Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 13/42

'God is our refuge and strength, a helper in the afflictions that have found us exceedingly' [Ps 45:2 LXX]. The foregoing psalm, having prophesied concerning the Church that was gathered from the impious nations and has become a queen, and having shown her sons—

declared to be princes over all the earth—here points out the tumults that arose at the beginning of the preaching, when the gainsayers rose up and made war against those who believed.

...to the word, that the company of the persecuted, fenced about by their hope in God, may despise the waves that assail them.

'For having,' he says, 'the God of all as a strong rampart, we do not feel the afflictions of every kind.'

'Every ravine shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways into smooth paths' [Isa 40:4]. And by 'ravine' he calls the lowly and humble nations, those deprived of any height;

which he foretold would be filled by the word of teaching.

...

And by 'mountains and hills' he named the precincts of the demons;

and he foretold that their manifold and deceitful operations would be brought low and become altogether invisible.

Accordingly, here too the prophetic word shows those who have believed in the Savior crying aloud: 'We shall receive in our soul no storm of dread, though we behold the earth being troubled, and the demons that are being driven out into the abyss attempting to throw into confusion the men who are worked upon by them.'

And at the same time the word foretells that the impiety which of old held sway over the demons—which imitated the height of the mountains and had gained the greater dominion over the inhabited world—shall be gone, as though consigned to some deep abyss.

'Their waters roared and were troubled' [Ps 45:4 LXX];

and again in Philippi, and Thessalonica, and Athens, and Corinth, the spirits of deceit stirring up these waves.

Worked upon by these, some cried out against the holy apostles: 'These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also' [Acts 17:6]. This the blessed Habakkuk also foretold:

'For you mounted your horses upon the sea, troubling many waters' [Hab 3:15]. Now he called the holy apostles 'horses,' as having become a divine chariot.

Therefore here too the prophetic word says that the waters received a storm, and the mountains endured shakings, as the gospel proclamation was being conveyed across.

And here by 'mountains' he designated the throng of the demons, on account of the swelling of their arrogance and the loftiness of their pride;

and by 'waters' the opinions of men, which like waters are easily carried this way and that, and are thrown into turmoil by the spirits of deceit.

'The onrushings of the river make glad the city of God' [Ps 45:5 LXX]. And by 'river' here he designated the gospel proclamation;

and by 'city,' the commonwealth of the godly, which is watered by the streams of the river unto the bearing of fruit.

This the Three rendered more clearly:

'The divisions of the river make glad the city of God.'

For just as the spring of Paradise was divided into four rivers [Gen 2:10],

so this river of God had countless channels, beyond all number, running out into all the tribes of men.

For one channel ran to the Indians, another to the Spaniards;

and one reached Egypt, another Greece;

and some were entrusted to water Judea, others Syria and Cilicia, and others were put in charge of the husbandry of yet other nations.

And this too the blessed Habakkuk foretold:

'For the earth shall be cleft with rivers' [Hab 3:9], that is, the earth shall be parceled out into channels, receiving the streams of the great river.

For he named its divisions 'rivers.'

'The Most High sanctified his own tabernacle' [Ps 45:5 LXX]. That which he called a city, this he named a tabernacle;

...to be sanctified by the God of all.

'God is in the midst of her, and she shall not be shaken' [Ps 45:6 LXX]. This the Lord also promised in the holy Gospels:

'Behold, I am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age' [Matt 28:20]. And, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them' [Matt 18:20].—'God shall help her at the dawning of the morning' [Ps 45:6 LXX]. Swift, he says, and keen shall be the help which the Lord of all provides to his own city.

For by 'morning by morning' he designated that which is swift and keen.

'Nations were troubled, kingdoms bowed down; the Most High uttered his voice, the earth was shaken' [Ps 45:7 LXX]. When the divine help appeared, he says, the enemies turned their backs, and the kingdoms that of old were of contrary mind bent their necks, and received the saving yoke.

For by truth, by the testimony of events themselves, and by manifold wonders, God, employing these as a kind of voice, displayed His own exalted majesty to men and filled their souls with awe.

'The Lord God of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our helper.' We have therefore been shown to be mightier than those who war against us, since we have gained as our ally the Lord of the heavenly powers.

He it was who rendered Jacob, when persecuted, mightier than those who warred against him, and delivered him from the plots of Esau and of Laban.

The prophetic word made mention of Jacob not without purpose, but because he was the first to foretell the calling of the nations.

For he says: 'The ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until He come to whom it is reserved; and He is the expectation of nations.' Here too foretelling the transformation of the nations, he fittingly said that the God of Jacob, who had foretold these things, had accomplished them.

'Making wars to cease unto the ends of the earth, He shall break the bow and shatter the weapon, and burn the shields in the fire.'

'Be still, and know that I am God.'

'I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.' Beholding, therefore, O men, this My strength, and contemplating the sudden change of affairs, the calm that has arisen out of the mightiest tempest, the cessation of war and the gift of peace, learn from these very events that I am the God of all and the Maker of all things, displaying the height of My power no longer to the Jews alone, but indeed to all the nations.

Having heard these words, the apostolic choir, chanting a paean over their adversaries, cries out (verse 12):

'The Lord God of hosts is with us;'

'the God of Jacob is our helper.' Let those, then, who have taken this psalm to refer to Gog, or who have said that it fits Ahaz, say how the words 'making wars to cease unto the ends of the earth' fit those histories. For neither in those cases did He cause all wars to cease; rather, in the case of Gog and Magog, Palestine alone enjoyed peace.

And in the case of Ahaz, not even all Palestine, but only the single tribe of Judah;

for Pekah the son of Remaliah sustained the assault of the Assyrians.

For first the local prefectures and the partial kingdoms were dissolved;

on account of which men enjoyed not even a brief peace, but every city was under arms, dreading the sudden incursions that came upon them.

But under our Saviour Christ the empire of the Romans, having dissolved the partial kingdoms, made ready the ears of all men for those who proclaimed the gospel.

For fearlessly, as if within a single kingdom, they traversed the world and brought to men the saving teaching.

According to the literal sense, this is how the words came to pass: 'making enemies to cease unto the ends of the earth, and He shall break the bow, and shatter the weapons, and burn the shields in the fire.' But if one should wish to understand it more figuratively, he will see the cessation of the war against the Church, and the peace granted to them from God, and will behold the truth of the prophecy.

'Unto the end, For the sons of Korah.' This psalm also foretells the salvation of all the nations, and proclaims beforehand the victory over the enemies.

'O clap your hands, all ye nations; shout unto God with a voice of exultation.'

'For the Lord Most High is terrible, a great King over all the earth.' The prophetic word foretold these things;

and it points to the apostolic choir, urging all the nations to hymnody.

And the shout of exultation is the voice of those who conquer.

The thought of this psalm, then, follows upon that which is placed before it.

For that psalm too, after the tempest and the tumults, foretold the victory that was announced.

And this psalm likewise exhorts those who have obtained the victory to offer the hymn to the Giver of victory;

'for Most High,' it says, 'and terrible, a King has He been shown to be to you all.'

And these things were of old known to the Jews alone;

but at the present time they have been made manifest to the whole nature of mankind.

'He hath subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.'

'He hath chosen for us His inheritance, the beauty of Jacob, which He loved.' Instead of 'the peoples,' Symmachus has said 'kings,' and instead of 'the beauty of Jacob,' Aquila has 'the pride of Jacob.'

The apostolic choir, then, says that it is right for those who clap and dance to offer the victory-hymn to the God of all, who has subdued kings under us and given us the rule over all the nations;

and besides this, has entrusted to us the beauty and the excellence of Jacob.

For it was not the whole Jewish people called Jacob, but the beauty of Jacob and the excellence, the choicest part of Jacob—those adorned with faith, those who without doubt received the proclamation, those who took upon themselves the kindly yoke of the Saviour.

For these He both chose and loved, and to them He entrusted the apostolic helm.

For one may see those from all the nations who have believed prostrating themselves before the apostolic shrines, and honouring with much longing even the scanty dust, so that in his own words one may both behold and chant: 'He hath subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.'

'Sing praises to our God, sing praises;'

'sing praises to our King, sing praises.'

'For God is King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding.'

'God hath reigned over the nations; God sitteth upon His holy throne.' With hymns, therefore, and with spiritual dances, honour the universal King of all;

for to all men He has shown His own kingdom, and has persuaded all the nations that He Himself is God and Lord, seated upon the royal thrones.

And the words 'God sitteth upon His holy throne' accord with the apostolic saying:

'He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;'

'having become so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.' Well too did he add the words 'sing praises with understanding,' teaching that the hymn should be offered not with the tongue alone, but that the mind also should be roused to a comprehension of the things being said.

