Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 20/40

And the redeeming of it is not to be held fast among the dead in Hades once it has come there, but even to redeem those who are there.

No one having sense would say these things concerning an irrational soul, since such a soul does not possess life and subsistence in itself.

And how could it be redeemed? Let those who think thus tell us.

For it belongs to a human soul to be redeemed, that is, to a rational one.

It is possible and plausible to say that the soul of the one interceding is the whole [humanity] that has been made his own, so that, just as some person is called 'a man of God,' such as Moses and Elijah, so also 'his soul' may be said of that which has been joined to him and has become one spirit with him.

For he redeems all this, giving on its behalf that which he took up.

For as the body of Jesus was given on behalf of human bodies, so his soul on behalf of their souls, that the whole man might be given on behalf of all by him who took him up.

'Therefore, for the sake of my enemies' who leap upon the destruction of men, 'deliver me' by raising me from the dead, that they and the devil who has the power of death may be destroyed, and that men who have fallen asleep may rise to salvation.

And I pray to be delivered from the enemies who afflict me and who are not unknown.

My affliction is this: that men are worn down and oppressed on behalf of those to whom you have sent me, that I might redeem them from the devil who tyrannizes over them.

He says these things to the Father so that we men might be instructed in the care that God has for us, since he did not spare his own Son, that he might spare us.

(Now the cross is that which is signified through the reproach and the misery.) While this expectation was in my heart, I looked steadfastly to find someone among the unbelieving Jews to grieve together with me, and there was none; and one to comfort me, and I found none.

For how could they have grieved with him and comforted him, when they were saying to Pilate the governor, 'Crucify him, crucify him!'

'His blood be on us and on our children!' And how could those who gave him vinegar mixed with gall have comforted him or grieved with him? This is by way of an allegory concerning Jesus, who awaited reproach and misery, so that by suffering on behalf of the world he might take away its sin.

None of the Israelites according to the flesh was willing to die together with him, so as to grieve with him when his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; nor did anyone comfort him by assenting to the prophecies concerning his death.

Whence, besides not doing these things, they crossed over into greater impiety: they nourished him with gall and gave him vinegar to drink.

For how could their fruit not have become gall and vinegar, when they did not keep the planting from the beginning? For though God had planted all the Jewish multitude as a fruitful and true vine, this vine, turning aside by its own impulse into bitterness, became a strange vine.

It is said of them, therefore, having become enemies and foolish: 'For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their tendril of Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, their cluster is of bitterness.

Their wine is the venom of dragons, and the incurable fury of asps.'

This gall of the grape and cluster of bitterness they offered him as a draught, and that too when he was thirsting for their salvation.

For vinegar is the corruption of wine.

Yet even if he is not found among the traitorous Jews as one grieving with him and comforting, nevertheless he is found in the calling of the nations.

Those, then, who hold this mind say: 'If we died together with him, we shall also live together with him,' and 'If we have become planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be so also in his resurrection.'

That the verse 'Let their habitation be desolate,' and the verse following, was prophesied concerning Judas, Peter, the foremost of the apostles, has understood.

And since it is expressed in the plural, it must be taken concerning all the betrayers of Jesus, their city having been made desolate and become a habitation for cattle because of their brutish manner of life.

For in habitations the beasts have their resting-place;

and moreover, not having God within herself, but not even the angels who formerly watched over her.

Taking up our sins into his own body, Jesus—the sins on account of which we were wounded, having been struck by robbers as we went down from Jerusalem to Jericho—making them his own for the sake of healing his own wounds, he said:

these things cause pain, in so far as we persist in sinning.

And if, in addition to this, we should stir up persecution against him, we add an increase of pain, in that he suffers pain on our behalf no longer simply on account of sinners, but on account of those who persecute him.

Being handed over to their own desires and to the passions which they chose to have, they are themselves the cause of enduring these things, God bearing no blame if they have been delivered up to the things they longed for.

He sent them away, then, according to the practices of their hearts; they shall walk in their own practices, an increase of lawlessness being added upon their lawlessness.

Since, therefore, they did not choose the truth that had come, but wished to live lawlessly in the shadow of the law, they were driven even from the place of the typical worship, so that they added to their former lawlessness yet another, by wishing to keep this worship outside of Judea.

Therefore they do not enter into the righteousness which is through faith in Jesus Christ, concerning which it is written: 'But now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.'

It is the same thing to be subjected to righteousness and to enter into it.

