Selected Comments on the Psalms 1665–1679

their mouth has spoken vanity, and because of their wicked deeds their right hand is a right hand of injustice. The foreign sons think that certain things are right which belong to injustice; that is why the devil stands at their right hand, as also at that of Judas.

Of the same. And the prophet says: "Yet I will speak judgment to you: why does the way of the ungodly prosper?" And again David says: "My steps had nearly slipped, for I was jealous of the lawless, seeing the peace of sinners."

"O God, I will sing a new song to you," etc. One who is set in the New Covenant sings the new song to God; or one who has taken from Jesus in the upper room the new bread of the New Covenant and the cup.

"Whose sons are like plants grown up in their youth," etc. The sons of the man who is blessed for fearing the Lord are "like young olive shoots around his table"; but the sons of the foreign sons are "like plants grown up in their youth." That man has no daughters; but these have daughters "adorned, decked out like the likeness of a temple." That man has sons' sons; these do not. Further, that man has no storehouse or barn; but these have "full storehouses, overflowing from one to another." And according to the Gospel, the birds of heaven, fed by the heavenly Father, have neither storehouse nor barn. And again, these have prolific sheep, multiplying in nothing else than in their lanes, and fat oxen, such as those of the plenty of Egypt.

"They called blessed the people to whom these things belong," etc. The blessedness of the unjust is a life without grief, with much money; but the blessedness of the righteous is the soul's freedom from passion, with the knowledge of God.

[Ps 144 LXX / 145] "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and of his greatness there is no end," etc. Since the greatness of God is seen in Christ and in the creatures, and there is no end of his greatness, perhaps from this too God's providence over the beings he has made is shown to reach from the infinite to the infinite.

Of the same. The knowledge of all things that have come to be has a limit; only the knowledge of the Holy Trinity is without limit.

"And his compassions are over all his works," etc. If the compassions of God are over all his works, how are there some whom they do not reach? Surely the compassions of God reach them too; unless his compassions reach his works, but not in every case the works of his hands.

"Let all your works confess to you, Lord, and let your holy ones bless you," etc. Here he calls the rational natures works; for these by nature confess to God. Whether any confession is sent up from the rest of creation too, God would know.

"Your kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages," etc. If the kingdom of God is the contemplation of the ages that have come to be and will come to be, "Your kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages" is well said.

"The Lord keeps all who love him, and all sinners he will destroy," etc. The destruction of a sinner is the separation of a rational soul from the whole life that is lived according to vice.

"My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord; and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and for ever and ever," etc. All flesh that blesses the name of the Lord for ever and for ever and ever will clearly be, for ever and for ever and ever, seeing the salvation of God.

Of the same. Paul too says: "Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of fleshly hearts." A fleshly heart, then, is a rational soul that readily receives the law of God. But there is also flesh that is blameworthy, as in: "My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh." And again Paul says: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God"; for there flesh signifies vice.

[Ps 145 LXX / 146] "Who keeps truth for ever, who executes judgment for the wronged, who gives food to the hungry," etc. He has called the true one "truth," naming the one who shares in the habit after the

habit. So also "he loves mercy and judgment" means the merciful man and the one who judges justly. And in Paul, "love does not boast" stands for the one who has love. In the same way you will find those who possess the worse habits named after them.

"The Lord sets free the prisoners; the Lord makes the blind wise; the Lord raises up those who are broken," etc. Neither things themselves nor the thoughts of them bind the mind, but the passionate thoughts of things. For the Lord created gold, and he himself made woman; and nothing that has come to be from God is opposed to the salvation of men. But sexual immorality and greed bind the mind, compelling the thoughts of things to linger in the heart.

Of the same. He calls those blind who see neither their own achievements nor the faults of others.

"The Lord will reign for ever," etc. Christ reigned before the ages without flesh, and he has reigned eternally in the flesh as well. These things the Holy Spirit announces as good news to the Church.

[Ps 146 LXX / 147] "The Lord builds up Jerusalem, and he will gather together the dispersed of Israel," etc. Those whom vice scatters, virtue gathers. So also the Lord in the Gospels: "And whoever does not gather with me scatters."

"Who counts the multitudes of stars," etc. The number by which God counts the rational beings indicates differences in the state of the stars, and the names he gives them signify various spiritual knowledges. But of the creeping things in the sea he says: "There are creeping things without number." For how will the spiritual number be applied to those who creep on their belly and are slaves of pleasures, whose "anger is like that of the serpent, and the poison of asps is under their lips"? And again Solomon says that those wounded by vice are many, and those slain by it are numberless.

