The rising of the dawn always anticipates the rising of the sun. And before the shining brightness of the sun’s rays shed light upon the earth, dawn brings an end to the darkness of the night. Little by little, once the blindness of darkness has been vanquished, a certain shape and light is poured out on everything. Though the earth had lain in disarray, as if under the substance of darkness, once the dawn arrives, different things are distinguished by the variety of their appearances. In other words, although all things had been blind, now the eyes of all are restored. For night removes the eyes from the world, if you will, but dawn gives them back again.

At daybreak on the third day we were filled with your kindness when your Son rose from the dead. In the evening, he descended for our sake into the shadows of death to draw us forth at daybreak. Accordingly, at that hour of dawn, we experienced the fullness of your kindness. It is in this sense that Psalm 22 is entitled For the protection at dawn. Your kindness has always been manifest to your faithful servants, but never has it been so clear and lavish, as when the Redeemer of all rose from the dead for the salvation of each and every one.

This is the psalm which the church solemnly chants for us at the paschal service. . . . Should not this psalm alone have been enough for us to believe in the passion which the Truth himself so plainly proclaimed about himself?

What human ears did not yet know as about to be done, the Holy Spirit was announcing as accomplished. King David, whose offspring Christ is according to human lineage,^[1] preceded the day of the Lord’s crucifixion by more than eleven hundred years. He had suffered none of these tortures that he mentions as having been inflicted on himself. Because the Lord—who was going to take the suffering flesh from David’s stock—spoke through his mouth, the history of the crucifixion has rightly been prefigured in the person of David. David bore in himself the bodily origin of the Savior. Truly David suffered in Christ, because Jesus was truly crucified in the flesh of David. All the things, therefore, that the wickedness of Jews inflicted on the Lord of Majesty^[2] had been fully predicted. Prophetic locution was interwoven not so much concerning future things as concerning those past. What else, then, did these things open up to us except the unchanging order of God’s eternal plan? With God, things that are going to be discerned have already been decided, and future things have already been accomplished.

The psalm refers to Christ and no one else, for its contents harmonize with none other but him. . . . But if any one would apply them to some other person, whether king, prophet or other godly man among the Jews, let him prove if he can how what is written is in harmony with him. For who of those who were ever born of women has attained such heights of virtue and power, as to embrace the knowledge of God with unchanging reason, with unruffled soul and with sober mind, and to fasten all his trust on God, so as to say, You are he that took me out of my mother’s womb, my hope from my mother’s breasts. I was cast on you from my mother; from my mother’s womb you are my God. And who that has ever been so cared for by God has also become a reproach of people and the outcast of the people? By what bulls and calves can we suppose such a man to have been surrounded? And in what suffering was he poured out like water? How were all his bones loosened? How was he brought into the dust of death, and being brought into the dust of death how does he say those words still and live and speak? Who are the dogs that surround him, that are other than the beforenamed bulls and calves? What gathering of evil people pierced his feet as well as his hands, stripped him of his raiment, divided some of it among themselves and cast lots for the remainder? What was the sword, the dog and the lion? . . . And how . . . after being brought into the dust of death, can he promise to proclaim his Father’s name, not to all, but only to his brothers? Who are the brothers, and what church is it of which this sufferer says, In the midst of the church I will hymn you, adding, not the one Jewish nation but all the earth shall understand, and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him? It is for you yourself to test every expression in the psalm and see if it is possible to apply them to any chance character. You will find them only applicable to our Savior, who is most true and most to be trusted and who applied the words of the psalm to himself, as the Evangelists bear witness.

The psalm is sung by Christ as in the person of all humanity. It narrates what he endured from the Jews when he bore the cross for our sake. He asks that the Father turn his face to us, and remove from us sin and the curse and teach us to be humble-minded, just as he was humbled for our sake. And that from the womb and the breasts we cast ourselves onto God; and that when troubles are near, we may pray that he help us.

