Didymus the Blind — Commentary on Scripture

Psalms 9:13

For one who lives in this type of death and in the lusts of the world, with a depressed spirit, if he will perceive a sense of his own wrongdoing and the nature of divine goodness, let him say in the manner of a prayer: “Have mercy on me and see my humility,” which I suffer from my enemies. They have humiliated me, drawing me down. You alone are able to lift me up from the gates of death because of your essential goodness.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:15

Psalms 9:14

The gates of the daughter of Zion, being opposed to the gates of death, are praiseworthy deeds and the contemplation on the works of God done according to excellence and wisdom.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:15

Psalms 9:15

One is not held by the sin and unrighteousness of another; rather, each one will die in his own sin. The wicked, first harming themselves, strive deceitfully to drive others into the same curse. Secretly they build traps of deceit with their own plans and words, so they may seize someone unsuspecting. But by that very trap that they have hidden they are punished, for vindicators will keep those very ones they have caught. This punishment is done by the providence of God. For what other is the judgment of God than that the sinner is caught by his own deeds, because he holds the reason for his own condemnation for those who live unrighteously. This agrees with that which is said before: “He who has opened a pit for his neighbor will fall into it.”

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:16

Psalms 9:16

For if the whole psalm is called a song because of its tone and force, then the term “song” would be placed at the beginning of [the psalm], as it is in a number of psalms. But here it is otherwise, and after the diapsalma he begins the song; the title is placed between the diapsalma and song. It is reasonable, therefore, that the following has the sense of a psalm.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:16

Psalms 10:3

[The wicked] are chiefly of this type who lack wisdom and spiritual resources, nor do they hold to teachings of the faith correctly. They incur the judgment of wise providence when they praise the sinner indulging in his own desires. However, it becomes apparent enough that the sinner strives not for better things but for more pleasing and desirous ones. In addition to that mistake, they judge that they who have riches and human glory are taking part in blessing. Accordingly, they claim the wicked are blessed by God; but it is necessary to believe that blessing of God is granted to the religious.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:3

Psalms 10:5

This is the reason why the sinner provokes the Lord, because he does not keep him before his eyes, because he turns himself away from God. The one who sins conducts himself in this way. Concerning all of this, God says, “They have shown me their backs and not their faces.” Cain, the offspring of this wickedness, “departed from the face of the Lord God.” That is, he turned himself away from him. Inasmuch as these words are spoken about people being sinners, even more so do they speak about the devil. “His ways are profaned at all times.” For of which people are the ways profaned for all time, since even the wicked often live with much honesty? He enters without permission to draw people to corrupt deeds and even to deny the providence of God. And so he persuades many to believe that the world is without the direction of God, and later he falls away from right ideas concerning the governing of God and the knowledge of judgment.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:5

Psalms 10:7-10

He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den or a savage lion in his cave so that he may drag off the poor by crafty speech and, equally often, by their deeds. After he has caught him in the trap he will draw him to apostasy. Wild beasts are threatening, and especially so the lion. Often, therefore, lying in wait, while he discusses fasting, he openly persuades them to greed; and addressing modesty, he introduces them to a certain appearance of luxury. Thus, he pushed Eve deceptively in the garden to commit transgression, saying she was going to be equal to God. Thus he lured Judas by greed.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:8

Psalms 10:14

The poor abandon themselves to you. You will care for his deliverance so that you may make him rich in heavenly goods. So also, the orphan is helped, protected and nourished like a son. It is important to understand here that the orphan is one whose father is the devil because of iniquity but who has cast him out through the practice of repentance.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:12-15

Psalms 10:16

The land of God is the good heart; from this land the nations perish when they are driven by whatever destruction of mind and every evil thought.… No sinner is allowed to walk in this land, for the righteous alone possess it. It is said by a good man: “I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:16

Psalms 11:6

Harsh punishments are often denoted in Scripture by the word cup.… So it follows that even in this place “cup” denotes the punishment to be poured out, especially, the fullness of this cup is fire, sulphur and a stormy wind, whose symbols were written in Genesis, the type of punishment inflicted by the Lord on Sodom and Gomorrah. Besides fire and sulphur, there is also in the cup the stormy wind. The fire indicates threatening flames; sulphur, the force by which more fire is burned; and, finally, the wind illustrates the certain whirlwind of temptations; chiefly we are able to learn this from the writing of Isaiah. … Let us flee impiety, so that there is no cup of this type for us, and we may live righteously; so that we may drink to drunkenness that which is the best. From which also it is said: “The Lord is my portion and my cup.” Because the Lord is just and loves justice, he shows his face to the upright.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 11:7

Psalms 40:7

He calls the “roll of the book” every divinely inspired Scripture, both the legal and the prophetic. In these Scriptures things are written concerning the memory of the Savior among us. The psalmist calls it a roll because everything is summed up into one.

FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 40:8