Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 17/40

Those who are attached to material things and set their minds on earthly matters, by being subject to passions, think that they possess stability and freedom from disturbance in them; but such a state brings them harm;

wherefore it is profitable, by God's mercy, that it be shaken and troubled by way of repentance.

For when the soul has come to know how harmful it is to be entangled in material things and to have as its mind's frame a disturbance and shaking, being transferred from its former base life to an earnest one, indeed even being crushed, having perceived the ruin that has arisen from the demons, it will call upon the Lord who is able to heal these things.

And if anyone receives these things unto a change of mind from former sins, he drinks the wine of compunction, taking from the draught an occasion for being pricked to repentance.

In many places of Scripture harsh, distressing things bear the same name as unmixed wine, as in 'A cup of unmixed wine in the hand of the Lord.'

And harsh things share the same name also with the aforesaid 'hard ways';

in another psalm he speaks thus:

'Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways.'

For there the 'hard ways' are said to be those according to virtue, because they are accomplished with much sweat and toil; but here the people saw hard things, having experienced afflictive ones.

And it is given not to chance persons, but to the godly according to God, as a sign.

'That your beloved may be delivered,' remaining unharmed, from before the bow, you gave the aforesaid sign.

Then they will be able to be delivered from invisible foes, when your right hand saves, your only-begotten Son.

For he has often been interpreted as the right hand of God, especially when it stood written, 'I have secured you by my righteous right hand,' and, 'By my right hand I established the heaven.'

It must be observed that the order of utterance is the reverse of the order of thought.

For first God, having hearkened, saves; and this is the proper sequence, though the text has, after 'Save,' the words 'Hear me' — unless indeed it be understood thus:

'Having saved me by your right hand, hear me,' the prayer being mine, who have been saved, not about being saved (for that has already been said) but requesting divine goods, which are the gifts of the divine Spirit.

And the beloved of God are those who, through nobility of soul, are worthy to be loved by him;

the men made according to the image of God, even if in the highest degree they have fallen under sin, yet nevertheless, on account of the soul's substance being intellectual and rational, they may be his beloved.

God speaks in everyone who partakes of holiness.

Thus, then, Christ spoke also in Paul, who was holy, and in every prophet.

But if the voice is taken concerning the Father, the holy one in whom the Savior speaks would be in agreement with, 'The Father who abides in me does the works,' and, 'The Father has given me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak';

these things fit the economy of the incarnation.

He who here prays, knowing himself to be far from the one to whom he sends up his prayer, says that he is 'from the ends of the earth' and that he cried to God then, when he grew despondent;

for as it says in Ecclesiastes, 'God is in heaven above, and you are on earth below.'

And it is signified through the wording not a local separation but a difference between uncreated substance and creatures, the existence of God being spoken of as 'above in heaven' by reason of the eminence of his honor, while that of man is 'below on earth,' inasmuch as he has come from non-being into being.

Looking to this difference, the Baptist too says that the Savior is 'from above, from heaven,' but that man is 'from the earth' and speaks from the earth;

for he declares that it is possible to speak to a creature.

He who comes to be upon this rock, by partaking of it (for it is wisdom and righteousness and sanctification), is lifted up, exalted according to the mind by God.

And those who have resolved to follow the Savior according to his exhortations — when he says, 'Come after me,' and again to Philip, 'Follow me' — using him as their guide, share in the same exaltation, not hoping to find any other leader of the road that leads to the Cause of all.

Having obtained this gift, David too says to the Lord with a hymn: 'Thou hast guided me, because Thou hast become my hope.'

And Thou hast become for me not only a guide but also a tower from before the face of the enemy.

For having Thee as my strength and as a tower of strength, I have remained unharmed, even though the enemy stands over against me and desires to make war upon me.

Let Him who has begun to build this tower, as having already laid the foundations, bring the building to completion, so as even to set a coping upon the edifice, that thou mayest not incur shame from those passing by who are accustomed to jeer at those who do not carry through to the end the manner of life they had chosen.

It may bear a reference to the phrase 'From before the face of the enemy' and to 'Thou hast guided me,' in some such connected sequence:

'Thou hast guided me from before the face of the enemy, having become my hope; but also, in addition to having guided me from before the face of the enemy, Thou hast become for me a tower of strength.'

The Saviour is the true and unfailing hope of the saints, of whom Paul says, 'And of Jesus Christ our hope,' and as the prophecy declares, 'In Him shall the nations hope.'

For He it is who was proclaimed beforehand as being destined to be 'the expectation of the nations.'

But someone, having been perfected in holiness, [will dwell] unto the ages in that tabernacle, which is signified by 'Who shall dwell in Thy holy mountain?'; for this is eternal, being the same as the tabernacle 'which the Lord pitched, and not man.'

Yet even if such a tabernacle possesses such perfection as even to be a Holy of Holies, nevertheless there is beyond it a condition surpassing that of rational beings, according to which they shall be in the Father and the Son, or rather in the Trinity.

Therefore it is said that one 'sojourns' unto the ages, but not that one 'dwells permanently' in the tabernacle.

He who has come to be in this house shall be sheltered under the covering of the wings of God.

'For being rich,' he says, 'and bestowing great gifts, or rather graciously granting to perfect men to become Thy sons, Thou hast given them an inheritance.'

For even if it is expected to be given at the resurrection in the age to come, nevertheless it is given by the very fact of its having been already prepared for those who are to be brought to it at the fitting time.

'And upon those who fear His name God has bestowed an inheritance.'

If there is any distinction between those who fear God and those who fear His name — between those who believe in Him and those who believe in His name — since it has often been said that those made familiar with the mere appellation of God are inferior to those united to God Himself, observe how the inheritance is given even to those who fear God.

For if this grace has belonged to the inferior, much more does it belong to those who have ascended higher.

He who has obtained the gifts that have been expounded is a king, in the sense in which it is said of the godly that they are 'a royal priesthood, a holy nation.'

Expecting to reign in this signified sense, the apostles too say to the Corinthians: 'Without us ye have reigned, that we also might reign together with you.'

To the king who has thus come to be, years are added by the Lord, as day is led on upon day.

For one must pass from a former state of light into another likewise possessed of light, so that from what is called 'of days' the eternal years may be filled up, concerning which it is said, 'And I remembered the eternal years, and I meditated.'

And the life of those who receive day upon day is prolonged until the day of a generation of generations before God.

'His mercy and truth, who shall seek out?' In many places of the divine teachings His mercy is joined together with the truth of God;

so that perhaps, since it is not possible for one clothed with human weakness to know the truth of God purely and unmixedly, on this account there is need of the mercy of God in addition to the understanding of the truth.

There tends toward what has been set forth the desire that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

For first one must be saved by the mercy of God, in order that the knowledge of the truth may follow accordingly.

For the salvation of men is a work of the mercy of God.

'For God sent forth His mercy and His truth,' and what follows.

'Since I have obtained from Thee the things I asked, having thus become thankful, I will sing psalms to Thy name,' hymning by works and thoughts and good words the appellation of Thine that has been called upon me;

and in addition to this, day by day I will pay what I have vowed, even as Jacob says, 'If God will give me bread to eat,' and what follows, 'of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee.'

For before these words there stands the phrase, 'Jacob vowed a vow,' saying 'If the Lord will be with me,' down to 'I will surely give the tenth of them.'

Well too is it said 'day by day to pay the vows and to sing psalms to the name of God unto the age of the age,' in that the singing of psalms to the name of Him who is hymned is extended to the age to come, while the paying of the vows is fulfilled while yet the time made up of days continues;

and this is the time measured out to the life of each one.

As long, then, as we are in this life, let us pay our vows, that we may also be able to sing psalms unto the age of the age to the name of God.

2. Everyone who falls away from virtue into vice is shaken;

but this does not happen all at once, since a prior disturbance arises in the reasonings through the passions, after which, if a corresponding deed be taken up, there comes to the disturbed reasonings a tottering and a fall.

When, therefore, a shameful desire or some other irrational impulse begins, one must check by pious reasoning, with God's help, the rush toward the deed, lest the tottering become greater.

These things the Saviour plainly teaches in the Gospel, doing away with the beginnings of sins, lest, if they remain, the further shaking come to pass in deed.

He who is founded and rooted in love is an unshaken wall and has a secured hedge, so that the wicked men and the evil powers who pass by the way may not despoil him.

Around him who thus securely possesses a hedge God casts a fence, saying, 'And I made a palisade and set a hedge about it.'

For this hedge is composed of angels who keep guard, of doctrines of truth, and of deeds accomplished according to virtue.

While this remains, no one will be able to harm the divine fruits of the spiritual plant.

But if it should ever happen that the guarded vineyard brings forth thorns instead of grapes, God, forsaking it, says, 'I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling.'

If indeed this comes to pass because of the base fruit produced from us, the wall becomes inclined and the hedge is pushed down.

The honour of the wise man, which the wicked plot to thrust away, is virtue and godliness, according to the saying, 'Glory and honour and peace to everyone who works good.'

Vice, then, is dishonour, into which those who fall, perceiving what they have suffered, say, 'Our dishonour has covered us for affliction.'

To this you will also refer the saying, 'Man being in honour understood not.'

Then, since the deceivers who press upon us cannot drag us into vice by force, he did not say 'They thrust away my honour' but 'They plotted to thrust it away';

for they are not able to overcome one who resists mightily.

Akin to these are those concerning whom Paul writes, 'By fair speech and flattering words deceiving the hearts of the innocent.'

Of the same mind is the saying, 'If thy enemy entreat thee with a loud voice, be not persuaded;

for there are seven wickednesses in his soul,' arising perhaps from the seven spirits which the unclean spirit takes along, being more wicked than itself.

'Should he who has the seven wickednesses in his own soul supplicate, saying flatteringly 'In the morning bright and pleasant things,' be not persuaded;

for blessing with the mouth, he curses in the heart.'

'I shall not be removed' — for he becomes a wanderer who through sin is estranged from God, according to what is written concerning Jacob, 'He grew fat, he became thick, and he departed from God his saviour.'

'With God upholding me, I have not become a wanderer'; whence the salvation and glory which I have rest upon God;

for I was not saved by my own power or skill.

He says that he has glory in God, which the only God gives to those who seek Him, and salvation — not that of the flesh, but that of the rational soul — which he who has believed in the Trinity possesses, according to what is said, 'Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of souls.'

Wherefore, even if something again should force me into commotion, I place my hope upon Him who has often saved me.

'All ye congregations of the peoples who have believed from among the nations, that ye may no longer be godless and without hope, hope upon Him without any craftiness, laying open your hearts before Him;

for God will become for you a helper.'

The same as 'pouring out one's heart before Him' is loving Him with the whole soul and with the whole heart.

For in many places 'to pour out' is used for rich abundance and lavish supply, as in the phrase, 'The love of God has been poured out in your hearts through the Holy Spirit.'

And a great [weight] but a true balance, since a double weight is an abomination to the Lord.

It must be said whether these things are meant also literally, for those who have dealings with contracts and fellowship;

for in every matter righteousness is to be desired;

for those who run together into vanity are made vain upon the same thing, always having a vain agreement and pursuit.

The phrase 'sons of men' signifies periphrastically those who die like men, in that they are no longer gods and sons of the Most High; according to which sense it is written, 'For where there is strife and jealousy among you, are ye not carnal and walking according to man?' and 'It is not possible to serve God and mammon, nor indeed to hope for gain by unrighteousness and for God.'

If the wealth of him who does not plunder and does not do wrong should seem to flow away and diminish, one ought not to set one's heart upon it, lest one seem to be grieved at the diminishing of one's goods.

Since the word 'unrighteousness' sometimes signifies the inequality in contracts and partnerships, as in 'But ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren,' and sometimes signifies all practical vice, as when it is said, 'I have hated and abhorred unrighteousness,' one must consider in which signification of the word it is here presented.

One will say that the former is indicated, because there are joined to it rapine and flowing wealth; the other, that the latter is meant, according to what is said, 'But he who loves iniquity.'

For since this is a general form, the plundering that concerns money also belongs to it.

Being incorporeal, God—or rather, existing beyond every created and intelligible substance—has nothing intertwined with Himself.

Whence, when He speaks 'once'—that is, in a single form and without composition—He speaks; and it is no longer I who hear it in that same manner.

For what was spoken 'once' I heard as being two, according to the demonstration; for the utterance of these things is demonstrative.

For the utterance of these is demonstrative.

When He speaks with pure understanding and uncompounded voice, I hear it as though the things spoken were two, there arising alongside in my imagination what is called by some the 'expressible' (lekton), which is in truth ineffable, since He speaks with understanding and an uncompounded voice.

And consider whether this is what the Apostle wishes to convey when he writes that he heard 'unspeakable words'—the things he heard being unspeakable in that they consist not of syllables and sounds, yet are 'words' because the thought possesses that which holds the truth.

For where the truth is, there is a proposition.

And a proposition must necessarily consist of a noun and a verb.

We make use of vocal organs, and we are unable to say many things at once.

Therefore, when God speaks once and all at once, we hear in a twofold manner.

Attend to whether it is possible to speak even of a third.

When God once gives a command concerning sacrifice—say—we hear the commandment both sensibly and spiritually, just as we understand in two ways circumcision, spoken of once by God: the one bodily, the other spiritual.

Whether the discourse here presents the Father as God and the Son as Lord, or whether it calls the same One both God and Lord at once—now consider this;

for in either case what is contemplated is both pious and true.

But it must be inquired how He 'renders to each according to his works.'

For if the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed, then also he who has wrought blameworthy deeds is not punished according to the worth of what he did.

'For if You should mark iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who shall stand?' How is this to be understood in terms of equality? One must attend, lest it be reckoned not according to quantity but according to quality; and even if quantity is indicated by the expression, that things greater than the desert of what was done are given, in a praiseworthy manner, to the righteous, and that the chastisement is lessened.

For the equality is not according to corrective justice, but according to distributive justice—the equal and the unequal.

This is accomplished by one who has come to be outside ignorance and vice, so as to say, 'The night is far spent, and the day is at hand.'

With this accords the verse, 'Out of the night my spirit rises early to You, O God.'

How could he say 'I rise early' unless the dawn had come upon him? But the phrase 'I rise early to You' is not to be understood locally.

For God is not in a place, but in a disposition, since a relation toward God comes to be in the one who has leapt beyond sensible things;

for upon this follows the coming to God.

And it is well said, 'O God, my God.'

For God is the God of the saints who worship Him, and is absolutely their God—not of all who have being, since some are also cut off.

The belly, indeed, being the god of those given over to indulgence, is not simply called god; nor are the demons properly gods, though they are called the gods of the nations;

whence only, and every one who is truly wise, will say to Him who is by nature and truly God, 'O God, my God.'

'You will draw away my longing from all present things;'

I thirst in my soul to be toward God, who will supply me with a spring of water leaping up unto eternal life.

And since, when the soul is benefited and enlightened, the flesh too partakes of these things, the flesh itself also thirsts in whatever measure it can toward God and His power and His glory.

And if it be the Father toward whom he thirsts, His power and glory are the Only-begotten.

For Christ is the power of God, being Himself also the glory concerning which it is said, 'The glory of the Lord shall be seen.'

And if the Son is His glory and power, the theology concerning Him and the wonder-working operation belong to Him, according to what is written in the Gospel: 'Power went forth from Him and healed all,' and again, 'And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.'

Correspondingly to this power, you will also understand the things concerning His glory, both from 'We beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten,' and from 'Glorify Me, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.'

Consequently, to each you will assign your interpretation of 'In the sanctuary I appeared to You, since my soul thirsted for You, my flesh in what measure it could, in a land desert and untrodden and waterless.'

And see whether it is the region concerning earth that is indicated by the expression—being desert of perfection and waterless in that it does not possess abundantly the gifts of the Spirit, which are called 'rivers of living water' going forth from the belly of him who has believed;

wherefore it is also untrodden, since none of those who are in every possible way made like to God tarries upon it.

For how is the interpreted region not desert, when the knowledge in it is only in part, and waterless, when the pledge of the Spirit in it is only partial? For it is not called desert and waterless by reason of a total privation of inhabitants and of those who tread it and of water, but because these things come to be in it rarely and briefly.

But the matter before us must also be taken in another way;

he who is outside vice and ignorance is desert of these; and he who is also outside the moistness of the passions is waterless, so as to be already untrodden by the worse powers, because there is not found in him a place for the devil or any other worse spirit.

And so, even if the unclean spirit should sometime dare to approach such waterless places, it passes through them, finding no rest among them;

for they are filled with all good things which drive away and wear down every wicked power.

One who happens to appear in the land interpreted in either way as desert and untrodden and waterless, thirsts in holy longing with his soul toward God, his flesh also following after in what measure it can.

But another reading is also transmitted: 'And my flesh melted away,' concerning which the following must be said:

when my soul thirsts toward God, the flesh melts, having laid aside the grossness which is constituted of shameful desires and the other passions.

To this you will apply the Gospel saying that runs thus:

'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'

For when one has willingness of soul thirsting toward God, the flesh, melting, is weak as to drawing near.

The Apostle has written that piety, being profitable for all things, holds a promise of life, both of the present and of that which is to come.

And in speaking of the present, he does not mean the common life of living creatures, but that which can be lived out in this course of existence, concerning which the Saviour says, 'He who believes in Me has eternal life,' and, 'This is life eternal, that they may know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.'

And of the life to come, which comes about according to perfection to those who approach the truth face to face—the mercy of God is better to him who, for its sake and in accordance with it, comes to be in the lives, being led up into them.

For it is not according to the worth of one's action and contemplation, but by the goodness and mercy of God, that one comes to living according to both lives.

And the mercy is said to be better than these, as a cause is better than what is caused.

See whether the mercy here spoken of is not other than the Word of God, concerning whom it is written, 'God sent forth His mercy and His truth.'

See whether the fat that fills the soul be the victims which Wisdom has slain, and the true food be the flesh of the Word, and the richness that gladdens the inner man be the wine harvested from the true Vine, and the true drink of Wisdom be the blood.

For he who speaks these things, being called to partake of the table prepared by Wisdom, who has slain her own victims and mingled her own wine.

Having already been filled with the divine feast, and expecting yet to be further filled, he spoke thus:

'My soul would be filled as with marrow and fatness.'

And since he who ever partakes of this good cheer hungers, because the appetite of the mind is insatiable, he said 'would be filled' and not 'my soul was filled,' even though he had already abundantly partaken of the food and drink.

Let those be put to shame even by this expression who dream of sensible food and drunkenness after the resurrection.

For he did not say that the flesh or the body would be filled with marrow and fatness, but the soul—since God fills with good things the desire of the soul, as he said in another Psalm.

Being filled with gladness, he thankfully exults in Him who supplied the food, saying, 'And my lips of exultation shall praise Your name,' concerning which he said, 'My lips shall praise You.'

And the 'lips of exultation' are virtue.

For just as 'members of folly' are spoken of, as in 'For the feet of folly bring down those who use her,' so perhaps there may also be 'lips of exultation'—unless indeed one should say that in these too those who possess the dispositions are indicated by means of the dispositions, as it was said of the fool that he has feet which bring down into Hades those who use them, and of the one who exults that with lips of exultation he praises the naming of God.

And these things can be said by one who devotes himself to celibacy, that he may be anxious for the things of the Lord, to please Him; and also by one who keeps the marriage bed undefiled, by dwelling honorably with his wife after the manner of holy men.

And just as it is possible for one who runs toward virtue and piety to set an end upon it, according to what is said, 'I have finished the course,' and 'Without iniquity I ran and directed my way' (for 'I ran' belongs to one who has finished), so likewise one who follows after God according to Jeremiah, 'But I have not grown weary in following after You,' and according to Hosea, 'I will go after the Lord,' and as Moses says, 'You shall go after the Lord your God,' would sometime finish the journey after God, having reached the very end of blessedness, when he shall hear from God, 'But stand you here with Me.'

For there is no longer the voice of one still journeying.

Having attained to this state after journeying behind, so as to be joined behind Him whom he followed, he says, 'My soul clung close behind You,' the word 'clung' making clear the 'was united.'

For it is in this sense that we must understand the Apostle's words as well: 'Abhorring what is evil, cleaving to what is good.'

The words 'He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit' also signify union with God.

Wherefore we must inquire whether this is the same as 'My soul has cleaved close behind You,' so as not to confuse the cleaving to the Lord with the cleaving of someone's soul behind another—for the one who wills to cleave to the Lord Himself as his end is not the same.

For the end of walking behind the Lord is that the soul of the one walking behind Him should be joined to Him.

Yet even if the end of the journey is that, having arrived, one is united in following behind, still there is something more perfect than this—to be joined to the Lord so as to become one spirit with Him.

He confesses that his own soul has cleaved close behind God, while God's right hand upholds it.

And this is the only-begotten power of God.

Since this power upholds and holds fast securely, in vain did the enemies who beset him—both visible and invisible—seek the soul of the one who speaks these things, being unable to snatch away him who is guarded under the mighty hand of God.

In accord with the entering of the wicked into the lowest parts of the earth is the verse: 'Let the sinners be turned back into Hades, all the nations that forget God.'

And having entered, they will be handed over to the punishment signified by the name of the sword.

The hands of this sword are either the toils and bitterness which it works, or those who serve it, who are elsewhere named 'vessels of wrath.'

And He calls the evil powers 'portions of foxes,' since they are named foxes because of their craftiness, guile, and malice.

But the passage before us must be interpreted in yet another way.

Since it is possible for such a person to become intensely material and carnal, you will say that he has sunk himself deep into an earthly settling, so as to have entered by his own choice into its very lowest parts.

This is what those suffer who are given over to passions of dishonor, which they have chosen to hold, and to the lusts of their hearts, unto uncleanness.

In this manner Pharaoh too and those about him were swallowed up under the earth, and Moses, as in a hymn of victory, said to God: 'You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them up.'

And indeed, so far as the historical account goes, they were swallowed up not by the earth but by the deep; yet those thus swallowed by the earth and having descended into the lowest parts of the earth were handed over into the hands of the devil, who is allegorically called a sword.

And his hands are either his angels or his most wicked deeds.

And he who swears by God, who gladdens the king, is also praised.

And God sets one beyond fear—not by altogether overthrowing or casting down the adversary, but by granting courage to the one who prays.