Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 1/24

Sacred discourses and the gathering-together of divine lessons secure for those who deliver them a glorious profit.

For wisdom is better than precious stones, and nothing that is held dear is worthy of her. And I think that one ought to labour, and that very eagerly, in matters so full of profit, and that the man who is in love with things worthy of admiration should be stronger than sloth and indolence;

for the choicest of good deeds would not be captured by those who are wont to sink down into indolence, but by those who are willing to sweat over them.

Hence I too have now been spurred on to the task of setting forth, according to my ability, a few brief things upon the book of the Psalms as well.

For these are very greatly sung in the Church of the Lord, for the people to respond.

And these things, then, have been thus spoken by us.

But concerning the rest of the things that are found—should it so happen—the diapsalma, or the obelus, or the lemniscus, or any other mark noted in each psalm, being guided by the grace of the Lord and instructed by His power, I shall speak yet again.

And concerning these very things that have been mentioned beforehand, I shall in what follows set forth the discourse more fully, by the grace of the Lord.

'And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.' (

) For before the coming of our Saviour it was no smooth matter for those upon the earth to be able to prevail over inordinate love of pleasure, and to rise above worldly desires.

But when the Lord, being God, appeared to us, the path that carries us toward virtue became smooth and level, having in it nothing steep or rough.

'The ungodly shall not rise in the judgment.'

) Yet there follows upon them at times a certain compassion, so that they do not fall into the same punishments as the ungodly.

The sinners too shall rise, but they shall not be in the counsel and the ordered rank of the righteous;

and by 'the counsel of the righteous' he means, as it were, their order and their dignity.

For even if there were some of those who have sinned worthy of mercy [

or of pardon], yet they would not be numbered among the choirs of the saints;

for theirs is a different lot: their boasts are exalted, their grace is conspicuous, and their delight is unending.

For they have gathered the fruit of manly virtues, and they grow rich in the rewards of a valour directed to every good.

'Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate vain things?' (

) And here, more plainly, he all but arraigns the senselessness of the Jews, their unbridled audacity against Christ, their vanity in deliberations and their childishness in reasonings, saying:

'Why did the nations rage?'—And in another sense, they meditated in vain upon the books of the prophets, since they did not receive the Saviour of the race who was proclaimed by them.

'I was appointed king by Him.'

) Being by nature in need of nothing, whatever He is said to receive, He received it so that we might partake.

'I have been appointed,' He says, 'as king by God the Father, so as to declare His decree, and before all others to those in Zion.'

And this, I think, is what Christ said:

'I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' For since the grace of the promise was owed to them, to them first also was the word of the evangelic proclamation granted, and the justification that comes through faith in Him.

'For Thy throne, O God,' he says, 'is for ever.' He knows Him also as receiving a kingdom humanly in time, on account of the newness of the dispensation.

And again he indicates His pre-eternal begetting when he says:

'Thou art My Son.' For He was always Son.

And again He shows the begetting according to the flesh by adding:

'This day have I begotten Thee'; for the 'this day' belongs to time.

And God bestowed upon Him, as man, the name that is above every name—that is to say, the name of sonship.

) The 'this day' makes plain the present season, in which also He became flesh, though being by nature Lord even of all things;

for John bore witness concerning Him that He came unto His own, calling the world His own.

As being called to His accustomed glory of the kingdom, He said:

'But I was appointed king by Him'—and it is clear that this means by God the Father.

And He endured such things so that, as a man made a son—although being by nature Son—He might through Himself pave for the nature of man the way to a share in adoption, and might call to the kingdom of heaven those who were tyrannised by sin.

For just as, like some inheritance, we received from our father—passed down to the whole race sprung from him—the calamities that came from the transgression in Adam, being burdened with the curse and with death, so again the glorious things that are in Christ shall run through unto all the human race.

for He is full, inasmuch as He is by nature also God;

and He rather enriches the whole creation with the good things from above.

'Ask of Me, and I will give Thee nations.'

