Expositio in Psalmos

PSALM 21.

For the end, concerning the morning help, a psalm of David. Some call the morning help the time of the Savior's resurrection; for he rose at deep dawn, having trampled death. The resurrection, then, is a help, since it drives away the corruption of bodies and purifies by faith those upon the earth. For if you say, he says, with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. But let us see what things the Lord speaks to the Father as a man, mediating on behalf of humanity and assuring us that he is our advocate. A reproach of men, and despised by the people. By saying this, they cast the reproach against God, as though he were unable to save his own Son whom he wills, that is, whom he loves. One might marvel at the measureless dullness of the Jews, how, reading these things spoken in the person of Christ against them, they did not understand, seeing him crucified and the prophecy in agreement with their own audacious deeds. My heart became like wax melting in the midst of my belly. It is the voice of a teacher when he sees those begotten to him undergoing calamity, such as the compassionate disposition from love that the Savior had concerning his disciples, sympathizing in the midst of his belly with those whom he begot. But also the sweetness of his heart melted like wax, when it became food and passed into the belly. And he means the thoughts made fine through continual meditation, so as to be given over to the constitution of what has been nourished. I will declare your name to my brothers.

Here he calls "name" the glory, according to the saying, "I have manifested your name to men." For he made his glory evident, not only by saying and teaching that he is Father, but by making manifest both his gentleness and his glory to us who have become his brothers inasmuch as he became as we are. For he said, "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." But he has manifested the Father's glory to us also in another way; for as many as have beheld the Son with the eyes of the mind, possessing the authority that befits God and the all-powerful strength over all things, have beheld the Father and have known him. At any rate he himself said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." But also: "In the midst of the church I will sing praise to you." And what church, if not surely that one which the Son presented to himself, having no spot or wrinkle, but holy and blameless? Indeed he sings praise to the Father, making his glory manifest; for this is what "name" indicates.

PSALM 22.

A psalm of David. The psalm in hand has the same meaning as what was said at the end of the preceding psalm. For those who have believed from among the Gentiles, having become taught by God, according to what is written, having eaten and been filled spiritually, recognize the provider of saving food, and call him shepherd and nourisher, and indeed he also says, as being one through faith and belonging to one flock: The Lord shepherds me, and nothing will be lacking to me. Greatly do they think who through Christ have been fed in the divine courts and have been shepherded by him; and not simply having obtained some one of the saints as a guide, as Israel obtained Moses, but the chief shepherd of the shepherds, and the instructor of the teachers, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. And knowing this they say, Nothing will be lacking to me; for Christ is all-strong and makes abundant the supply of his own gifts to those who have recognized his manifestation. For he gives from his own fullness, and supplies the blessings that come from the Father, and he himself is both the source and the chief of every good thing. In a place of green pasture, there he settled me. Since the voice befitting sheep is "The Lord shepherds me," those shepherded by Christ persist in the turn of phrase of the word, and they add the good things that have come to them from the shepherd's craft, naming them green pasture and water. A place of green pasture would be understood as the ever-blooming oracles of God, the holy and God-inspired Scripture, which nourishes the hearts of those who believe toward spiritual vigor.

But the living and life-giving water is the provision of the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps more properly the place of grass is Paradise, from which we have fallen, to which Christ leads us back and settles us, through the water of rest, that is, through baptism. "For unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death. (128) And since we are baptized into the death of Christ, baptism will also be called a shadow of death and an imitation, which one ought not to fear. But the shadow of death may also be understood as natural and common death, in contrast to death by choice, the death of the soul, I mean, which is not a shadow of death but true death. You have prepared a table before me in the presence of those who afflict me. Those who have believed from among the Gentiles, having tasted of the gospel table, say to Christ who has set it before them, that the table which you have prepared for us stands opposed to the table of the Greeks. For the wise men among the Greeks taught us nothing of what is necessary, but pressed and afflicted us in famine and scarcity of every profitable lesson. But the divine and sacred table, the God-inspired Scripture, stands opposed to that corrupting and unfed table of those who afflict us, being rich and costly, and having great variety and setting forth of dishes, that is, of foods. For in it are very many admonitions and saving ones, and such as point out true good living, and bring us to spiritual soundness.

Perhaps this is also what those who believed say: You prepared a spiritual table for us, so that having eaten and gained strength, we might be able to come face to face with those who once oppressed us. For spiritual nourishment, well strengthening the soul, makes it resist both unclean spirits and teachers in error. But the mystical table also, the flesh of the Lord, makes us strong against passions and against demons.

For Satan fears those who partake of the mysteries with reverence. And your mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life. It will surely follow those who are sanctified in Christ and deemed worthy of his gifts, so as even to touch the sacred table, and to have the head made rich with oil, and indeed to drink from the finest cup to intoxication—that is, to come into rich participation of unceasing gladness. For this, I think, is what is signified: being pursued, as it were, continually and on all the days of the age by the mercy of God. For the grace given by Christ to the saints is irrevocable, and his gifts and calling are without regret. At any rate, the inspired Paul writes to those thus honored that they receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken; for it is not possible to fall away from the good things that will be given; for the hope of the saints is most firm and unshaken. And the old law also, though it had a shadow and types, and not the very image of the realities, hinted obliquely at the immutability of the hope of the saints.

For he commanded that on the Sabbath no one should go out from his own tent, but rather should linger in it, and remaining inside should delight in what had already been provided; and this was a riddle of the fact that the saints will remain continually in the mansions above; for from there pain and grief and groaning have fled away. With good reason, then, those who are suspended by hope in Christ, and who expect to be in the mansions above, say that mercy will certainly follow them for a long-lasting time. But some understood as God's mercy Christ himself, who through his incarnation pursues until he overtakes all those who are to be saved. And simply, since it is not so much from works that we are justified as from the grace and mercy of God, for this reason those who have believed with good reason call upon the mercy of God, and flee for refuge to his compassions.

PSALM 23.

A psalm of David for the first day of the week. In the preceding psalm, those from the nations were introduced rejoicing and, as it were, priding themselves that they had been called by Christ through faith, and that they had become partakers of the gifts from him; but in the present psalm a person of holy mystagogues is introduced, or even of the Holy Spirit himself, announcing abroad that the region under heaven has been swept full through faith in Christ. But one must know that he foretells the Master's resurrection through "the first day of the week"; for thus the Gospels name the Lord's Day. And he prophesies also about the taking up, and indeed brings in teaching as well, how those who have believed may also become worthy of the heavenly tents. But let us see what the great and holy and admirable proclamation is.

He founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the rivers. The phrase "he prepared it upon the rivers" means "he adorned it"; for it was necessary that the earth, once it had come into being and was paradoxically suspended over the abysses, should become full of fresh waters from God, so as to be able to nourish the things in it. Spiritually, the apostles may be understood as rivers, who flood the whole world under heaven with intelligible streams and carry the word from heaven and from above to those on the earth. It is possible to allegorize the inhabited world as the Church, the seas as temptations, and the rivers as the sweet gifts of the Spirit, and to say that the Church, in which God dwells, he established in the faith especially amid temptations, and founded, and made ready to receive the Holy Spirit, from whom, as from a spring, rivers of various gifts flow. Innocent in hands and pure in heart. The Holy Spirit answers the question, that he who is about to ascend the intelligible mountain of the Lord must be blameless both in body and in spirit; innocent in hands, that is, free of blame in the practical life; for the hand is a sign of action. And undefiled in heart, having the inner and spiritual brightness of the mind in agreement with the practical life that is visible. For the word leads up to the mountain of God the one who is pure through all things, who has not defiled his soul to the end either in knowledge, or in thought, or in actions, by persisting in evils. Who is this king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. And in the present war and triumph concerning humanity.

From this we understand that the mystery according to Christ was not manifest to all the powers above, except to those who were taken up for the ministry of the matter, such as Gabriel and those who said at the birth, "Glory to God in the highest"; for they ministered also when the Only-begotten appeared in human form. But when the dispensation had been completed and he ascended to the Father in the heavens with the flesh united to him, the rational powers were struck with amazement at the strangeness of the matter, having never seen this sight. And when they heard the Spirit saying, "Lift up the gates, and the King of glory shall enter," they perhaps reasoned among themselves who this might be and of what sort—appearing as a man as far as pertains to the nature of the flesh, yet said to be the King of glory. What then does the Spirit say to them? "You are in doubt," it says, "and do you wish to learn who this is? Hear then, that this is the King of glory."

PSALM 24.

A psalm of David. It also introduces an exhortation profitable to all men; and the present psalm is especially suited to those called from the Gentiles, and has great continuity with the one before it. For in that one there was a calling of the Gentiles and a mystical instruction through the Holy Spirit, teaching to whom the city above would be accessible—namely, to those innocent in hands and pure in heart—and that Christ would make a way for human nature to walk upward, having gone up before us as a forerunner into the heavens. But in the present psalm, the person of those who have been called is introduced, that is, of all who have been gathered in faith into spiritual unity.

And he seeks to be directed by the God who called him toward the hunt of what is useful and necessary, and he promises sincerity. For hear what sort of things they say, after turning back from error, all having become one chorus: "Make known to me your ways, O Lord, and [teach me] your paths." "This is the change of the right hand of the Most High." For those who formerly ran the ways of the devil, now carefully examining the ways of the Lord—that is, the gospel decrees and the manners of conduct befitting holiness; for these are the paths of the Lord. And the law has a shadow and form of the truth, but the Gospel is the truth itself, into which they exhort us to be led by God. And Christ is the truth, and the Father brings to him those who seek him through faith. For thus he says somewhere to the Jews: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." And perhaps also the pedagogy of the law is called the way and path of the Lord, leading to the truth—that is, to Christ; for Moses wrote of him. Make known to me, then, the shadows in the law, which image the truth. And David also exhorts us to learn the ways of God—that is, the economies and administrations by which he guides all things—and he prays to be led into the truth itself, so that falsehood might not escape notice and be preferred instead of it. Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorances. For they heard, those of the

of the nations who were called, since the Lord says: "Speak your lawless deeds first, that you may be justified"; and for this reason they come forward confessing that they have sins of youth, whether bodily or intellectual, that is, of folly; for every sin is from folly; and even if someone sins while being old, this very thing he does is youthful and most foolish, because he sins; therefore such a person is called young, as is that prodigal in the Gospels; for he too is named the younger son. Remember, then, they say, O Master, the things we sinned in the time of idolatry, which was manifest folly. And since we are liable to punishment and justice because of our many trespasses, deem us worthy of remembrance with you; not because of our works—for by these we would justly be punished—but because of your goodness alone and what is fitting for you, that you have mercy on those who fall, and on those who seek the loving-kindness that comes from you. For you said: "I do not do it for your sake, but for my name's sake." Observe that we are caught transgressing, either because we do not know the divine law, or because we have been constrained involuntarily toward things that do not seem good to God. For this reason David also cried out to us: "Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorances." But Job, since God is good and has not been ignorant of the weakness of our nature, all but accuses him, as he is about to and shrinks from remitting his sins; and so he says: "Why have you not made forgetfulness of my lawlessness, and a cleansing of my sin?" All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.

Those who believe are also able to understand the hidden things, according to the saying, "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory." But concerning those who do not believe it has been said: "If you do not believe, you will certainly not understand"; thus the Jews remained untaught. At any rate, the most holy Paul says that a veil lies upon their heart whenever Moses is read. Therefore those called from the nations through faith, as having already been made wise through the illumination of the Spirit, and understanding the gospel oracles, say that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth—not, according to the law of Moses, severity and shadow. For there was no mercy for those who transgressed the commandments of Moses; for they died without compassion on two or three witnesses. Nor indeed were the things of the law truth; for the law was a shadow and a type. Therefore those from the nations, setting the things through Christ over against the law, as it were, say that his ways are mercy and truth. For how is it not mercy, if the commandments of Christ call to the forgiveness of sins, and have redemption for those tyrannized by sin and by Satan? And those who have believed in Christ serve in truth, not bringing sacrifices according to the law through blood and smoke, but rather accomplishing the spiritual and God-pleasing way of life, and offering the fragrance that comes from good works.

But to whom would the ways of the Lord become mercy and truth? They make it clear, saying, that it is to those who seek his covenant and his testimonies—that is, to those who hold fast to him and have chosen to love him by keeping his commandments—and certainly not to the disobedient who shake off the commandments given by Christ; nor yet to those who have suffered such a thing as the Galatians did in regard to the shadows of the law, going back again after the faith. To whom Paul writes: "If you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." And again: "You have been alienated from Christ; you who are justified in the law have fallen from grace—such people." For such as these, the ways of the Lord would not be mercy and truth, nor would any profit come from this. Because I endured you, O Lord. (38) In place of, I expected that you would be a helper to me, evidently. For the divine Scripture accepts the expression in this way.

PSALM 25.

Judge me, O Lord, because I have walked in my innocence. Now the person introduced here seeks to be judged, but not on account of transgressions. For it is not likely that a man, subject as he is to the great weakness of transgression and not entirely free from slips, would say with confidence, "Judge me, O Lord." He does not, then, ask to be judged on account of his transgressions, but solely on the ground that he has in no way consented with the Jews who acted impiously against Christ. For since he is testified to by a good conscience, that he both holds his mind genuine and is wholly removed from the crookedness of the Jews, he says: Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in innocence.

By "guilelessness" he means not sharing in the depravity and the folly of the Jews. For those who believe in Christ must not be wicked questioners, such as those who said concerning Christ: "From where does this one have the signs and this wisdom?" and "How does this one know letters, not having learned?" or again, "Why do you, being a man, make yourself God?" But this one, having received the word concerning him in simple faith, says, "I have walked in guilelessness." For so it is also written: "Think true things concerning the Lord, and seek him in simplicity of heart." For he makes himself manifest to such as these, as to the man blind from birth. Therefore to believe in him in guilelessness and simplicity of heart would be the cause of every good. Hoping in the Lord, I shall not be weakened. I shall not hesitate, I shall not walk about; but I shall have my petition firm, having inscribed my hopes upon you; for I have you who strengthen me. He who has his hopes in himself or in some other will be weakened; but he who hopes in the Lord would not be shaken at all. If, he says, you examine the passions of my soul, in your mercy alone you will find me having all the toil of my mind; and doing this, I shall be well-pleasing before you, having loved your truth.

PSALM 26.

A Psalm of David before he was anointed. The psalm set before us will also apply to the person of the new people, perfected in Christ through faith. For here it is introduced spiritually, playing the man, and having fixed its hope in all good things upon Christ, and meditating above all on what is unbreakable in the face of labors, and exhorting that it be guided by the laws from Christ and carried to the straight road. The same psalm would reasonably apply also to the person of the inspired David, by whom it was also composed before he was anointed king. For having foreknown what was to come through the illumination of the Spirit, and knowing well that he would be appointed to reign over those of Israel, and that he would certainly fall into unexpected trials, wars and battles, and the waves arising from circumstances (for many are those who recklessly plot against such brilliant men, and he all but girds up his loins beforehand), and seeing future things as already present and at hand, and preparing his own heart for suffering, and making the help from God an unbreakable weapon, and expecting that he would certainly prevail over those fighting against him, he makes his prayer. For he hid me in his tent, in the day of my evils he covered me, etc. These verses must also be applied to those called through faith, and it must be said that whenever some heap afflictions and persecutions upon them, then God, as Moses says, like an eagle covers his nest, thus spreading his wings he receives them, and does not allow those who willingly do evil to prevail over them.

For I think this means the tabernacle and the hidden things of the tabernacle. And not only, he says, did he hide me and cover me, but he also set me high upon a rock. And we say that a rock here is either the unbreakable and uncrushed steadfastness of the mind for endurance, or Christ, on whom we all are supported; for he himself is the strength of all, the unshakable foundation. Since we have come to be in him, through faith and sanctification we are lifted on high. For nothing lowly is in Christ; rather, his oracles carry on high those who are devoted to him; and I mean on high in virtue, and that nothing in the saints is cast down to the ground, according to what is written, that the mighty ones of the earth, being of God, have been greatly exalted.

PSALM 27.

A Psalm of David. He sings the present psalm in the person of those who have believed in Christ, calling upon God through petition for help; and at the same time he makes a denunciation of the folly of the Jews, and departs from communion with them, and seeks to be joined in kinship to Christ, spiritually, clearly. To you, O Lord, have I cried out. And we say that the cry here is not a lofty or great voice (for praying in that way is unfitting for saints), but the intent and firmly grounded disposition of the mind, undistractedly toward God. For he somehow receives such voices of those who pray, whenever they lift up holy hands in the time of prayer. And lifting up hands in the time of supplication is unusual for Jews, but familiar to those in Christ; for through the stretching out of the hands they show the precious form of the saving cross; by the very deed confessing that they are consecrated to Christ, making their boast of his cross.

For just as we have become partakers of his sufferings, taking up our own cross and following him, as he himself says, we are molded into the shape of the cross. Except we do not pray in the corners of the streets in a Jewish manner, so as to be seen by men, but in the holy temple of God we lift up our hands in a restrained manner and bring our petitions; for "My house," says God through the prophet, "shall be called a house of prayer." {Of Saint Cyril, from the interpretation of the 27th Psalm.} Good is the way of the Lord, and it is the gospel proclamation that sanctifies not so much bodies as souls; and we say that this is also the path that conveys one in a straight course. For there is nothing crooked in it, but it is like a certain straight way, both royal and a well-trodden highway, having nothing rough or difficult, but rather upright and easy to travel for those who have chosen to live piously; but it is no longer so for those who are not such.

PSALM 29.

O Lord, in your will you have given power to my beauty. Beauty is understood in the aspect of the body. And its parts contribute greatly to the completion of the one beauty—for example, the eye, the eyebrow, the cheeks, and the rest. In the same way we also understand spiritual beauty; for it is one thing gathered from many virtues into a well-ordered condition. And we place faith in the rank of the eye; and spoken word in the rank of the mouth, and the rest analogously. Moreover, in order that beauty may come upon the soul and power capable of accomplishing what is fitting, we need divine grace for this.

As he said above, that life is in his will, so now he exalts God through thanksgiving, saying, "In your will you gave power to my beauty." I was beautiful, he says, by nature, but I became weak because by the plot of the serpent I was put to death by transgression. To my beauty, then, which I received from you from the first creation, you added power, the practical power of what is right. Every soul, then, is beautiful which is contemplated in the due proportion of its own powers; since the beauty of the body is also the due proportion of its members. And he who has perceived his own virtue sends up this voice of thanksgiving. We must therefore take thought for beauty, so that the bridegroom Word also, receiving us, may say: "You are all beautiful, my neighbor, and there is no blemish in you." Will dust confess you? Or will it declare your truth? For those who have once died will perhaps also cease from glorifying, and they would add nothing at all to what they have done, but rather remain in what they were overtaken in, and await the time of the universal judgment. Therefore the living, who still have authority to do good, when they have fared well, will bless you, as I also do. I pray, then, to be brought up out of the pit, since "dust will not confess you"; for it is proper to the living to hymn you; but those dissolved into dust, how could they be able to do this? And David would also say to God concerning himself: I wish to learn what profit there is either to me or to others from my blood, or what more will there be from my coming into corruption?

PSALM 30.

In you, O Lord, have I hoped; let me not be put to shame forever. The voice is that of one being tested, yet not as one who has already cowered, that is, been brought down to cowardice, but rather as one who suspects that he might somehow prove weaker than the pursuer. "In you," he says, "have I hoped"; for if you do not help, the covering is of no use for saving. Blessed, then, is the one who has removed himself from every hope in the things of this world and has God alone as his hope. For as cursed is the man who has his hope in man, so blessed is he who is established upon the Lord. For hope in God does not admit of double-mindedness; nor does the Lord accept to give his whole help to one who has sometimes hoped in wealth and human glory and worldly power, and sometimes puts himself forward as his own hope; but one must truly rest upon the help that comes from God, so as to say with David: "In you, O Lord, have I hoped; let me not be put to shame forever." I was put to shame, he says, having sinned, but I beseech that the shame not remain upon me for long, because of the confidence I have placed in you. Do not, then, look upon my sin, but upon the lawlessness of those who persecute me. For even though David was a king and flowed with wealth and exulted in victories over his enemies, he was convinced that none of these contributed to his security, but only hope in the Lord; therefore he besought that he might never fall from it. And he who has hoped to attain the end laid up for the saints knows that he will not be put to shame forever.

In your righteousness deliver me, and I shall be rescued. That is: in Christ deliver me from the captivity of the devil, and I shall be rescued from the punishment in Gehenna. For he has become righteousness for us; for there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved. For he said: "I am the way, the door; and apart from me you can do nothing good." And for the sake of your name, you will guide me and nourish me. These words also follow the contemplation of what precedes them. For having named the God of all things his stronghold and refuge, he makes it clear by adding that for the sake of his name, that is, of his glory, he guides and nourishes those who have become his own out of a sincere mind and steadfast love, and who have chosen to think and do what seems good to him. And very well indeed is it said, "You will guide me," he says, "and nourish me"; for virtue is not accomplished otherwise than through two things—I mean knowledge and spiritual strength. But he moderates his words, not through...

...deeming himself worthy to obtain, but because of the divine name. Into your hands I shall commit my spirit. And in mind, they who lay in wait for his soul seized him in sin; for many are the snares of life, even to the last breath. As one therefore warred against in soul—for the saints have little concern for the body—and fearing to be wounded by the deceivers, he commits his spirit to God, calling his providential powers "hands." And the Savior too, nailed to the cross, used this present saying. Now Scripture sometimes calls the mind "spirit," as when the Apostle says concerning the virgin, "that she may be holy in spirit and body"; sometimes the soul, as in James, "as the body without the spirit is dead"; and sometimes the conscience joined with the soul, as in, "Who knows the things of a man, except the spirit that is in him?" And the present passage will be understood in these three ways. But David, having been captured by his enemies, says he has been ransomed by God, and as one not disappointed in his hopes, he fittingly calls God "truth." You have set my feet in a broad place. If, then, the broad place is the same as the wide road, which is the love of pleasure, the righteous man gives thanks because, being in the earthly region, in which on account of the evils that lurk there life is precarious, he obtained a standing, so as not to be carried about here and there by the passions. But if he calls the broad place praiseworthy, he acknowledges grace, that though pressed he is not straitened, being enlarged and enduring in his labors. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am afflicted.

The meaning of the present verse seems somehow not to accord very well with the preceding lines. For someone might say: he who says that he has set his feet in a broad place, how does he here say that he is afflicted, as though he had been brought into forgetfulness of what he said? What then shall we say? He is indeed aware of the grace that is through Christ, and he has marveled at the manner of the assistance; but, as it were, not yet having obtained it, he goes over the accounts again, and recalls the evils that came before the grace, so that the one who saved him may be marveled at all the more. And what the affliction is, he sets forth more fully. I have become a reproach beyond all my enemies, etc. And if it is taken as referring to the one who makes confession in the psalm, he presents the greatness of his affliction both in the words before these and in the present ones. For I have become, he says, a reproach among enemies, as though I were cutting myself down to no purpose, and a fear to acquaintances and neighbors, who dreaded, I suppose, lest I somehow also perish because of the misery seen in my confession toward God, and the excess of the repentance I was displaying—worn down with sackcloth and ashes, weeping night and day, and wasting away under such grievous labors. And those who observed me have fled away from me, having given up hope of my salvation as though I were already dead—perhaps saying that I am mad, and do not at all desire to live. So that they even consigned my affairs to forgetfulness, and supposed that I am a useless and ruined vessel. For when they fled, I have been brought into forgetfulness, just as indeed a dead man is. And I seemed also to have been cast aside like the most dishonored of vessels and those worth nothing, and for this reason not sought after.

I was forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. "Out of mind," that is, out of the understanding and the memory. For I heard the reproach of many who dwell round about. Perhaps the phrase "I heard the reproach" is the cause of what was said above; as if he were saying: Not in vain did I afflict myself, but because the unseen enemies, when I had fallen into sin, were arraying themselves against one another, so as to tear my soul apart; therefore, by my great affliction, I called God to mercy. In your hands are my lots. Either the lots that are with God, concerning which the divine David speaks. The good things promised in hope to the pious are with him; which he will also repay to them in due time. Make your face shine upon your servant. God deems worthy of his oversight the gentle and tractable man, the one restrained by divine fear; but he turns away from the unruly and contentious man, who counts as nothing what seems right to himself. And it is doubtful to none of those who think rightly that they will be superior to every trial and to the plot of those who war against them, whoever may have his help. For just as, when the sun has risen, the darkness is dissolved, but when it has gone beneath the earth, night succeeds, in which wild beasts come forth from their own lairs, and men who are workers of villainy; so, when God turns away from someone, the enemies of the soul rise up against him. But when the light of his divinity has shone forth—which the Scripture calls the face of God—all who do the things worthy of darkness are turned back; which the prophet also deems worthy to obtain, not through his own deeds, but through the mercy of God. For this, he says, is the only way of salvation for me: if you should make your face shine.

O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I have called upon you. It belongs to the godless, not to me, to be ashamed. And the impious would justly suffer this—that is, those who do not know you, nor confess your divinity and preeminence, but rather ascribe lordship to the demons, and have assigned the rule over all things to Satan, and dedicate their own portions to them. Theirs too would be to walk into Hades and to be cast down to Tartarus with those confined there, whom they even inscribed as their own gods. How great is the abundance of your goodness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you; you have wrought it for those who hope in you before the sons of men. Now the word "you have hidden" seems somehow obscure in relation to "you have wrought"; for if he hid the abundance of his goodness, how did he again work it before the sons of men? Therefore "he hid" must be understood in place of "set aside," that is, "treasured up": he made his goodness the possession of his own and of them alone—except that it was before the sons of men, that is, with no one ignorant of it. For who does not know that the Creator of all things is good—not simply toward all, but rather toward those who keep the divine fear in their own souls? For to these he hid, that is, set aside, the abundance of his goodness as a kind of personal portion; and the matter was not for them in hopes alone, but he also wrought it very many times, that is, it became manifest through actual deeds.

Such darkness once fell upon the Egyptians, deep and lasting three days, but the goodness of the one who saves those devoted to him kept Israel untouched by the darkness. The firstborn of the Egyptians perished in a single night, yet among the sons of Israel not even a dog barked, but they were entirely outside the plague, since God held back the destroyer. Do you see how, in the sight of the sons of men—that is, openly and plainly—he brought about the abundance of his own goodness toward those who hope in him? Which he also, as it were, hid, since not all were permitted to share in it; for it has been kept, as I said, only for those who fear him. And hope in God is not without reward, but rather it is the pledge of salvation from him, and it produces great benefit for those who have it. You hide, then, he says, your goodness—that is, you keep it for those who fear you; since you also brought it about for this end, to provide it to those who hope in you; and you will provide it openly, so that all may see it given to the worthy in the time of recompense. In another way, the abundance of God's goodness has its benefit hidden, and thus now it is seen far and clear, but it awaits the ages to come, so as to be revealed in them. Blessed is the Lord, for he has made his mercy wonderful in a city of refuge. He turned his petition to God into a good end, blessing God for the benefits he had received.

For through me, he says, God was glorified, because when countless wars rose up against me and tried to besiege my soul like a great city, my guardian threw a wall around me, and you showed your mercy to be wonderful, saving me as though a city surrounded by a strong wall. Rather, he calls the Son himself a city of protection, the one who hides the saints and, as it were, shelters them as in a tent, and places them outside both the turmoil of men and the contradiction of tongues. Or perhaps he calls his Church, the city of the saints, unstormed by Satan, utterly impregnable, the great and secure and invincible wall. "For the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Except that mercy is not given outside the holy city, but rather to those who are in it; for he says it has been made wonderful in it. There was a city of protection, that is, a walled city, the passionless soul of David; but the enemies, having torn down the wall of impassibility along with Bathsheba, entered in to David. Therefore also in the fiftieth psalm he entreats the Lord that the walls of Jerusalem be built.

PSALM 31.

A psalm of David, of understanding. Blessed are those whose iniquities have been forgiven. David, setting before himself the great hardship which he endured in his repentance, pronounces blessed those who have obtained forgiveness without toil through the bath of regeneration. The psalm is inscribed "of understanding" because human beings especially need this; for since they have grown exceedingly slack toward the passions, they have been likened to horses and mules. Or else he exhorts them to understanding, since the psalm contains many hidden things, and the reader has need of understanding. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. This is a third order of those who sin, in which the deed is not praiseworthy, but the intention is blameless. The first verse, then, would fit those who have been shown mercy through holy baptism; for their iniquities have been forgiven. The second fits those who wish to repent; for their sins are covered over through repentance, the loving-kind God burying them as it were under acts of forgetfulness, so that he no longer wishes even to look at them. For to those who sin after forgiveness he grants no longer a second forgiveness, but a covering over of sins. For through subsequent good deeds he has allowed former sins to be covered. The third fits those who have stumbled, yet not from a willfully evil and wicked intention. You are my refuge from the affliction that surrounds me. It is a great thing not to be wise in oneself, but rather to know the one who is able to deliver, when thoughts rush upon us and afflictions fall upon us like a thunderbolt because of piety and throw us into confusion. My exultation, deliver me from those who have encircled me.

He says these things as from the person of those who have thirsted for the salvation that comes through Christ, through whom we have driven off the despondency that came from the ancient curse; and we have been clothed, as it were, with gladness and joy, having been set free from death and sin—and what good thing from above have we not richly received? But around the saints circle not only impious and sinful men, but also the very bands of the demons who love evildoing. I will instruct you and teach you in this way of mine in which you shall walk. To him who has prayed for deliverance from enemies, God responds, promising to guide him in a straight way: For I will instruct you, he says, and I will show you the way which you shall travel, leading to the thrice-blessed end, and I will be altogether watching over your affairs, so that, being enlightened by the illuminating rays, you may have the ability to see the way that has been promised to you. With bit and bridle you shall hold fast their jaws. He turns his discourse, as it were, toward God. What he means is this: those who are unwilling to repent, restrain them toward himself, as it were, with the bridle of discipline, and having laid aside their skittishness and wantonness, and their disobedience and stiff-neckedness, subject them to your yoke; and do not allow them, having bitten down on the bridle, to rush upon the precipice or the pit; but turning their neck about with your hand, lead them to the way that saves

Direct. For if one should abstain from evil, and, running up to understanding, should put away the mindset befitting a human being—no, rather the brutish disposition—and should become a wise and sensible man, then indeed he will make God, who gave him understanding, his hope and refuge; then he too will be encircled with mercy and compassions, and will come under the hand of God, who knows how to save and is able. Rejoice in the Lord, and exult, you righteous. How exceedingly wise is the conclusion of the song! For it turns us away from exulting over any of the worldly things, and exhorts us rather to rejoice in God. And these things would be, clearly, distributions of spiritual gifts and the hope of rewards. Yet to rejoice in God would not befit all, but would suit rather the lovers of righteousness. It belongs to these to exult in God alone and to boast in him, according to the divine Apostle, who enjoins, "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."

PSALM 32.

A psalm of David, without superscription among the Hebrews. And indeed we say that the psalm at hand is sung as from the person of the blessed David, or rather to the honor and glory of Christ, who was also named David because of his birth according to the flesh; for he sprang from the blood of Jesse and David. And the force of the present song contains first a certain summons and exhortation; for it is necessary for the saints to glorify and to kindle songs of thanksgiving to God, who saved what is under heaven, and who summed up all things in Christ, both the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, who delivered us all from the tyranny and perversity of the devil.

Then to this a mystical teaching is brought in directly, through which we learn that Christ has an invincible hand and an all-powerful nod, and indeed also dominion over all things, and glory befitting God, and preeminence beyond the world. For he declares him to be the Creator of all things: "For by the Word of the Lord," he says, "the heavens were established." And besides this he teaches that he is all-observant, and sends forth an all-seeing eye upon those on the earth, and surveys the paths of each one. And he adds, as something useful and necessary to the mystical teaching set before us, the conclusion; for he demonstrates that the hope placed in human beings is rotten and easily broken, and that no one of those on the earth would suffice to be able to save himself, unless God should come to his aid. And he disposes those who love him to be so affected as to think the things that are his, and to hasten to follow his nods, and to trust in him, and to know firmly that he places them outside every trial, and effortlessly preserves those who trust in him. He begins, then, the song and says: Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord. Having then come to be in the Lord himself, and gazing upon his wonders as far as we are able, let us thus gather gladness into our hearts from the contemplation. And, to speak concisely, this is what it means for the righteous to rejoice in the Lord: to choose to think only the things that are pleasing and dear to him, and to strive after the best pursuits, but to turn away from worldly desires and from the turmoil in this life. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; with a ten-stringed harp sing to him.

In other psalms it is written, in one place, "I will sacrifice to you willingly," and in another place again, "Of my own will I will give thanks to him," through which he signifies that prayers must not be made unwillingly, nor as it were in dejection and sluggishness, but from a good mind and from a cheerful disposition. This, we say, is hinted at here as well, the discourse having introduced by way of example those accustomed to use the cithara and the psaltery. For the Spirit does not command the striking of a melody through strings, nor indeed does he order those who attend to the intelligible uprightness to take up worldly playthings, but he commands that doxologies be made with a joy befitting holiness. It is likely that the Psalmist, following ancient customs, here makes mention of the instruments. For it is a custom among the Jews sometimes to strike the lyre, and to use cymbals and nabla and certain other such things, and to sing hymns in the temple that is among them. Observe how he does not command the saints, that is, the upright, to sacrifice oxen, nor indeed to use smoke and frankincense, but rather to sing hymns and to offer bloodless sacrifices, which is the symbol of the citizenship in Christ. For having rejected the sacrifices made through blood, by saying concerning Israel, "I will not accept calves from your house, nor goats from your flocks," he urges them to songs and melodies, saying, "Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise." Sing to the Lord a new song; sing well to him with a shout.

From this one may see that the Spirit, speaking now through the Psalmist, is not addressing those who perform the service of the Law, but those who are lovers of the citizenship in Christ and have been enriched by him with justification in faith. These would be the ones of whom he spoke at the beginning of the preceding psalm: "Blessed are those whose iniquities have been forgiven." For to whom did he forgive their sins, if not to those who have been reformed unto newness of life through sanctification in the Spirit, who have also washed away every defilement through holy baptism? To these he commands to sing, and not simply so, but in a manner perhaps unusual to those before us. For he says that the song must be new, which clearly shows that the law through Moses has come to an end. And to sing well, that is, intelligently, as in a shout of triumph. And the shout of triumph, we say, is a victory cry raised by an army over fallen enemies. [Because the word of the Lord is straight. Since, he says, the word of the Lord is straight, and his works are in faith, rejoice in the Lord. And in calling the word of the Lord straight, he seems to me to have in mind the gospel ordinances, as having nothing crooked, or enigmatic, or wholly hard to discern, and cloaked in the obscurity of the letter, as was also the law through Moses. For through a long circuit and a difficult period we understand the things of Moses dimly and with difficulty. But "the word of the Lord," that is, the gospel teaching, is straight and easy to survey and able to direct one toward every form of virtue.] Placing the deeps in treasuries. Thus he says somewhere concerning the sea:

I set boundaries for it, placing bars and gates, and I said to it: 'You shall come this far, and you shall not go beyond, but your waves shall be broken within you.'" And he said somewhere also to certain of the ancients through one of the holy prophets: "Will you not fear me, says the Lord, or will you not be reverent before my face, I who appointed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an eternal decree, and it shall not go beyond it?" For that the earth, being submerged, was uncovered by a divine nod in the beginning, Moses made clear, speaking as from the person of God: "Let the water be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear." Therefore the divine power, containing the whole abyss which is able to submerge the earth, holds it back like a wineskin; and as it were pulling it back by the rein, it does not permit it to overstep the places allotted to it. Let all the earth fear the Lord. That not in vain, but rather profitably, and indeed for the benefit and necessity of all for salvation, he has made these words to us concerning the divine glory and the supremacy in all things, the force of what lies before us will make clear. For he counsels all that is under heaven no longer to bring reverence to the demons, but to be adorned with divine fear, and to establish in the mind the thought concerning the ruler of all, who by his word brought all things into existence, and strengthened the heavens, and holds together what has come to be for their well-being and subsistence, through the working of the Holy Spirit. For this reason he has made these words concerning the divine glory, the

...David, so that learning the magnitude of the excellence that is in the divine and ineffable nature, we may thrust away as a destructive thing slothfulness in doing good; and casting the fear of God into our own hearts, let us hold fast to every good thing, and thus ascend to familiarity with him. For that the divine fear is saving to those who love him, the sacred Scripture will teach: "For the fear of the Lord," it says, "shall delight the heart, and shall give gladness and joy and length of days. From him let all who dwell in the inhabited world be shaken." Hearing him, it says, the men who dwell in the inhabited world, let them be shaken from their former faction which they had—namely, idolatry—obeying their own Creator. For to be shaken here signifies not some bodily motion or such a jolt, but rather that custom which both the God-inspired Scripture and we ourselves have of saying, concerning things that are conspicuously done, that it was shaken. For example, when, riding on the foal while youths were hymning him, he went up to Jerusalem, then the evangelist, interpreting the conspicuousness of the entry, wrote that when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken—instead of: it knew, and it escaped no one, and it was marveled at by all. Thus here too you will understand that all who dwell in the inhabited world were shaken, being as it were struck with amazement and marveling, so that no one was wholly ignorant of the glory of God, and the surpassing dignity of the power and excellence that is in him. For he spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created.

He was and is himself, but we were created through his living and subsistent Word, who is both his wisdom and his power. Do not think of "he commanded" in a human way, but rather consider that even the experts in the manual arts, whenever they wish to fashion something from the things known to them, all but command their own knowledge and skill by the very fact of willing to work something; and the inclination of the mind toward works has the force of a command and of a self-moved impulse. But in the case of humans, their wisdom and their power are themselves without subsistence in their own right; in the case of God, no longer so. For the Word subsists, through whom he works all things, I mean through the power and wisdom that is in him. Observe that to these two things that go before, "Let all the earth fear," and "Let all the inhabitants of the world be shaken," he has added two: "He spoke and they came to be," and "He commanded and they were created." For since man is composite, from the earthly formation and from the soul that dwells in the body, the thing formed from the earth is called earth; and the one dwelling in the world is the soul that has received its lot to live in a body. Fittingly, then, to the earth, that is, to our formation from the earth, "they came to be" has been assigned; but to the soul created in the image of God, "they were created.

Since "creation" is often taken in the sense of transformation and improvement, as in "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation," and "that he might create the two in one new man," perhaps "was made" is said of the first bringing-into-being of man, while "was created" is said of the second rebirth through the grace of Christ. For as much as the command of God differs from a mere word, so much does creation differ from generation. But the counsel of the Lord endures forever. Here, then, he leaps up to the thought of the economy of the Only-Begotten with the flesh, and observes what has been accomplished through it. For he who was supposed to be the god of this age, and the nations of the demons, devised bitter things against us; for the snare of death was everywhere abundant, and the nooses of sin were cast far and wide. "For in this way," he says, "in which I walked they hid a trap for me"; and there was no escaping the practices of their perversity. For men used to worship both the unclean spirits themselves and, indeed, wood and stones,

and to the elements of the world; and there was no one among them who did good, there was not even one, while all were oppressed by such terrible weaknesses, and no one was strong enough to loose the neck from their greed; for they themselves wished to rule over us. But he scattered the counsels of their rulers; for he rescued and saved us, he ransomed us when we were captives, and having delivered us from tyrannical snares, he bound us to his own yokes. For he summed up all things in Christ, and drove away Satan from his rule over all. And we shall not be in these things only for a certain time, that is, for measured times, but his grace extends into ages long and endless. "For what the holy God has purposed," it says, "who shall scatter?" Therefore "the counsel of the Lord endures forever, and the thoughts of his heart to generation and generation." For we shall not again be under another, but he alone, Christ, shall rule over us; for he shall reign forever; and, as the Psalmist says, "He himself shall shepherd us forever." Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Blessed is the people that no longer knows or names any of the falsely named gods, but has inscribed as its own the Lord and God who is by nature and truly so, and has yoked its own soul to him; and has been so chosen as to become the lot and portion of God. From heaven the Lord looked down.

This, I think, is what was also said elsewhere by one of the holy prophets, as addressed to us who are called in Christ to justification: "and let the dawn from on high visit us." And again I hear the inspired David singing and saying to the Father and God in the heavens: Visit us in your salvation. And the salvation of God the Father has been named, and truly is, the Son. But God the Father sent us from heaven, as it were a light and a lamp, his righteousness and his salvation—that is, the Son; for we have been justified in him, and we have beheld the divine and intelligible light. Therefore the incarnation of the Word may reasonably be understood to be the visitation of God the Father, that is, the looking-down that is spoken of here. [Observe that the looking-down from the heavens must come, he says, not upon Israel alone, as in former times when the all-wise Moses mediated, but upon all the sons of men who dwell in the inhabited world. For the multitude of the nations has been called to salvation through Christ, the Savior of us all, which multitude is throughout all the earth; for the grace that comes through Christ, the Savior of us all, has spread most universally, over every nation and race of men.] From his ready dwelling-place he looked down upon all who dwell on the earth. And Scripture is accustomed to call heaven the ready dwelling-place, or else the holy angels who dwell in heaven.

Therefore, as I judge, the powers above are not purified by labor, as we are, but are rather holy, so that God even rests upon them. For we too have become a dwelling place of God; at any rate, we are called his temples, except that we do not come to this readily, but only by being justified by the grace and gift of God—that is, by cleansing our own mind with labor and sweat—so that, having become holy, we may have within us him who is all-pure and truly holy. Observe, moreover, that he says the visitation from heaven came not upon Israel alone, as also of old when the all-wise Moses mediated, but upon all the sons of men who dwell in the inhabited world. For the multitude of the nations throughout all the earth has been called to salvation through Christ our Savior, who is Savior of us all. For the grace that comes through Christ, the Savior of us all, is most universal and has extended to every nation and race of men. He who formed their hearts individually, who understands all their works. Therefore the Son is truly God, who knows our hearts, who formed them individually, and who understands all the works of those upon the earth, while there testifies

of someone, that is, announcing, but as an overseer of thoughts, and one who looks into hearts, and knows the things hidden within. For the light is with him, as it is written, or rather he himself is the light. [A king is not saved by much power. "A king is not saved," he says, "by much power," that is, by the multitude of hands of the guards under him. But not even if someone were a mighty giant, clearly one who has also thought greatly of his abundant strength and bodily vigor, not even such a one would be saved, and he will not be stronger than the hand of those who fight against him, unless God grants the victory.] A horse is false for salvation. And a horse will be false for salvation, that is, a cavalry formation. For sometimes the one who has trusted in it falls short of his hope, and expecting to go forth, has fallen under the hand of enemies. For in the multitude of his power someone will be saved; the king will not be saved, that is, the cavalry formation, as I said. For you will aptly apply whichever of the things named you choose to the force of the verse. God, then, is the Lord of the powers, and from him comes the victory; and he rescues and easily saves those who have trusted in him; to whom also through one of the holy prophets he says somewhere thus: "And he who touches you shall be as he who touches the pupil of his eye." Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him. He shows that God cares for those who have enriched themselves with kinship toward him, clearly spiritual kinship; and indeed that, granting them oversight born of love, he places them beyond every evil. For "behold," he says, this:

Behold, by saying this he all but demonstrates that the matter is true and has been known through actual experience: "The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him." Then what is this that is equivalent to prosperity? Or how could they not be filled with every delight, those who have the privilege of being watched over by God? And indeed those who are attached by love toward him necessarily fear not obtaining this; and they have taken courage not in themselves rather, but in God who shows mercy, placing their hope in his mercy. To rescue their souls from death. For he watches over them, he says, so as also to rescue their souls from death—and not altogether a fleshly death, but rather an intelligible one. And we say that the death of the soul is to be caught in the snares of the devil and to fall into the mire of sin; and in addition to these things, to be weak in temptations and to falter in trials. The aim, then, of God who watches over the saints is both to rescue from death the souls of those who fear him and to nourish them in famine. And to nourish them in famine. For he fills them intelligibly and holily, giving them the bread from heaven, that is, the truly life-giving and saving teaching, and the consolation through the Holy Spirit, through which we are strengthened for every good thing. For the Lord will not starve a righteous soul. He said, then, having spread for us the spiritual table: "Eat, and drink, and be drunk, you who are near." But my soul waits for the Lord.

We say that to wait upon the Lord is nothing other than to choose to endure hardship for the sake of love for him, and to engage in profitable labors, so that they may accomplish what seems good to him. For you have need of endurance, he says, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive the promise. For he is our helper and protector. Is it then by their own bare and unaided powers, trusting in them, that they say such things and think greatly of themselves? By no means; rather, they know that God fights alongside them, and that they have him as a companion standing by, strengthening and saving them. Therefore they also add: "For he is our helper and protector." Consequently, they say, we shall endure for this reason, and through all endurance we shall present ourselves as most approved, and we shall bind on the crown of genuineness, since we have him as our ally and defender. May your mercy, O Lord, be upon us. Let your mercy follow, that is, let it be present to those who hope in you. And let this be a sign of genuineness, and indeed a very clear one. For as those who have been made near to him, and who rejoice in him alone, and who have their hopes in him, they seek to be shown mercy.

PSALM 33.

Of David, when he changed his face before Abimelech, and he sent him away, and he departed. Nothing of the customary headings has been inscribed on the present [psalm]; for he named them neither an Ode nor a Psalm. It seems, then, to hold the character of a thanksgiving, rendered to God, as it were from the person of the divine David, though it is not without benefit also for others, whoever might be rescued by God from temptations and might have driven back by God the plots of those who persecute them, plots that are exceedingly unbearable. But when he changed his face, and who Abimelech is, or how he sent him away, it is necessary to say, weaving the narrative from the sacred Scriptures. The thrice-blessed David, then, was being persecuted at times by Saul; but since he was not yet able to resist, because all the fighting force of Israel was for a time following that man's commands, he resolved to flee to Achish king of Gath, that is, of the foreigners, having used Jonathan as counselor. Then, continuing on his journey, he encountered the priest Abimelech in the city of Nob; and he concealed his flight, but said he had been sent by the king, so as even to ask for the sword of Goliath. And he did not confess that he himself was David, who had been anointed as king through the hand of the divine prophet Samuel, but as one of the common sort he sought bread from him; and he said that there were no others with him except only the loaves of the presentation according to the law of Moses.

But when blessed David asked them too, and the priest was saying, "Perhaps the young men are in defilement?" he said that all those with him had abstained from a woman for these three days, keeping to the journey. So taking the loaves, he ate. Since, then, he said one thing but thought another, they say that he changed his face. Then, having come to Geth and fearing the plots of his enemies, he feigned madness, when, as it is written, he also let spittle run down his beard, and he was carried about walking, having gone out of his mind and raving like a Corybant. And in this way he obtained safety. The heading makes mention of this history. But it must be known that our Lord Jesus Christ also said to some of the Pharisees who were accusing the disciples, because by rubbing the ears of grain they were eating on the Sabbath: "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those with him? How he entered into the house of God, and ate the loaves of the setting forth, which it was not lawful for him to eat, but only for the priests?" Having been saved, then, the wondrous David, and having escaped every war, brings back the thanksgiving, and says: In the Lord my soul shall be praised. No one of those living according to the flesh, but if anyone is of the spiritual and is an approved lover of the wondrous life, he will say: "In the Lord my soul shall be praised." For those who have a psychic and earthly mindset "have their glory in their shame." For the work is not of the one who wills, but the grace is of the one who directs. Let the meek hear and be glad.

Let the meek rejoice in the soul-profiting words, and indeed let them take joy in them. For those wise in heart are lovers of wise words, and they receive propositions about good things without any defilement. Magnify the Lord with me. But since one mind, and the meditation of one man, is not sufficient even for a short time for the comprehension of the great things of God, he takes all the meek together into the fellowship of this activity. Draw near to him, and be enlightened. Those who wish to say something about the divine and most high nature think or say nothing of the things that are cast down, that is, things befitting human beings or otherwise resembling them, concerning the created and made nature, but rather as many things as are lifted on high and are present in no other thing. God is sought not in a local way, since the Divine is not in a place, but is outside all circumscription, filling all things, and is plainly found according to disposition and according to the manner of worship; for he is found through practical virtue and doctrinal correctness, according to doing judgment and righteousness. Until someone is in the ways and mire of baseness, having stepped into fleshly desires, he does not yet draw near to God; for he departs from him. But whenever he becomes a worshipper of God, and thirsts for the good, and makes his mind knowledgeable of every virtue, then he draws near to God. To those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death he exhorts them to draw near to the Lord and to come close to the rays of his divinity, so that, illuminated by their approach, by the grace of his enlightenments they may come to themselves. The Lord heard him.

If anyone is modest-minded, God enlarges his ear for him; and He grants his petitions very readily, so as to rescue him from all his afflictions. The angel of the Lord will encamp, etc. To the saints when they are tempted He stations angels, sharpening them for courage and able to drive off the assaults of those who take advantage; for the mind of man alone would not have withstood such an assault of enemies. [Taste and see that the Lord is good. Just as the tastes of foods clearly present the quality inherent in them, together with its pleasant sweetness, so also the bare promises of the divine gifts do not so much interpret their power; but if it should somehow come about that certain people also come to experience, then indeed they will know better, and very clearly, the working of the grace inherent in them. Therefore to those still untasted of God's calmness one must very well proclaim: "Taste and see that the Lord is good."] Blessed is the man who hopes in him. What then is that which surpasses toward gentleness and love of mankind of the one who wholly reaches out to those who love him? For the one who has placed his hope in him would be altogether and in every way thrice-blessed. "For it is good to hope in the Lord, he says, than to hope in rulers, in whom there is no salvation." Weak and easily broken is hope in man; but safe and abiding altogether and in every way is hope in the God of all things. Fear the Lord, all you his saints. To those already holy and good in mind, and who know the God of all things, he fittingly proclaims, "Fear the Lord, all you his saints." But perhaps someone will say that:

Then how, tell me, does he address to those already sanctified the words "Fear the Lord"? For is it altogether possible for certain people to be holy who have not yet possessed the divine fear within themselves? Then how is this not ignorant? For they first feared, and then in this way became holy. And the order of things necessarily supports this account. What then do we say? He has set "Fear" in these words in place of "Marvel," that is, "be struck with amazement." Just as, to be sure, the prophet Habakkuk, marveling at the economies of our Savior, says, "Lord, I have heard your report, and I feared; I considered your works, and I was astonished." The rich have become poor and have hungered. Human affairs sometimes fall away and undergo unexpected changes, so that the man who was rich yesterday falls into the utmost poverty, and the one living in luxury is left lacking plain bread. For nothing among human things is secure or stable. "Those who seek God," that is, those who love Him and strive to follow in His footsteps, and wish to accomplish the things in which He Himself delights (clearly, every manner of virtue), would never lack the necessities for life. For the things that come from God, and gifts from above, will follow them, since they have chosen to do good.

A rich pasture, and participation in earthly things—not leading away to worldly luxuries, but rather apportioning to the body's needs what is sufficient for life. Come, children, listen to me. He sets before us the teaching of the nations, of which he says the first thing is the fear of God; the second, not to speak evil of one's brothers; the third, to keep the lips from all deceit; the fourth, abstinence from every evil and the practice of good; and upon all these, to hold fast to peace—and peace is Christ. The practice of these things, he says, is life and good days. Who is the man who desires life? "Who then," he says, "is the man?"—that is, one who is rational and understanding, who indeed also wishes to gain for himself life into endless ages, and to obtain unending and long prosperity. Let him come and hear my words, let him keep the law simply, let him make the saving teaching his dwelling. For for those who love the life according to the law there has been prepared what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man. Let the one being taught be only a doer of works. For he who has learned and then does none of the best things resembles worthless and barren land, which receives seeds from the farmers but brings forth nothing at all. But he who is a hearer of words and a doer of works might reasonably be compared to land that is fruitful and most productive. Who is the heavenly and understanding man, who desires life—not this common life which even irrational animals live, but the true life, the one not cut off by death? And the true life is Christ; therefore our conduct in him is also true life. Restrain your tongue from evil.

To put a door upon the tongue, then, and not to allow the words that come from us to go forth indecently, is a right achievement and good fruit of a wise and holy soul. But one must renounce—and before all else—blasphemy and false oaths, whisperings, slanders, revilings, foul speech, idle tales, and buffoonery; and rather to bless, and not to curse, and almost to attune the tongue to hymns to God, to speak truth to one's neighbor, and to restrain the lips from speaking guile. And guile is falsehood, and deceit, and sycophancy, and slanders that do not hold the truth. Turn away from evil, and do good. Since the beginning of the taking up of good things is the withdrawal from evil things, it is sometimes the case that someone does no evil, yet neither does he do good. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears unto their supplication. The Lord looks upon the righteous, and deems worthy of the oversight from above those who have chosen to think the things that are his. And he broadens his ear to their supplications. And he brings his face upon the workers of evil things, not that he might rather benefit them through his oversight, as we said was certainly the case with the righteous, but that he might destroy their memorial from the earth—and not surely the earth that lies beneath our feet, but rather that earth of which the Savior says: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." For the city above is not walkable for the wicked, nor indeed will the lot of the saints be apportioned to any of those who love sin; for there is no portion for a believer with an unbeliever, according as it is written.

The Lord, then, he says, watches over the righteous with a cheerful gaze, evidently—just as a child-loving father keeps watch everywhere, lest perhaps they stumble on the snares of life [or of the devil], that is, lest they become captive to his traps; but rather, being strengthened by the grace that comes from him, so that they may run through every good thing without toil. But he sets his face against the wicked, so that he may be understood as a Master against servants who do wrong and have offended him in many ways, fixing upon them a harsh and unsmiling eye, and as it were threatening them, that in no time at all—that is, immediately—they will undergo the final penalties. [That God most readily assents to the supplications of those who love him, and brings their much-prayed-for petitions to fulfillment, he shows clearly. For he sets down two

gifts equal and matched in strength: both that God hears the prayer of the righteous, I mean, and that he delivers them not from one affliction simply, but from every affliction that befalls them. And through this he greatly benefits them. For he establishes them in well-doing most boldly and with new vigor, not going into it carelessly, nor yet negligently and lazily, but deeming the body worthy of the most eager zeal, and rising to the desire of enduring hardship for the sake of accomplishing what pleases God.] Out of all their afflictions he delivered them. Not from one but from every affliction of theirs he delivered them. For he establishes them in well-doing most boldly, rising to the desire of enduring hardship. The Lord is near.

Here he attempts to show that God is not absent from the saints, but is rather present with them at all times. "For I am a God who is near," he says. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Always the workers of wickedness gnash their teeth at those who live the gospel life uprightly, and they rage against them like wild beasts. And Satan too urges them on to heap up afflictions upon the saints; yet from them the Lord will deliver them. The Lord keeps all their bones. By "bones" he means the powers of the soul, those directed toward every noble and good thing. For just as the human body could not be constituted without the physical bones, so neither could a person's soul accomplish any of the good things unless it has its own energies strong and in no way crushed. But in the case of those who love sin and love pleasure and are entangled and crushed in the tumults of the present life, how can the bones of the soul still be [intact]? Yet the Lord guards those of the saints, so that they suffer not even the slightest crushing—whether from the malice of the devil brought against them, or from wicked men raising up against them tumults and crises and persecutions. "For woe to the world," says the Savior, "because of scandals; for it is necessary that scandals come." And all who hope in him shall surely not stumble. To stumble not at all would fit no one on earth; for "we all stumble in many ways," and, "No one is clean from filth, not even if his life on earth be a single day." This has been kept for the Savior of all, Christ, alone; for he was God in our own form.

But we too shall be outside of transgression, refusing the burdensome and hard to bear and death-bringing sins. For not every sin is unto death, as the holy one says.

PSALM 34.

[Judge, O Lord. The judge of all things enters into judgment with the Jews, and wishes the Father and God in the heavens to become, as it were, a mediator of the matter. But the inspired David, knowing the matter to be truly hard to bear, fell down before God, saying: "Do not enter into judgment with your servant." For when he is judged he prevails, and will easily overcome those who are accused, showing them to be guilty. And those who wronged Christ would be understood, as I said, to be the peoples of the Jews. For the Father sent the Son after the servants, to ask from them the fruits of the vineyard; but they, although they saw the heir, returned evil instead of good to him.] Fight against those who fight against me. Consider, then, how they fought against him, and, as far as it depended on them, cast him out from being God and Son of God. And besides these things, seeing him the accomplisher of surpassing wonders, they dared to deride him, saying, "In Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, he casts out the demons." And they themselves were unwilling to believe, and they have also become

a hindrance to others. At any rate, Christ said: "And woe to you, the lawyers, because you have taken away the key of knowledge; you do not enter in yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering." And they were surely saying to the crowds about him: "He has a demon, and he is mad; why do you listen to him?" [Pour out the sword. For that he did not simply send a sword against them, but as it were poured it out like a river-stream, we shall see without toil, having measured out the calamities of the Jews. For after the cross of the Savior, they became the work of the sword; for they were consumed by the blades of those who sold cities and villages alike. And the Savior foretold this to them, saying: "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will say to the mountains: Cover us; and to the hills: Fall on us." For the affairs of the Jews were brought to such a depth of wretchedness and incurable calamity that it was far better for them to be crushed by rocks and mountains rather than fall into the savage swords of those who slew them. And that they were also shut in, that is, besieged, the account of the history concerning them will again teach us. "Therefore shut them in, it says, opposite those who pursue me."] Let them be ashamed and put to shame who seek my soul. Those who set for the Savior that trap so bitter and, as far as they were concerned, inescapable, as having cast around him the snares of death, were ashamed and put to shame, when as God he shook down the power of death and raised up his own temple. For he came back to life from the dead, and ascended to the Father and God in the heavens.

Then indeed at that time they were put to shame and felt disgraced, as I said; and they were turned back and went backward. Let them be turned back. Since they did not accept the faith, but even sought his life from those who opposed him, they were turned backward; for they have become rejected, and, hated by God, they have fallen away from kinship with God, they have remained without a taste of the good things of his visitation, and in addition to these things every kind of incurable misfortune has been brought upon them. And what was written was fulfilled in them: "As you have done, so shall your recompense be; it shall be repaid upon your head;" and again, "Woe to the lawless man; evil things shall befall him according to the works of his hands." For what they suffered, I think it is superfluous to say to those who know. But it happened that they were put to shame and felt disgraced, and indeed also that they fell backward, along with the unclean spirits themselves and before all others with Satan, whose schemes the Jews followed when they handed over to the cross the author of life. And someone might say, I think, and not without reason, that the force of the present verses fits most especially also the impious heretics. [Let them be like chaff. It has been said somewhere by God through one of the holy prophets concerning the Israel of blood, that "I will scatter them to every wind." For they have not remained in their own cities and lands; rather, they have been dispersed, and have become strangers and sojourners, tossed about everywhere. Therefore they would be like chaff, which is carried about by every wind and easily blown away. For thus somewhere also the Psalmist says concerning them:

Not so the ungodly, not so, but rather like the chaff that the wind drives away from the face of the earth. And the angel of the Lord afflicts them. And what is even more burdensome than this: for when the angel falls upon them and heaps up every affliction upon them, they will be subjected to the last of all calamities. It is in this way, we say, that the firstborn of the Egyptians were also destroyed; and indeed also the hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians, when Rabshakeh uttered his reviling words and impiously grew bold against the divine supremacy. For an angel of the Lord went out, it says, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand from the camp of the foreigners. Let their way become darkness. We shall find our Lord Jesus Christ in very many places in the gospel commandments establishing clearly the benefit of his coming—I mean his coming in this world—and saying: I have come as a light into this world. The Jews, therefore, having disobeyed the true light and closed the eye of their own mind, have remained in darkness. And the prophetic word cried out this very thing to us from of old: For while they waited, it says, the light became darkness to them; though they awaited brightness, they walked in the gloom of night. And the phrase while they waited, it says, is used in place of while they expected. And the angel of the Lord pursuing them. They slip and stumble, therefore, and walk in darkness, with the angel of God driving them on to this as well. For the rational and holy powers do not, as I said, cooperate with them; rather they oppose them, as those hated by Christ and driven out from familiarity with him. For without cause they hid corruption for me.

(114) Having nothing to accuse him of, they had come to such a pitch of perversity of thought, and indeed of recklessness and unholy daring, that they even fixed a snare of death and destruction for him; although he says plainly: "Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?" But where there was no finding of sin at all, there surely the hatred of the persecutors is entirely without excuse. And it has no seat or foundation—that is, no occasion—for murderous rage. They reproached my soul in vain. Was it not for nothing, not in vain, that they reproached his soul, at one time asserting that he was a Samaritan and a glutton, at another saying that he had a demon, and that he was deceiving the crowds, and indeed that he performed the divine signs in Beelzebul? Therefore the Jews would be caught, having recklessly and in vain devised bold things against him, and having spoken iniquity against God, and having lifted up their horn on high, according to the voice of the Psalmist. [Let a snare come upon him which he does not know. For the snare which they did not know, which they never expected—that calamities would befall them—these things overtook them. For they have been cast out from leading the peoples, or rather, having been destroyed together with them, having become a work for their enemies, they were captured and laid waste, and what of the last evils did not happen to them?] And the hunt which they hid, let it seize them. The hunt which they hid for Christ, this seized them, and they have fallen together in their own snare. For they have been hunted, as I said, having been brought under judgment, and they have fallen under the net of divine wrath; for as the writer of Proverbs says, "Not unjustly are nets spread for birds.

For those who share in murder store up evils for themselves, and the downfall of lawless men is evil. And again it is written: "He who rolls a stone rolls it upon himself." But my soul will exult in the Lord. I say that one must remember the words I made at the beginning of the psalm. For I said that the person of Christ has been introduced [speaking] against the impiety of the Jews, all but crying out against them, yet not declining words suited to reproach, but rather conversing in a human way rather than in a way befitting God in many places, because of the mystery of the economy with the flesh. For behold, behold, even here he says that he rejoices in the salvation of the Father, as one clearly saved by him. And we shall find that the holy apostles themselves, who were both eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, and genuine stewards of the sacred proclamations, say that he was raised by God the Father, and received glory and lordship, his enemies having been subjected to him. All my bones shall say, etc. (115) Whenever he says something of Christ in a human way, we seize it for our own benefit. And what indeed does he say? "All my bones shall say: Lord, Lord, who is like you?" Perhaps he said something like: With all my power and strength, and as it were from the very marrow deep within, I will make the confession; he ascribes incomparable gentleness and love of humanity to the one who rules and reigns over all things. Rescuing the poor man from the hand of those stronger than he. The statement is general and true concerning all. For the poor in spirit, and him who has the

and every hope set on God, they violently oppress and plunder, leaping upon them like savage barbarians—men of sin and servants of diabolical schemes, and filled with demonic madness; and besides these, the most cruel multitude of unclean spirits themselves. For they gnash their teeth at those who wish to be held in good repute and who submit a docile neck to the divine laws. Nevertheless, the outcome of affairs does not at all come about according to what seems good to them; for the almighty Word of God saves the righteous. Unjust witnesses rose up against me; they questioned me about things I did not know. Here Christ clearly makes mention of Jewish impiety and draws up a list of those who had behaved outrageously against him. For the leaders of the Jews slandered him by bringing him before Pilate. For they brought in certain false witnesses: "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and in three days to build it.'" And they themselves, when asked to state the charges for which they were crying out, "Away, away, crucify him," lied, saying, "He forbids giving tribute to Caesar, and that he stirs up the crowds." They slandered him also before the precious cross, and in other ways as well; for they said to the peoples under their hand, "If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath." And they kept insisting that he had a demon and was mad, and they called him a glutton and a wine-drinker, and one working through Beelzebul. They repaid me evil.

For they reviled him who did good, him who exhorted them to salvation, they stoned him, him who admonished them with all wisdom and set them on the paths that lead to godliness—the wretched men outraged him, and moreover they even plotted against him, so as to bring about childlessness for him. And childlessness for my soul. It is the custom of the divine Scripture to call sons those who are disciples, in the manner of those who are accustomed to initiate the initiated. And indeed the inspired Paul, writing to certain people, says: "For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel"; and again to the Galatians: "My little children, for whom I am again in travail, until Christ is formed in you." And the sons of the holy prophets were also so named—those who by disposition and learning were close to them and attended upon them. For that those who had obtained the leadership of the Jewish orders did not permit certain people to be made disciples by Christ would be clear even from this, without effort. For they proclaimed to the crowds, as I said: "He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?" And they also often beat the holy apostles in the council, accusing them of initiation. They humbled my soul with fasting. What kind of thing mourning is among those accustomed to practice the holy life, this verse makes very clear. "For they humbled my soul with fasting," he says. And from this he immediately shows the fruit of mourning, and the benefit of the holy and fitting labors. My prayer will be turned back into my bosom.

For my prayer," he says, "will return into my bosom"—that is, it has not become ineffective or unaccomplished before God, but rather acceptable, and as it were given into my bosom. For we are somehow accustomed to receive into our bosom the gifts brought by anyone at all. For that God accepts the supplications of the holy, how could anyone doubt? Since he himself says clearly, at one time, "Cry out to me and I will hear you"; and at another time again to each of those who bring supplications: "While you are still speaking, I will say: Behold, I am present." In place of: "While praying, I was receiving my petitions from God, and I was filling my bosom." This would be significant of their remaining in sin; for they were helped nothing, he says, by making their prayer, through the excess of their folly, return as it were upon themselves. [As a neighbor, and as a brother. For each one, he says, I strove to be so pleasing, as to seem to be one of the near kin and of those reckoned as brothers.] They were divided, and they were not pricked to the heart.

That is, their mind remained inflexible and unmerciful. "But I," he says, "did not know." What did I not know? Clearly the reason for which the scourges broke out, while they were not pricked to compunction. For, as I said, having nothing with which to accuse him, they raged against Christ. And indeed he said plainly: "Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe me?" Therefore, he says, I knew no sin of my own. "They tested me, they mocked me with mockery." Anyone who consults the Gospel writings will find that the Jews dared even this against the one who called them to life—clearly, that is, against Christ. For they heaped countless bitter afflictions upon him, and often drew near, calling him Teacher while preparing snares and nooses. For they sent the Herodians along with their own disciples, saying: "We know that you teach the way of God in truth, and you care for no one; for you do not look at the face of a man. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" And sometimes, bringing forward legal questions and wrapping themselves in a pretense of love of learning, they sought to catch something from his mouth, as it is written. But they heard then: "Why do you test me, hypocrites?" For it was not possible to escape the one who sees into heart and reins, and who knows what is hidden. And that they also mocked him, it is no difficult thing to see from what is written about him. For the Savior and Lord of all says: "Amen, amen, I say to you—

The one who hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life; and he added, "He shall not see death forever." But they came out hard and arrogant, and from great senselessness not understanding what was said, they opposed him, saying: "Abraham died, and the prophets died, and you say, 'If anyone hears my word, he shall not see death forever'? Who do you make yourself?" [So at one time they were testing him, and at another they were mocking him, gnashing their teeth at him, and having their heart filled full with devilish madness and demonic cruelty. But, O Lord, he says, when will you look upon it? And observe in this again, for my sake, the form of humanity and the measure of the kenosis, well and truly preserved, so that Christ himself may again be found as a model of gentleness. For although as God he was able to measure out the justice equal to the Jewish audacities, he commits the necessity of doing this to the Father, so that even for us it may be rightly said through the divine Paul: "Not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath."] Restore my soul from their wickedness. Having everywhere remembered the impiety of the Jews, and having said very many things about the saving passion, he has necessarily introduced through the meaning of the present words also the account of his resurrection from the dead. For by the grace of God he tasted death for everyone, according to what is written. Yet he has not remained held fast by death. Therefore, even if the Father is said to restore, we say that this too was accomplished in the Son.

For he is the wisdom of God and the power of the Father. From the lions, my only-begotten. By "lions" he means either the evil and opposing powers, which all but devoured Christ; or perhaps also the very teachers of the Jews. For thus he remembers them, saying through the voice of Isaiah: "My inheritance has become to me as a lion in the thicket; it has given forth its voice against me; therefore I have hated it." But he calls his own soul "only-begotten," putting "only-begotten" in place of "beloved"; for somehow the only-begotten among children is always in the greatest love. I will give thanks to you in a great church; in a heavy people I will praise you. In these words he calls the church from the Gentiles "great"; and very fittingly, as flourishing with an innumerable multitude, and surpassing the nation of the Jews even in this respect. Great indeed also in another way, as having the righteousness that is in Christ, and being perfected through the evangelical conduct unto sanctification. And in excellence over the worship in the law is the spiritual worship, and over the shadows the truth; so the "great" may reasonably be understood both in multitude and further in this respect, in virtue. And a "heavy" people is named, as having been freed from Jewish levity, and not having the easily swayed, nor being carried about by every wind, but rather standing firm and keeping the unshaken in faith; therefore they also endured the struggle even to blood, with Christ as witness, and have kept what is written: "Struggle for the truth even to death." Let not those who hate me unjustly rejoice over me.

How would the Jews have rejoiced over Christ, or what occasions for delighting against him would they have had, if he had remained among the dead? Clearly, if he too had been held in equal measure with the others by the gates of Hades, and there were no account of him any longer after he suffered for us the sufferings on the cross. Those who hate me without cause, and wink with their eyes. For they persecuted the Lord for no reason—that is, they had no occasion against him for which those who wink with their eyes ought to be seen as having hated him. For encountering him, as I said, and calling him teacher, and saying that he teaches the way of God in truth, they conversed with one another, mocking him in every way, and hinting at their hypocrisy, as a defense for not appearing to say anything true about him, namely that they wished to call him teacher. For they spoke peaceably to me. For some of the Pharisees, as I said, approaching Christ our Savior, and putting upon themselves the reputation of a love of learning, pretended to speak well of him, and brought him the most agreeable words, not blessing in truth, but in order to ensnare him and catch something from his mouth, according to what is written; but they were refuted when Christ said: "Why do you test me, hypocrites?" You have seen, O Lord; do not keep silent; O Lord, do not depart from me. He asks the Father that the motion against those who have raged against him may come to pass. And he almost solemnly testifies, saying:

You have seen, O Lord; do not keep silent." For he wishes that God the Father no longer be forbearing toward them, but rather rise up against them, as it were, and, drawing in his long-suffering, ask for justice against them for the impious offenses they committed against him. And he says this, though he himself is not inactive; for neither does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son. — And by saying "Do not depart from me," he shows clearly that it is a very great provision for salvation simply to have the God of all things standing by and fighting alongside. For those who have obtained a share in him will prevail over their enemies in every way and altogether, and will nobly beat back the assaults of those who war against them, and will never be destroyed, having once come under his protection. "Judge me, O Lord, according to your righteousness." God the Father brought forth a holy judgment upon the Son; for he did not permit those who acted impiously against him to assail him with impunity, but rather he quenched their laughter. — He asks as a just judgment, most fitting for the Father's righteousness, that he not allow those who killed him to revel in their delights against him, nor to exult over him in his suffering, and this forever. "Let them not say in their hearts, 'Well done, well done, to our soul'; nor let them say, 'We have swallowed him up.'" For this reason God the Father quenched the laughter of the Jews, so that they might not say in their hearts, "Well done, well done, to our soul." For if Christ had remained only in being crucified and dying, those who killed him would reasonably have said—

Well done, well done, to our soul," and moreover this: "We swallowed him up." But since they themselves have come into every evil, all their land having been burned up and war having consumed those in it; while the one who suffered is glorified, as God the Father says to him: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession;" and further to this: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet;" the brow of the Jews has fallen, their pride has been brought down to the ground, and they did not rejoice over him, nor were they able to say: "We swallowed him up." Let those who desire my righteousness exult and be glad. No less does the power of these thoughts come against anyone at all who desires his righteousness, and those who love peace with him; to whom he wishes both exultation and gladness to be given, supplied, clearly, through him by God the Father. For it is written concerning every righteous man: "For upon their heads is praise, and gladness shall overtake them." But what sort of righteousness is this about which the word now speaks to him, must be inquired into. For the law spoken to the more ancient by angels, with the all-wise Moses as mediator, seemed to be a teacher of righteousness for us, yet not of the more perfect kind. Therefore the inspired Paul also says that it is not blameless, being a type of the second, namely that in Christ, which is brought in through the gospel ordinances, and is most perfect. This righteousness, then, let those who desire it exult, he says, and be glad.

Those who desire the peace of his servant. If some of the blood of Israel were paying the peace toward him, these, having abandoned the types and the shadows in the Law, have passed over to the truth, which is righteousness. The most holy Paul teaches this, saying: "We are Jews by nature, and not sinners from the Gentiles; but knowing that a man is not justified by works of the Law, unless through faith in Jesus Christ, we also believed in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be justified in him." But if perhaps those who have been called through faith are understood to be from the Gentiles, and yet they have embraced the peace toward our Lord Jesus Christ, having leaped over the deceit that separates from him and having destroyed the enmity, and having put the middle wall out of the way, to whom also the all-wise Paul has spoken, saying: "Having been justified, therefore, by faith." But if Christ calls himself a servant, let no one be disturbed, having considered that, having taken the form of a servant and having been found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. And my tongue will meditate on your righteousness, all the day long on your praise. Consider now again in these things the person of humanity well and truly formed in Christ. For since he has become as we are, for this reason also very fittingly, as one who has entered into servile measures, he promises to fulfill human righteousness. And the work of our righteousness is to make meditation and this continually, the fitting and due glorification to God.

Christ promises, and as it were brings up to the Father a certain spiritual sacrifice, the doxology, his praise every day. And yet for those of the blood of Israel, if they chose to offer thank-offerings, the shadow of the Law commanded oxen for sacrifice, or perhaps to make use of sheep-slaughter, or to bring turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, a hare and fine flour mixed with oil; but in Christ the types ought not to be seen still holding sway.

PSALM 35.

For the end, to the servant of the Lord, to David. And thus, more historically, but more loftily, the psalm contains an accusation of the pride of the people of the Jews, and a refutation of their wickedness, and indeed a hymn of praise for the righteous judgments through which the Lord saved what is under heaven; and besides these, a thanksgiving to the Father for the benefits he bestowed through the Son; and above all these, a prayer securing that one not fall into pride. The "for the end," then, whatever it is, has often been said, and perhaps it is burdensome to repeat the same thing. As for the inscription—

It is written, "To the servant of the Lord, to David," which shows that the song would properly be ascribed to the person of the inspired David, inasmuch as he was also holy and submitted the neck of his own mind to the divine yokes. For God said concerning him to Samuel: "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will." But if there should be also any other servant of God, having a conduct worthy of holiness, he too will use this kind of prayer to God; for its power contains blame for those who have wholly inclined to transgression. Then it crowns the serenity of God with praises fitting to it, and makes lovers of the munificence that comes from him of those who serve him single-mindedly and have dedicated their own life to him. And at the end, it declares the things that will befall the lawless, driving both himself and those who read everywhere toward a holy and undefiled life. And he begins the prayer thus: The lawless one says within himself, in his sinning: There is no fear of God before his eyes. That is, he thinks that no one sees his counsels; and once he has set himself to transgress, he places the fear of God outside his eyes. We say that the lawless one is he who has utterly renounced the divine laws, so as not even to wish them to exist, and who lives a life wholly arrogant and utterly dissolute, and as it were running without turning back to the precipice of Hades and into the snare of death. The sacred Scripture somewhere makes mention of those accustomed to live thus, and speaks concerning each one as follows: "But he says to the Lord:

Depart from me; I do not wish to know your ways." Such a person, he says, has been blinded, and with the eyes of his mind he does not see the fear of God, through which there would come a fervent desire for well-doing, and a certain unyielding and hard-to-confront eagerness toward living brightly. For those who are sick with a fearlessness of God shrink from no form of evil; but often, restrained by fear or shame before their neighbor, they hide it and are prevented from bringing it out. "Because he dealt deceitfully before him." He gives another reason for the sickness just now described to us. For he has not, he says, walked with truth in the eyes of God. For this—"he dealt deceitfully"—would signify that, I suppose. And it follows most often for those accustomed to transgress the law, that they also wish to have some reputation for gentleness in the eyes of men, and to pretend to be good, and to work deceit, as it were, and deception, not seeking to be seen as they truly are, but rather stealing away the reputation of gentleness. One might see such a person also in the things he is ashamed of—namely, seeming to be evil—as he marks out the unpleasantness of his own life. For if he knows that sin adorns him, how does he consider it something to be fled? But if he blushes at his own ways, he casts his vote against himself for the charges of lawlessness. It is necessary, then, that we live in the eyes of God without any deceit, so that we may be found like the blessed Nathanael, of whom the Savior says: "Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit." To find his lawlessness and hate it.

If he had had the fear of God in his eyes, he would have found his own lawlessness and hated it, so as both to depart from the inclination toward base things and to shift his mooring toward well-doing, and, as it were, to be able to be brought up from the depth of evils to a good and virtue-loving state and life. He did not wish to understand how to do good. It is a very great matter for the force of an accusation that he did not even endure to learn in what way one might be good and a doer of good; and it would be a clear proof of having slipped down to the very lowest bottom of wickedness, that he did not wish even, so to speak, to touch with the tip of a finger the sacred teachings, through which one might gather in oneself the knowledge that carries us away to all the best things. The lawless man, then, is uneducated, and wholly without a share in the teachings that lead to salvation and life. The words of his mouth are lawlessness and deceit. He has not used a tongue that is wise and knowledgeable, and that has doors and a bolt, but he speaks with unbarred mouth in this way and makes his speech counterfeit everywhere, so as to be seen full of both lawlessness and deceit: of lawlessness, as in the case of the Jews, because of the insults they brought against Christ; of deceit, because, wishing even to ensnare him, they approached him with fair words. He devised lawlessness upon his bed. For those who yield to the sacred laws, those who are accustomed to be vigorous in boasts befitting holiness, those who live a life of good repute and beyond reproach, and who honor the Savior of all with the fitting doxologies—

For at midnight, he says, I arose to confess to you concerning the judgments of your righteousness," that is, encountering the divine Scriptures, they fill their own mind with all spiritual fragrance, and they busy themselves with the paths that lead to all good things, and they inquire minutely in what way they might become better than they are, running toward the knowledge of gentleness together with holy-fitting splendor. But the base and lawless spend the time of quiet in wickedness, and defiling their own heart with deliberations toward every evil thing whatsoever, they bring forth the fruit of outlandish thoughts, with the day, so to speak, shining clear upon them; for they stood in a way that is not good. He stood in every way that is not good. And their mind has advanced to such a degree of baseness that they never even felt loathing for wickedness. For those accustomed to transgress have not become haters of outlandish things; for they would not have done them, if they were said to hate them. Lord, in heaven is your mercy, and your truth reaches to the clouds. But some, having heard that "your truth reaches to the clouds," and having been deceived by this, declared the things beneath the moon to be outside providence; among whom is also Aristotle. But in this way some, fleeing the crudeness of the historical sense, ascend to figurative interpretations, saying that the heavens are the angels in the heavens, and the clouds the prophets, and the mountains of God the rational and lofty powers, or men raised on high according to virtue. But in the present passages, such things would not be understood at the right time.

For the mercy of God is not in the holy angels alone, nor again is the righteousness of God in those alone who have become exalted in virtue, but the grace of divine gentleness extends to all men. And he says that the mercy of God is in heaven, and that the truth has been lifted up even to the clouds, and that his righteousness is like the mountains, so that through the things named we may understand what is high and exalted and surpassing. For what is higher than heaven and clouds and mountains? And what he establishes is of this sort: The merciful, he says, and true and righteous one knows not only how to have compassion, but as true he also hates those who have deceit in their mind and are bred up with guile. And as one who has righteousness, which contends with the most lofty of the mountains, he will assuredly bring to the good the distribution of gifts that befits them, and to the wicked in turn the evenly balanced judgment. Men and beasts you will save, O Lord. And here too there is something similar to Paul; for since he was about to describe the salvation of the two peoples, who are also signified by the men and the beasts—by men, those from Israel, as being instructed from the law and understanding what differs, and by beasts, as being more irrational, those from the Gentiles. For those from the Jews, having been taught the mystery through the law and the prophets, fell away; but those from the Gentiles, who had never heard, were taken first. For this reason David said: "Your judgments are a great deep," that is, incomprehensible and altogether unsearchable; for to choose to busy oneself with things beyond the human mind is precarious and harmful.

It is written, then: "Seek not things too deep for you," and again: "Be not wise in superfluous things, lest you be confounded." The surpassing excellence of God's serenity, and the incomparable preeminence of His gentleness, can be seen again even in this. For He deems it right to bestow His own sparing mercy on all things that have come to be from Him, and not only on men, but indeed also on the irrational animals. For He said somewhere even to the inspired Jonah: "You had pity on the gourd, for which you did not labor nor toil, which perished in a night; shall I not spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of men, who do not know their right hand or their left hand, and many cattle?" And He is admired also through the lyre of the psalmist, as one who brings forth grass for the cattle and herb for the service of men. Indeed, in setting down the law concerning the Sabbath, and making clear the reason why one ought to do no work at all, He says, "That your servant may rest, and your maidservant, and your beast of burden, and all your cattle." But if what was said through the voice of Paul seems somehow to conflict with these words—"Does God care for oxen?"—we say that it is fitting to do away with the shadows in the law, which are in travail with the truth, and certainly not to think the Creator of all things to be without compassion. As You have multiplied Your mercy, O God. When the Word, being God, shone upon those on the earth in the likeness of men, and endured death for the salvation of all—clearly the death according to the flesh—then also the mercy of God has been multiplied.

For he no longer redeemed Israel alone, as of old through Moses, but the grace of salvation has been extended to all men, catching them in its net through faith unto the knowledge of the truth and of the God who is by nature, and bringing them near to God and the Father through sanctification. "In the shadow of your wings they will hope." We have therefore come to be under his wings, that is, under the shelter that is in Christ, so that we may say what is in the Song of Songs: "In his shadow I desired and sat down." And somewhere the Savior himself says: "I am like a spreading juniper." Surely they have come to be under his wings. And his mercy has been multiplied in the ways just now mentioned to us. "In your light we shall see light." If the Son is light from the light of the Father, when was his light not in the Father? For as illuminating is inseparable from fire, so also is the light begotten of the Father inseparable from him. "Extend your mercy to those who know you." He raises up a petition on behalf of those who love the Lord and have come to know his manifestation. For whom it would also be fitting to become engaged in every good thing and to delight in the gifts that come from him. So then, for those who know him, he asks that mercy be extended; but for those whose heart is upright, he asks for his righteousness, by which what is due to them will be apportioned. And the second would not be different from the first—that is, the upright from those who know. For knowledge from God is followed by having the mind upright as well, that is, in no way distorted. Those who have knowledge only, that is, faith, are justified and saved by mercy.

But those who also possess uprightness in their deeds receive the crown of righteousness, that is, the holy allotment. Let not the foot of pride come upon me. He deems it worthy to be free from the passion. It is as if he were saying: While you extend your mercy to me, who knows you, and offer righteousness, that is, the holy allotment, may I never slip down to this from the perversity of thoughts, so as to choose to be high-minded and to walk in contempt, and to go along the path that is so perilous. Nor let any improper deed of mine move me from my standing with you. And let not the hand of the sinner shake me. The hand of the sinner is the devil's working; the hand of the sinner is that of the covetous man; the hand of the sinner is that of the one who gives gifts for corruption and receives them; the hand of the sinner is that of the priest who brings the unworthy to the altar. Let us also pray not to be shaken by this hand, that is, not to be turned aside; for those who are sober ought to possess themselves steadfastly and unshaken in righteousness, even if others transgress the law. There they fell, all who work lawlessness. (Of Cyril and Chrysostom.) He said "there" instead of "from this thing," that is, from pride; or also instead of

Where, as the saying goes, it is something like this: May I not be there where those who are shaken fall, and having fallen are thrust out, and having been thrust out can no longer return. Or there, that is, in the age to come, according to the text: "There shall be weeping." They were thrust out, and they shall not be able to stand. It is necessary, then, that those who draw near to God make petition for good things, and also decline to be captured by weaknesses of the soul, and to come under a demonic hand that always shakes even those who seem to stand, if they are found to be careless, and does not allow those who have been thrust out from God's presence because of the greatest impiety to stand; which is precisely what the Israel according to the flesh has suffered, for it has raged insufferably against the Savior of all, Christ.

Psalm 36. A Psalm of David. The psalm is ethical and contains a therapeutic teaching for our soul, leading the new people to abstain from evil things and to pursue good things, persuading them from both sides—both from the hope laid up for the good and from the punishment stored up for the evil. It will be recited to David, who all but charms those who love uprightness and urges them on to eagerly lay claim to the life that is not without wonder. And he does this at the right time; for in the preceding psalm there was a very great denunciation of every lawless person, but in the present one he brings us admonition, which carries us away from partnership in their deeds and leads us up to what is better. [For I would not say that the temporary prosperity of those who do evil is in any way enviable to those who wish to live in a manner befitting holiness.

One must rather consider what end their choice to live wickedly and to be discordant with God will come to. Do not be envious of those who do evil, nor be jealous of those who commit lawlessness. Nor again imitate or call blessed such people when you see them prospering; for after blooming for a little while, they are dried up; for all flesh is grass. What then do they have that is enviable, who after blooming for a little while are tomorrow cast into the oven, as the Savior says? For I would not say that the temporary prosperity of those who do evil is in any way enviable to those who wish to live in a manner befitting holiness; but one must rather consider what end their choice to live wickedly and to be discordant with God will come to. Do not, then, be jealous of such people, he says, nor provoke yourself to imitate those who love sin. Even if they seem to have their pleasures in the present life, even if you see an impious man faring well, flee from treating them as equal, looking to what is to come; for their affairs will not remain in these things forever. Therefore he adds: For like grass they will quickly be dried up. He exhorts us to flee wickedness, which is a falling away from every good thing, outlining its end. For what is so easily withered as the grass of the field, and the nature of a vegetable? For such things, having bloomed for a short time, wither away. Thus he says somewhere concerning the splendid things in the world: Let them be like the grass of the housetops; for those born on the housetops, having no root, are both fruitless and for this reason more ready for withering. One must not, then, be envious of these things, of which some are cast out in dishonor, and others are handed over to fire, having ceased from their temporary prime, like the vegetables of the grass, which have their use in their being green.

For the prosperity of men resembles something rotten and temporary because of this, and the fire of Gehenna awaits it. But it is holy and fitting to be zealous for those whom the everlasting glory from God would follow, contending with the splendor of their noble deeds. Hope in the Lord, and do good, and dwell in the land. That is: Love to be well spoken of, thirst for the possession of the sacred gifts, love the things kept for the saints and treasured up with God. Or he has set "dwell" in place of "you shall dwell." And by "land" he means that land promised to the meek, clearly, in which, having come to be there, you shall be shepherded, he says, upon its wealth. And the wealth of the land of the meek, that is, of the city above in the heavens, is the abundant supply of the divine gifts, and that which is perfectly present in these things. Perhaps he likens this temporary life to a tent, and he wishes us to use it as a tent in passing through, mastering it and not being mastered by it, and using it for what is beneficial, not for pleasures; for thus we shall be shepherded by the good Shepherd. If there is any wealth among men of divine doctrines, let us enjoy its fruit, so as to say: "The Lord shepherds me, and nothing will be lacking to me." Delight in the Lord. But those who delight in Christ, and have their mind filled with the gifts from him, when his good wills have been brought to completion, show to God their path naked and unclothed, that is, the manner of their conduct.

Luxury, then, as I said, is to have dwelling within one the Word of God who gives life to all things, the bread of life, who came down from heaven and gives life to the world. Having him in themselves, they will certainly receive the petitions of their own heart; then they will be able to reveal their way to him. For the God of all things watches over the pure conduct of those who revere him, and turns away from the conduct of those who have chosen to live not rightly. Reveal your way to the Lord, and hope in him, etc. Be, he says, manifest in walking the way that pleases him, that is, showing to God your conduct naked and unclothed. But what will he do? In the age to come he will make it manifest and will render it, as it were, conspicuous, not allowing the beauty of your good living to escape notice. For your righteousness will be evident to all, shining forth like light, like the light of midday; and midday is the very middle of the day that is so named; and he will judge you worthy to be light there. Be subject to the Lord and entreat him. He himself will show you worthy of light in the age to come, and you here be subject to him. These two things he sets down as attainments befitting holiness and, as it were, closely linked to one another—I mean being subject to the Lord and entreating him; and each of them would be fitting especially for the entreaties of the saints and for those accustomed to practice goodness. For in being subject to the Lord is understood the fulfillment of every commandment.

For he yields to his own laws and, gentle and well-disposed, submits his neck, approving the master's will, and does not consent to endure the record of disobedience. And in supplicating him there is glorifying, and bringing up well-ordered songs, with prayer interwoven, and, as it were, a kind of intelligible incense of the brightness of works, joining in the same journey before God. He speaks of submission here, then, as the withdrawal from evils; for no one who sins is subject to the Lord. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. The precept is profitable, and most fitting for those subject to God. For it is necessary, he says, that they themselves be gentle and very well settled, and have tranquility in mind, and love always the calm that comes from patience, and depart from the waves that come from anger. For it is written that anger destroys even the wise. And again: "But a man given to wrath is not comely." For some of the passions do not fall upon many, but even ordinary people have cast them off as they progress; but this foul passion, anger, sets on fire even those who seem to be wise, and troubles them—not some and not others, but I risk saying all men, except the perfect, if ever someone is found perfect. Do not be jealous so as to do evil, because those who do evil will be utterly destroyed. Let the words of Paul be said also by David, that "to say the same things to you is for me indeed not irksome, but for you it is safe." For it has no satiety in

For it is beneficial to those who love learning that the profitable words concerning the same matters be brought to mind as often as possible. This is what the Psalmist does even now, turning over and over, up and down, this wise and truly worth-hearing utterance: "Do not be jealous," I say, "so as to do evil, lest you be destroyed root and branch from the earth; for those who do evil shall be utterly destroyed in the age," that is, the age to come. And to be utterly destroyed is to fall away from God. Indeed, wickedness is a peculiar evil compared with the other sins; hence the word wonderfully distinguished the sinner from the wicked one: "Crush the arm of the sinner and the wicked one." And some have defined wickedness not ignobly as voluntary doing of evil; for it is one thing to do evil through ignorance and, as it were, being overcome, and another to will this very thing—to do evil—which is precisely wickedness, on account of which even the devil is called wicked. But those who endure the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Since we are somehow always accustomed to depart from wicked things, driven toward the better by the fear of punishment, and to be impelled toward living lawfully by longing for the gifts that come from God, for this reason the Psalmist, having shown the destructive end of those who do evil, adds that those who endure the Lord—that is, those who through steadfastness and endurance accomplish the approved life—shall inherit the earth; which is not a portion of this earth that has come under a curse, which the one who works it eats in sorrows all his days, but that earth which has been prepared for the saints.

For their lot is the fair city of the saints, the holy and on-high one. For there they will join the choirs of the angels, glorifying without ceasing the God who gave them their inheritance and who became the provider of gifts beyond reason. And just as the Savior is wisdom, word, peace, and righteousness, so too is he endurance. For it is written: "And now, what is my endurance? Is it not the Lord?" From him one can draw and receive all the things that Christ is said to be according to the Scriptures. For just as by participation in him we become righteous and wise and are at peace, so too by participation in him we endure. Be still, then, enduring and waiting for God, not disturbed by present circumstances. And yet a little while, and the sinner will not exist. A little while yet, and you will not see the sinner existing; for he will be overtaken by the end of his life, and together with the flesh he will carry away all the good things he seemed to possess. For the life of man is very brief, and the time of life in the body is contracted. Therefore neither will the man himself, overtaken by the end of life, see his own place—for he will certainly depart to Hades—nor will those still living know his place. Those who set their minds on worldly things, and who have bound their own mind to the turmoil of the present life, and are entangled in the snares of accursed love of the flesh, always in some way rage against those who live the pure and chosen life, and they consider the lover of righteousness an enemy. But the meek will inherit the land. And David, with the greatest economy, sets over against the punishments of the lawless the rewards of the saints.

For through these words he sharpens them to a desire for spiritual valor, through which one may succeed in every manner of virtue. Thus he says: "But the meek shall inherit the earth," namely the earth above. And they shall delight themselves in abundance of peace. What the abundance of the peace promised to the meek might mean is worth seeing. We say, then, that while the saints still live with bodies in this world, they endure the greatest possible assault of wars, on the one hand because of the law of sin innate in the flesh, which is weak and always rises up against the spirit—for these things are opposed to one another; "For I delight," he says, "in the law of God according to the inner man, but I see another law warring against the law of my mind"—and on the other hand because of the rulers of this world, who continually stir up wars and battles against them, and because of the

impious heretics who stand opposed to them. Therefore, as long as the saints are in this life, many indeed are those who fight against them; but once they have come to the earth prepared for the meek, there will be an abundance of peace for them. And you will understand abundance of peace as the soul's freedom from passion together with true knowledge of things that are. The sinner will watch the righteous man, and gnash his teeth at him, etc. The Psalmist teaches this by saying in these words that the sinner will watch the righteous man—that is, the wicked man, being disposed to strife, will often keep watch for an opportunity, hoping that by some ambush he may be able to catch the righteous man; for he always grinds his teeth at him. Nevertheless the Lord shows this to be worthy of laughter.

For he foresees that his last day will certainly come, on which he will be removed, having fallen into death. Or perhaps it seems burdensome and hard to bear for them to appear to be condemned by the equity of those men, because they themselves have not become lovers of the best things. But "they will gnash their teeth" must not be understood altogether of the body, but as silence from speech, and a cry in the heart devising evil against the righteous. Yet the sinner rages against the righteous; but the Lord laughs at the plots of the sinners against them, knowing that he has appointed a day on which he will render to some eternal life, and to others eternal punishment. This is also fittingly applied to the devil. For he is the sinner, the one gnashing his teeth against the saints, who is appointed for laughter; for he is mocked by the righteous when he is defeated; the day will surely come on which he will be sent into the fire prepared for him. "To cast down the poor and needy." The aim of the sinner is not that he may avenge himself on any of those who have wronged him, or who have in any way at all offended him and given reasonable pretexts for war, but that he may cast down the poor and needy, and slay those who are upright in heart. He calls poor and needy the one who is equitable and modest and better than boastfulness, and humble in heart. Such a one the Savior himself also called poor in spirit, and says that he is worthy of the kingdom of heaven; for especially against the poor do the slanderers wage war.

But also against the righteous, who have a straight tongue, the lawless, envying their righteousness, are accustomed to arm slanders like swords. Let their sword enter into their own hearts. These things, he says, the evil demons have suffered, which they plotted to do to the saints. And the lovers of sin have raged against the saints, and they bend the bow of envy against them, and they unsheathe the sword of their own perversity, leaving no manner of plot untried; but, as it were, going through every impiety, they besiege holy souls. But in what manner one must defend against them, and how to meet them, we shall learn from this. Our weapons are not carnal; and though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. But neither shall we imitate the unholiness of sinners; for we too shall not bend bows as they do, nor unsheathe a sword; but we shall be better than those who fight and shall carry off the better verdict, fleeing to God, and stretching out holy hands, and running under the hand that always saves, and calling upon the all-powerful and immutable one for aid, saying concerning "Let it enter into their hearts." Better is a little for the righteous man than great wealth of sinners. Most skillfully even now he weaves his instruction. For he sets side by side, as it were, and places in parallel both the defeats of sinners and the advantages of the righteous, everywhere showing virtue to be fruitful, but the vain distraction of life and the accursed life to be unprofitable.

For the sinner, he says, is sometimes rich, and is broadened out by the luxuries that come from this, and is proud, having a glory that easily slips away, and fattening his flesh, having nothing more than to delight in earthly things. But the poor in heart and lover of righteousness departs from all such things, and loves a gentle and temperate poverty. But this is better for him than the great wealth of a sinner. Because the arms of sinners will be crushed, but the Lord supports the righteous. Because wealth is without reward for those who love sin, and destructive [because wealth is unprofitable for those who love sin, or, to speak better and more truly, the cause of the last judgment], while the little-sufficiency of the righteous is fruitful and pleasing to God—this is shown from here. For the fruit, he says, of the wealth of the lawless is crushing and the putting away of all strength; for the crushing of the arms means this, I think, while being supported by God means self-sufficiency; for he upholds the righteous, and grants them unshaken cheerfulness, and they have undisturbed prosperity, with nothing either loosening it or able to bring it to the opposite. "For the high hand, who will turn away?" according to what is written. The Lord knows the ways of the blameless. According to the Scriptures, the Lord knows only good things, but is ignorant of evil things, as being unworthy of his knowledge. Therefore the Lord knew those who are his, and the ways of the blameless, that they are excellent; and "knows" is said here in place of "receives and honors," or rather "loves," and "deems worthy to look upon.

For how is it not clear to everyone that he has also seen the ways of those who love sin, and that nothing at all escapes him? Therefore knowledge in these matters signifies intimacy and familiarity. And we too are accustomed to say to those who offend us, "I do not know you," often not as though we were wholly ignorant, but as wishing to alienate them from love and relationship with us. He knows, then, the ways and deeds of the saints—that is, he looks upon them with delight; for they are good and full of all praise. They shall not be put to shame in an evil time. In these words he calls the time of persecutions and hardships, or of temptations, an "evil time." For thus somewhere the all-wise Paul also writes to certain people, at one time: "Because the time is evil;" and at another time again: "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." When, then, they fall into an evil time, he says, they shall not be put to shame by falling into wrongdoing and slipping away from the decorum that befits them; for God, the ruler of all, will graciously grant them endurance and patience, the mother and nurse of all good things. Or perhaps the righteous shall inherit the promises, and in the time of judgment they shall not be put to shame, when some rise to life, but others to reproach and eternal shame. And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. We understand this too in some such way as this. For the word seems somehow to hint through a riddle that in a time of affliction they themselves will have the breadth of prosperity from above; for "to be satisfied in the days of famine" signifies something of this sort.

Nevertheless, if someone should wish to understand the meaning of the verse in another way, you will understand this: for we shall find that the God of all things in many places turns away from the lovers of lawlessness, bringing upon them a famine of sacred teachings. For it has been said by him, when the descendants of Israel by blood had become hardened beyond bearing: "Behold, I bring a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." But the famine of sacred teachings has been brought upon those who have offended, yet certainly not upon those who are careful keepers of the divine commandments; but in the time of persecutions, when teachers fail, the Lord himself by his own Spirit will feed those who believe in him. That sinners shall perish, but the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they are glorified and exalted, failing like smoke, have failed. (128) Again he sets in contrast to the honors of the righteous the things that shall befall the lovers of sin from time to time by divine wrath; and these, I think, would be the things that bring them down to final disaster. For even if they should seem at times to act rightly with respect to the present time, evidently living in luxury and enjoying the praises of all,

being crowned, and exulting in the dominions of worldly offices, nevertheless they shall perish; for the end of their life brings them down to destruction and ruin. And we say that enemies of the Lord are also those who have become his through faith, but have been set against him as if through much disobedience, and have fought endlessly against his divine ordinances. Enemies would also be the servants of demons, and those who worship the works of their own hands, that is, those who serve the creation rather than the Creator, and further the inventors of heresies, inasmuch as they are accustomed to set falsehood against the correctness of true doctrines. These, having flourished briefly and withered like grass, shall fall to death, and shall pay the penalties for their sins, being punished as enemies of the Lord, and vanishing like smoke. For smoke is the remnant of fire, when it has already been quenched and extinguished, and has as it were come to an end in being ashes and dust. They are therefore compared to smoke, since just as smoke disappears when the fire is extinguished, so too when sinners die, all their glory perishes. The sinner borrows and does not repay, but the righteous has compassion and gives. He does not repay, he says—the sinner does not return thanksgiving for the benefits he has received from God; but not even if he should be well treated by certain people will he be better; nor indeed is he taught the path of showing compassion by the things done to him; nor does he endure to requite with equal measure those who have benefited him.

But like some thief he treats what was given as plunder, and looking only to his own gain, he makes it his boast to wear down his creditor with griefs. The righteous man, however, repays with mercies, imitating his own Master; for even if he should not receive what is given, yet even so he remains generous, and being sharing he does not cease. For he imitates his own Father, God, who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Each of us receives from God benefits most numerous and great, both perceptible and intelligible. But if anyone is a lover of sin and has turned without restraint to the love of pleasure, and has buried his own mind in the turmoil of the affairs of this world, though he has received many things from God he will repay nothing—that is, he will not offer obedience, he will not put his neck under his yoke, he will not follow his wills, he will not bear fruit of virtue; no, nor will he deposit to God, as it were some interest, his gentleness in manners, nor will he take care for doctrinal skill, but he remains hard and unfruitful. Nevertheless, even if the righteous and good man should be so disposed, he says—and it is clear that God will not cease to have compassion on him and to give of his own—so that it may then be said to him: "Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, and of his forbearance, and of his longsuffering?" and the rest. For those who bless him shall inherit the earth. (Of Cyril and Origen.) Similar to what was said to Abraham:

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you." If, then, God is the one who shows mercy and gives, those who glorify him—that is, who bless him—will be heirs of the land promised to the saints, and they will receive the good land, the abundant land, the one that has no need of a goad or a mark. But there is danger, in putting ourselves under a curse before the righteous one, of final destruction. For the Lord says to the righteous man: "I will be hostile to your enemies, and I will oppose those who oppose you." And just as he says, "You fed this one, you fed me," so it follows to say: You reviled this one, you reviled me. But those curse God who do not know him as one who destroys utterly in the end, who sometimes hurl blasphemous words against his glory—adding to this that they do not even endure to bring him thanksgivings from others for the benefits they have received. The nations, then, bless Christ, and therefore they inherit the kingdom; but the Jews, blaspheming him, are utterly wiped out and destroyed. And the way

by his will. But perhaps it is better to understand that the Lord will make the way of a man willing by his will—that is, he will make it desired and acceptable. For just as he holds the ways of the lawless as unwilling, so he makes the ways of those who have chosen to do good to be willing. And what is pleasing to God is surely altogether excellent and full of all praise; for God would not have willed what was not so. When he falls, he shall not be dashed to pieces, because the Lord supports his hand. Even if it happens, he says, that the righteous man slips a little, he shall not be wronged; but like a most noble athlete who has been forced and has yielded for a little while, he will immediately recover himself. Why? Because he has God supporting him; for God always grants this to the righteous, apportioning mercy to human faint-heartedness. "For seven times," he says, "shall the righteous fall and rise again"; for those who have sometimes endured diabolical greed and have stumbled a little must love to swim up again as from waves. For not every sin is unto death, according to what is written. Therefore, if the righteous man suffers anything of this sort, God supports him, extending his hand that sustains him toward well-being; and if this hand does not defend him, every mind will grow weak; but if it supports and holds him fast in love of good, the weak part will surely gain strength and what has been submerged will swim up again. I was young, and indeed I grew old, and I did not see a righteous man forsaken.

The witness of these words is trustworthy, since he is also a bearer of the Spirit and is crowned with the grace of prophecy, and since in the length of his time he has advanced through much experience of affairs, he wishes very much to confirm by his own vote what he has learned accurately: From my youth, he says, until now—for I have grown old—I have not seen a righteous man forsaken. All the day long the righteous man shows mercy and lends. And in another way the righteous man lends what is contained in ethical commandments, so that those who have received it may repay the fruit of the loan through works. And the fruits of good loans follow from God for those who have lent to him: that they themselves are never forsaken, because they are generous and ready to share, and that their seed—that is, the sons born from them, understood either according to the flesh or according to discipleship and their works—does not lack the necessities for life, but has shared in the divine blessing. Turn away from evil, and do good, and dwell for ever and ever. He sets before us the manner of a pure way of life, and one not discordant with the evangelical laws. For the old law drove one away from evil, but it did not fully bring in the good to those being instructed—that is, the knowledge of blameless life. And this will be clear to us if we apply our mind accurately to the words of the Savior. For he said as follows, placing those who believe in him beyond the legal way of life: "It was said to the ancients: You shall not murder." This is the "turn away from evil"; for not to murder is not to have done any of the good things, but rather to abstain from sin.

Likewise also the words "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not swear falsely, you shall not bear false witness." But where is "Do good"? In the saying, "Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment," and in the saying, "Everyone who looks at a woman," and what follows. When, then, he says, you turn away from evil and do good, then you will dwell forever and ever, and you will enter into a steadfast and unshaken hope, according to what the prophet Isaiah says: "Your eyes will see Jerusalem, which is a wealthy city, tents that shall never be shaken." For the Lord loves judgment, and he will not forsake his holy ones. Here he calls judgment the righteous judgment, according to what is elsewhere sung in parallel concerning the law that awards just things: "You have executed judgment and righteousness in Jacob." God, therefore, loves righteousness, and he crowns those who work it with unending grace; and he would never overlook his holy ones—that is, those who have grown rich in their kinship with him—but he will avenge them. This makes clear that in the present life the choir of the saints is by no means altogether in calm weather, but as it were in struggles and toils and persecutions, since Satan sharpens his own underlings against them, so that they even resist sin to the point of blood as they fight. Nevertheless they will not remain unavenged; for this is what "He will not forsake his holy ones" makes clear, but God will bring his hand upon those who war against them. He says, at any rate, that they are kept for the age.

For the grace that rests upon them is not temporary, nor will the honor of hope be apportioned to the good by God for limited seasons, but it is both long and continuous, extending and, as it were, running alongside the boundless ages. But the blameless will be vindicated, and the seed of the ungodly will be utterly destroyed. The aim of the Psalmist, even through the verses set before us, is to assure us that the rewards of the saints are very great, while punishment and whatever else is able to destroy will be brought down upon the head of those who love sin. For the righteous will be vindicated, he says, but the ungodly will fall into destruction, and they will perish root and branch, driven out from the kingdom into Gehenna, from the places of light into the outer darkness. Usefully indeed does the Psalmist both recount the honors of the righteous and set forth the penalties of those who love sin: by the fear of being punished he turns the wicked away from the undertakings at hand, and by the desire for gifts he cleverly rouses those who have chosen to live well to a more fervent longing for the good. But the seed of the ungodly, which he says will also be utterly destroyed, one must understand either as their works—for whatever a man sows, he says, that he will also reap—or as the sons who will come from them, whether perhaps according to the flesh or in some other way, if they choose to take after their father and become imitators of their ancestral perversity. For the Lord loves judgment. The sacred Scripture always, in some way, names righteousness "judgment," according to what is elsewhere sung to God concerning the law that judges righteous things.

You executed judgment and righteousness in Jacob." For he places judgment and righteousness side by side, showing that judgment is nothing other than righteousness. God therefore loves judgment, that is, righteousness, and crowns its workers with unending grace, and he would never overlook his holy ones. "The righteous shall inherit the land." But these wicked men shall perish miserably, while the righteous shall inherit the land of the meek, which we have often mentioned, and they shall dwell upon it forever; that is, they shall receive an unshakable kingdom, and those who have been justified through virtue and have received in the heavens their eternal and imperishable inheritances shall forever delight in the good things from above. "His tongue" (the righteous man's) "shall speak judgment." We say that judgment is the right and irreproachable guidance concerning each of the affairs of life, which directs those being instructed straight toward what is fitting, that is, the law of God; for it is thus understood in very many places. At any rate, it is written concerning God and Israel, that "There he set for him ordinances and judgment." "The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps shall not be tripped up." He does not declare the benefit of the matter to be far off, but as it were shows the fruit of speaking wisdom and practicing righteousness at one's very heels. For having taken the law of God into himself, and as it were having it stored away in his mind and heart, he will gain that he shall in no way be tripped up, but will rather come straight to every good thing.

and nothing trips it up or shakes it, it will pass through the royal and straight path. For just as ships dart along altogether rightly and without deviation when they are very well steered, and indeed even the swiftest horse will keep an orderly course, managed for this purpose by the bridle, so too the soul of the righteous man, having the divine law as a rudder, makes its tracks straight, and passes through the waves that arise from circumstances, and swims across the surge of the present life; for the law has been given for help [assistance]. Hence indeed the inspired David also sings somewhere to God, and says: "Unless your law had been my meditation, I would long ago have perished in my lowliness." Praiseworthy, then, is the one who delights in the sacred words, and keeps the law of God always in his mind as a lamp shining in the night. And what is the benefit from this? That his steps not be tripped up. The sinner observes the righteous man, and seeks to put him to death, etc. (201.) Since, therefore, those who devote themselves to deeds of piety have a life in this world that is bitter and not free from envy, but exceedingly displeasing to those who are not good, he shows this very clearly, saying that the sinner observes them, and seeks to put them to death. And who again would be understood as the sinner? The dragon, the apostate, the inventor and father of all wickedness; for such a name would properly apply to him. This one gnashes his teeth at the saints and is set ablaze against them with the fire of envy, and rages, seeking to put to death those who wish to please God.

But it leaps upon him like a serpent, pouring out the venom of sin, sowing shameful pleasures, and ever provoking him toward disordered desires, and, as it were, smearing the ways of wickedness with honey, so that it may ensnare many. But the Lord will not by any means abandon him into his hands, etc. But the Lord, he says, will not by any means abandon him into his hands; having shown the assault, He does not permit the mind of the saints to fall, having straightway set before him the helper, who destroys the assault of that one's perversity. For when God stands before him, who is there that will harm him? And indeed a right and impartial verdict will certainly be brought forth by God, condemning the profane and the wicked, but delivering from both danger and fear all who are devoted to Him, and who have His sacred law in mind and heart, and who make righteousness their study. For when the righteous man is judged, he says, he will not by any means be condemned. Wait for the Lord, and keep His way. Patience is an excellent possession, for it gives birth to proven character, and proven character to hope, and hope does not put to shame. At any rate, the inspired Melodist sings and says: "Waiting, I waited for the Lord, and He attended to me." And another of the saints: "For you have need of patience, he says, so that having done the will of God, you may receive the promise." And we shall find throughout all divinely inspired Scripture that patience is hymned as the matchmaker of every good thing.

But “Guard the way of the Lord” would be, I think, being guided by the divine laws toward what is blameless, and being led up into a certain exceptional and wondrous life, pressing on toward this with unremitting zeal. And the end of endurance in good things and of holy labors would be to be exalted by God, so as to be far above earthly distractions. For it is written: “For the mighty ones of God have been greatly lifted up from the earth.” And intensifying the exhortation, the Psalmist says: You, then, shall be exalted, so as to inherit the land that is established somewhere above and lies in the height, the land of the meek. For it is clear that one is not exalted for inheriting the land at his feet, but the land that is so high that it needs God to bring him up to it so that he may inherit it. But the lawless, those who gnash their teeth against you, you will see cut off; for they will be utterly destroyed, and this you yourself will see. I saw the impious one highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon, etc. (Of Cyril and Basil.) Having observed, he says, wicked men prospering, I considered how they obtained this. Then, pondering such things and marveling within myself, wishing a second time to observe them, I lifted up my eyes, and they were nowhere. Then, wishing to reach their tomb, I was not even able to find the place where they seemed to stand. You see how the things that happen to the impious, only

Does he not say that these things lie in the sight of all, and that no one is wholly ignorant of them? For he makes what is his own, as it were, common to others; for he surely does not say that he alone has beheld it, but here by "I have seen" he signifies what is set forth for all to see. "I have seen," he says, "the impious man striving to be lifted up with the heights of the cedars, and raised equally with the tallest of plants," evidently from contempt and empty inflation and worldly vainglories and the other fleeting vanity. But he passed from the midst in a brief time, and was brought down to such wretchedness that his place was not found; and by "place" he indicated his memory. "Guard innocence, and see uprightness, for there is a remnant for a peaceful man." And let the punishment of the impious, he says, and the remnant—that is, the inheritance of the good—prepare you to practice simplicity; for here innocence must be understood as simplicity, according to which we live a life guileless and pure and without hypocrisy and, as it were, freed from duplicity; such a one was the divinely inspired Nathanael, of whom Christ says: "Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile." And somewhere the sacred Scripture also said: "And Jacob was a man without guile, dwelling in a house." Therefore we say that innocence is this guilelessness in character and simplicity. And by "uprightness" we will understand nothing other than what is, as it were, straight and untwisted in the knowledge of divine doctrines—for the word of truth must be rightly divided—or what is in no way distorted in practical virtue.