Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 28/34

When, therefore, those who seem to be mighty—sophists, contentious wranglers, or even evil spirits—draw near to the rock, they are swallowed up and shown to be nothing.

Upon this rock, then, which is Christ, and drawing near to which the approaching mighty ones of the Egyptians are swallowed up, the feet of the one who is benefited are established, so as no longer to be shaken, to be subject to towering waves, and to have enemies.

But he does not always suffer these things: when he is in the pit of misery, when he is in the mire of matter, endurance is being wrought.

But when he comes to be free of these, endurance having attained its end, then at last the feet of the one benefited are established upon the aforesaid rock.

And He directed my steps.

And observe indeed that the text leads us far from the literal history.

No one who stands still is passing over, and no one who is passing over stands still.

When, therefore, someone is so firmly grounded according to Christ that he can declare:

'Who shall separate us from the love of God?'—he has his goings directed;

for he ever hastens toward the higher things, toward the heavenly, since God directs the steps of him who runs;

for it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

And He put a new song into my mouth.

Into the mouth of the inner man, that is, into my reason.

Often we have [spoken] to you concerning the 'new,' how it is so called.

That which has no successor is ever new, but that which has been succeeded is old.

And this has often been demonstrated through many examples.

He who has truly been raised up from the aforementioned besetting troubles—both the pit of misery and the mire of matter—has gained a victory that admits no succession.

The triumph-song of that which admits no succession is new.

But what this new song is, he explains:

When we hymn God, when we receive an apprehension of Him so far as is attainable, coming to be at the end, we sing a new song;

for that which is at the end admits no succession.

Wherefore also the hymn that is sent up in it to God in thanksgiving is a new song.

Many shall see and shall fear, and shall hope upon the Lord.

So that they too may attain to these things which have already come to be mine.

Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord.

David once fought a single combat against Goliath, and he set no hope, not upon shield.

Do you see that the name of the Lord became his hope?

Now, besides the proper meaning of hope—and hope is nothing other than the expectation of good things—it is often the case that some people also call things already present their 'little hopes.'

The rich, at any rate, say 'my little hope,' meaning not what is awaited but what is already at hand.

And so those who already possess the name of the Lord regard it as a hope already present.

And he did not look upon vanities and false frenzies.

He who has looked upon the Lord does not look upon vanities and false frenzies.

He does not look upon a full suit of armor, nor upon greatness of body, nor upon a soldier's strong hand, nor upon anything else of the things that can fail.

By 'false frenzies' are meant the divinations of soothsayers.

But there are also frenzies that are not false;

such as those seized by God, those seized by Christ, who are borne by God; and these frenzies are not false but true, being instead a possession by the divine.

For unless there were also true frenzies, he would not have said:

'He who has not set his hope upon false frenzies.'

The followers of Phrygian [Montanist] teaching, not ignorant of how these things are said, taking 'frenzy' and 'ecstasy' in one single sense, say that the Spirit-bearing men spoke and prophesied in ecstasy.

And they speak truly insofar as it was according to ecstasy—yet not the derangement, not the loss of reason.

'Whether we were beside ourselves, it is for God'—he does not mean madness, but the going out from human things and […].

And this word is used also of amazement:

'And afterward the children of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord their God and David their king.'

And they shall be filled with awe at the Lord and at his good things.

Many are the wondrous works that you have done, O Lord my God.

Having tasted the beneficent deeds just mentioned—since he did not enjoy these good things alone, but was, so to speak, led into them from his mother's womb (for his very anointing, while yet a child, came about in a marvellous way)—he says:

Many are the wondrous works that you have done, O Lord my God.

They are many and great; and to your thoughts, according to which you work your wonders, none shall be likened.

No one will be able to work such wonders; no one will be able to lead someone up out of a pit of misery and from miry clay, and to set his feet upon a rock and to direct his steps, and the rest.

The phrase 'there is none who shall be likened,' if it is said with reference to the Father, is not spoken concerning the Son.

