Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 23/40

And this followed—that the fire of the desires was kindled against Jacob;

or that which was determined for exercising and laboring on behalf of virtue; or a fire was kindled from God, able to consume, for their benefit, their material inclination and disposition.

And consequently, following upon this fire, wrath went up against Israel.

For from the base things which they were doing, the wrath, being kindled, went up against Israel.

And perhaps wrath descends upon those alien to godliness who lie somewhere below, according to what is said: 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.'

But wrath ascends upon those who have been called to do what God wills, who have been raised on high through their calling.

In any case, it is said that wrath ascended upon Israel, who ought to look upward.

Consider whether those who serve in administering the chastisements that come from God, being vessels of wrath, are called 'wrath' by the same name as that which they minister.

And this so-called wrath, being lower than the aforementioned Israel, ascends upon him.

With these things agrees the saying: 'If the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, leave not your place.'

For in these words too the unclean spirit is said to be below the one against whom it ascends.

Therefore it was able to ascend upon Israel.

'They hoped in his salvation.'

For those who did not hope in Jesus, who is the salvation of God, did not believe in God himself either.

Indeed, it was said by Christ to the apostles: 'Believe in me, and believe in God.'

It is possible to suppose that the wrath which they endured, being taken captive by force, ascended upon Israel because they did not believe in God nor hope in his salvation — the wrath concerning which Paul said: 'But the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.'

'And he gave them the bread of heaven.'

The word 'heaven' signifies the substance of intelligible realities, as we have also distinguished in what precedes; and the windows of the heavens that are opened are the unfoldings and manifestations of the Father's gifts, as God pours forth his own bounties through these windows.

So that he may mean the man hidden in the secret of the heart.

Wherefore also, passing over all the other names — though he had often mentioned them, namely Jacob and Israel and Ephraim — he here mentions the designation 'man,' to show that the true man, who has been made according to the image and likeness of God, has become a table-companion and hearth-fellow of the angels, partaking of the true manna.

'To destroy' sometimes signifies to fall into chastisement, as in: 'If any man corrupts the temple of God, him shall God destroy' — that is, with chastisement.

But since 'to destroy' also denotes being handed over to passions of dishonour as a recompense for error and other sins committed, God does not, in this sense of the word, destroy those who are worthy to find him merciful, so as by great mercy and compassion to be propitiated toward their sins.

He calls them 'evil angels' not as being such by nature, but as bringing the affliction of troubles.

'He spared not their souls from death,' bringing upon them the death that dissolves their wretched life.

having shut up unto this death also their irrational faculties, which are figuratively named 'cattle.'

For it will be for their good to cast off, together with their cattle, that base life — that is, the passionate impulse.

And you will understand it more deeply as well.

For since the natural man lives according to the soul and not according to the spirit, he does not spare those so-called souls of theirs, in order that, having destroyed their psychic condition, he may lead them into a spiritual state.

That the name 'soul' does not always signify a substance is clearly shown from the passage: 'An evil soul will destroy him that has gotten it.'

For it does not say that the body which has gotten a soul is evil, but the substance to which pertains the thing under which the word 'soul' is now placed.

And common usage too, which speaks of some persons having a good and a bad soul, accords with the signification here set forth.

Now the tenth plague brought upon the Egyptians was the death of their firstborn, from man even to beast.

Perhaps, then, while the term 'firstborn' applies in its proper sense to men who were first brought forth, in the case of irrational animals he called the firstling 'the firstfruits of labours.'

For the firstborn of those that rear cattle are the firstfruits of their labours.

And I concur that this is what is signified.

From the addition which says that in their tents the firstlings of the irrational beasts were destroyed, so that their owners might suffer loss; but the firstborn of men also were subjected to death, that their parents might undergo calamity.

Indeed, to those who are neither disciplined nor, again, brought to repentance by such heaven-sent judgments, it is said: 'In vain have I smitten your children; you received no correction.'

And these firstborn either had death as a penalty for their own sins, or suffered no harm if they underwent death for the discipline of others.

for to die is a matter of indifference and something that happens of necessity, while in truth the judgments of God are unsearchable.

Since spiritually every earthly region is called 'Egypt,' those who dwell in it are named 'Egyptians.'

By the grace of God, then, the first offspring of these Egyptians' soul are destroyed, being ignorance and wickedness.

In the place of virtues and profitable branches of knowledge — the true children of the understanding — wickedness and ignorance take their stand.

wherefore also, whoever names these 'firstborn' does not err.

