Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 19/34

Then it says that whoever draws near to God and loves Him with all his heart and with all his soul and strength becomes love itself;

for what is said next concerning love is this:

'Love is not puffed up, is not boastful, does not behave unseemly, does not reckon the evil; it bears all things, believes all things, endures all things.' Are the things said here about love not proper to virtue? For I do not say that virtue endures, or bears, or believes.

He named the one who possesses love 'love' by the same name.

So too those who have obtained righteousness, out of the sin that was made on our behalf, become the righteousness of God — no longer simply 'righteous men of God,' but 'the righteousness of God.'

It signifies an intensification of perfection and of progress.

Many optative expressions in Scripture are uttered in the imperative form — and perhaps this is so among other writers as well.

And, that we may not wander far afield:

'Hallowed be Thy name,' which means:

'Let the deceitful lips be made dumb' — that is, 'may they be made dumb' — the lips that speak iniquity against the righteous man.

Does he pray to Him? — To Him, yes.

If I want to receive something from another, and I speak to another besides God, I would not be praying to Him, but rather to God, that He might give us such a helper, that He might bring such a champion into our midst on our behalf.

'Grant my request' — I send up a prayer concerning prayer.

'Hear me, O Lord, for I have cried unto Thee';

and I send up a prayer concerning prayer;

for since even the hearing of a prayer requires the co-working of God, I call upon Him again through prayer as my fellow-worker, that He may fulfill my prayer and hearken to it.

This very thing I entreat: that Thou rise up to my help — not unarmed, but having taken up a weapon.

'Take my body and my soul';

for through these Thou wilt be able to help me.

Often a physician of great stature is unable to treat small ailments or lowly men.

Sometimes, therefore, he prepares one of his disciples — of the more lowly and far inferior to himself — so that this one may be able to approach such a patient and heal him.

To take up weapon and shield, therefore, is to take up manhood, to receive the form of a servant.

And it is customary that many such things come to pass.

If He were to set out to help me as God, the help would overpass me.

'Having become man, help me.'

'Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Mighty One, in Thy comeliness and in Thy beauty.'

Thou hast comeliness and beauty;

for Thou didst commit no sin, neither didst Thou know it.

Gird, therefore, Thy sword upon Thy thigh.

The word 'thigh' often signifies the matters of generation, as when it says:

'Every thigh shall be defiled with wetness' — decently and becomingly it signifies through 'the thigh' the organs that serve generation.

For this reason also Abraham, when sending his servant to seek the betrothal of Rebecca, said:

'Put thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear';

for since he was about to take a virgin and lead her from a far place to a far place, he necessarily secured her chastity.

Since from my loins is to come forth He who comes for the salvation of all, put thy hand there, and I will make thee swear.

And Scripture indeed names many such things with reverence.

Concerning the dragon — that is, the devil — it says:

'Behold, his strength is in his loins, and his power is in the navel of his belly.'

In the case of the male it named the 'loins,' but in the case of the woman it reverently called that organ 'the navel of the belly.'

From the neighbouring parts it indicated that of which it forbade the use.

'Draw out Thy sword and shut off the way against those who pursue me.'

'Multiply the sword' — give us the sword to wield against our foes.

And the living Word of God is the sword.

And again, the utterance of the Spirit:

'And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.'

'To pour out' always signifies abundance, as when it says:

'I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh' — by this expression it signifies the abundant gift and rich supply.

'The love of God has been poured out in our hearts.'

'Thy name is as ointment poured forth.'

The ointment that is poured forth comes outside its containing vessel and sends forth its fragrance to the greatest distance.

When, therefore, the Saviour was in Israel alone — for in Israel His name was great — His name was, as it were, within a vessel.

But when His name had become wondrous in all the earth, and that word was fulfilled:

'As is Thy name, O God, so also is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth' — it became as ointment poured forth.

This expression, therefore, signifies an abundant supply.

'Make each one of us a sword-bearer; pour out Thy sword';

for then dost Thou shut off the way against those who pursue us;

for henceforth we become men-at-arms, we approach them sword in hand — not that I might slay, but that I might suffer no harm.

'Shut off'? — 'Shut off' signifies many things, but chiefly the drawing-together, as it were, of a conclusion, which checks the impulse of one who wishes to play the sophist; this becomes a 'closing-in.'

Thus those who dispute are wont to say, 'I shut him up.'

It also signifies something else, as it stands in the philosophy of Paul:

and note indeed the sequence of the expression:

those who had believed from among the Greeks were pressing hard upon the Jews who had believed in the Saviour;

and formerly, in turn, the Jews were hindering the Gentiles from being called unto salvation.

Do you take up unto salvation those from accursed fathers, from idolaters, from polytheists? He has therefore made a shutting-up together; He has convicted both parties.

And one may make use of such an image as this:

Let someone have a son who remains with him, and another who has been cast out because of a wickedness committed beforehand.

If, when the one who was cast out has repented, the father wishes to receive him back, the son who remained behind objects, saying:

"Is this fellow to become a joint-heir with me? He did such and such things."

The father then convicts that one too for other sins, saying:

"It is not on this account that this one is barred from the inheritance."

And thereafter he no longer contradicts;

for this one too was shut up together—that is, he was shut up together under the convictions—and so was that other one.

In order, therefore, that He might have mercy upon all, He did this;

for it was not in order to prove them to be such men that He brought in the convictions, but that He might restrain each of them from the other.

For neither does the Greek any longer trample upon the Jews on account of the cross which was brought by them against the Saviour, nor do those Jews trample upon these Greeks;

for all were found to be under sin.

"For just as you once disobeyed God—you Greeks (even if now you have received the Gospel and have set yourselves to worship God, yet once you also cast stones)—but now you have been set free by the disobedience of these (for had Israel not been disobedient, you would not have had salvation;

for they contradicted and hindered)—so also," he says, "these, the Jews, disobeyed the mercy shown to you, in order that they too might be set free."

Then, as it were a conclusion, he brought in:

"For God shut up all men in disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all."

"O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counsellor?"—the counsellor of Him who shut up all men in disobedience. Now the "shutting-up" is taken thus with regard to enemies: when every way of assailing and grievously harming is taken away from them.

For someone is shut up together in this manner.

As it were by way of syllogism he reasoned the Jew together, saying that:

"Do not blame the calling of the Gentiles;

for you too have done the very same things."

Again, the Greeks who trample upon the Jews and say, "the Lord-slayers" and such things—

"you too were once disobedient, you were idolaters."

"Say to my soul, 'I am your salvation.'"

"Say, O God, effectively to the soul that:

'I am the salvation'—whether when You save, or when You bring all things to bear upon my soul unto its salvation, guiding it as a stranger." "Let those who seek my soul be put to shame and confounded."

These are they who do wrong, these are they who make war, concerning whom he said:

"Judge those who wrong me, make war upon those who make war upon me."

"Let them be put to shame," he says, "and be confounded."

It is not possible for anger to arise in them, but rather shame at the things they do;

at any rate, those who have come to recognize that they have fallen into shame say:

"We have lain down in our shame, and our dishonour has covered us."

This belongs to those who have recognized that they have come under shame and that they have been hidden away from dishonour.

Now this shame and dishonour had come to be from sin.

Something of this kind He also says in Ezekiel to one who behaves insolently and shamelessly:

"Be ashamed, and bear your dishonour."

As if someone, by way of supposition, were condemned to serve at public works, such as in a bath-house or in a mine, and were to be proud of this, we say to him:

"Be ashamed; know that you are in dishonour."

Is the shame then that of Adam?—for surely not all shame is of the same kind.

Many are glorified in things over which they ought to sink down and hide themselves and seem to behave disgracefully.

"Whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things."

In the things over which they ought to be ashamed, in these they speak boldly; and we see such things by nature and among men.

But he who awaits a Saviour, the God-Word, knowing that by Him they are transfigured into something more glorious and are made conformed to the body which He Himself had, no longer takes pride in the works of shame.

"Let those who devise evils against me be turned back and put to shame."

The expression "backward" is used variously in different places of Scripture.

To be turned back "backward" carries a note of blame.

At any rate, the wife of Lot, as she was going out from that region of destruction, heard:

"Do not look round backward, do not set your inclination upon the things you have left behind."

Again, in other passages it is said that:

"Let my enemies be turned backward."

Let them be turned back to their own "backward," so that they may no longer drive along the same way, the way of enemies.

"No one who has put his hand to the plough and turned back backward..."

It was not said, "of anything," but simply "backward";

for whenever the ploughman turns, he breaks the straight furrow.

And the breaking of the straight line hinders the work.

Now someone is said to turn himself backward, in one sense laudably, in another sense blameworthily.

If he is hastening to accomplish the divine way and turns aside, this turning—the being turned backward—is blameworthy.

But if someone is rushing towards wickedness and is checked by words of repentance and turns back, this turning, which comes about from repentance, is laudable.

Since they are driving on towards wickedness and their eagerness is to do me harm, let them be turned back from this purpose, backward.

In either way, then, they devise evils against me;

when they wish to entangle me in sin, they devise evils against me; when, plotting, they wish to bring some harmful thing upon me, again they devise evil against me.

The two elders who raged against Susanna did both things:

they devised an evil, wishing to lead her into adultery.

Having failed in this, they devised the other kind of evils: to destroy her, that she should be stoned.

Understand the same things also concerning Joseph and the Egyptian woman;

for she too devised the evil of fornication, into which she wished to drag him down.

Nevertheless, having failed in this, she attempted the other manner of evils, uttering a false accusation against him, by means of which he who seemed to be his master was set in motion as against one who deserved punishment.

Let them be like dust before the face of the wind.

This is also said in the first Psalm:

'Not so are the ungodly, not so; but rather they are like the dust which the wind drives away from the face of the earth.'

This shows their worthlessness—not so much in respect of their substance as of their disposition;

for those who are minded on earthly things, and who have become wholly of the flesh and of its members, are dust, having no firm footing, no secure standing-place.

A slight wind, then, moves them.

And this wind can be either affliction or a deceitful word.

So indeed some are carried about by every deceitful wind of teaching, by the sleight of those who advocate that crafty doctrine of men who practise it.

And let the angel of the Lord press hard upon them.

They have an angel of the Lord pressing hard upon them.

In the preceding Psalm, 'the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and delivered them';

but here the angel of the Lord presses hard upon them, being a certain chastiser sent down to punish them.

It is possible, however, also to take the angel in a laudable sense, as the one who encamps round about those who fear the Lord;

for he who uses reproofs, who persuades the sinner to withdraw from what he deems pleasant, presses hard upon the sinner.

Let their way be darkness and a slippery place.

Their own way, not the way of God, not the way of virtue, not the way of God's commandments, as it is said:

the way in which they pride themselves, in which they suppose they run in the light—

let them come to know what sort of way theirs is; let them slip and fall;

for this fall is a fortunate one.

Just as he who forsakes running the straight way falls into great evil, so he who hastens to run toward evil, when he slips and falls, takes the beginning of repentance.

And let the angel of the Lord pursue them.

As I said, in both ways—either reproving and rebuking, or chastising them.

For without cause they hid for me the destruction of their snare.

Wickedness is often called 'destruction';

for it destroys the truth, makes the inner man evil out of good, unjust out of just, ungodly out of godly.

And that wickedness is called 'corruption'—

'Evil communications,' he says, 'corrupt good manners.'

This corruption—for it is surely not bodily, of the members—corrupts the manners.

The corruption of one's manners is moral wickedness.

Evil communications are deceitful communications.

And that I may make use of the image introduced in the Proverbs—of the harlot, that is, false opinion or licentiousness:

the harlot woman corrupted the good manners of that young man;

for she brought to bear upon him certain sophistical arguments:

'I have a peace-offering; today I pay my vows'—punctuate the 'today' wherever you wish—

'therefore I came out to meet you.'

It was not that she might pay her vows that she came out, but because she desired him.

For without cause they hid for me the destruction of their snare.

Many errors and false notions arise for those unable to distinguish homonyms.

