Homilies on the Psalms

“All Scripture is inspired by God and useful”; … for this reason, so that, as in a common hospital for souls, all of us human beings may each choose the remedy for our own ailment. For “healing …” The prophets teach some things, the historians others, the law others, and the form of proverbial counsel others still. But the book of Psalms has taken in what is useful from them all. It foretells what is to come, recalls histories, gives laws for life, suggests what is to be done, and, in a word, it is a common storehouse of good teachings, carefully finding for each person what suits him. For it heals the old wounds of souls, brings quick recovery to the newly wounded, tends what has fallen sick, and keeps what is sound unharmed; and, as far as possible, it removes altogether the passions that in various ways hold sway over souls in human life, and this with a certain harmonious delight and a pleasure that instills sober thought. For when the Holy Spirit saw that the human race was hard to lead toward virtue, and that because of our leaning toward pleasure we neglect the upright life, what does he do? He mixed the delight of melody with the doctrines, so that through the gentleness and smoothness of what we hear we might receive, without noticing it, the benefit of the words, like wise physicians who, when they give … medicines, often smear the cup with honey. That is why these harmonious melodies of the psalms have been devised for us, so that those who are children in age, or young in character altogether, may seem to be singing but in truth be training their souls. For hardly anyone among the many, the careless, ever went away holding in memory a command of an apostle or a prophet; but the sayings of the psalms they sing at home and carry about in the marketplace. And somewhere a man who has become quite savage with anger, once he begins to be soothed by the psalm, goes away at once with the wildness of his soul [lulled to rest] by the melody

A psalm is calm for souls, the arbiter of peace, quieting the turmoil and surging of thoughts. It softens the angry part of the soul and chastens the intemperate part. A psalm brings friendship together, unites those who are separated, reconciles those at enmity. For who can still regard as an enemy someone with whom he has sent up one voice to God? So psalmody provides the greatest of goods, love, devising the singing together as a kind of bond for unity and fitting the people into the harmony of one choir. A psalm is a refuge from demons and draws in the help of angels; it is a weapon in fears, a safety …, an adornment for those in their prime, a comfort for the elderly, the most fitting ornament for women. It peoples the deserts and brings the marketplaces to sobriety. For beginners it is the first lesson, for those making progress growth, for those being made perfect a support; it is the voice of the Church. It brightens the feasts; it produces the grief that is according to God. For a psalm calls forth a tear even from a heart of stone. A psalm is the work of angels, the heavenly way of life, the spiritual incense. O the wise contrivance of the teacher, who arranged that we should at once sing and learn what is profitable! Hence the teachings are somehow impressed more deeply on our souls. For a lesson learned under constraint does not usually last, but what enters with delight and charm settles more lastingly in our souls. What could you not learn from here? Not the greatness of courage? the exactness of justice? the dignity of self-control? the perfection of prudence? the way of repentance? the measures of patience? whatever good thing you might name? Here is complete theology, the foretelling of Christ's coming in the flesh, the threat of judgment, the hope of resurrection, the fear of punishment, promises of glory, revelations of mysteries: all is stored up in the book of Psalms as in a great common treasury. Though there are many musical instruments, the prophet fitted this book to the one called the psaltery, showing, it seems to me, the grace that sounded in him from above from the Spirit, because this alone of musical instruments has the source of its sounds above. For with the cithara and the lyre the bronze resounds from below under the plectrum; but the psaltery has the sources of its harmonious rhythms above, so that we too may practice seeking the things above and not be carried down by the pleasure of the melody to the passions of the flesh. And this too, I think, the prophetic word teaches us deeply and wisely through the construction of the instrument: that those whose souls are harmonious and well tuned have an easy road to the things above. But let us now look at the beginning of the Psalms. [3] “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the [counsel] of the ungodly.” Builders raising great structures to a height lay foundations in proportion to the height; … fix the keel [in proportion to the size of] cargo [ships]. And in the generation of living beings the heart, laid down first by nature, receives from nature a foundation in proportion to the animal that is to be formed, because the body is woven around its own beginnings in due measure, and so the differences in size among animals come about. What, then, a foundation is in a house, and

a keel in a ship, and a heart in the body of a living being, that is the power, it seems to me, which this short preface has for the whole composition of the Psalms. For since, as the discourse goes on, he is going to urge many toilsome things, full of countless sweats and labors, he showed the athletes of godliness the blessed end beforehand, so that in the hope of the goods laid up for us we might bear the pains of life without grief. So too, for travelers going along a rough and hard road, an inn they look forward to lightens the toil; the desire for cargo makes merchants dare the sea; and the hope of the harvest steals away the farmers' labors. Therefore the common corrector of life, the great teacher, the Spirit of truth, wisely and skillfully set the rewards before us first, so that, looking beyond the labors at hand, we might press on in mind to the enjoyment of eternal goods. “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly.” What is properly and primarily to be called blessed is the truly good. And this is God. Hence Paul too, when he is about to mention Christ, says, “According to the appearing of the blessed God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” For truly blessed is the beautiful-in-itself, to which all things look, which all things desire: the unchangeable nature, the sovereign dignity, the untroubled life, the painless existence, in which there is no alteration, which no change touches; the gushing spring, the unstinting grace, the inexhaustible treasure. But ignorant and worldly people, not knowing the nature of the good itself, often call blessed things of no worth: wealth, health, a conspicuous life. None of these is good by its own nature, not only because each easily turns into its opposite, but because none can make its possessors good. For who is just because of money? Who is self-controlled because of health? On the contrary, each of these often becomes an instrument of sin for those who use it badly. Blessed, then, is the one who possesses what is of greatest worth, who shares in the goods that cannot be taken away. And how shall we recognize him? “Who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly.” And before saying what it is not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, I want to [resolve] the [question raised] in this place … singles out only the man and calls him blessed? Has he then shut women out of blessedness? By no means! For the virtue of man and of woman is one, since creation is of equal honor for both, so that the reward too is the same for both. Hear Genesis: “God made man,” it says; “in the image of God he made him; male and female he made them.” Those whose nature is one have the same activities, and those whose work is equal have the same reward. Why, then, having mentioned the man, did he pass over the woman in silence? Because he thought it enough, since the nature is one, to indicate the whole from the more governing part. “Blessed, then, is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly.” Consider the exactness of the words, how each expression is full of doctrine. He did not say, “who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly,” but “who has not walked.” For one who is still in this life is not yet to be called blessed, because the outcome is uncertain; but one who has fulfilled what fell to him and closed his life with an end beyond dispute is now safely called blessed. Why, then, … “Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord”? For there the word calls blessed not those who have walked but those who are still walking, because those who do good have acceptance in the very work itself, whereas those who flee evil are not praiseworthy if they turn aside from sin once or twice, but only if they can escape the experience of evil altogether. From the sequence of the passage another difficulty has come to light for us. Why does he call blessed not the one who achieves virtue, but the one who has not committed sin? For in that way a horse and an ox and a stone will be called blessed. For what lifeless thing has stood in the way of sinners? Or what irrational creature has sat in the seat of the pestilent? Wait a little, and you will find the remedy. For he adds, “But his will is in the law of the Lord.” Meditation on the divine law belongs to the rational being alone. But we also say this: the beginning of taking up good things is withdrawal from evil things. For “Turn away from evil,” it says, “and do good.”

Wisely and skillfully, then, leading us toward virtue, he made withdrawal from wickedness the beginning of good things. For if he had set the perfect things before you at once, you would have shrunk from the attempt; but as it is, [he accustoms you] … to what follows. For I would say that the practice of godliness resembles a ladder, that ladder which the blessed Jacob once saw, whose lower parts were near the earth and close to the ground, while its upper parts reached beyond heaven itself. So those who are being introduced to the life of virtue must set their foot on the first rungs and from there always climb the next ones, until by gradual progress they ascend to the height attainable by human nature. As, then, in … so in the life according to God the beginning of progress is separation from evil. In general, idleness is easier than any action whatever: for example, “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal.” Each of these requires only idleness and not moving. But “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and “Sell your possessions and give to the poor,” and “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two”: these are actions fit for athletes, needing a soul already vigorous to accomplish them. So admire the wisdom of him who leads us toward perfection through what is easier and easier to grasp. He has set before us three things worth guarding against: not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, not to stand in the way of sinners, not to sit in the seat of the pestilent. Following the nature of things, he gave these sayings this order. For first we deliberate, then we make the plan stand, then [we settle] in what we have planned. Blessed first of all, therefore, is purity in our mind, since the plan in the heart is the root of the actions done through the body. For adultery is first kindled in the soul of the pleasure-lover, and so brings about the corruption that is done through the body. That is why the Lord says that what defiles a person is from within. And since ungodliness is properly the name for sin against God, God forbid that we should ever admit, out of unbelief, a doubt about God! For this is to walk in the counsel of the ungodly: if you say in your heart, “Is there a God who governs all things? Is there a God in heaven who manages each particular thing? Is there a judgment? Is there a recompense to each according to his work? Why then are the just poor and sinners rich? Why are these sick and those strong? these without honor and those in high repute? Perhaps the world is carried along at random, and irrational chances distribute the lots of life to each without order?” If you think these things, you have walked in the counsel of the ungodly. Blessed, then, is the one who has not entertained doubt about God; who has not lost heart about present things but awaits those that are hoped for; who has held no unbelieving opinion about him who created us. And blessed is he also who has not stood in the way of sinners. Life is called a way because of the haste of each one born toward his end. For as those asleep on ships are carried of their own accord to harbor by the wind, even if they do not perceive it, while the voyage presses them toward its end, so we too, as the time of our life flows by, are hurried on, each toward his own limit, by a kind of continuous and unceasing motion, the unnoticed course of our life. For example, you sleep, and time runs past you; you are awake and busy in your mind, and yet life is spent, even if it escapes our perception. We are all running a race, then, each hastening toward his own end; for this reason we are all on the way. And you might take the idea of the way like this too. You have set out as a traveler into this life: you pass everything, everything falls behind you. You saw a plant on the road, or grass, or water, or whatever sight was worth looking at; you were delighted for a little, then you ran past. Again you met with stones and ravines and cliffs and crags and stakes, or perhaps wild beasts and reptiles and thorns and other troubles; you were annoyed for a little, then you left them behind. Such is life: it keeps neither its pleasures lasting nor its pains enduring. The way is not yours, nor are present things yours. Among travelers, as soon as the first has moved his foot, the one after him has at once set down his step, and after him the next. [5] Consider too whether the things of life are not similar. Today you have farmed the land, and tomorrow another, and after him someone else. Do you see these fields and the costly houses? How many names has each of them changed since it came into being! It used to be called so-and-so's; then it was renamed for another; it passed to so-and-so; now it is called someone else's. Is not our life, then, a way, taking now one and now another, and having all following one another? Blessed, then, is the one who has not stood in the way of sinners. And what does “has not stood” mean? While we human beings are still in our first age, we are neither in wickedness nor in virtue, for that age cannot receive either disposition. But when our reason has come to maturity, then there happens what is written: “But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” For evil thoughts spring up, born in our souls from the passions of the flesh. For in truth, when the commandment has come, that is, the discernment of good things, if it does not master the worse reasoning but allows reason to be enslaved by the passions, then sin revives and the mind dies, having become dead in its trespasses. Blessed, then, is the one who has not lingered on the way of those who sin, but has leapt across by better reasoning to the godly way of life. For there are two ways opposed to one another, the one broad and spacious, the other narrow and hard. And there are two guides, each trying to turn the traveler toward himself. The smooth and downhill way has a deceitful guide, an evil demon, dragging those who follow him by pleasure toward destruction; but the rough and steep way has a good angel, [leading] through the toils of virtue toward the blessed [end] … each of us is, pursuing what is pleasant at the moment, and takes no thought for the future. But when he has become a man, once his notions are fully formed, he seems to see his life split toward virtue and wickedness, and, turning the eye of his soul often toward each, he compares what belongs to each. The life of sinners shows all the delights of the present age; the life of the just shows only the goods of the future. And the way of those being saved, the more fair the things it promises for the future, the more toilsome it makes the present; whereas the pleasant and licentious life offers its enjoyment not as something expected later but as already present. Every soul, then, grows dizzy and [is tossed] in its reasonings: when it thinks of eternal things it chooses virtue, but when it looks toward present things it prefers pleasure. Here it sees the comfort of the flesh, there the enslavement of the flesh; here drunkenness, there fasting; here unrestrained laughter, there abundant tears; here dancing, there prayer; flutes here, groans there; here sexual immorality, there virginity. Since, then, the truly good is grasped by reasoning through faith (for it is far removed, and “eye has not seen, nor ear heard”), while the pleasure of sin is close at hand and offers enjoyment flowing through every sense, blessed is the one who has not been turned toward destruction by the baits of pleasure, but waits with patience for the hope of salvation, and in choosing between the two ways has not set foot on the way that leads to the worse. [6] “And has not sat in the seat of the pestilent.” [Does he mean] these seats on which we rest our bodies? And what transfer of sin is there from wood, that I should flee as harmful a seat a sinner sat on before me? Or must we think that “seat” means a settled and lasting persistence in the judgment of wickedness? This we must guard against, because to dwell assiduously on sins produces in souls a habit hard to move. For a passion of the soul grown old, and the practice of evil confirmed by time, is hard to heal, or even wholly incurable, since habit generally turns into nature. It is a thing to pray for, then, not to touch evil at all. The second-best course is to flee at once after the experience, as from the bite of a venomous creature, according to what is written by Solomon about the bad woman: “Do not fix your eye on her, but spring away; do not linger.” But I know some who in youth slipped into the passions of the flesh and, through the habit of evil, remained in their sins right up to gray hair. For as pigs rolling in mud always plaster themselves with more mire, so these people wipe on more of the shame of pleasure every day. Blessed, then, is not to think the evil thought at all; but if, through the enemy's surprise attack, you received thoughts of ungodliness in your soul, do not stand in the sin. And if this too has happened to you, do not settle down in evil. So do not sit in the seat of the pestilent. If you have understood what seat the word means, that it speaks of a lasting attachment to evil, examine now whom it named “the pestilent.” Those skilled in such matters say that pestilence, once it touches one man or beast, spreads by transmission to all who come near, for the nature of the disease is such that all fill one another with the sickness. Such too are the workers of lawlessness. For one [passes] the disease to another … Do you not see the fornicators who sit in the marketplace, mocking the chaste, telling of their own shameful deeds, the practices of darkness, and listing the passions of their dishonor as if they were feats of valor or some other brave deeds? These are the pestilent, who strive to spread their own evil to all and are ambitious that many become like themselves, so that in the fellowship of evils they may escape reproach. For neither can fire, once it has caught easily burned material, fail to spread through all of it, especially if it meets a wind that carries the flame; nor can sin, once it has touched one person, fail to pass to all who come near, while the spirits of wickedness kindle it. For the spirit of sexual immorality does not allow the dishonor to stop with one person, but at once companions of the same age are drawn in: revels, drinking bouts, shameful stories; a courtesan … and setting all ablaze together toward the same sin. Is this pestilence small, or the spread of the evil slight? And what of the man who envies the greedy man, or one clothed in some conspicuous political power through some other wickedness, or one holding rule over nations, or a commander of armies, who is then wallowing in the most shameful passions: has he not received the pestilence into his very soul, making his own the evil of the one he envies? For the … of conspicuous men in life: soldiers for the most part become like their commanders, while those in … In short, when the evil of one is thought by the many worthy of imitation, it may fitly and properly be said that a pestilence of souls is spreading through life. For what is conspicuous in wickedness draws many of those who slip easily into the same zeal. Since, then, one is filled with corruption by another, let such people be said to infect souls with pestilence. So do not sit in the seat of the pestilent; that is, do not share in the council of corrupting and ruinous men, or do not remain in what has been wickedly planned. But the discourse is still in its opening, and I see its length exceeding due measure, so that it is neither easy for you to keep more in mind nor for me to carry out the ministry of the word, because the weakness of voice that has long been with me is failing us. And if what has been said has been said incompletely, flight from evil having been shown but perfection through good works having been left aside, still, entrusting what we have said to kindly ears, we promise, God granting, to supply what is lacking as well, unless we fall into complete silence from now on. May the Lord grant to us the reward of what has been said, and to you the fruit of what you have heard, by the grace of his Christ, for to him belong the glory and the power to the ages of ages. Amen.

“A psalm of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Hushai son of Jemini.” The title of the seventh psalm seems somehow to be at odds with the history in the books of Kingdoms, where the story of David is recorded. For there Hushai is reported as David's chief companion and the son of Archi, but here as Hushai son of Jemini; and neither he nor anyone else who appears there is a son of Jemini. Perhaps, then, since he showed great valor and a brave deed in his pretense of friendship, going over in appearance to Absalom while undoing the counsels of Ahithophel, who was giving his opinions, he was for this reason called son of Jemini? “Son of Jemini” is interpreted “son of the right hand.” For when Ahithophel proposed that no time be allowed to pass, but that they attack the father at once while he was unprepared, Hushai did not allow Ahithophel's counsel to be accepted, “so that the Lord might bring,” it says, “all the evils upon Absalom”; instead he appeared to give them more persuasive delays and postponements, in order to give David time to gather his forces. That is why Absalom approved of him, saying, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel [of Ahithophel].” But to David he made known through the priests Zadok and Abiathar what had been arranged, and he told him not to camp at Araboth in the wilderness but urged him on to the crossing. Since, then, by his good counsel he became David's right hand, from the brave deed … he has been called son of Jemini, that is, son of the right hand. It is the custom of Scripture to name the worse from their sin rather than from their fathers, and to call the better sons of the virtue that marks them. So the Apostle calls the devil a son of destruction: “For unless the lawless one is revealed, the son of destruction.” And in the Gospel the Lord called Judas a son of destruction: “None,” he says, “was lost except the son of destruction.” And those formed in the knowledge of God are called children of wisdom: “Wisdom is justified …”

“If there is a son of peace there,” he says. So it is no wonder that here too his bodily father is passed over in silence and David's chief companion is named son of the right hand, … taking from his deed a [name] fitting for himself. [2] “O Lord my God, in you have I hoped; save me.” The words “O Lord my God, in you have I hoped; save me,” are thought to be simple and such that anyone at all could rightly apply them to himself; but perhaps they are not. For one who hopes in a human being, or is buoyed up by some other thing in life, such as power or money or one of the things the many consider splendid, cannot say, “O Lord my God, in you have I hoped.” For there is a command not to hope in rulers; and, “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man.” Just as it is not fitting to worship anything besides God, so it is not fitting to hope in anyone other than God, the Lord of all. “For the Lord,” it says, “is my hope and my praise.” But how does he first pray to be saved from his pursuers and then to be delivered? The distinction will make the passage clear: “Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, lest like a lion he snatch away my soul.” What, then, is the difference between being saved and being delivered? That those who are sick properly need salvation, while those held in captivity need deliverance. That is why one who has the sickness in himself, but has also received faith in himself, is brought to salvation by his own faith: “Your faith,” it says, “has saved you,” and, “Let it be done for you as you have believed.” But one who must be delivered waits for a price that must be paid down for him from outside. So the man under death, knowing that there is one who saves and one who redeems, says, “In you I have hoped: save me from my sickness and deliver me from captivity.” I think too that the noble athletes of God, who have sufficiently [wrestled] all their life long with their invisible enemies' pursuits, when they come to the end of life are examined by the ruler of this age, so that, if they are found to have wounds from the wrestling, or certain stains and marks of sin, they may be held fast; but if they are found unwounded and unstained, they may rest, as unconquered and free, with Christ. He prays, then, both for the life here and for the life to come. “Save me,” he says, here from those who pursue me, “but deliver me” there, at the time of the examination, “lest like a lion he snatch away my soul.” And you may learn this from the Lord himself, who says at the time of his passion, “Now the ruler of this world is coming, and in me he will have nothing.” He, having committed no sin, said that the ruler had nothing; but for a man it is enough if he dares to say, “The ruler of this world is coming, and in me he will have few and small things.” There is danger of suffering these things if we do not have the one who redeems us or the one who saves us. To the two things set before us, two others are added: “Save me from the multitude of those who pursue me, and deliver me,” so that I may not be snatched away as though there were no one to redeem. [3] “O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice in my hands, if I have repaid those who repay me with evil, then may I fall empty before my enemies. May the enemy then pursue my soul and overtake it.” It is the custom of Scripture to use the word “repayment” not only of what is done in return, when some good or evil has already been done first, but also of what begins a matter; as in, “Repay your servant.” For “repay” is said instead of “give.” Giving, then, is the beginning of a kindness; giving back is the equal measuring in return by the one who has received it; and repayment is a kind of second beginning and cycle of the goods or evils laid down toward others. I think that when the word, instead of asking, as it were demands a debt and seeks repayment, it presents some such thought as this: “Grant me the debt of care that by nature is necessarily owed by parents to their offspring.” For a father owes his children, according to natural affection, provision for their life: “For parents,” it says, “ought to lay up for their children,” so that, besides living, they may also provide them with the means of life. Such is often in Scripture the meaning of “giving back” or “repayment” when used of actions that begin a matter. But here the speaker seems confident because he has not given back to those who repaid him with evil, has not repaid them in kind. “If, then, I have done this, and if I have repaid those who repay me with evil, may I fall empty before my enemies.” He falls empty before his enemies who has fallen away from the grace that comes from the fullness of Christ. “May the enemy then pursue my soul and overtake it, and trample my life to the ground.” The soul of the just man, separated from sympathy with the body, has its life hidden with Christ in God, so that it can say with the Apostle, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me,” and, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith.” But the soul of the sinner, who lives according to the flesh and is mixed up with the pleasures of the body, has rolled in the passions of the flesh as in mud. Trampling on it, the enemy defiles it still more …, and tramples the life of the one who has slipped to the ground with his own feet, that is, into the body. “And may he make my glory dwell in the dust.” Since the saints have their citizenship in heaven and lay up their goods for themselves in eternal treasuries, their glory is in heaven; but of the earthly, who live according to the flesh, the glory is said to dwell in the dust. For one who is glorified for earthly wealth, who cherishes the short-lived honor of men, who trusts in bodily advantages, has a glory for himself that does not look up toward heaven but remains in the dust. [4] “Arise, O Lord, in your anger; be exalted in the borders of my enemies.” The prophet prays that the mystery of the resurrection may already be at work for the abolition of their sin; or for the lifting up on the cross, which was to come about after the wickedness of the enemies had been raised up to its utmost limit. Or “Be exalted in the borders of my enemies” suggests some such thought as this: however far wickedness reaches its peak and advances, poured out without measure or limit, you can, by the abundance of your power, like a good physician who has first seized the limits of the spreading sore, stop the disease as it spreads and creeps, and cut off its continuity by your disciplinary blows.

“And rise up, O Lord my God, by the command that you have given.” The passage can be referred to the mystery of the resurrection, the prophet calling on the judge to rise up to punish every sin and to bring to fulfillment the commandments laid down for us beforehand. But it can also be referred to the prophet's circumstances at that time, to the vindication of the command that God had given. The command, given by God, was “Honor your father and your mother,” which his son had transgressed. So he calls on God, both for the son's correction and for the chastening of the many, not to be patient, but to rise up in anger and, standing up, to avenge his own commandment. “For you will not be avenging me,” he says, “but your command that has been despised, which you yourself gave.” “And an assembly of peoples will surround you.” It is clear that when one unjust man has been chastened, many will turn. Punish his wickedness, then, so that … a great assembly of peoples may surround you. “And for its sake return on high.” For the sake of the assembly that surrounds you, which you have acquired through your condescension in grace and your saving plan, return to the height of the glory that you had before the world came to be. “The Lord will judge the peoples.” The teaching about judgment is sown throughout Scripture in many places, as most necessary and most binding for instruction in godliness for those who have believed in God through Jesus Christ. But since the teaching about judgment is written in many ways, it will seem to have some confusion for those who do not carefully distinguish the meanings. For “He who believes in me is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already.” But if the unbeliever is like the ungodly, how is it said that the ungodly will not rise in the judgment? And if believers have become sons of God through faith, and are therefore worthy to be called gods themselves, how does “God stand in the assembly of gods, and in the midst judge between gods”? It seems that Scripture takes “to be judged” sometimes in the sense of being tested, sometimes of being condemned. In the sense of being tested, as in “Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence”; for it adds there, “Test me, O Lord, and try me.” In the sense of being condemned, as in “For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged”; that is, he says, if we examined ourselves we would not be subject to condemnation. Again, it is said that the Lord will enter into judgment with all flesh; that is, in the examination of what each has done in life he submits himself to judgment and sets his own commands beside what sinners have done, defending himself with proofs that he has done everything that depended on him for the salvation of those being judged, so that sinners, persuaded that they are guilty of their sins and accepting the divine sentence, may willingly receive the punishment that falls to them.

There is also another meaning of the word “to be judged,” as the Lord says: “The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment and condemn this generation.” For those who turn away from the divine teaching, who have no love for the good and are wholly averse to the instructive doctrines of wisdom, he says receive a heavier con[demnation] … by comparison and contrast with those of their own generation who excelled in zeal for good things … [not all] who have taken up this earthly body [will be judged alike] by the just judge, because the things that befall each of us from outside cause each person's judgment to vary greatly. For the concurrence of things that are not in our power but surround us against our will either makes our sins heavier for us or lightens them. Suppose, for example, that the matter being judged is sexual immorality. One man committed it after being brought up from the beginning in evil habits: he was brought into life by licentious parents and was reared in the habit of base things, in drinking bouts and revels and shameful talk. Another had many things calling him to what is best: upbringing, teachers, hearing of more divine words, saving readings …; and then, carried away into the same sin as the other, when he gives an account of his life, how will such a man not justly be thought to deserve a heavier punishment than the other? For the first will be accused only of the saving impulses sown in his natural notions, as not having used them rightly; but the second, besides this, as having had much help toward being saved and yet having betrayed himself through incontinence and a very brief lapse of attention. Likewise one who was brought up in godliness from the beginning and escaped all distortion in the doctrines about God, brought up too in the law of God, which condemns every sin and calls to the opposite, will not have the same defense for idolatry as one [born] of lawless fathers. [God will judge] the Jew [in one way] and the Scythian in another. For the one rests on the law, boasts in God, and approves what is excellent; instructed from the law, and besides the common notions constantly having the prophetic and legal writings chanted to him and being trained in them, if he is found to have stumbled into lawlessness he will have his sins reckoned as much heavier. But the nomad Scythians, brought up in savage and inhuman habits, accustomed to robbery and violence against one another, uncontrolled in anger and easily roused to fury against one another, and taught to settle their quarrels with blood: if they show some kindness and goodness toward one another, they make our punishment heavier by their own good deeds. [6] “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my innocence that is in me.” The saying will seem to have something boastful in it, like the prayer of the Pharisee who exalted himself; but to one who considers it with good will, the prophet will be seen to be far from such a disposition. “Judge me, O Lord,” he says, “according to my righteousness.” Great, he says, is the subject of righteousness, and the limits of perfect righteousness are hard to reach. For there is also a righteousness of angels that surpasses that of human beings; and if there is any power above the angels, it has a superiority of righteousness proportioned to its greatness; and there is the righteousness of God himself, which surpasses all understanding, being ineffable and incomprehensible to every created nature.

“Judge me, then, O Lord, according to my own righteousness,” that is, the righteousness attainable by human beings and possible for those living in the flesh. “And according to my innocence that is in me.” For in this way especially the disposition of the speaker is shown to be very far from Pharisaic arrogance. For he calls “innocence” a kind of simplicity and inexperience of things useful for knowledge, as it is said in Proverbs, “The innocent believes every word.” Since, then, we human beings fall into many things unguardedly through inexperience, he begs God and asks to receive pardon for his innocence. From this it is clear that what is said shows the humility of the speaker rather than arrogance. “For judge me,” he says, “according to my righteousness, and judge me according to the innocence that is in me.” “Weighing my righteousness against human weakness, judge me so; and … the simplicity of my ways … do not condemn me when I sin as though I were shrewd or highly experienced in the affairs of the world.” “Let the wickedness of sinners be brought to an end.” The one who prays this is plainly a disciple of the Gospel commandments. For he prays for those who abuse him, asking that the wickedness of those who sin be bounded by a limit and an end. It is as if someone praying for those sick in body were to say, “Let the disease of the sick be brought to an end.” For so that sin may not creep further and spread like gangrene, the one who loves his enemies and wishes to do good to those who hate him, and therefore prays for those who abuse him, prays God that the further spreading of sin may stop and be bounded. “And you will direct the just.” The just man is called upright, and the heart that has done right is upright. What, then, does the prophet's prayer mean here? For he prays that one who already has uprightness may be directed. For no one would say that there is anything crooked or twisted or tortuous in the just man. But perhaps the request for the just man is necessary so that the uprightness of his purpose and the undistorted state of his judgment may be directed by God's guidance, so that he may never turn aside through weakness from the rule, as it were, of truth, nor be [led astray] by the enemy of truth …. “God who tries hearts and reins with justice.” Since Scripture often takes “heart” for the governing part, and “reins” often for the desiring part of the soul, here too it means the same: “O God, judge me both in the doctrines I hold about godliness and in the movements of passion; for you are the one who tries hearts and reins.” “Trying” is properly the inquiry conducted by judges with every kind of torture on those under examination, so that those who conceal what is sought may by the compulsion of pain bring what is hidden into the open. For in the judge's examinations, which no reasoning can evade, our thoughts are tried, and our actions are tried too. “Let no one judge before the time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things hidden in darkness and disclose the purposes of the hearts.” In trying hearts and reins, then, God shows his own justice. The heart of Abraham was tried, whether he loved God with all his soul and with all his heart, when he was commanded to offer Isaac as a whole burnt offering, so that it might appear that he did not love his son more than God. Jacob too was tried when his brother plotted against him, so that his brotherly love might shine out, unstained by the many sins of Esau. These men's hearts were tried; but Joseph's reins were tried when his licentious mistress was mad with desire for him and he preferred the dignity of chastity to shameful pleasure. He was tried for this purpose: that the spectators of God's judgment might agree that the honor was justly given him, because his dignity shone out in great trials. [7] “My help is from God.” Properly it is in wars, at the attacks of the enemy, that those under attack seek help. And here too the one who perceives his invisible enemies, and sees the danger that threatens him from the foes encamped around him, will say, “My help is not from wealth, nor from bodily resources, nor from my own power and strength, nor from human kinship; but my help is from God.” What kind of alliance the Lord sends to those who fear him we have learned elsewhere, where the psalm says, “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will deliver them,” and elsewhere, “The angel who delivers me.” … [He is upright] in heart whose reasoning does not lean toward excess or deficiency but is directed toward the mean of virtue. For one who turns aside from courage toward the less is distorted into cowardice, while one stretched beyond it inclines to rashness. Therefore Scripture calls such people crooked, …, those who miss the mark. For as a line becomes crooked when the straight line is bent, now convex and now concave, so too a heart is crooked that is now lifted up by boasting and now humbled by griefs and dejection. Therefore Ecclesiastes says …. “God is a just judge, and strong and patient, and does not bring on his anger every day.” The prophet seems to say this addressing those who were then to be troubled at what had happened, as if calming people's disturbance, lest they lose faith in the providence over all things when they saw a father unavenged at his son's rebellion and the wickedness of Absalom prospering in what he had planned. Correcting, then, the folly of their reasonings, he solemnly declared to them: “God is a just judge, and strong and patient, and does not bring on his anger every day.” Nothing that happens happens without judgment; God measures back to each by the measures with which each first measured out the actions of his life. Since, then, some sin was committed by me, I receive in return according to my own desert. Do not, then, [speak] injustice against God; for God is a just judge. Nor think so meanly of God as to suppose him too weak for vengeance; for he is also strong. What, then, is the reason that punishment is not quickly brought on sinners? Because he is patient, “and does not bring on his anger every day.” “If you do not turn, he will furbish his sword.” The word is threatening, urging those slow to repent toward turning. He does not threaten wounds and blows and deaths at once, but the furbishing of weapons, as it were a preparation for retaliation. For as those who polish their weapons show by this their eagerness for war, so the word, wishing to show God's movement toward punishment, said that he furbishes his sword. “He has bent his bow and made it ready, and on it …”

“And on it he has prepared instruments of death.” … [It is no bowstring that] stretches the bow of God, but a punishing power, now tightened and now relaxed. The word, then, threatens the sinner that what is to be sent forth for punishment is ready for him if he persists in sin. For instruments of death have been made ready on the bow. And instruments of death are powers that destroy the enemies of God. “He has made his arrows for those who burn.” As fire was made by the Creator for material that burns (for it was not created for the adamant, which is not melted by fire, but for the wood that burns up), so too God's arrows have been made by him for souls that catch fire easily, in which much material fit for destruction has been gathered. Those, then, who have already received and hold within themselves the fiery darts of the devil are the ones who receive the arrows of God. That is why he says, “He has made his arrows for those who are already burning.” And the soul is set burning by carnal loves, by desires for money, by fiery angers, by griefs that inflame and consume the soul, and by fears that are foreign to God. But one who is unwounded by the enemy's darts and has put on the whole armor of God remains untouched by the death-bearing arrows.

“Behold, he travailed with injustice, conceived toil, and brought forth lawlessness.” As regards order, the wording seems confused; for first [women conceive, then they travail,] then they give birth; but here first comes the travail, then the conception, then the birth. But as regards the conception of the heart, it is most expressive. For the irrational impulses of the licentious and their mad and frenzied desires are called travail because they arise in the soul with sharpness and pain. In accordance with such an impulse, the one who has not become master of his evil plans has conceived toil; and the one who has kindled the wickedness in his heart by evil deeds has brought forth lawlessness. He seems to say this in shame at being the father of a lawless son. “The boy is not mine,” he says, “but has become the son of the father to whom he has adopted himself through sin.” For, according to John, “The one who commits sin is of the devil.” “Behold,” then, the devil “travailed” with him through injustice, and “conceived” him, as it were carrying him in his womb, in the most intimate parts of his own disposition, and then brought him forth, making his lawlessness manifest, since the rebellion against his father was proclaimed to all. “He dug a pit and hollowed it out.” We do not find the word “pit” used in a good sense in the divine Scriptures, as neither is “well of water” used in a bad one. For the pit is the one into which Joseph was thrown by his brothers. And … when the firstborn are struck, “from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive woman in the pit.” And in the psalms: “I was counted with those who go down into the pit.” And in Jeremiah he says, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken pits, which will not be able to hold water.” And in Daniel too a pit of lions is recorded, into which Daniel is thrown. But Abraham digs a well, and the servants of Isaac; and Moses, having gone out to a well, rested there. And we receive a commandment from Solomon to drink waters from our own vessels and from the spring of our own wells. And the Savior speaks with the Samaritan woman at the well about divine mysteries. We think the reason why pits are used of worse things and wells of better is this: in pits the water is acquired from outside, falling from the sky; but in wells veins of water that were buried before the places were dug come to light when the covering earth is removed, along with whatever substance lay over them, all of which is earth. So in souls too there is, as it were, a dug-out pit, into which the better things fall and are changed and debased, when someone turns the notions of good things that fall into him, twisting them toward greater wickedness and toward what is contrary to truth, having resolved to have no good thing of his own. And again there are wells, when, the worse things that cover them being removed, light shines out and a spring of water drinkable in word and doctrine. That is why each must make a well for himself, so as to keep the commandment mentioned before, which says, “Drink waters from your own vessels and from the spring of your own wells.” For so we shall be called children of those who dug the wells, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But we must not make a pit, so that we may not fall into the hole, as is said here, nor hear what is written in Jeremiah in reproach of sinners, when God says of them what we cited a little before: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken pits, which will not be able to hold water for themselves.” …

“O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tabernacle, or who shall dwell on your holy mountain?”

Wishing to sketch for us the perfect man, the one who is to attain the beatitudes, the word follows a certain order and path through the things to be considered about him, and makes its beginning from the nearest and first. “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tabernacle?” Sojourning is a temporary way of life, suggesting not a settled life but a passing one, in hope of a change to better things. It belongs to a holy man to pass through this life while hastening toward another life. That is why David too says of himself, “I am a sojourner with you and a stranger, as all my fathers were.” For Abraham was a sojourner, possessing not even a foot's breadth of land of his own; but when he needed a grave, he is seen to have bought one with silver, the word showing that while living in the flesh one ought to be a sojourner, but when passing out of this life one rests in one's own places. That is why in this life he sojourns among foreigners, but at his burial he purchased land of his own to receive his body. Blessed indeed it is not to cling to the things on earth as one's own, nor to hold on to the things here as to some native homeland, but to know one's fall from better things and, weighed down by the life here as by a sentence of condemnation, to sojourn as those do who have been banished by judges from their native land beyond the frontier for certain offenses. Rare is such a man: one who does not attend to present things as his own; who knows that the use of wealth is temporary; who considers the body's good health short-lived; who recognizes that the flower of human glory is unstable. “Who, then, shall sojourn in your tabernacle?” God's tabernacle is the name given to the flesh given by him to the human soul as a dwelling. Who will treat this flesh as another's? As sojourners, renting another's land, farm the ground according to the wishes of the one who leased it, so the care of the flesh has been entrusted to us by contract, so that we may … to the one who gave it. And if the flesh is worthy of God, it truly becomes God's tabernacle, according to his indwelling in the saints. Such is the flesh of the one who sojourns. That is why it says, “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tabernacle?” Then comes progress and advance toward what is more perfect: “And who shall dwell on your holy mountain?” The earthly Jew, when he hears “mountain,” … runs off to Zion. “Who shall dwell on your holy mountain?” The one who has sojourned in the flesh will dwell on the holy mountain. That mountain is the region above the heavens, the famous and splendid one, of which the Apostle says: “To Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is a festal gathering of angels and the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.” When, then, someone passes through this flesh without attachment, sojourning in it as another's and not depending on it as his own, he, because he has put to death his members that are on earth and has achieved holiness, is worthy of dwelling on the holy mountain; longing for it, the psalmist said, “I will go into the place of the wonderful tabernacle,” and, “How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” There [lead] us both love of neighbor, for the sake of that dwelling on the mountain, and the friendship that comes from the mammon of unrighteousness: “For make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.” Of that way of life the Lord spoke in the form of a prayer: “Holy Father, grant that where I am, they also may be.” Rare is the one who sojourns in the body, and rare the one who dwells on the mountain. That is why the word says, as if at a loss, “Who shall sojourn?” and “Who shall dwell?”, like “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” and “Who will tell you that a fire is burning?” and “Who will tell you of the eternal place?” and “Who then is the faithful and wise steward?” But perhaps the “who” is also a question, as though he were seeking an answer from the holy Lord with whom he is conversing. And the divine voice, resolving the question, what does it say to him? “He who walks blameless and works righteousness.” If the blameless man is one who lacks none of the goods and passes his life without stumbling into any wickedness, what difference is there between him and one who does righteousness? Does he, then, express the same thought in two phrases, “He who walks blameless and works righteousness”? Or does each of the sayings present a meaning of its own? So that the blameless is one who is fully equipped for every perfection of virtue in the hidden man, while the one who works righteousness is one who perfects his practical life through bodily actions. For one must not only do the just deed but also work from a just disposition, as it is said, “You shall pursue justice justly”; … the deed. For example, a layman may do something medical that benefits the sick, but such a man has not acted medically, since nothing of the art accompanies his action. The one who walks blameless, then, is perfect in mind; and the one who works righteousness is, in the Apostle's words, the Lord's unashamed wor[ker]. Note the exactness of the wording. He did not say “having walked blameless” but “walking blameless,” nor “having worked righteousness” but “working.” For a single deed does not make the earnest man perfect; the activities of virtue must extend through the whole of life. … “[He who speaks truth in his heart], who has not deceived with his tongue.” Here again, speaking truth in the heart and not deceiving with one's tongue have the same relation to each other as being blameless had to working righteousness. For as there the word presents both the one perfect in the hidden man and the one who prospers in practical life, so here, since what is spoken comes from the abundance of the heart, as the word flows from the spring of the inner disposition, he first mentioned truth in the heart and then guilelessness in speech, which is worked through the tongue. We shall find two meanings of truth: one the grasp of the things that lead to the blessed life, the other a sound knowledge of any of the things of this life. That truth, then, which cooperates with salvation and is in the heart of the perfect man, must be handed on without guile to every neighbor; but in the affairs of life, if the earnest man should miss the truth somewhere, it will be no hindrance to him in what lies before him. For how many stades there are of land or sea, how many of the stars are in motion, and how much one surpasses another in speed: if we do not know the truth in these things, it will not hinder us from attaining the blessedness of the promises. But perhaps the word presents something like this to us too: that the things of truth, that is, the mysteries, must be spoken not to everyone but to the neighbor; that is, they must not be disclosed to just anyone, but to those who have shared in the mysteries. And if our Lord is the truth, let each of us have this truth stamped and, as it were, sealed on his own heart; and speaking of it in our hearts, let us not falsify the word of the Gospel in proclaiming the message to our neighbors. “Who has not deceived with his tongue.” In many places deceit is condemned in Scripture as God's enemy. “May the Lord destroy,” it says, “all deceitful lips,” and, “Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil.” And everything better is said to be adulterated by mixture with the worse, as wine is adulterated when worse wine is mixed with it, or water blended into it, and gold is adulterated in combination with silver and bronze; so too truth is adulterated when [what is] more blasphemous [is mixed] with the holy words …. “Nor has he done evil to his neighbor.” Whom the word calls the neighbor, no one doubts who has heard the Gospel's answer to the one who asked, “And who is my neighbor?”, to whom the Lord told the parable of the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and whom he also asked, “Which of these seems to you to have been a neighbor?” And he answered, “The one who showed mercy to him.” By this he taught that every human being is to be considered a neighbor. This too is hard to achieve and needs much care: to harm one's neighbor neither in small things nor in greater; not to hurt him in word; not to deprive him of anything that is his due; not to wish him evil; not to give way to envy at the good fortune of those near us. “And has not taken up a reproach against those nearest him.” The expression is ambiguous: whether he himself did nothing deserving of reproach from those nearest him and therefore received no reproach from them; or whether he himself reproached none of those nearest him, whether they had fallen into human failings or were found with bodily defects or other shortcomings of the flesh. For the sinner is not to be reproached, as it is written, “Do not reproach a man who is turning away from sin.” For we have never known reproach to be used for the benefit of offenders, since the Apostle, in his counsels to his own disciple Timothy, permitted rebuke and exhortation and reproof, but nowhere took up reproach, as something contrary. Rebuke seems to have as its end the correction of the sinner, while reproach aims at the disgrace of the one who has stumbled. To reproach someone with poverty, or low birth, or lack of learning, or bodily illness is altogether unreasonable and foreign to the earnest man. For what does not happen to us by choice is involuntary; and for involuntary defects one should show pity

“In his sight the evildoer is set at nought, but he glorifies those who fear the Lord.” It belongs to a lofty mind, which stoops to nothing for human need, and to a man who has brought the habit of justice to its summit, to give each his due: to set at nought evildoers, even if they happen to be clothed with great power, even if they are luxuriant in wealth or in distinction of family, even if they claim splendor for themselves, if wickedness alone is found in them; to set such people at nought, that is, to count them as nothing. And conversely, to glorify those who fear the Lord, even if they are poor, even if lowborn, even if unskilled in speech, even if weak in body, and to exalt them and consider them blessed, since he has been taught by the Spirit to call such people blessed. “For blessed,” it says, “are all who fear the Lord.” It belongs to the same mind both to set at nought the evildoer, even if he is lifted up by splendor, and to glorify the one who fears the Lord, even if he is of no account, even if he is poor in life, even if despised, even if he possesses none of the outward things that invite approval. “He who swears to his neighbor and does not break his word.” Why ever is swearing truly allowed here among the brave deeds fitting for the perfect man, while in the Gospel it is wholly forbidden? “Who shall sojourn, and who shall dwell? He who swears to his neighbor and does not break his word.” But there: “But I say to you, do not swear at all.” What, then, do we say? That the Lord everywhere keeps to the same aim, forestalling the effects of sins and cutting out wickedness from its first beginning. For as the old law said, “You shall not commit adultery,” but the Lord, “Nor shall you desire”; and the one, “You shall not murder,” but he who gives the more perfect laws, “Nor shall you be angry”: so too here the one is content with true swearing, but the other cuts off the occasion of perjury. For one who swears truly may perhaps sometimes slip against his will; but one who does not swear has escaped the danger of perjury. Scripture often also calls an oath the unchangeable confirmation of each matter, as in, “I have sworn and confirmed it, to keep the judgments of your righteousness,” and, “The Lord has sworn and will not repent.” Not that God brought [someone] as witness …, but that he confirmed the grace of his promise to David by unalterable decrees. So it is possible that here too it is said in this sense: “He who swears to his neighbor,” that is, who [affirms] to his neighbor, “and does not break his word,” so that it may agree with what the Lord said: “Let your word be yes, yes, and no, no.” About things that are so, nod your assent when you affirm them; and about things that are not, even if all men urge you, never be persuaded to affirm them against the truth of nature. The thing has not happened: let the denial be the affirmation. Try to present the truth itself, by itself, without involving anything else, using plain affirmations. Let the unbeliever bear the harm of his unbelief. For it is utterly shameful and foolish to accuse oneself of being unworthy of belief and then to bring in the security of oaths. There are certain expressions that have the form of oaths but are not oaths, being courtesy toward the hearers. So Joseph, winning over the Egyptian, swore by the health of Pharaoh. And the Apostle, showing his love for the Corinthians, said, “By the boasting in you that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.” For he who had been entrusted with the Gospel did not disregard the Gospel teaching; but … a plain word in the form of an oath, showing by such a turn of phrase that his boasting in them was worth everything to him.

“Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wishes to borrow.” The word calls us to what is social, mutually loving, and akin to our nature. For man is a political and gregarious animal. And in common civic life and in living with one another, readiness to share is necessary for relieving the one in need. “Give to him who asks of you.” He wants you, because of love, to be open-handed in simplicity toward those who ask,

but by reasoning, in turn, to discern the need of each of those … . The Lord, then, has clearly commanded us, saying, “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wishes to borrow.” … in the Acts, how this can be carried out by those who fulfill the aim of godliness with understanding: “For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of what was sold and laid them at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made to each as anyone had need.” For since many, going beyond the use of necessities, make their asking an occasion for trade and a pretext for licentious luxury, the collecting of the money was necessarily done by those entrusted with the care of the poor, so that from there the distribution of necessities might be made with understanding and good management according to each one's needs. For as with the sick there is need to estimate measure and quality, and need of a physician for giving wine, so too the management of the care of the needy cannot be carried out profitably by everyone. For to those who compose mournful songs to deceive women, and who display their bodily deformities and sores as a means of trade, lavish help is not altogether profitable; for the supply will become for them an occasion for wickedness. One should drive off the barking of such people with a small gift, but show compassion and brotherly love toward those who have been taught to bear affliction with patience, of whom it will be said to them, “I was hungry and you gave me food,” and so on. “And do not turn away from him who wishes to borrow.” This command too is connected with the former ones. For the one who asks here, being poor, asks a loan from you, showing you the rich one in heaven who pays the debt to you on his behalf. “For he who has pity on the poor,” it says, “lends to God.” And the pledge for the loan is the kingdom of heaven. May we all be counted worthy of it, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be the glory and the power to the ages of ages. Amen.

Yesterday, [speaking] to you on the fourteenth psalm, … we were not allowed by the hour [to reach the end]. Now we have come as grateful debtors to pay you what was left owing. What remains is short to hear, so that it may seem so, and perhaps it even escaped most of you, so that it was not thought that anything of the psalm had been left out; but since we have learned that this short saying has great force for the affairs of life, we did not think we should pass over the benefit of examining it. The prophet, sketching in his discourse the perfect man, the one who is to enter on the unshaken life, counted among his brave deeds not giving his money at interest. This sin is condemned in many places in Scripture. For Ezekiel places taking interest and increase among the greatest of evils, and the law expressly forbids it: “You shall not lend at interest to your brother and to your neighbor.” And again it says, “Deceit upon deceit, and interest upon interest.” And of a city teeming with a multitude of evils, what does the psalm say? “Interest and deceit have not departed from its streets.” And now the prophet has taken this very thing as a mark of human perfection, saying, “He has not given his money at interest.” For it is truly the height of inhumanity that one who lacks necessities should seek a loan to relieve his life, and that the other, not content with the principal, should devise revenues for himself from the poor man's misfortunes and gather wealth. The Lord has clearly commanded us, saying, “And do not turn away from him who wishes to borrow from you.” But the lover of money, seeing a man bowed down by necessity at his knees in supplication, what humble thing does he not do? what does he not say? He does not pity one who is faring worse than he deserves, takes no account of their common nature, does not yield to his entreaties, but stands unbending and implacable, not giving way to prayers, not softened by tears, persisting in his refusal, swearing and calling down curses on himself that he is utterly without money and is himself looking around to see if he can find someone to lend; confirming the lie by oaths, and acquiring perjury as an evil by-product of his inhumanity. But when the one seeking the loan mentions interest and names securities, then he lowers his brow and smiles, and somehow remembers even a friendship of their fathers, and calls him intimate and friend, and says, “We shall see whether we have any money laid by. There is a deposit …; but he fixed a heavy interest on it, whereas we will certainly remit something and give it at lower interest.” Pretending such things, and fawning on and enticing the wretched man with such words, he [binds him with contracts] and, having taken away the man's freedom besides the poverty that oppresses him, he goes off. For the man who has made himself liable for interest that he cannot bear to pay has accepted a voluntary slavery for life. Tell me, do you seek money and income from the man without means? If he could have made you richer, why would he have come begging at your doors? He came for help and found an enemy; he looked for antidotes and met with poisons. When you ought to have relieved the man's [need] …, you seek to reap the desert. As if a physician, coming in to the sick, instead of restoring them to health, should take away the little remnant of their strength, so you make the misfortunes of the wretched an occasion of revenue. And as farmers pray for rain to multiply their seed, so you seek the want and helplessness of men, so that your money may become productive for you. Do you not know that you are making a greater addition to your sins than the increase you plan for your wealth from the interest? And the one seeking the loan, caught in the middle of his helplessness, despairs of repayment when he looks at his poverty, but when he looks at his present necessity, he dares the loan. [And so the one is overcome …, and the other] goes off, having secured himself with contracts and pledges.

Having taken the money, at first he is bright and delighted, gleaming with another's bloom, displaying it by the change in his way of life: his table is unrestrained, his clothing more costly, his servants changed to finer dress; there are flatterers, drinking companions, countless drones of the house. But as the money slips away and time, as it goes on, brings the interest forward with it, the nights bring him no rest, the day is not bright, the sun is not pleasant; he is weary of life, he hates the days as they hasten toward the due date, he fears the months as the fathers of interest. If he sleeps, he sees the lender in a dream, an evil vision, standing over his head; if he is awake, interest is his thought and care. “… [When the poor man and the lender] meet one another, the Lord makes a visitation of both.” The one, like a dog, runs after the quarry; the other, like ready prey, cowers at the meeting, for poverty takes away his freedom of speech. Both have the reckoning on their fingers: the one rejoicing at the growth of the interest, the other groaning at the addition to his misfortunes. “Drink waters from your own vessels”: that is, look to your own resources; do not go to others' springs, but gather the comforts of life for yourself from your own streams. Have you bronze vessels, clothing, a beast of burden, utensils of every kind? Sell them; agree to give up everything except your freedom. “But I am ashamed to put them up publicly,” he says. Why, then, when a little later someone else will bring them out and auction off your things and sell them cheap before your eyes? Do not go to others' doors, “for another's well is truly narrow.” Better to relieve the need by small expedients than to be lifted up all at once by others' goods and later stripped of all you have at once. If, then, you have the means to repay, why do you not relieve your present want from those resources? But if you are without means to repay, you are curing evil with evil. Do not take on a lender to besiege you. Do not bear to be [hunted and tracked] like any other prey … . The words of a borrower are one thing, and those of one being dunned another: “I wish I had never met you then; I would by now have found the means of escaping my necessity. Did you not thrust the money into my hand against my will? Your gold was alloyed with bronze, and your coin counterfeit.” If, then, the lender is a friend, do not lose his friendship; if an enemy, do not put yourself in the power of one who hates you. Having adorned yourself for a little with others' goods, you will later be stripped even of your inheritance. You are poor now, but free. Having borrowed, you will not become rich, and you will be deprived of your freedom. The borrower is the slave of the lender, and a hired slave, bearing an inexorable service. Dogs … [the lender, on receiving,] is provoked further. For he does not stop barking, but demands more. If you swear, he does not believe; he searches what is in your house, he meddles in your dealings. If you go out of your room, he drags you to himself and pulls you along; if you hide yourself indoors, he stands at the house and knocks at the door. He shames you before your wife, insults you before your friends, chokes you in the marketplace; he is an evil encounter at a feast; he makes your life unlivable. “But the necessity was great,” he says, “and there was no other source of money.” What, then, is the benefit of putting off today? For poverty will come upon you again like a good runner, and the same necessity will be there with an increase. For the loan offers not a complete release but a short postponement of your helplessness. Let us suffer today the hardships of want, and not put them off till tomorrow. If you do not borrow, you will be poor alike today and hereafter; but if you borrow, you will be more cruelly worn down, since the interest will stretch your poverty further. And now no one blames you for being poor, for the evil is involuntary; but if you are liable for interest, there is no one who will not blame your [folly] … [3] So let us not, besides involuntary evils, draw upon ourselves a self-chosen evil through our own folly. It belongs to a childish mind not to manage oneself from what one has, but to entrust oneself to uncertain hopes and venture on a manifest and undeniable harm. Plan now where you will repay from. From what you receive? But it will not be enough both for your need and for the repayment. And if you reckon the interest too, how will the money be multiplied so much as to meet your need separately, to make up the principal separately, and on top of that to produce interest? But you will not repay the loan from what you receive. From elsewhere, then? Then let us wait for those hopes, and not come like fish to the bait. For as they swallow the hook with the food, so we are pierced through by interest because of the money. Being poor brings no shame; why, then, do we bring upon ourselves the reproaches of debt? No one heals wounds with a wound, nor cures evil with evil, nor corrects poverty with interest. Are you rich? Do not borrow. Are you poor? Do not borrow. For if you are well off, you do not need a loan; and if you have nothing, you will not repay the loan. Do not give your life over to regret, lest you someday call blessed the days before the interest. In this one thing let us the poor surpass the rich: in freedom from care. Let us laugh at them lying awake while we sleep, and at them always busy and anxious while we are free of care and at ease. But the debtor is both poor and full of cares: sleepless by night, sleepless by day, brooding all the time; now valuing his own property, now the costly houses, the fields of the rich, the clothes of those he meets, the furnishings of those who give dinners. “If these were mine,” he says, “I would sell them for so much and so much and be rid of the interest.” These thoughts sit on his heart by night and occupy his mind by day. If you knock at the door, the debtor is under the bed. Someone ran in quickly, and his heart pounded. The dog barks, and he is drenched in sweat, seized with anguish, and looks around for a way to escape. When the due date approaches, he worries over what lie he will tell, what pretext he will invent to put off the lender. Do not think of yourself only as receiving, but also as being dunned. Why do you yoke yourself to a prolific beast? They say that hares at once give birth, nurse, and conceive again. And with the moneylenders the money is at once lent out and begets and grows. You have not yet received it into your hands, and you have been dunned for this month's yield. And this, lent out again, has bred another evil, and that another, and the evil goes on without end. That is why this kind of greed has been thought worthy of this name: for it is called tokos, “offspring,” I think, because of the fertility of the evil. For where else would it come from? Or perhaps it is called tokos because of the birth pangs and pains it usually produces in the souls of borrowers. For as the pang comes to the woman in labor, so the due date comes to the debtor. Interest upon interest: the wicked offspring of wicked parents. Let these be called “broods of vipers,” these progeny of interest. They say that vipers are born by eating through their mother's belly; and interest is born by eating up the houses of debtors. Seeds sprout in time, and animals are brought to term in time; but interest … . Among animals, those that bear quickly cease quickly from bearing; but money, beginning its increase quickly, receives an endless addition toward more. Each growing thing, when it reaches its proper size, stops growing; but the money of the greedy grows with all time. Animals, having handed on bearing to their offspring, themselves cease from conceiving; but the lenders' money both begets the additions and renews the old. May you never come to experience this monstrous beast.

You see the sun free. Why do you grudge yourself freedom of life? No boxer dodges his opponent's blows as the borrower dodges meetings with his creditor, hiding his head behind pillars and walls. “How, then, shall I be fed?” he says. You have hands, you have a trade: work for wages, serve; there are many ways of making a living, many resources. But you are unable? Beg from those who have. But is it shameful to beg? It is more shameful to cheat a lender. I do not say this at all to lay down a law, but to show that anything is more bearable for you than borrowing. The ant can feed itself without begging or borrowing, and the bee gives kings the remains of its own food, though nature gave them neither hands nor arts; and will you, man, the inventive animal, not find one device among them all for getting through life? And yet we see that it is not those in need of necessities who come to borrow (for they do not find anyone to trust them), but people who give themselves up to unrestrained expenses and fruitless extravagance, slaves to effeminate luxuries. “For me,” he says, “costly clothes and gold plate; for my children fine clothing to adorn them; for my servants bright and many-colored garments; for my table abundance.” The man who performs such services for a woman goes to the banker, and before he has used what he received, he takes one master after another, and by always binding himself to fresh lenders he escapes, by the continuity of the evil, the exposure of his want. And as those with dropsy are thought to be fat, so this man lives in an appearance of wealth, always receiving and always paying, settling earlier debts from later ones, and securing credit for borrowing by the continuity of the evil. Then, as those with cholera who keep vomiting up what was taken before, and, before they are wholly cleansed, put in a second meal and vomit again with pain and convulsions, so these men, [before they have cleared off] the first, bring in a second loan, and after glorying for a short time in others' goods, later lament even their own. O how many have others' goods destroyed! How many, rich in a dream, have reaped a loss beyond measure! “But many,” he says, “have grown rich from loans.” More, I think, have put their necks in the noose. You see those who grew rich, but you do not count those who hanged themselves, who, unable to bear the shame of being dunned, preferred death by hanging to living in disgrace. I have seen a pitiful sight: free children dragged to the auction for their fathers' debts. Can you not leave money to your children? Do not also take away their free birth. Keep for them this one possession, their freedom, the trust you received from your parents. No one was ever prosecuted for his father's poverty, but a father's debt leads to prison. Do not leave behind a bond like a father's curse descending on children and grandchildren. [5] Hear, you rich, what counsel we give the poor because of your inhumanity: to endure their hardships rather than take on the misfortunes that come from interest. But if you obeyed the Lord, what need would there be of these words? And what is the Master's counsel? “Lend to those from whom you do not hope to receive.” “And what sort of loan is this,” he says, “to which no hope of return is joined?” Consider the force of the saying, and you will admire the love for mankind of the lawgiver. When you are about to provide for a poor man for the Lord's sake, the same thing is both a gift and a loan: a gift because of the absence of hope of getting it back, a loan because of the munificence of the Master who repays on his behalf, who, receiving small things through the poor man, will repay great things for them. “For he who has pity on the poor lends to God.” Do you not want to have the Master of all liable to you for repayment? If one of the rich men in the city promised you payment on behalf of others, would you accept his surety? Yet you do not accept God as surety for the poor. Give the money that lies idle, … and it will be well for both: for you there will be the safety of its keeping, for the one who receives it the profit of its use. And if you seek an increase too, be content with what comes from the Lord. He himself will pay the increase on behalf of the poor. Wait for kindness from the one who is truly kind. For the interest you take leaves no excess of misanthropy untried. You profit from misfortunes, you collect money from tears, you strangle the naked, you beat the starving; there is no mercy anywhere, no thought of kinship with the sufferer; and you call the gains from this “kindness.” “Woe to those who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter,” and who call misanthropy kindness. Not even Samson's riddles that he put to his drinking companions were like this: “Out of the eater came food, and out of the strong came sweetness”; and out of the misanthrope came kindness! “They do not gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles,” nor kindness from interest. “For every bad tree bears evil fruit.” … names dreadful even to hear; monthly collectors, who, like the demons that cause epileptic fits, attack the poor according to the cycles of the moon. Evil is the giving for both, for the giver and the receiver, bringing loss to the one in money, to the other in his very soul. The farmer, having taken the ear of grain, does not search again for the seed under the root; but you both have the fruits and do not let go of the principal. Without land you plant; without sowing you reap. It is unclear for whom you gather. The one weeping over the interest is plain to see; but the one who is to enjoy the abundance from it is uncertain. For it is unclear whether you will not leave the pleasure of the wealth to others, having stored up for yourself the evil of the injustice. So neither turn away from him who wishes to borrow, nor give your money at interest, so that, taught what is profitable from the Old and the New Testament, you may depart to the Lord with good hope, there to receive the interest of your good works, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power to the ages of ages. Amen.

The twenty-eighth psalm has the title in common with others, for it says, “A psalm of David”; but it also has something peculiar, for there is added, “At the going out of the tabernacle.” What is this? Let us understand what the going out is and what the tabernacle is, so that we may be able to enter into the intention of the psalm. As regards the history, this command will seem to be given to the priests and Levites when they are released from their work, so that they may remember what they ought to prepare for the service. For as they go out of the tabernacle and depart, the word solemnly reminds them what they should get ready, with what they should come to the next [service]: that is, “sons of rams,” “glory and honor,” “glory to his name”; and that it is fitting to worship nowhere else than in the court of the Lord and in the place of the sanctuary. But to our understanding, which contemplates high things and, by an elevated way of thinking that befits the divine Scripture, makes the law our own, these things suggest themselves: the ram is not understood as the male among the sheep, nor the tabernacle as the dwelling put together from this lifeless material, nor the going out of the tabernacle as departure from the temple; rather, the tabernacle for us is this body, as the Apostle taught us, saying, “We who are in this tabernacle groan,” and again the psalm, “And no scourge shall come near your tabernacle.” And the going out of the tabernacle is departure from this life, for which the word charges us to prepare, bringing such and such things to the Lord; for the work done here is provision for the journey to the future. And the one who here brings glory and honor to the Lord through good works stores up for himself glory and honor according to the just recompense of the judge. In many of the copies, however, we found added, “Bring to the Lord, you sons of God.” And since not everyone's gift is acceptable to God, but only that of one who offers it from a pure heart (for “vows from a harlot's hire are not pure,” it says; and again Jeremiah: “Shall vows and holy flesh take away your wickedness, or shall you be clean by these?”), therefore the psalm wishes us first to be sons of God and then to come to bring our gifts to God, and those not just any gifts, but such as he himself has ordained. First say “Father,” then ask for what follows. And examine yourself, from what kind of life you have come, whether you are worthy to call the holy God your Father. Our kinship with the Holy One is through holiness. If you wish always to be a son of the Holy One, let holiness adopt you. “Bring to the Lord,” then, not just anyone, nor those born of just anyone, but “the sons of God.” He is going to ask for great gifts; that is why he chooses great people to offer them. For so that he may not throw your thoughts down to the ground or make you seek the ram, this irrational four-footed bleating animal, as though … expect to appease God by its sacrifice, he says, “Bring to the Lord, you sons of God.” For there is no need of a son, that he should offer a son himself; but if a son is something great, what is offered must also be something great and worthy both of a son's disposition and of the Father's dignity. “Bring, then,” he says, “sons of rams,” so that those offered by you may themselves be changed from being sons of rams to becoming sons of God.

The ram, then, is a leading animal, going before the sheep to nourishing pastures and resting waters, and back again to folds and steadings. Such too are those who preside over the flock of Christ: leading them to the flowering and fragrant food of spiritual teaching, [nourishing them] with living water by the supply of the Spirit, and guiding them to rest and to safety from those who plot against them. The word, then, wants the sons of these to be brought to the Lord by the sons of God. And if rams are those who lead the rest, their sons would be those formed by the teaching of those who preside toward the life of virtue through zeal for good works. “Bring, then, to the Lord, you sons of God, bring to the Lord sons of rams.” Have you learned whom he addresses? Have you learned about whom? “Bring to the Lord,” he says, “glory and honor.” How, then, do we, earth and ashes, bring glory to the great Lord? And how honor? Glory through good works, when our works shine before men, so that men, seeing our works, glorify our Father in heaven. And through self-control and the holiness fitting for those who profess godliness one can glorify God, according to the exhortation of Paul, who says, “Glorify God in your members.” This glory the Lord demands of those who believe in him and have been honored with the gift of adoption. “For a son,” it says, “glorifies his father”; and, “If I am a father, where is my glory?” And he brings honor to God who, according to the Proverb, honors God from his own just labors and offers him first fruits from his fruits of righteousness. And everyone who speaks of God with care, so as not to fall away from the right notion of the Father and of the Godhead of the Only-begotten and of the glory of the Holy Spirit, brings the Lord glory and honor. And he increases the glory who can give the reasons by which all things were created and by which they are held together, the providence that comes from him reaching even to the smallest things, and by which, after the dispensation here, they will be brought to judgment. The one who has been able himself to contemplate each thing with clear and unconfused reasonings, and, after contemplating it himself, can also present to others the truths about the goodness of God and his just judgment, he is the one who brings the Lord glory and honor, and who leads a life in keeping with such contemplation. For the light of such a man shines before men, the Father in heaven being glorified in word and deed and through every kind of brave deed. But he does not bring the Lord glory and honor who is excited about human glory, nor one who honors silver, nor one who honors the pleasures of the body, nor one who admires doctrines foreign to the worship of God. For as we bring glory to the Lord through good works, so through evil works we do the opposite. For what does he say to sinners? “Because of you my name is blasphemed among the nations.” And again the Apostle: “You dishonor God by breaking the law.” For contempt and disregard of the laws is an insult to the lawgiver. And of a badly managed house, in which there is anger and shouting, insolence and laughter, luxury and prodigality, uncleanness and licentiousness, the dishonor and shame of what goes on falls back on its master. It follows that we should understand that, as God is glorified in good works, so the enemy is glorified in evil ones. For when I take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot, I have transferred the glory from him who saves me to him who destroys me. And the unbeliever exchanges the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of corruptible man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things on the earth. And one who reveres and serves the creature rather than the Creator brings glory not to God but to created things. So let anyone who calls something a creature and then worships it know the portion with which he will be ranked. Let us fear, then, lest, by bringing glory and boasting to the devil through our sin, we be handed over with him to eternal shame. That our sin becomes glory for the one who works it in us, understand what is said by an image. When two generals face each other, whenever this army wins, its commander carries off the glory; but when the opposing one prevails, the honor passes over to him. So in your good works it is the Lord who is glorified … . Do not imagine the enemies for me, nor look at the generals from afar; but look at yourself, and you will find the whole truth of the image. For when the mind wrestles with passion, if by vigor and attentiveness it prevails, it carries off the prizes of victory over the passion and, as it were, crowns God through itself. But when, having gone soft, it bows to pleasure, becoming a slave and captive to sins, it [brings] boasting and exultation and pride … [3] “Worship the Lord in his holy court.” After bearing the fruits that are required, worship is necessary. And worship is not that performed outside the Church but within the very court of God. “Do not devise for me,” he says, “private courts and synagogues. There is one holy court of God.” The court used to be the synagogue of the Jews; but after their sin against Christ their fold became desolate. That is why the Lord too says, “And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold,” speaking of those from the nations predestined to salvation, and showing that he has a court of his own besides that of the Jews. One must not, then, worship God outside this holy court, but having come to be inside it; so that no one outside it, or drawn away by those outside, may lose being in the court of the Lord. For many stand in the posture of prayer and yet are not in the court, because of the wandering of their mind and the distraction of their thought by care for vanity. … the heavenly way of life. That is why those planted here in the house of the Lord, which is the Church of the living God, will flourish there “in the courts of our God.” But one who makes a god of his belly, or glory, or money, or anything else he has honored above all things, neither worships the Lord nor is in the holy court, even if he seems worthy of the visible assemblies. “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.” You will find the word “voice” used in many places. So, in order to understand what the voice of the Lord is, it is worth our gathering, as far as possible, what is written about voice in the divine Scripture: as in the oracle to Abraham, “And at once a voice came, saying: This man shall not be your heir”; and in the case of Moses, “And all the people saw the voice and the torches”; and again in Isaiah, “The voice of one saying, Cry out.” Our voice is either air that has been struck, or the form produced in the air that the speaker wishes to shape. What, then, is the voice of the Lord? Is it to be understood as a striking of the air? Or air that has been struck, reaching the hearing of the one to whom the voice comes? Or neither of these, but this is something of a different kind: an impression made on the governing part of those men whom God wishes to hear his own voice, so that this impression is analogous to that which often comes in dreams. For as, without the air being struck, we receive in our imaginations during sleep a memory of certain words and sounds, not taking in the voice through hearing but by our heart itself being impressed, so we must think that the voice from God comes about in the prophets. “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.” As regards what is perceived by the senses, since the clouds, when they are full of water, produce a sound and a noise when they collide with one another, he says, “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.” And also if there is a noise of waters breaking against some obstacle, and if the sea, [stirred] by the winds, … these lifeless things have a voice from the Lord, the word showing that all creation all but cries out, proclaiming its own Creator. And if thunder bursts from the clouds, we must think nothing else than that the God of glory thundered, and that it is the Lord who holds together the watery nature by himself. “The Lord is upon many waters.” For we have learned in the account of creation of water above the heavens, water again of the abyss, and another, the gatherings of the seas. Who, then, holds these together and does not let them be carried downward by their natural inclination, but the Lord who rests upon all things, who also has power over the waters? But perhaps, more mystically, “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters” when, after Jesus was baptized, a voice came from above: “This is my beloved Son.” For then the Lord was upon many waters, sanctifying the waters by baptism; and the God of glory thundered from above with the loud voice of his testimony. And over those being baptized there is spoken the voice left by the Lord: “Go,” it says, “baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” “The voice of the Lord,” then, “is upon the waters.” … [when wind,] caught in the hollows of a cloud and whirled by its force within the cavities of the clouds, seeks an outlet. The clouds, holding out because of their great compression, produce that rough sound from the rubbing of the wind; but when, stretched by the wind like bubbles, they can no longer hold out and contain it, they burst violently and, releasing the wind to breathe outward, produce the noises of thunder. This also naturally produces lightning. It is the Lord, then, who is upon the waters and who works the great noises of thunder, producing so great an excess of sound in the soft nature of the air. And you may also, according to the Church's interpretation, call thunder the handing on of the Gospel, which after baptism comes about in the souls of those already being perfected through the loud voice of the Gospel. That the Gospel is thunder is shown by the disciples who were renamed by the Lord and called “sons of thunder.” That is why the voice of such thunder is not in just anyone, but in one who is worthy to be called a wheel. “For the voice of your thunder,” it says, “was in the wheel.” If anyone, then, is stretching forward to what lies ahead, like the wheel, touching the earth with a small part, and wholly such as that of which Ezekiel spoke: “And I looked, and behold, one wheel upon the earth beside the four living creatures, and their appearance and their workmanship were like the appearance of Tharsis” …. [4] “The God of glory,” then, “thundered; the Lord is upon many waters.” The saints too are waters, because rivers flow from their belly, that is, spiritual teaching that waters the souls of the hearers. And again, they receive water springing up to eternal life, which becomes in those who have received it well a spring of water springing up to eternal life. Upon such waters, then, is the Lord. And remember too the story of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, when, the sky being clear, on the summit of Carmel he heard the sound of much water; then followed thunder from the clouds and the pouring of water. “The Lord,” then, “is upon many waters.” “The voice of the Lord is in strength.” As the voice comes about in the wheel, so the voice of the Lord consists in strength. For the one who can do all things in Christ who strengthens him hears the commandments of the Lord and does them. The voice of the Lord, then, is not in the weak and slack soul, but in the one that works the good vigorously and strongly. “The voice of the Lord is in majesty.” Majesty is a virtue that is remarkably great. The one, then, who fittingly carries out the activities of great deeds, such a one is called a man of majesty. When, then, a soul is not enslaved to the mind of the flesh, but takes up a greatness and dignity befitting itself from its awareness of what it has from God, in it the voice of the Lord comes about. Those, then, who have lofty notions of God, who have contemplated the principles of creation in an elevated way and have been able to grasp in some measure the good of God's providence, and who besides are unsparing in their expenses and munificent in relieving the needs of the brothers, these are the people of majesty in whom the voice of the Lord dwells. For truly the man of majesty looks down on all bodily things, judging them worthy of no account in comparison with the invisible. No circumstance will grieve the man of majesty; no passion at all will disturb him, nor will the sins of base and contemptible little men move him; nor will uncleanness of the flesh humble him. For he is hard to approach for humbling passions, which cannot even look up at him because of the height of his mind. There is also said to be a majesty of God, as in, “Your majesty has been lifted up above the heavens.” Those, then, who think great things of God exalt his majesty. [5] “The voice of the Lord who breaks the cedars.” The cedar is sometimes praised by Scripture as lasting, superior to decay, fragrant, and able to give enough shelter; but sometimes it is censured as fruitless and hard to bend, so as even to furnish an image of the ungodly man: “For I saw the ungodly man exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon.” In this sense it has been taken now too. For “the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars.” For as it comes about in the soul of majesty, so it is said to break those who are vainly puffed up, who lift themselves up in what are thought the heights of this world: wealth, or glory, or power, or beauty of body, or might, or strength. “And the Lord will break the cedars of Lebanon.” Those who climb on others' affairs and gather boasting for themselves from them, these are cedars of Lebanon. For as cedars, tall in themselves, become more conspicuous by the addition of the mountain because they grow on a high mountain, so those who rely on the perishable affairs of the world are cedars because of their boasting and the elation of their mind, and are called cedars of Lebanon because they exult in another's height and are lifted up to boasting by the earth and earthly affairs, as by the summit of Lebanon. But the Lord does not break all the cedars, only those of Lebanon. For since Lebanon is a place of idolatry, all souls that lift themselves up against the knowledge of God are called those of Lebanon, and are thought worthy of breaking. For there are certain cedars of God, which the branches of the vine transplanted from Egypt cover, as we have learned in the Psalms: “Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God.” Since, then, among the other names for Christ, our Lord is also called a vine (“For I am the vine,” he says, “you are the branches”), those are cedars of God who for a while were fruitless and fit for burning, but who came under the shelter of Christ and, as it were, put him on, and by the grace that comes from him cover over the fruitlessness of their own life. The cedars of God, then, … “and he will grind them small like the calf of Lebanon.” Remember the calf in Exodus, which they fashioned in their idolatry, which Moses ground small and made the people drink. Like that calf, then, he will make all of Lebanon, and the habit of idolatry that prevails in it, disappear. “And the beloved as the son of unicorns”: the only-begotten Son, who gives life to the world, when he offers himself as a sacrifice and offering to God for our sins, is called the lamb of God and a sheep. “Behold,” it says, “the lamb of God”; and again, “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter.” But when he must defend and destroy the power that has grown up against the human race, a power become savage and wild, …

… power, then he is called the son of unicorns. For the unicorn, as we have learned in Job, is an animal of invincible strength, not subject to men. “You will not bind him,” it says, “with a strap, nor will he lie down at a manger.” And much is said in that part of the prophecy about the animal's being free and not yielding to men. And it has been observed that Scripture uses the image of the unicorn in both ways, sometimes in praise, at other times in blame. For “Deliver my soul from the sword,” it says, “and my lowliness from the horns of unicorns.” He says this in blame of the warlike people who rose up against him at the time of his passion. And again, “My horn shall be exalted like that of a unicorn.” … It seems, then, that because of the animal's readiness to fight back, it is often taken as an image of the worse, but because of its lofty horn and its freedom it is drawn to an image of the better. And in general, since one can find “horn” often taken by Scripture for glory, as in “He will exalt the horn of his people,” and “His horn shall be exalted in glory”; and since “horn” is often taken for power, as in “My protector and the horn of my salvation”; and Christ is the power of God: for this reason, as having one horn, that is, having one power, that of the Father, he has been called a unicorn. [6] “The voice of the Lord who cuts through the flame of fire.” According to the history too, the flame of fire was cut through in the case of the three youths in Babylon, when the furnace poured out forty-nine cubits and set on fire all those around; but, cut through by the command of God, it received a wind within itself, a most pleasant breath and refreshment, as in the shade of some trees, providing the youths with a peaceful condition. “For it became,” it says, “like a whistling wind of dew.” And it is much more wonderful for the nature of fire to be cut through than for the Red Sea to be divided into parts. Yet the voice of the Lord cuts through even the continuity and unity of fire by nature. And though fire seems to human thought to be uncuttable and indivisible, yet … I think that the fire prepared for the punishment of the devil and his angels is cut through by the voice of the Lord, so that, since there are two powers in fire, the burning and the illuminating, the sharp and punishing part of the fire may remain for those who deserve burning, while its illuminating and bright part may be allotted to the brightness of those who rejoice. “The voice of the Lord,” then, “cuts through the flame of fire” and divides it, so that the fire of punishment is without light, while the light of rest remains without burning. “The voice of the Lord who shakes the desert.” The shaking is arranged by the Lord for the desert's benefit, so that, changing from being a desert, it may become an inhabited land, and, putting off the reproach of childlessness, it may receive the praise of many children (“For many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband”), and, filled with the waters of the Spirit, the former desert may become pools of water. “And the Lord will shake the desert of Kadesh.” The Lord does not shake every desert, but that of Kadesh, that is, of sanctification, for Kadesh is interpreted “sanctification.” “The voice of the Lord preparing the deer.” What is said about the preparing of the deer, which the voice of the Lord works, must be explained with equal care as what went before …. Since, then, the deer has been made such as to be superior to harm from reptiles, and indeed, as those who have observed such things say, the viper is a purgative food for it, and all venomous creatures are taken as an image of the evil and opposing powers (the Lord saying, “I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy,” and the psalm again promising the prophet, “You shall tread on the asp and the basilisk”), it is necessary, when we hear the name of the deer in Scripture, to draw the word toward the better image. For “The high mountains are for the deer,” and, “As the deer longs for the springs of water.” Since, then, every just man too has his dwelling in high places, “pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call,” and runs up to the drinkable springs, seeking out the first principles of theology. The deer also draws out by the breath of its mouth the venomous creatures lurking in their holes, and brings them out of their hiding places by the force of its breath. As, then, the saint is called an eagle because he travels on high and is lifted far above the earth, and a sheep because he is gentle and shares what he has, and a ram because he leads, and a dove because he is guileless, so too a deer because of his opposition to evil things. That is why Solomon too says, “Let the deer of friendship and the colt of your graces keep company with you,” teaching us that the deer we spoke of are suited to teaching theology. [7] “The voice of the Lord preparing the deer.” When, then, we see some man of God perfect and fully prepared, let us seek the benefit of his company. For where there is the presence of a deer, all the wickedness of reptiles is put to flight. For venomous creatures cannot bear the smell of the animal; they withdraw even when its horns are burned as incense. “And he will uncover the thickets.” First the voice of the Lord prepares the deer; then it uncovers the thickets, places overgrown and dense with wild and fruitless wood, to which venomous creatures naturally flee most of all. Since, then, the just man has already been perfected by the [preparing] from …, being made like [the deer], he uncovers the thickets, so that those who corrupt our life may be handed over bare and ready. And since “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down by the axe and thrown into the fire,” the thickets are necessarily cleared away: the woody souls, in which, like wild beasts, the varied passions of sins lurk, by the word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword. And since many people, burdened with the cares of life, have their souls like thorn-bearing ground and do not let them be nourished to bear the fruit of the word, the Lord uncovers the thickets, that is, the unsightliness, unseemliness and harm of the cares of this life, so that, the place of good and of evil having been made clear, people may not through ignorance have their judgments about things reversed. For many think good things evil when they are toilsome, and pursue evil things as good because of the pleasure attached to them; and untold is the error among men about such things. To the nature of good things belong fruit-bearing trees and all cedars, which are also called on to praise; to evil things belong the thickets, which the voice of God uncovers and makes manifest, so that those who think they will find some useful fruit in them may not be deceived. “And in his temple everyone speaks glory.” Let those who give themselves to long chatter hear the words of the psalm and be ashamed. What does the psalm say? The one who has come into the temple of God does not utter slander, nor vanity, nor words full of shameful things; but “in his temple everyone speaks glory.” The holy angels stand there who write down the words; the Lord is present, observing the dispositions of those who enter. The prayer of each is manifest to God: who seeks the heavenly things from the heart and with understanding, who utters the words perfunctorily with the tips of his lips while his heart is far from God. Even when he prays, he seeks health of the flesh, bodily wealth and human glory. But none of these is needed, as the word teaches; rather, “in his temple everyone speaks glory.” “The heavens declare the glory of God.” It is the work of angels to glorify God. For the whole army of heaven this one work is theirs: to send up glory to the Creator. All creation, both the silent and the speaking, both that above the world and that on earth, glorifies the Creator. But wretched men, leaving their houses and running to the temple, as though to benefit themselves, do not lend their ears to the words of God, take no awareness of their own nature, are not grieved at having been overtaken by sin; they are not grieved when they come to remember their sins, they do not tremble at the judgment; but smiling and shaking hands with one another, they make the house of prayer a place for long chatter, not heeding the psalm that solemnly testifies and says, “In the temple of God everyone speaks glory.” But you not only do not speak it, you even become a hindrance to another, turning him toward yourself and drowning out the teaching of the Spirit with your own noise. Take care that you do not go away, instead of receiving a reward for giving glory, condemned along with those who blaspheme the name of God. [You have a psalm], you have prophecy, Gospel commandments, the preaching of the apostles. Let the tongue sing; let the mind search out the meaning of what is said, so that you may sing with the spirit and sing also with the mind. … [that you may be worthy] of being glorified. For “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Sow glorification, so that you may reap crowns and honors and praises in the kingdom of heaven. These things have not been said uselessly as a digression on “In his temple everyone speaks glory,” because of those who chatter unceasingly in the temple of God and enter without profit. Would that … [8] … [the flood washing away] what lies beneath and cleansing all that was defiled before. He calls the grace of baptism, then, a flood, so that the soul that has washed away its sins and cleansed itself of the old man is thereafter fit to be a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. And what is said in the thirty-first psalm agrees with this. For after saying, “I made my iniquity known and did not cover my sin,” and “For this every holy one will pray to you,” he added, “Yet in the flood of many waters they will not come near him.” For sins will not come near one who has received the baptism of the forgiveness of trespasses through water and the Spirit. And akin to this is what is found in the prophecy of Micah: “For he delights in mercy; he will turn and have mercy on us; he will sink our sins, and they will be cast into the depths of the [sea]” … forever. Seated in the soul that shines after the flood, God makes it, as it were, a throne for himself. “The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.” From the sinful people the Lord takes away the strong man and the strong woman, but to the one who does justice he gives strength. For “to everyone who has will more be given.” And having been strengthened for the working of good works, he becomes worthy of the blessing from God. Peace seems to be the most perfect of blessings, being a kind of steadiness of the governing part; so that the peaceful man is marked by the calming of his character, while the one at war with the passions has not yet shared in the peace from God, which the Lord gave to his own disciples, which, surpassing all understanding, will guard the souls of the worthy. This too the Apostle prays for the churches, saying, “Grace to you, and peace be multiplied.” May it be granted, then, to us who have contended well and overthrown the mind of the flesh, which is enmity toward God, when the soul has come into a calm and untroubled state, to be called sons of peace and to share in the blessing of God in peace, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

“A psalm of a song, of the dedication of the house.”

Figuratively, the psaltery, an instrument tuned musically for hymns to our God, is the structure of the body; and the psalm is the actions done through the body that are rendered to the glory of God, when, tuned by reason, we do nothing discordant in our movements. And a song is whatever belongs to lofty contemplation and theology. So the psalm is a musical utterance when it is struck rhythmically on the instrument according to the principles of harmony, while a song is a melodious voice rendered harmoniously without the accompaniment of the instrument. Here, then, since the title is “A psalm of a song,” we take it that the word hints at action following upon contemplation. This psalm of a song, according to the title, contains certain words about the dedication of the house. And according to the bodily sense, the word seems to be set forth about the times of …, sung to the psaltery; but according to the spiritual sense, it signifies the incarnation of God the Word, and the dedication of the house that was built for him in a new and wonderful way, … the things declared in this psalm in the person of the Lord. Or perhaps we should understand the house as the Church built by Christ, as Paul too writes in the letter to Timothy: “So that you may know how one ought to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” And the dedication of the Church must be taken to be the renewal of the mind which comes about through the Holy Spirit in each of those who make up the body of the Church of Christ. The divine and musical harmony does not contain words that delight the ear, but words that calm and soothe the evil spirits that trouble souls easily assailed. “I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have upheld me, and have not made my enemies rejoice over me.” How is he who dwells on high exalted by those who have received the lowly region as their lot? For if God is in heaven above and you on earth below, in what way could you exalt God? What, then, does the prophet's promise mean? Is it perhaps that he is said to be exalted by those who are able to think great things worthy of God about him, and by living to the glory of God? The one, then, who hastens with understanding toward blessedness exalts God; but the one who turns the opposite way (what it is not even right to say) humbles God, as far as lies in him.

And we, as it were, clothe God with every state that fits our own affairs. That is why, when we are drowsy and act sluggishly, God is said to sleep, judging us unworthy of his watchful care over us. But when, perceiving the harm of the sleep, we say, “Arise; why do you sleep, O Lord?”, then “he who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” And others, as it were, turn away God's eyes because of the shamefulness of what they do, unworthy of God's eyes; when they repent they say, “Why do you turn your face away?” And others besides these are cast out of God's memory and, as it were, make him forget them; they say, “You forget our poverty and our affliction.” And in a word, what is said of God in human terms [shows that] men make God for themselves the sort of being each prepares himself to be. “I will exalt you,” then, “O Lord, for you have upheld me, and have not made my enemies rejoice over me,” bringing nothing low or groveling into my life. And from where do I have the power to exalt? Because you went before me and upheld me. He has said “you have upheld” expressively, meaning “you have lifted me up and made me higher than those rising against me.” It is as if someone took a child who did not know how to swim with his hand and held him up above the water. The one, then, who by God's help has recovered from his fall promises out of gratitude to exalt God through good works. Or it is as if someone propped up a weak wrestler against his opponent: he gave the one the occasion of victory and took from the other his joy at his fall. Afflictions, brought on the saints for the sake of testing, do not provide joy for our invisible enemies; but when our thoughts [give way], when we have grown weary under the frequency of our hardships, then they rejoice and clap and gloat. As with Job: he had lost his possessions, he had been deprived of his children; his flesh boiled with discharges and worms; this was not yet joy for the adversary. But if he had given in to his sufferings and spoken a blasphemous word according to his wife's advice, then his enemies would have rejoiced over him. … And in the case of Paul, hungry and thirsty and naked and beaten and toiling and homeless, the enemy did not rejoice; on the contrary, he was crushed seeing him bear his contests so well that he said disdainfully, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” [3] “O Lord my God, I cried to you, and you healed me.” Blessed is the one who recognizes his own deep wound, so as to be able to come to the physician and say, “Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled,” and, “I said, O Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.” Here, however, there is thanksgiving for the healing brought to him. For he says, “O Lord my God.” God is not the God of all, but of those who have been made his own through love. For he is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. If he were the God of all, this would not have been attested to them as something special. And again Jacob: “My God has helped you.” And Thomas, after being fully assured, embracing the Master, says, “My Lord and my God.” The cry, then, “O Lord my God,” comes from the heart.

“… to you, and you healed me.” Nothing came between my voice and your grace, but as soon as I cried out, the healing came. “For while you are still speaking,” he says, “I will say: Here I am.” So one must utter great things when praying to God, so that healing may dawn for us quickly. “O Lord, you brought up my soul from Hades.” For this healing gives thanks to God the one who went down into Hades from weakness, but was brought up from Hades by the power of him who for our sake wrestled down the one who has the power of death. “You saved me from those who go down into the pit.” In many places pits are the name for underground [places]. So it is said in Exodus, “From the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive woman in the pit.” And they threw Jeremiah into a pit; and his brothers, out of envy, shut Joseph up in a pit that had no water. Each action, then, either brings us down below, weighing us down through sin, or lightens us upward, giving us wings toward God. “You saved me,” then, when I was formerly in an evil life, separating me from those who go down …. This, then, is “you have upheld me”: that is, “you brought me back from the downward course, so as not to give my enemies occasion to rejoice over me.” What he has said elsewhere, “Who makes my feet like a deer's and sets me on the heights,” calls the return to the heights deliverance from the pit and being upheld. “Sing to the Lord, you his holy ones.” It is not whoever utters the words of the psalm with his mouth who sings to the Lord; but those who send up their psalmody from a pure heart, and those who are holy, preserving righteousness toward God, these are able to sing to God in rhythm … . How many stand here from fornication, how many from theft! How many hide deceit, how many falsehood in their hearts! They think they are singing, though in truth they are not singing. For the word calls the holy one to psalmody. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit, nor an evil heart bring forth words of life. Make the tree good, then, and its fruit good. Cleanse your hearts, so that you may bear fruit in the spirit and, having become holy, be able to sing to the Lord with understanding.

“And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” He did not say, “Give thanks to his holiness,” but “at the remembrance of his holiness,” that is, “Give thanks.” For confession here is taken for thanksgiving. Give thanks, then, that you have come into the remembrance of his holiness, you who formerly, by sinking deep into wickedness and being defiled with the uncleanness of the flesh, came to forget the holiness of him who made you. For the expiation of your sins, then, confess the things you did wrongly before. “For anger is in his wrath, and life in his will.” He first said the gloomy thing, anger in God's wrath; then the brighter, life in his will. It seems to be tautology to those who cannot grasp the exactness of the meanings, when the prophet says that anger is in God's wrath, as though anger and wrath were the same; but the difference is very great. For wrath is the judgment that certain painful things should be brought upon the one who deserves them; anger is the pain itself, the punishment brought by the just judge according to the measure of the injustice. What I mean will become clearer from an example. A physician, having noted the inflamed and festering part, judges that cutting is necessary for the patient. This Scripture calls wrath. After the physician's judgment about the remedy, there follows the action that puts what was decided into effect, and the iron that cuts and causes pain to the one being cut. This is called the anger of God. Come, then, to the passage before us, and you will find the sequence of the thought. “For anger is in his wrath”: punishment, according to the just judgment of God. “But life in his will.” What, then, does he say? That what God wills is that all should share in his life; but hardships are not worked by his will, but are brought upon sinners according to their deserts. Life, then, God freely gives each person by his own will; but anger each one stores up for himself “in the day of wrath and revelation and just judgment of God.” It is customary for Scripture to put the gloomy before the more pleasant, because enjoyment is sweeter when painful things have gone before it. “For I will kill,” it says, “and I will make alive.” The kindness comes second, after the punishment. “I will strike, and I will heal.” “For he causes pain, and restores again; he struck, and his hands healed.” He sends the hardships first, so that his gifts may remain more lasting with us, when we have clung earnestly to the keeping of what was given. “In the evening weeping shall lodge, and in the morning joy.” Remember the time of the Lord's passion, and you will find what is meant. For in the evening weeping lodged with the Lord's disciples, when they saw him hanging on the cross; but in the morning joy, when after the resurrection they ran about with gladness, giving one another the good news of the sight of the Lord. Or perhaps, more generally, this age is called evening, in which those who have wept blessedly will be comforted when the morning comes. “For blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” “Blessed are those who weep, for they shall laugh.” Those, then, who spend the days of this age, which is already at its consummation and declining toward its setting, in weeping for their own sins, will rejoice when that true morning comes. “For those who sow now in tears will reap in joy,” clearly with respect to the future. [5] “… [In my prosperity I said:] I shall not be moved forever.” As the prosperity of a city is the abundance of goods for sale in the marketplace, and we say a land prospers when it has borne much fruit, so too there is a prosperity of the soul filled with all kinds of works. It must first be farmed industriously, and then [watered] with abundant streams of the heavenly waters, so as to bear fruit thirty, sixty and a hundredfold, and to receive the blessing that says, “Blessed are your storehouses and what you leave over.” The one, then, who perceives his own steadfastness will say with confidence … like a full field, which the Lord has blessed. “[O Lord, in your will you gave] strength to my beauty.” Those who have spent their time examining the teaching about virtues have said that some of the virtues consist of theoretical principles, and others are without theory: for example, that prudence consists of theoretical principles in the field of good and evil things; self-control in that of things to be chosen and avoided; justice in that of what is to be distributed and not; courage in that of what is to be feared and not; but that beauty and strength are without theory in the field of good and evil things,

being virtues that follow on those that consist of theoretical principles. For some of the wise have understood beauty as the proportion and harmony of the soul's principles, and strength as the power to carry out what the theoretical virtues suggest. But for beauty to come upon the soul, and power to accomplish what is needed, we need divine grace for this. As, then, he said above, “life is in his will,” so now he exalts God through thanksgiving, saying, “In your will you gave strength to my beauty.” For I was beautiful by nature, but weak because I had been made dead by the trespass through the serpent's plot. To my beauty, then, which I received from you in the first creation, you added power to do what is needed. Every soul, then, is beautiful that is seen in the proportion of its own powers; but the true and most lovely beauty, which can be contemplated only by one whose mind has been cleansed, is that which belongs to the divine and blessed nature. Whoever gazes intently at its radiance and graces receives something from it, as from a dye, coloring his own face with a blooming brightness. That is why Moses too, by sharing in that beauty in speaking with God, had his face glorified. The one, then, who perceives his own virtue utters this voice of thanksgiving: “O Lord, in your will you gave strength to my beauty.” And as non-theoretical qualities, beauty and power, follow the theoretical virtues, so there are certain non-theoretical vices, ugliness and weakness. For what is more unsightly and more hideous than a soul ruled by passion? Look at the angry man and the savagery in him. Observe the grieving man, and the lowness and collapse of his soul. And who could bear even to look at the man [given over] to lusts, since the disposition of his soul passes through to the very extremities of the body? Just as, then, the traces of the soul's beauty shine through in the bearing of the saint. We must, therefore, take thought for beauty, so that the Word, the bridegroom, may receive us and say, “You are all fair, my love, and there is no blemish in you.”

“But you turned away your face, and I was troubled.” “As long as,” he says, “the rays of your care shone on me, [I was] in … [but when] you turned away your face, the passion and turmoil of my soul were exposed.” God is said to turn away his own face when in times of hardship he leaves people exposed to temptations, so that the vigor of the one contending may be known. If, then, the peace that surpasses all understanding guards our hearts, we can escape the turmoil and confusion of the passions. Since, then, turning away is opposed to God's will, and turmoil to beauty, comeliness and power, turmoil would be ugliness and weakness of soul, arising from estrangement from God. Let us pray, then, that the face of God may always shine on us, so that we may be in a holy bearing, gentle and in every way untroubled through readiness for good things. “For I was ready,” it says, “and was not troubled.” “To you, O Lord, I will cry, and to my God I will make supplication.” It has often been said about crying to the Lord that crying belongs only to one who desires great and heavenly things. But if someone asks God for small and earthly things, he uses a small and low voice, which does not reach the height or come to the Lord's ears. “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption?” What, he says, did I cry out? And about what did I make supplication to you, my Lord and my God? What need have I, he says, of comfort of the flesh and abundance of blood, when it is about to be handed over almost at once to the common dissolution of the body? “But I pummel my body,” and …, lest abundance of flesh become an occasion of sin. Do not flatter your flesh with sleep and baths and soft beds, but always repeat this saying: “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption?” Why do you cherish what will shortly be corrupted? Why do you fatten yourself and put on flesh? Or do you not know that the thicker you make your flesh, the heavier the prison you make for your soul? “Will the dust give thanks to you, or declare your truth?” For how will the earthy and fleshly man give thanks to you, God? And how will he declare it, when he has his mind buried under so great a weight of flesh? That is why I waste away my flesh and do not spare my blood, which naturally turns into flesh, so that there may be nothing to hinder me either in confession or in the understanding of the truth. [7] “The Lord heard and had mercy on me; the Lord became my helper.” After describing what he cried out to God, at once perceiving God's help, and urging us to ask for similar things, he says, “The Lord heard [and had mercy on] me; the Lord became my helper.” Let us too, then, pray and cry the spiritual cry, asking for the great things, not clinging to the flesh (“for those who are in the flesh cannot please God”), so that the Lord may hear us too, and have mercy on our weakness, and that we too, having enjoyed the divine help, may say, “You turned my mourning into joy for me.” Joy from God does not come into just any soul, but if someone has wept much over his own sin, has made lamentation for himself as for one dead with strong and continual wailing and dirges, the lamentation of such a man is turned into joy. That it is praiseworthy to lament is shown by the children sitting in the marketplaces, who say, “We wailed to you, and you did not lament; we piped to you, and you did not dance.” The pipe is a musical instrument that uses breath as its helper for the melody. That is why I think every holy prophet is figuratively called a pipe, because of the movement from the Holy Spirit. That is why it says, “We piped to you, and you did not dance.” For the prophetic words urge us to the rhythmic activity of holy prophecy, which is called dancing. But the prophets also wail to us, calling us to lamentation, so that, coming to an awareness of our own sins from the prophetic words, we may mourn our perdition, pressing down our flesh with toils and labors. For such a man, then, the garment of mourning … is torn off, and the tunic of gladness and the robe of salvation are put on him, those bright and wedding garments, adorned with which he will not be cast out of the bridal chamber. “You tore off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.” Sackcloth assists toward repentance, being a symbol of humility. “For they would have repented long ago,” it says, “sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” And since the Apostle [says that we all,] with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, he calls the grace given him by the Lord his own glory. [8] “That my glory may sing to you.” The glory of the just man is the spirit that is in him. Let the one, then, who sings with the spirit say, “That my glory may sing to you

and I may not be pierced with remorse.” I will no longer, he says, do things deserving to be pierced and stung in my heart at the remembrance of my sin. “O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever”: that is, since you have given me pardon through repentance and brought me back to glory, removing the shame of my sins, I will therefore give thanks to you for all eternity. For what length of time could there be that could make my soul forget such great benefits?

“Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; praise befits the upright.” … showing a most bright and joyful state of the soul at things worthy of good cheer. “Rejoice, then, you righteous, in the Lord”: not when your household affairs prosper, not when you are in good bodily health, not when your fields abound with fruits of every kind, but because you have the Lord, so great in beauty, so great in goodness, so great in wisdom. Let joy in him be enough for you. And the one who exults with gladness and joy in something he greatly prizes seems to rejoice in this way over it. That is why the word urges the righteous to perceive, together with the dignity, that they have been counted worthy to be servants of such a Master, and to exult in his service with unspeakable joy and leaping, … love of the good. If ever, like a light falling into your heart, a sudden notion of God has come upon you and lit up your soul, so that you loved God and despised the world and all bodily things, recognize from that dim and brief image the whole state of the righteous, who maintain their gladness in God evenly and without interruption. For to you that exultation comes rarely, by God's dispensation, so that through a small taste he may remind you of what you have been deprived of; but for the righteous the divine and heavenly gladness is lasting, because the Spirit dwells in him once for all; and the first fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. “Rejoice, then, you righteous, in the Lord.” The Lord is, as it were, a place that holds the righteous; whoever has come into it must be of good cheer and rejoice. And the righteous man too becomes a place for the Lord, receiving him into himself. The sinner gives place to the devil, not heeding the one who says, “Do not give place to the devil,” and Ecclesiastes: “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place.” Having come, then, into the Lord himself, and contemplating his wonders as far as we can, let us gather gladness into our hearts from the contemplation. “Praise befits the upright.” As a crooked foot does not fit into a straight shoe, so neither does … . That is why, I think, since speech about the Savior does not befit the mouth of demons, he takes away their liberty, so that they may not make him known. And Paul rebukes the spirit of Python, so that the Holy One may not be commended by the unclean. Of the same kind is this: “But to the sinner God said: Why do you recount my statutes?” Let us strive, then, to flee every crooked and twisted deed, and let us set our mind and the judgment of our soul straight like a rule, so that the praise of the Lord may befit us when we have become upright. For as the serpent that led the way to sin is called crooked, and God's sword is brought against the dragon, the crooked serpent, because it makes many bends and turnings in its course (for as it crawls, the serpent's coil drags unevenly along the ground, the front parts moving one way, those following coming on aslant, and the tail turning back the opposite way), so one who follows the serpent will show his life crooked, uneven and full of contradictions; but one who walks after the Lord God makes his paths straight and the tracks of his feet upright. “For the Lord our God is upright, and his face beheld uprightness.” If two rules are set beside each other, their straightness fits them to each other; but if a twisted piece of wood is set beside a rule, the crooked is found not to fit the straight. Since, then, the praise of God is upright, there is need of an upright heart, so that the praise may befit it and fit it. And if “no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit,” how could you offer praise, not having an upright spirit renewed within you? [2] “Give praise to the Lord on the cithara; sing to him on the ten-stringed psaltery.” First one must give praise to the Lord on the cithara, that is, render the actions of the body harmoniously. For since we sinned in the body, when we presented our members as slaves to sin for lawlessness, let us give praise with the body too, using the same instrument for the undoing of sin. Have you reviled? Bless. Have you been greedy …? Have you murdered? Bear witness, or … afflict [your body]. And then, after the confession, you are worthy to sing to God on the ten-stringed psaltery. For one must first set right the actions of the body, so as to carry them out in harmony with the divine word, and so ascend to the contemplation of intelligible things. For the mind that seeks the things above is perhaps called a psaltery, because the construction of this instrument has its sounding power from above. The works of the body, then, as it were, give praise to God from below; but the mysteries announced through the mind have their source from above, as if sounded within through the Spirit. The one, then, who looks to all the commandments and, as it were, makes them sing together in harmony, sings to God on the ten-stringed psaltery, because the general commandments are ten, according to the first giving of the law. “Sing to the Lord a new song”: that is, serve God not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit. The one who does not take the law bodily but recognizes its spiritual meaning sings the new song. For what was growing old and aging of the covenant has passed away, and we have received in succession the new and renewed song of the Lord's teaching, which renews our youth like an eagle's, when our outer man is wasting away but we are being renewed day by day. And the one who stretches forward to what lies ahead always becomes newer than himself. So the one who always becomes newer than himself sings a newer song to God. New … what has recently come into being. If, then, you recount the Lord's incarnation, wonderful in manner and surpassing all nature, you sing a newer and strange song; and if you go through the regeneration and renewal of the whole world grown old under sin, and proclaim the mysteries of the resurrection, then too you sing the new and fresh song. [3] “Sing well to him with a shout of joy.” Hear the command: “Sing well,” with an undistracted mind, with a sincere disposition. “Sing with a shout of joy.” Like good soldiers after their victories over the enemy, offer hymns to the cause of the victory. “Take courage,” he says, “I have overcome the world.” Who among men is able to campaign against the evil one, unless, fleeing to the shelter of the commander of the host, we shoot at the enemy from there, from the faith in him? “Sing well, then, with a shout of joy.” The shout of joy is an inarticulate cry, raised together in agreement by those who stand shield to shield in war. Sing, then, in harmony and with one breath and in the unity of love. What, then, must we say when we sing? “That the word of the Lord is upright.” That is why he first calls the upright to praise, since the Word who is to be glorified is also upright, the Word of the Lord, who was in the beginning with God and was God. Upright, then, is the Father; upright the Son; upright the Holy Spirit. “And all his works are in faithfulness.” What does he mean? The heaven is a work, the earth a work, the sea a work, the air, all lifeless things, the living, the rational, the irrational. How, then, are all things in faith? What faith is there in lifeless things? What faith belongs to irrational creatures? What faith is in a stone? What faith in a dog? Nothing lifeless or irrational is in faith. Yet the statement excepts nothing, but includes all things when it says, “All his works are in faith.” What, then, does he mean? If you see the heaven and the order in it, it is a guide to faith, for it shows the Craftsman through itself; and if you see the adornments of the earth, again through these your faith in God grows. For we have not believed in God by learning about him with eyes of flesh; rather, by the power of the mind we behold the invisible through the visible. “All his works,” then, “are in faith.” Even if you study a stone, it too holds some proof of the power of its maker; so too an ant, a gnat, a bee. Often in the smallest things the wisdom of the Creator shines through. For he who spread out the heaven and poured out the boundless expanses of the seas is the one who hollowed out the bee's very fine sting like a pipe, so that its venom pours through it. “All his works,” then, “are in faith.” Let there be no provision for unbelief in you. Do not say, “This happened by chance, and that came about of itself.” Nothing among things that exist is disorderly, nothing undetermined, nothing done at random, nothing carried along by chance. Or, “An unlucky chance,” or “An evil hour”: these are the words of the uneducated. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall” without the divine will. How many are the hairs of the head? Not one of them is forgotten. Do you see the divine eye, how none of the smallest things escapes its oversight? “The Lord loves mercy and judgment; the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.” If God's judgment existed by itself, and he repaid us severely, according to our deserts, for what we have done, what hope would there be? Which of all men would be saved? But as it is, he loves … having made mercy and set it before the royal throne of judgment, he thus brings each one to judgment. “If you mark iniquities, O Lord, O Lord, who shall stand?” Neither is mercy without judgment, nor judgment without mercy. Before judgment, then, he loves mercy, and after mercy he comes to judgment. These are yoked together, mercy with judgment, so that neither mercy alone may produce laxity, nor judgment alone produce despair. The judge wishes to have mercy on you and to share his compassion with you; but if he finds you humble after the sin, contrite, weeping much over your evil works, having made public without shame what was done in secret, and in general become pitiable, he supplies his mercy to you abundantly; but if he sees an impenitent heart, a proud mind, unbelief in the age to come, no fear of the judgment, then he loves judgment toward you. As a skillful and kindly physician first tries to reduce the swelling with fomentations and soft poultices, but when he sees the tumor resisting stubbornly and hard, throws away the oil and the gentle treatment and chooses at last the use of the knife. He loves mercy, then, toward the repentant, and he loves judgment toward the stubborn. Isaiah too says something like this to God: “Your mercy is by weight.” For he too presents mercy joined with judgment, God measuring back by balance and number and weight according to each one's desert.

“The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.” Here mercy is separated from judgment. For the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord alone, judgment being reserved for its appointed time. Here, then, there is mercy without judgment; for he did not come to judge the world but to save the world. But there judgment is not without mercy, because no man can be found clean of filth, not even if his life be one day. So if anyone sees wickedness spreading daily, and the mortal race of men deserving countless deaths as far as its sins go, he will wonder at the riches of God's kindness, and his forbearance and patience. While we are on earth, however, we need mercy. For those in heaven are worthy of being called blessed, not of being pitied. Or perhaps, because of the condemnation brought on us by sin, we are called earth, we who heard from God, “You are earth, and to earth you shall return”; we are full of the compassion of God. For when we were dead in sins and trespasses, God had mercy on us and made us alive together with Christ. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the breath of his mouth.” Where are those who set the Spirit at nought? Where are those who separate him from the creating power? Where are those who cut him off from his union with the Father and the Son? Let them hear the psalm saying, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the Spirit of his mouth.” For neither will the Word be thought to be this common speech, consisting of nouns and verbs, nor the Spirit a vapor dispersing into the air; but the Word is he who was in the beginning with God, and the Spirit is the Holy Spirit, who has received this name properly. As, then, the creating Word established the heaven, so the Spirit who is from God, who proceeds from the Father (that is, who is “from his mouth,” so that you may not judge him to be something external or one of the creatures, but may glorify him as having his hypostasis from God), brought with him all the powers in them. By the Spirit, then, all the heavenly power was established; that is, they have from the help of the Spirit their vigor, firmness and steadfastness in holiness and in every virtue befitting the holy powers. Here, then, “the Spirit of his mouth” is written; and we shall find elsewhere “the Word of his mouth” as well, so that the Savior and his Holy Spirit may be understood to be from the Father. Since, then, the Savior is the Word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of his mouth, and both worked together in the creation of the heavens and of the powers in them, therefore it has been said, “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the Spirit of his mouth.” For nothing is sanctified except by the presence of the Spirit. The creating Word, the maker of all things, gave the angels their passage into being, and the Holy Spirit brought them sanctification. For the angels were not created as infants and then perfected by gradual exercise and so became worthy to receive the Spirit; but in their first constitution and, as it were, in the very mixture of their substance they had holiness laid down along with it. That is why they are hard to move toward wickedness, … tempered by holiness as by a dye, and having steadfastness in virtue by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

“Gathering the waters of the sea as in a wineskin, placing the deeps in storehouses.” He did not say, “gathering the waters of the sea as in a wineskin,” but “as a wineskin,” so gathering the waters of the sea. Consider for me the nature of a wineskin, now inflated when the hide is stretched by the air caught in it, now contracted when what stretched it withdraws. So too the sea sometimes swells and boils, made wild and puffed up by the winds, and sometimes again is calmed down low by stillness. As a wineskin, then, so the Lord contracts and lowers the water of the sea. And we have found in some [copies, “as in a wineskin,”] the word sending us back to the ancient history, when the Red Sea, with nothing dividing or holding it, stood up by itself, as if tied in a wineskin, the divine command not allowing it to pour out. “Placing,” he says, “the deeps in storehouses.” It would have been more in keeping with common understanding to say, “placing the treasures in the deeps,” that is, keeping his own wealth hidden in mystery. But as it is, he says that the deeps are like treasures worthy of the divine storehouses. Perhaps, then, the principles of the divine judgment, being ineffable and incomprehensible to human thoughts, are called deeps, the principles by which he manages each thing being stored up in God's knowledge alone. For that the judgments concerning each thing have been called a deep we have been taught in another psalm, which says, “Your judgments are a great deep.” If, then, you ask why the sinner's life is prolonged while the days of the righteous man's sojourning are cut short; why the unjust man prospers and the just man is afflicted; why the child was snatched away before coming to maturity; where wars come from; why shipwrecks, earthquakes, droughts, floods; why things destructive to men have been created; why one man is a slave and another free, one rich and another poor (and great is the difference in sins and in good deeds too: one woman, sold to a brothel-keeper, is in sin under compulsion, while another, who happened at once on a good mistress, was brought up in virginity); why this one was rewarded and that one condemned; and what the judge's recompense for each of these is: taking all this into mind, consider that the judgments of God are a deep, and, because they are shut up in the divine storehouses, not easily grasped by just anyone. And to one who believes, a promise has been given by God: “I will give you hidden treasures, unseen.” When, then, we are counted worthy of knowledge face to face, we shall see also the deeps in God's storehouses. And if you gather what is said in Scripture about wineskins, you will come nearer to understanding the prophet's intention. Those who are renewed day by day, and hold the new wine from the true vine, are called new wineskins in the Gospel; but those who have not yet put off the old man are old wineskins, not able to be trusted with receiving the new wine. For no one puts new wine into old wineskins, lest the wine be spilled and those wineskins perish altogether, deemed worthy of no further pardon if they spill the good and new wine. For new wine must be put into new wineskins. The new and spiritual wine, boiling with the Holy Spirit, the never-aging understanding of the truth, must be put into the new man, who, because he always carries about in his body the dying of Jesus, may justly be called a new wineskin.

“Let all the earth fear the Lord, and let all who inhabit the world be moved by him.” Since “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of perception,” those who mind earthly things [must be] trained … ; fear is necessarily taken up first, and then love, receiving those who have been formed by an intelligent fear, makes them perfect. So the word commands fear to all the earth. “And let all who inhabit the world,” it says, “be moved by him”: that is, let every movement, whether carried out in the mind or in bodily action, be worked in them according to the will of God. For so I understand “let them be moved by him”: let no eye move without God; let no hand stir without God; let the heart not think what is not pleasing to God. And in general let them be moved by nothing else, and let nothing move them except the fear of God. “For he spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created.” To the two preceding clauses he added two: to “Let all the earth fear” and “Let all who inhabit the world be moved,” he added “He spoke, and they came to be” and “He commanded, and they were created.” Since man is composite, made of an earthly molding and of the soul that dwells in the body, what was molded from the earth is called earth, and the soul that has been allotted life in the body is called the one who inhabits the world. Fittingly, then, “He spoke, and they came to be” is assigned to the earth: to the molding … [and] to the soul, which was created according to the image of God, “it was created.” And since creation is often taken of reordering and improvement, as in “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” and “so that he might create the two into one new man,” perhaps “came to be” is said of man's first coming into existence, and “was created” of the second, the regeneration through the grace of Christ. As much as a command of God differs from a bare word, so great is the difference between creation and coming to be. “The Lord scatters the counsels of the nations; he frustrates the thoughts of peoples.” This is an explanation of what precedes: how God created those who have believed in him, by scattering the senseless counsels of the peoples, which they held about idolatry and every vanity, and by frustrating the counsels of the rulers. It is also possible to refer these words to the time of the passion, when they thought they were crucifying the King of glory, while he by the dispensation of the cross was renewing humanity. For in the resurrection the counsel of the nations was scattered, of Pilate and the soldiers and all who carried out what concerned the cross; and the counsels of the rulers were frustrated, of the chief priests and scribes and the kings of the people. For the resurrection undid all their scheme. And if you gather from each history what God worked against the unbelieving nations, you will find that the saying has great force in its bodily sense too. For when Joram son of Ahab reigned in Israel, then the king of Syria, the son of Ader, campaigning with a great force and a heavy hand, besieged Samaria, so that their necessities failed them and an ass's head cost fifty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a kab of dove's dung five shekels. Then, so that the promise of Elisha might be fulfilled, the counsels of Syria were scattered, and they left their tents and all their substance and fled, leaving such plenty in Samaria that a measure of fine flour cost a shekel …. So the Lord knows how to scatter the counsels of nations. And how he frustrates the counsels of rulers, we have learned in the case of Ahithophel, when David prayed, saying … . So when you hear someone threatening great things and promising to bring on you all kinds of ills, losses or blows or deaths, look to the Lord who scatters the counsels of nations and frustrates the thoughts of peoples.

“But the counsel of the Lord abides forever, and the thoughts of his heart to generation and generation.” Do you not see the doctrines of the nations, this vain philosophy, how subtle and elaborate they are in inventing doctrines, in logical theories and ethical rules and certain natural philosophies and other doctrines called “epoptic”: how all have been scattered and made useless, and now the truth of the Gospel alone holds citizenship in the world? “For many are the counsels in the heart of men, but the counsel of the Lord” has prevailed. And it is necessary indeed, if the counsel from God is to remain lasting and firm in our souls, that human reasonings first be scattered in us beforehand. For as one who is going to write on wax first smooths it and so puts on whatever letters he wishes, so too the heart that is to receive the divine sayings clearly must be shown clean of contrary thoughts. “The thoughts of his heart to generation and generation.” Since, then, there are two chosen peoples, and two covenants have been given them, two thoughts may be understood according to “The thoughts of his heart to generation and generation,” the generation being named twice: one according to which we received the first covenant, and the other, the one that gave us the new and saving teaching of Christ. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance.” No one calls blessed the people of the Jews, but the people chosen out of all the peoples on the ground of excellence. For we are the nation whose God is the Lord; we are also the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance: a nation, because it was gathered from many nations; a people, because it was put in place of the people cast off; and chosen …: he calls blessed not the one who was called, but the one who was chosen. For blessed is the one “whom he has chosen.” And what is the cause of the blessedness? The expected inheritance of eternal goods. Or perhaps, according to the Apostle, since “when the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved,” he first calls blessed the fullness of the nations, and then Israel, which is saved later? And it is clear that not just anyone is saved, but only the remnant chosen by grace. That is why he says, “the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance.”

“The Lord looked down from heaven; he saw all the sons of men from his prepared dwelling place.” Those who remain in their own dignity … [and do what belongs to] human [nature] the Lord oversees from above; but those who have been carried down to the extreme of wickedness he visits in another way, by coming down himself. For “the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah,” it says, “has multiplied, and their sins are very great. I will go down, then, and see whether they are doing according to their cry that comes to me”; and again, “He came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.” But here: “The Lord looked down from heaven; he saw all the sons of men.” Consider the lofty spectator, consider the … . Wherever you walk, whatever you do, whether in darkness or by day, you have the eye of God watching over you. “From his prepared dwelling place.” No gates are opened, no curtains are drawn aside; the dwelling place of God is ready for viewing. He oversees all the sons of men. Not one escapes his sight; no darkness, no walls that cover, nothing is a hindrance to the eyes of God. He is so far from not overseeing each one that he even oversees their hearts, which he himself molded without mixture with the worse. Simple, keeping the image in itself, did God the creator of men mold the heart; but afterward we ourselves, by entangling it with the passions of the flesh, made the heart varied and manifold, corrupting its godlike, simple and single nature. Since, then, he is the creator of hearts, he therefore understands all our works. And by works we mean words and thoughts and, in short, every movement of man. For with what disposition and what purpose, whether to please men or to serve the commandments given us by God, he alone knows who understands all our works. That is why we give an account even of every idle word, and why we do not lose the reward even of a cup of cold water: because the Lord understands all our works.

“A king is not saved by a great army.” Not the encircling of a military force, not the walls of cities, not an infantry phalanx, not a cavalry force, not the equipment of naval strength wins a king salvation. For the Lord sets up kings and removes them, and there is no authority except that appointed by God. So a king is saved not by a great army but by divine grace, so that for kings too the word is true, “By grace you have been saved.” Just as the farmer receives his share of the crops not so much because of his care in farming as because of God, who gives growth to what is farmed: “For neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth.” And if “the king's heart is in the hand of God,” he is not saved by his military force but by divine guidance. But it is not just anyone who is in the hand of God, but the one who is worthy of the name of king. Some have defined kingship as lawful rule, or as rule over all, not accountable for sin. “And a giant will not be saved by the greatness of his strength.” He calls a giant one who has natural power and bodily vigor. So neither does a king have sufficient help for salvation from his army, nor is the brave man able to suffice for himself in all things. For all human things together are weakness and powerlessness when compared with the true power. “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong,” and “out of the mouth of infants and sucklings he perfected praise, to destroy the enemy and avenger.” For divine grace shone out most when working in infants and the simple. “A horse is a false hope for safety; and by the greatness of its power it will not be saved.” The horse has been cast out of the use of the saints. Neither is Israel ever seen using cavalry when prospering in wars, nor did any of the saints in private accept the use of horses as fitting. But Pharaoh uses the horse, and Sennacherib the proud prides himself on his abundance of horses. That is why “horse and rider he threw into the sea” of Pharaoh, and all who were mounted on horses of Sennacherib “slumbered.” Hence the law given through Moses, laying down rules for kings, says, “He shall not multiply horses for himself.” “And by the greatness of its power it will not be saved.” “For when I am weak,” he says, “then I am strong.” And the abundance of bodily power is a hindrance to the salvation of the spirit.

“Behold, the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him.” Elsewhere it is said, “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,” but here, “on those who fear him.” When we … toward the Lord, and our eyes are toward him, so that we can say, “Behold, as the eyes of servants to the hands of their masters, so our eyes are toward the Lord our God,” then we, as it were, draw the eye of the Lord to watch over us. “On those who hope in his mercy.” It shows the humility of those who serve the Lord, how they hope in his mercy. For one who does not trust in his own brave deeds, nor expects to be justified by works, has as his only hope of salvation the compassion of God. For when he considers, “Behold, the Lord, and his reward, to repay each according to his work,” and reckons up his own evil works, he fears the punishment and cowers at the threats; but so as not to be swallowed up by grief, he is of good hope, looking to the compassion and love for mankind of God. And he hopes that his soul will be delivered from death and nourished by him in famine. “Our soul will wait for the Lord, for he is our helper and protector.” The word gives encouragement toward endurance, so that, even if we are ever overtaken by one of those who afflict us, we may not be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus, but may endure hardships with our whole soul, waiting for the help from God. “For in him our heart will rejoice, and in his holy name we have hoped.” This agrees with what was said at the beginning of the psalm, “Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord,” and “In him our heart will rejoice.” And I think the Apostle said in accordance with this, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us,” and “Not only so, but we also boast in our afflictions.” For the psalmist, having said, “Our soul will wait for the Lord,” to show that he displays endurance not by force or under the pressure of afflictions, but welcomes with all joy the hardships for the name of the Lord, says, “Not only do we endure, but in him our heart will rejoice, and in his holy name we have hoped.” It is enough for us to be called Christians to escape all the [plotting] of our adversaries …. [The name] of God [is holy], not at all because it has some sanctifying power in its syllables, but because every property of God, and the notion of what is contemplated as belonging to him in an exceptional way, is holy and good. “Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in you.” Do you see how knowingly he prayed? He made his own disposition the measure of the supply of God's compassion. Let your mercy, he says, be upon us as great as the hope we first laid down in you. And all our hope is to return to rest, so that, when the body of our humiliation has been transformed, we may understand it as having become conformed to the body of glory.

“Of David, when he changed his countenance before Abimelech, and he sent him away, and

The sense of the psalm draws toward two subjects. Both what David did at Nob, the city of the priests, seems to fit the title, and what he did at Gath before Achish, the king of the foreigners. For he changed his countenance when he spoke with Abimelech the priest, hiding his flight and pretending to be eager to carry out a royal command, when he took the loaves of the presentation and the sword of Goliath. And he changed his countenance also when, caught in the midst of the enemy, he perceived them talking to one another and preparing to take revenge. “For the servants of Achish,” it says, “said among themselves, Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him in the dance, saying, David struck down his ten thousands and Saul his thousands?” “And David was afraid,” it says, “of Achish, and changed his countenance before their eyes.” How, then, does the title name Abimelech, while the history gives Achish as the king of the Gittites? We have an account of this sort that has come down to us by tradition: that the kings of the foreigners had a common name, Abimelech, but each had his own by which he was called. As one can see in the Roman empire, where they are commonly called Caesars and Augusti, but have other names of their own. Such too among the Egyptians is Pharaoh …: Joseph's Pharaoh, and the king of Egypt who arose four generations later in the time of Moses was Pharaoh; and the one in the times of Solomon (“for he took the daughter of Pharaoh,” it says), and the one in the times of Jeremiah's prophecy, was called Pharaoh. So too there was an Abimelech in the times of Abraham, and in the times of Isaac, and the one now mentioned in the times of David. For in the case of Abraham it is said, “And Abimelech, and Ahuzzath his groomsman, and Phichol the commander of his army, said to Abraham.” And again concerning Isaac: “It came to pass that he was there a long time. … through the window, he saw Isaac sporting.” … [In the times] of David he is called Abimelech in the title, the common name of the kingship, but Achish is given by the history, the name that was his own from birth. Before this king, then, he changed his countenance, letting himself be carried in his servants' hands, drumming on the gates of the city, and “letting his spittle run down,” it says, “on his beard,” so that Achish said to his servants, “Why have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought him in to rave before me?” And so, sent away from there, he escaped, it says, to the cave of Adullam. As one who had escaped from great danger, then, he sends up this thanksgiving to God who delivered him: “I will bless,” he says, “the Lord …

… sets himself, as it were, boundaries of life, shaping his soul to strictness of conduct, so as to let no moment go by without blessing, but to refer the beginning of great and lesser things alike to God. I will not think, he says, that things happen by my own care, nor that they come about by chance, but “I will bless the Lord at all times”: not only in life's good days, but also in times of hardship. Taught from this, the Apostle says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything.” Do you see how great the man's love is? He did not lose heart at the succession of evils, when he had been driven not only from his homeland, his kin, his household and his possessions, but, handed over by necessity to his enemies, was all but torn apart by them. He did not say, “How long this succession of evils?” He did not lose heart at the length of the affliction, but [knowing] that “affliction produces endurance, and endurance proven character, and proven character hope.” For truly, for those well prepared, afflictions are a kind of athletes' diet and training, advancing the contender toward his Father's glory, when, being reviled, we bless; being slandered, we [entreat] …, and boast in affliction. For it is shameful for us to bless at the more pleasant things and be silent at the gloomier and toilsome ones. But then we must give thanks all the more, knowing that “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.” “His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” The prophet seems to promise something impossible. For how can the praise of God be continually in a man's mouth? When he converses in ordinary and everyday talk, he does not have God's praise in his mouth. When he sleeps, he will certainly be silent. And when he eats and drinks, how will his mouth perform praise? To this we say that there is an intelligible mouth of the inner man, by which he is nourished, partaking of the word of life, which is the bread that came down from heaven. Of that mouth the prophet too says, “I opened my mouth and drew in the Spirit.” The Lord too invites us to have that mouth wide, to receive more abundantly the food of truth: “Open wide your mouth,” he says, “and I will fill it.” The notion of God, then, once stamped and as it were sealed on the governing part of the soul, can be called the praise of God, continually present in the soul. And also, according to the apostolic counsel, the earnest man can do all things to the glory of God, so that every action and every word and every activity of the mind has the force of praise. For whether the righteous man eats or drinks, he does all to the glory of God. When such a man sleeps, his heart is awake, as the one who said in the Song of Songs: “I sleep, but my heart is awake.” For as the images of sleep are mostly echoes of the day's thoughts …. [2] “My soul shall be praised in the Lord.” Let no one, he says, praise my contrivance by which I was saved from the dangers. For salvation is not in man's power or wisdom, but in the grace of God. “Let not the rich man boast in his riches,” it says, “nor the wise man in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength; but let him who boasts boast in this, in understanding and knowing the Lord his God.” Do you see how the Apostle praises the fellow workers of the Gospel? “Who is a fellow servant and minister to you in the Lord.” But if someone is praised for bodily beauty or the distinction of his parents, his soul is not praised in the Lord …. [The arts of] pilots, … or the extravagant constructions of buildings, do not have what is truly praiseworthy. … For surely one who serves a king does not think highly of himself … . [Therefore,] “My soul shall be praised.” “Let the meek hear and be glad,” being confirmed in meekness by …, from God, since I have achieved meekness. Those who have calmed their character and are rid of every passion, so as to have no turmoil dwelling in their souls, are called meek. That is why Moses too is attested to have been meeker than all men on the earth. [3] “Magnify the Lord with me.” Fitting … . Let no one turbulent, or troubled, or with his soul goaded by the passions of the flesh, be mixed with me; but you, the meek, who have achieved firmness and stability of soul, and who shake off sluggishness and drowsiness toward the performance of your duties, you magnify the Lord with me. And he magnifies the Lord who endures trials for godliness with a great mind and a proud and lifted-up spirit. And then also the one who, with a great mind and very deep contemplations, looks on the greatness of creation, so that from the greatness and beauty of created things he may contemplate their author. For the more one delves into the principles by which things have come to be and by which they are governed, the more he contemplates the majesty of the Lord and, as far as lies in him, magnifies the Lord. Since, then, one mind and the study of one man is not sufficient even in a small degree for grasping the great works of God, he takes all the meek together into partnership in this activity. For one must be at leisure from external disturbances, and, having made complete quiet in the hidden council chamber of the heart, so apply oneself to the contemplation of the truth. Do you hear what the one confessing his sin says? “My eye was troubled by anger.” And not only anger, but desire too, and cowardice, and envy disturb the eye of the soul; and in short all the passions confuse and disturb the soul's power of sight. And as it is not possible for a clouded eye to gain an exact grasp of visible things, so neither can a clouded heart apply itself to understanding the truth. One must withdraw, then, from the affairs of the world, and bring no foreign thoughts into the soul through the eyes or the ears or any other sense. For the wars that rise from the mind of the flesh fill the inner man with incessant tumults and irreconcilable factions. “I sought out the Lord, and he heard me.” Let the meek hear this, he says: that in that hard time, when all the anger of those who bore grudges was stirred against me, and every hand was armed against me, and I, naked and unarmed, lay exposed to every outrage from the enemy, then I was not confused in my reasonings by fear, I was not driven out of the thought of God, I did not despair of my own salvation, but “I sought out the Lord.” I did not merely seek a simple and temporary hope in the Lord, but “sought out.” For the force of “seeking out” shows something more than seeking, as “searching out” is more than searching: “They failed in searching out searchings.” The word, then, presents a great leisure and freedom from disturbance through the [seeking out]. [4] … The whole life of the righteous man is afflicted: “Narrow and afflicted is the way,” and, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” That is why the Apostle too says, “Afflicted in every way,” and, “Through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of God.” But God delivers his saints from affliction, not by leaving them untested, but by granting them endurance. For if affliction produces endurance, and endurance proven character, the one who takes away affliction has deprived himself of proven character. As, then, no one is crowned without an opponent, so no one can be shown to be approved except through afflictions. “From all my afflictions,” then, “he delivered me,” not by not letting me be afflicted, but by giving with the trial also the way out, so that I could bear it. “Come to him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed.” He bids those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to come to the Lord and draw near to the rays of his Godhead, so that, illumined by the truth through their approach, they may take his enlightenment into themselves by grace. For as this visible light does not rise for all alike, but for those who have eyes, who are awake, and who can enjoy the sun's presence without any hindrance, so too the sun of righteousness, “the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world,” does not give his brightness to all, but to those who live worthily of him. “For light has dawned,” it says, not for the sinner but “for the righteous.” For as the sun has risen, but not for bats nor for the other night-feeding animals, so too the light is bright and illuminating by its own nature, but not all share in its radiance. So too “everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works be exposed.” “Come to him,” then, “and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed.” Blessed is the one who, in the day of God's righteous judgment, when the Lord comes to bring to light the things hidden in darkness and disclose the purposes of hearts, has dared [to come] under that light of exposure … to have his conscience undefiled by evil works. For those who have done evil will rise to reproach and shame, seeing in themselves the disgrace and the marks of their sins. And perhaps more fearful than the darkness and the eternal fire is the shame in which sinners are to spend eternity, always having before their eyes the traces of the sin committed in the flesh, remaining forever in the memory of their soul like an indelible dye. Few, however, come to the true light, and uncover themselves, and after the uncovering of hidden things do not go away with faces ashamed. [5] “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.” Poverty is not always praiseworthy, but only that which is achieved by choice, according to the aim of the Gospel. For many are poor in substance but most grasping in choice; poverty does not save them, but their choice condemns them. Not every needy man, then, is to be called blessed, but the one who considered the commandment of Christ better than the treasures of the world. These the Lord too calls blessed, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”: not those poor in substance, but those who chose poverty from the soul. For nothing not chosen is to be called blessed, because every virtue, and this one above all, is marked by its being voluntary. “This poor man,” then, he says, “cried.” By the demonstrative word he calls your thought to the one who is poor according to God, hungry, thirsty, naked: “This poor man,” all but pointing with his finger: this disciple of Christ. It is possible also to refer the word to Christ, who, being rich by nature, since all that is the Father's is his, became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich by his poverty. For the Lord himself began almost every work that leads to blessedness, setting himself as an example for those who learn. Go back to the beatitudes, and examining each one you will find that he anticipated the teaching of the word by his works. “Blessed are the meek.” How, then, shall we learn meekness? “Learn from me,” he says, “for I am meek and lowly in heart.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Who will teach us the good of peace? The peacemaker himself, who makes peace and reconciles the two into one new man, who made peace by the blood of his cross, whether of things in heaven or things on earth. “Blessed are the poor.” He it is who became poor and emptied himself in the form of a servant, so that we might all receive from his fullness, grace upon grace. If anyone, then, led by the holy and kindly Spirit, not thinking highly of himself but humbling himself so as to exalt others, cries with the spirit, praying for great things, and utters nothing petty or low from seeking earthly and worldly things, the cry of such a man is heard by the Lord. What, then, is the end of the hearing? To be delivered from all afflictions unwounded, not having bowed down nor being a slave to the mind of the flesh. And what is the manner in which the poor man is delivered? “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will deliver them.” He has explained whom he calls the poor man: the one who fears the Lord. For the one who fears is still in the rank of a servant; but the one made perfect by love has run up to the dignity of a son. That is why the one is called servant and poor, because he has nothing of his own; but the other is now a son and rich, because he is heir of his father's goods. “The angel of the Lord,” then, “will encamp around those who fear him.” An angel attends everyone who has believed in the Lord, unless we drive him away by evil works. For as smoke puts bees to flight and a foul smell drives away doves, so tearful and foul-smelling sin removes the angel who guards our life. If you have in your soul works worthy of angelic guarding, and a mind rich in the contemplations of the truth dwells in you because of the wealth of the precious works of virtue, God necessarily sets guards and watchmen beside you and walls you about with a guard of angels. Consider how great the nature of angels is, that the one angel is compared to a whole army and a populous camp. Because of the greatness of the one who guards you, then, the Lord grants you a camp; and because of the angel's strength he walls you in on every side, as it were, with the safety he gives. For this is what “around” means. For as the walls of cities, lying around them on every side, ward off the attacks of enemies from every direction, so the angel both walls you in front and guards your rear, and leaves neither side unguarded. That is why “a thousand will fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, … [but] it will not come near you,” for “he will give his angels charge

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” We have often observed that the powers of the soul are called by the same names as the outward members. Since our Lord is the true bread, and his flesh is true food, the pleasure of the delight of the bread must come to us through an intelligible taste. As the nature of honey cannot be presented to the inexperienced by description so much as by the very perception of tasting, so neither can the goodness of the heavenly Word be clearly conveyed by teachings, unless, having tested the doctrines of the truth more thoroughly, we can grasp the goodness of the Lord by our own experience. He said “Taste,” not “Be filled,” because now we know in part and see the truth through a mirror and in a riddle; but a time will come when the present pledge and this taste of grace will reach the perfection of enjoyment for us. As with those who have weak stomachs and no appetite and turn away from food, physicians treat their distaste by rousing their appetites through some skill in the dishes, so that, the sense being stimulated by that seasoning, the appetites are always stretched toward more, so too with the word of truth: the very experience, he says, will always call you to an insatiable desire. That is why he says “Taste,” so that you may become blessed, always hungering and thirsting for righteousness. “Blessed is the man who hopes in him.” The one who is always in desire for the word will set his hope on nothing else but the Lord. “Fear the Lord, all you his saints, for there is no want to those who fear him.” Unless fear trains our life, it is impossible to achieve holiness in the body. For “Nail my flesh,” it says, “with your fear.” For as those pierced through with nails keep the members of the body motionless for action, so those whose souls are held by divine fear escape all the troubling that comes from the passions of sin. To the one who fears, then, there is no want; that is, the one kept by fear from every improper action is lacking in no virtue, but is perfect, falling short of none of the goods befitting human nature. For as a man is not perfect in body who lacks some part of what is necessary, but is imperfect in what he lacks, so too one who is contemptuously disposed toward one of the commandments is imperfect, because he falls short of it, in what is lacking. But the one who has taken up perfect fear and, cowering in reverence, [shrinks from] all things, [will commit no sin], because he overlooks nothing; and he will not suffer want, because fear is continually present to him in all things. [7] “The rich have become poor and gone hungry, but those who seek out the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” Let the word build us up also toward contempt of bodily wealth, teaching the instability of an abundance of money. For wealth is easily overturned and, like a wave, naturally flows away. And perhaps he calls Israel rich, “to whom belong the adoption and the worship, to whom the promises, from whom the fathers.” These, then, because of their sin against the Lord, became poor. But those who sought out the Lord in their place shall not lack any good thing. They became poor, then, and hungry. For since they killed the bread of life, the famine of bread came upon them; and since they plotted against the spring of living water, thirst came on them, and the punishment of thirst was laid on them: “a famine not of bread” perceived by the senses, “nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.” They became poor, then, and hungry. But those from the nations who learned to seek out the Lord shall not lack any good thing. The all-perfect good is God himself, of whom none who seek him out shall be in want. Let no uneducated person, having an undiscerning view of good and evil, call good what has a temporary enjoyment and passes away with the decay of the body. For one who ranks bodily wealth and bodily advantages among goods brings down the august name that befits God alone to cheap things worthy of no account, and at the same time will fall into a most grievous contradiction. For either he will say that the apostles failed to obtain bodily goods because they did not seek out the Lord; or, if they failed to obtain such goods while seeking him, he will accuse Scripture itself, which says that those who seek out the Lord lack no good thing. But the saints did seek out the Lord, and were not lacking in the grasp of him whom they sought, nor were they deprived of the goods laid up in eternal rest. Of those goods “any good thing” would properly be said. For bodily enjoyments have more pain than pleasure: marriages bring childlessness, widowhood, ruin; farming, crop failures; trade, shipwrecks; wealth, plots; luxuries and dances and continual enjoyments, the variety of diseases and the many kinds of sufferings. Paul, at least, sought out the Lord, and he lacked none of the good things. And yet who could count the body's [sufferings]? … a night and a day he spent in the deep; on journeys often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in toil and hardship; in necessities often. Right to the last hour hungry and thirsty and naked and beaten, how was he not lacking bodily goods? Lead your mind up, then, to what is truly good, so that you may recognize the agreement of Scripture and not cast yourself down by doubt about its meaning.

“Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” It is the heartfelt voice of a teacher, calling to learning with a father's tenderness. For the disciple is a spiritual child of his teacher. For one who receives from someone the formation of godliness is, as it were, molded by him and brought to consistency, as infants are formed by the mother who carries them in the womb. That is why Paul too, taking up again the whole church of the Galatians, which had fallen away from its earlier teaching and, as it were, lost its form, and forming Christ in them anew, called them children; and since he made the correction of those who had gone astray with pain and affliction, he said that he was in labor in his soul because of his grief over those who had fallen away: “My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” “Come, then, children, listen to me.” What, then, is our spiritual father going to teach? “The fear of the Lord,” he says, “I will teach you.” Since above he commanded us to fear the Lord and showed the gain from fear, saying, “For there is no want to those who fear him,” now he also hands on to us a teaching of the divine fear. For to say that one must be healthy belongs to anyone, even the layman; but how one must acquire health belongs only to one who knows the art of medicine. Not every fear is good and saving; there is also a fear that is an enemy, which the prophet prays may not arise in his soul, saying, “From fear of the enemy deliver my soul.” For the fear that produces cowardice before death in us, that persuades us to cower before the eminence of persons, is an enemy. For how will one who fears these things be able, at the time of martyrdom, to resist sin to the death and repay the debt to the Lord who died and rose for us? And one easily frightened by demons has the enemy fear in himself. And in general such fear seems to be a passion born of unbelief. For no one who believes that he has a strong helper present fears any of those who try to disturb him. But the saving fear, the fear that produces holiness, the fear that comes about in the soul by practice and not by passion: do you want me to describe what it is? … When you are about to rush into some sin, think, I beg you, of that dread and unbearable tribunal of Christ, in which the judge presides on a high and lofty throne, and all creation stands by, trembling at his glorious appearing; and we are to be brought one by one to the examination of our lives. Then, beside the one who has done much evil in his life stand fearful and gloomy angels, looking fire, [breathing] …, because of the bitterness of their purpose, like night in their faces because of their gloom and hatred of men. Then a deep pit, and impenetrable darkness, and a fire without light, having in the darkness its burning power but deprived of brightness. Then a venomous and flesh-eating race of worms, eating insatiably and never filled, causing unbearable pains by their devouring. Then the hardest punishment of all, that reproach and eternal shame. Fear these things, and, trained by this fear, check your soul, as with a bridle, from its desire for base things. This fear of the Lord the father promised to teach us; not simply to teach, but to teach those who choose to listen to him; not those who have fallen far away, but those who run to him out of desire to be saved; not strangers to the covenants, but those made his own by the word through the adoption of baptism. That is why he says, “Come”: that is, draw near to me through good works, children, you who have been counted worthy to become sons of light through the new birth. “Listen,” you who have the ears of your heart opened: “I will teach you the fear of the Lord,” the fear the word sketched for you a little before.

“Who is the man who desires life, who loves to see good days?” If anyone desires life, he says, not this common life which even irrational creatures live, but the real life that is not cut short by death. For now, he says, “you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; but when Christ, our life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” So Christ is the real life, and our way of living in him is true life. Likewise there are other good days, which he sets before us in the promise: “who loves to see good days?” For the days of this age are evil, since this age too, being the measure of the world, of which it is said that “the whole world lies in the evil one,” is assimilated to the nature of the world that it measures. And these days are parts of this time. That is why the Apostle says, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” And Jacob too says, “The days of the years of my life are few and evil.” So now we are not in life but in death. That is why the Apostle too prayed, saying, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” But there is another life, to which the word calls us; and now our days are evil, but there are other good days, which night does not cut short; for God will be their eternal light, shining on them with the light of his own glory. So when you hear of good days, do not think that life here is set before you in the promises. For these are perishable, which the visible sun produces; and nothing perishable could fittingly be a gift to the imperishable. For if the soul is imperishable, its gifts are imperishable too. And “the form of this world is passing away.” And if the law has a shadow of the good things to come, think for me of certain delightful, holy Sabbaths of the eternal days, new moons, feasts; and think of them as befits the spiritual law. “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.” If you wish to be in the good days, if you love life, do the commandment of life. “For the one who loves me,” he says, “will keep my commandments.” And the first commandment is to keep the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking deceit. For almost the readiest and most varied sin is the one worked through the tongue. Have you become angry? The tongue runs ahead. Are you in desire? You have the tongue before all, as a kind of procurer, deceiving your neighbors. And the tongue is your weapon for injustice, not uttering what is from the heart, but bringing forth what serves deceit. And why must I go through in my discourse all the sins committed by the tongue? Our life is filled with the slips of the tongue: obscene talk, coarse jesting, foolish talk, things not fitting, slanders, idle words, perjuries, false witness; all these evils and still more are the products of the tongue. And those who open their mouths against the glory of God and speak injustice on high, do they work their impiety with some other organ than the tongue? Since, then, “by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned,” keep your tongue from evil, and do not work treasures by a lying tongue, which are vain. And keep your lips from speaking deceit: that is, make the whole organ given you for the service of the word rest from evil activity. Deceit is a secret wrongdoing offered to one's neighbor under the pretense of better things.

“Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” The exhortations are elementary, introductions to [virtue]: first to abstain, to turn away from evil. For abstaining from evil does not befit the perfect man; but it is fitting for one who is just beginning to learn the elements to turn aside from the drift toward evil, and, having been rid of the habit of an evil life as of an evil road, then to take up the doing of good. For it is impossible to take hold of good without first standing wholly apart from evil and turning away from it, as it is impossible to recover health without being rid of disease, or for one not [rid of cold] to be in warmth; for these cannot receive one another. So too the one who is to be in a good life must be rid of all contact with evil. “Seek peace and pursue it.” Of this the Lord said, “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give peace to you.” Seek, then, the peace of the Lord and pursue it. And you will pursue it only by running toward the goal for the prize of the upward call. For true peace is above. Since, at least as long as we are bound to the flesh, we are yoked also to many things that disturb us. Seek, then, peace, release from the tumults of this world; acquire a calm mind, an untroubled and unruffled state of soul, neither shaken by passions nor drawn about by false doctrines that by their persuasiveness invite assent, so that you may acquire “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guarding your heart.” The one who seeks peace seeks Christ, for “he himself is our peace,” who created the two into one new man, making peace, and “making peace by the blood of his cross, whether things in heaven or things on earth.”

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears toward their prayer.” As the saints are the body of Christ and members in part, and God has set in the Church some as eyes, some as tongues, others holding the place of hands and others of feet, so too the holy spiritual powers around the heavenly … : some are called eyes, because they have been entrusted with oversight of us, and some ears, because they receive our prayers. So now he has called eyes and ears the power that oversees us and the power that takes up our prayers. “The eyes of the Lord,” then, “are on the righteous, and his ears toward their prayer.” Since every action of the righteous man is worthy of God's beholding, and every word, since nothing is said idly by the righteous man, is effective and active, the word therefore says that the righteous man is always overseen and always heard. “But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to destroy their remembrance from the earth.” I think “face” means the open and manifest coming of the Lord at the judgment. That is why the eyes of the Lord are said to look on the righteous man, as one who still oversees us from afar, while his very face is to appear to destroy from the earth every remembrance of wickedness. For do not think of God's face as bodily shaped; since in that way what is said by Scripture will even seem absurd, that eyes on the one hand shine on the righteous and the face on the other is brought against the wicked. And yet there are no eyes without a face, nor is a face without eyes. Man, then, shall not see the face of the Lord and live; but the angels of the little ones in the Church always behold the face of our Father in heaven. For now it is impossible for us to take in the sight of his glorious appearing because of the weakness of the flesh that surrounds us; but the angels, because they have no such covering like our flesh, are hindered by nothing from gazing continually on the face of the glory of God. So we too, when we have become sons of the resurrection, shall then be counted worthy of the knowledge face to face. And then the righteous will be counted worthy with exultation of the sight of the face, but sinners will come to judgment, when all sin is to be destroyed by the just judgment of God.

“The righteous cried, and the Lord heard them, and delivered them from all their afflictions.” The cry of the righteous is intelligible, having its loudness in the hidden place of the heart, able to reach the very ears of God. For the one who asks great things and prays for heavenly things is the one who cries, and sends up to God a prayer that is heard. “The righteous cried,” then: they sought nothing petty, nothing earthly, nothing low. That is why the Lord received their voice and delivered them from all their afflictions, not so much by releasing them from the troubles as by making them [stronger than them] … . “[Near is the] Lord to the brokenhearted, and he will save the humble in spirit.” By his own goodness he draws near to all; but we remove ourselves far off by sin. “For behold,” it says, “those who remove themselves far from you will perish.” That is why Moses is said to draw near to God; and if there is anyone like him, he comes near to God through brave deeds and good actions. But the passage contains an outright prophecy of the coming of the Lord. … it was said: “The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,” that is, his appearing at the judgment will be for the destruction of all wickedness; but here, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted” foretells the coming of the Lord in the flesh, already drawing near and not far off. And let this be made credible to you by the prophecy of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, [to heal] the broken in heart, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind.” For since he was being sent as physician of the brokenhearted, “The Lord is near,” he says: I say it to you the humble, [encouraging] you also toward patience by the joy of what is expected. And brokenness of heart is the destruction of human reasonings. The one who has despised the things here, given himself over to the word of God, and offered his governing part to thoughts beyond man and more divine, he would be the one who has a broken heart and has made it a sacrifice not despised by the Lord. “For a broken and humbled heart God will not despise.” “The Lord,” then, “is near to the brokenhearted, and he will save the humble in spirit.” The one who has no elation and does not pride himself on any human thing is both broken in heart and humble in spirit. One who walks in sin is also humble, since sin is the most humbling of all things. In that sense we say that a woman who has been corrupted and lost the holiness of virginity has been humbled. “Amnon,” it says, “rose against Tamar and humbled her.” Those, then, who have lost the uprightness and elevation of soul, thrown to the ground and as it were leveled by sin, and likewise [unable] to be set upright again altogether, these have been humbled, but not in spirit; for their humiliation is not praiseworthy. But those who, having the grace of the Holy Spirit, willingly humble themselves to their inferiors, saying with the Apostle that they are servants of certain people in Christ, and “the refuse of all until now,” and again, “We have become as the offscouring of the world”: these, who use humility spiritually, making themselves last of all so as to become first of all in the kingdom of heaven, the Lord calls blessed, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them out of all of them.” “In everything,” he says, “… ,” as the Lord too says to his own disciples, “In the world you have affliction; but take courage, I have overcome the world.” So if you ever see the righteous in diseases, in bodily maiming, in loss of their own, in blows, in dishonors, in every want and lack of necessities, remember that many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them out of all of them. One who says that affliction does not befit the righteous man says nothing else than that an opponent does not befit an athlete. And if the athlete does not contend, what occasions will he have for crowns? This is now the fourth time it is said in this psalm how the Lord delivers from affliction those whom he wishes to deliver. First: “I sought out the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my afflictions”; second again: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him from all his afflictions”; and third: “The righteous cried, and the Lord heard them, and delivered them from all their afflictions”; and last: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them out of all of them.”

“The Lord keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken.” Must we stay with the wording and be content with the sense that first strikes our ears, that these bones, the supports of the flesh, will not be broken in the righteous because of the guard given them by the Lord? And are the bones of the righteous man kept unbroken only while he is alive and in this life, or will nothing cause breaking for the righteous man even when he has been released from the bodily bond? And yet we have learned by experience that many bones of the righteous have been broken, of those who gave themselves up to all kinds of sufferings in witness to Christ. For persecutors have already broken the legs of some, and hands and heads they have often pierced with nails. … who will deny that those perfected in martyrdom are the most righteous of all? But perhaps, as the soul, the human mind, is called man, so too its members are named in the same way as those of the flesh; as Scripture often names the members of the hidden man, when it says, “The eyes of the wise man are in his head,” that is, the hidden part of the wise man is foresighted and circumspect. And again it speaks of eyes alike of the soul and of the flesh, not only in the saying we cited, but also in saying that the commandment of the Lord is far-shining and enlightens the eyes. And what need is there to speak of “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”? For it is clear that some possess better ears, able to hear words of God. And to those who do not have those ears, what does he say? “Hear, you deaf, and look up, you blind”; and, “I opened my mouth and drew in the Spirit”; and, “You have broken the teeth of sinners.” For all these are said with reference to the powers that serve the intelligible food and the intelligible word. Such too is “My belly, my belly, I am in pain,” and “The foot of the righteous will not stumble.” For all such things are listed of the inner man. And by the same reasoning there would be certain bones of the hidden man, in which the bond and harmony of the soul's powers is held together. And as bones protect the softness of the flesh by their own firmness, so too in the Church there are some who, by their own [strength], can bear [the weaknesses of the weak]. And as the bones are joined to one another by the [sinews] that grow on them, so too the bond of love and peace would be what produces a natural union and unity of the spiritual bones in the Church of God. Of these bones, loosed from their harmony and, as it were, put out of joint, the prophet says, “Our bones have been scattered beside Hades.” And if turmoil and shaking ever seize them, he prays, saying, “Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.” But when they keep their own harmony, guarded by the Lord, not one of them will be broken, but they are worthy to give glory to God. “For all my bones,” he says, “[will say: O Lord, who is like you?”] … [the] nature of the rational bones? Perhaps the Church might say this, “All my bones will say,” according to the mystery of the resurrection. “For thus says the Lord to these bones: Behold, I am bringing into you the breath of life, and I will put sinews upon you and bring up flesh upon you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” These bones, then, having received life, thanking the one who raised them up, will say, “O Lord, O Lord, who is like you?”

Exactly is it added: “The death of sinners is evil”; because there is a death among the righteous that is not evil by nature but good. For those who have died with Christ have come to be in a good death; and those who have died to sin have died the good and saving death. But that of sinners is evil. For punishment awaits them, as it did the rich man clothed in purple and fine linen who feasted splendidly every day. “And those who hate the righteous man will go wrong.” They also hate the righteous man because they live in wrongdoing, being convicted by the comparison with the better, by the righteous man's manner of life, as by the straightness of a rule. And because they live in sins they behave hatefully toward the righteous man for fear of being convicted; and because they hate, they surround themselves again with sins. For there are many pretexts for which the righteous man may be hated: his frankness in reproof (“For they hate him who reproves in the gates, and abhor a holy word”); and love of the first place and love of rule have moved many to hate their betters; and sometimes also ignorance of what the righteous man is. “The death of sinners is evil.” Or he calls the whole of life death, since the Apostle called this flesh death, saying, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” And those who use this body badly and make it the servant of every sin make death evil for themselves …; “and none of those who hope in him will go wrong.” Since those created for serving the Lord were held in the captivity of the enemy, he will redeem their souls by his precious blood. That is why none of those who hope in him will be examined in wrongdoings.

“For the end, for those who will be changed, for the sons of Korah, for understanding, a song for the beloved.”

This psalm too appears to be one that perfects human nature and gives its benefit toward the end set before those who have chosen to live according to virtue. For those who are making progress need the teaching toward being perfected, which this psalm provides, having the title “For the end, for those who will be changed.” He has said in a hidden way: for human beings. For we above all rational beings are subject to changes and alterations almost every day and hour. For we are not the same either in body or in mind: [the body is always flowing and] … dispersing; it is in motion and change, either growing from small to greater or shrinking from its full size to less. For the boy already going to school, and suited to taking up arts and learning, is not the same as the newborn infant; and again the youth, already able to engage in the pursuits of young men, is admittedly different from him. And the man is someone else than the youth, in firmness and size of body and in the completion of reason. And having come to his prime and reached the stable point of his age, he begins again little by little to decline toward less, the condition of his body ebbing away unnoticed and his bodily vigor diminishing, until, [bent] by old age, he undergoes … . We, then, are the ones who are changed, and wisely the psalm has hinted at us human beings by this word. For angels do not admit of change. There is no child among them, no youth, no old man; but they remain in the state in which they were created from the beginning, their constitution being kept whole and unchangeable. But we are changed, in body, as has been shown, and in soul and the inner man, altering our thoughts with the affairs that befall us. For we are one sort of people when we are cheerful and all our affairs in life go smoothly, and another in times of hardship, when we run into something we did not wish. We are changed also in our angers, becoming like wild beasts …, and in our desires, becoming like cattle through a life of pleasure. Those who are mad after their neighbors' wives have become wanton horses. And the crafty man is compared to a fox, as Herod; and the shameless man is called a dog, as Nabal the Carmelite. Do you see how varied and manifold our change is? Admire, then, the one who fitted this name to us so aptly. [2] That is why one of the interpreters seems to me to have rendered the same thought well and to the point by another name: instead of “for those who will be changed,” he said “for the lilies.” He thought the swift death of flowers fit to be compared with the perishable condition of human nature. But since the word is inflected toward the future (for it says “for those who will be changed,” as though this change will appear to us at some later time), let us consider whether it hints to us at the teaching about the resurrection, in which change will be given to us: change toward the better and spiritual. “For it is sown in corruption,” it says, “it is raised in incorruption.” Do you see the change? “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”; when all bodily creation too will be changed along with us. For “the heavens will grow old like a garment, and like a cloak they will be changed.” Then too the sun will be sevenfold, according to Isaiah, and the moon like the present size of the sun. And since the oracles of God have not been written for all, but for those who have ears in the inner man, he has addressed it to …, I think, to those who take care of themselves and always progress toward more through the exercises of godliness. For this is the fairest change, which the right hand of the Most High grants, of which the blessed David too was aware when, having tasted the good things of virtue, he stretched forward to what lay ahead. For what does he say? “And I said, Now I have begun; this is the change of the right hand of the Most High.” So the one who progresses in virtue is never not being changed. “For when I was a child,” he says, “I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.” And again, having become a man, he did not stop his activity, but, “forgetting what lies behind and stretching forward to what lies ahead, he pressed on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call.” Change, then, belongs to the inner man, who is renewed day by day. Since, then, he is going to tell us about the beloved, who took upon himself for our sake the dispensation of the incarnation, the prophet says that he has given this song for those worthy of this grace, for the sons of Korah. For it is a song and not a psalm, because it was handed on with the bare voice, the instrument not sounding with it, with only melodious utterance; and a song “for the beloved.” Shall I tell you who the beloved is, whom the word means? Or do you know even before our words, remembering the voice in the Gospel: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: [listen to him]”? For he is beloved by the Father as the Only-begotten, and by all creation as a loving father and good protector. And the beloved and the good are the same by nature. That is why some have well defined the good as that which all things desire. But it does not belong to just anyone to advance to the perfection of love and to know the truly beloved, but to one who has already put off the old man, corrupted by the desires of deceit, and put on the new, renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Since the one who loves money, who is excited about the perishable beauty of bodies, who honors excessively this petty glory, having spent his power of loving on what he should not, [is blind] to the truly beloved …: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” “With all” admits no division into other things. For however much of your love you spend on things below, so much must be lacking to you from the whole. That is why few out of all have been called friends of God, as Moses is written to have been a friend, and as John: “For the friend of the bridegroom,” it says, “who stands, rejoices greatly”: that is, the one who has stability and immovability in friendship toward Christ is worthy of his friendship. That is why the Lord says to the disciples, already being made perfect, “No longer do I call you servants, but friends; for the servant does not know what his master is doing.” It belongs to the perfect, then, to know the truly beloved. And truly only the saints are friends of God and of one another; no wicked or ignorant person is a friend. For the good of friendship does not fall into a depraved disposition, because nothing shameful or discordant can enter into the harmony of friendship. For evil is opposed not only to the good, but also to itself. But let us now go on to examine the words. [3] “My heart has poured forth a good word.” Some have thought that these words are spoken in the person of the Father about the Word who was in the beginning with him, whom, they say, he brought forth from his heart, as it were, and his very inward parts; and that from a good heart a good word came forth. But it seems to me that these words refer to the person of the prophet. For what follows in the passage no longer equally smooths the way for us to the interpretation concerning the Father. For the Father would not have said about his own tongue, “My tongue is the pen of a swift scribe”; [nor] “Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men,” for he does not have his superiority of beauty by comparison with men. And going on he says, “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness.” For he did not say, “I God have anointed you,” but “he has anointed you,” so that from this it appears that the person [speaking] is different from the person spoken of. Who, then, is this, if not the prophet, who received in himself the working of the Holy Spirit? “My heart,” he says, “has poured forth a good word.” For since a belch is a hidden breath carried upward when the bubbles burst in the boiling of food, the soul nourished with sacred teachings, according to the usual figurative speech of Scripture, the one fed on the living bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world, and filled with every word that comes from the mouth of God, sends forth a belch suited to its food. That is why, since the food was rational and good, the prophet pours forth a good word. “For the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good.” Let us too, then, seek the food from the word for the filling of our souls (for “the righteous man,” it says, “eats and satisfies his soul”), so that, in proportion to what we are fed with, we may send forth not just any word, but a good one. For the evil man, brought up on depraved doctrines, belches forth from his heart an evil word. Do you not see what the mouths of the heretics belch forth? How harsh and foul-smelling, betraying a great disease deep within the wretches? “For the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.” So do not, having itching ears, heap up teachers for yourself, who can work disease in your inward parts and produce in you a belching of evil words, for which you are to be condemned in the day of judgment. “For by your words,” it says, “you will be justified, and by your [words] you will be condemned.” “I speak my works to the king.” This saying too brings us very close to the sense of the prophetic person: “I speak my works to the king”; that is, “I will confess to the judge and forestall the accuser by declaring my own works.” For we have received the commandment that says, “First tell your iniquities, so that you may be justified.” “My tongue is the pen of a swift scribe.” As the pen is a writing instrument, the hand moving it to mark down what is written, so the tongue of the righteous man, the Holy Spirit moving it, writes the words of eternal life on the hearts of believers, dipped not in ink but in the Spirit of the living God. The scribe, then, is the Holy Spirit, because he is wise and teaches all things; “swift,” because the movement of thought is swift. And the Spirit writes thoughts in us “not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of fleshly hearts.” And according to the breadth of the heart, the Spirit writes more or fewer things on hearts, either clear to all or dimmer, according to the previous preparation of purity. And because of the swiftness of what is written, the whole world has now become full of the Gospel. What follows in the passage it seemed good to us to take as a new beginning, and not to join to what precedes, but to add to what follows. For we think that “Fair in beauty” is said to the Lord, by a turning of the address.

“Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men; grace has been poured out on your lips.” … Aquila and the … lead us to this sense …; and Symmachus: “You are beautiful in beauty beyond the sons of men.” The one who has gazed intently on his Godhead calls the Lord “fair in beauty.” For he is not singing the beauty of his flesh. For “we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, but his form was without honor, failing beyond the sons of men.” It is clear, then, that the prophet, having looked into his brightness and been filled with the radiance from there, struck in soul by this beauty, was moved to the divine love of the intelligible loveliness; when it appears to the human soul, all that was loved until then appears shameful and to be thrown away. That is why Paul too, when he saw the one fair in beauty, counted all things as refuse, so that he might gain Christ. Those outside the word of truth call the preaching of the Gospel folly, [mocking] the cheapness of the phrasing …. [But we, who glory in] the cross of Christ, to whom the things freely given us by God have been revealed through the Spirit, not in words taught by human wisdom, know that rich grace has been poured out by God on the words about Christ. That is why in a short time the preaching went through almost the whole world, since rich and abundant grace has been poured out on the heralds of the Gospel, whom Scripture has called the lips of Christ. That is why the preaching of the Gospel has, in contemptible little words, a great power to lead and draw toward salvation. And every soul has been held fast by immovable doctrines, strengthened by grace in unshaken faith in Christ. That is why the Apostle says, “Through whom we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith”; and again, “I labored more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” [5] “Grace has been poured out on your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.” It is written in the Gospel that “they marveled at the words of grace that came from his mouth.” That is why the psalm, wishing to present expressively the abundance of grace in our Lord's words, said, “Grace has been poured out on your lips,” because of the abundance of grace in his word. “Therefore God has blessed you forever,” he says. It is clear that these words must be referred to the human nature, according to which he advanced in wisdom and stature and grace. In this sense it is clear that we understand the grace to have been given him as a prize for brave deeds. Like this is “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” And close to this is what is written by Paul to the Philippians: “[Having become obedient] to death, even death on a cross; therefore God has highly exalted him.” So it is clear that these things are said about the man that the Savior assumed. Or else, since the Church is the body of the Lord and he is the head of the Church, as we have explained that those who serve the heavenly word are the lips of Christ (as Paul had Christ speaking in him, and anyone like him in virtue), so too each one of us who believe is one of the other members of the body of Christ. One who refers to the Lord the blessing given to the Church, then, will not err. “God has blessed you,” then; that is, he has filled your members and your body with good things from himself forever, that is, without end. “Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your loveliness and your beauty.” We think, then, that this is to be referred figuratively to the living Word of God, as joined to the flesh, who is “active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” For the thigh is a symbol of the activity of generation: “For these are the souls,” it says, “that came from the thighs of Jacob.” As, then, our Lord Jesus Christ is called life and way and bread and vine and true light and countless other things, so too he is called a sword, cutting through the passible part of the soul and putting to death the movements toward desire. Then, since God the Word was about to be joined to the weakness of the flesh, “O mighty one” is well added; because it is proof of the greatest power that God could come to be in the nature of man. For the formation of heaven and earth and sea and air, and the coming into being of the greatest elements, and whatever is conceived as above the world and whatever beneath the earth, do not show the power of God the Word so much as the dispensation of the incarnation and the condescension to the lowliness and weakness of humanity. “In your loveliness and your beauty.” Loveliness differs from beauty: for what is called lovely is what has been brought to completion in its proper season, toward its own prime, as grain is lovely when already ripe for harvest, and the fruit of the vine lovely when it has received its proper ripening to its perfection through the season of the year and is ready for enjoyment; but beauty is the harmony in the composition of the members, having grace blooming upon it. “Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your loveliness”: that is, in the fullness of the times; “and your beauty”: in the Godhead, contemplated and intelligible. For that is truly beautiful which surpasses all human comprehension and power and can be contemplated by the mind alone. And the disciples, to whom he explained the parables privately, came to know his beauty. And Peter and the sons of thunder saw his beauty on [the mountain] …, and were counted worthy to receive with their eyes the preludes of his glorious coming. “And bend [your bow], and prosper, and reign.” That is: having begun your care for men through the flesh, make your care intense and continuous and never slackening. For this will give a road and course to the preaching, and will subject all to your kingdom. Let it not surprise us that “prosper” is said in the imperative, because of Scripture's custom of always so forming wishes: “Your will be done,” instead of “may it be done”; and “Your kingdom come,” instead of “may it come.” [6] “Because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and your right hand will guide you wonderfully.” Again the word is formed in the same way, as though the Lord were receiving prospering and reigning as a reward for truth and meekness and righteousness. But we must understand it thus: since you [came to proclaim] the truth, reign among men who are ruled by sin; for you are the truth. And “because of meekness,” so that by your example all may be led to gentleness and kindness. That is why the Lord said, “Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” And he gave proof of meekness in the very works: when reviled he was silent; when scourged he endured. “And your right hand will guide you wonderfully.” Not a pillar of cloud, nor the light of fire, but your very right hand. “Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty one.” The sharpened arrows of the mighty one are the words that hit the mark, reaching the hearts of the hearers, striking and wounding sensitive souls. “For the words of the wise,” it says, “are like goads.” That is why the psalmist too, praying to be delivered from the deceitful of his generation, seeks the sharpened arrows of the mighty one for the healing of a deceitful tongue. And he also asks for the desolating coals to be present, so that, for those whom the rational arrows do not reach because of the hardness of their heart, punishment may be ready, which he has called desolating coals. For those who have made themselves desolate of God must have the desolating coals prepared. Now, then, “your arrows are sharpened.” By these arrows the souls that have received the faith are wounded, and, set on fire to the utmost love of God, they say like the bride, “I am wounded with love.” Indescribable and ineffable is the beauty of the Word, and the loveliness of wisdom, and the form of God in his image. Blessed, then, are the lovers of the sight of the true beauty. For, as it were bound to it by love, and loving the heavenly and blessed love, they forget relatives and friends; they forget house and all possessions; and, forgetting even the body's need for eating …, they cling only to the divine love. You will also understand as sharpened arrows those sent to sow the Gospel in the whole world, who, because they had been sharpened, shone with the works of righteousness and slipped delicately into the souls of those being taught. For these arrows, sent out everywhere, prepared the peoples to fall beneath Christ. And it seems to me that the wording is more consistently restored by transposition, so that the sense is this: “Bend [your bow], and prosper, and reign, and your right hand will guide you wonderfully, and peoples will fall beneath you,” because your arrows are sharpened in the heart of the king's enemies. No fighter against God, boaster or proud man falls beneath God, but those who have accepted the submission that comes from faith. And the arrows, falling into the hearts of those once enemies of the king, draw them to longing for the truth, draw them to the Lord, so that, being enemies of God, they are reconciled to him through his teachings. [7] “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Since he has spoken much with reference to the human nature, he now brings the word back up to the heights of the glory of the Only-begotten. “Your throne,” he says, “O God, is forever and ever”: that is, your kingdom is beyond the ages and older than every thought. And well, after the subjection of the peoples, he sings the majesty of the kingdom of God. “A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.” That is why he gave him his own name, clearly proclaiming him God: “Your throne, O God.” God's rod is one of discipline; and, disciplining, it brings straight, not perverted, judgments. That is why the rod of his kingdom is called a scepter of uprightness. “For if his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, I will visit their lawlessness with the rod.” Do you see the just judgment of God? He uses it not on anyone at all, but on those who sin. This is also called the rod of comfort: “Your rod and your staff,” it says, “they have comforted me.” It is also a rod of breaking: “You will shepherd them with a rod of iron; like a potter's vessel you will break them.” And what is earthy and of clay is broken for the benefit of those shepherded, just as one is handed over “for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved.”

“Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” … Since it was necessary to form the typical anointing, and the typical high priests and kings, the Lord's flesh was anointed with the true anointing, by the coming of the Holy Spirit upon it, which is called the oil of gladness. And it was anointed “beyond its companions,” that is, above all men who share in Christ. For to them some partial fellowship of the Spirit was given; but on the Son of God the Holy Spirit came down and, as John says, “remained on him.” And the Spirit is well called the oil of gladness, since joy too is one of the fruits cultivated by the Holy Spirit. But since the account of the Savior is mixed, because of the nature of the Godhead and the dispensation of the incarnation, looking again to the human nature of God he says, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness”: that is, other men often achieve, by toil and discipline and attention, the disposition toward the good and the turning away from base things; but you have a natural kinship with the good and estrangement from lawlessness. Yet it is not hard for us too, if we will, to take up love for righteousness and hatred for lawlessness. For God usefully gave every power to the rational soul: as the power of loving, so too that of hating, so that, directed by reason, we may love virtue and hate wickedness. For sometimes one may use hatred praiseworthily: “Did I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and waste away over your enemies? I hated them with a perfect hatred.” [9] “Myrrh and stacte and cassia from your garments, from ivory palaces, from which the daughters of kings have gladdened you in your honor.” The prophetic word, descending in order and having first touched on all that belongs to the dispensation, by the gaze of the Spirit who revealed hidden things to him, came to the passion: “For myrrh,” he says, “and stacte and cassia from your garments.” That myrrh is a symbol of burial the evangelist John too has taught us, saying that he was buried by Joseph of Arimathea with myrrh and aloes. And stacte too is a very fine kind of myrrh. For when the spice is pressed, the part of it that flows is separated as stacte, while the thicker part that remains is called … [He breathes out the scent] of myrrh because of the passion, and of stacte because he did not remain motionless or inactive during the three days and three nights, but went down to Hades for the dispensation of the resurrection, so that he might fill all things with himself. And he breathes out cassia because cassia is a very fine and fragrant bark …; the passion of the cross, undertaken for the benefit of all creation, the word has hinted to us deeply and wisely by the name of cassia. You have, then, myrrh because of the burial, stacte because of the descent into Hades (since every drop is carried downward), and cassia because of the dispensation of the flesh on the wood. For this reason “the daughters of kings,” he says, “have gladdened you in your honor.” And who would the daughters of kings be but noble and great and royal souls? They, recognizing Christ through his condescension to human things, gladdened him in honor, in true faith and perfect love, glorifying his Godhead. And these spices, he says, are not meagerly present on Christ's garments (that is, the setting out of his words and the construction of his doctrines), but are carried from whole buildings. For he calls the greatest of houses “palaces,” and says that these are made of ivory, the prophet teaching, I think, the richness of Christ's love toward the world. “The queen stood at your right hand, in [clothing of gold, robed in many colors].” … In the Song we have learned that there is one perfect dove of Christ, who receives into the place at Christ's right hand those known by good works, separating them from the base, as the shepherd separates the lambs from the goats. The queen, then, stands at the Savior's right hand: the soul joined to the bridegroom Word, not ruled by sin but sharing in Christ's kingdom, in clothing of gold, that is, adorning herself majestically and as befits holiness with intelligible doctrines woven in and embroidered. And since the doctrines are not of one kind but varied and manifold, containing ethical and natural and the so-called epoptic teachings, the word therefore says that the bride's clothing is embroidered.

“Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house; and the king will desire your beauty, for he is your Lord, and they will worship him.” He calls the Church to hearing and keeping what is commanded, and makes her his own by the name, calling her daughter, as it were begetting her by love. “Hear, O daughter, and see.” He teaches her to have her mind trained for contemplation by “see.” Consider creation, he says, and, benefited by its order, so ascend to the contemplation of the Creator. Then, bending the lofty neck of her arrogance, he says, “Incline your ear.” Do not run off to the myths outside, but accept the lowliness of the voice in the Gospel word. Incline your ear to the teaching here, so that you may forget those depraved customs and your fathers' teachings. That is why: “Forget your people and your father's house.” For everyone who commits sin is of the devil. Cast out, he says, the teachings of demons; forget sacrifices, nightly dances, myths that kindle to sexual immorality and every licentiousness. That is why I have called you my own daughter, so that you may hate the father who first begot you to destruction. For if by forgetting you wipe away the stains of evil teachings, you will recover your own beauty and appear desirable to the bridegroom and king. “For he is your Lord, and they will worship him.” He shows the necessity of submission by “He is your Lord.” And all creation will worship him, for “at the name of Jesus Christ every knee will bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” “And the daughter of Tyre with gifts; the rich of the people will entreat your face.” The excess of idolatry seems to have been practiced in the land of Canaan, and Tyre is the mother city of Canaan. Urging the Church, then, to obedience, the word says, “The daughter of Tyre too will come one day with gifts.” And the rich of the people will entreat your face with gifts. He did not say, “They will entreat you with gifts,” but “your face.” For it is not the Church that is worshipped, but the head of the Church, Christ, whom Scripture has called the face.

“All the glory of the king's daughter is within, clothed in golden fringes, embroidered. Virgins will be brought to the king after her.” Since she has been cleansed from [the evil teachings] by the [Gospel] teaching, and has forgotten her people and her father's house, the Holy Spirit tells what concerns her. And since he saw her hidden purity, he says, “All the glory of the king's daughter,” that is, of the bride of Christ, who has now become through adoption the king's daughter, “is within.” The word urges us to advance to the innermost mysteries of the Church's glory, since the bride's beauty is within. For the one who prepares himself for the Father who sees in secret, and prays, and does everything not to be seen by men but to be manifest to God alone, has all his glory within, like the king's daughter. And the golden fringes, then, with which she is clothed and wholly embroidered, are within. Seek nothing in outward gold and bodily embroidery; but understand a garment worthy to adorn the one made after the image of his creator, as the Apostle says: “Having put off the old man and put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” And the one who has put on a heart of compassion, meekness, is clothed within and adorned in the inner man. And Paul too urges us to put on the Lord Jesus, not in the outer man, but so that the remembrance of God may cover our mind. And I think the spiritual garment is woven when the practice that follows is interwoven with the teaching word. For as the bodily garment is woven when the weft is interwoven with the warp, so, when the word has been laid down beforehand, if the actions follow in order, the soul's garment will be most majestic, having its life of virtue completed in word and deed. And fringes hang from the garment, intelligible ones too; that is why they are said to be golden. Since the word is greater than the work, it is a kind of fringe hanging over from the weaving of action. And there follow the Lord's bride certain souls that have not received seeds of foreign words, which will be brought to the king, following the bride. Let those who have professed virginity to the Lord hear that “virgins will be brought to the king”; and virgins who are near the Church, who follow after her and do not stray from the Church's good order. “Virgins will be brought with gladness and exultation; they will be led into the king's temple.” Not those who have entered virginity under compulsion, nor those who have accepted the august life from grief or necessity, but those who rejoice with gladness and exultation at such an achievement: these will be brought to the king and led not into just any place, but into the king's temple. For the priestly vessels, which human use has not defiled, will be brought into the holy of holies and will have the right to enter the inner sanctuary, where profane feet will not walk. How great a thing it is to be led into the king's temple the prophet shows, praying for himself and saying: “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the delight of the Lord and to visit his temple.” [12] “[Instead of your fathers] your sons [have been born to you]; you will make them rulers over all the earth.” Since above she was commanded to forget her people and her father's house, in return for her obedience she now receives, instead of fathers, sons distinguished by such great dignities that they are made rulers over all the earth. Who, then, are the sons of the Church? Either the sons of the Gospel, who ruled over all the earth: “For their voice has gone out into all the world,” it says; and, “They will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” And if one takes the bride's fathers to be the patriarchs, even so the word concerning the apostles does not fail. For in their place sons were born to her through Christ, who do the works of Abraham, and are therefore called of equal honor with them, from having done the same things as they, for which the fathers were counted worthy of great honors. The saints are indeed rulers over all the earth because of their kinship with the good, the very nature of the good conferring the first place on them, as it gave Jacob authority over Esau: “Be lord,” it says, “of your brother.” Those, then, who have become of equal honor with the fathers, and have gained superiority over all through the practice of virtue, are both sons of the bride of Christ and are appointed by their own mother as rulers over all the earth. Consider for me the authority of the queen, how great it is: to appoint rulers over all the earth. “I will remember your name in every generation and generation.” For this reason … “peoples will confess you forever and to the ages of ages.” In conclusion, the word is said as in the person of the Church, “I will remember your name in every generation and generation.” And what is the Church's remembrance? The confession of the peoples.

“To the end, for the sons of Korah; for the hidden things.” The psalm seems to me to contain a prophecy about the things at the end. Paul too knew this end, when he says, “Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God and the Father.” Or else: since our actions lead us to the end, each to its own (the good to blessedness, the base to eternal condemnation), and the counsels handed down by the Spirit in this psalm lead those who obey them to the good end, for this reason it is inscribed “To the end,” since the teachings refer to the blessed end of human life. “For the sons of Korah.” This psalm too is spoken to the sons of Korah, whom the Holy Spirit does not divide, because they sent forth their prophetic words as with one soul and one voice, in full harmony with one another, none of them prophesying anything beyond the rest; the prophetic gift was given them equally because of their equal disposition toward one another in what is good. And the psalm is spoken “for the hidden things,” that is, for things unspeakable and hidden in mystery. When you come to the individual words of the psalm, you will learn what is hidden in its words, and that it does not belong to just anyone to look into the divine mysteries, but only to one who can become an instrument in tune with the promise, so that, in place of a psaltery, his soul is moved by the Holy Spirit at work in it. “God is our refuge and strength, a helper in the afflictions that have found us exceedingly.” Every human being needs much help, because of the weakness natural to him, since many painful and toilsome things fall upon him. Seeking, then, a refuge from all his circumstances, like one fleeing to an inviolable place, or taking refuge on some steep summit enclosed by a strong wall because of the enemies' raid, so he flees to God, thinking that the only rest is to remain in him. Now that the refuge is in God is agreed by all; but the enemy has caused much error and confusion about the choice of the one who saves. For, plotting as an enemy, he again [makes] those he has plotted against flee to him as to a guardian, so that a double evil surrounds them: they are either taken by force or destroyed by deceit. That is why unbelievers flee to demons and idols, robbed of the knowledge of the true God by the confusion the devil has brought on them. And even those who know God err in discerning things, making their requests for what is profitable without instruction, asking for some things as good which are often not to their profit, and fleeing other things as evil which sometimes bring them great benefit. For example, is someone sick? Fleeing the pain of the sickness, he prays for health. Has he lost money? He is grief-stricken at the loss. But often sickness is beneficial, when it is going to discipline the sinner, and health harmful, when it becomes provision for sin to the one who has it. So too money has before now served some for licentiousness, and poverty has brought to their senses many who were badly inclined. Do not, then, flee what you should not, nor flee to what you should not. Let one thing be shunned by you, sin; and let there be one refuge from evils, God. Do not trust in rulers; do not be lifted up by the uncertainty of riches; do not be proud of bodily strength; do not pursue the splendor of human glory. None of these saves; all are fleeting, all deceptive. One refuge: God. “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man,” or in anything human. [2] “God,” then, “is our refuge and strength.” To the one who can say, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me,” God is strength. Many can say, “God is our refuge,” and, “Lord, you have become our refuge”; but very few can say it from the same disposition as the prophet. For few are those who have not admired human things, but hang wholly on God and breathe him and have all their hope and confidence in him. And events convict us, when in afflictions we run to anything rather than to God. Is your child sick? You look around for the enchanter, or for the one who hangs curious characters on the necks of innocent infants; or at last you go to the doctor and the medicines, neglecting the one who is able to save. If a dream troubles you, you run to the dream-interpreter. If you fear an enemy, you think up some human being as patron. And in general, in every need you are convicted, in word

naming God as your refuge, but in deed … drawing help from useless and vain things. But God is the true help of the righteous. As a general equipped with a noble body of heavy infantry is always ready to help the part of his line that is hard pressed, so God is our helper, and … the schemes of the devil, sending forth the ministering spirits for the salvation of those in need. And affliction finds every righteous man, because of the way of life he follows. For the one who turns aside from the broad and spacious way, and walks the narrow and afflicted one, is found by afflictions. The prophet shaped his words vividly when he said, “in the afflictions that have found us exceedingly.” For like living creatures they overtake us, producing endurance, and through endurance proven character, and through proven character hope. That is why the Apostle too says, “Through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of God”; and, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” But the one who has endured the trial of affliction nobly and calmly will say, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” And so far is he from flagging and shrinking in afflictions that he makes the very excess of evils an occasion for boasting, saying, “And not only this, but we also boast in afflictions.” [3] “Therefore we will not fear when the earth is troubled and the mountains are moved into the heart of the seas.” The prophet shows the great firmness of confidence in Christ: even if everything is turned upside down, even if the earth spins in turmoil, even if the mountains leave their own seat and are moved into the middle of the sea, “we will not fear,” because we have God as refuge and strength and helper in the afflictions that have found us exceedingly. Whose heart is so undaunted, whose thoughts so untroubled, that in such great confusion his mind is stretched toward God and, because of his hope in him, is struck with alarm at nothing that happens? But we cannot bear the anger of a man; or when a dog or some other beast rushes at us, we do not look to God, our helper in afflictions, but in panic turn back to ourselves. “Their waters roared and were troubled.” He spoke of the turmoil of the earth and the moving of the mountains; he speaks too of the tossing and overturning of the sea, as the mountains fall into the middle of the deep. “Their waters roared and were troubled,” the waters of the seas … … turmoil to the waters, the mountains themselves not being set firm in the sea, but by their own tossing causing much agitation to the waters. When, then, the earth is troubled, and the waters of the seas roar and boil up from the depths, and the mountains are moved and suffer great tumult because of the surpassing power of the Lord, then, he says, our heart is undaunted, because of … our confidence in God, [so as] to have hopes in God that are secure and firm. “The mountains were troubled by his might.” You can also take the sense of the saying figuratively, calling “mountains” those who think highly of their own greatness, but do not know the might of God, and exalt themselves against the knowledge of God; then they are conquered by those who proclaim the word of wisdom with power and wisdom, and after becoming aware of their own poverty they fear the Lord and are humbled by his might. Or perhaps the rulers of this age too, and the fathers of the wisdom that is perishing, are themselves called mountains, troubled by the might of Christ, which he showed in his contest through the cross against the one who has the power of death. For having stripped off, like a noble athlete, … the principalities and powers with whom he wrestled, he made a public example of them openly, triumphing over them on the wood.

“The rushing streams of the river gladden the city of God.” The salt waters were greatly troubled; but the rushing streams of the river, going forward without a sound and flowing quietly upon those worthy to receive them, gladden the city of God. Even now the righteous man drinks the living water, and later he will drink more abundantly, when he is enrolled as a citizen in the city of God. But now he drinks through a mirror and in a riddle, because of the gradual grasp of the divine truths; then he will receive the river overflowing all at once, able to flood the whole city of God with gladness. And what would the river of God be but the Holy Spirit, who comes to be in the worthy from the faith of those who have believed in Christ? “For whoever believes in me,” he says, “rivers will flow from his belly”; and again, “If anyone drinks of the water that I give, it will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” This river, then, gladdens the whole city of God together: either the Church of those whose citizenship is in heaven, or we must understand as a city the whole intelligible creation, from the powers above the world to human souls, gladdened by the inflowing of the Holy Spirit. For some define a city as an established community governed by law. And the definition of a city given fits the Jerusalem above, the heavenly city. For there too is a community of the firstborn enrolled in heaven; and it is established because of the unchangeable way of life of the saints, and governed by the heavenly law. To learn, then, the ordering of that commonwealth and all its arrangement belongs to no human [power] …, “nor has ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him”; except that there are myriads of angels there, and a festal gathering of saints, and a Church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven. Of that city David says, “Glorious things have been spoken of you, O city of God.” To that city God promises through Isaiah, “I will make you an eternal exultation, a gladness … nor wretchedness within your borders; but your walls will be called salvation.” Lift up, then, the eyes of your soul, and seek the things of the city of God in a manner worthy of the things above. What could one conceive worthy of the blessedness there, which the river of God gladdens, and whose craftsman and maker is God? “The Most High has sanctified his tabernacle.” Perhaps he means the God-bearing flesh, sanctified by its union with God. So you will understand as the tabernacle of the Most High the manifestation of God through flesh. [5] “God is in the midst of her, and she will not be shaken; God will help her at the break of morning.” And since God is in the midst of the city, he will grant her to be unshaken, giving her help at the first risings of the light. Whether, then, one applies the name of city to the Jerusalem above or to the Church below, “the Most High has sanctified his tabernacle” in her. And through this tabernacle, in which God dwelt, he came to be in her midst, granting her not to be shaken. And God is in the midst of the city, sending forth the rays of his providence equally on every side to the ends of the circle. For so the justice of God is preserved, as he distributes the same measure of goodness to all. “God will help her at the break of morning.” Now the morning with us the visible sun makes, when it peeps above our horizon; but the morning in the soul the Sun of righteousness brings about by the rising of the intelligible light, making day in the one who has received him. For we human beings are in night during the time of ignorance. When, then, opening up our ruling faculty, we receive the radiance of glory and are shone around by the eternal light, “God will help her at the break of morning.” When we become children of light, and the night is far gone for us and the day has drawn near, then we become worthy of God's help. God helps the city, then, by his own rising and appearing, making morning for her. “For behold a man,” it says, “whose name is Rising.” In those, then, on whom the intelligible light rises, as

the darkness of ignorance and wickedness is dissolved, and morning comes to be in them. Since, then, the light has come into the world, so that whoever walks in it may not stumble, his help is a giver of morning. Or perhaps, since the resurrection was at early dawn, God will help the city at the break of morning, he who achieved the victory over death in the morning, on the third day, the day of the resurrection. [6] “Nations were troubled, kingdoms bowed; the Most High uttered his voice, the earth was shaken.” Picture for me a city plotted against by enemies making war on it, for a time surrounded by many nations and by the kings who hold the scepters of each nation; then some general of invincible strength suddenly appearing to help this city, raising the siege, scattering the mass of the nations, driving the kings to flight merely by shouting at them with power, and striking their hearts with terror by the firmness of his voice. How great a confusion, then, is likely to arise as the nations are pursued and the kings turn to flight; a confused murmur and unceasing din sent up from their disordered flight; every place full of those put to flight by fear, so that tumult arises everywhere in the cities or villages that receive them? Such, then, is the help he presents as given to the city of God by the Savior, in saying, “Nations were troubled, kingdoms bowed; the Most High uttered his voice, the earth was shaken.” “The Lord of hosts is with us; our helper is the God of Jacob.” He saw God made man, he saw the one born of the holy Virgin, Emmanuel, which is translated “God with us”; and therefore he cries out prophetically, “The Lord of hosts is with us,” showing that this is the one who appeared to the holy prophets and patriarchs. “Our helper,” he says: not another god besides the one handed down by the prophets, but “the God of Jacob,” who in the oracle spoke to his own servant: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

“Come and see the works of God, the wonders he has set on the earth, taking away wars to the ends of the earth.” Those who are far from the word of truth [he calls] into the … through knowledge. For as with bodily eyes great distances make the perception of things seen faint, while coming near gives those who look a clear recognition of what they see, so too with the objects of the mind: one who has not been made familiar with God and drawn near to him through works cannot see his works with the pure eyes of the mind. That is why: “Come,” draw near first, then “see the works” of the Lord, which are marvelous and astonishing; struck by them, the nations that were formerly warlike and seditious changed to peace. “Come, children, listen to me”; and, “Come, all who labor and are heavy laden.” It is a father's voice, calling to himself with outstretched arms those who were till then unruly. The one, then, who has heard the call, and drawn near, and cleaved to the one who gave the command, will see the one who made peace for all things through the cross, “whether things on earth or things in heaven.” “He will break the bow, and shatter the weapon, and burn the shields with fire.” Do you see the peaceableness of the Lord of hosts, though he has with him invisible hosts of angelic ranks? Do you see the courage and at the same time the love for mankind of the commander of the hosts? Though he is Lord of the hosts and has all the companies of the angelic ranks, he nowhere wounds any of the enemy, strikes down no one, touches no one, but breaks bows, and weapons, and burns shields with fire. The bow … to be shot through them; and he will shatter the close-combat weapons, so that those plotted against at close quarters cannot receive wounds. “And he will burn the shields with fire,” stripping the adversaries of their defenses, and doing all things for the benefit of his enemies.

“Be still and know that I am God.” As long as we are busy with matters outside God, we cannot receive the knowledge of God. For who, anxious about the things of the world and sunk deep in the distractions of the flesh, can attend to words about God and be equal to the precision of such great truths? Do you not see that the word that fell among the thorns is choked by the thorns? And the thorns are the pleasures of the flesh, and wealth and glory, and the cares of life. The one who needs the knowledge of God must get outside all of these, and, having become free from the passions, so take up the knowledge of God. For how can the thought of God enter a soul cramped by reasonings that have occupied it before? Even Pharaoh knew that it is the mark of one at leisure to seek God, and that is why he reproaches Israel: “You are idle, you are idlers, and you say, ‘We will pray to the Lord our God.’” This leisure, then, is good and profitable to the one who has it, creating quiet for taking up the saving teachings; but bad was the leisure of the Athenians, who “spent their time in nothing else than telling or hearing something newer,” which some imitate even now, using the leisure of their life for the constant discovery of some newer doctrine. Such leisure is dear to unclean and evil spirits. “When the unclean spirit,” it says, “goes out of a man, it says, ‘I will go to the place from which [I came]’; and coming it finds that house unoccupied and swept.” May we, then, never give the adversary leisure to enter, but let us keep our inner house occupied, having first settled Christ in ourselves through the Spirit. After granting peace, then, to those who until then were troubled by enemies, he says, “Be still” from the enemies who distract you, so that in quiet you may contemplate the words about the truth. That is why the Lord too says, “Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” We must, then, be free from the works of marriage, so that we may be free for prayer; free from the pursuits of wealth, from desire for this paltry glory, from the pleasures of enjoyment, from envy and all wickedness toward our neighbor, so that, when our soul is calm and troubled by no passion, the shining of God may become pure and undarkened in it, as in a mirror. “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord clearly says this of his own passion, as it is written in the Gospel: “And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all to myself”; and, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” on the earth. Since, then, he was to be lifted up on the cross for the nations, and to accept being lifted up for the whole earth, therefore he says, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” “The Lord of hosts is with us; our helper is the God of Jacob.” Exulting in God's help, he has cried out the same words twice, “The Lord of hosts is with us,” as though trampling on the enemy and leaping upon him, because of his perfect confidence in the Savior of our souls, as one who will suffer nothing from the enemy. “For if God is for us, who is against us?” The one who granted Jacob the victory, and after the wrestling declared him Israel, he is our helper; he himself fights for us. Let us be still, for “he is our peace, who made the two one, that he might create the two into one new man.”

“To the end, for the sons of Korah, a psalm.”

Some outsiders too have formed notions about the end of human life, and have been carried in different directions in their idea of the end. Some declared that the end is knowledge, others practical activity; others the varied use of life and of the body; and those of a cattle-like nature declared that pleasure is the end. But for us the end, for the sake of which we do everything and toward which we press on, is the blessed life in the age to come. And this is fulfilled in being ruled as subjects by God. For nothing better than this could be found by a rational nature even in thought; and to this the Apostle moves us, saying, “Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God and the Father.” Zephaniah too presents this in his prophecy, speaking in the person of God: “For my judgment is for the gatherings of the nations, to receive kings, to pour out my wrath upon them. For in the fire of my jealousy all the earth will be consumed; for then I will turn to the peoples a tongue for its generation, that all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve him under one yoke.” To this end, then, I think the benefits of the Psalms that bear this title are referred. And in this sense too are those who inscribed them “For victory,” or “Song of victory,” or “To the one who makes victorious.” For since “death has been swallowed up in victory,” and has been destroyed by the one who said, “I have conquered the world,” and since all things have been conquered by Christ, and “at his name every knee will bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” the Holy Spirit fittingly proclaims beforehand, in songs of victory, the things laid up. “Hear these things, all you nations; give ear, all who inhabit the world, both earthborn and sons of men, rich and poor together.” The audience is the greatest possible, since he calls all the nations to hear the psalm, and all who fill the world with their dwellings. And he draws, I think, both earthborn and sons of men, both rich and poor, and with this lofty proclamation he calls them to hear. What watchtower on earth rises so high above the whole earth that one could see all the nations from afar and take in the whole world with one's eye? What herald has so great a voice that he can make his cry heard by so many ears at once? What place can receive those assembled? How great is the teacher, and of what wisdom, that he can find teachings worthy of so great an assembly? Wait a little, and you will learn that what follows is worthy of the announcement. For the one who assembles and calls all by the proclamation is the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, gathering those who are being saved through prophets and apostles; and since “their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world,” he therefore says, “Hear, all you nations, and all who inhabit the world.” That is why the Church too has been gathered from all kinds of ways of life, so that no one may be left outside its benefit. For there are three pairs of those called, in which the whole human race is contained: nations and the inhabitants of the world; earthborn and sons of men; rich and poor. Whom, then, has he left outside the hearing? Those who are strangers to the faith are called by the word “nations.” Those who are in the Church are the inhabitants of the world. The earthborn are those who mind earthly things and cling to the wills of the flesh. The sons of men are those who give some care and training to reason, for rationality is the mark of man. Rich and poor have their character recognized at once: the one possess more than what is necessary, the others are in want of it. And since the physician of souls “did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” in each pair he placed first in the call the one that stands condemned. For the nations are worse than the inhabitants of the world; yet they are given precedence in the calling, so that those who are badly off may share first in the physician's help. Again, the earthborn are placed before the sons of men, and the rich before the poor. The class that is despaired of, whose salvation is difficult, has been called before the poor. Such is the physician's love for mankind toward the weaker: he gives them his help first. At the same time the fellowship of the calling also brings about peace, so that those who until then were opposed to one another by their ways of life are accustomed to one another in love through the Church. Let the rich man know that he has been called with equal honor alongside the poor. “Rich and poor together,” it says. Leaving outside his superiority over those lower than he, and the arrogance that comes from wealth, … have been honored. Let the rich man, then, not despise the poor, nor the poor cower before the power of the wealthy; let the sons of men not scorn the earthborn, nor the earthborn in turn hold aloof from them. And let the nations become accustomed to the inhabitants of the world, and those who inhabit the world [embrace] the strangers to the covenants through love …

“My mouth will speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart understanding.” Since, according to the Apostle, “with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation,” and the working of both together in these things brings about perfection, the word has therefore combined both in the same place, the activity of the mouth and the meditation of the heart. For if the good is not stored up in the heart, how will one who does not possess the treasure in secret bring it out through the mouth? And if one has the goods of the heart but does not publish them by word, it will be said to him, “Hidden wisdom and an unseen treasure, what profit is there in either?” Therefore let my mouth speak wisdom for the benefit of others, and let my heart meditate understanding for our own progress. “I will incline my ear to a parable.” … The prophet commends his own person, so that his words may not be despised as though brought forward from human invention. “What I am taught by the Spirit,” he says, “I announce to you, saying nothing of my own, nothing human; but since I have become a hearer of the riddles of the Spirit, who hands down to us in a mystery the wisdom of God, I open it to you and make the riddle plain; and I open it in no other way than by the psaltery.” Now the psaltery is a musical instrument that renders its notes in harmony with the melody of the voice. The rational psaltery, then, is opened most of all when actions are rendered in harmony with words. And the spiritual psaltery is the one who has done and taught. He opens the riddle in psalms, setting forth the possibility of the teachings from his own example. As one, then, who is conscious of nothing out of tune or discordant in his life, he speaks the following words with confidence: “Why should I fear in the evil day? The lawlessness of my heel will not surround me.” He calls the evil day the day of judgment, of which it is said, “The day of the Lord is incurable upon all the nations,” in which, the prophet says, each one's counsels will surround him. Then, he says, because nothing lawless has been done by me on the road of life, I do not fear the evil day. For the footprints of my sins will not stand around me, nor surround me, bringing conviction upon me in a silent accusation. For no other accuser of yours will stand up but the deeds themselves, each standing by in its own form: adultery, theft, sexual immorality, with the night, with the manner, with the features that mark it; and, in a word, each sin will stand by with its own character, bringing a vivid reminder. But me the footprints of my sins will not surround, because “I inclined my ear to a parable, I opened [my riddle] on the psaltery.” [3] “Those who trust in their strength and boast in the abundance of their wealth.” The prophet's word is addressed to two persons, the earthborn and the rich. To the one he speaks to pull down their conceit about their strength; to the other, their pride in the abundance of their possessions. “You,” he says, “who trust in your strength”: these are the earthborn, who hope in bodily might and think human nature sufficient to accomplish by its own power whatever it wishes. “And you,” he says, “who trust in the uncertainty of riches, listen. You need a ransom to be set free into the liberty you were robbed of when you were conquered by the violence of the devil, who, having taken you into his power, will not release you from his tyranny until, persuaded by some worthy ransom, he chooses to exchange you.” The ransom, then, must not be of the same kind as those held captive, but must far exceed them in measure, if he is willingly to release the captives from their slavery. That is why a brother cannot ransom you. For no man is able to persuade the devil to release from his power someone who has once fallen under it, since he cannot even give God a propitiation for his own sins. How then will he have strength to do this for another? And what could he acquire in this age so great as to have a sufficient exchange for the soul, which is precious by nature, because it was made in the image of its Creator? And what toil in the present age is sufficient provision for the age to come for a human soul? So much, then, we have understood more simply. Even if someone seems to be among the very powerful in this life, even if he is surrounded by a multitude of possessions, the word teaches him to put down his conceit and be humbled under the mighty hand of God, and neither to trust in supposed strength nor to boast in the abundance of wealth. But it is also possible to rise a little higher in thought, and to understand “those who trust in their strength” … of the powers of the soul, since even the soul is not self-sufficient for salvation. For “even if one is perfect among the sons of men, if the wisdom from God is absent, he will be counted as nothing.” Even if he has gathered for himself a multitude of theories from the wisdom of the world, and amassed a kind of wealth of knowledge, let him hear the whole truth of the matter: that every human soul has bowed under the evil yoke of slavery of the common enemy of all, and, robbed of the freedom it had from its Creator, has been led captive through sin. And every captive needs a ransom for his freedom. So neither can a brother ransom his own brother, nor each one himself, because the one who ransoms must be much better than the one already held in slavery. Indeed, no man at all has authority before God to make propitiation for one who has sinned, since he too is liable for sin. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” our Lord.

“He will not give God a propitiation for himself, nor the price of the redemption of his soul.” Do not, then, seek a brother for your redemption, but one who surpasses your nature; not a mere man, but the man who is God, Jesus Christ, who alone can give God a propitiation for all of us, because “God put him forward as a propitiation through faith in his blood.” Moses was a brother of Israel, and yet he could not redeem them. How then will any ordinary man redeem? That is why the psalm on the one hand declares, “A brother does not redeem,” and on the other adds as a question, with gravity, “Will a man redeem?” For he did not free the people from sin, but begged off God's anger at their sin. And he could not even give a propitiation for himself, having himself fallen into a transgression, because after so many and such great wonders and signs which he had seen, he uttered that doubting word: “Hear me, you disobedient: shall we bring water out of this rock for you?” That is why the Lord too, at this word, said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me before the sons of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” “He will not give God a propitiation for himself.” For what can a man find so great that he may give it for the redemption of his soul? But one thing was found worth as much as all men together, which was given as the price of the redemption of our souls: the holy and most precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he poured out for us all; that is why “we were bought with a price.” If then a brother does not redeem, will a man redeem? But if a man cannot redeem us, the one who redeemed us is not a man. Do not, then, because he came among us “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” suppose our Lord to be only a man, ignoring the power of his Godhead. He had no need to give God a propitiation for himself, nor to redeem his own soul, because “he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” No one is able to buy himself back unless the one comes who turns back the captivity of the people, “not with ransoms nor with gifts,” as it is written in Isaiah, but with his own blood. And he, not because we were brothers but when we had become enemies by our transgressions, being not a mere man but God, after the freedom he graciously gives us, also calls us his brothers. “For I will declare your name,” he says, “to my brothers.” The one who redeemed us, then, if you look at his nature, is neither brother nor man; but if you look at his gracious condescension toward us, he both calls us brothers and comes down to the human level, he who “will not give God a propitiation for himself,” but for the whole world. For he does not need propitiation, but is himself the propitiation. “For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners …, who has no need daily, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of ignorance of the people.” Then he says, “And he toiled forever, and he will live to the end.” Life itself, power itself, the nature that knows no toil, toiled in this age, when, “wearied from the journey, he sat beside the spring.” [5] “For he will not see corruption, when he sees the wise dying” (for the Father “will not give his holy one to see corruption”), when those who boast of the wisdom that is being brought to nothing die. But if you wish to take what is said of righteous men as well, remember Job saying, “Man is born for toil”; and again the Apostle, “I toiled more abundantly than all of them”; and, “in toils more abundantly.” The one, then, who has toiled in this age will live to the end; but the one who passes his life in luxury and every slackness, wearing purple and fine linen because of his soft living, and making merry splendidly every day, and fleeing the labors on behalf of virtue, neither toiled in this age nor will live in the age to come, but will see life from afar, tormented in the flame of the furnace. But the one who … to gain it, proved in toils more abundantly, is the one who will live to the end, like Lazarus, who toiled much in afflictions; like Job, who was worn out in the contests against the adversary. “For there,” it says, “the weary were at rest.” That is why the Lord too calls to rest those who labor and are heavy laden. How then are those who labor in good works said to be heavy laden? Because “going, they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming they will come with exultation, carrying their sheaves,” full of fruits, those sown being rendered to them in proportion. So they are called heavy laden who, because they sowed bountifully, also reap bountifully, and with eternal gladness have loaded on themselves the sheaves of spiritual fruits. The one, then, who has been redeemed through God, who gave a propitiation for him, toiled in this age, but afterward will live to the end. He also “will not see corruption, when he sees the wise dying.” The one who chose the narrow and toilsome way before the smooth and easy one, at the time of God's visitation, when those who disbelieved the words of God and walked after the wills of their vain heart are led away into eternal punishment, will not see eternal corruption, unending misery. By the wise he means either those clever in villainy, of whom it is said, … “but to do good they do not know”; or he also calls wise the disciples of the rulers of this age, who were made foolish. For “the wisdom of this world is folly with God.” And because this wisdom makes foolish, God says that he will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the understanding. The persuasions of the knowledge falsely so called, then, provide a cause of death for those who accept them; which death the one will not see who has been redeemed by the one who was pleased through the folly of the preaching to save those who believe.

“The senseless and the mindless will perish together, and they will leave their wealth to strangers.” … forever. Their dwellings for generation and generation. They called their names upon their lands.” Above he called them by one general name, wise; now, dividing them, he calls them senseless and mindless. Clearly he called them wise using the name from their own conceit. As [he calls gods those who are not gods by nature,] following the usage of those who are deceived, so he called the senseless and the foolish wise. One can, then, distinguish in thought the senseless from the mindless. The senseless man is one who is deprived of prudence and has no discernment in common and human affairs. So too ordinary usage calls prudent those who discern what is profitable and harmful in the affairs of life; as it is said in the Gospel too, “The sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of light in their own generation.” Not prudent absolutely, but for conducting this life in the flesh. These are also called stewards of unrighteousness, because of the prudence of their management of their own life. In this sense serpents too are prudent, preparing hiding places for themselves and in dangers avoiding by every means blows to the head. The mindless man is the one who does not have the special gifts of man. These are the knowledge of God the Father, the reception of the Word who was in the beginning with God, and the illumination that comes from the Holy Spirit. This mind they have who can say with Paul, “But we have the mind of Christ.” Yet the usage of Scripture also employs these words interchangeably, calling the godless senseless in, “The senseless one said in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” and again calling what is harmful in life mindless, as the Apostle does about those who fall into “mindless and harmful desires.” In this way the senseless and the mindless are carried to one common end, destruction. One might say that the one living as a pagan is called senseless, and the one who lives as a Jew according to the bare observance of the law mindless. For to the senseless God said, because of the godlessness that was in him, “Senseless one, this night they are taking your soul from you.” And Israel according to the flesh is called mindless, according to the prophet who says, “And Ephraim was like a mindless dove; he called on Egypt and went to the Assyrians.” As these, then, are broken together by their own ignorance, we who were strangers to them become heirs of their wealth. For ours are the commandments, ours are the prophets, … They have left their wealth to us, those who perish in their senselessness. And the houses of these, the senseless and the mindless, are tombs forever. For those whose life is full of dead works coming from every sin, their houses are tombs forever. For the one who has become dead in transgressions dwells not in a house but in a tomb, since his own soul is dead. For Jacob, simple and guileless in character, dwells in a house, of whom it is written that he was “a plain man and good, dwelling in a house”; but the utterly wicked dwells in a tomb, not laying a foundation of repentance from dead works, but resembling a whitewashed tomb, which on the outside is outwardly conspicuous, but within … That is why such a man, when he speaks, does not open his mouth to the word of God, but has his throat an open tomb. If anyone, then, who believes in Christ does not render actions in accord with his faith, he, because he has given heed to depraved doctrines and has twisted the meaning of Scripture, hews himself a tomb in the rock. [7] “Their dwellings for generation and generation”: that is, their tombs are their houses forever. Then, explaining what he means by tombs, to show that he is speaking of bodies, in which … “Their dwellings for generation and generation,” in the usual way of dwellings … they call their names upon their lands. For the name of the ungodly is not written in the book of the living, nor numbered with the Church of the firstborn who are numbered in heaven; but their names remain on their land, because they preferred this passing and short-lived life to the eternal tents. Do you not see those who build marketplaces and gymnasia in the cities, raise walls, repair aqueducts, how their names are called upon these earthly constructions? Some already have even [given] their own names to herds of horses … devised the remembrance of themselves in life; and showing magnificence in tombs too, they have left their names on their monuments. These are those who mind earthly things, who reckon glory here and being remembered among men enough for their blessedness. And if you see any of those who are proud of the knowledge falsely so called, who give themselves to assent to depraved doctrines, and instead of the name of Christians call themselves after one of the founders of heresies, Marcion or Valentinus or one of those now in vogue, know that these too have called their names upon their lands, [giving] themselves to corruptible men, wholly earthly,

“And man, being in honor, did not understand; he has been compared to the senseless cattle and has become like them. This way of theirs is a stumbling block to them; and afterward they will be pleased with their mouth.” A great thing is man, and a merciful man precious, having what is precious in his natural constitution. For what else on earth has come to be in the image of its Creator? To whom has rule and authority over all, land creatures, water creatures and creatures of the air, been granted? He is a little lower than the dignity of the angels because of his union with an earthly body: for he made man from the earth, “and his ministers a flame of fire”; but nevertheless the power to know and understand their own Maker and Creator exists in human beings too. For “he breathed into his face”: that is, he placed in man a share of his own grace, so that by the like he might recognize the like. Yet, being in such great honor, from having been made in the image of his Creator, honored above heaven, above the sun, above the choirs of the stars (for which of the heavens is said to be the image of God Most High? What image of its Creator does the sun preserve? What of the moon? What of the other stars? They are soulless and material, having only bright bodies, in which there is no thought anywhere, no movements of choice, no freedom of self-determination; but they are slaves of the necessity laid upon them, by which they revolve unvaryingly about the same things), man, though advanced in honors above these, did not understand, but, abandoning following God and becoming like his Creator, and becoming a slave of the passions of the flesh, “has been compared to the senseless cattle.” … lusting like a horse, neighing after his [neighbor's] wife; now like a ravening wolf lying in wait for what belongs to others; at another time likened, by his deceit toward his brother, to the cunning of the fox. It is truly the height of folly and of brutish irrationality neither to perceive one's own original constitution, made in the image of the Creator, nor to be willing to understand such great dispensations made for one's sake, and from them at least to recognize one's own worth; but … that, having thrown away the image of the heavenly, he took up the image of the earthly. And so that he might not remain in sin, for his sake “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” and humbled himself so far as … “death, even death on a cross.” If you do not remember your first origin, take an idea of your dignity from the price paid for you; look to what was given in exchange for you, and know your worth. You were bought with the precious blood of Christ; do not become a slave of sin. Understand your honor, so that you may not be likened to the senseless cattle. “This way of theirs is a stumbling block to them.” God, who manages our affairs, hinders us as we walk through wickedness, setting stumbling blocks and obstacles for us, so that, turning away from an irrational life, we may afterward be pleased with our mouth, having believed with the heart unto righteousness and confessed with the mouth unto salvation. Paul was persecuting, was ravaging the Church of Christ; he threw himself into his course toward wickedness; afterward he was pleased with his mouth, proclaiming in the synagogues that this is the Christ.

“Like sheep he has put them in Hades; death will shepherd them.” Those who are brutish and have been compared to the senseless cattle, like sheep that have neither understanding nor strength to defend themselves, the one who carries them off into captivity, being an enemy, has already cast down into his own stronghold and handed over to death to shepherd. For death shepherded from Adam until the dispensation of Moses, until the true shepherd came, who laid down his own life for the sheep, and so, raising them up with himself and leading them out from the prison of Hades into the morning of the resurrection, handed them over to the upright, that is, to his holy angels, to shepherd them. “And the upright will rule over them in the morning.” For each of the faithful has an angel joined to him, worthy to behold the Father who is in heaven. These upright ones, then, will rule over them from the bitter … slavery of those who have come to be in the morning, that is, of those who have entered into the rising of the light. Consider the whole sequence of the words of Scripture. “Man, being in honor, did not understand; he has been compared to the senseless cattle.” The one who has what is precious through his constitution, but because of the sin that dwells in him does not perceive himself, has been compared to the cattle. Then, because he estranged himself from God the Word and became irrational, the enemy carried him off like an unshepherded sheep and put him in Hades, and handed him over to death to shepherd. That is why the one rescued from there and freed from the evil shepherd says, “The Lord shepherds me.” And no longer death, but life; no longer a fall, but a resurrection; no longer falsehood, but the truth. “And their help will grow old in Hades.” Either he is speaking of death, which with all its help could not hold on to those it shepherded, because of the one who destroys him who has the power of death; and all their help is old and weak. And when will the help of men deceived in mind, proud of wealth and glory and power, be refuted? In Hades it will grow old, as their weakness is refuted. Or perhaps the help of the righteous, redeemed by the Lord, will be extended in Hades. For they have not yet received the promises, God having foreseen something better for us, that those who went before should not be made perfect apart from us. “But God will redeem my soul from the hand of Hades, when he receives me.” He clearly prophesies the Lord's descent into Hades, who with the others will redeem the prophet's soul too, so that it may not remain there.

“Do not fear when a man becomes rich, or when the glory of his house is increased.” “Do not fear,” he says, “when a man becomes rich.” This proclamation too is necessary for those who inhabit the world, the earthborn and the sons of men, rich and poor together. “Do not fear when a man becomes rich.” When you see, he says, an unjust man rich and a just man poor, do not be afraid within yourself; do not be alarmed in your mind as though … or there is perhaps a divine oversight somewhere, but it does not reach the earthly region so as to watch over our affairs too. “For if there were a providence, giving each his due, the just, who know how to use wealth, would be rich, and the wicked …, who have wealth as an instrument of their own wickedness.” Since, then, there are many among the nations and the earthborn who think such things, and who, because of the apparent unevenness in the distribution of the affairs of life, suppose the world to be without providence, the word speaks to them, checking their uninstructed movement of mind; these he called at the beginning to hear the teachings. Or perhaps he addresses specially the person of the poor man alone, saying, “Do not fear when a man becomes rich.” For these especially need encouragement, so as not to cower before those who are above them. For there is no profit, he says, to the rich man when he dies, since he cannot take his wealth with him; he gained from its enjoyment only so much as to have his soul called blessed by flatterers in this life. “For when he dies he will take nothing,” he says, of all this finery; he will barely take a garment to cover his unseemliness, and that only if the servants who lay him out see fit. He will be glad to get a little earth, and that given him out of pity by those who bury him, who provide him these things out of respect for our common human nature, not to do him a favor, but to honor humanity. Do not, then, be faint-hearted about present things, but wait for that blessed and endless life. For then you will see that poverty, obscurity and the lack of luxury turn out for the good of the righteous. And do not be troubled now about the things thought good, as though they were unjustly distributed. For you will hear how it will be said to the rich man, “You received your good things in your life,” and of the poor man, that he received evil things in his life. That is why, fittingly, the one is comforted and the other is in anguish. “He will confess to you when you do him good.” Of the earthly man, who thinks the only goods are the advantages of this life (wealth, health and power), of him he says that he will confess God when he is done good to, but in adversities he lets loose every blasphemy. For leaving the poor man, he now addresses his word to God, including in the accusation of wealth this too, that it gives thanks to God only in prosperity, and when gloomier things come round no longer remains the same. Such too was the devil's charge brought against Job, that Job does not worship the Lord for nothing, but has wealth as the wage of his piety, and the rest. That is why, to show the man's virtue, God stripped him of what he had, so that his gratitude toward God might shine out through everything. [11] [“You will go in as far as the generation of his fathers.”] I think he says of the sinner that he knows God only so far as the custom of his fathers has handed down, but by his own power of thought he gains nothing more and adds nothing to himself toward the knowledge of the truth. “So far, then,” he says, “do you, O God, come to him, and so much is the thought of you in him, as there was in the generation of his fathers.” And here he presents the great sluggishness of mind, wholly earthly and fleshly, of the one who wallows in wealth and luxury and has his mind choked by the cares of life. That is why “he will not see light forever.” For those who have entrusted their guidance to blind teachers have deprived themselves of the enjoyment of the light. The words “You will go in as far as the generation of his fathers” also have some such sense as this: you punish not only those caught in an evil life and in doctrines that are ancestral but alien to piety, but you seek out also the authors of the depraved teachings. And this is the meaning of “his.” For not only is the one who has evil ideas about God guilty, but also the one who led him into this destruction. Such are those who have inherited the wickedness of their forebears and have it hard to wash out, because it has been made firm by long habit. “He will not see light forever.” For they are sent “into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”; and this they suffer by the just judgment of God, since in this life, by doing evil, they hated the light. “Man, being in honor, did not understand; he has been compared to the senseless cattle and has become like them.” It is an indignant cry. Man, made a little lower than the angels … “A great thing is man, and a merciful man precious”: he, because he did not perceive his own dignity, but bowed down to the passions of the flesh, “has been compared to the senseless cattle and has become like them.”

[“To the end, for those who will be changed; further, for an inscription on a pillar, of David, for teaching, when he burned Mesopotamia of Syria and Syria Sobal, and Joab returned and struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand.”] As I look at your eagerness and at the weakness of my own strength, there came to my mind the picture of a child, already rather grown, yet not weaned from the breast, … [a breast] chilled by sickness; to whom the mother, though she feels that the springs of her milk are dry, gives the breast, not to feed the infant but to stop its whimpering. So, even though my resources are dried up by this long and varied sickness of the body, still they are set before you, offering not any notable enjoyment, but a kind of assurance, since the excess of your love is content to soothe its longing for me with my voice alone. Let the Church of God, then, be addressed, and let it be taught to say what we said just now: “Give us help from affliction, and vain is the salvation of man.” So perhaps the sense of the psalm does not allow us even to plead sickness as an excuse, if affliction is the provider of help and not an occasion for weakness. To those, then, who were rejected because of their sins and then received again through the love of God for mankind, it is fitting to say: “O God, you rejected us and destroyed us; you were angry, and had pity on us.” But rather, since our word has fallen into the sequence of the psalm's meaning, come, let us touch moderately on its explanation. [2] The history of the present psalm, word for word as the title gives it, is not found even now anywhere among the inspired histories; but its equivalent will be found by those who search diligently in the second book of Kingdoms, where it is written: “And David struck Hadadezer [son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went] to set his hand on the river Euphrates …; [and David took from him a thousand] chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariots, and there were left of them a hundred chariots.” And a little later it says: “And David reigned over Israel, and David was doing judgment and righteousness, and Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army.” And after a little: “And the sons of Ammon sent and hired Syria of Rehob and Syria of Zobah, twenty thousand men; and Joab saw that the battle was set against him face to face, and he chose out of all the sons of Israel and drew up in battle opposite Syria.” “And the servants of Hadadezer saw … before Israel, and they served them.” In this passage of the history we find the title of the psalm agreeing, except that the time of this inscription is the time when David was most brilliant and most renowned in his feats of war. So it is worth asking how he begins with laments and dirges, when he ought to be joyful and cheerful over his successes. For the voices of those who keep festival are one thing, and those of the gloomy another. A victory is the occasion for a public festival, not for soldiers alone, but also for farmers and merchants and craftsmen and all who share the goods of peace. How then: “O God, you rejected us and destroyed us”? Yet he received the victors. How did he destroy those whom he so greatly increased, adding to them arms and chariots and horses, and subjects, and a tributary country, all Arabia, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia? It is worth considering whether the words do not contain some ingratitude. For he who first killed Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and took from him a thousand chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand foot, and then enslaved the king of Syria who came to the help of the defeated and made him tributary, and in one turn of time slew twenty-two thousand of his men, and won a third victory over the sons of Ammon drawn up by the gate of the city, through Joab the commander-in-chief, who divided his force in two, met some face to face and overpowered others by going round behind them: how, after such feats, does he speak so gloomily and dejectedly, saying, “O God, you rejected us and destroyed us; you were angry, and had pity on us”? But while the time of the inscription was that of his successes, the force of what is written has its reference to the end, … the future. That is why he says that the psalm was written “for those who will be changed.” One may take it simply of the whole human race, as for all … for those who will be changed are those who neither preserve the same state of body nor stand always in the same mind, but are changed in body with the changes of age, and are altered in mind with the variety of circumstances. For we are different when we are children, and again we are wholly changed into others. And we are different in brighter states of affairs, and become others from others when we meet with a harsher turn of the times; different when sick and when in good health; different at weddings and in mourning. Or, since it does not say “for those who are being changed,” but “for those who will be changed,” and the word carries an indication of prophecy, the time being turned to the future, it is more consistent to understand as “those who will be changed” those who are going to give up the custom of their fathers toward vain things and rule their way of life by the exactness of the Gospel. The psalm, then, was not written for the Jews of that time, but for us who will be changed, who exchange polytheism for piety, the error about idols for the knowledge of the one who made us; who choose lawful self-control instead of lawless pleasure; who take up psalm and fasting and prayer instead of flutes and dances and drunkenness. Anyone who says, then, that the psalm was written for us would not miss the truth. That is why the divine oracles too are ours, and are read in the Church of God at every assembly as gifts sent by God, like food for souls supplied through the Spirit. But the psalm was also written “for an inscription on a pillar”: that is, let your hearing of it not be careless; and do not, as things written on perishable material quickly vanish, engrave it in your mind for a little while in your memory and then let it be blurred and vanish; but keep it inscribed as on a pillar in your soul, that is, immovable and fixed in your memory for all time. And if the Jew pushes us away as strangers to what is written, let us put him to shame from what is written, showing the mixed character of the calling, how it brings together what was separated, calls together those far off, makes the many one through faith in Christ. “Gilead is mine,” he says, “and Manasseh is mine”; and of Ephraim he said … and he received Judah and counted Moab with them. And he threatens to set foot on Idumea, and announces the good news of the subjection of all together: “The foreigners have been subjected to me.” [3] “O God, you rejected us,” then. Those who removed themselves far from you you rejected, in proportion to their sins. You destroyed the structures of our wickedness, [doing us good through weakness]. You were angry, when we were by nature children of wrath, having no hope, and without God in the world. You had pity on us, when you put forward your Only-begotten as a propitiation for our sins, so that we might find redemption in his blood. We would not have recognized these benefits if you had not given us to drink “the wine of compunction.” He calls wine the word that brings the hardened heart to awareness. “You have given to those who fear you a sign, to flee from the face of the bow.” Moses [marked] the doorposts of the Israelites with the blood of the sheep; but you have given us a sign, the very blood of the spotless Lamb slain for the sin of the world. And Ezekiel says that the sign is given on the foreheads of their faces: “Go,” he says, “after him and strike; do not spare and do not have pity. Kill old man and young man and infant and virgin and women, to destruction; but do not come near any on whom is the sign.” “God has spoken in his holy place: I will exult, and divide Shechem.” Shechem, the choice place given to Joseph by Jacob, is a type of the covenant which seemed to have been given to Israel alone. The choice covenant, then, and inheritance of the … people I will bring to division, and make it common to the rest. When the covenant has been divided among all, and its benefit has become common to all who receive benefits from God, then also “the valley of tents will be measured out”: that is, the whole world will be divided, as by lots, into the communities of each place. Then too he “who makes peace, whether things on earth or things in heaven,” will join what was separated, and, “having broken down the dividing wall of the fence, he will make both one.” [4] “Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine.” Gilead is a descendant of Manasseh: to show the succession of the patriarchs coming down from God, from whom is Christ according to the flesh. “And Ephraim … the help of my head; Judah is my king.” He joins together the parts that had broken off through the … of the calling into Christ,

… “of washing,” says another of the translators. [The Moabite] man, who was under threat of not entering the Church of the Lord. For “a Moabite and an Ammonite shall not enter until the third and until the tenth generation, and forever.” Yet since baptism has forgiveness of sins and becomes the source of freedom from care for those deep in debt, showing the redemption through baptism and the bringing near to God, … All the foreigners, then, have been subjected, bowing beneath the yoke of Christ; that is why “over Idumea he will cast his shoe.” And the shoe of the Godhead is the God-bearing flesh, through which he came among men. In this hope, calling blessed the time of the Lord's coming, the prophet says: “Who will lead me into the fortified city?” Perhaps he means the Church: a city, because it is a community lawfully inhabited; fortified, because of the enclosure of faith. That is why one of the translators most clearly … “Who then will grant me to see this great sight, God coming among men?” This is what was said by the Lord, that “many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it.” [5] “Give us help from affliction.” Let us not seek help from strength, not from the comfort of the flesh; let us not expect to obtain support from any of the things men reckon splendid. Victory does not come in a mass of wealth, nor in the weight of power, nor in the height of glory; but out of affliction beyond measure the Lord grants help to those who seek him. Such was Paul too, making his afflictions his boasts. That is why he could say, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” “Give us, then, Lord, help from affliction,” since “affliction produces endurance, and endurance proven character, and proven character hope, and hope does not put to shame.” Do you see where affliction leads you up? To the hope that does not put to shame. Are you sick? Be of good cheer, because “the Lord disciplines the one he loves.” Are you poor? Rejoice, because the good things of Lazarus will succeed you. Are you dishonored for the name of Christ? You are blessed, because your shame will be changed into the glory of an angel. Let us persuade ourselves, brothers, in the time of trial, not to run to human hopes nor hunt for help for ourselves from there, but to make our petitions with tears and groans, and diligent prayer, and earnest vigil. For he receives help from affliction who despises human help as vain and is supported by hope in the one who is able to save us, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power to the ages of ages. Amen.

“To the end, for Idithun, a psalm of David.”

We know two psalms that have the title “For Idithun”: the thirty-eighth and the one in hand. And we reckon that the composition of the work is David's, but that it was given to Idithun for his benefit, for the correction of the passions in his soul, and for singing before the people, through which God was glorified and those who heard the harmony had their characters set right. For Idithun too was a sacred singer, as the history of Chronicles testifies to us, saying, “And with them Heman and Idithun, trumpets and cymbals for sounding aloud, and instruments for the songs of God.” And a little later it says, “And David the king and the commanders of the army set apart for the service the sons of Asaph and Heman and Idithun, who prophesied with lyres and with harps and with drums.” Both psalms, then, make endurance their main subject, through which the angry part of the soul is calmed, and, all pride being banished, humility is achieved. For it is impossible for one who has not accepted being lower and last of all ever to master anger when he is reviled, or to overcome trials by long-suffering when he is afflicted. For the one who has achieved the height of humility, having condemned himself beforehand as more worthless than they say, will not be moved in his soul by the words of dishonor; but if he hears, “You are poor,” he knows that he is poor and in need of everything, and in want of the daily provision from the Lord; and if he hears that he is low-born and of obscure origin, … to have been born. That is why there he says, “I said, I will guard my ways,” and he tells of the sinner's attack upon him and of his own long-suffering: “When the sinner stood against me,” he says, “I was dumb and humbled, and kept silent from good things”; then, going on, he says, “But all things are vanity, every man living”; then, “He stores up treasure, and does not know for whom he will gather it.” But in the present psalm he begins by raising a question, as though speaking with his own soul, as following from what was said before. For so that the soul, subjected to the mind of the flesh, may not be provoked to anger and grief, “Why,” he says, “do I make my soul a slave of evil passions, when it has been entrusted by God who created it with the rule of the body and of its passions?” It must, then, rule the passions and serve God. For it is impossible for it to be ruled both by sin and by God; but it must master wickedness and be subject to the Master of all. That is why the prophet, addressing the one who brings on the trials, who stirs up against him the great crowd of evils and is eager to enslave the mind of the spirit and throw it beneath the flesh, as though convicting him that his design against him is vain, says this: “Why do you force me to serve what is not lawful? I have a Master; I know the true King.”

“Shall not my soul be subject to God? For from him is my salvation.” He gave the reason … from God. For it belongs to a Maker to care for the safety of his own works. Or, “From him is the salvation,” since, foreseeing prophetically the grace of the Lord's incarnation that was to come, he says this: that we must serve God and love him who laid down such a great benefit for the human race that he did not even spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. For Scripture is accustomed to call the Christ of God “salvation,” as Simeon too says somewhere: “Now you let your servant go, Master, for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Let us, then, be subject to God, because from him is the salvation. And what the salvation is, he explains. Not some activity … release from sickness and bodily health. But what is the salvation? “For he is my God and my Savior, my helper; I shall not be shaken any more.” Our God is the Son who is from God. He himself is also the Savior of the human race, who supports our weakness, who sets right the shaking that comes about in our souls from trials. “I shall not be shaken any more”: humanly he admits the shaking. “Any more”: for it is impossible in a human soul for there not to be some shaking from trials. As long, then, as we sin in small things and few, we are shaken gently, like plants swayed by a mild breeze; but when the evils are more and greater, the shaking naturally increases in proportion to the growth of the sins. And some are shaken more; others are overturned even to the roots, when the spiritual hosts of wickedness more violently [tear away], as it were, the roots of the soul, by which it was made firm in faith … [I was shaken], then, as a man; but more I shall not be shaken, because of being supported by the right hand of the Savior. [3] “How long will you set upon a man? You all commit murder, as against a leaning wall and a tottering fence.” Again the word fights against the wicked servants of the devil, blaming the excess of the plotting brought on by them: that men are a weak creature, but you set upon them, not content with the first assault, but bringing on a second and a third, until you thus [make] the soul of the … like a wall that has leaned and a fence that has been overturned. A wall, as long as it keeps its upright stance, stays firm; but once it leans, it must altogether come apart and fall. For weights that are one piece are set upright after leaning, but things put together from many parts, once they have tipped to one side, no longer admit of being set right. The word shows, then, that the nature of man, being composite, was made to lean by sin, and must altogether be dissolved, so that, rebuilt again by the craftsman who built it at the beginning, [it may recover] its security and indestructibility and be proof against plotting for a second fall …: “You are God's field,” he says, “God's building.” This building the enemy shook; the cracks that came about in it the Maker repaired. Thus the fall is necessary because of sin, but the resurrection is great because of immortality. “But they planned to reject my honor; they ran …,” thirsting to see my destruction. Instead of “in thirst,” Aquila rendered “in deception,” Symmachus “in falsehood,” the fifth edition “in a lie,” and another edition again “in guile.” It is likely, then, that in our reading too “in a lie” originally stood, so that the saying would be: “They ran in a lie,” that is, my enemies and those who plot against me, not with truth, made their race and their effort against me, having given themselves wholly to falsehood; and that a scribal error came about in the times after these, so that “in thirst” was written instead of “in a lie.” … “in thirst; they blessed with their mouth, and in their heart … they cursed.” The honor of man is the blood of Christ: “For you were bought,” he says, “with a price; do not become slaves of men.” This honor, then, the soldiers of the evil one planned to make useless to us, leading back into slavery those who had once been set free. “They ran in thirst”: he means the intensity of the demons' plotting, that they run against us, thirsting for our destruction. “They blessed with their mouth, and cursed in their heart.” Many approve of evil deeds, calling the buffoon charming and the foul-mouthed urbane; they call the bitter and wrathful man not to be trifled with; they praise the stingy and unsharing man as thrifty, the prodigal as generous, the fornicator and the licentious man as a man of pleasure and easy-going; and in a word they give every vice a pet name from the virtue that lies next to it. Such men bless with their mouth but curse in their heart. For by the flattery of their words they bring every curse on these people's life, making them liable to eternal condemnation through the things they approve. Again he speaks with his soul, increasing its subjection toward God: “But be subject to God, my soul,” he says, “for from him is my endurance.” He shows the greatness of the trials, and says what the Apostle says, that he will not let us be tried beyond what we can bear. “For from him is my endurance.”

“In God is my salvation and my glory; the God of my help, and my hope is in God.” Blessed is the one who exults in none of the lofty things of life, but has God as his glory; who has Christ as his boast; who can say with the Apostle, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of Christ.” But now many glory in the body, those who have given their time to athletic contests, or in general those who are bursting with the vigor of their age; and many in courage in wars, who even count the killing of their own kind a virtue. For distinction in wars and the trophies raised by generals and cities are according to the abundance of killing. … others in the construction of aqueducts and the building of great gymnasia. So-and-so, spending his wealth on fighters with wild beasts and exulting in the empty shouts of the crowds, is puffed up by praise and is proud, having his glory in his shame; he even displays his own sin in writing on tablets in the conspicuous places of the city. Another glories in wealth; another because he is a clever and invincible orator, or skilled in the wisdom of the world. The glory of all these deserves pity; but blessed are those who make God their glory. For if so-and-so is proud because he is a king's servant, greatly honored by him, how much more ought you to be magnified in yourself, because you are a servant of the great King, called by him into the closest intimacy, having received the Spirit of promise, so that, sealed in him, you have been shown to be a son of God? Having learned in himself the benefit of genuine hope in God, he calls the people to the same zeal as his own, saying, “Hope in him, all the congregation of the peoples; pour out your hearts before him.” It is impossible for us to become capable of receiving divine grace unless we drive out the passions of wickedness that have occupied our souls beforehand. I have seen physicians who do not give saving medicines before they have emptied out by emetics the disease-producing matter which the licentious have stored up in themselves from bad living. And a vessel filled beforehand with some foul-smelling liquid, unless it is washed out, will not receive the inflowing of perfume. What was there before, then, must be poured out, so that what is brought in may find room. “But vain are the sons of men.” He saw that not all were following his exhortation or consenting to hope in God, but had their hope in the vain things of life. That is why he says, “But vain are the sons of men, false are the sons of men.” Why vain? Because false. Where is their falsehood most refuted? “In the scales,” he says, “to do wrong.” What scales does he mean? Do all men weigh things? Are all wool-sellers or butchers, or do they deal in gold or silver, or in general give their effort to those materials which merchants are accustomed to exchange by scales and weights? But the race of craftsmen is large, needing no scales at all for their work; many are sailors; many are busy about the law courts and government, among whom there is falsehood, but the fraud of the scales is not practiced. What, then, does he mean? That in each of us there is in secret a kind of scale … to judge the nature of things. “I have set before your face life and death, good and evil”: two natures opposed to each other. Weigh them against each other on your own judgment seat; weigh exactly which is more profitable for you: to choose the fleeting pleasure and through it receive eternal death, or, choosing the hardship in the practice of virtue, to use it as the provider of eternal delight. Men, then, are false, having the judgment seats of their souls corrupted; whom the prophet too calls wretched, saying, “Woe to those who call darkness light and light darkness, who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter.” “For me,” one says, “the present things; who knows the future?” You weigh badly, choosing evil things in exchange for good, preferring vain things to true, putting fleeting things before eternal, choosing the passing pleasure instead of unceasing and continual gladness. “False, then, are the sons of men in the scales to do wrong.” They wrong first themselves, then also their neighbors: they become bad counselors to themselves in their actions, and a depraved example to others. You cannot say on the day of judgment, “I did not know the good.” Your own scales are set before you, providing sufficient discernment of good and evil. For we test the weights of bodies by the turn of the balance, but we discern the choices of life by the self-determination of the soul; which he has called a scale because it can incline equally to either side. [5] “Do not hope in wrongdoing, and do not desire robbery.” Above he said, “Hope in him, all the congregation of the peoples.” He saw their slowness to obey, and declared, “But vain are the sons of men.” Again he forbids them to hope in wrongdoing. The one who judges that wealth collected by wrongdoing is a sufficient means for himself to be strong and to rule is like a sick man who places good health in the abundance of his disease. “Do not hope in wrongdoing.” It hinders you in every activity. “And do not desire robbery.” He exhorts us not to covet what belongs to others. “If wealth flows, do not set your heart on it.” If you see one of the very rich, do not call his life blessed. If money flows round you from many sides and from abundant springs, do not welcome its abundance. “If wealth flows.” Marvel at the expression. The nature of wealth is flowing: it runs past its owners more swiftly than a torrent; it is wont to pass from one to another … it comes near to those standing on the bank, and as soon as it has touched them, it at once draws back; so too the ease of wealth has a most swift and slippery presence, by nature passing from some to others. Today the field is this man's, tomorrow another's, and after a little someone else's. Look at the houses in the city: how many names they have already taken since they were built, named now after one owner, now after another. And gold, always flowing through the hands of its owner, passes to another, and from him to someone else. You could sooner hold water by grasping it in your hand than keep wealth secure for yourself. So it is well said, “If wealth flows, do not set your heart on it.” Do not [cling to it] in your soul, loving and admiring it too much as one of the goods, but choose its service as an instrument. Then he adds to all that has been said a declaration, no longer in his own words, but one which he heard from God himself. “For once,” he says, “God has spoken; these two things I have heard.” And let no one be troubled as at something strange in what is said, how God spoke once and the prophet heard two things. For it is possible for someone to speak once, and in that once for many things to be spoken. For a man who meets someone once has talked about many things; and the one who heard his words can say, “He spoke to me once, but he talked about many things.” This is what is said here: “God's appearing to me happened once, but there are two things that he spoke.” He did not say, “God spoke one thing, but I heard these two things”; for so the word would have seemed to contain a contradiction with itself. What, then, were the two things he heard? That “power belongs to God, and mercy is yours, O Lord.” That God, he says, is mighty in judgment, and the same is merciful. So, do not hope in wrongdoing, do not set your heart on wealth, do not choose vanity, do not carry about a corrupted judgment seat of the soul. Knowing that our Master is mighty, fear his strength, and do not despair of his love for mankind. For not doing wrong, fear is good; but for one who has once slipped into sin, so that he may not throw himself away through despair, the hope of mercy is good. “For power belongs to God, and from him is mercy.” “For you will render to each according to his works.” “For with the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you.” Have you afflicted your brother? Expect the same. Have you robbed the goods of those lower than you, beaten the poor, …, moved your fathers' boundaries, encroached on orphans' properties, crushed widows, preferred the present pleasure to the good things in the promises? Expect … the measure of these in return. “For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” And yet, if you have done anything good, expect for that too manifold repayments: “For you will render to each according to his works.” Remembering this declaration throughout your whole life, you will be able to escape most sins, in Christ Jesus [our Lord, to whom be glory and power to the ages] of ages. Amen.

Long ago you took possession of this sacred shrine of the martyrs, and from midnight you have been propitiating the God of the martyrs with hymns, and you have held out until this midday, awaiting our arrival. For you, who put the honor of the martyrs and the worship of God before sleep and rest, the reward is ready. But if we too must make a defense for ourselves, for our delay and our long absence from you, we will tell the reason: that we were ministering to another church of God, equal in honor to this one, separated from you by no small distance, and spent this time of the day there. Since, then, the Lord has granted us both to complete the liturgy for them and not to miss your love, give thanks with us to the benefactor, who guides by his invisible power this visible weakness of our body. So that we may not grieve you by keeping you longer, we will speak briefly on the psalm we found being sung to you, and, having fed your souls with the word of encouragement according to the power we have, we will let each of you go to the care of the body. What, then, was being sung? “I have loved,” he says, “because the Lord will hear the voice of my supplication.” It is not for everyone to say “I have loved,” but for one who is already being made perfect, who has gone beyond the fear of slavery and has come to be in the spirit of adoption. Now “whom” is not added to “I have loved”; but it is understood by us: God, the God of all. For what is properly lovable is God, since they define the lovable as that which all things desire. And God is good, the first and most perfect of goods. I have loved God himself, then, the ultimate of all things to be desired, and I have accepted with joy the sufferings for his sake. What these are, he goes through a little later: the pangs of death, the dangers of Hades, affliction, pain, all of which seemed lovable to him because of his love for God and the hope laid up for those who accept sufferings for the sake of piety. For I did not endure the contests against my will, he says, or by force and under compulsion, but I accepted the toils with a kind of affection and disposition, so that I can say, “For your sake we are put to death all the day long.” And this seems to be equivalent to the words of the Apostle, and to be said from the same disposition as his: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” I have loved all these, then, knowing that it is with the Master of all as spectator and judge of the games that I bear the dangers for the sake of piety. “Because the Lord will hear the voice of my supplication.” For so each of us too can carry through what is toilsome in the commandments, when he displays his way of life as if God, the God of all, were watching.

“Because he inclined his ear to me.” “He inclined,” he said, not so that you should take a bodily idea about God, as having ears and bending them to a quiet voice, as we do with those … [inclining our] hearing, so as to catch what is spoken from close by; but he said “He inclined” to show his own weakness: that he came down to me lying on the ground, out of love for mankind; as, when a sick man from great weakness cannot even speak clearly, … hearing, he may learn from close by what the sufferer needs. “He inclined his ear to me,” then. For divine hearing does not need a voice to perceive; it knows how to recognize what is sought even in the movement of the heart. Or do you not hear that Moses, saying nothing, but pleading with the Lord by his unspoken groanings, was heard by the Lord, who said, “Why do you cry to me?” God knows how to hear even the blood of a righteous man, which has no tongue and no voice passing through the air. The presence of righteous works is a loud voice before God. “And in my days I will call upon him.” We, when we have prayed on one day, or for one hour have been a little downcast over our sins, … as though we had already done something to match our wickedness. But the saint says that he shows his confession measured out over the whole time of his life. “For in my days,” … not because, prospering in this life and with all his affairs going smoothly, he called upon God; he tells the greatness of the troubles in which he did not forget the name of God. “For the pangs of death surrounded me,” he says, “the dangers of Hades found me.” Properly, pangs are said of the pains in childbirth, when the belly, swelling to its bulk, pushes the infant outward; then the parts of generation are pressed, and the sinews …, cause the sharpest pains and bitter anguish to those giving birth. And he has transferred the pangs to death as well, those that beset a living creature in the separation of soul and body. He says, then, that he suffered nothing moderate, but experienced even the very pangs of death and came to the danger of going down to Hades. Did he suffer only these things in which he takes pride? Or were these often involuntary? But nothing done under compulsion is praiseworthy. But see the greatness of the athlete. For since “the pangs of death surrounded me and the dangers of Hades found me,” I was so far from succumbing to these trials that I offered myself willingly to many more trials than these. Affliction and pain I sought out for myself as one acting willingly; I was not caught by them against my will. For in the earlier words it is “the dangers of Hades found me”; but here, “I found affliction and pain.” For since there I was found unyielding toward what the tempter brought on, I added affliction to affliction and pain to pain, to show the abundance of my love toward God; not rising up against the pains by my own power, but because I called on the name of the Lord. Such is also the Apostle's word: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” For he conquers who does not give in to what is brought on by necessity; but he is more than a conqueror who of his own choice draws pains on himself to show his endurance. Let the one who has fallen into some sin unto death say, “The pangs of death surrounded me.” “For everyone who does sin,” it says, “is born of the devil.” When then I was, he says, a worker of sin, and … of the dangers of Hades. How then did I heal myself? Because I found affliction and pain, the affliction that comes through repentance. For I devised for myself the hardship of repentance in proportion to the greatness of the sin, and so I dared to call on the name of the Lord. And what were the words I said? “O Lord, deliver my soul.” I am held in this captivity; you give the ransom for me, and deliver my soul. “The Lord is merciful and righteous.” Everywhere Scripture joins righteousness to the compassions of God, teaching us that neither is God's mercy without judgment, nor his judgment without mercy. But in having mercy he measures out his compassions with judgment to the worthy; and in judging he brings judgment with an eye to our weakness, repaying us with love for mankind rather than with an equal measure. “And our God has mercy.” Mercy is a feeling toward those brought low beyond what they deserve, arising in those who are sympathetically disposed. We pity the one who has fallen from great wealth into extreme poverty, the one cast down from the height of bodily health into extreme weakness, the one who took pride in the beauty and bloom of his body and has been ruined by the most shameful passions. Since, then, we too were once glorious in the life of paradise, but became inglorious and lowly through the fall, “our God has mercy,” seeing what we have become in place of what we were. That is why he called Adam back with the voice of mercy, saying, “Adam, where are you?” For he who knows all things was not seeking to be informed, but wished him to understand what he had become in place of what he was. “Where are you?” instead of, “Into what a fall have you come down from so great a height?” “[The Lord guards the little ones;] I was humbled, and he saved me.” Either according to the natural account: human nature would not have survived if the very young and still infants were not guarded by the Lord. For how could what is carried in the womb be nourished or move in such narrow places, which have no room to turn, living in dark and wet places, neither able to breathe nor to live the life of men, but carried in the fluids like fish, unless it were held together by God's guarding? And how, falling out into this unfamiliar place, and chilled by the air after the warmth of the womb, would it have lasted even a short time, if it were not preserved by God? So the Lord guards the little ones: “I was humbled, and he saved me.” Or you may also understand the word thus: since I turned and became like the infant, and received the kingdom of heaven as a child, and brought myself down through innocence to the humility of children, “the Lord, who guards the little ones,” … “since I was humbled, saved me.” “Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has done you good.” The good athlete addresses words of encouragement to himself, like Paul saying, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.” The prophet too says this to himself: since you have sufficiently completed the long course of this life, “return” now “to your rest, for the Lord has done you good.” For eternal rest awaits those who have lawfully contended through the life here, not as a debt owed for their works, … of God, given to those who have hoped in him. Then, before telling of the good things there, describing the escape from the troubles of the world, he gives thanks for them to the liberator of souls, who delivers him from the varied and inexorable slavery of the passions. And what are these? “That he has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from slipping.” By comparison with things here he describes the rest to come. Here, he says, “the pangs of death surrounded me”; there “he has delivered my soul from death.” Here the eyes shed the tear that comes from affliction; there no longer any tear darkens the pupils of those who rejoice in the contemplation of the beauty of God's glory. For “God has taken away every tear from every face.” Here the danger of slipping is great; that is why Paul too said, “Let the one who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” But there the steps are firm, the life unchangeable; no longer is there danger of being carried into sin. For there is neither rebellion of the flesh nor a woman's cooperation toward sin. For there is no male and female in the resurrection, but one life of a single kind, of those who are pleasing to their Master, who dwell in the land of the living. This world is itself mortal and a place of the dying. For since the constitution of visible things is composite, and every composite thing naturally dissolves, we who are in the world share the nature of the whole. That is why, even before the soul is separated from the body by death, human beings die many times. And do not let what is said seem strange to you, but consider the truth of the matter. In three weeks of years a human being naturally undergoes three alterations and changes of age and of life, and at each week there is its own boundary marking off what is past and providing a clear transformation. The age of the infant is bounded by the loss of the teeth in the first week. The term of the boy, now fit for learning, runs until adolescence. The adolescent, completed up to the twenty-first year, when he begins to shade his cheeks with down, disappears unnoticed, as the youth changes into the man. When, then, you see a man who has put away the growth of his age and is now settled in his reasoning, and bears no trace of youth, will you not reckon that the past has died in him? Again, the old man, adapted to another shape and disposition of soul, is clearly another person than his earlier selves. So the life of human beings is naturally completed through many deaths, not only in the change of age but also in the falls of souls through sin. But where there is no alteration of body or soul (for there is no turning aside of reasoning, no change of mind, no circumstance taking away the stability and calm of the reasonings), that is truly the land of the living, of those who are always like themselves. In it above all the prophet promises that he will be pleasing to the God of all, as one who is not going to be interrupted by anything outside in his aim of the true service equal in honor to that of the angels. “We make it our ambition,” it says, “whether at home in the body or away from the body, to be pleasing to him.” That land is of the living, in which there is no night, no sleep, the image of death; in which there is no eating, no drinking, the props of our weakness; no sickness, no pains, no medicine, no law courts, no trading, no crafts, no money, the beginning of evils, the occasion of wars, the root of enmity; but a land of the living, not of those who die through sin, but of those who live the true life in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and power to the ages of ages. Amen.