Commentary on the Psalms (Fragments) 1 part 9/40

And we too are accustomed, when we are indignant at our own people, to say even to gracious men, 'Remember your goodness, and imitate yourself, being reconciled to those under your displeasure.'

Just as, then, the compassions appropriately pertain to God, so also his mercies, being present to him according to nature, 'are from of old,' whence they also abide unto the age, according to the saying, 'For his mercy endures unto the age.'

And to a certain one God also says, 'With an everlasting mercy have I shown you mercy.'

No one who repents makes confession over sins that are present and still being enacted, but over those that have ceased and are no longer.

This, at any rate, is what he says even now, declaring, 'Remember not the sins of my youth and my ignorance.'

For the things sinned and done in ignorance in youth are no longer enacted by him who has passed beyond youth.

And perhaps the name 'youth' here signifies not an age of life but the unstable and unsteady quality of character.

For as long as anyone is in such a condition, he is ignorant and sins, until God gives perception and understanding; as the Scripture says, 'That it may give shrewdness to the guileless, and to a young child perception and understanding.'

Having therefore requested that his sins and ignorances of youth be not remembered, he immediately added, 'According to your mercy remember me.'

For according to mercy God remembers, since he does not call to mind our stumblings.

Being by nature gracious and good, God has an inborn kindness, on account of which he remembers the penitent together with mercy.

And he is upright, either because he is not naturally inclined to sin, or because he demands a reckoning from those who sin; whence also, 'He shall give the law to sinners in the way.'

For those who are still enacting evil he places under law, so that, being hindered from sinning, they may travel the way of salvation.

God who gives the law will guide those who have gentleness and stability in judgment—that is, in a tested and exact manner.

For he who has learned that two ways lie before the face of man, that of life and that of death, and who has turned away from the way of death and travels the way of life, 'walks in judgment,' being led by the Lord, on account of the calmness and stability of his understanding.

For the gentle possess a tranquillity of reasonings.

But the Lord himself, after guiding the gentle in judgment, will also teach them his own ways—that is, either the ways that lead to him or the ways in which he himself walks.

For he who journeys after the Lord learns his ways.

All the ways that lead to the Lord, or in which he himself walks, being rightly accomplished in the aforesaid manner according to truth and coming to pass with kindness, are mercy and truth.

For one must first receive mercy, so that he may set foot upon them, and thus, through the very journeying along it, may attain unto the truth itself.

But not by all are the ways of the Lord perceived as mercy and truth, but only by those who seek out His covenant and His testimonies.

For he who stands outside the covenant and the testimonies is without experience of the kindness and the beauty of the ways of the Lord.

One must therefore seek out the covenant which God made with the fathers, when He led them out of the spiritual Egypt, that is, out of the error of polytheism.

For having sought out and searched it, we shall come to know also the new covenant which Jesus ratified by His own blood.

For every covenant is without force unless the one who makes it has undergone death, as the Apostle says:

it is confirmed over the dead, since it is never in force so long as the one who makes it lives.

Therefore, wishing to fulfill His own covenant, Jesus took death upon Himself.

But one must also seek out, within the covenant, the testimonies of God, namely the words that have borne witness and been inspired by Him.

For the sake of Your name, O Master, I, Your servant, will seek out Your covenant, expecting from it freedom, or the inheritance which You appointed for me as for one become a son;

but also, Be merciful to my sin — not to that which is still being committed, but to that which has ceased.

For it is great, not in respect of quantity, but by comparison with the purity that ought to have been present.

He who fears God is rare, yet he is not impossible to find.

To such a one, then, the Lord gives as law a way — the way which either the Lord Himself chose, or which the one who fears Him chose.

The soul of the devout, not going beyond the good things, dwells within them, ever practicing them.

Wherefore also it shall wholly obtain that its seed inherit the earth — not the earth under our feet, but the earth of the meek.

He calls himself only-begotten, in accordance with the one who says:

And I alone am left, and they seek my life.