) One nation, that of Israel, having been driven to frenzy and for this reason cast off, all the nations that believed in Him are given to Christ.

For He is the expectation of the nations, and in Him shall the nations hope.

And in place of one land, that of the Jews, the ends of the inhabited world [

'And I will give Thee nations for Thine inheritance.'

) For He has been appointed, as man, heir of all things, so that henceforth He might save, as His own lot, those upon the earth who had been carried off as plunder by the adverse powers.

And when this had been brought to its consummation, the Son said to the Father:

'Those whom Thou gavest Me were Thine, and Thou gavest them to Me.' But if they were the Father's, they were also the Word's, who reigns together with Him by nature; and He ascends unto His own existing riches, even with the flesh.

'All that is Mine is Thine, and Thine is Mine.' Therefore, if He is said to receive and to be appointed heir, it is said on account of the human aspect.

For He became man in order that He might proclaim release to the captives, to those who had leapt away from God;

yet none the less He remained God, even though He became poor in that He became man.

) The Son, who is the Word, being in need neither of glory nor of anything else, is said to ask of the Father or even to receive;

but He does this in accordance with the dispensation.

He asks, therefore, and receives from the Father on our behalf the very things which He possesses naturally as God.

Since He took up flesh that stood in need of being glorified, and it became not another's but His own, He fittingly appropriates to Himself the things done to it or concerning it—

the very things which He possesses naturally as Son and God.

'And the ends of the earth Thy possession.'

) This shows that neither in the case of Zerubbabel, as the Jews say, does it have its meaning;

for what did he receive, or what possession of the ends of the earth? But in the case of the Lord, who brings the whole world under His own dominion, it does.

'As a potter's vessels shalt Thou break them in pieces.'

) For as long as they had hope of being re-formed, they were called clay;

'For can I not, like the potter, re-form you, O house of Israel?' says He. But when, being baked hard toward evil, they became potsherds, He threatens them with an irreparable shattering.

Christ also shepherds the nations, as with a rod—by the Cross, and by His unbreakable and mighty kingdom.

For the rod is also a symbol of kingship, as in the words: 'A rod of uprightness is the rod of Thy kingdom.' And He breaks these things not so as to destroy and consume them, but so as to re-form them.

For to this end the potter aims to break his own vessels, whenever the moulding is not preserved intact and it has not yet been brought near to the fire.

Wishing us to hold fast with a tight grip to the teaching of the Lord, He fittingly used the expression 'to lay hold of.'

'O Lord, why are they multiplied?' (

'Why are they multiplied?'—using the 'why' in the sense of 'exceedingly.'

For he is amazed, seeing beyond number those who devise plots against Him.

And he fears indeed as a man, yet he is not overcome by his terrors; but having his heart made strong in God, he expects that he will prevail over those who plot against him.

But You, O Lord, are my helper.

But You, O Lord, are my helper. Those men, he says, brandish their weapons and expect to overcome me, because I have been stripped bare of Your grace;

yet I know my own Savior and Redeemer.

I will not hope in my bow, and my sword shall not save me;

but I shall have need of nothing, since Your kindness apportions glory to me and exalts my head—that is, sets me in splendor and, as it were, above my enemies.

Or by 'head' he means his own dominion, which, having been humbled for a little while, he took up again once it was exalted anew.

The Savior too might say to the Father, speaking as a man: You are my helper, and You who do not abandon my soul to Hades, and my glory—having said:

And I have glorified, and I will glorify again; and You have exalted my head, my Godhead—that is, You made it manifest through the divine signs.

For the wonders wrought at the Cross are truly a clear demonstration of the Only-begotten's Godhead.

And God exalts our head also—that is, the mind and the ruling faculty—whenever we look upward, rising above everything bodily.

With my voice I cried out to the Lord, and so forth.

He leaves us a most vivid teaching of patient endurance, and teaches that in times of distress we must draw near to none other than God, and that the fruit of such an approach is to be heard.

For now, indeed, he turns his face toward us and recounts how, having prayed, he was heard, and says:

With my voice I cried out to the Lord, and He heard me from His holy mountain. I lay down and slept.