'The rulers of the peoples are gathered together with the God of Abraham;'

'for the mighty ones of the earth belong to God; they are greatly exalted.' The promises made to the patriarch Abraham, he says, have reached their fulfilment—

namely, that in his seed all the nations would be blessed.

Wherefore these nations too, and their rulers, forsaking their ancestral gods, are gathered together with the God of Abraham, and name Him their own God.

And ministers of their calling were the divine apostles, who confirmed by their wonder-working the loftiness of the true theology.

For these the Seventy called 'the mighty ones,' while Aquila called them 'shields,' and Theodotion and Symmachus 'defences.'

For becoming, as it were, certain shields and champions of those who had believed, they did not permit the phalanx to be broken in the onset of dangers;

but routing the enemies, they exhort their fellow-believers to chant the victory-song, saying: 'O clap your hands, all ye nations;'

'shout unto God with a voice of exultation;'

'for the Lord Most High is terrible, a great King over all the earth.' INTERPRETATION.

'A Psalm of a Song, for the sons of Korah.'

'Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.' We have already said before that Holy Scripture often calls a 'city' not the building, but the polity;

wherefore now too it says that the Lord of all has been shown to be great through the things done by Him concerning His own city;

which city the loftiness of its doctrines rendered conspicuous, as though it were set upon a high and mighty mountain.

'Well-rooted, with the exultation of all the earth.' This city, he says, He built well and fair and firmly, for the joy of all the earth.

'For He built it,' says the divine Apostle, 'upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.'

And the Lord Himself said to the blessed Peter:

'And upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.' The word 'well-rooted,' then, stands for 'firmly founded;'

so that it might remain unshaken and immovable.

'The mountains of Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King.' Moreover, He surrounded it also with mountains, so that it might escape the harm coming from the north.

'For from the north,' He says, 'the evils shall be kindled upon all the earth;' and again, 'I will drive away the north wind from you.'

And the name 'Zion' too the divine Apostle understood of the spiritual city.

'For ye are come,' he says, 'unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.' And by the 'mountains' that drive away the north and keep the city unharmed, one might fittingly understand the apostles and prophets, and their manifold teachings, and besides these the angels who stand watch over those who have believed.

'For the angel of the Lord,' he says, 'shall encamp round about them that fear Him, and shall deliver them.' (verse 4)

'God is known in her palaces, when He upholds her.' One is the Church throughout all land and sea;

wherefore in prayer we say, 'For the holy and only catholic and apostolic Church, which is from one end of the world unto the other.'

These the prophetic word called 'citadels' (bareis).

Just as each city has within it many separate houses, yet is nonetheless called one city,

so too there are churches beyond number and past all counting, both on islands and on the mainlands;

yet all of them together make up one Church, being united by the harmony of the true doctrines.

In these, he says, the God of all reveals himself, extending his own assistance;

for 'God is known in her citadels, when he comes to her aid.' Then he foretells the uprisings that are to come, and the change of heart in the enemies.

'They themselves, when they had seen it, were amazed.' For they had banded together as if to make war;

but when they beheld the invincibility of her who was under attack, they were struck with dismay.

'For they were troubled,' he says, 'they were shaken.'

[verses 7, 8.] 'Trembling took hold of them.'

'There were pangs as of a woman in travail;'

'with a violent wind you will shatter the ships of Tarshish.' Beholding, he says, the unbreakable foundations of the Church, and perceiving the unerring truth of the prophecy, they were seized with fear and shuddering, like those who cross the ridges of the sea, and are battered by storm-blasts, and await utter destruction.

For this reason, ceasing to make war and to hurl their weapons, they themselves proclaim the power of her whom they had assailed, and cry aloud:

'As we have heard, so also have we seen,'

'in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.' For being unwilling to accept the prophecies concerning her, we have beheld the truth of them through the events themselves.

'God has established her forever.' For it is his own voice that says, 'Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against her.' Having thus shown the change of heart in the enemies, the prophetic word next foretells what words those who have obtained salvation will use, as they hymn their benefactor.

'I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the age.' Verse 11.

'According to your name, O God, so also is your praise unto the ends of the earth.' The falsely-named gods do not possess a power befitting their designation;

for which reason praise is justly offered to you from the whole inhabited world.

For as he is the God of all, so he is hymned by all.

'Let Mount Zion be glad, and let the daughters of Judaea rejoice, because of your judgements, O Lord.' By Mount Zion he called those entrusted with the loftiness of theology;

and by the daughters of Judaea, the churches throughout the inhabited world, as having been planted by the apostles, who traced their lineage from the Jews.

