Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 21/42

But the unbelieving Jews shall be likened to grass that grows up and straightway perishes.

'His name shall be blessed unto the ages;'

'His name shall endure before the sun.' The word 'blessed' is set down by none.

It is found neither in the Hexapla nor among the Hebrews.

For it does not simply say that he shall endure before the sun, but 'unto generation of generations.'

The phrase 'generation of generations' he has set down with reference both to the sun and to the moon.

For sun and moon are of the same age, since they came into being at the same time.

For God said, it declares, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven';

'and God made the two great lights.' If, then, he is 'unto generation of generations' before the moon, he is also before the sun.

'And in him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.' Here he has made mention of the promise given concerning Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.

For to the three patriarchs God promised that there would be blessed, at one time all the nations of the earth, and at another the tribes of the earth.

And this the blessed Paul also, interpreting it, declared:

'Now to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith not,

And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.'

And indeed also in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

'For verily he took not on him the nature of angels.' Concerning this the present psalm also prophesies, saying that through him all the tribes shall be blessed.

'All nations shall call him blessed.' Some things as concerning a man, and others as concerning God, has the prophetic word set forth.

'The blessed and only Potentate,' it says, 'the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.' For all nations, it says, name him blessed and worthy of hymns.

Then the prophet, teaching more clearly his hidden divinity, added:

For though we are ignorant of his nature as unattainable, yet we have been taught his saving name.

'And let the whole earth be filled with his glory.'

'So be it, so be it.' The things which he had so often and throughout the whole psalm foretold, these, in fulfilling the prophecy, he has set down, making the prediction more sure.

This the prophet, having learned through the grace of the Spirit, and being kindled with longing, prays that it may come to pass and that the prophecy may attain its end.

Or, according to Aquila, 'Faithfully' (steadfastly assured), meaning that the things spoken are without falsehood and true, and shall by all means receive their fulfilment.

A Psalm of Asaph. And we have already said before that some have called him too a psalm-writer, while others called him a composer of melodies and a choir-master of the singers.

'for so indeed the word of truth stands.' But let each receive these things as he wishes;

for no harm whatsoever will arise from this to those who receive them in the one way or the other.

But we, with grace giving light, will make plain the meaning of the psalm.

The people, having been led away captive into Babylon, were engulfed by many and manifold calamities.

And seeing the Babylonians, who lived in impiety and lawlessness, in prosperity and great good fortune, but themselves in adversity and suffering, they stirred up reasonings concerning the divine providence, pondering and reckoning why in the world those who were utterly impious experienced no trial of afflictions at all, but enjoyed every good fortune, borne along as by favouring winds.

These things the grace of the all-holy Spirit, foreseeing them from afar, and devising a benefit for those people, and indeed for all men, wrote this psalm, both plainly declaring their reasonings and offering the solution of the matters in question.

The teaching of the psalm is therefore fitting for all who reason or utter such things;

yet it has been cast in this form, as coming from those who had already returned, and were recounting the affliction of their mind.

'How good is the God of Israel.'

The word 'how' he has set down not by way of comparison, but to show the superabundance of his goodness.

And he says that the God of Israel also exercises much care.

'to the upright in heart.' But this not all know, only those who employ right and sound reasonings.

Having thus praised those men, he makes public the tempest of his own reasonings.

'But as for me, my feet were almost moved.' I myself came within a little of turning aside from my own path.

'My steps had well nigh slipped.' But Symmachus thus:

'The things that upheld me were as good as loosed.'

I was in danger, he says, of falling away from sound and supporting reasonings, and would have suffered a most grievous slip.

And by 'feet' and 'steps' he calls the reasonings figuratively.

Then he also states the cause.

'For I was envious at the lawless, beholding the peace of sinners.' For I was set aflame, seeing those who lived in impiety and lawlessness in peace and much good fortune.

And we see even now some saying things much like those men, against certain persons who live in impiety and greed, and who, as they suppose, lord it over others in wealth and glory.

'For there is no reluctance in their death.' But Aquila thus:

'There are no hard sufferings at their death';

'They took no thought concerning their death.'

For not even, he says, when tried amid dangers did they give themselves up for lost.

And the word 'reluctance' (drawing back) signifies refusal;

for when we wish to refuse something, we are accustomed to a drawing back.

'And firmness in their scourging.' Only for a short time, he says, do painful things draw near to them.

'They are not in the troubles of men, neither shall they be scourged with men.' Their affairs proceed with the current, he says, and neither with toils and hardships nor with chastisements are they encompassed, as are other men.

'they clothed themselves with their own injustice and impiety.' Hence they were lifted up to arrogance and pride, and having paid no penalty for their former transgressions, they ran aground into still greater lawlessness.

For the phrase 'they clothed themselves' made plain the abundance of their injustice, as encircling them on every side.

'Their injustice shall proceed as from fatness.' Fatness,

as we have often said, signifies well-being and prosperity.

Being, therefore, in such great prosperity, he says, they dared their injustice with all impunity.

'They have set their mouth against the heaven, and their tongue hath gone through upon the earth.' Their injustice against men did not suffice them;

but they also shot arrows at heaven both with words and with reasonings.

And through these things he hints at the blasphemies against God, the revilings against the people, the insolences against the divine temple.

And this he has said more clearly in the forty-first psalm:

'My tears have been my meat day and night, while they daily say unto me,'

For while those men, he says, employed blasphemies against God, and subjected us to sufferings, the God of all decreed good things concerning us, promising our return, and the life that is appointed to our nature.

And from this it is plain that the psalm is fitting for those who have already returned, and are recounting the things that befell them in Babylon.

There, then, while they were sojourning, they said the words here.

For to those in Babylon this is in no way applicable.

And by 'full of days' he has called old age.

Meaning, 'And they shall return, and shall live even unto old age.'

Having thus shown the promise of God, he returned again to the narration of the blasphemy of the Babylonians, and of the confusion of the reasonings.

'How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?' But Symmachus more clearly:

'And they said, How doth God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High?' For God, he says, promised those things;

But these men reasoned within themselves that God neither watches over the world nor knows anything of what comes to pass.

Then, having exposed their impiety by these words, the prophet sets forth his own reflections.

Behold, these are sinners, and prospering unto the age they have laid hold of riches. Living together with lawlessness, they enjoy good things in abundance and possess an unshaken good fortune.

For by 'unto the age' he means according to the present life;

for often he calls the life of man also an 'age.'

'For our age,' he says, 'is unto the illumination of thy countenance.'

Seeing them swaggering in wealth, I pondered: Is then the possession of righteousness without profit? And I washed my hands among the innocent. Accordingly, he says, I gained by keeping far from those who live in company with wickedness.

For the phrase 'I washed among the innocent' stands for 'I kept myself innocent and had no fellowship with the wicked.'

And I was scourged all the day long, and my rebuke was in the mornings. Having devoted myself to righteousness and fled fellowship with vice, I am yet tormented and insulted every single day.

Has God then dissolved his covenants with us? For 'thou hast broken faith' stands for 'or hast thou transgressed the covenants that were established?' And they call themselves sons, since God so named them;

'Israel is my firstborn son.' And, 'I have begotten sons and exalted them.'

'This is labor before me.'

'Until I enter into the sanctuary of God;'

'and understand their latter end.' But, he says, having abandoned those reasonings, I considered that God had allotted me labors and hardships, exacting penalties for my transgressions;

yet I shall nonetheless return, and shall behold his sanctified temple, and shall contemplate the evil end of these men.

Then he is instructed in this beforehand through the divine grace.

'Yet because of their deceits thou didst appoint evils for them;'

'thou didst cast them down when they were lifted up.'

'How are they become a desolation? Suddenly they failed;'

'they perished because of their lawlessness.'

As a dream of one awaking. All these things befell the Babylonians under Cyrus;

for those he enslaved and led away captive, but to the Jews he granted the return.

And fittingly did he liken their prosperity to a dream;

for the scene of the present life differs in nothing from a dream.

And this is easy to perceive even from the Babylonians themselves.

For those who a little before were boasting and swaggering, as though they had mastered the whole inhabited world, suddenly lost their dominion and fell into the uttermost slavery.

O Lord, in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nought. The image has but a passing bloom.

He therefore likens to an image the dominion of the Babylonians, which lasted but a short time;

'and this,' he says, 'thou shalt bring to nought, exacting penalties for the impiety committed against thy city.'

'For my heart was inflamed.' These things, he says, I was pondering, being set ablaze by the lawlessness of those men;

for he takes up again the opening words, 'For I was envious at the lawless,' and what there he called envy, this here he calls the inflaming of the heart.

'And my reins were altered.' By 'reins,' as I have often said, he denotes the thoughts.

'Holding pious thoughts,' he says, 'I came within little of being turned aside because of their arrogance.'

'And I was brought to nought, and I knew it not.' This Symmachus has stated more plainly;

'But I was without understanding, and knew not.'

This suffering I suffered out of ignorance, not knowing thy judgments.

'I became as a beast before thee.'

[verse 23] 'And I am continually with thee.' But no longer shall I suffer this, nor shall I endure to seek out or meddle with anything of what is administered by thy wisdom;

but like a beast I shall follow thy biddings.

For thus shall I not be separated from thy providence.

For just as a beast follows the one who leads it, not busying itself as to where it is being led, so, being steered by thy grace, I too shall follow, not prying into thy providence.

'Thou hast held my right hand.'

[verse 24] And with thy counsel thou hast guided me, and with glory thou hast received me. From here he speaks of the things concerning the return, that just as a gentle father, finding a straying child, takes hold of his right hand and leads him back into the house;

so thou didst lead me back into the land of my fathers, freeing me from slavery, granting me an easy passage through the nations, and rendering me renowned and glorious.

For what have I in heaven, and beside thee what have I desired upon the earth? But Aquila, more clearly:

beside thee I have wished for nothing upon the earth.

He has put it interrogatively in place of, 'I have hope in heaven.'

'I have expected,' he says, 'and I do expect thee to become gracious to me in heaven and upon the earth.'

For neither in heaven do I have any other God and protector beside thee, nor indeed do I rank any other with thee upon the earth, but both in heaven and upon the earth I know thee as God.

[These things too are spoken especially in the person of those from among the nations who have believed in the Savior;

and he says that] I also embrace thy lordship.

My heart and my flesh have failed. For this cause I long for thee and thirst, both in soul and in body, and await thy help.

God of my heart, and my portion is God unto the age. For thee I have as both portion and inheritance, and as the enjoyment of good things.

For behold, they that remove themselves far from thee shall perish; thou hast utterly destroyed everyone that goes a-whoring away from thee. But those who set themselves far from thy protecting care, and choose to serve idols, shall reap destruction as the fruit of their apostasy.

For here he calls idolatry 'fornication.'

Thus too through Jeremiah God says:

She went upon every high mountain and beneath every leafy tree, and there she played the harlot;

and I said, after she had done all these things in her harlotry, Return unto me, and she did not return. And again:

And she committed adultery with the wood and the stone; that is to say:

Having forsaken me the bridegroom, she served gods that are not.

And here too, then, he called the service of idols 'fornication.'

This, however, he has said not concerning the Babylonians, but concerning those who had become captives on account of their impiety.

For these, though they had God as their bridegroom, played the harlot, having embraced the servitude of demons;

but, taught by experience to be sober-minded, they cry out:

For this one he named 'daughter of Zion.'

For just as he calls men 'sons of men,' so he names Zion 'daughter of Zion.'

For the same is called both Zion and Jerusalem by the divine Scripture.

Of understanding, for Asaph. The prophetic word, foretelling the coming utter destruction of Jerusalem, bids those who read the psalm to give heed and understand its meaning.

Some, however, have fitted the psalm to the things done under Antiochus Epiphanes, neither having attended to the history, nor having accurately understood the prophecy of the psalm.

For the psalm speaks of the burning of the divine temple, and the demolition of houses, and the complete sacking of the city;

But we have not learned from history that these things were brought about by Antiochus.

Nor indeed does it fit the siege by the Babylonians.

'There is no longer a prophet, and He will no longer regard us.' But if it fits neither the Babylonians nor the Macedonians, it is clear that he foretells the utter destruction brought upon them by the Romans, after which they obtained no recall whatsoever, paying the penalties for their impiety against the Saviour.

For, knowing exactly beforehand their disobedience, He attempts by the prophecy of the evils to come to turn them away from their impiety.

...prophecy, but You have utterly cast off unto the end, and have condemned them to complete destruction.

'Your wrath is kindled against the sheep of Your pasture.' You have held a persistent indignation against Your sheep.

'You redeemed the rod of Your inheritance.' For having enjoyed Your help, we were delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians.

And the blessed Moses also called them an inheritance.

For he says, 'The Lord's portion became His people Jacob, the lot of His inheritance, Israel.' And he named the royal sceptre a 'rod,' as if to say: We became Your portion from the beginning, we were named Your lot, we were enrolled under Your kingdom.

Thus also in the forty-fourth psalm he called the royal sceptre a 'rod.'

'The rod of Your kingdom is a rod of uprightness.' — 'This Mount Zion, in which You dwelt.' And having freed us from the bondage of the Egyptians, You brought us into the land promised to the fathers, and consecrated Mount Zion to Yourself, that dwelling there as in a royal palace, You might guide Your people.

And these things were foretold while the temple in Jerusalem had not yet been built.

'Lift up Your hands against their arrogance unto the end.' Demand from them a reckoning for their pride.

And the phrase 'Lift up Your hands' he set down by a metaphor from those who scourge sinners with their hands.

This the prophetic grace declared, knowing that the enemies lived in impiety.

For it was not out of zeal for the Crucified that they undertook that war, but rather in the act of enslaving the whole inhabited world.

Yet God nonetheless used them as executioners, chastising through them those who had acted impiously.

'How much evil the enemy has done in Your holy place.' Neither the Hebrew, nor the other translators, nor even the Seventy in the Hexapla have put it in the plural, 'in Your holy places,' but in the singular, 'in Your holy place';

so that it is clear that those who say these things are speaking about the temple, lamenting and mourning the things done by those men against it.

And with this sense the following words also agree.

'And those who hate You boasted in the midst of Your feast.' For at the feast of the Passover, when all the people had been gathered together according to the law, Titus stationed his army around it and besieged their metropolis.

For since it was at the feast of the Passover that they nailed the Saviour to the cross, at the very same season they pay the penalty for their impiety.

'They set up their signs as signs.'

[5] 'And they did not know, as at the going out above.' The trophies, he says, which are signs and symbols of victory, they raised above our gates, making the victory known to all who came after.

And Pilate too brought the imperial standards into the city contrary to the law, and the Roman emperors carved the forepart of a swine upon the stones of the gate.

These things the Lord also foretold in the divine Gospels:

'When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those in Judea flee to the mountains.' 'As in a thicket of trees they cut down with axes.'

[6] 'Its doors together;'

'with axe and hatchet they broke it down.' Using woodcutting and carpentry tools, they both demolished the enclosures and cut through the doors of the houses, destroying the well and beautifully wrought works as if they were an oak.

'They burned Your sanctuary with fire to the ground;'

'they profaned the dwelling place of Your name.' The plundering of the other houses did not suffice them, but they stretched out their fury also against the temple consecrated to You;

and some things they consigned to fire, others they demolished with their hands, treating holy things as if they were common.

Coming upon us, they had one aim in their conspiracy: to abolish the law given by You.

And these things, he says, they dared to do, though they neither beheld the wonders wrought in the days of our forefathers, nor were they convicted by prophetic grace.

For of all these things they were suddenly rendered bereft.

For they had many prophets even after the return: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; and the prophets older than these both foretold to the people and to the kings the things to come, and made plain the plots of their enemies;

and this is easy to learn from history.

'How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? Shall the adversary provoke Your name unto the end?' How long will You deliver us over to the transgressions of these men, and longsufferingly bear their blasphemous voices? [verse 11]

'Why do You turn back Your hand, and Your right hand from the midst of Your bosom unto the end?' The bosom of God is the treasury of good things;

Why do You not, as is Your wont, bestow the good things, but withdraw Your hand from Your bosom? He set this down by a metaphor from those who have their bosom full, and though asked, are unwilling to give, but draw their hand back again.

'But God our King before the ages.' Yet we know You from of old and from the beginning to be King, and as from a King we ever enjoy Your gifts.

'He wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.' Indeed You made manifest to all the care You have shown for us.

For the phrase 'in the midst of the earth' means 'in the sight of all.'

'You strengthened the sea by Your power.' For when they were fleeing the Egyptians and were hindered by the sea from crossing over, You granted that marvellous passage, making the flowing nature stand firm, and building through the waves the walls on either side.

'You crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water.'

And the dragon named in the singular, he means Pharaoh, who was set over many rulers.

These, he says, You all made to sink beneath the waves; and the sea which in our case You made firm, in their case You dissolved, and heaped them over with its waves.

'You gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples.' The Ethiopians, being neighbours of the Egyptians, had a continual war against them;

but Pharaoh together with his army having been delivered over to the sea, the Egyptians thereafter became easy prey for the Ethiopians;

and just as a hungry man readily consumes his food, so they very easily overcame them.

'You gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples' means: You rendered them easy to capture, having arranged that they be readily consumed by the Ethiopians.

'You cleaved fountains and torrents.' But the Hebrew and the other translators said 'fountain' (in the singular).

Whether we say 'fountain' or 'fountains,' we shall not err from the truth.

For the prophetic word calls the water that flowed from the rock a 'fountain';

but this, being divided, made many channels, so that those many myriads might readily enjoy the stream.

And we find this having happened not once, but twice.

And the one Exodus teaches, the other the book of Numbers.

And fittingly he named 'fountain' the rock that gushed forth the streams of water.

And again he called them 'torrents,' inasmuch as they did not flow according to nature, but were then first given forth.

For just as the torrent is not perennial, but is formed from the rainwaters,

so by the divine commands that water was given forth.

'You dried up the rivers of Etham.'

But Symmachus renders it thus: 'You dried up ancient rivers.'

The rivers that had existed of old and had held an ancient course, You caused to cease from running, by Your will.

This he also says in another psalm:

'He turned rivers into a wilderness, and the outgoings of waters into a thirsty land;'

'a fruitful land into saltiness, because of the wickedness of those dwelling in it.'

'He turned the wilderness into pools of water, and a waterless land into outgoings of waters, and settled the hungry there.' For the rivers of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the other neighbouring places, He dried up because of the lawlessness of their inhabitants.

But to the waterless land He gave the channels from the rock, offering the streams to the thirsting people.

For it is easy for Him, as He wills, to redirect the nature of the waters.

And the rock, of which the divine Apostle speaks, is Christ.

And all these things that have been said, beginning from the words:

'He wrought salvation in the midst of the earth' — this contains a figure of the benefits bestowed upon us.

For there too, through waters, came deliverance from bondage; and here likewise, through waters, is the beginning of our freedom.

There the heads of the dragons were crushed by the waters; and here the dominions of the demons are undone by the grace of baptism.

Those men, after the sea, became easy prey to the Ethiopians; and our foes, after the holy font, became easy to overcome for those who of old had souls black as night.

And the rest of these things it is easy to discern in like manner for those who are willing to give heed.

[There, a rod; here, the Cross;

there, Moses; here, high priests;

there, the sea; here, the font;

there, twelve springs; here, twelve apostles;

there, seventy palm-trunks; here, seventy books.] But let us proceed to what follows in the interpretation.

'Thine is the day, and thine is the night;

thou hast prepared the light and the sun.'

'Thou hast made all the borders of the earth;

summer and spring, thou didst fashion them.' From the particular benefits he has transferred his discourse to the universal ones, and teaches that the God of all is the Creator of the whole: the Maker of day and night, the Bestower of light, the Fashioner of the sun, and the Steward of time.

And instead of 'Thou hast made all the borders of the earth,' Aquila and Theodotion rendered 'thou hast set them up,' while Symmachus said 'thou hast established.'

And 'them' — he hollowed out for the reception of the waters of lakes and seas.

'Remember this.' Having done all these things, he says — the Creator of things so many and so great — remember this, that is, the Congregation, which thou didst acquire from the beginning.

For to that he has referred this.

'The enemy hath reproached the Lord, and a foolish people hath provoked thy name.' Look not, he says, upon us, but upon the blasphemies of our adversaries.

'Deliver not to the wild beasts a soul that confesses thee.' The prophetic word does not simply pray for all;

but it asks for good things for those who confess the divine name [for those who confess the crucified God to be of God, and consubstantial with both the Father and the Spirit].

And by 'wild beasts' he means [not only] the savagery of the enemies [but also of those who deny the crucified One and do not confess him, as has been said, to be God].

'Forget not to the end the souls of thy poor.' And 'poor' would be those who are humble in mind.

For blessed [as the Lord himself says in the Gospels] are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

'Look upon thy covenant, for the darkened of the earth have been filled with houses of iniquity.' For those who have not enjoyed thy radiance, but [blaspheming thee as a mere man together with the Jews, and not confessing thee to be the sun of righteousness, and] loving the darkness of ignorance, have houses full of iniquity and of the retribution that springs from it — that is to say, they were handed over to evils of every kind, because they preferred darkness.

'humbled and put to shame.' We entreat not to fail in our supplication, nor to be sent away in shame.

'The poor and needy shall praise thy name.' But those who beseech thy help and obtain it are wont to offer up their hymn to thee.

'Arise, O God, plead thine own cause.'

'Remember thy reproach, that comes from the foolish one all the day long.' And very fittingly he changed the pronoun;

he did not say 'my cause,' but 'thy cause.'

For I indeed, he says, endured these things justly;

but those men dared many blasphemies against thee [some by crucifying thee, others by rejecting thee even after the Cross and baptism].

'Forget not the voice of thy suppliants;

the pride of those that hate thee ascendeth continually.' And here too they joined the arrogance of the enemies to their own person, entreating that some forbearance be granted, not for their own sake, but for those enemies' sake.

'To the end, destroy not;'

'for Asaph, a psalm of a song.' But Symmachus renders it: 'A triumphal psalm concerning incorruption, for Asaph.'

Since the psalm contains a foretelling of the righteous judgment of God,

and foreannounces both the destruction of the workers of wickedness and the good recompenses of the lovers of virtue;

fittingly, through the title, the word exhorts us not to destroy our godly reasonings, but to keep them sound, and to inherit incorruption.