Explanation of the Psalms

“Explanation of the Psalms” is the most famous exegetical work of the blessed one. Theodoret of Cyrus. It was written between 441-449. and is a sequential presentation of all the psalms. This is one of the few complete interpretations of the Psalter written in antiquity. Blzh. Theodoret writes that the Holy Scripture is absolute truth, like the word of God himself: “spoken by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, using the language of the Prophet instead of an instrument” (chapter 59). He emphasizes the high importance of the Psalter among other books of Holy Scripture. For him, this book is primarily prophetic. In the preface, the author says that he had long wanted to write about the prophecies of David, and he had to read different interpretations of the Psalter. Some were too allegorical, others explained the prophetic passages of the Psalter as references to past events, which is more suitable for Jews than for Christians. He, on the contrary, strives to avoid these extremes and intends to explain historically what relates to history. What is a prophecy about Christ, the Church, the Gospel and the apostles shows its true meaning. Blzh. Theodoret writes that the interpretation of prophetic writings must consist in the recognition that what is communicated by God can only be revealed by God. The exegete comprehends this only to the extent and strength that the Lord grants it to him: “The exact interpretation of this postscript is known only by the one who used it, and perhaps by the one who, like him, received the illumination of the Holy Spirit” (Preface). The revelation of the Old Testament writings in the New Testament should serve as an unshakable guide for the commentator, for this is the explanation of the Holy Spirit Himself. Behind the literal-allegorical and moral meaning of the bl. Theodoret pointed out an even higher meaning (indications of the hidden dogmas of Christian theology). For example, Psalm 32 most closely reveals the history of peacemaking: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were created, and by the breath of His mouth all their host” (Ps. 32:6). The author assumes the existence of two heavens – the visible and the higher: “For the visible heaven is built like a kind of roof over the earth; the highest heaven is to the visible what the visible is to the earth; and therefore, just as heaven is called heaven, so it is also called heaven of heavens” (chapter 18). According to the blessed Theodoret, the Old Testament revelation already predicts what is happening in the Church of Christ. King David saw the perfection of the Gospel from afar and predicted it (Ps. 54:6). The commentary combines the patristic tradition with the author's personal reflections, emphasizing Divine grace, mercy and justice, as well as the importance of repentance and the pursuit of holiness. *The title of the work in Latin is Inter pretatio in Psalmos. Explanation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 [857] It was desirable for me, before other words of God, to interpret the prophecy of the great David, because the pupils of piety, both in cities and in villages, all study it with attention, especially those who have loved the ascetic life have it in their mouths day and night, singing songs to the God of all and pacifying bodily passions. [860] For Divine grace, merging benefit with the pleasantness of sweet singing, offered people this most desirable and most amiable teaching. And it is not difficult to notice that most people either never mention other Divine Scriptures, or they do mention them, but rarely, but on the contrary, many, repeatedly, both in houses, on farms, and on the roads, bring to mind the spiritual hymns of the inspired David, captivating themselves with the harmony of the songs, and in this pleasure they find benefit for themselves. Therefore, I wanted, first of all, to interpret this prophecy and, in its depths, to offer its hidden benefits to prudent traders, so that by chanting and together penetrating the meaning of what is being chanted, they would receive further gain. But we were not allowed to fulfill this desire by those who demanded from us an explanation of other Divine Scriptures. For some wanted an explanation of the Song of Songs, while others wanted to know the prophecy of the man of desires *, while others demanded that the hidden or unclear prophecies of either the twelve prophets or the divine Ezekiel be made clear and understandable to them. So, since the God of all, Who makes the blind wise, reveals secrets, having given man a mouth, creating the mute and the deaf, and the seeing and the blind (Ex. 4:11), granted me to complete the interpretation of these Divine words of His, then, calling upon Divine grace for help, which, according to the words of the prophecy, guides the blind to a path they have not seen, and teaches them to walk in paths they have not seen. Knowing (cf. Is. 42:16), has long given the deaf the hearing of Divine words and opens sight to the eyes that are in darkness and mist, let us dare to proceed to this prophecy. But let no one consider this work of ours unnecessary because others have proposed the interpretation of the psalms before us. Having read various interpretations and having found that some went into allegory with great immoderation, while others attached prophecies to some previous events, why their interpretation is more beneficial for the Jews than for the disciples of the faith, I considered it useful to avoid the extremes of both and that what befits ancient events, then apply to them now, the prophecies about the Lord Christ, about the Church of the Gentiles, about Gospel life, about the apostolic sermon should not be applied to any other events, as the Jews, who remain in their malice and weave excuses for their unbelief, want to do this. For [861] the evidence of the works themselves is sufficient to lead those who wish to find it to the true interpretation. This is why the interpretation of prophecy is not very difficult for us, because one view of deeds makes it clear. We will also