Homilies on the Psalms 33.14–44.4

Exactly is it added: “The death of sinners is evil”; because there is a death among the righteous that is not evil by nature but good. For those who have died with Christ have come to be in a good death; and those who have died to sin have died the good and saving death. But that of sinners is evil. For punishment awaits them, as it did the rich man clothed in purple and fine linen who feasted splendidly every day. “And those who hate the righteous man will go wrong.” They also hate the righteous man because they live in wrongdoing, being convicted by the comparison with the better, by the righteous man's manner of life, as by the straightness of a rule. And because they live in sins they behave hatefully toward the righteous man for fear of being convicted; and because they hate, they surround themselves again with sins. For there are many pretexts for which the righteous man may be hated: his frankness in reproof (“For they hate him who reproves in the gates, and abhor a holy word”); and love of the first place and love of rule have moved many to hate their betters; and sometimes also ignorance of what the righteous man is. “The death of sinners is evil.” Or he calls the whole of life death, since the Apostle called this flesh death, saying, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” And those who use this body badly and make it the servant of every sin make death evil for themselves …; “and none of those who hope in him will go wrong.” Since those created for serving the Lord were held in the captivity of the enemy, he will redeem their souls by his precious blood. That is why none of those who hope in him will be examined in wrongdoings.

“For the end, for those who will be changed, for the sons of Korah, for understanding, a song for the beloved.”

This psalm too appears to be one that perfects human nature and gives its benefit toward the end set before those who have chosen to live according to virtue. For those who are making progress need the teaching toward being perfected, which this psalm provides, having the title “For the end, for those who will be changed.” He has said in a hidden way: for human beings. For we above all rational beings are subject to changes and alterations almost every day and hour. For we are not the same either in body or in mind: [the body is always flowing and] … dispersing; it is in motion and change, either growing from small to greater or shrinking from its full size to less. For the boy already going to school, and suited to taking up arts and learning, is not the same as the newborn infant; and again the youth, already able to engage in the pursuits of young men, is admittedly different from him. And the man is someone else than the youth, in firmness and size of body and in the completion of reason. And having come to his prime and reached the stable point of his age, he begins again little by little to decline toward less, the condition of his body ebbing away unnoticed and his bodily vigor diminishing, until, [bent] by old age, he undergoes … . We, then, are the ones who are changed, and wisely the psalm has hinted at us human beings by this word. For angels do not admit of change. There is no child among them, no youth, no old man; but they remain in the state in which they were created from the beginning, their constitution being kept whole and unchangeable. But we are changed, in body, as has been shown, and in soul and the inner man, altering our thoughts with the affairs that befall us. For we are one sort of people when we are cheerful and all our affairs in life go smoothly, and another in times of hardship, when we run into something we did not wish. We are changed also in our angers, becoming like wild beasts …, and in our desires, becoming like cattle through a life of pleasure. Those who are mad after their neighbors' wives have become wanton horses. And the crafty man is compared to a fox, as Herod; and the shameless man is called a dog, as Nabal the Carmelite. Do you see how varied and manifold our change is? Admire, then, the one who fitted this name to us so aptly. [2] That is why one of the interpreters seems to me to have rendered the same thought well and to the point by another name: instead of “for those who will be changed,” he said “for the lilies.” He thought the swift death of flowers fit to be compared with the perishable condition of human nature. But since the word is inflected toward the future (for it says “for those who will be changed,” as though this change will appear to us at some later time), let us consider whether it hints to us at the teaching about the resurrection, in which change will be given to us: change toward the better and spiritual. “For it is sown in corruption,” it says, “it is raised in incorruption.” Do you see the change? “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”; when all bodily creation too will be changed along with us. For “the heavens will grow old like a garment, and like a cloak they will be changed.” Then too the sun will be sevenfold, according to Isaiah, and the moon like the present size of the sun. And since the oracles of God have not been written for all, but for those who have ears in the inner man, he has addressed it to …, I think, to those who take care of themselves and always progress toward more through the exercises of godliness. For this is the fairest change, which the right hand of the Most High grants, of which the blessed David too was aware when, having tasted the good things of virtue, he stretched forward to what lay ahead. For what does he say? “And I said, Now I have begun; this is the change of the right hand of the Most High.” So the one who progresses in virtue is never not being changed. “For when I was a child,” he says, “I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.” And again, having become a man, he did not stop his activity, but, “forgetting what lies behind and stretching forward to what lies ahead, he pressed on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call.” Change, then, belongs to the inner man, who is renewed day by day. Since, then, he is going to tell us about the beloved, who took upon himself for our sake the dispensation of the incarnation, the prophet says that he has given this song for those worthy of this grace, for the sons of Korah. For it is a song and not a psalm, because it was handed on with the bare voice, the instrument not sounding with it, with only melodious utterance; and a song “for the beloved.” Shall I tell you who the beloved is, whom the word means? Or do you know even before our words, remembering the voice in the Gospel: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: [listen to him]”? For he is beloved by the Father as the Only-begotten, and by all creation as a loving father and good protector. And the beloved and the good are the same by nature. That is why some have well defined the good as that which all things desire. But it does not belong to just anyone to advance to the perfection of love and to know the truly beloved, but to one who has already put off the old man, corrupted by the desires of deceit, and put on the new, renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Since the one who loves money, who is excited about the perishable beauty of bodies, who honors excessively this petty glory, having spent his power of loving on what he should not, [is blind] to the truly beloved …: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” “With all” admits no division into other things. For however much of your love you spend on things below, so much must be lacking to you from the whole. That is why few out of all have been called friends of God, as Moses is written to have been a friend, and as John: “For the friend of the bridegroom,” it says, “who stands, rejoices greatly”: that is, the one who has stability and immovability in friendship toward Christ is worthy of his friendship. That is why the Lord says to the disciples, already being made perfect, “No longer do I call you servants, but friends; for the servant does not know what his master is doing.” It belongs to the perfect, then, to know the truly beloved. And truly only the saints are friends of God and of one another; no wicked or ignorant person is a friend. For the good of friendship does not fall into a depraved disposition, because nothing shameful or discordant can enter into the harmony of friendship. For evil is opposed not only to the good, but also to itself. But let us now go on to examine the words. [3] “My heart has poured forth a good word.” Some have thought that these words are spoken in the person of the Father about the Word who was in the beginning with him, whom, they say, he brought forth from his heart, as it were, and his very inward parts; and that from a good heart a good word came forth. But it seems to me that these words refer to the person of the prophet. For what follows in the passage no longer equally smooths the way for us to the interpretation concerning the Father. For the Father would not have said about his own tongue, “My tongue is the pen of a swift scribe”; [nor] “Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men,” for he does not have his superiority of beauty by comparison with men. And going on he says, “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness.” For he did not say, “I God have anointed you,” but “he has anointed you,” so that from this it appears that the person [speaking] is different from the person spoken of. Who, then, is this, if not the prophet, who received in himself the working of the Holy Spirit? “My heart,” he says, “has poured forth a good word.” For since a belch is a hidden breath carried upward when the bubbles burst in the boiling of food, the soul nourished with sacred teachings, according to the usual figurative speech of Scripture, the one fed on the living bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world, and filled with every word that comes from the mouth of God, sends forth a belch suited to its food. That is why, since the food was rational and good, the prophet pours forth a good word. “For the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good.” Let us too, then, seek the food from the word for the filling of our souls (for “the righteous man,” it says, “eats and satisfies his soul”), so that, in proportion to what we are fed with, we may send forth not just any word, but a good one. For the evil man, brought up on depraved doctrines, belches forth from his heart an evil word. Do you not see what the mouths of the heretics belch forth? How harsh and foul-smelling, betraying a great disease deep within the wretches? “For the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.” So do not, having itching ears, heap up teachers for yourself, who can work disease in your inward parts and produce in you a belching of evil words, for which you are to be condemned in the day of judgment. “For by your words,” it says, “you will be justified, and by your [words] you will be condemned.” “I speak my works to the king.” This saying too brings us very close to the sense of the prophetic person: “I speak my works to the king”; that is, “I will confess to the judge and forestall the accuser by declaring my own works.” For we have received the commandment that says, “First tell your iniquities, so that you may be justified.” “My tongue is the pen of a swift scribe.” As the pen is a writing instrument, the hand moving it to mark down what is written, so the tongue of the righteous man, the Holy Spirit moving it, writes the words of eternal life on the hearts of believers, dipped not in ink but in the Spirit of the living God. The scribe, then, is the Holy Spirit, because he is wise and teaches all things; “swift,” because the movement of thought is swift. And the Spirit writes thoughts in us “not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of fleshly hearts.” And according to the breadth of the heart, the Spirit writes more or fewer things on hearts, either clear to all or dimmer, according to the previous preparation of purity. And because of the swiftness of what is written, the whole world has now become full of the Gospel. What follows in the passage it seemed good to us to take as a new beginning, and not to join to what precedes, but to add to what follows. For we think that “Fair in beauty” is said to the Lord, by a turning of the address.

“Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men; grace has been poured out on your lips.” … Aquila and the … lead us to this sense …; and Symmachus: “You are beautiful in beauty beyond the sons of men.” The one who has gazed intently on his Godhead calls the Lord “fair in beauty.” For he is not singing the beauty of his flesh. For “we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, but his form was without honor, failing beyond the sons of men.” It is clear, then, that the prophet, having looked into his brightness and been filled with the radiance from there, struck in soul by this beauty, was moved to the divine love of the intelligible loveliness; when it appears to the human soul, all that was loved until then appears shameful and to be thrown away. That is why Paul too, when he saw the one fair in beauty, counted all things as refuse, so that he might gain Christ. Those outside the word of truth call the preaching of the Gospel folly, [mocking] the cheapness of the phrasing …. [But we, who glory in] the cross of Christ, to whom the things freely given us by God have been revealed through the Spirit, not in words taught by human wisdom, know that rich grace has been poured out by God on the words about Christ. That is why in a short time the preaching went through almost the whole world, since rich and abundant grace has been poured out on the heralds of the Gospel, whom Scripture has called the lips of Christ. That is why the preaching of the Gospel has, in contemptible little words, a great power to lead and draw toward salvation. And every soul has been held fast by immovable doctrines, strengthened by grace in unshaken faith in Christ. That is why the Apostle says, “Through whom we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith”; and again, “I labored more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” [5] “Grace has been poured out on your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.” It is written in the Gospel that “they marveled at the words of grace that came from his mouth.” That is why the psalm, wishing to present expressively the abundance of grace in our Lord's words, said, “Grace has been poured out on your lips,” because of the abundance of grace in his word. “Therefore God has blessed you forever,” he says. It is clear that these words must be referred to the human nature, according to which he advanced in wisdom and stature and grace. In this sense it is clear that we understand the grace to have been given him as a prize for brave deeds. Like this is “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” And close to this is what is written by Paul to the Philippians: “[Having become obedient] to death, even death on a cross; therefore God has highly exalted him.” So it is clear that these things are said about the man that the Savior assumed. Or else, since the Church is the body of the Lord and he is the head of the Church, as we have explained that those who serve the heavenly word are the lips of Christ (as Paul had Christ speaking in him, and anyone like him in virtue), so too each one of us who believe is one of the other members of the body of Christ. One who refers to the Lord the blessing given to the Church, then, will not err. “God has blessed you,” then; that is, he has filled your members and your body with good things from himself forever, that is, without end. “Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your loveliness and your beauty.” We think, then, that this is to be referred figuratively to the living Word of God, as joined to the flesh, who is “active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” For the thigh is a symbol of the activity of generation: “For these are the souls,” it says, “that came from the thighs of Jacob.” As, then, our Lord Jesus Christ is called life and way and bread and vine and true light and countless other things, so too he is called a sword, cutting through the passible part of the soul and putting to death the movements toward desire. Then, since God the Word was about to be joined to the weakness of the flesh, “O mighty one” is well added; because it is proof of the greatest power that God could come to be in the nature of man. For the formation of heaven and earth and sea and air, and the coming into being of the greatest elements, and whatever is conceived as above the world and whatever beneath the earth, do not show the power of God the Word so much as the dispensation of the incarnation and the condescension to the lowliness and weakness of humanity. “In your loveliness and your beauty.” Loveliness differs from beauty: for what is called lovely is what has been brought to completion in its proper season, toward its own prime, as grain is lovely when already ripe for harvest, and the fruit of the vine lovely when it has received its proper ripening to its perfection through the season of the year and is ready for enjoyment; but beauty is the harmony in the composition of the members, having grace blooming upon it. “Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your loveliness”: that is, in the fullness of the times; “and your beauty”: in the Godhead, contemplated and intelligible. For that is truly beautiful which surpasses all human comprehension and power and can be contemplated by the mind alone. And the disciples, to whom he explained the parables privately, came to know his beauty. And Peter and the sons of thunder saw his beauty on [the mountain] …, and were counted worthy to receive with their eyes the preludes of his glorious coming. “And bend [your bow], and prosper, and reign.” That is: having begun your care for men through the flesh, make your care intense and continuous and never slackening. For this will give a road and course to the preaching, and will subject all to your kingdom. Let it not surprise us that “prosper” is said in the imperative, because of Scripture's custom of always so forming wishes: “Your will be done,” instead of “may it be done”; and “Your kingdom come,” instead of “may it come.” [6] “Because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and your right hand will guide you wonderfully.” Again the word is formed in the same way, as though the Lord were receiving prospering and reigning as a reward for truth and meekness and righteousness. But we must understand it thus: since you [came to proclaim] the truth, reign among men who are ruled by sin; for you are the truth. And “because of meekness,” so that by your example all may be led to gentleness and kindness. That is why the Lord said, “Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” And he gave proof of meekness in the very works: when reviled he was silent; when scourged he endured. “And your right hand will guide you wonderfully.” Not a pillar of cloud, nor the light of fire, but your very right hand. “Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty one.” The sharpened arrows of the mighty one are the words that hit the mark, reaching the hearts of the hearers, striking and wounding sensitive souls. “For the words of the wise,” it says, “are like goads.” That is why the psalmist too, praying to be delivered from the deceitful of his generation, seeks the sharpened arrows of the mighty one for the healing of a deceitful tongue. And he also asks for the desolating coals to be present, so that, for those whom the rational arrows do not reach because of the hardness of their heart, punishment may be ready, which he has called desolating coals. For those who have made themselves desolate of God must have the desolating coals prepared. Now, then, “your arrows are sharpened.” By these arrows the souls that have received the faith are wounded, and, set on fire to the utmost love of God, they say like the bride, “I am wounded with love.” Indescribable and ineffable is the beauty of the Word, and the loveliness of wisdom, and the form of God in his image. Blessed, then, are the lovers of the sight of the true beauty. For, as it were bound to it by love, and loving the heavenly and blessed love, they forget relatives and friends; they forget house and all possessions; and, forgetting even the body's need for eating …, they cling only to the divine love. You will also understand as sharpened arrows those sent to sow the Gospel in the whole world, who, because they had been sharpened, shone with the works of righteousness and slipped delicately into the souls of those being taught. For these arrows, sent out everywhere, prepared the peoples to fall beneath Christ. And it seems to me that the wording is more consistently restored by transposition, so that the sense is this: “Bend [your bow], and prosper, and reign, and your right hand will guide you wonderfully, and peoples will fall beneath you,” because your arrows are sharpened in the heart of the king's enemies. No fighter against God, boaster or proud man falls beneath God, but those who have accepted the submission that comes from faith. And the arrows, falling into the hearts of those once enemies of the king, draw them to longing for the truth, draw them to the Lord, so that, being enemies of God, they are reconciled to him through his teachings. [7] “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Since he has spoken much with reference to the human nature, he now brings the word back up to the heights of the glory of the Only-begotten. “Your throne,” he says, “O God, is forever and ever”: that is, your kingdom is beyond the ages and older than every thought. And well, after the subjection of the peoples, he sings the majesty of the kingdom of God. “A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.” That is why he gave him his own name, clearly proclaiming him God: “Your throne, O God.” God's rod is one of discipline; and, disciplining, it brings straight, not perverted, judgments. That is why the rod of his kingdom is called a scepter of uprightness. “For if his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, I will visit their lawlessness with the rod.” Do you see the just judgment of God? He uses it not on anyone at all, but on those who sin. This is also called the rod of comfort: “Your rod and your staff,” it says, “they have comforted me.” It is also a rod of breaking: “You will shepherd them with a rod of iron; like a potter's vessel you will break them.” And what is earthy and of clay is broken for the benefit of those shepherded, just as one is handed over “for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved.”