But also, among the activities pertaining to the pursuits that accord with virtue and knowledge, those that turn out base must be destroyed.

For to everyone who acts according to art and knowledge, the ability to do or perform well does not come immediately; rather, after acting irreproachably comes acting blamelessly.

And the phrase added, 'in their tents,' shows that the foregoing statements are made concerning souls that are still intertwined with bodies;

for the tents of souls are the bodies.

The mountain of the sanctuary is the distinguished and most exalted virtue — not only the contemplative, but also the practical.

And the only one who genuinely leads into it is the only perfect teacher, Jesus.

Then, therefore, those who come to be on the mountain are sanctified, when they are led into it by the Lord.

This mountain, indeed, is called not any ordinary power but the right hand of God, being none other than the power of the only-begotten Jesus.

For every excellent disposition and contemplative habit of the truth is truly the possession of Jesus; whence also those who acquire these dispositions are called the possessions of the Lord.

And perhaps, when they had died amid so great a flood of heaven-sent evils, they counted them blessed rather than wept for them.

'He smote them backward,' so that they might not press forward and onward in cruelty, but be reined back from their inhuman and wicked habit;

for God wills no one to make progress in evils, and out of care for them he also inflicted upon them an everlasting reproach.

But sinners are reproached not only by others but also by themselves, when they perceive the evils they have committed.

Indeed, God says to certain persons: 'Be ashamed of your boasting and of your reproach all the day long.'

For those who boast in the vilest things are benefited when they are put to shame and reproached for the things in which they took pride.

The name 'guilelessness' here does not signify simple-mindedness, but the privation of wickedness and freedom from deceit.

As many, then, of the subjects as imitate the guilelessness of their teacher are shepherded by it.

And that he might not be thought to practise guilelessness in a feigned way, but from the best of habits, brought to completion, he said that he had guilelessness of heart.

And he guided others also by the understanding of his hands.

For the kind of understanding is twofold: the one of the hands, the other of the mind and the hand;

for the understanding named 'with wisdom' comes to be in the mind.

Concerning this it is said: 'The Lord gives wisdom, and from his presence come knowledge and understanding.'

But the understanding of the hands, being practical and productive, is shown in the words: 'Good understanding is to all that do it.'

for the understanding that is enacted belongs to the hands;

and by this the teacher guides certain ones, those who are benefited not so much by word as by deed.

And the understanding of the hands might also be understood as the principle of things to be done, according to which we are able to attend rationally to each of the things performed according to virtue.

Lest ever the soul that had become the lot of God and had been named his temple, having fallen away, receive experience of the things that lay upon it.

For there came upon it, while it was God's inheritance, invisible enemies who formerly could not draw near to it even in the least degree — enemies whom he called 'nations' because of their estrangement from intimacy with God.

These, then, having drawn near, defiled the holy temple of God that was in it, corrupting it through the sins which they introduced.

So that this might not happen, it is written to certain ones: 'Know you not that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man corrupts the temple of God, him shall God corrupt;'

for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

It is also possible to call the unclean and uncircumcised thoughts 'nations,' when they enter into the inheritance—the soul that was once made God's own—and defile what was formerly holy.

Whether what is set down here signifies things wrought at certain times against Christianity, together with the holy places, by the nations—let the reader judge.

These invisible enemies, called 'nations,' had such strength as to lay waste what was once the city of God, so that, no fruit any longer being left in it, it was set up as a hut for watching over fruit.

And the fruit-watcher's hut, as it is written in Isaiah, is 'a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.'

Its fruits are cucumbers and melons—Egyptian foods which the sinning people craved, though they had the manna and the heavenly nourishment from God; but they also set the corpses of God's servants as food and nourishment for the birds of heaven.

For the soul that has sinned, which once beheld the peace of God—when Jerusalem was faring well—possessed certain thoughts that, by reason of their diligence and virtue, came to be servants of God.

Yet these did not wholly remain laying claim to incorruptible life, but took on something mortal in acting in some way with passion.

This, then, having become a carcass, became the food of the birds that snatch away what is sown by the wayside—which the Savior interpreted to be the evil one and those made sick by him.

For these, called vultures and the young of vultures, being beasts of the earth, devour not the holy ones themselves but their flesh.

For if anything fleshly and passion-ridden is found, it is fed upon.

But if it is possible to refer these things to the martyrs of Christ, you yourself will attend to it.

Many in the persecutions became food of birds and prey of beasts; yet neither the spiritual birds of heaven nor the beasts themselves were able to devour their souls, since God does not hand over to the beasts a soul that makes confession.

