Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 34/42

For of old there were also among the Jews many such men, who had not sprung from the Abrahamic root but had come over from other nations—those called proselytes—and who held divine things in high esteem.

And now too the Gentiles do not possess kinship with Abraham according to the flesh; yet having acquired the faith of Abraham, they are reckoned as children of Abraham.

'The Lord, being mindful of us, has blessed us; He has blessed the house of Israel, He has blessed the house of Aaron.'

'He has blessed those who fear the Lord.' Here too he made the same division, and pointed out the fruit of hope;

for he joined blessing to hope, and said that this is imparted not only to the house of Israel and to the house of Aaron, but also to those who fear Him.

Then again he makes a division according to ages and ranks.

'The small together with the great.' For not only the young, but also those grown old;

not only those flourishing in wealth, but also those living in poverty;

not only those adorned with freedom, but also those compelled to drag the yoke of servitude.

'May the Lord add upon you, upon you and upon your sons.' To those who have acquired divine hope the prophetic word prays for increase and multitude.

'Blessed are you by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.' 'You shall assuredly obtain this,' he says, 'inasmuch as you have received the blessing from the Maker of all things.'

Now the Lord of all dwells in heaven, not as having a nature circumscribed there, but as rejoicing in the choirs of the holy angels who have their citizenship there.

The earth, however, He assigned to the human race.

Therefore He provides not only for the Jews, but for all people, to whom He has also given the earth as a dwelling place.

'The dead will not praise You, O Lord, nor all those who go down into Hades.'

'But we the living will bless the Lord, from now and forever.' By 'the dead' he meant those who serve lifeless idols;

for what is more insensate than those idols? And by 'the living' he meant those who worship the living God, to whom He has allotted the divine hymn.

Besides this he teaches that those who serve God ought to sing His praise with all eagerness while they are yet living, since death hinders the doing of this;

for this reason he says also in another psalm:

'I will sing to the Lord in my life, I will make melody to my God while I have my being.' INTERPRETATION.

With many and manifold calamities did Antiochus the son of Seleucus, surnamed Epiphanes, surround the Jews;

and those who lived in ease and comfort he induced to transgress the divine law.

But the lovers of piety, eagerly taking up the contests on its behalf, enjoyed the crowns of glorious victory.

This their courage the present song foretells.

'I have loved, because the Lord will hearken to the voice of my supplication.'

'Because He has inclined His ear to me.' The prophecy teaches them to say these very things: that 'To me divine things are more delightful than all else, and to serve God is more worthy of my longing than all other things;

for He receives my supplications and deems them worthy of His own favorable regard.'

'And in my days I will call upon Him.' Wherefore, throughout all my life I will continue both hymning Him and asking for His alliance.

Then he recounts the multitude of his sufferings.

'The pangs of death encompassed me, the perils of Hades found me.' Properly speaking, 'pangs' are called the pains of a woman in labor before childbirth.

Accordingly, by this metaphor those calamities which bring one close to death itself are called 'the pangs of Hades.'

He says, then, that having been encircled by many and manifold terrors, so as to be at the very point of death and to have the gates of Hades themselves overtake him.

[Verse 4] 'And I called upon the name of the Lord.' But I did not give myself over, when I had fallen into these things, to rest and ease, nor did I devote myself to the other diversions of life; but with lamentations and tears, and continually crying aloud, I sought the divine help.

This one may learn more accurately from the history of the Maccabees.

For the foster-children of piety, having fled away into the wilderness and being oppressed by hunger and thirst, entreated God and enjoyed His help.

'O Lord, deliver my soul.' 'These things,' he says, 'I said as I cried aloud;'

'Yet in praying I knew that I would obtain my request, having learned by experience His great love for mankind.'

'Merciful is the Lord, and righteous, and our God shows mercy.' For He pours out the fountains of mercy upon men;

yet He also has righteousness, and punishes those who do wrong and are unwilling to make use of repentance.

For the love of God for mankind overcomes the verdict of His righteousness.

'The Lord guards the infants.' For He takes such great care of all men that He deems even babes worthy of every provision.

Even while they swim in foulness, and are confined in a dark and narrow place, He preserves and saves them, and brings them to completion and leads them out into the light; He holds out to them the fountains of milk, sets them free from the demons that plot against them, and, to speak all at once, imparts to them a father's providence.

