Origen of Alexandria — Commentary on Scripture

Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

If need be, we will not only partake of the blessings of life but bear its appointed sorrows as a trial to our souls. For in this way is divine Scripture accustomed to speak of human afflictions, by which, as gold is tried in the fire, so the human spirit is tried and is found to be worthy either of condemnation or of praise.… We are therefore prepared and are ready to say, “Try me, O Lord, and prove me; purge my reins and my heart.”

Psalms 27:1

A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Christians have nothing to fear, even if demons should not be well-disposed to them; for they are protected by the supreme God, who is well pleased with their piety and who sets his divine angels to watch over those who are worthy of such guardianship, so that they can suffer nothing from demons. He who by his piety possesses the favor of the Most High, who has accepted the guidance of Jesus, the “angel of the great counsel,” being well contented with the favor of God through Christ Jesus, may say with confidence that he has nothing to suffer from the whole host of demons.

Psalms 27:3 · 2 passages

Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

It may be that these words are spoken by the prophet of no one else but the Savior, who feared no one because of the light and salvation given from the Father and who was afraid of no one because of the protection with which God shielded him. And his heart was not at all fearful when the entire host of Satan encamped against him. His heart, filled with sacred teachings, hoped in God when war rose up against him.

You see steadfastness and vigor of the soul that keeps the commandments of God and has the confidence of uncreated liberty.

Psalms 28:1

A Psalm of David. Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.

Frequently, in Scripture, the righteous are said to have called out to God. Each one tries to beseech God with a cry, and I may say with an unusual cry. He goes to his bedroom closet, locks the door and calls out to God: “Do not be silent before me.” It was written of Moses, Aaron and Joshua the son of Nun. Indeed, they were the worthy ones to whom God spoke. He spoke through the prophets whenever the people stood before God. Let us not think that God speaks to us externally, for those righteous thoughts that are in our hearts are the words we speak and the voice through which God speaks to us. Understand this when Scripture says that God spoke to this one or that. Thus Scripture testifies, “Blessed is the one whose help is from you.…” We have this help through which the word of God is received. Holy is that one … who hears the word of the Lord and does it.

Psalms 28:2

Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

Often, we communicate by the lifting of hands, as when Moses’ arms were lifted up and Israel was victorious. When his hands were down, the Amalekites won.… Our hands are our deeds of piety. If we store treasures in heaven, we have hands lifted to God and overcome the enemy. When, therefore, I raise my hands to God, I lift my spirit to him through my uplifted hands. Amalek is conquered by me. So, it is needful to lift your hands to God. The temple of God is his glory.

Psalms 30:3

O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

No one is able to exalt God unless God has lifted him up. For we are lifted up on high through the cross of Christ, who said, “When I will have been lifted up, I will draw all to me.” We exalt the Lord who himself exalted the Father, and as much as he has been in him, he shows the Father to the ones who believe. He teaches that there are certain invisible enemies of the human spirit who envy the salvation handed over to them by God. They lie in wait, and they observe whether an error, fall or mishap should happen, which, if it would, straightway they mock that salvation as if joyful with the wrongdoing, against which mockery he bears up with strength if they will see that salvation illuminated by divine steps. He thanks God because God did not allow him to be cast away but corrected him from his fall. One who realizes this clearly exalts God and protects the worthy teaching that comes from God. Such a person lives a life of wisdom and keeps his spirit in all excellence. He exalts the one who lives within him.

Psalms 32:5

I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

People had evil thoughts. They were revealed to bring them into the open and destroy them. Once they had been killed and are dead, they would cease to exist. He who died for us would kill them. For, as long as such thoughts were hidden and not brought out into the open, it was quite impossible to kill them. Thus, if we ourselves have sinned, we ought to say, “I made my sin known to you, and I have not hidden my iniquity. I said, “Against myself shall I proclaim my injustice to the Lord.’ ”

Psalms 33:6

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Nothing in the Trinity can be called greater or less, for there is but one fount of deity, who upholds the universe by his word and reason and sanctifies “by the spirit of his mouth” all that is worthy of sanctification.

Psalms 33:15

He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.

When we fail to remember the one who formed each one of us in the womb, and formed all our hearts individually and understands all our works, we do not perceive that God is a helper of those who are lowly and inferior, a protector of the weak, a shelterer of those who have been given up in despair and Savior of those who have been given up as hopeless.

Psalms 36:6

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.

Human beings, being ignorant of the judgments of God, which are “a great abyss,” are accustomed to complain against God and to say, Why do unjust people and unjust robbers and impious and wicked ones suffer nothing adverse in this life but everything yields prosperity to them, honors, riches, power, health, and the health and strength of the body even serves them. On the contrary, innumerable tribulations come on the innocent and pious worshipers of God; they live rejected, humble, contemptible, under the blows of the powerful. Sometimes even more severe diseases dominate them in their body. But as I said, the ignorant complain about what order there is in the divine judgments. For however much more severely they want those to be punished whose power and iniquities they lament, there is that much greater necessity that the penalties be differed, that if they are not differed, … it is certain that they will be eternal and last forever. On the contrary, therefore, if they wanted good things to be given to the just and innocent in the present age, the good things themselves would also b…

Human beings, being ignorant of the judgments of God, which are “a great abyss,” are accustomed to complain against God and to say, Why do unjust people and unjust robbers and impious and wicked ones suffer nothing adverse in this life but everything yields prosperity to them, honors, riches, power, health, and the health and strength of the body even serves them. On the contrary, innumerable tribulations come on the innocent and pious worshipers of God; they live rejected, humble, contemptible, under the blows of the powerful. Sometimes even more severe diseases dominate them in their body. But as I said, the ignorant complain about what order there is in the divine judgments. For however much more severely they want those to be punished whose power and iniquities they lament, there is that much greater necessity that the penalties be differed, that if they are not differed, … it is certain that they will be eternal and last forever. On the contrary, therefore, if they wanted good things to be given to the just and innocent in the present age, the good things themselves would also be temporal and would have to come to a quick end; but the more they are deferred into the future, by so much the more will they be perpetual and not know an end.

Psalms 36:9

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

What other light of God can we speak of, in which a person sees light, except God’s spiritual power, which when it lightens a person causes him either to see clearly the truth of all things or to know God, who is called the truth? Such then is the meaning of the saying, “In your light shall we see light”; that is, in your word and your wisdom, which is your Son, in him shall we see you, the Father.

Psalms 37:3

Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

The “land” here indicates the heart of the listener and his soul. We are ordered, therefore, to indwell this land, that is, not to stray far from it, not to run to and fro, far and near, but to dwell and to stand firm within the bounds of our spirits and to consider the land very carefully and to become its tiller just as Noah was and to plant in it the vine and till the land that is within us, “to renew the fallowed ground of our spirits and sow not among the thorns.” Namely, let us purge our spirit from faults, and let us refine rough and harsh ways with the gentleness and the imitation of Christ, and thus finally we may feed from its wealth.

Psalms 37:4

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

The expression “we have need” is applied to those things that are necessary for life. Consequently, applied to material things, it means that one does not need most things but only those of which Paul says, “but having food and clothing, we shall be satisfied with these things.” Those things, [by contrast], that are accumulated in wealth and luxury are the result of abundance among those who live luxuriously. They are not considered to be necessary and absolutely essential but to be superfluous. So, therefore, there are also things that are necessary for us in the realm of divine matters, which bring us into life and cause us to be in the one who says, “I am the life.” But what supersedes these things would be said to supersede need. It is said of such things, “Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the requests of your heart.” These include all the things that are considered in relation to the paradise of luxury and in relation to wealth and glory, the things in the left hand of wisdom according to him who said, “For length of life and years of life are in her right hand, but in…

The expression “we have need” is applied to those things that are necessary for life. Consequently, applied to material things, it means that one does not need most things but only those of which Paul says, “but having food and clothing, we shall be satisfied with these things.” Those things, [by contrast], that are accumulated in wealth and luxury are the result of abundance among those who live luxuriously. They are not considered to be necessary and absolutely essential but to be superfluous. So, therefore, there are also things that are necessary for us in the realm of divine matters, which bring us into life and cause us to be in the one who says, “I am the life.” But what supersedes these things would be said to supersede need. It is said of such things, “Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the requests of your heart.” These include all the things that are considered in relation to the paradise of luxury and in relation to wealth and glory, the things in the left hand of wisdom according to him who said, “For length of life and years of life are in her right hand, but in her left hand are wealth and glory.” One would say that these go beyond necessity.

Psalms 37:25

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

They can never be oppressed by the fasting of famine whose bread is that “they should do the will of the Father who is in heaven” and whose soul that “bread that comes down from heaven” nourishes.

Psalms 39:3

My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

In the Gospel it was written, after the Lord spoke to Cleopas, “Was not our heart burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?” Where will you burn? Where will “the coals of fire” be found in you who are never set on fire by the declaration of the Lord, never inflamed by the words of the Holy Spirit? Hear also … David … saying, “My heart burned within me, and in my meditation fire became inflamed.” From where do you glow? Where is the fire kindled in you?

Psalms 39:7

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

We will have to say that if we give in to troubles, we do not believe in him insofar as he is endurance; and if we are weak, we have not believed in him insofar as he is strength.

Psalms 42:11

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

I beseech you to remember in all your present contest the great reward laid up in heaven for those who are persecuted and reviled for righteousness’ sake, and to be glad and leap for joy on account of the Son of man, just as the apostles once rejoiced when they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name. And if you should ever perceive your soul drawing back, let the mind of Christ, which is in us, say to it, when it wishes to trouble that mind as much as it can, “Why are you sorrowful, my soul, and why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I shall yet give him thanks.” I pray that our souls may never be disquieted, and even more that in the presence of the tribunals and of the naked swords drawn against our necks they may be guarded by the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and may be quieted when they consider that those who are foreigners from the body are at home with the Lord of all. But if we are not so strong as always to preserve calm, at least let not the disquiet of the soul be poured forth or appear to strangers, so that we may have the opportunity of gi…

I beseech you to remember in all your present contest the great reward laid up in heaven for those who are persecuted and reviled for righteousness’ sake, and to be glad and leap for joy on account of the Son of man, just as the apostles once rejoiced when they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name. And if you should ever perceive your soul drawing back, let the mind of Christ, which is in us, say to it, when it wishes to trouble that mind as much as it can, “Why are you sorrowful, my soul, and why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I shall yet give him thanks.” I pray that our souls may never be disquieted, and even more that in the presence of the tribunals and of the naked swords drawn against our necks they may be guarded by the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and may be quieted when they consider that those who are foreigners from the body are at home with the Lord of all. But if we are not so strong as always to preserve calm, at least let not the disquiet of the soul be poured forth or appear to strangers, so that we may have the opportunity of giving an apology to God, when we say to him, “My God, my soul is disquieted within me.”

Psalms 45:2

Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.

Now a proof that “grace was poured on his lips” is the fact that although the time he spent in teaching was short, … the world has been filled with this teaching and with the religion that came through him. For there has arisen “in his days” “righteousness and an abundance of peace” lasting until the consummation.

Psalms 46:10

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

It is not possible to know him if one has not become still and purified one’s mind.