277
For you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, was said to the apostles by the Savior, and You, however, are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. When therefore someone certainly guards this power given to him, attending to it with care, being in its firmament he praises God, from whom he has this divine power, and will say I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Then since they are ruled by the Savior of the power which they praise in the firmament, understanding the almighty dominions according to which He royally creates, provides, benefits, punishes, they praise him for His mighty acts. 1288 Ps 150,2b As it is, the wise one who knows that the judgments of God are unsearchable and His ways inscrutable according to the multitude of His inscrutable judgments will praise Him whose judgments and ways are incomprehensible, as it says O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, and Your knowledge has been made wonderful to me; it is mighty, and I cannot attain to it. For however great a multitude of it I may consider, it becomes mightier than I, so that I am no longer able to keep up with it, being infinite and incomprehensible. 1289 Ps 150,3 He who is not ashamed of Jesus and His words, proclaiming the things of theology with boldness, clearly and with a loud voice, praises Him and His Father with the sound of a trumpet; whence also the heralds of truth, in order to proclaim the teaching more boldly and clearly, have a command to lift up their voice as with a trumpet. For it was said to them, Blow the trumpet, proclaim in Zion on my holy mountain. But also the resurrection of the dead, so that it might be fearsome to all who rise, is signified by a trumpet, by which he says For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and in another epistle With the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God He will descend from heaven, so that those who have fallen asleep in Christ may rise. As therefore the command of the resurrection, being revealed to all so that the just and the unjust may rise, is made known by the loud sound of instruments, it follows that the praises of God are also proclaimed with the same instrument. Praise him with the psaltery and the harp. What the psaltery and the harp are and what difference they have from each other has been said in the preceding parts. Therefore God must be praised, singing with spirit and mind; for this is the psaltery; for the spirit and the mind resound from above, from God, through the loftiness of dogmas. And He must be praised with a harp; through every power of the soul and sense they are struck like stretched strings. For the soul was represented as a harp in what was read before. And if * through every activity of each member straining * is struck in a different manner of a harp, one would not be mistaken * that through every action of the body God is praised. 1290 Ps 150,4 Those who carry about in the body the dying of Jesus, through having mortified their own flesh, praise him on the timbrel. It has also been interpreted before that this is the timbrel, when In the midst of the damsels playing on timbrels was under consideration. For this body, when the soul takes it up again from the resurrection, is a damsel playing on a timbrel in proclaiming the praises of God in the station of the heavenly beings with the myriads of festive angels, so that this is shown through the following word which has Praise as on a timbrel, so also in a chorus; for the soul dances with the powers and all the higher creation after the resurrection, having received the body as incorruptible, powerful, glorious, spiritual instead of corruptible, weak, dishonorable, and soulish. And to praise with strings and an instrument can be the same as to praise with the psaltery and the harp; for perhaps he called the harp "strings" and the psaltery "an instrument." 1291 Ps 150,5 I think it is shown through praising him on well-sounding cymbals that it is necessary also with the uttered voice to hymn the Lord through theology. and it occurs to me
277
