On the Inscriptions of the Psalms 1 part 4/9

But when it inscribes together with the hymns the word "understanding," the text seems to me to offer a certain counsel: that we should not be lacking in understanding with regard to the words dedicated to the glorification of God, lest we should unknowingly, through some unexamined and unintelligent impulse, ascribe to the divine majesty thoughts that are unbefitting it;

such as, for instance, supposing that for those who live according to God, the rewards are set forth in the good fortune of this present life, and thinking that whatever seems good to human perception is also judged good in the sight of God;

You, however, have need of understanding, so as to know concerning him only those things which, when applied to him, carry no blemish.

For that which is truly fitting to him for praise is too great to be discovered by human nature;

but for us it is welcome enough not even to discover what is fitting to know concerning him, but rather not to fall in with any of the things that are incongruous with him;

So too is the meaning of "A prayer for the poor, when he is faint, and pours out his supplication before the Lord."

For we have great need of the ascent that is according to God, in order that we may understand of what things we are poor;

for we would not come to desire the true goods unless we should perceive our own poverty in such things.

But the disposition of prayer becomes truly alive and inward, when we come to know of what we are poor, and grow faint at the delay of the things we long for;

and thus our supplication is poured out through the eyes, using tears instead of words.

In this way you will also understand "A prayer of Moses, the man of God," in the sense that it is not possible to approach God through prayer in any other way, unless one, having departed from this world, becomes a man of God alone.

For it has nothing toward which to make use of change, since it is wholly incapable of admitting evil, and yet is unable to turn towards the better—

for there is nothing toward which it could receive alteration—

for it does not have anything better than itself, toward which it might pass over.

But we human beings, being situated in change and alteration, become, through the operation of alteration, either worse or better in both respects;

worse, whenever we fall away from participation in good things; better again, whenever we happen to be altered toward what is superior.

Since, then, through this change we have fallen in with evil, we have need of a good alteration, so that through it there may come to us the transformation toward what is better;

and this is clear from the context of what has been written for those who are to be altered.

For the text counsels not only that we must be altered, but also lays down a certain manner by which such a thing might be accomplished, showing beforehand through certain examples the transformation toward what is better.

Now the wording of the title runs thus:

for the word "teaching" would not have been added, had the text not been looking toward instruction.

And the phrase "For an inscription on a stele" indicates that the word must be held indelibly and imprinted in the memory, so that the memorial faculty of the soul is, as it were, the stele, and the engravings upon the stele are the examples of good things.

For Syria, the land between the rivers, is consumed by fire, along with the neighboring portion of the Syrians; and likewise the Valley of Salt is slaughtered in many thousands;

but to set forth in precise detail the historical sequence of events would be at once lengthy and superfluous;

I think it better to set forth briefly for our discourse the riddle behind the historical memory, so that such an inscription on a stele may become for us a teaching for our own life.

What, then, do I mean? He named the whole nation Syria, but divides it into two portions, marking each of them by its own distinguishing features;

for the one of them is called Syria of Mesopotamia;

and the other is named Syria of Sobal.

And both this one and that one are burned up.

And after this, upon the turning back of the commander-in-chief, the Valley of Salt, with twelve thousand, is condemned to death;

Let us, then, understand that the form of Syria is twofold.

For some of them are encompassed all around by the streams of the rivers;

and these would be those who are flooded on every side by the passions.

The others are opposed by Sobal, the text signifying through this name the tyranny of the opposing power;

Therefore this would become for us the way of the alteration toward what is better, if this twofold nation of vice should be destroyed by the purifying fire;

for just as virtue is characterized by life and by thought, so too is vice contemplated in these same two respects;

And the disorder that pertains to life, by which the currents of the passions grip the soul all around, is called "the land between the rivers"; while that which, through wicked doctrines, is devoted to the ruler of this world, is named "Syria of Sobal."

Once these things have been consumed by the cauterizing and purifying discourse, it follows that the barren and salty earth — which is the encampment of the opposing powers — is struck down by the blow of the commander-in-chief.

For victory over our enemies could not come to us, unless the commander of the hosts should prevail with his hand.

And upon the destruction of the enemies, peace follows in due sequence.

And this is the sequel of victory, toward which the title looks, inscribing upon our memory, by means of historical examples, guidance toward being transformed — thereby indicating release from the passions.

But the lesson concerning transformation would become clearer to us if we were to follow the other interpreters, of whom one appended to the text "Concerning the flowers," and another "Concerning the lilies," in place of "transformation."

For the flower indicates the change of winter into spring, which signifies the transition from vice to the life according to virtue.

And the appearance of the lily explains toward what the transformation ought to become.

For he who becomes radiant through transformation clearly takes on, out of a dark and darkened state, a bright and snow-white form.

Therefore, with regard to every title to which "concerning those who are to be transformed" is appended, I think one must receive this counsel from the text: that one must always, through prayer and diligence of life, acquire transformation toward the better.

CHAPTER V. The title "Concerning the hidden things" proposes the achievement of precision in the knowledge of God.

For since the ultimate fall of the soul is a mistaken conception concerning God (for what benefit could one derive from good things, not possessing the Good itself?), for this reason the title holds forth to you, as it were a lamp, the searching discourse concerning the hidden things of the knowledge of God, of which the chief point is faith in the Son.

For thus the title also says: "Concerning the hidden things of the Son."

For that is truly hidden which is incomprehensible and invisible, and which lies beyond every comprehending conception — to which he who has drawn near through faith has arrived at the goal of victory.

And the discourse concerning "her that inherits" is plain.

One who understood this same thing also with regard to "the help at dawn" would not miss what is fitting.

For the customary usage of Scripture calls the morning "orthros," the dawn-time.

And the dawn is the boundary-time between night and day, at which the one disappears and the other begins.

Since vice is understood in many places of Scripture enigmatically through darkness, whenever the dawning of the life according to virtue comes to us from divine help, then we shall arrive at victory, having laid aside the works of darkness and walking becomingly as in the day, as the apostle says.

Close to what has been examined is also the discourse concerning "the eighth."

For all diligence concerning the virtuous life looks toward the age that follows, the beginning of which is called "the eighth," succeeding the perceptible time that revolves in weeks.

Therefore the title "Concerning the eighth" counsels us not to look toward the present time, but to look toward the eighth.

For when this flowing and transitory time comes to a halt — in which the one thing comes into being and the other is dissolved — and the need for coming-to-be has passed away, and that which is dissolved exists no longer, because the hoped-for resurrection transmutes nature into some other condition of life, and the transitory nature of time ceases, since the activity of generation and corruption no longer exists, then assuredly the week that measures out time will also come to a stop, and that Eighth will succeed it, which is the whole succeeding age, having become a single day — just as one of the prophets, calling the life we hope for a "great day," has named it.

For it is not the perceptible sun that illumines that day, but the true light, the sun of righteousness, who is named "the Dayspring" by prophecy, because he is never veiled by a setting.

And we have discerned this same thing also in the titles "Concerning the winepresses."

For the winepress is a workshop of wine, in which, as the clusters are pressed together, the wine comes to be.

But if the wine flows out from clusters that are rotten or still unripe and sour, it at once turns bad and becomes undrinkable, changing into some foul odor or a sour quality, or being altered by some other corruption into a breeding-ground of worms.

But if the cluster placed in the winepresses is noble and ripe, sweet and fragrant wine will flow from the clusters, growing all the more, with the passage of long time, in beauty and fragrance.

What, then, does the enigma intend by bidding us care for the cluster as much as possible? That the storehouse of the human mind might be enriched for us.

And hope is the storehouse in which all our provision for life is contained.

And the nature of the clusters would become clear to us in this way, if first the branches should appear, and the vine that comprises both the clusters and the branches.

But this will become clear from the words of the Lord, who said, "I am the vine, you are the branches."

For if we are truly in him, rooted, bearing fruit and growing, as the apostle says, we shall understand from what has been said that, having been created in him and not existing apart from him, we are required by him to produce, from our works, a cluster worthy of the sap that nourishes us — neither sour and astringent through wrath, nor decaying and dissolving in rottenness through some pleasure.

For in the winepress of each soul (and the winepress is conscience), the cluster from our works will store up for us the wine for the life to come.

And it is altogether necessary that each be filled with his own labors, whatever they happen to be — wherefore blessed indeed are those farmers whose wine gladdens the heart, becoming a source of enjoyment.

But pitiable, on the contrary, and worthy of lamentation are those whose wine becomes "the venom of serpents," as the word of Moses says, changed into a poisonous quality, bearing destruction as fruit from the vine-branch of Sodom.

If, then, you look toward the eighth, remember, it says, the winepresses — so that through good works your winepresses may, according to the proverbial saying, overflow with fragrant wine.

The title "Concerning Maeleth," rendered more clearly by those who translated this word into the Greek tongue, instills a certain eagerness in those who contend through virtue, showing what sort of thing the end of the contests is.

...declaring that choral dances and festive joys await those who have prevailed in the contests, the word having been interpreted with this signification.

Thus the title concerning Maeleth says that every victory achieved by sweat and toil against adversaries awaits joy and choral array, all intelligible creation harmonizing itself with the victors, as it were in the concord of a chorus.

For there was a time when the choral array of rational nature was one, looking to the one leader of the chorus, and unfolding the dance in accord with the harmony imparted from him to its movement through the commandment.

But since sin, having crept in, dissolved that divinely inspired concord of the chorus, and, pouring the slippery slope of deceit beneath the feet of the first human beings — who were dancing together with the angelic powers — brought about a fall, whereby man was torn apart from his conjunction with the angels, the fall having severed that bond, for this reason the one who has fallen has need of many sweats and labors, so that, by contending against and overturning that which lies upon him from his fall, he may be set upright again, receiving as the prize of his victory over the wrestler the divine choral array.

Whenever, then, you hear the title joining "Concerning Maeleth" to the phrase "Unto the end," then know that through the enigma a counsel is being brought to you: not to be puffed up by the contests of the temptations, but to look toward the goal of victory.

And this is: that your soul, purified by the assault of temptations, be enrolled in the angelic choir.

Such indeed as we have heard, from the word of the Lord, came to pass also in the case of Lazarus.

Who, since through the endurance of his sufferings, throughout the whole course of his life, he kept himself unfallen, when his tent was dissolved and his wrestling opponent was defeated in the racecourse of life, was immediately among the angels.

"For it came to pass," it says, "that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels."

This is the choral dance, the journey together with the angels, and the bosom of the patriarch which embraces Lazarus within itself.

Nor is he himself understood to be outside the bright concord of the chorus.

For hearing "bosom," one who understands it as a kind of spacious, sea-like expanse — the fullness of good things, after which the patriarch was named — would not err, a fullness in which Lazarus too comes to be.

For among those who have distinguished themselves in like contests, nothing belongs peculiarly to any one, but the good becomes common to all who, through the same virtue, have run together toward the same good.

For the one occurrence is in the twenty-eighth Psalm, the other in the one following it.

And the wording, in each of the two cases, is as follows:

For unless we go forth from the perceptible tabernacle, our true house is not dedicated.

And what is being said is this:

Two things are conceived concerning human nature:

the fleshly life, which is exercised through the senses, and the spiritual and immaterial life, which is accomplished by the intellectual and incorporeal life of the soul.

But it is not possible to partake of both of these at the same time.

For zeal concerning the one of these produces deprivation of the other.

...soul, it is fitting to go forth from the fleshly tabernacle.

For our house cannot otherwise be dedicated by him who renews us through his own indwelling, unless the departure from the tabernacle be accomplished through estrangement from the bodily life.

And in those Psalms to which "Unto remembrance" is appended, the text sets before us a certain concise teaching concerning salvation.

For since disobedience to the divine commandment became for human beings a way unto destruction (for we would not have perished, had we kept the commandment in memory), for this reason the text proposes to us the remembrance of the commandment as an antidote against the affliction of forgetfulness, doing this in two psalm-songs.

And in those Psalms to which "confession" is appended, we are taught the following from the wording:

Since, in scriptural usage, the meaning of "confession" is twofold — indicating at one time avowal, at another thanksgiving — here, according to both senses, we are led by the hand toward the life according to virtue.

For confession of sin produces separation and estrangement from evils, while eagerness toward thanksgiving increases the grace from the Benefactor upon those who receive his benefactions with due sensibility.

The psalm "Unto confession," then, is set before us in this way: if the memory of some sin still smolders within you, it counsels the purification that comes through repentance.

But if your life is prospering toward the better, it makes your better resolve firm for you through thanksgiving toward God.

And "Stelography" and "Destroy not," whether found together or separately in some of the titles, contain counsel concerning the virtue of patience.

But we shall treat the discussion concerning these more precisely at a later time, once we have returned to the consideration of the remaining titles.

CHAPTER VII. For it is necessary also to understand what "Alleluia" means, which becomes the title of many of the Psalms.

Alleluia, then, is a mystical exhortation that rouses the hearing to the hymnody of God, so that its meaning is this: "Praise the Lord."

For in those parts of holy Scripture where this phrase, "Praise the Lord," is appended, the same thing is signified in the Hebrew writings by the word "Alleluia."

Or perhaps this word rather makes known the force of the psalm at hand, declaring it to be a praise of God.

For in the speech of the Hebrews the divine nature is signified in various ways, by different names, according to a certain symbolic meaning.

One of the names among the Hebrews that signify God is "Ia," while "allelou" is understood as "praise."

And do not be surprised if this form of the word exhibits what is called the nominative case of the name.

For words are not formed among the Hebrews according to our custom, but the manner of their pronunciation of names is different from ours.

So indeed, the name of the prophet, when we Hellenize it according to our own form, we call "Elias"; but the proper pronunciation among the Hebrews gives the nominative of the name as "Eliou."

...whatever it wishes to signify, the tongue of the Hebrews names "Allelou."

Since, then, praise altogether has its reference to God, and "Ia" is one of the names interpretive of the divine nature, the whole word "Alleluia" together is interpreted as "praise of God."

Whenever, then, this word is inscribed before a psalm, it must be understood that what follows should altogether be referred to the glorification of God.

And so indeed it is toward the very end of the book of Psalms that most of such inscriptions are found, by which one may understand that to praise God is fitting for those who have already arrived at the perfection of the life according to virtue, and who have been purified through the preceding sections of the psalmody according to the contemplation understood within them.

and to be among those realities in which the nature of the angels also is believed to exist.

For we have not learned of any other occupation of theirs except the praising of God, nor is anything else pursued by those perfect in virtue than to make their own life a praise of God.

Since, then, those psalms that have the inscription "Alleluia" are found almost entirely in the final section of the psalmody, it can clearly be understood that the final section of the psalmody surpasses the whole lofty ascent accomplished through the psalms, in which section most is the praise of God, or an exhortation to praise God.

CHAPTER 8. It remains for us, as far as is possible, to understand the reason for the uninscribed psalms.

Let what we have found on this subject be set before the judgment of those who read it, either to accept what we say, or to advance their understanding toward a greater contemplation.

This, then, is the distinction we have discerned among the uninscribed psalms.

For in some of them, instead of an inscription, it is the very intent of the psalm itself that serves as one, concerning which it is common both to the Hebrews and to us that there is no other inscription of the matter at hand except this sole meaning made manifest in the words themselves.

But for the rest, there are inscriptions that are ecclesiastical and mystical, and significant of the piety belonging to our mystery, yet these do not exist among the Hebrews, in keeping with the accusation made against them in the Gospel, that they made a decree, that if anyone should confess Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.

As many of the inscriptions, then, as they perceived to contain some indication of the mystery, these they did not accept.

Wherefore the text has also carefully noted this concerning them, adding, alongside the reading of the ecclesiastical inscription, that among the Hebrews it is without inscription.

This distinction, then, among the uninscribed psalms having been set forth beforehand, it would now be the time to give, through the very words of Scripture, testimony to our account.

The psalm placed first of all had no need of an inscription.

For the aim of what is said is evident to those who read it: that it is introductory to philosophy, counseling one to depart from evil and to come to be in the good and to be made like God so far as is possible.

But since the necessity of not being impious was set forth first at the beginning of the beatitude, the second psalm, in order that we may come to be outside of impiety, sets down as its premise the evangelical mystery, having proclaimed it beforehand.

So that, in a certain manner, the first psalm is the inscription of the second.

For it speaks there of the birth in the flesh of him who was born today for our sake ("today" being a portion of time), yet who is always, from the Father and in the Father, Son and God; and it speaks also of the kingdom over those without a king, who, because they did not serve God, had been reckoned among the nations, being in a sense laws unto themselves, or rather lawless, in that they did not accept the divine law but cast off the yoke from themselves.

By "yoke" he means the commandment.

This one, I say, is he who was established as king over them.

and they themselves, having been born and having become kings,

over whom the rod of iron — that is, the unchangeable power — having shattered what was earthly and earthen, transformed them into the incorruptible nature, teaching that it alone is blessed to trust in him.

This, then, being the sense of the psalm which I have set forth, it is possible for anyone who wishes, through the divine words themselves, to test our interpretation, to see whether what has been said by us fits with the divinely inspired Scripture.

As for the rest of the uninscribed psalms, according to the account already given by us, they are of this sort with regard to the synagogue of the Hebrews, not to the Church of God.

For in all of them, without exception, one can find some inscription, which the Hebrew does not accept on account of the doctrine of piety, and which they did not receive on account of their unbelief.

Such psalms are, to speak summarily, twelve in number; but so that the matters concerning them may be set forth more precisely, let us also make known the order of their sequence in each case.

The thirty-second, and the forty-second, and after these the seventieth, then after it the seventy-third, and after these the ninetieth, then the ninety-second, and successively as far as the ninety-sixth, and again the ninety-eighth, and last among the uninscribed the hundred and third.

This, then, is the order of the psalms that are uninscribed among the Hebrews.

As for the reason these inscriptions were not accepted by them, I think it is none other than the one already stated.

But our account concerning these matters would come to demonstration all the more, if we should briefly survey a few of the uninscribed psalms in cursory fashion, so that the charge of the ingratitude of the Jews might gain its credibility through the very examination of the texts themselves.

Since the psalm bids us rejoice greatly over him who came from the heavens to the earth, saying, "Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord," as over him who oversees the universe, and who brought the universe from non-being into being, and who preserves all things in being, whose command becomes substance —

For this is the sense of the divine words: "He spoke and they came to be; he commanded and they were created."

He makes blessed the nation that is established upon his name — meaning by "the nation" us, for whom the name of Christ is the hope of salvation, by which name we who have believed are called together.

"The Lord looked down from heaven, to see all the sons of men, from his prepared dwelling-place."

And by his "prepared dwelling-place" he named the Father who ever is, whose being is eternal, not having come into being from anything, but ever prepared.

And we are not surprised that from that prepared dwelling-place he mingles himself with the sons of men, having become the son of man, because we are persuaded that he is the one who "fashioned our hearts, each one alone."

For if human nature is his handiwork, what novelty do we learn from the mystery? Only that the master of nature came unto his own.

But the Hebrews did not receive him.

Wherefore for them there is no inscription, just as there is no sun for one who does not see.

Whence we judge that the course of the law according to the flesh — which Scripture calls the "false horse" — and all bodily understanding of the commandments (and this would be the "giant") are of no use for salvation.

as the psalmist disparages such things in a riddle, saying:

"A horse is a vain hope for safety, neither shall a giant be saved by the abundance of his strength."

But looking to him who delivers our souls from death through heavenly food (as the prophet says: "The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope in his mercy, to deliver their souls from death and to nourish them in famine"), we say that: "Our soul waits for the Lord" who has looked down upon us from heaven, and that: "Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, even as we have hoped in you."

For these reasons the Hebrew does not accept the inscription of this psalm.

Again, in the same manner, the forty-second psalm has no inscription among the Hebrews, showing, I think, that the text indicates that the mystery contained in this psalm was, according to their sectarian persuasion, unacceptable to those who follow Hebrew customs.

for he promises to come to the altar, having become new.

But this is not possible for the Hebrew.

For he does not accept being renewed by the mystery of salvation through birth from above.

But in the seventieth psalm, while the ecclesiastical edition has the inscription, "Concerning the sons of Jonadab and those first taken captive," this is passed over in silence among the Hebrews.

The reason is clear: since the prophecy concerning the Lord is more evident in these verses, the unbelief of the Jews is thereby accused, as they were unable to receive the manifest teaching of the mystery.

For just as those who suffer from a disease of the eyes, or those who have fallen into the affliction of hydrophobia, cannot bear with their eyes either the impact of light (in the one case) or the sight of water (in the other), but with closed eyelids the diseased shut their eyes away from the light, and those with hydrophobia from the sight of water —

in the same way also the malice of the Jews, on account of their unwillingness to confess the glory of the divine proclamation, renders the truth unacceptable through silence.

But it is also possible to recognize the riddles of the prophecy through the psalm itself.

For in the seventieth psalm, whose inscription is "Concerning those first taken captive," the discourse, as though spoken in the person of the captive, says, among other things fitting the voice of a suppliant, also: "Deliver me from the hand of the sinner, from the hand of the transgressor and the wrongdoer," thereby indicating by these names the one who had taken our life captive.

And in what follows, after many of those supplicatory utterances, the discourse signifies by its words the return that came about from captivity.

in which it says: "As many and grievous afflictions as you have shown me, you have turned and given me life, and have brought me up again from the depths of the earth; you have multiplied your greatness upon me, and, turning, you have comforted me."