try to avoid verbosity as much as we can, but present it briefly for those who want something useful. And having first explained the purpose of the psalms, then we will proceed to interpretation. You should know that prophecy tends not only to predict the future, but also to describe the present, even the past. For the divine Moses clearly taught us that of old and at the very beginning it was created and received existence from the God of all, not receiving this teaching from people, but from the grace of the Spirit. But he also talked about the present, such as: about the executions sent against Pharaoh, about giving manna to the Israelites, about them eating meat; He also predicted the future coming of the Lord Christ, the dispersion of the Jews and the salvation of the pagans. So the divine David, who was the first to write a prophecy after Moses, reminds us of the past blessings of God of all kinds, and also foreshadows what will happen in distant times. He not only utters prophecies, but also exhortations and laws, and offers either moral or dogmatic teaching, sometimes mourns the misfortunes of the Jews, and sometimes prophetically sings of the salvation of the pagans, in many places predicts the suffering and resurrection of the Lord Christ, and the variety of prophecies gives great pleasure to those who want to delve into them. Some say that not all psalms belong to David, but there are others written by others. Why, understanding the inscriptions this way, some psalms were attributed to Idithum, others to Etham, others to the sons of Korah, and still others to Asaph, having learned from the history of Chronicles that they too were prophets. I am not claiming anything about this. For will the benefit for me increase from the fact that either all the psalms of David, or partly belong to those mentioned before, when it is obvious that they were all written by the action of the Divine Spirit? We know that the history of Chronicles calls both the divine David and those men prophets. It is characteristic of a prophet to provide his tongue as an instrument of the grace of the Spirit, according to what is said in the psalms: my tongue is the reed of a scribe (Ps. 44:2). However, let the verdict of the majority prevail, and most of the writers argued that the psalms belong to David. Since others have called the inscriptions of the psalms false, I recognize it necessary [864] to briefly speak about this. It seems to me a bold thing to reject inscriptions that have existed for a long time, even under Ptolemy, who reigned in Egypt after Alexander, and which, like all other Divine Scripture, were translated into Greek by all seventy elders. And before this translation, one hundred and fifty years ago, the wonderful Ezra, filled with Divine grace, compiled a correct list of the sacred books damaged in ancient times by the negligence of the Jews and the wickedness of the Babylonians. If Ezra, with the assistance of the All-Holy Spirit, renewed the memory of these books and the elders, not without God’s inspiration, translated them into Greek in such a manner, and translated these inscriptions in addition to other Divine Scriptures, then I consider it bold and extremely daring to call them false and to assume about their own conclusions that they are wiser than the inspirations of the Spirit. But this will be shown more clearly by the explanation of each psalm separately. The word diapsalma was also interpreted differently. It signifies, according to some, the cessation of the action of the Spirit, and according to others, a transition from one prophecy to another and, according to others, a change in melody. Someone, using Aquila’s translation, replaced the word diapsalma with the word always, including it in one connection with the previous verse. So, for example, in the third psalm, after the words I cried out to the Lord with my voice, and heard me from His holy mountain (5) we find the attached word diapsalm. Aquila put it in this connection: and He always heard me from His holy mountain. So it further connects this word with the previous verse, making one thought out of them. But finding that the Seventy and all other translators of the Divine Scripture use the word diapsalma, I recognize it as unfair to neglect many who are worthy of respect and to trust the understanding of just one. Therefore, I believe that Scripture uses the word diapsalma to mean a change in melody. since the great David, having composed the faces, offered up hymns to God, not satisfying any of his own needs, but having in mind the benefit of the people, and precisely took measures so that the faces of the singers sang with some harmony, and those playing musical instruments made consonant sounds, and hymns have many changes in the melody, also the psalter and harp have changes in the intensity of sounds, even in pipes one can notice a difference similar to this, then, in my opinion, as I have already said, diapsalma means [865] a change in melody. But the exact interpretation of this postscript is known only by the one who used it, and perhaps by the one who, like him, received the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Those who diligently read the psalms should know that they do not preserve the order of time and the psalms containing the narration of more ancient events are placed in second place, and those containing the narration of later events took first place. For the third psalm has the inscription of the legend about Absalom, and the one hundred and forty-first - about Saul. But the flight from Saul took as long as the flight from Absalom before, is known to everyone who knows history. I think that the psalms were spoken by the divine David himself, and one of those who lived subsequently brought them into their present order. I noticed this in order not to interrupt the interpretation, being forced to write about this in the middle of it. Therefore, having concluded this preliminary information (let's say, with God), the interpretation of each psalm. This refers to the prophet Daniel (cf. Daniel 9:23) (Ed.). You might be interested in: