Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 9/34

For many keep watch over these perceptible things and consider them to be secure, among which is also this saying:

All who take the sword shall perish by the sword.

But this is not incontrovertible.

Those who take the sword shall fall under punishment.

In many places of the Scriptures the sword signifies punishment, as in the passage:

I will make my arrows drunk, and my sword shall devour the blood of the slain; and:

My sword has been made drunk in heaven.

For it laid hold even of those who had sinned there, and by way of punishment drew them down here.

Our soul like a sparrow has been delivered from the snare of the fowlers.

Perhaps some of those hunted by these base fowlers are taken wholly inside the snares, but others only as to their feet.

Our soul like a sparrow has been delivered — those who had been wholly ensnared.

The snare was broken, and we were delivered.

But here the holy one, since he has his eyes continually toward the Lord, speaks concerning more trifling sins, that:

My feet have become caught in a snare.

Pluck them out therefore from thence, so that being henceforth unhindered they may run the way of God's commandments and may say:

Without iniquity I ran and directed my course aright.

Look upon me and have mercy on me.

When God looks upon them, mercy comes to those who are looked upon:

For they are worthy to be seen.

For the one who sins is estranged from the sight of God and from his countenance.

Adam, at any rate, when he sinned together with Eve, hid himself from the face of the Lord God.

They cannot bear to be seen by the face of God, especially when they are conscious to themselves that they have sinned.

But Cain, growing bold, led himself away out of the face of God.

And he who goes out does this of his own will.

Concerning Adam and Eve, at any rate, it is said that:

As those who craved the things within, he cast them out.

For it was no longer profitable for them to remain within.

They are not so wicked as the one who went out from the presence of the Lord.

These are the ones concerning whom it is written:

The lawless shall not remain before your eyes.

But of their own will they place themselves outside the sight of God;

for the eyes of God, looking upon men, enlighten those on whom they gaze.

For I am only-begotten and poor.

Aetius, the leader of the heresy of Eunomius, used to say to certain people:

You suppose you are granting some great thing when you say that Christ is the only-begotten of God;

yet many other created things are also 'only-begotten.'

The sun, at any rate, is only-begotten.

It is not the same thing for something to be 'only-begotten' and to be an only-begotten offspring or an only-begotten Son—I mean.

Now these things which are called 'only-begotten' in reference to other beings are not spoken of with the addition of 'the Son,' nor 'from a Father,' nor 'as an offspring.'

But wherever the Savior is so named, it is spoken with such an addition:

And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father.

But he who is 'from the Father' is the only-begotten Son of the Father, and he alone.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.

Since therefore the Son is only-begotten, it is impossible for there to be another son belonging to him who has that only-begotten one as his son.

But none of the created things is only-begotten in that sense;

for even if the sun were only-begotten, it is not an only-begotten creature nor an only-begotten work, but an only-begotten sun.

So then, in this way we also speak of an 'only-begotten child' among human beings—not because there is only one child, but because to that person there is only one.

But he who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

Since, then, the one who speaks these words is not an only-begotten son, let us consider in what other sense the word is used:

for even if you take David the man, he was not an only child.

So, then, the word 'only-begotten' here must be understood as being said in the sense of this passage:

And I am left alone, and they seek my life to take it away.

'Only-begotten' in the sense that there is no other sun: when the holy one is set apart and separated from other men in his manner of life and contemplation, he is 'only-begotten.'

So then, I am only-begotten and poor.

And yet the one who is thus poor is rich;

for he is rich in every utterance and in all knowledge.

But in relation to God who watches over all and bestows his gifts, he is poor;

for even as Abraham said:

Since I have begun to speak to the Lord, though I am but dust and ashes—for it was not once and for all that he called himself dust and ashes, but rather 'since I have begun to speak to the Lord'—so also Moses, though he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was well capable in words, called himself slow of speech and slow of tongue, 'from the moment you began to speak to your servant.'