Wherefore also I am poor, not having the help that comes from those of like zeal.

One must note that 'only-begotten' signifies 'sole,' just as you would call the sun only-begotten.

This would not be the same as the Only-begotten Son.

For where 'Son' is added to 'only-begotten,' or 'only-begotten from the Father,' it means that which is sole as proceeding from Him.

By 'the afflictions of the heart' you will understand also the adversarial thoughts that trouble it.

Bring me out of my necessities:

out of the surrounding forces that press and compel me to be driven from my resolve — as from great necessities, bring me out.

Having gained a perception of his own sins, one who is humbled because he cannot speak with boldness, and who labors for the fruits of repentance, will say: Behold my humiliation and my toil, and forgive all my sins.

When someone ceases from the sins that he formerly practiced, he will have as enemies the demons that work them.

And these, becoming many against the one they plot against, hate him with an unjust hatred;

and hatred is unjust when it is directed against those who do nothing worthy of hatred, whereas the wicked are justly hated.

Guard the soul, that it may not fall under those who hate unjustly;

but also deliver it from such deeds by which they will be able to gain mastery over it.

By 'the guileless' he means either those who are devoid of malice or the simpler sort; and by 'the upright,' those who have accomplished perfect virtue.

And perhaps by 'the guileless' he means the earnest among men, and by 'the upright,' the divine angels who cleave to him — since divine powers also come to be around the earnest one.

No one who sins wishes to be judged for what he has done, and least of all before Him who sees the hidden things.

But he who has walked in guilelessness — that is, who has made progress — deems himself worthy to obtain this.

For he knows that he will obtain a reward or an inheritance: And hoping in the Lord, I shall not be weakened;

insofar as I hold fast to my hope toward God, being strengthened by it, I shall not be weakened.

And by this, therefore, the same thing is shown:

since the hope which is toward God furnishes me a firm and immovable foundation, Hoping in the Lord I shall not be shaken.

Since it is not he who commends himself who is approved, but he whom the Lord commends, having testified to himself that he has walked in guilelessness and has not been weakened, he wishes to be tested by the Lord and to be tried through struggles, that he may be shown righteous, and to be tried so that, having given proof of endurance, he may possess what is approved.

And it has already been said before that the reins bear an analogy to the heart.

He therefore asks that both of these be tried by fire through a laborious discipline, that he may be shown forth as approved gold.

which will help me to bear them.

Your mercy, which is beheld by me as being before my eyes, works together toward my being well-pleasing in Your truth;

for the mercy of God makes one well-pleasing according to truth and not in a feigned manner.

The active powers of the soul, figuratively called 'hands,' one washes among the innocent by working nothing base but something earnest in them.

And perhaps also he who has defiled them in the working of evil deeds washes and cleanses them, using good works instead of water.

He who has come to be outside all the aforementioned harmful things, and has washed his hands among the innocent, like an innocent priest, will encircle the spiritual altar of the Lord, upon which one offers up the spiritual sacrifices — namely, either pure prayers or lawful deeds.

That I may hear the voice of the angels and the souls and the spirits of the righteous who praise You — I who have either come to be around the altar, or have washed my hands among the innocent and abstained from all the aforesaid, but also that I may recount all Your wonders, which You accomplish marvelously and beyond expectation.

He who loves the Lord with his whole soul loves also all that is God's, among which is the beauty of His house;

and the beauty of the house of God is the truth of the doctrines and the ordering of the canons of the Church, the Church being understood as the house.

And in addition to these, he says that he loves also the tabernacle of the glory of the house of God.

And perhaps the tabernacle of testimony which Moses set up in the wilderness is the tabernacle of the glory of God;

and this is a symbol of progress.

But that which Solomon built, after the journey, in Jerusalem, is the house whose beauty he loves, bearing a type of perfection.

He prays that he may not be dealt with in the same way as the impious, that his soul may not perish together with them;

for one who holds a pious disposition will not suffer this.

And he entreats that he may not become a man of blood, that his life may not perish together with men of bloods;

for in the deeds of these consists injustice, which is wickedness in general.

Even though he had spoken the foregoing things being conscious to himself of the noblest deeds, yet, being wary lest he might not have been justified in this — since the sins committed in secret often escape notice — he deems it fitting to be redeemed and to receive mercy.

Our Savior is God, who rescues us from sins and from death; and He is illumination, dispelling the mist of wickedness and ignorance, and shining upon us with the light of knowledge.

He, then, who is thus united and illumined by the Lord — Whom shall he fear? For no one is able to harm one who has attained such good things and such security.

The Lord is the defender of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid? Since God fights on behalf of my life with His own life. Of whom shall I be afraid? The phrase 'of whom' indicates the utter contempt in which the one who rises up against him, who is guarded by God, is held;

For if God is for us, who is against us? These things may be said both concerning perceptible enemies and concerning the phalanx of invisible foes;

For if, he says, war should rise up against me, in this my heart that does not fear them I hope, having taken courage to have God as my champion.

There is what he asks and seeks out: To dwell in the house of the Lord — that is, in the Church, by minding the things of the Church — all the days of his enlightened life.

And the phrase 'One thing have I asked' can be understood thus:

while I still sojourn upon earth, even though I entreat to obtain many good things, above all I have asked this one request, To dwell in the house of the Lord, since it is possible to come to be in all good things in order and not all at once;

and he who has simply grasped the lower doctrines of the Church beholds the delightfulness of the Lord, but he who applies himself to the things concerning the Trinity will gaze all around upon His temple.

We have often stated the difference by which 'tabernacle' and 'house' are named, namely that the former signifies progress, and the latter perfection.

So long, then, as the day of evils presses upon someone, he cannot yet be in the house of God, but is hidden in the shade by the Lord, who shelters him who is being freed from wickedness during his progress.

For he who is only now repenting is not yet able to attain to perfection.

Perhaps here too the word 'evils' can signify circumstantial troubles.

'He sheltered me in the secret place of his tabernacle,' that is, of the instruction by which we make progress.

Some things are manifest, but others are hidden and withdrawn, such as the mystical things.

In our making progress, then, God shelters us not among the superficial things but 'in the secret place of his tabernacle.'

The word 'his' is added to establish that not every tabernacle, that is, not every kind of progress, is according to God.

'He raised me up upon a rock,' when after my progress I had reached the most firm and unbreakable word of perfection, allegorically named a rock.

The Lord himself raised me up.

'He hid' corresponds to progress, and 'He raised up' to perfection.

It is also possible to call the training given through the Law and the Prophets a 'tabernacle,' in whose secret place, that is, in whose mystical sense, God hides the one being instructed, raising him up on a spiritual rock which is none other than Christ.

'And now,' after having passed through progress and reached the goal of truth, 'he lifts up my head'—whether it be my mind, or Christ who has become the ruler of my mind—'over my enemies,' so that I may hold them beneath my feet and made subject to me.

'I have gone around and offered in his tabernacle a sacrifice of praise.'

The passage before us corresponds to 'He hid me in his tabernacle in the day of my evils.'

For then he will offer a sacrifice of jubilation performed after victory, having gone around in his tabernacle.

To 'raise a shout of jubilation' is to cry out all together over vanquished enemies.

He, then, who prevails over his enemies fittingly presents his thank-offering for victory in the tabernacle, that is, in his progress.

Not only shall I contemplate the things of truth—which is signified by 'I will sing'—but I shall also act according to virtue—which is set forth by 'I will make melody'—doing both in a manner pleasing to God.

For this is what 'I will sing and make melody to the Lord' signifies.

He who says these things, knowing that God hearkens to the prayers of the righteous, cries out from the same disposition as the righteous and asks that he be heard.

If you should regard what is according to strict desert, O Lord, you will not hearken to any mortal;

for no one will send up so great a cry as to reach unto you.

Looking, then, to your goodness, I say, 'Have mercy on me';

for thus you will also 'hearken to me.'

That I might then obtain both—to be shown mercy and to be heard—I have said these things to you not from the surface of my lips but from the heart itself.

By this it is established that God hearkens not entirely to the uttered voice but especially to the voice of the heart.

And this too 'my heart said to you': the face of my heart, being none other than the mind, will seek you out.

And after the seeking I shall attain the finding, presenting myself to you face to face, once that which is 'through a mirror and in a riddle' has been abolished.

Having attended to it, I came to know the face of the inner man, formed according to your image and likeness;

wherefore I seek to behold your face.

For having contemplated it, I gained a greater illumination outwardly.

But then I am able to seek, whenever you make your face to shine forth;

for unless this comes to pass, I shall not be able to approach it.

'Turn not your face away from me.'

'Give me your law,' that receiving such a law from you I may walk the way of him who said:

'And guide me in your straight and unbending way,' because of the enemies who beset me, who set snares for me alongside the path.

Since there is excess and deficiency in keeping to due measure, you, O Master, guide me, carrying me to its end, because of my enemies who work wickedness.

Working by excess, standing beside the door of virtue, they seize by deceit those who do not attend to the difference between the mean and excess.

And if you should also call the journey of true doctrines the 'straight way,' know that, unless God guides, those who lead astray by the adjacent false doctrines opposed to the truth—the rulers of this age—are enemies; on whose account, that we may not fall into their deceit, we entreat to be guided by the Lord along the straight way.

Since I have chosen to walk the straight way, all the wicked have set themselves to afflict me;

but you, O Lord, in your care for me, 'do not hand me over to their souls';

that is, praying either not to be handed over to them, or not to be numbered among the souls which those afflicting me had, they having chosen to be unjust witnesses in this very matter.

But the injustice to which they attached themselves, being unstable and unsure, gave the lie to itself;

for it was not found to be such as it professed to be.

For the phrase 'it lied' does not always signify the opposite of truth, as in the prophet: 'The threshing floor and the wine deceived them,' meaning 'not as it had promised';

for year by year the threshing floor and the wine, being found diminished, deceived them.

The land of the living is the name given to the land of the promises, according to eternal life, since in it no one partakes of the death that follows upon sin.

This land is established among the things unseen and eternal, and upon it are the truly and properly divine goods of God.

What the holy one says, then, is of this sort:

I believe that I shall partake of eternal life, so that, living according to it, I may be removed into the land of the living, in order to behold upon it the goods of the Lord laid up according to the promises for those who have lived in holiness.

It is well said, 'To see' and not 'to eat' or 'to touch' or anything else;

for the whole benefit is furnished in the contemplation of the divine goods.

Either speaking to himself he says this, or to everyone who hears him.

It is also possible that such an exhortation is borne to him from above by the Spirit: since you have believed that you will see the goods in the age to come, 'wait for the Lord,' or 'wait for' the coming descent of the Savior here;

for through it you will be able to ascend to the vision of the goods.

'Be manly,' that is, take up courage, not according to bodily strength but with your heart being made strong.

For thus you will be able to wait for the Lord in all the aforementioned ways.

The word 'pit' also signifies the place that guards those who are condemned.

Since, then, being in need of many things, I have come to know that these can be supplied from you, crying out to you I ask that you hearken to the voice of my supplication, in that I make my plea to none other than you;

for no other can supply the things in which I am lacking.

The temple of God would be both the supra-celestial realm and the powers within it that contain the presence of God so far as is attainable.

It might also be the Word of God who declares:

'The Father who abides in me does the works.'

Since destruction altogether follows upon the one who does injustice, do you, granting me righteousness, not permit me to be found in injustice, that I may not perish together with those who work it.

The discerning man, approaching matters with understanding, turns away from base things as harmful, choosing the good things as being beneficial.

But the base man, beguiled by pleasure, works evils, not seeing their harmfulness.

