Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 30/34

But they say that their longing does not stop at this point;

for they are still in a certain manner far from God—by relation and disposition, not by place;

for nothing is locally far from God;

for he fills heaven and earth.

Wherefore he who has given heed to him says:

'Where shall I go from your Spirit? And from your face where shall I flee? If I ascend into heaven, you are there;

if I descend into Hades, you are present.'

Those, then, who in this life have received a glimpse of the age to come thirst nobly for God, seeing themselves as it were far off, inasmuch as they are still burdened with the wickedness of the world and the weight of the world and its corruptibility.

And this too, since among the feasts of the Hebrews it was a custom for all to appear three times in the year:

'In the year every male of yours shall appear before me.'

'None shall appear before me empty.'

No one shall appear before him empty.

Since, then, this man also longs for the springs of waters, he prays to be filled, that he may come and appear before the face of God, being no longer empty.

He therefore asks — sometimes of no other than …

When, then, shall I attain the perfect good, that having been seen before the face …

… of the graces given by Him? My tears have become my bread day and night.

Since I knew that I was still left behind, away from the face of God …

… weeping that leads to the taking up of virtue, the weeping that comes from toil and …

According to this signification, then, it is said:

Those who sow in tears shall reap in exultation.

Going forth they went and wept, bearing their seed.

Coming they shall come in exultation, bearing their sheaves.

They sow in tears, with sweat casting down the seeds of virtue, the seeds of the Spirit.

When therefore they reap, they toil no more;

for they have attained the end that was zealously pursued.

But when going forth we went, we wept, bearing their seed.

When we were still making progress, having cast down the seed, we awaited the perfecting of the fruit.

But when we came in exultation, we bore the sheaves, no longer the seeds.

These tears, then, become nourishment for the one who longs to see God and to be looked upon by Him.

My tears have become my bread day and night.

I do not weep superficially, nor amid pleasant things — so as at one time to give myself to delight and at another to the weeping of repentance — but even amid gloomy things;

for gloomy things are called night.

You have therefore in another psalm also a voice speaking thus:

You will feed us with the bread of tears, and give us tears to drink in measure.

The tears of repentance too must be brought forth in measure, that they may become bread and drink.

And henceforth there will be certain other things that succeed the toil — the yields that come to be from the tears.

When it was said to me daily, 'Where is your God?' — for this reason too I brought forth so many tears to become nourishment for me, because I heard them saying to me:

'Where is your God?' This too Sennacherib and Rabshakeh said:

'Where is your God?' And you too, O Israelite, where is your God, that He may deliver you? Tears therefore became nourishment for me, but in measure, and I both drank them and ate them;

for I knew that something productive of joy succeeds the tears and the toil of them.

These things I remembered, and I poured out my soul upon me.

When I came to be in the recollection and remembrance of these who spoke reproaches, these my enemies, I did not go outward, I did not pour out my soul outside, but upon myself I poured it out.

I was troubled and I did not speak; and what Paul says:

'But we ourselves in ourselves have had the sentence of death, that we should not be trusting in ourselves.'

This indeed is said also concerning Job:

Job sinned in nothing; and secondly:

Here he calls the mind 'the soul.'

'Receiving the end, salvation of souls, for those who believe' — he thus named the very substances that ensoul the bodies.

'Having purified our souls in obedience to the truth' — he means the minds.

In this way, then, men are accustomed to speak also of 'good-souled' people.

'But you, O man of equal soul with me' —

he means the equal mind and disposition.

'For I will pass through into the place of the wondrous tabernacle, as far as the house of God.'

We have often said that the perfecting of the virtues is the house of God, while the tabernacle is progress;

for to those who are progressing and passing from place to place the tabernacle is a dwelling.

… God, they worshipped Him in a tabernacle that was called 'of witness';

for the tabernacle of witness …

we often speak of 'witness' …

journeying therefore through the wilderness …

that they might worship God there, send up their prayers, and perform the sacred rites …

that from there they might have God assenting to them.

But when they arrived in the holy land …

the men themselves too came to have no longer tabernacles but houses, being perfected …

the worship of God came to be no longer in a tabernacle but in a house.

When the corruptible body has received its end, there is no longer any need of tabernacles.

When God shall become all in all …

so that He may not become irrational among the irrational — there are no corruptible bodies, that He may not become corruptible among things corruptible, but He becomes all in all.

But He becomes in all not by way of place, but by being partaken of; neither does His body partake of Him, nor an irrational animal, still less a soulless thing.

It is well too that he said 'wondrous':

since it is divine — since this tabernacle is divine — it is worthy of wonder.

