Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 11/42

'And my pain is ever before me.' Sin, he says, has made me worthy of scourges;

wherefore I submit myself to the punishments;

for I long for healing, being pierced by the pangs of sin.

'But my enemies live, and are made stronger than I;'

'and they that hate me unjustly are multiplied.'

'They slandered me, because I pursued goodness.' Again through these words he alludes to Absalom, who slandered his judgements and called them unjust.

And since it was a son striving to become his father's murderer, fittingly he added:

'And they cast me out, the beloved, as an abominable corpse.'

For him whom by the laws of nature it behoved to love, this one loathed as a foul-smelling corpse.

'Forsake me not, O Lord my God; depart not from me.'

'For the end, for Idithun.'

'I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue;'

'I set a guard upon my mouth, while the sinner stood before me.'

For he took great forethought, he says, concerning the tongue;

knowing this member to be especially prone to slipping, and ever surrounding it as with a wall.

And not least when Shimei, though in no way wronged, set himself against him;

for he names him a sinner, as being unjust.

'if perchance the Lord should look upon my humiliation, and deliver me this day from the hand of my enemies.'

This he says here also, that 'I became like a deaf man that hears not at all,' and I humbled myself, awaiting the gain that comes thereby.

'And my grief was renewed.' Being reviled by that man, he says, I came to the remembrance of the sin I had dared to commit, and was smitten by the darts thereof, reckoning that it was on this account that I am reviled, and tyrannized over, and driven from the kingdom, and compelled to flee.

And these things too have much kinship with the history.

'My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall be kindled.' This Symmachus rendered thus:

'My heart was made hot within me; while I mused, I was set on fire with flame.'

Remembering my sin, he says, I was set ablaze with the fire of despondency.

'I spoke with my tongue: Make known to me, O Lord, my end;'

'and the number of my days, what it is.'

To him that reviled me, then, I answered nothing, but I besought the Lord of all to make plain to me the end of my life, greatly longing for my departure.

'Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths, and my substance is as nothing before thee.' This again Symmachus rendered thus:

'Behold, thou hast granted my days as spans, and my life is as nothing over against thee.'

And I long for death, knowing human nature not to be long-lived.

For our life does not even seem to have subsistence when compared with thy life.

For thou art without beginning and without end, but our life is measured out as it were by spans and handbreadths.

'For a thousand years in thine eyes, O Lord, are as the day of yesterday which is past, and as a watch in the night.' And elsewhere, making mention of the heavens and the earth, he says: 'They shall perish, but thou endurest; and they all shall wax old as a garment;'

'and as a mantle thou shalt roll them up, and they shall be changed.'

'Surely man walks about as an image; yet in vain is he troubled.'

'He heaps up treasure, and knows not for whom he shall gather it.' In nothing, he says, do the living differ from men painted in an image;

for the nature of both these and those alike flows away with time and is corrupted.

But nevertheless they are none the less troubled, contending, striving, warring, trading;

and the whole of life is full of tempest, having death for its end;

and gathering wealth with much toil and sweat, they know not who shall be the heir to come.

For having, by the spoils of war and the tribute brought from foreign peoples, shown his kingdom to be very great and illustrious, he was ignorant of the impious and lawless purpose of his son.

Then, seeing him become master of the kingdom, and appropriating to himself the treasured wealth, he uttered that wonderful saying: 'Surely in vain is he troubled; he heaps up treasure, and knows not for whom he shall gather it.'

'And now what is my patience? Is it not the Lord? And my substance is from thee.' Having bidden farewell to all those things, I await the help that comes from thee.

'Substance' Aquila rendered as 'expectation';

as if to say, Thee do I await, keeping watch, awaiting thy favour.

Then he indicates the cause of his pains.

'Deliver me from all my iniquities.' And again he brings to mind Shimei;

'Thou hast made me a reproach to the foolish.' This too accords greatly with the things said in the history;

'I was made dumb, and opened not my mouth, for thou didst it.' For with thy permission, he says, that man raged drunkenly;

and he was like a scourge, while thou didst through him bring chastisement.

And very aptly did he add what follows.

'Remove thy scourges from me;'

for by the multitude of the scourges I was consumed.

'With rebukes for iniquity thou hast chastened man, and thou hast made his soul to melt away like a spider's web.' Not idly, he says, nor in vain hast thou employed the chastisements, but reproving the transgressions, and cutting as a physician, and drawing out the hidden matter;

and by the pains of the treatment thou meltest them away, yet workest health for those who are cut.

