Selected Comments on the Psalms 1201–1219

[Ps 11, continued] “Our lips are our own; who is our lord?” and so on. Pharaoh too says, “I do not know the Lord,” like those who say, “Who is our lord?”

“Because of the misery of the poor and the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord,” and so on. As Paul said both “Wretched man that I am,” and “As poor, yet making many rich,” and “To this present hour we hunger,” and so on, and “We who are in this tent groan.”

Of the same. And otherwise, the poor groan, unable to bear the tyranny of the boastful. That is why the Lord says: “I will arise, so as to set my counsel in salvation. I will speak boldly in it” against the proud, and I will free the needy from misery — arising at the time of his coming and coming to us, so that salvation was shown to those who had come to be outside misery and groaning. So Paul, having said, “Wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from the body of this death?” adds: “I give thanks to God through Jesus Christ.” For he showed that the Lord is the one who will rescue the wretched. That is why the one who now says, “Now I will arise,” had a body of death. They say that the “poor” (πτωχός) is the one who has fallen from wealth, and the “needy” (πένης) the one who provides the necessities of life by toil. Scripture says: “The rich have become poor,” and “We have become very poor,” and of the Savior, “who, though rich, became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich by his poverty.” It speaks of the groaning of the needy as of those who always groan over their toil. “I will set in salvation” means “I will appoint and make,” as in “whom he set as heir of all things,” and “God set in the church first apostles,” and so on; and to the presbyters of the church: “The Holy Spirit has set you as overseers to shepherd the church,” signifying being appointed and made.

“I will set him in safety; I will speak boldly in him,” and so on. The one who lays up treasure in heaven, having been set in salvation, says this: “I will speak boldly in him”; for his conscience does not condemn him.

“The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried in the fire, tested for the earth, purified seven times,” and so on. Even if there are fine words among those who are not of Christ’s portion, they are not pure, being mixed with countless falsehoods. Only the words of the Lord are pure, in which no falsehood is mixed, and so pure as silver tested and purified by smelting. Hence one must not even doubt what is signified by them.

[Ps 12 LXX / 13] “How long, Lord, will you forget me, to the end?” and so on. Perhaps he says that God has forgotten him with respect to the end, and not simply forgotten. And in another psalm she is called “forgotten.”

“How long will you turn your face away from me?” This face the angels see always. For when God shows himself to one capable of the vision of his face, he will stop turning away from him and hiding his face — which he once did also with Moses, sparing him while he was a man. God turns his face away in care for us, when we do things unworthy of his commandments; and he does this to draw us to himself. Or, since the Son is the face of the Father, he has set down such a saying asking that his incarnation might come more quickly.

“How long shall I set counsels in my soul?” and so on. One sets many counsels in his soul first, then at the end, above all, the great counsel of God, whose Spirit rested upon the rod from Jesse.

“Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep in death,” and so on. “Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge.” I am held in misfortunes as in darkness; and unless you drive away the darkness of my despondency, but delay your help, the sleep will be changed into death, grief having wholly overpowered my reason.

“Lest my enemy say: I have prevailed against him.” As often as we sin, so often the enemy says this: “I have prevailed against him.” “Those who afflict me will rejoice if I am shaken.” The angels rejoice over those who repent; the demons exult over those who sin. For the former are lovers of virtue, the latter of vice. They will be in exultation and gladness if only they see me fallen from my hope in you and despairing.

Of the same. “Even if I do not wholly fall, but am only shaken, those who afflict me will rejoice,” says the Prophet; as the Prophet says in the seventy-second psalm: “But my feet were almost shaken.”

Of the same. They rejoice over those who fall, when they ought to grieve. This I will not suffer, by your mercy. For I await your salvation, at which one rejoices who has experienced God’s salvation. This can also be a prophecy about Christ: for, coming for the salvation of the world, he enlightened and brought down the one who arrogantly rejoiced over those who were shaken. For he looked upon us and came among us. And the one who is in good state offers a hymn of victory, saying:

[Ps 12, continued] “I will sing to the Lord who has done me good, and I will sing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High,” having learned in deed what the Lord rightly says to those who pray: “While you are still speaking, I will say: Here I am.” He tells those with him that he has obtained what he wished; that is why he also sings hymns. So we too must sing for each benefaction in contemplation, and add practice to our psalm-singing.

“But I have hoped in your mercy; my heart will exult in your salvation,” and so on. They, rejoicing over my fall, expect to exult; but I have hoped in you and your mercy.

“I will sing to the Lord who has done me good, and I will sing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High,” and so on. Let the one who has received a benefit sing, and the one who is cheerful sing psalms. For he says: “Is anyone among us cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” I will keep the greatness of the benefaction unforgotten in my soul for the time to come.

[Ps 13 LXX / 14] “The fool said in his heart: There is no God. They are corrupt and have become abominable in their pursuits,” and so on. If they are corrupted in their pursuits, it is not the base thought that corrupts someone, but its result, vice. Having said from the disposition of their heart that there is no God, they then consistently lived as godless, and had a corrupt life full of all uncleanness.

“All have turned aside; together they have become worthless,” and so on. Those who say, “We are worthless servants,” in effect say: We have become worthless.

“Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel?” and so on. “The deliverer will come from Zion and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” If the Savior comes from Zion, and he came forth from the Father and has come, then Zion here is a symbol of the Father. He speaks not only of the salvation that came to those in the time of Hezekiah, but also of the saving appearing of our Savior from there many ages later. For when all had turned aside, it was necessary that the one who could forgive sins and save should be present. “From Zion,” because from the seed of Israel, and because “from Zion will come the one who comes,” as it is written. “When the Lord turns back the captivity of his people.” Captivity is the involuntary passage from knowledge and virtue to ignorance and vice. “Jacob will exult, and Israel will be glad.” The one who has acquired practical freedom from passion will exult; the one counted worthy of knowing contemplation is glad.

Of the same. When countless evils were ruling over the inhabited world,

[Ps 13, continued] the Holy Spirit, perceiving the one who alone could bring help, says: “Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel?” For not Moses, not Elijah, not Isaiah, nor the rest of the prophets had given it; all the works of the law were weak for such a thing. Since the physician was needed, who could heal all things, not by art or by deed but by the power of the word, the Holy Spirit prays that he may come.

Of the same. In the writings of the Old Testament we are taught that our Lord Jesus Christ is called “the salvation,” and that he was properly announced by promise to the nations by the name “salvation.” For Isaiah says: “And the Lord will reveal his holy arm before all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation from our God.” And again it is said in the Psalms: “The Lord has made known his salvation; before the nations he has revealed his righteousness.” And again: “Show us, Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation.”

[Ps 14 LXX / 15] “Lord, who will sojourn in your tent? And who will dwell on your holy mountain?” and so on. “My soul has sojourned much,” it says elsewhere, teaching that one sojourns much until he comes to the holy mountain of God.

Of the same. The holy mountain is the knowledge of Christ, which is the contemplation of the things that have come to be. He calls Jerusalem the holy mountain. And having asked, he thus receives the answer.

“He who walks blameless and works righteousness, who speaks truth in his heart,” and so on. “Walking blameless” you will emulate if you understand what is said about Abraham, “as the Lord spoke to him.” For to us too he has spoken the same in the holy Scriptures; and if, having understood, we do it, we have heard God and walked as he spoke to us. “And works righteousness”: keeping close to this, you will say, “working self-control,” likewise courage, likewise prudence, likewise godliness, likewise wisdom, and the other virtues. This is also working one’s own land, so as to be filled with bread. But Cain, when he ought to have worked righteousness, or one of the virtues, or his own land, worked the land, but not his own.

[Ps 14, continued] Of the same. The one who, he says, is free of all vice and every blemish in the inner and in the outer man, and pursues every virtue.

“Who has not deceived with his tongue, nor done evil to his neighbor,” and so on. As the ministers of Satan do, when they disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. “And has not done evil to his neighbor”: since all are neighbors, the saying does not permit doing evil to those who are not neighbors. The same applies to “He who swears to his neighbor and does not break his oath.” “And has not taken up a reproach against those nearest him”: the one who lives blamelessly does not take up reproaches against those nearest him: the one who does not jeer at his neighbor in misfortune, nor rejoice at another’s fall, but grieves with him; the one who does not reproach the one nearest him, as the Pharisee did the tax collector; or the one who is not reproached because of those nearest him, as Eli was because of his children; or simply the one who lives blamelessly.

[Ps 15 LXX / 16] “Keep me, Lord, for I have hoped in you. I said to the Lord: You are my Lord, for you have no need of my goods,” and so on. He says “Keep me” as with enemies attacking. Jesus says in the prophet: the one who hopes in the Lord and in nothing else is kept by him. No one who sins can make the words true; for being a slave of the sin he commits, he cannot serve God. But the one who has set up a pillar to the practical and the contemplative life cries: “I said to the Lord: You are my Lord”; and from your gifts I bring you gifts, not as to one in need. For none of the heretics will say this truly. This utterance is to be offered not only of things brought in a sensible way, but also spiritually. For even if we offer virtues as sacred offerings, even if we offer our own bodies by perfect self-control, we know that God accepts this not for his own benefit, but so that he may give us the good things from heaven when we ask for them.

Of the same. If all virtues are goods, and knowledge needs the virtues, then knowledge needs all the goods. And perhaps “goods” here means the intermediate things, whose right use makes us good, and does not make God good. For “If,” says Job, “we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things?” For there he called possessions “goods,” which become goods through right use.

“For the saints who are in his land he has made wonderful all his wishes in them. Their weaknesses were multiplied; afterward they hastened,” and so on. The sinner is outside the land of

[Ps 15, continued] God, to whom he did not show his wonders. But Christ will say about the perfect who have been formed according to him: “All my wishes are in them.” And the weaknesses of those from the nations were multiplied, but they hastened, changing by repentance. You will inquire whether, in some sense, these were once saints dwelling in the land of God, before their lawless deeds were multiplied; or whether some of them are Israel, in whom the wishes of God once were; or whether thus the saints, having their citizenship in heaven, spend their time in his land, even if they are still in this earth. The wishes of God are the virtues in their kinds, as in: “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my wishes.” These God makes wonderful in his saints, who practice the virtues better than other human beings; for in courage the apostles, prophets, and martyrs excelled incomparably, in self-control Joseph and Susanna, and likewise in the other virtues. Thus one who is made wonderful is ashamed of his own weakness, falling far short of the divine strength. And weaknesses, remaining only as far as thinking of them, quickly depart, because the saints are strengthened by Christ and say: “In God we shall do mighty deeds.”

“I will not gather their assemblies from blood, nor will I remember their names with my lips,” and so on. These words are plainly of one greater than the many, and of none other than Christ; for he, gathering, does not gather assemblies from blood, nor does he any longer remember names from blood. Or thus: Not like the Greeks and the Jews will I too pour libations from blood. For another translator rendered it so: “I will not pour their libations from blood,” but I will hand on new mysteries to all and an unbloody sacrifice; nor will I remember their old names (for they were called profane and eaters of idol sacrifices), but I will give them to hear “the godly” and “the holy.” Or thus: he does not say that he will not gather their assemblies at all, but “from blood”; nor that he will not remember their names absolutely, but “with lips.” Perhaps, then, since there are some who gather assemblies from blood, shedding it by harming those who are gathered, he, benefiting, or rather giving life to those he calls, gathers them not from blood but from immortality, remembering their names not superficially but from a disposition that has depth, and not by utterance but by deep understanding. Or: even if many saints were killed, the assemblies are not in their blood, but in the one blood of Christ, the Lamb.

“The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; you are the one who restores my inheritance

[Ps 15, continued] to me,” and so on. The inheritance of the rational nature is the contemplation of the ages that have been and will be; and the inheritance of Christ is the knowledge of God. Christ says this as high priest, whose portion is the Lord. If the Lord is the portion of the cup, or of whatever the Lord is the portion, the portion of Christ’s inheritance is the Father, which remained to him; and the rest of the inheritance is the people restored to him from God. Both can also be said of the Father, and that he restores the inheritance to himself after the self-emptying. Or: having passed beyond the world in your disposition, what portion will you have but the Lord? For it belongs to one who renounces all things to say: “My portion is God forever.” The Lord also becomes bread, providing teaching and strengthening the heart of the one who eats; and a cup, in the contemplation of truth, providing the gladness of knowledge to the one who drinks with assent. The true vine supplies this, so that the one who has drunk says with thanksgiving: “You have put gladness into my heart.”

“The lines have fallen for me in the best places; for my inheritance is most excellent to me,” and so on. If the line is a measure, how is it written in the Gospel according to John, “For God does not give the Spirit by measure,” and “I will pour out of my Spirit”? Or perhaps the measure is named not with respect to knowledge itself, but with respect to the one receiving it, since he cannot receive more. For rain is itself without measure, but is measured in the vessels that receive it. I have been given the land as an inheritance, he says, as by measure, and I am content; and through my best ones, Joshua and Caleb.

Of the same. So Israel became the line of his inheritance. Well pleased with his own inheritance as the best, he says these things.

“I will bless the Lord who gave me understanding; moreover, even until night my kidneys instructed me,” and so on. One blesses the Lord when an image has come into the mind; for from his face come knowledge and understanding. Thus the Lord gives understanding to the one who keeps the commandments. He speaks of the kidneys, named together with the heart in “God who searches hearts and kidneys.” These, perfected through understanding, instruct the one who attends, giving the light of knowledge, until the night of ignorance is dissolved. And if the night also signifies the deeper meanings, as the mystical word is called a dark saying, it is clear that the kidneys instruct until this night, making clear what is hidden and enigmatic. The figure is taken from the kidneys, in which the seed and the generative powers are formed, supplying the generative passages. In the soul too, then, there are certain thoughts analogous to seeds, by which there are inward offspring in good

[Ps 15, continued] actions and true contemplations. And the bodily kidneys too instruct the one who has the highest self-control, as even at night they hold back, by a self-controlled mind, the bodily emissions of seed.

“Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted,” and so on. Instead of “my mind.” For it is the custom of divine Scripture to take the heart in place of the mind, as in: “With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” It is the mind that believes, which also discerns words, according to Job. By “tongue” he now means the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For my glory,” he says, “and the one who lifts up my head,” to the Lord; and “the Lord is the Spirit,” according to the Apostle. “I was glad,” he says, “in the hope of the resurrection after the third day.” For the tongue exults as if alive, and rejoices in speaking, and makes others exult. “And moreover my flesh will dwell in hope.” “My flesh” means my animation. So Job too says: “You clothed me with skin and flesh.”

“Nor will you let your holy one see corruption,” and so on. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles takes this of Christ. Christ accepted corruption in the body, as the Hymn-writer too says, accepting the corruption of death: “You kept your body untasting of decay.” Yet he did not undergo decay or destruction. Corruption is blows and wounds; decay is for the body, once bound, to dissolve and be sent back into each of the elements of which it is composed; and destruction is for a nature to suffer from a nature, as wool from the moth, flesh, grain, and wood from worms.

[Ps 16 LXX / 17] “Hear, Lord, my righteousness; attend to my petition. Give ear to my prayer,

[Ps 16, continued] not from deceitful lips,” and so on. Every righteous man is a servant of righteousness; but God alone is the righteous Master of righteousness. David, then, conscious that he was pure of all deceit, says these things in prayer with boldness toward God.

“Let my judgment come forth from your face,” and so on. If the Father has given all judgment to the Son, and the judgment comes forth from his face, then from the Son; for Christ is the image of the Father.

Of the same. Since “the one who believes in me,” says the Lord, “is not judged,” the judgment of the believer comes forth from the face of God.

“Let my eyes see uprightness,” and so on. He prays for the restoration of all things, so that there may no longer be crookedness, God walking crosswise with those who sin.

“You have tested my heart, you have visited it by night; you have tried me by fire, and injustice was not found in me. So that my mouth may not speak the works of men, because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways,” and so on. Note that “you have visited” is not used of punishments. Again we must know that the devil tries by fire in a way opposite to God. God, trying by fire, either finds the injustice that existed before, or, since it did not exist before, does not find it. “The works of men,” instead of “about the works of men.” Or the works of men are the words that are not divine, which men have made by their own devices.

Of the same. He calls affliction “night,” in which the soul is darkened. One is tested by enduring hardships nobly. He named the hardships night because of the darkness that comes from despondency. Or he mentioned night because, having caught Saul asleep at night and in his power, he saved him, not only not killing him himself, but also preventing those who wished to kill him.

Of the same. “Enter by the narrow gate and the hard way,” that is, the practical way, which, though now it brings grief and not joy, later becomes the bringer of the fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

“I cried, for you heard me, O God; incline your ear to me and hear my words. Make wonderful your mercies, you who save those who hope in you,” and so on. As though heard before we prayed, we have cried out in praying. Or, if crying out is good — saying not small and contemptible things but praying for great things and obtaining them — we have cried out when we have cried out in this way. Many mercies of God come about, because they happen in a certain human sequence, without being made wonderful by the one who does them.

[Ps 16, continued] Few are those made wonderful, when they come about unexpectedly and miraculously. For example, let those who receive mercy be those freed from fevers and leprosy. If they were healed by the way of medicine, they received mercy from God, but not from one who made his mercies to them wonderful; but if they were freed by Jesus’ touch, as he rebuked the fever (so that at once they could return to the activities of the healthy and fit), or as he touched them and said, “I will; be cleansed,” and were freed from leprosy, then God made his mercies wonderful toward such people.

“From those who resist your right hand keep me as the apple of the eye,” and so on. The one who resists Christ resists the right hand of God. Whether it is good to resist the left hand, you will inquire. The most clear-sighted man, being as the apple of the eye in the whole body of Christ, will say this, whom to touch is to touch the apple of the eye. And let anyone who sees the multitude of those who resist the eye of the soul run to God, asking to be rescued by the divine shelter as by a shield from the arrows, so to speak, that are sent, so that they may not make him wretched. Since the right hand of the Lord is the only-begotten Son of God, and intelligible and invisible enemies resist it, from whom he asks that his own mind may remain unharmed, the voice is that of a man whose soul’s eyes are enlightened.

“In the shelter of your wings you will shelter me from the face of the ungodly who made me wretched,” and so on. The righteous man is made wretched and is pitied by the ungodly, sometimes even pitied as a fool; but then the worthy man is sheltered in the shelter of God’s wings, so that he may not be shaken by being pitied.

“My enemies surrounded my soul. They shut up their fat; their mouth spoke arrogance,” and so on. When we perceive worse thoughts surrounding our soul, then we say, “My enemies surrounded my soul”; and if they make our understanding thick, “they shut up their fat.” He shows a siege and the cruelty of the enemies, who have shut up their fat through their attachment to matter. For they are wholly fleshly through and through.

Of the same. The intelligible fat is the thickness that comes upon the ruling faculty from vice. By “fat” he seems to me to mean goodwill and brotherly love; and he says that they shut out all natural compassion, giving no room to thoughts of brotherly love. Some, however, have named the fat prosperity and good condition.

“Casting me out, they have now surrounded me; they set their eyes to bend down to the earth,” and so on.