Expositio in Psalmos

OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, ON THE PSALMS. PROOEMIUM.

Sacred words and a gathering of divine teachings procure for those who speak them a glorious benefit; for "wisdom is better than precious stones, and every precious thing is not worthy of her." But I think one ought to labor, and that very eagerly, in matters so beneficial, and to be superior to hesitation and laziness, loving things worthy of admiration; for the excellent things of good deeds would not be attainable by those accustomed to sink into laziness, but by those willing to sweat over them. Hence I too have been stirred up even now to the duty of expounding, according to my ability, a few things at least concerning the book of the Psalms. For these things are sung in the Church of the Lord very much for the obedience of the people; and the prophets around Asaph can be shown to have been appointed by David as leaders and teachers for the peoples, to praise the Lord and give thanks to him. And these things have been said by us in this way. But concerning the remaining things found, if it happens, in the diapsalma, or the obelos, or the lemniskos, or the mention of any other thing in each psalm, guided by the grace of the Lord and instructed by his power, I will speak again. And concerning these very things previously mentioned, I will set forth the account more fully in what follows, by the grace of the Lord.

PSALM 1.

And all things whatsoever he does shall prosper. For before the coming of our Savior, it was not without difficulty for those on earth to be able to rise above unnatural love of pleasure and to be superior to worldly desires. But since the Lord, being God, has appeared to us, the path that leads us to virtue has become smooth and level and has nothing steep or rough in it. The ungodly shall not rise in judgment. Yet sometimes mercy follows even them, so that they do not fall into the same punishments as the ungodly. And the sinners shall rise, but they shall not be in the council and the rank of the righteous; and by "council of the righteous" he means, as it were, their order and dignity. For even if some of those who have sinned be worthy of mercy or pardon, yet they would not be numbered among the choirs of the saints; for theirs is another lot, and their honors are raised on high, and their grace is conspicuous, and their delight is unending. For they have gathered the fruit of their noble deeds, and they are enriched with the rewards of their manliness toward every good thing. But mark this, that David first clearly taught resurrection and judgment and the promise of the life to come, whereas Moses handed down nothing of the kind.

PSALM 2.

Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate on vain things? And here too he more clearly accuses the folly of the Jews, and their unbridled boldness against Christ, and their rashness in thoughts, and their childishness in reasonings, almost saying: "Why did the nations rage?" And in another way they meditated in vain on the books of the prophets, not receiving the Savior of the race who was proclaimed by them. But I

was established as king by him. And being by nature without need, whatever he is said to receive, he has received so that we might partake. "I have been appointed," he says, "as king by God the Father, so as to declare his command, and before all others to those in Zion." And this, I think, is what Christ said: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." For since the grace of the promise was owed to them, to them first also he granted the word of the gospel proclamation, and the justification through faith in him. You are my Son; today I have begotten you. David therefore knows Christ as having his throne of divinity before the ages, because of the ineffable generation from the Father; "For your throne, O God," he says, "is forever." He knows him also as receiving a kingdom in a human way in time, because of the newer aspect of the economy. And again he reveals his generation before the ages, saying: "You are my Son." For he was always Son. And again he shows the generation according to the flesh by adding: "Today I have begotten you"; for "today" is a matter of time. And God granted to him as a man the name that is above every name, namely that of sonship.

The word “today” indicates the present time, in which he also became flesh, though by nature he is Lord of all things as well; for John testified concerning him, that he came to his own, calling the world his own. As one called to the glory of his kingdom that was his by custom, he said: “But I was established as king by him,” clearly by God and the Father. And he endured such things, so that, as a man adopted as son—though by nature he is the Son—he might prepare through himself for human nature a share in adoption as sons, and call to the kingdom of heaven those tyrannized by sin. For just as, as it were, by some inheritance from a father, the misfortunes from the transgression in Adam have reached the whole race descended from him, burdened as we are with a curse and death, so again the glorious things in Christ will run through the whole human race. For the Only-Begotten receives them for our sake, and certainly not for his own; for he is fully God even by nature, and has need of nothing at all; rather, he himself enriches the whole creation with the good things from above. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations. When one nation—that from Israel—had acted insolently and for this reason was rejected, all the nations that believed in Christ are given to him. For he himself is the expectation of the nations, and in him shall the nations hope. And instead of the one land of the Jews, he took as his own the ends [or: the fullness] of the inhabited world. And I will give you the nations as your inheritance. For he has been appointed as a man the heir of all things, so that thereafter he might recover as his own inheritance those on the earth who had been plundered by the opposing powers.

When this had been brought to completion, the Son said to the Father: "Those whom you have given me were yours, and you have given them to me." But if they were the Father's, they were also the Word's, who by nature reigns together with him; and so he ascends, even with the flesh, into the wealth that is his own. Therefore he said: "All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine." So then, if he is said to receive and to be appointed heir, this is said because of the human nature. For he became man in order to proclaim release to captives, to those who had revolted from God; but he nonetheless remained God, even though he became poor inasmuch as he became man. Therefore Paul also said to the Hebrews: "through whom he also made the ages." The Son, who is the Word, is not in need of glory or of anything else, so as to be said to ask from the Father or to receive; but he does this by economy. For he receives in a human way because of the form of his likeness to us; but as God he is full. And shortly after: He asks, then, and receives from the Father for our sake, things which he has by nature as God. Since he took up flesh that needed to be glorified, and it became not another's but his own, he rightly appropriates to himself the things that happen for it or concerning it; and as a man who does not have, he receives from the Father

...which he possesses naturally as Son and God. And your possession, the ends of the earth. (27) This shows that it has no application to Zerubbabel, as the Jews claim; for what did he take, or what possession of the ends of the earth? But it applies to the Lord, who subjects the whole world to his own dominion. As vessels of a potter you shall shatter them. For as long as they had hope of being remolded, they were called clay: "For shall I not be able, says he, as the potter, to remold you, house of Israel?" But when, baked hard, they have become potsherds for evil, he threatens them with irremediable shattering. And Christ shepherds the nations also, as with a rod, by the cross, and by his unbreakable and mighty kingdom. For the rod is also a symbol of kingship, as in "A rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom." And he shatters these, not to destroy and consume them, but to remold them. For this is the potter's purpose in shattering his own vessels, when he does not preserve the molding intact and they have not yet been exposed to fire. Lay hold of instruction. The word "Lay hold" is to be rendered "quickly," spoken by hyperbaton. Lay hold of instruction in your hands, and while you are still in this life, lest the Lord be angry and estrange you from the joy of the righteous. Wishing us to cling to the Lord's teaching with a firm grip, he has fittingly used the word "lay hold.

PSALM 3.

Lord, why have they multiplied? He says, then: "Why have they multiplied?" using "why" in place of "greatly." For he is astonished, seeing those who devise plots against him to be innumerable; and he is afraid, as a man, yet he is not defeated by his fears, but having his heart strengthened in God, he expects that he will prevail over those who plot against him. And those who were added to Absalom, two hundred men from Jerusalem, were pressing hard on David as they multiplied, when both Ahithophel and Thekōn were joined to him, and a strong conspiracy and a great people with him. For all these were oppressing David; among whom was also Shimei, who cursed David as he went out. But you, Lord, are my helper. Having foretold the constraint and perplexity that came upon him from the uprising of his enemies, David now divides the melody by the diapsalma, and taking courage from what was sounded to him in secret, he utters this saving cry: "But you, Lord, are my helper." Those men, he says, move their weapons and expect to prevail over me, because I have been stripped of your grace; but I know my own Savior and Redeemer. I will not hope in the bow, and my sword will not save me; but an unbreakable wall and a multitude of spearmen not easily overcome is your goodwill, O Master, and the help that comes from you; and I will need nothing, since your gentleness bestows glory on me and lifts up my head, that is, places it in prominence, and as it were beyond my enemies. Or he calls his own head his rule, which after being humbled for a short time he received back lifted up again.

The Savior too might say to the Father, as a man, that "You are my helper, and do not abandon my soul to Hades, and my glory," having said: "And I have glorified, and again I will glorify," and you have lifted up my head—my divinity—that is, you have made it manifest through the divine signs. For the wonders at the cross are truly a clear proof of the divinity of the Only-Begotten. And God lifts up our head too—that is, the mind and the ruling faculty—when we look upward, leaping over everything bodily. With my voice I cried to the Lord, etc. The prophet, recounting his own sufferings and how he bore what befell him nobly, through the example in his own person leaves us the clearest teaching of endurance, and teaches that in circumstances one must approach no other than God, and that the fruit of such an approach is to be heard. Now, however, he turns his face toward us and recounts how, having prayed, he was heard, and says: "With my voice I cried to the Lord, and he heard me from his holy mountain." I lay down and slept. By "sleep" here he means the sleep of the mind, through which one also falls into sin. He confesses the fault, and makes what happened a charge against the sleep that came upon the mind. For it would be the work and earnest effort of a waking mind to reject what is base and to hasten to depart from what is naturally inclined to do wrong; but of one snoring and sick, the sluggishness, the being defeated by passions—and these fleshly. Therefore in the same breath he both makes mention of the sin and offers up a song of thanksgiving to God, saying:

I slept through my negligence into sin, having been corrupted together with Bathsheba and having killed Uriah. But I would not have been awakened to repentance, if the Lord had not taken hold of me. And this is the part of one clearly confessing the weakness of the human mind, and crowning with praises the God who always saves and helps, and who shatters the snare of the devil, and drags out from it those caught in it. But also, he says, when Absalom was plotting, I was negligent and, as it were, sleeping; but now I have risen and I know that the Lord will take up my cause when I am wronged. I will shake off also the sleep that comes from despondency, which the night of my misfortune brought upon me; and I will be awakened to cheerfulness, seeing, as it were, a bright day, the more radiant state of affairs. For the hope of God's help does not allow me to sleep and fall back. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people. Since, he says, the Lord has taken hold of me, I have been awakened, and thus I have been enriched with such a vigorous mind, as to fear in no way at all, even if ten thousands of peoples with Absalom should surround me. Excellent, therefore, is the faith of the saints; for they fear not at all when the countless multitude of their enemies is sharpened against them, whenever God comes to their aid. For he alone is sufficient, being present, to scatter the many ten thousands. Nor did the Lord fear the Jews and Gentiles who surrounded him at the time of his passion; therefore he also declined legions of angels. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God. (19.) Silence is no loss-free thing for those who are weary; but speaking is useful and saving.

Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God." But I do not think this applies to everyone. For those who despise the divine will and, as it were, give loose rein entirely to their own pleasures, how or from where would they have boldness toward God? But those who submit their neck obediently to the laws of God have great boldness toward him; and they would reasonably say, "Arise, save me, your genuine servant." And David also calls God his Lord, as one who does his will, and says: "Save me, O my God," claiming as his own with great affection the God of all, and beseeching him to arise for help. And his prayer is worthy of his meekness; for he did not say, "Destroy my enemies," but what? "Save me." This, he says, is the only thing I seek—that I myself be saved, not that my enemies be destroyed. Perhaps also, as a prophet knowing that Christ would free his soul, which was held in Hades, from there by rising from the dead, he foretells what is to come; and he prays that the Lord hasten his resurrection, so that through it he too might obtain salvation. Meanwhile, however, according to the idiom of Scripture, God is said to sleep when he is long-suffering; as in, "Why do you sleep, O Lord?" And he is said to arise again when he avenges and visits. And here too, he says, "Arise, O Lord"—that is, put away your great long-suffering, and be awakened for my help. And when the Savior was handed over for our sake, the Father, as it were, slept, enduring it. To him he also said: "Save me from this hour." The same

And we too can say this in temptations. But observe that, when we have become sober, then God also rises up for our salvation. And David himself first laid aside the sleep of negligence, and then also urged God to rise up for help. "For you struck all those who are my enemies without cause." But consider the precision of the word: for he did not simply say "those who are enemies," but those who do this "without cause," that is, vainly and gratuitously and for no fault. And someone is an enemy without cause when he has not been wronged beforehand, nor suffered any of the things that customarily grieve and provoke. And that man has enemies without cause who provides no pretext for enmity and hatred—such as all those who are persecuted for living piously. To these the Savior says: "Blessed are you when they reproach you and persecute you and say every evil word against you, lying, for my sake," and the rest. And David had many who were enemies without cause—Saul and Absalom and those with them; for while he showed great gentleness toward them, they were enemies in vain. "You crushed the teeth of sinners." But the phrase "You crushed the teeth" he spoke as concerning wild beasts; for those who love sin are, as a rule, murderous, and they gnash their teeth at the good repute of the saints. And it is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to liken to beasts those who have practiced fiercely attacking certain people. Therefore "You crushed the teeth" is said instead of "You stripped them of all strength," by a metaphor from beasts, which, when deprived of their teeth, are very contemptible and easy to overcome.

And the Savior will also say to the Father: You struck Herod the child-killer, who hated me in vain; and you will strike the Jews too, handing them over to the Romans; and you will shatter their teeth, because they said, "We have no king," and, "His blood be on us." And the demons are also struck by the Lord, because, though in no way wronged by us, they plot against us by their own wickedness; and their spiritual teeth—I mean the passions—by which they devour the simpler sort, are shattered. For you, it says, "shattered the heads of the dragons that lurk in the waters," you who subdued the great sea-monster through your resurrection, who brought down Hades and trampled death and abolished the devil. But observe for me that those who do wrong are the ones who are harmed, for they are struck by God; while those who are wronged are also helped, for they are saved. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and your blessing is upon your people. And it is fitting for the saints to pray that what one wishes for himself may also befall others; for he does not seek to be the only one to share in the good things given by God, but that the honor of these things may be set before all who love God in common. And do not wonder that such a purpose is found in the saints, since they grieve with those who suffer and weep with those who weep, and make the wrath owed to the lovers of sin their own common concern.

Perhaps David here is also speaking theologically when he says: Let the Savior Jesus be sent from you, the Lord and Father—the salvation of human nature—and let the blessing of the Holy Spirit be sent down upon your people, that is, upon the nations; and bless them with every spiritual blessing. For in Christ Jesus all the nations will be blessed, but the Jews will be driven out. And Christ also says that his own salvation, by which he was saved when he rose from the dead, belongs to the Father, and likewise he attributes to him the blessing upon those who believe. Therefore he says: "Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit." And with good reason the psalm will also be fitted to human nature, which the demons were oppressing before the coming of the Savior; but they were struck down by the true power of Christ when he became man; and the nature that was warred against by them enjoyed both salvation and blessing.

PSALM 4.

For the end, among hymns. A psalm of song to David. The blessed David composed the third psalm while the war against Absalom was still ongoing, which is why it also contained lamentations; but this fourth one, after winning the war, he dedicates to the God who gives victory as a thanksgiving. Therefore some of the interpreters, instead of "For the end," write the song "To the victor," that is, as a victory ode. It is inscribed "For the end," then, because the psalm was composed for the overthrow of tyranny; and "Among hymns," because David no longer weeps, but hymns God, the giver of victory; and "a psalm of song," because, celebrating a festival, he sings the victory ode more songfully. [When I call upon me.

It is absurd to bury the manner of the benefaction in silence, which is the very thing the nine lepers in the Gospels are reproached for. Either, then, he marvels at the divine generosity, which fulfilled the requests not over a long stretch of time; or perhaps he teaches that it is not in keeping silent but rather in calling upon God that one is saved. And by this it is shown that praying without ceasing is great and profitable. O God of my righteousness. We will find him who here usefully calls himself righteous also confessing that he is liable to transgressions. Then how, he says, can it be true that the same man is both righteous and liable to transgressions? Because slips also attend the righteous, according to the saying, "Seven times shall the righteous fall, and rise again." One thing, then, is to transgress without ceasing, and another is to succeed in righteousness amid trials, occasionally enduring the common weakness of nature. "For who will understand his transgressions?" as it is written. "And who will boast that he has a pure heart?" In tribulation you enlarged me. Since he said, God heard me, as if someone had asked him, In what way were you heard, O prophet? Or what desire of yours has come to fulfillment? He makes clear the manner of the assistance, and says, "I was enlarged in tribulation"—that is, I have not only been released from the circumstances and from being amid wretched affairs, but behold, I am also widened into cheerfulness. For he heard me, not in possessions, nor that I might prevail over enemies (for I did not ask these things), but in the relief that came in the midst of tribulation. Paul, at any rate, heard: "My grace is sufficient for you.

For my power is made perfect in weakness. And those who have broken through the snares of sin, and those who have been made perfect in faith and have taken up afflictions and tortures for Christ, will enjoy the good things on high. The word could also apply to the Savior, showing that he too was made perfect through sufferings and became higher from having suffered. And this too should be known, that circumstantial trials are called afflictions by divine Scripture in the case of the saints, because they come to them for the sake of training; as in, Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but in the case of sinners, scourges; as in, Many are the scourges of sinners. For they are scourged, being disciplined because of their sins. And hear my prayer. But how does he who says he is heard again beg to be heard? Either it is a time in place of a time; for instead of, You had compassion on me and heard me, it is said, Have compassion and hear; or perhaps he begs to be heard continually, since those who wish to live piously cannot possibly avoid altogether the afflictions that attend this life. If, then, he was heard in all that he prayed, nevertheless he feared concerning the future; therefore he prays again, knowing the gain of prayer. For even if he was released from his pains and despondency, yet being a man and anxious about the future, lest he not be strong, with temptations pressing on him throughout, he asks to be enlarged, and that these very things that produce pains pass away. Therefore also, Have compassion on me, he says, that is, Release the struggle, grant to be delivered completely. Sons of men, how long heavy-hearted?

According to the historical sense, these things were spoken against those who thought that by the multitude of their army they would capture the righteous man. For having learned by actual experience how great is the benefit of trusting in God, and of seeking to be saved by him alone, he sets before them as a commonly useful lesson what happened to him, and says: O you who are blind in your understanding and dull in mind, until when will you not cast off your weakness? Until when will you not know that hope placed in men is vanity and a lie? For the giant shall not be saved by the multitude of his strength. And David simply calls the sons of men those who live in wickedness, those who are inclined to impiety; since those who are not such are sons of men by nature, but by grace no longer, but sons of God. And know that the Lord has shown wondrously his holy one. For the enjoyment of earthly things differs, I think, in nothing from the delights seen in dreams, which, having only appeared, come to nothing, having mocked the mind of the sleeper; but the bright boasts of righteousness, and the rewards from God for it, have a participation far off and unshaken and a manifest dignity. For God receives the voices of the holy ones and brings their petitions to completion; what could be equal to this? Be angry and do not sin. The passion of anger befalls all men, having as its mother grief or faintheartedness or greed or abuse from certain people. But it is possible to check this, just as also bodily desires. For that they should not be stirred in us at all is perhaps both unattainable and not in our power. But it is in our power to rebuke the movements; so also in the case of anger.

For it is sharp in us when it makes its movement, yet it is checked, as it were, by certain bridles—by reasonings that lead to what is better. And as long as the passion in us is still without strength, it is deemed worthy of forgiveness from God; but when the evils that come from it become manifest, then we shall submit to the penalties. The same holds also for fleshly desires: for when the base pleasure is inactive in us, the punishing law will altogether lie dormant with it; but once it has been brought to completion, the matters of justice are extended along with it. So David says also now: Even if you are angered involuntarily—which is not a perfect sin—do not add the deed also, so that the sin may not be perfect. For he graciously concedes the lesser, as to the weaker, I mean anger, in order to prevent the greater, that is, murder and whatever is begotten from anger when it is not punished. Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord. And David sets forth his own case as an example; and he tries to teach that for those who sacrifice to the all-pure God the fruits of righteousness, the hope in him is not without reward. For, he says, I have all but sacrificed righteousness, and I have placed my hope in him, and I have prevailed over my enemies, even though I have lamented the young man who fell. And in saying, Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, he does not accept the one among the shadows according to the law, but rather the one in Christ and the evangelical one. For the ancient law taught that offerings be made through blood, but it was not possible in them for man to be perfected according to conscience.

For they were being brought forward, prefiguring the fragrance of true worship, and they remained imposed until the time of correction. Therefore also in Christ the shadow was abolished; and from then on the light of the truth flashes around the hearts of those who have believed. And the Lord might also say to the Jews: The sacrifices through victims and bloods will not bring you up to heaven; but I, who have come down from heaven, on whom alone you hope, paying no regard to the letter. Many say: Who will show us good things? For the few, he says, and the approved and those who know how to philosophize, have their hope in God unshaken; for they have taken courage because he promises good things beyond understanding. But the many, that is, the diffuse multitude, the indiscriminate, the one nailed to folly, having preferred the immediate participation in fleshly impurities to the good things in hope, say: "Who will show us good things?" These are the words of those who make light of the dispensations of God: Where is God's providence, of such great...

Since there is confusion in life? And while others are living in luxury, and we are in poverty and the worst evils, what proof of divine care? The light of your face, Lord, has been marked upon us. But more secretly and more mystically, the face of God and the Father is the Son, and the light is the Spirit sent from him to us; through whom we have been sealed, being reformed into the first image; through whom we have also been taught the truly good things, for the sake of which we have also received the noetic gladness that comes into mind and heart, being confirmed toward the hope of the good things to come. The angels see the face of God continually, but men see the light of his face. And the face of the Lord is the spiritual contemplation of all things on earth; and the light of his face is the partial knowledge of these same things; if indeed, according to the wise woman of Tekoa, David was as an angel of God, knowing all things on the earth. And what then is the face of God and the Father, whose light has been marked upon us? The Son of God, the unvarying image; and for this reason he says: "He who has seen me has seen my Father." And it has been marked upon us, having shown us to be conformed to himself, and having engraved the illumination through his own Spirit as a divine image upon those who believe in him. You have given gladness into my heart. Thus, he says, I have marveled at those who dare to say: "Who will show us the good things?" although it is possible from present things to be confirmed toward things to come. For we have received pledges of the coming gentleness in abundance, namely the Creator's care and providence in this world.

For he grants the necessities for living by his generous right hand; and he sends down rains, and releases the fruitful harvests from the fields in their seasons. He, then, who has abundantly supplied the things that sustain life, how could he prove false when he says that he will grant the things after this life? For you have given gladness to my heart. In peace I will lie down together and sleep; for you, Lord, have settled me alone in hope. But according to the divine Cyril, together and at once with the other saints I will receive the death that resembles sleep; except in peace, not having sin, which is enmity toward God; and thus, having ended this life, I will be settled by God and in good hopes, that is, I will have hope firm and unshaken. And the phrase "alone" might suggest that the lot of the saints is peculiar and exceptional; for they will not be mingled with the wicked, but as it were set apart and alone. For to those, fire and brimstone and a spirit of tempest is the portion of the cup, but for these, to reign has been prepared and to delight unceasingly in the good things from above.

PSALM 5.

"Give heed to my cry." Here "give heed" stands for "Examine and scrutinize the purpose of my cry." For I do not ask for any of the human things, or of those that are discordant with your laws, O Master; but rather for those things which are both useful and necessary for salvation to those who receive them, and which it is fitting for your generosity to bestow. "In the morning you will hear my voice." The morning would also be the time of the Savior's visitation; for then the prayers of all became acceptable. (9) It is a great boast unto purity to stand before God from the morning, and to anticipate the sun in thanksgiving; "For thus," he says, "I shall behold your divine and holy mysteries, which you have prepared for those who love you." "You have hated, O Lord, all those who work lawlessness," etc. Those who stumble in their conduct he has called "workers of lawlessness"; and God hates these, those who have fallen away from the truth. Heretics, speaking a lie, he has named, whom God will destroy; and observe

the difference between "You have hated" and "You will destroy": first, whether "You have hated" is worse than "You will destroy"; second, why the one inclines to past time, the other to future. "But I, in the abundance of your mercy," etc. "I," he says, "by your mercy shall enter into your house"; for thus I shall be able to say, "In the morning I shall stand before you and behold," and, as one who has been shown mercy, with reverence I shall worship you in spirit and in truth. For when neglected, the wounds become greater than the sins; and the things of disease and infirmity do not stop at wounds, but also give birth to death—the death that is deathless.

PSALM 6.

From Cyril's commentary on the Psalter, with the stated verse: "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger." And yet, having heard these things from the prophet, he remained secure; he did not slip into carelessness, he did not relax his tension; but although he was greatly pleased at the gentleness of the one who forgave us, and had raised up songs of thanksgiving, he was nonetheless disheartened that he had stumbled at all; for it is fitting for the saints to be praised rather than pardoned. Nor chasten me in your wrath. In saying, "Nor chasten me in your wrath," he seems in some way to be declining the severity of the legal letter. For one who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercies on two or three witnesses; and so the divine Paul also calls the law a ministry of condemnation; for it has justified no one, but sought bitter penalties for those who sin. Therefore the chastening through Christ is incomparably better than that in the law; for the one was appointed for the conviction of the weak and for the condemnation of transgressors, but the other for the justification of the weak. What then we have said: he does not ask not to be rebuked, but not in wrath. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. He did not say, "Release me," nor "Indulge me," but "Heal me"; for he asks that the former wounds be done away. For having come to God as to a physician of spirits, and having confessed the weakness of nature, he asks for aid; and "I thirst for healing," he says, "having come to be in evils, cure me by mercy." For it was from weakness that I came into suffering. And what is the weakness? My bones were disjointed, and were dissolved from their harmony with one another.

He calls "bones" the prudent reasonings, which support the soul, and the powers of the soul that are graspable by reason, which also hold it up into noetic vigor—for example, self-control, prudence, courage according to God, chastity, righteousness, and, simply put, every form of virtue. When these are not in us without confusion—that is, in the proper order, by each having its own strength—there is every necessity that the soul be disturbed, since the passions are in disorder within it. For then, as it were, being in a swell of worldly pleasures, it is terribly in danger; for when virtue is weakened in us, pleasure, dashing us down into wickedness, wholly prevails. But that "bones" would be understood tropologically as the noetic powers of the soul, according to which it has its constitution and permanence for well-being, David himself interprets the riddle of the word, through what he added to what was said: "My soul was greatly disturbed. Because my bones were disturbed." But I think something else too is signified by the Psalmist's saying that his bones underwent disturbance. For God created man for incorruption; but since our forefather Adam trampled the commandment given and slipped away into transgression, he was immediately accursed. For it was said to him: "Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart." I think, then, that in this way too the bones of all were disturbed, since the flesh was dissolved into death; for tumults and terrors and the tyranny of the passions rushed in even upon the soul itself. For once the body had become corruptible, the passions of corruption sprouted in it, and the

The law of sin crept in, the law in the members of the flesh, which wars against and takes captive the mind into any whatsoever of the things out of place. There has come, therefore, healing to the nature of man; the power of the Only-Begotten's becoming man has put an end to corruption, has gathered together the bones of all that were scattered abroad; it has shown the nature of man free from every panic and tumult and terror, and besides from passions and diabolical greed. And you, Lord, how long? Or rather, if one must speak somewhat more mystically, the prophet does not rebuke the judgments of God, nor does he accuse the Master of all things as though the help were future and delayed, but he inquires rather into the time of the visitation of Christ, who was raised up at the last, according to the eighth. For when, he says, will you come, you who through your resurrection will grant us healing? And the "how long" is also indicative of long-continued repentance. For there is not in death one who remembers you. For he who has once been caught in the snares of death will be inactive toward every virtue. "There is not," he says, "in death one who remembers you," that is, one able to keep the commandments, since the help of the Spirit is not present with him. I labored in my groaning. He says "I labored" instead of "I will labor." And this will be clear from what follows. For he does not say "I washed my bed," nor "I wet my couch," but in both cases he says "I will wash" and "I will wet.

For he promises that he will be most industrious and will not love the slack and unrestrained life. He also teaches us that those who wish to please God ought not to regard the intervals of the night as a time of idleness, sleep, and ease (for this is brutish and most irrational), but rather of labor and wakefulness for good things. For it is best, especially in quiet and solitude, almost to converse with God through frequent prayer, and to ask forgiveness for the things we have already been condemned for, and to seek from him the things profitable to the soul, and to make him our song and melody. My eye was troubled in anger [variant: from anger]. Perhaps the Prophet is hinting at the remembrance of what befell human nature because the beginning of the race, that is Adam, stumbled against God. For before he slighted the divine commandment, he had a pure eye, full of the vision of God and of good thoughts, and was undefiled, still illumined by the divine light. The Lord has heard my supplication. He explains in what manner the matters of his good cheer have come to pass: for he says that the voice of his weeping was heard, and his prayer was accepted. And he says "voice," not certainly that through the lips, but rather that which is sent, almost as it were, to God from deeds. For just as there is a voice of sin, according to what was said to Cain, "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me," so also there is a voice of repentance, which God hears. And surely no one would say that he asks for a loud voice, for we have not been commanded to pray in that way.

Again in these words he calls "cry" the plain petition that comes from labor, which the saints are accustomed to use. Let them be ashamed and troubled. And the demons, the inventors and teachers of wickedness, are turned back and fall backward, enduring the rout intolerably: first because of the contradiction from God who saves, and then because we wish to rise up from our old infirmities and to pass over with youthful vigor to prevail over all fleshly lust, and to make no account of the turmoil in this life, but to look only at the things pleasing to God and to run toward them without turning back. For Christ, the giver and president of all our good things, will be with those who are thus manly.

PSALM 7.

To the Lord concerning the words of Chusi the son of Jemeni. But you, observe for me, that after being pledged by so many victories, the word again releases you to other contests, again anoints you with the assault of temptations. For the same enemy, that Absalom, as if reborn from us, prepares war against us; our own good counsel concerning the matter overthrows him as he rages against us—or rather, the alliance from God. Indeed, the judgment that saves us becomes a noose for the adversary; and this is it: to reckon equal in wickedness both to begin injustice and to avenge oneself on the one who began it. For David becomes the setter of the boundary of his own punishment, if evil should be found to have exchanged evil as in a transaction, and to have given back in return to those who provided what he received. If there is injustice in my hands.

Perhaps David does not testify that he is entirely free from injustice (for he did injustice to Uriah), but he says this: that in the matter concerning the servant, I am clean and blameless; for I did no injustice to him, nor to those with him, so that their pursuit against me should even become easy for them. Then he also sets forth his forgetfulness of wrongs, calling God through it to mercy. And this is clear from what he adds; for he says: "If I have repaid those who repaid me with evils." May I then fall away from my enemies empty. That is, may I slip away from all honor and glory, and may I become like dust under the feet of my enemies. Arise, O Lord, in your anger. What I said, then: the word has passed over to Christ, and it urges him to arise, not against Absalom (for how could it, when he pleaded on his behalf, saying: "Spare me the boy Absalom"?), but it urges God to arise on behalf of all humanity, as if from the stillness of his former long-suffering into anger and movement against the ends of his enemies. Very many, then, are the enemies of humanity, that is, the wicked and sinful demons; and their ends would be understood as those who are foremost and preeminent among the others, such as Satan and those near him, namely the rulers of the darkness of this world. Against these Christ has risen up. And be awakened, O Lord my God, in the command which you commanded. Here he clearly proclaims the gospel concerning the manifestation of the Savior. For from of old, through the patriarchs, he promised us this salvation.

And indeed the divine Scripture is filled with the words of the Savior, who promises beforehand through the holy prophets that he will come in due seasons and will deliver those under heaven, and will not make the display of the gentleness that is in him in Judea alone, but will also visit all the nations; and indeed he has been named the hope of the nations. For the Lord, being God, has appeared to the whole world, and the true light, through which we have also come to know the Father himself, the ancient mist having been scattered—the mist, I mean, that consists in wandering—and the morning star having shone upon us in the mind, and the day having grown bright, and the sun of righteousness having arisen, that is, Christ. Awake, then, he says, according to the command which you commanded, that is, which you promised to do; for this is what "to command" means here. And for her sake turn upward. Perhaps "turn upward" hints either at the precious cross, to which he carried up our sins, or at the ascent of Christ into the heavens; for he went to appear before the face of the Father on our behalf. How on our behalf? Inaugurating for us a new and living way, so that heaven may henceforth be walkable again, and we may enter into the inner part of the veil, this too having been begun by the one who is first in all things, clearly Christ. The Lord will judge the peoples. Here "will judge" is said in place of "will decide." For he decided between us and Satan; and the one, as having taken possession of what is under heaven, he drove away from his tyranny over all; and those who endured his insatiable greed he pitied as God and justified by faith. Judge me,

O Lord, according to my righteousness. But the prophet, having said in another place that the Lord will judge the peoples, now also introduces the person of those who are judged, acknowledging their own weakness and thus entreating to be judged as befits the measures of humanity. For one righteousness, as we said, is that of angels, wholly fitting their nature; another is that of humans, evidently small and proportionate to the weakness of nature. Let the wickedness of sinners be consummated. Let the wickedness of sinners, then, be consummated—that is, let the tyranny of the devil and of the wicked powers with him be abolished, so that from then on every worker of righteousness may walk by a straight and, as it were, most smooth path toward the approved way of life. For when no one urges him toward the other side, the righteous man will surely direct his own way; or perhaps the prophet prays that the wickedness among sinners be consummated—that is, that they cease as they are changed toward virtue. Therefore he asks for the cessation of sin in each of those who have slipped through weakness, so that from then on the righteous man may be directed aright. For it is not possible, no, it is not possible, for anyone to be shown a perfecter of manly deeds toward virtue before he has ceased to be wicked. My help is righteous from God. And the word will suit both Jews and Greeks. For since to err in knowledge is admittedly a matter of contempt, while to do this in ignorance has an easy ground for the request of pardon (for both Jews and Greeks had gone astray—the one led away by the perversities of their leaders toward compliance, and ignorant of the Redeemer—

But those who have not yet received the divine light into their mind, nor indeed have known who is God by nature and truly—for this reason the one who searches heart and reins has known both these and those to be erring from ignorance, and, since they did not know the Master's will, he has apportioned to them a just assistance. For to those who have wandered, conversion is owed; to those who have been darkened, illumination; to those who have grown weak, being strengthened by him. Therefore he says: "Help is just from God." God is a just judge, and strong, and long-suffering, etc. The admonition is therefore beneficial to those living a loose and dissolute life, that the God of all is a just judge. And he is also strong for this. For if he shuts against a man, who will open? And, Who will turn away the uplifted hand? Indeed he is also long-suffering, not bringing his wrath upon sinners at their very feet nor together with their wickedness. Yet even if he is forbearing of evil, we must not for this reason be slack. But the words must be transferred again also to Israel and to those from the Gentiles; for one might cry out to them that, unless they quickly desist from their own practices—the one group from serving the creation, and the other from receiving faith in Christ—they will fall into a judge who is just and strong, and long-suffering indeed, but unless they strip off their accusations, also punishing; for he teaches this through the following verses. For lest, hearing that he is long-suffering, they become more slack, he added that He will make his sword gleam, he has bent his bow. He will make it gleam, instead of, He will bare his sword against you.

The proclamation is philanthropic and is offered from the gentleness of God to those who are in weaknesses; for he did not simply threaten the sword against them because they had become workers of evil things, but he will make them understand that, unless they wish to turn back quickly, they will utterly and in every way fall into terrible things. And he bent the bow, holding it ready, full of the instruments of death—that is, the arrows—which he says he has also wrought for those who are burned, the sons of Gehenna, who in due time will hear the Judge saying: "Depart from me, you cursed ones," and the rest. Indeed, by sword and bow and arrows and instruments of death, we say that either the different kinds of punishments are indicated, or certain powers that bring judgments proportionately to each one's offenses. But it is a custom of divinely inspired Scripture sometimes to shape things that are not manifest from our own affairs, but as done in secret and in thought. His arrows he wrought for those who are burned. Let both Jews and Greeks hear these things, that they will fall into inescapable judgments, unless they choose to turn back—the one group abstaining from their ancient error, and the other cleansing away the charges of the murder of the Lord by repentance. She travailed with iniquity, etc. He dug a pit, etc. But indeed we must work out the psalmody still further. Therefore it may reasonably be said also concerning every sin, that the one who sins conceived toil and brought forth lawlessness; for always, in some way, evil reasonings rise up before the outcomes of evils.

This saying would also fit the teachers of the Jews, who, having conceived—that is, having first received in labor pains—the seeds of impiety against Christ, sown in them by the devil's perversity, brought forth lawlessness, clearly the lawlessness against him. "He travailed with injustice and brought forth lawlessness"—even Satan himself. For he came to tempt him in the wilderness; then he withdrew for a time, and brought to completion the purpose set from the beginning. For he kindled in him the hearts of the Jews and the soul of the traitor, who, in accordance with his own father of impiety—I mean Satan—conceived injustice against Christ for the sake of shameful gains, wishing to betray him to those who would kill him. Then he also brought forth lawlessness; for having taken thirty denarii, he handed him over, making the symbol of love—that is, the kiss—a signal for murder, and doing injustice even to virtue itself. Then the prophet receives, as it were in the way of an example, the digging of a pit and the digging it up; and he illuminates the meaning of what appears by adding at once, "His labor will return upon his own head." By "labor" I think he means either the vain toil of digging the pit, or the envy that consumes the heart of those who harbor it; and by "injustice," the greed, that is, the plot that one might work against one's neighbor. The author of Proverbs is found saying something like this: "He who digs a pit for his neighbor will fall into it." And this too is from God's love of humanity—to assign such a nature to the plot, so that it turns back upon those who plot.

From this point the resourcefulness of God especially shines forth, and there is great correction for the wicked, and delight for those who escape. I will give thanks to the Lord according to his righteousness; I will sing to the name of the Lord Most High. This is the voice also of those saved in Christ, since Satan has been abolished and death destroyed and sin done away with, and the true Son of God has now been made known. The phrase "I will give thanks," he says, stands for "I will make my thanksgiving with song according to the righteousness that is in him"—that is, according to the greatness of the righteous judgment which he wrought, preserving the humanity that was being plundered by Satan and the evil powers with him. Great, then, is the righteousness of God; therefore they promise to sing to the name of the Lord Most High; for the one whom they did not know before, they now name Lord and Most High.

PSALM 9.

For the end, concerning the winepresses; a psalm of David. Therefore the calling of the Gentiles is proclaimed beforehand through the preceding ode; and it was inscribed "For the end, concerning the winepresses." Now "For the end" indicates the visitation that took place at the consummation of the ages—that is, the becoming man of the Only-begotten; while "concerning the winepresses" has this meaning: some wish the Churches of Christ to be called winepresses figuratively, into which, as though into presses, they gather the grapes—

The mystagogues gather those who believe in Christ both from the flock of the Jews and from the Gentiles, as it were fruits from the Master's vineyard; or they say that the altars are wine-presses, because in them the gifts brought by all are collected together. O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth! (53) For formerly the glory of God was, so to speak, confined to Judea alone; for God was known in her, and his name was great in Israel; but when God, being Lord, appeared to us, his name has been marveled at among those throughout all the earth. The prophet, then, is struck with wonder at the knowledge of the name of God poured out upon men; for God is no longer known to those in Judah alone. For your magnificence has been exalted. (53) And perhaps the magnificence that has been exalted is none other than that of his dispensation. For what is there in it that does not have its fitting place among great things? Birth from a virgin, a journey on the sea, incorruption in death, and all things like these. This magnificence, then, has been exalted, when he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, after he had made purification of sins. Thus also must be understood that he became higher than the heavens after the resurrection. Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes, etc. He says that the new and fresh congregation is constituted of infant souls, because of the regeneration in Christ which establishes it everywhere throughout the inhabited world after his ascension. Therefore also, when the children cried out to him, "Hosanna in the highest," he says to the indignant Jews: "Have you never read?" and the rest.

To destroy the enemy and the avenger. That is, clearly the devil, since after compelling them to fulfill sin, he also punishes those who sin, setting the magnitude of their sin before their eyes. For the same one both drives them down into transgression and becomes the accuser of those who have sinned; as an enemy, then, he compels them to sin, but as an avenger, he punishes those handed over to him. Hymenaeus and Alexander, for instance, he himself made blasphemers, and then again chastised them for their blasphemies against God. What is man, that you remember him? Pondering these things, David is struck with wonder and says: Even if the heavens and the earth and the things in them which you established are your wondrous works, standing throughout all time, yet they are not great to you for their existence, but rather of brief power, which the fingers proportioned; for thus he called the small powers of God. But I am far more astonished when I contemplate the things concerning man, how you both remember him and provide for him; which would not have been the case, if this living creature were something small and worthless in your sight. Other teachers of the Jews have gone astray, not understanding the mystery; but I, he says, gazing with the eyes of the mind upon creation, see all things as your works. You established the sun and the moon, and you have set over them a perpetual law; for this, I think, is what "you founded them" makes clear. And shortly after: Therefore, he says, even if you have become like us, and having taken on the measure of humanity by dispensation were not recognized by some, yet I know your glory.

I know the dignity of your supremacy over all things; I confess you as the Creator of all, who have come to be in flesh; I know you as Lord, who have brought the sun and the moon into subjection to yourself. He receives this in part, so that you may understand the whole creation. You have made him a little lower than the angels. The powers above, then, are rational, passing a long and endless life. Likewise man on earth is rational, even if not in equal measure with those above, but he has come down a little below the dignity of the angels through his union with the earthly body; and he is lower in that he is subject to the sentence of death and corruption, and this after the transgression; for this introduced corruption and death. Christ, then, is said to have been made lower than the angels because of the suffering of death; for he endured to suffer in his own flesh, although he remained impassible in the nature of his divinity. [He has crowned us with glory and honor, through which, being God by nature, he has been made lower for our sake, so that we might be enriched beyond nature in him. "For he has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ." For when he sits in session, the boast will run over the whole nature of man. For thus by his poverty we have been enriched, for whose sake he has been crowned with glory and honor, although as God he is the Lord of glory. For having become dishonored in the transgression of Adam, we have been glorified in the obedience of Christ on our behalf.] O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth! He doubles the wonder, and again sets the same opening as the closing refrain, struck with amazement at the knowledge of God that has come to men.

And both before the demonstration and after the demonstration he says the same words, and as if from the greatest amazement he comes to glorification; and seeing the glory of the Savior of all things under the sun directed aright, he all but leaps for joy, and taking up his own discourse again he says: "O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!"

PSALM 9.

For the end, concerning the hidden things of the son. The inscription "For the end" shows that the psalm was composed by David not for certain things already accomplished, but for things to come at the consummation of the age. These were the hidden things of the son, that is, the mystery of Christ, which was foreknown by the holy prophets, the Holy Spirit revealing it to them, and has come to fulfillment in its own times. The hidden things of the son, then, are the things secretly accomplished by the Savior; and these were many: the birth in the flesh from the Virgin through the Holy Spirit, the miracles, his death itself, and the descent into Hades, and the resurrection from the dead, and simply the manner of the incarnation, and the things achieved thereafter for the life of the world. For all these things were done by him secretly; for he hid them also from the rulers of this world; for "a mystery," he says, "which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations." And again: "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has known." And the death of Christ and the victory over death escaped the notice even of the disciples. For this, he says, was hidden from their eyes.

Reasonably, then, the Seventy called the death of the Son hidden. The psalm contains the calling of the nations and thanksgiving on their behalf, that is, from them; and it is filled with the economy of Christ, and it has differences of persons, and moreover transitions of contemplations from some things to others at different times, yet not carrying the mind outside the probable. It begins the psalm by assuming the person of the nations, that is, of humanity. I will be glad and rejoice in you. Great indeed are all the things done through Christ and worthy of hearing, at least for those who see them and have recognized them. He himself, the accomplisher of these things, becomes joy, and a cause of gladness, and an occasion of festivity, so that each one says: I will be glad in you. And the matter is a proof of a God-loving soul; for rejoicing in God and being glad clearly demonstrates that the mind of those who rejoice in God has come to be outside of wanting to delight in the things of this life, which one might call vanity and false madness. The mind rejoices in God when it is virtue-loving, and a lover of the glory that comes from him, and has become a beholder of his wonderful and paradoxical works. When my enemy is turned back. Since we have granted that those who have believed from the nations make the confession, when we hear them saying, "I will be glad in you," and what follows, we understand that it would be fitting for those already believing and enlightened and

This utterance is for those who have come to know the truth: "They shall grow weak and perish from before your face." And by way of higher interpretation, the face of God and Father is the Son, who is His unvarying image; and all the enemies of His glory have grown weak before Him—that is, Satan and the powers with him. For before the coming of the Savior, he was hard to encounter and grew bold against the whole region under heaven, saying: "I shall seize the whole inhabited world with my hand as a nest, and as forsaken eggs I shall take it up." But when the Only-Begotten, having submitted to likeness with us, became man, the enemy grew weak; the dreadful and unbearable powers have fallen, and have become under the feet of the saints. "You sat upon a throne, you who judge righteousness." He eagerly elaborates what he said, and teaches clearly whatever he wishes to make plain by the words "You have done my judgment." For he says that He sat upon a throne, speaking in a more human way, and shaping the intelligible things as if from the likeness of our own affairs. For when kings hear that cities or regions are suffering from barbarian invasion or tyrannical madness, they leap up onto the thrones of their kingdom, as it were judging the outrages committed, and they bring forth a verdict against those who have done wrong, and they order the wicked to perish miserably, but they save those who have been wronged. In this way the Savior also sat upon a throne; and "He sat" does not signify some sitting down in these things, but, as it were, a display of authority and the glory of judicial splendor—so that "You sat" is equivalent to "You judged, you punished, you defended.

In these words the Psalmist seems to indicate, by "you sat," the oversight of God unto judgment; and allegorically to call "nations" the packs of wicked demons, which divided the region under heaven among themselves, leading it away into manifold and varied error and sin; and "the impious man perishing" means either every such man in general, or the devil himself. But that you may learn the strength of God, hear what follows: "Their name you blotted out forever." Not only, he says, did the hostile ones grow weak and perish when rebuked, but their name was also blotted out. And by "name" in these words he does not mean simply the appellation, since that has not happened (for we remember to this day both Satan and the unclean demons with him); rather he indicates their glory. "The swords of the enemy have failed utterly." The swords of the devil too have failed utterly, that is, completely; and these would be either the opposing powers, through which he was strong; or the passions that tyrannized over us, through which he used to subdue those on the earth, and displaying them as wounded, subjected them to his own yokes; or the utterances of the perversity that is in him, and the manifold devices which he wrought for the destruction of human souls. For every kind of shameful pleasure and of the other sins we say are devilish swords, that is, arrows of the unclean spirits, with which they shoot through the heart and put it to death unto sin—but the swords have failed; for we too have put on the whole armor of God, by which we have blunted them. He has prepared his throne in judgment.

Therefore Christ, the eternal King, has reigned as God also over the nations, and has subjected them to the gospel ordinances. For this is what it means to prepare his throne for judgment, and to judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in uprightness. And he himself will judge the world in righteousness, he will judge the peoples in uprightness. Since it is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to take "to judge" in place of "to govern," or in place of "to lead and preside over" cities or lands, according to the verse, "Be instructed, all you who judge the earth," it must be said that when the name of the nations has been blotted out forever, and every diabolical rule and authority has been wholly abolished in righteousness, Christ will rule and take dominion. For the throne signifies the kingdom, which, with nothing standing against it, will be most ready, that is, shining forth without hindrance, and prevailing over all things. For Christ will judge in righteousness, and will rule the peoples throughout the whole world; for he has reigned over what is under heaven. But you may also understand the verses in this way: that he who cast down the tyranny of the devil, and delivered the whole world from his perversity, will himself come in due time in the glory of the Father, in order to judge the world in righteousness. For the Father has given all judgment to the Son, and we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And the Lord became a refuge for the poor, a helper in times of need, in afflictions. Which poor man does he mean? The one who is voluntarily poor and for God's sake.

For in place of voluntary poverty, God bestows on him his own wealth, and in the time of affliction he is found to be his deliverer and helper. But these things must also be understood in a spiritual sense: that to the people poor in spirit—that is, to those who were poor before the coming of our Savior—no elder, no angel, no other rational power or authority came to their aid, but the Lord himself, the provider of spiritual wealth, himself came to their aid in due seasons, or rather, in an acceptable time of affliction he saved them at the right moment. And what was the affliction? Sin, unbearable, hanging over them like a burden, so that each of those who had come under it cried out: "My iniquities, like a heavy burden, have weighed heavily upon me." And Satan himself too was heavy, and more grievous to bear than any burden, falling upon them with his evil band. Therefore, when the world beneath heaven was oppressed and, as it were, crushed, the Lord visited those on earth at the right time, and on the day of salvation he came to their aid. But the wicked demons falsely claimed that the dispensation had not been accomplished at the right time, saying: "You have come here before the time to torment us." But, O most wicked ones, one might say, it was not before the time, but in due season and in affliction that he came to our aid, and the Savior and Lord of all became a refuge. And let those who know your name hope in you. But who are those who hope in him and know his name? Those who submit their neck to his ordinances. And he himself will teach this, saying: "The one who loves me keeps my commandments." For you have not forsaken those who seek you, O Lord.

He asserts from experience that he has the matter, and knows that he holds it unshaken. For true is the saying of Jeremiah: "Blessed is the man who has trusted in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope; and he shall be like a tree flourishing by the waters." So also another says: "Look to the ancient generations, and see, who hoped in the Lord and was put to shame, or who called upon him and he abandoned him?" Sing to the Lord who dwells in Zion. If, then, God is said to dwell in Zion, we do not understand this to be done perceptibly according to the notions of the Jews; for God does not dwell in the earthly Zion, nor in Jerusalem alone; but we say that Zion is the noetic Church on earth, which is also understood to be the sister of the one above. It would be fitting for both the Church above and the Church on earth to be named Zion; for Zion is interpreted as "watchtower"; and this is both the one and the other. Therefore God dwells in Zion not being circumscribed (for he fills all things), but as it were lingering in her and resting in her. "For here," he says, "I will dwell, because I have chosen her." For he has departed from the synagogue of the Jews, saying: "Behold, your house is left to you." But the Church from the Gentiles has been made rich by him, to which the Psalmist says: "Hear, daughter," and the rest, "for the king has desired your beauty." To those, then, who dwell in this Zion, that is, to those who have been shown mercy and saved through faith, it remains no longer to offer living sacrifices; but since the things in the law have passed over to spiritual worship, to send up songs to God, and to sing to him, offering sacrifices of praise.

To sing of his deeds and to speak only of his great works and achievements. Declare among the nations his practices. By "practices of Christ" we mean either the divine signs or the skillful craftsmanship of the economy with the flesh. For the word of the mystery is exceedingly deep, and partly graspable by subtle inquiries, and acceptable by faith; for great is the wonder in it. Because he who seeks out their blood remembered. And in what manner? For he became man, and submitting to our likeness, he endured the cross, in order to purchase all things by his own blood, and to snatch away from the devil's snares those caught in them. He did not forget the cry of the poor. And by way of spiritual interpretation, he here calls "poor" either those from the nations, or the saints who frequently intercede on their behalf; the former, as not having the intelligible wealth (for those who do not know the God who is by nature at all, what intelligible splendor would they have?); the latter, as having a humble and restrained mind. If, then, we say that the saints are the poor, he did not forget their cry, which they have made, frequently entreating God the Savior of all things to visit what is under heaven and to take hold of those on the earth. For they were saying: "You who sit upon the Cherubim, appear; stir up your power, and come to save us;" and again: "Lord, incline the heavens and come down." But if we understand the nations as the poor, since no one could demonstrate that they ever uttered voices on their own behalf (for how would they have called upon a God whom they did not know?)—we say that their voice came about through deeds rather than words.

For all injustice, so to speak, has cried out against the one who commits it, and brings a plea on behalf of those who are wronged, proclaiming the cruelty of the offender and rousing to aid the one who is able to defend. The blood of Abel, slain by Cain, cried out against him. For, it says, the voice of your brother's blood cries out to me. And the divine Paul also gave a voice to the precious blood of Christ; for he said that it speaks better than Abel. For the one condemned the murderer and uttered a voice as though accusing; but the other became the salvation of the world and called for the forgiveness of sins upon it. For the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, as it is written. Therefore the destruction of the nations, that is, their blood sought out by God, produced the power of a cry, and called the Creator of all things to anger against those who had slain them. For just as the blood of Abel is said to have cried out to God, not surely as having its own voice in itself, but as it were because God abhorred the enormity of the deed; so one will understand it also in the case of those who worship demons. For if they do not know the God of all things, and for this reason did not cry out to him, yet because they have been wronged by Satan, through this very thing, in a certain manner, they have cried out, asking for the help that is wholly upon them. Have mercy on me, Lord, see my humiliation. And by way of spiritual interpretation, the Psalmist, having made mention of the cry of the poor which God did not forget, immediately introduced what kind of cry it was that came from the poor nations.

For as men already enlightened and come to their senses, and having condemned the deceit of the demons, and having come to the knowledge of their plotting—so as even to reckon as enemies those formerly worshipped—they entreat that they may obtain help from above, and they say that they have been brought low, not by their own nature (for God created man for incorruption, for good works), but by the plotting of the enemies. For by the envy of the devil, death entered into the world. But, O Master, he says, have mercy on me; for you are the one able to raise up from the gates of death those caught by them. And the gates of death are the evil powers, which bring down to the bottom of death those who have come under them, and the manifold sins, from which God rescues those entangled in them. And the daughter of Zion they name as the earthly one of the Church in the heavens, that is, of the firstborn; for it has been made with reference to that one. "For see, says the Scripture, you shall make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain"; for the tabernacle was a pattern of the Church. In this Zion, then, he says, having come to be, I will sing to you, the

I will declare praises, and all of them without omission, so that in no way is there any lack of glorification. And by this they seem to indicate that it is not fitting for those outside the Churches, but for those who enter into them through faith, to glorify; "For praise is not beautiful in the mouth of a sinner." And how shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? Therefore those from the Gentiles say: For this reason you raise us from our lowliness, so that we may dance in the heavenly Zion. [He who lifts me up from the gates of death. The gates of death may be understood in various ways. For indeed the apostate dragon himself, the inventor of all wickedness, and the evil powers with him, might reasonably be called gates of death; for they bring down to the brink of Hades, and to the bottom of death, those who have come under them. And the gates of death might also be understood as the manifold sins, and indeed also the wise among the Greeks, who shield folly and eagerly beautify the ugliness of idolatry with their own eloquence.] We will rejoice in your salvation. And by way of spiritual interpretation, those from the Gentiles welcome the dispensation which God and the Father accomplished in Christ, having shown him forth as Savior and Redeemer to the whole world; for he was well pleased to sum up all things in him, both the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. Therefore they come forward to faith, which is able to bring them in at the gates of the daughter of Zion. And everywhere the Scripture names Christ as Salvation. At any rate, it is sung as from the person of certain ones who thirst to see his appearing:

Show us, Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation." In this snare which they hid. And by way of spiritual interpretation, one must understand the nations as the impure multitude of demons, who prepared for the Savior, as they thought, destruction by death. They themselves schemed with the madness of the Jews, setting up as their servant the most thievish disciple; but they themselves were caught in the snare rather than the one who endured their plot. For he purchased with his own blood what is under heaven, and freed it from the perversity of the devil. For he said, when about to endure the cross that brings salvation to the world: "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out;" and, "If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself." And the persecutors also suffered these things which they had contrived for the many. In the works of his hands. And by way of spiritual interpretation, when right judgment has taken place and punishment has been brought upon those who have transgressed wickedly, the Lord is recognized by those who have believed in him as being just, holy, and powerful; for in the works of his hands the sinner was caught. And this must be understood in two ways: for either the sinner, having fallen into the hands of God as into a snare, pays the penalties for his impiety, or, having fallen into the works of his own hands, he will be caught; for he who digs a pit for his neighbor will fall into it. And truly just is the judgment, that those who contrived death for a man should be encompassed in it, God turning the deception against the one who devised it.

David here calls the sinner either, in general, the one guilty of sins (for by every necessity the one accustomed to live in this way is punished, entangled in his own works; for each person is bound fast by the chains of his own sins); or he names the people of the Jews as the sinner, and quite reasonably so; for they remained in defilements, not having accepted the grace that washes clean, and they died in their own transgressions. Satan, the inventor of sin, could also be called a sinner, who was seized by a just judgment, having fallen into his own works; for he too was prepared and has come under the feet of the righteous. Let the sinners be turned back into Hades. And by way of spiritual interpretation, out of great love of God those who have believed seem to curse those who have rejected the manifestation of Christ and the much-prayed-for grace, through which they could have been shown to be heirs of the kingdom of the heavens. Or perhaps the nations that forget God are the demons; for in no way do they practically remember God, but they are outside all virtue and good works. For the poor man will not be forgotten to the end. And by way of spiritual interpretation, he here names as poor either simply all the saints, who have a humble and lowly disposition of mind, or those called from the nations, who formerly were in want of every good thing. These, he says, will not be forgotten to the end; for there has been a remembrance of them with the merciful God, and they have been called through Christ to knowledge, having loosed themselves from the yoke of the ancient deceit. Arise, O Lord, let not man be strengthened.

In the anagogical sense, he prays that the Only-Begotten will shine upon those on the earth and be roused, so that that proud devil (whom he now also calls a man, on account of his weakness, and because he is in no way anything in relation to God, but is, as it were, in the rank of the earthborn) may not lift his brow any further, nor appear mighty. Let the nations be judged before you. In the anagogical sense, he prays that the judgment which will come about for the salvation of the nations may take place; for let the nations be judged, he says, not so that they may pay the penalties for their transgressions, but so that they may be known to have been wronged, and may come out from the hand of the one who tyrannized over them; so that here the judgment is the righteous judgment of God, by which the nations have been shown mercy and have been called to the divine knowledge of him. Let the nations know that they are men. What he means is this: Many have lost even this, have forgotten their nature, have lapsed into madness, have not known themselves. Do you see how he makes the petition on their behalf, and deems the madness worthy of correction? For to be ignorant of oneself is worse than the utmost madness and frenzy; for the one is a matter of bodily necessity, but the other of a corrupted will. In the anagogical sense, he prays that Christ be established as lawgiver for the nations; and he adds the reason for which he prays this: "Let the nations know," he says, "that they are men." For before they came to the knowledge of the truth and submitted their neck to the yoke of the Savior, they lived a life befitting beasts, being nothing other than flesh, and, as it were, cattle devoted to the pleasures of the belly; so that David, groaning, says:

Man, being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the beasts." But they were brought back through Christ to understanding befitting a human being, and are directed toward virtue by the gospel ordinances. Why, O Lord, have you stood far off? In the anagogical sense, he prays that the calling of the Gentiles, which will come to pass a little later, be hastened. And this has been done to him either by the contempt of the devil, or also in this way: Why have you stood far off, as though withdrawing yourself from those who have been wronged, and allowing those who plunder your things to take advantage, and do you not rather come nearer through your help, but overlook those who are hard pressed, even though the time calls for succor? For mercy is fitting for none other than those who have suffered. Therefore affliction, as at the right time, asks for help: "For those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." But the word has been shaped as if concerning us; for God has not withdrawn, but rather fills all things, and nothing is empty of him. But if he is said to have stood far off, do not understand the withdrawal as in place—for the Divine is unbounded—but in that he has permitted them to be wronged and to suffer, not granting his help; in this way indeed he is also said to have stood far off. Further, God has stood off from us, as it were, by the difference of nature; for great is that which intervenes between God and creation, and the difference is incomparable. It seems, then, that here he calls the Only-Begotten Word to the incarnation; for in this way he who was far off has come near to us, because being God by nature, he became flesh.

But the mystery of the dispensation with the flesh was accomplished at the fitting time, when also the world under heaven had come to the lot of evil, the enemies having equipped it in every manner of plotting. "In the proud exaltation of the impious, the poor man is set on fire." Not only is he wronged in human affairs, but he is also provoked to sin; for when he sees the impious prospering, he is set on fire by his thoughts, Satan suggesting to him that he envy the lawless man. Therefore the saying is true, spoken also against every arrogant and cruel man, who inflames the weaker with, as it were, inescapable acts of greed. True also is that saying: for those who have practiced this worldly and demonic and psychical wisdom are arrogant because of this, and they set on fire those poor in mind—that is, they show them to be sons of Gehenna—advocating for falsehood and beautifying deceit with their own eloquence, and by this leading many away to wandering; these are caught, as it were falling into a snare, in the counsels of deceivers; for whatever those men advise, this becomes a snare and a noose for the weaker. In another sense, Satan is the proud one; and since he is such, as long as it was permitted him to do this and to exalt himself over those on the earth, every poor man was set on fire—that is, the one in want of mind and lacking spiritual strength; for the contempt of the wicked one becomes a burning for the poor people. "For they were caught in the counsels which they devise." And who are those who devise?

Or is it the very inventor of sin, and the world-rulers of this world, whose designs and villainies and devices against all are snares for those who are caught? Or are the very ones who are defrauded caught in their own designs? For whatever they may plan, this will certainly be against them. To speak in summary, then, he calls upon the boastful dragon and the evil powers with him to be removed from the midst, by whose designs the poor man is set on fire, being driven toward every kind of baseness—through not knowing who is God by nature, nor indeed being directed by the divine laws toward the good. For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul. Or also in this way. To this, he says, have human affairs been brought—to such baseness and wretchedness—when the impious man is proud, so that there is absolutely no one who takes thought for good works, but on the contrary those who follow the desires of their own souls are praised by all, who perhaps even exult in evil and think greatly of themselves for being wicked, with no one mocking them, but rather blessing them, that is, speaking well of them. The sinner provoked the Lord. But you will understand also in this way that he provoked the Lord, mocking the words concerning his providence and his judgment. Many, then, hearing such a thing, laugh immediately; and to this must be joined also the phrase, "According to the abundance of his anger," so that the whole may be thus: For the sinner, he says, provoked the Lord, treasuring up for himself an abundance of anger; for "his" must be taken of the one who provokes him.

Then the phrase "he will not seek out" must be read with a pause, so that the meaning is as follows: Is it the case, then, that the one provokes God and kindles for himself a multitude of wrath, while he does not seek out? Or also in this way: The sinner provokes God, not having him in mind. Then, as in a question: What then? Will God not seek out at the time of judgment, when both the multitude and the kindling of his wrath shall be? "God is not before him; his ways are profaned." For the one who does not know that God exists, neither does he know that he is a judge. In the case of human beings, then, the words of the verses before us would be understood thus: that for every lover of sin, who looks without restraint upon wrongdoing and has wholly inclined toward provoking God, because he does not have him before him, his ways—that is, his actions—are altogether profaned, and are full of uncleanness, and are defiled with the mire of wickedness, and as it were look toward the abolition of God's judgments, that is, his laws. For every sin fights against the aim of the sacred ordinances, and, as far as it depends on it, the law that rewards virtue is abolished, and the Master's will is overturned. But when these things are said of Satan, they have great plausibility; for his ways are always unclean, and against the laws of God

They set themselves against him. "God is not before him." [For every man who loves sin, and looks without restraint upon what is wrong, and has wholly inclined toward provoking God, because he does not have him before his eyes, his ways—that is, his deeds—are utterly profaned, and are full of uncleanness, and are defiled with the mire of wickedness, and as it were look toward the abolition of God's judgments, that is, his laws. For every sin fights against the aim of the sacred ordinances.] "He will lord it over all his enemies." Satan will not lord it over all his enemies. But are all the righteous, being his enemies, then to be lorded over by him? Clearly he will not lord it over them in every matter, but in some; for Christ alone "did not commit sin, nor was guile found in his mouth." His mouth is full of cursing and bitterness and guile. And the mouth of the devil too is filled with bitterness and guile; and indeed he lies in wait for the poor to kill them through his own snares. And "with the rich"—what else could be understood than those who are rich in evils? For these indeed cooperate with the devil against the poor in spirit. You will understand these things also in reference to the heretics. For just as the dread and bitter among serpents have their whole strength in their bites, so also do these; for they are full of bitter words and accursed thoughts and deceit and guile, and they have pain under their tongue. For the voices of the unholy crush the hearts of the simpler sort, through deceit and deception, often carrying them off to what is not lawful.

Most accursed is the deceitful and seductive nature of Satan; for he thus leads men away into sin, the evil one whispering into mind and heart, and always pleading on behalf of evil, and calling the bitter sweet—he himself and the imitators of his perversity. For their work is to trip up the good and to kill the innocent, lying in wait in secret places—that is, concealing their wickedness—and by whatever means they can, casting a shadow over the evil. For those who deceive the upright often feign to be good; then, attaching themselves, they weave in the venom of deceit, and little by little steal away the mind of the simple, leading them away to their own ways. Yet they do this not indiscriminately against all, but rather against those whose mind is poor, that is, who do not have the wealth that comes from understanding. For this, I think, is what is meant by "His eyes look upon the poor man." He lies in wait in secret like a lion in his den. For the one who lives in virtue—even if he draws him aside for a little while—nevertheless, when he has stayed awake and departed, he does not prevail over him; but the one who is poor in virtue and without understanding, when he has managed to draw him in, he takes him into the cave of wickedness and devours him, like a lion in a secret place devouring a sheep. But what does "he lies in wait like a lion" mean? For they say that on the mountains the lion rests in his own dens and, as it were, hides himself, lest by any chance the sight of him should terrify one of the other animals, which he makes his food; but when he sees that the creature has come near, he leaps up at once and roars mightily, and thundering unbearably he springs upon it, and seizes whatever is at hand, having first unnerved it by his terrors.

For the lion shall roar, he says, and who will not be afraid? Satan, then, lies in ambush like a lion to snatch the poor man; for he fears the resistance of the man who is rich in virtue, but those who are in want of understanding and spiritual strength, having taken most readily, he makes his sweet prey. And very numerous indeed are the snares of the devil, and besides the others, that of not knowing the God who is by nature. But 'He shall bow down and fall' must be understood in two ways. For either, when the impious man has gained dominion over the poor, everyone who has suffered this, having come under his hand and tyranny, shall bow down and fall—that is, shall be humbled, and as it were lie on the ground, like those slain in war. Or the impious man himself, when he has gained dominion over the poor, that is, over the weak, shall fall; just as Satan too, when he has gained dominion over the poor, then he has been humbled. For he said in his heart: God has forgotten. And Satan also thought that he would gain dominion over the poor, since God no longer looked upon the earth, but had turned away from everything, and did not care for those in it. Let your hand be lifted up. Let your hand, he says, strike, and henceforth be lifted up, bringing the scourge upon transgressors, according to what was spoken through the voice of Isaiah: 'For all these things his wrath is not turned away, but still his hand is lifted up'; for the hand of those who strike is always in some way raised on high. For if you understand the verse in this way—or else in another way, the hand of God is his power that prevails over all things, living and subsistent, that is, the Son, who having been lifted up for our sake, and having endured the precious cross, was glorified.

For in this way he has abolished the power of death, and has brought back the nature of man from corruption to incorruption and immortality; for through the Son all things are kept in order. For somewhere God and the Father says thus: I have strengthened the heaven with my hand. For what reason has the impious man provoked God? (40) The lawless man, then, says these things—the one who snatches, the one who takes advantage, the one who does not pay the penalty; but the prophet, refuting his opinions, unfolds the account concerning long-suffering. For that man says that God has turned away his face so as not to see; but David says the opposite, that you both see and observe both the toil of those who are wronged and the anger of those who wrong them; and you are long-suffering until they themselves fall into your hands. It is not others who send us into the hands of God, but each person is, so to speak, brought near by his own transgressions. The phrase "for what reason," however, is not the utterance of one who doubts, nor of one who is ignorant of the cause for which the impious man dared to provoke God, but rather of one who explains it. The first line, then, is to be read as in a question and with a pause, while we make the second the giving of the reason. But the impious man thought in himself that God does not seek out, nor indeed oversee, human affairs. That he was mistaken concerning the truth, however, and was carried far away from knowing the gentleness and love of mankind that dwells in God, the facts themselves will cry out by themselves.

For God did not in any way neglect the things here below, but sent his Son from heaven to seek what was lost, to turn back what had gone astray, to strengthen what was weak, to release from sickness what was crushed. The poor man has been left to you. He means the weak and the helpless, who seek help from you alone; for he is able to save the poor and the orphans. And these would most reasonably be those who have not yet come to know God by nature and in truth; poor, as not having the wealth that comes from divine and holy gifts, that is, from a life of good conduct and a life according to Christ; and orphans, as not yet having received God as Father. For the Son gave authority to those who believe in his name to become children of God; those, then, who have not yet believed, nor have the regeneration from water and the Spirit, would certainly be understood as orphans. You were a helper to the orphan. He did not say, "You are," but, "You were." For when all men were transgressing before, you alone proved to be the helper of orphans; but now also your own people, those who keep the commandments of the law. Crush the arm of the sinner and the wicked man. And so great has the sin of Satan become that, when he was searched out by God, he declared him worthy of the utmost punishment; and so his arm has been crushed and weakened, that is, his dominion against us. Moreover, the request is holy and the matter of the prayer is full of all praise. For it is a holy thing and useful for the whole of life that the arm of every sinner be crushed, that is, his dominion.

For they have nothing else on which to set it, but on crushing the poor. The arm of this sinner is crushed by the Lord, and his sin, being sought, is not found. His sin will be sought, and it will not be found. For if, he says, the sin of the sinner who does wicked things were searched out, it would not be discovered on account of it—that is, it will be justly done away. You will perish, nations, from his land. For in his kingdom they will be cast into the eternal fire. And he calls the unclean demons "nations," but not human beings, for whom there was hope of being saved, having been justified through Christ in faith. How could he have prayed to run into destruction, and the unbelieving nations too? The Lord has heard the desire of the poor. This was their desire: to be deemed worthy of the good things to come; for being prepared for this, they kept their heart ready to endure all things. But perhaps someone will say: And what sort of desire was this among those who were still wandering astray? We say, then, that when the arm of the evil one was crushed and he was no longer working in them as of old, so that they lay in ignorance of God, the nations were called to a desire for the salvation that is through Christ and for knowing the truth, and they kept their heart most ready to believe in him. To judge the orphan and the lowly, so that he may no longer boast greatly. And in the anagogical sense, the poor and lowly are those who have not yet believed. For these he prays that Christ may become judge, condemning Satan but justifying those who have been deceived.

For if this has happened, no human being on earth would any longer boast, nor would Satan himself, called a human being, because of the weakness that is in him; for no one at all, in comparison with the divine strength, is anything—or simply every human being is a servant of the devil's perversity and an instrument of his will. For such a person will no longer think great things when he prevails over the weaker. May God also grant us to conquer the hunter who lies in ambush against us in secret places, so that no boast of the enemy against us may any longer be left remaining.

PSALM 10.

In the Lord I have trusted; how will you say to my soul, etc. ( , 21.) The purpose of the psalmist is clear; for he says that he has trusted in the Lord. But the verse that follows introduces various thoughts to us. For it gives rise to the suspicion that he is conversing with certain people, and as it were rebuking those who say to him: "Migrate to the mountains." For why, he says, when I have trusted in God, do you advise me to be likened to a sparrow and to fly away to the highest mountains? It was necessary, then, he says, that I, having trusted in the Lord, should not rather hear "Migrate to the mountains," but be praised for my resolve, and as one who has grasped the best counsels, be very greatly admired. This, then, is one meaning; and another is this: when temptation presses and war is about to be stirred up, whether intelligible or perhaps perceptible, he tries to teach us, having reshaped the argument in reference to himself, how we ought to be disposed, and he says: "In the Lord I have trusted." Having stopped the argument at this point, he adds what those who are accustomed to encourage people in circumstances are wont to say:

How will you speak to my soul?" That is: What is it that you would advise and justly commend, saying, "Migrate to the mountains like a sparrow"? Let these things, he says, be said to me by you. For those who have put their trust in God ought to fly up in the noetic sense and to dwell among the holy mountains—that is, to contemplate the ways of life of those holy men, and to examine closely the manners of their good repute, and so to walk in the footsteps of their conduct. And we say that the holy mountains are the holy prophets and righteous men. If, then, anyone, flying up like a sparrow, should settle upon these noetic mountains, he will surely see that they became radiant, not through the strength that was in them, but because they had trusted in the Lord. And in another way, those who have trusted in the Lord must fly up like a sparrow to the mountains. And we say that the mountains are the virtues, which have nothing base and earth-bound; upon these mountains, sending our thoughts upward and thrusting aside the lowly-mindedness of earthly affairs, we shall be unconquerable by the pleasures that lead to what is base. "For behold, the sinners have bent the bow." And by way of spiritual interpretation, he says that the noetic ascent to the mountains is necessary, since the sinners have bent the bow and are already prepared for battle. For by these words they were provoking him to flee, saying that if he did not flee, the sinners would shoot him down in the dark of the moon—that is, secretly and as in the faint gleams of the moon. For such are the arrows of the noetic enemies; for hiding himself in the darkness, the evil one shoots down the fair body of the Church.

Now, sinners are those who persecute the faith and plot without restraint against those who wish to live piously. The evil powers also do this very intensely, scheming against the saints in every manner of plot. "To shoot in the darkness at those upright in heart." The arrows of the enemies are ready in the darkness; for thus he named the darkness that runs beneath the moon and shadows it. At that time, then, the sinful demons make war; for they cannot shoot the righteous in the light, but in the darkness of ignorance, when a cloud of negligence comes upon us and dims the light of our moon—that is, works upon our understanding. "For what you have established, they have torn down." By way of spiritual interpretation, he shows clearly that Satan fights against God, and the evil powers with him plot against those who have chosen to live well. For their aim is to overthrow what is built by God and to oppose his will. For the enemy, he says, brought man down to corruption, though he had been established for incorruption. They fight against the divine purpose, and whatever the Master of all things establishes for good, they themselves tear down. For the throne of lawlessness—that is, Satan—fashions toil at his command. But what did the righteous one do? "The Lord is in his holy temple," and so on. Now he confesses that God is righteous, and we should understand this to be said of all, but especially of the salvation of the righteous. By way of spiritual interpretation, David, having spoken of the devil's perversity, clearly sets forth the one who knows how to save and draws us out of that one's greed.

For, he says, since the devil attempts to tear down whatever God, by legislating and teaching, might establish for the salvation of those on the earth—what has the righteous man done? He who dwells in his own temple, who has heaven as his throne, his eyes look upon the poor man. For it is necessary to join the verses together, as contributing to a single meaning. And "looking upon" here signifies oversight. He certainly saves by watching over, and places outside the snare; and he looks upon the poor man, that is, the one poor in spirit. For he says, "Upon whom shall I look, but upon the humble and quiet?" But when divine Scripture makes statements about God and then mentions bodily parts, let not the mind of the hearers be entrenched in things perceptible, but from perceptible things, as from fitting images, let it ascend to the beauty of intelligible things, and let it understand God outside of shapes and quantity and circumscription, and form and the other things that accompany bodies; for he is beyond all mind. But we speak of him in a human way; for it was not possible for us to think things beyond us in any other way. Eyelids, then, that is, eyes, are said to be the overseeing activity of God, whatever it might be understood to be according to his nature; and he examines, that is, he searches accurately and inspects, both the righteous and the impious; and to the one he extends a helping hand, and sends light into his mind, so that he may not be shot at in the darkness; but the other, as one coming without restraint, he lets go against rocks and cliffs. His eyelids examine the sons of men. When it is the time of judgment, he employs the eyelids as indicating a threat.

For we too are accustomed to tear these things down when we are angry—and indeed also whenever we wish to observe something precisely. Hence not even Solomon mentioned them when he spoke of the bridegroom or the bride, as being fitting rather for wrath and judgment, not for marriage and joy. Or the eye signifies the unerring nature of God. A spirit of tempest is the portion of their cup. And here he calls punishment a cup, as in "the cup in the hand of the Lord, from which sinners shall drink." The cup of the righteous, then, carries them away to salvation; for it produces gladness and life, according to "I will take the cup of salvation." But the cup of sinners brings them down to death and has an unquenchable flame; for it is fire, divine fire, and a spirit of tempest, so that we may understand that just as wind falling upon a flame stirs it up and renders it in some way more active, so also the wrath of the judge, like a spirit of tempest falling upon those being punished, makes the punishment always unquenchable. For the Lord is righteous, and has loved righteousnesses. That is, equity, which is then especially preserved and made manifest when those who have humbled themselves for God's sake are exalted by good things; and again, when those whom the devil exalted are humbled by punishments; for God sees this and dwells in uprightness. Therefore the lovers of injustice shall be punished; but he watches over the upright man—that is, the one who is holy and undeviating, and who makes the divine law, as it were, a kind of rule of his own conduct and life.

PSALM 11.

For the end, concerning the eighth; a psalm of David. The psalm before us is also sung, having a demonstration of goodwill and genuineness toward God. But David denounces those who have employed duplicity, who promise friendship yet betray him to the enemy Saul, and reveal where he was staying. The words of the psalm would be fitting also for every saint, who has a life radiant and set apart, and who does not care for his own soul alone, but indeed also grieves over the ignorance of those who have gone astray, and longs to see them too submitting to God. The power of the song contains an entreaty against every unjust and wicked person, double-minded and of divided opinion, a liar and a buffoon, reared in guile and deceit. It seems in some way also to cry out against the wisdom of the Greeks; and it makes mention of Christ our common Savior; and it contains a promise, as having come from him, that he will presently come to the aid of those who are being exploited by the devil. It is sung concerning the eighth, in which the resurrection, and the calling of the nations, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the spiritual—that is, the circumcision in the Spirit—have come to be. And the prophet prays to be delivered from the evil generation; and this would be the generation at the time of Christ our Savior, concerning which he himself said: "The men of Nineveh will judge this generation." He begins the song, then, as follows. Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed.

David says, then, that the scarcity of those accustomed to doing good is so great that perhaps even those who are trained by the divine law are swept away into wickedness; and he says that he himself needs the guarding hand—that is, Christ's—or rather all those of whom the word speaks, and not the Jews only but also those throughout the whole world under heaven; for he is the expectation of the nations, as it is written. For the truths have been diminished from among the sons of men. And all the things of the Greeks are false—their wisdom, their words, and their life; and of the true things, that is, the necessary and profitable, one would find nothing among them, since they have made a god of creation, having abandoned the God who is by nature. The truths, then, have been diminished among them. Every man has spoken vain things to his neighbor. This is true also of the Jews: each one spoke vain things to his neighbor, gathering plots against our Savior. And the poets and prose-writers among the Greeks, having in no way taken care to be truthful, composed without examination whatever seemed good to them, having one aim: to make a display of their tongue. May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaks great things. And in the anagogical sense, how is that tongue not one that speaks great things—the tongue that dared to say to the Savior: "By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?" And it is part of the audacity of the Jews also to say: "Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?"—as though they thought this, that they had authority to say whatever they wished against the Savior. Our lips are our own.

That is, we have become inventors of fair speech. Because of the misery of the poor. And here, then, the person of those making supplication yields place; but he himself who receives the petitions answers, promising to those who ask both his arrival and the bestowal of his aid. And he calls poor those who are poor in spirit, whose groaning also having heard, he says, I will arise. Now I will arise, says the Lord; I will set him in salvation, I will speak boldly in him. He says that he will be awakened; and we do not say that the resurrection, that is the awakening, is in any way bodily, but rather, as it were, that he will now nod assent to bestowing a saving hand on those who are weary. And by way of spiritual interpretation, the salvation through Christ has become manifest to all and heard by all; for it was proclaimed with boldness to all the earth. The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried in fire. That is, purifying; for it is in no way diseased, but is so bright and purified that it seems to be silver, and tried in fire not once but very many times; for this, I think, is what "sevenfold" means. The words of the Savior have been approved, then, by those on earth. But he reproaches the Jews through Isaiah, saying: "Your silver is reprobate," that is, the word of faith is stamped falsely and counterfeit, not preserving the exact impress of the royal image. You, O Lord, will guard us, and will preserve us. And by way of spiritual interpretation, the Prophet prays to be delivered from the generation of the Jews at the time of the Savior, the faithless and murderous and adulterous generation. The impious walk about in a circle.

By way of spiritual interpretation, he says, "You will guard us," because the ungodly encircle us round about, plotting against our salvation.

PSALM 12.

For the end, a psalm of David. He sings this psalm having come to repentance for his sin, and at the same time proclaiming to us the message of salvation, through which we have received an example of how we ought to approach God when we have fallen into sin. How long will you turn your face away from me? etc. God turns his face away from sinners—doing what? Having judged them unworthy of his oversight. Therefore, pricked by conscience and fearing the judgment of God, and as one who has become far from him through sin, he says, I am renewed in repentance, desiring it in my soul, lest perhaps I die in my sin. And this is especially what causes me grief in my soul. For which Symmachus said: "Anxiety in my heart daily." But these things were written for our instruction, teaching how one ought to repent for sins, using the present words as it were like medicines. Or he calls the delay of help a forgetting, and he entreats not to be wholly stripped of divine providence. How long will he be exalted

Is my enemy against me? He asks God about these things, not as if God were the cause, but as one who is able to prevent it by the inclination of his own power. For if, when we are godly, the enemy is brought low, it is clear that when we sin he is exalted; for the height of Satan is the humiliation of men, since just as God is said to be exalted in our salvation, so the devil is said to be lifted up in our destruction. It is enough, he says, for him that he was exalted once, when I was humbled by sin. Why does he exalt himself against me for so long? Lest I sleep unto death. He has called slothfulness sleep, in which we are carried about by the phantasies of life, and lie idle, reclining on the bed of pleasure. So then, in order that the grievous death may not follow upon the sleep of slothfulness, he prays that the eyes, that is, the senses of the soul, may be enlightened, so that they may see the truth. I fear lest the sleep turn into death, when the sorrows of my calamities become stronger than my grief. Those who afflict me will rejoice if I am shaken. Just as an athlete who has leapt from the wrestling pit is defeated, so too the faithful man who abandons what he received from the beginning falls when he is shaken. Let us not then be changed, so that we may not create joy for our enemies. I will sing to the Lord who has done good to me. This too must be understood, as also the former, not that the prophet does not know now, but that he will sing more perfectly as he advances and is perfected. And to whom will he sing? To the benefactor, clearly, to the one who formed and re-formed him. And I will sing psalms to the name of the Lord, the Most High. Blessed is he who sings psalms in spirit and in mind, knowing to whom he sings, and commending it by his deeds as he knows how.

For the one who sings this, passes through the heaven, transcends the clouds, and stands before the Most High, to whose name he sings, with nothing hindering him.

PSALM 13.

The fool has said in his heart: There is no God. This is the height of all wickedness. For to suppose that there is no God, but that the universe came into being by chance, is the beginning of all licentiousness and unlawful action. The word therefore shows that the race had been driven to such a pitch of impiety as not even to set God over existing things, but to consider that this whole cosmos received its constitution by chance and spontaneously. And what is "He said in his heart"? Since of words one kind is spoken aloud and the other is inward, the prophet does not speak of the spoken word, but of the opinion in the soul. For he said in his heart, that is, he reasoned that there is no God. And everyone who sins without restraint, despising God by what is seen, even if he does not say it with his voice, yet by his very deeds and the perversity of his life all but cries aloud, "There is no God." For those accustomed to live as though God were not watching, and to do everything without circumspection, deny God by their very deeds and actions. They have all turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is none who does good. You will understand these things also in relation to the Gentiles; for the flesh from the earth has made the law of sin in it grow strong, and the human mind is very easily swayed to swerve toward evil from youth, according to what is written. Rightly, then, does the sacred word grieve over us:

For all," he says, "have turned aside." For while they ought to have turned to the straight path, and from the beauty and order of created things to have beheld the Creator by analogy, and through the prophetic voices to have been guided to the truth, this did not happen; but they turned aside into countless ways of error and destruction, and became useless in works of shame, and there was none who did good. Their throat is an opened grave, etc. Diodore, and Theodore, and Cyril, and Didymus: "An opened grave," etc. "In their ways." But in the Hexapla these things are not found. Will not all those who work lawlessness know? This verse is to be read as a question. For since he said, "All have turned aside" and "they work lawlessness," now he says: "And will these not come to know the Lord, and to believe in him?" Yes, certainly many will believe; but there are those who will also remain in unbelief, and will persecute and tyrannize those who have believed in Christ. There they feared with fear where there was no fear. For the Psalmist condemns such people. At any rate, the Jews who have remained in unbelief feared a fear that makes them tremble at every sound, which they ought not to have feared. And what is the senseless fear? They feared, lest perhaps in receiving Christ and believing in him they should offend God. But the force of the verse might also be spoken concerning those who have believed, so that what is said is something like this: The law of Moses, he says, produced punishment; but the fear of Christ is pure, for it has prepared sons to fear a Father. After that time, then, in which, clearly, the manifestation...

They will be afraid with fear where there is no fear—evidently from the legal threat, but rather the reverence that befits free men. Who will give from Zion the salvation of Israel? See how he thirsts for the Lord, and as it were cannot endure the delay, the time in which the salvation of God and the Father—that is, Christ—was about to shine forth. And he calls him the salvation of Israel, perhaps because he came primarily for the sake of Israel. For he said: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Or in another way: as the inspired Paul writes, the promises, the laws, and the covenant belonged to the Jews, and the fathers from whom Christ came according to the flesh. Therefore, says the prophet, I thirst for his coming. Who will give me to see the Savior, either coming from Zion above and from heaven, or proceeding from Zion below through the birth according to the flesh?

PSALM 14.

Who will dwell in your holy mountain? The holy mountain is the kingdom of the age to come; a mountain, because of its height and pre-eminence; holy, since no profane person dwells in it. Therefore the one who sojourns in this life, and uses the present order as a shadow and grass in passing, this one will be able to dwell—that is, to make his home—in the kingdom to come. Who is such a one, and how does he conduct his life? The psalm has the following. And he did not take up reproach against his neighbors. The statement has something unclear about it; for it is unclear whether it is from his neighbors that someone did not receive reproach, or whether he himself directed the reproach against them.

And I think that both of these things ought to be present in those who care for righteousness, in accordance with him. For it is a fruit unto the lot of equity thus to make the conduct of life venerable, so as not to be reproached by others, perhaps for the ease of the noblest things, nor indeed to reproach others, even if somewhere they should fall and stumble; for human nature is sick, and falls easily into wrongdoing. The contempt is not from a haughty mind, but rather from one that hates evil and abhors wicked things.

PSALM 15.

Guard me, O Lord, for I have hoped in you. Again this too is fitting for the form of a servant; and at the same time it makes clear the justification in faith through confession. Here the Savior, taking up as it were the common person of humanity, makes his words to God and Father not so much on his own behalf, but for us and on our behalf, as one of us through the economy. He therefore names the Father Lord, because he himself has come to be in the form of a servant. And he asks that he himself be guarded, for the Church, which is his flesh. For his flesh is the Church; and he reasonably asks that this be guarded; and the Church and its guarding would be referred to his own person. He also sets forth the reason why he ought to be guarded: For this reason, he says, O Father, I ask to be guarded by you, because I have hoped in you; and in saying myself, he means the Church. I said to the Lord: You are my Lord, because you have no need of my good things. And in the Gospel he was saying:

I ascend to my Father, and Father of you, and my God and God of you." And now, as one who has become man by nature, he calls the Father his own Lord. And having added, "Because you have no need of my good things," he showed the unprofitableness of the legal worship. For here he named as good things the sacrifices offered according to the law, which he plainly does not accept; for the word of faith abolishes them. "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, and drink the blood of goats?" And again: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me." Observe that freedom from need belongs to God alone; but the others who are called lords need the things that those under them bring to them—for instance, the farming of their servants, the building, and other things. This, then, Christ also sets down as a proof that the Father is truly Lord, that he has no need of the good things brought by him—that is, by his flesh, the Church. And indeed, even if the Son prays, even if he weeps, even if he entreats, the Father has no need of such good things; for knowing all things, he neither needs prayer nor requires prophetic words. "To the saints who are in his land." He says that the saints are those who have been sanctified in the Spirit; and the land is the Church of Christ. And "he made wondrous" is used in place of "he showed" or "he glorified." And "his" signifies the Father; so that the whole may be thus: to those sanctified in faith he made known the will of the Father. Therefore he is also called the Angel of great counsel. "Their infirmities were multiplied." Of the nations, clearly.

Before the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ was revealed, sins and passions multiplied. After this, when salvation was revealed, they hastened to knowledge and to the setting aside of evils. But some have indicated the various idolatries and weaknesses of the nations, from which those who were changed have become holy to God; concerning whom it was said, "to the saints who are in the land," who also quickly departed from their idols, or from their labors, or from their weaknesses that existed before the faith, when the wills of the Savior were marvelously wrought in them. I will surely not gather their assemblies from blood. If someone should wish to understand these things as applying to the Jews, the verses should be read as an assertion, as though God were clearly declaring the reasons for the rejection of Israel. "I would not gather," he says, "their assemblies, nor would I even remember their names anymore with my lips." And for what reason? "From blood," he says, that is, because they occupied themselves with very many bloodsheds and murders. But if someone should say that he ought to understand this also concerning the nations, let him receive it in some such manner as this. For since, he says, they hastened in faith and received without delay the Lord who shone upon them, and ran to his divine light, "I will surely not gather their assemblies"? But it should be read as a question with a pause: "But yes, I will gather," he says, "from blood"—that is, since all have been slain, and their blood has been poured out in great quantity, Satan bringing them to destruction, and the herd of demons being destruction to them.

The blood signifies their destruction, that is, the ruin which they themselves suffered because they did not know the Creator of all things. And the flock must be brought down to Hades. For thus it is written concerning them and concerning Satan: "He who seeks out their bloods remembered"; and, "They were set like sheep in Hades; death shall shepherd them." For he himself was death, that is, Satan, the cause of death, shepherding them and shutting them up as in certain pens in the recesses of Hades. Since, then, he says, their bloods have become many, and because they hastened to faith, would I not reasonably, having shown mercy, gather their synagogues together? The divine Cyril, however, wishes the verses to be read as a question. For since, he says, those called from the Gentiles hastened concerning the faith, shall I not indeed gather their synagogues together? And the phrase "from bloods" is instead of "since all have been slain," or according to Aquila: "I will not make a covenant with them from bloods." Formerly the Jews poured libations to God according to the law, and the Greeks to idols. But I will deliver new mysteries to all and a bloodless sacrifice, no longer accepting the libations according to the law. [The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup. He calls the inheritance given to him by the Father a cup, as being able to gladden him, since such was not the case formerly, that is, of Israel, but rather it was hateful and detested. As therefore the Church gladdens him, he calls it a cup. For Isaiah said somewhere concerning it:

And as a young man rejoices over a bride, so the Lord rejoices over you." The measuring lines have fallen to me in my choicest portions. A measuring line is a measure, as it is written in the Gospel according to John: "For God does not give the Spirit by measure." Or perhaps the measure is named not in relation to the knowledge itself, but in relation to the one who receives it, in that he is not capable of receiving greater knowledge. For the same rain is one, yet it is measured out in the vessels that receive it. My inheritance is the choicest. The first inheritance, that is Israel, was not the choicest, but rather even hateful to God. But by the cords of love and the most intense disposition, the Church from the Gentiles is joined to Christ as a choice lot, which he rightly calls the choicest; for in it there is much that is obedient and gentle, and the intelligible beauty shines forth, adorned with every virtue. Or perhaps the cords signify not the bonds of love, but are spoken by way of metaphor from those who measure land: that with measuring lines the Father measured out the inheritance to me, and enclosed it with boundaries and walled it round about and secured it, so that the choicest inheritance, which is also the Father's, may no longer be plundered from me—the inheritance into which the measuring lines of the allotment fell to me, that is, which was allotted to me. An inheritance is proper to a rational nature, either the contemplation of the ages that have come to be and that will be; and the inheritance of Christ is the knowledge that is from God. I set the Lord before me continually. This is similar to that Gospel saying which says:

I am not alone, because my Father is with me." Insofar, then, as Christ is understood as God, he is himself the one who establishes and sustains all things; but insofar as he has become man, it would be fitting for him also to say that he has the Lord at his right hand, so that he might not be shaken. For he is conformed to the measures of humanity, and he is not ashamed of what befits his self-emptying, for the sake of the economy. "I awaited," then, he says, "that my Father helps me and does not allow me to be overturned." The phrase "He is at my right hand" he said in place of "He helps me," calling the help from the right and the better side. But do you observe how our nature has become approved in Christ: we who were cast out because of the transgression in Adam have been brought into the presence of the Father, and we have had him as our helper and sustainer. Therefore let us also always have God before our eyes, and let us think of him as present and helping, so that we may not be moved from what is fitting; but let the devil who opposes us from the right be put to rest; and let us not accept the curse which Judas receives, saying: "Let the devil stand at his right hand"; for at the right hand of the

The Lord is the portion of the righteous, but the devil of the sinner. For God by nature and life and life-giver gave life to his own temple, not setting the matter right for himself, but transmitting to the whole nature of man the good that comes from this. He did not, then, fail to know the way of life, although our forefather Adam had failed to know it. Because he is at my right hand, so that I may not be shaken. Through "Sit at my right hand," and his having sat at the right hand of the Majesty after the ascension; how then does the Son say, "I foresaw the Lord at my right hand continually," meaning the Father? Therefore the Son is at the right hand of the Father, and the Father at the right hand of the Son, according to "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me." And the first seems to have been said in accordance with the human nature; for insofar as he is God, he is not shaken. Nor is his flesh without a soul; for it is not for it to say that it has God at its right hand and foresees him continually, so that it may not sin. For being shaken indicates a sinful motion. With your face are delights at your right hand forever. It was, then, fitting and seemly for the Creator of all things, and Lord, and God, to exult and rejoice when his own creatures are reformed for the better, and are restored by God and the Father, through the Son himself, to what they were in the beginning; for just as all things were brought into being through him, through him they receive their arrangement into better things. The Son is the beautiful right hand of the Father, the delight of his flesh; he who, having exalted the formless and unadorned nature, seated it as God at the right hand of the Father by deification.

PSALM 16.

Hearken, O Lord, to my righteousness. By righteousness here he does not mean perfect virtue (for that would be boastful and Pharisaic), but the righteous petition. For David asks not for the destruction of Saul, but for his own salvation. Perhaps, since God does not hear bare words, but virtue as it were crying out through deeds, the prophet teaches us how we too, when we entreat, shall be heard, namely, because it is with righteousness. But if it is the choir of the apostles that entreats here, it names the Lord of righteousness, Christ—not the righteousness that is in the law (for that was not blameless, but lay in wait until the time of correction), but the righteousness that is in truth, that is, the evangelical righteousness. Loving, then, the worship and service in the Spirit, the apostles say: "Hearken to us, O Lord and God"—not to the righteousness that consists in types, but to mine, that is, the true and spiritual righteousness, according to which we wish also to live, and which we also proclaim to others. But to Christ himself, most of all, it is fitting to say in his human nature to God and the Father: "Hearken to my righteousness," for he himself did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. [From thy face be my judgment. It is as if he were saying: Be thou thyself judge in my cause, and let my eyes behold thy uprightness, that is, thy righteous judgment.] Thou hast visited in the night, thou hast tried me, and no iniquity was found in me. Let him who is free from shameful and irrational fantasies even by night and in sleep say these things, if indeed such a thing is possible. And note that "Thou hast visited" is not set down in reference to punishment.

And again it must be known that the devil kindles in a manner contrary to God; but God kindles, whether he finds the injustice that already exists, or because it does not pre-exist, he does not find it. From those who oppose your right hand, he calls the demons those who oppose the right hand of God; and the right hand of God is every pious and righteous man, concerning whom he says elsewhere: "Let him be made over to the man of my right hand." The demons oppose his salvation, from which God delivers those who hope in him. They have also opposed the Lord, who is the right hand of the Father, — Jews and Greeks, and the inventors of profane heresies; from which the apostles pray to be delivered; and the security which nature has given to the pupil of the eye, this they seek from God, so that in no way the eye of the mind may be wronged in them, and suffer being darkened. The Savior too would pray this same thing to the Father, that he himself might be guarded, that is, his body, the Church of the faithful, from those who war against it, like a pupil of an eye, unblemished and seeing rightly. May we also be guarded from demons who oppose our right and good action; which is said to be of God, as being accomplished through his grace and energy, lest, when the eye within us is darkened, we fall into the mist of sin. In the shelter of your wings you will cover me. (94.) And the apostles also make this necessary petition, to come under the shelter that is in Christ, while enemies attempt to render them wretched and savagely cast upon them every kind of plot.

For "all who desire to live piously in Christ will be persecuted." The Savior also wished to gather the children of Jerusalem, in the way a bird gathers its nestlings under its wings, but they did not wish it. Therefore, on behalf of the Church as on behalf of his own body, he asks the Father for the guarding power. The demons, inventors of impiety and sin, oppress us too and make us wretched and miserable; but God will guard our hearts and our thoughts, as it were by certain wings connatural with him and of the same essence—those of his only-begotten Son and of the life-giving and holy Spirit. They have cast me out now, they have surrounded me. And from what do they cast us out, when they wish to encircle and seize us? From the law, certainly, and the commandments, which stands in place of a wall and a strong city for those who are sober; concerning which you will find the prophet speaking: "Who will lead me into the city of protection?" Let us therefore never, deceived, fall out from this, lest we come under the hands of the enemies. And those who war against the saints saw, or rather thought, nothing else except this very thing alone: to cast the saints out from their good pursuits and to turn them aside and divert them from the way according to God. But where do the enemies wish to make the saints stand away from the love of God? On the earth—that is, as long as they live; and the saints inhabit this earthly place. For after their departure from here, those who war cannot harm them. The saints, however, enduring every manner of plot, say:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" The Jews cast the Lord also outside the city and surrounded it, and indeed they were watching how they might destroy him and bring him down to the ground; and watching, they found the death through the cross, most dishonorable, pleasing to them. They supposed me like a lion ready for prey. He sets before us the fearful plot of the demons; for what is more ravenous or more murderous than a lion? In this way, then, our invisible enemies have treated us after the prey. But when we resist, obeying Peter: "Be sober," he says, "be watchful, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour"—if you resist him in the faith, he is immediately humbled, and like a cub dwelling in hidden places. Through cowardice the demons are found, fearing to attack as though against the strong, yet nevertheless seeking an opportunity; for this reason they hide. It should be known, however, that the utterly wretched lion, that is, Satan, also leaps out openly through his own henchmen; and the same one also hides like a cub; for he secretly prepares plots. One might apply such things also to his own children; for they think the same things. Your sword from the hand of your enemies. He calls the righteous man the sword of God, cutting down the ranks of the demons like a sword. For the soul of the righteous is the destruction of sins; the life of the righteous is the death of pleasures. And for this reason that it might be rescued from the impious man and from the hand of enemies,

that is, of the devil and the demons, he prays as one who is greatly plotted against by all. Arise, O Lord, forestall them, and trip them up. “Forestall” means: Do not permit their eager purpose to come to completion; but by anticipating my danger, show their perversity to be of no effect in the end. And “trip them up” is instead: Do not prosper them as they run against me; rather let them fall, as though someone met them and checked their utterly grievous course. [O Lord, from few from the earth. “Few,” as I think, he means those who are chosen among these, clearly the saints, and those who have obtained the enviable lot from Christ. And the Savior himself says: “Many are called, but few are chosen.”—“Divide them therefore in their life.” Separate, he says, the wicked from the saints, and remove them from the most sacred; for this is fitting for their life. For to those who shake off the yoke upon God, and who stretch out their neck stubbornly against his ordinances, how could a lot or a portion be given with those who have a compliant mind, and who are especially zealous for whatever they might wish for this?]

PSALM 17.

For the end, for the servant of the Lord, David; he spoke to the Lord the words of this song, etc. But the true and mystical meaning is: those who have believed in Christ, who was born of the seed of David, and who together with him have been called sons of David—these bring back this song to Christ, as having been rescued from all enemies, and from the ruler of this age, whose tyranny against us the Son cast out, just as long ago God thrust Saul away from reigning over Israel. In the psalm there is introduced sometimes the person of those who have believed, and sometimes that of Christ, employing human voices. For this reason the inscription is also "For the end." For the psalm contains the descent of the Only-begotten, the ascension, the victory over the demons, the casting out of Israel, and the calling of the Gentiles—all of which took place at the end of the ages, when the Only-begotten became man. May we too be servants of the Lord, that is, slaves; and as in the day walking becomingly in virtue and the works of light, may we be rescued from all enemies, and especially from the hand of Saul, that is, from the action and the working of Satan. For the hand is a symbol of action; and having come to the end of victory, may we be deemed worthy to give thanks to Christ, the giver of victory. My protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my helper. But all these things are rightly named of him concerning whom this same prophet taught us to sing: In you we shall gore our enemies with the horn. Thus he is our protector through the flesh, as though in a shield receiving for our sake the darts of his sufferings.

A helper through his divinity; for it alone was able to take hold of us through impassibility. He became the horn of our salvation through the cross; for nothing is more fearful to the demons than the cross. Smoke went up in his anger, and fire from his face. (Of Cyril and Hypatius.) For just as smoke goes before fire, and when fire is kindled and consumes wooden material, it happens that coals are produced, so also the anger of God began as it were through smoke, grew as fire, and in the end utterly consumed the enemies of David. And reasonably smoke and punishment are spoken of, as producing tears; for smoke, falling upon the eyes, always draws out the tear from the eyes in some way. But when the Creator was angered also against the demons because of the destruction of his handiwork, the smoke went before the vengeance—the moderate restraint of the one who had tyrannized; and fire followed, becoming the complete destruction of the enemy from the face of God, that is, from Christ, who is the face of God and the express image of his substance. For when the Only-Begotten became man, a fire of anger against the demons was kindled from him, so that they cry out: "You have come here before the time to torment us." And in the case of the Jews too, the threat from Christ against them was sent forth beforehand like smoke. For he said: "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then say to the mountains: Cover us; and to the hills: Fall on us." Then the anger followed as fire also, and was so kindled against them that it made them coals too, that is, it consumed and destroyed them.

I know also a good fire, which Christ came to cast upon the earth. This fire produces praiseworthy coals; for through the heat of the Holy Spirit, some are shown to be boiling in spirit. At any rate, the apostles were kindled as coals from God, being set on fire by their union with him, and appearing as lights in the world; and concerning them it was said to Jerusalem: "You have coals of fire, sit upon them; these shall be a help to you." He bowed the heavens and came down, etc. He came down in order to join the earth to heaven, and to grant communion to those below with those above. But this would not have happened if, having come down, he had not in this way dwelt upon the earth in the manner in which it was able to receive him, that is, in flesh, which he called darkness under his feet. For this concealed the presence of God that came to us at the consummation. And he made darkness his hiding place. Darkness here means the mist that comes from incomprehensibility, which, falling upon the eyes of our mind, does not permit us to measure by the standards of time the one who eternally exists with the Father. Understand darkness as the obscurity of the mystery, which came about from the flesh for the unbelieving; whence he also reasonably called it a hiding place; for in this way Christ hid himself from the devil and the demons, who, seeing him and finding him disbelieved by the Jews, ran to the cross, not knowing the power of the one crucified. Dark water in the clouds of the air. For the mystery of Christ is thus hidden. He sent from on high and took me; he received me out of many waters.

The Church of the faithful also confesses that the Lord was sent from heaven by the Father as Savior, as a ray from the sun, and that he set her free from the many waters—that is, from the opposing powers, and from the salty and turbulent affairs and circumstances of life. It says “many waters,” for the modes of temptation are various, and so are the plots of the evil spirits. But Christ has saved us from all these. According to the cleanness of my hands he will repay me. You will rightly call the bright works of faith, performed without defilement, the cleanness of hands, without which faith is dead. My God, his way is blameless. The Word of God alone is true God; therefore he is also Only-begotten, because he alone is as God; for all others are made gods by the presence of the Word of God. For he called those gods to whom the word of God came. God who girds me with strength, and made my way blameless. These things also suit the sacred ministers of the Gospel, to whom the Savior said: “Wait in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.” Girded with this and armed with the Holy Spirit (for this is the promised power), they became invincible against demons and persecutors and passions, and they passed through the way of life blamelessly. He establishes my feet like a deer’s, and sets me upon the heights. They say that deer are the swiftest of runners, and indeed that they are killers of serpents, and that when pursued by hunters they are borne on high. So others, and Saul too, pursued David; but he did not overtake him, because God gave him swiftness

...providing it, and making them trample the enemies like venomous beasts. Since it is peculiar to the nature of fawns to consume beasts, and to drive away the race of serpents by their breath and by the peculiarity of their skin, the Lord is reasonably called a fawn, as one who tramples and consumes the opposing activity, and who trains his disciples into the nature of deer, in whom he says: "I have given you authority to trample upon serpents and scorpions." Satan, then, pursues like a serpent; but these, having received authority from the Savior to trample upon serpents and scorpions—the intelligible ones, that is—and upon all the power of the enemy, are not caught; but casting off the earth-dragging mindset, they ascend as if to a mountain, to virtue that is worth acquiring. However, it is not enough merely to ascend, but one must also remain in the things above and dwell in the heights of the virtues. Therefore God not only leads the righteous man, the one whose feet have been made straight, up to the heights, but also sets him above—that is, he prepares him to stand firm in virtue and not to fall. You have widened my steps. He calls "steps" those by which one crosses from vice to virtue, and from sensible things to intelligible things, and from the present age to the one to come. At the beginning, then, the way is narrow and toilsome for the one traveling the compressed path and wishing to cross the snares of the enemies; but with progress, they are widened. A people whom I did not know served me. This is not a sign of ignorance—for as God he knows these things—but that those who at various times did not obtain kinship with me.

These things may be said also from the person of Christ and of David, from whose seed Christ, having been born, took up that person. But if David did not reign over the nations, let us carry the meaning to Christ who came from him, who always as God rules over all things, and after the incarnation received also the willing service of those who have believed in him. The knowing of our hearts is twofold: either the understanding, or the knower being united to the known. According to the first meaning, God knows even the wicked, to whom the Savior said: "You are those who justify themselves before men, but God knows your hearts." And in the prophet: "Because he has known all your sins." But according to the second, he is said to know only the righteous; for the Lord knows those who are his. For to the wicked the Savior said: "Depart from me, workers of lawlessness, I never knew you." And so the people from the nations, who formerly worshipped idols and sinned, and for this reason were not known by the Savior, passing over through repentance, is said to serve him. Therefore he did not say, "Whom I do not know" (for one still working the things of wickedness is not known), but "whom he did not know formerly, but now it is clear that he knows." Of this sort is the apostolic saying: "But then indeed, not knowing God, you served those who by nature are not gods; but now, having known God, or rather having been known by him." For knowing, they were unknown; but having known, they were known. Sons who are strangers. Israel, called the firstborn son, was called a stranger son because of unbelief. They grew old and became lame from his paths.

Instead of “They have grown old and have become lame,” Symmachus has said “They will be dishonored and put to shame.” “The Lord lives.” The phrase “The Lord lives” in Scripture stands for “By the living Lord,” just as also Job says: “The Lord lives, who has judged me thus, and who has embittered my soul; so long as my breath is still in me, and the divine spirit that remains in my nostrils.”

PSALM 18.

The heavens declare the glory of God. The multitude of the Greeks, not applying their minds intelligently to the greatness and beauty of the visible creation, supposed that the heaven—that is, the firmament—was a god, and worshiped it. And yet they could have perceived the craftsman from the wondrous quality of the work. For if what was made is great and excellent, it would proclaim not so much its own glory as the glory of the craftsman. The heavens, then, declare the glory of God without a voice, and the firmament all but cries out that the hands of God made it. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night proclaims knowledge. In agreement with Moses, having first mentioned heaven, then the firmament, he next speaks also of the light that makes the day, and shows that it is possible to marvel at the ordering of the one who imposed upon them order and measures and a cyclical return by alternation, even from days and nights. For he it is who turns the shadow into morning—that is, who transfers the night into dawn and light—and who makes the dawn and the mist, that is, day and night. He it is who commands the intervals of the hours to yield to days, and nights to nights, so that at one time they are longer, at another shorter.

For the day, so to speak, says to the day in summer, perhaps, and in winter: Yield to me the greater part in the interval of the hours. For this is what seems right to the patriarch. And night declares knowledge to night—clearly, knowledge concerning the one who made it; or that the nights in winter must by all means be longer, and those in summer shorter. And this, I think, is what it means that day belches forth a word to day, and, so to speak, utters a voice, demanding the excess in the interval of the hours; and that night announces the same knowledge to night. There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard. But Saint Cyril and the all-great Athanasius read in the form of a question, "Are there no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard?" That is: Are there not also voices of voiceless things, whether deeds or works, without word and tongue? Yes, one might say; for just as the embroidered garment cries out the weaver's craft, and the ship that is beyond reproach proclaims the shipbuilder, and his work proclaims the smith; so too the creation, which we have just now mentioned, is voiceless—that is, without reason—but its wonder is, as it were, speeches, and its beauty and good order are, as it were, a voice. For the heavenly narrative, and the word cried out by the day, is not an articulate voice, nor a speech through the mouth, but it becomes a teaching of divine power for those who know how to understand a voice that is silent. Moreover, David, having called creation voiceless, declared that it is neither ensouled nor rational according to the opinion of the wise men of the Greeks; for they say that this whole world is one living being.

Living things likewise, and the parts of which it is completed. And he himself goes forth as a bridegroom from his chamber. David usefully recalls the well-ordered course of the sun, and that it returns as from a chamber from the farthest edge, like a bridegroom exceedingly distinguished; then, as if having received the signal of the race from the starting line, it makes its flight swift and strong, and runs its course without toil. For this, I think, is what is meant by, He will rejoice as a giant to run his course. The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls. Natural contemplation does not come unprofitably to the more discerning, presenting to those who wish to see the glory of God, as it were from the beauty and good order of created things; for his invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. But while these things are so, Christ himself has shone upon us, and has brought us to the Father, not through legal worship, but rather through evangelical admonition. Therefore, in addition to natural contemplation, that is, that which comes from the making and good order of created things, we have also been enriched by the proclamation through him. Creation was sufficient to show the Maker to men, but nevertheless he also gave a law as a help, able to convert those who were going astray. To one who examines the words of the psalm without circumspection, it seems not to follow the

This discourse concerning the law and the statutes comes before those things. But the connection is much greater. And how, I will say from here: There are three divine laws in all: one is the natural and at the same time creative law, by which from conscience and from created things we know what is fitting, and we recognize the Creator; another is the written law, given through Moses; and the third is the spiritual and evangelical law. Since, therefore, David has sufficiently discussed the law that comes from creation, and has shown that both heaven and the firmament and day and night and the sun proclaim the one who made them, and has also included the natural law through creation (for nature is also one of created things), he now passes on to the remaining laws, both the written and the spiritual, and subdivides each into commandments, and laws, and judgments, and testimonies, and statutes. First, then, he calls the evangelical proclamation the law of the Lord; for it was not proclaimed through one of the prophets, but through the Master of all himself. Then he names it blameless; for the law through Moses was not blameless, as the all-holy Paul writes: for it perfected no one. And God also said somewhere concerning the Jews, "I gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments in which they shall not live." For by comparison with the evangelical decrees, the law is not good; but the teachings of Christ are confessedly blameless, which also turn souls from wickedness to virtue, from Greek error to piety, from ignorance and darkness to light and understanding.

The Gospel is called "law" because it apportions to each one what is most fitting for his deeds—praises to the good, but penalties to the despisers. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring unto the age of ages. (Of Cyril and Hypatius.) No one is pure from defilement, not even if his life on earth be a single day. Yet just as they say that soapwort cleanses the filth of garments, so the pure fear of God—that is, the fear that makes pure—if it enters the human mind, cleanses away every stain of it. And it will preserve such a man even unto a long-lived old age; for he who has passed through life in purity will be such also in the age to come. The judgments of the Lord are true, justified together. Again he calls "judgments" the divine votes and verdicts upon each matter; and these are true and just "together," that is, not discordant and at war with one another, but rather akin and in agreement with each other. For not a single contrariety is found in the laws of the Savior. But God judges in two ways: either lovingly or justly—lovingly, as when to the one called at the eleventh hour into the vineyard he apportions equal wages to those who labored before; justly, as in the separation of the sheep and the goats, saying to the one, "Come, inherit the kingdom," and to the others, "Go from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire." If they do not lord it over me, then I shall be blameless, and I shall be cleansed from great sin.

Having confessed that many things ride past even the diligent guardian of the law, the prophet says: O Master, let the hidden things and things belonging to others not have dominion over me, since you who judge do not set them in place, nor record them against me as sin; or: When the evil thoughts that the devil injects into the mind do not have dominion over me, so that I consent to them, then I would also be blameless, and I shall be cleansed from sin in actual deed, which is great, by comparison with sin in thought. And in prophetic manner all nature cries out to God: The law, O Master, purified only the body with temporary sprinklings; but do you cleanse me even from hidden things through baptism, and spare me from the demons that belong to others; for if these do not have dominion over me, then truly I shall be blameless and shall be cleansed from unbelief, or from transgression, which is a great sin. He calls "great sin" the sin that produces effects, which the cleansing from hidden things prevents.

PSALM 19.

May the Lord hear you in the day of affliction. The aim of the saints is always stretched toward God, and looking to him alone, they seek help from him, even if some wave is stirred up and a fierce storm is raised by the plotting of demons. Jeremiah also knew this and said: "O Lord, my strength, and my helper, and my refuge, in the day of my evils." For the assistance that comes from men is rotten, but the help from above is sure. For this reason also the saints say that the man is wretched, or rather accursed, who has his hope in man and has turned his own heart away from the Lord. And David now seems to call the day of affliction, historically, the day on which Sennacherib sent those insolent letters of the Rabshakeh: "Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, that God will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand." Allegorically, however, it is the day of the passion, when the Savior said: "My soul is deeply grieved." Therefore those around Hezekiah pray that God may hear him, when he is afflicted by the things Sennacherib blasphemed; and the disciples of the Savior pray that God and the Father may hear him. And we too learn not to fall down in the time of affliction, but to pray, and not to entrust our salvation to men, but to God who is mighty in all things. May he remember all your sacrifice. And these words might be spoken also for the consolation of the fainthearted, either by the reason that dwells in the soul, or by the Holy Spirit. For the afflicted man needs prayer, and needs not to cast down his hopes; for in this way God becomes attentive. Of Saint Cyril, from the interpretation of the 19th Psalm.

But the good way was not hard to find, for Christ was saying, "I am the way."

PSALM 20.

You placed on his head a crown of precious stone. David, having drawn up for battle against the Ammonites, conquered and took them by force, and took the crown of Milcom; this was an idol of the Ammonites, and finding in the crown a precious stone, he set it in his own crown. He now recalls this history, and says to God: You anticipate, O Master, even my very request by your favors; for I did not entreat concerning a precious stone, but you also gave this, forestalling my request. And in another way, before your ordination you blessed me, that is, you praised me, saying: "I have found David, a man after my heart, and he shall be to me for a king." And further: I sought salvation from my enemies from you, but you in blessings, that is, in abundance and overflow of goodness, gave me both victory and kingship and prophecy, and the greatest thing, to be the father of God. But Hezekiah also asked only for deliverance, yet found such great victory and utter destruction of his enemies; and though he did not ask for the kingdom, he received it. Precious stones are also the disciples of Christ, and simply the faithful, being his adornment and glory and, as it were, a crown placed upon his head. In the Gospel, then, the Father is said to make the wedding for the Son, but here the prophet says to God: "You placed on his head a crown." And the Church becomes a crown for Christ, encircling his head with living stones.

You might call even Christ himself a precious stone, as being clearly a chosen and admirable pearl, the crown of glory that God and the Father has given us, blessing us with a blessing of sanctification and goodness. From his works and pursuits a person is crowned. Indeed, the judge who has pursued justice will receive the crown of righteousness. Let your hand be found against all your enemies. It is found in one way for those who persist in sin, and in another way for those who repent; for to the former he is found as a judge, and to the latter as a redeemer. Except that the prophet says we must first find God, and then be found by him; this clearly shows that salvation lies in us. For you will make them a back. Some, having interpreted the present psalm as referring to Christ, understood the punishments as referring to the Jews, from the verse, "Let your hand be found against all your enemies." For these things, they say, will be brought upon them at the time of the coming of your person, on account of what they plotted against you, thinking to encompass the Lord of glory in death without power. Therefore they have also been made a back to the faithful from among the Gentiles. First they were called sons of God and a people, but later they yielded the sonship to others, to the Gentiles called at the last, who have also become first, according to the saying, "The first will be last, and the last first." And in the remaining words he says that when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, then all Israel will also be saved.