詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 27/42 段

'You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, of the arrow that flies by day, [(6)] of the thing that stalks in darkness, of mishap and the noonday demon.' Not only of things perceptible, but also of the intelligible foes shall you gain the mastery through the divine hope; and you shall escape both the plots that come upon you by night and the assaults made by day by your enemies; and having courage, inasmuch as you are guarded by God, you will drive out fear, and neither at midday will you be filled with anguish, but you will escape the plots of the demons, partaking of the succor from above.

And it is likely that those who plot against men, after food and satiety, run as it were toward ready prey, and easily enslave those who are bereft of the care from above.

'A thousand shall fall at your side,'

'and ten thousand at your right hand;'

'nevertheless with your eyes you shall observe, and shall see the recompense of sinners.' In place of 'at your side,' Symmachus and Aquila have put 'from the flank.'

And he says that even if from your right or from your left an innumerable multitude comes forth, no harm accrues to you at all, but you shall see them laid low by a divine blow.

This also came to pass in the case of Hezekiah;

for one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians were struck down without weapons of war.

So it happened in the case of Gideon, so in the case of Jonathan, and indeed also in the case of Jehoshaphat, and in the case of the prophet Elisha this very thing came to pass.

'Because you, O Lord, are my hope; you have made the Most High your refuge.' May you enjoy, he says, this forethought, having used your hope in God, and having made him your refuge.

For there is lacking in the construction of the passage the word 'you said': 'You said, O Lord, are my hope.'

For this is a peculiarity of prophetic composition, and especially of the Psalms.

But nevertheless the sequence makes plain what is ambiguous.

For since, he says, you hope in God and call upon him for aid, you obtain the care that comes from him;

of assaults, and you will receive no harm from that quarter.

Thus the divine grace fenced round the house of Job;

and the adversary is witness, crying out:

'Have you not fenced round the inside and the outside of his house?' But when he permitted it, that one displayed his own wickedness, and the righteous Judge crowned the victorious athlete.

'For he shall give his angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways.' This he also said in the thirty-third Psalm:

'The angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and delivers them.' And we have heard also the patriarch Jacob saying:

'The angel who delivered me from all evils.' And the great Abraham, encouraging his servant, said, 'God will send his angel before your face, and you shall take a wife for my son Isaac from there.' From every quarter, then, we learn that the God of all guards through angels those who have trusted in him.

'They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.' You shall enjoy their manifold providence, so that not even the slightest harm may befall you from any quarter;

for by 'dashing against the stone' he has indicated the smallness of the harm.

'They shall bear you up in their hands' — that is, they shall lead you by the hand, they shall guide your steps, they shall bring you aid of every kind.

'You shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon.' He made mention of the mightiest and most venomous of beasts, wishing to signify one's mastery over every form of wickedness.

For these beasts are exceedingly powerful.

For the one injects a death-bearing venom, while the other works havoc even by its very appearance.

And indeed many who had believed in God became stronger than these very beasts.

Thus the divinely-inspired Paul received no harm from the viper.

[And, to speak briefly, let us go back to ancient times:] thus Noah, dwelling together with the wild beasts, was preserved unharmed.

So too countless men who have embraced the solitary life, living among wild beasts, through their hope in God escape the harm these creatures could inflict.

'Because he hoped in me, I will also deliver him.'

'I will shelter him, because he has known my name.'

'He shall cry out to me, and I will hearken to him.' These words, then, the God of all spoke, teaching what is the fruit of hope.

'For I will deliver him,' he says, 'from the aforementioned foes, both visible and invisible, since he has fenced himself about with hope in me.'

'Therefore I will guard and shelter him, and when he speaks I will hear him, and I will receive his supplication.'

'I am with him in affliction.' Even should he fall into any trial, I will be present with him and bring him sufficient comfort.

'I will rescue him and glorify him.' Not only will I free him from his griefs, but I will also render him conspicuous.

'With length of days I will fill him, and I will show him my salvation.' I will grant him to advance to a deep old age, and I will foreshow to him the salvation that shall be his in the age to come.

Of these things the blessed Hezekiah also had enjoyment.

For having asked for an increase of life, he received a span of fifteen years.

And from the destruction of the Assyrians he gained great renown.

And there is exceedingly fitting to him the saying:

'I will rescue him and glorify him, and I will show him my salvation.' But indeed all who have set their hope in God shall enjoy manifold good things.

As the ancient histories also teach, and as present events bear witness.

'A Psalm of a song, for the Sabbath day.' The Sabbath enjoined rest, yet not every kind of rest.

For it multiplied spiritual labor manifold.

For it commanded men to attend to prayers and hymns, and to offer to God twofold sacrifices.

Since, therefore, the life to come is likewise free from such cares, it is fittingly called 'rest.'

On which account the blessed Paul also cries out:

'Let us be diligent to enter into his rest.' And again:

'There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.' Since, therefore, the psalm foretells the honor of the just and the punishment of the unjust, and these things shall come to pass in that rest, it fittingly received this superscription.

'It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praise to your name, O Most High.'

'To proclaim your mercy in the morning, and your truth by night.' It is profitable, he says, and gainful, both by night and by day to praise you the Benefactor, and to recount your benefactions — your loving-kindness toward us, your truth exercised against those who do wrong.

For those you chastise justly, employing truth; but us who possess the knowledge of you, you deem worthy of your care.

'On a ten-stringed psaltery, with a song upon the harp.' With such instruments men were accustomed to praise God.

He says, then, that it is right to offer you the hymn of thanksgiving both with the instruments customarily struck, and by employing the melody of the tongue.

'For you have made me glad, O Lord, in your workmanship, and in the works of your hands I will rejoice.' For beholding your creations and your ineffable dispensations, I exult and am gladdened, and by the delight of my soul I move my tongue to hymn-singing.

'How magnified are your works, O Lord!'

'Your thoughts are made exceedingly deep.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'Exceedingly deep are your reflections';

and Aquila and Theodotion likewise.

'For your works,' he says, 'are great and marvelous';

for he placed the 'how' with intensive force;

but your wisdom possesses an unattainable depth.

For what mind is capable of searching out the reasons of your providence? Yet we teach even this to those who do not know it.

But those who are bereft of understanding, and have lost their reason, neither wish to perceive it, nor endure to learn from others.

For he who is diseased in his understanding and destitute of intelligence knows none of these things, nor does he even wish to hear anything about them.

'When the sinners sprang up like grass, and all the workers of iniquity peeped forth, that they might be utterly destroyed unto the age of the age.' The word 'peeped forth' Aquila rendered as 'blossomed.'

The fools were unwilling to understand that they blossomed like grass, and like green herb the workers of iniquity peeped forth from the earth, and after their present prosperity shall reap eternal destruction.

And having called them enviable and blessed, they shall shortly see their own thrice-wretched end.

'But you, O Lord, are Most High for ever.'

'For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish;'

'and all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.' For those men, like grass, wither away and perish;

but you hold power over all, being higher than all, and subjecting to punishments those held fast by madness.

'And my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn.' But we who possess the knowledge of you, beholding the overthrow of your enemies, shall exult in you and be exalted in spirit;

seeing that we have been freed from the error of many gods, and worship you the truly existent God, [having received the horn of the cross as a weapon against the passions and the demons.] For he introduced the unicorn here again, so that through the one horn he might signify the one God.

For just as that animal received from nature a single horn, so those nourished in piety worship one Godhead.

'And my old age shall be in rich oil.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'My growing old shall be like a flourishing olive tree.'

For I shall blossom, and shall put off old age; I shall imitate a flourishing olive tree, and, according to the Seventy, I shall be enriched as with some oil by gladness of heart.

'And my eye has looked upon my enemies,'

'and my ear shall hear the [wicked who rise up].' The word 'has looked' both Symmachus and Theodotion, and the Hebrew itself, rendered as 'shall look upon.'

For the words are predictions of things to come;

but, as is their custom, the Seventy interpreted things future as though already accomplished;

thereby signifying in this too the incontrovertible character of the prophecy.

For just as it is impossible that what has happened should not have happened, so it is impossible that the prediction of the Spirit should remain unfulfilled;

he says, then, that 'Not only shall I see the grievous end of the unjust, but I shall also hear all men proclaiming it and marveling at the justice of the punishment.'

'And among the malicious who rise up against me' — here one must place a pause, and then add: 'my ear shall hear.' Of those who live in lawlessness and contrive against me countless evils, I shall hear as they recount the destruction of many.

But the just man shall imitate the density, warmth, and nourishing quality of the cedar, and the lofty foliage and fruitfulness of the palm.

Such too is the husbandry of virtue: growing with much toil and time, yet rising to a height, bearing ripe and most delightful fruit, and providing sufficient shelter to him who possesses it.

[As in a divine paradise, it is planted in the house of God.

For this he says more plainly through what follows, in saying:] 14.

Planted in the house of the Lord.

In the courts of our God they shall flourish. Now these, he says—those likened to these trees—have God as their planter, and the divine temple as their paradise.

They shall still increase in a fruitful old age, and shall be in good estate.

That they may declare that the Lord our God is upright, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. And Symmachus renders it thus:

They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing, proclaiming that upright is the Lord who is my defence;

and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

For in the age to come, receiving the promised perfection, they shall offer to God a fuller and richer fruit, hymning His righteous verdict.

For beholding at that time the divine economy, now hidden, made manifest, they shall both marvel at His wisdom and celebrate His justice.

By 'old age,' however, he has called perfection.

For we too call the one who has grown old 'complete,' but the young man 'incomplete.'

The psalm foretells the change that concerns human beings.

For God is unchanging and unalterable, always remaining the same and after the same manner.

For He does not now reign and now lack a kingdom;

but by nature He is ever King, though this has not always been evident to human beings.

For over a very long time the majority, being ignorant of Him, rendered to idols the worship that belongs to God;

but after the Incarnation of our God and Saviour, the knowledge of God, like light, ran throughout the whole inhabited world.

For He Himself is the true Light, which enlightens every man that comes into the world.

...the voluntary Cross and the ascent into the heavens, He sent forth rays befitting God;

with good reason the prophet cries out, The Lord reigns, He has clothed Himself with majesty. For He did not receive what He did not have, but displayed what He already possessed.

Thus also He says to His own Father: Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

He was not without glory after the Incarnation;

but that it might be attested, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him. The Lord has clothed Himself with power and girded Himself. That Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, the divine Paul has plainly taught us.

Therefore He did not receive from some other source a power He did not previously have, but used His own proper power against the enemies;

and the prophetic word portrays Him as a kind of king clothing himself in royal full armour, using a belt, and doing battle against the enemies.

Then he shows the achievements that result therefrom.

For He also established the inhabited world, which shall not be moved. He has rendered the world firm, he says, and steadfast, possessing the certainty of the divine knowledge, and delivered from the deceit of falsehood.

For no longer do men now worship these gods, now those, but they offer their reverence to the true God.

Your throne is prepared from of old; You are from everlasting. Not now, he says, did You receive the appointment of the kingdom, but You have eternal dominion and an everlasting kingdom;

and concerning the kingdom he also said in the forty-fourth psalm:

Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. And concerning His unalterableness and unchangeableness, in the one hundred and first psalm he again taught us:

For You are the same, he says, and Your years shall not fail.

For even if You became man, You were not lacking in Godhead, nor were You separated from the Father or the all-holy Spirit;

for the substance of the undefiled Trinity is one.

The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voices; the rivers shall lift up their poundings. He calls the holy apostles 'rivers,' and those who after them received the proclamation.

For these, like rivers, brought to men all their irrigation.

Thus also the blessed Habakkuk addressed them:

The earth shall be cleft with rivers, that is, it shall be divided and receive the irrigation.

He that believes in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

These rivers, therefore, lifted up their voice, proclaiming the divine doctrines and making their own courses.

For by 'poundings' he called their pathways.

Since it is the nature of waters to wear down the underlying earth and to make a channel, with good reason he called the course of the rivers a 'wearing';

for those who first were entrusted with the proclamation prepared the way for the second, and rendered the teaching for them effortless and free of hardship.

Above the voices of many waters, wonderful are the surgings of the sea. Just as when great rivers pour into the deep, and hold back the assault of the waves upon the sand, the waves are heaved up all the more by the strife of the river-streams;

so also, when the sweet and drinkable teaching of the apostles was brought to the briny and bitter sea of the inhabited world, a certain tempest arose, and wave upon wave rose up.

This also the blessed Habakkuk foretold.

For having said, The earth shall be cleft with rivers, the peoples shall see You and be in travail, scattering the waters of the way, he added:

The deep uttered its voice, the height of its imagining.

Every city was filled with such a tempest;

for it is the very voice of the Lord: I came not to bring peace upon the inhabited world, but a sword, to set a man at variance against his neighbour, a son against his father, a daughter against her mother, a bride against her mother-in-law. But the beginning of the proclamation contained the tempest;

...to a calm, and it stood into a gentle breeze, and its waves were hushed, and there came a great tranquillity.

Wonderful in the high places is the Lord. And Aquila renders it thus:

Exceedingly great on high is the Lord.

And very consistently he has added this to what was said before, showing the strength of the One who sets all things aright.

For He is exceedingly great, and Most High, and Lord, and possessed of a power neither measurable by tongue nor comprehensible by mind.

By 'the high ones' he calls the great patriarchs and prophets and the holy apostles and all those like them. (v.)

Your testimonies, O Lord, are made exceedingly sure. All these things You foretold from above, and proclaimed beforehand through Your holy prophets.

And by the testimony of the events themselves they have been shown to be true;

and beautiful too is the addition of 'exceedingly.'

It means: Not even the least falsehood is to be discerned in the predictions, but all the things now seen were accurately foretold.

Holiness befits Your house, O Lord, unto length of days. And the greatest and most beautiful of all good things is this: that the enjoyment of the gifts bestowed is not temporary, nor circumscribed by certain periods, after the manner of the worship of the Jews;

but it is enduring, and abiding, and eternal;

for these things are fitting and befitting for Your new house.

The inspired Paul called the assembly of the faithful the house of God, to which the prophet has said that holiness is fitting.

It becomes us, therefore, according to the apostolic exhortation, to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God;

that having made the house of God worthy, we may receive the eternal Indweller.

The theme of the psalm is this.

Many of the Jews, both rulers and kings, loved lawlessness, and, judging unjustly, brought out their verdict, and dared bloody deeds, selling out for bribes the blood of the innocent.

The blessed Isaiah also accused these, saying: Hear,

you rulers of Sodom. And again:

Your rulers are disobedient, loving gifts, pursuing recompense; they do not judge for orphans, and to the cause of widows they pay no heed. And he not only accused, but also exhorted:

'Judge for the orphan, and give justice to the widow.' This same accusation the blessed Habakkuk also made, and offering his supplication to God he said:

'You make men like the fishes of the sea, and like creeping things that have no ruler, and the ungodly devours the righteous.' In like manner the admirable Jeremiah, and indeed the other prophets also, continued to accuse these men of their injustice.

so that through the singing of psalms which took place in the divine temple, those of that time might reap the benefit;

and he teaches the providence of God, and the punishment that thence comes upon those who live in wickedness.

He casts the psalm in the person of those who were reared in godliness, who suffered these things at the hands of those men.

'The Lord is a God of vengeances; the God of vengeances has spoken boldly.' Instead of 'has spoken boldly,' Aquila rendered 'appear';

and so likewise the other translators.

He entreats that the lawless may endure suffering, but not hold power, nor have their authority as a provision for injustice.

'Your people, O Lord, they have humbled;'

'and your inheritance they have afflicted.'

'They exult in their power, and use unjust words;'

their deeds are more grievous than their words.

Those bereft of their spouses, and those who bewail their orphanhood of fathers, lie exposed to these men as ready prey.

'Those who have come over from the nations, and have desired to live according to your laws, endure unjust slaughter at their hands;'

for he named these men 'proselytes.'

'Man shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob understand.' This is the height of impiety.

For they dare these things, he says, thinking that you do not oversee, nor take forethought for human affairs;

and 'the God of Jacob' is not added without purpose, but for the heightening of the accusation.

For having learned of the great providence toward the people of God—that which came through the prophets, that through the priests, that in war, that in peace—they yet do not fear the God of all as one who oversees.

From this point he brings to them counsel and exhortation, [not only to those at that time who were sick with such maladies, but also to those who even until now and throughout all life are gripped by them.] (8)

'Understand now, you senseless among the people; and you fools, at length be wise.' Late though it be, then, O foolish ones, be willing to perceive and to learn the nature of things;

[for the state of the present life resembles a spider's web.] (9)

'He that planted the ear, does he not hear? or he that formed the eye, does he not perceive?' Very syllogistically did he present the teaching.

For he says: He that fashioned the eye out of clay, and bestowed on it the power of sight, and likewise created the ears and granted the sense of hearing—does he himself not see nor hear? But is the Maker of these deprived of that very energy which he has granted to others? (10)

'He that chastises the nations, shall he not reprove?' The nations, he says, which neither received a law nor enjoy prophetic teaching, he subjects to chastisements; and will he not reprove your transgression? 'He that teaches man knowledge.' And indeed he himself created the nature of men as rational, and through the things beheld in creation, and those that come to pass each day, he works in them fuller knowledge.