By 'sleep' here he means the sleep that comes upon the mind, through which he also fell into sin.

He confesses his transgression, and makes what befell him an accusation against the sleep that had come upon his mind.

For it would be the work and zeal of a wakeful mind to reject what is base, and to press on to depart from that which is by nature bent on wrongdoing;

but it is the mark of one snoring, sunk in slothful weakness, to be overcome by the passions—and by these, the passions of the flesh.

Therefore, at one and the same time, he both makes mention of his sin and offers up a hymn of thanksgiving to God, saying:

I, for my part, slept unto sin through slothfulness, being corrupted together with Bathsheba and having slain Uriah.

But I would not have been roused up unto repentance, had not the Lord taken hold of me.

This belongs to one who plainly confesses the weakness of human understanding, yet crowns with praises the God who ever saves and succors, who shatters the snare of the devil and draws out from it those who had been caught in it.

But even when Absalom was plotting against me, he says, I was slothful and, as it were, asleep;

but now I have risen up and I know that the Lord will take hold of me when I am wronged.

I will shake off even the sleep that comes from despondency, which the night of my calamity brought upon me;

and I shall be roused up to good cheer, beholding as a bright day the more radiant turn of my affairs.

For the expectation of God's help does not allow me to sleep and sink down.

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people.

Since the Lord, he says, has taken hold of me, I have been roused up, and have grown rich in so youthful and vigorous a spirit that I fear in no way whatever, even should ten thousands of the peoples who are with Absalom encircle me round about.

Fair, therefore, is the faith of the saints;

for they are in no way afraid, even when a countless multitude of enemies has been whetted against them, so long as God comes to their aid.

For even His presence alone suffices to scatter the many ten thousands.

Neither was the Lord afraid of the Jews and Gentiles who surrounded Him at the time of His Passion;

wherefore also He declined the legions of angels.

Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God.

Silence is no harmless thing for those who suffer;

but it is useful and salutary to say:

Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God. Yet I do not think it fitting for all men.

For those who despise the divine wills and, as it were, give full rein to their own pleasures—how or whence would they have boldness before God? But for those who submit their neck, easily led, to the laws that come from God, there is much boldness toward Him;

and they might fittingly say: Arise, save me, Your true servant.

Save me, O my God—with great affection claiming the God of all as his own, and beseeching Him to arise unto his help.

And worthy of his meekness is his prayer;

he does not say: Destroy my enemies;

but what? Save me. This alone, he says, do I seek—that I myself may be saved, not that my enemies may perish.

Perhaps too, as a prophet knowing that Christ would set his soul free from Hades, where it was held fast, when He rose from the dead, he foretells the thing to come;

and he prays that the Lord may hasten the resurrection, so that through it he too might obtain salvation.

Meanwhile, according to the idiom of Scripture, God is said to sleep whenever He is long-suffering;

as in: Why do You sleep, O Lord? And He is said to arise again, whenever He avenges and visits.

Here too, then, he says: Arise, O Lord;

that is: Lay aside Your great long-suffering, and rouse Yourself to my defense.

And when the Savior too was being delivered up for our sake, the Father, in bearing with it, was as it were asleep to Him.

And we too, in temptations, are able to say this.

Only observe that, whenever we come to sober watchfulness, then also does God arise for our salvation.

For You have struck all who are my enemies without cause.

Consider the exactness of the saying;

for he did not say simply 'those who are enemies,' but those who do this without cause—that is, in vain and needlessly and for no transgression at all.

Now one is an enemy without cause when he has not first been wronged, nor has suffered any of those things that are wont to grieve and provoke.

And that man has enemies without cause who furnishes no occasion for enmity and hatred—such as are all those who are persecuted for living devoutly.

Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say every evil word against you falsely, for My sake, and what follows.

For since he showed great meekness toward them, they were enemies in vain.

The teeth of sinners You have broken.

