Eusebius of Caesarea — Commentary on Scripture

Psalms 18:1

David has consecrated this hymn of triumph on the occasion of his victory over his enemies and opponents to the Author of all victories. David is called a victor, that is, “he is made a victor,” because he achieved victories.… The psalm is inscribed “for the end” chiefly because it is proclaimed in the last years of his life and after all his deeds that were accomplished in history; or because it announces the prophecy of things that are going to happen in the future age; or, third, because the reader is told about those things that happened in the last part of this hymn, at the end of which is the call of the Gentiles and a prophecy about Christ.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:1

Psalms 18:2

Christ is the rock. When David built his own house on the rock, he was like the wise man. … In such a way, he is made superior to all his enemies. He becomes faithful, not by hope or by training but by the help of God, established in all types of defenses and in the horn of salvation.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:2, 3

Psalms 18:6

Stirred by the onrush of injustices and surrounded by the rest of the evils which are recounted above, when he realizes that he is beset by danger, he flees to the gate of his deliverance. He says, therefore, “In my distress I called on the Lord, and to my God I cried.” Thereby he teaches that one wanders least from the path when he is full of such faith, for “hope does not disappoint.”

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:5-7

Psalms 18:7

When the Son of God journeyed on the earth in the time of his incarnation, whoever worshiped the natural elements of this earth were shaken and trembled, and everywhere his reputation became familiar to the ears of Greeks and barbarians; and truly those things he called the foundations of the mountains have trembled and quaked.… The mountains were all the lofty thoughts that were directed against the knowledge of God, namely, certain adversarial powers that through the long span of the ages had led all who dwelled on the earth into error and the worship of multiple gods. “The foundations of the mountains,” that is, loftier plans and thoughts, when they had realized the strength of the Lord, “were disturbed and shaken because he is angry with them.”

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:8

Psalms 18:10

Secretly and with mysterious reckoning he represents his incarnation through [images of] darkness and thick clouds. At last he returns to the same place from whence he had set forth: and he ascends into the heavens with the cherubim and flies, although he had not descended with those cherubim, without the cherubim he himself bowed the heavens and descended. On his return it is said, “And he mounted on cherubs, and he flew,” with the body he had assumed.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:11-13

Psalms 18:12

He came down and then ascended with the cherubim after he thundered in the heaven.… Against the Egyptian sorcerers the Lord who flies on the cherubim sends forth hailstones and coals of fire. I think, also, that those vengeful acts against skillful wicked powers are called hailstones and coals of fire. Those acts, therefore, appointed for punishment and revenge and directed in the secret way of the will of God against the demons who had brought the superstition of multiple gods, were driving away all those demons. Therefore, all their oracles cease, their prophecies are denied, their temples are deserted, their sacred objects are robbed by invisible and hidden forces, as the Lord does all these things after his ascension into the heavens.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:14

Psalms 18:19

“He will deliver me because he has pleasure in me”; indeed, it was not that I had repented, or had been convicted concerning my sin or had a prophet sent to me, but it was because he took pleasure to deliver me. And I know and I am absolutely persuaded that in the day of his judgment of the righteous no mention will be made of my sin and the crimes that I committed in the day of my misery.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:20-21

Psalms 18:28

“I will bring forth a horn to David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.” The lamp is prepared for Christ, having arisen from the seed of David, for who other could it be than the offspring who has come forth from the succession of David according to the flesh; in what way does Christ who came into the womb of David become the ray of his own excellence and the light shining brightly for all people? Why in the aforesaid words does David speak prophetically: “Because you will light my lamp, Lord”? He says, “You yourself, Lord, who are the true light, having been united with the lamp coming forth from me in a certain mysterious way, are going to light that very lamp. Even the shadows with which I was once covered you will scatter entirely so that their memory does not enter my mind.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:29, 30

Psalms 18:29

Truly I have known that I am going to cross over that heavenly wall built by your strength and power; and then situated in a safe place, I will receive salvation from you. Or, in this way: I, whom they try to close out by surrounding me in order to stop me, will cross and leap over all the fortifications of the enemies, both fence and wall.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:29-30

