詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 6/42 段

The commandment enlightens the visual faculty of the understanding, teaching what serves the God of all;

while reverence and the fear of God, laying down the keeping of these things, procure the enjoyment of eternal good things.

And with good reason he called the fear of God pure, that is, clean of all blame;

since human fear is blameworthy and bears the name of cowardice;

and he named the judgments true and justified;

inasmuch as they bring upon men both rewards and punishments that are just.

These things, then, he said were more precious than gold and precious stones, and sweeter than honey;

but not to all men, rather to those who are truly men, whose life is not likened to the irrational beasts, according to the utterance of the Prophet himself.

'For your servant also keeps them.' For what gain?—teach us more plainly;

'In keeping them there is great reward.' A most abundant recompense, he says, is set before those who choose to keep these things.

And since he had spoken of keeping the judgments of God, taking into account human weakness and reckoning the immense weight of that word, he immediately added:

'Who shall understand his transgressions? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.' For even though I should wish with much zeal to keep the commandments of God, by my natural weakness I am dragged down against my will into many things.

And even if I escape the witness of deeds, my very thoughts fill me with every kind of defilement.

'Cleanse me from my hidden faults.' [14]

'And spare thy servant from those of strangers.' For not only do my own thoughts encircle me, but the throng of demons also besieges me.

Some lay their snares from without, while others work with them from within.

He fittingly called them 'strangers,' as being hostile and warlike, and having utterly renounced all kinship with us.

'If they shall not have dominion over me, then shall I be blameless, and I shall be cleansed from great sin.'

and I shall be cleansed from great sin.

[15] 'And the words of my mouth shall be for good pleasure, and the meditation of my heart shall be before thee continually.' I long to enjoy thy help,

so that, escaping their designs, I may present to thee a soul free from every blemish;

and having received from thee pardon for my former stumblings, may offer thee eternal hymnody, making continual meditation upon thy oracles.

by which those who believe receive the remission of their former stumblings;

and having sufficient help for the time to come, they overcome both the passions that rise up against them and the plotting, wicked spirits.

'O Lord, my helper and my redeemer.' Having set at the very end a conclusion befitting the psalm, he called him 'Lord' as maker and creator;

and 'redeemer,' as one who, through the regeneration of the all-holy baptism, frees us from our former corruption and redeems us from the slavery of the demons, and bestows incorruption and immortality.

And the psalm contains both these things and those: the first parts teach the creation and providence;

the last parts, grace.

For 'Who,' he says, 'shall understand his transgressions? And cleanse me from my hidden faults, O Lord, and spare thy servant from those of strangers'; and, 'O Lord, my helper and my redeemer.' And the dispenser of these good things is the new covenant.

The blessed Hezekiah, a man adorned with all piety, having received that letter and taking the prophet Isaiah as his advocate, ran into the divine temple, and unrolling the letter, displayed it before God, informing him of the impiety of the enemies, and beseeching him, on account of the blasphemy that had been uttered, to show the Assyrians his own might.

'The Lord hear thee in the day of affliction;

the name of the God of Jacob defend thee.'

'May he send thee help from the sanctuary, and from Zion succour thee.' For since the admirable Hezekiah ran into the divine temple holding the blasphemous letter, they entreat that his supplication be received and that he obtain help from thence.

Here he called the temple 'the sanctuary.'

'The Lord remember all thy sacrifice,

and make fat thy whole burnt offering.' Since even in the time of peace he was diligent in the divine worship, they fittingly say these things concerning him, entreating the God of all to look upon the king's piety.

For the phrase 'Make fat thy whole burnt offering' Symmachus rendered thus: 'And make thy oblation more abundant';

that is, granting the security that comes from peace, may he afford thee opportunity to propitiate him with more sacrifices.

'and fulfil all thy counsel.' We entreat the righteous judge, he says, to give a recompense corresponding to the purity of thy soul.

'We will rejoice in thy salvation,

and in the name of the Lord our God we shall be magnified.'

'The Lord fulfil all the petitions of thy heart.' For when thou receivest thy requests, we too shall share in the gladness, becoming conspicuous and renowned by the power of God.

'Now I know that the Lord has saved his anointed;'

and while offering his supplications in the temple below, he receives help from above.

For since he showed him praying below, he shows him being helped from above;

'in the mighty acts of the salvation of his right hand.' For the power of his right hand, which he stretches out to those who draw near, is the greatest of salvation.

'Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;

but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God.'

'They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and set upright.' Those, he says, trusting in horses and chariots gained no benefit from thence;

but being invisibly tripped up, they fell down;

while we, having called upon the divine alliance, have manifestly obtained salvation, and as though our enemies had collapsed in fear, we were shown superior to our foes.

'O Lord, save the king;'

And having learned through the prophet Isaiah that he would die, having appeased God with hot tears, he received deliverance from the sickness, and obtained the promise of fifteen years of life.

'O Lord, in thy strength the king shall be glad;

and in thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly.'

'Thou hast given him the desire of his heart;

and hast not withheld from him all his requests;'

rather, thou hast bestowed gifts greater than his requests.

'For thou hast prevented him with the blessings of goodness;

thou hast set upon his head a crown of precious stone.' For thou gavest him the kingdom without his asking;

and out of thine own bounty didst adorn his head with the royal crown.

'He asked life of thee, and thou gavest him length of days for ever and ever.' He received, he says, what he supplicated for, and obtained the life which he longed for.

For the phrase 'for ever and ever' also indicates the life to come, [that which is prepared for the saints,] which possesses imperishability.

'Great is his glory in thy salvation;

glory and majesty shalt thou lay upon him.' For thou hast not only granted him salvation, but hast also made him conspicuous and exalted and renowned, both by the extraordinary death of the enemies and by the sun's running the contrary course.

the king sent gifts to those who of old had offered gifts to the Assyrians.

For he supposed that it was for Hezekiah's sake that the sun had done or suffered this, taking the death of the Assyrians as proof.

'For thou wilt give him blessing for ever and ever; thou wilt gladden him with joy in the presence of thy countenance.' And in all generations, he says, he shall be celebrated and much spoken of, having obtained such great confidence before thee.

For the phrase 'in the presence of thy countenance' Symmachus rendered 'beside thy countenance.'

He shall therefore have gladness, he says, and perpetual delight, obtaining thy countenance, that is, thy favour.

And the cause of these things for him was his trusting in thee.

'For the king hopes in the Lord, and in the mercy of the Most High he shall not be shaken.' He is stronger than those who war against him, enjoying thy grace;

and he enjoys this, trusting in no man, but in thy hope.

'Let thy hand be found by all thine enemies;

let thy right hand find out all that hate thee.' This Symmachus stated more clearly:

'Thy hand shall seize all thine enemies;

thy right hand shall find out all that hate thee.'

And what has been said follows on in the sequence.

For not in vain has the king put his trust in thy hope;

But knowing that your right hand is mightier than all your enemies, and that it will overtake even the swiftest and be able to bring down even the strongest,

'For you shall make them as an oven of fire in the time of your presence.'

'The Lord in his wrath shall trouble them, and fire shall devour them.'

'Their fruit shall you destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the sons of men.' It is a most easy thing for you, he says, to kindle them like an oven and to consume them like readily combustible fuel in the fire;

and not them alone, but their offspring as well;

for these he called both 'seed' and 'fruit';

so that all memory of them might be blotted out.

The phrase 'in the time of your presence' stands for 'in the time of your wrath', when you shall judge this fitting to come to pass, and shall deem the time of retribution suitable.

'For they inclined evils against you.' Since they moved their tongue against you and made use of blasphemous words —

but Symmachus put it thus: 'They devised impossible schemes.' By this he foretells the blasphemous utterances of the Assyrian;

'Let not the God in whom you trust deceive you, saying that he will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand.' It is concerning these words that he speaks, that 'they devised impossible schemes';

or 'they devised counsels that can in no way stand';

expecting that they would prevail over the true God just as over the idols.

'For you shall make them turn their back.' But Symmachus thus:

'For you shall make them fugitives.' For those who escape the stroke of the angel, you shall turn to flight and compel to show their backs;

so that departing they may proclaim the things that have come to pass.

These things the prophet set down in prophetic fashion, as things not yet come to pass.

'Among your remnants you shall prepare their face.' Some have said that this involves a hyperbaton, and have understood it thus:

'Among their remnants you shall prepare your face', that is, 'Upon those who are left and who have escaped you shall bring the retribution';

and those who flee, who have turned their backs and think they have escaped death, you are able to turn about, to make stand, and to punish.

'Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength;'

'we will sing and make melody of your mighty deeds.' God is not exalted as though he were lowly, nor does he take on what he does not possess;

And the superscription also makes this plain.