And so this one too, even though he is rich—for nothing is richer than the man who keeps his eyes ever turned toward the Lord—yet in relation to him who looked upon him and had mercy, he saw himself as poor.

It is also possible to take 'only-begotten' as meaning 'I have but one single soul.'

This soul, when it has been ensnared, you will pluck out of the snare;

The afflictions of my heart have been enlarged.

Not everyone's afflictions are enlarged, I say, but those of the man who bears them nobly.

This the Apostle writes:

In everything afflicted, yet not distressed.

Those who know the language of the Hebrews say that 'to be distressed,' when it is named together with affliction, signifies being afflicted by one's own choosing—that is, to be distressed by not bearing hardships nobly; as Job, being afflicted in everything, was not distressed.

For how could he be distressed who said:

As it seemed good to the Lord, so it came to pass;

may the name of the Lord be blessed'? And the apostles, going out from the council, because they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name, were not afflicted in their disposition, but rejoiced.

And even in the sphere of sensible things, the man who contends in expectation of the crown, seeing it set before his eyes, bears the blows nobly, and rejoices that though struck he does not give in.

So then, the word 'affliction,' when it is coupled with 'distress,' signifies not being afflicted in the mind, but bearing it nobly.

But when each of them stands alone in the Scripture, what 'affliction' signifies, that 'distress' also signifies:

In affliction and distress, whence come the lion and the lion's whelp, and serpents and the brood of asps.

When affliction and distress come—that is, when outward hardships arise—and both one's disposition is afflicted and each person's will is pressed, then characters become manifest: the lion appears as a lion—either the noble and strong one, or the wrathful one;

when the righteous man, confident like a lion, bears hardships nobly, then he is seen as a lion worthy of praise.

But when someone wrathful is distressed along with the affliction, he shows himself savage in temper and a lion's whelp.

Among lions, some are full-grown, and others immature and, as it were, whelps of lions and offspring of lions.

So also in the wills of human beings you will find it thus:

some are fully lions, while others are only just now beginning to be brought forth.

The witnesses of the truth, though afflicted, were not distressed.

And bring me out of my necessities.

By 'necessities' here he means the afflictions.

And they cried out to the Lord, and out of their necessities he delivered them.

For one must give no heed to those who introduce the casting of nativities;

for these people say that fate metes out certain things to men.

But if anyone becomes godly and wise according to God, he passes beyond the things that hang over him.

And so even the learned men of the Egyptians, among whom is Hermes Trismegistus, say that the wise man is no longer subject to fate, but passes outside the cosmos.

As the Savior says that it is possible, while being in the world, no longer to be of it, when one has his mind above and his citizenship in heaven, so those men, stammering after our teachings, say that the wise man dissolves fate.

Such sayings are understood in this way, namely:

The things to which I am subject are stronger than I;

make me to be outside these; dissolve fate.

We do not understand the passage in that way; rather, by 'necessities' he means the proofs.

And this too is found in the book of Job:

Six times he will deliver you out of necessities, and in the seventh no evil shall touch you.

The world came into being in six days.

He who does not transcend it is under six necessities.

And this number is perfect.

He who is contained within the world and its parts, and who lives in this manner, is under a perfect necessity.

But whenever he passes beyond the world and rises above it, then in the seventh he keeps a sabbath from the works of the world.

And coming to be in the seventh, which is hallowed and pure and reserved for the people of God, he is untouchable.

Here 'to touch' signifies an evil thing—namely, to draw near to it and to put it into effect.

'It is good for a man not to touch a woman' does not signify that it is evil to lay hold of a woman's body by touch;

'Bring me out of my necessities.'

But since we have submitted the matter to your judgement, consider what appears to me:

'Bring me out of my necessities,' that I may no longer be under compulsion to sin, but may become readily disposed toward virtue.

And you will bring me out of these things then, if you grant me the remission of sins.

But it is also possible to understand it thus:

the punishments to come, those toilsome and grievous necessities.

'The afflictions of my heart have been enlarged.'

