Commentary on the Psalms 7

Another version: 'A song of victory, for David.'

'Flee to the mountains like a sparrow?' Another version: 'Rise up to the mountains like a sparrow.' Another version: 'Remove yourself.'

'For behold, the sinners have bent the bow, they have made ready arrows in the quiver, to shoot down in the dark of the moon the upright in heart.'

'For what You had established, they themselves have torn down.'

Another version: 'Because the ordinances have been dissolved.'

Another version: 'Because the teachings shall be broken to pieces.'

Great is the power of hope in the Lord: an impregnable fortress, an unassailable wall, an invincible alliance, a calm harbor, an unconquerable tower, an unbeatable weapon, an irresistible power that finds a way even out of what has no way.

By it the unarmed have prevailed over the armed, and women over men, and children have shown themselves, with great ease, stronger than those trained for war.

And what wonder is it if they overcame their enemies, when they even prevailed over the very universe? For the elements, forgetting their own nature, were transformed to serve their good; the wild beasts were no longer beasts, nor was the furnace a furnace.

For hope in God transforms all things.

Sharpened teeth, and a narrow prison; the ferocity of nature, and hunger that armed that nature; no partition anywhere, and the mouths of the body close beside the Prophet;

but hope in God, stronger than any bridle, falling upon their mouths, drew them back again.

This very wisdom, then, this man too pursued when he said to those who bade him flee and run away, and to secure his own deliverance by the safety of some place:

'How do you say to my soul?' What are you saying? I have the Master of the whole world as my ally;

Him who everywhere accomplishes all things with ease—Him I have as my general and my defender at my side;

and do you send me to an uninhabited place, and gather my safety for me out of the wilderness? Is the help of the desert greater than that of Him who can do all things with all ease? Why do you, when I am strongly armed, prepare me to run away as though naked and unarmed, and bid me become a fugitive? Then, one who has an army and is fenced about with walls and weapons you would not have bidden to take refuge in the desert—rather you would have appeared ridiculous in giving such advice;

yet the one who has the Master of the whole world with him, you drive into exile, and make a fugitive and a wanderer, because of the war waged by sinners? For besides what has been said, I have this further just ground for not fleeing.

For when God is the helper, and it is sinners who wage the war, how does not he incur the utmost shame who counsels me to imitate the timorousness of birds? Do you not consider the army arrayed against me, how it is more worthless than a spider's web? For if the enemy of the earthly king, wherever he may come, lives in peril and is afraid, and

much more the enemy of the God of all things.

For wherever he goes, he has all things as his enemies, even creation itself.

For just as the elements and the wild beasts stand in awe of God's friends, and all creation reveres them;

so against the enemy and the foe even things without feeling wage war and spit him out.

It was for this reason that the wild beasts made an end of some men before ever they touched the ground, while the fire consumed others.

'But they have bows and a quiver, and everything is made ready for them';

'for they have made them ready,' he says, 'in the quiver';

but none of these has any strength, and by none of them are we frightened.

For not even if I saw some man holding a slackened bow would I be afraid.

For what use are weapons, when there is no strength? So neither here is there anything to fear, when the good-will that comes from God is absent.

But they stitch together deceits, and do not come on in a straightforward way.

For this very reason above all I laugh them to scorn, because they shoot in the dark of the moon.

For nothing is weaker than a man who plots.

He needs not be caught by the weapons of others, but falls by his own hand, and is overturned by his own guile.

What then could be weaker, when he is taken by his own contrivances? And along with these one may say yet another thing:

namely, that sinners not only war with guile against those who are helped by God, but that they do so even against the guiltless and against those who have done them no wrong at all.

And this too, not by chance, renders them weak.

For just as those who kick against the goads do those goads no harm, but bloody their own feet,

along with these, there is yet another cause that dissolves the strength of their warfare.

What then is this? That the very things which Thou hast established, these, he says, they have pulled down.

And what he means is something like this:

They war and fight against Thee, tearing down Thy law and Thy commandments.

For indeed they attempt to pull down Thy commandments, and that too when they have been firmly established.

Either he means this, or that they are also transgressors of the law.

And this too is no small ground of weakness: that, not having kept Thy commandments, they thus go forth to war.

For it is because of this that they war against the upright and stitch together deceits, since they do not hearken to Thy commandments.

Having therefore recounted the weakness of the enemy, and having shown it not from those things by which others show it, but from those things which befitted him — for he did not say, They have no money, nor fortresses, nor allies, nor cities, nor that they are inexperienced in warfare, but passing by and spurning all these as being nothing, and saying that they are lawless, that they war against those who have done no wrong, that they pull down the things of God — he next speaks also of the array of the righteous, and thereby shows how easily those enemies are overcome.

So let us also test who is strong and who is weak; and let us not fear on those grounds on which ridiculous men are afraid, but rather let us fear on these grounds.

For what do they say? He is formidable, he is wicked, he has clothed himself with a mass of riches and with power.

For this very reason above all I laugh him to scorn.

For these are forms of weakness.

But he knows how to plot, you say.

Again you are telling me of another form of weakness.

Why then is it that many such men prevail? Because you do not know how to box well;

because you too contend in the pancratium for the very same things by which they become weaker — for glory and for power.

Flee the ground of that contest, and strike your assailants from another quarter: the boaster with forbearance, the covetous with poverty, the licentious with self-control, the envious with kindliness;

and thus you will easily get the better of them.

But, as I said before, having recounted the weakness of the adversaries, see how he also tells of the full armour of the righteous man.

But the righteous man, what did he do? that is to say:

When those men were so arrayed for battle, you ask from what source the righteous man armed himself? Hear:

The Lord is in His holy temple;

The Lord, His throne is in heaven.