Λήψεσθε γὰρ δύναμιν τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐπελθόντος ἐφ' ὑμᾶς, τοῖς ἀποστόλοις ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος ειρηται, καὶ τὸ ̔Υμεῖς δὲ καθήσεσθε ἐν τῇ πόλει, εως ου ἐνδύσησθε δύναμιν ἐξ υψους. οταν τοίνυν βεβαίως τις ταύτην τὴν δοθεῖσαν αὐτῷ δύναμιν φυλάξῃ ἐν προσοχῇ περιέπων αὐτήν, ἐν στερεώματι αὐτῆς γινόμενος αἰνεῖ τὸν θεόν, ἀφ' ου τὴν θείαν ταύτην εσχε δύναμιν, καὶ ἐρεῖ Πάντα ἰσχύσω ἐν τῷ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με Χριστῷ. Ειτ' ἐπεὶ βασιλεύονται ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος τῆς δυνάμεως ης ἐν τῷ στερεώματι αἰνοῦσιν αὐτόν, νοοῦντες τὰς παντοκρατορικὰς δυναστείας καθ' ας βασιλικῶς δημιουργεῖ προνοεῖται εὐεργετεῖ κολάζει, αἰνοῦσιν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ ταῖς δυναστείαις αὐτοῦ. 1288 Ps 150,2b Οιόν ἐστι τὸ ἀνεξερεύνητα τὰ κρίματα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἀνεξιχνιάστους τὰς ὁδοὺς αὐτοῦ ὁ σοφὸς ἐπιστάμενος κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἀνεξιχνιάστων κριμάτων αἰνέσει τὸν ου ἡ ἀκαταληψία τῶν κριμάτων καὶ τῶν ὁδῶν, ὡς λέγει Ω βάθος πλούτου καὶ σοφίας καὶ γνώσεως θεοῦ, καὶ τὸ ̓Εθαυμαστώθη ἡ γνῶσίς σου ἐξ ἐμοῦ· ἐκραταιώθη, οὐ μὴ δύνωμαι πρὸς αὐτήν. οσον γὰρ αν αὐτῆς περινοήσω πλῆθος, κραταιουμένη ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ γίνεται, ὡς μὴ δυνηθῆναι ετι συνδραμεῖν αὐτῇ ἀπείρῳ ουσῃ καὶ ἀκαταλήπτῳ. 1289 Ps 150,3 ̔Ο μὴ ἐπαισχυνόμενος ̓Ιησοῦν καὶ τοὺς λόγους αὐτοῦ μετὰ παρρησίας σαφῶς καὶ μεγαλοφώνως τὰ τῆς θεολογίας προφέρων αἰνεῖ αὐτὸν καὶ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ ἐν ηχῳ σάλπιγγος· οθεν καὶ οἱ τῆς ἀληθείας κήρυκες ἐπὶ τῷ παρρησιέστερον καὶ σαφῶς ἀπαγγέλλειν τὴν διδασκαλίαν ἐντολὴν εχουσιν ὡς σάλπιγγι ἑαυτῶν ὑψοῦν τὴν φωνήν. ειρηται γοῦν πρὸς αὐτοὺς Σαλπίσατε ἐν σάλπιγγι, ἐν Σιὼν κηρύξατε ἐν ορει ἁγίῳ μου. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ τῶν νεκρῶν ἀνάστασις, οπως πᾶσι τοῖς ἀνισταμένοις φοβερὰ καταστῇ, διὰ σάλπιγγος σημαίνεται, ῃ φησι Σαλπίσει γάρ, καὶ οἱ νεκροὶ ἐγερθήσονται αφθαρτοι, καὶ ἐν ἑτέρᾳ ἐπιστολῇ ̓Εν φωνῇ ἀρχαγγέλου καὶ ἐν σάλπιγγι θεοῦ καταβήσεται ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ, ἐπὶ τῷ τοὺς κεκοιμημένους ἐν Χριστῷ ἀναστῆναι. ὡς ουν τὸ πρόσταγμα τῆς ἀναστάσεως φανερούμενον πᾶσιν ἐπὶ τῷ δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους ἀναστῆναι τῷ μεγαλοφώνῳ τῶν ὀργάνων γνωρίζεται, ἀκόλουθον καὶ τοὺς θεοῦ αινους ταὐτῷ τῷ ὀργάνῳ προφέρεσθαι. Αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἐν ψαλτηρίῳ καὶ κιθάρᾳ. τί τὸ ψαλτήριον καὶ ἡ κιθάρα καὶ ποίαν εχουσι πρὸς αλληλα διαφορὰν ἐν τοῖς προάγουσιν ειρηται. αἰνετέον ουν θεόν, ψάλλοντες ἐν πνεύματι καὶ νῷ· τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ ψαλτήριον· τὸ γὰρ πνεῦμα καὶ ὁ νοῦς ανωθεν ἐκ θεοῦ δι' ὑψηλότητα δογμάτων συνηχεῖ. αἰνετέον δὲ καὶ κιθάρᾳ· διὰ πάσης δυνάμεως τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ αἰσθήσεως χορδῶν τεταμένων δίκην κρούονται. κιθάρα γὰρ ἡ ψυχὴ ἐν τοῖς προαναγνωσθεῖσιν ἀπεδόθη. εἰ δὲ * διὰ πάσης ἐνεργείας ἑκάστου μέλους συντείνουσ * ἀλλοτρόπῳ κιθάρας κρούεται, οὐκ αν σφαλείη τις * διὰ πάσης πράξεως τῆς διὰ σώματος αἰνεῖσθαι θεόν. 1290 Ps 150,4 Οἱ τὴν νέκρωσιν ̓Ιησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιφέροντες δι' αὐτοῦ τοῦ νενεκρωκέναι τὴν σάρκα τὴν σφῶν αἰνοῦσιν ἐν τυμπάνῳ. ἡρμήνευται καὶ πρότερον τοῦτο ειναι τὸ τύμπανον, οτε προέκειτο τὸ ̓Εν μέσῳ νεανίδων τυμπανιστριῶν. τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ σῶμα, οταν ἐξ ἀναστάσεως ἀναλάβῃ ἡ ψυχή, νεᾶνίς ἐστι τυμπανίζουσα ἐν τῷ ἀπαγγέλλειν τοὺς θεοῦ αινους ἐν τῇ στάσει τῶν ἐπουρανίων σὺν ταῖς μυριάσι τῶν πανηγυριζόντων ἀγγέλων, ὡς ειναι δηλούμενον τοῦτο διὰ τῆς ἐπιφερομένης λέξεως ἐχούσης Αἰνεῖτε ωσπερ ἐν τυμπάνῳ, ουτως καὶ ἐν χορῷ· χορεύει γὰρ σὺν ταῖς δυνάμεσι καὶ πάσῃ τῇ ὑπερτέρῳ κτίσει ἡ ψυχὴ μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἀντὶ φθαρτοῦ καὶ ἀσθενοῦς καὶ ἀτίμου καὶ ψυχικοῦ σώματος αφθαρτον δυνατὸν ενδοξον πνευματικὸν ἀναλαβοῦσα τὸ σῶμα. Τὸ δὲ ἐν χορδαῖς καὶ ὀργάνῳ αἰνεῖν ταὐτὸν δύναται τῷ αἰνεῖν ἐν ψαλτηρίῳ καὶ κιθάρᾳ· τάχα γὰρ τὴν κιθάραν χορδάς, τὸ δὲ ψαλτήριον οργανον ειπεν. 1291 Ps 150,5 ∆ηλοῦσθαι νομίζω διὰ τοῦ αἰνεῖσθαι αὐτὸν ἐν κυμβάλοις εὐήχοις τὸ δεῖν καὶ φωνῇ τῇ κατὰ προφορὰν ἀνυμνεῖν διὰ θεολογίας τὸν κύριον. παρίσταται δέ μοι