The words in [this psalm] are sung as if by the person of Christ, who although he is noble as Lord by nature and has under his feet creation as a handmaid, yet he asks to be preserved by the Father as the head of the body of the church. . . . He made those sanctified by the Spirit a marvel in the land—in his church—teaching them the will of the Father as an angel of mighty counsel. They hastened to hear the preaching, not through blood [sacrifices] or practices of the law to please God, but through praise and bloodless sacrifice. Nor with names that befit their former works did he say, I shall call them, that is, idolaters and polytheists and atheists; but called and holy and pious, and who have a share in the Lord. Because the latter was obedient to the Father to death—which he calls a cup—for this reason he gave him as a portion and inheritance to the Gentiles. And he binds it to him with cords—fetters of spiritual life. . . . He is on [the Father’s] right hand in that we gain through his hands his heavenly Father as helper, and like a rod of power he has supported our weakness. Therefore he also says to him: My flesh will reside in hope. The hope, then, is that his flesh will again assume the soul that was constituted. For his soul was not left in Sheol, nor did his body see the corruption of the grave. . . . For these things are granted us in him as the head and firstborn of the resurrection and because we have grown rich with his poverty. And again we shall be in unfading delights, which the saints will receive on the day of his manifestation from him who is the Father’s right hand.

The person of the Lord Savior is represented throughout the entire psalm. The first theme is undertaken from the perspective of his humanity in accordance with his custom. He speaks to the Father, asking to be saved because he has always placed his hope in him. In speaking this way, he does not minimize his own divinity in any way, but shows the nature of his humanity. . . . In the second theme, he returns thanks to the Father, who by appearing at his right hand, has overcome the iniquity of this age by the strength of his omnipotence. On this basis, he claims that his soul has been freed from hell, and he mentions that after the glory of the resurrection he has been placed among the delights at his right hand.

Let us consider how this psalm teaches us about the tremdendous gift of salvation. In times of suffering, it conveys confidence and promises eternal glory in hope, so that by teaching us that our future will be prosperous we do not fear adversity in the present. This psalm is a heavenly school, a source of learning for life, a lecture hall filled with truth, and without doubt a unique teaching which occupies its students with fruitful meanings rather than with the flattery of empty words.

The psalm is spoken in the person of the Savior but is spoken from the viewpoint of his humanity, as are also many other such statements that we find in the sacred Gospels. . . . In this psalm also he asks to be protected and is protected by himself: while he asks as a human being, as God he grants the request, his own Father of course being pleased and cooperating.

He points all things back to the one who has freely given them, not to himself who has received what was conferred on him.

The abundance of good things, he is saying, comes to me from your grace.

Who has ever given him anything, since from him, and through him and in him^[1] are all things? The fount of life is that highest Good that bestows the substance of life on all, because it has life abiding in itself. It receives from no one as though it were needy; it lavishes goods on all and borrows from others nothing for itself, for it has no need of us. It says, too, in the person of humankind: You do not need my goods. What is more lovely than to approach him and cling to him? What pleasure can be greater? What else can he desire who sees and tastes freely of this fount of living water? what realms? what powers? what riches? when he sees how pitiable are the conditions of kings, how changeable the status of their power, how short the span of this life, in how great bondage even sovereigns must live, since they live at the will of others and not their own.

What in any case are my goods, if not what I have been given by you? And how can the one by whom every good is given be in need of any good?

God, the omnipotent, does not need our goods, nor do our virtuous acts contribute to the perfection of God, since increase is impossible to him. But whatever we produce by toil and bring forth in labor, that he exacts and takes from us in order to give back to us what he has received.

It is man, not God, who benefits from the whole economy of worship.

God does not derive any benefit from our worship, but we do. When he reveals or teaches how he is to be worshiped, he does so in our own highest interest, with absolutely no need of anything for himself. All such sacrifices are symbolic; they are a representation of certain things by which our attention is aroused to study or understand or reflect on the realities represented by them.

The inheritance is the contemplation of the present and future ages; the inheritance of Christ is the understanding of God.

