Homilies on the Psalms

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.4 · 7.1–14.0 · 14.1–14.8 · 14.9–28.2 · 28.5 · 29.0–29.8 · 32.1–32.8 · 32.9–33.2 · 33.6–33.13 · 33.14–44.4 · 44.8–44.11 · 45.1–48.1 · 48.2–48.9 · 48.10–59.4 · 61.0–61.4 · 114.1–114.2

1. 1.1Basil opens his homily on Psalm 1 by praising the book of Psalms as a storehouse of every kind of teaching, sweetened by melody so that it is learned without effort.
2. 1.2Basil continues his praise of psalmody, explains why the Psalms are sung to the psaltery, and begins on the opening verse of Psalm 1 as the foundation of the whole book.
3. 1.3Basil explains that the opening beatitude sets the reward before the labor, that God alone is properly blessed, that women are included in “the man,” and why the verse speaks of past walking and of avoiding evil first.
4. 1.4Basil expounds the three steps of Ps 1:1 (counsel, way, seat): sin begins in thought, life is a way in which we cannot stand still, and the pestilent are those who spread their vice to others; he closes promising to continue.
5. 7.1Basil explains the title of Psalm 7: Hushai, called “son of Archi” in Kingdoms, is here “son of Jemini” (son of the right hand) because his counsel made him David's right hand, as Scripture names people from their deeds.
6. 7.2Basil explains Ps 7:1–6: only one who hopes in God alone can pray this verse; salvation is for the sick, deliverance for captives; “repayment” can mean a first gift; and the enemy tramples the soul of the one who lives by the flesh.
7. 7.4On Ps 7:6–8 Basil applies the prayer to God's vindication of the commandment Absalom broke and distinguishes the senses of “judgment” in Scripture: testing, condemnation, and God's own entering into judgment with sinners.
8. 7.5Basil explains that judgment is weighed against each person's advantages: those raised in piety and the law are judged more strictly than those raised in vice, and the good deeds of barbarians condemn Christians; he begins on Ps 7:8.
9. 7.6Basil explains Ps 7:8–12: the psalmist asks to be judged by human righteousness and pardoned for inexperience, prays that sinners' wickedness may end, and teaches that God tries heart and reins, helps the upright, and delays punishment out of patience.
10. 7.7On Ps 7:13 Basil explains God's bow and “instruments of death” as his punishing power, and says that his arrows are made for souls already set on fire by the devil's darts of passion.
11. 7.8Basil explains Ps 7:14–15: the order travail–conception–birth describes sin's birth in the heart, Absalom being the devil's offspring; and in Scripture pits stand for evil, wells (which reveal hidden springs) for good.
12. 14.0The verse of Psalm 14 (15) on which the homily is preached.
13. 14.1Basil expounds Ps 15:1–3: the sojourner treats the flesh as a lodging and life as exile; the holy mountain is the heavenly Zion; blamelessness and working righteousness, truth in the heart and guileless speech, and doing no harm or reproach to one's neighbor mark the perfect man.
14. 14.3On Ps 15:4 Basil explains that the just man despises the wicked however great and honors the God-fearing however lowly, and reconciles the psalm's praise of true swearing with the Gospel's “do not swear at all.”
15. 14.4Basil turns to Matt 5:42, grounding generosity in human nature as social.
16. 14.6Basil explains that almsgiving needs discernment, as in the church of Acts, where gifts were pooled and distributed by those in charge of the poor; giving to the poor is lending to God, with the kingdom as pledge.
17. 14.7Basil opens his second homily on Psalm 14 (15), on Ps 15:5a, by condemning lending at interest from the Law and the Prophets and by portraying the moneylender's hypocrisy toward the needy borrower.
18. 14.8Basil describes the borrower's brief luxury and long misery, urges the poor to sell their goods rather than borrow, and explains interest (tokos, “offspring”) as an unnaturally fertile beast.
19. 14.9Basil urges the poor to work or beg rather than borrow, describes the ruin of debtors and their children, and tells the rich to lend to the poor as to God, who repays the interest himself.
20. 28.1Basil explains the title of Psalm 28 (29), “at the going out of the tabernacle,” literally of the priests' service and spiritually of departure from the body, and why the gifts must be brought by “sons of God.”
21. 28.2Basil explains Ps 29:1–6: the rams are the Church's leaders and their sons the faithful; glory and honor are brought by good works and right doctrine; worship belongs within the Church's one court; the Lord's voice is an inward impression, heard in baptism and the Gospel's thunder; and he breaks the proud cedars of Lebanon.
22. 28.5Basil explains Ps 29:6–11: Christ is the “unicorn” as having the one power of the Father; God's voice divides the fire of judgment into light and burning, makes the desert fruitful, prepares the “deer” (the saints) and uncovers the thickets of sin; he rebukes chatter in church, and reads the flood as baptism.
23. 29.0The title of Psalm 29 (30) on which the homily is preached.
24. 29.1Basil distinguishes “psalm” (action) from “song” (contemplation), reads the “dedication of the house” of Christ's incarnation and of the Church's renewal, and asks how man can “exalt” God.
25. 29.2Basil explains that Scripture speaks of God sleeping, turning away or forgetting according to our own condition, and that God “upholds” us like a swimmer or a wrestler, so that afflictions do not give the enemy joy unless we give in, as Job did not.
26. 29.3On Ps 30:2–4 Basil teaches that God answers at once, that the soul is raised from Hades and the pit of sin by Christ, and that only the holy truly sing psalms.
27. 29.4Basil explains Ps 30:4–7: “confession” here means thanksgiving; God's “wrath” is his judgment and “anger” its execution, as a physician decides and then cuts; God wills life for all; weeping in the evening and joy in the morning point to the passion and resurrection; and he begins on “strength to my beauty” by citing the philosophers' account of virtue.
28. 29.5Basil explains beauty and strength as the virtues that follow on contemplation, given by grace to restore the beauty of creation; true beauty is God's, reflected in those who behold him, as in Moses' face, while the passions make the soul hideous.
29. 29.6Basil explains Ps 30:7–12: God turns his face away to test us; true crying is for heavenly things; we should not pamper the flesh, which buries the mind; the Lord turns mourning into joy for those who lament their sins; and the glory that sings is the Spirit in the just.
30. 29.8Basil ends the homily on Psalm 29 (30) with the psalmist's resolve to sin no more and to give thanks forever for pardon.
31. 32.1Basil expounds Ps 33:1–5: the righteous rejoice in God himself; praise befits only the upright; the cithara and ten-stringed psaltery are bodily deeds and the mind keeping the ten commandments; the new song is the spiritual sense; all creation leads to faith; and God joins mercy to judgment.
32. 32.4Basil explains that on earth God's mercy works without judgment, since Christ came to save, while at the judgment there will be no judgment without mercy.
33. 32.5Basil explains Ps 33:7: God gathers the sea like a wineskin, as at the Red Sea; the “deeps in storehouses” are the unsearchable principles of his judgments, to be seen face to face; and the faithful are new wineskins for the new wine of the Spirit.
34. 32.6On Ps 33:8–10 Basil teaches that fear begins and love perfects; “came to be” refers to the body and first creation, “was created” to the soul and new creation in Christ; and God scatters the counsels of nations, as at the cross and resurrection, at Samaria's siege, and with Ahithophel.
35. 32.7On Ps 33:11–12 Basil contrasts the scattered philosophies of the nations with the abiding counsel of God, reads the two “generations” as the two covenants, and calls blessed the chosen people gathered from the nations, before the remnant of Israel.
36. 32.8On Ps 33:13–15 Basil contrasts God's overseeing from heaven with his “coming down” to Sodom and Babel, stresses that nothing escapes his eye, and teaches that the creator of the once-simple heart understands all our works and intentions.
37. 32.9On Ps 33:16–17 Basil teaches that kings, giants and horses are not saved by their strength but by God's grace, which shines most in the weak; the saints did not trust in horses, which belong to Pharaoh and Sennacherib.
38. 32.10Basil ends his homily on Psalm 32 (33): God's eyes are on those who look to him; the humble hope in his mercy, not their works; the soul waits for him with joy in affliction; his name is holy for what it signifies; and his mercy is measured to our hope.
39. 33.0The title of Psalm 33 (34), on which the homily is preached.
40. 33.1Basil reconciles the title of Psalm 33 (34), which names Abimelech, with 1 Samuel, which names Achish: Abimelech was the common title of Philistine kings, as Pharaoh of Egyptian and Caesar of Roman rulers.
41. 33.2Basil expounds Ps 34:1–7: blessing God at all times, even in affliction; praise as the soul's continual thought of God; boasting only in the Lord; the meek magnifying God together in quiet contemplation; affliction proving the saints; enlightenment of those who come to Christ the true light; voluntary poverty, of which Christ is the model; and the angel who guards the God-fearing.
42. 33.6Basil explains Ps 34:8–10: tasting the Lord's goodness through experience of the Word whets insatiable desire; fear of God makes one lack no virtue; Israel the rich became poor of the Word while the seekers from the nations lack no good, for the true good is God, not bodily goods, which Paul lacked.
43. 33.8On Ps 34:11 Basil distinguishes the enemy fear, born of unbelief, from the saving fear of God, and teaches it through a vivid picture of Christ's judgment seat, the dark fire, the worms and eternal shame.
44. 33.9On Ps 34:12–13 Basil teaches that the true life is Christ and the good days are those of the age to come, not this evil age, and that the first commandment of that life is to restrain the tongue, source of the readiest and most varied sins.
45. 33.10On Ps 34:14 Basil teaches that turning from evil is the first step for beginners, and that the peace to be pursued is Christ's peace, the calm of a soul unshaken by passions and false doctrine.
46. 33.11On Ps 34:15–16 Basil explains God's “eyes” and “ears” as the angelic powers that oversee and hear the righteous, and his “face” as Christ's manifest coming in judgment, to be seen by the righteous after the resurrection.
47. 33.12On Ps 34:17–19 Basil teaches that the righteous cry in the heart for heavenly things; the Lord's nearness to the brokenhearted foretells his coming in the flesh; spiritual humility differs from the degradation of sin; and afflictions are the athlete's contest from which God delivers.
48. 33.13Basil asks how Ps 34:20 can say the bones of the righteous are not broken, since the martyrs' bones were broken.
49. 33.14Basil ends the homily on Psalm 33 (34): the death of sinners is evil but there is a good death in Christ; the wicked hate the righteous because his life convicts them; and Christ redeems with his blood those who hope in him.
50. 44.0The title of Psalm 44 (45), on which the homily is preached.
51. 44.1Basil explains the title of Psalm 44 (45): “those who will be changed” are human beings, changing in body and soul and finally at the resurrection; the song is for the beloved, Christ, known only by perfect love; and he reads verses 1–2 as the prophet's own word, inspired by the Spirit, the swift scribe.
52. 44.4Basil expounds Ps 45:2–7: the beauty of the Word's Godhead seen by the prophet; the grace poured on Christ's lips and on the preachers of the Gospel; the sword of the Word joined to the flesh, whose incarnation is the greatest proof of power; the arrows of the word that wound souls with love; and the throne and scepter of the Son, whom the psalm calls God.
53. 44.8On Ps 45:7–8 Basil explains the anointing of Christ's flesh with the Holy Spirit, the oil of gladness given to him fully and not in part, his natural love of righteousness, which we too can learn, and the myrrh, stacte and cassia as signs of his burial.
54. 44.10On Ps 45:10–12 Basil reads the address to the daughter as Christ's call to the Church of the nations to hear and contemplate, forget her pagan customs and father the devil, and recover her beauty; the gifts of Tyre are the homage of converted Canaan, and worship goes to Christ, her head.
55. 44.11On Ps 45:13–17 Basil teaches that the bride's glory, a garment woven of word and deed, is within; that virgins who choose virginity gladly will be led into the king's temple; and that the Church's sons, the apostles and saints, rule the earth in place of the fathers, while the peoples confess Christ forever.
56. 45.1Basil explains the title of Ps 46 (the end, the sons of Korah, the hidden things) and begins on its first verse: everyone needs a refuge, but the devil confuses the choice of a savior; Christians too seek health or wealth that may harm them, and run to enchanters, amulets, doctors and dream-interpreters instead of to God, the one refuge.
57. 45.2God is the true helper of the righteous, like a general who brings help where the line is pressed; afflictions find the righteous who walk the narrow way, but they produce endurance and hope, and the one who trusts in God fears nothing even if the earth is overturned, while we panic at a man's anger or a dog.
58. 45.4On Ps 46:4–5 Basil makes the quiet river that gladdens God's city the Holy Spirit, whom the righteous drink now in part and later in fullness; the city is the Church or the heavenly Jerusalem, the tabernacle is Christ's flesh, and the morning help is the rising of Christ, the Sun of righteousness, in the soul.
59. 45.5The morning help of Ps 46:5 is also Christ's resurrection at dawn; Ps 46:6 pictures a besieged city relieved by a general whose shout routs the nations; and in Ps 46:7 the prophet sees Emmanuel, God with us, the same God who appeared to the patriarchs, not another god.
60. 45.7On Ps 46:8–9 Basil teaches that God's works can be seen only by those who first come near to him, as the Father calls with open arms; Christ made peace through the cross, and as commander of the angelic hosts he wounds no enemy but breaks their weapons and strips their defenses for their own good.
61. 45.8On Ps 46:10–11 Basil teaches that God can be known only by those free from worldly cares and passions, contrasting good leisure for God with the Athenians' idle curiosity and the empty house of the parable; “I will be exalted” foretells the cross, and the repeated refrain is the believer's triumph in Christ, our peace.
62. 48.0The title of Ps 49 (LXX 48), on which Basil's homily comments.
63. 48.1Basil sets the Christian end of life, the blessed life under God's rule in the age to come, against the philosophers' ends (knowledge, action, pleasure), relates the psalm title “to the end” to the victory of Christ, and begins on Ps 49:1–2, a summons to all nations, earthborn and sons of men, rich and poor.
64. 48.2On Ps 49:3–7 Basil joins heart and mouth (belief and confession), reads the psaltery as a life in harmony with words, and the evil day as the judgment when each sin will stand as its own accuser; to the strong and the rich he declares that no brother can ransom a soul from the devil, for every man is himself a captive of sin, and only the redemption in Christ sets free.
65. 48.4No brother, not even Moses, could ransom Israel, for Moses too sinned at the rock; only Christ, God made man, could pay the price of our souls with his precious blood, needing no propitiation for himself. The Lord who never wearies toiled in this age, and so do the righteous like Paul, Lazarus and Job, who will live to the end, while the luxurious rich man and the worldly wise will die.
66. 48.6The verse Ps 49:10b (LXX 48:11), on which Basil comments in 48.8.
67. 48.8On Ps 49:12–13 Basil sets out man's dignity: made in God's image, ruling the creatures, above sun and stars, which are soulless and bound by necessity; yet man, enslaved to the flesh, has become like the beasts (lustful horse, wolf, fox), forgetting both his creation and the price of his redemption, the blood of Christ; God sets stumbling blocks in the way of sinners, as with Paul, so that they may turn and confess.
68. 48.9On Ps 49:14–15 Basil reads death as the shepherd given the captives by the devil, from Adam to Moses, until the Good Shepherd laid down his life, led them out of Hades into the morning of the resurrection, and handed them to the angels; the psalmist's hope that God will redeem his soul from Hades foretells Christ's descent into Hades.
69. 48.10On Ps 49:16–20 Basil answers those who doubt providence because the unjust prosper: the rich man takes nothing with him but a shroud and a little earth; the poor are comforted hereafter, as with the rich man and Lazarus. The worldly man praises God only in prosperity, as the devil charged against Job; the sinner knows God only by ancestral custom, and both he and the authors of false teaching will not see the light; the homily closes by lamenting man, honored but become like the beasts.
70. 59.1Basil, weak from long illness, likens his sermon to a mother's dry breast given to a crying child. He finds the history behind the title of Ps 60 in 2 Samuel 8 and 10, and asks why David laments after his greatest victories: the title points to the end, to “those who will be changed,” the Gentiles who turn from idols to the Gospel; he then reads the verses as God's rejection of sin, his pity in sending his Son, the sign of Christ's blood, and the sharing of Israel's covenant with all nations.
71. 59.4On Ps 60:8–12 Basil reads Moab, “the pot of washing,” as baptism, which admits even the excluded Moabite to the Church; the shoe cast over Edom is Christ's flesh, the fortified city the Church; and help from affliction is the Christian's true help, as with Paul, since affliction produces endurance and hope, and the sick, the poor and the dishonored are to rejoice and pray rather than trust human help.
72. 61.0The title of Ps 62 (LXX 61), on which Basil's homily comments.
73. 61.1Basil explains that the two psalms “for Idithun” (Pss 39 and 62) were composed by David for the temple singer Idithun, and that both teach endurance and humility, by which the humble man is not moved by insults; in Ps 62 the soul refuses to be the slave of the passions and declares that it serves only God, its true King.
74. 61.2On Ps 62:1–5 Basil teaches that the soul must be subject to God, its Maker, from whom comes salvation, Christ himself; the righteous are shaken only humanly by trials, while the devil's servants assault man until, like a leaning wall, he falls, yet God rebuilds him for the resurrection. He discusses the variant “in thirst” and “in a lie,” and condemns those who flatter vice by giving it the names of virtues.
75. 61.4On Ps 62:7 Basil calls blessed the one who glories only in God and in the cross of Christ, unlike those who glory in bodily strength or in the killing of war.
76. 114.1Preaching at midday in a martyrs' shrine, where the people had sung hymns since midnight, Basil excuses his delay (he had been serving another church) and comments on Ps 116:1: only the perfect, freed from servile fear, can say “I have loved” God, the supreme good, and they love even the sufferings borne for him, as Paul did, knowing that God watches their contest.
77. 114.2On Ps 116:1–9 Basil teaches that God “inclines his ear” in condescension, hearing even the unspoken groans of Moses and the blood of Abel; the saint calls on God all his days, and in the pangs of death and Hades willingly adds affliction to affliction out of love, or, as a penitent, the hardship of repentance; God's mercy and justice go together; he guards infants in the womb and the humble; and the soul's rest is the land of the living, where there is no death, change, sin, tears or want, unlike this world, where human beings die many times as they pass through the ages of life.