Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 4/34

I did not cast my care upon any other helper.

'For there is none to help me;'

since all are against me, there is now — so far as it belongs to human reckoning — none who helps.

For this reason, do you not depart from me.

Nor is even an angel able to help one so great.

It does not dare to help, because you — who are greater than all, that is, the Godhead — are present with him, no other being able to help in this matter.

'Many bulls encompassed me; fat bulls surrounded me.'

Next, he refers to the various orders of the Jews — Pharisees, Sadducees, and the others called Jewish scribes;

for these, on account of their high-mindedness, are compared to these animals, especially since the animals are also tillers of the soil.

It is also possible that they themselves are called 'calves,' while 'fat bulls' are those who set them in motion, as when it says:

'The kings of the earth stood up.'

Yet we do not by any means take 'kings' and 'rulers' as perceptible ones;

for there was one king, and he of lowly stature and no longer holding a kingdom;

for by then the Roman empire had taken it over.

But Paul has interpreted who the rulers are;

those who were the cause of the Lord being crucified, of whom he says there are many kinds of wisdom.

'Had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.'

Had they known that in doing this they were bringing about their own destruction, they would not have dared to do it.

As we said a little earlier concerning the prophetic word:

'He who touches you is as one who touches the apple of the eye.'

And those, having touched the Saviour, destroyed themselves;

and they set out to put him to death, thinking that they would bring his polity to an end.

But the opposite befell them;

'Fat bulls surrounded me; they opened their mouth against me like a lion ravening and roaring.'

They had been ranked as 'calves,'

but they changed into a beast-like fury, so as to open their mouth against me like the roaring lion;

for the lion does its greatest harm precisely when it roars.

He therefore signifies their savagery and their gloating over the Saviour, that like a roaring lion, he says, they opened their mouth, no longer keeping quiet, no longer pretending to be at peace.

These, then, who seemed to be quiet through meditating on the law of God, were tilling calves.

But when they willed to open their mouth against me and to say:

'Away with him, away with him, crucify him;'

'We have no king but Caesar' — after the manner of the lion that is not sated, they did this.

Was the passion not yet come? — All these things are spoken prophetically.

Contingent things, before they come to be, before they occur in actuality, are in such a case that they may either come to pass or not.

And no one can affirm with certainty whether it will come to pass or will not come to pass;

for it has an equal inclination toward both.

But when someone possessing foreknowledge, or God himself, apprehends beforehand that of the contingent things this particular one will be — as happens with us when it has already come to be;

for concerning things that exist and have already come to be, we are able to say which is true and which is false, whether it has happened or has not happened.

We are able only to say this: that the one or the other will be, not indeed this particular one.

Since, then, here too the divine eye has apprehended beforehand the things to come, they are no longer as contingent to him.

'They pierced my hands and my feet.'

If another had been speaking, he would not have said this, but rather 'they will be pierced' or 'they will not be pierced.'

'I was poured out like water, and all my bones were scattered.'

Here he speaks of the scattering of the body — that is, of the disciples themselves — when they were all made to stumble, and that word was fulfilled:

'You will all be made to stumble.'

And an hour will come when you will all flee, you will go away each to his own, and you will leave me alone.

Just as water that is poured out ever flows and does not stand still, so also here they were poured out like water.

For they do not remain thus forever.

The things he says concerning himself, he says concerning his own body, that is, according to the assembly of the faithful of the Church.

The vigorous members of my body:

For among the believers the apostles were the more vigorous.

And these were scattered.

My heart became like melting wax in the midst of my belly:

His bones were scattered — that is, when the disciples were made to stumble.

This poured-out water, unless some obstacle arises, is ever carried onward.

The disciples too, then, were scattered; they had been poured out like water.

While they were around him, they were gathered together, like water in a river, being as it were a fountain.

But when for an hour they had come to be outside of him, they are like the water that has been poured out.

But the water will at some point come to a stand.

So also the turmoil and the stumbling of the disciples was straightway brought to an end — which is indeed what came to pass.