Not without purpose did the prophetic word make mention of these things, but teaching that the God of all not only requites the fruits of the righteous, but also takes the initiative in beneficence, and creates those who did not exist, and having fashioned them cares for them, and after their full maturity awaits the fruits of righteousness, and then again overwhelms the good with His benefactions.

'I was brought low, and He saved me.' Symmachus renders it thus:

For if the infants, who have not yet received knowledge of Him, obtain such great care from Him, much more does He impart salvation to those who call upon Him with sincerity.

Straightway, then, seeing us brought low by calamities, He deemed us worthy of His own succor.

'Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has done you good.' They take courage in themselves and spur themselves on to bravery, pointing out the multitude of the divine benefactions, and they teach themselves that even if they should accept death for the sake of piety, they will be transferred to the delightful and painless life.

For it was that life which he called 'rest.'

'Because He delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.'

'I will be well-pleasing before the Lord in the land of the living.' By 'the land of the living' he does not mean the present life, in which there are lamentations and wailings and diseases and deaths and sins and calamities, but that life delivered from all these, in which the acquisition of virtue is without hardship, and the wealth of righteousness comes to one without toils.

For those who wish to gather this here with toils will multiply it many times over without toils;

they therefore offer the hymn of thanksgiving, since their eyes have been delivered from weeping, their feet have escaped the slippery life, and their soul has been able to flee the death of sin;

and they teach themselves to bear nobly the assaults of sufferings and to despise death, seeing that a painless life succeeds death.

The Hebrew and the rest of the interpreters, and indeed also the Syrian, join this to what precedes;

for it holds the same meaning;

and having divided the ninth in two, by the joining of these two psalms they preserve the equal number of the psalms.

Nevertheless it has the same subject.

For those who there made mention of the land of the living, and had set this as the closing verse, beginning here say:

'I believed, therefore I spoke.' For it was not with the eyes of the body that I beheld that land, but faith made it manifest to me.

'But I was brought exceedingly low.'

[Verse 2] 'But I said in my ecstasy:'

'Every man is a liar.' Aquila renders it thus:

'I said in my being amazed:'

Not without purpose have I set down all the renderings, but wishing to show that he calls human prosperity a lie, since it flows away most swiftly and has nothing enduring.

For, he says, having beheld this sudden change, and having recalled our former good fortune, and seeing the calamities coming one after another, I said in my distress: 'Nothing is abiding or stable;

but he deceives himself and misses his hope, who trusts in present things as though they were enduring.

This he had said in the thirty-eighth psalm:

Having traversed the theme of prosperity, and touched upon the natural philosophy of human affairs, he set down this preface:

'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' (verse 3)

'What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me?' Being overwhelmed by many and diverse benefactions, I know not with what I shall repay my Benefactor.

And not without purpose did he join this to what preceded;

rather he teaches that even amid the varied changes of life the God of all extends to men His own succour, and offers to the despondent every kind of consolation.

This too the blessed Paul declared:

'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.'

'According to the multitude of my sorrows Thy consolations have gladdened my soul.' (verse 4)

'I will take the cup of salvation, and will call upon the name of the Lord.' It befits us, then, to accept with boldness the death endured for His sake, and to give this as a recompense for His manifold benefaction.

For by 'the cup of salvation' he named the death suffered for the sake of true religion.

For thus the Lord names it.

'Father,' He says, 'if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.' And to the pair of apostles who requested a share in the kingdom, He spoke thus:

and they fulfil this promise before the eyes of their kinsmen, that they too might spur them on to the like zeal.

Then they display the fruit of this death.

'I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people.'

'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His holy ones.' And if it be precious to God, to which of the holy ones is it not venerable? (verse 7)

'I am Thy servant, and the son of Thy handmaid.' If, then, we endure that admirable death, we shall enjoy honour and glory from God, and shall leave behind an everlasting renown.

For those constrained to serve men sometimes take pride in having had free-born ancestors;

but those who have served God with goodwill confess that they hold their servitude from their forefathers, rightly believing such servitude to be the greatest glory.

'To Thee will I sacrifice a sacrifice of praise, and will call upon the name of the Lord.'

'I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people,'

'in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem.' Being delivered from calamities, I will not be ungrateful for the benefactions, but will render to Thee the sacrifice of praise, and will pay the thankful hymn, in the sight of all my kinsmen, who reap the profit thereby.

I will offer this rational sacred service in the temple consecrated to Thy name.

It is possible, then, to learn from this too that, even while the Law held sway, those who attended to the Law in a more spiritual manner preferred the rational sacrifices to the irrational victims, prefiguring in shadow the New Covenant.

It is fitting to know that both this psalm and the other suit all the gloriously victorious martyrs;

for the aim of these and of those is one and the same;

for those too endured that admirable death for the sake of the Law and the Lawgiver, and these preferred to the present life their end on behalf of Him who saved them and abolished death.

This too is a hymn suited to all men.

For the grace of the Spirit exhorts those who have obtained salvation to praise their Benefactor.

'Praise the Lord, all ye nations.' He calls all together into the chorus;

for to all the nations, not to Greeks and Romans only, but also to all the barbarians, He supplied the means of salvation, employing the holy apostles as ministers of His benefaction.

'Go therefore,' He said, 'make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.' Obeying this command, they ran over all land and sea, and one brought Indians, another Egyptians, another Ethiopians, to Christ.

The blessed Paul teaches concisely to how many nations he brought the divine proclamations, so that 'from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum he had fulfilled the Gospel of Christ.' For not travelling by a straight road, but going round about the nations that lay between, he brought them the saving doctrines.

Thus he made it his ambition to preach the Gospel, 'not where Christ had been named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation;

but as it is written, they to whom nothing was announced concerning Him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand.' Later indeed he set foot in Italy also, and came to the Spains, and brought benefit to the islands lying in the open sea.

For writing to the Romans he said:

'For I hope, as I journey to the Spains, to pass through and see you, and to be sent onward there by you, if first I may be somewhat filled with your company.' And writing to the admirable Titus he says:

thus the divine Andrew illumined Greece with the rays of the knowledge of God;

thus the most divine Philip refuted the error of both the Phrygias; thus the great Peter ran from Jerusalem as far as the city of the Romans, bringing to all the rays of the truth.

Thus all of them, having gone round the whole inhabited world, both dispersed the gloom of ignorance and displayed the sun of righteousness.

Rightly, then, does the prophetic word charge all the nations to offer the hymn to God, since all have enjoyed salvation.

'Praise Him, all ye peoples.' Of old the Jews were scattered abroad into all the inhabited world, having been taught to worship the one God.

Since, then, they no longer dwelt in Palestine alone, nor formed one people arranged under one king, but were scattered among the nations, obeying the rulers of those nations while governing themselves according to the ordinance of the Law, rightly he names them not a people but peoples.

For very many even of these received the divine proclamation.

For in Jerusalem three thousand and five thousand were caught in the net at one time by the fishermen.

And afterward there came to be many myriads, as the divine James said.

And in Syria, and Cilicia, and Lycaonia, and Pisidia, and Asia, and Pamphylia, and in all the remaining nations, the apostles brought the divine proclamations first to the Jews.

And some believed and enjoyed the truth, while others contradicted the profitable teachings.

Rightly, then, does the prophetic word exhort these too to praise their Benefactor;

for these he names peoples.

'For His mercy has been made mighty upon us.' For employing mercy alone, He wrought our salvation.

Thus too the blessed Paul said:

'But when the kindness and love toward man of our Saviour God appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did, but according to His great mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out upon us richly.' And again:

'By grace are ye saved through faith;

and this not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.' And elsewhere:

'Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first, but I obtained mercy. And God commends His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.'

Rightly, then, did the prophetic word say that 'His mercy has been made mighty upon us.'

'And the truth of the Lord abides for ever.' For the salvation which He promised through the holy prophets He has given.

This too the blessed Paul declared at the beginning of his letter to the Romans: 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart unto the Gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.' And again:

'Now I say that Christ Jesus became a minister of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the nations might glorify God for His mercy.' Since, then, the God of all has fulfilled the promises, and given the salvation which He promised, and opened to all the fountains of mercy, do you also — both we who have come from Judaea, and you who have believed from among the nations — mingling a harmonious hymnody, requite the Benefactor.

This too is a hymn offered to God by those who have enjoyed salvation.

For the Jews, after the return, when all the neighbouring peoples had gathered together at once, envying them their former prosperity, and had moreover assembled other and barbarian nations, and then had been consumed by God-sent plagues according to the prophecy of Joel, and Ezekiel, and Micah, and Zechariah, offer this thanksgiving hymn to God.

But since in those things our own affairs were prefigured, the hymnody suits rather those who have believed from among the nations;

who, being persecuted by many — rulers and ruled, peoples and demagogues, kings and generals — and being tortured, and maltreated, and enduring countless forms of death, were shown to be stronger than those who warred against them.

And to these indeed, as well as to those, the grace of the Spirit has set forth the teaching of hymnody.

'Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures for ever.' Praise the good One, and the Supplier of good things.

'Let the house of Israel say that He is good, that His mercy endures for ever.'

'Let the house of Aaron say that He is good, that His mercy endures for ever.' Having made mention of these according to their division, he makes a common remembrance of those who have believed from among the nations.

'Let all now who fear the Lord say that He is good, that His mercy endures for ever.' Let all, he says, praise the love of God toward man — both those who trace their descent from Israel, and boast in their ancestral piety, and those among them deemed worthy of the priesthood, and those who, though of diverse nations, have been delivered from the impiety of their forefathers.

For one is the God of all, and He offers to all diverse benefactions, and to those who ask He extends mercy.

Then he teaches more plainly the providence of God.

'Out of tribulation I called upon the Lord, and He heard me in a broad place.' For He did not prevent the onslaught of evils, but revealed the dangers and straightway scattered them.

This he also said in the fourth Psalm: 'In tribulation Thou hast enlarged me,' that is to say, 'Thou hast brought me a comfort greater than my pain.'

'The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.'

For I hope, enjoying His support, to behold their destruction with all speed.

Then with good reasonings he confirms his godly resolve.

'...to trust in the Lord, than to trust in man.'

'It is good to hope in the Lord, rather than to hope in princes.' For He is good, and loving toward mankind, and willing good things, and able to do what He wills, and holds an authority that is imperishable.

But men are by nature perishable and by will changeable, and often they do not will good things.

And there are times when, even willing to defend those who are wronged, they are not able.

And even if they be princes, they hold their rule only for a season.

And kingship among men is fleeting, and rules for but a little time.

It is better, therefore, to forsake the help of men, and to seek divine assistance.

'All the nations compassed me about, and in the name of the Lord I repelled them.' Now the Church received the assaults of all the nations, but Jerusalem received the assaults not of all, but of some.

In their case, therefore, the word is spoken by way of hyperbole; but in the case of the Church it is spoken truly.

For those in every nation who had believed endured the tumults and dangers that came from the unbelievers.

Yet nevertheless, both these and those, having placed their confidence in God, conquered their adversaries.

'Compassing they compassed me about, and in the name of the Lord I repelled them.' And Symmachus thus:

'They compassed me about, and again they surrounded me,' that is to say, 'They employed successive assaults and sieges of every kind.'

But I, fortified by calling upon God, scattered their phalanx.

'They compassed me about like bees a honeycomb.' Just as, he says, bees when they find a honeycomb suck out the moisture of the honey, so these men attempted to strip away the sweetness of godliness that was in me.

'And they were kindled like fire among thorns.' They hoped moreover to get the better of me very easily, just as fire readily consumes thorns.

'And in the name of the Lord I repelled them.' But having expected these things, they were disappointed of their hope, being overcome by my hope.

'I was thrust so as to fall, but the Lord upheld me.' These things befit both those and these.

For those too would have suffered utter destruction, had they not enjoyed the divine grace.

And these too would have fallen into impiety, had not the divine virtue upheld them.

'The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation.' Him, therefore, we have as strength, and victory, and the fountain of our hymnody.

For having enjoyed good things from Him, we offer up our hymn with gladness.

'The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous.' For after the victory, being freed from their former lamentations, they were in joy and thanksgiving, praising God.

And doing well, they do not ascribe the victory to themselves, nor do they take confidence in their own zeal and power, but they cry aloud that they have obtained this by the divine grace.

[v.17] 'I shall not die, but live, and shall declare the works of the Lord.' Having therefore enjoyed help from on high, and having become stronger than death, I will teach the divine benefits both to those who are ignorant and remind those who know, and by the remembrance of these things I will kindle love toward Him.

'Chastening the Lord hath chastened me, but He hath not delivered me over unto death.' For He permitted grievous things to assail me, chastening me as a father.

But He dispersed the gloomy cloud of these troubles, and freed me utterly from the ruin that came from thence.

'Open to me the gates of righteousness.'

'entering into them I will give thanks unto the Lord.' By the 'gates of righteousness' he does not mean the gates of the temple, but the various forms of virtue.

For through those it is possible worthily to hymn the God of all.

And this he showed more plainly by what follows.

For as it were giving a certain answer, he says:

'This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter into it.' Thus also to the young man who had asked to learn the way of eternal life, the Lord said:

'For I am,' He says, 'the door of the sheep.'

'if any man enter in by Me, he shall go in, and go out, and find pasture.' This too the prophetic word said here:

'This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter into it.' [v.21]

'I will give thanks unto Thee, for Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.' I praise Thee, therefore, who hast received my supplication and hast granted salvation.

'The stone which the builders rejected, this is become the head of the corner.' This, though the Jews shamelessly cavil ten thousand times, they cannot apply to any other.

For if Zerubbabel led the tribes that had of old been divided, yet he did not endure for very long.

This Stone, however, those who were of old the builders — Pharisees and Sadducees, priests and Scribes — rejected and crucified.

But it 'became the head of the corner,' or, according to Symmachus, the chief cornerstone.

Concerning this Stone God also prophesied beforehand through the prophet Isaiah:

'Behold, I lay in Sion a costly stone, choice, a cornerstone, precious, for its foundations; and everyone that believeth on Him shall not be put to shame.'

This too the blessed Paul said.

This Stone Daniel beheld shattering the image — that is, the vanity of this life — and becoming a great mountain and covering the whole world.

'This was from the Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes.' The bestower of this grace is God, and we marvel at His unspeakable love toward mankind.

'This is the day which the Lord hath made;'

'let us rejoice and be glad in it.' He calls a day made by God that on which this Stone arose after the Passion.

For immediately after the resurrection, He commanded the holy apostles to go and make disciples of all the nations.

For since from the beginning God made the light on it, so this day also, having received the resurrection of our Saviour, sent down the rays of the Sun of righteousness into all the world.

And having created the light, He called the day 'light,' and nothing else did He make on that day.

This day alone, therefore, like the first day, received the creation of the light.

For on the second day He made the firmament, and on the third the plants and the seeds, and on the others likewise the rest.

But on the first day, the light.

Fittingly, therefore, he said, 'This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it,' inasmuch as in it we have received the fountains of good things.

For the word 'Save now' we found to stand as 'Hosanna' in the Hebrew.

The Baptist, guiding his own disciples toward the truth, asked the Lord through them:

'Art Thou He that cometh, or do we look for another?' And being Lord, He came in the name of the Lord.

And thus He said to the Jews:

'I am come in the name of My Father, [and ye received Me not];'

'another shall come in his own name, and him ye will receive.' And being blessed, He is the Son of the Blessed One.

Thus also the high priest asked:

'Art Thou the Son of the Blessed?' — 'We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.' This the victors say to those who love them: that we bring to you the blessing of this Stone, who became a house for the God the Word who dwelt in Him.

For 'the Word,' he says, 'became flesh, and dwelt among us.' And the Lord said to the Jews:

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' (27)

For the one whom he called above 'a stone,' and thereafter 'blessed' and 'coming in the name of the Lord'—him he named both 'Lord' and 'God,' since he brought about his own manifestation and bestowed salvation upon those who believed.

'Order a festal procession with thick branches, up to the horns of the altar.' Gather together, then, all of you, and celebrate the greatest feast, keeping festival for your own salvation, so that the multitude, pressed close together, reaches even as far as the altar itself.

For the phrase 'with thick branches' he has set down in the sense of 'packed densely together and straitened by their multitude.'