For that those who have virtue and faith and the knowledge of God are alive, one must hear the words: 'This is your life and the length of your days, that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.'

But also from the words: 'He who believes in me has eternal life.'

The book in which those who live thus are inscribed is the knowledge of God, who knows those who are his own; from which it follows that those who do not submit to being remembered by God are blotted out.

Being rich and free from wounds, I became poor, that the poor might become rich by my poverty; and I suffered pain, being wounded on behalf of those who had been wounded by the fiery darts of the evil one.

And even though, being such as I am, some of those for whom I became poor and suffered pain are without perception—so as to add pain upon my wounds and to think that I am poor by nature—nevertheless, the salvation from the presence of God took hold of me.

For having risen from the dead and been taken up, he cast off the wounds and the poverty which he bore on behalf of men.

And the enemies having been overthrown, and above all the devil, it was fitting that a victory-song be struck up by him who had conquered in the name concerning which he said, 'I have come in the name of my Father'; and further, surpassing in understanding him whose name it was, that he should magnify it with praise, speaking great things in praising and glorifying him, but also beholding on high the things concerning him.

For it is not possible for God to be magnified in any other way than this, since every perceptible magnitude falls far short of him, seeing that he is incorporeal.

And since to praise God is a sacrifice, according to the word 'A sacrifice of praise shall glorify me,' having praised the name of God with a song and magnified him with praise, he takes courage, as, 'It shall please God above a young bullock that brings forth horns and hoofs,' being offered for sacrifice.

Therefore, being pleased with those who sacrifice thus, he says: 'I desire mercy rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.'

Let the poor in spirit behold these things which Jesus accomplished against every wicked host;

for their seeing of so great a valor will be followed by their rejoicing eternally, according to the word, 'Everlasting joy shall lay hold of them.'

For this is he who looses the fettered and leads out from bonds those who are bound, and from the prison-house.

Both those of old who were called prophets and men beloved of God, and those who afterward were servants and ministers of the gospel.

Fittingly the psalm is sung as a remembrance concerning salvation, all who repent being reminded and recognizing the good and the truth, and coming to them;

for it says, 'All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.'

And since the end of remembrance is to recall those things which had formerly been forgotten, so as to have an exact and perfect knowledge, it consequently says, 'To the end, for a remembrance, that the Lord may save me'—everyone being saved who has cast off the forgetfulness of good things, so as to have use and knowledge of them.

For all, having been made according to the image and likeness of God and upright, have implanted within them the conceptions concerning God.

And even if at some time, through negligence, sin gains an entrance, if it happens that one repents after committing it, he is reminded of the good, whose conception he had by nature, being rational and made according to the image of God.

Since insensibility and ignorance of good things leads the way to sin, so that on account of this one does them with pleasure and boldness, it is said of certain persons that they have glory in things of which they ought to be ashamed;

for it says of them, 'Whose glory is in their shame';

to whom also the prophecy says, 'Be ashamed of your boasting';

for it brings reproach and destruction.

Those who thus run insensibly toward evil, if they should take perception and understanding of it, would wish to cease from doing it;

it follows that, having turned aside from evil, they do the good.

Praying that this very thing might come to pass for the various adversaries, he says concerning them: 'Let them be ashamed, knowing whose evils they are; let them be confounded, recalling the things they did';

for they sought to bring my soul into the same wickedness as their own, or to kill me, because I do not run together with them into the apostasy by which they are outside of God.

This very thing, as being profitable to them, he persistently entreats, saying: 'Let them be turned back,' no longer desiring to press on toward evil, 'and let them be put to shame,' for the evils they did in wishing that harmful things might befall me.

He who repents turns back, running again toward the good which he had abandoned, together with a willingness to be ashamed—though before repentance, arrogantly saying against the one being persecuted, 'Aha, aha!', that is, 'We shall prevail over you as you flee from us.'

Only so far as willing to do harm and injury do they have power;

the evils which they wish to bring on, they are not able to, unless God should hand one over.

He does not imprecate against those who plot against money, or concerning the †, but against those who plot against the soul.

And the plot against the soul is estrangement from God.

And this would come from passions and demons and a passion-ridden disposition and the malicious men who cooperate with these.

Having believed that he will assuredly find the one who helps him in all things, when he is thus disposed as also are diverse circumstances present, he says, hymning: 'Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad, O Lord.'

For even if the seeking of the Lord comes about with toil and sweat, nevertheless, when he appears in his great goodness to those who long to see him, a divine exultation and gladness succeeds the toil that was in the seeking.