For none of created things shall be likened to him;

but the Son shall not be 'likened,'

for he is eternal, the image and the express character of God's substance.

He is not among those who possess 'being likened' as something still to come in the future;

As for the phrase 'to your thoughts'—thoughts (dialogismoi) are properly said to be the reasonings that concern particular things.

Just as deliberating is a kind of conversation of the soul, and it is not possible to utter many things at once in speech, so too the reasonings concerning particular things are called 'thoughts' (dialogismoi).

There is a commonplace put forward for argument, inquiring whether to know (epistasthai) is the same as to think through (dianoeisthai); and it has been said that they are not the same:

for it is possible to know many things at once, but not to think many things through at once; so that to know is not the same as to think through.

One is able to grasp the concept of a whole genus and of a whole species,

but to apply the mind to particular things—to think through each thing in itself all at once—one cannot.

Is 'to think through' meant with respect to sense-perception?—No, but with respect to the particular objects of thought.

Since it is not possible to say many things at once, though one may know many things, and the discursive faculty (dianoia) is a kind of speech of the soul, it is not possible to think many things through at once.

God, then, has thoughts of such a kind that he knows all things at once—yet in a manner other than as men do;

for indeed in Isaiah he said:

He wished to show the surpassing excellence of his own understanding by means of a perceptible example;

for his understanding does not stand apart from the understanding of men by any spatial distance, but by the magnitude of its superiority.

'And to your thoughts there is none who shall be likened.'

No one is made like to the thoughts of God;

no one shall be likened to God's work of creation.

For even if there are craftsmen among men, yet they do not fashion the underlying matter of the things they make.

For instance, if the carpenter makes a bed or a chair, does he also make the wood by his craft?

He merely imposes the finished form upon the pre-existing matter.

But God does not find matter already there and impose form upon it; rather, he brings it into existence together with the form.

I declared and I spoke; they were multiplied beyond number.

You know that unless we first conceive something as we ought and then wish to declare it to another—how can we ever say 'thus and thus' when we are aware that we have not laid hold of what we wished to say?

Since to your thoughts none is like, 'I declared and I spoke.'

It can also be taken in this way:

'I declared' according to my inward disposition, according to conception; and 'I spoke' perceptibly, according to utterance;

for one must first conceive, and then so speak.

'They were multiplied beyond number'—the thoughts, to which no one is made like.

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire.

You brought me up out of a pit of misery and from miry clay; you set my feet upon a rock; you directed my steps.

In view of these gracious words and of the yet greater benefits, one ought to have sacrificed and offered a whole burnt offering to God.

But you did not desire the perceptible whole burnt offerings, the bodily sacrifices from the slaughter of animals and the rest, the shadowy things.

The Apostle, then, interpreted this, that this body is the rational and bloodless sacrifice.

Whenever, then, some greater sacrifice is found, then he no longer wills the former ones;

Let not the teaching of the Dimoiritai (the Apollinarians) trouble you;

Do you see that it says 'body'?—For surely he who says:

'A body you have prepared for me,' does not thereby say that there was only that;

for indeed one who possesses a complete man possesses a body, but not that alone.

I said from the beginning that the psalm is spoken by a single person;

for from the beginning to the end the same speaking person has been introduced.

'A body you have prepared for me'; and in what follows he will say:

'Those who seek my soul, to take it away.'

Behold, he has a soul also; behold, he has a body also.

Since the discourse is about the perceptible sacrifices which are succeeded by the sacrifice of the Spirit, he named the sacrifice that succeeds them.

It is not the soul that becomes the sacrifice in this sense, but the body.

And well too is the phrase 'you did not fit it out (from without), but you yourself prepared it,' when the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the power of the Most High overshadowed her.

For this reason you no longer desired those sacrifices and offerings, since you prepared a body for me, the body that was to be sacrificed on behalf of all.

