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In Psalmos 101-107 [Sp.]

PSALM 101. A prayer for the poor man, when he is faint, and pours out his supplication before the Lord.

1. The psalm contains a prophecy of the hardship of the people of the Jews in Babylon and of their return from there; and at the same time it foretells the calling and salvation of the gentiles; it is also fitting for anyone wrestling with some 55.636 calamity, and supplicating to obtain divine favor. For it calls poor the one who is in need of divine providence, comparing him to the one who is blessed according to, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Therefore, everyone who is dedicated to God, being poor in the things of this life, but rich with God, is faint with grief, or, Is disheartened, according to Symmachus, at the wickedness and destruction of the many; such as was the one saying: Woe is me, O soul! for the godly has perished from the earth, and there is none who does right among 55.637 men; and the one who said, There is none that does good. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you. Prayer denotes supplication to God, and entreaty; but supplication is the petition for those things which he who prays wishes to be granted to him. And he says: Receive my supplication, O Master, and stretch out your help to me as I plead. For cry, Symmachus has said wailing. Do not turn your face away from me. God turns his face away from some who are praying in several ways; either those who ask not entreating to receive what is fitting for God to grant, and what is profitable for them to receive; or asking for things which are fitting for God to provide, but not yet having the opportune time to receive them profitably. And there are also those who think it right to obtain certain things for the purpose of sinning. The holy one, therefore, exhorting, says: May I not ask such things, on account of which you, refusing, turn your face away from me. And I pray, not that I may not be afflicted, for that is impossible, but that being afflicted I may not be defeated, and that I may rejoice in hope, being patient in tribulations, glorying in them. In whatever day I am afflicted, incline your ear to me; in whatever day I call upon you, hear me speedily. These words of the psalm also show that it is a prophecy of things to come, and not a narrative of things that have happened. For since the people happened to be in much good fortune and renown in the kingdom of the divine David, the prophet reasonably offers the supplication in their person, and beseeches to obtain divine care, whenever the time for this should come. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned up like a dry stick. From this point, according to the proper idiom, he narrates future calamities as if they have already happened, and says that the time of life was consumed like smoke, and from despondency the body has become a dry firebrand, as if consumed by the assault of some fire.

For so Aquila also translated it: And my bones, like a burning, have become brittle. I am smitten like grass, and my heart is withered. But indeed I also faded like grass, and I lost my former bloom. Because I forgot to eat my bread; from the voice of my groaning my bone has clung to my flesh. For I have lost my appetite for all food, and I have been completely stripped of my former well-being; for the body has been consumed by the wasting from despondency, and my skin lies on my bare bones. I have become like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl in a ruin. I have kept watch, and

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In Psalmos 101-107 [Sp.]

