Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 10/40

He, therefore, who has come to a consciousness of his own sins, and who by spiritual hands has actively roused his own perception, changing from lamentation, shall take up joy as the fruit of the Spirit.

The word 'Thou hast turned' shows the change from beating the breast and grieving into joy.

And the phrase 'that I may not be pierced with compunction' he uses in the sense of 'that I may not change my mind again unto regret.'

The glory that sings praise unto God, belonging to the one who says these things, is an upright manner of life and a sincere knowledge.

It is as though to say: 'For all that befalls me, not the pleasant only but also the painful, I give thee thanks, O Master.'

He who has hoped to attain the end laid up for the saints knows that he shall not be put to shame for ever, having placed such an expectation upon the Lord.

'In thy righteousness,' he says, 'deliver me' (which is none other than the righteousness of thine Only-begotten) 'from those that surround me,' and rescue me from those who wish to make war upon me.

And since our cry does not reach up to thy height, 'Incline thine ear to me' by condescending toward me.

For when this has come about, having received my prayer, thou wilt be willing to rescue me without delay.

And here also the phrase 'Be thou to me' shows the relation of a protector toward the one protected.

He also asks that God may become for him a house of refuge for salvation, so that, being encompassed as by a stronghold hard to capture and unconquerable, he may be saved and remain unharmed.

'Of this I have already had experience many times and always,' he says, 'that thou art my strength and my refuge,' since thy name has been made my own.

For I am named as thy man or thy servant.

Even if I am not worthy to obtain the things I ask, yet for the sake of thy name thou wilt guide me toward salvation, and thou wilt nourish me, providing thy heavenly bread.

It is the earnest concern of good men, not so much that the body be kept unwounded by enemies, as that the mind and the understanding be so kept.

Since, then, his war is against deceivers and those cunning to beguile, and these have set themselves not to strike the flesh but to wound the mind, he commits his spirit into the hands of God, which are able to preserve it.

And the Saviour too, when hung upon the cross, with his hands wounded and his feet pierced according to the prophetic word, made use of the saying 'Into thy hands I will commit.'

By 'the hands of God' one must understand none other than his providential and protecting powers.

It is to be noted that 'the spirit of man' is spoken of in many senses.

For when he says that the virgin is eager to be holy in spirit and in body, he means by 'spirit' the understanding.

The designation 'spirit' signifies the soul.

But in the passage, 'For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him,' no other spirit is signified than that which is joined to the soul yet is other than it, which is also called conscience.

For the conscience of a man, which is aware of his thoughts, is something other than the soul.

For the soul is the man himself, not the thoughts.

Since, then, 'the spirit of man' appears in three ways, consider according to which meaning one must take the phrase 'Into thy hands I will commit my spirit.'

For my part, I am content that the passage before us hold true according to all three senses.

'When I had been seized by my foes,' he says, 'and had already become a captive, thou didst redeem me, O Lord, who art also the God of truth, and of the truth of the Only-begotten that is in each of those who partake of it.'

In general, everyone who keeps vanity does so in vain, either because it is unstable, or because vanity comes to be emptily and superfluously.

And since this is hateful to God, it makes hateful those who preserve it.

'Lowliness' at one time denotes freedom from pride, which it is customary to call humility, and at another the affliction suffered under enemies.

And it is a good thing that God looks upon lowliness in either sense.

What follows accords with taking 'lowliness' as the affliction.

'For thou hast saved my soul out of necessities,' he says, calling 'necessities' the distressing circumstances, from which, when his soul has been delivered, it is not shut up into the hands of the enemy that oppresses.

But if 'the broad place' be spoken of in the same way as the broad and spacious way (and this is the love of pleasure), then he gives thanks to the one who has granted him stability and a firm footing in this life.

For what he says is of this sort:

'Being in the earthly region, where living is slippery and perilous because of the pleasures that lie in ambush, thou hast given my soul a firm standing, that I may not be carried this way and that by the passions.'

But if he should speak of 'the broad place' as something praiseworthy, he will say:

'Since, being afflicted, I am not straitened, as I endure in my toils, being enlarged, so to speak, through the glory that comes from adversities, I will say:

Thou hast set my feet in a broad place.'

The poor man is not necessarily weak (for many poor are strong), nor is he who is lacking in strength necessarily poor.

But in spiritual things, since strength is the same as wealth, he who is rich in good works has strength.

'Since I became poor, having turned away from the wealth that beholds' (and this is the divine wealth), 'my strength has grown weak.'

It is to be noted that he said 'the state' in place of 'the one who has it.'

For it is not the strength that grows weak, but the one who has it, just as we say that it is not knowledge that is ignorant, but the one who has held it.

In agreement with these things is what is said by Paul concerning Christ:

'That we might become the righteousness of God in him.'

For here too he called those who have righteousness 'righteousness.'

The enemies, being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, not only are not ashamed nor think they bear any reproach for the evils they do, but on the contrary glory in them, so that it is said of them:

'Whose glory is in their shame.'

They boast in the very things for which they ought to be reproached:

'Be ashamed, therefore, of your boasting and reproach before the Lord;'

wherefore these too shall rise up unto reproach and everlasting shame.

But he who has perceived himself to have come into the aforesaid poverty confesses that he is one to be reproached.

'Beyond all my enemies I have become a reproach, but even beyond all those who are near me in dwelling,' that is, those who share the same opinion.

Those who assail me with attention, having perceived from what wealth I have fallen into poverty, and being cautious lest they suffer the same, were eager to be outside my condition.

But even, though I was formerly a vessel precious and useful to the master, I have been made worthless, so as to seem to have perished.

A teacher might say these things when he is blamed by those who seem to be about him because they are supposedly learning, yet who are sojourners and do not abide in the teachings, in that they do not dwell within them.

'Since I heard the blame with which many of those round about me are blamed, in that they do not dwell but only sojourn among our teachings, for this reason I have become a vessel that is lost.'

In harmony with this is the saying, 'Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not inflamed?' 'In the sheltering and guarding powers which are called thy hands, my lots are found,' that is, all the things allotted to me together according to thy judgment, whether to be delivered from them or to suffer them.

For I do not think that anything happens by chance.

The authorities that are given, they say, whether as rulers or teachers, or having some other pre-eminence, are named their 'lots.'

These, then, are in the hands of God.

For as he himself sets up, so also he removes kings.

Even if, therefore, on account of the pre-eminence that is present with me, some should come upon me wishing to displace it, they will not be able, because all my affairs are in thy hands.

He does not simply hide his goodness from those who fear him (for they behold much of it), but rather its abundance, lest they be harmed.

For he stores it up for them.

Make it manifest to them, when, having come to be in perfect love, they cast out fear.

These very things which you hid from those who fear you, you have now made manifest in effectual power to those who possess hope beyond fear. 'Before the sons of men.'

By 'men' you may understand those who have preserved the rational faculty and the image undistorted; and by their 'sons,' those who have become their disciples and imitators in a rational manner.

By the 'hiddenness of the face of God' you may understand that which is not now attainable to knowledge, but which shall then be made manifest, when 'we shall see him as he is.'

In contrast to this hiddenness stands what is said by Paul:

'That which is known of him has been made manifest to men,' that is, his creative and providential power.

For following upon 'God has made it manifest,' it is said:

'For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly perceived, being understood by the things that are made.'

Perhaps also the Saviour, being the face of God, has as hidden all that pertains to the Godhead, but as manifest all that pertains to the economy.

Therefore, when the Word, having become flesh, tabernacles among us, we are hidden away in the hiddenness of his face, being about to behold it when we shall behold 'his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.'

Consider too whether even the manifest works of providence can be his face;

for through them we form an image of God;

but as hidden are his ineffable reasons according to which the things that come to pass come to pass, which we shall know at the consummation of affairs. 'From the tumult of men.'

Setting those who hope in him outside of this tumult, God hides them away in the hiddenness of his face according to all the aforesaid modes.

'You shall shelter them in a tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues.'

He who is perfect, having withdrawn from all further progress, contemplates the truth itself, on account of which he cannot be deceived; but he who is still succeeding in the course of progress has need of God to shelter him in a tabernacle, that is, from the diverse tongues, or rather the diverse false opinions.

For it is said to the perfect one:

'And every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall overcome them all.'

For every heterodox teaching rises up, wishing to be judged against the mind of the Church.

But the perfect one, who thinks the things of the Church, will overcome them all.

The mercy of God is not so much worthy of wonder when it is displayed in cities that are at ease and spread wide open, as when it is marveled at at the time when he comes to be in a beleaguered city;

so that on this account also God is greatly to be blessed, when those delivered from grave circumstance bless him.

The word 'ecstasy' signifies derangement of mind, but it also denotes the amazement that comes with astonishment;

the present expression signifies the second of these meanings.

'In ecstasy,' that is, having come to be in astonishment, 'I said: I am cast away, then, from before your eyes'—that is, I seemed to have become far from your beholding and watchful powers; and since, being thus disposed, I entreated not to remain cast away but that the face of your eyes might appear to me.

'Therefore you heard the voice of my supplication when I cried to you.'

