Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 35/40

Since, therefore, like the sheep—or rather being a part of it—I have gone astray, seek me, Thy servant.

For You came to seek and to save that which was lost;

so seek me out, that You may find me ready and prepared for this.

For I have longed after Your commandments.

It should be noted that the Temple in Jerusalem had fifteen steps, and upon each of them, as they went up into it, those appointed to sing hymns would stand and recite a song.

For this reason it came about that the songs were equal in number to the steps.

The ordinance concerning the songs, and those who were to recite them upon each of the steps of the Temple, is laid down in the books of Chronicles.

You are to understand the Temple to be the holy temple of God, at once intelligible and spiritual, namely theology; and the steps as follows: He who has already ascended to the second step of the Temple begins to be transformed toward perfection, no longer setting his mind upon anything that grovels along the ground.

Therefore he also says that he has lifted up the eyes of his understanding to the heights.

Whence the song of the second step has also been assigned its own fitting number.

For the number one hundred and twenty marks the limit of the perfection of human life.

Indeed, after the flood it is said concerning men: 'Their days shall be one hundred and twenty years.'

Whence also Moses, that hierophant great in all things, who became the minister of God for those who bring human life to perfection, circumscribes his own life at one hundred and twenty years, setting forth his own life as a pattern for those who received the laws from him.

It is also possible to understand the matter before us with respect to conduct;

when God who guards makes a going-out from the evil of the man who turns aside from wickedness, and likewise keeps his coming-in unto the doing of good, and guards both his going-out from things perceived by the senses and his coming-in unto things intelligible and spiritual.

He who ever reaches forward to the things that lie ahead forgets the things behind, not running back again.

For pressing on daily toward the prize of the upward calling, he advances to the things above.

Having journeyed without turning back, he has ascended to the third step;

whence, catching from afar a vision of the house to which he hastens, he rejoices with gladness, as those able to lead the way into the entrance urge him on.

Those who have first firmly set the feet of their soul in the courts of Jerusalem have a longing to ascend also unto the Temple.

The purest theology would be the Temple, while the courts are the particular contemplations of the vision of peace, being the individual virtues.

This vision of the aforesaid peace, having begun to be transformed, is built up as a city by the Lord, and its partaking together in unity has the aforesaid courts, in which stand the feet of the steadfast.

It is not something that grovels along the ground, but is set upon a certain height, so that everyone who wishes to become its citizen must not descend but ascend toward it.

And so the tribes of the Lord, the various ranks of the saved, having the resolve of confession, ascend thither, being borne witness to by the Lord as having ascended well and having made confession, and leading Israel who does them unto zeal and progress.

David is often called the Savior, either because after the flesh He is of the seed of David, or because He is 'mighty in hand';

for David is interpreted 'mighty in hand.'

For how could He who works prodigious mighty deeds not be mighty in hand? The Church belongs to this David, in which thrones are set for judgment, upon which the apostles sitting judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

For the faith and manner of life of each apostle is the throne of his kingship, judging and condemning those who did not receive Him who was prophesied in the divine Scriptures, nor believed the words He spoke as He worked and taught.

And according to the deeper contemplation, he who bears spiritual fruit because he loves Jerusalem would be in great abundance and prosperity, bearing fruit not only in the practices of virtue but also in the contemplation of the truth.

The phrase 'In your power' may be said with reference to Jerusalem, because, reigning in might, she has cast down every enemy that formerly warred against her by her power, so that henceforth there is prosperity within her towers.

These are the great towers built into the walls for the purpose of watching for the enemies who come.

For among the Syrians, according to the local custom, the great houses are called 'bareis,' and these, when they gain height and are set upon walled cities, are called 'pyrgobareis' (tower-mansions).

So then, when Jerusalem, by the power she has received from God, subdues those set against her, she will bring it about that peace follows, and that within her tower-mansions there is prosperity.

Allegorically, the tower-mansions would be those who, by the loftiness of their manner of life and their contemplation of the truth, not only watch for the enemies coming to war, but also from on high strike them with reproofs.

According to the deeper contemplation, he who has been begotten of God by doing righteousness and believing that Jesus is the Christ has as brothers those who do the same things and believe likewise, and as neighbors those who are somewhat inferior in the doing of righteousness and in faith, yet draw near to Jesus Christ.

Now for the sake of both these ranks—of his brothers and of his neighbors, I mean concerning the Jerusalem that has been given—he says he speaks peace, praying that their fatherland, and that of his brothers and neighbors, may be peaceful; and moreover, for the sake of the house of the Lord his God, he seeks the true and proper goods for Jerusalem.