The words of this psalm are spoken in the person of the crucified one. . . . He speaks consistently in the character of our old self, whose mortality he bore and that was nailed to the cross with him.^[1]

We confess that he, the Son begotten of God the Father and only-begotten God, though being incapable of suffering according to his own nature, suffered in his own flesh for our sake, according to the Scriptures. And he made his own the sufferings of his own flesh in his crucified body impassibly, for by the grace of God and for the sake of all he tasted death^[1] by having surrendered to it his own body although by nature he was life and was himself the resurrection.^[2] In order that by his ineffable power, after having trampled on death in his own flesh first, he might become the firstborn from the dead^[3] and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep^[4] and in order that he might prepare the way for the rise to immortality for the nature of people,^[5] by the grace of God, as we said just now, for the sake of all he tasted death, but on the third day he came back to life after despoiling hell.

Seeing, then, that he took on himself a soul he also took the affections of a soul, for God could not have been distressed or have died in respect of his being God. . . . As being man, therefore, he speaks, bearing with him my terrors, for when we are in the midst of dangers we think ourself abandoned by God. As man, therefore, he is distressed, as man he weeps, as man he is crucified.

It was not he who was forsaken, either by the Father or by his own Godhead, as some have thought, as if it were afraid of the passion and therefore withdrew itself from him in his sufferings (for who compelled him either to be born on earth at all or to be lifted up on the cross?). But. . . he was in his own person representing us. For we were the forsaken and the despised, but now by the sufferings of him who could not suffer, we have been taken up and saved. Similarly, he makes his own our folly and our transgressions and says what follows in the psalm, for it is very evident that the twenty-second refers to Christ.

It is to impel us to ask why the Father forsook him, that he says, Why have you forsaken me? The answer is, to ransom the whole human race, buying them with him precious blood from their former slavery to their invisible tyrants, the unclean demons and the rulers and spirits of evil. And the Father forsook him for another reason, namely, that the love of Christ himself for people might be set forth. For no one had power over his life, but he gave it willingly for people, as he teaches us himself in the words, No one takes my life from me: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.^[1]

Just as the one who was a fount of righteousness assumed our sin, and the one who was an ocean of blessing accepted a curse lying on us and scorning shame endured a cross, so too he uttered the words on our behalf.

He is surely showing his surprise here that the Father does not hear him; he regards it as something strange and unusual. But the Father reserved his hearing until the fit time that he should be heard. That time was the hour of dawn, of the resurrection from the dead, when to him it could be more justly said than to any, In a time accepted I heard you, and in a day of salvation I succored you. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.^[1]

We know how many of our ancestors who hoped in God were rescued by him; we have read about them. . . . How could he fail with regard to his only Son and not hear him as he hung on the cross?

They hoped in you, and their hope did not deceive them, because they did not place it in themselves.

He became all these things so that he might dull the sting of our death, that he might take away our state of slavery, that he might wipe away our curses, sins and reproaches.^[1]

Understand your God. That is what he is, this one so great and so small, a worm and no man, and yet through him humankind was made.

By the word worm did the Spirit foreshow him in a parable, because his generation was without marriage.

I am like a worm, he is saying, seen to be worthless and become a laughingstock. Now, some claimed that by worm is suggested also the birth from a virgin, as it is not by intercourse that it comes into existence; but I believe only lowliness is indicated here.

Wonder not if this was said of and fulfilled by the passion of the Savior, for even now he is a reproach among all people who have not yet received faith in him!

Just as we say that the flesh became [the Word’s] very own, in the same way the weakness of that flesh became his very own in an economic appropriation according to the terms of the unification. So, he is made like his brothers in all things except sin alone.^[1] Do not be astonished if we say that he has made the weakness of the flesh his own along with the flesh itself. He even attributed to himself those external outrages that came on him from the roughness of the Jews, saying through the voice of the psalmist: They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes,^[2] and again: All those who saw me sneered at me, they wagged their tongues, they shook their heads.

You see, dear friends, the kind of example we have been given. And so, if the Lord humbled himself in this way, what should we do who through him have come under the yoke of his grace? 1

These words are in fact specifically found in the Gospel, for when Christ was hanging on the cross, the Jews were saying: He hoped in the Lord: let him deliver him now, if he wants him.^[1] O heavenly wholeness! Do we not here seem to be going through the Gospel rather than a psalm, since these things have been fulfilled with such accuracy that they seem to have been enacted rather than about to take place.

