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is there another God than our Lord alone, nor is there another mighty one than our God; and for this reason he is rightly the defender of all who hope in him, since no other is found who is able to stand against one so great and of such a kind. The God who girds me with strength, and has made my way blameless; making my feet like harts', and setting me upon my high places. He does not preside over and defend, he says, the inactive and idle; but those who also contribute to their own salvation by striving and fighting against their enemies. Thus, indeed, arming me also with his own powers, he strengthens my mortal and human might with his own grace; so that, like a man with his loins girded, I might stand with the power supplied to me from him against the enemies. But also just as it is said: God, his way is blameless; so wishing me also to be in his image and likeness, he has also made my way blameless, preparing my way, that is, my life and existence, to be blameless with teachings and exhortations and all kinds of lessons. But instead of 'blameless,' Aquila has rendered it 'perfect'. And in addition 23.181 to these things, he also prepared my feet like harts'; concerning which harts much is said in the sacred writings. And at leisure, if someone were to examine what has been set forth, he would find their meaning referring to the holy men of God, who are destructive of every creeping and venomous animal. Since the nature of the hart is also such, being a snake-killer and destructive of every serpent. And the animal is a mountain-walker and swift, just as the saints of God also look to things above, and not things on the earth, and pursue high things, with a longing for the kingdom of the heavens. David therefore attributes his own likeness to the saints to the grace of God, saying next: And setting me upon my high places. For even if others especially try to drag us down and bring us down to the depths and valleys of evil; yet our God, like a contest judge teaching us to be good runners, urges us on to the heights appropriate for us; and his is the grace. For it is not our power that establishes us in our heights; for by nature, the heavenly dwelling belongs to the human soul; and the heights there are not foreign, but our own; wherefore he says, Setting me upon my high places. Teaching my hands for war, and you have made my arms a bronze bow. And you have given me the shield of salvation, and your right hand has upheld me. In addition to all these things, you have given me the shield of salvation, having sent down your Son to fight for me with his own shield. For you will know precisely what God's salvation, prophesied through all of Scripture, is, concerning which Symeon also said in the Gospel: Now you dismiss your servant, Master, according to your word in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation. -And your right hand has upheld me. Perhaps the right hand of God can be that by which he established the heaven, the only-begotten Word. And your instruction has set me aright to the end, and your instruction itself will teach me. But Symmachus has rendered it: And my obedience will increase me. And Aquila: And your gentleness has multiplied me. You have widened my steps under me. The steps, by which I pass from evil to virtue, and from things of sense to things of the mind, and from the present age to the age to come, you have widened under me; for at first they seem narrow and toilsome to one traveling the afflicted way; having come to be above them by progress, I beheld them widened. For he who has advanced further in progress, by having reached the end, no longer feels the narrowness, the toils and sweats of the stages of progress, having come into a wide space. And my footsteps did not weaken. If I had continually ended in toil, my footsteps would have weakened, that is, the legs of the inner man; since after the over

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ἔστιν ἄλλος Θεὸς ἢ μόνος ὁ ἡμέτερος Κύριος, οὐδ' ἔστιν κραταιὸς ἄλλος ἢ ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εἰκότως ὑπερασπιστής ἐστι πάντων τῶν ἐλπιζόντων ἐπ' αὐτὸν, μηδενὸς ἑτέρου εὑρισκομένου τοῦ δυναμένου στῆναι πρὸς τοσοῦτον καὶ τοιοῦτον. Ὁ Θεὸς ὁ περιζωννύων με δύναμιν, καὶ ἔθετο ἄμωμον τὴν ὁδόν μου· καταρτιζόμενος τοὺς πόδας μου ὡσεὶ ἐλάφων, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ὕψη μου ἱστῶν με. Οὐκ ἀπρακτῶν, φησὶ, καὶ ἀργῶν προΐσταται καὶ ὑπερασπίζει· ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῶν συμβαλλομένων τῇ αὑτῶν σωτηρίᾳ διὰ τοῦ ἀγωνίζεσθαι καὶ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς καταπολεμεῖν. Οὕτω γοῦν καὶ ἐμὲ ὁπλίζων ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμεσι, τὴν θνητὴν καὶ ἀνθρωπίνην μου ἰσχὺν τῇ αὑτοῦ χάριτι δυναμοῖ· ἵν' ὥσπερ ἀνὴρ τὴν ὀσφὺν περιεζωσμένος τὴν ἐξ αὐτοῦ χορηγουμένην μοι δύναμιν στῶ πρὸς τοὺς πολεμίους. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ὥσπερ εἴρηται· Ὁ Θεὸς, ἄμωμος ἡ ὁδὸς αὐτοῦ· οὕτως κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐμὲ βουλόμενος εἶναι, καὶ τὴν ἐμὴν ὁδὸν ἔθετο ἄμωμον, διδασκαλίαις καὶ παραινέσεσιν καὶ παντοίοις μαθήμασι τὴν ὁδόν μου, τουτέστι τὴν ζωὴν καὶ τὸν βίον ἄμωμον καταρτιζόμενος. Ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ, ἄμωμον, Ἀκύλας, τέλειον, ἐκδέδωκεν. Ἔτι δὲ 23.181 πρὸς τούτοις, καὶ τοὺς πόδας μου ὡσεὶ ἐλάφων κατηρτίσατο· περὶ ὧν ἐλάφων πολὺς ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς πράγμασι γράμμασι φέρεται λόγος. Ἐπὶ σχολῆς δ' ἄν τις τῶν προτεθέντων ἐξετάσας, εὕροι ἂν αὐτῶν τὸν νοῦν ἀναφερόμενον ἐπὶ τοὺς ἁγίους τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄνδρας, τοὺς ἀναιρετικοὺς παντὸς ἑρπυστικοῦ καὶ ἰοβόλου ζώου. Ἐπεὶ καὶ τῆς ἐλάφου τοιαύτη πέφυκεν ἡ φύσις, ὀφιοκτόνος οὖσα καὶ ἀναιρετικὴ παντὸς ἑρπετοῦ. Ὀρεινοβατὲς δὲ τὸ ζῶον καὶ δρομικὸν, ὡς καὶ οἱ ἅγιοι τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰ ἄνω σκοποῦντες, καὶ μὴ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ τὰ ὑψηλὰ διώκοντες, πόθῳ τῆς τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείας. Τὴν πρὸς τοὺς ἁγίους τοίνυν ὁμοιότητα ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ὁ ∆αυῒδ τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ χάριτι ἀνατίθησι, λέγων ἑξῆς· Καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ὕψη μου ἱστῶν με. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ τὰ μάλιστα ἕτεροι καθέλκειν ἡμᾶς καὶ καταβιβάζειν ἐπὶ τὰ βάθη καὶ τὰς κοιλάδας τῆς κακίας πειρῶνται· ἀλλ' ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, οἷά τις ἀγωνοθέτης διδάσκων ἡμᾶς ἀγαθοὺς εἶναι δρομεῖς, ἐπὶ τὰ κατάλληλα ἡμῖν ὕψη παρορμᾷ· αὐτοῦ τε ἡ χάρις. Οὐ γὰρ ἡμετέρα δύναμις ἵστησιν ἐν τοῖς ἡμετέροις ὕψεσι· φύσει γὰρ ἀνθρώπου ψυχῇ τὸ οὐράνιόν ἐστιν οἰκητήριον· καὶ τὰ ἐκεῖ ὕψη οὐκ ἀλλότρια, ἀλλ' οἰκεῖα· διὸ, Ἐπὶ τὰ ὕψη μου, φησὶν, ἱστῶν με. ∆ιδάσκων χεῖράς μου εἰς πόλεμον, καὶ ἔθου τόξον χαλκοῦν τοὺς βραχίονας μου. Καὶ ἔδωκάς μοι ὑπερασπισμὸν σωτηρίας, καὶ ἡ δεξιά σου ἀντελάβετό μου. Πρὸς τούτοις ἅπασιν ὑπερασπισμὸν σωτηρίας μοι δέδωκας, τὸν σὸν Υἱὸν καταπέμψας τῇ ἰδίᾳ ἀσπίδι ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ μαχησόμενον. Ἀκριβῶς γὰρ ἐπιστήσεις τί ποτέ ἐστι τὸ διὰ πάσης Γραφῆς προφητευόμενον σωτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ περὶ οὗ καὶ Συμεὼν ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ ἔλεγεν· Νῦν ἀπολύεις τὸν δοῦλόν σου, ∆έσποτα, κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου ἐν εἰρήνῃ· ὅτι εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου τὸ σωτήριόν σου. -Καὶ ἡ δεξιά σου ἀντελάβετό μου. Τάχα δεξιὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἶναι δύναται ἐν ᾗ ἐστερέωσε τὸν οὐρανὸν, μονογενὴς Λόγος. Καὶ ἡ παιδεία σου ἀνώρθωσέ με εἰς τέλος, καὶ ἡ παιδεία σου αὐτή με διδάξει. Σύμμαχος δὲ ἐξέδωκε· Καὶ τὸ ὑπακούειν με αὐξήσει με. Ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας· Καὶ πραότητός σου ἐπλήθυνέ με. Ἐπλάτυνας τὰ διαβήματά μου ὑποκάτω μου. Τὰ διαβήματα, καθ' ἃ ἐκ κακίας εἰς ἀρετὴν, καὶ ἐξ αἰσθητῶν ἐπὶ νοητὰ, καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ παρόντος εἰς τὸν μέλλοντα αἰῶνα διαβαίνω, ἐπλάτυνας ὑποκάτω μου· κατ' ἀρχὰς γὰρ στενὰ καὶ ἐπίπονα φαινόμενα τῷ τὴν τεθλιμμένην ὁδεύειν ὁδόν· ὑπεράνω αὐτῶν τῇ προκοπῇ γεγενημένος, πλατυνθέντα αὐτὰ ἐθεασάμην. Ὁ γὰρ ἀνωτέρω τῶν προκοπῶν γεγενημένος, τῷ ἐπὶ τέλος ἐφθακέναι, οὐκέτι αἴσθεται τῆς στενότητος, τῶν πόνων καὶ ἱδρώτων τῶν ἐπὶ ταῖς προκοπαῖς, ἐν εὐρυχωρίᾳ γεγενημένος. Καὶ οὐκ ἠσθένησε τὰ ἴχνη μου. Εἰ διηνεκῶς ἐν τῷ πονεῖν ἐτέλουν, κἂν ἠσθένησε τὰ ἴχνη μου, τουτέστι τοῦ ἔσω ἀνθρώπου τὰ σκέλη· ἐπειδὴ μετὰ τοὺς ὑπὲρ