781 SPURIA. and possess the sanctification of Christ. *And the king’s honor loveth judgment* (Ps. 98:4). For what is the work of judgment? To release the innocent and to manifest the guilty. Therefore the king’s honor—that is, his dominion and authority—loveth judgment. Whence the rest of the translators, instead of “honor,” have rendered it, some “strength,” others “power.” *Thou hast prepared uprightnesses* (Ps. 98:4). How did he prepare them? By sending forth the Law, in which he set up the commandments as uprightnesses. For it is possible to direct one’s course of life straight if one walks according to these. *Judgment and righteousness in Jacob thou hast performed* (Ps. 98:4). In what way? By the method already mentioned. For the Law that was given in Jacob (meaning the race of Israel) A brought judgment—that is, condemnation—upon those who sin, and showed righteousness to those who live virtuously, according to which one ought to conduct one’s life. Why, then, did he set this forth now? He wishes to secure our hearing and to testify clearly that he who accomplished these things is the same who endured the cross for us. And the following words make this clear: *Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool, for He is holy* (Ps. 98:5). And why is it commanded not to worship at the throne of God, but at the footstool? And what, indeed, is the footstool? Surely the earth. *For heaven*, He says, *is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet* (Is. 66:1). B 2. And yet it is not permitted for us to worship the elements. But he refers to that place which he set forth even more clearly through another Psalm, saying, *Let us worship at the place where His feet stood* (Ps. 131:7); he speaks of Golgotha. For that place truly came to be under the feet of His flesh at the time of the cross. Whence, having said “footstool,” he was not content, but says, *at the footstool of His feet*. And yet it is clear to everyone that the footstool of the feet is a footstool. But here by the feet of Christ he refers to the humanity, since he calls the divinity the head. Golgotha, therefore, came to be under the feet of the humanity, where he who worships exalts Christ. For he considers his sufferings as his own height, because through them he accomplished our salvation. Wherefore he was saying to Nicodemus: *As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up* (John 3:14). This one is rightly called holy, having such a presence of holiness that he makes even sinners holy through participation in him. *Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those who call upon His name. They called upon the Lord, and He heard them* (Ps. 98:6). Since they were called holy, and priests, and prophets, but it was not enjoined that we worship at the footstool of these holy ones, he wishes to show how great was the difference between him and the rest of the saints. For he himself was the Holy of Holies. C For this reason he mentioned Moses as lawgiver, Aaron as high priest, and Samuel as the leader of the prophets, who were indeed holy. But nevertheless, they called upon the name of God, and they did not perform what they did by their own power, but by that of the one who was called upon, as he shows more clearly in what follows. *He spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud, because they kept His testimonies and His commandments which He gave them* (Ps. 98:7). These, he says, progressed through virtue, through keeping God’s law and accomplishing the commandments given by Him. And when they were deemed worthy of the vision of God, they saw God in the pillar, not being able to behold His essence. But Christ is not so; rather, he has the Father in himself, and he himself is in the Father, nor did he advance to this dignity through progress. D For see, when Pilate asked, *Art thou the king?* (John 18:37), he led him away from that kind of inquiry: *Thou sayest that I am a king; for this I have been born*—that is, I possess the kingship timelessly, just as I possess my birth. To this one the Psalmist added the following without any ambiguity: *O Lord our God, Thou didst hear them* (Ps. 98:8). *Our God*—of whom? Of those who fought for him through faith and acquired the God over all as their own through the adoption of baptism. For that he is called God in an exceptional sense of those who have believed in him, Thomas teaches: *My Lord and my God* (John 20:28), he cried out, calling the God over all his own Lord and God. This one, therefore, in whom we have believed, was not unknown to the righteous ones of before; wherefore, when they prayed, he heard them, and the following things testify to it: *O God, Thou wast propitious to them, and taking vengeance upon all their pursuits* (Ps. 98:8). Do you see that he is speaking of Christ? For it is his own prerogative to be propitious to our sins, not now only, but also of old; of whom also Paul says: *Whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, for the manifestation of His righteousness* (Rom. 3:25). He himself takes vengeance upon all the pursuits of the righteous. For since they applied themselves to many things to save the race of men, but the intellectual enemy was opposed to these, the cross took vengeance: having at once established the pursuits of the righteous and at once overthrown the one who was demonstrating their labors to be useless. 782 Concerning whom Jeremiah cried out: *Woe is me, mother! for what didst thou bear me, a man of judgment and a man of disputation in all the earth? I have not benefited, nor has anyone benefited me; my strength has failed among those who curse me* (Jer. 15:10). *Exalt ye the Lord our God* (Ps. 98:9). And what need has that which is high to be exalted? And how shall he who is in the heavens be exalted by men? But he says, “Think high thoughts concerning him.” In what way? *And worship at His holy mountain* (Ps. 98:9). The height, therefore, of the Word of God is the worship in the holy place. For as the trophies in war are a glory to a king, so also is the accomplishment through the sufferings to Christ, which took place on the holy mountain that received the cross. He does not call the mountain holy of itself, but because of the visitation of the one who was crucified there. For this reason he added, *For the Lord our God is holy*. And if he is holy, whatever may happen to be the object of his visitation is made holy.
To David, for confession. Psalm 100.
Anonymous is this Psalm, not, however, for this reason an alien to the prophecy of David; but perhaps he did not have time to set it to his lyre in the temple, nor did he hand it down to other psalm-singers. On that account the prophecy set it forth without a name. Nevertheless, we shall necessarily understand “confession” here as thanksgiving. For this is what the purpose of the following prophecy also intends. Wherefore Aquila says, *For thanksgiving*, and Symmachus, *A psalm of praise*. For the fifth edition has handed it down as *For praise*. *Shout unto the Lord, all the earth, serve the Lord in gladness* (Ps. 100:1-2). Great is the order of the prophecy even now found by those who examine it accurately. For he wishes all the earth to shout as having conquered our common enemy; and knowing God to be the cause of the victory, to serve him in gladness, exactly as Paul was saying: *That we may all rejoice, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks* (1 Thess. 5:16), knowing to whom and on what condition we serve, from what servitude we were released, and to what we were called, such as, in place of the yoke of the enemy, and in place of the heaviest one, we have exchanged for the one that is exceedingly light. *Enter into His presence in exultation* (Ps. 100:2); that is, in joy. And he does not intend this temporary joy. For just as the joy of children is ridiculous to men, because they rejoice and boast in things of no value; so the joy of sinners is reproachful to the righteous; for they rejoice in blindness and in wealth from plunder, and other such things in which it is not possible to rejoice when we are about to stand before the terrible Judge; but in the opposite things—when we are plundered, when we are slandered—in these we shall be able to enter into the presence of God in exultation; the words of the Lord signify this: *Blessed are ye when they shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil word against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for your reward is great in the heavens* (Matt. 5:11-12). *Know that the Lord He is our God; He made us, and not we* (Ps. 100:3). Do you see that the Spirit wars against every heretical tongue? For since some, wishing to divide the Trinity and to cheapen the dignity of the Only-begotten, say that he alone is named Lord in the God-inspired Scripture, but the Father is God, and they introduce a difference between Lord and God that does not exist, and they drag the apostolic voice to their own harm into blasphemy: *One God the Father, from whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things* (1 Cor. 8:6); and they say the Son is inferior to the Father as Lord; for they do not say he is named God; so that it is fitting also concerning him, following the apostolic words—A even if the prophet, desiring to dispel the chatter of such men, says: Know that the Lord himself is our God; so that we might no longer dare to separate the Lord from God, nor the Son from the Father. He made us, and not we ourselves. For we do not subsist by our own selves, as some suppose; but we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus unto good works (Eph. 2:10), just as Paul wrote: but it is right to ascribe to us a creator. We, however, are his people and the sheep of his pasture. B 4. Enter his gates with confession, and his courts with hymns. From whom, then, are we sheep? Learn from the Only-begotten saying: My sheep hear my voice (John 10:27). We are also his people, who said to us through the prophetic tongue: And you shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God (Ezek. 36:28). Therefore, the same is both God and Lord; for the Son is both, just as the Father is called such. He commands us to enter the gates of the latter with confession, and the courts with hymns. It is necessary, therefore, first to confess, and after that to celebrate with hymns. For just as gates are set before the courts, and no one can be inside the court unless he has entered through the gate: so too, before we confess, we will not be able to celebrate with hymns; since there is need of C a pure heart, and a tongue that has put away the filth of sins, so that the sacrifice of our hymns may be pleasing to God. Confess to him, praise his name. Here again he placed confession before praise, so as to explain to us more clearly the things that were spoken in the previous verses. But he commands us to confess to him as God, and to praise his name, which is Savior. For this has been the occasion of our salvation. Peter, preaching to the Jews together with John, will testify to this: For there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12); so that the Psalmist quite consistently subjoins: And his truth unto generation and generation (that is, in these words): 5. For Christ is Lord; his mercy is unto the ages. For starting from the present generation, his truth will be manifested into the future generation, when he shall reward everyone according to his works (Ps. 61:12). For this is the unassailable and guileless truth, that Christ is Lord, his mercy is unto the ages. D For as Christ, namely as compassionate, as he who loves mankind, he gave mercy in the present age, so that even if we wander through sloth, we may, through his philanthropy, turn back to him.