He and the Father are One, and the Father is his Father by possession of the same nature. . . . Speaking as the Son, he called God his father, and afterward, speaking as man, named him as God. Everywhere, indeed, we have witness in the Scriptures to show that Christ, in naming God as his God, does so as man. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And again: From my mother’s womb you are my God. In the former place he suffers as a man; in the latter it is a man who is brought forth from his mother’s womb. And so when he says, From my mother’s womb you are my God, he means that he who was always his father is his God from the moment when he was brought forth from his mother’s womb.

He did well to focus his attention on providence in general, asking . . . Who is the one who shaped me in the womb, who is the one who brought me from the womb, who is the one who nourished me at maternal breasts and brought me to this stage of life? Having anticipated my needs and provided me with such benefits when I contributed nothing, then, will you now cut me adrift when I both perceive your kindness and am able to give thanks? What, then? Do not keep your distance from me, because tribulation is nigh, because there is no one to help me: as you provided all these benefits . . . therefore, now too, when they all advance against me with intrigues and you are the only one left for my salvation, lend help.

It is surely the very climax of affliction to have no helper. For Christ went for the salvation of the souls in hades that had so long awaited his arrival. He went down to shatter the gates of brass, and to break the iron bonds and to let them go free that before were prisoners in hades, which was indeed done, when many bodies of the saints that slept arose and entered with him into the true holy city of God.

The psalm describes in advance the attacks of the chief priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, who in imitation of the audacity of bulls and the frenzy of lions hemmed in Christ the Lord.

[We know] that even if . . . all the bones of Christ appear to be scattered in persecutions and afflictions by the plots of those who wage war against the unity of the temple by persecutions, the temple will be raised up and the body will arise on the third day.

He mentions what is typical of people worried and distressed: since all worry affects the heart, he did well to add my heart was melted like wax, my mind having no stability or composure or sound hope; instead, under pressure from the threats and depressing expectations my thoughts dissolved like wax. Next, as happens also with those in distress, my strength was dried up like a potsherd: all my condition left me, depression reducing me to great dryness.

As much as his brokenness seems without cure, so much more praiseworthy then is his recovery. And, likewise, the more the work of the potter is fired, the better and more solid will the work be found.

You have often heard also the words of the psalm: To the dust of death you have brought me down. Think also of the prophecy of Jacob in the Scriptures: He lay down and couched as a lion, and as a lion’s whelp; who will disturb him?^[1] Similarly in Numbers: Lying down he has slept as a lion, and as a lion’s whelp.^[2]

After the passion those former dogs took on the status of children through faith, whereas those who once had enjoyed the care shown to children received the name of dogs for raging against the Lord. . . . Blessed Paul cries out about them, Beware of the dogs, beware of the evildoers. Beware of mutilation.^[1]

The dogs that surrounded him and the council of the wicked were the rulers of the Jews, the scribes and high priests and the Pharisees, who spurred on the whole multitude to demand his blood against themselves and against their own children. Isaiah clearly calls them dogs when he says, You are all foolish dogs, unable to bark.^[1] For when it was their duty, even if they could not acquire the character of shepherds, to protect like good sheepdogs their master’s spiritual flock and the sheep of the house of Israel, and to warn by barking, and to fawn on their master and recognize him, and to guard the flock entrusted to them with all vigilance and to bark if necessary at enemies outside the fold, they preferred like senseless dogs, yes, like mad dogs, to drive the sheep wild by barking, so that the words aptly describe them that say, Many dogs have surrounded me; the council of the wicked has hemmed me in. And all who even now conduct themselves like them in reviling and barking at the Christ of God in the same way may be reckoned their kin; yes, they who like those impious soldiers crucify the Son of God and put him to shame have a character very like theirs. Yes, all who today insult the body of Christ, that is, the church, and attempt to destroy the hands and feet and very bones are of their number.

