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Homilia in Psalmum XXXVII

ON PSALM 37. A teaching of confession. A Psalm of David for a remembrance.

The words of the divinely inspired Scripture will stand at the judgment seat of Christ.

For I will reprove you, He says, and set your sins before your face. So let us soberly attend to the things said according to the Scripture, and let us hasten to diligently put into practice the 30.84 commandments of the Lord, because we do not know what hour or day our Lord is coming. O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. With these words and syllables the sixth psalm also begins in a very similar way, and the rest of the sixth psalm happens to be akin to the things borne in the present one; for he said in the sixth that his bones were humbled and his soul had grown weary in his groaning, and he added, saying: Every night I will wash my bed, I will drench my couch with my tears, and the things connected to these. And very similar to those would be the things in the present psalm, through which it is said: There is no healing in my flesh, and there is no peace in my bones because of my sins; for my iniquities have gone over my head, and the things brought in after these throughout the whole psalm, in which he bemoans his own misery. For he himself also uses this word, saying: I was miserable and was completely bowed down to the end; all the day I went about with a sad countenance. But in the sixth the inscription was: For the end, in hymns, for the eighth, a psalm of David; but in the present one, none of these, but only: The psalm of David for a remembrance is said. Indeed, the addition, for a remembrance, seems to send us back to the inscription in the sixth, so that the present things are: For the end, and in hymns, for the eighth. For "For a remembrance" would be representative of all these things. But since, in going through the things that fall under the sixth, we have spoken on the inscription, let us also for the present proceed to the remembrance of those things.

And it seems to me that David, having confessed in various and many ways about the sin he committed, has specifically set apart the present psalm for remembrance, so as to always and continually bear it on his lips; and to use it as a charm, for the healing of his own soul. At any rate, he sends up a supplication to God, through which he turns away the wrath that hangs over all who sin, and he propitiates the good Lord with voices of exceeding confession. And in saying, O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, he is not declining the rebuke, but the one with anger; and the phrase, Nor discipline me in your wrath, he does not flee from being disciplined, but asks to receive the discipline without 30.85 wrath; as if someone might say to a physician, who offers remedies through cautery and steel and bitter antidotes for the healing of an underlying ailment: Do not heal me through fire, nor through steel and cuttings, but through gentle and milder medicines; for such a person does not refuse the therapy, but the painfulness of the remedies. And it has often been said that the wrath and anger of God, when spoken of in the divinely inspired Scriptures, do not signify passions; for the divine is alien to every passion; but the word of Scripture is accustomed to name such things metaphorically, as also the eyes of God, and ears, and hands, and fingers, and feet, and the other members; which things are usefully arranged as if with respect to humans, condescending to the quality of the hearers. So therefore also the punishments brought upon sinners by God

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Homilia in Psalmum XXXVII

ΕΙΣ ΛΖʹ ΨΑΛΜΟΝ. ∆ιδασκαλία ἐξομολογήσεως. Ψαλμὸς τῷ ∆αβὶδ εἰς ἀνάμνησιν.

Οἱ τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς λόγοι στήσονται ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

Ἐλέγξω γὰρ, φησὶ, καὶ παραστήσω κατὰ πρόσωπόν σου τὰς ἁμαρτίας σου. Οὕτω καὶ πρόσχωμεν νηφόντως τοῖς λεγομέ νοις κατὰ τὴν Γραφὴν, καὶ εἰς ἔργον προάγειν τὰς ἐν 30.84 τολὰς τοῦ Κυρίου σπουδάσαι ἐπειχθῶμεν, ὅτι οὐκ οἴδα μεν, ποίᾳ ὥρᾳ ἢ ἡμέρᾳ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν ἔρχεται. Κύριε, μὴ τῷ θυμῷ σου ἐλέγξῃς με, μηδὲ τῇ ὀργῇ σου παιδεύσῃς με. Τούτοις τοῖς ῥήμασι καὶ ταῖς συλλαβαῖς καὶ ὁ ἕκτος ψαλμὸς τούτῳ παραπλησίως ἄρχεται, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ δὲ τοῦ ἕκτου τοῖς ἐν τῷ προ κειμένῳ φερομένοις συγγενῆ τυγχάνει· τεταπεινῶσθαι γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὰ ὀστᾶ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν κεκοπιακέ ναι ἐν τῷ στεναγμῷ αὐτοῦ, ἔφασκεν ἐν τῷ ἕκτῳ, καὶ προστίθει λέγων· Λούσω καθ' ἑκάστην νύκτα τὴν κλίνην μου, ἐν δάκρυσί μου τὴν στρωμνήν μου βρέξω, καὶ τὰ τούτοις συνημμένα. Παραπλήσια δ' ἂν εἴη ἐκείνοις καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ προκειμένῳ, δι' ὧν εἴρηται· Οὐκ ἔστιν ἴασις ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν εἰρήνη ἐν τοῖς ὀστέοις μοῦ ἀπὸ προσώπου τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν μου· ὅτι αἱ ἀνομίαι μου ὑπερῆραν τὴν κεφαλήν μου, καὶ τὰ τούτοις δι' ὅλου τοῦ ψαλμοῦ ἐπαγόμενα, ἐν οἷς ἀποκλαίεται τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ταλαιπωρίαν. Ταύτῃ γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς τῇ λέξει κέχρηται, εἰπών· Ἐταλαιπώρησα καὶ κατεκάμφθην ἕως τέλους σφόδρα· ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν σκυ θρωπάζων ἐπορευόμην. Ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ ἕκτῳ ἡ προ γραφὴ εἶχεν· Εἰς τὸ τέλος ἐν ὕμνοις ὑπὲρ τῆς ὀγδόης ψαλμὸς τῷ ∆αβίδ· ἐν δὲ τῷ παρόντι τούτων μὲν οὐδὲν, μόνον δέ· Ὁ ψαλμὸς τῷ ∆αβὶδ εἰς ἀνάμνησιν λέλεκται. Ἥ γε μὴν προσθήκη, εἰς ἀνάμνησιν, ἔοικεν ἀναπέμπειν ἡμᾶς τῆς ἐν τῷ ἕκτῳ προγραφῆς· ὥστε εἶναι τὰ παρόντα· Εἰς τέλος, καὶ ἐν ὕμνοις ὑπὲρ τῆς ὀγδόης. Πάντων γὰρ ἂν εἴη τούτων παραστατικὸν τὸ, Εἰς ἀνάμνησιν. Ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ διεξιόντες τὰ ἐν τῷ ἕκτῳ ὑποπεσόντα, εἰς τὴν προγραφὴν εἰρήκαμεν, εἰς τὴν ἐκείνων ἀνάμνησιν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἀπέλθωμεν.

