The Separation of the Spiritual

He 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).