The word 'destruction' and 'corruption' signifies many things in Scripture;

'If anyone,' he says, 'destroys the temple of God, him God will destroy.'

In this very same expression two significations of 'corruption' are contained;

if anyone corrupts the temple of God through sin—by 'temple' he means the body;

'for your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, which you have of God.'

Therefore all wickedness is corruption.

And the particular species of wickedness is called corruption in a more proper sense—the loss of virginity.

Thus indeed we say that the virgin has been corrupted, and that the boy who has just tasted of sensual pleasures has been corrupted.

Yet whether the genus of wickedness be called corruption, or the species, they are brought under one signification;

for such corruption destroys and drags down both the soul and the body.

'Because of uncleanness you were destroyed with destruction.'

And uncleanness of soul is wickedness.

It is said, then, in the Proverbs concerning a certain worthless man that:

he is crushed because of uncleanness of soul.

And in the Lamentations of Jeremiah it is said:

'Her uncleanness is upon her feet'—which means:

her walk is uncleanness;

for she treads upon the forbidden way, the way of death, the evil way.

Because of uncleanness, then, you were destroyed with destruction.

And uncleanness of soul is wickedness, as has been said, according to the twofold manner of the aforementioned corruption—both according to the genus and according to the species of wickedness, that is, both according to licentiousness and according to the other species of wickedness.

'Because of uncleanness you were destroyed with destruction'—it is also possible to take this 'because of uncleanness you were destroyed with destruction' in the other signification of 'corruption':

if anyone destroys the temple of God, him God will destroy.

And God 'destroys' in that he tests.

And just as the word 'destruction,' when taken with reference to the soul, is used in two ways;

for we say that the one who sins is called 'perdition,' and that the one who is punished is called 'perdition';

'Fear, then, him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.'

Here perdition is chastisement, which is also called destruction.

Because of uncleanness you were destroyed with destruction;

for this reason you have fallen under chastisement, because you loved to be unclean, because you hastened to have uncleanness of soul.

And this uncleanness is contrary to purity, which, when it comes upon the heart, brings the presence and manifestation of God;

'for blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'

Without cause, then, they hid for me, wishing to destroy me, to drag me down into wickedness, or even to plot against me and lead me into affliction.

But in either case they act to no purpose — for here 'gratuitously' signifies 'in vain' — namely, because I have furnished no cause; and so the man who has resolved rather to be wronged and to suffer ill than to do the contrary will say:

Those who surround me for my destruction do this in vain, since God has become my helper; or else:

They act gratuitously, since I have furnished no cause.

For instance, if Susanna had been put to death after being falsely accused by the elders, she would have said:

Gratuitously they plotted against me, since I gave no cause.

Joseph too would have said these things, and so would the disciples of Christ say them when they are persecuted, put to death, and reproached for the sake of the name of Christ.

For if one of the Christians is plotted against for no other reason than that he is a Christian, those who plot against him do so gratuitously.

For sometimes certain people set themselves against Christians and, wishing to harm them, find a pretext arising from the Christians themselves.

In vain have they reproached my soul.

For neither did I do anything to give cause for reproach.

But it was also said according to another meaning — that the words 'gratuitously, since I have furnished no cause' refer to suffering for the sake of the name of Christ and for no other reason.

Do not acquire the reproaches of wicked men.

'Do not acquire' — since it lies within our power to acquire it.

But if, though we have not acquired them, certain people surround us with reproaches, they reproach our soul in vain.

Will you not say that Jezebel and those who conspired with her reproached Naboth in vain, and gratuitously concealed against him the destruction of their snare? For it says:

'The destruction of their snare' — it calls them 'their' snares, not those in which they themselves are ensnared, but those in which they wish to ensnare others.

The staged drama contrived against Susanna by the elders was their snare — not the one in which they themselves are ensnared, but the one by which they wished to ensnare her and subject her to punishment and shame.

Let a snare come upon them which they do not know.

Those who have the power to devise machinations against certain people and who plot against them in vain never set before their eyes that they may be caught by the very things they themselves have contrived.

