Selected Comments on the Psalms 1385–1421

[Ps 38, continued] The end of the rational nature is the knowledge of the holy Trinity.

“But all things are vanity, every living man,” etc. All bodily things are vanity; for the bodiless nature came to be according to the image of God.

“Surely man walks about in an image,” etc. Every living man walks about in an image: either keeping what is according to the image of God and progressing to perfection, becoming conformed to the image of God; or the image of some other living creature, becoming in character a horse mad for females or some other irrational animal.

“And now what is my endurance?” etc. You have granted me the ability to bear: to say or do nothing out of human weakness. And by disciplining me you made me stand firm and bear it. You who know my formation and my weakness, forgive.

“You gave me as a reproach to the fool,” etc. He calls fool the one whom he earlier called sinner. God hands over to reproach for the sake of a greater confession; this the one who says these words asks not to suffer, as one who confesses of himself, according to God’s will.

“I became dumb and did not open my mouth, for it was you who made me,” etc. This too can be understood thus: I never blamed you, as others do, as the cause of my lawless deeds; for this I never opened my mouth, but became dumb.

“For I am a sojourner on the earth and a stranger, like all my fathers,” etc. The one who has often said, “Surely every man is vanity,” confesses that he is a sojourner, and knows another life of refreshment; and with tears he entreats, since it is rare, like the fathers, to be a sojourner and not to settle in the present life. If, then, he says, you do not release my sin, so that I may be refreshed before I depart there, I shall have no time for repentance, nor shall I exist in the life with you. Or, since sinners do not exist, they will be as though they were not. By the same. All the fathers of the righteous, as righteous, are sojourners and strangers, considering life on earth a shadow.

[Ps 38, continued] … the divine sayings … as those with [Cleopas] say, “Was not our heart burning within us?” Or it grew hot with grief, and did not [sin], according to “Be angry, and do not sin.” For not to suffer from anger at all is better; … but this is attainable for the saints by reasoning.

[Ps 38, continued] … the sinner weaves like a spider: … easily torn, even if it is intricate, as in Isaiah: “They weave a spider’s web.” He says, then, reproving the one being disciplined: “[Remove] your scourges … and your hand …” … made thin for its own benefit. For according to …

[Ps 39 LXX / 40] “He brought me up out of the pit of misery,” etc. The pit of misery is wickedness and ignorance. “And he set my feet upon a rock.” The rock is faith in Christ. “And he directed my steps” through the practical life and the true doctrines.

“And he put a new song in my mouth,” etc. After freedom from passion we sing a new song, our house having been renewed.

“Sacrifice and offering you did not want,” etc. The Letter to the Hebrews says that these verses are spoken in the person of the Saviour, and it gives occasion to understand the whole psalm as spoken in his person.

“Whole burnt offering and sin offering you did not ask for,” etc. God does not seek perceptible whole burnt offerings; for “a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit.”

“In the roll of the book it is written of me,” etc. He calls the whole Scripture of the law the roll of the book; for all of it is summed up in one thing, the foretelling concerning Christ.

“To do your will,” etc. He speaks of the will of the Father, according to which he took away the sin of the world. “For I came not,” he says, “to do my own will …” … lived in luxury for a time, he slipped into sins.

[Ps 39 LXX / 40, continued] my own, but the will of him who sent me.” And he was laid down for the sin of all, so that, once forgiveness had come, there would no longer be need of the sacrifice for sin.

“I proclaimed the good news of righteousness in a great assembly,” etc. A great assembly is one filled up with great and perfect men, in which he proclaimed the good news of the righteousness that is through faith in Jesus. He knew it as his own, accepting it and making it his own, and proclaiming it without interruption. And he said, “I will not restrain my lips.” Nor has he restrained them; he still speaks through the evangelists and the teachers of each age, whom one might call the lips of Christ. Of his righteousness, as better than that of the law, he said in charging them, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees …” … “and I could not see,” etc. The memory of old faults naturally darkens our understanding. “They were multiplied beyond the hairs of my head.” That is, the evils around us of which we are unaware are multiplied; and when many of them have happened, deprived of right understanding, we have been forsaken by our heart. The one who says this entreats to be kept by mercy, remembering his former evils so as not to fall into them again. And the remembrance of the change to better things makes men thankful and attentive.