He exhorts both the preachers and the hearers to be glad and to exult, because of the righteous judgements of God, by which he wrought the salvation of the inhabited world.

'Go about Zion, and encompass her; recount in her towers.'

'Set your hearts upon her power, and distribute her citadels.' By Zion he again calls the godly commonwealth, that is, the Church throughout the inhabited world.

By her towers he means those who have laid hold of the highest virtue, and who imitate on earth the commonwealth of the angels, who like towers encircle her and guard her.

And by citadels, once more, as we have already said before, the churches distributed among cities, and villages, and countryside;

for he speaks of one and the same thing as both one and many.

The prophetic word, therefore—the grace of the all-holy Spirit—exhorts those entrusted with the saving proclamation to go around and traverse everywhere, to strengthen the towers by their teaching, to confirm her remaining power, and besides this, to apportion among themselves the care of the churches;

which very thing we have also spoken of before in the forty-fifth Psalm.

For this too he here exhorts:

'Distribute her citadels'—so that this man should have oversight of this church, and that man of that, and that over each there should be set one who tills it and bestows the care that is fitting.

And this he commands to be done not once, nor twice, but in every generation.

'That you may recount it to another generation.'

[verse 15] 'For this is our God forever, and unto the ages of ages.'

that the saving proclamation might be ferried across, and that all men might know that this one is our God and Lord, and good shepherd, and eternal.

For since he had said, 'Distribute her citadels,' and had entrusted to them the task of shepherding, he necessarily taught that there is one good Shepherd, who laid down his own life for the sheep, shepherding unto the age, and shepherding not only the sheep, but also those who are called the herdsmen of the sheep.

'Unto the end, a psalm for the sons of Korah.' The divine choir of the apostles had already exhorted the nations to offer the hymn of victory to God;

and now likewise it offers to those same nations an exhortation, to add to their faith the virtue of a good life.

And it teaches the emptiness of riches, and the unprofitableness of the wisdom of this world.

It also foretells the judgement that is to come, and the recompense according to desert.

'Hear these things, all you nations; give ear, all you who dwell in the inhabited world.' That the prophets brought their teaching to the Jews alone is surely plain to all;

but here the prophetic word rouses the whole inhabited world to give heed.

And this is proper to the apostolic grace;

'Both the earth-born, and the sons of men.' Some have called Adam and Eve 'earth-born,' as having been fashioned out of earth, and not begotten of sexual union.

But this interpretation is far from the truth.

For they bring the exhortation not to those who have already died, but to those who are still living.

He therefore hints at the different manners of life;

for some dwell in the cities, while others dwell in fields and villages, occupied with farming.

And some men are more civilized, others more savage;

and some live in a more rational manner, while others, more like wild beasts, inhabit the deserts;

some called 'wagon-dwellers,' and others using tents in place of houses.

These, I think, are named 'earth-born,' as having departed from the more rational life.

Instead of saying, 'All men, hear the things that are spoken,' he means: townsfolk and countryfolk, the more civilized and the more savage, all in common and each in particular.

For thus also Symmachus rendered it.

For instead of 'the earth-born and the sons of men,' he said 'humanity,' and furthermore 'the sons of each man,' that is to say: Let human nature in common hear the things spoken, and let each one in particular reap the benefit.

'Together, rich and poor.' Alike both those who plume themselves on wealth and those who live in poverty are to receive the exhortation.

For the word of instruction knows no distinction of wealth and poverty.

'My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart understanding.'

'I will incline my ear to a parable;'

'I will open my riddle upon the harp.' Full of wisdom, he says, are the words that are offered by me;

and I have learned these things by lending my ear to the words of the Lord that are hidden in the depths.

And what I have received through hearing, these things I utter as through the instrument of the tongue.

And he wishes to say: I utter nothing of my own, but I am the instrument of the divine grace.

And by 'parables' he calls the enigmatic sayings.

For the Lord too, when he spoke to the crowds in parables, would afterwards offer their interpretations to the apostles in private, at home.

The apostolic choir, therefore, bearing on their lips the wisdom of God—that is, Christ

(for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God)—

carrying it through their mouth, said, 'My mouth shall speak wisdom'; since, proclaiming the divinity of Christ, they preached him to every race of men with their own mouth.

And their mind had been so sharpened for understanding, that they comprehended all the parables of our Saviour recorded in the Gospels, even before his interpretation of them.

At any rate, immediately after setting forth the parables, the Savior questioned them, saying, 'Have you understood all these things?' And they say to him, 'Yes.'