Psalms 18:30

What, moreover, do those oracles tried in the fire of the Lord teach? That he himself is the protector of all the ones hoping in him and that there is no God except our Lord, and there is none strong except our God; and rightly is it said that he is the protector of all hoping in him since none is able to be found who is able to stand against such and so great a protector.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:31-32

Psalms 18:32

He builds me up with his own strength and weapons, and he affirms by his grace my mortal and human strength; just like one having his limbs undergirded by his own strength, I will stand against my enemies. But as it is said above, “My God, his way is perfect,” so also wishing me to be likened to his own image, he has made my way blameless by teaching, admonitions and discipline of whatever type he wishes, and he has refined and perfected my way or settled life.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:33-34

Psalms 18:33

The same deer is swift in course as are also the righteous of God who look heavenward, not earthward, who seek the sublime; and this from a single love of the celestial kingdom. David ascribes his likeness to that of the righteous, strengthened by the grace of God, when he adds “and setting me on high places.” Although there are others who try to draw us into the valleys of iniquity and lead us away, our God, like an overseer of our struggles, when he has determined that we are good runners, stirs us to suitable excellence, and his grace fulfills that very thing. Not in our excellence are we established in our high places; but truly by its very nature the celestial is the abode for the soul; and those high places are not foreign but are peculiar to us.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:33-34

Psalms 18:36

“You have made room for my steps under me,” the steps, namely, by which I cross from iniquity to moral excellence, from things perceived by my senses to those perceived by my mind, from the present to the future age, the steps that from the beginning seemed arduous and narrow to me because I was walking in a crooked way; but having progressed beyond them, I took notice of the widened places. For one who advances with every step and attains the end, having been drawn to the wide space, will not feel that narrowness, labor and grief that he had known in his advance.… He who follows Jesus follows hard his footsteps because he progresses on the worn and oft traveled way from Jesus Christ.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:37

Psalms 18:37

This is done for me through your grace, so that my feet are not ensnared nor am I cut off by the nets of my enemies or by the offenses that they had cast.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:38

Psalms 18:43

He truly sees with his mind’s eye that all the peoples throughout the whole world of the human race, whether barbarians or Greek, or of whatever accent or language, carry David respectfully in their memory, and they all speak his name with honor, who lift up his words through all the churches of Christ; and does anyone not assert the truth in these very words, if he attentively considers the people gathered from the nations, known by no sign to David, as they perform their duties of service with Davidic hymns and canticles, and as they hear the song repeated and recite it, receiving the psalms entrusted by him that were written from the long ages back.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:44-46

Psalms 18:48

Just as David after the advent of our Savior is able to be presented just as if he were alive and living among people, and he sings praises to the God of the universe among all the peoples through his own writings, canticles and hymns, so also he who has come from his seed, to whom these words refer that we now explain, with like reasoning when he overcomes the ones lying in wait for him, he may rightly say, “You will exalt me above the ones rising against me.” And he leaves them behind, and he shares his own truth and grace to all peoples; even now he himself, being present everywhere on the earth and in the midst of them resting their hope in him, is made known through his church.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18:50-51

Psalms 19:1

This verse serves as a lesson on how the great work of God is declared. People who have been blinded in the eyes of their minds have expelled from the natural order the hidden and invisible divine essence, which is incorporeal and uncreated, and cannot be touched in any way or recognized with carnal eyes. With a godless and wicked mouth they say that there is no God, that nothing excellent of a corporeal nature exists beyond its temporary appearance, and that the whole universe came together in a certain momentary and accidental coalescence and gathering of parts that previously existed by chance and without purpose. Thus, it was necessary in the present work by means of a psalm that the writer should prove through plain demonstration God’s omniscience and creative power. The nature of mortals is insignificant and fragile, the thoughts of people, foolish, and our reasoning uncertain. Therefore, we are no match for declaring the divine glory. For these worthy words and reflections about God cannot be proclaimed with human voices or with tongues or lips of flesh. If one who has the fac…

This verse serves as a lesson on how the great work of God is declared. People who have been blinded in the eyes of their minds have expelled from the natural order the hidden and invisible divine essence, which is incorporeal and uncreated, and cannot be touched in any way or recognized with carnal eyes. With a godless and wicked mouth they say that there is no God, that nothing excellent of a corporeal nature exists beyond its temporary appearance, and that the whole universe came together in a certain momentary and accidental coalescence and gathering of parts that previously existed by chance and without purpose. Thus, it was necessary in the present work by means of a psalm that the writer should prove through plain demonstration God’s omniscience and creative power. The nature of mortals is insignificant and fragile, the thoughts of people, foolish, and our reasoning uncertain. Therefore, we are no match for declaring the divine glory. For these worthy words and reflections about God cannot be proclaimed with human voices or with tongues or lips of flesh. If one who has the facility of a strong mind could hear that powerful and most worthy teaching that comes from the heavens, he would direct his mind and mount up to attend to those things, embracing them completely in himself, celebrating his Creator and the Maker of the universe with hymns and songs. For those heavens above us and those elements present in the firmament attest to a nature capable of being understood by and realized through the senses. They ascribe glory to God, not through any human language but through their adornment, by their very creation, through their ordered movement they teach his immeasurable majesty.… Whoever, therefore, thinks that such beauty and magnitude adorned itself or that the heavens created themselves, and then ascribes their harmonious and ordered motions to some process devoid of any divine power, is foolish and wicked. Therefore, those of sound mind confess that the part is a unified whole, and not only do they hear the cry of the heavens but also the proclamation from that very work together announcing glory to God, their Maker and Creator.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 18[19]: 2

Psalms 19:2

The days and the nights teach those people who desire to be taught what ineffable wisdom, what incomprehensible power God has, who has measured out the intervals of time for them. If there were no one who would determine the space and the intervals for the seasons, but they existed in a thoughtless and unconsidered way by chance, it would happen that the days would not be ordered in equal spaces through the ages and there would be a confusion of things, and likewise the times of the nights would pass by chance or happenstance. Even the state of related matters would be disordered because of thoughtless chance, and confusion would follow the confused matter; but … reason rules the right order, and wisdom administers harmony and order. There are mutual changes and alterations; for the days, as the nights yield, are longer, and then the nights claim their space, rightfully due and given mutually, having been increased by winter and season. These things, I say, are not only voiced, but as they announce the knowledge of God to people they declare that most wise order of all things constit…

The days and the nights teach those people who desire to be taught what ineffable wisdom, what incomprehensible power God has, who has measured out the intervals of time for them. If there were no one who would determine the space and the intervals for the seasons, but they existed in a thoughtless and unconsidered way by chance, it would happen that the days would not be ordered in equal spaces through the ages and there would be a confusion of things, and likewise the times of the nights would pass by chance or happenstance. Even the state of related matters would be disordered because of thoughtless chance, and confusion would follow the confused matter; but … reason rules the right order, and wisdom administers harmony and order. There are mutual changes and alterations; for the days, as the nights yield, are longer, and then the nights claim their space, rightfully due and given mutually, having been increased by winter and season. These things, I say, are not only voiced, but as they announce the knowledge of God to people they declare that most wise order of all things constituted by God. So the voices of the days and nights, by their very work being done, call out to them who are able to hear as their teaching reaches all ears. And the universe that is inhabited by people is replete with songs of this type and like choruses.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 19:3

Psalms 19:6

By heavenly power and co-operation, like a sun ray, the saving Word quickly illumined the whole earth. Straightway, in accordance with the divine Scripture, the voice of its inspired Evangelists and apostles “went forth to the whole earth and their words to the end of the world.” And then in all the cities and villages, churches were quickly established, filled with multitudes of people, like a teeming threshing floor, and all those souls, bound through hereditary succession and original error by the ancient disease of idolatrous superstition, on being set free as it were from terrible masters and finding release from most difficult bondage by the power of Christ through both the teaching of his disciples and their wonderful works, rejected all demoniacal polytheism and confessed that there was one God alone, the Creator of all things, and this One they honored with the rites of true piety through inspired and rational worship that was implanted by our Savior in the life of people.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 2:3

Psalms 20:1

This entire psalm voices a prayer as spoken by holy people to the person of Christ. For since for our sakes and on our behalf he received insult when he became man, we are taught to join our prayers with his as he prays and supplicates the Father on our behalf, as one who repels both visible and invisible attacks against us.

PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 4:16.5