詩篇註釋殘篇 第 1 章 第 14/40 段

This city of God, which is so named in both senses, the rushings of the river gladden.

And the river is the Word of God, which proceeds out of Eden, the divine delight, and waters the whole spiritual paradise, and calls all to Himself: 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.'

And its rushings are the particular teachings or the thoughts which He implants in the soul.

The Most High, being holy according to His essence, is a bestower of holiness;

whence He sanctifies all those in whom He dwells, who are called His tabernacle.

He is able also to sanctify the body which He took from the Virgin, which is His tabernacle, He having come to be in it.

In harmony with this: 'The holy thing born in you shall be called the Son of the living God.'

God, being established in the midst of the city, shall not be shaken, not forsaking her because of the sinlessness that is in her.

For He is shaken away by those who sin;

whence to Adam also He is found walking when he sinned, and in Zechariah He says: 'The Lord shall go in the shaking of threatening.'

There is another reading which says: 'God shall help her with His face.'

For He preserves her beauty unwounded and incorruptible—the intelligible beauty, that is—whenever it receives the assault of the adversaries.

For as long as the soul keeps within itself the faith unassailed and clothes itself with the adornments of every virtue, it has the intelligible beauty in which Christ Himself also delights.

But should it be led aside from what is fitting, it straightway has the unsightly and unpleasant; yet the Church, he says, shall not suffer this;

for He preserves her beauty.

By 'nations' he names the hordes of demons that make war against her.

Whenever, then, these behold the incarnate manifestation of the Saviour, they are troubled against His Church, or are even filled with dread.

Then there will follow also the bowing down of the blameworthy kingdoms in which death and sin reigned.

But if you should also call those who are ruled a 'kingdom', these too were bowed, having turned from error to the knowledge of truth and from vice to virtue.

While God is silent, earthly and material things seem to have firmness and stability, but they are shaken when God has uttered His voice;

for whenever God cries aloud to the understanding, immediately every earthy thing is removed from it.

And when God has uttered the voice that is according to the Gospel, the earth is shaken, all the customs upon it being changed—ancestral laws, oracles, and whatever else belonged to the impious deception—the nations being troubled and the kingdoms being bowed down.

Though the earth be shaken, we for our part take courage, having with us the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, who upholds us.

Just as he who does the works of Abraham is his child, so he who imitates the discipline of Jacob proves to be his son, having succour from the God of Jacob.

The Holy Spirit summons to the contemplation of these things those who see keenly, by the word 'Come' preparing them to draw near, and by the word 'Behold' preparing them to gaze intently upon the truth.

The apostles also filled the whole world with wonders, running everywhere, recounting the things done through him and working miracles in his name.

The Word is also able to call the nations, that from the wonders seen throughout creation they may recognize its Maker.

Having come and destroyed the devil, who held the power of death, together with the other evil powers, he abolished wars unto the ends of the earth—that is, unto those who have passed beyond earthly things.

having the shield of faith.

No one who sins and gives himself over to error is able to know God;

For everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him.

He therefore who wishes to know God, having renounced all preoccupation, shall know who God is, as the present oracle says: 'Be still, and know.'

The tyrant of Egypt, perceiving this, subjected the Hebrews to occupations, that they might not draw God to themselves, saying, 'Be idle; you are idlers;

that is why you say, Let us go and serve our God.'

Since 'hands' are often used to signify actions, and the nations, before his coming, practised diverse things according to their varied ancestral customs, the Saviour, coming among men, commands that there be a clapping—that is, a harmony of the practical powers of the nations, which are figuratively named 'hands.'

Second: a harmony of action does not by itself suffice for salvation, unless with these there be also a right mind.

Therefore he also commands the nations to shout aloud 'with a voice of exultation' together with the clapping.

He is terrible also in being worthy of reverence, so that those who consider him hold him in godly fear.

It is not doubtful whether he reigns over the things above.

But since some doubt concerning the earth, whether he also has dominion over it, the present verse is spoken, and especially on account of those who circumscribe providence up to the sphere of the moon and are unwilling that the things beneath the earth should be under providence.

He subjected to the holy apostles the peoples of the circumcision and the nations under their feet, appointing them rulers and teachers of all men, having chosen his own inheritance—which is none other than Israel and Jacob—the election which he himself, having chosen it, loved.

By 'Jacob' he means the whole people of the Hebrews.

From this is made known the impartiality of God, since he loved the beauty of Jacob and nothing else.

For in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.

The 'shout' is an inarticulate cry raised when enemies have fallen, amid which he himself ascends;

and he ascends, being found above our understanding.

It seems that the loudness and the piercing clarity of the doctrines are named the 'sound of a trumpet;'

for in the plain sense, in the Gospel too the trumpet is taken up, as when it says, 'But you, when you do alms, do not sound a trumpet before you'—that is, do not make it public.

Sing not only sensibly according to the shadow of the law, but also spiritually according to the gospel.

Or perhaps by the repetition he commands that this be done without interval and continually.

And the same doubling of 'sing' must be referred to the King Christ;

for in that he is Creator, he is God, and in that he is provident, he is King.

To the same one, then, being both God and King, one must sing without ceasing.

He who sings must also have understanding of the things uttered in the song.

For one ought not to be occupied chiefly with the inflection and the melody of the voice, but to comprehend the things being sung.

For those who do not sing thus, but only produce a sound, God rejects, saying, 'Take away from me the noise of your songs, and I will not hear the psalm of your instruments.'

He sings with understanding who acts according to the divine instructions and comprehends them.

The rulers of the peoples are the apostles, or the leaders of the churches, gathered together with the God of Abraham, that they may bring to him the peoples benefited toward him;

for he is also the God of these, since they have become children of Abraham.

But consider whether angels can be rulers of the peoples—those concerning whom it is said, 'He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God'—who are also gathered together with the God of Abraham, since through faith the portions over which they happen to be rulers were made sons to Abraham.

From among men, having lived rightly, they are lifted up by setting their minds on things above, by seeking things above.

For these, being exceedingly exalted, being lifted on high by divine knowledge and virtue, have become God's own;

for the mighty ones of the earth, having become God's possession, were exalted.

That which is 'the joy of all the earth' is well-rooted and has good roots—perhaps none other than he who said, 'I am the true vine.'

For he himself is the joy of all the earth, being the cause and the provider of exultation.

I do not know from what impulse certain persons have supposed that from the present phrase the place where the Saviour suffered is signified;

for they say that the Saviour was crucified on the northern sides of Zion, the place of the skull being situated there.

But we say, following many Scriptures, that 'the north' is none other than the devil, according to the words, 'Arise, O north, and come, O south.'

The sides of this one, then, are the wicked men, just as they also call the bodyguards of a ruler his 'sides.'

The wicked men, therefore, who guard the devil, being formerly his sides, changing so greatly for the better in virtue, were so distinguished that they were not simply called Zion, but were shown to be her mountains.

And since the woman is called the side of the man, the souls that had become consorts of the devil—being his sides through their fellowship with him—became by transformation the mountains of Zion, so as even to be called the city of the great King himself, Christ.

For this very phrase intends this, when it says that the mountains of Zion, formerly the sides of the north—that is, of the great King—are again a great King, we understanding 'great' according to the excellence of power and not of magnitude.

And of this city there would be certain lofty and great household towers, in which God is known when he takes hold of the city.

These towers are of the same kind as the house which he builds upon the rock who has heard the words of Jesus and done them.

In the city are the kings who have come and been gathered into her, having become of one accord, knit together in the same mind and the same judgment;

and these kings are those who have reigned according to God, such as was Abraham, to whom certain persons said—although he did not reign in a perceptible manner—

'You are a king from God among us.'

These, seeing those who were formerly the sides of the north ascended to so great a height as to be the mountains of Zion, marvelled, being astonished at the change that comes to pass concerning the rational nature.

And when one may see even the base becoming diligent and wise, marvelling at the change, if he considers that conversely it is possible for the diligent and wise to fall away, being liable to change—having pondered this—he will produce even in those who have greatly advanced in virtue a disturbance and a trembling, so that the tremor born of fear takes hold of them.

In harmony with this is the saying, 'In the places of the ungodly the righteous groan;'

'There are pangs as of a woman in travail.'

In the city of the great King it is likely that there are souls made pregnant by the bridegroom, who, having also formed the seeds cast in them by him, have a season of bringing forth, so as even to travail in becoming mothers of offspring.

The word 'pangs' can also signify the pains concerning those who were disturbed and shaken, of whom trembling took hold.

'With a violent wind you will shatter the ships of Tarshish.'

The bodies are called 'ships' of the souls in many places of Scripture, as also in the passage, 'Those who go down to the sea in ships.'

These bodies, then, being corruptible and changeable in their essence, are shattered by the divine Spirit vehemently assailing them—that is, they are dissolved—so that at the time of the resurrection they may become, out of things corruptible, weak, dishonoured, and natural, things incorruptible, strong, glorious, and spiritual.

in the voice of Tarshish, unto that which is a watching for joy.

For then the bodies are commendably shattered, being buffeted and mortified, when those who surround them keep watch for the divine joy.

While we are in this life, we hear many things concerning the heavenly city of God and the spiritual goods in it, from the prophetic words and the rest of the God-inspired Scripture.

If, then, being transported from earth, we come to be in the Jerusalem above, comparing the things beheld in her with those we heard of old, we shall say, 'As we have heard, so also have we seen.'

Fourth: It is also the city of our God, since he himself has founded it for ever.

And the Saviour is he concerning whom these things are said.

For the Father, pointing to him, said, 'This one shall build my city' — he himself being the craftsman and maker, as God, of the city that has the foundations, for which all the righteous also wait.

Just as your name is wonderful in all the earth, so also is your praise, according to the saying, 'The earth is full of his praise.'

By 'the ends of the earth' one must understand its limits and furthest bounds — or else those who have passed over from the earth into heaven, upon whom the name of God and his praise have reached.

Since the Church is named Zion, its mountain is the Lord, to whom those who trust in the Lord are made like.

'Judah' is interpreted as 'confession,' and the souls that partake of the confessing disposition are the daughters of Judah.

And perhaps too all inspired Scripture is, by the same name as the place in which it was given, called Judah — in which God is known.

The daughters, then, of Judah understood in both these senses, applying themselves as far as attainable to the judgements of the Lord, which are true and justified, shall rejoice together in the same place.

And since the judgements of the Lord are unsearchable, at the present time they do not rejoice, but they shall rejoice when, face to face, they then apply themselves to the truth.

Since the mind of the Church is contemplative and attains the truth, and for this reason is called Zion, it is fitting to grasp her with the understanding, so that, having discerned the doctrines of the truth, we may circumscribe them, as in a circle, with our own thought.

And since the city of God is fortified on every side because of the enemies who come against it, and has towers built up from which it is possible to spy out the approaching foes —

and since the enemies of the city moreover wage war, it is necessary also for those who are in her towers to give a full account.

The saying also agrees with this: 'Upon your walls I have set watchmen day and night, who shall never be silent, keeping the Lord in remembrance.'

Set, therefore, your heart — that is, your mind — with understanding, attending to the power of Zion (this is the Church's teaching), and distribute it, discerningly attending to each part.

For just as it is possible logically to divide beings into substance and accident, and genera into species, so also it is possible to distribute the power of Zion into her citadels.

And her citadels are the several contemplations in which the doctrines of piety dwell.

And do this, so that you may recount to another generation that he himself is our God.

For since the former generation, which received the city and its power, was shown to be evil and adulterous and crooked and perverse by its own choice, then, by attending to the power of the city and distributing her citadels, you will come to know concerning the calling of the nations — which is a generation other than the former — to which also you may recount that this is the God who did the aforesaid wonders, casting off the former generation and calling another people and others.

And this God, concerning whom the theology here set forth is always the same and unchanging, is 'unto the age and unto the age of the age.'

And 'He shall shepherd us unto the ages,' according to the saying, 'And the Lord shall stand and see and shepherd his flock in strength.'

Prepare the hearing — not that which is common to the other animals, but that of the inner man, by which we understand the things heard, as the Saviour says:

'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'

Since among those called the nations, with respect to listening, some are wholly earthy, of matter and of earthly mindedness, while those who have become sons of men according to knowledge and instruction are all who devote themselves to disciplines and reasoned words, he calls not only the common and cattle-like but also the intelligent, saying, 'Hear these things, you earthborn among the nations, and sons of men.'

For teachers are debtors not only to the wise but also to the foolish.

He who has learned divine things will also be able to hand them down well.

Therefore also, after inclining his ear to a parable, he promises to open — that is, to make clear upon the harp — his own problem.

For what he has set forth for himself, declaring it artfully and with good rhythm according to contemplation, he opens upon the harp — his own problem.

And the word of him who brings forth true things as he ought is made musical.

And perhaps, too, he who displays by works the divine words, which are problems, opens each of the problems upon a harp composed of perception and power.

'If then the iniquity of my heel encompasses me' — being no other than that handed down from the fathers, which the serpent injected into the heel of Adam.

All who are begotten are of the same kind and are brothers, yet no one is able to redeem his own brother who has sinned.

For only that man will redeem, concerning whom it is said, 'He will send them a man who will save them' — who also says concerning himself, 'But now you seek to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you.'

And this man, since he knew no sin nor committed sin, will not give to God a propitiation of himself, such as is given on behalf of sinners, nor indeed will he offer a price for the redemption of his own soul;

but having laboured according to virtue, he shall live unto the end, never any more to die.

But it can also be said concerning the redeemer: 'He will not give to God a propitiation of himself.'

For not everyone is able to give a propitiation concerning himself, since Christ makes propitiation for all in his own blood; nor is anyone sufficient to give a price for the redemption of his soul, since Christ gave his own soul as a ransom on behalf of all.

Even if he will not give a propitiation nor a price for the redemption of his soul, yet after being redeemed he receives commandments, so that, having laboured according to them, he may be able to live unto the end, having obtained eternal life.

He who has been redeemed by Christ will so firmly possess salvation as not to be easily shaken or easily moved, even if indeed he sees those reputed to be wise dying — since he is not scandalized so as to see corruption.

For the being scandalized at seeing this is not to be laid upon this man, but upon those reputed to be wise.

By 'senseless' he means not one who is wholly deprived of mind, but one who is ill-minded and evil-thinking;

for we are also accustomed to call the ill-faced 'faceless' and the ill-skilled 'unskilled.'

For this is their destruction, on account of which they will leave to strangers their wealth, which they wickedly heaped up;

for no proper heir of him who says these things is heir of a rich, foolish, and senseless man.

This foolish and senseless man, being ignorant of who they themselves are, supposed that, like the irrational animals, their soul does not continue to endure.

'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'

These suppose that the graves in which they are entombed are their houses forever, not expecting the resurrection of the dead;

they suppose that the tombs are theirs, having pitiably placed their hope in this life only.

And perhaps, too, working nothing life-giving but being deadened through the things by which they sin, being cast down into a grave, they suppose the tomb to be an eternal house.

And these have called their names upon the lands.

For the names of the apostles, through the things they do and think, are written in the heavens; but those of whom the word speaks have called their own appellations upon their own lands, through the things they do, being enrolled as citizens of the earth;

for having departed, they shall be inscribed upon the earth.

Man came into being according to the image and likeness of God, and having been shown to be rational, he possesses the greatest honour.

But not understanding this, and acting instead with irrationality, he is likened to senseless beasts, having become a lust-crazed horse and having imitated the impulses of the other irrational animals.

He was therefore likened to senseless beasts, having the hope that, if he should so will, he might be made like to God.

For the upright shall be over five cities and ten in the age to come.

And Solomon too says this very thing in the Proverbs:

'The envious man hastens to be rich, and knows not that the merciful shall prevail over him.'

Even if the aforesaid things have befallen most men, yet God will take my soul out of Hades, which already holds it fast and desires to swallow it up.

And since the one who sins is, in his condition, in Hades, he who has forgiveness of the sins that hold him fast gives thanks to God, who has taken his soul out of the very hand of Hades.

The rich man here set before us, knowing no other life than in this his life, supposes his soul to be blessed by this;

and he confesses only then, when you do him good through the giving of material desires.

And acting in the same way as they, he imitated his forebears, and being made like to them up to the generation of the fathers, he shall enter into the same depth of ignorance of the good as those.

For this man, having welcomed only the present life, did not hasten to behold the light;

wherefore also it is said that unto the age he shall not draw near to it;

for perhaps, having been condemned to the outer darkness, he will not be permitted any longer to behold the eternal light.

By 'gods' he means not the images and the demons, but the men who partake of the words of God;

for he called those 'gods' to whom the word of God came.

Of these gods the Lord is God, as also he is King of those who reign as kings.

And again, he says, upon those from the rising of the sun even unto its setting he shone, that they might know that 'Out of Zion has come the excellence of his beauty.'

For he was shown to be of the seed of David, having that which is according to the flesh.

He himself, the God of gods, who has called all the earth to partake of him, will come not secretly nor unnoticed, but 'manifestly he shall come,' at his second coming, in glory with his angels.

And 'He will not keep silence,' rendering judgment upon each according to his works and his deeds.

It should be noted that in the present passage it signifies both comings of Christ: the first through the phrase 'Out of Zion is the beauty,' and the second through 'God shall come manifestly.'

Since the giving of the Law was granted with heaven and earth as witnesses, as is written in Deuteronomy, it is necessary that the people, being called to account before the witnesses in whose presence they received the Law, should be examined as having transgressed the divine laws.

He therefore summons heaven above—that is, the divine powers—and the earth, I mean those who dwell upon it, in order that those who have been made sons upon them may be convicted.

For 'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth,' as the children of God are being publicly denounced;

for in your presence, having received the Law, they did not keep it.

to set in order and to establish the covenant of God himself upon spiritual sacrifices;

and by 'sacrifices' he means that of praise and any other of a like kind.

Therefore, accepting the sacrifices upon which the spiritual covenant rests, he commands that his holy ones be gathered to him, so that they may accomplish the things aforesaid.

'The heavens shall declare' him who is named Righteousness—they being holy men who bear the image of the heavenly one.

God does not find fault on account of the things brought forward, but on account of the disposition according to which these things are offered;

and indeed he reproved even Cain for not having rightly divided what he ought to bring.

So even if one offers a spiritual sacrifice, as it were presenting his own body wholly as a burnt offering, let him do this with a right intention;

for one is not reproved on account of the deeds, which are praiseworthy, but on account of the intention which does not perform them rightly.

Since those in your house, figuratively called calves, were seen to be enemies of the Saviour—concerning whom it is also said, 'Many calves encompassed me, fat bulls surrounded me'—for this reason I will not receive them, nor the goats that are numbered together with them.

For these too, though offering themselves for sin, sin nonetheless.

For know that those who were once beasts of the forest, men from among the nations gone wild, being tamed by the divine teaching, have become mine—men who formerly abode in barrenness;

for the forest is a symbol of this barrenness.

But also the cattle, as it were the sheep of Christ, and the oxen that have mounted above your house—that is, those who dwell in the shadow of the Law while abiding in the doctrines of the Gospel (being, on account of their height, upon the mountains)—are our possession.

Paul, therefore, being one of the oxen upon the mountains, after setting forth the law concerning the ox, added, 'Is it for the oxen that God cares? Or does he speak entirely for our sake?' But also the souls that have become high-soaring, winged with understandings and right activities, are called birds of heaven—these I have ever known;

for I am one who knows those that are mine.

The good earth that has received—that is, the upright heart—which received the seed cast by Jesus and bore fruit a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold, having the full and ripe fruit, is the beauty of a field, being not far from the sower;

for he himself says, 'The beauty of the field is with me.'

The Saviour hungers for the salvation of certain ones, just as, without doubt, concerning the salvation of the Samaritan woman he says to the disciples, 'I have food to eat that you know not of,' and, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me.'

Since, then, those who come out of circumcision, out of the shadow, bring to him their sensible acts of worship as though to one who hungers, he says, 'If I be hungry, I will not tell you;'

for I have as my possession the glorious Church which has come into being, and which is called the inhabited world, and its fullness.

And its fullness is the Gospel, of which the shadow is a type.

Being nourished, then, by the fullness of the nations, I will not demand of you nourishment according to the shadow;

but if you desire truly to serve me, who am your God, offer me a sacrifice of praise, praising and speaking of God rightly;

for 'I desire mercy rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.'

The same one is both God and Most High and the one who delivers from affliction.

By 'a sacrifice of praise' he means the hymns befitting the righteous, and by 'vows' the promises;

for thus also in the twenty-first psalm he says, 'I will pay my vows before those who fear him.'

Since praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner, God rebukes the one who sins, saying, 'Why do you declare my ordinances which you are unwilling to perform?' and also, 'Why do you take up my covenant upon your lips? For you ought to have received it in your heart, and, having shaped your understandings according to it, thus to utter the words of my covenant.'

With this agrees the saying, 'You who preach that men should not steal, do you steal?' and what follows.

But with reference to the deeper meaning you will also understand thus:

if, being of one mind with the ecclesiastical souls, or not turning away from them, you were placing your portion with those who are adulterers, you will say that this word fits those who profess indeed to be of the Church, but who come into communion with men who are not of the Church.

He who is ignorant of the good but does the evil sins less;

but he who sins after knowing the good has an intensified wickedness;

wherefore also the servant who knew the will of his lord and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes.

Since, having taken up the covenant of God upon his lips, he had his heart full of sin—out of the abundance of the heart, which was corrupt, he had wickedness abounding in his mouth—so that his tongue too, by the things through which it contrives, wove together deceits, namely the heretical arguments which are sophistries.

'Sitting, you spoke against your brother, and against your mother's son you laid a stumbling block.'