HOMILY 7
HOMILY 7
ON PSALM 67 (68)
on ARISES; his enemies are scattered.' This psalm may be interpreted both in particular and in general. In particular, it refers to the Lord Himself, how He rose from the dead and scattered all His enemies, I mean the devil and his army or the Jews. In general, it applies to us when, in straits and distress, we cry out: 'Awake! why are you asleep, o Lord? Help USI'l just as the apostles in the boat roused the Lord from sleep with the cry: 'Lord, save us, we are perishingl'2 'And those who hate him flee before him.' Now the psalmist did not say, they perish, but they flee, for sinners cannot stand in the presence of God. 'As smoke is driven away, so are they driven.' Not that they vanish into nothingness, but that they cease from their sinning. 'As wax melts before the fire.' In the same way that wax melts and does not lose its nature but softens, so may the enemies of God not perish, but lay aside their hardness and be converted unto repentance and be saved. 'So the wicked perish before God'; the wicked do not deserve to see God. 'But the just rejoice.' Those who guard their innocence, who have no vices, delight in the Lord.
'And exult before God; they are glad and rejoice.' It is a sign of great confidence to rejoice before the Lord. The stewardS who has managed his lord's affairs badly and lost his property fears to face his lord; on the contrary, the steward who has managed well always meets his lord with pleasure.
1 Ps. 43.24, 27.
2 Matt. 8.25; d. Letter 108.27, PL 22.903 (721).
3 Cf. Luke 16.1-3; cf. Letter 121.6, PL 22.1018 (864).
HOMILY 7
'Sing to God, chant praise to his name.' 'Cantate' in Scripture invariably denotes consideration: sing meditatively, that is, think about the mystery and the sense of divine Scripture.
'Psallere,' on the other hand, implies the chanting of praise to God through a good work: for example, that the sense of hearing offer its service, and likewise the mouth, and the eyes, and the hands, and all the members of the body harmonize, as it were, and thereby pluck the chords of the psaltery in noble acts. 'Prepare a way for him who advances towards the west, whose name is the Lord.'4 If the sun of iniquity does not set for us, our Sun of justice cannot rise, whose health is in his wings.5
'God in his holy dwelling.' God always dwells among His saints; wherever there is sanctity, there is the dwelling place of God-'God gives a home to men of one way,'6 to them who choose one way of life and persevere in it. Indeed, the just man is constant because he has resolved once and for all to live a just life. The sinner, on the other hand, is fickle: 'the godless man, like the moon, is inconstant.'7 The Hebrew text, however, has: 'God gives a home to monks,'s that is, to monks among whom sin finds no lodging. 'He leads forth prisoners to prosperity.' God Himself with His own power releases those who have been bound in sin by the devil, just as He released that woman in the Gospel who had been bound by the. devil for eighteen years.9 'Only rebels remain in graves.'lQ God is sweet by nature; they who move Him to bitterness are sinners, and they make God bitter for themselves. God does not change
His nature, but sinners themselves make God their bitterness.
'Remain in graves': 'Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees! be4 Cf. 1'8. 67 (68).5.
5 Cf. Mal. 4.2.
6 Cf. P8. 67 (68).7.
7 Sirach (Ecclus.) 27.11.
8 Cf. Symmachus and Theodotion.
9 Luke 13.11-13.
10 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).7.
SAINT JEROME
cause you are like whited sepulchres.'l1 As the saint is a temple of God, so the sinner makes of himself a tomb.
'0 God, when you went forth at the head of your people.'
This accords with history, when God preceded His people as they marched out of Egypt,12 'When you marched through the wilderness.' God did not delay in the desert, but passed through it. 'The earth quaked; it rained f-rom heaven at the presence of the God of Sinai.'13 'It rained from heaven': that is, it rained14 manna. Sinai signifies temptation.15 God dwells, therefore, in those who are tempted and overcome temptation; in the voluptuous, however, He does not dwell. 'A bountiful rain you showered down, 0 God, upon your inheritance.' This refers to the law which was given through Moses. 'You restored the land when it languished.' The law languished because no one was able to fulfill it except the Lord who said:
'I have not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil1.'16 Likewise, the Apostle said: 'For what was impossible to the Law, in that it was weak, God sent his Son.'17 'Your flock settled in it,' in His inheritance. By 'flock' the psalmist meant those who live for God, the saints. 'In your goodness, 0 God, you provided it for the needy.' 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.'18 You have provided rain, which means the law. 'The Lord gives the word to those who hear the glad tidings with great power.'19 The Hebrew text reads: 'women who were to publish the good tidings,' that is, to the women to whom was announced the glad news for the apostles when the Lord says: 'Go take word to my brethren.'20 Or the Hebrew may signify souls that believed in Christ. According to the Septuagint translators, how11 Cf. Matt. 23.27.
12 Exod. 13.21.
13 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).9.
14 Cf. Commentarioli in ps. 67.10.
15 Cf. Letter 78.8, PL 22.705 (475); 12, PL 22.707 (479).
16 Cf. Matt. 5.17.
17 Cf. Rom. 8.3.
18 Matt. 5.3.
19 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).12.
20 Matt. 28.10.
HOMILY 7
ever, the psalmist refers to the apostles because the Lord gave them great powers to preach the Gospe1.21
'The king of the hosts of the beloved.'22 King, or Father, of the hosts, that is, of the saints, of the beloved, of the Son. 'This is my beloved Son; hear him.'23 'Of the beloved.' When one loves, he is forever speaking of the beloved. The Holy Spirit is ever mindful of the Son because of His love in Him. 'And the household shall divide the spoils.' The apostles themselves distribute among the churches the spoils [nations] that they have taken from idols.
'Though you rested amid your portions,'24 or, though you rested amid the New and Old Testament. The portions are also the individual books of Scripture, as Genesis, Exodus,
The Gospels, The Apostles. 'The wings of the dove shone with silver.' You will find the grace of the Holy Spirit in the two
Testaments. 'Shone with silver' symbolizes the clear word of divine Scripture; 'And her pinions with a golden hue,' the mysteries contained in Scripture understood spiritually.25
'While the Almighty appointed the kings there.'26 The kings are the saints who rule over their own passions; hence, such holy men are assigned among the churches, for example, Paul among the Gentiles, Peter in the church of the circumcised.
'They were like snow on Salmon.'27 That is what it says: they may be saints, but, nevertheless, in this world they are as a shadow, knowing only in part.28 Salmon stands for shadow.
'The mountain of God is rich in blessings.'29 This is the mountain that in Ezechiel30 had punished the king of Tyre.
They say, moreover, that the mountain is the Lord Himself.
21 Cf. Commentarioli in ps. 67.12.
22 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).13.
23 Matt. 17.5.
24 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).14.
25 Cf. Commentary on Ecclesiastes 2.8, PL 23.1080 (400).
26 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).15.
27 Ibid.; d. Commentarioli in ps. 67.15.
28 Cf. 1 Cor. 13.9, 12; Against the Pelagians 3.12, PL 23.609 (795).
29 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).16.
30 Cf. Ezech. 28.16.
SAIl:'IT JEROME
'Why look you jealously, you rugged mountains?' This means the Jews who think that Moses and the prophets rank with the Savior. 'At the mountain in which it has pleased God to dwell's1 indicates the presence of the Savior made flesh, for Divine Nature inhabited a body. In no other, indeed, has the Holy Spirit taken up His abode immediately and perpetually save in the Savior. As John says: 'He upon whom thou wilt see the spirit 'descending, and abiding upon him, he it is:82 'Where the Lord himself will dwell forever' in the body which He received from blessed Mary.
'The chariots of God are myriad, thousands on thousands:
This is hyperbole in reference to the countless ministering powers and spirits, just as Daniel said: 'Thousands upon thousands were ministering:33 Ezechiel,34 in fact, describes the Cherubim as creatures with four wings on four sides and with four faces, of which God is the charioteer.s5 The Cherubim are also a symbol of the store of knowledge.36 Again, the Cherubim symbolize the nature of the lion, the sovereign nature reigning over its passions; the nature of man as rational; ,the nature of the bullcalf in work; the nature of the eagle in contemplation-in speculation that elevates us among the Virtues. At the same time, however, that we may say the throne of God is in His saints, the psalmist says: 'The Lord is among them on Sinai, in the sanctuary:37 That means that God is in His saints when they are being tempted, and that sanctity is consequent upon temptation. It is impossible for anyone, even though he be a saint, to pass through this world without temptation. As Job says: 'The life of man upon earth is a warfare.'38
'You have ascended on high, taken captives.' You have ascended into heaven; You have redeemed us who were being
31 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).17.
32 John 1.33.
33 Dan. 7.10.
34 Ezech. 1.6-12; cf. 1.26-28.
35 Cf. Sirach (Ecclus.) 49.8; Commentary on Ezechiel 1.7, PL 25.22 (11).
36 Cf. Letter 53.8, PL 22.548 (280).
37 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).18.
38 Job 7.1; cf. Against the Pelagians 2.4, PL 23.563 (745).
HOMILY 7
held captives by the devil. 'Received men as gifts: Well said, 'You received: He received from the Father; He received as man; He gives as God; and that which He received, He received for men to give to men. He Himself is perfect and is not in need of anything. 'Even rebels; the Lord God enters his dwelling: You have saved even those who did not believe that it is possible for God to dwell in man, for the Savior to assume a body. 'Blessed be the Lord God:39 Those who formerly refused to believe that it is possible for God to dwell in man, now believe and say: 'Blessed be the Lord God:
'Blessed day by day be the Lord: The man who makes progress can bless God every day. What does it profit me if yesterday I blessed God and today I cannot bless Him? 'Who bears our burdens; who is to us a God of salvations:40 Be assured, sinner; do not doubt that you can bless God day by day, for God will bear our burdens for us. God helps us and works with us. 'Of salvations: The plural is good here, for we have been saved as many times as we have sinned.
'Diapsalma':41 in the Hebrew text the word is SELA which means always and instantly; hence, God is always bringing us aid.
'God is a saving God for us; the Lord, my Lord, controls the passageways of death: Since God rose from the dead, He has caused us to rise with Him. By another interpretation, the devil is the entrance of death, the Lord in truth, the exit.
'Surely God crushes the heads of his enemies,' the devil and all his hosts. 'You smashed the heads of the dragons in the waters:42 The devil has as many heads as there are sins. 'The hairy crowns of those who stalk about in their guilt: God smashes the devil's head so completely that all his strength to goad sinners is gone. His hair is the top of his head, a hairy crown; hence, the meaning here is that every bit of the devil's power is shattered.
39 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).20.
40 Ibid.
41 Pause or interval in the singing of the psalm.
42 Ps. 73.13.
SAINT JEROME
'The Lord said: "I will fetch them back from Basan," , I will turn mankind away from the confusion of this world. Through My passion and cross, which they look upon as foolishness and confusion,43 I will bring back My people. Basan, of course, stands for confusion. 'I will fetch them back from the depths of the sea' is another way of saying, I will turn back My people from the deep-seated vices and sins of this world, from the violence of its waves. 'So that you will bathe your feet in blood.' His foot has been stained in His own blood. 'The wine press, I have trodden alone, and of my people there was no one with me.'44 And again: 'Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimson garments from Bosra?'45 Edom translates as blood; Bosra, flesh, a figure of our crucified Lord Himself.
'The tongues of your dogs will have their share of your enemies.' The dogs are the very Jews who cried out: 'Crucify himl Crucify himl We have no king but Caesar.'46 'Of your enemies' refers, on the other hand, to those who in submission to demons deny and blaspheme the Savior. In another sense the words could mean: Of Your own will You have come and suffered and of Your own will the Jews have crucified You.
'They view your progress, 0 God,'47 for You ascended into heaven before the eyes of five hundred men, all the apostles, the Cherubim, and the choirs of angels. 'The progress of m}'
God, my King into the sanctuary.' You who are the God of all, and the Lord of dominions, and the King of kings, You are especially my God,48 just as You are the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and the God oj the Hebrews.
'The singers lead, the minstrels follow.' The apostles41l led the way followed by those who have believed through them43 Cf. Commentarioli in ps. 67.23, 24.
44 Isa. 63.3.
45 Isa. 63.1; cf. Against John of Jerusalem, 34, PL 23.403 (443).
46 John 19.6, 15.
47 Cf. Letter 106.41, PL 22.851 (657).
48 Ibid.
49 Cf. Commentarioli in ps .. 67.26.
HOMILY 7
or, undoubtedly, by the churches. Moreover, 'the maidens play on timbrels,' because their body is dead to sin. In the Book of Exodus, Mariam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand and led the singers with the refrain:
'Sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously triumphant.'50
'In the churches51 bless God.' 0 you who glory in abstinence, glory in your gatherings and do not defend heresies to your own satisfaction. These words can well be addressed to Tatian, the chief of the Encratites.52 'The Lord, you of Israel's well- - spring!' Manichaeus cannot bless the Lord because he does not bless from the wellspring of Israel; he does not accept the Old Testament. 'You of Israel's wellspring,' not of Jacob's.