'Surely every man is troubled in vain.' Considering these things, then, within myself, I see men troubling themselves over transient matters to no purpose.

'Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication;'

'give ear to my tears;'

'be not silent, for I am a sojourner with thee, and a stranger, as were all my fathers.'

For I do not dwell in the earth, but sojourn, and like my fathers, having lived a short time, I shall receive death.

Grant me, then, a little respite, that I may live even a few days free from pain, before I depart from this life.

'For having gone forth, I shall not return.'

For he said this, not 'I shall no longer exist at all,' that is, I shall not return to this corruptible life.

For in truth the words are full of wisdom, and of one who understands the nature of things that are, and for this reason despises the present prosperity.

since both that man and this one were cast into a pit, and the introduction of the psalm makes mention of a pit;

and clinging to this one saying, they turned to that interpretation.

But some have said that the psalm fits those taken captive who dwelt in Babylon.

and that it also refers to the whole nature of mankind, which has received from God and our Saviour the hopes of the resurrection.

And to this interpretation the divinely-inspired Paul guides us, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, having called to mind certain of these sayings.

'Waiting I waited for the Lord, and he gave heed to me.'

For this psalm is in harmony with the one set before it.

For in that one he said:

'Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication;'

'give ear to my tears;'

'do not keep silence, but grant me relief that I may find refreshment before I depart and am no more.' And a little earlier he had said:

'And now what is my patient waiting? Is it not the Lord? And my very substance is from you.' But here, as though his entreaty had been received and his petition granted, he says, 'Waiting I waited for the Lord, and he gave heed to me.' For having turned me away from sin, he showed me a gracious countenance and hearkened to my supplication.

And what did he do when he had hearkened? 'And he brought me up out of a pit of misery, and out of miry clay.' It is customary for the divine Scripture thus to name the greatest dangers, as we have already stated before.

And having delivered you from the dangers, what further did he graciously grant you? 'And he set my feet upon a rock.' For he did not allow me to be shaken and carried about, but made my standing firm.

'For upon this rock,' he says, 'I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.' — 'And he directed my steps.' He prepared me to run unhindered into the way of righteousness.

For having freed me from error, he showed me the straight way of truth.

'And he put in my mouth a new song, a hymn to our God.' For in place of the impious worship of idols I was taught to hymn the true God, and to offer a song not old but new, and befitting the new benefactions.

For no longer do I supplicate with lamentation, but I sing hymns over the benefactions.

And it is especially fitting for the nature of human beings — which has sunk down into the very depth of sin, and has been consigned to death, and through the incarnation of our Saviour has been drawn up, and has received the hopes of the resurrection — to say, 'Waiting I waited for the Lord, and he gave heed to me.'

'And he hearkened to me, and brought me up out of a pit of misery.' Death is fittingly called a pit of misery, being full of corruption;

and the miry clay is sin, as sending forth a great stench and impeding the straight course of human beings.

'Many shall see, and shall fear, and shall hope in the Lord.' Since he recounts these things in the person of one who has enjoyed salvation, the Prophet fittingly said that those who have not yet tasted the good things, beholding them, shall also fear, as not yet having drawn near, and, being strengthened by hope, shall obtain salvation from God.

'Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has not looked to vanities and false frenzies.' The Prophet made mention of these vanities also in the psalm before this one:

'Yet every living man is altogether vanity.' And again, 'Yet he is troubled in vain.' Here too, then, he pronounces blessed the one who has despised present things, but has gained the divine hope in place of all.

'there is none who shall be likened to you.'

'I declared and I spoke; they were multiplied beyond number.' The wonders wrought by your power, he says, surpass number and all narration.

For there is none able to do the like of you;

for your works are indeed most great and most beautiful;

and the things dispensed at each season by your providence surpass all human praises — the things in Egypt, the things in the wilderness, the things under Moses, the things under Joshua, the things under Samuel, and those older than these, the things concerning Abraham, the things concerning Isaac, the things concerning Jacob, the kingship attained through the servitude of Joseph, and the rest, that I may not recount each one.

But what has now come to pass is more wonderful than all these.

For you are working the salvation not of one man, nor of one nation, but of all the nations; and, having put an end to the legal worship, which suited the weakness of the Jews, you have given the new grace, which lays down as law the rational worship.

'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have fitted for me.'

'Whole burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.'

'Then I said, Behold, I come.' With these the apostolic exhortation is in accord:

'I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, which is your rational worship.'

'And having seen this your grace,' he says, 'I brought myself to you, saying, Behold, I am here.'

For he is the first-fruits of our nature, and it befits the first one to speak our concerns, and in himself to prefigure what ought to come from us.

Thus he was the first to come to baptism, showing us the grace of baptism;

thus he washed the feet of the disciples, setting before us an archetype of humility.

'Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.' It befits him, then, to speak our concerns also, as the head of a body, as the firstborn of many brethren according to the flesh.

'In the roll of a book it is written concerning me.' 'From of old,' he says, 'in the prophetic books these things concerning me were foretold.'

The word 'roll' Aquila and Symmachus rendered as 'a wrapping';

for thus the Jews have been accustomed to prepare the divine Scriptures even down to the present day.

'To do your will, O my God, I have desired;'

'and your law is in the midst of my belly.' Having come to you, he says, I have all diligence to fulfil your commandments and to conduct myself according to your will.

And the phrase 'in the midst of my belly' he has spoken by a metaphor drawn from those who are well disposed toward someone and long inwardly to embrace the one they desire.

For while the law held sway, whole burnt offerings and sacrifices were offered to God.

But the prophetic word, having cast out all such things, pointed to the rational sacrifice.

since he too prophetically foresaw the things to come, and desired to live according to them;

but truly it applies to the nations that have been counted worthy of salvation and have been delivered from error.

'I preached good tidings of righteousness in a great assembly; behold, I will not restrain my lips;'

'I did not hide your righteousness within my heart; I have told your truth and your salvation.'

and this saved nature promises to render this recompense in return for its salvation — to run together into the assembly, and to move the lips in hymn-singing, and to proclaim the righteous judgment of God, and to declare his ineffable providential care, and to point out the truth of the prophetic promises.

'of a great congregation' — Symmachus put 'in a multitude', while Aquila and Theodotion put 'in a great assembly';

so that it is clear that he has spoken concerning the same assembly.

'But you, O Lord, do not remove your compassions far from me;'

'your mercy and your truth have continually upheld me.' And the Church of God, having obtained salvation, again has need of the same providential care, because of the manifold uprisings of men and demons, of which it makes mention in what follows.

'For evils beyond number have surrounded me;'

'my iniquities have overtaken me, and I was not able to see.'

'They were multiplied beyond the hairs of my head, and my heart forsook me.' Let no one consider what is said to be out of keeping with the interpretations given.

'For Christ Jesus,' he says, 'came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first.'

And again, 'I am not worthy to be called an apostle.' So then, the Church of God, buffeted by the surging waves of the impious, does not exalt itself as though it were doing battle, but ascribes what happens to sins and transgressions, and calls upon the succour of the Saviour that it may enjoy it.

Besides, the Church of God is not composed entirely of the perfect;

but it also has those who live in ease, and who embrace a slack manner of life, and who choose to be slaves to pleasures.

And since it is one body, both these things and those are uttered as from one person.

'Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;'

'O Lord, make haste to help me.'

'Let them be put to shame and confounded together who seek my soul to snatch it away.' For they wish not merely to wound, but to consign it to eternal death.

'Let them be turned back and put to shame who desire evils against me.' Turn them to flight, and cause them to fail of what they long for;

'Let them speedily receive shame who say to me, Aha, aha.' And to those who mock and laugh at me, let shame become their fruit.

'Let all who seek you, O Lord, rejoice and be glad in you, and let those who love your salvation say continually, Let the Lord be magnified.' Fill with perpetual gladness, he says, those who seek you and hymn you and love you continually; and, receiving no change in their love toward you, let them receive no change of their cheerfulness.

For he did not ask cheerfulness for those who love simply, but for those who ever and continually hold the love that is worthy of all longing.

'But I am poor and needy;'

'you are my helper and my defender, O Lord; do not delay.' Just as he made mention of sins above, so also he calls himself poor, as one lacking help and needing the divine succour;

and he supplicates to obtain this as speedily as possible.

For I consider that, having beheld that prophecy and the munificence of grace, he called himself poor and needy, and himself besought that he too might enjoy the divine providence.

