Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 22/24

And the nestlings of the teachers are those who through them come to faith;

for they are spiritual fathers.

And it is the custom of the God-inspired Scripture to liken the holy mystagogues to turtledoves.

And for what reason? The turtledove is most talkative and clear-voiced;

and for us who love learning, so are the words of those who instruct us in the mysteries.

These, then, are indeed spiritual turtledoves.

And it is not the soul alone that rejoices and exults, but the body too has shared in the gladness, having received the hope of the resurrection.

For this is what the word hints at.

For since both the Babylonian gods, and indeed also those of our forefathers, were altogether lifeless and without sensation, quite fittingly do those who have been freed from them name the true God the living One.

[Blessed are those who dwell in Your house.

For it is especially in the churches that those who are versed in holy pursuits gather the occasions of salvation;

for in them the Holy Spirit speaks through holy prophets, through the voice of apostles and evangelists.

And just as in a physician's surgery there are many who are sick, sometimes even in different ways, yet it is possible for each to obtain the fitting treatment;

so also do we find it in the churches.] He has set ascents in his heart.

And what sort of ascents? Those to heaven, evidently.

[The God of gods who appeared in the flesh.

Let us not, then, be zealous to follow the Jewish ignorances, but rather let us believe that He is truly the Son as well, and God of God, who according to the flesh from a woman came down for our sakes into our condition, that He might bring us back into His own glory, that in Him what is enslaved might be made a son;

that what is subject to death might become superior to death, and what is under sin might become holy.

For all these things we have gained as our riches through the appearing of Christ, the Saviour of us all.] O Lord God of hosts.

And he names Christ Lord of hosts and God of Jacob, so that no one may suppose Him a recent God on account of His birth according to the flesh, but that we may rather believe Him to be that One whom the fathers of Israel themselves also served, whom they beheld in foreknowledge, whose mystery they did not fail to know—God the Father, that is, revealing it, and through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

I chose to be cast aside in the house of God rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners.

For the things which he reaped in one single day of Yours he could not gather from elsewhere, though he spent many thousands of days.

These words were fitting to be spoken even to the captives in Babylon, who were compelled to live among impious men, deriving thence no gain whatever, but reckoning on the benefit that would again come from God to the temple.

[For the Lord loves mercy and truth.

The prophet set upon the psalm a fair seal—hope in God, to which it is blessed to hold fast;

for it becomes an anchor to him who is storm-tossed, and to him who is warred against an unbreakable wall.] PSALM 85.

To You will I cry the whole day long.

The phrase 'the whole day' stands for 'throughout the whole day,' that is, at every season.

For we must fall down before God without ceasing, and seek mercy from Him.

'His foundations are in the holy mountains.'

The God-inspired Scripture likens the Church to mountains, on account of the loftiness of the divine doctrines that are in her.

By 'mountains,' then, we understand the Churches, or rather those who are in them.

For we are temples of the living God, and a house of God, according to the Scriptures.

And what these foundations are that Christ lays in us, Paul will teach us when he says:

and in addition to these, courage and endurance, temperance and self-control, gentleness and long-suffering, and, in a word, every form of virtue.

The earthly Zion, which is in the region of Judea, is indeed a part of Jerusalem, yet it lies high up and as it were upon a mountain;

and for this reason it is also interpreted as 'watchtower.'

To this Zion, then, which lies as upon a mountain, the sacred Writing likens the Church, that is, the multitude of those who have believed.

For she is lofty, having nothing lowly about her;

for she does not deign to be minded of the things upon the earth, but rather seeks the things above.

And those who are nurtured by the Church walk indeed upon the earth, but have their citizenship in the heavens.

'Forever will I establish your seed.'

'By the arm of your power.'

And He names the Son the 'arm' of the Father;

for He works all things through Him, just as we too are accustomed to do all things by means of our own hand.

'O Lord, in the light of your countenance shall they walk.'

In the light which is sent forth through the Spirit by means of your countenance—that is, of your Son—shall they walk.

For the Holy Spirit guides us into each of the things that are to be done in the light.

'In your name shall they rejoice.'

For the good name of Christ, which has been called upon us, ever crowns us;

for we have been named Christians because of Christ.

'For my hand shall help him, and my arm shall strengthen him.'

'The works which the Father has given me to do'—

'these very works which I do bear witness concerning me, that He has sent me.' And again:

'but the Father who abides in me, He does the works.' And this is what the Father now says concerning Him:

'For my hand shall help him, and my arm shall strengthen him.' 'Those who hate him I will put to flight.'

For after the Savior's cross, the synagogue of the Jews fell into dreadful and inescapable calamities.

For they were delivered into the hands of enemies, who laid waste their whole land;

'His horn shall be exalted.'

It is customary for the God-inspired Scripture to use the word 'horn'—in the case of sinners, to denote arrogance;

but in the case of the righteous, to denote glory.

By the very names that most properly befit the Father, the Son Himself is also glorified;

as, for instance, I mean, 'true God'—this the Father is, and so is the Son;

for He Himself is the truth and the life. And this He said to His own Father:

'For all that is mine is yours, and yours is mine.' 'He shall call upon me: You are my Father.'

And God shall also make him the firstborn, even as the great Paul also says:

'That he might be the firstborn among many brethren'; and again:

'The firstborn from the dead, and the firstborn of all creation.' And the Savior also said to Mary:

'Go,' He said, 'tell my brethren:

I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.' For indeed He is only-begotten as God, but firstborn as man;

for He has as brethren those who have believed, and He calls God His own Father as God;

but again as man He calls Him His God. 'Forever will I keep my mercy for him, and my covenant shall be faithful to him.'

It is to the very people who have believed through Him that He speaks;

and by 'mercy' He means the forgiveness that comes through faith.

And 'a faithful covenant' means one that is secure and firm and abiding;

for the first covenant has ceased because of its weakness and unprofitableness.

For the law made nothing perfect. For the first covenant has ceased, having a foreshadowing that was but a shadow, and only the outward form of the truth;

but there has been brought in for us a better hope, through which we draw near to God, as the blessed Paul writes.

'His throne is as the sun.'

By 'throne' He here means His dominion, that is, the Church.

And the throne of Christ is the Church;

for He rests upon her, even as also among the holy angels.

'The heaven is my throne.' And the Church in the heavens is a throne;

and likewise, again, the one upon the earth is a throne of God who reigns over us all.

The Church of Christ shall therefore be, He says, flashing like lightning and illuminating all that is under heaven, and abiding perpetually like the sun and the moon.

Just as no one in the heavens can quench the orb of the sun and the moon, so no one among men shall ever dim the radiance of the Church, that is, her spiritual splendor;

but she shines ever, even as the sun and the moon.

'But you have rejected and set at nought, you have deferred your Anointed,' and so forth.

This is equivalent to: 'You have permitted him to be rejected and set at nought.'

For it was not the Father who rejected and set at nought His own Son; rather, it was the Jews who did this, though by the permission of God and the Father.

'You have deferred your Anointed'—that is, you have put off the fulfilling of the promises concerning him.

And how did He put it off? 'You have overturned the covenant of your servant.'

'You promised,' he says, 'that he should abide forever;'

for this was the covenant made by you concerning him;

but the Jews crucified him; he was reckoned among the dead.

He suffered, he says, and was crucified.

Therefore you have overturned the covenant of your servant;

'you have profaned his sanctuary to the ground.'

'You have cast his glory to the ground,' he says.

For inasmuch as it pertained to His suffering, He was reckoned a mere man.

Yet He did not remain among the dead, nor did the Passion attach any dishonour to Him; rather He was the more glorified through it.

The prophets, however, speak of the things that came to pass.

'You did not take hold of him in the war.'

For since, being wholly God by nature and true Son and Lord of the powers, He endured to suffer—though able not to suffer, had He willed not to suffer—and You too, O Father, kept silent, for this reason we say, 'You did not take hold of him.'

By 'war' he names the time of the precious Cross, when Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the nations and the peoples of Israel—and Satan himself above all—waged war against the glory of Christ.

'You have brought him down from his purification.'

The word 'you brought down' stands here for 'you cast down'.

For that which is loosed is borne down.

'You brought him down, then, from his purification'—that is, from being believed to be pure.

For He was suspected of being wicked, and was condemned as a sinner.

'You have dashed his throne down to the ground.'

Since He suffered in the flesh, and became free among the dead, and those who crucified Him supposed that, having suffered, He was undone and had ceased both to be and to be named at all—

for this reason he interprets the suppositions of those who crucified Him, saying:

'And You have dashed his throne down to the ground.' 'How long, O Lord, will You turn away utterly...'

...the economy? 'How long, O Lord?'—that is, for how long will the audacities of the Jews prevail? 'They have slain,' he says, 'the Author of life.'

Will He then lie dead? Will He turn away utterly, and will Your wrath be kindled like fire? Yet this turning away and wrath are not against Christ.

Do not suppose this; rather it is against us.

For we have transgressed in manifold ways, and have fallen from delight—as I mean in the case of the first-formed.

'What man is there who shall live and not see death?'

