Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 23/42

enjoying manna as their food, they were ungrateful;

when commanded to take possession of the promised land, they put forward their fear as a pretext;

and they committed countless other things besides these, which, not wishing to prolong the discourse, we shall pass over.

'They did not remember His hand in the day when He redeemed them from the hand of the oppressor.' They were unwilling to bring to mind the former benefits, nor to consider the might of God, by which they were delivered from the slavery of the Egyptians.

Then he recounts the wonders that were wrought there.

'How He set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the plain of Tanis.' Tanis contained the royal palaces of Pharaoh.

There, then, great Moses brought the punishments upon the Egyptians.

'And He turned their rivers into blood, and their showers, that they might not drink.' For first He changed not only the waters of the rivers, but also those formed from the rains, into the nature of blood, pressing hard with thirst those who contradicted Him.

'He sent among them the dog-fly, which devoured them, and the frog, which destroyed them.'

'And He gave their fruits to the blight, and their labors to the locust.' Using the dog-fly and the frogs as ministers of His wrath, He brought bitter pains upon them.

But by the blight and the locust He destroyed the fruits of the land.

'He killed their vine with hail, and their sycamores with frost.' By the blight and the locust He consumed the fruit, but by the hail and the frost He deadened the very roots of the trees.

The other translators, however, rendered the sycamines as sycamores.

'And He gave over their cattle to the hail, and their possessions to the fire.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'Of Him who gave their cattle over to pestilence, and their livestock to the birds of prey.'

For having met a sudden death, they became a feast for the flesh-eating birds.

'He sent upon them the anger of His wrath,'

'wrath, and anger, and affliction, a sending by evil angels.' By 'wrath, and anger, and affliction' he named the bitter punishments;

and by 'evil angels,' the ministers of the punishment;

calling 'evil' neither a wickedness of nature nor of will, but the retribution of chastisement.

Thus he calls the day of punishment 'an evil day.'

This also Symmachus made plain;

for instead of 'evil angels' he said 'angels who bring harm.'

'He made a path for His anger.' That is to say, His love for mankind did not hinder the punishment, but gave place to the just discipline.

This he also showed through what follows.

'He did not spare their souls from death,'

'and He shut up their cattle unto death.'

[51.] 'And He smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt, the firstfruits of all their labor,'

'in the tents of Ham.' For seeing their obstinate disposition, He brought punishments upon them without sparing;

first bringing destruction upon the cattle, and afterwards bringing an unexpected death upon the firstborn.

By 'the tents of Ham' he designated Egypt, since the son of Ham was Mesrem, and Mesrem is Egypt.

'And He took away His people like sheep,'

'and He led them up like a flock in the wilderness.' Having thus chastised those others, He led His own people into the wilderness;

imitating a shepherd going before his flock.

'And He guided them in hope, and they were not afraid.' For having given many pledges of His own power, He commanded them to take courage in Him and not to be afraid.

But this came to pass from the God of all;

yet they were unwilling to take courage in the power of God.

'And the sea covered their enemies.' For the very same sea provided a way for these, but buried those beneath its waves.

'And He brought them into the mountain of His sanctuary, this mountain which His right hand acquired.' Having freed them from there, then, He gave them the land which He had promised;

for through Mount Zion He indicated the whole land.

For this is what 'by a line of inheritance' signifies.

For those who possess land are accustomed to measure their own land;

and the allotments and distributions the writing of Joshua son of Nun teaches more precisely.

'And He made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.' For they divided the land among themselves by tribes;

having thus taught their unbelief after the wilderness, he now narrates their transgressions in the land of promise.

'And they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies.' After so many and so great benefits they persisted in transgressing and in violating the divine commandments.

'And they turned back and dealt treacherously, just as their fathers did.' They imitated the wickedness of their fathers, and though they had seen the punishment of those, they gained no profit from it.

'They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.' A bow, when constructed according to art, sends the released arrows toward the target;

but when it has received some distortion, it cannot direct the arrows that are shot.

Those men, therefore, having corrupted the uprightness of their mind, neither used the divine benefits as they ought, and turned the occasions of benefit into occasions of harm.

'And they provoked Him on their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.' Receiving good things from the God of all, they served lifeless idols.

These things the history of the Judges teaches more clearly.

For He gave them over, at one time to the Ammonites, at another to the Moabites, at other times to the Midianites and the foreigners;

exacting from them the penalty for their impiety.

