On the Trinity & Psalm Commentary 1 part 42/55

He wills that it be on our part that, if it be possible, there be peace toward all. Let our will be devoted to the friendships of all, if the nature of others too have an affection for peace; provided only that from us there arise no cause of a peace either broken or unpreserved. This, then, befits the people of God: to be brethren under one Father, to be one under one Spirit, to walk of one mind under one house, to be members of one body under one Head. For the eye does not hate the ear, nor do the nostrils abhor the mouth, nor does the hand spurn the foot. For these are bound to one another both by mutual services and by love. This is pleasant and good, for brethren to dwell together in unity, to be in the same place, to be the same, and to be diverse neither in gathering nor in love.

And the prophet sets up a comparison for this good and pleasant thing, saying: 'like the ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard of Aaron, that ran down to the hem of his garment.' Aaron was anointed a priest with an ointment whose composition and blending is made up of fragrances. This consecration of His first priest it pleased God to be so. We also know that our Lord was anointed invisibly and incorporeally, when it is said: 'Your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness.' This anointing is not earthly; it is incorporeal, it is invisible: He is anointed not with oil, as a priest and prophet, nor with a horn, as a king, but with the oil of gladness.

This is a work of spiritual gladness, and the fruit of exultation is applied to the sacrament of the heavenly anointing; it is not the matter of any created thing. Because bodily things had need of bodily means, Aaron is anointed with the myrrh-compound of blending; but that which is bodily, imbued through the efficacy of spiritual power, imitates the likeness of the heavenly oil. Indeed, after this anointing Aaron was, according to the Law, called 'Christ' (anointed), after the blending of the anointing—through that which was shown to be blended by God—is consecrated into the likeness of the invisible anointing. Therefore, just as this myrrh, wherever it is poured in, drives out all foul odors and the unclean spirits of hearts,

extinguishing them, and this odor of sweetness diffuses itself into all things into which it is brought; so, through this sacrament of the anointing poured in, and through it, once every stench of our earthly and defiling vices has been wiped away, we now breathe forth to God that which is sweet. This spirit of sweet fragrance the blessed apostle Paul knew, saying thus: 'We are the good odor of Christ to God in every place, both in those who are saved and in those who perish; and to these indeed an odor from death unto death, but to those an odor from life unto life'—showing that we are an odor of life to the living, and so an odor of death to those who die in their sins. But the very odor of Christ from us is good to God.

Therefore, as this ointment stood as pleasing to God in the first priest, that is, in Aaron—with which he was anointed as a figure of the oil of gladness, offering of himself an odor of faith and innocence acceptable to God—so it is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity, whereby the unanimity of one and the same will is likened to the first and greatest sacraments of heavenly goods. Now the ointment ran down from the head to the beard. The beard is an adornment of manly age. For we ought not to be little children in Christ, save only in that respect of which it was said: 'In malice be little children, not in understanding.' But the same Apostle rebukes all the unbelieving as being little children—because, weak and remaining still in need of milk rather than solid food, saying: 'I have given you milk to drink, not solid food;'

for you were not able, but neither yet are you able.' And of himself thus: 'When I became a man, I put away the things of a little child.' And he hastens to press on to this: to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of the body of Christ. This ointment, then, ran down from the head to the beard of Aaron—that is, to the man of perfected faith. The head of a man, according to the Apostle, is Christ. Moses composed and blended this ointment; but God taught how it was to be composed and blended, and God was mediator in the Law. From the head, therefore—that is, from Christ—it ran down to the beard; and it ran down from Him to whom it was said: 'Your name is ointment poured out.' And it ran down upon him who, through firmness of age, was to remain unchangeable in firmness of faith.

