詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 29/42 段

'Because they kept his testimonies, and the ordinances which he gave them.' For to those who lived lawfully and conducted their lives according to his commandments, he granted this grace.

'O Lord our God, you heard them;'

'and taking vengeance for all their doings.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'and an avenger for the insults done to them.'

For those who played the tyrant against the great Moses he delivered to fire, and those who escaped the flame he sent living to the grave, commanding the earth to gape open, and made the very ground an improvised tomb of their tyranny; and those who had traversed the sea and trodden on foot that deep, he made submerged beneath the earth, employing paradoxical waves.

and those who rose in rebellion against the prophet Samuel he delivered over to the domination of Saul, and surrounded them with calamities of every kind.

'Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.' Imitating, therefore, the piety of these wondrous men, offer to God the reverence that is fitting.

And by 'holy mountain,' of old was called Zion, but now the height of the knowledge of God.

For thus also Isaiah and Micah prophesied:

'It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest'—that is, the knowledge of God shall become plain to all.

The divine Apostle too knows of a spiritual Mount Zion;

'For you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.' We are therefore commanded, according to the knowledge given to us by God, to offer him worship, [and to confess him as God from God and the only-begotten Son to the Father, who for our sake became man.]

without a superscription among the Hebrews. Here the prophet calls all men to the singing of hymns, exhorting them through all means to worship the Savior God.

'Shout aloud to the Lord, all the earth.' All men, offer up the hymn of victory to God;

for by 'earth' he calls those who dwell upon the earth.

Rejoicing, therefore, draw near to his service.

'Come before his presence with exceeding joy.' But Symmachus said, 'with praise;'

'with praise,' for the hymn is of those who exult and rejoice.

'Know that he himself is our God.' [For even if the Lover of mankind chose to become man, yet he remained ever possessing to be God;

These lessons the sacred choir of the apostles also brought to the nations, as the history of the Acts teaches.

'He himself made us, and not we ourselves.' For we are not our own makers, but were fashioned by him.

Thus did the blessed Paul teach the Athenians:

The God who made the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands as though needing anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things.

And He made from one blood every nation to dwell upon the whole face of the earth. This too the Prophet teaches here.

He made us, and not we ourselves. But Symmachus renders it thus: He made us who were not.

And we are His people, as of a king, and sheep, as of a shepherd.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with hymns. By His gates and His courts he means the churches.

For these afford us our entrance to Him, in which it is fitting to recount His divine and saving works, and to offer the hymn of thanksgiving as a kind of gift.

(v.5) For the Lord is good, His mercy endures forever, and His truth to generation and generation. For how is it not just to sing praise to Him who employs an unspeakable love for mankind, and sets fulfillment upon His good promises? For what He promised to the generation of our forefathers, this He has fulfilled in our own; and the salvation He announced He has truly bestowed, having accomplished our salvation through the cross and death.

On the fourth day of the week. But neither in the Hebrew, nor among the other translators, nor among the Seventy did we find this addition.

The psalm has this subject:

Josiah the king tore up from their very foundations all the altars of the idols;

and their priests he brought down;

and to their former piety he led the people back.

He took thought not only for the soundness of doctrines, but he also gave care to the achievements of virtue, judging rightly, honoring what is just, aiding the wronged, punishing wrongdoers, and taking care for the benefit of those who dwelt together with him.

Of mercy and judgment will I sing to You, O Lord. For since the admirable Josiah both showed mercy to the wronged and passed sentence against wrongdoers, he called the account of these things a celebration of mercy and judgment.

I will sing praise, and I will give heed in a blameless way. But Symmachus renders it thus:

I will make melody, I will consider the blameless way. That blameless way which through the grace of the Spirit I have beheld, and which is pleasing to God, this I will now set forth through melody.

I long for Your appearing; but grant what I desire.

I did not practice duplicity, nor did I appear one way to those outside while within my house I allowed myself to do the opposite; rather, what was hidden agreed with what was seen.

No lawless thing before my eyes. I abhorred not only lawless deeds, but I also shook off the very thoughts concerning them, ordering and directing my reasoning before all else.

Those who commit transgressions I hated. I turned away also from those who despise the divine ordinances.

A crooked heart did not cleave to me. Those who honored what is just were familiar to me;

but those who chose the opposite, and who were unwilling to have right reasoning, I placed far from my assemblies.

When the wicked one turned away from me, I did not take notice. If any of those with me who practiced wickedness wished to withdraw from my company, I did not even reckon such a departure to be a departure.

So very contemptible to me was he who chose wickedness.

The one who secretly slandered his neighbor, him I drove away. I would not admit accusations made in secret, but I expelled those who attempted to do this.

With him of proud eye and insatiable heart, with such a one I did not eat. Neither did I make table companions of those who practiced arrogance and greed.

My eyes are upon the faithful of the land, that they may sit together with me. Those adorned with faith and who highly esteemed divine things shared in my councils and deliberations.

He who walked in a blameless way, this one ministered to me. Not only of friends and counselors, but also of servants did I take much care.

For I employed attendants who cared for virtue and were rid of wickedness.

He who worked pride did not dwell in the midst of my house. I chose to have none of those who practiced haughtiness as a housemate.

He who spoke unjust things did not prosper before my eyes. If anyone counseled or requested unjust things, he went away having failed;

for it was my earnest concern to close my ears to those who wished to slander. (v.8)

In the mornings I put to death all the sinners of the land, to destroy out of the city of the Lord all who work iniquity. This we learned plainly from the history.

For all the impious priests he consigned to death, and he cleansed the holy city.

By 'morning' he calls the beginning of his reign;

for he arose like a dawn, with the righteousness that befits it and gives light. But whoever wishes to learn the man's virtue more precisely will find it both from the second book of Chronicles and from the fourth book of Kingdoms.

Let each one therefore be eager to become an imitator of this man,

so that he may share in the same boldness with him before Christ.

When he is faint, and pours out his supplication before the Lord. The psalm contains a foretelling of the affliction of the Jewish people in Babylon, and of their return from there.

It also proclaims beforehand, in the same passage, the calling and salvation of the nations.

It is fitting also for everyone wrestling with some misfortune, and beseeching to obtain the divine assistance.

For by 'the poor man' he means the one in need of divine providence.

O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to You.

For 'the cry' Symmachus has rendered 'wailing.'

Turn not Your face away from me. Be gracious to me, and dissolve Your indignation.

In whatever day I am afflicted, incline Your ear to me.

Fittingly the prophet, employing the person of those people, offers his supplication and entreats to obtain the divine care, whenever the time for this should come.

And my bones were parched together like a firebrand. Here, according to his own manner, he recounts the calamities that are to be as though they had already happened, and he says that the span of his life was consumed like smoke, and that from despondency his body became like a dry brand, as though scorched by some assault of fire.

For thus also Aquila translated it: And my bones were made brittle like a burning.

I was smitten like grass, and my heart was withered. For like grass I was quenched;

and I lost my former bloom.

Because I forgot to eat my bread.

(v.6) From the sound of my groaning my bone cleaved to my flesh. For I cast off all appetite for food;

and of my former well-being I was utterly stripped bare.

For by the wasting that comes from despondency my body was consumed.

And my skin lies upon my bare bones.

The bread of our soul, then, is the Word of God;

for just as plain bread nourishes the body, so the Word from heaven nourishes the substance of the soul.

And Christ, when delivering this prayer, said to the apostles: Give us this day our daily bread. Whoever, then, forgets to eat this, that is, to work it —

for the eating of the spiritual bread consists in labor —

and this the Lord makes clear where He said to the apostles: Work not for the food that perishes, but for that which endures unto life eternal; such a one's heart, smitten like grass, withers away.

But how is the grass smitten and withered? When rain fails to come upon it.

Likewise also the heart, whenever it sickens from lack of the Word, then it is smitten and withered, being unable to put forth the flower of virtue. (vv.7, 8)

I have become like a pelican of the wilderness, I have become like a night-raven in a ruined dwelling.

I kept watch, and became like a lone sparrow upon a housetop. He employs many similes, wishing to represent his calamities in a worthy manner;

and through each of the birds mentioned he indicates his timidity and his desolation of any protector.

