Homilies on the Psalms — Homily 13 — Psalm 75 (LXX; MT 76): the whole psalm (vv. 1–13)
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. 280–292. Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the 75th Psalm, Homily 1
1. That "God is known in Judea" is written is clear. It is also plain that the Jews explain the passage by pointing out that this land fell to them as their allotment, and that they suppose the worship of God is found among them alone. But we wish to say something to those who take "God is known in Judea" rather simply. For in Egypt, when the signs and the wonders were taking place, was not "God known"? And what of the desert, when God rained the manna on the people and water came out of a rock of flint: was not "God known"? And what of the time when they had gone out from the holy land and, while in captivity, were turning back to God: was not "God", then, "known" to them? Was not "God known" to Daniel, for instance, though he was not in Judea but in Babylon? Why then, when God is known in so many places, is it written: "God is known in Judea"? Are they not, then, compelled, even if they are unwilling, to accept that these things were prophesied for the time of the Savior? For Christ Jesus, being God and Son of God, came to dwell in Judea, and it was then that "God is known in Judea" came to pass. Of this God, I mean our Lord Jesus Christ, the name is "great over Israel". Israel must be understood as Scripture says: "not all who are from Israel are Israel"; not all who are called Israel are Israel. Just as, then, not all who are from Israel are Israel, so not all who are from the Gentiles are Gentiles. Rather, it is possible for one from Israel to be a Gentile because of unbelief, and for one from the Gentiles to become Israel because of ready belief. And just as the uncircumcision of one who fulfills the law is reckoned as circumcision, in the same way the Gentile too who has believed the things given to Israel will be reckoned as Israel. So too Israel will be reckoned as a Gentile, having disbelieved the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now that Israel has been understood from what was said before, it can be clear how "his name is great over Israel". Great, then, is the name of Jesus Christ, who is God, among Christians everywhere; and great is his name through our life. For we magnify our Lord by our life, by holy speech, and by a steadfast disposition.
2. "And his place came to be in peace, and his dwelling in Zion". Let the Jews seek as a place of God the fallen Jerusalem, the Jerusalem below, of which he said: "Behold, your house is left to you". But we seek a place for the Lord that is worthy of the Lord, of which it is written: "And his place came to be in peace". Now, reading the psalms, I find David praying with an oath: "If I give sleep to my eyes and slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob". And I say that the saint does not slumber, nor will he give sleep to his eyes, until he finds a place in himself for the Lord. For just as the sinner gives place to the devil, so the noble and good man gives place to God, who seeks to dwell in us, and he gives place to Christ. For God promises this, saying: "I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people". And truly, according to the promise spoken, he dwelt and walked in Isaiah, who says: "Sons I begot and raised up, but they rejected me". For if God were not dwelling in him, how would God have spoken through Isaiah? You will say the same of the rest of the prophets. And our Lord Jesus Christ also dwells himself in the souls of the righteous. Or do you not know that "whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him"? And the Savior taught this clearly when he said: "If anyone hears my words and keeps them, I and my Father will come to him and make our abode with him".
Therefore we seek a place for the Lord in our ruling faculty. For it is of this place that it is said: "In holy peace is his place". If this is so, a place of God has come to be in peace. What peace? The peace of which it is written: "The peace of God, which surpasses every mind, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus". The heart that has the peace of God is not warred upon by the passions, is not moved by anger, is not troubled by grief, and suffers nothing else that is contrary to peace. Rather, one may see peace and calm in the soul of the righteous man, inasmuch as he becomes a son of peace because peace is in him. And just as the place of God "came to be in peace", so "his dwelling is in Zion".
We have often spoken about Zion. For it is not this Zion that is the dwelling of God; rather, a soul that has become a watchtower and an oracle-seat of the word of God is the dwelling of God.
3. "There they broke the might of the bows": where peace has come to be, there the might of the bows was broken, and "shield and sword and war". How was the might of the bows broken? "Our wrestling is against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places". And we must take up "the full armor of God", "that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil"; and in the full armor of God there is also the "shield of faith, with which we can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one". Now "the might of the bows" is let loose against the souls of men, but "the might of the bows" will be broken against the souls of men; and "the might of the bows" will be broken in the house of God, where peace has come to be. Therefore it is written: "There he broke the might of the bows". Who, then, is the one who perceives that all "the might of the bows" is broken in him, that not a single part, not a single one, has remained whole, but all has been shattered, and that "shield and sword and war", and everything belonging to the enemies, the enemy's shield, his sword, the whole war, has been abolished? "There came to be", you see, "in peace his place, and his dwelling in Zion".
4. Then, for these things, we give thanks to God and say: "You are fearful, and who will withstand you?" For if you have been able to do so much in us, then "shield, sword and war" have been abolished; you broke "the might of the bows"; "you are fearful, and who will withstand you?" Do not suppose, then, that it is not God in Zion who abolishes every war: "All who were senseless in heart were troubled". "There came to be in peace the place" of God, and those who have given God a place in themselves are untroubled. But if someone does not give God a place in his own soul, he is filled with trouble because of his senselessness. Therefore it is written: "All who were senseless in heart were troubled".
For this reason our Savior and Lord commands the disciples, saying: "Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid". Since, then, he has commanded and said: "Let it not be troubled", if we are troubled we transgress a most necessary commandment of his; and he says: "Nor let your heart be afraid". And again, if we fear death, if we fear the adversaries, we transgress his commandment. Therefore we shall fall into punishment, as it is written in the Apocalypse of John in this way: "But for the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable and fornicators and sorcerers, their portion is in the lake of fire".
5. "They slept their sleep and found nothing", "those senseless in heart". "And all the men of wealth found nothing in their hands". If you are able to understand a sleep of the soul and a wakefulness of the soul, which is different from the natural sleep of the body, you will see that most people have souls that are asleep, and that very few are awake. For a commandment has been given by the Spirit: "Do not give sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids". The words "Do not give sleep to your eyes" are said to the soul; "nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may be saved like a gazelle from the nooses and like a bird from the snare". And the Apostle too says to you: "Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead". It is good, then, to be awake at every time, "so that you may be able, he says, to escape the stumbling blocks that are about to come." But "those senseless in heart" are not like this; "they slept", you see, "their sleep and found nothing". For no one who sleeps finds anything. If you wish to find, keep awake, so that Jesus may not say to you: "Were you not able to keep awake one hour with me? Keep awake and pray, that you may not enter into temptation".
"They slept", then, the sinners, "their sleep, and all the men of wealth found nothing in their hands". Just as Scripture names certain people "men of blood" and calls others "men of lawlessness", so understand certain people as "men of wealth". And who are the men of wealth, if not those devoted to this wealth on the ground? They are devoted to what is truly blind, because they wish to amass it even when they do not have it. All who are men of wealth, then, "slept their sleep, and found nothing". If we wish to find something and not be numbered among the "men of wealth who find nothing", let us not heap up wealth, nor traffic in bodily wealth. Would that one could do what is said to the perfect man: "Go, sell your possessions and give alms to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me".
But if you are not able to do such a thing, then wish for nothing. For those who wish to be rich fall into temptation and many snares, harmful to the foolish, which plunge men into ruin and destruction. "For the love of money is the root of all evil; reaching after it, some have made shipwreck concerning the faith". "But you, O man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness". Do not seek wealth, lest what is said come to pass: "they slept" wealth and "their sleep", and "all the men of wealth found nothing in their hands".
6. "At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, those mounted on horses slumbered". In many places Scripture figuratively calls the body a horse, for example: "A horse is false for salvation". For the flesh profits nothing, and "the flesh desires against the spirit", and "these in chariots and these in horses, but we shall be magnified in the name of the Lord our God". For the Gentiles and those estranged from the worship of God had put their trust in bodily things, but the righteous man will not multiply horses for himself, that is, bodily things. The body, then, is called a horse.
"At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, those mounted on horses slumbered". Another before me observed, and observed well, that "to mount a horse" and "to be a horseman" are not the same, nor are "to be a rider" and "to be a horseman". The Egyptian, then, was not a horseman but a rider: "horse and rider he threw into the sea". Because he did not mount the horse with skill, he will fall. But there is one who has mounted the body with skill, who rules its pleasures and leads the body wherever he wishes, and who holds the reins of its appetites so that it is not carried off into the flesh-gnawing appetites. This man is not a rider like the Egyptian but a horseman like Elijah: "like the chariot of Israel and its horseman", it is said of Elijah. For he was not a rider but a horseman, who had mounted the horse with skill.
"At your rebuke", then, "O God, those mounted on horses slumbered": when you have rebuked them, bodily things are weighed down, are put out of themselves, and slumber, since they cannot bear your rebukes. But let us pray that, even if God rebukes us, we may confess, accept the rebukes, and say: "We have sinned, we have acted lawlessly, we have acted impiously; 'you are fearful, and who will withstand' before your face?"
7. "From then", from the mountain, "your wrath": from then, and not from today, does the wrath begin. Rather, the wrath remains from the time we sin, and what is called the wrath of God is a resentment that remains until the appointed time. Scripture says: "He will not be angry to the end, nor will he hold resentment forever". For if there were no resentment, how would we receive back the sins committed today after years, when the judgment takes place, whether two hundred or three hundred years? And how do those who sinned many generations ago receive back what they sinned after a thousand years? There is, then, something that corresponds to what is called "the wrath of God" and to what is called "the anger of God", that is, also his "resentment". It is good to quench this, as far as we are able, by good works, and to stop it by the works that come from repentance. For sin gathers and builds up wrath; hear Paul saying: "Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath".
Therefore my sin stores up wrath for me, but repentance dissolves the store of wrath.
8. "From heaven you made judgment heard": the matter of judgment is not earthly but heavenly. From heaven the teaching about judgment has been made audible to us; and in Deuteronomy too it is written: "From heaven his voice became audible". "The earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgment". And the earth fears at the time when the judgment takes place; and "it feared and was still when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth". This is the most paradoxical thing: that we should achieve meekness while still on earth, while still in the body, and should put a stop to anger and cease from wrath. "Cease from wrath and forsake anger!" We must, then, as far as we are able, not be overcome by this foul passion, which is the opposite of the meekness that is called blessed. We must stand firm against anger and not allow it to throw us into turmoil and move us, so that what is written in Proverbs may not come upon us: "Wrath destroys even the prudent". For this passion is so grievous that even the prudent are destroyed by wrath. He did not say "Fornication destroys even the prudent", nor did he say "Love of money destroys even the prudent", but wrath. For this passion reaches almost everyone, and I venture to say that the one who will achieve freedom from wrath is rare.
"For the thought of man will confess to you, and the remnant of thought will keep festival to you". There are certain thoughts of ours: there are thoughts of sin and there are thoughts of righteousness. So "the thought of man will confess" (ἐξομολογήσεται) to God. Either it will give thanks, or, because it has sinned, it will make the confession of the thought; "the remnant", he says, "of thought will keep festival to you".
"Vow and pay to the Lord your God": vow vows to God and pay them, once they have become worthy of God. "All those around him will bring gifts to the Fearful One". He said that the righteous are "around" God not in a spatial sense, but because they are always about God. As if standing as a chorus, all who stand "around you will bring gifts to you, the Fearful One". Those who are far from the Lord and God cannot bring gifts.
Bringing "gifts to the Fearful One", they bring them "also to him who takes away the spirits of rulers". Of what "rulers"? Or is it those of whom it is said: "The kings of the earth stood by and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ"? It is those of whom it is written: "Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect, yet a wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being abolished; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which none of the rulers of this age has known; for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory". How, then, does God take away the spirits of these rulers? Or perhaps these rulers, whenever they wound our souls, fill us with their own spirit, the spirit of the rulers?
Therefore "vow and pay to the Lord God", and "all those around him will bring gifts to the Fearful One and to him who takes away the spirits of rulers". Would that he might take away from us too the spirit "of the rulers of this age", so that we may give place to the Holy Spirit of God and to the Spirit of Christ, to whom belong the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.
On the 75th Psalm, Homily 1