詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 36/42 段

but I have meditated on your law.' This resembles the prophetic saying, 'For the heart of this people has grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and they have closed their eyes.' It resembles too what is said in Exodus concerning Pharaoh, 'And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened.' Those men, then, he says, had their heart calloused, having themselves wrought hard what was soft in it, and, as it were, congealing it like milk and turning it to curd;

but I have cleaved fast to the meditation of your law.

'It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I might learn your ordinances.' The Prophet gives thanks, having come to know the health that came from the physician's more austere remedies.

'The law of your mouth is good to me, above thousands of gold and silver.' For even though I was driven out of the kingdom by my son, yet through the discipline I recovered your law, which I hold more precious than all wealth.

'Your hands have made me and fashioned me;

give me understanding, and I shall learn your commandments.' He calls the Maker to remembrance of His tender love for human nature.

For having fashioned all things by His word, He is Himself said to have moulded the nature of men, not using hands;

but rather showing the greater care He bestowed upon this work of His making.

He therefore supplicates the One who fashioned him to supply understanding to the thing He has made.

'Those who fear you will see me and be glad, because I have hoped in your words.' I shall become, he says, an occasion of gladness to the godly, having hoped in you and found an end befitting my hope.

'I know, O Lord, that your judgments are righteousness, and in truth you have humbled me.' These things he says with special emphasis, displaying his own right-mindedness.

I know, he says, with precision, that you condemned me rightly and justly, and surrounded me with calamities of every sort.

'But let your mercy, O Lord, be for my comfort.' Yet now is the time for lovingkindness and consolation.

'According to your word to your servant.' For to those who exercise repentance you have promised your favor.

This too He said through Isaiah:

'When you turn back and groan, then you shall be saved.' And through Jeremiah He cries: 'Return to me, and I will return to you.' (77)

'Let your compassions come to me, and I shall live;

for your law is my meditation.' He reckons himself as dead, being deprived of the divine favor;

for which reason he begs, as it were, to be brought back to life through the divine lovingkindness.

'Let the proud be ashamed, for they have unjustly dealt lawlessly against me;

but I will muse on your commandments.' He does not curse his enemies, but rather prays on their behalf;

for their shame works out salvation;

the healing, therefore, which he himself enjoyed, he deems them also worthy to obtain.

'Let those who fear you turn to me, and those who know your testimonies.' Being, on account of his sin, far removed from the chorus of the righteous, and all of them having turned away from him just as from God, he begs to be united to them again and to recover fellowship with them.

This Symmachus made plainer: 'Let those who fear you turn back to me.'

'Let my heart be blameless in your ordinances, that I be not ashamed.' He desires to have a heart free of every blemish.

For such a soul is set free from all shame.

'My soul faints for thy salvation, for I have hoped in thy words.' Those who yearn intensely for something and are deprived of what they long for are said to faint.

So it is with those who thirst exceedingly and are in want of water.

So it is with those who await one of their acquaintances returning from abroad: they yearn continually, and waste away with longing when their hope is disappointed.

So too those who wrestle with certain calamities and await the divine favour, seeing it delayed, grow faint.

'My eyes have failed for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?' The divine promise, and the God-inspired Scripture, are called an 'oracle' (word).

Therefore he faints not only who awaits the divine promise and looks for release from the evils that press upon him;

but also he who pores over the divine oracles and earnestly desires to grasp their meaning exactly, and reckons the finding of it to be comfort and refreshment for the soul.

'For I am become as a wineskin in the frost;

yet have I not forgotten thy statutes.' A wineskin, when warmed, grows slack, and when inflated swells up;

but in the frost it is hardened and stiffened.

So nature, in luxury, grows slack and swells up and rises in revolt against the soul;

but by ascetic hardship it is humbled and pressed down.

Of this Paul is a witness, crying out: 'But I buffet my body and bring it into bondage, lest by any means, having preached to others, I myself should be rejected.' And so the Prophet too, since while persecuted by Saul he was superior to the passions;

but when he enjoyed peace, he was harmed by the wanton frolics that come from luxury; then, by humbling the body, he renewed the remembrance of the divine laws.

'How many are the days of thy servant? When wilt thou execute judgment for me on them that persecute me?' Short, he says, is the span of human nature.

'For the days of our years in them are seventy years.'

When, then, wilt thou judge for me and deliver me from my foes? (85)

but he, obeying the divine law, awaited the divine verdict.

But for us also the teaching of these oracles is most profitable.

For it behoves us to flee not only the myths of the Greeks and the unbelief of the Jews, but also the blasphemous doctrines of the heretics.

'They have persecuted me unjustly; help thou me.'

