Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 29/40

The luminous words of his divine teaching shone, in the manner of lightnings, upon the whole inhabited world, illuminating and enlightening it so that it might have the light of knowledge; but the earth, seeing these lightnings, being shaken, was changed, casting off its earthy quality in order to take up the image of the heavenly one.

All men, then, having left their own ancestral customs, have come to the evangelical instruction; but the inhabited world, seeing the lightnings of the Lord himself, is illumined, while the earth is shaken, taking a beginning through the shaking toward becoming itself also an inhabited world, so that the divine lightnings of the Lord may appear to it, now that it has become such.

Those who foretold the sojourn here of the Savior, who is the righteousness of God, are heavens, in that they bear the image of the heavenly one and have their citizenship in heaven, having announced the righteousness of God that would come from heaven.

These things having thus been brought to their consummation, there followed the seeing by all the peoples of the glory of the Lord, which is none other than his righteousness.

But since practical virtue too is in many places called righteousness, only the heavens, being righteous men, know how to announce this practically.

And all the peoples too, having become imitators of them, behold the glory of God that follows upon this righteousness.

And in another sense Zion may be understood as every observant and contemplative disposition toward the truth, while the daughters of Judaea are the souls that make confession, praising God with thanksgiving for the wondrous things they have seen.

For Judaea is interpreted as 'confession.'

And it is possible also to call all the souls that give their assent to the divine Scripture — which is named Judaea — her daughters.

Further, upon the words 'Zion heard and was glad' such things must be said:

He who hears the divine words with understanding is altogether gladdened, beholding the beauties of the truths made manifest through the teaching.

When therefore Zion had been gladdened at hearing thus, those inferior to her, called the daughters of Judaea, had divine exultation on account of God's judgments, according as He shall judge — their mind being reasonably lifted up by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

If ever anyone plotted against one of the holy ones, and the assault prevailed even to the harming of the body or to death, yet the soul remaining unpenalized and undiminished — who then would not confess that the martyrs of the truth are guarded round about, as to their souls, by the Lord whom they confess? But if ever it should also come to pass, through inattention or a small oversight, that a holy one's soul falls under the hand of the sinner, the devil, or of one of his own, this soul too the Lord will rescue, so that, delivered from the sins which are called the hands of the sinner, it may come under the hand of God.

And concerning His disciples, who had become holy ones, He says to the Father: 'Holy Father, keep them.'

And to keep is the same as to guard.

Upon him who has set aright the practical virtue that is called righteousness there has risen the light of knowledge, which is nothing other than the true Light concerning which the Father said: 'But upon you who fear My name shall rise the sun of righteousness.'

And when this light shone forth upon the righteous man, uprightness came to be in his heart.

Wherefore gladness also rose upon him whose heart is upright — those who share in the knowledge of the truth being upright in heart, while he who trains himself in the practical discipline proves to be righteous.

Therefore fittingly gladness and divine cheer rise upon those given to contemplation, and light upon him who has set his character aright.

The matters bearing on this have been treated in the twenty-ninth Psalm, since there too the phrase now before us occurs.

That the right hand and arm of God is the Saviour has been demonstrated at greater length, since 'the right hand' and 'the arm' are laid upon Him.

His right hand therefore saves, for God Himself, those who are led to blessedness.

For not everyone who is saved is saved by the Lord God, but only he, and everyone, who is delivered from evils and passions according to right reason and has received the knowledge of the truth together with piety.

He knows that his health has been given him from God — nor even one who has remained unharmed from war, robbers, or perils of that kind.

But he alone, and everyone who has been saved from such things, is saved by God, whenever he ascribes to God the cause of his having suffered nothing.

Since therefore the Saviour has come to seek and to save that which was lost, and not to judge the world, He saves for God those who are benefited by Him, giving them dexterously the things that pertain to blessedness.

And the arm of God is holy, not by a participation in holiness, but as being the arm of the Holy Spirit.

And perhaps the right hand is called the active power of God — which is none other than the Word of God — because it does all things dexterously, that is, holily, wisely, laudably, blamelessly; while the arm is so called on account of its strength and its surpassing might.

As He is the right hand and arm of God, so also Christ is His salvation and His righteousness.

The saying 'All flesh shall see the salvation of Him' means to show that all men, by being saved, shall see the salvation of God, namely Christ Himself who furnishes salvation.

For though He was able to say 'He revealed' or 'He brought into the midst,'

He said none of these things, but rather 'He made known.'