And this too can be said:

For this reason you did not desire sacrifice and offering, since you prepared for us a body which we are able to consecrate and to sacrifice to you;

'I beseech you through the mercies (of God), to present your bodies as a rational sacrifice.'

The one interpreter, then, expounding this, says:

Since you did not desire perceptible sacrifice and offering, 'you have fashioned ears for me,' through which I hear the things concerning what is signified by the perceptible—for instance, of the intelligible sacrifice of praise:

'Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.'

'You are henceforth calling me to hearing; you no longer seek perceptible things offered in sacrifice,' so that what is said is like the passage:

'The instruction of the Lord opens my ears.'

The unmusical man has no ear for hearing musical discourses.

And another of the interpreters said:

'You dug ears for me,' since you took away their dullness, you removed what impeded the hearing.

Allegories are not made to run smoothly parallel to the historical narratives.

And often I have taken up the story of Abraham and the two women.

I told you that the soul of Jesus is not an unchangeable substance.

It is consubstantial with the others, and everything good that it possesses it has from God the Word.

Since, then, it possesses also the capacity to hear well, it has this from the Saviour.

It has been made a temple for him who employs it.

'Whole burnt offerings, and offerings for sin, you did not require.'

Neither did you seek nor take any further pleasure in the things belonging to the shadow.

'What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? I am full.'

'The whole burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs, I do not desire.'

Then I, for whom you prepared a body, said:

Since the purpose of his sojourn is this—that the shadow should receive its end, that sacrifices and whole burnt offerings should no longer be brought forward—I have come, that I might fulfil the sacrifice by becoming myself a whole burnt offering.

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

The whole of the God-inspired Scripture is called the head of the book;

for the sum and chief part of Scripture is the way of life concerning Christ.

In a secondary sense let it be said also concerning other things:

For if the sojourn were not going to take place, the ancient Scriptures would not have proclaimed the Gospel beforehand.

Was this written in the Pentateuch?—He says that every Scripture is a book, whose head is the end for which the Scriptures were given, namely salvation, the sojourn.

Why, then, was the origin of the world recorded beforehand?—So that it might welcome the coming-to-be of the world among men, and, after this coming-to-be of men, that the sojourn might find its place.

He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The saying that Adam transgressed through disobedience and the Saviour was justified through obedience does not make the reference concern the Saviour—who is the figure of the one to come—since it is Adam himself who is the figure of the one to come? 'This mystery is great; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.'

That it is not by any means necessary, if something is called a 'book,' to understand it according to sense-perception, Ezekiel hears from God:

'Open your mouth,' and he sees in God's hand a book, and he says:

'Take it and eat, and your belly shall be filled.'

'And I ate,' he says, 'and it became sweetness in my belly.'

This book was written within and without.

According to spiritual and intelligible things it is written within; according to sensible and manifest things it is written without.

Yet the wise man devours both, and finds the harmony between the symbols and their archetypes.

And again in Isaiah he says:

'And these words shall be as the words of the sealed book, which, if they give it to a man who knows letters, saying:'

'I cannot, for it is sealed.'

For those asking, it made a difference whether it was sealed or not sealed.

And again we take the God-inspired Scripture to be [the book]; the one who knows letters yet is unable to read because of the seals laid upon it, [we take to be] the people from the circumcision; and the one who does not know letters, [we take to be] the people from among the Gentiles.

'To do your will, O God, I have desired.'

'Behold, I come,' since 'I have desired to do your will,' after 'you did not desire sacrifice and offering.'

Those who hold false opinions concerning Christ say that there are different wills:

'I have come, I desire to do your will,' [and] in the Gospel:

'I have come down from heaven, not to do a human will, but the will of him who sent me.'

Therefore, on account of those who say that there are two wills, we shall reply that:

Differing wills come about either according to more and less, or according to opposition.

He who is advancing in virtue wills righteousness, and so does he who has been perfected; yet the will of the perfect is not the same as that of the one who is advancing or is a beginner.

