Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 19/42

'The Lord shall give a word to them that preach good tidings with great power.' Those whom above he called living creatures, here he names evangelists.

And since they were fishermen and tax-collectors and leather-workers, yet were appointed teachers of philosophers, sophists, orators, and of those who plume themselves upon their eloquence, he fittingly teaches from what source they draw the streams of their teaching and offer its irrigation.

'The King of the powers of the beloved, to divide the spoils by the beauty of Thy house.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'The Lord gave utterances to them that preach good tidings with a great host.'

'The kings of the hosts were beloved.'

They became beloved, and the household of the house shall distribute the spoils.

By 'a great host' he means those who have believed.

So too the Apostle, writing to Timothy, says:

'Fight the good fight.' And:

'No one serving as a soldier entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.' And by 'kings of hosts' he named their teachers,

whom he says were loved and are called beloved.

Thus also the Lord calls them:

'I will no longer call you servants, but friends.' So too the divine Apostle says:

'For the love of God constrains us.' And:

'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?' And by 'spoils' he means those who in former times had made their own members slaves to sin and had given them over into bondage to the devil.

These he distributed among the holy apostles,

setting up one as teacher of the Romans, another of the Greeks,

and appointing some as heralds to the Indians, others to the Egyptians.

These are the spoils which the beauty of the house distributed to the holy apostles.

And the house of God, according to the divine Apostle, is those who have believed.

And the beauty of the house is the grace of the Holy Spirit, which adorns and makes it splendid with the manifold bounty of its gifts.

And this he taught more clearly through what follows.

'Though ye have lain among the lots, ye shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her hinder parts with the greenness of gold.' By 'the wings of a dove' he means the grace of the Spirit.

For in the form of a dove it descended over the streams of the Jordan.

Of this dove he says the wings are covered with silver,

and the hinder parts are adorned with gold.

For the simpler and easier things he offers to the simpler,

but to the more perfect the deeper things.

'For my mysteries are for me and for mine.' And to some, as being imperfect, he gives milk to drink;

but to others he offers solid food.

And by 'lots' he means the two covenants.

He says therefore that in each teaching, 'Draw near and behold the manifold grace of the Holy Spirit.'

Yet he commanded not merely to draw near, but also to abide there continually.

For this he called 'to lie down';

since one who sleeps remains motionless.

'When the Heavenly One separates kings over her, they shall be made white as snow in Selmon.' Above too he called the apostles kings, as heirs of the kingdom of heaven;

just as in the forty-fourth Psalm he addressed them as rulers;

'For thou shalt make them,' he says, 'rulers over all the earth.'

He foretells the descent of the all-holy Spirit which took place on the day of Pentecost, on which they received the grace of the diversity of tongues.

He says therefore that at that time, in which He divides among them the empire of the inhabited world, and commands the one to rule over these nations, the other over those, He will make them radiant and show them like unto snow;

and he foretells also the place in which these things shall come to pass.

For by 'Selmon' he named Jerusalem;

for it was while dwelling in that city that the choir of the apostles enjoyed the grace of the all-holy Spirit.

'The mountain of God, a fat mountain, a curdled mountain, a fat mountain.' Those whom he called living creatures, and evangelists, and kings, he also names a mountain.

So too the Lord said in the holy Gospels:

'A city set on a hill cannot be hid'; and so too Isaiah cries aloud:

'It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest.' And he calls it 'fat' and 'curdled,' as furnishing abundant nourishment to the flocks that feed upon it, and as having received much richness from the divine grace.

'Why do ye suppose there are curdled mountains? This is the mountain in which God was well pleased to dwell.' But Aquila renders it thus:

'Wherefore do ye contend, ye high-browed mountains, over the mountain which God desired to sit upon?' The prophetic word is directed against the Jews and against the lawless assemblies of the heretics,

who call themselves Churches;

and he says: Why do ye boast, contending and setting yourselves as equals against the mountain which God declared to be His dwelling-place? 'For indeed the Lord shall dwell there for ever.' For not as among you, O Jews, where He dwelt for a certain fixed time, will He so pass His time in this place;

but He shall have His dwelling in this place eternally.