Let the others choose earthly and temporal portions to enjoy; the share of the saints is the Lord eternal. Let others drink deep of death-dealing pleasures; the Lord is the cup allotted to me. When I say my, I include the church, because where the Head is, there the body is too. I will gather together their assemblies to be my inheritance, and as I drink deep of the cup I will forget their old names. You are he who will restore to me my inheritance, that the glory I had with you before the existence or the world may be known to these also whom I set free. You will not restore to me what I never lost, but you will restore to those who have lost in the knowledge of that bright glory. Yet because I am among them, you will restore it to me.

He who in his own person is the Lord’s portion, or has the Lord for his portion, must so bear himself as to possess the Lord and to be possessed by him. He who possesses the Lord and who says with the prophet, The Lord is my portion, can hold to nothing beside the Lord. For if he holds to something beside the Lord, the Lord will not be his portion.

See, my blessed sister, how much you have achieved; see to what a high peak you have attained, how you have found the grace of many benefits in one and the same Christ. He is, indeed, your true Bridegroom, he is also your brother, he is likewise your friend, he is your inheritance, he is your reward, he is God and the Lord. You have in him a Bridegroom to love: For he is fair in beauty above the sons of men.^[1] He is a true brother for you to hold, for by adoption you are the daughter of him whose natural Son Christ is. He is a friend of whom you need not doubt. . . . You have in him the inheritance that you may embrace, for he is himself the portion of your inheritance. You have in him the reward that you may recognize, for his blood is your redemption. You have in him God by whom you may be ruled, the Lord to fear and honor.

[The psalmist is saying] O Lord, why give me some other inheritance? Whatever you give, it isn’t worth much. You be my inheritance; I love you, I love you with all I am, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind I love you. What can it mean to me, anything you give me apart from yourself? That is to love God freely, to hope in God for God, to hasten to be filled with God, to be satisfied with him. He, after all, is enough for you; apart from him, nothing is enough for you.

If the line is measured, how is it written the Gospel of John: For God gives the Spirit without measure^[1] and I will pour out my spirit on you.^[2] Perhaps by chance it is called measure not in terms of knowledge itself but on account of him who receives it, because its receptivity cannot be greater. The rain itself also may exceed the measure, yet it is measured in that vessel in which it is received.

According to an ancient custom, an inheritance used to be divided by roping off the lands, so that each person might obtain a portion of land by measurement, allotted by the size of the tract and the status of the individual. In this way, it says in the Old Testament that Moses commanded Joshua to distribute the inheritance of the promised land to the children of Israel through the use of cords. So he now rightly said cords, because he spoke about the breadth and glory of his inheritance. . . .The inheritance of Christ is the predestined multitude of the saints.

What the Lord is saying . . . is this: My knowledge, deepest thought and the inmost desire of my heart was with me, not only in my heavenly mansions but also when I dwelled in the night of this world and in darkness; it remained in me as man, and it instructed me and never left me, so that whatever the weakness of the flesh was unable to achieve, divine thought and power accomplished.

By explaining what he did, he passes on to us the unique remedy through which we can avoid sins. For the person who constantly keeps him in his mental line of sight does not turn toward transgressions in any way.

Consider here that it is always in our power to set the Lord before us. The one who resembles the Savior in his integrity places God at his right side and says, he is at my right hand to keep me steadfast. The just person places the Lord at his right hand because he keeps his eyes on him whom he follows, but the sinner casts the word of the Lord behind him. . . . For the Lord Savior, or through the Lord Savior for his saints, God is always standing at the right side. The just person has, in fact, no left side, and in whatever directions he turns, the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him and delivers them.^[1]

Do you see the equal worth of the Son with the Father? Sometimes the Son is said to stand or to sit on the right; now they grant the right to the Father, so that you may say that there is one power, that of the Father (the begetter) and that of the begotten (the Son), even if now he is humbled on account of the flesh.

My flesh will rest in hope. The Lord Jesus Christ says these words, whose flesh is the first to rest in hope. Crucified, made the first fruit of the dead and having been taken into heaven after the resurrection, he carried the earthly body with him so that even the heavenly powers were awestruck and terrified seeing the flesh ascending into heaven. Concerning Elijah it was written that he was taken up into heaven; and about Enoch, that he was translated. Now, however, it is said that Jesus ascended into heaven. Let him be offended who so wishes at our word. I, however, guard it will all faith because just as Christ is the first fruit from the dead, so also he is the first to carry his flesh to heaven.

