Commentary on the Psalms 1 part 7/42

For having said in the psalm before this one, The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and they that seek the Lord shall praise Him; and again, They have eaten and worshipped, all the fat ones of the earth; he here points out the provider of such food;

and he calls the nourisher a shepherd;

I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and am known of My own. Thus too He called Himself through Ezekiel the prophet.

Here too, then, all who have enjoyed the saving food cry out:

The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall lack nothing. For this shepherd bestows upon those shepherded by Him enjoyment of every kind of good things.

In a place of green pasture, there He hath made me to dwell. Since he had called the provider of good things a shepherd, he fittingly made mention also, figuratively, of the food of the sheep.

And by 'green pasture' here he calls the sacred teaching of the divine oracles.

For first He nourishes with words, and then offers the more mystical food.

He hath nourished me beside the water of rest. He hints at the water of regeneration, in which he who desires grace, being baptized, puts off the old age of sin, and is made new instead of grown old.

He hath converted my soul;

He hath guided me in the paths of righteousness. These things, he says, He imparted to me, first setting me free from error, and preparing me to walk the straight way.

For His name's sake.

But all these things are gifts of His munificence;

for it was not because of our own virtue that we enjoyed these things.

Having, then, such a helper and champion, I shall not fear even the very gates of death, but shall despise every death.

For even though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. And to these things he adds yet others:

Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me. For with the one He props up my weakness, and with the other He guides me toward the straight way;

and one would not err in so naming the saving Cross.

For by its seal and remembrance we are delivered from the hostile demons, and are guided toward the true path.

[And this is the meaning of, Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me;

for the Cross comes to be formed by two rods joined together;

with the upright staff supporting and setting straight and strengthening us who believe in Him when we are weak;

and with the transverse one using it as a rod against the demons.] Verse 5.

Thou hast prepared a table before me in the presence of them that afflict me;

For they know also the spiritual oil, with which their heads were anointed;

and the intoxication that strengthens but does not dissolve;

and the mystical food, which He who, besides being our shepherd, also became our bridegroom, sets before us.

With these good things, he says, Thou hast feasted me, while my adversaries are grieved and worn out, because those who of old were their slaves have obtained so great a change.

And Thy mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life;

and my dwelling in the house of the Lord unto length of days. And the author of these good things is Thine ineffable loving-kindness, which did not wait for our supplication, but, as though pursuing certain fugitives, both pursued us, and overtook us, and imparted salvation, and granted the sojourn in the divine houses, both in the present life and in that which is to come.

For this he made clear when he said:

'Unto length of days,' that is, forever and continually.

And this befits those ages which have no end.

Let us leave it uninterpreted; yet one must know that it foreshadows the Lord's resurrection, after which the whole earth and sea received the rays of the knowledge of God.

'The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.'

'The world, and all that dwell therein.' For since the Jews supposed that He was Lord of Palestine alone, and provided for them alone, being the God of them alone, the prophetic word fittingly teaches that He is Lord of all the world.

But He Himself fashioned it, and brought it forth from non-being into being.

For the earth, being by nature dry, He endowed with a proportionate moisture, joining it on the outside and through the midst to the greatest seas; and He provided rivers, most numerous and mighty, and moreover springs in the midst of the continents, causing the former to run perpetually and the latter to well up.

Thus, having indicated God's sovereignty and foretold the nations' recognition of Him, he brings forward the exhortation concerning virtue, once again casting the discourse into the form of question and answer.

'For who,' he says, 'shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? and who shall stand in His holy place?' By 'mountain' here he means not the earthly one of Zion, but the heavenly, which the blessed Paul indicated.

'Ye are come,' he says, 'unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.' For since he had already taught that the God of all is Maker and Creator, he fittingly shows the way that leads to Him, and makes the answer to the question.

'He that is innocent in hands, and pure in heart.'

'Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour.' It is fitting, he says, that he who longs to ascend into that mountain should keep his soul pure from disordered thoughts, and have his hands free from deeds of such a kind.

For he has set 'hands' in the place of 'deeds.'

And by 'heart' he hinted at the thoughts.

For with the one we deliberate, with the others we act.

It is fitting, he says, that such a man should desire none of the fleeting and perishable things.

For these he called 'vain.'

For thus also does Ecclesiastes name them, saying, 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' And since deceit and the transgression of oaths are yoked together with the love of money, he fittingly forbids these also along with that.

'And hath not sworn deceitfully to his neighbour.' Then he shows the fruit of these achievements.

'He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour.' And most suitably he yoked mercy together with the blessing.

For even the recompenses that are reckoned as due are bestowed on men solely through the divine loving-kindness.

For all the righteous deeds of men suffice nothing against the gifts already given by God, much less against those that are to come, which even surpass human reckoning.

'This is the generation of them that seek the Lord, of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob.' Those who choose to live according to these injunctions, he says, truly long to behold the Lawgiver of virtue, who of old deemed even the great Jacob worthy of His own manifestation.

Now in the eleventh psalm the Prophet, discoursing about another generation that lived in company with all vice and wickedness, entreated God, saying:

'Thou, O Lord, shalt keep us, and shalt preserve us from this generation and for ever.' But here he prophesies the contrary.

'This is the generation of them that seek the Lord.' For after the incarnation of God and our Saviour, the whole earth and sea, persuaded by the divine proclamation, forsook their ancestral gods, and seek after the God of Jacob.

'Lift up your gates, O ye rulers, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors.'

'And the King of glory shall come in.'

'Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.'

'Lift up your gates, O ye rulers, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors.'

'And the King of glory shall come in.'

'Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.' And let no one marvel at me for hearing of ignorance in the invisible powers.

For they neither foreknow nor know all things.

But the divine nature alone possesses this knowledge.

Angels and archangels, and the other companies of the invisible powers, know only as much as they are taught.

For which reason the divine Apostle also, discoursing about them, said: 'That now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God.'

And if it was even through the things pertaining to the Church that they learned the divine wisdom more accurately, it is nothing improbable that the powers above should be ignorant of the mystery of Christ's ascension, seeing human nature and not beholding the Godhead hidden within it.

But if one will not grant this, let him take the proposed solution from the things already interpreted in this very psalm.

For above he cast the introduction concerning moral virtue into the form of question and answer.

'Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in His holy place?' Having thus asked, he added the answer.

'He that is innocent in hands, and pure in heart,' and what follows.

Let one consider that here too the figure of the discourse is of this same sort, and let him not suppose that those who ask do so out of ignorance, but that they teach all men by this proclamation the sovereignty of Him who ascends.

And they call Him also 'the Lord strong, and mighty in battle.' For He overthrew the bitter tyranny of the devil, and broke up the deceit of the demons ranked under him.

And they command the everlasting doors to be opened, as never before opened to the nature of men.

For no one of men ever passed through those doors, but only God the Word who became man, having taken up our firstfruits, led it up into the heavens, and set it at the right hand of the Majesty on high, above all principality, and authority, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

But the great Elijah was indeed taken up, yet not into heaven, but as it were into heaven.

Thus, when the former inquiry and answer had taken place, again some inquire while others answer and learn that the Lord of hosts is Himself the King of glory, that is, that He is the Maker and Creator of angels and archangels, and of all the invisible and created nature.

But some of the commentators have said that it is a prediction of the captivity, and have interpreted it as spoken from the standpoint of those captives, attending only to the ending:

'God shall redeem Israel out of all his troubles.'

For which reason he makes mention both of old and new sins, and calls for deliverance from these.

And he introduces also an exhortation profitable to men.

The present psalm is especially fitting for those called from among the nations, and has much sequence with the one before it. 'Unto Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul.'

'O my God, in Thee have I trusted; let me not be ashamed for ever.'

'For all they that wait on Thee shall not be ashamed.'

'Let them be ashamed that transgress without cause.' I have, he says, a sufficient pledge of hope: those who have already believed in Thee, and enjoyed Thy support.

For these Thou art wont to provide, but to put to shame those who live in lawlessness.

It is fitting to note that he said, not those who sin, but those who transgress the law without cause, are filled with shame.

For not all offend in like manner.

For some slip either through some circumstance or through natural weakness.

But others even delight in lawless deeds, and devise yet others.

'Show me Thy ways, O Lord, and teach me Thy paths.'

'Guide me into Thy truth, and teach me, for Thou art the God my Saviour, and on Thee have I waited all the day long.' First I entreat to know Thy ways, and to learn the paths that lead to me, so that I may travel perpetually Thy unerring and true way.

Then through the very deeds themselves I entreat to learn that Thou art my Saviour.

For I continually await the loving-kindness that comes from Thee.

For the phrase 'all the day long' he has set in the place of 'continually.'

And he wishes to teach that he does not hold this mind now, and then receive another in place of it.

'Remember Thy compassions, O Lord, and Thy mercies, for they are from everlasting.'

'Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my ignorances; according to Thy mercy remember Thou me.' Gently, he says, and lovingly dost Thou ever govern men.

I entreat now also to enjoy this goodness, and that there may arise in Thee a remembrance of Thy loving-kindness, not of my sin.

For this he besought also in the express words.

'According to Thy great mercy, do Thou remember me.'

That is: remember not my sin, but remember me in Thy loving-kindness.

[As for the words, 'Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my ignorance,' they bear this meaning:

for he speaks in the person of the people who were in Egypt,

'and indeed I worshipped idols there;'

'therefore remember not those transgressions, but rather Thine own loving-kindness, by which even then, when they were in ignorance, Thou didst have mercy, treating them with loving-kindness.'] 'For Thy goodness' sake, O Lord.' For it is not on account of my own worthiness, but on account of Thy loving-kindness, that I supplicate to obtain this.

And this the divine Scripture everywhere teaches us:

'I will sing to Thee of mercy and judgment, O Lord.' And:

'Merciful and compassionate is the Lord, and righteous, and our God hath mercy.' And:

[Verse 9.] 'He shall guide the meek in judgment; He shall teach the meek His ways.' Symmachus rendered this more clearly:

For, exercising His goodness, He does not straightway punish those who sin, but rather points out to them the straight way, and instructs them in the law of repentance;

and indeed He also teaches those who practise gentleness and simplicity to discern the nature of things, and prepares them to know all His dispensations,

lest their simplicity, becoming a provision for ignorance, should work them much harm;

then He points out the nature of the ways spoken of:

'All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to those who seek His covenant and His testimonies.' For those who are continually nourished upon the sacred Words learn accurately through them that all the dispensations of God our Saviour are blended together of mercy and truth;

for to those who repent of the offences they have committed, He extends mercy and pardon;

but the unconquered athletes of virtue He proclaims and crowns, delivering His verdict in accordance with truth;

and moreover, upon those who have lived in lawlessness and have not made use of repentance, He brings punishments according to the bounds of truth.

'For Thy name's sake, O Lord,'

'and be merciful to my sin,'

'for it is great.' 'I therefore,' he says, 'beseech Thee to become merciful to my sins, not because of any diligent repentance of mine, but because of the name of loving-kindness which Thou bearest, and because I have hung all my hopes upon Thy name.'

'Who is the man that feareth the Lord? He shall instruct him in the way that he hath chosen.'

'His soul shall dwell among good things, and his seed shall inherit the earth.' From this point he begins to exhort, and offers profitable counsel, and to those who fear the Lord he promises providence of every kind.

And since the modes of godly living are many and various—solitary and communal, hermitic and civic, private and military, royal and manual, seafaring and agricultural, and many others besides, diverse in kind—

yet in each mode of life it is possible to please God, the prophetic word fittingly said:

'Who is the man that feareth the Lord? He shall instruct him in the way that he hath chosen.' That is to say: in that mode of life which he chooses to live, He will lay down for him the laws suited and fitting to it.

Thus the divine John the Baptist, when the tax-collectors asked what they must do, exhorted them to exact nothing more than what was appointed. And to soldiers he counselled to do violence to no man, but to be content with their wages—that is, with the allotted provision;

thus the divine Apostle laid down corresponding laws for servants and masters, for children and fathers, for wives and husbands.

To those, then, who have fulfilled these laws the prophetic word promised the soul's abiding among good things and the blessing of their seed:

'For his soul shall dwell among good things, and his seed shall inherit the earth.' For since the begetting of children is greatly prized among the Jews, and the leaving behind of heirs, and indeed even now this same thing is esteemed worthy of love by those who embrace the communal life,

and from these things he urges them on to the labour of virtue.

'The Lord is a strength to those who fear Him, and His covenant shall make it known to them.' This Symmachus and Theodotion rendered more clearly:

'The mystery of the Lord is to those who fear Him, and He shall make His compact known to them.'

'My mysteries are for Me and for Mine.' For He reveals these things not simply to all, but to those who fear Him, and points out to them the aim of His divine oracles.

And indeed, according to the Seventy, 'The Lord is a strength to those who fear Him,'

declaring them unconquerable and stronger than their enemies.

'My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the snare.' Here again by 'eyes' he means those of the mind, which he said he keeps toward God;

inasmuch as he clearly knows that through His care he shall escape the plots contrived against him by his foes.

'Look upon me and have mercy on me, for I am only-begotten and poor.' The word 'only-begotten' the rest translated as 'alone';

and he says: 'I am stripped of all help;'

'wherefore I supplicate to obtain Thy succour.'

'Look upon me and have mercy on me,' he has set down;

'Behold,' he says, 'my desolation, and the siege laid upon me by my enemies;

beholding thus, Thou wilt have mercy.'

'The afflictions of my heart are multiplied; bring me out of my necessities.'

'Behold my humiliation and my toil, and forgive all my sins.' 'On every side,' he says, 'I am beset with many grievous things.'

'Therefore, weighing this humiliation of mine and my wretchedness against my transgressions, grant me remission and bestow pardon.'

'Behold my enemies, for they are multiplied, and with unrighteous hatred they have hated me.' 'If I do not seem,' he says, 'worthy of loving-kindness, wrestling as I am with so many evils, yet at least, beholding the unjust enmity of my foes, extend to me Thy loving-kindness.'

'For against Thee I have offended, having transgressed Thy commandments;

but those men, having nothing to charge me with, make war unjustly.'

'Keep my soul and deliver me;'

'let me not be put to shame, for I have called upon Thee.' 'For even if I have transgressed some of Thy laws, yet I have not separated myself from Thy care;

wherefore I beseech both to be delivered from those who war against me, and to be preserved.'

'The innocent and upright clung to me, for I waited on Thee, O Lord.' This too is proper to virtue:

to hate the company of the base, but to have as companions and friends those who honour equity, practise uprightness, and are freed from wickedness.

'Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his afflictions.' A prayer befitting a king, offered to God.

For it is fitting that he who is appointed to rule should exercise all care for his subjects;

and besides, the safety of him who reigns well and nobly stands as the common benefit of the people.

But the saying has also another meaning.

'If then,' he says, 'I should enjoy Thy inclining favour, and become stronger than my adversaries, then Israel itself, having put an end to civil war, shall attain peace and shall revel in Thy good things.'

But I consider this psalm to be earlier than that one.

For the one made mention of sin, and of great sin;

'For be merciful,' he says, 'to my iniquity, for it is great.' But here he sets forth the kinds of his own virtue;

whence I consider that he used these words while being pursued by Saul and compelled to sojourn among the foreigners;

seeing them living in impiety, superstition, and every kind of lawlessness, he shunned their assemblies and the public feasts celebrated to the demons;

and the interpretation of the sayings will teach this more clearly.

'For I know Thee as God, and I have hung my hopes upon Thy providence, and I am confident that I shall not fall into the hands of those who pursue me.'

'Try my reins and my heart.' And from this too it is plain that the psalm is prior to the sin.

For as one living in simplicity and innocence, and having no experience of sin, he longs for perilous contests.

And by 'reins' and 'heart' he names the thoughts.

This too we have often said.

For being supported by Him:

'And I was well-pleasing in Thy truth.' Then he goes through the kinds of this well-pleasing.

'And with those who transgress the law I will by no means enter in.'

'I have hated the assembly of evildoers.'

'And with the ungodly I will by no means sit.' Thus, he says, have I been mindful of Thy service, that even when I found myself among impious and lawless men, I fled from their gatherings and from their harmful company.

By these words he signifies his sojourn among foreigners, with whom, because of his flight, he was compelled to dwell; yet he did not endure to share with them in either their impiety or their lawlessness.

'I will wash my hands among the innocent,'

'and I will go about Thine altar, O Lord.'

'I will wash my hands among the innocent'—this resembles what was done by Pilate, who, being unwilling to share in the Jewish bloodshed, washed his hands, and by the deed made manifest his shunning of the matter.

'As one innocent, therefore,' he says, 'and having had no fellowship with them, I will confidently wash even my hands.'

'O Lord, I have loved the comeliness of Thy house, and the place of the tabernacle of Thy glory.'

'Destroy not my soul together with the ungodly, nor my life with men of blood.'

'In whose hands are iniquities;'

'their right hand is filled with bribes.' Instead of 'comeliness,' Symmachus put 'palace';

and instead of 'men of blood,' 'murderous men.'

'that I may not perish together with impious men, and bribe-takers, and murderers, and those who abandon justice.'

And through these words again he made plain the very same men.

By 'house' he named the tabernacle;

for the divine temple had not yet been built.

'The place of the tabernacle of Thy glory.'

'But I have walked in mine innocence;'

'redeem me, O Lord, and have mercy upon me.'

'My foot has stood in uprightness.' Meanwhile, even while dwelling among these men, I have employed the simplicity of faith, and have separated myself from all vice; and having planted my feet in the uprightness of godliness, I have thus far stood securely and firmly.

'And I entreat that I may keep this standing to the end;'

'and this will come to pass, if I be delivered from dwelling with these men.'

For he promised to hymn and bless Him in all the churches throughout the inhabited world, through the composition of the Psalms, foreseeing with prophetic eyes the transformation of the world.

And the prophecy has also received its fulfillment.

Yet from this some took occasion to reject all the titles as untrue.

First, in Bethlehem, by Samuel the prophet;

and the third time, by all the tribes, after the death of Mephibosheth.

And he speaks thus concerning the second anointing:

'Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, Go up.'

'To Hebron.' Then the historian, after narrating how he went up, added:

'Therefore, being pursued by Saul, he used these words, when he went in to Abimelech the priest, and having prayed in the tabernacle of God, and received the blessing from the holy loaves, he escaped the hands of his adversary.'

And this he says also in the psalm itself:

'The Lord is my light and my saviour; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?' 'Being enlightened by Thee,' he says, 'and illumined by Thy spiritual light, I despise all my adversaries together.'

'When those who do evil draw near against me to devour my flesh,'

'they that afflict me, and mine enemies, they themselves grew weak and fell.' 'I was not disappointed in my hope,' he says, 'having thus relied upon Thy support.'

'For indeed those who pursued me like wild beasts, having overtaken me and attempted to make of me a raw-devouring feast, did me no harm, but themselves suffered utter destruction.'

And that this happened often, the history teaches.

For being hunted once and twice by Saul, he escaped the nets; nay rather, he would have slain his pursuer, had he so wished;

but he for his part displayed his own philosophy, while that man, among the foreigners, paid the penalty for his wickedness.

The things said, therefore, are a foretelling of things to come.

'Though an army should array itself against me, my heart shall not fear;'

'though war should rise up against me, in this will I hope.' 'Having gained,' he says, 'such experience of Thy help, even if twice as many, or thrice as many, enemies should attempt to assail me, I take courage against these terrors, being armed with this hope.'

'One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after;'

'that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life;'

'that I may behold the delightfulness of the Lord, and visit His holy temple.'

'For He hid me in His tabernacle in the day of my troubles;'

'He sheltered me in the secret place of His tabernacle;'

'upon a rock He exalted me.' 'And I,' he says, 'having enjoyed so great a benefit, do not seek riches from my benefactor, nor dominion, nor kingship and glory, but rather to abide continually in attendance at the divine temple, and thence to contemplate the divine beauty, and to oversee all things done according to the law;'

'for I have experience of the benefit, having already gathered from thence salvation, and having escaped the hands of my pursuers.'

For he it was who brought back the divine ark, and pitched another, more wondrous tabernacle, and organized the various choirs of the psalm-singers;

and these things one might learn more accurately from the book of Chronicles.

'One thing have I asked of the Lord'—that is, one grace. For thus must it be understood.

'And now, behold, He has lifted up my head above mine enemies;'

'I went about and sacrificed in His tabernacle a sacrifice of praise and of shouting.' Here the tense has been changed;

and this Aquila also taught;

for instead of 'He lifted up my head,' he put 'my head shall be lifted up.'

It signifies, therefore, that he shall reign, and shall prevail over his adversaries, and shall encircle those who now encircle him;

and in the churches, through those who have believed in God, night and day he offers it up.

Some of the copies, however, have 'a sacrifice of praise and of shouting'; but they carry the same meaning.

For 'shouting' is a war-cry, raised by the more courageous against those who cower.

And of such a kind is also the singing of hymns;

for it is the voice of those who are of good cheer, and who hymn God.

For he promises to sing, and to offer up the hymn.

'Hear, O Lord, my voice with which I cried out;'

'have mercy upon me, and hearken unto me.' He asks for mercy—not an unjust thing, but a thing altogether just.

'To Thee,' he says, 'my heart has said, I will seek the Lord.' For I did not employ words stripped bare of truth, but, my mind agreeing with my words, I added the deed to them.

'My face has sought You out.' And it will not suffice that this has already come to pass;