Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 27/34

He who does not understand the honour bestowed on him from God is compared to the senseless beasts, and his hypostasis, by reason of its worthlessness, is reckoned as nothing.

But since it also signifies endurance, he says:

Even though I have endured, longing to see my end, and I entreat that you make this known to me, yet this endurance of mine, so measured against you, is but a brief thing.

'Yet the sum of all is vanity — every living man.'

All things that exist for man's sake are vanity, as the Preacher has just now interpreted.

In comparison with things that transcend and are perfect and truly eternal, man's hypostasis is vain — 'yet every living man.'

And though all other things besides man are vanity — such as mortal animals, transient things, even those that are lifeless — yet man alone is 'living,' living according to that life which they live who follow Abraham; for:

'For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.'

Yet the man who lives merely according to the human life is himself also vain.

All these things are vanity;

for even though they be mortal, once dead they are no more.

The living man who does not come to be outside the human life is himself also vanity — so that it may be thus:

'Yet the sum of all is vanity, and every living man.'

'Yet the sum of all is vanity, but man is living.'

The essence? — Even if man lives otherwise than as a mortal would live, yet in comparison with the surpassing greatness of the divine life and of God himself, the fountain of life, it is nothing.

Things called 'small' and 'no smaller' belong to the category of relatives.

'Small' does not have a fixed, delimited quantity;

for it is said by reference to something greater.

Thus we sometimes call the span-length greater than the finger-length.

Indeed, in the Categories you have 'a small mountain' and 'a large millet-grain.'

'Surely man walks about in an image.'

I have said that he speaks of the other things besides man, that all are vanity.

Man alone is 'living.'

He has something more than the others.

Nevertheless, though he is living, he does not always possess this motion;

'Surely,' he says, 'man walks about in an image.'

He did not say whether in a praiseworthy or a blameworthy one;

but in whatever manner one walks, in whatever manner one acts, he is in some image.

And taking it more generally, one must say that it is either in the image of the heavenly or in that of the earthy.

It is evident from such an expression that man possesses free will;

for if he were good by constitution, he would always walk in the image of the heavenly, and if he were evil by essence, in that of the earthy.

But it is possible to divide these general images into species.

And I say that one man is in the image of a fox, another in the image of a lion, and one who becomes like a wanton mare bears yet another image, and another is in the image of a dove — yet every man walks about in an image.

'Surely man walks about in an image, yet they are troubled in vain.'

But the wicked are troubled in vain.

And he goes on to describe this vain trouble, namely, that it is this eager pursuit of human things.

'He heaps up treasure, and knows not for whom he gathers it.'

'He heaps up treasure, and knows not for whom he gathers it.'

In Ecclesiastes it is plainly said that:

'the heir of his possessions — whether he be wise or a fool.'

And often what a man has treasured up, he leaves behind.

And sometimes, before a single year has passed, those things pass over to others.

Wherefore one ought not to be eager to heap up treasure in this way;

for 'treasures shall not profit the lawless, but righteousness delivers from death.'

One must therefore treasure up righteousness — that which delivers from death and from every other evil.

And this wealth is treasured up in heaven.

'Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, but lay up treasures in heaven;'

for since where the treasure is, there also is the mind, which is called the heart, one must treasure in heaven, that we may have our mind there, and must decline to treasure on earth, lest we have our understanding there.

'Those who treasure up wrong-doing and misery in their lands.'

The man, then, who walks about in an image, treasuring up, does not know for whom he gathers these things;

for it is uncertain to him what he shall inherit.

Wherefore the earnest man heeds the command to treasure in the heavens.

He has his wealth laid up in good works.

This indeed Paul also writes to Timothy:

'Charge those who are rich in this present age not to be high-minded on account of riches, but to trust in God, who supplies all things.'

One must also speak of blameworthy wealth, such as the heretical opinion of godless doctrines.

And he who treasures up these things does not know for whom he gathers them.

But he leaves it behind to another;

For the knowledge that is falsely so-called holds its promise only as far as the present life;

for when the truth shines forth, it is dissolved and made to vanish.

nevertheless in an image; — for though every living man exists, yet he is not immutably established in the praiseworthy manner of living;

for if he had remained in the true and first image according to which he was created, he would not have been troubled, nor would he have laid up treasure in vain.

nevertheless, even though he has come to be alive, he passes his course in an image;

yet not at all in the first image, but simply in an image;

for the rational living creature can never come to act outside of what accords with reason.

and in acting it acts altogether either in a praiseworthy or in a blameworthy manner, thinking and doing now these things and now those.

But are they troubled in vain? — It has already been said by us many times that the changes which come about in this way possess a certain difference.

Then, whenever they do not keep this image according to which they came to be, they are a multitude who are troubled in vain.

But when it signifies the life of man — that every living man, and indeed man, passes his course in an image (not in the same one, but since the images are diverse, and especially those that are blameworthy and debased) — many are those who are troubled.

'And now, what is my patient hope? Is it not the Lord?' What has been said above was spoken concerning others;

but I speak concerning myself:

'What is my patient hope? Is it not the Lord?' I wait for no other.

And just as the Lord himself becomes wisdom and righteousness and sanctification to those who partake of him, so also the Lord himself becomes patient endurance to the one who waits.

'And my substance is from you.'

Concerning the Lord he says that his patient endurance is the Lord;

and to the Lord himself, who is his patient endurance, he says:

'And my substance is from you.'

He can here call 'substance' the strength by which one is able to stand firm, for when you work together with me and are my patient endurance, I stand firm under all things.

and the substance that is from you is praiseworthy to me.

It is possible also to say 'substance' in place of 'essence,'

namely: 'And my substance,' that of my rational soul, of the rational living creature, is from you;

for you have given me a soul; from you I have the soul that does not take its beginning from seeds, nor is composed by reflection according to the Militarian sect, but from you is my substance.

'Deliver me from all my transgressions.'

Not from some, but from all, that I may come to be outside of every blameworthy image.

'You have made me a reproach to the foolish.'

From the beginning we said that the whole psalm bears the person of one who is repenting and making progress.

It is a base thing to be reproached by a righteous man, but praiseworthy to be reproached by a foolish one;

for the fool reproaches on account of good works and on account of zeal.

Since there are reproaches, it is said:

'Do not take upon yourself the reproaches of wicked men;'

do not take upon yourself reproaches — but those of wicked men.

Do not be reproached for baseness;

for there are those who are reproached on account of good things.

To his acquaintances, at any rate, Jesus says:

'Rejoice and be exceedingly glad when they reproach you.'

This reproach is not to be deprecated;

for it is good, and it guides one into the kingdom of heaven.

But the reproaches of wicked men are to be shunned.

'I was made deaf and did not open my mouth.'

Who is the fool that reproaches, but that sinner who stood up against him — inasmuch as he was made deaf and did not open his mouth? And here again it signifies the same thing:

'I was made deaf and did not open my mouth.'

I did not answer him in response to the things for which he reproaches.

And I have often said this, that the apostle teaches this same thing by another power, saying:

'A heretical man, after one admonition, reject;'

do not open your mouth to him at all.

But that you may have a word of defense and may say a word on your own behalf concerning yourself, namely:

'I have done what lay within my own power: admonish him.'

If he does not submit to the admonition, or even to a second — for some of the copies have 'even a second' — turn him away, knowing that he is sinning.

The self-condemned man ought not to be admonished.

'Because you are the one who made me, remove from me your scourges.'

'He scourges every son whom he receives' — one who evidently has things for which he is scourged.

For in this way I shall no longer be scourged.

But as it is, I am still liable to scourges.

Indeed, at any rate, he who has made the Most High his refuge has no evil approaching him, nor any scourge drawing near to his tent.

Make me, therefore, such a one as to be no longer liable to scourges; remove from me that which deserves chastisement in me.

'Deliver me from all my transgressions': when you deliver me, I am no longer to be chastised.

In a certain manner, then, he was scourging him even through the fool, and he says that the reproaches of the fool are scourges.

Unless God hands one over, he has no power, not even one who opposes the man not yet handed over.

'By the strength of your hand I have fainted away.'

There presses upon me the strength of your hand — that which disciplines, which strikes, which subjects to hardships.

Since, then, it has become mighty upon me, I have fainted away.

I have cast off my former life, I have abandoned my former condition;

for I did not faint away so as no longer to exist, so as to become weak, but so as to leave behind the condition that was preparing me for chastisement.

I, the one who says these things, who makes confession, who says:

'You have made me a reproach to the foolish' — I have fainted away, coming to be outside of my former condition.

There is a fainting away that is praiseworthy, and there is also one that is blameworthy.

'And Esau came from the field, fainting,' when he wished to eat the pottage.

Here 'fainting' stands for having grown weak and longing for food.

It is said often, and in a praiseworthy sense.

'They failed and departed' — or 'they turned aside,' for it is transmitted this way as well.

This failing is blameworthy.

Faith failed from their mouth.

But if someone leaves off unbelief and wickedness, this failing is not blameworthy.

My soul longs and faints for the courts of my God.

When the soul receives a longing for the courts of the Lord, those in the house of the Father, it fails insofar as it is soul: it casts off being soulish and becomes spiritual.

With rebukes for iniquity you have chastened man.

You do not reprove unless I have committed lawlessness.

By reproving for iniquity you chasten man.

You make him know that he is a human being, that he is rational, that he is according to the image of God.

And in this way he is chastened by being reproved.

It is indeed blessed to be chastened not in wrath, but with rebukes.

All things, when reproved, are made manifest by the light.

This reproof is a demonstration and a making-manifest.

Reproof is not very often set down in Scripture in a praiseworthy sense — or only rarely — behold, as in the text:

All things, when reproved, are made manifest by the light.

Indeed they say that a reproof is a syllogism of contradiction.

Let me put it this way: let someone posit that —

'To do a base thing is [good]' — we say that:

But everything that the temperate man does is good.

And there has arisen a reproof by contradiction.

'To act unjustly is profitable' —

For there are those who hold such an opinion, that injustice is beneficial, and rather that justice is harmful.

But the righteous man, he says, does not increase his wealth, while the unjust man multiplies his riches.

We therefore construct a reproof by contradiction of this kind:

Injustice is to be forbidden.

Everything that is to be forbidden is harmful.

Therefore injustice is not profitable.

There has arisen a syllogism of contradiction, and this syllogism of contradiction is called a reproof.

For those who reason together did not do this in the way they now argue; the earlier ones did it otherwise.

Wherefore they are sophists rather than dialecticians.

They have as their aim to win, and they lay down contentious propositions, which they cling to and persist in.

But the true dialectician, since he argues on both sides — and of the two the one is true and the other false — from the mutual argumentation knows which is the true and which the false.

And the truth itself appears from the demonstration of the false, since of contraries there is one and the same knowledge.

And you have made his soul waste away like a spider's web.

'Like a spider's web you have made his soul waste away' — his soul, that is, according to which he is soulish.

It is said concerning some base man, or base woman:

In the desires of her own soul she was carried along as by a spirit.

When someone fashions out of his own soul, say, prophecies for himself, or as it were doctrines of piety, he is carried along by a spirit in the desires of the soul.

He is not carried along in the Holy Spirit.

In another book, at any rate, I stated the distinction, that:

Fleshly is that man who campaigns according to the flesh, who yields to the desires of the flesh, who is sold under the flesh, who has become fleshly and sold under sin.

But a spiritual man is one who has risen above the state of the soulish man, when in all things he is both borne by the Holy Spirit as by God and does and performs everything accordingly.

The soulish man is one who is neither fleshly nor spiritual.

And perhaps all the wise men of the world are of this kind.

They suppose themselves to be self-determined according to the motions and thoughts of their own soul.

And on account of this they do not receive the things of the Spirit.

For since they prefer their own things and consider their own understanding to be great, they do not receive the things of the Spirit, deeming them foolishness.

For indeed there are certain whole schools of thought, established both among the Greeks and among Christians, which say that allegories are foolishness, that they are mere fabrications.

And they say that the contemplations concerning intelligible things are false, inasmuch as they consider all things to be bodies and objects of sense.

These, then, are soulish men, not receiving the things of the Spirit, considering themselves self-determined and able of themselves to contemplate all things.

His soul, then, being of such a kind — not its substance, but the state according to which it is soul — you have made waste away like the spider's web.

And the spider is so very weak that it is said:

Their web shall not serve for a garment.

He says that the easily-overturned character of the fabric of that creature called the spider is a wasting-away of the soul.

When the soul wastes away, this wasting-away also comes about for its benefit.

For the spider-like quality grows weak within it, and thenceforth it is shown to be outside of wickedness.

You have therefore made waste away like a spider's web the soul of this man who is reproved with rebukes for iniquity.

Nevertheless every man is troubled in vain.

All the men who are outside the chastening of God and outside his rebukes are troubled in vain.

But this man, even if he is troubled when reproved, even while his soul is wasting away like the spider's web, does not suffer this in vain.

For he receives a change for the better.

existing [thus], he is troubled in vain according to what was said before:

Surely man walks about in an image; nevertheless they are troubled in vain.

He who does not wish to be troubled, but to have imperturbability, becomes a god by receiving the word of God.

For he called those gods to whom the word of God came.

And these are not troubled in vain, but even if it happen that they stumble or that a first-impulse arise, they say:

I was troubled, and I did not speak.

Their disturbance stops at the level of a first-impulse.

Are they troubled from within themselves? — Sometimes they are troubled from within themselves, and at other times by certain things that befall them.

Hear, O Lord, my prayer and my supplication.

Supplication appears to be something other than prayer.

He sends up a supplication who has recognized that he himself is in want and deficient, that he may be filled.

But he who prays possesses this form as well, and yet at times he also asks for the possession of goods that are above him.

He who asks to receive something from God either asks to receive what he does not have, or asks concerning what he has, that it may remain with him.

This, properly speaking, is prayer.

It is a petition sent up together with the one who prays giving glory to God — to Him to whom he sends up his prayer.

O Lord our God, grant us peace, for Thou hast rendered all things unto us.

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet.

O Lord, I have heard Thy report, and I was afraid.

In the midst of two living creatures Thou shalt be known; as the years draw near Thou shalt be recognized.

But when, being in need, one asks only for those things which he lacks, then the petition sent up is a supplication, as it were a prayer.

It is possible to understand this too in the following way:

Those who ask for more bodily things make supplication — such as for health.

And as those who are in need, they often deem themselves worthy to receive these things.

But he who wishes to have fullness —

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet.

O Lord, I have heard Thy report, and I was afraid.

In the midst of two living creatures Thou shalt be known; as the years draw near Thou shalt be recognized.

O Lord our God, grant us peace, for Thou hast rendered all things unto us.

Since I too, as one deficient, ask that certain things be given to me — for I am still yet under instruction — hear my supplication.

But since I am about to obtain the things in which I am deficient, having become full I then ask for greater things — I ask for heavenly things, and I say:

Our Father who art in the heavens, hallowed be Thy name — this is not asked by one who is deficient.

And then it comes, whenever God reigns by our own working.

Beholding myself deficient, I weep, producing that godly grief and fashioning the sorrow that is according to God, which works repentance unto salvation, in accordance with which I say:

Every night I will wash my bed; with my tears I will drench my couch.

And since he who falls short of perfect and utmost virtue also mourns again, saying:

We who are in the tabernacle groan; and again:

Thou hast set my tears before Thee, as in Thy promise.

As in Thy promise Thou hast set my tears.

And what sort of tears are these but those of them that weep, that they may laugh? For blessed are they that weep now, for they shall laugh.

These have set their tears as in the promise, that they may laugh, that they may be filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Be not silent, for I am a sojourner in the land.

Be not silent while I pray, while I supplicate, while I weep and shed such tears as they who sow in gladness shall reap.

Be not silent, therefore, but assent and grant the things I have asked for.

For being silent sometimes signifies delay and forbearance; and at other times it signifies forbearance also, when it is exercised in regard to sins.

These things thou didst, and I was silent.

That is to say, I did not repay thee in kind.

If I were a settled inhabitant, I would not even dare to ask and to pray.

But settled inhabitants are those who are liable to wickedness and impiety.

From the face of the north evils shall be kindled upon those who dwell in the land.

Not upon those who sojourn.

And in the Revelation of John it is said three times in succession:

Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell upon the earth.

If, then, I were a settled inhabitant, I would not have said:

And a stranger, as all my fathers were.

The sojourner and the stranger are one and the same.

Paul at any rate, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, having made a catalogue of all those who were well-pleasing through faith, called them sojourners and strangers.

None of those is a settled inhabitant, none is a native resident, but a stranger.

He has come from elsewhere into this place; he was not born here.

Therefore all the fathers who lived according to virtue were sojourners in the land and strangers, such as the patriarchs and others who begot offspring according to divine instruction, such as prophets, teachers, lawgivers.

Let me be, that I may find refreshment before I depart and am no more.

Here he calls praiseworthy that refreshment which is equivalent to this:

I have found refreshment for myself, says Ephrem.

But that other refreshment is blameworthy.

One is refreshed, then, in a praiseworthy manner whenever he enjoys virtue, whenever he delights himself in the Lord, whenever he receives an impression and a conception of the paradise of delight.

Since, then, I lack many things — for on this account I send up a supplication, that I may be filled with the things I lack —

For this too he said at the beginning of the psalm:

Make me to know, O Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is, that I may know what I lack.

When he knows the things he lacks and acquires these, and has them ready to be cultivated, he finds refreshment.

Let me be, to remain in this life, that having been instructed I may find refreshment before I depart from this life and am no more.

I shall not be — that is, not such as I wish to be:

For the soul does not pass into non-existence, but hear:

The words must be understood in accordance with those who speak them.

If the righteous man and the wise man according to God says:

In all things I am zealous that I may grow rich — do not understand what is said with reference to sensible riches.

But if it be some other person, either a man of business or a physician —

And this holy man, then, is wise.

He says, at any rate, that he has no other endurance than the Lord, and that his subsistence is from Him.

This wise man, then, even if he should say this—namely:

'Let me be, that I may live, having placed my hope in this life alone, so that I may find refreshment by eating and drinking,' according to the saying:

'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die'—yet the refreshment too must be taken in a manner suited to the person speaking, as also the 'Let me be' and the 'that I may no longer exist.'

'I shall no longer exist'—he does not mean this, that:

'I am passing into utter destruction, I am collapsing into non-existence,' but rather:

'I no longer exist in the manner in which I pray to be brought into being.'

'Therefore, before I depart in this way—depart from this life—and no longer exist as I had prayed to become,

admonish me, discipline me, that I may no longer exist'—for by no means does he mean that he should pass into utter destruction.

'Waiting, I waited for the Lord, and he attended to me.'

The psalm before us might be spoken both by every saint who has passed his life steadfastly and with great courage of soul, and by the Man of the Lord;

for the Apostle, taking phrases from it in the Epistle to the Hebrews, has understood them as spoken concerning Christ:

'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,' down to:

'In the roll of the book it is written concerning me.'

The psalm is spoken by a single persona.

The same persona who began it proclaims and sings it all the way to the end of the psalm.

He speaks, therefore, in thanksgiving toward God:

'Waiting, I waited for the Lord, and he hearkened to my supplication.'

The phrase 'waiting, I waited' bears this kind of meaning, as if one were to say:

'Physician-like I healed, scholar-like I wrote.'

There are those who wait, yet not in a patient manner, but either out of great insensibility or sometimes for the sake of vainglory.

'I will not hand over my body that I may boast.'

For the sake of praise, casting forth his body and soul, he did not wait in a truly waiting manner;

he waited knowingly and as one ought, not in order to gain a catch from men, or glory, or praises.

He, then, who thus waits as he ought—as when I say that:

'According to wisdom I acted wisely.'

It was said in the preceding psalm that God is the patient endurance of the righteous man:

'And now, what is my patient waiting? Is it not the Lord?' He who, out of this patient endurance, bears with steadfastness the painful things that befall him will say:

'Waiting, I waited for the Lord.'

'With a disposition of patient endurance I bore also the painful things.'

For many, as I said, bear painful things for some ulterior reason.

God, therefore, is the patient endurance of the saint.

And indeed in Jeremiah it is said:

'A throne of glory exalted is our sanctuary, the hope of Israel, O Lord of Israel.'

He, then, who has been given his character according to this patient endurance, and is named after it, will say:

'Waiting, I waited for the Lord.'

He who serves God confesses him to be Lord through his very deeds and thoughts and words.

Such a one, in the Holy Spirit, calls Jesus Lord;

for not everyone who names Jesus 'Lord' does so in the Spirit.

Hypocrites, indeed, also do this.

'Many will say to me in that day:'

And what does he say to them? 'I never knew you.'

'I never knew you as having served me.'

'Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?' He, therefore, who calls Jesus Lord in this way—by doing the will of his Father in heaven—that one calls him Lord in the Holy Spirit.

'And he hearkened to my supplication.'

Being in want, I was asking for something, and God, giving heed to my supplication, has fulfilled these things.

Since indeed 'waiting, I waited' . . .

the commandment concerning which the Savior spoke:

'He who has endured to the end, this one shall be saved.'

The word 'I waited' belongs to one who has come to rest.

And what sort of persona did the Lord have?—For we have not said it out of necessity.

If, then, you take it as spoken from the persona of the Savior—for he went only as far as pre-passion, he did not become subject to the passions;

for indeed 'Jesus began to be amazed and distressed.'

Such things came upon him only as far as a beginning.

We do not say that pre-passion arises in that which is unchangeable;

for we say that no other is unchangeable besides the Trinity.

Since, then, the soul which Jesus assumed is other than the Trinity, it is by nature capable of receiving pre-passion and a beginning of being amazed and distressed.

'In place of the joy set before him he endured a cross, despising the shame.'

If he had not become one who shrinks back in pre-passion, there would have been no deed of manly virtue nor any prize.

The phrase 'he attended to me'?—it stands for 'he assented.'

'And he brought me up out of a pit of misery and from miry clay.'

If each of the saints says this, by 'pit of misery' he means the earthly region;

for a pit is that place where the waters falling from above are gathered together.

In many places of the divine Scriptures, then, both the earthly region and Hades are signified by this name;

for when, in the twenty-ninth psalm, it is said from the persona of the Savior according to his humanity:

'You saved me from among those going down into the pit,'

'for I myself do not go down into the pit,'

and this appears yet more clearly from the verse:

'I was reckoned among those going down into the pit; I became like a helpless man, free among the dead.'

'I am not of those being led into the pit, but I was reckoned' [among them];

'I reckoned myself among those.'

I became, then, as a man without help.

Though He was not without help, He became as one without help; for when the Jews came to seize Him, had He not surrendered Himself, they would not have been able to lay hold of Him.

For when the Jews came to arrest Him, had He not given Himself up, they could not have taken Him.

If He is free among the dead, He is not among those who by nature come to Hades through choice and deed, but He reckoned Himself into this condition of His own accord.

He brought me up, therefore, out of the pit of misery.

He who buffeted his own body and brought it into subjection, and while walking upon the earth had already gained his citizenship in the heavens—that man was brought up out of the pit of misery and out of the mire of matter.

He was brought up out of the world and out of matter and out of the clay from which the earthen body has been fashioned.

And God formed man of dust from the earth.

Remember that Thou hast fashioned me as clay.

And Jesus too will say these things according to His humanity:

I came into the pit of misery, I reckoned Myself in, that I might set them free from misery and from the mire of matter;

for on their account I came into the mire of matter.

When, therefore, this corruptible body is changed into incorruption, he who is clothed with it is no longer held down by clay and misery, but has been delivered from these things.

And He set my feet upon a rock.

And let this be said also concerning the righteous man in general.

By 'rock' in these passages we must understand the unbreakable and indivisible Word of God, whom no tempest or towering wave can move.

Often, then, in the sacred writings mention is made of a rock that cannot be grasped by the senses;

for when the holy one says in thanksgiving to God:

'Upon a rock Thou hast exalted me,' he does not mean this:

that having lifted me up onto the sensible rock He set me there, but upon the unbreakable and indivisible Word.

Paul interpreted this rock and said what it is, namely that it is Christ;

for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

And again this same hymn-writer, after other things, says:

Their mighty ones were swallowed up close by the rock.

Those of the Egyptians who drew near to the rock were shown to be nothing.

And just as the rod of Aaron swallowed up the rods of the Egyptian sorcerers—that is, it prevailed over them—

death was swallowed up, Israel was swallowed up.