Since the truth is one—the truth which said 'I am the truth'—many truths subsist in those who partake of the one, each soul possessing a truth, an impress which it has received from the only-begotten Truth.

Since, then, the Lord seeks out all these truths, he wishes to honor upon them those who possess them.

For this reason, 'his holy ones, seek him out,' not resting upon the truth you have without reward.

And since the psalm has many hidden things, the reader has need of understanding, that he may be able to comprehend each of the things obscurely stated.

They say that the difference between iniquities and sins is of this sort:

the sins of those who have accepted no law whatsoever are called iniquities, while those committed in transgression of a law are named sins.

Blessed, then, are those whose iniquities are forgiven, who are now coming forward to the divine word;

'forgiveness' is said in regard to iniquities, but 'covering over' in regard to sins, since iniquities are wholly remitted.

For those who sin apart from a law are pardonable, whereas the hidden sins are not wholly remitted but are overshadowed out of love;

'For love covers a multitude of sins.'

Some apply the 'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven' to those who have obtained the laver unto forgiveness of sins, and the 'And whose sins are covered' to those who out of repentance have covered over their sins.

But there are those who take the former of the believing Gentiles, and the latter of those from the circumcision who have received the Saviour.

The sinless one is called not simply 'man' (anthropos) but 'man' (aner), on account of his perfection.

Thus, then, God does not reckon sin either by forgiving it or by its never having come to be at all.

For this will fit Christ most of all according to the economy;

and the 'There is no guile in his mouth' must likewise be understood either as his having cast off guile or as his never having had it.

There is no guile in the mouth of one who has a true and blameless word.

Illumined by the true light, I passed my time in day and throughout the whole of this I cried out, hymning and praying.

Since, then, out of inattention I fell silent from this crying, the strong and vigorous parts of the doctrines, which are called my 'bones,' were made old.

This signifies the falling away of the one who speaks these things, in that they were made old and his bones were not old by nature.

And it has been said in the foregoing that, as in many places of Scripture, the chastising power of God is named his 'hand.'

This, then, he says lay heavily upon him day and night, that is, continually, on account of his change for the worse.

The Saviour interpreted the cares of this life, together with its pleasures and deceits of this age, as 'thorns.'

One must know that a person becomes wretched by change and turning, not being such by nature.

The word signifies one who is pitiable and to be pitied.

And the 'a thorn was fixed in' shows that it was not by nature but entered upon him from without.

Being pricked, then, by this, 'I was turned to wretchedness,' the wretchedness that comes through repentance and through the corrective admonition from the Lord;

'For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives.'

that he may recover his former health.

He who has fallen into sin, insofar as he wishes to practice it, shelters and hides it; but he who has come to hate it makes it manifest to the one able to heal it, disclosing it through confession.

But he also uncovers the iniquity that corresponds to it;

for iniquity is a species of sin;

for everyone who commits iniquity sins, though not everyone who sins commits iniquity.

It can be said in parallel, especially on account of the 'Everyone who commits sin also commits iniquity, and sin is iniquity.'

But saying, in a practical manner, 'I will confess against myself the iniquity which I have committed,' I received more than I asked for;

for God forgave not only this but also the impiety of the heart.

And an impiety of the heart can be the discontent with providence that befalls the many, arising from the apparent irregularity of affairs.

Even if the holy ones are pure from practical iniquity, yet they often have their reasonings defiled by the aforesaid impiety of the heart.

And indeed, it is not concerning iniquity, which those who pray do not have, but concerning the impiety that they will pray, asking for its forgiveness at a suitable time.

And a suitable time for prayer concerning the aforesaid forgiveness is when one is pure from filthy conduct.

And just as one who is wholly wounded, being concerned about a scratch, will not require the physician's treatment for it, but has his whole body intact and finds himself afflicted in the scratch alone—so no one filled with abominable deeds will pray concerning the purity of his reasonings, but only every holy one.

When a flood of many spiritual waters comes to pass, one having within himself a spring of water welling up unto eternal life—that is, when the waters make to vanish all sins and the impiety of heart concerning them—then impiety and iniquity shall not draw near to the one who has prayed on their behalf.

The one who speaks these things thinks that he can find deliverance from the surrounding affliction in no other way than by fleeing for refuge to Christ.

As righteousness and wisdom, so also the exultation of the earnest man is Jesus.

He says, then, to Him, as one who is our exultation:

'Deliver me from those who persecute me';

for I shall suffer no evil, since You are my deliverer.

That is to say: Do not, by casting off the exercise of reason, fall into an irrational condition, so as to become like a horse in its raging lust, or like a mule in its being hardened toward evil;

for such an impulse belongs to those who have no understanding.