This is what happened with the body of the Lord Savior: it was fastened with nails and pierced with a spear and thereby brought us a fruit which remains forever. For this reason, we are now not afraid to say that God suffered in the flesh, that God died for the salvation of all. So Father Augustine says admirably in his usual way: It was an accustomed matter for humankind to die. But in order that this might not always hold sway among humankind, something new happened in that God died.^[1] So also the Apostle says: But we preach Christ, and him crucified.^[2] So that you may not think that the Virgin’s Son was somehow some other one, as some of those who are without reason do, he added: Christ, who is surely the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.^[3] For what seems so foolish or so weak to unbelievers as when they hear that God, the Son of God, was both crucified and buried? But it pleased God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save believers.^[4] For the Lord’s incarnation is the marvelous height of his mercy, an unimaginable gift, an incomprehensible mystery. From the same source, either salvation issues forth for those of the right mind or destruction is begotten for corrupted minds.

The passion of our Lord signifies our time, the period in which we weep here. Scourges, bonds, insults, spittle, a crown of thorns, wine mixed with gall, vinegar on a sponge, reviling, abuse, finally the cross itself, the sacred limbs hanging on the wood [of the cross]—what do all these sufferings signify for us except the period through which we are passing, the time of sorrow, the time of mortality, the time of trial? It is a foul period, but let that foulness of the dung be in the field, not in the house. Let grief arise on account of one’s sins, not on account of frustrated desires. A foul period, if used to advantage, is a fertile period. What has a more unpleasant odor than a field that has been covered with dung? It was a beautiful field before it received this load of manure; it was first reduced to foulness so that it might come to fertility. Foulness, therefore, is a mark of this time; let that foulness, however, be for us a period of fertility. Furthermore, let us see with the prophet who says, We have seen him. What is he like? There is no beauty in him or comeliness.^[1] Why is this? Ask another prophet. They have numbered all my bones. They have numbered his bones as he hung on the cross. A foul sight, the sight of one crucified; but that foulness produced beauty. What beauty? That of the resurrection, because he is beautiful above the sons of people.^[2]

They did not appear to have done something in passing or by chance. Instead, he says that they looked carefully and stared, and their stony hearts were not softened by miracles. Great rocks were split and the earth shook, the sun hid itself in a cloak of darkness so as not to look upon such a great crime, and, how sad to say, their wickedness remained unshaken in their sacrilege, and their eyes unwavering.

They looked on but did not understand; they watched but did not see. They had eyes to see his body but no discerning heart to reach the Word.

Now, the soldiers divided his garments among themselves, but not his tunic. Notice how they frequently caused prophecies to be fulfilled by their wicked deeds. I say this for this detail had been foretold of old. Furthermore, even though there were three crucified, the prophecy was fulfilled only with reference to Christ. Why, indeed, did they not do this in the case of the other two, but only with regard to this One alone? Kindly notice, too, the exactness of the prophecy. The prophet declared not only that they divided the garments among themselves but also that they did not divide them. Thus, the soldiers divided some of Christ’s garments into parts, but they did not divide the tunic; on the contrary, they settled its possession by lot.

To God the things that are to come are present, and for him who foreknows all things, they are as though they were past and over; as it is written, Who has made the things that are to be.

These garments are the prophecies and readings of the heavenly Scriptures by which the mystery of Christ the Lord was announced. . . . The Savior’s opponents, namely, the wicked heretics who daily lay their unholy hands upon him as the soldiers did,^[1] . . . divide these Scriptures for their own purpose and scatter the garments of the one body throughout the various members, and while they strip the Lord, they clothe him with their own teachings.

They divide his garments among them and cast lots on his vesture, when each individual tears and destroys the glory of his Word, I mean the words of the holy Scriptures, now this way, now that, and when they take up opinions about him from misleading schools of thought such as godless heretics invent.

Let each one also think this about his own life, that he may hate in it that private affection that is undoubtedly transitory and may love in it that union and sense of sharing of which it was said, They had one soul and heart toward God.^[1] Thus, your soul is not your own but is shared by all the brothers whose souls are also yours, or, rather, whose souls form with yours not souls but one soul, the single soul of Christ, of which the psalm says that it is delivered from the hand of the dog. From this it is an easy step to contempt of death.