Jacob means supplanter, one who is still wrestling; Israel has finished the struggle triumphantly, seeing God53 with his understanding.
'There is Benjamin, the youngest, in ecstasy.'54 This means St. Paul,55 in the Church, the youngest, the least of all the apostles, from the tribe of Benjamin.56
'The princes of Juda are their leaders.'57 The apostles are the princes of Juda, that is, of the Lord, just as Jacob says:
'Juda, your brothers shall praise yoU.'58 'The princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali.' Zabulon suggests the pollution of the night;59 Nephthali, latitude. When we have been liber-· ated from the passion of lust, that is, from its effects, then we begin to acquire the virtues.
'Confirm, 0 God, what you have wrought in US.'60 Confirm 50 Exod. 15.20, 21.
51 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).27.
52 Cf. Letter 48.2, PL 22.494 (213); 9, PL 22.500 (220). Commentary on Amos 2.12, PL 25.1010 (247); on Joel 1.14, PL 25.959 (180).
53 Cf. Hebrew Question on Genesis 32.28, 29, PL 23.1039 (357).
54 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).28.
55 Cf. Commentary on Isaia 9.1, PL 24.124 (129).
56 Cf. Rom. 11.1; Phil. 3.5; 1 Cor. 15.8, 9; Eph. 3.8; d. Letter 38.1, PL 22.463 (174).
57 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).28.
58 Gen. 49.8.
59 Cf. Hebrew Questions on Genesis 30.19, 20, PL 23.1034 (352).
60 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).29.
SAINT JEROME
the salvation You have brought us through Your passion, and help us, for we are men and unable to advance in virtue without Your aid. 'Let the kings bring you gifts.' Kings are those who rule over themselves, as it is written: 'The king's heart in the hand of God.'61 They are bringing gifts to God. The virtues of the saints are gifts to God.
'Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds.' This points to the heretics who preach and write against You in order to ensnare
US.62 'For there must be factions among US.'63 They are called the wild beast because they attack souls and slay them. The wild beast can also be the devil and his angels. 'The herd of strong bulls and the bullocks, the nations.' This again refers to heretics, because they deceive only the weak and guileless, that is the bullocks; they cannot trap the bulls, for they are the wary and strong. 'Who seek to exclude those who have been tried like silver.'64 Their whole purpose in misleading the unguarded, in other words the crowd, is to overtake the saints and keep them from the kingdom of heaven.
'Scatter the peoples who delight in war,' scatter the heretics who are attacking the Church. 'Let nobles come from Egypt.'
Egypt represents darkness, the darkness of this world. 'Let Ethiopia extend its hands to God.' Whereas we were black from sin and passion, we have outstripped the Israelites and believe in the Savior, like the woman with the hemorrhage who prevented the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue and was healed.65
'Who rides on the heights of the ancient heavens towards the East.'66 Earlier in the psalm it said, 'Who advances towards the west'; here it says, 'towards the east.' When our passions subside and the sun of our iniquity sets, the sun of justice rises for us; the Lord reigns over us and in us takes up His
61 Cf. Provo 21.1.
62 Cf. Letter 108.22, PL 22.900 (716); 121.2, PL 22.1012 (856).
63 Cf. 1 Cor. 11.19.
64 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).31.
65 Matt. 9.20-22.
66 Cf. Ps. 67 (68}.34.
HOMILY 7
abode. 'Behold his voice resounds, the voice of power.' 'Lazarus, come forthl'67 'Behold his voice resounds, the voice of power .... Over Israel is his majesty': the majesty of God in Israel who sees God. 'His power is in the clouds,'68 in the prophets and in the apostles. 'I will command the clouds not to send rain upon Israel.'69 'Awesome in his saints is God.'70
God is awesome because He so loves the human race that He performs miracles through His saints. He is more awesome in His saints than in the rest of His creatures.
67 John 11.43.
68 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).35.
69 Cf. Isa. 5.6.
70 Cf. Ps. 67 (68).36.