And the phrase 'You have broken their teeth' he spoke as of wild beasts;

for those who love sin are for the most part bloodthirsty, and gnash their teeth at the good repute of the saints.

And it is customary for the God-inspired Scripture to liken to wild beasts those who have made it their practice to fall savagely upon certain people.

Therefore 'You have broken their teeth' is said in the sense of 'You have stripped them of all their strength,' by a metaphor drawn from wild beasts, which, when deprived of their teeth, are exceedingly contemptible and easily overcome.

And the Savior too will say to the Father: You have struck Herod the slayer of infants, who was my enemy without cause;

and You will strike the Jews as well, delivering them over to the Romans;

and You will break their teeth, because they said:

We have no king; and, His blood be upon us. And the demons too are struck by the Lord, because, though in no way wronged by us, they plot against us in vain, out of their own wickedness.

And their spiritual teeth, I mean the passions, by which they devour the simpler sort, are shattered.

For You, it says, crushed the heads of the dragons that lurk in the waters — You who subdued the great sea-monster through the resurrection, who cast down Hades and trampled death, and brought the devil to nought.

But observe for me that those who commit injustice are themselves the ones who are harmed, for they are smitten by God;

while those who suffer injustice are the very ones who are benefited by it.

Salvation belongs to the Lord, and Your blessing is upon Your people.

It is befitting to holiness that one should also entreat for others that which one desires to befall oneself;

for he does not seek to partake of the God-given goods alone, but sets before all who love God a common eagerness for these things.

And do not marvel that such an aim resides in the saints, seeing that they also suffer together with those in pain, and weep together with those who weep, and make common cause even in the wrath that is owed to those who love sin.

'And bless them with every spiritual blessing.'

For in Christ Jesus all the nations shall be blessed, but the Jews shall be cast out.

And Christ too says that His own salvation — that whereby He was saved when He rose from the dead — belongs to the Father; and likewise He ascribes to Him the blessing upon those who believe.

But they were smitten by the true power of Christ when He became man;

and the nature that had been warred against by them enjoyed both salvation and blessing.

But this fourth one, after conquering in the war, he dedicates as a thank-offering to God the giver of victory.

It is inscribed 'unto the end,' then, because the psalm was composed with a view to the overthrow of the tyranny;

and 'a psalm of a song,' because, keeping festival, he sings the song of victory in a more melodious fashion.

It is unfitting to bury in silence the manner of the benefaction — the very fault for which the nine lepers in the Gospels are reproached.

Either, then, he marvels at the divine bounty, which fulfilled his requests without prolonging the time;

or perhaps he teaches that it was not by keeping silent, but rather by calling all the more upon God, that he was saved.

And we shall find him here usefully saying that he is righteous, yet at the same time confessing that he is liable to transgressions.

Then how, one asks, can it be true that the same man is both righteous and liable to transgressions? Because even to the righteous there attach stumblings, according to the saying, 'The righteous shall fall seven times, and shall rise again.' It is therefore one thing to sin incessantly, and another, while striving to keep righteousness upright, now and then, on rare occasions, to yield to the common weakness of our nature.

For 'who shall understand his transgressions?' according to that which is written.

And 'who shall boast that he has a pure heart?' 'In affliction You have enlarged me.'

Since he said, 'God heard me,' as though someone had asked him, 'In what respect were you heard, O prophet? and what that was dear to your heart came to pass?' — he makes plain the manner of the succour, and says, 'I was enlarged in affliction'; that is, I have not only been delivered from my straits and from being in wretched circumstances, but behold, I am also opened out unto gladness.

For He heard me — not in riches, nor that I might prevail over enemies (for I asked not these things), but in the relief that came in the midst of affliction.

For My power is made perfect in weakness. And those who have burst through the snares of sin, and who have been perfected in faith and have taken upon themselves afflictions and torments for Christ's sake, shall revel in the good things above.

The word might also be applied to the Saviour, showing that He too was perfected through sufferings, and became more exalted through suffering.