Since, then, he does not rationally perceive the harmful things, the holy one prays that recompense be paid to the base man according to his laborious works, that at least through the toils he may turn away from the evils which have become to him causes of punishment.

Of the things which a man does, some are his 'works,' and others are the works 'of his hands';

for he himself works according to his inner disposition.

He deems it fitting, therefore, that a recompense should come on other grounds as well: 'Because they did not understand the works of the Lord, and the works of his hands.'

Of the works of God, some are visible, while others are invisible.

Accordingly, he wills that those who did not understand the works of God and the works of his hands should receive back their recompense.

For they themselves, by their own choice, chose not to understand the works; and upon this there followed their falling under punishment.

'The Lord is my helper and my defender; my heart hoped in him and I was helped' — so that there was in it no shameful thought nor any base doctrine.

For it belongs to a heart that is helped to give its assent to the things it ought, and to draw back from the things that are contrary.

And so, my heart being thus helped, 'My flesh flourished again' in the doing of these things.

And perhaps too the heart that hopes may be helped, receiving back at the season of the resurrection the flesh that has sprung up anew.

Similar to this is the saying: 'And our bones shall spring up like the grass.'

For our present body has the character of a seed in relation to that which comes from the resurrection.

For this very thing, sown in corruption, springs up anew, being sown so as to rise in incorruption.

Whence Paul also employed the example of what is sown for the matters concerning the resurrection.

'And from my will I will confess to him.'

Many, out of fear of punishment or for shame before men, forswear their sins while by inward disposition still taking delight in them.

But the discerning man, having looked upon the abomination and the harmfulness of sins, willingly turns away from them, confessing concerning them to God of his own will.

But if 'I will confess to him' signifies thanksgiving, then one does it from the will, giving thanks in all the things that befall, even if some should seem unpleasant.

For those who give thanks only for the things that please are led to this not of their own will but by pleasure.

The people of God have no other strength than the Lord himself, who becomes their rampart and their fence.

And this same Lord is also the defender of the salvations of his Christ.

And everyone who partakes of Christ is called christ, bearing the same name as he.

The salvations by which such a one is saved — of these Christ is his defender; but if [we speak of the defender] of the Christ who is his Son, then we must understand it as defender of the salvations, or of the salvation, according to which he saves.

'Save your people' — this people of whom you are the strength — 'blessing your inheritance,' which is none other than your people.

And bless it with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, lifting them up and raising them on high through virtue, but also shepherding them throughout this whole age.

For in the age to come, having passed beyond the condition of flocks, they will make use of you as an instructor and teacher.

The present psalm, containing the greatest mysteries, is fittingly ranked according to the twenty-eighth number, which is potentially a hebdomad (a seven).

For if you add together the successive numbers from one up to seven, the twenty-eighth is completed.

Whence it is also triangular, each of its sides being composed of a seven.

And it is also a perfect number, the second after the sixth.

A perfect number, they say, is one that is composed from its own parts, so as neither to exceed nor to fall short.

And the present number too has its parts: a half, a fourth, a seventh, a fourteenth, a twenty-eighth.

He commands either the angels or the men who possess the Spirit of adoption to bring to the tabernacle the things for [divine] service.

And one of the things that they bring are also sons of rams.

One must consider rams to be those who have taken up a vigorous life in godliness, apart from beholding the truth in a rational manner.

Wherefore they are also fit to rule; and the sons of rams are those begotten by them in imitation of their manner of life.

Glory they bring who have discerned rightly and justly and piously concerning the Trinity; and honor those who keep the commandments of the Lord.

To transgress dishonors God; but he who holds fast to the divine law offers honor to him.

'Bring to the Lord glory due to his name.'

'Worship the Lord in his holy court.'

He who serves God according to the ecclesiastical doctrines and her blameless canons worships the Lord in his holy court.

One applying himself rather superficially will say that John, baptizing in the river Jordan, is 'the voice of the Lord upon the waters.'

