Homilies on the Psalms — Homily 29 — Psalm 81 (LXX; MT 82): the whole psalm (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. 509–523. Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the 81st Psalm, Homily 1
1. The goal for the disciple is that he become like the teacher, and the end of the servant is that he become like the lord, and "it is enough for the disciple that he become like the teacher, and the servant like the lord". It was for this that the Teacher came: that, as far as lay in him, he might make the disciples like himself. And the Lord has come among us, not to keep the servants, but to make the servants as he himself, the Lord, is. Now our Teacher is Christ Jesus, God; and if "it is enough for the disciple that he become like the teacher", the end of the disciple is that he become from Christ a christ, and from God a god, and that he learn from the light of the world. For all that the Savior is, he calls his disciples too: "You are the light of the world", he says to them, having himself first said: "I am the light of the world". And, being Christ, he says: "Do not touch my christ, and do no evil among my prophets".
This assembly, then, is an assembly not of men but "an assembly of gods", if we assemble genuinely, if we do not walk according to man, if we do not sow to the flesh, of which God says, "you reap corruption", and if we do not do the works of the flesh but the fruits of the Spirit. The devil can do nothing, but God comes to dwell among us, and he comes standing in the midst of the assembly of the gods. Therefore it has been said: "God stood in the assembly of gods". But what makes us men, so that, falling from divinity, we lose the gift that calls us to become gods? What makes men? Hear Paul speaking about the lesser sins: "For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and walking according to man?" And he adds: "Are you not men?" For does he not all but cry out there too and say: "The Word called you to be gods, but through this and that you are men"? And here too, then, he says well: "I said: You are gods and sons of the Most High, all", "but you". Such things, unworthy of divinity, do I see us doing! He adds and says, behold now: "like men you die, and like one of the rulers you fall". And when the gift of God comes to us, the gift that makes us gods, which we ought to receive with our whole soul, we who sin do not receive it; instead, casting out and thrusting away divinity, we receive the mind of the flesh, accomplishing the works of the flesh, and not "by the Spirit putting to death the deeds of the flesh", as we ought to do.
For when the deeds of the body have been put to death, so that there are no longer deeds of the body in us, then we have been deified. God the Word, if he comes to be in a soul, makes god the soul that has received him. For if "a little leaven leavens the whole lump", what must be said, not of a small and cheap leaven, but of the deifying leaven of the Word, other than that, once it comes to be in the soul, it leavens the whole lump of the man into divinity, and the whole man becomes god? "Like", you see, "is the kingdom of the heavens to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened". So then, the "three measures" are the spirit and the soul and the body of the man. The leaven came from the woman, the church, which received Christ; and this leaven, mingling with the three measures, leavened this whole lump and made the man become god wholly.
And it is no wonder if it deified the spirit in us, which has kinship with God, since the incorruptible Spirit is in all things. The wonder is that the soul has been deified, so that it no longer sins and no longer dies; for "the soul", after all, "that sins, it shall die". But more wonderful than all these is that it deified the body too, so that it is no longer flesh and blood, but becomes "conformed to the body of glory" of Christ Jesus, and, having been deified, is taken up in glory into heaven, according to what was said: "We shall be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord". We will have become gods, with the God who stands in the midst of our assembly, Jesus Christ.
2. God judges those outside; but those inside God does not judge. Instead he does something greater than judgment with those inside, if they are found to be gods. What is the greater thing? Hear the prophet saying: "God stood in the assembly of gods, and in the midst he distinguishes among gods". Suppose a king on a festive day wishes to reward each of those worthy of honor. We would not properly call such a thing "judgment" (κρίσις) but "distinction" (διάκρισις), for he might say, for example: "These hundred are worthy of honor from me. But these first two are worthy of the highest consulships, these eight, or however many they are, of second consulships, these, who are lower, of the higher procuratorships, and these, lower still than these, of the second procuratorships". And so he descends by honors to someone who is worthy of a lesser honor, to reward him not with these honors, but with an honor and a lesser mark of favor.
Picture something like this for me on the festive day of the recompense of the elect angels, which God renders to them. Picture for me, after the judgment, after the trial, after the sinners have been punished and all those things have come upon them, God taking to himself "the assembly of the gods" and taking it in order to distinguish among them: who is worthy to rise with the resurrection like that of the sun, who is worthy to rise with the resurrection like that of the moon, who are worthy of the resurrection like that of the brighter and more excellent stars, and who are worthy of that like stars that are lower but not the last, and who are worthy even of heaven itself, yet not to rise with the resurrection of stars that is dimmer and lower than the rest. When, then, these things take place, "God stood in the assembly of gods, and in the midst he distinguishes among gods".