By 'the house of the Lord his God' he means that unto which he had begun to ascend, and for the sake of this he seeks good things for Jerusalem: the keeping of the divine commandments and the understanding of the right faith together with truth.

of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and the handmaid, having her eyes toward the hands of her mistress, is the synagogue of the circumcision, called a handmaid because of the spirit of bondage;

and whoever calls her mistress the blameless and spotless Church of God is not mistaken.

But we do not have our eyes toward the hands of those masters, but toward the Lord our God, who takes pity and has mercy upon us.

He says 'Then' not by way of inquiry but by way of inference.

The water is called 'without-subsistence' because no one could withstand it apart from Christ.

But if one should take the 'without-subsistence water' to signify wickedness, it must be said that wickedness is called 'without-subsistence' because it has no essence and no proper existence of its own;

for being an accident, it subsists in those who act it out, having no existence of its own in itself.

Just as Mount Zion is unshaken and immovable (and it is the Word of God), so also those who have put their trust in God have an immovable standing, hastening to become imitators of Him.

For the passage before us is not spoken concerning the perceptible mountain—since all mountains are alike unshaken—but concerning that one about which the Spirit, commanding the prophet, says: 'Get you up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion.'

For since Zion, being interpreted 'a watchtower,' is the watchtower over the good things of the holy Church, the high mountain is God the Word Himself, and it is the mountain of the heavenly Zion, concerning which it is said: 'But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.'

Let us then set right our trust toward God, that we may attain both the blessedness and the other promises, since the prophecy, which reads as follows, exhorts us:

'And you shall trust in the Lord, and He shall bring you up upon the good things of the land.'

For the beginning of being brought up by God unto the good things of the land of the living and the meek is to have trusted in Him.

One may see the Church styled thus in the words: 'Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem'; 'Jerusalem is built as a city.'

Therefore he who perfectly and genuinely minds the things of the Church shall be said to dwell in her forever, not to be shaken nor removed from this fellowship, because he has firmly and immovably received the things that must be done and the things that must be minded.

And he who lives and believes in the Lord may properly be said to dwell in her forever, never to die unto the ages, because from this present time he has received the earnest of eternal life.

But if they should ever grow slack, so as to give way in their attentiveness and longing toward the good, he will be removed from his dwelling;

for this reason it says in the Proverbs: 'The righteous shall never give way.'

The mountains of the spiritual Jerusalem would be the lofty doctrines of the truth and the several ordinances and canons of the Church, and besides these all the saints—not only those before the coming, but also those after it;

for each of these is a mountain that lies about the Church, so that from them all there comes to be one continuous and unbroken circle, holding the Church in its midst.

And besides these, they may be angels, encamping round about those who fear the Lord—the mountains round about Jerusalem.

But greater than the security afforded by the mountains is that which belongs to the people dwelling in Jerusalem, on account of which especially he who dwells in her is not shaken forever, since the Lord is round about him.

And the Lord is round about them not locally and bodily, confining certain persons within, but being partaken of by them and being present with them in all things, not only in the present age but also in the age to come.

And the aim of this rod is to force the righteous to stretch out their hands unto lawlessness; but the will of the Lord is that the righteous stretch out their hands unto righteousness, lifting them up in holiness, without wrath and disputing.

Those benefited and upright in heart are those who truly and rightly mind the things of godliness.

But these differ not in subsistence but in the mode of conception.

For those who dwell forever in Jerusalem unshaken, being at once practical and contemplative, are good and upright in heart.

And God does them good, giving good things to those who ask Him, bestowing upon them an increase of faith and of the rest of virtue together with a participation in the divine gifts, so as to bring them also into the heavenly promises and the kingdom of heaven.

The phrase 'He shall lead away' means 'He shall hand over,' says he: hand over to the desires which they chose to have, unto uncleanness, and unto passions of dishonor, and unto a reprobate mind, to do the things that are not fitting.

He said also in the Psalms: 'And I sent them away according to the devices of their hearts; they shall walk in their own devices.'

He will therefore lead away those who turn aside unto their crooked ways together with the workers of lawlessness, so that it may be made openly manifest who they were that escaped notice, seeming not to practice lawlessness, though they were disposed according to it.

The blameworthiness of these crooked ways is shown also in the prophet, when God says to him who comes unto fasting: 'Loose the crooked bonds of oppressive bargains,' that he may perform it rightly and with the fitting disposition.

But the peace which surpasses all understanding, which is given with divine grace by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, shall come to every one and only to him who has understanding and is styled Israel, as the one who sings hymns prays it upon them.

The eighth song of the steps of ascent.

It has been inscribed to Solomon, as hinting at the mysteries of the Lord's resurrection on the eighth day — to Solomon, who was born from the seed of David according to the flesh, being truly a man of peace.

For he himself is the peace of us who are being saved, when he says, 'My peace I give unto you.'

It was fitting for one who brings peace by the destruction of every enemy and adversary, and who founds and builds the house of God — of whom Solomon, born of David, bore the symbol, for much peace came about in his days, and he built in Judea the temple of God.

No less than the other Scriptures, the verses here set before us present the Lord as the provident guardian of all things, since human endeavors prove vain unless they receive from God the fitting end that corresponds to them.

Hence, when we do anything, let us not attribute the whole to ourselves, but to God who brings it to completion; nor, on the other hand, leaving the whole to him, let us continue idle and inactive.

For the verses set before us make both points clear, that success is then from us and from God: they call vain the one who builds without God, but not the one who does nothing at all himself.

Those who are worn down by the cares of life, by devoting themselves to these same cares of the things they strive after, continually eat the bread of sorrow.

Therefore they are also deprived of the beloved of God who exhort and counsel them to attain these things in moderation, since the end and the providence belong to the Lord.

So then, when — with those beloved of God who rouse men to piety being despised — sleep comes upon those very beloved of God (they having turned to their own rest, or even having been translated from this life while his vigilance is maintained according to the common life of living), then it is that the aforesaid persons eat the bread of sorrow.

They accomplish all their strivings without completion, rising early in vain and getting up after sitting, since their sitting, their standing, and their outward rising all prove fruitless for them.

For they would have been able not to do these things in vain, nor to eat the bread of sorrow, if they had given heed to the beloved of God before receiving sleep from God.

And those too who seem to be advancing toward the fear of God, if they suppose that they are enlightened by their own efforts, rise early in vain.

For to those who do not say, 'From the night my spirit rises early toward you, O God,' this would rightly be said.

supposing that they accomplish this of themselves.

But he who says to the Lord, 'You have known my sitting down and my rising up,' confesses that he has this from God.

But it is fitting also to have joy and gladness while eating the bread that strengthens man's heart.

They eat it with sorrow, out of grief and out of necessity, and not approaching its use cheerfully.

Therefore these are utterly without completion, doing everything in vain.

And his former inheritance was Israel.

For 'Israel is the portion of his inheritance.'

It was the firstborn son of God, when he says, 'Israel is my firstborn son.'

And they all happened to be one son, through the harmony and unity of their mind, living according to one law.

But after those there are second sons, concerning whom it was said by the Father to the Savior, 'Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.'

And from both these two inheritances one has come to be, which the Spirit, pointing to in the Son, declares: 'Behold, sons are the inheritance of the Lord,' all having the Spirit of adoption and being begotten of God by doing righteousness.

And its reward is that the Lord who sojourned among us is the fruit of the womb of the Virgin.

At any rate, it was said to her by Elizabeth, 'Blessed is the fruit of your womb.'

And it was called the fruit of the womb, because it is not from a man but from Mary alone, the Holy Spirit having come upon her and the power of the Most High having overshadowed her.

For those who have the seed from the fathers are the fruits of those fathers.

At any rate, it was said to David, 'Of the fruit of your loins I will set upon your throne,' the Word teaching him that his kingdom would not fail like that of Saul, but would be directed onward through his own succession.

But whether the Son can also be the fruit of the Father's womb, in accordance with 'From the womb before the morning star I begot you,' consider together with me.

And who is the mighty one, sufficient to shoot forth his arrows so as to wound unto love and wisdom and truth, but the Savior, concerning whom it is written, 'Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty one'? And in like manner to him do the sons of those who have been shaken out shoot — those begotten from holy men.

And these 'shaken out' ones are those who by a rational motion have cast off all the dust of material things and their earthiness.

Hence they are also able to bring to bear a keenly-seeing soul upon the connected sequence of the doctrines.

And on this account the Word, exhorting the soul that beholds peace, calls it to this, saying, 'Shake off your dust, O Jerusalem.'

Since also, by the ancestral custom of the Hebrews, the young men and those mighty for war are called 'shaken out,' as we learn from Ezra, fittingly those who have put on the new man, by having shaken off from themselves the old man together with his deeds, becoming imitators of the mighty one in their actions — which are performed with reason, called their 'hands' — have as arrows the sharpened words which they are able to shoot.

The words of Ezra concerning the 'shaken out' ones run thus:

'And it came to pass from that day that half of the shaken-out ones did the work, and half of them held fast; and there were spears and shields and bows and breastplates, and the rulers behind all the house of Judah of those building on the wall,' and so on.

And through the quoted words, clearly, we learn that the sons of the shaken-out ones, while building the house of the Lord, held missiles and swords and the other weapons, so that with one hand they did the work of building, and with the other hurled with missiles at those who wished to hinder the construction of the divine house.

For it is the earnest concern of the divine teachers at once to build a house for God in each soul of those being instructed, and to war down reasonings and wicked powers that attempt to impede the growth of the building.

He calls blessed the man who, because of having kept that which is according to the image of God, remains a man, in that he has fulfilled his desire from the arrows of the mighty one.

For being wounded by them unto the desire of good things, he is declared blessed.

Speaking with boldness in the gate — that is, at the entrance of profitable things — he is not put to shame by his enemies, who were eager to be the hinderers of the fulfillment of his desire and of the building.

And it is no wonder if, having pronounced 'man' blessed in the singular,

he said in the plural that those who speak in the gate will not be put to shame.

For the word is not about one man, but about every man who has fulfilled his desire from the arrows.

And you might also say otherwise, that virtue itself nourishes the soul, so that the very labors undertaken according to God are nourishing and gladdening to the soul.

So then, he who fears the Lord eats the toils of his labors' fruits, but he who loves him, as one already perfect, will eat the living bread, the heavenly one, according to the saying, 'Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of heaven.'

And here he calls the hands 'fruits,' so as to say, 'You shall eat the labors of your hands,' that is, of your practical powers.

Taken superficially and smoothing the text at a foot's pace, these promises are given to the one who fears the Lord, as being still imperfect, but not to the one who loves him with all his heart and with all his soul and strength;

for 'Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.'

But to the one who fears the Lord there is given as a gift of God a certain companion and consort — not a chance woman, but one likened to the true vine, so that it may be said concerning her, 'A good wife is a good portion,' and 'Who shall find a virtuous woman? For such a one is more precious than costly stones.'

As, on the contrary, a wicked consort, harsh in manner, would be the wrath of God, so too sons are given from God to the one who fears the Lord — not like the many sons, but those like young olive plants encircling and crowning his table.

And you will understand these also in reference to the perfect one who says, 'But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God.'

For the offspring of such an olive tree are said to be like young olive plants.

But if someone says that those who do not fear the Lord often abound in a multitude of children and in the prosperity of a wife, we will reply that the present beatitude does not simply promise a wife and children, but this very thing as a whole: a wife likened to the vine, and children to young olive plants;

but such are not the things of the ungodly.

Henceforth, blessed are you who fear the Lord, since the wife who is with you is a vine that bears and yields fruits which bring gladness.

But also your offspring are not weak, not female, but vigorous sons around your table, after the manner of young olive plants that bear the fruit of light as their nourishment.

And your spiritual table is full of all the things that nourish the mind and the soul.

Know that, having come to be among these things, you have from the Lord a blessing which none other than the devout will receive from the Lord.

And this is shown through the words 'Man' and 'every man.'

Therefore it is not fitting to take what is set before us as concerning a perceptible wife and bodily children, since many who have possessed the fear of God have had neither wife nor children.

If then the things of the letter are not universally applicable, the spiritual meaning of what is set forth must be sought by everyone who is devout.

And by way of anagogy you will understand thus:

those who are captured by a single onslaught of enemies would not say this, but only he who from youth to old age always puts the enemies to flight, becoming ever their conqueror and trophy-bearer.

And as proof that they warred against him many times, he added, 'For indeed they were not able to prevail against me';

for he had the Lord who crushes enemies and strengthens me.

And of the things declared with boldness, he calls not the chance mind, but the mind that beholds God, as witness.

And having now forced himself to speak, being led up in piety from his mother's womb, though he had the devil and his allies and bodyguards drawn up against him and warring upon him, he was in no degree at all overcome by them.

The words 'From my youth, from which I put off old age, having cast away the old man together with his deeds,' can signify being strong and strengthened by Christ.

Having put on the new man, and though warred upon by the enemies aforementioned, I was never once overthrown by them, but ceaselessly and continually conquering and putting them to flight, with Israel as my witness.