Did he recount his alliance? What did he do, you ask? He fled for refuge to God who is in heaven, who is present everywhere.

He did not stretch bows, nor make ready a quiver, as that man did, nor did he set himself in array in the dark of the moon;

but letting all these things go, he built up against them all his hope in God as a rampart, and set over against them Him who has need of none of these things — neither of seasons, nor of places, nor of weapons, nor of money, but who accomplishes all things by a mere nod.

Do you see an alliance that is invincible and effortless and easy? His eyes look upon the poor man; His eyelids examine the sons of men.

The Lord tries the righteous and the ungodly; but he that loves iniquity hates his own soul.

Another version has: His eyelids prove them.

Another translator has: 'The Lord is a righteous examiner.'

Another has: 'He tests the righteous man and the ungodly, and the one who loves iniquity his soul has hated.'

Another has: 'He who loves iniquity hates his own soul.'

Do you see an ally made ready, a helper prepared, present everywhere, seeing all things, beholding all things, having this above all for His work — that even though there be none to entreat Him, He provides, He cares, He restrains those who do wrong, He aids those who are wronged, to the one rendering the recompense of good deeds, and upon the other laying the punishments of sins? Nothing, therefore, is unknown to Him;

for His eyes look upon the whole inhabited world.

And He not only knows these things, but also wills to set them right.

Wherefore another translator too, making this very thing plain, said: 'Righteous.'

For if He is righteous, He will not endure simply to overlook these things as they take place.

He turns away from the wicked, He praises the righteous.

Then that very thing which he was saying in the former psalm — showing that wickedness itself is enough to consume them — this same thing here too, making it plain, he went on to add:

But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul.

For wickedness is at war with the soul, an enemy and a destroyer, so that even before the punishment the wicked man pays the penalty.

Do you see how he shows those who set themselves in opposition to be easily taken from every side, when He has such an ally, and when they are caught by their own weapons — by the very things with which they fence themselves in, being consumed by these, and harming themselves? Do you see the ease of this alliance? For there is no need to journey anywhere, or to run, or to spend money, since God is present everywhere and sees all things.

He will rain down snares upon sinners; fire and brimstone and a stormy blast shall be the portion of their cup.

For the Lord is righteous, and He has loved righteous deeds; His countenance has beheld uprightness.

Another has: 'He shall rain upon the lawless burning coals.'

Another has: 'Their countenance shall behold uprightness' — that is, the countenance of the righteous, or of God Himself.

Having spoken of the penalty that comes from wickedness itself, since many hold this in contempt, he next shakes the mind of the wicked with the blow that is borne down from above, using vivid language and advancing by means of fearful names.

For he says that fire and brimstone and a stormy blast and burning coals are rained down upon them from above, wishing by the metaphor of these words to set forth the inescapableness of the vengeance, the abundance of the punishment, the ease of the blow, and its consuming power.

What is the meaning of 'The portion of their cup'? This, he says, is their lot, this their possession; in this they shall pass their time, in these things they shall be consumed.

For He who watches over all things will not endure to let these matters pass by unpunished.

Which very thing another prophet also says:

Your eye is pure, too pure to look upon evil things, and You will not be able to gaze upon troubles;

this very thing this psalmist also sets forth, saying:

For the Lord is righteous, and He has loved righteous deeds.

This is especially the distinguishing mark of God: to approve of what is just, of uprightness;

and He would not endure to the end the things that are done otherwise.

For this very reason, at the beginning of the psalm he was saying:

'Flee to the mountains like a sparrow?' For those who put their trust in the things of this life are no better off than the sparrow;

they are in the same case as it, which, trusting to the wilderness, becomes an easy prey for all.

Such is the man who hopes in riches.

Just as the sparrow is caught even by little children, and by birdlime, and by the snare, and by countless other means;

so too the wealthy man is caught both by his own household and by enemies;

and he lives even more precariously than the sparrow, having many who set birdlime for him, and before these, his own wicked desires;

and he is a wanderer, forever shifting with the changing times, dreading the wrath of executioners, and the fury of the king, and the plots of flatterers, and the treacheries of friends;

and when enemies come upon him he trembles more than all others, and even when there is peace he looks with suspicion on those who plot against him;

for he does not possess wealth that is abiding and that cannot be taken away.

For this reason he is forever fluttering and shifting about, chasing after the deserts and the mountains, passing his life in moonless night, holding thick darkness even in the midst of noonday, and stitching together his deceits.

But the righteous man is not such a one.

For the ways of the righteous shine like the light.

For they choose neither to plot mischief nor to do wrong, but they possess a soul that is at ease and unburdened.

But these men, forever stitching together their deceits, are forever in darkness and in fear, like robbers, and burglars, and adulterers;

and even in the daytime they see darkness, since their soul is stricken by dread.

How then might this darkness be scattered? If, withdrawing yourself from all these things, you should hang wholly upon the hope of God, even though you were ten thousand times a sinner.

'For look,' he says, 'to the generations of old, and see: who ever hoped in the Lord and was put to shame?' He did not say, 'The righteous man,' but, 'Who?'—even though he be a sinner, he says.

For this is the marvel: that even sinners, holding fast to this anchor, are unconquerable by all.

For this above all belongs to a right disposition toward God: when, weighed down by so many evils, you take courage in His love for mankind.

For just as cursed is he who hopes in man, so blessed is he who hopes in God.

Withdrawing yourself, therefore, from all things, hold fast to this anchor.

For God watches over all things, and judges what is just; and He not only judges, but also carries it out into deed.

Therefore, having spoken of His righteousness, he also displayed the punishment—by fire, by the tempest;

and this too He does out of care for them, making them more temperate through chastisement.

For all these reasons, then, let us draw near to Him, and let us remain continually looking toward Him.

For thus shall we also obtain all good things in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages.