Homilies on the Psalms — Homily 9 — Psalm 73 (LXX; MT 74), Homily I: vv. 1–7
Greek source: Origen's homilies on the Psalms, preserved in a single manuscript (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. graec. 314, 12th century), from the reading text of L. Perrone et al. (eds.), Die neuen Psalmenhomilien. Eine kritische Edition des Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, Origenes Werke XIII (GCS NF 19; Berlin, 2015), pp. 225–237. Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the 73rd Psalm, Homily 1
1. Let us pray also concerning the spiritual rain, that God may command the spiritual clouds "to rain" upon our souls "rain", and that we may not sprout "thistles", so that it may not become "worthless", "and near to a curse", but may bring forth "suitable herbage" and produce "fruit a hundredfold".
The seventy-third psalm has now been read, and by its title it urges us to pay attention; for the psalm, since it is not readily clear, requires as it were understanding on the part of the hearer. This is also written in the title of other psalms, where it says "Of understanding, of Asaph". As the psalm is titled, it is no longer of David but of Asaph, who also prophesied in the psalms titled with his name. The affairs of Jerusalem were still standing when Asaph prophesied these things, and he speaks, as regards the letter, of what befell the people after the captivity. For the words "Why, O God, have you thrust away to the end, has your wrath been roused against sheep of your pasture? Remember your congregation, which you acquired from the beginning", and what follows, fit the events after the captivity, so far as the wording goes. But someone might say that the captivity has come about, and what is said has befallen, not only those people but also those who lived after the sojourn of our Savior, when the blood came, as they themselves had cried, upon them and upon their children. For "with hatchet", indeed, "and chisel he dashed down their doors", that is, the doors of Jerusalem and of the people. And indeed, how else can you apply it according to the letter also to what is recorded after the coming? But let us look at it word by word as well. As disciples of Christ Jesus, able to say not only about the law "For we know that the law is spiritual", but also about the prophets, 'For we know that the prophets are spiritual', let us try to interpret each of these things, since each can happen also in regard to our soul, and in two ways: in one way mystically and above us; in the other, when the enemies attack and break through the doors of our soul and do all the things recorded here, as the discourse will show.
2. The prophet, then, is at a loss and says: "Why have you thrust away, O God, to the end?" That is: what is the cause of your thrusting away your people and casting them out? The simpler person will say that the cause is sins; for these are the cause of God's thrusting away those whom he had taken to himself. Therefore, if we too wish not to be thrust away by God, let us not sin. But one who already sees somewhat deeper, even if only to a degree, will say that the cause of the people's being thrust away is that Christ Jesus was put to death by them. And indeed, God truly thrust the people away further after the sojourn of Christ and what they dared against him. For when have they suffered for so long a time? When was Jerusalem so desolated? When has the altar stood idle for so long a time, with the sacrifice and the services no longer offered upon it?
But another, having understood the things concerning Adam, will say that he thrust Adam away on account of his sin and his indulgence; and that, "as in Adam all" of us die, "and in Christ all" of us are made alive, so in Adam we were all exiled, and in Christ God lays hold of us all. You will also join to this the parable from the Gospel. For God thrust away the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and since he thrust him away when he wished to go down, for this reason he fell among the robbers; as though, had he not been thrust away by God, he would not have come into the hands of the robbers. And concerning God's thrusting away one must also know, especially because "to the end" is added when Scripture says "Why have you thrust away, O God, to the end", that there are measures to the thrusting away with which God thrusts someone away.
You will understand what I mean from bodily things. It is possible for me to thrust someone away from myself, and to thrust him either further or less far; so that, further or less far, I may at once both stand close by him and thrust him away to the end, so that he is thrust so far that there is no longer anywhere for him to be thrust, when the cliff lies beside him, or a place where it is not possible for him to be thrust.