Moreover, John, having taken up a strenuous and austere life, and having made passable the burning of the pleasures of this life, is 'the voice of the Lord cutting through a flame of fire.'

So then, out of a wilderness there came an inhabited land.

The aforementioned voice of the Lord makes ready the deer that are so called allegorically.

And these are souls that, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body, and by the Spirit, through their lips, in imitation of God, destroy the impious serpent.

And this voice of the Lord will also work the uncovering of the thickets, so that the beasts lurking in them, which the deer drive out, may become manifest.

And a thicket is uncovered when the unfruitful trees in it are cut down by the axe of the word and cast into the fire.

When the things that overshadow the progress of men are stripped away, then everyone, having abandoned the polytheistic error, will 'speak of glory in the temple of God.'

That God 'sits' signifies that his foundation remains ever unturning and unaltering.

He therefore distinguishes it from the things that perish through undergoing change, saying:

'You sit enthroned throughout the age, and we perish throughout the age.'

And here too the abiding permanence of his kingdom is set forth.

For this reason: 'And the Lord will sit as king forever,' his kingdom having no end.

He, however, who pleads for the literal history will say that David the king, being eager to build a perceptible house for the Lord, was prevented, God having said to him:

'You shall not build me a house, because you are a man of war from your youth; but he who comes forth from your loins, he shall build me a house.'

David, persuaded by the oracle, ceased from building, but made provision beforehand for the materials for the building.

Just as, then, he says, David prepared the materials beforehand, so also, having composed the psalm, he left it as one of the necessary things, and [provided] that, when the house had been built and dedicated by those appointed for this task, it might be struck up in song with thanksgiving by those chanting and singing.

And he says that he was saved either because God did not permit him to go down into it [Hades], or because, after he had descended, God brought him up again.

And these things might be spoken according to the [divine] dispensation, and as from the person of Christ, who came to lay down his soul for us, and indeed gave it, and rose from the dead by the good pleasure of God the Father, to whom, humanly speaking, he also says:

Since 'You did not abandon my soul to Hades,' which is called a pit, taking courage I say:

'You saved me from those who go down into the pit.'

Those for whom the day that the true light prepares has come to an end weep in the evening — that is, having come to be at the beginning of night — while those rejoice for whom the beginning of day was established together with them, as the sun of righteousness rose upon them.

This will fit both interpretations: the one from the circumcision weeping when the sun of righteousness set for them, and the one from the nations rejoicing in the morning when the saving word shone upon them.

One must understand 'abundance' as referring to spiritual fruitfulness, when the seed of Jesus becomes a hundredfold and the other produce of virtue is multiplied.

Being, then, in this abundance, I will say through the very deeds themselves, remaining firm and unmovable: 'I shall never be moved throughout the age.'

'I shall never be moved throughout the age.'

For by my works I cry out that, if I should come to be in the aforementioned abundance, I shall be unshaken, not being overturned by the one who strives against me.

Bodily beauty is shown to consist in the symmetry and proportion of its members; but the beauty of the soul consists in the harmony and concord of all the virtues rightly accomplished, all the activities according to reason possessing symmetry and proportion, or also the powers of the soul being harmoniously proportioned.

This beauty, then, do you, O Lord, bestow upon me by your will.

For having done your will and that of the Father in heaven, I took it up; since everyone who has become conformed to the image of the Son of God has received beauty from God, being united to the Lord's will.

He who, through practicing material things and being minded on earthly things, has become dust and continues in sin, will neither confess to God nor announce his truth, having gone astray both in his morals and in his knowledge.

It is to be noted that the word 'It came to be' does not always signify coming into existence, but sometimes also a certain relation toward someone.

If, then, such an expression should ever be used of the Saviour as well, it signifies a relation toward something, and not a coming into existence.

'Thou hast turned my mourning into joy for me.'

The word 'mourning' signifies the inward feeling of contrition, as the very act itself makes plain, when the hands beat upon the breast.