Often we are not in doubt over a differing reading.

But now it is necessary to note that they 'were enlarged' and not that they 'were multiplied';

for he who is afflicted in heart is no longer earnest but is even base.

But neither what precedes this verse nor what follows it permits us to take the one who says these things as base—him who keeps his eyes continually toward the Lord.

'Look upon my humiliation and my toil, and forgive all my sins.'

He labours while yet dwelling in this world, still burdened with the body of humiliation.

Together with this evil it comes about that he is also humbled;

for often affliction is called humiliation, according to the text:

'You humbled us in a place of affliction.'

When we came into the place of affliction, we were humbled.

It is also possible to say this:

when he kept his eyes continually looking toward the Lord, then he saw himself lowly, even though he was righteous—as they said concerning Abraham:

he saw himself as earth and ashes at no other time than when he began to speak to the Lord.

'Look upon my enemies, for they have been multiplied, and they have hated me with an unjust hatred.'

He is hated with an unjust hatred who is hated for no other reason than that he is earnest.

It was in just this way that the disciples of Jesus were hated.

Concerning these He teaches us to send up prayer:

'Pray for those who hate you, love those who hate you.'

'You shall not hate any man; you shall love every man.'

It is not a sin of ours to be hated by some, but rather a misfortune, when we ourselves furnish no occasion for hatred.

'Look upon my enemies, for they have been multiplied, and they have hated me with an unjust hatred.'

They hate me with a hatred that is not just.

They hated me as though I were unjust, as though I were greedy for gain.

But since they hate me who have none of these faults, they hate me unjustly.

And such people are multiplied;

for if the righteous man is hated on account of virtue, he possesses all the virtues, according to what has often been said concerning the mutual concomitance of the virtues.

The unjust hate the just, the licentious hate the temperate, the arrogant hate the humble-minded; and, to put it simply, those given to vice hate the righteous.

The righteous man, then, is one, even though he possesses all the virtues;

for vice splits apart those who hold it;

for it is not possible for one man to possess all the vices.

The coward cannot be reckless, the superstitious impious, the good-for-nothing foolish—all at once.

In a certain manner, then, the Egyptian woman hated Joseph when she caused him to suffer bonds and imprisonment as though he were a wrongdoer.

And this hatred was unjust.

And Herodias, the wife of Herod, wrought against John a most pitiable death, so far as it lay with her.

Of those who are unjustly hated, then, by the decree and judgement of Providence some cases are made manifest and others are not.

The case of John was made manifest after his death, but that of others before death—of Susanna and of Joseph.

Whether, then, vindication comes about here or not, no one should inquire why here or not here;

for these things come about by the judgement of God;

for his judgements are unsearchable.

'Guard my soul and deliver me;

let me not be put to shame, for I have hoped in you.'

If you guard my soul unharmed and unhurt, I know that I shall be delivered;

for either I am delivered from those who do me harm, or I receive a crown for having been afflicted.

'The innocent and upright clung to me, because I waited for you, O Lord.'

Not only did I profit for myself by enduring with the endurance that saves—for endurance brings salvation;

for he who endures to the end shall be saved—

I gained many because I waited for you; I had many friends.

By 'innocent' here he means those who are stripped of vice, not the simple-minded.

Accordingly, the upright were joined together with them.

In respect of their casting off of vice they are innocent, but in respect of their acquisition of virtue they are upright.

For example, he who has turned aside from evil so as no longer to do it has become innocent;

but since, after the turning aside from evil, the doing of good succeeds it, he who has turned aside from evil becomes upright.

It is possible, then, to call the same persons both innocent and upright, according to one consideration and another.

Those who in respect of their conduct are outside vice are innocent, while those who are minded toward the things of piety are upright.

'Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his afflictions.'

Since he himself has obtained the request made on his own behalf, he desires that the same salvation should also come to Israel—to everyone who is perceptive and possessed of understanding—namely, to come to be outside afflictions, God having redeemed them.