3. It is the custom of God the Word, whenever he lifts us up and exalts us with the promises, to check us again because of our sins and to remind us that "these things have been said in promise to the worthy, but you are base". For example, it might be said to me: "You are unworthy of the promises; therefore I rebuke you for these or those sins". Something like this has happened here too. After "God stood in the assembly of gods, and in the midst he distinguishes among gods", a rebuke falls on those who are not "gods" but are "dying like men" in the midst of "the assembly of the gods", and these are the ones who deserve rebukes.
Let us listen, then, lest perhaps we be the ones who are not gods, in the midst of the assembly of the blessed, while gods of good conduct are with us, and it be said to us: "How long will you judge injustice and take the persons of sinners?" "Why," he says, "if you judge, do you judge unjustly, and in judging unjustly 'take the persons of sinners'? For if there are two being judged, a rich sinner and a righteous poor man, you take the person on account of the sinner's wealth and prefer the sinner to the one who is righteous but poor". And this sin is widespread among us wretched men. For we are accustomed to give preference to those who excel, not according to God but according to the world, and to despise and belittle those who excel according to God. As long, then, as we commit these sins, God says: "How long will you judge injustice and take the persons of sinners?"
Apart from what has been said, one can also give a more recondite account of this kind on "you take the persons of sinners". Those on the stage take on persons (πρόσωπα) for the plays they have rehearsed: now of a king, now of a servant, now of a woman, now of anyone whatever; and one can see the contestants in the theatrical contests taking on persons. Picture for me something like this happening on the stage of the world as well. For all of us who are contestants are always taking on persons. If we are blessed, we take on, as it were, the person of God and say: "I begot sons and raised them up, but they rejected me". Again, if we are righteous, we take on the person of Christ and, though we are men, we say: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which he anointed me; to preach good news to the poor he has sent me". So too a righteous man takes on an unjust person, according to what is written, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you harden your hearts". And one who is inspired by an angelic power takes on the person of a holy angel, like the one who says: "the angel of the spirit that speaks in me". So much for the better region.
But one can also see on the opposite side one man taking on the person of the devil, another the person of the antichrist, and another taking on the person of a demon. Or does the madman not seem to you to bear a person not his own? So too in the case of the passions there are energies at work that produce anger, grief, evil desire and those other sins. We take on, then, if we are angels, now the person of God, at another time the person of grief, and at another time the person of the spirit of fornication. And we men are always changing our persons: when we sin, according to the kinds of sins; when we do right and act better, according to the worth of the good that is done. To what end did it occur to me to say these things? Because of "you take the persons of sinners". If you wish to take on a person, take on the person of God, take on the person of Christ, and say: "Or do you seek proof of Christ who speaks in me?"
4. Because we are rebuked for our sins, in addition to the former words it is also said to us: "Judge the orphan and the poor man, and justify the lowly and the needy; rescue the needy and the poor man, deliver him from the hand of the sinner". You see, even the apostles, when they gave their right hands to one another, gave them on this condition, since the human race suffers from a certain contempt for the poor: that they should remember the poor, according to what is said in the Epistle to the Galatians. Constantly, then, Scripture at times says to us: "Judge for the orphan and justify the widow, and come and let us reason together", and elsewhere: "Judge the orphan and the poor man, and justify the lowly and the needy". Render, as it were, what is just to the lowly, to the needy: "rescue the needy and the poor man". If ever you see a needy man wronged, make the matter your own; since that man is wronged, stand by him. He is despised because of his poverty, yet the right is on his side. Often he has property, and the property is lost through the sluggishness of us who are able to stand up for him.
He also speaks about such people: "Justify the lowly and the needy; rescue the needy and the poor man, deliver him from the hand of the sinner". For this reason it is good that we deliver the needy and poor man from the hand of the sinner, since "with what measure we measure, it will be measured back to us". And by this measure God will deliver us, who are poor in relation to God. For he will say: "Since you rescued the needy man, I too rescue you; since you rescued the lowly man, I too rescue you. Before me all of you are lowly and all poor, men and the other powers". It is good, then, to stand by those who have no helper, so that in this too we may become sons of God. The most wise Judith says to him in prayer: "You are the God of the lowly, you are the helper of the lesser, the protector of the weak, the shelter of the despairing, the savior of those without hope, yes, yes, Lord God". What a thing it is, since these things are ascribed to God, to be zealous to become an imitator of God, that I may become a son of the Father who is in the heavens!
5. Then it is said about the sinners: "They did not know nor understand; they walk on in darkness". Those who walk through perceptible darkness, as when walking at night or in a lightless house, have their darkness outside. Even if they happen to be righteous (for they are enlightened within), they are darkened from without. But the sinners "walk on in darkness". What "darkness"? The darkness within, for within them there is darkness. If, then, "the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness"? Do you see that the Savior too saw that there is someone who has in himself the darkened light as darkness, a darkness far greater than darkness? We must, then, cast the darkness out from within. And we cast the darkness out of the soul if we listen to Jesus saying: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning". If the lamp burns in me, and I set it on the lampstand of "the tent" that is in me, "of witness" that is in me, in the places inaccessible to men, where the high priest alone has authority to enter, the darkness will flee. And it happened in "the tent of witness"; at that time there was darkness. "For burn," he says, "the lamp continually, 'from evening until morning', so that there may never be darkness in the tent". You too have a tent: "we who are in the tent groan, being burdened". Take pains, then, that this tent may always be lit. Take the five virgins, the senses that are in you, give them oil and light their torches, so that you may not walk in darkness like the sinners, of whom it is written: "They did not know nor understand; they walk on in darkness".
6. But if we do not turn back, it is said: "All the foundations of the earth shall be shaken". There is a foundation which is not on earth, nor a foundation of earth, but, if one must name it so, a foundation of heaven; for "no one can lay another foundation than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ". This foundation is not a foundation of earth but a foundation of heaven: "God by wisdom founded the earth, and prepared the heavens by understanding". We have it in Scripture that God founded the heavens too. There are, then, foundations, some of the earth and others of heaven. Christ Jesus is a foundation of heaven, and his imitators are foundations of heaven, of whom it is written: "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone", our Lord. Let this much, then, be said with regard to the word of truth and the mysteries of salvation.
But if you wish to see which are the foundations of the earth, look, I pray, at the words of the heretics and of those outside the church, and look at the words of the Jews who have not received Jesus Christ. Their foundations are all on earth, and when they are on earth, they speak from the earth; therefore the heavens do not hear them. "All", then, "the foundations of the earth shall be shaken", for all shall be overturned and all shall be rooted up. And who is it that shakes the foundations of the earth, if not he who has received the words of God? Let God say to me too: "Behold, I have put my words into your mouth". And if he says, "This I have said", then also what follows: "Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to root up and to dig down and to build and to plant": "to root up" every plant which the heavenly Father has not planted, "to dig down" the foundations of the earth, "to plant" God's field, "to build" God's building. All the foundations of the earth, then, shall be shaken, and made to quake, and dug down.
7. When these things have been said, he rebukes us yet again, after the one and only word spoken to the worthy, and says: "It is not that I have called some of you to be gods and have not called others. It is not that I want bishops and presbyters and deacons to be God's, but do not want you from among the people to be gods. No, 'I said: You are gods and sons of the Most High', not some but not others, but 'all' of you.
"Then, I said this — 'and Scripture cannot be broken' — that he to whom the word of God comes is 'god', and he becomes 'a son of the Most High'; but you die by the sins of men".
Therefore it is said: "But you die like men". And what death? He does not mean the common death, but the death that we die who bring about our own dying. Just as there are some who work bodily death for themselves (as Judas did in hanging himself, or those who throw themselves down cliffs, or those who take deadly poisons); so these too work death for themselves. But there, death comes even to those who do not work it. This death, the death of the soul, never comes involuntarily; unless we make death, death does not come. For "God", after all, "did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living; for he created all things that they might be". And just as Judas hanged himself, so all sinners work death for themselves.
No one compels you to commit fornication so that you die, but through committing fornication you die. No one compels you to defraud so that you die, but by doing this, by taking what belongs to others and not paying what is owed, you work death for yourself. No one makes you die, but through anger you destroy yourself, prudent though you are. He rebukes us, then, as men who work death for ourselves through sin, and says: "But you die like men". For, having been called to be gods, you yourselves, "like men", "die". When, after this teaching and training, someone again imitates the heathen life, what else has he done than die like a man?
And would that our evils had stopped at this, at our dying like men! The sin would have been moderate; but now we sin worse. And he adds the worse, saying: "and you fall like one of the rulers". That ruler too was once in heaven, he too was once a god. Since he sinned, he has fallen from heaven, as our Savior and Lord shows, saying: "I beheld Satan fallen like lightning from heaven". You too, then, just as he has fallen from heaven, you too fall from heaven. For you are in heaven when you believe in Christ, you are in heaven when you come to know God, and you are in heaven when you receive the Holy Spirit. When, then, after these lessons and the practice of self-control, living as citizens in heaven, you fall and sin, you die, imitating the ruler who fell from heaven.
But even if these things happen, and "you die like men and fall like one of the rulers", he who said these things is concerned to entreat God to raise up the fallen, to give life to the dying, and not to leave them in deadness. Therefore he prays and says: "Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit among all the nations". He says this because of Christ's coming. For of old God did not inherit among all the nations; his inheritance was in Judea alone. But when my Lord, Christ Jesus, came among us, then "he inherited among all the nations", and we are drawn into the lot of the saints, we who come forward to be drawn by God to our Lord Christ Jesus. Therefore let us too entreat God. Even if we have fallen, let us say, even if we have died, let us say: "Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit among all the nations", through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.