Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 31/40

One must consider that it is not the prophet, being a man, but the Holy Spirit within him, that commands the angels what is set forth;

for it says, 'All His angels' (that is, the Lord's), 'bless Him.'

But the Spirit, in commanding all the angels, is other than they according to essence.

For the word 'confession' signifies both acknowledgment and the concord that is in words.

And if you wish to say that He is clothed with another confession—according to repentance and unto thanksgiving—you would not err.

And correspondingly to this signification, He will also put on the virtue of those who act rightly, which is called majesty.

And just as the Savior, saying 'I was naked and you clothed Me,' shows that the practice of those who live according to Him becomes His clothing and covering, so also the Father will put on the virtues of those who are eager to be His own.

Just as one who wraps himself in a perceptible garment is covered on every side, so God, filled on every side with knowledge, so that His essence is incomprehensible, wraps Himself in light as a garment—the appellation 'light' here too signifying the purest knowledge.

In harmony with this, Paul writes concerning God that indeed He has His dwelling in unapproachable light, or dwells in unapproachable light.

For in this expression too, God's being wholly knowledge, and on that account being hard to comprehend for intelligible beings, is meant when He is said to dwell in unapproachable light.

The air above us, inclining toward the ether, He roofs over with the waters that gather in the whirlings of the clouds.

He names 'heaven' the intelligible substance that is stretched out and spread abroad for the shelter of the mind; He who roofs over with the intelligible and divine waters the upper chambers of the soul—that is, its powers which are above the perceptible things.

You will find 'the abyss' set down for incomprehensibility, as also in the words 'Your judgments, Lord, are a great abyss.'

For His judgments being unsearchable, it is not possible to have comprehension of them;

wherefore they are compared not simply to an abyss but to a great one.

And so God, whose judgments are a great abyss, is covered after the manner of a mantle by an incomprehensibility named 'abyss.'

The mountains, hearing thunder—that is, the word that comes forth loudly according to providence—tremble.

It is fitting to understand that these things were said concerning the perceptible mountains and waters.

But it is possible to take 'At the voice of Your thunder they shall be afraid' not with respect to the waters but with respect to men—or rather with respect to all living beings, being signified—so that thunder might come to be, as they become aware of the invisible and unseen Godhead.

Throughout every phrase the psalm before us hymns and glorifies God, making mention of each creature;

wherefore in the passage before us too, approving His providence, he marvels also at the goodness—joined with wisdom—of Him who took thought even for the continuance of the irrational animals.

For if He Himself made them, He Himself would also be the supplier of their food and drink.

And according to a higher (anagogical) sense you will understand the 'mountains' just now explained;

these are the men who bear the Spirit.

They are given drink from the upper chambers of God Himself, being filled with the gifts of the Spirit—the word of wisdom and the rest that are enumerated thereafter.

And the 'upper chambers' of God, from which the mountains give drink, are the pure and surpassing contemplations of the truth, called 'upper chambers' because nothing has ascended above them.

'From the fruit of Your works the earth shall be satisfied.'

For He Himself said: 'Let the earth put forth the herb of grass, and the fruit-bearing tree yielding fruit,' and so on.

But according to the anagogical sense, from the works of Jesus during His sojourn, which have much fruit, the whole earth is satisfied, partaking of the things so paradoxically wrought by Jesus.

For this is the fruit of His works.

And the word too—that which is understood concerning the works of His creation and providence—being as it were a fruit of the works of God, will satisfy the earth, that is, the men who dwell upon the earth.

And grass shall spring up also in His words that are beyond nature and most sublime, which are mountains—grass which those who are more irrational are able to bear.

'And wine gladdens the heart of man'—not every wine, but only that which has its origin from Him who said 'I am the true vine'; but since all perceptible things are named 'earth' on account of their material nature.

From these things it is possible to take a meaning that leads up, by a certain analogy, to the intelligible realities.

And this word is bread brought forth from the earth for the nourishing of the inner and hidden man;

and from the bodily narratives of Scripture, which on account of their historical sense are called 'earth,' the bread brought forth is the mystical word.

And the face of the inner man is made cheerful and radiant with oil—the oil that nourishes the divine light and dissolves the diseases and toils of the soul, differing from the wine mentioned above in conception alone.

For the Word of God, just as He is a vine, so also is He an olive tree;

for 'I,' He says, 'am as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God.'

For His teaching, according to different relations, is both wine and oil and bread.

The race of deer is hostilely disposed toward the race of serpents.

They hasten, at any rate, to destroy them.

And such altogether are the disciples of Christ, being ready to avenge every disobedience.

And they received also the power against the intelligible serpents, from Him who stretched out to them authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy.

These spiritual deer, then, longing after the springs of the spiritual waters—which are also otherwise called 'mountains'—spend their time upon these very mountains.

And there would be the souls perfected in virtue, leaping mightily as deer, imitating Him who leaps upon the mountains and bounds upon the hills, and who is a gazelle on account of His keen and far-seeing vision.

But those souls that have descended below these and are weaker, called 'rock-badgers,' take refuge as at an unassailable fortress in the Rock upon which Jesus founds the Church;

and this rock is the confession of the faith.

And in the Proverbs it is said: 'And the coneys, a feeble folk, made their houses in the rocks.'

It is nothing to marvel at if in one place the rock is spoken of in the singular and in another in the plural, since Christ is a Rock in the simple sense, yet He is also, according to His various aspects, many rocks.

A Scripture text is cited: 'The rock is a refuge for the hares,' so that perhaps 'hare' and 'coney' are synonymous.

One may therefore hear each person saying: 'Behold, the Lord is my helper;'

'who shall do me harm?' And, 'The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear;'

'what shall man do unto me?' Now the word 'As' set down here signifies not likeness but truth, just as in the phrase 'How good is God to Israel;'

for it does not call God something like good, but truly good.

So too in the present phrase, the magnitude of the works of God is signified by the words 'How great are Thy works, O Lord.'

For everything that comes to be in the wisdom of God is great.

And the Wisdom of God, in which all things came into being, is the Lord;

for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

But another says that this was spoken concerning the rational beings alone.

For the very act of expecting, and of directing one's expectation toward God, is what this hints at.

For when this is granted, they will gather it up, hastening to receive as much of it as suffices to nourish them to satiety.

And upon such abundance there shall be granted to them the kindness of Him who opens to them the hand of Thy words and Thy wisdom.

God, bestowing everlasting glory upon His own works, rejoices when all things set their expectation upon Him.

May God rejoice in the ancient works of His—the joy of God being not a passion (for the Divine is impassible), but an acceptance of those who have perfected complete virtue.

But if you wish to take these things spiritually, then when God looks upon a man according to 'Look upon me' and 'The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,' for that man earthly things no longer stand firm, but tremble reeling in darkness, so that his material condition is cast off and passes away.

And God, touching also the wicked powers—which are called mountains on account of their pride—makes them to smoke, already casting into them the kindling of the punishment by fire.

'I will sing to the Lord'—the song having its existence not in voice but in acts of understanding;

'and I will make melody' to God in perfect deeds, so long as I exist, having an existence whereby I partake of Him who exists before the ages and who said, 'I am He who is.'

Speaking things acceptable and pleasing to God, I will say: 'May my meditation be sweet unto Him.'

For thus He too, accepting the Church, says in the Song of Songs: 'Thy voice is sweet.'

Just as, according to the narrative, Samuel, continually ministering in the tabernacle of witness, beheld the face of God, so those who have given themselves over unceasingly and without interval to the examination of the doctrines of truth and to the practice of the virtues perpetually seek the face of God, wishing to see Him with a pure mind.

And the face of God is the express image of His substance, being the image of the invisible God;

wherefore also he who sees Him straightway sees God.

And His mouth you may understand to be His Word, who, in the manner of a lawgiver and an exact instructor, has given you well-considered lessons and commandments.

Having called those descended from Abraham servants of God because of the descent of the race from Abraham, and those from Jacob elect because they belong to Him and bear His name, and because those from among the nations then taken in as an election became His own inheritance, with the Lord and God being their own proper God, nonetheless he says that providential judgment extends over all men alike.

The number of the thousand generations is spoken not with respect to multitude, but on account of its kinship with unity, just as in 'Thousands of those who flourish,' and further, 'The law of Thy mouth is good to me above thousands of gold and silver.'

For which cause they too would say: 'We have become partakers of Christ,' inasmuch as we have been deemed worthy of the manifestation of the Son of God;

for that it was Christ Himself who also spoke to them, the Saviour Himself teaches when He says: 'Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.'

When did he see it, save when, lifting up his eyes, he saw God standing by him at the oak of Mamre? For then the Scripture says: 'God appeared to Abraham.'

These things, then, even if for another reason, it was necessary that they be proclaimed to the nations by those who are here appointed to do this.

By 'a short while' he meant 'a little.'

For 'short' is used with respect to magnitude, while 'few' is applied to things that are numbered.

They humbled only his feet, his soul not being bound in the fetters, but having come to be outside the iron.

For as many as, being wrapped in bonds, bear their circumstance ignobly, these have a soul bent low by the iron.

But this he endured not utterly to the end.

For he sets a limit to the end of the circumstance, saying that it prevailed until the word of God passed through;

according to which, being sent for out of the prison, he was appointed guardian and provider of all, when the oracle of the Lord had set him aglow to be fervent in spirit and to keep it kindled by the divine light—after which it is also possible to observe the exhortation that says, 'Quench not the Spirit.'

And Joseph himself also knew this doctrine;

wherefore he said to those responsible: 'It was not you who sent me hither.'

Since not all are able of themselves and by themselves to withdraw from harmful things, to those who are thus weak God sends guides who are able, and leaders of the way that leads to good things.

And these are the law of God, Moses, and the high-priestly word, whose symbol is Aaron;

the one declaring the things to be done, the other ministering to God on our behalf and ferrying across to us the graces that come from Him;

But according to the higher sense you will understand that each of those in these tribes, having health and strength, will say, 'I can do all things through Him who strengthens me,' and being rich also in good works and in all utterance and all knowledge, in silver and in gold, comes to be even outside Egypt by God's power.

For it is impossible for anyone who is weak and deprived of the gold and silver aforementioned to come out of Egypt.

The present utterance belongs especially to the saints who lived before the sojourning of the Saviour and who besought that the Lord might remember them in the good pleasure of His people—the good pleasure with which, in His beloved Son, He was well pleased to save, having resolved to save His people and the world;

at any rate, pointing Him out, He says: 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'

Since, then, the divine prophets saw with the eye of understanding, desiring to see and to hear the things done and spoken concerning Jesus, they ask that remembrance be made of them in the salvation that is according to the good pleasure.

And Christ is often called the salvation of God, as also in 'All flesh shall see the salvation of our God.'

This visitation the father of the Baptist makes manifest, saying concerning God: 'Through the tender mercy of our God, wherein the dayspring from on high hath visited us.'

And when He has visited us in His salvation, it shall belong to us to become His elect and to behold, in the kindness shown to His elect, the joy that is being brought to completion, and to be gladdened in the divine banquet of the nation that is being filled up out of all who believe.

And may it be brought to pass for us also to be praised together with His inheritance—whether the inheritance He will extend to us as heirs, or the inheritance which He possesses.

And what is this but the Church from among the nations, according to 'Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance'? For henceforth those who attend to the law spiritually according to the Gospel are praised together with the aforesaid inheritance.

And they are praised by God and by the holy powers, who welcome those that hasten to be approved in God's sight.

And the divine men, taking up also the person of those who repent for the things they have wickedly done, and teaching how one ought to repent after sins, say not 'We are sinning,' but 'We have sinned with our fathers;'

calling their own fathers either their forebears and predecessors, or those who begot them according to wickedness.

And it is well that, in enumerating the things for which they repent, they do not say 'We have acted impiously;'

for it was not that they came to be outside the Godhead, but that, being encompassed by it and yet overcome by passions and by a base disposition, they sinned and did the other things.

That He who rebuked the Red Sea is God is confessed by all.

If, then, Jesus also rebukes the sea when it is tossed, that from the surge and swell a calm may come to be, He is shown to be God—being Himself the very One who rebuked the Red Sea, or the Son of that One.

Nonetheless, when God rebuked the Red Sea, it was dried up so that it became passable—that which of old was called sea and abyss on account of the multitude of its waters.

'And they made a calf in Horeb,' having brought with them from Egypt a mental image of the Apis at Memphis.

Wherefore, in addition to this calf, they also worshipped other graven images, being held fast in the drama of polytheism.

Having made one, they said, as though pointing to many: 'These are thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.'

And the psalm that follows, containing God's benefactions and mercies wrought toward men, being praise of Him, has 'Alleluia' set at its head.

Those whose surrounding afflictions are changed for the better (though they contributed nothing of their own to this), having recognized that they possess these things by the mercy of a kind God, would speak the verses here set forth.

And since there might be some who come to be amid what are reckoned temporary goods, these have experience simply of the mercy of God, while those who possess eternal goods from Him are shown mercy unto the age.

At any rate, the kind God Himself also said to a certain one: 'With everlasting mercy have I had mercy on thee.'

Thus too he shows mercy unto thousands to those who love him, preparing for them what eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man.

It has been said before that 'the good' is synonymous with 'the kind.'

Therefore, being in a wilderness of the virtues, we wandered astray, having no guide or leader whom we might follow so as to be able, after the journey, to find a well-ordered city set in order by a sacred law, in which we could dwell without departing from it.

And virtue is also the wisdom of God.

And since the poverty that had first taken hold is contrary to being rich in every word and all knowledge and in good works, he who has been freed from these vices will not so much as experience punishments.

While they were still walking the way of their lawlessness, the merciful God took hold of them, since through the multitude of the impieties they held they had been humbled and were held fast by those very things from which he was rousing them.

And see whether you can apply to these the matter concerning the robber who repented upon the cross;

For while he was still on the way of lawlessness (for he had been condemned for robbery) and had been humbled by punishment for the lawless deeds he had, he was taken hold of by the one who said to him, 'Today you shall be with me in paradise.'

In general, both in the body and in the soul, he who is in poor condition through some illness has an aversion to all nourishment, both bodily and spiritual; but those who possess the health of the soul hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The gates of death are the sins that lead to death.

To these draw near those who, before coming to him, still possess a vital breath and power, I mean the notion concerning God;

Wherefore in their affliction they cry out to the Lord, and he saves them out of all the distresses that hold them fast.

And had they not cried out to the Lord, they would have gone on even unto death itself.

Now everyone who declares in exultation his works is one who declares the things that have happened to himself and has had experience of his benefaction, not one who simply recounts the things that have befallen others.

That the waters are said to ascend up to heaven and to descend to the abyss is spoken by way of hyperbole;

for indeed you would find countless examples of such a manner in Scripture;

for concerning the cities of Israel's enemies, that they were walled up to heaven because they were fortified with lofty walls, and the 'I shall be made whiter than snow' is said in the same manner.

But also, having nothing to allege against God's dispensation concerning the nations, iniquity will stop up its own mouth.

And by iniquity you will understand the devil and everyone made like unto it, according to the 'The mouth of those speaking lawless things was stopped.'

Since the greater part of these things is laid up for the spiritual understanding, it belongs to the wise and prudent to comprehend them.

His glory is the practical and contemplative habit according to which he is disposed toward moral and intellectual virtue.

To whom the true light has arisen, having risen early to the Lord, walking becomingly as in the day, striking the psaltery and plucking the cithara, they sing melodies to the all-wise God, sending up their hymns rhythmically and harmoniously.

And it has been stated in the psalm what the psaltery is and what the cithara is.

The mercy is magnified up to heaven, beginning from the earth;

for the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.

It has as its end that those who began to be shown mercy from the earth should reach unto heaven, in that they inherit the kingdom of heaven.

And his truth also is magnified in the clouds that minister the spiritual rain, namely Moses and the prophets, since their ministry, beginning from the shadow, terminates in the truth, so that they too worship the Father in spirit and truth, likewise as do the apostles and all the disciples of the Spirit.

From the first phrase up to 'Your glory is over all the earth' it is identical with that of the Fifty-sixth Psalm, and from the following verse to the end with that of the Fifty-ninth;

hence, having said there each of the matters set forth, we now treat them in brief.

When God is exalted in those who bear the image of the heavenly and are for this reason called heavens, his glory is extended over all the earth that is able to bear fruit a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold;

or, when God is exalted upon the contemplative natures of the world that are called heavens, his glory comes to be upon the practical ones that are named earth.

Not otherwise would those worthy to be loved by you be delivered from the foes that hold them fast, or from those that beset them, than by your saving with your right hand and hearkening to me who intercede on their behalf.

Being exalted therefore upon the cross and having ascended, the Lord divided the works of men, so as to justify some and to reject others;

wherefore also the earthly region, because it lies somewhere below and is called a valley of the human bodies that pass their time in it, is called the tents of the indwelling souls, being a portioning-out, in that he provides for the affairs both below and here.

Assuredly, then, he sent to all the nations the heralds of the truth, having decreed that the gospel be proclaimed.

Gilead is interpreted 'removal,' Manasseh 'from forgetfulness,' and Ephraim 'fruitfulness.'

The Saviour, then, will say, 'Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,' being removed from evil to truth, or from vice to virtue, or from earth to heaven;

and mine also is he who has passed beyond all forgetfulness of good things and has come away from it.

For he who comes to remembrance after forgetfulness is Manasseh, that is, one who has released and left behind the forgetfulness according to which he had forgotten the good things of God.

But also the abundant fruitfulness of the nations that have believed has become a shelter and support for the Saviour;

for as Paul writes to those benefited by him that they are his joy and crown, so also the Saviour has as his support the crown woven for him, namely those who bear the fruit of righteousness and truth.

And Judah too is his king, not because he rules over him, but because, being a king, he is made a close possession to him.

Such was David, or rather perhaps everyone who makes confession over the things he has rightly accomplished is Judah, which is interpreted 'confession.'

Moab, however, because it is punitive toward those handed over to it by the Lord of hope who speaks, is a cauldron;

and the cauldron, in many places among the prophets, signifies punishment;

since, therefore, punishments are brought on with a good purpose, having a good hope that follows upon them, it is a cauldron of hope and an expectation of good things.

Over Idumea I will stretch out my sandal.

If it were the person of the Saviour who says these things, then, since Idumea is rendered 'earthly,' he would say that he made his journey over the earth and earthly things;

for of old he used a bare journey, creating and exercising providence, but now he journeys with the flesh with which he is clothed, which is also his sandal.

And since some have shod the gospel with the preparation of peace, this sandal too, being distributed everywhere, has been stretched out over Idumea according to both of the said manners.

The same things are not on the right hand for all: for the diligent, the intelligible things and those of virtue; but for the base, the sensible things and those of vice;

in the right-hand things of the holy one, God stands; but in those of the sinner, the devil.

But perhaps someone will object, saying:

Concerning Joshua the great priest, who was holy, it is also said, 'And the devil stood at his right hand to oppose him.'

But the one who thus objects did not attend to the difference of the wording;

for concerning Judas it is written, 'Let the devil stand at his right hand,' whereas concerning the great priest, 'And the devil stood at his right hand to oppose him;'

for at the right hand of the holy one he stands fighting and opposing, even though he is not able to overthrow the one whose God is at his right hand;

but in the case of Judas he stands at the right hand as in his own proper place.

Wherefore he is also base; and what follows further makes plain his wickedness, when the Saviour prays that the prayer of Judas may become sin.

A prayer becomes sin to the one who sends it up when he fails to obtain the things he asks for.

He prayed, then, betraying in a certain way his teacher, that his word might be abolished and all the disciples and believers scattered; but he failed.

His word, then, ran on, and those who believe in him, increasing day by day, filled the whole inhabited world.

And in yet another way a prayer becomes sin to someone, when he asks to receive from God not what is needful but what would not profit him, and for this reason [God] judging him, since he asked for what it is not fitting for God to give nor advantageous for himself.

Of every betrayer of the truth the days become few, those which he had while being enlightened, before he betrayed the truth;

being enlightened by the true light; and another receives his oversight in his stead, becoming a teacher, one who has both remained in and advanced in the truth.

The fathers of Judas, those who begot him unto the betrayal, can be those who by the giving of the pieces of silver urged him on to this, and further Satan, who cast into his heart to betray the Lord, and the rulers of this age who possess its wisdom, concerning whom Paul says, 'For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.'

And he put him to death, becoming the cause of his being handed over unto death.

He who is clothed with the form of the servant speaks as to the Lord, the Father.

And he says to the Lord how he will deal mercifully with him, doing good to those who believe, who are his body;

for the things that are done to his body he reckons as done to himself.

Therefore he says, 'Deal with me for thy name's sake,' since it was in this that I came unto those to whom thou didst send me, saying, 'I have come in the name of the Father.'

For the sake, therefore, of this name deal with me, 'because thy mercy is good,' being beneficent and full of goodness.

And deal with me, since 'my heart also is troubled within me.'

You might call his 'heart' also his apostles, who were of one soul with him, since those of lesser rank who had believed became for him a body.

Since, then, the disciples were scattered, being made to stumble in that night when Judas and the throng of the Pharisees came upon him to seize him, it came to pass that they, being his heart, were troubled.

Yet even though his heart was troubled, it nevertheless did not depart from him, but was held fast by him and remained within, being of his disciples.

But also everyone who is troubled in heart by reasonings or passions, yet does or says nothing according to that trouble, will say the words, 'My heart is troubled within me.'

Since the Saviour was to dwell among men (for after the resurrection he was taken up into the heavens), he will say concerning human life, which is neither abiding nor stable but passes away like a shadow: 'I am carried off, being shaken out like a locust.'

For just as locusts, by reason of the weakness of their nature, are more quickly shaken off when driven away, so I too, having taken up a weak life for men's sake in order to be crucified, was swiftly driven forth out of weakness, being taken up after the resurrection.

He can also say concerning all the disciples, as though concerning himself, the words 'I was shaken out like locusts,' since when they are persecuted and shaken off by those who wish to do them harm, they are not brought low, but flying aloft are borne on high.

And so all the martyrs too, being shaken out like locusts and forsaking the things below, pursue the prize of the upward calling.

And rendering the cause of confessing and praising him, he added, 'Because he stood at the right hand of the poor.'