Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 17/34

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.

If the holy one always rejoices, he is never cast down nor downcast over the gloomy things that are present.

For over these things too he rejoices—he rejoices as over contests.

He beholds the victory that succeeds the contests, and expecting the crowns and the prizes he rejoices, even if the circumstances surrounding him are unpleasant.

And lest anyone suppose that the blessing takes place merely in utterance, as though one were to speak by way of profession:

His praise shall be continually in my mouth.

In singing hymns to Him I bless Him.

His praise shall be continually in my mouth.

But we do not say this in such a way that something impossible would follow—namely, that he has praise in spoken utterance continually.

For while sleeping he does not do this, and while eating he sometimes does not do it.

In everything that I do, whether I eat or drink or sleep, I undertake these things while giving thanks to God.

In this way, then, one must also understand the words: Rejoice always.

If you take 'grace' according to active operation, the one who is asleep does not possess it.

If you take 'pray' in the sense of praying demonstratively, it cannot be carried out unceasingly.

Indeed, if anyone was recorded historically as praying three times a day—at midday or about the ninth hour, and let us grant also at evening.

To pray unceasingly, therefore, is of this sort:

Prayer is nothing other than the asking of good things from God.

Whenever, then, someone through everything that he does asks good things of God, he is praying.

And even if he does not perform the specific act, yet having a longing to obtain what is profitable, he is praying.

That very longing is prayer.

Whatever he may be doing, even if he is hindered from performing the specific act of prayer, yet he still possesses the asking of God.

Thus indeed it is also said in the Wisdom of Sirach:

The discourse of the godly man is wisdom continually.

How can he expound wisdom continually? If we take it thus—and these things are often understood so in ordinary usage—as when in general we frequently seek someone and long to learn where one may meet with him:

'He always sits in this surgery and is continually there'—not taking 'continually' to mean the whole day, but 'when he sits, he sits there rather than elsewhere.'

He did not say simply 'his praise continually,' but 'his'—that is, God's own praise.

For the one who seems to praise but not with right thoughts, not with truly theological understanding, does not praise for himself, nor does he praise Him.

In the Lord shall my soul be praised.

My soul is not praised primarily on account of anything else than its partaking of God.

He wishes that his own soul be praised.

He knows no other praise of the soul than this:

For even if, as I said, someone is praised on account of knowledge, yet when this praise is compared with another that arises on account of God, it is not praise at all.

Nothing is sweet except honey.

There are indeed other sweet things, but in comparison with honey they are not sweet.

My praise is from You in the great congregation.

The praise which You give me arises on account of none other than You.

In the Lord shall my soul be praised.

In You, he says, we shall be praised all the day long.

The whole span of our life is called 'day.'

The phrase 'in You' can mean either 'on account of You' or 'by You.'

Both meanings converge in the case of the holy one.

He is both praised on account of God and holds his praise from God Himself.

Let the meek hear and be glad.

Just as the base man wishes to hide what he says and does, whenever he is not utterly abandoned, so the earnest man who is devoted to God wishes that what he says and what he does be known to all.

He wishes his light to shine before men, so that they, seeing it, may glorify God.

He wishes his words to go forth to others.

And the one who converses, converses with others, not primarily with himself.

Since, then, I have purposed to bless the Lord at every season and to have His praise continually in my mouth, so that my soul might be praised in Him—hear, you meek, and be glad.

Imitate me, and you also become such as I am.

But if he calls the meek greater than himself, he says:

Hear, you meek, that I, who am being instructed by you and rank below you, am of such a kind:

For what belongs to the lesser belongs also to the greater.

The disciples are praiseworthy and praise the Lord—how much more the teachers who surpass them.

That is: you who are meek and greater than I, having heard, be glad, because you have obtained such a disciple or fellow-partaker.

Magnify the Lord with me.

Having spoken about the meek, he then turns his discourse toward them:

And upon me magnify the Lord with me.

One magnifies God not by adding greatness to Him out of something small, but whenever one is able to grasp His greatness.

The sun, then, only when one is able to grasp its magnitude—

The sun, then, when it rises, is not at once beheld in the full extent of its magnitude,

but little by little it is seen to be greater;

for surely it does not itself receive any increase, but the beholder is improved and sees it more excellently.

'Magnify the Lord, think great things concerning God, together with me';

for the phrase 'magnify God' means to think great things concerning Him,

'and let us together exalt His name.'

The appellation of God is invoked upon the earnest and diligent;

when, therefore, we have deeds and thoughts that correspond to the Name, then His name is exalted—not in a scattered manner, but 'together,' when we are being made complete in the same mind and the same judgment.

It is possible also, according to another sense, to say that the name of God is exalted 'together';

some drag down the appellation of God to lifeless matter, so as to call statues gods,

and in a certain way they debase the naming of God.

And others derive the naming from their own belly, making a god by their teaching out of being gluttonous and devouring all things.

When, therefore, we regard as God none of the things that are not God, but only Him who fashioned all things, then we have exalted His name 'together.'

We all in the Gospel are commanded to say in prayer:

and even if the utterance is imperative in form, yet since we say it in prayer, it is a prayer.

According to all the senses of the exalting of the Name, we take also its being hallowed;

do nothing profane, nothing paltry and base, that the name of God may be exalted, that it may be hallowed;

remove the appellation of God from everything that grovels on the ground, from every earthly thing;

and this will especially come to pass when God becomes all in all, when, having fled from pain and grief and groaning, everlasting gladness lays hold of you.

'I sought out the Lord, and He heard me.'

He did not say simply 'I sought,' but 'I did this with intensity.'

He shows that the seeking now spoken of comes about through prayer;

and even if one who wishes to know God seeks Him out as far as is possible, yet he has no end to it.

To be heard is perhaps to find, to be brought to perfection.

'I sought out the Lord, and He was found by me.'

Thus indeed it is written in Wisdom:

'He is found by those who do not disbelieve Him; He manifests Himself to those who seek Him.'

Here, then, the word 'He heard' says this: that the seeking came about through prayers.

He who prays without ceasing seeks out God, and he had Him as one who hearkens, having found the thing sought.

'And out of all my afflictions He delivered me.'

Often have we said concerning these things, that God's delivering from affliction does not signify coming to be outside of affliction;

for if the apostles speak truly when they say:

'Through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of God,' then we must never come to be outside of being afflicted.

But if one should not take 'deliver' in this way, then the saints were never heard;

for ever afflicted and in want they passed their life to the very last breath.

'Draw near to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall never be put to shame.'

Having spoken of the disposition he has toward God, and having spoken of the benefits that come from God to those who seek Him out and are heard, he exhorts either all or many, and says:

'Draw near to Him and be enlightened.'

Not to those already enlightened and able to say:

'The light of Your countenance has been marked upon us, O Lord,' does he say 'draw near';

for those who have already drawn near are light.

So indeed the apostles, having drawn near, heard:

'You are the light of the world.'

Draw near, therefore, you who are far off, to Him, and be enlightened; and from your being enlightened comes freedom from shame.

'And your faces shall never be put to shame';

for they become enlightened, as those who give thanks have said:

'The light of Your countenance has been marked upon us.'

'The Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and all shame shall be done away.'

If before sin there was no shame, both Adam and Eve were naked, and they were not ashamed.

They were naked of all evil; they had no garment covering the rational faculty; the reason was not concealed by irrational passions.

But when sin came to be, then also thought and life became subject to passion, and shame came into being.

If, therefore, we draw near to the light which we forsook when we were sinning, our faces are not put to shame; we have much boldness;

'If our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God.'

If one sees himself uncondemned by heart and conscience, he has full boldness toward God, so as to say:

'As the Lord lives, before whom I have stood in His presence.'

The voice of one who speaks with boldness, and:

'In the morning I shall stand before You and shall look upon You.'

I have seen many things, but still more shall I contemplate...

'And your faces shall never be put to shame.'

We were saying that, when sin is present, the face of the soul is covered by shame, so that no longer are its beauty and the due proportion of its members beheld.

But when enlightenment comes, then thereafter with unveiled face it reflects the glory of the Lord.

No one who has a veiled face reflects the glory of God, but only if someone has cast off the veils that had come upon him.

Those, then, who have come to their senses, having become their own worst enemies through evils, say:

'Dishonor has covered our face.'

Dishonor, that is, shame, has become a veil to us, upon our face.

'This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him.'

He shows a certain man poor in respect of sin, poor in respect of all evil.

If someone, having become free from evil and having cast off the wealth of ignorance and of evil, cries out to God, he has Him as one who hearkens.

And perhaps, as I said above concerning the place of the hour, that it applies both to the lesser and to the greater, exhorting those already enlightened and blessing the Lord at all times, who are rich, he says:

And if the poor man draws near and cries out, he is heard.

It is also possible that this is said concerning the people gathered from among the Gentiles, namely that:

The people who had no hope and were without God in the world, when they drew near and cried out, found Him attentive to them.