'And He greatly despised Israel.' For that much-celebrated people, delivered so marvelously from the slavery of the Egyptians, at whom the sea looked and fled, and the Jordan turned back—these the neighboring peoples easily overcame.

'And He rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had pitched among men.' These things the beginning of the Books of Kingdoms now teaches, making mention of Eli the high priest and of the transgression of his sons.

'And He gave over their strength into captivity,'

'and their beauty into the hands of enemies.' By 'their strength and beauty' he means the ark;

and Hophni and Phinehas, having brought this out to aid their countrymen, paid the penalty for their own transgression;

and this was an idol, worshipped by those men.

'And He shut up His people to the sword, and disregarded His inheritance.' For He gave them over into the hands of their foes, on account of the excess of their transgression.

He named them 'an inheritance,' inasmuch as they had at all times received from Him the very fullest measure of protective care.

In this same way the great Moses also addressed them.

For he says: 'The Lord's portion became His people Jacob, Israel the measuring-cord of His inheritance.' Then he enumerates the kinds of punishment.

'Fire devoured their young men,'

'and their virgins were not bewailed.'

'Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows shall not be wept for.' For some He delivered over to the fire;

while for others the customary lamentation did not take place, since each was preoccupied with his own troubles.

Hophni and Phinehas, the priests, while carrying the very ark itself, met with slaughter, being taught by the events themselves not to take confidence in the divine care while living in company with transgression.

'The Lord awoke as one that sleeps.' Yet nonetheless, having subjected them to these punishments, He also taught their enemies the causes of what had happened.

'Like a mighty man, and one flushed with wine.'

[Ps. 78:66.] 'And He smote His enemies backward; He gave them everlasting reproach.' For as though shaking off, like some sleep, His long-suffering, He brought the blow upon the foreigners, on account of which they became a reproach among all.

He speaks of the affliction of the seat (i.e. the hemorrhoids), which the historical narrative teaches.

'And He smote His enemies backward'—she indicated more decorously the part that received the blow.

By 'sleep' he called His long-suffering;

and by 'the flush from wine,' His indignation.

For just as though brought in from without, so is punishment justly imposed upon transgressors by God.

'And He rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim.' Again, leaving aside the other tribes, he makes mention of Ephraim alone, foreseeing the tyranny that was to come.

By 'Joseph' and 'Ephraim' he means the same tribe;

for Ephraim was a son of Joseph.

He says it was 'rejected' in that the tabernacle did not remain in Shiloh, but the grace of the divine ark passed over into Jerusalem, in which afterward Solomon also built the divine temple.

'And He chose the tribe of Judah,'

'Mount Zion, which He loved.' He chose the tribe of Judah, indeed, on account of the rod from Jesse that was expected to blossom forth.

This shoot the patriarch Jacob too foretold when he blessed Judah;

and the divinely-inspired Paul makes mention of it, speaking thus:

'For it is evident that our Lord Jesus Christ has sprung out of Judah.' It was therefore on this account that He preferred the tribe of Judah above the others;

and since this mystery was somehow unknown to the multitude, he added most plainly:

'Mount Zion, which He loved'—that he might quench the envy of the other tribes, all but saying:

'Take in no occasion for jealousy.'

In another way too he wishes to show the mountain to be venerable, on account of the temple that was to be built upon it.

'And He built His sanctuary like that of unicorns.' They say that the unicorn is armed with a single horn;

and the Law taught that one God is to be worshipped.

Fittingly, then, he likened to a unicorn the one temple, dedicated to the one God.

'On the earth He founded it forever.' But Symmachus renders thus:

'Like the earth, which You founded forever.'

And the others too have interpreted the same sense.

He is saying, then, that just as He created one earth, so He commanded that one temple be created for the Jews.

'From behind those that give birth He took him.' But Symmachus renders thus:

'He led him following after the pregnant ewes.'

This too is an intensification of the honor bestowed;

for he was not even a full shepherd, but an assistant to a shepherd, following after the sheep that were giving birth.

'To shepherd Jacob His servant, and Israel His inheritance;'

'and he shepherded them in the innocence of his heart, and guided them by the understandings of his hands.' This too shows the surpassing greatness of His care;

for He did not set over the flock of sheep an ordinary man, but one who, blending understanding with simplicity, guided them according to the divine laws. To these things the legislation of the Lord is like:

'Be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves.' For having banished the vice of each, and removing from the one its cunning and from the other its folly, He blended together the praiseworthy virtue.

For we have been entrusted with the ministry of greater matters;

'to walk worthily of the calling with which we were called,' according to the legislation of the divinely-inspired Paul.

A Psalm of Asaph. The prophetic word foretells the madness of Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, against the people of the Jews.

He casts it in the form of a prayer, as though offered by the godly who would be living at that time—those who had not yet gained the victory, but were still being overwhelmed by their calamities.

'O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple.' Wisely did the grace of the Spirit teach those wrestling with those grievous calamities to begin their supplication thus.

For they did not first recount their own sufferings;

but rather the impiety that had been dared against the divine temple, as though the temple had in no way transgressed against the divine law.

'Nations,' he says, 'living in impiety and lawlessness, have taken possession of Your inheritance.'

'For they dared to set foot within the innermost sanctuaries of Your temple.'

'And not with altars and sacrifices to demons alone did they defile Your holy things.'

'They have made Jerusalem into a storehouse for fruit.' For having utterly sacked the whole city, they made the far-renowned Jerusalem appear to differ in no way from a hut turned into a fruit-storehouse.

'They have given the dead bodies of Your servants as food to the birds of heaven, the flesh of Your holy ones to the beasts of the earth.' With such bestial fury and madness did they treat Your servants, that they set out these men's bodies as a banquet for the wild beasts and for the flesh-eating birds.

'They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.' Possessing a murderous disposition, they slay those who lived in godliness;

and they cause streams of blood to run over the land, yet do not permit the slaughtered to be deemed worthy of a grave.

'We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and a scorn to those around us.' These things made us a reproach to our neighbors;

on account of these things we have become an object of malicious joy to those dwelling near us.

By 'neighbors' he means the Philistines, the Idumeans, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the other bordering nations, which were always their adversaries and enemies.

'How long, O Lord? Will You be angry forever?

Shall Your jealousy burn like fire?' God, in giving the Law, commanded that He alone be served, and that no other so-called god be worshipped: 'For I,' He says, 'am the Lord your God, a jealous God, a consuming fire.' [But, as we have often said, let no one who hears of one God suppose a mere monarchy;

for it is the incomprehensible and ever-existing Essence, worshipped in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, that He names 'God';

and that it is God the Word, who is Jesus Christ our Savior, who gives the Law, none of the more studious would doubt.] This too the prophetic word here called to mind:

'Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that know You not, and upon kingdoms that have not called upon Your name.' Since You exact penalties from men for their sins, I entreat You to transfer Your wrath against those who by no means wish to learn Your name, but are enslaved to the utmost impiety.

'For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his place.' This too is a clear proof of their lawlessness;

for having suffered no wrong at our hands, they consumed us with slaughters, ravaged the land, and sacked the cities.

As for 'his place': Aquila rendered it 'his beauty,' Symmachus 'his comeliness,' and Theodotion 'his seemliness';

and by these renderings the divine house is rather indicated.

Rightly did he call the people 'Jacob,' stirring God to mercy by the remembrance of their forefather.

'Do not remember against us our ancient transgressions.' Godly were those who offered up this prayer, having taken upon themselves great zeal for true religion.

For the virtue of the Maccabees is celebrated in song.

Fittingly, then, do they entreat that the people not be exacted the penalties of their former sins.

But this indeed they set down, though they did not add the second part as well—namely, that God should look upon their present piety.

For this above all displays their great virtue:

to make mention of their sins, but to conceal their present piety.

'Let your compassions swiftly overtake us, O Lord, for we have become exceedingly poor.'

[verse 9] 'Help us, O God our Savior.' Extend as speedily as possible your irresistible aid;

for we have been left bereft of all providential care;

and you alone we have as our helper and Savior.

'For the sake of the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us;'

'and be merciful to our sins for your name's sake.' Nowhere do they make mention of any virtue of their own, but on account of the divine name they entreat to obtain divine aid;

for, he says, when we fare ill, the blasphemy proceeds against your name.

We entreat, then, that you overlook our offenses;

and that you turn our calamities around, and display your power to those who do not know it.

'Lest the nations say, Where is their God?' The other translators have rendered this as though it had already come to pass:

'To what end do the nations say, Where is their God?' This, he says, grieves me; this pierces me sharper than any barb—that the nations should dare to blaspheme against you, and mockingly say, Where is your God, whom you claim scourged Egypt, divided the sea, [granted you passage, and wrought all those other things] great and much-renowned? 'And let the vindication of the blood of your servants that has been poured out be made known among the nations before our eyes.' We entreat, then, that these pay the penalty for their murderous violence, and that all the others behold together with us your just verdict, and your wrath on behalf of your slaughtered servants.

'Let the groaning of the prisoners come before you;'

'according to the greatness of your arm preserve the sons of those who have been put to death.' I implore you to look also upon those still surviving, but who are bound in chains and awaiting death, and not to condemn our race to utter destruction;

but rather preserve the children of those who have been slain, and establish from them a new generation.

'Repay to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom the reproach with which they reproached you, O Lord.' Bring upon those who border us a punishment many times greater than their blasphemy.

For by what he said he did not indicate a fixed number, but requested that a very great punishment be brought upon them.

Such too is the saying, 'The barren woman has borne seven,' meaning 'many.'

And he said 'bosom' by a metaphor drawn from those who carry something in the bosom and hold it securely, so that nothing falls out;

meaning, 'Fill them with calamities continually pressing upon them.'

'But we are your people, and the sheep of your pasture;'

'we will give thanks to you, O God, forever;'

'from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise.' And we who have been named your people, and are called your flock, will unceasingly offer to you our hymns;

and we will confess our thanks for your beneficence;

and having set these things down in writing, we will pass on the narration of them to the people who shall come after.

The word 'we will give thanks (anthomologēsometha)' he has used in the sense of 'we will confess (exomologēsometha)';

and the word signifies thanksgiving.

'Concerning those things that are to be changed.'

'A psalm concerning the Assyrian.' The present psalm foretells a change of certain affairs;

for the word 'alteration' indicates and testifies to this;

and for this reason the word 'testimony' is also added.

And the grace of the Spirit foretells the enslavement of the Jews and their bondage in Babylon.

The psalm has been cast in the form of a prayer to the God of all, as though offered by those very people.

I entreat that, taking thought for the people, you receive my supplication.

'You who lead Joseph like a sheep.' When he had fallen among his brothers as among wolves, you delivered him from their hands, led him to Egypt, and showed him greater than those who had plotted against him.

Having thus recounted the care shown toward them, he passed on to the more general dominion.

'You who sit upon the Cherubim, shine forth.' For since the great Moses set up certain representations of these in the Holy of Holies, and placed the mercy-seat in their midst, and through it a certain divine manifestation came to the high priests, fittingly here he made mention of the Cherubim also, and implored the one seated upon them to appear.

'Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh.' I implore you, he says, to appear to your people.

He made mention of these because he had also made mention of Joseph.

Now of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons;

while Benjamin was his brother by the same mother.

'Stir up your might, and come to save us.' As one who is long-suffering and abides in stillness, he rouses God to action.

'Set in motion all your power,' he says, 'to accomplish our salvation.'

[This, as I have said above, the people who at that time had been enslaved by the Assyrians entreat; and this also the nations entreat, longing for the salvation that comes from the Benefactor;

for this is what the prophetic mind means also through what follows.] verse 4

'O God of hosts, turn us back.' Set us free from bondage, and grant the return.

[The one entreating the return from Babylon, the other the turning away from idols.] Then he teaches the ease of the matter.

'And cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved.' For it suffices that you but appear, to loose our calamities.

For indeed the other translators put 'Upon the prayer of your people' in place of 'of your servant.'

'You will feed us the bread of tears;'

'and you will give us tears to drink in measure.' The tense here has been changed;

for indeed the others have rendered these as things that had already come to pass:

'You fed us the bread of tears, and gave us to drink with tears by measure.' And he says that 'You mingled both our food and our drink with tears;'

for lamenting and groaning we partake of our necessary nourishment.

This he did, measuring out the punishment in proportion to the sins.

'With what measure you measure, it shall be measured back to you.' This measure also the prophet Zechariah beheld, when he foretold the destruction of Babylon.

'You have made us a subject of dispute to our neighbors, and our enemies have mocked us.' We have become a reproach even to the neighboring nations, which have always borne enmity toward us;

[but nevertheless we did not depart from you;

for this he said through what follows.]

'O Lord, God of hosts, turn us back;'

'and cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved.' By your manifestation, then, scatter the gloomy cloud of our calamities, and grant the return;

[this the people entreat;

[at that time invisibly recalling them from captivity, but by your dispensation preserving the nations.] Then he recounts the ancient acts of beneficence, entreating to enjoy the like providential care.

'You transplanted a vine out of Egypt, you cast out nations, and planted it.'

You made a way before it.

