Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 32/34

this reproach of the angels is not praiseworthy, because, having obtained heaven for their dwelling and being able to remain forever as attendants of God, ever singing his praise, they fell into wickedness so as to be cast out of heaven.

this is a base reproach.

behold, then, the reproach of Christ is not only praiseworthy, but even greater than treasures.

and if there were no difference between these, the author of the Proverbs would not have said:

'do not acquire the reproaches of wicked men.'

when therefore the apostles rejoice and exult at being reproached for Christ ·····

having done what? are not these reproaches of such men good?

having himself become a reproach to certain people, he laid down the being reproached on the ground of false accusations, not on the ground of ones that are truly deserving of reproach.

'for I think that God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men doomed to death.'

this is the reproach that has been laid upon them.

it is not a true reproach; it does not belong to wicked men, but to good men.

as to the literal text?—this, that ·····

not diligent things, not godly things; and the enemies who came against us ·····

·····but they did not carry them away from their land.

a mockery and a derision to those round about us.

the saints are those who say ·····

having come not for their own sake, but for the sake of others.

·····having become, and having overcome us and dragged us into their land, being round about us, they reproach us and jeer at us and mock us;

but the reproach and the mockery and the derision does not touch us, but them.

as when someone deriding ·····

·····so that, being joined to one another, they might have children, and ·····

those, then, who are deprived of these things they mock ·····

'You have made us a byword among the nations.'

·····what is hidden may be compared, like with like, by a word.

that it may become clear, let us see it from the Gospel:

he compares the kingdom of the heavens to a grain of mustard seed, not saying this, that:

it is like a grain of mustard seed, being itself also a grain;

for then there would no longer be likeness, but identity.

the grain of mustard seed, then, has that which is smallest in size among the seeds ·····

a power able to change and to become such a plant.

and so the kingdom of the heavens too, disclosing the teaching of the Scriptures, so far as the letter is concerned, is something lowly and small.

it by means of the mustard, and that the evangelical word becomes a greater plant than the Hellenic one.

for this reason, therefore, this parable was spoken.

'you have made us, then, a byword among the nations.'

if they wish to compare any of those taken captive, they use us, saying:

'behold, these men, who formerly lived well ·····'

O God, when the right hand of God and the illumination of his countenance was delivering them, they fell away into the vilest manner of life.

if, then, they wish to point out someone who has fallen away, they bring us forward.

'and you have made us a byword'—not among the , not in Israel, not in the Hebrew multitude, but among the nations.

those who are truly nations do not know the difference between good and evil, but they reckon all pleasant things and all agreeable things to be good, and their opposites to be evil.

and the term of the parable can also mean this, that:

The order of the saints holds a certain preeminence over the other orders of human beings.

For this reason it has become, as it were, a byword concerning them.

Men are often taken captive in various ways by their enemies.

The one suffers the loss of what he has acquired, while the other keeps his possessions abiding with him …

… in the winter and the storm of this present life, they keep their own things …

A shaking of the head among the peoples.

They behold men changing from prosperity into misfortune, and are moved …

We have become a shaking of the head among the peoples.

By 'peoples' can be meant all the more common sort of men, who possess nothing elevated and are not wise.

These, then, on our account made a shaking of the head.

We, at any rate, coming to the peoples, the more common sort of men, stirred their mind and their head.

Now the mind is moved whenever …

… whenever it beholds the things that are set before it to be beheld.

All the day long my shame is before me.

The phrase 'all the day long' he uses to mean 'throughout life.'

The life of man from birth to death is sometimes called a single day, and sometimes an age.

'I will not eat flesh for ever,' and: (so it is written).

'He shall be your slave for ever.'

I had shame before me all this day which I endured for the sake of others …

And the shame of my face has covered me.

The shame of the inner man has covered me.

For it did not corrupt my face, but rather covered it.

But it is possible, once one has cast off the one covering, to bear one's face bare and enlightened, such as it is by nature.

And, so to speak, ignorance, when it comes upon other men, corrupts their face.

For some become other than they were: out of men there come serpents and wolves and foxes.

But the saint, even if he does not bear his face bare, keeps it covered.

And it is covered by the clothing of the body, by the seeming ignorance that comes about through the incarnation.

But when the change is into a quality, I do not say that the fox — such as Herod — had a covering, but that his habit and disposition were by nature of such a kind.

But when someone becomes senseless to the senseless, he has his face covered, having put senselessness upon it; when he becomes lawless to the lawless, he has his face covered.

From the voice of him that reproaches and rails.

They are those who reproach me and rail against me.

And those who rail are those who rave in their speech.

Those who are set against us …

… not as it is the nature of the rational faculty to be, but rather they rave.

From the face of the enemy and the persecutor.

When the enemy and pursuer had appeared …

To be covered by the shame of the face.

I do not have these things from wickedness, nor …

All these things came upon us, and yet we did not forget you.

… when you did not go forth in our hosts, there came upon us the turning back behind, before our enemies; there came upon us the reproach of being set as a byword to our neighbours, and derision to those round about us, and to have shame upon our face, to be covered with the disgrace of our face.

… (it shows) that this is the voice of the saints.

Many people often forget God even out of pleasant things, and not only out of unpleasant ones.

'Take heed to yourself, lest, when you have eaten and are filled and have built goodly houses …'

'… you forget the Lord your God.'

Sometimes people who have fallen into misfortunes …

… (in such circumstances) are said to forget God.

All these things came upon us, and yet we did not forget you, nor did we deal unjustly in your covenant.

… Israel was taken captive both physically and locally out of Judaea …

… and there came about also a natural and local removal.

… remaining there, they did not keep guard, nor (did they hold) to the laws that were there …

… to think and to Babylonize in respect of the soul.

Often God hindered them from continuing to live in this way.

In order that by experience they might know that what they loved was an evil, he removed them to Babylon.

Being there, they were utterly forsaken, so that they might be as men caught up in war.

Those who live according to the divine laws of God dwell in her.

But if they become apostates from the divine laws, they are removed to the region about the earth, and this is the captivity understood allegorically.

And there are again sent forth together with them here helpers, for the sake of assistance:

'There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.'

'This man came for a witness, that he might bear witness concerning the Light.'

For he came for no other reason than to bear witness to the Light.

'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth out of the belly I sanctified you; I have appointed you a prophet unto the nations.'

Before he came forth out of the womb he was sanctified, and appointed a prophet unto the nations.

'Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.'

By the 'foundation of the world' he means its coming into being.

And Paul and those with him were chosen before the foundation of the world, and their election has now come to them from that time, so that they might be sent forth together with those held captive and be able to help them.

Was Paul speaking according to foreknowledge? — Foreknowledge is the contemplation of things that shall be.

In respect of genus, foreknowledge and knowledge are one and the same.

For instance, suppose I foreknow that tomorrow there will be thunder.

When the thunder comes, once the day has arrived, it is knowledge, no longer foreknowledge.

But the knowledge of the thunder does not make it to be such as it is; rather, such as it is, so does the knowledge of it come to be.

The knowable, then, produces the knowledge, which does not receive its knowing from us.

For the sake of illustration I make use of the manner of foreknowledge.

The one child is born to beg, and the other to live in a house.

What sort of justice belongs to this foreknowledge, if we take it that these things come to pass according to foreknowledge? Foreknowledge both justifies and condemns.

But to foreknow and to know is also to condemn and to justify on the basis of what is done and thought.

Paul was foreknown in this life both as a betrayer, and as a persecutor of Christ, and as an apostle.

Were not both foreknown? The foreknowledge, then, made him possess both of these.

Again, he did not become first an apostle and afterward a betrayer;

the foreknowledge of God made him at one time an apostle and at another a betrayer.

Did He choose the apostles out of what lies within our power? 'Did I not choose you, the twelve?' And:

'Whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.'

He is not speaking about existence, but about being conformed.

Foreknowledge does not bring about existence.

God has made; having made, He knows.

For surely the thing done does not produce the knowledge of God;

for the knowledge of God is eternal.

In relation to things future it is understood, and is called foreknowledge.

For that Susanna says again:

'O You who know all things before their coming to be.'

It is not foreknowledge that makes them such or such, but choice, the things that are matters of choice.

I foreknow that so-and-so will bear a male and will have sons;

this is not a matter of choice.

But to become base or virtuous, or to follow some particular pursuit, these are matters of choice.

It does not come about from foreknowledge, since otherwise God would be condemning beforehand and justifying beforehand.

But if He justifies beforehand, this would belong to His goodness, namely to justify all.

Again, concerning Esau and Jacob the apostle speaks as though in perplexity:

'What then shall we say to these things? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.'

By his having done away with unrighteousness, he compelled us to inquire how there is no unrighteousness with God.

But if it is as those say who hold to foreknowledge, we rather find unrighteousness with Him.

'Jacob,' he says, 'I loved, and Esau I hated.'

But it is on account of things done that one is hated or loved, and on account of things thought.

How then does foreknowledge have any place? Is unrighteousness found with God? But doing away with this, he said:

'What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.'

Since there is no unrighteousness, let one seek in another way how the matter came to pass.

Many times we have said these very things, namely that:

as I was saying concerning the king.

And in respect of all the modes of the captivity I was saying this:

Amid many unpleasant things... and being wise in both the pleasant and the unpleasant, no forgetfulness of God arose in them from this; yet nonetheless they were grieved, because there are men who have need of such things—as in the case of the captives, that they have need of captivity.

Thus, then, some have rendered the passage in the one hundred and eighteenth psalm which reads thus:

'Despondency has taken hold of me because of sinners.'

He is despondent whenever he sees rational human beings, made according to the image of God and after His likeness, sinning.

And just as some father, when he sees his own son striking him in a fever and delirium, is grieved—not because the son strikes him, but because he has come into such a condition—so also these men, being noble and knowing that it is through many afflictions that one is to enter the kingdom of God, are not at all utterly cast down by their tribulations.

'We are afflicted in every way, but not distressed.'

And not to be distressed is to bear one's tribulations nobly.

'And we have not dealt unrighteously in Your covenant.'

Unto the age, according to Your will, the things that have been ordained abide, and according to Your judgments; and for this reason we have not dealt unrighteously.

Why is this one blessed with many children and that one childless, and this one rich and that one poor? Does He deal unrighteously against the covenant of God?

Just as in the case of those covenants which men draw up, if anyone should wish to gainsay and contend against any of the things written therein, he does wrong to the covenant in vain.

His own wrongdoing seems to be a wrong against the covenant.

If anyone handles the God-inspired Scripture in a different manner, as the heterodox do, they deal unrighteously against the Gospel, against the divine Scripture.

'And our heart has not turned back.'

You observe that this belongs to those who abide in the following of uprightness.

It has not turned back; we have not become other men, holding our heart upright and straight and looking directly forward.

But this happens in the case of us who are unballasted and unsteady:

many, having come into affliction, have turned aside their own understanding so as to murmur against Providence.

'And You have turned aside our paths from Your way.'

We were running Your way well before we came down into this condition and mode of life.

You have turned aside our paths from Your way, in that You have removed us into another life and a way corresponding to that life.

Nevertheless, even if You have turned aside our ways, having delivered us into captivity, yet at least our paths have not turned aside from Your way.

'For You have humbled us in a place of affliction.'

According to both renderings of the removal from Jerusalem into Babylon, take the place of humiliation.

Properly speaking, this place is the one around the earth, where the souls that are burdened by the body of humiliation are brought low.

And he who has been delivered over to tribulations is also able to bear the shame and place of affliction—namely, the land of Assyria or of Babylonia.

'And the shadow of death has covered us.'

Even if the death of affliction lay upon us, yet it did not utterly destroy us.

Its shadow has covered us.

For instance, let there be a heavy stone suspended on high.

Let someone come to be beneath it, yet not have fallen upon it.

And let him at times see the shadow of the stone above himself.

And the shadow of the stone does not do that which the stone itself would have done.

from which very thing God delivers.

A dayspring from on high has appeared to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

'If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have stretched out our hands to a strange god.'

Henceforth they no longer speak these things to God.

The earlier words he spoke to God himself.

'You have turned our paths aside from your way, you have humbled us in a place of affliction.'

Henceforth they speak concerning God to the others, to those who suppose that it is on account of their sins and iniquities that they have come into these straits, and they say:

'our hands to a strange god'—that is, whether we have worshipped a strange god.

And we must reckon as strange gods all those which are called gods falsely, according to the Scripture.

'All the gods of the nations are demons.'

We have not stretched out our deeds—here called 'hands' allegorically—toward our own belly, nor toward mammon.

toward a strange god, and toward the enemies who seem to have prevailed.

'Shall not God search this out?'

They said that it was customary to read it thus:

'Shall not God search this out?' And they said, 'I read it thus:'

'Shall not God search this out?'

Do not think it a small thing to forget the name of God or to stretch out the hands to a strange god.

And God does search out these things too.

You know that certain people, especially in the persecutions, used to say this: that it is possible to do the deed without doing it with the heart.

Many indeed even died saying this, and they kept silent the name of God as though forgetting it.

'Not even this,' he says, '... God, and these things too he searches out.'

Does he then search it out?—The words that follow do not permit this interpretation.

'For he himself knows the secrets of the heart.'

He who is ignorant of the secrets of the heart must first inquire whether one acted this way or that.

For example, if someone reasoning subtly should say:

'I have not stretched out my hands to a strange god'—I say that:

'I, who am ignorant of the secrets of the heart, examine concerning these things.'

And then he goes on to declare what secrets he does know:

'For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter.'

'For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter.'

Those who for God's sake are put to death all the day long and are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter have no doubt whether they have forgotten the name of God or stretched out their hands to a strange god.

Hence he does not search these things out, since the heart is made manifest.

'We were therefore reckoned as sheep for the slaughter.'

Everyone who wishes slaughters us.

Even if some make war upon us, yet we so regard ourselves as sheep offered in sacrifice, as things sacrificed to God for a well-pleasing offering.

Indeed, in the Revelation of John the souls of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus appeared beneath the heavenly altar of God, dancing for joy, having plainly come there as sacrificial victims.

'Why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise, and do not cast us off to the end.'

God seems to sleep whenever he is long-suffering while his own holy men are oppressed, and while those who have risen up against him swell with arrogance.

Indeed, therefore, they send up a prayer, saying:

'Lift up your hands against their arrogance to the end,' and:

'May the arrogance of those who hate you continually ascend to you.'

And God seems to sleep whenever he is long-suffering, whenever he overlooks his own who are afflicted.

'Arise, and do not cast us off to the end.'

For even though we have come into captivity and are afflicted in the place of ill-treatment, being mortal and changeable men, we are anxious lest we be utterly cast off.

Israel was cast off in Babylon, when they worshipped Bel and the image of Nebuchadnezzar and did the other Babylonian things; they were cast off to the end.

But those about Daniel, even if they were cast off with respect to place, were not thereby cast off to the end;

for they remained in the same piety toward God.

He seems to have been cast off, but he was not cast off to the end, since the lions were muzzled and he himself came up unharmed.

'Why do you turn your face away? Why do you forget our poverty and our affliction? For our soul has been humbled to the dust.'

It is the same thing to sleep and to seem to turn away the face.

Appear to us, delivering and saving us from the wickedness that holds us fast.

Why then do you turn away? Do you then forget our poverty and our affliction? For your sake we are afflicted, for your sake we are poor.

In the things by which one conquers, he accepts them even if they be grievous, even if unpleasant.

The 'dust' is said to be the more bodily substance.

The soul of us who say these things has therefore been humbled to the dust.

We are clothed about with the body of humiliation, but we have not been humbled by it.

As if someone, for instance, should receive fetters from some tyrant, he seems to have been humbled, but he has not been humbled;

for he retains the same stature, he retains the same proud bearing.

For this reason we are poor and afflicted, because our soul does not yet have its own stature made manifest, having been humbled to the dust, and our belly has cleaved to the earth.

But they do not say this truly concerning themselves, but concerning their members, concerning their own people.

The belly can be humbled to the earth in two ways:

whenever someone minds earthly things and seeks the things below, he does not beget heavenly offspring, he does not beget godly reflections, but all things human;

and the soul that speaks these things becomes a mother.

'For our belly has cleaved to the earth.'

But in a second sense, the belly that is nourished by the heavenly bread, that receives the heavenly food, has cleaved to heaven.

But as many as eat the flesh of the dragon and take the same food as the serpent, which is earth, have their belly cleaving to the earth.

And just as it is said concerning things perceptible:

'Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods;'

'but God will bring to nothing both it and them'—so also the belly and stomach of the soul, whenever it is not fed with heavenly things, whenever it does not conceive from its own divine bridegroom, has its belly cleaving to the earth.

'Arise, O Lord, help us, and redeem us for your name's sake.'

We stand in need of help, lest the afflictions, by lingering too long, should injure our soul, which is by nature mutable.

And then, lest they should seem to speak as if trusting in their own righteousness, he says:

Arise, O Lord, help us and redeem us for Your name's sake.

For this reason we have come into these grievous things, because we are Yours; and for the sake of aiding others You sent us into this hardship.

To the end, concerning those who shall be changed;

for the sons of Korah, for understanding;

Alteration is a kind of motion and change with respect to quality.

Not every motion and change is an alteration.

For it is possible to be changed in the way of coming-into-being (generation).

I mean, for instance, the egg becoming a bird, and the grain of wheat becoming an ear of corn.

This motion and change is according to generation.

And there is another that comes about according to corruption (decay);

when the body of a man is corrupted and dissolved into fluids and worms and the like, it is not said to have been altered, but to have been corrupted.

And there is yet another motion and change according to growth, when there is an addition to the pre-existing quantity;

for when I am extended from a smaller to a greater size, I am said to have grown; and to have been diminished, when the quantity is contracted and becomes less.

Alteration, then, is a motion according to quality, as from sickness to health and from health to sickness, from ignorance to knowledge and the reverse, from unbelief to faith.

To the end, then, concerning those who shall be changed.

We have often discussed the matters concerning 'the end' — that it is that which comes after all things, the ultimate object of desire.

It is therefore: To the end, concerning those who shall be changed.

When the alteration attains such an intensity that it is no longer possible for it to be heightened any further, at the end of things, when God becomes all in all, it is no longer possible for the quality to be extended.

Every branch of knowledge and every virtue is a quality.

It is therefore possible to begin in virtue and to advance in it, and it is always possible to add to that which already exists.

But when someone possesses virtue perfectly, so that nothing is lacking to him, he has been changed unto the end.

There is one who is being introduced in wisdom and is subject to reproof, as being capable of sinning;

for 'Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.'

But no one is reproved who has nothing for which he might be reproved.

This wise man who is subject to reproof, being himself newly formed and but recently introduced, is able to advance continually.

But when he so receives wisdom that it is no longer possible to receive any increase of it, he has been changed unto the end.

And here, while still burdened with the body of lowliness, even though there be many saints, they receive out of His fullness — not His fullness itself, nor each one out of the fullness,

but all of them out of the fullness.

And here they receive the pledge of the Spirit — not the whole Spirit itself, so to speak.

But when that which is in part is done away, and the end at last arrives, and we see face to face, and men become conformed to God according to that which is said:

'When He is manifested, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is' — here is the end of those who shall be changed.

And it is well said 'of those who shall be changed' and not 'of those who have been changed.'

For no one is praised for knowledge and virtue if, having once become knowledgeable or virtuous, he then merely was so, but only when he actually is knowledgeable;

for virtue and knowledge belong to things that are active; they have their being in being exercised.

To the end, then, concerning those who shall be changed.

And this blessed and divine and supernatural alteration we have from the right hand of the Most High;

this is the alteration wrought by the right hand of the Most High.

For just as, being rich, for our sakes He became poor, that by His poverty we might become rich — and behold:

being rich, for our sakes He became poor;

for indeed He was altered and He sojourned among us;

and remaining, apart from His sojourning, the same, He ever possesses the being of one who is rich.

But for our sakes He became poor.

When, therefore, having become poor for our sakes, He makes us rich, we are altered with respect to riches and come unto the end, if we become rich as He is, so far as it is possible, when we behold His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Out of the fullness, then, the saints receive.

No one receives the fullness, nor do all together.

I will pour out of My Spirit.

For the Spirit-bearers here receive the pledge of the Spirit,

and the pledge is poured out from the Spirit.

And the pledge is a part of some whole.

To the end, then, concerning those who shall be changed.

This, then, is the alteration wrought by the right hand of the Most High.

The right hand of the Most High is unturning and unalterable.

It is ever after the same manner and in like fashion;

for we understand it as nothing other than the Saviour.

How, then, is it altered? Let us see:

It condescends, disciplining us;

and then we are truly benefited, if it condescends.

But if it remains by itself, we are not benefited.

Will the Lord cast off forever, or forget to be merciful? And further:

Or will He cut off His mercy from generation to generation, or restrain His compassions? He says:

And I said, 'Now have I begun,' when, as it condescended, I received experience of the right hand.

At the beginning it came to pass that I knew the truth, at the beginning that I knew the works of Providence, the compassions of God that are productive of good.

This alteration, which I have undergone, is of the right hand of the Most High.

None of created beings was able to alter me thus;

for all stand in need of Him who leads to advancement, who perfects.

But more in the common manner, and according to those who speak in the public assembly, we shall say that this is the alteration of the Most High:

Being a blessing, He became a curse, that He might release from the curse and set forth those who are blessed.

Being righteousness, He therefore became sin — but such a sin as is productive of righteousness.

But in Him we become productive of the righteousness of God.

Therefore it is not righteousness simply, but the righteousness of God.

Those who are named after these virtues possess them when they are made perfect according to them.

So indeed Paul names him who has been made perfect in love, so far as is possible in this life, 'love' itself.

'Love is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly, does not vaunt itself' — this is said not concerning love as a virtue, the commandment greater than all the rest, but concerning the one who possesses it, concerning the person of that quality.

The Saviour therefore becomes all things for our sake.

He becomes flesh, that we might become the righteousness of God.

For having beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten, we no longer remain flesh, but become gods, after the manner of those to whom the word of God came.

This change, then, is of two kinds: either that by which we ourselves have been changed, or that which He Himself underwent for our sake — not being turned, not being changed in respect of His Godhead, but in respect of the economy, in respect of the Incarnation.

'Unto the end,' therefore, 'on behalf of those who shall be changed.'

These who shall be changed, who are still in the process of being changed, will one day reach the completion of the change.

For no one begins in order not to be perfected, but in order that, after many advances, he may reach the very end of that quality according to which he is being changed.