It is true, then, that You did not create the sons of men in vain.

The very nature of things itself will bear witness to this.

We died in Adam, but we came to life in Christ.

'Where are Your mercies of old?' The 'ancient mercies' of God, he says, are the restoration to incorruption determined before the foundation of the world.

'Which I held in my bosom, of many nations.'

They entreat God to be mindful of the promise given in the bosom of many nations.

For what did the Saviour promise to the nations? Remission of sins, the loosing of death, salvation and life.

'Wherewith they reproached the recompense of Your Christ.'

That is, the Church, or rather those who believe in Him;

for these we affirm to be the Church.

And for what reason is it called a 'recompense' (an exchange)? Because in exchange for the Synagogue of the Jews, the Father gave to the Son the Church from among the nations.

'O my God, and I will hope upon Him.'

Do you see how great is his confidence before God? For having, as it were, wholly dedicated himself to Him, he places upon Him his every hope of being saved.

Thrice-blessed is such a one, and he shall be full of all prosperity.

'O Lord, the God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes upon You. He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunters, and from a troubling word.'

And what is the 'troubling word'? It is that which is found among the impious heretics;

for they confound the hearts of the simple, blaspheming without restraint, and understanding neither what they say nor concerning what they make their assertions.

For some of them, so far as in them lies, drag down the Son from His consubstantiality with God the Father, and bring Him down from the highest thrones, numbering Him among the creatures, and saying that the Maker and Artificer of all things has been made, and brought into existence out of nothing.

Others lie against the Holy Spirit, saying that It too is a creature;

and they pour down fire and torment upon their own heads.

What, then, does the Psalmist say concerning them? 'Sink them, O Lord, and divide their tongues';

for they have become accusers of the truth, and shield-bearers of falsehood. Troubling, therefore, is their word, for it does not possess the security of the truth.

'You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.'

For either it is unseen and hidden, and as though lurking in night and darkness, that certain men prepare snares for whomever they wish and contrive deceits;

or else openly and as in day and plainly.

Accordingly, by 'terror by night' he names the danger that still lies hidden, and the cunning concealed as though in night and darkness;

and by 'the arrow that flies by day', the plot laid as though in the light and openly.

'From the mishap and the noonday demon.'

And this befalls certain men at times.

A 'mishap', then, certain men suffer whenever the mind gives way to love of pleasure, whenever the heart grows faint and is dragged down to love of the flesh, whenever it falls into listlessness toward the works of godliness, and shrinks from the labours undertaken for virtue's sake.

God saves; for He delivers from the mishap and from listlessness—that is, from the noonday demon.

'A thousand shall fall at your side.'

By 'side' he means the left part, or rather the flank.

Therefore, even if those who plot against the worshippers of God be many, he says, and beyond number, yet you shall see them falling on this side and on that, while you yourself are marvellously saved through Him who stands before you and fights on your behalf.

For as the sacred Scripture says: 'With a hidden hand the Lord wars against Amalek, from generation to generation.' For He will not cease to save those who love Him.

'For You, O Lord, are my hope;'

'You have made the Most High your refuge.'

But it is necessary to note that certain men understand the foregoing verses otherwise, wrongly and in an adulterated fashion;

for they refer them to the very person of Christ, joining the verses and saying: 'For You, O Lord, are my hope; You have made the Most High your refuge.'

For they say that He has the Most High as His refuge—meaning, clearly, the Father who is in the heavens.

But the occasion of such a notion for them was Satan;

for he himself understood the verses in this way;

and this we may know from the writings of the Gospels.

For when he tempted Him, he brought Him up to the pinnacle of the temple, and indeed said:

'If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here.'

'For it is written: He shall give His angels charge concerning You, to keep You in all Your ways.' For being a false accuser and a deceiver, Satan applies also to the very person of Christ, the Saviour of us all, the things spoken concerning us.

But we do not understand it as Satan is wont to understand. And if the Arians have so understood it, there is nothing to wonder at;

for they follow their own father.

For Satan is a liar, and the truth has not stood firm in him, according to the word of the Saviour.

For if what they say is true, then we have made Christ our hope, while He Himself has the Father as His refuge;

and so we have fled for help to one who is himself helped, and we call Saviour one who is himself saved by another.

It is not so; God forbid!

We therefore say to those who are accustomed to think in this way:

You speak other things to us, and you proclaim to us yet another delusion.

You go outside the straight path, forsaking the royal road; you fall among thorns and pits; you have fallen away from the truth.

The Son is equal and like to the Father in all things, and He is the express image of His substance, the image and radiance of His glory; He is Most High even as the Father is.

