The Horn as Strength and Divine Name

For the powers are now revealed through the sea. 'He said' 'rivers on the right.' For the prophets are rivers, streams flowing from the source of the water that is 'leaping into eternal life' (John 7:38). For 'he who believes' 'in me, as the scripture said, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly' (John 7:38). This indeed he was speaking concerning the Spirit whom the believers were about to receive.

These, being rivers, 'shall strike with the hand upon itself.' And it is a practice of harmony. See then, the hand, where the sea is, the saltiness, the dizziness. But your right hand and your arm and the light of your face. The right hand possesses and an arm suitable. You did not inherit the land by your own hand or by your own arm, but the arm of God and the right hand and the light of his own face provided this to you.

In one way, this is for tropology: that you were not liberated and became in the holy land by your own power or by your own deed. But if you take it with a higher allegory, both his arm and his right hand and the light of his own face are the Savior. Therefore, not in themselves, but in this you were saved, you were migrated from the land of bondage into the good one.

Having prepared, he triumphed, but with God having fought alongside, as the scripture says: 'not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of the God who shows mercy' (Romans 9:16). For you were pleased in them. You are yourself my king and my God (Psalm 146:5). For you are not only my God being my Creator and leading me toward my being, but also king, because by providence I rule, no longer being entangled in 'the affairs of life.' And indeed you are my God, I am a creation of God—and every creation has God as God—but as you rule.

He who commands the salvations of Jacob (Hebrews 1:5). To Jacob, who is fleeing from evil, the king and being God commands the salvations. And salvations are commanded to the spirits who minister the salvations, concerning which the apostle says: 'Are not all of them ministering spirits sent for the service of those who are about to inherit salvation?' (Hebrews 1:14). Not so that they might confirm and give it, but so that, having heard it, they might proclaim it beforehand.

"Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your savior is coming'" (Zephaniah 3:17). The 'salvations' of 'Jacob' may be the virtues according to kind, or the two virtues: the practical and the contemplative—the contemplation of truth and the productive virtue of praiseworthy works.

"We strike with horns our enemies in you" (Psalm 68:1). You see, we do not strike our enemies using physical horns; you are our horn and our defense. Therefore, you have that which is said in one of the Psalms by all the saints: "And in your favor our horn shall be exalted" (Psalm 92:10). It is not the physical horn; for the horn of those possessing it is again a defense. Through it, they will repel the approaching evils. Thus, those who have you as king and God do not have any other horn besides you. For instance, the word attributes something in one of the Twelve: "Those who say, 'We do not have horns in our strength'" (Psalm 75:10). Having a horn and having power, we strike our enemies with horns. Because of this, the horns of these are also crushed: "and all the horns of the sinner I will break" (Psalm 75:10). It is also possible for a king and a kingdom to receive a horn, as it is presented in Daniel: "the ten horns, ten kingdoms" (Daniel 7:24). Therefore, having you as king, we have you as a horn, and "we strike our enemies in you." And "in your name," since we have your designation upon ourselves, "we render powerless" all "those who rise up against us," having an invincible weapon: your designation. However, one must possess a designation, and not merely a hollow one. Not everyone who calls himself a Christian truly possesses the name of Christ, but rather he who is a Christian. "And in your name we rendered powerless those who rise up against us." And from this it is shown again that they rise up against us by premeditated will. They are not such by nature, nor are the [unjust/wicked] such by nature, as those who argue from natures say.

"For I do not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me" (Psalm 118:95). I indeed have a bow and a sword, since I am clothed in "the full armor of God," but I do not hope in these; not the whole of my expectation is in these, using them. I wish to have God as an ally and a champion, so that I may have the strength to strike against those to whom I send my...