Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 32/40

That is, of me, who for the sake of all became poor, that by my poverty they might be made rich.

And he stands at the right hand of him who does and thinks all things rightly.

And again, giving the reason for God's standing at his right hand, he says, 'To save my soul.'

To the Son who had fulfilled the economy, risen from the dead, and been taken up into heaven, and who is Lord, the Lord — that is, the Father — said, 'Sit at my right hand, until I make thy enemies a footstool for thy feet.'

Paul, at any rate, knows that this utterance was spoken after this ascension, when he says, 'Having made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high';

and next, 'For to which of the angels did he ever say, Sit at my right hand?' The Father, then, being Lord of all things that have come into being through him, says to the Lord of creation, 'Sit at my right hand, until I make thy enemies a footstool for thy feet.'

Now the Father speaks to the Son as a father might speak to a son and a son to a father; for he does not converse with the Son by means of uttered speech.

For he himself is the Father's understanding and truth and wisdom and word.

And the Lord sits at the right hand of the Lord.

For he who spoke these things had no place or body, so that we should look for the 'right hand' as being in a place.

At the right hand of God, then, are those who partake of him in so far as he is God and holy and good;

of whom no other shall be accounted than one reigning together with the Father.

For the words 'Sit at my right hand' declare the Son's reigning together with the Father.

Those who possess wisdom and unalloyed virtue are a throne of God;

and seated upon these the Saviour sits at the right hand of God.

But those who have driven themselves toward wickedness and false doctrine are enemies of the Word and of the truth.

Yet the Father wishes to draw even these through repentance, to bring them beneath the pathway and the feet of the Word, so that, having become his footstool, they may, so far as is possible, touch his feet;

and after that contact, becoming more readily moved toward virtue and wisdom, they too shall pass from being a footstool and become a throne.

Wherefore Paul says, 'For he must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet.'

And here too, then, God says, 'Until I make thy enemies a footstool for thy feet.'

For he sits at the right hand of the Father, reigning for as long as the enemies resist.

But when he has subjected them and made them his footstool, having placed in them a beginning of benefit, he stretches out his hand and leads them up, so that they too may be numbered among those at the right hand — the wickedness no longer existing on account of which they had been at the left — so that thereafter the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, one; and all the rational beings, having been perfected, become one toward the Father and the Son of God, who has become all in all.

The word 'rule' here signifies a kingdom that is with the Saviour in the day of his power, that is, after the resurrection by which he rose from the dead;

or it signifies the innate rule that belongs to him, according to which he holds sway and exercises dominion (and this is the day of his power) — not among any chance persons, but in the splendours of the saints, in which they, being illuminated and made resplendent by the true light, shall be, so that one may say, 'Let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us.'

But if by 'rule' he means those who are ruled — according to which sense it is said, 'The God who prevails over all rule,' and 'His rule has come upon his shoulder' — then you will say, together with the fact that there are those ruled by him in the day of his power, that he shines forth, being the Sun of righteousness.

He himself, at any rate, says concerning those reigned over by him, to the Father, 'I will that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory.'

All the men of the Church say that the foregoing utterance was spoken by the Father not now for the first time but from all eternity, joined to the beginning of the psalm thus:

'The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet;'

'From the womb, before the morning star, I have begotten thee' — the other half-verses being spoken in between.

And it seems indeed that the Apostle, following this same understanding, said, 'For to which of the angels did he ever say, Sit at my right hand?' — as much as to say:

To none of the begotten, but to his only-begotten Son alone did he say, 'Sit at my right hand,' since he alone is the only-begotten, being in the bosom of the Father.

Let us see, too, what the very wording intends.

And it must be said that God is simple and uncompounded;

and yet, though he is such, the divine word, whenever it wishes genuinely to present him as Creator, from the things we know, conversing about his hands, says that the heavens and the rest of creation are the works of his hands.

For since there are those who are properly sons of certain persons, while others are adopted and made sons, whenever we mean not the adopted but the proper ones, we call them the offspring of the womb of those who begot them.

And so God too, wishing to present a genuine Son and the only-begotten from himself, makes mention of a womb.

But just as we understand his making things with hands in a manner befitting God, so also let us understand his begetting from a womb.

But many are the works of his hands, while one is the only-begotten offspring of the womb;

whence it must be said that creating and begetting are not the same in the case of God, as some suppose.

For all things have come into being through the Word and in Wisdom, but Wisdom and the Word have been begotten not through anything but out of God.

Therefore begetting is not the same as making;

for if it had no difference, nothing would have prevented saying:

'My hands made thee, and the works of my womb are the heavens.'

But just as the wording has much variation, so also do the things signified by it.

But it is not to a Son who is ignorant of these things that the Father says them; rather, that we might know the intimacy of the Father toward the Son and of the Son toward the Father, these things were recorded.

Just as also that which was spoken by the only-begotten Wisdom herself: 'Before all the hills he begets me,' wherefore here too he is said to have been begotten 'before the morning star' — and that of a light not only sensible but also intelligible.

And if of intelligible things too, then it is evident that he is also before all creation, according to what is said: 'And he is before all things.'

Just as the Saviour ordains for us that our oath be 'Yea, yea' and 'Nay, nay,' so, or rather much more, God, being truthful, is said to swear, using neither any disavowing nor any adjuring oath.

The Lord therefore swore and will not repent, since the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance;

and the greatest calling is that of the Saviour unto priesthood, an irrevocable gift — the priesthood not after the order of Aaron but of Melchizedek, for ever.

For that of Aaron, which lay upon them until the time of setting things right, was changed, concerning which Paul says, 'The priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.'

For the purpose of interceding on their behalf.

And thus too he offers up on our behalf to the Father the spiritual sacrifices, which are a sacrifice of praise and righteousness; but he has also offered himself as a sacrifice on behalf of all for the salvation of all things.

When the Father had said to the Son, 'Sit at my right hand,' it is now said, 'The Lord is at thy right hand,' so that it is made manifest that the Son is not at the Father's right hand in a local sense.

For behold, both he himself is at the right hand and his Father is at the right hand, which would be impossible if 'at the right hand' were understood in a local sense.

As, then, the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, so the Son is the right hand of the Father.

And the Father of the Son, at his right hand, shatters in the day of his wrath the intelligible kings, who are none other than the principalities and authorities and world-rulers of the darkness.

And these same are they who are placed under the Saviour's feet, being, on account of the wickedness and evil which they chose, his enemies; yet, being shattered, they shall cease to be foes, when every such principality and every such authority is brought to nought by the Lord.

In the Scriptures the day of the Lord's wrath is called the time of the judgment of all at once.

When these things are thus brought to completion, God will fill the nations with fallen ones, leaving no one empty and without a share in the fullness that comes from Him — a share belonging to those who have fallen unto salvation, that they may rise again unto eternal life.

For He Himself is set — He from whose fullness the saints have received — for the falling and the rising of many, casting down and making to fall those who hold an evil standing by seeming to be established according to vice and impiety, in order to raise them up unto a resurrection of life, so that thenceforth they may make use of Him as their head, when the evil kingdoms have been shattered — those which He called 'the heads of many,' of the many who are named 'poured out' because of their wickedness.

For since it was not possible that those and He Himself should have a head — that is, a king — at the same time, while He was still first upon the earth, He, having shattered the wicked rulers of the nations and lawfully reigning over them, being over every man according to the inner man, is also the head of the blameless Church.

The cause of all these things is that He drank from the torrent, having come to be in the way of the life of men.

For this is what the last verse hints at, saying, 'From the torrent in the way he shall drink water.'

The torrent in many places, as also here, signifies temptation; and to drink from it is to take it up upon oneself.

And Jesus was tempted, having come for our salvation into the way of men, as the Apostle says, writing thus:

'For in that which He Himself suffered, being tempted, He is able to succour those who are tempted.'

Of whom also, being declared king — authority having been given to Him in heaven and upon earth — He lifted up His head, being appointed by the Spirit ruler not only of those upon earth but also of those in the heavens, so that at His name every knee should bow, of things heavenly and earthly and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, unto the glory of God the Father.

Of this exaltation the cross bears the symbol.

All these things will be said concerning the Word who became flesh.

For even though He is one and the same, yet according to our conception the foregoing things will fit His incarnate presence.

And a little earlier we set down a tradition of the ancients which we had learned, namely that the psalms inscribed with 'Hallelujah' belong among those arranged among the earlier ones; and here too, from the hundred-and-tenth psalm up to the hundred-and-eighteenth, 'Hallelujah' has been prefixed, with no expressed person appearing to whom each of these belongs.

Since therefore the hundred-and-ninth is inscribed 'of David,' it is necessary, so far as concerns his tradition, that all those following, up to the hundred-and-eighteenth, be his also.

And let this be a general observation applying to all the psalms without inscription.