[87] 'They had almost made an end of me upon the earth;

but I forsook not thy commandments.' Great, he says, is the injustice and the might of my foes;

for they well-nigh deprived me even of life itself.

'Quicken me according to thy mercy, and I will keep the testimonies of thy mouth.' He adorned his petition with humility.

For he did not ask for life as a recompense of his righteousness, but besought to receive it as a gift of mercy, promising to keep the testimonies of God.

For thy ordinance keeps the vaults of the heavens unmoved.

This too he said in the hundred and forty-eighth psalm:

'He hath established them for ever, and for ever and ever;

he hath made an ordinance, and it shall not pass away.' He hints at the same time that the hosts of the angels who dwell in heaven guard the divine law and are free from every transgression.

'Thy truth endureth to generation and generation.' For this truth thou didst preserve both for the generation of the Jews, and for the other that came after it;

and he means the people from among the nations, who through our Saviour Jesus Christ have obtained salvation.

'Thou hast founded the earth, and it abideth.'

[1] 'By thine ordinance the day continueth.' Thou didst give the earth its exceeding endurance, and it has remained as thou didst command;

thou didst separate the day from the night, and it proceeds according to thy laws.

'For all things are thy servants.' For all things serve thee and yield to thy nod;

'Unless thy law had been my meditation, then had I perished in mine affliction.' This every godly man might say when he has fallen into calamities;

as did Joseph, when he fled slavery, adultery, and false accusation;

and the victorious martyrs, who endured every kind of torment.

For he would have shared in the impiety, had he not carried about with him the meditation on the divine laws.

'I will never forget thy statutes, for by them thou hast quickened me.' For having learned by experience that thy statutes bring forth life,

I will preserve the remembrance of them unquenched.

'For I have sought out thy statutes.' Not all of us can use this utterance.

For he lies who, being a slave of sin, calls himself the servant of God;

for by whatever a man is overcome, to that also is he enslaved.

If, then, being freed from that servitude, we choose the divine laws, we can use this utterance.

'The sinners waited for me to destroy me, but I attended to thy testimonies.' 'They waited' — Symmachus and Theodotion rendered it 'they expected.'

They indeed hoped to hand me over to death;

but I, giving heed to thy testimonies, reaped from thence the fruit of life.

'I have seen the end of all perfection; thy commandment is exceeding broad.' But Symmachus renders it thus:

'I have seen the end of every structure; thy commandment is exceeding spacious.'

All human things, he says — wealth, and abundance, and dominion, and governorships, and generalships, tyrannies and kingdoms — have an end, and a swift end;

but thy commandment is broad and imperishable, and procures for those who keep it that boundless and eternal life, and good things that admit no change.

'O how I have loved thy law, O Lord! it is my meditation all the day.' Not everyone who fulfils the divine law fulfils it out of love, but some do so out of dread and fear of punishment, others hunting for the glory that comes from men.

But the genuine lovers of virtue press on to fulfil the divine ordinances out of their disposition toward what is good.

'Thou hast made me wiser than mine enemies by thy commandment, for it is mine for ever.' Having warmly confessed his love for the divine law, the Prophet ascribes the whole to divine grace.

For from thee, he says, having received wisdom and knowledge, I came to cherish thy law;

for thou gavest me more understanding than my enemies.

For I picture to myself the eternal gain of virtue.

'I have understood more than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation.'

'I have understood more than the elders, for I have sought out thy commandments.' It belongs to kings to teach, but to be taught belongs to subjects.

Saul reigned, and he was an elder also in years;

yet neither the power of the kingdom nor the years of his age made him wise; instead he desired to slay his benefactor.

'From every evil way I have restrained my feet, that I might keep thy words.' For it is not possible to travel two roads at once — of licentiousness and of self-control, of righteousness and of injustice;

but one must flee the contrary ways and travel the straight one;

for thus it is possible to become guardians of the divine words.

'I have not turned aside from thy judgments, for thou hast laid down the law for me.' For knowing thee to be the lawgiver of these things, I embraced them with all my heart.

'How sweet are thy oracles to my throat, above honey to my mouth!' For the sweetness of honey does not so gratify the sense of my mouth as the meditation on thy oracles gladdens my soul.

For he has set down the throat as being the organ of the voice.

When the soul makes use of these things, it reaps the benefit that comes from them.

'From Your commandments I have gained understanding.'

'Therefore I have hated every way of unrighteousness.' For having understood in what things You take pleasure, I turned away from every kind of wickedness.

'Your law is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths.' For I do not walk in darkness, being illumined, as by a lamp, by Your law.

One must know, however, that the law is called a lamp, while our Saviour and Lord is the Sun of righteousness.

For the one, being as it were a lamp, scarcely gave light to a single nation, whereas the other illumined the whole inhabited world.

Then afterwards the true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world, arose.

And He called the holy apostles 'light,' inasmuch as they had partaken of that Light and had illumined all men through their own teaching.

'I have sworn, and I have resolved, to keep the judgments of Your righteousness.' He called the firm decision of the soul an oath, since by an oath most matters are made secure.

...not merely to be humbled, but to be exceedingly humbled;

and this though he was a king and a prophet, possessing the boldness that comes from virtue, abounding in wealth, and prevailing over his enemies.

Yet neither in his wisdom, nor in his courage, nor in his righteousness did he ever presume to trust;

rather, he reckoned these things to be gifts of the divine grace.

And when he asks for life from the One able to give it, he does not ask indefinitely, but for the rational life, the life ordered by law, the life made resplendent by the divine law.

'Accept, I pray, O Lord, the freewill offerings of my mouth, and teach me Your judgments.' Most of the achievements of virtue the divine laws prescribe;

but some things one's own resolve adds besides.

So too among the sacrifices: some are of the law, others of one's own choice.

For those concerning sin, and trespass, and ignorance the law commanded to be offered, and these were paid to God as a kind of debt.

But those offered out of the generous eagerness of one's own resolve He named 'gifts.'

So too now, temperance and righteousness the evangelical words prescribe;

but virginity, and continence after marriage, and voluntary poverty, and the solitary life, and the way of life in the deserts are works of one's own resolve, going beyond the law.

Such things, then, the Prophet called 'freewill offerings.'

For the things that are not subject to the necessity of laws, but are the fruit of a God-loving resolve, are fittingly called freewill offerings.

'My soul is in Your hands continually, and I have not forgotten Your law.' For being guarded by Your providence, I have banished forgetfulness of Your laws.

'Sinners have set a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from Your commandments.' Many and manifold are the plots that both men and demons contrive against me;

but I chose to travel the unerring path of Your commandments.

'I have inherited Your testimonies for ever, because they are the gladness of my heart.' Believing Your testimonies to be an eternal and inviolable inheritance, I exult and rejoice at possessing them.

'I have inclined my heart to perform Your ordinances for ever, for a recompense.' The soul's faculty of deliberation resembles a balance;

and the mind, allotted to rule, holds the balance.

If, then, it inclines to godly reasonings, the scales must incline toward the better.

This the Prophet says he has done;

'I have inclined my heart to perform Your ordinances for ever, for a recompense.' For beholding the gain that springs from these things, I gladly undertook the toils on their behalf.

And teaching how he chose the things of God, he added:

'I have hated transgressors, but I have loved Your law.' For having shaken off the reasonings that counsel transgression, I have preferred Your law.

'You are my helper and my defender; in Your words have I hoped.' And this I accomplished not apart from Your help, but by enjoying Your support and being nourished by hope in You.

'Depart from me, you evildoers, and I will search out the commandments of my God.' These things, he says, I said also to the absurd reasonings, and to those who attempt to counsel base deeds: 'Suggest to me no such counsel;

for my life must be chosen according to the divine commandments.'

And I will not simply follow these, but will search them out with all exactness;

so that none of them may escape me, but I may fulfil all that the Lord of all has commanded.

'Uphold me according to Your word, and give me life, and do not put me to shame because of my expectation.' Since, then, I have this purpose, deem me worthy of Your providence, that I may not fail of my hope and be filled with shame;

and here 'word' means the promise, as if to say: 'Grant me the salvation that was promised to me.'

'Help me, and I shall be saved, and I will meditate on Your ordinances continually.' For indeed, even after attaining salvation, I will not neglect Your ordinances, but will make them my meditation continually.

And by 'meditation' he means not that in words only, but also that in deeds.

...their intent. And this zeal I will maintain concerning Your commandments, knowing that those who transgress them have become objects of reproach and derision.

'I have reckoned all the sinners of the earth as transgressors; therefore I have loved Your testimonies.' Instead of 'transgressors,' Theodotion said 'as nothing';

and the Prophet has made clear that he too, esteeming the transgressors as nothing in a manner like unto God, brought all his zeal to the fulfilment of the divine oracles;

inasmuch, indeed, as he knew the penalty of lawlessness.

'Nail down my flesh with the fear of You;

for I have been afraid because of Your judgments.' My soul, he says, is clothed round about with the fear of You.

But since the body rises up in revolt against the soul, and so do its members, I entreat that it be nailed down with this fear;

so that, having become dead to sin, they may follow the guidance of the soul.

This resembles that apostolic saying: 'Put to death your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.' And again: 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.'

'I have done judgment and righteousness; do not hand me over to those who wrong me.' Having chosen, he says, to follow Your laws, let me not become an easy prey to those who are hostile to me.

But who now possesses such purity of soul as to use such words with boldness? Yet to these the divine Apostle also spoke things closely akin: 'For this is our boasting, the testimony of our conscience.'

'Receive Your servant for good.' But Symmachus renders: 'Take me up for good, Your servant.'

And Aquila and Theodotion: 'Be surety';

that is to say: 'Speaking truly, I do not lie; believe Your servant who has made a promise; do You Yourself become the guarantor of my promise, that I will be zealous to fulfil Your laws.'

'Let not the arrogant slander me.' Slander is grievous, even if it brings a great reward.

By this even the admirable Joseph was assailed, and countless others as well.

And the Lord also exhorts us to pray that we may not enter into temptation.

Nothing unfitting, then, did the Prophet do in asking this request.

For injustice, when it has taken hold of power, works the greater outrage.

'My eyes have failed for Your salvation, and for the word of Your righteousness.' Here again he calls the promise 'word.'

And he set down 'have failed' to indicate the intensified longing.

'Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy, and teach me Your ordinances.' He who is a worker of such great virtue deems himself worthy to obtain mercy, and asks through this to enjoy salvation.

And he does not demand a wage, but asks for lovingkindness.

Being of this company, the Prophet names himself a servant, and entreats to be deemed worthy of understanding, so as to know the testimonies of God.

'It is time to act for the Lord; they have scattered Your law.' God, who governs all things by weight and measure, bears with the sins of men for a very long time;

but when He sees wickedness increased by reason of His long-suffering, then He brings on the punishment.

This, then, he says here also.

For utterly did the enemies trample down Thy law.

But as for me, I esteemed Thy commandments more worthy of love than gold and precious stones.

For among the precious stones is the topaz.

And by means of this one he intimated them all.

It is likely that at that time this stone was preferred above the others.

For longing produces eagerness;

and eagerness both disposed him to counsel the straight way and made him loathe the path of injustice.

Wonderful are Thy testimonies;

therefore my soul hath searched them out. He showed that not in vain did it love these things.

For they are worthy of admiration, he says, and able to enchant and to stir up to love those who are capable of beholding them.

And whence didst thou learn thoroughly the excellence of these things? (130).

The manifestation of Thy words will give light, and will make babes understand. Being illumined, he says, by Thy light, I received this knowledge;

and all those who are held fast by ignorance and resemble infants, Thy law fills with understanding.

I opened my mouth and drew in the Spirit, because I longed for Thy commandments. Here he calls the eagerness of the mind a 'mouth.'

For this draws in the grace of the Spirit.

Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it. And the divine Apostle also besought that a word might be given him in the opening of his mouth.

And the Prophet himself said in another psalm:

The Lord shall give a word to those who preach the good tidings with great power. This too he here declared: I opened my mouth and drew in the Spirit, because I longed for Thy commandments. For seeing me yearning for Thy commandments, Thou didst account me worthy of Thy grace.

Look upon me and have mercy on me, according to the judgment of those who love Thy name. He entreats to obtain the divine favour, not simply, but as Thou art wont, he says, to grant mercy to those who love Thee.

For this is what he meant by, According to the judgment of those who love Thy name; that is to say, I ask to enjoy the same verdict as these.

Direct my steps according to Thine oracle;

and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. For when we bring forth our eagerness beforehand, and God supplies the help and makes our course straight, then the tyranny of sin finds no place.

But he even charged us to pray that we enter not into temptation.

Thus the Prophet's prayer agrees with the evangelical laws.

Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant, and teach me Thy statutes. The Divine is indeed incorporeal, simple, and uncompounded.

But divine Scripture speaks of Him in a more corporeal and grosser manner, measuring its words to the nature of men.

Accordingly, by the shining forth of the divine face we must understand the loosing of griefs and the bestowal of good things.

Thou hast given a law also, and Thou dost solemnly warn transgressors what penalties they shall pay, and Thou dost promise good rewards to those who keep it, and Thou dost confirm the promises by deeds.

For this is what the phrase 'exceedingly true' signifies.

Thy zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten Thy words. The Prophet laments over those who live in lawlessness, and seeing the Lawgiver despised, he is justly indignant.

This zeal made Phinehas renowned.

This rendered the great Elijah celebrated in song.

Inflamed with this, the gloriously victorious Stephen convicted the unbelief of the Jews.

the city being full of idols.

but as for me, I have warm affection for this One.

I am young and despised, yet have I not forgotten Thy statutes. When God charged the divine Samuel to anoint as king one of the sons of Jesse, he rejected all the others, though adorned with strength, power, and bodily beauty; and he asked Jesse whether the young men were all present;

and when he said that a little lad remained, who was tending the flocks, and as one unsuited for kingship, the prophet commanded that he be brought, and when he came he anointed him at once.

It was this gift that the Prophet here called to mind, and he says:

Though I was young, and accounted of little worth by those who begot me, Thou didst deem me worthy of so great a grace, and didst make me at once both prophet and king;

wherefore with all eagerness I strive to keep Thy statutes.

Thy righteousness is righteousness for ever, and Thy law is truth. He who obeys human laws does not, even in the present life, enjoy honour from the lawgivers;

but he who follows the divine commandments has as the reward of his labours life eternal.

And human laws, moreover, do not by any means all possess justice;

but the law of God is made resplendent by truth.

Thy righteousness is righteousness for ever, and Thy law is truth. (143).

Tribulations and distresses have found me. For these are yoked together with the lovers of virtue.

Thy commandments are my meditation. For from the teaching of these I learn courage, and nobly bear grievous things.

Give me understanding, and I shall live. For being enlightened by Thee, I shall enjoy the true life.

I cried with my whole heart, hearken to me, O Lord; I will seek out Thy statutes. Again he calls the eagerness of the soul a 'cry';

therefore he added the phrase 'with my whole heart.'

Thus also Moses cried while keeping silence;

and to him as he prayed in his mind God said, Why criest thou to Me? (146).

I cried to Thee, save me, and I shall keep Thy testimonies. For receiving salvation from Thee, I shall become a keeper of Thy laws.

I forestalled the dawn in the untimely hour and cried out; in Thy words did I hope. Though the Prophet was a king, engulfed by countless cares, and beset besides with the struggles of war, he offered his supplications to God not only when the day was shining;

but even in the middle of the night, not waiting for the songs of the cocks.

So greatly did he long for God his Maker, so eagerly did he ask for the help that comes from thence.

Mine eyes forestalled the dawn, that I might meditate on Thine oracles. And not only in the season of sweet sleep, but also at daybreak, he made his meditation on the divine laws.

But we, living in poverty and freed from every care, spend the night tossing on our beds, and not even when day begins do we offer up our hymn to the Giver of good things.

Hear my voice, O Lord, according to Thy mercy; according to Thy judgment quicken me. He who abounds in so many good things deems himself worthy to obtain mercy, and he asks for mercy not indefinitely;

but according to the beneficial verdict.

They who persecute me with lawlessness have drawn near, but from Thy law are they far removed. For far from the divine laws are those who attempt to make war on the righteous man.

For he who rejects you, he says, rejects not you, but Him who sent you. And:

I will be an enemy to Thine enemies, and I will set myself against those who oppose Thee. (151).

Thou art near, O Lord, and all Thy ways are truth. Thou seest all things, he says, O Lord;

for Thou hast not withdrawn, but Thou fillest the whole world, and using truth Thou dost govern the creation.

This God Himself also says through the prophet:

we live, and move, and have our being. (152).

Of old have I known from Thy testimonies that Thou hast founded them for ever. He calls the heaven and the earth 'testimonies.'

Give heed, O heaven, and I will speak;

and let the earth hear the words from my mouth. And in these the providence of God is perpetually beheld.

For He governs all things with great order.

«From this,» he says, «I have known with certainty that Thou art near, and present to all that comes to pass, and that nothing of these matters escapes Thee.»

«Behold my humiliation, and deliver me, for I have not forgotten Thy law.» —«He that humbleth himself shall be exalted,» according to the word of the Lord.

«Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.» With this virtue also the divine Prophet adorned the others;

and putting this forward, he lays claim to the divine help.

«Salvation is far from sinners, for they have not sought out Thy statutes.» «They who live in lawlessness,» he says, «have deprived themselves of the salvation that comes from Thee, being unwilling to learn what Thou hast ordained them to do.»

«Great are Thy compassions, O Lord; quicken me according to Thy judgement.» Abundant is the wealth of Thy loving-kindness;

I ask for the salvation that comes from these.

«Many are they that persecute me and afflict me;»

«yet from Thy testimonies have I not swerved.» «Even when encompassed by many calamities,» he says, «I did not consent to transgress any of the things ordained by Thee.»

And that some things suit the sorrows that formerly came upon him from Saul,

while others suit those that came from Absalom.

These things, however, he plainly spoke while being persecuted by Saul.

For at that time he was untried by sin.