Изъяснение псалма 64-го.

Ps.64:1. To the head of the choir. Psalm of David for singing. “In the end, a psalm to David, a song of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, a people of exile, when you want to go.” These words: “the song of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the people of exile, when they were about to depart,” are appended to some copies, but they are not in the Hebrew, nor are they found in other translators, not even in the seventy exapla. And it seems that someone added this inscription without delving into the thought of the psalm and without studying the history. For, firstly, Jeremiah did not participate in the captivity, but, having received permission to live where he wanted, he chose to stay in his fatherland. Moreover, this psalm is not appropriate for those who go into captivity, but for those living in captivity. Being far from their fatherland and wanting to sing praises to God, but condemned by the law to do this (for they reasoned: “How shall we sing the song of the Lord in foreign lands” (Ps. 137:4) in Babylon they said, begging God: “A song befits you, O God, in Zion, and prayer will be given to you in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer: to you is all flesh will come." And all the sayings of the psalm were appropriate for those living in Babylon. Desiring a return, they offered up this song to God. The prophecy about them is joined in the psalm by a prophecy about the salvation of the pagans. Ps.64:2. To You, O God, belongs the praise in Zion, and to You the vow will be rendered [in Jerusalem]. “A song befits you, O God, in Zion, and my prayer will be answered to you in Jerusalem.” In this city You commanded that a song be offered to You, therefore I beg that prayer be offered to You there. Ps.64:3. You hear the prayer; All flesh comes to You. "Hear my prayer." Accept my prayer and free me from the bonds of captivity. “All flesh will come to You.” This contains a clear prediction about the knowledge of God of the pagans. Now, says the Prophet, we beg you to return and sing songs in the church consecrated to You, and after a while the entire human race, having freed itself from the charm of polytheism, will flow to You, the true God. Ps.65:4. The works of iniquity prevail over me; You will cleanse our crimes. “The words of the wicked have prevailed over us.” Symmachus translates this as follows: “the words of the wicked have prevailed over me,” that is, I am forced to be in slavery to people who are wicked and living in lawlessness. Then the Prophet reveals the reason for slavery. “And You will cleanse our wickedness,” that is, I am not unjustly condemned to slavery, but for the wickedness that I have long dared to commit, from which I beg you to deliver me according to Your love for mankind. After this, the captives begin to enjoy their stay in their fatherland, because it instructs in piety and guides them to it. Ps.64:5. Blessed is the one whom You have chosen and brought near to live in Your courts. Let us be satisfied with the blessings of Your house, Your holy church. Ps.64:6. Fearful in justice, hear us, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and those who are far off at sea. “Blessed is He, whom You have chosen and accepted, He will dwell in Your courts: we will be filled with the good things of Your house”; that is, happy and blessed is the people You have preferred over other nations. For, dwelling in Thy sacred courts, he enjoys the benefits and blessings acquired there. "Diven in truth". Your church is filled with holiness and teaches your righteousness to those who enter with your words. “Hear us, O God, our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and those who are in the seas far off.” Here again the Prophet predicts the salvation of the universe, and recalls the prophecy of Patriarch Jacob, for he said: “A prince from Judah, a leader from his feet, will not fail, the river set aside for him will come, and the hope of the tongues will come” (Gen. 49:10). It was here that the Prophet called him the hope of “all the ends of the earth and the seas that are far off.” And through this it means both the inhabitants of the islands and those who were destined to inhabit the land on the other side and the boundaries of the universe. Therefore, the Prophet says: hear us, You, Who will soon after this time illuminate the entire human race with the light of the knowledge of God. And then he depicts, as much as possible, the power of God. Ps.64:7. He who raised the mountains with His strength, girded with might Ps.64:8. The taming sound of the seas, the sound of their waves and the rebellion of nations! “Preparing the mountains with Your strength, He girded with strength”: “Troubling the depths of the sea, who can stand the sound of its waves?” Symmachus translated the word: “prepare”: “affirmer,” and Theodotion replaced the word: “confuse” with the word: “taming.” The Prophet understands the following: You make the mountains solid and motionless, and the sea, as You please, sets it in motion and again calms it down, so that its noise is not heard; You do all this with ineffable and immeasurable power, with which you are invested, as it were, with a kind of belt. since the girded one does what he wants with great convenience, the Prophet figuratively called God’s power a belt. And after this he begins to describe in order the good actions of the new covenant. “The Gentiles will be in turmoil.” This points to the preaching of the Apostles, which instantly created confusion and excitement in people, according to the saying of the Lord. For He said: “He came to separate a man from his neighbor, a son from his father, a daughter from her mother, a bride from her mother-in-law” (Matthew 10:35). And then he calmed the storm and gave peace. Ps.64:9. And those who dwell on the ends of the earth will fear Your signs. Thou shalt awaken morning and evening to Thy glory. “And they that dwell in the ends shall fear because of Thy signs.” Confusion preceded, and fear followed, produced by the greatness of the miracles, and taught piety. “Beautify the outcome of the morning and evening.” People, struck with fear, at the sight of miracles, having left their previous delusion and having come to know the true God, at the onset and end of the day, they offer up a song pleasing and pleasing to God. Symmachus also expressed this: “they sing songs at the onset of the morning and in the evening.” Ps.64:10. You visit the earth and quench its thirst, enrich it abundantly: the stream of God is full of water; You prepare the bread, for that is how you arranged it. “Thou hast visited the earth, and thou hast made it drunk, and thou hast multiplied and enriched it.” Symmachus translated it as follows: “Enrich her with many fruits.” You are no longer bringing spiritual drink to us alone, but you are feeding the whole universe to satiety: “thou hast multiplied to enrich it.” “The river of God is filled with water.” Symmachus presented all three actions as something desirable: “visit the earth and water it and enrich it with abundance from the streams of God filled with waters.” The Lord made the previously barren universe both fertile and prolific, watering it from Divine streams. And these streams of God, filled with waters, who else but the divine Apostles, about whom the Lord Christ said: “Believe in Me, as the scripture says, rivers from his belly will flow out living waters” (John 7:38); and again: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will be a fountain of living water flowing into an everlasting belly” (John 4:14)? And the river of God, according to the translation of seventy, is the grace of the Spirit, divided into streams; and she pours out the word of wisdom on one, imparts knowledge to another, the gift of healing to another, and kinds of tongues to another, and through them she feeds the universe. “Thou hast prepared food for them, as such (is) the preparation.” Symmachus translated it as follows: “You will make every seed of it fruitful, so You founded it.” For, having freed it from its previous error, you will make it capable of bearing mature fruits of virtue, which will delight You and nourish those who grow it. And according to the translation of the seventy, the fruit brought serves as food for those who bring it. For it is said, “Thou hast prepared food for them, just as Thy preparation is”; that is, for this reason You made them bear fruit, so that they might feed on it. Ps.64:11. You water its furrows, level its boulders, soften it with drops of rain, bless its growth. "Give her reins." From this it is clear that this is a prediction of the future, and not a description of the past. “Multiply her life,” that is, continue, Lord, like some reins, to water their minds and excite them to bear fruit. “In its drops it will rejoice and shine.” The drops of dew brought in good time by teachers will delight and make it prosperous. Ps.64:12. You crown the summer with Your goodness, and Your paths are full of fatness. Ps.64:13. They flow into desert pastures, and the hills are girded with joy. “Bless the crown of the summer of Thy goodness.” The summer of goodness is what Isaiah calls “the summer of the Lord is pleasant.” For it is said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the sake of anointing me, to bring good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to make the year of the Lord pleasant” (Isa. 61:1-2). Therefore, the Prophet calls the summer of goodness the time after the incarnation of our Savior, as bringing Him one fruit - piety. For this time the prophetic word asks for blessing. “And your fields will be filled with fatness” “The red deserts will be filled with pain, and the hills will be girded with joy.” Upon the manifestation of this goodness, the former desert will bear ripe fruit, and the hills, desecrated by demonic sacrifices, having received those who constantly sang praises to God and loved the angelic life, will become as if bright and famous. And what has been said is confirmed by the deed itself. For we see that everyone flocks to those who settle on the tops of the mountains and practice the highest virtue. Ps.64:14. The meadows are clothed with flocks, and the valleys are covered with grain, they shout and sing. "The rams are clothed with sheep." The Prophet Ezekiel also refers to the strong as rams. But the Prophet accuses them that they grazed on good pasture, and trampled the remains with their feet, drank clean water, and disturbed the remains with their feet (Ezek. 34:18); but here good things are predicted for them too. For David says that they were clothed and clothed: the quality of this garment is shown by the divine Paul. For he says, “If you were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). since the Lord Christ initially chose fishermen who lived by the labor of their hands and in poverty, the grace of the Spirit also foreshadows the salvation of the rich and rulers. Therefore he says: “The rams are clothed with sheep.” For not only other sheep, but even the sheep themselves begin to receive saving baptism. “And the harvest will multiply the wheat.” And those who have received poverty as their inheritance, having chosen a pious life, will bring their fruit to God, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred. “They will call, for they will sing.” All those named above will sing with all their zeal to God, who has given such a change to the human race. We know that other writers, having superficially understood what was said in the psalm, claimed that everything said in it happened upon the return from captivity, and in addition to freedom, the Jews were granted fertility and abundant rains, so that the Jordan was flooded, which, according to them, is called the river of God. But having learned from history that there was nothing of the kind, that the Jews lived for a long time in great poverty, as Ezra showed; and, moreover, having found in the psalm a clear prediction about the salvation of the pagans (it says: “all flesh will come to you”, and: “hear us, O God, our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth, and those who are in the sea far away”) - I recognized the meaning I gave to this psalm in accordance with these sayings. And lovers of fables, dreaming of the building of Jerusalem and telling their dream-like inventions, said that this had not yet happened, but it would happen according to the calling of the Jews: so they added this fable to the distortion of other dogmas. But we, leaving them to vainly, will adhere to the Divine words, crying with David: “Your law is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my paths” (Ps. 119:105). You might be interested in: