In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

COMMENTARY ON PSALM 104 A psalm for David. HE GRACE OF THE ALL-HOLY Spirit offers people not only moral and dogmatic teaching, but also gives precise instruction on the way we ought to sing the praises of the Creator.! This was the reason he composed this psalm, to be sure, employing as minister blessed David,2 that we should all come to know with which hymns we should make response to the benefactor. Here he recounts the common favors, and portrays the God of all to be both maker and governor of everything. (2) Bless the Lord, my soul (v. 1). He teaches each student of piety to sing the praises of God the benefactor. 0 Lord my God, how extremely great you are! Here how is a mark of hyperbole. You are great is not indicative of increase, but suggests immeasurable greatness; Symmachus translated it this way, too, "0 my God, you are extremely great." In other words, it is not a case of his being small and becoming big, but of his being great by nature and this being demonstrated to devout people-not his complete greatness but to the extent human nature allows. You have clothed yourself in confession and magnificence. Symmachus put it this way, "You wrapped yourself in praise and glory": the beneficiaries of your good things are no longer in ignorance of you, nor do they pay reverence due to you to the idols; instead, they sing your praises and repay the debt of praise. 1. The Psalms are primarily meant for teaching, moral and dogmatic, Theodoret believes and says so in preface and conclusion. Yet here he concedes that they have a role in worship. \!. So for Theodoret the Spirit is author of the Psalms as of all the Scriptures, and David, like the other biblical authors, his minister, assistant, hypourgos-not a mere instrument, as in Platonic thinking. See my "Psalm 45: a locus classicus for patristic thinking on biblical inspiration." 161 162 THEODORET OF CYRUS (3) Wrapped in light like a garment (v. 2). The Apostle also said things in harmony with this, "It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light":3 that light is such that no one dares to come near it, the intensity of the rays turning one's eyes away. Mter all, if the visible [light of the] sun forces those [1696] avidly trying to discern it to do this, who could manage to come to an understanding of the unapproachable light? He is, then, himself true light, and as well he is wrapped in light like a garment, and "dwells in unapproachable light," with cloud and gloom around him,4 and he made darkness his canopy.5 These things are not inconsistent with one another: the unapproachable light is the same as gloom and darkness to those unable to see it; it is impossible to discern what is in the one and in the other. The one case and the other, of course, indicate the invisible quality of the divine nature. Stretching out heaven like canvas. In this he taught the facility of the Creator: as it is easy for someone to stretch canvas and make a tent, so by employing but a word the God of all spread out the furthest reaches of the heavens. (4) Who covers his chambers with waters (v. 3). Blessed Moses also taught this, saying God had given the order, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water; it will separate the water above the firmament from the water below the firmament."6 Who makes clouds his pavement, who walks on wings ofwinds. By this he indicated his providence reaching everywhere: he takes his position on winds and clouds, he is saying, he personally controls and guides them, and at the right time confers the benefit stemming from them. He teaches at the same time that the divine nature is present everywhere and surveys all things: since the winds are the fastest of all material things, traveling in a flash from west to east and from east to west, he found no more precise image of speed among material things and so said God is carried on winds' wings, indicating by this that he is present everywhere. We also find the God of all appearing in a cloud to the children of Israel, and making his personal appearance in 3. 1 Tim 4.16. 5. Cf. Ps 18.11. 4. Cf. Ps...

Share