Selected Comments on the Psalms 1547–1567

"Our years were spun out like a spider's web," etc. "For our life on earth is a shadow," says Job.

"And the greater part of them is toil and trouble," etc. We spend the greater part of the years that have passed in toils and troubles.

"So make your right hand known to me," etc. Let your right hand be made known not for punishment but for loving-kindness.

"And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us," etc. Brightness is knowledge of God; for those who share in it are called brightnesses: "In the brightnesses of the saints," he says, "from the womb, before the morning star, I begot you."

"And direct the work of our hands," etc. The works of the hands are the particular acts; the work of the hands is the knowledge that results from them.

[Ps 90 LXX / 91] "He will overshadow you with his back," etc. The back is a symbol of the heart.

"His truth will surround you with a shield; you will not be afraid of the terror by night," etc. The shield of Christ is true knowledge, and the one surrounded by it will not be frightened.

"From the arrow that flies by day," etc. He has here named a certain unclean power "arrow."

"From mishap and the noonday demon," etc. They say that the noonday demon is the demon of listlessness.

"And no scourge will come near your dwelling," etc. If anyone wishes not to fall under a scourge, let him become a house of God.

"To guard you in all your ways," etc. The one who stumbles in nothing is guarded in all his ways.

"Lest you strike your foot against a stone," etc. The foot signifies the soul, and the stone sin.

"And I will show him my salvation," etc. The salvation of God is Christ.

[Ps 91 LXX / 92] "On a ten-stringed psaltery, with song on the lyre," etc. The psaltery is a pure mind moved by spiritual knowledge; the lyre is a practical soul moved by the commandments of Christ.

"A senseless man will not know," etc. The offspring of senselessness is vice, and the offspring of vice is ignorance.

"For behold, your enemies will perish," etc. An enemy who perishes becomes a friend; for God has abolished his enmity.

"And my old age in rich oil," etc. The old age of the righteous is true knowledge, and his youth is the soul's freedom from passion.

"Planted in the house of the Lord," etc. The righteous, planted in the knowledge of the Lord, will make many men blossom in this world or in the churches, making them bear fruit through spiritual teaching.

"And there is no injustice in him," etc. There is no injustice with God, because he cannot admit vice.

[Ps 92 LXX / 93] "The rivers lifted up their voices," etc. He names holy rational natures rivers, because rivers of living water flow from their heart.

"Wonderful are the surges of the sea," etc. The soul becomes wonderful when it is lifted on high and separated from the waves of this life.

[Ps 93 LXX / 94] "Render recompense to the proud," etc. Pride is contempt of a good calling.

"They have humbled your people, Lord," etc. "The Lord disciplines the one he loves," says the Apostle; and if he calls blessed the one he disciplines, everyone disciplined by him will become free of passion; for this one the Lord loves. For discipline is the moderating of the passions.

"To give him rest from evil days," etc. He calls the days of the judgment evil days; in them the one disciplined by him, having become pure of passions, will enjoy knowledge and remain untroubled.

"Until a pit is dug for the sinner," etc. He has named Gehenna the pit.

"Until righteousness returns to judgment," etc. Until Christ judges the world; for he "became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption," and "the Father has given all judgment to him."

"Your mercy, Lord, helped me," etc. Here the mercy of Christ signifies his providence, through which a man is either helped or abandoned. A man is helped when it is at work, and abandoned when it withdraws.

"Your consolations have gladdened my soul," etc. Consolation is the soul's recovery from toils.

"Shall the throne of lawlessness be allied with you?" etc. He has named the devil the throne of lawlessness, since Christ too is the throne of righteousness, who is opposed to the devil.

"And according to their wickedness the Lord our God will make them disappear,"

the Lord our God," etc. He will make them disappear as evil, that is, by making them good.

[Ps 94 LXX / 95] "For in his hand are the ends of the earth," etc. Here he calls the providence of God "hand."

"Come, let us worship and fall down before him," etc. He falls down before the Lord who has given up the elation of pride.

"Today, if you hear his voice," etc. "Today" signifies this life: "For Jesus Christ," he says, "is the same yesterday and today and for ever"; and again: "as long as it is called today."

"But they did not know my ways," etc. The ways of the Lord are the practical virtues that lead to the kingdom of heaven.

"As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest," etc. The rest of the Lord is knowledge of him; whoever enters it will rest upon it.

[Ps 95 LXX / 96] "Sing to the Lord a new song," etc. The old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit, cannot sing a new song; for the new song belongs to the new man, who has been made according to the image of his Creator.

"He is to be feared above all gods," etc. If the Lord is to be feared above all gods, then all the gods fear the Lord.

"Say among the nations: The Lord has become king," etc. Say to the unjust that righteousness reigns, and to the foolish that prudence is lord, and to liars that truth is master, and to the ignorant that knowledge has prevailed.

"Let the heavens rejoice," etc. That is, those who dwell in the heavens.

"Then all the trees of the forest will exult," etc. What sort of trees will exult? Let those who refuse allegory tell us.

[Ps 96 LXX / 97] "Let the many islands be glad," etc. An island is a mind that does not swerve, though the waves of this life beat around it.

"And fire will go before him," etc. This fire burns wood, hay, straw.

"You who love the Lord, hate evil," etc. That is: you who love knowledge, hate evil.

"And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness," etc. Give thanks, remembering his holiness.

[Ps 97 LXX / 98] "Before the nations he has revealed his righteousness,"

etc. "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith."

"The rivers will clap their hands together," etc. If the gifts of the Holy Spirit are called rivers, according to "Rivers of living water will flow from his belly," then those who will share in these rivers are rightly called rivers themselves. Note also that the rivers are "together," so that all may say the same thing and there may be no divisions among them.

[Ps 98 LXX / 99] "You have prepared uprightness," etc. "Uprightness" means either the upright or the virtues.

"And worship at the footstool of his feet," etc. Some have said that the footstool of the feet is the flesh of Christ, which is to be worshipped because of Christ; and Christ is to be worshipped because of the Word of God in him.

"And Samuel among those who call upon his name," etc. He calls upon righteousness who acts righteously, and upon truth who does not lie, and upon love who does not hate.

"In a pillar of cloud he spoke to them," etc. The pillar and the cloud are rational natures, through which the Lord spoke to the saints.

"Exalt the Lord our God," etc. God is by nature exalted by a pure mind.

[Ps 99 LXX / 100] "Enter his gates," etc. The gates of wisdom are the virtues; for through them we enter the kingdom of heaven.

[Ps 100 LXX / 101] "I will sing to you of mercy and judgment, Lord," etc. He wishes to sing the doctrine of Providence and judgment.

"Whoever slanders his neighbour in secret, him I drove away," etc. The verse is useful against slanderers.

"He who walks in a blameless way, he served me," etc. The verse should be used against those of the priestly order who are served by thoroughly wicked slaves.

"To destroy from the city," etc. Here he calls his own soul the city of the Lord, in which he killed all lawless thoughts.

[Ps 101 LXX / 102] "I kept watch and became like a sparrow alone on a housetop," etc. Nothing makes the mind so light as keeping watch.

"For I ate ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping," etc. The verse is useful against those who delight in pipes and songs at drinking time.

"And I withered like grass; but you, Lord, remain for ever," etc. I am temporary

and mortal, but you are everlasting and immortal.

"Do not take me away in the half of my days," etc. Of the days made by the sun of righteousness.

"They will perish, but you will remain," etc. The heavens will perish not in their essence but in their form: "For the form of this world," says the Apostle, "is passing away."

[Ps 102 LXX / 103] "Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me, his holy name," etc. The things within the inner man are the intellectual power, the discursive, the attentive, the interpretive, the imaginative, and the power of memory.

"Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's," etc. The eagle strips off its old age, as man too strips off the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit.

"For as the height of heaven is above the earth, the Lord has made his mercy strong over those who fear him," etc. As he exalted those in heaven, so he has had mercy on those on earth who fear him.

"Man: his days are like grass; like a flower of the field, so will he flourish," etc. Here "man" indicates the universal nature; for every man is temporary and mortal, quick to wither and temporary.

"For a wind has passed over it, and it will not be," etc. After death the soul is no longer in this life.

"But the mercy of the Lord is from age to age upon those who fear him," etc. The sensible life is not everlasting, but the mercy of the Lord is everlasting.

"And his righteousness upon sons of sons," etc. The sons of sons are those who have been counted worthy of adoption through …

"And to those who remember his commandments," etc. He remembers the commandments who lives by them.

"And his kingdom rules over all," etc. His creative kingdom rules over all; but the kingdom according to knowledge rules, not over all those on earth, but over all those in heaven.

[Ps 103 LXX / 104] "Putting on light as a garment," etc. The garment of the Lord is true knowledge; whoever puts it on will be enlightened by it.

"Stretching out the heaven like a skin," etc. Why did he not say "having stretched out" but "stretching out"? Is it that he stretched it out once as to its essence, but always stretches it out by his providence? Such also is what is said in Job: "Who makes the Pleiades and Hesperus and Arcturus and the chambers of the south."

"Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire," etc. To Abraham the angels appeared as spirits, but to the Sodomites as burning fire.

"Who founded the earth upon its stability; it will not be moved for ever and ever," etc. Job said, "Hanging the earth upon nothing"; and David, "upon its stability." Both exclude there being some other body underneath that carries it; for its stability is not a substance but the art of God, which keeps the earth unmoved within the sphere.

"The abyss is his covering like a garment," etc. Through the abyss he presents the incomprehensibility of the knowledge of God.

"The mountains go up and the plains go down to the place you founded for them," etc. By these words he hints at certain rational natures.

"You set a boundary that they will not pass," etc. They say that these words are said of the subterranean demons.

"Watering the mountains from his upper rooms," etc. The upper rooms of God are pure natures that water those who are loftier in heart.

"The trees of the plain will be satisfied," etc. The Hebrew and the other versions have put "of the Lord." Having gone through the fruitful plants, he necessarily mentions the unfruitful ones too, since these also supply a need necessary to men. That is also why he called them "of the Lord," as growing of themselves and not made by hand, but sprouting at the divine word; and so he added: "The cedars of Lebanon, which you planted."

Of the same. As there are trees of paradise, so also there are trees of the plain.

"The rock is a refuge for the rock-badgers," etc. Let the one who is in the condition of a rock-badger flee for refuge to the spiritual rock that followed in the desert and gave Israel drink.

"The sun knew its setting," etc. The sun of righteousness has now come to know those in whom it once set.

"The sun rose, and they were gathered together," etc. In those in whom the sun of righteousness rises, the vices too exist only potentially.

"Man will go out to his work and to his labour until evening," etc. Here he calls "work" the very material with which the labour is concerned, and "labour" the craft itself exercised on the material.

"There are creeping things without number," etc. Of the men who creep because of vice there is no number: "For he who numbers," it says, "the multitudes of the stars, and calls them all by name."

"You will take away their spirit, and they will fail and return to their dust," etc. Those who fall away from the spirit given them by God become earthy.

"You will send forth your spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth," etc. What holy Paul called resurrection, David called renewal.

"He who touches the mountains, and they smoke," etc. The smoking mountains cast off vice when the spiritual fire cast upon the earth touches them.

"Let sinners vanish from the earth," etc. Not that they should cease to exist, but that they should cease to exist as sinners.

[Ps 104 LXX / 105] "Tell of all his wonders," etc. Whoever has acquired all the knowledge of God can tell of all his wonders.

"Seek the Lord," etc. Whoever does the commandments of God seeks him.

"Seek his face continually," etc. He says that we should seek that face which the angels see continually.

"Seed of Abraham, his servants," etc. Those who are of the seed of Abraham are elect potentially.

"He remembered his covenant for ever, the word that he commanded for a thousand generations," etc. Some have thought that by the thousand generations he means many generations, others those bounded by this number.

"Saying: To you I will give the land of Canaan, the measured portion of your inheritance," etc. Before the coming of Christ, the Canaanites held our souls and did not let us bear spiritual fruit.

"He let no man wrong them," etc. From this we learn that those who are wronged by men are wronged through God's abandonment.

"Do not touch my anointed ones," etc. These anointed ones are called anointed because they share in Christ; and Christ is called Christ because he shares in the Father. And by Christ I mean the Lord who came among us with God the Word.

"And he made him stronger than his enemies," etc. Without virtue and knowledge of God no one could become stronger than the enemies.

"He spoke, and the dog-fly came," etc. The Hebrews interpret the dog-fly as a mixed multitude of wild and flesh-eating beasts; but the Greeks say that the dog-fly is the fly of the barking dog.

"And he struck their vines," etc. "For their vines were of the vine of Sodom, and their tendrils of Gomorrah."

"He spoke, and the locust came," etc. This locust devours the evil seed.

[Ps 105 LXX / 106] "And he saved them for his name's sake, to make his might known," etc. Through

[Ps 105 LXX / 106, continued] this the Lord saves us, to grant us knowledge of his might.

"Not one of them was left," etc. Blessed is the one for whom not one of his enemies is left.

"They did not wait for his counsel, and they lusted with lust in the wilderness," etc. They did not wait for his grace, but forgot his works and lusted with evil lust.

"And they exchanged their glory for the likeness of a calf that eats grass," etc. Those who glorify a creature rather than the Creator exchange their glory. "And they exchanged," says Paul, "the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things."

"And he said he would destroy them," etc. Destruction here signifies removal from this life.

"Had not Moses his chosen one stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath so that he would not destroy them," etc. Note that even one holy man, such as Moses, is able to turn away the anger that is moving against a whole nation.

"And they despised the desirable land," etc. The desirable land is the kingdom of heaven.

"And he lifted up his hand against them," etc. By "hand" he means his punishing powers.

"And they were initiated into Baal-Peor," etc. Baal-Peor is an idol of Bel in the place of Peor.

"And they ate sacrifices of the dead," etc. They performed rites for Baal-Peor, commemorating [the dead] in his mysteries.

"And Phinehas stood and made atonement," etc. Above he says that Moses stood and turned away the breach; but [here], that the breach ceased.

"And they mingled among the nations," etc. One who serves carved images mingles with the nations.

"And they went whoring in their pursuits," etc. A soul goes whoring when it receives seeds from the opposing power and gives birth to evil children.

"And he abhorred his inheritance," etc. "The inheritance of the Lord is rational souls."

"And those who hated them ruled over them," etc. Those who hate us and afflict our souls are demons.

"And he made them objects of compassion before all who had taken them captive," etc. From this we learn that the Lord also makes us worthy to receive mercy.

[Ps 106 LXX / 107] "For he satisfied the empty soul," etc. The empty soul is one deprived of virtues and of knowledge.

"And he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death," etc. Inasmuch as the Lord is light, he brings

us out of darkness, and inasmuch as he is life, out of death; and again, as mighty, he bursts bonds.

"Their soul abhorred all food," etc. As the sick abhor all food, so the impure reject all knowledge.

"They saw the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep," etc. Those who, for the sake of practising virtue, fall into many and various distractions see the works of the Lord, that is, the principles of things that have come to be and are coming to be.

"And all their wisdom was swallowed up," etc. Vice swallows up the wisdom of God; but the righteousness of the Lord destroys vice.

"And its waves were stilled," etc. By the stilling of the waves he has named the destruction of temptations.

"And he made them wander in a trackless place and not on a road," etc. He abandoned them as they wandered, and did not take hold of them, because of their vice.

[Ps 107 LXX / 108] "My heart is ready," etc. Whoever has put away the passions has made his heart ready for God.

"Moab is the cauldron of my hope," etc. The cauldron is the one who is fervent in spirit and hopes in the Lord; and this hope does not put to shame the one who hopes.

"Over Idumea I will cast my shoe," etc. The shoe of Christ is the flesh, by means of which the Lord came to dwell in the life of men.

[Ps 108 LXX / 109] "And let the devil stand at his right hand," etc. Satan stands at the right hand of those whose works of the right hand he cuts off. In Zechariah it says: "And the Lord showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and the devil stood at his right hand"; and not simply so, but "to oppose him." But he does not oppose Judas.

"Let his sons become orphans, and his wife a widow," etc. It seems to me that the righteous man is not cursing but praying. "For bless your enemies," says the Apostle, "bless and do not curse." The orphans, then, are evil thoughts that have buried their own father, Satan; and the widow is the soul that has not received seeds from the devil. The order too is good: first he takes away the sins in act, then also their base thoughts.

"Let it be to him like a garment that he puts on, and like a girdle with which he is always girded," etc. This girdle signifies the irrational burning of the desiring part.

"My knees have grown weak from fasting," etc.

The verse should be used against those who despise self-control.

"They will curse, but you will bless," etc. The Lord blesses the one whom the adversaries curse.

[Ps 109 LXX / 110] "With you is the principle in the day of your power, in the brightness of the saints," etc. If the Father is the principle of the Son, and the principle was with Christ, then he rightly says in the Gospels: "I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me." And he called the day of the cross, or of the incarnation, the day of power.

"From the womb, before the morning star, I begot you," etc. That is: Before every rational nature I begot you. For to inquire more deeply into the generation of Christ and of the morning star is not within our power; for the account of it is long and hard to contemplate.

"He will judge among the nations, he will fill up the fallen," etc. He fills up [the place of] the fallen things of the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit.

[Ps 110 LXX / 111] "In the counsel of the upright and in the congregation, great are the works of the Lord," etc. He has called the works of the Lord great because of the wisdom stored up in them.

"He has given food to those who fear him," etc. The food of those who fear the Lord is the wisdom of God: "For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

"He has declared to his people the power of his works," etc. He calls the contemplation of things that have come to be the power of his works; and knowledge is called power because it puts power into the rational nature.

"The works of his hands are truth and judgment," etc. Truth is seen in right doctrines, and judgment in the practical life.

"All his commandments are faithful, established for ever and ever." He called the commandments faithful, meaning worthy of trust; for what they promise they also do; and they promise purification of the rational soul to those who keep them genuinely.

[Ps 111 LXX / 112] "In his commandments he will delight greatly," etc. He delights greatly in his commandments who keeps them with all exactness.

"Glory and wealth are in his house," etc. The wisdom of God, inasmuch as it supplies an abundance of contemplations, is called wealth; and inasmuch as it prepares men to glorify the one who possesses it, it is named glory.

"Light has risen in darkness for the upright," etc. The Saviour says to the disciples in the Gospels: "What you have heard in the dark, say in the light."

etc. The verse should be used against those who bring out the divine mysteries of the divine Scripture carelessly and without discernment; for Paul too says: "Let a man regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God."

"He will not be afraid of an evil report," etc. "Report" means rumour, as is also written in the Gospel: "His report went out into all Syria"; and again: "You will hear of wars and reports of wars."

"His horn will be exalted in glory," etc. Satan fears nothing so much as a mind exalted in the knowledge of God.

"The desire of the sinner will perish," etc. If the desire of the sinner will perish, and the desire of the sinner is vice, then the vice of sinners will perish.

[Ps 112 LXX / 113] "From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised," etc. The risings are the intellectual natures, in which the sun of righteousness rises; and the settings are the souls of men, in which the spiritual and heavenly sun once set.

"Who dwells on high and looks upon the lowly things in heaven and on earth," etc. God dwells in the holy powers, but he provides for lowly men, so that his will may be done on earth as in heaven.

"Who raises the poor from the earth and lifts the needy from the dunghill," etc. God raises the soul from vice to virtue, and urges the mind from ignorance to knowledge.

"Who settles the barren woman in a home, a mother rejoicing in children," etc. "Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labour; for the children of the desolate are more than of her who has a husband." A soul becomes barren when God abandons it, and a mother when he is at work in it.