Fragments on the Psalms

Commentary on Psalms 7, 8, 15, 16§1

1Regarding Psalm 7:8, he says that when the judge has come, many assembled nations surround him, signifying the church; and the Lord says that nations shall be gathered to him, and after this has happened, the judge shall ascend to the height, handing over the kingdom.

Regarding Psalm 8:1, just as the Gospel signifies the gathering of fruits in their season, the Word indicates that the fruits are the works and thoughts of men; and according to Isaiah, he says, 'I come to gather their works and their thoughts.'

Regarding Psalm 8:5, the Maker of these great things, he says, cares for a man whose works are entirely small, and he says, 'I will make a memory of one fallen from you and I will visit one brought to sickness'; for his making is precious to you from the beginning, even though it diminished slightly from the angelic glory according to the earthly body. Glory surrounded him as one ruling upon the earth through the works made by you, and he holds all irrational nature to himself, not only the earth which is easily taken, but also the air and the water, each of which escapes human hands—the one because of its height and the other because of its depth and its passage through the waters; yet he is won by wisdom and mind, and the earthly man chooses the things in heaven and the waters; from these he shines forth according to the spiritual, surpassing the irrational and senseless nature of the animals, being a companion to the rational and angelic through the spiritual, though according to the body he is otherwise.

Regarding Psalm 15:4, he speaks of the way of the new piety, the bloodless one, and signifies the change in the Holy Spirit, by which we are no longer the former, not even by the same names, but sons of God rather than sons of men. Regarding Psalm 16:6, for having been heard before, he says, 'I pray to be heard by him now.' For Paul says they pray with thanksgiving; for the memory of former things prepares grace for those to come.

The work and the appearance of those who set themselves against him are revealed; one work is indeed a murderous plotting and flattering words toward an ambush, and they are extremely lean in body, surrounded by bones, looking askance with their eyes like a lion rushing toward a prey and sitting in ambush secretly (Ps 16:10-12). Such was Saul toward David, saying indeed that he had found favor in his eyes and was standing by, commanding and having him stand by, while he was weaving a plot and attempting to kill from an ambush.

A secret punishment has been prepared, he says, for them, which will fit inside their bellies, according to what is said against Judah: 'Let the curse enter into his entrails like water and like oil into his bones' (Ps 16:14c).

Again, he sets apart love toward God through love toward the temple dedicated to him (Ps 26:4). For he who loves God rejoices in the places dedicated to him, not enjoying the desire through the sight of these things (for it is small to be delighted by the works of hands), but just as someone sees a garment of his desire or a book poorly, being raised up through these toward the memory of that thing, so the lover of God is raised up toward God through the house and the vessel laid out for him. 'This one thing I sought, to dwell in the house of the Lord' (Ps 26:8), which Anna does, and to rejoice at the beauty of the building by looking at it. A house, however, has not yet been built for God. When David saw these things, he lifted the word up to the tabernacle and left it to those able to hear spiritually, to lift the word up to the spiritual house.

In such things the theology of the one God appears, containing the Trinity (Ps 32:6). First, God is theologized as Creator, and the creation is the energy of the Word and of the Spirit; and it is evident that the voices are human where mouth is mentioned, from which word and spirit follow, but otherwise they are understood concerning God according to...

The Trinity and Divine Providence§2

2The uncomposed and entirely incorporeal, that is, the Word being with God and the Spirit being, the one who is the Father's manifestationcording to this the Word is named), and the other being the reception of the Word as Spirit from the mouth. He speaks of heavens and powers of heavens, dividing the creation not by the Word for those, but by the Spirit for these (for the things working upon the Trinity are indivisible), but he expresses the same differently, just as in 'Jacob came into Egypt and Israel dwelt in the land of Ham' the entrance is as one to Jacob, but the dwelling is as another to Israel; for from parallel lines he shows the same, and this custom we can find in many things.

In Psalm 33:7 he says of himself, having been impoverished, having struggled in flight, having escaped this danger by the will of God, as he would not have been able to overcome the craft of madness except according to the will of God. In Psalm 33:9 he says, 'I have tasted the experience of things,' which also was present to him then. Therefore, what has happened to him according to the goodness of God—that he was not devoured being persecuted by a foreign king, but was saved from two most difficult and powerful wars—this he adds as a common thing for all, as happening not to him alone but also coming upon others, those who join themselves to God by hope toward God.

In this must the blessedness be, not in any other, which David says in 'Why do you love vanity and seek falsehood?' and 'Know that the Lord marveled at his holy one.' In Psalm 33:20 he commands to look toward the end and to be courageous in the deliverance from tribulations, not to make the beginning difficult for oneself when it happens to be being afflicted. For thus the soul must be prepared, not as if it would not suffer, but as if it would not be defeated by the labors.

To make a likeness to all mankind, he forms a word concerning God just as Isaiah, so that he may demonstrate to God the impossible thing as possible in him, worthy of fighting and arming himself with shield and spear and parrying the attacks of enemies with a middle wall.

And Isaiah shows this in Christ, coming from the punishment of the unrighteous, foreseeing himself clothed in the garment of the slaughter of the foreigners (Who is this coming from Edom, a garment of clothing from Bozrah, and the following things?;). Thus, what is divinely attributed to the Father is clearly both to be a Son and to be fulfilled toward a Son.

Regarding those unrighteous, it is thought they will become invisible, just as dust driven by the wind, and they will be cast out not by human hand—because the righteous suffer this more from the unrighteous—but this happens through angels, as the Lord says that the holy will go forth and choose from among the righteous the unrighteous and separate them. For now the discordant are mixed, but then they will be divided according to the changing manner, as it was said, and again according to what the Savior said, 'For many mansions are in my Father's house' (John 14:2).

The ways of the unrighteous, he says, are dark; they do not know how they advance (Ps 34:6). This is worthy of being fulfilled, praying that the work of the unrighteous be seized by darkness, just as it suited the darkness, and that they fall by slipping, since they walk a slippery path (for there is nothing supporting them in unrighteousness), and that they become invisible being pursued by angels, just as they themselves do against the righteous. He says, 'He flees to his own strength, which is God' (Ps 34:13), for someone seeks God through fastings and humiliations, turning the whole soul toward invocations of God instead of the indulgence of bodily pleasures, when they occupy the mind according to prayer and enter into the bosom of the soul.

For indeed the things arranged by God are certain and unshakeable, such as that said concerning Noah, that he would no longer bring the flood upon the destruction of animals, which happens according to the word concerning the forbearance of God (Ps 35:6). For indeed the certainty of the word is established through all things, being something great and manifest. So also whatever else has been arranged and established according to the justice and goodness of God, the remaining in eternity has something firm and unshakeable; such as 'I will by no means lie in the Holy One' in David (Ps 35:7). For even the unalterable gifts of God incline toward this. Again, the high mountain compares itself to righteousness (Ps 35:8). This carries a threat of recompense, because it is impossible for anything to happen that is not according to the just, since justice is the guarantor of what comes to pass; so even those now escaping the punitive recompenses, or those not obtaining recompenses at all, will certainly be brought in later; and this is unwavering.

Divine Provision and the End of the Wicked§3

3It is from God, just as Paul boldly said that God will award him the crown of righteousness on that day, the righteous judge. For abundant things toward life are supplied from God (Ps 35:10a), without which being supplied, life would be destroyed.

It is illuminated (Ps 35:10b), he says, by the light from heaven by the one having set the sun into the light of day; but these indeed are for common use by both the righteous and the unrighteous, upon which also the thing of philanthropy was marveled, not being separated from the ungrateful of the enjoyment of those from God, but the exceptional thing is already and specifically of the ones belonging to God.

He is exhorted to receive God by those being silent, not being troubled by the things present but hoping in the things coming according to the apostolic teaching: rejoicing in hope, enduring in affliction (Ps 36:7), and the thing of Jeremiah: the Good one to a man when he takes up a yoke in his youth. He shall sit alone and be silent, he will give the stumbling one a muzzle, he will be filled with reproaches. He commands to look far off and not to be astonished by the things present (Ps 36:12), and to foresee indeed the destruction of the wicked, but the dominion of the good; and these indeed also at the end, that is to say, in the coming age, since the present does not have the outcomes of these, but rather the things in the earth are prevailed upon by the wicked. Therefore also the whole, he says, the world lies in the wicked.

He says they move the wicked themselves according to themselves what is prepared against the righteous (Ps 36:13), as if someone having drawn a sword might be slain by it, and the plot would be in vain just as a bow is being broken by the hand of the archer. And upon David, and bodily this has been fulfilled, to strike David with his own sword which they drew against David. Such a praise from the prophecy (Ps 36:17): to flee indeed from evil, but to practice the deed of the good upon the hope of eternal quiet, and a calculation upon the matter that the Overseer is righteous and does not overstep the ones belonging to Him.

Comparing a body suffering much, he likens it to the many pains and much suffering of the Psalmist, just as it is also in Isaiah, where from the feet even to the head there is no wholeness in him, but only a wound and a bruise of the consuming wrath (Ps 37:4; Isa 1:6). These are therefore the signs of wrath, while sins are the pretext of wrath, so that the sufferings lead to the sensation of sins; and in this way they benefit souls, just as bodies are being moved from insensibility into sensation.

The departure of friends and the rising up of enemies is seen (Ps 37:12), which is also observed in the sufferings of the Savior: through the fear of the disciples being scattered, and through all the bitterness and malice of the wicked used against him, which also fulfilled the silence spoken of there. He says that, having the right to answer the slandering ones, but knowing that the word was not for benefit, he bore the false sayings without returning evil (Ps 37:14). He acted as one not hearing and as one not having the power to rebuke: for what would he have said or answered? For to those not listening, the word is useless, but to God who hears, it is useful.

Men would not say these things on behalf of themselves, but Christ, instead of men, to men—a righteous one suffering from the unrighteous, taking their injustice upon himself—would say: 'Wherefore hast thou forsaken me?' (Ps 37:22) and 'Do not forsake me' and 'Do not depart from me' (Ps 37:23), as if this were impossible for him. For he says, 'I am not alone, since my Father is with me.' He asks for the salvation of men as his own, having something in the petition appropriate to the mixture of divinity with the human (this was the passion inherent in the flesh), but also having the dignity of the resurrected nature, by which he fulfilled the requirements of the petition.

And hearing, he says, the bold and insulting words of the enemy, and seeing the authority of the words used by one who ought not even to speak, he was moved on behalf of the dishonored righteousness (Ps 38:4). He says that he has no worthy expectation in himself, but waits for God's and yours, enduring in the present pains in hope of future goods (Ps 38:8). He says that he bears insults now without answering, as if knowing that God intended to strip him with insults, just as David himself brought this upon himself, being insulted by Zemaiah, saying that the Lord had said that David should be cursed (Ps 38:9). He speaks of the eternal waiting of the righteous upon himself and the...

The Ascent from Hades and the Triad of Faith, Hope, and Love§4

4Supplications through which God will be heard to accomplish the ascent from Hades and the firm one toward eternal life, and the support in this life through joy, brightness, and hymns to God, such as it was in the Psalm 'I cried to you' (Ps 39:2), 'and heal me' (Ps 39:3), 'and you brought up my soul from Hades' (Ps 39:3), 'you saved me from those descending into the pit' (Ps 39:4), and the following: in which clearly the things of Adam are referred to himself. And saying that he brings the resurrection to completion, 'that my glory may sing to you and not be overcome' (Ps 39:4).

For regarding the salvation of all things, the actions of Christ are extended, neither having happened through him alone nor standing in him alone. Therefore Paul says, 'If the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised' (1 Cor 15:13). For if the end for the sake of which the resurrection of Christ was an event were not certain, then the mystery of death—the dissolution and the ascent of souls from Hades—would be fearful, even while the true hopes toward God exist; concerning this hope Paul speaks, joining to it faith and bringing forth love toward the one so greatly endowed with grace and extending the good things into eternity. 'These three remain,' he says, 'faith, hope, love' (1 Cor 13:13).

In this he says the blessed man makes hope in God and seeks the eternal things, not being enticed by those things appearing to be for a short time, nor deviating into a falsehood from the truly good. For everything that men think to provide for themselves is a falsehood, but only that which is from God is true, which he indeed demonstrated through the whole economy of mankind, having first exposed all human things and then bringing forth the good from himself as complete.

Saying 'myself,' he reveals the Church, and he presents us, the suppliants, asking for mercy, so that we may remain in grace; and the petition for mercy is powerful, for it is said to go not toward men but toward him. For in this way we become those from God, because Christ is in our place, the one receiving the good toward us, just as he says, 'And I will make a covenant for you, just as my Father made for me' (Heb 13:20).

For no power exists for the salvation of Christ's church except that from God (Ps 39:14), since neither weapons, nor money, nor walls of enclosures, nor the holding of the earth, nor anything of this kind is among us, as it is among the Jews; so that a wonder, and nothing less than the other wonders, is that unarmed and unprepared men, being fought against by ten thousand nations, remain both staying and resting. Just as the wonder of the bush was that it was burning and not consumed, and this is an imprint of Christ, conquering through suffering. For the suffering church, not being destroyed, carries all within itself the examples of wisdom and the manifest signs of heavenly help.

To these ends, he says, the church shall proceed (Ps 39:18), having been impoverished before and having come through much poverty from the world, and having become rich by what is from You and having been glorified by the help from You which it asks not to be delayed. And because of the asking, it is not delayed, just as it is said, 'The one coming will come and will not delay' (Heb 10:37). This also is joined to the same hypothesis. For the face of the Savior, and the memory of the passion, and the foretaste of the resurrection, and of the return to heaven (Ps 40:1). Just now, therefore, it was saying, 'I am poor and needy' (Ps 40:1); it would follow as if it were being said by him as an exception into himself.

Even if, and that especially regarding all those in the world who are impoverished through righteousness, understanding is good (Ps 40:2), but understanding in the rich is to consider such needy ones as such; but the one truly rich is the one who, knowing and understanding us as poor, is truly blessed; for all blessedness follows the knowledge of God (Ps 40:2). Again, the one suffering on behalf of men says the sins of men's own selves, and he seeks the mercy upon us regarding these things on his own behalf (Ps 40:5), he who releases the contempt of those who are ignorant toward him, manifesting the glory, on himself according to his own power, but on us according to the grace of Christ (Ps 40:5).

This, he says, was through haste (Ps 40:6), previously in the thought of the invisible, and later in the thought of the visible Jews, to cast out the true king, having reckoned that he would come into possession of the inheritance that was not previously theirs; therefore they were also saying, 'Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours' (Ps 40:6). They hurry, he says, to kill the righteous man (Ps 40:9), not knowing that his death is a sleep, becoming toward a resurrection, and not a removal of life, but an introduction into a transition to heaven, according to the saying, 'Life was removed from the earth' (Ps 40:10).

The Betrayal and the Divine Form§5

5It will be, he says, the resurrection that dissolves the gathering of enemies against us and the betrayal of friends (Ps 40:10). For a disciple has already risen, deserving peace, being counted among those who believe and sharing food, but being a serpent, he was exposed, seeking to seize the wing. The Lord himself also remembered this, saying, as if something had been spoken concerning him, 'But that the scripture might be fulfilled, he who eats my bread has lifted up the wing against me' (Ps 40:11).

We hear of the purity from all evil being removed through Christ (Ps 40:13). The Creator sought this among men; since this has happened, the Maker is found worthy and remains in the good, because all the works of God are very good. He sought but found it in none of those from Adam, only in the one who is according to the flesh from Adam and whose similar transgressions were not demonstrated, but having the divine form remaining even within the fleshly envelope, as the heavenly voice testifies: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Matt 3:17). The abiding and confirmation before God is eternal, that which is in heaven, and which is foretold in the fifteenth Psalm after the resurrection: 'I will be filled with joy in your presence' (Ps 40:14). For he has ascended into heaven to be manifested to the face of God on our behalf, offering in himself that which was separated and alienated from the beginning.

From this, the prudent man understands what the inscription calls for (Ps 41:3): that man has become outside the face of God, so that he might seek the restoration toward the face of God. It is expected that he seeks the strong one, having fallen by weakness, according to: 'Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak' (Ps 41:4); therefore it is necessary to have fallen into the present weakness. For he who loves his own small strength is not sufficient, nor is he able to seek without being left by the true strength.

Regarding those who are forgotten, he says, Psalm 41:4 they consider entirely futile the return to God, the seeking of God, and they mock those doing this. Instead of the pleasant food, I went before to tears with unpleasantly bitter sorrow, according to that which is said in Lamentations, 'Feed me with ashes.' I am not released from desire because of the separation and the mockery, but I am grieved on behalf of righteousness which is being mocked. Therefore, the harassment and the insults of the wicked are necessary, since the tears resulting from these things are not harmful to the righteous. For upon these is the blessing: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted' Matthew 5:4. Thus, immediately, is that of the comfort.

Regarding Psalm 41:6, 'Let not the present things grieve you, O soul,' he says, 'neither let them trouble you, but let the hope toward God be a consolation, that we shall experience those good things worthy of thanksgiving and we shall have salvation in his appearance,' which according to Paul is the awaiting of the appearance of the Lord and his kingdom 1 Thessalonians 1:10. These indeed are the things concerning the things to come and the promises according to the law, being higher; and further than this is that which was said by Paul the prophet, that the better thing is to depart and to be with Christ Philippians 1:23; but what follows is the discourse of those still grieving.

The separation of the one desired holds the desiring soul in check Psalm 41:7. And he says that it is a separation from God, until one sees one's own origin, which is from the beginning; but still one dwells in the land of the Jordan, and the Mount Hermon is as a very small thing compared to that, and one is thundered by such as it were by the assaults of winds and waves, being struck by misfortunes that are brought upon one another.

He teaches the good things of the coming age Psalm 41:9, the good day in which God will set his mercy according to that which is said in Lamentations, 'Fill us with your morning mercy.' But the present, he says, is toward joy, when night and darkness are the communion with God through hymns and the departure through prayers. Psalm 41:10 The words of prayer are indeed said, and those of the prayer...

Psalms and Divine Remembrance§6

6In songs. Since it is necessary to offer prayer with thanksgiving, the song is set forth for prayer. For no one, being ungrateful toward those beside him, is strong in his future requests. And the request seeks divine remembrance from God. For he says, 'If I were not in memory, being beside you, I would have gone about in darkness and been crushed by the unrighteous.' It is clear, then, that forgetfulness of divine nature does not touch it, being a change of memory, because the divine is unchangeable. For this reason also he asks, 'Why have you forgotten me?' For no one says 'Why' concerning a passive suffering of forgetfulness, but he presents a voluntary forgetfulness, the thoughtlessness concerning man which is unworthy of the care toward God.

This psalm of the former is inseparable, not even to be divided by an inscription, possessing the same power of returning to God, adding also the guidance through the light that shone, saying, 'I have come as light into the world, so that everyone following me may not remain in darkness' (Ps 42:1), and by this illumination preparing consolation for the one grieving, just as he before him used to make consolation for the grieving by the expectation of what is to come. Since, therefore, the portion of the righteous is fought against according to nation and according to man, and they cannot find justice according to worth unless they receive the heavenly judge and protector, just like the justice toward the opponents which he is concerned with, judging all things justly. He also calls upon him just as one who does not judge from hearsay but brings forth the right from knowledge. For this reason he asks for escape from nation and from an unrighteous man.

He says this, having something not different toward strength, and he finds God, such as is also 'I will love you, O Lord, my strength' (Ps 42:2a); then he says also here concerning the resisting ones.

If it is from God to hold fast, it is said appropriately that not being held fast is the most sorrowful thing being from God for one who puts forward only this help, but so that 'Why?' is not as if God were doing something without cause or in vain (for this happens toward our struggle) but as if it were owing to have an end to the struggle through mercy and owing to give consolation to those who mourn, from the one comforting those who mourn (Ps 42:2).

For God has no reason to overlook the righteous, so why does the one seeking what is from God ask 'Why?' as if saying, 'It is fitting for You to take hold of Your own and not permit the adversaries to enjoy pleasure'? Why then is Your own not being fulfilled, but what is from us prevails, just as it is said, 'How long, Lord, will You forget me to the end?' (Ps 42:4c) and, 'What profit is there in my blood, in my descending into corruption?' (Ps 42:5). For if even for a certain time affliction is necessary, but not for everything, and if we ought to be treated well by them in our case, but rather to find the help of God's mercy, so as to yield a peaceful fruit to those trained by it through the God who is full of philanthropy.

Regarding the Lord, it is said entirely, 'Why do You abandon me?' (Ps 42:5) even when it is not worthy of Him to abandon; therefore the appearance of heavenly help is rapid concerning the body suffering for our sake. The brightness is shown by the addition to the lyre and the love in the twice-repeated calling. This remembrance is the consolation. For even if we are grieved by those present, he says, let us give thanks for those to come, and let the sorrow already be dismissed by those expecting God, the salvation of a man who is turning toward Him.

'Behold,' he says, 'we have a king, God, who provides for the salvation of our people (Ps 43:5), and we know that it will be Yours, and in Your will we will be courageous (Ps 43:6).' 'Behold,' he says, 'as a horn we have it for the defending against all enemies (Ps 43:6), and Your name, which is upon us, will give a blow to those rising up and to hold us, hoping (Ps 43:7).' 'For I do not prepare myself with bow and dart (Ps 43:7),' he says. For this reason I do not trust in weapons, since even for the fathers these were not sufficient, nor was the achievement completed according to the strength of these, but the work is beyond all human preparation.

He says the former teachings are toward the latter things happening (Ps 43:8). But we are being taught that from You our salvation from the adversaries has always come, and we have seen their power falling into shame. 'Because of this,' he says, 'once for all we cry out to You through all time and in Your name we bring up thanks by which we are saved (Ps 43:9),' just as it is said through Ezekiel, 'Not because of you do I perform the victory of Israel, but because of My name (Ps 43:10.11).' But the hopes, he says...

The Reversal of Israel's Fortune§7

7These things are certain and unshakeable, from which we shall not depart because of what has happened, even though these things happening are contrary to us now. For they say we have been left abandoned from you and, in our absence, the shame that once seized the wars stands against us, and we have become humbled by those whom we previously mastered, and we have been torn apart by those whom we used to tear apart. For in this, even more, the power that once belonged to the Israelites is demonstrated by God, through which, being left behind, they are defeated; just as for man, to be left behind has become the occasion of death, demonstrating that the resurrection comes from God in no other way.

We were seized by cowardice, he says (Ps 43:12), being unable to defend ourselves against those devouring us like sheep; a cowardice which even Moses threatened to bring upon them because of their lawlessness, saying that the sound of a rushing leaf would pursue them. And we have become, he says, captives and have been scattered among the nations, those who previously were driven out from the nations and possessed the holy land.

This analysis of honor is like a man being made of clay and returning to clay; so also regarding the people Isaiah says: We became as we were from the beginning, when you did not begin us and your mercy was not called upon us. They were sold for nothing, as Isaiah also says (Ps 43:13a); and he says they were sold because of their sins, just as Paul says concerning man: I am flesh, sold under the power of sin. But this is the alienation of becoming slaves to men instead of God, which Jeroboam threatened, along with his people through the prophet Shemaiah, that they would become slaves to the Egyptian king Shishak, and would know the slavery of God and the slavery of the kings of the earth.

For such a thing is a parable, being remembered in the oracles (Ps 43:15); just as Jeremiah says against the false prophets: A curse shall be taken upon you in your captivity, O Judah, in Babylon, saying, 'The Lord will do to you as He did to Zedekiah and to Ahaziah, whom he made kings of Babylon to be burned in the fire, because of the lawlessness they committed in Israel.'

Grant these things now, and most justly: how they, like sheep, were being eaten up when they led Christ as a lamb to slaughter, but were also handed over to the Gentiles as the Lord was betrayed for silver, and by some means cast into death, mocking just as they were making mockery and head-movements when the Lord was crucified (Ps 43:18-21).

This alone remains for Israel as a hope for the calling back of the remnant, which the foretold prophecy says: not to turn toward the customs of the Greeks according to the idolatry they had established, nor to deviate from the commanded way of piety toward one God, even though they were thus humbled and made to dwell in exile and placed under the power of those who kill; which was most certainly guarded regarding Ananias, Azariah, and Mishael, who remained in the fire for the sake of not accepting worship. It is not pious, then, how even the remaining Jews in the present time behave; indeed, it is the very thing that they do not entirely abandon—not walking into idols or even the Greek disease regarding melodies—but the impiety toward Christ is, and thus is most harmfully convicted, that even while not worshiping idols as before, they are enslaved as never before (Ps 44:2).

Having remembered the evils of the Israelites before this and leaving behind the redemption which began for the sake of evils, beginning from the Gentiles and also taking a not small share of them (for many also are those having believed from the Jews), he performs a sort of initiation regarding these things, promising a good word concerning the arrival of the King, who surveys the works of the righteous for his inspection and, as if being heard by them, grants to them the divine fullness, because he has come to pay what is not truly fulfilled in men, which is lawful to divine purity and, from him, a sanctifying reception. He seems to intend to say many things quickly, imitating one revealing these things with the sharp pen of a scribe.

Isaiah foresees his outward appearance, omitting among the sons of men the dishonor of prophesying according to the flesh, while David interprets the divine beauty, which was also revealed by Isaiah through the King that he shall be seen with glory (Ps 44:3ab). And this indeed reveals the secret glory and the beauty of the invisible, while it announces the manifestation of that beauty through words and works, for the sake of...

The Nature of the Anointing§8

8It is asserted that his lips pour out Ps 44:8, just as it is shown in the Gospels that all marvel at the words of grace coming from his mouth.

As then the divine is anointed with oil by nature and not by participation, being joined through its own nature (not given by grace as to your partakers), and he calls Christ God, but calls his anointing God, not annulling the human constitution and the relation of the Word to the flesh through which is the anointing of spirit, and the flesh being preceded and foretold by the presence of the Spirit from the beginning and its coming again Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38.

For if it were said that the Spirit is joined by inherent beauty rather than by participation, then the anointing would be called a result of discipline. And where can anyone show such discipline? And what labor of learning is there with Christ, so that the giving of pains would be sanctification? And through diligent learning, wisdom becomes spirit, but through the struggle toward pleasures, the patient and powerful is sealed by the Spirit.

It is therefore clear that the anointing is spoken of as following nature and not as being given in return for labor, and not as the Spirit being given to man as a wage (though even this is possible; for God gives the Spirit by grace and not by wage), but as that which is inherent to God and man simultaneously, appearing from him and toward him, just as we say when we offer that which is inherent to God and man: 'I will praise you among the nations, O Lord' Ps 18:4. By mentioning the partakers, he also showed the manifestation of the anointing, since it proceeds by participation, because of this it has come by participation.

Since, insofar as regarding the Lord, there was no need for us to be naturally holy, being holy and having holiness implanted in the body and by this perfecting the human form toward maturity, but since this was not in us, nor was it possible for men to be holy by nature, but it is necessary by gift and by heavenly grace, for this reason the Spirit is upon Christ, so that He might show through bodily kinship, as being brought from Him unto us for the participation of the Spirit.

The departure of the wicked nations (Ps 44:12a) beautifully demonstrates the bride as the desired one of the King. For this is our beauty, and by this we are beautified, and by this we are made at home with God, and in this way we become exceedingly attentive to God, as one might say regarding the beauty of those who are loved, whatever anyone might say about beauty. The bride is near the King (Ps 44:15), and virgins are near her and are her followers, and through her are made at home with the King, and like maidens following as if upon a bride. In this way, according to the Song of Solomon, the Jewish synagogues were so, being second assemblies and following, according to the saying, 'The first shall be last and the last shall be first' (Ps 44:22), and 'The sojourner shall be in thee' (Ps 44:23) for a head, and you shall be in heaven. For indeed those who became the former followers of the law are now beginning the assembly with God for the purpose of being made at home with Him, and this is even more evident from the things being brought forth.

For this is the attendant of Christ, and she enters into the holy temple with Him (Ps 44:16b), and she gives the inheritance and the kingdom of the world promised to Abraham to those of his lineage according to the flesh, by the King who wills and the Queen who approves. Do not the ones who said 'maidens' now say 'sons,' having received the rank of sons, and as sons worthy of inheritance from a mother? The city shall be incorruptible, he says (Ps 45:6), so that God shall be in it, while the watchman of the perimeter ceases from the passing night. For there is a night, until the darkness is removed from everywhere, and not all authority and power is abolished, but still fighting, you will lay hold of them, moving against the righteous.

Nor when, he says, were you given over to the nations (Ps 44:25) having been overcome by God, were you given over in vain, but so that you might know the power of God, having acquired all the nations for His own rebuke, and instead of one land, having acquired every land under His own reverence; for in the same stumbling, according to the Apostle, salvation came to the nations so as to provoke them to jealousy (Rom 11:11). Concerning Israel is the psalm before this, but this is for the nations (Ps 46).

The Inheritance of the Nations§9

9Ascending to Jerusalem and joining with those of the race of Abraham, he proclaims joy to the nations, along with victorious shouts and hymn-like cries, through the appearance of the Lord from on high, which will occur with great fear, because he will hold the earth according to the vision of Daniel, handing over the kingdom to his own saints.

Just as one of the successors of the apostles has said, that the King of the world in Jesus is not receiving some kingdom for his own glory, but for his own, those being made kings through the chosen bride of the queen, as it was foretold in David: 'He shall make them rulers over all the earth' (Ps 46:4,5). He says that he has demonstrated the kingdom to us, all of us nations, and he gave the lot to us, our inheritance from the fathers, the Israelite land, the honor which is with him.

But the Israelite land they call a private inheritance, being given to them according to their race, just as the Lord himself was not outside the succession of the fleshly race. And they say that land was beloved, not because it is able to depart from God to another which is nothing precious, nor good, nor more precious or more beautiful, but because he loved the inhabitants, being the firstfruits of piety in the world, and he preserves love toward them and toward the land to which he inhabited, having nothing that ends, but all things eternal (Ps 46:9).

He signifies divinity unswervingly in the Son. For this is he who ascends, this is he who reigns, this is he who sits on the heavenly throne, having also sat upon the earth before the ascent, gathering to himself the leaders of the nations and all the most powerful of men, and lifting them into heavenly glory (Ps 47:11c).

“This is your justice,” he says, “not having favoritism.” And Peter says, sensing the calling of the Gentiles, “I grasp the truth that God is not a respecter of persons.” But the wise Israel, having seen the Gentiles and the mercy, will not envy, but will be glad at the judgment of God (Ps 48:4,5), just as Peter and the apostles then were.

“I will touch a hidden wisdom,” he says, “mixing song with the riddle.” How did the mouth not say to open into a parable, but to incline the ear? Or is it that he wants to show himself rather as a listener of one speaking spirit, or as an interpreter, or even through his mouth he speaks the things being said? For indeed, “I will hear what God will speak in me,” as it is said in the Psalms.

But he says that he willingly faces death as much as the world facing this age (Ps 48:10a), being taken away from the earth of his life, but living for God. And the passion of death, he says, did not join with man as being natural, but happened through dishonor; for he, having been honored by increase toward immortality, did not know, having a good greater than nature from honor, that having fallen from the likeness of God which is in immortality, he becomes like the beast according to death (Ps 48:13). For as the death of this man, so the death of this man, says Ecclesiastes, and one spirit for all; and what did man exceed the beast? Nothing, for all is vanity. All things to one place; all things came from dust, and all things return to the dust.

Concerning the coming age, he says, being present, which is the morning of the coming day, the kingdom of the good shall be (Ps 48:15bc), all human power having ceased, but that from God holding sway, when the race of the good is glorious and royal, and the race of the not-good is submissive and a slave, because the strength according to wealth has passed away, but that according to virtue remains, and all the remainder of men in the earth will obey the good, ruling according to God. Therefore let nothing be counted great, wealth and glory (Ps 48:17); for those things not joining with the one who has acquired, just as justice joins...

Divine Grace and the Hope of Resurrection§10

10He brings up those who have been brought down. He says that the perfect heavenly generations will sing praises to God's righteousness (Ps 49:6), possessing with perfect words the most righteous and most discerning thing: to rejoice in God not through sacrifices, but through judgment, and to hold this judgment for the eternal covenant.

He says that God is not bound by fetters, nor does He drink (Ps 49:13), so that He might attend to meat as if it were food or drink of blood. Then, opposing the true honor of God to the name of sacrifice, he adds the following.

He says that this true sacrifice is the perception of benefits, the confession from the heart, and the fulfillment of vows, which is a debt owed to God by men (Ps 49:14). Doing these things, he says, one is hopeful to succeed with God helping in tribulations (Ps 49:15), so that you may also glorify Him by doing good, being constantly lifted up in thanksgiving.

This is a paralysis of the law (Ps 49:17): to not steal, to not commit adultery, to love your neighbor as yourself, and not to speak deceitfully or harmfully among your people, nor to accuse or plot schemes against your neighbor.

But judgment will demonstrate the knowledge that I will also make you be seen by yourself (Ps 49:21). For each person will see himself as he is, from the hearts being uncovered, just as he was stamped from the heart. Theodotion, interpreting the series of actions, showed through collections that it happens before the eyes of the one who acts.

This was the accusation of the Righteous regarding himself (Ps 50:5). For I do not wait, he says, for the rebuke of another, even if the prophet rebuked. He indeed rebuked once, but I see the falling through all things, yet I do not recognize the healing because of mercy.

The request for forgiveness is because sin has become inherent to us according to the first generation (Ps 50:7), being passed down from the mothers who carry us. Because through one man sin entered into the world, and evil is rooted in the first woman, and from her, through those who give birth, it passes on to those being born. It is more appropriate to say this regarding the mother, even though the father also participates in sin; for we are indeed produced spermatically from the father, but entirely from mothers when we are being born, and through the...

Bringing forth into light. Ps 50:8a: 'We indeed,' he says, 'were rooted in iniquities and are born in sins, but to you it is pleasing, the truly good and never deviating.' How then is it possible for men to be glorified by such a judge rather than to have brought forth shame, being condemned?

Ps 50:8b.9: He deserves from pre-existence the grace that is to become present and is sparing. For regarding the beginnings, God brings the possible things toward Himself on account of His own purpose and stability, even if the things from us might not at all be worthy, just as on account of the covenant, He pities the race of Abraham which is suffering evil, bringing forward the possible things from the beginning and guarding the certainty of the promise more than the equality of the authority. Since, therefore, one who has known wisdom from God and has been honored by this, as to understanding the hidden things about which the Revelation said, 'Open my eyes, and I will perceive the wonders of your law' (Rev 43:18), because of this, he confesses grace regarding the gift of wisdom, and deserves to have the defilement that has happened removed from him, added to it, and this by grace.

Ps 50:10: The Savior said that Abraham was expecting his day to rejoice and to see it arriving and to rejoice, Abraham saying, 'Your father rejoiced so that he might see my day, and he saw and rejoiced' (John 8:56); but David, instead of sight, speaks of hearing, saying that the cause of great joy is being signified to him in Hades by the presence of the Spirit, and that he shall be gladdened in Hades by the Spirit, and his inner parts, the bones of monuments humbled by sin and death, shall be gathered together with the body which is the cause of the resurrection.

Ps 70:7: Sin is weak and a cause of weakness, but righteousness is strong and its defender is God; such also is the expectation of God, and especially the continuous one; and just as, being understood from the first creation, it would not have existed without God, it is rather being trained in opposition to sorrows.

Ps 70:9: Since I have taken up your help in the season of the vigor of age, not the strength of the body, but power; therefore, let this strength remain to me while youth is speaking, and after all human strength has passed, let that which is from you be present, such as...

Christ the True King and the Type of Solomon§11

11What happened to David in his old age: for the son rose up new, but there was no elder; rather, already weakened by age and inactive, lying on a bed, he ruled Israel and commanded the nations. [He ruled Israel and established Solomon as successor, having expelled Adonijah, who had been tested by his own intention to rule.]

Regarding the time of the resurrection, these things fit Absalom, concerning whom it is said in Psalm 70:10-11: 'Many say to my soul, There is no salvation for him in his God.' But regarding the fellowship of the righteous, the Lord has permitted such a rising up of enemies, those saying, 'Let Him be rescued if He desires him,' and those thinking that he who suffers according to the will is being abandoned by the Father. Therefore, he says, let the wicked err in their intention, and let the matter appear not according to their expectation, but according to my hope.

'But let me not be far off, but hasten the help and turn their boasting into shame, so that for me the increase of hope and of your hymns may be greater' (Ps 70:12).

The Confessor I do not know how to number. For since he promised to recount the righteousness of God and the salvation that has come through Him, this promise, being greater than a human one, brought these things about.

The hymn begins there, where he promises to perform immediately, shouting loudly the high things of the great God, that men who have been led through many evils might find good things, rising from the dead into eternal life; which is indeed the head of the divine hymns and most demonstrative of God, so that no one among those called gods would mingle with it. For God is the one who makes all things alive, in whom Christ, being the Son of God, is known, saying of Himself that He is the resurrection and the life, and demonstrating this by His work; so that, even if these things are said of Christ by a man to the Father, it is also fitting that they be said of Him by men as to a Son and an image of God; for He is the firstborn, having descended in the manner of a man from the dead, but having ascended by the power of God, being the agent of the return, as He says to the Jews, in whom the exceptional nature of divinity is shown.

You surrendered human nature to death, but having been despaired of by men, you gave back a new and blessed life. The glory of Christ is sung after the passion. Solomon is a type: so too is the peace of his kingdom, the righteous protection of him, the glory of his wisdom, and the honor he had among all men; but exceeding the type, the days of the king remain until the end, and his peace and his fruit become most manifest.

For these things did not at all fit Solomon, who lived for a short time, had enemies, and left no fruit from him but one son, and did not protect the kingdom handed over to him; but Christ's continuous and unshakable dominion and most manifest fruit are for those who believe; and the rest of the things which were typologically fulfilled in Solomon will be more perfectly realized in Him, which the Word will explain one by one as He wills.

"O God, give justice to the king, and righteousness to the son of the king, to judge your people in righteousness and your poor in judgment" (Ps 71:1,2). And Christ is King and Son of David, the Lord according to the flesh, and therefore rising from royal lineage, so that he might establish a paternal kingdom according to the prophecy of Isaiah, and make it divine instead of human; and, as was not in human kingship, he would apply the exactness of justice to the subjects and grant to the wronged that they should not be wronged.

For even this was not preserved in David: though he was most righteous and pleasing to God compared to others, he also became an agent of injustice regarding Uriah. For the construction of idols leaned Solomon's injustice toward impiety. But thus is the King foretold through Isaiah and through Jeremiah: a righteous king sitting on a throne with mercy being established, judging and seeking judgment and hastening righteousness as Isaiah says, understanding and performing judgment and righteousness as Jeremiah says.

The Ally the Psalmist gave out: "And they shall fear him as long as the sun" (Ps 72:5), which is in agreement with the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin by Gabriel: "And the Lord will give to him the..."

The Error of the Ungodly and Divine Providence§12

12A throne for David his father, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever (Ps 71:10-11). Regarding Jerusalem, Isaiah says that he will move into the wealth of the sea and of nations, and herds of camels will arrive, and camels of Madian will cover them, and elephants from Sheba will arrive bringing gold and frankincense, crying out and proclaiming the salvation of God.

And through Haggai it is said: 'Yet once more I will shake the heaven and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake together all the nations; and the chosen of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the Lord of all powers (Ps 71:16). For the whole inhabited world has also been made fruitful by the fruit of Christ, and an innumerable multitude of Christ's children appearing from every city, like grass from the earth (Ps 71:20).

Therefore, there the thanksgivings of David are fulfilled, which were made for the eternal dwelling of the throne, saying: 'Lord, let the word which you spoke concerning the house of your servant and concerning your servant be believed until an age, and do according to what you spoke, and let your name be exalted until an age,' they saying, 'Lord of all powers, God of Israel,' and the house of David your servant being restored. Thus, the following psalm was written irrationally: 'The hymns of David, son of Jesse, have departed'; for this is the end, and a part of the thanksgiving, upon the fulfillment of the prayers of David.

The second book of the psalms also concluded in a blessing that pronounced 'Amen', just as the first clearly happened. For the end of the former was the M Messiah spoken concerning Christ, but the end of this one is the OA [Omega/End] now spoken. And the third concludes, so that we might already speak also concerning it toward the PH [?] psalm, since all the psalms are XVII, of which XA are of Asaph, then of the sons of Korah D, and of David A, and Heman the Israelite is the last.

Instead of 'passed into a disposition of the heart', Aquila translated 'passed by the intentions of the heart'; instead of intending to fulfill nothing of the natural thoughts, they do not even do what they think is good, but they abandon these. For them, virtue is a joke, slander against the inferior is easy, blasphemy against God is ready, and it is at hand.

The tongue is according to men. And this is: 'And their tongue has gone out over the earth' (Ps 72:11, 13). The righteous in the coming arrangement, just as Jeremiah says: 'If you turn back, I will restore you before my face.' There he says: 'And all those who plotted evil, who preferred evil, shall recognize.' For when the good things are revealed in the race of the righteous, they will say: 'There is then the providence of God; and how does He know the things being done?' But the voice of those who have lost the natural reasoning due to the disproportionate good things being against them toward injustices. For not prospering according to reason demonstrates thoughts as if the world were being conducted not according to reason, nor will our difficulties be known. But of the providence which stands over all things, nevertheless, he says, these ungodly ones, who even in prosperity are indifferent to wisdom and to the words concerning God, and in the good successes of the righteous are not yet persuaded... and the patient hand of the righteous is a vain patience, being mocked and hearing badly while choosing righteousness. This is the difficult thing of human reasoning: to recognize that the zeal for virtue is not good nor sufficient. And many such recollections come upon many, which the Word is about to heal.

[And to refute the ungodly reasoning, the more godly one confirms it through the person of God; for as God truly guarantees what is said, it is necessary that the pious ones, who are struggling now in the coming arrangement, be more blessed than the ungodly who prosper through the end. Such is in Jeremiah: 'If you turn back, I will restore you before my face.' And the part 'And I said, How did God know?' refers to those who have lost the natural reasoning due to disproportionate luxury; for since providence exists, they would not be able to prosper in good things if they were becoming hardened.] (Ps 72:24). The Confessor later said: 'Honor received it.' And also: 'I did not cease, realizing silence and believing in you as one who manages well those things concerning us, and thus to you it belongs to understand all things; therefore, take hold of me; you have set a good glory, you have led into a blessed glory.' (Ps 73:4). Necessarily the memory of places is needed because of the lawlessness of the people.

The Judgment of God and the Victory of the Just§13

13For there was no cause for indignation regarding places, and such a one, through the sparing of place, prepares philanthropy to happen toward the people. But this is not as if a certain field were able to be God-loving; for God is not bound by places but by justice.

112a Ps 73:15b [The Helper thus says: 'You dried up ancient rivers' (Ps 73:15). For the making of springs to bubble up and rivers to flow from them, while on the other hand the streams of ancient rivers are dried up, this is the power of working wonders. This also he says in another psalm: 'He set rivers in the desert and channels of waters for thirst' (Ps 73:17). For it is easy for him, as he wills, to let the flow of the waters participate. But because of this, the text also shows elsewhere: that for the Jews, because of the lawlessness of the prophetic rivers, the waters will not come to them, but for the nations, formerly a desert, to the crashing of the falls from the rock; and the rock, the divine apostle says, is the Christ, and all the things said point to Him who worked salvation in the midst of our earth through benefits. And these things are thus. But Isidore of Pelusium says in a letter that Etham, a place so called, not far removed from Jerusalem, was watered and easy to reach and shady; to dry this up according to the wrath of God against the Romans is said to be war, just as Joseph in the Archaeology says.]

113A Ps 73:20–22 Remember your covenant and those who were carried away into dark places, lead them again into your illuminated dwelling, receiving the place of the prayer of the humbled by evils and being poured out, and giving them to hymn with joy (Ps 73:20-22).

114a Ps 74:2–4 Christ, the cause and creator of incorruption, says these things to the prophet, the one saving as God and bringing the grace of salvation as a man to the Father (Ps 74:2). Therefore he says to you, we shall open confessions and thanksgivings concerning salvation, the sa-

We shall recount wonders, father, when the church of all people having come together is able to hear concerning you, and all people are brought to serve you. And he says of mine, even the discernment over all, saving the worthy of salvation from those being destroyed—those having thought of earthly things being dissolved with the earth, but those having thought of heavenly things remaining like pillars for the foundation of the new creation.

It is not right to dare to be presumptuous or to exalt oneself by seizing upon God or wisdom, saying things terrible and unrighteous against God, as if He does not provide, nor justly rewards each one, but rather leaves things to the risings and settings of stars, and as if the things concerning men are disposed by the stars either well or badly, and already not only by stars but also by the demons worshipped in the heights. For the whole universe has encompassed these things not thus or nearby, but by the just judgment of God, regarding the humbling and the exalting of men, the ones being cast down and the ones being lifted up. Didymus says likewise.

Upon such an end, he says, in which the evil ones, perishing with wickedness, I shall make the narration of the wonders of God, and I will cast down the strong things of the ungodly, having cut them off like horns; but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up, having shorn off the uncorrupted power from God. Then they shall be lifted up when they shall have reigned with their own King.

A good end and the victory of the righteous according to God is prophesied to be, after having been brought to a clearer and more brilliant state than the prophecy revealed before this.

He calls the grazed mountains of prey, that is, mountains of food. For food is prey, and in Psalm 181 he says, 'Blessing his prey I will bless it,' which indeed Sitias said in that Psalm Symmachus. And in Psalm 182, 'He gave prey to those who fear him,' Achilles said, and Symmachus.

Signs in Egypt and the Nature of the Heavens§14

14Therefore, the mountains of the earth, flowing with milk and honey, are called mountains of beasts and of food, from which he says that God will be seen manifest and exceedingly great. And then the proud shall suffer the things laid before them, not even finding their hands to do anything, as if being carried away by a stupor. For you startled them, your people and those appointed to you, defending territories, as if to join the False horse to salvation, and 'These in chariots and horses, but we in the name of the Lord our God will call upon' (Ps 20:8); they themselves stumbled and fell, but we arose and were upright. The same thing is revealed here through the stumbling and the fall, by means of the being carried away and the hardening.

The Confessor thus interpreted: 'For the fury of man shall confess to you, a remnant of fury being girded around' (Ps 75:11). Since the hot-tempered one, acting in anger and towards wrath in all things, not towards righteousness, is subject to confessions and to recognitions concerning those things of which he sins. For fury is easy toward sin, even daring unto murder, so that the reasoning within him produces strong thoughts of repentance, surrounding the whole soul regarding the things done and said not rightly through fury.

From what is laid before us until the second verse, the word will proceed through the difficult and the painful things concerning the people, and thus leads into brighter things following (Ps 76 argument). He says in the present psalm that there is much time in which the nation may sufficiently encompass and the hope of help from God, unless someone, remembering the former things, might be strengthened into the hope of the coming good things.

Thus, even if he has blessed piously in the first verse, he thus introduces weak thoughts that burden men in the longer evils (Ps 76:2,3). For now, for the sake of first confessing to God who received the supplications, he recounts the continuous prayer and the stretching out of the hands through all the nights.

By your power, he says, the whole was set in motion; even the waters groaned in fear, and the abysses had a tumultuous struggle (Ps 76:17-19). And water was being released from above from the clouds, and clouds ran through the ether with much sound, and the arrows from heaven were being carried down; and sounds of thunder were happening according to the airy circle of the clouds passing through, and lightnings were streaming down upon the inhabited world.

And it shook the earth with an earthquake. These things are warning wonders appearing among those in Egypt, those in the wilderness, and those in Judah. For Egypt was struck by hail with fire being carried along, and the Red Sea drew back its waters as if being contracted by some fear. And thunders burst forth in the air and hail was poured down, also against the Canaanites in the war toward the Jews. And it is evident that lightning also flashed together.

Regarding the saying of the thunder sounding in a wheel, one says that it happened when God joined the axles of the wagons and led them into the sea with their leaders. Ps 76:19: He lays for us an airy circle upon which the stars are placed, just as oxen circling a threshing floor. For a spherical heaven, according to the logic of the Greeks, is not to be found in the divine oracles, so that we might conceive of the wheel-like revolution above the earth and below the earth. For the divine writings present water below the earth, not heaven, and waters lying beneath as a boundary above the heaven. For He says of the heaven, stretching out like a skin, covering its upper parts with waters. To set the sun from one end to the other, from east to west, and it is said that not even the smallest part of it turns back from the west. And He says of the one who set the heaven (not the one circling it in a circle) and stretching it out like a tent to dwell in (not as circling around); and Isaiah says of the one coming from the ends of the foundation of heaven to those coming from far off the earth, so that the heaven has been founded and stands, but not circling in a circle. But these things are for the sake of a brief reminder, so that we do not fail to be carried toward the fabrications of the Greeks, neglecting the divine writings.

Ps 76:20-21: He says of the divine way that it has no visible trace like the human way; therefore he also called that journey 'in sea and waters,' since Solomon says that a ship traversing the sea is not recognized, so that what is said is parabolic. And there is no longer a journey for God to pass through; for the Hebrews did not walk through the sea so that He might lead them through it as well, but the thing regarding the Red Sea was brief for them, while the thing through the land was much and long-lasting. You guided as sheep your people in the hand of Moses and Aaron. Moreover, even though unseen by...

The fate of the righteous in the destruction of Jerusalem§15

15Since the journey was occurring, it became known and manifest to men that I would guide the people in the journey from Egypt as sheep led by Moses and Aaron. Thus indeed the psalm is a parable...

[Others have interpreted these things thus:] The aforementioned psalm ended in silence, neither seeking nor stating the causes for which the people were so greatly lifted up against their guardian God; but this indicates the cause of the turning away from God from above, which God also later through Isaiah expressed by saying: 'Is not the hand of the Lord too weak to save? Or was the ear too heavy to hear?' (Isa 59:1). But your sins divide you between yourselves and God, and because of your sins He turned His face from you so as not to show mercy, and the following things. Therefore, there is a memory in the psalm of the distrust and contention in the wilderness of Israel, so as to show those turning away from God the evil causes becoming to themselves, as David clearly narrates the things. And it begins royally, immediately commanding his own people to attend to the proper law, or to private instructions, as an Ally interprets; for, he says, such a law is to bring forth a ready exhortation.

And if he says that not the philanthropy and pity of God and much propitiation preserved their succession, but with all passion He struck them, they would have perished, and they became anonymous; he says not having accepted their choice, but pitying their weakness as if flesh were rotting and spirit was departing.

[The interpreters have set forth the hypothesis of this psalm differently. For one says that the prophet is stripped simply of captivity and the things that happened to Jerusalem, without specifying which; another says it makes manifest the captivity under the Romans which happened after the betrayal of our Savior Jesus Christ; others say the one under Antiochus Epiphanus. Therefore, having done this, let us examine some of the sayings.] The intercession against the nations is that, having been impious and unclean, they despoiled a holy land and defiled a holy temple; but against Jerusalem, the contrary, that a city called holy has become a heap of dust and stones.

Which Theodotion says is regarding lithology. And these things can be a remembrance of the election concerning Jerusalem that has occurred. Furthermore, regarding their inhabitants, the Psalmist says 'the merciful', that even after death the unburied were given as food to the birds, which proves much and something raw regarding the enemies of the defeated and the slaves of God who suffered these things, which can be brought near to God and for supplication to the Lord.

For even if complaints against the slaves be just, it is unhuman for mercy regarding one's own to be administered by a stranger. And he says also that the bodies of the holy became food for beasts and their blood was poured out without mercy like water before Jerusalem; perhaps indeed because of the election from the beginning, he calls those who fell away holy, just as also the Apostle says of the holy vine that those cut off through impiety are also holy (because they were of the holy root), perhaps he also indicates the holy ones as being perished together with the wicked to the unrighteous, which happens in the capture and the destruction of both a city and a nation, and this has been revealed through Ezekiel; for he says: 'The Lord says, Behold, I am with you, and I will stretch out my hand from its cradle and will destroy from you, the just and the impious, and I will cut off from you the just and the impious' (Ezekiel 7:9).

Which was also foretold more allegorically thus: 'Behold, I kindle fire in you, and every wood shall be consumed in you, the moist and every dry wood' (Ezekiel 20:33); the moist being allegorically the wood of the righteous man, and the dry the impious, just as the Lord himself revealed the true righteous wood saying, 'If these are doing such things in the moist wood, what happens in the dry?'

And if the Lord shared in those things coming upon the world according to the flesh, yet shared in no sin, it is not wonderful that righteous men, being partakers of sin, should become partakers of the misfortunes which come through sins, to suffer equally with the unrighteous being murdered, just as he himself was reckoned among the lawless (Hebrews 2:9), yet was judged by God; such as was the case with Jeremiah, being taken among the impious captives, yet having some distinction also among men after the captivity in the honor from the one who had captured him. And the righteous one would continue to share with the sinners even unto death.

The Vine and the Feast of Booths§16

16In this way, the things after death are already useful in separating the righteous from the wicked, just as with King Josiah; for he, though righteous, died in war while Egypt was in power, and much Israelite impiety had already occurred and was not forgiven. Therefore for those righteous, if they suffer along with the sinners, there are set aside from God things more beautiful after the suffering; and indeed for the brothers and kinsmen who suffer through sin, much help is provided through them, so that because of their turning away, a certain turning of God toward the race might come to pass, which even now the prophet deserves. These things were lifted up as acceptable righteousness before God (Ps 78:4). For if even we are worthy, he says, of those whom we have suffered, but your name is shared in conscience, just as God himself through Isaiah says, 'Through all things my name is blasphemed among the nations' (Isa 56:5). Because like the judgment of beasts, he says, the God-fearing nation was desolated and they laid waste the holy land (Ps 78:7).

Sitting upon the cherubim, having named the authority, he makes manifest the heavenly authority through which everything is subject to him and nothing is able to withstand, if it were to appear; and he calls for the power to be raised because of the remaining silent and quiet and seeing the people suffering; just as it was suffered to come to an end by the Assyrians, not presently, they deserve it because of the abandonment. How, then, should it come—through energy or otherwise? Because of this, he says, 'Come to save us,' as if he were saying, 'Come in the act of saving.' But the 'Turn to us and shine your face,' because of the appearance, the one turned away from God is not able to encounter, unless he first turns back toward him; 'Turn to me,' he says, 'and I will turn to you.' He asks for this from the guidance and cooperation of God, such as is also, 'Incline my heart to your testimonies' (Ps 119:36). For the pious entrust the whole universe to God. But if you appear, he says, 'your face,' and we shall be saved; for the appearance of God is salvation (Ps 79:9). With the eighteenth shadow, indeed, the aforementioned vine covered the mountains because of all the height and surpassed all power that is above the earth, and with the outstretching of the unblemished ones, the cedars of God were moved because of the divine power...

To be surrounded, it extends both to the sea and the river. For even the boundaries of the land of Judah are thus called by God: from the wilderness to the Euphrates and from the Red Sea to the Philistine sea. Which vine therefore He, He says, brought out of Egypt and transplanted a vine, which He thus made manifest and so widely spread out; why then was it surrounded thus, having been stripped of its protection and being harvested by those passing by?

Trumpets begin at the new moons according to the law. At the new moon of the seventh month He commanded the sounding of trumpets, and on the fifteenth day the feast of the booths. And this was a gathering of fruits at the end of the year in the assembly of the works from the field, as has been declared in Exodus (Exod 23:16). And it might be to the one spiritually contemplating the law that the trumpet is a sign of the trumpets coming from heaven, and the fast appointed for atonement in the tenth of that same month is the month of that which is said by the Lord: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted' (Matt 5:4). For the law, preparing for the rest of the booths and the joy in it, made the fast and the humility in it, introducing the trumpets which declare the fear of the presence of the Judge from heaven. Of these, the humility for atonement follows, announcing the coming judgment, and thus the feast for rest comes to be.

And the psalm, being sung at the new moons, let it be even at the time of the feast, differing according to the custom of the law, and for this reason mentioning trumpets at the beginning as a prelude to the feast of booths. Let it signify this: the end about which even the inscription sings to it, declares; when God has gathered all the fruits, and gives eternal booths to His own. For in that end, the good things are restored to the ones being saved, and the salvation from the evils of the present, for which the aforementioned psalms were making supplications to God. [The following things follow after it.]

Removals, that is, of the burdens, of the swellings; for those serving the brick-making, cutting the clay with a spade, they carry it on their backs. Their back, therefore, He says, stood away from swellings, that is, He freed it from the burdens (Ps 80:7).

The Divine Justice and the Song of the Son§17

17Others have said that the will of God and the mysteries are hidden (Ps 82:4).

Regarding Psalm 83, some take the psalm as having been spoken to those in Babylon who long to behold Jerusalem, the temple in it, and the altar (Ps 83). The rest, according to history, take the temple in Jerusalem in a sensible way (Ps 83:5).

God leads the favor and the obedience to prayers which remains always, concerning which it is said in the prophecy of Isaiah: 'While they are still speaking, I will say, Behold, I am here' (Isa 65:9), so that when we shall enjoy the honor through Christ, the Father thus turns toward us as toward the face of the Son, because Christ shall be in us (Ps 83:10).

Mercy and truth have met (Ps 84:11), when through mercy the nations are called together and through truth Israel shall be restored; for the nations are called through mercy, as the apostle says, but Israel is for the truth of God so that the promises of the fathers might be made firm. Now, indeed, their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, but later the reception is life from the dead, when the perfection of God's favor is revealed to men, when the fulfillment of the promises to the fathers occurs, the race from among them being brought in, not because of their own merit but because of truth itself. For first, those called through truth resisted and did not obey the call, but those called through mercy arrived; then both mercy and truth run together, and then injustice shall fall away completely and the unrighteous shall be driven out from the power over the righteous, so that the righteous may enjoy peace and such as are of one will may be united to one another in both righteousness and peace (Ps 84:11).

To make truth rise up from the earth, justice shall appear from heaven and all good things from God, and all things from the earth shall be good (Ps 84:12-13). Because the will of God...

And the Lord brought about justice on behalf of men, not otherwise than the heavenly judgment which is about to judge according to men and to dispose things well, unless Christ was born according to men for the sake of the validation of the facts and received the whole matter of human nature into himself.

Regarding Ps 85:11–13, he says that another spoke the psalm from the person of the Son; for he asks for the exceptional and divine virtue into us from the Father, saying these things from himself which he wills to happen to us, so that the one leading us might be God, according to what is said by Paul: 'Those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God' (Rom 8:14), and that we might walk in the truth of God, the true and real worship, worshiping in the Spirit and having only the divine fear, the heart undivided toward any other care, entirely toward the seeking of the true good.

Then he brings to God the hymn concerning the resurrection and the thanksgiving, the Lord himself, since he descended to the lowest parts of the earth, as it is written, and from there he ascended by the will of the Father and by the authority of divinity, and we follow, finding the ascent through the grace from him.

Regarding Ps 87: arg: It is foretold to us that Aimán, descendant of Kore, and Kore, son of Kaath, son of the most honorable of the sons of Levi, the leader of the rank of the Levites, sang a most lordly song. For he dances for Christ, just as it is also inscribed, 'A song upon a dance'; and he sings the sufferings of the Savior, the world-saving ones, presenting the person of the Lord in the word, as it becomes clear from the things having been said.

Regarding Ps 87:2: And writing down a heavenly citizenship for the salvation of men, he teaches that, when evils surround us, God alone is to be considered the refuge, just as we also were taught from the Gospels, when the passion was already approaching, making continuous supplications and prayers to him.

Regarding Ps 87:6: Persisting in the things of the likeness...

The Unity of Divine Power and the Distinction of Mercy and Judgment§18

18He says with words: 'As those who have been snatched away and lie in a tomb, I have become, who suffer this because they were separated from your life-giving power' (Ps 87:5). For it is evident that this was not upon him. For the Christ's body was full of God's power even with death. In this way, indeed, blood and water flowed from him, which nothing of this kind flows from dead bodies.