The advances that become ends of great goals, becoming ends by yet other advances, are above ends and have something wondrous, so that the same thing is both tabernacle and house, both progress and end.

with a voice of exultation and confession, the sound of those keeping festival.

Not as it chances, nor with any random condition, does my passing over come to be, but with a voice of exultation and confession.

There is no lamentation when the passing over and the eager haste toward the house of God takes place, but exultation.

Abraham indeed thus rejoiced to see my day, and seeing it he was glad.

He saw the day of the Lord, having arrived at his house, at the perfect faith.

The word 'confession' in the Scriptures signifies two things, not to say a third signification as well.

It calls the declaration made concerning sins 'confession,' as when it says:

'Having gathered yourself together, make confession over your sins.'

This, then, is found in Barnabas, in the epistle attributed to him:

'Having gathered yourself together, make confession over your sins.'

'Confess your sins to one another.'

'My sin I made known to You, and my transgression I did not cover over.'

'I said: I will confess against myself my transgression to the Lord.'

He makes confession, weeping bitterly and lamenting over his own former sins.

It also indicates thanksgiving, as when the Savior says:

'I will confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden divine things from the wise and understanding, and have revealed them to babes.'

He does not give thanks for this—that the divine things have been hidden from the wise and understanding—but rather that, while those men supposed themselves to see, these things have been revealed to the babes.

These are those from among the nations who have believed; while the wise and the understanding, from whom the divine things have been hidden, are those of the circumcision.

'How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? In vain it has become...'

'...and the scribe of...'

'The wise were put to shame and were reproached, since they rejected the word of the Lord.'

Since they themselves rejected it, the Scripture has become vain for them.

It is said that, when writing had its beginning, upon little cords...

...were found, again they produced it with styluses.

And since the things written upon tablets...

They devised how they might have the various instruments for inscribing these things.

The wise, then, were put to shame and were dismayed, because they rejected the word of the Lord.

What wisdom is there in them? For how...

...those who have rejected the word of the Lord? Thanksgiving, therefore, is indicated through the confession.

'Let us confess to You, O God, let us confess to You, all you peoples.'

'I will recount all Your wonders, when I receive an appointed time.'

He who makes confession over the recounting of the wonders gives thanks in return, not over his own sins.

'I will confess to You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will recount all Your wonders.'

'I will be glad and rejoice exceedingly in You.'

And this is said a third time:

Often the harmony and the well-attuned...

'You have clothed Yourself with confession and majesty.'

That which belongs to virtue, which reaches unto Your majesty.

'Confession and beauty are before Him.'

Here again the harmony...

Of confession you do not here take the acknowledgment of sins...

This is the voice of those who keep the feast:

...with a loud voice, but their cry is this: to make confession...

'The voice of rejoicing and of confession are the tents of the righteous.'

Among those who make progress there is a voice of rejoicing and of confession.

For they have been delivered from vice.

It is also possible that the phrase 'in the tents of the righteous'...

...when they buffet them and bring them into subjection, when they are temples...

'Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why do you disquiet me?'

Until one arrives at the house of God.

But you, O soul, remembering...

'Where is your God?' Do not be cast down, do not disquiet me...

You are able also to take the angels as those who keep the feast...

'But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal assembly.'

'Why are you cast down, and why do you disquiet me?' You have your helper ready at hand.

As if you were to say to one who is weary and sick...

Why have you despaired of health? Behold, the physician is present.

'Hope in God, for I will confess to Him.'

'The salvation of my countenance and my God.'

Expect from Him to be delivered from sorrow and from disquiet.

And he was delivered from these then, when the grievous things came to an end, when...

For He takes away the disquiet, He takes away the sorrow.

'The salvation of my countenance.'

'The eyes of the wise man are in his head, because in the...'

Both the prudent and the imprudent have their faces.

It is spoken of in Scripture concerning the countenance, as has often been said, not concerning the...

'May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.'

'May the Lord cause His countenance to shine and bless you.'

Here the countenance that shines...

He is called also 'the image of the invisible God,' 'the express character of His substance'...

Salvation and blessing follow, if this countenance be lifted up...

The countenance—which the man took up...

The apprehension is as it were the countenance of God, given form...

I once expounded, even upon that passage, according to a second rendering...

By 'the form of the Father' he means the Son—'form' as His express character, or 'form' as the... concerning...

They fashion a form for the soul.

You are, then, the salvation of my countenance.

...having come to be, is not that of the body, but concerning that of which it is said:

For does he mean this, that the countenance of the body is without a veil...

...the countenance of the inner man is [freed] from ignorance and sin, is made manifest...

