Psalms 51-150: Volume 8 (Volume 8)

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture #8

by Quentin F. Wesselschmidt (Editor), Thomas C. Oden (Editor)

The Psalms have long served a vital role in the individual and corporate lives of Christians, expressing the full range of human emotions, including some that we are ashamed to admit. The Psalms reverberate with joy, groan in pain, whimper with sadness, grumble in disappointment, and rage with anger. The church fathers employed the Psalms widely. In liturgy they used them both as hymns and as Scripture readings. Within them they found pointers to Jesus both as Son of God and as Messiah. They also employed the Psalms widely as support for other New Testament teachings, as counsel on morals, and as forms for prayer. Especially noteworthy was their use of Psalms in the great doctrinal controversies. The Psalms were used to oppose subordinationism, modalism, Arianism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, Eutychianism, and Monophysitism, among others. More than fifty church fathers are cited in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture volume from Ambrose to Zephyrinus. From the British Isles, Gaul, and the Iberian Peninsula, we find Hilary of Poitiers, Prudentius, John Cassian, Valerian of Cimiez, Salvian the Presbyter, Caesarius of Arles, Martin of Bruga, Braulio of Saragossa, and Bede. From Rome and Italy, we find Clement, Justin Martyr, Callistus, Hippolytus, Novatian, Rufinus, Maximus of Turin, Peter Chrysologus, Leo the Great, Cassiodorus, and Gregory the Great. Carthage and North Africa are represented by Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, and Fulgentius. Fathers from Alexandria and Egypt include Clement, Origen, Dionysius, Pachomius, Athanasius, Cyril, and Poemen. Constantinople and Asia Minor supply the Great Cappadocians―Basil the Great and the two Gregorys, from Nazianzus and Nyssa―plus Evagrius of Pontus and Nicetas of Remesiana. From Antioch and Syria we find Ephrem, John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyr, Philoxenus of Mabbug, Sahdona, and John of Damascus. Finally, Jerusalem, Palestine and Mesopotamia are represented by Eusebius of Caesarea, Aphrahat, Cyril, Jacob of Sarug, Jerome, and Isaac of Nineveh. Readers of these selections, some of which appear here for the first time in English, will glean from a rich treasury of deep devotion and profound theological reflection.

Genres: Reference, Theology, Old Testament, Christian

523 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2007

Reviews

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unless I learn something radically new as I finish this book, I will have to class it as the best single book I've ever read on the Psalms. Even better than Fr. Reardon's "Christ in the Psalms." I can't believe IVP, of all houses, has embarked on such a magnificently executed project of Biblical exegesis. This is Volume VIII in "The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture." Physically it is handsome, imposingly handsome. And the paper and binding is simply top-notch.

This series offers a carefully culled set of commentary by the Fathers on the Bible. That's it in a nutshell. It's intended for average readers, not for specialists beavering away in some arcane corner of patristics. The editors have chosen commentary that represents a broad concensus of the Church's Fathers up to about A.D. 750. In the O.T., unsurprisingly the thread tying it all together is christology. This volume begins with the great Psalm 50 as the Orthodox know it, 51 to the rest of Christendom, and I believe I learned more about the inside of the text from this volume's entry than in all my other reading combined.

If you're Orthodox, you should be aware that this is the Masoretic text and numbering of the Psalms. We might wish they had used the LXX version of the O.T. But considering the general excellence of this volume, if the rest of the series is on the same plane, this can only be a quibble amid the flood of gratitude one feels otherwise.

I am grateful that IVP has undertaken this fine project. I wonder if they're aware that such a great gift to Christians will likely wind up pointing readers not in IVP's Protestant evangelical direction, but toward either Roman Catholicism or Orthodoxy, or perhaps Anglo-Catholicism. All the better so far as I'm concerned. This is the best book I've read about Church doctrine since Dr. Pelikan's magnificent five volumes some years ago.

[Joseph R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This commentary provides a lot of quotes from early Christian authors who reference the last two-thirds of the Book of Psalms. Each psalm is presented in English with a brief summary of the quotations that follow, presenting the theological reflections of the Church Fathers. The full quotes are a paragraph or two taken from longer works like Saint Augustines Confessions or Saint Jerome's letters. Footnotes provide the sources if readers want to get more; they also provide explanations if the authors reference then-current ideas, like Arian theology or Donatist attitudes.

The book includes short biographies of all the authors and references to find the original, complete texts in their original languages or English translations. Like the previous volume, this is an excellent resource for delving deeper into each Psalm for research and reflection.

Highly recommended.

SAMPLE QUOTE:
From commentary on Psalm 55, how punishment is the reward for impenitence: "This also is relevant to the accumulation of retribution, if the blind person not only is unable to perceive the light but also with pleasure seeks to increase the darkness of his blindness." On the Forgiveness of Sins by Fulgentius of Ruspe, p. 22

From commentary on Psalm 62, about trusting completely in God: "God will not forget even the saliva that has dried in your mouth as a result of fasting. On the contrary, everything will be returned to you at the moment of your anguish. Only humble yourself in all things, hold back your word even if you understand the whole affair. Do not quietly acquire the habit of abusing; on the contrary, joyfully put up with every trial. For if you knew the honor that results from trials you would not pray to be delivered from them, because it is preferable for you to pray, to weep and to sigh until you are saved, rather than to relax and be lead off a captive." Instructions 16 by Pachomius, pp. 49-50

From the commentary on Psalm 102, about Jesus's human body and soul: "...since he (Jesus) has an immortal nature, he took a body capable of suffering, and with the body a human soul. Both of these he kept unstained from the defilements of sin and gave his soul for the sake of the souls that had sinned and his body for the sake of the bodies that had died. And since the body that was assumed is described as the body of the very only-begotten Son of God, he refers the passion of the body to himself." Letter 144 by Theodoret of Cyr, p. 216

From the commentary on Psalm 105, about slavery: "So the psalmist beautifully says, 'Joseph had been sold into slavery. They had bound his feet with fetters.' 'He had been sold into slavery,' he says; he did not become a slave. They had bound his feet, but not his soul." Letter 53 by Ambrose, p. 245

From the commentary on Psalm 131, on humility: "For glory is like the human shadow: if you follow it, it runs away; if you run away, it follows. Always value yourself least of all and remember, whenever any good befalls you throughout your life, ascribe it all to God who gave it, not to yourself who received it." Exhortation to Humility 8 by Martin of Braga, p. 363.

From the commentary on Psalm 136, on anthropomorphizing God: "God is not finite but the people's faculty of perceiving is finite. God is not restricted, but rather the understanding of people's minds is limited. Accordingly, our Lord said in the Gospel, 'The hour shall come when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father,' and he gave the reason: 'God is spirit, and therefore they who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.'" On the Trinity by Novatian, p. 378.

[Jonathan]

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