There arises either a multitude or a duality of wills according to more and less; and it arises also according to opposition, whenever one person chooses good things and another evil things, and one wills to be saved while another wills to sin.

To attach to the Son such a will, one that even contains opposition, is the utmost impiety.

And next I also frame the argument against the Manichaeans.

The will of the Saviour is found to be good;

for he says that he has come down from heaven that I may do the will of God.

And to do the will of God is good.

He has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

'If you will, you are able to cleanse me.'

If this is the will of the Son, he wills all things that are beneficial ...

But if the will of the Father were opposed to him, I leave it to you to consider what follows.

But if, according to more and less, [difference] in wills is found to lie in disposition, then both the Father will have a disposition and the Son—that is, a quality—and the Father will no longer be incorporeal, nor a simple essence, nor uncompounded.

It must not be spoken of according to more and less, nor according to opposition;

for the will of the Son is demonstrated to be good.

But though it is not permissible to speak thus in accordance with God, nevertheless he says that this is his will—to accomplish the will of the Father.

But it is not permissible to speak thus in accordance with God.

Neither is it opposed, nor is it according to more and less.

Concerning the man, then, we must understand these things.

'And your law is in the midst of my belly.'

It is spiritual food, passing into the belly of the inner man.

That the law is spiritual food is surely clear to everyone;

for it is not sensible food.

And this belly is often praised, as also in the passage:

'Because of the fear of you, we conceived in the womb.'

And just as this belly conceives in the womb from the divine Spirit—and this is the fear of God—so also it receives divine food into itself.

When you no longer desired sacrifice or offering or whole burnt offerings, I had the spiritual law as food.

'I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great congregation.'

The great congregation is that which is composed of the several great ones, concerning whom Paul says:

'We speak wisdom among the perfect'—so that the assembly of these is a great congregation.

Righteousness—not that which is according to the law, concerning which the Apostle says:

'As to the righteousness which is in the law, having become blameless.'

This righteousness, then, I proclaimed as good news to the great congregation;

for if [he proclaimed] the letter and the shadow, he was not proclaiming good news to the great, but to infants.

What sort of righteousness? — that concerning which the Saviour spoke:

'Unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees'—is this not according to the shadow? Therefore let yours—that of the disciples—the Saviour says, let your righteousness abound more than theirs.

And he says that theirs was accompanied by ignorance.

For this reason let us not be ignorant of the righteousness of God, but let us proclaim it as good news.

Behold, I will not restrain my lips.

By 'lips' here he means the word.

Often, when the word is summoned to say something before small and imperfect men, we restrain our own lips; we do not keep them unfettered, but we condescend, we conceal, we speak in proverbs, and our lips are held back.

But when it is before the perfect and a great assembly, since one does not restrain one's own lips, since nothing hinders speaking to those men.

It is also possible to say this:

'And in his law will he meditate day and night.'

He never restrains his own lips, ever bringing forth the words of God.

As one ought and as is fitting to do this;

for even if he is silent, in his mind he speaks; and while sleeping—whenever he sleeps as a righteous man—he does this with reason.

And through silence he brings to mind some good thing.

O Lord, thou hast known my righteousness.

Since, as the saying goes, he had testified many things concerning himself—for to proclaim righteousness as good news in a great assembly is a great thing and, so to speak, beyond man—he says to God:

Thou hast known my righteousness.

This righteousness which I announce, I possess, and I have been fashioned in accordance with it.

But if the psalm is spoken also concerning the man of the Saviour, that:

Since he knew no sin, but the 'sin' which he became is productive of righteousness.

They speak blasphemous things concerning me, but thou knowest my righteousness.

As also Susanna said:

Thou knowest that they bear false witness against me.

I have not hidden thy truth within my heart.

He who has known the righteousness of God does not hide within his heart the truth that is yoked together with it.

Truth is named as yoked together with righteousness, when it says:

Truth has sprung up out of the earth, and righteousness has looked down from heaven.

He calls the Saviour the righteousness that has looked down from heaven:

He bowed the heavens and came down.