For the sparrow, through anguish, drives away sleep, and the night-raven, fleeing inhabited houses, hastens to the desolate and abandoned ones.

For 'the ruined dwellings' Symmachus has called 'ruins';

so also the other bird makes its abode in desolate places.

All the day long my enemies reproached me, and those who praised me swore against me. I became a laughingstock to my adversaries;

And I, who was once envied and admired, have now become a byword and an oath among those who long ago marveled at me;

for they swear oaths invoking my calamities, saying,

'May I never suffer what such-and-such men have suffered.'

'For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping'

'because of the presence of your wrath and your indignation.' These same things the seventy-ninth Psalm also declared,

'You will feed us with the bread of tears, and give us tears to drink in full measure.' And by these words he indicates the excess of his anguish;

for if the very hour of taking food was full of anguish, then by no means could any other hour be free from it.

'Because, having lifted me up, you cast me down.' For having shown me exalted and made me an object of admiration, you suddenly cast me away.

For he has used 'cast down' as a metaphor drawn from those who lift something up on high and then dash it against the ground.

'My days have declined like a shadow,'

'and I have withered like grass.' I am, he says, at the very setting of life;

and I am like a shadow that is now inclining and about to fade away;

and I have imitated the dryness of grass, which invites the hands of the reapers.

'But you, O Lord, abide for ever, and your memorial from generation to generation.' But I indeed have such a nature, and am yoked to so many calamities;

but you, who are everlasting and eternal, could easily grant me some change from these present evils.

'You will arise and have compassion on Zion;'

for the time itself demands mercy.

And by these words he hints at the end of the punishment that was limited to seventy years;

and, [reckoning] the time of the captivity, he also offers up his supplication.

With these things the words of the spiritual song also agree:

'For it is time to have compassion on her, for the time has come.'

[15.] 'For your servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and will have compassion on her dust.' For Zion is thrice-desired by us, though she has become utterly desolate;

and even the ruined stones are worthy of our longing, and the memory of the heaps of rubble that resulted from the sacking stirs pity within us.

'And the nations shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth your glory.' For when they behold our return and the rebuilding of the city — those who witnessed our former calamities, both kings and rulers and subjects — they shall marvel at your power, and, fearing you, shall believe that you alone are God.

But this came to pass properly and truly after the incarnation of our God and Saviour.

For after the recall of the Jews, the neighbouring peoples did indeed marvel at what had happened;

yet they were so far from believing in the God of all, that at the same time they took up war against them.

But here the word foretells a change of all the nations and of the kings as well.

Of these things, some we see already accomplished, and others we hope will yet come to pass.

For the divine Apostle says:

'For we do not yet see all things subjected to him.' Yet nevertheless he taught that to him every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth. [17.]

'For the Lord shall build up Zion, and shall be seen in his glory.' For since those who were ignorant of the divine dispensations supposed that the servitude of the Jews and the desolation of Jerusalem were a sign of God's weakness, he fittingly called the renewal of the city the glory of God;

as if to say, When Zion has been built up again, all shall behold the God of all in her former glory.

'He looked upon the prayer of the humble, and did not despise their supplication.' For he did not scorn them as captives and slaves;

but he received their entreaty, and granted them their freedom.

'Let this be written for another generation, and the people that is being created shall praise the Lord.' We will make a permanent record of this benefaction for ever;

so that those who come after may also learn of your loving-kindness.

And by 'the people that is being created' he means those gathered from among the nations, concerning whom the blessed Paul also says:

'A generation to come shall be declared to the Lord, and they shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, whom the Lord has made.' This is the people that, being instructed in both the old things and the new, sends up the fitting hymn to God the Saviour.

'For the Lord looked down from his holy height, from heaven he looked upon the earth,'

'to hear the groaning of the prisoners, to loose the sons of those who had been put to death,'

'to declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem.' For the God of all, who watches over and governs all things, heeded those over whom he watched, and pronounced the decree of freedom, so that the prisoners, in place of those who had been slain, might return, and rebuild their ancestral city, and offer to God in her, as was their custom, the worship according to the Law.

'When the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.'

'He answered him in the way of his strength: Declare to me the fewness of my days;'

'do not bring me up in the midst of my days.' When, he says, we have obtained our return, the peoples and kings shall be gathered together, marvelling at your power.

At that time, then, we shall have so great a joy that we shall even beseech your goodness to grant us an increase of years, and not to hand us over to death while the midst of our time is still upon us;

and by 'the way of strength' he calls the return that was granted through the strength of God.

'Your years are throughout all generations.' For you possess a being without limit, and it is easy for you also to make others long-lived.

'In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.'

And from the all-encompassing elements he showed him to be the Maker of all the rest as well.

'And they shall all grow old like a garment, and like a mantle you shall roll them up, and they shall be changed.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'And they shall all grow old like a garment, and like a mantle you shall change them, and they shall be changed.'

For all things visible shall grow old, and shall imitate the age of garments;

but you shall change them, and renew them, and make them incorruptible in place of corruptible.

This the all-divine Apostle also said:

'For the creation itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.' [28.]

but you have a nature unchangeable, and superior to alteration.

These things, moreover, the divine Apostle has ascribed to the distinctive property of the Son, in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Yet nevertheless in the Son we behold the Father.

For whatever things the Father does, these also the Son does likewise;

and the identity of nature is recognized in each;

for we know the operation of the Trinity to be one.

'The sons of your servants shall dwell securely, and their seed shall be established for ever.' But Symmachus has rendered it 'shall abide.'

And it signifies that those delivered from bondage shall dwell in Jerusalem, and the seed that comes from them shall abide for ever.

Concerning this seed the divine Apostle said:

'Until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.' And, 'To Abraham the promises were spoken, and to his seed.'

'He does not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.' This seed shall abide for ever.

For having been united to God the Word, it possesses a being that cannot perish, and bestows life on those who believe, according to the word of the Lord himself:

'He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, shall live for ever.' INTERPRETATION.

For in that psalm those who lamented their calamities in Babylon were beseeching God to obtain their return;

And here, having obtained what they asked for, they sing praises to their Benefactor.

But for my part I think that this hymnody is fitting for all men, both for those who have been delivered from a bitterer bondage and for those counted worthy of a greater freedom.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Those who are rightly disposed with gratitude toward the divine graces rouse themselves to hymnody, requiting their Benefactor in whatever ways they can.

These men also consecrate all that is within them, and stir up every thought unto the divine hymn.

For by 'that which is within' he named the reasonings, the reflections, and all the movements of the soul.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Again the soul is taught to rouse itself, to drive away the cloud of forgetfulness, and to renew the memory of the benefits received.

Now the 'benefits' (recompenses) Symmachus rendered as 'kindnesses.'

Then he goes through these one by one.

Who is gracious unto all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. For He it is who has granted thee the forgiveness of thy sins;

He it is who has freely bestowed on thee the healing of thy sufferings.

Of these the paralytic partook.

For at one and the same time he heard, 'Thy sins are forgiven'; and, 'Take up thy bed, and go unto thy house.' Thus the sinful woman obtained forgiveness;

thus the thief, thus the tax-collectors, thus all who believed.

...thine. Those who had been led away captive into Babylon as spear-won prisoners He indeed set free from bondage, but did not release from this corruptible life.

But to us He has freely given the hopes of the resurrection, and has bestowed the earnest of the Spirit, and has clothed us with the garment of incorruption.

Who crowneth thee with mercy and compassions. – 'By grace ye are saved,' as the divine Apostle says, 'and that not of yourselves;'

'it is the gift of God, lest any man should boast.' And again, 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.'

'But for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all His longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.' The crown, then, is of grace and lovingkindness.

So too the divinely-inspired Isaiah cries out in the person of the bride:

Let my soul rejoice in the Lord;

for He hath clothed me with the garment of salvation, and hath put on me the robe of gladness;

as on a bridegroom He hath set upon me a mitre, and as a bride He hath adorned me with ornament. And a little further on: And thou shalt be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. And all these things are the bridal gifts and presents of the Bridegroom.

For the bride has brought forward faith alone.

Who satisfieth thy desire with good things. Since there is a blameworthy desire which the divine law forbids, well did he add the words 'with good things.'

For, He says, Ask, and it shall be given you;

knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

In harmony with these things God says through the prophet Isaiah:

But they that wait upon Me shall renew their strength; they shall put forth wings as eagles. For since, when we were created, we received the divine and royal characters, and then obscured and corrupted them by manifold practices of sin, the prophetic word promises us the recovery of the kingdom.

For this bird is royal, and has been entrusted with the kingship of the winged creatures.

The Lord executeth acts of mercy, and judgment for all that are wronged. – For 'not by the deeds of righteousness which we have done,' as the divine Apostle says, 'but according to His great mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit.' And beholding us wronged by the enemy of truth, to us He opened the fountains of mercy, but against him He brought forth the just sentence.

He made known His ways unto Moses;

His will unto the children of Israel. Not out of a change of mind did He work out this salvation of ours;

but from the beginning He foretold these things through the prophets, and through the divinely-inspired Moses He sketched in outline our salvation.

The sea also received the type of the all-holy baptism;

the rock was declared a shadow of the immortal streams;

and the manna was an image of the heavenly food.

And the rest as well—lest I go through each one—may thus be found sketched out among them.

The Lord is compassionate and merciful, longsuffering and full of mercy. And the cause of these good things, he says, is the abyss of the divine goodness, the immeasurable mercy, the ocean of lovingkindness.

He will not be angry unto the end, nor will He keep His wrath for ever.

He hath not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He did not consent to measure out the punishment according to our sins, nor to extend His indignation against us to the utmost.

For as the height of heaven above the earth, so mighty hath the Lord made His mercy toward them that fear Him.

But human reasoning has found no measure higher than heaven, nor any longer than the distance between the west and the dawn.

For He knew our frame, He remembered that we are dust. For the Creator of our nature knows its weakness, He knows both whence we were formed and whither again we shall depart.

As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so shall he flourish. We differ in nothing from grass and flower, which in spring indeed blooms, but after a little while withers and passes away.

For a wind hath passed over it, and it shall not be, and it shall no longer know its place. But Symmachus thus:

For a wind passeth over it, then it is no more.

when it is present, the body both lives and is active;

but when it has flown away, the body is quenched and perishes, so that neither are its former features recognized, nor is it known that this is the body of one man, that of another.

And this one might observe more precisely by peering into a tomb;

for all things alike become the spoil of corruption, and do not preserve their former features.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting and to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness upon children's children;

to such as keep His covenant, and remember His commandments to do them. Nature, then, is thus perishable;

but the divine lovingkindness grants a long age to live, and preserves even down to descendants the recompense of righteousness owed to their forefathers.

Thus to Jehu He preserved the kingdom down to the fourth generation, even though he had not attained perfect piety, but had shown his zeal only at the beginning of his reign.

This mercy, he says, He will hold out to those who keep His covenant.

And not simply to those who remember His commandments, but to those who add deeds to words, and order their own life according to these.

The Lord hath prepared His throne in heaven, and His kingdom ruleth over all. This resembles what is said in another psalm:

He who dwelleth on high, and looketh upon the lowly things. For here too the prophetic word teaches us that the Lord of all has His throne in heaven, yet oversees and governs the creation, inasmuch as He is of all things the Creator, and King, and Master.

Bless the Lord, all ye His angels, mighty in strength, that do His word, hearkening unto the voice of His words. Fittingly did he call the invisible powers into fellowship of the hymnody.

For human nature does not suffice worthily to praise Thee, its Benefactor;

but the incorporeal and holy natures, having a life free from passions, are able to fulfil the divine commands.

Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure. Many and diverse are the ranks of the heavenly ones;

for there are Principalities and Powers, and Thrones, and Dominions, and Seraphim, and Cherubim, and other names unknown to us, as the divine Apostle says;

but the prophetic word comprehended them all under these two names.

For he called them 'angels,' as ministering to the divine commands and conveying the divine words across;

Bless the Lord, all ye His works, in every place of His dominion. This too does not befit the Jews.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? But to us the divine Apostle enjoins that in every place we pray, lifting up holy hands.

For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. – Bless the Lord, O my soul. The end is in harmony with the opening.