At any rate he says, after other matters, in the same psalm:

'The rich have become poor and have hungered,' meaning those of the circumcision who became poor by having cast away the Law and the Prophets.

For this reason he also speaks in a demonstrative manner:

He became worthy of being pointed out by holy men and by the Holy Spirit Himself.

It is also possible for this to be said universally concerning all men:

In relation to God the giver of wealth, who bestows great gifts, we are all poor.

Did not Jesus become poor for our sakes? For consider the apostolic precision:

That being rich, for our sakes He became poor.

Being rich, for our sakes He became poor — to what end? That by His poverty we might become rich.

For a poverty that produces wealth is not truly poverty.

And just as He becomes a curse for our sake, that we might receive a blessing — yet a curse that produces blessing is not simply a curse, but is precisely this: a curse productive of blessing — so also is He poor.

Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.

Behold the poverty which He assumed:

Being truly rich, ever existing in the form of God and being the express image of God's substance, He took the form of the servant and endured all that belongs to poverty.

He became sin for our sake, that we might become the righteousness of God; a curse, that we might inherit blessing; He underwent death and was made dead, that we might receive eternal life.

Thus we descended together, reaching down even to your condition, so that, the mercies of God having laid hold of us first, we might raise you up.

As certain men have told such a parable concerning the saints, that:

Sailing in the vessel of this life, they saw many falling out of the boat and, being unable to swim, being carried down into the deep; and they leapt into the deep and seemed to suffer the same thing as those who were sunk — yet they did this for the help of those others, that they might raise up those who could not ascend by themselves.

And out of all his afflictions He delivered him.

The phrase 'to be delivered out of all afflictions' has already many times been explained to us as meaning not to be overcome, not the being placed outside of grievous things.

The angel of the Lord will encamp round about those who fear Him, and will deliver them.

An angel encamping round about those who fear God, and he delivers them from every enemy, from every affliction, from every wound.

Is one angel sufficient to save all those who fear God from the adversary? Consider:

One angel, when God willed it, destroyed a hundred and eighty-five thousand at a single stroke — and that though he was perhaps not a pure angel, since he was not ministering unto punishment.

How much more, then, is the perfect man, who guards holiness, who is an eyewitness and minister of God, able to deliver many who fear God.

But if to anyone the interpretation appears forced, then take it thus:

Just as it says that God made man to rule over the irrational animals — and we do not mean the one particular individual, we do not mean this or that man, but the whole species.

'I made the earth and man upon it':

He thus named the whole species.

Delivering them out of every affliction.

You have this, at any rate, in the Gospel:

See that you do not cause one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble.

For their angels always behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.

They are attendants of God; they behold His face; invisibly they behold the Invisible One.

Behold then, of the many little ones many angels were spoken of, but of those who fear the Lord one angel is mentioned.

It is said in the singular, for there is not even one apart from Him.

It is also possible to say this:

The little ones do not fear God, but have the fear that belongs to passion;

for perfect love casts out fear.

Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul.

But those fear God who possess the surpassing fear, concerning which it is said in Sirach:

The fear of the Lord surpasses all things; it comes to him who seeks it after much progress.

These, then, who fear the Lord, are able to have one angel encamped and delivering them — even the Saviour Himself, concerning whom it is said:

His name shall be called Angel of Great Counsel.

For in many Scriptures an angel appears mentioned who does not fit any created being.

Concerning Him, Jacob also speaks:

The angel who delivers me out of all evils.

But no one is able to deliver out of all evils except the Saviour, who has authority to forgive every sin.

And when sin is forgiven, the punishment that follows it, the harmful consequences that ensue, departs together with the evil.

Like a kind of enclosure and surrounding wall formed around them, it keeps them unassailable.

And so in Zechariah, the eleventh of the twelve prophets, He says:

Jerusalem shall be inhabited fruitfully; and He says:

And I will be round about them as a pillar of fire and a wall encircling them.

'Of fire,' rather because those who draw near are harmed;

for immediately, within that same passage of the prophet, He says:

Because he who touches you is as one who touches the apple of His eye.

'To touch' here signifies 'to harm,' as in the passage:

Touch not My anointed ones.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

It has often been said to us that sensible and bodily things are of this nature:

Each thing is only what it is;

for instance, the pomegranate is nothing other than a pomegranate, the loaf a loaf.

But the food that nourishes the inner man is spoken of according to various conceptions.

It is called, at any rate, light; it is called also a fountain; it is called also bread and flesh, true food.