For this is what the phrase 'for ever' signifies.

'The chariot of God is ten-thousand-fold, thousands of them that flourish.' For not as among you, O Jews, where He had few saints upon whom He mounted and with whom He had fellowship, will He now possess them;

for ten thousand times more than those are they who are worthy of the divine mounting.

And the new inheritance possesses thousands and myriads beyond number, flourishing and bearing to God the fruit of godliness, guided aright and deemed worthy of the crowns, and pressing on toward the prize of the upward calling.

'The Lord is among them, in Sinai, in the holy place.' He who appeared, he says, in Sinai to our forefathers, He Himself also guides these as a charioteer.

For that One and this One are not different.

'For the same Lord is Lord of all, rich unto all that call upon Him.' Having thus shown the prophetic word that He had descended and destroyed the throng of the enemies, it shows Him ascending and bestowing freedom upon those who of old had been captives.

'Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive.' The ascent implies the descent;

and the Apostle is witness, saying:

'Now what does "He ascended" mean, except that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens.' And He led captivity captive, taking back those who of old had been made captives;

and as it were taking captives in return, and bestowing freedom upon them.

'Thou hast received gifts among men.' The Apostle said 'gave';

for receiving faith from those who draw near, He bestows grace.

[For thus the choir of the apostles, having believed that He is God of God, was shown forth as heir of the kingdom of heaven;

so too myriads of the prize-winners and of those who lived nobly in their conduct were glorified for making their discourse on God's behalf.] 'For even the disobedient, that they might dwell there.' This Aquila rendered more clearly, 'even the rebellious, that they might dwell there.'

'Thou didst not look,' he says, 'upon their former disobedience;

but even seeing them speak against Thee, Thou didst persist in doing them good, until Thou madest them Thine own dwelling-place.'

'Blessed be the Lord day by day.' Fittingly did the Prophet stir his tongue to hymn-singing.

You are righteous, he says, in being ever hymned, having shown such great love for mankind.

He who bestowed this will also smooth the road for us, so that we may not fail to attain such great good things.

'Our God is the God of salvation.' He will provide this, being himself the fountain of salvation.

'And to the Lord, the Lord, belong the goings-forth of death.' For he himself has opened for us the very prison of death from which there was no way out, and has shattered the gates of brass and broken in pieces the bars of iron.

And this he made clear through what follows:

'But God shall shatter the heads of his enemies,'

'the hairy crown of those who go on in their trespasses.' He has opened for us the doors of death, he says, by shattering the heads of the enemies who scrutinize the trespasses of men and will not endure to leave even the hairs of the head unexamined.

By 'the hair' he means the very smallest trespass.

What he means is this:

For those who sin, God has appointed death as the penalty.

For this the Lord also declared in the holy Gospels:

'The ruler of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing.' Yet, though he found nothing, he unjustly handed him over to death.

This injustice dissolved that one's dominion, and opened Hades for men;

these things have been more fully spoken of in the discourses On Providence.

And the divine Apostle too said that the devil holds the power of death.

'... I will bring back from the depths of the sea.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'The Lord said, From Bashan I will bring them back, from the depths of the sea.'

Bashan, when interpreted, signifies shame.

And shame is the fruit of sin.

From this, then, the God of all things will bring us back;

and from the depths of the sea.

What the depth of the sea is, the Prophet himself teaches,

crying out: 'Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and from the deep waters. [Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up.]' (v. 24)

'That your foot may be dipped in blood;'

'that the tongue of your dogs may have its portion from the enemies from him.' But Symmachus renders thus:

'That your foot may be broken together with blood, and the tongue of your dogs may lap from each of your enemies.'

