Commentaria in Psalmos_1

OF EUSEBIUS OF PAMPHILUS ON THE PSALMS, FROM 119 TO 150. PSALM 119. A Song of the Ascents. Those who have fallen from the good things of God ascend to them, having prepared themselves for the ascent; the Psalmist, then, having sufficiently demonstrated the preparation through the first psalm, introduces the ascent that comes through afflictions. From a deceitful tongue. That is, from every false opinion and deceit; for one who is at the beginning of progress needs it, so that no one may deceive him with plausible speech. What should be given to you? etc. The Word, having heard the one who prayed, according to the saying, While you are still speaking, behold, I am present, answers him and says: Take courage, O man, knowing that you have a mighty protector and champion, who wields weapons on your behalf against your enemies; for he has sharpened arrows against them, and prepared desolating coals for them, and he will pursue them in the punishments against them; what then do you ask to be given to you beyond this? Or what do you wish to have added to you after so great a preparation of the Mighty One against the impious? With the tents of Kedar. Kedar can mean the frost of a generation and darkness; I have dwelt, then, he says, with the tents of darkness, which is the body of death; and my soul itself, he says, has sojourned many times over.

PSALM 120. I lifted up my eyes to the mountains. He who has been released from slavery under his enemies, and is now already on the road that leads to the city of God, lifts up his eyes here and there to the mountains, considering and inquiring diligently whence help will come to him; but having looked around at all the parts of the world and its heights, he finds the object of his search in none of the things perceived by the senses; but running up in mind and with the eyes of the soul to the Maker and Creator of all things, he takes his stand here, and sings the second ode, saying: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The Lord will keep you. The God who never sleeps himself keeps the man who looks to God at all times, and shelters his right hand, inasmuch as he employs right actions and drives out his enemies by his own right hand; for enemies especially try to plot against the right hand of those who love God; at any rate, it has been said thus: And Jesus was clothed in filthy garments, and the devil stood at his right hand. — But God especially keeps him from evil, even if outward things or the body suffer harm; at any rate, concerning Job he gave command: Only preserve his soul; and the soul needs guarding at the time of the departure from life, and at the entrance into the city of God; for what profit is it if someone falls in the middle of the road and perishes? Therefore do not call a man blessed before his end. The sun shall not burn you by day. A bright cloud does not allow those who travel according to God to be burned by the sun; and by its corresponding help it aids them so that they suffer nothing even from the luminary of the night.

PSALM 121. I was glad when they said to me, etc. As he walks the road that leads to God, being instructed concerning its end, he is filled with gladness at the very report of the things to come; therefore he also acknowledges that he has met with good and noble teachers, those who said to him, "Let us go into the house of the Lord"; and he hastens all the more, making his journey with gladness. —Of those returning from Babylon, the great multitude was the new people born in Babylon itself; but there were a few among them who were old men and very aged, who had come down there from Jerusalem and had remained the seventy years, after which they were returning together with the new people. When these, then, were asked by the new people where they were making their journey, they answered, as it were, and said, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." And the new people, having rejoiced at such a report, asked a second time, "From where do those who speak have this knowledge?" And they answered them and said, "Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem"; and these feet that now walk here together with you once happened to be standing in the courts of Jerusalem; therefore, knowing accurately, we bring you this good news, and we also carry the manner of the city's building, and its very pattern, so to speak, and its form, accurately in our memory. For it was like a city not scattered here and there, nor divided and separated into many parts, but it was built in such a way as to seem to be one house, through the conjunction and harmony of the buildings in it; therefore it has been said, "Its participation was as a city at the same place.

Such are all the souls that are with God in their understanding, and the living stones with which the true temple of God is built, fitted together with the same mind and the same purpose. For there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, a testimony to Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For there he commanded them to sacrifice, to pray, and to keep festival, so that, not wandering everywhere, they might have a pretext for making excursions after idols; for this he called a testimony of God, since this was the greatest proof of his providence. For there the law was read, and the narratives of ancient achievements, and they made a gathering that bound together love for one another. Ask now for the things that make for the peace of Jerusalem. For always, he says, and at all times remembering you, O Jerusalem, we discuss the things concerning your peace with our brothers and with our neighbors—that is, with the new people—leading them to a longing for you through the teaching about you. But indeed our whole prayer was made for the sake of the house of our God, as we seek good things for you from God.

PSALM 122 To you I lifted up my eyes, to you who dwell in heaven. Since heaven is the throne of God, for this reason he is said to dwell in heaven; but no one who stores up treasure on earth could say to God, "To you I lifted up my eyes, to you who dwell in heaven"; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The eyes of the fool are on the ends of the earth, or on whatever he desires; for he looks upon a woman to desire her. But the eyes of the righteous are always toward God. Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters. The new people, having received the good news from the elders through the preceding song, says, I hope in nothing else than in you, who dwell not in the Jerusalem below but in heaven. And it is fitting for those alone to say this who have been freed from captivity and whose soul's power of sight is sound; for the eye of the soul, when it looks upward, is benefited; when it looks downward, it is harmed. PSALM 123 When men rose up against us. Those who said, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us," now, as though they had been heard, give thanks to God. The man of clear sight, having God before his eyes, is taught to speak what is present; for thus Israel, bringing a song of victory to God who gives the victory. The aged teach the young, and the disciples obey. And Israel belongs to him who has God within himself, so as to be able to say, "If the Lord had not been in us." Such was the Israel formed by Moses, to whom it was said, "Be silent, and hear, O Israel; and the Lord will fight for you, and you shall be silent." Surely they would have swallowed us alive.

And the circumstance of the time, even if violent, is yet short-lived like a winter torrent. Blessed is the Lord, etc. And whom ought we to bless and hymn for not being captured by the men who wished to swallow us alive, except the Lord who is in us? Those who rushed to hunt us, in order to devour us, were not able to arrange matters as they hastened to; for the savage lions, fierce in spirit, were eager with their teeth to hunt us; but they did not attain their earnest aim, since the Lord did not give us over; whom we also bless, for he rescued us from those who had set themselves murderously against us. PSALM 124. Mountains are round about her. Those who returned after the long journey to the perceptible Jerusalem say these things, as now at last being in safety, trusting not in the place but in the confidence of the Lord; which is better than dwelling in Jerusalem; and since this was better, where was the people? For the place, mountains are said to be round about it; but for the people, on whose account the place also is honored, truly God, who also guards the place, when the people is worthy. The Lord will lead away with those who work lawlessness. "Will lead away" signifies "will hand over": into the uncleanness which they chose, into passions of dishonor and a reprobate mind, to do things that are not fitting.

PSALM 125. When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion. The apostles are prophesied to say these things about themselves and about those among the nations, and afterwards to declare concerning seed and harvest. In David's times there was no captivity; perhaps, then, he speaks these things about the spiritual captivity. But another will say that the future is prophetically made clear. A part of the captivity that returned from Babylon and recovered Jerusalem sends up the present ode in good hopes concerning those who remained in Babylon. And they say that the things of our joy have not yet been completely fulfilled, but this will be when the whole nation returns from the enemy's land to its own land. The interpretation of the others presents this thought; for instead of "we became as those comforted," all say in agreement, "we became as those dreaming," but not beholding our freedom in reality. Our joy will be real and vivid when the rest of our brothers also return from captivity, on which account the nations will also call us blessed, as having recovered our own members; for the body of those being saved is one. Then our mouth was filled with joy. For those who speak the divine things, in which is the fruit of the Spirit, joy becomes a mouth for those who hear, and it was filled with joy, and the tongue with exultation, from which joy and exultation flow. When these things happen, those taught from among the nations say, "The Lord has magnified himself to do with them"; and they also speak about themselves, giving thanks: "The Lord has magnified himself to do with us; we became those rejoicing.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept; but when the Lord turned back the captivity, our mouth was filled with joy; when we set a guard over our mouth; and the saying, The mouth of the righteous meditates on wisdom; and the saying, Open your mouth, says God; and similar: Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians; then, speaking truth, we shall say: Then our mouth was filled with joy. And after a little: But when we keep our ways so as not to sin, then our tongue will be filled with exultation; and the mouth of Philip was filled with joy, when he opened his mouth and, beginning from, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, proclaimed Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch. The Lord has magnified his dealings with us. Above, the two verses were spoken as though the return from captivity were already taking place; but now the Prophet says these things as one still in captivity, prophesying the former part, I think, concerning the apostles, and speaking the second part in the person of the nations; for the words from, The Lord has magnified his dealings with us, as far as, like streams in the south, belong to those among the nations. Turn, O Lord, our captivity. They added these things in sequence to the former; for, he says, it is not as though we were insensible to the benefaction already done to us that we say these things, but confessing that God has done great things with us, and that we have already come into gladness; yet being in this state, we nevertheless pray and entreat on behalf of our remaining members, saying: Turn, O Lord, our captivity like streams in the south.

For it is absurd that those deprived of divine knowledge should marvel at the love for mankind shown to us, while we who have obtained piety are sick with ingratitude. Those who sow in tears, etc. He who sows in tears sows into the spirit of those who are blessed for their tears; but in exultation he reaps eternal life, he who already attains to laughing in the spirit. To those who asked the Deity about the remaining captives, the answer is given: Blessed are those who weep, for they shall laugh; and if those in Babylon do this, by the good hopes which they sow through their weeping they shall reap exultation; instead of the tears which they had while beloved, they shall receive the joy of the return; and if at that time they kept but a small seed of godliness, yet by cultivating their own souls there, they shall bring back many fruits when they return. Up to the seventh ode the things concerning the captives from the circumcision were foretold. PSALM 120. According to the Hebrew and all the translators, the present ode is Solomon's, just as other psalms are inscribed with the names of others, spoken prophetically by him when he was building the temple; for of the Jews

Those who think great things of the strength of their building, while by the divine Spirit he sees its final desolation, and the Church that is to be built by the Lord throughout the whole inhabited world, setting it over against the temple built by him, he prefers and greatly admires that one, convicting the presence of that time as temporary and not standing even for a moment without God's guard. These things he sang for the occasion of those returning from Babylon, who were eager for the rebuilding of the temple and thought great things on this account. For if, he says, Unless the Lord guards it, and when the guard has withdrawn, it will be desolate, the zeal of men will be in vain. In the case of the temple, he brings in the Lord as builder; in the case of the city, men as builders, but God as guard. The saying is useful against thoughts of arrogance. Those who eat the bread of pain. Theodotion, and the fifth edition, rendered it "they gave out the bread of idols," reasonably; for the Hebrew has "to be impious," which in other places too is interpreted as "idol." Solomon foresees by the Spirit that those who are going to inhabit the house made by him will be devoted to idols, serving demons in it. He says, then, that after the departure they came back again to this, and did this continually at intervals. For what profit is it to honor the place, for those who by idolatry distance themselves from God? Hence Symmachus said: It is vain for you to rise at dawn to dwell, or to sing praise.

PSALM 127. Following the ode before this one, the calling of the nations is proclaimed through this psalm. At any rate, those who fear the Lord are said to be other than Israel, and other than the superior order in Israel—I mean the priestly order. The saying that states this makes it clear: "The house of Israel hoped in the Lord"; and after this: "Those who fear the Lord hoped in the Lord"; and again: "The Lord, mindful of us, blessed us: he blessed the house of Israel, he blessed the house of Aaron"; and after this: "He blessed those who fear the Lord." Following these, then, you will understand those who are pronounced blessed in the present ode. These were all those who fear the Lord. But better than, and exalted above, those who fear the Lord is the one who has come to be in perfect love; for perfect love casts out fear. And those who fear will walk in many paths; but perhaps the one who loves walks in one—the one who said, "I am the way," to which the many paths also arrive as to a harbor. And well did he say, "Blessed are all": whether slave, whether master, whether maimed in body, whether anything at all—none of these things hinders this blessedness of which he speaks. But the blessedness that comes from men is precarious and liable to reversal, molded by word alone and tossed about by countless circumstances. Not so the one who fears God; rather, released from these waves, he sits in calm and in harbor, reaping the true blessedness. "You shall eat the labors of your fruits." The rest "brought forth the labor of their hands"; but he speaks as of a farmer enjoying the fruits of what he has farmed.

and the one who strives in the way of piety, storing up for himself food for the life to come, proportionate to the labors he has undertaken; and virtue and labor according to God are food and joy for the soul. Such is the one who fears the Lord; but the one who loves, as already perfect, will eat the heavenly bread, according to the saying, Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. Your wife as a fruitful vine. And according to the literal sense, these things are given to the one who fears the Lord as imperfect, but not to the one who loves him with all his soul and with all his heart and with all his strength; for Eye has not seen, and the rest; but to the one who fears the Lord a spouse is given, concerning whom it says, A good wife is a good portion; and, A valiant woman who will find? and such a one is more precious than costly stones; thus an evil spouse would be wrath from God. Your sons as newly planted olive trees. Thus also sons are given from God to the one who fears the Lord, not like the many sons, but those who as newly planted olive trees surround and crown his table; but if anyone says that those who do not fear the Lord often possess an abundance of sons and a flourishing wife, we will say that the present blessing does not simply promise a wife and children, but this very thing in its entirety: a wife likened to a vine, and children to newly planted olive trees; but the things of the impious are not such.

PSALM 128. The righteous Lord has cut off the necks of sinners. For all who have persecuted will perish miserably. The righteous Lord cuts off the neck that they do not submit to the good yoke; and he does this with a good purpose, so that, casting off their tension and strength toward base things, they may be subjected to the Lord, to whom all things are naked and laid bare. Instead of "he has cut off the necks of sinners," Aquila has "he has cut down the nooses of the impious"; and Symmachus, "he has cut down the nooses of the lawless"; and the fifth edition has rendered "the collars of the lawless"; the word indicating those things prepared by the impious for the plotting against the righteous. And through these things the word also foretells the final ends, and the destruction of those who from time to time attempt to war against the Church of God and his people. PSALM 129. Concerning the people of Christ it cannot be said: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far removed from me." For not as the first people, but out of the depths they cried out, inasmuch as they partake of the Spirit, which, according to Paul, searches all things, even the depths of God; and "deep" is used in praise and in common usage; such as also, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God." And to Ezekiel he says: "I am not sending you to a people of deep lips and heavy tongue." But the people deep in understanding, the one who also spoke the song before this one, groaning from their breasts with unutterable groanings, cries out to God, but not with lips; just as not Moses either, to whom it was said, though he was silent: "Why do you cry to me?

But the present prayer is that of one who asks for what is needful, and who readily offers himself to those who ask; and he testifies especially through the preceding ode, saying: "They have fought against me many times, for indeed they could not prevail against me"; and they will also say: "For the sake of your name I endured you, Lord." And "ears" is said of those who attend, since the one power of God is both hearing and seeing; and "cry" he calls not the pitch of the voice, but the disposition of the mind. "If you should mark iniquities, Lord." But since not all in the Church can say, "They have fought against me many times, for indeed they could not prevail against me," he sends up the present utterance concerning the weaker, who cannot bear persecutions; unless perhaps the same man says these things concerning his own iniquities before his calling. With him there is abundant redemption. For he gave his precious blood as a ransom for us, having become the Lamb of God; for this one bears our sins and is grieved for us. And he made redemption for his people, according to Zechariah; and according to the holy Virgin, "He has helped Israel.

PSALM 130. Following upon the preceding ode, the present song also contains the utterances of humility of one who has been perfected in the Lord, and especially of him who can say: "For your name's sake I have waited for you, O Lord." And David, having learned, as is likely, from the utterances of the Holy Spirit that there is a propitiation with God, and abundant redemption with him if one should believe, necessarily offers himself to the Redeemer; therefore it is also inscribed: "Of David, for the setting aside of transgressions," as he enumerates his own valiant deeds. For never, he says, was I lifted up as a ruler over his nation; nor indeed was I puffed up, looking outside of God and relaxing the constitution that pertains to his fear; nor again did I pass my life richly in luxury; nor did I think anything greater, he says, about myself than the things that belong to me—such as are those who are prudent in their own eyes, and knowledgeable before themselves. Let Israel hope in the Lord, as I, says King David, being so great and such a man, humbled myself and brought myself to the propitiation and the Redeemer and Savior; so also I promise to the rest of Israel that they may boldly approach the propitiation, knowing accurately that he himself will redeem Israel, if it should run to him, from all its lawless deeds.

PSALM 131. The Lord swore truth to David. And to David, who had sworn, God swore in return, when he sought to learn the place, granting as a gift that he should also come forth from him: so that through two unchangeable things, as Paul says, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might receive strong encouragement concerning the things for which he prayed. From the fruit of your belly I will set upon your throne. Since you, he says, believed thus and prayed to know such things, desiring to learn about the place of the Savior's coming to men, receive also yourself the promise, and become a servant of the saving birth. For the fruit that is to be born shall be yours, coming forth from your succession and from your seed; therefore a throne shall also be given to him as promised, because no other than the one who comes forth from you alone is worthy of the throne promised to you. Accordingly Gabriel also says to Mary: And God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. If your sons keep my covenant. They shall sit, that is, upon the throne of Christ himself—his disciples and successors; yet there is no grudging even toward your sons, O David, that is, toward those of the circumcision, if they should receive the Christ, and if they should keep my covenant and my testimonies—not those given through the first legislation, but these which I shall teach them, which are later at some time to be handed down to them through the new covenant; for if they keep these, they too shall be made to sit upon your throne, which has been prepared for Christ.

Blessing her hunt, I will bless; I will satisfy her poor with bread. And by way of anagogical interpretation, the hunt of Zion is those who, like fish, are caught daily through the gospel and apostolic nets; and her poor are the blessed, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven; who eat the bread that came down from heaven. But also her priests, having first clothed themselves with righteousness, as it is said, are clothed by God with salvation. Then he speaks concerning the holy ones, those distinguished in virtue and life in the Church; concerning whom Aquila said, "With praise they will praise"; and Symmachus, "Praising they will praise." And upon him my sanctification will flourish. This he says concerning John, according to what was spoken by the Lord: "He was the lamp that was burning and shining." But these things can also be seen otherwise in times of persecutions; and Symmachus said, "his sanctification"; for the sanctification of our Savior is sanctified throughout the whole inhabited world in the Church. PSALM 132. Behold now, what is good or what is pleasant, but to dwell, etc. Not every good thing is already also pleasant; nor is the pleasant altogether also good; for many things are pleasant but base, just as others are toilsome but good. But concord and peace of souls who are like-minded and of the same opinion is praised as having both the pleasant and the good together; not simply that brothers dwell, but when they are together in the same place, according to the Apostle who says: "That you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." And he teaches that the good and the pleasant are not to be placed in the body, nor in the pleasure of the flesh.

As the dew of Hermon that descends upon the mountains of Zion. Hermon is a mountain, situated near Lebanon, on which much snow gathers, which the Word called dew; and since that dew, gathered from many drops, is embodied and congealed into one, he rightly likened the concord and harmony of the Church through another example—not to the snow that abides on Mount Hermon, but to that which descends upon the mountains of Zion. For in order that we might understand the abundance of the snow, Mount Hermon has been introduced; but in order that he might make clear the harmony of the conduct that is according to God, he said that the dew descends upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing. There, he says, among the brothers who dwell together in unity; and life—not the common life, but the immortal one. PSALM 133. May the Lord bless you out of Zion. It was already said to Abraham: Those who bless you are blessed; and in effect he who does this blesses himself; but if this was said concerning Abraham, how much more concerning the Lord? For he has no need of blessing from us. But each one grants it to himself and blesses himself, being blessed in return by the Maker of all things. Therefore it was said first: Bless the Lord; and then next: May the Lord bless you.

PSALM 134. The present praise is reasonably placed next to the last of the odes, having the same words; therefore Hallelujah is prefixed: "Hallelu" meaning "praise," and "jah" meaning "the Lord." One might say that the first part is a hymn, as in a preface stirring up those who are commanded to praise God, beginning the praise with: Lord, your name is forever. And it instructs, turning them away from idols, and teaches the knowledge of God. For those now coming from the nations needed to obtain such exhortation; whom he also calls servants, not yet having received the spirit of adoption. It happens that these, before the regeneration of the bath, have a standing in the house of God of his own forecourts, but not having obtained the innermost parts; for they had an introduction, but not perfection. Indeed, the courts are different, since the lives of those introduced are also different; and of progress, it is, after praising the name of the Lord, to praise the Lord himself; for one must first learn that there is a Word of God, standing over the whole world and ruling it; then to learn about his essence and power, and to know the only-begotten Son of God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good, etc. Since the Lord is good, praise him. And the cause of praising is that the good is not by participation, and likewise in the Father. We praise not only with the word, but also by participation in his good things, and as one ought to do things fitting with contemplation and the works that are theologized, "Sing to his name" has been added; for this is sweet and beyond all goodness.

We praise him because he chose for himself Jacob, who tripped up the passions and vices, making him chosen because he had destroyed the wrestlings that come from vice and passions; but also the one after him, Jacob, who by progress was shown to be Israel, he chose for his own possession; and for this reason he is a people for a possession, having become a possession from all the nations, while all are occupied with substance and existence, because he who partakes of it is both wise and the Word of God. All that the Lord willed, he did in heaven and on the earth, in the seas and in all the deeps. All that the Lord made is good, since they came to be by the will of God; but if there is anything in heaven, as the spiritual forces of wickedness, or on the earth, as sinful men, or in the seas, as the wickedness of the dragon, or in the deeps, as the wickedness of the evils commanded to go there, this God did not make by his will; for out of the mouth of the Lord shall not come evil and good. He who brings out winds from his treasuries. The phrase "from his treasuries" does not mean that there are certain treasuries of the winds, but the readiness of the one who commands, the ease of possession being prepared; just as one who has something in a treasury brings it out freely and whenever he wishes, so also the Creator of all made all things easily and handed them over to nature. Who struck the firstborn of Egypt.

Since some say that universal and heavenly matters are governed by God's providence alone, he shows that he also cares for human affairs, both now punishing the impious and taking to himself the race of the pious. But long ago the Lord's portion was—clearly, of God the Word—his people Jacob, the measuring-line of his inheritance, Israel; but since that one fell away through the impiety he committed, it was said to him who became man: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. O Lord, your name is forever. Nothing so belongs to divine Providence as to teach human beings that the whole is not without a master; whence also his continual remembrance has been established among us, whose greatness his servants, having learned it through what came before, are taught to speak of the present matters and are encouraged, having learned that they will be comforted in them, with judgment following upon the rest of the people—those who have known his name and have his memorial; but in those, as in servants needing forgiveness, he is entreated. The idols of the nations are silver and gold. Having completed the theology concerning the Lord and recounted the great works of his providence, as one still speaking to servants—those who have only now come from the polytheistic error—he sets in contrast the refutation of the gods formerly esteemed among them, in accordance with what he had said above: that, I have known that the Lord is great, and the

Our Lord is above all gods; for our Lord has done these things both in the universal and in the particular; but the gods of the nations, whom you yourselves formerly in your error regarded as gods, were nothing other than dead and dumb idols. And Symmachus also has translated elegantly, in place of "let those who make them become like them," saying "as they themselves became, so let those who make them become, and everyone who trusts in them." For indeed those who attend to lifeless things as gods, having become as it were petrified in soul, have themselves suffered the same as the things worshipped by them, having eyes and not seeing, having ears and not hearing. Let those who make them become like them. Those previously mentioned will become, or have already become, like their own gods; but those received into the lot of God, and who have been called his people, Bless, he says, the Lord, that is, praise him, benefiting themselves greatly. And first the people of God is called to the blessing, the one called the house of Israel, the subordinate rank of the multitude; second, in ascent and preeminence, the house of Aaron; and third, the whole tribe called the house of Levi, the priestly one; and after all, higher still, those who fear the Lord; and these were those to whom the whole hymn is addressed; those, namely, named servants at the beginning of the whole psalm, clearly those who come to the faith from the nations.

For if the whole Jewish nation is encompassed by the three orders mentioned—Israel, the house of Aaron, and the house of Levi—who else besides these could be those who fear the Lord, if not those from the nations who have come to the word of God? These are also taught to bless: Blessed is the Lord out of Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem, or the city of God that always remains, in which the true dwelling-place of God would be understood. PSALM 135. To him who alone made great wonders. And it is wonderful even in its wording, if heaven by its mere appearance declares the wisdom of God, by its greatness and beauty and its long-lasting permanence; and the earth is everywhere surrounded by waters and preserves its own constitution; and the psalmist has joined the eternal mercy to all things, since God created all things not for any need of his own, but solely out of love for humanity. To him who struck Egypt. If, he says, you are not persuaded that the whole world and its parts are governed by the providence and power of God, and you are in doubt whether particular things and human affairs are overlooked by him, know that he provides for things on earth no less than for things in heaven; at any rate, in due time he visits the exceedingly godless and impious among men, just as he once visited the Egyptians and the land of Egypt itself. And again he stands before and fights on behalf of those beloved of God, and not only them but also their descendants, just as he freed through Moses those who were then in slavery among the Egyptians, whom God himself, who is over all, freed, using nothing other than a stretched-out hand and a mighty arm.

This would be the Word of God, through whom both formerly and now the loving-kindness of the all-good God has accomplished benefits for human beings. Sihon king of the Amorites. Now the Amorites are interpreted as "talkative ones who provoke to bitterness," and their king Sihon as "temptation and provocation"; for those who are clever at sophistic deception are talkative ones who embitter, wishing that as many as are lovers of the truth be talked at and sung to by deception, having as their aim to tempt and to provoke. And Bashan, interpreted as "shame," signifies the vice that puts the wicked to shame; its king Og is slain together with Sihon, so that the land which they wrongly held—dwelling sophistically and with a depraved disposition upon the nature of things, supposing that they ruled over it—might be given to Israel; but the land, which is interpreted, having been taken away from them, is given as a possession to Israel, for him to inherit it, since he is a genuine servant of the cause of all things. For in our humiliation the Lord remembered us. And in the passages above, Israel was shown in various ways to be not the race of the Jews, but the one who is such by the ways of piety: For not all those from Israel are Israel; nor is circumcision in the flesh, in the visible, according to the Apostle, but the Jew is in secret, and circumcision of the heart, not in letter but in spirit; whose praise is not from men but from God. And us, therefore, who are from the nations (for we are the circumcision and the true Israel), he redeemed from our enemies rather than those; for those who came out of Egypt escaped bodily tyrants.

But bringing impious ways into their own souls, they fell in the wilderness after worshipping idols. But he truly redeemed us from the enemies of our soul, and he remembered us in our humiliation more than theirs; for they were slaves to the Egyptians in their bodies, but we were in our very souls playthings of demons, and we were humbled under evil spirits. So great is the mercy of God that he not only cares for the pious and takes thought for those who draw near to him, but also once and simply exercises providence over all things on earth, and not only over rational beings but also over irrational ones, so as to supply food to all the living creatures on earth, and to grant to each kind what is fitting and suited for life, and from there again to extend to heaven. Therefore the Word, after saying, "He gives food to all flesh," sends us up to heaven, again saying: "Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his mercy endures forever." PSALM 136.

The present psalm is without a superscription among the Hebrews, and neither is it prefaced by whose it is, nor of what kind it happens to be; but it is a bare prophecy spoken in the person of those who were in Babylon; and this too one will note, that in some of the copies, according to the Seventy, it is inscribed as of Haggai and Zechariah. Blessed is he who will repay you your repayment! The blessing will fall to those who render recompense to Babylon, and to the one who dashes their little ones against the rock and destroys them; for in truth, at first it was a blessing not ever to have beheld Babylon, nor to have been in the confusion of its evils; but if someone should once be in it, having fallen away from better things, he would be blessed if he should do what he has suffered, and should take the Babylonians captive in return, and should transfer the very souls of the Babylonians to the fear of God. But if he should not allow their little ones to grow, but should shatter them against the rock, he would be much more blessed. And you would not err in calling the little ones of Babylon the seeds of wickedness, and the beginnings of confusive sins; which indeed, by the saving word (for the rock was Christ), the one who is blessed in these things will strive to destroy, so that they neither grow nor come forth into deeds. PSALM 137. I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart. Just as the perfect man loves God from his whole soul and power and strength, not tearing apart the powers of his own love

to anything else, but wholly dependent on God alone, so he too with his whole heart makes confession, giving thanks to God. And being confident in such boldness of his, and knowing that in the great theater of human life, with divine angels and ministers of God looking on and beholding his progress in God, he renders to God the worship that is fitting, and says: And before angels I will sing to you. I will worship toward your holy temple. He promises to worship toward the holy temple, signifying the Church, or the heavenly Jerusalem, of which the temple on earth was a type; then he acknowledges grace, having been deemed worthy of the mercy and truth of God. In place of which Symmachus says, concerning your mercy and your truth; for having obtained the mercy of God, he has been released from types and symbols, and has been deemed worthy to worship God in spirit and truth. Let all the kings of the earth confess to you, O Lord. We have often observed that those of the psalms which have neither "hymn" nor "ode" nor "psalm" nor any other superscription are of a different character besides these, such as the present one, which partakes of prophetic power; for David, having made confession through what has gone before, says, But not I alone, he says, have been deemed worthy of this among kings, but very many such will arise, namely after the proclamation of the Savior; and especially when the fullness of the nations has come in, and the second coming of the Savior has taken place; for then the great glory of the Lord will be seen; and sometimes future things are indicated both imperatively and optatively, according to a certain custom of the Hebrews. —He prophesies concerning the knowledge of God that is to be spread abroad to all nations;

For he says, there will be a time when all the kings of the earth will give thanks to you and will hear all the words of the mouth of God, and that they will sing in the ways of the Lord. And these things attained their fulfillment at no other time than after the gospel preaching of our Savior. And the ways are the virtues, which lead to the knowledge of God. The Lord is high, and he looks upon the lowly. David, having learned the things spoken by the prophetic Spirit in him and through him, is confident that God looks upon the lowly, that he shields him in afflictions. If I walk in the midst of affliction, you will give me life, etc. But Symmachus said more clearly: If I walk through the midst of affliction, you will preserve me; against the breath of my enemies you will stretch out your hand, and your right hand will save me; the Lord will accomplish for me. PSALM 138. O Lord, you have tested me, and you have known me. Since, therefore, the time of our life has certain intervals measured out by God, he says, you yourself have searched out all the time of my life and the way that I have passed through. Your knowledge has been made wonderful from me. He says, it goes beyond my power, and the knowledge of these things is beyond my comprehension, so that I am able neither to discover nor to declare them. For whatever I may say is small and most insignificant compared with the divine power, the comprehension of which escapes my smallness and nothingness. My eyes have seen my unformed substance. He says, you behold what has not yet been done by me as already accomplished, and those not yet born you know as already born. And the word "guileless" and "harmless," and "unexamined" of me, can be understood in two ways.

For the intent ought to be called a work; but the soul is unworked which has not yet been formed through virtue and knowledge. Men of blood, turn aside from me. They will take your cities in vain. Having said, But your friends, O God, have been greatly honored by me, he reasonably rejects the enemies of God and drives them away from himself; but also, having mentioned that there will be a time when God himself will kill the sinners, from this point already he drives these too far from himself, so that he may not become a partaker with them, nor by drawing near share in the harm from them. But since also into contentious words and strifes—your cities they will take in vain—the divine Scriptures being styled cities, but the heterodox take them in vain, and not as they ought; I turn away and decline from them. Prove me, O God. Having said at the beginning, O Lord, you have proved me and known me, now as if not yet proved he said, Prove me, O Lord, and know my heart. And then it was said, You have traced out my path and my line, and you foresaw all my ways; but now, Examine me, and know my paths; surely then he does not say contrary things. For then he said he had been simply proved and known, but now he prays to be proved, so that his heart may be known; for it is greater to be pure and upright in heart than simply to be pure and upright; and it surpasses being simply proved and known to be proved for the sake of having his heart known; but also than simply having his ways foreseen, it is greater that his paths be known when he has been examined. Therefore he also added:

And see if you have seen lawlessness in me, that is, in my state and disposition. It is also rendered thus: And see if a way of lawlessness is in me—that is, consider whether lawlessness has ever traveled in my soul, so that the traces of its way remain in me. Nevertheless, even if such great sinlessness has been accomplished in me by you and through you, yet you have guided me in an everlasting way, leading to immortality and incorruption. PSALM 139. Coals of fire will fall upon them. For he will undergo punishment before him, having such a disease. An unjust man—evils will hunt him to destruction. And what is "to destruction"? Because many are hunted to salvation, as those by the apostles, as those by holy men; but the wicked, when they are hunted by evil and corruption. For every unjust man, as if corrupted by his own disease, by his own wickedness, will undergo the punishment that is fitting; for it is sufficient, instead of any punishment, to destroy the soul that possesses it. I know that the Lord will execute judgment for the poor. Having been helped by this, Solomon says to his father in Ecclesiastes: The end of the matter, hear the whole: that God will bring every work into judgment, in every thing overlooked, whether good or whether evil. And now, he says, God will judge as he avenges the poor and needy man who is now oppressed. But after these things he brought the psalm to a good end; therefore it is also inscribed "For the end," speaking of the hope laid up for the righteous. But Symmachus says, "before your face." And what is better than with a purified mind to see God face to face, according to the Savior's blessing when he said:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; having attained this, they will give thanks. PSALM 140. In sequence with the preceding psalm, this one too is inscribed, and it is David's, and it has the same power of prayer. But it has something more, being more doctrinal, and through its opening it teaches more and more profitable things; and it says: I cried out—one should not by any means suppose that he necessarily used a loud voice and a shout; for God hears even those who are silent; thus it is also said that he spoke to Moses: Why do you cry out to me? But he who possesses great doctrines about God, and asks something of God with surpassing disposition and faith, thus cried out to him; therefore also with confidence he says: Since I am such, and cry out such things, attend to my voice when I cry out to you—as one having pure not only the mind, but also the voice through the lips, free from falsehood, perjury, and abuse. And in accordance with these things he added: The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice. You will understand this from the Apostle's saying: I desire that men pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger and disputing; for he too mentioned at once both things pertaining to the mind and things pertaining to action; but the impious never lift up their hands; therefore it has been said to them: When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my face away from you; but one must lift up one's deeds to the height, and perform them in a manner pleasing to God. Do not incline my heart to words of wickedness, to make excuses for excuses in sins.

Do not allow my mind, once simply and sincerely formed, to be turned aside and inclined toward the opposite; and instead of "making excuses for sins," Symmachus rendered it "devising lawless thoughts," interpreting the meaning of the passage more clearly. Then again he moves on to the practical, saying, "with men who work lawlessness, and I will not associate with their chosen ones." In place of this Symmachus again interpreted more clearly, saying, "With men who work injustice, may I not even eat their pleasant things." For I will not be with them, he says, if you, Lord, set a guard on my mouth, and preserve the treasure that has been prepared beforehand in me. And their "chosen ones" would be those who make excuses for the evils they do—being worse than those who sin without excuse and without concealment. "Their judges were swallowed up beside the rock." But Symmachus: "For even my prayer is within their evils; their judges shall be cast down by the hands of the rock; they shall hear my words most pleasant; as a farmer when he breaks the earth, as your bones were scattered beside Hades." And now he adds the reason for not associating with sinners; for their fellowship, he says, is sufficient to scatter my soul and to enclose it within their evils. And "they shall be cast down" shows that they will see their own rulers and judges dragged down from the roots, as it were plucked out by the power of the solid word. "Do not take away my soul." Symmachus, instead of "you will not take away," has "do not empty out," that is, do not allow the good treasure stored up in my soul to be emptied out.

For then, he says, I shall go forth without fear, whenever sinners are entangled in their own nets. PSALM 141. Of understanding, for David, when he was in the cave, a prayer. And the 50th has a similar inscription, as follows: For the end, do not destroy, for David, for a pillar inscription, when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave. And the story is found in the first book of Kingdoms: And David went up from there, and dwelt in the strong caves of Engaddi; and it came to pass when Saul returned from behind the foreigners, and they reported to him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engaddi. And Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and the men with him, upon the face of the hunting of the deer; and they came to the folds of the sheep by the way and by the cave; and Saul went into the cave to relieve his feet; and David and the men with him were sitting in the inner parts of the cave. The story concerning Saul and the cave has been written beforehand; but the name of David is interpreted in various ways, as we have often said, and is understood in various ways; for when you find it in the person of the Lord, it is thus interpreted: beloved; but when in the person of those who sin and repent, it is interpreted: despised, because of his sins.

Now it is possible to take the name of David as referring to the people who have sinned and come to understanding, and who shut themselves up in a cave, and prayed intensely with tears, and made confession, as this very inscription makes clear; and the psalm teaches the same things in like manner. When my spirit was failing within me. These words have been spoken very fittingly to the constraint of the time and the place; for as far as it depended on men, being confined inside the cave, he had been shut off from every means of escape and flight, and no single hope of help was present to him; nor was there anyone who would rescue his soul or seek it out. But seeing the intelligible enemies of his soul, who had brought this whole thing about—I mean Saul's entering the cave in order to seize David—he reasonably said, They hid a snare for me. But the workings of the snare had not advanced against them because of the prayer set before him; and confident in the course of his life, in the deeds and the paths in which he walked, though unjustly pursued and warred against, he says to God: and you knew my paths. To you, Lord, I cried out. Again here too he confesses that he cried out, not simply, but to the Lord; for otherwise it was impossible for him to utter a sound, with the enemy present nearby. And having confessed that his only hope was God, he did not fall short of his aim; for hope does not put to shame; but even if there shall be a land of the living, I confess, he says, that no place exists in it, or you alone, my hope; for you are God, my portion in the land of the living; as if to say, if I did not have you, I would never have been reckoned in the land of the living.

But the earth of the living is not the earth that is now trodden by us—for that is the earth of death and of the dead—but the earth that the meek shall inherit, on which all who live according to eternal life dwell. There was no one who knew me. There is no one who seeks my soul. One who is neglected by those thought to preside over the churches and is in no way sought after will say this at the right time; and he adds what follows, crying out to God, and not to hope in leaders, but in the Lord, and to have a portion in the land of the living and not in a land forgotten. PSALM 142. Everyone who is tested in the greatest temptations and in exceedingly great afflictions would fittingly use the prayer set before us; therefore the psalm is also without a title. The Lord, then, hears all, but listens to few; if we listen to those who entreat us, we ourselves will also be heard; and he who is confident in his own prayer calls God as a hearer. But others say that the psalm is not without a title, but is inscribed, A psalm of David, when his son was pursuing him. This is not, however, added in all the translations; but what is said is not foreign to it; and nothing prevents these words from having been spoken concerning the persecution by Saul. My spirit grew faint within me. The spirit of the man within him grows faint whenever the heart is troubled, remembering how

The enemy has brought her life down to the earth, and has made her to sit in dark places like those dead for an age. But, he says, my heart was troubled within her, and it kept the passion entirely inside, so that it did not fall out into the open and become known to all, nor was the trouble known to those outside. I remembered the days of old. Since Moses also commands, saying, Remember the days of old, and David again says, And I remembered the eternal years, and I meditated—reasonably, the one whose heart was troubled, healing himself, runs back to his own ancient days, those before the trouble, in which he was prospering, or to the ancient histories; and taking up the memory, he meditates on the works of God and on the works of his hands, obtaining no small consolation from the ancient readings, learning from them that God visited the ancients after countless afflictions and trials, and how many healings and benefits he provided them. But also, meditating on the accounts of creation, he was healed in soul, being taught that the life of men is not without providence, nor is the soul of the troubled one without healing; but the Word of God watches over and stands by all things, healing the broken in heart. I stretched out my hands to you; my soul is like a waterless land to you.

Having remembered the ancient days from the study of the divine readings, I stretched out my hands, showing you also the deeds done through repentance to be clean, thus thirsting for you, O God, and for the healing that comes from you, not only in the manner of a deer at the springs of waters, but also as a waterless and dry land longs for the rain that descends upon it. And if my soul is also like a waterless land, it is such in relation to you, O God; for in itself, and as in comparison with men, it is fruitful and flourishing with good fruits; but in relation to you it is so waterless that no living being shall be justified before you. Hear me quickly, etc. Do not turn your face away from me. In the pressing times of circumstances, whether in persecutions or in the last dangers, whenever a man's soul is in peril, with the spirit within it failing and the heart troubled within it, it is fitting, in praying the things of Christ, to say like David, Hear me, O Lord; though it is not necessary to employ this in human affairs. – As long as your face deems me worthy of its own, your light is in me, and all darkness has been driven away from me; so that one may say: The light of your face has been marked upon us, O Lord; but if you should ever turn your face away from me, I come to be in the darkness in which all those who go down into the pit come to be; in which pit there is nothing other than what is called the outer darkness. Make your mercy heard to me in the morning. In temptations we need divine mercy.

May we devote ourselves to this in our prayers with vigilance, and especially at the morning hour, so as to be able to say: O God, my God, to you I rise at dawn. Make known to me, Lord, the way in which I shall walk. Since my soul lies low upon the ground, stretched out toward you, show me the way of repentance, or the departure with the body that leads to heavenly things; for how could a mortal comprehend his ways? Perhaps someone, having walked the former ways of Moses and the prophets, according to the saying, Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and after these seeking the good way, will say to its Father, who also knows the way of the sons: Make known to me this way in which I shall walk; which way, when the Father nods assent, reveals itself and says to those who are worthy: I am the way; for no one comes to the Father except through me. For your name's sake, Lord. This is similar to, Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory; for one must not trust in oneself. But let the one who has endured temptations nobly hope to attain these things, as one who has walked the narrow and afflicted way. In the

By your righteousness you will bring my soul out of affliction. Truly the affliction of the soul is this: that his life has been brought low to the earth, and that he sits in darkness; and he who is troubled by base reasonings and by the burning of passions is afflicted in soul; and nothing else sets one free from such affliction except the God who knows the hidden things of the heart. But also he who is disturbed in soul by the vexations of deceivers would be greatly afflicted, especially when, being unable to refute their sophisms, he fears lest he stray from the truth; but he brings the soul out of every such affliction, shining upon it and illuminating it with his own rays and leading it to live according to his righteousness, as has just been demonstrated. And by the mercy of God the enemies will be utterly destroyed, not being corrupted in their essence—for that is impossible—but losing the disposition through which they are enemies of the righteous man and afflict his soul; for thus the righteous man will be at rest, passing his life in peace without war. And calling upon the one being entreated to consent, he added: For I am your servant. And of possessions and boasts the greatest is to be reckoned a servant of God. And the Savior also shows the greatness of this, saying to those who were with him: You call me Lord and Teacher, and you speak rightly, for I am. Nothing so drives away our enemies as spiritual contemplation.

PSALM 143. If you refer these things to David—especially since in one of the copies it is inscribed "against Goliath"—you will say that they fit him, who according to the history conquered the man not by the common full armor, but by confidence in God; whom, as it were inscribing as his teacher, at that time he struck down Goliath with a sling; and at other times he killed the wild beasts of the field by strangling them with his hands. And it was most fitting for him to say these things especially at the playing of the psaltery, when, using his hands and fingers instead of a plectrum, he drove away the invisible demons that were troubling Saul. But if one refers the words to every righteous man, you will say that all the deeds of the God-loving man effect the destruction of the opposing powers, God becoming the teacher of such an stretching out of the hands; and his fingers signify the workings that extend even to the smallest things in human life; and Moses too, by stretching out his hands, put Amalek to rout. But see whether it is not Christ who says this, having routed the invisible enemies; for the psalm declares, as will be shown, both his descent from heaven, and the rout of demons, and the calling of the nations, and the two peoples. "He who subjects my people under me." It is God's to subject his own people to men; which, if it did not come from God, would never happen; for not even Moses would have led so great a multitude, unless the Lord had subjected his own people to him, not through weapons or human battle-line, but through the superior power. "O Lord, what is man, that you have been made known to him?

The word asks the question "What is man?" wishing to teach us that man is something great; for he would not have contained the knowledge of God, nor would God have remembered him in such a way as to send to him his own Word as Savior and Redeemer. In the same place it also exhorts us not to despise any man, and that no one accomplishes anything worthy of such beneficence. Lord, bow your heavens and come down. Very necessarily and consequently it says that the very Word of God came down for the destruction of the enemies; for even if, it says, he teaches my hands and fingers how one ought to wage war, yet what is the strength of man, and how great the power of the mortal who has been likened to vanity, to be able to stand against so great a battle-line? Therefore do you yourself, O Lord, bow the heavens and come down. And it calls "heavens" the powers conceived within him; and as a father to infants, and as a teacher to disciples, he condescends. Send forth your hand from on high. Send forth, the psalm says, the hand that makes and guards all things, to deliver and rescue me from the many waters and from the hands of the sons of strangers; and it is possible to say that being rescued from many waters means from the wicked powers and from the devil, the king of all such things; and to be taken out also from the hand of the sons of strangers, of the men who are energized by them; for it called the uprisings of temptations and of the impious "waters," as it also says elsewhere: Surely the water drowned us; and again: Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even to my soul.

Accordingly, after the descent of God the Word, having beheld the plot of the impious against him, he declares the things set before him. I will sing a new song to you. He sings, and the new covenant is to be mentioned in the prophecies concerning the descent of God the Word; therefore this is made clear through the new song. But in saying "new," he has made the first old, as the Apostle says; concerning this song it has been said: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth; but also, They shall sing, he says, on a ten-stringed psaltery, hinting at the practical life worked out through soul and body; since there are five senses of the flesh, and five powers of the soul, through which the senses of the body are moved. To him who gives salvation to kings: He who taught the kingdom of heaven makes kings of those deemed worthy of it, to whom he gives salvation from himself; and at the same time, for those who have succeeded in not being ruled by sin; and Christ is the one who says in Proverbs: By me kings reign; knowing these things, the Apostle wrote: You have reigned without us, and would that you had reigned, that we also might reign with you; since, then, God grants salvation to these, the oracle rightly sketches good hopes also for David, as one who will be redeemed from the sins into which he ever fell; for the descent of God the Word has been beneficial, among others, also to David, inasmuch as he served his incarnate birth. To him who redeems David his servant from the evil sword.

The tongue of the godless is a wicked sword, and their words who devise sophistries against God are for the slaying of souls; and the hand of the sons of strangers is the action and life of those estranged from the worship of God, whose mouth speaks vanities in myths and fictions and in the deceits concerning idols; and their right hand, that is, the more practical power, is occupied with greed and robberies. Such also would be those of the former people, in accordance with what has been said; from these, then, David now for the second time prays to be delivered, lest he be caught in similar sins. Whose sons are as young plants established in their youth. The sons of the former people, and not only these but of all who are estranged from the worship of God, are as young plants established in their youth; but the flesh of the righteous man is weak, and his mind is deadened; and the daughters of these, of those from the circumcision, are adorned in harlot fashion as the likeness of a temple in which an evil spirit dwells; wherefore the prophet says concerning them: Because the daughters of Zion walked with a high neck and with beckonings of the eyes, and the rest; but the saints are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in them; and the storehouses of those who treasure up on the earth abound and overflow; and of those who say, I will pull down my barns and build greater; but the treasure of the others is in heaven; and of the one group there is

Flocks multiplying with many young, and fat cattle, such as were the prosperity of Egypt; for those whom Pharaoh saw were beautiful in appearance and choice in their flesh. But the flock of the righteous man encompasses souls without guile, and good and rational sheep. Of the righteous man, because he fears the Lord, blessed are his sons, like newly planted olive trees around his table; but the sons of strangers are like young plants established in their youth. And that man has no daughters; but these have daughters adorned, decked out as the likeness of a temple; and that man has sons of sons, but these do not; moreover, that man has no longer a treasury nor a storehouse; but the treasuries of these are full, pouring out from this one into that one; and according to the Gospel, for the birds of heaven that are fed by the heavenly Father there is no longer a treasury nor a storehouse. The sons are heretical words, and the thoughts are like young plants, because of their novelty; the daughters are the expressions; and they are adorned because of the phrasing, being a temple of the thought. There is no ruin of a fence, etc. And in Job it is said: Why do the ungodly live, and grow old and in wealth? and the things that follow; except that he adds: Yet the lamp of the ungodly shall not be quenched. And in the seventy-second psalm it is said: I was zealous against the lawless, beholding the peace of sinners, and the things that follow; of whom also their dissolution is brought on in the words, How did they become a desolation? Suddenly they perished because of their folly, as a dream when one awakes.

PSALM 144. The words before us are spoken neither by means of the instrument called the psaltery, nor by means of a song, but in another manner; it is entitled A Praise. Every day will I bless you. Among the Hebrews the beginning of the present verse is beth. And it teaches that it is fitting to render the hymn to God as a debt of each day, and not to neglect or fall short of a hymn to God on any day. With the mind, then, and with reasonings, and with the very power of the spirit within us, we exalt and bless God himself; but with lips and mortal words we glorify the name of God. Always, he says, I continue hymning you, and I will leave no time without its hymnody. Instead of "to the age of the age," Aquila rendered "still," and Symmachus "continually." All that follows is consistent with what has gone before; for having said "I will bless" and "I will exalt," he shows that our praise adds nothing to him, but that we make ourselves bright, bringing praise upon praise. And in your righteousness they will exult. Through these words he teaches the virtues of God, as many as reach down to us, from which we also come to know him; for those virtues that are above us, being invisible to us and incomprehensible, it is not possible for mortal nature to encompass. But the virtues of God that always reach down to us, from which we know him, are these utterances: The Lord is merciful and compassionate, and the things that follow. For when we were not, nor had any existence, he brought us into light; then, though we do many evil things and are contemptuous, he does not pursue us according to our desert; he has...

but he also is patient, calling us to repentance, because he does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather his repentance; and this is not only toward his own people, but also toward all without exception, since he is also kind to all. And his mercies are over all his works. Since his mercies are over all his works, it follows that it is said: Let all your works give thanks to you; as it were, even those things that are thought to be inanimate owe him this, sending forth a voice, so to speak, to give thanks and confess to the one who made them. For each of his works partakes of his wisdom, being variously fashioned and most wisely partaking of the creative power; but distinctly and exceptionally his holy ones render the greater part of the confession; for by what they think and do, they will tell of his kingdom, showing beforehand, as those who have served as his soldiers, that there is glory to his kingdom; and they will speak also of the power that is connatural with the kingdom, since each of the created things has been subordinated to him in order; being lovers of humanity, those who have attained to the holiness that is toward you and from you impart generously of the good things they have received to the sons of men by way of teaching; for Christ is the teacher and guide of those only who have risen above human life, while those who are still sons of men become teachers through those who have been educated by Christ; Paul, for instance, who received and was taught the Gospel not from men, nor through men, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ, became a teacher of the nations in faith and truth;

Indeed, the Savior himself also sends out the apostles to make disciples of all the nations, having first taught them not to call anyone on earth teacher; therefore the things which the saints learn from him, they make known to the sons of men. The Lord is faithful in his words. And God is faithful, not as partaking of faith, but as being called trustworthy; for all things that he says come to pass, according to the saying, He himself has spoken; will he not act, and will he not abide by it? And he also says, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. And he is holy, as imparting holiness through his works; just as he is also holy among those who partake of his holiness; and the Savior is wisdom among those who are wise according to him. You give them their food in due season. And Eusebius also says that God is not only a physician of the fallen and a healer of the broken, but also a nourisher of all things; therefore the eyes of all living creatures, both rational and irrational, look up to him, and all things look to him by certain natural and taught impulses, and he, like a good father, supplies their food at the appropriate times, different things at different times, extending his creative hand, that is, his power, generously to all, and without hindrance fills every living creature with the enjoyment of the things given by him. The Lord is near to all who call upon him in truth.

Then, since it is the possession of few to be able to call upon him with understanding and to be deemed worthy of his hearing, he necessarily adds this, resuming the statement, and says that it is not to all who call upon him, but only to those who do this in truth, that he grants success; for he stands far off from those who are not such. To them he also says: Your sins separate between me and you. And concerning these it has been said elsewhere: For those who remove themselves far from you shall perish. To all, then, he is near by providence, but by relation to those who call upon him with knowledge; for this is the meaning of "in truth." And after the common providence, he has brought forward the special providence concerning the faithful—that he is near to such people and provides for them more greatly. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name. For a time I will not cease praising God. But I pray that the prophecy which says, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, may come to pass quickly; and, Let every breath praise the Lord. And this will be when the fullness of the nations enters in, when also every race of mankind will be saved. He calls "mouth" the intelligible mouth, concerning which it is said elsewhere also: All flesh that blesses the name of the Lord shall be, clearly forever and forever and ever, seeing the salvation of God, and not being like grass.

PSALM 145. Alleluia signifies the praise of the Lord; for thus the word is interpreted; therefore the present subject is also praise; wherefore the discourse says at the beginning: Praise, O my soul, the Lord, either the Spirit exhorting the soul, or the soul exhorting itself; then, having obeyed the command, it answers readily, saying: I will praise the Lord in my life; I will sing to my God as long as I exist. But if the soul is immortal, and always lives and exists and is capable even after the body's departure, he says: So then I shall never cease praising the Lord, but for long ages, and throughout the whole life of my immortal existence, doing nothing else, I will continue praising the Lord. But the words, as long as I exist, must be heard as spoken by the soul, not as though it were going to exist no longer after that, but as promising that it will praise the Lord for the boundless time of its existence. Do not trust in princes. Similar to: It is good to trust in the Lord, or to trust in man; it is good to hope in the Lord, or to hope in princes; and he establishes this by syllogism: for if they, he says, are not able to procure salvation for themselves, what benefit could come from such persons? For they cannot rescue themselves from death after the end; for the spirit of the one who dies will go out, wherever the one who leads it away may lead it; but the rest of man will return to his earth, fulfilling the law of nature which God from the beginning imposed on Adam, saying: You are earth, and to earth you will depart.

as is said, all the thoughts that he gathered to himself while he was still living in this life, pondering them, and, as if gathering and treasuring them up eternally upon the earth, promising to do terrible things, and again threatening others, in a single hour they will be extinguished, and all their reasonings will perish, namely those of the rulers who are admired by many. And he might also mean the rulers of this age; for these too have a rule that can be overturned; but the Savior alone is the cause of salvation, who says: Saving, there is no one besides me; if therefore they are saved by him and not of themselves, how will they be able to save others? He who keeps truth forever. He confirms the truth of his words, which he promised in the Scriptures; for he promised to avenge those who are wronged in the present life, at the time of judgment; and another promise, that: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they shall be filled, but you shall hunger; yet also perceptibly he provided food in the wilderness to the hungry, the manna, and fed five thousand, and through ravens Elijah, and through the prophet Habakkuk Daniel; and he executed judgment for those who were wronged, Joseph and Susanna, the one by the Egyptian woman, the other by the judges of Israel, and David by Saul. And the divine writings are full of such things. The Lord looses the bound, the Lord makes the blind wise. He looses the bound, giving forgiveness of sins to those bound fast by the cords of their own sins. And through these things he seems to hint at the calling of the Gentiles, and the coming of the Lord to men, and the healing that will come to all through it.

This occurred to me to understand when I recalled to memory the prophecy of Isaiah concerning our Savior, through which he says: Behold, I have set you as a covenant of a people, as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to lead out from bonds those who are bound. For thus also here the Lord looses those who are fettered; and it has been said also: The Lord makes wise the blind; and it is wonderful how even those who are maimed in their bodies have some greater measure of understanding present with them, God having made them wise in place of the deprivation of their eyes. He will take up the orphan and the widow. The souls that have cast off the father who became theirs in evil, the devil, or also a husband, are orphans and widows being taken up; when these are taken up, the way of sinners, being nothing other than vice, will be done away by God. And these things have been said more allegorically. But he speaks of widows not of any chance ones, but of those who continue in chastity and dignity, and of orphans, those who for the sake of piety have left their families. PSALM 146. In the present psalm, instead of "Praise the Lord," Symmachus has said "Hallelujah, that a song is good," preserving untranslated the Hebrew word that signifies "Praise the Lord." Likewise also the fifth edition has rendered "Praise Yah." The psalm before this, then, exhorts one soul to praise the Lord; but here it is said to multitudes: "Praise the Lord"; since no one is good except the one God, reasonably everything that is referred to his glory and done for his honor would be good; just as therefore the psalm is also good, as being sent up to the good God. In place of which Aquila has translated "a good encomium";

But Symmachus says, "a good song." Yet indeed, the praise sent up to God is sweeter to him than every fragrant incense and every pleasure; for truly the praise of God, sent up from a rational and pure soul, would be dear to him, and as it were something sweet; for he rejoices in and accepts such fruit of human understanding. "He who heals the broken in heart." Since it belongs to a Savior and a physician to heal and to bind up what is broken, reasonably through these words he would be understood to be the Lord our Savior, the Word of God, who said: "Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." And being a physician of souls, those broken in heart and those whose natural reasonings have been perverted, having ransomed them from the spiritual captivity, he will heal. Symmachus says, "He who heals those broken in heart, and binds up their fractures," evidently applying rational bonds; for thus he bound with spiritual and rational bonds the man wounded and crushed by robbers on the way down from Jerusalem to Jericho. "And binding up their fractures." "He who counts the multitudes of stars," etc. After healing those broken in heart, and binding their fractures, restoring to natural health those who had long been sick, and making them luminaries, he establishes them as worthy of the number that comes from him.

The word is accustomed to weave together both the account of the salvation of human beings and the matters concerning universal Providence, showing that he cares not only for the parts of the world but also for human opinions; and he alone knows the number of the stars, and their positions, and their causes, their magnitudes and distances, their powers and activities, and he assigns to each a fitting name. Exalt the Lord with confession. Symmachus says, "Recount to the Lord a confession, sing in melody to our God with a lyre." Aquila says, "Recount to the Lord in thanksgiving, sing in melody to our God with a cithara." Those who command others to confess and to sing would be other than those commanded; therefore a prophetic and apostolic chorus, through these words, calls back to the same God those who are not of themselves—clearly those from the nations—saying, "Sing in melody to our God." And the word commands us to confess with the mind and the reasonings of the soul, and to sing in melody to him with the deeds done through the body, as through a cithara being played; for customarily he has named the body a psaltery and a cithara, inasmuch as it is composed rhythmically and with wise harmony. For in this, the mind, struck as it were through the actions of virtue, sends up the divine and spiritual melody to God. To him who gives food also to the young of the ravens that call upon him. And a certain natural account has come to us, that the young of ravens are not fed by those who begot them, in the same way as the young of other birds; for they say that the young of ravens are left behind by those who begot them, but are fed by another paradoxical power of God.

For since those who had given birth were no longer near them, their mouth hung open from lack of food, and they resembled those calling upon God, asking for food by some natural impulse from the one who had granted them existence; and in this way some food was borne to them from the air, pushed into their mouth by a certain breeze. PSALM 147. He who declares his word to Jacob. And Eusebius also says: This present expression seems to me to teach with great precision, "He who declares his word to Jacob"; for he did not say, "he who sends," or "he who sent." Surely it is one thing to declare, and another to send or to be sent; for the one foretells and predicts what is to come, while the other signifies a presence, and that the one sent proclaims by himself; so that the declaration and foretelling of what is to come occurred with Israel alone, but the sending would not be to that one alone, but also to all the remaining nations. But perhaps someone might say: And if he did not make it known to the rest of human beings, how does he punish them—both those before the law and those sinning everywhere throughout the inhabited world? And we say: These he judges by the natural law and by that which is within us, but the Israelites both by this and by the written law, so that the great beneficence becomes for them, when they have grown slack, a ground for greater condemnation; for this reason he himself did not say, "that he did not do for every nation," but rather, "he did not do so"—that is, he did not send tablets, nor the letters on Mount Sinai, but to the Jews in abundance.

PSALM 148. In Psalm 145, the soul alone by itself was commanded to praise the Lord, the text saying, "Praise the Lord, O my soul." But in the one after it, the multitude was called to praise through the words, "Seek the Lord, for a psalm is good"; and in the next one, Jerusalem herself was commanded to do this in the words, "Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem." Accordingly, following upon those, the present praise intensifies the injunction, increasing the command after the partial exhortation; and all at once together it urges the whole created order, both visible and invisible, to the praise of God—at the beginning summoning the things in the heavens and the things in the highest places, and proceeding to the things on the earth and the things in the abysses—not as though all things partook of soul and reason, but it commands those who have obtained a share of reason to look to these things, and, perceiving the wisdom that has come to be in them, to hymn the Maker. "And all the abysses." Another said that the abysses are the region of those beneath the earth, in accordance with Paul's words: "Do not say, 'Who will descend into the abyss?'"—that is, Christ from the dead.

to lead up; and in Job, he says, "You walked in the tracks of the abyss." Perhaps this also signifies a multitude of waters, over which the Lord walked; so that "The gates of death are opened to you with fear" is from another beginning. "Sing to the Lord a new song," etc. The new song... is sung to the Church of the saints, that is, of the New Covenant of our Savior.. while old Israel attends to the old covenant through Moses; but let it rejoice in this new example.. for he himself was the Word of God who spoke with Moses, and who led Israel out of Egypt, and made them his own people. To the sons of Zion, then, he first exhorts to rejoice and exult over their king; and he himself was.. again the Word of God, who was formerly their king, but afterward was rejected by them; therefore he says to the prophet Samuel: "They have not rejected you, but me.. that I should not reign over them." But since they did not obey the call, they reasonably deprived themselves of the grace of gladness; yet the nations received and acknowledged the king who had been proclaimed to them first; therefore the joy and exultation according to God passed over to them; hence the nations throughout the whole inhabited world praise the name of their own king in their own Churches, glorifying the name Jesus Christ in the choir of the Word of God with dancing, but also each one in himself.. of good works, and through the actions of the body he performs the things that contribute to the hymn and glorification of God. Reasonably the word, having anticipated this very thing, commands, saying: "Let them sing to him with timbrel and psaltery.

calling the body a timbrel, and the spirit a psaltery: having put to death the members that are upon the earth, and carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus; those who exult over their king together with him who rejoices, having made him, sing psalms with timbrel and psaltery. PSALM 149. They shall exult upon their beds. But in another sense he hinted at the death of the saints through their beds. For Scripture is accustomed to call it a falling asleep, as Paul also says: But concerning those who are asleep, I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers; and the Old Testament also says: David slept with his fathers. The exaltations of God are in their throat, and two-edged swords in their hands. But Aquila set forth the meaning that was rendered in a paradoxical way, having served the Hebrew language, saying: A sword of mouths in their hand. But also concerning those who are opposed to such things it has been said somewhere: Sons of men, whose teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword, slaying those who have been captured by them. And fittingly the word presented the sword of their mouths as active in their deeds, and the exaltations of God in their mouth—for they used their voice for the teaching of the word, exalting the hymn among those able to hear—and in their deeds they had power destructive of every opposing power. He calls their hands their deeds, that is, the occupation which they handled. And this was the evangelical word, which was also named a sword, driving out the herds of wicked and unclean spirits, and making vengeance on the nations that had been wronged, and convicting the people of idolatry.

That their kings be bound in fetters, etc. Since it was not possible in any other way to lead out and set free those who had long been enslaved to the demons, except by first subduing and binding their rulers, these words have been reasonably added. And you will understand this also from the saving voice, through which it is said: How can anyone enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man, and then he will plunder his house? Therefore the apostolic prayers, and their words and teachings and the life corresponding to these, and the deeds effective against the demons, were making bonds for the opposing powers—and especially for the greater and ruling ones; the apostles of the Savior, having bound by their own words and their own prayers the operations of these against the nations, brought their power—greater than all handcuffs made of iron—by which they ran about here and there, subduing all the nations, to their own king. To execute upon them a written judgment. And having taken the nations for discipleship, they handed over to them the word concerning judgment, leaving the decree in writing, so that they might have it for reading at all times, making remembrance of the things written. After this, very consistently he added: This glory is for all his holy ones; for in each of the holy ones who have been given to us through... their glory is accomplished, as for example in the case of Paul... to say: Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, the authorities, and the world-rulers of this darkness.

His glory was also the written readings of him that are still to this day handed down in the Churches, in which the judgment of God concerning the overthrow of the demons and concerning the freedom of human souls has been set down in writing; and so also the readings of Peter and John and the rest of the apostles. PSALM 150. Attend and apply your mind, that the first psalm of the whole book prophesied the destruction of the impious, and blessed one certain man, as one might say a rare one, who was able to escape the life of the impious. But the last of all brings every breath to the hymnody of God. Yet even if the present word calls every breath to hymnody, since there is not one manner among all, nor one disposition, it assigns to each according to proportion a fitting instrument for the hymn. For one who has advanced in virtue and is better than all, renders praise with the sound of a trumpet, since the trumpet is louder-voiced than all instruments, and those who use it need greater and mightier power; such were the holy apostles of the Savior, whose sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world, who used the loud-voiced proclamation of the gospel... that the earth be filled with their voice.

Since not all are able, like the apostles, to hymn God with the voice of a trumpet, the Word condescends and exhorts some with the psaltery, others with the lyre, and... others with timbrels... some through deeds and through the actions of the body, others through the soul itself... of movement rhythmically and harmoniously... of the Spirit who dwells... when he says: I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the mind also; and since there are three things in us... the word. Praise God in his holy ones. Aquila indeed says, "in his sanctified one"; and Symmachus, "in his holy one." Praise him in the firmament of his power. And perhaps of the heavens and of those highest above them, there is another holy one of God, whom the demons too, struck with amazement, said: We know you, who you are, the holy one of God; in whom those who have become [such], will be able to send up the hymn befitting those perfectly perfected. For what is more blessed than one united to him, and through him to the Father? But one must also look to the prophets and apostles and martyrs, and hymn their God, who has granted to men such a stream of good men. Praise him according to the multitude of his greatness. For each of his creations needs the greatest hymnody; for of his greatness there is no limit. He does not say, however, to render the hymn to them as an equivalent; for that is impossible; but he requires it according to one's ability, as we consider the multitude of his greatness.