'A man's wisdom shall enlighten his countenance.'

this shining countenance …

It has no veil of ignorance, no covering of wickedness, but is pure …

You are the salvation of my countenance, O God.

My soul was troubled within myself.

And this too was said, when he says, 'I poured out my soul upon myself' …

Toward outward things I did not appear troubled to them.

… stilling the trouble of these, he is troubled toward himself.

Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan and of Hermon.

Since my soul is troubled, even though the trouble is directed toward myself …

I have need of a cleansing bath; I have need of baptism.

So I remembered You from the land of the Jordan and of Hermon.

'Hermon' is interpreted as 'the way of a lamp,' or 'a dedicated offering.'

… acting loftily, keeping his mind uplifted …

Being illumined straightway, it enables the traveler to advance, not stumbling …

'Jordan' is interpreted as 'their going down.'

… he came down, but he came down for their sake, like the best of teachers …

From a small mountain, deep calls unto deep at the voice of Your cataracts.

… it is, and it is made manifest.

For the mountain of the Lord shall be made manifest, and …

Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.

Even though in relation to us and to the creation it …

… something when compared with us.

The Word of God, God the Word …

And it comes to each of the prophets.

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

The word of the Lord came to me, saying …

If, then, in relation to those who are made gods …

They do not receive the whole power, the whole participation.

The Word did not come to God (as to another) …

His Word was not of a different substance from Him.

Eternal light from eternal light.

From this small mountain, then, deep calls unto deep at the voice of Your cataracts.

In the eighteenth psalm it is said that:

Day unto day pours forth speech, and night unto night proclaims knowledge.

The word of God, when it is luminous and shining and demonstrated, pours forth in the manner of concord …

And from such things we understand the luminous, but the deep things …

… for the depth signifies the darkness and the night.

Revealing deep things out of darkness.

This darkness is (such), but from that of which He made His hiding place.

When we wish to make something clear, we find another thing unclear, indeed more difficult …

… to one being instructed, and from that the knowledge, from the night …

So indeed here too, since the judgments of God are a great deep …

The deep as a garment is His covering.

We come to know the deep things from deep things.

They have depth; from those not intensely deep we come to the utterly deep …

The voice of the calling of the deep to the deep, from the …

Of those cascading down from above from Him.

And in a way the prophets and the apostles are such, flowing …

This deep calls unto the deep.

Descending and lying obscure, it reaches as far as the voice …

… to interpret the deep in the manner of teaching, and the …

But then the deep calls unto the deep in the manner of concord …

They will make it clear in the manner of teaching.

For now they are unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

For he who was caught up into paradise will speak them.

The words exist by homonymy.

Then most especially are they called 'words' …

There is in the soul a concept at one time apart from being true or false, but at another time already a concept in which one of these two must necessarily be present.

Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against a nation that is not holy.

This psalm can be recited from the person of the Savior.

In both ways, the sacred and the virtuous.

The number six was mentioned—how it is perfect.

But the seven is incorruptible and virgin, resembling that which is without mother and without father.

For the seven is by nature neither able to beget nor to be begotten.

A virgin is she who does not bear; a virgin incorruptible.

For this reason often …

… of us into the six units, but into the nature of the number.

We say that they came to be, not because God needed time …

As soon as He willed, those things also came into being.

All that You willed, You did.

His willing alone suffices to bring a thing into existence.

This is also for the sake of sequence and harmony...

The number forty-two, then, is set down here.

For this reason also, in the genealogy...

For it was fitting that the one born of a virgin should also be perfect...

But every conception comes to pass through the joining together with pleasure.

From Abraham to David there are in fact fourteen generations, but from David to the deportation to Babylon there are seventeen successions.

And since he had need of the number fourteen...

For the sake of the mystery, he removed the three generations.

And again, from the deportation to Babylon until Christ, fourteen generations are not found, but thirteen — indeed only twelve in all.

But if you also remove Jesus himself, three generations are lacking to complete the number of the two sevens.

For in one place he removed from the total, but in another he added names to it.

But it was for the sake of the correspondence of the sevens that the omission of the three names occurred...

In the succession he calls Joram Ozias.

The name of Ozias seems to bear a resemblance to that of Ochozias.

For some suppose this to be an error of the Gospel; but the addition of the...

...not an error, but a device of the wise author, that he might preserve the [scheme] of the numbers...

'Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against a nation that is not holy.'

By 'a holy nation' he means the...

'Woe to the sinful nation, a people full of sins.'

Since, therefore, [the nation] set itself against him...

He wishes to be judged on this account.

For they have nothing of which to accuse him.

The accusations are against themselves.

'This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.'

But what is it to keep the Sabbath? On the Sabbath ought one not to raise the dead?...

