Interpretation of Psalm 1

The interpretation of Psalm 1 is included in the largest work of the blessed one. Aurelius Augustine - “Commentary on the Psalms” (represents records of sermons 394-418). The author carefully analyzes the entire Psalter. The central position of the exegesis of the blessed one. Augustine is that Christ absorbed the entirety of the Psalter. The Church, the Body of Christ, is created and manifested through centuries and millennia in the words of the psalms, finding its fulfillment in the sacrament of the Incarnation. Contents From the translator Psalm 1: Text and translations used The interpretation offered to the reader’s attention on the first Psalm 1 is a very small part of the “grand work” (opus longe amplissimum) of the teacher of the Christian West, St. Augustine (354–430) - Interpretations on the Psalms (Enarrationes in psalmos). The greatest work of the Father of the Church, dedicated to the Christian prayer of the psalms, reveals the amazing image of Augustine the preacher, throughout his life proclaiming to his flock the voice of Christ speaking in the ancient biblical prayers. According to Augustine, the Church, the Body of Christ, is created and manifested through centuries and millennia, in all ages of human history, in the words of the psalms, finding its fulfillment in the sacrament of the Incarnation. The interpretation of the first psalm, apparently compiled around 392, shows us one of the first written reflections of the saint on the sacred text of David’s chants. According to the tradition of African churches, the bishop explained the meaning of the sacred words, sitting on the pulpit and holding the text of Scripture on his knees. The reading and understanding of the Scriptures are inextricably linked to the liturgical prayer of the Church. The texts of the Psalter, as well as the texts of Scripture often used in worship, are quoted from the generally accepted Church Slavonic text. Other texts of Scripture are quoted in the Russian Synodal translation. Differences with the text used by St. Augustine are noted in each case separately. For more convenient perception, Russian and Slavic translations of the first psalm are given at the beginning, respectively. Russian language, synodal translation: 1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the way of sinners, and does not sit in the seat of the wicked, 2. But his will is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on His law day and night! 3. And he will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither; and in everything he does, he will succeed. 4. Not so are the wicked, [not so]: but they are like dust swept away by the wind [from the face of the earth]. 5. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, and sinners will not stand in the assembly of the righteous. 6. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Church Slavonic language: 1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the path of sinners, and does not sit on the seats of the destroyers, 2. But his will is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he will learn day and night. 3. And it will be like a tree planted by the rising waters, which will yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall off, and everything that is created will prosper. 4. Not like wickedness, not like this, but like dust, which the wind sweeps away from the face of the earth. 5. For this reason, the wicked will not rise to judgment, below the sinner to the council of the righteous. 6. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked will perish. 1. Blessed is the man who does not follow the counsel of the wicked. This should be understood about our Lord Jesus Christ, the Man of the Lord 2. Blessed is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked - not an earthly husband: he followed the advice of his wife, and she was first tempted by the serpent to trample on the commandments of God. And there are not a hundred sinners on the way. He appeared on the path of sinners, being born like sinners, 3 but did not take this path, for worldly temptation did not deter Him. And he did not sit on the seat of destruction, 4 that is, he did not desire the kingdom of the earth with its pride. And pride is rightly called the seat of destruction, because there is almost no one who is free from the will to power and does not desire human glory. Damage is a disease that spreads everywhere and affects everyone, or almost everyone. However, by the seat of destruction it is more convenient to understand a disastrous teaching, the word of which spreads like a malignant tumor. You should also pay attention to the word order: ide, hundred, sede. Man left when he withdrew from God; became, enjoying sin; sat down when pride crushed him. He would not have been able to return back if he had not been freed by Him 5 Who did not follow the advice of the wicked, did not stand in the way of sinners and did not sit on the seat of destruction. 2. But his will is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he will learn day and night. The law is not made for the righteous, says the Apostle [1 Timothy 1:9]. To be under the law and to be under the law do not mean the same thing. The one who is under the law acts in accordance with the law, the one who is under the law is forced to obey it: one is free, and the other is a slave. Therefore, it is not the same thing - a law written and prescribed to one who is in bondage, and a law perceived by the spirit of one who does not need the letter 6. Learn day and night - this should be understood as “continuously”; or day is joy, and night is sorrow. For it is said: Abraham saw my day and rejoiced (cf. [John 8:56]). And about sorrows it is said: Even before the night, my womb punished me (Ps. 15:7). 3. And it will be like a tree planted when the 7 waters flow out. That is, planted in Wisdom Herself, which deigned to accept man for our salvation, so that man himself would become a tree planted by the outgoing waters. After all, you can see here the meaning that another psalm points to: The River of God is filled with waters [Ps.65:10] 8. Or when the waters flow out - this is in the Holy Spirit, according to what was said: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (cf. [Matthew 3:11]). And also: If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink [John 7:37]. And again: Jesus answered her: if you knew the gift of God and Who says to you: Give Me a drink, then you yourself would ask Him, and He would give you living water... Whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life [John 4:10,14]. The words “outgoing waters” can also mean the sins of the nations, according to the Apocalypse, where the nations are depicted by the word “water” [Rev.17:15]. In this case, by the word origin (decursus) it is quite appropriate to understand the fall as a consequence of sin. And the tree (that is, our Lord) from the watery sources (that is, from sinful nations) draws them along the path to the roots of its teaching. This tree will give its fruit, that is, it will create the Church, in its time - that is, after He is glorified by resurrecting and Ascending into heaven. It was then, by sending them the Holy Spirit, strengthening them in faith and directing them to the nations, that He brought forth fruit - His Churches. And His leaf will not fall away; His word will not be in vain. For all flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of the grass: the grass withered, and its flower fell away; but the word of the Lord endures forever [1 Peter 1:24]. And the whole tree, even if it creates, will have time - everything that the tree will bear on itself; These are, of course, fruits and leaves, that is, deeds and words. By the word earth one should understand precisely that constancy in God, about which it is said: The Lord is part of my inheritance... my inheritance is sovereignly mine [Ps. 15:5-6]. And it also says: Be patient with the Lord, and keep His ways, and He will exalt you to inherit the earth [Ps. 37:34]. And again: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth [Matthew 5:5] However, this comparison is taken in order to show: just as the visible earth nourishes and supports the outer man, so the invisible earth supports the inner man. From the face of this earth the wind, that is, arrogant pride, sweeps up (proicit) the wicked. But the one who is drunk with the fatness of the house of God and will be drunk with the flow of His sweetness [Ps.35:9], - beware of pride, crying: Let not the foot of pride come upon me [Ps.35:12]. It was from this land that the pride of the one who said: On the edge of the north I will set my throne, and I will be like the Most High [Is. 14:13–14]. From the face of this earth she also sweeps away the one who yielded and ate from the forbidden tree in order to become like God - and then hid from the face of God [Gen. 3:6–8]. And the fact that this earth is the lot of the inner man, from where man was cast out due to his pride (superbia proici), becomes best clear from what is written: “What are the proud earth and ashes? And during his life he threw up (projecit) his entrails” (cf. [Sir.10:9-10]). From which it is reasonable to conclude that even if he was carried away by pride (projectus est), he gave in to it of his own free will (se projecisse) 9. 5. For this reason, wickedness will not be resurrected for judgment. For this reason - that is, because they will be swept away like dust from the face of the earth [Ps. 1:4]. And thus it is rightly said that the proud will be deprived of precisely that for which they compete, that is, the right to judge. The same meaning, but in a simplified form, should be seen in the following phrase: Below the sinner in the council of the righteous. Usually the Psalmist thus repeats in a simpler form what was said before: that is, by the word “sinners” the wicked are meant, and what is said about “judgment” is here called “the council of the righteous.” Or, of course, one can assume that a sinner is one thing, and a wicked person is another, so that every wicked person is a sinner, but not every sinner is wicked. In this case, the wicked will not be resurrected for judgment - that is, they will be resurrected, but not in order to be judged, since they are already destined for certain torment. As for sinners, they will not be raised into the council of the righteous - that is, to judge for themselves - but rather to be judged, as it is said about them: Each one’s work will be revealed; for the day will show it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will try everyone’s work, what kind it is. Whoever's work that he built survives will receive a reward. And whoever’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; however, he himself will be saved, but as if from fire. [ 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 ]. 6. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Just as it can be said that medicine is the knowledge of health, and not of disease, although disease, of course, is known by medical art, it can also be said that the Lord knows the path of the righteous, but the path of the wicked is unknown to Him. There is nothing that the Lord does not know - and yet He says to sinners: I do not know you (cf. [Matthew 7:23]). The words, And the way of the wicked will perish, mean the same thing as the words: The Lord does not know the way of the wicked. But this is said more simply - in the sense that to be unknown to the Lord means death, and to be known to Him means life. For the knowledge of God is existence, and His ignorance is non-existence. For the Lord Himself said: I am He that is, and: He that is has sent me to you [Ex.3:14]. Text and translations used 1. In Psalmum 1 Enarratio, in: Sant’Agostino. Esposizioni sui Salmi. Opere di Sant'Agostino ed. latino-italiana (XXV), Roma 1967, 2–9. 2. Enarrationes in Psalmos 1–50 Sancti Augustini, Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum vol. 93, Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2003. The interpretation of Psalm I should be attributed to the year 392 (some researchers consider the year of writing to be 394). Homo dominicus or ἄνθρωπος κυριακός - a subsequently controversial Christological term traces its history back to St. Afanasia. see Grillmeier A., ​​Ὁ κυριακὸς ἄνθρωπος: Eine Studie zu einer christologischen Bezeihnung der Väterzeit // Trad. 33 (1977), 1–63. - Approx. ed. Jesus Christ was born truly, and not in an apparent way, as representatives of various Gnostic teachings claimed. This is what Augustine means when he says that Christ was born “as sinners.” Cathedra pestilentiae - seat of death, destruction. In Slavic translation it means “seat of the destroyers.” One of the key ideas of St. Augustine's theology is the idea that grace makes a person free. True freedom lies not in the freedom to choose between good and evil, but in the impossibility of committing sin, in the power to do only good. That is why the only free person is our Lord Jesus Christ. Being truly free, He frees us from sin. The theology of law and grace is one of the most important themes in the theological heritage of St. Augustine. The treatise De Spiritu et Littera (On the Spirit and the Letter), written by Augustine in 412, is a kind of culmination of the saint’s reflection on the theme of freedom in grace and slavery to sin. De Spiritu et Littera had a huge influence on the development of subsequent theological and philosophical thought in the Christian and non-Christian West. Here and further we replace it with the form contained in the above Church Slavonic text of the psalm. In the publication here and below, a form different from it is written - origins. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith. In the same conversations on the Psalms, Augustine interprets the text [Ps.64:10] as the unity of the Church, filled with the Holy Spirit (Ibid. In [Ps.64:10]). That. in this version of the interpretation, the Word of God is the emanation of the waters by which the Spirit of the Holy Church is given as the entire totality of the people of God. - Approx. ed. Bl. Augustine plays on the various meanings of the verb projicere [Corrected by us from projecere in the publication. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith. ]: throw, throw forward; drive out; throw away, throw out. The text [Sir.10:10] is given in accordance with the text of the Vulgate and the Church Slavonic translation. The Russian Synodal translation, replacing the active construction with a passive one, deprives Augustine’s argument itself of rhetorical clarity: if a person “spews out his entrails” for his pride, then he also submits to pride of his own free will. - Approx. ed.