which salvation Symeon testifies is called by that name; for when he had received Him in the temple, giving thanks he said: "Now Lord, you dismiss your servant according to your word in peace: for my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2:29-30). That He Himself is called mercy, the same prophet declares a little later. But from the matters themselves he has obtained both of these. 9. "Because He will speak peace to His people, and upon His saints, and to those who turn their heart to Him." Admirable is the prophet in his faith: for immediately after casting the seed of his prayer, he receives the fruit from it; and since he knew to whom he was supplicating, he prepared himself for the hearing of peace; that peace, indeed, which Christ gave to His people, that is, to those who were piously believing in Him, through the choir of the apostles: these are they who, having been converted in heart, are rightly called holy, and who have consecrated themselves entirely to Christ, and have turned themselves to Him with their whole heart from all worldly affairs; so that they seek neither parents, nor kin, nor trade anymore, but say with confidence: "Behold, we have left all, and followed You: what therefore shall we have?" (Matt. 19:27). "For I," He says, "am the truth and the life" (John 14:6). He is likewise called "Righteousness" by Paul, who says of Christ: "Who was made unto us righteousness by God" (1 Cor. 1:30). The prophet continues, explaining the mystery: 13. "For the Lord shall give graciousness"; the Father, His Son. Therefore other interpreters say, "He shall give good." For you know that He Himself said, "No one is good, except God alone" (Luke 18:19). "And our earth shall give its fruit"; the flesh that germinated from Mary: for from both of these the mystery of Christ consists. 14. "Righteousness shall walk before Him." The righteousness of which he spoke above: "Righteousness has looked down from heaven": for the divinity walks before the human nature, as Habakkuk also says: "The Word shall go before His face" (Hab. 3:5); and then regarding the human nature: "And He shall go forth unto discipline at His feet" (Ibid.): saying things consonant with those which are carried in the Psalms. For behold, it is added: "And He shall set His steps in the way," because the divinity preceding, that is, leading its own flesh, directs the steps toward the way of the economy or incarnation, so that it might not wander from human things, and that nothing might be lacking.
Prayer of David. Psalm LXXXV.
And he delivered it to the sons of Core to be sung; but he himself strikes the lyre in prayer to God, not from himself alone, but bearing before him the person of all men.1. "Incline, O Lord, Your ear, and hear me, for I am needy and poor." Every man is needy and poor, the person of whom the prophet now assumes. For we are needy through sin, and because of Adam, who sent poverty to us for an inheritance. Therefore, he asks God to incline His ear, that, though He is rich, He might nevertheless indulge the poor, and as a physician cure the infirm. And why? Because we often ask God for things that are not fitting; but He, as a physician, deigns indeed to hear the petition, but grants only those things which are opportune. 2. "Guard my soul, for I am holy." And how can he be holy who is needy and poor in virtue? Truly, because he has confessed his poverty, he has already become holy by confession: or he calls man holy, because before the transgression he had that dignity in paradise. "Save Your servant, my God, hoping in You." The words of the prophet are apt for moving mercy. For because the Lord can in no way turn away His servant when he hopes in Him, but protects him on account of his hope in Him, even if he be liable to other offenses; he professes servitude, so that he might draw God to us, lest He lose His own possession. 3. "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I shall cry unto You all the day." Do you know how we are able to obtain mercy? By crying to God the whole day, not praying to Him in one way and moving Him to anger by our deeds in another; neither holding assemblies now in the church of God, and now in the gathering of iniquitous men, of whom David says: "I have hated the church of the malignant" (Ps. 25:5). 4. "Gladden the soul of Your servant, for I have lifted my soul to You." From You, he says, I seek gladness, to whom I have lifted up my soul from the earth, bearing it light and carrying it by the hope of divine things, so that it might not pant after human things. Therefore, do You gladden it. For I do not want gladness from men, as it is harmful and fleeting. 5. "For You, O Lord, are sweet and mild, and of much mercy to all who call upon You." Not in vain have I lifted up my soul to You. But because You are moved to compassion as being sweet, and offer a hand to the fallen as being mild, You have mercy on them not in one way, but You indulge them in many and various ways on account of the love of the poor: You have mercy on account of tears, You have mercy on account of good works, You have mercy on account of faith, not of some, but of all who call upon You. Therefore, those who do not call upon God cannot obtain mercy; thus, prayer is for us a weapon, and a harbor, and the gate of salvation. 6. "Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplication." Give ear, that is, judge it worthy of Your ears. Attend, moreover, to the voice, that you might offer the petition.
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
753 SPURIA. [lat: 1.1] …mysteries of His palaces. These are in the holy mountains, namely, in Bethlehem, in Golgotha, in the resurrection, in Tabor the mount of transfiguration, in the hill of the assumption. Therefore, they are called holy mountains because they received the sanctification of the Lord’s mysteries. The prophets were also mountains, by reason of the sublimity of their foreknowledge, who possess the foundations of God, that is, the beginnings of divine knowledge. For from them we are instructed in piety. 2. *The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the tabernacles of Jacob.* The tabernacles of Jacob are truly the twelve tribes, or rather Shiloh; for there the ark used to dwell, as also the ancient people of the Jews, where there were also the holy of holies. But He loved the gates of Sion more than all these: for in those He wrought a figure, but here a truth. Moreover, He loveth the gates of Sion, because Sion received Christ with the doors shut; so that these things follow most congruously: 3. *Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God. Diapsalma.* Not only because Christ entered there with the doors shut; but also because, as God, He entered without doors, and as man, He permits Himself to be handled by you. He does not subjoin this rashly, but because He transferred the discourse to the Church of the Gentiles, and at the same time, having removed His own person, the prophet introduces the person of God. 4. *I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon, them that know me.* Why does God promise that He will be mindful of Rahab? Rahab, indeed, was a harlot, and Babylon signifies confusion. The following diction opens the reason why He speaks thus; for He says, *Them that know me.* And so, although Rahab, by reason of her fornication, is the Church from the Gentiles, and Babylon signifies confusion by reason of the multitude of idols, yet when she is converted and knows God, she is rightly in God’s memory. For the synagogue of the Jews, because it did not know Him, fell into oblivion. But what fruit Rahab and Babylon, which are held in memory, bring forth unto the memory, the psalmist soon indicates: *And behold the foreigners, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there.* The rest of the interpreters have published the word, *there were*, more clearly, while others have explained it as, *They were born*, others, *They were brought forth*. For foreigners entirely, and the people of the Ethiopians, who possess the swarthiness and darkness of idolatry, and moreover Tyre, which reigned in error, were born to God through the Church, through the generation, namely, of water and baptism. 5. *Mother Sion shall say: A man.* What shall she say? Truly, those mysteries concerning the Gentiles mentioned above. But he does not say that these are taught by man; for they have Christ as their teacher, concerning whom, namely, as to how He teaches, he adds these things: *And a man was born in her, and the Highest himself hath founded her.* He calls Christ both man and the Highest; man because of the flesh, the Highest because of the divinity. With wonder, therefore, and most clearly, he spoke of the mystery finished by Christ in Sion, when He gave Himself to be handled by the disciples; for then a man was born in her, that is, He appeared, when the Highest Himself founded her, and granted there the grace of the Father; nay rather, He laid as a foundation for Sion faith in Himself, of whom He speaks Himself through the tongue of Isaiah: *Behold, I lay in the foundations of Sion a stone, elect, corner-stone, precious: and he that believeth in him shall not be confounded* (Isai. 28.16). 6. *The Lord shall tell in the writing of the peoples and of these princes who were in her.* Who is the Lord? He who appeared in Sion as man, and founded her as the Highest. This same One tells in the writing of the peoples, that is, in the description of the Gentiles. For He did not say one people, lest they should think it was the people of the Jews; but many, that He might indicate the Gentiles: moreover, he says, *And of these princes who were in her*; he speaks of the apostles: for these were established as princes in Sion. Take the proof of both things. For John wrote that Christ in Sion said to the apostles: *As the Father hath sent me, I also send you* (John 20.21). Clearly, therefore, He established the apostles as princes in those cases; for after this power was given, He sent them into the world. Luke, however, introduced Christ launching the exposition of the mystery in Sion: *Then he opened their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures; and said to them: Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day, and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations* (Luke 24.45-47). Behold the description of the peoples; that is, the inheritance of the Gentiles which He received, He added. Rightly, therefore, does not a mere man tell the mysteries to Sion, because the man who is also God and the Highest, He Himself declared all things to her most clearly. The prophet introduced the Diapsalma because, having introduced the person of God, he brings back his own again, wishing to celebrate Sion from his own character. But what does he say? 7. *As the habitation of all that rejoice is in thee.* *As*, that is, *how*. For the prophet wonders at how and how much they rejoice, all who inhabit in Sion, while they call into memory the miracles which were wrought there. Those, however, inhabit there, who lead their life in the Spirit: since Sion is the house of the Spirit.