...how does the bringing of one blind from birth into sight come about? Precious...

'He casts out the demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons' — in saying this they confess that he does indeed cast them out.

For they were not able to say that...

...being cleansed by his rebuke against the demons.

'Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?' A Samaritan was a guardian.

He who asks judgment from God...

He calls upon the one who knows the hearts of all as judge, and him...

'...neither did sin, nor commit it, nor was there deceit in his mouth.'

...that often, when a multitude brings an accusation even against one person, it is found...

...at one time accusing Judas, when we set it forth from the one hundred and eighth psalm.

It is: 'O God, do not pass over my praise in silence, for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful has been opened against me' — speaking concerning one person.

'They spoke against me with a deceitful tongue.'

'For if an enemy had reproached me, I would have borne it.'

'But you, a man of like soul with me.'

This one became, as it were, the ringleader and cause of the betrayal.

And for this reason, at one time he accuses him, at another the...

...and to be judged against by a nation that is not holy.

And he calls him also deceitful, because...

He betrayed his benefactor and teacher.

'From the deceitful and unjust man deliver me.'

...that he might not be betrayed and put to death.

For often in the preceding psalms...

...is [exposed] to the plots of those who plot against him.

We were saying, then, that those...

Delivered to the fire, they were rescued, since they did not deny.

Thus we have also expounded that saying in the Gospel:

'Deliver us from the evil one,' and:

'Do not lead us into temptation.'

'For you are, O my God, my strength.'

'Why have you rejected me? You strengthen...'

But that one, being mutable, had need of strengthening...

And if he should say these things also concerning God the Word, he declares it thus:

Since you are king and...

Since my Father lives...

For this reason I am rational, since my Father is rational; and for this reason I am a living being, since my Father is a living being.

If then you are my strength, why have you rejected me? Tell the cause of the rejection.

For I am neither the unholy nation, nor the unjust and deceitful man.

Make clear, then, why you have rejected me...

I will despoil him, that having become a curse I may bestow a blessing...

...he was condemned as a sinner.

'And why do I go about mourning while my enemy oppresses me?' The Jews, then, who had believed in him, came to know the reason how...

...but that it might be made manifest to the others, to the afflictions that beset him.

'Send forth your light and your truth.'

'I have come as light into the world' — the man Jesus...

But God the Word is light and truth.

'I am the light of the world; I have come as light into the world.'

'Send forth therefore Thy light and Thy truth.'

And when Thy truth is made manifest, then also the cause will be known . . .

. . . , and that the man who has been benefited by me makes war upon me unjustly . . .

. . . I . . . , he campaigns against me.

Are then the light and the truth not two things . . .

It is light, whenever, shining down, it illumines the soul and . . .

. . . and the falsehood, or whenever it succeeds the shadow of the Law.

He had the light and the truth.

For He was his temple —, but . . .

that He might be made manifest through the signs? — Not for Himself, but for those others did He will to be made manifest . . .

and truth, so that beholding in an illumined manner they . . .

'They led me and brought me to Thy holy mountain.'

Thy light and Thy truth . . .

According to yet another conception, the holy mountain is said . . .

'Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord?' It is concerning this mountain that it is said.

. . . may receive, unless he be illumined by Him, he cannot receive a conception of Him . . .

of the shadow, he cannot go to this holy mountain.

But if it be said concerning the man, this also is holy . . .

. . . as in a temple, Him who became wisdom and righteousness and sanctification.

. . . they . . . from His presence, does it say? — I said that, if from the presence of the man . . .

For he is guided by light and truth.

But if one takes it in a higher sense . . .

since those who believe are His members and His body, . . .

that they may receive of the light and the truth of God, they were guided; and He Himself says . . .

'Send forth, therefore, that men — or, quite simply, the rational beings — may be illumined, Thy light and Thy truth.'

'For these led me,' that we may say that:

These are My body, when . . .

since to the holy mountain someone . . .

. . . advances are signified through the tabernacles.

. . . the plural form indicates the various dwelling-places that are with the Father . . .

. . . that those who follow me may arrive there — not that I should come to be there, but that . . .

'And I will go in to the altar of God, to the God who gladdens my youth.'

But this altar, to which one goes in, is an interior one.

an altar, from which one of the Seraphim took a coal.

There is an altar in heaven, and the souls of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus are beside it.

And the passage makes clear that those who have been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus . . .

For as sacrificial victims they are beside the altar.

But he who has been beheaded for the testimony . . .

This altar, then, is an interior one.

. . . in imitation of another altar.

For all the things pertaining to the . . .

. . . he made according to the pattern that was shown to him on the mountain . . .

the sacrifice of praise and that of righteousness is enjoined.

'For offer to God a sacrifice of praise'; 'Offer the sacrifice of righteousness.'

'I will go in, therefore, to the altar of God, then to God who gladdens my youth.'

For he who has departed from the shadow of the Law and from the exterior altar . . .

'What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I am full'; he goes in . . .

as a priest after the order of Melchizedek he will say:

'I will go in to the altar of God' . . .

better than the things that appear.

from the sensible things, from the things according to the letter, to the altar of God.

He who has transcended the oldness of the letter — which succeeded the shadow of the Law — and has come to know it as an old covenant, will say these things.

'I will confess to Thee, O God, upon the harp.'

Since I will go in to Thy altar having a youthfulness that has come to me from the newness of the Spirit, for this reason I will confess to Thee in thanksgiving upon the harp.

And I have said many times of the harp that it signifies the practical virtue, or the body that is struck by the soul which has been made musical.

Here 'confession' signifies thanksgiving.

For it belongs to one who has obtained his requests.

He prayed that the cause of his being cast off and of his going about in mourning might be known; he prayed that the light and the truth might be sent to him, since these guided him; he prayed to go in to the altar of God and to gain experience of the tabernacles of God and of the holy mountain.

Since, therefore, he has come to experience these good requests — God having given them to him, and he not having found them by himself — for this reason he confesses to Him in thanksgiving, striking both the senses (which are strings, being strings of a harp) and the manifold thoughts, or the members.

For whenever each of the members has been tuned toward virtue, it is a string stretched taut, that it may be struck harmoniously by the plectrum of truth.

'Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, for I will confess to Him.'

He asked that certain things might come to be his, and while he was still speaking He gave assent; and thereafter, even before he received, he was so faithfully disposed as though he had already received.

He rouses up, therefore, his own soul and says:

'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' Since, then, I have resolved to confess to Him, hope in Him; look forward to the things of thanksgiving coming to be thine.

'The salvation of my countenance is my God.'

Thou art the salvation of my true countenance.

And the light is the salvation of the inner man, concerning which he says:

'The wisdom of a man will enlighten his countenance.'

And again the holy one says that we have the eyes of the heart enlightened, and that with unveiled face we behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.

When the face is made to reflect as in a mirror by the corresponding and divine glory, and is enlightened by wisdom, then 'God is my salvation.'

Let others, delivered from sickness, say:

'My salvation is the physician'; and let another, delivered from tempest and storm, say:

'My salvation is the helmsman.'

For the sons of Korah, a psalm for understanding.

Concerning the end it has often been said that it is the ultimate object of desire, for the sake of which all other things come to be, while it itself is for the sake of nothing.

He who knows the end knows also the things that produce the end, the things that come before it.

Again, the transition is to accomplish through progressive advances.

One must therefore be understanding.

'O God, with our ears we have heard, our fathers have declared to us.'

'With their own ears,' say the holy ones, 'we have heard the words of God.'

In addition to the common faculty of hearing, an increase of ears takes place whenever one is able to hear scientific discourses.

The physician, hearing medical discourses, has a medical ear, but another does not.

'The instruction of the Lord opens my ears'—he does not speak of the sensible hearing, but of that which is able to hear the scientific words of God.

Thus, then, must the phrase 'with our ears' be understood, and it is not superfluous;

for it does not signify what already exists, but what has come to be added.

And observe indeed how the holy one speaks:

'The instruction of the Lord opens my ears.'

'The Lord gives me a tongue of instruction, that I may know when it is fitting to speak a word; he appointed it for me in the morning, he added to me an ear to hear.'

'And the instruction of the Lord opens my ears.'

The ear given by way of addition is scientific; it hears words in a manner befitting God.

And when this has been added, his instruction thereafter opens the ears—this added thing, the other ear, the scientific one, that hears in a manner befitting God, that is able to say:

for it does not belong to everyone to say this, but only to him who has received the addition of an ear from God.

Having these things in mind, the Saviour said:

'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'

But not all had the ears that could hear the veiled words of Jesus, the words proclaimed in parables.

Whence Porphyry raved in this matter also.

'O God, with our ears we have heard'—

with our own ears, not those we share in common with the irrational animals, but those attuned to the scientific words of God.

And in the case of sensible tongues too this holds true:

the Egyptian hears the language of the Egyptians with his own ears, he hears with his own ear.

Here, then, are we to take it according to the scientific sense?—Those engaged in teaching represent all persons in their own person;

for it is not possible that each individual be full of the very same sins;

for there are sins that are contrary to one another and cannot coexist.