Selected Comments on the Psalms

[Preface] Because of the psalms entitled “For the end,” we have selected the definitions of it. From those of Aristotle, these: “An end is that for the sake of which the other things are, while it itself is for the sake of nothing”; or thus: “that for the sake of which the other things are, while it itself is not for their sake”; or thus: “that on account of which one does the other things, while it itself is on account of nothing else.” And from Herophilus, On the Stoic Use of Terms, thus: “They say that the end is a predicate for the sake of which we do the rest, while it itself is for the sake of nothing; and what is paired with it, as happiness is with being happy, they call the goal, which indeed is the last of things chosen.” Whether the definitions of God too, and all that is signified by the name “God,” will offer us something useful, once we have selected from them those that bear on Scripture, you yourself will consider. The same Herophilus, then, says: “Most generically they call God an immortal, rational living being, in which sense every rational soul is a god. Otherwise, an immortal, rational living being existing by itself, so that the souls contained in us are not gods, but will be when they have been released from their bodies. In another manner, God is called an immortal, rational, virtuous living being, so that every refined soul is a god, even if it is contained in a human being; and otherwise God is called that which, existing by itself, is an immortal, virtuous living being, so that the souls contained in wise human beings are not gods. And still otherwise they call God an immortal, virtuous living being having some charge in the world in its administration, as the sun and the moon have.” Otherwise he calls God the first administrator of the world. “And above all they call God a living being

incorruptible and unbegotten, and the first king, in whom the whole universe has its place.” The Hebrews divide the book of the Psalms into five books: the first, from “Blessed is the man who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly” to the last part of the fortieth; the second, from “As the deer longs” to the seventy-first; the third, from “How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart” to the eighty-eighth; the fourth, from “Lord, you have become our refuge in generation and generation” to the hundred and fifth; the fifth, from “Give thanks to the Lord” to the last. I used to think that there was one psalm in the book of the Psalms entitled “A prayer of Moses the man of God”; but later, when I was inquiring about certain oracles of God with Iullus the patriarch and with one of those reputed wise among the Jews, I heard that throughout the whole book of the Psalms, from the first and second on, those that among the Hebrews are without title, or have a title but not the name of the writer, belong to the one whose name is borne in the titled psalm before them. And speaking about these, he said at first that thirteen are Moses’; but as from what I myself heard … referred to him, that there are eleven. Then, inquiring of the one reputed wise among them, I learned that there are eleven, of which the beginning of the eighty-ninth is: “Lord, you have become our refuge in generation and generation”; and of the next, reckoned among us as the ninetieth, the beginning was: “He who dwells in the help of the Most High,” which too he said was Moses’. But also the one that has a title, but not with the name of its writer — I mean the ninety-first, entitled thus: “A psalm of an ode, for the day of the Sabbath” — he said was Moses’; its beginning is: “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing to your name, O Most High.” And the one reckoned ninety-second was without title; its beginning is: “The Lord has become king, he has clothed himself with majesty”; this too he said was Moses’. Likewise the ninety-third, whose beginning is: “A God of vengeance is the Lord”; and the ninety-fourth, whose beginning is:

“Come, let us rejoice in the Lord”; and the ninety-fifth, whose beginning is: “Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth”; and the ninety-sixth, whose beginning is: “The Lord has become king, let the earth rejoice”; and the ninety-seventh, which was entitled only “A psalm” (for “of David,” as some copies have it, was neither in the Hebrew nor in the other editions), and its beginning was: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” And the ninety-eighth was said to be his, whose beginning is: “The Lord has become king, let the peoples be angry”; and the ninety-ninth, which was entitled “A psalm for thanksgiving,” whose beginning is: “Shout to the Lord, all the earth.” After these eleven, the hundredth was entitled, in the Hebrew and in all the versions, “A psalm of David,” and the hundredth was no longer Moses’. When these things had been said about the psalms that the Hebrews refer to Moses, the Jew, anticipating an objection, set down what seemed to him its solution. For he saw that someone would object that one of the eleven psalms, the ninety-eighth, is not Moses’, on the strength of the words: “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at the footstool of his feet; holy is he. Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name; they called upon the Lord, and he heard them; in a pillar of cloud he spoke to them.” The objector would say: How did Moses put in his own psalm the name of Samuel, who lived many generations later? To this, then, he said that it is no wonder that the name of Samuel, a holy man, was foretold by Moses — Samuel whom Jeremiah numbers with Moses in the words, “Not even if Moses and Samuel should stand” — since in the Kingdoms Josiah was foretold: “Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Behold, a son is born to David, Josiah by name.” Having often sought the reason why “diapsalma” is written between the parts of the psalms, I later observed the Hebrew and examined the Greek along with it, and found that where the Hebrew has “sel” and the Greek “always,” or something equivalent to it, there the Seventy, Theodotion, and Symmachus put “diapsalma.” It is not amiss to confirm what is said by an example:

for instance, in the seventy-fourth psalm, whose beginning is: “We will give thanks to you, O God, we will give thanks to you, and call upon your name,” after “I have made firm its pillars” there is “diapsalma” in the Seventy, Theodotion, and Symmachus. In place of this, Aquila has: “I have weighed its pillars always”; the Fifth: “I am the one who prepared its pillars always”; the Sixth: “I have made firm its pillars continually.” And in the Hebrew, after “ammuda,” that is, “its pillars,” stood “sel.” Again in the seventy-fifth, whose beginning is “God is known in Judea,” we found in the Seventy and Theodotion, after “arms and sword and war,” “diapsalma”; and in Symmachus, after “shield and sword and war,” likewise “diapsalma.” In place of this, Aquila has, after “buckler and war and sword,” the word “always”; and the Sixth, after “arms and sword and war,” the words “to the end.” And again in the Hebrew, after “umalama,” that is, “and war,” stood “sel.” And further in the same psalm, after “to save all the meek of the earth,” Symmachus likewise has “diapsalma”; Aquila, after “all the meek of the earth,” has “always”; so too the Fifth, after “all the meek of the earth,” has “always”; and the Sixth, after “to save the meek of the earth,” has “to the end.” And in the Hebrew, after “anie ars,” that is, “meek of the earth,” stood “sel.” Having found this observation to hold without fail, we have noted these things. Whether the translators wrote “diapsalma” because a change of musical melody or rhythm took place, or were moved by something else, you yourself will consider.

From Origen on the Psalms.

The psalms entitled “For the winepresses,” which are three — the eighth, the eightieth, and the eighty-third — seem to me to show the gathering of the Church and the multitude of those who come together in assemblies. For in the churches it happens that one prayer and one hymnody is sent up to God from many, just as in winepresses a single blend of wine is produced from many different vines. Of old, then, there was a single winepress in one place, Jerusalem, where people came together and sent up their prayers; Isaiah mentions it, saying: “And I built a tower, and dug a wine vat in it.” The tower signifies the temple, the wine vat the altar. But since he threatened to destroy those, and did destroy them, he established many winepresses instead of one, the churches throughout the whole inhabited world. Hence it is said in

the eighth psalm thus: “Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!” For it clearly presented God’s winepresses throughout the whole inhabited world. And the eightieth, which is itself “for the winepresses,” exhorts all the nations to render the hymn to the God of the prophets; it says: “Rejoice in God our helper; shout to the God of Jacob.” Then, going further down, it signifies the rejection of the former people, saying: “And my people did not hear my voice, and Israel paid no heed to me. And I sent them away according to the pursuits of their hearts.” And the eighty-third, having the same superscription, presents not one tabernacle nor one altar in Jerusalem, but many tabernacles and many altars. Therefore, since the winepresses are many — these very tabernacles and altars — it is superscribed “for the winepresses.” It says: “How beloved are your dwellings, Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord”; and it adds: “Your altars, Lord of hosts”; and again it adds, in the plural: “Our protector, behold, O God, and look upon the face of your Christ; for one day in your courts is better than thousands.” There you will notice that it even mentions Christ by name.

The two psalms entitled “For the eighth” I think hint at the saving day of the Lord’s resurrection. David, having committed the sin unto death, pleads in the sixth not to experience the wrath or the anger of God, but that his soul may obtain mercy and healing; and he declares that this will happen, saying: “Turn, Lord, rescue my soul, save me for the sake of your mercy; for in death there is no one who remembers you, and in Hades who will confess to you?” — all but begging the Lord himself to rescue his soul from death. Going on, he shows that he has obtained his prayers, where he says: “The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping; the Lord has heard my petition; the Lord has accepted my prayer.” For by these words he hinted at his own return to life from death, which took place with the resurrection of Christ. Likewise the eleventh too is entitled “for the eighth,” containing a similar supplication of David, who says: “Save me, Lord, for the holy one has failed.” Then next, not veiledly but brightly, he adds: “Now I will arise, says the Lord; I will set him in safety.” Because of the Lord’s resurrection, which took place on the day after the Sabbath, which was the eighth, as a type of new life, the psalm was deemed worthy, I think, of such a superscription.

The psalms entitled “For those who will be changed” are four in number. Of these, the fifty-ninth seems to me to signify the change of the nations

which they underwent in passing from superstitious error to the worship of the God of the universe. It says: “God has spoken in his holy place: I will exult and divide Shechem, and measure out the valley of tents. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, and Ephraim the strength of my head; Judah is my king, Moab the cauldron of my hope; over Idumea I will stretch out my sandal; foreigners have been subjected to me.” So along with the Israelite tribes it has included Moab, Idumea, and the foreigners. The sixty-eighth, similarly entitled, contains the change and alteration of the one who for our sake went down into the depths of the spiritual sea, and the things concerning his passion, which it shows by: “They gave gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink”; and the turn for the worse of those who plotted against him, which it itself presents, saying: “Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bend their back continually,” and so on. And the forty-fourth, which belongs to the sons of Korah and is entitled “for those who will be changed” and “for the beloved,” likewise itself contains the change concerning the beloved of God, including in it also his theology, and showing the turning of the Church from the nations to him by: “Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear,” and so on. The seventy-ninth is Asaph’s, but is similarly entitled, and contains again the turn for the worse of the former people, saying: “You brought a vine out of Egypt,” and so on. And it seems that, since the beauty and fragrance of the flowers and lilies of the earth are quickly changed and turn to decay, for this reason the Hebrew has “Concerning the lilies,” or “Concerning the flowers.” Therefore, instead of “those who will be changed,” Aquila translated “upon the lilies,” and Symmachus “concerning the flowers.”

The psalms entitled “For the hidden things” contain a hidden and secret war, and our Savior’s victory over invisible and intelligible enemies. The ninth, for instance, says: “When my enemy is turned back”; and what it adds next to these words signifies the calling of the nations: “Sing to the Lord who dwells in Zion; declare among the nations his deeds.” And that these things were accomplished secretly at the time of the passion, the superscription of the psalm shows; for it is entitled “for the hidden things of the Son,” in place of which Symmachus has “for the death of the Son,” and Aquila “for the youth.” With these agrees what the psalm signifies about his return to life from death, in the words: “you who lift me up from the gates of death.” And the forty-

fifth, spoken similarly “concerning the hidden things,” presents the invisible and intelligible war, saying: “Nations were troubled, kingdoms bent,” and so on. Then, as having brought down the rulers of the nations who of old trampled them, and having made the nations subject to himself, it next says: “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

The psalms entitled “For a pillar inscription” contain words of moderation and humility. Hence Aquila, in place of “pillar inscription,” translated “of the humble, perfect one,” and Symmachus “of the humble-minded and blameless one.” For whether David, being king and ruler of all Israel, uttered such words with a modest and humble mind, or the Christ of God, being humble-minded, prophesied such things — as indeed he teaches by: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” — the words would be worthy of a pillar and of remembrance for all time, which is what “pillar inscription” presents. You will understand what is said from the fifty-fifth, which is entitled “of a pillar inscription,” or “of the humble, perfect one,” or “of the humble-minded and blameless one,” in which it is said: “Have mercy on me, O God, for a man has trampled me all the day long,” and so on. And the fifty-sixth, which has the same title, again mentions those who trample him, saying: “He gave over to reproach those who trample me.” And going through the rest of those so entitled, you will find them holding to the same meaning.

The psalms entitled “For a remembrance of David” seem to remind him of the sin concerning Uriah. The thirty-seventh, so entitled, says: “There is no peace in my bones because of my sins,” and so on; and through the whole psalm it signifies his condition after the sin he had committed. Likewise the sixty-fifth, entitled “for remembrance,” entreats to obtain God as helper.

The psalms entitled “A prayer” are perhaps not psalms, nor odes, nor hymns, but simply plain prayers, fitting the disposition of those who prayed and their circumstances, and fitting all who are in a disposition like the words spoken.

The psalms entitled “Do not destroy, of David” are three in succession. Of these the fifty-sixth was spoken when he fled from Saul into the cave. And perhaps, since, while David was hiding in the cave, Saul came in unaware that he was inside, and David’s companions wished to kill him, David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy” him — Saul, clearly — for this reason, since God accepted the utterance, which contained the height of forbearance, it was taken up into the memory of the psalms so entitled. The fifty-eighth, which contains “Do not destroy, when Saul sent and watched his house to kill him,” seems to contain a command of God, who did not permit those sent by Saul to destroy David. Perhaps the seventy-fourth too has the same meaning,

entitled in the same way, “to Asaph.” The ninety-first, entitled “of the Sabbath,” contains an exhortation to come eagerly to the assemblies for the study of the divine teachings, and after that a doxology. It says: “To declare your mercy in the morning, and your truth by night”; and again: “Planted in the house of the Lord, they will blossom in the courts of our God.” The ninety-ninth, entitled “for thanksgiving,” teaches by saying: “He made us, and not we ourselves”; it presents the force of thanksgiving, that we have acquired nothing of ourselves, but whatever good there is in us, he made it.

The thirty-third psalm, entitled “Of David, when he changed his face before Abimelech,” seems to call “Abimelech” the one named Ahimelech in the first book of Kingdoms, since the Hebrew letters — I mean kaph and beth — keep much likeness, so as to differ from one another in nothing but a small stroke. The history goes thus: “And David comes to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech was astonished at meeting him, and said to him: Why are you alone, and no one with you? And David said to him: The king has given me an order today, and said to me: Let no one know the matter about which I am sending you and about which I have commanded you. And I have charged the young men at the place called ‘Faith of God,’ … Almoni. And now, if there are five loaves under your hand, give what is found into my hand. And the high priest answered and said: There are no common loaves under my hand, but only holy bread; if the young men have been kept from woman, they shall eat. And David answered the high priest and said to him: Indeed, we have kept away from woman yesterday and the day before. When I set out on the road, all the young men had become purified. And this road is itself common, which is why today it will be made holy because of the vessels. And Ahimelech the priest gave him the loaves of the presentation, for there was no bread there except the loaves of the presence that had been removed from before the Lord, so that warm bread might be set out on the day he took them.” So much for the history. In place of “at the place called ‘Faith of God,’ … Almoni,” Aquila says: “to such-and-such a place of so-and-so,” or “to such-and-such an ownerless place”; and Symmachus: “to a certain place.” The superscription of the psalm, then, seems to signify the change in David’s speech toward the priest, by saying: “when he changed his face before Abimelech”; or else the change of his face. Hence according to Symmachus it is said: “when he transformed his face before Abimelech”; and Aquila: “when he changed his taste.” Hence too, going on in the psalm and hinting, it seems, at the sacred food, he says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Perhaps, then, he hints that he tasted Christ himself from

… moving his body, he hinted at this through these words; and it was a symbol of the law, since the body of Christ in the Eucharist has taken the place of the loaves of the presentation. There is also another change of David, in which he changed his face before Achish, the foreign king of Gath, feigning madness; but the psalm does not seem to signify this change in the present case.

The psalms entitled with none of the other names — I mean neither ode, nor hymn, nor psalm, nor melody, nor praise, nor prayer, nor anything of the kind — seem to contain useful teachings, and words of exhortation and encouragement to take up piety. Such is the tenth, in which it is said: “In the Lord I have trusted; how will you say to my soul,” and so on; and the thirteenth, which speaks in the same way: “The fool said in his heart.” The rest likewise bring forward teaching words full of benefit; yet they were not listed among psalms and hymns or odes, because they do not keep the same manner as those named. Unless, indeed, they too were written to be spoken with the psaltery or as an ode, or as one of those named, but it did not happen that they were so spoken; so that they have the same force as the psalms, the odes, and the prayers, but are not so entitled because it was not spoken in that way. Or perhaps some were not deemed worthy of a superscription for the first reason, and some for the second. For the fifty-first, being none of the things named, reports the things concerning Doeg, saying: “Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty one?” — words which, because of their gloom, would not be spoken in the manner of psalms or odes; as neither would the fifty-second, since it too contains sorrowful things. The fifty-fourth, whose beginning is: “Give ear, O God, to my prayer,” contains the manner of a prayer; and the twenty-sixth, “The Lord is my light and my savior,” differs in nothing from a prayer; and yet they were not deemed worthy of a superscription.

For the second reason, it seems, the seventy-first psalm contains at the end of the prophecy: “The hymns of David the son of Jesse have failed.” Since some have supposed that the saying signifies the end of David’s hymns, note that this is not what the sense of the Hebrew shows. Aquila, for one, in place of “The hymns of David have failed,” rendered “The prayers of David have been completed”; Symmachus, “The prayers of David have been accomplished”; and the fifth edition, “The prayers of David have been summed up.” By these it is shown that what is said is joined to the things prophesied in the psalm about Christ. For the psalm is entitled “For Solomon,” and its contents refer both to Solomon himself and to the son who was to be born of his seed. Therefore it is said: “O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king’s son.” Then next to these words are added certain prophetic words about the king’s son, that is, the one who was to be born of Solomon’s seed,

words which can fit no one else but only the Christ of God. For “He will rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the inhabited world,” and words like these, could not be referred to Solomon himself, nor to Rehoboam who succeeded to his rule, nor to any other of his successors, but only to our Savior. Since, then, according to David, the birth of Christ from his seed, and what was prophesied about it, was to be accomplished through prayer — among these prophecies were the contents of the present psalm, as is said at the end: “And all the nations will be blessed in him, and all the earth will be filled with his glory” — there is fittingly joined to them, according to Aquila, “The prayers of David have been completed”; according to Symmachus, “The prayers of David have been accomplished”; and according to the fifth edition, “The prayers of David have been summed up.” They were summed up in this: in all the nations being blessed through the appearing of the Savior of all the nations, born of his seed.

Where the diapsalmata occur, Aquila in place of “diapsalma” put “song,” and the fifth edition “continually”; but according to our copies and Symmachus, the mark “diapsalma” seems to be placed where a change of some musical melody or rhythm took place. Often there is also a change of thought at the diapsalmata, and sometimes even a change of speaker.

One might think that all the psalms entitled “psalm” were rendered by striking the musical instrument called the psaltery. But since, according to Aquila, throughout the whole book, wherever the Seventy have “psalm” in the title, “melody” is rendered, and according to Symmachus “ode” or “song,” I have of necessity made this note, so that no one may think that all the psalms so entitled among us were spoken to the musical instrument. For how would it make sense that the fiftieth, for example, entitled “For the end, a psalm of David,” was spoken with the psaltery? Music in mourning is an untimely tale. For how was it possible, when it was spoken by David over a terrible offense — when no ordinary indignation of God had come upon him, and a threat through the prophet — that he took up the psaltery as in a time of good cheer and performed the tokens of luxury and gladness? What do the words contain that belongs to a psaltery? Are they not words of lamentation and weeping, which were probably spoken with some mournful melody, but not with the instrument? You might say the same of the third, which is entitled: “A psalm of David, when he fled from the face of Absalom his son.” For you will consider whether, being in such a misfortune, in which he had fallen from the kingdom and was being driven out by his son, he had leisure for music.

But it would make sense that here too, sending up his supplication to God, he uttered it with some melody suited to the occasion; that is why the other translators have put “melody” and “ode” in the superscription of these psalms as well. The rest of those similarly entitled you will examine like those already discussed.

In all the psalms entitled “in hymns,” in place of “in hymns” Aquila rendered “in psalms” and Symmachus “with the psaltery”; so that according to their translation these alone were sung to the musical instrument. And it makes sense that the fourth psalm, entitled “in hymns,” was played on an instrument. For since the third had been spoken by David when he fled from the face of Absalom his son, the fourth, which contains the victory celebration of the war against his son, is fittingly entitled both “for the end” and “in hymns.” Hence, in place of “for the end,” Symmachus rendered “a victory song,” and Aquila “to the victor.” What follows bears out the interpretation given, where he says: “When I called, the God of my righteousness heard me,” and so on. It was fitting, then, that these words should be played, as at a victory celebration, also on musical instruments. The third, however, is not entitled “for the end”; for it was not yet a victory song, but was spoken while the war had not yet come to an end. Consider also, in the case of the sixth, whether, since after the first part of the psalm he adds in the last part: “The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping, the Lord has heard my petition, the Lord has accepted my prayer,” it is fittingly entitled “a victory song” and “with the psaltery,” and among the Seventy “for the end” and “in hymns.” The fifty-third too, spoken by David before the sin against Uriah, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul: “Is not David hidden among us?” — since those who had slandered him to Saul achieved nothing — is entitled among us “in hymns,” and among the others “with the psaltery,” “in psalms,” “to the victor,” and “a victory song.” In the same way you will consider the rest that have been given a similar superscription.

Admittedly, most of the psalms after the fiftieth were spoken long before the fiftieth. And the fiftieth itself was spoken before the time of the third, which was spoken by David when he fled from the face of Absalom his son; and that time came after the confession of the fiftieth. What order, then, does the book contain? Someone might say that it has a certain …

… of the numbers each a force, considered according to arithmetical principles. For example, that the seven is honored in the divine Scripture for certain reasons: for among the seven days the Sabbath was given a privilege; and in seven weeks, Pentecost; and among months, the seventh month; and among years, the seventh year; and in the multiplication of the seven in years, the Jubilee, completed out of seven weeks of years. Conversely, the two is taken as an unclean number. It was said to Noah: “You shall bring into the ark of the clean animals seven by seven, and of the unclean two by two.” And the one, much earlier, was honored — the first one itself, and the one among the tens, and the one among the hundreds — for no ordinary reasons; as again the three, the five, the seven, and the rest of the numbers likewise. On this principle, then, the psalms have been fitted each to its own number, so that to the number fifty there corresponds David’s …

[Ps 1] From the same author’s tome on the first psalm.

1. The divine words say that the divine Scriptures are shut and sealed: by the key of David, and perhaps also by the seal concerning which it is said: “An impression of a seal, holiness to the Lord”; that is, by the power

[Ps 1, continued] of God who gave them, which is signified by the seal. About their being shut and sealed, John teaches in the Apocalypse, saying: “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: Thus says the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one will open: I know your works; behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut.” And a little later: “And I saw at the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book and to loose its seals? And no one in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, was able to open the book or to look at it. And I wept because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look at it. And one of the elders says to me: Do not weep; behold, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so as to open the book and its seven seals.” About their being sealed only, Isaiah speaks thus: “And all these words will be to you like the words of this sealed book, which, if they give it to a man who knows letters, saying, Read these, he will say: I cannot read, for it is sealed. And this book will be given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, and he will say: I do not know letters.” For these things must be thought to be said not only of the Apocalypse of John and of Isaiah, but also of all divine Scripture, which, as is admitted even by those who can understand divine words in moderate measure, is filled with riddles and parables, dark sayings, and other various kinds of obscurity hard for human nature to grasp. Wishing to teach this, the Savior too — since the key was with the scribes and Pharisees, who made no effort to find the way to open — says: “Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and those who were entering you did not allow to enter.”

2. These things have been said by us as a preface, since we are compelled to go down into a very great contest, which is admittedly beyond us and our capacity, by your great love of learning, and are put to shame by your kindness and moderation, holy Ambrose,

[Ps 1, continued] and that, when I held back for a long time because I knew the danger, not only of speaking about holy things but much more of writing and leaving them to those after us, you charmed me in every way, as a friend, and led me to this by an advance in godliness. Be my witness before God, together with my whole life, when I am examined about what has been dictated, as to the purpose with which this has been done: that in some places we hit the mark, and in others we either force the sense too violently or seem to say something, but have traced out what is written, not despising the well-spoken saying, “When you speak about God, you are judged by God,” and this one: “To speak even the truth about God is no small danger.” We ask, then — since nothing can be good without God, and above all the understanding of divinely inspired Scriptures — that you will ask the Father of all, God, approaching him through our Savior and high priest, the begotten God, that it may be granted us first to seek rightly; for the promise of finding is laid up for those who seek. Perhaps those who do not go about this by the right way are not even reckoned by God among seekers at all.

And after other things: 3. As we are about to begin the interpretation of the Psalms, we will set first a most charming tradition handed down to us by the Hebrew, concerning the whole divine Scripture in general. For he used to say that the whole divinely inspired Scripture, because of the obscurity in it, is like many rooms in one house that are locked; and beside each room lies a key that is not the one suited to it; and so the keys have been scattered about the rooms, each not fitting the room it lies beside; and that it is a very great task to find the keys and fit them to the rooms they can open. So, he said, the Scriptures too, being obscure, are understood by taking the starting points for their understanding from nowhere else but from one another, since they hold their interpretation scattered within them. I think that the Apostle too suggests this method of understanding the divine words when he says: “Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

[Ps 1, continued] [4. If the words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, tested for the earth, purified seven]fold, and the Holy Spirit has supplied them with all exactness and scrutiny through the ministers of the word, let not the analogy escape us by which the wisdom of God has reached to all divinely inspired Scripture, down to the least letter. Perhaps that is also why the Savior said: “One iota or one stroke will not pass away from the law until all things come to pass.” For just as in the making of the world the divine art appears not only in heaven and sun and moon and stars, pervading all those bodies, but has done the same on earth in humbler matter — so that not even the bodies of the smallest animals are disdained by the Craftsman, and much more the souls that are in them, each of which has received in itself some property, a kind of saving power in a creature without reason; nor the plants of the earth, since there is craftsmanship in each of them, in the roots and leaves and the fruits they can bear and the differences of their qualities — so we suppose concerning all that has been written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: that sacred Providence, which grants to the human race a wisdom beyond the human through the written words, has sown saving oracles, so to speak, in each letter, as far as it could, traces of wisdom.

He, however, who has once accepted that these Scriptures are from the one who created the world must be persuaded that whatever meets those who seek the reason of creation will also meet them concerning the Scriptures. In creation too there are things hard or even impossible for human nature to find out; and the Maker of all is not to be accused on that account. For example, when we do not find the reason for the creation of basilisks and the other venomous beasts; for here it is a holy thing for one who perceives the weakness of our race, and that it is impossible for us to grasp the principles of God’s art, contemplated with all exactness, to refer the knowledge of these things to God, who will afterward reveal to us, if we are judged worthy, the things about which we have now reverently paused. So too in the divine Scriptures one must see that many things are stored up in them that are hard for us to explain. Let those, at any rate, who profess, after departing from the Creator of the world, to run to one whom they have fashioned as God, solve the difficulties we put to them; or at least let them persuade their own conscience that after so great an act of impious daring they have found rest, consistently with their own hypotheses about the questions asked and the problems put to them. For if there too the difficulties remain no less after they have departed from the Godhead, how much holier it would have been to remain in the conception of God that is contemplated from the creatures of the Author of becoming, and to declare nothing godless and unholy about so great a God!

[Ps 1, continued] From the same author’s tome on the first psalm.

Since, in the topic of numbers, each number has a certain force in the things that exist, which the Creator of all used for the constitution sometimes of the whole universe, sometimes of the form of particular things, we must attend to and trace out from the Scriptures what concerns them and each one of them. We must not be unaware, then, that the number of the covenanted books being twenty-two, as the Hebrews hand down — as many as the letters of their alphabet — is not without reason. For as the twenty-two letters seem to be an introduction to wisdom and to the divine teachings imprinted on human beings in these characters, so the twenty-two inspired books are an elementary instruction in the wisdom of God and an introduction to the knowledge of the things that are. The twenty-two books according to the Hebrews are these: the one entitled among us Genesis, but among the Hebrews, from the beginning of the book, Bresith, which is “In the beginning”; Exodus, Ouelesmoth, which is “These are the names”; Leviticus, Ouikra, “And he called”; Numbers, Ammesphekodeim; Deuteronomy, Elle addebarim, “These are the words”; Jesus son of Nave, Iosoue ben Noun; Judges and Ruth, among them in one book, Sophetim; the first and second of Kingdoms, among them one, Samuel, “the one called by God”; the third and fourth of Kingdoms in one, Ouammelech David, which is “the kingdom of David”; the first and second of Chronicles in one, Dibre aiamim, which is “Words of days”; Ezra, first and second, in one, Ezra, which is “Helper”; the book of Psalms, Sepher thillim; the Proverbs of Solomon, Misloth; Ecclesiastes, Koeleth; the Song of Songs, Sir assirim; Isaiah, Iesaia; Jeremiah, with Lamentations and the Letter, in one, Ieremia; Daniel, Daniel; Ezekiel, Iezekiel; Job, Iob; Esther, Esther. Outside these are the books of Maccabees, which are entitled Sarbeth Sarbane …

[Ps 1] “Blessed is the man who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly,” and so on. What should the beginning of the Psalms have been, if not one that contains the blessing of the man who is the Savior’s, and his praises, in abstaining from what is worse, in studying and practicing what is better, and in being made like the Only-begotten? He, being wisdom, is called a tree of life by Solomon in Proverbs, and here a tree planted “by the channels of the waters,” which are discursive words, or words divisible by the law of dialectic; the fruits of this tree are the principal doctrines, and its leaves the expressions and sayings.

Of the same. The counsel of the ungodly is a passionate thought that binds the mind to things of sense. He did not say “human being” but “man,” because he calls to contests and wrestlings and battles on behalf of virtue; and he wishes women too to be manly and courageous. Blessedness is the soul’s freedom from passion together with true knowledge of the things that are. The seat of the pestilent is the worst habit of a rational soul, by which it also teaches others; and the lawyers, who might also be called ungodly and pestilent and sinners.

“And did not stand in the way of sinners, and did not sit in the seat of the pestilent,” and so on. In general there are three cases. Either a person does not profess truth at all, but at random, having given himself over to the vain and wholly unexamined reasonings of his heart, is carried along like a beast without reason, not standing, not leaning on anything, and therefore not sitting: such a one is said to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. In what the ungodly deliberate on, they do not proceed with even an appearance of inquiry, but hunt after whatever the uneducated think good. Or a person, seeming to stand in the truth but not living according to the true teaching, is a sinner with sinners, seeking out the worse of those thought to be in the truth, and for this reason stands in their way. Or, according to the third of the terms in the present passage of Scripture, one who, among certain false doctrines, supposes these to be the truth says that he has come to rest and no longer needs walking or standing — a posture that belongs to one never fully assured about the Scriptures. And such a one, resting, sits on the seat of those who corrupt.

[Ps 1, continued] Against those to whom the name “pestilent” applies, the word “scoffer” too is used, not without purpose, by the other translators. For those who are wise in themselves and knowing in their own sight scoff at the rest, especially at those who have believed according to sound reason.

“But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he will meditate day and night,” and so on. The one who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night is not the one who takes up the words of the law to memorize them without the works that correspond to them, but the one who also comes to the fitting works, having practiced them, until through continual practice of the works of the law he becomes ready, rendering everything that belongs to one who lives perfectly according to the law. For thus it will be possible to meditate on the law of God through the whole day and night. For whether he eats or drinks or does anything at all, as the divine Apostle says, such a one does all things to the glory of God; so that even in the time of sleep, when it comes as it ought, his attentiveness reaches to it too, and to the images in it. By this the difficulty in the Apostle is also solved, when he says: “Pray without ceasing.” For how will someone pray while sleeping, or while doing some duty toward people, or caring for his own body? But here too we say that the perfect man cries to God and asks him for the best things, calling on him to grant them, by doing everything according to reason, so that his every action is a prayer. And just as, in meditating on the law, particular meditation must not be neglected, so particular prayer must not be neglected either, since to meditate and to pray is to do anything at all according to the law of the Lord. One may consider whether, by the laws of the higher sense, our condition free from troubles can be called day, and our troubled condition night, because of its gloom. We must try to be in the law not only when outward things do not oppose us, but also when we fall into what are called temptations.

“And he will be like the tree planted by the channels of the waters, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall off; and all that he does will prosper,” and so on. After this let us take up what Aquila says: “transplanted.” For from where has the tree of which the word speaks been transplanted to the divisions of the waters? Either, having been rooted in the Father, he has been transplanted for the benefit of many, so that others too may share in his image, which is taken in the sense of being transplanted — not that he is not in the Father (for he is), but that he has come to be with others as well; or, by another approach, it is the soul of the Savior which he took, transplanted from here to paradise, where the Gospel too says he was, after

[Ps 1, continued] the passion, since it narrates that he said to the repentant robber: “Today you will be with me in the paradise of God.” He has been transplanted there so that those worthy to be with Christ may be enlightened by him with the light of knowledge, advancing in the contemplation of the things that are, according to the wisdom of God. We have taken these things in this way because “to bear fruit” is said properly of trees, while “to give” suits living beings rather, and rational ones at that. We must inquire whether there is a season for the fruit of the tree of life; for to say that wisdom is ever without fruit is not holy. That is why it is not said, “which will bear its fruit in its season,” but “which will give its fruit in its season.” Its season for giving is the fitness of the one who receives. For as far as it lies with the tree, it is always ready to give its fruit. For if the Word wishes the stewards to be faithful and wise, not simply giving the ration to their fellow servants but giving it in season, how much more will wisdom dispense her own fruits faithfully and wisely together? The season for giving is the same as the season for the receiver to receive.

What the leaf of life — that is, of wisdom — that does not fall off may be, is worth considering; and one cannot learn it from anywhere except by having spent some time, in moderate measure, on the study of nature. It is clear that the Creator commanded the fruit-bearing trees to sprout for the sake of their fruits, and for their sake made, as a consequence, the things they need; and the fruits need the shelter of the leaves for protection. These things can be seen also in the wisdom that concerns the universe, in which the Creator of all made all things. For some things come to be primarily, others as a consequence, for the sake of the primary: primarily the rational living being, and for its need the cattle and what grows from the earth. Perhaps, then, the principles of the things made primarily are the fruits of the tree of life, and those of the things created for their sake are the leaves, none of which is vain or deserves to be wholly despised as cheap, so as to fall and drop off unguarded. And still more what follows: “And all that he does will prosper.” For it is possible to make use, for certain purposes, even of all that came to be as a consequence. The fruit of Christ would be primarily the teaching, the food of the more honorable; and the leaf the food of those with less reason, just as human beings use fruits, and cattle leaves. One can also call certain things in Scripture fruits, which those of more reason take up, and leaves, on which the simpler are fed. Of the one who is called blessed and likened to the tree of life, the fruit would be his primary works, such as doing good and occupation with wisdom; and the leaves his movements in the ordinary business of life; these too are not to be despised, nor do they fall off for one who does everything with attention and to the glory of God. For thus whatever he does prospers.

“Not so the ungodly, but rather like the chaff which

[Ps 1, continued] … neither the Hebrew nor any of the translators doubled the expression.

“Therefore the ungodly will not rise up in judgment,” and so on. Taking their start from here, the simpler among believers think that the ungodly will not attain to the resurrection, without making at all clear what they understand by the resurrection and what sort of judgment they imagine. For even if they seem to declare themselves on these matters, scrutiny will show that they cannot keep consistently to what follows. If, then, we ask them of what the resurrection takes place, they answer: of the bodies we now wear. Then, when we ask further whether of their whole substance or not, they say, before being examined: of the whole. But if, accommodating ourselves to their simplicity, we raise the further difficulty whether the blood that has flowed out in bloodlettings will rise as well, and the flesh and the hairs that ever existed, or only those we are burdened with at our departure, they take refuge in God’s doing whatever he wishes. The more noble among them, so as not to be forced to gather up in their account the very blood that has often come to be separated from our bodies, say that the body we have at our end will rise. We raised a further difficulty, because bodily nature is changeable: just as foods are assimilated into our body and change their likeness, so our bodies too are changed, and in carnivorous birds and beasts become parts of their bodies; and again those, eaten by human beings or other animals, change in turn and become bodies of human beings or of other animals; and since this goes on for a long time, the same body must often become part of many human beings. Whose body, then, will it be in the resurrection? And so we shall end up falling, without reason, into an abyss of nonsense. After these difficulties they take refuge in the saying that all things are possible to God, and they bring forward expressions of the Scriptures that, taken in the ready sense, can suggest what they think: for example, the one in Ezekiel: “And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and brought me out in the Spirit, and set me in the middle of the plain, and it was full of human bones. And he led me around them, round about; and behold, there were very many on the face of the plain; and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me: Son of man, will these bones live? And I said: Lord God, you know these things. And he said to me: Prophesy, son of man. And I said to them: You dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says Adonai the Lord to these bones: Behold, I bring into you the breath of life, and I will put sinews on you, and bring flesh upon you, and stretch skin over you, and I will put my spirit upon you, and

[Ps 1, continued] you shall live; and I will set you on your land, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” This saying, as the more plausible, they use; and they cite others from the Gospels, for example: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” and “Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna,” and what is in Paul: “He will give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.” But every lover of truth, applying his own mind to these things, must contend on the subject of the resurrection, both to preserve the tradition of the ancients and to guard against falling into the nonsense of poor notions, which are both impossible and unworthy of God.

On this topic, then, this must be grasped: every body that is held together by a nature which takes in something from outside, in the manner of food, and excretes other things in place of what is brought in — as the bodies of plants and animals do — never has the same material substrate. That is why the body has not badly been called a river: because, strictly speaking, perhaps not even for two days is the primary substrate in our body the same. And yet Paul, say, or Peter is always the same — not only in respect of the soul, whose substance on our view neither flows nor ever has anything brought into it — even though the nature of the body is in flux, because the form that characterizes the body is the same; so that the features too remain the same, presenting the bodily quality of Peter and of Paul. In virtue of this quality, scars from childhood remain on bodies, and other distinctive marks, moles, and anything else of the kind. This form, by which Peter and Paul are given their form — the bodily form — is put around the soul again in the resurrection, changed for the better; not at all this substrate that was ordered at the first. Just as the form is the same from infancy to the end, even if the features seem to have much variation, so we must understand in the present case that the form is the same as the one to come, though the change for the better will be very great. For the soul, existing in bodily places, must use bodies suited to those places. And just as, if we had to live in the sea, having become water-creatures, we would certainly need to have gills and the rest of the constitution of fish, so those who are to inherit the kingdom of heaven and to be in places that differ must use spiritual bodies, the earlier form not vanishing, even if its change is

[Ps 1, continued] to something more glorious; just as the form of Jesus, and of Moses and Elijah, was not other in the transfiguration than what it had been. Do not stumble, then, if someone says that the primary substrate will not be the same then, when reason shows those able to attend that not even now can the primary substrate remain the same for two days. It is worth attending also to this, that what is sown is of one kind and what rises of another: “For it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” And the Apostle adds to all this, all but teaching us that we are to put off the earthly quality while the form is preserved in the resurrection: “This I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.” For perhaps there will be about the saint that which is held together by what once gave its character to the flesh; but flesh it will no longer be: what was once given its character in the flesh will be given its character in the spiritual body.

And to the passages of the Scriptures that our brothers cite, these things may be said; first, to that in Ezekiel. As far as the simpler wish to take these expressions, there will not even be a resurrection of flesh, but only of bones and skins and sinews. At the same time it must be shown them that they are carried away, as not having understood what is written. For if bones are named, these bones are not necessarily to be understood, any more than in “All my bones have been scattered,” and “Heal me, for my bones are troubled,” where it is clear that bones are not spoken of in the common sense. Indeed, it is added to the saying: “Do they say, Our bones have become dry?” — do they say “our bones have become dry” because they wish to rise gathered together? But that is impossible. Rather, they would say “our bones have become dry” because they had been in captivities and had lost all vital moisture. They add, at any rate: “Our hope has perished; we are undone.” The promise, then, is of the resurrection of the people from its fall and from the deadness, so to speak, into which they had been put to death, handed over to their enemies for their sins. Sinners too are said by the Savior to be tombs full of bones and of all uncleanness; and it befits God to open the tombs of each, and to bring us out of the tombs made alive, as the Savior drew Lazarus out.

As for “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” this difficulty must be put to them: as in this life the Creator made every member for some use, so he made the teeth for cutting up solid food. What use, then, do those being punished have for teeth? For on their view, being in Gehenna, they will not eat. And it must be shown that not everything is to be taken according to the letter: “You broke the teeth of sinners,” and “The Lord crushed the molars of the lions.”

[Ps 1, continued] Who is so foolish as to suppose that God, while preserving the bodies of sinners, breaks only their teeth? Just as, then, someone who wanted these things to be so, when pressed, would be drawn to allegory, so we must seek what the gnashing of teeth of those being punished is: the soul has a power of chewing, and at the time when it is convicted of its sins it will gnash its teeth, as it were in a clashing of teeth, according to what it thought. The saying, “Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna,” perhaps teaches that the soul is incorporeal, and perhaps shows also that it will not be punished without a body; about which, in discussing nature, we have spoken of the form and the primary substrate. And the saying in the Apostle, “He will give life also to our mortal bodies,” since the body is mortal and has no share in the true life, can show that the bodily form of which we spoke, being by nature mortal, will itself also change, “when Christ our life is revealed,” from being a body of death, made alive through the life-giving Spirit, having become spiritual from the Spirit. And the saying, “But someone will say: How are the dead raised, and with what body do they come?” plainly shows that the primary substrate will not rise. For if we have understood the example rightly, we must say that the seminal principle in the grain of wheat, laying hold of the matter lying beside it and pervading the whole of it, having grasped it with its own form, imposes the powers it has on what was once earth and water and air and fire, and, overcoming their qualities, changes them into that of which it is itself the maker; and so the ear is completed, differing exceedingly from the grain it came from, in size and shape and variety.

Of the same. The judgment of the righteous is a passage from a practical body to angelic bodies; that of the ungodly, a transfer from a practical body to dark and gloomy bodies. For there will be raised the

[Ps 1, continued] ungodly, not in the first judgment but in the second … “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the ungodly will perish.” Nothing base is known by God; but the way of the righteous is. For “the Lord knew those who are his.” The way of the righteous is the one who said: “I am the way,” about whom it has been said: “See which is the good way.” The way of the ungodly is the one walked by those who speak evil of the Creator. He is ignorant of evil things and does not know them — not because he cannot grasp all things and embrace them in his mind (for it is unlawful even to think this of God), but because they are unworthy of his knowledge. Perhaps that is why (the word will say it rather boldly) he asks about things he does not know. For when Adam sinned, he does not know him, nor the place into which he had fallen in fleeing from God. That is why he says: “Adam, where are you?” Likewise in the Gospel he asks about things he does not know, since they are not worthy of his knowledge. For since he does not know the demon, nor its name, he asks what its name is, when it answers: “Legion is my name.” And before the woman with the flow of blood received her release, the gift of her healing, he asks, saying: “Who touched me?” God, then, is ignorant of the way of the unrighteous, but knows the way of the righteous. And what is the way of the righteous but the one who said, “I am the way,” whom the Father knows? “For no one has known the Son except the Father.” With what is said about God’s knowledge and ignorance the words that constantly occur in the prophecies will fit: the remembrance and the forgetting of God. For it is often said in prayers: “Remember me,” and “Why do you forget our poverty?” For he casts out of his remembrance those who sin, just as again he admits those who repent …

[Ps 2] “Why have the nations raged, and the peoples meditated vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ,” and so on. Coming upon two Hebrew copies, in one we found these words as the beginning of a second psalm, while in the other they were joined to the first. And in the Acts of the Apostles, “You are my son, today I have begotten you” was said to be of the first psalm. “For as it is written,” it says, “in the first psalm: You are my son, today I have begotten you.” The Greek copies, however, show that this is the second. This must not go unnoticed: that in the Hebrew no number stands beside any of the psalms — first, say, or second, or third. Who would be the speaker of words containing the prophecy about Christ? Either the Holy Spirit

[Ps 2, continued] or the prophet himself. From the diapsalma there is a change of speaker: it is Christ, as we shall show this too when we examine the words. And it is no wonder if in one psalm there is not one speaker; for this can be seen in many places, as we shall show as we go on. So much before the psalm; let us now consider its words.

The word says that four kinds of human beings set upon Christ: nations raging against him, peoples meditating vain things, kings of the earth standing up, with rulers gathered together. And we think that “nations” signifies people foreign to the faith, such as the soldiers who raged against him; “peoples,” those from the tribes of the mutilation (for they are not properly to be called the circumcision, since they did not accept the Savior), who meditated vain things, not having understood the Christ proclaimed in the prophetic words they meditated on; and “kings of the earth and rulers,” Herod and Pontius Pilate and the leaders of the people of the Jews. For the divine Peter the apostle too called these to mind in the Acts of the Apostles, when he cited the present passage. And if you say that the invisible powers too are meant, you will not be wrong. Indeed, the most wise Apostle attributed the crucifixion of Christ not so much to human beings as to ruling powers, saying: “We speak wisdom among the perfect; yet a wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has known; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” For what rulers crucified Christ, the Lord of glory, not knowing the wisdom of God and themselves supposed to have certain wisdoms, if not those called in the prophecies the ruler of the kingdom of the Persians and the ruler of the kingdom of the Greeks, and, by consequence, the rulers of the other nations? “The nations,” then, “raged”; that is, as Aquila translated more clearly, “were in uproar.” The word “raged” is onomatopoeic, expressing the inarticulate noise of people in uproar; for such are those who are agitated at the times when they plot against those they are fighting. And if the other translators had not said “were in uproar,” and, as Symmachus, “churns,” one might have taken “raged” as “boasted greatly,” as in one of the prophets we think the word means this: “according to the pride of the Jordan.” And since “he who denies the Son does not have the Father either,” and “he who receives” Christ “receives the one who sent him,” therefore he who makes war against Christ commits impiety against the Father.

[Ps 2, continued] Those, at any rate, who raged and meditated vain things and stood up together and were gathered together acted, as it seemed, against Christ alone; but what they did is reckoned to them as done first against the Father. That is why they are said to have done these things “against the Lord and against his Christ.”

We must not be unaware of the name pronounced among the Greeks with the title “Lord,” and among the Hebrews with the title “Adonai.” For God is named among the Hebrews by ten names, one of which is “Adonai,” which is translated “Lord.” And there are places where “Adonai” is said among the Hebrews and “Lord” among the Greeks, the word written in Scripture declaring this. But sometimes “Iah” stands, and it is pronounced with the title “Lord” among the Greeks, but not among the Hebrews, as in: “Praise the Lord, for a psalm is good.” For here it has said “Lord” in place of “Iah”; and the beginning of the psalm among the Hebrews is “Alleluia.” There is also among them a certain four-letter name that is not pronounced, which is also inscribed on the golden plate of the high priest; and it is spoken with the title “Adonai,” though this is not what is written in the four letters; and among the Greeks it is pronounced “Lord.” And in the more accurate of the copies the name stands in Hebrew characters — Hebrew, however, not those of today but the most ancient. For they say that Ezra in the captivity handed down to them other characters in place of the earlier ones. We have mentioned these things because the four-letter name stands as “Lord” in “But in the law of the Lord,” and in “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,” and now in “against the Lord and against his Christ.”

This must be noted: that the Seventy and Theodotion set everything in the past tense; Aquila some things in the past and others in the future; and Symmachus everything in the present. For it is the custom of the Seventy often to announce the prophecies about Christ as already accomplished, as in: “They gave gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. They divided my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots”; and: “A people I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me.” We think they speak so because God knows all things before they come to be, both his Christ and what would befall him in his becoming human, and so they are reckoned as already done to the one who suffered this and that. The same applies if the Holy Spirit were narrating what concerns him, as is the case in the present passage. We do not say this as though the prophecies about him never turned to the future tense: “For behold,” it says, “my servant will understand, and will be glorified, and will be exalted exceedingly,” and so on.

“Let us burst their bonds,” and so on. It seems to me that the angels who came down with the Savior,

[Ps 2, continued] being indignant at the plot against him by the invisible kings and rulers, spoke the first four verses, at the same time wondering why ever these things were happening. Then, since it was those powers who had bound human beings and laid their own yoke on them, the Son of God answers the angels, urging them to imitate him as he bursts the bonds of sinners and casts off their yoke. Let us too burst the bonds with which we were bound when we sinned, for each one is held fast by the cords of his own sins. And perhaps it is better to burst the bonds, as Samson did, than to loose them, as the sin of Jerusalem was loosed, because she received from the Lord’s hand double for her sins. The one who has cast off from himself the yoke just mentioned can take up the kind yoke of Jesus, and carry his light burden, and become his beast of burden; and the disciples will loose its bond.

“Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and in his anger he will trouble them,” and so on. The words of threats are words spoken in wrath. But God promises to repent of the evils he speaks of doing, if those who hear repent. God spoke in his wrath through Jonah to the Ninevites; and since they repented in sackcloth and ashes, they suffered none of what they had heard. And God foreknew, when he sent Jonah, the repentance that would come; clearly he sent Jonah for their salvation. Perhaps here too he will speak in his wrath to those who sin, for their salvation. For he did not say, “He will punish them in his wrath,” even if they repent.

Of the same. Anger differs from wrath, as those skilled in names also say, in that anger is wrath rising up like smoke and still being kindled, while wrath is a desire for retribution. Anger, then, is as it were less complete than wrath, and wrath is already near to its fulfillment. Here, as applied to our usage, “retribution” must be understood as the punishment of sins, and “desire” as will. That in divine Scripture too anger is something less than wrath is clear from its being said that rebuke comes with anger, and discipline with wrath: “Lord,” it says, “do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.” The one who still has hope of healing without torments is rebuked by a word that touches him; but the one who has gained nothing from rebuke needs the discipline that comes through whips and rods. “For all discipline seems for the present to be not of joy but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” God, then, will speak to those who have sinned, whom he laughs at and mocks while they are still in their transgressions and, through insensibility, are proud

[Ps 2, continued] of their own evils as though they were goods; he will speak to them in his wrath, and, showing his anger, he will trouble them. For he does not bring torments and punishments upon them all at once, since a word spoken beforehand in anger to turn them back can produce repentance in them through fear, before they have refused the healing that comes by gentler means. Writing to the Thessalonians, at any rate, the blessed Paul says about the Jews who crucified the Lord: “The wrath has come upon them to the end.” Or did not the wrath announced beforehand through the prophets come upon them, when they suffered every terrible and incurable thing at the hands of the Romans?

“Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession,” and so on. For he has been made heir of all as a man, by the economy, so that he might then recover as his own proper inheritance those on earth who had been impiously scattered by the devil and the evil powers with him. When this had been brought to its end, he says to his Father about us: “Those you gave me out of the world were yours, and you gave them to me.” See, then, how he rises, even with the flesh, to the wealth that is his by nature. For if those in the world were the Father’s, they would in some way be understood to belong also to the Word who counsels him; therefore he also said: “All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine; and I have been glorified in them.” How, then, is he commanded to ask, and receives nations as an inheritance, and makes the ends of the earth his possession? Because, when man had broken utterly away from his servitude under God, the Creator and Father, wishing to save him, sent into this present world the only-begotten Word, so that, having become flesh and been contained, while remaining by nature unchanged, he might proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. So even if he is said to receive, and to be made heir, because of his humanity, let us not be ignorant of the economy.

Of the same. By the inheritance he means the rational nature, which itself also inherits wisdom, and likewise knowledge and truth and righteousness. And the inheritance of the rational nature is the contemplation of bodily and bodiless things, and of God, the cause of them all.

“You will shepherd them with a rod of iron; like a potter’s vessels you will shatter them,” and so on. In the Apostle too the sterner treatment, which sinners need and the weaker of those who are thought to have believed, is called a rod, when he says: “What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?” And still earlier, in the Prophet, the divine word threatens sinners with a rod and whips, while not withdrawing mercy from their Father, that is, from Christ, since they need such healing. “For I will visit their iniquities with a rod,” he says,

[Ps 2, continued] “and their sins with whips; but my mercy I will not scatter from him.” That is why Christ himself is called a rod in Isaiah. But since some do not need the harsh treatment, showing themselves worthy of the kindness of the word’s contemplations, he is also called a flower by the same prophet: “For a rod will come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower will come up from the root, and the Spirit of God will rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and godliness, and a spirit of the fear of God will fill him.” The more beastlike of those who come to God through Christ, then, need a rod to shepherd them.

It is necessary next to explain how the Father, who gives the Son the nations as his inheritance and the ends of the earth as his possession, says to him: “Like a potter’s vessel you will shatter them.” For who gives an inheritance so that it may be shattered by the heir? We must show from the Scriptures, then, that the shattering of some is for their benefit. We have found in the fiftieth psalm: “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a broken and humbled heart God will not despise”; and in another prophet the command: “Howl from the breaking of your spirit.” There is, then, a spirit in us that must be broken, so that, once broken, it may become a sacrifice to God. And what else could this be but the worse spirit, which seems sound while it is at work, but is broken when by the word of God we have shattered its powers? There is also at times a heart in us that is proud over wicked doctrines, built up into the unity of a connected system, harmfully thought to be whole and lofty; it must be broken and humbled, so that, having thus put off what made it deserve to be despised by God, it may be brought near to him who rewards those who perceive their own state, who blame their wicked disposition and flee for refuge to the kindness of God, who alone can do them good. From what has been said, “Howl from the breaking of your spirit” is also clear. In the same way, then, as a broken spirit is to be offered to God as a sacrifice, and God does not despise a broken and humbled heart, because it has come to be rightly in this state, and accepts a howl sent up from the breaking of the spirit, so we shall understand a certain shattering that Christ works in obedience to the one who gave him the nations as his inheritance and the ends of the earth as his possession: he shatters what is earthy and material, which has attached itself to the soul from the passions and the marks of vice, by which they were idolaters and sexually immoral. For it is said in the seventy-seventh psalm: “When he killed them, then they sought him, and they turned back and rose early to God; and they remembered that God is their helper, and God the Most High their redeemer.” It is not absurd, then, to be killed in this way,

[Ps 2, continued] Of the same. If he shepherds according to the promise of God, then Christ is a shepherd. He is a shepherd who shepherds with a rod of iron, and a good shepherd.

Of the same. The rod of God is his authority, the punishment of the disobedient, that is, on the cross; for its material is wood, but its strength is iron.

“And now, kings, understand; be instructed, all who judge the earth,” and so on. It is not foreign to the Savior’s kindness to say to the kings of the earth who stood up, with the rulers gathered together against him: “And now, kings, understand” — that is: if before, in ignorance, you plotted, now understand and repent. But since “of the earth” is not added, perhaps by “kings” he means the saints; for properly a king is one who knows how to rule without being accountable to another. And how is he not a king who inherits the kingdom of heaven and will be in the kingdom of God? The saint, striving to reign, must begin with himself and his own impulses. For he must first reign over these, no longer ruled by sin, which has been practiced in reigning in our mortal body. “Be made knowing,” as Aquila rendered it, seems more emphatic than “understand,” commanding them to take up a knowledge proper to no one else than to kings.

“Be instructed, all who judge the earth.” In the same way as we took the kings in two senses, we can also understand those who judge the earth. Either the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ would be called judges of the earth, since judging is the proper work of rulers; or the judges of the earth are the saints, as we shall show. “Be instructed” means either “hand yourselves over to instruction and teaching,” or “to the punishments that instruct those who need such remedies.” One will reasonably ask whether someone is commanded to be instructed by the instruction that comes through punishments, and to hand himself over to it willingly. To this inquiry, since several difficulties arise in this passage, we must answer that perhaps some, being children, are dragged to such instruction even against their will; and these are those of whom the Prophet says: “If his sons forsake my law, and do not walk in my judgments; if they profane my statutes and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with a rod and their sins with whips; but my mercy I will not scatter from him.” And perhaps some, coming to a sense of their own failings, hand themselves over, as those needing healing, to the one who has this skill, for the most painful treatments, which are able to make them better. I think that among these are those spoken of in

[Ps 2, continued] Isaiah: “They will wish that they had been burned with fire”; and those who pray, according to Jeremiah, and say: “Instruct us, Lord, but with judgment, and not in anger, so that you do not make us few.” For in refusing the painful and the more severe, they do not by these words refuse punishments altogether. Let us consider whether the voice that says, “I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I sinned against him, until he justifies my cause,” is not that of those who are punished willingly. Perhaps, then, those who judge the earth will not be instructed unless they hand themselves over to be instructed.

But since we were more inclined to take the kings called to understanding as the saints, let us likewise consider those who judge the earth. We find that this is proper to the saints: to judge, by the good they have done, those who did not strive for the like. “For the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment and condemn the people of this generation, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here,” says the Savior. And: “The queen of the south will be raised in the judgment and will condemn the people of this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” So the Ninevites and the queen of the south are among those who judge the people who heard the Savior and did not change, and who despised the teaching of Jesus. Perhaps in this way too the apostles of Christ will judge the twelve tribes of Israel that do not believe in Christ. And those who have believed throughout the whole earth will judge the whole earth, each in his own part judging the unbelievers there. The word, then, calls those who judge the earth to the instruction that comes through the handing on of knowledge, as Solomon too in Proverbs says to the same end: “Receive instruction, and not silver, and knowledge rather than tested gold.”

Of the same. Or he calls them to repentance, and calls them kings, persuading them to return to the dignity they had. Understand, then, O kings, why the nations have been given to me as an inheritance.

“Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in him with trembling,” and so on. To some it will seem that one who serves is certainly a slave, especially here, since “with fear” is added, and the one who has received a spirit of slavery is “in fear.” And it will not seem so falsely. But a son too can serve. And fear is not the only cause of serving; love is too. By love, at any rate, the Apostle teaches us to serve one another. Indeed, our Savior and Lord himself was in the midst of his disciples not as one reclining at table but as one who serves, serving and washing their feet. And it is not permissible to say that he did this anywhere from fear; for it is clear that it was by perfect love

[Ps 2, continued] that he did these things. If, then, those named “kings of the earth” earlier are now also called kings, the command to serve the Lord with fear can be given to them, as to slaves who from the beginning are unable to receive the spirit of adoption. And in their case “with fear” must be taken as the fear that brings punishment: the one who fears this has punishment and has not been made perfect. What follows, “Rejoice in him with trembling,” must be understood in the same way. But if the kings are the saints, and those who judge the earth are those interpreted in the explanation above, since sons too can serve the Lord, then “fear” must be taken in the sense of what some call reverence, which in no way brings punishment. That the fear which does not bring punishment is named in Scripture as the achievement of the perfect is clear from: “There is no want for those who fear him.” We shall seem to force the sense, because “with trembling” is added. But perhaps the perfect are the kings, while those who are still trained by fear are the judges of the earth, whom the Savior commands to rejoice, not loosely nor unrestrainedly, so that they may not fall into slackness and conceit, but “with trembling” and, as it were, with restraint, considering that one can fall, if divine oversight should abandon the one who has come to be in something worthy of rightful exaltation. The word “rejoice” is from the usage of Scripture; we think it is joy in the mind, which has fellowship with the Holy Spirit in the soul, who rejoices with a saint.

“Lay hold of instruction, lest the Lord be angry, and you perish from the righteous way,” and so on. By “be instructed” he presents progress, and by “lay hold of instruction” perfection. To one who observes carefully it is clear that the one who is imperfect in instruction and not yet progressing can still have a share in the Lord’s wrath, but the perfect cannot have a share in it. For if someone is commanded to lay hold of instruction so that the Lord may not be angry with him, he may indeed share in the wrath if he does not lay hold of instruction, even though he is progressing in instruction; for it is the full grasp of instruction that frees completely from the sufferings that come from wrath, not the introduction and beginning of instruction. For one who is still being instructed is certainly imperfect, and being imperfect he can experience the wrath of God. But since “righteous” is not added either in the Hebrew or in the other translations, we suspect that the Seventy either added it by design or that the copies have been corrupted. By design, so that we may understand it thus: “If you do not lay hold of instruction, you will perish from the righteous way and fall from it, the Lord having become angry with you.” But strictly speaking, if the wrath of God is instructive, how will someone perish from the righteous way because the Lord has become angry? It is not at all because of the wrath that you will perish from the righteous way; rather, this will follow upon you because of your sins. If “righteous” is not read, since those who have not laid hold of instruction are certainly on a way that is not

[Ps 2, continued] good, it can be said implicitly that, if you do not lay hold of instruction, the Lord will be angry, so that you perish from the way in which you are spending your time, and are no longer on it.

“When his anger is quickly kindled, blessed are all who trust in him,” and so on. Even if anger is mentioned after wrath, it is clear to one who observes the phrasing of Scripture that anger is kindled first, and that when God has become wrathful someone perishes from the way. The kindling of the anger “quickly,” or its subsiding after a little while or a short time, teaches the punishment after the departure from this life.

“Blessed are all who trust in him,” and so on. “Trust” must be understood as expressing a faith joined with a knowledge free from suspicion, most firm, settled and unshaken, in which the one who trusts does not despair of the Lord’s coming to him even in what seem the hardest times, with nothing drawing him away.