['For it is 'unto the end, concerning the morning help';'

the phrase 'unto the end' is set there so that you may consider the dispensation wrought by him at the consummation of the ages.'] For the 'morning help' is the manifestation of our Savior, which shone like the dawn upon those sitting in darkness.

The rising light produces the dawn, and when it appears the darkness is dissolved, [and the diabolical mist.

For wickedness in many places of Scripture is understood enigmatically by means of darkness.

But some say that the 'morning help' means the time of the Savior's resurrection.] Concerning him, then, the psalm was spoken.

For one ought rather to believe the holy apostles, and the Savior himself who plainly makes use of the psalm's opening, than those who attempt to misinterpret it.

'O God, my God, attend to me;'

By 'forsaking', then, he calls not the separation of the united Godhead, as some have supposed, but the permission granted for the passion.

For the Godhead was present even while the form of the servant was suffering, and permitted it to suffer, contriving salvation for the whole nature.

Yet the Godhead itself received no suffering from thence;

'Far from my salvation are the words of my transgressions.' It should be known that none of the other translators mentioned 'transgressions';

but Aquila has 'of my roaring', Symmachus 'of my lamentations', and Theodotion 'of my crying out'.

But lest we seem, in making use of the other translators here, to be craftily refuting those who have interpreted the psalm otherwise, we shall employ the interpretation of the Seventy.

For attending to this very reading, those men too denied that the psalm was fitting for the Lord.

'For how,' he says, 'was it possible for one who had not sinned to say, ''Far from my salvation are the words of my transgressions''?' Let them, then, hear John the great crying out:

'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.' And the divine Paul saying:

'Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.' And again:

'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf.' Therefore, just as being a fountain of righteousness he took up our sin, and being an ocean of blessing he received the curse lying upon us, and endured the cross, despising the shame,

so also he made the words on our behalf his own.

For if he willingly underwent the chastisement appointed for you —

'For the chastisement of our peace was upon him,' as the prophet says —

much more did he make use of the words on our behalf, in our stead, and cries out, 'Far from my salvation are the words of my transgressions.' Look not, he says, upon the failings of the nature;

but grant salvation on account of my sufferings.

And since, ordering the passion after a human manner, he often prayed at the time of the passion —

saying, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me'; and in his distress he said —

fittingly the psalm also, foretelling these things, said:

'O my God, I will cry by day to you, and you will not hear, and by night, and it is not for folly in me.' Or according to the others, 'and by night, and there is no silence.'

'By night,' he says, 'and by day I cry continually and do not endure to be silent, yet you have not heard, but have delivered me over to the passion;'

'yet nevertheless I know the mystery of the dispensation.'

For this was what the phrase 'it is not for folly in me' indicated. 'For I have understood that not in vain did you defer the granting of the request, but were dispensing some great and saving thing out of the passion.'

'But you dwell in the holy place, the praise of Israel.' And what is most marvelous of all, he says, is that while you dwell in this holy body, the passion is being wrought.

He names him 'the praise of Israel', as being praised and hymned by his own worshippers;

for in place of 'praise' the other interpreters have put 'hymn'.

'They hoped, and you delivered them.'

['.' They cried out to you, and were saved;

'they hoped in you, and were not put to shame.' 'And yet,' he says, 'I know full well that all our fathers, taking courage in your help, were not disappointed in their hope;'

'and calling upon you for aid, they enjoyed your providence.'

'But I am a worm, and not a man;'

'a reproach of men, and despised of the people.' 'But I,' he says, 'after the manner of a worm, was seen to be lowly and became an object of mockery.'

Some have said that by the 'worm' the birth from the Virgin is also indicated;

for this creature does not derive its being from sexual union.

But I think that by the 'worm' here only lowliness is indicated, judging from what follows, for he says:

'All who behold me have mocked me;'

'they spoke with their lips, they shook their head.'

'He hoped in the Lord; let him deliver him;'

'let him save him, since he delights in him.' And these things are set down in the holy Gospels;

'For many,' he says, 'shaking their heads, said:'

'He saved others; himself he cannot save.' And one of the two thieves said:

'If thou be the Son of God, save thyself and us.' And indeed also this saying:

'He hoped in the Lord; let him deliver him, let him save him, for he desireth him' — one may find fulfilled in the holy Gospels.

'For thou art he that drew me out of the womb.'

'Thou art my hope from my mother's breasts.'

'I was cast upon thee from the womb.'

'From my mother's womb thou art my God.' These things too the blessed Isaiah foretold;

for having said that 'The virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,' he went on to add:

'Depart not from me, for affliction is near, for there is none to help me.' For at that time the band of the disciples had forsaken him;

then he foretells the kinds of affliction.

'Many bullocks have compassed me;'

'fat bulls have beset me round.'

'They opened their mouth against me, as a ravening and roaring lion.' By 'bulls' he means the priests and Scribes, who had been entrusted with the rule of the people and who employed great insolence;

and by 'bullocks,' those ranged under them;

and he calls them 'fat,' as having luxuriated in the good things provided by him.

For thus too the great Moses foretold:

'And Jacob ate, and was filled, and the beloved kicked; he grew fat, he grew thick, he was enlarged, and forsook the Lord that made him.' And indeed the blessed Hosea too likens him to a wanton heifer:

'For like a wanton heifer Ephraim hath run wild.' Thus he addressed the people:

'And thus also Ephraim,' he says, 'is a heifer taught to love strife' — that is, contentious and quarrelsome.

For by 'strife' he means not victory, but contentiousness.

And to show the humbling that would follow thereafter, he added:

'I will humble her proud neck, and lay upon it the yoke of servitude.'

'All my bones are poured out like water.' By 'bones' he means the holy apostles;

since he also calls the Church a body;

and the strength of the body is the bones;

for by these the loose and flowing part of the body is upheld;

and they were all scattered at the time of the Passion, divided this way and that like water.

'My heart is become like melting wax in the midst of my belly.'

[v. 15] 'My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my throat; and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.' And all these things came to pass at the time of the Passion.

For his heart, through fear, was dissolved as wax by fire, and his strength no longer displayed its former energy;

and indeed his tongue too remained motionless.

And the divinely-inspired evangelists teach us that, being often questioned, he answered nothing.

And after the Passion he was delivered also to the tomb, which he named 'the dust of death,' inasmuch as those who are buried are heaped over with earth.

'For many dogs have compassed me;'

'the assembly of the wicked hath beset me round.' After the Jews, he makes mention of the host from the Gentiles;

for to these the former delivered him up.

And fittingly he named the former 'bulls' and the latter 'dogs';

[for the former were under the yoke of the Law;

even though they openly transgressed the Law;

while the latter were unclean according to the Law.

Thus too the Lord named the Canaanite woman.] 'For it is not meet,' he says, 'to take the children's bread, and to cast it to the dogs.' Yet nevertheless after the Passion those who were once dogs passed over, through faith, into the rank of sons;

Concerning these the blessed Paul cries aloud:

'Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision.' The prophetic word, however, having called them dogs, said:

'The assembly of the wicked hath beset me round.' Then he recounts the things they dared to do.

'They pierced my hands and my feet.'

[v. 18] 'They numbered all my bones.' And this is plain and clear even to those who are exceedingly contentious.

For we hear in the holy Gospels the Lord himself saying to his holy disciples:

'Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.' And moreover he showed to Thomas the marks of the nails, and the wound from the spear.

And the phrase 'they numbered all my bones' signifies this: that 'they so stretched me out in nailing me, that it was easy for anyone who wished even to make out the number of the bones.'

'And they gazed and looked upon me,' meaning, jeering and laughing.

'But thou, O Lord, remove not thy help far from me;'

'attend to my succour.'

'Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only-begotten one from the hand of the dog.'

'Save me from the lion's mouth, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns.' 'Since,' he says, 'I have no human help, may I obtain thy succour, and be delivered both from these, and from him who works through these, coming upon me like a dog and a lion.'

for he calls 'lion' and 'dog' and 'unicorn' him who has the power of death, according to the word of the Apostle;

that is, the devil, who at the time of the Passion also came upon him like a wild beast, bringing on death.

This too the Lord said in the divine Gospels:

'Now is the judgment of this world;'

'now shall the prince of this world be cast out.' And again:

'having the blemishes of sin,' shamelessly and most unjustly delivered him to death;

but he endured the injustice, contriving to loose the death that is common to all.

'in the midst of the church will I praise thee.' And hence too it is plain that he uttered these things in his human capacity, inasmuch as he also endured in his human capacity the very things which he uttered.

For he calls those who have believed in him 'brethren.'

And they are brethren, as of a man.

For as God, he is Master and Lord;

but as man, he is also named brother.

For he is Only-begotten and Firstborn.

And the one term befits him as God and Lord;

[and the other as man.] For inasmuch as he is God, he alone is begotten, and is named Only-begotten;

but inasmuch as he is man, he is also called Firstborn.

The Apostle too is a witness, when he says:

That he might be the firstborn among many brethren. This, then, he says, having recounted these things to my brethren, through them I will praise Thee, preparing those men to weave this hymn:

then he fulfils the promise:

Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him;

all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him.

Let all the seed of Israel fear before Him. For since the Church is composed both of Gentiles and of Jews, He rouses both these and those to the hymn, naming the one group from the forefather, Jacob and Israel, and the other from virtue, as though virtue sufficed in place of lineage to adorn them.

In this way too it was customary to call 'Jews' those from among the Gentiles who came over to the Law;

and this the narrative of the Acts teaches us,

Men of Israel, and ye that among you fear God. – For He hath not despised nor abhorred the supplication of the poor man, neither hath He turned away His face from me; and when I cried unto Him, He heard me. Sing praise, he says, to Him who became the author of this salvation for you, who did not deign to overlook your most lowly nature, but hearkened, and through my resurrection wrought salvation for you. After this he intimates the equality which, as God, He has with the Father.

My praise shall be of Thee; in the great congregation I will confess unto Thee. For just as I make Thee manifest to men, so Thou also teachest all men to render unto me the same honour, now saying, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him; and now, I have both glorified Thee, and will glorify Thee again. Thus He revealed the knowledge concerning Him to Peter, thus to Paul, thus again through these men to mankind.

For by 'great congregation' He named that which extends to the ends of the earth.

I will pay my vows before them that fear Him. By 'vows' here he does not mean prayers, but promises.

For the Law too knows this distinction;

Thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord — that is to say, if thou promise something to God.

Since, then, above he promised to weave a hymn through those who believe in Him, here he teaches more clearly that he will set the completion upon the promises, so that through the very deeds those who meditate on the divine oracles may learn the truth of the words.

And since he made mention of the Church, of necessity he makes prophetic pronouncements concerning her, and foretells the calling of all the nations.

For he calls them 'poor,' inasmuch as of old they did not possess the riches of true religion, but were enslaved to the poverty of ignorance.

The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and they that seek the Lord shall praise Him. Not all — for not all obeyed the Gospel — but those who received the divine longing;

these, inasmuch as they hunger and thirst, he said would be filled, having enjoyed the immortal food;

and by 'divine food' we understand the spiritual teaching, and the mystical and immortal banquet, which those who have been initiated know.

Their hearts shall live for ever and ever. For even while still clothed in a corruptible body, being sustained in soul by the hope of the resurrection, they await the life eternal.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. Well has he set down 'shall remember';

for having received [His benefits], they forgot their Creator.

Yet all the ends of the earth — not one nation, nor two, but from all peoples throughout the inhabited world countless multitudes shall run [to Him], and shall eagerly receive the ray of the knowledge of God.

And all the families of the nations shall worship before Him. And teaching that the dominion belongs properly to God, and is not alien to Him, he has set down:

For the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is the ruler over the nations. For God is not the God of Jews only, as those men suppose, but the maker of the whole nature of mankind.

So also the Apostle said:

Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also;

seeing that God is one, who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. Verse 30.

All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and worshipped Him; all they that go down into the earth shall fall down before Him. For those who have eaten and been satisfied, giving thanks for the immortal food, shall worship as God Him who became the provider of these things.

And since in the preceding line he made mention only of 'the fat ones' — inasmuch as such they had become through that divine food — he fittingly said:

Before Him shall fall down all they that go down into the earth. For after the resurrection from the dead, some willingly, some unwillingly, some out of longing, some out of fear, shall offer this worship to God, according to that apostolic saying,

that At His name every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Verse 31.

For the nature that was assumed was united to the Godhead that assumed it, and has partaken of the same glory and honour.

He, then, foretold all these things,

all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;

and all the families of the nations shall worship before Him;

for He has filled all land and sea with the knowledge of God, and has persuaded those who were of old in error, and who offered worship to idols, to worship the God who is, instead of the things that are not.

But leaving aside the discourses against the Jews, let us proceed to the tasks before us, and to the interpretation of the remaining Psalms.