Didymus the Blind

In his own words on Psalms

• Psalms 1:1

  The devil himself may be called the way of sinners. Let the one who stands in this way be warned lest he tarry there. Recall what the Scripture says: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." For the one who will not stand in the devil's way will come to the Lord, who says, "I am the way." Truly the one who follows this way, traveling the way to the end, will receive a reward.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 1:1

• Psalms 1:3

  The tree is the wisdom of God; its fruit the mystical and spiritual sense of the Scriptures; the leaves covering its fruits are external words, which besides protecting the fruits display appropriate behavior, and they become the nourishment of good people, who are called beasts of burden on account of their own simplicity.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 1:3

• Psalms 2:8

  The words, therefore, "Ask of me, and I will give to you," are spoken for our sake, not for the Son's. They indicate that something is given not to the Son but to the peoples who belong to him.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 2:8

• Psalms 3:1-2

  He who offers no grounds for hate and enmity may have enemies for no reason. Such are all who endure persecution because they live righteously for Jesus Christ. To these the Savior says, "Blessed are you when people revile you and when liars speak evil against you on account of me." This is what happened when David had many enemies for no reason such as Saul and Absalom and those who accompanied them. For they attacked without cause him who was a righteous man and had often shown them much goodness and gentleness.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 3:8

• Psalms 3:3

  Since the psalm is spoken from the person of the Lord, it must be said that even the head of him who is lifted up is of God, since really his deity is made manifest to the faithful through external demonstration. The word head in this place indicates "chief." Christ, therefore, the chief of holy people, deservedly is their king, and it is his head that is lifted up.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 3:4

• Psalms 3:8

  What is the blessing to people who overcome unless it is the will of the Father concerning the coming of his Son into the world?

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 3:9

• Psalms 4:1

  Instead of allaying the disaster or restraining evil deeds, God sometimes offers courage for bravely bearing the disaster.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 4:2

• Psalms 4:6

  Many individuals read it in this way: "A certain one will show us good things." For it is not that the many show good things but that the One shows good things; that is, the only begotten Son of God. To those who understand it this way, the word who indicates a provider of a certain distinguished nature, an individual and a being singular in number. They use this witness: "A certain noble man." For in this passage the word certain denotes someone who is especially distinguished.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 4:7

• Psalms 4:8

  I will lie down and rest as I await the future age and the reward of a right life, and as I have been made secure beyond every disturbance because of my hope.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 4:9-10

• Psalms 5:1

  Because of grace this hymn is sung, in behalf of the individual spirit or for the church called out for the divine inheritance, not a natural one but a spiritual one.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 5:1

• Psalms 5:3

  Think about the one on whom the sun of righteousness has arisen, expressing praise because of his grateful spirit to the author of the light. "In the morning," he says, "you will hear my voice." For to whom is it necessary to have gratitude for so much good, unless to you, Lord, who has brought the light to me, which is the source for the greatest illumination to me?

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 5:4

• Psalms 5:4

  It is true that evil is not from God, as is the opinion of some who say that evil has a substantial reality. For from the mouth of the Most High, the one willing there only be good, good and evil do not go forth.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 5:6

• Psalms 6:4

  We may understand the word turn in two ways. Sometimes the sense is this: Since you have turned your face away from me, I ask that now you return that mercy and show it to me. Sometimes the significance is this: Since my spirit has turned away into evil, may you, returning and calling that soul back to you (as "You have turned who are given to turning away") redeem my soul from repeated sins and from the powers causing these evils.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 6:4, 5

• Psalms 6:5

  The saints are not only mindful of God as they hold on to this life but even more so when they are separated from this perishable body. What, therefore, does he say? No one who is mindful of you falls into that death that sin brings forth, that is, that death that separates the sinning spirit from a life of virtue. I desire to be mindful of you by turning toward your kindness. Save me, lest I be consumed in death when my prevailing weakness has turned against me and my spirit is thoroughly distraught. For it is also said, he is not mindful of you who dies; but he who is mindful of you does not fall into that death about which the Savior said: "He who hears my word will not see death in eternity."

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 6:6

• Psalms 7:2

  Who is that one except he who says, "There is no one who can save except me," the one who has come to seek and to save that which has been lost and to give his soul as a ransom for many? These things show that God the Father saves through God the Son. Through this the deity of the Father and the Son must not be distinguished by the words above and must not be seen as different from one another.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 7:2

• Psalms 7:6

  So, it is spoken: He asks that God on high appear at the borders of his enemies. Then, he says, their iniquities that make them my enemies will end. Perhaps the boundaries of the enemies refer to the "pride" in which they have rejoiced. They think they are going to dwell with stability in the furthermost boundaries.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 7:6

• Psalms 7:8

  There is an important difference between human righteousness and that of God; the Psalmist wishes to be judged according to the righteousness of the Lord, knowing for sure that this will mean salvation for him.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 7:9

• Psalms 7:15

  Truly, he sins first against himself, then he injures another; since sin is harmful and ruinous, foremost it harms and roughly handles the one sinning.… "If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit". In this saying it must be realized that teachers and students become blinded by foolishness and wantonness.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 7:15

• Psalms 9:8

  These words warn that we must withdraw from evil and impiety and pursue excellence and righteousness. For who being prudent, if he believes this, would not fear that he might fall into the hands of judgment and rightly and properly so on account of his own blameworthy conduct and wicked thoughts? Indeed, under such judgment he will not avoid the curse.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:8

• Psalms 9:10

  Those who have a perfect knowledge of your name trust in no other thing. They are not abandoned by God. This word must be understood with wisdom and reverence, considering that one should not think that the person who lives rightly in his daily affairs is abandoned by God. One who thinks thus is deceived. Indeed, several of the impious have thus believed. Some say that Abel, who was killed, was abandoned, as also the prophets and apostles, for these individuals were afflicted continuously, and many of them even murdered by people. With this distinction made, we say that the person who is with God up to his last breath is not abandoned, even if he suffers innumerable wounds from his enemies.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:11

• Psalms 9:13

  For one who lives in this type of death and in the lusts of the world, with a depressed spirit, if he will perceive a sense of his own wrongdoing and the nature of divine goodness, let him say in the manner of a prayer: "Have mercy on me and see my humility," which I suffer from my enemies. They have humiliated me, drawing me down. You alone are able to lift me up from the gates of death because of your essential goodness.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:15

• Psalms 9:14

  The gates of the daughter of Zion, being opposed to the gates of death, are praiseworthy deeds and the contemplation on the works of God done according to excellence and wisdom.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:15

• Psalms 9:15

  One is not held by the sin and unrighteousness of another; rather, each one will die in his own sin. The wicked, first harming themselves, strive deceitfully to drive others into the same curse. Secretly they build traps of deceit with their own plans and words, so they may seize someone unsuspecting. But by that very trap that they have hidden they are punished, for vindicators will keep those very ones they have caught. This punishment is done by the providence of God. For what other is the judgment of God than that the sinner is caught by his own deeds, because he holds the reason for his own condemnation for those who live unrighteously. This agrees with that which is said before: "He who has opened a pit for his neighbor will fall into it."

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:16

• Psalms 9:16

  For if the whole psalm is called a song because of its tone and force, then the term "song" would be placed at the beginning of [the psalm], as it is in a number of psalms. But here it is otherwise, and after the diapsalma he begins the song; the title is placed between the diapsalma and song. It is reasonable, therefore, that the following has the sense of a psalm.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 9:16

• Psalms 10:3

  [The wicked] are chiefly of this type who lack wisdom and spiritual resources, nor do they hold to teachings of the faith correctly. They incur the judgment of wise providence when they praise the sinner indulging in his own desires. However, it becomes apparent enough that the sinner strives not for better things but for more pleasing and desirous ones. In addition to that mistake, they judge that they who have riches and human glory are taking part in blessing. Accordingly, they claim the wicked are blessed by God; but it is necessary to believe that blessing of God is granted to the religious.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:3

• Psalms 10:5

  This is the reason why the sinner provokes the Lord, because he does not keep him before his eyes, because he turns himself away from God. The one who sins conducts himself in this way. Concerning all of this, God says, "They have shown me their backs and not their faces." Cain, the offspring of this wickedness, "departed from the face of the Lord God." That is, he turned himself away from him. Inasmuch as these words are spoken about people being sinners, even more so do they speak about the devil. "His ways are profaned at all times." For of which people are the ways profaned for all time, since even the wicked often live with much honesty? He enters without permission to draw people to corrupt deeds and even to deny the providence of God. And so he persuades many to believe that the world is without the direction of God, and later he falls away from right ideas concerning the governing of God and the knowledge of judgment.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:5

• Psalms 10:9

  He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den or a savage lion in his cave so that he may drag off the poor by crafty speech and, equally often, by their deeds. After he has caught him in the trap he will draw him to apostasy. Wild beasts are threatening, and especially so the lion. Often, therefore, lying in wait, while he discusses fasting, he openly persuades them to greed; and addressing modesty, he introduces them to a certain appearance of luxury. Thus, he pushed Eve deceptively in the garden to commit transgression, saying she was going to be equal to God. Thus he lured Judas by greed.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:8

• Psalms 10:14

  The poor abandon themselves to you. You will care for his deliverance so that you may make him rich in heavenly goods. So also, the orphan is helped, protected and nourished like a son. It is important to understand here that the orphan is one whose father is the devil because of iniquity but who has cast him out through the practice of repentance.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:12-15

• Psalms 10:16

  The land of God is the good heart; from this land the nations perish when they are driven by whatever destruction of mind and every evil thought.… No sinner is allowed to walk in this land, for the righteous alone possess it. It is said by a good man: "I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 10:16

• Psalms 11:6

  Harsh punishments are often denoted in Scripture by the word cup.… So it follows that even in this place "cup" denotes the punishment to be poured out, especially, the fullness of this cup is fire, sulphur and a stormy wind, whose symbols were written in Genesis, the type of punishment inflicted by the Lord on Sodom and Gomorrah. Besides fire and sulphur, there is also in the cup the stormy wind. The fire indicates threatening flames; sulphur, the force by which more fire is burned; and, finally, the wind illustrates the certain whirlwind of temptations; chiefly we are able to learn this from the writing of Isaiah. … Let us flee impiety, so that there is no cup of this type for us, and we may live righteously; so that we may drink to drunkenness that which is the best. From which also it is said: "The Lord is my portion and my cup." Because the Lord is just and loves justice, he shows his face to the upright.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 11:7

• Psalms 40:7

  He calls the "roll of the book" every divinely inspired Scripture, both the legal and the prophetic. In these Scriptures things are written concerning the memory of the Savior among us. The psalmist calls it a roll because everything is summed up into one.

  FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 40:8