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Theodoret of Cyrus

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 1,374 passages across 50 books

Commentary

1,121–1,140 of 1,374
Psalms 45:6

Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.

The prophetic word afterwards teaches the nature of God the Word incarnate himself … that he is God and eternal king, not having had a beginning and not due to have an end. This is what “forever” suggests.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 45:5

Psalms 45:7

Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

He was also anointed in the all-holy Spirit, not as God but as a human being: as God he was of one being with the Spirit, whereas as a human being he receives the gifts of the Spirit like a kind of anointing. Thus he “loved righteousness and hated lawlessness”: this is a matter of intentional choice, not of natural power, whereas as God he has “a rod of equity as the rod of his kingship.”

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 45:6

Psalms 45:13

The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.

Within, he is saying, she has the comeliness of virtue and is resplendent with the manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 45:10

Psalms 46:1

To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

After the previous psalm prophesied about the church’s being composed from godless nations and becoming a queen, and showed her sons to be made princes of the whole earth, here it gives a glimpse of the disturbances that occurred in the beginning of the preaching, with uprisings developing and opposing the believers. Then it foreshadows in word how the ranks of the persecuted would be protected by hope in God and scorn the waves crashing around them: with the God of all as strong rampart, he is saying, we shall not notice the tribulations of all kinds.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 46:2

Psalms 46:4

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

He gave the name “river” here to the preaching of the gospel and “city” to the way of life of God-fearing people, watered by the streams of the river to the point of fruitfulness.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 46:5

Psalms 47:4

He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

The God of all, who subjected kings to us and gave us control of all the nations, and in addition to that entrusts the beauty and excellence of Jacob to us—not all the Jewish people, who are named for Jacob, in fact, but “the beauty of Jacob,” the excellence and the elite of Jacob, those adorned with faith, who accepted the message without delay, who submitted to the sweet yoke of the Savior. These, you see, he both “chose” and “loved,” and to them he entrusted the apostolic governance.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 47:2

Psalms 47:9

The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

The promises to the patriarch Abraham, he is saying, took effect. Now the Lord of all promised to bless all the nations in his progeny. Accordingly, both these nations and their rulers abandoned their ancestral gods and are assembled with the God of Abraham, and they call this God theirs.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 47:5

Psalms 48:1

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

Often the divine Scripture gives the name “city” not to the building but to the way of life. Accordingly, here too he says the Lord of all was shown to be great through the things done by him in connection with his city, which the elevation of its teachings rendered illustrious as though located on a lofty and mighty hill.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 48:1

Psalms 48:3

God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

On the one hand, there is one church throughout all land and sea; thus we say in prayer, For the holy, single, universal and apostolic church, from one end of the world to the other. On the other hand, it is also divided into cities, towns and villages, which the inspired Word called “buildings.” As each city is composed of different houses and yet is called one city, so there are countless churches that defy numbering, both on islands and on continents, but all constitute one by being united in the common harmony of the true teachings. In these the God of all became apparent.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 48:3

Psalms 48:12

Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.

He calls the godly form of government “Zion,” that is, the church throughout the world, and “its towers” those devoted to virtue and imitating on earth the way of life of the angels, encircling and protecting it like towers. “Buildings” likewise, as we have said before, the churches divided among the cities, towns and villages: he speaks of them as one and many. So the inspired word, the grace of the all-holy Spirit, urges those to whom the saving message was entrusted to go around and move about, both to strengthen the towers with teaching and confirm its other force, and in addition to this to apportion care of the churches, as we have already remarked on the forty-fifth psalm. He urges it here, too: “take its buildings one by one,” so that one may care for this church and another for that, and be in charge of each by way of cultivating and exercising due care.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 48:6

Psalms 48:13

Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.

Each generation has to pass on to the next what we have received from the former so that the saving message may pass to all generations, and all people know that he is our God and Lord, good shepherd, everlasting. Since he said, “take its buildings one by one,” and entrusted to them the task of shepherding, of necessity he taught that there is one good shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep, shepherding forever, and shepherding not only the sheep but also those called pastors of the sheep.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 48:7

Psalms 49:2

Both low and high, rich and poor, together.

All people, listen to my words, city dwellers and country people, more refined and more rustic, all in common and also individuals.… Let nature in general hear my words, and each one reap the benefit for themselves.… Let those abounding in wealth and those caught up in poverty accept the exhortation alike, the word of instruction respecting no difference between wealth and poverty.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 49:3

Psalms 49:4

I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

The words put forward by me are full of wisdom, he is saying, but I learned them by submitting my hearing to the words hidden in the depths. And what I learned through hearing I put forward through the organ of the tongue. Now, he means to say, I utter nothing of my own; rather, I am an instrument of divine grace.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 49:4

Psalms 49:5

Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?

I fear and dread the day of retribution, on which the righteous Judge will repay everyone according to their works. Now, aware of this, keep such fear before your eyes in your own case.… But if you were to inquire why I am afraid, listen closely: it is an evil day, about which countless declamations are made in the inspired Scriptures. The cause of my fear is the life of lawlessness, through which I strayed from the straight and narrow.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 49:5

Psalms 49:7

None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

Now, you need to understand that virtue and godliness neither of forebears nor brothers is of benefit to those lacking them, nor is it possible after departure from here to buy salvation with money. It is in the present life, you see, as a sage says, “one’s own wealth is his ransom.”

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 49:6

Psalms 49:11

Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

Bereft not only of wisdom but also of influence and all affluence, they will meet their end, dispatched from their lavish homes to graves and forced to occupy them forever.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 49:8

Psalms 49:16

Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

After this he provides explanation and advice for those condemned to a life of poverty and worn out through the arrogance of the rich.… Do not consider present prosperity any great thing, he is saying: wealth that catches all eyes is not lasting; those who raise their eyebrows and are puffed up at it will shortly after leave it all behind and be dispatched to death.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 49:11

Psalms 50:3

Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

Do not think the second coming will be like his first: at that time he concealed his characteristic magnificence in lowliness and poverty, whereas in this case he will reveal plainly to everyone his lordship and kingship, no longer employing long-suffering but judging justly. As he said, “he will not keep silence. A fire will burn in his presence, with a severe storm around him.” Blessed Daniel had a vision of this: “A river of fire,” he says, “was flowing in front of him, his throne a fiery flame, its wheels flaming fire.”

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 50:2

Psalms 50:8

I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

I do not accuse you of neglect of sacrifices, he is saying: you offer them continually; rather, I urge you not to confine righteousness to them.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 50:4

Psalms 50:21

These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

I saw these crimes committed by you, I practiced long-suffering, I waited for your repentance. But you took even my long-suffering as an excuse for impiety, guessing that I was pleased with your lawlessness and would not inflict punishment.… Since you were not cured by the mild remedy of long-suffering, I shall prepare more painful ones for you and apply burning by censure. Now, this is in keeping with those words of the apostle, “Do you not realize that the goodness of God leads you in the direction of repentance, but by your obduracy and unrepentant heart you store up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath, revelation and just judgment of God, who will repay everyone according to their works.”

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 50:7

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