If you have understood the bodily thing, pass over with me in reason to the intent of Scripture. See the one who has committed one sin, who has stumbled in a small sin, thrust away from God a little way, in keeping with the small sin, so that he comes to stand a little apart from God. But if he adds to his sin not only multitude but also magnitude, see the one who has so sinned thrust away still further by God. And as much as we sin, so far does God thrust us away from himself and from his oversight. But if our sins become extreme, so that our stumbles no longer admit of any excess, God thrusts us away to the end, and it is, as it were, no longer possible for anyone to be thrust away beyond this.
For that God, and his oversight, thrusts each person away from himself according to the measures of his sins, the psalm will testify for me, saying: "According to the multitude of their impieties thrust them out". For he did not say there simply "thrust them out", but "According to the multitude of their impieties thrust them out". And in the same way God calls some back from their being thrust away in proportion to the manner of their repentance, and, if perfect repentance and change reach the summit, God calls a man back from having formerly been thrust away to the end on account of his sins, so that he, that is, the one called back, would say: "My soul has clung behind you". In us, then, lie the causes of our being thrust away from God, or of God's calling us to himself, more or less; as he called Moses, saying: "Moses alone shall draw near to God, but the rest shall not draw near". And he called him, saying this, because Moses had not made himself deserving of the rejection that all human nature has suffered, so that he was called and drew near to God. We do not see with the eyes of the body in what way we are far from God or near him, or in what way, being far, we become farther from him by bringing our sins to their end, or, having repented, come near him. For this reason we think lightly of being far from God, and we do not practice nearness, nor flee farness, when we ought to see that these things are grasped by intelligible eyes. And the sinner removes himself far from God, according to what is said: "Behold, those who remove themselves far from you shall perish". And again the righteous man clings to God according to what is righteous and according to virtue: "But for me to cling to God is good".
3. The "Why" is shared in common (κατὰ κοινοῦ), so that it reads "Why have you thrust away" and why "has your wrath been roused against sheep of your pasture?" It seems to me that, wishing to present God as merciful to those who have sinned, so far as the prayer can, he said that his anger came not upon human beings, but that they are sheep; as if to say: "Pardon their understanding; these at whom you are angry are sheep of the pasture; let the mighty be mightily examined, but the least is to be pardoned out of mercy." "Why", then, "have you thrust away, O God, to the end, has your wrath been roused against sheep of your pasture?" It is necessary to see God's pasture as well as the sheep; for there are sheep of God's pasture. Indeed it is written in the Gospel: "I am the door; if anyone enters through me he will be saved, and will go in and will go out and will find pasture". What, then, is the pasture, the pasture of sheep? The sacred writings are pasture: the law is pasture, the prophets are pasture, the Gospels, the apostles. If you do not graze on these, you waste away with hunger. Let us enter into this pasture. And it is the Lord's work to shepherd us, so that one would say: "The Lord shepherds me and I shall lack nothing; in a place of green grass, there make me dwell". What is the green grass? The freshness of new thoughts.
4. "Remember your congregation, which you acquired from the beginning". The people from the nations will say: How did God acquire us, who are his congregation, from the beginning? For the sojourn of Christ Jesus at the consummation of the ages, from which God acquired us, is not a beginning. Then the Jew will say: It is not about you that the word says "Remember your congregation which you acquired from the beginning", but about me; for God acquired me from the beginning. But I would say also to that man who thinks he refutes me, saying, "It is I whom he acquired from the beginning, by the time of my calling": I too will likewise refute you, for you do not truly have the 'from the beginning' either. For when did God acquire you as a friend? When the people went out of the land of Egypt, when he redeemed them from the hand of slavery and from Pharaoh. See, then, that your beginning is not found from the times in Egypt; but neither at the tenth generation, at Noah, nor at the tenth, at Abraham, nor at Moses. The 'from the beginning', then, cannot be in the times of Moses; and even if you force it and say at Abraham, not even then is it the beginning. Abraham is the twentieth generation from Adam, and from Abraham the seed according to the flesh takes its beginning, to grant you that much.
