Homilies on Psalms 36–38 (LXX numbering; Psalms 37–39 in English Bibles) 4.2–4.7

“When he falls,” it says, “he will not be laid prostrate.” Having said above that his steps are directed by the Lord, here he speaks of his fall. See, then, that it sometimes happens even to those who walk this road to fall, even to those directed by the Lord; but there is a great difference between the fall of the righteous and the fall of the unrighteous. The righteous man, it says, when he falls, is not laid prostrate; the unrighteous man, who has no hope placed in God, if he falls, is laid prostrate and does not rise: that is, if he sins, he does not repent and does not know how to amend his sin. But the righteous man, if he stumbles in anything, if in word (for it is the apostle who says, “For we all stumble in many things, and if anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man”), the righteous man too stumbles in word, perhaps sometimes in deed as well; but he knows how to amend, he knows how to correct. He knew it who had said, “I do not know the man,” and shortly after, when the Lord had looked at him, wept most bitterly. He knew it too who had seen a woman from the roof and desired her, and said: “I have sinned; against you alone have I sinned and done evil before you.” If, then, the righteous man is not laid prostrate when he falls, he will not remain in sin, but will quickly leap up like a fawn from the nets and like a bird from the snare. But the unrighteous man not only remains but is laid prostrate in his sins. And what does the righteous man do? “The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps will not be tripped.” There it said that a man’s steps are directed by the Lord; here, that the steps of the righteous man will not be tripped, because the Lord, it says, strengthens his hands. In another psalm, the seventy-second, it says: “But my feet were almost moved.” This seems to be understood in a similar way. For as we advance toward the virtues we strive upward as on an ascent; and if anyone slips and falls in this ascent, he loses the progress of his climb. His steps, then, are poured out. This happens when someone turns back after making progress, as happened to Lot’s wife. She was going well, leaving Sodom, escaping the punishments of the wicked, going and ascending to the mountain to which she was proceeding under the guidance of an angel. But since she acted against God’s command (she had been told not to look back nor to stop anywhere in all that region, but to ascend the mountain and be saved there), when she turned and looked back, there her steps were poured out; she lost all the ground she had covered before, and remained a perfect little statue of salt. This is what the Lord says in the Gospel: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Do you want me to show you others whose steps were poured out? Remember those who crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, and sinned and fell in the desert: there their steps were poured out. And now too, if it happens that someone has lived in continence for three or four years or more, or another has devoted himself to the study of the word and of doctrine and to the labors of wisdom, and then he is overcome, whether he passes over to the luxury of the flesh, or turns aside to other sins, or goes over to the life of the world, or turns to the business and gains of this corruptible life, do not hesitate to say of him that his steps were poured out. Let us, then, pray the Lord to direct our steps and guard our ways, so that our steps may not be tripped; so that on the way on which we walk, that is, in Christ our Lord, our footsteps may be made firm as on a stable rock, and we cannot be tripped in any way by him whose head we watch and who watches our heel. To him we must never present a bare sole; we must always have our feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace, so that if the devil, the tripper, comes and finds our feet protected and standing on the rock, he may not be able to trip us from there. For although we said a little earlier that even those who follow the way of virtue may have a fall or a slip, it must be observed that where it said, “When he falls, he will not be laid prostrate,” it had spoken above not so much of a righteous man as simply of a man. For it says: “By the Lord the steps of a man will be directed, and he will desire his way; when he falls, he will not be laid prostrate.” This shows that there are some falls which do not at once indicate that the one who fell has been conquered and laid prostrate. For as it often happens in a contest that of two men wrestling one falls first, and having fallen rises and wins, so too in our contest, which is against the prince of this world, if it happens that one of us is conquered and falls into some sin, it is possible that after the sin he comes to his senses, rises, shudders at the evil he has committed, and from then on not only restrains himself but also makes satisfaction to God, washing his bed every night and watering his couch with tears, accepting the word of prophetic authority which says: “Shall he who falls not rise again? Or shall he who has turned away not return? Woe to those who have turned away with a shameless turning, says the Lord.” This is the one who could fall, but could not be laid prostrate. But if you see someone who has fallen into some sin and after his fall despairs of conversion, saying, “How can I be saved now, I who have fallen? There is no hope now; my sins bind me fast; how can I dare to approach the Lord? How can I return to the Church?”, and if in this despair such a person withdraws even from God, he has not only fallen but in his fall has been laid prostrate and sunk. It is indeed desirable that the athlete of piety and virtue should always remain immovable, so as not to lose, so to speak, even a single bout, nor be once bent over or tripped. But if this cannot be, and it happens that he falls, let him not lie still after his fall, lest he be laid prostrate; let him rise and amend his fault, and purge the offense by the satisfaction of his penance, lest the Apostle say of him too: “And I may mourn many of those who sinned before and have not repented of the impurity and sexual immorality and indecency which they committed.” Why did the Apostle take examples from the wrestling contest, when he says, “No one is crowned unless he has competed lawfully,” if not because he wanted us to know the contests and bouts of the law? He says of himself: “So I fight, not as one beating the air,” and again: “I have fought the good fight.” Since, then, a contest and a bout are set before us, we ought also to know the law of the contest. There are athletes who win in all contests and are crowned in all: they win among the boys, they win among the youths, they win among the men. Others are beaten among the men but are crowned among the youths, and sometimes they also win among the men. Some, then, are always crowned, some a second or third time. Certainly it is miserable and the height of unhappiness not to earn even one crown in so many varied and different contests. So too the Christian, whose struggle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places: since he has so many and such adversaries, he ought to keep watch like a competitor, so as, if possible, to win every time he engages, and to take crowns at once, first among the paides, that is, among the boys. Do you want me to show you some who were crowned among the boys, that is, at once, while still at their first milk? Look at blessed Daniel, who as a boy merited the grace of prophecy, and, convicting the wicked elders, obtained as a boy the crown of righteousness and chastity. Do you want me to bring forward another crowned among the boys? See Jeremiah, who, when he excused himself from prophesying because of his youth, heard from the Lord: “Do not say, ‘I am a boy,’ for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I tell you, you shall speak.” But perhaps these already seem to you grown-up ages. I will give you an athlete who wrestled and won before he uttered a cry among men. Jacob, while still in his mother’s womb, wrestled with his brother Esau, tripped him, and won; and because of this he received from his father the blessings of the firstborn of the brother he had tripped and defeated. And do not those children too seem to you to have been crowned in a boys’ contest, who at Bethlehem, from two years old and under, received the palm of martyrdom for the name of the Lord? You see how many examples of crowns for boys we have. So much for what we repeated, the explanation of the verse which says: “When he falls, he will not be laid prostrate.” And he added the reason why he is not laid prostrate, saying: “Because the Lord strengthens his hand.” And see how consistently he speaks of each point: that he may not fall, the Lord, it says, directs his steps; but if he falls, he is not laid prostrate, for the Lord, it says, strengthens his hand. You see, then, that we always need the Lord’s help: first, that we may not fall; then, if we have fallen, that we may rise again.

“I have been young and have grown old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread. All day long he shows mercy and lends, and his seed will be in blessing.” Those who say that the words of divine Scripture are to be taken simply and according to the history will doubtless say that in this place David affirms that, after the age of his youth had passed and he had reached the time of his old age, in all that time he had never seen a righteous man so forsaken as to lack bread. And what do we do with the apostle Paul, who, enumerating and setting out the lives of the prophets, says that they wandered, destitute and afflicted, in goatskins, through the clefts of the rocks and through caves; and who, recalling his own life, often says, “in hunger and thirst”? And since we know from the histories of the Scriptures that the righteous often suffer these things, how are we now to think that David says this in the simple sense? But let us see whether there are certain ages of our inner man, in the likeness of the age of the outer and bodily man. Hence men already of mature age are sometimes told that they are children, others that they are old, others that they are young; and this surely cannot fittingly be said of bodily age. Indeed, though very many before Abraham lived six hundred or five hundred years, or at the least three hundred, it was said of none of them that he was old and full of days, except of Abraham alone. From this it must be understood that what is signified is not the age of the body but the maturity of the inner man. Hence we too ought to wish to be called presbyters and elders, not for the age of the body nor for the office of the presbyterate, but for the perfect understanding of the inner man and the gravity of steadfastness, as Abraham too was called an elder, nourished in a good old age. There is, then, an age of childhood according to the inner man, an age of youth, and an age of old age, according to what the Apostle said: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.” I understand that the Apostle says this not of bodily age, but because when he first believed he was a little one newly born, longing for the rational and guileless milk. Then he understood the Scriptures as a child, understood the Gospel as a child, thought as a child; but afterward, advancing in age to the likeness of Christ, of whom it is written that “he advanced in age and wisdom and grace with God and men,” he laid aside the things of a child, and therefore he said, “When I became a man, I laid aside the things of a child.” So David too must be understood to say, “I have been young and have grown old,” as if he said, “I was a child according to the inner man; now I have grown old.” For unless he had grown old he would not be a prophet, for it belongs to the old to prophesy. Even if you sometimes see a young man prophesying, do not hesitate to say of him that he has grown old according to the inner man, and that is why he is a prophet. Thus Jeremiah, when he had heard, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you, and I made you a prophet to the nations,” answered, “I am young and do not know how to speak.” But he who gave him the grace not to be a boy but an elder according to the inner man said to him: “Do not say, ‘I am young.’” Otherwise, unless these things are so understood, what reason would there be to say to a boy, whose age was youthful and unformed, “Do not say, ‘I am young,’” that is, “Do not say what is true”? He was young, then, according to the age of the body; but since the Lord had put his words into his mouth, by which to root out, overturn, and destroy, and again to build and to plant, and this power of the words, illuminating and sanctifying his soul, did not allow it to be childish, it is rightly said to him: “Do not say, ‘I am young.’” Similarly, then, what David says, “I have been young and have grown old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread,” must be understood according to what we said above about the youthful or aged age of the inner man. Otherwise, according to the outer man, the righteous man would have to be thought forsaken by God when bodily illness comes, or tribulation, or poverty, or any of the troubles of this life arises. These things especially befall the righteous, for whom it is usual also to suffer persecution for the name of God; but they are not forsaken when, enduring and bearing all these things, they say: “No one will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, neither tribulation, nor famine, nor distress, nor nakedness, nor sword, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature.” Indeed the prophets, who went about in the desert through the clefts of the rocks and through caves, destitute, afflicted, and tormented, though they wandered in deserts and were forsaken by men, were nevertheless surrounded by a multitude of angels. So Elisha, when he was forsaken by men, was surrounded by a heavenly army, according to what is written: “Open the eyes of this boy, that he may see that more are with us than with them. And he saw the whole mountain full of horsemen and chariots.” For the righteous man is never alone, nor is he supported by the company of only one or two or three angels: an army of the heavenly powers is at hand for him. And if more testimonies are needed, take another. As long as Jacob was in his parents’ house and with his brother Esau, he was not with an army of angels; but when he withdrew into the solitude of the desert and traveled alone to Mesopotamia, he slept in a certain place, and on rising he says that this place is called parembolē, that is, “camp,” because he saw there not one but many camps of God. We say these things of the righteous man’s never being said to be forsaken, at least in spiritual goods. For in bodily things see what the righteous man said, things in which he even glories: “To this very hour,” he says, “we hunger and thirst, we are naked and buffeted, and we labor, working with our hands.” And again: “We are cursed and we bless, we suffer persecution and endure, we are blasphemed and we entreat.” But since such a man was not forsaken in spirit, he said: “Therefore I am content in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ.” One who is forsaken, then, is forsaken in two ways. Bodily, in the way we said above that all the saints suffer and are not harmed. But those are forsaken in spirit of whom it is said: “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do what is not fitting, filled with all iniquity, wickedness, avarice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, whisperers, slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, proud, haughty,” and the other evils of this kind for which they deserved to be forsaken. Since these things are foreign to the righteous man, he therefore says: “I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread.” Again, if you hear “his seed,” will you go back to bodily seed? And how will you find it true that the seed of the righteous does not seek bread, when you see that Ishmael, born of Abraham’s seed, was surely seeking water and bread when his mother, fleeing from her mistress Sarah, carried him in the desert? And Esau, coming in from the road, was fainting with hunger, and was driven so far by the frenzy of hunger that he sold his birthright for a meal of lentils. We must therefore, according to what we said above, understand the seed of the righteous too as spiritual. And what else is it fitting to think the seed of the righteous man is, if not the disciple of the righteous man, who, having received from him the seed of the word of God, is begotten to eternal life? For example, if through your prayers I merited to be righteous and to receive from the Lord grace in the word of wisdom and knowledge, so that, according to the grace I had merited from the Lord, I could minister the word of God to you too and sow it in your souls; and if then the word of God, entering your souls and abiding in your hearts, formed your minds after the likeness of the word itself, so that you willed and did what the word of God wills, and through this Christ himself were formed in you: then you would truly become the seed of the righteous, which does not seek bread, since you would always have in you that bread which came down from heaven. But if you answer me and say, “How many heard Peter and Paul, who were certainly most righteous teachers, and yet sinned? How then will they be called the seed of the righteous?”, see whether it is not the case that, just as not all who are from Abraham are called the seed of Abraham (those to whom it is said, “If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham”), so too those who heard Peter and Paul and did not do what Peter or Paul had taught were not their seed, because they cast out and poured from their souls, as by a kind of miscarriage, the seeds of the word they had received from them. Indeed in this very psalm it says in another place: “The seed of the ungodly will be destroyed.” It is certain that the bodily seed of the ungodly will not be destroyed. For Job, the seed of Esau, was the seed of an ungodly man, and surely he is not destroyed; he was declared righteous by the Lord, is shown to be a prophet, and is deemed worthy to be praised by God above all the righteous. But this is what we said above: as the seed of the righteous man is his word and teaching, a word which so feeds and refreshes souls that they are said not to need bread, because Christ is their bread, so on the contrary the teaching and word of the ungodly is their seed, which is said to be destroyed because it is composed of falsehood; and when the light of truth comes, the darkness of the lie will certainly be put to flight.

“All day long he shows mercy and lends.” The righteous man shows mercy all day long, and all day long he is said to lend: he is free for nothing else but to lend from the money in which he abounds. Will it be thought here too that the righteous man sits all day at a banker’s table, with money before him, and lends it to those in need? Perhaps this will be thought to be what was said through Moses: “And you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.” But it is certain that this is said of the Lord’s money, which we are commanded to pay out to the bankers, brought forth from the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God, so that we may make ten talents from five, and four from two. The more abundant the money we have in our soul, the more we shall lend all day long. And now too, though I am not righteous, I am lending you the Lord’s money in what I say; but pray that I may become righteous and be able to lend you the money of righteousness, so as to teach righteousness not only by word but also by the example of righteousness. For as there is unrighteous money, gathered wickedly and against the law through slander, lies, and the various evils of avarice, and again there is money gathered justly and according to the law, that is, from one’s own just labors, so it is found to be also in word and teaching. There are words gathered neither well nor justly nor lawfully, such as the words of the heretics, and teaching gathered against the law of God, which we ought to flee as wicked and pestilent money, collected from evil. Pray, then, that this money of ours which we lend you may be found to come wholly from just labors, wholly from the Lord’s mint, so that you too may pay the full interest, and we may not hear: “You ought to have given my money to the bankers.”

“I have been young and have grown old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread; all day long he shows mercy and lends.” Above it is said that the sinner borrows and does not repay; here, that the righteous man shows mercy and lends all day long. And see how they match in contraries. The sinner not only receives a loan, but having received it does not repay; the righteous man not only does not borrow, but lends; and not once or twice, but he lends all day long, that is, he lends and shows mercy throughout the whole time of his life. Hence his seed too will be in blessing.

“Turn away from evil and do good, and dwell for ever and ever.” Hearing these things, it says, do what is good, and you will dwell for ever; that is, if you act as you have been taught, your dwelling will be eternal. For if you look not to what is seen but to what is not seen, since what is seen is temporary but what is not seen is eternal, you will dwell for ever.

“For the Lord loves judgment, and will not forsake his saints.” How does the Lord love judgment? In that nothing is done by him without judgment, nothing without reason. So you too, knowing that the Lord loves judgment, do all things with just and true judgment, listening to him who admonishes you, saying: “Do all things with counsel; with counsel drink wine.” “And the Lord will not forsake his saints; they will be preserved for ever.” As he says that one will dwell for ever, so also they will be preserved for ever. Both look to the future time, or age, for which the saints will be preserved, so that from then on they may endure in eternity. “The unrighteous will be punished, and the seed of the ungodly will perish; but the righteous will inherit the land.” We have already said above what the seed of the ungodly is, when we referred it to word and teaching, and how it will be destroyed, when every lie is put to flight like darkness by the light of truth. “But the righteous will inherit the land.” On this too we have already said above how the righteous, or the meek, obtain the inheritance of that good and great land, and how they dwell in it for ever and ever: not only for an age, but for the age of ages. See how great is the Lord’s reward! For the labor of thirty or forty, or at most fifty years, a man receives a reward not only of this age, but for ever and ever. And if anyone remains in the word of God, clings to his wisdom, and persists in the eternity of light, he will come even to this, that he renders glory to God for ages of ages. Amen.