Selected Comments on the Psalms 1483–1501

[Ps 61, continued] the word concerning providence and judgment; for this is shown by the texts that follow.

[Ps 62 LXX / 63] Psalm 62. “O God, my God, I rise early to you. My soul thirsted for you; how many times my flesh for you, in a desert land, trackless and waterless. So in the sanctuary I appeared to you, to see your power and your glory,” etc. Everyone who has put away the works of darkness and put on the armour of light rises early to God. By the same. He thirsts for God who thirsts for the good; for the devil, the one who thirsts for the shameful. But the one who is to see his power and his glory must appear to God in the sanctuary. And Christ is the power of God and the radiance of his glory. The unmarried man, who is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please God, that he may be holy in body and spirit, would say of his own flesh to the Lord, “My flesh is yours”; but the one who commits sexual immorality would say to the devil, “My flesh is yours.” And the one who lives in purity would say that his own flesh is “in the desert,” since his flesh is in solitude; and “trackless,” since not even an evil thought treads upon it; “and waterless”: for the body of the dissolute is moist, but that of the one who keeps pure is dry. Hence the eunuch says, “For I am a dry tree.” But the one who says thus, “In the sanctuary I appeared to you,” rises early to God, and thirsts for him in his soul many times, and his flesh is in a desert land, trackless and waterless.

“For your mercy is better than lives; my lips will praise you,” etc. The life of man is holy knowledge; the mercy of the Lord is the contemplation of the things that have come to be. Many have promised us the forms of knowledge of this age; but the mercy of the Lord is better than lives. By the same. My lips, he says, praise; the soul praises; spirit and mind sing.

“So I will bless you in my life; in your name I will lift up my hands,” etc. The saint lifts and raises his hands when he does heavenly things. And the righteous man lifts up his hands in the name of the Lord when, from sound doctrines about God and godliness toward him, he raises his practical part from earthly things; but when it is from some foreign teaching, he lifts up his hands, yet not in the name of the Lord.

“As with fat and richness may my soul be filled,” etc. Rich and well-fed. “All the fat ones of the earth ate and worshipped” is useful for this text. For as with bodily foods the fat and well-fed animals seem better for pleasure than those

[Ps 62, continued] that are not so, so also in spiritual things there is something corresponding to each. For the prophet, knowing the surpassing food of the soul, says this. Such too, perhaps, was the fatted calf in the parable in the Gospels. “And with lips of rejoicing my mouth will praise.” The expression is ambiguous: either my mouth will be praised by lips of rejoicing, or the lips of rejoicing will be praised by my mouth. When, he says, I come to remember your name, then indeed my lips are filled with joy.

“If I remembered you on my bed,” etc. Probably an exhortation to purity; since the one who remembers the things of God on his bed is altogether pure. Likewise also, “With my tears I will wet my bed.” For those who devote themselves to prayer deprive one another.

“My soul clung behind you,” etc. If the one who clings to the Lord is one spirit, and David clung to the Lord, then he became one spirit. He calls the spiritual man spirit, as also “love that does not boast” signifies the one who has love. And Moses, when he saw the back of God, then his soul clung behind God.

“They will go into the lowest parts,” etc. The more someone’s wickedness is poured out, the lower he becomes, and he enters into the lower parts of the earth. “Hands of the sword” is figurative, as “hands of the tongue.” “They will be portions for foxes.” They say that lions, when they seize some animal, suck its blood and greedily eat what falls to them, especially the principal members, but leave the rest; and the foxes find these and eat them. Since, then, the foxes eat what has already been killed by the lions, he says this: that various punishments will succeed one another upon them, and, falling from these into others, they will be surrounded with different punishments. By the same. So that, believing, they may be saved by the one who went down into the lower parts of the earth. By the same. Here he calls the subterranean demons foxes, to whom the earthly demons too are handed over for punishment.

