

But those words he spoke while held fast by nature;

while now, having become inspired by the Spirit, he speaks otherwise.

Nevertheless, whether it was said concerning Absalom or concerning Ahithophel, we must consider the things that were said;

for the matter of the persons is of no great concern to me.

What, then, do we learn from this? He shows that the one who digs a pit for his neighbour shall fall into it himself;

and just as women in labour are torn asunder by their birth-pangs, so too the one who works deceit, before ever he wrongs his neighbour, is himself torn asunder and racked with pain—and not casually so, but with great bitterness.

Therefore also, wishing to set forth the bitterness of the anguish, he called the matter a travail-pang.

For wherever Scripture wishes to indicate to us some unbearable anguish, it depicts it by the name of travail.

Wherefore also elsewhere it says, 'Pangs seized upon the inhabitants of Philistia'—that is, fear, trembling, toil, anguish.

And, 'When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child.'

Here he hints at two things: both the unbearableness and the unexpectedness.

'For the pang has come upon her who is bringing forth, but she has no strength to bring forth'—indicating his unbearable fear and toil by means of the travail.

Even so, indeed, does the prophet here also.

For even though a man be ten thousand times wicked, the tribunal of conscience is not corrupted;

for it is natural, and implanted in us from the beginning by God.

Even if we contend ten thousand times, that faculty stands over us, crying out aloud, chastising, condemning; and there is no one among those who live in wickedness who does not endure countless anguish, both while planning evil and while carrying out his plan into deed.

For what was more wicked than Ahab? Yet even he, when he coveted the vineyard, consider how great an anguish he endured.

Though he was a king, and ruled over all, and had none to gainsay him, yet because he could not bear the verdict of his own conscience, he came in downcast, bowed low, confounded, bearing a thick gloom upon his countenance, proclaiming upon his face the reproof of the condemnation that came from his conscience, and unable to conceal the anguish that had arisen in him from his despondency.

In this way, then, he was also convicted through his wife.

The traitor, moreover, who had run aground upon so great a wickedness, since he could not endure the anguish that came from the tribunal of his conscience, both fastened a noose and thus put an end to his life.

Just as, then, the man who is in wickedness suffers so many things, so the man who is in virtue enjoys calm and an untroubled mind.

If someone should wish to take vengeance on another, or to begin unjust acts of violence, see how many things ensue.

He is filled with rage, he is torn apart by wrath, he stirs up ten thousand waves of calculations, he goes down ten thousand roads; fear comes upon him, and agony and trembling, while the rage rends him and the fear shakes him to pieces, as to how he may succeed, how he may carry it through.

and before the one who is to be wronged suffers anything, he destroys himself.

But the man who has cast out his anger is delivered from all these things;

for of this he himself is master, and he has brought the whole matter to completion;

but of that other course he is no longer master, but there is need besides of an occasion, and of a place, and of guile, and of villainy, and of weapons, and of contrivances, and of collisions, and of flattery, and of servility, and of hypocrisy.

Do you see how easy is virtue, but how difficult is vice? How the one is free from turmoil, but the other is full of tumults? Sketching this out, then, the Prophet said:

'Behold, he travailed with injustice; he conceived toil, and brought forth iniquity.'

From this it is shown that injustice is not according to nature for us, but is something alien.

Therefore it also weighs us down, and until we are rid of it, it surrounds us with birth-pangs.

Since the embryo also, so long as it is being brought to completion, lies in the womb according to nature;

and for this reason it both remains there and causes no pain.

But after it has been completed, if it remains within, the lingering is contrary to nature;

whence also birth-pangs come to be.

Wherefore nature, being distressed, forces it out, inasmuch as it has done the whole work and brought it to completion, and can no longer bear it.

But there, first conception takes place, and then the birth-pang;

here, however, he first travailed, and then conceived and brought forth.

What, then, is one to say? That there, the birth-pang comes at the time of the delivery, but here the birth-pang is present from the very beginning.

For no sooner has a man plotted something wicked, and before he has fixed it firmly in his mind, than there is tumult and confusion within his mind.

For in the case of a woman, the seed once cast down is itself also formed into the composition of the child that is being born;

but in the case of those who stitch together deceits, today this thought is cast down, and again tomorrow another;

and there are ten thousand castings-down of these wicked matters, and every single day conceivings and birth-pangs that corrupt the mind which gives birth to them.

For the delivery is not such as in the case of women;

but just as in the case of vipers, the young come forth tearing apart the womb and rending the sides;

so also it is in the case of deceits and of injustice.

But even if we should contend ten thousand times over, we shall not be able to set before you in words the pain which the wicked endure.

But the wicked man alone shall drink up his own evils.

For what is more grievous and more painful than the man who is envious, who plots against others, who covets what belongs to others? More cruelly than any executioner do these passions tear the soul to shreds.

So that it was fitting that he called such calculations birth-pangs.

But just as women give birth from intercourse, and if their bodies be sound, such fittingly are also the offspring;

but if they be corrupted, the child imitates the nature of its parents;

so also is it in the case of thoughts.

And if you consort with good ones, such also will the offspring be;

but if with wicked ones, and you do not take heed, you will receive from thence great harm.

Hear, then, what the prophet says:

'From fear of You we conceived in the womb, and we travailed, and brought forth the spirit of salvation.'

But concerning those things that come from the devil:

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

Let us therefore flee the wicked.

For how is it not absurd that, when one may both conceive and give birth from the commandments of God, a man should be unwilling, but should instead pursue fellowship with the wicked—doing the very same thing as a woman who, having it in her power to be joined to a king, will not endure it, but chooses in his stead to take a robber and a house-breaker as her companion? 'He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, and he shall fall into the ditch which he has made.'

Again he employs metaphors: just as through the image of travail he indicates the pain, so through that of the pit he shows how difficult it is to escape.

'And he shall fall into the ditch which he has made.'

'He who digs a pit for his neighbour shall fall into it.'

And this too belongs to the loving-kindness of God, namely,

that He has so ordered nature together with the plot itself, that the nets are turned back upon those who lay them, so that even from this they may desist from their strife and scheming against their neighbour.

This also happened in the case of Moses.

For the one who was about to be destroyed was preserved;

but Pharaoh, by the very way which he contrived against the children, perished through it.

For having commanded that the infants be destroyed, he compelled the mother of Moses out of fear to cast out the babe;

and Pharaoh's daughter, taking up the ark from the river and finding the babe, reared him; and when he had grown up, that very one destroyed them all.

From this the ingenious contrivance of God shines forth most brightly, and there is great chastening for the wicked, and delight for those who escape.

So also it happened in the case of the all-noble Joseph.

For his brothers, having cast him into slavery, suffered what they suffered; and him they harmed not at all, but rather even benefited;

but they themselves endured that tragedy.

And though one might tell many such things, consider the matter also in other cases.

Did someone take advantage of another through greed? He destroyed himself.

For the one defrauded he has often even benefited, but his own soul he has betrayed.

Did someone do wrong? He has pierced himself through with the sword.

For it is not to suffer wrong, but to do wrong, that is most of all to suffer wrong.

For this reason Paul also exhorted men rather to suffer wrong, and not to do wrong;

and Christ, to be struck and not to strike back, but even to offer oneself up to suffering.

This is the mark of greatest strength; this works endurance; this makes the soul strong; this raises one above the passions.

For the one who wrongs another, whether by striking or by insulting, is himself first overpowered by passion and taken captive, and only then does he seem to wrong his neighbour;

but he himself has suffered more grievously, having served the utmost slavery.

'His trouble shall return upon his own head, and upon his own crown his unrighteousness shall descend.'

And they say that these things were spoken concerning Ahithophel and concerning Absalom;

for the head of each of them came down to punishment.

For the one, having made use of the noose, thus put an end to his life;

while the other, coming under the tree and being caught up by his hair, hung there a long time.

So also Judas put an end to his life by a noose, knowing that he had done all things to the harm of his own head.

And Ahithophel, perceiving that David would surely prevail, went off and hanged himself;

and Absalom, against his will, hung suspended, and was not immediately slain, but as though in a court of judgment he was first hoisted up and nailed to the tree;

and while God brought down His verdict from above, he hung there a long time, scourged thereafter by his own conscience.

For he himself had desired to dip his right hand in his father's throat;

but his father, even so, exhorted the soldiers to spare him.

And so what was said was not a matter of vainglory, namely, that even after death he mourns for him.

And that you may learn that what came to pass was no matter of human contrivance, but that the whole judgment was divine, it was hairs and a tree that bound him, and an unreasoning beast that gave him up; and in place of a rope his own locks served, in place of a gibbet the tree became one, and instead of a soldier the mule brought him to it.

When he had suffered these things, none of his own men dared to approach and take him down, though so much leisure was granted them.

And this too God arranged, that he should neither be taken down nor be carried back bound to his father, since the father's bowels of compassion displayed a tenderness beyond all measure.

And what is yet more marvellous, that the very one who had reconciled the father to him was the one who slew him, standing over him almost as a vehement accuser.

But while this man was the one who slew him, it was God who passed the sentence.

For that the verdict was brought down from above, hear how he sets forth this very thing.

For having said, 'His injustice shall come down upon his own head,' he goes on to say:

'I will confess to the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.'

Let us give thanks, he says, not rejoicing in the slaughter of others, but accepting the verdict of God.

And who is able to give thanks to Him according to His righteousness? And who shall praise Him as He truly is? No one.

What does 'according to His righteousness' mean? It stands for 'on account of His righteousness.'

'And I will sing to the Lord Most High.'

For His are the victories, His the trophies, not mine.

For just as in wars, when the king has conquered, they form choirs and sing, referring all the acclamations to him,

for this reason he did not say, 'I confess,' but 'I will confess,' making clear that not even after obtaining the good things does he forget, nor does he grow more slothful, but he is sober and watchful;

not because God stands in need of this, but because this is profitable and gainful for us.

For just as He received sacrifices, not because He needed sacrifices—'For if I were hungry,' He says, 'I would not tell you'—but in order to lead men into honouring Him, so also He receives hymns, not because He needs the praise that comes from us, but because He desires our salvation.

For our advancement in virtue is a thing greatly to be desired by God.

And nothing so makes one advance in virtue as continually to commune with God, and unceasingly to give thanks and to sing praise to God;

and he sings praise to God, marvelling at His righteous judgment and His long-suffering.

And where, someone asks, is the long-suffering, when the tyrant has been slain? Great indeed and mighty it was.

For He left him for a long time, that he might come to repentance;

and He gave him to hold the royal palace, that seeing the house in which he had been reared and nurtured, and the tokens of his father, he might come to repentance.

For unless he had been a wild beast and had a heart of stone, all those things were enough to lead him back;

the table at which he had shared fellowship with his father, the house, the councils where words had reconciled him though he had committed such a murder;

along with these there were also other things sufficient to soften him.

For he heard that his father was going about a fugitive and a wanderer, that he was suffering the uttermost of terrible things.

And if these things did not soften him, the fate of Ahithophel ought to have brought him to his senses—the hanging, the death—so that through all these he might come to repentance.

For he was not ignorant of what had happened to his friend.

And what charge had he against his father, that he did these things? That he had banished him from his sight? But for this very reason he ought rather to have wondered at him and welcomed him, that he had gently borne with one who had become a fratricide.

But having nothing to charge him with, yet caught by an untimely lust—and that too when his father was now an old man and standing at the very door of his end—he would not wait even a little.

And how did he not consider that, even if he conquered, he would lead a life more wretched than all men, being polluted and unclean, and that from his very trophy of victory? (10)

Where now are those who bewail poverty? Of how much poverty are these things not more grievous? Of how much sickness? Of how much anguish? He said no such thing to himself, nor did he grow impatient, nor did he lament, saying:

'A fine recompense I am receiving, I who meditate in His law day and night, I who, being in such high dignity, have become lowlier than all;

I who spared my enemies have been given over into the hands of a wanton son.'

No such thing did he say, nor did he think it, but he bore all things with wisdom, having one consolation amid what befell him: that these things came to pass with God's knowledge.

Just as the three young men also said:

'And if not, be it known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor do we worship the golden image which you have set up;'

but if someone had said to them:

And in what hope do you die? What were you expecting, what were you hoping for after death, after the fire — for as yet there was no expectation of the resurrection? He would have heard the answer: 'This is our greatest recompense, to die for God's sake.'

Thus he too regarded this as the greatest consolation, that God, who knew these things, did not prevent them.

For indeed a lover would ten thousand times over

choose to be slain for the sake of his beloved, though he expects nothing from her after death.

So then we too must suffer all things, not from expectation of a kingdom, nor from any other hope of the good things to come, but for the sake of God Himself.

But there are so many who are still supine and sluggish, that they do not desire virtue even with a reward attached.

And God, though He promises a kingdom, is not heeded;

but the devil, who procures hell, is loved.

What is more grievous than this madness? And why do I speak of hell? Even before hell, bringing here below anguish and shame and derision and countless torments, he has many who run to him.

Consider, then, the adulterer, how he lives more wretchedly than all men, and even before hell suspects everything, trembles at the shadows, looks no one in the face with free eyes, but fears all — those who know and those who do not know — seeing sharpened swords, deaths hanging over him, executioners, tribunals.

What such thing does self-control have, even if it brings countless toils? Is not the self-controlled man ever in pleasure, while the adulterer is ever in anguish and in darkness? So too may one see it in the other cases — in those overcome by anger and those who master anger;

those who plunder, and those who give away their own possessions for God's sake — or rather, who send them on ahead.

For the latter sit in harbour;

but the former, swept out into the surging strait of present evils, are tossed about day by day.

And apart from these things, when the man who lives with greed and licentiousness, as his age advances, no longer has enough for his enjoyment, and has the fear of death lying upon him, consider what dreadful things he suffers.

but then he rejoices and is glad all the more, when he has come to old age, since his enjoyment does not wither away for him, but rather flourishes.

To the adulterers, then, and the licentious, and the greedy, and the gluttonous, old age is the loss of that enjoyment;

but to those who pursue virtue, an intensifying of enjoyment then comes about.

So that, even before hell and before the sorrows that come from here below, this too is enough to shake the mind.

Considering these things, therefore, let us flee vice, let us choose virtue, let us love God — not for the sake of His gifts, but for His own sake.

Thus in the present life we shall also travel the way of virtue, which is narrow indeed by nature, but becomes broad through the resolve of those who journey on it;

may it be granted us all to come to its summit, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ;

to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages.