the persecuting enemies, and humiliated those who do not fall under our sight; yet not for the sake of the Jews: for the horn of the demons is still exalted over them; but they were humiliated for the sake of us Gentiles, who have denied them our servitude and destroyed their worship. Therefore, God, being angered with the Jews, set them as His own enemies, as the following points out: 16. The enemies of the Lord have lied to Him, and their time shall be for the ages. Which enemies? Those of whom Paul spoke: The enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction (Phil. 3:18-19). And therefore, he threatened that their time, that is, of the vengeance to be inflicted upon them, would be in the future age. And in what did they lie? Because He came unto them as to His own, and His own, as John says, did not receive Him (John 1:11). Moreover, He reproaches them, narrating the benefits with which they were gifted while remaining ungrateful, indicating this through sensible things by means of spiritual ones. For he calls grain "fat" because of the Spirit inhabiting the letter: wherefore in another Psalm he says, Who makes your borders peace, and satisfies you with the fat of grain (Ps. 147:14). What that is, he teaches in the following: Who sends forth His word to the earth (ibid. v. 15). For he calls the prophets "honey from the rock," since they have prophecy from Christ, who is the rock, with which God sated them, providing not one prophet or another, but many throughout many generations.
Interpretation of Psalm LXXXI
The inscription of the Psalm is brief: for it contains this theme, an exhortation to justice and a rebuke, because they do not adhere to these things. *God stood in the assembly of the gods, and in the midst He judges the gods.* This is a great demonstration of God’s liberality toward us, because the Creator imparted His own appellation to His handiwork. And He Himself, being called God by excellence, granted this grace to some, that they should be called likewise; namely, to those who hold and guard the dignity of authority according to the zeal of God, the prince of all. Wherefore, He now called those gods who were preeminent among the people, of whom also Moses said: You shall not revile the gods, and you shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people (Exod. 22:28). But among these, He honors with such dignity those who are truthful, and who do not feign their dignity, and who hold the dignity of prophecy, or priesthood, or the command of armies, that He stands in their assembly, as the psalmist says; but those who have done unworthy deeds despite the honor bestowed upon them, He judges in the midst, that is, in the sight of all creation, stripping them entirely of their dignity and state, and exposing them, because when they ought to have governed, they subjected themselves to the dominion of wickedness; whom the prophet now rebukes, now exhorts in the following. 2. *How long will you judge with iniquity, and accept the persons of sinners?* Beautifully he prefixed "How long," showing that they persist for a long time in iniquity and do not perceive the tolerance of God; and in no way do they consider that time passes and elapses, after which vengeance will seize the wicked: therefore they judge iniquity, and accept the persons of sinners, when it would be necessary for the judgment of God to stand everywhere, who desires justice, and therefore represents His own face in every judgment: so that Moses might say: You shall not accept a person in judgment, for the judgment is the Lord's (Deut. 1:17). But why does he say, *You accept the persons of sinners*? Because everyone who studies to corrupt justice, and strives to carry out judgment against his neighbor, is truly a sinner, even if he presents the appearance of a just person. He introduced the *Diapsalma*, because he changes the rebuke into counsel. 3. *Judge for the orphan and the beggar, justify the humble and the poor.* He does not say, "Judge for the just man," nor for the prophet, nor for the priest, of whom God thus commands: Touch not my anointed, and do not malign my prophets (Ps. 104:15). But he says, *for the orphan, for the beggar, for the humble, for the poor.* Why? Because it is fitting for them to receive injury, as Paul says: Why do you not rather accept injury? Why do you not rather suffer fraud (1 Cor. 6:7)? But for these, it is intolerable to suffer injury, on account of their infirmity, whether from age or from poverty: wherefore the legislator patronizes them the more vehemently. 4. *Rescue the poor, and deliver the needy from the hand of the sinner.* He speaks as if of wild beasts, of those who delight in injustice and avarice, wherefore elsewhere he says: He lies in wait in secret as a lion in his cave: he lies in wait to seize the poor (Ps. 10:9). And so, he who preserves the beggar receives the dignity and reward of a shepherd; of that shepherd, I say, who, giving Himself for us, rescued us from spiritual beasts; but he who seizes and devastates is numbered among the beasts. But that he might increase the patronage for those affected by injury in our midst, he added, *Deliver from the hand of the sinner*, so that we might hasten to their defense if ever we see someone inflicting injury upon a weak person, and being without compassion. For the sinner is weak, as one who strikes against God; and he is without compassion, because he does not even spare himself, let alone another. 5. *They knew not nor understood, they walk in darkness.* What did they not know? The fleeting state of the present life, the instability of human life; because they add field to field, house to house, and often accumulate wealth for their enemies. And what did they not understand? That they, occupied with the smallest things, defraud themselves of the greater; wherefore they walk in the darkness of iniquity, blushing to approach the light: *For everyone who does evil hates the light* (John 3:20), as Paul says. Therefore, perhaps he also rebukes them, because they, walking in darkness, have not known nor understood what follows. What is that? Hear: *All the foundations of the earth shall be moved.* But if the foundations of the earth are moved, how will they be able to remain upon it? Since these things are so, why do we defraud our brother, why do we consume the needy, when no fruit arises for us from this? 6. *I said, You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.* 7. *But you shall die like men, and like one of the princes you shall fall.* When did He declare that all are gods and sons of the Almighty? For he is no longer speaking only of princes, but of the whole human race. Certainly, when God fashioned man, He gave such a definition of his dignity: *Let us make man according to our image and likeness; and let them have dominion over all the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heaven, and the beasts, and all the earth, and all the reptiles* (Gen. 1:26). But if they had guarded this, and had not betrayed the image of God by disobedience, they would not have been condemned to death. For it is an affront to God to ignore His majesty, and to suffer the same things as the devil. Wherefore he says, *You shall die as men*, showing that death is a human affliction. Nevertheless, it was possible not to die, if we had guarded God's law from the beginning; for our nature would have possessed both. *Like one*, he says, *of the princes you shall fall*, indicating the devil, who was allotted a prince's power among the angels: wherefore Paul says: *Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers* (Eph. 6:12); but, inflated and desiring greater things, he fell. The same thing happened to man; for when he had heard these words of the serpent: *For God knows that on whatever day you eat from it, namely the tree, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil* (Gen. 3:5), he gave himself over to disobedience, whence it necessarily followed that he fell into ruin, a fall owed to the sickness of his soul. 8. *Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You shall inherit among all the nations.* The prophet therefore indicates not a present inheritance, but a future one; therefore he asks God to arise and judge the earth, that is, man: but when He arises, He shall inherit among all the nations. For He gives to all their fitting lot; one to the humble, another to the temperate; this to the beneficent, that to the adulterous, another to the proud, another to the avaricious: for in the present, he called the nations not a diversity of languages, but of lives.A B C DA And by this he indicated a future time. Does he not hint that the economy of the Only-Begotten in the flesh has a glory similar to that of certain prophets? Whence some thought him to be Elijah, others one of the prophets; but none of those mentioned could be compared to Him. For He alone was God and man, He alone saved our race. Do not keep silence, nor be calmed, O God; that is to say, do not be long-suffering for too long; for he called the silence of the time the long-suffering toward sinners. And why did he pray for this? "For behold, thine enemies have made a noise, and they that hate thee have lifted up the head." To such a degree, he says, have sinners been puffed up by your long-suffering, that they have "made a noise," that is, they have spoken boldly, and have made their own wickedness manifest as with a trumpet through their shamelessness, and have lifted up their head, not being ashamed of the things wherein they transgress, but even acting arrogantly, as if there were no one who would judge and frighten them. He calls sinners the enemies of God, since they are enemies to themselves by doing things that are not for their benefit; but God, being a lover of mankind, and not wishing for the death of the sinner, sets them as enemies to themselves, plotting against themselves. "They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy holy ones." Behold another manner of enmity toward God which the prophet set forth. B For those who act with hostility toward the people of God and toward his holy ones are waging war against Him, of whom those are servants and brothers. He signifies a war not only by what is written next, in which he also remembered the nations that warred against the Jews, but also hints at a certain hidden war, which sinners are accustomed to bring upon the holy ones. And for this reason he does not say simply that they took counsel, but that they took "crafty" counsel, that is, that they used a varied and manifold craftiness. Such are those who first deprive those who are dedicated to God of money, or possessions, or other things, so that they may provoke them to blasphemy out of ingratitude; and when they prove weak toward this, they suggest pleasures to them, a desire for empty glory, arrogance, imagination, as if they were friends advising them of things that are against their enemies; and the following words reveal this. "They have said, Come, let us destroy them from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be no more in remembrance." These things have been clearly spoken and done to the enemies of Israel, whom he is about to mention next; yet consider also those who give evil counsel or coerce; for these wish to destroy us from being a nation, in order that we might neither be named among the lawless, since we sin while having the law, nor among those who are bound by the law, since we transgress; but they wish the name of Israel to be consigned to oblivion. For if Israel is he who sees God, and someone does not do the things that he who sees God ought, and who keeps the eyes of his mind toward Him, it is of necessity that such a one should be consigned to total oblivion; nor if Israel has become he who sees these things intellectually, that is, he who can never be remembered as having known God on account of his later inattention. "For they have consulted with one consent, they have made a covenant against thee." And who will be able to consult, or to covenant, or to imagine at all against God, who is inaccessible not only to eyes, but also to thoughts? But He reckons the things of those who trust in Him as His own; and for this reason the plots against them are said to be against God Himself, as the Father of those who are being plotted against, and their protector and guardian. And who are those who reckon the plots? "The tabernacles of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek." All these are descended from Abraham, so they were kinsmen of Israel. For the Ishmaelites possessed as their father Ishmael, the son of Abraham; but the Hagarenes were indeed not from Abraham, but from Hagar, whom Sarah had joined to Abraham for a certain time, but having become jealous later, she made her to be cast out with Ishmael; having then been joined to another, she gave birth to the Hagarenes, who are named from her. Likewise, Amalek happened to be a descendant of Esau, and Moab and Ammon were sons of Lot, born of his daughters after the burning of Sodom, to whom Gebal was a neighbor, and perhaps even a near relative, for which reason he was counted in their midst. What, then, did the discourse aim to set forth here? Or for what reason did it show them to be kinsmen? So that you might know that among enemies, those who are one's own, as Christ says, that is, the kinsmen, take the lead; whence the prophet set the strangers in the latter rank. C And so he added: "The Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre." For Assur also came with them. Not with the inhabitants of Tyre, but with Moab and Ammon and the others, whom we showed to be near relatives to the people of the Jews, so that they did not come of themselves to the war against him, but were spurred on by the kinsmen; whence he added, "They became a help to the children of Lot"; that is, they went to their assistance. Protect yourself, therefore, from the internal enemies; for they arm those without. And do not trust in kinship, since it often changes into enmity; but consider also the curse which he brought upon them. "Selah"; because he changed the discourse into a prayer. "Do to them as to Midian and to Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook of Kishon. D They perished at Endor." It is not in vain that he chose these out from all, but because the war against them was turned in a paradoxical way; for Gideon, having come without arms, destroyed the Midianite who covered the earth because of his multitude, and he defeated them with three hundred men, not having swords, nor shields, nor helmets, nor any other weapons of war, but only having lamps, and horn trumpets, which they used. And Sisera, who was the commander of the nation of Jabin, and was campaigning with nine hundred iron chariots, God having struck with terror and turned to flight, surrendered to Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, who killed him by driving a tent-pin through his temple. He prays, then, that those enemies whom he enumerated before may fall by the hand of God just as those did. For he mentions the brook of Kishon and Endor, as the war against Sisera was gathered there. "They became as dung for the earth." For their arrogance was brought down so far because of the defeat, that they were considered to be cheap, as dung. And it is well said "dung." Just as that makes the earth bring forth fruit, while being cheap itself, so the fall and the lowliness of the proud makes our souls fertile in virtues. "Make their princes like Oreb and Zeeb, and Zebah and Zalmunna." He mentions men who were slain by Gideon; he asked that the princes become like them. And the following words clarify more clearly which princes. "All their princes, who said, Let us inherit for ourselves the sanctuary of God." He speaks, therefore, of princes, not so much in rank as in wickedness; whence they imagine the sanctuary of God to become their inheritance, so that they might use the holy things for an abundance of possessions, and the divine things for private gain. Not only do those who seize the sacred vessels and sell the holy things do this, but whoever sells divine things, trading the things of God, and buying and making unlawful exchanges; such as was Simon, who wished to acquire the gifts with silver, whence Peter judged him unworthy of the gift of the Holy Spirit. "O my God, make them like a wheel"; in tossing and unstable movement and constant change; for this is characteristic of a wheel. "As stubble before the wind"; so that they can stand nowhere, and their substance may everywhere become invisible, having been scattered by the force of that which fans them. "As a fire that will set fire to a forest, as a flame that shall consume the mountains." He prays for fruitlessness for them from every side. For that fire is useful by which gold is refined, or silver, or bread is baked, or some medicine is warmed, or something is cooked for our need; but that by which a forest is set on fire, or a mountain is consumed, no benefit or use is found from it; it burns more fiercely, but when it is quenched, it results in nothing but soot and ashes; such are the sinners found to be after the wrath brought upon them by God. "So thou shalt persecute them in thy tempest, and in thy wrath thou shalt disturb them." He calls "tempest" the sudden and most fierce movement of God upon those who sin, which seeks for them to be chased and disturbed; and how has this been said through the preceding? So as to be scattered into small pieces, just as stubble is scattered; and for them to fall to earth and dust, as if the worldly arrogance were quenched in them like fire. But he prays for this for them beneficially, not harmfully. For what indeed did he add? "Fill their..."