And it has sprung up out of the earth, when his sojourning reached its fulfilment.

It is also possible to take it thus:

Whenever it springs up out of the earth—out of that good and beautiful soul which has heard the word and borne fruit.

Righteousness, then, looks down from heaven.

Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Those who read the histories find that wars and disturbances arise from acts of injustice.

But truth has the mercy of God;

for unless God shows mercy, no one is able to know the truth, how great and of what kind it is.

For this reason, then, mercy and truth have met together.

It is also possible to understand mercy thus: for example, he who loves his neighbour as himself is merciful to his neighbour, himself likewise requiring the same mercy from him;

for truth too is made manifest.

Just as, then, righteousness leads the way for peace, so also mercy leads the way for truth.

Yet both are one and the same.

If, therefore, one is ashamed of Jesus and his words, he is ashamed of his truth.

The confession of the truth is my salvation.

But if he also calls Christ the truth, he again calls him the salvation, both 'I have declared thy salvation' and 'I have made manifest thy truth.'

The salvation being Christ, whom I make manifest, I declare.

I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.

We have said that mercy is yoked together with truth.

By 'great congregation' he means that which has believed from among the nations, that which has been gathered together out of all the nations.

Both the wise man says this and Jesus according to his humanity.

But thou, O Lord, remove not thy compassions far from me.

By thy compassions I have come to speak blamelessly and as one ought.

Remove them not far, then, that I may continue such as I am.

Let thy compassions speedily overtake us, O Lord, for we are become exceedingly poor.

If the compassions are removed far off, poverty comes about.

That man is kept rich, from whom they have not been removed far off;

and he is rich in having received the truth and the mercy.

Thy mercy and thy truth have continually upheld me.

As thou hadst compassion on me, thy mercy and thy truth upheld me.

Remove not far, then, thy compassions, that thy truth may remain thus upholding me, and the mercy that is yoked together with it.

For evils, of which there is no number, have compassed me about.

For this reason, remove not thy compassions far from me, because many evils have compassed me about, not subject to number—that is, on account of their multitude. If painful things are signified, they have no number on account of their multitude.

But if the other kind of evils, the deeds concerning which it is said:

'The fool works evils in laughter'—these are in no reckoning or number;

for they do not belong to the things that truly are; they are inventions of men, they are transgressions of the divine laws.

Take, then, the twofold signification of the evils.

My iniquities have overtaken me, and I was not able to see.

It is also possible to take it thus:

Because evils not falling under number have compassed me about—as has just been said, in two ways—for this reason:

For my iniquities have overtaken me.

But it must be read from a different starting point, joining it to this:

But you, O Lord, do not withhold your compassions from me, for evils without number have encompassed me.

Your mercy and your truth have continually upheld me.

My iniquities, then, have overtaken me, and I was not able to see;

for they are injurious to the sight of the mind, and they bring blindness upon the eye of the inner man.

Since, therefore, they have overtaken me, I am not able to see.

It is also possible to understand these as the settled states (habits) themselves.

The former interpretation took them as the powers actively at work.

And these very things have overtaken me; pursuing me, they have seized me and made me their subject, and for this reason I am unable to see;

for the iniquities of the inner man are injurious to its sight.

They have multiplied beyond the hairs of my head, and my heart has forsaken me.

If you take them as the sins themselves, they overtake a person whenever he falls under them and sins;

for by suffering this, the reasoning faculty of the soul is harmed.

But if you take them as the powers actively at work, they are often called by the same name as the settled state (habit).

And my heart has forsaken me.

Since the iniquities that have overtaken me and taken away my sight have multiplied beyond the hairs of my head, my heart has forsaken me, and I no longer possess the heart of a wise man;

for the heart of the one who says these things is a heart of flesh.

Whenever, then, the heart of flesh forsakes someone, it becomes a heart of stone.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me.

Since the iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see, and they have multiplied beyond the hairs of my head, be pleased to deliver me, so that my heart may not remain forsaken.

