Fragments on the Psalms 97–102

[Psalm 97] “His right hand saved for him.” And what is wonderful in this? Since man had been utterly given up because of the excess of his wickedness, he necessarily needed the right hand and the arm of God, that is, his Only-begotten; for each of the terms designates him. Of him Isaiah too says, “As a shepherd he will shepherd his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs.” Not in vain did the Psalmist now call him “holy,” but because he wished to show him in his own hypostasis. For he himself … the sins of men …; he saved, then, the lost creature. For he “did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”

“He remembered his mercy to Jacob.” Having said Jacob, he was not content, but added “the house of Israel” as well, to show plainly that the one who did what is now prophesied was the one who gave the names Jacob and Israel; therefore he also wrestled with him, wishing to prefigure the mystery of the incarnation; for wrestling and grappling are proper to flesh. He remembered, then, the promises made to Jacob and Israel, and by grace fulfilled the mystery … to him. For he came to the Jews as a Jew; but when they shut their eyes (“for they shut their eyes,” says Isaiah, “so as not to see”), in their place “the ends of the earth” (that is, all the nations) saw “the salvation of God,” though they did not see before.

“Shout to God, all the earth.” And very fittingly, since the good things are common. For the mystery accomplished belongs no longer to one land, such as Judea, or to one nation, but to the whole of mankind; for this he wishes them to shout, as having won a common war. For by “earth” he named man in general. So he does not speak of the element earth, but of men, … to rejoice; then he added singing, so that we may have glorification of him as the beginning and end of the joy of God.

“Sing to the Lord with the lyre.” He calls the Old Testament a lyre; for in it the singing of psalms is prescribed. And the trumpets are the Gospels, in which we are fittingly commanded to shout before the King, that is, Christ, as having conquered our spiritual enemies through the gospel way of life. He mentioned many trumpets and one for this reason, since the Gospel too, being one in power, has become four because of those who set it out.

“Rivers will clap their hands.” You may say these are the gifts of the Spirit, which were said to clap their hands, as coming together into one, at the time of Christ’s coming. Of them he said, “He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” And you may also say that the visible rivers clapped their hands and danced when the Jordan received the Lord being baptized; for this was something common to the waters. … By the mountains we have said is meant the height of contemplation; these fittingly rejoice at the coming of Christ, since … For the righteous rejoice when the Judge comes, because of the rewards they expect …

[Psalm 98] “The Lord has reigned.” He means the peoples of the Jews. For Christ’s kingship moved these to anger and wrath, so that they said to Pilate, “Do not write that he is King of the Jews”; and again, “We have no king but Caesar.”

“Let all confess your name.” For what is the work of judgment but to set the innocent free and to show the guilty? Therefore “the honour of the king,” that is, his rule and authority, “loves judgment.” Hence the other translators rendered “honour” some as “strength,” others as “might.”

“You prepared uprightness.” How did he prepare it? By sending the law ahead, in which he set the commandments as uprightness. For it is possible to cut a straight path by walking according to them. For Jacob (he means the race of Israel) … the law given … showed the way of life, which both made known the condemnation to those who sin and showed righteousness to those who live well, according to which one must conduct one’s life.

“And worship at the footstool of his feet.” And why does he urge us to worship not rather at the throne of God but at the footstool? And at what footstool at all? The earth? For “heaven is my throne,” he says, “and the earth the footstool of my feet.” And yet we may not worship the elements. But he means the place which he set out more clearly in another psalm: “Let us worship at the place where his feet stood.” He means Golgotha. For that truly came to be under the feet of his flesh at the time of the cross.

“Lord our God, you heard them.” Whom? All those who have enlisted with him through faith and have gained God as their own through the adoption of baptism. … For that God is said in a special way to belong to those who have believed in him, Thomas will teach; for when he touched Christ and believed, he cried out, “My Lord and my God,” calling the God over all his own Lord and God.

“Exalt the Lord our God.” And what need has the one on high of being exalted? And how will he who is in heaven be exalted by men? But, he says, think lofty things about him. So the height of God the Word is the worship on his holy mountain. For as trophies in war are glory to a king, so to Christ is his victory through the sufferings, which … to the holy one who received the cross. He calls the mountain holy not from itself, but from the coming of the one who was crucified …

[Psalm 99] “Know that the Lord, he is God.” Learn whose sheep we are: the sheep of the Only-begotten, who says, “My sheep hear my voice.” We are his people too, who said to us through the tongue of prophecy, “And you will be my people, and I will be your God.” So “the Lord, he is God.” For the Son is called both, just as the Father; hear him who says …

“Confess to him.” For he is “good,” that is, compassionate, loving toward mankind. … In the present age he has given mercy, so that, even if we have strayed …, we may turn back to him through his love for mankind. … For the truth of God, beginning from the present generation, is made manifest to the generation to come, when he will render to each according to his works. For this is the invincible and unerring truth.

[Psalm 100] [“Of mercy and judgment I will sing to you.”] Necessarily, since he wishes to order our whole life through the present psalm, he makes mention of the judgment. For an eye that looks to it will not endure to stumble, but makes itself safe through fear of what is threatened at that time. And since he puts mercy before judgment: our Judge is merciful, not when he judges, but now, when he is not yet carrying out the judgment; so that mercy belongs to the present time, and judgment to the time to come. Singing these things, then, let us neither despair nor despise … sinning.

“I will sing and understand in a blameless way.” It is a blessed thing to look for the coming of God; and he will come to us when we keep his commandments. For Christ says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my commandments, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

“A crooked heart did not cleave to me.” For the straight cannot be joined to the twisted. And as a crooked rod cannot be glued to a straight one, so those with a crooked heart are not joined to one who lives in innocence.

“When the wicked turned away from me, I did not know him.” For the one who slanders another before us will not refrain from slandering us before others either. And such a man should fittingly be driven away as a common enemy, as imitating the dragon in paradise, who slandered God and deceived Eve.

“With a proud eye.” I did not make, he says, a compact of friendship with them, since the table is mostly taken as a pledge of love. And he necessarily joined the one insatiable in heart, that is, the greedy, with the proud. For no one will be able to have him as a friend, since the boaster and the greedy man are lovers of self.

“My eyes are on the faithful of the land.” Not only, he says, do I turn away from the wicked, but I am so pleased with the good as to fix my eyes on them, which is the mark of lovers toward those they love.

“In the mornings I killed all.” The city of God is that in which the saints are and dwell; and it is to their advantage that sinners be removed from their midst, either brought to nothing or put to death, so that they may in no way be harmed by fellowship with them.

[Psalm 101] “Incline your ear to me.” And what is the urgency, and what is the cause of the haste? What follows shows.

“And my bones were parched like a dry stick.” What a “dry stick” is, Symmachus made plain; for he rendered it “a burnt remnant.” As, then, what has been burnt crumbles easily unless it meets with someone who quickly quenches it, so a soul burnt together with the passions of this life is easily destroyed unless it gains God, who in his love for mankind quenches the burning; and for this reason he prayed to be heard quickly. And the bread of our soul is the word of God. For as bread from the earth nourishes the body, so the word from heaven nourishes the substance of the soul. And Christ, handing on the prayer, said to the apostles, “Give us today our daily bread.” Whoever forgets to eat this, that is, to work for it (for the eating of the spiritual bread consists in working; the Lord shows this when he says to the apostles, “Work not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life”), his heart is struck like grass and withers. And as grass is struck and withers when rain is scarce upon it, so the heart, when it falls sick with want of the divine word, is struck and withers, unable to put forth the flower of virtue.

“From the voice of my groaning [my bone] clung [to my flesh].” That is, all the fat and well-being of the body melted away. For true groaning, which also has a voice that is heard, melts the body and works the putting to death of the flesh; since as much as the outer man is destroyed, so much the inner man is renewed.

“I became like a pelican of the desert.” He has shown us a wonderful fruit of wakefulness; for it makes us “like a sparrow alone on a roof.” This seems contemptible to some, yet it has a chosen and blessed way of life. For the one who lives alone like a sparrow takes no thought for food or clothing, and does not fear plotting; for he dwells on a roof and is higher than those who plot against him. And you will surely understand the roof meant here to be that of which the Lord spoke when describing the end; for he says, “Let him who is on the roof not come down to take his garment.”

“All the day they reproached me.” That is, those who seemed to be friends did worse than enemies; for they turned their praises into oaths against me: … setting them as a plot against me, and so turning away from my humiliation as to swear that they would not become like me, nor that such things might befall them as befell me.

“And I withered like grass.” Let us not, then, … in the affairs of this life; for on this account the Prophet called us a shadow and grass, so that we may trust in nothing of the present. … He transferred the saying to the Lord, since he shared in mortal flesh, which perishes like grass; but nevertheless, even when incarnate, he remained incorruptible for ever, as God, and immortal.

“You will arise and have compassion on Zion.” Arise from where? Plainly from the dead. And how does he have compassion on Zion? By changing the threat against her. What was this? “Zion will be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem will be as a hut for keeping fruit.” And the curse was common, but the change was not common. And you see how Jerusalem has been laid waste even to this day, while Zion is in glory, since Christ had compassion on her “in due time,” that is, at the right moment. And what is the right moment? The ground of the mysteries performed in her.

“And the nations will fear your name.” The cause of this is the preaching that went out from Zion into the whole world. And he rightly said “they will fear”; for at that time the nations did not have the fear of him, but they did from the time he commanded the apostles, “Make disciples of all the nations”; and also “the kings of the earth,” not some but all. Therefore you will say that the righteous are also meant together with the kings; for these are kings appointed by themselves, or rather appointed by God, because they rule over the pleasures and keep the royal image.

“For the Lord will build Zion.” You see how the building of Zion is the cause of the subjection of the kings and of the knowledge of the nations; and he built her not with stones but with wonders, spiritual gifts and glorious mysteries.

“He looked upon the prayer of the lowly.” By the lowly he plainly means the humble-minded, of whom the Lord himself said, “On whom will I look, but on the one who is lowly and quiet and trembles at my words?” So he hints at the apostles.

“Let this be written for another generation.” Who is “this”? Zion, for another generation, that of the nations. For since the Jews were displeased with her and did not receive the mystery in her, she is fittingly recorded as the mother of the nations, to whom what follows is fitting.

“And the people being created will praise the Lord.” For the people from the nations was created, receiving another beginning of birth, the rebirth of the washing; for the divine Scripture is accustomed to call such a renewal a creation. Paul bears witness, saying of Christ, “that he might create the two in himself into one new man.”

“For he looked down from his holy height.” He plainly recalls the coming of the Saviour; for he is said to look down from on high at the time of the incarnation in this sense, that he remained above and appeared below. For this is proper to those who lean out from on high. And he looked down in order to visit the earth. When did he not visit it, you will say? But now the visitation was greater; for it took place for the sake of the dispensation … as what follows shows.

“To hear the groaning of the prisoners.” All were bound by sin, each one held fast by the cords of his own sins; their return Isaiah announced, saying, “… to those in bonds.” And the same were also “sons of those put to death,” who endured the heavy and grievous death of idolatry. These, then, were groaning, wishing to be set free from their bonds; therefore God heard them and, coming to the earth himself, visited them.

“To proclaim in Zion.” Not so that the praise of God, or the message, that is, the Gospel, should stop at those there, but so that, beginning from there, it should be spread over the whole earth. For “out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he will judge between many nations.”

“When the peoples are gathered together.” He sets this out not about one people but about many gathered together; and by the multitude he hints at the nations. … “the hour, that the Son of Man should be glorified,” hinting at the time of the cross, which was fittingly called “the way of his strength.” For the strength and unerring power of the cross is the resurrection from the dead, to which the mystery of the cross led the way.

[“Do not take me up in the half of my days.”] He calls the removal from this world a “taking up”; for it is the ascent of the soul. He prays, then, not to be removed while imperfect in virtue, … thinking the whole life perfect, and the half imperfect and unfinished. … He turned the saying again to the Lord; for “your years” are those he spent in the flesh, “in the generation of generations,” as one who has a finished and complete way of life. Hence Paul too, wishing to present people in perfection, said, “until we all attain to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

“They will perish, but you remain.” He rightly assigned the person to the creation of God, so that it should not perish entirely, since it is God’s work; but it grows old as having been created at all, and is changed as having been created by God. And how do they grow old like a garment and like a cloak? That is, through constant use.

[Psalm 102] “Of David.” He entitled the present prophecy neither psalm, nor song, nor anything of the kind, since he thought it enough that the opening makes mention of blessing; for the same reason he did not entitle the thirty-third psalm either song or praise, since it too begins with blessing.

“Who is gracious to all [your] lawlessnesses.” He frees from both the present corruption and that to come; for now the corruption of pleasures lies upon us, and later that of punishments is laid up, from both of which he will deliver those who come to him.

“Who crowns you with mercy.” For if you are compassionate toward your neighbour, he will grant you the kingdom of heaven as a crown, saying, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink,” and what follows. And he says this of those who show mercy: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

“Who fills [your desire] with good things.” And what is our desire? To be called gods; for it was in desiring this that Adam tasted the forbidden food. This desire of ours, then, the Lord filled with good things, making us conformed to himself by the gift of baptism, so that for this reason we are even called gods by grace.

“[Your youth] will be renewed like the eagle’s.” For this creature, having grown old over a long time, returns to its prime; and it is said to be strong even after old age. But our youth comes to renewal when we become like a high-flying eagle, no longer minding the things of the earth but the things above, as Paul too counselled us. And of what eagle, if not altogether of Christ, of whom Moses hinted when he sang, “As an eagle shelters its nest and yearns over its young”? Who this is he added: “The Lord alone led them, and there was no foreign god with them.”

“He made known his ways to Moses.” Long ago, he says, he “does judgment for those who are wronged.” The law shows these things, in which he made known his ways, that is, the commandments, to Moses, and through him “his will to the sons of Israel.” For the will of God is not to commit adultery, not to murder, not to steal, not to bear false witness; since through these we are saved.

“Compassionate and merciful is the Lord.” So [he will not use anger] “to the end,” nor does he grant mercy forever to the unworthy; for how else is God judge, and righteous, and strong, and long-suffering? How will he render to each according to his works? He mixes, then, anger with mercy: … when it is a time of mercy, putting it forward; and when it is a time of anger, bringing it on “in the day of wrath and righteous judgment, in which,” says Paul, “he will render to each according to his works.” Therefore, he says, “he will not be angry for ever”: not in the present age; for he has kept the judgment and the anger for the age to come.

“As a father has compassion on sons.” For men who are in sins are in darkness and bonds; but freed from their offences, they are plainly transferred into light; so he fittingly called the release from sins a passing “from the west to the east,” at the same time teaching us what lies between sin and …

“For he knows our frame.” Fittingly … to us, first as the one who formed us, knowing the … of his own creature; and then as having become incarnate and become man like us.

“Man is like grass.” By what he said he showed at once our frailty and our transience.

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting.” The law of God is rightly called a “covenant,” so that we who keep it may hope for an inheritance from it.

“The Lord has prepared [his throne] in heaven.” For he reigns over all, whether unwilling or willing. Blessed is the slavery of the one who is subject willingly; for such a one receives as the wage of his willing service to reign with the Master.

“Bless the Lord, all his works,” plainly by their natural movements. And if all the works bless God, how much more we, who have enjoyed more and greater gifts from him, and have received from him speech as the instrument of blessing?

“In every place of his dominion.” Whether you are in the marketplace, or in the bath, or in prison, or in a palace, remembering that you tread a place that belongs to God’s dominion, do not cease blessing the Creator, so that every place may become for you a church of God, an assembly of angels, and a neighbour of heaven.