So, with neither you saying what "from the beginning" is, nor the guileless and simpler ones among us saying what "from the beginning" is, we hear what "from the beginning" is: "Those whom he foreknew he made known beforehand, those whom he made known beforehand he predestined, those whom he predestined he called, those whom he called he justified, those whom he justified he glorified". God, when he foreknew, and he foreknew in the beginning, also acquired by his foreknowledge all who were to come under him; and this is what is said: "Remember your congregation which you acquired from the beginning". And I say this accommodating my discourse. For I know a beginning from which God acquired each of us; I know this beginning to be ensouled and living and saying: "God acquired me as 'the beginning of his ways for his works'." The beginning is Christ. He acquired, then, from the beginning, from Christ, who is the beginning and who is the end, who is the alpha and who is the omega.
5. "You redeemed the rod of your inheritance". Captives are ransomed by their own kin. God, then, redeemed his "rod of inheritance"; that is, he redeemed the scepter of his inheritance and kingdom by paying the ransom. For we were under enemies, and the enemy was the devil and his angels. These had taken us captive and were unwilling to release us without a ransom. And the Savior did not wish to use any force on the devil, nor to take advantage of those who had taken us captive, but he says to the devil: "I wish to ransom the captives you took. What ransom do you wish to receive, that you may give me the captives you took?" And he answered: "I wish to receive your blood. Let your blood be poured out; die. And if you die, your blood having been poured out, I have the ransom; I give back those you wished to receive." My Lord and my Savior, the lover of mankind, and Christ, poured out his blood and bought us "with the precious blood". "Not" indeed "with perishable things, with silver and gold, were we redeemed from our futile way of life handed down from our fathers, but with the precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, Christ". And it is well said: "You were bought with a price"; do not become slaves of men. A great price, then, has been paid that we might be redeemed; and because of this price my Lord Christ Jesus, just as he is righteousness, as he is sanctification, as he is wisdom, as he is truth, so he is also redemption.
Since, then, so great a ransom has been paid for us, if we despise "the precious blood", we shall fall under a charge, and there will be said to us: "How much worse a punishment, do you think, will he be deemed worthy of who has trampled upon the Son of God, and considered common the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?" For we outrage the Spirit of grace when we sin after the redemption; and we also consider the pure and holy blood of the covenant common and profane. And we also trample upon the Son of God whenever we sin against him: for we trample upon righteousness when we act unjustly, we trample upon the truth when we lie, we trample upon the Word when we do something without reason, we trample upon the light when we do the works of darkness. "He redeemed", at any rate, "the rod of his inheritance", that is, the Lord redeemed the scepter of his own kingdom.
6. "This Mount Zion, in which you dwelt". Mount Zion too came under the enemies. For the place of oracles, the place of visions, the watchtower – for it is interpreted in many ways – came under the enemies. And if you see a discerning soul, if you see a soul that is able to see realities, an intelligent soul, become captive under a spirit of fornication and under sins, do not hesitate to say that Zion, the watchtower, has come under the enemies. If, then, you see such a person changed and repentant, and thereafter using his discernment as he ought, do not hesitate to say that God redeemed "this Mount Zion, in which he dwelt".
But how is "he dwelt in it" to be understood? The Jews look at Scripture on the ground and drag it down to the earth, thinking that this is Zion, where God, who created heaven and earth, dwelt. And now, according to them, God dwelt on the mountain where four-footed beasts and gentiles dwell. But we say that Mount Zion, where God dwelt, is the great-natured soul, the thoughtful soul, the discerning soul. And how does God dwell in it? By fulfilling the promise that says: "I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people". And often, even on this Mount Zion, in which God and his Word dwelt, stumbles and sins occur. But you, O God, do not abandon Mount Zion as a captive; you redeem it, so that there may be fulfilled: "You redeemed the rod of your inheritance, this Mount Zion, in which you dwelt. Lift up your hands against their arrogances to the end, all the wicked things the enemy did in the holy place". For all arrogance is a foul thing, whether it is found in a human being or in an opposing power; and God truly "opposes the arrogant, but gives grace to the humble".
This applies in a special way, in one respect bodily, as it happened to the place through the arrogances of those who prevailed over the Jews; in another respect intelligibly, above all through the opposing energies, in the way they are arrogant and exalt themselves against the righteous of God. If ever they are able to drag someone off and take him captive – such things as the Babylonians are likely to have said in their arrogance against the holy man in a bodily place when they conquered the people, such things as those who prevailed over the Jews after the bold proclamation are likely to have said. But those things are bodily. If ever your soul, conquered by an opposing power, comes under the devil, you will see in what way the devil is arrogant against the holy man.
But I say that the enemy was arrogant also against the Savior, "who humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross"; and not understanding the dispensation of our Savior and of his humiliation, he was arrogant against him as one who would conquer him, as one who would prevail over him. For he did not know the wisdom of God; for had he known it, he would not have crucified him, the Christ of God. Yet even if he was arrogant against him, for how long was he arrogant? I dare to say: for one hour. For as soon as the Savior went forth, he laid hold of that which had become stripped of soul, the body being bare, seeking out the devil and his angels, whom he did not hold so under his hand when he wore the body. See him going about; see him going down into Hades and, having gone down into Hades, binding there those whom he had to bind; and after he was bound, see him in Hades as free among the dead, and ascending alone from there, and saying: "I became as a man without help, free among the dead". All, then, had been bound down by him, but he himself, the one free among the dead, has ascended. These things are said because of "Lift up your hands against their arrogances to the end, all the wicked things the enemy did in the holy place".
7. But before going on to what follows, let us see all the wicked things the enemy did in the holy place. Concerning what the Jews consider holy it is not my purpose to speak. But he acted wickedly against the Holy One, the Savior, when he took him up onto the mountain. For it was a work of his wickedness: "Say that the stones may become loaves"; "Throw yourself down from here"; "All these things I will give you, if you fall down and worship me". See all the wicked things the enemy did in the Holy One. After this he acted wickedly again; for as it is written in the Gospel according to Luke, "he departed from him until a season". Later he came again to the temptation, to tempt him, to kill him. When? When the devil had put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray the Savior, "and after the morsel Satan entered into him".
But the devil did many wicked things against the Holy One. He acted wickedly by working in the chief priests and the elders and the people to say "Crucify, crucify him", "Away from the earth with such a man". He acted wickedly by working in them to say: "His blood be upon us and upon our children". He acted wickedly by making Herod, who before this had been an enemy, become a friend to Pilate. He acted wickedly by making Pilate wash himself and foolishly purify himself; he washed his hands after scourging the Savior and saying: "I am innocent of the blood of the righteous man". All the things that are written that he said, and all the others that are not written, which that one did wickedly – for I think that not even of itself "could the world contain the books to be written", not only about the other deeds of Jesus but also about the wickedness of the devil – all the wicked things the enemy did in the Holy One.
8. "And those who hate you boasted in the midst of your feast". According to the letter, come with me to the time of that feast when my Jesus, it being the Passover, is handed over to be crucified. "They boasted", then, the Jews, the enemies of Christ, and those who worked in the Jews, "in the midst of the feast". For it was a feast when he was handed over, and instead of a sheep they killed the Savior, "who was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before the one who shears it, dumb". So I no longer hear the prophet saying in too simple a sense "he was led as a sheep to slaughter"; for the prophet spoke mystically, knowing that "it was the Passover, Christ was sacrificed for us", when he said that "he was led as a sheep to slaughter". As the sheep at the Passover, so at the true Passover Christ is led. "And they boasted, those who hate" him, "in the midst of the feast". For this reason, after that feast they no longer keep feasts: they defiled the feast, they defiled the holy things. Even if the Jews wish to keep the feast, they can no longer do so.
For, so far as Scripture goes, it is not permitted to keep the Passover except in this place that is considered holy, from which they have been cast out. So they no longer keep it, nor the feast of Pentecost, nor the feast of Tabernacles. Their feasts were taken from them and given to us, and there has been fulfilled upon them what was spoken by Amos: "Let your feasts be turned into mourning and your songs into lamentations". We, then, have received the feasts, and received them otherwise than they did. For they received them typically, until the truth should come; but now that the truth has come, we say that we have received the true Passover. "For the Passover", our true one, "was sacrificed, Christ", and "we keep the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". So too we keep Pentecost, and moreover from the spiritual fruits; so too we keep Tabernacles: we do not dwell in houses, since we are not in houses but are "sojourners and strangers" upon the earth.
9. "And those who hate me boasted in the midst of your feast. They set their signs as signs, and they did not know, as at the entrance above". "They set signs", both the opposing powers and those who acted wickedly against the Savior. "They set" them, and to this day the signs of their sin lie there: the overthrow of Israel. What are the signs of their sin? The passing over of Christ: he passed from them, he came to us. They cast out Christ; he came to those who do not cast him out but receive him, and they "knew as at the entrance above". We see another sense also in the letter: that those who act wickedly against the truth often set certain signs, and signs "as at the entrance". For instance, if you see among the heterodox a promise of entrance, but words that are false and contrary to the truth, which do not lead into an entrance as they promised; if you see them promising lofty things and an explanation of heavenly things, say: "They set their signs, but signs as at the entrance from above".
See also the opposing energies doing what follows: "As in a thicket of trees, with axes they cut its roots together; with hatchet and chisel they dashed it down". If ever enemies plot against you, see them outside your doors, holding rational axes that cut through doors, so that they may enter to you and, having entered, "plunder the vessels of the strong man". As it is written in the Gospel by way of a parable: "When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own court, his possessions are in peace; but if one stronger than he enters, he takes away his full armor, in which he trusted, and distributes his spoils". And just as in war the enemies enter and take away the full armor of the conquered, so, if the opposing powers enter, having cut down your doors, those around the ruling faculty, they take away your full armor, so that you no longer have the breastplate of righteousness, so that you are no longer girded with truth, so that you no longer have "the helmet of salvation", nor the shoes "of the readiness of the gospel", nor "the sword of the Spirit", nor "the shield of faith". But if you do not wish to accept that these things are so, who is the stronger, the one who takes away his full armor in which he trusted and distributes his spoils? What full armor, then, does the enemy take away, if he enters, having cut down with the axes the doors of our soul, or the one spoken of before, "with hatchet and chisel they dashed it down"? They have the hatchets, they have the chisels, so that they may overturn every building that we have built.
10. "They set your sanctuary on fire with fire". Each of us, as far as he can, builds for himself a sanctuary for God and builds an altar within. Then the opposing powers enter and set it on fire, as they set God's sanctuary on fire with fire. Come, let me show from Scripture how they set God's sanctuary on fire with fire. Consider what is said by the Apostle: that you may be able "to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one". For if a fiery dart is sent out, what else does it do? It sets the holy place on fire; and into this holy place – where once I prayed, where once I had Christ, where once God walked – if I sin, there comes a fiery dart, and there comes about for it: "they set your sanctuary on fire with fire".
Let us, then, with one accord entreat God that no burning from the fiery darts of the evil one, or of unclean desire, or of desire for money, or of desire for paltry glory, or of anything else, may ever reach this sanctuary, and that there may not come about: "they set your sanctuary on fire with fire", "with fire they profaned the dwelling of your name". If you see a soul already walking on high, already picturing the heavenly things, become captive to sin and fallen, do not hesitate to say that in the case of such a person the opposing powers "profaned the dwelling of the name of God".
And there comes about in his case how "the morning star fell from heaven, he who rises at dawn"; he was shattered upon the earth; he cast down from heaven to the earth the ordinance of Israel. But may we not suffer such things. Rather, day by day, as the enemies are brought to nothing with God helping us, may it be ours to remain unravaged, having the sanctuary, the temple not destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, not overthrown by a spirit of wickedness, but by a spirit of power and sanctification and self-control always both built up and sanctified in Christ Jesus, to whom belong the glory and the might now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.