Tractates on the Psalms 59.1–60.7

Many things are set in the psalm before the events, which must be placed before the deeds to signify some understanding: since the heading includes "for the end," "for those who will be changed," "inscription of a title," and "for the teaching of David." After these the time of the events is added: "When he burned Mesopotamia and Syria Sobal, and Joab returned and struck the valley of Salt, twelve thousand." In this the whole psalm disagrees with the history. For when he struck Sobal together with Mesopotamia and Syria, which were stirred up, kindled, and taken by him for war, immense joy of thanksgiving followed the victory of this very great war. But the whole psalm is sad and sorrowful, since there is grief over a people rejected and pulled down, complaint over the earth shaken and troubled, and prayer for the healing of its brokenness. Further, what is mentioned of the valley of Salt is neither in the history nor in the understanding of some translators. For according to Aquila, who was the translator of the law for the Jews after the Lord's passion, it is written thus: "when he struck the valleys." But he, writing according to the letter and remaining outside spiritual understanding, gave the place of the battle. That translation of the seventy elders, however, both lawful and spiritual, undertaken before the Lord's passion and deeds, here too, as in all the psalms, makes the cause and sense plain through the forms of names and natures, showing in the record of events not the subject of the psalm but its time: so that it is known to have been written not because of what is contained in the events, but at the time when they took place.

But before we speak of the time of the prophecy, since it greatly helps the understanding of the psalm to know when it was written, let us treat the heading, which is to be understood as referring to the end and "to those who will be changed": those, namely, who, ceasing from ungodliness and vices, will be transferred to religion and innocence and will be changed from the sins of the synagogue to the grace of the church; as we showed in the psalm that was first written "for those who will be changed," when it is said: "Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, for the king has desired your beauty"; and again in the same: "In place of your fathers sons have been born to you; you will make them princes over all the earth." So, a change of sons having been made in place of fathers, she forgets her father's house, the queen about to please God the king more, by whose death she is renewed to life. And therefore the inscription of a title is added "for those who will be changed," the inscription of the title bearing witness to the glory of the death of him who died for all, and bearing witness "for the teaching of David," so that we may all know him as David, who is both the dayspring and the just one and the eternal king; who destroyed the powers hostile and dangerous to us together with their leader, all those being extinguished who used to kindle the wars of vices against us: not in the valley of lamentation, nor in the valley of tabernacles, but in the valley of salt; for the Greek expresses this rather than "salt pits," since this valley of the world now displays from itself not tearful dwellings nor lamentable tabernacles but rather salt, namely those and their like to whom it was said, "You are the salt of the earth," in whom above all that ancient enemy who burned us has been extinguished. For those, then, who are to be changed at the end and to be taught about David under the testimony and inscription of the title, this psalm is written, and at no other time than when the prophet Nathan announced a king of the eternal throne from the seed of David. For at that time the things recorded in the events were accomplished, at which the prophecy of the eternal king was shown. The psalm, then, is to be understood as for those who will be changed, who are to be taught about David the eternal king, and who in place of lost fathers will by the change already be sons. For it began thus:

"God, you have rejected us and destroyed us; you have been angry and have had mercy on us. You have shaken the earth and troubled it; heal its breaches, for it has been moved. You have shown your people hard things; you have given us to drink the wine of compunction. You have given those who fear you a sign, that they may flee from the face of the bow." According to the common sense of the world, anger and mercy do not agree, nor will both these feelings agree in the same person toward the same people, so that the will to mercy is mixed with the will to vengeance. This befits only fathers who are piously angry, that their anger at the sins of their sons is merciful; as also in that saying of blessed Paul, when he hands someone over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord, showing that the severity of present punishment serves the salvation of the spirit. That eternal and heavenly Father of all, then, who also said, "I will kill and I will heal," so rejects and destroys his own as to have mercy while angry. For he destroyed the temple of Jerusalem but gave the saints the heavenly city; he rejected them from the works of the law but bestowed the justification of faith, justifying the ungodly by faith; he dissolved the earthly kingdom but established kings of the heavens. So mercy followed anger, since an immense recompense of eternal goods makes up for the loss of present earthly things.

And these things are adapted no more to Israel than to the whole human race; for from one the sentence of death and the toil of life went out to all, when it was said, "Cursed is the earth in your works"; but now through one the gift of life and the grace of justification has abounded to all, so that those whose earth was cursed now have bodies conformed to God; and the earth that was shaken by fear, troubled by ignorance, broken by toil, and pricked by the very drinking of gladdening wine, now, by the secure power of the sign it has received, flees the power of the coming anger. For in the bow, as we have often discussed, the terror of the anger prepared for punishment of the ungodly is shown, according to the saying: "Will he be angry every day? He has bent his bow and made it ready, and on it he has prepared the instruments of death; he has made his arrows for those who will burn." To those who fear him, then, he has given a sign: of the seal on foreheads, or of faith in hearts, or of testimony in works, or of glory in confessions, or of victory in martyrs; so that one may flee from the face of the bow and of anger, as it was said, "Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the coming anger?" This, then, is the voice of the human race giving thanks after the reign of death, after the terrors of the devil, after the burdens of toil and sins, after the pain of unhappy gladness; for the joys of vices, when they are understood, prick the heart. For according to the apostle, in wine is debauchery. And as there is a wine that gladdens the heart of man, so there is also a wine that pricks the heart of man. For there is a cup of anger, just as there is a cup of life.

After these things, then, and after this wine of compunction, the sign of fleeing the bow and anger having been granted, the whole body of the faithful exults in eternal hopes. For this the diapsalma that soon intervenes declares: "That your beloved may be freed, save with your right hand and hear me." The right hand of the Lord has done mightily, and the power of God, raised at God's right hand, has sat down with him in the flesh of our lowliness. When the sign of fleeing from the face of the bow has been given, then, the beloved are freed and saved through God's right hand. And from what face of the bow they are freed and saved, the apostle taught, saying: "Who has freed us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love." The beloved, then, are to be freed and saved through the right hand of God.

But for the firmness of faith the prophecy of this salvation must be known. For there follows: "God has spoken in his holy one: I will rejoice and divide Sicima and measure out the valley of tabernacles. Galaad is mine and Manasses is mine, and Ephraim is the strength of my head, Judah my king, Moab the pot of my hope. Into Idumea I will stretch out my shoe; the foreigners are subject to me." God has spoken in the holy one, namely in him to whom even demons cry out, "We know that you are the holy one of God," and of whom the angel announces, "And the holy one that will be born of you will be called the Son of God." In this holy one, then, he spoke, when he says: "The Father who speaks in me does his works himself." God, then, having spoken in the holy one, exults at the beginning of the discourse. For he will exult like a giant to run his way; he will exult in dividing Sicima. Sicima is Samaria, which is also Sichem, which Jacob assigned to his son Joseph under the blessing of the Spirit. Having remained in ungodliness through all the earlier times of the law, it received the Lord's gospel in part; for even today part of it is held by most irreligious pursuits from its old devotion: for there heifers were worshipped, there a mountain was chosen and the sanctuary abandoned, there a kingdom was raised against Judah. But the Lord, coming there first, brought faith even when the Samaritan woman believed and asked for a drink of living water; and soon, when the apostles preached, they became sharers in the Holy Spirit. Sicima was divided, then, when the faithful are separated from the unfaithful. And this division belongs to the future judgment, as it is written: "The lord of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect and at an hour he does not know, and will divide him and set his portion with the hypocrites." Samaria was divided, then, either by judgment or by faith, according to the saying: "I came not to send peace on the earth, but division."

And God, speaking in the holy one, not only divided Sicima but also measured out the valley of tabernacles, that sunken and lowly seat of human dwelling, which in another place, because of the sicknesses of life and the laments of calamities, he calls the valley of lamentation, saying: "They placed in the valley of weeping." He measured it out, then, because the fullness of the Gentiles is awaited. And where there will be a measure of believers, there is the testing of measurement, one part to be gathered within the church, another part remaining in the same valley.

Whoever measures things must measure what is his own. For Galaad is his and Manasses is his. That mountain is near Phoenicia and borders Arabia and Mesopotamia, assigned in part as Manasseh's possession; and therefore Manasses too is his, showing under the name of Manasses the fullness of the earth, as under Galaad the whole world, to be his. But in claiming these nothing is shown except the right of ownership.

Ephraim is the taking up of his head and Judah is his king. The holy one says these things, God speaking in him, who also through Jacob blessed Ephraim with a crossing of his sanctifying hands, and showed him Judah as king, who was to be the expectation of the nations. The taking up, then, is of Ephraim, not also of Manasseh, though both are sons of Joseph. But since the head also contains the meaning of the body, according to that saying, "He will drink from the brook on the way; therefore he will lift up his head," and every holy one is the head of the body of Christ, therefore Ephraim is the taking up of his head, because, against the order of birth, to show beforehand the sanctification of the church, the younger was preferred to the elder in Ephraim set first and Manasseh set after. So Ephraim is the taking up of his head, that is, of the people whom he prefigured in Ephraim; or rather, the church is taken up into the body.

"Judah also is my king," that is, arranged and chosen by him. Judah is certainly not king to David himself, since he himself is the first king from Judah; nor is he king to God speaking in his holy one; but this holy one in whom God speaks is to be understood as saying these things, he who also filled Jacob with the Spirit for the prophecy of this eternal king, when he said: "A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until the seed comes for whom it is laid up, and he is the expectation of the nations."

And since this holy one of God was to take up flesh not only from this lineage of saints but also from an origin of sinners, because God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, therefore Moab too is the pot of his hope. This lineage of Moab, according to the sentence in Genesis, received the disgrace of divine curse. But after ten generations, through the steps of succession, it becomes worthy of the holy lineage; and this holy one, taking his origin from Judah and from Moab, the rawness of the flesh boiled away as in a pot, is signified as the appearance of eternal food, since his flesh is truly the food of life. There is also a pot, according to Jeremiah, burning and taking away sins; just as the Lord himself came to send fire on the earth, and many, according to the apostle, will be saved as through fire, when, their vices refined and burned off, they are judged approved like silver tried by fire. Hence Moab is the pot of his hope, to whom even from Moab, though raw and faulty, that heavenly sanctification of the flesh for the food of life is now in hope.

Indeed, he says he will stretch out his shoe even into Idumea, that is, even to the failing of Esau; because Idumea, which is the seat of Esau, would direct the steps of the apostolic preaching. For beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news; and the feet are in the shoe, and in the feet the step is shown. And he will stretch the course of preaching not only into Idumea, but also the foreigners are subject, according to the saying: "Hear, God, the prayer; to you all flesh will come"; because it is worthy of God that all nations be subject to him and that all flesh be taught to confess this eternal mercy.

But having learned of those who will be changed, according to the inscription of the title, and having received the teaching of him who is the eternal David, the prophet hastens to enter that eternal Jerusalem of the firstborn in the heavens and the city of the saints who stand around God, awaiting a leader to lead him there. For there follows: "Who will lead me into the city of encirclement? Who will lead me even to Idumea? Will it not be you, God, who rejected us, and will you not go out, God, with our forces?" Esau is failing, and Edom according to Genesis is "one who fails"; and according to the apostle what remains of Israel is to be saved. The prophet, then, wishing to be led into the city of encirclement, knows that he will first come even to Idumea, that is, to that failing of the earlier people by which the elder will serve the younger. And the last preaching will turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons, when the one coming from Sion takes away sins and ungodliness from Jacob. But the same one will lead who before destroyed and rejected them for ungodliness, who, when Jerusalem was taken and the kingdom abandoned, deserted them as unworthy and spurned, though he used to cherish them before with spiritual help and protect them with heavenly hosts against the wars of enemies. But now, since the guard of the Holy Spirit has deserted them, there is no help in their forces, that is, in the hosts of divine defence. And therefore, because he destroyed them, he will not go out with their forces.

But the prophet did not keep silent about the mercy of the hope laid up, since he will save what remains of Israel, saying: "Give us help from tribulation, for vain is the salvation of man. In God we shall do mightily, and he will bring to nothing those who afflict us." He knows that the salvation hoped for from men is vain, because there is no use of this life without God's mercy, according to the saying, "Your mercy is better than life"; because unless life is undertaken for the advance of eternity, it will be in us rather the origin of miseries than of life. So he hopes for help from God in tribulations, because the salvation of men is vain. He asks, then, for help from tribulation, about to do mightily in God when help is granted: when, all freed from the law of sin, we remain rather in the justification of God; when we carry on the fight not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness and the powers of the world, God himself killing Satan with the breath of his mouth; when he who afflicted us before, sin, no longer reigns in our immortal body; when death is swallowed up by life in the contest of victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

The psalm is simple, containing the prophecy of eternal thanksgiving. For the heading includes neither events nor names with any significance: it is only "a hymn for the end," so that what was sung by the prophet is known to be explained at the end either of the psalm or of the times. It is the prayer of a righteous man who hopes for eternal things and gives thanks that he has been raised together with Christ in the heavenly places. For it began thus:

"Hear, God, my prayer; attend to my supplication. From the ends of the earth I have cried to you, while my heart was in anguish." This holy one asks that his prayer be heard, and he has the confidence to wish that attention be paid to his prayer, whether it is innocent, chaste, and faithful, and comes from the inmost fear of conscience and heart; because, according to the apostle, one must both believe with the heart and confess with the mouth for salvation. And the reason for praying that his prayer be attended to is that, while in anguish of heart, he has cried from the ends of the earth. He who cried from the ends of the earth with anguished heart was not living in the remotest solitudes or by the Ocean; but knowing that, living in the flesh, which is earth, he already dwells at the end of the flesh, since according to Paul, while dwelling in the body, he is away from the body, since, living, he no longer lives for himself, nor does he himself live, but Christ lives in him; groaning nevertheless in this dwelling of his and hastening to be clothed over; and therefore he cries with anguished heart from the ends of the earth, because he both has the necessity of living in the flesh and holds the hope of ceasing from the vices of the flesh, saying:

"On a rock you have lifted me up; you have led me; for you have become my hope, a tower of strength from the face of the enemy. I will dwell in your tabernacle for ever." Hence, then, the holy one cries already from the ends of the earth, because he has been lifted up on a rock. And the rock, according to the apostle, is Christ, whom God exalted and gave the name that is above every name, in whom also he chose us before the foundation of the world in the heavenly places. For through him we have been led into the hope of eternity, and in this hope we are not put to shame, because this same hope has become for us a tower of strength against the face of the enemy. For though there is strong and firm fortification in walls, all the firmness of the walls themselves is in the towers. And therefore God, lifting us up on the rock, has become a tower of strength, because through this hope we withstand the force of the devil and his snares, enclosed by the fortification of faith, most safe against him and his spiritual wickedness: since we shall dwell in the tabernacle of God for ever, remaining, that is, without any measure of age, for ages and times flowing on for eternity.

But since these things, though already laid up in hope for the saints, are still deferred under the dispensation of times, with a diapsalma interposed he shows by what fortification he is safe meanwhile, saying: "I shall be protected in the covering of your wings, for you, God, have heard my prayer." The divine word signifies the protection of God's mercy under the covering of his wings; since this was treated in earlier passages, further discussion would now be superfluous and idle. But the merit of protection has been granted from the faith of prayer, according to the saying: "Ask, and it will be given you."

Indeed, he showed for what hope he was to be shaded by the protection of God's wings, saying: "You have given an inheritance to those who fear your name. You will add days upon days of the king, his years to the day of generation and generation. He remains for ever in the sight of God." For this is the inheritance of the holy one: life, incorruption, the kingdom, and a dwelling co-eternal with God. This inheritance was written not for Israel alone but for those who fear God's name. For the days are of the eternal king: whether because the saints, who will not be slaves of sin, are kings, according to the apostle's saying, "Already you have reigned without us, and would that you did reign, that we also might reign with you"; or because the prophet himself is also a king; or because he who sits at the right hand in the eternal kingdom must reign until he puts his enemies under his feet; not that he himself is then not king, but when he has handed over the kingdom to God the Father, he will reign together with those who are kings. From which this reasoning seems to me to have been kept now: that his years were added over the days of days up to the days of generation and generation, but that he remains for ever in the sight of God; so that the time in which he must reign, until he puts his enemies under his feet, is included from generation to generation, because the generation from the dead, the generation of spiritual birth, will follow this generation; while the exception of his eternity is proclaimed, since he is for ever in the sight of God. And he is himself the firstborn from the dead. The Lord mentions this regeneration to the apostles thus: "Truly I say to you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his majesty, you too will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." He shows, then, the time of this generation, and up to it the years of the king are increased over the days of days. But he himself will remain eternal in the sight of God, having already taken up all whom he redeemed as kings of the heavens and co-heirs of eternity, handing them over as the kingdom to God the Father.

And since they have been made fellow sharers, fellow members of the body, and conformed to him, neither corruption nor death now ruling in them, since they are filled with all the fullness of God, the spirit of prophecy added: "Who of them will seek his mercy and truth?" These generations which he regenerated in himself from the dead to life, and which remained in the hope of the glory of God, will no longer be needy of his mercy and truth, when, handed over as the kingdom to God the Father, they are received as kings, his mercy and truth having been completed in all, through whom they give thanks that they have been redeemed to life, and all have access to the Father. After this, nothing of mercy and truth is to be sought from the Lord, since they are filled with the fullness of God. Similar to this prophetic saying is what the Lord spoke to the apostles: "Now you have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask me nothing"; because no one will take joy from them any more.

In this hope of eternity, then, the prophet strengthens himself, saying: "So I will sing psalms to your name, God, for age upon age, that I may render my vows day by day." He will sing psalms for age upon age and render vows day by day, enclosed by no end of times, about to render the joys of eternal vows in eternal hymns, when, every weakness of earthly bodies being released, he lives the heavenly life of angels, rendering vows day by day, according to the saying: "I will render my vows to the Lord in the courts of the Lord's house, in the sight of all his people, in your midst, Jerusalem," the heavenly mother, the free one, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.