[Ps 3] “A psalm of David, when he fled from the face of Absalom his son,” and so on. The psalm seems to have been spoken by David when he fled from the face of Absalom his son. But it is not possible to preserve everything in the psalm in relation to the history; for what does “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord will help me” contribute to the matter at hand? And if someone wishes to be a slave to the letter, seeking nothing beyond it, let him show how the Prophet speaks truly when he says: “You broke the teeth of sinners.” We must inquire who David is, and who Absalom, and what his attack on his father is, and the flight of the king who bore meekly the rebellion of the son who desired his kingdom, and commanded those under him to spare the young man Absalom. In many places of Scripture we have found that David is Christ, as in the eighty-eighth psalm: “I have found David my servant; with my holy oil I anointed him. For my hand will help him, and my arm will strengthen him. The enemy will gain nothing against him, and the son of lawlessness will not again do him harm. And I will cut down his enemies before his face, and I will put to flight those who hate him. And my truth and my mercy will be with him, and in my name his horn will be exalted. And I will set his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers. He will call upon me: You are my Father; and I will make him firstborn, high above the kings of the earth. Forever I will keep my mercy for him, and my covenant will be faithful to him. And I will establish his seed forever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.” And in Isaiah, who says:

[Ps 3, continued] “And a throne will be set right with mercy, and he will sit on it with truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking judgment and hastening righteousness.” Since David the man lived long before Isaiah, it is not he who is prophesied as one who is going to judge, but Christ, to whom the Father gave “authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” And in Ezekiel Christ is clearly said to be David, in the vision addressed to the shepherds whom the word blames for not having managed the sheep well. Next let us see who Absalom, the son of David, is. Some will think that he is an image of Judas the traitor, others of the devil. Melito of Asia, for one, says …

“Lord, why have those who afflict me multiplied? Many rise up against me; many say to my soul: There is no salvation for him in his God,” and so on. As far as the letter goes, these things are said by David as he flees from Absalom, who had risen up against him, when two hundred chosen men went from Jerusalem with Absalom, going in their simplicity, who did not know anything, all of whom afflicted David. But we have rather taken these words as spoken in the person of David, as we showed in our remarks on the title. As far as the history goes, those who afflict David, multiplying, are the many who joined Absalom; and those who set themselves against him are Ahithophel and Shimei and Tekon, and any other of those who had great power. Those who say that there is no salvation for him in God may be others besides those who afflict and rise up against him, who did not follow Absalom at all but gave David up as defeated and said these things. Those who afflicted the Savior in the flesh are the Jews who cried out: “Away, away with such a one from the earth.” Judas the traitor and Caiaphas rose up against him. Those who said to his soul that there is no salvation were those who passed by at the time of the passion, saying: “Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.” But one may understand in a higher way the different kinds of people who afflict and rise up against him and despair of salvation being in him, thus: all the leaders and teachers of doctrines other than the teachings of Christ would be those who rise up against him; those who approve of them and are taught by their teaching are those who afflict him. Those who do not believe — without teaching the contrary, or being taught falsehoods — that there is divinity in the teaching of Christ, would be said to say to his soul that there is no salvation for him in God: either for him, in the history that reports the wonders of his coming, or in the word of his teaching, that there is not the salvation it promises. All sinners, however, can also be those who afflict him in another way.

[Ps 3, continued] And just as a wicked son afflicts his father, not with the intention of harming him, but because of the father’s affection it follows that he is certainly afflicted at the son’s sins, in the same way the wickedness of each sinner afflicts the Son of God. The more someone is engaged in good works and sound doctrines, the more, as a greater man, he is afflicted by more people, many rising up against him, so that many again may say, “There is no salvation for him in God,” despairing of his case, as though he could not be harmed toward salvation by any of these things. God permits many to afflict the righteous man, giving him an occasion of the weight of glory that comes from surpassing afflictions. And if ever the righteous man in perplexity should say to God, “Why have those who afflict me multiplied?” — while he is still speaking God will say: “Here I am, so that the momentary lightness of affliction may work for you, beyond all measure, a weight of glory.” That is also why “many are the afflictions of the righteous.” If there is a salvation, but not in God, “in God” is rightly added.

“But you, Lord, are my helper, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head,” and so on. If David says it, the voice befits the Prophet’s faith, as he bears such great hardships unshaken and trusts that he will not be forsaken, but, besides being helped, will be glorified in God and exalted, restored to the kingdom. But if it is Christ who speaks, … to be persuaded in this way both about rising again, as about being plotted against by men, and about not being forsaken, since the Father would help him and restore him to the glory he had from the beginning, and exalt him, or rather highly exalt him, as the Apostle too says: “Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The glory of those who think they are in glory differs: one might say that his glory is his country, another his family, another his beauty; and there are those who have thought the strength of the body and the art of bodily contest to be their own glory, priding themselves on having thrown so many opponents. And why list the things in which those who do not know God pride themselves, whose “glory is often in their shame,” according to the Apostle? But the glory of the saint is God, in whom he trusts — not believed in at random, but by a faith reckoned as righteousness, through which one can see signs of God’s presence and of fellowship with his power. For example, the glory of Moses was God, who bore witness to the prophet’s friendship even to his face, before the whole people of the Hebrews and the Egyptians openly. And the glory of Elijah the prophet was God, when he raised the widow’s son, and when he prayed for

[Ps 3, continued] rain, and obtained his request as soon as he asked. For God says: “Those who glorify me I will glorify.” It is no less a matter of God’s being openly the glory of those who minister wondrous powers …

“With my voice I cried to the Lord, and he heard me from his holy mountain,” and so on. It is worth asking why the two half-verses were not placed before the words said earlier; for it would be very natural for the prayer to be placed before the thanksgiving for the benefits. The difficulty may be solved thus: what is said here is not a prayer, but a report that the prayer was made. For since a prayer was made in silence, and the one who brought his petition to God obtained it as soon as he prayed, receiving what he wished, he rightly, having obtained it, places his thanksgiving to God before his account to men of what he had prayed for. If it had been the other way round, and as soon as he had obtained what he asked he had told how he prayed, and only after that given thanks, he would have weakened the petition owed promptly in thanksgiving by first telling us, who would read it, how he prayed. But the difficulty is better solved thus: the beginning of the psalm contains a prayer; then, after the prayer, from the diapsalma on there is thanksgiving for having obtained what he asked; and when the thanksgiving is finished, the Prophet turns to us and narrates in what way he prayed and was heard.

Let us consider, according to the letter, “With my voice I cried to the Lord,” and what follows, in accordance with the usage of Scripture, and what it means that the saints often prayed to God with a cry. One may consider in this connection also that Jesus stood and cried out, saying: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” The Apostle gives us starting points when he says that the Spirit in the hearts of the saints universally cries, “Abba, Father,” so that there is an intelligible cry, an intense one, which is a voice of the soul, which it perhaps uses when it has laid aside the instrument through which it utters such things. And we think that the rational process taking place in the ruling part of the soul is the voice of the soul; and if it is more substantial, and proceeds about greater things and not about those lying below and lowly, it would be the intelligible cry. Those who cry to God with this cry are heard, unless by the economy they are left, so as to carry off greater crowns in greater contests, as is said in Habakkuk: “How long, Lord, shall I cry, and you will not hear? I will shout to you when I am wronged, and you will not save me? Why have you shown me toils and pains, to look upon misery and ungodliness?” The Savior too always utters this cry in great doctrines; thus the Word of God stands always crying out, as

[Ps 3, continued] Wisdom too does in Solomon — Wisdom which is the same as the Word of God in subsistence — calling with a lofty proclamation to the mixing bowl, saying: “Whoever of you is foolish, let him turn aside to me”; and to those lacking sense I give command, saying: “Come, eat of my bread, and drink the wine I have mixed for you.” The intense voice, then, of the one who speaks in the psalm to the Lord is heard from nowhere else than from the holy mountain, that is, from heaven, since elsewhere too it is said: “He will hear him from his holy heaven.” And he hears from on high, since it is written: “He will hear him from on high and from his holy temple.”

“I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord will help me,” and so on. We think that the words have nothing human in them that follows the history about David when he fled from the face of Absalom, if we wish to keep the person of David by the letter; and on this account we could put to shame even those who are unwilling, compelling them to raise the history to a higher sense and to accept that what is announced is certainly spoken in the person of Christ. But so that we may not seem to betray the reading that can be preserved according to the letter, these things too must be said. We say, then, that David says these things accusing himself, because he was not watchful about the kingdom and did not apply the attention required, so that Absalom had an opportunity to attack, and he suffered these things through Absalom’s attack. “For while I was lying down,” he says, “and sleeping, these things befell me. But I rose up, since the Lord will help me; and having risen, I will not fear the myriads of people who attack me.” And what follows will seem to be preserved without forcing. These things we think are interpreted as to the letter; but as to the higher sense, as we said before, they are announced in the person of the Lord, now narrating his own lying down and his sleep in the passion. Let us first consider the difference between lying down and sleep as it is understood according to the letter: lying down is with respect to rest, about which Paul also says, “We shall all fall asleep, but we shall not all be changed”; sleep is a relaxing of the soul as it loosens itself from the body and slackens its tension, because it cannot bear the strain without pause. In Job especially we suppose the difference is presented, in these words: “Now I would have lain down and been at rest; and having slept I would have ceased, with kings, counselors of the earth.” We needed the difference between lying down and sleeping in order to understand how it would be shown in the case of the Savior. It is usual for the departure from this life to be called a falling asleep, and we remember that sometimes it is also called sleep. “He fell asleep,” it says, “with his fathers”; and: “Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, into the holy city, and appeared to many”; and: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”;

[Ps 3, continued] and: “We shall all fall asleep.” And sleep, since sleeping (καθεύδειν) is the same as slumbering: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will rise.” This is to be compared with what is said of the saints who had fallen asleep. Sleep, however, apart from the sense of the departure from life, also signifies the inattention of the soul, attention being called wakefulness. For the divine word, wishing us to guard against inattention, says: “Do not give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, so that you may be saved like a gazelle from the noose, and like a bird from the snare.” And the Prophet, wishing to present the slackness and laxity of sinners, says: “They slept their sleep and found nothing”; and: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Analogous to the sleep of inattention is the drowsiness of the soul, which Solomon forbids, teaching us to give not only no sleep to our eyes but also no slumber. And the Hymn-writer himself, putting the word “slumber” in a context of blame, says: “All who mounted horses slumbered.”

We say, then, that our Savior Jesus Christ “lay down” in the common death which he died for us, and “slept” when his soul was separated from his body. For just as those who sleep, while the body lies still, are active in the soul, following certain images that come upon them, and do something without needing the body at all, in the same way — the image not being alike in every respect to that of which it is an image, but so that the activity without the body may be shown, of the soul that was separated from it and in this sense was asleep — after “I lay down” comes “I slept.” And what wonder is it if, in the Savior’s case, such sleep is not complete inactivity of the soul, but inactivity only as regards using the body as an instrument? For it is active by itself and on its own, as is shown also by what Job says in the same sense: “Why did I not pass from the womb to the grave? Now I would have lain down and been at rest; having slept I would have rested with kings, counselors of the earth, who gloried in swords, and with rulers whose gold was abundant.” For if he did not understand that there is some activity of the soul in which it rested, enjoying certain good things with such people, he would not have said, “Having slept I would have rested with kings, counselors of the earth, who gloried in swords.” These would be holy soldiers of godliness, using the word that is sharper than any two-edged sword against every word opposed to the truth. And the rulers whose gold was abundant would be interpreted as those who excel the many and in this respect are rulers, being called rich in thoughts and in contemplations of the truth. It is no wonder, then, that the Savior also says, “I lay down and slept,” being much more active for the salvation of souls even at the time of his separation from the body, according to what is said in the Catholic Epistle of Peter: “In which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison,”

[Ps 3, continued] “to those who once disobeyed, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being built, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were brought safely through water.” After this falling asleep the Father, helping him, raised him up.

“I will not fear the myriads of the people who set themselves against me round about,” and so on. A voice befitting a saint who has attained a very great virtue, fearlessness, through trust in God; like this one: “If an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear.” And the Savior, knowing in the Spirit the myriads of the people of the mutilation who demanded that he be crucified, and seeing his own calm (I say this according to the flesh), might say these words. And if someone perceives the multitude of the darts thrown by the enemies, attacking the soul and troubling it and tossing it like waves, he might well utter at the right time, taking refuge in God: “I will not fear the myriads of the people who set themselves against me round about.”

“Arise, Lord, save me, my God, for you struck all who are hostile to me without cause; you broke the teeth of sinners,” and so on. Consulting the Hebrew, we found nothing that could mean “without cause.” For what does the word “without cause” have in common with “jaw”? And the others have put it as the Hebrew has it. It is likely, then, as some of the Hebrews say, either that the ancient copies had it otherwise, or that the Seventy, avoiding the coarseness of the expression, ventured to put “without cause” instead of “jaw.” Let us understand the text, then, according to the Seventy, and let us go through how one must take what is said in a more human manner about God; from which it is easy to see how it is said, “Arise, Lord, save me, my God.” For when, so to speak, he is asleep toward us, when he has handed us over to the opposing powers for the sake of testing, he rouses himself. And perhaps when he handed over the Savior for us all, the Father was asleep toward him; but he arises, saving him and striking his enemies, whether those of the circumcision or the invisible powers hostile to the truth. There is no account at all of an enemy for the saint; for with those who hate peace the saint is peaceable, loving his enemies. Someone might seem to be hostile to another not “without cause,” whether we examine our enemy in a more human way or in a more godly way: in a more human way, when, turning on the one who began to do some harm, he wishes to retaliate; for thus he would be supposed to be hostile not “without cause” to the one who had wronged him; in a more godly way, if someone should become an enemy because of the truth, as the Apostle says, “I have become your enemy by telling you the truth,” and: “Did I not hate those who hate you, Lord?” And

[Ps 3, continued] we must inquire whether there are some who hate God; no one would admit this, not even the completely unjust and godless. Who, then, are those who hate the Lord? Who openly hate Jesus and curse him? What is done to him is certainly referred to the Father. And everyone who sins hates God, either cheapening wisdom, that is, Christ, or hating righteousness and working lawlessness. And since Christ is righteousness, he who hates Christ, righteousness, hates God. Now that it is clear who hates God, unless we examine closely what “Did I not hate those who hate you, Lord?” means, we shall hate all human beings except a few, since those marked out by their works as loving God are very rare. And what could be more absurd than this, to turn away from everyone, and, if one must say so, from oneself too? For each one, examining his own case fairly, will be found to hate God. Perhaps, then, we must think that the things that hate God are not persons but the evils that have befallen rational beings: for example, injustice hates God, and the unjust man hates God insofar as he is unjust, since the injustice in him does this. We must, then, hate such accidents, which are our enemies first of all, “with a perfect hatred,” that is, one that comes from perfection. For just as righteousness and self-control come from perfection, so does such hatred. We have said these things in examining “You struck those who are hostile to me without cause”: all who are hostile to someone are hostile without cause. Such is the saying: “They hated me without a cause.” And the broken teeth of sinners are of the same kind as those of which it is said: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The teeth of sinners are irrational thoughts that come upon us contrary to nature; using these as teeth, the adversaries often come near us to eat our flesh, that is, what grows from the flesh: “Now the works of the flesh are evident,” says the divine Apostle.

“Salvation is the Lord’s, and your blessing is upon your people,” and so on. The one who is persuaded that salvation is the Lord’s — for which reason too “our God is a God who saves,” for “the ways out of death are the Lord’s” — also knows what trusting in the sons of men means, in whom there is no salvation. And his blessing is upon his people, being spiritual, “in the heavenly places in Christ.”

[Ps 4] “For the end, in psalms, an ode of David,” and so on. Since many psalms have the title “for the end” according to the Seventy, and according to the others the renderings that correspond to “for the end,” it is worth tracing out, as far as possible, the meaning signified

[Ps 4, continued] by the expression. We must know that, just as every art and science has its end, toward which one who genuinely pursues the art or the science hastens, so the rational nature too must have an end; and this is to be made alive in Christ, according to the Apostle. We think, then, that the psalms entitled “for the end” bear in their title a sense of the end and call those who understand what is said to it. For everyone who contends, the end is victory. Since, then, as we showed before, Christ is called David, the psalms entitled “for the end, of David” announce the end and the victory of Christ, who would be called “the victor” according to Aquila, since he has won victory for everyone who is conquered; for the one conquered by Christ has conquered the evil that befell him and destroys it, being subject to Christ. For Christ conquers no one against his will, but by persuading, since he is the Word of God. To this victory, Theodotion says, are entitled the hymns or psalms that among the Seventy are entitled “for the end”; and Symmachus would say that these psalms or odes are Christ’s “victory songs.” And if they are said to be “for the end” not only of David but also of Asaph or of the sons of Korah, it is not absurd for us to understand what is said here of all the saints too, who have received the image of Christ.

“In psalms,” as the Seventy and Aquila say, I think is announced more clearly by Symmachus’s “with psalteries,” the three teaching us that this ode or melody was spoken to the instruments called psalteries. For we must look for several instruments by which the “for the end,” or the “victory song,” or the “to the victor” is sung. Theodotion’s “for the victory, in hymns” can also show this. This ode, then, or melody, or psalm, having the theme described, announces what we have explained before: in a more common way for the prophet David, in a more mystical way for Christ, who takes on the person of the saints, sometimes regarding their afflictions as his own, and their enlargements in them (since it is the voice of the saints, “Afflicted in every way, but not crushed”), and sometimes turning back the heavy-hearted and those who love vain things. The difference between the words “ode” and “melody” hardly needs inquiry. For “ode” signifies the inflection of the speaker’s voice, and “melody” perhaps also the art of the mystical tune sung in … According to the laws of the higher sense, the well-ordered way of life, examined according to reason, lived to the glory of God, with sound doctrines and with words useful to others, would be the melody.

“When I called, the God of my righteousness heard me,” and so on. The speaker is either the Prophet or Christ, according to

[Ps 4, continued] the economy he undertook for us. The words show that he is heard not after he has called, but while he is calling. For to the saints, who obey the divine commands in everything, the promise has been proclaimed according to the prophet Isaiah: “While you are still speaking, I will say: Here I am.” It is worth seeing also what calling upon means, since those who have not examined the Scripture think it is the act of anyone whatever who inclines to pray; but the Prophet makes it most clear that calling upon belongs to the saints, who will certainly be saved: “For everyone,” he says, “who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” For if “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved,” the one who is not saved did not call upon the name of the Lord, even if he often seemed to have done so. For calling upon the name of the Lord is not judged by the voice, but by the disposition of the one who speaks and by firm faith. Thus in the ninety-eighth psalm calling upon the Lord is ascribed not to ordinary people but to Samuel, who was so honored by God as to be numbered with Moses his friend, as Jeremiah says: “Not even if Moses and Samuel should stand before my face, praying for these ungodly people, will I hear them, says the Lord.” It is written, then, about him: “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he heard them; in a pillar of cloud he spoke to them. They kept his testimonies and the ordinances he gave them. Lord our God, you heard them; O God, you were gracious to them.” For since they kept his testimonies and the ordinances he gave them, when they prayed they were reckoned among those who call upon him. And in the hundred and forty-fourth psalm we are taught more exactly who this one who calls upon him is: “The Lord is near to those who call upon him in truth” — as though some do not call upon him in truth. “For not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” For one says “Lord” perfectly when the works too speak and say “Lord, Lord.” It is clear here, then, that the one who calls upon the Lord has righteousness, and true righteousness. And if Christ is righteousness, the righteous man shares in righteousness, that is, in Christ. So that “O God of my righteousness” may not be a boast, we can make use of “who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and redemption”; and it will be equivalent to “the God of my Lord.”

“In affliction you enlarged me; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer,” and so on. Divine Scripture seems, in its own way, without prying into a person’s choice, to call “affliction” the trouble that befalls the saint for the sake of training; what befalls the sinner it calls a scourge. “Many,

[Ps 4, continued] it says, “are the afflictions of the righteous”; and: “Many are the scourges of the sinner.” For example, we shall say that what Job suffered, and what Joseph suffered in Egypt, were afflictions; but what David suffered because of Uriah’s wife and because he numbered the people were scourges. We must observe, however, lest it escape us that in Scripture affliction is sometimes assigned to sinners and the scourge to those already righteous. That the trial given to the saints in their contests is called affliction we are moved to say by many sayings, others besides those already quoted. For it is no wonder if the scourge touches sons who have sinned, as Solomon says: “He scourges every son whom he receives.” And again we must take care to call scourges what befell the Egyptians because of Israel, since being scourged belongs to sons. And in the … psalm it is said: “If his sons forsake my law, and do not walk in my judgments; if they profane my statutes and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with a rod.” This being said, being afflicted would not be among the things in our power; but being displeased and giving way is among the blameworthy things in our power, which the Scriptures call being crushed. Not giving way, and moreover rejoicing in afflictions, since they are occasions of greater prizes and promises, is the work of saints, as the Apostle says: “Afflicted in every way, but not crushed.” And blaming the Corinthians, he says that being crushed comes upon them, saying: “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.” Then, exhorting them by the example of the saint’s condition, he says: “You too, be enlarged.” Here too, then, the Prophet gives thanks to God, who helped him and granted breadth to his will in a time of affliction. For God enlarges not by putting an end to the evils, but by giving greatness of soul.

“Sons of men, how long will you be heavy-hearted? Why do you love vanity and seek falsehood?” and so on. One will think that “sons of men” is said by periphrasis, as is the custom among the Greeks too: “sons of the Achaeans.” Others, starting from the Savior, who is often called Son of Man, will wish to trace the reason why human beings too are often called, not simply “men,” but “sons of men.” For in the case of the Savior his being named Son of Man could not be a periphrasis, since it is said: “He gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” We must, then, know this in general: that the name “man,” when the saints are called gods, is taken as blame; but when sinners are called cattle and beasts, it is placed as good praise. An example of the former: “I said, You are gods, and sons of the Most High, all of you; but you will die like men, and fall like one of the

[Ps 4, continued] rulers”; and: “For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and walking according to man?” An example of the second: “Man and beast you will save, O Lord.” For the first person named in Scripture as a son of man, a definite person, called by God in the present expression, we find to be Daniel, and after him Ezekiel, prophets who lived in the captivity; but no one before the captivity, as far as we know from the undisputed parts of the inspired books in our hands, is called by this name. And what need is there to speak of the Savior, since the Gospels are full of this expression? We think that, because those in the captivity had become sinners, Daniel alone, as having preserved the dignity of human nature, made according to the image and likeness, hears “Son of man,” to their reproach. The same must be said of Ezekiel too. For the one first named “man” is the one made by God according to the image and likeness, and thus he would be man in the proper sense. We must consider also, in the case of the Savior, whether his humanity is “Son of man” because the human element of the image of the invisible God is a man’s father. The saying, “Both the earthborn and the sons of men,” shows a superiority of the sons of men over the earthborn. But as to the letter, since here they are rebuked when they hear “How long will you be heavy-hearted?” and so on, it will seem that objections about the sons of men have not been rightly raised, unless we must take “man” in two senses, as the Apostle took it when he said: “The first man was from the earth, made of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those of dust; and as is the heavenly man, so are those who are heavenly.” Again, since the sons of men are commanded to know that the Lord “has made wonderful his holy one,” it will be asked how those who are sons of men in the worse sense are commanded to do the work of the holiest. For to know that the Lord has made wonderful his holy one is an achievement of the holiest. But this is easy to solve, since the same person can, while among the worse, be a son of man according to the man of dust, and, having changed, which is not impossible, become a son of man according to the heavenly man. These sons of men in the second sense, being sons of the one from the earth, made of dust, would rightly be called heavy-hearted, loving vanity and seeking falsehood. For the mind of the flesh is in them, and bodily deceit, and the seeking of the enemy of truth, that is, of falsehood. For the heavy-hearted are those who have in their heart the lawlessness that sits on a talent of lead, which, as being heavier, will sink with the Egyptians like lead in the mighty water of the waves of life. Opposed to the heavy-hearted are those who are under the light yoke of Jesus. And perhaps, since those who have been made disciples are sons of the one who made them disciples,

[Ps 4, continued] while those who teach are themselves according to the image and likeness of God, those who have been made disciples but have not become worthy of their teachers would be reproached as heavy-hearted sons of man, not having followed the starting points given them for the heart to become pure. For it is customary for those who are being taught and do not follow what is said to be called heavy-hearted by their teachers, because of the thickness of their heart. For this reason too they seek falsehood, as not seeing the truth. And, more deeply, since the Savior is the truth, it is clear that his enemy would be a false word professing the truth, which John often calls antichrist. And if one takes “sons of men” by periphrasis, in place of “men,” the psalm blames heavy-heartedness as being for the most part among human beings, so that, casting off their hardness of hearing, so to speak, they may achieve quick-wittedness, and, withdrawing the soul’s power of seeking from the things they should not seek, which are all false, may bring it over to what they should, and seek the truth.

“The Lord will hear me when I cry to him,” and so on. A great voice that reaches to God is not the one that is loud among men and strained by a greater striking of the air, but the pure and untroubled process of the ruling part of the soul, of the words sent up to God. For we must know that there is also a voice of the hidden part of a person’s heart, which does not make use of the body; and at times, having gathered yourself into yourself, entered your inner room, shut the door of the senses, and become wholly outside the body, you send it up to the One who alone hears such a voice. That is why, though no audible voice of Moses is recorded, God says to him, as we have learned from Exodus: “Why do you cry to me?” But every voice is small that is a process concerned with earthly, small, and lowly things, and a request to God about them; the Savior forbids offering this to the Father, saying: “Ask for the great things, and the small will be added to you; ask for the heavenly things, and the earthly will be added to you.”

“Be angry, and do not sin,” and so on. The expression “be angry” signifies the imperative predicate; it also signifies what is called the indicative, which some call the declarative, as in “we are angry, you are angry, they are angry.” Again, in another way, the word “wrath,” from which “be angry” is formed, signifies something chosen, which some have defined as a desire to retaliate against those who seem to have done wrong. But it also signifies something unchosen, which some call a pre-passion, which arises at certain provocations and draws one toward the wrath we have just defined. If, then, we take the second sense of “be angry” — I mean the unchosen one that arises as a pre-passion —

[Ps 4, continued] it is not a sin, a falling away from the good; and in this sense let us not understand “be angry” as said in the imperative (for how could we be commanded to do what is not chosen?), but in the indicative, so that the whole saying is this: “Inasmuch as you are angry, and this happens to you without your thoughts consenting to it, do not add anything of your own”; that is, let nothing blameworthy follow on what happens without blame; which he shows in “and do not sin.” Here too, then, the word knows a kind of anger that is not sin, and does not at all come from what is in our power as something passionate and harmful. Aquila bears witness to the interpretation given of “be angry,” wishing to translate the proper sense of the Hebrew; for, thinking that the unchosen thing, which we said some call a pre-passion, is an agitation and shaking of the soul, he says: “Be agitated, and do not sin.” This “be agitated” is not an imperative (for it would be absurd for the prophet to command being agitated), but, as we said of “be angry,” an indicative, as: “If it happens to you to be agitated, do not sin.”

“What you say in your hearts, be pierced with compunction for it on your beds,” and so on. By these words he seems to teach that each one, going to bed, must demand of himself an account of what he has done in the day, and reproach himself for what has been done contrary to right reason, blaming and pricking himself with reason. For when this is done regularly, it will keep us from falling away from our duties. “What you say,” he says, “let this pierce you at the time when you give yourselves to your beds.” From one part of our sins, he means all our sins; one part of sins is that which is through words; and perhaps a word precedes even the rest of sin in action. The Scriptures often use “be pierced with compunction” in a peculiar sense, perhaps found neither among the lovers of fine Greek nor in the usage of those who speak the Greek tongue; and they record this word of those who are stung because of sins, or for any other reasons. So in the third of Kingdoms, narrating about Ahab king of Israel, how, when rebuked by the prophet Elijah for having coveted the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, he repents, Scripture says this: “But Ahab was vain, who sold himself to do evil before the Lord, as Jezebel his wife changed him. And he was very abominable in going after the abominations, according to all that the Amorite did, whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel. And at the word, Ahab was pierced with compunction before the Lord, and went weeping, and tore his garment, and girded sackcloth on his body, and fasted, and put on sackcloth on the day he struck Naboth the Jezreelite, and went. And the word of the Lord came by the hand of his servant

[Ps 4, continued] Elijah concerning Ahab; and the Lord said: Have you seen how Ahab has been pierced with compunction before me? I will not bring the evil in his days.” And in the fifty-ninth psalm: “You have shaken the earth,” it says, “and troubled it; heal its breaches, for it has been moved. You have shown your people hard things; you have made us drink the wine of compunction. You have given to those who fear you a sign, to flee from before the bow.” For the Prophet confesses that he has been made to drink the wine of compunction. And since he has digested, so to speak, the words of rebuke, and has suffered the piercing from them, he therefore confesses that he has received, with those who fear God, a sign to flee the arrows sent from the bow of God upon the ungodly who persist in their sins and do not repent. And in Genesis: “And Esau said to his father: Have you only one blessing, father? And when Isaac was pierced with compunction, Esau cried out with a loud voice and wept.” In place of “be pierced with compunction,” Aquila and Theodotion rendered “be silent,” which Symmachus translated “be quiet,” setting out more clearly what the words signify; which has this meaning: “On your beds converse within yourselves in secret,” that is, having examined what you have done in the day and your own affairs, so be quiet.

“Offer a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord,” and so on. The one who offers from unjust gains does not offer a sacrifice of righteousness, nor the one who does not share with the needy in proportion to what he possesses, nor the one who gives grudgingly or under compulsion. The divine word teaches most clearly that it did not give commands about the sacrifices that the readers of the books have understood; for it says in the forty-ninth psalm: “O God, I am your God. Not for your sacrifices will I rebuke you; your whole burnt offerings are before me continually. I will not accept calves from your house, nor goats from your flocks. For mine are all the beasts of the field, cattle on the mountains, and oxen. I know all the birds of the air, and the beauty of the field is with me. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine and its fullness. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High. And call upon me in the day of affliction, and I will rescue you, and you will glorify me.” And in the fiftieth: “For if you had desired sacrifice, I would have given it; in whole burnt offerings you will not delight. A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a broken and humbled heart God will not despise.” And elsewhere: “Your whole burnt offerings and sacrifices are not pleasing to me.” And further in Jeremiah: “I did not command these things,” he says, “to your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifice; but this word I commanded them, saying:

[Ps 4, continued] Let none of you remember evil in his heart against his neighbor, and do not love a false oath; for all these things I hate, says the Lord Almighty.” Through all these, then, it clearly teaches us to examine what the subject of sacrifices is; and the oracles supply starting points when they say, “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,” as here too: “Offer a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord.” And our Savior and Lord himself turns back those who do not understand the prophetic writings, and for that reason are excited about bodily sacrifices, saying: “If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.” The saying stands in one of the Twelve thus: “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, knowledge of God rather than whole burnt offerings.” That these laws are legislation about sacrifices, Paul taught when he said: “Who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” The reader of the laws about sacrifices must strive, then, to explain them in both ways, examining them according to the symbolic sense and according to the more secret and mystical sense. These things have been noted by us in summary, as we wished to explain “Offer a sacrifice of righteousness,” and what follows, “Hope in the Lord.” For one cannot reasonably hope before doing what is right; but one who does what is right can hope with confidence and expect the good things of the Lord; for hope is the expectation of good things.

Since it has been asked by many whether the noble and good man will hope for anything — since the perfect man has the good things in full, and lacks nothing, and therefore hopes for nothing, for hope is of things absent; yet it is something else to have good hopes, since good things succeed one another most continually for the noble and good — let us too discuss the problem briefly according to the intent of the Scriptures. The sacred oracles most clearly exhort us to hope in the Lord: “Let Israel hope in the Lord,” it says; and: “The house of Israel hoped in the Lord; he is their helper and protector.” And to the perfect man in the ninetieth psalm, among the other promises, it is said: “With his shoulders he will overshadow you, and under his wings you will hope; his truth will surround you with a shield.” And Paul, wishing to present what that is on which the law and the prophets hang (I mean love), says: “Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things; love never fails.” If, then, never failing is the work of the perfect, belonging to love; and enduring all things through love belongs to one who has risen above all toil; and believing all things — clearly the things that are and are true, for false things are not to be counted among “all things,” since they do not even exist; for the one who has achieved love is perfect and firm in the saving faith about each of the things that must be believed — it is clear that hoping all things too, and despairing of none of the things that can be laid up for a saint, belongs to no one else but the one who has perfect

[Ps 4, continued] love, and in some way is adorned by it, could soundly be called his work. Breaking “hoping all things” into its parts, if we wish to explain it, we shall say that it is to hope to inherit the kingdom of heaven, and to be comforted, and to be called sons of God, and to see God, to be filled with the righteousness for which one hungers and thirsts, and to share in the perfect mercy, and, in short, to be in all the things that the God who does not lie, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, have promised. “For eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

“Many say: Who will show us good things?” and so on. The simpler will suppose that it is said here that, when the things laid up in promise are proclaimed, the many say, “Who will show us these things, and let us come to be in them?” — clearly struck by them as true and longing for them, but, because of human weakness in the many sins they commit, not at all confident of obtaining them and living in them. Others will explain the saying thus: the things recorded in the promise as to be given to the elect cannot be understood clearly and distinctly at all except by those who have become wise: for example, what the land is which the meek will inherit, and what inheriting it must be understood to mean; or what it means, through purity of heart, to see God, who is invisible, whom no one has ever seen; and through what event, and in what circumstances, those who mourn now will later be comforted; and what and of what kind the kingdom of heaven is. Many, then, hearing the good things recorded, and wishing to behold them in their mind and understand them, say: “Who will be the one to show us good things?” For truly rare is the one who can show the good things, in the way we have explained, such as Paul was, able to present them, as he says somewhere: “But we have the mind of Christ, so that we may know the things freely given us by God; which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” We have often observed that “who” is used in Scripture of what is rare, as in: “Who is the faithful and wise steward?” and: “Who is wise, and will understand these things?” and: “Lord, who will dwell on your holy mountain?” So here too it is said: “Who will show us good things?”

From the tome on the fourth psalm, on “Many say: Who will show us good things?” Since there is much inquiry among human beings about what the good things are and what the evil things, and some say that good and evil things are among things not chosen — declaring pleasure, for instance, to be a good, and the painful an evil — while others shut up the good and evil things in things chosen alone, and say that the virtues and the actions according to them are alone

[Ps 4, continued] good, and the vices and the activities according to vice evil; and a third group mixing them, saying that good and evil things are both in things chosen and in things not chosen — it is natural that the many among believers who love learning, being drawn about by these plausible views, should say on the subject of goods: “Who will show us good things?” That the nature of good things lies in things chosen, anyone at all who accepts the doctrine of judgment would admit without being taught. For he says that the good is that for which one will hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your master.” And good is what is brought forth from the heart of the good man, as the Savior says: “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things.” And in short every fruit of a good tree, being chosen, is good, such as love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control; and the opposites of these are evil. Whether, even after Christ’s teaching, there is anything good and evil also among things not chosen must be inquired. And even if there is some evil or good among things not chosen, as perhaps we shall show after examining it later, at least the things called good and evil by those who mix the unchosen with the chosen would not be so. For they think that of good things some concern the soul, some the body, and some are external; and likewise of evil things: concerning the soul, virtue and the actions according to virtue, or vice and the actions according to vice; concerning the body, health, good condition, and beauty, or disease, bad condition, and ugliness; concerning externals, wealth and poverty, glory and obscurity, good birth and low birth. Some will think that according to the Scriptures too there are likewise three kinds of good things and three of evil. For, accepting that the virtues and vices are good and evil things, after what is agreed by us also concerning virtue and vice and the actions according to them, they will use sayings that seemingly declare bodily and external things too to be good or evil. And about virtues and vices what need is there to speak, since the moral writings teach that we must choose justice, prudence, self-control, and courage, and the actions according to them, and turn away from their opposites? So there is no need of examples for the goods among things chosen. But bodily and external goods they will show from many places, taking the letter; for the present it is enough to cite some passages from Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, given as a promise to those who keep the commandments and as a threat and curses against those who transgress them; for example, that health is a good and disease an evil, beyond doubt,

[Ps 4, continued] he will show that this is foretold from Exodus: “If you keep my commandments and my ordinances, every disease that I brought upon the Egyptians I will not bring upon you; for I am the Lord who heals you.” And what is said in Deuteronomy to sinners might be supposed to present bodily blows and diseases as evil, and, clearly, health and bodily strength as good. The text runs thus: “If you will not listen to do all the words of this law written in this book, to fear this honored and wonderful name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will make extraordinary your plagues and the plagues of your seed, great and wonderful plagues, and evil and very many diseases; and he will bring back upon you every evil plague of Egypt, which you feared before them; and it will cling to you; and every sickness and every plague not written in the book of this law the Lord will bring upon you, until he destroys you.” And again to those who transgress the commandments it is said: “I will send upon you fever and jaundice, and your eyes wasting and your soul melting away.” In addition, in Deuteronomy the word threatens those who depart from godliness with incurable rigidity of the back. Those who wish to say that external goods are promised by the divine word will use these words from Leviticus: “If you walk in my ordinances and keep my commandments and do them, I will give you rain in its season, and the earth will give its produce, and the trees of the plains will give their fruit. And the threshing will overtake the vintage for you, and the vintage will overtake the sowing; and you will eat your bread to the full, and dwell in safety on your land,” and so on. And from Deuteronomy they will use these: “And when you cross the Jordan into the land that the Lord God gives you, and you take care to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you above all, and all these blessings will come upon you and find you, if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed are you in the city, and blessed are you in the field; blessed are the offspring of your womb, and the produce of your land, and the herds of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep; blessed are your storehouses and your stores,” and so on. As again, on the contrary, it is said to the ungodly: “Cursed are you in the city, and cursed are you in the field; cursed are your storehouses and your stores; cursed are the children of your womb, and the produce of your land; cursed are the

[Ps 4, continued] herds of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep.” And those who wish good and evil things to be in bodily and external things will bring countless other examples. They will also lay hold of the Gospels, saying that the Savior came and took away from human beings, as evils, bodily blindness, deafness, and paralysis of the limbs, and healed every disease and every sickness, giving goods in place of the evils that had come before: bodily sight and hearing, and the rest of health and strength. And they will put you to shame by asking whether we too will not admit that being possessed by demons and being moonstruck is an evil, and conversely that being freed from these is a good. Indeed, the apostles too, performing gifts of healings and workings of miracles, by this very working did good to people and freed them from evils. Those who say this will also go on to the age to come, saying that pain, that is, sinners being handed over to eternal fire, is an evil. And if pain is an evil, pleasure must be a good. From what has been said, then, it is clear what can greatly put to shame those who cannot solve the arguments brought forward for there being, according to the Scriptures, three kinds of good things and three of evil. By this deception not only the admittedly simple among believers have been deceived, but also some of those who profess the wisdom that is according to Christ, thinking that such are the promises of the Creator, and that nothing is signified in his threats beyond what is shown by the letter.

To all who take such things from the Scriptures we must put the difficulty whether the prophets kept the law, of whom no sins are alleged: for example, Elijah, so utterly without possessions that he did not even have bread with him to eat, and for that reason was sent to a woman in Zarephath of Sidon; and Elisha, who received from the Shunammite a very small lodging, a little bed, and a cheap lampstand, and who also fell sick and died; and Isaiah, who walked naked and barefoot for three years; and Jeremiah, who was thrown into a pit of mire and was always mocked, so that he even prayed to dwell in the wilderness; and John, who lived in the deserts and took nothing but locusts and wild honey, his loins girded with a skin and clothed with camel’s hair. They will admit that these kept the law. And we shall demand whether the things they think good belonged to these who kept the law. Unable to show it, they will be shut up to saying either that the promises said to be given to the godly are false, or that, being true, they need a higher interpretation. And if, compelled, they come to allegory, their assumption that the law threatens

[Ps 4, continued] bodily disease and what are thought to be external evils for the ungodly, or promises that the bodies of those who have followed God will be healthy and that they will have abundance, will be set aside. And how is it not foolish to pride oneself and boast over evils, as those in them do? For if afflictions are evils, and the Apostle tells us to boast in them — that would be foolish, and the Apostle is not foolish — then such training exercises of the saint are not evils. He, afflicted in every way, is not crushed; perplexed, he is not forsaken; tried, he is not put to death; thought to be poor, he makes many rich; supposed to possess nothing, he holds all things. For to the believer belongs the whole world of riches, but to the unbeliever not even an obol. Further, it follows for those who suppose that according to Scripture there are three kinds of goods — and clearly of evils too — that the righteous are always in many evils, since the prophecy is true that says: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” And we must remind those who think such things are evils of what befell Job, as the oracle says, after he had borne most nobly the contests around him: “Do you think I have dealt with you otherwise than that you might appear righteous?” For if Job appears righteous in no other way than through such and such things, and we were to say that such and such evils were his, the causes of his righteousness being shown — then it would follow that not even the devil is an evil to the saint; to Job, at any rate, the devil was not an evil: “Since for those who love God, God works all things together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Further, we say that it is contrary to plain fact that the righteous man will be in the literal blessings, among the things thought good that lie in the Scriptures. For much history concerning the saint, when examined, opposes such interpretations; and it is senseless to suppose that the saint will be a lender to many nations, opening tables in every city, distracted with giving and receiving, and doing forbidden things: “For he did not give his money at interest, nor take gifts against the innocent; he who does these things will not be shaken forever.” And according to Ezekiel: “The holy man did not give his money at interest and increase.” To think that even fever comes because of sins is a doctrine of the utterly uneducated, since the causes of such disease are often obvious: either the surrounding air, or such waters, or such foods. And if health and wealth are prizes for the righteous, none of the ungodly ought to be healthy or rich. We must seek health as a certain condition of the soul, and wealth as that which, according to Solomon, is the ransom of the soul, when he says: “The ransom of a man’s soul is his own wealth.” And we must flee poverty, the kind of which it is written: “The poor man does not withstand a threat.” Further, wounds and bruises,

[Ps 4, continued] and diseases must be taken as what happens through vice to inattentive souls; about these the prophet too blames those who are in such a state, saying: “From the feet to the head there is neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering sore; it is not possible to apply a poultice, nor oil, nor bandages.” These things, then, are enough for those who are not wholly careless, so that, gathering for themselves from these the sayings of the Scriptures that distract them, they may attain to an understanding worthy of the working of the Holy Spirit. Further, to silence those who think that these are the goods to be given to the saints and these the evils to sinners, this too must be added: everything that is for the sake of something is less than that for whose sake it is. For example, incisions, cauteries, and plasters, used for the sake of health, are less than health; and even if they are called goods as medical aids, we must understand that they are not final goods of medicine but productive ones; the final good of medicine is the health of the body. So too, if these commandments are to be kept in order to obtain these goods, and the prizes are bodily and external, then good actions will not be good as final, but only as productive of goods; and wealth, which they think Scripture promises, and bodily health will be superior to righteousness, and to holiness itself, and to piety and godliness — to such great noble deeds. To accept this belongs to people who do not know the dignity of virtue but prefer its material rewards; for it is the most absurd thing of all to say that being rich and being healthy in body are superior to noble deeds. Because of these wicked doctrines some have consistently accepted that even after the resurrection, in the first promises, we shall eat such foods and drink; and some, that we shall even beget children. These things, reaching those from the nations, will make Christianity get a reputation for great simple-mindedness, since some outside the faith hold much better doctrines.

We shall now present what appears to us from examining the sacred oracles. We said that we are content to say that good and evil things lie both in things chosen and in things not chosen; yet we do not count among the unchosen goods health, beauty, good birth, good reputation, and wealth; and we have tried as far as possible to resolve in summary what distracts us. What, then, the unchosen goods are must now be said. Since it is true that “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it have labored in vain,” and “Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman has kept watch in vain” — and everyone who progresses builds a house, and every perfect man guards a city; and the work of the builder is vain, and the guard of the keeper vain, unless the Lord builds and the Lord guards — then outside our choice there would be a good: the power of the Lord that takes hold of the builder’s building and

[Ps 4, continued] builds with the one who cannot complete by himself what is being built; and the same must be understood of the city that is guarded. And just as, if I were to say that the farmer’s good, which produces the fruit, is mixed, from the chosen good of the farmer’s art and the unchosen good from Providence in the right temperature of the air and the fall of sufficient rain, so the good of the rational being is mixed from his own choice and the divine power that breathes together with the one who has chosen the best things. Not only, then, to become noble and good is there need both of our choice and of the divine breathing-with, which is, as far as we are concerned, unchosen; but also for one who has become noble and good to remain in virtue; for even the one who has been perfected will fall away if he becomes overly lifted up by his excellence and inscribes himself as its cause, not referring the due glory to the one who contributed much more to the acquisition and maintenance of virtue. Some such cause, we think, lies also behind what is said in Ezekiel, that he walked blameless in all his ways until lawlessness was found in him, and behind his having fallen from heaven, according to Isaiah, being once the morning star rising early, and afterward broken to the ground. For it is true not only of the sons of men that, if someone is perfect but the wisdom from God is absent, he will be reckoned as nothing, but also of the angelic and ruling order, and of every order that is divine insofar as God is present to it. Perhaps it is because he saw that our power of choice is much less than God’s power toward the acquisition of goods that the holy Apostle says that the end “is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God who has mercy” — not as though God has mercy without willing and running, but because willing and running are nothing in comparison with God’s mercy; and therefore the inscription of the good must be referred rather to God’s mercy than to human willing and running.

We have examined these things, though we seem to have digressed at length, persuaded that they are necessary for “Many say: Who will show us good things?” For as far as possible the word has presented and shown to the many who say “Who will show us good things?” what the good things are, and clearly also what the evil things are, so that through ascetic exercises and prayers we may acquire the good and overthrow the evil from our souls. But since in speaking one sometimes uses words in their proper sense and sometimes by extension, it is no wonder if at times we find the names “good” and “evil” applied to the bodily and the so-called external things among those who do not hold sound doctrines; as in Job: “If we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things?” and in Jeremiah: “Evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem.” For instead of saying, “If we received such pleasant and sweet things, which came to us from Providence, shall we not bear bitter and painful things readily?” it says: “If we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things?” And instead of saying, “By Providence such and such things came upon Jerusalem because of

[Ps 4, continued] … “The light of your face has been signed upon us, Lord,” and so on. That God is light, John says in his Catholic Epistle: “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.” And even if he is called fire, as Paul says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “For our God is a consuming fire” — showing that he is the God of the law and of the Gospel, that is, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore our God — we must not think that the consuming fire is anything other than the light, differing only in our conception of it. Just as it happens with the bodily light: the same substance, insofar as it gives light, is light, and insofar as it masters certain materials, burning and consuming them, is consuming fire; so too God destroys the worse and consumes vice, but is light to those who are fit and pure in heart. And in the way that bodily light works together with those who have healthy eyes both for seeing it and for seeing the objects of sense, in the same way God, reaching by a certain power to the mind of each, if the mind he reaches is in no way veiled and has suffered nothing from the passions that hinders its own keen sight, becomes the cause both of his being understood and of the mind enlightened by him reaching the other intelligible things. It is no wonder if some who are clear-sighted in certain arts or sciences, or very sharp in understanding certain ethical and logical problems, are ignorant of God. For we liken their reasoning faculty to an eye that gazes at anything rather than the sun, and never lifts itself to look at its rays. But just as the sun’s ray reaches the face of one who looks toward it, and one who is turned toward it cannot fail to have a share of the sun, so we must think that the one who contemplates the law of the divine word, having applied his mind to understanding God, certainly shares in God. I think that the Prophet shows this here when he says: “The light of your face has been signed upon us, Lord.” For, he says, a sign of the light in your face, reaching us, has been imprinted on us, and the very light of your face has been engraved, so that the one who knows how to see the sign of God’s light, signed upon him, then understands that this has come about in us. And I think this secret is shown also in Exodus, that, when Moses conversed more with God and was with him, his face was glorified, so that

[Ps 4, continued] the sons of Israel could not gaze at his glory, and for that reason the servant took a veil and spoke with the people. Every soul devoted to God, which has entered into his truth, unseen by the many, and has shared in his divinity, becomes impossible for the many to take in, so that it deals with the lesser ones veiled, speaking to them what suits them. That what is named the face of God, enlightening the ruling faculty that can receive its rays, becomes the cause of knowledge, is shown by the sixty-sixth psalm, which runs thus: “God have mercy on us and bless us, make his face shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all the nations,” and so on. Those who share thus in the light and can say in deed, “The light of your face has been signed upon us, Lord,” have the light in which they have shared as the cause of their suffering nothing at the time when those who need such remedies are punished. I think this is shown in the Psalms and in Ezekiel: in the Psalms thus: “You have given to those who fear you a sign, to flee from before the bow, so that your beloved may be delivered”; and in Ezekiel: “And the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherubim, which was upon them, to the court of the house. And he called the man clothed in the long robe, who had the girdle on his loins. And he said to him: Go through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a sign on the foreheads of the men who groan and grieve over all the lawless deeds done in her midst. And to these he said in my hearing: Go after him into the city and strike, and let your eyes not spare, and do not have pity. Kill old man and young man and virgin and infants and women, to wipe them out; but do not come near any on whom is the sign; and begin from my holy places.” For what is the sign given by God to the reverent, or the sign placed on the foreheads of those zealous for truth and groaning over the transgressions done among the people, if not the fellowship of divinity reaching those who understand it soundly?

“You have put gladness into my heart,” and so on. The sense of the verse agrees with what we said on the one before it. For when the light of the Lord’s face is signed upon the saints, what else is it than the heart made glad? We take “heart” for the mind, to which gladness is given as it contemplates God and shares in his divinity. It is not the same thing for the heart to be glad and for the flesh to be glad. For the heart is glad in contemplation, while the flesh is glad in material foods and drinks and sexual unions, when the heart has been made thick and hindered from its own good. When, then, it is said in the Psalms themselves, “Wine gladdens

[Ps 4, continued] the heart of man, and bread strengthens the heart of man,” we must understand the true bread, more nourishing …

“From the fruit of their grain, wine, and oil they have been multiplied,” and so on. The Hebrew had “from the time.” The Seventy too have set it down so, so that the sense of the whole saying is this: “In the time of the harvested seeds of wheat and barley, and of all these legumes, they were multiplied.” Those who receive their ration at the right time were multiplied “from the time” of grain, being benefited toward increase by its timeliness. The same must be said about the wine that gladdens the heart of man.

“In peace I will lie down together and sleep; for you, Lord, alone have made me dwell in hope,” and so on. If the psalm is spoken in the person of Christ, according to the greatness given him by the Father, which is incomparable, so that no one can share in the whole of his greatness, then he consistently says, “alone you have made me dwell.” But if in the person of the prophet, I think the rarity of holiness is shown, especially in sinful generations, such as it was in the days of Elijah, who said: “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left.” And perhaps one who receives the prize and rises above those of his own generation will say this verse of the psalm. As for “in hope,” if the Savior speaks according to the economy, it is no wonder that, hoping for his own restoration, he says he has been made to dwell in hope by God, according to: “Glorify me, Father, with the glory I had with you before the world was.” “Alone” can also be said by the Savior because of the time when all his disciples were offended and left him. And if the Prophet is the one speaking, “in hope” is clear, since every saint, through love, hopes all things.

[Ps 5] “Give ear to my words, Lord, understand my cry. Attend to the voice of my petition, my King and my God,” and so on. We must consider how great an intelligible voice we must have in order to call upon the understanding of God, and such words as befit the Lord, and a voice of petition that is confident even of the Master’s attention. No one ruled by sin will say to God, “my King”; and those whose god is the belly will not say to God, “my God.”

“In the morning you will hear my voice,” and so on. Let the one who has put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light say these words.

[Ps 5, continued] “In the morning I will stand before you, and I will look; for you are not a God who wills lawlessness, nor will an evildoer dwell beside you, nor will the lawless remain before your eyes,” and so on. As soon as the sun rises I will stand before you, and I will be in contemplation “that you are not a God who wills lawlessness, nor will an evil man dwell beside you, nor will the lawless remain before your eyes.” For just as a sick man does not remain sick under the eyes of a physician able to heal him, so the lawless will not remain before the eyes of God.

“You hated all who work lawlessness; you will destroy all who speak falsehood,” and so on. Those who stumble in their way of life he named workers of lawlessness, and God hates them; those who have fallen away from the truth, holders of other doctrines, he called speakers of falsehood, whom God will destroy. And note the difference between “you hated” and “you will destroy”: first, whether “you hated” is worse than “you will destroy”; second, why he put the one in the past tense and the other in the future. “You will destroy all who speak falsehood” — not those who spoke, but those who speak falsehood. And if the Lord destroys these, and “every man is a liar,” God destroys all, so that, putting off being men, they may become gods; since, though they had become gods and all sons of the Most High, they became men. The holders of other doctrines, then, God will destroy in the age to come.

“The Lord abhors a man of blood and deceit,” and so on. A man of blood is one born of blood, or a murderer.

“But I, in the abundance of your mercy, will enter your house; I will worship toward your holy temple in fear of you,” and so on. Since the evildoers and the lawless do not dwell beside you, nor remain under your gaze, I by your mercy will enter your house. For so I will also be able to say: “In the morning I will stand before you, and you will look upon me.” And since I will enter your house in no other way than by your mercy, with great reverence, which is named fear of you, I will worship you in spirit and truth, coming to your holy temple. The temple and house of God is the holy and virtuous condition, which those who have it speak of with boldness: “Christ as a son over his house, whose house we are.” Indeed, they address other believers, writing: “You are a holy temple, and your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God.” For how is he not a house and temple of God who keeps the word of Jesus, with whom the Son and the Father make their dwelling? One can also call the mind and teaching of the church the house of the Lord and his temple. This is shown from what is written to Timothy: “That you may know how one ought to behave in the house

[Ps 5, continued] of the Lord, which is the church of the living God.” In both senses one enters the house and worships toward the holy temple of the Lord, by the mercy of God rather than by one’s own conduct and prudence.

“Judge them, O God; let them fall from their counsels. According to the multitude of their ungodly deeds thrust them out, for they have provoked you, Lord,” and so on. It is more profitable for the sinner to be judged by God than to be outside judgment. And to fall from wicked counsels is no evil for the one who falls, since he does not come to their wicked end; just as it is not good for better counsels not to come to their end. It is very graceful how he did not say from where he thrust them out, so that it might not be clear to the many. I think it is from their ungodly deeds, according to their multitude. For God does not thrust anyone away from himself: “For those who remove themselves far from you,” it says, “will perish.”

“Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my enemies; make my way straight before you,” and so on. The one who sets out to think and act rightly has many opponents. For there are envious men and demons, grieved at the good of those who do right. Seeing this, the one in the psalm did not trust his own power to fight off those attacking him, but asked God to stretch out a hand to him, sheltering him unharmed from so many and such great enemies, saying: “You yourself, Master, lead me in your righteousness; for thus it will be achieved that my way is made straight before you.”

“For there is no truth in their mouth; their heart is vain. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they have dealt deceitfully,” and so on. Since enemies hinder your way from being shown before my eyes, make it straight before me. For I know that in what they profess about the way they do not speak truly, since there is no truth in their mouth, and their heart is vain. All that is uttered in their throat is dead, since it is an open grave. Their words are calculated sophistries.

“They will rejoice forever, and you will dwell among them,” and so on. An age is a natural system, made of various bodies, containing rational distinctions for the sake of the knowledge of God. “They will rejoice forever,” he says, because there is also an eternal dwelling for them.

“And all who love your name will boast in you; for you, Lord, have blessed the righteous,” and so on. If those who love are better than those who fear, boasting belongs rather to those who love.

[Ps 5, continued] And if there is a reasonable boasting also in the fear of the Lord, it is less than “they will boast in you.” Noah blesses Shem and Japheth; Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and Isaac Jacob, and Jacob the twelve, and Moses the tribes; but above all these and after them the Lord himself will bless the righteous, in keeping with “I who speak am myself present,” and “Will you not go with us yourself?”

“As with a shield of good pleasure you have crowned us,” and so on. The shield and the crown of the righteous are the same, so that the one who is armed is crowned, and the one crowned is armed. This has something like “With a crown of delight he will defend you.” The knowledge of God, then, if it repels enemies, is a shield of good pleasure; if it makes someone reign over the passions, it is called a crown. The knowledge of God is divided into two, practice and contemplation; the shield of good pleasure belongs to practice, the crown to contemplation. The order too is kept: the shield comes before the crown, since practice also comes before contemplation.

[Ps 6] “For the end, in hymns, for the eighth, a psalm of David,” and so on. The eleventh too is “for the eighth.” The titles of this psalm and of the eleventh differ, in that this one is “For the end, in hymns, for the eighth, a psalm of David,” and that one “For the end, for the eighth, a psalm of David.” On the eighth, I think, anger rebukes and wrath disciplines.

“Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath,” and so on. Anger is an impulse of the desire of a gentle soul toward retaliation par excellence. He says, then: “Even if anger rebukes more sharply and wrath disciplines more quickly, I, because of my weakness, ask your mercy to be rebuked and disciplined by another treatment that does not bring so much pain.”

“Heal me, Lord, for my bones are troubled, and my soul is greatly troubled,” and so on. Heal me, sick in soul; for the joints of its bones are troubled, and it itself is greatly troubled.

“And you, Lord, how long?” and so on. This is said elliptically, for “How long will you not rescue my soul, nor save me according to your mercy, nor turn me back?” The one who does not trust that he will be saved by works will say: “Save me for the sake of your mercy.” After hearing that the Lord had taken away his sin, David, wrestling with trials and afflictions and tasting remedies, … asks the physician for release from the remedies.

[Ps 6, continued] “Turn, Lord, rescue my soul; save me for the sake of your mercy,” and so on. He sets down two things here: turning, and rescuing his soul. This was what the righteous most earnestly sought. “Turn,” that is, restore to intimacy. And also rescue it, being among enemies. You turned away because of my sins; turn back because of your love for humankind, having given me over to trials for discipline.

“For in death there is no one who remembers you; and in Hades who will confess to you?” and so on. The one who remembers God, who says, “I am the life,” is not in death. It is not possible, in death, which is the last enemy of God, to remember you; therefore rescue me from it, so that I may remember you again. For this reason too those who sin before death do not remember God. In it no one will confess, or very little; for this is what it shows; perhaps because of “Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into Hades.” Those who go down alive into Hades can remember God, as not being in death, and confess to him.

“I have grown weary in my groaning,” and so on. With such groaning the sons of Israel groaned in Egypt and were heard. And Paul, saying, “We who are in this tent groan,” does the same. Such too is: “I roared from the groaning of my heart.” And it is not enough to groan; one must groan so as to grow weary. We shall gracefully use this saying as an exhortation to chastity: “Every night I will wash my bed,” saying that “Every night I will wash my bed” is rightly said only by those who always keep pure from sexual union; and these, devoting themselves to prayer, wet their couch with tears over their sins of old. That is why he said: “Blessed are those who weep now.”

“My eye was troubled by anger; I grew old among all my enemies,” and so on. Nothing blinds the mind like troubled anger. Because of this trouble of the eye, even one who seems to see intelligible things sees not clearly but confusedly. “I grew old,” that is: I have become old and long-lived, spending my life among them where they are; or: I took up among them the old man with his deeds, “who is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit.”

“Depart from me, all who work lawlessness,” and so on. To work lawlessness always belongs to demons; not always, to human beings; never, to angels.

“For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.

[Ps 6, continued] The Lord has heard my petition; the Lord has accepted my prayer,” and so on. The one who understands the blessing of those who weep, and weeps, will say these things to all the workers of lawlessness present with him, visible and invisible. First God hears the voice and the weeping, then the petition, then he accepts the prayer.

“Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled,” and so on. Shame brings the sinner to awareness. “Stop bringing reproaches against me,” he says; “consider your own evils, and be filled with shame and trouble.” For the divine tribunal is just and fearful.

“Let them be turned back and be greatly ashamed, quickly,” and so on. If we conquer, the opposing powers are put to shame, especially when the man is found stronger than they, and confounds and troubles them by his own wisdom. Perhaps he also turns them back ashamed, and the saint does this quickly.

Of the same. You will understand that these things are said also to the invisible enemies who wrought his downfall, envious of his progress toward God, and who attacked him after his sin, when they said: “There is no salvation for him in his God.”

[Ps 7] “Lord my God, in you I have hoped; save me from all who pursue me, and rescue me, lest like a lion he seize my soul,” and so on. At each provocation to sin we are pursued by the one who works the provocation. Understand from this how many pursue a person, from whom the Prophet prays to be rescued, since if he were not rescued his soul would be seized as by a lion.

“Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice in my hands,” and so on. For freedom from resentment

[Ps 7, continued] the saying is useful. “If I have done this,” he says, “which I suffer; if I rose up against my father or acted lawlessly.” For he puts forward his freedom from resentment, calling forth the mercy of God.

“If I have repaid those who repaid me with evil, then may I fall empty from my enemies,” and so on. If the law, our tutor, permits repaying evil, as to those still children under a tutor, this man was no longer a child in Christ, but from then on a man of the Gospel. “Then may I fall”: the righteous man, having conquered, comes away from his enemies full; but the base man, as conquered, falls from them empty, having nothing of fullness.

Of the same. Empty is the one who does not say: “And from his fullness we have all received.” Such people are also called reeds, nourishing beasts within themselves, about which it is said: “Rebuke the beasts of the reed.” And “The devil sleeps beside papyrus,” says Job, “and rush and reed.” For he is king of those in the waters.

“Then let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and trample my life into the ground, and lay my glory in the dust,” and so on. The life of one who still bears the image of the man of dust has been trampled into the ground by the enemy. And even if such a one seems at times to be glorified, his glory has been laid in the dust, as with those who do anything for glory and for praise from the many, or for acceptance from them.

“Arise, Lord, in your wrath; be exalted in the boundaries of my enemies,” and so on. “Arise” is not to be understood bodily, but as the power of punishing and consuming.

Of the same. If the wrath of God disciplines those who did not wish to be disciplined by his word, the one who says these things prays that some may be disciplined. When the enmity reaches its end and boundary, as the enemies of Christ are abolished, the Lord is exalted in the very boundaries of the enemies; and in each of those who were enemies of Christ through vice the Lord is exalted, when the enmity has reached its end and reconciliation and friendship have their beginning. You will say the same also of the enemies of the righteous man.

“Awake, Lord my God, in the command which you commanded, and an assembly of peoples will surround you,” and so on. Instead of: Awake with the command which you commanded, commanding it to powers working together with the assembly of peoples that surrounds you. “And for its sake return on high. The Lord will judge peoples,” and so on. Return to the height from which you came down, after the resurrection.

[Ps 7, continued] Of the same. “When I am lifted up,” he says, “I will draw all to myself.”

“Let the wickedness of sinners come to an end,” and so on. When someone no longer sins, his wickedness comes to an end; or the wickedness of sinners is the devil.

“If you do not turn back,” down to “will come down,” and so on. Perhaps these things are said in a veiled way about the devil. For besides these things he too “travailed with injustice,” and so on, being wrath. But the Father of the one who said, “I am the life,” will not prepare instruments of death in his bow; he sets his bow in the cloud, so as not to bring the water of the flood upon the earth. That is why we must think these things are said about the devil. And the burning arrows are the evil one’s, which he has wrought for those burned and inflamed by passions.

Of the same, on “And in it he has prepared instruments of death,” and so on. Instruments of death are impure rational beings, or souls that have death; as instruments of life are souls that have life. For so the Lord named Paul a chosen instrument.

“Behold, he travailed with injustice, conceived toil, and brought forth lawlessness,” and so on. The one who loves not God but pleasure, in proportion to the pleasures he serves, conceives a single toil, continuous and without interval, and travails with injustice, and brings forth lawlessness. Conversely, the one who loves not pleasure but God, in proportion to the toils he undertakes for virtue, conceives a good emotion, joy, single and continuous, without interval, and travails with righteousness, and brings forth good order; and so he becomes a child of good order, hating every lawlessness.

Of the same, on the same. He brought forth lawlessness, since he conceived toil and travailed with injustice; for this is the sequence of nature. Ahithophel travailed when he proposed his wicked counsel.

“He dug a pit and hollowed it out, and he will fall into the hole he made. His toil will return upon his head, and his injustice will come down upon his crown,” and so on. Perhaps the pit is a place of punishment, into which, by the providence of God, he who dug it will fall. His crown is level with the rest of his body, for nothing of him is above; that is why he is somewhere called a dragon. Fittingly, then, his injustice, which was lifted up and exalted against the knowledge of God, being brought down, will come down upon his crown.

[Ps 8] “For the end, for the winepresses, a psalm of David,” and so on. In the eightieth and eighty-third psalms too

[Ps 8, continued] you will find the title “For the winepresses.” With these let us take what concerns Noah planting a vine, and Jacob’s blessing of Judah, “binding his colt to a vine,” and that of Issachar, who, “seeing that rest was good and the land rich, put his shoulder to labor and became a farmer.” And indeed Uzziah was a farmer, having vinedressers in the hill country. And the wife of every righteous man “is like a fruitful vine on the sides of his house,” from which comes “wine that gladdens the heart of man.” And the Preacher planted vineyards and dug a winepress. And Solomon says: “Let your winepresses overflow with wine.”

Of the same. Winepresses are rational natures that have received the fruits from the spiritual vine.

“Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise,” and so on. In Matthew, first those who went before the Savior, and also those who followed him, “cried out, saying: Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.” And a little later it is written that when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things he did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David,” they were indignant and said to him: “Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus says to them: Yes. Have you never read: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes,” and so on. Matthew, then, seems to call the same crowds children, and the Savior calls them not simply children but infants and nursing babes, teaching us, through the words of the psalm he quoted with allegory, to allegorize the psalm too. You will inquire whether “the house of David” and “the son of David” are the same. And if they are not the same, the text of Matthew has been corrupted by the copyists, and ought to have either “to the house of David” twice or “to the son of David” twice.

“Because of your enemies, to destroy the enemy and avenger,” and so on. By enemy and avenger understand the true Nebuchadnezzar. Christ destroyed the devil through fishermen, unlettered men, infants in malice.

“For I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you founded,” and so on. “For I will see the heavens”: we know this thing clearly when we know both its principle and its cause. “The works of your fingers”: you will inquire whether the works of God’s fingers are different from the works of his whole hands, whether the former are a part of the latter. “The moon and the stars, which you founded”: why did he not say the sun? Perhaps because when someone is being introduced, he first understands the things of the night,

[Ps 8, continued] and only later the things of the day.

“What is man, that you remember him? or the son of man, that you visit him?” and so on. If he says this marveling that the Lord remembers man and visits the son of man, it is clear that he visits him to do him good. You will note this because of “I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their injustices with whips,” and because of “I will not visit your daughters when they commit sexual immorality, nor your brides when they commit adultery,” and the like.

“You made him a little lower than the angels,” and so on. For he too, being made by nature to have knowledge of you, falls not far short. For he is made like you, as far as possible, by taking up holiness and virtue. And because of the image and likeness you assigned him the rule over the mortal living creatures. Paul says to the Hebrews that these words were spoken about Christ. For he says: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.”

“You crowned him with glory and honor; and you set him over the works of your hands,” and so on. The Apostle too named from this “the unfading crown of glory.” And sometimes one crowned with honor did not understand, as in “Man, being in honor, did not understand.” He did not say “over your works,” which I think are the things not seen. First, then, we are in the works of God’s hands, that is, in the things not seen. These things are also understood after the incarnation of our God and Savior; for man has been crowned with glory and honor: “For he raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places,” as the Apostle says.

“You put all things under his feet, sheep and all oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,” and so on. Where there are clean sheep and oxen, he added “all”; but where unclean ones are also possible, as with the beasts of the field, “all” is not said; likewise with the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.

[Ps 9] “For the end, for the hidden things of the son, a psalm of David,” and so on. Hidden things are the secret knowledge of the mysteries concerning Christ, the true God.

[Ps 9, continued] “I will give thanks to you, Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing to your name, O Most High,” and so on. The one who loves with his whole heart can give thanks with his whole heart. “I will tell all your wonders,” and so on: when someone, able to show the reason for which the recorded marvels, which are wonderful, came to be, and what they are symbols of, has done what is said. To see this is the work of the Savior alone. And if creation too, and all that God made, are his wonders, it will appear much more that the prayer is the Savior’s. For who will tell all the wonders of the Father except the Lord, to those who are perfect and able to understand such great marvels — those about whom it will rather be said: “But we speak wisdom among the perfect”? “I will be glad and rejoice”: he asks those who are glad in certain things whether they are glad in God, so that they may either remain in their gladness or depart from it. And the one who has gone up on the high mountain, Zion, and lifts up his voice, sings to the name of the Most High.

“When my enemy is turned back, they will grow weak and perish from before your face,” and so on. Who will grow weak and perish from before the face of God (since “the face of the Lord is against those who do evil”), he has left us to understand, without saying beforehand. When the enemy, advancing in vice, is abolished, and steps back because he is hindered, then those strong in vice will grow weak. Then, insofar as they sin, they will perish, the face of God working this in them; for when it is understood, it makes earthly things vanish.

“You sat on a throne, you who judge righteousness,” and so on. The throne of God is Christ, and the throne of Christ is the bodiless nature.

“You rebuked nations, and the ungodly perished; you blotted out their name,” and so on. “You rebuked” signifies correction, as is clear from “Convince, exhort, rebuke.” “You blotted out their name”: God blotted out the name of Abram, making him Abraham; and that of Sarai, calling her Sarah; and that of Simon, naming him Peter. So it follows that the name of those he rebuked is blotted out; especially since the psalm adds: “Declare among the nations his deeds, for he who requires their blood has remembered.” Note also that it is not said, “You blotted out their name from the book of the living” (for the nations were not written in the book of the living), but rather, in keeping with the bonds written against them, from the book of debtors, or the book of the dead, kept by the steward of injustice, as is likely, who writes down the dead and writes them in the earth. For the Savior writes the names of the disciples in heaven.

Of the same. If the name here signifies the evil

[Ps 9, continued] condition, and he blotted out the sinner’s name, then he blotted out his worst condition.

“And let those who know your name hope in you, for you have not forsaken those who seek you, Lord,” and so on. Those who seek the Lord, and are not those forsaken by him, have known his name.

“Sing to the Lord who dwells in Zion,” and so on. He sings who has Christ within himself. The Prophet said this according to the old opinion of the Jews. Yet there is also an intelligible and heavenly Zion. And God dwells in every soul that is a Zion — which is interpreted “watchtower” — continually watching and contemplating divine things. He requires the blood of the nations from those who killed them, and remembers them, raising them up. So “Their memory perished with a noise” will be transferred to the swords. But he remembers those for whom he became a refuge.

“Declare among the nations his deeds,” and so on. What deeds? All that Christ told the disciples of John the Baptist: “Go and tell what you see: the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised.” These, then, are the deeds befitting God; and the apostles declared to the nations also that through death came immortality, through the cross salvation, through burial resurrection, and the putting to death of the devil who put us to death.

“You who lift me up from the gates of death, so that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion,” and so on. The gates of death are the sins unto death, from which the one who has not even thought of committing them is lifted up; and he alone can declare all the praises of the Lord in the gates of the daughter of Zion, that is, in the virtues.

“The nations are stuck fast in the corruption they made. In this snare which they hid their foot has been caught. The Lord is known executing judgments,” and so on. The nations are stuck fast, as in mud, in the body, because of the corruption they made; and their foot has been caught, clearly the intelligible foot. And the Lord is known, since, when the judgment comes upon them, they will know the one who judges in righteousness.

“Let the sinners be turned back into Hades,” and so on. As paradise is the dwelling of the righteous, so Hades is the place of punishment of sinners. “Let them be shut in,” he says, “so that they may not see the soul of Jesus coming down and going up, turned away within.” For those who expected it, as if they were looking out while shut up in Hades, were first the prophets, then all the other righteous; or first the sinners among us, then the nations.

[Ps 9, continued] “The endurance of the poor will not perish forever,” and so on. As the Spirit is not quenched, so endurance does not perish. For “the Lord is the Spirit,” and “My endurance is the Lord.” So too in the Galatians Christ is formed, though he is without form. Here he is also said to sleep: “Awake, why do you sleep?”

“Arise, Lord, let not man prevail,” and so on. To the one who says, “My strength,” you will say that God is now the one who is strengthened as holy, his human thoughts and movements having been done away.

[Ps 9:22 LXX / 10] Psalm 10 (according to the Hebrew). “Why, Lord, do you stand far off?” and so on. One might answer the person who raises the difficulty with “Behold, those who remove themselves far from you will perish,” and with “I am a God near at hand, and not a God far off,” says the Lord in the prophets. By not helping those who are wronged, you seem not to be present to what is happening; you seem rather to stand far off and not even see; which increases the wickedness of the wicked, and sets the poor on fire and casts them into despondency.

“For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul,” and so on. Often some who sin prosper in the world. For the Apostle too said this: “Wicked men and impostors will go on to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” And in another psalm it is sung: “These are sinners, and prospering forever they have held on to riches.” Sinners and the unjust, then, are praised by themselves and by their flatterers and parasites, and being praised they are moved further to sin.

“According to the multitude of his wrath he will not seek,” and so on. Who? The Lord, or the sinner? Perhaps the sinner. For he does not inquire about the wrath of God, nor that he has a multitude of sins; that is why he sins according to multitude.

“His ways are profaned at all times,” and so on. The righteous man blesses the Lord at all times; but the sinner profanes his ways at all times. “Are profaned,” instead of “are sunk in vice.”

“He will rule over all his enemies,” and so on. Of temptations, some are brought on through the body,

[Ps 9, continued] some through the soul, some through externals; and some are causes of blows and tortures and persecutions and prisons; others are impure thoughts that beget sin and false doctrines; others bring losses of money, loss of children, and the taking away of wives. And it is clear from these that Satan has ruled over every righteous man. For if Satan will rule over all his enemies, and all the righteous are his enemies, then he will rule over all. Yet he will not rule in everything, clearly, but in something; for Christ alone did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Or perhaps divine Scripture sets down his will, which is to bring to completion what cannot be done; since “they devised counsels which they will not be able to establish.” For in Job too the devil says falsely: “Having gone round the earth and walked about under heaven, I am here,” though he had persuaded Job to do nothing wrong.

Of the same. If those who progress progress by diminishing vice, the righteous are called those who have acquired a perfect habit of righteousness, and those who progress unhindered. “For the righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech.” And if righteous, how an accuser? And if an accuser, certainly not perfectly righteous. “And make known to a righteous man, and he will add to receive.” It is rightly said, then, that the devil rules over all his enemies — not the perfect, clearly, but those hastening toward perfection. For if there were not a hatred toward Satan both imperfect and perfect, David would not have said: “I hated them with a perfect hatred; they became my enemies.”

“His mouth is full of cursing and bitterness and deceit,” and so on. The mouth of the wicked offers nothing useful, but whatever produces pain and toil in those who receive it. And the mouths of others are full: of cursing, those of the people who speak evil of the Creator; of reviling, those of revilers; of bitterness, those of the passionate; and of deceit, those of the deceitful.

Of the same. The one who has fallen from holiness, having led himself far from truth and blessing, has a mouth full of cursing, by which he speaks, trying to bring those who are deceived under punishment and curse. His word has, together with deceit, much cleverness; therefore, together with cursing, his word is full of bitterness and deceit.

“He sits in ambush with the rich in secret places,” and so on. In those who have the wealth of ignorance and injustice the devil sits; but in those who possess knowledge and virtue the holy powers rest, of which the birds of heaven nesting in the branches of the mustard plant are symbols — which signifies the kingdom of heaven that is in us potentially.

[Ps 9, continued] “He lies in ambush to seize the poor, to seize the poor when he drags him away,” and so on. This saying must be used against the rich.

“You see, for you consider toil and anger, to deliver them into your hands,” and so on. Satan, working toil and anger, hands over souls to the judge for punishment. “To you the poor man has been left”: from those who come into the inheritance; that is why God chooses the foolish things of the world. “You were a helper to the orphan”: an orphan is one who has cast off his wicked father. “For you,” says the Savior, “are of your father the devil.”

“Break the arm of the sinner and the wicked man,” and so on. If the breaking of the arm destroys sins, and being freed from sins is a benefit, it is in this way that I am persuaded God punishes. By “arm” he means the soul that has wrought wicked things. “His sin will be sought, and will not be found”: either, when the sin of the sinner and wicked man is sought, he himself will not be found, having become wholly sin and wickedness; or there will be a time when his sin will be sought and will not be found, because he has been cleansed.

“The Lord will reign forever, and forever and ever,” and so on. For “the Lord must reign” through the ages “until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” For his kingdom is the contemplation of all the ages that have been and will be, through which contemplation the enemies too become friends. One says: “His sin will be sought, and will not be found.” The Lord reigns forever; and it is the property of kings to take care of those under their hand. “Nations, you will perish from his land.” The land of the Lord is the contemplation of all that has come to be, which we also say is the kingdom of heaven. Nations are those that have not received the saving proclamation, but are cut up into all directions. You will perish, nations, insofar as you are nations; for the whole earth is one nation, if it is of one mind.

“The Lord has heard the desire of the poor,” and so on. The Lord hears the desire at the time when he provides the desired thing to the desiring soul. For they desire that the sinner’s arm be broken and that they be freed from his tyranny; which has also happened. For the desire of a good mind is an effective prayer, which the knower of hearts saw and fulfilled. We must not think that all desires are heard, but only the refined ones. “Your ear has attended to the readiness of their heart.” The Lord’s ear attends to the readiness of heart of the blessed poor, but does not attend to those who are not ready. Each of the wronged, he says, longs for this: for if in the present the vindication of the helpless and lowly comes from God, no one will boast any longer,

[Ps 9, continued] but those who do wrong will stop doing evil, and those who are wronged will stop suffering it.

[Ps 10 LXX / 11] … “For behold, the sinners have bent the bow, they have prepared arrows in the quiver, to shoot in the moonless night at the upright in heart,” and so on. Not content, he says, with their own destruction, the sinners, drawing their sins as with a long cord, make war on the men of God and try to shoot them down with the arrows of their vice; and, envying such great purity of their ruling faculty, they put forth darkness against them, as cuttlefish their ink. And they do these things having taken out of themselves the natural notions, right according to nature, which God established.

Of the same. The bow is an impure mind. “I,” he says, “trust in the Lord.” Those who make war are sinners. Who, then, would fear and flee, having God as helper and sinners as enemies? “They have prepared arrows in the quiver.” An arrow is a passionate thought; the quiver is the worst habit, filled with impure thoughts. These are taken in the intelligible sense of the demons who make war; they may also be understood in the sensible sense of sensible enemies. “In the moonless night”: the moonless night is the ignorance of a rational soul. He says they lie in ambush on a moonless night, showing the secrecy of the plot. He calls himself and those with him upright in heart, not boasting, but showing his own mind, and that he did nothing to harm Saul.

“The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord, his throne is in heaven. His eyes look upon the poor; his eyelids examine the sons of men,” and so on. God dwells in holy and heavenly understanding, reigning in a heavenly and divine way. His watching powers guard the poor. Being good, he examines our affairs with his eyelids and not with his eyes, so as not to watch closely all our sins; for this would be unbearable for human beings. But he looks on the poor with his eyes, making his benefaction abundant, even if the poor man is one; while he reduces the punishments of the many, which also have much that is hidden. In God’s examination there will be much boldness for the good things done. “For we must all appear before his judgment seat, so that each may receive what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Of the same. Let us become poor, so that the eyes of the Lord may look upon us. If the rich are not poor, the Lord does not look upon the rich. With his eyes he looks upon the poor, making his benefaction abundant, even if the one in poverty is one.

[Ps 10, continued] “The Lord examines the righteous and the ungodly; but he who loves injustice hates his own soul,” and so on. Therefore everyone who sins plots against his own soul like someone who hates it. Just as, then, the one who does what is right loves himself, benefiting both himself and his neighbor by leading him to virtue as he leads himself. By “ungodly” he now means the one who, through sinning, despises God, who is also judged with the righteous, as is clear from many places, and from the saying: “And the righteous will be as the ungodly.” For the one who is wholly godless …

Of the same. Even if someone does not say that he hates his own soul, he is proved to hate it by loving injustice; and likewise the one who loves licentiousness.

“He will rain snares upon sinners,” and so on. So that, having brought them under his own snares and taken them into his hands, he may manage them as his own.

“For the Lord is righteous and has loved righteousnesses,” and so on. By “righteousnesses” he means the righteous, naming them from their practice. Such too is “Love is not puffed up,” meaning the one who has love.

[Ps 11 LXX / 12] “Save me, Lord, for the holy one has failed,” and so on. When the holy one fails, the one who survives with greater difficulty needs salvation. “For truths have been diminished among the sons of men.” If the holy have failed and truths have been diminished, truths are not in the holy alone, nor holiness in the true. And since the holy have failed, for this reason truths have been diminished. And perhaps the scarcity of the holy has been the cause of these many heresies. They converse with one another with deceit, sending falsehoods into one another’s hearts through wicked lips; and when we do not occupy ourselves with knowledge, truths are diminished.

“Each spoke vain things to his neighbor,” and so on. Therefore let us offer our neighbors neither an idle word at random, nor a blasphemous one, nor anything reprehensible at all. “Deceitful lips in the heart, and in the heart they spoke.” Since they conceived deceitful things, therefore they spoke …

“May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the boastful tongue,” and so on. For the Lord, making the worse things vanish, destroys them, so that, when what has attached itself has vanished, the first creation of God, to which the worse things attached themselves, may come up again.

[Ps 11, continued] “Our lips are our own; who is our lord?” and so on. Pharaoh too says, “I do not know the Lord,” like those who say, “Who is our lord?”

“Because of the misery of the poor and the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord,” and so on. As Paul said both “Wretched man that I am,” and “As poor, yet making many rich,” and “To this present hour we hunger,” and so on, and “We who are in this tent groan.”

Of the same. And otherwise, the poor groan, unable to bear the tyranny of the boastful. That is why the Lord says: “I will arise, so as to set my counsel in salvation. I will speak boldly in it” against the proud, and I will free the needy from misery — arising at the time of his coming and coming to us, so that salvation was shown to those who had come to be outside misery and groaning. So Paul, having said, “Wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from the body of this death?” adds: “I give thanks to God through Jesus Christ.” For he showed that the Lord is the one who will rescue the wretched. That is why the one who now says, “Now I will arise,” had a body of death. They say that the “poor” (πτωχός) is the one who has fallen from wealth, and the “needy” (πένης) the one who provides the necessities of life by toil. Scripture says: “The rich have become poor,” and “We have become very poor,” and of the Savior, “who, though rich, became poor for our sake, so that we might become rich by his poverty.” It speaks of the groaning of the needy as of those who always groan over their toil. “I will set in salvation” means “I will appoint and make,” as in “whom he set as heir of all things,” and “God set in the church first apostles,” and so on; and to the presbyters of the church: “The Holy Spirit has set you as overseers to shepherd the church,” signifying being appointed and made.

“I will set him in safety; I will speak boldly in him,” and so on. The one who lays up treasure in heaven, having been set in salvation, says this: “I will speak boldly in him”; for his conscience does not condemn him.

“The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried in the fire, tested for the earth, purified seven times,” and so on. Even if there are fine words among those who are not of Christ’s portion, they are not pure, being mixed with countless falsehoods. Only the words of the Lord are pure, in which no falsehood is mixed, and so pure as silver tested and purified by smelting. Hence one must not even doubt what is signified by them.

[Ps 12 LXX / 13] “How long, Lord, will you forget me, to the end?” and so on. Perhaps he says that God has forgotten him with respect to the end, and not simply forgotten. And in another psalm she is called “forgotten.”

“How long will you turn your face away from me?” This face the angels see always. For when God shows himself to one capable of the vision of his face, he will stop turning away from him and hiding his face — which he once did also with Moses, sparing him while he was a man. God turns his face away in care for us, when we do things unworthy of his commandments; and he does this to draw us to himself. Or, since the Son is the face of the Father, he has set down such a saying asking that his incarnation might come more quickly.

“How long shall I set counsels in my soul?” and so on. One sets many counsels in his soul first, then at the end, above all, the great counsel of God, whose Spirit rested upon the rod from Jesse.

“Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep in death,” and so on. “Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge.” I am held in misfortunes as in darkness; and unless you drive away the darkness of my despondency, but delay your help, the sleep will be changed into death, grief having wholly overpowered my reason.

“Lest my enemy say: I have prevailed against him.” As often as we sin, so often the enemy says this: “I have prevailed against him.” “Those who afflict me will rejoice if I am shaken.” The angels rejoice over those who repent; the demons exult over those who sin. For the former are lovers of virtue, the latter of vice. They will be in exultation and gladness if only they see me fallen from my hope in you and despairing.

Of the same. “Even if I do not wholly fall, but am only shaken, those who afflict me will rejoice,” says the Prophet; as the Prophet says in the seventy-second psalm: “But my feet were almost shaken.”

Of the same. They rejoice over those who fall, when they ought to grieve. This I will not suffer, by your mercy. For I await your salvation, at which one rejoices who has experienced God’s salvation. This can also be a prophecy about Christ: for, coming for the salvation of the world, he enlightened and brought down the one who arrogantly rejoiced over those who were shaken. For he looked upon us and came among us. And the one who is in good state offers a hymn of victory, saying:

[Ps 12, continued] “I will sing to the Lord who has done me good, and I will sing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High,” having learned in deed what the Lord rightly says to those who pray: “While you are still speaking, I will say: Here I am.” He tells those with him that he has obtained what he wished; that is why he also sings hymns. So we too must sing for each benefaction in contemplation, and add practice to our psalm-singing.

“But I have hoped in your mercy; my heart will exult in your salvation,” and so on. They, rejoicing over my fall, expect to exult; but I have hoped in you and your mercy.

“I will sing to the Lord who has done me good, and I will sing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High,” and so on. Let the one who has received a benefit sing, and the one who is cheerful sing psalms. For he says: “Is anyone among us cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” I will keep the greatness of the benefaction unforgotten in my soul for the time to come.

[Ps 13 LXX / 14] “The fool said in his heart: There is no God. They are corrupt and have become abominable in their pursuits,” and so on. If they are corrupted in their pursuits, it is not the base thought that corrupts someone, but its result, vice. Having said from the disposition of their heart that there is no God, they then consistently lived as godless, and had a corrupt life full of all uncleanness.

“All have turned aside; together they have become worthless,” and so on. Those who say, “We are worthless servants,” in effect say: We have become worthless.

“Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel?” and so on. “The deliverer will come from Zion and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” If the Savior comes from Zion, and he came forth from the Father and has come, then Zion here is a symbol of the Father. He speaks not only of the salvation that came to those in the time of Hezekiah, but also of the saving appearing of our Savior from there many ages later. For when all had turned aside, it was necessary that the one who could forgive sins and save should be present. “From Zion,” because from the seed of Israel, and because “from Zion will come the one who comes,” as it is written. “When the Lord turns back the captivity of his people.” Captivity is the involuntary passage from knowledge and virtue to ignorance and vice. “Jacob will exult, and Israel will be glad.” The one who has acquired practical freedom from passion will exult; the one counted worthy of knowing contemplation is glad.

Of the same. When countless evils were ruling over the inhabited world,

[Ps 13, continued] the Holy Spirit, perceiving the one who alone could bring help, says: “Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel?” For not Moses, not Elijah, not Isaiah, nor the rest of the prophets had given it; all the works of the law were weak for such a thing. Since the physician was needed, who could heal all things, not by art or by deed but by the power of the word, the Holy Spirit prays that he may come.

Of the same. In the writings of the Old Testament we are taught that our Lord Jesus Christ is called “the salvation,” and that he was properly announced by promise to the nations by the name “salvation.” For Isaiah says: “And the Lord will reveal his holy arm before all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation from our God.” And again it is said in the Psalms: “The Lord has made known his salvation; before the nations he has revealed his righteousness.” And again: “Show us, Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation.”

[Ps 14 LXX / 15] “Lord, who will sojourn in your tent? And who will dwell on your holy mountain?” and so on. “My soul has sojourned much,” it says elsewhere, teaching that one sojourns much until he comes to the holy mountain of God.

Of the same. The holy mountain is the knowledge of Christ, which is the contemplation of the things that have come to be. He calls Jerusalem the holy mountain. And having asked, he thus receives the answer.

“He who walks blameless and works righteousness, who speaks truth in his heart,” and so on. “Walking blameless” you will emulate if you understand what is said about Abraham, “as the Lord spoke to him.” For to us too he has spoken the same in the holy Scriptures; and if, having understood, we do it, we have heard God and walked as he spoke to us. “And works righteousness”: keeping close to this, you will say, “working self-control,” likewise courage, likewise prudence, likewise godliness, likewise wisdom, and the other virtues. This is also working one’s own land, so as to be filled with bread. But Cain, when he ought to have worked righteousness, or one of the virtues, or his own land, worked the land, but not his own.

[Ps 14, continued] Of the same. The one who, he says, is free of all vice and every blemish in the inner and in the outer man, and pursues every virtue.

“Who has not deceived with his tongue, nor done evil to his neighbor,” and so on. As the ministers of Satan do, when they disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. “And has not done evil to his neighbor”: since all are neighbors, the saying does not permit doing evil to those who are not neighbors. The same applies to “He who swears to his neighbor and does not break his oath.” “And has not taken up a reproach against those nearest him”: the one who lives blamelessly does not take up reproaches against those nearest him: the one who does not jeer at his neighbor in misfortune, nor rejoice at another’s fall, but grieves with him; the one who does not reproach the one nearest him, as the Pharisee did the tax collector; or the one who is not reproached because of those nearest him, as Eli was because of his children; or simply the one who lives blamelessly.

[Ps 15 LXX / 16] “Keep me, Lord, for I have hoped in you. I said to the Lord: You are my Lord, for you have no need of my goods,” and so on. He says “Keep me” as with enemies attacking. Jesus says in the prophet: the one who hopes in the Lord and in nothing else is kept by him. No one who sins can make the words true; for being a slave of the sin he commits, he cannot serve God. But the one who has set up a pillar to the practical and the contemplative life cries: “I said to the Lord: You are my Lord”; and from your gifts I bring you gifts, not as to one in need. For none of the heretics will say this truly. This utterance is to be offered not only of things brought in a sensible way, but also spiritually. For even if we offer virtues as sacred offerings, even if we offer our own bodies by perfect self-control, we know that God accepts this not for his own benefit, but so that he may give us the good things from heaven when we ask for them.

Of the same. If all virtues are goods, and knowledge needs the virtues, then knowledge needs all the goods. And perhaps “goods” here means the intermediate things, whose right use makes us good, and does not make God good. For “If,” says Job, “we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things?” For there he called possessions “goods,” which become goods through right use.

“For the saints who are in his land he has made wonderful all his wishes in them. Their weaknesses were multiplied; afterward they hastened,” and so on. The sinner is outside the land of

[Ps 15, continued] God, to whom he did not show his wonders. But Christ will say about the perfect who have been formed according to him: “All my wishes are in them.” And the weaknesses of those from the nations were multiplied, but they hastened, changing by repentance. You will inquire whether, in some sense, these were once saints dwelling in the land of God, before their lawless deeds were multiplied; or whether some of them are Israel, in whom the wishes of God once were; or whether thus the saints, having their citizenship in heaven, spend their time in his land, even if they are still in this earth. The wishes of God are the virtues in their kinds, as in: “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my wishes.” These God makes wonderful in his saints, who practice the virtues better than other human beings; for in courage the apostles, prophets, and martyrs excelled incomparably, in self-control Joseph and Susanna, and likewise in the other virtues. Thus one who is made wonderful is ashamed of his own weakness, falling far short of the divine strength. And weaknesses, remaining only as far as thinking of them, quickly depart, because the saints are strengthened by Christ and say: “In God we shall do mighty deeds.”

“I will not gather their assemblies from blood, nor will I remember their names with my lips,” and so on. These words are plainly of one greater than the many, and of none other than Christ; for he, gathering, does not gather assemblies from blood, nor does he any longer remember names from blood. Or thus: Not like the Greeks and the Jews will I too pour libations from blood. For another translator rendered it so: “I will not pour their libations from blood,” but I will hand on new mysteries to all and an unbloody sacrifice; nor will I remember their old names (for they were called profane and eaters of idol sacrifices), but I will give them to hear “the godly” and “the holy.” Or thus: he does not say that he will not gather their assemblies at all, but “from blood”; nor that he will not remember their names absolutely, but “with lips.” Perhaps, then, since there are some who gather assemblies from blood, shedding it by harming those who are gathered, he, benefiting, or rather giving life to those he calls, gathers them not from blood but from immortality, remembering their names not superficially but from a disposition that has depth, and not by utterance but by deep understanding. Or: even if many saints were killed, the assemblies are not in their blood, but in the one blood of Christ, the Lamb.

“The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; you are the one who restores my inheritance

[Ps 15, continued] to me,” and so on. The inheritance of the rational nature is the contemplation of the ages that have been and will be; and the inheritance of Christ is the knowledge of God. Christ says this as high priest, whose portion is the Lord. If the Lord is the portion of the cup, or of whatever the Lord is the portion, the portion of Christ’s inheritance is the Father, which remained to him; and the rest of the inheritance is the people restored to him from God. Both can also be said of the Father, and that he restores the inheritance to himself after the self-emptying. Or: having passed beyond the world in your disposition, what portion will you have but the Lord? For it belongs to one who renounces all things to say: “My portion is God forever.” The Lord also becomes bread, providing teaching and strengthening the heart of the one who eats; and a cup, in the contemplation of truth, providing the gladness of knowledge to the one who drinks with assent. The true vine supplies this, so that the one who has drunk says with thanksgiving: “You have put gladness into my heart.”

“The lines have fallen for me in the best places; for my inheritance is most excellent to me,” and so on. If the line is a measure, how is it written in the Gospel according to John, “For God does not give the Spirit by measure,” and “I will pour out of my Spirit”? Or perhaps the measure is named not with respect to knowledge itself, but with respect to the one receiving it, since he cannot receive more. For rain is itself without measure, but is measured in the vessels that receive it. I have been given the land as an inheritance, he says, as by measure, and I am content; and through my best ones, Joshua and Caleb.

Of the same. So Israel became the line of his inheritance. Well pleased with his own inheritance as the best, he says these things.

“I will bless the Lord who gave me understanding; moreover, even until night my kidneys instructed me,” and so on. One blesses the Lord when an image has come into the mind; for from his face come knowledge and understanding. Thus the Lord gives understanding to the one who keeps the commandments. He speaks of the kidneys, named together with the heart in “God who searches hearts and kidneys.” These, perfected through understanding, instruct the one who attends, giving the light of knowledge, until the night of ignorance is dissolved. And if the night also signifies the deeper meanings, as the mystical word is called a dark saying, it is clear that the kidneys instruct until this night, making clear what is hidden and enigmatic. The figure is taken from the kidneys, in which the seed and the generative powers are formed, supplying the generative passages. In the soul too, then, there are certain thoughts analogous to seeds, by which there are inward offspring in good

[Ps 15, continued] actions and true contemplations. And the bodily kidneys too instruct the one who has the highest self-control, as even at night they hold back, by a self-controlled mind, the bodily emissions of seed.

“Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted,” and so on. Instead of “my mind.” For it is the custom of divine Scripture to take the heart in place of the mind, as in: “With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” It is the mind that believes, which also discerns words, according to Job. By “tongue” he now means the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For my glory,” he says, “and the one who lifts up my head,” to the Lord; and “the Lord is the Spirit,” according to the Apostle. “I was glad,” he says, “in the hope of the resurrection after the third day.” For the tongue exults as if alive, and rejoices in speaking, and makes others exult. “And moreover my flesh will dwell in hope.” “My flesh” means my animation. So Job too says: “You clothed me with skin and flesh.”

“Nor will you let your holy one see corruption,” and so on. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles takes this of Christ. Christ accepted corruption in the body, as the Hymn-writer too says, accepting the corruption of death: “You kept your body untasting of decay.” Yet he did not undergo decay or destruction. Corruption is blows and wounds; decay is for the body, once bound, to dissolve and be sent back into each of the elements of which it is composed; and destruction is for a nature to suffer from a nature, as wool from the moth, flesh, grain, and wood from worms.

[Ps 16 LXX / 17] “Hear, Lord, my righteousness; attend to my petition. Give ear to my prayer,

[Ps 16, continued] not from deceitful lips,” and so on. Every righteous man is a servant of righteousness; but God alone is the righteous Master of righteousness. David, then, conscious that he was pure of all deceit, says these things in prayer with boldness toward God.

“Let my judgment come forth from your face,” and so on. If the Father has given all judgment to the Son, and the judgment comes forth from his face, then from the Son; for Christ is the image of the Father.

Of the same. Since “the one who believes in me,” says the Lord, “is not judged,” the judgment of the believer comes forth from the face of God.

“Let my eyes see uprightness,” and so on. He prays for the restoration of all things, so that there may no longer be crookedness, God walking crosswise with those who sin.

“You have tested my heart, you have visited it by night; you have tried me by fire, and injustice was not found in me. So that my mouth may not speak the works of men, because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways,” and so on. Note that “you have visited” is not used of punishments. Again we must know that the devil tries by fire in a way opposite to God. God, trying by fire, either finds the injustice that existed before, or, since it did not exist before, does not find it. “The works of men,” instead of “about the works of men.” Or the works of men are the words that are not divine, which men have made by their own devices.

Of the same. He calls affliction “night,” in which the soul is darkened. One is tested by enduring hardships nobly. He named the hardships night because of the darkness that comes from despondency. Or he mentioned night because, having caught Saul asleep at night and in his power, he saved him, not only not killing him himself, but also preventing those who wished to kill him.

Of the same. “Enter by the narrow gate and the hard way,” that is, the practical way, which, though now it brings grief and not joy, later becomes the bringer of the fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

“I cried, for you heard me, O God; incline your ear to me and hear my words. Make wonderful your mercies, you who save those who hope in you,” and so on. As though heard before we prayed, we have cried out in praying. Or, if crying out is good — saying not small and contemptible things but praying for great things and obtaining them — we have cried out when we have cried out in this way. Many mercies of God come about, because they happen in a certain human sequence, without being made wonderful by the one who does them.

[Ps 16, continued] Few are those made wonderful, when they come about unexpectedly and miraculously. For example, let those who receive mercy be those freed from fevers and leprosy. If they were healed by the way of medicine, they received mercy from God, but not from one who made his mercies to them wonderful; but if they were freed by Jesus’ touch, as he rebuked the fever (so that at once they could return to the activities of the healthy and fit), or as he touched them and said, “I will; be cleansed,” and were freed from leprosy, then God made his mercies wonderful toward such people.

“From those who resist your right hand keep me as the apple of the eye,” and so on. The one who resists Christ resists the right hand of God. Whether it is good to resist the left hand, you will inquire. The most clear-sighted man, being as the apple of the eye in the whole body of Christ, will say this, whom to touch is to touch the apple of the eye. And let anyone who sees the multitude of those who resist the eye of the soul run to God, asking to be rescued by the divine shelter as by a shield from the arrows, so to speak, that are sent, so that they may not make him wretched. Since the right hand of the Lord is the only-begotten Son of God, and intelligible and invisible enemies resist it, from whom he asks that his own mind may remain unharmed, the voice is that of a man whose soul’s eyes are enlightened.

“In the shelter of your wings you will shelter me from the face of the ungodly who made me wretched,” and so on. The righteous man is made wretched and is pitied by the ungodly, sometimes even pitied as a fool; but then the worthy man is sheltered in the shelter of God’s wings, so that he may not be shaken by being pitied.

“My enemies surrounded my soul. They shut up their fat; their mouth spoke arrogance,” and so on. When we perceive worse thoughts surrounding our soul, then we say, “My enemies surrounded my soul”; and if they make our understanding thick, “they shut up their fat.” He shows a siege and the cruelty of the enemies, who have shut up their fat through their attachment to matter. For they are wholly fleshly through and through.

Of the same. The intelligible fat is the thickness that comes upon the ruling faculty from vice. By “fat” he seems to me to mean goodwill and brotherly love; and he says that they shut out all natural compassion, giving no room to thoughts of brotherly love. Some, however, have named the fat prosperity and good condition.

“Casting me out, they have now surrounded me; they set their eyes to bend down to the earth,” and so on.

[Ps 16, continued] The enemies do not surround those who are inside, for they cannot; but only when they have cast them out from within. And they set their eyes, he says, to bend me away from heaven down to the earth, that is, to matter. Those who seek to destroy surround to do harm, seeking that one look toward the earth and consider only temporal things; and they turn aside the straight way, acting lawlessly, even against one’s will.

Of the same. The demons surround the one whom they cast out of virtue; therefore it is well said: “If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place,” and: “Give no place to the evil one”; as if he were saying: If a spirit of sexual immorality rises up against you, do not leave your self-control; and if a spirit of hatred rises up against you, do not leave your love. But we must attend whether the one who has fallen from all the virtues is surrounded, or from many, or from one. If the vices follow one another as the virtues do, the one who has fallen from one virtue is surrounded; but if the vices do not follow one another, it is not the one cast out from one virtue who is surrounded, but the one cast out from all. Or perhaps, from whichever virtue someone falls, he is surrounded by the vice opposed to it.

“They have taken me up like a lion ready for prey, and like a young lion dwelling in secret places,” and so on. For the enemies lay their ambushes against us in secret and unforeseen, like a young lion.

Of the same. Through the impure thought the lion that opposes us takes up our mind. Having cast away the rational part of their nature, they imitate beasts that long for food, look about for it, and spring suddenly.

“Arise, Lord, go before them and trip them up; rescue my soul from the ungodly, your sword from the enemies of your hand,” and so on. The enemies of his hand sometimes take up God’s sword against us. He prays to God, then, that this be rescued and taken from the enemies.

Of the same. As Job calls the power that struck him the hand of God — “Let not your hand,” he says, “whirl me about” — so David calls the enemies of God’s beneficent hand the sword of God. The beneficent hand is the holy angels, through whom God provides for the world, to whom the demons are opposed, who do not wish all people to come to the knowledge of the truth. The hand of God is the only-begotten Son; and the sword is his strength, his power, his authority. Every righteous soul that draws sinners from ungodliness to godliness is a sword of God, sharpened against the spirits of wickedness. Rescue, then, this your sword from your enemies who resist faith in the Only-begotten.

[Ps 16, continued] “Lord, from the few of the earth divide them in their life; and their belly has been filled with your hidden things,” and so on. Divide them, so that they may not be of one mind. “And their belly has been filled with your hidden things.” When the enemies of the Gospel, philosophizing, sometimes state great and well-achieved doctrines, you will say to God: “Their belly has been filled with your hidden things,” which perhaps they bring up, since they knew them; and, having their outlines dim, they made them brilliant by their exercises and inquiries. Another translator says: “Their portion is among the living.” For the whole inheritance of the enemies of God is in the present life, and they were filled with every luxury.

“They were satisfied with sons, and left their remains to their infants,” and so on. They were satisfied with their own offspring, whose remains they have left to their own infants. For this is added also among the curses of Leviticus: “You shall eat the flesh of your sons.”

Of the same. “Sons” instead of “uncleanness.” Not only did they themselves become unclean, but they also gave a share of the uncleanness to their children. For it is not the mark of the perfect to prefer unclean things to clean.

“But I shall appear before your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when your glory appears,” and so on. In righteousness and every virtue the saint will appear before the face of God; no unrighteous man will appear. The blessed satisfaction will be when the glory of God appears and is made clear. For this is the food that fills up all that is lacking in the soul; the one who hungers and longs for it in health will be satisfied, being filled with it.

[Ps 17 LXX / 18] “I will love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my firmness, and my refuge, and my deliverer; my God is my helper, I will hope in him; my protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my helper,” and so on. The Lord is the very strength and the very firmness of the saints. None, then, of those not in the Lord is strong or firm. Firmness is not the same as hardness, nor strength the same as the tensions of the frenzied.

Of the same. By the like we recognize the like: by love, love, and by the righteous, righteousness. For this is the great and first commandment. And the one who loves also serves the one loved. He calls God his strength, as having been rescued through him from all his enemies, visible and intelligible.

Of the same. He called God his firmness, as having been rescued by him against his enemies; and his refuge,

[Ps 17, continued] as having become a wall to him; his deliverer, as having been ransomed by him.

Of the same. He called God his helper, as having come to his aid.

Of the same. He called God his protector, as a champion fighting before him; the horn of salvation, as having through him, in a way, gored his enemies, and been saved by his forethought. Christ too is a horn of salvation, according to Zechariah, who says: “And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us.” The kingdom too is a horn, as in: “He will exalt the horn of his Christ.”

“Praising, I will call upon the Lord, and I will be saved from my enemies,” and so on. The one who prays with hymn-singing calls upon the Lord with praise. No one prays thus who is displeased with what happens. Even when enemies surround us, then, we must pray thus.

“The pangs of death surrounded me, and the torrents of lawlessness troubled me. The pangs of Hades encircled me; the snares of death came upon me beforehand,” and so on. Christ says these things as a man. For death brought forth pangs for him, and the torrents of lawlessness troubled him, when he said, “My soul is troubled”; yet they did not hold him. And the pangs of Hades encircled him, thinking to seize him; yet he never became a son of Hades. And the sins unto death, that is, snares, came upon him beforehand, that is, went before him; but they did not catch him. So you will call the torrents of lawlessness the streams of vice, and the snares of death sins in action.

Of the same. Pangs of death are either those that give birth to death, or those conceived from death, which Paul has proclaimed as the last enemy to be abolished.

Of the same. The torrents of lawlessness are the lawless thoughts, which are called pangs when they linger in us, and again snares when they put us to death through sin in act.

“And in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and to my God I cried. He heard my voice from his holy temple, and my cry before him will enter his ears,” and so on. In the midst of afflictions, and at their height, we must call upon the Lord and cry to God. For thus he will hear us from his temple of words; and from such a disposition our prayer will enter with boldness, as into its own place, into what are called his ears. Perhaps we are also armed against the enemies by the very praising and calling upon the Lord.

Of the same. The temple of God is Christ, and the temple of Christ the intellectual and holy powers. That is why Christ

[Ps 17, continued] is now said to sit on the throne of David his father.

“And the earth shook and trembled, and the foundations of the mountains were troubled and shaken, for God was angry with them. Smoke went up in his wrath, and fire blazed from his face; coals were kindled by him,” and so on. For the one who stands firm God stands; for the one who is shaken he is shaken; as it is said to Moses, “Stand before Pharaoh.” But when Adam disobeyed God, or rather listened to the woman, then he heard the Lord God walking; for God no longer stood for him; and, being good, the judge did not stand. When God is shaken, it is not heaven that trembles but the earth, and the foundations of the mountains are troubled, since the fire kindled from the anger of God will trouble the foundations of the mountains. “The face of the Lord is against those who do evil”; for it enlightens the saints, as in: “The light of your face has been signed upon us.”

Of the same. “And fire blazed from his face,” burning up wood, hay, straw, that is, consuming the wicked habits. So it once burned up Matthew when he was a tax collector, and Paul a persecutor and insolent man.

Of the same. Being good, God is shaken, so that his earth may no longer despise him, but fear him as a father; and so that the foundations of the mountains may no longer be unmoved, but in turmoil. And, being good, God, as a burning, consuming fire, first going up, sends out smoke, then kindles coals, then comes down, having bowed the heavens, and after this shows the darkness under his feet. Then, mounting the cherubim, he flies, and flies on the wings of the winds. Going up and coming down must be understood as his various dispensations; for God is present to everyone and everywhere.

Of the same. God dwells and walks among holy men, but flies among the cherubim. And if you take the winds as the sensible ones, he mounts them by the principle of providence, driving them as he wills.

“And he made darkness his hiding place; round about him his tent; dark water in clouds of the air,” and so on. Since he made darkness his hiding place, and his tent is round about him, therefore the dark water is in clouds of the air; that is what is in the prophets: “For I will command the clouds,” he says, “not to rain upon them; and there will be a famine, not a famine of bread, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.” If our God is light, how is he covered by darkness? I think that darkness covers him in the way that what is known is uncovered by ignorance —

[Ps 17, continued] ignorance which is spoken of with respect to the knower, not with respect to what is known. He named as his tent the flesh, in which Christ was seated; and also called it a tent because the incarnation was temporary. “For even if we have known Christ according to the flesh,” he says, “yet now we know him so no longer.” Or perhaps he named the body a tent because of the vine which he brought out of Egypt, so that he might guard it until the cluster ripens, and the boar from the forest may not ravage it. He can also call bodily nature a tent, in which God is seen through the Word, since from the beauty of creatures the Author of becoming is contemplated, and, being understood through the things made, he is clearly seen.

“And he sent out arrows and scattered them, and multiplied lightnings and threw them into confusion. And the springs of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered, at your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of the breath of your anger,” and so on. All those gloomy things are for the sake of this good. He rebukes, then, and breathes a breath of anger, so that the springs of the waters may be seen and the foundations of the world uncovered. If it is good that the springs of the waters be seen and made manifest — of which he is the head who said, “You have forsaken me, the spring of living water” — and good too that the foundations of the world be uncovered, so that the holy Trinity, which rules over the creatures, may be contemplated, how could anyone reasonably blame what produces these, even if it seems gloomy: the hail, the coals of fire, the arrows, the lightnings, the rebukes of God, and the blast of the breath of his anger? At the same time observe that rebuke is a kind of healing of the one rebuked, who is reproved so that he may stop doing worse things. So when you hear of fever and winds and sea rebuked by Jesus, understand it in a way worthy of Jesus’ kindness. Or thus: thoughts, words, and actions, built upon habits and dispositions, make up a world. When, then, having scattered the base with his arrows, he throws them into confusion also with lightnings — the hidden things of men being made manifest, as God lights up the hidden things of darkness — he will also uncover the foundations of the world, rebuking the ungodly through punishments. The foundations of the world are also divine men, because of their vigor, upon whom those who live according to Christ are built. These too are uncovered when rebuke is made against the wicked, their punishment being in no way rejected. God does not punish sinners at once, but announces beforehand the punishments of his wrath; and this is his breathing the breath of his anger.

Of the same. When we compare spiritual things with spiritual, then we make lightnings, showing the knowledge that comes from them. You will understand lightnings

[Ps 17 LXX / 18, continued] … and the splendours of the divine proclamation, through which the dark sayings of the prophets have been made to shine. By the same. He calls the virtues springs, from which knowledge comes forth. For “Blessed,” he says, “are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

“He sent from on high and took me; he drew me to himself out of many waters. He will rescue me from my mighty enemies and from those who hate me, for they were made stronger than I,” etc. He himself took me from on high: taking to himself the one who came down, out of the many waters of human life, and rescuing him from enemies who are mighty in their enmity. Notice, however, that the enemies are attested to be mighty. And perhaps the doctrines of godlessness too are much water, which cannot quench love. And the mighty enemies are both the invisible ones and the men who work deceit through knowledge falsely so called. By the same. From this we learn that before the coming of the Saviour the demons were stronger than we, but now we are stronger than they, we to whom Christ has given “to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.”

“They came upon me first in the day of my affliction, and the Lord became my support. And he brought me out into a broad place; he will rescue me, because he desired me,” etc. Let those who are afflicted but not hemmed in know that they will be brought out of affliction and led into the holy broad place of God. For in the day of affliction God will support the one who flees to him, so that he is not shaken and does not fall; and while supporting him he brings out into a broad place the one hard pressed by afflictions, as in the words, “In affliction you made room for me.” This happens not always by his being set free, but by his bearing it nobly.

“And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the cleanness of my hands he will repay me, because I kept the ways of the Lord,” etc. The one who lifts up holy hands and is bold to say, “The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice,” would also confess that he has cleanness of hands. The saying belongs to one who sees that each thing comes about by judgment. And there are certain judgments of God concerning each of the sins committed. So when someone has all the judgments concerning all sins before his eyes, he will say, “All his judgments are before me.” Otherwise the one who says these things condemns himself of nothing. Hence these words must be referred to the Saviour, “who was tempted in every respect in the same way, without sin.” By the same. Cleanness of soul is freedom from passion, arising from the grace of God with the zeal

[Ps 17, continued] of the man added to it. By cleanness of hands he means the prophetic activities, which are undefiled because they proceed from the best disposition.

“And I shall be blameless with him, and I shall keep myself from my lawlessness,” etc. Without God it is not possible to be blameless; so a little later he says, “And he made my way blameless.” And one who says, “The Lord will repay me according to my righteousness,” and what follows, cannot have lawlessness. And “I shall keep myself from my lawlessness” can be referred to what is called the darkness in us, as in the words, “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” By the same. Blameless is the one who has in himself the way of God, Christ. For “I am,” he says, “the way.” And David too called this way blameless, saying, “My God, your way is blameless.”

“And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness,” etc. “With the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you.” This is the voice of the saints, who through great boldness are able to say, “Repay your servant.” He means the righteousness that is through faith in Jesus Christ, which has been manifested to all who believe; for to those who believe rightly faith is reckoned as righteousness.

“With the holy you will be holy, and with the innocent man you will be innocent, and with the elect you will be elect, and with the crooked you will be perverse,” etc. As I shall be blameless with God himself, so God will be holy with the holy, innocent with the innocent, and he himself will be elect with the elect. But with the crooked he will not be crooked (that is not permitted); rather, “you will pervert,” as with Pharaoh. By the same. Among the holy God is holy, among the innocent innocent, among the elect elect; but among the crooked not crooked, but twisting along with them, for reverence’s sake: he guarded against calling God crooked. The simpler often take these verses as said of men. God twists along in the way he says in Deuteronomy: “If you come to me crosswise, I too will come to you in crosswise anger.” By the same. You fit your recompenses to the dispositions of men. For you give the holy what is worthy of holiness, the guiltless and righteous what suits them, the elect and perfect what is perfect; but for those who have turned aside and travel the opposite way you prepare a matching end of the road. And in what way? “For you will save a humble people.”

“For you will light my lamp, O Lord; my God, you will light my darkness,” etc. The lamp of the body is the eye; this the Lord will light. And we have something of darkness even in the human constitution; this, in the righteous man, the Lord will light. Or the lamp of the soul is the mind, as being receptive of light; and its darkness is the irascible and the desiring part, which is lit by the mind once it has received the divine rays. And perhaps those too who have been illumined all round with the truth by the Lord have a lamp kindled, and, guiding their actions by right reason because their mind has been enlightened, have their darkness lit as well.

“For in you I shall be rescued from a band of raiders, and in my God I shall leap over a wall,” etc. Life, I think, is a trial, as in Job. And no one can be rescued from bitter circumstances except one who has come to be in God. A man comes to be in God by sharing in him, just as someone is rescued from ignorance by coming to be in knowledge. Such a man does not enter into temptation, not by not being tempted, but by not being caught in the snares of temptation. So this man leaps over the wall of sin, putting sins behind him.

“My God, his way is blameless; the sayings of the Lord are tried in fire; he is a protector of all who hope in him,” etc. The blameless way is Christ, who said, “I am the way.” And since the sayings of the Lord are tried in fire, those who hear them say, “Was not our heart burning within us?” They are fervent in spirit, and they do not admit fire foreign to God, which is in the arrows of the evil one. But he who said, “I came to cast fire on the earth,” had sayings tried in fire; therefore he says, “And what do I want, if it is already kindled?” And perhaps Jesus baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire, but the fire burns up wood, hay, straw.

“For who is God but the Lord? And who is God except our God? It is God who girds me with power and made my way blameless, who makes my feet like a deer’s and sets me on the heights,” etc. In this sense the only true God is the God and Father—unless indeed we refer the “who,” which often stands for what is rare, to the Only-begotten. Here the girdle is power, but in Paul it is truth. The feet of one who runs well and completes the course are made like those of deer. “And sets me on the heights”: perhaps each person has heights from which he fell or came down. By the same. Someone’s feet are made like a deer’s through the practical life, and they are lifted up through

[Ps 17, continued] contemplation. Because the deer destroys the …

“Who trains my hands for war, and you made my arms a bow of bronze,” etc. Bronze is a symbol of the practical life. “For he destroyed your bronze,” says Ezekiel to Jerusalem. Since, then, our arms send arrows, he says, “You prepared my arms as a bow,” and adds “of bronze,” showing its strength and unbreakableness, as if saying, “You have made me invincible in the contests against the enemies.”

“And you gave me the shield of my salvation, and your right hand upheld me, and your discipline set me upright to the end, and your discipline itself will teach me,” etc. He who sits at the right hand of the Father is himself called the right hand. By the first discipline he sets us upright; by the second he teaches. For a right way of life raises a soul up, and true knowledge enlarges it. The right hand is the Son who made all things, of whom it is also said elsewhere, “The right hand of the Lord has wrought power; the right hand of the Lord has exalted me.”

“You enlarged my steps under me, and my footprints did not weaken,” etc. This is the voice of one who bears afflictions easily, because of the Word who produces room even in such things, so that not even ordinary weakness shows in his footprints.

“I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I will not turn back until they fail. I will crush them, and they will not be able to stand; they will fall under my feet,” etc. The one made sufficient by God to be a minister of a new covenant, so as to pull down every height raised against the knowledge of God, having pursued the enemy arguments with the salvation that comes from God, will overtake them, and will not turn back from fighting them before they fail. And the arguments that are enemies of the truth, crushed, will not be able to stand before the one made sufficient by God. By the same. That man pursues the enemies who does not let passionate thoughts arise in himself; for from these our sins follow. By the same. Freedom from passion brings about the failing of the enemies. By the same. Those who fall from their standing in what is base are benefited. But neither will the arguments that are enemies of the truth be able to stand before the one strong of hand, which is the meaning of the name David.

“And you made my enemies turn their back to me, and you utterly destroyed those who hate me,” etc. The enemies

[Ps 17, continued] have turned their back, no longer able to cast passionate thoughts into the soul. By the same. You made my enemies change and follow me, inseparable from me, so that they became my back; or else, fleeing.

“Rescue me from the contradictions of the people; you will make me head of nations,” etc. Christ, who became a sign spoken against, says these things; God made him head of nations. For Christ is the head of the church.

“A people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me,” etc. The Scriptures use “I did not know” particularly of the worse. Here Christ used “I did not know” of the people from the nations, for there was a time when it was not known. You will find God too saying such things. By the same. Not knowing, they were not known; and having come to know, they were known.

“Foreign sons grew old and limped away from their paths,” etc. Virtue renews, but wickedness makes old; and limping belongs to those who grow old. By the same. “How long will you limp on both your hams?” The paths of men are practice and contemplation.

“God, who grants me vengeance and subjected peoples under me,” etc. Having received vengeance from God, Christ says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” By the same. “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions,” and what follows. He grants the people formerly unknown to be ranked under him. “My rescuer from wrathful enemies.” In those in whom rage prevails, wrathfulness too prevails. If my enemies are wrathful, then they are also full of rage. For “they have rage,” he says, “like a serpent.”

[Ps 18 LXX / 19] Psalm 18. “The heavens tell the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands,” etc. If the heavens tell the glory of God, and the heavens will perish (for “the heavens,” he says, “will perish, but you remain”), will those who tell the glory of God then perish? But no one who tells the glory of God will perish; for “those who glorify me,” says God, “I will glorify.” So the heavens will not perish. Rather, the heavens that tell the glory of God belong to the intellectual nature, and are called heavens because they have in themselves the sun of righteousness; while the heavens that perish belong to bodily substance.

[Ps 18, continued] … can tell the glory of God. For “he who is of the earth speaks of the earth.” … those who [bear] the image of the heavenly tell the glory of God. And there are heavens that are a work of God’s hands. Note the difference: “tell” is said of the heavens, “proclaim” of the firmament.

“Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night proclaims knowledge,” etc. But those too who embrace the contemplative life lay up treasure in heaven and, having their heart there, are heavens that tell the glory of God spoken of above, through contemplation of intelligible things. The practical are the firmament, being steadfast, and they proclaim the work of God’s hands, doing the works of God and being his work. And the luminous understanding, being day, in harmony with another luminous understanding, pours forth speech: as the Old Scripture, filled with spiritual food, pouring it forth from its fullness, offers sayings to the New Covenant. And night, the deepest grasp of mystical things, leads us on to another obscurity, a grasp that the Spirit of God gives to those who have him, the Spirit who searches even the depths of God. Speech goes before words, and words bring knowledge, supplying the proofs. Both have been spoken by God so that they may be heard; therefore those who disobey have no defence. All who are earth fit for sowing take in the sound, that is, the wording of Scripture according to the sense. But those who have passed beyond these and are called ends receive the sayings, being taught clearly; for it was not a sound that Peter was hearing when he said, “You have the sayings of eternal life.” And the Saviour said, “The sayings that I have spoken to you are spirit.” For the apostles, to whom he said this, are the ends of the world.

“There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard,” etc. Speech and word are not the same, since a talker is not the same as an eloquent man; or perhaps the sound belongs to speeches, and the sayings to words.

“In the sun he set his tent,” etc. Our Lord is the sun of righteousness, and the Father dwells in him, as in the words, “I am in the Father and the Father in me.” And again: “The Father who dwells in me does the works himself.” And the Apostle: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

“And he, like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,” etc. Christ is like a bridegroom; for “he who has the bride,” he says, “is the bridegroom.” In beauty he resembles a bridegroom coming from the bridal chamber in great comeliness.

“The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, making infants wise; the ordinances of the Lord are right, gladdening the heart; the commandment of the Lord is far-shining, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure,” etc. The spiritual law is cleansing for the spiritual; it converts the soul. The testimony of the Lord can be the witness of Christ on the cross, the faithful testimony of the Lord that makes the infants wise. The ordinances of the Lord, which contain the justice of repaying each according to desert, are the Lord’s ordinances in his law; or they are those concerning his dispensation toward each person, for these, when understood, gladden the heart. The commandment of the Lord is a commandment in the form of a general law; it is spoken not in a hidden way but far-shiningly, and when kept it enlightens the eyes of the soul. “The fear of the Lord is pure”: of those who seem to fear the Lord, some, knowing what they ought to fear, turn aside from evils, for by the fear of the Lord everyone turns aside from evil; but others do not have the true fear of the Lord. For this fear is pure, and its fruits endure for ever and ever. By the same. “The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls.” Converting from wickedness to virtue, or from things of sense to things intelligible? Perhaps the latter, for the former is what the commandment naturally does. The law of Moses is named in various ways. It is called law, as regulating the way of life; testimony, because it testifies to the consequences of transgression, showing punishment; ordinances, because, urging toward the good, it forbids injustice; commandment, as authoritatively ordering and directing what is to be done; judgments, because it shows what goods the one who keeps it will obtain, and to what punishments the transgressor will be handed over. So the law of the Lord, he says, being blameless, converts the souls of men.

By the same. “The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever and ever.” Purity is abstaining from sins, and fear is pure as making men pure; for by the fear of the Lord everyone turns aside from evil. Being eternal, fear also makes eternal those in whom it comes to be. Reverence and the fear of God procure the enjoyment of eternal goods. And rightly is the fear of God pure; for human fear is blamed and bears the name of cowardice.

“For your servant keeps them,” etc. If the servant keeps them, the one who does not keep them is not a servant. He keeps the things of God that are to be desired who desires nothing else but them; therefore he has the reward of obtaining what he desires. And having set right what is open, he prays about what is hidden.

“If they do not lord it over me, then I shall be blameless,” etc. If the foreign ones do not lord it over us, then we shall be blameless, not being such before. And we shall be blameless when we are cleansed even of the greatest sin. The sayings of one who brings forth nothing impure from his own mouth will be acceptable, since he opens his mouth for the word of God alone; and the meditation of such a man’s heart, because of his boldness, is before God, not now yes and now no, but continually. And when one never lets the meditation of his heart slacken, and is not for that reason defiled by evil reasonings, the meditation of the heart can be continually before God.

[Ps 19 LXX / 20] “May the Lord hear you in the day of affliction; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you; may he send you help from the sanctuary, and support you from Zion,” etc. The one who is on the narrow and afflicted way that leads to life is surely afflicted in everything and is in a day of affliction; therefore he obtains the blessing of being heard, which the one on the broad way misses. So let us rather wish to be in a day of affliction; for the name of the God of Jacob will protect us, if, having put on his full armour, we stand against the schemes of the devil. Let us pray, then, by all means in the day of affliction, so that we may be heard, with help sent to us from an angel or some such being, or the help of Christ. By the same. The one who travels the narrow and afflicted way is always in afflictions, and when he prays he is heard; the one on the broad way is neither afflicted nor heard. Let us pray, then, in afflictions, so that we may be heard. For Hezekiah too, having received Sennacherib’s letter and showing it to God in the temple, while the people prayed for him, was heard.

“May he remember all your sacrifice, and may your whole burnt offering

[Ps 19, continued] be made fat,” etc. Irrational animals are fattened and then sacrificed and wholly burned; but rational beings are made fat after being wholly burned, if indeed, after the cleansing of holy fire, one is counted worthy of knowledge, being wholly sanctified by fire. God makes someone’s whole burnt offerings fat so that the fatness may feed the fire on the altar. Perhaps the sacrifice is of lifeless things, and the whole burnt offerings of living things. By the same. “All” indicates a multitude, as of one who remembers not a few.

“May the Lord give you according to your heart,” etc. Things that it befits God to give, and the one who asks to receive, as one who knows what he ought to pray for and as he ought. Or: may the Lord give you that for which your heart has room, your counsel, as good.

“We will rejoice in your salvation,” etc. Men rejoice in wealth or in glory or in noble birth, but the saint in the salvation of God. The salvation of the Father in the world is the Son; the salvation of the Son in the world is the cross; the salvation is he of whom it is said, “To us is born today a Saviour, the Lord,” of whom Simeon said, “For my eyes have seen your salvation.” By the same. The salvation of God is to be saved in him; in the sons of men there is no such salvation. And the requests of the one who asks, great and heavenly, are fulfilled.

“May the Lord fulfil all your requests,” etc. But not the evil requests. May he to whom you offered the sacrifices fulfil all that you asked in your mind, since the things of your counsel are not foreign to him.

“He will hear him from his holy heaven,” etc. For the Lord hears every king who is ruled by the King of those who reign.

“They were entangled and fell,” etc. The adversaries rush upon us with wickedness, but we meet them with the knowledge of Christ; for the opposing powers will fall when the salvation spoken of appears.

[Ps 20 LXX / 21] … in intelligible things, and the contemplation of the eyes in visible things and sights, and the will of the lips in the announcing of what has been understood and contemplated.

“You set on his head a crown of precious stone,” etc. The crown of Christ is God, and the crown of the rational nature is Christ. The precious stones are the pearl-words, of which it is said, “Do not throw your pearls before swine”; and the very precious pearl of the merchant; and the disciples of Christ, who, woven like a crown, will be set on the head of Christ. By the same. A man is crowned from the things he practises. The righteous man, having pursued what is righteous, will receive the crown of righteousness; the one who has delighted in the Lord is protected with a crown of delight; the one saved by grace receives a crown of graces on his own head; and the one who has stored up precious stones with gold and silver will be crowned with the stones with which he worked. And the Lord crowns those who hope in him with mercy and compassion.

“He asked you for life, and you gave him length of days for ever and ever,” etc. Inquire whether one life is given by God and another comes from matter, and compare “He breathed into his face the breath of life” with “Let the earth bring forth a living soul.” “He asked you for life”: his life before the illness. By the same. The king asked of the Lord your life as a good thing, and received it. And the good is the Life, he who said, “I am the life.” And perhaps Hezekiah, who seemed to love life, wanted that life which he loved symbolically.

“Great is his glory in your salvation,” etc. Salvation wins great glory for the king who rose from the dead; to one who already had glory it added another, from the resurrection as well, as in the words, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” By the same. The glory of the king is great in the salvation of the Lord, and not in anything lower than that. “Glory and majesty you will lay upon him.” Christ had glory and majesty, being in the form of God; and when he also became man, God highly exalted him.

“May your hand be found by all your enemies,” etc. The enemies of the Lord find him, and those who hate him are found by him. Through the law we find God, but through the gospels we are found by him, we who formerly were enemies and “strangers to the covenants” of God, “having no hope and without God in the world.” Or: through the practical life we find God, but through knowledge we are found by him.

[Ps 20 LXX / 21, continued] By the same. He will overtake the swiftest and destroy the mightiest. And may the hand that punishes be found making war, as in the words, “The Lord makes war with a hidden hand upon Amalek.”

“You will make them like an oven of fire,” etc. He says this about those who do evil; for they are an oven of fire, since their hearts were heated like an oven. And somewhere it is said, “All are adulterers; their hearts are like an oven.”

“The Lord in his wrath will throw them into confusion,” etc. They are thrown into confusion at the expectation of punishment, not simply all men, but those who are evil through pleasure and hold false opinions. “And fire will devour them,” since they are wood, hay, straw.

“Their fruit you will destroy from the earth, and their seed from the sons of men,” etc. Not their substance, for that is indestructible, but the quality by which they put forth wood, hay, straw, the evil works; or also the seed that the wicked and ungodly sowed, which God makes to vanish from the sons of men. It is a benefit to be rid of sins and evil thoughts; for an evil thought is a seed of sin.

“For they turned evils upon you; they devised a counsel which they cannot establish,” etc. In everything the base, once overthrown, attempt the impossible. For they devise a plot against the one who does not … By the same. Each of the wicked turns his evils upon the one he tries to harm, or the one he wrongs, or the one toward whom he is impious. By the same. We are turned when we are moved contrary to nature.

“For you will make them turn their back; among your remnants you will prepare their face,” etc. After those who hate the Lord are made like an oven of fire at the time of his presence, and are thrown into confusion by the Lord in his wrath; and when fire devours them, and the Lord destroys their fruit from the earth, since it was not fruit of the Spirit; and when he destroys their seed from the sons of men (for those who hate the Lord turned evils against him and devised counsels they cannot establish); and when after this he makes them turn their back in flight: then he will prepare their face among the remnants, so that even among these, after so many [punishments], they may obtain relief and may contemplate.

“Be exalted, O Lord, in your power; we will sing and play of your mighty deeds,” etc. If Christ is the power of God, the Lord, being exalted in his own power, is exalted in Christ. One sings

[Ps 20, continued] when he contemplates, and plays when he acts according to virtue. One must both contemplate his mighty deeds and act in accordance with them.

[Ps 21 LXX / 22] “O God, my God, attend to me; why have you forsaken me?” etc. This is the voice of the Lord Christ nailed to the cross; and in another way it also represents our condition. For we were the ones formerly forsaken and overlooked; then, now taken up and saved by the sufferings of the one who cannot suffer, he, as it were making our folly and fault his own, says in what follows in the psalm, “Far from my salvation are the words of my transgressions,” as if saying, “My sins make me far from salvation.”

“But you dwell in the holy place, the praise of Israel,” etc. From this we learn that the Lord is praise itself, and the praise of Israel.

“But I am a worm and not a man,” etc. The worm is not born from mating, but from wood, and it eats up wood, hay, straw. Perhaps our God too is a fire consuming wretched and inflammable matter. And if rational natures too are called trees (for “all the trees of paradise,” he says, “envied you”), and in these Christ is naturally born as wisdom and righteousness, Christ is fittingly called a worm, having come to be in such trees. But also, as a worm, he became a bait for the devil and his angels; and he is found straight by the wise and crooked by the fool. He also becomes a worm to us when we sin, convicting and gnawing our conscience.

“For you are the one who drew me out of the womb, my hope from my mother’s breasts,” etc. For the Father delivered him, who was God, at his birth; and, I think, him alone of those who have come into being, since he alone was from the Holy Spirit. And if, while still being given milk, he knew how to hope with perfection, then about “who drew me out” it might be said that he was plotted against and hindered even from coming out of the womb, so that he needed God to draw him out of the womb. Perhaps for everyone who is born some invisible power draws him out of the womb: a holy one, as for Paul, set apart from his mother’s womb; a worse one, as for the sinners estranged from the womb. But the Saviour alone the Father himself drew out of the womb, so that, aware of this privilege, he said, “For you are the one who drew me out of the womb,” while other men are not drawn out but come out: for “Esau came out,” he says, “like a hairy hide.” And for this reason he alone did not come into the

[Ps 21, continued] folly and condition of infants; for while still sucking his mother’s breasts because of the body, he knew how to hope in the one who drew him out of the womb. For all men, once born, first approach wickedness; but our Lord, as Isaiah says, “before he knows good or evil, refuses evil, to choose the good.” With these you will examine the account of John “leaping for joy,” and that of Jacob “supplanting his brother in the womb,” and that of Jeremiah, “sanctified before he came out of the womb.”

“My hope from my mother’s breasts; upon you I was cast from the womb,” etc. Enosh hoped to call upon God, but not from his mother’s breasts; but Christ, before knowing good or evil, chose the good, so that he is fittingly said to have hoped from his mother’s breasts. For “there is no man,” he says, “who will live and not sin.”

“From my mother’s womb you are my God,” etc. Either because he prayed as soon as he was born—perhaps even before he was born, for he was more understanding than Jonah, who prayed in the belly of the sea monster.

“Do not stand far from me, for affliction is near, for there is no one to help,” etc. Perhaps he said “affliction is near” while hanging on the cross, referring to the struggles in Hades against the powers there. And he says this as though none of the angels was helping him; for none of them dared to go down with him that far.

“Many calves surrounded me; fat bulls encircled me,” etc. You may refer these words also to the intelligible demons. You will understand the calves as the evil powers that work earthly things, since the animal tills the earth; the fat bulls, because of the many-sided learning of wickedness, as the powers that preside over deceitful words and through them gore men; and the lion as the devil roaring against us and snatching many, from which lion the good shepherd snatched two legs and the lobe of an ear: the lion straining the ear of man’s soul through disobedience, and through the legs its course. By the same. From “Many calves surrounded me” you will inquire whether some things are said about the time before his departure and others about the time after the departure, or all about the time after the departure. And it is likely that he saw powers standing around, wishing to take his soul and bring it down into gloomier places.

“I was poured out like water, and all my bones were scattered,” etc. The bones of wisdom are the holy doctrines of the church, which the Jews were commanded by law not to break at the Passover: “You shall not break a bone of it.” The Word is poured out like water by those who present it in a watery way, and by those who speak it into unfit vessels and pour it out; and all the bones of the Word are scattered by those who do not preserve its height but dissolve its harmony in the Scriptures, so that this bone of it is with one person, another with another, and another with someone else. But God, in the perfect state, gathers bone to bone and joint to joint from the true Israel. Or, according to “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled,” there are certain intelligible bones of the soul.

“And you brought me down into the dust of death,” etc. Christ was brought down not into death but into the dust of death; for his soul was not left in Hades, and his flesh did not know corruption.

“They divided my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots,” etc. The Jews, keeping the written law, divide the perceptible garments of the Word; but we, keeping the spirit of the word, divide the intelligible garments of our Saviour, being baptized into Christ and putting him on as wisdom and truth and righteousness.

“Rescue my soul from the sword,” etc. The sword that can strike the soul is therefore intelligible, the one of which it is said, “And a sword will pass through your own soul too.” A sword, then, is a temptation calling the soul to unbelief in God, or knowledge falsely so called, or an unclean thought drawing the soul toward sin; which happens to those who wish to succeed in the practical life.

“And from the hand of the dog my only one,” etc. The offspring of this dog are themselves called little dogs, of which it is said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

“I will tell your name to my brothers,” etc. These words are spoken as by one raised from the dead by him and heard in what he prayed for.

“From you is my praise in the great church,” etc. “In the Lord my soul shall be praised,” that is, not in noble birth or in wealth, but in wisdom and righteousness.

“The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and

[Ps 21, continued] those who seek him shall praise the Lord,” etc. “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord,” etc. After knowledge comes forgetting, and after forgetting remembrance. And he rightly put “they shall remember”: for, having received their being from God, they will remember the one who created them, and having remembered they will turn—not one nation, as has been said, nor two, but all the ends of the earth, illumined by the light of the knowledge of God.

“For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he rules over the nations,” etc. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. As though he were saying that all, having been unjust, have become just, having ceased to become earthly and corruptible.

“And my soul lives for him,” etc. The soul that belongs to God lives for God alone, having knowledge not only of the things that have come to be but of God himself.

“The coming generation shall be announced to the Lord,” etc. “A generation goes, and a generation comes.” And the generation of wisdom, according to the wise Solomon, is “fear of the Lord, and wealth and glory and life.”

[Ps 22 LXX / 23] Psalm 22. “The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing,” etc. As the sheep is fed by grass and water, so man is given life by action and knowledge.

“He turned my soul back; he led me on paths of righteousness,” etc. If there is a path of righteousness, there is also a path of self-control and love and continence, through which one enters the kingdom of heaven.

“For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for you are with me,” etc. From here the speech is not about God but addressed to God himself. To walk in the midst of the shadow of death is not the same as to sit in the shadow of death. For the one who sits is settled in it, firm in evil and in the shadow of death; therefore he is in darkness and needs mercy, that light may rise for him. But the one who does not sit but passes by, traveling as it were through the midst of the shadow of death, not standing but running past through the very shadow of death, does not walk alone; for the Lord travels with him. And where is it written of sitting in the shadow of death? “To those who sat in the region and shadow of death a light has risen.”

“Your rod and your staff, these comforted me,” etc. That the rod is said of

[Ps 22, continued] scourges and punishments, Scripture itself will testify, saying, “If my sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they profane my ordinances and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their lawless deeds with a rod and their sins with scourges, but my mercy I will not scatter from them.” So if you have sinned and see the rod of God laid upon you, know that the mercy of God has not been scattered from you. But if you have sinned and there is no rod anywhere, nor scourge, be afraid: God does not accept you, he “who scourges every son whom he accepts.” Such things are said about sinners when they are not scourged: “But as for me, my feet were almost shaken; my steps had nearly slipped … for there is no refusal in their death, and firmness in their scourge. They are not in the toils of men, and they will not be scourged with men. Therefore pride took hold of them; they clothed themselves with their injustice and ungodliness.” “Your rod and your staff.” A rod would suffice; what does a staff do? If you are a sinful sheep, you will be struck with a rod; if you are a sinful man, with a staff. That is why, in their case, it is named not a rod but a staff by Solomon in the Proverbs: “He who spares the staff hates his own son.” These things, then, comfort the one who is beaten and punished, persuaded that God scourges every son whom he accepts. By the same. As a rod disciplines, so the practical life teaches moderation of the passions; and as a staff gives rest, so knowledge gladdens. The staff is what is strong. So he means: “Your mighty kingdom became the supplier of this comfort to me.”

“You prepared a table before me, over against those who afflict me,” etc. What does “over against those who afflict me” mean? It holds an unspeakable mystery, so that one should pray to be afflicted. Think with me: as in the great games prizes are set for each contest, so for each affliction, when what afflicts is present, and the afflicting opposing powers, think of a spiritual and intelligible table prepared because of this affliction. So as often as you are afflicted, so often is a spiritual table set before you. Only have eyes that see my tables, so that you may say with thanksgiving, with the Apostle, “And not only that, but we also boast in afflictions.” At the beginning we said that the one who is making progress dwells in a place of green pasture. Since, then, the one making progress, if he reaches the end, no longer remains a sheep but, shown to be rational, has a table of rational food made ready by the Lord. For to one who attains to the Lord wisdom will prepare her own table, on which she offers her own sacrifices. Giving thanks, then, he says, “You prepared before

[Ps 22, continued] me a table,” no longer introductory and moral teaching, as before, but mystical teaching and the contemplation of the truth. Consider whether, as long as one is in this life, seeing through a mirror and in a riddle, he is a sheep led by a shepherd; but, having passed into the age to come and meeting the truth face to face, he will come to a spiritual table, according to “And I appoint to you a covenant, to eat and drink at the table of my Father in the truth.” Hence also: “God has prepared what eye has not seen,” and what follows. And “before me” shows that my table has been made manifest and known, over against those who afflict me, the many who wish to be my enemies. And the Lord, wishing me to rise up strongly against them by means of those who afflict me, prepared a table before me, on which solid food is laid, so that, having eaten my fill of it like an athlete, I may be able to resist nobly those who afflict me. And the one whose head is anointed with oil by the Lord will say, “But let not the oil of a sinner anoint my head,” as Christ is anointed by God with the oil of gladness. And I think that one who fasts in this way anoints his head and washes his face. And since wisdom not only prepared a table but also mixed her wine in a bowl, wine born from the true vine itself, and mixed this wine by blending divine thoughts with human words, she gives each a cup apportioned from such a bowl; and this cup, being most excellent, that is, precious and choice, is said to belong to the one who has received it. By the same. Earlier Christ shepherds the sheep as a shepherd; but now, as a friend, he calls his friends to the table. “No longer,” he says, “do I call you servants, but friends.” The fear of God makes servants; the knowledge of the mysteries of God makes friends. Here he calls the table immortality. And “over against those who afflict me” stands for “against the will of those who plot against me.” For the Babylonians perhaps did not want them released; but Cyrus, having become stronger, released them from captivity.

“And your mercy will pursue me all the days of my life,” etc. Who is the mercy that pursues, if not he of whom the Apostle says, “He became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption”? The pursuer, a living Mercy, pursues you; some he overtakes, others not. Those who flee hard he does not overtake; but those who flee less he seizes, to have mercy on them. And mercy not only pursues, but also brings it about “that I dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days.” For length of time and years of life are in the right hand of wisdom;

[Ps 22, continued] and the days of life are the various illuminations of the truth.

[Ps 23 LXX / 24] “The earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness, the world and all who dwell in it,” etc. Consider it this way too: whether not all men are the Lord’s portion, so that one should not take it simply that all who dwell in the world are the Lord’s—unless indeed this is prophesied because of the calling from all the nations. By the same. Before Christ’s coming God was known only in Judea; but since Christ came, the whole earth is the Lord’s. And before Christ’s coming one could not find fullness in all the earth, but most of the earth was, if one may say so, emptiness; but when Christ came, many of those who believed from the nations could say, “From his fullness we have all received,” and therefore they are his fullness. For those empty of the gospel way of life could not be Christ’s fullness. And not only the earth and its fullness, but also the world. The sinner dwells in a desert; but the one who is in the church, which is filled with the holy Trinity, dwells in the inhabited world, which is the church, founded by the Lord upon the seas of temptations and conquering in them, so that after this, watered, it may be prepared upon the river.

“Who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and who will stand in his holy place?” etc. Compare this with “Lord, who will sojourn in your tent?” and what follows; and see that there such a man first sojourns in the tent of the Lord and then dwells on his holy mountain; but here such a man first ascends to the mountain of the Lord, and second stands in his holy place. By the mountain of the Lord he means the final good and God the Word; for rare is the one who can ascend to its summit by progress. But the one who has been perfected, no longer able to go further, stands firm and is called a holy place of God. For walking behind the Lord he ascends, “forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead,” having as his good end to stand with God in his holy place. If you wish to take an example from the sacred writings: Moses stood in the place of God’s sanctuary, to whom God said, “But you, stand here with me.” But since you seek the sanctuary of God where one must stand: “And he set my feet upon a rock,” say the prophets, since “the rock was Christ.” Let us learn who it is that will obtain these promises.

“Innocent in hands and pure in heart,” etc.

[Ps 23, continued] He answers the question: such a man is both practical and contemplative. But many have pure actions, yet, doing this for the praise of men, are not pure in heart. A vain soul is one that is rational but does not flee what is harmful and choose the good. The one who keeps the “yes” and the “no” makes his oath without deceit, having blessing as his prize; and God will save him by mercy and grace. For whatever sort of man he may be, he needs the mercy that comes from God. By the same. Judas went up to the mountain of the Lord, but did not stand in his holy place; for he was not innocent in hands nor pure in heart, but was a thief, carrying off what was put in. By the same. Since some have pure actions but are not pure in heart, he added “pure in heart.” For the one who succeeds in actions must also be pure in knowledge.

“This is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” But no one who seeks the face of God will see the face of God here: “For no man,” he says, “shall see my face and live.” You must change, so that, seeking the face of God, you may see it. You must put off everything human; you must already become an angel, and God. “For do not despise,” says the Saviour, “one of these little ones in the church. For truly I tell you that their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.” This, then, is the generation of those who seek the Lord, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. By the same. If it belongs to angels continually to see the face of God, and men too seek to see this face, then men too seek the knowledge of angels, if indeed a man can eat the bread of angels.

“Lift up your gates, O rulers, and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts,” etc. He calls the virtues gates: “Open to me,” he says, “the gates of righteousness.” As the gates of righteousness are opened, so also those of self-control and courage and love and long-suffering, through which the knowledge of God naturally enters, as though God goes before them, having broken up the captivity and declared the captives victors. And as they enter a splendid city with a display of trophies, the crowds call out, “Lift up your gates, O rulers.”

[Ps 23, continued] By the same. He did not say, “Open the gates that you rule and guard,” but “lift up.” For as, coming down, he bowed the heavens and descended without opening them, in the same way, when taken up, he entered not by gates that were opened but by gates that were taken away. By the same. “And be lifted up, eternal gates.” He says “be lifted up” to them as to rational beings; and they are spiritual and not temporary, because they are immaterial and pure.

“The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in war,” etc. “Take courage,” says the Saviour, “I have overcome the world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

“The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory,” etc. They called him Lord of hosts as commander of armies. It should be noted that those who have studied Hebrew closely say that the Seventy, rendering into Greek the word “Sabaoth” that stands in the Hebrew, sometimes put “Lord of hosts,” sometimes “Lord strong,” sometimes “Almighty.” They say, then, that in this place too the “Sabaoth” that stands there was rendered “Lord of hosts.” If “Sabaoth” is applied to the Saviour, it is translated “Almighty.” Fittingly the word “Almighty” would be predicated of the Saviour; for if “all things came into being through him,” and he is before all things, he is consistently called Almighty.

[Ps 24 LXX / 25] “Let those who act lawlessly without cause be put to shame,” etc. It is possible to act lawlessly not without cause: “I became to those without law as one without law”; this lawlessness is not without cause. Turn the shame, Master, upon those who act lawlessly against us, who have done no wrong; for this is what “without cause” means.

“Make known to me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths,” etc. Let the one who wants to know the ways of the Lord become meek; for “he will teach the meek his ways,” those who have stopped the unceasing battle in the soul of anger and desire and the passions subordinate to them. “Make known to me” and “teach” he says of realities. For he means, “Establish me in the enjoyment of your works,” that is, “Bring me into what is my own”; hence he adds, “Lead me into your truth.”

“Remember not the sins of my youth and of my ignorance,” etc. For the things in which he still errs

[Ps 24 LXX / 25, continued] someone does not confess when he repents; so also the sins committed in youth and in ignorance are no longer active in one who has passed beyond youth. One might also call the instability of character “youth,” when someone sins in ignorance, until God grants such a person perception. For it is said, “to give shrewdness to the innocent.” These words do not fit David, against whom no sin of youth is recorded; rather, he teaches all who have fallen into youthful sins to show them, like old wounds, to the one who can heal them, through confession.

“According to your mercy remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord,” etc. Men, when they remember things, stir up in themselves the images of what they knew before; but God, when he remembers the rational nature, comes to be in it. For he is said to remember that in which he has room. And he has room first through the contemplation of the things that have come to be, and then also through the knowledge of himself.

“Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he will give law to sinners in the way. He will guide the meek in judgment; he will teach the meek his ways,” etc. “For law is not laid down for the righteous.” For this reason, he says, since justice too belongs to him, he gives law to those who sin in the way, that is, he turns sinners back to godliness; and toward sinners, he says, he shows justice, but toward the others goodness. Hence he adds, “He will guide the meek in judgment; he will teach the meek his ways.”

“Look upon me and have mercy on me, for I am an only one and poor,” etc. The one who does and says everything for the sake of the knowledge of God always has the eyes of his soul toward the Lord. If anyone has not received the spirit of adoption and has not become a brother of the holy powers and of Christ himself, let him say that he is an only one and poor, deprived of the wealth of knowledge. But I think David sings these words in modesty; for God had made known to him the unseen and hidden things of his wisdom.

“The afflictions of my heart have multiplied; bring me out of my distresses. See my humiliation and my toil, and forgive all my sins,” etc. Not every toil removes sins, but the toil added to the practical life for the Lord’s sake. Be satisfied, he says, Master, with the afflictions brought upon me, and cut short the penalty I owe for the multitude of my offences. A man is humbled when he has no boldness because he is aware of his sins, and he toils for fruits of repentance.

“Let me not be put to shame, for I hoped in you,” etc. Hope does not put to shame. For it is the daughter of tested character, and tested character is the offspring of endurance; and endurance comes from afflictions, which the virtues bring about, and which the knowledge of God follows.

[Ps 25 LXX / 26] “Burn my kidneys,” etc. The kidneys are a symbol of the passionate part of the soul, that is, of anger and desire; the heart, of the reasoning part.

“For your mercy is before my eyes, and I was well pleasing in your truth,” etc. The one who understands the things concerning mercy will say this, remembering the contemplation concerning mercy: your mercy, contemplated by me, because it is before my eyes, works together toward my being well pleasing in your truth. For the mercy of God makes one well pleasing in truth and not in pretence. The voice is that of one who is wise and contemplates the truth. Then he goes through the forms of being well pleasing. By the same. If the truth is Christ our God, as he said, “I am the truth,” and David was well pleasing to God in the truth, then David was well pleasing to God in God. Therefore, he says, I hastened to be well pleasing to your truth, instead of “to you”; for by a periphrasis he calls God himself “the truth of God.”

“I did not sit with a council of vanity, and I will not go in with lawbreakers. I hated the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the ungodly,” etc. The council of vanity: heretical presbyters; the lawbreakers: lawless laymen. The assembly of evildoers: a heretical congregation; and the ungodly: heretical presbyters. With these, he says, I did not gather, nor did I join with those who transgress the divine law. Above all I turned away from those who outrage divine worship, gathering, so they claim, in a church; and besides these, from the ungodliness of idolaters, with whom I thought it dangerous even to spend time. By the same. These words should be said to … and heretics. He set all this down wishing to show that he never shared in the festivals of the idols, nor loved the splendours of the ungodly, nor was the wealth of Babylon a marvel to him; but godliness and humility were his pursuit.

“I will wash my hands among the innocent, and I will go around your altar, O Lord,” etc. The rational altar of God is our mind, on which, with the fire cast upon the earth by the Saviour, we burn every irrational thought that leaps away from the master’s flock. So when the soul does not incline outward but

[Ps 25, continued] looks to itself and its own centre, it goes around the altar of God, producing no corner that admits corruption; for “folly lurks at a corner,” says the wise Solomon. The altar is the contemplation of bodies and of bodiless things, in which the mind is purified; the one who has gone around it, that is, who has come to know it, tells all the wonders of God.

“Lord, I loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the dwelling of your glory. Do not destroy my soul with the ungodly, nor my life with men of blood, in whose hands are lawless deeds; their right hand is filled with bribes,” etc. I kept my soul free from passion. By the same. He says this as though even a righteous man could perish along with the ungodly. Abraham too said to God, “Will you destroy the righteous with the ungodly? And will the righteous be as the ungodly?” This text should be used for devout men or women who live with wicked people. By the same. “Their right hand is filled with bribes.” Since they worked lawlessness, for that reason they filled their right hand with bribes.

[Ps 26 LXX / 27] “The Lord is my light and my saviour; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” etc. The courageous man, enlightened by knowledge, will say this, such as was the one who said, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” For if Christ is truly for us, everyone against us has been brought to nothing. But if we do not take “of my life” of him who said, “I am the life,” but of life understood more simply, the Lord will not be the protector of the life of the martyrs. And Paul, saying, “so that we despaired even of living,” meant the divine life. The one who says these things from the heart will not suffer cowardice; for “the cowardly,” according to the Lord, “have their portion in the lake of fire.” A blind soul stumbles and fears everything, and will deny its confession toward God; but enlightened by God, it first beholds its champion and Saviour, and after that takes courage against its enemies, whether men ignorant of God or invisible powers, since it has the Son himself as helper. For in this Hebrew word, “my saviour,” the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ is written, by the letters with which one would write “Jesus” in Hebrew characters.

“When evildoers drew near to me to eat my flesh, my oppressors and my enemies, they themselves weakened and fell,” etc. When the tempters draw near to us doing evil, wishing to eat

[Ps 26, continued] the flesh that cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and to feed on the works of the flesh that we do when we sin—this flesh being different from the flesh that shall see the salvation of God; and when, doing evil, they draw near to the righteous man, then first they weaken and then they fall, the very touch with which they touch the righteous man punishing them and making them weaken and fall. By the same. If we eat the flesh of Christ (for “he who eats my flesh,” he says, “and drinks my blood”), and the demons eat ours, then perhaps the demons also eat the flesh of Christ, striving to destroy the virtues and the true doctrines in us; for “to eat” is also said for “to destroy.” “If you are willing,” he says, “and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you are not willing and do not listen to me, a sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” Here “shall devour” stands for “destroys,” for a sword does not naturally eat. Or the demons are said to eat our flesh in the sense of what grows out of the flesh. “Now the works of the flesh are plain,” says the holy Apostle, “which are adulteries, sexual immorality, licentiousness, idolatries,” and what follows.

“If an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear,” etc. Such an army is like the Legion that lived in the tombs. And perhaps the army of the opponents is light. The heart, that is, the ruling faculty, will not fear; since its mind is enmity against God, not being subject to the law of God. “If war rises against me,” and what follows. In this, it has been granted to hope in the heart without recall. By the same. Let the practical man fight the foreigners through the virtues; the contemplative pulls down with true doctrines every height raised up against the knowledge of God. He calls the ruling faculty the heart, which will not fear. For perhaps the flesh that has weakened will fear, since its mind is hostile to God, not being subject to the law of God. By the same. “If war rises against me, in this I hope”: in the heart. For I was enlightened by this help of which I had experience; hence I do not fear any other, greater battle line either, since such help shelters me.

“One thing I asked of the Lord, this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the delight of the Lord and to visit his temple; for he hid me in his tent in the day of my troubles; he sheltered me in the hidden place of his tent; he lifted me up upon a rock.” We have learned

[Ps 26, continued] that the house of the Lord is called the church of the living God, built of living stones. Since there is both the kindness and the severity of God, those who dwell in the house of the Lord will see the delight that is in God’s kindness, while those who are outside the house will experience his severity. You will consider whether the temple of the Lord differs from the house of the Lord, and whether the house is the church in correspondence with the Levites and priests. First one is hidden by the Lord in the tent of God in the day of troubles; then he is sheltered in the hidden place of his tent; and third he is lifted up on a rock. He asks, then, to dwell in the church by thinking the things of the church all the days of his enlightened life. While I am on earth, he says, though I need many good things, I make one request for now. For since one cannot come into all good things at once, let not this great and choice one be lacking: “that I may behold,” and what follows. The one who loves the beauty of the house of the Lord wishes to enjoy the sight with delight, and after the contemplation to visit his temple. One beholds the delight of the Lord in seeing the lower doctrines of the church; but having reached those concerning the Trinity, he will survey his temple. And the beauty of the Lord is also the whole virtuous life of those distinguished in godliness. “For he hid me,” and what follows. The enemies, he says, weakened and fell, but I was hidden by his right hand, dwelling in a tent, because I was living in deserts and did not then have the house of God, nor his temple. And in that time of persecutions he sheltered me. The hidden place of the tent is the innermost and inaccessible part, which they called the Holy of Holies. He does not say that the tent was altogether in a place, but in a sanctified condition of the soul, freed from all fellowship with the many. But he did not let me remain hidden to the end, he says, but, wishing me to become useful to others too, lifted me up on the rock, Christ. And it has often been said in other ways that the tent signifies progress and the house perfection. So no one, while the day of troubles is upon him, can be in the house of God; but he is hidden in the shade, since progress shelters the one being freed from wickedness. For those still repenting cannot have perfection. Here too “troubles” may be understood as adversities, and “the hidden place of his tent” of discipline; there we make progress. Some things are open, others mystical; so God does not shelter the one making progress in superficial things. He said “his” tent, since not all progress is according to God; and the rock of perfection succeeded the progress. “He hid” fits progress, and “he lifted up” fits perfection. You might also call the tent the training through the law and the prophets, in which God hides the one being trained, in the mystical sense, lifting him up on the rock, Christ,

[Ps 26, continued] in whom he also pitched his tent; for “in the sun,” he says, “he set his tent.” And the Lord is the sun of righteousness. For he speaks also from the temple. For this, he says, I had as a tent: the shelter and the help. For having prayed in the tent of God and received the blessing of the loaves, he escaped the hands of those making war on him, when Doeg, who tended the royal mules, informed Saul of his flight. “He sheltered me in the hidden place of his tent”: that is, as in a hidden place. Thus, he says, the enemies searched much for me but did not find me, since God sheltered me. And so too, “he hid me.”

“And now, behold, he lifted up my head over my enemies; I went around and offered in his tent a sacrifice of shouting,” etc. If the one who goes around offers sacrifice, and a sacrifice is a broken spirit, then the one who has broken his own soul has made it a circle, a shape that has no corner admitting corruption, nor the folly that, as Solomon says, “lurks at the corners”; and: “The fire that came down upon Job’s children touched the four corners of the house.”

“My heart said to you: I have sought your face; your face, O Lord, I will seek,” etc. When someone’s face seeks the face of the Lord, then with unveiled face he beholds the glory of the Lord, and, having become equal to the angels, he will always see the face of the Father in heaven. By the same. By the things through which one purifies himself he shows that he seeks the face of God, which the angels are said always to see.

“For my father and my mother forsook me,” etc. Blessed is the one forsaken by the devil and by his consort, wickedness, from whom he begets his lawless sons. As Paul through the gospel begets the Galatians, so the devil through wickedness begets the wicked. Now that disaster has come upon me, he says, and the attack of so many enemies, neither father nor mother could have helped me; but you yourself appeared to me as helper in place of all.

“Give me your way as law, O Lord, and guide me on a straight path,” etc. See how the one who is in the law of Moses and the letter, as not being on the way of the Lord, prays to be given the way of the Lord as law.

“Be courageous, and let your heart be strong,” etc. “Be courageous,” that is, take up courage, not by strength of body but with your heart strengthened; for so you will be able to wait for the Lord. By the same. A courageous heart and soul is

[Ps 26, continued] one that has no unclean thoughts and false doctrines.

[Ps 27 LXX / 28] Psalm 27. “To you, O Lord, I will cry; my God, do not keep silent from me,” etc. Of those who cry to God and offer up prayers: if one asks for earthly things, his voice is small; but if one asks for heavenly things, he cries aloud. Hence it is often said in the Scriptures of the saints that they cried to God. Let each, then, try to pray to God crying aloud; and I will say something more paradoxical: how he cries aloud. Going into his inner room he shuts the door, and so cries to God.

“Do not keep silent from me.” God is recorded to have spoken to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Joshua son of Nun; for they were such that God would speak to them. And through the prophets, while the people was God’s, he was not silent. And let us not think that God speaks to us from outside; rather, the holy things that come up into our heart are what God speaks to us. Understand “God spoke to so-and-so” in this way. That this is so, hear Scripture itself testifying: “Blessed is the man whose help is from you, O Lord; ascents are in his heart.” We have another hearing that hears the word of God. Divine is that perception, so named in Solomon, which hears the word of God, blended and united with it. “My God,” he says, “do not keep silent from me, and I shall become like those who go down into the pit.” We know of none of the saints who dug a cistern; but whenever a saint needed water, he dug a well. And Solomon commands us to drink from wells; and the prophet threatens those who drink from a cistern, saying as from the person of God, “They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns.” “Lest you keep silent from me, and I become like those who go down into the pit.” But so that we may see who those are who go down into the pit: holy Scripture says that divine things are hot, but the things of sin and of matter cold. There dwells also the dragon, the enemy of men, who was called cold; for no living thing on earth is as cold as the dragon. Every sin, then, is cold; but divine things, it seems, are hot: “He who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire”; and “I came to cast fire on the earth”; and “fervent in spirit.” And how sinners are by pits, hear: in Exodus it is written, “God killed from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the captive woman in the pit.” So those who go down into the pit are sinners and captives; but the good God calls even these

[Ps 27, continued] and proclaims release to them: “For the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind.”

“Hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication when I make supplication to you, when I lift up my hands toward your holy temple,” etc. If a temple is one who has God, and God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, then Christ is a holy temple, toward whom one raises and lifts up his own soul through the virtues. By the same. It seems to me that prayer differs from supplication, and the Apostle seems to me to assign several names to this difference when he says, “I urge, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made,” calling prayer, as it seems to me, greater than supplication, and intercession greater than these, and thanksgiving greater than all. I would say, then, that supplication belongs to one still in need, and to those who still lack something. But when, having understood the dignity of God, I ask something of God, then I pray; and when I become more fully a friend, then I give thanks to God. “When I lift up my hands toward your holy temple.” We have often spoken of the lifting up of hands. Moses lifted up his hands, and Israel prevailed; but when he let down his hands, Amalek prevailed. And: “lifting up holy hands without anger and argument”; and: “The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice.” I would say, then, that our hands are our actions done in godliness. If we lay up treasure in heaven, we have our hands lifted to God and we conquer the enemy; but when our hands come down, we must be conquered. So when I lift up my hands to God and through the hands of the soul am raised up to him, Amalek is conquered by me and is nowhere. So one must lift up hands toward the holy temple of God. And the temple of God is the glory of God.

“Do not drag me away with sinners, and do not destroy me with those who work injustice,” etc. If each of the two lies in our power, why did he ascribe to God the cause of the good outcome? Is it not that sometimes God draws to such people one who is able to save them? So the Saviour was called a friend of tax collectors, though in no way harmed by them. He asks, then, to take on such a disposition. But perhaps he declines the utterly sinful, such as he goes on to describe, those who speak what they do not think. For though the Saviour was with a harlot, she was not one who spoke peaceably while thinking the opposite. By the same. What need is there to say these things? Either you do lawlessness, and he destroys you with them, and you say these things to God in vain; or you do nothing lawless, and God does not destroy you; for God is not so unjust. Let us, then, take courage from the Gospel, and say

[Ps 27, continued] that God drags the righteous man along with sinners: he drags the righteous along for the sake of the sinners and those who work lawlessness, so that they may be saved. Those who did not know this mystery accused Jesus, saying, “You eat and drink with sinners.” But he was far from being harmed by them, so as even to benefit them. So too any imitator of Christ who does this. But if someone, not prepared and without the power, throws himself into so great a danger as to be with sinners and those who work lawlessness, he will neither benefit them and will destroy himself as well. Therefore here too the prophet wishes to prepare himself, so as to be able to be with sinners and those who work lawlessness, but not to be dragged away with them. And perhaps in saying this he also declines those who commit incurable sins. For he added, “who speak peace with their neighbours, but evils are in their hearts.” They are exceedingly impious, for they are neither disposed as friends nor speak as enemies, but have enmity within themselves while feigning friendship with peaceable words. Nothing is fouler than such men. Such, then, the righteous man declines. For see how our Saviour too was with sinners and with a harlot, yet not one who spoke peaceably while having evils in her heart. Or he prays, saying: Since destruction surely follows the one who does wrong, grant me righteousness, and do not let me come to be in injustice, so that I may not perish with those who work it.

“Give them, O Lord, according to their works and according to the wickedness of their practices,” etc. He asks that they be afflicted through discipline, so that they may stop doing wrong. And he calls hidden things works; for they spoke evils in their hearts. By the same. We are taught by the word to put away all sins; for if we are not pure, we must be punished, so that we may be disciplined. “According to the works of their hands,” he says, “give to them,” as if saying, “According to the hidden things of their works render them their recompense.” The clear-sighted man, approaching realities with understanding, turns away from base things as harmful and chooses good things as beneficial. But the base man, charmed by pleasure, does evil, not seeing its harm. Since, then, he does not perceive harmful things rationally, the saint prays that painful things be repaid to him according to his works, so that through the pains he may turn away from the evils that have become causes of punishment for him.

“Because they did not understand the works of the Lord and the works of his hands,” etc. The works of the Lord are perhaps intelligible things; the works of his hands I take to be things perceived by sense. “Did not my hand,” he says,

[Ps 27, continued] “make all these things?” Or perhaps the works of the Lord are the virtues, and the works of his hands the principles of the things that have come to be.

“You will tear them down and not build them up.” The Lord will tear down evil dispositions and will no longer allow those who build them to build them up.

“And my flesh flourished again,” etc. He called the soul flesh because it is joined to the flesh, as in “All flesh shall see the salvation of our God.” Or perhaps the perceptible flesh flourishes when it has put off the passions.

“Save your people and bless your inheritance, and shepherd them and lift them up for ever,” etc. Here he calls “inheritance” the rational nature that inherits him. By the same. Christ will shepherd us who have believed in him, having sent in his place, and as himself, the Paraclete, who is the Spirit of truth. And he also lifts us up from earthly things, that is, he makes us exalted for the coming and endless ages.

[Ps 28 LXX / 29] “Bring to the Lord, sons of God,” etc. The holy Paul became a son of God through the gospel; and he too begot sons and brought them to God. He calls sons those who have received much care from God and been saved beyond expectation, whom God spared as sons. “Bring to the Lord young rams,” etc. The one who gathers the scattered sheep of Christ, and turns back the strayed, and finds the lost, brings young rams to the Lord; so does the one who acts so that men see his good works and glorify the Father in heaven. And the one who speaks of God in a word of wisdom brings glory to the Lord. And the one who has mercy on a poor man, not out of grief or compulsion, brings honour to the Lord, and in this he lends to God. For “to honour” is used especially of these things in Scripture, as is clear from “Honour widows who are really widows,” and “Honour father and mother.” And the holy court is the church.

“The voice of the Lord is upon the waters,” etc. The voice of the Lord simply upon the waters, but the Lord himself upon many waters. Here the waters signify rational natures: “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water,” he says, “and let it divide.”

“And he will crush them small like the calf of Lebanon,” etc. The calf of Lebanon is the evil one, who stiffened his neck before the Lord Almighty and threw off the yoke of the gospel, forcing himself to be a god.

[Ps 28 LXX / 29, continued] “The voice of the Lord cutting through the flame of fire,” etc. The voice of the Lord quenches the fiery arrows of the evil one; it is spiritual teaching, calling the one who has believed in Christ to a wise way of life.

“The voice of the Lord shaking the desert, and the Lord will shake the desert of Kadesh,” etc. “I am a voice crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord.” A desert is a rational soul deprived of God.

[Ps 29 LXX / 30] Psalm 29. “For the end; a psalm of a song for the dedication of the house of David,” etc. A right life builds a house, and the knowledge of God dedicates it.

“I will exalt you, O Lord, for you took me up,” etc. That the psalm is spoken in the person of Christ is clear from “And you brought up my soul from Hades.” But it can also be said in the person of the saint, more figuratively, of every saint as having been in Hades in the time of wickedness and brought up from there by God, when, helped by the Word and following him, he has been perfected. For no one can exalt the Lord unless the Lord himself has taken him up. For when we are exalted from the earth, raised aloft and lifted up by the cross of Christ, who said, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all to myself,” we exalt the Lord, and him who exalted the Father and, for his part, handed down to those who believe in God the loftiest conception of him. The psalm also teaches that certain invisible enemies of the human soul envy its salvation according to God, lie in wait and plot against it, and then watch whether any stumble or slip or fall may befall it; if any of these happens to it, the enemies, as those who rejoice in evil, mock it, but they suffer the opposite when it shines with progress according to God. He gives thanks, then, to God that he did not allow the enemies to gloat over his misfortunes, but drew him up, raising him from his fall. And the one who speaks of God greatly and loftily exalts the Lord, as does the one who keeps in himself doctrines fitting for God; and lifting up his own soul in all virtue and a philosophic life, he exalts the one who dwells in it. “For you took me up.” Instead of “you took up,” Aquila says “you saved.” And so the sense is clear: everyone taken up by God is saved from wickedness.

“O Lord my God, I cried to you, and you healed me,” etc. These words are said in the person of the righteous man. But if the Saviour says them, see whether this too can receive a fitting explanation thus. Believers are the body of Christ and members individually;

[Ps 29, continued] and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member is glorified, all the members are glorified with it. The body of Christ in this sense suffers and needs healing. With a view to our healing, then, there is nothing absurd in his saying to him, “O Lord my God, I cried to you, and you healed me.” For he also confesses our sins as his own, as in the twenty-first psalm, saying, “Far from my salvation are the words of my transgressions,” and in the sixty-eighth, “O Lord, you know my folly, and my offences are not hidden from you.” Both psalms are spoken in the person of Christ.

“Sing to the Lord, you his holy ones, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness,” etc. Since praise is not fitting in the mouth of a sinner, not just anyone is commanded to sing to the Lord, but his holy ones, who can sing with the spirit, and sing also with the mind. But why was the prophet not content to say, “Sing to the Lord, you holy ones,” but added “his,” as though there were holy ones not his? We say, then, that just as God alone is good without any addition, so the Lord alone is holy without any addition, as we found in the song of Deuteronomy: “Righteous and holy is the Lord.” But as with an addition there is a good servant, according to “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and a good man, according to “The good man out of the good treasure of the heart,” and what follows, so with an addition there are the holy ones of the Lord. Perhaps he also urges to thanksgiving those who formerly lived in unclean things and afterwards came to the remembrance of his holiness. By the same. Everyone who remembers God’s love for mankind gives thanks to him.

“For wrath is in his anger, and life in his will,” etc. As wrath comes forth from what is called the anger of the Lord, so life is born from his will. And if life signifies knowledge (for “I am,” says Christ, “the life”), wrath signifies ignorance. Death is opposed to life; therefore wrath signifies death, indicating the deprivation of contemplation. Rightly, then, it is said, “Life and death are in the hand of the tongue.” By the same. In the anger that is exhaled there is readiness and the wrath of retribution, and life is primarily in the will of God.

“But I said in my prosperity, I shall never be shaken,” etc. Whether it is Christ who says “I said,” or a righteous man, then after the pause there, “in my prosperity I shall never be shaken”: it is fitting for one who is in

[Ps 29, continued] prosperity to say that he will not be shaken. Of the Saviour, however, as we have often said, this is said by his humanity. But according to Symmachus, if it is “in my quiet,” the calm and untroubled state of the perfected soul can be meant, in which no one who has come to be will ever be overturned again. For the one who prospers spiritually will never be shaken.

“O Lord, in your will you gave power to my beauty; but you turned away your face, and I became troubled,” etc. Another says: it is the thankful voice of both Christ and the righteous man. For in the beauty of the Godhead spoken of before, and in its power, the humanity of Christ shared, and every saint; and they partake of these by the will of God and by their own prior free choice. But if, as Aquila renders it, “to my mountain,” the mountain of Christ must be understood as his church, which is most lofty and raised on high. To this mountain strength has been firmly given by the Father in his good pleasure. The church holds power, reigning over the rest on earth and reigning together with Christ. And if according to Symmachus it is “to the forefather,” who could be called the forefather of Christ or of the righteous man but Abraham? For him the strength could be established for his race and for all the nations blessed in him, as the divine gospels are fulfilled. By the same. And it is not out of place for Christ too, when he came to the time of his passion, to say, “You turned away your face, and I became troubled,” just as in the Gospel, where he says in one place, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and in another, “Now my soul is troubled.” By the same. This face the angels see continually. And if, according to the wise woman of Tekoa, the angels know all things on earth, the face of God is the principles of the things on earth, which express his creative word.

“To you, O Lord, I will cry, and to my God I will make supplication. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption?” etc. The one who longs only for heavenly things also cries this. Why must I, he says, keep my body in good condition with abundance of blood, when the corruption that comes from death awaits me? Should I not rather discipline the body, lest the blood, boiling over, stir it to sin? By the same. The Saviour says this, seeing that we do nothing worthy of the precious blood by which we were bought. For since some of those for whom he died persist in wickedness and ungodliness, the Saviour’s descent into corruption and the shedding

[Ps 29, continued] of his blood seemed to have happened in vain. He calls corruption the nature of the flesh that he put on, or the death to which he came. You will say that he went down into corruption, but did not receive from God to see corruption.

“Will dust confess to you, or declare your truth?” The one who through doing material things and minding earthly things has become dust, and persists in sin, will neither confess to God nor declare his truth, having gone astray both in character and in knowledge. For the one who has the image of the earthy, by being in the flesh and not in the spirit, is dust, and is in Hades; therefore he will not confess to God. But the one who declares the truth of God, appointed by him as a teacher, would not be dust; for, joined to the Lord, he is one spirit. But if someone is dust and bears the image of the earthy, he could not declare the truth of God. By the same. The earthy will not glorify. The truth is Christ; or perhaps he means the truth in realities.

“The Lord heard and had mercy on me; the Lord became my helper,” etc. The Saviour too might say this, having been heard concerning those who share with him, as about to confess to God through him; rejoicing over them he says, “I shall not be grieved” (for this is the meaning of “I shall not be pierced”), having received back my glory. He says he has been shown mercy, having been shown mercy for our sake, and having changed the mourning and lamentation over us into gladness. And at the salvation of those being saved he says, “O Lord my God, I will confess to you for ever.”

“You turned my lamentation into joy for me,” etc. As joy succeeds toil, so the knowledge of God succeeds the practical life.

[Ps 30 LXX / 31] “In you, O Lord, I hoped; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness rescue me and deliver me,” etc. As if saying, “Let me be put to shame in no part of the age, but be without shame altogether”; for some will rise to reproach and shame. What follows is the voice of one confident in himself; for to be rescued by mercy is not the same as “in righteousness”: the latter shows boldness, the former is not according to desert. Who, then, being confident, will call God to hear his own words, as the one who says these things does? One should ask, not so much from toils as from wickedness, and very quickly, that God deliver us from it before we are dyed deeper in it. By the same. God rescues us not only in righteousness but also in self-control and courage and love. Here he has put righteousness, since it embraces all the virtues. Or perhaps

[Ps 30, continued] … [Christ became for] us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

“Be to me a protecting God and a house of refuge, to save me,” etc. When God protects us, who is against us? We need God as protector if we are not content with the alliance of angels. By the same. The house of refuge is the knowledge of God.

“For you are my strength and my refuge, and for your name’s sake you will guide me and nourish me,” etc. He guides through right faith and through the practical life, and he nourishes through the knowledge of himself.

“Into your hands I will commit my spirit,” etc. As one at war for his soul (for the saints have little care for the body), and fearing to be wounded by the deceivers, he commits his spirit to God, calling God’s providential powers hands. The Saviour too, fixed on the cross, used the present text. Scripture sometimes calls the spirit the mind, as in the virgin’s being eager to be holy in spirit and body; sometimes the soul, as in James: “For as the body without the spirit is dead”; and sometimes the conscience joined to the soul, as in “No one knows the things of a man except the spirit that dwells in him.” The present text will be understood in all three ways. As one taken captive by the enemies, he says that he has been redeemed by God. By the same. Here the spirit means the mind; for the mind joined to the Lord becomes one spirit.

“You hated those who keep vanities to no purpose; but I hoped in the Lord,” etc. If sinners have hoped in the present life only, and this, according to Solomon, is vanity of vanities, then the one who keeps this life keeps vanities to no purpose. “To no purpose” goes with “who keeps vanity.” “To no purpose” means that they gain nothing from their diligence in doing evil, because God hates them and punishes them and does not let them bring to any end what they strive for.

“And you did not shut me up in the hands of the enemy; you set my feet in a broad place,” etc. The principles of temptations, when contemplated, give the soul a broad place. It is praiseworthy to confess a broad place: that, though afflicted, one is not hemmed in. Enlarged, and persevering in toils, he called the independence of his way of life a broad place.

[Ps 30, continued] “My eye was troubled by anger,” etc. Nothing so darkens the understanding as anger when it is stirred.

“My lots are in your hands; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who pursue me,” etc. The lots of righteous men are the contemplations known by the holy angels. By the same. “Flee sexual immorality,” says Paul. If sexual immorality pursues, then clearly adultery too, and greed, and anger, and wrath, and the like.

“Let the deceitful lips become speechless, which speak lawlessness against the righteous in pride and contempt,” etc. The one who speaks deceit is benefited by becoming speechless; for clearly he casts off his deceit.

“You will hide them in the hidden place of your face,” etc. As the face of God hides the soul from the turmoil of men, granting freedom from passion through the practical life, so the tent too guards the mind, through true knowledge, from contrary arguments and doctrines.

“Blessed be the Lord, for he has made his mercy wonderful in a fortified city,” etc. A soul free from passion is a walled city; having pulled down this wall, the enemies went in to David with Bathsheba. Therefore in the fiftieth psalm he asks that the walls of Jerusalem be built.

“For the Lord seeks out truth,” etc. “Truth” stands for “what is true.” For “he will fill a true mouth,” that is, a mind, “with laughter,” that is, with knowledge. “And he repays those who act with excessive pride.” The Lord is long-suffering toward the proud, but those who act with excessive pride he also repays.

[Ps 31 LXX / 32] “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered,” etc. Lawless deeds are forgiven through holy baptism, and sins are covered through bitter repentance for sin.

“Because I kept silent, my bones grew old, from my crying out all day long,” etc. My bones grew old because I kept silent. From crying out continually to God, the powers of the soul do not grow old but are always renewed day by day. But when people are silent, the powers grow old, taking up the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit.

“I made known my sin, and my lawlessness

[Ps 31, continued] I did not hide. I said, I will declare against myself my lawlessness to the Lord,” etc. “A righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech.”

“Do not be like horse and mule, which have no understanding,” etc. He calls the irrational movement of the soul horse and mule. Understanding is rational discernment.

“Many are the scourges of the sinner,” etc. The many afflictions of the righteous are called the many scourges of sinners.

“And boast, all you upright in heart,” etc. If those who boast are upright in heart, boasting in the Lord does not belong to all, since not all are upright in heart. By the same. The upright in heart will rightly boast. And it is reasonable also to boast in afflictions, since the one who boasts in afflictions is upright in heart.

[Ps 32 LXX / 33] Psalm 32. “Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord,” etc. If our Lord is wisdom, and the righteous rejoice in the Lord, then the righteous rejoice in wisdom.

“Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; play to him on a ten-stringed harp,” etc. The lyre is the practical soul moved by the commandments of God; the harp is a pure mind moved by spiritual knowledge. The musical instruments in the Old Testament, understood spiritually, fit us too: the body is figuratively called the lyre, and the spirit the harp; and these are tuned musically for the wise man who uses rightly, as strings, the members of the body and the powers of the spirit. The one who sings with the mind sings well, saying spiritual psalms and singing to God in his heart. Or “ten-stringed” stands for “ten-sinewed,” for the string is a sinew. So the body too is called a ten-stringed harp, as having five senses and five activities of the soul, each activity taking place through each sense.

“Sing to him a new song,” etc. The one renewed in the inner man would sing the new song, as having put off the old man and put on the new, which is renewed according to the image of the one who created him.

“He loves mercy and judgment,” etc. That is, he is merciful and discerning. By the same. He loves “mercy,” by which he shows mercy, and the mercy of those who show mercy; and likewise “judgment,”

[Ps 32, continued] by which he judges, for the judgments of God are true, and a great deep, and unsearchable. He loves also the judgment of the righteous, whose reasonings are judgments, of which it is said, “Judge righteous judgment.” And when “he makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” we see how the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.

“Placing the deeps in storehouses,” etc. The principles of the deep are in the storehouses of God.

“Let all the earth fear the Lord, and let all who dwell in the world be shaken by him,” etc. This has been fulfilled at the coming of God, when the whole earth was filled with the churches of Christ. Perhaps it might be said: … those who inhabit the world, the churches of God, not insensible to the Lord, are shaken by him, fulfilling the present commandment. Or those moved by the word of God are shaken by him, Christ living in them. By the same. A praiseworthy shaking of a rational soul is its removal from wickedness and ignorance to virtue and knowledge.

“For he spoke, and they came into being; he commanded, and they were created,” etc. Coming into being signifies the bringing into existence of rational beings; creation, the change from the better to the worse. For “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”: he is renewed.

“The Lord scatters the counsels of nations, sets aside the reasonings of peoples, and sets aside the counsels of rulers,” etc. The counsels of the nations, the reasonings of the peoples, and the counsels of the rulers are set aside by the Lord as opposing the will of him “who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

“Who fashioned their hearts individually, who understands all their works,” etc. He who alone fashioned alone also knows; therefore God alone is rightly called knower of hearts.

“To rescue their souls from death and to keep them alive in famine,” etc. One must first be rescued from death, and then be nourished. Through the practical life the Lord rescues one from death; through knowledge he nourishes.

“But our soul will wait for the Lord, for he is our helper and protector,” etc. The heart of the righteous man is gladdened not in foods or drinks, but in righteousness and knowledge and wisdom.

[Ps 33 LXX / 34] Psalm 33. “Of David, when he changed his face before Abimelech, and he sent him away, and he departed,” etc. The fleeing face: showing it not as fleeing but as sent away, he changed his face. Here he calls the condition of the soul a face; for it is one thing when fleeing and another when sent away. Scripture often also calls a man’s speech his face, as the angel says to Lot: “Behold, I have marvelled at your face, and for this word I will not overthrow the city of which you spoke.”

“I will bless the Lord,” etc. Christ, who lives at every time and is unchangeable, says these things.

“In the Lord my soul shall be praised,” etc. I shall be praised in nothing else but in wisdom; for our Lord is wisdom.

“I sought the Lord, and he heard me,” etc. “For everyone who seeks finds”; but the one who seeks wrongly does not find.

“Come to him and be enlightened,” etc. Through a right way of life we come, and through knowledge we are enlightened. For “Enlighten yourselves,” he says, “with the light of knowledge.”

“This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,” etc. The Lord does not hear all who cry, but those who cry for the sake of the knowledge of God.

“The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him,” etc. The angel of the Lord, though one, holds the place of a whole army.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good,” etc. If the Lord can be tasted, he is tasted through faith; and if he is good, he is good through knowledge.

“For there is no lack for those who fear him,” etc. If there is no lack for those who fear him, how were the saints “destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, of whom the world was not worthy”? But even if they lacked food and drink, they did not lack knowledge.

“Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord,” etc. From the holy David we are taught what one who fears God must do and say.

“Turn away from evil and do good,” etc. Fear teaches turning away from evil, but love doing good. Therefore the one who loves is greater than the one who fears.

[Ps 33, continued] “The Lord is near to the broken in heart, and he will save the humble in spirit,” etc. If “a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,” and the Lord draws near to the broken in heart, then the Lord draws near to this sacrifice and to no other.

“The Lord keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken,” etc. Here he calls the powers of the soul bones, or the true doctrines that hold together the life of the soul.

“The death of sinners is evil,” etc. Evil: painful, bitter. He seems to call death the punishment that separates the soul from wickedness.

“The Lord will redeem the souls of his servants,” etc. A ransom is a gift given to the enemy by the defeated, or by the one who cares for the defeated, for the deliverance and release of those taken captive.

[Ps 34 LXX / 35] “Judge, O Lord, those who wrong me; fight against those who fight against me,” etc. Knowing that by the transgression of the Jews who wronged him, and by the sin of the Israelites who fought against him, salvation will come to the nations, he accepts, for the sake of the nations, to be judged and fought against by them. Perhaps also those who are judged and fought against here are lightened with respect to the judgment. All who do wrong wrong Christ, who is righteousness; and those who do not have peace in themselves have wars, and fight against Christ, who is our peace. When the Lord judges those who do wrong, he destroys the injustice in them. So too he fights against those who fight the righteous man, doing this for the good of those fought against, so that they may at some time stop doing what is hostile to righteousness. By the same. Nothing so resists the demons as righteousness and knowledge.

“Take hold of weapon and shield, and rise up to help me,” etc. “He will take his zeal as full armour, and will arm creation to repel his enemies. He will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and wear impartial judgment as a helmet; he will take holiness as an invincible shield, and sharpen stern wrath into a sword.” Of these there is need, he says: “Take hold of weapon and shield.” And as the righteous, when perfected, beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles, so after the punishments God will transform his full armour: his zeal into garments of peace, the breastplate into the long robe and the oracle, the helmet into the priestly mitre, and the shield into holiness in peace,

[Ps 34 LXX / 35, continued] and wrath into kindness. It is goodness that the sword is not only drawn but also shut up. Or he says this: taking hold of the fitting shield and the weapon of truth, “rise up to help me,” that is, become my champion. And “Draw the sword” he says instead of “Bare it”; and “Shut [the way] against those who pursue me” instead of “Meet them and shut off their course, holding back their rush with the sword.” By the same. If the one who conquers in war enslaves the enemies, and Christ has conquered the world (for “Take courage,” he says, “I have conquered the world”), then Christ has enslaved the world, so that all may become slaves of Christ.

“Say to my soul, I am your salvation,” etc. This very thing is the salvation of the soul: that the Lord says to it, “I am your salvation”; and it could not be understood thus of anyone else.

“Let them be turned back,” etc. Those who travel from virtue to wickedness are benefited if they are turned back. “And let those who devise evils against me be put to shame.” This shame is a praiseworthy passion, bringing the sinner to awareness.

“Let their way become darkness,” etc. He calls the way of the ungodly the wretched life by which they made their journey. Let it become “darkness” for them, deprived of all light, and “slippery,” so that they cannot even stand, while the angel of God pursues them. You see that the angelic powers are God’s weapons.

“Let a snare come upon him that he does not know,” etc. Note that in these words he used imperatives instead of optatives; for each is punished according to his action. Or rather he has used them instead of futures. “And let the net that he hid catch him, and into the snare he will fall,” etc. I think he speaks of the cross, into which the devil fell in ignorance. For if he had known, he would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

“Rescuing the poor from the hand of those stronger than he,” etc. From this we learn that without the Lord we are not strong enough to fight the enemies; for they are stronger than we.

“They repaid me evil for good, and childlessness to my soul,” etc. Childless is the soul that has begotten nothing good, or has done nothing good for a man.

“And I humbled my soul with fasting,” etc. Nothing so humbles the soul as fasting.

[Ps 34, continued] “And my prayer will return into my bosom.” Here he calls the mind a bosom.

“They tested me; they sneered at me with sneering,” etc. Unable to seize me by the things in which they tested me, they consoled themselves at least by mocking me, and like wild beasts they gnashed their teeth, their wrathful and angry power, against me; for they wished to devour me, but failed.

“Let not those who are my enemies without cause rejoice over me,” etc. Those who are hostile to the righteous man because of his righteousness are hostile unjustly.

“For to me they spoke peaceably, but in anger they devised deceits,” etc. “For you will be,” he says, “like gods, knowing good and evil”; for this word is peaceable.

“Nor let them say, We have swallowed him up,” etc. Paul too says of the man in Corinth who had committed sexual immorality, “lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive grief.”

“Let those who boast against me be clothed with shame and disgrace,” etc. Those baptized into Christ put on Christ, that is, righteousness and wisdom; but those baptized into Satan put on shame and disgrace.

“And let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, those who desire the peace of his servant,” etc. To magnify the Lord continually belongs to angels; not continually, to men; and neither continually nor at all, to demons.

[Ps 35 LXX / 36] “There is no fear of God before his eyes,” etc. For by the fear of the Lord everyone turns aside from evil.

“For he acted deceitfully before him, to find out his lawlessness and hate it,” etc. “Find out” stands for “recognize.” But one must inquire whether the one who has recognized lawlessness as lawlessness necessarily also hates it.

“The words of his mouth are lawlessness and deceit,” etc. Another says, “The words of his mouth are lawlessness and toil,” that is, burdensome, so as to cause toil to those who pay attention. “He did not wish to understand.” It is clear from what has been said that the lawless man is not such by constitution; for not wishing to have understanding so as to do good belongs to free will. And besides this, “he devised lawlessness,” and what follows. Such is the saying, “Woe to those who work evils on their beds, and at daybreak

[Ps 35, continued] they carried them out.” So the one who devises lawlessness while he is on his bed sets himself on every way that is not good, that is, every evil action, not loathing his wickedness; accepting it as the worst disposition, he begins in practice to travel every way that is not good.

“O Lord, your mercy is in heaven, and your truth reaches to the clouds,” etc. Misled by this, some declared that the things below the moon are without providence; among them is Aristotle.

“They will be drunk with the fatness of your house,” etc. This drunkenness is good, “and your cup, which makes drunk, is most excellent.” And since temptations are winters, the torrent of God’s delight would be the reward for endurance in temptations, flowing like a river for those who more than conquer in them through Jesus Christ. By the same. The one who does not sober up from this drunkenness does not act rightly; therefore of blameworthy drunkenness it is said, “Sober up rightly, and do not sin.”

“For with you is the spring of life,” etc. If the spring is life, and the life is Christ, the spring is Christ. “In your light we shall see light”: in the contemplation of the things that have come to be we shall see Christ, or in the knowledge of Christ we shall see God.

“Let not the foot of pride come against me,” etc. If pride is the worst [disposition], how does it have feet? Or perhaps he speaks of the living being that works pride.

[Ps 36 LXX / 37] … etc. Rage is a wrath of desire … for retaliation; wrath is an appetite for punishment; and punishment is the repayment of evil. “Do not envy, so as to do evil.” Do not look at their prosperity, but wait for the end, and you will see their destruction.

“For evildoers will be destroyed,” etc. To be destroyed is nothing other than to fall away from God.

“And yet a little while, and the sinner will not exist,” etc. The expression is ambiguous: either the sinner will be without existence (which those think who say, unsoundly, that the wicked are utterly destroyed), or he will not exist insofar as he is a sinner.

“And you will seek his place and will not find it,” etc. The place of the sinner is wickedness.

“But the meek will inherit the earth,” etc. Here the earth signifies knowledge; for the mind is said to be in contemplation as in a place. “And they will delight in abundance of peace.” The delight of the righteous man is abundance of peace; and abundance of peace is freedom from passion of the soul, with true knowledge of the things that are.

“Better is a little for the righteous than the great wealth of sinners,” etc. Better is a little spiritual knowledge than an abundance of the wisdom of the nations.

“But the Lord upholds the righteous,” etc. Nothing so upholds the righteous man as a spiritual gift: “that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be strengthened,” says the Apostle.

“The Lord knows the ways of the blameless,” etc. Another: “The Lord foreknows the days of the blameless.” He not only upholds their life, but also knows their future days and the inheritance prepared. So brief grief will not harm them at all; for they are trained by endurance, traveling the narrow and afflicted way, not put to shame in an evil time, when he brings wrath on sinners. But even now some will perish for lack of rational food, while others will delight in God to the full. “And their inheritance will be for ever,” etc. The inheritance of the rational nature is the knowledge of God.

“They will not be put to shame in an evil time,” etc. He calls the time of judgment an evil time. “And in days of famine they will be satisfied.” He calls days of famine those in which many of the unclean are deprived of the bread of him who said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

“Failing like smoke, they failed,” etc. This smoke is driven from the rational trees by the fire that Christ came to cast on the earth.

[Ps 36, continued] By the same. Smoke is a sign of a fire that has been put out. And these too, having blazed up like fire, were put out. Such are those who shone forth against us. Sinners perish not by the complete dissolution of their constitution, but by no longer being sinners.

[Ps 37 LXX / 38] Psalm 37. “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath,” etc. The one who does not yield to the rebuke that comes through the word will be rebuked by the anger of God; and the one who does not come under the yoke of a teacher who disciplines in God will be disciplined by the wrath of God. And discipline is more painful than rebuke.

“Like a heavy burden they weighed upon me,” etc. “Come, all,” says Christ, “who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

“I was wretched and bowed down to the end; all day long I went about with a gloomy face,” etc. This should be said to those who laugh much and take pleasure in jokes.

“My friends and my neighbours drew near and stood against me, and my nearest stood far off,” etc. Perhaps he speaks of certain holy powers that withdraw in a time of temptation, to test the one tempted, or as punishment.

“And those who seek evils for me spoke vanities, and meditated deceits all day long,” etc. It seemed to me that vanity is also the sophistical force of arguments that seem demonstrative, by which those who sought my soul expected to seize me. Meditating deceit throughout their whole life, he says, they spoke to me, preparing a plot against me. For when the angels left, the demons attacked more violently.

“But I, like a deaf man, did not hear, and like a dumb man who does not open his mouth,” etc. He received the thoughts of the tempter but did not hear them, not acting according to them. And deafness is freedom from passion, through which he did not hear them.

“For I said, Lest my enemies rejoice over me,” etc. The angels rejoice over those who repent, and the demons over those who are shaken.

“But my enemies live,” etc. Not this life, which said, “I am the life.”

“Those who repay evil for good slandered me,” etc. They repaid evil for good, not for good done to them, but for good done simply for the Lord’s sake.

“Do not forsake me, O Lord my God; do not stand far from me,” etc. A fine opening …

[Ps 37, continued] … the Saviour at least says, “He made me like a chosen arrow, and hid me in his quiver.” So the one who has the word of the Lord … an arrow … [if] he speaks … to the hearer who understands … He is confident that the rational arrows of God did not go outside him but reached him, so that it may be said, “Have you seen how … ?” The one being struck might say to the teacher or tutor who strikes him … “You have fixed your hand upon me.” When the hand of the Lord is laid upon … the arrows … penetrate into the soul of the hearer.

“There is no healing in my flesh from the face of your wrath.” … Rightly I beg not to experience your wrath, since only by imagining it, and seeing … from the divine Scriptures, I am troubled in the whole condition of my body. For the face of wrath …

[Ps 37, continued] … as according to … Isaiah, so too the lawless deeds of some rise above [their head]. He calls the ruling faculty the head. By nature wickedness is … and heavy; … the one who repents perceives its weight. Hence God [calls] those who are burdened … to come to repentance. … That man perceives the stench of his own sins who has put off the swinish life and received … perception … of God; for of such it is said, “Do not throw your pearls before swine.” “Whatever …,” he says, “these have rotted in me, not being … by me, and they stink to me.” Perhaps Paul too, seeing something of this kind after …, says, “Wretched man that I am.” And he sinned when he persecuted the church. … not “I am wretched” but “I was wretched,” as no longer being in …

[Ps 37, continued] … in desire. But nevertheless they force … they seek … for the righteous man, not … to hear the better things about him, as when they hear the worse. And they speak vanities, recounting …

[Ps 38 LXX / 39] Psalm 38. “I became dumb and was humbled and kept silent from good things,” etc. In temptations good things flee from us, and the soul is silent from them. For the soul utters what it knows and is silent about what it does not know. Here he called the virtues and the forms of knowledge good things, which in a time of temptation escape those who are tempted.

“My heart grew hot within me,” etc. It is possible, when the demon of anger attacks, not to become angry; but perhaps it is impossible not to grow hot.

“Make known to me, O Lord, my end,” etc. … of men who stand … the wicked and the ungodly … help … I did not come for help to anyone but you, O Lord; for you are [the cause] of salvation … salvation …

[Ps 38, continued] The end of the rational nature is the knowledge of the holy Trinity.

“But all things are vanity, every living man,” etc. All bodily things are vanity; for the bodiless nature came to be according to the image of God.

“Surely man walks about in an image,” etc. Every living man walks about in an image: either keeping what is according to the image of God and progressing to perfection, becoming conformed to the image of God; or the image of some other living creature, becoming in character a horse mad for females or some other irrational animal.

“And now what is my endurance?” etc. You have granted me the ability to bear: to say or do nothing out of human weakness. And by disciplining me you made me stand firm and bear it. You who know my formation and my weakness, forgive.

“You gave me as a reproach to the fool,” etc. He calls fool the one whom he earlier called sinner. God hands over to reproach for the sake of a greater confession; this the one who says these words asks not to suffer, as one who confesses of himself, according to God’s will.

“I became dumb and did not open my mouth, for it was you who made me,” etc. This too can be understood thus: I never blamed you, as others do, as the cause of my lawless deeds; for this I never opened my mouth, but became dumb.

“For I am a sojourner on the earth and a stranger, like all my fathers,” etc. The one who has often said, “Surely every man is vanity,” confesses that he is a sojourner, and knows another life of refreshment; and with tears he entreats, since it is rare, like the fathers, to be a sojourner and not to settle in the present life. If, then, he says, you do not release my sin, so that I may be refreshed before I depart there, I shall have no time for repentance, nor shall I exist in the life with you. Or, since sinners do not exist, they will be as though they were not. By the same. All the fathers of the righteous, as righteous, are sojourners and strangers, considering life on earth a shadow.

[Ps 38, continued] … the divine sayings … as those with [Cleopas] say, “Was not our heart burning within us?” Or it grew hot with grief, and did not [sin], according to “Be angry, and do not sin.” For not to suffer from anger at all is better; … but this is attainable for the saints by reasoning.

[Ps 38, continued] … the sinner weaves like a spider: … easily torn, even if it is intricate, as in Isaiah: “They weave a spider’s web.” He says, then, reproving the one being disciplined: “[Remove] your scourges … and your hand …” … made thin for its own benefit. For according to …

[Ps 39 LXX / 40] “He brought me up out of the pit of misery,” etc. The pit of misery is wickedness and ignorance. “And he set my feet upon a rock.” The rock is faith in Christ. “And he directed my steps” through the practical life and the true doctrines.

“And he put a new song in my mouth,” etc. After freedom from passion we sing a new song, our house having been renewed.

“Sacrifice and offering you did not want,” etc. The Letter to the Hebrews says that these verses are spoken in the person of the Saviour, and it gives occasion to understand the whole psalm as spoken in his person.

“Whole burnt offering and sin offering you did not ask for,” etc. God does not seek perceptible whole burnt offerings; for “a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit.”

“In the roll of the book it is written of me,” etc. He calls the whole Scripture of the law the roll of the book; for all of it is summed up in one thing, the foretelling concerning Christ.

“To do your will,” etc. He speaks of the will of the Father, according to which he took away the sin of the world. “For I came not,” he says, “to do my own will …” … lived in luxury for a time, he slipped into sins.

[Ps 39 LXX / 40, continued] my own, but the will of him who sent me.” And he was laid down for the sin of all, so that, once forgiveness had come, there would no longer be need of the sacrifice for sin.

“I proclaimed the good news of righteousness in a great assembly,” etc. A great assembly is one filled up with great and perfect men, in which he proclaimed the good news of the righteousness that is through faith in Jesus. He knew it as his own, accepting it and making it his own, and proclaiming it without interruption. And he said, “I will not restrain my lips.” Nor has he restrained them; he still speaks through the evangelists and the teachers of each age, whom one might call the lips of Christ. Of his righteousness, as better than that of the law, he said in charging them, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees …” … “and I could not see,” etc. The memory of old faults naturally darkens our understanding. “They were multiplied beyond the hairs of my head.” That is, the evils around us of which we are unaware are multiplied; and when many of them have happened, deprived of right understanding, we have been forsaken by our heart. The one who says this entreats to be kept by mercy, remembering his former evils so as not to fall into them again. And the remembrance of the change to better things makes men thankful and attentive.

“Let those who seek my soul, to take it away, be put to shame and confounded together,” etc. They do not take it away in its essence, but through wickedness they take it away from virtue and knowledge.

“But I am poor,” etc. Weak for the acquiring of good things, he confesses himself poor and needy, and entrusts the care of himself to God, casting his anxiety on the Lord as on a guardian.

[Ps 40 LXX / 41] Psalm 40. “Blessed is he who considers the poor and needy,” etc. What is “he who considers”? He who understands. What is “needy”? He who grasps his own affliction. For the one who has learned his own affliction will surely and at once have mercy on him. The one who understands the poor in word and wisdom and the good can be called blessed, helping him, whether the poor in the common sense or the one called blessed. “In the evil day the Lord will rescue him”: either as of one day, the whole of the present age being evil, or the day of judgment. For this is darkness to sinners and not light, according to the prophet. And the Apostle says, “For the days are evil,” and again, “that he might deliver us from the present evil age.” He exhorts, then, to be kind toward

[Ps 40, continued] the needy, or to understand the one who voluntarily became poor.

“May the Lord help him on his bed of pain,” etc. The bed of pain is the body of humiliation. “You turned his whole couch in his sickness.” He will be changed to better things, he says, and will undergo a change to good health. For it is Scripture’s custom to use “turning” for “change,” as in “You turned my lamentation into joy for me.”

“My enemies spoke evil against me,” etc. The invisible enemies of our Saviour wanted him to die, so as to quench the glory of his name; but besides his not perishing, every knee will bow in the name of Jesus and every tongue will confess. You might also say that he made the prayer for his disciples, who, being as his soul, happened at that time to fall sick and to sin, when all forsook him and fled, and Peter denied him three times.

“And if he came in to see, he spoke in vain,” etc. The hidden and the visible enemies of Christ prepared death for him. Judas came in to see the things that were done and spoken in parables, but he spoke in vain, not having room to understand them, because of the wickedness that blinded him. The text also fits all the heterodox who promise secret things. Or, having already come to be outside the Saviour and the company of the apostles, he spoke in vain, calling the Lord “Teacher,” while his heart gathered lawlessness. And this man, going out, that is, coming to be outside the discipleship of Jesus, spoke together with the Pharisees against the Saviour and secretly set the betrayal in motion. But also the heart of one who devises evils and thinks up heretical things gathers lawlessness for him; and whoever receives it goes outside. Of these it is said, “But to those outside, in parables,” and “God judges those outside.”

“Will not the one who sleeps rise again?” etc. He says that resurrection necessarily follows sleep. Sleep is death; necessarily, resurrection will follow death.

“But you, O Lord, have mercy on me,” etc. He asks mercy and resurrection not for himself but for us. “Raise me up” is said in a manner befitting a man; but “and I will repay them,” that is, the enemies, in a manner befitting God. The enemy gloats over those who are defeated. Then again, in a more human way, he said, “By this I knew that you have desired me,” both in having mercy and in raising up; that is, “you loved me,” for everything willed is in love. And when I have risen, the enemy of mankind will not gloat, the devil, who brought death through sin.

[Ps 40, continued] Or perhaps he also hints at the Jews. And “because of my innocence,” that is, my spotlessness, is said in a more human way. And we have been established in Christ, and this took place before the Father, for ever.

[Ps 41 LXX / 42] Psalm 41. “My soul thirsted for God,” etc. Those blessed in the Gospel for thirsting thirst for God. He did not say, “My soul thirsted God,” for the soul does not drink God, but “for God.” For the saint longs for the things toward God, as the sinner longs for the things not toward God but toward worldly life, or toward the devil. And the Saviour stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” And he shows that only the saints will appear before the face of God, since God turns it away from sinners. Or, since God had turned his overseeing power away from the people, they lamented the life here and wished to come to God himself. And they said this having been cleansed of every blemish; for the one who is stained says, “Turn away your face from my sins.” By the same. If the angels continually see the face of God, then David desires to become an angel and see the face of God.

“My tears have become my bread,” etc. Those whose bread is tears: “Blessed are those who weep now.” To be able to say this belongs to the perfect; for the imperfect man is troubled by external things and has his soul outside, unseemly and convicted before all, laying bare his soul by his words. But the saint gathers his soul away from things outside. And the one who weeps from his disposition will be nourished by his tears as by bread, not only in times of ease, which he calls day, but also in adversity, which he calls night. By the same. Most nourishing is the weeping that nourishes the soul. “Blessed are those who weep now, for they shall laugh.”

“While they say to me every day, Where is your God?” etc. God is in all things that have come to be, as creator; as virtue and wisdom, in all the holy powers; and if virtue and wisdom are taken as potential, also in the opposing powers; and if partly in potency and partly in act, God is also in men. For always to act according to God belongs to angels; never, to demons; sometimes well and sometimes not rightly, to men. One might reasonably answer “Where is God?” with “Everywhere except in your soul.”

“For I shall pass through into the place of the tent,” etc. The

[Ps 41, continued] tent according to Moses in Exodus was, I think, a type of this; the temple according to Solomon, a type of the true house of God. For, he says, I am still making progress and am not yet perfect. The tent, a symbol of progress, wonderfully leads to the house of God himself, that is, to perfection, in which God dwells there. And those who keep festival spiritually resound, rejoicing and giving thanks. Or he says this: I consoled myself with such hopes, saying, “Why are you very sad, my soul?” For I expected that the blessed end would receive me, the wonderful tent of God, and his innermost house, into which the saints, lifted up by angelic powers, will be brought. And if “there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents,” how could there not fittingly be a voice of praise from a multitude keeping festival over the salvation of the one being saved, when a soul, after its training, is brought into the heavenly holy places? He gives thanks as for things that are true. “Why are you very sad?” and what follows. Let us, then, rebuke ourselves in this way when we grieve and are troubled. Since our God is the salvation of our face, “beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, we are being transformed into the same image.”

“Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan and of Hermon, from the little mountain,” etc. Jordan means “descent”; Hermonim, “anathematizing.” He seems to be distressed and pained within himself, remembering the miracle that took place at the Jordan under Joshua son of Nun, when the water was divided until the people had crossed the river, and the one at the very small mountain nearby: that he does not obtain the same providence as that one. Perhaps also it is a character portrayal of the soul conversing with itself.

“By day the Lord will command his mercy, and by night he will show it,” etc. When Rabshakeh once besieged Jerusalem and blasphemed the God of all as unable to save them, in one stroke in the night one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians with him were killed. Since God had told Hezekiah beforehand, on the day before the night, “I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant”—because the promise was given by day and the deed done by night—he says, “By day the Lord will command,” and what follows. And “A prayer to the God of my life”: because in this way nothing is found between your command and my enjoyment; but at once, he says, thanksgiving is found in me, sent up to God who granted me life. And night and day, he says, I knowingly sing and hymn the mercy supplied by you. By the same. He teaches that the good things belong to the age to come, calling it “day,” in

[Ps 41, continued] which, he says, God has promised his mercy for gladness; while night and darkness are the converse with God through hymns and the withdrawal through prayers.

“I will say to God, You are my protector; why have you forgotten me? Why do I go about gloomy while the enemy oppresses me?” etc. He does not ask not to be oppressed by the enemy, but, when oppressed, not to be gloomy. For this fits an athlete who is well pleasing even in adversity. And in the next psalm, by putting “Why have you cast me off?” before “Why do I go about gloomy?”, he seems to show that what is proper to one cast off by God is not being oppressed by the enemy but being gloomy in the oppression. If, however, Christ says what is in the next psalm, he says similar things by the Spirit, thus: “But you have cast off and despised; you have rejected your anointed.” … he goes about gloomy, saying, “My soul is very sorrowful.” Or Christ says it as raising a difficulty, as if indicating something like this: What worthy thing is accomplished by my going about gloomy, cast off from you for the salvation of men, while the enemy oppresses me?

“While they say to me every day, Where is your God?” etc. Perhaps the saint is grieved by “where” said of God, which signifies place. It belongs to the utmost ignorance to think that God is in a place; for place exists together with bulk, and the Divine is free of bulk.

[Ps 42 LXX / 43] Psalm 42. “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an unholy nation,” etc. Christ too asks to be judged by God; to him, I think, applies “You will prevail when you are judged.” The one who is confident in himself and persuaded that, though wronged, he has never avenged himself but has given place to wrath, will say this: “Against an unholy nation,” and what follows. If the Saviour says it, the unholy nation is the Jews; if the righteous man, he speaks of the opposing powers. God rescues from the unjust and deceitful man when one is not harmed by them. “From the unjust and deceitful man rescue me” is said of everyone who adulterates the word of God, and of the unjust man who feigns the things of faith.

“Send out your light and your truth; they led me and brought me to your holy mountain and to your tents,” etc. “I am the light of the world,” says the Saviour; and again, “I am the truth.” Here the Seventy changed the tense and spoke of things to come as having happened. The others said it more clearly: “Send your light and your truth, which will lead and bring us to your holy mountain and to your tents.” He called the temple tents; and by the mountain he means Zion, to which he asks to return, having obtained divine favour.

[Ps 42, continued] He calls light and truth the righteous and saving appearing, as he calls misfortunes darkness. By the same. The light of God sent upon the soul of Jesus, and his truth, is the Only-begotten. For that we have a great high priest, Jesus Christ the Son of God, clothed with it, the light of God sent upon him will show; and the present word teaches truth, not a type. These, having guided him, brought him to the spiritual holy mountain of God and to his true tents, so that as high priest he might enter to the altar of God. Perhaps the holy mountain of God is the house of the Father, and his tents the many dwellings in it. Or his tents are the eternal tents. You will inquire whether the tents are on the holy mountain, and what they are; whether they are those toward God himself, who gladdens his youth. For he had no oldness. And “putting on the new” is said because of this youth; and the festival belongs to such young ones. By the same. The holy mountain of God is Christ; and his tents are the holy powers in which he dwells.

“To God who gladdens my youth; I will give thanks to you with the lyre, O God, my God,” etc. In the eighty-third he also says to the soul, “Your youth will be renewed like an eagle’s.” These words are a narrative addressed to us in between. Then again he speaks to God, from “I will give thanks to you with the lyre”—perhaps with the body tuned by the spirit.

“Hope in God, for I will give thanks to him, the salvation of my face, my God,” etc. The soul needs the reminder, “Hope in God.” And the salvation of the face belongs to the face that is unveiled and beholds the glory of the Lord, everyone being transformed into the same image, that is, one that stays the same; and above all to Jesus.

[Ps 43 LXX / 44] “O God, we have heard with our ears; our fathers have told us,” etc. The psalm is in the person of those in the dispersion, or in the person of those from the nations who believed, having received the word by hearing from Israel, to whom God appeared. What follows is because of “Ask your father, and he will tell you.” But whoever tells is a father.

“Your hand destroyed nations,” etc. God destroys wickedness and ignorance, and plants virtue and knowledge. “For every plant that God did not plant will be rooted up.” He calls nations the five satrapies in Palestine: the Gittites, the Azotians,

[Ps 43, continued] the Ekronites, the Gazaeans, and the Ashkelonites. By the same. Then was fulfilled, “Bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance.” The nations of wickedness are destroyed before we are planted. The hand destroyed, and the right hand; but neither the hand nor the right hand planted; for not a part, but he as a whole, planted. And not the hand but the right hand saved. When Israel had been cast out, those from the nations were planted in the divine Scriptures. Different names are given to one subject: for he calls the Saviour hand, right hand, arm and light; and the face of the Father, as the imprint of his substance. And the light sent from him into the mind of those called to redemption is the understanding given through the Spirit, which brings those enlightened to God. And the meek inherit the earth; they do not inherit by fighting, nor by the sword.

“For not by their sword did they inherit the land,” etc. It is in our power to achieve virtue, with the power of God; but to be counted worthy of spiritual knowledge is not in our power.

“You yourself are my king and my God, who commands the salvations of Jacob,” etc. These words will fit those among the people and the prophets who confess that they are not saved by their own power. Jacob is the one by whom base things are supplanted. God commands the holy spirits sent out for service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. And there are many salvations, as there are many lives.

“In you we will butt our enemies, and in your name we will bring to nothing those who rise up against us,” etc. The saints are horned by God, who is their horn. Also “He raised up a horn of salvation for us,” says Zechariah. And only by speaking your name, he says, we shall be strong to bring them to nothing. By the same. The horn of the soul is a pure mind; through the practical life it butts the enemies, and through knowledge it brings to nothing those who rise up against it and oppose spiritual contemplation.

“In God we shall be praised all day long,” etc. The blessed man is praised all day long in God, that is, his own life, which consists of freedom from passion and the knowledge of God. But the one praised for an intermediate art, as succeeding in it, or for progress among heretics, or for the words of some other false speech, will not be praised as blessed, and perhaps not all day long either.

“You turned us back,” etc. The virtues are said to be in front of us, the vices behind; therefore we are commanded to flee sexual immorality but to pursue hospitality.

[Ps 43, continued] “You gave us as sheep for food,” etc. For not all sheep are for food. Since you gave us as sheep for food, “when men rose up against us, they would have swallowed us alive.” God thrusts away from himself not always because of sins, but also for other reasons that he knows. And not everyone who is turned back undergoes this blameworthily, but only if someone who has fled evils wishes to return to them again. But if someone, having left Zion, that is, virtue, should hasten toward wickedness, called Babylon, and is turned back, he receives a blessed thing. But those speaking now, since they have come among the enemies after being turned back, have fallen blameworthily.

“You sold your people for no price,” etc. For we were sold by our sins, from which Christ bought us out.

“You made us a reproach to our neighbours,” etc. Those who have neighbouring doctrines are neighbours; the others are those round about. “You made us a byword among the nations” (for those from the nations have Israel as a parable, and seek the solution about their own affairs as in a parable) “and a shaking of the head,” that is, of Christ. Those came to be “among the peoples.”

“And the shame of my face covered me,” etc. We are ashamed before ourselves when we sin in thought, but before men when we offend in act.

“At the voice of the one who reproaches and slanders,” etc. This should be said to those who have endured in persecutions.

“And we did not deal falsely with your covenant,” etc. The one who sins knowingly deals falsely with the covenant of God. “And our heart did not turn back,” like Lot’s wife, or the one who put his hand to the plough, or rather like those who turned in their hearts to Egypt. By the same. Everyone who does not live according to the covenant of God wrongs it. We, he says, have gone the opposite way from the others. For they were tripped up even before the terrors, but we have stood firm even after the terrors, keeping our resolve unshaken. What is “We did not deal falsely with your covenant”? That is, we did not deal falsely with the things entrusted to us, but kept them with exactness.

“For you humbled us in a place of affliction, and the shadow of death covered us,” etc. The place of affliction is the human body, and the world akin to it. You have made us be in a foreign land, he says, which did not allow the acts of worship to be performed.

[Ps 43, continued] By the same. The mind is covered with the shadow of death when it does not see. Or the body of humiliation is a shadow of death, born in its shadow.

“If we spread out our hands to a foreign god,” etc. If anything is not essential knowledge, or if one does not have this knowledge in himself, it is a foreign god.

“For your sake we are put to death all day long; we were reckoned as sheep for slaughter,” etc. Paul says, “I die every day, by the boast in you that I have in Christ Jesus.” And why does he say “for your sake”? Because it was possible for us to change sides and abandon our ancestral way of life and be in safety; but we choose rather to suffer evil and keep the ancestral ways than to enjoy peace and fall away from the ancestral ways. It is worth being amazed at the power of God, that he preserved those so exposed, like sheep for slaughter, and did not let those dying daily fall into death.

“Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord?” etc. Christ once slept in the disciples’ boat, but when a storm arose the disciples woke him. The word shows that, when a storm of thoughts arises in the soul—of anger or injustice or gluttony or pride—we should awaken love, righteousness, self-control, continence, humility, knowledge.

“Rise, O Lord, help us, and redeem us for your name’s sake,” etc. They might say such things to the Saviour while he spent time in the heart of the earth at the time of his passion; he, giving his soul as a ransom for many, does this for the glory of his name.

[Ps 44 LXX / 45] Psalm 44. “My heart poured forth a good word; I speak my works to the king. My tongue is the pen of a swift scribe,” etc. He said “poured forth” instead of “uttered,” not to call the Son an utterance, but the account about him. The speaker would be David; for if the Father announced it to the Son, the Son would be found ignorant. By the same. A good word is one that signifies virtue or the knowledge of God. By the same. The tongue of everyone who speaks his works to the king is the pen of a swift scribe. For with a good conscience he declares his own brave deeds; but the one conscious of the opposite in himself, when he speaks his works to the king, is slow of tongue.

“Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men,” etc. This is said from the person of the prophet,

[Ps 44, continued] whose tongue was the pen of a swift scribe. Grace was poured out on the lips of the imitator of Christ, and of Christ himself, not only because of the words of grace that came forth from his mouth, but because of the grace of the forgiveness of sins, when he said, “Your sins are forgiven you.” By the same. He compares spiritual wisdom and the word of God with worldly wisdom and human speech.

“Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one,” etc. This sword separates the soul from wickedness and the mind from ignorance, destroying what is called the old man and making him new in Christ, according to the image of the one who created him. By the same. Perhaps the thigh is a symbol of generation. What is said, then, is something like this: Join to your generation the destruction of the enemies. And clearly the birth of Jesus became a sword against his enemies. Or the Word who is in purity of life, destroying the passions, is said to gird a sword upon his thigh. Jesus first did this, since nothing in Christ was slack or loose. In this sense you will understand “bend [your bow].” And his right hand guides the Saviour and his saints.

“For the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness,” etc. The true, the meek, and the righteous are ruled as by a king by Christ. “And your right hand will guide you wonderfully.” The right hand of God is God the Word who is in him.

“Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty one; peoples will fall under you, in the heart of the king’s enemies,” etc. The arrows of Christ are the practical virtues: with righteousness he shoots the unjust, with prudence the foolish, the cowardly with courage, with continence the licentious, with long-suffering the wrathful, and with faith the unbeliever. The arrow of faith is sent before the others; for one must first believe that God exists. By the same. The rational arrows of one who ably champions the truth and mightily pulls down falsehood are sharpened. And those who fall under Christ are in the heart and thoughts of the enemies of the … is king. Clearly Christ is God. And perhaps it is possible to do righteousness and abstain from lawlessness out of fear of God, and not by love toward God beyond justice, nor by hating lawlessness. But Christ is not such.

“The rod of your kingdom is a rod of uprightness,” etc. The rod that Christ uses in punishing sinners is called a rod of uprightness, setting straight,

[Ps 44, continued] and freeing those whom he rules from all crookedness. And since he punishes with royal authority through it, it is the rod of his kingdom.

“Daughters of kings are among your honoured ones. The queen stood at your right hand, clothed in a robe woven with gold, adorned in many colours,” etc. The holy disciples, having received the kingdom of heaven, have become kings; therefore the souls begotten by them according to virtue are called daughters of kings. And all these souls, united according to faith and virtue, make up one queen standing at the right hand of Christ God. Now the church of God has robes woven with gold, knowing in part and prophesying in part; but when the perfect comes and the partial is abolished, then she will have robes of pure gold. For the robe of the rational nature is the manifold wisdom of God.

“And incline your ear,” etc. “Incline your ear,” the Father says to the church. The forgetting is praiseworthy, being the cause of the king’s desiring the beauty of the one who forgot. Next, the cause of the glory that the church has is in the hidden part of the heart, and her glory is within, in the true garments that accord with the wisdom of God, and in a conscience full of boldness. Therefore it is said of her, “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within”; and her glory is such glory as a king’s daughter would have. Here God is called king. But her garments too are many-coloured according to the virtues. “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within,” etc. All the glory of our church is in the inner man, contemplated according to virtue and knowledge.

“Virgins will be brought to the king after her; her companions will be brought to you,” etc. The undefiled and pure, and therefore virgin, souls, going forth, will be brought to Christ with gladness and rejoicing. The chamber of the king, that is, of Christ, is also his temple, since he is also God; and in place of the patriarchs the apostles have come to be. By the same. Our neighbours are either all men, or those who are not wholly akin to us in doctrines.

“In place of your fathers sons have been born to you,” etc. In place of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the others who were well pleasing to him in the Old Testament, the disciples were born, and we who believed through them, inheriting that faith and knowledge. For the inheritance of the rational nature is the knowledge of God.

[Ps 45 LXX / 46] Psalm 45. “God is our refuge and strength,” etc. God alone is a refuge; therefore let us flee to no one else.

[Ps 45, continued] If the one who is able is able by power, and God is the power of the saints, then the saint is able by God. And God is also a helper in afflictions, so that we may boast in them while we endure them. Note “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” which are other than the scourges of sinners. And because the way that leads to life is narrow and afflicted, and few find it, perhaps it is the afflictions that find the righteous.

“Therefore we will not fear,” and what follows. At the consummation the sinners, being earth, will be troubled; but the saints, being mountains, will be removed with the removal of Enoch. And Israel too, a mountain, has been removed because of the nations. “In his might” is to be taken with both, so that it reads, “Therefore we will not fear when the earth is troubled and the mountains are removed, in his might.” By the same. Fleeing sexual immorality, we take refuge in self-control; and fighting against gluttony, we fight with continence. If we take refuge in it, it is called refuge; if we wage war with it, strength. “Therefore we will not fear when the earth is troubled,” etc. Here he calls seas and mountains the rational natures that are exalted and lifted up against the knowledge of God.

“The rushes of the river gladden the city of God,” etc. The rushes of the river correspond to the varieties of gifts and the varieties of ministries. The city of God is helped as day draws near. It is also written, “He will help her with his face”; for he keeps her beauty unwounded when she is troubled by the adversaries. By the same. The city of God is either the church or the rational soul itself; and the rushes of the river are the gifts of the Spirit.

“Nations were troubled, kingdoms bowed,” etc. At the coming of Christ the kingdoms bowed. “Christ gave his voice, the earth was shaken,” that is, those on the earth, as churches were being established everywhere. By the same. If a rational soul hears the voice of the Lord, it is shaken, passing from wickedness to virtue and from ignorance to the knowledge of God. When divine help appeared, he says, the enemies turned their backs, and the kingdoms that long thought the opposite bowed their neck to the divine and saving yoke; for, using as it were a voice—the truth, the testimony of events, and miracles of every kind—God showed men his own height.

“Making wars cease to the ends of the earth; he will break the bow and shatter the weapon, and

[Ps 45, continued] the shields he will burn with fire,” etc. “Making wars cease” can be said because the wars that were formerly continual were stopped by the Romans, who after the birth of the Saviour made the many former kingdoms into one kingdom. For there was “glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure among men.” So the Lord Jesus set wonders on the earth, making cease, to the ends of the earth, the wars by which men were warred against. And in making the wars cease he broke the bow from which the fiery arrows of the devil were sent, and shattered his weapon, and burned his shields. And “I will be exalted” is the voice of God saying these things, after the wars to the ends of the earth have been made to cease, the bow broken, and the weapon shattered. By the same. Here he calls the worst condition and evil thoughts bow and weapon and shield.

“Be still and know that I am God,” etc. Leisure is needed to know the Lord.

[Ps 46 LXX / 47] Psalm 46. “All you nations, clap your hands,” etc. As it were, let our hands send forth a voice of rejoicing from good works. For whether we shout or do anything else, we do it either for God, when it is according to God, or for the devil, when we work wickedness. So too we sing to God and to Christ the king; “with a voice of rejoicing” is to be taken with both, so that it reads, “Clap your hands to God with a voice of rejoicing.” Every action that is according to God can be such, and rejoicing follows it; but weeping follows the opposite. Formerly the Lord was not over all the earth: he was most high to few, fearful to a countable number of the devout, king to not many, and great to rare men, such as the great Isaac and the great Moses. But now he is all these things to many more; and at last he will be, simply, all in all. Formerly his name was great over Israel only; but from the coming of Christ he is great over all the earth. For God is now king of all the earth, since God has reigned over the nations. By the same. Men naturally clap their hands at victories. Let us too, then, clap at the victory of the one who said, “Take courage, I have conquered the world.” A shout is a song of victory. So he exhorts the nations to shout at the downfall of the opposing powers.

“He subjected peoples to us,” etc. “He subjected peoples”: those being taught the mysteries of Israel. The apostles will say this about those being taught,

[Ps 46, continued] who are many. And our Lord himself, since we did not know how to choose for ourselves what we would inherit, chose for us a portion that we will inherit, which is the beauty of Jacob that the Lord loved. By the same. He gave us authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

“God went up with a shout,” etc. As the Lord will come “with the voice of an angel, and with the trumpet of God will descend from heaven,” so God went up with a shout. And the Lord “with the sound of a trumpet,” and perhaps with the shout of all the nations who clapped their hands and shouted to God with a voice of rejoicing. By these, I think, God also ascends. And if anyone praises him with the sound of the trumpet, he too will ascend, he who ascends with the sound of the trumpet.

“Sing to our God,” etc. In both ways to God, because “God is king of all the earth.” “With understanding” is equivalent to “sing with the mind.” It is also an exhortation to knowledge. And he reigned at the coming of Christ. The holy throne of God is those ruled by him, in whom God is seated. By the same. Singing belongs to one who is cheerful according to God, as in, “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing.”

“God sits on his holy throne,” etc. The throne of God is Christ, and the throne of Christ is the rational nature.

“The rulers of the peoples were gathered with the God of Abraham, for the mighty ones of the earth belong to God; they were greatly exalted,” etc. All who are gathered with Abraham have the knowledge of Abraham. “Were gathered” stands for “will be gathered.” For from what has happened, he says, the rulers of all the nations, gathered together with us into hymnody, will praise God. By the same. If anyone is mighty of the earth, he belongs to God; for the weak man is not yet his. Mighty of the earth is the one who has been made mighty against the mind of the flesh. Of the mighty on earth some are God’s, who were not simply exalted, but greatly; yet not over-exalted.

[Ps 47 LXX / 48] “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised,” etc. Where the majesty of the Lord is contemplated, there especially the Lord is great and praised, in the city of God, by those enrolled as its citizens. If, then, the Lord is great and praised especially in the city of God,

[Ps 47, continued] what else would be the holy mountain of the Lord, “well rooted, the joy” not only of part of the earth but of all of it, but Christ, rooted in the Father, at whose coming the whole earth rejoiced, because of the churches of God established everywhere in his name? Perhaps the reading is not “well rooting” (for that is unintelligible) but “well rooted,” as having a good root that fits the branch.

“Well rooted, with the joy of all the earth, the mountains of Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great king,” etc. The well-rooted joy is Christ. “My joy,” he says, “redeem me from those who surround me.” His root is God the Word who is in him. By the same. The mountains of Zion, the sides of the north, are the city of the great king. In this sense it can be said in the Gospel that Jerusalem is the city of the great king, as here: “The mountains of Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great king.” As one is called high priest in distinction from the priesthood under him, so also great king; for he is king of those who reign.

“For behold, the kings of the earth were gathered,” etc. So that all may speak the same thing, and there be no divisions among them.

“With a violent wind you will shatter the ships of Tarshish,” etc. Tarshish means “of the sea.” Tarshish is said to be part of Ethiopia; and the city of Tarsus is called Tharsis in Jonah.

“As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God,” etc. Outside the city we heard; having come to be in the city, we saw what we had heard before. And having come to be in the midst of your temple, we received your name at the coming of Christ. Their praise was worthy of the name of God. By the same. Whatever we hear about God by faith, this we come to know through a pure life, receiving through freedom from passion the proofs of what we have believed.

“Your right hand is full of righteousness,” etc. Christ is the right hand of God, filled with righteousness. Therefore “from his fullness we have all received.”

“Let Mount Zion be glad,” etc. Let Mount Zion be glad and the daughters of Judea rejoice because of the judgments of God, by contemplating their principles and the works that accord with those principles.

[Ps 47 LXX / 48, continued] And those who have understood Zion go around her and encompass her; and having gone up onto her towers, they tell from above those not yet able to go up onto her towers, saying: Set your hearts to perceive her power, and let each one, living as a citizen through what he does, receive a worthy remembrance of the city as it is divided up. Or also thus: Since the mind of the church watches out for the truth, and is therefore called Zion, its doctrines must be grasped in the understanding. Having understood its teaching, then, with knowledge, examine each part by distinguishing. For its bulwarks are the particular contemplations in which the doctrines of godliness dwell. And since the former generation, which received the city and its power, was proved evil, by attending to the power of the city and dividing up its bulwarks you will know something about the calling of the saints, which is another generation beside the former; if indeed you will also tell that this is God, who did the marvels spoken of before, having cast off the former generation, being eternal and always the same. And he will shepherd us, according to “The Lord will stand and see and shepherd his flock in strength.” “And divide up her bulwarks,” etc. These things are fulfilled in the disciples dividing up the inhabited world among themselves, to tell that Christ is our God who shepherds us.

[Ps 48 LXX / 49] “For the end; for the sons of Korah, a psalm. Hear these things, all you nations,” etc. The title can refer to the victory of each of those who conquer in the contest. “Hear” is the voice of Christ calling all the nations, he who said, “Come to me, all who labour.” And since the earthborn and poor man too is built up, more simply, from the wording of the Scriptures, while the one able to pass over to spiritual things, being a son of man and rich, is benefited more, therefore he calls all together to the hearing, as to a feast. The calling together of rich and poor summons us to equality and freedom from pride. He spoke of three pairs of opposites: nations and earthborn, rich and poor, world and sons of men. Those foreign to the faith are called “nations.” Those in the church are those who inhabit the world.

“My mouth will speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart understanding. I will incline my ear to a parable; I will open my problem on the harp,” etc. The mouth of Christ speaks wisdom. Those who minister his word are the mouth of Christ, and the rest are the rest of his body. And if meditation is understanding, what is the promise?

[Ps 48, continued] When the meditation of the heart is understanding, evil reasonings do not come out from within the heart, nor are there the things that defile a man, nor is room given to the devil. Clearly the Saviour calls the understanding hearers his ears. Another might say that he speaks wisdom in the New Testament, but hears the Old as a parable. Christ opens his problem, shut up in obscurity, when he finds a well-tuned instrument and a chosen vessel, which he calls a harp; for through such a one he opens and makes clear what is shut up in obscurity for those who are not such. The apostles too could say this. By the same. The cheerful man sings; and through the harp he opens the problem. Through cheerfulness he discerns the problem. Cheerfulness is the freedom from passion of a rational soul.

“Why should I fear in the evil day? The lawlessness of my heel will surround me,” etc. He says this not about himself, but out of concern for the Jews who will be judged, most of whom have done things worthy of punishment. And if the speaker is the person of Christ, you would find his heel to be the last part of the body, the part near the earth: Judas; for the apostles are the body of the Lord. So I do not fear the betrayal of Judas at the time of the cross; since neither does each man fear the disobedience of Adam (for we hinted that this is the lawlessness of the heel). For no one is condemned for another’s wickedness. He called Adam’s disobedience the lawlessness of the heel, because the serpent has power against his heel. Or, since the apostles, or the prophet who says this, were not such that it could be said of him, “He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth,” it is likely that he sinned in the last and least things. Therefore Symmachus rendered it “the lawlessness of his footsteps.” For they had, as it were, only faint traces of lawlessness; therefore he says, “I do not fear the day of judgment.” And the heel of Christ is also those who are lower than all the believers. By the same. He calls the day of judgment the evil day, and the heel the way and the life.

“Those who trust in their power,” etc. “A man will not give God a ransom for himself, and the price of the redemption of his soul”; for Jesus gave himself for all.

“A brother does not redeem; will a man redeem?” etc. It must be read as a question: “Will a man redeem?”

“And he toiled for ever,” etc. The one who toils for the whole of his age and the life here will live for ever the true life,

[Ps 48, continued] not seeing corruption, when the wise die; together the fool and the senseless will perish. By the same. The one who toils through the practical life will live for ever through knowledge. Having attacked the unrepentant, he turns also to the repentant, and consoles the toil of repentance with the hopes of what is to come. He toiled here, he says, repenting, and henceforth he will live always. For this is what “for ever” means. And he calls life the life in the proper sense, the one free of toil; for the life here is so called by a misuse of the word. You will understand the end as the age to come, which is the end of the present one. Symmachus says this as follows: “Having rested in this age, he will continue living for ever”; and Aquila: “And he rested for ever, and will live to victory.” For the one who has here acquired a laborious and toilsome life will be counted worthy of the life promised in the age to come, not seeing corruption when the wise die.

“For he will not see corruption when he sees the wise dying; together the fool and the senseless will perish,” etc. We shall see the wise of this world deprived, in the age to come, of the life that said, “I am the life.” And who are these wise who die, if not those of whom it is said, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,” from whom God hid the mysteries that he revealed to infants? He calls the crafty wise, according to “They are wise to do evil,” and the disciples of the rulers of this age, whose death the one will not see who has been redeemed by him who was pleased, through the foolishness of preaching, to save those who believe. The one fully assured of the coming judgment, when he sees the wise dying, will not think what happens to be a destruction of soul and body together, as those men defined death while they lived, but a migration to another world.

“And their graves are their houses for ever,” etc. “Those who are like whitewashed tombs, full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness”—these the Saviour blames, and those who build tombs, even of prophets, and those who adorn monuments, even of the righteous; and he does not permit a disciple to bury a dead man, even his father. And in Isaiah: “Why,” he says, “have you built yourself a tomb and hewn yourself a monument?” And those in the tombs, if they hear the voice of the Son of Man, will live. The names of the senseless and the fool are “on the lands.” By the same. An unclean soul is a tomb of the mind, and the body is a tomb of the soul. “They called their names upon the lands.” They are named not from virtues but from earthly things. For they are not called righteous

[Ps 48, continued] and self-controlled, but rhetors and grammarians and philosophers and tribunes and counts.

“And man, being in honour, did not understand,” etc. The man who does not understand, though in honour, compared himself with the cattle and was made like them, sometimes even to those that differ from them. Each man makes himself like something through what he does. It is good to be made like God. “This way of theirs is a stumbling block to them”: clearly the way of the fool and the senseless. But Christ too is a stumbling block, being a rock of stumbling. “In their mouth they will be well pleased.” The kind word: “And after this they will be well pleased with their mouth,” etc. It is a good hope that after this they will be well pleased.

“Like sheep they were laid in Hades; death will shepherd them,” etc. Death will shepherd the fool and the senseless, or rather the man who does not understand his own honour. Clearly he who said, “You will not leave my soul in Hades,” also says, “But God will redeem my soul,” and what follows. By the same. Life shepherds angels; death and life shepherd men; death alone shepherds demons. “And the upright will have dominion over them in the morning.” For in the age to come the upright will be over five cities and ten cities. And Solomon says the same in Proverbs: “For an envious man hastens to be rich, and does not know that the merciful man will rule over him.”

“Do not fear when a man becomes rich,” etc. Woe to those who are rich in this way; for no one will take it with him when he dies. “Nor will the glory of his house go down with him.” Unbelievers seek this glory, which will not go down with them. The one who dies will not take the multiplied glory of his house; but with the virtuous man who goes up his glory will go up, namely his virtue; and with the one who goes down it will go down. And the soul of the saint will be blessed in his life, which is Christ. Whoever is holy will give thanks to God.

“And man, being in honour,” etc. One must raise the question of what nature the man is who is in honour and does not understand. If of the spiritual, how is he made like the cattle? If of the earthy, how is he in honour? If of the soulish, if this man is in honour, …

[Ps 49 LXX / 50] Psalm 49. “The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken,” etc. “The God of gods,” having spoken through Christ, called the

[Ps 49, continued] earth from the rising of the sun to its setting: from the rising, Israel; from the setting, the most lowborn.

“Out of Zion is the splendour of his beauty,” etc. If the splendour and beauty of the Lord is wisdom, it is in Zion. He at whose birth we say “Emmanuel” came openly, and is not silent but speaks through whom he wills, since he is our God. Now, he says, “he will not keep silent”; but later, “These things you did, and I kept silent.” “Fire before him”: “For I came,” he says, “to cast fire on the earth.” And in Daniel: “A river of fire flowed before him.” And fire and tempest come upon those who do not attend to his appearing and to the Word, who will come from the heavenly Zion, being equal in power to the Father. For he was heavenly God even when he came openly, that is, when he became flesh. For then, having come, he became visible; he will not keep silent but will convict the world of sin, that is, he will announce the will of the Father; for he is called “the angel of great counsel.” The fire signifies the light that comes from him; for the intelligible light that comes through faith leads to the knowledge of Christ. You will also understand it thus: being in the authority and power of the Godhead, though he had come to be in the flesh, he attacked those opposed to him, the devil and the demons, like a fire and a tempest.

“God will come openly, our God, and will not keep silent,” etc. Our God will come openly; our God is Christ; Christ will come openly. By the same. Christ has come in the flesh. “Openly,” then, signifies the flesh; for the flesh of Christ was perceptible.

“He will call the heaven above,” etc. Since in Deuteronomy, when the law was given, Moses called heaven and earth to witness, and likewise at the beginning of the song he calls them, and further they are summoned in Isaiah: therefore, when the people are judged, God will call heaven and earth. Here he says “to judge” instead of “to separate” his own, who are his people, from those foreign to him who graze along with his own, so as to give his own to heaven and the foreign ones to the earth. Or he will call the angels in heaven and those chosen on earth for apostleship, to separate his people. For the apostles brought those who obeyed to God, and left those who were not such to Satan.

“Gather to him his holy ones, who make his covenant with sacrifices. And the heavens will declare his righteousness, for God is judge,” etc. Or the heavens are those who bear the image of the heavenly.

[Ps 49, continued] Or this is clearly the separation of the Lord’s people both by rational powers and by those who minister the saving proclamation as priests, who also gather his holy ones to Christ (“those whom he foreknew,” he says, “he also predestined; and those whom he called, he also justified”), who fulfil the covenant not through blood but with spiritual sacrifices. By the same. Here he plainly calls Christ God; for “the Father has given all judgment to the Son.”

“Not for your sacrifices will I rebuke you,” etc. These words would fit as a prophecy about the sacrifices set aside among the Jews after the coming of Christ. Or, he says, do not offer with an evil disposition, for which I convicted Cain.

“For all the beasts of the field are mine,” etc. He says that all things are under the providence of God. “For are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall without my Father in heaven.”

“Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?” etc. He abolishes perceptible sacrifices; for “a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit.”

“But to the sinner God said, Why do you recount my ordinances?” etc. God said this, I think, not only to the sinner understood more simply, but also to the people of the concision. The sinner takes up the covenant of God with his mouth only; at any rate, sinning, he hates discipline and what follows. Or since “this people,” he says, “honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Those of the circumcision hated discipline at the coming of Christ, and cast behind them the words of God spoken through Jesus Christ; they ran with Judas, the thief and traitor, and set their portion with those who commit adultery with wood and stones; and to others they slander their brother people from the nations; and even against those of their own mother, the believers from the circumcision, they set stumbling blocks, wishing to pervert them. For these reasons God was silent toward them. They ought to have been before his eyes, but he casts them behind. By the same. No one who sins should sit in the place of a teacher.

“But you hated discipline,” etc. Discipline is moderation of the passions.

“And you set your portion with adulterers,” etc. Our portion is the knowledge of God. We set it with adulterers when we take up theirs. Here he calls the sexually immoral man, and every kind of licentious man, an adulterer.

[Ps 49, continued] “You supposed lawlessness, that I would be like you,” etc. Likeness is imitation through good actions. Therefore the Lord makes himself like not those who sin but those who do right.

“Lest he snatch, and there be none to rescue,” etc. A soul that has utterly fallen away from God is snatched.

“A sacrifice of praise will glorify me,” etc. In the sacrifice of praise, he says, is the way of salvation with God. A sacrifice of praise will glorify our God, because those who see our good works will glorify our Father in heaven. And when we are in these things, that is the way in which God will show us his salvation.

[Ps 50 LXX / 51] From the exegetical work on the fiftieth psalm. Having allegorized, in part, the beginning of the story of Uriah, he adds: If it seems forced to anyone to allegorize the story in part without making the whole of it consistent, clearly these things will have been said in vain, and something else must be sought for the passage; unless perhaps someone, examining the details of the passage further, should find how to restore all of it: both what concerns the man who was killed and his apparent goodness, when he would not go into his house and rest while the people were in camp and in the struggle. I do not know how those who flee allegory in these things, and think the letter was recorded for its own sake, will present the intention of the Holy Spirit, who deemed worthy of record things in which not only licentiousness but also cruelty and inhumanity are charged against David, who dared against Uriah a deed foreign even to an ordinary character moderately improved. But I would say that, as the judgments of God are great and hard to explain, and seem to be causes of the straying of uninstructed souls, so also his Scriptures are great and full of thoughts unspeakable and mystical and hard to contemplate; and they are very hard to explain, and seem to be causes of the straying of the uninstructed souls of the heterodox, who without circumspection and rashly accuse God from Scriptures they do not understand, and therefore fall into inventing another God. It is safe, then, to wait for the interpretation of the Word who makes things clear, and of “the wisdom hidden in a mystery, which none of the rulers of this age has known,” “according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for eternal ages,” made manifest to the apostles and those like them, through the prophetic Scriptures and the appearing that came to them of our Saviour, the Word who was “in the beginning with God.”

“Have mercy on me, O God,” etc. He has mercy on our nature

[Ps 50, continued] he who formed it, sick in many ways with weakness; for the inventor of sin shakes the mind, having as his helper the law that rages in the members of the flesh. So one must go to God, for all strength is from him. And perhaps, foreknowing that in due time Christ would shine on those on earth, wiping out all the sin of the world, he fittingly calls so splendid a grace “great mercy”; for it is written that “all sin will stop its mouth.” For according to the Apostle, “It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?”

“Wash me thoroughly,” etc. The lawless deed of one who no longer acts lawlessly is wiped out; and the one washed thoroughly is cleansed from his sin. So one action is conceived in different ways: the one term signifies sin without law, the other transgression of law. He asks the one who is able to cleanse from the worse disposition to wash it out. And see again the mystery of Christ: the power of baptism, surpassing the cleansing in the law, works the cleansing of this soul too.

“Against you only have I sinned,” etc. This “so that” is not causal; for they did not sin so that God might be justified in his words. But God was rightly justified by their ingratitude while they received benefits. Since God made much speech about repentance, saying that he does not want the death of the sinner so much as that he turn and live, he wisely recalled the present words, arguing: If you pardon me when I repent, and are propitious to me when I turn, you will be justified in your words, shown to be true in your promises; and at the time of recompense, bringing me forward, who received mercy through repentance, you will justly judge those who did not repent. By the same. When we sin in act, we sin against both men and God; but when we offend in thought, we sin against God alone. Or it stands for “To you alone the sin is known.”

“Restore to me the joy,” etc. What is owed is restored. So the joy of God’s salvation is restored to the rational nature; and the one established by the leading spirit will not be a slave to sin. As “unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it labour in vain,” so, unless God creates a pure heart in someone, human choice and power are not sufficient for this. First a pure heart is created, then upon it a right spirit is renewed within, and this while the Holy Spirit is not taken away. Then, after two spirits, one is established by God with the leading spirit, so that one may be steadfast and unshaken …

[Ps 51 LXX / 52] “Why do you vaunt yourself in wickedness, you who are mighty in lawlessness?” etc. “Let him who boasts,” says the Apostle, “boast in the Lord.” By the same. He did not use a neutral word, but one indicating what is base. For he did not say, “Why do you boast?” but “Why do you vaunt yourself?” “Vaunting” is never said of something good; but if someone sins, he vaunts himself. The word can also be addressed to Saul. By the same. If one is mighty in lawlessness, one is also powerless in lawlessness. The one mighty in lawlessness is powerless in righteousness; and the one powerless in lawlessness is mighty in righteousness. By the same. “Vaunting” is base, but “boasting” is neutral. The man who is powerless, slack, and small in wickedness, since the better way abounds in him, being weaker in wickedness, would hide his face when he sins and, stung by his conscience, would repent; but the one mighty in wickedness is puffed up over it and vaunts himself, priding himself as on a great achievement. And someone taught the divine word every day, if he sins, also devises it all day long. Or “day” signifies manifestness, or the whole time in which he acts lawlessly.

“All day long your tongue devised injustice; like a sharpened razor you worked deceit,” etc. It is the reasoning faculty, the ruling part and the heart, not the tongue of Doeg, that devised injustice. “Devised” means unjust thoughts; since “the heart of fools is in their mouth,” therefore the tongue of Doeg uttered it; for it is not the tongue that reasons, but the tongue serves the reasonings.

“You loved evil more than good,” etc. There are those who, as it were, love opposites, in that they are never wholly given to virtue nor willing to attend wholly to wickedness; of these the baser love wickedness more than virtue, and the others the reverse.

“You loved all words of drowning,” etc. Doeg loved words of drowning in slandering David.

“Therefore God will destroy you for ever, will pluck you out and remove you from your tent, and your root from the land of the living,” etc. God, who pulls down wretched buildings, pulls down Doeg: either by not leaving even the wall of his building, since the whole of it was built badly from every part; or, since the worst are dealt with last, and Doeg is the worst, he will be pulled down at the end, near the time when death, the last enemy, is abolished. And if the root of Doeg the Idumaean is plucked out of the land of the living, it had been planted there.

[Ps 51, continued] “Behold the man who did not make God his helper, but hoped in the abundance of his wealth,” etc. Perhaps he grew rich from the mules, a bastard animal, over which he had been appointed by Saul.

“But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God,” etc. “The fruit of the Spirit is joy, peace, love, long-suffering,” etc. Having this fruit in himself, the saint said, “But I am like a fruitful olive tree.” He likens himself to a fruitful olive since mercy prevailed in him, and the other virtues followed in consequence. So we call Job courageous, Joseph self-controlled, and the others, naming them from the virtue that prevails.

“I will wait for your name, for it is good before your holy ones,” etc. As what is good by nature appears such as it is to a healthy nature, so too the name of God to the holy.

[Ps 52 LXX / 53] Psalm 52. “The fool said in his heart,” etc. The fool thinks that there is no God; therefore he said it in his heart, but does not confess it with his mouth, for fear of men. Or the fool is the people that denies that Christ is God; as with the former interpretation of the fool, it is said not with the mouth but in the heart that there is no God.

“There is none who does good,” etc. The Saviour too, admonishing the one who said, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” says, “Why do you call me good?” For he knew that there is none who does good. Perhaps, since the law has a shadow of the good things to come, there is none in this life who does good, but only a shadow of good. And since there is none who does good, the man who spoke is rebuked with “Why do you call me good?”

“Those who devour my people as they eat bread did not call on God,” etc. If anyone eats someone of the people of God, even if he says he calls on God, he is convicted of not calling on him. “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

“For God scattered the bones of men-pleasers,” etc. Not everyone who pleases men is a men-pleaser; but if, intending

[Ps 52 LXX / 53, continued] at times to please men, he will do it fittingly and will not be a men-pleaser. Paul at any rate says, “Give no offence to Jews or to the church of God, just as I too please all in all things, not seeking my own advantage, but that of the many, that they may be saved.” But if someone intends nothing else than to please men, or to please men more than God, or men and God equally—when it should be only so that pleasing men too happens for God’s sake, whenever reason chooses to do this—that man will be a men-pleaser. And in some cases, having considered that it is not possible, by doing or saying a given thing, to please both God and men, one must despise pleasing men and choose to please God.

“Who will give the salvation of Israel out of Zion?” etc. “The deliverer will come from Zion and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” But he will also give salvation and return to the ten tribes already taken captive. But who will grant to see Christ, the salvation of the intelligible Israel?

[Ps 53 LXX / 54] “O God, save me in your name,” etc. He prays as far as “before them.” Then, perceiving that help is present to him, he as it were points to it in “Behold, God helps me,” and in the next verse and the one after it. Then he prays to intercede concerning certain persons, promising a voluntary sacrifice for this. Then he gives thanks, answering point by point what was said in the prayer and intercession; and to “In your truth destroy them” he answers, “My eye looked upon my enemies.”

“For behold, God helps me,” etc. He perceives that he has been heard, and says these words in between the words addressed to God: “If the mighty thus sought my soul and did not set God before them, destroy them in your truth.” He confesses that he has the Father, perhaps, as helper, and the Lord as the one who upholds his soul, so as to mean the Son, who will turn back the evils on my enemies. For the harms they wished to bring on me he will turn back on them, God so judging. With this agrees the saying, “Do to her as you did to the rich man.” And when these things have happened, he says, coming to thanksgiving of my own free choice, I will sacrifice to you voluntarily.

“I will give thanks to your name, O Lord,” etc. He gives thanks, answering “Save me in your name” with “I will give thanks to your name”; and “Strangers rose up against me” with “From every affliction you rescued me, and my eye looked upon my enemies.” It is good that our enemies, hitherto unseen, if they still escape our notice, should at last be seen for what they are, enemies. And of what eye is this the work, but of

[Ps 53, continued] the clear-sighted eye, able to see what is friendly? The eye that is not clear-sighted, deceived and overlooking, will see the hostile as friendly and the friendly as hostile.

[Ps 54 LXX / 55] Psalm 54. “Give ear, O God, to my prayer,” etc. None of those who sin, especially at the moment of sin, would want a venerable man to attend to him, much less God. If you understand “Give ear, all who inhabit the world,” you have left the desert places of the reasoning of wickedness and have come to the inhabited world; and having come, say, “Give ear, O God, to my prayer,” and he will give ear, and will not overlook you when you make supplication. Take courage, as one who will not be overlooked, to say, “And do not overlook my supplication.” But also, if you attend to God, trusting in him, say, “Attend to me”; and further, if you have heard him, he will hear you. And if, like the Apostle grieving out of love for men, you weep with those who weep and groan in the tent, being burdened, say, “I was grieved,” and what follows.

“I was grieved in my musing,” etc. Here “musing” signifies prayer, as in the case of Hannah: “Out of the abundance of my musing I have wasted away.” And whatever we do or say contrary to right reason is idle talk, as is all that we say at random. So he condemned himself for having been troubled and having lost the calm of his soul “at the voice of the enemy and from the affliction of the sinner.” So the prophet confesses, teaching us to confess, having taken on our person.

“And I was troubled at the voice of the enemy and at the affliction of the sinner; for they turned lawlessness upon me, and in anger they bore a grudge against me,” etc. When Christ was drawing men away from the opposing activities, the voice of the sinner, the devil, urging the powers under him against the Saviour, was the cause of their turning lawlessness upon him and bearing a grudge against him in anger, so that the heart of Jesus was troubled within him, and the fear of death fell upon him, fear and trembling coming upon him, and darkness covering him.

“My heart was troubled within me,” etc. “My heart was troubled within me” has something like “My soul was troubled within me.” But also, when death is expected, fear arises from some evil activity, which, wishing to act on the one who speaks the psalm, fell upon him, but by no means did what it wished. You will say the like also of the fear and trembling that came upon him,

[Ps 54, continued] which, since they found him watchful, did not act. “And darkness covered me,” he said, because the body darkens the soul, when the sinner and the enemy turn lawless doing upon me. For sin provokes sin; but a righteous man in company with a righteous man becomes more righteous. “And in anger they bore a grudge against me.” This too belongs to sinners, who work enmity not simply but in darkness as well. “To bear a grudge” is to have anger stored up. Every earnest man knows that sinning in thoughts (which is tolerable) is one thing, and sinning in act and words (which is dangerous and grave) another. Therefore, if at any time agitation and harm should arise in his thoughts, he keeps them within himself, and does not bring them out in speech, as a hidden sin, nor carry them out in deed, knowing that the thought is curable. But sin in act and words is hard to cure, sometimes even incurable. Therefore he says, “My heart was troubled within me.” For I did not express the trouble, nor did I do anything in accordance with it; but even when the fear of death, which follows sin, fell upon me, I held it within myself. For it happens that fear shows itself from outward things, and that the one in whom it is shown becomes a stumbling block to others. And “Fear and trembling came upon me, and darkness covered me” belongs to human nature, which has the passible, the irascible, and the desiring part. Even if one progresses in virtue, since the passible part is not abolished, it happens that something arises in what is called … Certainly the present speaker, pushed by the voices of enemies and the affliction of the sinner, had the passible part in him fanned up, so as to fear and fall into trembling from the darkness of perplexity; for he called dizziness darkness.

“And I said, Who will give me wings like a dove?” etc. The wings of the holy dove are the contemplation of bodies and of bodiless things, through which the mind, lifted up, comes to rest in the knowledge of the holy Trinity.

“Behold, I went far off, putting to flight, and lodged in the desert,” etc. The word “put to flight” signifies pursuing and turning to flight those who are driven out. So the one who speaks the psalm says, “Behold, I went far off,” that is, putting to flight for a long way the enemy and the sinner, so that, once they were driven out, I lodged in the desert, that is, rested in a peaceful condition. But if “put to flight” here properly means “flee,” the righteous man, fleeing those of the circumcision and going far off because of their arrogance toward him, will say, “I lodged in the desert,” that is, in the church, which was a desert without the law and the prophets. It fits also Christ in his dispensation.

“I waited for the one who saves me from faintheartedness and tempest,” etc. The tempest is the great temptation blowing hard against the soul, so that a soul that does not attend to itself may even be shipwrecked.

[Ps 54, continued] “Drown them, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I saw lawlessness and contradiction in the city,” etc. To those who build a city out of wickedness and false doctrines, ignorance comes upon them and a confusion of tongues that stops them from their evil activity, as to those who built the tower in Chalanne. Drowning signifies disappearance, since everything that comes to be in the deep disappears. So the deep is sin, and destruction is the dissolution of what wickedness has put together. Therefore he says that evil is drowned by God when the tongues of those who agree in evil are divided. By the same. “Drown them, O Lord.” Whom? The enemy and the sinner? Or, as wisdom is an abyss, in which are the depths of God, it drowns the tongues and voices of the enemy by flooding them with the truth of the word and of those who champion it, and divides them, exposing their discord and their dividedness. The reason for saying this follows: for there is also the contradiction against the truth of those who fight about words, useful for nothing except the ruin of the hearers. And Christ would say what follows about the city of Jerusalem, seeing the lawlessness in it and the contradiction about him, of those who said different things about him. “And [usury and deceit] did not depart from its streets.” This would rightly be referred to the person of the traitor.

“Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into Hades; for wickedness is in their dwellings, in their midst,” etc. Let death indeed come upon them, the death that separates the soul from wickedness. By the same. Those go down alive into Hades who have instruction in the divine teachings; for the one who has not tasted the words of life is dead, and one who lives only the common life cannot go down to Hades alive. Since, then, Judas and the people of the Jews had instruction in the law and the prophets, when the death that follows sin came upon them, they go down alive into Hades. Consequently the following verse also is said, “For wickedness is in their sojournings, in their midst.” For even if they had experience of the life-giving Scriptures, they did not dwell in them but sojourned in them. “Wickedness in their midst,” that is, in the ruling faculty; for it is said to be in the middle of the whole living being. Or “alive into Hades” means that he would die suddenly. He calls each man’s life a sojourning because of its brevity. He says, then, that their life and living is filled with all wickedness and evil, since they do not consider its brevity.

“Evening and morning and noon I will tell and proclaim, and he will hear my voice,

[Ps 54, continued] etc. Noon is in the middle between morning and evening. Jacob, rising early, wrestled with an angel; Abraham saw the angels at noon; Lot in the evening. By the same. “Evening”: at the eleventh hour, near the end of the world, when the Saviour suffered. “Morning”: when he rose. “Noon”: when, more firmly persuaded, they believed. Or he begins the narrative in the evening, it reaches its height in him in the morning, and he completes it at full day, at noon.

“God will hear and will humble them, he who exists before the ages; for they have no change, and they did not fear God,” etc. If all things came into being through him, he is rightly said to exist before the ages. And from this we learn that the ages came into being from non-being.

“Cast your care upon the Lord, and he will sustain you,” etc. As he sustained Jacob, who said, “God who has fed me from my youth.”

[Ps 55 LXX / 56] “Have mercy on me, O God, for man has trampled me; all day long fighting he has afflicted me,” etc. Christ says to the Father, “Have mercy on me.” For man trampled me, who am God. And I think it was taken from here: “who has trampled the Son of God.” By the same. The earthly demons trample us; and the subterranean ones, if they come up, cover us; therefore it is said, “You set a boundary which they will not pass, nor will they return to cover the earth.”

“I will not fear what flesh will do to me,” etc. He who took the form of a slave and came to be in the likeness of sinful flesh, who knew no sin, made himself sin for us by taking up flesh; and he alone of those who have lived in flesh having committed no sin, would say boldly, “What will flesh do to me?”

“They will sojourn and hide; they will watch my heel,” etc. They wish to learn by watching what we do; for the demons are not knowers of hearts. By the same. Like the serpent—as it is said, “And you will watch his heel”—the wicked will watch the heel of Christ or of the righteous man.

“To be well pleasing before God in the light of the living,” etc. The light of the living is the knowledge of the angels.

[Ps 56 LXX / 57] Psalm 56. “And in the shadow of your wings I will hope, until lawlessness passes by,” etc. He says this to the Holy Spirit; for the Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. By the same. Until lawlessness passes by, the righteous man hopes in the shadow of God’s wings; but when it passes by and comes to be nonexistent, he will no longer hope in a shadow, but in him. These words can also be divided thus: “I will hope in the shadow of your wings”; and, “Until lawlessness passes by, I will cry to God Most High.”

“He sent from heaven and saved me,” etc. From heaven he sent either the Saviour or an angel to save.

“God sent forth his mercy and his truth,” etc. Perhaps he who said, “I am the truth,” is also mercy itself, so that we may seek nothing other than the same mercy.

“I slept troubled,” etc. For having said, “My soul is troubled,” not long after he slept.

“Sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword,” etc. The teeth of the demons are the evil thoughts by which they devour our soul. By the same. The tongue of slanderers is a sharp sword, and that of those who teach the things of knowledge falsely so called.

“Be exalted above the heavens, O God,” etc. “If I am lifted up,” says the Saviour, “I will draw all to myself.”

“Awake, my glory; awake, harp and lyre,” etc. He calls the gift of the mind glory. The mind itself is a harp, and what surrounds the mind, which is the soul, a lyre.

“I will give thanks to you among the peoples, O Lord; I will sing to you among the nations,” etc. This can be an exhortation to confess sins in church.

“For your mercy has been magnified to the heavens, and your truth to the clouds,” etc. Since the one shown mercy ascends to the kingdom of heaven, the mercy of God has been magnified to the heavens.

“Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and your glory over all the earth,” etc. These two verses are said twice in this psalm.

[Ps 57 LXX / 58] Psalm 57. “If truly then you speak righteousness,” etc.

[Ps 57, continued] Let us see what it is to speak righteousness truly, and in how many ways this can happen. In one way one speaks righteousness when, holding sound doctrines about righteousness, one discusses them; in a second way that man speaks righteousness who says everything out of the righteousness present in his soul. One who puts both together would find the man who truly speaks righteousness. For those who outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness, even if they speak righteousness, do not speak it truly. And I think that no one can speak righteousness who does not share in Christ, “who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Speaking righteousness truly is followed by judging uprightly, so that there is nothing crooked in the judgments and reasonings of the one who truly speaks righteousness.

“For in your heart you work lawlessness,” etc. So that the word may show that the ruling part of the base man, filled with lawless deeds, is the spring and beginning of every sin, like a stream from the earth, and that action, of which the hands are a symbol, is the practice brought forth from the ruling part, he first named what concerns the heart, and second what concerns the hands. In sin the beginning is from the heart, and the end in actions; but for those turning to God the beginning is abstaining from evil actions, and the end is purity of heart. Therefore here, when the blameworthy are convicted, the lawless deeds of the heart are named first, and then the injustices woven together by the hands. Instead of “weave together,” Theodotion and the fifth edition have “weigh out,” and Aquila has “is weighed out.” Not at random, he says, do they weave injustice together; but because of these wickednesses, when an army came against it, lawlessness and contradiction overtook it, even on its walls, and the holy angels who guarded it; for these too abandoned it, having seen it acting lawlessly and contradicting. Because “lawlessness and toil,” the opposite of praiseworthy pleasure, “came to be in its midst” with injustice, so that “usury and deceit did not depart from its streets,” those who dwell in it practising deceit by their evil thinking, and toiling in lifting upon themselves the burden of wickedness, which is compared to lead. And its streets must be considered those who broaden themselves through love of pleasure, by walking the broad and spacious way, that is, the pleasure-loving and passionate life; for the toil over evils and the deceit over frauds, always remaining in them, fulfil “usury and deceit did not depart from its streets.” For those ready for injustice, weighing out each of their wrongs into the web of wickedness, work without intermission what they choose, while the deeds of their injustice are recorded on an indelible pillar.

[Ps 57, continued] “… they went astray from the belly, they spoke lies,” etc. They are estranged from the womb and go astray from the belly who from childhood travel not toward virtue but toward wickedness.

“Their rage is like that of the serpent, like a deaf asp that stops its ears,” etc. Every soul that has not listened to the words that save it is an asp that stops its ears. By the same. Because of the serpent-like rage of sinners it is said to them, “Serpents, brood of vipers,” since they have taken up likeness not to God but to the serpent. The saint stops his ears so as not to hear a judgment of blood, and like a deaf man does not hear the worse things; but the sinner does not hear the good, like a deaf asp that stops its ears so as not to hear the voice of the charmers. And these, of whom the word speaks, stop their ears—not those of sense but those of understanding—so as not to hear those who offer the wise charms of the prophets and apostles. For each of these is a wise man preparing a remedy, that is, a rational medicine that wards off the onset of the asp.

“God will break their teeth,” etc. “He crushed” stands for “he will crush,” by an exchange of tense. God does this to them as a benefit, so that they may not, devouring the men deceived by them, become liable to an excessive punishment. And he crushed their molars, so that they might not bite or devour. Note that according to Scripture molars differ from teeth: the teeth cut and divide the food, but the molars chew and grind it. And as water passing through some channel, not remaining but scattered, comes to nothing, so these too will be brought to nothing, having nothing firm or lasting. Hence he adds, “He will bend his bow.” He has portrayed the punishment of God as a bow continually sending arrows and slaying all. For he uses the shooting of arrows so far, he says, until, shooting all down, he makes them weak.

“Like melted wax they will be taken away; fire fell upon them, and they did not see the sun,” etc. As wax comes along with honey, so wickedness comes along with a rational soul. By the same. Him whom they did not see as sun they will experience as fire.

“The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance,” etc. The punishment of the sinner makes the righteous man safer and purer.

[Ps 57, continued] By the same. The righteous man, seeing the wisdom of the divine judgment in punishing the unjust, will rejoice.

[Ps 58 LXX / 59] “Deliver me from my enemies, my God,” etc. Because of “Without lawlessness I ran and directed my course,” and because of “I will keep my strength for you,” the Saviour speaks the psalm; and because of “Attend to visit all the nations.”

“For behold, they hunted my soul,” etc. The mighty hunted my soul and attacked me. Not in passing, he says, do they engage in battle against me, but they press upon me, not giving up even for a short time, but fighting us in every way. He called them mighty, so as to show, from the strength they possess, that the plot against him is the greater.

“Without lawlessness I ran and directed my course,” etc. The one who says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith,” will say, “Without lawlessness I ran and directed my course”; or rather the Saviour will say this. By the same. One cannot direct one’s course on the way that said, “I am the way,” unless one runs without lawlessness.

“Rise up to meet me, and see,” etc. Who then is able to say to God, “Rise up to meet me, and see”? By the same. God rises up to meet the one who ascends to God through a sound life. And in the Gospel the father meets the son who returns to him.

“And a sword is on their lips,” etc. A sword is on the lips of the heterodox who teach blasphemous and impious things.

“Do not kill them, lest they forget your law,” etc. The Lord kills those whom he allows to sin for a long time; for from this comes forgetfulness of God: “For in Hades who will confess to you?”

“And for cursing and lying consummations will be proclaimed, in the wrath of consummation, and they will not exist,” etc. Cursing and lying are the cause of the consummation; so that, if these did not exist, there would be neither wrath nor consummation.

[Ps 59 LXX / 60] “O God, you cast us off,” etc. As in the person of the Jews, he shows their rejection by saying, “O God, you cast us off and pulled us

[Ps 59, continued] down,” or, according to Symmachus, “you cast us away and cut us off,” which shows their being cut off. Then he adds, “You were angry and had pity on us”; but according to Aquila, “Being enraged you turned us around.” The outcome of events supports this latter rendering; at any rate after the coming of the Saviour they suffered these things. For when the wrath came upon them, they were cast off for good, pulled down and cast away, cut off and carried about, scattered among all the nations.

“Heal its breaches,” etc. For the land spoken of, moved and shaken from its own abode and standing, acquired breaches and wounds; therefore next it is said, “You showed your people hard things.”

“You showed your people hard things,” etc. Hard things are shown to someone when he falls into toils; whoever receives them for a change of mind about former sins drinks the wine of compunction, taking occasion to be pierced to repentance. In many places in Scripture adversities share a name with unmixed wine, as in “A cup of unmixed wine in the hand of the Lord.” And the hard things share a name with the hard ways mentioned in the sixteenth psalm thus: “Because of the words of your lips I kept hard ways.” For there the virtues are called hard ways because they are achieved with much sweat and toil; but here the people saw hard things, having experienced ill-treatment.

“You gave those who fear you a sign,” etc. We, he says, have been punished for the impiety we committed; but those who fear you have received a sign (clearly the one with which we were sealed), so that they may be outside every punishing penalty. A type of this sign was the blood of the sheep smeared on the doorposts in Egypt.

[Ps 60 LXX / 61] Psalm 60. “From the ends of the earth I cried to you,” etc. The one who perceives in how many things he falls short of perfection, by understanding who the perfect man is, and bringing this up in his prayers, says concerning it, “Hear, O God, my supplication,” and will be heard. But when the imperfect man is insensible of what he lacks, his supplication is silent; whereas the one who perceives and offers himself to God to be perfected cries aloud.

“When my heart was listless,” etc. Truly every God-loving soul, while it spends its time in mortal life, is listless and in anguish; and it is listless and anguished also out of love for men, seeing the multitude of those who perish. It mourns also many who sinned before and did not repent of the sin and lawlessness and impiety that they committed, as David also did; therefore he himself fled

[Ps 60, continued] the middle of the land, and having come to its extremities he cried to God; but over the destruction of the many, and of Saul himself, he wept, grieving in his soul.

“You lifted me up on a rock,” etc. We will take the rock to signify the spiritual rock that pours out drink, I mean Christ. The one who has come to be on this rock, by sharing in it (for it is “wisdom and righteousness and sanctification”), is raised aloft in mind, lifted up by God. And those who have resolved to follow the Saviour, according to his exhortations when he says, “Come after me,” using him as guide, share in the same exaltation, not hoping to find any other leader of the way that leads to the cause of all. Having obtained this gift, David too says to the Lord with a hymn, “You guided me, because you became my hope.” And not only a guide, but you became to me also a tower from the face of the enemy; for having you as strength and a tower of strength, I remained unharmed, although the enemy was facing me and wished to make war. “From the face of the enemy” can also be referred to “you guided me,” in this connection: You guided me from the face of the enemy, having become my hope; but you have also become to me a tower of strength in guiding me from the face of the enemy. The true and unfailing hope of the saints is the Saviour, of whom Paul says, “and of Jesus Christ our hope”; and the prophecy, “In him the nations will hope.” For he is the one foretold to be the expectation of the nations.

One who has been perfected in holiness sojourns for ever in that tent which “Who will dwell on your holy mountain?” signifies. For this is eternal, being the same as the tent that the Lord pitched, and not man. Yet even if such a tent has such perfection as to be the Holy of Holies, still there is after it a condition that surpasses the rational beings, in which they will be in the Father and the Son, or rather in the Trinity. Therefore it is said “sojourn for ever,” but not “dwell,” in the tent. The one who has come to be in this house will be sheltered in the shelter of God’s wings.

“You gave an inheritance to those who fear,” etc. Being rich, he says, you also give great gifts; or rather, granting perfect men to become your sons, you have given them an inheritance. For even if it is expected to be given after the resurrection in the age to come, yet by being already made ready it has been given to those who will enjoy it at the proper time. And further, God gave the inheritance to those who fear his name. If there is some difference between those who fear God and those who fear his name, those who believe in him and those who believe in his name—since it has often been said that those made his own by the title of God are lower than those united to God himself—note that the inheritance has been given also to those who fear God; for if this grace belongs to the lower, much more to those who have risen above.

[Ps 60, continued] By the same. Perhaps the Lord gave to those who fear him the inheritance corresponding to that of Israel, and to those who love him the one corresponding to that of the Levites.

“So I will sing to your name,” etc. Since I have obtained what I asked of you, having thus become thankful, “I will sing to your name,” hymning through works, thoughts and good words your name that has been allotted to me. And besides this, day by day I will pay what I vowed; as Jacob says, “If God gives me bread to eat,” and what follows, “of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.” For before these words it is recorded, “Jacob vowed, saying, If the Lord is with me,” up to “I will give you a tenth.” It is well said, too, that the vows are paid day by day, and that one sings to the name of God for ever and ever: since singing to the name of the one hymned extends into the age to come, while paying the vows is fulfilled as long as there is still the time made up of days; and this is the time measured out to each one’s life. So while we are in this life let us pay our vows, so that we may also be able to sing to the name of God for ever and ever.

[Ps 61 LXX / 62] Psalm 61. “For the end, for Idithun, a psalm of David,” etc. Idithun means “of the judge who comes”; David, “strong of hand.” The psalm is about the Son of God, the eternal judge who comes, who is strong of hand.

“Will not my soul be subject to God?” etc. Everyone who is subject to someone thinks the same as he. And if, according to Paul, we shall all be subject to Christ, let us all think the same as Christ. By the same. “Will be subject,” since the Saviour says it, refers to “then the Son will be subject to him who subjected all things to him.” That he means the Father is clear from “But they plotted to thrust away my honour; I ran in thirst.” At the same time we learn that what will be subject is a soul; that the salvation of the soul, salvation itself, is from God, and that he is therefore the Saviour of the one who says these things; and that it is not possible to receive salvation by being subject to anyone but God. Therefore let us be subject to God, who upholds those subject to him alone and saves them, so that through their subjection to God they stand more firmly, shaken by nothing. “My upholder; I shall not be shaken any more.” He says this because he was shaken from the time he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave; as shaken a little because of the short time in the body, that is, having become very sorrowful in soul. He began only to be grieved and to be troubled a little; and he says, “I shall not be shaken any more.”

[Ps 61, continued] For he committed no sin, as do those who are shaken further.

“How long will you attack a man?” etc. This is like “Now you seek to kill me, a man.” Those who attack a man also seek to kill a man.

“But they plotted to thrust away my honour,” etc. The honour of the rational soul is virtue and knowledge.

“But be subject to God, my soul,” etc. Upon the first subjection follows salvation, upon the second endurance from God. For many, he says, are the evils brought upon me by these men; but I look to God himself, having him as expectation and hope; therefore I also endure what happens. For since he is accustomed to help me, he will help me now too, and will not allow these men to accomplish their purpose, so as to overcome us, and to rouse us and drive us from our own and put us to flight.

“Hope in him, all the assembly of the people,” etc. As if he were saying: not only the remnant according to the election of grace; which will be when all Israel will be saved. “Pour out your hearts before him.” The one who has put away every base reasoning, and repented utterly, so as not even to remember the worse things, has poured out his heart before him. “For you will render to each according to his works.” God will render to each according to his works, good or evil, many or few, according to the quality or quantity of whatever measures he renders.

“But the sons of men are vain; the sons of men are false in the scales, to do wrong; they are of vanity together,” etc. Vain are those who sit by the vain and perishable things of this age. All human things are vain and undergo swift change. By the same. I do not lie about righteousness; for it is the scale of the virtues. False are the sons born of their father the devil. For they neglect equality, he says, and hold the scales of the mind unequally; they despise justice but rejoice in injustice. By the same. So it reads according to the Seventy; but according to Theodotion, “The sons of men are vapour; the sons of a man are false, like the tipping of a scale.” Nothing human, he says, is lasting, but it is like vapour sent up and at once scattered, and like the tipping of a scale, now sinking and now rising. It is asked whether the saints are not vain. The saints are not sons of men; for their birth according to man has been abolished.

“God spoke once; these two things I heard,” etc. God spoke the word once,

[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."

As he leads out those bound in courage, so he also leads out the unjust in justice and the foolish in prudence.

"O God, when you went out before your people, when you passed through the wilderness," etc. These words seem to fit what happened in the wilderness, but … In one place he stands, in another he passes through: he stood in his holy place, but passes through in the wilderness.

"The earth shook, for the heavens too dropped [rain] at the face of the God of Sinai," that is, of the one who appeared on Sinai.

"You will set apart a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance," etc. Whoever has not received the voluntary rain is in drought. The voluntary rain is Christ, who came down from heaven, as he says: "I am the living bread."

"Your living creatures dwell in it; you prepared in your goodness for the poor," etc. The living creatures, the cherubim and the seraphim, dwell in the inheritance of God; of them, I think, it is said: "In the midst of two living creatures you will be known."

Of the same. He calls rational natures "living creatures" when their condition has become rather irrational.

"If you sleep between the lots, wings of a dove covered with silver, and its back with the pale green of gold," etc. The lots and the wings some have said are the Old and New Testament; others, practice and contemplation; others, knowledge of bodies and of incorporeal things; others again, knowledge of God and of Christ whom he sent.

"When the heavenly one sets apart kings over it," etc. Kings are either those who have subdued the passions, or those who have attained the contemplation of created things. The gifts of the Holy Spirit themselves are also called kingdoms, inasmuch as those who share in them are said to reign.

"The chariot of God is ten-thousandfold," etc. The chariot of God is pure souls, on which he rides; for "he rode upon cherubim and flew."

"Having ascended on high, you led captivity captive, you received gifts among man," etc. The captivity of Christ is the return of rational nature from vice and ignorance to virtue and knowledge. And Paul says otherwise of Christ: "Ascending on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men," meaning by gifts the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Having thus shown the descent of the Saviour and the overthrow of the demons, he shows him ascending and setting free those who were captives before. Or he calls the cross "height": ascending it, and pulling down the demons in the air, the spirits of

wickedness, from the pride they had, he set free the souls they had taken captive through wicked deeds and turned away from God, drawing them up like a captivity out of the recesses of Hades.

"But God will crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of those who go on in their offences," etc. The heads of the enemies are their rulers, or their ruling faculties. These enemies, whose being comes from offending, go on in their offences. Or the heads of the enemies are the thoughts that first come upon the soul from the demons.

"The Lord said: I will return from Bashan, I will return in the depths of the sea, so that your foot may be dipped in blood," etc. Bashan is interpreted "shame," into which the Lord came down for our sake, despising shame. And his foot is dipped in the blood that flows from the head of each of the enemies. "For I trod them down," says Isaiah, "in my wrath."

"Your processions were seen, O God," etc. At the coming of Christ the processions of God were seen by those adorned with the word of knowledge.

"In churches bless God, the Lord, from the fountains of Israel," etc. It is not the same for those outside the Church to bless God as to do this in the Church. And he blesses God from the fountains of Israel who blesses according to the treasure of God's wisdom in the Scriptures; but whoever does not do so does not bless God from the fountains of Israel.

"There is Benjamin the younger," etc. They say this prophesies about Paul.

"From your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring you gifts," etc. Paul not only brought himself to God but also offered others to God through his teaching.

"That those tested with silver may be shut out," etc. That those tested like silver may be set apart.

"Ambassadors will come out of Egypt; Ethiopia will stretch out her hand first to God," etc. Through the Egyptians he hinted at the disposition toward vice; through the Ethiopians he showed the settled habit of it.

"Sing psalms to God who rides upon the heaven of heaven toward the east," etc. Earlier: "Make a way for him who rides upon the west"; now: "Sing psalms to him who rides upon the heaven of heaven toward the east." For "he who descended is the same who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things."

"Give glory to God; his magnificence is over Israel,

and his power is in the clouds," etc. He now calls holy powers clouds. "For I will command the clouds," he says, "not to rain rain upon them." And "there will be a famine, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." I think he calls the angels clouds; for they are the ones who teach us.

[Ps 68 LXX / 69] "Save me, O God, for the waters have come in up to my soul," etc. He calls waters the thoughts and the temptations that come into the soul.

"I am stuck in the mire of the deep, and there is no standing; I have come into the depths of the sea, and a storm has drowned me," etc. We find nothing of this kind suffered by David in the histories; and if the psalm is referred to the Saviour because of "Zeal for your house has consumed me," we do not know of anything of the kind happening to the Saviour himself either.

Of the same. If in the psalm before this the speaking person taught how he went down to Bashan, and said, "I will return in the depths of the sea," it follows that we should consider the one saying the present words to be the same. So God the Word himself sends up a prayer to the Father, making his own the sufferings of the man he assumed. He indicates the regions of Hades, where he alone went down and passed through.

"I am weary with crying out, my throat has become hoarse, my eyes have failed from my hoping in my God," etc. This is said with reference to the obstinacy of those who would not obey his teaching. And if he said he had grown weary with crying out in view of the duty not to lose heart in praying but to cry to God day and night, this agrees with "with loud crying and tears" …

"Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head; my enemies who persecute me unjustly have grown strong. What I did not seize, I then repaid," etc. From this, I think, one can know the multitude of the demons.

Of the same. Though he repaid what he did not seize, still he redeemed us (and this is "to repay"), blotting out the handwriting that was against us. What we were bound to repay, being charged against us, has been blotted out and taken out of the way, since forgiveness of sins has been given.

Of the same. God seizes no human being against his will. For if he seized, he would not say: "Come to me, all who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest"; and: "If you are willing and

listen to me, you will eat the good things of the land." And Paul was caught up to the third heaven when he had already given himself to God.

"O God, you know my folly, and my offences are not hidden from you," etc. God does not know the folly of all, but of him who became foolish for the sake of the foolish, and lawless for the lawless, and weak for the weak.

Of the same. Since false witnesses stood up against me, you know, O God, whether any offence has been committed by me; for they would not be hidden from you. And otherwise: since he took up our sins and became a curse for us, "these offences too," he says, "which I took up on behalf of men, you know."

"For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen upon me," etc. This verse is placed in the Gospels at the casting out of the money-changers and bankers from the temple. For "has consumed me" Symmachus rendered "has used me up."

Of the same. Anyone speaking on behalf of the Creator might say these things to those who stumble at Providence, or to the heterodox who speak evil of the Creator. And especially one reproached on God's behalf might say: "The reproaches," and so on.

"And I covered my soul with fasting, and it became a reproach to me," etc. The disciples remembered this, as is written in the Gospel according to John: "And I covered my soul with fasting, and it became a reproach to me; and I made sackcloth my garment, and I became a byword to them."

Of the same. Fasting is a covering of the soul, hiding its passions, that is, shameful desire and irrational anger. So whoever does not fast is stripped of decency.

Of the same. Nothing strange, he says, has happened; those who in the Old [Testament] reproached and insulted you, God the Father, have come also against me, your Son.

"And those who drink wine sang against me," etc. This wine is the wrath of dragons.

"Save me from the mire, that I may not stick fast; may I be rescued from those who hate me and from the depth of the waters," etc. It is no ordinary task to allegorize what is written as things that happened to our Saviour. I think all these are to be taken of his journey into Hades.

Of the same. The depth of the waters is that into which

God alone rescues those able to say: "Out of the depths I have cried to you, Lord." It is written "from the depth of the waters," and not "from the …"

"Nor let the pit shut its mouth upon me," etc. Here he has called some subterranean rational nature a pit, into which many souls have fallen.

"For you know my reproach and my shame and my disgrace," etc. Worthy of the knowledge of God is the reproach of Christ, which he suffered for righteousness. So too the righteous man may be reproached.

Of the same. Our high priest, Christ, who has passed through the heavens, is ashamed on our account, being reproached by the adverse spirits.

"And I waited for one who would grieve with [me], and there was none, and for one who would comfort, and I found none," etc. It is not said "one who would grieve with me," but "one who would grieve with others," the one who weeps with those who weep; nor "one who would comfort me," but one who would comfort the person able to say: "We comfort those in affliction." Or perhaps whoever does these things to one of those in the Church grieves with Christ and comforts him, as also in the saying "Inasmuch as …"

"And they gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they made me drink vinegar," etc. All these things happened at the time of the cross.

Of the same. Wine that turns produces vinegar, and virtue corrupted gives birth to vice.

"Let their table become a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumbling block," etc. The table of the Jews is the Old Covenant, at which they stumble, not understanding what concerns Christ. For it proclaims Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, to the Gentiles [folly].

Of the same. Perhaps the table from which the people's rational food came is the Law and the Prophets. This table, when Scripture is not understood, has become to the Jews a snare and a recompense and a stumbling block. But not for all can the table be called such. The Lord, being Wisdom, is the one who says: "Come, eat my bread"; and he is the bread of life that came down from heaven, whose flesh is true food and whose blood is true drink.

"Let their dwelling be made desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in their tents," etc. One can take these words as prophecies about the temple of the Jews and about their city.

[Ps 68 LXX / 69, continued] Of the same. After the cross their dwelling, the temple and Jerusalem, was made desolate.

"Add lawlessness to their lawlessness, and let them not come into your righteousness," etc. When those who have sinned lawlessly perish lawlessly, the punishment that answers to their lawlessness is added to the lawlessness of those who sinned. "For with the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you."

Of the same. For how can those whose eyes are darkened enter into righteousness?

"Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous," etc. The book of the living is the knowledge of God, from which those who have impure hearts fall away. "For blessed," he says, "are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." And to see God is to be counted worthy of knowledge of him.

Of the same. The unrighteous man is written with the righteous if he ceases to be unrighteous.

"It will please God more than a young calf that puts forth horns and hoofs," etc. That is, more than the irrational and sensible sacrifice.

"For the Lord has heard the poor, and has not despised his prisoners," etc. Let us become poor, so that our Lord may hear us.

"Let the heavens and the earth praise him, the sea and all that creep in them," etc. Here he calls the heavenly and the earthly beings by the same names as their worlds. Such also is: "The heavens declare the glory of God."

Of the same. Will the creeping animals, then, give praise when Zion is saved and Judea built up? If the creeping things are to be taken in a spiritual sense, clearly the things built up should also be taken in a spiritual sense.

"For God will save Zion, and the cities of Judea will be built," etc. He calls rational souls the cities of Judea.

[Ps 69 LXX / 70] "Let those who seek my soul be put to shame and confounded," etc. Our invisible enemies seek the soul, wishing to get it into their hands by urging it toward vice.

[Ps 70 LXX / 71] That Christ speaks the words in this psalm is clear. He prays that God may be a strong place for him. He who

says, "I am in the Father," also says: "On you I was cast from the womb; from my mother's belly you are my protector." The first, because from his birth he alone was conscious of God and leaned upon him; the second, because of the plot against Christ after the worship of the magi: he suffered nothing from Herod, being sheltered by God when the children of two years old and under were killed in the region of Bethlehem. And who is "the one who adds to all the praise" of God, the praise in the law and the prophets, but the Son? He, pronouncing woe on the scribes, "did not know" their "letters." For he knows how to teach from the letter that kills the things of the Spirit who gives life. He, risen from the dead, he who also declared the arm of God to the whole generation, says to the Father: "From the depths of the earth you brought me up again."

"In you, Lord, I have hoped; let me not be put to shame for ever," etc. If we endure in afflictions, we shall not be put to shame in the age to come: "For affliction produces endurance, and endurance character, and character hope, and hope does not put to shame."

"My God, rescue me from the hand of the sinner, from the hand of the lawless and the unjust," etc. He calls Satan sinner, lawless, and unjust: sinner because of his very evil habit; lawless because he transgressed his natural law; unjust because he deprives himself of the knowledge of God.

"On you I have leaned from the womb; from my mother's belly you are my protector," etc. Jesus, who alone knew how to lean on God from the womb, says this. And God became his protector when the magi were warned to go back to their own country by another way, and Joseph, taking the child with his mother, went to Egypt at the command, so that Jesus would not be killed with the children.

"I have become as a portent to many," etc. To those who walk the wide and spacious road that leads to destruction, to many (for many are those who go through it), Jesus became as a portent; but not to the few who find the narrow and hard road that leads away to life.

"Let my mouth be filled with praise, that I may hymn your glory, your majesty all the day," etc. Unless the mind is filled with the grace of God, it cannot hymn the glory of God. For he named the mind the mouth of the soul, and the Son of God the glory.

"Saying: God has forsaken him," etc. He has set down these words as spoken by the demons.

"O God, do not be far from me," etc. "Do not be far" means "Do not become far from me."

Of the same. God becomes far from a man not in his essence (for he is present everywhere and fills all things) but in the working of his providence and his help. And he is separated from us by the stench of our sins, as another prophet says: "Your sins stand between me and you."

"Let those who seek evil for me be clothed with shame and disgrace," etc. The saying "Let him have your cloak as well" can be referred to the shame and disgrace with which such a person is clothed.

"But I will hope continually, and will add to all your praise," etc. Many praises of God are spoken in the law and the prophets, and to them he adds who said, "I did not come to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfil them," as is pleasing to the Church that bears the name of Christ.

"For I did not know letters," etc. If there is a letter that kills and a spirit that gives life, then "the Lord who knows those who are his" did not know what is named after the letter, but knew what is named after the spirit.

"Lord, I will remember your righteousness alone," etc. Christ will remember the righteousness of the Father.

"Until I declare your arm to all the generation that is to come," etc. The arm of God is Christ.

"O God, the great things you have done reach to the highest," etc. "Having made peace through his blood, both the things in heaven and the things on earth."

"How many afflictions, many and evil, you have shown me! And you turned and gave me life, and brought me up again from the depths of the earth," etc. Clearly this is said of the resurrection from the dead.

Of the same. He has now named the region of the subterranean demons "abyss." There are some who call the demons themselves abysses because of the boundlessness of their wickedness.

"For I too will confess your truth on the instrument of psalm," etc. The instrument of psalm is a pure soul.

[Ps 71 LXX / 72] "For Solomon," etc. For Solomon, the son of David: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David." For Solomon is interpreted "peaceable"; for he is our peace.

"O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son," etc. Christ is king, the Son of God the king; that is why he reigns until all his enemies are subjected to him. Then he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father.

"To judge your people in righteousness and your poor in judgment," etc. Not all the poor are God's, but those whom Jesus declares blessed because they are with him.

"Let the mountains bring peace," etc. "For blessed are the peacemakers."

"He will judge the poor of the people, and save the sons of the needy, and humble the false accuser," etc. If the one who believes is not judged, perhaps the one who is rich in all speech and knowledge, rich in good works, who has stored up treasure ("a man's own wealth is the ransom of his soul"), is not judged; while the one who is poor and of the people is judged, since he has neither advanced so far in faith as to attain "He who believes in me is not judged," nor fallen away so as to be among those of whom it is said, "He who does not believe is already judged." I take "he who does not believe" to mean "the unbeliever."

"He will come down like rain upon a fleece, and like drops that drip upon the earth," etc. Like rain on the nations, like drops on Israel.

"In his days righteousness will rise, and abundance of peace, until the moon is taken away," etc. That is, until the consummation. For when the moon is taken away, time is taken away; and when time is taken away, the sensible world will come to an end. But he can also call the opposing power the moon, as ruling the night.

"The Ethiopians will fall down before him, and his enemies will lick the dust. The kings of Tharsis and the islands," etc. I think these words show a difference among those who come to Christ.

Of the same. Tharsis is an Ethiopian nation. Again, Tharsis signifies the hyacinth colour, as we have in the prophet: "Their likeness was as Tharsis." In Jonah it signifies the city of Tarsus. Saba is a city of India, from which the queen of the south came to Solomon. Tharsis is interpreted "spies," a spying-out of gladness and of land.

"All the nations will serve him," etc. If all the nations will serve him, then surely those that wage the wars will serve him too. And if so, then every rational nature will serve Christ; and this is what Paul says, that every knee will bow to him.

"And he will live, and there will be given to him of the gold of Arabia," etc. Christ lives in those who receive him: "I live," he says, "no longer I, but Christ lives in me." Another says of Solomon that the Arabs too and the neighbouring inhabitants pay him tribute.

"And they will pray for him continually; all the day they will bless him," etc. Saying: "Give us each day our daily bread."

Of the same. The saints, having learned that no one born will redeem men from the evil state that holds them, continually sent up prayer to the Father about the one who is able to rescue from the hand of the mighty.

"His fruit will be exalted above Lebanon," etc. In many places he calls a certain mountain, and the temple, and the sons of Israel, Lebanon.

Of the same. The fruit of Christ is the nations that believed and were exalted in godliness above Israel, which he figuratively calls Lebanon.

"All the nations will call him blessed," etc. Paul says: "The blessed and only Sovereign."

[Ps 72 LXX / 73] "How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart," etc. As far as it rests with him, God is good to all: "For he is the Saviour of all men, especially of believers." But perhaps what is written is equivalent to: "To the upright in heart God is seen to be good." For how is the physician not good also to the sick, who need him?

"For I was jealous of the lawless, seeing the peace of sinners," etc. He has here named the prosperity of the sensible life "peace."

"For there is no refusal in their death," etc. He calls the remembrance of death "refusal"; that is why Symmachus rendered, "For they did not think about their own death."

"They clothed themselves with their injustice and impiety," etc. Injustice is seen in an evil life, impiety in false doctrines.

"Their injustice will come out as from fat," etc. "Their eyes went out from fatness," according to Symmachus.

"They set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue went through the earth," etc.

"They set" means "they appointed," he says, to blaspheme God and to wrong men.

"And they said: How does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?" etc. "Is there knowledge in the Most High" means: does the Lord know and watch over human affairs?

"And I said: In vain then have I justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent," etc. That is, I became pure.

Of the same. Such things are in Malachi too: "You said: He who serves God is vain; and what profit is it that we kept his charges?" Those who feared the Lord spoke these things against him, each to his neighbour.

"And I undertook to know this; it is toil before me," etc. It is toil to know the doctrine of Providence.

"Until I enter the sanctuary of God and understand their last end," etc. When we enter the sanctuary of God, then we shall know the doctrine of Providence.

"Lord, in your city you will bring their image to nothing," etc. The image of the sinner is the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit; this he brings to nothing through knowledge of himself.

"For my heart was inflamed, and my kidneys were changed," etc. By the heart he means the thinking part, by the kidneys the passible part, from which arise both the desiring and the irascible parts.

"For what have I in heaven, and besides you what have I desired on earth?" etc. Let those who prefer the earthly to the heavenly say this; for here, even if we do not confess it in word, we show it by our deeds.

"My heart and my flesh have failed," etc. From the affairs of this life, that is, human affairs; for when he fails from there, that is, withdraws from them all, then he will have God as his portion for ever.

"And God is my portion for ever," etc. The portion of the righteous is the knowledge of God.

"You have destroyed everyone who goes whoring away from you," etc. He goes whoring away from God who has given himself over to the worship of demons.

"But for me it is good to cleave to God, to put my hope in the Lord," etc. Similar is: "To him you shall cleave," and:

"He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit." At the same time we learn through these words the essence of the good God.

[Ps 73 LXX / 74] "Why, O God, have you rejected us to the end?" etc. In the literal sense, those in the captivity say these things. The Lord rejects some "according to the multitude of their impieties"; and some he rejects, as it is written, "exceedingly"; and some "to the end" and to the uttermost.

"Your anger was kindled against the sheep of your pasture," etc. The saying "He will go in and go out and find pasture" is useful for this.

"Remember your congregation, which you acquired from the beginning," etc. You will inquire from what beginning God acquired his congregation, and whether by foreknowledge or otherwise. The "why," addressed to God as a question, asks for an answer that teaches the cause of the rejection and of the anger; but "you were angry with the sheep" is said to propitiate the one who is angry, for he asks pardon for those who, senseless as sheep, have sinned in thought. Yet even if you have forgotten it because of the sins of the congregation, remember it, which became your possession from the beginning. How it was "from the beginning" is not made clear, not even if you understand it to have become God's possession from Egypt.

"You redeemed the rod of your inheritance, this Mount Zion in which you dwelt," etc. You will inquire, whether God acquired Mount Zion or redeemed it, how he acquired or redeemed it from the beginning. Inquire into it mystically.

"All the evil the enemy did in your holy place; and those who hate you boasted in the midst of your feast," etc. God belongs not to a place but to virtue. The mention of the place is for the sake of hope in his love for mankind; so he says that those who trampled the places consecrated to God receive this requital, that the wicked word, the enemy, is in the holy things. And now too the enemy does evil in the holy place, that is, in the Church. And if anyone falls away from the feasts of God, those who hate Christ and kill him boast, whether the people or the hostile powers.

"As in a thicket of trees they hewed down its doors with axes," etc. All these things were fulfilled at the capture of Jerusalem, as Josephus relates, describing each of the deeds done.

"They burned your sanctuary with fire; they profaned the dwelling of your name to the ground," etc. The dwelling of the name of God is the mind, which is profaned when it becomes earthly instead of heavenly.

"Why do you turn away your hand, and your right hand, from the midst of your bosom, to the end?" etc. If the hand and the right hand of God differ, I consider whether the hand does what is against the enemies of the people, and the right hand the good things for the people: as the hand, when God sent out of the midst of his bosom wrath and anger and affliction, a mission through evil angels, against the Egyptians on behalf of the Hebrews; just as formerly good things were given from the midst of the bosom by the hand of God, but later the divine hand turned away from taking good things from the midst of the bosom and giving them to the people. At the same time you will inquire whether the hand and the right hand of God are two.

"But God, our king before the ages, has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth," etc. The Son of Man spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Perhaps by "the midst of the earth" he means its centre, since it is spherical.

"You strengthened the sea by your power; you crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water," etc. So that the wind might no longer be against the disciples as they sailed, and when calm came they might reach the land to which they were going.

"Summer and spring you made," etc. Why did he leave out autumn and winter? They say that summer is the opposite of autumn and winter of spring; and spring is the season of coming to be, summer the season of completion.

"Remember this," etc. Remember this, that is, this creation. If you made the creation for men's sake, he says, give help to those for whom the creation came to be; or thus: this congregation "which you acquired from the beginning"; for it refers back to that too.

"Do not deliver to the beasts a soul that confesses you," etc. If the demons are called beasts, and anger prevails in beasts, then anger prevails in the demons. And in Job he says: "Wild beasts will be at peace with you."

"Look upon your covenant," etc. Remember your promises, which you promised to Abraham, to give his seed a land flowing with milk and honey.

"For the darkened ones of the earth are filled with houses of lawlessness," etc. A darkened mind is filled with lawlessness; for darkness concerns knowledge, and lawlessness concerns conduct.

"Arise, O God, judge your cause; remember the reproaches against you from the fool all the day," etc. "Arise, O God,"

[Ps 73 LXX / 74, continued] … "all the day." He did not say "my cause" but "your cause." For I, he says, endure these things justly; but they have dared many blasphemies against you. He rouses God to punish those who deceived the people. Or thus: Remember your covenant, granted to them through Christ. For even if some have indeed become darkened in understanding, and those who did not receive your Christ are filled with houses of lawlessness, yet you at least, as God, do not turn away from the supplications of your poor. Since it is not we who have been wronged but you (for the enemy reproached you, and a foolish people provoked you), for this reason "arise and judge your cause."

Of the same. He now names the devil "the fool."

[Ps 74 LXX / 75] "For the end; do not destroy; a psalm of a song, for Asaph," etc. It is written in the first book of Kingdoms: "And David said to Abishai: Do not destroy him," that is, Saul. See whether this is useful for the title.

"We will confess to you, O God, we will confess, and will call upon your name," etc. The Church in Christ speaks the two verses.

"I will tell all your wonders. When I receive the time," etc. Symmachus: "When I receive the congregation." When, he says, we return and are gathered into your holy temple, then we will hymn you lawfully and teach your benefits to those who do not know them; for that time will allow us to do this. Having thus taught what the captives in Babylon ought to say, he shows God answering in reply to the promises made and saying: "I will judge uprightness." See, then, whether through these words the Saviour teaches his own activities, setting out the theology of the Father. He says: "I will tell your wonders, O God, when I receive the congregation"; for he promises, when he has taken a suitable time, to tell all the wonders of the Father. And it is the work of justice and uprightness to admit not the Jews only, but to make the choice of those who are saved out of all the nations.

"The earth melted, and all who dwell in it," etc. He calls the rational nature the earth, which melted from the spiritual fire that the Saviour came to cast upon the earth. Melting is the separation of the soul from vice; and the intelligible fire is the spiritual teaching of the Saviour, which destroys vice and ignorance.

"I have made firm its pillars," etc. "And when they knew the grace," says the Apostle,

"given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars."

"For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, full of unmixed wine, of mixture; and he tilted it from this to that; yet its dregs were not emptied out; all the sinners of the earth will drink," etc. Now punishments are brought to sinners mixed; but in the age to come they will be brought unmixed and, as it were, full of dregs. Or thus: The cup, he says, is in the hand of the Lord; into it he presses out, as it were, the fruits of each man, both the good and the evil, and, mixing the good with the evil, makes it full. Then those whose dregs are not poured out, that is, in whom the sins remain, will drink it to the bottom and be made drunk with their own evils; as also …

[Ps 75 LXX / 76] "God is known in Judea; his name is great in Israel; and his place came to be in peace," etc. The place of God that is in us by nature, which formerly was not in peace, has come to be peace. At the coming of Christ, then, God was known, when the Son revealed him, in the Jerusalem above. Or God is known in the Judea above, where his true [dwelling] is, and not his typical glory; for now God is known through a mirror and in a riddle. And it is not in Israel according to the flesh, but in Israel according to the spirit, that his name is great. The "place" of God, which they give him within themselves, is in the Judea above, in which "it came to be in peace"; to this corresponds "the dwelling" of God "in Zion," of which it is said: "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem"; where there is peace for this reason, that in it "the powers of the bows, shield and sword and war" were broken.

Of the same. The place of God is a pure soul; the dwelling of God is a contemplative mind.

"There he broke the powers of the bows, shield and sword and war," etc. He now names the demons "bows," from whom the fiery darts are shot. A fiery dart is a passionate thought; and the same thing is also called shield and sword.

"You give light wonderfully from the everlasting mountains," etc. That is, you teach us through the holy powers.

"All the senseless in heart were troubled," etc. To be troubled belongs to the senseless; for the wise are not troubled.

"They slept their sleep, and all the men of wealth found nothing in their hands,"

etc. Therefore the wise Solomon rightly exhorts, saying: "Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may be saved like a gazelle from the noose and like a bird from the snare."

Of the same. "Men of wealth" as "men of blood"; for men who have the passions are named after those passions.

"Those who rode on horses slumbered," etc. The demons sit upon horses and mules, which have no understanding, compelling them to act like irrational animals. Horses and mules are passionate men, carried irrationally toward what they ought not, and neighing after their neighbours' wives.

"All who are around him will bring gifts to the fearful one, who takes away the spirits of rulers, fearful among the kings of the earth," etc. The one who is fearful to the kings of the earth takes away the spirits of rulers. The spirit of rulers is in those ruled by the rulers of this age. And the spirit of the ruler of this age was also in Judas, who betrayed Jesus. The Saviour, who has become fearful to these spirits, takes them away from those in whom they are at work, at the time he himself knows, so that they may repent. So also he is fearful among the kings of the earth, of whom it is said: "The kings of the earth stood up."

[Ps 76 LXX / 77] "With my voice I cried to the Lord, and my voice to God, and he attended to me," etc. When all our voice is according to God, then, whenever our voice goes up to him, he attends to us, since our voice is undefiled.

"In the day of my affliction I sought out God," etc. Through the practical life in the present age we seek out God.

Of the same. It belongs to a saint not to be [troubled] in difficulties but to seek out God.

"My soul refused to be comforted; I remembered God," etc. Or a soul that does not grieve at all at temptations refuses to be comforted, as not needing comfort.

Of the same. Nothing comforts a soul so much as the remembrance of God.

"My eyes anticipated the watches," etc. This is a sign of much wakefulness.

"I was troubled and did not speak," etc. One who is stirred by anger or grief or the other passions, but masters himself and says nothing out of anger or grief or any of the passions, could say: "I was troubled and did not speak."

"I considered the days of old and remembered the eternal years," etc. He who has come to know the unseen and hidden things of God has also the memories of the past ages, and of the years in them, and of the ancient days of which these are made up.

"By night I communed with my heart, and searched my spirit," etc. As if he said: I communed with my mind and with my spirit.

"Will he cut off his mercy for ever?" etc. As if he cuts off his mercy for some, it is said elsewhere: "Extend your mercy to those who know you."

"And I said: Now I have begun; this is the change of the right hand of the Most High," etc. He had never [truly] begun, though he had cried out to God, sought him in the day of affliction without being deceived, and rejoiced in remembering God, while his eyes anticipated the watches. The right hand of the Most High is the Saviour, who changed himself, taking the form of a servant; through him we began in the New [Covenant], having been prepared beforehand for the types to cease and the truth to begin.

Of the same. Here he calls "change" the return from vice and ignorance to virtue and knowledge.

"O God, your way is in the holy place; who is a great god like our God?" etc. Either the way of God is in every holy one, or his word is in Christ; for he who said, "I am the way," is in the holy place.

Of the same. See whether by these words he rejoices that there are some gods, yet none is great like our God; and whether one may use for this: "As there are many gods," etc.

"You made known your power among the peoples," etc. That is, Christ; for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

"The depths were troubled," etc. The depths signify the subterranean powers, which were troubled at the coming of Christ.

"The voice of your thunder was in the wheel," etc. The wheel signifies either this age, or the sensible world, or the pure and eternal soul, since vice lurks by the corner.

"Your lightnings shone on the world," etc. Though the thunder comes first in the air, the lightning is seen first.

"Your way is in the sea, and your paths in many waters, and your footsteps will not be known," etc. It was said above: "O God, your way is in the holy place." The way of God was in the

Red Sea, and his paths in many waters at the Jordan, under Joshua and Elijah. But also "his ways are past tracing out"; therefore "his footsteps will not be known" as he journeys in the sea and has paths in many waters, by which he led his people through the Red Sea.

[Ps 77 LXX / 78] "And that they might seek out his commandments," etc. Those who seek out the commandments of God do not become blameworthy, as their fathers did.

"They turned back in the day of war," etc. He turns his back to the enemies who does not keep the law of God.

"And they went on still sinning against him," etc. How grievous it is to sin after knowledge!

"Will God be able to prepare a table in the desert?" etc. Our Saviour made the soul of Matthew the tax collector, which had been a desert, into a table that feeds the souls of men through the Gospel.

"And fire was kindled in Jacob, and wrath went up against Israel," etc. Fire is kindled against the practical man, wrath goes up against the contemplative.

"And he opened the doors of heaven," etc. By the doors of heaven he means rational natures moved to spiritual teaching.

"Man ate the bread of angels," etc. The Saviour says: "I am the bread that came down from heaven." This bread, then, the angels ate before, but now men also. "To eat" here means "to know." For the mind eats what it knows, and does not eat what it does not know.

"And he rained flesh upon them like dust," etc. He named the quail "flesh."

"And he remembered that they are flesh," etc. That is, carnal.

"He sent among them the dog-fly, and it devoured them," etc. The Hebrews say that the dog-fly is various and mixed beasts.

"The firstfruits of all their labour in the tents of Ham," etc. Having thus chastised those, he led his own people into the desert, imitating a shepherd who goes before his flock.

"And he brought them into the mountain of his sanctuary," etc. The mountain of the sanctuary is the knowledge of God.

"And he made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents," etc. "For I will dwell in them," he says, "and walk among them."

"And they tempted and embittered God the Most High," etc. A soul that sins embitters knowledge; one that does right sweetens it.

"They were turned into a crooked bow," etc. A crooked bow is a perverted soul; its arrows are evil thoughts.

"And he rejected the tent of Shiloh," etc. The …

"And he disregarded his inheritance," etc. Here he has called the heirs "inheritance."

"Fire devoured their young men," etc. Perhaps the fire is the fiery darts of the evil one.

"And he chose the tribe of Judah," etc. "For it is evident that our Lord sprang from Judah," says the Apostle.

[Ps 78 LXX / 79] "For we have become very poor," etc. Being deprived of the wealth of knowledge, we became poor.

[Ps 79 LXX / 80] "Stir up your might," etc. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

"You will feed us with the bread of tears," etc. Through these words he presents a most bitter repentance.

"And show your face, and we shall be saved," etc. Here he has named Christ "face": "for he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."

"You brought a vine out of Egypt," etc. He now calls the twelve tribes of Israel the vine.

"And its tendrils [covered] the cedars of God," etc. The tendrils are the contemplatives.

"Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand," etc. He calls Christ the man of the right hand, who is also Son of Man.

"You will give us life, and we will call upon your name," etc. No one can give us life except him who said: "I am the life."

[Ps 80 LXX / 81] "He heard a tongue that he did not know," etc. Of the law …

"There shall be no new god among you," etc. A new god is one who can bring nothing into being.

"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it," etc. He now calls the mind the mouth, which is made bright by right conduct and true doctrines.

"And I sent them away according to the pursuits of their hearts," etc. "For this reason," says Paul, "God gave them up to dishonourable passions."

[Ps 81 LXX / 82] "You die like men, and like

one of the rulers you fall," etc. "I planted," he says, "a fruitful vine, wholly true; how have you turned to bitterness, alien vine?"

[Ps 82 LXX / 83] "They said: Come, let us destroy them from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be remembered no more," etc. From this we learn that the demons call one another to the destruction of a soul.

"Who said: Let us take the sanctuary of God as an inheritance for ourselves," etc. An unclean soul is the inheritance of demons; a pure soul is the inheritance of God.

"My God, make them like a wheel," etc. A wheel touches the earth only a little.

"Fill their faces with dishonour," etc. This face is that of the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit; when it is destroyed, the mind seeks out the name of the Lord.

"Let them be put to shame and troubled for ever and ever, and let them be confounded and perish," etc. This destruction signifies the destruction of vice and ignorance.

[Ps 83 LXX / 84] "Blessed are those who dwell in your house," etc. David himself longs to enter the courts of the Lord, and he calls blessed those who dwell in the house of the Lord.

[Ps 84 LXX / 85] "You forgave the iniquities of your people; you covered all their sins," etc. Through holy baptism the Lord removes sins; through bitter repentance he covers sins.

"Mercy and truth have met; righteousness and peace have kissed," etc. It is impossible for peace to be joined to righteousness unless truth has met mercy; for mercy begets righteousness, and truth begets peace. Righteousness and peace are understood of practice and contemplation.

"Righteousness will go before him," etc. Righteousness is the ruler of the practical virtues, and from it men too are called righteous.

[Ps 85 LXX / 86] "Save your servant, my God, who hopes in you," etc. The knowledge of God is the salvation of the soul.

"And an assembly of the mighty has sought my soul," etc. He has named the order of the demons "an assembly of the mighty."

[Ps 86 LXX / 87] "Mother Zion will say: A man, and a man

was born in her," etc. The child Jesus is born in Bethlehem, but the man in Zion, because practice is born in the soul, but wisdom is begotten in the mind.

"As of all who rejoice is the dwelling in you," etc. All who rejoice in knowledge dwell in wisdom; and all who dwell in wisdom rejoice in knowledge, as in wisdom.

[Ps 87 LXX / 88] "And my life has drawn near to Hades," etc. If you take Hades as death, you will know how death destroys a man's life. Here he names the devil Hades, and himself life.

"Like the wounded sleeping in a tomb, whom you remember no more," etc. The Lord remembers the one in whom he comes to be, and does not remember the one in whom he does not come to be.

"And they were thrust away from your hand," etc. Here he calls the knowledge of God "hand," which by nature helps those who are under attack.

"Upon me your wrath has rested," etc. Christ halted the wrath of God, which had rushed against all men. For "all have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is none who does good."

"Will you work wonders for the dead?" etc. Those deprived of life cannot see the wonders of the Life that said, "I am the life."

"Will anyone tell of your mercy in the tomb, and of your truth in destruction?" etc. As there is no truth among those who have perished, so there are no wonders among those who are darkened.

"And your righteousness in a land that is forgotten?" etc. A forgotten land is a rational soul deprived of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

"Your terrors have troubled me," etc. He calls certain unclean and turbulent powers terrors,

[Ps 88 LXX / 89] "And in your good pleasure our horn will be exalted," etc. Here he names the mind "horn"; and the mind is exalted through knowledge of God.

"Then you spoke in a vision to your sons," etc. Then you spoke through the holy prophets.

"With my holy oil I anointed him," etc. The holy oil signifies the knowledge of God, or rather it indicates essential knowledge.

"The enemy will gain no advantage over him," etc. If we give our enemies an advantage when we sin, and Christ did not sin, then Christ gave his enemies no advantage.

"And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers," etc. The hand of Christ is set in the sea, his right hand in the rivers. But the sea, if it wills, becomes a river; and again the river, if it does not keep the river of living water flowing from its belly, becomes a sea.

"And his throne as the days of heaven," etc. When the will of God is done on earth as in heaven, then the throne of Christ too will be as the days of heaven.

"And if they do not keep my commandments," etc. Whoever does not keep the commandments of God falls from being a throne of God: "For wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil, nor dwell in a body enslaved to sin."

"I will visit their lawless deeds with a rod," etc. "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives."

"You have cast his throne down to the ground," etc. The mind that has become earthy instead of heavenly is cast down from heaven to the ground.

"You have shortened the days of his time," etc. Through abandonment our virtues and our knowledge diminish; for these are the days of the rational nature.

"Who is the man who will live and not see death, who will rescue his soul from the hand of Hades?" etc. The growth of virtue and knowledge follows on the gradual diminishing of all the vices and of ignorance. Vice and ignorance are the death of the rational soul, and virtue and knowledge its life.

"Which I bore in my bosom, of many nations," etc. Here he names the soul "bosom," because the knowledge of God is also called good things, and good things are naturally put into the bosom: "For I believe," he says, "that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living."

"The exchange of your Christ," etc. Perhaps the Lord's man.

[Ps 89 LXX / 90] "Their years will be things of no account," etc. Their life will be brought to nothing.

"Our years were spun out like a spider's web," etc. "For our life on earth is a shadow," says Job.

"And the greater part of them is toil and trouble," etc. We spend the greater part of the years that have passed in toils and troubles.

"So make your right hand known to me," etc. Let your right hand be made known not for punishment but for loving-kindness.

"And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us," etc. Brightness is knowledge of God; for those who share in it are called brightnesses: "In the brightnesses of the saints," he says, "from the womb, before the morning star, I begot you."

"And direct the work of our hands," etc. The works of the hands are the particular acts; the work of the hands is the knowledge that results from them.

[Ps 90 LXX / 91] "He will overshadow you with his back," etc. The back is a symbol of the heart.

"His truth will surround you with a shield; you will not be afraid of the terror by night," etc. The shield of Christ is true knowledge, and the one surrounded by it will not be frightened.

"From the arrow that flies by day," etc. He has here named a certain unclean power "arrow."

"From mishap and the noonday demon," etc. They say that the noonday demon is the demon of listlessness.

"And no scourge will come near your dwelling," etc. If anyone wishes not to fall under a scourge, let him become a house of God.

"To guard you in all your ways," etc. The one who stumbles in nothing is guarded in all his ways.

"Lest you strike your foot against a stone," etc. The foot signifies the soul, and the stone sin.

"And I will show him my salvation," etc. The salvation of God is Christ.

[Ps 91 LXX / 92] "On a ten-stringed psaltery, with song on the lyre," etc. The psaltery is a pure mind moved by spiritual knowledge; the lyre is a practical soul moved by the commandments of Christ.

"A senseless man will not know," etc. The offspring of senselessness is vice, and the offspring of vice is ignorance.

"For behold, your enemies will perish," etc. An enemy who perishes becomes a friend; for God has abolished his enmity.

"And my old age in rich oil," etc. The old age of the righteous is true knowledge, and his youth is the soul's freedom from passion.

"Planted in the house of the Lord," etc. The righteous, planted in the knowledge of the Lord, will make many men blossom in this world or in the churches, making them bear fruit through spiritual teaching.

"And there is no injustice in him," etc. There is no injustice with God, because he cannot admit vice.

[Ps 92 LXX / 93] "The rivers lifted up their voices," etc. He names holy rational natures rivers, because rivers of living water flow from their heart.

"Wonderful are the surges of the sea," etc. The soul becomes wonderful when it is lifted on high and separated from the waves of this life.

[Ps 93 LXX / 94] "Render recompense to the proud," etc. Pride is contempt of a good calling.

"They have humbled your people, Lord," etc. "The Lord disciplines the one he loves," says the Apostle; and if he calls blessed the one he disciplines, everyone disciplined by him will become free of passion; for this one the Lord loves. For discipline is the moderating of the passions.

"To give him rest from evil days," etc. He calls the days of the judgment evil days; in them the one disciplined by him, having become pure of passions, will enjoy knowledge and remain untroubled.

"Until a pit is dug for the sinner," etc. He has named Gehenna the pit.

"Until righteousness returns to judgment," etc. Until Christ judges the world; for he "became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption," and "the Father has given all judgment to him."

"Your mercy, Lord, helped me," etc. Here the mercy of Christ signifies his providence, through which a man is either helped or abandoned. A man is helped when it is at work, and abandoned when it withdraws.

"Your consolations have gladdened my soul," etc. Consolation is the soul's recovery from toils.

"Shall the throne of lawlessness be allied with you?" etc. He has named the devil the throne of lawlessness, since Christ too is the throne of righteousness, who is opposed to the devil.

"And according to their wickedness the Lord our God will make them disappear,"

the Lord our God," etc. He will make them disappear as evil, that is, by making them good.

[Ps 94 LXX / 95] "For in his hand are the ends of the earth," etc. Here he calls the providence of God "hand."

"Come, let us worship and fall down before him," etc. He falls down before the Lord who has given up the elation of pride.

"Today, if you hear his voice," etc. "Today" signifies this life: "For Jesus Christ," he says, "is the same yesterday and today and for ever"; and again: "as long as it is called today."

"But they did not know my ways," etc. The ways of the Lord are the practical virtues that lead to the kingdom of heaven.

"As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest," etc. The rest of the Lord is knowledge of him; whoever enters it will rest upon it.

[Ps 95 LXX / 96] "Sing to the Lord a new song," etc. The old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit, cannot sing a new song; for the new song belongs to the new man, who has been made according to the image of his Creator.

"He is to be feared above all gods," etc. If the Lord is to be feared above all gods, then all the gods fear the Lord.

"Say among the nations: The Lord has become king," etc. Say to the unjust that righteousness reigns, and to the foolish that prudence is lord, and to liars that truth is master, and to the ignorant that knowledge has prevailed.

"Let the heavens rejoice," etc. That is, those who dwell in the heavens.

"Then all the trees of the forest will exult," etc. What sort of trees will exult? Let those who refuse allegory tell us.

[Ps 96 LXX / 97] "Let the many islands be glad," etc. An island is a mind that does not swerve, though the waves of this life beat around it.

"And fire will go before him," etc. This fire burns wood, hay, straw.

"You who love the Lord, hate evil," etc. That is: you who love knowledge, hate evil.

"And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness," etc. Give thanks, remembering his holiness.

[Ps 97 LXX / 98] "Before the nations he has revealed his righteousness,"

etc. "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith."

"The rivers will clap their hands together," etc. If the gifts of the Holy Spirit are called rivers, according to "Rivers of living water will flow from his belly," then those who will share in these rivers are rightly called rivers themselves. Note also that the rivers are "together," so that all may say the same thing and there may be no divisions among them.

[Ps 98 LXX / 99] "You have prepared uprightness," etc. "Uprightness" means either the upright or the virtues.

"And worship at the footstool of his feet," etc. Some have said that the footstool of the feet is the flesh of Christ, which is to be worshipped because of Christ; and Christ is to be worshipped because of the Word of God in him.

"And Samuel among those who call upon his name," etc. He calls upon righteousness who acts righteously, and upon truth who does not lie, and upon love who does not hate.

"In a pillar of cloud he spoke to them," etc. The pillar and the cloud are rational natures, through which the Lord spoke to the saints.

"Exalt the Lord our God," etc. God is by nature exalted by a pure mind.

[Ps 99 LXX / 100] "Enter his gates," etc. The gates of wisdom are the virtues; for through them we enter the kingdom of heaven.

[Ps 100 LXX / 101] "I will sing to you of mercy and judgment, Lord," etc. He wishes to sing the doctrine of Providence and judgment.

"Whoever slanders his neighbour in secret, him I drove away," etc. The verse is useful against slanderers.

"He who walks in a blameless way, he served me," etc. The verse should be used against those of the priestly order who are served by thoroughly wicked slaves.

"To destroy from the city," etc. Here he calls his own soul the city of the Lord, in which he killed all lawless thoughts.

[Ps 101 LXX / 102] "I kept watch and became like a sparrow alone on a housetop," etc. Nothing makes the mind so light as keeping watch.

"For I ate ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping," etc. The verse is useful against those who delight in pipes and songs at drinking time.

"And I withered like grass; but you, Lord, remain for ever," etc. I am temporary

and mortal, but you are everlasting and immortal.

"Do not take me away in the half of my days," etc. Of the days made by the sun of righteousness.

"They will perish, but you will remain," etc. The heavens will perish not in their essence but in their form: "For the form of this world," says the Apostle, "is passing away."

[Ps 102 LXX / 103] "Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me, his holy name," etc. The things within the inner man are the intellectual power, the discursive, the attentive, the interpretive, the imaginative, and the power of memory.

"Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's," etc. The eagle strips off its old age, as man too strips off the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit.

"For as the height of heaven is above the earth, the Lord has made his mercy strong over those who fear him," etc. As he exalted those in heaven, so he has had mercy on those on earth who fear him.

"Man: his days are like grass; like a flower of the field, so will he flourish," etc. Here "man" indicates the universal nature; for every man is temporary and mortal, quick to wither and temporary.

"For a wind has passed over it, and it will not be," etc. After death the soul is no longer in this life.

"But the mercy of the Lord is from age to age upon those who fear him," etc. The sensible life is not everlasting, but the mercy of the Lord is everlasting.

"And his righteousness upon sons of sons," etc. The sons of sons are those who have been counted worthy of adoption through …

"And to those who remember his commandments," etc. He remembers the commandments who lives by them.

"And his kingdom rules over all," etc. His creative kingdom rules over all; but the kingdom according to knowledge rules, not over all those on earth, but over all those in heaven.

[Ps 103 LXX / 104] "Putting on light as a garment," etc. The garment of the Lord is true knowledge; whoever puts it on will be enlightened by it.

"Stretching out the heaven like a skin," etc. Why did he not say "having stretched out" but "stretching out"? Is it that he stretched it out once as to its essence, but always stretches it out by his providence? Such also is what is said in Job: "Who makes the Pleiades and Hesperus and Arcturus and the chambers of the south."

"Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire," etc. To Abraham the angels appeared as spirits, but to the Sodomites as burning fire.

"Who founded the earth upon its stability; it will not be moved for ever and ever," etc. Job said, "Hanging the earth upon nothing"; and David, "upon its stability." Both exclude there being some other body underneath that carries it; for its stability is not a substance but the art of God, which keeps the earth unmoved within the sphere.

"The abyss is his covering like a garment," etc. Through the abyss he presents the incomprehensibility of the knowledge of God.

"The mountains go up and the plains go down to the place you founded for them," etc. By these words he hints at certain rational natures.

"You set a boundary that they will not pass," etc. They say that these words are said of the subterranean demons.

"Watering the mountains from his upper rooms," etc. The upper rooms of God are pure natures that water those who are loftier in heart.

"The trees of the plain will be satisfied," etc. The Hebrew and the other versions have put "of the Lord." Having gone through the fruitful plants, he necessarily mentions the unfruitful ones too, since these also supply a need necessary to men. That is also why he called them "of the Lord," as growing of themselves and not made by hand, but sprouting at the divine word; and so he added: "The cedars of Lebanon, which you planted."

Of the same. As there are trees of paradise, so also there are trees of the plain.

"The rock is a refuge for the rock-badgers," etc. Let the one who is in the condition of a rock-badger flee for refuge to the spiritual rock that followed in the desert and gave Israel drink.

"The sun knew its setting," etc. The sun of righteousness has now come to know those in whom it once set.

"The sun rose, and they were gathered together," etc. In those in whom the sun of righteousness rises, the vices too exist only potentially.

"Man will go out to his work and to his labour until evening," etc. Here he calls "work" the very material with which the labour is concerned, and "labour" the craft itself exercised on the material.

"There are creeping things without number," etc. Of the men who creep because of vice there is no number: "For he who numbers," it says, "the multitudes of the stars, and calls them all by name."

"You will take away their spirit, and they will fail and return to their dust," etc. Those who fall away from the spirit given them by God become earthy.

"You will send forth your spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth," etc. What holy Paul called resurrection, David called renewal.

"He who touches the mountains, and they smoke," etc. The smoking mountains cast off vice when the spiritual fire cast upon the earth touches them.

"Let sinners vanish from the earth," etc. Not that they should cease to exist, but that they should cease to exist as sinners.

[Ps 104 LXX / 105] "Tell of all his wonders," etc. Whoever has acquired all the knowledge of God can tell of all his wonders.

"Seek the Lord," etc. Whoever does the commandments of God seeks him.

"Seek his face continually," etc. He says that we should seek that face which the angels see continually.

"Seed of Abraham, his servants," etc. Those who are of the seed of Abraham are elect potentially.

"He remembered his covenant for ever, the word that he commanded for a thousand generations," etc. Some have thought that by the thousand generations he means many generations, others those bounded by this number.

"Saying: To you I will give the land of Canaan, the measured portion of your inheritance," etc. Before the coming of Christ, the Canaanites held our souls and did not let us bear spiritual fruit.

"He let no man wrong them," etc. From this we learn that those who are wronged by men are wronged through God's abandonment.

"Do not touch my anointed ones," etc. These anointed ones are called anointed because they share in Christ; and Christ is called Christ because he shares in the Father. And by Christ I mean the Lord who came among us with God the Word.

"And he made him stronger than his enemies," etc. Without virtue and knowledge of God no one could become stronger than the enemies.

"He spoke, and the dog-fly came," etc. The Hebrews interpret the dog-fly as a mixed multitude of wild and flesh-eating beasts; but the Greeks say that the dog-fly is the fly of the barking dog.

"And he struck their vines," etc. "For their vines were of the vine of Sodom, and their tendrils of Gomorrah."

"He spoke, and the locust came," etc. This locust devours the evil seed.

[Ps 105 LXX / 106] "And he saved them for his name's sake, to make his might known," etc. Through

[Ps 105 LXX / 106, continued] this the Lord saves us, to grant us knowledge of his might.

"Not one of them was left," etc. Blessed is the one for whom not one of his enemies is left.

"They did not wait for his counsel, and they lusted with lust in the wilderness," etc. They did not wait for his grace, but forgot his works and lusted with evil lust.

"And they exchanged their glory for the likeness of a calf that eats grass," etc. Those who glorify a creature rather than the Creator exchange their glory. "And they exchanged," says Paul, "the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things."

"And he said he would destroy them," etc. Destruction here signifies removal from this life.

"Had not Moses his chosen one stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath so that he would not destroy them," etc. Note that even one holy man, such as Moses, is able to turn away the anger that is moving against a whole nation.

"And they despised the desirable land," etc. The desirable land is the kingdom of heaven.

"And he lifted up his hand against them," etc. By "hand" he means his punishing powers.

"And they were initiated into Baal-Peor," etc. Baal-Peor is an idol of Bel in the place of Peor.

"And they ate sacrifices of the dead," etc. They performed rites for Baal-Peor, commemorating [the dead] in his mysteries.

"And Phinehas stood and made atonement," etc. Above he says that Moses stood and turned away the breach; but [here], that the breach ceased.

"And they mingled among the nations," etc. One who serves carved images mingles with the nations.

"And they went whoring in their pursuits," etc. A soul goes whoring when it receives seeds from the opposing power and gives birth to evil children.

"And he abhorred his inheritance," etc. "The inheritance of the Lord is rational souls."

"And those who hated them ruled over them," etc. Those who hate us and afflict our souls are demons.

"And he made them objects of compassion before all who had taken them captive," etc. From this we learn that the Lord also makes us worthy to receive mercy.

[Ps 106 LXX / 107] "For he satisfied the empty soul," etc. The empty soul is one deprived of virtues and of knowledge.

"And he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death," etc. Inasmuch as the Lord is light, he brings

us out of darkness, and inasmuch as he is life, out of death; and again, as mighty, he bursts bonds.

"Their soul abhorred all food," etc. As the sick abhor all food, so the impure reject all knowledge.

"They saw the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep," etc. Those who, for the sake of practising virtue, fall into many and various distractions see the works of the Lord, that is, the principles of things that have come to be and are coming to be.

"And all their wisdom was swallowed up," etc. Vice swallows up the wisdom of God; but the righteousness of the Lord destroys vice.

"And its waves were stilled," etc. By the stilling of the waves he has named the destruction of temptations.

"And he made them wander in a trackless place and not on a road," etc. He abandoned them as they wandered, and did not take hold of them, because of their vice.

[Ps 107 LXX / 108] "My heart is ready," etc. Whoever has put away the passions has made his heart ready for God.

"Moab is the cauldron of my hope," etc. The cauldron is the one who is fervent in spirit and hopes in the Lord; and this hope does not put to shame the one who hopes.

"Over Idumea I will cast my shoe," etc. The shoe of Christ is the flesh, by means of which the Lord came to dwell in the life of men.

[Ps 108 LXX / 109] "And let the devil stand at his right hand," etc. Satan stands at the right hand of those whose works of the right hand he cuts off. In Zechariah it says: "And the Lord showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and the devil stood at his right hand"; and not simply so, but "to oppose him." But he does not oppose Judas.

"Let his sons become orphans, and his wife a widow," etc. It seems to me that the righteous man is not cursing but praying. "For bless your enemies," says the Apostle, "bless and do not curse." The orphans, then, are evil thoughts that have buried their own father, Satan; and the widow is the soul that has not received seeds from the devil. The order too is good: first he takes away the sins in act, then also their base thoughts.

"Let it be to him like a garment that he puts on, and like a girdle with which he is always girded," etc. This girdle signifies the irrational burning of the desiring part.

"My knees have grown weak from fasting," etc.

The verse should be used against those who despise self-control.

"They will curse, but you will bless," etc. The Lord blesses the one whom the adversaries curse.

[Ps 109 LXX / 110] "With you is the principle in the day of your power, in the brightness of the saints," etc. If the Father is the principle of the Son, and the principle was with Christ, then he rightly says in the Gospels: "I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me." And he called the day of the cross, or of the incarnation, the day of power.

"From the womb, before the morning star, I begot you," etc. That is: Before every rational nature I begot you. For to inquire more deeply into the generation of Christ and of the morning star is not within our power; for the account of it is long and hard to contemplate.

"He will judge among the nations, he will fill up the fallen," etc. He fills up [the place of] the fallen things of the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit.

[Ps 110 LXX / 111] "In the counsel of the upright and in the congregation, great are the works of the Lord," etc. He has called the works of the Lord great because of the wisdom stored up in them.

"He has given food to those who fear him," etc. The food of those who fear the Lord is the wisdom of God: "For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

"He has declared to his people the power of his works," etc. He calls the contemplation of things that have come to be the power of his works; and knowledge is called power because it puts power into the rational nature.

"The works of his hands are truth and judgment," etc. Truth is seen in right doctrines, and judgment in the practical life.

"All his commandments are faithful, established for ever and ever." He called the commandments faithful, meaning worthy of trust; for what they promise they also do; and they promise purification of the rational soul to those who keep them genuinely.

[Ps 111 LXX / 112] "In his commandments he will delight greatly," etc. He delights greatly in his commandments who keeps them with all exactness.

"Glory and wealth are in his house," etc. The wisdom of God, inasmuch as it supplies an abundance of contemplations, is called wealth; and inasmuch as it prepares men to glorify the one who possesses it, it is named glory.

"Light has risen in darkness for the upright," etc. The Saviour says to the disciples in the Gospels: "What you have heard in the dark, say in the light."

etc. The verse should be used against those who bring out the divine mysteries of the divine Scripture carelessly and without discernment; for Paul too says: "Let a man regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God."

"He will not be afraid of an evil report," etc. "Report" means rumour, as is also written in the Gospel: "His report went out into all Syria"; and again: "You will hear of wars and reports of wars."

"His horn will be exalted in glory," etc. Satan fears nothing so much as a mind exalted in the knowledge of God.

"The desire of the sinner will perish," etc. If the desire of the sinner will perish, and the desire of the sinner is vice, then the vice of sinners will perish.

[Ps 112 LXX / 113] "From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised," etc. The risings are the intellectual natures, in which the sun of righteousness rises; and the settings are the souls of men, in which the spiritual and heavenly sun once set.

"Who dwells on high and looks upon the lowly things in heaven and on earth," etc. God dwells in the holy powers, but he provides for lowly men, so that his will may be done on earth as in heaven.

"Who raises the poor from the earth and lifts the needy from the dunghill," etc. God raises the soul from vice to virtue, and urges the mind from ignorance to knowledge.

"Who settles the barren woman in a home, a mother rejoicing in children," etc. "Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labour; for the children of the desolate are more than of her who has a husband." A soul becomes barren when God abandons it, and a mother when he is at work in it.

[Ps 113 LXX / 114–115] … in the wilderness he turned the rock and gave Israel drink; but as regards the spirit he always turns the rock, which is Christ, and gives drink to the spiritual Israel.

"He blessed those who fear the Lord, the small with the great," etc. Not the great with the small are blessed, but the small with the great, so that they too may become great. And small and great here are to be understood not of what is outward but of what is inward.

"The dead will not praise you, Lord, nor all who go down to Hades. But we who live will bless the Lord from now and for ever," etc. A dead man cannot praise the Life that said, "I am the life." "Nor all": he did not say "those who went down," but "those who go down." "But we who live": as Paul too says, "Then we who are alive, who are left."

[Ps 114 LXX / 116] "For he inclined his ear to me, and in my days I will call upon him," etc. Since we cannot stretch ourselves out to God when we pray, he himself inclines his ear to us and draws near to us.

Of the same. Let the one who calls upon the sun of righteousness, living in the days of this sun, …

"The pangs of death encompassed me," etc. One who has been in heavier temptations and has given in them a proof of his own choice, so that he came into danger of being overcome, but was not overcome, might say: "The pangs of death encompassed me, the dangers of Hades found me." "Hades found me" is not the same as "the dangers of Hades found me." For Hades finds the one over whom its gates prevail; but the dangers of Hades find only the one who, because of the greatness of his temptations, was in danger of being held by the gates of Hades, but was not held by them.

"I found affliction and pain," etc. Affliction is a find for the one who endures it and boasts in afflictions, and walks the way that leads to life, which is narrow and afflicted. So too pain is a fine find, when one is pained out of love, like Paul, who said: "I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart," and what follows.

"And I called upon the name of the Lord," etc. "For everyone," he says, "who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." Therefore let the merciful man call upon the merciful one, and the righteous man upon righteousness. For the righteousness in us arises in us like an echo, by reflection of the first righteousness.

"The Lord is merciful and righteous, and our God

has mercy," etc. Since the Lord has mercy with righteousness, he is merciful and righteous; but Saul was not righteous in showing mercy when he spared Agag. And if all showing of mercy were righteous, the law would not have said of some people: "You shall not have mercy on him." And "he who shows mercy with cheerfulness" shows mercy with righteousness.

"Return, my soul, to your rest," etc. The rest of the soul is the cutting off of sins; for sin racks it and crushes all its powers. That is why David also called baptism, since it brings release from sins, "water of rest." So he urges the soul, as one that has wandered in sins, to return to rest, either through baptism or through tears and repentance.

"For he has delivered my soul," etc. The soul, clearly, of one who no longer sins: "For the soul that sins shall die." And one who has received freedom from grief will say that the Lord has delivered my eyes from tears. He too will say it who has mourned the mourning that is called blessed, when he obtains "they will laugh" and "they will be comforted." And one who has heard, "But you, stand here with me," will say: "The Lord has delivered my feet from slipping."

[Ps 115 LXX / 116, continued] "I believed, therefore I spoke," etc. If anyone has not believed firmly and without distraction, let him not teach; for the voice of a genuine teacher is: "I believed, therefore I spoke." And proof of this man's freedom from conceit and of his humility, as one by no means puffed up at teaching, is: "But I was greatly humbled."

Of the same. Faith is the rational assent of a self-determining soul.

"But I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar," etc. If David too is a man, he is a liar; but if he is a liar when he calls himself a liar, he is not a liar but truthful. And if he is truthful when he calls himself a liar, then, being a man, he is not a liar. The argument thus turns round to both: to his being truthful, if he is a man, and to his being a liar. The dialecticians call this argument insoluble.

Of the same. Insofar as someone is a man, he is a liar; but if he puts off being a man, he is truthful. For the name "man" sometimes indicates the essence, as in "There was a man in the land of Ausitis"; and sometimes the worst condition, as in "But you die like men, and fall like one of the rulers." The one indicates the essence, the other the worst habit.

"What shall I render to the Lord?" etc. As one who has been greatly benefited by the Lord in these things and wishes to repay his benefactor, being at a loss about the manner

of repayment, he says: "What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me?" For he has come to perceive the countless gifts from God: that he was brought from not being into being; that, formed from earth, he has been honoured with reason, by which he can also bear the image of the heavenly one; then, looking also to the dispensation on behalf of the human race, that the Lord gave himself as a ransom for many of us. So he is at a loss and searches among all that he has for some gift worthy of the Master: not sacrifices or burnt offerings, but his whole life itself.

"You have broken my bonds," etc. To "What shall I render to the Lord?" the answer seems to me to be given: first, "I will take the cup of salvation"; second, "I will pay my vows"; third, "I will offer you a sacrifice of praise"; fourth, "I will pay my vows to the Lord." But the first "I will pay my vows" has only "before all his people"; the second has also "in the courts of the house of the Lord" and "in your midst, Jerusalem." And the first "I will pay my vows to the Lord" is added after the cup of salvation; but the second comes after all, joined to "you have broken my bonds" and to "I will offer you a sacrifice of praise"; and "you have broken my bonds" is joined to the death that is precious before the Lord. The one who has glorified God by martyrdom says this because through martyrdom the former chains of his sins have been broken by God, so that he no longer has bonds of sin. Or, if the bonds of the soul are the bodily masses of the various members, it might well be said in this way too, that one released from the bonds in martyrdom is in peace, since no one but God has broken them. For God does not break the bonds of those who leave the body violently for any cause whatever. Sometimes, then, God kills without breaking a man's bonds; but the martyr he does not kill, he only breaks his bonds. For through martyrdom each martyr offers himself to God as a spotless sacrifice, imitating Christ, and says: "I will offer you a sacrifice of praise." For in the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother above, the righteous man will pay his vows to the Lord before every witness of the people of God and of Jerusalem, in a chosen place; and this is "in the courts of the house of the Lord, in the midst of Jerusalem."

Of the same. "You have broken my bonds." He did not say "you have loosed" but "you have broken," so that they became useless. Here he calls afflictions bonds. For there is also a good bond, as when he says: "in the bond of love." And the chains of sins that are added are also bonds; these are broken not only through divine baptism, but also through martyrdom for Christ and through the tears that come from repentance.

[Ps 117 LXX / 118] "Let the house of Israel now say," etc. "Let Israel now say" is said in this psalm, and in "If the Lord had not been among us, let Israel now say," which is the hundred and twenty-third, the fifth of the Ascents; and in the hundred and twenty-eighth, the tenth of the Ascents, which begins: "Often they have fought against me, let Israel now say."

"Let the house of Aaron say," etc. Unless someone is Israel, or the house of Aaron, or one who fears the Lord, he does not taste the goodness of the Lord, whose mercy is for ever. Therefore these alone will say: "His mercy is for ever." For these three orders, I think, there are three general [kinds] of mercy. And since a house is a system lawfully established for living, for this reason "the house" is here set with the house of Aaron. And consider whether the temple can be the house of Aaron, where the priests perform the worship. He called the priests separately to the hymn-singing, because they also enjoyed greater honour, not only by reason of the priesthood but in all other respects. For when fire came down, it came down because of them; and the earth was shaken, and the rod budded; and countless other wonders happened through them and on their behalf.

"Let all who fear the Lord now say," etc. Above too it is said: Israel hoped to call upon the Lord; then the house of Aaron; then those who fear the Lord. And we have said before that those who fear the Lord, the house of Aaron, and Israel are one. That is why he ordered them to bring forth a common song proclaiming the mercy of God. For the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh, and neither circumcision nor uncircumcision can be saved without mercy.

"Out of affliction I called upon the Lord," etc. Whoever walks the narrow and afflicted way calls upon the Lord out of affliction; but whoever walks the broad one does not even call upon him. "For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

"I will not fear what man will do to me," etc. Scripture calls the devil "man," as in "An enemy, a man, has done this," namely the sowing of the tares.

"All the nations surrounded me, and in the name of the Lord I drove them back," etc. Of the demons, some fought him as a practical man, others as a contemplative; and he drove back the first by righteousness, the second by wisdom.

Of the same. These words fit rather Christ, who is warred against by all the nations. There are many kinds of doctrines, which the holy man drives back by the wisdom of God, overturning them by sound reason.

"They surrounded me like bees," etc. Each of the doctrines of the nations produces something sweet, sweetening and delighting the hearer; therefore those who champion

[Ps 117 LXX / 118, continued] them are like bees, but are not bees. And according to Solomon, "honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman"; she is knowledge falsely so called. Whoever cleaves to her is one body with her, as whoever cleaves to the Lord and the true Word is one spirit.

"The Lord is my strength and my song," etc. The Word is strength to the one who has taken him up; through him "I can do all things," says Paul, "in Christ Jesus who strengthens me." This Word is also song, for in him is theology. And it would be the voice of a confident martyr: "The Lord is my strength and my song."

"I shall not die, but live, and tell the works of the Lord," etc. It belongs to the living to tell the works of the Lord.

"Open to me the gates of righteousness," etc. As the gates of righteousness, which is one of the virtues, are the acts that accord with it, so there would also be gates of prudence, of temperance, of courage, and of the other virtues, open in the good man but shut in the base. There are also, however, gates of the vices, opened to the base man through acts that accord with vice, but shut in the refined man. But perhaps also in another way, because of "Lift up your gates, O rulers, and be lifted up, eternal gates," each of the virtues is an eternal gate into the eternal dwellings, through which the good will enter, each according to his own deeds. And the Saviour had to pass through all of them, as they were lifted up and enlarged worthily of the greatness of Christ; for he took them all up in accordance with the dignity of the subsistence of the Firstborn of all creation. And consider whether, as they are lifted and raised for the Saviour, so for each according to his worth they are either lifted and raised, or set in place and not raised. These gates are also ensouled and living; that is why "Be lifted up" is said to them. And perhaps the rulers and the gates say in wonder: "Who is this King of glory?" There are, however, gates of righteousness used by many, but one gate that belongs to the Lord alone. So he calls the various forms of virtue gates of righteousness; for through them it is possible to hymn the God of all worthily. And he made this clearer through what follows, for he gives a kind of answer, saying: "This is the gate of the Lord."

Of the same. As the gates of righteousness are opened, so also those of temperance and courage and love; for through these gates the mind enters the kingdom of heaven.

"This is the gate of the Lord," etc. After entering through the practical virtues we shall find the gate of knowledge, which is the contemplation of things that have come to be, bodies and incorporeal beings.

"The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner," etc. This verse refers to Christ; for he himself in

the Gospels brings forward this prophecy, saying: "Have you never read: The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner?" By the builders he means the Jews, the scribes, the Pharisees, because they rejected him, saying: "You are a Samaritan and have a demon"; and again: "He is not from God, but leads the crowd astray."

"This came from the Lord," etc. What happened was not human, nor the work of one of the many; it was not for angels or archangels to frame such a corner. For no one was able, no righteous man, no prophet, no angel, no archangel; the achievement was God's, and this was his work alone.

"This is the day that the Lord has made," etc. This day was not made by lawgivers or prophets, but by the Sun of righteousness himself. And by "day" he means the knowledge of Christ.

Of the same. By "day" here he means not the sun's course, but the achievements accomplished in it. For as he speaks of an evil day, meaning not the sun's course but the evils done in it, so also by a good day he means the achievements done in it. What he says is this: All the achievements accomplished in it God made; for the things done were the work of that hand alone. For what could equal this day, in which reconciliation of God with men took place, and the long war was ended, and earth was shown to be heaven, and men unworthy of the earth were shown worthy of the kingdom, and the firstfruits of our nature was carried up above the heavens, and paradise was opened, and we recovered our ancient homeland, and the curse was abolished, and sin was undone? For though he made all the days, he made that one in a special way, since in it he fulfilled the greatest of his own mysteries. Therefore let us too exult and be glad in it, keeping a festival of double joy: first, that we were rescued from the captivity of the devil; second, that we are being led up to the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," etc. This saying too the evangelists understood as a prophecy about Christ. For he is truly the one who comes with authority and in the name of the Lord, while all the men and angels before him came as servants of the Lord. Each of them indeed said, "Thus says the Lord," and each of the angels says to the one to whom he comes, "The Lord has sent me." But he who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed.

"God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us," etc. For his coming is not a change of place, but an appearing, when before he was not seen. For being invisible, since he is the image of the invisible God, he took the form of a servant, and the Word became flesh and was seen, so that, appearing in this way,

he might lead us by the hand through this understanding to behold his glory too, "glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."

"Bind the festival with leafy boughs," etc. Those are leafy who are luxuriant with leaves and fruits: with leaves, that is, their duties, and with fruits, the virtues. For "their leaf will not fall, and they will give their fruit in its season," because they have become "trees planted by the channels of waters."

Of the same. By "those that cover" he means the cherubim that overshadow the mercy seat; for this is what "cover" means. And the cherubim covered the mercy seat with their wings.

"You are my God, and I will confess to you," etc. Here he shows that we must give thanks to God even apart from his benefits, and glorify him for this: for the greatness of his essence, for his ineffable glory. This is what he hints at here too, after speaking of the benefits he had received. Even apart from these, he says, I will give thanks and confess, because I have such a Master: so lofty, so great, so invisible, incomprehensible. "I will exalt" means "I will glorify."

"Confess to the Lord, for he is good," etc. Not without purpose has the Psalmist placed this verse a second time in the present psalm. He wishes us to practise the same song often, so that, remembering what our salvation was, we may no longer run back to the enemy who became our ruin.

[Ps 118 LXX / 119] "Blessed are the blameless in the way," etc. The elements of the beginning of the words of God are a divine topic. This is what the hundred and eighteenth psalm deals with; it is written according to the Hebrew letters, so that its first eight verses are from Aleph, which is the first of their letters, the next eight from Beth, and so on in order. And this psalm contains the whole moral topic, with every contemplation of the different names used in the moral topics in the Scriptures. One should know that law is one thing, statute another, ordinance another, testimony another, judgment another. The letters are put first here so that it may be shown to readers that the letters are the knowledge of the moral topic. So too the hundred and tenth and hundred and eleventh psalms, which are also in a way moral, had the beginnings of their verses from the Hebrew letters; there, however, the alphabetic arrangement is not extended but given briefly. One should know, then, that these things too, like others, were written in the Holy Spirit and have a reason that is not to be despised. And the reason why each of the letters is said eight times by

the Hebrews in this psalm [is this]. Come, then, to the number eight, and wherever it is named in Scripture, take it up, together with the matter in connection with which it is said; and the study will be useful to you for seeing that each letter is a perfection, together with the number. And when we are being perfected in the elements, the number [eight] is to be preferred by us, since [seven] is dedicated to matter; for seven is a sign of material grossness, while eight is the beginning of the more immaterial and greater state. For even if we say, above all, that six too signifies the matter of the world in a relative way, yet we refer the one to wholeness in quantity and the other to perfection in habit, by which a person wipes away the filth of the soul and is cleansed. For before the eighth day of the Lord Jesus Christ came, the whole world was uncleansed and uncircumcised; but when the eighth day, of Christ's resurrection, came, all at once we were all cleansed in the circumcision of Christ, buried with him and raised with him, as the Apostle says. Since, then, our soul is cleansed through the alphabetic arrangement, as we learn the moral topic and are perfected in the knowledge of it, the number eight was taken for each of the letters in the psalm before us. In this psalm, then, he describes the way of life of the saints, their contests, their afflictions, and so on. The one who never in any way sins would be blameless, and indeed blessed.

Of the same. A man is called blessed not because of his blamelessness, but because of the knowledge of God which he is to acquire through his blamelessness: "For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

"For those who work lawlessness have not walked in his ways," etc. If those who work lawlessness do not walk in the ways of God, clearly those who work righteousness will walk in the ways of God. So the ways of God are the contemplations of things that have come to be, in which we shall walk as we work righteousness. And if Christ is our righteousness ("for he became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption"), Solomon rightly says in Proverbs that Wisdom, which is Christ, is the beginning of the ways of the Lord. And by Christ I mean the Lord who came among us with the Word of God.

Of the same. If anyone works lawlessness, he does not walk in the way of the Lord; therefore he is not blameless in the way either.

"You have commanded your commandments to be kept diligently," etc. Whoever does not sin in thought keeps the commandments of God diligently.

Of the same. It is possible to keep the commandments of God vigorously, and possible to keep them slackly. Or: God commanded his commandments to be kept vigorously.

"O that my ways were directed to keep your statutes!" etc. For I shall not keep your statutes in any other way unless my ways are directed by you. What, then, are these statutes, "which you shall set before the sons of Israel"? "If you acquire a Hebrew servant, he shall serve you six years; in the seventh you shall send him away free," and so on. "O that my ways were directed," he says, so that whatever you have ordained I may render to each as is fitting.

"Then I shall not be put to shame, when I look upon all your commandments," etc. Not on some, but on all; for I shall be put to shame by those commandments I do not look upon. And for us who look to the divine Spirit, not being put to shame will come when we see ourselves fitted to him in every respect, nowhere shifting toward the flesh, nor brought down as if by a fall from on high.

Of the same. If whoever has done all the commandments but stumbles in one becomes guilty of all, it is well written: "Then I shall not be put to shame when I look upon all your commandments"; for even one commandment neglected can bring us shame.

"I will confess to you in uprightness of heart," etc. One who has never taken up uprightness of heart, but still has it crooked, has not yet made confession in such a way that his confession is accepted by God. How this comes about, what follows shows.

"Do not utterly forsake me," etc. My strength has its limits when I am tempted. Do not, he says, subject me to temptations beyond my strength, and do not utterly forsake me. "But God is faithful, who will not let us be tempted beyond what we are able," and so on.

"In my heart I have hidden your sayings, that I may not sin against you," etc. He sins against God who has been counted worthy of more secret sayings and commanded to hide them from the many, and yet does not hide them from those from whom he should. For it is dangerous not only to speak what is false, but also to speak what is true when one ought not to declare it at all. For pearls must not be thrown before swine, nor holy things given to dogs.

"Blessed are you, Lord," etc. Whoever perceives his own progress from seeking God with his whole heart blesses him, already giving thanks for what he has been counted worthy of. For having sayings that are secret and worthy to be hidden, he blesses the Lord for them.

"In the way of your testimonies I have delighted, as in all riches," etc. Whoever [delights in them] as in all riches of gold and silver and clothing and lands and estates and cattle and servants

is blessed.

"In your statutes I will meditate," etc. One meditates on the statutes of God not with little words and phrases, but by understanding them and doing them. For it is not the hearers of the statutes of God who are righteous before God, but the doers of them, who meditate on them by their works; and from meditating on them in this way they will never forget the words of God.

"Repay your servant; I shall live and keep your words," etc. Let whoever has done all that leads to the knowledge of God say to the Lord: "Repay your servant."

Of the same. He repays one who gives, as he repaid Isaac to Abraham, and as the master who had given the ten minas repaid the one who brought them.

"Unveil my eyes, and I shall perceive the wonders of your law," etc. The law needs unveiling; for the commandment of the Lord is far-shining. Here he has named the history of Scripture, allegorized spiritually, "law"; which Paul too did in the letter to the Galatians, writing: "Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not read the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman"; and he leads the history up for all, allegorizing it spiritually, to the Jerusalem above.

"My soul has longed to desire your judgments at all times," etc. He did not desire; he longed to desire, and to desire at all times.

"You rebuked the proud; cursed are those who turn aside from your commandments," etc. Whoever opposes the proud also rebukes the proud. The Lord opposes the proud; therefore the Lord also rebukes the proud.

"Rulers sat and spoke against me; but your servant meditated on your statutes," etc. So they gather against the righteous man, considering how to plot against him; but he does not cease speaking of the statutes of God, for he utters nothing merely human.

Of the same. Continual converse with something and occupation with it is called "meditation."

"My soul has cleaved to the ground; give me life according to your word," etc. The souls of sinners cleave to the ground, minding earthly things; but those of the righteous [cleave to it] either as bound to bodies or as remaining in them for a dispensation.

Of the same. Now the soul has cleaved to the ground and become flesh; but in the resurrection the flesh will cleave to the soul, and the soul that has cleaved to the Lord in the universal resurrection becomes one spirit, and the body becomes spiritual. Similar

to: "You brought me down into the dust of death"; and to: "Our soul was humbled into the dust"; and to: "the body of our humiliation"; and to: "Who will rescue me from the body of this death?" Through these words he showed the extreme of humiliation. So too in the forty-third psalm: "For our soul was humbled into the dust, our belly has cleaved to the earth."

"Make me understand the way of your statutes, and I will meditate on your wonders," etc. For when I have received understanding of the mysteries in them, and have travelled this way, I shall be able to converse and speak about the wonders in them.

"My soul has slumbered from listlessness; strengthen me in your words," etc. Listlessness is a long-lasting movement of anger and desire at the same time: the one angry at what is present, the other longing for what is not present. Slumber is a rational soul's neglect of the virtues and of the knowledge of God; sleep is a rational soul's voluntary separation from the true life. That is why the wise Solomon advises not to give sleep to the eyes nor slumber to the eyelids.

"Remove from me the way of injustice, and by your law have mercy on me," etc. He does not say, "Remove me from the way of injustice," but "remove it from me," as something already present in us, which needs us for its expulsion, but above all needs the help that comes from God, so that we may receive mercy by the law of God. It is like saying to a physician: By the art of medicine bring me to health, even if there is need of cutting and burning, or of anything else that knows how to cause pain. Of this law there is not even a beginning for those not yet visited [by God], but still given up to dishonourable passions, or to a reprobate [mind], or to some other state of those not yet obtaining correction and healing. For as long as the way of injustice does not depart from us, so long we do not even have the beginning of receiving mercy by the law of God.

"I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart," etc. The principles of the commandments, by enlarging the heart, make the way of the practical life easy for it.

Of the same. "Narrow and afflicted is the way that leads to life"; but broad and spacious is the holy heart, enlarged by the Word, which will see God and runs the good course of the way of the commandments of God. So the broad and spacious way leads to destruction; while the narrow heart, which has no room within itself for the dwelling of the Father and the Son, because of its narrowness separates from God the person who has made it such by his own vice.

"Set before me as law, Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will seek it out continually," etc. The one he asks of God; the other he promises to contribute from himself. For you, he says, Lord, give me the way of your statutes as law;

and I will give the whole time of my life to searching it out.

"Give me understanding, and I will search out your law, and keep it with my whole heart," etc. We need understanding to understand the law; for it is not plain, nor to be despised. It needs God's cooperation and our own zeal, so that we may receive from him the use and the grasp of both practical and contemplative things; for so, doubting nothing, I shall keep it with my whole heart. And if the searching needs understanding, how much more does finding its end?

"Behold, I have desired your commandments; in your righteousness give me life," etc. He asks as his reward the righteous and virtuous life, not only as one who has kept the commandments, but as one who is lovingly disposed toward them, and fulfils them for no other reason than for themselves. And since the Son is the righteousness of the Father, the one who wishes to live in the Son says this.

"And I will answer a word to those who reproach me, for I have hoped in your words," etc. For I will say that one who holds such doctrines does not deserve reproach. The things that strangers to the faith laugh at as foolish, I will show to be full of understanding and wisdom. And I will answer a word, since I have hoped in your words.

"And do not take the word of truth out of my mouth," etc. And do not take true knowledge out of my heart.

"And I walked in a broad place, for I sought out your commandments," etc. He walks in a broad place, even if he is afflicted, who says: "In affliction you enlarged me"; and again: "Afflicted in every way, but not crushed." For he has the spaciousness that comes from the Word, which one who sins does not have. That is why Paul says to the Corinthians about himself, "You are not restricted by us," but about them, "You are restricted in your own affections." For the works of vice confine the base man within himself.

Of the same. Love toward God makes room in the souls of men; for love, it says, is not restricted. And love toward God is the seeking and accomplishing of his commandments; for the Lord says: "If you love me, keep my commandments." So rightly the one who seeks the commandments of God walks in a broad place, that is, lives in spaciousness; since the one who loves the Lord bears all things, endures all things, and naturally suffers no restriction.

"And I spoke of your testimonies before kings, and was not ashamed," etc. And Paul says: "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel; for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek."

"And I meditated on your commandments, which I loved,"

[Ps 118 LXX / 119, continued] etc. The goal of meditating on the commandments of God is activity according to the commandments. And "I meditated on your commandments, which I loved," seems rightly placed first. For after meditating on the principle of the commandments and taking it up, it is good to lift one's hands to the deeds that accord with the commandments, without rendering the work out of grief or necessity.

"Remember your words to your servant, in which you made me hope," etc. And what is the word he asks him to remember, but to be with them, according to the promise he gave them, which also became their comfort in persecutions?

"This comforted me in my humiliation, for your saying gave me life," etc. Hope by its nature comforts the soul in temptations, supplying the expectation of good things.

Of the same. One thing only, he says, can console us in our sufferings: to have the promise of true life. Fulfil this, then, for us. For if in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied, because we suffer now and not in hope of a life to come. And the life to come is a return to life, inasmuch as we learn that the soul's own life is not even true life, since the soul is not the man. For if in its life by itself it had the truth of living, the dead man would not need a return to life. That is why the Lord too said that the dead live to God, as not yet having life, except so far as they have it in the power of God who gives life; and he says that they have perished if they do not attain the resurrection.

"The proud transgressed exceedingly, but I did not turn aside from your law," etc. For I lived by it, guarding my ruling faculty, so that no hidden word in my heart might become a transgression. For while they transgressed greatly, I did not transgress the law even a little.

"Dejection seized me because of the sinners who forsake your law," etc. Among sinners some sin without law, through never having had any experience of laws at all; others sin in the law, by transgressing it.

"Your statutes were songs to me in the place of my sojourning," etc. He calls the present life the place of sojourning, according to: "having confessed that they are strangers and sojourners on the earth." So, singing your statutes, I rejoiced, and my desire for the commandment gave no room even to sleep.

"I remembered your name in the night," etc. At all times we need the remembrance of the sayings of God, but especially when "darkness is around me and the walls cover me," when impure desire comes in and troubles the ruling faculty. For then

it is necessary to remember the sayings of God, so that we may keep the law of God concerning temperance.

"This has become mine," etc. He means the divinely inspired Scripture. For to the righteous man it is not only spoken, but comes to be his, since he adds accomplishment to meditation. That is why he is said to seek out the statutes, as one who does not meditate on them in passing. So the other translators write "I kept" instead of "I sought out."

"You are my portion, Lord; I said that I would keep your law," etc. As folly is the portion of the fool, so prudence is the portion of the prudent, and righteousness of the righteous.

"I entreated your face with my whole heart; have mercy on me according to your saying," etc. The face of God is the stamp of his substance, as has often been said. So whoever longs for the Lord with his whole heart, so that, when it has become pure, he may behold him and receive mercy from gazing on him, could say the verses before us, according to the word of the teaching. And see how great is the one who will see the face of God: let Jesus teach you, saying: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

"I considered your ways, and turned my feet to your testimonies," etc. What he says is this: I never spoke rashly without first considering whether I should speak or be silent; I never did anything rashly without considering whether the act was fitting; for our ways lie in our thoughts and in our actions. So he says: I did everything with circumspection, and therefore, as I walked, I turned my feet to your testimonies, so that I might not walk outside the testimonies of God, having devoted my whole purpose to your commandments.

"I was ready and was not troubled, to keep your commandments," etc. Freedom from passion by nature keeps the heart untroubled; and it comes to us from right conduct and true doctrines.

"The cords of sinners have entangled me, and I have not forgotten your law," etc. Cords is said of sins following one upon another and woven together. For those who have set out to weave sin are compelled because of it to commit another as well: as David, because of his sexual immorality, added murder; Cain joined a lie to his fratricide. Yet even when these had entangled him, he says he did not altogether forget the law of God, because, looking to repentance and turning back, he broke the cord of sin.

"At midnight I rose to confess to you for the judgments of your righteousness," etc. This should be said to those who neglect prayers at night.

"Their heart was curdled like milk; but I meditated on your law," etc. As cheese

once was when it was not cheese, so the demons once were when they were not wicked. And if milk is older than cheese, clearly virtue too is older than vice; for David likened vice to cheese.

"It is good for me that you humbled me, that I may learn your statutes," etc. As if he said: [I am content] in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in distresses. I ask to be shown worthy of your statutes, which cannot be learned in any other way.

"Let the proud be put to shame, for they acted lawlessly against me without cause," etc. Shame by its nature brings the sinner to awareness.

"Let those who fear you turn to me, and those who know your testimonies," etc. He asks that such people turn to him and come to him, so that he may share with them the grace that is in him.

"Let my heart be blameless in your statutes, that I may not be put to shame," etc. He asks as one who does not yet have it, as in "Create in me a pure heart, O God." And how will it be "blameless," or, as the other translators have it, "perfect"? He added: "in your statutes." And not being put to shame follows from this; for every sin deserves shame.

"My eyes have failed for your saying, saying: When will you comfort me?" etc. Comfort is the soul's rest from toils.

"For I have become like a wineskin in frost," etc. You will find in many places in Scripture that the body is figuratively called a wineskin. What the righteous man says, then, is this: I have put to death my members that are on earth; I have cooled the heat of the body by the divine word; I am no longer hot with appetite for the things of the belly or for bodily things; I have put to death and cooled my members that are on earth.

"How many are the days of your servant? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me?" etc. For few are the days of men on earth, during which he prays that Satan may be quickly crushed under his feet.

Of the same. All the days of men are few. Since, then, I live only a short time on earth, I wish to see those who persecute me judged, and I beg you not to delay. And who are those on whom he prays that judgment may come? Those who persecute us: Satan and the spiritual forces of wickedness. Even when a man seems to persecute us, the one who persecutes first is not a man but the devil, whose imitator he is.

"Lawless men have told me idle tales, but not like your law," etc. He calls teachings either the old wives' tales of the Jews, or the commandments of men, and the nonsense of the wise of this age. For many attempt to interpret the divine Scriptures, both among those of the Church

and among those outside it, heretics and Jews, or Samaritans too; but not all of them speak well. For rare is the one who has grace from God for this; many profess to speak, but not well, and they live lawlessly. So if they say anything, it is idle talk and nonsense; for a vigorous, strong and saving word cannot be in the soul of a lawless man.

Of the same. This verse should be used against those who profess to teach about the knowledge of God from the wisdom outside.

"They almost made an end of me on the earth, but I did not forsake your commandments," etc. That is: I almost became earthly, when I was tempted by the enemies.

"According to your mercy give me life, and I will keep the testimonies of your mouth," etc. He asks not to be handed over to death into the hands of those who plot against him, asking not yet for eternal life but for the present one; and he asks for it not as an end, but as something that will help to bring about a good end. For if I live, he says, I will keep the ordinances of God, through which one can also gain eternal life.

Of the same. The mouth of God is the prophets, who ministered his testimonies, his commandments, his statutes.

"For ever, Lord, your word remains in heaven," etc. "In heaven" means among his holy powers. For since all things there are in order, there is no transgression of the word; and "heaven" is not the heaven that passes away, even though everything in it moves in order, but the one that is said to be the throne of God. On earth the word does not even remain; for it has no room where there is sexual immorality and impurity and the other passions: "For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?" He did not say "to the age of ages" or "of the age" (for after the age heaven and earth will pass away), but [the heaven] in which "the word remains." For it is possible for a perfect man to seem to be on earth, while having his citizenship in heaven. So truth is in him always.

"Your truth is to generation and generation. You founded the earth, and it remains," etc. By this truth the earth has been founded. For on this cornerstone, laid as a foundation, all who are saved from the earth are built; hence the earth too remains, having an unbreakable and secure base and foundation. And truth too, having lit up the day that it made, with God shining upon it, remains in the same order, unchanged.

"For all things are your servants," etc. If all things are the servants of God, how does Solomon in Proverbs say of the ant: "Though it has no farm, nor anyone compelling it, nor is it under a master, it prepares its food in summer"? God is called master in two ways: either as Creator, or as known. That is why Paul too

writes: "Set free from sin, you became slaves to God," that is, by virtue and knowledge. "You have your fruit for sanctification, and its end is eternal life." And if the ant has no share in such an end, it clearly has none in this slavery either. So the ant is rightly said not to be under a master, in respect of this mastery.

"Unless your law had been my meditation, I would have perished then in my humiliation," etc. Blessed indeed is it not to perish when one has come into a time of trial, such as martyrdom. Unless one has meditated on the law of God beforehand, he perishes.

"I have seen an end of all perfection; your commandment is exceedingly broad," etc. Above all words from outside, the words of the commandments of God enlarge the soul by purifying it.

"How I have loved your law, Lord! All the day it is my meditation," etc. The law is meditated on not only in words and sounds, but also in actions. For when someone reads, understanding what is said and doing it, not leaving it out in any action, but in everything doing what the law wills, he meditates on the law of God by speaking, reading, and doing. Here it is said, "All the day it is my meditation"; but in the first psalm he says that the one who is to be blessed must meditate on the law not only by day but also by night. Why did he leave out the night here? Because the life of men here is mixed; that is why we now have day and night. But when we become holy and blessed, night will not follow upon us, but we shall be in day alone. See, then, how the one who journeys here, that is, who is not perfect in his life (for conduct in the world is a journey), does not yet journey in purity, but is sometimes in day and sometimes in night: in day, when he does what the law requires; in night, when he does not yet do the law with his whole heart (even if he meditates on the law), or when he acts against what is required. So the beginner, or the one making progress, meditates on the law day and night; but the one who has been perfected is not in night, but in day, as Paul says: "The night is far gone, the day has drawn near; let us walk decently as in the day." And again: "So then we are no longer of night or of darkness, but we are children of light and of day."

"You have made me wiser than my enemies in your commandment, for it is mine for ever," etc. A mind stripped of the passions, which has come to share in knowledge, becomes more cunning than the demons, often saying the word of Paul: "For we are not ignorant of his designs."

Of the same. Here he calls enemies those who lay claim to the commandments and hate us, though we are not hostile to them. He means the Jews of the circumcision; for the Christian has been made wiser than these in the commandment of God, understanding and keeping the law spiritually.

For this reason I can understand more deeply what the Lord said: "Love your enemies." For those are our enemies who "have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge."

"I have understood more than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation," etc. The Scriptures were theirs first; "they were entrusted with the oracles of God." They profess to have become teachers, as the first to receive the law and the prophets. So we who are from the nations say: "I have understood more than all my teachers." Why? "For your testimonies are my meditation." I find new testimonies beside the testimonies often spoken. For my meditation is the testimonies of Jesus Christ; for I have received these testimonies, and for this reason I have understood more than all my teachers. The churchman called them enemies; he called them teachers; now he calls them elders too.

"I have understood more than the elders, for I have sought out your commandments," etc. I use this verse against the old men who think that length of time and freedom from passion produce the knowledge of God.

"I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep your words," etc. We walked evil ways, "being once foolish and disobedient, led astray, slaves to various desires and pleasures," and so on. Those were evil ways. This is the voice of a perfect churchman. For as long as we still sin, we cannot say these things; for it is by restraining our feet from every evil way that we shall keep the words of God. What words? Those in the law, when we understand them spiritually and recognize Jesus Christ, who is proclaimed through them. "I have restrained my feet" shows the freedom of choice; for he said this as one with whom it lay to move his feet to walk, or to restrain them.

"I have not turned aside from your judgments, for you have given me law," etc. I always remembered your judgment seat. In the ninth psalm he says: "Appoint a lawgiver over them; let the nations know that they are men." For Moses gave the laws of the letter to those who could not receive the coming of the New Covenant; but Jesus Christ, having come, gave me the Gospel as law, and showed me that the law of Moses is spiritual.

"How sweet are your sayings to my throat, more than honey to my mouth!" etc. The mind that delights in knowledge and is nourished on it is called the mouth.

"From your commandments I have gained understanding; therefore I have hated every way of injustice," etc. Having gained understanding in your commandments, which distinguish for me what I must do; and indeed I not only depart from every way of injustice, but have also come to hate it.

"I have sworn and resolved to keep the judgments of your righteousness," etc. He has named the unchangeableness of his purpose an oath.

Of the same. We must inquire what "I have sworn" is doing here. "He made a covenant with his chosen ones." When God made this covenant with his chosen ones, the believer accepted it, and, by accepting his covenant, made as it were oaths between himself and God, so as to establish and keep the judgments of his righteousness. I establish them, he says, in my soul; and when I establish them, there comes about what is said by Solomon in Proverbs: "The thoughts of the righteous are judgments." Those "judgments" are "of the righteousness" of God; and they come about when I have sworn and established them in myself. "To establish" here means to define firmly; and "to swear," to resolve this unchangeably, and to choose with firm assurance to keep the work of the oath inviolate.

"Accept, Lord, the freewill offerings of my mouth, and teach me your judgments," etc. The things we were not commanded to do but do by choice he calls the freewill offerings of our mouth: for example, if I practise virginity, which I was neither commanded nor ordered to do, but choose to do voluntarily as the better course. Accept this, then, Lord. And in other matters of our life we shall find such things in the same way: some we do as servants under orders, and some we do voluntarily.

"My soul is in your hands continually, and I have not forgotten your law," etc. You will inquire how David's soul is in the hands of God continually: whether as in righteousness or as in knowledge. And perhaps the former; for it belongs to angels to see the face of God continually, that is, to contemplate him, but to men to be able to act righteously in deed continually; and this is to be in the hands of God. For righteousness of action in thought belonged to Christ alone, "who committed no sin" (that is, in deed) "and no deceit was found in his mouth" (clearly, in thought, from which the overflowings of the heart proceed). I entrust my soul to you always; I make you its guard and protector and pilot; and for this reason I have not forgotten your law, so that I may not fall away. Everyone who has dedicated himself to God commits his soul into his hands, as he said elsewhere: "For you are my protector, Lord; into your hands I will commit my spirit." But if he divides himself among pleasures and bodily passions and the cares of this life, he does not commit his soul into the hands of God.

Of the same. Aquila renders thus: "My soul is in my palm continually and perpetually, and I have not forgotten your law"; Symmachus: "My soul is in my hands always"; and the Fifth edition like the Seventy.

"Sinners laid a snare for me, and I did not stray from your commandments," etc. Sinners stitch together many and various snares for the righteous: for Joseph, the Egyptian woman and his brothers; for Daniel, those who received authority from Darius. But they did not stray from the commandments of God; therefore they proved stronger than the snares.

"I have inherited your testimonies for ever, for they are the joy of my heart," etc. All who rejoice in the commandments of God and embrace righteous action inherit his testimonies continually, acquiring them as their lot and portion in place of everything in the world, and rejoicing in whatever they suffer for them.

"I have inclined my heart to do your statutes for ever, for the reward," etc. I inclined it, knowing that a reward is stored up, which is the kingdom of God: "What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him."

Of the same. The reward of the statutes is the knowledge of them.

"I have hated the lawless, but I have loved your law," etc. The lawless man, insofar as he is lawless, is hateful; but insofar as he is the image and handiwork of God, he is to be loved. It is in the second sense that we have been commanded to visit those in prison, and it has been laid down that we do good to evildoers. But here he can mean words and laws that David hated.

Of the same. He did not hate lawless men; his life showed that he did not hate lawless men. For he did not hate Absalom, who rose against his father, nor Saul (of whom God said, "I repent that I anointed Saul king"), who plotted against David in various ways, nor any other lawless man. That is why, when he said "the lawless," he did not add "men"; for as a saint he hated what deserves hatred: lawless words, lawless doctrines, such teachings, the disposition by which they sin. That is why he set the beloved law against the lawless words. In this sense we have been commanded to hate father and mother too, that is, to turn away from them when they urge us to impiety or turn us from martyrdom for Christ. For otherwise we have been commanded to love even our enemies. And since God calls us to hate even our own soul, we must likewise hate lawless men, so that we may turn them back by becoming better through not becoming like them.

"Depart from me, you evildoers, and I will search out the commandments of my God," etc. Unless the demons depart from us, we have no strength to do the commandments of God; for it is against these above all that they take their stand, because these become for us the means to the knowledge of God.

"Uphold me according to your saying, and I shall live,"

[Ps 118 LXX / 119, continued] "and do not put me to shame in my expectation," etc. "For affliction produces endurance, and endurance character, and character hope, and hope does not put to shame."

Of the same. "According to your saying," that is, according to your promise. For you promised in the law to protect those who keep it. Count me, then, who have this aim, worthy of your providence, so that I may not fail of my hope and be filled with shame. "Saying" here means the promise; that is: Grant me the salvation promised to me.

"Help me, and I shall be saved, and I will meditate on your statutes continually," etc. For even if he said, "You are my helper and my protector," yet he needs unceasing help. For as long as we are here, "I shall be saved" is not yet complete; it will be when we live with the angels of God. For then the meditation on the statutes too will be face to face, not according to the shadow but according to the truth.

"I reckoned all the sinners of the earth as transgressors; therefore I loved your testimonies," etc. We call "transgressors" those who have been taught the word and, after being taught, did not keep it, but fell away and transgressed. But he sees that all have starting points toward goodness, even if they were not taught; so that not only those who fell away after faith are called transgressors, but also those who sin in any way whatever. And the sinners of the earth are men who have sinned on earth. For there are other sinners, of heaven, against whom our wrestling is, "against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places"; for having sinned there first, they afterwards do so on earth as well.

