Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 18/42

Who troublest the depth of the sea;

who shall withstand the sound of its waves? The word 'preparest' Symmachus rendered as 'establishing.'

But the word 'troublest' Theodotion rendered as 'calming.'

And he says that Thou makest the mountains firm and immovable;

but the sea Thou stirrest when Thou wilt, and again Thou lullest it to rest, so that not even a sound of it reaches those who hear;

and Thou accomplishest each of these things, employing a power ineffable and immeasurable;

which power Thou dost wear about Thee as it were a kind of girdle.

[For being Life, Thou impartest to those who believe in Thee, and to things immovable Thou grantest their fixedness.] For since he who is girded is more nimble for doing what he wills, he figuratively called the power of God a girdle.

From here, then, in what follows, he sets forth the achievements of the New Covenant.

The nations shall be troubled: he intimated the preaching of the apostles, which straightway stirred up trouble and turmoil among men, according to the word of the Lord.

For He said: I came to set a man at variance against his neighbour, a son against his father, a daughter against her mother, a bride against her mother-in-law.

[And Habakkuk too, foretelling these things, says:

Thou didst mount Thy horses upon the sea, troubling many waters. He means the apostles, whose horsemanship, that is, teaching, he says would become salvation.] After these things, He stilled the turmoil, and dispensed peace to all, [saying: My peace I give unto you, My peace I leave with you.] verse 9

And they that dwell at the uttermost parts shall be afraid at Thy signs. For the turmoil led the way;

and fear followed, arising from the greatness of the wonders, and it schooled men in godliness.

The outgoings of the morning and evening Thou wilt make to rejoice. For men, struck with awe at the fear inspired by the wonders, forsaking their former error and coming to know the true God, at the day's beginning and its ending offer up to God the delightful and well-pleasing song of praise.

For this Symmachus intimated: The processions of the dawn, and the evening, they hymn in praise.

Thou hast visited the earth and made it drunk;

Thou hast greatly enriched it. But Symmachus said thus: With abundance of fruit Thou wilt enrich it.

but Thou waterest the whole inhabited world unto satiety;

Thou hast greatly enriched it.

The river of God is filled with waters. But Symmachus set down the three phrases in the optative mood:

Visit the earth, and give it drink; with abundance of fruit enrich it, with channels of God full of waters;

He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; and again, Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;

but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of living water springing up unto everlasting life. And 'the river of God,' according to the Seventy, is the grace of the Spirit, divided into channels, pouring forth upon one the word of wisdom, furnishing to another knowledge, to another the gift of healings, and to another kinds of tongues, and through these watering the inhabited world.

Thou hast prepared their food, for such is Thy provision. But Symmachus thus: Thou wilt bring to fruition all its seed; thus hast Thou established it.

For having freed it from its former error [and confirmed it in godly doctrines], Thou wilt prepare it to bring to fruition the fruits of virtue;

which fruits shall both gladden Thee and nourish those who are budding forth.

For according to the Seventy, the fruit that grows is itself the food of those who cause it to grow;

For Thou hast prepared their food, he says, because such is Thy provision. To this end, he says, Thou hast made them to bear fruit, that thereby they may be nourished.

Make its furrows drunk. From this it is clear that it is a prediction of things to come, and not a narrative of things that have happened.

In its drops it shall rejoice as it springs up. And the showers brought in due season by the teachers shall gladden it and cause it to blossom.

Thou wilt bless the crown of the year of Thy goodness. The year of goodness is that which by Isaiah was called the acceptable year of the Lord;

For the Spirit of the Lord, he says, is upon me;

wherefore He hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to call the acceptable year of the Lord. The year of goodness, then, he names the time after the Incarnation of our Saviour, as offering to Him one fruit-bearing, namely godliness.

For this the prophetic word invokes the blessing.

And Thy plains shall be filled with fatness.

[verse 13] The beautiful places of the wilderness shall be enriched with fatness;

and the hills shall gird themselves with exultation. When this goodness appears, the wilderness that was of old shall yield ripe fruit.

And the hills, which were defiled by sacrifices to demons, having received those who continually hymn God and who embrace the angelic life, shall become bright and conspicuous.

And the facts bear witness to the words.

For we see all men running together toward those who have taken possession of the mountain heights and who pursue the loftiest virtue.

The rams of the sheep have clothed themselves. The prophet Ezekiel also names the mighty ones 'rams of the sheep.'

But he brings accusation, that they fed upon the good pasture, and trampled the rest under their feet;

and drank the clear water, and with their feet fouled the rest.

But here good things are decreed for these also.

For he says that they clothe and array themselves;

and the nature of the garment the divine Paul declares.

of those who wield power, the salvation.

The rams of the sheep have clothed themselves: for not only the other sheep, but the rams themselves also draw near to the saving baptism.

And the valleys shall abound with corn. And those allotted to poverty, yet choosing to live godly, shall present their own fruit to God, one thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, another a hundredfold.

'They shall cry aloud'—for indeed they shall sing His praise. And all those spoken of before shall with all eagerness hymn God, who bestowed such a transformation upon the nature of men.

We know, then, that some of the commentators, understanding what is said only superficially, asserted that each of these things came to pass after the return from captivity, when, together with their freedom, a season of plenty was granted them, and abundant rains, so that even the Jordan overflowed its banks.

For they claimed that it was called 'the River of God.'

But as for me, I have learned from the historical record that no such thing came to pass;

for they lived for the most part in great poverty, as Ezra taught us;

and having found in this psalm the plain prediction of the salvation of the nations as well;

for it says, 'Unto Thee shall all flesh come,' and,

'Hear us, O God our Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are far off upon the sea.' This meaning I have taken to be consonant with those declarations.

But those who delight in fables, and imagine the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and expound their own conjectures as though they were dreams, have said that these things did not come to pass, but shall come to pass after the recall of the Jews; and, in addition to the corruption of their other doctrines, they have appended this fable as well.

'Thy law is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths.' INTERPRETATION.

'Unto the end, a Song of a Psalm of resurrection.' Neither does the Hebrew have this addition, nor do the other translators, nor the Seventy in the Hexapla;

but this too, it seems, some have added.

They no longer entreat to obtain the return, but as those who have already obtained it, and have set out upon the journey.

And at the same time it foretells the salvation of the nations as well.

'Make a joyful noise unto God, all the earth;'

'sing forth unto His name;'

'give glory in praise of Him.' 'All you men,' it says, 'share with us in the hymn, and together with us send up to God the reverence that is due Him.'

And they fittingly summon to such fellowship the whole nature of men.

For in them was foreshadowed what pertained to the salvation of all.

For just as they were delivered from the servitude of the Babylonians,

so all men [after the incarnation of God our Saviour] were set free from the bitter tyranny of the devil.

Then they teach the manner of the hymn of praise.

'In the multitude of Thy power shall Thine enemies be found liars unto Thee.' 'Marvel,' it says, 'at the might of the wonders wrought by God.'

For they are so many and so great that, because of the surpassing wonder of what is done, they are disbelieved by the impious.

It also has another meaning, attested by the truth: 'In the multitude of Thy power shall Thine enemies be found liars unto Thee.' 'When,' it says, 'having illumined the whole world with the light of the knowledge of God, Thou shalt turn the greater part to godliness, then even those held fast in the darkness of unbelief shall feign godliness, renouncing their impiety.'

And this we see continually coming to pass.

For many who are enslaved to the Greek error do not dare to confess this openly.

And the Jews, hard pressed, sing the praise of the victory of the cross; and from every side the truth of the prophecy is demonstrated.

'Let all the earth worship Thee, and sing psalms unto Thee.'

This Symmachus has stated more clearly:

'All who are upon the earth shall worship Thee, chanting; they shall sing Thy name.'

And these things are a prediction of the present time, in which among all the nations the God of all is hymned;

'how terrible in counsels, beyond the sons of men.' 'Set your mind to it,' it says, 'and consider each of the things wrought by God, and marvel at His unspeakable wisdom, whereby the human race is guided toward godliness.'

For so also Theodotion understood it:

'Terrible in counsels beyond the sons of men'; but Symmachus, 'Terrible contrivances beyond the sons of men.'

'For by terrible and wonderful devices,' it says, 'He has wrought for the salvation of men.'

Then he recounts the things done of old.

'Who turneth the sea into dry land;'

'they shall pass through the river on foot.' Here the tense has been altered;

for he has spoken of things past as though they were yet to come.

But the others kept the tense.

And Symmachus says thus: 'He turned the sea into dry land; they crossed the river on foot.'

'For this,' it says, 'is the God who bestows salvation upon us as well;

who of old divided both the sea and the river, and commanded our forefathers to cross over without peril.'

[And having granted to the nations too a passage;

which passage they make by being refashioned through the regeneration of the laver;

for just as there, through the hand of the great Moses, He divided the Red Sea this way and that, so here too, through the hand of the priest, He renews the people who believe in Christ, but sinks the spiritual Pharaoh together with his chariots—that is, the devil together with the lusts—into the deep.

