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COMMENTARY ON PSALM 95 A song ofpraisefor David. No title in the Hebrew. INC JOSIAH WAS QUITE pious. On seeing most of the people embracing the worship of idols, he ordered all the priests of the idols to be executed, their altars turned upside down, the graves of the dead priests dug up and their bones burned on the very altars of the demons. Then he summoned all the people and urged them to have recourse to repentance, placate God, and by this means avoid the threatened destruction, the prophetess Huldah forecasting a dire fate for all the people.l Blessed David, then, with inspired eyes foresaw this from afar, and composed this psalm for their benefit and the instruction of all humankind. The psalm is expressed from the viewpoint ofJosiah and the priests ofGod. (2) Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior (v. 1). The opening is from dancers, pleased with their freedom from impiety: Let us raise the triumphal hymn to our common God, he is saying, the shout being a sound conquerors make. The band of the pious had conquered the force of the impious; so it was right for them to offer the triumphal hymn to God,2 especially the choir of the apostles and martyrs. Beyond them, everyone of their kind would have in mind the thought, Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior; who brought about our salvation through sufferings to make us all immune I. Cf. 2 Kings 22-23. Theodoret must get this association of the psalm with Josiah from his tradition, there being nothing in the biblical text to provide commentators with a direct connection. Despite his concerns about historicism voiced in the preface, he does not feel free to dissolve the connection. 2. The author of the long form of the text is not slow to give evidence of that concern about restricting the psalm's meaning to history, and at this point extends commentary on the verse with an eschatological and Christological interpretation . 123 124 THEODORET OF CYRUS to suffering, who chose to descend into Hades so as to raise us up to the heavens. Let us come into his presence with confession, and raise a shout to him with psalms (v. 2): before the time of retribution let us have recourse to repentance, and before the sentence is pronounced on us [1641] let us placate the Lord; let us offer him also appropriate hymn singing. (3) Then he brings out God's victory and the idols' defeat. Because the Lord is a great God and a great king over all the earth (v. 3): beyond words is the power of our Lord; he is true God, he has power over all, and he proves the falsity of the name of the so-called gods. Next he shows, as far as is possible for human nature, the signs of the divine power. Because in his hand are the limits of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are his. Because his is the sea, and it is he who made it; his hands shaped the dry land (vv. 4-5): he is maker of everything, Lord of all, he personally guides all things, with his hand he encircles creation, with a word he personally created moisture and dryness; his are the tops of the mountains, even should the demons times beyond counting persuade the fools among men to build on them temples dedicated to them. (4) Come, let us worship and bow down before him, let us lament in the presence of the Lord who made us (v. 6): so let us come together with enthusiasm and offer him due worship, and beg for his mercy, weeping and wailing, he being our Maker and Lord. The history ofJosiah and the people instructs us about the tears they shed after the reading. of Deuteronomy.3 Because he is our God, and we people of his pasture and sheep of his hand (v. 7): he is our Lord by nature, and particularly is he our God: he calls us his own people, and provides care as though for his own sheep. The Lord himself also says this after his incomprehensible Incarnation : "My sheep hear my voice," and again, "I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep," and so on.4 3. Josiah certainly. less so the people and the discoverers...

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