Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 1/42

Since the very nurslings of piety, both townsfolk and countryfolk alike, have all been zealous to give heed to this book above all else,

and not least those who embrace the ascetic life bring it forth upon their tongue both by night and by day,

hymning the God of all things, and lulling to rest the passions of the body.

For the divine grace, having blended profit with the pleasure of melody, has set before men a teaching thrice-longed-for and worthy of all love.

And one may observe that of the other divine Scriptures most people remember either nothing at all, or but little;

so that, singing and at the same time beholding the meaning of what is sung, they may reap a twofold gain.

But those who had asked of us the interpretations of the other divine Scriptures did not permit this eagerness of ours to reach its end.

For some enjoined upon us the clear exposition of the Song of Songs, while others desired to understand the prophecy of the man of desires;

and others sought that the predictions hidden by obscurity — those of the divinely-inspired Ezekiel, and yet others those of the twelve prophets — should become clear and plain to them.

Since therefore the God of all things has granted it — he who gives wisdom to the blind and reveals mysteries, who gave a mouth to man and made the deaf and the dumb, the seeing and the blind — to bring to completion the interpretation of these his divine words,

come then, having invoked the divine grace — that grace which, according to the prophecy, leads the blind in a way they knew not, and prepares them to travel by paths they did not know, and grants to those long deaf to hear the divine oracles, and supplies sight to eyes that dwell in darkness and gloom — let us make bold to undertake this prophecy as well.

But let no one deem this labor of ours superfluous on the ground that others before us have already set forth this interpretation.

For I have judged it the mark of a shrewd man to avoid the immoderation both of these and of those.

Whatever things belonged to the ancient histories, these too I should now fit to those histories;

for the testimony of the facts themselves is sufficient to guide toward the truth of the interpretation those who long to find it.

For this very reason the interpretation of the prediction is not overly toilsome for us;

for the contemplation of the events makes it plain.

We shall be zealous, so far as is possible, to avoid prolixity of discourse, and to set before those who desire it a concise profit.

It should be known, however, that it is proper to prophecy not only to foretell things to come, but also to speak of things present and of things already accomplished;

for indeed the divinely-inspired Moses clearly instructed us concerning the things created of old and from the very beginning by the God of all things, and which received their being, having received this teaching not from men, but from the grace of the Spirit.

And he foretold present things as well: as the chastisements brought upon Pharaoh, and to Israel the supply of the manna, and the partaking of the flesh.

And he made use not only of predictive words, but also of hortatory and legislative ones;

and now he offers ethical, now dogmatic teaching;

and at one time he laments the calamities of the Jews, at another he sings beforehand of the salvation of the nations,

and by the variety of the prophecy he brings much delight to those who are willing to give heed.

Whence also, having so understood the superscriptions, they assigned some to Idithun, others to Aitham, others to the sons of Korah, and yet others to Asaph, having learned from the history of Chronicles that these men too were prophets.

But concerning these matters I make no strong assertion.

Yet it is proper to a prophet to render his tongue a servant to the grace of the Spirit, according to the utterance borne in the Psalms: 'My tongue,' it says, 'is the pen of a swift-writing scribe.' Nevertheless, let the vote of the majority prevail.

But since certain persons have called the superscriptions of the Psalms false, I deem it necessary to treat briefly of this matter as well.

To me it seems audacious to overturn superscriptions that have been transmitted from of old, from the time of Ptolemy — who reigned over Egypt after Alexander — superscriptions which all seventy elders rendered into the Greek tongue, together with all the rest of the divine Scripture.

And a hundred and fifty years before that translation, the admirable Ezra, filled with divine grace, wrote out the sacred books, which had long since been destroyed through the negligence of the Jews and the impiety of the Babylonians.

And if he, by the all-holy Spirit, renewed the memory of these books, and if these translators too, not apart from the divine inspiration, with great concord rendered them into the Greek tongue, and, besides the other divine Scriptures, interpreted the superscriptions as well,

then I consider it audacious and exceedingly rash to call these superscriptions false, and to suppose one's own reasonings wiser than the working of the Spirit.

And the detailed interpretation of the Psalms will show this more clearly.

The word 'diapsalma' too they have interpreted in various ways.

For some supposed it to be a pause of the working of the Spirit, others a change of prophecy, and others a change of the melody.

But one, making use of the interpretation of Aquila, set down 'ever' in place of 'diapsalma,' saying that it is to be joined to the preceding verse.