And it ran down also to the hem of the garment. The hems of a garment are those parts which flow down as far as the feet, so that this odor of ointment ran down to the whole body—from the head to the beard, and then to the hem of the garment. Now in those women who, anointing the Lord in the Gospel, prefigured the type of the Church, we are thus taught that one anointed the head, another the feet; whereby each of them is signified as having anointed the whole body in a part of the body. The middle parts of the body, therefore, are passed over; for while the hem of the garment and the beard are mentioned, the whole body is shown in them. There is added also the parallel of another comparison, when it is said: 'like the dew of Hermon, which descends upon Mount Zion.' Dew does not descend from Hermon to Zion;

for these mountains are separated from one another by a great distance. Nor indeed does nature allow that dew should seem able to descend from one place to another. Now Zion, according to heavenly doctrine, is the Church—either that which now is, or that which shall be, of the saints—which is thronged by the assembly of the glorified through resurrection and of the rejoicing angels. Hermon, however, is a mountain in Phoenicia, whose interpretation is 'anathema'; for that which with us is called anathema is in Hebrew called Hermon. It is reported—concerning which there also exists a book by I know not whom—that the angels, lusting after the daughters of men, when they descended from heaven, assembled on this exceedingly lofty mountain. But let us pass these things over; for those things which are not contained in the book of the Law we ought not even to know:

and these have been mentioned only for this reason, because the profession about this mountain of God stirred us through the prophet. Certainly today the nations venerate this mountain with a profane religion, and by that very seat of impious superstition they bear witness to the interpretation of its name, which is 'anathema.' Dew, however, is from the heavens, and we recall that it is desired among the gifts of blessing, when Isaac says to Jacob: 'And may God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth an abundance.' Therefore, because the gifts and blessings of God—with which He first blessed all things when they were created and made, but which afterward, through Adam's sin, stood under anathema—it is pleasing to God that these should return and descend again to the seat of sanctification. For man was blessed;

but after the blessing, as soon as he sinned, he was straightway impious. Yet He who prefers the repentance of the sinner to his death wills the dew of His blessing to descend from Hermon to Zion—that is, to pass over from the seat of impiety to the place of sanctification. For by dew all things grow green, are nourished, are increased; so by that primal blessing of God man is begotten, breathes, and grows. It is therefore good and pleasant that, descending from Gentile error—that is, from the profane veneration of Hermon—to Zion, that is, to the house of eternal blessedness, he should pass over and delight Him who rejoices in the salvation of all, for this reason: because there the Lord has commanded blessing and life for evermore—namely, in Zion, or even in the unanimity of brethren dwelling together.

For the Church alone bestows blessings, and unanimity merits eternal life. For He who said, opening the way of eternal life—'Love one another, as I have loved you'—is no liar. For He Himself is the Truth, the Way, and the Life, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of the Lord. The Songs of Ascents come to an end, but to an end worthy of their ascents. For since through them one climbs to the knowledge of the heavenly mystery, it is necessary that afterward a blessing be owed to Him to whom the ascent has been made.

The prophet, therefore, calls all men to bless the Lord, and, as though all things were now consummated, gathers everyone to the attestation of the honor that is due, saying: 'Behold, now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.' And in that he says 'Behold, now,' he signifies that the work of laborious ascent is complete, so that now at last they may bless, because in advancing they have ascended. He is to be blessed, because He has advanced us on high, because by the steps of faith He has lifted us up into the height of His house. But the mouth of a sinner is unworthy of the blessing of God; and therefore he says: 'all His servants.' Not to all is the blessing acceptable to God, nor let the promiscuous man think that he can please. This belongs to the servant of God alone, not to the servant of sin nor the servant of the world. For 'everyone,'

'everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin.' To the servant of God, therefore, it belongs to bless his Lord with a devout mouth. And not even to that servant himself will this be proper who professes himself a servant in name only, who even now, hesitating and wavering, is tossed about by an uncertain wind of faith, whose thought and will wander off into the recollection of sins and into cares for pleasures. And therefore, when he had said, 'Behold, now bless the Lord, all His servants,' he added: 'you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of the Lord.' He who stands is not moved from his place. He has already run, already ascended, already remains immovable, already eagerly drinks in that blessed word of the prophet: 'He set my feet upon a rock'; and again: 'On a rock You have exalted me';

and he will hear, as though it were said to him as to Moses: 'But as for you, stand here with Me.' Of sinners, however, we read thus: 'They loved to move their feet.' One must therefore stand in the house of the Lord, because the blessing of those who stand is pleasing—of those who stand in that holy and heavenly Jerusalem, thronged by angels, to which one climbs through this house of our Church and assembly. And because there are many mansions with the Father, they bless the Lord not only standing in the house, but also in His courts. Not every house is a court. A house is also whatever is outside the court; but the seat of the court is more inward and more intimate. Those, then, who are in the court shall stand more within; for although it is a dignity to stand in the house, yet he who has stood in the court goes before.