Like a vine, You transplanted it out of Egypt, and having granted it every ease along the way, You planted it in the land of the Canaanites.

Its shadow covered the mountains, and its tendrils the cedars of God.

It stretched out its branches as far as the sea.

and its shoots as far as the rivers. Having figuratively named the people a vine, he persisted in the figure.

And by 'mountains' he means the might of the neighbouring nations.

and by their 'shadow' the dominion of Israel, which was cast over them and overshadowed them.

and by 'the cedars of God' the exalted rulers, those who have received the office of ruling from God.

and by 'tendrils' those covering over the cedars, since the kingdom of Israel had become more illustrious than these.

and to Solomon even the queen of the Ethiopians came running.

so renowned did he become among all men.

By 'branches of the vine' he means the multitude of the people.

and by 'shoots' the proselytes, those who had come over from the nations and had received the divine knowledge.

Why did You break down its wall, so that all who pass along the way pluck it? Why then did You strip it of Your providence, and make it easy prey for those who wish to do it wrong? By 'wall' he has named its security.

For what a wall is to a vineyard, this is the providence of God to those deemed worthy of it.

And by those 'passing along the way' he means the enemies.

For just as travellers freely pluck a vine that is unfenced and unguarded, and carry off its fruit.

so too the one stripped of the divine care becomes easy prey for those who wish to do wrong.

A boar out of the wood laid it waste.

and a solitary wild beast devoured it. Through these words he indicated the various incursions of the Assyrians.

For Shalmaneser and Sennacherib sacked the other cities.

while Nebuchadnezzar, having besieged Jerusalem, led into captivity those who had escaped death.

And since he had called Israel a vine, fittingly he named its enemy a wild boar.

for this beast in particular is a plotter against vines.

And he calls it a 'solitary wild beast', the boar that lives by itself, which is fiercer than the others, inasmuch as it turns away from fellowship with them.

Since then Nebuchadnezzar too was more beastlike than the other kings, fittingly he named him a solitary wild beast.

O God of hosts, turn back, we pray, and look down from heaven, and see.

and visit this vine.

For it was Your own providence that gave the former prosperity.

For he entreats that the vine be deemed worthy of care, for the sake of the temple that was to be taken from it, which he clearly called the Son of Man.

So too the Lord in the sacred Gospels, although He is at once God and man, names Himself Son of Man, applying the title from the visible nature.

For thus the Lord too names Himself, saying:

'I am the true vine, you are the branches, and My Father is the husbandman.' For as man, He is a vine.

but as God, He is also the husbandman, sowing good seed in His own field.

He became a vine, and there sprang forth mightiest branches, the multitude of those who had believed on Him.

The shadow of these truly covered the mountains, and their tendrils the cedars.

This vine truly stretched out its branches as far as the sea, and its shoots as far as the rivers.

It is burnt with fire and dug up. From this especially it is clear that the psalm foretells the events concerning the Babylonian and not those concerning Antiochus, as some have supposed.

For the Babylonian both burnt the temple and gave over the greater part of the city to fire.

so here too it says that they departed not only having gathered the fruit, but that they even dug it up, and tore it out by the roots, and consumed it with fire.

At the rebuke of Your countenance they will perish. [But when You appear and are moved, they will be utterly done away and receive destruction.] (v. 18)

Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, and upon the son of man whom You strengthened for Yourself. [Let us therefore enjoy Your care, because You, thus overcome by love for mankind, take flesh from us.]

And by 'son of man' he names the Lord of glory.

For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.] (v. 19)

And we will not depart from You. [For You are unfailing to fulfil Your promises.] For when this firstfruits is taken from us, the whole nature of mankind will come to know the true God, and will hymn the love for mankind that has been shown.

You will give us life, and we will call upon Your name. And in this way the power of death also will be dissolved, and we shall attain to eternal life, worshipping You the Saviour God.

O Lord God of hosts, restore us.

for if only You appear, we shall attain salvation.

For the end, concerning the winepresses, a psalm for Asaph. This psalm foretells the recalling of the Jews, and the estrangement that came afterwards.

after which came the calling of the nations, and the fruit of godliness, offered to God in the holy churches as in certain winepresses.

The prelude of the psalm is fashioned as though those who had offered up that supplication had already returned, and were dancing, and exhorting one another to hymn the God who had saved them.

Rejoice in God our helper. But Symmachus said, 'Sing praise'.

Offer to God, he says, the thanksgiving hymn, to Him who has imparted to us His own providence.