And one must know this also: that divine Scripture names the trials which come upon the saints 'afflictions,' because they befall them for the sake of exercise;

as in, 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous'; but in the case of sinners it names them 'scourgings,'

as in, 'Many are the scourgings of the sinner.' For they are scourged, being chastened on account of their sins.

'And hearken unto my prayer.'

But how is it that he who says he has been heard again entreats to be heard? Either it is one time set over against another time;

for instead of 'You had compassion on me and heard me,' it stands, 'Have compassion and hear me'; or perhaps he entreats to be heard continually;

since it is not possible for those who wish to live piously not to be at all times acquainted with the afflictions of this life.

If, then, he was heard in all things whatsoever he prayed, yet nevertheless he is fearful concerning the future;

wherefore he prays again, knowing the profit of prayer.

For even though he was delivered from his pains and his despondency, yet being a man and anxious for the future, lest he should not have strength while temptations perpetually press upon him, he asks to be enlarged, and that these very things which produce pains might pass away.

'O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart?'

These things are said to those who suppose that they can take the righteous man by the multitude of their army.

O you who are blind in mind and gross in understanding, how long will you not cast off your sickness? until when will you not know that hope in men is vanity and falsehood? For a giant shall not be saved by the multitude of his strength.

for those who are not such are indeed by nature sons of men, but by grace no longer so, but sons of God.

'And know that the Lord has made His holy one marvellous.'

For the enjoyment of earthly things differs, I think, in no way from the delights seen in dreams, which, once beheld, vanish into nothing, having mocked the mind of the one who snores;

but the splendid boasts of righteousness, and the rewards for it from God, have a lasting and unshaken partaking, and a conspicuous dignity.

of which what could there be to equal it? 'Be angry, and sin not.'

The passion of anger, indeed, befalls all men, having as its mother either grief, or faint-heartedness, or covetousness, or reviling from certain persons.

But it is possible to check this, just as one checks the bodily appetites also.

For that these should not be stirred within us at all is perhaps quite unattainable, and not in our power;

but it is in our power to rebuke their motions;

for the motion is keen in us when it stirs, yet it is checked as though by certain bridles — by reasonings that lead toward the better.

And so long as the passion is still feeble within us, it is deemed by God worthy of pardon;

but when the evils that spring from it become manifest, then we shall pay the penalty.

The same holds also in the case of the fleshly appetites;

for when the base pleasure remains inactive within us, the punishing law will likewise be altogether at rest toward it;

but when it has already been carried through to its accomplishment, the penalties are extended along with it.

For fittingly He grants indulgence to the lesser thing, as to those who are weaker — anger, I mean — in order that He may prevent the greater, that is, murder, and all that is begotten of unchastened wrath.

'Offer the sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord.'

and he tries to teach that for those who sacrifice to the all-pure God the fruits of righteousness, hope in Him is not without reward.

For all but, he says, I have sacrificed righteousness, and I have also placed my hope upon Him, and I have prevailed over my enemies, even though I lamented the young man who fell.

And in saying, 'Offer the sacrifice of righteousness,' he does not approve the one in shadows, according to the Law, but rather the one in Christ, the evangelical.

For the ancient Law taught men to make offerings by means of blood, but it was not possible in these to perfect a man according to conscience;

for they were offered as prefiguring the sweet savour of the true worship, and they were imposed only until a time of reformation.

Therefore indeed in Christ the shadow was done away;

and henceforth the light of the truth flashes round about the hearts of those who have believed.

And the Lord might also say to the Jews: The sacrifices offered by victims and blood will not raise you up to heaven;

but I who came down from heaven, on whom alone you should hope, making no account of the letter.

For the few, he says, and those who are approved and who know how to pursue wisdom, have an unshaken hope in God;

for they have taken courage in Him who promises good things beyond understanding;

but the many, that is, the poured-out multitude, the undiscerning, the ones fastened to folly, preferring the immediate partaking of fleshly impurities to the good things held in hope, say:

'Who will show us good things?' These are the words of those who make light of the things pertaining to God's dispensations.