'With the whole heart' does everyone confess — indeed only he confesses thus who has loved God from his whole heart and soul and mind;

and having directed the whole of his loving power toward God, he loves God from his whole heart; and having spent the whole of his power of praise and thanksgiving upon God, he confesses to Him from his whole heart in the assembly of the earnest, not in a chance place nor with chance companions.

It is possible, having placed a stop at 'With the whole heart,' to read what follows thus: 'In the counsel of the upright and in the congregation, great are the works of the Lord.'

The will of the Lord being named universally and generically, the matters concerning His particular works would be His individual wills.

If therefore all things whatsoever He willed He made, then universally the making depends upon His willing, the individual creations being fitted to the wills according to their kinds.

Wherefore, the Creator being great, His works also are great, exceedingly exact for the fitting of His wills;

for they are not as chance would have it, but sought out with care unto all the wills.

Wherefore, since the works are thus sought out, let no one say, 'To what end is that?'

for all things were created for their proper use;

wherefore all the works of God are exceedingly good.

But if one should take as the works of God those things accomplished in a paradoxical and marvellous manner (this on the one hand through Moses and the prophets, that on the other through Jesus our Saviour), the foregoing words would be said concerning these also.

For the raisings of the dead, and the cleansings of lepers, and the recoveries of sight of the blind, and things akin to these, which Jesus accomplished, symbolically declared through them the healings of the inner man, all of which are pre-eminently the wills of God.

And if one should take the virtues also to be called wills of God, on account of the saying 'Who shall do all my wills,' he will say that the great works, sought out unto all the wills of God, are the activities according to virtue.

And according to the letter indeed He gives food in a special way to those who fear Him, with a certain working of wonders — as to Daniel, who happened to have his meal in the den of lions in Babylon;

for He lifted Habakkuk up on high from Jerusalem and led him into Babylon, carrying the food to Daniel himself.

But He also, having commanded the ravens to bring bread in the morning and flesh in the evening to Elijah (a great famine then prevailing), fed him who feared the Lord.

And His old covenant having been given until a season of correction, and having reached its end, He shall remember unto the age the new covenant according to the Gospel, which remains without succession.

Wherefore also, to the people whom He purchased by His own blood through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Spirit, Jesus gives the strength of His works, making manifest to them of what power each thing is which He enjoined the people to work, together with the accounts of what has come to pass.

'He shall remember His covenant unto the age.'

When a hardening in part came upon Israel, the fullness of the nations entered into salvation.

But since God is good, not being content merely that the fullness of the nations should enter into the undefiled and glorified inheritance, He remembers unto the age the covenant made toward the sons of Israel for the sake of their fathers.

The strength of the works which He did He will proclaim to the Israelite people, so that, having beheld the power of the divine economy, they too may be saved after the fullness of the nations has entered, receiving from God the inheritance made kindred to and confirmed for the nations.

In many places of the divine oracles we find the Lord called the hand of the Father, as in the saying, 'My high hand made all these things.'

For the Word, through whom are all things, and the Wisdom, in which the Father made all things, is His hand, which fashioned the whole.

But also, when God led the people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, He wrought this in the same Son, as one of the apostles writes: 'Jesus, having once saved a people out of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe.'

They say that she who declares 'The heavens are the works of Your hands,' and she who proclaims 'Whose hands created all the host of heaven' (with these agrees also he who said 'Your hands made me and fashioned me') — one who seeks with good reason would find also the Holy Spirit called the hand of God;

from which it is shown that the Holy Spirit is creative, the Father having wrought the heavens and created the host of heaven in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

The works of God wrought by these hands are found, in all the saints, to be truth and judgment.

For the practical habit which the Son gives in the Holy Spirit is judgment — judging and, after examination, determining what good things one ought to choose and what evils to flee;

and truth consists in those things which Christ gives through the Holy Spirit and according to the Spirit — a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge.

The works therefore of the hands of God, being knowledge of the truth and moral virtue, are truth and judgment;

wherefore it consequently follows, 'Faithful are all His commandments' — spoken of not because they are merely believed, but because of their unshakeable and steadfast nature, according to which signification it is written, 'I will give you an eternal covenant, the faithful holy things of David.'

These faithful commandments, then, stand established unto the age of the age, because they are of God and cannot be overturned.

Concerning these, at any rate, the Saviour said, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall by no means pass away.'

But do not, unawares, suppose that the foregoing were spoken concerning the commandments according to the shadow.

For those passed away, having been given until a season of correction.

For it is concerning the spiritual laws that accord with Him that one must understand the foregoing, as that which is added on teaches, running thus:

'Made in truth and uprightness.'