ΨΑΛΜ. ΡΑʹ. Προσευχὴ τῷ πτωχῷ, ὅταν ἀκηδιάῃ, καὶ ἔναντι Κυρίου ἐκχέῃ τὴν δέησιν

αὐτοῦ. αʹ. Πρόῤῥησιν μὲν ὁ ψαλμὸς ἔχει τῆς ἐν Βαβυλῶνι τοῦ λαοῦ τῶν Ἰουδαίων

ταλαιπωρίας καὶ τῆς ἐκεῖθεν ἐπαν όδου· προαγορεύει δὲ κατὰ ταὐτὸν καὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν τὴν κλῆσιν καὶ σωτηρίαν· ἁρμόττει καὶ παντὶ συμφορᾷ 55.636 τινι προσπαλαίοντι, καὶ τῆς θείας ῥοπῆς τυχεῖν ἱκε τεύοντι. Πτωχὸν γὰρ καλεῖ τὸν τῆς θείας ἐνδεῆ προμη θείας, συμβάλλων αὐτὸν τῷ μακαριζομένῳ κατὰ τὸ, Μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι. Πᾶς τοιγαροῦν τῷ Θεῷ ἀνακείμενος, πτωχεύων ἐν τοῖς τοῦ βίου πρά γμασι. παρὰ δὲ τῷ Θεῷ πλουτῶν, ἀκηδιᾷ λυπούμενος, ἢ, Ἀθυμεῖ, κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον, ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν πολλῶν κακίᾳ τε καὶ ἀπωλείᾳ· οἷος ἦν ὁ λέγων· Οἴμοι, ψυχή! ὅτι ἀπόλωλεν εὐλαβὴς ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ὁ κατορθῶν ἐν 55.637 ἀνθρώποις οὐχ ὑπάρχει· καὶ ὁ εἰπὼν, Οὐκ ἔστι ποιῶν χρηστότητα. Κύριε, εἰσάκουσον τῆς προσευ χῆς μου, καὶ ἡ κραυγή μου πρὸς σὲ ἐλθέτω. Ἡ μὲν προσευχὴ τὴν ἱκετηρίαν δηλοῖ τὴν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ τὴν παράκλησιν· ἡ δὲ δέησις τὴν αἴτησιν τὴν περὶ ὧν βούλεται αὐτῷ δεομένῳ παρασχεθῆναι. Λέγει δέ· ∆έξαι μου τὴν ἱκετηρίαν, ὦ ∆έσποτα, καὶ ποτνιωμένῳ τὴν σὴν βοήθειαν ὄρεξον. Τὴν γὰρ κραυγὴν, Οἰμωγὴν ὁ Σύμμα χος εἴρηκεν. Μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἀπ' ἐμοῦ. Ἀποστρέφει ὁ Θεὸς τὸ πρώσωπον αὐτοῦ ἀπό τι νων προσευχομένων κατὰ τρόπους πλείονας· ἤτοι τῶν αἰτουμένων μὴ παρακαλούντων λαβεῖν ἃ πρέπει Θεῷ χαρίζεσθαι, καὶ αὐτοῖς λυσιτελεῖ λαβεῖν· ἢ τῷ μὲν, ἃ ἁρμόζει Θεῷ παρέχειν, αἰτεῖσθαι μὴ μὴν αὐτοὺς καιρὸν ἔχειν τὸ ὠφελίμως χωρῆσαι ταῦτα. Εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ τὸ ἁμαρτάνειν τυχεῖν τινων ἀξιοῦντες. Ὁ ἅγιος οὖν πα ρακαλῶν λέγει· Μὴ εἴη τοιαῦτά με αἰτῆσαι, ἐφ' οἷς ἀνα νεύσας ἀποστρέφεις ἀπ' ἐμοῦ τὸ πρόσωπον. Εὔχομαι δὲ, οὐχ ὅπως μὴ θλιβῶ, ἀδύνατον γὰρ τοῦτο, ἀλλ' ὅπως θλιβόμενος μὴ ἡττηθῶ, καὶ ὅπως τῇ ἐλπίδι χαρῶ, ὑπομένων ταῖς θλίψεσι, καυχώμενος ἐν αὐταῖς. Ἐν ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ θλίβωμαι, κλῖνον πρός με τὸ οὖς σου· ἐν ᾖ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ ἐπικαλέσωμαί σε, ταχὺ ἐπάκουσόν μου. ∆ηλοῖ καὶ ταῦτα τοῦ ψαλμοῦ τὰ ῥήματα, ὡς μελλόντων ἐστὶ πρόῤῥησις, καὶ οὐ γεγενημένων διήγησις. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἐν εὐκληρίᾳ πολλῇ καὶ περιφανείᾳ ἐτύγχανεν ὢν ὁ λαὸς ἐν τῇ τοῦ θεσπεσίου ∆αυῒδ βασιλείᾳ, εἰκότως ὁ προ φήτης τῷ ἐκείνων κεχρημένος προσώπῳ προσφέρει τὴν ἱκετείαν, καὶ τυχεῖν ἀντιβολεῖ τῆς θείας κηδεμονίας, ἡνίκα ἂν γένοιτο τούτου καιρός. Ὅτι ἐξέλιπον ὡσεὶ καπνὸς αἱ ἡμέραι μου, καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ μου ὡσεὶ φρύ γιον συνεφρύγησαν. Ἐντεῦθεν κατὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἰδίωμα τὰς ἐσομένας ὡς γεγενημένας συμφορὰς διηγεῖται, καί φησι καπνῷ παραπλησίως τὸν τῆς ζωῆς ἀναλωθῆναι χρόνον, καὶ ἐξ ἀθυμίας δαλὸν ξηρὸν γεγενῆσθαι τὸ σῶμα, ὡς ὑπό τινος καταφλεχθὲν πυρὸς προσβολῆς.

Οὕτω γὰρ καὶ ὁ Ἀκύλας ἡρμήνευσε· Καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ μου, ὡς καῦ σις ἐψαθυρώθη. Ἐπλήγην ὡσεὶ χόρτος, καὶ ἐξηράνθη ἡ καρδία μου. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ χόρτῳ παραπλησίως ἀπέσβην, καὶ τὸ πρότερον ἄνθος ἀπώλεσα. Ὅτι ἐπελα θόμην τοῦ φαγεῖν τὸν ἄρτον μου· ἀπὸ φωνῆς τοῦ στεναγμοῦ μου ἐκολλήθη τὸ ὀστοῦν μου τῇ σαρκί μου. Πάσης μὲν γὰρ τροφῆς ἀπεβαλόμην ὄρεξιν, τῆς δὲ προτέρας εὐπαθείας παντελῶς ἐγυμνώθην· τῇ γὰρ ἐξ ἀθυμίας τηκεδόνι κατηναλώθη τὸ σῶμα, γυμνοῖς δὲ τοῖς ὀστέοις ἐπίκειταί μου τὸ δέρμα. Ὡμοιώθην πελεκᾶνι ἐρημικῷ· ἐγενήθην ὡσεὶ νυκτικόραξ ἐν οἰκοπέδῳ. Ἠγρύπνησα, καὶ