For instance, in the third Psalm, after the words 'With my voice I cried to the Lord, and he heard me from his holy mountain,' we find 'diapsalma' appended.

But Aquila joined it thus: 'And he heard me from his holy mountain ever.' And in this way, in what follows, he joins it to the preceding verse, producing a single sense.

Finding interpreters who have rendered 'diapsalma' thus, I do not think it just to despise so many and such great men, and to trust the mind of one alone.

For which reason I take the writing of 'diapsalma' to signify a change of the melody.

And songs too have many changes of melody; and the lyres, and indeed the citharas as well, have variations of their notes;

and one may see much such difference in the case of the flutes as well.

The 'diapsalma,' then, seems to me to signify, as I have said, the change of the melody.

But the exact interpretation is known to him who set down such a superscription, and to anyone who, like him, has received the radiance of the divine Spirit.

It behooves those who diligently peruse the Psalms to know that they do not preserve the order of time;

but rather those which comprise the older histories have sometimes been allotted the second place, while those of the more recent events have been set first.

For indeed the third Psalm bears the superscription of the narrative concerning Absalom, while the hundred and forty-first is that concerning Saul.

And by how much the events concerning Saul are earlier than those concerning Absalom is surely plain to everyone acquainted with the history.

and that certain of those who lived later made the arrangement of these Psalms.

These things I have noted beforehand, so that I may not interrupt the interpretation by being compelled to write about them in the midst of it.

Here, then, having brought the preliminary consideration to a close, let us — with God, as the saying is — lay hold of the detailed interpretation.

Without superscription among the Hebrews.

'Blessed is the man who walked not in the counsel of the ungodly, and stood not in the way of sinners, and sat not in the seat of the pestilent.' From this it is easy to perceive that those who translated the divine Scriptures, having found the superscriptions of old among the Hebrews, rendered these into the Greek tongue.

For, finding both this Psalm and the one after it without superscription, they left them without superscription,

not having dared to add anything of their own to the oracles of the Spirit.

Certain of those who have composed the arguments of the Psalms have said that this Psalm contains an ethical teaching;

but to me it seemed no less dogmatic than ethical.

For it contains an accusation not of sinners only, but also of the ungodly, and it exhorts us to give heed continually to the divine words;

from which we reap not only ethical, but also dogmatic profit.

'For the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of Abraham.' Yet he is also his Lord and Maker, inasmuch as he is God.

'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand.' He therefore pronounces blessed the man who has neither shared the way of the ungodly, nor received as firm the counsel of sinners —

for this indeed he called 'standing' —

and who has fled the abiding corruption of the pestilent.

Now the name 'blessed' is a divine appellation;

and the divine Apostle bears witness to this, crying aloud;

for indeed he is also called 'faithful';

the blessed Moses says, 'A faithful God, and there is no injustice in him.' He also called those men 'faithful' who receive his words without wavering.

Thus, being God and so called, the bountiful One imparted this title also to men, and cries aloud:

'I said, You are gods, and all sons of the Most High; but you die like men.' The name 'blessed,' then, is the fruit of perfection according to virtue.

For just as each of the pursuits of life looks toward its own end,

athletics toward the crowns of wild-olive, generalship toward victories and trophies, medicine likewise toward health and deliverance from disease, and commerce toward the amassing of money and abundance of wealth,

so also the science of virtue has as its fruit and its end the divine blessedness.

Yet let no one, seeing only a 'man' here called blessed, suppose that the race of women has been deprived of this blessedness.

For the text comprehends the women together with the men;

for 'the man is the head of the woman,' as the divine Apostle says.

And the members of the body are joined to the head, and when the head is crowned the body rejoices;

so too, when conversing with someone and calling him a 'dear head,' we do not separate him from the parts of the body, but by a part we address the whole.

Not without purpose did he make mention first of 'way,' then of 'standing,' then of 'sitting';

but knowing exactly that reasoning first undergoes movement, whether it be base or earnest,

then a standing, then a certain fixed establishment.

He therefore exhorts us neither to admit any impious notion into the mind, nor to travel toward any lawless deed.

Divine Scripture is wont to call 'ungodly' those who practice atheism or the worship of many gods;

and 'sinners' those who choose to live in lawlessness and who embrace a corrupt manner of life;

and 'pestilent men' those who not only injure themselves but also impart their corruption to others, like the disease that falls upon both men and beasts, which those who draw near to the sick contract.

Since, however, the flight from vice does not suffice for the perfecting of virtue —

'For turn aside from evil,' it says, 'and do good'; and the blessed Isaiah likewise —

'But his will is in the law of the Lord, and in his law will he meditate day and night.' It is fitting, then, not only to abhor the things aforementioned,

but also to attend to the divine law by night and by day, and to will those things which the divine law prescribes, and to direct one's own life according to its aim.

For thus also the God of all gave the law through Moses, saying:

'The words of this law shall be always in your mouth, and you shall meditate on them sitting and rising up, and lying down and walking on the way;

and you shall bind them upon your hand, and they shall be immovable before your eyes.' Then he shows the fruit that springs up from this.

'For he shall be,' it says, 'like the tree planted by the channels of the waters,

which shall yield its fruit in its season.'

'And its leaf shall not fall off, and whatsoever he does shall prosper.' For the streams of the divine Spirit imitate the watering of waters;

and just as those waters make the trees planted beside them flourish, so these make men bring forth the divine fruits.

'For if anyone thirst,' he says, 'let him come to me and drink, and the water which I shall give him shall become a fountain of living water springing up unto life eternal.' And again:

'He that believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' Moreover, also to the Samaritan woman:

'Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again;

... unto the age.' Thus also through Isaiah the prophet he says:

'For I will give water in their thirst to those who journey in a waterless place.'

For the athletes of virtue shall indeed reap the fruits of their labors in the life to come;

yet, like leaves, bearing good hope perpetually within themselves, they flourish and rejoice, and by this solace they plunder the heaviness of their toils.

'And whatsoever he does shall prosper';

for 'from the Lord,' it says, 'are a man's steps directed, and he shall greatly desire his way.' And the word 'whatsoever' he set down not carelessly, but with much precision.

For having first forbidden all the forms of vice, and having demonstrated the perfection of the divine laws, he thus added, 'Whatsoever he does shall prosper'; knowing that such a man will wish to do nothing contrary to the laws, since he fits his own will to the divine law.

'For his will,' it says, 'is in the law of the Lord.' Having thus, for this reason, urged them on to virtue and instructed them in the perfect philosophy, he also trains the athletes by means of the contraries, and says:

'Not so the ungodly, not so.' By the doubling of the denial he shows the contrast more clearly.

'But they are like the chaff which the wind drives from the face of the earth.' For those men, he says, being watered by the divine oracles, are ever-blooming and bear ripe fruit;

but these, being trampled by the contrary winds, imitate the chaff that is easily carried here and there by the adverse winds.

For he did not say, 'The ungodly shall not rise,' but 'The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment'; that is, not for judgment, but for condemnation.

For they need no reproof, having their impiety manifest, but await the punishment alone.

For just as murderers caught in the very act the judges do not bring into the court in order to convict them, but so as to pronounce against them the verdict that the laws prescribe;

so also those who have lived in impiety, immediately after the resurrection undergo their chastisement, not being led to judgment, but receiving the verdict of punishment.

Moreover, even those who are free of impious doctrines but have lived a lawless life shall be far away from the assembly of the righteous.

For the word 'counsel' Aquila and Theodotion rendered as 'gathering,' and Symmachus as 'assembly.'

'For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the ungodly shall perish.' The righteous Judge, he says, knows all things even before the judgment, and needs neither proofs nor cross-examinations.

And the phrase 'The way of the ungodly shall perish' resembles those apostolic sayings:

'If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss.' For the work of righteous men remains, shining brightly;

but for impious and unholy men their wickedness is destroyed along with them.

Untitled among the Hebrews.

Having concluded the first psalm with the remembrance of the ungodly, from this he again made the beginning of the second;

and it takes in both kings and rulers, and Jews, and Gentiles.

Moreover, it foretells the calling of the nations, and laments the unbelief of the Jews.

For the phrase 'Why did the nations rage?' belongs to one lamenting and blaming their folly.

We have no need of many words for the interpretation, since the inspired Peter, the chief of the apostles, has set down the interpretation in the Acts, having named both Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the chief priests and scribes, and kings and rulers.

For the one had been sent by the emperor of the Romans, administering that ruler's dominion;

and the other happened at that time to be the tetrarch of the Jews;

and the one had subjects from among the Jews, the other soldiers from among the Gentiles.

For having risen on the third day, he took possession of the whole inhabited world.

And very aptly and most fittingly he joined the phrase 'they imagined vain things' to the person of the people.