You who are initiated know what I mean.] 'There shall we rejoice in Him.' That is, beside the Jordan;

[as also those from the nations beside the divine font;

for the laver, which was instituted for our sake, God our Saviour has caused to regenerate us all through water and the Spirit.] For having made mention of this, and having taught how their forefathers crossed over, they went on to add:

'There shall we rejoice in Him.' 7.

'To Him that ruleth in His might for ever.' 'He has,' it says, 'imperishable dominion, and a kingdom without end.'

'His eyes look upon the nations.' 'Not only does He care for us,

but He also exercises providence over the whole world, and a little later will grant to all the knowledge of Himself.'

Having thus clearly prophesied this, and then having beheld with spiritual eyes those who gainsay the preaching, the Prophet quite plainly foretells their unbelief and arrogance as well.

'Let not them that provoke Him exalt themselves in themselves.' These Theodotion has called 'those who turn aside;'

but Symmachus has said more clearly:

'Let not the disobedient exalt themselves in themselves.'

And we see the fulfilment of this prophecy too.

For those very three or four Greeks who have persisted in their impiety think great things of themselves, as not having been carried away along with the multitude.

To these the prophetic word gives its charge:

'Let not them that provoke Him exalt themselves in themselves.' For they provoke the righteous Judge against themselves, and draw down upon themselves a just chastisement.

[Then, having made plain to these the punishment that hangs over them, the prophetic mind shifts its discourse to another person.] 8.

'O bless our God, ye nations, and make the voice of His praise to be heard.' The word 'make heard' Symmachus has rendered 'make one who causes to hear.'

And they persist in exhorting the nations to depart from their ancestral peoples, and to hymn the God of these, and to teach His power to those who know it not.

For this is what he meant by 'Make heard,' instead of 'Teach the others also.'

'Who hath set my soul in life;'

'and suffered not my feet to be moved'—that is, to abandon the straight way;

and it is fitting to note that all these things the choir of the more godly recites.

For God sent forth together with them also those resplendent in godliness, like certain tutors and trainers, anointing and enlightening and guiding all toward godliness.

To these men and to such as these it was fitting to speak the words that lie before us;

for it was in their person that the grace of the Spirit composed these words.

'For You have tested us, O God;'

'You have tried us as silver is tried by fire.' For You permitted us, he says, to suffer these things,

wishing to display to all the unalloyed sincerity of our piety.

[These same things are spoken also in the person of the prize-winners, of those who in their season have suffered, or are still suffering, for Christ's sake.] verses 11, 12

'You brought us into the snare; You laid afflictions upon our back.'

'You caused men to ride over our heads;'

'we went through fire and water, and You brought us out into refreshment.' Such was the furnace in which a rustling breeze revived the athletes.

A snare was the lions' den, and a snare from which there was no guarding;

yet nevertheless, through the divine grace, the Prophet escaped it.

It was likely, then, that they too would be beaten and maltreated, as captives and slaves, by those who had led them into bondage.

But nonetheless, having been delivered from all these things and having obtained our return, we will offer to You the sacrifices appointed by law.

'I will go into Your house with whole burnt offerings;'

'I will pay You my vows.'

'Which my lips uttered and my mouth spoke in my affliction.' As much as I promised, he says, while in pain and at prayer, so much have I gratefully rendered.

'I will offer up to You whole burnt offerings full of marrow, with the smoke of incense; I will offer to You bullocks with goats.' As much as I ought to offer to You, I will readily sacrifice.

By 'full of marrow' he has named the well-nourished and fat.

For thus also the Law commanded to offer things unblemished and complete;

and the prophet Malachi likewise pronounces a curse upon those who possess such things but offer things that are maimed.

This very thing was for Cain the beginning of those evils;

and we too are taught to honour the Divine with the most precious of the things we possess.

but having enjoyed great gifts from Him, which I count you also worthy to learn, you who hold the fear of God.

Thus also in the twenty-first Psalm he said;

'For give not,' He says, 'the holy things to the dogs;'

'neither cast your pearls before the swine.' And, 'My mysteries are for Me and for those who are Mine.'

'To Him I cried out with my mouth, and I exalted Him under my tongue.' But Symmachus renders it thus: 'Him I called upon with my mouth, and immediately my tongue was exalted.'

For as soon as I offered my supplication, I received my request, and being filled with gladness, I moved my tongue to a hymn of thanksgiving.

'If I beheld iniquity in my heart, let the Lord not hearken to me.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'If I foresaw iniquity in my heart, let the Lord not hearken.'

If, he says, while imploring to be delivered from bondage and to obtain the return, I had imagined that I would commit some iniquity after the return, may I not obtain the divine favour;

and that I do not lie, the facts themselves bear witness.

'He attended to the voice of my supplication.' For beholding me pure from such thoughts, He generously counted me worthy of His own gifts;

having thus recounted these things, the choir of the pious brings its words to a close in a hymn.

'...of me.' With hymns, he says, I requite my Benefactor, who received my prayer and bestowed His mercy.

[For He does not cease exhorting those who believe in Him to praise Him continually.] INTERPRETATION

for it proclaims beforehand the incarnation of God the Word, and the saving manifestation, and the salvation of all the nations.

'May God have compassion on us, and bless us;'

'may He make His face to shine upon us, and have mercy on us.' The Prophet, beholding with the eyes of the spirit the salvation that would come to all men through the divine manifestation, entreats that it be granted as swiftly as possible, so that we may all reap the blessing that springs from it;

[and he says that 'May God have compassion on us,' and not this only but also 'may He bless us;'

for in reality He not only blessed but also had mercy;

having saved us through His coming from the Virgin.

For this is what He means by 'May He make His face to shine upon us.'

For we saw Him face to face;

yet nonetheless become man;

not bearing some other person, but Him, the very God the Word, become man from the Virgin without change, did we see.] Then by what follows He teaches us this more clearly.

'That Your way may be known upon the earth.' So that, he says, those also who dwell upon the earth may be taught the way that leads to You, and may be guided toward it.

And lest anyone suppose these things to be said concerning the land of the Jews, he has fittingly added, 'Your salvation among all the nations.' I entreat, he says, that Your face may be manifested;

so as to illumine also the nations that sit in darkness, and to draw them toward salvation.

'Let the peoples give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples give thanks to You.'

'Let the nations be glad and rejoice;'

For they came to know that nothing of what exists is uncared for or unprovided;

but that You are the Judge of all, delivering just verdicts;

and guiding those who wander toward the truth, while chastising those who are unwilling to obey.

'Let the peoples give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples give thanks to You.' He has not placed the repetition without purpose;

but making the hearers more eager, [and showing that He Himself is the God and Saviour of all.] verse 7

'The earth has given its fruit.' For no longer are those born of it ignorant of the God who is over all;

who, according to the Prophet, 'found out every way of knowledge;'

after this He was seen upon the earth, and lived among men; for which cause they offer to Him the sweetest fruit of piety.

'May God bless us, our God.'

[verse 8.] 'May He bless us.' Just as twice He roused the nations to hymn-singing, so twice He sought the blessing for them.

It is fitting, however, to know that men in blessing God offer to Him only words, but are unable to benefit Him by deed;

but God in blessing confirms His words by deed, and provides to those who are blessed an abundance of all manner of good things.

Then he teaches how it is possible to obtain the divine blessing.

'And let all the ends of the earth fear Him.' For he who is reverently disposed toward the divine laws, and dreads the coming judgment, through the keeping of these laws serves God;

and the divine service brings forth the blessing.

And the very conclusion, then, introduced the divine fear as belonging not to the Jews but to all men;

and it instructs that He Himself is our God, who wrought the salvation of those who believe.

the pre-eternal One, the same who in the last days became the Son of Man without change, as we affirm, for the sake of the salvation of men.

And he receives at once the revelation of the things that were to come;

And He is at once taught and teaches: the salvation of human nature, the destruction of the enemies, and, in a word, the paradoxical reversal of affairs.

'Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered.'

For immediately the whole throng of the enemy will be turned to flight, scattered by the radiance of Your appearing.

By 'arising,' as we have often said, He calls not only the cessation of His long-suffering, but also the rising of the Saviour of the world after three days, when He accepted the death that He voluntarily underwent for our sake.

So too we ourselves are often accustomed to rouse judges who exercise clemency to the aid of the wronged, urging them to rise up and to put a stop to the audacity of those who do injustice.

'As smoke vanishes, let them vanish away.'

For those whom the Seventy called 'sinners,' all the other translators named 'the ungodly.'

And thus both the Hebrew and the Syriac call them.

'And let the righteous be glad.' When this comes to pass, he says, the whole choir of the righteous will be filled with delight.

'Let them exult before God.'

'Let them be delighted with gladness.' By these words he showed that he did not offer that supplication against human beings, but against the demons who war against human beings.

When these are scattered and made to vanish, the nations exult and hymn the God who has saved them.

'Make a way for Him who rides upon the west.'

'The Lord is His name, and exult before Him.' Here the prophetic word charges the holy Apostles to run to the nations with dancing and hymnody, and to prepare the way for the King of all things.

These words resemble those spoken by the Lord to them.

He says that He rides upon the west, thereby indicating the darkness that at that time was poured out over human souls.

This indeed Symmachus rendered: 'Pave a road for Him who is carried in an uninhabited land.'

'Uninhabited' is the desert, and the divine Scripture has often called the nations a 'desert.'

'Rejoice,' it says, 'O thirsting desert.' And again:

'For the children of the desolate are more than of her that has a husband.' Upon this desert, this uninhabited land bereft of light and for this reason named 'west,' the Sun of righteousness rose, drove out the gloom, and made the uninhabited place His own temple.

'Let them be troubled at His presence.'

at His appearing, since they know Him to be a righteous judge.

This trouble and dread of the demons the narrative of the divine Gospels also teaches us.

For we hear them saying:

'What have we to do with You, Son of God? Have You come to torment us before the time?'—'God is in His holy place.' Since he had said:

'Make a way for Him who rides upon the west,' he reasonably added this, all but saying: Let no one suppose that the God of all things carries out His providential works by means of a change of place.

Such is that which was spoken by the Lord:

'No one has ascended into heaven except He who came down from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.' For by these words too He showed the uncircumscribable nature of the Godhead;

and He taught that, though He had come down and dwelt below and lived among human beings, He was also in heaven and was not separated from the Father.

'God settles the solitary in a house.'

'Leading forth in courage those who are bound.'

'Likewise those who provoke Him, those who dwell in tombs.' By 'solitary' he calls those who have a single aim, who choose to attend to virtue alone, and who do not now desire these things and now those.

These, he says, are settled in the divine house.

By 'those who are bound' he means those encompassed by the fetters of sin;

whom he foretold would be set free and made courageous.

Such was Matthew, such was James the son of Alphaeus, such was Zacchaeus;

who, having been freed from the fetters of unrighteousness, most manfully took up the war against the one who had bound them.

'Not only,' he says, 'does He make the bound courageous;

but also those who have driven to the very extreme of impiety and dwell in their own bodies as in foul-smelling tombs.'

For these too, together with the former, He will deem worthy of salvation.

'God, when You went forth in the midst of Your people, when You passed through the desert, the earth was shaken, and indeed the heavens dropped down.' This Symmachus rendered thus:

'God, when You went forth before Your people, treading through the uninhabited land, the earth was shaken, and heaven dropped down.'

'When I was about,' he says, 'to pass over into that desert and uninhabited land, which had not yet received the ray of light, You shook the earth and made it quake;

and from heaven You dropped down the droplets of grace.' The one took place at the cross;

for then the earth was shaken and the rocks were split;

for at that time the grace of the Spirit came upon the Apostles, imitating, as it were, certain droplets of dew.

Then, teaching the Jews more clearly who it was that did all these things, he added:

'From the presence of the God of Sinai;

from the presence of the God of Israel.' 'For He who appeared to our forefathers on Mount Sinai,' he says, 'this same One both shook the earth at the time of the Passion, refuting your madness, and bestowed the grace of the Spirit.'

'You will set apart a voluntary rain, O God, for Your inheritance.' What above he called 'droplets' he here named 'rain.'

For according to the need of the learners, grace was supplied to the teachers.

For by 'rain' he calls the watering of teaching;

and he called it 'voluntary' because of the self-determining freedom of the will.

For no one is watered by compulsion, but by being persuaded through teaching he enjoys the grace.

'But You perfected it.' He said that it was not the rain but the inheritance that had been weakened; and by 'weakness' he called the insurrections of the ungodly.

So too the Lord said to Paul:

'For My power is made perfect in weakness.'

'But even in the time of the insurrection, You confirm and strengthen the athletes.'

For these You have as an inheritance, according to the prophecy that says:

'Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.' Thus also Symmachus rendered it:

'Which You brought forth and established.'

Aquila more clearly: 'And the one that had toiled You established.'

For the one that had grown weary amid the persecutions You kept unshaken.

'Your living creatures dwell in it.' By 'living creatures of God' he calls the holy Apostles;

mounting upon whom, He drove out error and turned human beings to the knowledge of God.

So too He says concerning Paul:

'For this man is a chosen vessel of Mine, to bear My name before nations and kings and the sons of Israel.' For this reason the divine Habakkuk named them 'horses';

'For You caused Your horses to mount into the sea,' he says, 'troubling many waters.' That these dwell in the inheritance of God, that is, among the nations, the prophetic word decreed.

And they dwell there even to this day, not only sanctifying those who draw near by the reliquaries of their bodies;

but also, by the teaching of their writings, turning the souls of human beings.

'Thou hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor, O God.' These things, he says, Thou hast bestowed upon the poor nature of mankind because of Thine own goodness.