The prophet says to God:

those who have become like horses because of their skittish and unbridled nature, and like a hard-mouthed mule, You tame by curbing their jaws with the bit of Your word and the muzzle of the fitting exhortation, and drawing them by Your bridle, by which You will lead them under Your yoke.

The tractable and obedient draw near to God by a voluntary impulse; but those aforementioned, who through want of understanding have become like a horse and a mule, will be brought to You by the aforesaid constraint of the colt-tamers.

Those who have set right the moral life are righteous, exulting in the Lord; and the upright, to whom praise is fitting, are those who have escaped every crookedness of false opinion.

For to these it is fitting to praise God, since 'Praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner.'

The word 'confession' here too signifies thanksgiving.

This, then, is to be rendered upon the harp.

And if the body were a harp, its stretched strings would be none other than the senses;

for when we are struck in our hearing by divine instruction, and behold with our sight heaven and the things in it, so as to marvel at their Maker, and when we use the other senses in a praiseworthy manner, then, rhythmically and harmoniously, we make confession to the Lord upon this harp.

But if someone should take the soul to be the harp, then its faculties—such as the memorative, the assenting, the dissenting, and the others—being struck according to reason after the manner of strings by the mind, will make musical confession to the Lord.

They say that the harp produces its sound from the lower parts, but the psaltery from the upper parts, together with its being entirely straight throughout.

Since, then, the soul has been assigned to be the harp, the spirit of the man that is within him—being perhaps not other than the mind—is the psaltery, playing to none other than to God.

For when we employ right conceptions and take to our spirit the Holy Spirit, then it is that we play upon the ten-stringed psaltery.

And perhaps its perfection is set forth by its having ten strings.

For one may find this number continually celebrated in the Scriptures.

Indeed, to the hierophant Moses God gave no more than ten general precepts, and the people are commanded to offer tithes.

He who is zealous to hymn God through all things will also make melody to God with his voice, uttering a new song akin to the New Covenant and to the newness of the Spirit, so that not only with harp and psaltery but also with the voice he may render God gracious.

He wishes also that one should play in a praiseworthy manner with a shout of triumph;

and the shout of triumph is a cry.

It is that which is made all together and inarticulately against vanquished foes; then he says, 'Play well,' whenever, having conquered, you shout in triumph over the enemies.

The word of the Lord, which He gives to those who pursue the things of knowledge, is upright, having nothing crooked of deceit.

But also the works corresponding to this word, which His workmen perform, are accomplished in faith; and the works which the word of God does are in faith, that is, firm and immovable; and the word by which He governs and provides is upright.

And if one should call His upright word the Word who is God, one would find the works that He wrought in this Word to be accomplished in faith;

for the wonders of Jesus prove to be His works according to the faith of those toward whom they were done;

for 'According to your faith be it done unto you.'

Either God Himself, or His upright word, on the one hand approves judgment, in that the virtues which are outraged by the wicked must be vindicated; and on the other hand cherishes mercy, in His own goodness succoring those who are brought to judgment.

For if all their works were closely scrutinized, no one would be able to stand.

Wherefore also, before judgment, He loves mercy.

For if the opposite were the case, the whole would utterly perish.

The heavens were made firm, having what is most incorruptible;

for such is the nature of the heavens.

But when the heavens are taken allegorically as all those who bear the image of the heavenly One, being so called, their firm fixity and stability comes to be by the word of the Lord, while their power, according to which they are powerful, is procured from no other source than from the Holy Spirit.

And with this text pious men concur that the Holy Spirit is creative.

Just as water contained in a wineskin or in some other vessel is not permitted to pour out beyond what contains it, so the vast water of the sea is confined by a certain boundary, not being allowed to overpass the appointed bounds.

For if it were not held back by the command of God, it would have flooded the whole earth.

But consider whether this too is not indicated:

since, summoning the water of the sea, He pours it out upon all the earth by means of the rains—His command, after the manner of a wineskin, drawing up the water and raising it aloft into the air, so that from the gathered clouds rain is brought down upon the earth.

But allegorically, the life of men is in many places called a sea, on account of the unstable and briny character of those upon the earth.

This life, then, being scattered like a great surge, He gathered together—it being called the waters of the sea—as into a wineskin, namely the body which the Saviour assumed, that it might become calm and serene.

'Laying up the deeps in storehouses.'

Nothing in creation is borne along in a disorderly manner;

for holding each thing together as it were in storehouses by His own will, He releases and restrains it as seems good to Him.

These being borne along not of themselves but by the will of their Maker, at one time shut up, at another brought forth.