There are some who, from the fact that the Lord entered through closed doors, adduce proof that a different body arose from that which died. Let these heretics hear what the Lord recounts in this verse. . . . Most certainly, after the Savior suffered and died, that body was laid in the tomb that had been alive; that same body, therefore, that had been lying lifeless and dead in the tomb rose from the dead. If, moreover, that same body arose from the dead in the Lord, how do some come to the conclusion that, though it was wonderful and spiritual, it was not a human body? We are not saying that we deny the body of Christ assumed that glory that we believe we also are going to receive as saints, for then indeed, this corruptible body will put on incorruption, and this mortal body will put on immortality.^[1] Just as before the Lord suffered his passion, when he was transformed and glorified on the mountain, he certainly had the same body that he had had down below, although of a different glory, so also after the resurrection, his body was of the same nature as it had been before the passion but of a highter state of glory and in more majestic appearance.

Let us see [Jesus] . . . in his suffering as man but not suffering as God, and in his dying in the flesh but being greater than death, and in not remaining . . . in the tomb as we do and not being held fast by the gates of the underworld together with the other dead. . . . For he rose again, despoiling death and saying to the prisoners: Come out, to those in darkness: Show yourselves,^[1] and he ascended to his Father above in the heavens to a position inaccessible to people, having taken on himself our sins and being the propitiation for them.

We die not by our own choice but by necessity of nature and against our will. However, the Lord, being himself immortal yet having mortal flesh, had power, as God, to separate from his body and to take it back again, when he would. . . . For it was fitting that the flesh, corruptible as it was, should no longer after its own nature remain mortal, but because of the Word who had put it on, should abide incorruptible. For as he, having come in our body, was conformed to our condition, so we, receiving him, partake of the immortality that is from him.

[Christ’s] Godhead, alike before taking flesh and in the flesh and after his passion, is immutably the same, being at all times what it was by nature and so continuing forever. But in the suffering of his human nature the Godhead fulfilled the dispensation for our benefit by severing the soul for a season from the body, yet without being itself separated from either of those elements to which it was once for all united, and by joining again the elements that had been thus parted, so as to give to all human nature a beginning and an example that it should follow of the resurrection from the dead, that all the corruptible may put on incorruption, and all the mortal may put on immortality,^[1] our firstfruits having been transformed to the divine nature by its union with God . . . the Lord, reconciling the world to himself by the humanity of Christ, apportioned his work of benevolence to people between his soul and his body, willing through his soul and touching them through his body.

The word destruction (phthora) has two meanings. [First], it means human sufferings such as hunger, thirst, weariness, piercing with nails, death—that is separation of the soul from the body—and the like. In this sense, we say that the Lord’s body was destructible, because he endured all these things freely. Destruction, however, also means the complete dissolution of the body and its reduction to the elements of which it was composed. By many this is more generally called corruption (diaphthora). This the Lord’s body did not experience, as the prophet David says [in this psalm]. . . . Therefore, it is impious to say with the insane Julian and Gaianus that before the resurrection the Lord’s body was indestructible in the first sense. For, if it was thus incorruptible, then it was not consubstantial with us, and the things such as the hunger, the thirst, the nails, the piercing of the side and death that the gospel says happened did not really happen but only seemed to. But if they only seemed to happen, then the mystery of the incarnation is a hoax and a stage trick; it was in appearance and not in truth that he was made man and in appearance and not in truth that we have been saved. But far be it, and let those who say this have no part in salvation. We, however, have gained and shall obtain the true salvation. Moreover, in the second sense of the word destruction, we confess that the Lord’s body was indestructible, that is to say, incorruptible, even as has been handed down to us by the inspired fathers.

So at this place, too, Christ the Lord in human fashion says, Constantly supported by the divine nature, I am in the midst of my saving passion and find gladness in the hope of resurrection. My soul, you see, will not be abandoned in hades, nor will my flesh suffer natural corruption. I shall achieve a rapid resurrection and return to life, giving all people a glimpse of this path.

Where are the false statements of the Apollinarians who say that the Lord Christ did not have a rational soul? Here he cries out and gives thanks to the Father because his soul is not abandoned to hell in the normal way, but is glorified by a swift resurrection and has passed to the realms of heaven.

Who save him who rose on the third day was in a position to say that his flesh rested in hope, that his soul, not left in hell, would swifty return to reanimate his flesh, that his flesh would not undergo corruption as other corpses rot away? Surely, no one can maintain that all of this was verified in David, king and prophet!

This psalm refutes the folly of Arius, of Eunomius and of Apollinaris: the former ones said God the Word assumed a body without a soul, whereas Apollinaris called the body that was assumed ensouled though denying it a rational soul; I do not know where he found his doctrine of these two souls—the divine Scripture nowhere teaches it. Yet the all-Holy Spirit through blessed David made undisguised mention of a soul, thus giving clear refutation of each heresy.

Blessed Peter in the Acts of the Apostles took these words as applied to the Lord. . . . He did not, however, take the words as though he were undermining their factual basis, but as more applicable to the Lord than to those of whom they were said, especially since it was also in the case of the Lord that the outcome of the events more appropriately brought out these words than in the case of those who live for a while but later are consigned to death—the Israelites themselves, I mean. Nothing therefore prevents either the factual basis being preserved or these words being understood of the Lord.

To fill up from full means to make something more than full, and he who brings more pours into a container that is already full. That joy fills up in such a way that the vessel always remains full. This text also indicates that all the righteous are going to be filled with the joy of the Lord’s face in that blessedness, and because it is the Lord who speaks, he testifies that he is able to be filled up among them. But we should consider more carefully what it means when he says here that he will be filled with delights at the right hand of the Father, although he said earlier for he is at my right hand so that I may not be moved. Without a doubt, in this age after he assumed human flesh, he was whipped, bruised by slaps, and splattered with spittle. Since he was not overcome at all by any of these adversities, the Scripture rightly says that the Lord was always there at his right hand. For he overcame the opposition of the world because he did not depart at all from the contemplation of his Father. But after the glory of the resurrection, he can rightly say that he found delight at the right hand of the Father since by that time the opposition of the world had come to an end, his humanity had become filled by the glorification of his full majesty, and he now reigns united with the Word together with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and forever. Even to the end refers to perfection and eternity. His glory remains in his perfection and will not come to an end at any time.

He will be in unceasing joy, having become immune to suffering, to change, to death, even in his human nature. As God, you see, this was always the case, and of course even in his human nature once formed in the womb it was easy to provide him with this. But he allowed the nature he had assumed to travel through the sufferings so as by these means to loose the sway of sin, put a stop to the tyranny of the devil, undo the power of death and provide all people with the basis of a new life. So as man he assumes both incorruption and immortality.

He who is the Way and the Life said that he had learned the ways to life; he had learned in what way people would follow him who said he is the Way and the Life. . . . The body he had received—and in his body, the entire human race—rejoiced that the divinity of the Son was made known to it. That is why he rejoices, he says, and has the fullness of joy with the Father . . . and his delight is full and perfect and his happiness ineffable because he sits at the right hand of the Father. . . . This is his delight, this his happiness to the end of the divine decree . . . because the Lord suffered and rose from the dead and entered heaven as victor in order to establish humanity at the right hand of the Lord.

This is certainly said in the person of the Savior at the time of the resurrection. When after his death he returned to the heavenly heights from the lower regions, he began to make known the path of life, which was previously unknown. The path of life was unknown before Christ, since it was still untouched by the foot of anyone who rose from the dead. But when the Lord rose, once the path become known, it become well worn by the soles of many, about whom the Evangelist says: The bodies of many holy people arose along with him and entered into the holy city.^[1] So too, since the Lord said at his own resurrection: You have made known to me the paths of life, we are also now able to say to the Lord, You have made known to us the paths of life. For he who showed us the way to life has himself made known to us the paths of life. He made known to me the paths of life when he taught me faith, mercy, righteousness and chastity. By journeying along these, one arrives at salvation. Even though the shadow of death encompasses us at the destruction of our body, still life does not forsake its steps; we walk quickly through the very midst of the decrees of hell by the power of Christ. For this reason, the holy prophet says: Even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not fear evils, for you are with me.^[2] The Lord says this same thing about the believer even more clearly: He who believes in me will not die, and although he dies, he will live.^[3]