詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 22/23 段

For these are the ones who say:

Even though our outer man is decaying, yet the inner man is being renewed.

their daughters are adorned, arrayed like the likeness of a temple,

for they pretended, affecting a manner of life according to the Law.

But they did not have the Word within them, but rather the evil spirit.

their storehouses are full, overflowing from this into that;

For they treasured up not heavenly, but earthly wealth.

their sheep are prolific, multiplying in their pastures;

and their cattle are fat and fertile.

there is no breach in the wall, nor any going out.

They had, he says, great prosperity;

but it will not stand for them until the end.

For he taught this in another psalm, saying:

You cast them down when they were lifted up.

They called blessed the people to whom these things belong;

blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.

Those who do not judge rightly, but who imagine these very things of the flesh, suppose it blessed to come into great enjoyment of them.

But this is not blessedness;

but rather to call upon the Lord as one's God

I will exalt you, my God, my King

Yet he does not ascribe this exaltation to him as to one who did not already possess it;

but rather shows to others that he already possesses it.

Father, glorify your name on earth

For he is not asking for a glory that he did not have, but that the glory he already possessed be made manifest;

Every day I will bless you

Among the Hebrews, the beginning of the present verse is [the letter] Beth.

Not even a single day is to be let pass without hymns of praise.

With the whole soul and mind, then, one must exalt and bless God;

but his name is to be glorified with mortal names and words.

Generation and generation shall praise your works

He speaks of the Church gathered from both peoples, both from those of the circumcision and from those of the nations.

And by 'his works' he means those which he performed during his sojourn on earth;

and he hymns them in many and various ways;

power, and magnificence, and glory, and holiness, and wonders;

and again, calling them power and greatness and goodness, and righteousness and compassion.

And they shall tell of the power of your terrible deeds

They shall speak of it by their deeds, and with right understanding.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

And the verse, 'Shout to God with a voice of exultation;'

for the Lord Most High is fearsome.

For they shall say these things precisely by fearing and holding reverence for God.

for only the Son knows the Father, and the Father the Son.

But if he also reveals the Father to whomever he wills, it is nevertheless revealed only insofar as it is attainable for created beings to see, in proportion to the preparation each one possesses.

They shall pour forth the memory of the abundance of your goodness

He himself, being a good God, has bestowed goodness upon all, and he has compassion on all his works;

And those are saved who are willing to enjoy his goodness.

Praise the Lord, O my soul;

I will praise the Lord as long as I live

In that day all his thoughts shall perish

At the time of death, he says, everything that he had thought shall prove but empty sound, and nothing shall remain of what he had imagined on earth.

Understood spiritually, evidently, of those who hunger for every good thing.

Praise the Lord, for a psalm is good

In the preceding psalm he exhorted himself to place his hope in God alone;

but in this one he shows the apostolic choir teaching the multitude to praise God for the benefits he has conferred upon the human race.

The Lord lifts up the meek

By 'the meek' he means those who have received his faith, those who have imitated him who said:

'But I hate sinners,' he says — meaning the unclean demons, who dwell in the fire.

And green plants for the service of mankind

The psaltery, then, is a ten-stringed musical instrument, producing its sound from the upper parts of its construction, rendering its notes harmoniously in accord with the melody that comes from the voice;

called 'nabla' among the Hebrews, but named 'kithara' among the Greeks.

For a straight, unbending piece of wood had been fashioned for them, and upon it ten strings were stretched;

Each of the strings was fastened separately at the far end of the psaltery;

while the starting points of the strings hung down from above.

And this is what the great Basil says:

"For on what charge, pray, did those who conspired against Christ hang him upon a cross? Is this not he who gave wisdom to the nations, who granted power to kings, who strengthens rulers in their rule, and who wrought among the Jews the greatest and most acclaimed wonders?" — Athanasius

Here the word 'saying' is lacking, so that the sense may be as follows:

'They gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ, saying:'

Against whom? Against the Father and the Son;

for they did not want to come within the sacred net;

'Let us cast away the yoke' — that is, the evangelical law and the commandment, concerning which it is written:

And rebuking them for this, he himself spoke through Jeremiah, saying:

that is: 'You have so conducted your life as to shake off my service.'

Either, then, these words are spoken in the person of the Jews, who reject submission to the Lord and are unwilling to be yoked either to him or to the Father;

or else the Spirit gives this charge to those who believe, saying:

'Let us not become like those who conspired against Christ, nor be bound together with them in like-mindedness;'

'but let us shake off the heavy yoke of the old law, counting the things given in types as nothing, unless they be understood spiritually.'

For the shadow is of no benefit unless it depicts the mystery of Christ.

Or 'then' refers to the time of judgment, when they shall see him whom they pierced.

For then he will terrify them, saying:

Depart from me, you who are cursed

And they experienced divine wrath also when the Roman army, coming upon them, both set the city on fire and destroyed the temple, and put the greater part of them to death.

The title of the third psalm refers us to the account in the second book of Kingdoms.

Among these was Amnon, who was the firstborn;

but from another mother were Absalom and Tamar, both beautiful in appearance.

And having defiled her, he then hated her and immediately sent her away.

And she reported the outrage to her brother Absalom.

And he was indignant, but concealed his anger.

But after some time, having invited Amnon to a banquet, he killed him, and, fearing his father's wrath, he fled;

Yet he was not immediately granted his father's presence, but only after two years.

He then began to plot against his father: he furnished himself with chariots and horsemen, and won over to himself those who came to be judged by the king, drawing his subjects to himself under a show of fairness, and gathering together a multitude of rebels for a plot against his father.

And in the end he revolted, and proclaimed himself king.

It was at that time that Shimei also cursed him.

But Hushai, since he had come to this father-slayer and was trusted as being well disposed toward him, was, together with Ahithophel, urged to say what needed to be said concerning the war.

And Ahithophel urges him, once he has lain with his father's concubines, to pursue closely after him and fall upon him while he is unprepared.

But Hushai declared nothing concerning the concubines,

yet he did not allow Absalom to set out at once against his father,

lest you bring ruin upon yourself, and be caught yourself in your father's hands.

And when the father-slayer had said:

"Hushai's counsel is better than the counsel of Ahithophel," Ahithophel, grieved, hanged himself.

"Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom."

When the battle was joined in the forest of Ephraim, twenty thousand men fell from Absalom's army;

and he himself, just as he was, fled, turning his bridle.

But since he wore his hair thick and long, it became entangled in an oak,

and the mule slipped out from beneath his legs,

while he hung suspended in the tree, until someone saw him and reported it to Joab.

And Joab, taking three darts in hand, drove them into Absalom's heart and killed him.

"My son," he cried, "Absalom, my son!"

He composed the psalm now before us while he was still being pursued.

Who then could be the one truly and by nature beloved, if not Christ, who is fairer in beauty than the sons of men? And who is mighty in hand, if not the strong Jesus, who by the power of his divinity put to flight all the demons of the alien nations? For it was he whom sensible Israel according to the flesh — the Jews — pursued, as though he were another Absalom.

Concerning whom he says through Isaiah:

"I have brought up sons, and exalted them";

and Judas cooperated in the pursuit, like another Ahithophel;

for concerning him it is said in one of the psalms:

"But you, O man of like soul with me, my guide and my familiar friend."

But indeed Judas, like Ahithophel, went away and hanged himself,

for he had said, "You shall be to me both heralds and witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

And just as the mule and the hair delivered Absalom over to death, so too unreason and pride in outward, bodily things deprived the Jews of the true life,

and allowed them to enjoy neither earth nor heaven.

According to the great Athanasius, the passage here clearly reproves the unbelief of the Jews:

"Sons of men, in whom there is no faithfulness."

This too is true of the Jews:

"Each one spoke vain things to his neighbor," gathering together their plots against our Savior.

And indeed the poets and prose-writers among the Greeks, taking no care whatsoever to be truthful, composed without examination whatever seemed good to them, having one single aim: to make a display of their eloquence.

According to the anagogical sense, however, in the present psalm he explicitly makes plain the utterly complete impiety and lawlessness of men's conduct, that he might proclaim the necessity of the appearing of Christ.

Thus, then, says the divine Athanasius;

but according to the great Basil:

Athanasius and Basil, the great Fathers, say:

...making use of things observed, he has made his beginning from what is nearest and first.

He says that the "saints" here are those sanctified in the Spirit,

and "the earth of Christ" is the Church;

and "you have made wonderful" stands for "you have made manifest."

And "his wills" are the wills of the Father himself;

to those sanctified in faith he made known the will of the Father.

But you may also understand the verse in this way:

"God has made the saints wonderful."

What, then, does he say to those called from among the nations? Holy Cyril and the all-great Athanasius read as a question the verse, "Are there not speeches, nor words, whose voices are not heard?" — that is to say:

Is it not the case that even mute things, or matters, or works, have voices apart from speech and tongue? "Yes," one might say.

For just as the richly variegated garment cries aloud the weaver's art, and the ship that holds together without flaw proclaims the shipbuilder, and the ironworker's product proclaims the ironworker,

so too creation, which we have just mentioned, is voiceless, that is, without speech,

yet its wonder is, as it were, its speech, and its beauty and good order are, as it were, its voice.

