Expositio in Psalmos

And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all to myself. Therefore on account of holiness and righteousness the wondrous right hand of God and the Father has been greatly admired by all the nations, as having succored the wronged, and raised up those who had fallen, and enlightened those who were in darkness. Let the mountain of Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judea exult. Those from all the nations who have passed through into the light of the truth rejoice greatly in their own case, as having been shown mercy and having come to share in every good thing through the divine and all-powerful right hand of God and the Father. And they seem in some way also to rejoice together with the other people—I mean Israel—as destined to be called in due season to the knowledge of the glory of our common Savior Christ, and to a share in the gifts which those who came in first have already obtained. The prophetic word also confirms this, saying: After these things the sons of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall be amazed at the Lord and at his good things in the last days. Let the mountain of Zion, then, they say—that is, Jerusalem—rejoice, and the daughters

For the sake of Judaea, because of your judgments, O Lord—clearly the good ones. And the daughters of Jerusalem would be understood as the cities situated around her and under her. But you may also understand it in this way: calling Zion the mountain, he means the Church of Christ; and her daughters, the souls of the saints reared within her, that is, the children of the Church—of the Church that possesses the circumcision in the Spirit, which is also better than the first and truer. For the law was a shadow, but the truth is Christ, and the things that are through him. Go around Zion, and embrace her; tell among her towers. (Of Cyril and Eusebius.) The Holy Spirit addresses the divine powers, urging them to guard the Church of God, so as to embrace and protect her from every side. Instead of "embrace," Symmachus said "wall around"; and instead of "tell," Aquila says "count her towers," and Symmachus, "number them." You may also take it this way: he commands a choral figure to be formed, and, as it were, her holy daughters, having Zion in their midst as a mother, to speak in praise of Christ. For this, I think, is what "Tell among her towers" means. Now we say that the towers of the Church—that is, the strongholds—are the holy apostles and evangelists. And we tell among them, reciting and using their voices and their pure initiations into the mysteries, so that we may be, according to what is said, "like meditative doves." And we remember also the prophet saying: "Take with yourselves words"—clearly those from the Holy Spirit—through which one may learn the mystery of Christ.

For remembering God is truly a saving thing, and having on the tongue the things that lead to glory. And elsewhere the Psalmist says: "My tongue will meditate on your righteousness, your salvation all the day long." Moreover, the Spirit clearly proclaims to those who have been justified in Christ that they should open wide the eyes of their understanding and carefully contemplate the Redeemer of the Church, who is Christ Jesus. For all our strength is he himself and is in him. And indeed he said to us: "Apart from me you are able to do nothing." But we shall see Christ especially from creation, both invisible and visible (for he is the creator of all things, being God and Lord and enthroned with the Father who begot him), and also from the things accomplished at the time of his visitation. For he cast down all the power of the enemy, he saved what is under heaven, he justified by faith those who had gone astray, and he called to adoption as sons those from the ends of the earth—now by all-wise mystical teachings, now by wondrous divine signs, through which one could behold how great he is, in no way less than God the Father. And where equality of power is seen without variation, there surely would also be the sameness of essence. And again we say that the notable ones among the towers are called baris; and the baris would be the great and distinguished men of the city of God, those who are preeminent in it, in whom God is known as he takes them by the hand and saves them from temptations.

We who come after them as teachers of the mysteries, so to speak, share in these things, receiving what has been said by them rightly and without error for the confirmation of the words we speak, wishing to speak in support of the doctrines of the truth—that is, weaving moral instruction for the peoples under our care. And we recount these things also to another generation, since the teaching of the mysteries is always being passed on to those after us as well. And the word of those who teach the mysteries is strong, always and at every time, that being God he will not cease, but will rather reign over us continually.

PSALM 48.

For the end, for the sons of Korah. Through this present moral psalm the things concerning the divine judgment are proclaimed to all people, and that day on which God will bring his creation to judgment. And the sons of Korah may represent the person of the apostles who taught the mysteries under heaven; hence in what follows here the proclamation of the word travels through all the earth; and just as before the confusion of tongues there was one lip for all and one voice, so now too all nations and the whole inhabited world and all people become one hearing and one heart, since the one word sounds in all. For the old law was admittedly slow of tongue and did not know how to speak well, scarcely and, as it were, muttering to us through a long circuit the things pleasing to God according to the letter. But the mouth of Moses, most melodious, is Christ, who transfers the types into truth and sets before us the knowledge of necessary things ready everywhere.

The law has educated only the Israel according to the flesh, but Christ, having spread out the linen of his gentleness, has caught the whole inhabited world in his net. Reasonably, therefore, he also counsels those throughout all the earth: "Hear these things, all you nations," etc. I will incline my ear to a parable, I will open my riddle on the psaltery. It is as if he were saying: I have been established as a lover of inquiry, and I most gladly learn the dark and most obscure of the contemplations. But if there should be any need also to open these things, that is, to make them manifest to the many, I do this with pleasure. For the word spoken by me will not be without grace, but will be like a song of the psaltery. And the riddle, he says, is whatever things I set forth to speak. For always in some way the word of the saints is mingled with pleasure. For thus also the all-wise Paul writes, that "your word be seasoned with grace, with salt," so as to give grace to those who hear. And no one would doubt that it will certainly be pleasant and dear to the souls of those who love virtue. Why do I fear in the evil day? etc. Those who have trusted in their own power, etc. A brother does not redeem, etc. (Of Cyril, Eusebius, Theodoret.) But you will also understand it in this way. I, who have been deemed worthy to proclaim the divine oracles by the Holy Spirit, am fearful, having shuddered at the judgment of God; but you, the fearless ones, who are dissolved in pleasure through the present luxury of life, who have trusted not in God but in your own power, and who boast in the abundance of your wealth—hear. Know that these things will not stand by you in the day previously mentioned. Neither will a brother redeem a brother, nor a friend a friend.

For each will receive his own wage, and, "The work of each, what sort it is, the fire will test." Who then among men will ransom such a one? Therefore it has been said: "A brother does not ransom; shall a man ransom? But neither will anyone give to God a propitiation for himself on that day, nor, as though buying himself back, will he pay a price in exchange for his own soul; so that wealth is vain for the one who possesses it, and vain is the mortal power of those who have trusted in it. For if in the present life and the life that now is someone should use wealth well, knowledgeably employing its possession according to the saving command, which says: "Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, who will give the measure of grain to his fellow servants in due season?" he will have good hopes. From here already sow for yourself unto righteousness, and then reap the fruits of life. For a man's ransom, as the wise man says, is his own wealth. But if he does none of these things, having suffered shipwreck, together with the very cargo of his wealth he will be deprived of his own soul, no longer able to use his wealth after his departure from here. Therefore on the aforementioned day, neither will he himself give a propitiation for himself, nor a price of ransom and freedom for his own soul, nor will he be helped by a brother and kinsman. But those who have trusted neither in wealth nor boasted in power, but have acquired the present life with toil and labor, will be deemed worthy of the life promised by the Word. And he labored forever. – He will not see corruption, when he sees

the wise die. Instead of "And he labored forever," Symmachus says, "But having ceased in this age, he will continue living forever"; and according to Aquila, "And he ceased forever, and he will live for victory"; and the fifth edition says, "And he labored forever, and he will live for victory." For the one who has labored in the present age for piety and righteousness, having ceased from the great tumult and disturbance, will lead a calm and quiet life, obtaining eternal life at the end. Such a one will not see destruction when he sees the wise dying. Or according to Symmachus, "He will not see destruction when he sees the wise dying." For he is so far from the impious as not even to approach their ruin, but from afar and from somewhere on high, as from a lofty vantage point, he will learn of the destruction of the wise. And of what wise men, if not those whose wisdom God has made foolish? "In their mouth they will be well pleased." When, then, he says, we who love the venerable and undefiled life grieve over those who are not accustomed to live thus, saying, "A man, while in honor, did not understand," and the rest, then even they, even if they do not now endure to confess it while they are in this world, yet afterward will agree with the words that are well pleasing from us; for they will assent, already convinced from the very events that have befallen them, that they are true. (129) But another reading is brought forward: "After these things, in their mouth they will bless," instead of "They will curse themselves," repenting over the things they have done. For in that day, he says, all their reasonings will perish.

Death will shepherd them, and the upright will rule over them in the morning. Therefore, by "death shepherding them," you should understand the punishment that consists in death. For when they have cast off all the strength and glory that was in them, they will be ruled over in some manner by the saints when morning comes—that is, when the time of Christ's glory shines upon them. For he will come down from heaven with the holy angels, with the glory of his Father, restoring to the saints the rewards prepared for them, and subjecting sinners to punishments and judgments. Then also their help will grow old—that is, it will vanish; for what grows old, he says, and ages, is near to vanishing. And from the glory of their own which they had in the world, they will be changed over to dishonor. But God will redeem my soul from the hand of Hades, when he receives me. For the souls of the saints will run into the hands of God; and the Savior and Lord of all procured this for us as well at the time of the precious cross, when he said to his Father and God in the heavens: "Father, into your hands I will commit my spirit." And he opened paradise as accessible to the souls of men, having entered it first, and said to the robber who was crucified alongside him: "Today you will be with me in paradise." For this reason the blessed Stephen also, as he was being stoned, said: "Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit." For the souls of the saints no longer go down into Hades, as do those of sinners. And this, I think, is what he says:

But God will redeem my soul from the hand of Hades, when he receives me. He will enter into the generation of his fathers; he will not see light forever. Such a one is deprived of light, together with his fathers who are of like manner. For those who have done the works of darkness proceed into the outer darkness, who have held to a brutish life.

PSALM 49.

He called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. The saints are called by God, when, having become man, he spoke and summoned all the earth. And what did he speak? "Make disciples of all the nations." And also this: This Gospel must be preached in the whole inhabited world. For Christ is the great and far-resounding trumpet that cries aloud. For thus the prophet Isaiah recalls the things proclaimed through him, saying: "And it shall be, in that day, that they shall sound with the great trumpet." Therefore he has called not Israel only, as did Moses the hierophant, but rather all those from the rising of the sun to its setting. — You may understand it also in this way: the divinely inspired Moses called Israel only, since he had a servile measure, being weak-voiced and slow of tongue. For this reason, according to the voice of the psalmist, "God was known in Judea, and in Israel his name was great." But the Savior and Lord of all, being God from God, appeared to us, that he might call the whole inhabited world, those from the rising of the sun even to its setting. For he said: "Come, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." And he commanded all the holy disciples and apostles also, saying:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." Out of Zion comes the splendor of his beauty. For the Word was and is God, consubstantial with the Father, and distinguished by likeness in every respect. But being here of such a nature, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave. He seemed, then, not to be seen in the beauty of his splendor, because he became in likeness to us. Since, therefore, one might behold his divine and surpassing beauty not from the measures of his humanity, but from what he is as God and equal in power to the Father, he demonstrates this by saying: "Out of Zion comes the splendor of his beauty." And by "out of Zion" you will understand it as meaning "out of the Zion above," that is, through Zion, what is from the heavens and from above. For Christ was not simply a man, but rather heavenly; not as though he brought the flesh down from heaven (for he was born of the holy Virgin), but since the Word united to the flesh was from the heavens, Christ was named a heavenly man; therefore "out of Zion comes the splendor of his beauty." We shall find the holy apostles understanding his beauty. For the all-wise Paul said: "Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him so." For after the resurrection from the dead and the ascent into the heavens, we recognize him not from the measures of his emptying, but from the brightness befitting God. Our God will come openly, our God, and he will not keep silent. When did he come openly, if not when he became flesh, according to the voice of John? When, taking up the likeness that is ours, he was born of the holy Virgin and lived among men.

For then the one who by his own nature is invisible became visible, the intangible became tangible, he who is above all creation became as we are. He came, therefore, openly. And having come, he says, he will not keep silent—that is, he will convict the world of sin, namely because he will declare the Father's will; for his name is called the Angel of great counsel. Fire shall be kindled before him, and round about him a very great tempest. But in the case of the former coming, the fire is understood either in place of the light—for he names the fire as the origin of light—so that we may understand that the intelligible light of the knowledge concerning Christ will come, through which faith in him is wrought. Of this the pillar of fire among the Jews' congregation, leading forward in the night and itself showing the way, is also a type. Or perhaps it is fitting to understand this: that the Word of God, finding those throughout all the earth grown cold, as it were, into manifold sin, rekindled them to desire and zeal for every good thing, casting into them as it were an intelligible fire, the participation of the Holy Spirit. For he said, "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" For we have become by the Spirit

All who have been deemed worthy of such grace are boiling hot, and we have become partakers of the divine nature through sharing in the Holy Spirit. For this reason also, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of fire is contributed. For we are baptized in Christ, according to John's voice, in the Holy Spirit and fire. And one of the holy prophets said somewhere concerning him: "Suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come into his temple, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Behold, the Lord comes, and who will endure the day of his entrance? Or who will stand in his appearance? For he enters in as a refining fire, and as the fuller's soap. And he will sit refining and cleansing as silver and gold." For the activity and power of the Holy Spirit melts away every filth within us, consuming the heap of sin like fire. Yet it benefited the hard-heartedness of the Jews not at all, because they did not accept the grace. For this reason also, through the voice of Jeremiah, the God of all things said concerning them: "The bellows have failed from the fire, the lead has failed; in vain the silversmith smiths silver. Their wickednesses have not been melted. And round about him a storm." For all who wish to live piously in Christ will be persecuted. You will understand it also in this way. For Christ was seen, as it says, in our own form, that is, as a man, but even so he was in the authority and power of divinity, sending forth as it were fire and a violent storm upon those who oppose his ordinances, and burning up every diabolical strength, and consuming the evil and opposing powers.

For thus, somewhere else also, the Psalmist says to him concerning those who opposed his glory: "O my God, make them like a wheel, as stubble before the face of the wind, as fire that shall burn up the thickets, as a flame that shall consume the mountains; so shall you pursue them in your tempest, and in your wrath you shall trouble them." He shall call the heaven from above, and the earth, to judge his people. But here again you will find the skill of the Savior's economy that came to be for our sake. For formerly those on the earth spent their lives living a life befitting beasts, and were "portions of foxes," according to the voice of the Psalmist. For they served the unclean spirits, having reverence throughout regions and cities, and thinking to be a god whatever seemed right to each. But when the Lord, being God, appeared to us, the light of the true knowledge of God flashed into the hearts of all; he turned back what had gone astray, he bound up what was sick; being indeed a good shepherd, he drove off the wild beasts from the sheepfold, he sanctified by the Spirit, he secured with angelic powers, he set over the holy mystagogues throughout all the earth. He shall call, then, he says, the heaven from above—that is, the holy angels who are above and in the heavens—and the earth, that is, those chosen in it and appointed beforehand for apostleship, in order to judge his people. For those who minister the divine proclamation were bringing the obedient to God, but those who were not such they were leaving to Satan, almost saying: Go to the light of your fire, and you have kindled the flame. And indeed they spoke to the Jews:

But since they had observed that they were stubborn and greatly inclined to rebellion, they said plainly: "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles." Consider, then, how they distinguish the people of the Lord. And that angels also assist the holy mystagogues, and are themselves initiated, Paul will make clear when he says concerning them: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth for service for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" Thus also the inspired Jacob says that he beheld the ladder extending from earth up to heaven, and that the Lord stood upon it, and that the angels went up and down. For in the Lord the things above were joined to the things below, and there came to be communion for humans and a bond of love toward the holy angels. And somewhere the inspired David also sings: "The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will deliver them." Therefore, cooperating with the holy mystagogues, they also themselves distinguish the people of the Lord. Gather to him his holy ones. You will understand it also in this way, which seems to me to have been better said. This is clearly the distinguishing of the people of the Lord both by rational powers and by those appointed to minister the evangelical and saving proclamation. For the Spirit enjoins them to gather for Christ his holy ones. "Those whom he foreknew," he says, "and foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified.

Whom he justified, these he also glorified." Therefore, he says, gather together from all the earth those already foreknown as they will be faithful and genuine. And some also make a covenant—that is, they are eager to fulfill the covenant of Christ with sacrifices, not those made through blood and smoke, but rather with spiritual ones. For it is written: "Offer a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord." God rejoices over such sacrifices; and again he will accept the doxology in the order of a sweet savor, the intelligible one. At any rate, the inspired Melodist said: "I went around and offered in his tabernacle a sacrifice of shouting." And one could easily heap up very many other such passages, through which it is possible to see that the matter of doxology would become an acceptable sacrifice to God. Then next he says: And the heavens will declare your righteousness, O Lord. (,,) Because before all others he set the saving proclamation before those of Israel; for theirs were the promises, and the legislation, and the covenant, and the fathers. But since they became wicked and implacable, and cared little for the evangelical proclamations, they thrust away the grace of the one calling to salvation; and he has necessarily turned to the flocks of the Gentiles, and has gained all that is under heaven. And for the sake of this holy decision the heavens will declare his righteousness; for he is a righteous judge, holy and good. And he judged also in another way both those throughout all the earth and the wicked and apostate dragon. At any rate he said plainly: "Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." And yet he says himself: "God did not send his Son into the world that he might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him." How then has this world's judgment come about? He condemned it as Satan's, since he had the advantage, and with him the abominable demons; but he has justified those on the earth as having been wronged. Here David clearly knows Christ as judge; and that he received all judgment from the Father, he did not conceal when he said, that God is judge. Having thus judged, he was glorified by the holy spirits above and in the heavens, as God, a holy judge, and employing uprightness in every respect without partiality. A musical interlude. Hear, my people, and I will speak to you; Israel, and I testify to you: God, I am your God. Openly in these words the person of God has been introduced, as he transfers the types in the law into truth. For until the time of correction, the all-wise Paul says, the commandment through Moses was appointed. And the time of correction was none other than that in which Christ shone most clearly upon those on the earth, saying: "I am the truth." Useless, then, are the things in types, when the truth is present; for the shadows travail with it, and one could discern the shaping of the mystery according to Christ in the letters of the law, if indeed he were spiritual. Therefore, since the Savior was about to appear to those on the earth as the introducer of the mystagogy beyond the law, necessarily through the lyre of the Psalmist he pledges and testifies to those of Israel, saying: "Hear, my people, and I will speak to you:

Israel, and I testify against you." But lest anyone suppose that the Psalmist is uttering these words not from the mouth of the Lord rather than from his own heart, he added: "O God, you are my God, I am he." Which one, then? The good God, who delivered Israel from the iron furnace of the Egyptians' greed, who granted the way through the sea, who fed them in the wilderness, who gave you that law. For do not suppose me to be another lawgiver, seeing the difference of the laws. "If I hunger, I will not tell you." But the phrase "If I hunger, I will not tell you" must be taken as customary. For he sets forth the unattainable as though attainable, refuting the foolish. For as the prophet Isaiah says, "God is eternal, God who made the ends of the earth, he will not hunger nor grow weary, nor is there any finding out of his understanding." "To the sinner God said," etc. That God is not addressing such things to the worshippers of idols and to those who have not yet been enriched by the divine light, but to those of the blood of Israel, is surely clear. For what study of the divine law was there at all among those who have not even recognized that it was given? And who among them was the one who took up the divine covenant on his mouth? He calls the disobedient and unredeemed Jew, still a slave of sin, a "sinner" in these words. For, he says, "everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin." For the Son did not set them free. Then I, in forbearance, have kept silent, and I did not immediately bring the penalties upon you when you transgressed, awaiting your repentance;

But you supposed that I would be like you—that is, you thought that I had kept silent not out of forbearance toward evils, but rather because I deemed your manner of life worthy of praise, or perhaps even because I was pleased with the things you did contrary to the law. Therefore I will convict you, imposing the penalty, and bringing forward accounts of the things that were outrageously lived, and as it were setting your lawlessness before your face, so that your conscience may punish you; and the transgression itself joins the battle, accusing and condemning you; for the conscience is a fearful thing for conviction. You sat and slandered your brother. And they sat also in councils and slandered Christ, saying: "What are we to do, because this man performs many signs? If we let him go on thus, the Romans will come and take away both our nation and our land." Then also they contrived the stumbling block against him, and prepared the snare of death; for they brought him to Pilate and asked that he be crucified. But if he calls Christ a brother of the Jews and a son of their mother, the matter of the argument is not carried outside what is fitting. For he became according to the flesh from the Jews, and for this reason he might be called a son of the Synagogue. And there is the way where I will show him the salvation of God. For observe that, although the law was given long ago, since the way through which one might drive on to salvation had not yet been shown, he promises to show it. Therefore the things through Christ are incomparably better than the things through Moses, if indeed the way of salvation is in them—Christ himself would be understood, and the ordinances through him. For the divine Isaiah said: "There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way." And again Jeremiah:

Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and see what the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find purification for your souls." But the Savior showed that he himself is the saving way, saying: "I am the way." For just as his disciple says, "There is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved," so too the divine David says that he is the true and great purification.

PSALM 50.

When David had heard the prophetic Spirit declaring through the previously mentioned psalm concerning the judgment of God, and how he said to the sinner: "If you saw a thief, you ran with him, and with adulterers you set your portion"; struck at the remembrance of his theft-joined adultery, he anticipates the judgment of God, having composed the present psalm as a kind of pillar of accusation against himself. For he was afraid when he heard: "As God he will come openly, and fire will burn before him, and round about him a very great tempest." Therefore he fled to the mercy of God. And again, when he heard: "Your mouth has abounded in evil, and your tongue has woven deceit; sitting you spoke against your brother, and against the son of your mother you set a stumbling block"; he came to a realization of the plot against Uriah, which he wrote concerning the need for him to be killed in war. And he says: "For I know my lawlessness." And again: "Deliver me from bloodsheds, O God." And again, when he heard, "I will reprove you and set it before your face," he says: "Turn your face away from my sins." And again he had learned:

I will not accept bulls from your house, nor he-goats from your flocks"; to which he added: "For if you had desired a sacrifice, I would have given it." The events concerning Uriah and Nathan's rebuke are written in the second book of Kings. But before Nathan came to him, he did not confess his sin, being overcome as if by torpor and drunkenness. Yet neither did the prophet arrive immediately after the sin. For the words "the sins of the Amorites are not yet fulfilled" could be said also in David's case. For it was not right that his free will should be cut off and that he should become worse while his wickedness lay hidden in the depths. But when he had brought all his evil into the open, and the disease, after time had passed, had abated and was recovering its settled state, then in calmness, at the right time, the prophet applies the remedy of rebuke in a healing manner, when the passion was no longer raw nor still inflamed. With good reason, then, Scripture also marks the time, saying: "And David gathered her into his house after the death of her husband, and she became his wife, and she bore him a son, and the thing that David did appeared evil in the eyes of the Lord. And the Lord sent Nathan to David." So that it was after a whole year's time. But before this, while the soul was still muddied, either he would not have endured the rebukes, or he might have done something terrible against the prophet, like those who are delirious in sickness, who rise up against parents and dearest ones and the physicians themselves. What, then, was the cause of so great a sin in so great a man? Nathan himself taught it through the example.

He says that there were two men, the one rich, namely David, and the other poor, Uriah; then he introduces a passing stranger who came to stay with the rich man, hinting that a strange spirit came to stay in the soul of David; for without diabolical power such a man would not have been driven into such great folly, a man who even in the prime of life was self-controlled. Therefore, while he was fleeing from Saul, he had Ahinoam in the wilderness; and he had Abigail after her husband died; but nowhere is he shown to have come near them during the flight; for he did not have children except after the death of Saul. For the time of flight was for supplications and prayers. But after the kingdom, the Scripture says, children were born to him in Hebron. And Solomon, knowing the spirit that overthrows great souls, said: "If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place." Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy. Nothing so draws the Master to mercy as the confession of a transgression; therefore David also entreats that the whole mercy, the entire fountain of compassion, be poured out upon himself. For just as in the case of mercy he asked for the great, so also in the case of compassion he asked for the abundance, since the transgression is great and cannot otherwise be wiped away unless it obtains a corresponding

of loving-kindness. For it belongs to the mercies of God alone to wash away the hands of bloodguilt. And the One who formed nature has mercy on it; for he knows that, being much diseased, it is weak and is easily shaken down into the profane passions of the flesh. For the inventor of sin easily takes captive the human mind, having as a fellow-worker the law that rages in the members of the flesh. We must therefore come to the physician of the spirits, so that he may work strength in the mind; for all power is from him. And perhaps David, foreknowing that in due seasons Christ would shine upon those on earth, blotting out every sin of the world, rightly calls his great mercy a bright grace. For it is written that "every sin shall stop its mouth." For according to the Apostle: "God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns?" And lawlessness is the transgression, because it has a double transgression of the law. Wash me more abundantly from my lawlessness, etc. And in saying "Wash me more abundantly," again observe, as is likely, the mystery of Christ. For the law also had the cleansing through water, which the all-wise Paul also mentions, saying: "For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the purity of the flesh." Nevertheless the type was weak for the washing away of sin, and was performed only for the purity of the flesh; but the grace and power through Christ and through holy baptism, surpassing the cleansing in the law, washes more abundantly; or rather it works the cleansing unto completeness even of the soul itself. Against you alone have I sinned, etc.

An impious man is he who says to the king, 'You act lawlessly,'" as the divine Scripture says somewhere. Since, then, there was no one able to convict me when I had sinned, but you alone set me right, "Against you and you alone have I sinned." And well did he add: "And I did what is evil before you"; for this is also set down in the history: for the deed, it says, appeared evil before the Lord. "So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." I, he says, became the cause of evils, but your righteousness shines forth even so. For when judgment takes place, and the things done by you to me are brought into the midst, and the things I have dared are set alongside them for comparison, you will be shown to be just and loving toward humanity, while I will be seen to be lawless and ungrateful. The word "so that," then, is not here indicative of cause; for David did not sin for this reason, that God might be justified, but the opposite: even by his sin, God's righteousness is displayed. For he has made provision for all men. "For behold, I was conceived in iniquities." He says this not because the working of sin is natural (for then it would be unpunished), but because the tendency to slip easily is allotted to nature; yet it is overcome by choice and toil, and is not held by necessity, because of free will. Those in Babylon, according to some, might also say to God: If you wish to exact punishment from me for the offenses I committed against you, it is time for you also to exact it from my forefathers; for neither were they shown to be well-disposed. In some way, then, I have inherited the folly of my fathers, and from them I am drawn on to sin.

It is the custom of the saints to propitiate God and to call him to mercy, sometimes through as many voices as there are, but also through hastening to accuse the weakness inherent in human nature. At any rate, one can hear them crying out: "Remember that we are dust; a man's days are like grass." And again: "Remember what my substance is." Setting this forth more vividly, the much-suffering Job cried out to God: "Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews; and you set life and mercy before me." We say that something of this sort is also indicated now through the verses set before us. For he says that the very beginning of our generation does not come to be without the stain of fleshly love. For marriage is confessedly honorable, and the matter is beyond reproach before God. However, if one

were to examine closely the pretext for union, he will find fleshly desire... itself, even if the deed is not counted as sin. At any rate, the union is punished if it does not have the law as its arbiter, and the desire for childbearing as the true cause of the matter. Therefore, as far as it depends on desires alone and fleshly motion, our conception is in lawless deeds, and mothers conceive in sins. But if generation has its root in the love of the flesh belonging to bodies, then it is surely sick, and so are the things begotten from it. And indeed the most sacred Paul made the greatest possible denunciation of fleshly motions, saying thus: "For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man...

But I see another law waging war against the law of my mind, and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom both the law of sin has been tamed and the assault of fleshly impulses yields to his nod, and no longer proceeds of its own accord. The only-begotten Word of God has accomplished this too, along with the other things, by becoming man. And the divinely inspired Paul will again confirm it: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." For behold, you have loved truth; you have made known to me the hidden and secret things of your wisdom. He has shown that from the beginning human nature has fallen under sin from the transgression in Eve, and that our birth has come under a curse. And from of old he weaves his argument to show the greatness of God's gift, since he has rescued us from so long a curse through the washing of regeneration. Here, however, he seems to call "truth" the life that is genuine and unfeigned in truth and righteousness; for the one who has not chosen to live in this way lies to God. For the one who was brought into existence for good works, as the most wise Paul says, if he should become wicked, lies to the Creator, not having the fruits of righteousness.

Thus also the divine David says elsewhere, in the person of Christ, concerning those of Israel: "Foreign sons have lied to me." Such too is the saying, "The work of the olive will lie." And you may take it in another way as well: that the law is powerless for the cleansing of sin, sprinkling with water for the washing of the flesh. But what is incomparably better is present in the grace through Christ, which is able to make every stain disappear. He testifies, then, that God loves the truth. And the truth is Christ and the things that come through him, just as the law is types and shadows. You, then, he says—Lord, being the truth and loving the truth, wishing us to live in truth—will cleanse us from the ancient sin and make us white as snow. And the phrase, "You have made known to me the hidden things," means that all things that are to be, which God set in his own wisdom, he revealed to him through the Holy Spirit. Perhaps too he magnifies his own sin to his shame, showing that he sinned not through ignorance, but having knowledge from the law, and being honored besides with kingship and prophecy. Having shown from this the strength of sin, he then asks for its release in what follows, saying: You will sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed. He likens the working of the Holy Spirit to hyssop, inasmuch as it warms and wipes away every stain within us. The cleansing, then, will come about through hyssop, that is, through the Holy Spirit. For they say that hyssop is a plant most hot and possessing a binding power.

And indeed even the sons of physicians marvel at this, as being able to dissolve the uncleanness in the inward parts and to thin out very well the congealed matter of the phlegms, and the composition and thickness from other humors, because of the vigorous strength of the natural heat that is in it. Obliquely, then, it hints at the activity of the Holy Spirit that comes to be in us, whose grace makes us boiling in spirit and melts away every filth that is in us, being poured in invisibly like fire. For indeed, for this reason, those who are bearers of the Spirit say that we are baptized by Christ with the Holy Spirit and fire. And the precious blood of Christ not only releases us from corruption, but also from all uncleanness that is hidden within, and does not allow us to grow cold toward sluggishness. You shall make me hear gladness and joy, etc. He says: You shall prepare that the gladness that is to be in the last times be made heard to me through the Spirit. And what would this be, except that knowledge concerning the resurrection? Which he also showed, saying: "The bones that have been humbled shall rejoice." And when else shall our bones, which have rotted, rejoice, except at the time of the resurrection, when, as it were by prophecy, "Our bones shall spring up like grass"? And reasonably, after "You shall sprinkle me," he added these things; for the hope of the resurrection follows the grace of holy baptism, leading those who believe in Christ back to the beginnings of unending and thrice-blessed life. For then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun, and those who delight in goods beyond understanding shall have unending gladness.

Therefore the purification through holy baptism is accomplished at once; for grace is given in Christ, the Holy Spirit sanctifying and cleansing out the hearts of those who believe. But the exultation and gladness over the good things to come is heard, and for now is a hope not made false. And to some of the interpreters, exultation and gladness, sounding in divine hearings, seems to be no other than the one who provides it, I mean Christ, who by renewal will restore the powers of each soul that have suffered crushing. For bones here must be understood as the vigors of the mind. But I say it more simply: Let me hear, he says, the voice of exultation, that my double sin has been remitted and forgiven. Turn your face away from my sins, etc. Do not know, he says, the lawless deeds I have dared, but me who lament them. —And to ask these things was nothing other than to wish the grace in Christ to be given to those on the earth. Create a clean heart in me, O God. Creation in Scripture is said not only of the bringing forth from non-being into being, but also of the change from what is to the better. God created the heaven—that is, to make it from non-being. But he also creates when he makes the wicked man good; here creating is a change of things toward the better. And hear David:

For since he himself and his heart were created, but it had been defiled by adultery and murder and was being dragged down to corruption, he says, "Create in me a clean heart"—not because he did not previously have a heart, nor speaking about the substance of the soul, but about the best manner of life. Perhaps also, since the heart of all had been defiled through the transgression in Adam and the turning aside to what is base, the saints entreat from the Creator of all—who also knows our frame and is able to do all things—that some reconstitution of our affairs might take place, which indeed he has also accomplished. For we were re-created in Christ by the renewal of our mind, and we have obtained a clean heart, having been brought to anchor in the desire for virtue. Cast me not away from your face, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Moved by his own circumstances, David, taking up the common person of humanity, makes entreaties on behalf of those under heaven. For from the transgression in Adam, as in the firstfruits of the race, the nature of man came to be in estrangement from God; and so it was placed outside paradise, and that which had once been blessed by the Creator was accursed. But as the race was extended into a multitude, and sin tyrannized over all, the Holy Spirit of God that was breathed into us at the beginning also flew away, and the beauty of the image was defaced. For he said, the...

God of all, because "My Spirit shall not remain among these men, for they are flesh." Saying therefore, "Do not cast me away from your face, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me," he asks two things at once: release from the turning away that had befallen him, and the return of the Holy Spirit to us. For that he departed justly, since the heart of all is set upon evil from youth, he shows very clearly by saying, "Do not take away." Yet from the gentleness of God he entreats that the dissolution of what unexpectedly happened may come to be; and this was the restoration of the Holy Spirit who had flown from us, which indeed has happened in Christ. For having taken likeness to us, he dissolved the turning away, presenting human nature pure and blameless in himself to God and the Father. And he also received the Spirit—although, in the sense in which it is understood, he himself is the provider of the Spirit, and through him the Father instills it in the saints. At any rate, he breathed on the apostles, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit." For thus it was given also in the beginning to human nature. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. And he entreats that participation in the good things of the beginning may also belong to human nature, which indeed has happened to it through the mediation of Christ, who is joy and salvation. For we were freed from the dejection that comes with corruption, death having been destroyed; and we have been saved, having sent away the burden of sin through holy baptism, and we have been established by the governing Spirit, which is the manliness that comes through the Holy Spirit.

If someone were to choose this and make it his dwelling in his mind, he will certainly rule over his own willings, and he will be better than demonic greed, having the Spirit ruling within him. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God," he says, "these are sons of God." And again: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the desire of the flesh." My tongue shall rejoice in your righteousness. Or also in this way: he will make your righteousness the occasion of a spiritual feast, the righteousness that justifies the ungodly through the grace of faith—that is, our very Lord Jesus Christ, who became for us from God and the Father righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Lord, you shall open my lips. Sin naturally binds the tongue and blocks the mouth. Since therefore David's lips also happened to be closed because of sin, he prays that they be opened and that he may share in his former boldness. "You shall open my lips"—for this is a God-given thing: "For praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner." And it is opened through repentance, and he begins to recount the praise of God. And those taken captive by the spear, because it is not permitted them to sing the song of the Lord on foreign soil, or to offer sacrifice, pray for their return. A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. The power of spiritual worship does not come through bare and mere thought alone, but it is always somehow accustomed to receive also the good fragrance from good works, which we accomplish through obedience and compliance. And we say that obedience is the fruit of a tender and gentle heart, one that has nothing harsh in it.

How hard and intractable was the stubbornness of the unyielding Jews. And indeed, one of the holy prophets, taking up their own person, said: "Why did you make us wander from your way, O Lord? You hardened our hearts so as not to fear you?" But to hard hearts the word of God is altogether unacceptable. Therefore it would be very reasonably a sacrifice to God and a dedication of spiritual fragrance—a contrite spirit, that is, a soul tender and yielding to the divine words. Do good, O Lord, in your good pleasure to Zion. (Of Cyril and Eusebius.) And by way of spiritual interpretation, he says, when you do good to Zion—that is, to the Church—having been well pleased to sum up all things in the Son, and when the walls of the Church are built, which are the priests and mystagogues who fence it about, then sacrifices will also be offered up, not with blood, but the sacrifices of righteousness, that is, of praise. Likewise also the offering and the whole burnt offerings, and these too are righteousness. Then they shall offer up calves upon your altar. The calf is a sacred animal also according to the law; for it is brought for sacrifice as clean, and greater indeed than both a goat and a sheep; by its bodily size it is itself also a type of the most perfect sacrifice, and of the fragrance that comes to its appointed lot—clearly, that is, the intelligible fragrance. For the bulk of the body would be an image of the spiritual quantity that is understood in the virtues. "They shall offer up," then, he says, "calves upon your altar," that is, the most perfect sacrifices.

Or perhaps here he allegorically calls the leaders of the peoples "calves," on account of their spiritual and intelligible vigor, whose life is also holy. The all-wise Paul brings us to such thoughts when he says that it is written in the law: "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain." Then, applying to this: "Is it for oxen that God cares? Or does he say it altogether for our sake?" Of Cyril, from the commentary on the fiftieth psalm. Here marvel with me at the blessed David. He was not wholly conquered by desires for pleasure, nor did he regard the prophet as burdensome, nor was he vexed at the reproof; he seized as a gift the word that corrected him; he confessed his transgression at once; he lamented over his sin. And just as a strong and skilled charioteer, carried outside the course by the unrestrained rush of his horses, blushes and is ashamed, so too the blessed David was gently carried aside from what was fitting, but, as I said, he seized the matter and lamented over his sin.

PSALM 51.

Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man, of lawlessness? (Of Cyril and Theodoret.) He calls Doeg "mighty," as one closely attached to Saul, or as one great in evil; or else Rabsaces, as one entrusted with command against Jerusalem, from which, having set out, he was taken captive by the Assyrians. The opening expresses wonder and perplexity, as is likely, that some advanced so far in evil that they boast of the very things over which they ought to mourn. Moreover, history contains Doeg, but it hints at Judas the betrayer, who became very mighty in evil, so as to betray his benefactor. You made deceit like a sharpened razor.

This has been said concerning Doeg, because he shaved and cut off the whole city of the priests—so sharp was the slander; and concerning Rabshakeh, as one wishing to deceive the people, so as to betray the city. And the deceit of Judas was also sharp and cut imperceptibly. For what is sharper than that deceit, which, having sharpened with the tongue of betrayal, he arranged with those who seized Jesus: "Whomever I kiss, he is the one; seize him"? You loved wickedness above goodness, injustice above speaking righteousness. Doeg was doing injustice by falsely accusing the priest and saying against him things that were not done; for to say that he inquired of God concerning David was falsehood and not truth. But it was possible for him to speak righteousness, by teaching Saul that the priest did not know the reason for David's departure, but received him as a friend of the king, and as one sent on royal service, he welcomed him in honor of the one who sent him. These things are also the peculiar traits of Satan: rejoicing in evil, I say, and in injustice. He therefore also rebukes the Jews for not accepting the righteousness in Christ. You loved all words of destruction, a deceitful tongue. These things might justly be said also of the rulers of the Jews and of Judas himself; for they too have blasphemed against the Lord unrestrainedly, and the traitor used words full of deceit and hypocrisy. And words of destruction would be those unto

bringing the human soul down to death and to Hades—whisperings, backbitings, and blasphemy against God. "That you may migrate from your tent, and your root from the land of the living." And from the tent—that is, from the place of discipleship—he removed them, and the root, as of a thorny plant, he plucked out from the land of the living and from the field of the apostles. And these things happened also to the peoples of the Jews, who do not accept the justification that is in Christ. And this is similar to "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living." And they were also removed from the priestly tent, having become captives because of the cross of the Lord [before the crucifixion]. "I hoped in the mercy of God forever." I, he says, trusted in none of the vain and earth-cast things, but in the divine mercy that pursues those who are wronged. And in the anagogical sense, the divine Scriptures name Christ the mercy of God, because mercy has come to be for us through him. For the Father summed up all things in himself and restored them to their elements. And the one who has brought forth fruits of almsgiving hopes in the mercy of God, knowing that the merciful will be shown mercy. And he has his hope not for one age only, but also for the interval beyond these things, whose measure is boundlessness, which he calls the age of ages.

PSALM 52.

For the end, concerning Maeleth, of understanding, to David. (Of Cyril and Theodoret.) This present psalm comes through nearly the same words as the thirteenth, and has the same subject—the matter concerning Rabshakeh and the events of that time—and the prophecy concerning the saving manifestation of God. But brief phrases produce the difference between the two; for the thirteenth was entitled "For the end, to David," while the present one has indeed the inscription "For the end," but adds in saying "Concerning Maeleth, of understanding," which signifies that the psalm is a victory song, having come about through choral dance in understanding. For Maeleth is interpreted as delight, that is, choral dance. And instead of "For the end," other translators have rendered it "Victory song." And so that we may observe the whole inscription concisely: "For the end" would be significant of the time in which the things prophesied were to be fulfilled—both the matters concerning Rabshakeh and the Assyrians, and those concerning the coming of Christ. For both the wondrous destruction of the Assyrians came to pass many years after David (on which account it is also inscribed "For choral dance," which those who obtained salvation performed), and the saving manifestation of God appeared to those on earth at the consummation of the age, establishing the choral dance formed in His Church out of all nations. And indeed the psalm was composed for the delights and choral dances that came to be in the last times of the age, when the Only-begotten was proclaimed as man.

And “of understanding” is necessarily added, since we need understanding in order to grasp the meaning of the psalmody. God has scattered the bones of those who please men. By “bones” he means the doctrinal powers of the impious, which they have set in their own writings, persuading people to worship the creation instead of the Creator.

PSALM 57.

For you work lawlessness in the heart in the land. And not without purpose is “in the land” added; for even if someone works lawlessness in the heart, he works it in the land, that is, in matters material. And the Jews too may hear: Judge uprightly, and consider within yourselves whether your deeds agree with your words; for you are shown to be reckoning injustice in the heart, thinking one thing and speaking another with the mouth. For even if the words are good, by which you wish to avenge the law, yet the heart is full of bitterness, and the deeds are likewise filled with injustice, being a proof of the thoughts in the heart, which can escape notice in the land, but certainly not when all things are judged naked. Then he adds, indignant on behalf of those who have fallen from salvation, the words that follow, saying: The sinners have been estranged from the womb. And there are some who do not know the idiom of expression in the God-inspired Scriptures, and think that certain people have been estranged from God from the womb itself, and as it were have wandered from the belly itself even before the completion of the word. But to say this is nothing other than that which is certainly somewhere else, namely, that evil is by nature, and that some have been so from creation itself—some good in character, others evil.

To think this way—or rather to be deranged, for that is the truer word—is the doctrine of the Manichaeans. Observe, then, that the blessed David did not say that certain persons were estranged from God, but rather, simply and without qualification, not from God but from the womb. For, he says, as though already having come to be, sinners were estranged from womb and belly—that is, they have become strangers and far off, not having a womb and a belly in the spiritual sense, one able to give birth to good fruits. For our bodies from the earth give birth according to their own nature; but the souls of men, as it were from the belly and womb of their own heart, bring forth good fruits, receiving the seeds of piety from above and from God. They were led astray, from the womb they spoke falsehood. The prophecy also points to the Jews, who had no ground at all for salvation, who by God's foreknowledge were reckoned among the erring by him, and were not unknown even before they were conceived. But they spoke falsehood not from the womb, but when they came to maturity. David, however, customarily uses repetition; for "they were estranged" is the same as "they were led astray," and "the womb" the same as "the belly," so that what is indicated by both is this: Sinners were estranged from the womb, and they spoke falsehood; their anger has its likeness to the father of falsehood, the first serpent. For hear: "Their anger is according to the likeness of the serpent." They shall be brought to nothing like water that runs away. Running water does not stand still in the same place.

In the same way, then, the impious do not remain in prosperity, but, as it were, like running water, they will go swiftly to destruction. He will bend his bow. And when you hear of a bow in reference to God, understand it as deadly anger. Like wax that melts, they will be destroyed. [95.] And like wax approaching fire and melting, they will be dissolved and deprived of life. For this is: "And they did not see the sun." And a man will say: "Is there then fruit for the righteous?" etc. (p. 1069.) The "then" in these words is not the expression of one who doubts, but rather of one who is fully assured and has believed, and who, as it were, already nods in agreement, that he has fruit from his love toward God, and His sparing and succor. For he himself is saved, as I said, when God comes to his aid; but the sinner is punished on his account.

PSALM 58.

Behold, they have hunted my soul. For the wretched Jews have not ceased to bring upon Christ the fruits of their own perversity, and to set snares and crafty plots, and to devise every kind of unholy enterprise. And you, Lord, the God of powers, the God of Israel, etc. The

David saw sinlessness in the only-begotten Christ according to the flesh, and foreseeing in the Spirit the madness of the Jews, his kinsmen by race, against him, he entreats the Lord of the angelic powers and the God of Israel to leave the Jews uncared for—or rather, to deem them worthy of no forgiveness at all, as god-killers—and to transfer all his providence to the Gentiles and to illumine them with the light of the knowledge of God. And it is not David alone who prays that the conversion of the idolaters to faith in Christ may come about, and the rejection of Israel because of their lawlessness, but the Lord also. Hear, then, how even before his incarnation, as though he had already become as we are, he holds converse on behalf of the whole world with the Father and God in the heavens. For God had indeed visited those on earth long ago, but the visitation was for Israel alone; and Moses had instructed them, leading them by type and shadow to the mystery of Christ. For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. The old law was heard, but only throughout Judea; but the divine and heavenly proclamation has traveled throughout the whole world under heaven. For he said this concerning the holy apostles: "Their sound went out into all the earth," and what follows. (Of Cyril and Hesychius) And these things he speaks in a human way to his own Father and Lord of the powers and God of Israel, and Christ wishes to see, and prays.

PSALM 59.

Save with thy right hand. We say that the right hand of the Father is the Son, through whom all things came to be. In God we shall do valiantly, and he shall bring to nothing those who afflict us. Such was Paul when he said: "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." And again: "Yet not I, but the grace that is with me."

PSALM 60.

You guided me, because you became my hope, a tower of strength. (Of Cyril and Athanasius.) Since it is the mark of guides to show which way is safe and which is treacherous and harmful, and to testify to it, Christ is found to have done this also, in saying: "I am the way and the door." And the phrase "a tower of strength" is as if one were to say: You have become a wall and a security, so that we suffer nothing when enemies assail us. For just as, when enemies have broken in, those who have a strong tower gain safety, so when enemies fight against us, Christ becomes a firm and unshaken tower, and easily preserves those who trust in him. I will dwell in your tabernacle for ever; I will be covered under the shelter of your wings. (Of Cyril and Athanasius.) From the good things he has already received, he hopes also for those to come, namely that, having come to the tabernacles above, he will be forever under his shelter. For just as those who are about to celebrate a festival, having it near and at the doors, beforehand revel in gladness, and see what is not yet present as though it were already present, so also the saints, having good hopes for the life to come, rejoice in it.

He calls "wings" the providential powers of God, under which the God-loving man is sheltered, never departing from the tabernacle of God, but dwelling in it forever. Day by day thou shalt add to the days of the king. (Of Cyril and Athanasius.) The word signifies, moreover, to the mind, that eternal life is also a portion of the inheritance. For this is what it means to add days of days to the years of the king; for through the days he signifies certain times and ages. Do not suppose that he says these things concerning some one king, but know rather that he speaks concerning everyone called to the kingdom of heaven, whom he also says remains forever before God. For those who have become conformed to his sufferings will also reign with him continually. Having first said, "For thou, O God, hast heard my prayers," the prophet by hyperbaton joined on, "Day by day thou shalt add to the days of the king." For having heard my prayers, he says, thou hast added day to day. And in between was inserted the mention of those who fear the name of the Lord, since the prophecy has also promised the inheritance to them; and it was eternal life.

PSALM 61.

Shall not my soul be subject to God? (Of Cyril and of Nyssa.) David declared that the subjection of the soul to God is salvation. It is the best and most profitable thing, and the cause of every good hope for us, to be subject to the Lord and to bow the neck of our mind beneath Him, and to be made near to Him through all gentleness, saying that prophetic word: "Behold, we know that we shall be yours, for the Lord our God is ours." How long will you set upon a man? You all kill. For Satan is a killer of souls and spirits, and so are his children; and those who have already inclined toward transgression, because of the weakness inherent in their nature, he thrusts forward, overthrowing them. Perhaps the word also contends against the wicked servants of the devil, charging them with the excess of the plot they bring upon us: that men are a weak living thing, but you set upon them, not content with the first assault, but bringing a second and a third also, until you so overthrow the soul of the one who falls among us that it becomes like a leaning wall and a tottering fence. But they took counsel to thrust away my honor. For the demons have all but deprived us of our very reason, compelling us to worship wood and stones, so that it is even said of us: "Man, being in honor, did not understand." They ran in thirst. He speaks of the intensity of the demons' plotting, that they run against us thirsting for our destruction and the deprivation of our honor.

You hear how the sons of lawlessness eagerly strive to thrust us out of the honor apportioned by God, and press on to rob us of the good things given to us from above. And wishing to thrust the sanctified out of honor, they have thirsted for the accomplishment of the deed, and have made all their zeal for this. For this is the meaning of "They ran in thirst." But what devices have they used? With their mouth they blessed, and with their heart they cursed. For there are, there are those who have a twofold tongue and a two-faced heart, who are good as far as words go, but have their mind full of poison and of all wickedness. Nevertheless, be subject to God, O my soul. (Of Cyril, Basil, and Theodoret.) Again he converses with his own soul, intensifying its subjection to God. And he shows the magnitude of the temptations, and says the word of the Apostle: "That he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear."—"For from him is my endurance." For he himself is my God and my Savior, my helper; I shall not migrate. We confess not with reservation, but with boldness, having taken courage and speaking the truth, that our God is Emmanuel, whom the holy Virgin and Mother of God brought forth. Knowing him, then, to be true God and the source of salvation, we will not endure to exchange our servitude and run back to another lordship. For the phrase "I shall not migrate" stands for "I shall not shift

I shall not become, he says, a deserter from the truth into error, and a slave of sin. Hope in him, all you assembly of peoples. He does not speak of a partial assembly, as Moses also does elsewhere. At the same time, moreover, he fore-announces in a more prophetic manner the calling of all the nations. For the Only-begotten has appeared, not making some partial calling, nor saving Israel alone any longer, as also through the holy prophets, but addressing and saying to those throughout the whole inhabited world: "Hear, all you nations," and what follows. For the law through Moses educated one nation, Israel; but the grace through Christ is spread abroad to all under heaven. Nevertheless, the sons of men are vain. And truly the sons of men are vain, that is, those who think only of the things on the earth, who are devoted to the desires of the flesh, and who seek only the things of the present. If wealth flows in, do not set your heart upon it. Do not consider the matter to be anything great. For wealth passes by, as I said, and having been seen only, it flees like a shadow. But let us seek everywhere the righteousness of God; let us search out what is the will of God, the good and acceptable and perfect. Once God has spoken; these two things I have heard. What do you say, blessed David? Do you insist that the God of all has spoken once? Then how is the statement true? For he has spoken not once, but very many times, in many parts and in many ways to the fathers. How then did you say here that God has spoken once? Let us understand the force of the statement; the Spirit-bearer wishes to make something like this clear:

Even if, he says, God has spoken once, yet since I have immediately the whole knowledge of what is beneficial, I shall not need lengthy words for this. Let him speak once, and I am persuaded; and I gather a twofold instruction in myself, both psychic and spiritual at once. For the manner of the gentleness within us is always somehow twofold, and our practice is double—that which is offered by us to God as a sweet-smelling savor. For we must be pure in body and in spirit. Or, "He spoke once," instead of: the word of God spoken to Moses stands firmly once and is no longer moved, because the Lord God is compassionate and merciful and keeps righteousness. Therefore he has not set "once" for a number, but for what will certainly come to be. For it is impossible that what God has declared should not come to be. He will not postpone the declaration; as, "Once I swore in my holy one," instead of "certainly." Or "once," because even if he has spoken many times, there is one aim for him in the many-part discourses—that we should know that God is strong and loving toward humanity, so that as strong we may fear him, and as loving toward humanity we may run to him. That power belongs to God; and yours, Lord, is mercy. For God, he says, is mighty in judgment, the same also being merciful. For he has declared a word concerning judgment, through which I have heard these two things: one, that to those who have asked for wrath because of the excess of their sins, he will repay wrath; but to those who have done things worthy of mercy, he assigns mercy. For power signifies the wrath and the severity that comes upon those worthy of it. For God, who has authority over all things, prevails over the whole.

And with a strong hand he overthrows the boaster, and punishes the apostate, but shows mercy to those who love him. For he will render to each according to his works. Therefore neither hope in injustice, nor set your hope upon wealth.

PSALM 62.

O God, my God, unto thee I rise at dawn. He says that one rises at dawn toward God, not as those who have their mind set on other things, but on those things alone which seem good to him and are dear to him. For this is truly the citizenship befitting holiness, and the achievements of the excellent life. My soul has thirsted for thee, how manifoldly my flesh

in a land desert and impassable and waterless. (Of Cyril and of Nyssa.) And the soul says these things, being in a desert land of sound teaching, yet seeking the divine influx; and it can say, "My soul has thirsted for thee, and my flesh," even whoever subjects the flesh to the spirit and makes it concordant with the soul, being a desert of the passions and impassable to them and waterless, that is, freed from licentiousness and from foul flux and from the moisture that accords with pleasures. When, then, we also put to death the members that are upon the earth, then we shall say with boldness the words of David: "So in the holy," and the rest. Or, thirsting and longing for union with thy holy one. And who is the holy one, but thy only-begotten Son? For thy mercy is better than lives. Those who have come to the mercy of God, that is, of Christ, counting the life of the present world as nothing, utter such a voice as this, clearly saying that the mercy given to them by the Only-begotten is beyond the multitude of the present life. Or he names the salvation in Christ "mercy";

But he calls the law "life," or the way of the conduct according to the law. Greater, then, he says, than lives is your mercy. My lips will praise you; thus I will bless you in my life. He promises the fruit of lips as hymnody, and he agrees to bless God not only with the mouth but also to do this through his life—that is, to glorify him through a virtuous conduct. And he says that I will not stretch out my hands to a foreign god, but to you alone, and calling upon your name in prayers, I will not ask from anyone a petition of the falsely named gods; but to you, who are God by nature, I will bring my supplications. And this is a worthy and excellent boast: to know the God of all alone, and to bring prayers to him. As if from marrow and fatness may my soul be filled. He shows how great is the gain of those who have their hopes in him alone. For just as the body is made fat by rich foods—that is, by sumptuous dishes—so the soul is made fat by the abundant provision of the Spirit and by the gladness with which the prophet prays to be filled, so that with lips of exultation he may praise the Lord, having been satisfied with spiritual food. For when, he says, I come into remembrance of your name, then, then my mouth is filled with joy. In the shadow of your wings I will exult. He signifies the protective power of God, or the Old and the New. My soul has clung close behind you. He calls "clinging" the disposition that is, as it were, fixed, and the intensity toward virtue, and the unbrokenness toward love. Such was Paul when he said:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" But when one has been joined to the pure one through purification, he is thenceforth led by that one's right hand—that is, Christ's; for he himself is the right hand of God, through which he sets all things right and accomplishes all things. And that one can be joined to the Lord who has reached the very end of blessedness, who also hears from God: "But you, stand here with me." They shall enter into the lowest parts of the earth. He cries out, then, against the opposing powers because of the violence he endured, praying that they be handed over to eternal punishments; or he also prophesies that what they devised against him will turn back upon the enemies—death, and the descent into Hades, and the sword which they raised against him, and the capture by beasts. They shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall become portions for foxes. The sword signifies the punishment there; and its hands are either the pains inflicted by it, or those who serve it, called vessels of wrath; and because of their wickedness the evil powers are called foxes; for the noetic foxes divide the souls of the weaker among them, foxes that feed on dead and rotting bodies—that is, the evil and most perverse spirits. For the fox, being a cunning and unclean beast, is taken as an image of the unclean spirits of wickedness, by which

Such people will wander here and there—those who have inclined toward slackness, but certainly not the guardians of the law. For it has been rightly said of the righteous man: "The law of God is in his heart, and his steps shall not be tripped up." For the law is a sure path to what is pleasing to God. Everyone who swears by him shall be praised. Thus, he says, Christ will be their boast—clearly of those who have reigned—so that those who make him their oath are justly praised. For they swear by the true God, according to what is written. And the inspired Moses also says: "You shall fear the Lord your God, and you shall swear by his name," that is, you shall make oaths. For it is necessary for us, even in the needs of oaths, to remember God alone, who is by nature and truly God, and absolutely no other besides him. Something of this sort blessed David also expounds now, saying: "Everyone who swears by him shall be praised." For this too, along with the other things, is a proof of love toward him—that if perchance there should be a need of an oath, one should remember him alone. Do we then say this, that the prophet's word urges us toward oaths? And yet how is it not better never to swear at all? For the Savior himself also commanded us to do this. What then is it that is signified in these words? How is the one who swears by him praiseworthy? The word has some wise and necessary economy. Listen:

Those of Israel by blood, although schooled by the divine law and commanded to worship one God and only one, turned at times from great impiety to absurd idolatries, and bowed down to the works of their own hands, forsaking the God who is God by nature, and they swore by gods that do not exist. At that time, then, he was faithful and genuine, and free from the charges of idolatry, who did not swear by any other God, but in the needs of oaths named the name of the God who is God by nature. From the custom, therefore, that prevailed then, he signifies the truly faithful and genuine worshipper, saying: "Everyone who swears in God shall be praised."

PSALM 63.

Hear, O God, my voice, when I pray to you; from the fear of the enemy deliver my soul. And the phrase, "Hear me when I pray," is instead of, Not of one who is silent, but of one who prays; for silence in such matters is a harmful thing. Or because, Hear me quickly, even in the very act of praying, according to the saying, "While you are still speaking, I will say: Behold, I am present." And observe how precise the wording of the prayer is; for he did not say, Deliver my soul from the enemy, but "from the fear of the enemy." He does not dread the contests, he does not beg off the battle, he does not flee the resistance, but rather asks from God the power that he may not be broken by fear. For this, I think, is what is meant by, "From the fear of the enemy deliver my soul." For he asks God for courage, so as to cast down the adversary completely. They have bent the bow, a bitter thing, to shoot in secret at the blameless.

He called it a bitter thing, the slander against the blameless, that is, the innocent man; since it is wrong to slander even the ordinary person, but to slander the righteous man is more terrible—whom they shoot at in secret, that is, covertly; for they do not even dare to accuse him openly. For those who set their minds on earthly things do not fight with visible weapons, nor indeed with those made of reed and wood, but as it were bending their own perversity like a bow, with bitter and maliciously devised arrows they wound the souls of the holy. And they will not fear. Whom will they fear? For they do not dread, he says, the God who stands as protector of the saints; and they think perhaps that he even fails to notice, saying, "The Lord will not see, nor will the God of Jacob understand."

They strengthened for themselves a wicked word. For wicked, as I have already said many times, are the counsels of the impious; and exploring every manner of crookedness, they stumble against the God who loves virtue.

PSALM 64.

To you praise is fitting, O God, in Zion, and to you a vow shall be paid in Jerusalem. He says Zion, not the earthly one lying in the land of Judea, but the one above and in the heavens, the truly Fair City, the Church of the firstborn, the mother of the saints, the all-holy dwelling-place of the angels. And in likeness to this, we also fill the earthly Zion, that is, the Church, and crown with the fitting doxologies the Savior and Redeemer of all. For there the perfect and true hymns are rendered to God.

The hymn, then, that is sung in Zion—whether the heavenly Zion or the Church on earth—rendered to God, would befit only the God who is hymned, to whom it is also fitting to render vows. Now Scripture is accustomed to call a vow the promise that one makes to God. By saying, "To you all flesh shall come," that is, every man shall believe (for such things are said by synecdoche, the whole being indicated by a part), he proclaims the calling of all the nations, and not of Israel alone as through the letter of the law. The words of the lawless have prevailed mightily against us. By "words of the lawless" he means the wisdom of the wise of this age, through which they were also weakened, having fallen away from true knowledge. Preparing the mountains in your strength. "Preparing," he says, instead of "smoothing" and "making them comely"; for some are able to leap up and to be on the mountains, that is, to attain the highest virtues. He who stirs up the deep of the sea. — The nations shall be troubled. (Cyril and Athanasius.) He names the world "sea," and the multitude of all the nations dwelling in it. With respect to the meaning, Christ stirs up, as it were, the deep and breadth of the sea—the multitudes of the nations—not permitting them to remain at rest in their ancient deceits, but rather setting them in motion toward the knowledge of his own power and preeminence, and, as it were, raising up the voices of the waves, the doxologies of all to him. For where, or by whom, is Christ not glorified? And after a little. And in what manner they shall be troubled, he himself again explains, saying:

And those who dwell at the ends of the earth will fear at your signs." For the nations have feared Christ; for they have heard of his wondrous deeds accomplished through his power and authority; they have known the dead being raised from their tombs; in a word, by a single command and nod he released the paralytic from so long a sickness; to the blind he unexpectedly gave sight; he wondrously calmed the raging sea. Having heard of these signs, the nations have rightly feared the Savior and Redeemer of all things; and abandoning the ancient error that was their companion, they received the faith. Or here he calls the sea the multitude of unclean spirits, which is thrown into turmoil at the presence of Christ. Therefore also in fear they said: "Have you come here before the time to torment us?" Or he calls the sea the multitude of tyrants, because of the saltiness of their idolatry; and the sounds of the waves, the plots and tortures against the martyrs, which who could endure unless he were strengthened and established by the power of Christ? The goings forth of morning and evening are delights. (327. Of Cyril, Athanasius, Eusebius.) And when the morning of the day begins to run, and in the evening, that is, at the beginning of the day and at its end. And indeed when the

Having beheld great signs, those who dwell in the inhabited world will fear the good fear; then indeed, both at the morning and at the evening goings-forth—that is, at every season—there will be delight for them, rejoicing over what Christ's presence has accomplished. And there are two goings-forth, or processions, of Christ himself: the one of the morning, which came from the Father before all ages, according to the saying, "His goings-forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity"; and the one of the evening, the one from the Virgin, which appeared at the consummation of the ages. And each of them is delight and rejoicing. Symmachus, however, saying, "They hymn the approaches of the dawn and of the evening," seems to say this: that both when the day begins and when it ends, those who have abandoned error and have come to know God by nature will offer the hymnody pleasing to God. Some, however, understand the goings-forth of the morning as the eastern parts of the earth, and the goings-forth of the evening as the western. Having therefore become man, he says, and having lived on earth, you will gladden both those in the east and those in the west. — In your light you will lead forth the nations, and at the consummation of the age you will fill these things with rejoicing. You visited the earth, and made it drunk. You satisfied, he says, the whole earth with good things from above; you filled it with spiritual graces—those who are under all heaven. And us who had gone astray, being like dry and waterless land, you showed to be fruitful and most fertile. The river of God was filled with waters. God's river is his Word. He is also the fountain of life, as it has been said:

From you is the fountain of life." Its streams—that is, its teachings—make the Church glad. For thus is the preparation. (105.) Thus most providentially and in a manner befitting God; from this, clearly, is a foretelling of things to come, and not a narrative of things that have happened. Make her furrows drunk. (Of Cyril and Hesychius.) He calls the depths of the heart furrows; whenever these are made drunk by the supply of the Spirit, a multitude of virtues sprouts within us. You will bless the crown of the year of your goodness. (,, ) In a deeper sense, the year of goodness bearing the fruit of piety is that of the coming of Christ, when we too were blessed, God having exercised His innate goodness and love for humanity. Thus Christ Himself also says through the voice of Isaiah the prophet: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for which reason He has anointed me; He has sent me to proclaim good news to the poor," and following: "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." For acceptable was the year in which the only-begotten Word of God became man; and we too have received it through faith, as He presents us to God the Father. And shortly after: When, then, you bless the crown of the year of your goodness, then your plains also will be filled with richness. And he likens to plains and lands the souls of those who believe, which God fattens with divine and spiritual gifts, so that they may be able to bear the fruits of piety. And the hills will be girded with exultation. (,, Of Cyril and Athanasius.) In a deeper sense, when the goodness of God has appeared, the wilderness of old will bear fruit.

And the hills, which were defiled by idolatrous sacrifices, having received those who choose the angelic life, will be made glad. Or he likens to hills those who at various times were leaders of the holy Churches and stood at the head of peoples, that is, shepherds and teachers. For just as the mountains and the hills rise above all the rest of the earth, in the same way the worth of the holy mystagogues is higher than that of others. These are also girded with exultation, that is, they have within themselves the consolation of the Spirit. And the valleys shall abound with grain. Then also the valleys, that is, the Churches, abounded in that grain about which the Lord said: "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." And for what reason are the Churches called valleys? Because they receive the water of the noetic mountains, that is, of the prophets.

PSALM 65.

For the end, a song of a psalm of resurrection. And at the same time he foretells the calling and salvation of the nations, and proclaims the resurrection of their souls that has come to pass, according to what is said: "He who raises up the poor from the earth." And indeed the person of the apostles is also introduced, teaching what they suffered for the sake of the gospel preaching, and how their afflictions led them out into eternal gladness. Moreover, the rejection of the people of the Jews is also signified. Say to God: How fearful are your works! (,,, of Cyril and Athanasius.) And so much for the historical sense.

But in the spiritual interpretation, the works of Christ are very fearful—that is, his signs, and the removal of the multitudes of unclean demons. And the multitude and abundance of his power is his resurrection, which overthrows the dominion of death and renews all human nature into incorruption. But the peoples of the Jews, although they had become spectators of Christ's great wonders, when they ought to have marveled at the wonder-worker, on the contrary blasphemed, saying: "This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons." And shortly after. The blessed Psalmist therefore rebukes them, saying: "Say to God: Fearful are your works." Cease, he says, letting loose such a wanton and unbridled tongue against Christ, the Savior of us all. For it is the custom of the saints to be not moderately indignant at whatever offenses some commit against Christ, the Savior of all. And the blessed prophet David rebukes them more gently, saying: "Say," and what follows. But the prophet Isaiah leaps more hotly upon those who insult him, saying: "Lawless sons, seed of adulterers and a harlot." And shortly after: "Are you not children of perdition?" Therefore, since he saw them disobedient, abandoning conversation with them, he addresses the slandered Christ, saying: Great is your power, even if your enemies have lied about you, having willingly closed their eyes to your divine light that appeared to the world, and not even the excess of your wonders having brought them over to believe.

For by the abundance of power our Lord, having accomplished his own resurrection from the dead according to the human nature, his enemies the Hebrews falsified him—that is, they slandered the resurrection. And he indicates the teachers of the Jews as enemies and liars, who falsified the resurrection and gave silver to the soldiers. Let all the earth worship you, and sing psalms to you. (Of Cyril, Athanasius, and Gregory of Nyssa.) Even if the Jews, he says, will deny you, yet in place of them all the earth will bow down to you and worship you—that is, the nations that dwell on the earth. For worship is no longer in Jerusalem, since the shadow of the law has ceased, according to the saying, "They will worship him, each one from his own place"; and worship has come to be in spirit and truth, when works fitting for the worship of God are performed, his own name being invoked upon them. And these things are a foretelling of the present time, in which God, the Lord of all, is hymned among all the nations, and Christ the Master is called Most High by all. There we shall be glad in him. (Of Cyril and Athanasius.) And the meaning is: There we shall reign with Christ, when he reigns in the new age, and we shall be glad in him; and we are glad in the one who has made difficult things easy. For there he wipes away our tear, there he removes us from every grief, calling out and saying in his love for humanity: "I am, I am the

blotting out your sins, and I will not remember them." Let those who provoke not exalt themselves in themselves. He calls the Jews who provoke. That is, let not the arrogant people—that is, Israel—be high-minded even now, nor lift up a lofty brow against the multitude of the nations. Let him not say to himself: "I have become the firstborn among the children of God; I have Abraham as my father." Let him not be high-minded, but let him know rather that through disobedience they provoked God, who honored them. Hear the voice of his praise. When, he says, you hear from us in what manner it is fitting to glorify, then bless with us, no longer as of old the falsely named gods, but our God. That is, be taught by us, and then glorify with us, always crowning with unceasing praises the Savior and Redeemer of all things. For you have tested us, O God; you have tried us as silver is tried. (Of Cyril and Athanasius.) With this meaning: the afflictions that came to the apostles because of the preaching, the Spirit foretells from their person, recounting them. For just as silver, melted by fire, is very thoroughly purified, so also the souls of the saints are freed from all filth, when they encounter the assaults of temptations vigorously; and their approval comes through fiery trials, being tested as through fire. These words Paul assigns to the holy martyrs.

But those who have passed through fire and surging water—through boiling anger and through dissipated pleasure and desire—and have not remained in these passions, find refreshment. The disciple of our Savior has addressed us: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for testing, as though something strange were happening to you; but insofar as you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice." And by "fiery ordeal" in these words he means the testing that comes through labors. For we must be seen to be vigorous in these things, "knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance. But let endurance," he says, "have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." And shortly after. Therefore those who have nobly endured the contests for piety, and who are accustomed to be approved through trials, and then have conquered and arrived at the goal of hope, say: "We passed through fire and water, and you brought us out into refreshment." And by "fiery ordeal," as I said, he names the affliction that comes in contests; and again he likens to waters the abuses of the persecutors, or their unrestrained onsets and unbearable assaults; for the onset of river waters is unbearable. You placed afflictions on our backs. For where is the skill of one who knows how to wrestle discerned, except clearly when contests have been set forth and crowns have been promised? And where is the soldier? Is it not when the occasion calls to battle? Therefore labors test the noble lover of impiety, and trials make him shine brightly.

For God brought them into the snare, not seasoning the trial, but rather permitting them to be tested, so that they might appear genuine, so that they might receive the unfading crown. I will offer up to you burnt offerings of fatlings, etc. (Of Cyril, Athanasius, Basil.) But with respect to the meaning, all things are spiritual—both the burnt offerings and the oxen and the goats, which he promises to render. And with rams also the offering is made. And rams are movements and impulses that have their impulse from the spirited part of the soul; or ruling thoughts that butt the passions with horns. But the one who offers a living sacrifice of himself through action performs the sacred rite of the ox; for the ox, being a tiller of the soil, is analogous to the body molded from the earth. And goats are the works of repentance; for they were offered concerning sin. And incense is the sweet fragrance breathed forth by pure souls. Come, hear, and I will declare. (269.) He does not make mention of ancient narratives, nor yet in what manner Israel was at various times redeemed from Egypt; but he teaches not according to what the letter of the law says, but as one who has proclaimed the new things of the new covenant, he marvels at the achievements of our Savior, as many as he has graciously bestowed upon the souls of us all. To him with my mouth I cried out, and I exalted him under my tongue. (.) What then is this, "I cried out and I exalted under my tongue," it is necessary for those who examine carefully to see. For some, when they pray, imitate the wickedness of the Jews and emulate the vainglory of the impious Pharisees, employing a lofty and great voice.

For they think, in all likelihood, out of great ignorance, that unless they cry out loudly, God will not hear them. It is necessary, then, that we all, since God knows even the things in the heart, pray to him gently and secretly; and let the mind cry out to God, because the petition is strained. Thus the Savior himself taught us to pray, saying: "But when you pray," and the rest. What, then, does "I cried out to him" make clear? He means here the inward cry, the intense one, which the heart set on fire brought forth. If I had regarded iniquity in my heart, let not the Lord hear me. Beautiful is the boldness of the saints; for they have a conscience clean from all iniquity. And he offers another boast to God, that he has become far from all iniquity; therefore he also has confidence to be heard. But Symmachus puts it thus: "If I had foreseen iniquity in my heart, let not the Lord hearken." If, he says, while entreating to be released from slavery and to obtain the return, I imagined that I would do certain unjust things after the return, may I not obtain the divine favor; and that I am not lying, the facts bear witness. He did not say "if I regarded," but "if I had regarded." The first signifies the evil thought as short-lived; the second, as longer-lived. Blessed is God, who did not withdraw my prayer. For having seen me clean from such thoughts, he deemed me worthy of his own gifts in honor; thus, having narrated these things, the chorus of the pious concludes its words in a hymn: from the one who has a pure heart, pure prayer did not depart. And prayer, clearly also means mercy; for through prayer I ask for mercy from God.

PSALM 66.

[May God have mercy on us. "For the dayspring from on high has visited us," as the blessed David says, "God the Lord, and he has appeared to us." God and the Father has shown us his own face, that is, the Son; for he is the image and "the express stamp of his substance"; and indeed he said plainly: "He who has seen me has seen the Father." "I and the Father are one."] That they may know your way on the earth. I beseech you, he says, O Master, that your face may appear, so as to illumine the nations that sit in darkness and draw them to salvation, so that those in the land and those among the nations may know the way of salvation. For when your face appears, the way that leads to you is known. And what is this, but he who said: "I am the way, and no one comes to the Father except through me"? Through which we have also been saved through faith. We have known the way that brings us to the Father, namely the Son himself again. The way of God is also the commandments, according to, "Teach me the way of your statutes"; which he asks to be proclaimed not in Judea alone, where the law was given, but to be known among all the nations. Let the peoples confess you, O God. (Of Cyril and Theodoret.) The prophetic Spirit foretells the confession of all the nations unto Christ, and, rejoicing in the salvation of the inhabited world, often speaks the same things, enjoying gladness through the continuous narration. He says, then,

because it is fitting that all peoples and the nations throughout the inhabited world rejoice and dance and recount your benefactions. For they have come to know that nothing that exists is without care, but that you are the judge of all, bringing forth just verdicts, guiding those who wander to the truth, and punishing those who do not wish to be persuaded. For since the way has been made known to those on earth, and the salvation of God among all the nations, the nations, freed from every evil and from the deceit of polytheism, rejoice, practicing moral virtue, and exult, having received the knowledge of God. And "peoples" and "nations" are the same, by way of parallel. [Let the nations be glad and exult. Again, the person of one of these, the Hebrew people, confessing to the God who says: "I am he who blots out your sins; therefore speak your sins first, that you may be justified," — bearing the person of this people, the saint says, To God I made known my sins, and I did not cover my iniquity. But the Savior, having come, calls all the nations to repentance, suggesting that they obtain forgiveness through confession; which also signifies giving thanks, since the face of God has appeared to them.] Let the peoples confess to you, O God, let all the peoples confess to you. For how could the people on the earth not praise and bear fruit, when in every place incense and a pure sacrifice are offered, according to the prophecy here? And the repetitions make the hearers eager. It is fitting to know, however, that people, when they bless God, offer him words only, but by deed they cannot do him good.

But God, by blessing, confirms his words by deed, and provides for those who are blessed an abundance of all kinds of good things. Then he teaches how to obtain the divine blessing. The earth has given its fruit; may God bless us. For then the fruit of each man's works is found. For the earth is man; and he also hints at the cross. In the same way he sought the blessing. But those from among the nations, in calling upon us to be blessed, seem in some way to decline the judgment that comes through the law, and rather to thirst for the salvation and grace that come through Christ. And let all the ends of the earth fear him. (Of Cyril and Theodoret.) For the fear of God drives us on to the accomplishment of virtue; and when this has come about, it will wholly and entirely fall to those who possess it to become good in every respect. For he who is reverently disposed toward the divine laws, and dreads the coming judgment, serves God through the keeping of these. And divine service procures the blessing. Observe also that the very end he introduced was that not only Jews but all men should have the divine fear. For all tribes, all tongues have feared and glorified the Trinity. And it must be noted that by the threefold repetition of "God," adding in the singular "let them fear him," he both laid bare the mystery of the Holy Trinity and the oneness of the Godhead.

PSALM 67.

Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered. For as long as he bears with evil and does not bring upon transgressors the punishment that befits them, he is conceived of as somehow sleeping and at rest; but when he stirs up the measure of his indignation, then he is somehow both rising up and marching to war against his own enemies; and it is to this very end that the words of the saints call upon him. When, therefore, he became man—for then his enemies were scattered, and those who hate him have fled. Sing to God, etc. For he commands those who do not know the heavenly Father, and the widow souls bereaved of the bridegroom, to make a road—the road that leads to the heavens. For he came to be the avenger and judge of these. Observe the precision of the word: for he did not say simply, "Rejoice," but he necessarily added

"before him," clearly meaning Christ, the Savior of us all. And it is necessary to see what the precision of the word is: for even those who set their minds on the things of the world rejoice, but not before him; for he does not deem them worthy to look upon while they feast. And for what reason, the prophet will teach us, saying concerning them: "For with harp and timbrel and pipes they drink wine; but they do not look upon the works of the Lord, and they do not consider the works of his hands." Let them be troubled at his presence—of the father of orphans and judge of widows. He set forth God's providential care by calling him father, and his judicial office by calling him judge, and that he is the guardian of those without protection, and the judge of those who are wronged. But who are those who are troubled, if not the accursed demons?

For since the nations have been called to the knowledge of the truth, necessarily those men are troubled, so as even to cry out: "What have we to do with you?" But those who formerly wandered astray and served the creation rather than the Creator, being in this world as orphans and utterly helpless, and ready for every covetousness, and as widows having no bridegroom, the Word, and plundered by Satan, and having become portions of foxes—since they have believed in Christ, they have been enriched, having God as their father and guardian, and Christ as their bridegroom who implants in them the divine seeds, as those united to him through faith. God is in his holy place. The holy place of God are those who love him, or even the soul of every saint. God settles the solitary in a house. He grants them, he says, a firm and secure abiding in all good things. For this is what it means to be settled in a house by God. But who the solitary man is, it is necessary to say. For many have accepted faith in the Lord, but not yet having wholly turned their mind away from the ancient deceit, they are sick in part. For they believe that Christ is God, but they have Greek dispositions within themselves; for they reject certain foods as abominable, and they observe days; but they also call upon a certain fate and fortune, and fashioning races, they think that human affairs are governed by these. But the one who has thought thus, and this after faith, is not solitary, but rather of many minds and manifold and unstable and shaken. Bringing out the bound in courage. Similar to, "He who says to those in bonds:

Come out, and to those in darkness: Be uncovered." But bonds and darkness are the worship of idols and the confinement in Hades. This, then, he says: that having gone even into Hades in the power of his divinity, he preached also to the spirits there who once were disobedient, and he set free those bound by the cords of sins and previously held fast by the devil's bonds, granting forgiveness of sins. But also those who were prisoners in death from of old he raised up together with himself, having loosed the bonds of death. Nor did he wish to free only those who believed from among the nations, but also those from the circumcision; for these he calls those who provoked bitterness. Or he calls those who disbelieve "those who provoked bitterness," whom he also wished to lead out. But persisting in unbelief, they dwell in their own bodies as in foul-smelling tombs. O God, when you went forth before your people. When God was purposing to free Israel, who had served idols and been reared in the customs of the Egyptians, and to transfer them to the knowledge of the truth, he is seen, so to speak, shaking all things: the waters turned into blood, heaven sending down hail, the sea divided and the waves in it frozen, and heaven dripping manna. And now the Psalmist, showing that the one who descended as far as Hades is the same one who long ago through Moses led Israel out of Egypt, says to him: that even then, at the time when you led out the Jews and went before them in a pillar of fire and cloud through the desert, the whole earth was shaken, when the report [spread] to all

filling the ears, so that the departure of the sons of Israel became notable and escaped no one on earth. For the things that came from you have become heard of, and the whole earth has known. For just as if someone should say, for instance, "The whole city was shaken," meaning "it heard and marveled," so you will understand here the phrase spoken through the voice of the Psalmist: "The earth was shaken." For they marveled at the things wondrously accomplished by you, who gave oracles to the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai. And, more profoundly: When God went forth from his people, saying, "I have forsaken my inheritance and departed into the wilderness"—that is, the Church from the Gentiles—then there was an earthquake and a very great change of affairs. For the heavens dropped down the divine and spiritual words and laws, that is, the apostles who think on heavenly things. This was also indicated through the two goats, of which one was sacrificed and the other sent away into the wilderness, so that we may understand both that Christ suffered in the flesh at the hands of the Jews, and that he remained impassible in his divinity, and that as into a wilderness he passed from the god-killers to the Gentiles. And the grace of the Spirit also came upon them, imitating, as it were, certain drops of dew. You will set apart a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance. According to the letter, he calls the manna a rain, which was specially and separately indicated to the Jews; but according to the spirit, he calls the gospel word a rain—the word that came to us from above and from heaven from Christ—or the Savior himself who came to dwell among humanity, just as also in another psalm: "He shall come down like rain," and the rest. "Voluntary," however, is by way of contrast with the worship according to the law.

For the things of the Old Covenant were in a sense not voluntary to him, nor were they given to man as a matter of priority, but were measured out according to the nature of those who received them. Therefore he said: "Who has sought these things from your hands?" But the inheritance of Christ is the Church from the Gentiles, according to the saying, "I will give you the nations as your inheritance." To this Church, then, the evangelical word was set apart by the will and good pleasure of God. To those who proclaim the good news with great power. (Of Cyril and Hesychius.) That is, to the apostles; for he gives them great power, marking them out by signs and wonders. With the beauty of the house to divide the spoils. For the blessed disciples divided the world under heaven among themselves; and some preached to these, others to those. They divided the spoils, then; for snatching away by their admonitions those who had long served the devil, they brought them to Christ for the beauty of his house. For the beauty and adornment of the Churches is the holy multitude of those who believe in Christ. The wings of a dove overlaid with silver. The word paints for us a dove most fair to behold, and, as it were, overlaid with silver in its color; just as when someone lays gold upon bright and gleaming silver, or engraves the form of a dove, and the gold on its back appears mingled with a pale green, as if somehow blended with a sallow color, then he makes the dove most exceedingly beautiful. If, then, they rest upon my lots, he says, wings of a dove overlaid with silver shall be given to them, and with its back also in the greenness of gold; that is, so that the dove becomes most exceedingly beautiful. For they no longer set their minds on the things upon the earth.

They shall fly up as it were in the heavens—that is, so as to think the things that are in the heavens. By an anonymous author. He calls the grace of the Spirit the wings of a dove; for in the form of a dove it came upon the streams of the Jordan. Of this grace, the simpler and purer things are brought to the simpler, and the deepest things to the more perfect. For he says, My mysteries are for me and for mine. And some he gives milk to drink as being imperfect, while to others he offers solid food. And he calls the two Testaments lots. If, then, he says, you approach each teaching, you will see the manifold grace of the Holy Spirit. He commanded, however, not simply to approach, but also to sit by continually. For he who sleeps is unmoved. They shall be made white as snow in Selmon. Clearly the apostles shall be made radiant; these, then, were made white as snow in Selmon. And "in Selmon" is a Hebrew expression, and it is translated "recompense." And so these very men who were set apart shall be made white as snow, as it were in recompense—that is, they shall become radiant, receiving radiance as the reward of their genuineness toward Christ. He foretells, then, the day of Pentecost, on which the apostles received the Spirit in Selmon, that is, in Jerusalem, and were made radiant, to whom he apportioned the kingdom of the inhabited world, and commanded one to preside over these nations and another over those. The mountain of God, a rich mountain. He says it is a rich mountain, and indeed also curdled; rich, as being well-watered and besides this also flourishing, and for this reason able to have many flocks of sheep.

For very many are the nurslings of the Savior in the Churches, luxuriating in the words of the God-inspired Scripture and drinking the divine and heavenly word. For Christ is in them, he who says: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." A rich mountain, then, as it were well-watered and fair-blooming in the intelligible sense; and it is also curdled, that is, compacted and drawn together. For nothing is loose or watery in the Church, but all things are held together toward piety. The chariot of God is ten thousandfold. He calls the heavenly and intelligible powers the chariot of God, in which God rides. But the apostles would also be a chariot, upon whom God the Word, riding, runs through the whole world; and those after them who are pure, flourishing in virtues and bearing fruit to God in piety, and who are ten thousandfold more than those among the Jews of old who were worthy of the divine descent. You ascended on high, you led captivity captive. To what height has the Lord ascended? To that of the cross, as he himself teaches you, saying: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth," that is, when I endure the cross for the life of all, "I will draw all to myself." For he has reigned over all under heaven through the precious cross, having abolished the ruler of this age and drawn all to himself. You received gifts in man. For indeed those who were disobedient, etc. (Of Cyril and Athanasius.) And what these are, the Son himself will make clear, saying as from the person of God and the Father: "Ask of me," and what follows.

For those who were formerly disobedient and wandering, the Father gave to the Son, so that by dwelling in them through the Spirit he might make them sons of God. [The Lord God is blessed. For those who are always being added each day, and through faith in Christ are called to life, strive to glorify him with unceasing praises.] May God prosper for us the things of our salvation. He, says the psalm, who has bestowed salvation on us, this same one will also smooth the way for us, so that we may not fall short of such great goods; and he will open a door of the word, so that the way of preaching may be prospered for us. Our God, the God of saving, and the Lord's are the exits of death. The apostles are clearly confident, whom God bravely leads out even when they have come as far as death because of the preaching. They say that the exits of death belong to his power, that is, the release, since he gives to those who love him the ability to pass through, that is, to escape the snares of death. For he alone, being God of saving and the source of salvation, found exits of death, having risen from the dead. Since every man has reached the entrance of death, but has no longer been able to pass through it; but the Lord, who is made clear through the present words, having made exits of death and having opened for us its impassable guard-post, has become God of saving; therefore he also said to Job: "Have you come to the fountain of the sea, and have you walked in the footsteps of the abyss? And are the gates of death opened to you by fear, and have the gatekeepers of Hades, seeing you, crouched in terror?" I will return in the depths of the sea.

Those who have been brought down, he says, into the depth of pleasures, and who have been immersed in worldly lusts, I will turn back to myself. So that your foot may be dipped in blood. He teaches how they will be turned back, namely that the wicked powers have been destroyed. For he brought their blood down to the earth, and it was sprinkled by their overthrow, according to the voice of Isaiah, so that even his foot was dipped in blood. But the word describes such things more historically, and is fashioned as it were in the manner of a war and a general. For those who are accustomed to conquer in war and battles dip their foot in the blood of the fallen as they trample upon the slain. And here, then, since he has shown the God of all things as a kind of champion subduing his enemies and setting free those who were unjustly enslaved, he describes in words also streams of blood, and corpses trampled underfoot and cast out unburied, and laid out as food for dogs. You save, then, he says, those who are in danger, and you wage war against your enemies, so that your foot may be dipped in blood, and the tongue of your dogs may be dipped in the blood of your enemies. He again receives the example as from something vivid; for dogs are always with the flocks of cattle, frightening off the wild beasts with their barking and biting. And with the rational flocks of the Savior there are also holy and all-wise dogs, driving away foreign wild beasts by their own keenness of mouth, as by a kind of barking.

He calls the Lord's dogs the guardians of the spiritual flock—the holy apostles and the bishops—whose tongue, so to speak, tastes the blood of the spiritual enemies. He says, then, that the voice of the apostles, assisted by him—that is, by God—will become, so to speak, the cause of death for the wicked demons. And this is a metaphor; for when the enemies have been slain, the dogs lick the blood of those who slew them and tear apart their bodies. In another sense, the foot of Christ is the man from Mary, who was dipped in blood through his passion. And the tongue of the dogs—that is, again, of the unclean nations—tasted the immaculate blood, when they turned back from the devil. In the churches bless God the Lord from the springs of Israel. The springs of Israel would be the blessed prophets, and before these, the law. He says, then, that it is not fitting for us to hymn God from any other source than by drawing from these very things. And he says this because of the heterodox writings of the heretics. For from the legal and prophetic Scriptures the Lord is blessed by those able to draw from them—since they are springs of salvation—water with gladness. There Benjamin the younger is in ecstasy. There—where? In the churches, or in the midst of those who sing psalms. And who is Benjamin but the blessed Paul, from the tribe of Benjamin? And "the younger" is because the Lord appeared to him later than to the apostles. And "in ecstasy" is because of his being caught up to the third heaven, and because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, according to what he himself said.

Whether we were beside ourselves, it was for God; or whether we are sober-minded, it is for you;" and because he obtained a more divine change. In his case also that saying is true: "In the morning he shall eat," and, "In the evening he shall give food." For he who persecuted the Church in a short time proclaimed the faith. The rulers of Judah are their leaders. He makes mention also of the rest of the Church's teachers and apostles, who were chosen from almost every tribe of Israel and became luminaries of the whole world, and he says that they were appointed rulers and leaders of those very singers: both from the tribe of Judah, like the brothers of the Lord, and Levi, that is, Matthew; and from Zebulun and Naphtali, like Peter and Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee, and Philip, who were from the village of Bethsaida, and James the son of Alphaeus from Capernaum, and Simon the Zealot was named Kananites. But all these places are in Galilee; and Zebulun and Naphtali obtained that lot; and of this there are two witnesses, the one a prophet, the other an evangelist; the one foretelling, the other bringing forward the testimony; so that from these tribes these apostles had their origin, who were appointed rulers

and the leaders of the Churches. Command, O God, with your power. He calls the Son the power of the Father, according to the saying, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." The apostolic chorus therefore entreats the Father that he may command the Son concerning the preaching; for "I speak nothing of myself," he says, "but whatever I hear from the Father"; and that he may strengthen for them what he established for them, all but pointing with his finger, that the body which has been weakened and has fallen into death through the transgression in Adam—that this Christ will strengthen at the proper times. They ask, then, that having delivered the body from corruption, he may clothe it with incorruption, leading it back again to what it was in the beginning, that is, to the blessed and undefiled life in the beginning; which the Lord will also do at the proper times, when he shall descend from heaven, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. Rebuke the beasts of the reed. Since many are those who are hostile to the godly conduct of the saints, and especially the unclean demons, for this reason he prays that they may be rebuked, being beasts of the reed. But it should be known that there is a place in Palestine, on the road to Jerusalem, whose name is Kalamos, because of the great number of reeds in it; in this place hide dreadful, raw-flesh-devouring lions, and other wild beasts lurking about the grove, which also plotted against those going up to Jerusalem. Therefore, as from an evident fact, the word of the Psalmist carries us away to hidden and spiritual meanings. What do the beasts in Kalamos do? They plot dreadfully against those going up to Jerusalem.

We will find that the unclean demons do this very same thing. For the spiritual lions lie in wait for those who are journeying to the spiritual Jerusalem, lurking in the barrenness and levity of the unstable, and resting upon those who are dry toward virtue and moist toward the love of pleasure—according to what is said in Job concerning the devil, that "under every tree he sleeps, by the reed and the rush and the papyrus." There are also other beasts of the Reed, inventors of unholy heresies, who write perverse things secretly and in a beastly manner; using the reed, as it were, as a tooth, they devour the souls of the simpler sort. Scatter the nations. — Ambassadors shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand to God. (Of Cyril and of Nyssa.) Since the spiritual enemies have been scattered, the apostles will now run to the preaching. Both Egyptians and Ethiopians will believe, that is, the ends of the earth; for the Ethiopians are the last of all in the east and the west. By the Egyptians he signifies those who are exceedingly idolatrous and opposed to the worship of Israel; for Egypt bound to itself the strength of impiety; and by the Ethiopians, the ends of the earth. But how Ethiopia ran to the preaching, and the prophecy concerning her has reached its fulfillment, it is possible to see from the Ethiopian eunuch, whom Philip led to the truth, who was a hand of the queen of the Ethiopians, as a ruler of Ethiopia, and in that he had been set over all her treasury, that is, her treasure.

That Ethiopia signifies all the nations that are black in sin, the bride in the Song declares through repentance: "I am black and beautiful"—black on account of idolatry and wickedness, but beautiful on account of her turning away from them; so that Ethiopia hastened to stretch out her hand to God, whether in prayer, or in bringing gifts to the king—both the spices of piety and the gold of the knowledge of God. His magnificence is upon Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. For the holy apostles, who drew their lineage from Israel, displayed the mighty working of God through the wonders they performed. And those after them who received the teaching grace, like certain clouds drawing up rain from the sea of the all-holy Spirit, offer irrigation to men. Or, "His strength is in the clouds," means great and lofty and conspicuous. In another sense, the mighty works of God are made known to the most contemplative Israel, and his strength to the one who is raised above earthly things. God is wonderful in his saints, the God of Israel. The lovers of virtue, living well through themselves, cause God to be praised, and they alone marvel at God, as being able to contemplate his magnificent dispensations. Therefore he himself, the God of the spiritual Israel—that is, to say the same thing, the God of the saints—will strengthen the new people also, so that they may both speak and do all things for his glory; and he will give them power to be delivered from the error of idols, and strength to remain in the blameless faith of Christ.

He who is benevolent, in that he both formed and reformed and deemed his people worthy of so many good things.

PSALM 68.

For the end, concerning those who shall be changed, by David. The psalm contains a prayer of the Savior offered in the person of humanity, and it sets out both the reasons for which they brought upon him death on the cross, and further narrates clearly the passion itself, and the calamities that would befall the Jews after the passion; and in addition to these, the introduction of the gospel way of life, and the teaching of worship in spirit and truth, to which he also brings the psalm to its close. And that the Savior prayed every prayer he prayed in the person of human nature, this very thing he indicates at the end of the psalm, saying: "For the Lord has heard the poor, and has not despised those bound." For at the consummation of the present age God the Lord has appeared to us, and we have been changed with the noetic change, not falling from good things to worse, as also in Adam, but being removed from every evil to every good. Paul also writes in the letter to the Hebrews concerning Christ, that in the days of his flesh he offered supplications and entreaties, to the one able to save him from death, with loud crying and tears. And according to the Gospel: "With sweat, an angel strengthening him, being in agony, he prayed more earnestly." Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even to my soul. And it seems that what happened is also spoken in the person of the Lord, when, having become man, he humbled himself to death.

For since he grieves on our behalf, he reasonably also prays to be delivered from the temptations that, like a torrent, flooded his soul. And the type of Christ, Jonah, says: "Water was poured around me, even to my soul." And in Job: "You came to a spring of the sea, and you walked in the footsteps of the abyss," by which the regions of Hades are indicated. Through the waters the divinely inspired Scripture signifies temptations. I came into the depths of the sea, and a storm drowned me. He varies his discourse with different images, not finding an image worthy of the distresses that hold the captives. He also hints at the regions of Hades, where the Savior alone descended and passed through. And "I came" is like "I lay down my soul of myself." For Christ willingly submitted to death, which he calls a storm. And the voice is fitting also for one who has shipwrecked all virtue together: "I came into the depths of the sea, and a storm drowned me." O God, you knew my foolishness, and my transgressions were not hidden from you. Or: Even if there were certain transgressions for which I was nailed to the cross, perhaps you, O God, knew them first, from whom nothing can be hidden; or he calls foolishness the folly that is thought so among men,

I mean the suffering. For the cross of the Lord has become a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. So they called the suffering of Christ foolishness, and the cross weakness. Therefore, he says, You, O Father, have known the economy through the cross; for it has come about by your judgment. He says this because he became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on a cross. And the phrase, "My transgressions were not hidden from you," is like, "He who knew no sin, he made to be sin for us." I became estranged from my brothers. Let whoever is truly God-fearing and has a right and unadulterated faith use such a voice. For when piety is persecuted by the enemies of truth, let the disposition toward families and nations be weak; and when the glory of God is despised, then let even the law of love toward brothers be idle; and let God alone, the God of all, be loved, and above all; for we owe our own life to him. And I covered my soul with fasting, and it became a reproach to me. But someone might say: And yet he bore the reputation of a eater and a drinker among the malicious; how then does he now say that he was reproached as one who fasts? To this it must be said that, being called rarely, he went to banquets, both he and his disciples. But those who slandered used these words, being ignorant of the rest of the time of his manner of life. However, the continuous forty-day fast is sufficient for proof.

These things were fulfilled also at the time of the passion, when, the bridegroom being now taken away, the disciples fasted, so that it is likely that he himself, foreseeing the passion and the evils that would follow upon the Jews, wore down his soul with fasting; for fasting is a hindrance to being lifted up by irrational passions. Some of the saints laugh at labors, and they make a pretext for reproaches out of things that are truly marvelous. And I put my garment in sackcloth, and I became a parable to them. And the Savior also confesses on our behalf and is treated shamefully; for the sackcloth hints at a harsh manner of life and mourning. But this too became a parable for the Lord, that is, a reproach. For it is customary for the wicked to reproach the good because of the hardships they endure; and it is likely that Christ, after being put to death, became a parable to the Jews—as if to say, May our enemy suffer such things as the one who was crucified suffered. According to some, by the sackcloth the body is signified, being hard and resistant; at any rate, because of the clothing of the flesh the Lord was reproached. Against me those who sat in the gates prattled, etc. And the Jews also reproached Christ at banquets, making him a drinking-song and a comedy, and in their conversations with one another they laughed him to scorn. For the assemblies of those who behaved out of season toward him had leisure, and they prattled, that is, they had leisure and continually recounted. And those who drank sang against me.

He says these things, hinting at the utterly wretched shipwreck of the Synagogue of the Jews, and declining to be drowned along with them in the deep of ignorance.] But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. (Of Cyril and Theodoret.) Symmachus: "But to me, prayer is you, O Lord." While these things, he says, are happening, I stretch my eye toward you, and I await the help that comes from you. And the Savior too would say to the Father: Even if they mocked me and repaid me evil for good, nevertheless on their behalf I will not cease to employ prayer to you. And this is clear from what the evangelist set beside it—that he prayed even on the cross for those who crucified him. Then he sets down in order also the words of the prayer. A time of favor, O God. For God and Father was well pleased to sum up all things in Christ; and to sum up is to take up and restore the nature of things to what it was in the beginning. And he calls the counsel of God a "favor," by which it seemed good to him that we be saved. "When therefore the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

so that he might redeem those under the law. Having come to this, he says: "A time of favor," equivalent to "The hour has come." In the abundance of your mercy hear me, in the truth of your salvation. And you will do this by saving me, who died on their behalf, through the resurrection. For on their behalf I take upon myself life and salvation; for together with me those who are dead through sin shall be made alive. Yet the salvation that comes from God alone is true, since the salvation that comes from physicians and generals is figurative. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and from the deep waters. The Savior too asks to be delivered from the Jews, who hated him because he reproved them to their face for the wickedness hidden in their depths. Or he calls death and the temptations that we conquer in Christ "the depth of waters." For in that he himself suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. Let not the storm of water drown me, etc. (Of Cyril and Eusebius.) And it seems that "storm of water," "abyss," and "pit" name either the dangers that arise in temptation, or sometimes Hades itself. For he says: "You brought my soul up from Hades," like those who fall into a pit whose mouth has been shut. And the Lord, having indicated through "I am sunk in the mire of the abyss" the dissolution of the body in death, and having set forth the descent into Hades, now speaks concerning the ascent: "Let me be delivered," he says, "from the deep waters," and what follows. For death, having prevailed, swallowed down the other souls, and the pit held them fast, having closed its mouth.

Death is a well with a mouth, having swallowed up from of old all who have fallen into it, and after swallowing them, having closed its own mouth so that no one may return to life. But, he says, may this not happen to me. He speaks of a storm, hinting at the utterly wretched shipwreck of the Synagogue of the Jews, and he begs not to be drowned together with them in the deep of ignorance. How is it, then, that having said above, "A storm has sunk me," he now says, "Let it not sink me"? Because, since it is possible for one who has been submerged to swim up again, he prays not to undergo again what he has experienced. I know other waves and a fearful surge rising against the soul from the passions of the flesh, which one must keep inaccessible and in no way be filled with their bitterness, but always praying and saying, "Deliver me out of the deep waters," and what follows. Hear me, O Lord, for your mercy is good. (Of Cyril and Eusebius.) But why does the Only-begotten also need to be heard, being equal to the Father and of equal honor? He himself states the reason: "For your mercy is good," that is, For this reason I need to be heard, because I have become man through your love for humanity, and on behalf of men I reasonably undertake these things. Do not turn your face away from your servant. (Of Cyril and Eusebius.) And since the Father had also turned away from the nature of man because of the transgression in Adam, for this reason Christ again entreats the Father to turn his face toward it, and not to remain angry, by a metaphor drawn from those who turn away their face in anger. The turning away of God is abandonment.

Because I am afflicted, quickly hear me. (Of Cyril and Eusebius.) Because of the excess of my pain, grant me swift consolation. What is it that afflicts you? Tell me; explain what grieves you, O David. Listen, then, to him speaking plainly: "Because my lawless deeds have risen above my head, like a burden they have weighed heavily upon me." Therefore draw near to him who says: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." And Christ would also say to the Father: For the sake of the common possession, man, I am afflicted, so as to set free the captive taken from us. And hear quickly, since the mystery concerning him needs swiftness. Attend to my soul, and redeem it. And the Savior would also say to the Father: Redeem my soul from that which has seized it— clearly, death. And what, then, is the manner of redemption? Justification in Christ, salvation through faith, the remission of sins through holy baptism. Thus he once redeemed those of Israel, prefiguring for us in shadows and types the mystery of Christ, and that which is unknown to the angels. For the sake of my enemies, rescue me. And the Savior, because of the injustice we have suffered from the spiritual enemies, from this stirs up the Father to our mercy. But if anyone should raise the question why Christ, having prayed for so many things, did not escape temptations, let him hear that as a man he prayed not to enter into temptation, but since it was expedient for him to suffer for our salvation, he accepted the sufferings, choosing the divine will over the human. For you know my reproach.

And the Savior also says to the Father: You know the reproach which I was reproached for your name's sake, the shame which I endured for your truth, the disgrace which I underwent for your glory. For those who afflict me, who strike me, who crucify me, do all things before your eyes. My soul expected reproach and misery. Hence Christ also recounts his passion, which the evangelists also clearly recounted to us. And there was no one to grieve with him and console him, because even the disciples fled, one to one place and another to another. They gave gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (Of Cyril and Theodoret.) And even my very food, he says, they made bitter and grievous; for even the sweetest food is joyless to those who eat it with pain. And the blessed evangelists also note that when Christ thirsted at the time of the cross and asked to drink, they brought him vinegar mixed with gall; and having tasted it, he says, he did not wish to drink, so that this psalmist Scripture might be fulfilled. Let their table become a snare before them. (Of Cyril and Theodoret.) Thus Symmachus also interpreted it: "Let their table become before them a snare and a punishment," so that from this the things that would befall the Jews after the passion might be signified. And it is as if he were saying: May they suffer the like of those things which they prepared for me to experience. For woe to the lawless man, because evil things will befall him according to his works. Let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see.

Bring upon them the murky cloud of temptations, so that, turning away from every direction from the illumination of the divine mysteries, the wicked Jews may perish miserably, because of their own madness and their excessive intemperance unto disobedience. And how were the Jews not darkened, having not received the sun of righteousness? Since they handed over to the cross the Lord of all, the sun set for them, and the light grew dark in the day, a clear sign that the souls of those who crucified him were darkened also in the intelligible sense. For a hardening has come upon Israel in part, and a veil lies upon their heart, and having eyes they do not see, because they rejected the true light and willingly closed the eyes of their heart. And bend down their back continually. And disjoint their loins continually; condemn them to slavery to the Babylonians, O Master, so that they may fall into the very things they do, bowed down always to toilsome labor. The fury of your anger overtake them. He called the sharp and painful punishment the fury of anger. And upon those who crucified him the fury of the divine anger was poured out, not partially as often, but completely, and every kind of punishment overtook them. Because whom you struck, they persecuted. You, he says, exacting from me the penalty for my drunken insolence, handed me over as to certain public executioners, to the Babylonians; but these men surrounded me with more evils than they were commanded, and increased for me the

pain of sin. The God of all accuses them of this cruelty, and says: "I delivered them into your hands, but you did not give them mercy; you made the yoke of the elder heavy, and you did not pity the younger." But if the word concerns those who crucified him, this is a presentation of the cause for which they will suffer such things. It is similar to what is in Zechariah: "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered." For having permitted the Son to suffer, he himself is said to deliver him up. And the Son suffered not from necessity, but willingly; for his passion was salvific for the world. This one, then, he says, who came to be in tumults according to your good pleasure because of the passion—they themselves did not receive him, and drove him out somewhere beyond their own salvation. Therefore, not because the Father, but because he who was better ordered unto death, just as it was foreordained, delivered up the Son, are those who served this counsel in this way free from blame. For they did not resolve to do this out of zeal to please God, but transgressing by the self-moving will of their soul and led by murderous envy, they accomplished this. Then he adds: "Upon the pain of my wounds they added." Since he humbled himself, but they encompassed him with death; or because they not only killed him, but also slandered and falsely accused his resurrection; for this reason he again curses them in what follows. Add iniquity upon their iniquity. (Of Cyril and Eusebius.) He says this because of the addition of Jerusalem. He called iniquity the punishment brought on because of sin.

But if the word is about those who crucified him, that by their lawlessness against the Lord they will add yet another lawlessness, having killed James the son of Zebedee with the sword, and the brother of God with wood, and Stephen with stones. Or one lawlessness is that they did not receive the truth when it came, unlawfully sitting by the shadow of the law; and another lawlessness is that, driven out of Judea and of this, too, the typical worship, they perform it where it is not permitted. Therefore they do not enter into the righteousness that is through faith in Jesus Christ, but they will be far also from the delight that will be given to the righteous. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous. And the crucifiers also, even if they were first enrolled because of their fathers who live before God, so that the promises were given to them as well, nevertheless, since they dared such things, they will reasonably be blotted out, nor will they be enrolled before God with the chosen righteous and those worthy of the life that is with him, as having rejected the author of life and salvation. For the things said in the imperative must be understood as foretelling. And the book of life is the memory and knowledge of God; there the works are written. Blessed, then, is the one deemed worthy of the enrollment in the Jerusalem above. But I am poor and in pain, your salvation, O God, has helped me. (,, 105, ) And the phrase "I am poor and in pain," this signifies what is said in the person of the captives: Seeing me in poverty and examined in many pains, you deemed me worthy of your salvation. And the Lord also says, "I am poor," in that he emptied himself and became man.

But grieving also over the cross he endured and the blows from the Jews, he said to the Father: "Your salvation, O God, has taken hold of me." He says this too in a human way, but he has preserved everywhere the manner of the economy; for it was necessary that he who had become man should also be said to be raised by the Father. From this the gospel way of life is also proclaimed, which the choir according to God began, poor in spirit, who enters giving thanks for the salvation that came to him from the Only-Begotten. And he promises no longer to offer sacrifices through blood, but rather those through praises and spiritual ones. Therefore he adds: I will praise the name of my God with a song. But the lawlessness of the Jews is worthy of lamentation, since they do not wish to understand the childishness of the legal worship, although those taken captive in Babylon promised to hymn God after their return. He will be pleasing to God above a young calf. That is, three years old and perfect; for such were the sacrifices according to the law. But it should be known that then a male calf was sacrificed whenever the Synagogue fell into sin; and it was also offered on behalf of the high priest. Since, then, high priests and rulers gathered together against Christ, and stirred up those under their hand against him, and became the cause of their own sin, and they needed the purification through the law, he said: I do not offer the perceptible calf, but the pure and bloodless sacrifice which I established in my Church. Let the poor see and be glad. And the apostles also say concerning those who believed in Christ through them, that, having known these things, those poor in spirit will rejoice.

Let the heavens and the earth, the sea, etc., praise him." (From Cyril and Theodoret.) He says, I call all creation, even the elements themselves, into fellowship of hymn-singing; for one tongue is not sufficient to recount the divine graces. And the powers above glorify God ceaselessly, when all the earth has been set free. And this too has become an achievement of the advent of our Savior, who joined those on earth to the spirits above, so that one and the same worship is performed by all. But if those in the heavens rejoice over the salvation of men and praise God for this, much more will those who have been saved on earth praise the one who saved them. Therefore "and the earth" is added, so as to say: Let all things above and all things below hymn him. For from the more important things he has included the particular things as well. And he mentioned the sea, since in the islands too they were going to receive the salvation of God. "For God will save Zion, and the cities of Judea will be built." —"And the seed of his servants will possess her." But more exalted is Zion, the Church of the saints, whose cities also have been built—the souls raised up from the slip of unbelief through confession; for Judea is interpreted as confession. And the servants of God are the holy apostles; and their seed are those who through them believed in Christ.

PSALM 69.

For the end, by David, for a remembrance, that the Lord may save me. But it can also be brought forward from Christ on behalf of humanity, which deems it worthy that God arise to help it. For thus it happened that the enemies and demons that lie in wait for it were put to shame, and those who rejoice in its salvation were made glad. Therefore he cries out: Let those who seek my soul be ashamed and put to shame. (From Cyril and Theodoret.) Let them, he says, be put to confusion—those who desire my slaughter—and let them reap the shame that comes from it. But more profoundly, the demons, who once were exalted and took delight over the fall that came upon me because of the curse of death, let them no longer lord it over me. And the prayer is worthy of David; for he does not pray against those who plot for possessions or for boundaries of land, but against those who plot against the soul—that is, the demons—and the wicked and faithless men who cooperate with them. Let them be turned back—those who say to me: Well done, well done. (From Cyril and Theodoret.) Those, he says, who take delight in my evils, let them turn to flight with shame, seeing my change, and let them not enjoy the gladness. For "Well done" is the custom to say to people whenever they meet with something according to their pleasure. And the demons also say this when we sin; and sometimes they even send forth laughter, mocking us. Nevertheless, it is profitable for the one who sins to be turned back, returning through repentance to that which he has left behind.

Good, along with the willingness to be put to shame. But I am poor and needy; O God, help me. Perhaps these words are also spoken from the person of the people of the nations, poor and needy because of sin and impiety, entreating Christ to hasten his help and that the intelligible enemies be put to shame.

PSALM 70.

In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me. (Of Cyril and Basil.) The Son is also the righteousness of the Father, through whom we were delivered from the sin that held us to corruption. Therefore he who has hope in God will not be put to shame for all eternity, just as one who has trusted in something else is put to shame when he falls away from his hope; for he who trusts, it says, in wealth, he shall fall. And do not hope in sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. And cursed is he who has his hope in man; but blessed is the man who has trusted in the Lord. And so I, it says, if I had attached the hope of my soul to man at all, or to any other of the treacherous and unstable things, I would deserve to be put to shame. But if I have looked down on all other things and have rested my whole confidence on you alone, then, O God, let me not be put to shame forever. And having remembered your innate righteousness, which distributes to all according to worth, deliver me from the men who attack me, or from demons, and rescue me from their perversity.

PSALM 71.

O God, give your judgment to the king. And what judgment did he receive, as the blessed Paul said in few words, that God and the Father was well pleased to sum up all things in Christ? Let the mountains take up peace for the people, and the hills righteousness. (Of Cyril, Didymus, Athanasius) Here he calls mountains and hills the angelic powers, which formerly, because of the poured-out impiety, did not dwell in the land, but now are commanded to take up peace toward all men. He will save the sons of the poor. And who then are the poor meant here, and who are their sons, it is necessary to see. The holy apostles, then, he calls poor; for they were poor in spirit; he has saved us, then, the sons of the poor, having justified us in the faith according to the Spirit and sanctified us. And he will continue with the sun. "He will continue with," that is, God and man together is extended through all time; because even before the moon he was for generations of generations. Righteousness will rise in his days, and abundance of peace, until the moon is taken away. Righteousness will rise for us in the days of Christ through faith; and abundance of peace, through turning toward God. And in addition to these things, the devil is taken away. — Observe how he did not say "is destroyed," but "is taken away" — the moon; for as he had already destroyed man, the devil is taken away. [And otherwise, throughout the whole inhabited world the ruler of night, the devil, was glorified, as being indicated in a type through the moon, which is also set for the beginnings of night, giving a bastard light, the wisdom of the world;

But the one who takes away the sin of the world destroyed his glory; in whose days righteousness sprang up through faith, and abundance of peace through turning to God. And well is it said, "He shall be taken away" — in return for the fact that he took away a man, he shall be taken away. And he shall have dominion from sea to sea. And what is this, "From sea to sea"? First he defines for us the boundaries of the land of the Jews; then, he says, his kingdom shall be extended over the whole inhabited world. And as a boundary for the land of the Jews, on the one hand from the more northern parts, lies the sea along Palestine and Phoenicia; and on the other, from the more southern parts, there lies again the Salt Sea, that is, the Red Sea. He defines, therefore, the measure of the land of the Jews, and says: "He shall have dominion from sea to sea." But this is a small thing for Christ our Savior of all; for it was not fitting that the measure of his kingdom be confined to the land of the Jews alone. Before him shall fall down the Ethiopians. By Ethiopians in these words he means those understood spiritually, who have their heart darkened and their mind, as it were, blackened; and by enemies, those who oppose the unerring proclamation and for a time fight against the truth. For those who formerly hated Christ and held their mind hostile to him, that is, those who fight against the truth, by worshiping lifeless idols and being subject to Satan, shall lick the dust, that is, they shall fall to the ground, worshiping him, clearly, and as it were rolling at his knees. The kings of Tarshish. The kings of Sheba. Tarshish is of the Ethiopians among the nations.

Moreover, Tharseis signifies the hyacinth color, as we have it in the prophet: "Their likeness is as Tharseis." And it signifies also the city of Tarsos in Jonah. Sabba is a city of India, from which the queen of the South came to Solomon. They shall worship him. —For he delivered the poor man from the mighty one. All shall worship him, having been set free from the bitter tyranny of the devil; for he called him a mighty one, and the poor man the human nature, as having become at that time destitute of God. And whom does he call in these words the poor man and the needy, if not clearly the people from the Gentiles? For thus the Savior also made mention of them, saying through the voice of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for which cause he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good tidings to the poor." For they were poor who were wandering astray, not having the wealth that comes from virtues, and deprived also of true knowledge; and, as the blessed Paul says, having no hope, and atheists in the world. And they shall pray concerning him continually. (Of Cyril and Eusebius.) And who are those who prayed, if not clearly we who have received his faith? For stretching up our prayers to God, we ask that the supply of good things be given through Christ. Let his name be blessed. For where is Christ not, or what nation has not been honored with such a calling? Before the sun his name shall endure. How then did he receive what he always appears to have? How or in what manner did you foreknow? For even before the foundation of the world, he says, the mystery of Christ—which, as the all-wise Paul writes, has been kept silent for eternal ages, but was made manifest in the last times of the age.

If, then, Christ was foreknown, we too were surely foreknown together with him. "Who alone works wonders." Having gone through all that he accomplished in the economy, he sends up a hymn to him, saying, "You are the God of Israel, the only one able to do these wonders," or to destroy the power of Satan and to rescue those plotted against from the tyranny of the demons. And observe that none of the things said in the psalm will fit Solomon the son of Uriah, neither "Before the sun his name exists," nor "before the moon to be for generations of generations." From all this, then, it is clear that it was spoken of our Lord Jesus Christ. And blessed is the name of his glory. For every knee bows to him, and when the Son is glorified, the one who begot him is glorified together with him; for he says that the Son is the glory of the Father. For thus somewhere, making his addresses to him as Son: "Father, glorify your Son, that the Son also may glorify you." This name, then, he says—that is, the Son, or Jesus Christ—shall be blessed forever.