∆οκεῖ δέ μοι ὁ ∆αβὶδ ἐν διαφό ροις καὶ πολλοῖς περὶ τοῦ πραχθέντος αὐτῷ πλημμε λήματος ἐξομολογησάμενος, ἰδίως τὸν παρόντα ψαλμὸν ἀφωρικέναι εἰς ἀνάμνησιν, ὡς ἀεὶ καὶ διαπαντὸς φέρειν αὐτὸν ἀνὰ στόμα· κεχρῆσθαι δὲ αὐτῷ ἀντ' ἐπῳδῆς, ἐπὶ θεραπείᾳ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ψυχῆς. Ἱκετηρίαν γοῦν ἀναπέμπει τῷ Θεῷ, δι' ἧς ἀποστρέφει μὲν τὴν ὀργὴν τὴν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν ἐπηρτημένην, ἱλάσκεται δὲ τὸν ἀγαθὸν Κύριον ταῖς μεθ' ὑπερβαλ λούσης ἐξομολογήσεως φωναῖς. Λέγων δὲ, Κύριε, μὴ τῷ θυμῷ σου ἐλέγξῃς με, οὐ τὸν ἔλεγχον παραι τεῖται, ἀλλὰ τὸν μετὰ θυμοῦ· καὶ τὸ, Μηδὲ τῇ ὀργῇ σου παιδεύσῃς με, οὐ φεύγει τὸ παιδευθῆναι, δίχα 30.85 δὲ ὀργῆς τῆς παιδείας τυχεῖν ἀξιοῖ· ὡς εἰ καὶ ἰατρῷ τις, τὰ διὰ καυτῆρος καὶ σιδήρου καὶ πικρῶν ἀντι δότων προσφέροντι βοηθήματα ἐπὶ θεραπεία πάθους ὑποκειμένου, λέγοι· Μὴ διὰ πυρός με θεραπεύσῃς, μηδὲ διὰ σιδήρου καὶ τομῶν, διὰ δὲ ἠπίων καὶ πραο τέρων φαρμάκων· ὁ γὰρ τοιοῦτος οὐ τὴν θεραπείαν ἀρνεῖται, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐπίπονον τῶν βοηθημάτων. Πολλάκις δὲ εἴρηται, ὡς ὀργὴ καὶ θυμὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ λεγό μενα ἐν ταῖς θεοπνεύστοις Γραφαῖς, οὐ πάθη σημαίνει· παντὸς γὰρ πάθους ἀλλότριον τὸ θεῖον· κατὰ μεταφορὰν δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα εἴωθεν ὀνομάζειν ὁ τῆς Γραφῆς λόγος, ὡς καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς Θεοῦ, καὶ ὦτα, καὶ χεῖρας, καὶ δακτύλους, καὶ πόδας, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ μέλη· ἅπερ ὡς πρὸς ἀνθρώπους χρησίμως οἰκονο μεῖται, συγκατιὼν τῇ τῶν ἀκροωμένων ποιότητι. Οὕτως οὖν καὶ τὰς ἐπαγομένας τιμωρίας τοῖς ἁμαρ τάνουσι κατὰ Θεοῦ