Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 26/40

Wherefore also in the present passage He is terrible to those round about Him who, having believed in Him, yet disregard His commandments, while being great to those who cling to Him through virtue.

The truth concerning God is none other than that of Him who said, 「I am the truth.」

And if this is round about God, it can never not be, lest God should be reproached for having at some time not been encircled by truth, into which those men have come.

And He is encircled by it, begetting it and being alone the true God.

For as He is the only wise One, not partaking of wisdom but rather begetting wisdom, so He alone is true and has the truth round about Him, not receiving a share of it but co-existing with it and bestowing it upon others also.

The Father has the Son co-existing as His thought and energy.

For the Word is with God, being God the Word, that the Father may be in the Son and the Son in the Father.

For it was fitting that God the Word should be together with God the Father.

But also, being light, God has light together with Him, namely the Son, as Daniel says: 「And the light is with Him.」

For he did not say 「was」 or 「shall be,」 but 「is」—for this is indicative of eternity; wherefore He is also called the effulgence of eternal light.

And the truth also is said not to have come to be, nor that it shall be round about, but to be, of the mighty God.

And the eternal power will be present with the mighty God, being the same as His wisdom and truth and light and word—「and Your truth is round about those who encircle You.」

The faith that He rules over all creation and over the sea is the things recorded concerning Jonah.

For there He is said to have stirred up a tempest in the sea, and again, by His will, 「the sea stood still from its surging.」

And Jesus, showing by deed that He is the Son of the Master of the might of the sea, rebukes it when it foams up and stirs up great billows, and immediately calms it.

But if the appellation of the sea signifies the life of men, its might may be the evil one, in whom the whole world lies—that is, the mortal and perishable manner of life.

To this might of the sea, then, its Master, by granting it weakness, extends to His disciples authority to tread upon all its power, calming its unstable and irregular impulses, which are called its waves, so that it becomes passable for those who have received authority over it to walk upon it with Jesus—of whom Peter bears an image.

For no one without Jesus is able, like him, to tread upon the sea of this life, becoming superior to cares and pleasures, unless Jesus walks together with him.

For it is He who walks upon the sea as upon dry ground; wherefore it is said to Him, 「Your way is in the sea, and Your paths in many waters.」

For the paths which Jesus trod in the mighty waters are the passions and the cares of this life, upon which those who follow in His footsteps are able to step.

But according to the deeper sense, all who are interpreted as heavens, confessing His wonders, and the earth that receives the seed of Jesus and bears fruit unto a hundred and sixty and thirty—being His and being His possession—and the inhabited world which He founded together with its fulness, is none other than the Church, in which dwell souls that have received the right word and the truth.

And there dwell in it also the holy powers, encamping round about those who fear Him.

The foundation upon which it has been founded is none other than the one about whom Paul writes: 'For no one can lay any other foundation than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.'

The fullness of this spiritual world, established upon the same foundation, is the fullness of the virtues and of the doctrines of godliness, together with the divine gifts of the Spirit.

The Lord created the north and the seas so that what previously existed should be no more.

For as, having created the two into one new man, he made them one out of two, so also the pure heart that is created has become pure out of what it was; and he likewise creates those outside the faith, that in Christ they may become a new creation—thus he creates the north and the seas.

Everyone who obtains the divine election and is uplifted by light, in that the light of knowledge has shone upon him, rejoices in the name of God.

As Tabor signifies something external, so Hermoniim signifies an uplifting of light;

for it is into these meanings that the Hebrew names of the mountains are rendered.

But if Tabor is also interpreted as a cistern (for it is so rendered as well), you will understand how a cistern can be called praiseworthy, once you have observed that God gives to some, by way of blessing, hewn cisterns which those who received them did not themselves hew.

But if the word 'cistern' were used in a bad sense, then he who is so named, having changed so as no longer to be called a well, becomes a spring: the spring shall rejoice in the name of the Lord.

(This one is his creative power, being his only-begotten Son) is signified by all the names herein set forth.

For he is called 'arm' in the passage 'And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' and 'Your arm is exalted, and we knew it not.'

But he is also confessed to be the 'hand of the Lord' in the passage 'My exalted hand has done all these things.'

And 'right hand' in the passage 'The right hand of the Lord has exalted me.'

The holy one, at any rate, says to God:

'Yours is the arm with might,' reigning over and holding sway over all things.

And it also declares, 'Let your hand be strengthened,' working wonders and accomplishing prodigious mighty deeds.

For Peter says to God: 'Grant to your servants to speak your word boldly with all confidence, while you stretch out your hand for healing and for signs and wonders.'

Therefore, according to a differing conception, Christ, the power of the Father, is called by these names.

For if the Son of God, and wisdom, and God the Word, and truth, is the exalted right hand of God, lifting up and raising every imitator, then mercy and truth go before your presence;

for no one is able to approach your face without having first obtained mercy and having communed with the truth.

It is possible, then, here as elsewhere, that mercy and truth are none other than the Only-begotten, as in the passage 'God sent forth his mercy and his truth.'

This one, then, the only-begotten Son of God, being himself the mercy and the truth of God, sojourning beforehand in men's minds, makes manifest the Father who is joined together with him;

for 'He who receives me receives the Father,' and 'I and the Father will come.'

For being the image of the invisible God, he manifests himself to the pure mind, so that through being seen he may show the Father also.

But if the Son is called the 'face' of the Father, in that he is the express image of his substance, then before this face one must go—in those who through purity of heart are able to look upon the face of God—with mercy through the ethical virtues, and truth through knowledge of the mysteries of godliness.

For since we are shown mercy according to ethical activity, and by knowledge we lay hold of the truth;

for this reason, in many places mercy is named together with truth.

He did not say that the people who have come to know the shout of triumph are blessed, but those who continually know it.

For it does not suffice to have conquered, unless we also continually exercise ourselves in conquering;

for we are always contending against adversaries.

And whoever thus prevails over those arrayed against him would also advance to the contemplation of truth, and, being ever illumined by the light of the divine face, will be in an eternal day, in which, dwelling together with all who have the same illumination, he will rejoice, encompassed by the saving appellation of God, exulting in the name of the Lord the whole day long.

For the occasion and cause of exultation for those who walk in the face of God is the name of God.

And these shall also be uplifted by your righteousness, which exalts them.

And your righteousness is he who became for us from you not only wisdom but also righteousness and sanctification.

For this righteousness exalts all, drawing them to itself through participation.

And one is also exalted by the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe.

And he made clear the cause of this by saying, 'For you are the boast of their strength.'

For even if they have a power by which they mightily accomplish and behold all things, yet, knowing that they have it from you, they boast not in any other but in you, fulfilling the word 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.'

They confess, at any rate, saying, 'For it is he who gives strength to work power.'

Whence also they say more boldly, 'In God we shall work power, and in your good pleasure our horn shall be exalted.'

For our horn was exalted and increased for us by the good pleasure of God, who said, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'

For he was well pleased to work our salvation in his own Son.

And the help of the Holy One of Israel is our King.

For the King of the true Israel—that is, of the one who sees God—is holy, being himself one with the Lord, whose is the help.

The same help can be the Lord's, as being wrought by him, and the Holy One of Israel's, as receiving it.

And in these things you will say that the holy one of Israel is the one who is sanctified in his mind to behold him.

And the words 'our King' are to be referred to the Lord, the hyperbaton being thus resolved: that the help is both of the Lord our King and of the Holy One of Israel.

He who apprehends spoken speech, if he perceives only that it is audible, has the speaker present to him in the sense of hearing; but if he understands what is being announced, he apprehends the utterance of the one who presents it not by hearing but by the vision of the mind.

Since, then, God was showing forth the realities even more than announcing them, he speaks to those who through progress and perfection have been designated his sons, not in hearing but in vision.

Thus, accordingly, it is written also concerning Israel: 'And the people saw the voice of the Lord.'

Though one ought to say 'He heard the voice of the Lord,' yet instead of this it says 'He saw the voice,' that is, he understood it.

The prophets saw visions;

for they were said to see, not as apprehending certain sensible things graspable by sight, but as directing the mind toward the beauty of intelligible realities.

'You spoke in a vision to your sons: I have laid help upon a mighty one,' calling 'mighty one' the Savior who came from the root of Jesse.

For truly in this one he laid help—the help able to succor the whole creation.

And the mighty one upon whom he laid help is 'chosen out of the people,' exalted not according to his divinity but according to his flesh.

For concerning him also is the saying 'Israel my chosen, my soul has received him.'

For he is 'chosen out of myriads,' as in the Song of Songs.

And on this account the Father exalted him, bestowing on him a name that is above every name.

'I have found David my servant';

and since according to the flesh he is of the seed of David, being able and sufficient as a hand to teach all rational creation thus to serve me;

whence also with holy oil I anointed him, appointing him both high priest and king together in all respects (With holy oil—that is, anointed with the Holy Spirit, concerning whom it is said 'God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows'), inasmuch as my hand shall support him, my arm strengthening him.

And the arm and hand of God the Only-begotten is the divinity;

and it supports him, accomplishing through him marvelous and great works.

'An enemy shall gain nothing against him';

that is, the devil (For he knew no sin, nor was there guile in his mouth), though seeming to gain some advantage in whatever cases he might be able to work deceit and other wickedness.

But neither shall any son of lawlessness, having become such through acting lawlessly, be able to harm him by casting him into sin.

And properly the word 'to gain advantage' is applied to the enemy in the sense of 'to accomplish anything.'

And so in the Gospel, too, the chief priests and Pharisees who took counsel against Jesus, not accomplishing anything in their plotting against him, said to one another: 'You see that you are gaining nothing;

behold, the whole world has gone after him'—equivalent to 'you are accomplishing nothing.'

These things Didymus says, plainly dividing the one Christ, even if in some measure I have shied away from his manifest blasphemies.

For he openly posits two persons and two sons, and leads matters back to the doctrine of a prior existence.

Whence it seems to me that the interpretation of those before him is rather more acceptable to those who wish to think piously.

And Eusebius too proceeds by reflections almost identical to those of Didymus, to which he adds the following:

He calls him the one who truly is David, since according to the flesh he is of the seed of David, being powerful and sufficient by his hand.

For to this end the appellation 'David' is transferred.

'I have found and anointed him with holy oil, since my hand shall support him, and my arm shall strengthen him.'

And the Son of God is called the arm and hand of God.

He strengthens the man, supporting him—him who was born of the Virgin.

The hand strengthens him and supports him, accomplishing marvellous works through him.

As for the words 'No enemy shall prevail against him':

The devil finds no advantage in the man of the Lord;

for 'he knew no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.'

'He himself'—clearly the one anointed with holy oil—'shall call upon me':

'Thou art my Father, my God,' he said.

For since, having been born of the Virgin, he was called Son of God, he shall call upon me, saying 'Thou art my Father'—not of the only-begotten Son of God (for that one is Son according to essence), and not one who calls upon but one who confesses God as Father.

But the man whom he assumed was also called Son of God, and calls upon God as his own Father and as the helper of his salvation;

for he raised him up and took him up into the heavens.

And he became a helper of his salvation in yet another sense—not the salvation by which he himself is saved, but that by which he saves those who take refuge in him.

Therefore, when he had called upon the Father who is the cause of all, the Father himself sets him as firstborn, bearing the primacy over all who are called sons of God—who are not blended with the only-begotten in like manner to him;

for he alone was shown to be the genuine instrument and temple of God the Word.

'For heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.'

For he reigns again, his words not passing away even after the passing of heaven and earth.

For it is not said, 'I will set his throne until the heaven passes away,' but 'As the days of heaven';

for even after the passing there is a heaven.

For his passing is not the same as his being destroyed.

It is also possible that the things bright and eagerly contended for by men are the 'days of earth,' whereas the 'days of heaven' are the luminous and light-bearing mysteries of the truth—like to which the throne of the Saviour, once set, remains unshaken forever.

There God firmly promises, having sworn an oath, and is brought in with respect to what he has said.

Since, then, he grants an inviolable priesthood after the order of Melchizedek by swearing, he does not repent of it;

and having promised to Abraham with oaths that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, he shows the immovability of the blessing.

But if somewhere he grants something for a season, he does not swear concerning it;

indeed, then, having entrusted the kingdom to Saul without oaths, he repented of it.

Since, then, he willed that the Saviour's coming from David according to the flesh, and the seed of him who was born of David, should be inviolable and firm, he swore to him that the promises should be unshaken.

'Since, then, I have sworn to David in my holiness, not lying concerning what I promised, His seed shall abide forever'—the throne of his dominion enduring together for ever with the very Sun of righteousness.

And the moon—the assembly of those enlightened by Christ—abides forever most fully enlightened, fulfilling the word 'The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun,' when the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

And there is a faithful witness in the heavens that it is so, concerning whom Job says, 'For behold, my witness is in the heavens, and he that knoweth me is on high.'

But Didymus has rendered the sense of Eusebius' interpretation thus:

'Thou, O Master, having said, "The seed of Christ abides forever," hast cast off his seed.'

'Thou hast set at nought him who assumed the Christ, whom thou didst anoint with holy oil—oil that abides unto ages of ages, according to which those born of him obtain mercy.'

'Casting off, then, the Christ, thou hast overturned the covenant of him who is thy servant, though thou hadst said that thou wouldst not profane thy covenant with him.'

'unto the very earth, in the seasons in which thou didst permit or allow persecutions to be carried out by the godless.'

And Christ is God's servant, having assumed the form of a servant, being born of her who said to the angel, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.'

'And thou hast broken down all his hedges from his sons, every strongest defence, so that everyone who attempts to plot against them can prevail over them.'

For according to Scripture, 'hedges' are indifferently the safeguards that come from God;

and it is possible that the hedges of Christ's vineyard are called the apostles, whom those who see them scattered and offended in the night of Jesus' betrayal say are broken down by God.

'Thou hast made his strongholds cowardice.'

The strongholds of Christ are his genuine disciples, who, having grown fearful at the time of Jesus' betrayal, are said to have been given over to cowardice.

Upon which followed that Christ himself was plundered by those passing along or going by the way.

And Christ, being plundered, is no other than those whose body is plundered from him;

'For ye are the body of Christ and members in part.'

And it is possible that the churches throughout the various sojournings are also called his strongholds.

Besides this, 'Thou hast made him a reproach to his neighbours'—to those called his neighbours because of being near to him and round about him.

For those who seem to hold to his Scripture and gather near his Church through a knowledge falsely so called are his neighbours;

and by the things which they wrongly think and do, they reproach him.

For just as, on the contrary, he who acts rightly and praiseworthily, thinking according to the truth, glorifies him, so he who is disposed contrary to those who are right reproaches him.

'Because of these things thou hast exalted the right hand of his enemies';

for they are lifted up as though they had prevailed by their own power and had done to him the things thou didst dispose.

'And thou hast made those who hate him rejoice' over what befell him, not supporting him in the war.

'But indeed thou hast also turned back the sword of his help,' or 'the sword of his help';

for when his enemies and those who hated him joined battle with Christ, 'Thou didst not support him in the war,' so that they bound and led him away to crucify him and to inflict the other insolent things against him.

Those who have longing toward Christ, and who have rightly understood concerning providence, will cease saying these things—not seeing the purpose according to which the Father, not sparing his own Son, gave him up to those who stood against him and gathered against him, once they have learned the salvation accomplished through his death; for not only did the Father deliver him up for us, but he also delivered up himself unto this end;

for 'he gave his life a ransom for many.'

'Thou hast made an end of his purification,' and what follows, up to the Diapsalma.

Supposing that things have turned out contrary to what was promised him, they say these things too.

They have supposed, then, that he was brought to an end from the purification which he wrought through his blood;

wherefore they think also that his throne has been dashed down to the earth, the days of his throne having been shortened.

But nothing of the sort shall befall his throne, since God has set it 'as the days of heaven,' concerning which we have said what was permitted;

but God said that the throne of Christ should also abide before himself as the sun and the moon perfectly established forever.

of the Majesty on high, having the throne set upright and firmly established, enduring long of days and everlasting.

'Remember what is the substance of us who say these things.'

For we are, being endowed with free will, subject to change and alteration.

Therefore we are also afraid lest we be dragged down into impiety.

Wherefore, looking upon us, hasten thy mercy.

For in this way alone is the kindled wrath by nature quenched.

The word 'hypostasis' can signify not the substance, as we have interpreted, but rather that by which one is able to endure something of what is toilsome.

Since the word 'who' has many meanings, let us examine according to which of its significations the phrase 'Who is the man' is spoken.

For sometimes it signifies an inquiry, as in 'Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place?' It also indicates rarity, as in 'Who then is the faithful and prudent servant?' and 'Who is wise and will understand these things? and prudent and will know them?' The word is also used of what is impossible, as in 'Who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counsellor?' and in 'Who has gathered the winds in his bosom? who has bound up the waters in a garment?' The word is likewise applied to what is held of no account, as being nothing, as in 'If God be for us, who is against us?' and 'Behold, the Lord will help me; who shall harm me?' It is also used of what some call properly a 'quality,' but others an individual and one in number, as in 'A certain nobleman.'

But here it is possible to take the passage before us in the sense of 'no one.'

'For who is the man that shall live and shall not see death?'—that is, 'No one.'

And if indeed the discourse is about the common death, there is truly no one who has lived and not seen death, according to what is said, 'And so this death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned,' and 'Inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die.'

For 'who' is equivalent to 'all men.'

There is therefore no man, since every living thing is mortal, and everyone has become a man by having fallen away from divinity, as in 'But ye shall die as men,' and 'For where there is strife and jealousy among you, are ye not men and walk according to man?' For none of such persons has been unacquainted with death by reason of sinning.

Therefore it is said, 'Who is the man that shall live?' For such a thing belongs to gods—those called gods by participation in divinity.

For these alone shall not see death, since they live, being made partakers of eternal life.

And upon this life Hades will be unable to lay hold or to gain the mastery over them, since God delivers such persons out of the hand of Hades.

And these things shall be said while we remain upon the literal sense.

But if one should call the apostles 'mountains' that have been established, and the soul that is able to bear fruit the 'earth' that is being formed, and the Church—in which angels dwell—the 'inhabited world,' then before all these he will speak of the doctrines of truth and the gifts of the Spirit, as also that God became a refuge to the prophets in generation and generation.

And the phrase 'And from everlasting to everlasting thou art' signifies God's existence from the boundless to the boundless.

For thou art ever the same, abiding—not one in one age and another in another age.

For being unchangeable and immutable, thou art the same from the boundless to the boundless.

Having led man up from lowly and grovelling affairs to a height, and guarding him in his exaltation and elevation, do not turn him back again to become one of those cast down to the ground.

'Thou hast set our iniquities before thee'—that is, in order to punish us for them—so that all our age (and 'age' is the time that is coextensive with our life in the body) is manifest and illumined to thee, since every oversight, not only that of deed but also that which is in the reasonings, is manifest and illumined to thee.

The petition before us belongs to those who know that God has a right hand and who long to behold it.

As those who know, therefore, they say:

'O Sovereign Lord God, reveal thy right hand, by which thou didst create the world and dost provide for it, that we may know it not through the things it makes and works, but by drawing near to it may come to recognize it.'

For he himself is the right hand of God.

For then the right hand of God became known, when the Word, having become flesh, tabernacled among us.

'For we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father.'

And when the right hand of God was made known, we knew that together with it there were also revealed those who are instructed in heart with wisdom.

These are they who say, 'Yet we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.'

It is possible also to say that the prophets became known, being instructed in heart with wisdom, when the radiance of Christ was manifested.

For then the prophets, foretelling true things about him, were shown to be such, though perhaps they could have been regarded with suspicion before their prophecies were fulfilled.

For when their words attained their outcome upon the making-known of the right hand of God, they became manifest as having indeed been instructed in the wisdom of God.

And he has been instructed in heart with wisdom who has been made wise in mind and in the ruling faculty, so that his uttered word errs in ten thousand ways compared with it, so as to say even of one who speaks truly:

'Even if I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge.'

There is also a variant reading, 'Those who are fettered in heart with wisdom.'

For the reasoning and the intent are fettered by the fetters of wisdom belonging to him who applies himself wisely and piously to affairs.

And it is spoken of the fetters of wisdom, into which we are commanded to set the feet of the soul.

'How long'—that is, 'How long dost thou turn away thy face and thy right hand from us?' For even if thou dost this to us but for a little while, a long time appears to us who are kindled with longing for the delay of that which is desired.

Being entreated, therefore, on behalf of thy servants, turn back to us who have gone far off and have turned away from thy commandments.

'We were filled in the morning with thy mercy.'

For thy right hand, which we counted worthy to be made known, having shone upon us, being a sun of righteousness, prepared the beginning of a spiritual day.

And in this beginning, which is the morning, we were filled with the mercy from thee, so as to rejoice and be glad in all the days in which thy true light gave us illumination.

And this light, entering into our understandings, is productive of morning.

But since it rises upon us not in one manner only but in various ways, according to our different deeds and thoughts, we come to be in many days.

In all which days we exult and are glad, so much so that it suffices to dissolve the outward gloom and the hurtful quality of the days in which thou didst humble us, delivering us over to captivity and to enemies through ignorance and wickedness.

For, humbled during many days and years, we saw evils—either the things contrary to what are properly called good things, concerning which it is said, 'The fool in his laughter works evils,' or the toilsome things and those that produce affliction, such as those concerning which it was said to Job, 'If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure the evil things?' For having seen beforehand both kinds of evils, we now exult and are glad.