Their heart, therefore, was meditating upon acts of understanding.

Then, in addition to these, 'I will open my riddle upon the psaltery.'

For I, he says, having sharpened my faculty of reasoning for the understanding of the saving parables, have been able to follow the meaning contained within them;

but for those who, on account of their spiritual infancy, are unable to do this, I will open up the hidden things and make plain the riddles and the parables;

and this I will do by means of my psaltery, that is to say, by the bodily instrument, which instrument, being that of the soul dwelling within it, has been handed over to the soul in place of a psaltery, so that upon it the hymns may be struck up to God and it may send up praise, knowledgeably setting in motion every organ of sense, and every limb and part of the body. Having gone through these things as if by way of preface, he then begins his exhortation.

[Knowing this yourselves also, take up before your eyes such a fear.

For if I, who have been able to say, 'My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding,' shall incline my ear to a parable, after these things I am fearful and trembling;

and if anyone should inquire why I am afraid, let him hear with all frankness.

There is a certain evil day, concerning which countless things are proclaimed in the prophetic Scriptures.] The cause of my dread is my lawless life, on account of which I have turned aside from the straight way.

For some have called the heel the way of life;

but I think it hints at deceit, by a metaphor drawn from runners, as we have already said before, who often overthrow their adversaries with the heel.

This too Esau taught us when he lamented;

for he says, 'He has now supplanted me by the heel this second time;

he took away my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.' And he called the day of judgment an evil day, according to the custom prevailing among us.

For many are accustomed to name that day an evil one on which it befalls them to fall into certain grievous circumstances.

[Fittingly, then, it is so called, inasmuch as it is convictive of each man's wickedness;

and inasmuch as it brings punishments upon the ungodly through the wrath that awaits them:

'for the iniquity of my heel shall compass me about on that very evil day.'

Now by 'iniquity of the heel' is meant the turning aside — that is, the deceit — of the way along which we pass through the present life.] Thus also the divine Apostle calls the day of judgment;

'But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation and righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works.' (verse 7)

'They that trust in their own power, and boast in the multitude of their riches.' I indeed, he says, fear and tremble at the day that is expected;

but you who pride yourselves in wealth take no thought at all of that day, but, boasting greatly in the arrogance of your abundance, you put your confidence in fleeting things as though they were enduring.

'A brother does not redeem; shall a man redeem? He shall not give to God a ransom for himself,'

'even the price of the redemption of his soul.' You ought to have realized that neither does the virtue and piety of ancestors and brothers profit those who are stripped of these things themselves, nor is it possible, after the departure hence, to procure salvation by means of money.

For in the present life, as the Wise Man says, 'a man's ransom is his own wealth.' Having offered this counsel to those who use wealth badly, he transfers his discourse to the workers of virtue, and says:

'And he labored forever.'

[verses 9, 10] 'And he shall live to the end,'

not seeing corruption. For he who has endured toils on behalf of piety and righteousness, and has taken up labors for the sake of eternal goods, has as the fruit of his toils a life that is imperishable;

and he will not share, with the wise of this world — whom the apostolic word names fools — in the eternal corruption and the everlasting punishment.

'Together the foolish and the senseless shall perish.' For these, he says, who are called wise, having found no benefit whatever from their wisdom, shall pay the same penalty of destruction as the ignorant.

For thus Symmachus rendered it:

'Alike the senseless and the ignorant shall perish.'

And he calls senseless the one who is called wise, as one who was unwilling to understand what was fitting;

and ignorant the one who, though uninitiated in wisdom, nevertheless lived together with wickedness.

'And they shall leave their wealth to strangers.'

[verse 12] 'And their graves are their houses forever;

their dwelling-places to generation and generation.' Stripped of not only wisdom, but also of power and of all abundance, they shall receive the end of life, escorted from their splendid houses to the graves, and compelled to dwell in these throughout the age.

'They called their lands by their own names.' And indeed, he says, their possessions have been named after their names.

For it is so-and-so's house, and so-and-so's field, and so-and-so's servant;

but along with the lordship the appellation of the names is exchanged.

For just as others became lords of the things left behind by those men, so also there will be a change of the names.

For again from these the appellations will be assigned.

'And man, being in honor, did not understand;

he was compared to the senseless beasts, and became like them.' He says that the cause of this senselessness is our being unwilling to understand our own honor, and the dignity given to us by God, but rather embracing the bestial and brutish manner of life.