Fragments on the Psalms

The Judge, the Winepress, and the Dignity of Humanity§1

Apollinaris opens his commentary on the Psalms by interpreting Psalm 7 as Christ the judge surrounded by nations, then moves to the winepress of Psalm 8, the dignity of humanity, the new worship in the Spirit, David's persecution by Saul, and the hidden punishment of the wicked.

1When the judge arrives, he says, many nations surround him, gathered together (Psalm 7:7). He means the church, and he announces that the Lord says they will be gathered to him. When this happens, the judge will turn upward to the height, having handed over the kingdom.

The word uses winepress and harvest, as in the Gospel, to indicate the gathering of fruits at the consummation. The fruits are human works and thoughts, according to Isaiah, who says, 'I am coming to gather their works and their thoughts' (Isaiah 66:18) (Ps 8:1).

But, he says, you, the maker of such great works, care for a human being who is altogether small, and you remembered him when he fell away from you, and you looked after him when he was brought down into weakness (Psalm 8:4). His creation was precious to you from the beginning, and he was made a little less than the angelic glory because of his earthly body. For glory surrounded him as one reigning over the works on earth that you had made, holding all irrational nature under himself—not only the land creatures, easily caught, but also the creatures of the air and the water. Each of these escapes human hands, the one by its movement in the height, the other by its hiding in the deep and its passage through the waters, but they are caught by wisdom and mind, and the earthly man captures the things in heaven and in the waters. From these things it is clear that in his intellectual nature he surpasses the irrational and mindless nature of animals, and he is comparable to the intellectual and angelic nature, while sharing with the irrational animals in his bodily nature.

He speaks of the manner of the new worship of God, the one without blood, and he shows the change that is in the Holy Spirit, according to which we are no longer what we were before, nor do we bear the same names—no longer children of men but children of God (Psalm 16:4; LXX 15:4).

For having been heard before, he says, I ask to be heard now as well. For Paul says we pray with thanksgiving, because the remembrance of former things prepares the favors that follow (Psalm 17:6; LXX 16:6).

He describes the work and the appearance of those who attack him. The work is murderous plotting and flattering words for an ambush. They are fattest in body, fenced about with fat, looking sideways with their eyes like a lion rushing to its prey and lying in wait secretly (Psalm 17:10-12; LXX 16:10-12). Such was Saul toward David, saying that David had found favor in his eyes, ordering him to stand by, and keeping him as an attendant, yet attempting to kill him from ambush.

A hidden punishment has been prepared for them, he says, which will enter into their belly, according to what is said of Judas: 'May the curse enter like water into his inward parts, and like oil into his bones' (Psalm 108 [109]:18) (Psalm 17:14; LXX 16:14c).

Again he sets apart love for God through love for the temple dedicated to him (Psalm 27:4; LXX 26:4). For the one who loves God rejoices in the places dedicated to him, not enjoying his desire in the sight of these things—for it is a small thing to take pleasure in handmade works—but just as someone gladly looks at a garment or a book of the beloved, being stirred through these things to the memory of that person, so the God-loving person is stirred toward God through a house and a vessel dedicated to God (Psalm 27:4; LXX 26:4). This one thing alone I have asked: to dwell in the temple of God, which Hannah does, and to rejoice in the beauty of the building as I look toward it. Now a house of God had not yet been built when David sang these things, but he brought the word up to the tabernacle and left it to those able to hear spiritually to raise the word up to the spiritual house (Psalm 27:5).

In such passages the theology of the one God is made clear, encompassing the Trinity.

The Trinity's undivided work and the righteous one's hope§2

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 33 (34), explaining that the psalm's human-sounding words about God's mouth and word must be understood spiritually, and then moving through the psalm's verses on the righteous person's deliverance.

2Then God is spoken of in divine terms as the Creator, and the creation is the work of the Word and the Spirit. It is clear that the words are human, since a mouth is mentioned from which word and spirit come, but they are understood differently when applied to God, according to his uncompounded and entirely bodiless nature. That is, the Word exists with God who exists, and the Spirit exists. The Word is the manifestation of the Father, and for this reason he is named Word. The Spirit is the participation in the Word, as Spirit from the mouth. When he says heavens and powers of the heavens, he does not divide the creation, assigning the heavens to the Word and the powers to the Spirit, for the works of the Trinity are undivided. Rather, he expresses the same thing in different ways. As in the verse, Jacob entered into Egypt and Israel sojourned in the land of Ham, the entrance does not refer to one person, Jacob, and the dwelling to another, Israel. The parallel expresses the same thing, and we would find this custom in many places.

On Psalm 33:7 (34:7). David, showing himself, says that he became poor, that he was in anguish in his flight, and that he escaped this danger by the will of God, since the scheme of madness would not otherwise have prevailed if not for God's will (Psalm 34:6).

On Psalm 33:9 (34:9). He uses taste metaphorically for the experience of things, which was present to him at that time (Psalm 34:8). What happened to him through God's goodness, that he was not overlooked while being pursued by a foreign king but was saved from two most severe and powerful enemies, this he sets before all in common, as something that did not happen only to him but would also happen to others, as many as join themselves to God through hope in God. Blessedness must consist in this, and in nothing else, as David says in the verse, Why do you love vanity and seek falsehood? And know that the Lord has made his holy one wonderful.

On Psalm 33:20 (34:20). He commands us to look to the end and to take courage in the release from afflictions, not to be distressed at the beginning itself whenever affliction happens to occur (Psalm 34:19). For the soul must be prepared in this way, not as one that will not suffer, but as one that will not be defeated by its sufferings.

On Psalm 34:1-3 (35:1-3). He shapes the speech about God into complete likeness of a human being, as Isaiah also does, in order to show that what is impossible in him is possible for God, asking him to wage war and to be armed with shield and spear and to shut off the attacks of enemies with a middle wall. Isaiah also shows this in Christ, foreseeing him coming from the punishment of the unjust with his garment reddened from the slaughter of the foreigners: Who is this who has come from Edom, redness of garments from Bozrah, and the rest? (Isaiah 63:1). So the things that are referred to the Father in divine terms clearly belong to the Son and are fulfilled in the Son.

On Psalm 34:5 (35:5). That they become invisible is turned against them, like dust driven by the wind. They are driven out not by a human hand, for the righteous suffer this rather at the hands of the unjust, but this happens through angels, as the Lord says: The holy ones will go out and will choose the unjust from the midst of the righteous and will separate them (Matthew 13:49). For now the discordant elements are mixed together, but then they will be divided according to the difference of their manner, according to what was said again by the Savior: And many dwelling places are with my Father (John 14:2).

On Psalm 34:6 (35:6). The ways of the impious, he says, are dark; they do not know how they advance (Psalm 35:6; LXX 34:6). He asks that this be accomplished, praying that the deed of the unjust be held in darkness, since it belongs to darkness, and that they fall after slipping, because they walk a slippery road, for nothing in injustice has firmness, and that they become invisible, pursued by angels, which is what they themselves do against the righteous (Psalm 35:6).

On Psalm 34:13 (35:13). He flees, he says, to his own strength, which is God. For a person seeks God with fastings and humiliations, turning the whole soul to invocations of God through freedom from bodily pleasures, when the invocations linger in the mind during prayer and slip into the bosom of the soul.

On Psalm 35:6 (36:6). For the things ordered by God are firm and unshaken, such as what was said to Noah, that he would no longer bring a flood for the destruction of living creatures, which agrees with the word about God's forbearance (Psalm 36:6; LXX 35:6). For the firmness of the word has been fixed forever, being great and manifest. So also whatever else has been ordered and fixed according to the righteousness and goodness of God has a solid and unshaken permanence forever (Psalm 36:6). Such is also the verse, Once I swore in my holy one, if I will lie to David (Psalm 88:36 (89:35)). To this also tends the saying, For the gifts of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).

On Psalm 35:7a (36:7a). Again he compares the height of righteousness to mountains (Psalm 36:6).

God's retribution is certain and the righteous must wait in hope§3

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 35-38, explaining that God's justice will repay both the wicked and the righteous, and that the righteous must endure present afflictions in hope of future goods.

3This carries a threat of retributions, because it is impossible for anything to happen contrary to what is just when righteousness is the overseer of what takes place. So even those who now escape the punishing retributions, or who do not receive their retributions, will certainly receive them later. And this is unchangeable with God, as Paul said with confidence that God, the righteous judge, will give him the crown of righteousness on that day (2 Timothy 4:8) (Ps 35:10a).

On Psalm 35:10a (36:9a). The things that lead to life are supplied abundantly by God, and if they were not supplied, life would be destroyed (Psalm 36:9).

On Psalm 35:10b (36:9b). He is illuminated, he says, by the light from heaven, by the one who set the sun as the light of day. But these things are common to the righteous and the unrighteous, and in them he marveled at God's philanthropy, since the ungrateful are not excluded from enjoying what comes from God. But what is exceptional and proper to God's own is something else.

On Psalm 36:7 (37:7). He commands to be still and wait for God, not being disturbed by present things but hoping for future things, according to the apostolic word: Rejoicing in hope, enduring in affliction (Romans 12:12), and Jeremiah's word: It is good for a man when he bears a yoke in his youth (Lamentations 3:27). He will sit alone and be silent; he will give his cheek to the one who strikes him; he will be filled with reproaches.

On Psalm 36:9 (37:9). He commands us to look far off and not be astounded by present things, and to foresee the destruction of the wicked and the preservation of the good (Psalm 37:9). These things clearly reach their end in another age, since the present age does not have the outcomes of these things, but rather the wicked prevail over the things on earth. Therefore he says, The whole world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19).

On Psalm 36:14ab (37:14ab). He says that the wicked set in motion against themselves the very things they prepare against the righteous, as if someone drew a sword and was slain by it, and the plot too will be futile, like a bow shattered in the hand of an archer (Psalm 37:15). In David's case this was also fulfilled bodily: David struck with their own sword, the one they had drawn against David (cf (Psalm 37:15). 1 Samuel 17:51).

On Psalm 36:27 (37:27). Such an exhortation again comes from the prediction: to flee from evil and practice the doing of good in hope of eternal rest, and the reasoning about the matter is that the overseer is righteous and does not overlook his own.

On Psalm 37:4a (38:4a). He compares his great suffering and many afflictions to a body entirely afflicted, as in Isaiah: From the soles of the feet to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises, the burning inflammation of a threat (Isaiah 1:6) (Psalm 38:3). These are signs of wrath, and the cause of the wrath is sins, so that the sufferings bring awareness of sins, and in this way they benefit souls, just as bodies are brought from insensibility to sensation (Ps 37:12).

On Psalm 37:12 (38:12). He laments the desertion of friends and the uprising of enemies, which are also seen in the Savior's sufferings, when the disciples were scattered in fear, and the wicked used every bitterness and malice against him, toward whom he also fulfilled the silence predicted here.

On Psalm 37:14 (38:14). Having, he says, just grounds to answer those who slandered him, but knowing that speech would not be for their benefit, I bore the false accusations without resentment (Psalm 38:13). And as one who does not hear, I was silent, and as one who has no reproof. For what would I say and answer? It was for nothing, as the Lord also said: If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask you, you will not answer (Luke 22:67-68). When people do not listen, speech is useless toward them, but useful toward God who hears.

On Psalm 37:22-23 (38:22-23). Human beings would not say these things about themselves, but Christ, in place of human beings and for human beings, suffering as a righteous one at the hands of the unrighteous and taking what is theirs upon himself, would say them: in one place, Why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1) in another, Do not forsake me, and Do not depart from me, since this is impossible for him (Psalm 38:21). For I am not alone, he says, because my Father is with me. He asks for the salvation of human beings as his own, having something proper to the request as far as the human element in the mixture with divinity is concerned—this was the passible element naturally united to the flesh—and also having the dignity of the nature that transcends, by which he fulfilled the things of the request.

On Psalm 38:4 (39:4). And hearing, he says, and reckoning up the bold and abusive words of the enemy, and seeing how great an authority of speech he used, to whom it was not fitting even to speak, I was kindled with indignation on behalf of the righteousness that was being dishonored (Psalm 39:3).

On Psalm 38:8a (39:8a). I do not, he says, have anything in myself worthy of expectation, but I wait, expecting what is with you and what is yours, enduring in present labors in hope of future good things (Psalm 39:7).

On Psalm 38:9b (39:9b). I bear, he says, being reproached now and not answering back, knowing in some such way that God wills me to be trained by reproaches (Psalm 39:9; LXX 38:9). So David himself bore being reviled by Shimei, saying that the Lord had told him to curse David (2 Samuel 16:10).

Christ's endurance, resurrection, and the church's hope§4

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 39 (40), reading David's words as spoken in the person of Christ about his waiting on God, his resurrection from Hades, and the church's hope in God alone.

4He speaks of the eternal waiting of the righteous as his own, and of the prayers through which they will hear God accomplish the ascent from Hades, the life made secure forever, and the firm standing in that life amid gladness, brightness, and hymns to God (Psalm 40:1; Psalm 40:2). Such was also the cry in Psalm 29 (30): “I cried to you, and you healed me; you brought up my soul from Hades; you saved me from those going down to the pit” (Psalm 29:3-4 [30:3-4]), and what follows (Psalm 40:2; Psalm 30:12). In these words he clearly referred Adam’s condition to himself. Then, after bringing in the resurrection, he says at the end: “So that my glory may sing praise to you, and I may not be pierced with sorrow” (Psalm 30:12).

For the things of Christ extend to the salvation of all; they neither happened for his own sake nor stand in him alone. Therefore Paul says: “If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised” (1 Corinthians 15:16). For if the end for whose sake the cause would have existed had not come about, Christ's resurrection would not have been that cause. The mystery is fearsome: the destruction of death and the ascent of souls from Hades, which is the true hopes in God. About this hope Paul speaks, joining faith to it and bringing in love toward the one who has granted such great gifts and extends the good things forever. “These three remain,” he says: “faith, hope, love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

In this, he says, the blessed person places hope in God and seeks eternal things, not being enticed by what appears for a short time nor turning aside from the true good to falsehood. For everything that people think they procure by themselves is falsehood; only what comes from God is true. And he demonstrated this through the whole ordering of human affairs, refuting all human things and bringing in the perfect good that comes from himself.

By speaking of himself he reveals the church, and he presents us as needing mercy so that we may remain in grace. The request for mercy is powerful, because it is said to go not to human beings but to him. For in this way we human beings obtain what comes from God: Christ, on our behalf, is the one who receives the good meant for us, as he says: “And I make a covenant with you, as my Father made with me” (Luke 22:29).

For there is no power for salvation in the church of Christ except what comes from God, since we have neither weapons nor money nor surrounding walls nor control of land nor anything of the kind that the Jews had (Psalm 40:13). So it is a wonder, and no less than any of the other wonders, that people warred upon by countless nations, unarmed, unprepared, and non-resisting, remain and increase Such was the wonder of the bush that burned and was not consumed, and this was a figure of Christ conquering through suffering. For the church that suffers and is not destroyed bears in itself all the proofs of wisdom and the clear marks of help from above.

To these ends, he says, the church will advance, having first become poor and come through great poverty in the world, and having been enriched by the power that comes from you and glorified by the help that comes from you, which she asks not to delay (Psalm 40:17). And because of the request it will not delay, as it is said: “The one who is coming will come and will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3).

This psalm is also joined to the same theme. For it presents the person of the Savior, the remembrance of the passion, the prediction of the resurrection, and the return to heaven (Psalm 41:1; LXX 40:1). Just now, then, he was saying: “I am poor and needy,” and it would fittingly be brought in as spoken especially by him concerning himself (Psalm 41:1; LXX 40:1).

Even if understanding is good concerning all who are poor in the world for the sake of righteousness—and understanding consists in considering such poor people rich—yet the one who knows and understands the truly rich one who became poor for our sake is truly blessed (Psalm 41:1). And all blessedness follows the knowledge of God.

Again the one who suffers on behalf of human beings speaks of human sins as his own, and he seeks for himself the mercy upon them that comes to us (Psalm 41:4). He dissolves the contempt of those who do not know him by revealing his glory—upon himself according to his own power, and upon us according to the grace of Christ (Psalm 41:4).

For this was eagerly pursued, he says, first by the invisible powers, then by the visible Jews, to cast out the true king from his natural rule, thinking to take possession of an inheritance that did not belong to them (Psalm 41:5). Therefore they said: “Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (Mark 12:7).

Christ's death as sleep and the soul's longing for God§5

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 40 (41) and the start of Psalm 41 (42), interpreting the psalmist's words as spoken by Christ and then by the soul separated from God.

5They hurry, he says, to put the righteous man to death, not knowing that his death is a sleep, becoming toward a resurrection, and not a removal of life but a transition introducing him into heaven, according to the saying, “His life was taken from the earth” (Isaiah 53:8) (Psalm 41:8; Psalm 41:9).

The resurrection, he says, will dissolve the conspiracy of the enemies against us and the betrayal of friends (Psalm 41:9). For already a disciple has risen up against me—one deemed worthy of peace from me, counted among those entrusted to me, and sharing my food—but he was exposed as a serpent, wanting to seize my heel. The Lord himself remembered this as spoken about him, saying, “But so that the Scripture may be fulfilled, the one who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18) (Psalm 41:9).

We hear of innocence especially in the case of Christ—the purity from all evil that the Creator sought among human beings, who were made for this purpose: to be worthy of their Maker and to remain in what is good, since all the works of God are exceedingly good (Sirach 39:16). Yet when he sought it, he found it in none of Adam’s descendants, but only in the one who was from Adam according to the flesh and had not displayed the marks of Adam’s transgression, but possessed the divine form remaining even with the fleshly covering. This is what the heavenly voice testifies: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

The permanence and eternal confirmation before God is that which is in heaven, which was also foretold in the fifteenth psalm after the resurrection in the words, “You will fill me with joy in your presence” (Psalm 15 [16]) (Psalm 41:12). For he ascended into heaven to appear before the face of God on our behalf, bringing in himself what had been separated and alienated from the beginning (Psalm 42:2).

From this the discerning person—whom the inscription summons—can understand that humanity came to be outside the face of God, so that through God it might seek restoration to the face of God. Rightly, then, does he seek the strong one, having fallen into weakness according to the words, “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak” (Psalm 6:2) (Psalm 42:2). Hence it is necessary to have fallen into the present weakness. For not loving to endure by his own small strength, nor being able to do so, he seeks not to be left without true strength (Psalm 42:2).

Those who have utterly forgotten the return to God, he says, consider the seeking of God to be vain and reproach those who do it. I was brought to tears, living with the most unpleasant grief instead of sweet food, according to what is said in Lamentations: “He fed me with ashes” (Lamentations 3:16). I did not abandon my desire because of the separation and the reproach, but I was grieved because righteousness was being reproached. Necessarily, then, the harassment of the wicked and the reproaches come, since the tears that come from these are not harmful to the righteous. For upon these rests the blessing: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). And immediately comes the comfort (Psalm 42:5).

Do not let present things grieve you, he says, O soul, nor let them trouble you. But let hope in God console you, because we will obtain the good things worthy of thanksgiving and will have salvation at his appearing—which, according to Paul, is to await the appearing of the Lord and his kingdom. These things are intelligible concerning the future and the promises according to the law, and they reach higher, to what was said afterward by Paul [The text is damaged here.]: the better thing is to depart and be with Christ (Psalm 42:5). What follows is a narrative of the things that still grieve.

Separation from the one desired melts the soul that desires. I am separated from God, he says as long as he does not yet see paradise, his own foundation from the beginning, but still dwells in the land of Jordan and Mount Hermon—very small compared to that one—and is troubled as if by storms of winds and crashing waves, with calamities rushing upon him one after another like torrents (Psalm 42:7).

He teaches that the good things belong to the coming age, calling it the day in which God has promised to establish his mercy, according to what is said in Psalm 89: “Fill us in the morning with your mercy” (Psalm 89:14 [90:14]) (Psalm 42:8). But the present time, he says, is for gladness, when it is night and darkness, the conversation with God through hymns and the stretching out in prayer.

Prayer, remembrance, and God as the righteous one's only strength§6

Apollinaris is commenting verse by verse on Psalms 41-43, explaining how the psalmist's words teach prayer, remembrance before God, and trust in God alone as king and defender.

6The words of supplication are also spoken in songs. But since supplication must be offered with thanksgiving, the song is placed before the prayer. For no one who has been ungrateful for what came before is strong in asking for what is to come. And the request seeks divine remembrance from God. For if I were in remembrance with you, the psalmist says, I would not be going about in gloom and being oppressed by the unjust. It is clear that forgetfulness does not touch the divine nature, since forgetfulness is a change in memory, and the divine is unchangeable. For this reason he also asks, “Why have you forgotten me?” No one says “Why?” about an involuntary experience of forgetfulness; rather, it presents voluntary forgetfulness as neglect of one unworthy of God’s care.

This psalm is inseparable from the previous one, not divided even by a title, and it holds to the same power of the return to God. It adds also the guidance through the light that shone forth, which says, “I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who follows me may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46) (Psalm 43:3). By this shining it prepares comfort for the one who grieves, just as the psalm before it made comfort for sorrows through the expectation of things to come. Since, then, the portion of the righteous is attacked both nation by nation and man by man, and they cannot obtain what they deserve unless they receive the heavenly judge and advocate—as if the case against their adversaries were a concern to him who judges all justly—he calls upon him, since he judges not from hearsay but brings forth what is just from knowledge. For this reason he asks for escape both from the nation and from the unjust man.

The psalmist says this as one who has nothing else for strength, and he obtains God—as it is also said, “I will love you, Lord, my strength” (Psalm 17:2 (18:1)) (Psalm 43:2; LXX 42:2a). Then he speaks here also about those who oppose him.

If strength comes from God, it is reasonable that not being strengthened is a rejection from God, most grievous to the one who puts forward this help alone. The “why” is not as if God does something without cause or in vain—for this happens for our contest—but as if the contest ought to have an end through mercy, and comfort ought to be given to those who mourn by the one who comforts those who mourn (Psalm 43:2; LXX 42:2). For it makes no sense that God would overlook the righteous. Therefore, seeking what comes from God, he says “why” as if to say: It is fitting for you to take hold of your own and not to permit pleasure to your adversaries (Psalm 43:2). Why then is what is yours not accomplished, but what comes from us abounds? As it is also said, “How long, Lord, will you forget me to the end?” (Psalm 12:2 (13:1)) and “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to destruction?” (Psalm 30:9) (Psalm 29:10 (30:9)). For even if affliction is necessary for some time, it is not forever; and even if we are justly afflicted on our own account, we ought at least to obtain help according to God’s mercy, so that discipline may give back a peaceful fruit through God’s love for humanity to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11). But in the case of the Lord, the “why have you forsaken me” is said in a complete sense, since what concerns him is not worthy of forsaking. Therefore the appearance of heavenly help is swift for the suffering body, because of that which concerns us.

He has shown the brightness by the addition of the lyre, and the love in the address repeated twice.

This is the reminder of comfort. For even if we are weighed down by present things, he says, let us give thanks for the things to come, and already by expectation let the sorrow depart, as we await God, the salvation of the person who looks to him (Ps 43:5).

You, he says, we have as king—God, who provides for the salvation of our people—and we know that you will accomplish this, and we take courage in your will (Psalm 44:4-5).

You, he says, we have as a horn to ward off all enemies, and your name upon us will make those who rise up against us and hope to overpower us a thing to be trampled (Psalm 44:5).

For I do not prepare myself, he says, with bow and spear (Psalm 44:6). Therefore I do not trust in weapons, since these did not suffice even for our fathers, nor was the success accomplished according to their strength, but the work is beyond all human preparation (Psalm 44:7).

He says the earlier teachings correspond to the later events. We have been taught that our salvation from adversaries has always come from you, and we have seen their power turned to shame.

For this reason, he says, we boast altogether in you through all time, and we offer thanks to your name by which we are saved—as it is also said through Ezekiel: “It is not for your sake that I act, O house of Israel [the printed text reads νῖκος, 'victory', for οἶκος, 'house'], but for the sake of my name” (Ezekiel 36:22) (Psalm 44:8; Ps 43:10.11).

Israel's present shame proves God alone gives victory§7

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 43 (44), where Israel laments that God has rejected them in battle despite their faithfulness, and he reads this as a proof that strength comes only from God.

7But these hopes, he says, are firm and unshakable, and we will not abandon them because of what has happened. Yet what has happened now is the opposite of them. For we have been left behind by you, he says, having been thrust away, and you are not present with our armies. The shame that then seized the battles has come around upon us, and we have been diminished before those whom we formerly mastered, and we have been plundered by those whom we plundered. For in this it has been shown all the more by God that the strength belonged to Israel, since when they are abandoned they are defeated—just as for man, being abandoned became the occasion of death, showing that resurrection comes from God alone and in no other way (Psalm 44:11).

We have been gripped by cowardice, he says, a cowardice unable to defend us against those who devour us like sheep. This is the cowardice that Moses also threatened would seize them for their transgressions, because the sound of a driven leaf would pursue them. And we have become captives, he says, and we have been scattered among the nations—we who were formerly brought out from the nations and possessed the holy land. This is a dissolution of honor, just as for man the dissolution of his formation is the saying, “Earth you are, and to earth you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). So also Isaiah says about the people: “We have become as at the beginning, when you did not rule over us and your mercy was not called upon us” (Isaiah 63:19) (Psalm 44:12).

Freely they were sold, as Isaiah also says. And he says they were sold for their sins, just as Paul says about man: “I am fleshly, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). The sale is the alienation and the coming to be under human masters instead of God. This is what he also threatened Jeroboam and the people with him through Shemaiah the prophet: that they would become slaves to the Egyptian king Shishak, and they would know the slavery of God and the slavery of the kings of the earth (2 Chronicles 12:8).

For such a thing is a parable—that they are remembered in the curses. Just as Jeremiah says against the false prophets: “They will take up a curse against him in the exile, O Judah, in Babylon, saying, ‘May the Lord do to you as he did to Zedekiah and as to Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in fire because of the lawlessness they committed in Israel’”. Grant these things now, and most justly: they are devoured like sheep, when they led Christ like a sheep to slaughter; they are sold to the nations, just as they bought the Lord, betrayed for silver and in some way handed over to death; they are mocked, just as they made mockery and shaking of heads at the crucified Lord (Psalm 44:11-14).

This alone remains to Israel as a hope for the recall of those who are left, which the prophecy foreseeing says: that they did not turn aside to the customs of the Greeks according to the idolatry they had agreed upon, nor did they swerve from the path of piety toward the one God that had been commanded them, even though they were so humbled and exiled and placed under the authority of those who kill. This was preserved especially by those around Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, who endured fire rather than accept worship of idols. And indeed, this is not present as something pious among the remaining Jews at the present time. For while they do not entirely abandon the practice of not going to idols or the Greek sickness of incantations, their impiety toward Christ is shown to be most harmful in this way: because, not worshiping idols as before, they are enslaved as never before.

Having mentioned the Israelite evils before this and having left behind the grace that releases from evils—a grace beginning from the nations but also taking up no small portion of those from Israel, for many from the Jews have believed—he makes a kind of prelude of the initiation concerning these things. He announces a good word about the coming of the king, who oversees the works of the righteous for his contemplation, and which are brought up by them as a kind of hearing for him, and who gives to them the divine fulfillment. For he has come as the fulfiller of what is not truly fulfilled among human beings, lawful by divine purity and by the sanctifying participation that comes from him. And he indicates that he will say many things quickly, comparing the tongue that declares these things to the pen of a very swift scribe.

Isaiah foresees his outward appearance failing compared to the sons of men, prophesying his dishonor according to the flesh (Psalm 45:2). But David interprets the divine beauty, which is also made clear in Isaiah through the words that the king will be seen with glory.

The anointing of Christ and the bride's beauty§8

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 44 (45), explaining that Christ's anointing is by nature, not by effort, and that the church from the nations is the bride made beautiful by turning from evil.

8This points to the ineffable glory and beauty of the invisible one, and he foretells the manifestation of that beauty through words and deeds, saying that grace has been poured out on his lips, just as the Gospels also make clear that everyone marveled at the words of grace that came from his mouth (cf (Psalm 45:2). Luke 4:22).

So, he says, as in a pure vessel the divine ointment has been anointed upon him, joined by nature and not by participation because of kinship—not given by grace as it is also to your partakers. And he addresses Christ as God, and says that the one who anoints him is his God, not abolishing the human constitution and the Word's relation to the flesh, according to which there is also an anointing of the Spirit, since the flesh was sanctified beforehand and sanctified again through the Spirit who was present from the beginning and came again. For from the beginning, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you' (Luke 1:35); and again, 'Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power' (Acts 10:38). But if it were not said that the Spirit is joined to him as to natural beauty by kinship, then this anointing would be spoken of as something earned through practice. And where can anyone point to such practice? What labor of learning was there in Christ, so that holiness might be a recompense for labors? Would the Spirit of wisdom come upon him through diligent learning, and would the steadfast and powerful Spirit be sealed upon him through battle against pleasures? It is clear, then, that the anointing is spoken of as something that follows by nature and not as something given in return for labor, and the Spirit was not given to him as a wage to a human being—though even this would be possible, for God gives the Spirit by grace and not as a wage—but as to one who is at once God and man, what was his own was manifested from him and toward him, just as we humans, offering what is our own to God, say, 'Therefore I will confess you among the nations, O Lord' (Psalm 17:50 (18:49)).

By saying 'partakers,' he also showed the reason for the anointing: so that the anointing by participation might go forward, for this reason the anointing by participation also came. For as far as the Lord himself was concerned, there was no need of anointing, since he was holy by nature and became holy, and placed holiness as something innate in his body, and by this brought the human form to maturity. But since this was not in us, nor was it possible among human beings to be holy by nature, but there is need of gift and heavenly grace, for this reason the Spirit came upon Christ, so that he might show us as led from him to participation in the Spirit through kinship according to the body (Psalm 45:7).

The departure of the nations from evil things makes the bride beautiful and desirable to the king. For this is our beauty, and by this we are adorned, and by this we are made close to God, and so greatly do we become sought after by God that he speaks according to his desire, the kind of things a lover would say about the beauty of his beloved.

The bride is near the king, and virgins are near her and follow her, and through her they are made close to the king, like attendants accompanying a bride, young maidens (Psalm 45:14). To her, according to the Song of Solomon, the synagogues of the Jews would most fittingly be second and following, according to 'The first will be last and the last first' (Matthew 20:16), and 'The proselyte among you will rise above you as head, and you will be as the tail' (Deuteronomy 28:43-44). For those who long ago became proselytes of the law in order to be made close to God now themselves lead the assembly that draws near to God, and this is clear from what follows.

For this queen stands beside Christ and enters with him into his holy temple, and she gives the inheritance of the world and the kingdom promised to Abraham to those descended from him according to bodily lineage, with the king willing it and the queen consenting (Psalm 45:15). Therefore those young maidens whom he said were fathers he now calls sons, since they have received the rank of sons and being deemed worthy of inheritance from their mother as sons (Psalm 45:16).

He says the city will be indestructible, so that God will be in it, when the present night ceases at early dawn. For it is night as long as the darkness has not been entirely removed nor every authority and power abolished, but they still stir up warlike attempts against the righteous (Psalm 46:5).

Not even when you were handed over to the nations, he says, abandoned by God, were you handed over in vain, but so that you might know the power of God, who acquired all the nations for your reproof, and who acquired every land instead of one land under his own worship, because by the same transgression, according to the apostle, salvation has come to the nations to provoke Israel to jealousy (Ps 46).

The nations' joy and the king's inheritance§9

Apollinaris is commenting on the argument of Psalm 46 (47), explaining that the psalm announces joy to the nations who go up to Jerusalem and are joined to Abraham's descendants.

9The psalm before this one is addressed to Israel, but this one is addressed to the nations who go up together to Jerusalem and are joined to those descended from Abraham. So it announces joy to the nations, victory applause, and shouts of triumphant praise because of the manifestation of the Lord from on high, which will come with great fear. For he will take hold of the earth, according to the vision of Daniel, handing over the kingdom to his holy ones. As one of the successors of the apostles has said, he will appear to the king of the world in Jesus—not taking any kingdom of his own into glory for himself, but for his own people, who are established in the kingdom through the chosen bride, the queen (Psalm 47:3-4). As it was said beforehand in David: “You will make them rulers over all the earth” (Psalm 44:17 (45:16)).

“You have shown us to be a kingdom over all the nations,” he says, “and he has given us back our inheritance from our fathers, the land of Israel, which is precious in his eyes.” The prophets and apostles from Israel call the land of Israel their own inheritance, and it is given back to them according to their lineage, just as the Lord himself was not outside the succession of his fleshly descent. They say that land was loved, not because it could differ from any other land in God’s sight—for nothing is precious or beautiful to him, nor is one thing more precious or more beautiful than another—but because he loved its inhabitants, who were the firstfruits of piety in the world (Psalm 47:4). And he keeps his love toward them and toward the land where they dwelt, having nothing that ceases, but all things eternal.

Without distinction he signifies the divinity in the Son. For this is surely the one who ascends, the one who reigns, the one who sits on the heavenly throne. And having seated himself on earth before his ascension, gathering around himself the rulers of the nations and all that is strongest among humanity, and lifting them up to heavenly glory (Psalm 47:9).

“This is your righteousness,” he says, “which has no partiality.” And Peter, perceiving the calling of the nations, says: “In truth I understand that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). When the wise Israel sees the nations brought in and understands the mercy, he will not envy, but will rejoice in God’s judgment, just as Peter and the apostles did then (Psalm 48:11).

“I will touch upon a wise and hidden word,” he says, “mixing the riddle with song.” Why did he not say he opens his mouth for a parable, but that he inclines his ear? Is it because he wants to show himself as a hearer of the Spirit speaking rather than as the interpreter himself—or that the Spirit speaks the words through his mouth? For it is also said in Psalm 84 (85): “I will hear what God will speak in me.”

But he says he will undergo death willingly, as far as this age is concerned, dying to the world and being taken from the earth of his life, yet living to God (Psalm 49:9).

The suffering of death, he says, was not attached to man as he was made, but came upon him from dishonor. For though he was honored with growth toward immortality, he did not perceive it, having a good from honor greater than his nature (Psalm 49:12). And so, having fallen away from the likeness of God that consists in immortality, he is made like the beasts in death. For as Ecclesiastes says: “As the death of this one, so the death of that one, and one spirit is in them all; and what advantage does man have over the beast? Nothing, for all is vanity. All things go to one place; all things came from the dust, and all things return to the dust” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20).

But when the coming age arrives, he says—which is the early morning of the coming day—the kingdom of good things will be present, when every human power has ceased and the power from God prevails (Psalm 49:14). Then the race of the good will be glorious and royal, and the race of the not-good will be subject and enslaved, since the strength that comes from wealth has passed away, but the strength that comes from virtue remains (Psalm 49:16-17). And all that is left of humanity on earth will obey the good, who reign according to God.

Wealth and sacrifice cannot match God's righteousness§10

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 49 (50), explaining that God desires thanksgiving and trust rather than sacrifices, and that sin is inherited from the first generation.

10So let wealth and glory be reckoned as nothing great—at least, the things that do not depart together with the one who acquired them, as righteousness does depart with him and brings back those who have been brought low.

The heavenly perfect races, he says, will sing in praise of God's righteousness, applauding with perfect words that possess what is most just and most discerning: that God is gladdened not by sacrifices but by judgment, and holds this as his everlasting covenant (Psalm 50:6; LXX 49:6; Psalm 50:13; LXX 49:13).

For God is not in need of food and drink, he says, that he should attend to meats as food and to blood as drink. Then, introducing the true honor of God in place of the name of sacrifice, he adds what follows.

Consider this to be sacrifice, he says: the awareness of benefits, the confession from the heart, and the fulfillment of prayers as a debt owed by human beings to God (Psalm 50:14; LXX 49:14).

And if you do these things, he says, be of good hope that you will obtain God as your helper in afflictions, so that you may also glorify him when you are benefited, offering thanks without ceasing (Psalm 50:15; LXX 49:15; Ps 49:17).

These things are a paralysis of the law: the commandment “You shall not steal” is paralyzed by running together with a thief; “You shall not commit adultery” by being arrayed with adulterers; “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” and “You shall not go about in deceit among your nation” by speaking conspiratorial and deceitful words, by accusing, and by devising stumbling blocks for a neighbor (Psalm 50:18).

But the judgment will reveal the knowledge, because I will make you yourself visible to yourself. For each person will see himself, when hearts are uncovered, as he was formed from his heart. And Theodotion, rendering “I will add, I will heap up,” indicated the sudden gathering of deeds that comes before the eyes of the one who did them (Psalm 50:21).

This was the “righteous accuser of himself.” For I do not wait, he says, for the reproof of another, even though the prophet did reprove me. He did so once, but I see my offense continually—yet I do not despair of healing, because of mercy.

This is a request for pardon, because sin has grown together with us from our first origin, passed on to us from the mothers who conceive us (Psalm 51:5). For “through one man sin entered the world” (Romans 5:12), and evil was rooted in the first woman, and from her it passes through childbirth to those who are born. This is said more fittingly of the mother, even though sin also comes through the father, because we are brought forth from the father in seed, but from mothers completely, and we come into the light through childbirth.

We, he says, have been rooted in lawlessness and are born in sins, but what pleases you is what is truly good and in no way distorted. How then can human beings be glorified before such a judge, rather than carry away shame by being condemned? (Psalm 51:6)

From the grace that already existed toward him, he asks that sparing may also now come about. For God brings what follows upon the beginnings that come from himself, for the sake of his own purpose and steadfastness, even if what comes from us is not entirely worthy—just as, for the sake of the covenant with Abraham, he has mercy on the race descended from him when it suffers harm, bringing what follows upon the beginning and guarding the certainty of the promise above the equality of authority. Since, then, he knows he has obtained wisdom from God and has been honored by it, so as to understand even the hidden things about which he prays—“Open my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law” (Psalm 118:18 [119:18])—for this reason he acknowledges gratitude for the gift of wisdom, and asks that God remove the defilement that has come upon him, adding this also to grace.

The Savior said that Abraham, expecting his day, rejoiced beforehand, and when it came he saw it and rejoiced—Abraham, as he says, “your father rejoiced that he might see my day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). But David speaks of hearing instead of sight, saying that he will hear in Hades the cause of great gladness—the coming of the Savior signified to him by the Spirit—and that he will rejoice in Hades in spirit, and his bones within the tombs, humbled by sin and death, will also rejoice together with him, since the body that is the cause of resurrection was buried with them (Psalm 51:8).

Sin is weak and a cause of weakness, but righteousness is strong, and so is God, its champion. Such also is hope in God, and especially the unceasing hope. And just as hope is understood from the first origin as something that could not have existed without God, so when it stands against the opposition of painful things, it is trained all the more (Psalm 71:7; LXX 70:7).

God's strength in old age and Christ's righteous kingdom§11

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 70 (71) and Psalm 71 (72), reading David's words as spoken in the person of Christ and interpreting Solomon as a type of Christ's kingdom.

11Since in the season of youth I took your help, not bodily vigor, as my strength, let this strength remain with me even as youth fades, and when human strength has passed away entirely, let the power that comes from you stand by me—as it did for David himself in old age (Psalm 71:9; LXX 70:9). For when he was young, his son rose up against him, but when he was old, no one did. Chilled already by old age and lying helpless on his bed, he still ruled Israel and gave orders to the nation. He ruled Israel and appointed Solomon as his successor, after casting out Adonijah, who had tried to reign against his will.

These words would fit the time of Absalom's rebellion, the time about which those other words were spoken in Psalm 3: “Many say of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in his God’” (Psalm 3:2). And by his fellowship with the righteous, the Lord also suffered this kind of rebellion from his enemies, who said, “Let him be delivered, since he delights in him” (Psalm 22:8), and who thought that the one suffering according to the Father's will had been abandoned. So let the wicked, he says, fail in their purpose, and let the matter turn out according to my hope, not according to their supposition.

Do not be far from me, but hasten your help and turn their boasting into shame, so that my hope may increase all the more, and my hymns to you as well (Psalm 71:12; LXX 70:12).

Symmachus says, “I do not know how to count them out.” For since he had promised to recount God's righteousness and the salvation that had come to him, and the promise was greater than what belongs to a human being, he added these words.

He begins the hymn at the very point where he had promised, doing it immediately, crying out with a loud voice the height of God's wonders: that human beings who had been brought through many afflictions attain good things in eternal life, having risen from the dead. This is the chief point of the divine hymns and the clearest demonstration of God, since none of those who are called gods could rival it. For God is the one who gives life to all things, and in him Christ is known, being the Son of God, saying that he himself is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25) and showing this in deed. So even if these words are spoken by Christ as a human being to the Father, it is fitting that they be spoken to him as well by human beings, as to the Son and image of God. For he is the firstborn from the dead, having descended in the manner of a human being, but having ascended by the power of God, being himself the author of the ascent, as he says to the Jews, in which the excellence of his divinity is shown.

Even if you made your great power manifest by handing human nature over to death, yet to the one despaired of among human beings you gave back a new and blessed life.

The glory of Christ after the passion is hymned. Solomon is a type: the peace of his kingdom, the protection of the righteous, the glory of his wisdom, and the honor he received from all people. But beyond the type is this: that the days of the king endure to the consummation, and his peace and his fruit become most brilliant. For these things in no way fit Solomon, who lived only a short time, had opponents, and left no fruit from himself except one son—and that son did not preserve the kingdom handed down to him. But Christ's power is perpetual and unshaken, and his fruit is most glorious: those who believe. And the other things that came to pass in a typical way in Solomon are more perfectly fulfilled in him, as the discourse will explain point by point. “O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son, to judge your people in righteousness and your poor in judgment” (Psalm 72:1-2; LXX 71:1,2). The Lord Christ is both king and son of King David according to the flesh, and for this reason he arose from the royal line, so that he might set right the ancestral kingdom according to Isaiah's prophecy, make it divine instead of human, and—what did not exist in any human kingdom—apply the exactness of righteousness to his subjects and grant to the wronged that they not be wronged. For not even in David himself was this preserved. Even though he was most righteous and pleasing to God beyond others, he still became the perpetrator of injustice against Uriah. And Solomon's case was even greater injustice, stretching into impiety through the making of idols. But this is the king foretold through Isaiah and Jeremiah: a righteous king seated on a throne established with mercy, judging and seeking judgment and hastening righteousness, as Isaiah says (Isaiah 16:5), and understanding and doing judgment and righteousness, as Jeremiah says (Jeremiah 23:5).

Symmachus and the prophets on the nations' tribute and the end of David's prayers§12

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 71 (72), explaining how the nations' tribute to the king is fulfilled in Christ and the church, and then noting the close of the second book of Psalms.

12Symmachus rendered it, “And they will fear him as long as the sun endures” (Ps 72:5), in agreement with what Gabriel said to the holy virgin: “The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever” (Psalm 71 [72]) (Luke 1:32).

Isaiah also says these things to Jerusalem: “The wealth of the sea and of nations and peoples will turn to you; herds of camels will come, and the camels of Midian will cover you; elephants will come from Sheba bearing gold, and they will bring frankincense, and they will proclaim the salvation of God.” And through Haggai it is said: “Once more I will shake heaven and earth and sea and dry land, and I will shake all the nations; and the chosen things of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty” (Haggai 2:6-7) (Psalm 72:16; LXX 71:16).

For the whole inhabited world is luxuriant and has blossomed with the fruit of Christ, and an uncountable multitude of Christ’s children appears in every city like grass from the earth (Psalm 72:16).

Here, then, David’s prayers are fulfilled—the prayers he made for the eternal permanence of the throne when he said: “Lord, the word you spoke concerning the house of your servant and concerning your servant, let it be made faithful forever; and do as you have spoken, and let your name be exalted forever, while they say, ‘The Lord Almighty is the God of Israel,’ and the house of David your servant is raised up.” Unreasonably, then, was the heading written on the next psalm: “The hymns of David son of Jesse are ended.” For this psalm is the end of that collection, and part of the thanksgiving for the fulfillment of David’s prayers.

The second book of psalms also ended with a blessing that sounds out the “Amen,” just as the first book’s “May it be” makes clear, as has been said. For the end of that first book was Psalm 40, spoken in reference to Christ, and the end of this second book is the one just mentioned, Psalm 71. The third book ends—so that I may speak about it now as well—at Psalm 88, so that there are in all 17 psalms, of which 11 are by Asaph, then 4 by the sons of Korah, 1 by David, and Heman the Israelite’s is last.

Instead of “They passed through into the disposition of the heart,” Aquila rendered, “They passed by the watchtowers of the heart.” This means they are unwilling to carry out any of their natural thoughts, nor do they practice what they understand to be good, but they turn away from these things. Virtue is a joke to them; slander against their inferiors comes easily; blasphemy against God is ready at hand; their tongue is quick against human beings. And this is what “their tongue passed through upon the earth” means (Psalm 73:9).

The righteous will be blessed in the future state, as Jeremiah also says something of this kind: “If you turn back, I will restore you before my face” (Jeremiah 15:19). There he says, “And all who planned evil, who chose evil, will change their minds.” For when the good things appear among the race of the righteous, they will say, “There is, then, a providence of God; and how does he know what is done?” This is the voice of those who have lost their natural reasoning because of the good things that came to them unprofitably, leading them into injustices. For prospering contrary to reason produces thoughts that the world is not governed according to reason, nor will he know our [the text is damaged here; perhaps: hardships]. But although providence stands over all things, nevertheless, he says, these impious people, who are unbearable in their arrogance and in their words against God even amid their good cheer, and who are not yet persuaded by the approval of the righteous—they mock the text is damaged here the one who is steadfast of hands perhaps: clean of hands, as in Psalm 72:13 as a vain steadfastness, and they speak evil of the one who chooses righteousness. This is the difficulty of human reasoning: to repent of zeal for virtue as though it were not good or profitable. Such thoughts often enter many people’s minds, and he intends to heal them by his word. To destroy the impious reasoning, he confirms the more pious reasoning through the person of God. For what is said truly requires God as guarantor: that the pious who now suffer hardship are more blessed in the future state than the impious who prosper to the end. Such is the saying in Jeremiah: “If you turn back, I will restore you before my face” (Jeremiah 15:19). And “They said, ‘How does God know?’” is the voice of those who have lost their natural reasoning through unprofitable luxury; for if providence exists, they would not prosper while the good suffer hardship (Psalm 73:11).

Symmachus later said, “Honor received me.” And in another sense: I rested, knowing to be silent and to trust you as the one who governs our affairs well, and so to be with you always; therefore you took hold of me; you placed good glory in me, you brought me to blessed glory (Psalm 73:24).

The mention of the places is necessary because of the people’s lawlessness.

God is not of places but of righteousness§13

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 73 (74), explaining why the psalm mentions specific places and then moving into later verses of the psalm.

13For there was no pretext for anger against the places themselves, and it is as if, by sparing the place, he prepares mercy to come upon the people. This is not because any spot of ground can be beloved by God; for God belongs not to places but to righteousness.

Symmachus puts it this way: “You dried up the ancient rivers” (Psalm 74:15) (Psalm 74:15; LXX 73:15). For the fact that springs gush up and rivers pour out from them, while elsewhere the streams of ancient rivers are dried up—this displays the power that works wonders. He says the same in another psalm: “He turned rivers into a desert, and streams of water into thirst” (Psalm 107:33). For it is easy for him to divert the flow of waters wherever he wishes. Through this, however, the word also hints at something else: that to the Jews, because of their lawlessness, he will not bring the streams of the prophetic rivers, but the nations that were long a desert he will water with the torrents from the rock. “And the rock,” says the divine apostle, “is Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). And all the things said from “He worked salvation in the midst of the earth” (Psalm 74:12) contain the pattern of the good things done for us. So much for these matters. Isidore of Pelusium says in a letter that Etham was a place so named, not far distant from Jerusalem, well-watered, spacious, and shaded; it was dried up by the wrath of God during the Roman war, as Josephus also says in the Antiquities (Psalm 74:15).

Remember your covenant, and bring back those who have been led away into dark places to dwell in your enlightened land again, receiving the prayer of those humbled by evils and put to shame, and granting them to sing hymns with gladness.

Christ, the cause and maker of incorruption, speaks now to the prophet the words that are spoken—he who saves as God and offers thanks for salvation as a human being to the Father (Psalm 75:1). “To you, then,” he says, “we will offer confessions and thanksgivings for salvation; we will recount your wonders, Father. When the church assembled from all humanity,” he says, “can hear the things concerning you, and all people are brought near to serve you.” “Mine also,” he says, “is the discernment over all things, saving those worthy of salvation from those who are perishing: those who have set their minds on earthly things dissolve together with the earth, but those who have set their minds on heavenly things remain like pillars for the establishment of the new creation.”

One must not dare against God, nor be made bold by a conceit of wisdom, nor exalt oneself, saying terrible and unjust things against God—as though he does not provide, nor judge each one righteously, but hands over affairs to the risings and settings of the stars, and as though the stars dispose human affairs either well or badly, and not only the stars but also the demons worshiped in the high places. For these things are not so, not even close; rather, all things are encompassed by the righteous judgment of God, concerning both the humbling and the exalting of human beings—some being cast down, others raised up. Didymus says the same.

At such an end, he says, in which the wicked perish together with their wickedness, I will make the recounting of God's wonders, and I will cut down the strong things of the impious as if lopping off horns; but the horns of the righteous will be exalted, since they have received from God a power that cannot be cut down. Then they will be exalted when they reign together with their own king.

A good end and a victory of the righteous according to God is prophesied, the prophecy previously declared in the preceding psalm having been brought forward to greater clarity and brightness.

He calls the sanctified things “mountains of prey,” that is, mountains of food. For he called food “prey” also in Psalm 131 (132), saying, “Blessing I will bless her prey,” which Symmachus rendered there as “provision.” And in “He gave food to those who fear him” in Psalm 110 (111), Aquila and Symmachus said “prey.”

Mountains of prey and the overthrow of the proud§14

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 75 (76), explaining the psalm's imagery of mountains, the overthrow of the proud, and the contrast between trusting in horses and trusting in God.

14So he calls the mountains of the land flowing with milk and honey mountains of prey and food, from which he says God will be seen in a manner surpassing all greatness. Then the proud will suffer what has been set before them, finding their hands unable to do anything, as if they were being carried down in drowsiness. For you struck them with terror while defending your people and the places consecrated to you, so that the words fit: “A horse is a false hope for salvation”, and “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will call on the name of the Lord our God; they were hobbled and fell, but we rose and stood upright” (Psalm 19:8-9 (20:7-8)) (Ps 20:8). The same thing as the hobbling and the fall is indicated here through the being carried down and the stupefaction.

Symmachus rendered it this way: “For the wrath of a human being will confess to you, a remnant of wrath girded on” (Psalm 76:10). Since the wrathful and angry person who does everything in anger and not according to what is right is subject to confession and changes of mind concerning the sins he commits. For wrath is quick to lead to sin, bold even to the point of murder itself, so that the reasoning left behind in the soul after wrath brings strong repentances that wrap around the whole soul for what was wrongly done and said through wrath.

From the present psalm up to Psalm 82 (83), the discourse goes through the harsh and painful things concerning the people, and then in what follows it turns to brighter things (Ps 76 argument). In the present psalm he says that there is a long time in which the nation has been despised, sufficient to take away even the hope of help from God, unless someone remembers the former things and is strengthened in hope of the good things to come (Psalm 77:2-3; LXX 76:2,3).

So indeed, having spoken piously in Psalm 72 (73), he now introduces the weak reasonings that come upon people in prolonged afflictions. And now he first gives thanks to God who received his supplications, describing his persistent prayer and the stretching out of his hands through whole nights.

When your power appeared, he says, everything was set in motion: the waters writhed in fear, and a turbulent struggle gripped the depths (Psalm 77:16-18). Waters were also released from above out of the clouds, and the clouds ran through the sky with a great sound, and the arrows from heaven were hurled down. The sounds of thunder rolled around the circle of the sky as the clouds raced through, and lightning flashed across the inhabited world and shook the earth with an earthquake. These things point to the fearful wonders that appeared in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in Judea. For Egypt was struck with hail that came down with fire, and the waters of the Red Sea gave way as if shrinking back in fear. Thunder crashed in the sky and hail came down also upon the Canaanites in the war against the Jews. It is clear that lightning also flashed together with it. As for saying that the thunder sounded in a wheel, another passage says it was when he bound the axles of the chariots and brought them down into the sea with their commanders.

He presents to us the circle of the sky along which the stars revolve, like oxen going around a threshing floor (Psalm 77:18). For a spherical heaven, according to the Greek account, is not to be found in the divine oracles, so that we should not imagine a wheel-like circuit above the earth and below the earth. For the divine Scriptures present water under the earth, not heaven, and waters above the heaven set as a boundary. For he says, “He stretches out the heaven like a curtain, he who roofs his upper chambers with waters” (Psalm 104:2). And the sun is said to run from one end to the other, from east to west, and not to run back from the west for even the smallest part of the day. And he says, “He established the heaven” (not “he who leads it around in a circle”) “and stretched it out like a tent to dwell in” (not “to be whirled around like a circle”). And Isaiah says that those who come from a far land come “from the end of the foundation of heaven”, so that the heaven is founded and standing, not running around in a circle. But these things are said for the sake of a brief reminder, so that we are not carried away to the fictions of the Greeks while neglecting the divine Scriptures.

He says that the divine way has no visible trace, unlike the human way. Therefore he called it a journey “in the sea and in the waters,” since Solomon says that not even the paths of a ship sailing the sea can be recognized, so that what is said is figurative (Psalm 77:19-20). And it is no longer a journey of movement for God. For the Hebrews did not walk through the sea so that he might lead them through it, but the stretch of the Red Sea was brief for them in their journey, while the stretch through the land was long and lengthy. “You led your people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (Psalm 76:21 (77:20)).

God's hidden way made known in leading Israel, and the causes of his turning away§15

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 77 (78), explaining how God's invisible path became visible in leading Israel out of Egypt, and then introducing the interpreters' views on why God turned away from his people.

The righteous share death with sinners but receive better things after death§16

Apollinaris is explaining why the righteous suffer and die alongside sinners, using Josiah as an example, and then comments on Psalms 78-80.

16But if a righteous man shares with sinners even to the point of death, then after death good things are already stored up for him, to mark him off from the wicked. This was the case with King Josiah. For indeed this man also, being most righteous, died in war while the Egyptian prevailed, because Israelite impiety had been great beforehand and did not receive pardon. So for the righteous themselves, if they suffer along with sinners, better things from God are stored up after the suffering (Ps 78:4). And for the brothers and kinsmen who suffer because of sins, there is great help through them, so that on account of their destruction some turning of God toward the nation comes about. This is also what the prophet now asks.

These words depend on a defense acceptable before God. For even if we deserve what we have suffered, he says, yet your name is reproached together with us, just as God himself says through Isaiah: "Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations" (Isaiah 52:5).

Because, he says, they ravaged the God-fearing nation like wild beasts and laid waste a holy land (Psalm 79:7; LXX 78:7).

By naming the one who sits upon the cherubim, he reveals the heavenly authority through which all things are subject to him and nothing can resist him, if only he would appear. And he calls upon the power to be roused, because it has been silent and still and has looked on while the people suffered. Such were the things they suffered from the Assyrians; and he asks that the one who for the present is not with them, because of their abandonment, should come to them. But how would he come except in his working? For this reason he says, "Come to save us," as if he were saying, "Come by way of saving." And the words "Turn us and show your face" are because the one who has turned away from God cannot obtain the appearing unless he first turns back to him (Psalm 80:3). For he says, "Turn to me, and I will turn to you" (Malachi 3:7). He asks this from the guidance and cooperation of God, as also in the words, "Incline my heart to your testimonies" (Psalm 118:36 (119:36)). For the pious attribute everything to God. And if your face appears, he says, we shall be saved; for the appearing of God is salvation (Psalm 80:3).

The vine mentioned earlier covered the mountains with its shadow, because it surpassed every height and every power upon the earth, and with the spreading of its branches it covered the cedars of God, because it was supported by the divine powers and reached as far as the sea and the river. For this is also how the boundaries of the Judean land are named by God: "From the wilderness to the Euphrates, and from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines" (Exodus 23:31). Therefore the vine which you yourself, he says, brought out of Egypt and transplanted, which you made so conspicuous and extended so far—why did you look on while it was stripped of its protection and plundered by passersby?

Trumpets begin the winepresses according to the law. On the new moon of the seventh month he commanded a trumpet blast, and on the fifteenth day the feast of tabernacles. This was the gathering of fruits at the end of the year, in the collection of the works of the field, as is made clear in Exodus. And for the one who views the law spiritually, the trumpet blast would be a revelation of the trumpets that come from heaven, while the fast appointed for atonement on the tenth of the same month is a sign of that saying of the Lord: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). For the law made the fast preparatory for the rest of the tabernacles and the joy in it, and by introducing beforehand the trumpets which signify the fear of the coming of the judge from heaven—since these announce beforehand the coming judgment, the humility for atonement follows, and so the feast for rest comes about. Let the psalm sung at the winepresses indeed correspond to the season of the feast according to the custom of the law, and for this reason let it mention trumpets at the beginning as a prelude to the feast of tabernacles. But let it signify the end about which it is sung, as the inscription reveals: when God gathers all fruits and gives the eternal tabernacles to his own. For in that end the good things are restored to those who are saved, and salvation from present evils—about which the previously mentioned psalms made their requests to God. [The rest follows in agreement with the preceding psalm.]

"Burdens," that is, the loads of lifting. For those who served in the labors of brickmaking carried the clay on their backs, throwing it out with a basket. So he removed their back, he says, from burdens—that is, he freed them from the loads (Psalm 81:6).

Mercy and truth meet in the calling of nations and Israel§17

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalms 82-87, explaining how the psalm verses speak of God's favor, the calling of the nations through mercy, and Israel's restoration through truth, with Christ as the one through whom this is accomplished.

17Others, however, said that the judgment of God and the mysteries are hidden (Psalm 83:3).

It should be known that some have taken the psalm to be spoken from the person of those in Babylon, longing to see Jerusalem and the temple in it and the altar (Psalm 84; LXX 83).

The rest have taken the temple in Jerusalem literally, according to the history (Psalm 84:4).

He brings forward the favor of God and the perpetual hearing of prayers, about which it is said in the prophecy of Isaiah: “While they are still speaking, I will say, ‘Here I am’” (Isaiah 65:24) (Psalm 84:9). This will happen when we enjoy the honor that comes through Christ, with the Father looking on us as on the face of the Son, because Christ will be in us.

Mercy and truth met, when the mercy through which the nations have been called comes together with the truth through which Israel will be brought back (Psalm 85:10). For the nations have been called for the sake of mercy, as the apostle says, but Israel for the sake of God’s truth, so that the promises to the fathers might be confirmed. Now, then, their rejection, he says, is reconciliation of the world, but later their acceptance will be life from the dead, when the perfect favor of God is shown to humanity, when he fulfills the promises made to the fathers, bringing in the race descended from them not because of their worthiness but because of his own truth. For until now those called for the sake of truth have spoken against it and have not obeyed the call, but those called through mercy have come first. Then, however, both will run together—mercy and truth—and then unrighteousness will fall completely, and the unrighteous will be driven out from their power over the righteous, so that the righteous one enjoys peace, and righteousness and peace are united to one another as if by a kiss (Psalm 85:10).

When truth rises from the earth, righteousness will appear from heaven, and all good things will come from God, and everything from the earth will be good (Psalm 85:11-12). For the Lord brought in God’s righteousness on behalf of humanity, since the heavenly judgment that is to judge and rightly order human affairs could not come about otherwise unless Christ was born among humanity for the setting right of things and took upon himself the whole matter of human nature.

Another, saying that the psalm is spoken from the person of the Son, says: For he asks from the Father the surpassing and divine virtue for us, saying from himself the things he wishes to happen for us—so that God is the one who leads us, according to what Paul says: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14), and so that we walk in the truth of God, serving the true and real worship, the worship of the Spirit, and keeping our heart undivided around the divine fear alone, with no other concern, whole in seeking the true good (Psalm 86:11-13; LXX 85:11-13). Then he offers the hymn and thanksgiving for the resurrection to God—the Lord himself, since he went down to the lowest parts of the earth, as it is written, and from there ascended by the will of the Father and by the authority of his divinity—and we likewise find our ascent by the grace that comes from him.

We have said before that Heman was a descendant of Korah, and Korah was the grandson of Kohath, the most honored of the sons of Levi, and the leader of the order of the Levites. He sings a most lordly song. For he dances for Christ, as the song is also inscribed “For the dance.” He sings the world-saving sufferings of the Savior, bringing forward the very person of the Lord in the word, as becomes clear from what is said.

And he describes a heavenly way of life for the salvation of humanity and teaches that when evils surround us, we should consider God our only refuge—just as we were also taught from the Gospels, when the passion was already approaching and he was making constant supplications and prayers (Psalm 88:2; LXX 87:2).

Christ's suffering, exaltation, and the one power of God§18

Apollinaris continues his verse-by-verse exposition of Psalm 87 (88) and begins Psalm 88 (89), interpreting the psalmist's words as spoken in the person of Christ and explaining the one divine power shared by Father and Son.

18Continuing with the words of the comparison, he says, "I have become like those who have been slain and lie in a tomb" (Psalm 87:6 (88:5)). They suffer this because they were separated from your life-giving power. For it is clear that this was not true of him. The body of Christ was full of the power of God even after death. That is why blood and water flowed from him, something that never comes from dead bodies.

Another, explaining the words "You have made me an abomination to them" (Psalm 87:9 (88:8)), says: Just as the disciples were ashamed at his sufferings, no longer hoping for a Savior or redeemer—they even said, "The rulers handed him over to a sentence of death, but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21). It is clear that he was also held fast in the hands of his enemies, handed over willingly, yet still held. There he came into affliction for our sake. For he bore everything that is heavy and afflicting to a body. For instead of "My eyes have grown weak from poverty" (Psalm 87:10 (88:9)), Symmachus rendered, "My eye has poured out from affliction."

Save, then, the race you have made, by your own knowledge, and lead back to life the human beings who have fallen into death in each way (Psalm 88:12). They must be spectators of your wonders and interpreters of your power. Let them not remain overlooked in forgetfulness, but let them be remembered again by you and led back to life. This is what the champion of human beings says, interceding for the common race of all and working out the life of the world by the will of the Father.

The ambassador and priest presents himself on our behalf with unceasing presentation, from dawn and through the night, and he appeases the wrath of God against us, which he himself took upon himself in his sufferings (Psalm 88:13).

He calls "exaltation" the exaltation in wonders and signs, about which the Father says to him, "I have glorified it" (John 12:28), while the Son says, "Glorify your Son" (John 17:1) (Psalm 88:15). He says this was changed into humiliation when he came to suffer, suffering for human beings and abandoned by them, the ones for whom he suffered.

Mount Tabor lies in the region of the Galileans, and Hermon in the desert near Sinai (Psalm 89:12). God must be hymned, he says, not only for his works around Tabor but also for the manifestation that took place around Hermon.

"Your power," he says, "prevails" (Psalm 89:13). Let your strength appear, let it become manifest and glorious among human beings. All these things he has included as spoken to one God. We know his power as one and only, and his arm and hand as perfect. Through it all things have come into being and are coming into being, so that it, being perfect in itself, is numbered with God according to the one number of divinity, and in no way falls into what is said about the many sons, none of whom the word has said beforehand is like the true one. For the one true power is not like that, but is uniquely the true image and mark of God, God accomplishing all things through it. Therefore the divine things were fitted to its sojourn among human beings, and the judgment of God is dispensed by Christ. This power exists as the power of God, but was given as to a human being, as Christ himself said, and God divided mercy and judgment by the times. He foretold the judgment from then on, when the king comes and sits on the throne of his glory. For that throne has righteousness as its foundation, as Aquila also said beforehand in the ninth psalm: "He set his throne in judgment" (Psalm 9:8 (9:7)). Before that manifestation, mercy was abundant on the earth, like a forerunner of the critical coming, as the fearful judge who is about to appear prepares human beings for salvation by mercy. And with mercy comes truth, because it is not possible for anything untrue or not upright to occur in God's good patience, even if it seems to those who do not know the future that the wicked are wrongly allowed to prosper, nor is it reasonable that the good are overlooked when they suffer loss.

He now explicitly recounts the promise made through Nathan the prophet, indicating prophets in the plural from one, whom he also calls sons of God, or as the other interpreters render it, holy ones of God (Psalm 89:19-24).

God's promise to David and the hope of resurrection§19

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 88 (89), explaining how God's promise to David through Nathan the prophet was fulfilled in David's victories, and then how the psalmist's lament over human mortality points to the heavenly king who rescues from death.

19He says that God declared he had shared his power with David and brought him forward into glory, choosing him according to the words, "I took you from the sheepfold, from behind the flocks, to be leader over my people Israel" (2 Samuel 7:8). And when he found him pleasing, he anointed him with holy oil for the kingdom. God was present with him, working together with him in everything, making the uprisings of his enemies ineffective, shattering their armies, and putting them to flight, according to the words, "I was with you in all that you undertook, and I destroyed all your enemies before your face" (2 Samuel 7:9) (Psalm 89:20). These things were spoken through Nathan the prophet. He says that David was exalted by the mercy that is from God and by the care that is fitting toward the righteous man, just as he also won victories in wars beyond all expectation and was undefeated.

God swears by himself, since he has no one greater by whom to swear, as Paul says. For he says, "I swore by my holiness," or as the Fifth Edition renders it, "By my sanctification," instead of "By my holiness" (Psalm 88:36 (89:35)) (Psalm 89:35). [On Psalm 88:39–46 (89:38–45): Theodoret set out these things in the same way as Apollinaris.]

He appears to be seeking something greater and beyond human capacity, belittling the life we now live as being nothing (Psalm 89:48). He says that human beings pass into something vain—not that they came into being for vanity—and he asks that they not be handed over to corruption, since clearly the kingdom will also be restored then, when corruption is dissolved and life for the ages is given. From where could escape from death come to us? From where, except from you? For this could not come to a human being from himself. No one exists who will live and not die, nor will anyone be able to rescue himself from death. These words plainly seek the heavenly king, the redeemer from vanity, the one who is stronger than death and the Savior of human beings from death, who changes the vanity of the present life into truth and establishes an eternal kingdom upon eternal life.

He did not despair of mercy, but he seeks the promise and calls upon the righteousness of God against the impious nations who reproach the righteous man for having suffered misfortune in his offspring and having fallen (Psalm 89:50-51). He says these are enemies of God, and they reproach the footprint of the righteous king as if it had been wiped out. After making these appeals, he blesses. The blessing belongs to one who hopes. And what does he hope for, except that the prayers will be fulfilled, that the promise will be accomplished and not fail, as he appears to have believed from the beginning? As Paul also says, "It is not as though the word of God has failed" (cf. Romans 9:6).

If he has spoken this way about a thousand years, it is clear that the span of a human life will be the thinnest possible, as if indivisible (Psalm 90:10; LXX 89:10).

The whole of human life, he says, is bounded by about seventy years. He says this from the greater part. And not even this is given in ease, but almost entirely in hardship. For either we are disciplined as infants, or we labor as young men, or we suffer hardship as old men. So he rightly said, "And the greater part of them is labor and pain" (Psalm 89:10 (90:10)) (Psalm 90:10). For since the order of life follows age in this way, very little time is found that is stolen away for gladness.

He fittingly called this entire time "night," in which a human being sleeps while being put to death, and "morning" the time that is coming, in which we will live when the Lord appears and mercy comes down from heaven. He asks that the sun come and the day shine forth, and that enduring gladness be given to the righteous in place of the days in which we were afflicted, falling into countless evils. These were the times of refreshing that Peter also foretells, into which he says the appointed Jesus our Lord will be sent (Acts 3:20).

Next he says that a thousand will fall on the left and ten thousand on the right, before they can even draw near and inflict any harm, so that he will look without fear, by the recompense from God, upon those falling and being destroyed (Psalm 91:8; LXX 90:8). This is what happened to Jehoshaphat according to the promise, so that without fighting—but singing and praising God through one another—he saw the enemies destroyed. For it says, "They came to the watchtower of the wilderness and looked and saw the multitude, and behold, all were dead, fallen on the ground, and there was no one saved" (2 Chronicles 20:24). Something similar to this also happened with other kings who hoped in God, as the promise of God proved true, which says, "I will be an enemy to your enemies and oppose those who oppose you" (Exodus 23:22). But one must not always suppose that victories come to the righteous without battle. For they often won by going through battle as well, but he speaks here of the most manifest help, in which God the helper is especially seen (Psalm 91:8).

He introduced the person of the one who hopes, saying from himself to God that he has made him his hope. And again he declares to such a person: "Since you have chosen the Most High like a house of security, you will be mastered by no evil, nor will your house be struck by divinely sent blows" (Psalm 91:10; LXX 90:10).

The righteous suffer as training, not punishment; God's justice overthrows the wicked§20

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 91 (92), explaining that the righteous person's afflictions come from enemies as discipline, not from God as punishment, and then moves to Psalms 92-96 (93-97) on God's majesty, judgment, and the overthrow of the wicked.

20For it is clear that if a righteous person suffers anything, and the house of a righteous person too, this is a contest from the unrighteous who oppose them, and not a punishment from God. It is also clear that evils will not overpower the one who suffers in the manner of training, but he will rise up as from sleep, just as it was said in the third psalm (Psalm 3); and if he falls seven times, according to the proverb, he will rise again (Proverbs 24:16) (Ps 92:1b; Prov 24:16).

It is possible, then, to speak of putting on glory and girding on power with reference to what is known among human beings, but it is more fitting to speak of it with reference to the dishonor that came to Christ in his first coming and to his human weakness. He himself leads the world, made firm in him for secure good things, which it is no longer possible to move in any way.

It is not possible, he says, for unjust kingdoms to share in your power, which bring toil on those who keep the law, by whom the righteous person is hunted for arrest and the one who does no wrong is murdered (Psalm 94:20-21; LXX 93:20). In these words he shows altogether the overthrow of injustice, which is established by the righteousness of God. You will not give power to the wicked, he said, but you will place security around the righteous person, standing as a stronghold for him and strengthening his hopes in you. And what the wicked thought would succeed for them against the righteous, these things will turn back and come upon themselves; and as they plotted to make the righteous invisible, so they will go away into invisibility. This is the end of the vengeance that comes from you.

Let the God whom we worship be known, the one who has heaven and the glory above heaven, to whom beauty is present, to whom power and majesty belong in secret—according to his incorporeal and divine excellence, since the bodily sizes and beauties of temples have been produced with technical precision and lavish wealth, and for the nations they are for demons (Psalm 96:6; LXX 95:6). But in Israel, even if these things were present, they had come into being from the beginning as a type of the invisible things, and it was said through Moses, and they yield to the invisible things—especially now in the present proclamation of the gospel, when spiritual majesty is sought and contemplated, but also in ancient times among the wise, as with Solomon, who said that he was building a temple for God as the greatest and most lavish, since God is the greatest, yet also said that not even heaven can contain the glory of God (2 Chronicles 2:6).

The words "The Lord reigned" must be heard in one way just now and in another way now. For from his first coming he reigned, as in a summary, condemning sin in his holy flesh and abolishing death; and in his second coming he will reign through each one of those who share in him, having destroyed evil and corruption, when people will come to behold the steward of eternal life, being already able to be filled with life from him and to behold the glory of his kingdom, which is manifested in them as in a royal house, and which makes the opponents invisible as fire melts wax (Psalm 97:5). So he says again that the earth rejoices and the many islands are glad—that is, the nations—and then next that the earth is in labor and the mountains melt. In one place he speaks of the saints, and in another of the opponents, whose height through pride he likens to mountains, and he compares the overthrow of their pride to the melting of mountains. And to those who are alien he shows cloud and darkness meeting them before the sight of the Lord, signifying fear and distress; but to those who are receptive to light he says his lightnings flash and his glory is seen, and also that the fire of judgment will consume the ungodly, when the righteousness of the Lord is revealed from heaven, as the apostle says. And the psalmist says that the revelation from heaven is announced by the heavens, calling the manifestation an announcement, and he says that heaven itself is established by righteousness and judgment as on some support. He makes it clear that the throne is not bodily, but that the kingdom is called a throne.

He prays that those who through great insensibility and foolishness worship the images which they themselves carved may be put to shame, having received perception. For such a thing will be for their good. For being put to shame, they will depart from this foolish opinion which they held as if about gods.

Evil is opposed and hostile to God, though not by any opposition in nature.

The footstool and the holy mountain§21

Apollinaris is explaining Psalm 98 (99), verse 5, on worshiping God's footstool, and then moves to Psalm 98:9 and Psalm 100:8.

21For what is contrary to nature is not divided off against the good nature as an evil thing, nor is it possible to conceive of any nature that is pointed to and called evil (Psalm 97:10; LXX 96:10). We do not have any such thing in our knowledge, so that knowing it we might hate it. Rather, we recognize every evil as a work according to wickedness, and the hatred of this—if we think rightly—we practice equally, considering it the same as that saying, “Cease from your wicked deeds.”

He says to worship the footstool, the worldwide authority that will then appear, which rules not only the sanctified race but all things (Psalm 99:5; LXX 98:5). It is allegorized as God’s footstool, occupying the whole inhabited earth, which is also called a footstool by the same name, just as Israel is also called an authority. The throne that is above the authority would be allegorized as God’s kinship with the sanctified—especially with the heavenly things, but already also with the things on earth. By the same name, according to Isaiah, heaven is allegorized as a throne, and Jerusalem is also a throne because of the saints in her, in the manner of heaven. This is proof that heaven is not called a throne in a bodily sense, nor the earth a footstool in a bodily sense, since we say Jerusalem, a small part of the earth, is a throne, and the authority that is upon those being ruled is a footstool. Just as God’s throne in heaven is said to be the kinship that attends the heavenly beings as holy—heaven itself being called God’s throne by the same name—so also the Lord calls those who received the good seed of the kingdom “seed,” calling them by the same name. Therefore he commands us to worship not the earth that is under authority, but the authority over it, when we perceive it in his works. And by adding “Holy is he,” he attacks the falsely named gods of the unholy. He also shows that it is right to remove the unclean from the kingdom, so that it may become receptive of holiness.

He now urges us to worship not only the authoritative power of God but also, more intimately, his sanctifying power, giving as a symbol of this the worship on the sanctified mountain (Psalm 99:9; LXX 98:9).

The morning shows the diligent one, as God sends the prophets with diligence, saying, “Rising early, sending” (Jeremiah 7:25). The removal of the wicked is lawful: “Remove the wicked from among yourselves” (1 Corinthians 5:13). And this has not ceased even among us, even if it happens as a punishment. For the worthless are separated, even if not by death, until repentance.

What is said is similar in force to Solomon’s prayer, interceding beforehand about the coming affliction of the people, so that they might be heard when they pleaded in it—except that the one speaking says in his own person what belongs to all: he asks not to be overlooked by God, the very thing Israel was in danger of suffering because of its own wickedness, and he speaks also of the long affliction (Psalm 102:2).

The time is made by the entreaty of God’s servants and God’s pity, not by any other cause such as has been fabricated among the Greeks about fated times (Psalm 102:13). This is the time about which he himself says through Isaiah, “At an acceptable time I heard you” (Isaiah 49:8). Paul also writes that this time was fulfilled when the Savior came, saying, “Behold, now is the acceptable time” (2 Corinthians 6:2). For properly the Savior’s descent also happened, he having shone forth at the consummation of the ages. For since the Savior came to take away the sin of the world, it was not fitting that so great a one should come and suffer for few sinners. When the time stood apart in which it is said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and there was no longer a righteous person on earth who understood and sought after God, he came who by the grace of God tastes death for everyone on behalf of all of them. And these things might also be said: when the human race had turned to wickedness, it was necessary for God, who provides for their salvation, to hinder the wickedness. And indeed this was done through many devices. Patriarchs were sent who were able by their own way of life to benefit human life, but when the law given through Moses also spoke against wickedness, they themselves despised the God who gave it. And when appearances of prophets and angels were sent to them, God did not cease providing for their salvation. And yet nothing more happened, but they were worn down into an increase of wickedness.

The Savior's timely coming as the healing of incurable sickness§22

Apollinaris is explaining why the Savior came at the time of Augustus, after every earlier remedy through kindred human agents had failed.

22Every remedy and help brought to them through their own kind had failed against their incurable diseases. So after all those things, the Savior came, as was fitting, healing every disease and every sickness, so as to remove even their deadness and death. For this truth, then, the Savior shone forth in the time of Augustus, when the time had been fulfilled, since the salvation of human beings was being accomplished suitably (Ps 102). About this the present word also says: "For it is time to have mercy on Zion, O Master, and you, having risen up through yourself, will have mercy on her" (the title of Psalm 102 [103]).

A thanksgiving had to follow the preceding prophecy. This has also been arranged through this song: the mercy of God and the judicial righteousness are glorified, because through mercy he will rescue the people from those who wrong them, and there is the removal of corruption, and the grace kept for successors, and the heavenly kingdom that will pass over all things.

The heaven is not a sphere encircling the whole and running around it, but it roofs the earth, stretched around it, being roofed from above by waters with a stable and fixed standing (Psalm 104:2).

It is clear that "stretching out" and "roofing" and "making" stand for "having stretched out" and "having roofed" and "having made." So also "forming the spirit of a human being within him": since the formation by God happened once for all, earth and the finished products from it come to be continually, according to which it is also said: "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (John 5:17). And "I am the one who is" (Exodus 3:14) would also contribute to this, since created things do not exist but come to be, having a generated nature, and for this reason their substance is understood in their coming to be and does not truly exist as the maker does. And this extends through the holy Trinity, which is creative.

He speaks of the wonder of the foundation as a proof of God's power: that the earth, being the heaviest element, has been fixed above the waters and remains unmoved forever, since the abyss beneath it can neither support nor establish it, but covers it like garments, so that its seat is ineffable and belongs to God's power, not to the nature of the elements (Psalm 104:5-6).

The earth gives springs of water that gush up from the beginning, and these too by God's power; and he says that they often dry up and go into hiding by the fear of God, which is said more clearly in Psalm 73 (74):15: "You broke open springs and torrents; you dried up other rivers" (Psalm 104:10). He also marvels at the position of the mountains, raised up unmoved above the plains and not dragged down by the appointed force to cover what lies beneath, according to: "They will say to the mountains, 'Cover us'" (Hosea 10:8) (Psalm 104:13; LXX 103:13).

He calls the air the upper rooms of God, as if the whole world were one house. And he says the rain is the work of the Son, from which the earth receives its fruitfulness (Psalm 104:13). And he would be saying that the drawing up of the waters from the sea is his work (Psalm 104:13).

And about the heron it is also said through Jeremiah: "Even the heron in the sky knows its times" (Jeremiah 8:7) (Psalm 104:17).

God is said to mock him, that is, to count his cunning as nothing. For God laughs at everyone who opposes him because of its futility, and counts it as play because of how easily it is caught, as he says about the Egyptians: "How many things I have mocked against the Egyptians" (Exodus 10:2) (Psalm 104:26).

Others have taken the preceding words about the food supplied to living creatures. For when this is present, it flourishes and rejoices; when it is absent, it is pressed by want and thrown into confusion by the lack of necessities (Psalm 104:29-30; LXX 103:29-30).

This is the work of Christ, who also says that he is the resurrection and the life, and has promised to raise all, and when he was present, he gave life to those he wished (Ps 103:31). So what is said belongs to the Father as the source, to the Son as the worker, and to the Spirit as the one who is participated in and, as it were, brought in through the Son into the life of all things, according to: "He will give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you" (Romans 8:11). The Spirit, then, is life-giving through the life it works, and deifying through the participation it grants; and the human spirit is named after it, according to its formation by it (Psalm 104:30).

Eternal is the glory of the one who keeps his works forever; and since the glory is eternal, the things that glorify are eternal (Psalm 104:31).

The greatness of the glory is shown by the fear of creation, and the fear reveals the subjection. Thus the psalm says that the sea was subjected by being afraid. For what fears is subjected; and the subjection of the earth is the trembling at the oversight of God, and the smoking of the mountains is like burning, which was also seen bodily happening on Mount Sinai (Psalm 104:32).

Life as union with God; the plagues and rebellions in the wilderness§23

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 103 (104), then Psalm 104 (105) and Psalm 105 (106), explaining the psalm verses about life, death, the plagues on Egypt, and the rebellions of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

23This is the gain of life, and it is for this that life itself is worth living. That is why death is terrible, because it silences the hymn-singer. Death is destruction, because in death no one remembers you, and life alone is true existence, because the living, he says, will praise you. For we have our being in union with the one who is, and separation from him is corruption. May my meditation be sweet to him, and I will rejoice in the Lord. It is worth praying that God may take pleasure in our hymns, and that joy may be ours through our hymns. And if this could be so through our whole life, so that all our actions were a hymn to God, God would rejoice in us as he rejoiced from the beginning.

We must not be ignorant, he says, that he is the Lord our God, whose providence governs the whole world by divine judgments, so that nothing happens without judgment or apart from his providence (Psalm 105:7; LXX 104:7).

They were christs, having received the anointing through the Spirit invisibly, or having become chosen ones.

He uses the order of the plagues indifferently and does not list them all, because, I think, the power of God is shown even from the wonders that are mentioned one by one. What is needed is that God's power be made known, not that a complete record of events be produced. He says the frogs were not simply produced on the earth, but in the houses, and in the most prominent parts of the houses, and in their innermost rooms, so that their onslaught was unhindered and most violent, and no one, not even the most powerful, could stop them (Psalm 105:30). It was also extraordinary that the gnats and the dog-fly were poured out over the whole land and stopped at the borders without going further, so that the punishment was clearly being carried out against Egypt alone. That is why the turning of the waters to blood also stopped at the borders, and the streams flowing into the neighboring country were no longer such, because the punishment was against the Egyptians, taking away the abundance of the river (Psalm 105:29).

Along with the salvation that was given, he also speaks of the abundance that came from God's power, which led the Egyptians to provide many costly things to those who asked and were about to leave the country (Psalm 105:37). It was also a great thing that they departed unharmed, every one of them, from a country that was suffering the worst plagues.

When they tested God in the waterless place, he, who cannot be tempted and bears no grudge, did not repay them, but gave them their request. And when they provoked him bitterly as they went up at the Red Sea, even then he made known to them his power. But when they angered Moses and Aaron in the camp, then the earth opened and swallowed them. For the servants were not to be despised. But since kindness and severity are both with him, according to the words, See then the kindness and the severity of God, he first gave them the things of kindness. And when they did not benefit from it, he accordingly treated them with the fitting medicine of punishment. So the followers of Dathan and Abiram angered Moses by saying, Has God spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us as well? (Numbers 12:2). And Korah and his company, who dared to bring strange fire and offer sacrifices to God in the place of the priests, angered Aaron. But those who spoke against Moses—Dathan with his whole family—the earth opened wide and swallowed, and it covered the company of Abiram. And Korah and those with him who were about to offer their censers, a flame came out from the tabernacle and consumed them.

According to justice, the decree was destruction; according to love for humanity, there was the concession of being saved. The intercession made room for the concession, both because of the holiness of the one interceding and because of the providence over the world by which the intercessor pleaded, so that the grace of God toward Israel might not be thought incomplete, and because of the memory of the fathers and the promise made to them, which Moses recalled as he pleaded. For according to their impiety and the foreknowledge of their whole wickedness, they would have been destroyed.

The dispute about the land was older than the rebellion of Korah and Dathan, but greater and more impious, since it fought against the promise of God and was not striving about the worship of God. So it is fittingly joined with the impiety toward God mentioned before, since it came about through cowardice just as that one came about through faintheartedness. Cowardice produces despair of success, just as faintheartedness, because of Moses' separation, produced despair of Moses' return.

Desires and cowardice block obedience; God's discipline leads to correction§24

Apollinaris is explaining why God delayed pleasures and led Israel into dangers, and why he punished the people more severely for their unbelief about the promised land than for earlier sins.

24For it is not only desires but also cowardices and small-souledness that strip away the fulfillment of what is owed to God and to human beings. They obstruct the steadfast thing in obedience to God and the well-ordered thing in the honors due to human beings, because the fleshly nature ravages the spiritual and by its own pleasure and ease obliterates the good that belongs to the other. But God brings events upon us by the ways of discipline. The end of discipline is the setting right of the human being toward the upright, with the Spirit in leadership and the flesh in obedience. For this reason he postponed the supply of pleasant things, training the desire for them to be subjected to the mind that follows the will of God. And he led them into dangers, exercising them to endure what would otherwise be avoided, through hope in God, which is fitting for those who think rightly. And since human beings are rather fleshly in their present condition, at first he relaxed the punishment for the disobedient and small-souled, but later he punished them to bring about a turning back. So then, when they were afraid at the Red Sea and spoke against him, he did not punish them; but at the promised land he punished those who did not have the courage to follow him into it. For this was plainly a proof of unbelief. Those who had seen with their own eyes such great and such numerous wonders had every right to be confident in everything through the power of the one who had saved them. And indeed, although the making of the calf was more impious, he punished it less severely, in partial measures; but he punished with the death of the people more harshly in the disobedience of the whole people of that time concerning the possession of the land, because they had not been brought to their senses by the earlier punishment and they persisted to the utmost in testing God.

He did not name the cause of the idolatry, which was the fornication that drew them into fellowship with the object of worship—for that was connected with gluttony—but he accuses the result, for the sake of which the law also forbade intercourse with foreign women, so that they would not be led by affection for the women into fellowship with impiety (Psalm 106:28; LXX 105:28). And that is exactly what happened. For it drove them to such folly that they were initiated into the rites of Beelphegor and defiled themselves with sacrifices performed for the dead.

He shows that the return through the mercy of their captors will not be unshaken, by adding a prayer about the gathering together from the nations and ending with it, so that they may find the firm and immovable salvation that comes from God himself, and may give thanks always to the one who saved them, and may have their boasting in God (Psalm 106:46-47; LXX 105:46-47). And it is necessary to await the mercy that comes after the present disobedience, as the apostle says, so that they may dance before God all their days, making supplication, as Zechariah foretells.

He says these things were spoken about the Jews, who long ago were set free from their sojourn in Egypt by crying out to the Lord, and who now will suffer the same thing and be delivered from their manifold wandering, if they cry out to the Lord and long to obtain the perfect freedom that comes through Christ himself.

This allegory is also about the same people, which is why it is especially clear that these things are spoken allegorically. For if they are taken literally, it does not fit that the same people wander in the desert and are bound in a dark prison. It is clear according to Isaiah, who says to those in bonds, "Come out," and to those in darkness, "Be uncovered" (Isaiah 49:9). Concerning this Zechariah also says, "By the blood of his covenant he sent out prisoners from a pit having no water" (Zechariah 9:11). Christ, then, is the Savior from the Father, and the Father is Savior through Christ. Israel is now covered by death, bound by humiliation, and constrained by the necessity of slavery. For “shadow” is what covers, “poverty” is the humiliation, and “iron” is the necessity. Being cast out to this very thing, they are appointed for the nations into a land of nations poor from the beginning, about whom the twenty-first psalm says, "The poor shall eat and be filled" (Psalm 21 (22):26) (Psalm 22:26).

Allegory of the sea-storm and the mercy that brings to harbor§25

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 106 (107), explaining that the sea-storm allegorizes the troubles of the Jews, and then moves to Psalm 108 (109) and Psalm 109 (110) on Christ's mercy and priesthood.

25Having allegorized wandering, famine, thirst, darkness, and chains as the evils of the Jews, he now uses a maritime allegory as well. He brings the disturbances at sea, the changes from these into calm, and salvation even to a calm harbor into the same picture as their labors. And he shows that the rest which will succeed the labors came when their former calm was stirred into waves not without God, but by a divine command. It is as though the command raised a squall and stirred up with waves their former fair sailing. By these waves they are lifted up to a height as the waves crest, and brought down as the waves fall away, as tends to happen at sea: they are humbled, thrown into confusion, and bewildered to the point of losing their wits. Then they experience a change when the wind dies down, whenever God commands this too, and he releases the violence of the winds into a gentle breeze and quiets the sound of the waves. There they will have the joy that comes from the wilderness, and they will obtain the harbor they long for as a resting place. For these things it is fitting to give thanks to God, and in the church of the people and in the seat of the elders to sing hymns to him who handed the nation over to the waves because of sins, as has been said, but by mercy transferred them to good things. And the mercy itself shows that they had been brought forth from sins. For those who are shown mercy are not worthy of good things, but are pitiable because of their evils. This matter is not common in the way it often happens at sea, where the good are storm-tossed and shipwrecked, as Paul was, and the wicked are carried along by fair winds. The things that happen are common to both, so that when they are tested in the same circumstances they may reveal the difference in their disposition, which will later come to an upright and righteous recompense, witnessed beforehand by their very works. So the word is not about those who sail the sea, but about the people who are storm-tossed because of sin and will come to a harbor through mercy (Psalm 107:30). For them there is a church of the people for confession and a seat of elders for the hymn of God.

The mercy he asks for is the mercy shown to human beings, on behalf of human beings. He is not himself in need of mercy, since he lightens the terrors of the worthy, being good in giving freely and not measuring out an equal return. But all things come to Christ, and he is shown mercy on our behalf. Insofar as he is us, he is pitied as poor and lowly. He is pitied as being in disturbances, insofar as he shared in the nature that is disturbed by evils. He is pitied as going into obscurity, insofar as his bodily manifestation was interrupted. He is pitied as one stirred up and lifted up like one of the lightest things, insofar as he handed himself over to those who seized him. He takes upon himself from us the weakness from fasting and the squalor from lack of washing, placing nothing between us and himself. And he calls the mockery from his enemies, which he now has through us who are reproached in his name, mockery upon these things.

He makes clear that the mighty authority of the divine king will be sent out over all the world, beginning from Jerusalem, according to the words: I was established as king by him upon Zion, his holy mountain (Psalm 2:6) (Psalm 110:2; LXX 109:2). And all will obey and serve.

Apollinaris, setting beside it the rendering of Symmachus, says: The perpetual and unfading quality of his prime, proper to eternal life, is compared to morning dews, just as the life that was dissolved was compared to a shadow that declines (Psalm 110:3; LXX 109:3). The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, and so on.

He is an eternal priest because he lives eternally, a priesthood made secure as if confirmed by an oath (Psalm 110:4; LXX 109:4). Melchizedek is a type of him, whose death is not recorded as a sign that death does not even exist for him. Having just been shown as king, he is now also displayed as priest, which is impossible in Israel and under the law. And this too was prefigured in Melchizedek.

For it is clear that Christ was exalted even before the exaltation that came from human beings, since he was in the form of God and came down from heaven. Walking on the road and drinking water from a stream are symbols of lowliness. And we see the Lord traveling on foot and asking the Samaritan woman for water to drink.

In the present psalm the hymn is spoken in brief form, and the first sounds of the verses proceed through the twenty-two letters of the Hebrews according to the Hebrew language, from the first to the last, that is, from Aleph to Thau. Such a composition has grammatical elegance and invites one to a knowledge of letters and the learning of books. In this way the psalms immediately and clearly urge one to the study of the law, since Moses also commanded this from of old and ordered that they appoint teachers of letters and teach the law to children, because they had learning through hearing, not wisdom through the Spirit, as those who are perfected in Christ do (Ps 111:9).

The blessed one's righteousness endures into the coming age§26

Apollinaris is commenting on successive verses of Psalm 111 (112), 113 (115), 115 (116), 117 (118), and 118 (119), explaining how the psalmist's words apply to Christ, the church, and the righteous.

26He says that the righteousness of the one being blessed is not quenched, nor does it stop at the present, but it extends further into the age to come. In that age his horn will be exalted in glory (Psalm 111 (112):9)—that is, the kingdom of which he will be deemed worthy when he obtains the saving promises (Ps 113:16). For Scripture customarily calls the kingdom a horn.

But it is also just that those who worship lifeless things as something better and consider them divine should become like them. And this would not rightly appear to them as a curse, but as something worthy of prayer: to become gods, just as they suppose, and to possess what they admire.

For man is empty and a falsehood in his being and non-being, because even when he seems to be, he is not, but he moves about in an image of life rather than in truth (Psalm 116:11).

There is need of release from the bonds of Hades, so that the God of the living and not of the dead may be our God, and we may be his ministers in the heavenly church, to which we return as we flee the bonds of death (Psalm 116:16-19).

He takes courage as one who has been heard, and he hopes as one who will obtain help. He is strengthened by hope so as not to fear the plots of men, nor to marvel at their powers, but to foresee their fall. These things long ago concerned Israel when the other nations pressed upon it—the word is spoken hyperbolically—and after these things they concerned the church from the nations, warred upon by the uprisings of the unfaithful. For those who had believed in each nation endured the disturbances and dangers from those who did not believe, but nevertheless both these and those, having taken courage in God, conquered their adversaries (Psalm 118:7-9; LXX 117:7-9).

Those who make war on those who serve God are lifted up by human power and human authorities, but those who have chosen the worship of God are encouraged by God's help and find it stronger than every strength. And most conspicuously, those of Christ defend themselves against both visible and invisible enemies through the name of the Lord alone (Psalm 118:10-11; LXX 117:10-11).

He clearly hymns the manifestation of the Lord, through which salvation is restored to all, calling him God according to the Father's name and Lord according to the Son's name, because the Lord is God and God is Lord. And having appeared as Lord, he ruled over us for life, according to the words, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living (Romans 14:9), and over his adversaries for punishment, according to the abolition of every authority and power (1 Corinthians 15:24) (Ps 117:27a; Ps 117:27bc).

He commands the establishment of a feast through a multitude of sacrifices placed on the altar, up to its horns and its other projections. But as the word advances to our sacrifices, it reveals those who, according to the type of Christ, present themselves as a living sacrifice, a sacrifice truly pleasing to God (Psalm 118:27). Their multitude fills the altar up to the highest height that is joined to the heavenly angels, through the same power that both holds up the heavenly things on high and lifts up the things on earth in the manner of an altar, receiving those who approach God (Psalm 118:27).

These were those who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, but chose the law and the journey in it. He does not say that blameless means entirely free from falling into blemishes and sins. For that was reserved for Christ and for those who share in Christ through him. But for those others, blamelessness was judged in what was within their power, by pardon from God and not by exactness concerning the commandments. For God does not demand what is not possible, but he legislates to expose what is lacking, and he concedes what is weak, since he knows it, and provides salvation through the participation in Christ, the powerful God, which was then still to come. So blamelessness befits us who live according to Christ.

Since there were very many oppositions to virtue, like stumbling-blocks on a road, he asks for their removal (Psalm 119:5; LXX 118:5). For in this way a road is prepared when the hindrances are taken away, according to the words, Cast the stumbling-blocks out of the way of my people (Isaiah 57:14). For example, for the divine David a stumbling-block was the woman and the untimely encounter with the sight; for another it was food seen for pleasure, as for Esau; for another it was glory, as for Saul; for another it was a possession, as for Ahab (Psalm 119:6; LXX 118:6). Against all these things there is need of God, who prepares the way, so that he may cast these things off and preserve the love of what is good, drawing off the more violent impulses of the will and, as it were, drying them up because of the inclination of nature.

But for us who look to the divine Spirit, there will be no shame, when we see ourselves joined to him everywhere and in no way shifted toward the flesh, nor brought down by a fall from on high.

Prayer for understanding and the path of life§27

Apollinaris is commenting verse by verse on Psalm 118 (119), explaining the psalmist's prayers for understanding, obedience, and life as the voice of the righteous person seeking God's guidance.

27He asks for understanding, he says, and promises that it will not be without fruit. For I will not only learn, he says, but I will also keep your statutes (Psalm 118:7-8, 119:7-8) (Psalm 119:8).

Aquila says, “Do not let me go astray in ignorance.” Using his desire for the law, he fears the lack of understanding that turns many people’s zeal to the opposite. Even in what they think they are doing rightly, they have stumbled, as Solomon says: “There is a way that seems right to people, but its end goes down to the bottom of Hades” (Proverbs 14:12).

For understanding does not come immediately from memory but from divine illumination. The statutes are the things that can make righteous (Psalm 118:12, 119:12).

Pride is the mother of lawlessness. Because of it they refuse to obey God’s commands, like the disobedient people who say, “We shall not be mastered, and we will not come to you any longer.” He says this to show his own eagerness before God for obedience to the commandments. Because God understands them to be guilty, he will rebuke those who are disobedient and unsubmissive through pride (Psalm 118:21, 119:21).

He prays to escape true dishonor in the sight of God, which the Lord shows to be most fearful, saying that those who put him to shame will be put to shame (Psalm 119:22; LXX 118:22). Showing the opposite of this, this man of the law says here that though he is mocked by great and proud people, he does not turn away from the study of the sacred oracles and from correction by them (Psalm 119:23; LXX 118:23). And a little later he says, “I spoke of your testimonies before kings and was not ashamed” (Psalm 118:22-23, 119:22-23). Such is Paul when he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16).

What he himself says is a sacrifice to God—a broken and humbled heart—he now says he has fulfilled by bringing his soul down as if to the ground and humbling himself willingly (Psalm 119:25). About the unwilling humiliation he says, “Our soul was humbled to the dust; our belly clung to the earth” (Psalm 43:26 (44:25)). So having brought himself forward as humbled as is fitting, he seeks from God as recompense a lawful way of life and life according to God’s word. And this very thing is also a mark of humility: not to place the good life in one’s own power but to seek it from God (Psalm 118:25, 119:25).

It is a great thing to do everything as in the sight of God, and to say these things and recount them, and to ask for revelation about them that corrects or confirms (Psalm 119:26-27; LXX 118:26-27). And he will also gain benefit for others by speaking from more divine understanding and proclaiming the wonderful kindness of God that is stored up for those who act in holiness. For the one who teaches about righteousness also teaches about its end, which is stored up for it—something wonderful and unexpected, because God rewards greatly and beyond what is deserved. Paul also spoke about self-control and righteousness and the coming judgment, so that the governor became afraid (Acts 24:25). Instead of “I will meditate,” Aquila says “I will converse,” and Symmachus says “I will explain” (Psalm 118:26-27, 119:26-27).

Since the human heart lies intently upon evil from youth, God is needed to move it toward righteous commands—that is, to lead our faculty of choice by dispensations and deeds, and by the illumination of the divine Spirit (Psalm 118:36, 119:36).

Vanity is the madness about sights, the contemplation of things that do not even exist, and also the disordered imagination in the mind. Paul clarifies this when he says, “In the vanity of their mind, being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:17-18). See how it is called vanity of mind when someone has a mind and does not use it for the contemplation of realities, but hands it over to Satan who binds it. So praying for this he says, “Turn away my eyes from seeing vanities” (Psalm 118:37, 119:37). For this is the grace of God. In this way, having turned away from such contemplation, he will be able to live in the way of God, walking in it and being made alive by it. For the way is at the same time life. Therefore the Savior says, “I am the way and the life” (John 14:6).

And since the Son is the righteousness of the Father, the one who wishes to live in the Son says this: “For the righteousness of God is revealed in him from faith to faith” (Romans 1:17) (Psalm 118:40, 119:40).

He says that the only thing sufficient to comfort us in afflictions is to have the promise of true life. Bring this to completion for us. For if we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are more pitiable than all people, because we are afflicted now and have no hope of the life to come (Psalm 118:50, 119:50; 1 Corinthians 15:19).

True life is bodily resurrection, not the soul's own life§28

Apollinaris is expounding Psalm 118 (119), arguing from the psalmist's afflictions that the soul has no true life of its own; true life comes only through bodily resurrection.

28The life to come is a living again, since we learn that the soul is not its own life, nor life in truth, if indeed the soul is not the human being. For if the soul possessed the truth of living in its life by itself, the dead thing would not have needed to live again. Therefore the Lord also said that the dead live for God, as not yet having life except insofar as it is in the power of God who gave them life. And he says that they have perished if they do not attain the resurrection, saying that he will raise up his own, so that the one from him may not be lost. And Paul likewise says, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Corinthians 15:18). For God did not give the soul a bodiless life from the beginning, but immediately the life in the body, breathing the breath of life into the body (Genesis 2:7).