For instance, he who digs a pit for his neighbor will fall into it.

They do not at all reckon that they themselves fall into the pit, since they had not dug it for that end.

So they did not know that the snare was coming upon them which they were preparing for another, that they might surround and entrap him.

'Which they do not know,' then — which they did not have before their eyes, since they were not even contriving it.

And let the net which they hid catch them.

That they might escape the notice of others and, unforeseen, hunt them down.

They dug a pit before my face, and they themselves fell into it.

And they shall fall into the very snare which is theirs.

In this very snare which they contrived for others, they shall fall.

Upon the downfall of others they themselves fell, by such contrivances as certain people make and then bring upon themselves.

It comes about within a certain interweaving of providence.

The doctrine concerning providence has great intricacy, even if it is unknown to many — not to say to all.

But my soul shall rejoice in the Lord.

Do to him as he devised wickedly to do to his neighbor.

When these things have come to pass, the soul will rejoice, knowing that it has suffered nothing.

Rejoicing over them? No — but marveling at providence and exulting that he was not ensnared.

Just as the soul of Susanna rejoiced, not because the elders were condemned, but because she herself was acquitted of the charge.

That other outcome came about incidentally.

And so the saints, when they are in tribulation, pray for this one thing alone:

Let us not be overcome by the tribulation — not, indeed, against those who have surrounded us with the tribulation.

For they receive it as a contest, not as a punishment.

And he who receives it as a contest is not so set against his adversaries as to wish them no longer to exist.

Lead us not into temptation.

Strike those who tempt us.

I was once asked how the marriage of the saints took place without pleasure — is it not that marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled? — and I said that the saints came together with their wives only at that time when it was the season for conception.

After conception they do not touch them.

So I said that their purpose was not pleasure, which they sought to pursue, but to serve the begetting of children.

Pleasure too is of necessity joined with it; yet it is not for its sake that they come together.

And in the matter of food the same thing occurs:

One takes nourishment for no other reason than to satisfy his appetite, for the sake of being filled.

But if it happens that the things eaten are also pleasant, he does not choose them on that account, because they are pleasant.

And this happens especially in the case of medical remedies:

Often the remedy is pleasant, but he did not administer it on account of the pleasure.

Indeed, even if it be unpleasant, he applies it, since he does so for the sake of health and of what is beneficial.

And so, if ever those who set upon a righteous man suffer the same things, he rejoices that he was not caught by them.

As for the rest, let it follow — even if they have suffered something.

But I wonder whether this is so in the case of a perfect saint.

In the case of one who is still advancing, it is possible to be glad that those who were eager to do him harm have themselves suffered something; but not in the case of the perfect.

What is the difference between 'upon the Lord' and 'in the Lord'? He who takes the prepositions without close scrutiny will say there is no difference.

For instance, someone rejoices, let us say, over his child if he is in health.

He rejoices in the drinking of wine.

Each case has a different cause.

Let us take the demonstration from another saying:

Everyone, he says, who confesses in me before men — he did not say 'upon me' — I also will confess him.

But if the preposition had been set down simply, the 'in' would also have been placed in the case of denial:

And everyone who denies in me, I too will deny in him.

But it was impossible for one who denies to be in Christ — the one who denies him, or that Christ, who is in him, should be denied.

The one who denies, then, is severed from him whom he denies.

He who denies God is severed from God, and God is separated far from him.

But he who confesses him is in him — lest you should take the confession as belonging to the voice alone:

For those who honor with their lips do indeed confess, but they are not in him.

Since, then, our union with God is of various kinds, at one time we are said to rejoice over Him as over a Saviour, as over a benefactor, as over a general who has won the victory for us; at another time we rejoice in Him as in wisdom, as in sanctification, as in righteousness.

He, therefore, who confesses Christ is in Him.

And take yet another example.

One who professes knowledge cannot profess it in any other way except by knowing it.

Is it so that it be as in substance, or also as in quality? — For the present let these matters be set aside.

For now the inquiry concerns the difference of the prepositions.

Whether one participates by substance or by quality — let that be for another occasion.