“Let those who seek my soul, to take it away, be put to shame and confounded together,” etc. They do not take it away in its essence, but through wickedness they take it away from virtue and knowledge.

“But I am poor,” etc. Weak for the acquiring of good things, he confesses himself poor and needy, and entrusts the care of himself to God, casting his anxiety on the Lord as on a guardian.

[Ps 40 LXX / 41] Psalm 40. “Blessed is he who considers the poor and needy,” etc. What is “he who considers”? He who understands. What is “needy”? He who grasps his own affliction. For the one who has learned his own affliction will surely and at once have mercy on him. The one who understands the poor in word and wisdom and the good can be called blessed, helping him, whether the poor in the common sense or the one called blessed. “In the evil day the Lord will rescue him”: either as of one day, the whole of the present age being evil, or the day of judgment. For this is darkness to sinners and not light, according to the prophet. And the Apostle says, “For the days are evil,” and again, “that he might deliver us from the present evil age.” He exhorts, then, to be kind toward

[Ps 40, continued] the needy, or to understand the one who voluntarily became poor.

“May the Lord help him on his bed of pain,” etc. The bed of pain is the body of humiliation. “You turned his whole couch in his sickness.” He will be changed to better things, he says, and will undergo a change to good health. For it is Scripture’s custom to use “turning” for “change,” as in “You turned my lamentation into joy for me.”

“My enemies spoke evil against me,” etc. The invisible enemies of our Saviour wanted him to die, so as to quench the glory of his name; but besides his not perishing, every knee will bow in the name of Jesus and every tongue will confess. You might also say that he made the prayer for his disciples, who, being as his soul, happened at that time to fall sick and to sin, when all forsook him and fled, and Peter denied him three times.

“And if he came in to see, he spoke in vain,” etc. The hidden and the visible enemies of Christ prepared death for him. Judas came in to see the things that were done and spoken in parables, but he spoke in vain, not having room to understand them, because of the wickedness that blinded him. The text also fits all the heterodox who promise secret things. Or, having already come to be outside the Saviour and the company of the apostles, he spoke in vain, calling the Lord “Teacher,” while his heart gathered lawlessness. And this man, going out, that is, coming to be outside the discipleship of Jesus, spoke together with the Pharisees against the Saviour and secretly set the betrayal in motion. But also the heart of one who devises evils and thinks up heretical things gathers lawlessness for him; and whoever receives it goes outside. Of these it is said, “But to those outside, in parables,” and “God judges those outside.”

“Will not the one who sleeps rise again?” etc. He says that resurrection necessarily follows sleep. Sleep is death; necessarily, resurrection will follow death.

“But you, O Lord, have mercy on me,” etc. He asks mercy and resurrection not for himself but for us. “Raise me up” is said in a manner befitting a man; but “and I will repay them,” that is, the enemies, in a manner befitting God. The enemy gloats over those who are defeated. Then again, in a more human way, he said, “By this I knew that you have desired me,” both in having mercy and in raising up; that is, “you loved me,” for everything willed is in love. And when I have risen, the enemy of mankind will not gloat, the devil, who brought death through sin.

[Ps 40, continued] Or perhaps he also hints at the Jews. And “because of my innocence,” that is, my spotlessness, is said in a more human way. And we have been established in Christ, and this took place before the Father, for ever.

[Ps 41 LXX / 42] Psalm 41. “My soul thirsted for God,” etc. Those blessed in the Gospel for thirsting thirst for God. He did not say, “My soul thirsted God,” for the soul does not drink God, but “for God.” For the saint longs for the things toward God, as the sinner longs for the things not toward God but toward worldly life, or toward the devil. And the Saviour stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” And he shows that only the saints will appear before the face of God, since God turns it away from sinners. Or, since God had turned his overseeing power away from the people, they lamented the life here and wished to come to God himself. And they said this having been cleansed of every blemish; for the one who is stained says, “Turn away your face from my sins.” By the same. If the angels continually see the face of God, then David desires to become an angel and see the face of God.

“My tears have become my bread,” etc. Those whose bread is tears: “Blessed are those who weep now.” To be able to say this belongs to the perfect; for the imperfect man is troubled by external things and has his soul outside, unseemly and convicted before all, laying bare his soul by his words. But the saint gathers his soul away from things outside. And the one who weeps from his disposition will be nourished by his tears as by bread, not only in times of ease, which he calls day, but also in adversity, which he calls night. By the same. Most nourishing is the weeping that nourishes the soul. “Blessed are those who weep now, for they shall laugh.”

“While they say to me every day, Where is your God?” etc. God is in all things that have come to be, as creator; as virtue and wisdom, in all the holy powers; and if virtue and wisdom are taken as potential, also in the opposing powers; and if partly in potency and partly in act, God is also in men. For always to act according to God belongs to angels; never, to demons; sometimes well and sometimes not rightly, to men. One might reasonably answer “Where is God?” with “Everywhere except in your soul.”

“For I shall pass through into the place of the tent,” etc. The

[Ps 41, continued] tent according to Moses in Exodus was, I think, a type of this; the temple according to Solomon, a type of the true house of God. For, he says, I am still making progress and am not yet perfect. The tent, a symbol of progress, wonderfully leads to the house of God himself, that is, to perfection, in which God dwells there. And those who keep festival spiritually resound, rejoicing and giving thanks. Or he says this: I consoled myself with such hopes, saying, “Why are you very sad, my soul?” For I expected that the blessed end would receive me, the wonderful tent of God, and his innermost house, into which the saints, lifted up by angelic powers, will be brought. And if “there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents,” how could there not fittingly be a voice of praise from a multitude keeping festival over the salvation of the one being saved, when a soul, after its training, is brought into the heavenly holy places? He gives thanks as for things that are true. “Why are you very sad?” and what follows. Let us, then, rebuke ourselves in this way when we grieve and are troubled. Since our God is the salvation of our face, “beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, we are being transformed into the same image.”

“Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan and of Hermon, from the little mountain,” etc. Jordan means “descent”; Hermonim, “anathematizing.” He seems to be distressed and pained within himself, remembering the miracle that took place at the Jordan under Joshua son of Nun, when the water was divided until the people had crossed the river, and the one at the very small mountain nearby: that he does not obtain the same providence as that one. Perhaps also it is a character portrayal of the soul conversing with itself.

“By day the Lord will command his mercy, and by night he will show it,” etc. When Rabshakeh once besieged Jerusalem and blasphemed the God of all as unable to save them, in one stroke in the night one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians with him were killed. Since God had told Hezekiah beforehand, on the day before the night, “I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant”—because the promise was given by day and the deed done by night—he says, “By day the Lord will command,” and what follows. And “A prayer to the God of my life”: because in this way nothing is found between your command and my enjoyment; but at once, he says, thanksgiving is found in me, sent up to God who granted me life. And night and day, he says, I knowingly sing and hymn the mercy supplied by you. By the same. He teaches that the good things belong to the age to come, calling it “day,” in

[Ps 41, continued] which, he says, God has promised his mercy for gladness; while night and darkness are the converse with God through hymns and the withdrawal through prayers.

“I will say to God, You are my protector; why have you forgotten me? Why do I go about gloomy while the enemy oppresses me?” etc. He does not ask not to be oppressed by the enemy, but, when oppressed, not to be gloomy. For this fits an athlete who is well pleasing even in adversity. And in the next psalm, by putting “Why have you cast me off?” before “Why do I go about gloomy?”, he seems to show that what is proper to one cast off by God is not being oppressed by the enemy but being gloomy in the oppression. If, however, Christ says what is in the next psalm, he says similar things by the Spirit, thus: “But you have cast off and despised; you have rejected your anointed.” … he goes about gloomy, saying, “My soul is very sorrowful.” Or Christ says it as raising a difficulty, as if indicating something like this: What worthy thing is accomplished by my going about gloomy, cast off from you for the salvation of men, while the enemy oppresses me?

“While they say to me every day, Where is your God?” etc. Perhaps the saint is grieved by “where” said of God, which signifies place. It belongs to the utmost ignorance to think that God is in a place; for place exists together with bulk, and the Divine is free of bulk.

[Ps 42 LXX / 43] Psalm 42. “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an unholy nation,” etc. Christ too asks to be judged by God; to him, I think, applies “You will prevail when you are judged.” The one who is confident in himself and persuaded that, though wronged, he has never avenged himself but has given place to wrath, will say this: “Against an unholy nation,” and what follows. If the Saviour says it, the unholy nation is the Jews; if the righteous man, he speaks of the opposing powers. God rescues from the unjust and deceitful man when one is not harmed by them. “From the unjust and deceitful man rescue me” is said of everyone who adulterates the word of God, and of the unjust man who feigns the things of faith.

“Send out your light and your truth; they led me and brought me to your holy mountain and to your tents,” etc. “I am the light of the world,” says the Saviour; and again, “I am the truth.” Here the Seventy changed the tense and spoke of things to come as having happened. The others said it more clearly: “Send your light and your truth, which will lead and bring us to your holy mountain and to your tents.” He called the temple tents; and by the mountain he means Zion, to which he asks to return, having obtained divine favour.

[Ps 42, continued] He calls light and truth the righteous and saving appearing, as he calls misfortunes darkness. By the same. The light of God sent upon the soul of Jesus, and his truth, is the Only-begotten. For that we have a great high priest, Jesus Christ the Son of God, clothed with it, the light of God sent upon him will show; and the present word teaches truth, not a type. These, having guided him, brought him to the spiritual holy mountain of God and to his true tents, so that as high priest he might enter to the altar of God. Perhaps the holy mountain of God is the house of the Father, and his tents the many dwellings in it. Or his tents are the eternal tents. You will inquire whether the tents are on the holy mountain, and what they are; whether they are those toward God himself, who gladdens his youth. For he had no oldness. And “putting on the new” is said because of this youth; and the festival belongs to such young ones. By the same. The holy mountain of God is Christ; and his tents are the holy powers in which he dwells.

“To God who gladdens my youth; I will give thanks to you with the lyre, O God, my God,” etc. In the eighty-third he also says to the soul, “Your youth will be renewed like an eagle’s.” These words are a narrative addressed to us in between. Then again he speaks to God, from “I will give thanks to you with the lyre”—perhaps with the body tuned by the spirit.

“Hope in God, for I will give thanks to him, the salvation of my face, my God,” etc. The soul needs the reminder, “Hope in God.” And the salvation of the face belongs to the face that is unveiled and beholds the glory of the Lord, everyone being transformed into the same image, that is, one that stays the same; and above all to Jesus.

[Ps 43 LXX / 44] “O God, we have heard with our ears; our fathers have told us,” etc. The psalm is in the person of those in the dispersion, or in the person of those from the nations who believed, having received the word by hearing from Israel, to whom God appeared. What follows is because of “Ask your father, and he will tell you.” But whoever tells is a father.