They pour out blood, becoming guilty of the destruction of a soul—that is, of its vital power, figuratively called blood—not far off nor distant from Jerusalem, but round about it.

And this is the 'vision of peace.'

But since he who is scandalized comes to be outside Jerusalem—that is, outside the rightness of doctrines—his aforesaid blood is poured out about it and round about it, he being not even worthy of burial because his sins overtop all;

such are the sins committed after the recognition of the truth.

Since, therefore, the one baptized is buried together with Christ, but there could be no second washing, it is fitting that there is no one to bury those who have acted impiously after the washing.

According to the higher sense you will call the heretics 'neighbors';

for they have their dwellings nearest to us, because they too ostensibly rely upon the same Scriptures.

These, then, reproach us for proclaiming them heretics, while they call us slavish, silly, and stupid.

And round about us would be the wise of the Greeks, sneering and mocking us as believing without examination and foolishly.

'You have chastened the Jews sufficiently,' he says;

'now at last transfer your wrath upon the impious nations and upon kingdoms alien to your worship.'

If the discourse were about invisible enemies, these devoured him who was once the supplanter of the base—Jacob—on whose account also their place was laid waste.

And each one's 'place' is the manner of life he has chosen;

for the temperate man in a certain way dwells in temperance.

We say, then, that some dwell in the place of the temperate, and others in the rank of the just.

If, then, it happens that those who cultivate these dispositions are devoured by enemies, their rank and their place will be laid waste.

We speak, then, of the place of a bishop and of a presbyter in the church.

As, therefore, the saved are the food of Jesus, so the perishing are the food of the wicked.

'Remember not against us our former iniquities.'

And elsewhere we have said that no one makes confession over the things in which he still acts wickedly, but over those which he formerly did, since the text set before us: 'Remember not the sins of my youth and my ignorance.'

And now, then, those who repent deem their iniquities that have ceased—and are for this reason 'ancient'—worthy not to be remembered by God.

For it is contrary to the one who repents still to be sinning.

'We have become exceedingly poor,' having fallen from the wealth of virtue and knowledge, Master;

wherefore we entreat you to deign to have compassion on us, not in the future but even now and speedily.

For you are the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, and your mercies are able to make us rich again.

And this will come to us most easily, with you helping and saving;

for already many times, with you helping and saving, we have had experience of it.

Even if we are not worthy of good treatment, because sin is upon us, yet since your name has been called upon us (for we are your inheritance and people), be propitiated toward our sins, that your name may be glorified.

For we cannot bear the reproach of the nations saying, 'Where is their God?'

For they prevail over us in that wherein we sinned, and they reproach even your name, supposing that you have been defeated because they hold us in subjection.

But toward a figurative interpretation:

Those bound tight by the cords of their own sins are fettered; but, coming into awareness of the weight of the fetters that lie about them—by which they are hindered both from running toward salvation and from doing the things that tend toward blessedness—they groan, lamenting themselves;

wherefore they also pray that their groaning, being made known to God, may enter before him;

for thus he will move his own goodness to consent to break asunder their bonds;

and he will preserve them unto blessed life, leading them according to the greatness of God the Word, who is his arm, so that, even if they appeared to men as sons of those who had been put to death, yet they may be shown to be children of the living.

For their fathers, put to death by the enemies, are living with the Lord, being his holy ones and servants.

Since the number seven bears the symbol of rest, they wish the recompense to be brought upon the enemies for the bringing to an end of their impiety, whereby they reproached God and behaved cruelly toward his servants.

For those who know God to be good do not wish the punishments to be brought upon them for the sake of destroying the punished, but for the sake of ceasing from those works which punishment necessarily follows.

And the sabbatical number is a symbol of ceasing from work.

Since we are called your people and sheep pasturing upon your pasture—concerning which it is said, 'He shall go in and go out and find pasture' (namely, the sheep of Christ)—do according to your greatness the benefactions we have asked, for which, as though already present, we will thankfully confess to you throughout our life;

for this is what 'unto the age' signifies in the present context.

But if the customary sense of 'the age' be taken, you will say that not only in the present but also in the life to come one must give thanks to God.

And the phrase 'unto generation and generation' can more simply be taken to mean 'and unto years and successions of yet more men.'

But more mystically you will say: in the present and in the coming life; or in both the generations, that from the circumcision and that of the calling of the nations, so that these too may learn to hymn God.

The Shepherd of Israel is none other than he who said, 'I am the good shepherd,' pasturing those who have a mind that sees God.

And he leads also those from the nations who are added 'as sheep,' that is, as his own sheep the Israelites;

for Joseph, being interpreted 'the Lord's addition,' signifies those from the nations who are added to those from the circumcision.

It was the custom of the ancients to apply the word 'shepherd,' instead of the title of kings, to the gentle rulers alone.

At any rate, for the most part they come to kingship from being shepherds, being pre-trained to rule and to lead in the herds of the more lowly animals, so that, having advanced, they may pass on to leading peoples as well.

And he sits either upon those which, being living creatures, have obtained this appellation from the wisdom present in them (for 'cherubim' is interpreted 'multitude of knowledge'), or he is enthroned upon virtue itself, in whomsoever it may be found present;

and he dwells in all who have illumined themselves with the light of knowledge, in whom God shone in their hearts unto the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of Christ.

This one, then, royally enthroned upon the cherubim, the chorus of the saints entreats to appear and shine forth before those who bear the fruit of virtue and the sons of the right hand of God—made such through right works and thoughts and words—and before those who have unlearned the knowledge of evils together with their workings;

for these, having truly received forgetfulness of evils, have come into the remembrance of good things.

For Ephraim is interpreted 'fruitfulness,' Benjamin 'son of the right hand,' and Manasseh 'from forgetfulness.'

Since you are king, possessing the greatest power, having stirred up and awakened it, come, O Master, to save us;

for there is no way to obtain salvation other than by your having come to us to turn us back from sins and from captivity, you being the Lord of hosts, according to what is next added.

O Master, all-king, ruling over the heavenly armies, how long will you not shine upon me the face of you which I long to see? For you seem to me, your servant, to be angry;

being reconciled to me, your attendant, reach out to me the thing for which I have prayed.

For I thirst for Him exceedingly, with an unrestrainable longing.

But when Thou art angry at the prayer which we sent up—turned as we were to weeping and lamentation—we shed so great a flood of tears at the very hour of our meal, that we eat bread of tears and drink with tears a small and measured draught.

Since the toil and weeping endured for the sake of virtue are nourishing, we eat the tears of this very weeping as though they were bread.

But we also drink them in measure.

The phrase 'in measure' sets forth that one is not to weep always and without limit.

For the labours undertaken for the sake of good things, done for some purpose, are succeeded by rest and a joyful condition.

To this end thou shalt receive the word: 'Blessed are they that weep now, for they shall laugh';

and the word: 'They that sow in tears shall reap in exultation.'

For they that sow virtue amid sweat and tears shall have their weeping measured, reaping in exultation;

for after it they shall laugh.

'Thou hast made us a strife unto our neighbours.'

And the Saviour also said that He had stretched out His hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people that was sinning.

But these neighbours happen to be enemies to those against whom they speak.

They deride them, mocking and tearing to pieces their prudent words.

Indeed the wise man received a commandment to say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest the fool sneer at the prudent words of the wise.

But they will even sneer at those who call upon God.

Yet these very ones, entreating all the more, say: 'O Lord God of hosts, turn us again, redeeming our captivity from those who oppress us;

and we shall attain this good thing, if Thou, causing Thy face to shine, wilt reach forth to us everlasting salvation.'

The soul is then said to dwell in Egypt whenever it lingers among sensible things and the works of the flesh.

But God removes it from Egypt, drawing it away from all material things, at which time He will also transplant it from its former base planting into a better land.

And this is the habit of soul that accords with virtue.

And He made a way before it—this soul being figuratively called a vine—having given a saving law and luminous ordinances, that it might journey toward the good land;

and this is perfect and complete virtue.

God being the cause to it of so great a good, in that He made a way before it by giving the spiritual apprehension of the God-inspired Scriptures.

'Its shadow covered the mountains.'

For those who possessed something lofty and exalted in their manner of life—being called mountains—were sheltered, because they fared well under it.

But also those who through a more strenuous life had become firm and vigorous, so as to be reckoned as gain unto God, were covered by its climbing branches, being in a certain way upheld by them.

And this vine, being of good branches, sent forth its shoots to the utmost length, so that, though they drew near to seas, they suffered no harm, in that even amid the very trials and surges of life—which are figuratively named seas—it bore fruit.

And it sent forth its offshoots even to the very rivers that watered it, so as to render the fitting fruit.

Its branches would be those who were grafted together with the Jewish worship, who, through abiding in the law, bear fruit; while its offshoots are the proselytes.

But if such a soul be a vine cultivated by God, having its beginning and root in the Word—inasmuch as it is rational, deriving from Him who said 'I am the true vine'—God will plant its various dispositions and powers, which are figuratively roots, in the manifold conceptions of the Only-begotten.

This vine, therefore, being lifted up because it is well cultivated, will cover with its own shadow the lofty doctrines of the truth, which are named mountains.

And this is the polity and knowledge that can be attained here, bearing the shadow and figure of its true condition hereafter.

And it extends its offshoots—the virtues that have grown out beside its powers—even to the potable words of God, which are called rivers.

But in another sense its offshoots may also be called all those things that grow up beside it for its benefit out of the other disciplines of learning.

For in the same way that the offshoots are enriched and take on richness from the plant beside which they grew, so the things growing up beside it from other learning are enriched by its own primary teaching, every name being led captive into the obedience of Christ.

'Why hast thou broken down its hedge?' When the vineyard bears fruit, the keeper of the grape-cluster remains in the tent;

but when barrenness prevails, he abandons the tent.

'And they that pass by the way pluck it'—not they that journey along it.

And these are false teachers and the spirits of error.

And they pluck it when it has a cluster of gall and a bunch of bitterness;

and whenever it bears passions instead of the ethical virtues as its fruit, it has brought forth thorns instead of grapes;

but whenever it sins in matters of knowledge, it brings forth a cluster of gall and a bunch of bitterness.

'A boar out of the wood hath ravaged it.'

The things that ravage it are either its own irrational and savage passions, or the brutalized and most wicked powers.

And perhaps the boar may signify the shameful desires and licentious pleasures, which, because of their uncleanness, lie in wait in the wood—that is, in unfruitful plants;

for these passions are hidden about the irrational impulses and imaginings, while the appellation of the wilder solitary beast can signify wraths and angers, as though these had already come to be.

And the 'solitary beast' is the wild ass, as one might say: 'Her wrathful part shall trample it down.'

He who for our sake became according to our likeness, yet did not cast away the being of what He was, is often called 'a Man' by the divine Scripture;

for 'Behold, the Dawn is His name,' and 'After me cometh a Man.'

If therefore upon this Man—inasmuch as He became a human being—the hand of God that works signs and wonders should come to be, being a right hand (and this is God the Word)—that is, if He should be united according to hypostasis to a flesh possessing a rational soul, and through it should work the divine signs—so great an improvement will come about concerning us, that we shall not depart from Thee.

For from this salvation also will follow for us;

'For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

Since there are many ranks of those who are bettered by Christ—who are also called His branches, He being the true vine—the various winepresses, that is, the promises, would be those into which their fruit, being pressed out, makes wine that gladdens the heart of man.

And since all God-inspired Scripture is also called a vineyard (for concerning it, when it was taken from the Hebrews and given to those of the nations who believed, it was said to the Jews, 'The kingdom of heaven shall be taken away from you'—which the vineyard in the parable hinted at—'and shall be given to a nation bringing forth its fruits'), the fruits and clusters of this vine are the yield of its thoughts;

which fruits the understandings of believers, receiving them like divine winepresses, will press out and make into wine, whereof he shall drink who is able to say to God: 'Thou hast given gladness into my heart.'

And in keeping with its title, the psalm has fittingly been ranked the eightieth, since this number contains eight decades, so as to bear a symbol of the resurrection of the Lord, which was accomplished on the Lord's day, being the eighth day.

And this is not the first psalm inscribed 'For the winepresses,' but the eighth also is so inscribed;

and it too, on account of the aforesaid sense, is arranged in the order of the eighth number.

And since by His own death Jesus, coming to our aid, destroyed the devil who had the power of death, we shout in triumph, taunting the tyrant who has been brought to nought, exulting in Him who furnished the aid.

Since the drum is made from the hide of a slain animal, He wills that we, having put to death our members that are upon the earth and carrying about the mortification of Jesus in our body, should fashion for ourselves a drum, which we shall render in place of a psalm.

We do not take Him up for the sake of that which passes away.

And not only does the Word command us to render a drum to accompany the psalm, but also a psaltery and a lyre.

And it is, as has been said in other psalms, that the psaltery—because it is upright and unbending and gives forth its sound from above—is the spirit of man that is within him; while the soul is signified by the lyre, in that, the senses being stretched taut and likewise the powers of the soul, it renders the utterance of its activities tuneful and musical.

If, then, the psaltery hints at the spirit, and the lyre at the soul, and the drum at the body, we take the Word to be a divine psalm, given so that the spirit, the soul, and the body may effect the contemplations and actions that accord with virtue.

And according to the anagogical sense it stands thus: