Homilies on the Psalms — Homily 18 — Psalm 77 (LXX; MT 78), Homily I: vv. 1–8
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. 351–366. Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the 77th Psalm, Homily 1
1. We often say that the psalms entitled "of understanding" turn the hearer, by their title, to inquire into what is said in the psalm as needing interpretation and explanation, because dark sayings and riddles and parables are contained in every psalm where "of understanding" is written. This has indeed happened here too: for it is entitled "of understanding, for Asaph", and immediately there is said in it: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter problems from the beginning". And one must know this too, that Matthew made mention of the letter. For, writing about the Savior that he spoke in parables, he said: "so that there might be fulfilled the word: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter problems from the beginning", that is, "from the foundation of the world". Matthew paraphrased in such words the letter, which is stated thus here, and a scribal error has occurred in the copies of the Gospel: "For so that", he says, "what was spoken by Isaiah might be fulfilled: I will open my mouth in parables". For it is likely that one of those who copied it at the beginning did not notice that Asaph is a prophet. Finding "so that what was spoken by Asaph might be fulfilled", he supposed that it was an error, and because the prophet's name was strange he dared to put Isaiah instead of Asaph.
And in general it must be said that the devil lays plots against the living and wishes to scatter the churches, and devises heresies and schisms every day, and moreover breeds countless stumbling blocks among men. It is no wonder if he lays plots against the Scriptures too. For since our salvation is through them, he contrives that disagreement should arise in the Scriptures, so that through the disagreement a stumbling block may arise for those who read: to which should one hold, this one or that one? And all that we have done through God and his grace, examining together both the Hebrew and the versions in order to see the correction of the errors, he knows. And all that we wish to do also regarding what remains, he himself will bring to a good end.
This, however, one must know: if ever something from Scripture is put forward as a contradiction, let us not think that there are contradictions. Let us know that either we do not understand, or a scribal error has occurred. For example, we found a plain disagreement in the third book of Kingdoms. For it is written there that "Rehoboam was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned twelve years over Jerusalem", and again: "He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned the seventeen years over Jerusalem". But it is impossible that the same man took up the rule at sixteen years and reigned for seventeen. And if much examination had not taken place, as we examined these readings together with the other versions, we would have thought that there was a conflict among the things written, whereas we found that one of them had been written in alongside.
The devil, then, lays plots against the Scriptures too, but that is no reason for us to be bold and come rashly to correcting them. For Marcion too suffered something of this kind. He supposed that the Scriptures had been corrupted and that interpolations had been made by the devil, and so he permitted himself to correct Scripture. And having permitted it, he removed from their foundations the essential parts of the Gospels, the birth of the Savior, and countless other things, both visions and prophecies, and the essential parts of the Apostle. Therefore it is reasonable for the one who has faith in him who made heaven and earth and the things in them, not so much because of the Scriptures as because of the world and the order in it, and who believes in Christ Jesus, not so much from the readings as from the evidence of the power of the churches, from the greatness of the strength of him who has prevailed over the inhabited world, then to come to the writings, and after this again to ask grace from God, so that we may not misinterpret what is written.
For much death has entered into souls on the pretext of the writings. Every heresy draws its impious notions from the writings and thinks to establish them from them: from Gospels, from apostles, and some heresies from the law, from prophets. I do not say these things accusing the Scriptures. I wish that the primary faith should rest not so much on Scripture as on the demonstration that is more evident than Scripture, and the demonstration more evident than Scripture is heaven, earth and the things in it. I remember that, when I was disputing with the followers of Marcion, I said: "Two things are set before us: to believe Scripture with reference to the Father, as you say, or to believe the world and its order with reference to the Creator. Which ought one rather to do? For even if Scripture did not contain these things, it would have been reasonable for one who came into the world and saw its order to have believed in the Creator rather than to hold such notions about God as you have supposed." And what is said is truly able, as it seems to me, to strike the one who seeks a more evident demonstration rather than an inferior one. A more evident demonstration is to see heaven, the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, stars, earth and the living creatures on the earth, and their king, man, who is on the earth adorned with so many arts; to marvel at him who made these things, and to receive the herald of such teaching, Jesus Christ our Savior. And this is said by way of defense, because in the Gospel according to Matthew it is written: "so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter problems from the beginning".
2. As it is our custom with the psalms and the prophecies to inquire what the speaking person is, so here too we must inquire who the speaker is. Now if he had not come who says in the Gospel according to Matthew, "so that there might be fulfilled" the prophecy that says: "I will open my mouth in parables", I would have been in doubt whether I ought to take of the Savior the words "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter problems from the beginning". For because of what follows I would have hesitated to refer to the Savior what is written next: "All that we have heard and known, and our fathers declared to us, was not hidden from their children, to another generation, declaring the praises of the Lord", and so on. For these things seem not to befit the dignity of the Savior: "I will utter problems from the beginning" and "all that we have heard and known".
For the Savior did not come to know by hearing, nor did he learn from fathers. For no one among those who are begotten is teacher of the Teacher of all, about whom it is written: "Do not call anyone guide upon the earth, for the Christ is the one guide". If the Savior makes use of a teacher, as indeed he does, he will make use neither of men nor of angels nor of archangels, nor of the Holy Spirit himself. For he has as his teacher the one who surpasses all, the Father himself, of whom he says: "As I hear, I judge, and the judgment is not mine but of the Father who sent me". So our Savior and Lord has as his teacher the Father and God of the universe.
I, then, would not have dared to refer to the Savior what is written, because of "all that we have heard and known, and our fathers declared to us", had Matthew not said that the psalm is from the person of the Savior. But since Matthew says these things, what shall I do? Shall I say that the whole psalm is of the Savior's person, or that these words are of the Savior, but that in what follows there has been a change of person? For indeed in many places several persons speak within a single psalm.
And for the sake of example it suffices to take, in connection with the Savior, the thirty-first psalm: "Blessed are they whose acts of lawlessness are forgiven and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin, nor is there deceit in his mouth". And this person who says "Blessed are they whose acts of lawlessness are forgiven" is rather that of a teacher, and it can be spoken from the person of the prophet, or by the Holy Spirit, or by Christ. But let us see how in what follows the person admittedly changes: "I made known my sin and did not cover my lawlessness. I said: I will declare my lawlessness against myself to the Lord. For this every holy one will pray at a fitting time; but in a flood of many waters they will not come near to him. You are my refuge from the affliction that surrounds me; my exultation, redeem me from those who have encircled me. I will give you understanding and instruct you in this way in which you shall go". But plainly the one who says "I will give you understanding and instruct you in this way in which you shall go" is God. And the one who says "I made known my lawlessness and did not cover my sin" is a man confessing his own transgressions. Observe also, in the psalm where it is said: "I have made firm its pillars", how the whole psalm cannot be from the person of God nor from the person of Christ. This, then, is customary within a single psalm: sometimes the speaking person is not one but several. And if this happens in some psalms, we must inquire whether here too something similar is to be understood.
"Attend, my people, to my law": it lies in the authority of the speaker to say "my people", and the prophet would not have said: "Attend, my people, to my law". It is the voice of the Lord saying: "my law". "Incline your ear to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter problems from the beginning". If it is not several who would say all these things (for "I will open" and "my mouth" and "my law" and "I will utter" are said by one), yet what follows is no longer said by one but by several. So the person has changed: "All that we have heard and known, and our fathers declared to us, was not hidden from their children to another generation". Clearly one began to speak, but next it is no longer one but several who speak. Hold fast, then, both to this, that the Savior is the one speaking, as Matthew recorded, and to this, that the Savior does not speak through the whole psalm. Rather, the prophetic person says some things about him and about those from the people, or simply a multitude and a church says what follows. So much, then, for clarifying the speaking person.
3. Let us hear it word by word: "Attend, my people, to my law". "Appoint a lawgiver over them, let nations know that they are men": so the Spirit in the prophet prays in the ninth psalm, while the law according to Moses was in force, that he may raise up a lawgiver for the nations. For our Savior, when he was to come and dwell among us, was not going to subject us to the law of the servant. For if I had been saved by the law of the servant, and that law was sufficient, concerning which it is written: "Remember the law of Moses my slave", what further need is there of the coming of Christ? I have a legislation, I live as a citizen according to it, I have no need of another legislation. But now the God and Father of the universe saw that the fitness of the times demanded the laying down of legislations and of dealings. He began with the legislation through Moses; but in the time of Moses he gave an indication, and at the coming of Christ he laid down other, more useful laws for those from the nations, having done this even before.
For those before Moses were also saved without reading the law of Moses; for neither were they circumcised on the eighth day. Even if the Jews force the point, neither Enoch nor Abel did the letters of the law and all that is written in Leviticus. Rather, in each generation there were the things that fitted the times and saved those who wished to be saved. He therefore did not permit the law that was given to the sons of Israel, who lived as citizens according to it, to be given to those from the nations. For even if the sons of Israel wish to live as citizens according to the law of Moses, whatever they may do, they cannot. Let them keep the Passover in the place which the Lord chose; but it is not permitted to them. Let them stone the adulterer; but in the matter of stoning they are under those who reign. And other things too are written about purifications, if indeed those things purify; but it does not happen. Those under the law of Moses are not purified, but are under a curse.
It is clear, then, that my Lord came as a lawgiver for the nations, according to what was said by the prophets, and according to what was said also by Jeremiah, who says: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish upon the house of Israel and upon the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers". And elsewhere it is said: "I will give them another heart, to fear me, and another way". Did he then give another way and not give another heart? But the Jews, quibbling, say that these things are said with reference to the age to come. But we shall say to them: "to fear me". If, then, we are to take it of the age to come as well, "to fear me" means to fear now, if we are to be perfected so as not to fear; for "perfect love", you see, "casts out fear". If the one who fears has punishment, we shall have to fear there too; for it is possible for us to fall into punishment even after blessedness. So fear cannot be a pedagogue there, nor useful; there is always love. And that fear cannot then be useful, hear Paul saying: "Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute, fear to whom fear, custom to whom custom, honor to whom honor". But what must be rendered, this he commands us to owe, saying: "Owe no one anything, except to love one another".
4. But I remember that these things are said to Christians, while the earlier things were said to those others. For we are not mad, that we should bring Paul's letters before them to shame them. If, then, my Savior says: "Attend, my people, to my law", he speaks to Christians, for Christians are the people of Christ. And he says: "Attend to my law, no longer to that of Moses; be circumcised no longer, keep the sabbath no longer, walk no longer according to the first things and according to the old": "behold, new things have come, the ancient things have passed away". But listen too, "you little women laden with various sins", and see how the Savior says: "Attend, my people, to my law".
For if you attend to the law as the people of Christ, do not again make unleavened bread whenever the days of Unleavened Bread arrive; rather, make unleavened bread of sincerity, make unleavened bread of truth. If you attend to the law, do not again keep the Jewish fast, for which those who have not understood the day of atonement are rightly cast out of the church of Christ. For the day of atonement long ago, when they fasted, was the typical day of atonement. The true one is when my Lord Christ Jesus was crucified for the world, "the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". The day of atonement, then, has taken place in me too, and I no longer need fasting: "the sons of the bridechamber cannot fast as long as the bridegroom is with them". If you wish to fast in the Jewish manner, your bridegroom has been taken away, according to what was said: "When the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they fast in those days". If you wish to fast, fast a Christian fast. The lawgiver of the nations taught it, saying: "When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face and pray to your Father who is in secret, so that you may not appear to men to be fasting".
There is, then, a legislation of Christ, about which Christ says: "Attend, my people, to my law", meaning the law according to the Gospel. Knowing these things and understanding the difference between old and new ordinances, the holy Apostle of Christ Jesus says: I have become "to those without law as one without law, not being without law toward God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those without law". For if someone becomes "under the law of Christ", he does not become "without law" toward "God", but is "under the law of Christ", since God appointed him; the lawgiver is under the law of God. For the one under the law of Moses, before the coming of Christ, was not "without law toward God", even if he seemed to obey the law of Moses, for the law of Moses was a law of God. Just so, the one who is "under the law of Christ", ordained by the Father, has been given to the nations: "In many portions", then, "and in many ways God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets, in the last of these days has spoken to us in a Son".
5. Next to "Attend, my people, to my law" is said "Incline your ear to the words of my mouth". But we must also consider, more simply, the difference on this very point, if through your prayers we are able to grasp it. We shall say, explaining Scripture more clearly and distinctly, that the perfect man attends both to law and to the word. For no one is perfected in law alone without also taking up the word of wisdom and knowledge, nor can the word of wisdom come to be in someone who has not first fulfilled the law rightly. For this reason in Isaiah too, first "out of Zion shall go forth a law", and second also "a word of the Lord from Jerusalem". And in one of the Twelve we are commanded, for the sake of being perfected, to do both: both to live well and to seek the word. The wording runs thus: "Sow for yourselves unto righteousness, gather the vintage unto the fruit of life", and next to these, "light for yourselves a light of knowledge".
So too our Savior and Lord, in setting the order of his teaching, did not begin from parables nor from mysteries, but as it were from legislation and teaching. "On the mountain, having opened his mouth, he taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven", and so on. And all those things were not a parable but a word, or, as is likely, things about which it might be said: "Attend, my people, to my law". After those things, leaving a little interval, Matthew recorded the parables, so that there might be fulfilled, on the one hand, "Attend, my people, to my law", which refers to the legislation of the moral part; and on the other, "Incline your ear to the words of my mouth", which refers to his teaching of them through the parables, which he explains more clearly, saying: "I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter problems from the beginning".
Admire, then, the order too: he did not say first: "Incline your ear to the words of my mouth". For the first lesson is to learn the law of Christ Jesus: let us see how one must live according to it. The second lesson, if you have the law, if you live according to it, is if, seeking the word and wisdom, you make progress in them. And elsewhere it is wonderfully written: "Having desired wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord will supply it to you". If, then, before keeping the commandments we come to the search for the mystical things, not walking on the way, we necessarily go astray.
This has been the cause of the heresies coming into existence. For they sought, and I bear them witness that they toiled in seeking; but they did not seek on the way, nor did they seek purely. If they had sought rightly, they would first have set their morals right, they would first have been confirmed in faith. Then, after setting their morals right and making progress in this way, they would have come to theology and to the search for the deeper and more mystical things. But as it is, they did not lay the foundation of their way of life and came to the deeper search, and so they have given room to the evil one to sow false words in their souls.
Let us not pass over "Incline your ear to the words of my mouth" either. We cannot incline this ear to "the words of the mouth" of Christ. For Christ is not perceptibly present speaking words, so that by inclining this ear we might fulfill the commandment that says here: "Incline your ear to the words of my mouth". But there is another ear in us, concerning which the Savior says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear". That ear one must not keep far from Christ, but must incline it to him and bring that ear to the Word. That ear is the one which the apostles inclined to the words of the mouth of Christ. That is why he said to them: "What you have heard in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops".
Let us not pass over this either: "Attend, my people, to my law". He did not say "the laws" but "my law", to declare that all is one legislation and all is one law, and that it is not possible to separate the law from law. For they are not many; one is the law by which one lives, just as a single person lives by the law of Christ.
"I will open my mouth in parables": having opened his mouth, he taught them there, speaking before any parable. The moral things were what he taught, so that "Attend, my people, to my law" might be fulfilled; but here, later, so that "I will open my mouth in a parable" might be fulfilled. What we said about the law will fit the parable too. It is not said "I will open my mouth in parables", as some of the copies of Matthew have it, but "I will open my mouth in a parable". For since all things converge into one, there is one parable, as all is one law.
6. "I will utter problems from the beginning": among those who pursue Greek philosophy there are certain problems which they set before those who are about to study, so that these may go over them, whether those who teach or those who test those who display those lessons. In the same way there are certain problems of Scripture too. What are these? How did three days come to be when neither sun nor moon nor stars had been created? For it is recorded by Moses that the luminaries and the stars came into being on the fourth day. Again, among the "problems" that are "from the beginning": how was there "darkness over the abyss, and the Spirit of God over the water", and why not the Spirit of God over the abyss and the darkness over the water? This too is a "problem" of those "from the beginning". And if anyone knows how to question the things of Scripture wisely, he will find the "problems" that are "from the beginning". When, then, the Savior says: "I will utter problems from the beginning", hear him saying: "I will make clear 'the problems from the beginning'". For it was "privately" that "he explained everything to his own disciples", all the problems, and spoke to them the word about God. Those were the problems about which he taught, making them clear to the disciples. It is these that John hints at when he says: "I do not think the world itself would contain the books that would be written".
For suppose that all that the Savior spoke about God to the disciples had come to be written down: the world would not have borne it, but would have suffered some earthquake and upheaval. For it is said that the earth will be shaken and the heaven astonished by the divine words. And if we must state the cause of the earthquake that occurred at the Savior's passion and of the eclipse of the sun, we shall say that since the greatness of his prayer to the Father was extraordinary, it moved both the elements and the world. There truly were such things spoken by the Savior, which often remained unspoken because the world would be disturbed at them. And the saints, at any rate, intercede with God with unspoken groanings, perhaps unspoken for this reason, so as not to move the world. For Paul too, when he was to hear unspeakable words, did not hear them on earth, for the earth would have trembled and been shaken. And I will say more boldly: he did not hear them even in the air, he did not hear them in the first heaven, he did not hear them even in the second heaven. For all these created things would have been shaken, if the unspeakable words had been spoken to him while he was in these created things. For this reason, when he was to hear the sacred and unspeakable teachings, he was caught up as far as the third heaven. This is said on account of "I will utter problems from the beginning": he uttered the problems and solved them for the disciples, but they have not been written down, for the writing of them was not expedient for the world.
7. These, then, are the things spoken by the Savior, and the apostles and all his disciples answer him. And from their person this is said: "All that we have heard and known", that is: "We know other teachings, 'all that we have heard'. As 'we have heard, we have known'. 'Our fathers recounted' them to us before you came, and these things were announced to us". "And our fathers recounted to us; it was not hidden from their children to another generation". For they taught those after them, and they were "declaring the praises of the Lord".
What follows is this: "And our fathers recounted to us, it was not hidden from their children, to another generation, declaring the praises of the Lord and his mighty deeds and his wonders which he did". They too declared to us "the praises of the Lord", they too declared "his mighty deeds and his wonders which he did", when "he raised up a testimony in Jacob", God did, "and set a law", before "your law came".
For the one says: "Attend, my people, to my law", but we hear of an earlier law, and: "he set a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers". But if he commanded a law to them, while you say: "Attend, my people, to my law", we declare that we are treating of two laws, in order "to make them known to their sons". For to this end he commanded the fathers, that they should make them known to their sons, "so that another generation might know, sons that are to be born". Thus to the people that is to be born, which the Lord made, Christ declares the great deeds of the Father.
"And they shall rise up and declare to their sons, sons that are to be born": the people that is to be born rises from the dead and says: "We were buried with Christ through baptism", and we rose with him. And having risen, this one does not walk about. Each one therefore declares to his sons, "that they may set their hope on God and not forget the works of God", both those of old and those at the coming of Christ.
"And that they may seek out his commandments": one seeks out the commandment both by understanding it and by doing it, "that they may not become as their fathers". For those fathers before us were not faithful. For "all our fathers", you see, "were under the cloud, and all into Moses" were baptized, "but with most of them God was not well pleased". I wish, then, to learn, "so that we may not become as our fathers". That "crooked generation", especially because of the plot against the Savior, "and embittering", and bearing the marks of having embittered: "a generation which did not set its heart aright". Let us learn the things about them and the reproaches against them, so that from learning we too may set our heart aright and not become like them, about whom it is written: "its spirit was not faithful with God". For the spirit of that generation was not faithful with God; it did not keep the covenant with God. But let us pray, having taken up the spirit of peace, to be faithful with God, in Christ Jesus, to whom belong the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.