And having obtained this grace, they will say continually, in deed and word, but also with a faithful disposition: 'Let the Lord be magnified,' ever praying to receive greatness of understanding of him.

Thus do those hymn who have taken experience of the salvation from him, so as to love it, being named 'saving'—or who love the salvation;

and this is Christ, who is the cause to them of eternal salvation;

this salvation shall all flesh see.

And the things spoken those men will suffer; but those of my portion—that is, those who hope for the salvation from you, and do not take courage in multitude and power—may they be filled with the gladness that is from you, that they may magnify you.

Looking to the greatness of the riches of the kindness of God, he names himself poor and needy through the foregoing words;

and beginning his discourse as one to whom nothing contributes—neither riches, nor kingdom, nor the help of the whole nation, nor the righteousness procured for him through ascetic discipline—he seeks out the help that is from God alone.

But stretch out your help to me, that, sheltered by it as by the shield of your good pleasure, I may not be struck down by them.

He who has his hope set upon God has an end that cannot be put to shame, speaking with boldness unto all ages concerning the expectation he has held; whereas everyone who sets his confidence upon anything else is put to shame, whenever he falls short of his hope.

For he says: He who trusts in riches, this one shall fall.

And he says: Do not put your hope in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.

And: Cursed is he who sets his hope upon man.

For blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope.

Wherefore it is written: Having been born again unto a living hope.

Whence it is said by the one who possesses it: Let me never be put to shame unto the age.

And: In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me.

God delivers in righteousness those who hasten to be free of wrongdoings, as in wisdom he delivers those who long to take hold of her.

And the one who utters these words prays to be delivered and rescued from unjust men; take note.

For it seems to follow logically that this is set beneath what was said in the preceding inscription, Concerning those taken captive for the sake of others; take note.

For justly do these demand to be delivered and rescued.

For the ones did wrong, but the others, the Israelites, did no wrong.

Since practical virtue is named righteousness, and, on the contrary, every sin committed in deeds is injustice, he asks to be delivered in righteousness from the injustice which he who loves his own soul hates.

A testimony that universal virtue is thus spoken of is the verse: He who walks blameless and works righteousness; and a testimony that universal sin is called injustice is the verse: I have hated injustice and abhorred it, and: The blood of Jesus Christ shall cleanse us from all injustice.

This utterance will also be spoken by the one who wishes to pass beyond the shadow according to the Law, that he may have the righteousness of God, having believed in Jesus Christ, so that he may be found not having in himself his own righteousness which is from the Law, but that of God, the righteousness reckoned unto him.

Since there is great superiority in you, O Master, over your creatures, and especially over us men, we do not have strength to cry aloud enough that the prayer we send up should reach your ears.

Wherefore I beseech you in your great goodness to incline your ear to me by way of condescension, that you may save me, receiving my petition concerning salvation.

Since many wish to war against me, become my protector, sheltering me with your shield, concerning which it is said: His truth shall encompass you as with a weapon.

And since I wish you to be all things to me, become for me also an impregnable fortress and an indestructible stronghold, that, having you as a most secure place, I may remain outside of all fear that comes from enemies, since you are my refuge and my firm foundation.

The hand of the sinner is the sinful deed, from which he asks to be delivered, that he may in no degree be active in doing anything by it; likewise the acts of the transgressor and the wrongdoer are the executive activities from which too he longs to be, God delivering him.

But whether the sinner is the same in subject as the transgressor and the wrongdoer, or another, take note.

For it seems to incline toward both, since every transgressor and wrongdoer is a sinner.

But if the devil is the one signified by these names, his hand must be understood, and his soldier-like power, marshalled out of every wicked and unclean spirit.

The one, then, who has been delivered from the hand of the aforesaid, having come under the mighty hand of God, is snatched from it by no one.

Just as God is the wisdom and power of the holy one, so also he is the endurance and hope of the one who endures unto salvation and who hopes in him.

At any rate it is said concerning these things in the thirty-eighth psalm, where it is set forth: And now what is my endurance? Is it not the Lord? And in the verse: The hope of all the ends of the earth.

One must attend to the verse My hope from my youth, which can indicate that he who from infancy has been reared according to God never had any other hope than God.

In addition to this, you will say that God is someone's hope from youth, from the time when, having put off the old man, he put on the new and young man created according to God in holiness and knowledge of the truth.

