771 • SPURIA. In that, for that which is proper to a shepherd, he gave his soul for the flock. Therefore Isaiah says: *He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, and shall gather the lambs with his arm* (Isai. 40. 11). 8. *Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, 9. as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted me.* A That word "Today" teaches us that it signifies neither a single day nor the present age, as Paul writes to the Hebrews. He says: *Exhort yourselves every day, whilst it is called today, that none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin* (Hebr. 3. 13). If, therefore, we hear his voice in the present age (for we have heard: *My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me* [Joan. 10. 27]), let us not harden our hearts, nor emulate the Jewish people, a house provoking and a people called by the prophets "hard-hearted": who very often tempted God in the desert and provoked Him, especially when, after the Canaanite was defeated, when they ought to have given thanks, they spoke against God, blaming Him because He had led them out of Egypt: when He sent against them serpents that brought death. B And so Paul says: *Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents* (1 Cor. 10. 9). He commanded, therefore, that after the spiritual enemy was put to flight, and God's voice was heard through the advent of the Only-Begotten (for then the prophet was not simply a prophet, nor a mediator of the law, but God Himself speaking), we should not speak against those things for which thanksgivings ought to be rendered—which the Jews did, calling Him a seducer and a transgressor of the law (Matth. 27. 63): therefore those who speak against Him perish by the spiritual serpents. *Forty years was I offended with that generation and I said: these always err in heart. 10. And these men have not known my ways.* Punctuate here and then modulate the following: *I was offended with that generation,* because Paul so punctuated [the text] when expounding the testimony: *They proved me and saw my works forty years* (Hebr. 3. 9). C He was offended indeed with that generation; using a necessary and fitting distinction, since for forty years in the desert God was proven by them. He was proven by the showing of signs, when they said: *Because he struck the rock, and water flowed, can he also give bread, or prepare a table for his people?* (Ps. 77. 20)? But He rained manna for them to eat. *And he rained upon them flesh as dust: and feathered fowls as the sand of the sea* (Ibid. v. 24, 27). For these things the Spirit modulated in the seventy-seventh Psalm. D And for that reason, with that generation which remained ungrateful and incredulous after so many and such great signs, He was offended not for a time, but perpetually. Wherefore He did not add "time." Moreover, for "I was offended," the other interpreters have rendered it, "I was ill-affected," that is, I was scarcely or in no way pleased. *And I said: These always err in heart. 11. And my ways they have not known.* Rightly did God remain offended with the Jewish people: because they retain a perpetual, not a temporary, error. But he who errs perpetually, when will he be converted? Otherwise, they err not in tongue but in heart, which is far graver: for when that is deceived, the disease is incurable. Wherefore He rebuked them through the prophecy of Isaiah: *This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me* (Isai. 29. 13). What is it that worked the error of the heart? The ignorance of the ways of the Lord, that is, of the commandments: which those who meditate [on them] do not know as well as those who perform them. Ignorance, therefore, he calls cessation. For that knowledge is true which is had through works: since we all know the sea either by hearsay or by a more remote view; but those who work in it obtain its true knowledge. *As I swore in my wrath: If they shall enter into my rest.* 772 "As" in this place signifies not a likeness, but a confirmation of the word; that is, I truly swore. Just as where it says: *As God is good to Israel, to them that are right of heart* (Ps. 72. 1); and again, *As thy works are magnified, O Lord; in wisdom thou hast made them all* (Ps. 103. 24) — here it signifies a confirmation, not that you should understand it as mutable. For just as it is not permitted for us who have sworn to change our resolve, so neither does God ever change all the things which He has either promised or threatened. He signifies this by the word of swearing. What, therefore, did He swear? That the Jewish people should not enter into His rest—which had its outcome in those who had provoked Him in the desert. A For those who fell in the desert did not receive the allotment of the promised land. By which statement the prophet commemorated the rest of the future age as well. Nor would he have resumed the discourse concerning that [rest] which had already reached its end, unless, as Paul says, he were commemorating another rest left to those who are to be obedient, in which God will rest from all those things which He then works (Hebr. 4. 10, 11).
Psalmus XCV.