But also, opening the storehouse of good things, heaven, He gives rain to the seed of the earth, just as again He withholds the rain by shutting up heaven, as in the case of the prophet Elijah;

and so too the deeps, being capable, on account of the boundless multitude of their waters, of causing harm, He lays up in storehouses, shutting them in, so that whenever He wills He may make use of them as is profitable, according to the season.

But He may also have laid up the incomprehensible things of His thoughts and the unsearchable things of His judgments—which are deeps—in the hidden storehouses of knowledge and wisdom, so that no one attains to this of himself, unless somehow God should grant it.

Since, when He spoke they came to be, and when He commanded they were created, let them be shaken by Him;

for it belongs to the Maker also to alter for the better.

The word 'They came to be' signifies the bringing into being of the things that were led into existence, while 'They were created' signifies the ordering and arrangement that came about after the bringing into being.

And if by God speaking and commanding all things came to be and were created, then He by whom He spoke and commanded is none other than the creative Word;

and this is the Son of God.

'For the things which the holy God has purposed, who shall scatter?' Just as, from the things we know, Scripture speaks in human fashion concerning God, as though He had hands and eyes and the other members, so it also speaks of a heart of His—that is, so to say, His deliberative and intellective activity.

The reasonings of this heart, then, being fitted and firm, extend from generation to generation; that is, throughout every succession within a generation the divine reasonings abide.

Or perhaps the reasonings which He cast into the generation from the circumcision, these He casts into the generation drawn from the believing Gentiles;

for the Gentiles have not been called to other things, but to those very things which they of the circumcision had, hidden in a shadow.

Now not men only dwell upon the earth, but also invisible spirits and the other mortal living creatures.

Unto all, then, who are upon the earth the providential care of God extends, as He watches over them from His aforementioned dwelling place.

Since God knows not only the things done but also the intention from which they are wrought, He is said not to see but to understand all their works.

That a king is not saved through much power, you will learn from history;

Pharaoh, then, had a great army in battle array, but 'His chariots and his host God cast into the sea.'

And all history is full of such things.

And He said that the giant, the exceedingly strong one, will not be saved in the might that is present with him;

and you will see this by attending to the case of Goliath.

But if the appellation also signifies the one who fights against God, neither will he be saved in the multitude of the strength of the tenets of ungodliness which he holds.

The strong one, then, so called, one may find in Isaiah, who says 'a giant and a mighty one'; and the one who fights against God, again, in the same prophet.

And Nimrod was a giant hunter before the Lord.

The horse, to be sure, is prepared for the day of battle, but from the Lord comes the help.

Since the illumination that streams forth from the eyes of God is life, those who are devout, having partaken of it and set their hope upon his mercy, may be delivered from the death that follows upon wickedness, so that their souls are made alive.

But moreover, partaking of the heavenly bread — and this is the Word of God — they are nourished in the midst of famine.

By 'famine' he means not the scarcity of perceptible foods but the deprivation of divine teachings.

In harmony with this is the saying, 'I will bring a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.'

Since we are not sufficient in ourselves to help ourselves or to fight on our own behalf, knowing God to be a helper and a protector, we wait patiently for him with the soul, that is, from the depth of the mind.

And perhaps also those who before his coming were unable to aid themselves waited in expectation for the helper, protector, and Saviour who was to come.

And in him our heart shall rejoice.

Others rejoice over some transient thing, their soul dissolving in it whenever such a thing is at hand; but we have in the Lord divine and eternal gladness, possessing not a bodily well-being but that of mind and heart.

Therefore we also hope in his holy name, praying to partake of his holiness, which shall be for us a cause of sanctification.

Just as those cast into the furnace in Babylon, hymning God for not being harmed by the fire, summoned all creation to this task, knowing that they were not sufficient for so great a thing — for it is a great matter to hymn God —

so also he who says 'Magnify the Lord with me' wishes either all creation or the meek to run together with him in this.

But to magnify God is not to increase his greatness — for he is without magnitude;

this is proper to bodies, but God is incorporeal — rather, it is to think and speak of him as great, not with reference to himself but with reference to us.

Now those who are fitted together in the same mind and the same judgement exalt his name in unity.

The appellation of God is exalted by created beings, not as though it were lifted up from something lowly, but when those who apprehend it think nothing earthbound but rather things lofty and heavenly.

For just as men profane the name of God — not that the name itself is defiled, but insofar as those who bear it act and think profanely — so too it is hallowed by our works;

whence the Saviour, among other things, says this too, teaching in the prayer, 'Hallowed be thy name' — not that the name itself in its own right becomes holy from being unholy.

For we must pray that it be hallowed in us, who think and act in a holy manner.