For the heavenly narration, and the utterance proclaimed by the day, is not an articulate voice, nor speech uttered through a mouth,

but it becomes a teaching of divine power to those who know how to attend to a silent voice.

For they say that this whole universe is one living creature,

and that the parts of which it is composed are likewise living creatures.

This psalm too is entitled "unto the end," containing a prophecy of certain things to come;

and it is also referred to the person of the apostles, as though praying together with Christ on the day of the cross.

According to the great Athanasius, the "cedars of Lebanon" are the eminent men of the Jewish people, since Jerusalem is often called "Lebanon" in the divine Scripture.

And the "calf" signifies the altar;

therefore they themselves, together with their altar, are utterly broken to pieces.

According to the divine Athanasius, the fact that Christ's prayer on behalf of the Jews turned back into his own bosom would signify that they remained in sin and gained no benefit, since by the excess of their senselessness they made his prayer turn back, as it were, upon itself.

For the Lord, seeing the destruction that was about to overtake them, and their final ruin, mourned on their behalf;

yet they did such things that his prayer on their behalf was not conveyed to the Father's ears, but, as though repelled by the magnitude of their impiety, was drawn back down and turned back to him.

"And my prayer shall return into my own bosom." For if they had been going to be saved and to turn away from their impious deeds, the Savior's prayer, running its straight course, would have passed unhindered and unimpeded to the Father's ears.

But according to the most eminent Athanasius and Cyril:

Since man now walks about in an image, and not in truth —

for the true life belongs to the age to come —

the psalmist fittingly called this image "vanity."

For since we do not now live the true life, but the life as it were in an image, nor do we exert ourselves concerning the things that are truly good, we are therefore vainly troubled, turning about amid worldly desires, and gathering treasures whose heirs we do not know.

According to the great Athanasius and Cyril:

Since in the psalm before this one it was said by the Savior to the Father:

"Raise me up, and I will repay them" — now the person of those who crucified him is set forth, who have suffered irremediable things, it being clear beforehand that they will later be received back, grafted in, as Paul says, to their own olive tree.

Israel, therefore, repenting, says these things.

Those who crucified the Lord, grieving over their fall and repenting, say that they thirst for God, and desire the fountain that is with him.

And they long to come near to God, according to the disposition and sanctification that comes through faith in Christ.

And him whom they killed, the author of our life, and delivered over to death — this one they now call the living God.

The phrase "When shall I come?" belongs to those who long for the calling that is to come later, and who seek to learn the time at which they too will appear before the face of God the Father (which is the same as that of the Son) —

even though for now they are in a state of turning-away.

"For I will turn my eyes away from you," he says.

"When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies" —

when this word came to pass in deed, the Romans having sacked them, they lamented —

first, as having offended God;

then, as having fallen away from the salvation that comes from him;

and third, because their neighbors, trampling upon them, said mockingly, "Where is your God?"

According to Athanasius the Great, the present psalm too seems to have the same subject as the one placed before it.

For again those of Israel come forward, asking for the salvation that is through Christ.

"Send forth your light and your truth."

For he himself was about to lead them into the holy mountain;

that is, into heaven and into the dwellings above (which he also calls tabernacles), and into the spiritual altar;

and he himself was about to gladden their youth.

By "youth" he means the gladness that also renews their soul.

He has often taught us to understand the body as a lyre.

Athanasius, Cyril, Theodoret

And those of the circumcision, repenting, ascribe to themselves God as their strength;

and those of the Gentiles who have believed set him as their might;

and the captives do not hope to be redeemed by anyone else.

He calls the body a lyre, through which the mind is naturally fitted to strike up music, sending up melody to God, as it were through the strings of the senses.

For the sinews hint at the mortification, while the harmonies hint at the concord.

He showed the brightness by the addition of "the lyre," and the love in the address that is repeated twice —

"For O God," he says, "my God."

So that you may learn that this God over all is the very God whom both those of the circumcision who repent through zeal and faith, and those of the Gentiles who believe, ascribe to themselves as their own;

for whom also spiritual youth rejoices, standing opposed to the old man.

For only he who is young in spirit and mind, akin to the new man and to the newness of the spirit, enters in to God, who gladdens such youth.

According to the great Athanasius, this psalm too still holds to the same subject: those of Israel recounting the ancient benefits, repenting and deeming themselves worthy to be received back by Christ, because their hope is ascribed to him, and they make confession in his name;

but according to the golden-tongued Father, and so forth.

