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

Having 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).