Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 24/40

the ordinance that declares the spiritual meaning of the shadowy feast has been set by the Lord as a testimony to those from among the nations who have been added to the Gospel.

For that the name of Joseph signifies these has already been said before.

For these, having left behind the passions and the vices and the very region about the earth by their mindset, hastened to come to be outside the figurative Egypt; and at the very moment of their going forth, they heard a tongue—that is, a language—which formerly they knew not.

And the symbols of this marvel are borne witness to in the Acts of the Apostles, when, tongues as of fire having appeared so as to sit upon each one of the believers, each one suddenly heard the great works of God being spoken in his own language by diverse voices.

But those who have attained this grace have drawn the back of their soul away from burdens, no longer submitting to bear the material and miry affairs of the figurative Egypt.

For 'they served,' but their hands 'shall not serve in the basket' — by 'hands' he meant their deeds — no longer laying hold of straw and brick, but nobly and freely taking up one of those baskets which Jesus filled from the loaves that he broke.

A tempest is often taken to signify temptation.

Since, then, God is present to those who are tempted, not openly but in a hidden manner, the one tempted ought to call upon him, so that God, having heard him, may deliver him out of his present affliction.

'And my people did not hearken to my voice.'

'To hear' signifies not only to perceive a voice, but sometimes also to be persuaded by the speaker, as in 'I did not hear the voice of him who instructed me' — that is, I did not consent to the commands of the one instructing me.

The word 'to hear' also denotes to understand and to comprehend.

He calls him 'his own people' either to stir them up to goodwill, or to weigh down and intensify the charge against them;

as if to say: if it were another nation, I would grant pardon to those who do not hear our voice, since they are unaccustomed to it; but as it is, they would be punished without excuse. And not only did 'my people not hear my voice,' but they did not even attend to me, though possessing a mind able to see me — so that, even if it despises the voice, it might at least be ashamed at having assailed my authority. Here it is fitting, at the opportune moment, to clarify an evangelical saying not understood by the heterodox, who also sunder the Godhead, when the Savior says to the Jews concerning the Father: 'You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.'

The heretics, not grasping what was said, assert (since the Jews had heard the voice of God who made the world and had seen his form) — according to the manifestations recorded among them — [that these things applied to the Father].

The Savior, refuting them as never having heard the voice of God nor seen his form, [shows that they were] attending to another god, whose voice they heard and whose form they saw.

Those of divergent opinion were deceived, being ignorant of the many meanings of the word 'to hear.'

For even if the Jews did hear God's voice, having received the law from him, yet since they neither understood it nor were persuaded by it, they are rightly reproved as not having heard his voice.

Nor indeed have they seen his form, for they did not receive the express image of his substance who says, 'He who has seen me has seen the Father.'

In whatever sense, then, it is said that they have never heard the voice of God, in that same sense they are struck here also, both by the aforesaid word and by the one to be set forth next, which runs as follows.

The phrase 'In nothing' would signify that by trivial means they humbled their enemies, just as [God humbled] the greatest tyrant of Egypt, not by arming mighty giants against them nor huge beasts, but paltry and tiny little creatures.

By Hebrew custom, they say, the men appointed to judge the people are called 'gods,' as Moses himself also sets forth, saying: 'You shall not revile gods, nor speak evil of the rulers of your people.'

For 'gods' who are ranked together with the ruler of the people would be none other than the judges.

But since further on in this very psalm God said, 'I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High' (these being so constituted, since the word of God came to them), it is evident that here too the phrase 'God stood in the assembly of gods' will be referred to them.

For all being gods in this way — and men and divine angels are so in the same manner — God stands in their midst, not withdrawing from them nor abandoning them, so long as they remain such.

For from those who fall away he departs, forsaking them.

Wherefore Adam too, after the transgression, perceived that God had been standing by him before the sin;

and in the prophet it is said, 'And the Lord God will go forth in the tempest of his wrath.'

But God, standing in the assembly of the gods, preserves their divinity, nourishing — or rather increasing — it by the participation whereby they partake of him.

But also, being in their midst, he judges them in the manner already stated.

'...do you accept?' If the judges of Israel are gods, then what is contained [in the text] is said to them when they fall away.

For it is a perversion in a judge to judge unjustly and to show partiality to sinners.

And 'of sinners' is fittingly added.

For it would not be blameworthy to render what is just to a rich man, or to one otherwise superior, in keeping with the requirement of equity.