For they come to be, being conceived in truth according to the doctrine of godliness.

But they are also accomplished in uprightness, being kept with the best of habits, so that these too, as works of the hands of the Lord, are brought to pass in each godly person, being truth and judgment.

And he transferred 'judgment' into 'uprightness' by the fact that the practical and moral virtue directs the soul aright and is discerning of things to be done and things not to be done.

'The redemption which God sent to His people' is none other than that of Him who said, 'The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many.'

By His own precious blood, therefore — He having by the grace of God tasted death on behalf of all — we were redeemed from our vain manner of life handed down from our fathers.

For Christ became to us, as wisdom and righteousness and sanctification from God, so also redemption, saying, 'He sent Me to proclaim release to the captives.'

For releasing from captivity those held fast by the devil and by wickedness, He was revealed as the redeemer and benefactor of all, forgiving the sins and impieties of those who flee to Him for refuge.

But moreover, His goodness not being content with the mere redemption of the captives, He also appointed them heirs of His own Father, and joint-heirs with Himself, having enjoined upon them an eternal covenant, so that, holding fast to it intently and with perfect eagerness, they might receive an immortal inheritance according to the eternal and incorruptible promises.

'His name,' he says, is 'holy' to the saints, but 'fearful' to those who are not holy.

For just as, being a fountain of holiness, it makes holy those who partake of it, so it is fearful to those who sin while bearing it.

Just as, of the good way (and this is the contemplation of truth), the beginning is to do just deeds, so also the beginning and introduction into the wisdom of God — which is none other than the contemplation of truth — is the divine fear, being the very same that is named, among practical matters, the doing of just deeds.

Whatever relation, then, the doing of just deeds bears to the good way, this same relation the fear of God bears to wisdom.

The word 'beginning' can here be understood not in the sense of 'introduction' but of 'cause,' so that what is said would be: the cause and origin is the fear of God.

And the good understanding that goes together with this wisdom belongs not to those who have conceived it apart from doing, but to those who do it.

For to those who practise the understanding — which is none other than virtue — there will be benefit, and from this benefit they learn its goodness.

Upon all the things set forth as theology in the present psalm there is brought, as a conclusion, that His praise abides forever.

For this is a fitting conclusion for those who discourse of God: to say, 'His praise' (that is, the praise of the One who is the object of theology) 'endures unto infinity.'

For since the One who is hymned is immortal, it is necessary that His praise also be unending, so as to endure throughout all ages.

He who performs these works not for the sake of anything else nor on their own account—such as for human glory, or to avoid falling into the punishment brought upon sinners, or for a reward—but choosing and performing them for the sake of the good itself; for thus indeed will such a man be truly blessed.

As for the man who is called blessed because he has the fear of the Lord, the seed which he sows into the good ground—namely his diligent and noble heart—is able to bring forth fruit even a hundredfold.

For the seeds which the wicked sow into the flesh—their material and earthy disposition—are weak (wherefore also from the flesh they reap corruption); but the seed of those who sow into the spirit is powerful, whence also they reap unto eternal life.

To each of those thus made perfect, and to all of them together, the Word therefore commands: 'Sow for yourselves unto righteousness; reap for yourselves unto the fruit of life.'

'Glory and riches are in his house.'

He who has turned into deeds the words of Jesus which he has heard builds his house upon the rock, laying the foundations of his contemplative and active life upon the unbreakable Word of God.

This, then, is the house which each of those who fear the Lord has built by having willed to walk in the commandments of the Lord (that is, by having greatly delighted in the words of Jesus); and he fills it with the glory of the thoughts of the truth and with riches composed of every word and all knowledge and good works.

Whence also the promise of his righteousness extends unto the age of the age.

Such houses did the midwives build for themselves, having feared the Lord, so that they might not, being homeless, wander in the desert after the manner of Esau, but might dwell in a house after the manner of the guileless Jacob.

But others have understood the foregoing passages also according to the literal sense.

Yet one must not consider the words to be human words.

For the words which men are entrusted to dispense are in a certain manner said to be their own as well.

At any rate, someone has prefixed to the prophecy he received from God the words, 'The words of Amos, which came upon Accaron'; and Solomon too, laying the matter bare, says, 'My words have been spoken by God.'

Indeed, the divine Gospel too is designated sometimes by the One who gave it, and sometimes by those who minister it: by those who minister it, when Paul says 'my Gospel'; and by the One who committed it, when again Paul says, 'Even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel,' and, 'Set apart unto the Gospel of God.'

For the Holy Spirit Himself, who fills the holy men with divine things, is called sometimes God's and sometimes the men's who possess Him, as in the passage, 'The spirit of Elijah rests upon [him],' and, 'In the spirit and power of Elijah.' But do not suppose, because it is said in a temporal manner, 'Until He look upon His enemies,' that He is not shaken, that after the destruction of His enemies He is shaken.

For how could he be shaken when his enemies have been destroyed, if he did not suffer this even while they were threatening and pressing upon him? For it is customary for Scripture to use such expressions in many places, as when the Gospel says concerning Mary that she remained a virgin, 'Until she brought forth her firstborn son,' and what follows.

For since it was fitting to show that the birth of Jesus took place from a virgin without marriage, reasonably, where there was ambiguity—

namely, whether perhaps the virgin underwent corruption—

removing this ambiguity, [Scripture] says that she remained a virgin up until the delivery.

In this sense it is said by God, 'I am He, I am He, and even until you grow old, I am He.'

For all the righteous, taking courage, say this: 'In You we shall gore our enemies.'

And so the one who is called blessed, having gored his own enemies in the Lord, has the horn by which he brought them down exalted in glory.

In the life that comes after this, when the promises of those who have lived well are being fulfilled, each of the sinners, encountering his punishment, will behold the righteous man whom he plundered, and will be angry against himself, being seized with the most vehement remorse; then also he will gnash his teeth and will melt away, casting off the mass and swelling of his material and fleshly disposition and choice, while the desire of sinners perishes.

Indeed, then, they also gnash their teeth against themselves.

That these things befall those who are punished, the Saviour too has declared, saying, 'Cast him into the outer darkness;'

'there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.'

But do not be so dull as to think that sensible teeth are meant.

For since we do not take 'You have broken the teeth of sinners' in a sensible way, perhaps then those who have been nourished in this life upon wickedness and the impiety joined to it—those who ground down atheistic doctrines like some poisonous food for certain powers of the soul, as though with teeth and molars, in a state of remorse—

for the very things by which they were evilly nourished—those very powers of the soul through which they cut and ground down the most base food—they will gnash vehemently, striking against them, blaming themselves for the things by which, having done them, they were held fast in the burning torment.

The phrase 'children,' having been said absolutely, does not permit us to suppose that 'children' is said in place of 'servants.'

For simply and without any addition, the young are called children.

But servants are the children of certain masters;

for just as 'servant,' so also 'child' has its reference to the master.

At any rate, in many places one can see the servants of David and the servants of Solomon and of very many others called their 'children.'

But if 'Praise, children,' has the same force as 'Praise, sons,' consider this too yourself.

For the word can have a consistent sense when distinguished thus: that it belongs to servants to fear God, but to sons to glorify Him by praising;

for God says, 'A son glorifies a father, and a servant fears his master;'

'and if I am a master, where is My fear? and if I am a father, where is My glory?' Perhaps too these might be certain risings of the Sun of righteousness, according to which He rises.

And these have a kinship with (or are themselves identical to) the risings in which Paradise was planted.

And corresponding to these risings there might also be settings, according to which risings and settings it is fitting to praise the name of the Lord.

For He set for Israel, but rose for the nations that believed.

Since, therefore, wisely and by a just judgment He both set for those and rose for these, accepting the judgments of providence everywhere and in everything as being wrought by the Lord, [we say], 'Praise His name;'

'The Lord is high above all the nations; His glory is above the heavens.'

And taken more simply, the words make clear that God provides for all things, being high like a king above all the nations, having also His glory in the heavens by His governing even the rational orders that are there.

But in a deeper sense, the Lord is high above all the nations that have believed, being hymned by them through a pure life, both practical and contemplative.

And above the heavens—those which no longer bear the image of the earthy man but that of the heavenly—is His glory, so that they even proclaim it to their own disciples;

'For the heavens declare the glory of God.'

For they surely declare it to some.

Consistently with this you will understand what is said to the one being enlightened: 'And the glory of God has risen upon you.'

And through the foregoing words we learn that the God of all things exercises providence—concerning whom, since He is beyond all comparison with all created things, the holy one says, 'Who is like the Lord our God?' For there is no one according to Him, since He alone is both the Maker and the Provider of all things.

But he says these things not separating the Son from the Father, nor the Father from the Son;

for the Godhead is one, and the Son is not one God and the Father another.

In Isaiah, at any rate, it is said to the Father, 'In You is God, and there is no God besides You;'

'for You are God, and we knew it not.'