My heart became like melting wax in the midst of my belly.

The heart of this body, which is composed from the assembly of those who have believed, is the men of understanding.

And these too, then, became like melting wax, all those who are his heart.

Yet even though the wax was melted, it did not come to be outside his belly:

For they are about his belly, that they may be brought forth again.

After the turmoil that had come upon them, then, they were again shown to be sons of the Savior.

What sort of turmoil? — the pre-passion drawn out for a little while, not such as to abide.

The melting of the wax does not happen always, but whenever it is melted it is changed into some vessel or other useful thing, and again it is gathered together, this heart coming to be not far from the belly, not far from the one who begot it.

So that the belly is what? — the very power of the Savior, according to which he forms and begets as children.

If again we speak of those that generate the body: Paul, being of the body, begot, saying:

Through the gospel I begot you.

You for whom I am in travail, until Christ be formed in you.

They do not come to be outside the belly, they are not made orphans.

My heart became like melting wax — I have said that the things spoken concerning him according to the man might also be said concerning every righteous person.

His heart, whenever it is not light but has some material thing mingled in it, is melted.

But the melting comes to pass for good:

For the wax, in being melted, does not come to be outside the one who possesses it.

In the midst, then, of my belly.

In the case of intelligible things, different names signify the same thing.

I call intelligible a sheep, that which is under the shepherd who is the true one.

This sheep is also, in another manner, called light.

Once, then, when I was asked by a philosopher whether I could say from Scripture that the soul is incorporeal, I said this:

Every name indicative of a body signifies only that one thing of which it is spoken.

For instance, the perceptible vine is nothing other than a vine, and what is bodily named a stone is nothing else than a stone.

But whenever many things indicative of dissimilar realities are predicated of the same essence, it is manifest that that essence is intelligible.

So, then, we also say concerning God that he is incorporeal, since he is named light and fire and spirit and fountain.

But these things cannot bodily be any one of them, but only according to conception.

And such conceptions are formed concerning intelligible things.

And if it is called both a sheep and a plant — for the soul too is called both a plant and a sheep — these things cannot all be so bodily, so that it is an intelligible essence.

If, therefore, you hear in the case of the soul 'heart,' 'understanding,' 'belly,' 'fountain' — for it is also called both a plant and a sheep — do not take them according to sense-perception.

The receptacle, then, of the soul, in which it receives its spiritual nourishment, is called a belly.

Then, since it is also generative, again having this belly, at one time it is taken as containing nourishment received, at another as generating.

You know that wax is a by-product of honey.

The formation came about primarily for the sake of the honey, and the wax exists for the honey's sake, not the honey for the wax's sake.

And just as in the case of a plant it is not the fruit that exists for the sake of the leaf, but the leaf for the sake of the fruit — for it is protective of the fruit — so the wax is not something primary, but a by-product.

If, therefore, the soul has the primary virtues, it is honey.

But if it has those that follow upon them, with some material thing mingled in, it is wax.

For this reason he says that sinners melt like wax before the face of fire.

The honey, however, is praiseworthy, it is a primary essence, it signifies sweetness.

Just as it has the power to sweeten, so it also has the healing property.

The primary good things, then, of the soul, both its motions and its activities, resemble honey; but the secondary ones, and those having something of the perceptible and material mingled in, are wax.

Sometimes, then, the man is melted; the material thing falls away at some point from his understanding and his heart, so that the mind no longer has anything intertwined with it, but is wholly immaterial, as it was also from the beginning.

My strength was dried up like a potsherd.

My strength has cast off all moisture and all fatness, so as to be likened to a potsherd.

But it is possible to say it also in another way:

The clay-like thing in us — and you know what it is — if it remains clay, dissolves when moisture falls into it.

But whenever it takes on dryness and casts off all the moisture that comes from without, from the matter, it is dried up according to the potsherd.

Each of the examples that are adduced is taken according to some one respect.

This has often been said:

For if it were taken in every respect, it is not an example, but that very thing itself which we wish to demonstrate.