That those who are in the house and those who are in the court are different, the prophet shows elsewhere, saying: 'They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.' It is a greater fruit to have flowered. And although the planting has its dignity, yet the honor of those who flower excels; for as the beginning is in the planting, so the joy of the good work is in the flower. But I have found some in doubt about this phrase, 'in the courts of the house of the Lord,' saying that it was added by the first translators for this reason, because it is contained under these same verses in the following psalm, they themselves supposing that it had been omitted in the Hebrew books through a fault of the scribes. But let the new interpreters treat of what they will;

but for our part we must defer both to the authority of the translations and to their antiquity. And to this hope of standing in the house and in the courts of the Lord the prophet exhorts us, saying: 'In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places and bless the Lord.' For we act, according to the Apostle, under the princes of this darkness, and the night of this world holds us fast—a night which, through the preaching of the Gospel, is already advancing into light. For 'the night is now far spent; walk becomingly, as in the day.' In this night, then, of ignorance, of snares, of weaknesses, of concupiscences, of vices, the hands must be lifted up to the holy places—not only for entreaty and prayer, but also for good works.

For bare prayers do not avail; but our works must be lifted up to the holy things of God—that is, in clothing the naked, in feeding the hungry, in giving drink to the thirsty, in consoling the afflicted, in helping the oppressed, in loving all men. For these sanctify us in this weakness of our body; these are pleasing and holy to God. And this the prophet is not unaware of, saying: 'The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice.' For now, in the consummation of the age, which is the eventide, the sacrifice to God is not in bulls and goats, but in good works.

Moses taught us by his example, who, when he stood with hands uplifted, was conquering, but when they were let down to the earth, gave over his people to be conquered by the enemy—showing by this figure that our enemy conquers if our works are earthly, but is to be conquered if they are lofty. Our hands, therefore, must be lifted up in the nights, that we may be planted in the house, that we may flourish in the courts. And the Lord must be blessed—that is, one must always work with the blessing of God—lest, when you offer bread to the needy, you be sad through fear of hunger; lest, when you offer expense to the poor, you count it a loss; lest, when you clothe the naked with a garment, you reckon that you yourself are stripped. For God loves a cheerful giver. And what glad and blessing works of uplifted hands may merit, he shows, saying:

'May the Lord bless you out of Zion'—the Lord, namely, of the Church, and of holy Jerusalem, and of the city built up of living stones of precious gems. And that we might know all our hope to be placed in the true and eternal God, he added: 'who made heaven and earth'—showing, namely, that He is the God of the churches, who had made heaven and earth: through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen. Alleluia. Praise the name of the Lord; praise the Lord, you His servants, you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. This psalm seems, according to the simplicity of its hearers, to be plain.

For it contains, for the greater part, those things which are written in the book of Exodus: the plagues of Egypt, the punishment of Pharaoh, the deaths of kings, and the inheritance of the enemy's land obtained. But if, according to the Apostle, the things that are in the Law are a shadow of things to come, then the things that were done in it are allegories, and are not to be heard carelessly, because, under the reality of bodily deeds, they are set forth as an example of spiritual works. And it is a matter of great diligence to weigh the force of the words as they are arranged, and to know what is proper to each thing under the signification of the things that are said. But—

for it is not for everyone to know the kinds and powers of herbs; and if some unskilled and ignorant man comes into a field rich in these wholesome herbs, he will pass them all by, thinking them useless and grown at random. But if a skilled and learned man enters this field most precious in its shoots, he will reap all that others would have passed over, and will marvel at those things which the ignorant would have neglected, knowing when is the useful time for their reaping, and for which kinds of cures they are to be used, and how much of them, or to what extent, is to be applied. So too must it be understood in the divine Scriptures: that if unskilled ears and a rustic mind hear them, one neglects them as though idle and unnecessary;

but if a hearer and reader stands by, glowing toward the knowledge of God, and to whom frequent reading and the gift of spiritual grace has granted the knowledge to discern and understand each thing, he will marvel at all, and will use them according to their natural powers and efficacies, not ignorant of when anything is to be taken up and for what treatment it is to be chosen, when a healing of the body, when a remedy of the soul is to be applied from it, that nothing be too hasty, nothing unseasonable or tardy, but, having compared the powers and the times and the matters, he may use, not unskilfully, those things which he has discovered; and this indeed is understood to be especially so in this psalm.

For in an incredible manner the words are subjoined to the deeds, so that, while they faithfully declared the things that were done, yet, being so arranged, they afforded from themselves a greater increase of inward and spiritual understanding. Nor was this method observed only that the very deeds done bodily might be recorded to display the magnificence of God, but also that, through the circumstances of the deeds and the meanings of the names, they might furnish an example of the things to be done in these very things that were done. And so it is necessary to distinguish these several matters by persons, times, and meanings, so that those things which careless ears might perchance have lost as unnecessary may themselves be applied to the remedy and healing of human unbelief.

And this we shall be taught by the very matters in the psalm, which thus begins: 'Praise the name of the Lord; praise the Lord, you His servants, you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is gracious; sing praises to His name, for it is sweet.' And it is to be observed at the opening of the psalm that it calls us to the praise of God, whereas in the preceding psalm it exhorted us only to blessing. Now it is not doubtful that praise ranks above blessing. For the first honor is placed in blessing, but it is consummated in praise. And praise is not to be begun in confusion, but is to be confessed in order and measure. For this is first: 'Praise the name of the Lord.'

We are admonished, therefore, first to praise the name of the Lord: because He is the God of heaven, because He is the God of earth, because He is the God of the world, because He is—which is proper to our faith and hope—the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. For in these things first is praise to God. The following precept is: 'Praise the Lord, you His servants.' Through the knowledge of the name of God we advance to the knowledge of Him. For now we praise, not the name of the Lord, but the Lord, in knowing why He is the God of heaven, why the God of earth, why the God of the world, why the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. For having first passed beyond these rudiments of childish teaching, we praise God no longer through the obedience of subjects, but through the magnificence of His immeasurable power; and we praise as His servants;

and not only as His servants, called by the bare name of our profession, but as standing in His house—now no longer wandering nor straying, but established with the firmness of those who stand; and not only standing, but standing also in the court of the Lord our God, received rather into the inner and central seat of the house. Through this order, then, praise is begun by the servants and by those who stand in the house and in the court. God is to be praised for this reason: because He is gracious. For that He is almighty is the power of His nature; but that He is gracious is necessary for us, whom the weakness of the body and the condition of our origin holds fast in sins. And what hope is there for human transgressions, if graciousness be absent from God? But the reason of the words must be considered:

for He who is to be praised because He is gracious, to His name we must sing psalms because it is sweet. 'Sing praises to His name, for it is sweet.' Where 'sing praises' is said, it refers to the works of the body, so that through the manifold works of our instrument—that is, of the body—a praise may be made harmonious and fitting to God. We are commanded, therefore, to sing praises to His name because it is sweet. For it is sweet to God that our bodies should serve Him with pleasing and approved ministry; or rather, that very name of the Lord is sweet. And what sweetness either His name has in itself, or the singing of praise to Him, he straightway subjoined, saying: 'For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession.'

The beginning of the origin of the Jews, according to the sanctification of the race, is Abraham; for to him first came the word of God. And why did the Lord choose Jacob rather than Abraham? Furthermore, since he who is Israel is the same, by the address of his naming, as Jacob, why is it again added: 'Israel for His possession'? Order demanded that Abraham, the head of the election, should be mentioned, not Jacob, who is already third in the election. Reason also counseled that Israel should be understood as signified in Jacob. There is added, moreover, this: that he who is Jacob is chosen, and he who is Israel is possessed.

But we have already warned at the outset of our discourse that those things recorded in the psalm are drawn from things done bodily, in which the appearance of what is to come shone forth as in a mirror; and that the words too are fitted to the deeds, which, while they declared the things that were done, nevertheless brought to us a more complete understanding of those things which were spiritually prefigured in the deeds done. The name of God is sweet, not to one nation only, and that an irreligious one, but now to all nations and tongues. For He chose Jacob for Himself—the supplanter of his elder brother, who bought the birthright for food when it was for sale through Esau's desperation, who snatched away the blessing, who was unrepentant after his servitude, and then, after his wrestling, saw God and was named Israel.

For Jacob comes first, and thus Israel. Let us survey the body of the Church, which by a difference of faith bears the names both of Jacob and of Israel. And this assembly supplants the people of the Law by faith, receives its firstfruits, and seizes its blessing according to the Lord's word, saying: 'From the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away.' Jacob, then, is he who is chosen, since the Lord says: 'I chose you, you did not choose me.' Israel is he who is possessed: known in the primogeniture and blessings of former times, faithful in a long servitude, mighty in the mystery of the wrestling, tenacious in earning blessings once again, and in the knowledge and vision of God, Israel.

Now the spirit of prophecy knows this sweetness of the name of God, most powerful in gathering the nations and in possessing the faithful, saying: 'For I have known how great the Lord is.' The prophet indeed speaks by the office of his own mouth, but not by his own knowledge. This is the voice of him who says: 'No one knows the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son shall be willing to reveal him'; and the Son indeed will reveal the Father, if he wills to any, but no one comprehends his greatness, since the prophet says: 'Of his magnificence there is no end.' The knowledge, therefore, of this infinity will belong to him alone who, according to the perfect fullness of his own origin, is himself the image of the Infinite. 'For I have known how great the Lord is: and our God is above all gods.'

He is not above all those gods of whom he says further on: 'The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands: they have a mouth and shall not speak'; for there is nothing great if he be preferred by comparison with metals and stones and wood. And since these are not gods, we must ask which gods he meant. For the Church does not acknowledge a multitude of gods. This is the error of the nations, that they either feign or believe in the couplings and conceptions and procreations and successions of gods. But for us, according to the Apostle, there is one God, from whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord of ours, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him. One from One, God from God. The unbegotten does not admit another, so that there should be two;

nor does he who is the one Only-begotten admit that he should not be God. There are not two unbegotten, there are not two only-begotten: in that which each is, he is one; since the only-begotten has no equal, nor does the unbegotten admit one, nor does the only-begotten God subsist from any other than the unbegotten God. But we must see above what gods our God is. I find gods spoken of through the prophet thus: 'God stood in the congregation of gods, and in the midst he discerns gods.' And this indeed seems ambiguous, and does not declare with sufficient clarity which gods it signifies. But the Lord in the Gospels freed us from the error of this appellation, saying: 'I said, you are gods and all sons of the Most High.' And he added:

'If then he called those gods, to whom the words of God were addressed, and the Scripture cannot be broken.' Indissoluble is the word of God, that men were named gods. I find also that Moses was named a god, when it was said to him: 'I have set you as a god to Pharaoh.' But the Apostle also taught that others are called gods, when he said: 'For even if there are those who are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords: yet for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord of ours, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.' There is indeed for us one God and one Lord: but there are many gods who are called such in heaven and on earth.

And indeed, if this name of gods befits men according to the judgment of God, much more is it worthy of the angels, archangels, thrones and dominions, powers, principalities, whom the Apostle shows to be called gods in heaven. These, therefore, are they who are called gods, but above all is our God: not by comparison, since he who is incomparable excels, but by power he is above the rest; and how he is above the rest, he presently shows, saying: 'All things whatsoever he willed, he did in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the deeps.' To God alone it belongs to do all things whatsoever he wills. For perfect power alone is hindered in nothing from also doing what it wills; and to him, from whom all things are, no difficulty occurs.

He is of an inferior nature who does not accomplish everything that he wills. For while he owes to another that which he is, he lacks the power of omnipotence, because as to that very being in which he subsists, he has another as his author. And he who does not owe himself to himself cannot do all things, since he subsists from one greater. But let us see what that is which the omnipotence of God, according to his own will, has done in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in the deeps.

And indeed it is a great thing, if we behold the unchanging firmness of the heaven, the sun governed in its yearly courses and unwearied returns, tempering the seasons of the year within fixed limits, the perennial alternations too of the moon and the undisturbed risings, settings, and revolutions of the constellations; and now the riches of the earth and its fruitful produce for the life of men, cattle, birds, and beasts; and then the seas filled with their inhabitants and the life of the fishes breathing amid the waves; and further, since Greek speech has expressed the seas in the plural, the immeasurable alternations of the ocean and the unfathomable nature of the capacious deep, by which the tide, poured back upon the land, is drawn in again. But since these things are, according to human opinion, full of marvels, and it might rightly be said of them: