詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 33/42 段

For it was not that being lowly he was exalted, but that being most high, and subsisting in the form of God, he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant.

'The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' And the Lord himself says:

'I am in the Father, and the Father in me.' And elsewhere:

'Sit thou at my right hand'; for as God, he has eternal power.

'Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.' The enemies are especially the devil and his ministering demons, and besides these also those who resist his divine proclamations, both Jews and Greeks.

And the word 'until' does not signify a period of time, but is an idiom of the divine Scripture.

and it means that the being of God is not bounded together with the old age of men.

For if concerning heaven and earth the prophet says, 'They shall perish, but thou remainest'; and again:

This resembles that apostolic saying:

And how do the saints reign together, or with whom do they reign together, if he who promised the kingdom lays aside the kingdom? Therefore the word 'until' is not indicative of time, but is set down according to the idiom of the divine Scripture.

'The Lord shall send forth the rod of thy power out of Zion.' Now the rod out of Jesse came from Bethlehem;

for 'There shall come forth,' he says, 'a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall come up out of the root, and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him.' And what follows also declares the power of the rod, that is, of the saving cross.

but in Zion this rod was fixed.

'And rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.' For the heralds of the divine Gospels were not borne along with fair winds, but though besieged by Greeks and barbarians and flooded over by the torrents of impiety, they prevailed over their foes, converted the greater number, and led them like captives to the King, and prepared them to embrace his service.

'With thee is the rule in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints.' Thou hast a dominion that cannot be destroyed;

but especially wilt thou display this in the day of judgment, in which thou wilt make the saints resplendent and glorious.

For by 'the day of power' he called the second appearing of the Saviour, in which he shall come with the angels in the glory of the Father.

And then also the saints shall shine forth as the sun, according to the very word of the Lord.

'From the womb before the morning star I have begotten thee.' Here he revealed also the majesty of his Godhead.

And he who said to him, 'Lord':

'Sit thou at my right hand,' confesses the consubstantiality and proclaims the identity of nature.

'Before the morning star' shows that he is before all times and before the ages.

'From the womb' teaches the identity of essence.

For 'not from elsewhere,' he says, 'but from my own nature hast thou come to be';

the 'womb,' of course, being understood figuratively.

For just as men give birth from the womb, and the things born have the same nature as those who begot them;

so 'thou hast come to be from me, and thou displayest in thyself the essence of him who begot thee.'

'The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent.'

'Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.' The divine Apostle interpreted these words with precision in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and showed the endlessness of this high priesthood by the fact that the Levitical priesthood had received its promises without an oath, whereas this one was confirmed by an oath.

For this very reason he added the words 'will not repent';

since the God of all, having ordained many things on many occasions, permitted these to undergo changes.

Thus he both established the priesthood of the Jews and brought it to an end.

Thus He both established that kingdom and dissolved it.

Thus He permitted the kingdom of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Macedonians to come into being, and commanded that it be dissolved.

Yet, willing this priesthood to be everlasting, He says that He has sworn an oath that He will not repent.

But He has spoken these things after the manner of men.

For the Divine is untouched by passion, and repentance too is a passion.

Now Melchizedek was a priest not of the Jews, but of the nations.

When, having taken bread and given thanks, He broke it and said:

This is my body. Likewise also, having mixed the cup, He gave it to His disciples, saying:

For this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. And we find that Melchizedek was both a priest and a king;

for he was a type of the true Priest and King;

and he offered to God not irrational sacrificial victims, but bread and wine.

For these he also offered to Abraham, spiritually foreseeing in the loins of the patriarch the archetype of his own high priesthood.

The Levitical priesthood has ceased, and the blessing of the greater priesthood has passed over to the tribe of Judah.

And Christ, who according to the flesh sprang forth from Judah, now exercises the priesthood, not Himself offering anything, but being designated as the Head of those who offer.

For He calls the Church His body, and through her He exercises the priesthood as man, but receives the things offered as God.

And the Church offers the symbols of His body and of His blood, sanctifying the whole lump through the firstfruits.

The Lord at thy right hand hath crushed kings in the day of his wrath. And those who now resist and behave insolently, both rulers and kings, He will deliver up to punishment in the day of judgment.

And the phrase The Lord at thy right hand is like that in the fifteenth psalm, For I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand, that I be not moved. For there too he spoke this after the manner of men, and made plain the inseparability of the nature that had been united;

and here likewise he speaks in one and the same way both the things divine and the things human.

For the phrase Sit thou at my right hand is fitting to the human nature;

while the phrase From the womb before the morning star I begat thee is declarative of the Godhead;

and the phrase Thou art a priest for ever is again spoken as with respect to a man.

Likewise also the phrase The Lord at thy right hand means: Thou hast the united Godhead inseparably.

He shall judge among the nations, he shall fill up the ruins;

he shall crush the heads of many upon the earth. Here he indicated the judgment more clearly, and that in that day He will deliver over to all manner of torments those who have lived together in impiety;

and yet in the present life also He often subjected them to many chastisements, teaching those who were ignorant of His own power.

He shall drink of the brook by the way, therefore shall he lift up his head. He says: Having become man, He will make use of great lowliness, so as even to slake His thirst with the waters found along the way.

It is His custom to call His passion a cup;

for He said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; and He calls the Jews a brook, as those who had obtained divine grace, yet did not always enjoy it.

For just as a brook does not have a perpetual flow of waters, but is formed from the rains born of the clouds;

so the Jews had the grace of the Law only for a time, supplied as it were from certain clouds, namely the prophets.

But after these things, when the harvest appeared, according to the word of the Lord:

For lift up, He says, your eyes, and behold the fields, that they are white unto harvest. Then of necessity the brook remained bereft of its former abundance, and is seen dried up, deprived of all moisture.

Since therefore the Jews fashioned the cross, and the Lord calls His passion a cup, fittingly the prophet, foreseeing these things, said:

He shall drink of the brook by the way. And by way he means this life.

He humbled Himself unto death, even the death of the cross;

being lowly He was exalted, but being the Most High He humbled Himself;

and as man He received that which He did not possess.

The Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Idumeans, having gathered together a very great multitude, once long ago marched out against the tribe of Judah.

Thus, having learned of the multitude of the enemy, together with all the people he drew near to God, asking for the invincible help;

and indeed he received his request.

For the God of all charged them to take courage against the enemy, since He Himself was acting as their general.

So then, as day was beginning, the enemies were stirred up against one another, and destroyed themselves as though they were opponents, so that no one escaped that destruction.

When the army of the Jews beheld this from a certain watchtower, it ran as toward ready prey, and despoiled the enemies, and returned with great abundance of spoil.

And as the history of Chronicles teaches, with musical instruments they entered into the divine temple, hymning Him who was the Giver of the victory.

Foreseeing these things, the prophet composed this psalm, as a kind of hymn offered by the pious Jehoshaphat;

for the word Alleluia, as we have already interpreted, means in the Greek tongue Praise ye the Lord.

For Allelou signifies Praise ye, and ia signifies the Lord, or Him who is.

In the council of the upright and in the congregation. Not I alone, but together with me the assembly of the pious.

For at that time the people had been set free from the error of idols, since the king was educating all in piety.

So then he calls the company of the pious the council of the upright.

Great are the works of the Lord. For truly wonderful and worthy of admiration are the things wrought by His power.

Sought out unto all his desires. He does whatever He wills, and each of the things that come to pass is full of wisdom, and draws praise from all.

Confession and majesty are his work. All the things done by Him, both the creation and the dispensation, are magnificent and surpassing nature, and worthy of the hymnody of all men.

Here by confession he means thanksgiving.

And his righteousness endureth unto the age of the age. Nothing of the things that come to pass is unjust, but all are ordered by righteousness;

for using this throughout the age He governs the universe.

He hath made a memorial of his wonderful works. Since He manifestly wrought the destruction of the enemies.

And this very same thing He did also in the case of the forefathers, at one time overwhelming the Egyptians, at another striking down the Amalekites through the stretching out of the hands of Moses;

and destroying the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the other nations, through Joshua the son of Nun.

He called the punishment of the enemies a remembrance of the wonderful works;

Thy much-celebrated marvels, which are reckoned false among the unbelieving, thou hast shown to be true by the new marvel, and thou hast reminded us of the things thou didst work in the case of our forefathers.

The Lord is merciful and compassionate.

[5] He hath given food to them that fear him. The other translators rendered food as prey.

For indeed they ran as toward ready prey upon the wealth of the enemies, and from there procured food in abundance.

He will remember his covenant for ever. And Symmachus renders it thus:

He hath given prey to them that fear him, being mindful of his eternal covenant.

For He holds an unforgetting memory of the promises made to the fathers, and on account of them He imparts good things to us.

He hath declared to his people the power of his works;

He showed His power, having bestowed on us the wealth of the enemies.

For He not only freed us from the outrage inflicted by them, but also transferred their abundance into our own households.

The works of His hands are truth and judgement. He wrought these things not unjustly, but indeed with the fullest justice.

For having no charge to bring against us, they nevertheless attempted to destroy us utterly.

He therefore pronounced against them a verdict both true and just.

Faithful are all His commandments;

established for ever and ever, made in truth and uprightness. When God gave the law, He promised His own favour to those who keep the law.

This he says here also: that the promises concerning the keeping of the commandments are without falsehood, and that those who choose to fulfil them continually enjoy His providence.

For we too, having entreated Him sincerely, were shown to be stronger than our adversaries.

For this he made clear through what follows.

The Lord sent redemption to His people; He commanded His covenant for ever. For the promises of God possess not only freedom from falsehood, but also permanence.

Holy and awesome is His name. For to those who believe it is holy, thrice-longed-for, and the fountain welling up with the abundance of good things;

but those who disbelieve and live together with lawlessness, He chastises and punishes.

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. It is therefore necessary to fear Him and to tremble before Him.

For this is the first element of the divine teaching.

For by wisdom he does not mean eloquence, but the knowledge of divine things.

For beginners, then, fear is fitting;

but for the perfect, the possession of love.

Good understanding is to all that do it. For knowledge alone does not suffice for perfection; rather, contemplation has need of practice, and it is fitting that he who has been counted worthy of divine understanding should adorn his knowledge with works, and through these serve the Giver of understanding.

His praise abides for ever and ever. Consequently he added this also, teaching that the lover of virtue procures for himself the gain that comes from it.

For God, even if no one wishes to hymn Him, has His hymn eternal and unceasing.

This psalm, they say, was written among the Hebrews according to the alphabet, and composed following the sequence of the letters.

And the one after it is likewise composed.

The inscription calls this psalm also a hymn;

and it offers instruction in godliness to those who are willing.

Blessed is the man that fears the Lord; he shall delight greatly in His commandments. He who is adorned with this reverence, and clothed with the divine fear, directs all his purpose toward the fulfilment of the divine oracles, and hastens with all eagerness to accomplish them.

Then he shows the fruit of such seeds.

The generation of the upright shall be blessed. For those who are careful of equity and righteousness shall reap the fruits of the divine blessing.

Acquire neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your belts, no bag for the road, no sandals, nor staff. And again:

Unless a man renounce all that he possesses, he cannot be My disciple.

If you would be perfect, sell your possessions and give to the poor. Yet nevertheless, while giving these commands, He both promises and grants the former things to the imperfect.

Thus to the sons of Israel He gave as a gift the wealth of the Egyptians.

And his righteousness abides for ever and ever. For the God of all keeps a memory that never forgets, and preserves the renown of such a man in perpetual remembrance.

He has caused light to spring up in darkness for the nations. By darkness he sometimes names ignorance, sometimes calamities; and by light likewise he now designates knowledge, now the deliverance from evils.

He says, therefore, that both to those who are ignorant He will point out the truth, and in the assault of grievous things He will extend His own succour.

Thus He snatched Joseph from the murderous intent of his brothers; thus He showed him to be stronger than the false accusation;

thus, when Sarah had been carried off, He extended His own aid to Abraham;

thus He terrified Laban, and showed the one who fled to be mightier than his pursuer.

This too, then, is a proof of the divine power: to permit grievous things to assail the righteous for the sake of their training, but to dissolve their cloud, and to bestow a pure and clear sky.

Merciful, and compassionate, and righteous. These things He administers, employing righteousness, and mercy, and goodness.

For He cares for men as a lover of mankind; but wishing to crown the righteous, He permits their contests, and dissolves them as quickly as possible on account of His immeasurable goodness.

A good man is he who pities and lends;

he will order his words with judgement. But Symmachus renders it thus:

Good, gracious, and lending, ordering his affairs with judgement.

For he who imitates his own Master generously serves his fellow-servants;

and such a one does nothing indiscriminately, but employing right reason, he adorns both his words and his deeds.

For he shall not be moved for ever. For such a man has a steadfast mind, admitting no change amid the difficulties of the times.

The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. Such a one shall be much spoken of, and celebrated by all, and shall leave behind a renown ever to be remembered.

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. He will fear neither threats, nor reports capable of instilling dread.

His heart is ready to hope in the Lord. But Symmachus again rendered ready as steadfast.

He has, he says, a firm and steadfast hope in God, and on this account despises such tumults.

His heart is established; he shall not be afraid, until he looks upon his enemies. For not only does he not fear his adversaries, but on account of his hope in God he awaits even their defeat.

He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor;

his righteousness abides for ever and ever. Each of these things offers instruction in virtue to those who are willing.

He says that the one who is adorned with reverence and the divine fear does not simply extend mercy to those in need, but does this with great generosity, and imitates those who sow their seed unsparingly and scatter it abroad in hope of the sheaves.

For in like manner this man too awaits the gain that comes from righteousness.

His horn shall be exalted in glory. He calls strength a horn, by a metaphor from animals armed with horns, which with these ward off their assailants.

He says, therefore, that he who has acquired the wealth of virtue shall be both powerful and conspicuous.

The sinner shall see it and be angry; he shall gnash his teeth and pine away; the desire of the sinner shall perish. But those who choose to live with wickedness, seeing the eminence of the righteous, shall pine away with envy, and shall contrive schemes of murder;

yet they shall fail in their counsels, and shall not enjoy their desire.

For this desire is unjust and exceedingly hateful to God.

This too is another hymn, composed for benefit, and rousing men to the singing of hymns to their Benefactor.

Here by 'servants' he means not the young, as some supposed, but the slaves.

For thus also Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion rendered it;

and the word 'praise' the Hebrew rendered 'Alleluia';

so that it is evident that 'Alleluia' is interpreted 'Praise the Lord'.

[v. 2] Blessed be the name of the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore. It is fitting, he says, that you, being servants and having received your being from God, should hymn His name, even though you are ignorant of His nature.

For it possesses its blessing and its praise without beginning and unconquerable.

For the phrase 'from everlasting and to everlasting' signifies this.

From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised. The psalm foretold the knowledge of God bestowed upon the nations after the incarnation of the Only-begotten.

For of old the God of all was not hymned even by all the Jews, but only by the few who lived in godliness;

But after the birth from the Virgin and the saving Passion, the voice of the heralds of the truth went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world; and the whole earth was filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as many waters cover the seas.

This too the God of all things declared through another prophet:

I have no pleasure in you, and I will not accept a sacrifice from your hands; for from the rising of the sun even to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice. And in harmony with these words the spiritual melody also prophesies:

The Lord is high above all nations; his glory is above the heavens. For all the nations have learned that he is Most High, and God, and Maker of all things, and hymned by the heavenly angels.

Who is like the Lord our God? Often does the divine Scripture say this.

For the blessed Moses also says this:

He who dwells in the heights, and looks upon the lowly things in heaven and on earth. For though he is thought to abide in the heavens, he oversees all things together, and leaves nothing that exists uncared for.

He who raises up the poor man from the earth, and lifts up the needy from the dunghill,

to seat him with rulers, with the rulers of his people. This the blessed Hannah also said, weaving her hymn of thanksgiving to God.

And we see these things continually being done by the God of all.

Thus he seated Joseph, who had fallen into slavery, upon the royal throne;

thus he made Moses, who had become a shepherd, into a leader of the people, and appointed him a god to Pharaoh;

thus the nations, which served the poverty of impiety and sat upon the dung of sin, he deemed worthy of the good things granted to Israel;

thus he took up human nature, which had fallen into the very abyss of death, and raised it up, and set it above every rule and authority and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.

He who settles the barren woman in a house as a mother rejoicing over children. And this likewise one may see happening among men.

For Sarah, and Rebecca, and Rachel, and Hannah, and the mother of Samson, and Elizabeth, being barren, he made mothers of children.

But more properly and more truly this may be seen in the case of the Church;

... rejoicing over innumerable children, according to the prophecy which says:

Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who do not travail; for many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has a husband. INTERPRETATION.

This too is a hymn, recounting the benefits bestowed by God upon the Jews, and narrating the power of God, and mocking the weakness of the idols.

This hymn also fits those from among the nations who have believed and been delivered from the error of idols;

for they learn how great is the difference between those things which do not exist and the God who is.

When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarian people.

For he called this one 'sanctuary'.

The sea saw it and fled; the Jordan was turned back.

The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock. He personifies the things spoken of, and by his words invests inanimate things with perception, proclaiming the power of God.

For when you, he says, led your people, the sea in fear withdrew on this side and that, and afforded an unhindered passage.

And the river drew back, and checked the rush of its own streams, like some rational being picturing your power in the ark;

and he means Mount Sinai and Horeb.

For upon those God made his own manifestation.

Then he also puts a question to the aforesaid things:

What ails you, O sea, that you fled? and you, O Jordan, that you turned back? You mountains, that you skipped like rams, and you hills, like lambs of the flock? And since those things were without reason and without life, he himself makes the answer on their behalf.

At the presence of the Lord the earth was shaken, at the presence of the God of Jacob.

Who turned the rock into pools of water, and the flint into fountains of water. Each of these things, he says, came to pass because of the Lord who appeared.

This is the cause of the earth's quaking and the dividing of the sea.

For he himself flooded even the barren rock, which was deprived of all moisture and would not even yield to cutting because of its hardness, with an outpouring of waters, commanding fountains to be sent forth thence in abundance.

Nothing therefore, he says, wondrous has come to pass.

For the Maker commanded, and the deep was divided, and the flinty rock gushed forth, heaven supplied manna, the winds gathered together the quail, and all the other things came to pass at his nod.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.

For the sake of your mercy and your truth, lest the nations should say:

Where is their God? These things it was fitting for those of the circumcision to say of old, when asking for the divine help and calling to mind the former gifts;

for those who are ignorant of the justice of the punishment will suppose our slavery to be your weakness, and will say:

Where is their God? (11)

But our God is in heaven and on earth; all things whatsoever he willed he has done. And they say, Where is their God? But we know that you are God, the Maker of all, having heaven as your dwelling, and having power commensurate with your will.

Then by way of comparison he makes his refutation of the idols.

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. For you indeed do whatever you will;

but the idols worshipped by the nations do not create, but are created, and derive their value from their material;

For silversmiths and goldsmiths fashion these things, and painters too.

From material, then, and from craft they collect their composition.

Then at greater length he dramatizes their weakness, saying:

They have a mouth, but they will not speak;

they have eyes, but they will not see.

They have ears, but they will not hear;

they have noses, but they will not smell.

They have hands, but they will not feel;

they have feet, but they will not walk. Of the organs of sense

he says, they wear the images, but are deprived of the function.

They are therefore more worthless not only than those who make them, but even than the smallest creatures;

for flies, and gnats, and things smaller than these, have the function of the sense-organs;

for they see and hear, and fly, and walk;

but these things, though worshipped as gods, do not have even the function of those few and tiny creatures.

They will not utter a sound in their throat. For since the demons who work through them, and employ false divinations, offered these not through the lifeless idols but through rational men, or signified certain things by means of certain tokens, he rightly said:

They will not utter a sound in their throat. For the idols are altogether motionless and lifeless.

Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them. But let both those who worship them and those who fashion them be made like them.

For those who have been honoured with reason, yet have fallen into such great irrationality, it is just that they should take on the insensibility of the things they worship.

The house of Israel hoped in the Lord;

he is their help and their defender.

The house of Aaron hoped in the Lord;

he is their help and their defender. Those men reaped loss, and not gain, from the worship of these idols;

but the house of Israel, having obtained its hope in the God who is, enjoys his providence continually.

He made mention of them according to their distinct order, thereby honoring the priesthood and teaching the people of that time how great is the difference between the priests and the rest.

'You who fear the Lord have hoped in the Lord;'

'He is their helper and their shield.' This is yet another rank, distinct from those mentioned before.