The words From the womb, from my mother's belly must be understood intelligently, not signifying that from the hour of birth—when the one being born is not yet moved rationally and piously.

For it is written: And Samuel before he knew God—although he had been reared piously by God-fearing parents from tender infancy.

For the children of men have a time from which they are able to be moved rationally.

To be firmly supported upon him by deliberate choice—what is signified therefore is something of this sort:

From the time I began to think and to act, I dedicated the beginning of my thinking and acting to you, being firmly supported by you and sheltered by you; whereas the one who repents after having begun in evil, inasmuch as through the piety he has taken up he cannot be firmly supported upon God and sheltered by him, cannot say the aforesaid verses, but only he who has given himself directly, without intermediary, to God.

This is shown also from the words of Job, who said: But if I ate my morsel alone and did not share it with orphans; if I did not from my mother's belly guide them and lead them forth as a father.

For no one having sense will suppose that from the very hour of birth it is possible that what is said should be accomplished, since one takes the beginning of coming into being only when the reason is fulfilled according to which rational beings are such—like those who say: If we have forgotten the name of our God, if we have stretched out our hands to a foreign god.

Whether it is possible to understand the verses also concerning spiritual birth, take note—of the one born from divine teaching and from water and Spirit, the womb and belly being understood in a manner corresponding to this birth, from which the one born has proceeded intelligibly.

Every good and pious thing is accomplished together with God.

Whence the one who confesses Jesus before men does it in him, so that consequently he too may be confessed by the Savior who is in the one confessing him.

For since the Savior is righteousness and wisdom and sanctification and life and truth, he who confesses him in deed—whom confession also by word attends—is found to be in the one confessed, being righteous and wise in righteousness and wisdom, but also proved holy and living and true in sanctification and life and truth.

As, then, he himself is in the one partaken of, so also the participable is in the one partaking, in the sense in which we say that virtue is in the earnest man and the earnest man is in it.

According to this signification the apostle was a man in Christ and had Christ in himself, whereby he says: If anyone is in Christ, a new creation; and: Christ lives in me.

This contemplation being universal, the one who hymns God is also in him, since the one hymned is also in the one hymning.

While others hymn rulers, teachers of human learning, and the very subjects of learning, moreover petty glories and wealth, our hymning takes place in you and in no other.

In you is my remembrance continually.

According to both scriptures, therefore, the word 'continually' must be understood as meaning to have the hymning and the remembrance in God constantly and without interruption.

Sinners who despise virtue and regard piety as an abomination, abhorring the earnest and lowly man, call him a wonder.

For they say among themselves: Let us bind the righteous one, for he is inconvenient to us.

And since those who devise and say such things are base in our eyes, fittingly he did not say simply that he had become a wonder, but a wonder to the many, that is, to the more common sort who flee from virtue.

But even if those men bring against me the aforesaid reproach in the manner described, yet you, being a mighty helper, keep me unharmed by them.

With this same thought the apostle also says that he has become as the refuse of the world and the offscouring of all men.

In harmony with these is also the saying: We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent.

From the same disposition is written also: For I think that God has set forth us apostles as last of all, as men appointed to death; and: For we have become a spectacle to the world.

Of such a kind also is what was said to sinners by God: And Ezekiel shall be for a wonder, as the prophet himself says, on account of the things done by him chiefly in symbolic fashion, such as his lying so many days upon his right side and again so many upon his left, and the shaving of the hair of his body.

And it is well that he says 'as it were a wonder.'

For none of those aforementioned was actually such as he was supposed to be by the many.

He asks that his word—which is named a mouth—be filled with praise.

And the glory of God is either the apprehension concerning him, or his only-begotten Son.

For it is said concerning Christ that he is the glory of God, who will be seen at his coming.

For the glory of God shall be seen, his magnificence being understood as the order in providence and creation, which displays much of the fitting, coming to be by his command alone.

For such also is the providential order to him who can say: I considered your works and was amazed.

And in harmony with the present passage is: He put into my mouth a new song, a hymn to our God.

Upon you is my hope from my youth.

I beseech that I may remain in this state until old age, not being cast away from you—whereas everyone who does base things and acts lawlessly is cast away.

But let it also be contemplated with respect to the deeper sense.

Since honorable old age is not that which is long in years, the gray hair of the inner man being the divine prudence, and the old age being that of a life unspotted through the highest virtue.

Since I am still in the prime of making progress, I beseech that I may not be cast away, but be aided by your goodness, until I attain to the season of the unspotted life.

For if it is Christ who speaks, there follows the verse: If an enemy had reproached me, I would have borne it.

For this and the things following upon these he says concerning Judas.

Now that my enemies are put to shame for having striven against me in vain, I add even now, praising you triumphantly, to the praise I offered before, concerning which I said, 'My praise shall be of you continually.'

But those who said, 'God has forsaken him,' were slandering his soul.

For a very great slander is shown against the one said to be forsaken; against which he says, 'But I will hope continually,' demonstrating that he gave no room at all for being forsaken.

Against 'God has forsaken him' he said, 'But I will hope continually.'

And though his enemies unjustly thirsted for blood, wishing to encompass him with destruction, yet remaining unharmed by them he proclaims, throughout his whole life (which is called a 'day'), the righteousness and salvation of the Lord.

And since I did not know, he says, any of the scribal learning of the law, for this reason I will not remain content with the letter and the shadow, but I will enter in according to the life-giving Spirit and the divine sense of what is written, exercising royal power, since God has granted it.

Therefore I say, 'I will make mention of your righteousness only,' no longer being concerned with the righteousness that is according to the shadow of the law; concerning which righteousness, having been blameless as to the righteousness in the law, Paul writes that he counted all his shadowy former gains as loss and regarded them as refuse, because of the surpassing worth of knowledge.

These great things reaching to the highest heavens, and together with them the wonders, came to pass when the Savior became man.

For when he was born of the Virgin, a multitude of the heavenly host said, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men.'

For from the good will that came among men, much peace prevailed, when all the enemies on earth had been abolished.

But also glory came to be in the highest, since the men who are being saved have their ascent even to the highest places.

For how were those not going to have God, who has become all in all, within themselves—those who had become perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect, having come to be in unsurpassable holiness? And the Lord himself in the Gospels said to his own Father, 'I will, Father, that where I am, these also may be with me, that they may behold my glory.'

Since in his goodness God allowed one to experience afflictions and hardships for some benefit, he again turns him back to himself and gives him life, imparting life to those who have known afflictions and evils through experience, so that even out of the very depths—that is, out of the abyss of distressing circumstances—he may draw up the one who had been brought down.

The 'making alive' will be understood in reference to the common life, as also the ascent out of the abyss.

For since the harmful things, when extended, seem to bring death and to drag one down into Hades, whenever the causes come to their end, a person is made alive by God and brought up out of the abysses of the earth.

But the holy one says these things not from his own person, but on behalf of the human race, which had experienced very many evils and afflictions before the coming of the Savior.

After which experience the Lord, having turned, came to us and gave us life, giving his own soul as a ransom in our stead, so that everyone who believes in him and receives his teaching may have eternal life; and he brought us up out of the abysses of the earth—that is, from Hades—having gone there after the laying aside of the body he had, for no other reason than to bring up those who had been brought down there because of their own sins.

Since to 'Out of the abysses of the earth you brought me up' there is added 'again'—if indeed the 'abyss' signifies the being sunk in distressing circumstances (as it is interpreted), it follows to understand that one can often be brought up from there by God, who ever does good (a testimony of this is what is quoted thus:

'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them out of them all').

But if instead of Hades the 'abyss' is taken, it is a hard thing to say how one is again brought up from there.

For as there is one entrance into life and one exit from it, so it is necessary that those who are separated from the body come to be in Hades once for all.

Either, then, the word 'again' is superfluous, or it will admit of an explanation; but surely nothing in the divine sayings is superfluous and excessive.

Having made me alive by your beneficence, and moreover having multiplied your righteousness upon me, you again, doing good, brought me up out of the abysses of the earth—in that you not only made me alive and multiplied your righteousness upon me, but also brought me up from the regions below.

The psaltery is a 'vessel of the psalm,' through which he says, 'I will give thanks to you,' proffering the truth in a eucharistic manner, and according to which none is like God, who gives life after evils and accomplishes every subsequent benefit.

In addition to confessing the truth 'with a vessel of the psalm,' he promises 'to play on the harp' to God, who is the Holy One of Israel.

And he is called the 'Holy One of Israel' as sanctifying Israel.

For just as, if we say that certain ones are 'holy ones of God,' we present those who are sanctified by him, so, calling him 'holy,' we signify whose is the thing being sanctified.

And that this is so, consider what is said concerning Christ: 'Who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.'

For he became wisdom to the wise, righteousness to those being justified, sanctification and redemption to those being sanctified and redeemed.