He is the Lord by nature but a brother by grace.

He says that he will tell the name of his Father first to the apostles, who he calls his brothers. And after them, with swift progress, he promises that he will teach the hymn of his Father to the church founded in his name throughout all the world. It is just as if some supreme teacher of philosophy should give a course of instruction in the midst of his pupils for them to hear and understand, that he in the midst of the church says, I will hymn your praise, that the church, learning and hearing his words, might in fit manner sing back the praises, no longer of the demons but of the one almighty God, by him that preached him.

Once the Lord’s passion has been related a little more extensively, he moves on to the third section in order that their hearts may not be distraught by a lingering sadness. In this part, he addresses the faithful, so that they may praise him, recognizing his ordering of events, and in order that they may gather together to celebrate the proclamation of him with universal rejoicing. For through his suffering has come the salvation of the faithful and the life of the just. Now let us consider what a sweet emotion is demonstrated in the fear of the Lord. For human fear does not engender praise, but rather blame. But the fear of God, because it is just and right, produces praise, imparts love and kindles the warmth of love.

He does not reject or scorn the prayer of the poor when we entreat him for what he himself loves, but he graciously hears; and he will grant us to see his good things in the land of the living,^[1] Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God throughout all ages of ages.

The circumcision of the heart [refers to] the will that is pure from all unlawful desire; [it] comes not from the letter, inculcating and threatening, but from the Spirit, assisting and healing. Such doers of the law have their praise . . . not of people but of God, who by his grace provides the grounds on which they receive praise, of whom it is said, My soul shall make its boast of the Lord,^[1] and to whom it is said, My praise shall be of You.

Note that he wrote only the word poor to indicate those who despised the enticements of this world with the most lavish contempt; not the rich who are stuffed with the happiness of this world, but the poor, namely, those who hunger for God’s kingdom. . . . The poor praise the Lord, while the rich exalt themselves. The rich collect earthly treasures, while the poor become rich with heavenly abundance. Their resources differ, and each has a completely different mindset. The rich acquire their wealth from this world, but the poor from God. . . . The poor possess what they could never lose; the rich cling to what not only the dead but even the living frequently lose.

To inquire, respecting God, if it tends not to strife but to discovery, is salutary. For it is written in David, The poor eat and shall be filled; and they shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. For they who seek him after the true search, praising the Lord, shall be filled with the gift that comes from God, that is, knowledge. And their soul shall live; for the soul is figuratively termed the heart, which ministers life: for by the Son is the Father known.

Not one nation or even two, but countless numbers of all those in the world will run to him, and will enthusiastically receive the rays of the knowledge of God.

Sovereignty belongs to the Lord, not to the proud, and lordship over the nations is his.

In these words he very aptly proclaims the glorious works after his resurrection, which are fulfilled in the calling of people from all nations and by the election of people from the ends of the earth, the results of which being visible to all eyes afford evidence of the truth of the words of the psalm. And we, too, are the poor, who like beggars in the things of God, the word of salvation nourishes with spiritual bread, the life-giving food of the soul, and affords eternal life.

God will rule over the nations, for the kingdom belongs to the Lord. Kingdoms do not belong to the nations, but to the Lord, who by his own power both changes and retains kings. The one who is known to be the Lord of history must be worshiped everywhere.

The saints who are aflame with desire for heavenly things are fittingly called the heavens, as the psalmist says, And the heavens will proclaim his justice to a people yet to be born, which is to say, And the most illustrious teachers will proclaim, with mind, voice and action, his justice to a people, who, coming recently to the faith, desire to be born in him.

The Son of God is the righteousness of the Father. Therefore this righteousness is to be proclaimed to the people who would believe in God, who forsake the death caused by sins and come over to life, who by God’s kindness experience such a new birth through faith that they are counted worthy of living forever.

We see none of this happening to David or to any of his successors. Only Christ the Lord, on the contrary, who is of David according to the flesh, God the Word who became man, who though of David’s line took the form of a slave; he filled all earth and sea with the knowledge of God, after all, and persuaded those who were once in error and offered adoration to idols to adore the true God instead of false gods.