"Long ago," he says, "you campaigned together with us as our general;"

"but now not only do you not go forth with us, but you have turned us back, and set us last of every adversary;"

"so that we have even become plunder for those who hate us."

These things, according to the great Athanasius, the prophetic choir says, making the people's misfortunes its own;

but according to the others, it is the army of the Maccabees.

They compare to sleep the great forbearance which God exercised on account of their sins.

And they pray that the appearing of Christ in the last times be granted to them, so that they might not be deprived of the life that comes from him;

"Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and tribulation?" You hide your own face, O God, and turn away, so as not to look upon shameful and unseemly things, and things alien to your sight;

but since we, with respect to the achievements just mentioned, hold boldness of speech, why do you hide your face? And since we suffer and endure such hardship for the sake of your piety, why do you forget our affliction, that is, our poverty? For even if these achievements are great as far as we are concerned, yet as far as you are concerned they are all poor and small and very little;

The Jews too say that their soul has been humbled;

since, having thrust away the mind of Christ, they fell into a carnal mindset.

The verses also signify the return and calling of Israel that will take place in the last times.

"Take hold of us, then, and grant your favor."

And they confess that the time of return is the true faith in you;

"For your name's sake" — they openly confess that those who have set themselves against Christ are not worthy of being shown mercy.

Yet it befits him to show mercy, and to have compassion on human failings, for his own sake.

"It is not for your sake that I act," says the Lord, "but for my name's sake."

Athanasius the Great and the divine Cyril understand these words as spoken from the person of God the Father concerning the Word who was in the beginning with him, whom, they say, he brought forth as it were from his heart, or from his very inmost being.

"My heart has belched forth a good word."

For he has been begotten, as a word from the mind, good from good, God from God.

Observe also the Father speaking as concerning the Son who became man:

"I speak my works to the king."

For he all but promises to teach him what sort of words he will use, bringing us in to do his works.

By "works of God" we mean the pious way of life, which has been made manifest to us through the proclamations of the Gospel.

And Christ, speaking to the Jews the things useful for salvation, referred his own words back to the Father, saying:

"The Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does."

The Father calls him "king" at that particular time, so that he might not seem, by the measure of his becoming man, to fall short of the dignity that is his by nature.

For even after the dispensation he remained no less a king, being king from the Father who is king, and although he already existed as king and God, he is said to come into the rule of a king, on account of having become flesh.

Thus also the things which he knows by nature, as God, these he is again said to hear, on account of the human nature, by way of dispensation.

For Christ is the king, to whom the Father tells his works.

And him whom he has called "Word," this same one he also calls his "tongue";

as speaking nothing else than whatever fatherly will is within him.

For among us too, the tongue conveys the mind to those outside.

And he has been called "the pen of a swift-writing scribe," because to say something and for it to come to pass immediately, as in the saying:

'Be cleansed,' and immediately he was cleansed;

'Young man, I say to you, arise,' and immediately he arose

But also, like a swift reed, he writes upon our hearts the will of the Father

And the will of the Father, he himself says, is this: 'that of all he has given me I should lose nothing from it'

Swift indeed is the reed of the Father

For the law of Moses, through its circlings around the letter, indicated dimly what was profitable;

but the common Savior made known the will of the Father concisely

For he is the 'Angel of Great Counsel'

'And the Lord will make a concise word throughout the whole world,' it says

The great Athanasius ascribes even to the holy Theotokos the saying:

'Hear, O daughter,' and also:

'Hail, favored one, the Lord is with you'

And Gabriel simply calls her 'favored one,' being a stranger to her as regards her birth;

The psalm signifies the calling of the nations, being sung in the person of the holy apostles, who exhort the nations to leap for joy through good deeds at the victory that has come to pass over the guilty demons

It is entitled, 'For the sons of Korah':

not as though the ode had been composed entirely on their behalf, but as those who had been appointed to serve, through themselves, in the offering up of the ode

As has been said, it is the person of the holy apostles, since they had been commanded to make disciples of all the nations

Since faith has become for them the matchmaker of very many and great blessings;

for through it they have been called to the adoption of God, and to participation in the Holy Spirit, and have become partakers of the divine nature, and have been enriched with the gifts from heaven, and have been made fellow-partakers of the hope of the saints;

For this reason, then, it is altogether fitting that they should be bidden to keep festival

The divine Athanasius says that the 'peoples and nations' are Satan and the evil powers with him;

'Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions'

For he subjected the nations of the demons under the feet of the apostles

This psalm too is sung in the person of the holy apostles, recounting the persecutions they endured on account of their preaching, and the victories that came to pass over these

It is entitled 'A Song of a Psalm,' since moral philosophy has here run together with contemplative philosophy

According to the great Athanasius, what is signified here is the war waged against the apostles on account of their preaching, both by the sensible kings of the nations, and indeed also by the invisible demons who formerly held dominion

who were also amazed and astonished, beholding the help that came from God to the saints

For the surpassing power of him who saves wrought in them both the wonder and the astonishment

Then they were troubled, inasmuch as they had become enemies of God, and were as in birth pangs

As for what is said next, if you attend to it you will understand it: 'ships of Tarshish' was the name given to ships that bore great wealth to Solomon, just as we have learned in the narrative of the Kingdoms

By 'a violent wind' you are to understand certain intelligible powers, through whom he warred down the enemies of the apostles

Because, having judged the cause of the nations, you drove out the hostile demon that was against them

Or if you prefer, 'Mount Zion' refers to those entrusted with the height of theology;

and the 'daughters of Judea' are the churches throughout the world, as founded by the apostles, who traced their lineage from the Jews

He also charges those who preach to rejoice on account of the righteous judgments of God, by employing which he brought about the salvation of the world

According to the great Athanasius, it is from the Zion above that the Lord will make his second coming, the manifest and glorious one, which he has also called 'the perfection of beauty'

According to the great Athanasius, by 'spirit' he meant the mind;

and by its being 'upright' he means its steadfastness;

'Secure my mind, that it may no longer be easy for it to fall into sin'

Every God-loving person truly grows weary and is distressed while he lingers in this mortal life;

and he is distressed also out of love for mankind, beholding the multitude of those who are perishing

beholding the tyranny of the demons, he was filled with weariness; for this reason he beseeches that the Lord, having appeared, may deliver us from the hand of those who do violence to us

'From the ends of the earth' signifies that he is offering his supplications on behalf of the whole world

And not only that, but also indicating the great distance between the essence of God and that of men, according to what is said in Ecclesiastes:

'God is in heaven above, and you are on earth below'

Whereas Symmachus said more clearly, 'in being distressed,' the Seventy said more vividly and more forcefully, 'in growing weary'

For 'to be distressed' is said even of small matters;

whereas 'to grow weary' is said altogether of great matters, whenever, because of the multitude of evils, a person is thereafter caught up in the midst of them, gives up in the face of them and, as it were, despairs, having cast aside the counsels of his mind, as being no longer able to bear them

As for the sense, we have become stronger than the demons who assail us, through Christ, who has been named 'rock' by the blessed Paul

And, that I may state the whole sense of the psalm's song, the discourse contains thanksgiving

For, he says, all that I have said before came to be mine, since you yourself, O God, lifted me up, and exalted me upon the rock that is with you, which is your Word;

Since, then, by your Word you exalted me, and raised me on high, so that I no longer dwell in the midst of the earth, but have come to be at its heights;

and you have already also guided me, so that I might arrive near to you, and you have become my hope, on account of which hope I shall not be put to shame;

but also, when many intelligible enemies pressed upon me, those who sought my soul, you alone sufficed in place of them all, having become for me a tower of strength;

having fittingly obtained all these things, to you I send up my hymns, as to the one who has become for me the cause of all good things

Since it is the proper task of guides to show which road is safe, and to bear witness which is treacherous and harmful;

Christ too is found to have done this, when he says:

'I am the way and the door'

And 'tower of strength' is as if he were saying:

'You have become a wall and a safeguard, so that I suffer nothing when my enemies assail me'

For Christ is a firm, unshakable tower

As for the sense: from the good things he has already received, he also hopes concerning the things to come, namely, that having come to be in the tabernacles above, he will forever be under his protection

For just as those who are about to celebrate a feast, having it near and already at the doors, are filled beforehand with gladness, and behold the feast, not yet present, as though it were already present;

so also the saints, having good hopes concerning the life to come, rejoice in it

And by 'wings' he means the providential powers of God;

under which the God-loving man is sheltered, never departing from the tabernacle of God, but dwelling in it forever

It should be known, however, that these things also contain a riddle of the true inheritance

And this is eternal life

But indeed this will be given in the age to come;

But observe that the inheritance is also given to those who fear God

If, then, this is given even to those who are inferior, much more is it given to those who have risen above them, that is, to those who love God.

By saying indefinitely, 'to those who fear him,' and not adding 'Jews' or 'Greeks,' he extended grace to all men.

Scripture is especially accustomed to call those who come from the Gentiles, and who fear the Lord, 'those who fear him.'

And what is the inheritance but the kingdom of heaven, which the Savior spoke of in the Beatitudes?

Eusebius, Athanasius, Cyril