'The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain.' For not only does he see and hear;

but he also knows our reasonings, those that surmise falsehoods concerning his providence;

having thus applied to those men the fitting remedy, he offers to the wronged a sufficient consolation;

and, making it the more persuasive, he composes his words accordingly.

'Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O Lord;'

'and you will teach him out of your law.' For many are wont to call wretched those who embrace godliness [and undergo injustice;

but I call them enviable and blessed, being exercised in chastening,] and reaping the benefit of the divine law.

'That you may give him rest from evil days.' For he who receives a little chastisement in the present life will find the future tribunal the more gentle;

for by 'an evil day' he called the eternal punishment.

'Until the pit be dug for the sinner.' For those who embrace lawlessness shall be delivered up to perpetual punishment.

For just as it is impossible for one who has fallen into a deep pit to climb up, when none comes to his aid;

so is it impossible to escape the eternal punishment, unless the divine love of mankind should will it.

'For the Lord will not cast off his people;'

'and his inheritance he will not forsake.' [By 'inheritance' he named not Israel alone, but also the people from among the nations;

For concerning that one the blessed Moses said;

for he himself designates the new and true covenant as his portion;

whom he refashioned through the laver of regeneration.] And in the present life also the divine people shall enjoy the fitting forethought, inasmuch as they have been named his inheritance and his people.

'Until righteousness return unto judgment?' They shall attain this providence, until the righteousness of God appear, executing judgment upon all men.

The word hints also at the incarnation of God our Saviour, and the denial of the Jews.

For he himself has also been named the Sun of righteousness, and concerning him the blessed Paul said:

'Wisdom was given us from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' Having therefore made mention of the providence of God, and having said that 'the Lord will not cast off his people, nor forsake his inheritance,' and foreseeing the denial that would be theirs, he fittingly added, 'Until righteousness return unto judgment.' For so long as they do not deny the manifestation of righteousness, they shall attain the forethought from above.

'And all the upright in heart shall cleave to it.' But Aquila and Theodotion have, 'And after it shall be all the upright in heart.'

For, he says, this Saviour, whom he called righteousness, shall be followed by those who have a mind pure from unbelief, and who employ upright reasonings.

And with the things said there agree also the sayings of the Lord.

For seeing Peter and Andrew casting a net into the sea, he said to them:

'Permit me to go and bury my father,' said the man; the Lord said,

'Let the dead bury their own dead; but you come and follow me.' Therefore, he says, toward the Jews he will exercise providence up to their denial, but he will have the upright in heart as followers, cleaving to him and holding fast, and in no wise enduring to forsake him.

'Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand with me against the workers of iniquity?' But Symmachus more clearly:

'Who shall rise up on my behalf against the malefactors? who shall take a stand on my behalf against the workers of injustice?' I am, he says, bereft of all human help, but I have the great ally, who is able easily to scatter the throng of my adversaries;

for this he made clear through what follows.

'Unless the Lord had helped me, my soul had almost dwelt in Hades.' For unless I had enjoyed the providence from him, they would altogether have delivered me over to death.

'When I said, My foot has slipped, your mercy, O Lord, helped me.' For at once, calling upon your providence, and confessing my own weakness, I enjoyed your love of mankind.

'According to the multitude of my pains in my heart, your consolations gladdened my soul.' Answering to my pains, I received the comfort from your goodness.

So also the blessed Paul said:

'As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so through Christ our consolation also abounds.' And again: 'In everything afflicted, but not crushed;'

'perplexed, but not in despair;'

'persecuted, but not forsaken;'

'cast down, but not destroyed.' (20)

'Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with you, which frames trouble by decree?' But Symmachus more clearly:

'Shall the throne of oppression be joined to you, which fashions misery according to decree?' You will not endure, he says, to share in the injustice of those who judge lawlessly;

who, bringing forth a verdict contrary to what has been ordained by you, draw upon themselves the misery that springs from thence.

For by 'the throne of oppression and of iniquity' he called the unjust judges, who reap toil and misery as the fruit of their injustice—

confiscations, I mean, and banishments, and things like to these.] (22)

'And the Lord became my refuge;'