The potsherd, then, is often censured in this manner:

The vessel made of earthenware, once shattered, admits of no healing, it cannot be cemented together.

But in another manner I say that what is fashioned from clay, whenever it is hardened by fire and furnace, casts off its pliability and its friability.

My strength, then, was dried up like a potsherd.

And we take it in both senses:

it retains no moisture any longer, no muddy condition.

It is possible also to understand it in another way, namely that:

he has cast off all bitterness that came from the great affliction pressing upon him.

'And my tongue has cleaved to my throat.'

It is customary for Scripture to call the cleaving of the tongue to the throat 'silence.'

Since my members that once were, and were about me, are no longer, nor are there any hearers of mine — so that I may not seem to be uttering my word into the void — I have fallen silent, my tongue has cleaved to my throat.

But it does not cleave when we are conversing.

In the movement of the tongue speech is brought forth.

But whenever it cleaves to the throat, there is silence.

And this silence comes about not on account of the one who is silent, but on account of those who happen not to be hearers.

At any rate, in one of the prophets, in Amos, he says:

'Many is he that has fallen in every place; I will cast down silence.'

If they flee, I cast down silence, so that I may not seem to be uttering the teaching.

And this too is one of the remedies.

Thus, for instance, in Isaiah he commands the clouds not to rain down showers whenever the vineyard bears thorns instead of grapes, whenever, though he who waters remains that it might yield righteousness, it yields lawlessness.

The grape is righteousness; the lawlessness is the thorn.

And since, though watered, it did not bring forth the corresponding fruits, but cares, the pleasures of this life, he speaks no longer:

for for the most part the base in character are worn down by discourses about virtue, and learn to despise them.

So at times he holds back the rain.

And rain and voice signify the same thing here:

for it denotes the divine teaching.

Just as, therefore, he no longer sends rain whenever good fruits are not borne, so too he no longer speaks nor converses whenever the hearers have their minds on other things.

And this too he speaks to human beings.

According to the notion of a teacher, then, the hearers are called disciples; but when he himself is a shepherd, they are sheep.

But since they are no longer sheep nor human beings, but have become scorpions according to what was said:

'Son of man, you dwell in the midst of scorpions' —

'Many, therefore, is he that has fallen in every place; I will cast down silence.'

It is read in different ways:

for the phrasing is ambiguous.

'Many is he that has fallen in every place':

for here 'place' signifies rank, as also in other passages.

Of Judas, at any rate, it is said that he transgressed from the place of the ministry that had been entrusted to him.

'Many, therefore, is he that has fallen in every place.'

In every order of those who ought to be temperate and sober and to speak the things of virtue, many is he that has fallen — yet not all.

It is possible also to punctuate it thus:

'In every place I will cast down silence.'

Not only do I keep silent from mystical matters, but also from ethical ones:

for in every place in which one ought to stand and be firmly set and be ready for hearing, a fall has occurred, and everywhere I cast down silence.

The cleaving of the tongue to the throat, therefore, denotes silence.

'If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my tongue cleave to my throat, if I do not remember you.'

'If I do not remember you' — let me take on silence.

'And you brought me down to the dust of death.'

Whether the voice was in the person of Jesus, or in the person of the holy men who had come to know into what evils they had fallen, brought low into the place of affliction — 'for you humbled us in a place of affliction' —

and they are holy who speak, as the context of the psalm indicates.

That with which we are clothed is called a 'body of death,' and it is also called a 'dust of death.'

It is not a 'dust of death' according to its essence, but since those who are compelled from the life outside the body come into this, it is named a 'body of death.'

'You brought me down, therefore, to the dust of death.'

If it were of life, one would rather be brought up:

for to be led up into life and blessedness and an immortal condition belongs to those who are brought up.

And even if the Saviour says this — this:

the Light — 'you brought me down to the dust of death':

I descended into a body that I might die on behalf of all, that by the grace of God I might taste death for the sake of all.

In one way, then, is 'dust of death' and 'body of death' spoken of concerning other human beings, but in another way concerning the Saviour:

for if the body becomes one 'of death' whenever the one using it sins, and Jesus did not sin, he has come into a dust of death that was able to undergo death.

Therefore those err who say that he only seemed to have borne a man or a heavenly body, and who attribute death to him.

The Godhead does not undergo death apart from something of this kind:

and just as, God being light in truth and according to essence, there is no darkness in him, so neither is there death in the Life.

It is impossible for the Life to admit death.

But he took up something able to undergo death and division, and this is called its 'essential' death:

for indeed many other things are said to belong to certain persons though not being essential to them, such as 'a garment,' 'my sandal.'

So too the body is not essential.

If, then, the Life is said to receive death, it says it receives it according to what is external.

As the body receives death, so the Life gives life to the body.

And even this common life, the intertwining of the soul with the body, furnishes the vital motions to the body.

How much more, then, does the Life itself do so, or the soul that has been made alive by the preeminent and blessed Life? And well is it also said:

'You brought me down to the dust of death.'

He himself did not go down into the dust of death; the soul did not come into the dust of death.

But since he, for the sake of the divine economy and the salvation of all, received a body — and God fashioned a body for him — he says that he was brought down by God into the dust of death.

But when they were human beings, who in confession say that:

'Our belly has cleaved to the earth.'

When someone is nourished not on the heavenly bread, the heavenly food, but on the earthly food — not the earthly food perceived by the senses, but that which is opposed to the true bread — this food unites the soul that is being nourished to matter, and there comes about a bringing-down of the soul into the dust.

But here the soul of Jesus was not brought down into the dust; rather, it was led down by God.

He came to this in a dispensational manner.

For he in no way committed sin, even though he was capable of receiving it.

For if it were not capable of receiving sin, it would not be praiseworthy at all.

Abstinences from sins, therefore, bring praise to the one who abstains, when he is by nature inclined toward committing them.

Are dust and death the same thing? — No.

'And you have brought me down into the dust of death.'

But if dust and death were the same, he would have said:

'You have brought me down into dust, into death.'

The mortal body, which is able to be dissolved from the substance that bears it, is the dust of death.

Perhaps, too, in a second sense it is the dust of death, since it brings death upon the soul that loves the body.

'For many dogs have surrounded me' — the body of the saints is dead.

For they always carry about the dying of Jesus in the body.

But the dead body has no desires.

For how could it? Is the mortal thing alive? It lives only when it is intertwined with the soul.

One who has died has no desires.

Having put to death the members that are upon the earth, one has no desire.

Is the soul, then, found to be the cause of sin? The soul of the one who sins is the cause of the sin.

For sin is nothing other than disobedience to a commandment, transgression of the law.

The body is not even subject to a commandment, so that it could transgress one.

The soul, when it transgresses, leads the body into serving the sinful appearances.

Do we now say that the sword which slays is the murderer, and not the one who wields it? For how could that be? For if we do not attribute sin or righteousness to the irrational animal that possesses a soul, shall we attribute these to the soulless body? By its own account the body is soulless.

'For many dogs have surrounded me, a company of evildoers has encompassed me; they have pierced my hands and my feet.'

'For many dogs have surrounded me, a company of evildoers has encompassed me; for this reason they have pierced my hands and my feet.'

The word 'for' (hoti) is a causal conjunction.

But it does not attach to what precedes.

'You have brought me down into the dust of death, for many dogs have surrounded me.'

Since many dogs surrounded me and a company of evildoers encompassed me, for this reason they pierced my hands and my feet.

Men, had they remained such, would not have done this.

By 'dogs' here he means the men who have taken on the manner of dogs.

The dog is reproached for many of its impulses.

They are altogether prone to mating.

Thus in common usage people are accustomed to call the licentious 'dogs,' and to name women in this way as well.

Indeed, the Law too, prompting this notion, reckoned the dog together with the harlot:

'You shall not bring the hire of a dog or the wages of a harlot.'

He did not say 'the hire of a donkey or of a horse';

for the price of these too was brought into the house of the Lord.

It is also shameless — and dogs are shameless in soul — and given to fawning.

Men, therefore, who have such impulses are justly named 'dogs.'

These, then, surrounded the Saviour.

When they were the sheep of God, at that time they were outside the canine condition.

But when the people became lost sheep, their being lost did not reduce them into non-being; rather, it turned them into a canine condition, and a serpentine one, and a scorpion-like one.

All these things, moreover, were henceforth being said concerning the Hebrews:

'And all are dumb dogs that do not know how to bark.'

There followed upon their having become dogs the fact of their being 'a company of evildoers';

for when they were sheep, they were a divine flock.

'Dogs, therefore, came to be around me, and a company of evildoers.'

For this reason they subjected me to the cross;

for the piercing of the Saviour's hands and feet signifies nothing other than the cross.

Now consider the particulars.

Does it not belong to shameless and licentious and barking souls — barking with reviling — to hate the one who wrought the resurrection of the dead and the recovery of sight for the blind and the cleansing of lepers, and to wish to subject him to death? Is this not a company of evildoers? For there is also a praiseworthy assembly.

'They have pierced my hands and my feet' — and some have said this also with reference to the historical event.

Many have been herdsmen of irrational animals, and it has never been recorded that a herd of cattle set upon its herdsman, nor a flock of goats upon its goatherd, nor a flock upon its shepherd, nor horses upon their groom.

Only men have set upon their rulers, and history brings forward many rulers, both upright in character and diligent in judgement, who were slain by those they ruled.

Remaining sheep, then, they would not have slain him.

When, therefore, they had become dogs, and this very thing — men canine in manner and in life and in condition — they were called a company of evildoers.

It belongs to evildoers to rise up against their benefactor, to revolt against their shepherd.

'They have counted out all my bones.'

As far as it depended on them, they subjected my bones to a numbering, even though they are not numerable.

Next he weaves together the sense.

This too took place according to the historical event: their dividing his garments among themselves and casting lots over the woven tunic, seamless throughout.

Yet in a certain way the statement in the Gospel conflicts with the present wording;

for it was the soldiers who did these things.

But the soldiers were not Hebrews;

for a Jew was in no way permitted to serve as a soldier;

but since in a certain way they themselves became responsible for his being handed over even to soldiers, the charge is attached to them.

'But they themselves observed me and gazed upon me.'

Having observed me, they gazed upon me? — Fixing their attention, they saw the scattering of my bones.

And 'to gaze upon' is often used with reference to those who rejoice at another's misfortune.

And the powers of his teaching may be called 'bones.'

'They divided my garments among themselves.'

On this point we no longer wish to remain here at the level of the literal narrative;

for it has already been said that the soldiers divided it into four parts and cast lots over the seamless tunic, woven whole from top to bottom.

Just as, in a certain sense, the assembly of the faithful was called the body of Christ, as the apostolic testimonies signified, and we said that the vigorous members of this body are its 'bones,' so again we say that Scripture itself, being God-inspired, is the body of the Saviour, and that the bones of this body are its vigorous concepts, the contemplations concerning the other, loftier concepts.

The garments are the words of the text;

for the meaning apprehended by the understanding is clothed by the words.

So although they counted his bones, yet they did not divide them;

they only looked upon them as though they were not.

For had they beheld them as they truly are, they would have been strengthened by them and appropriated them to themselves, so as to say:

'All my bones shall say,

Lord, who is like unto thee?' For it is not these bones perceived by the senses that they are speaking of.

So then, all who hold differing opinions, who profess false doctrines, divide up the garments of the Word.

They drag the words toward whatever they wish and appropriate them to themselves, as for instance:

'The Lord created me the beginning of his ways.'

The word is the garment of the contemplation.

The Arians drag it whichever way they please and regard it as their own.

The men of the Church, on the other hand, receive it as it is worn by the Wisdom who speaks it; and others take it in yet other ways.

And in general one may find that the very same sayings are handled in one way and another by almost all the heterodox.

So then they divided them: they stripped the words from the Word and dragged them, bare of the Word, toward their own intent.

'And upon my vesture they cast lots.'

One who possesses something does not cast lots over it; but when something is able to come to many partners, over such things men cast lots.

If someone leaves behind an only-begotten son and makes him his heir, all the possessions of the deceased belong to that son, and no lot is cast.

But when many come against the true heir, saying:

'We too are children of that one,' then a dividing of his garments takes place.

Yet they do not divide him, but only the words;

for surely the same word does not stand with the same meaning when it is variously employed by the heretics.

Each one drags the word toward his own mind and intent.

The earnest man, then, who is truly faithful, possesses the whole tunic of Jesus; he does not hold it torn asunder;

for even though those others cast lots and make use of the words, the words do not become theirs, they do not become lords of them;

for there comes forward into the midst a man wise according to Christ, and he shows that what one supposes to be his own is not his.

Garments and vesture? — All the garments taken together are called 'vesture';

but each one by itself is not called 'vesture.'

And just as many sheep gathered together are called a flock, while each one is not called a flock, and men who have come together into one place are called a people, while each one is not called a people;

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

If those men busied themselves with these things, and though they bring affliction upon me, yet I have besought thee not to withdraw, because trouble is near.

And if the affliction has drawn near from the calves and bulls that encircled me, from those who scattered my bones, from those who became the cause that my tongue clove to my throat — yet do thou not remove thy help far off.

Straightway, then, the resurrection of the Saviour took place; straightway those who had been made to stumble turned back to him.

The help, then, did not come from afar.

And these things Jesus, as man, according to the human way of thinking, says:

'Remove not thy help far from me.'

The help which he asks for comes from no other than from God.

And I have said that, when 'God' is spoken of, it does not always signify the Father as apportioning off the Son, nor the Son as severing the Father;

and that this is so, we have said that the help is the resurrection from the dead.

In one place he is said to have given himself up and raised himself, while in another the Father is said to have given him up and raised him; from which it is established that the one resurrection and the single work, being wrought by Father and Son, comes to pass according to one and the same divine energy alone.

Even when the Father acts, he works this as God operating; and even when the Son acts, he does this as God.

'Attend unto my help.'

For if thou attendest to my help, the help is not far removed, but, being near, it has wrought effectually;

for he says these things principally concerning men;

for he came, not that he himself should principally die and rise again, but for the sake of others.

By the grace of God he tasted death for every man.

All died on their own behalf;

but this one, by the grace of God, tasted it on behalf of all.

'The love of God constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; that they which died should no longer be dead, but should live unto him who died for them and rose again.'

A man is able to pay a human debt on behalf of another, and is able to take upon himself blame and reproof for another;

but death no one is able to take upon himself on behalf of another.

He only tasted it; he did not gulp it down, he did not devour it.

But he who is swallowed up by death himself also swallows it.

'Death prevailed and swallowed up.'

This one, who was swallowed up by it, swallowed up death.

And since Jesus did no sin — but through the capture of sin death is swallowed up, and it swallows up the sinner — therefore he tasted it on behalf of all;

and he has rendered the reason:

'that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death.'

'Deliver my soul from the sword.'

It is Jesus who speaks this verse also, and he can say this both concerning his own soul, over which he had authority to lay down and to take again, and concerning every soul that has been made his own.

And as each of the saints is called no longer simply 'man,' but 'a man of God,' so the soul that has set itself to please God is called no longer simply 'soul,' but 'a soul of God.'

In both senses, then, he says these things concerning his own soul, and the soul which he assumed, and every soul that has been made his own.

And at times the sword signifies punishment;

'All the sinners of the people shall die by the sword;'

for surely it never came to pass in literal history that the whole people was put to death by the sword.

Some of them died, though not all.

All sinners shall be put to the trial of chastisement.

Sometimes it signifies also an evil power, indeed the devil himself.

For when it is said to Mary:

'And a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,' it means the adversary.

But whenever he suggests something to someone, or wishes to insinuate certain thoughts, and that soul does not admit them, it passes through her.