It is no small boast to be warred upon by the devil and those about him, for this is not the lot of the worthless; for such are his friends and subjects.

For they are his friends and subjects.

And each one, indeed the only such one, will say the words, 'For neither were they able to prevail against me'—he who has received from God the Word the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and to trample the lion and the dragon.

For having overcome all such foes, since God crushes Satan under his feet, he will say, 'Many times have they warred against me from my youth, and yet they could not prevail against me.'

But I have prevailed against them, being strengthened by the Lord.

'Upon my back the sinners fashioned their work; they prolonged their iniquity.'

It is harmful and altogether perilous to have the enemies in view before one's mind when they are strong enough, even by the mere fact of being looked upon and coming at all into perception, to injure and destroy those who in any degree have become aware of them.

Hence it is always fitting to turn away from them, casting them behind one's back.

For he who hastens toward God and virtue turns his back upon vice.

For if the sinners had fashioned their work upon the face and the other front parts, they would have injured the heart, striking it mortally with wicked thoughts, and would have harmed the sight through deadly spectacles and the remaining senses through the sensible things proper to each of them.

But he keeps the sinners behind him who forgets the things behind and stretches forward to the things ahead, walking behind the Lord his God.

But he who follows the sinners here interpreted turns his back upon the Lord, so that God says, 'They turned their backs to me and not their faces.'

For each of them, hating instruction, cast my words behind him, following the demons that were the lovers of his heart.

The phrase 'They prolonged their iniquity' indicates the persistent wickedness of the sinners who fashion their work upon the back of the righteous.

For plaiting their sins after the manner of a rope, by adding others to those that went before, they prolong their iniquity.

The Scripture, pronouncing woe upon such, said, 'Woe to those who draw their sins after them as with a long cord, and their iniquities as with a heifer's yoke-strap.'

For their hands weave injustice, and, as those who add sins to sins, they prolong their own iniquity.

The Lord who is righteous cuts asunder the neck which they do not submit to the kindly yoke.

And he does this with a kindly purpose, in order that, having laid aside their vigor and strength for evil deeds, they may be subjected to the Lord, to whom all things are naked and laid bare.

And the wise men of this world—they too are grass, in that their promise extends only as far as the present life, and they are grass of the housetops, in that through what they do and think they seem to have surpassed the dwelling of human life.

Therefore it is well-withered grass, since they neither cast their roots into dry ground (that is, into sensible things), nor, on the other hand, have hastened to become a spiritual planting instead of grass.

Hence, before it is plucked up, it withers, since this grass does not fill the hands of the reaper, because of the unbelief they possess.

For 'the ungodly shall not rise in the judgment,' and 'He who does not believe is condemned already.'

And not only will the reaper not fill his hands with this grass, but not even his bosom, since they are not first taken into the bosom of Abraham, and thereafter in turn into the bosoms of the reaping angel.

The Savior is the reaper, saying through the prophet, 'Therefore I have mowed down your prophets.'

He, at any rate, will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, having the winnowing fork in his hand, that he may gather the wheat into the granary, but burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

But who are those that hate Zion? They are not grass, but become as it were grass, or tares sown among the good seed by the evil one, and burned up in the age to come at the time of harvest.

For the heretics are tares, and the grass of the housetops are the wise men of the world who seemingly have leaped over the human polity of this world—to whom the Scripture says, 'Why have you all gone up to the vain housetops?' But let the citizens of Zion, who are upon the housetop, not go down to take away the things from the house; rather, what they have heard in the ear let them proclaim upon the housetops, that, remaining good seed, they may bear fruit, so as to be gathered in by him who gathers such sheaves into the threshing floor of salvation.

'And those who passed by did not say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we have blessed you in the name of the Lord.'

The heterodox spoken of, who hate Zion, and those interpreted as the wise men of the world, the grass of the housetops, since they held their promise of life and thought only as far as the temporary and passing things, are called 'those who pass by.'

These, being harsh and proud, having no brotherly love or affectionate disposition at all, deeming themselves alone to be great and friends of God, pronounce a blessing upon no one.

Hence it is said concerning them, 'And those who passed by did not say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you,' since they say that no one besides themselves will obtain a blessing from the Lord.

Nevertheless, even if those men pronounce a blessing upon no one, yet we who bless the name of the Lord, being joined together in friendly fellowship, pronounce a blessing upon all those to whom our word is addressed.

It is possible to take both half-verses as spoken by those who pass by, so that the 'They did not say' is set before both.