For since he has shown the God of all things, like some valiant champion, vanquishing the foe and setting free those unjustly enslaved, he depicts in words both the streams of blood, and the corpses trampled underfoot, and these cast out unburied and set as food for the dogs.

'I have trodden the winepress all alone, and of the nations there was none with me;'

'I trod them down in my fury, [and I crushed them in my wrath,] and I brought down their blood to the earth;'

'and all my garments were sprinkled with their utter defeat.' (v. 25)

'Your goings have been seen, O God;'

'the princes went in front, close after them the singers, in the midst of maidens playing timbrels.' Henceforth, then, he teaches the joy of the Churches.

By 'princes' he calls the holy apostles, as having become the master-builders of these Churches; and by 'maidens playing timbrels,' those who practice virginity and offer up divine melody to God. Then he makes what has been said clearer.

'In the congregations bless God, the Lord, from the fountains of Israel.' He indicated the cessation of the old covenant;

for the temple of the Jews was but one;

but here he prophesies the multitude of the churches;

in which he commands the Lord of all things to be hymned from the fountains of Israel.

And the prophetic books might fittingly be called the fountains of Israel, from which we offer melody to God.

... he bestowed fountains, and fittingly he adds:

'There is Benjamin the younger in ecstasy.' But Aquila renders, 'There is Benjamin the small, having dominion over them;'

and according to Theodotion, 'their instructor.'

And Benjamin the younger is the blessed Paul, who sprang from the tribe of Benjamin;

'younger,' as having been called and named after all the rest;

and besides, the history of the Acts also calls him a young man.

This one has dominion over the Church, and teaches divine things, and guides toward salvation those who are willing.

And he too came to be in ecstasy, learning that the one whom he was persecuting, and who was reckoned dead, was in the heavens.

And since not only the blessed Paul, but also the rest of the choir of the apostles, instruct believers in divine things, the prophetic word fittingly made mention of these also.

'The princes of Judah are their leaders, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.' For from these tribes the rest of the apostles traced their descent.

And those called the brethren of the Lord had, in every case, the tribe of Judah as their source.

But Peter, and Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip happened to be from the village of Bethsaida.

And Matthew and James are recorded as living in Capernaum.

Simon has been named the Zealot, the Canaanite.

And all these are districts of Galilee.

And Zebulun and Naphtali had that inheritance;

the one a prophet, the other an evangelist;

the one foretelling, the other bringing forward the testimony.

'The land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and the rest who dwell by the sea-coast, and beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations;'

'the people who sat in darkness saw a great light.' (vv. 29, 30)

'Command, O God, your power;'

'strengthen, O God, this which you have wrought in us.'

'From your temple over Jerusalem.' But Symmachus renders thus:

'Ordain, O God, concerning your strength;'

'strengthen, O God, this which you have done for us, on account of your temple which is above Jerusalem.'

'... whom you have set above all rule, and authority, and power, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.'

For by 'Jerusalem' he calls the city above, concerning which the blessed Paul says:

'But the Jerusalem which is above is free;'

'she is the mother of us all.' They ask, therefore, on account of their kinship with the temple, that the grace which has been given may be confirmed;

and, on account of the firstfruits, that the whole lump may enjoy the gift that has been bestowed.

From here he goes on also to foretell the change of the kings.

'To Thee shall kings offer gifts.' For having ceased from persecuting, they shall render Him, as to God, the veneration that is fitting.

And just as they themselves receive tribute from their subjects, so they in turn, like slaves and subjects, shall bring gifts to Thee.

And witnesses of this are the eyes that behold the truth of the prophecy.

'Rebuke the wild beasts of the reed.' Some of the copies have 'of the thicket.'

But whether thicket or reed, by these unfruitfulness is signified.

These places have as their dwelling the senseless beasts, which the Prophet taught us to drive out through the divine invocation.

'The assembly of the bulls among the heifers of the peoples, that they that have been tried may be shut in with silver.' By 'bulls' he calls the multitude of the Jews, on account of their habitual insolence;

and 'heifers of the peoples' he named those from among the nations who had believed, because of the newness of their calling.

The prophetic word therefore foretells the risings-up that were made at the beginning of the preaching against the godly among the Jews.

'This they do,' he says, 'wishing to shut them out and to deprive them of the good fortune that has been granted;'

who, having been tried like silver in the fire, were declared approved.

This the blessed Paul also said concerning them:

'but they wish to shut you out.' And since among the nations too there were those who spoke against and who wrought manifold slaughters of the saints, he fittingly says concerning these also:

'Ambassadors shall come out of Egypt.' He mentioned Egypt first, as having of old bound upon itself the dominion of impiety.

The history of the Acts also makes mention of them, recounting those who were gathered together on the day of Pentecost, on which the grace of the all-holy Spirit came upon the apostles.

'Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand first unto God.' This too has attained fulfilment.

And witness is the eunuch of Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, whom Philip guided to the truth.

Then he calls upon the kingdoms of the whole inhabited world.

'Ye kingdoms of the earth, sing unto God;'

'sing praises unto the Lord.' 'All ye,' he says, 'throughout the inhabited world, receive the light of the knowledge of God;'

and offer up the hymnody on behalf of true religion.

'For remain,' He says, 'in this city, until ye be clothed with power from on high.' Of this saying the blessed Luke also makes mention, saying:

'And there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting.' (35)

'Upon Israel is His magnificence;'

'and His power is in the clouds.' For the sacred apostles, deriving their race from Israel, showed forth the mighty work of God through the miracles which they wrought;

and those after them, having received the gift of teaching, like certain clouds drawing up the rain from the sea of the all-holy Spirit, bring the watering to men.

'Wonderful is God in His saints.' 'And all others too,' he says, 'the lovers of virtue, cause God to be hymned, according to the word of the Lord which says:'

'Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.' — 'The God of Israel, He shall give power and strength unto His people.' Not without purpose did he here make mention of Israel;

but because Jacob, having feared Esau, then, being deemed worthy of the divine manifestation, was strengthened, and cast out the dread from his mind.

'Blessed be God.' [But hearing, O most eager for learning, God, and God called Lord and Saviour so often, do not suppose another.

For there is not, there is not, any save only the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit;

for it was fitting that the narration of so great blessings should be brought to its close with a divine hymn.

'For the end, on behalf of those that shall be changed.'

For it has been spoken concerning the Jews who were carried away as exiles to Babylon;

and it is framed as though from those who pray and ask for deliverance.

— deliverance, and the return, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and, in a word, the former prosperity of Judea.

It contains also a prophecy of the sufferings of the Master — I mean of our God and Saviour — and of the utter destruction that on their account was to overtake the Jews.

For since what they had endured from their adversaries, these very things they dared to do against their Benefactor and Saviour, the things they had imprecated upon their enemies, these same the righteous Judge decreed against them.

'Save me, O God, for the waters are come in even unto my soul.' The company of the more godly offers up the supplication.

By 'waters' he calls the multitude of calamities.

'On every side,' he says, 'I am flooded over by grievous things.'

'I am sunk in the mire of the deep, and there is no footing.' But Symmachus:

'I was plunged into boundless depths, and there is no standing-place;'

the image being taken from those who fall into the deep of the sea, and are borne down to the uttermost, and scarcely reach the bottom.

'I am come into the depths of the sea, and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.' He varies the discourse with the different images, not finding an image worthy of the grievous things that beset him.

By 'crying out' he means the intensity of the prayer that is in the mind.

'Mine eyes have failed from my hoping upon my God.' He has set this too by way of metaphor, drawn from those who await someone familiar and known returning from a journey abroad, and keep looking along the roads.