To the sinner, godliness is a ridiculous character; but to the godly person, lawlessness is horrifying, because he foresees the terror of punishment (Psalm 119:53; LXX 118:53).

“To me,” he says, “the only comfort is to look at your judgments, and my gladness is your commandments taken up in song and leading to joy through melody” (Psalm 119:54; LXX 118:54). And I considered this the only good, as in a foreign and alien dwelling that can have no true good, because for the stranger the things at home are longed for, and before the return to them everything is painful.

God does not fashion a human being in the manner of a modeler, even though he is said to fashion, but such as a modeler would produce, he completes by the power that works such a shaping. And the present fashionings must be referred back to that first fashioning, as in “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5) (Psalm 119:73; LXX 118:73). So also Job says, “You fashioned me as clay” (Job 10:9), indicating the clay-fashioning in Adam upon himself. The request in the making is a thanksgiving, very fittingly the request for the intellectual power that makes the commandments understood. About this Paul also says, “Think about what I say; for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7). The request is fitting as addressed to the Creator, as if to say: Care for your own workmanship, and perfect the living being that is intellectual by understanding. And what you prepared for your own kinship, make your own through your knowledge of your wishes. Since from the beginning the human being needed a command, by which his mind was set without need of many commands, and indeed having fallen away from that one, he needs more commands to fill the greater lack.

For without training in many evils and the help of God that comes beyond hope, a person cannot be firmly fixed in virtue. For those without contest are easily shaken when a struggle comes. Therefore, having recognized in himself the firmness that comes from many hardships, he hymns the confirming providence of God. Then he asks for rest from labors, saying, “Let your mercy come to comfort me, according to your word to your servant” (Psalm 119:76).

Perhaps the righteous become dead rather than living under their afflictions, so as to resemble wineskins rather than human beings, losing their breath like settling frost, but choosing what is warm and active, as he says elsewhere, “They set me in dark places like the dead of the age” (Psalm 142 (143):3) (Psalm 119:83). But even in such things, he says, I did not stand away from the God-taught righteousness, just as Joseph guarded his righteous self-control.

He calls promises commandments. Trusting, he says, in your promises and their truth, I seek help from you, my God (Psalm 119:86; LXX 118:86).

He asks not to be handed over to the hands of those plotting against him unto death, asking for life—not yet the life eternal but the present one (Psalm 119:88; LXX 118:88). He does not ask for this as an end, but as something that will contribute to a good end, because, he says, having survived, I will keep the commandments of God, through which it is possible to obtain the life eternal (Psalm 119:93; LXX 118:93).

“I will follow your laws,” he says. “For I will have life in them, just as you have said to me: ‘The person who does them will live in them’ (Leviticus 18:5).” Therefore the righteous person alone lives, even if he seems to have died, and the unjust are dead even if they appear to live. For the former have the constitution of life in themselves, namely righteousness, while the latter, not having this, resemble lifeless things moved not by themselves but from outside, because their vital principle is outside, and they have not one life in themselves. Therefore the Lord, being himself the righteousness that truly is, declares himself to be the life, and says that those who do not share in him do not have life in themselves. And the death of the Savior is not only life, but also life-giving for human beings, becoming the release from death.

Love of the law as wisdom, endurance, and imitation of God§29

Apollinaris is commenting on verses of Psalm 118 (119), explaining how the psalmist's love for God's law brings understanding, endurance under persecution, and imitation of God's own judgments.

29The unjust are blind to the beauty of righteousness and do not see clearly the dignity and grace of the words about it. But the one who has chosen these words and wished to belong to them—this person alone is established in understanding, because wisdom reveals her own beauty only to her lovers, as it is written: “Love her, and she will honor you; honor her, that she may embrace you” (Proverbs 4:6, 8).

All good things in a person come through practice, and so he was extended along with the intensity of his practice, so that through it he surpassed the elder, the young man, and the disciple—surpassing his teachers.

Presenting himself as humble and obedient, he asks for the salvation that comes from this, from God who gives grace to the humble and has promised mercy to those who love him (Psalm 119:107; LXX 118:107).

It is a greater proof of eagerness to pass through dangers and not stand away from the law, and to be in the midst of plots and not be dragged away from righteous things by anger and irritation toward those plotting against him (Psalm 119:109-110; LXX 118:109-110). Thus Saul’s plot did not lead David astray into avenging himself, even where that might have seemed fitting.

He intensified the demonstration of his zeal for the law when he said he had set the law as his own inheritance, choosing to live in it not for a time but forever, not as under a yoke of necessity but holily in gladness of soul. For what is done with gladness is lasting and hard to overturn.

Even if they are not hateful insofar as they are human, it is not unworthy of God that such people are said to be hateful to God, according to the words: “You hated all who work lawlessness” (Psalm 5:6 (5:5)) (Psalm 119:113; LXX 118:113). So the greatest proof of loving the law is hating those who have turned aside from the law. For this reason Jehoshaphat’s friendship with such a person became a reproach through the prophet, because he loved the one hated by God (2 Chronicles 19:2).

He shows an imitation of God. If every apostate from the ordinances is made worthless by God for his vain thoughts, then to him also they appear no more valuable than grape-pressings or dross. Therefore he is stirred up to love of the divine commands, taking the vanity of the wicked as an encouragement to care for what is good. The fifth edition reads: “They were counted as nothing.”

He longs for what is lacking to be filled up by God’s forbearance, since God waits for the good work that is still to come, as if guaranteeing that it will be fulfilled—just as those who guarantee debtors do so to keep them from falling badly into deceptions (Psalm 119:122; LXX 118:122). Symmachus says: “Receive me, your servant, for good,” and Aquila and Theodotion rendered: “Be my guarantee” (Psalm 119:122; LXX 118:122).

Others, he says, admire gold and precious stones, but I, knowing the divine commandments to be the only wonderful and beautiful thing, hold to them and guard them more than any treasure (Psalm 119:129).

The oracles need to be opened. Therefore the Lord opened the mind of the disciples to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), and the understanding given through the words drives away the deception that comes through pleasure or glory (Psalm 119:130; LXX 118:130).

He asks for this because precision about sound teaching is difficult amid disturbances and griefs (Psalm 119:134; LXX 118:134).

See the enmity that the righteous have (Psalm 119:139; LXX 118:139). This was enmity toward their injustice and their forgetfulness of the law.

According to the history, the words can be referred to David speaking about himself. For he was the youngest of all the sons of Jesse, and also despised. When all his brothers were taken by their father to the feast that Samuel had prepared, David was with his father’s sheep and was not taken to the banquet. Yet although he was younger and despised, he himself received the kingdom by God’s decision, since he had not forgotten the ordinances of God. The one who is being instructed in the divine words is also younger and despised because he humbles himself. And the people called from the nations after the elder and firstborn Israel could also speak this verse.

The righteous guarded by fear of God amid enemies§30

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 118 (119) and the opening verses of the Songs of Ascents, explaining how the psalmist's words apply both to David's own trials and to the church's present afflictions.

30For those from circumcision despise him, because with unforgetting memory he keeps the ordinances of God (Psalm 118:162 [119:162]).

The saying also has David’s own particular meaning: when he was pursued by Saul without cause and out of envy, his fear of God restrained him from taking vengeance. But it extends also to the common case, that there is no other way to escape wars of princes unharmed unless one is guarded by the fear of God.

After the gift of wisdom he asks again for salvation from dangers. This too is a reward for his willing zeal for the divine law (Psalm 118:173 [119:173]) (Psalm 119:174-175; LXX 118:174-175).

So then he was truly saying just now that he awaited eternal salvation, and now also, longing for it, he has made this the goal of his study of the law. For he says that he will live again and praise God, helped toward this by his all-wise judgments (Psalm 119:175). This is Christ, who comes down in place of human beings to the saving death for human beings, and by his suffering redeems those in sufferings, and by his death redeems the dying. And in accordance with this there follows, “My soul will live,” and what comes after (Psalm 118:175 [119:175]).

This was so immediately after the first apostasy of the human being, when Cain by deceit struck down his brother, and it is so throughout the whole present age, as is shown in other cases and in the present matter. So the person who looks to God, worn down and afflicted by this, asks for salvation from him. He does not foresee the cessation that will come then, when he is brought up to dwell in the peaceful city, with good and bad alike sharing its citizenship (Psalm 120:5; LXX 119:5).

Another passage also indicates the foreign land in one respect, into which Israel fell and sojourned, and that his sojourning was extended to the greatest length. Prophesying in lament he brings this out so that it reaches also to the present condition; for this is the longest sojourning (Psalm 120:5).

For the good and godly keep peace as far as depends on them and with all human beings, whenever there is no need of judicial punishment such as God commanded against the Canaanites and Amorites, forbidding friendship with them (Psalm 120:7). But the wicked and those who do not know God would never enter into friendship with the good; rather they abhor godliness, and they do not receive kindly anything good from the godly, nor are they tamed by their kindness.

He calls mountains here the invisible and heavenly powers. And while he awaits help through them, he says that the help does not originate from them but from the Creator (Psalm 120:1b-2 [121:1b-2]).

It is a joy to hear what is said by the angels, clearly the ones who speak to the prophets and who, as it were, lead the herd of Israel. Such is the one made known through Zechariah, interceding for fallen Jerusalem and speaking of her future dwelling (Psalm 122:1; LXX 121:1b). The psalmist says that he rejoiced when he heard these things, and that he foresaw the secure dwelling in the holy city and, as it were, perceived the matter as present prophetically. For this is what “Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem” means (Psalm 121:1b-4 [122:1b-4]) (Ps 122:2). The standing of feet is the immovable dwelling which the holy prophets also proclaim. The opposite of this was when, according to the history, God shook the foot of Jerusalem from its own land. So the psalmist speaks of the rebuilding of the city, seen by him as also by Ezekiel, and says that the building is of a city united—not, clearly, in the customary way of walls uniting it, but of the inhabitants united to one another. Therefore he did not say “city” but “as a city” having its joining together at once. For neither Ezekiel nor Zechariah declares that it will be inhabited under walls, but unwalled, and that its wall will be the Lord, since God is the guardian and holder together of the unity of the saints. He interprets the unity as being through the inhabitants themselves, saying, “For there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, a testimony to Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord” (Ps 122:4). Not because walls were thrown around them were they united, but because they themselves were united through themselves. It is a testimony to Israel, clearly witnessing to the truth of the promises, and to give thanks to the name of the Lord, because confession of grace is owed by the beneficiaries to the one who fulfilled the wonderful promise.

Thrones of David's house and the true building of God§31

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 124 (125), 126 (127), 127 (128), 129 (130), 131 (132), and 132 (133), explaining how David's throne, the building of the temple, and the blessings of Zion are fulfilled in Christ and the church.

31He says that thrones of the house of David were established in her, since Daniel also prophesies a kingdom over all things. It is not the rule of some one person or of a single ruler, but a common kingdom for the best and most godly, through whom the kingdom of David is set upright by the grace of Christ, who gave to the twelve apostles the right to sit on twelve thrones and judge Israel.

But he will not allow good subjects to be corrupted by evil demons. Rather, after the good have toiled a little under them, he will free them from a harmful slavery that does not dare to come upon those who are ruled by God (Psalm 125:3; LXX 124:3).

Solomon is inscribed on the song, because he built the temple (Psalm 127:1; LXX 126:1-2). But it signifies the true Solomon, our Lord, the cause of the true and peaceful building. For this reason the building is shown to be made by God, and its guard is secure because it is guarded according to God. And this is fitting, because the buildings and guards made by human beings fell into vanity: the night watches of those who keep guard, and the diligent and laborious care by day. For this reason human things, being such as they are, came first, so that divine things alone might be recognized as having what is sure and unchangeable. Just as righteousness came through the law, so that God's righteousness might be seen after it as having what is genuine and alone true, and true life after the life that was in shadow and image.

"When he gives sleep to his beloved ones." He has indicated the rest from God that is like sleep and will be given out of love.

"For I have stretched you, Judah," he says, "for myself as a bow." Here too he calls the remaining saints the arrows of the Mighty One, for the defeat of the ungodly and those who are violent with injustice (Psalm 127:4; LXX 126:4a).

The paths of entrance are many and various, and the lives of those who begin are of many kinds, but there is one perfection that reaches the height (Psalm 128:1; LXX 127:1). He characterizes those who fear the Lord by saying next what sort of people they are: "Those who walk in his ways." For those who do not do this do not fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is a turning away from evils, and the one who has turned away from evils is ready for the divine ways.

The cry "out of the depths" could mean out of the waters of afflictions that have poured around him. The endurance and the repetition of the same words belong to one who clings and hangs on and does not wish to let go of his supplication because of his desire (Psalm 130:1-2; LXX 129:1b-2). For this reason he says, "Hear my voice, and let your ears be attentive."

The place did not become clear to David from the matter itself by his own forethought (Psalm 132:6; LXX 131:6). For this reason he says, "We heard and we found," because a command of God pointed out the threshing floor of Ornan, on which he built the altar to turn away the death that was destroying the generation of the Hebrews (Psalm 132:8; LXX 131:8). And having loved the discovery exceedingly, as one who had come to know what he had long desired, he rejoices in the matter and loves the worship there. There, he says, God also made a visitation, because the glory of God became manifest through the presence of the angel (Psalm 132:9; LXX 131:9).

In the same way, he says, he foretells the time of Solomon, in which the ark is moved from the tent and set in the temple, and divine glory appeared and a cloud filled the house.

These things, he says, we see happened in Solomon's time according to David's words (Psalm 132:10; LXX 131:10).

For the favor is toward David, even if the benefit extends to those after him (Psalm 132:10; LXX 131:10). Just as it is said directly to Solomon that because of David he would not fall entirely from the kingdom, so also the sparing for David's sake passed to his descendants, just as it is said to Hezekiah: "I will shield this city for the sake of David my servant" (2 Kings 19:34).

To the earlier and brief gifts he brings the greatest one, which preserves all of them. For from the beginning he gave an abundance of food, which one translator calls "prey" and another renders as "grain." And he promises to make the inhabitants free from want. Concerning priests and holy ones he has made a decree that they be saved and attend to the sacred hymns. But when all these things had already been corrupted—the nation unable to enjoy the good things of the land because it had fallen under the power of the Romans, the priesthood failing, and all the joy in the temple dissolved—the great power arose there, the horn of David, which gores every power of enemies, a beautiful lamp shining with heavenly light for David and for his offspring, who, having begun there, sends out his radiance to the whole world, as the prophet Simeon says: "A light for revelation to the nations and for glory to your people Israel."

The ointment was also a parable of a divine matter, but what comes from God is made more evident by the parable of the dew that comes down from heaven upon the mountains. For the gift and the good are heavenly, not human, and do not appear among human beings apart from the gift from above.

Hymns, wonders, and the true God§32

Apollinaris is commenting on the Songs of Ascents and the following psalms, explaining that the hymns belong to the future gathering of all the saints, and that God's wonders in Egypt and the wilderness reveal his creative power and mercy.

32He signals beforehand the work of hymns that will take place at the gathering together of all the saints, when neither day nor night will it cease, since sleep itself will not prevail in the power of the incorruptible and untiring bodies of that time (Psalm 134:1-2; LXX 133:1-2).

Hymns are the end of good things, and the subject matter of hymns is the works of God, his gifts and benefits (Psalm 135:1-2; LXX 134:1-2). Those who hymn are not strangers standing far off, but attendants who remain near, just as David appointed the singers to remain for this purpose.

One might say that a great benefit, and the chief of all benefits from God, is the making of humans his own, just as he made the people of the Hebrews his own and set them as exceptional for himself beyond all the nations at that time, placing them as something more and superior, inasmuch as the God of all is his own God to them in intimacy, though in creation he is God of all (Ps 134:3-4; Psalm 135:6-7; LXX 134:6-7).

Remembering the wonders that happened around Israel—things not done by the nature that appeared at the beginning, but by a will beyond nature, some heavenly, such as fire and hail and darkness, some earthly, such as frogs and locusts and gnats and the punishing power against the firstborn, and some done in the sea and the deep, such as the things at the Red Sea—he brings them back to the creative authority, joining these to those as having come from the same power, saying that he is the one who once for all lifts up clouds from the ends of the earth and flashes forth lightnings as the prelude of rains and sends out winds from an unseen source (Psalm 135:7). They are not known where they are before they blow. He says that the unseen and unknown origin of the winds is God's treasury, the winds being understood to be stored away somewhere continually, as in the treasuries of bodies.

He indicates that the wonders did not happen for Israel alone, but for the knowledge of God through all the earth and all time—not only while the works were being done was the doer known, but also afterward through memory.

Above, then, he called them gods according to the custom of the nations, though they are not gods. Now, to shame the falsely named gods, he calls them idols, discrediting them by the material, because they are silver and gold, and by the workmanship, because they are made by humans, and by the lifelessness along with the vanity of the likeness of souls, because there is no spirit of life in them. All these things carry the open discredit of the worship and the open refutation of the demons, that those whose likenesses are such things are not gods. For the likeness of God is divine; therefore the human being who is an image is the divine one, not the one deprived of the Godhead.

No less than the subduing of those who warred against them, the feeding in the desert and the guiding of them without want, and the destruction of the kings of the Amorites, he sets down as a demonstration of God's mercy, who gave their land to the Hebrews as a good land to dwell in (Psalm 136:16-22; LXX 135:16, 22). And this was the treasuring up for the righteous of the wealth of the impious. For they would not have perished otherwise, had they not come to the fullness of their sins, as God said to Abraham. And Moses says that Israel did not take possession of their land because of his own righteousness, but because of their lawlessness and because of God's love for the fathers. So against those the destructive judgment was just, while toward these the beneficent gift was loving, and the piety of the fathers became a preparation for sharing in that love. For in this way the things from God are shown forth justly and well and fittingly for the world.

He makes clear that they will be in a desert, like the condition of captives after their removal from their own cities (Psalm 137:1-2; LXX 136:1, 2). For this is what it means: "On the willows we hung up our instruments" (Psalm 137:2; LXX 136:2).

And according to the spiritual worship, they considered the foreign souls a foreign land, and they guarded against bringing out the divine things among them, as things being moved from their own place into a foreign one, as the divine mouth of Christ says: "Do not give what is holy to the dogs, and do not throw your pearls before the pigs." Such was Herod, who wanted to see the signs of Christ, not seeking this for reverence but for pleasant spectacle, and therefore he did not obtain it.

Babylon's infants and the church's song§33

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 136 (137), explaining why the psalmist refuses to sing in a foreign land, blesses those who repay Babylon, and then turns to Psalm 137 (138) as the church's thanksgiving from all nations.

33"I will not use another land like you, O Jerusalem," he says, "nor will I place the unclean on an equal footing with the clean, nor will I consider the profane as comparable to the holy; but even when I am outside your dwelling, your longing will approach me (Psalm 137:4-5; LXX 136:4, 5). And whenever I might depart from this, all my strength would depart as well." For this reason they also made their prayers while looking toward Jerusalem, and they received the power of their prayers there, according to the prayers of Solomon and the divine promises—just as it is necessary for us to look toward the heavenly Jerusalem (Psalm 137:6; LXX 136:6).

For it is not just for the instrument of words to be vigorous when it is not directed toward what it ought to be. Therefore the blessed men devoted their whole life to the care of hymns, saying, "I will sing to the Lord in my life; I will psalm to my God as long as I exist" (Psalm 145:2 (146:2)) (Psalm 104:33; LXX 103:33). And the city was precious to them because of the worship of God established in it, just as it was said before: "For the sake of the house of my God I sought good things for you" (Psalm 121:9 (122:9)).

For the highest and purest gladness is placed in remembering the holy city. In this way the gladnesses that follow will also be good, just as the Lord introduces the sacred foods to us before the common and bodily ones.

The just thing is what they pray the Babylonians receive, namely what they have done (Ps 137:8). For this is the holy judgment according to the words, "The Lord is known as making judgments; in the works of his hands the sinner was caught" (Psalm 9:17 (9:16)). He declares blessed the one who will be able to do this, through whom God reveals the just judgment and turns plundering back upon those who plundered, and killing back upon those who killed. For the ministry belongs to God, and blessed is the one who ministers to God. But it must also be accompanied by knowledge and one's own deliberate choice. So he does not bless Cyrus, the king of the Persians, who conquered the Babylonians, because Cyrus did not know for whose sake he was receiving the strength against them, nor did he know the God who gave it—"For you did not know me," he says (Isaiah 45:4)—nor did he understand that he was being advanced to power for the release of Israel, as the prophecies through Isaiah have it. Rather, the declaration of blessedness will turn to those who repay Babylon in kind, and upon the one who dashes her infants against the rock and kills them. For truly, the first blessedness was never to have seen Babylon at all, nor to have been in the confusion of her evils. But if someone once found himself in her, having fallen away from better things, he would still be blessed if he should do what he suffered, and should take the Babylonians captive in return, and should lead the very souls of the Babylonians to the fear of God. And if he should not allow their infants to grow up but should crush them against the rock, he would be more blessed than many. You would not be wrong to say that the infants of Babylon are the seeds of wickedness and the beginnings of sins of confusion, which the one who is blessed in these things will be eager to destroy by the saving Word—for the rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4)—so that they do not grow or proceed to deeds.

The restoration of Israel's affairs is laid up for them, as the prophecies say, but the church from all the nations enters in beforehand, leaving a second place for those from Jerusalem who will turn back. So also in the present passage we have just heard of the captivity of the nation and the prayer for the punishment of those who took them captive, and now the song follows, announcing the manifestation of the word of God throughout the whole world. Just as in the prophet Isaiah, while the word beforehand laments over Zion that she became desolate and the holy place became a curse, immediately the knowledge of God among the other nations is proclaimed, according to the words, "I became manifest to those not asking for me; I was found by those not seeking me" (Isaiah 65:1).

The Word's Manifestation Expands Worship to All Nations§34

Apollinaris is explaining how the sequence of the psalms mirrors the spread of God's worship from Israel alone to all nations through the incarnate Word.

34So the arrangement of these songs followed the same order. After the prayer for Israel came thanksgiving, and hymns were proclaimed beforehand, and acts of worship toward God. For by his mercy and truth, because of the glory of the word of God above every name of his—that is, what has now been accomplished—God is glorified in the name of the Word as he was never glorified before. Before the manifestation of the Word, the worship of God occupied only a portion of the earth. He was hymned as maker of all things, and he was proclaimed as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, but all of this had its knowledge and honor only as far as the Hebrew nation. But when his living oracle appeared, coming forth from God and revealed to the world through a body, then every nation and the whole inhabited world runs together to the worship of God, serves the name of the Word, and glorifies God in the presence of the Word. Now worship has increased among the nations according to mercy, and it is preserved for Israel according to the truth of the promises.

Psalm 137 (138):3. He shows the great favor and the swift obedience, and the supply of power given to souls in the name of Christ (Psalm 138:3; LXX 137:3). For Christ says, "If you ask anything in my name, I will do it" (John 14:14). And the apostle says that the supply of the Spirit comes to those who believe.

Psalm 137 (138):5. Let the providence of God be hymned, because God is great and his greatness is revealed through providence. Just as through the seraphim the glory of God in his present providence and economy was hymned when they cried out, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3) (Psalm 138:5; LXX 137:5; Ps 137:6).

Psalm 137 (138):6. Because, he says, the human creation enjoys the gift of God, and the lesser and formerly more dishonored part of it—the nations—is not now overlooked either. For to God all things are lowly, even the highest, so that these too are known by him from afar, because they cannot draw near to the unapproachable height of God. Since all things are small before God, it is no wonder if he extends his benefits even to the smallest—that is, to those who had no hope and were without God in the world, whom the apostle calls "those who are not" (1 Corinthians 1:28).

Psalm 137 (138):7–8a. He brings in the second part, the portion of Israel, which has been caught up in afflictions but will be restored to salvation. Through this your enemies are struck by God, and they themselves will obtain salvation from God. "The Lord will repay on my behalf." For he will repay on behalf of the wronged nation, so as to rescue them from the hands of those who oppress them (Psalm 138:8; LXX 137:8c).

Psalm 137 (138):8c. Even if, he says, we do not produce fruits worthy of your love, yet because we are your works, we ask not to be overlooked (Psalm 138:8; LXX 137:8c).

Psalm 138 (139):5. Here he appears to place soul and body together as one, arranging both under a single formation, because he says that God has knowledge of the soul's properties from its formation (Psalm 139:5; LXX 138:5). Just as another has said, "He who formed the spirit of man within him" (Zechariah 12:1). For the work is not divided. Even if the making of the soul is more beautiful than that of the body, it is not as if made by hands according to the shaping of matter, but inspired according to its subsistence from divine power.

The whole person, known and formed by God§35

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 138 (139), explaining how God's knowledge and formation encompass the whole human being, soul and body together.

35At any rate, he brings both together into one, just as they also share a single name, the combined thing being called sometimes soul and sometimes flesh. So too when the apostle calls the man the image of God because of the inbreathing that came to him from God and did not come upon the woman, he clearly includes the body together with the soul, insofar as the male is distinguished from the female.

Psalm 138 (139):9–10. This is just what appeared in the case of Jonah, when he fled to the sea and found God's power at work both in the movement of the waters, stirring up waves, and in the nature of the creatures: the sea-monster received him and did not crush him, and he was kept safe inside the sea-monster and suffered no corruption (Psalm 139:9-10; LXX 138:9-10).

Psalm 138 (139):15–16. You know my very subsistence, he says, and the composition of my bones is your work (Psalm 139:15-16; LXX 138:15-16). In the hidden place of my mother's womb, as if within the earth, you knew me as one intricately wrought even before I was formed. And I am written by you as in a book, and every human being who is fashioned is measured by a fixed time and a set number of days (Psalm 139:16). This is indeed the wonder of the order and precise symmetry: that the production of life is brought to completion with not a single day lacking.

Psalm 138 (139):17–18. I did not think, he says, that the righteous were few, even though at any given time only a small number are found. Rather, I looked to the whole multitude that has existed from eternity, and I saw that they are many and greater in number, whom the resurrection will display all together—and especially now, when they have increased into a multitude at the coming of Christ, according to the words, "The whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord," and "I will give thanks to you in the great church; in a heavy people I will praise you" (Psalm 35:18).

Psalm 138 (139):23–24. Since righteous men are precious in your sight and are laid up for eternal glory, while the wicked are destined for destruction, I beseech you that I may be cleansed from all wickedness by the cleansing that comes from you, who are able to purify us even when we fall into evil through ignorance (Psalm 139:24). I pray that you cleanse me, he says, from every evil that leads to destruction and lead me through good deeds, for which eternal life will be given.

Psalm 139:9 (140:8). What is said is worthy of God: that lawlessness be given no proud thought and no exaltation against righteousness, and that their bitter and destructive purpose not come to fulfillment nor be permitted to prevail over those against whom they hold their bitterness (Psalm 140:8). For when injustice succeeds, it becomes far more grievous and grows into blasphemy against the God of righteousness.

Psalm 139:11 (140:10). And they will fall a fall—not the kind the righteous fall when they fall and rise again, but the incurable kind that no longer comes to resurrection (Psalm 140:10). They will depart into obscurity, unable to become established on the earth, but driven out from it into destructive punishments.

Psalm 140 (141):2. If by morning we understand the life that is coming, the life of rest and glory for the righteous, then let us understand the present life as night and evening—evening because it retains something of light through the remaining knowledge of the good and because of the gifts from God, and night because of the darkness of wickedness and the domination of the world-rulers of darkness (Psalm 141:2; LXX 140:2).

Prayer, separation from the wicked, and the unity of God and Lord§36

Apollinaris is commenting on the closing verses of Psalm 140 (141) and the opening of Psalms 141 (142) and 142 (143), drawing ethical lessons about prayer, separation from the wicked, and the unity of God and Lord.

36So now a person needs intense crying out, because he has been pressed in by darkness and weighed down by the evils that surround him. He cries to the only one who can give light, who can show dawn out of evening and day out of night, and who can bring about a change from these evils (Ps 140:4-5).

He speaks, then, against wickedness, wanting to be pure from it and a stranger to those who live in it. For the wounds of friends are more trustworthy than willing kisses of enemies (Proverbs 27:6).

They mock what is good, he says, and disparage what is by common agreement the most beautiful thing of all—prayer—twisting it to suit their own will. And this, he says, will destroy them, uprooted from the earth, as if dug out, with a rock pushing through and dislodging their rooting. They made my words a laughingstock and a pleasure, mocking what is holy because they delight in what is unholy, and because their long habit in these things has cut off their asking for what is good and truly lovely and delightful. Second, he speaks of the sorrow of death, describing the dissolution of a human being: like a clod of earth breaking apart, he is scattered (Psalm 141:7).

Symmachus says: 'Let the lawless fall into their own nets.' Let their schemes, he says, turn against them and not against us who are innocent. But I, he says, will turn aside from mixing with the wicked, until I am able to escape them altogether. For this is the safeguard against being harmed by them at all: not to come near them or be entangled with them. Jeremiah also says this: 'It is good for a man when he bears the yoke in his youth; he will sit alone and be silent' (Lamentations 3:27-28). But for us now the separation from the wicked is spiritual, because a bodily separation is impossible, since we would have to go out of the world, as Paul says.

The unity of the dyad is beautiful when it places the Lord and God in such a relation, but for those who have learned the perfect things, the comprehension of the dyad in the unity is more revealing. Paul presents this when he expounds one God and one Lord, and unites the two, who are two, so that God is understood in the Lord and the Lord in God. In this way the properties of the divine and lordly essence are seen in identity, proceeding from the Father to the Son according to what is divine, and led back from the Son to God according to what is lordly (Ps 141:8).

He does not set as the goal the escape from the siege of enemies, but something still more beautiful: to offer thanks to God (Ps 142). For this is indeed the highest goal.

Others say the psalm is not without a title, but is inscribed: 'A Psalm of David, when his son pursued him.' This is not found, however, in all the versions. But what is said is not foreign to it; and nothing prevents these words from having been spoken about the persecution by Saul (Psalm 143:8; LXX 142:8ab).

Or, according to the whole theme of the life of the righteous, he does not yet receive the perfect mercy now, but awaits the future appearing from heaven that announces the morning, when the Master will shine upon the righteous, appearing from heaven (Psalm 143:8).

He asks that the name of goodness become for him the occasion of God's salvation, according to the apostle who says: 'To the praise of the glory of his grace' (Ephesians 1:6) (Psalm 143:11; LXX 142:11).

God's works and kingdom praised through all generations§37

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 143-144, explaining how the psalm's words about God's works, kingdom, and provision apply both to this present life and to the future eternal life.

37All these things are alike in their human elements, but they are indications of divine activity that is fearful, strong, and destructive of humans (Psalm 144:5-6).

In the present life these words could apply to one human being after another in succession, because as the earlier ones depart, there are others who take their place in their territory. For this reason we are all called by the name of Adam, as being those very ones, and God says, "I made the earth and humanity upon it," reckoning all as one (Isaiah 45:12). But in the life to come these things are true for each individual as well, as he praises God continually and eternally, and because it is not sufficient to praise for a short time, the worshiper adds, "Forever and to the age of the age" (Psalm 145:2).

Since everything God made remains forever, according to Ecclesiastes, each generation that sees his works praises them, seeing that they receive praise beyond all praise. And they declare your power, by which you brought them into existence. This is the wisdom by which you made all things, and your power and wisdom is your only-begotten Son; for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

They make known that he holds dominion over all things, even if he does not yet reveal this, since humans are not yet able to receive it (Psalm 145:12). For humans are too small for the greatness of the divine kingdom to be shown in them; therefore he adds what is fitting for God (Psalm 145:12; LXX 144:12).

When he speaks of the opening of God's hands as the provision of food for created things, he clearly is not presenting bodily hands but likening the creative power in this way (Psalm 145:16; LXX 144:16; Ps 144:17).

God's goodness, justice, and knowledge of all things§38

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 144-146, explaining how God's goodness is joined with righteousness, how praise extends to all people forever, and how God's knowledge encompasses even the stars.

38For if, he says, love for humanity is not seen in all things, but many painful and destructive things accompany what is pleasant and saving—such as failure of crops, the birth of deadly beasts, and the onsets of diseases—yet none of these is outside righteousness, which is beautifully interwoven with goodness so that zeal for what is good is not corrupted by the unrebuked cheerfulness of those who break the law (Psalm 145:20).

Again he stretches his praises to a great length and does not stop at one person or his own person, but he will do the same for all people [...] into the endless age, if he too will one day see with those who run, showing that they share in the company of the righteous who have become a beginning for God, according to the apostle (Ps 145:1-2).

He seems to teach that this is the work of life, this is the benefit of existing—if we are joined to true life and to the one who truly is (Psalm 146:2). For this is a provision both for true life and for existing eternally, since we carry with us from this present life a provision for the life to come.

So hope in humans is wretched, but hope in God is blessed. For he is a true helper, eternal and holding power over all things (Psalm 146:5). In him is the authority, as from ungrudging wealth and boundless resources, to do great good easily.

He is so great and so vast that not even the countless stars are outside his knowledge, but having been ordered by him, they are known to him precisely, since he distinguishes the nature and power of each one as by names that mark them off (Psalm 147:4).

God's power and wisdom as begotten, not accidental§39

Apollinaris is commenting on Psalm 146:5, explaining that God's strength and understanding must not be understood in a merely human way.

God's knowledge beyond number and the praise of angels, lights, and saints§40

Apollinaris is closing his commentary on the final psalms, explaining how God's understanding has no number, then how angels, heavenly lights, and the saints of all nations praise God.