Taste with the invisible taste, that of the inner man, and see that the Lord is good, that He is kind.

Only taste, know that He is nourishing; behold a fountain of goodness, a fountain of kindness.

Blessed is the man who hopes in Him.

He who hopes upon Him, the good Lord — for he tastes of Him — will also experience His sweetness, and from this food he will possess all things; and, being nourished as an athlete, he will be strong, so that his wrestling is no longer against blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

If anyone is weary and sick in soul, let him taste of Him as of nourishment, as of One who prepares health, as of One who wards off harm.

But this food not only satisfies, it also wards off harm; it casts away what is hurtful.

Blessed, then, is not simply the human being, but the man — he who has done away with the things of the infant, who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the pestilent, but who has his own will in the law of the Lord.

This man has his own will in the law of the Lord.

For many keep the law in order that they may not be punished, or in order that they may seem worthy of praise.

But the holy man, the perfect man, has his own will in the law of the Lord, so that his will is nothing other than the will of the law.

And the will of the law is this:

to forbid vice and to command virtue.

For these, though not having a law, are a law unto themselves — so that they have their own law interwoven with the law of the Lord.

Fear the Lord, all you His holy ones.

For there is no want to those who fear Him.

To all the holy ones I exhort: fear the Lord Himself.

And just as nourishment comes to some, and to others wisdom, rendering them wise, and to yet others righteousness — and those to whom righteousness has come become righteous — so also do they partake of sanctification.

For He Himself is also the sanctification, who became for us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Fear God, then, all you His holy ones.

For there are those who are called holy in a general sense, but not His.

As many as feign holiness seem indeed to be holy, but they are not God's.

And he states the reason why all should do this:

For there is no want to those who fear Him.

The fear of God makes men free from want and lacking in nothing.

Fear the Lord, all you His holy ones.

Since there is no want to those who fear Him, that you may become lacking in nothing, fear Him, even God.

And the fear of God, as I have said, is not something belonging to the passions, but is equal to reverence, equal to devout awe.

Whenever we receive a vision of God, at once fear is heightened, devout awe comes upon us.

For we do not fear Him as though dreading Him, not as though He were some bugbear, but as something surpassingly worthy of reverence.

And since the Church is holy and glorious, standing at the right hand of the Savior, all those who together make her complete are holy.

Therefore this saying can be applied to the calling of the Gentiles:

Fear the Lord, all you His holy ones.

For there is no want to those who fear Him.

The rich have become poor and have hungered, but those who seek the Lord shall lack no good thing.

The former ones, those who filled up the synagogue before the sojourning [of the Lord], being rich, fell into poverty.

The rich have become poor and have hungered, but those who seek the Lord shall lack no good thing.

When the kingdom of God was taken away from them, when the understanding of the divine Scriptures departed from them, when they turned away from the ancient Scripture and it from them, from being rich they became beggars.

For since this wealth benefits its possessor in every way — for it becomes his food, and becomes his shelter and clothing — he says that these rich, having become poor, hungered.

They cast away the spiritual food, they turned away from the bread of life.

They became poor, then; yet even if they themselves became poor, those who seek the Lord are not lessened in good things, but become full of them, they shall partake of them perfectly.

For just as the kingdom of the heavens has been taken away from those men — this too the mother of Jesus says:

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

Those who were formerly rich were sent away empty.

For even if they have the books of Moses and of the prophets, yet they are empty of their divine fullness.

The fullness, then, of divine Scripture is not the shadow, but the truth and the Spirit.

Those, then, who seek the Lord — for the word 'seek out' denotes intensity — are filled with all good things.

Concerning this the psalmist too somewhere says, discoursing with his own soul:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, who satisfies your desire with good things.

Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the requests of your heart.

In Him those find all good things who pass over from the shadow of the law and from partial knowledge and prophecy.

But properly speaking, the good things — those free from want and most full — are the spiritual things of the law.

For these lead by the hand into the truth that is face to face, that which brings perfection, in which no one will be imperfect.

Come, children, listen to me.

[Having shown that] from being rich they have become paupers and poor, and that those who seek the Lord whom they fear are filled with all good things, he then directs his teaching to all who have become His children, saying:

Come, children, listen to me.

Now the children of the wise man are those who hasten toward wisdom; the children of the holy one are those who wish to be sanctified; those who set right righteousness are children of Him who is the first Righteous One.

For it was said by us at the beginning of the psalm that it can also be uttered in the person of the Savior, according to His humanity.

And the children of the Savior are those who take care for virtue, those who hasten to take up the knowledge of the truth.

He calls them, then, though they are far off — not that they should be moved from place to place and come by a change of location, but from disposition to disposition, from a lesser state to a greater and more perfect one.

And these children, to whom He addresses His word, can be babes in Christ, having a fear that is not the perfect fear, not the one that makes men free from want, but the one that produces abstinence from vice in practice — the fear of punishment.

For such ones are children, being still imperfect.

For since he who fears the Lord is lacking in nothing, these too are not free from want, since they do not have the perfect love which casts out the aforementioned fear — the love that is nothing other than the essence of participation in God.

And just as he who partakes of righteousness is righteous, so he who has drawn near to this love and has become one with it is a child of wisdom, a son of love.

Who is the man that desires life? When they were in the lesser fear — the one that brings punishment and terrifies with punishment so that one may not sin — they were a multitude.

But when they finally hasten to draw near to Him who calls, that they may be taught the fear of God, then the things proclaimed are proclaimed as to one:

For being fitted together in the same mind and the same judgment, and each one having been joined to the Lord and having become one spirit with Him, they cast off the multitude.

For multitude — especially that which pertains to the soul and the inner man — comes about either from opposition or from difference according to more and less.

If all who are called have virtue, yet do not have it in the same measure, there is a multitude.

And yet this is not the multitude that arises from opposition.

But whenever they also have contrary perceptions, they turn out to be many because of the vice that is present.

For vice is not unifying, but rather divisive.

We speak, at any rate, of the mutual accompaniment of the virtues, but not of the vices.

It is impossible for vices to follow consistently upon one another, for they contain excesses and deficiencies.

For there are excesses and deficiencies,

and the excesses and deficiencies are contraries.

All, therefore, who take up virtue in its perfection are one, and they become one in relation to God.

So then, all who believe according to the right faith at once have one heart and one soul, while the wicked do not possess this.

He therefore calls some men double-minded as well.

It is only to man, then, that he addresses his word.

But man is one according to his essence.

For even though men come to be diverse and many, they possess their multiplicity from the qualities that supervene upon them.

Yet according to the first underlying subject, which is receptive of the qualities, they are one;

for all are of one and the same substance.

It belongs, then, to man to long for life—to the man who preserves what is according to the image.

A lust-driven stallion does not long for life.

'Who is the man?'—this is neither something rare nor something impossible;

it refers to the individually-qualified being whom we call an atom (an individual), so that the meaning is this:

if any man is such a one, let him come and learn the fear of God.

'Desiring to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips that they speak no guile.'

Immediately upon the longing for life and the learning of the fear of God there follows the coming to be in good days;

for we are not so foolish as some, as to suppose that the body's ease and the wealth that flows around us make our days good;

'Honour your father and your mother, that it may be well with you and that you may be long-lived upon the good land which the Lord your God gives you.'

If you take this to refer to this present earth and to those who are parents according to the obvious sense, it proves false;

it is not spoken about the present land, of which it says 'which he gives you.'

'Keep your tongue from evil.'

I call you to learn the fear of the Lord, so that, having learned it, you may become holy, complete, lacking in no single virtue.

Come, therefore, that you may keep your tongue from evil.

Let the tongue of the inner man no longer hold evil.

And then a man comes to be wholly outside of it, whenever he holds the good and brings it forth.

And upon the keeping of the tongue from evil there follows also that the lips speak guile no longer; and the acting of a part—any hypocrisy—is likewise stilled;

for there is one who deals deceitfully in order to work evil.

'Their tongue is a wounding arrow, deceitful are the words of their mouth.'

These are they who come from the heresies, who stand at the head of impiety.

Now someone might say, with regard to the text, that:

since at that very time, when we were saying this, all had run headlong into evil, so that dirges were now sung over them—it was to such men that he was speaking:

For he did not say 'each of my brothers' or 'each of our brothers'—that is, of the saints—but of those who willed to have one father, of those begotten of the devil through willing to do his desires;

'for you are of your father the devil, and you will to do the desires of the devil.'

Concerning such brothers, then—those begotten on behalf of the father, the evil one—he says:

'Every brother will utterly supplant with the heel;'

for indeed their father is such a one;

by guile he brought all under himself, and he leads away those who follow him in his wickedness.

'And every such friend will deal treacherously.'

He is not speaking about those who are truly friends.

Jesus says to his disciples that:

and he has given the reason:

'because all that is the Father's I have made known to you.'

None of these friends will deal treacherously.