“Your hand destroyed nations,” etc. God destroys wickedness and ignorance, and plants virtue and knowledge. “For every plant that God did not plant will be rooted up.” He calls nations the five satrapies in Palestine: the Gittites, the Azotians,

[Ps 43, continued] the Ekronites, the Gazaeans, and the Ashkelonites. By the same. Then was fulfilled, “Bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance.” The nations of wickedness are destroyed before we are planted. The hand destroyed, and the right hand; but neither the hand nor the right hand planted; for not a part, but he as a whole, planted. And not the hand but the right hand saved. When Israel had been cast out, those from the nations were planted in the divine Scriptures. Different names are given to one subject: for he calls the Saviour hand, right hand, arm and light; and the face of the Father, as the imprint of his substance. And the light sent from him into the mind of those called to redemption is the understanding given through the Spirit, which brings those enlightened to God. And the meek inherit the earth; they do not inherit by fighting, nor by the sword.

“For not by their sword did they inherit the land,” etc. It is in our power to achieve virtue, with the power of God; but to be counted worthy of spiritual knowledge is not in our power.

“You yourself are my king and my God, who commands the salvations of Jacob,” etc. These words will fit those among the people and the prophets who confess that they are not saved by their own power. Jacob is the one by whom base things are supplanted. God commands the holy spirits sent out for service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. And there are many salvations, as there are many lives.

“In you we will butt our enemies, and in your name we will bring to nothing those who rise up against us,” etc. The saints are horned by God, who is their horn. Also “He raised up a horn of salvation for us,” says Zechariah. And only by speaking your name, he says, we shall be strong to bring them to nothing. By the same. The horn of the soul is a pure mind; through the practical life it butts the enemies, and through knowledge it brings to nothing those who rise up against it and oppose spiritual contemplation.

“In God we shall be praised all day long,” etc. The blessed man is praised all day long in God, that is, his own life, which consists of freedom from passion and the knowledge of God. But the one praised for an intermediate art, as succeeding in it, or for progress among heretics, or for the words of some other false speech, will not be praised as blessed, and perhaps not all day long either.

“You turned us back,” etc. The virtues are said to be in front of us, the vices behind; therefore we are commanded to flee sexual immorality but to pursue hospitality.

[Ps 43, continued] “You gave us as sheep for food,” etc. For not all sheep are for food. Since you gave us as sheep for food, “when men rose up against us, they would have swallowed us alive.” God thrusts away from himself not always because of sins, but also for other reasons that he knows. And not everyone who is turned back undergoes this blameworthily, but only if someone who has fled evils wishes to return to them again. But if someone, having left Zion, that is, virtue, should hasten toward wickedness, called Babylon, and is turned back, he receives a blessed thing. But those speaking now, since they have come among the enemies after being turned back, have fallen blameworthily.

“You sold your people for no price,” etc. For we were sold by our sins, from which Christ bought us out.

“You made us a reproach to our neighbours,” etc. Those who have neighbouring doctrines are neighbours; the others are those round about. “You made us a byword among the nations” (for those from the nations have Israel as a parable, and seek the solution about their own affairs as in a parable) “and a shaking of the head,” that is, of Christ. Those came to be “among the peoples.”

“And the shame of my face covered me,” etc. We are ashamed before ourselves when we sin in thought, but before men when we offend in act.

“At the voice of the one who reproaches and slanders,” etc. This should be said to those who have endured in persecutions.

“And we did not deal falsely with your covenant,” etc. The one who sins knowingly deals falsely with the covenant of God. “And our heart did not turn back,” like Lot’s wife, or the one who put his hand to the plough, or rather like those who turned in their hearts to Egypt. By the same. Everyone who does not live according to the covenant of God wrongs it. We, he says, have gone the opposite way from the others. For they were tripped up even before the terrors, but we have stood firm even after the terrors, keeping our resolve unshaken. What is “We did not deal falsely with your covenant”? That is, we did not deal falsely with the things entrusted to us, but kept them with exactness.

“For you humbled us in a place of affliction, and the shadow of death covered us,” etc. The place of affliction is the human body, and the world akin to it. You have made us be in a foreign land, he says, which did not allow the acts of worship to be performed.