"Nail my flesh with the fear of you; for I have been afraid of your judgments," etc. One who is nailed is crucified. I seek, then, the cross, and I ask whether the cross is the fear of God. For the Saviour said: "Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." We have often distinguished between fear and love, and have said that the one who loves is more perfect than the one who fears, and that fear is necessary for the introduction. But where "perfect love" comes in, "it casts out fear." Since, then, the righteous man is found nailed by God with fear, I ask whether the one who is crucified fears, being nailed with fear, so that he may put to death his members that are on earth; but when perfect love comes, he is taken down from the cross, is buried, is raised from the dead, so that he may walk in newness of life, no longer according to fear but according to the love that is in Christ Jesus.

"I have done judgment and righteousness; do not hand me over to those who wrong me," etc. How, then, was Job, who did judgment and righteousness, as the Lord himself testified, handed over to those who wronged him? Or else he does not wish his soul to be handed over to them; for the righteous man knows how to despise body and possessions.

"I am your servant; give me understanding, and I shall know your testimonies," etc. No slave of sin is a servant of God; so let the one who serves in every action and thought, doing everything according to his word, say: "I am your servant." Being such a one, the Prophet asks to receive as the wage of his service: "Give me understanding." For there is an understanding given by God, which is stored with God as in a treasury. "For the Spirit of wisdom and understanding," it says, and the other gifts of good things, "will rest upon him."

"It is time to act for the Lord; they have scattered your law," etc. It is the time of achievement for the Lord, namely, to execute vengeance. The lawless have dissolved and set aside your law. Symmachus: "It is time to act for the Lord, for they are scattering your law"; Aquila: "They have annulled."

"Therefore I was directed toward all your commandments; I hated every unjust way," etc. Whoever has not accomplished all the commandments has not hated every unjust way either. And if the one who fears the Lord hates injustice, and this man has not hated it, he does not fear the Lord. And the one who does not fear is not blessed, since "Blessed is the one who fears the Lord." Whoever loves the commandments of God hates all vice as opposed to them. For virtue and vice are incompatible, as are light and darkness, health and sickness.

"Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul has searched them out," etc. Since your testimonies, being great and full of meaning, are wonderful, for this reason I do not attend to them carelessly, but my soul searches them out intently. For when I have contemplated them, I see myself falling far short of the understanding of them, and I apply myself to them a second time; then again, seeing that I am barely at the introduction to them, I intensify the search that lies open to me, until I attain the purest truth of the understanding of them.

"I opened my mouth and drew in breath, for I longed for your commandments," etc. Whoever has opened his heart through the practical life draws in the Holy Spirit, who reveals to him the mysteries of God. The mouth of my soul is the understanding. Having shut this to evil thoughts, I opened it to good ones, and drew in the Spirit of understanding, of grace, and of wisdom.

Of the same. So the wage for the supply of the Spirit is the declaring and the accomplishing of the commandments of God, so that we have only to open our mouth and at once draw the Spirit from heaven.

"Direct my steps according to your saying, and let no lawlessness rule over me," etc. Lawlessness is said to rule over the one who sins in thought, and to rule completely over the one who transgresses in deed. Or perhaps lawlessness rules over those who sin a little, and rules completely over those who sin more.

"My eyes went down into streams of water, because I did not keep your law," etc. Here he figuratively calls temptations in thought waters, from which Solomon turns us away, saying: "Keep away from strange water, and do not drink from a strange fountain."

Of the same. Our eyes go down into the streams of water, the unstable affairs of this life; from there they need to be brought up and to see clearly, so as to discern at last the stable things of the age to come.

Of the same. Symmachus renders thus: "My eyes went down into divisions of waters, over those who do not keep your law."

"Your zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten your words," etc. What zeal did I take up whenever I saw someone who had forgotten your words? Not simply zeal, but piercing and hot, a very burning, if I saw some forgetting your words. Of this zeal the disciples remembered that it was spoken in a psalm in the person of the Lord: "Zeal for your house has consumed me."

"Your saying is exceedingly refined by fire, and your servant has loved it," etc. The law of God, he says, is without guile, as tried in the fire by the Spirit himself; therefore it has no flattery and no irony, but openly reproves those who sin and stings the negligent. "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Let us too, then, if we are servants of God, love it, never playing dice with it or adulterating it (as Paul hinted), but offering it pure, as we received it from the smelting of the Spirit.

Of the same. The fire-refined saying of God burns wood, hay, and straw, consuming evil habits.

"Your righteousness is righteousness for ever, and your law is truth," etc. Righteousness among men is decreed for a short time. Eternal righteousness is righteousness in the proper sense: whomever you justify, you confirm eternally and justly. That of men is not so, for it is temporary and often mistaken. And your law is truth itself, exceedingly true in all things. Truth and uprightness are understood as in: "You are righteous, Lord, and your judgments are upright."

"Afflictions and hardships have found me; your commandments are my meditation," etc. He says "have found me" as though afflictions and hardships were seeking us out. Or perhaps those who afflict are called afflictions, and those who bring hardships are called hardships; for Scripture is accustomed to name habits in place of those who have them. So in Paul: "Love never fails"; and in Solomon: "Evil counsel has abandoned

the teaching of youth, and forgotten the divine covenant." And Scripture often does the reverse as well, and names the one who is by nature able to receive virtue in place of the virtue. For in Proverbs it says: "The uninstructed hated wisdom," in place of virtue. And Paul: "Do not be shaken from our mind," that is, from such an opinion. In afflictions your commandments were my meditation, comforting me and lightening the pain. For these are joined to the workers of virtue; from their teaching I learn courage and bear painful things nobly. So also Symmachus translated: "Afflictions and hardships overtook me, but your commandments delighted me"; and Aquila thus: "Affliction and distress found me; your commandments are my enjoyment."

"Your testimonies are righteousness for ever; give me understanding, and I shall live," etc. Understanding comes before knowledge, so that the one who has knowledge also has understanding; but the one who has understanding does not necessarily also have knowledge.

"I cried with my whole heart; hear me, Lord; I will seek out your statutes," etc. Whoever loves God with his whole heart cries with his whole heart.

Of the same. The cry is not a loud voice, but the greatness of the things it signifies to God. For the righteous man raises a great voice to God, asking for things heavenly and great. So too righteous Abel speaks, though he has died: "For the voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground"; to show that the righteous man has cried to God with a great voice. And to Moses, pursued by the Egyptians, he says: "Why do you cry to me?"

"I came early, at an untimely hour, and cried out; I hoped in your words," etc. The untimely hour is an intelligible disposition of a habit earnestly pressing on toward knowledge.

"Those who persecute me with lawlessness have drawn near; but they have gone far from your law," etc. We are taught by what is said to know what happens to one who persecutes the righteous: as far as he draws near to persecute the righteous man, so far he goes from the law of God. And as far as he goes from the law, so far he goes from life, because the law is our life.

"You are near, Lord, and all your ways are truth," etc. He himself draws near in this way; but unless we too, as he draws near, exert ourselves to draw near to him, we shall not enjoy his nearness. For this reason sinners are far from God: "Behold, those who put themselves far from you will perish." But the righteous man exerts himself to draw near to God.

Of the same. Righteousness is near to the one who is fitted by nature to act righteously; but it is much nearer to those who have acquired righteousness and knowledge in act.

"From the beginning I knew from your testimonies that

you founded them for ever," etc. Knowledge came to me from the beginning, when I began to worship God, from your testimonies. For, helped by having understood the testimonies handed down, I was enlightened in this way and sped toward knowledge; and I knew that you founded the testimonies for ever. If God has founded the testimonies, the founding has not yet ceased; what is being founded and built up is alive. And what do you build upon it? Ordinances, commandments, statutes, judgments, wisdom, knowledge; and so he completes the building in all good works, words of wisdom, knowledge of understanding. If these are laid in accordance with the foundation, a person has a perfect building of himself, worthy for God to dwell and walk in.

"See my humiliation and deliver me, for I have not forgotten your law," etc. It is blessed to be humbled before God; for James says: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." When, then, we are humbled in this way, even if we are plotted against by demons, even if we are warred upon by men who hate the virtues, we have God to deliver us, if only we do not forget his law nor grow weary in afflictions.

"Salvation is far from sinners, for they have not sought out your statutes," etc. If the salvation of the rational nature is the knowledge of God, and this comes to be in pure souls, then "Salvation is far from sinners" is rightly said; "for wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil." Where judgment is near, salvation too is near; and where salvation is far, judgment too is far. Why? Because he did not seek out your statutes. For your salvation does not flee from us; we flee from it. "For the Son of Man," the salvation, "came to seek and to save the lost."

"Your compassions are many, Lord; according to your judgment give me life," etc. The mercy of man is upon his neighbour, but the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh. For even the most righteous man needs the mercy of God in the face of God's exact judgment; indeed, even the appearance of having become righteous comes about by the mercy of God. For what has anyone done that is worthy of eternal blessedness? Yet God does nothing without judgment, nor does he give life without it. And the compassions are many, since many are those upon whom they come.

"Many are those who persecute and afflict me; I have not turned aside from your testimonies," etc. "Blessed," he says, "are those persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Of the same. The multitude hints at visible and invisible enemies, whose persecutions and afflictions are of various kinds. Some, feigning friendship, suggest pleasures; others, laying their enmity bare, bring on every kind of temptation. But let us

not turn aside from the testimonies of God, in which he has solemnly testified to us "that through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of heaven."

"I saw the senseless and wasted away, because they did not keep your sayings," etc. "Zeal for your house has consumed me."

"See that I have loved your commandments, Lord; in your mercy give me life," etc. For this too he calls on God, and says to him: I call upon your face. For I am confident that, turning your face toward me to observe me, you will see how I have kept your commandments; for you will find the imprints of good works in me.

"Rulers persecuted me without cause, and my heart feared because of your words," etc. He calls rulers the world-rulers of this darkness. "For the ruler of this world is coming," he says, "and finds nothing in me." And by "world" he means not the system made up of heaven and earth, but those who live a worldly life.

Of the same. The verse has something that belongs to David in particular: that, when he was persecuted by Saul without cause and out of envy, he held back from retaliating through his fear of God. But it reaches also to what is common to all: that there is no other way to escape unharmed from the enemies who are rulers except by being guarded by the fear of God.

"Seven times a day I have praised you for the judgments of your righteousness," etc. As the eighth is a symbol of the age to come, holding the power of the resurrection, so the seventh is a symbol of this world. Perhaps, then, David praised the Lord because he knew the principles of the just judgment of this sensible world.

Of the same. Throughout his life the righteous man, being enlightened, will be in a perfect day, not interrupted by night; and he praises God seven times when he has risen above the world, by passing beyond the world made in six days; when also, having come into the paradise of God and contemplated the principle of God's creation and providence, he confesses the judgments of the righteousness of God, according to which judgments each thing has received its varied creation and providence.

"Great peace have those who love your law, and there is no stumbling for them," etc. If the little ones are made to stumble, the little ones do not love the Lord: "For whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble," he says. But those who love the Lord are not made to stumble. The little ones do not love the Lord; that is why they do not know the principles of what happens, and stumble at it. Peace, not with the invisible enemies, but with God; and there is no stumbling block for them. For the law levels the way of virtue for them, taking away every obstacle of sin. Or it is peace also with those of the same faith, even if they often do not wish to be at peace with them.

"I expected your salvation, Lord, and loved your commandments," etc. Blessed is the one who awaits the salvation of God and also loves his commandments; for he advances into a perfect life, to the peak of blessedness, which was allotted to the apostles themselves, to whom he said: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men waiting for their master."

"Let my petition draw near before you, Lord; according to your saying give me understanding," etc. Through the earlier letters he was journeying toward God, but was not yet near him; but when he has come to the end of the present discourse, and to the last letter among the Hebrews, then he prays that his prayer may draw near to God and reach him. As to drawing near to God, one should know that we have found these differences: the more perfect man draws near to God; but the lesser man, though near him, does not himself draw near to God, but has a prayer that draws near to him. So you will find of Moses: "Moses alone shall draw near to God, but the rest shall not draw near"; but of this man, a prayer that says: "Let my petition draw near," and so on. It is worth contemplating now what the difference between these is. God is not in a place, but is a power unspeakable, unutterable, and invisible. If God is not in a place, and yet it is sometimes possible to draw near to God, clearly we draw near to him by what is invisible in us. And what is invisible in us? "The hidden man of the heart," whom Scripture has named the "inner man." It is this, then, that can draw near to God. And one can draw near through Jesus Christ, especially if we understand Christ to be righteousness, to be truth and wisdom, and resurrection and true light. For without these it is not possible to draw near to God, nor without peace, which guards the heart and the thoughts, and which is Christ. And as far as anyone falls short of these, of righteousness, I mean, and of wisdom, so far is such a man from God.

"Let my request come in before you, Lord; deliver me according to your saying," etc. He asks that his request be such as to come in before the Lord: approved, firm, and blameless. And I shall know whether my request has come in before you if I am delivered by you according to your word and my request and your wisdom. For whoever has risen above all the passions and has gone as far as possible from the vice that makes men useless is delivered by God according to his saying. For "my request" Aquila has said "my petition," and Symmachus "my supplication." He asks, then, for two things: understanding of the sacred sayings, and release and freedom from the evils of this life; which is necessary for us too.

"My lips will pour forth a hymn, when you teach me your statutes," etc. Belching generally happens to those who are full; for when we are filled, we belch out the quality of the food we have taken. The divine word, then, knows of a spiritual food; for the Word himself says he is bread: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live for ever." And the Word says that he has flesh, in: "Whoever eats my flesh has life in himself; for my flesh is true food." If, then, we are filled with this bread, which is the Word, we shall pour forth a hymn. And sometimes prayers too will pour forth; for the same must also happen through prayers, "when you teach me your statutes"; for unless I am taught your statutes, I cannot pour forth such an outpouring.

Of the same. As singing psalms belongs to the cheerful ("Is anyone among you cheerful? Let him sing psalms"), so hymning belongs to those who contemplate the principles of the statutes. But singing psalms suits men, hymning suits angels or those who have an angelic life. That is why the shepherds out in the fields did not hear angels singing psalms, but hymning and saying, "Glory to God in the highest," and so on. Cheerfulness, then, is the soul's freedom from passion, which comes to it from the commandments of God and from true doctrines; and a hymn is a doxology.

"My soul will live and praise you, and your judgments will help me," etc. He has shut the life of the soul up into the time to come: "For our life is hidden with Christ in God." Then it will hymn God in the proper sense.

"I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments," etc. The Lord turns back the soul that has gone astray first as righteousness, then also as wisdom, since the straying of the soul is vice and ignorance.

[Ps 119 LXX / 120] … calling blessed, because they have received back their own people and are with them; the tenth, as being in deep peace, when they say that they have often been warred against, but the enemies have never prevailed against them; the eleventh, as now at leisure for divine things and understanding their depths; the twelfth, as not being puffed up over what they have come to know; in the thirteenth they pray for the restoration of the Anointed; in the fourteenth for the restoration of the Church; in the fifteenth, that, having reached the house of God, they ought to stand in it and bless him, lifting up their hands to the holy places, so that they too may be blessed by the Lord.

"In my affliction I cried to the Lord, and he heard me," etc. God hears those afflicted for virtue's and knowledge's sake, in the affliction of the captivity and the hardship it brings. He calls the cry the return of a soul, broken and humbled, to the one who is able to rescue it; and God listens to it at once.

"Lord, rescue my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue," etc. Again and again he begs God for this: to be freed from such plots. And if one must flee the deceitful and the treacherous, much more must one flee the deceivers and those who instil wicked doctrines. One might say that unjust lips are above all those that harm virtue and lead to vice. For this reason this prophet asks that his soul too be rescued.

"The arrows of the mighty one, sharpened, with the coals of the desert," etc. Nothing so suits the opposing powers as the arrows of Christ, which are opposed to the fiery darts of the evil one, and the coals that consume wood, hay, and straw. And if there is an arrow of love, according to the bride in the Song ("For I am wounded by love," she says), there is also an arrow of righteousness and of courage and of temperance and of the other virtues; wounded by these arrows, the peoples fall beneath God.

Of the same. The one who says, "You have made me a chosen arrow," is a chosen arrow among many arrows, as he is a chosen son among many sons. God would not have a quiver for one arrow; and of it he says: "And in his quiver he hid me." So all the arrows of the mighty God are sharpened, being opposed to the arrows of the evil one.

"Woe is me, that my sojourning has been prolonged; I have dwelt with the tents of Kedar," etc. It does not belong to the same person to say, "Do not take me away in the half of my days," and, "Woe is me, that my sojourning has been prolonged." Or perhaps there he means the days that the fear of the Lord adds, according to Solomon,

those made by the sun of righteousness, in which Abraham too died full of days. But here he laments with regard to the sensible gift. For he too has "the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary" for the sake of those who benefit, since David, according to Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, or according to Paul, was sent "to serve his own generation."

Of the same. "Kedar" is interpreted "darkening." So, he says, I have dwelt with the tents of darkening, that is, of the body of death; and this soul of mine, he says, has often sojourned.

[Ps 120 LXX / 121] "I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where my help will come," etc. I, he says, lifted up my eyes to the mountains, the holy angels, as if I were to be helped by one of them; but my help came to me from the Lord, "who made heaven and earth." For he did not add "who made heaven and earth" without purpose. For if he himself made both heaven and earth, he says, he can give help everywhere, even in a foreign land, and stretch out his hand even among barbarians.

"Do not give your foot to be moved, and may he who keeps you not slumber," etc. Do not be overturned, he says, nor made to stumble, and then you will have God stretching out his hand; so the beginnings must come from us, and God is ready to stretch out his hand.

"The sun will not burn you by day, nor the moon by night," etc. This, I think, is the sun that rises upon the sown ground and dries it up; and the moon is the one in accordance with which "the fool changes like the moon."

"The Lord will keep your coming in and your going out, from now and for ever," etc. The going out is from vice to virtue; the coming in is from virtue to the knowledge of God.

[Ps 122 LXX / 123] Of the same. "God chose what is despised in the world"; therefore the despised must be seated in the Church. And this is something that can console the despised.

"Our soul has been filled exceedingly with the reproach of those who prosper, and the contempt of the proud," etc. See, these are sinners and prosperous. Symmachus renders thus: "Our soul has had its fill of many things, while those who prosper scoff and the proud make light of us." Aquila: "Our soul has been filled with much of the sneering of those who reproach, of the contempt of the proud."

[Ps 123 LXX / 124] "If the Lord had not been among us, let Israel now say," etc. It is likely that one of the priests, standing on one of the steps, said something like this to the people when they came to the temple at dawn: "Let Israel now say, If the Lord had not been among us"; then Israel, doing what was commanded, began with "The Lord was among us" and joined to it the rest of the psalm. Let "If the Lord had not been among us" be said, not by just anyone, but by the true Israel, who has a Lord and who said: "For us there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him"; as Paul also said: "For I too am an Israelite"; and: "They are Israelites, so am I." And it is likely that this psalm was said by the people at a priest's command, whenever the people, having been in danger in war or in some plot by the nations, had come through safely and defeated the enemies; especially if they returned after a valiant deed accompanied by some extraordinary manifestation. And let Israel also say, "Often they have fought against me from my youth," as is said in the hundred and twenty-eighth psalm.

"Then they would have swallowed us alive," etc. They swallowed Judas the traitor alive; for before the betrayal he had the Life that said, "I am the life." But those nurtured in vice from the beginning they swallow dead.

"Then the water would have drowned us," etc. By water he figuratively means the temptations that drown the soul; these same are called temptations and thoughts.

"Our soul has passed through a torrent," etc. By torrent again he means the thoughts, because they do not last long, but rush upon the mind all at once and then dry up again.

Of the same. "And the word of the Lord came to Elijah: Go from here eastward, and hide yourself by the torrent of Chorrath, which is east of the Jordan. And you shall drink water from the torrent, and I will command the ravens to feed you there. And

Elijah did according to the word of the Lord, and sat by the torrent of Chorrath, east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening, and he drank water from the torrent. And after some days the torrent dried up, because there was no rain on the land."

"Our soul has been rescued like a sparrow from the snare of the fowlers," etc. We have been rescued from the snare of the demons who hunt us, since Christ crushed the devil and gave us power to tread upon snakes and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy, which has strength only against the careless. For we have received the grace of the Spirit, and we are nourished by the blood and body of Christ.

Of the same. The opposing powers hunt the soul of the righteous; their snares are those through whom they work, who provoke us and call us to sin, and all the material that invites us to sin. But a sparrow does not fall into a snare without the Father who is in heaven.

"The snare was broken, and we were rescued," etc. The Old Covenant breaks the snares of action, laying down: "You shall not commit adultery"; but the New destroys the snares of thought, commanding: "You shall not desire." In the case of Abimelech of Gerar he destroyed the snare of action, not allowing him to touch another man's wife; but in the case of Joseph, the snare of thought. For Scripture does not present him as having desired another man's wife. And blessed is he whose snare of action the Lord has broken, but more blessed he whose snare of thought he has destroyed, and in whose mouth no deceit was found.

[Ps 124 LXX / 125] "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion," etc. Those who come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, bear the image of the heavenly one; and trusting in the Lord they become like that Mount Zion.

Of the same. If from trusting in the Lord someone becomes like Mount Zion, another might from something else become like Mount Horeb, and another like Mount Sinai; and from the opposite things someone might be like a mountain of Egypt, a mountain of Babylon, and such mountains as belong to the enemies. Or, as those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, so those who are lesser are like the mountains around it.

"Mountains are around it, and the Lord is around his people," etc. The mountains around Jerusalem are, I think, divine powers. "For the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him."

[Different], then, is the people of the Lord from those who fear the Lord; for "House of Israel, bless the Lord" is one thing, and "You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord" another.

"For the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the righteous," etc. It is [the work] of the Lord, who is around his people, not to leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the righteous. And the people of the Lord is righteous.

Of the same. If the lot of the righteous is the knowledge of God, he will not leave the righteous in ignorance.

"So that the righteous may not stretch out their hands to lawlessness," etc. Note "stretch out," because it happens in lawlessness. But if, by hypothesis, the rod of sinners were left upon the lot of the righteous, the righteous would stretch out their hands to lawlessness. We shall use these verses if in a persecution many deny God and sacrifice to idols, saying that, since those who deny were not righteous, the Lord left the rod of sinners upon their lot, so that they stretched out their hands to lawlessness: "For from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

[Ps 125 LXX / 126] "When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became like those comforted," etc. The apostles are prophesied as going to say these things about themselves and those among the nations. And after this he declares about sowing and reaping.

Of the same. Captivity is the passing of the rational nature from virtue and knowledge to vice and folly.

"Then our mouth was filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation," etc. The mouth was filled with joy and the tongue with exultation, from which joy and exultation flow. When this has happened, those of the nations who are taught say: "The Lord has done great things for them." And about themselves they say, giving thanks: "The Lord has done great things for us; we became glad." "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept"; but "when the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, our mouth was filled with joy." When we do "I set a guard on my mouth," and "The mouth of the righteous meditates wisdom," and "Open your mouth with the word of God," and things like "Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians," then we shall speak truly when we say: "Our mouth was filled with joy."

"Then they will say among the nations: The Lord has done great things

for them," etc. "After this he appeared on earth and lived among men."

"Turn back our captivity, Lord, like torrents in the south," etc. Above, the two verses were spoken as though the return from captivity had already taken place; but now the Prophet says these things as though in captivity: the former, I think, prophesying about the apostles; the latter speaking in the person of the nations. For the words from "The Lord has done great things for them" to "like torrents in the south" belong to those among the nations.

"Those who sow in tears will reap in exultation," etc. Those who work at the practical life with toil and tears sow in tears; but those who share in knowledge without toil reap in exultation.

[Ps 126 LXX / 127] "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it have laboured in vain; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman has kept watch in vain," etc. The verse should be used against thoughts of pride. Unless the Lord builds through his cooperation, those who build have laboured in vain.

Of the same. First "the Lord built the rib that he took from Adam into a woman." Since he did not build with Cain when Cain built a city in the name of his son Enoch, Cain the builder laboured in vain. And those too who moved from the east and said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower," laboured in vain in building, since the Lord did not build with them. And the Hebrews in Egypt groaned, I think, as labouring in vain at their building, since the Lord was not building with them.

Of the same. Those who built the house in Jerusalem laboured in vain; that is why it was destroyed. It would not have been destroyed if the Lord had built it. But the house of God, which is his Church, the apostles of Christ who build it, and the teachers appointed by him, have not laboured in vain; for the Lord built it. And in another way the heterodox build a house without the Lord, doing harm to the Church; therefore they have laboured in vain. So too the Jews.

Of the same. Insofar as the soul is a house, it has God within it as master of the house; but if it becomes a temple, it has Christ within it as being God. Through the practical life it acquires him as master of the house, through natural contemplation as king, and again through theology as God. And upon the

third the other two follow of necessity, as the first follows upon the second; but upon the first the second and the third do not follow of necessity.

"It is in vain for you to rise early; rise after you have sat down, you who eat the bread of pain, when he gives sleep to his beloved," etc. As sleep withdraws us from sensible things, so also the contemplation of God withdraws us from them.

Of the same. As when we sleep we do not even know that we are sleeping, so also when we contemplate we do not even know that we have come into contemplation.

Of the same. If the practical life has the role of bread, and sleep that of knowledge, then sleep is rightly given us after the eating of the bread of pain; for only the knowledge of God can by nature loosen the weariness of the practical life.

Of the same. If sleep usually warms the body, knowledge is rightly called sleep; for it makes all who possess it fervent in spirit.

Of the same. As sleep, by digesting food, nourishes the body through the juices, so also knowledge nourishes the soul, teaching it the principles of the practical life.

"Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward of the fruit of the womb," etc. The inheritance of the Lord is not daughters but sons, who are the reward of the fruit of the womb. Such are the righteous sons. Therefore they will appear three times a year before the Lord God. No unrighteous son is a reward or the inheritance of the Lord.

[Ps 127 LXX / 128] "You will eat the labours of your fruits," etc. The more labours of fruits there are, the more food there will be in the age to come. By labours he means [the works] of the members in the hands, which are named fruits. Good, then, and nourishing are the labours of the fruits, from which we go up to the living bread.

"Your wife will be like a flourishing vine on the sides of your house; your sons like young olive shoots around your table," etc. No one who is a stranger to God has these things; for the things of which this is said are not bodily but spiritual. When the vineyards and olive groves of the righteous are blessed, the saying must be taken either figuratively of wife and sons, or word for word. Or else the wife is wisdom, and the sons are deeds. A wife who is a good portion, or the valiant woman in Solomon, is a flourishing vine, especially when she is a good keeper of the house. But a wife who is not such is of the vine of Sodom; and it might be said to a wife who changes for the worse: "How have you turned to bitterness, alien vine?"

Of the same. The wife of the mind is wisdom: "Love her," it says, "and she will keep you; honour her, that she may embrace you; and you will acquire from her wise words." "Say that wisdom is your sister"; he names her sister because she too is from the Father of all. And one should remember how Abraham called his own wife sister, teaching anyone who wishes what wisdom is.

"Behold, so shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord," etc. The one called a man, because he fears the Lord, has a field; and he has his wife as a vine on the sides of his house, and his sons as young olive shoots around his table.

"And may you see your sons' sons," etc. Solomon too says: "A good man will inherit sons' sons."

[Ps 128 LXX / 129] "Often they have fought against me from my youth, let Israel now say," etc. One who has contended from childhood will say this, having conquered his enemies though often warred against; and so will the one who says: "God who has fed me from my youth."

"They lengthened their lawlessness," etc. Useful for this is: "Woe to those who draw sins as with a long rope, and lawlessness as with the strap of a heifer's yoke." And as far as one lengthens his lawlessness, so far he puts himself at a distance from God.

"Let them be like grass on the housetops, which withers before it is plucked up," etc. The teaching

[Ps 128 LXX / 129, continued] of the heights raised up against the knowledge of God is grass on the housetops, which withers before it is plucked up, filling neither the hands with good deeds nor the bosom with knowledge; and about it those who pass by do not speak like the one who said: "I will turn aside and see this great sight."

[Ps 129 LXX / 130] "Out of the depths I have cried to you, Lord," etc. Not from the surface, but from the depths within himself he has cried to the Lord. And "I have cried to you," which differs from "I have cried toward you," can signify: I have spoken of God greatly and with a great voice (great, that is, in an intelligible sense). The base man honours the Lord with his lips while his heart is far from him; but the blessed man, because the Spirit cries out in his heart, has cried out of the depths to the Lord.

Of the same. Whoever searches out the depths of God cries out of the depths to the Lord.

"Let your ears be attentive," etc. He calls the Lord's power of hearing prayers his ears.

"If you mark iniquities, Lord, Lord, who will stand?" etc. If the sins of thought, by making the mind impure, separate it from the knowledge of God, no man will be counted worthy of knowledge. "For who will boast of having a pure heart? Or who will be bold to say that he is clean from sins?" "And no one," he says, "is clean from filth, not even if his life is but one day."

"For with you is propitiation," etc. The propitiation for iniquities that is with the Lord is Christ: "For he is the propitiation for our sins."

"For your name's sake I have waited for you, Lord," etc. Endurance for the sake of God's name is better than endurance for anything else. And the soul that has come to the word of the Lord endures in a praiseworthy way.

"My soul has waited for your word; my soul has hoped in the Lord," etc. Hope arises by nature from proven character, proven character from endurance, endurance from affliction, and affliction from self-control and temptations. The cause of these is the fear of God, which is joined to right faith. And faith is assent to things not yet grasped.

"And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities," etc. The mind is freed from the sins or iniquities of thought at the time when it is counted worthy of knowledge; for

the practical life does not take away the thoughts of the heart, but the passionate thoughts.

[Ps 130 LXX / 131] "Lord, my heart was not lifted up, nor were my eyes raised high," etc. These are the words of a righteous man who, in great and wonderful gifts, is not puffed up, nor exalted, nor conceited, but even in these is humble-minded.

"If I was not humble-minded, but exalted my soul, as a weaned child upon its mother, so you will repay my soul," etc. As Isaac and Samuel were weaned, so was this man too, imitating them and those like them. The soul of the weaned child is exalted not by someone exalting it, but it is exalted to its own mother, of whom it is said: "But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother," and so on.

Of the same. To the soul of the weaned child the Lord renders a reward for its ascent so far.

"Let Israel hope in the Lord from now and for ever," etc. In the song before this it is said: "From the morning watch let Israel hope in the Lord"; and in this one, until when? "From now and for ever." For after that one enjoys what is hoped for.

[Ps 131 LXX / 132] "Remember, Lord, David and all his meekness," etc. The Lord remembers the one in whom he comes to be, and does not remember the one in whom he does not come to be. And if the Lord remembers meekness, there is need of much freedom from anger for anyone to receive the Lord. For meekness is the untroubled state of the irascible part, which arises from being deprived of corruptible pleasures.

Of the same. For "meekness" Aquila rendered "ill-treatment," Symmachus "affliction," and the Fifth edition "humiliation."

"Until I find a place for the Lord," etc. The place of the Lord is a pure mind.

"We found it in the fields of the forest," etc. He speaks prophetically of wisdom, which is Christ.

"Your priests will be clothed with righteousness, and your holy ones will exult," etc. As one is clothed with righteousness, so also with temperance and courage and love and patience, and the other virtues.

[Ps 132 LXX / 133] "Like ointment on the head, which runs down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron," etc. The ointment is the Holy Spirit, the head is the mind, and the beard is the word; and the word encloses the heart. The beard of Aaron is the word that fences off the passions and offers the virtues to God as priestly service. And the grace of the Spirit runs down also upon the hem of his garment; that is, it is passed on through practical virtue to moral philosophy as well. For the hem of his garment is its end.

"Like the dew of Hermon, which comes down upon the mountains of Zion," etc. In Deuteronomy Moses names this mountain Hermon; but the Phoenicians call it Sanior, and the Amorites Sanir. It is beyond the Jordan. There is a tradition that the angels who rebelled deliberated on this mountain about their rebellion and made compacts.

Of the same. The mountains of Zion are the saints who mind high things, on whom the dew comes down. Hermon is interpreted "turning away of beasts." They say too that the Jordan once had its source there. This also signifies the grace of holy baptism; for it always comes down upon the saints, and through it comes the turning away of the intelligible beasts.

[Ps 133 LXX / 134] "Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God," etc. "You who stand," he says, "in the house of the Lord," and do not "fall like one of the rulers," but watch that you do not fall, "bless the Lord."

Of the same. The contemplatives are in the house of God, and the practical in the courts of the house of our God.

"In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless the Lord," etc. For "to the holy places" one has "holily," another "in a sanctified way." By "in the house of the Lord" he showed that no one is prevented from lifting holy hands everywhere; but it is not least fitting to do this in places consecrated to God,

as in the Hebrew. [Ps 134 LXX / 135] But now it stands with "in the courts of the house of our God."

"For I have known that the Lord is great, and our Lord above all gods," etc. Jethro says: "Now I know that the Lord is great above all the gods"; but the Prophet says first, "For I have known that the Lord is great," and then, "and our Lord above all gods."

"All that the Lord willed, he has done in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps," etc. All that the Lord has made in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in the deeps, is good, since it came to be by the will of God. But if there is anyone in heaven, like the spiritual forces of wickedness, or on earth, like sinful men, or in the seas, like the wickedness of the dragon, or in the deeps, like the wickedness of those ordered to go there, this evil God did not make by his will: "For from the mouth of the Most High evil and good do not come forth."

Of the same. As heaven is the dwelling of the holy powers, so the earth is the dwelling of men: "The heaven of heaven is the Lord's, but the earth he has given to the sons of men." And as in the seas, figuratively so called, dwell the demons who oppose us, among whom also the dragon was formed to be mocked, so in the deeps, allegorically so called, dwell the subterranean demons.

"Bringing up clouds from the end of the earth; he made lightnings for the rain," etc. A cloud is a rational nature entrusted with the principles of Providence; lightning is spiritual teaching, bringing rational souls back from vice to virtue.

"And he gave their land as an inheritance," etc. If our inheritance is the knowledge of God, how are the opposing powers said to possess it? And you will inquire whether they are said to possess it, not as knowing it, but as preventing us from coming to it.

"Blessed be the Lord from Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem," etc. The one who dwells in a pure heart dwells in Jerusalem. He said that he dwells in Jerusalem, not confining the divine nature there, but knowing that at that time the divine manifestation was there, in the temple of Jerusalem.

[Ps 135 LXX / 136] "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is for ever," etc. Those who suffer hardship in this age naturally need mercy in the age as well.

"Give thanks to the God of gods, for his mercy is for ever," etc. "Giving thanks" signifies thanksgiving and doxology here;

but it is also used of the confession of sins, as [elsewhere].

Of the same. He is God of gods, of those to whom the word of God came, according to the Scripture that says: "I said, You are gods"; and: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob," that is, by reason of his great love for them and his closeness to them. But he is God of the demons by reason of creation. And the Apostle too says: "Even if there are many gods and many lords in heaven and on earth"; but those called gods after the Trinity are such by participation in divinity, whereas the Saviour is God not by participation but by essence. And "for his mercy is for ever" is added in the manner of a refrain. For since he always has mercy, those who sing the refrain rightly say: "For for ever," and so on.

"To him who alone does great wonders," etc. He shows him continually doing good and working wonders. And he sets down these things about him, two and three and four: that he does them, that they are wonders, that they are great wonders, and that he alone does them. These things are said not to set the Son aside, but to set him apart from the demons. And what are these wonders that he alone does? And yet, at the beginning of the psalm he was speaking not of power but of goodness. How, then, does he now fall into speaking of power? Because these wonders belong not to power only, but also to goodness and love for mankind.

"To him who established the earth upon the waters," etc. If the earth is the base of the water, how has the earth been established upon the waters? And how does Job speak truly when he says, "Who hung the earth upon nothing"? Perhaps the earth beneath the abyss hangs upon nothing, while the earth above the abyss, on which we dwell, was established upon the abyss; so that the abyss is enclosed in the middle of the earth as in a vessel. So much, if one wishes to contend for the literal history. But as to the meaning: "Give thanks," he says, "to him who established the rational nature upon true knowledge." That in the Gospels the Lord calls rational souls earth and knowledge water can be learned from the seed that fell into the good earth, and from the river of living water flowing from the belly of the believer. And the rest of the psalm follows the second interpretation. The moon and the stars light this earth while it still lives in ignorance and cannot yet be enlightened by the sun of righteousness. Again Egypt is taken as a symbol of vice, when the firstborn in thought are destroyed; and Pharaoh is punished, choked in the spiritual waters; and Israel journeys through the desert, hungry and thirsty and tempted, and the desert is a symbol

of the practical life, as he hastens to the land of promise, which they say is the knowledge of God.

"And shook off Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea," etc. Wishing to show the ease of the drowning, he used this word. And the army too shares in the punishment and is punished, since they shared in the wrongs done to the Jews and took part in the pursuit.

"For in our humiliation he remembered us," etc. When the Lord remembers us as impure, he remembers us under the aspect of his righteousness; when again as pure, under the aspect of his wisdom. But this must be known, that these aspects are predicated with regard to the contemplation of things that have come to be, which presents Christ as Creator.

"Who gives food to all flesh," etc. The flesh that is nourished by God receives the salvation of God.

[Ps 136 LXX / 137] "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion," etc. Great is these men's longing for the city. And why did they sit by the rivers? Because, being captives taken from an enemy country, they lived in camps outside walls and cities.

"On the willows in its midst we hung up our instruments," etc. Know that all the souls who sit in shadow and ignorance have a fruitless word, having hung up the instruments that serve the practical life.

"For there those who took us captive asked us for words of songs, and those who led us away: Sing us a hymn from the songs of Zion," etc. I know that the demons too compel us to say psalms and spiritual songs in which there is some commandment we have transgressed, so that, hearing them, they may laugh at us as people who say and do not do.

"Remember, Lord, the sons of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said: Empty it, empty it, down to its foundations," etc. "Empty it, empty it, to the foundation in it" is set down as spoken by the enemies. It shows those who wrestle with us trying to lay hold of the natural seeds of virtue, which he has figuratively named the foundation, laid from the beginning in the soul itself; that is, so that the mind, having fallen entirely from virtue, may walk, as the proverb says, "more naked than a pestle," having neither put on Christ nor a wedding garment.

"Blessed is he who will seize your little ones and dash them against the rock," etc. Those who, according to the teaching of Christ, destroy the base thoughts of the soul dash the little ones of Babylon against the rock.

[Ps 138 LXX / 139] "Lord, you have tested me and known me," etc. In what follows too it is said, as of the heart being revealed in temptations: "Test me, O God, and know my heart." The Fifth edition here said "you have searched out," and in what follows "search out." For as gold is tested in a furnace, so are acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. And it is written in a psalm: "You have tested us as silver is refined by fire." When you have understood this, you will know that only the righteous man, and everyone who has been tested, is known, as being in Christ from God; as is clear also from "Test me, Lord, and know my heart."

Of the same. God, though he foreknows all things, still tests, not in order to know, but in order to make those who endure more proven. And so that no one might suppose that he gains knowledge by testing, he added to the saying: "You understood my thoughts from afar." For he who knows the thoughts even before they are stirred, indeed long before, how would he need a test for his own knowledge?

"You have traced out my path and my measuring line," etc. Of those who use a good path God traces out the line, and God foresaw all the measures of the way of such people.

"For there is no deceit in my tongue," etc. There is no deceit, he says, in my tongue; that is, my word is not superficial, but comes from depth and from the heart. "The heart of fools is in their mouth."

Of the same. He has figuratively named the heart the tongue.

"Behold, Lord, you have known all things, the last and the ancient," etc. Consider why the things in the middle have been passed over in silence: because vice lies in between, and exists neither in the beginning nor in the end.

"Your knowledge has become too wonderful for me; it is mighty; I cannot attain to it," etc. This is the voice of a wise teacher who has benefited many and has dispensed the wonderful mysteries of knowledge.

"If I go up into heaven, you are there; if I go down into Hades, you are present," etc. He says these things as one able to go and flee into heaven and into Hades, and to fly to the ends of the sea; and it is likely that the soul, when it has come to be by itself, is able to do so. You will compare with these words the passage in Deuteronomy

which runs as follows: "This commandment is not too great for you, nor is it far from you. It is not up in heaven, that you should say: Who will go up for us into heaven and get it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say: Who will cross over for us to the other side of the sea and get it for us, so that we may hear it and do it? The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart and in your hands, to do it." You will compare also these words from Amos: "None of them who flees shall escape, and none of them who seeks safety shall be saved. If they dig down into Hades, from there my hand will draw them up; and if they go up into heaven, from there I will bring them down; if they hide on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they sink from my eyes into the depths of the sea, there I will command the serpent and it will bite them; and if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword and it will kill them."

"And I said: Surely darkness will trample me, and the night is light in my delight," etc. If ignorance of heart is darkness ("for their senseless heart was darkened," it says), it is fitting that the one who becomes the cause of this darkness for us is himself named darkness; he chooses to darken our delight in knowledge, but God does not allow it, and lights up the darkness: "For the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." For as we acquired ignorance through vice, so too we have received knowledge through virtue.

"For you possessed my kidneys," etc. Blessed is the one whose kidneys have become the possession of the Lord.

"My bone, which you made in secret, was not hidden from you," etc. Here he has named the soul "bone," which God alone made.

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance," etc. An unformed soul is one not shaped by virtue and knowledge.

"And in your book all will be written," etc. The book of God is the contemplation of bodies and incorporeal beings, in which a pure mind is by nature written through knowledge. In this book are also written the principles of Providence and of judgment; and through this book God is known as Creator, Wise, Provider, and Judge: Creator, through the things brought from not being into being; Wise, through the principles stored up in it; Provider, through the things that contribute to our virtue and knowledge; and Judge, again, through the different bodies of the rational beings, and the various worlds, and the ages that contain them.

"Days will be formed, and no one in them," etc. They will be formed in knowledge, and no one

[Ps 138 LXX / 139, continued] will be outside knowledge, so that God may be all in all.

"I awoke, and I am still with you," etc. "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Therefore awakening is the return from vice to virtue.

"I hated them with perfect hatred," etc. If the perfect man, having hated evil, abstains from all vice, then whoever shares in any of their vices whatever has not perfectly hated evil.

"Test me, O God, and know my heart," etc. If God is a consuming fire, clearly he tests the souls of men under the aspect of fire.

[Ps 139 LXX / 140] "Who devised injustice in their heart; all the day they drew up battles," etc. The demons draw up in battle against us through thoughts, sometimes stirring desires, sometimes anger, and at other times anger and desire at once, from which comes the so-called entwined thought. But this happens only at the time of listlessness, while the others come at intervals, succeeding one another. No other thought succeeds the thought of listlessness on that day, first because it lasts long, and then because it holds almost all the thoughts within itself.

"They sharpened their tongue like a serpent's," etc. He calls the sharpest thought "sharpened." Such too is the thought that snatches the mind away to blasphemy.

"Who planned to trip up my steps," etc. But the demons often do not set base thoughts before us naked, lest the mind, seeing their irrationality face to face, throw the thoughts away; instead they sow the evil thoughts along with certain other thoughts that look good. And they do this only with the perfect, who have no passions; for into the passionate and impure they cast the thoughts even openly, and these cannot drive them away.

"Coals of fire will fall upon them," etc. This fire and these coals burn wood, hay, and straw, consuming evil habits.

"I know that the Lord will execute judgment for the poor and justice for the needy," etc. This is a prophecy about the judgment to come, in which, while the ungodly are handed over to the fire, the righteous will be received into rest. Solomon too, having benefited from this, said: "For God will bring every work into judgment." And he has come to a good end, since the psalm is also headed "For the end,"

speaking of the hope stored up for the righteous: "The upright will dwell with your face." For "with your face" Symmachus says "beside your face," that is, to see God face to face with a purified understanding.

[Ps 140 LXX / 141] "Let my prayer be directed as incense before you," etc. That man's prayer is directed as incense who can say: "We are the aroma of Christ among those being saved and among those perishing."

"Set a guard, Lord, on my mouth," etc. Nothing so guards our heart as the fear of God, since by the fear of the Lord everyone turns aside from evil.

"But let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head," etc. He calls the sinner's oil beneficence that is done not for the sake of the knowledge of God, but for the sake of glory from men; for this is also the trumpeting of the one who gives alms.

"Sinners will fall into its net," etc. The net is varied punishment drawn up from the depth of vice. But this net belongs to the age to come; the net of the present age is spiritual teaching, which brings those who have strayed from godliness back to virtue.

[Ps 141 LXX / 142] "With my voice I cried to the Lord; with my voice I made supplication to the Lord," etc. As fire by nature moves upward, so it is the nature of the righteous man's voice to go to the Lord, and as it were to call him forth to supply what one needs from God.

"I will pour out my supplication before him; I will declare my affliction before him," etc. One who asks only for great and heavenly things, and prays with a new spirit, is bold to pour out his supplication before the Lord, since it has nothing lowly or shameful in it, such as there is in the supplications of those who babble and ask for things unworthy of God, not pouring them out from a pure heart. This verse, then, belongs to the boldness of a saint, and the sinner could not reasonably say it; and the next verse belongs to the one who is afflicted in every way but not crushed, who boasts in the afflictions that produce endurance by walking the narrow and afflicted way that leads to life.

"In this way in which I walked they hid a snare for me," etc. Our enemies plot against all the virtues. In courage they hide the snare of cowardice; into meekness they put rashness; into almsgiving, showing mercy not for God's sake but because of those who are watching; and into

fasting, fasting for the sake of men. And these concern the practical life; but what might one say also of contemplation, of all the snares the enemies lay for orthodox doctrines through the heresies?

"Flight has perished from me, and there is no one who seeks my soul," etc. One who has lost this flight cannot say: "In affliction you have enlarged me."

"I cried to you, Lord; I said: You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living," etc. If our Lord is Wisdom, and he himself is the portion of the living, then the portion of the living is wisdom, by which they are also called living; and wisdom is Christ.

"Rescue me from those who persecute me," etc. Continual temptations pursue the mind away from knowledge.

"Bring my soul out of prison," etc. It is not for all to say, "Bring my soul out of prison," but only for those who through purity are able to give themselves to the contemplation of things that have come to be even apart from this body.

[Ps 142 LXX / 143] "Lord, hear my prayer; give ear to my supplication in your truth; hear me in your righteousness," etc. One who has seen that he worships God in spirit and in truth, and no longer in a type, might say: "Give ear to my supplication in your truth."

"And do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living will be justified before you," etc. When the Lord enters into judgment with man and says, "My people, what have I done to you, or how have I grieved you?" no one living will be justified. Before the Lord no one living will be justified; but before men, not only the unjust, but sometimes other righteous people too, [may be justified]. And he adds the reasons for not being justified, in a way akin to this verse: "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged."

"My soul is like a waterless land to you," etc. A waterless land is a pure soul that seeks spiritual knowledge.

"Hear me quickly, Lord; my spirit has failed," etc. When a man is listless for a long time, his spirit fails. Similar to this is: "When my spirit was failing within me."

"Make me hear your mercy in the morning, for in you I have hoped. Make known to me, Lord, the way in which I should walk, for to you I have lifted up my soul," etc. He seeks the contemplation of the age to come, which the divine Scripture is accustomed to call the kingdom of heaven.

Of the same. This can be said of making known the way that leads to virtue, or the way one walks after one's departure, which is the way of the tree of life, guarded by the cherubim and the flaming sword.

Of the same. The land of the living and the level land are the same good land, to which the good Spirit of God leads the worthy. And from this we have been taught the dignity of the Spirit. For as God, so the Spirit too has been named good; and as he begged God to lead him, so he also asks to enjoy the guidance of the Spirit, so that nothing may seem to him steep or difficult, but that he may walk the way straight and smooth and free from error.

[Ps 143 LXX / 144] "Blessed be the Lord my God, who trains my hands for battle and my fingers for war," etc. One who has been taught by the Lord the war against the opposing power knows the principles of the virtues and the vices, the differences among thoughts, the marks of godlessness and its definitions; and further, he knows the principles of the fantasies and dreams of the night, of which some arise from the rational part of the soul when the memory is stirred, others from the irascible part, and others from the desiring part. But about these we have treated more exactly in the first.

"Man has become like vanity; his days pass like a shadow," etc. Since "man, being in honour, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless cattle and became like them," therefore "his days pass like a shadow." For the things of this world are like children at play. He who judges today stands tomorrow to be judged; the man haughty in office is often led away by the executioner; the rich man falls into poverty; and the one no one expected, a nobody, often rules over everything. Frequent are the changes, and uneven the reversals.

Of the same. Vanity is the worst habit of a rational soul, in which it chooses corruptible pleasures and despises the things that are everlasting and incorruptible.

"Lord, bow your heavens and come down; touch the mountains, and they will smoke," etc. The touch of God is spiritual teaching, which drives out the smoke of vice stored up in souls.

"Send out your arrows, and you will throw them into confusion," etc. These arrows are opposed to the fiery darts of the enemy.

"Deliver me and rescue me from many waters, from the hand of foreign sons, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of injustice," etc. Of the heterodox, because of their great doctrines,

their mouth has spoken vanity, and because of their wicked deeds their right hand is a right hand of injustice. The foreign sons think that certain things are right which belong to injustice; that is why the devil stands at their right hand, as also at that of Judas.

Of the same. And the prophet says: "Yet I will speak judgment to you: why does the way of the ungodly prosper?" And again David says: "My steps had nearly slipped, for I was jealous of the lawless, seeing the peace of sinners."

"O God, I will sing a new song to you," etc. One who is set in the New Covenant sings the new song to God; or one who has taken from Jesus in the upper room the new bread of the New Covenant and the cup.

"Whose sons are like plants grown up in their youth," etc. The sons of the man who is blessed for fearing the Lord are "like young olive shoots around his table"; but the sons of the foreign sons are "like plants grown up in their youth." That man has no daughters; but these have daughters "adorned, decked out like the likeness of a temple." That man has sons' sons; these do not. Further, that man has no storehouse or barn; but these have "full storehouses, overflowing from one to another." And according to the Gospel, the birds of heaven, fed by the heavenly Father, have neither storehouse nor barn. And again, these have prolific sheep, multiplying in nothing else than in their lanes, and fat oxen, such as those of the plenty of Egypt.

"They called blessed the people to whom these things belong," etc. The blessedness of the unjust is a life without grief, with much money; but the blessedness of the righteous is the soul's freedom from passion, with the knowledge of God.

[Ps 144 LXX / 145] "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and of his greatness there is no end," etc. Since the greatness of God is seen in Christ and in the creatures, and there is no end of his greatness, perhaps from this too God's providence over the beings he has made is shown to reach from the infinite to the infinite.

Of the same. The knowledge of all things that have come to be has a limit; only the knowledge of the Holy Trinity is without limit.

"And his compassions are over all his works," etc. If the compassions of God are over all his works, how are there some whom they do not reach? Surely the compassions of God reach them too; unless his compassions reach his works, but not in every case the works of his hands.

"Let all your works confess to you, Lord, and let your holy ones bless you," etc. Here he calls the rational natures works; for these by nature confess to God. Whether any confession is sent up from the rest of creation too, God would know.

"Your kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages," etc. If the kingdom of God is the contemplation of the ages that have come to be and will come to be, "Your kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages" is well said.

"The Lord keeps all who love him, and all sinners he will destroy," etc. The destruction of a sinner is the separation of a rational soul from the whole life that is lived according to vice.

"My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord; and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and for ever and ever," etc. All flesh that blesses the name of the Lord for ever and for ever and ever will clearly be, for ever and for ever and ever, seeing the salvation of God.

Of the same. Paul too says: "Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of fleshly hearts." A fleshly heart, then, is a rational soul that readily receives the law of God. But there is also flesh that is blameworthy, as in: "My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh." And again Paul says: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God"; for there flesh signifies vice.

[Ps 145 LXX / 146] "Who keeps truth for ever, who executes judgment for the wronged, who gives food to the hungry," etc. He has called the true one "truth," naming the one who shares in the habit after the

habit. So also "he loves mercy and judgment" means the merciful man and the one who judges justly. And in Paul, "love does not boast" stands for the one who has love. In the same way you will find those who possess the worse habits named after them.

"The Lord sets free the prisoners; the Lord makes the blind wise; the Lord raises up those who are broken," etc. Neither things themselves nor the thoughts of them bind the mind, but the passionate thoughts of things. For the Lord created gold, and he himself made woman; and nothing that has come to be from God is opposed to the salvation of men. But sexual immorality and greed bind the mind, compelling the thoughts of things to linger in the heart.

Of the same. He calls those blind who see neither their own achievements nor the faults of others.

"The Lord will reign for ever," etc. Christ reigned before the ages without flesh, and he has reigned eternally in the flesh as well. These things the Holy Spirit announces as good news to the Church.

[Ps 146 LXX / 147] "The Lord builds up Jerusalem, and he will gather together the dispersed of Israel," etc. Those whom vice scatters, virtue gathers. So also the Lord in the Gospels: "And whoever does not gather with me scatters."

"Who counts the multitudes of stars," etc. The number by which God counts the rational beings indicates differences in the state of the stars, and the names he gives them signify various spiritual knowledges. But of the creeping things in the sea he says: "There are creeping things without number." For how will the spiritual number be applied to those who creep on their belly and are slaves of pleasures, whose "anger is like that of the serpent, and the poison of asps is under their lips"? And again Solomon says that those wounded by vice are many, and those slain by it are numberless.

"The Lord lifts up the meek, but humbles sinners to the ground," etc. We must inquire from where he humbles sinners. He teaches the place by saying "to the ground." And perhaps he humbles them by making them be in the earthly body of humiliation. He lifts up the meek, whom he had humbled before; and he humbles to the ground the sinners who were on high before their sin.

"Who covers the heaven with clouds," etc. The heaven and the more divine things are covered and veiled by clouds, to which the truth reaches.

[Ps 147 LXX / 147:12–20] "For he has strengthened the bars of your gates," etc. The bars of the gates of Jerusalem, held together by the Lord, are, I think, the reasonings on behalf of the truth that is contemplated and grasped, which present it powerfully.

Of the same. The bars of Jerusalem are the practical virtues, which prevent the enemies from slipping in; those of Zion are the heavenly doctrines and the right faith in the worshipful and holy Trinity; since Jerusalem signifies the soul, and Zion the mind. For Jerusalem is interpreted "vision of peace," and Zion "watchtower."

"Who makes your borders peace," etc. The borders of Jerusalem are all peace; outside its borders there is no peace. Therefore whoever is not in peace is outside the borders of Jerusalem.

Of the same. They say that the borders of peace are the soul's freedom from passion.

"And fills you with the fat of wheat," etc. Similar is what is said in the eightieth: "And he fed them with the fat of wheat." The grain of wheat is the Saviour; therefore it is with wheat that God fills Jerusalem.

"Who sends his saying to the earth," etc. Here he speaks of the earth allegorically: perhaps of us, who carry the treasure in earthen vessels; but it is better to understand it of the Son of God in the flesh, which he willed should contain so great a Lord.

"Who gives snow like wool, scattering mist like ashes," etc. God is said to give in two ways: either by permitting or by acting; as if one said of the sun that it makes both day and night, day by shining and night by withdrawing. So "God gives" here must be understood according to the second meaning, since by sending his word he melts them.

"He will send out his word and melt them," etc. Snow and ice, mist and cold, befall the rational nature through the absence of the sun of righteousness; and these the Word of God, when he was sent, melted: "For I came," he says, "to cast fire on the earth."

[Ps 148 LXX / 148] "Praise the Lord from the heavens," etc. Praise is a hymn to God upon the contemplation of things that have come to be.

"Praise him, all you stars and light," etc. Here light symbolically signifies the rational nature: "For you," he says, "are the light of the world."

"Praise him, heavens of heavens, and the water above the heavens; let them praise the name of the Lord," etc. Heaven is an intelligible rational nature that carries the sun of righteousness round within itself.

Of the same. The water above the heavens signifies rational natures, separated from the waters that are in the heavens.

"And he will exalt the horn of his people," etc. The horn is a pure mind.

"A hymn for all his holy ones," etc. A hymn is amazement, with doxology, at the contemplation of the things that have come to be and been made by God.

[Ps 149 LXX / 149] "Sing to the Lord a new song," etc. He sings a new song who has put off the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and put on the new man, created according to God.

"His praise is in the assembly of the holy ones," etc. As "praise is not fitting in the mouth of a sinner," so neither is it in the assembly of evildoers, but in the assembly of the holy ones; and in this rather than in one or in a few.

"Let Israel rejoice in his maker, and let the sons of Zion exult in their king," etc. Since "he made" is said of what is according to the image, and "he formed" of what is from the dust, and holy gladness belongs to what is according to the image, therefore Israel is commanded to rejoice in the one who made him. And Christ, that is, wisdom, word, truth, reigns over the sons of Zion; let them exult in him.

"Let them praise his name in the dance," etc. If the many, of the same mind and the same purpose, with one accord, with one soul and one heart, praise the name and the property of the king, they praise his name in the dance, in harmony.

"With timbrel and psaltery let them sing to him," etc. Those who have put to death their members on earth, and have brought them up to the tree, crucifying the principalities and powers together with Christ, sing to God with the timbrel; but those who are whole and in harmony in the spirit, with the psaltery.

"For the Lord takes pleasure in his people, and will exalt the meek with salvation," etc. The Lord takes pleasure in his own portion, which is his people, not in the people of any other ruler of this age. And he will exalt the meek to the land that the meek inherit, not the land below, but the land on which the Jerusalem above is; for God will exalt the meek with salvation, "and the holy ones will boast in glory." In what glory? Reasonably, in that of which he says, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord"; the glory such as Moses had when the appearance

of his face was glorified; and of which Paul says: "And we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory."

"And they will exult upon their beds," etc. Those will exult upon their beds for whom "the night is far gone and the day has drawn near"; who also "walk decently as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness."

"The exaltations of God are in their throat," etc. Those whose throat is not an open tomb have the exaltations of God in their throat, and two-edged swords in their hands, being ready to punish every disobedience and pulling down every height raised up against the knowledge of God.

"And two-edged swords in their hands," etc. Swords are reasonings and actions of the soul that cut it off from vice and ignorance.

Of the same. A sword is a rational mind cutting the soul off from vice and ignorance.

"To execute vengeance among the nations, rebukes among the peoples," etc. "Vengeance among the nations": among the heterodox; "rebukes among the peoples": among those who sin in their lives while being counted members of the Church.

"To bind their kings with fetters, and their nobles with iron manacles," etc. Whoever refutes the teachers of the heterodox, and those among them who are thought glorious because of their supposed competence, binds their kings with fetters, so that they may not advance in their teaching, and their nobles with iron manacles, so that they may no longer hold what they held of old because it was easily deceived.

Of the same. An intelligible bond is the freedom from passion of a rational soul; or the fear of the Lord that turns away from vice; or spiritual teaching that does not allow the mind to walk toward vice; or spiritual love that prefers nothing to the knowledge of God.

"To execute among them the judgment that is written," etc. The holy ones execute among the kings and nobles just mentioned a judgment that is written, and worthy of the writing that is in the Spirit; and all that has been said is the glory of all the holy ones of God, so that one who does not have these things is not holy to God.

[Ps 150 LXX / 150] "Praise God in his holy places," etc. Let no one who has gone out from the holy places praise God: "For how shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?" And a foreign land is what is not holy. Or, since one must not

give holy things to dogs, nor throw pearls before swine, and the praise of the Lord is holy and a pearl, God must be praised among the holy, and neither among dogs nor among swine.

"Praise him in the firmament of his power," etc. Where there is the firmament of faith and of a building like the one built upon the rock by a prudent man, and where Christ, the power of God, is, there let God be praised as in the firmament of God's power. And let these things be in the one who speaks and in the one who hears.

"Praise him for his mighty acts," etc. As the soul of the righteous man blesses God in every place of his dominion, so he must also be praised for the mighty acts he established and ordered; and let the speaker and the hearer understand them, so that they may also share in them. For unspeakable are the things continually accomplished through his saints.

"Praise him according to the abundance of his greatness," etc. When each greatness of God is understood, each of the creatures too will be understood, and the abundance of the greatness, of each of which there is no end.

"Praise him with the sound of the trumpet," etc. According to the spiritual account of the making of the trumpets in Numbers, a trumpet must be made, so that we may praise God with its sound. Such trumpets, I think, are meant also in: "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible"; and in: "With the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God he will descend from heaven." There is also the feast on the new moon of the seventh month, a memorial of trumpets; in accordance with it it is said: "Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on the notable day of our feast."

Of the same. A trumpet is a contemplative mind, or a mind entrusted with spiritual teaching.

"Praise him with psaltery and lyre; praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with strings and organ; praise him with well-sounding cymbals; praise him with cymbals of shouting," etc. The lyre is a practical soul moved by the commandments of Christ. The timbrel is the putting to death of the desiring part for the sake of the good itself. The dance is the harmony of rational souls who say the same thing and have no divisions. The strings are the harmony of the voice of the virtues and the instruments … The organ is the Church of God, made up of contemplative and practical souls. The well-sounding cymbal is a practical soul fastened to the longing for Christ. The cymbal of shouting is a pure mind inspired by the salvation of Christ.

Of the same. Many strings put together harmoniously, each set musically in its own place, are the many commandments and the doctrines about many matters, which have no discord with one another.

The organ that contains all these is the soul of the wise man in Christ.

Of the same. Whoever speaks with the tongues of men or of angels but has not love is not a well-sounding cymbal.

"Let every breath praise the Lord," etc. If, according to Solomon, the light of the Lord is the breath of men, let every rational nature that breathes in this light praise the Lord.