The Psalm is not inscribed by the Hebrews after the captivity; it is without inscription among the Hebrews. But it is found among the Seventy Interpreters only: whose title the Jew rightly rejected, as is argued by the title itself; for the Psalm is clearly inscribed to the people: and David, whose the Psalm is, precedes the captivity by many generations, after it is said in the title that the house had been built. He speaks, therefore, of that captivity of which Paul speaks thus: *Ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men* (Ephes. 4. 8). B For He Himself says concerning His own flesh: *Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up* (Joan. 2. 19). The building of this house, therefore, was accomplished after our captivity, brought in by the devil. For Christ, wishing to endow this with freedom, became incarnate. Of which this same David has spoken thus in another part of the prophecy: *Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive* (Ps. 67. 19). *Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle, sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2. Sing ye to the Lord, bless his name.* For what reason does He command all the earth, and not Judea only, to sing a new canticle, unless because of the new miracles? And David almost anticipates saying the same things as Paul: *If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are made new* (2 Cor. 5. 17). C But what is a "new canticle," or by whose handing down shall we know it? For the prophet has published many canticles for us, but by already saying "new canticle," he points to another new canticle distinct from them. Isaiah also sang a canticle: *I will sing,* he says, *a canticle to my beloved, to the canticle of my beloved concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard in a horn, in a fruitful place* (Isai. 5. 1), etc. But it is not fitting for all the earth to sing these things, but for Judea only, in which it is said they are to be sung. These certainly refer to the canticle of the angels described by Luke. That, indeed, was new. D The prophet called upon all the earth, because this evangelist records that these things were sung as the angels modulated: *Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace, to men of good will* (Luc. 2. 14). But when were these things said? When the house was built, that is, when Christ was incarnate. For when He was born, the angels played in Bethlehem, performing dances. And when He commands [the earth] to sing thrice, He names the Lord thrice, wishing the Trinity to be glorified in Christ. For through Him we come to know both the Father and the Holy Spirit. Therefore He fittingly subjoins: *Bless his name*; whether you say it of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit: for the name of the Trinity is God; which the angels blessed, they who revealed the new canticle, referring glory at the very beginning to God in the highest. *Announce ye from day to day the salvation of our God.* For as time proceeds, the Gospel proceeds: and the knowledge of Christ is dilated as time is dilated, which the following things indicate. 5. *Announce ye among the Gentiles his glory; among all peoples his wonders.* Can the Jewish people claim these things for themselves? For how shall he announce the glory of God among the Gentiles to whom it is not permitted to read the law outside its own limits? For about this matter the prophet Amos rebuked them: *And they read the law outside, and called for confessions.*
4. *Announce, because all these things were dear to the children of Israel*, says the Lord God. And what is the punishment? *I will give you the stupidity of the nations in all your cities* (Ib. v. 6). Thus David clearly indicated the evangelical Testament; first when he said, *Announce*; then, *Declare to the nations and to all peoples the wonders of God*. And what are these wonders? That we who were born unto death through blood and flesh, are regenerated unto life through water and baptism. For God commanded the disciples to hand down these wonders to the nations: *Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you* (Matt. 28:19, 20). Look at what the prophet adds next regarding this name, namely, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 4. *For the Lord is great and exceedingly to be praised, He is terrible above all gods.* That the Lord is great, it is superfluous to say; for this is agreed upon in the minds of all. He says He is "exceedingly to be praised" because, being exceedingly great, He descends to the lowly, and being just, He bears with the salvation of sinners. To us He is kind, but to demons He is terrible. For He called them "gods" here, not because they are gods, but because they are so named by some. Paul bears witness to this, saying: *We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one; for although there are those called gods, whether in heaven or on earth* (1 Cor. 8:4). By whom are they so called? Learn from what follows: *For all the gods of the nations are demons.* It is the custom of divine Scripture to call evil spirits "demons"; the Gospels use this word frequently. And though the children of the Greeks boast of the name, calling them "demons"—as if they were *daēmones* (those who know), that is, as if they were fiery and knowledgeable—in these things by which they praise them, they unknowingly reproach them. For just as if they were knowledgeable in evil, they possess this disgraceful title. But Symmachus, in place of "demons," rendered "non-existent," because they strive for a non-subsistent evil; Aquila rendered it "artificial," for they have obtained a false and fictitious name of gods.
2. *For all the gods of the nations are demons.* For even if they think some are minor and others greater, all are nevertheless of the opposing and evil power. How is this clear? *And the Lord made the heavens.* That is, the demons would never have been cast down from the heavens, had they not apostatized due to the wickedness of Him who made the heavens. But instead of these, see whom and for what the heaven received. *Confession and beauty are before Him: holiness and magnificence in His sanctuary.* Through confession He indicated those who confess, and through holiness, the saints. For God received these into the heavens in place of the demons who had been cast down. And He joined beauty to confession, because he who confesses his own sin before God is found beautiful from being unseemly, and becomes before Him what he was not before. For from sinners, until they confess with repentance, He turns away His face, so that this psalmist says to Him: *Turn not Thy face from me*, when he came to the realization of his sin. And to holiness He joined magnificence. For nothing is more magnificent than the holy, neither prophet, nor priest, nor king, since God, being holy, rests in the holy. Wherefore He does not keep them before Him as He does those who confess, but He has taken them into His own sanctuary, and has made them fellow-dwellers and partakers of His own glory and kingdom. Understand that the following things are spoken to them: *Bring to the Lord the families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honor, bring to the Lord glory to His name.* Not in vain did He command to sing a new song in the preludes of the psalm; but because the calling of the present psalm is new, the proclamation upon it is also new. For we do not demand of the nations, as you see them called, a rational offering—not calves, or rams, or any other such sacrifices—but glory and honor: glory as to God. For it is His own property to be glorified. Whence also the Cherubim offer Him such a hymn: *Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place.* Honor as to the Father. *Honor thy father and thy mother*, it is prescribed by the Law. But the nations have obtained the Father, God, through the instruction of the Spirit. Whence also we have been taught by the Savior to say to Him, *Our Father, who art in the heavens*. And since, having said "glory and honor," He again made mention of another glory—for He says, *Bring to the Lord glory to His name*—He therefore hints at the cross through this second glory, which He wishes to be offered in Christ, as belonging to His glory. Wherefore the rest of the translators have rendered it "glory of His name." How do we offer the cross to Him? If we crucify ourselves to the life. For He says: *He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.* And you, observe how He wishes God to be glorified in the Trinity. For this reason, He commands to bring the offering to Him three times, and three times He names the Lord Himself. *Take up sacrifices, and go into His courts.* Which courts? It is clear: the Churches throughout all the world, which—lest we think they are divided from one another because of their multitude—He called the many "one." For what did He also add? *Worship the Lord in His holy court.* Therefore, they are many because of the number, and one because of the power, which is also called "holy," as the body of the Holy One who rests in the holy. For He commands that sacrifices be offered not in blood, but in doxology; and He clearly showed this by saying, *Worship the Lord.* *Let all the earth be moved from before His face.* For what reason? So that it might change its ancient station, and become more firmly established, having been founded and supported by Christ.
3. The earth was therefore persuaded at the time of the cross and the resurrection; each of which is the person of the Only-Begotten. For in the cross and the resurrection, even now, we behold the power of Him as one person. *Say among the nations that the Lord hath reigned.* Among the nations, why? Because the children of the Jews do not endure the hearing. Wherefore Paul and Barnabas said to them: *It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; but since you reject it and judge yourselves not worthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations.* And what is the sign of the Lord’s reign? *For He established the world, which shall not be moved.* Therefore, He calls our subjection the kingdom of God; for through this He established the world, having subjected the disobedient and insubordinate man to the knowledge of God. And why will it not be moved any more, other than because He made those who move it—that is, the demons—vanish from the footsteps of His presence? *He shall judge the peoples in uprightness*, that is, in justice. For we cannot plead ignorance, nor can we blame the judgment of God as if we were ignorant of His law, because the Gospel of Christ has reached everywhere on the earth. However, this fits much more strongly regarding the people of the Jews; for He shall judge them in uprightness, because *He came unto His own, and His own did not receive Him*, as John says. *Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth exult.* And what is the subject of the rejoicing? The arrival of the Savior, as the following things will teach more clearly. The mystery upon it has therefore become a common one for heaven and earth. For He who bowed the heavens and descended, is Himself also said to rise again from the earth because of the flesh. *Let the sea be moved, and the fullness thereof*; not with a tumultuous agitation, but with one in joy and leaping. And you shall call its "fullness," the rivers, the lakes. Because all gatherings of waters have been called by the name of "sea" by God who created them; for it says: *God called the collections of the waters seas (Gen. 1:10).* And what do the waters contribute to the mystery of the Only-Begotten? Entirely that it is baptism. *The fields shall rejoice, and all that is in them.* Since He mentioned the sea, He also made mention of its fullness, and necessarily now led on the fields, such as the lands, and what is with them, wishing through these to show the fullness of the earth. And for what reason did He command them to rejoice? *Then all the trees of the wood shall exult.* When, and for what reason? *From the face of the Lord, because He cometh.* The prophet proclaimed exceptional joy to the trees at the presence of Christ because of the cross; and not to simple trees, but to those of the "wood," that is, the fruitless ones. For it is clear that He did not cut down a fruit-bearing plant, but a fruitless one for the construction of the cross.