But if our discourse were about the hairs of this bodily head, he would have spoken hyperbolically...

even if iniquities should arise, they cannot exceed the multitude of the hairs of the head.

For the hairs of my head—that is, the insensate motions that do not truly befit the mind—these are hairs;

for the hairs that touch us belong to the insensate parts within us.

When my iniquities had overtaken me and I could no longer see, the hairs of my head multiplied—the things thought without perception, the things pondered without sense.

For this reason my heart—the mind itself—has forsaken me.

It is no longer my mind, having been dragged down into sin.

O Lord, attend to helping me.

For I ask you to be pleased to deliver me for no other reason than that you may attend to helping me.

And you help me if you set me outside the enemies that have overpowered me.

Let those who seek my soul to snatch it away be put to shame and confounded together.

They said that the psalm is spoken by a single person.

And if it were a man speaking, he sends up a supplication concerning both—both the body and the soul.

If, then, it is the Son of Man, the temple that came forth from Mary, who says these things, we shall say to those who claim that he assumed a body only, on the ground of what is said:

But a body you fashioned for me—behold, he says this too, and it is the same person who is making the declaration.

Those who receive knowledge of the truth are confounded and put to shame.

Let those who wish me evil be turned back and confounded.

It is a great thing for wickedness to be turned back behind;

for to drive it forward is harmful.

Let them, then, be turned back behind, so as not to lengthen the road, not to press on toward the worse.

Let those who say to me be clothed at once with their shame:

He is praying concerning those about whom he speaks, that at once, so that they may not persist in evil, so that they may not say without ceasing:

It belongs to those who rejoice in others' misfortunes to say, 'Aha, aha!' over those who have suffered something displeasing.

Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you, O Lord.

Having spoken concerning the adversaries—that they may be put to shame and confounded and turned back behind, saying in malicious joy, 'Aha, aha!'—he says:

Let those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you, O Lord.

Then do we rejoice and are glad, when, having sought you, we find you;

for the one who seeks something rejoices and is glad whenever he finds it.

when it comes upon us, we seek to find you as our helper.

And then, appearing, you help and you say:

And let them say continually:

Since, having found you, let them give thanks and say continually:

Let the Lord be magnified; may they possess those things for which they ought to sing hymns and to rejoice.

Let them say continually—and this too is possible:

May ingratitude never arise in them.

Those who love your salvation.

the salvation of the righteous, or the one who becomes for them the cause of the salvation that is to come.

Let them say continually, 'Let the Lord be magnified.'

loving your salvation, they also continually magnify God over it.

But I am poor and needy;

for this reason I entreat that your help may be granted to me, and that you may be pleased to deliver me, because I am poor and needy.

I cannot defend myself, I cannot set myself outside the things that press upon me, unless you help.

I am therefore poor and needy.

The difference between these has been stated elsewhere as well.

You are my helper and my defender—you are.

Since I have called upon you as helper and as defender who holds out your shield on my behalf—and this is the truth;

for his truth will encircle you like a weapon—do not delay, lest the contest prove beyond my strength.

Since you know that it is the fitting moment to give assent and to help and to deliver, let this come to pass;

for as far as it depends on my own strength and nature, I am too weak to help myself, to set myself outside the evils that press upon me.

Blessed is he who considers the poor and needy.

Many understand this psalm also as spoken from the person of the Saviour, because there are set down here sayings that are taken up in the Gospel as spoken by the Saviour, and as concerning the Saviour, done and beheld in him.

'Blessed,' he says, 'is the one who considers the poor and needy.'

And with regard to the moral sense many have expounded such things as these:

The needy and the poor are of different kinds;

and the one who shares with them ought to make his sharing according to proportion;

one need not feed everyone who lacks food;

for one man lacks food because he formerly lived prodigally—he gave himself to drunkenness and squandered all that he had in an unseemly and worthless manner—while another does so because of a long illness or because of having many children.

One must therefore provide to each with discernment.