He entreats that the appointed salvation may not be delayed, nor put off to distant times, but that it may most swiftly be granted to mankind.

But the divine Gospel does not permit us to accept either of these interpretations.

'If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.'

'I speak not of you all; I know whom I have chosen;'

'but that the Scripture may be fulfilled;'

'He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me;'

'From now on I tell you before it comes to pass, that when it does come to pass you may believe that I am he.' Since, then, the Lord says, 'That the Scripture may be fulfilled,' and shows that the present psalm belongs to him and to no other, I think it rash and presumptuous to fabricate for it another and inappropriate subject.

'Blessed is he that considers the poor and needy.' I found the words 'and needy' in some copies;

but they are found neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Syriac, nor among the other translators.

Now he calls the Lord of all 'poor,'

since, being rich, as the divine Apostle says, he became poor for our sake, that we by his poverty might become rich. And 'being in the form of God, he counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God;'

'but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.' And though he is Lord of things visible and invisible, he had nowhere to lay his head; and being born of a Virgin, for lack of a bed he was laid in a manger.

The prophetic word therefore pronounces blessed the one who is able to understand this poverty, and who eagerly strives, according to his power, to praise him who took it up;

then it shows the fruits of the blessing.

'In the evil day the Lord shall deliver him.' Symmachus called the evil day 'the day of affliction.'

He hints, I think, at the day of judgment, which is fearful and works evil upon transgressors;

and he promises that the pure knowledge of that poverty will deliver him from the evils of the fearful day.

'The Lord shall preserve him and keep him alive, and make him blessed upon the earth, and shall not deliver him into the hands of his enemies.' Not only shall he enjoy the good things to come, but even in the present life he shall obtain the divine care, becoming illustrious and conspicuous, and escaping the plots of his adversaries.

And since it is likely that one having a corruptible body should also fall into sickness, he promises deliverance from this too.

'The Lord shall help him upon the bed of his pain;'

'thou didst turn all his couch in his sickness.' He shall deliver him, it says, from all sickness, and shall change the disease into health.

For the phrase 'thou didst turn his couch in his sickness' he has put instead of 'thou didst change it.' Thus, having recounted the recompenses for the one who understands that admirable poverty, he shows us who it was that possessed this poverty, and how he underwent it, introducing him as teaching and recounting the things concerning himself.

'Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.' 'I am,' he says, 'the poor one, the one who took up voluntary poverty, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the one who makes the sufferings of men his own, who committed no sin, but who, as the firstfruits of the nature, offers on behalf of human nature the propitiation.'

It should be noted that Symmachus did not say 'for I have sinned against thee,' but 'even if I have sinned against thee.'

'My enemies spoke evil against me: When shall he die, and his name perish?' He calls the Jews enemies, envying him and contriving his death.

This too the narrative of the sacred Gospels teaches;

'For they took counsel,' it says, 'that they might destroy him.' From here he transfers the prophecy to Judas.

'And he came in to see;'

'his heart spoke vainly;'

'he went outside and spoke.' Thus also the divine evangelists teach us that to the Jews he said,

'What will you give me, and I will deliver him to you?' And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

These things the prophecy also says: 'And he came in to see vainly;'

'he went outside and spoke.' For going in and coming out, he concocted death for him together with those men;

then he foretells their evil conspiracy.

'All my enemies whispered together against me; against me they devised evil for me.'

'They laid a lawless word against me.' The outcome of events bears witness to these things.

They sought a manner of plotting.

Then they drew up an accusation of tyranny, saying to Pilate, 'He declares himself a king, and forbids to give tribute to Caesar.' This also the prophecy says:

'They laid a lawless word against me,' that is, they made an accusation of lawlessness against me.

'Shall not he that sleeps rise up again?' 'Even if I endure death,' he says, 'shall I not rise again, and scatter those who contrived it?' And this resembles the Gospel saying: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' And again:

'For even the man of my peace, in whom I hoped, who ate my bread, magnified his heel against me.' Aquila and Theodotion have said this more clearly:

'And indeed the man of my peace, in whom I trusted.'

'But also the man who was at peace with me, in whom I had trusted.'

For not only did my enemies contrive death for me, but also the man who was with me, who feigned goodwill and peace, who was my table-companion and my mess-mate, laid bare the treachery he harboured.

He has taken my birthright and my blessing. (verses 11, 12)

'But thou, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up, and I will requite them.'