For the Jews formed this wicked scheme against the Savior.

And a witness is the voice of the sacred Gospels, which teaches that the Pharisees went out and took counsel how they might destroy him, and that Caiaphas cried out:

'It is expedient that one man should die, and that the whole nation should not perish.' And the word 'raged' Aquila rendered 'were in tumult,' and Symmachus 'is in confusion.'

This, being attached to the person of the nations, suggests that we understand that, since the Jews brought Jesus to Pilate as though he were some tyrant and repeatedly said that he must be put to death, that man against his will pronounced the death-bearing verdict, fearing, as was likely, to release him lest some indictment be contrived against himself thereby.

For as the blessed Luke said, they accused him, saying:

'We found this man perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king.'

'Why did the nations rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.' He does not say 'the nations' with the article, that you should suppose all are included;

but 'nations,' bringing the sense to something particular.

For since the Jews, having taken him, delivered him up to the Gentiles, for this reason he says these things:

What, he says, is so great a cause, or what has happened, that even the peoples should be stirred up against him and he should be handed over into the hands of the nations? And the phrase 'They raged' stands for 'they boasted arrogantly.'

And with good reason, along with the Son and the Father, they cast off the yoke.

But it seems to me that the all-holy Spirit says these things to charge those who have believed:

Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And indeed the Law itself was called a yoke by the divine apostles.

For the God-inspired Peter says concerning this in the Acts:

Why do you tempt God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved, even as they. To these things the prophetic words also correspond:

Let us shake off the yoke of the Law;

let us regard as nothing the things done in types, unless they be understood spiritually;

let the shadow be reckoned unprofitable toward benefit, unless it depicts within itself the mystery of Christ.

He will scorn them. For he who was nailed by them and delivered over to death, being in the heavens and encompassing all things, shows their counsels to be empty and vain.

Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and in his fury he will trouble them. And the outcome of the events teaches the interpretation of these words as well;

for a Roman army, coming upon them, both sacked the city and set fire to the temple, and dispatched most of them to death, while those who escaped the slaughter it enslaved and handed over to bondage.

It is fitting to fix the mind upon the fact that he makes mention of two persons in succession;

and first indeed of the Lord and the Christ:

For he said, 'Against the Lord and against his Christ'; then of him who dwells in the heavens, and the Lord:

For he who dwells in the heavens will laugh them to scorn, and the Lord will mock them. And again he preserved the same form.

But I have been established king by him. And here too it is fitting to punctuate, and then to add: Declaring the ordinance of the Lord upon Zion his holy mountain. For he reigns not over Mount Zion alone, but over things visible and invisible, and over all creation.

And upon Mount Zion and Judea he offered his divine teaching to those who came to him;

and those who received it channeled the streams into the whole inhabited world, being persuaded by his divine commands.

For 'Go,' he says, 'make disciples of all the nations.' And the phrase 'I have been established king by him' he speaks in a human manner;

for as God he has kingship innate;

but as man he receives it by appointment;

and that as God he has dominion without beginning, the same prophet teaches, saying:

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. And the blessed Paul says that this psalm was spoken concerning the Son.

But nevertheless he both has the kingdom as God and receives it as man.

Thus, being named Most High as God, he was exalted as man.

But nevertheless, having as God the appellation of Son, he receives it also as man.

From the womb before the morning star I begot you. As man, therefore, he receives this utterance as well, and as man he hears the things that follow.

Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. For as God he is the maker of all things;

And since of old he seemed to care only for the Jews — for 'The Lord's portion,' it says, 'was the people Jacob, Israel the lot of his inheritance' — but this people was cast off, as having received no benefit from that guardianship;

with good reason he transfers his providential care to the nations, not having neglected them even of old, but fulfilling the Mosaic oracle;

for it is his utterance: Rejoice, O nations, with his people. And it is possible to find the outcome corresponding to the prediction.

those who had believed — not the twelve apostles only, but also the seventy disciples, and the hundred and twenty, when they were gathered and the blessed Peter delivered his address, and the five hundred to whom, after the resurrection, he appeared at once, according to the word of the God-inspired Paul, and the three thousand and the five thousand whom the chief of the apostles, in his public address, drew in as with a net, and the many myriads concerning whom the great James said, 'You see, brother, how many myriads there are of the Jews who have believed' — these, then, and besides them those throughout the whole inhabited world who from among the Jews had believed, having shown them to be a holy people, and through them having caught alive all the nations, he fulfills the prophecy that says:

Rejoice, O nations, with his people. And besides this he also fulfills his own prediction, which he made to the Jews, saying: I have other sheep also, which are not of this fold.

You shall shepherd them with a rod of iron;

and he shall shatter them like vessels of clay.

For since they refused to have him alone as king, and cried out with a great shout, saying, 'We have no king but Caesar,' he set over them the Caesar whom they had asked for, and through that man's army he exacted the penalty of their impiety.

But if anyone thinks these things were spoken not concerning the Jews, but concerning the nations, it is fitting to understand thus:

that he will shepherd the nations with a rod of iron, that is, with his strong and unbreakable kingdom;

and he will shatter them like a potter's vessels, dissolving and refashioning them through the regeneration of the washing, and rendering them firm by the fire of the Spirit;

and to embrace the saving laws, and through the training and teaching that come by them to reap the benefit:

And now, O kings, understand;

be instructed, all you who judge the earth. For the king of us all is he who of old seemed to rule over the Jews only.

lest the joy of God pass over into the joy of the world.

but it is necessary also to pursue practical virtue;

laying hold of which, you will travel the unerring path.

When his anger is quickly kindled;

paying the penalty for the offenses you have committed in this present life.

But then also those who have truly and firmly hoped in him will receive the fruit of their hope, namely blessedness.

For 'Blessed,' it says, 'are all who trust in him.' For even though the athletes of virtue possess blessedness in the present life, yet they will receive it more truly on that day, on which those who have lived in wickedness will draw the divine wrath down upon themselves.

but for the sake of the more slothful I will state it concisely.

For not only were the neighboring nations stirred up to strife and war, but the house itself received sedition, and lawlessness succeeded lawlessness.

The murderous crime of Absalom followed the licentiousness of Amnon, and the uprising against the father and the defection of the subjects followed the fratricide.

and when that kingdom had, because of the lawlessness that had occurred, fallen into apostasy, wickedness gained ground and wrought things worthy of tragedy and sprouted forth a harvest of calamities.

At that time, therefore, fleeing from his father-slaying son and from those who with him had taken up the array of battle against him, he wrote this psalm;

the divine Spirit clearly working even then, because of the fervent repentance he had made.

Lord, how are those multiplied who afflict me!

Many rise up against me.

Many say to my soul:

There is no salvation for him in his God. Many indeed, and of every kind, are the enemies who assail me from every side;

but they distress me more who mock me and say that I have been stripped of your providential care.

But I know that you will not endure to overlook me, even though I have committed great offenses.

But you will exalt me who am now brought low because of sin, and will show me stronger than my adversaries;

for this he intimated when he said:

But you, O Lord, are my helper, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. For I do not take courage in my kingship and my power, but I believe that you are my glory, and I hope quickly to be exalted by your right hand.

But we must not here understand the 'cry' as voice and shout, but as the eagerness of the soul.

For thus also the God of all things said to the blessed Moses when he was silent:

Why do you cry to me? — calling the silence a cry, because of the earnest prayer of the mind.

And the phrase 'He heard me from his holy mountain' is spoken according to the opinion that of old prevailed.

For the God of all things was thought to dwell in the tabernacle, since he also gave his oracles to the priests from there.

'But I lay down and slept.'

'I awoke, for the Lord will sustain me.' Divine Scripture frequently calls calamities 'night';

since those who fall into exceedingly grievous troubles suppose that they are living as though in darkness;

and sleep is yoked together with the nights;

he therefore signifies at one and the same time both the afflictions and the deliverance from them.

For the phrase 'I awoke, for the Lord will sustain me' declares this: that having enjoyed the divine assistance I became superior to the evils that had befallen me.

'I will not fear ten thousands of people that set themselves against me round about.'

'Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God.' For You are able, even by Your mere presence, to scatter the many myriads.

'For You have struck all who without cause were my enemies; You have broken the teeth of sinners.' Grant me therefore complete salvation;

just as You exacted punishment for injustice upon the Israelites and the Amalekites, and indeed upon Saul himself,

so also now count me worthy of salvation.

The phrase 'You have broken the teeth of sinners' stands for 'You have stripped them of all their strength,' by a metaphor drawn from wild beasts, which, when deprived of their teeth, are very easily despised and easily overcome.

'Salvation belongs to the Lord.' 'Having no hope in man,' he says,

'but I await salvation from You;'