"The Lord lifts up the meek, but humbles sinners to the ground," etc. We must inquire from where he humbles sinners. He teaches the place by saying "to the ground." And perhaps he humbles them by making them be in the earthly body of humiliation. He lifts up the meek, whom he had humbled before; and he humbles to the ground the sinners who were on high before their sin.

"Who covers the heaven with clouds," etc. The heaven and the more divine things are covered and veiled by clouds, to which the truth reaches.

[Ps 147 LXX / 147:12–20] "For he has strengthened the bars of your gates," etc. The bars of the gates of Jerusalem, held together by the Lord, are, I think, the reasonings on behalf of the truth that is contemplated and grasped, which present it powerfully.

Of the same. The bars of Jerusalem are the practical virtues, which prevent the enemies from slipping in; those of Zion are the heavenly doctrines and the right faith in the worshipful and holy Trinity; since Jerusalem signifies the soul, and Zion the mind. For Jerusalem is interpreted "vision of peace," and Zion "watchtower."

"Who makes your borders peace," etc. The borders of Jerusalem are all peace; outside its borders there is no peace. Therefore whoever is not in peace is outside the borders of Jerusalem.

Of the same. They say that the borders of peace are the soul's freedom from passion.

"And fills you with the fat of wheat," etc. Similar is what is said in the eightieth: "And he fed them with the fat of wheat." The grain of wheat is the Saviour; therefore it is with wheat that God fills Jerusalem.

"Who sends his saying to the earth," etc. Here he speaks of the earth allegorically: perhaps of us, who carry the treasure in earthen vessels; but it is better to understand it of the Son of God in the flesh, which he willed should contain so great a Lord.

"Who gives snow like wool, scattering mist like ashes," etc. God is said to give in two ways: either by permitting or by acting; as if one said of the sun that it makes both day and night, day by shining and night by withdrawing. So "God gives" here must be understood according to the second meaning, since by sending his word he melts them.

"He will send out his word and melt them," etc. Snow and ice, mist and cold, befall the rational nature through the absence of the sun of righteousness; and these the Word of God, when he was sent, melted: "For I came," he says, "to cast fire on the earth."

[Ps 148 LXX / 148] "Praise the Lord from the heavens," etc. Praise is a hymn to God upon the contemplation of things that have come to be.

"Praise him, all you stars and light," etc. Here light symbolically signifies the rational nature: "For you," he says, "are the light of the world."

"Praise him, heavens of heavens, and the water above the heavens; let them praise the name of the Lord," etc. Heaven is an intelligible rational nature that carries the sun of righteousness round within itself.

Of the same. The water above the heavens signifies rational natures, separated from the waters that are in the heavens.

"And he will exalt the horn of his people," etc. The horn is a pure mind.

"A hymn for all his holy ones," etc. A hymn is amazement, with doxology, at the contemplation of the things that have come to be and been made by God.

[Ps 149 LXX / 149] "Sing to the Lord a new song," etc. He sings a new song who has put off the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and put on the new man, created according to God.

"His praise is in the assembly of the holy ones," etc. As "praise is not fitting in the mouth of a sinner," so neither is it in the assembly of evildoers, but in the assembly of the holy ones; and in this rather than in one or in a few.

"Let Israel rejoice in his maker, and let the sons of Zion exult in their king," etc. Since "he made" is said of what is according to the image, and "he formed" of what is from the dust, and holy gladness belongs to what is according to the image, therefore Israel is commanded to rejoice in the one who made him. And Christ, that is, wisdom, word, truth, reigns over the sons of Zion; let them exult in him.

"Let them praise his name in the dance," etc. If the many, of the same mind and the same purpose, with one accord, with one soul and one heart, praise the name and the property of the king, they praise his name in the dance, in harmony.

"With timbrel and psaltery let them sing to him," etc. Those who have put to death their members on earth, and have brought them up to the tree, crucifying the principalities and powers together with Christ, sing to God with the timbrel; but those who are whole and in harmony in the spirit, with the psaltery.

"For the Lord takes pleasure in his people, and will exalt the meek with salvation," etc. The Lord takes pleasure in his own portion, which is his people, not in the people of any other ruler of this age. And he will exalt the meek to the land that the meek inherit, not the land below, but the land on which the Jerusalem above is; for God will exalt the meek with salvation, "and the holy ones will boast in glory." In what glory? Reasonably, in that of which he says, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord"; the glory such as Moses had when the appearance

of his face was glorified; and of which Paul says: "And we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory."

"And they will exult upon their beds," etc. Those will exult upon their beds for whom "the night is far gone and the day has drawn near"; who also "walk decently as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness."

"The exaltations of God are in their throat," etc. Those whose throat is not an open tomb have the exaltations of God in their throat, and two-edged swords in their hands, being ready to punish every disobedience and pulling down every height raised up against the knowledge of God.

"And two-edged swords in their hands," etc. Swords are reasonings and actions of the soul that cut it off from vice and ignorance.

Of the same. A sword is a rational mind cutting the soul off from vice and ignorance.

"To execute vengeance among the nations, rebukes among the peoples," etc. "Vengeance among the nations": among the heterodox; "rebukes among the peoples": among those who sin in their lives while being counted members of the Church.

"To bind their kings with fetters, and their nobles with iron manacles," etc. Whoever refutes the teachers of the heterodox, and those among them who are thought glorious because of their supposed competence, binds their kings with fetters, so that they may not advance in their teaching, and their nobles with iron manacles, so that they may no longer hold what they held of old because it was easily deceived.

Of the same. An intelligible bond is the freedom from passion of a rational soul; or the fear of the Lord that turns away from vice; or spiritual teaching that does not allow the mind to walk toward vice; or spiritual love that prefers nothing to the knowledge of God.

"To execute among them the judgment that is written," etc. The holy ones execute among the kings and nobles just mentioned a judgment that is written, and worthy of the writing that is in the Spirit; and all that has been said is the glory of all the holy ones of God, so that one who does not have these things is not holy to God.

[Ps 150 LXX / 150] "Praise God in his holy places," etc. Let no one who has gone out from the holy places praise God: "For how shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?" And a foreign land is what is not holy. Or, since one must not

give holy things to dogs, nor throw pearls before swine, and the praise of the Lord is holy and a pearl, God must be praised among the holy, and neither among dogs nor among swine.

"Praise him in the firmament of his power," etc. Where there is the firmament of faith and of a building like the one built upon the rock by a prudent man, and where Christ, the power of God, is, there let God be praised as in the firmament of God's power. And let these things be in the one who speaks and in the one who hears.

"Praise him for his mighty acts," etc. As the soul of the righteous man blesses God in every place of his dominion, so he must also be praised for the mighty acts he established and ordered; and let the speaker and the hearer understand them, so that they may also share in them. For unspeakable are the things continually accomplished through his saints.

"Praise him according to the abundance of his greatness," etc. When each greatness of God is understood, each of the creatures too will be understood, and the abundance of the greatness, of each of which there is no end.

"Praise him with the sound of the trumpet," etc. According to the spiritual account of the making of the trumpets in Numbers, a trumpet must be made, so that we may praise God with its sound. Such trumpets, I think, are meant also in: "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible"; and in: "With the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God he will descend from heaven." There is also the feast on the new moon of the seventh month, a memorial of trumpets; in accordance with it it is said: "Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on the notable day of our feast."

Of the same. A trumpet is a contemplative mind, or a mind entrusted with spiritual teaching.

"Praise him with psaltery and lyre; praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with strings and organ; praise him with well-sounding cymbals; praise him with cymbals of shouting," etc. The lyre is a practical soul moved by the commandments of Christ. The timbrel is the putting to death of the desiring part for the sake of the good itself. The dance is the harmony of rational souls who say the same thing and have no divisions. The strings are the harmony of the voice of the virtues and the instruments … The organ is the Church of God, made up of contemplative and practical souls. The well-sounding cymbal is a practical soul fastened to the longing for Christ. The cymbal of shouting is a pure mind inspired by the salvation of Christ.

Of the same. Many strings put together harmoniously, each set musically in its own place, are the many commandments and the doctrines about many matters, which have no discord with one another.

The organ that contains all these is the soul of the wise man in Christ.

Of the same. Whoever speaks with the tongues of men or of angels but has not love is not a well-sounding cymbal.

"Let every breath praise the Lord," etc. If, according to Solomon, the light of the Lord is the breath of men, let every rational nature that breathes in this light praise the Lord.