[Another says he explains the 'Abomination' as an abomination to them:] Just as the disciples were discouraged at his sufferings, no longer hoping in a savior or a redeemer, those indeed who were saying, 'The rulers handed him over to a sentence of death' (Ps 87:5); but we hope that he is the one who is about to redeem Israel. And it is evident that he was also caught in the hands of enemies, being handed over willingly, yet being held against his will. There indeed he also came to evils for our sake; for all those things which are heavy and harmful to the body, he brought. Instead of 'My eyes have grown weak from poverty, my eye has flowed out from affliction, it has given out' (Ps 87:9).

Save therefore the race entrusted to you by your knowledge, and once again turn toward life those men who have each fallen into death (Ps 87:13), so that they may be witnesses of your wonders and of your power; and let them not remain having been blinded in oblivion, but having been remembered again by you, let them be brought back to live. These things the protector of men, encountering for the common good of all the race and working out the life of the world by the will of the Father.

He presents him on our behalf, the ambassador and priest, who continues in his standing from morning and through night, and he appeases the wrath of God against us, which he himself received through sufferings (Ps 87:14).

He says, 'Exalt him in great wonders and signs' (Ps 87:16), concerning which the Father says to him, 'I have been glorified,' the Son saying, 'Glorify your Son' (John 12:28). He says that this has been cast down into humiliation, when he has come to suffer, suffering for the sake of men and by them, for whom he suffered, being abandoned.

Mount Tabor lies in the land of the Galilaeans, and Hermon lies in the desert toward Sinai. God must be praised, he says, not only by his activities concerning Tabor but also by the appearance concerning Hermon. The strength, he says, is...

Let your endurance be revealed, and let it become manifest and glorious among men. All these things are included as if spoken toward one God; we stand in knowledge of His one and only power, which is a perfect arm and hand. Through it, all things have come to pass and are coming to pass, so that it may be counted with God according to the single number of divinity, even while being itself perfect, and in no way falling into the errors concerning those spoken of as 'many sons,' of whom none resemble the one whom the Word has truly previously spoken of.

For it is not thus the one and true power, but only a true image and a knowledge of God, with God accomplishing all things through it. Therefore, in its visitation to men, the divine things were joined, and the judgment of God is judged by Christ. Existing as the power of God, yet given to man, just as He Himself said, He distributed mercy and judgment according to the ages. He foretold the judgment from that time, when the King, having come, shall sit upon His throne of glory. For that throne has a foundation like a base, just as it was previously spoken in the Psalms that Akylas has established His throne in judgment.

But before that manifestation, there is much mercy upon the earth, like a precursor to the critical presence, preparing men toward salvation by mercy for the fearful judge who is about to appear; and with mercy is the truth, that nothing untrue or unrighteous can exist within the good patience of God, even if it seems to those ignorant of the future that the wicked are wrongly permitted to prosper, or that the diminished good ones are not clearly seen.

The promise which has come to pass through Nathan the prophet will indeed be explicitly fulfilled, declaring 'prophets' in the plural from one, of whom He calls 'Sons of God' or, as the others interpret, 'Holy Ones of God.' He indeed says that God bestowed power upon David and led him into glory, having chosen him, according to: 'I have taken you from the sheepfolds, from following the sheep, to be a ruler over my people Israel,' finding him acceptable with holy oil for the kingship, and being present to work all things with him, making the rebellions of the enemies void and scattering their armies and putting them to flight, according to: 'I have been with you...'

The Seasons of Refreshment§19

19To all those to whom you have gone and to whom I have destroyed all your enemies from before your face, as it is written through the prophet Nathan (Ps 88:36). And he says that he exalts him by his own mercy and with the diligence pertaining to the righteous. Just as he also unexpectedly obtained victories in wars and was invincible.

God swears by himself, because he has nothing greater by which to swear, just as Paul says. For he says, 'I have sworn by my holy one,' or as the E edition says, 'According to my sanctification' instead of 'According to my holiness' (Ps 88:39). [These things were likewise set forth by Theodore similar to Apollinaris.]

It seems to seek something greater and beyond man (Ps 88:49), despising the life we live as being nothing, claiming that men move into something futile, not indeed into vanity, but as he deems worthy of not adding corruption, since it is clearly stated that the kingdom will be restored when even corruption is loosed and the living unto the ages is given. For where would escape from death come to us? And where, if not from you? For this would not exist for a man from himself; there is no one who will live and will not die, nor will he be able to save himself from death. But these things seek in opposition to the heavenly king, the redeemer of futility, the same who is stronger than death and a savior of men from death, transforming the futility of the present life into truth and constructing the eternal kingdom upon eternal life.

He did not reject the mercy, but seeks the promise and invokes the justice of God against the impious nations who revile the righteous, having done evil against his own race and having fallen (Ps 88:51); whom he says are enemies of God, yet revile the trace of the righteous king as if it were erased. Having urged these things, he blesses. And the blessing is of one hoping. And of one hoping, he seems to mean the prayers will reach the promise and will not fall away, just as Paul says, 'Is it possible that the word of God has fallen away?' (Rom 3:3).

If he has spoken thus concerning a thousand years (Ps 89:10), it is evident that the span of human life will be the most minute and as if indivisible. The whole, he says, human life is described in a seventy-year period.

Regarding the greater part, he says this: not even this is given in ease, but almost entirely in hardship; for either we are being instructed as infants, or we are laboring as youths, or we are being afflicted as old men. Therefore, he rightly said, 'And the greater part of them is labor and toil' (Ps 89:17). For thus, because the order according to age exists, a little time is stolen away toward joy.

Night, it is fitting, he called the whole time in which a dying man sleeps, but the first is the dawn in which we shall live, when the Lord has appeared and mercy has descended from heaven. It is worthy that the sun and day should shine forth and be given continuously to the righteous as joy instead of the days in which we were harmed, falling into countless evils. These are the Seasons of Refreshment which Peter foretells, to whom he says that our pre-appointed Jesus the Lord will be sent.

Furthermore, he says a thousand shall fall from the auspicious sides, and ten thousand from the right (Ps 90:8), before even approaching and turning away some evil, so that they fall seeing helplessly, and to the perishing he will repay from God, just as it happened to Jehoshaphat according to the promise, so that not having fought, but singing and praising God among one another, he saw the enemies being destroyed. For he says, 'They came upon the lookout of the wilderness and looked and saw the multitude, and behold, all dead having fallen upon the earth, and there was no one being saved.' Near to this also happened to other kings hoping in God, the promise of God being made true, which says, 'I will hate your enemies and I will oppose those who oppose you.' Yet it is not necessary always to think that victories are effortless for the righteous. Since even coming through battle, many times they have conquered, but regarding the most manifest in these things, he says, 'help,' in which most especially God the helper appears to be.

He brought the face of the one hoping near, saying to himself toward God that he placed his hope in him (Ps 90:9). And again he exclaims to such a one, 'Because you have chosen the Most High as a house of safety, no evil shall hold you, nor shall your house be filled with divine plagues' (Ps 90:10). For it is evident that if a righteous man suffers, and the house of a righteous man, it is a struggle.

The Two Reigns and the Judgment of the Nations§20

20This is not a punishment from God against those standing in injustice. It is clear that evils will not prevail against the one undergoing training, but he will rise up as if from sleep, just as it was said in the third Psalm: even if he falls seven times according to the proverb, he will rise (Ps 92:1b; Prov 24:16).

It is possible, therefore, and how much more appropriate to speak of the clothing of glory and the girding of power in relation to the knowledge concerning men, rather than regarding the dishonor of Christ's former presence and human weakness. He himself also brings forward in it the sustaining of the inhabited world for good, which can no longer be moved in any way.

He says that the unjust cannot partake of your kingdom, those who bring toil upon those guarding the laws, by whom the righteous is hunted for capture and he who does no injustice is murdered (Ps 93:20). In these things, the destruction of injustice is shown generally, being established by the justice of God. You said, 'You will not give dominion to the evil, but you will set safety for the righteous, establishing it as a refuge for him and the hopes that hold fast to you'; and what the wicked thought would proceed against the righteous, these things will turn back and upon them themselves; and just as they worked to make the righteous vanish, so they will go into vanishing. This is the end of the vengeance from you.

Let God be known, whom we revere, he who has the heaven and the glory supra-heavenly, to whom beauty is present, to whom power and majesty are beyond words5:6); that is, according to the incorporeal and divine excellence, since the physical magnitudes of the temples have been granted to the bodily, and beauty to technical precision, and wealth to luxury, and to the nations concerning demons. In Israel, indeed, even if these things were present, they occurred according to a type of the invisible things from the beginning, and it is said through Moses, and it yields to the invisible; especially now during the present Gospel, when spiritual excellence is sought and perceived, but also the old way is present for the wise, just as with Solomon, the greatest and most luxurious, since he was the greatest, having built a temple for the God who spoke, saying that even the heaven cannot contain the glory of God. The Lord has reigned differently then and differently now, hearing (Ps 96:1)...

...

For indeed, from the former presence he reigned as one decisively condemning sin in the holy flesh and having abolished death. And in the second reign, through each of his partakers, having overcome evil and corruption, so that men shall finally arrive to behold the treasury of eternal life being filled with the life from him, already being able and seeing the glory of his kingdom appearing in them as in a royal house, while making the adversaries invisible as fire melts wax.

Therefore, the earth rejoices again, as it says, and the many islands, that is, the nations, are glad (Ps 96:7-8); then after that, the earth shall labor and the mountains shall melt. How does he speak of the saints, and how does he speak of the adversaries, of whom he also depicts the highness through pride as mountains, and makes the destruction of their pride like the melting of mountains? And to the strangers, he shows fear and constriction by meeting them with clouds and darkness before the sight of the Lord; but to those receptive of light, he says his lightning flashes and glory is being seen, and furthermore, the judicial fire shall consume the ungodly, the righteousness of the Lord being revealed from heaven, as the apostle says. But the psalmist says the being revealed from heaven is announced by naming the appearance of the heavens as an angel, and that he establishes the heaven by righteousness and judgment, as if speaking upon some foundation. He makes it clear that the throne is not a physical thing, but that the kingdom is called a throne.

Those who worship idols through much insensitivity and foolishness, whom they themselves have adorned with statues, he prays will be ashamed, having received sense. For such a thing will be for the beautiful ones. For they will turn away, having been ashamed of this foolish notion, which they held as if they were gods.

An enemy and an adversary to God, the evil one, will not oppose a thing that is of nature (Ps 96:10). For that which is contrary to nature is not divided from the good nature, nor is it possible to find any nature which is called evil; for we do not have such a thing in our knowledge, so that knowing it we might hate it, but we recognize all evil as a work according to wickedness, and the hatred of this, if we think well, we are prepared to treat equally.

Allegory of the Throne and Footstool§21

21Thinking this, they were saved from their evils. Regarding Psalm 98:5bc, it says that the footstool is to worship the universal authority that was then appearing, which holds not only the ruled race but all. The whole inhabited earth is allegorically called a footstool, holding all things in one name, just as Israel is called authority. The throne, being above authority, is allegorically related to the intimacy of God toward the ruled, especially toward the heavenly things, and already toward those on earth.

Similarly, according to Isaiah, the throne is allegorically the heaven, and Jerusalem is also a throne because of the saints in it, in the manner of heaven; this is the evidence that the heaven is not called a throne bodily, nor the earth a footstool bodily, since we call Jerusalem a throne, a small part of the earth, but we call the existing earth a footstool to those exercising authority. Just as the intimacy existing toward the heavenly ones as saints is said to be a throne of God in heaven, being called by the same name as the throne of God in heaven, so also the Lord calls those who received the good seed of the kingdom 'good seed' by the same name, so that he commands those perceiving it in the works to worship not the subordinate earth but the authority over it.

And the Holy One brings forth those who do not run after the false gods of the unholy; and the proper rejection of the unholy from the kingdom is evidenced, so that they may become receptive to holiness. Regarding Psalm 98:9, not only is the authoritative aspect of God to be worshipped, but the sanctifying aspect is already more urgently exhorted, giving the symbol of this through the worship on the ruled mountain.

Regarding Psalm 100:8, the first part indicates the diligent, just as God sends the prophets with diligence, as he says 'Rising, he sends'. And the removal of the evil ones is lawful: 'Remove the evil from among you' (Psalm 100:8). And this has not ceased concerning us, even if it happens in a punitive manner.

For the wicked are separated, and unless it be by death, they remain so until repentance. This is similar in power to what is said of Solomon's prayer, praying regarding the coming tribulation of the people, so that they might be heard while entreating in it (Ps 101:3); except that the speaker, speaking in his own person, says all things and that Israel might not be seen by God, which it risked suffering because of its own wickedness, and also the long-term affliction.

God's servants' entreaty and God's pity make the time; no other cause exists such as those destined through the ages in Greece. This is what he himself says through Isaiah: 'In an acceptable time I heard you' (Isa 65:24); and Paul also writes about the fulfillment of the time when the Savior arrived, asserting: 'Behold, now is the acceptable time' (2 Cor 6:2). For chiefly the descent of the Savior happened through the culmination of the ages.

Since the Savior has come to take away the sin of the world, it was not fitting for the one who is far-off to come and suffer for a few sinners. When the time was divided according to which it is said, 'All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Rom 3:23), and there was no longer a righteous man on earth understanding and seeking God, the one who enjoys the grace of God above all of them, tasting death on behalf of all, came.

These things could also be said: it was necessary for the God who provides for their salvation to prevent the turning of the human race toward wickedness. And indeed this happened through many mechanisms. Through the sending of patriarchs who were able to benefit the life of men by their own polity, but as they were turning toward wickedness and despising the law given by Moses, and despite the sending of prophets and the appearance of angels to them, God did not cease providing for their salvation. And yet, nothing happened more than they were being ground down for the increase of wickedness. Since therefore every medicine and help was being brought in through the only-begotten [...]

The Works of Christ and the Spirit in Creation§22

22He strove against their incurable diseases; after all those things the Savior came appropriately, healing every disease and every weakness, even to raise up their corruption and death. For this reason the Savior shone forth the truth in the times of Augustus, when the time was fulfilled so that the things of human salvation happened accordingly.

Concerning this the present word says: 'It is a time to have mercy on Zion, O Lord, and You, rising on Your own, will have mercy on her' (Ps 102). Thanksgiving was necessary to follow the preceding prophecy. This too is arranged through this song: the mercy of God and the critical justice are glorified, that through mercy He will rescue the people from the wrongdoers; the removal of corruption, and the grace preserved for successors, and the kingdom of heaven that will pass over all things.

It is not that the heaven surrounds the whole thing and covers it, but it roofs the earth spread out around it, being covered from above by waters in a permanent and firm standing (Ps 103). It is evident, then, that the 'Extending' and 'Roofing' and 'Making' is instead the 'one who extended' and 'one who roofed' and 'one who made.' So it is also with the 'Forming' spirit of man within him; the forming having occurred by God once for the earth, and the results from it happen forever, just as it is said, 'My Father is working until now, and I am working' (John 5:17). And 'I am the Being' would also contribute to this, as the works are not non-existent but are becoming, having the nature of the becoming, and therefore their being is understood in the becoming and is not actually existing like the maker. This is permeated through the Holy Trinity being creative.

Regarding the wonderful thing, it says of the founding of God's power: the earth, the heaviest of elements, was placed beneath the waters immovable for an age, is not perhaps supported by the abyss that lies beneath, nor is it settling, but is covering the abyss in the manner of garments, so that the seat may be unutterable and of God's power, not of the nature of elements (Ps 103). The earth gives these things, springs of water gushing from the beginning by the power of God (Ps 103), and says that many things are driven into disappearance by the fear of God, which is stated more clearly in the seventy-third Psalm: 'You burst the springs and...'

Rivers, you dried up other rivers. He marvels also at the position of the mountains, having been raised unchangeably over the plains and not being dragged down by the descending mist to cover the underlying things, according to the Erusi: 'Cover us, O mountains' (Ps 103:13).

He calls the air of the high heavens the work of God, just as it is over one house of the whole world. And he calls the rain the work of the Son, from which the earth bears fruit in abundance (Ps 103:17). And he calls the lifting up of the waters from the sea the work of the Son (Ps 103:17b).

And concerning the wild donkey it is said through Jeremiah: 'Even the wild donkey in the heavens has known its times' (Ps 103:26b). And regarding his calming, it is said that God calms him, that is, to set his cunning to nothing. For God laughs at everything that opposes him, because it is placed in vanity and childishness because it is easily burned, just as it is said concerning the Egyptians: 'How many follies I have performed against the Egyptians' (Ps 103:27-28).

[Others will take the provided text regarding the food provided to the animals. For when this is present, it is abundant and rejoices; but when it is absent, it is pressed and poured out by the lack of necessities (Ps 103:29-30).]

This is the work of Christ, who also says that resurrection is to be, and life, and he promised to raise up all; and when he was present, he gave life to whom he wished, so that what is said is: of the Father in the beginning, of the Son in the working-out, and of the Spirit in the participation, being a partaker of him and as if being brought through the Son into the life of all, according to: 'He will give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you' (Ps 103:31). The Spirit is indeed life-giving, through which he works life, and God-making, through which he gives participation and the human spirit is of the same name according to its formation by him (Ps 103:32).

Eternal is the glory of him who preserves his works forever; and since the glory is eternal, the things being glorified are eternal (Ps 103:33). The magnitude of the glory is shown by the awe of the creation, and the subjection is signaled by the awe. Thus the psalm says that the sea is made subject by being terrified (Ps 103:34). For what fears, submits; and the subjection of the earth is the trembling of the oversight of God, and the smoking of the mountains, as if they were burning, which was seen bodily on Sinai (Ps 103:33-34). This is the gain of life; for this it is worthy to live; therefore death is terrible, the one silencing the...

The text ends abruptly mid-clause.

Divine Kindness and Severity§23

23Death is a loss, because there is no one in death remembering you, and life is merely existence because those living, he says, will praise you. For we have being through connection to the One who is, and separation is corruption. My discourse pleased him, and I shall be glad in the Lord; and he is worthy of prayer, so that God may be glad through our hymns, and we may have joy through them in every way. Even if all this were such that all our actions were a hymn to God, God would be glad for us, just as he was glad from the beginning.

One should not ignore, he says, that he is the Lord our God, whose providence governs the whole universe with divine judgments, so that nothing happens unsuitably or without his providence (Ps 104:7). The plagues were applied without distinction to the ranks of the plagues and he does not leave all of them out, for I think the power of God and the ever-spoken wonders are shown; and it is necessary that God's power be made known, and not an uninterrupted history of events (Ps 104:15).

He says the frogs did not come simply to the land, but into the houses, and the most prominent of the houses and their innermost parts, so that their onslaught would be unhindered and most violent, with no one, not even the strongest, being able to prevent it (Ps 104:27). It is also paradoxical that the dust and the lice were poured out over the whole earth and stood at the borders, not spreading further, as if the judgment were being carried out only in Egypt. Therefore, the bloodletting of the river also happened to stop at the borders, while in the neighboring regions the flows were such that, according to the Egyptians, the punishment was the removal of the river's prosperity (Ps 104:37).

Regarding the salvation given and the prosperity, he says of the power from God which led the Egyptians away, they ask to provide many and costly things for those about to leave the land. And it is great also to be delivered from suffering, while the land suffers most, until one is safe (Ps 105:14). When they tested God in a waterless place, being unchangeable and not forgetful, he did not fail them; he gave them...

Not only regarding their petition, but also when they were ascending in the Red Sea, and then He made His power known to them; but when they mocked Moses and Aaron in the camp, the earth suddenly opened and swallowed them up. For it was necessary that the servants should not be despised.

But also, since kindness and severity are both with Him, according to 'Behold then the kindness and severity of God' (Rom 11:22), first the things of kindness were provided to them; but as they were not able through it, following that, He met them with the medicine of the cauterizer.

Regarding Moses, indeed, those concerning Dathan and Abiram mocked, saying, 'Has God spoken to Moses alone? Has He not also to us?' and Korah and his assembly, daring to bring strange fire and sacrifices to God in the land of the sanctuaries. But for those who spoke against Moses, the earth opened and swallowed Dathan and covered the assembly of Abiram; and for Korah and those with him who were about to offer their incense, a flame proceeding from the Tabernacle burned them.

According to justice, the term is of destruction, but according to philanthropy, the remission is of saving. Regarding the remission, the embassy gave space because of the holiness of the one embassying and the providence for the sake of the world, through which the ambassador pleaded, so that the grace of God regarding Israel might not be considered insufficient; and because of the memory of the fathers and the promise to them, which Moses reminded God while pleading, for according to their impiety and the foreknowledge of all their evil, they would have been destroyed.

And the dispute concerning the earth is more ancient than the stand of Korah and Dathan, but greater and more impious, contending against the promise of God and not striving for the healing of God; so it is fitting that it is arranged through the cowardice occurring from the aforementioned impiety toward God, just as that dispute occurred through small-mindedness, a despairing of the success of the cowardice, just as the small-mindedness because of the separation of Moses was making a despairing of the return of Moses. For not only desires, but also cowardices and small-mindednesses of those owing to God and those owing to men are taken away, the endurance...

Allegory of the Exodus and the Sea§24

24Obstacles to honor are produced by disobedience to God and by disorder among men, as the fleshly nature mourns the spiritual nature and the beauty beside it vanishes through its own pleasure. But the God of discipline leads things through certain ways; the end of discipline is the correction of man toward the right through the leadership of the spirit, and the obedience of the flesh.

For this reason, he placed the provision of pleasures as a teacher, so that the desire of these might be made subject to the intellect according to the will of God, and he led them through dangers, training them to endure what is otherwise to be fled from through the hope toward God which is fitting for those who think rightly. And since men are more fleshly in the present state, first he relents from justice toward the disobedient and small-souled, but later, toward a return, he punishes.

Since, indeed, not punishing those shrinking from and arguing against the Red Sea, he punishes those who did not dare to follow him toward the promised land. For it was a manifest sign of unbelief. For to have seen so many and such wonders, to dare to rebel against all things was not just by the power of salvation.

And indeed, since having punished the Egyptians less, even though they were more impious, in some parts, he punished more severely with the death of the people in the disobedience of all the people of that time regarding the distribution of the land, because through the former justice they were not made wise and they remained to test God even more. Regarding Psalm 105:28, he did not say the cause of idolatry was that which was fornication, leading them into participation in reverence (for this was related to gluttony), but the result condemns it, for the sake of which also the law spoke of the mixing with women of foreign nations, lest they should fall into participation in impiety through the sympathy of the women, which indeed happened. For it led them so far into madness, as to be initiated into the things of Beelzebub and to be joined in sacrifices performed by the dead.

In Psalm 105:46-47, in this he shows that the return of the captives through mercy would not remain unshaken, having brought a prayer concerning the gathering from the nations and ending in this, so that they might find the salvation from God himself to be firm and immovable and through all things give thanks to the Savior and the life in God.

They have joy. And it is necessary for mercy to receive those after their present unbelief, as the apostle says, so that having been petitioned, they may dance to God all the days, as Zechariah foretells (Ps 106:6).

He says these things concerning the Jews: first, having been freed from the oppression in Egypt by crying out to the Lord, now, being subject to the same things and being delivered from all kinds of wandering, if they would cry out to the Lord, they might happen to reach the perfect liberty through Christ. And this is the same allegory, whence it does not seem at all that these things are being allegorized. For the words spoken do not suit the idea of the same people wandering in a desert and being bound in a dark prison. But it is clear according to Isaiah, he who says to those in bonds, 'Come forth,' and to those in darkness, 'Be uncovered,' concerning which Zechariah says that by His blood His covenant sent the prisoners out of a pit without water. Christ is therefore Savior from the Father, and Father through Christ. But Israel is being covered by death now, and is bound by humility and by the necessity of slavery. For the covering is a shadow, but humility is poverty, and necessity is iron. And for the Gentiles, they establish them being cast into a land of the nations, the poor from the beginning, concerning whom the 105th Psalm says, 'The poor shall eat and be satisfied' (Ps 105:9).

Allegorizing the evils of the Jews as wandering, famine, thirst, darkness, and bonds, he uses now an allegory of mariners: the disturbances in the sea and the transformations from these into prosperity, and leading them even unto a prosperous salvation through these labors; and he who has received the labors shall find rest, not without God having been disturbed into waves their former calm, but they show it by a divine command, just as one having raised a storm by command and having shaken their former prosperous sailing with the waves, by which they are being lifted up to a height and tossed down, as it happens to be in the sea, being humbled and being poured out and being tossed about by an ecstasy; then to experience a change by the wind, whenever God might command this, and He releases the violence of the winds into a gentle breeze and quiets the sound of the waves, where...

The Eternal King and Priest§25

25They shall have the joy from the wilderness, and that which they long for they shall reach: a safe landing in a harbor, upon which it is fitting to confess thanks to God in the church of the people and in the seat of elders, to hymn Him on account of, indeed, sins, as it was foretold, having delivered the nation to the waves, but having brought them by mercy into good things. And mercy itself makes manifest that one has been brought forth from sins. For the unworthy of good things are pitied, but regarding the evil ones, they are pitied; of which indeed the matter is not common, not as it often happens in the sea, where the good ones are tossed and shipwrecked, just as also Paul (Acts 27), and the bad ones are brought out of storms, being common to both sides in the things happening, so that being tested in the same trials, the difference in judgment will become clear toward which later a right and just retribution toward their own works has been pre-witnessed. Not indeed is the word about the many seas, but about the one being tossed by sin and by mercy reaching into the harbor of the people, of which also the church is for confession and the seat of elders for a hymn to God.

Mercy toward men which He asks on behalf of men (Ps 108:21). He who, not needing mercy Himself, is good in helping the worthy with terrible things, and not measuring out the equal, but for all things has come to Christ and is pitied on our behalf; for as He is, He also as a poor and humble man is pitied, and as being in disturbances, as He partook of the one being tossed in evils of nature, and as retreating into obscurity as far as His bodily appearance failed, and as having been moved and having been helped, as if one of the most deaf, according to those having snatched Him away, He gave Himself up; and the weakness from fasting and the sharpness from lack of food He brings from us into Himself, placing nothing between us and Himself, and He speaks a reproach upon these things, the reproach from those fighting which He now has from us, those mocking in His name.

That the whole world will be permeated shows the powerful authority of the divine King, having begun from Jerusalem according to 'I have been made king upon his holy Mount Zion' (Ps 109:2), and all will obey and serve.

Apollinaris, placing the interpretation of Symmachus, says: the continuousness of the peak and the unfading, being compared to eternal life by morning dews, just as the released life was compared to a shadow to a reclining one, 'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind' (Ps 109:3), and the following.

An eternal priest, the one living eternally, a stable priesthood having been made firm by an oath (Ps 109:4), is a type of Melchizedek, whose death is not made manifest, as a sign of the non-existence of death; and now, having been revealed as king, he is now also shown as priest, which is impossible in Israel and by law. It was typified in Melchizedek and this too.

For it is evident how Christ, even before being exalted by men, was exalted, being in the form of God and having descended from heaven (Phil 2). But the symbol of lowliness is the journey and drinking water from a stream; and we indeed see the Lord walking and asking for drinking water from the Samaritan woman (John 4).

Regarding Psalm 110: It is said in the present that the hymn is through short verses, and through the twenty-two elements of the Hebrews, the first sounds of the verses precede according to the Hebrew from first to last, that is, from Aleph to Tav, having a grammatical propriety of such a composition, which is called a preparation for the learning of letters and books, just as the psalms immediately and clearly exhort to the study of the law, since Moses himself commanded from above the same and having ordered to be made introducers to letters and to command the children to teach the law, because they had the learning through hearing, not through the Spirit the wisdom as those being perfected according to Christ.

He says, the righteousness of the blessed is not being extinguished (Ps 111:9), nor...

The Pattern of Christ and the Path of Virtue§26

26To stand even in the present and to be extended into the coming age, in which age His horn shall be lifted up in glory; that is, the kingdom which he shall be honored to attain from the saving promises. For it is customary in Scripture to call the kingdom 'Horn' (Ps 113:16).

But it is also just to establish those who worship most beautifully and consider the incorporeal as divine into something like themselves. And this would not appear to them as a curse justly, but rather becoming God is worthy of a prayer, just as they think they possess that which they marvel at.

For man is empty and a vapor in his being and non-being, because he seems to be, yet is not, but rather turns toward an image of life rather than in truth (Ps 115:2).

It is necessary for a release from the bonds of Hades, so that the God of the living and not a God of the dead may be ours, and we may be His ministers in the heavenly church, into which we return, fleeing the bonds of death (Ps 115:7-10).

He indeed rejoices as one having heard, and hopes as one receiving help; and he is strengthened by hope toward not fearing the plots of men nor marveling at their powers, but foreseeing their fall. These things indeed were formerly concerning Israel, with the other nations lying upon it (and the word is spoken hyperbolically), but after these things concerning the church from the nations, being fought against by the rebellions of the unbelievers. For those having believed in each nation were enduring the disturbances and dangers from the unbelievers, but nonetheless, even these, having been emboldened by God, conquered their opponents (Ps 117:7-9).

Those fighting serve God, yet they exult in human power and in human leadership; but those taking hold of the fear of God are emboldened by the help of God, and having lost this, they find a strength even stronger; and most magnificent are those who defend themselves in the name of Christ and of the Lord alone against enemies both visible and invisible (Ps 117:10-11).

He sings of the Lord's clear manifestation, through which salvation is restored to all, having said 'God' according to the Father and 'Lord' according to the Son's name, because both the Lord is God and the God is Lord; having appeared as Lord, He ruled over us and them into life, according to the text breaks that He might rule over the dead and the living, and the opposites into judgment (Ps 117:27a).

According to the abolishing of all authority and power (Ps 117:27bc).

The establishment of a feast is protected by a multitude of priests placing sacrifices upon the altar even unto its horns and the other projections. And as proceeding upon our own priests, the Word clearly shows those presenting themselves as a living sacrifice, truly pleasing to God according to a type of Christ (Ps 118:1), whose multitude also fills the altar even to the uppermost height which joins with the heavenly angels, through the same power which lifts the heavenly things toward the height and lifts up the earthly things by the manner of an altar receiving those approaching God.

These indeed were those not having walked in the counsel of the ungodly nor standing in the way of sinners (Ps 118:1bc), but grasping the law and the course in this. And he says 'blameless,' not meaning altogether falling away from faults and sins. For this was appointed for Christ and for the partakers of Christ through him; but for those, the blamelessness was judged by the forgiveness from God and not by the exactness regarding the outward regulations. For God does not require the impossible, but legislates by exposing what is lacking, and he forgives the weak, knowing them, and providing salvation through the then-yet-to-come participation in Christ, the powerful God. It is therefore fitting for us to live blamelessly according to Christ.

Since there were many oppositions toward virtue (Ps 118:5), just as there are stumbles on a road, he asks for the removal of these. For thus the road is made smooth by the removal of those who obstruct, according to 'Cast out of the way of my people the worms'; just as for the divine David a woman became a stumbling block and an unseasonable fall in a spectacle, for another a morsel for pleasure being seen, such as for Esau, for another glory just as for Saul, for another property just as for Ahab; all of which are necessary for God who is preparing the way, which should pack these things and maintain the beautiful inclination, even though the more violent things of the intention were pulling and, as if unwearying, were flowing because of their nature.

But for us, regarding the divine Spirit, it will be a matter of not being ashamed (Ps 118:6), when we see ourselves joined to him everywhere and in no way turning toward the flesh, nor being dragged down from a height of falling. In having learned the judgments of the...

In having learned the judgments of the...

The Utility of Divine Wisdom and the Vanity of Mind§27

27I will keep your statutes of righteousness. He says it asks for understanding, and it is promised that this will not be unfruitful. For I will not only learn, he says, but I will also keep your statutes (Ps 118:10).

Akyllas says, 'Let me not be ignorant' toward what we are saying. One using desire regarding the law fears the lack of understanding, which turns the zeal of many into the opposite. And in those things in which they seem to be upright, they have stumbled according to that which is said by Solomon: 'There is a way that seems right to men, but its end comes into the pit of Sheol' (Prov 14:12). For understanding does not come immediately from memory, but from the divine illumination; and the statutes are those capable of justifying (Ps 118:12b).

Pride is the mother of lawlessness. For through this they do not endure to obey the commands of God, such as the disobedient people who say, 'We will not be ruled, nor will we come to you anymore.' This shows his own readiness toward obeying the commandments to God. For he understands the guilty, and he will rebuke those who are disobedient and unruly through pride.

He prays to flee from the ignominy which is before God, which the Lord shows to be most fearful, saying that those who have shamed Him will be shamed (Ps 118:22). The lawful man, pointing out the opposite of this, says here mocking, that they are not to depart from the study of the holy oracles and the correction through them, and shortly after, he says, 'I have spoken in your testimonies against kings, and I was not ashamed' (Ps 118:23); such is also Paul, saying, 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel' (Rom 1:16).

What he himself says is to be a sacrifice to God, a broken and humbled heart, he says has now been fulfilled, having brought the soul down as to the ground and having been humbled voluntarily, just as regarding involuntary humbling it is said, 'Our soul was humbled into dust, our womb clung to the earth' (Ps 29:9). Having brought himself as becomes a humble man, he seeks from God a reward: a life-conduct according to the law and life according to the word of God (Ps 118:25). And this very thing is humbling: not to set the good life upon oneself, but to seek it from God.

To do all things greatly as in the eyes of God and to say these things and to recount (Ps 118:26-27).

And to ask for a corrective or confirming revelation regarding these things, while there remains for him also the benefit to others by conversing with a more divine understanding and announcing the wonderful benefit which God has stored up for those doing what is holy. For he who teaches concerning righteousness also teaches concerning the end, which is laid up for it, being something wonderful and unexpected, that God greatly and beyond measure rewards. Paul also conversed concerning self-control and righteousness and the judgment that is to come, as the ruler becomes a terror. Instead of 'I will not wander,' one says 'Akylas will preach,' and the other 'Symmachus will explain.'

If the heart of man is carefully directed toward evil from youth, it is necessary that God, by moving it toward righteous commands—that is, by leading our choice toward economies and realities and the illumination of the Holy Spirit—intervene.

Vanity is the madness concerning visions, the contemplation concerning non-existent things, and the absurd fantasy according to the intellect, which Paul makes clear, saying, 'Being darkened in the vanity of their mind, having been alienated from the life of God' (Rom 1:21). See that 'vanity of mind' is called so when one has a mind and does not use it for the contemplation of the truths, but provides it to the binding Satan. This, therefore, he says, 'Turn my eyes away, lest I see vanity'; for this is by the grace of God. For in this way one will be able, having turned away from such an understanding, to live in the way of God, walking in it and making oneself alive by it; for at once to be the way is to be life. Therefore the Savior says, 'I am the way and the life' (John 14:6).

And since the Son is the righteousness of the Father, he says this regarding one desiring to live in the Son; for the righteousness of God is revealed in him from faith to faith (Rom 1:17).

He says only that it is sufficient for us to be comforted in afflictions to have the promise of true life; 'fulfill this for us.' For if in this life only we are hoping in Christ, we are more to be pitied than all men, because we suffer evil now and not in expectation of a life to come. But the life that is to come is a resuscitation, since the soul itself is not life, nor is it true life.

The Stability of Righteousness and Divine Life§28

Exegesis of Psalm 118§29

29And they do not see it as becoming; but he who, desiring these things and being of these, is established alone in understanding, that even to those lovers of her wisdom reveals her own beauty according to 'She loved me' (Ps 118:99), and 'will honor you; honor her, so that she may take hold of you' (Ps 118:100).

All things through study are beautiful in man, whence also the command regarding study was extended, as if through this one were to surpass the elder and the younger and the disciple surpassing the teachers. Presenting himself humble and obedient, he asks for the salvation upon this from God, on account of the one giving to the humble and having promised mercy to those who love him (Ps 118:107).

A greater proof than readiness is to go even through dangers without departing from the law, and being in attacks, not to be pulled away from the righteous path by anger and provocation toward the attackers, just as Saul's attack did not lead David astray from defending what was fitting (Ps 118:109-110).

He extended the demonstration of zeal concerning the law, since he said the law was set as a proper inheritance, not for a season but to live in all things approaching this, as not under any yoke of necessity but holily in the joy of the soul. For this indeed is both lasting and difficult to change, that which is done in joy.

Even if they are not hated according to man, it is not worthy of God to be called hated according to God such as these, according to 'You hated all workers of iniquity' (Ps 118:113), so that it is a greatest proof of loving the law to hate those who have strayed from the law; therefore also for Jehoshaphat, friendship toward such a one became a reproach through the prophet, because he loved the one hated by God (Ps 118:118-119). It shows an imitation of God. If even to God all the apostate of the decrees is exhausted by vain thoughts, and to Him they are accused as crown-wearers or dung-gatherers, being no more honorable; therefore also toward the love of the divine...

Disorders are raised up, the vanity of evils for the purpose of exhortation, taking care regarding the good. And the E edition was nothing reckoned.

By the non-evilness of God, the lacking is intended to be filled, waiting for Him, the good-working which is still to come, just as one guaranteeing this as it is to be fulfilled, just as those guaranteeing debts do so so as not to fall hard by deceits (Ps 118:122). 'Ally, raise up your servant to good' (Ps 118:129), and Akylas and Theodotion have guaranteed.

Others, he says, marvel at gold and precious stones, but I, standing only upon the wonderful and the good, have this and more importantly preserve all the divine commands as a treasure (Ps 118:130).

The words need opening; therefore also the Lord opened the mind of the disciples to understand the Scriptures, and the understanding given through the words keeps them away from the deception of pleasure or glory (Ps 118:130).

This also is requested, since even in disturbances and sorrows, the precision regarding the healthy word is difficult (Ps 118:134).

See the enmity which the righteous have (Ps 118:139). And this was against their injustice and the forgetting of the law.

It is possible, according to history, to refer the things contained here to David, saying these things about himself. For he was the shortest of all the sons of Jesse, but also being despised. For all his brothers having been taken by the father to where Samuel had prepared the table, David was among his father's sheep, not having been taken to the feast; but even though being younger and despised, he himself obtained the kingdom by the will of God, since the rights of God had not been neglected. And he was younger, and he who is being instructed in the divine words and being despised because of humbling himself, and the people called from among the Gentiles after the elder and the firstborn of Israel, should have shouted out the spoken word. For they despise him...

The Joy of the Dwelling and the Unity of the Inhabitants§30

30Guarding the rights of God by uncircumcised memory (Ps 118:162).

The word has its own meaning for David, that being pursued by Saul in vain and through envy, he ceased to resist through fear toward God; and it extends to the common experience, that of the wars of rulers there is no other way to be escaped from being harmed than by being guarded by the fear of God. After the gift of wisdom, he asks again for salvation from dangers (Ps 118:173); this too is a reward for the voluntary zeal concerning the divine law (Ps 118:174-175).

Thus, he was saying that he expected eternal salvation, and now he observes that this study of the law is being performed with longing. For he says that he will indeed seek and praise God through His all-wise judgments, having been helped by this, which is Christ, descending in place of men to death for the salvation of men, and being driven out to suffer, redeeming those in sufferings and those dying through death; following which, the 'My soul shall live' and the following verses follow (Ps 119:2).

This was indeed immediately after the first apostasy of man when Cain struck down his brother by deceit, but it is also through the whole age of the present, as is shown in other things and in this present matter. Therefore, the man who turns toward God, suffering and being afflicted, asks for salvation from Him. He does not foresee the scarcity lying then, when he shall be brought up to the dwelling of the city of peace and the citizenship with both the good and the bad (Ps 119:5).

Another also makes manifest the foreign land from one part, into which Israel, having fallen, dwelt, and indeed his sojourning to extend for the longest time. Prophesying in lamentation, he brings this forth as reaching even to the present established state; for this is the longest (Ps 119:7).

For the good and God-fearing ones make their own peace and with all men, when they do not lack the critical punishment which God had commanded against the Canaanites and Amorites, forbidding friendship toward them; but the wicked and those ignoring God would never come into friendship with the good, but they loathe godliness and do not favorably receive even the good things from the God-fearing, nor are they moved by the philanthropy of them (Ps 120:1b). Mountains, say...

There are the unsetting and heavenly powers there; and while waiting for help through these, he says that help does not spring from these, but from the Creator.

Regarding Ps 121:1b, joy is to hear what is said by the angels, namely those speaking to the prophets, such as the flocks beginning the Israelite process, which is he who is shown through Zechariah, both acting as an ambassador on behalf of the fallen Jerusalem and speaking of its coming habitation. This is indeed what the singer says he heard and was made glad by, having foreseen the stable habitation in the holy city, perceiving it prophetically as the matter is present. For this is the 'Our feet have been standing in the courts of Jerusalem' (Ps 122:2). But the standing of feet is an immovable habitation, which even the holy prophets proclaim, whereas the opposite was when, according to history, God shook the foot of Jerusalem from its inhabited land. Therefore the singer speaks of the desolation of the city, having seen it just as Ezekiel did, but of the building up as a city being united, not according to the usual way, namely by surrounding it with walls, but by the inhabitants being united to one another. Therefore also he has not said 'a city', but as a city having a togetherness together. For neither does Ezekiel foretell that it shall be inhabited by walls, nor does Zechariah, but without walls; rather its wall shall be the Lord, because God is the guardian and companion of the unity of the saints. He interprets then the being through them of the inhabitants as the union, saying, 'There the tribes ascended, tribes of the Lord, a testimony to Israel to confess in the name of the Lord' (Ps 122:4). Not that they surrounded walls, and because of this they were united, but that they were united through themselves. A testimony indeed to Israel, namely testifying the truth of the promises, but to confess in the name of the Lord, meaning that to him who fulfilled the wonderful promise, a confession of graces is owed by those being benefited. He says that thrones of the house of David were established upon it, since even a kingdom is prophesied by Daniel, not only a principality of someone or the rule of one, but a common rule for the best and most God-fearing, through whom the kingdom of David is restored by the grace of Christ, who gave to the twelve apostles the right to judge, sitting upon the twelve thrones.

Commentary on Psalms§31

The Likeness of God and the Stewardship of the Land§32

32The work of hymns signifies the gathering of all saints (Ps 133:1-2), neither by day nor by night, as sleep does not overcome them by the power of those then incorruptible and tireless bodies.

Hymns are the end of good things, while the works of God are the hypothesis of hymns, being gifts and benefits (Ps 134:1-2). Those who hymn are not strangers or those standing far off, but those present and remaining, just as David established the hymn-singers as those staying upon this.

If anyone says that the indwelling of humans by God is a great benefit and the capital of all benefits (Ps 134:3-4), just as He made the Hebrews His own people and a chosen people for Himself above all nations then, setting them apart as something more and surpassing, as also He is His own God in intimacy, the God of all in creation.

He recalls the things happening paradoxically concerning Israel (Ps 134:6-7)—not things that would appear by nature from the beginning, but by the will of the One above nature (this indeed of the heavens, such as fire, hail, and darkness; this of the earth, such as frogs, locusts, gnats, and the punishment against the firstborn; and this of those in the sea and the depths, such as those concerning the Red Sea)—to the creative power, linking these as having come from the same power, asserting that He alone is the one moving the clouds from the ends of the earth, kindling lightning, sending the precursors of rains, and sending winds from the invisible beginning; He says that the origin of winds is an unseen and unknown treasure of God, not known beforehand where they are before they blow; he continuously understands that the winds lie as in the bodies, having treasures.

The terrible things signify not only what happened for Israel's sake, but for the knowledge of God through all the earth and all time (Ps 134:13), not only while the works of the one doing them were being made known, but also later through memory.

Therefore, he names those above as gods according to the custom of the nations, though they are not gods; but now, to the shame of the false gods' idols, he names them by the matter, accusing that silver...

And it is like gold, purified by labor, because it is like that which is under men and the soulless, along with the vanity of souls, due to the absence of a life-giving spirit upon them; all such things possess the outward appearance of contempt, and the demons have the outward indictment that they are not gods, whose such likenesses exist. For the likeness of God is divine; therefore also man is the icon of the divine, not one sustained by divinity.

Not less than subduing the warring ones, to feed them in the wilderness and to lead them without supplies, and the cutting down of the Amorite kings, is a demonstration of the mercy of God, providing a place for habitation, giving to the Hebrews their land (Ps 135:16, 22). And this was the storing up of the wealth of the ungodly for the righteous. For they would not have been destroyed otherwise if they had not been coming to the fullness of sins, just as God said to Abraham; and Moses indeed says that he has not held Israel in possession of their land because of his own righteousness, but because of their lawlessness and through the love of God toward the fathers, so that toward them indeed the destructive judgment was to be just, but toward these a philanthropic beneficent giving, and for the participation in philanthropy, the piety of the fathers had become a preparation. For thus justly and goodly and fittingly into order things from God appear.

That they are lying in the wilderness shows just as the state of the captives is after the migration from their own cities (Ps 136:1, 2). For this is: 'At the willow trees we hung up our instruments' (Ps 136:2).

And according to the spiritual worship, they considered foreign lands to be the foreign souls, and to be kept in these, to bring forth the divine things, just as being migrated from one's own place into a foreign place, as the divine mouth of Christ says: 'Do not give the holy things to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the swine' (Matt 7:6). Such was also Herod, desiring to behold the signs of Christ, not seeking this for reverence but for pleasant spectacle, wherefore he did not succeed.

'I will not use another land like yours, O Jerusalem,' he says, 'nor will I place on an equal the unclean with the pure, nor the profane near the holy; but for me, even being outside your habitation, your one will approach' (Ps 136:4, 5).

The Destruction of Babylon and the Church of the Nations§33

33Desire: and whenever I am transferred from this, my whole power is transferred. Because of this, those directing their prayers toward Jerusalem did everything possible in their prayers wherever they were brought, according to the requests of Solomon and the divine promises, just as it is necessary for us to turn toward the heavenly Jerusalem.

For it is not right for the instrument of words to fail (Ps 136:6), if it does not receive them toward what is necessary. Therefore, the blessed men also set their whole life upon the care of hymns (Ps 136:5), saying, 'I will sing to the Lord in my life, I will sing to my God as long as I exist.' And the city is precious to them because of the worship of God established in it, just as it is foretold: 'For the sake of the house of my God, I sought good things for you' (Ps 136:2).

For the highest and purest part of joy is placed in remembering the holy city. Thus, it will happen that the coming good joys will be, just as the Lord introduces to us the holy foods before the common and bodily ones.

The righteous pray to be brought what the Babylonians have plundered (Ps 137:8). For this is the holy judgment: the sinner was caught in the works of His hands, making judgments by the phrase 'The Lord knows judgments' (1 Kings 18:40). Blessed indeed is he who is shown able to do this, through whom God manifests the righteous judgment, and He will turn against those who plundered to be plundered, and against those who raised up violence to be overthrown. For the service belongs to God, and blessed is the one serving God.

And it must be applied with knowledge and proper intention, so that Cyrus does not bless the Persian king who conquered Babylon, because he neither knew the grace by which he took strength over them, nor the one who gave it, God ('For you did not know me,' he says Matt 7:23), nor did he understand through the forgiveness of Israel into the power...

If being led away, as it is prophesied through Jesus; but the blessing will surround those who repay Babylon in kind, and those who fasten the infants of it to the rock and lift them up. For in truth, the first thing was blessed: not to ever behold Babylon nor to be in the confusion of its evils; but if once anyone became in it, having fallen from the better ones, he would be blessed if he would do what he has suffered and would counter-imprison the Babylonians and lead their very souls into the fear of God; and if even their infants he would not allow to grow but would crush them against the rock, he would become much more blessed.

But the infants of Babylon are the seeds of wickedness and the beginnings of the confused sins—not to be called sins—which indeed the saving Word (for the rock was Christ) seeks to annul by not allowing them to grow nor to proceed into works, he who is blessed in these things. Regarding Israel, a correction of the things concerning him lies ahead, as the prophecies say; but a second Church, coming out of all the nations, enters, leaving behind a land for those who will return from Jerusalem.

So also in the present matters, we heard fully of the captivity of the nation and a prayer for the punishment of those who captured them, but now the song follows, announcing the appearance of the word of God throughout all the inhabited world, just as in Isaiah the prophet, when the word was being taken away, Zion became a desert and a curse; immediately the knowledge of God is pre-announced among the other nations, according to 'I was made manifest to those not asking, I was found by those not seeking' (Isa 49:6). Such a disposition and such a composition of these songs existed, after the...

Divine Grace and the Unity of Soul and Body§34

34For Israel, there is a prayer of thanksgiving, following hymns and foretold worships toward God, because through His mercy and His truth, for the sake of the name of the Word of God, He is being glorified—that is, what is now being fulfilled—to be glorified in the name of the Word as He was never previously glorified, since the worship of God was confined to a portion of the earth before the manifestation of the Word. The Creator is praised by all, and God was announced to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He possessed this knowledge and honor even unto the nation of the Hebrews. But when His living Word came forth from God and was revealed into the world through a body, then every nation and the whole inhabited world rushes toward the worship of God, serving in the name of the Word and glorifying God in the presence of the Word; now reverence abounds among the nations according to the mercy, while it is also preserved for Israel according to the truth of the promises.

Psalm 137:3 shows great favor, and swift obedience in the name of Christ, and the provision of power being given to souls. For Christ says, 'If you ask anything in my name, I will do it' (John 14:14); and the apostle says that the provision of the Spirit comes to those who believe. Psalm 137:5 Let the providence of God be praised, because He is a great God, and His greatness is revealed through providence, just as through the seraphim His glory in the present providence and economy is praised, crying out, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth' (Isaiah 6:3), ful—

For all the earth is his glory (Ps 137:6).

He says that human creation enjoys the gift of God, even this lesser and formerly more dishonored creature, which is not now itself exalted, because to God all things are lowly and the highest, and these are known from afar because the unapproachable height of God cannot be approached. Since all things are small in relation to God, it is nothing to wonder that even the smallest things are reached by his benefits; that is, those in the world who have no hope and are atheists, whom the apostle has spoken of as not even existing (Ps 137:7-8a).

Second, the part of Israel is brought forward, having been received into afflictions but to be repaired unto salvation; through which your enemies shall be struck by God, but they themselves shall attain the salvation from God. The Lord will repay on my behalf; for he will repay on behalf of the wronged of the nation so that they may come out from the hands of the oppressors (Ps 137:8c).

Even if we do not provide fruits worthy of your love, he says, because we are sinful works, we deserve not to be despised (Ps 137:8c).

Here, both soul and body are shown placed into one thing and molded under one form, each setting the other, for he says that God has the knowledge of the psychic properties from the molding, just as another has said, 'He who formed the spirit of man in him' (Ps 138:5). For the creation is not in a state of separation, but even if the making of the soul is more beautiful than that of the body, it is not such as to be man-made according to the formation of matter, but is inspired according to the subsistence from divine power. Altogether, indeed, into one...

Prayer for Cleansing and the Judgment of the Wicked§35

35He brings together more things, just as the name of a single thing sometimes participates in the common, and sometimes in the flesh being so named; just as the apostle, speaking of man as the image of God (Gen 1:26) because of the one having come into him from God which did not happen to a woman, clearly includes both soul and body, just as the male is distinguished from the female.

For example, also regarding Jonah, he fell into the sea while fleeing, and how he found the power of God regarding the movement of the waters, raising waves (Ps 138:9-10), and regarding the nature of living things, a sea-monster receiving him and not crushing him, and him being guarded in the sea-monster and undergoing no destruction.

'You know my substance,' he says, 'and the joining of my bones is your work (Ps 138:15-16); in the secret of a mother's womb, as if a land being variegated within, you knew me before I was formed; and I have been written by you as in a book, and every complete human being is being created by measured time in a quantity of days (Ps 138:17-18)'; which is indeed a wonder of order and of precise symmetry, that life-giving is being given without lacking a single day.

And I was not said to be short, they say, because the righteous are found to be few according to each season, but toward the whole multitude they were seen to be many who existed from eternity, and I saw them in great number and more in count, whom the resurrection will show as countless, and especially now having increased in multitude at the presence of Christ, according to the filling of the whole earth with knowledge (Hab 2:14).

the Lord, and I will praise You in a great assembly; among a heavy people, I will magnify You (Ps 138:23-24). Since there are things precious to You among the righteous men and laid up for eternal glory, but for the destruction of the wicked, I beseech You to be cleansed of all evil by the cleansing from You, since You are able to powerfully cleanse us even in the evils into which we fall through our ignorance.

Therefore, he says, lead me through good deeds upon which eternal life shall be stored up, cleansing me from every evil that leads toward destruction (Ps 139:9). It is fitting for God that it should be said that no mindset be granted to lawlessness, nor should they be permitted against righteousness, nor should the bitter and destructive things reach an end for them and be forgiven, but rather these things should be held fast upon which they possess bitterness. For when injustice occurs, it is much more difficult and it will increase the blasphemy against the righteousness of God (Ps 139:11).

And they will fall into a fall, not like the fall of the righteous who fall and rise again, but an unrelenting fall that no longer comes toward a resurrection; they will be brought into nothingness, unable to become established upon the earth, but being thrust out from it in corrupting punishments (Ps 140:2).

If in the morning we understand the life that is passing by in rest and glory, let us consider the one that is present in night and evening (Ps 140:2); in the evening, as if having some light remaining, for the sake of the knowledge of the good and the gifts from God, but at night, according to the darkness of evil and the tyranny of the rulers of this darkness. Therefore, man now needs an intense cry, because he has been struck.

The Separation of the Spiritual§36

36He is weighed down by darkness and by the evils that are present, toward the only One able to enlighten, and to show the dawn from the evening and the day from the night, and to effect a transformation of the evil works (Ps 140:4-5). Therefore, He makes a statement concerning evil, desiring to be pure from it and to be a stranger to those living in this life. For the wounds of friends are more trustworthy than the voluntary kindnesses of enemies (Ps 140:6-7). For, he says, they mock the beautiful and that very thing which is most beautiful by confession, diverting prayer according to their own will. And this, he says, will leave them uprooted from the earth, just as a plant having been thrust out through a rock and having its root displaced. And they set a laugh and a joy upon my words, laughing at the solemn things because of rejoicing with the immodest, and through long-standing habituation to these things, the petition is cut off concerning the beautiful and truly desirable and pleasant things. Secondly, regarding death, he speaks, recounting the sorrowful dissolution of man, saying that as a fragment is scattered when broken (Ps 140:10).

The Deliverer: Let the lawless fall into their own nets. Into them, he says, let the devices be frequent, but not upon us who are innocent. And I, he says, shall turn away from the mingling with the wicked, until I am able to escape them as well. For this is safety: to not be defiled by them at all, to not even approach, nor even to mingle with them. This also Jeremiah says of a good man when he bears a yoke in his youth: he will sit alone and be silent. But now for us, the separation from the wicked is spiritual, since the bodily separation is impossible; for we ought, then, to come out from the world, as Paul says (Ps 141:2).

Truly, the unity of the Dyad is also good, having placed the Lord and God upon such a thing; yet more knowable to those who have learned the perfection is the apprehension of the Dyad in unity, which Paul presents, explaining one God and one Lord, who, being two, are perceived to unite the God in the Lord and the Lord in God; according to which the divine and sovereign essence is observed in identity, moving from Father into Son according to the divine, and from Son into God being led up according to the sovereign. (Ps 141:8). Not by fleeing the siege by enemies is the end set, but to offer up something even more beautiful for the sake of God; for this indeed is the most supreme end (Ps 142).

Others say that the psalm is not unattributed, but is inscribed 'A Psalm of David, when the son persecuted him.' However, this does not apply to all the interpretations. But the things being said are not foreign; nor does it prevent one from speaking concerning the persecution by Saul (Ps 142:8ab). But according to the whole hypothesis of the life of the righteous, or the perfect mercy, it is not yet received, but rather the coming appearance that promises in the morning, when the Master will shine upon the righteous appearing from heaven (Ps 142:11). The name of the goodness of the salvation of God becomes a pretext for Himself, according to the apostle saying, 'To the praise of the glory of His grace' (Ps 142:11).

Divine Power and Human Limitation§37

37But all things are similar: human things are one kind, while the examples of divine energy—terrible and strong and destructive to men—are another (Ps 143:4-5).

In this present life, according to the succession of one man, these things can be so, because those succeeding enter into the place of those departing; therefore we are all called by the name of Adam as if we were that same person, and God says, 'I made earth and man upon it,' counting all as one (Ps 144:1). But according to the life to come, these things are true for each one, with God being perpetually and eternally praised; and since it is not sufficient to praise for a little while, He adds 'unto the age and unto the age of ages.'

Since all that God has made remains for ever according to the Preacher (Eccl 3:14), every generation seeing His works praises them, seeing them to be surpassing all praise (Ps 144:4). And they declare Your power, by which You brought them into existence. This is the wisdom by which You have made all things; and Your power and wisdom is Your only-begotten offspring; for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

They know that He has dominion over all, even if He does not yet manifest this to men who possess it receptively (Ps 144:9, 12). For men are small regarding the manifestation of the majesty of the divine kingdom within them; therefore, what is becoming for God is brought forth (Ps 144:12).

Saying 'the hands of God' (Ps 144:16), He means the opening of the provision of the food of created things; it is clear He is not presenting physical hands, but the creative power thus imitating. For if not through all things, He says, the Philanthropy is perceived (Ps 144:17), but many things that are pleasant and salvific, as well as many that are laborious and corruptible, come to those—such as the distinction of fruits, the destructive generations of beasts, and diseases.

Divine Justice and the Nature of True Life§38

38These are the down-payments; yet none of these are outside of justice, intimately connected with goodnessdness, so as not to let the zeal for the beautiful perish through a lawless, unchecked cheerfulness (Ps 144:21). Again, he stretches out the hymns over a long duration and does not stand upon a single point or his own person, but intends to make all men equal toward the infinite age, even if he is sometimes seen along with those who are passing away, signifying a fellowship of the righteous who have become God's beginning according to the apostle (Ps 145:1-2).

It seems to teach that this is the work of life, and this is the benefit of being, if we are joined to the truly living and to the truly existing Being; for this is the provision both for the truly living and for existing eternally, since from the present life we are brought toward the life that is to come (Ps 145:5). In this way, hope in men is vanity, but hope in God is blessedness. For He is a true helper, eternal and ruler of all things; in this, His authority is such that, as from abundant wealth and infinite greatness, He readily benefits (Ps 146:4).

He is so great and so far-reaching that even the unnumbered stars are not outside His knowledge, but having been regulated by Him, He precisely knows the nature and power of each, distinguishing them just as names of designations (Ps 146:5). Strength and understanding, indeed, we hear in human terms, but let us not think in human terms what strength is, by which a strong man acts, nor what understanding is, by which the wise man deliberates, being something both arriving and departing.

The Fullness of Wisdom and Power§39

The Incomprehensibility of God and the Praise of Creation§40

40of the knowledge of God. For His understanding is so deep that, due to incomprehensibility, it has no number. And even if it is said to have no number because of the exceeding multitude of things contemplated within it, you yourself will realize this (Ps 148:2).

The angels are indeed those in the heavens, but the powers are even above these, worthy of the Highest, existing to proclaim His glory to men; and they alone possess continuous blessedness through the stability which is from God, which are also those called thrones by the apostle, being established by God's name and being subject to the Divine and being great in creation; having always stood firm and being a spring in the reception of the Divine glory.

Shine in the heaven with the day and the night, lighting it (Ps 148:3), that is, the highest heaven, which is the firmament according to Moses, and indeed the water above it; he is exhorted to praise God. It is clear that all these things are a hymn to God, manifesting the all-praised One of the Creator through their own beauty, power, and energy.

And saying to all the righteous, he shows those from every nation (Ps 148:14). By prophecy, as he drew Israel, because he had drawn near from the beginning, he shows the inclusion of the Gentiles.

Therefore, the rest after death and the rejoicing in this, the Word necessarily established (Ps 149:5), according to the saying 'In peace I will lie down and sleep' (Ps 4:8).