[Ps 63 LXX / 64] “Hear, O God, my voice,” etc. There is a voice of the heart heard by God alone. “From fear of the enemy,” that is, from fearing the enemy, “deliver my soul”; or “from fear,” the fear that is not a friend but an enemy. The knowing fear of God is a friend; but fear not of that kind is an enemy, such as that of the heterodox, or of any whatever who fear, but apart from God. Of these the Spirit in Isaiah can have spoken in representation: “Do not fear their fear, nor

[Ps 63, continued] be troubled,” “from the conspiracy of evildoers,” of the heterodox in the faith. Instead of “conspiracy” Aquila said “secret counsel,” and Symmachus “scheming.” “From the multitude of those who work injustice”: those who travel the broad and spacious way. By the same. Hostile fear is either that which arises in us from the enemy, or that which is opposite to Christ’s courage: “Take courage,” he says, “it is I; do not be afraid.”

“Who sharpened their tongues like a sword,” etc. Those who are able on behalf of false doctrines “bent a bow, a bitter thing”; but that of those who champion the truth is sweet. Instead of “thing” Aquila said “word.” “To shoot the blameless in secret”: Aquila has “the simple.” The arrows with which those who sharpened their tongues like a sword shoot the blameless or simple are their secret and mysterious words.

“They strengthened for themselves an evil word,” etc. God strengthens a good word, man an evil one. Therefore God strengthened his own word by divine power; but men strengthened theirs for themselves by the so-called dialectical philosophy and empty deceit; they “talked of hiding a snare,” those who deceive with plausible sophisms and deceitful words, in which the ensnaring lies hidden. “They said, Who will see them?” Proud of the hard-to-see things they think they find, strengthening for themselves an evil word, they searched out lawlessness. One ought to search the law, so that the spiritual sense in it may be found; but those who seek outside the law searched out lawlessness.

“They searched out lawlessness; they failed, searching with searchings,” etc. This the counterfeiters of the truth also do. One ought to search the law, so that the spiritual sense may be found in it; but those who seek outside the law searched out lawlessness. Here he signifies the intensification of wickedness.

“A man will approach, and a deep heart,” etc. A deep heart is one that has contemplated the depth of the riches and knowledge of God.

“Their wounds became an arrow of infants,” etc. And all proclaimed that this is your work, and ascribed what happened to you, knowing that it was no one else’s. So the divine eye willed to turn all their effort to nothing, and chose rather to punish them.

“The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and hope in him; and all the upright in heart will be praised,” etc. Perishable wealth gladdens the unjust, but the knowledge of God the righteous. By the same. The Lord praises an upright heart; but a perverse soul he will thrust away from himself.

[Ps 63, continued] By the same. The upright in heart are those from the nations who believed; the same are also righteous, as justified by faith; and upright, as never having mixed the error of idols with the teaching that comes from God, which the children of the Jews often appear to have done. These, then, will rejoice as men who have become sober, having gained the inheritance of those who were careless.

[Ps 64 LXX / 65] “A hymn befits you, O God, in Zion,” etc. “In Zion,” clearly the heavenly one, that is, in the intelligible watchtower; for a hymn to God does not befit perceptible things. Therefore we will sing not with the body or the letter but with the spirit, and not with sense but with the mind. “And to you a vow will be paid in Jerusalem”: “in Zion” is to be taken with this too; and the vow is such as that of the Nazirite.

“Hear my prayer,” etc. “Hear my prayer” in Zion. “To you,” God, who make things spirit, “all flesh will come.” For the soul that became flesh through sin will change and will be spirit.

“Words of the lawless overpowered us,” etc. Words of the lawless, coming to be in us, overpowered us, and through them we became flesh. “And you will be propitious to our impieties.” When you are propitious to our impieties, we who were overpowered by words of the lawless and became flesh, so that we who became flesh come to you, we believe that “to you all flesh will come.”

“Blessed is he whom you chose,” etc. If blessed is he whom you chose and took to yourself, then blessed are the few who are chosen, but not the many who are only called. For the chosen few will find eternal life, having travelled the narrow and afflicted way that leads to it; but the many who are only called, having travelled the broad and spacious way that leads to destruction, will not dwell in your courts, in you, nor, planted in the house of the Lord, will they flourish. These courts are the many dwellings in the Father’s house. “We shall be filled with the good things of your house.” Those planted in the house of the Lord, filled with his good things, will flourish in the courts in which they will dwell. “Your temple is holy, wonderful in righteousness.” Christ, being the temple of the Father who is in him, is both holy and wonderful in righteousness. The second does not fit being said of the perceptible temple. “The hope of all the ends of the earth,” and what follows. The one who speaks, being far from the sea, prophesies about those who are tossed by waves in the sea far from him, or about those who are in the deepest adversities and say, “I came into the depths of the sea.”

“He will dwell in your courts,” etc.

[Ps 64, continued] The court of the Lord is the knowledge of God; and the one who dwells in it will be filled with good things.

“Hear us, O God our Saviour,” etc. Here again, foretelling the salvation of the world, he recalls the prophecy of Jacob, who said, “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is laid up, and he is the expectation of the nations,” whom he now calls the hope of the ends of the earth. Then he indicates also the islands and those in the sea. Hear us, then, he says, you who a little later will illumine all the nature of men with the light of righteousness. Then he recounts the power of God as far as is possible.

“Preparing mountains in his strength,” etc. “Preparing mountains”: that is, God prepares the greatest of those on earth in godliness, sharing with them the divine strength.

“Who troubles the hollow of the sea,” etc. The Lord rebukes the wind and the sea and makes a great calm. By the same. “Hollow,” he says, instead of cavity or depth.

“The nations will be troubled,” etc. At the signs of Jesus Christ even those at the ends of the earth feared, and the Jews more so, both hearing of this and, still more, seeing it.

“You multiplied it to enrich it,” etc. He calls knowledge wealth: “For in everything you were enriched, in all knowledge,” says the Apostle.

“You prepared their food,” etc. He means spiritual food; and he says it has been prepared because before the foundation of the world the mystery concerning Christ was determined, who is the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world. And by your providence you will provide them food ready, so that they lack nothing. “For so is your preparation”: that is, since it is your work to make such things ready and prepare them for men, from all of which you supply them in abundance. For as he says “to prepare” for “to establish,” because things prepared are ready and firm for use, so too he calls the provision itself “preparation,” as here; so that he may say: They will lack nothing, for all things are ready and prepared for them, so that they need no anxiety; and such a thing is also firm.

“In its drops,” etc. When the divine gifts are given to it little by little, he says, it makes ready to rejoice and to spring up, that is, the intelligible fruit. You will understand its drops from what is said about Christ: “He will come down like rain on a fleece, and like a drop dripping on the earth.”

[Ps 64, continued] “You will bless the crown of the year,” etc. In Isaiah he says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to captives and sight to the blind, and to call the acceptable year of the Lord.” So he calls the time after the incarnation of the Saviour the year of goodness, as bringing him a single harvest. On this the prophet prayed the blessing.

“The beautiful places of the desert will be made fat,” etc. When goodness appears, the desert will give fruit; and the hills, on which they used to sacrifice to demons, will receive those who pursue the gospel life, becoming conspicuous because of them. And now all run to those who have occupied the mountain heights.

“And the valleys will abound,” etc. The valleys, he says, changing for the better and filled with intelligible fruits, will earnestly send up hymns to you.

[Ps 65 LXX / 66] “Shout to God,” etc. But since resurrection after repentance lies before all, let all shout; for to each it is said, “Does not he who falls rise again?” And to the whole church from the nations the Lord says, “Arise, come, my neighbour.” For the one who has risen through repentance is not far from Christ. When the shout has been raised over the defeated, those set free are commanded to sing to God, the cause of the victory. And the one whose action matches his praise gives glory to his praise; for “praise befits the upright.” Therefore the base man is prevented from doing this, “since praise is not fitting in the mouth of a sinner.”

“Say to God, How fearful,” etc. The one who sees the difference between “they announced the works of God” and “they understood his doings,” said in the sixty-third psalm, and how it is said in the hundred and sixth, “Those who go down to the sea in ships, doing business in many waters, these saw the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep,” will see how one must say to God, “How fearful are your works,” and not, “Fearful are your doings.” For those who go down to the sea in ships saw the works of the Lord, being fit in this respect to see the fearful works of the Lord; for his wonders in the deep, which correspond to the doings of the Lord, are not fearful.

“Let all the earth worship,” etc. In the Apostle too, first “I will pray,” second “I will sing.” You will consider whether “let them sing to you” is one thing and “let them sing to your name” another. Symmachus rendered: “All on the earth will worship you; making melody they will sing to your name.”

[Ps 65, continued] “Hymn,” he says, as remembering the Most High. By the same. “Is anyone among you cheerful? Let him sing,” says the Apostle.

“Come and see the works of God,” etc. The one who understands how good they are sees the works of God; and the one who has come to the Spirit who says “Come” understands. Whatever a man might plan concerning the works of God, the works of God are much greater than these, so that one who sees how fearful God is in counsels, beyond the sons of men, would fear in amazement.

“Who turns the sea,” etc. First through Moses the sea is dried up; then through Joshua they will pass through the river on foot. By the same. He did not say “who turned” but “who turns.” For according to the history it happened once, in Judaea; but according to the sense it always happens, when teachers by their teaching move souls that are troubled by the salt waves of life and carried about by every wind, to virtue and the knowledge of God. Symmachus thus: “He changed the sea into dry land; they crossed the river on foot.”

“There we will rejoice in him,” etc. “There,” clearly in the river, where we will rejoice in the Lord, having passed through the river on foot when these things have come about, of which the miracle under Joshua was a type, when the waters coming down from above stood still.

“His eyes look upon the nations,” etc. His eyes look upon the nations through the transgression of Israel.

“Let those who embitter not be exalted,” etc. Those who embitter are those from Israel; let these, then, not exalt themselves, knowing that the eyes of God look upon the nations. By the same. Those who embitter are those who gave gall for his food, and for his thirst gave him vinegar to drink. These Theodotion called “those who turn aside,” and Aquila “those who depart”; and Symmachus said more clearly, “Let the disobedient not exalt themselves.” Let, then, the haughty people of Israel not think great things, nor raise its brow high against the multitude of the nations, nor say to itself, “I am the firstborn among the children of God.”

“Who set my soul in life,” etc. Who set in life him who said, “I am the life.” The feet of Cain were given to shaking, when, “going out from the face of God, he dwelt in the land of Naid,” which means shaking; but not those of Moses, to whom it was said, “But you, stand here with me.” His feet

[Ps 65, continued] were marble, set on bases of gold, as it is said in the Song of Songs.

“For you tested us, O God,” etc. You will see this clearly from Ezekiel, where it is written, “Son of man, behold, the house of Israel has become to me all mixed with bronze and tin and lead and iron; it is mixed in the midst of a furnace of silver.”

“You brought us into the snare,” etc. For through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of heaven. But even if you set men over our heads, yet we are confident of lifting our heads through endurance, when the enemy men who lie upon them are pulled off them.

“I will go into your house,” etc. What I vowed when afflicted, he says, I will pay you. I vowed that, once rescued from the present affliction, I would send up praises to you continually: either the sacrifices according to the law, before the coming of the Saviour, or the spiritual ones, entering into the house of God, the church, with whole burnt offerings, offering up perfect and complete virtues wholly, and paying the vows that correspond to them.

“Whole burnt offerings full of marrow,” etc. If the prayer is, “May your whole burnt offering be made fat,” we will consistently with it speak of “whole burnt offerings full of marrow”; which happens when it is not offered to another but brought up to God, in the way that incense must be before him. And the prayer, or the offering, is made with rams. Rams are movements and impulses that have their beginning in the irascible part of the soul. With the things mentioned, he says, I will also offer oxen with goats: perhaps when one who presents his own body as a living sacrifice to God performs the sacred rite. For the animal that tills the earth corresponds to the body, which has its formation from earth. And goats are works of repentance; for they were offered for sin. By the same. Everyone who has a pure ruling faculty and prays to God offers to God incense with rams.

“Come, hear, and I will tell,” etc. He makes mention not of ancient stories, nor of the manner in which Israel was once redeemed from Egypt. He teaches, he says, not according to the letter of the law, but as a herald of the New Covenant he marvels at the new achievements of our Saviour, all that he has graciously given to the souls of us all. By the same. Only those who fear God can hear spiritual narratives.

“If I regarded injustice in my heart,” etc. Not to regard injustice in the heart agrees with

[Ps 65 LXX / 66, continued] "I am aware of nothing against myself, but I am not justified by this," as the great Paul says: because God is able to see what we do not see. Similar also is: "Who will understand transgressions? From my hidden faults [cleanse me]."

Of the same. He did not say, "If I had beheld," but, "If I was beholding." For the first signifies an evil thought of short duration, the second one of longer duration.

"Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me," etc. From one who does not have a pure heart, pure prayer departs; and if prayer departs, clearly mercy does too, for through prayer we ask mercy from God.

[Ps 66 LXX / 67] "God be merciful to us," etc. It proclaims in advance the manifestation of God the Word and the salvation of all the nations; that is why it is headed "For the end." And since what was achieved is not human, the psalm is written not in encomia or praises but "in hymns." Being, then, a divine hymn, and because it shows the deeds of the Saviour and the highest contemplation of them, it is placed at the number sixty-six, a perfect …

"That we may know your way on the earth," etc. While on the earth we came to know the Way that said, "I am the way."

"And you will guide the nations on the earth," etc. He guides us through the practical life and through true doctrines.

"The earth has yielded its fruit," etc. All those who, being earthly, became heavenly, that is, through repentance. "The fruit of the Spirit is joy, love, peace, patience," and so on.

Just as he twice roused the nations to sing hymns, so twice he asked the blessing for them. Those who bless God offer him words only and cannot benefit him by deed; but God, when he blesses, confirms the words by deed and supplies those he blesses with a harvest of every kind of good fruit. Then he teaches …

[Ps 67 LXX / 68] "Let God arise," etc. Moses says: "Rise up, Lord, let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee."

"And let those who hate him flee from his face," etc. Those hate the Creator who speak evil of Providence or of the old Scriptures, and also those who do what is hostile to love. "For God

is love." Or he calls those who hate God and flee from his face those who are engaged in vice of conduct. For if the one who loves him keeps his commandments, the one who does not keep them does not love him. These are the ones who hate God: those who do what is hateful to him.

"As smoke vanishes," etc. Wishing by the comparisons to make the destruction of the adversaries more vivid, he mentioned both smoke and wax; for it is the nature of wax to melt and perish when fire comes near. So, he says, you will consume them all, as fire consumes wax.

Of the same. Not fire like angels, nor light like the righteous, but smoke are those who hate him: smoke that harms the eyes.

"As wax melts before the fire," and so on. As the righteous are wheat and the unrighteous chaff, so the wise are honey and the heterodox wax, which melts under the fire that is in the righteous man, the fire that destroys the system opposed to the true word. This fire is God; and the same face of God melts sinners but gladdens the righteous.

Of the same. This smoke is driven off by the fire which the Lord came to cast upon the earth.

"And let the righteous be glad, let them exult before God, let them delight in gladness," etc. The exultation of the righteous before God, being a kind of joy, is a fruit of the Spirit; for the fruit of the Spirit is joy, peace. Gladness is a good emotion that expands the thinking part of the soul.

"Sing to God, sing psalms to his name; make a way for him who rides upon the west; the Lord is his name," etc. He sings psalms to the name of God who [does everything] for the sake of his name. And even if he came upon our poverty and veiled his own glory, as if rising from the west, still "the Lord is his name." For having become man, he did not cast off being the Lord God.

"They will be troubled at his face, the father of orphans and judge of widows," etc. An orphan is one who has been deprived of the heavenly Father through vice, which he drew upon himself willingly.

"God in his holy place." The place of God is a pure soul; that is why it adds: "God settles the solitary in a house." He calls solitary those who have dedicated their own life to him alone and have estranged it from all double-mindedness and worldly desire. These, then, he promises to settle in his house, that is, in the heavenly kingdom. Scripture also knows how to call pursuits a "place"; "in a holy place," then, means as it were in his chosen and most pure pursuits.

"Leading out those bound, in courage; likewise those who embitter, who dwell in tombs."