'By this I know that thou hast desired me, because my enemy shall not triumph over me.' And all these things are spoken as from the nature that was assumed, in regard to which the Passion also took place.

'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.' (verse 13)

'But as for me, thou hast upheld me because of my innocence, and hast established me before thee for ever.' These things too fit the form of the servant, which the Only-begotten of God assumed.

For he did not, of course, take hold of angels, as the divine Apostle says, but he took hold of the seed of Abraham; wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. Since, therefore, the assumed nature remained free from all evil, he fittingly says, 'But as for me, thou hast upheld me because of my innocence, and hast established me before thee for ever.'

For I have received a firm union, and the conjunction is undivided, and the glory is eternal.

'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting;'

And fittingly, after the sufferings, he offered up a hymn, teaching that the one prophesied is not only man, but also God before the ages, having an indestructible and unending being.

'To the end, for understanding, for the sons of Korah.' The people having sinned, God delivered them to the Babylonians, having decreed for them a captivity of seventy years.

The psalm is spoken, then, as in the person of these, lamenting and longing for freedom;

and since it was to be spoken at the time of the calamity, he teaches beforehand many generations in advance, that they may be comforted by the prophecy, and instructed by the teaching.

And 'for understanding' is added, since those who fall into calamities have especial need of this.

'As the hart pants after the springs of water, so pants my soul after thee, O God.' They say that harts feed upon venomous beasts, and from this are the more vehemently kindled to thirst, and long the more ardently for water.

The aforementioned persons, therefore, dwelling among the Babylonians, living together with men of impiety and lawlessness, and utterly resembling creeping venomous beasts, fittingly said that they thirsted after God like the harts, longing for deliverance from thence, and awaiting the divine inclination.

'My soul thirsted for God, the mighty, the living;'

'when shall I come and appear before the face of God?' 'I long,' he says, 'and thirst for the worship of my living God.'

For 'to appear before the face of God' he means 'to worship him according to the law;'

and such worship was confined to Jerusalem.

And these things not only the blessed Moses teaches, but also the three blessed martyrs, Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael, entreating God in the furnace.

And very fittingly they name God 'mighty and living,' in contrast to the lifeless and motionless idols of the Babylonians to which those men were devoted.

'My tears have been to me bread day and night;'

'while it is said to me daily, Where is thy God? These things I remembered, and poured out my soul upon myself.' 'By night,' he says, 'and by day I lamented and took no satisfaction, but I make my tears as a kind of food, receiving the reproaches concerning thee.'

'For my adversaries mock me, alleging that thy care is feeble and unable to prevail over their might.'

'Therefore, continually pondering these things, I have unceasing lamentation.'

For the phrase, 'I poured out my soul upon myself,' signifies this: that I was dissolved and moved to lamentations.

'For I will pass through into the place of the wondrous tabernacle, even unto the house of God, with a voice of rejoicing and thanksgiving, the sound of one keeping festival.' He calls the shelter of God a tabernacle.

After the gloomy things, then, he proclaims the joyful ones, and foretells that most swiftly they shall obtain their recall, and, guided by the divine grace, shall return to the longed-for land, shall rebuild the divine house, shall accomplish the accustomed festal assemblies, and shall receive into their ears the festive sound and the spiritual melody.

The blessed Isaiah also foretells that they shall return with the greatest honour, borne in litters of mules, and sheltered by canopies, having laid aside the harm of the sun's ray.

This too Aquila hinted at: 'I will enter into the shady place,' carrying them across even unto the house of God, with a voice of praise and thanksgiving of a crowd keeping festival. 'Dancing,' he says, 'and hymning God the Saviour, and enjoying shade along the journey, thus shall we reach the divine house, as though making our return in some solemn procession.'

Having heard this prediction, they comfort their own souls, saying:

'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, for I will confess unto Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God.' 'Having received these promises, O soul,' he says, 'cease from thy fretting and distress;'

'but, being established in hope, await the fulfilment of the prediction;'

'wherein, beholding the salvation that has come to pass, thou shalt offer hymns to God who has saved thee.'

'My soul is troubled within me; therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, and of Hermoniim, from the little hill.' This is a kind of character-portrayal of the soul conversing with itself.

For since he had said, 'Cease from despondency, having received the promises of good things,' the soul answers to this, saying: 'Not in vain do I fret, nor have I used the aforesaid laments without cause;'