the word of God was made, just as Christ said in the Gospels, namely the holy and God-bearing men, of whom no one shall be able to be compared to the Lord. For even if he happened to be related to them according to the flesh, yet on account of his divinity he remained incomparable; or rather, also on account of his humanity. For none of them was born of a virgin, A none bore our sins, none of them turned aside death through death. Therefore, neither to him, nor to the works from him, is there any one who can be compared. *All the nations, as many as you have made, shall come, and shall worship before you, Lord.* Before, where then? In the temple of the Jews? But there is neither the temple, nor could the nations, being uncircumcised, worship there. Therefore he speaks clearly about Christ, whom all the nations worship before. For those who worship in Bethlehem, and at the cross, and at the resurrection, worship the face of him who performed our salvation there. The same is true of those who worship at the altar; they worship before him. For there they behold him sitting during every mystical sacrifice. *And they shall glorify your name.* For what has happened? For they used to worship wood and stones; they happened to be subjects and servants of demons. Therefore, hear the following: *For you are great, and working wonders; you are God alone.* 2. Therefore, for this cause they glorify Christ, having found him great and the only one who has worked wonders. And what is his greatness, and what are his wonders? He has caused the deception of idols from the age to vanish, not by sending angels for this, nor by shaking the earth, nor by raining fire from heaven, but by having used as ministers for this purpose men who were both unlettered, and poor, and fishermen. *Guide me, Lord, in your way, and I shall walk in your truth.* Clearly, the prophet before the Gospels utters evangelical words, wishing to be guided by the Way to the Way, and to walk in the truth of him who says: *I am the way, and the life, and the truth* (John 14:6). But we need first to be guided to the way of God, and to learn its beginnings, namely its elements, and then we shall walk in the truth. For the end of the knowledge of God is to grasp the truth of things that are. *Let my heart be glad, to fear your name.* He asks for a good joy, he prays for a good festival, to fear the name of God. For from there true joy comes to us, which is not of the flesh, but of the soul and the heart itself, which has great intimacy and relationship towards God. B Whence he also puts the fear of him as a festival, not being ignorant of what dignity it has. *I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name for ever.* It does not, therefore, allow one to glorify God before the confession of sins; for he wished to glorify God from a pure tongue; but it is purified by choosing the sins from the whole heart. For this is confession in truth: to vomit the sin from the whole mind, and no longer to return to it, but as one having once vomited it, to turn away. *For your mercy is great upon me, and you have delivered my soul from the lowest Hades.* For this cause, he says, I took courage for the confession of sins, though it was fitting to fear and be ashamed of it, because your mercy is great upon me, that is, man, so that he who confesses the sin not only enjoys pardon and forgiveness, but also looks for a reward. And what is this? That the soul be rescued from the lowest Hades, that is, the place of Gehenna, and of the outermost darkness. For that place is allotted to the sinners; lowest Hades, necessarily. For it is not possible for one who has descended thither to be brought up, we say. *God, lawless men have risen up against me, and a synagogue of the mighty have sought after my soul, and have not set you before them.* For he who injures his neighbor does not set God before his own eyes; who, if he did set him before them, would not injure him, fearing the judge; nor would he act lawlessly, considering the threat of the Lawgiver. And they suffer this not out of ignorance, but out of audacity; just as those who rob in the wilderness, they do not rob being ignorant that there are judges and magistrates, but they have no concern or fear of them out of folly. These he called not only lawless, but also a synagogue of the mighty, of those who are powerful in wickedness, whom in another part of the prophecy he rebuked: *Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty man?* Why did he call those who rose up not only lawless, but also mighty in wickedness, which we said means powerful? Because they did not seek to plot against a field, or house, or clothing, or slaves, but the only begotten possession of man, the soul, and wishing to kill it. Directly, therefore, these things were said about the truly lawless, and those powerful in wickedness, the demons, for which cause he directed God against them. *And you, Lord my God, are compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and very merciful and true; look upon me, and have mercy on me.* In vain, he says, have they risen up; for you as God fight for the creature, as compassionate and merciful you suffer with the one plotted against, as long-suffering you do not deliver the sinner into the hands of enemies, as very merciful you do not merely once, but often have mercy, as true you push away the one acting unjustly, you save the one treated unjustly. Wherefore *look upon me*—for the shepherd looks upon the sheep, no wolf can seize it—*and have mercy on me.* Because, indeed, I have no works by which I might urge your hand to my assistance, I necessarily put forward mercy, which is owed most especially to those plotted against. *Give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your handmaid,* he says, because as man he is a servant and slave, who seeks also to receive power against the passions; but as son of your handmaid, that is, of wisdom, he seeks to be saved; he calls our nature the handmaid of God. For as a handmaid it obeys the Creator in whatever he wishes and commands; it follows its own limits, when it perceives the Maker commanding this. Therefore, calling man a servant and son of a handmaid, the prophet prides himself; wherefore he also thought the strength of God belonged to him, as to an ancient servant and one coming indeed from ancestors. And such servants are entrusted with the master’s wealth without suspicion. And who this was, learn already from what follows. *Perform for me a sign for good, and let those who hate me see, and be ashamed, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.* He does not simply ask C for a sign, but, *For good,* that is, one happening for the benefit of the race; such as that which Isaiah set forth to say to God to Ahaz: *Ask for yourself a sign in the depth or in the height;* and after this he brought in: *Behold the virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel* (Isa. 7:11). But for a virgin to bear, this is a sign directly; but moreover also that which the Lord himself said: *This generation seeks a sign, and no sign shall be given to it, except the sign of Jonas the prophet.* For as Jonas was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matt. 12:40). At these signs our hating demons were all ashamed. Neither an ambassador, nor an angel, as Isaiah says, but God himself helped us, born of a virgin, and becoming man for our sake, he himself also comforted us. For when we were mourning at the condemnation of death, rising from the dead, he showed death to be a sleep.
*To the sons of Core, a Psalm of an Ode, 86.* It has often been said to us, that a Psalm of an Ode, or even an Ode of a Psalm, designates those subjects, especially those in which melody mixes the prophecies about Christ. *His foundations are in the holy mountains.* The foundations of Christ are the mysteries of his sufferings and wonders. These are found *in the holy mountains*, in Bethlehem, at Golgotha, in the resurrection, on Mount Tabor of the transfiguration, on the hill of the ascension. Wherefore he called the mountains holy as having received the sanctification of the Lord's mysteries. Let the prophets also be mountains, on account of the height of foreknowledge, who have the foundations of God, that is, the introductions of the knowledge of God. For from them we are instructed towards piety. *The Lord loves the gates of Sion more than all the tabernacles of Jacob.* The tabernacles of Jacob are certainly the twelve tribes, or even rather Silo; for there the ark tabernacled, as the ancient people of the Jews themselves, where the holy of holies tabernacled. But *the gates of Sion* [he loves] more than all... D