Origen of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

They are shut off, he said, in that they, since they are turned in the opposite direction within, do not see the spirit of Jesus ascending and descending.

Psalms 11:7

For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

The ultimate justice itself is Christ, “who was made wisdom for us from God, and justice, and sanctification and redemption.” The justice in each person, however, is formed from that justice, so that many justices come into existence in those who are saved; wherefore it has also been written, “The Lord is just and has loved justice.”

Psalms 12:3

The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:

When the Lord wipes out those things that are base, he will destroy those very things, so that when those things that have come on a person unexpectedly have been destroyed, the foremost creation of God whom the baser things had overtaken may take up the higher things.

Psalms 12:6

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

Although they may be beautiful, the words of those who stand apart from Christ are not pure but interspersed with innumerable lies; the words of the Lord alone are pure, in which there is no lie mixed, and they are true as silver purged and proven in the furnace. When anything is declared with them, it is never to be rejected in doubt.

Psalms 13:2

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

At first this one makes many plans in his soul, but in the end [see v. 5], he rests in the great plan of God for everyone, whose spirit is in the root of Jesse.

Psalms 13:3

Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Is God a light to enlighten the eyes of the body or the eyes of the intellect? The prophet says of the latter, “Enlighten my eyes lest I sleep in death.” I think it is clear to everyone that we would not say that God performs the work of the sun and assigns to another the task of enlightening the eyes of those who will not sleep in death. God, therefore, enlightens the mind of those whom he judges to be worthy of personal enlightenment. But if God illuminates the mind according to the statement “The Lord is my light,” then we must assume that he is apprehended by the intellect and is invisible and incorporeal, because he is the light of the mind.

Psalms 16:9

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

“My flesh will rest in hope.” The Lord Jesus Christ says these words, whose flesh is the first to rest in hope. Crucified, made the first fruit of the dead and having been taken into heaven after the resurrection, he carried the earthly body with him so that even the heavenly powers were awestruck and terrified seeing the flesh ascending into heaven. Concerning Elijah it was written that he was taken up into heaven; and about Enoch, that he was translated. Now, however, it is said that Jesus ascended into heaven. Let him be offended who so wishes at our word. I, however, guard it will all faith because just as Christ is the first fruit from the dead, so also he is the first to carry his flesh to heaven.

Psalms 18:11 · 2 passages

He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

The reasons of the divine dispensation and providence are most obscure. For “God made darkness his hiding place.” Those desiring audaciously and rashly to examine this darkness and appropriating for themselves one thing from another have fallen headlong into the dense “darkness” of errors.

It is said of God in the eighteenth psalm that “God made darkness his hiding place.” This is a Hebrew way of showing that the ideas of God that people understand in accordance with their merits are obscure and unknowable, since God hides himself as if in darkness from those who cannot bear the radiance of the knowledge of him and who cannot see him, partly because of the defilement of the mind that is bound to a human “body of humiliation,” partly because of its restricted capacity to comprehend God.… Moreover, our Savior and Lord, the Logos of God, shows the depth of the knowledge of the Father, and that, although a derived knowledge is possessed by those whose minds are illuminated by the divine Logos himself, absolute understanding and knowledge of the Father is possessed by himself alone in accordance with his merits, when he says, “No one has known the Son save the Father, and no one has known the Father save the Son, and him to whom the Son will reveal him.” Neither can anyone worthily know the uncreated and firstborn of all created nature in the way that the Father who begat h…

It is said of God in the eighteenth psalm that “God made darkness his hiding place.” This is a Hebrew way of showing that the ideas of God that people understand in accordance with their merits are obscure and unknowable, since God hides himself as if in darkness from those who cannot bear the radiance of the knowledge of him and who cannot see him, partly because of the defilement of the mind that is bound to a human “body of humiliation,” partly because of its restricted capacity to comprehend God.… Moreover, our Savior and Lord, the Logos of God, shows the depth of the knowledge of the Father, and that, although a derived knowledge is possessed by those whose minds are illuminated by the divine Logos himself, absolute understanding and knowledge of the Father is possessed by himself alone in accordance with his merits, when he says, “No one has known the Son save the Father, and no one has known the Father save the Son, and him to whom the Son will reveal him.” Neither can anyone worthily know the uncreated and firstborn of all created nature in the way that the Father who begat him knows him; nor can anyone know the Father in the same way as the living Logos who is God’s wisdom and truth. By participation in him who took away from the Father what is called darkness, which he made “his hiding place,” and what is called his covering, “the great deep,” thus revealing the Father, anyone whatever who has the capacity to know him may do so.

Psalms 19:1 · 2 passages

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Any who are perfect, who have been made heavenly or have become [part] of heaven, “declare the glory of God,” as it says in the psalm. For this reason in brief also the apostles who were of heaven were sent to declare the glory of God and received the name of Boanerges, “which is the sons of thunder,” that by the power of thunder we might believe them truly to be heavens.

If someone, hypothetically, should seem to believe in Jesus but should not believe that the God of the law and of the gospel is one, whose glory the heavens declare, since they were made by him, and the work of whose hands the firmament proclaims, since it is their work, this person would be deficient in the greatest article of faith.

Psalms 19:4

Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

Behold the Lord’s greatness. “The sound of his teaching has gone out into every land.” Our Lord Jesus has been spread out to the whole world, because he is God’s power.… The power of the Lord and Savior is with those who are in Britain, separated from our world, and with those who are in Mauretania and with everyone under the sun who has believed in his name. Behold the Savior’s greatness. It extends to all the world.

Psalms 22:14-15

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

[We know] that even if … all the bones of Christ appear to be scattered in persecutions and afflictions by the plots of those who wage war against the unity of the temple by persecutions, the temple will be raised up and the body will arise on the third day.

Psalms 23:4 · 2 passages

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Scripture is a witness that “rod” speaks of punishments and scourges. If you have sinned and you see the rod of God threatening you, know that the mercy of God will not be far from you.

To walk in the midst of the shadow of death is not the same as to sit in the shadow of death; one who sits in the shadow of death is firmly fixed in that shadow and strengthened in evil. On account of this, he is in darkness and lacks mercy so that the light may rise for him. He who does not sit, but who passes or walks through the midst of the shadow of death, not standing and hurrying across, does not walk alone because the Lord goes through with him.

Psalms 23:5 · 2 passages

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Just as certain rewards are given to the contender in mighty contests, so also in any trial, when that which afflicts is nearby and the powers of the adversaries bring tribulation, know that a spiritual and intellectual table is prepared on account of this trial. Therefore, however many times you will be afflicted, equally many times a spiritual table is placed before you. Fix firm your eyes attentive only to my tables, and, giving thanks, you may say with the apostle, “Not I alone, but we are made glorious in tribulation.”

This bread that God the Word declares is his body is the word that feeds souls, word proceeding from God the Word and bread from heavenly Bread. It has been placed on the table about which was written, “You have prepared a table in my sight against those who afflict me.” And this drink that God the Word declares is his blood is the word that gives drink and wonderfully intoxicates the hearts of those who drink. This is the cup concerning which was written, “and your intoxicating cup, how glorious it is!” Also, this drink is the fruit of the true Vine, who said, “I am the true vine,” and it is the blood of that Grape that produced this drink when it was cast into the winepress of the passion, just as the bread too is the word of Christ, made from that Wheat that “falling into the earth … produces much fruit.” For God the Word was not saying that the visible bread that he was holding in his hands was his body, but rather the Word, in whose mystery the bread was to be broken. He was not saying that the visible drink was his blood, but the Word, in whose mystery the drink was to be poure…

This bread that God the Word declares is his body is the word that feeds souls, word proceeding from God the Word and bread from heavenly Bread. It has been placed on the table about which was written, “You have prepared a table in my sight against those who afflict me.” And this drink that God the Word declares is his blood is the word that gives drink and wonderfully intoxicates the hearts of those who drink. This is the cup concerning which was written, “and your intoxicating cup, how glorious it is!” Also, this drink is the fruit of the true Vine, who said, “I am the true vine,” and it is the blood of that Grape that produced this drink when it was cast into the winepress of the passion, just as the bread too is the word of Christ, made from that Wheat that “falling into the earth … produces much fruit.” For God the Word was not saying that the visible bread that he was holding in his hands was his body, but rather the Word, in whose mystery the bread was to be broken. He was not saying that the visible drink was his blood, but the Word, in whose mystery the drink was to be poured out. For what else could the body and the blood of God the Word be except the Word that nourishes and the Word that “makes glad the heart”?

Psalms 24:3

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

Where should you stand, you who seek sanctification from God? The writer says, “You have established my feet on the rock.” “Christ was the rock.” Let us learn about the one who follows these promises.

Psalms 24:6

This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

No one seeking the face of God will see his face and live, … unless he or she has been changed.

Psalms 24:9

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

But after he had destroyed his enemies through his passion, the Lord, who is mighty in battle and strong, … goes, bearing victory and trophies, with the body that arose from the dead.… Certain powers say, “Who is this that is coming from Edom, with scarlet garments from Bosra, so beautiful?” And those escorting him say to those stationed at the gates of heaven, “Lift up your gates, and the King of glory will come in.”