It is not unreasonable to understand these things as spoken also concerning the Lord's manhood.

As we begin the psalm from which we started, we have already said that the things spoken concerning the manhood in the Saviour are common to all the righteous, and that those alone are proper to Him which pertain to His divinity.

Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence.

It is the voice of one who speaks toward God with great boldness.

He has boldness toward God whose heart does not condemn him, as the great disciple and evangelist John writes in his epistle:

If our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God.

The whole psalm, then, is sent up out of much boldness.

Some things he speaks of as already accomplished, others he recounts as present and being enacted, and others signify a certain prayer of the speaker:

Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence.

He did not say 'I will walk,' but 'I have walked.'

By 'innocence' he here means guilelessness.

He who has turned according to the instruction of Jesus and become as the little children—that man has come to be in innocence; and such a one is indeed perfect in his understanding, but a babe as regards evil, as the apostle writes:

In your understanding, he says, be perfect, but in evil be as babes.

He who is a babe as regards evil is not ignorant of it—for how could he be a babe as regards it, if he were ignorant of it?—but he does not enact it.

In both respects it signifies guilelessness, that of one who, as I said before, has turned and become like the little children.

He, then, who has turned according to the teaching of Jesus and become as the little children does not play the fool.

It does not signify the folly of infants, but immovability toward evil things.

So they used to say that a little child lying beside a woman does not receive desire of her.

Whenever, then, someone who has become perfect is thus without appetite toward licentiousness, he is a babe as regards evil and has come to be as one turned like the little children.

But the perfect man has become such by turning, so that this being a babe, this being so innocent, is a matter of deliberate choice.

In the case of infants this is not so; it is not a matter of choice, but because their age does not yet permit them to have perfect reasoning.

The 'I have walked' here does not denote a check or a cessation, but that 'long ago I so began,' or 'from my mother's womb I so began':

Upon you was I established from the womb; from my mother's belly you are my protector.

And the saints too, concerning whom it is said:

whom he foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son—these belong to this boldness.

And, hoping in God, I shall in no wise grow weak.

He no longer says 'having hoped,' as with 'I have walked.'

Hope in God makes one strong and altogether powerful.

Since, therefore, I hope in you, I do not grow weak.

Concerning this weakness it is spoken in many places of the divine instructions:

He brought them out, it says—the Hebrews, that is—with gold and silver, and there was not among their tribes one who was weak.

For whenever God brings up someone with gold—that is, with a pure mind—and with silver—that is, with tested speech—that person has no weakness.

Those thus brought up do not grow weak, but are strong in Him who empowers them.

And as the apostle says:

I can do all things; and he who can do all things does not grow weak. So too each of the wise, being strong, does not grow weak.

For how could he grow weak who says to God:

I will love you, O Lord, my strength? But he who hopes in riches will at some time grow weak.

And if the word 'weakness' signifies also sickness—for it does signify it—then it says this:

Hoping in the Lord I shall not be sick in respect of the soul, but am ever in health:

for he who keeps the commandment, this man is in health.

This is not said concerning bodily health:

for many who keep the commandment are sick, and many who transgress the commandments are in health.

Prove me, O Lord, and try me.

Burn my reins and see whether there is iniquity in me.

No one calls upon such a Judge to examine his affairs—one who knows the hidden things and knows the very marrow—unless he has much boldness.

Indeed, then, some, on account of the exceeding purity of the one who speaks with such boldness, understand the psalm as referring to the manhood of the Saviour.

But it has already been said by us many times that the right deeds of the Saviour, in respect of the manhood, touch also all perfect men.

Prove me, O Lord, and try me.

As if some competent athlete were saying to the president of the games:

Prove me and try me, whether I am such as I profess to be.

For God to prove someone signifies this: that he is worthy to obtain approval from Him.

But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel, but also our own souls.

One imparts his own soul to another whenever he fashions the other to be of a certain quality according to the quality which he himself has.

Not only, then, he says, are we ready to impart the gospel to you, but also our own souls.

If anyone becomes an imitator of the apostle and has all his disposition and practice, he has partaken of the apostle's soul.

It can be taken straightforwardly to mean this:

We are ready even to risk our lives beforehand for you:

for since He laid down His life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for one another.

If we indeed, in laying down our lives for those whom we love, do not lay down some intelligible or allegorized soul, but the one we actually have—and this is done in imitation of Jesus—then He too truly laid down a human soul and not an allegorized one.

Burn my reins and my heart.

For your mercy is before my eyes, and I have been well-pleasing in your truth.

Observe how through all things he takes courage in his own purity.

Then, since these things seem to be beyond the power of men, he immediately says:

For your mercy is over against me.

Unless you show mercy, I am not made perfect.

I have therefore been well-pleasing in your truth.

One must not here be falsely humble, when the discourse is concerning truth.

Indeed, I remember someone saying:

For God's sake I have been a virgin until now; I wish to be so until now also as regards the faith—and utterly so.

He, then, who is well-pleasing in the truth of God has the mercy of God before his eyes.

Having before his eyes the One who works together with him and brings him to perfection, he will speak with boldness concerning the things he has already accomplished aright.

Try my reins and my heart, for Thy mercy is before mine eyes.

In many places of Scripture the reins are found joined together with the heart.

God who searches out hearts and reins.

And moreover even until night my reins have instructed me.

And just as, when we hear of the heart, it does not mean the part of the body, but that pure thing which whoever possesses it sees God;

Hear me, ye who have lost the heart. No one loses this so-called bodily part—otherwise he would die—; rather, when God takes away the stony heart and puts in its place a heart of flesh, we understand it of the understanding.

Together, then, with this heart, the things named the reins are also not parts of the body.

The generative seeds are said first to be constituted there, and from there to pass readily into the organs of procreation.

The reins, therefore, are generative and ministers of seed.

Since, then, there are also generative powers by which the soul or the mind begets, He calls those the reins, together with what is named the heart.

Thou art near, he says, to their mouth, but far from their reins.

From these reins Thou art far, O God, not from the bodily parts.

Try, therefore, and prove my reins and my heart.

I have no seeds able to bear fruit so as to become accursed children, children of destruction, such as Judas had;

Let them be given over to utter destruction.

Let there be no one to uphold him, nor any helper for his children—not concerning bodily children.

For perhaps we do not even know whether he had children.

By his children he names all the betrayers of the truth.

Just as Paul begets through the gospel, so that man begot through the betrayal, by which he went forth to hand over Jesus;

What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver Him unto you? By this eager zeal he became the father of all who betray the truth.

And I was well-pleasing in Thy truth.

He who is well-pleasing in the truth of God is not ashamed of His words;

Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words.

But if He is Himself ashamed of the one who is ashamed, then the one who speaks boldly and abides in the truth and prefers it above all things—him He Himself also strengthens and abides with.

I have not sat with the council of vanity, and I will by no means enter in with transgressors of the law.

Evil things and good things cannot coexist.

He who possesses good things cannot partake of evil things.

He who has been rendered evil in his very quality, insofar as he is evil, is incapable of receiving virtue.

But since abstention from evils is when one who is by nature inclined toward them abstains from them by choice, little children have no licentiousness, yet I do not say that they abstain from licentiousness.

That which is without soul and without reason has no impiety;

And I do not say that they abstain from impiety;

For abstaining is a movement of the free will.

In the very first psalm, then, he pronounces blessed the man who is perfect according to the inner man;

Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and hath not stood in the way of sinners, and hath not sat in the seat of the pestilent.

The sophist and deceiver could say that neither the little child, nor the irrational creature, nor the inanimate thing walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the pestilent.

Having denied such things of the perfect man, he says:

How does he abstain from these things? By having his own will in the law of the Lord.—Yet it does not belong to everyone to have his own will in the law of the Lord.

If they cleave to the law because they fear punishment, they do not have their own will in the law of the Lord.

If, then, someone should persuade them that there is no punishment, they do all the things that are forbidden.

But he who has his own will in the law of the Lord, even if there be countless trials, even if many punishments hang over him, does not depart from the will of the law.

Such were the Maccabees, such were the martyrs of the truth in our own day.

Just as, then, he does not first say that the perfect man abstained from evils, but rather that he has his own will in the law of the Lord, so here too, having stated the good things that are present, he then goes on to say the things which he forbids, and says that:

Since I have walked in mine innocence, and hoping in Thee I am not weak, having Thy mercy before mine eyes—since I am such a one, I have not sat with the council of vanity.

Nothing else has separated me from the vanity of the council than this—that I am engaged in such a life;

For let it be one's manner of life that distinguishes men, not one's location.

Virtue distinguishes the earnest man from the common sort of people; knowledge sets apart him who possesses it from the ignorant.

So here too, he who has walked in innocence, and holds God as his hope, and is on that account strong and not liable to be weakened, has not sat with the council of vanity.

And here again someone could say:

The little child, and the irrational creature, and the inanimate thing did not sit with the council of vanity.

But those did not sit with the council of vanity because of their not being so constituted by nature, not because of having walked in innocence and having hoped in God.

And I will by no means enter in with transgressors of the law.

I never consented with those who devise vain things and sit in council for the sake of doing such things, nor did I enter in with the lawless.

Not only did I not sit, but I did not even enter in;

For after the entering comes the sitting that is in the council.

Attaining to this same purpose and virtue, Jeremiah also said:

I have not sat in the council of those who make sport, but I stood in awe before the presence of Thy hand;

I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness;

For these things he says to the Almighty.

To make sport and to devise vain things are one and the same;

For here the sporting is not praiseworthy, but is of such a kind as those who made the calf had;

For they sat down, it says, to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

To play in such a manner is forbidden.

I have not, therefore, sat with the council of those who make sport.

And it has often been shown that the superficial affairs of life, those which harm rather than help, the unstable ones, are called vain.

He who is eager in company with such men, even if he does not sit down with them in a physical place, is nonetheless sitting in the council of vanity.

And I will by no means enter in with transgressors of the law.

By transgressors of the law he here means those who overstep the law, not those who never had a law at all—for those are lawless and act without law—since he was far from such people.

I will by no means enter in?—that is to say:

I did not enter into the transgression of the law;

For to enter in with those who transgress the law is nothing other than to transgress the law oneself, just as to enter into virtue signifies to act according to virtue.

'I have hated the assembly of evildoers, and with the ungodly I will not sit.'

The evildoers are either the very same as those who take counsel together in vain, or they are not far removed from them.

And perhaps those who sin in matters of conduct take counsel together over vain things, while those who think falsely and hold heretical opinions are the assembly of evildoers.

And it is well said, 'of evildoers.'

No one who is evil by nature is said to 'do evil,' but rather he who is by nature disposed so to act, yet is able to remain outside such activity.

'I will wash my hands among the innocent.'

'In my innocence I have walked,' and, saying:

'Prove me, O Lord, and test me; try my reins and my heart,' he says:

'I will wash my hands among the innocent.'

The former right achievements were things of the soul;

namely, to harbour no injustice in reins and heart, to have walked in innocence, to hope in God, to speak with boldness and say:

'Prove me and test me.'

Since, then, I am such in my mind, and I keep my deeds pure —

the inner disposition has washed clean my deeds.

'I will wash, therefore, my hands among the innocent';

for I am not content with the disposition alone.

'And I will go about your altar, O Lord.'

And the priests, washing themselves according to the law, would go about the altar.

Such an ordinance teaches that he who is consecrated must be pure also in his deeds.

Indeed, a laver was fashioned for washing the feet and the hands out of no other material than the mirrors.

Moses took much gold and other vessels from the Hebrews in order to fashion many vessels for the temple — a lampstand, a table —