Homilies on the Psalms — Homily 15 — Psalm 76 (LXX; MT 77), Homily II: vv. 11–16
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. 313–325. Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint. This English translation is released into the public domain.Of the Same 76th Psalm, Homily 2, Extempore
1. The one who lives according to God, often while still in the opening stages of the life according to God, thinks he has made the beginning of living as one ought to live. But when, having understood how the opening differs from the life according to God, he comes after the opening onto the road of the life according to God, he recognizes that before he seemed to be beginning, but had not begun, and that only later did he learn what the beginning is; and he says: "Now I have begun". If this too must be made clearer to the hearers by an example, let us attend to what is about to be said. Often someone has given himself to godliness according to Christ, and at the beginning of having given himself, either because on his own he did not understand the manner in which one ought to be godly, or because he fell in with teachers who were not skilful, he seems to be godly according to Christ, yet is not yet godly in the manner he ought. When later, having sought, he finds (being benefited by God, he receives or has the good fortune of teachers who guide well), then, after spending a long time in seeming to be in godliness, he truly comes to godliness and will say: "Now I have begun".
For instance, someone wished to become a Christian, coming from a Gentile life, but fell in with an Ebionite who taught him to keep the letter of the law. This man lived for a time in Ebionism, practising Judaism while thinking he was practising Christianity. Later, when God had benefited him, he learned that "the law has a shadow of the good things to come", and that those things are not the true mysteries. Having learned, after his toil in Ebionism, what the way is that is not figurative but true, and knowing that he did not have the true way, he would say, even if he had spent a long time in what seemed godliness, when he began to live according to the truth: "Now I have begun".
From this example pass on to the matter itself as well, seeing that similar things happen in many cases. For beginnings above all, not appearing clearly, as though they came out of the darkness and ignorance present in the soul, make a person live confusedly. After the long time of living confusedly, as clarity gradually appears, one comes to living according to the Spirit of God; and having lived so, when he perceives what true godliness is, he says: "So my former things were vain, for later I knew the truth, and 'now I have begun'."
Thus let someone who has grown old in Judaism and has not understood Christianity, who thought he had been pious toward God, grasp that those things were not piety but a figure of piety, and let him, having become a Christian, say: "Now I have begun". Thus let someone who had earlier been in virtue and teaching, and thought he was worshipping God, come to the word of truth and say: "Now I have begun". Thus let someone who formerly lived in a rather untaught way, because he had not understood the clarity of the truth, but later came to perceive the truth, live according to it and say: "Now I have begun". It is, then, the mark of a man already making progress, one who has understood that some things he formerly did, not by contemplation or by comprehension, but that now he has begun to live as a citizen, to say with understanding: "Now I have begun".
Something of this kind is also said to happen with the arts. For a long time those who are being introduced to the arts are confused, because they do not yet fully know the matters of the arts, and they do not have, so to speak, even the beginning of being in the art. But when they have been led around further through the matters of the arts, have spent more time on the introduction, and begin to understand clearly, often after two or three years of seeming introduction to the art, perceiving that they are only now beginning to be in the art, they say: "Now I have begun". If these things happen with the intermediate arts, and in matters of ignorance that have seized the soul beforehand, before knowledge, is it not likewise so that the beginning of the calling of each of us is somewhat confused, but that later, at some point, it comes to clarity, when the one who has perceived the clarity says: "Now I have begun"?
I have often heard believers who had spent a long time in the faith and had learned the mysteries of the faith confess, whenever they happened on a teacher who explained things clearly and well, saying: "'Now I have begun' to become a Christian; now for the first time I learn what Christianity is." They say this not because they utterly reject what came before, but because they see that before they did not understand the mysteries, while they have a beginning of understanding now that they have obtained good teaching. Let us too, then, try to become such that, through our progress in our disposition, we say: "Now I have begun".
2. But why "now I have begun"? Because "this" is "the change of the right hand of the Most High", and through this change I understand the words "now I have begun". I know no other "right hand of the Most High" than my Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. For he is the right hand of God, Christ Jesus. When he was "in the form of God" he had not been changed, but was what he was. But when, "not thinking it robbery to be equal to God, he emptied himself", he was changed, so that through that change of the right hand, and (if I may call it so) through its transformation and humbling into human affairs, we human beings might be benefited and helped.
As long, then, as I, though godly, did not understand "the change of the right hand of the Most High", when I was partaking of it, I seemed to be pious, but I had not yet even begun. But when "the change of the right hand of the Most High" took place in me, "now I have begun". For instance, someone who was brought up among the Jews and did not yet know the things concerning my Lord Jesus Christ seems to live according to the law of Moses. After spending a long time in it, he later understood the mystery concerning Christ Jesus, and having received it, let him say: "The things before his coming were not true but figurative. But since he has come, being the right hand of God and having been changed, and I am beginning to live according to his teaching, for this reason I count the former things to be loss, 'now', however, 'I have begun'; 'the things that were gains to me, these I have counted loss'. Indeed, I count all these things to be loss because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the changed right hand of the Most High."
3. But when "did I begin"? When the right hand of the Most High had been changed. And when was that? When "I remembered the works of the Lord". For even if, earlier, before the right hand of the Most High was changed, I seemed to be occupied with the works of the Lord, I did not understand Israel and did not remember the works of the Lord; but later I remembered the works of the Lord. To take an example: I used to read that the hand of Moses was stretched out, and while it was stretched out Israel prevailed, and when the hand of Moses was let down Amalek prevailed. But reading this work I did not understand it; later, however, I knew that the text refers to the mystery of Christ. "I remembered the work of the Lord", and I see that all "these things" happened "figuratively" to "them, but were written for our sakes, on whom the ends of the ages have come". And I see that "all the fathers were under the cloud, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed, and the rock was Christ".
And seeing why these things happened then and of what they were symbols, "I remembered the works of the Lord", and I examine each of them, how it came about, and I say: "that I will remember from the beginning your wonders". For I unroll and examine all the Scriptures from the beginning of the making of the world, and I see all the mysteries of Christ: "For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh". Those words were not about Adam and Eve; rather, "this mystery is great", and one wiser than I says: "but I speak with reference to Christ and to the church". I read of Abraham and two wives, Sarah who was barren and Hagar the maidservant, and of a child born first from the maidservant and after that from the free woman by the promise of God. When, reading the text, I know nothing but the narrative, I have not yet "remembered the works of the Lord" God. But when I understand "which things are spoken allegorically; for these are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar", and the rest, then I say: "I will remember from the beginning your wonders, and I will meditate in all the works" of God.
4. Whatever is done well is God's. For instance, good words are God's, for no one speaks his own things well; rather, he speaks the things of God. Words, even if they come out of my mouth, are not mine but God's if they are irreproachable and divine, so that I may boldly say: "Or do you seek a proof of the Christ who speaks in me?" Just so, if I act well, so as to choose all the works of the word of God and have them always accomplished according to God's commandment, it is God's. Chastity too is God's, for it is a gift, and so it is not mine to achieve chastity. Hear the saying: "But I wish all men to be as I myself am; but each has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that". If, then, it is a gift of God, chastity is not mine. And these oracles are God's as well; for if someone speaks the oracles of God, they are not his, especially if he is one who acts well: "he who shares, in simplicity; he who presides, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness". The Apostle describes these as gifts; and if they are gifts, all these are works of God.
What, then, is meant by "I will meditate in all your works", if not plainly: "by doing your works I will meditate"? And blessed indeed is this meditation, when someone meditates not in speech or in petty phrases but "in all the works of God, and in your doings I will discourse". When someone reading the divine Scripture finds "Thus says the Lord Almighty," or "he did these things," or "God killed these men," or God "hurled hailstones", as God did on certain people in Joshua, he discourses by examining God's doings. If, then, you wish to discourse, discourse; yet seek with God the doings of God and discourse on them, keeping also that law which says: "You shall speak of them sitting in the house, walking on the road, lying down, rising up". Let your conversation not be worldly: not what the horses have done, not what the charioteer did or achieved, not what took place in the theater, not how the governor of the province judged. All these things are foreign to the commandment which says: "Open your mouth with a word of God". And opening your mouth with a word of God, take courage and say: "In" all "your doings I will discourse". "O God, in the holy one is your way".
5. What is "the way" of God that leads to God, if not he who said: "I am the way and the truth and the life"? Where is the way of God? In the holy one, if you are holy, keeping the commandment which says: "You shall be holy, for I am holy, the Lord your God". A most paradoxical thing: his way is in you. Just as the kingdom of God is not outside us (for I trust my Savior when he says: "The kingdom of God is within you"), so too the way. If we travel it, it is within us. Let it be about the soul. For God forbid that the way should be outside us, that the life, the resurrection, the true light should be outside me! Rather, may all these things, which Christ is, be in me, so that this too may be true: "O God, in the holy one is the way" that is his. "Who is a great god like our God?" "You are the God", ours, "who works wonders".
With whom does he set him side by side, and with whom does he compare him, when he says: "Who is a god like our God?" If he says it with reference to the idols, then even the idols are already blessed, since God is compared with them, even if they are defeated by him. But far be it from us to say that "Who is a god like our God?" is said with the idols being compared to God. One of those before us found fault with Jethro, and rightly, for saying: "Now I know that the Lord is great above all the gods", because he thought he was saying something about God by comparing him with idols, having no notion of any gods other than these. When, then, Scripture says, "Who is a great god like our God?" we must examine about whom the text speaks, about whom else it speaks, and with what God is being compared when it is said: "Who is a great god like our God?"
First we must observe what the Apostle says, in the way he says somewhere: "If indeed there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods". But take care, O catechumen, that you do not stumble, thinking that Christians too speak of many gods, and so run back to the idols. For hear the Scripture of God saying: "All the gods of the nations are demons". But since he is ungrudging in his benefits, God says: "For I said: You are gods, and sons of the Most High, all of you". For Scripture says that if someone has received the word of God, he becomes a god. It also says: "God stood in the congregation of gods, and in the midst he will judge gods". If you have gathered as men, God is not in the congregation. But if this congregation is a congregation of gods, of those called gods because the word of God is in them and they do not walk as men, God is in such a congregation, and here is God, who "stood in the congregation of gods, and in the midst he will judge gods".
In one respect, one of these gods has a glory corresponding to the glory of the sun, another a glory corresponding to the glory of the moon, and another a glory corresponding to the glory of the stars. "For there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection" of the dead. I say these things to show that "God stood in the congregation of gods" and "I said: You are gods", so that from there I may pass over to the words: "Who is a great god like our God?"
For Abraham is a great god (if one must dare to say it this way), Isaac is a great god, Jacob is a great god. And those men were deified because God joined his own name, 'God,' to their name, saying: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob". Once he had said, "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob", he granted to Abraham too to be a god, since he comes to have a share in God's divinity. And if you come to the Savior and confess him as God (for he is God, since "in the beginning was the Word, and God was with God, and the Word was God"), do not hesitate to say that many righteous men are gods. And if the righteous, who will be equal to angels, are gods, much more the angels. I do not mean the demons; I do not mean the idols. For I am being careful because of what befits the word of God. But our Savior and Lord incomparably surpasses all these.
6. For since the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, then "who" indeed "is a great god like our God? You are the God who works wonders". Whether you take it of the Father, I see that he is "God who works wonders": the whole creation, the portents among the people, and the marvels in each generation. Or whether you take it of the Savior: you are God, Christ Jesus, who works wonders. You raised the dead, you made the blind see and the lame walk, and even today you do not cease working wonders. Let each of you consider from where he comes to the church of God, who he was, and to what kind of words he has come. Some of us were perhaps in the idol temples a few days ago, a few months ago, and now we are in the church of God. Is this not wonderful, that you, the idolater, the one who hated Christianity, who turned away from the word of God, now follow after Christ, already bound with the bonds of love, as the Scripture is fulfilled which says: "They will follow after you bound in manacles, and they will bow down to you and will pray in you"?
And if you understand that you, the fornicator, you, the adulterer, not only an idolater, you, the thief, you who seized what belonged to others, have now come to teachings that cleanse you, change you, and transform you from such great evils; and that you already perceive the change, that you are about to become temperate and righteous, prudent and courageous, then you have the courage to say that Christ Jesus, who did those things and is doing them now, has worked wonders in you too. If your body, being sick, was healed by Jesus, you marvelled that, being blind, you received your sight, or, being lame, you walked. But when you, paralysed in soul, lamed in your will, blinded in your thoughts, have now cast all these off and recovered the health of your will, you say: "You, the God who works wonders!"
7. To this God I also address the words: "You made known among the peoples your power". What power of his did he make known among the peoples? Christ. For Christ is "the power of God and the wisdom of God". And if Christ made his power known to us, how is it that "when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ"? The power of Jesus, then, is here, and with the power present you are all gathered, and we are united daily to this very power. "He" indeed "who is joined to the Lord is one spirit".
"You redeemed with your arm your people". The Savior stretched out his arm and redeemed his people from the hand of their enemies, gathered them from the lands, and redeemed "the sons of Jacob". But we must not understand "the sons of Jacob" to be the Jews. You are a son of Jacob rather than they. Indeed, to them, when they boasted that they were sons of Abraham, it is said: "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham". So by their works and by their unbelief in my God Jesus Christ they denied that they are sons of Abraham, and in the same way sons of Isaac, and in the same way sons of Jacob. But you, through the faith in which you imitated Abraham ("Abraham" indeed "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"), have become a son of Abraham, and so too of Isaac, and so too of Jacob.
And God redeemed "the sons of Jacob and Joseph". For having understood the lives of the fathers (of Jacob, of Joseph, of the other righteous men, of their sons), we pray to become imitators, so that by becoming their imitators we may become their sons. I will use yet one more saying from the Gospel, to show the faithful that not they but we are sons of Jacob and Abraham and Isaac: "For God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham". What stones? He points to you, the Gentile, the witless (ἠλίθιον), the insensible; and he truly prophesies about you that you, the stone, have become a son of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and of the other chosen, righteous patriarchs in Christ Jesus, to whom belong the glory and the might to the ages. Amen.
Extempore Piece 2 on the 76th Psalm