'A scourge shall not come near your dwelling.'

The word 'dwelling' (σκήνωμα) in the God-inspired Scripture does not by any means always signify the body, but rather a city, or a region, or a house.

'If I go up upon the couch of my bed,'

'if I give sleep to my eyes, and slumber to my eyelids, and rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob. For He shall give His angels charge concerning you.'

Satan made use of these verses, applying such words as though to a mere man against Christ, the Saviour of us all.

For since he is wholly darkness, and has his understanding darkened, he did not grasp the force of what was said;

namely, that the psalm is spoken in the person of every righteous man who is helped by the Most High, who is the God of heaven.

Besides this, he was ignorant that the Word, being God, became man, and that it was He Himself who was tempted according to the economy of salvation.

But Satan, as I said, supposed that the words were spoken as of a common man, or even as of one of the holy prophets.

It is among the most absurd things that we, who know the mystery exactly and have believed that He is God and the Son of God, and that for our sake and after our likeness He became man, should suppose that these verses are spoken concerning Him.

It is therefore not fitting to the person of Christ the Saviour of us all that it should be said of Him:

the all-powerful right hand of the Father.

It ought therefore, in the case of each of the true worshippers, to be understood and spoken by the Father:

'You have made the Most High your refuge;'

'no evil shall come to you, and a scourge shall not come near your dwelling.' For the Most High, that is Christ, secures those who trust in Him and who draw near to Him with faith.

'They shall bear you up on their hands,' and so forth.

For just as fathers according to the flesh, when they see a road rough and hard to travel, snatch up their infants into their arms, lest somehow the child be hurt, having a tender foot and being unable as yet to walk over hard ground, so also do the rational powers deal with those not yet strong enough to labour, but who have, as it were, a childlike understanding: they do not allow them to toil beyond their strength, but draw them out of every temptation, lest somehow, through faintheartedness, they come under the feet of Satan and renounce their purpose of serving God.

'You shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk.'

And indeed Christ has trodden him down, and treads him down even to this very day, giving to His disciples authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.

'And you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.'

The lion, then, and the dragon and the basilisk may be understood to be Satan himself, and the wicked angels who fell away together with him, who did not keep their own first estate, for whom the gloom of darkness is reserved unto the age.

The asp and the basilisk may be understood as the lion and the dragon, and also those who are wont to serve his will, and are imitators of the perversity that is in him — the bitter, terrible, and utterly grievous ones, who differ in nothing from wild beasts, but copy also the venomousness of poisonous creatures.

And, if you will, take the serpents and the basilisks to be the inventors of unholy heresies.

Who then is he that knows His name? He who serves Him and Him alone, and worships Him alone, and knows no other God beside Him;

he who serves Him with a pure conscience, and is wholly delivered from the accusations of idolatry;

he who submits to Him the neck of his mind in ready obedience;

he who is a servant to His will;

this man has seen His name.

And whenever you hear 'name,' understand 'glory.'

For it is written that 'A good name is better than great riches,' that is, glory.

'I will fill him with length of days.'

And whom does He promise to fill with length of days? Let us run back to the beginning of the whole ode.

'He that dwells in the help of the Most High shall lodge under the shelter of the God of heaven.' If, then, anyone is under the help of the Most High and under the shelter of the God of heaven, this man shall be filled with length of days, and shall also see the salvation of God, that is, the salvation which is through Christ.

He therefore promises to those who love Him the life in the age to come, the blessed and most free from toil, and blameless, and extending unto endless ages.

The whole aim of the ode is directed to the day of the Sabbath;

for the Sabbath is, as it were, an image of the life in Christ and of the evangelical way of life, which the Saviour Himself has newly established for us, transforming the shadows of the Law into spiritual worship.] ['It is good to give thanks to the Lord.'

Confession (thanksgiving) is a hymn composed with thanksgiving unto the glory of God.

And we owe thanks to Christ, the Saviour of us all, for the good things we have received;

for being God, He appeared to us as Lord, flashing round all things with a glory befitting God, and bestowing the ray of the true knowledge of God.] ['To proclaim your mercy in the morning, and your truth by night.'

Do not suppose that in these words the Psalmist divides the force of the ode, as though it were needful to proclaim mercy in the morning but truth by night.

But we shall read the verse thus:

'To proclaim in the morning and by night,' that is, by day and by night, 'mercy and truth.' And 'to proclaim' is 'to make known';

which is to glorify. And what is that which is proclaimed? The mercy and the truth of God and the Father;

for in Him we have obtained mercy, we have been justified in faith, we have been sanctified through the Spirit, we have been redeemed from the greed of the devil, we have been appointed as sons, we have become heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

God and the Father, then, had mercy on us in Christ;

and He taught us through Him the truth, that is, the worship and service in spirit and in truth.] ['In your work.'