Now one comes to know those things of which, having first a faint apprehension, he later arrives at knowing them perfectly.

Since therefore there is naturally implanted in the conception of men, just as an apprehension of God, so also of His creative and provident Word — the sole bestower of perfect virtue and the sole layer-down of nature's laws — and since God brought this conception of the Word into the open, sending in the last of the days His own Son as Saviour into the world, it is fittingly said that God made known His own salvation among the nations.

And having made known His own salvation, God, according to His design of saving, also revealed His righteousness, which is the same as the salvation, as I said just now.

For the Saviour has become for us, from God, both righteousness and sanctification.

For while He was these, they were simply hidden from us.

But when He became such for us who were able to draw near to Him, the righteousness was revealed to us.

But if someone should say that it is the righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ that is here in view, he will say that this righteousness was concealed by the figurative and shadowy righteousness — which Paul called the righteousness according to law — the shadow, that is to say, having ceased.

For apart from law the righteousness of God has been made manifest, being witnessed to by the law and the prophets.

And it has been made manifest and revealed to those nations among whom God made known His salvation.

Wherefore not Jesus alone shall be gathered together in every nation, since he that fears the Lord and works righteousness becomes acceptable to God.

The nations, then, are justified by faith and not by works of law, according to Abraham, their faith being reckoned unto righteousness.

Israel differs from Jacob in conception but not in substance;

for it is the same one who is at one time Jacob and at another time Israel.

For when, being a practiser of the active virtue, he wrestles down the irrational passions and the vices and the powers that energize them, he is Jacob, supplanting the aforesaid throng;

but when, having risen above all wickedness through purity of mind, he draws near to God, he is called Israel.

Since therefore he who still contends against the said adversaries has need of God's mercy, while he who has been sharpened toward the contemplation of the truth has need of God's truth, God is harmoniously said in the passage before us to remember His mercy to Jacob and His truth to the house of Israel.

And in Jeremiah too, he who begins in virtue has need of mercy, so that God says to the God-fearing one: 'I remembered the mercy of your youth and the love of your perfecting.'

For just as mercy is needful for him who begins, so also love for him who has been led to perfection — he who can also say: 'The truth of Christ is in me.'

To the Jews who had believed in Him: 'If then you abide in My word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'

When the prophecy which says 'All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before Him' has attained its fulfilment, it shall be said: 'All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.'

For the gospel having been proclaimed in all that is under heaven and in all the inhabited world, for a testimony to all the nations, according to the oracle of Christ, all the ends of the earth saw Christ, the salvation of God.

And they saw not by drawing near with the eye, but by faithful assent to His teaching, through which they had an image of Him as present;

but also in respect of the understanding, those who have passed beyond the earth and have come above it — by no longer minding material and earthly things, but seeking and being concerned for the things above — being ends of the earth, saw salvation and its Author, God the Word, who is the salvation of God.

'All the earth,' that is, all the men upon the earth, He commands to send up a triumphal hymn to the Lord who has cast down the enemies, the invisible foes of men, the devil and his henchmen.

And all who are upon the earth, shouting aloud to Him, let them make melody to Him also with the harp.

And what the harp is, we have often said, and what it is to make melody upon it — namely, that it is to work the things of virtue practically through the body, or through all the powers of the soul.

And as they make melody with this harp, they receive a commandment also to bring forth a song, which He called the voice of a psalm;

that is to say, to the psalm struck through the instrument let also a certain voice be sung, which is the contemplation concerning the things to be done.

They sound the trumpets of beaten metal who bring forth the word of truth brilliantly and ardently.

For these are truly sufficient to rouse men to a spiritual feast, saying: 'Our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant' — those alone being able to bring this forth who are rich in all utterance and all knowledge.

And they sound the trumpet of horn who are able to fight off, with the word, the sophistries and deceptive arguments.

And consider whether an expositor of divine instruction uses the beaten trumpet when he brings forth his words in a didactic and demonstrative manner, but the trumpet of horn when he silences those who contradict the truth.

And those too who are set apart by their mind and their manner of life — named mountains on account of the height of their faith — exult, not being liable to the judgment which the Lord came to execute;

for 'He who believes in Me,' says the Lord, 'is not judged,' that is, is not subject to accusations, but stands before the judgment-seat of Christ to attain the good things that have been promised.

And judging the inhabited world in righteousness, He shall pre-eminently judge in uprightness those who have been made His own as His peoples, since these peoples have an upright heart and upright deeds;

for 'He shall render to each according to his deed.'

First in Zion, according to the giving of the law and the prophets, the Lord is great; then thus He proves lofty over all the peoples from the nations who come to the faith;

for 'Glory and honour and peace to everyone who works the good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek;'

for, having been lifted up from the earth, He drew all men to Himself.

And both belong to Him according to His nature: the lofty and the great.

For He is lofty, dwelling in the lofty places, and He proves great and exceedingly worthy of praise, while created nature is lowly and small — or rather is nothing at all in comparison with Him.

And we have an image of Him as lofty when we mind the things above;

but also, when we apprehend great things concerning Him, we behold His greatness.

But we form no sensory image either of the magnitude or of the height (for such notions are far removed from what is incorporeal), still less of God himself.

It is so very great that it suffices to reach and extend to all;

for the name of the Saviour alone has been given upon all the earth under heaven, so that it is wonderful throughout all the earth.

One may indeed see all who are saved out of every nation called Christians after Christ, concerning whom yet another prophecy speaks: 'To those who serve me a new name shall be given, which shall be blessed upon the earth.'

For truly the appellation of Christ extended to all rational beings, so that not only those on earth but also those in heaven and those beneath the earth should confess to his great name; since to those who are apostates from the divine law and from the truth itself it is fearful, while to those who obtain the prayer which they sent up, saying 'Hallowed be thy name,' it proves holy.

And of this King Christ, to whose great name all shall confess, it is said: 'The honour of the King loves judgement.'

For if those who transgress his law dishonour him by the very act of transgressing, then those who fulfil the divine law, by the very act of acting according to it, honour the King who laid it down, loving the judgement that comes from him, knowing his verdict to be just, and knowing that they will obtain divine recompense if they conduct themselves piously and righteously according to his will—while the wicked do not love his judgement, since they have dishonoured it.

Every wicked man, therefore, shrinking from the exposure that comes from the light and hating the light, does not come to it, lest his deeds be reproved; whereas he who does the truth comes to the light, that his work may be made manifest, that it has been wrought in God—wherefore he also loves the judgement that makes it manifest.

One must consider that 'uprightness' is nothing other than the virtues.

These, then, Jesus prepared, having first accomplished and enacted them, that we might follow in his footsteps, imitating him;

for he set before us a pattern of the best life,

saying, then, 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,' he prepared uprightnesses, that being able to find them easy and ready, we might partake of them.

And by 'him that supplants all wicked things,' God executes the judgement that examines the matters of truth together with righteousness.

The name of 'righteousness' can signify the practical virtue, while that of 'judgement' signifies the examination of doctrines;

and further, he called 'judgement' the disposition by which is discerned what is to be thought and not to be thought, what is to be done and not to be done, while the very activity according to virtue he named 'righteousness.'

Both, then, God performs—that is, he bestows grace upon that which is signified by the name of Jacob as the practical and ascetic exercise of good things.

'Exalt him' not by lifting him up from below to the heights (for this is proper to bodies), but by holding lofty and transcendent conceptions concerning him;

and his footstool can be the flesh which he assumed.

When, then, we treat of the matters concerning God the Word as concerning the only-begotten Son of God, we exalt the Lord our God;

but also, when we contemplate concerning the economy according to his sojourn, we worship at the footstool of his feet, on account of him who fixed upon it his powers of movement, more allegorically called 'feet.'

And the temple of old is also called his footstool, as it is written in Jeremiah: 'How has the Lord darkened in his anger the daughter of Zion? He has cast down to the ground the sanctuary of her, he has not remembered his footstool.'

To worship truly and properly, then, is fitting to the Trinity alone;

for 'thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.'

According to this signification of worship the Lord Jesus also is worshipped;

for 'let all the angels of God worship him.'

But in another manner, for the sake of honour, men are said, according to this Scripture, to worship those in positions of eminence.

Often, then, it is recorded that many worshipped King David, since they worshipped also the other kings of Israel.

and of all those who possessed the same virtue as they.

And that this is true, give heed to the things written in Ezekiel;

and this prophet arose at the time of the captivity.

It is written, then, in Ezekiel himself, God saying in his threats against Israel: 'If I bring a sword upon the land, and there be found upon it Noah and Job and Daniel, the sword shall not come upon these'—and this though the men whom he mentions had lived thousands of years before.

For Noah lived before the flood, and Job, being fifth from Abraham, existed very many years before the prophecy.

What, then, have we to say concerning these, except that he named those possessing the same virtues by the same names as they? And if this is so, it is clear that all who became faithful servants are 'according to Moses,' and likewise in the case of the others.

'In a pillar of cloud he spoke to them.'

And from this we learn that there is, according to Scripture, what is called the 'collective' manner of speech, which, when it has named several, attributes to them what belongs to individuals in particular, as though declaring it of all.

For though he spoke in the pillar of cloud to Moses alone, he now utters it concerning all.

You will find also in the Epistle to the Hebrews a form of such narration.

For when all who through faith were well-pleasing have been enumerated, he speaks collectively concerning all of them the deeds or sufferings of individuals: 'they were sawn asunder, they were stoned,' and what follows.

But what it means that God speaks 'in a pillar of cloud' must now be understood.

Perhaps, then, since the Word of God is firm and unbending, he is fittingly called a 'pillar,' inasmuch as the Church which has received him is 'the pillar and ground of the truth';

but since he is also refreshing and the cause of fruits, coming after the manner of rain into the minds of men, he is a 'pillar of cloud.'

And perhaps too there was foretold through this the coming-down here of the Saviour, in accordance with which, mounting upon a light cloud, he came to Egypt, to the region about the earth.

It belongs to the perfect man, one who possesses all the virtues, to keep all the testimonies and commandments of God.

To 'go out from the presence of the Lord God' there stands opposed the 'coming in before' him.

As, then, Cain, having gone out from the presence of the Lord God, did not leave a place in which the face of God was, so as to be in another place, but having become bereft of right conceptions concerning God, departed outside his presence, embracing want of providence and godlessness, so that he no longer had any imagination or notion of the manifestation of God;

so 'to enter in before the Lord' is, by understanding, to reckon him to be present.

For he who, from the greatness and beauty of created things, has by analogy beheld their Author, and having transcended the whole cosmos has entered into the very knowledge concerning God, so as to stand ever before the Lord according to him who says, 'The Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stood in his presence.'

The 'gates of the Lord' are the virtues according to their kinds, concerning which it is also said in another place, 'Open to me the gates of righteousness,' that having passed through his gates into the courts of God, entering in with hymns of theology, they may thankfully make confession to God.

He who now sings soothes and calms the dispositions of his hearers, through the song hymning God as judge of the things done by men;

then, since his judgement is exact, examining not only the manifest things but also the hidden things of the heart, he brings it in together with a good disposition.

For if indeed he were to scrutinize us according to the worthiness of our works and words and thoughts, we should utterly perish;

in order, then, that this may not happen, he shows mercy before the judgement.

But for him who lives rightly and wishes to have a blameless way, not the action alone ought to be blameless, but also the understanding and the exact knowledge concerning doctrines.

For one plays, striking the instrument tunefully and harmoniously—which is the body, as has often been said—so as to accomplish the best activities.

And he also takes up understanding, reflecting concerning the things that are to be thought.

And since the end of acting and thinking blamelessly is to receive God's presence into the mind and the understanding, he immediately added, 'When wilt thou come to me?' For upon thy coming to me and dwelling with me as in a holy temple, the aforesaid things have been accomplished by me.

And it might also be said on behalf of those who foretold the Saviour's sojourn here: 'We have sung, we have understood the things prophesied concerning thy coming into life.'

Of those who go about according to the activities of the mind, as many as are moved with wickedness become outside of themselves, gaping passionately after the things of sense.

It is customary, then, to call such men 'outside of themselves' and 'beside themselves.'

But he who is moved with innocence—that is, with virtue—concerning things to be done and thought, having inclined toward himself, turns inward;

becoming wholly of the mind and of the care for the inner man, he goes about with the best disposition in the midst of his house.

And the 'house' of each of the diligent is the virtue which they accomplish.

In this way Jacob too is mentioned as dwelling in a house, and the souls that seek out unseen and hidden contemplations, which the Scripture calls the 'midwives' of the Hebrews, having feared God, build the houses that are allotted from the virtues;

whom, calling them also 'wise women' in another passage, he said: 'Wise women have built houses.'

'I did not set before my eyes any lawless thing';

I have no aim and no proposed end of acting lawlessly.

And this that is here set forth will be uttered by Joseph, by Susanna, by the three children in the furnace, and by as many as are gathered into their rank;

whence they say to those who war against them and persecute them:

'You will not drive me from the purpose I hold, even if you should say ten thousand things upon ten thousand in your cunning, even if you should suspend tortures and threaten death itself.'

For every sin becomes a disobedience and transgression of the divine law.

The custom of the brethren is to call 'transgressors' those who have denied Christ, whom it is fitting to hate with an intense hatred, since they have chosen to be enemies of the Saviour.

Hence too, wishing us to have no fellowship with them, the divine word says: 'If any one who is called a brother be, besides other sins, also an idolater, with such a one you are not even to eat.'

For the Apostle does not write this concerning those who are outright pagans, since in the same epistle he inscribes: 'If any of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go, eat whatever is set before you, raising no question.'

If then he does not forbid sharing salt with unbelievers, but forbids eating together with one who is called a brother yet is an idolater, it is plain that he signifies the man who has transgressed away from Christianity into the worship of idols.

These transgressors, then, who commit transgressions, are above all to be hated—not in so far as they happen to be human beings, but in so far as they are such as this.

It is written in Ecclesiastes: 'God made man upright.'

If then he became upright by being fashioned from the beginning according to virtue, all vice and crookedness of character stands far from him.

Whoever, then, has continued keeping his uprightness and his likeness to God, utters this word, showing that the crookedness which has lost what is upright is a way of thinking not proper to us, but coming upon us from somewhere outside, whenever we ourselves draw it in and cast away what is upright.

'When the evil one turned away from me, I did not take notice.'

The evil one, the devil, turns away from everyone who keeps the precept: 'Give no place to the devil.'

His unhallowed thoughts—and later, having entered into the whole man Judas himself, he wrought his own works of wickedness, so that Judas perceived by sense and knowledge that the evil one dwelt within him.

For according to wickedness the very man who received the evil one has himself been made evil; but the one who now sings the psalm, not having a crooked heart in which the evil one is able to operate, had been filled with God and the things of God, so that the evil one, having no place with him, turns away from him.

He sings, therefore, saying: 'When the evil one turned away from me, I did not take notice,' in that he had no perception of his presence.

For I harboured no thought or work of his within me.

Perhaps too, wishing to set forth its worthlessness, he uttered such a saying, since it is the wont of the magnanimous, who make light of things weak and of no account, to say concerning them: 'I do not even know whether it exists or is absent.'

But this 'evil one,' with the article, is always so named in the instructive writings because of his exalting himself in wickedness and, through deceit, making evil those who draw near to him.

Since to be done according to the literal sense is impossible (for no one will be able to destroy all the sinners of the whole earth, even were he king over all of it), yet he who speaks the words before us speaks truly, we must contemplate another earth, of which one slays all the sinners at no other time than the morning hour.

The 'earth,' then, is said to be the body and all the material things about us, and the 'sinners' of this earth are the shameful and licentious pleasures and desires and the other passions.

Whenever, then, the reasoning power has grown strong, the Sun of righteousness having risen upon it so as to become for it the beginning of a spiritual day, then, having mortified the members that are upon the earth—fornication, all uncleanness, every evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry—it will speak the aforesaid word upon its victory, ascribing the slaying of the enemies not so much to itself as to the true Light which through its illumination worked together with it.

Well too is it that he speaks of the 'mornings' in the plural.

For with each sinner of the earth, as its day began for him, he would slay that one—the sinners who live and are active.

There is the night of ignorance and vice.

'For those who sleep, sleep by night, and those who are drunk, are drunk by night.'

The end too passes away.

The night takes it, when the true Light has risen.

But often, rising within him, it makes many mornings, in which it also slays all the sinners of the earth.

The illuminations, however, do not stand fast for him only up to the mornings.

Wherefore also, after the mornings, enjoying long and many days, he shall be one of long days and of many days.

And concerning another holy man it is said by way of blessing: 'With length of days will I fill him.'

Every soul, then, that overthrows the war arising from vices and passions and ignorance comes to be in the vision of peace, which passes all understanding, receiving grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Wherefore also it shall be called a city of God, Jerusalem.

In this city of God the sinners of the earth, ascending, become workers of iniquity.

For the soul has the occasions of the vices within it from the sufferings of the flesh.

If then someone is able, in the manner described, to slay all the sinners of the earth, he will utterly destroy out of the city of the Lord all who work iniquity.

For when the members that are upon the earth have been mortified, the body being buffeted and brought into subjection, the occasions of sins arising from the flesh are no longer able to rouse in the soul those reasonings which press on to commit iniquity for the enjoyment of pleasure.

Everyone who asks for something, not having what he asks and coming through his asking so as to obtain it, is poor.

Everyone, then, who prays to God asks for a share in good things, being unable to have this of himself.