'I have grown weary,' he says, 'in awaiting Thy help.'

Then the things which above he had set forth figuratively, he teaches more plainly.

'They that hate me without a cause are multiplied above the hairs of my head.'

'My enemies who unjustly persecute me are grown strong.' But let none of the more studious suppose that these things are spoken in the person of God and Saviour.

For it has not been said, it has not been said, save in the person — as has been sketched by us above — of those who were carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.

And he says that: The adversaries surpass even in number, and are girt about with power, and are hostile toward me, though I have given no cause for the hatred.

'What I did not seize, then I repaid.' 'For things in which I did no wrong, I am exacted penalties.'

'For it is not as a robber, or as having done wrong,' says the people, 'that I have been carried off captive by them.'

'O God, Thou knowest my foolishness;'

'Thou knowest therefore that against those men I committed no offence;'

'but Thy laws have I transgressed.'

To this is like the saying, 'Against Thee only have I sinned, and done that which is evil in Thy sight.' (7)

'Let not them that wait on Thee be ashamed for my sake, O Lord, O Lord of hosts.'

'Let not them that seek Thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.' 'Let me not become,' he says, 'to others a pattern of harm, having waited indeed for the salvation from Thee, yet having failed of my hope in Thee.'

'But let them learn, through the things that have befallen me — those who possess the knowledge of Thee — that Thou art the fruit of salvation, and not of shame, to those who hope in Thee.'

'Because for Thy sake I have borne reproach;'

'shame hath covered my face.' 'I am filled with shame, receiving the reproaches that are Thine;'

'for the enemies continually mock me, calling my servitude Thy weakness.' (9)

'I am become estranged unto my brethren, and a stranger unto my mother's sons.' He enumerates the occasions of his affliction, stirring up to mercy the God who loveth mankind.

And first he set forth the reproaches of the impious, then the separation from kinsfolk and familiar acquaintances.

For as captives, and constrained to serve, they were not permitted to pass their life according to kinship.

'For the zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up;'

'and the reproaches of them that reproach Thee are fallen upon me.' 'And not least do the desolation of Thy holy house, and the laughter of the impious, grieve and pain me.'

For it is not to my own fault, but to your weakness, that they reckon the things done against him.

By the blasphemies against you I am pierced through, as though I had become the occasion of them.

Now Symmachus rendered it: 'It devoured me, it consumed me.'

'And I covered my soul with fasting, and it became reproaches to me.' I chastened my soul with fasting, yet even this they turned into an occasion of insult against me.

'And I made sackcloth my garment, and I became a byword to them.' Over these things I grieve, and I waste my body with fasting.

But even this became for them an occasion of laughter.

I wear myself out, clothing myself in the mournful garb by wrapping myself in sackcloth.

And this too the transgressors took as a pretext for mockery. (v. 13)

'They that sit in the gates talked against me, and they that drink wine made songs about me.' In gatherings and at banquets, he says, they babble of my misfortunes and turn them into comedy.

For of old they used to hold their councils by the gates.

'But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.' And Symmachus thus:

'But my prayer is to you, O Lord.'

While these things happen, he says, I fix my eye upon you and await the help that comes from you.

'A time of good pleasure, O God.' And Symmachus thus: 'A time of reconciliation, O God.'

Sufficient, he says, is the punishment that has been brought upon me.

It is time for this to be loosed, and for your loving-kindness to be made manifest.

For he calls the good will of God 'good pleasure.'

'In the multitude of your mercy hear me,'

'in the truth of your salvation.' Do not measure the punishment by my faults, but by the immeasurable mercy of your loving-kindness.

But employ your true and righteous verdict against those who work so many evils against me.

Then again in figurative terms he enumerates his calamities, striving by the narration to stir up compassion.

'Save me from the mire, that I sink not.' I am like those who fall into a muddy pit and suffer death;

therefore I ask salvation from you.

'Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.' I ask to be freed both from my enemies and from the evils that are brought on by them.

For by 'the deep of the waters' he called the punishments brought upon him by them.

'Let not the tempest of water drown me, neither let the deep swallow me up.' Let me not, he says, be submerged by the multitude and the magnitude of the evils.

nor shut against me the door of your loving-kindness.

For those who fall into a well, while its mouth is open, have some small hope of deliverance from thence;

but when this too is stopped up, they despair of salvation.

'for your mercy is good.'

Behold me, then, overwhelmed by evils, and loose my calamities.

For your mere appearing suffices to scatter the cloud of sorrows.

'Turn not away your face from your servant.' For this is what the angry are wont to do, shaking off the supplications of those who have sinned.

'Attend to my soul, and redeem it.' For you suffice by your mere look to dissolve what is grievous.

'For the sake of my enemies deliver me.' My faults indeed exceed pardon;

but my foes are impious, and are slaves to wickedness.

For this too he made clear through what follows.

'For you know my reproach, and my shame, and my confusion.'

'All that afflict me are before you.' Nothing of what happens escapes you, but you see all things;

both their reproaches and my shame;

for I am overwhelmed and grieved, being reproached by them.

'My soul has looked for reproach and misery;'

'and I waited for one to grieve with me, but there was none;'

'and for comforters, but I found none.'

For, assailed on every side by so many pains, and expecting yet others more grievous, I have no consolation.

Rather, those who grieve me surpass in number;

there is none to make my despondency lighter.

'And they gave me gall for my food;'

'and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.' And even my very nourishment, he says, they made bitter and grievous;

for to those who eat in pain, even the most delightful food is without pleasure.

and may they fall into the very things they have done.

For by 'table' he called their merriment;

for so also Symmachus interpreted it:

'Let their table before them become a snare, and a retribution, so that they be taken.'

'Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not.' Bring upon them the gloomy cloud of calamities,

that they may fall into the things they do, ever bowed down in toilsome labor.

'Pour out your wrath upon them;'

'and let the fury of your wrath overtake them.' Loose upon them, he says, all the anger of punishment, and bring on a swift and lasting calamity.

and by 'wrath' the enduring quality;

for such is the nature of wrath.

For fury is sharp and short-lived, but wrath, though slower, is more abiding.

By 'the fury of wrath,' then, he called the sharp and enduring punishment.

'Let their habitation be made desolate;'

and he entreats that they be subjected to the very things they have done.

For since they had sacked Jerusalem and the other cities of Judaea and made them desolate [the Chaldeans], he entreats that their own homeland also suffer these things;

and he obtained his request.

For Babylon has both become and remained desolate, even to this very day;

yet one ought to know that the very things which the Jews asked the Babylonians to suffer — the Babylonians who had used impiety and wickedness against them — these things they themselves have suffered, having raged against their Benefactor and Saviour.

For the Babylonians made their food bitter for them;

not that they had given them such food;

But rather, by their toilsome slavery they took away the innate pleasure of food.

But the Jews, though they suffered no wrong, but on the contrary received manifold benefactions, offered to their very Benefactor gall, and vinegar itself, like some vineyard that yields only harm.

For this very reason they were subjected to those same punishments, and their table became a snare, and a recompense, and a stumbling-block.

For in place of their former good fortune, they were condemned to slavery.

And their eyes were darkened, since they could not bear to behold the true Light; and their back is perpetually bent beneath slavery and poverty, because of their haughty neck and their stiff throat.

And their habitation became desolate, and in the dwellings of Jerusalem none of them dwells.

Therefore they were subjected to their own curses.

And the very things which, when they were wronged, they had imprecated upon the Babylonians, these they themselves suffered when they had done wrong and had proved ungrateful toward their Benefactor.

For this reason the divine apostles also made use of the testimonies drawn from this passage, understanding the twofold character of the prophecy.

But let us proceed to what follows in the interpretation.