At any rate it is said, 'And you shall not show pity to a poor man in judgment';

and it is also said, 'You shall not be partial in judgment;

you shall judge the great and the small alike;

you shall not shrink before any man's face, for the judgment is God's.'

For the judge must know that he ministers to the judgment of God.

Wherefore it is also well said that God stands in the assembly of these gods and judges them in their midst, so that, knowing him to be among them and in their midst, they may follow his will.

But if those who lay claim to divinity are gods, then, since they are subject to change, they might also turn away if they grow heedless — to whom the word, in indignation, says, 'How long will you judge unjustly?' For, having an innate law by which it is possible to know that the good is to be chosen and the evil to be shunned, if you approach matters in a reversed way, so as to turn from the good and to embrace the evil, you judge unjustly;

wherefore also you show partiality to sinners, concealing your own faces, insofar as you are according to the image of God.

'Judge for the orphan' — you who have been entrusted with judging — for him who has been left desolate of a father's care; and also for the poor man who is unwilling to contend for his own rights;

but also 'rescue the needy and the poor' who are being oppressed, delivering them out of the hand of the grasping sinners.

But it is also said to those who have been made gods by virtue, that they should judge worthily the one who has cast off his wicked father and the wealth of wickedness, in a manner befitting the guardianship they exercise over him through instruction.

And let them also justify the man who is lowly through freedom from pride, and poor because he has come to toil for the sake of godliness, delivering the poor and needy of this kind, so as to place them beyond the hand — that is, the action — of the sinner.

Divine knowledge, being the wisdom of God, shines upon and illumines the one who possesses it;

'For a man's wisdom will enlighten his face,' and those called to divine understanding have a commandment 'to enlighten for themselves the light of knowledge.'

If, then, those who are wise according to God are enlightened, those who are contrarily disposed, cherishing ignorance and folly, 'walk about in darkness,' ever advancing in evils.

But since, being steeped in evils and having carried off the first prizes of wickedness, they have not only become 'earth' by reason of their material condition, but have even wished to be 'foundations of the earth,' firmly and immovably persisting in their base disposition —

yet even if they themselves have loved to be such, the man-loving Word nonetheless prays that they be shaken and made to totter from the most evil standing they hold, and to fall down from the vilest condition they have built up.

The good God, from whom all envy is far removed, imparting to men of what is his own, spoke [these words], so that they too might be gods, having received his God the Word.

And this God the Word, who makes them gods, is God, and he will make them sons of the Most High, being partaken of by them inasmuch as he is the only-begotten Son of the Most High.

But although God had graciously granted them to be gods and sons of the Most High, they themselves ran the contrary course, so as to become men and to die the death that attends men.

These have become men, having fallen from divinity — not insofar as they are mortal and rational animals (for they had this even when they were gods and sons of the Most High), but insofar as they loved things mortal and human.

And they die, insofar as they are men in this way, not the common death but the death that attends sin, falling in like manner to the one of the rulers who fell.

And this one is the devil;

for he too, being a ruler among the heavenly beings, fell.

Clearly, then, it is by falling away that he became [what he is];

for God did not say concerning him, 'Behold, Adam has become as we,' but 'As one of us,' or 'As one from among us,' as many of the copies contain.

He mentioned another reading of the text, which has: 'Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you will utterly destroy among all the nations.'

God will judge either all those upon the earth, or as many as have become 'earth' by minding earthly things.

And God will judge the earth, destroying among all the nations, but not [destroying] all the nations.

For as many of the nations' superstitious things — oracles and the rest of their meddlesome practices, together with the spirits of error that wrought them — were utterly destroyed by God, so that the nations might be cleansed of these, unto receiving the word of salvation.

And having destroyed the very disposition among the nations, according to which they were diverse nations, God will show them to be men according to his own image, once they have cast off the accidents by which they had become 'nations.'

Likeness is understood in two ways.

For there is a likeness according to essence, which is also properly called identity; and there is also a likeness according to quality, which is also simply called likeness.

According to the second signification, those who become perfect would be made like God: 'Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect';

whence it is said, 'When he is manifested, we shall be like him' — like God, that is.

And so the Cause of all things fashioned man according to his image and likeness. As for the first signification — the one according to essence, I mean — nothing is made like to God;

for the phrase 'Who shall be likened [to you]?' indicates not a question, nor something rare, but what is impossible, since no one can be made like to God according to essence.

But do not, without noticing, deceive yourself by supposing that the Son too falls under what is being said.

For it did not say, 'Who is like you?' but 'Who shall be likened to you?' For the Son does not have the being-likened to God as something yet future, since he is from his very essence, and therefore is the same as he — not numerically, but in the identity of essence.

He wishes them to be set by God 'as a wheel,' unstable and unsettled;

for it will be for their good not to be established, nor to remain immovable in the wickedness they have chosen.

Therefore He wills also that they be set as stubble scattered and flung about before the face of a fiercely blowing wind, driven by the avenging spirit that pursues them; and it was allegorically that he called it a 'wind.'

And the fire of punishments shall devour them, who have become a fruitless thicket, hewn down with an axe.

Employing yet another punishment against them, He shall pursue them with His own tempest, which none can escape.

Whence also they shall be troubled by the wrath of God that is brought upon them.

For since their sins were manifold, of necessity their punishment too was of many kinds.

For the stubble has its origin from the good seed, growing up not by design but as an incidental by-product.

For they ought, had they borne fruit as was intended, to have become wheat, that they might be brought into the storehouses of the Word.

But since they were unwilling to do this, they became stubble and chaff, which the tyrant of the spiritual Egypt will indeed use for the building of the destructive cities he constructs, yet they shall also be burned up by the unquenchable fire.

For the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire.

Even if others too have been made high and most exalted by God, being lifted up and raised on high by virtue, yet none of them is such of himself and by essence.

For God alone is Most High, making others most high but not becoming so Himself.

As He alone is wise and He alone true, bestowing wisdom and truth but not partaking of them, so He alone is Most High—the Only-begotten also being of this same form of the Most High and Himself Most High.

For being the power of the Most High, He overshadowed Mary.

And the Holy Spirit too, being sent from the Most High, is Most High.

Therefore the one 'Most High' is fitting to the whole Trinity.

For he who calls the Father Most High declares the Son also and the Holy Spirit to be such.

He who calls the Son thus declares the Father also and the Holy Spirit.

For as there is one Godhead, so also the 'Most High' is one, that in this there be no difference within the Trinity, even as in the other things we rightly do theology.

The word 'As' here does not signify likeness and comparison, but rather the very object of love itself, just as with Moses: 'In all his house, as a servant,' and further, 'But Christ as a Son.'

For the 'As a Son' signifies a son in truth, not a mere likeness; and Moses too was not a likeness of God's servant, but was His servant.

Hence in the passage before us it is not by way of comparison but according to truth that the tabernacles of God are 'beloved.'

And if we have understood what they are, we shall the more comprehend that they are beloved—not merely like unto things beloved.

These, then, are eternal and heavenly, concerning which the Savior said to those present: 'Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.'

'My soul longeth and fainteth'—in casting off the psychic state and becoming spiritual, so as to be suited to sojourning in the heavenly courts, which are here spoken of in parallel.

For according to the historical account the altar was not a multitude but one.

Unless indeed one should so name the altar; but he spoke of 'the altars of the Lord of the heavenly hosts,' to which are brought up sacrifices better than those according to shadow and example.

Of which the Apostle says: 'It was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens be purified with these sacrifices.'

But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For the sacrifices of praise and of righteousness are offered up upon these altars; and those who present their own bodies as a living sacrifice well-pleasing to God offer it upon none other than these altars.

And the house of God is perfect virtue and the highest knowledge of the truth.

It has been said in what precedes that the tabernacle is a symbol of progress.

For it is proper to those who are on a journey.

But the phrase 'house of God' signifies the very end of blessedness itself.

Whence also, according to the historical account, the people while journeying had a tabernacle of testimony (a house, that is, of divine knowledge), and had various tents of their own virtues in which all the people dwelt.

But having reached the holy land, they too had their dwelling in houses, no longer making progress; for they had attained to the end of virtue and knowledge.

for they had attained to the end of virtue and knowledge.

no longer approaching the tabernacle of testimony but the established house, they performed the acts of worship.

And here too, then, after having longed for and loved the advances which he intimated through the tabernacles, saying 'How beloved are thy tabernacles, O Lord,' he pronounces blessed those who through their advances have ascended to the summit, so as to dwell in the house of God, bearing the state that is according to God, that being fulfilled in them: 'When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'

The word 'He set' signifies 'He then made,' as in 'I set a watch upon my mouth,' meaning 'I made';

and 'He who sets the whole world desolate' is the same as 'He who makes the world desolate.'

And here too, then, the phrase 'Unto the place which He set' presents 'He made a place.'

And this is the earthly place.

For in this place God established His covenants with men.

Let us then weep in a praiseworthy manner—the blameless weeping—learning it from the covenant which God established with those who still find themselves here.

For thus we shall also obtain the blessings, having lived according to the purpose of the covenant given here.

And we shall know the greatness of the blessings that have been given, understanding who it is that extends them.

'And they shall go from strength to strength.'

The virtues and contemplations of the truth are 'strengths.'

Wherefore those who possess these can do something more.

so that they who conduct themselves according to the Law become the more perfect, advancing to the gospel polity—those who came to know Christ according to the flesh, in order to behold His glory, 'the glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father.'

those who know in part, by reason of being on earth and not being able to contain the purest knowledge—when the perfect form of contemplation has come, so as to know even as it is fitting to know, passing on from the inferior power of understanding to a greater and more perfect power.

But more simply, each one of the saints—or rather also of the priests and kings—is able to present this petition, being an anointed one of God.

For 'Touch not My anointed ones' was said concerning all the saints; and priests and kings too were, by Hebrew custom, called 'anointed.'

'Better were it to be in Thy courts'—even for a single day—than a multitude of thousands of days for him who finds himself outside Thy courts.

For that which seems but little in the courts of God surpasses the perfection that is among men.

Such too is that which was spoken by the Savior concerning John: 'Among those born of women none is greater than John, but he that is least in the kingdom is greater than he.'

And it might also be put in this way here:

Men in their living are under time, which time is divided into a multitude of days, whereas he who has come to be in the divine courts of the Lord has one day, eternal and unbroken.

For the Lord has become for him an eternal light, since the sun of righteousness does not set upon him.

This, then, the unbroken and uninterrupted day, is better than the many-dayed life that comes to pass here.

God gives grace to those who are saved by grace, according to the saying 'By grace ye are saved,' grace here being equivalent in force to a free gift.

For it is in this sense that someone is said to have found grace before God.

This grace He gives in exchange for a former grace, which we have hastened to take up out of what lies in our own power, so far as we are able.

And He gives glory too to those worthy of attaining it, because they have beforehand glorified Him who says 'Those who glorify Me I will glorify'—that is, through good works and true doctrines.

'They walk in innocence'—those who move through all things without any depraved habit.

But if 'innocence' also signifies simplicity, consider this too for yourself.

And since hope is the expectation of good things, and only the rational faculty is desirous of things good in the proper sense, hoping is a virtue proper to man alone, especially when he lays claim to godliness;

for it is written, 'There is hope for the godly.'

For the faithful are born again unto a living and abiding hope, because the expectation of good things is incorruptible.

The Lord takes pleasure in the good and diligent heart, which is His land, because it receives the seed that is from Him and bears fruit a hundredfold.

He turns back to it also the multitude of the captives who were led away by wicked powers—thoughts that are of Jacob, since they take their stand against the passions.

And having wrought these things, He graciously grants to all the forgiveness of iniquities, taking away and loosing their lawless deeds.

But if ever, even after forgiveness, they have sinned, He covers over these sins as well, bestowing virtue.

For virtue covers sins, not concealing them but wholly removing and abolishing them.

For thus love covers a multitude of sins.

For just as knowledge covers ignorance, wholly removing it from the soul in which it is present, so also the love of God—being the same as virtue—covers the sins of those whom it judges fit to benefit.

And God took delight in His land, sending His Son to be seen upon the earth and to dwell together with men.

Whence at the birth of Mary's Child it was said: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men.'

And from what has been said we learn here that what is called His anger is not a passion of God.

The sins that have arisen are so dispensed that, once they are dissolved and made to vanish, that very anger departs together with them.

But if those who serve anger appear to be called vessels of wrath, being named homonymously with it as 'rage' and 'anger,' you will consider the matter better.

Since You, O God, are the source of the salvation which You give us, turn us back, granting us occasions for repentance and receiving us as we return to You.

For there will follow also the turning away of Your wrath from us.

For since it was we who kindled it by the things wherein we sinned, once we have changed our minds and turned back, it will no longer act against us but be made to vanish.

For just as fire, when the combustible matter on which it acts fails, no longer exists, so too, once our sins have been made to vanish, Your wrath will no longer stand against us.

God gives life, bestowing life upon those who turned back to Him after having departed from Him and turned away from Him;

or else He Himself turned back His face, which He had turned away from them because of the wickedness they were practicing.

For it is possible to understand 'having turned' in either way, since it is spoken in the infinitive.

For it does not make clear which of the two turned—whether He toward them or they toward Him.

Life having been granted to those made alive, the people of God rejoiced in Him, the very God who had given the life.

Since it is not from works but by the grace and mercy of God that they ask for salvation, they say: 'O Lord, show us the means by which You have mercy and compassion on Your people;'

for thus also Your salvation—that is, the salvation that comes from You—may be given to us.

It is possible to call Him who is the cause of mercy and salvation—Jesus—'mercy' and 'salvation.'

For He Himself is the mercy and the salvation of God, inasmuch as He has mercy and saves.

God does not speak by striking the hearing of the hearers from without, but by depositing within the very understanding, without utterance, whatever He wills to disclose to the mind; whence it is said, 'I will hear what He will speak in me.'

In harmony with this is also the saying of Habakkuk, which runs thus:

'And I will keep watch to see what the Lord God will speak in me.'

In accord with these things Paul also says: 'Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me;'

for Christ spoke in him, but not simply to him.

For He speaks in that one in whom He speaks; yet the one to whom someone speaks is not in every case also one in whom he speaks, when only the hearing is struck from without.

But what the Lord God will speak in him, interpreting, He said to be peace upon His people, the people of God—clearly overthrowing all the foes ranged against the people—or the peace that surpasses all understanding, which the people has attained, whereby, being outside all agitation and tumult, its thoughts keep tranquil calm.

This peace is given from God the Father and the Lord Jesus together with grace, as the Savior said concerning it: 'My peace I give to you.'

And this peace is given also to those who render the things of God to God, keeping righteousness toward Him—those who are properly called His holy ones.

And He gives it also to those who through repentance turn their heart to Him, making the turning toward Him not crooked nor feigned but from the very depth of the understanding.

And then indeed He truly encamped glory also in the land, the Savior accomplishing many and great things beyond all expectation—raisings of the dead, restorations of sight to the blind, cleansings of lepers, and whatever other marvels He wrought.

But according to a more mystical sense, to those who fear God and are without lack (for 'there is no want to those who fear Him'), the salvation of God drew near, being partaken of by them through what they do in a saving manner.

For just as salvation is far from sinners who work the deeds of perdition, so, on the contrary, the salvation of God is near to those who fear Him.

Wherefore also He encamps glory in the land of those who say these things.

And you will say that their land is their good heart, which bore fruit a hundredfold from the seed cast upon it.

And He encamps also in the body of those who obey the exhortation which says, 'Glorify God in your body'—those who accomplish perfect self-control.

And from here too the mutual entailment of the virtues can be shown: the merciful man being true and the true man being merciful, and moreover the just man being peaceable and the peaceable man being just.

And in other passages truth is named together with mercy, as in 'Your mercy and Your truth have continually taken hold of me,' and 'God has sent forth His mercy and His truth.'

And I dwell on the fact that these are spoken together for this reason: because the truth of things is hard for men to attain—rather, unattainable—unless it happen to be furnished by the mercy of God;

or perhaps because the true salvation cannot be received apart from the mercy of God, they were named together with righteousness.

He says that mercy has met with truth.

For if mercy and truth should come into one, we shall both know it and be in it.

But also righteousness kisses peace, and peace kisses righteousness.

And you can take these things also as spoken of the Savior according to His various aspects, as has already been stated before.

And the truth has sprung up out of the earth, since the Savior became man.

For much deceit and much falsehood was among men.

For 'there is no truth and mercy nor knowledge of God upon the earth;

therefore also falsehood and murder and adultery are poured out upon the earth,' says the prophet.

This falsehood, then, which prevailed throughout the whole earth, He loosed who said 'I am the truth,' having sprung up out of the earth (that is, out of men).

But also, being the righteousness of the Father inasmuch as He is the Word and Wisdom of God, He looked down from heaven, having bowed the heavens and come down.

And He brought us peace inasmuch as He is righteousness, and mercy inasmuch as He is truth;

for all these things are conceived of Him, as has just been said.

In the manner in which, when rain is given, the earth bears fruit, the Lord Himself having given goodness, the intelligible earth yields fruit, being watered by the goodness that comes from God.

And its fruit is generic virtue, whose species the soul—being an earth that bears fruit—puts forth.

It is possible that what lies before us is spoken concerning the people, so that the meaning may be of this sort:

since the Lord spoke peace upon His people, either the righteousness of the people, going before Him, will set its steps upon the way that leads up to blessedness; or the Lord Himself, who is righteousness, goes before the people and will set its steps upon the way.

The righteousness according to the law, at work in Moses and the prophets—whose consummation was John, who went before the Savior—being set upon the way, that is, upon the passages within us, so that He might dwell and walk about in us, cried out: 'Prepare the ways of the Lord straight, make His paths;'