For God is not one thing when He becomes Father of the righteous, and another when He is their Maker, and yet another when He is their King — rather it is by way of conception (that these are distinguished).

From the things we know we derive these conceptions, since in that realm it is not possible to separate one conception from another.

God is light, He is also sanctification and righteousness and wisdom, and it is not possible to sever one mode of existence from another.

But relation from relation we do separate.

Let there be a man who is father and master and teacher and ruler.

For surely he is not at variance with himself.

But if you hear that he is a ruler in relation to those ruled, and a king in relation to those governed, and a father in relation to the one begotten, and a master in relation to the slave, and a physician in relation to the one healed, and a teacher in relation to the one learning — he is not at variance with himself, but it is the relation, referred now to these persons and now to those, that produces the difference.

Just, then, as it happens that the same man is both father and teacher and the rest, so too it happens that the same disciple is at once the one ruled and the one learning.

He shall delight in His salvation.

By 'salvation' (sōtērion) he here means 'salvation' (sōtēria).

For in many places sōtērion signifies sōtēria (salvation).

But there are times when even the Author of salvation is so called, as when it says:

'All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God,' meaning the Saviour.

The soul, then, delights in the salvation.

It does not seek salvation from any other source than from God Himself, from Him who saves with an eternal salvation.

For Israel is saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation.

'All my bones shall say, O Lord, Lord, who is like unto Thee?' The first theology is to know what the holiness of God is, and who is able to be made like Him or who is not able.

He therefore attaches this theology and this knowledge of God to his own bones, from which it is evident that he is not speaking of these bones of his — those which hold together the other members of the body and the flesh and the sinews — but of the vigorous powers, which we have often said are the bones of the inner man.

'All my bones, then, shall say':

My vigorous convictions, my vigorous movements, in so far as I know and understand, confess concerning God that none of created things is like unto Him.

The word 'who' — how (is it used)? — It is used of the impossible, as in:

'O God, who shall be made like unto Thee?' In the case of the Son we do not take this thus;

for it is not with regard to a future likeness that He has it, but being the express image of the substance He is eternally like (the Father).

Both senses, then, can be taken.

If it be with regard to essential likeness, none is made like unto Him.

But if it be with regard to likeness in virtue and holiness, rare is the one who is made like unto Him.

Delivering the poor from the hand of them that are stronger than he.

If the likeness be taken with regard to this action, it signifies the rare.

God delivers the poor and needy from the hand of them that are stronger than he.

And this holds also in the case of men — such as rulers, wealthy powers, and even the devil himself.

God alone, then, delivers from these.

But if, as I said, one delivers from things that are less mighty, then even the rare (i.e. an ordinary man) can do this;

for to deliver from lesser things is no great matter.

Those who raged against Susanna seemed to be stronger than she;

for they were rulers and judges, while she was a secluded woman and a private person.

And God delivered her from those who were stronger.

Everyone who is weaker than another is, in that respect, poor — the one who cannot help himself, who is not able to succour himself and to set himself outside the surrounding predicament.

Both the poor and the needy from those who plunder him.

It happens most especially that with regard to the same subject a man is both poor and needy.

If he is without wealth, he is 'poor'; but if he provides for himself by his toil, he is 'needy';

If, then, you raise these things (to a higher sense), you take the 'poor' to be the man from among the Jews who came to faith, and the 'needy' to be the man who had no hope, but was even godless.

Unjust witnesses rose up; they asked me of things that I knew not.

The unjust witnesses ask him about things which the man against whom they wish to bear witness does not know.

But here 'things which I knew not' means 'things of which I had no experience.'

The term 'not to know' sometimes signifies ignorance;

as in 'but at that time, not knowing God' — it indicates ignorance.

But it also signifies not having had experience, as when I say:

'Him who knew no sin' — that is, who had no experience of sin.

In what sense, then, does He know it?

He understands its nature.

But He does not 'know' it in the sense of having made use of it.

So, at any rate, it is said also of wives and, quite generally, of women, that:

'He did not know her,' 'He knew her.'

'And Adam knew Eve his wife.'