The 'work' is the most excellent thing, indeed the accomplishment of the counsel of God and the Father, and, as it were, the work of His hand — the power of the dispensation on our behalf — as Christ Himself taught us:

'For God so loved the world,' He says, 'that He gave His only-begotten Son;'

'that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'] 'A senseless man will not know these things.'

For it does not belong to all men simply to be able to understand so deep and venerable a mystery of Christ;

but rather to those to whom the Father Himself should reveal it.

['When the sinners spring up.']

'They sprang up,' He says, 'as grass,' that is, as a plant in a field;

and having blossomed for a little while, thereafter they peeped out and withered;

that is, they were bowed down and brought low, and went down to utter destruction — those who work iniquity against Christ.] ['But you are Most High,' and so forth.

For the only-begotten Word of God is Most High, even though He submitted Himself to a voluntary emptying and put on the lowliness of humanity, in order that He might refashion the nature of man unto incorruption, and exalt what was lowly, and honour what was dishonoured, so that by the grace of adoption He might make the slave radiant;

for He became poor together with us, though He was rich, in order that we by His poverty might become rich. The Word of God, then, is Most High, even though He became man;

for He did not cease to be God, but remained what He was.

'For You,' he says, 'O Lord, being ever the same and in like manner, remain Most High in the heights, unchanging throughout all the age, not turning, not altering, but remaining infinitely like unto Yourself;

but we the lowly, who are far removed from Your power, are borne about now from one quarter, now from another, and are changed.'] ['And he shall be exalted as the horn of the unicorn.'

They say that the unicorn is an animal upon whose forehead a single horn is raised, lofty and unbreakable;

using which against the other animals, it always conquers and prevails;

and it is strong and hard to withstand.

To this unicorn the divine Scripture likens the new people.

And when I say the new people, understand those who are justified through faith, who have conquered all the nations. [ And my eye looked upon my enemies.

) The phrase 'looked upon' means to behold one's enemies fallen and the adversaries grown feeble.

These are they who war against the truth and against the glory of God, arming their own audacity.

Of such a sort were the leaders of the Synagogue of the Jews, both the Scribes and the Pharisees.

) The sacred Text sees fit to liken to palms and cedars those who have been justified in Christ.

And such are all those who possess the righteousness that is in Christ;

for they stand firm and immovable, having a heart made white.

So too somewhere the Psalmist says:

Create in me a clean heart, O God. [ They shall still be multiplied in a fruitful old age.

) Their prosperity, he says, shall not be temporary — lest anyone should surmise this concerning the nations because they flourished — but rather in a rich old age they are multiplied and advance;

for as time goes forward the piety of the nations is multiplied. [ Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.

) By the house of the Lord and the courts he means the holy Churches, in which those who are planted through faith bear fruit in patient endurance.

They flourish, that is to say, in the Churches in their several places.

For by 'house of God' he named comprehensively the Church universal.

) For the Man who is with us, before the resurrection from the dead, when He ascended to the Father who is in the heavens, then put on His own proper majesty and girded Himself with the power that belonged to Him from the beginning;

for He has taken His seat reigning together with the Father. [(

) For although He became man according to our estate, and was seen upon the earth as one of us, He clothed Himself with a power most befitting God;

and He bore the authority which the Father Himself also possesses;

for He has abolished the ruler of this age, clearly by employing a power most befitting God.

The figure of the discourse is fashioned as concerning a king about to engage the enemy and putting on the equipment of war.

He clothed Himself, he says, with power. For He has warred on our behalf;

and through the cross He has abolished the principalities and the world-rulers of this darkness;

and He has led thrones and authorities in triumph;

and through Himself He has presented us to God and the Father.

This is the power He clothed Himself with.

And in addition to this He clothed Himself also with majesty;

and in what manner? Though He became man according to our estate;

that is, He showed us in Himself the beauty of the Godhead.

For we beheld Him as God even in His humanity. [ The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voices.

) For great indeed and extraordinary was the word which the saints uttered, and their voice went out into all the earth, as it is written, and their words unto the ends of the world.

For by 'rivers' in these words we affirm that the holy apostles are named;

whose voices, that is to say their teachings, have become known to those everywhere.

) [ For when the Lord had begun to reign, and had girded Himself with power, and had put on majesty, then also the rivers lifted up their voices. For the sacred Text often likens the Word of God to a river, a spring, and a torrent.