When there is confusion in life, and while others live in luxury but we are in poverty and in the uttermost of evils, what proof is there of the divine care? 'The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, hath been signed upon us.'

But in a more hidden and mystical sense, the face of God the Father is the Son, and the light is the Spirit sent from Him into us;

through whom we have been sealed, being refashioned into the first image;

through whom also we have been taught the things that are truly good, on account of which we have received spiritual gladness in the mind and heart, being confirmed in the hope of the good things that are to come.

The angels indeed behold the face of God continually, but men behold the light of His countenance.

Now the face of the Lord is the spiritual contemplation of all things upon the earth;

and the light of His countenance is the partial knowledge of these very things.

And what, then, is the face of God the Father, whose light has been signed upon us? It is the Son of God, the exact Image;

'He that hath seen Me hath seen My Father.' And He has been signed upon us, having made us conformed to Himself, and having engraved upon those who believe in Him, as a divine image, the illumination that comes through His own Spirit.

'Thou hast put gladness into my heart.'

'Thus I have marvelled,' he says, 'at those who dare to say:

Who will show us good things? — although it were possible to be assured, from the things in hand, concerning the things to come.'

For with His bountiful right hand He graciously bestows the necessities for living;

and He sends down the rains, and brings forth the fruits from the fields in their seasons.

He, then, who has abundantly supplied the things that sustain life, how could He prove false in saying that He will graciously bestow the things after this present life? 'To me, therefore, Thou hast given gladness into my heart.'

'In peace together will I lie down and sleep;

for Thou, O Lord, alone hast made me to dwell in hope.'

But according to the divine Cyril: 'Together and along with the other saints I shall receive death, which is like unto sleep;

yet in peace, not having sin, which is enmity toward God;

and having thus ended this life, I shall be settled by God and upon good hopes — that is, I shall have a firm and unshaken hope.'

And the word 'alone' would suggest that the inheritance of the saints is peculiar and select;

for they will not be mingled with the wicked, but as it were set apart and by themselves alone.

For to those the portion of the cup is fire and brimstone and the blast of the tempest, but for these it is prepared to reign and unceasingly to delight in the good things from above.

Here the word 'understand' stands for 'examine thoroughly and test the aim of my cry.'

but rather those things which are both useful and necessary to salvation for those who receive them, and which it befits Thy bountifulness graciously to bestow.

'In the morning Thou shalt hear my voice.'

And the 'morning' might well be the time of the Saviour's sojourning among us;

for then the prayers of all became acceptable.

It is a great boast unto purity, to stand before God from the earliest morning, and to anticipate the sun in thanksgiving;

'For thus,' he says, 'I shall behold Thy divine and holy mysteries, which Thou hast prepared for those that love Thee.'

'Thou hast hated, O Lord, all them that work iniquity,' and so forth.

Those who stumble in their manner of life he named 'workers of iniquity';

and these, who have fallen away from the truth, God hates.

The heterodox he called those 'that speak a lie,' whom God will destroy;

there is a difference between 'Thou hast hated' and 'Thou shalt destroy':

first, whether 'Thou hast hated' is worse than 'Thou shalt destroy';

second, why the one was inclined toward past time, and the other toward the future.

'But I, in the multitude of Thy mercy,' and so forth.

'I,' he says, 'by Thy mercy will enter into Thy house;

for thus I shall be able to say, 'In the morning I shall stand before Thee and behold,' and, as one who has obtained mercy, with reverence I shall worship Thee in spirit and in truth.'

For indeed, when neglected, the wounds of sins become greater;

and the effects of the disease and the sickness do not halt at wounds, but even beget the deathless death.

From Cyril's commentary on the Psalter, the text before us being:

'O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath.' And yet, having heard these things from the prophet, he remained steadfast;

he did not slip down into sloth, he did not slacken from his intensity;

but, although exceedingly gladdened at the gentleness of Him who had forgiven, and having lifted up songs of thanksgiving, he was nonetheless dispirited that he had given offence at all;

for it befits the saints to be praised rather than to be pardoned.