We . . . take winepresses as referring to the churches, by the same line of reasoning as we understand the threshing floor in terms of the church, because whether on the threshing floor or in the winepress, what happens is that fruit is stripped of its covering. The coverings were necessary for two reasons: that the crop might come to life and that it might reach its maturity whether of the harvest or the vintage. The crop, therefore, is stripped bare of its coverings or supports. Grain is separated from the straw on the threshing floor; grapes are stripped of their skin in the winepress. The same process takes place in our churches, so that through the work of God’s ministers good people may be sifted out by spiritual love from the crowd of worldly people gathered there with them, a crowd that has, nonetheless, been necessary to bring the good to birth and prepared them to receive the divine word.

The divine Word can also be understood as a grape. . . . When the divine Word takes over the sound of the human voice in order to speak and reach the ears of the hearers, the content of the Word is encased like wine within the sound of the voice, which, in turn, is like grape skins. In this way the grape reaches our ears as if it were coming into the place where the grapes are trodden, and there it is processed in such a way that while the sound penetrates the ears, the meaning is caught in the memory of those who hear, as it were in a vat, and trickles through into a rule of behavior and habit of mind.

Previously for the worship associated with the law there was one winepress, the altar in Jerusalem. But after the calling of the Gentiles there were many winepresses, which are the churches among all peoples, which receive the fruits of those who do good deeds in them. . . . Henceforth not only in Judah as previously, but also in all the [region] under the sun, God is praised.

One who tends the cluster of grapes also enjoys the clusters of truth on that vine, which are necessary to gather in due season and to collect into the winepresses, so that the wine by its compression may make the hearts of people glad;^[1] and some press out doctrines of truth; others, spiritual works. Nor is there one winepress; indeed, there are many useful virtues, and a winepress is prepared for the individual fruit of each one, as those who are celibate bear their fruit in respect to the winepress of modesty, and those who keep the marriage bed pure [bear their own fruit], and so forth. Many are the presses of everyday life to which the teachings apply that press out different principles of truth.

The church says, O Lord, our Lord. For after the recognition of Christ when one is freed from the slavery of idolatry, one begins to call on God and the Lord. Always the whole earth truly is full of the marvelous creations, the works of God. And even more marvelous the name of that One, namely, Christ, has been made wonderful among all the nations and foreign peoples through faith in him.

How wonderful your name. Through this name, in fact, death was dissolved, demons imprisoned in bonds, heaven opened, gates of paradise thrown wide, the Spirit sent down, slaves made free, enemies become sons, strangers become heirs, human beings become angels. Why speak of angels? God became man, and man became God; heaven accepted the nature from earth, earth accepted the one seated on the cherubim along with the angelic host. The wall was removed, the partition dissolved, what were separate were united, darkness was banished, light shone, death was swallowed up.

The Majesty, or as holy David calls it, the Glory, is manifested among the creatures that it has produced and governs. These are the back parts of God, which he leaves behind him, as tokens of himself like the shadows and reflection of the sun in the water, which show the sun to our weak eyes, because we cannot look at the sun himself, for by his unmixed light he is too strong for our power of perception.

The meaning is this: you are worthy of praise not only from those who are perfect who know you fully, but you are proclaimed with the mouths of beginners in the faith and little children. . . . The psalmist professes that even infants proclaim God. By this he means those who have begun to come to the Lord in newness of faith, so that this wisdom might appear to have been conferred through God’s intervention rather than to have been gleaned through human effort.

By enemies. . . we ought in a general sense to understand all who forbid us to believe in things beyond our experience, while themselves promising certain knowledge. This is what all heretics do, and the same holds for those who among superstitious Gentiles pass for philosophers. It is not that the promise of knowledge is reprehensible in itself, but rather that they think that the step of faith can be bypassed, a step most conducive to salvation and necessary for us. Yet it is precisely by taking this step that the ascent must be made to any form of real certainty, which cannot be other than eternal. From this it is clear that they do not possess even that knowledge that they promise, while scorning faith, because they are completely unaware of the step that is useful and necessary as a means to it. Therefore from the mouths of infants and nurslings our Lord has perfected praise, first laying down through the prophet the rule unless you believe, you will not understand^[1] and then later saying in his own person, blessed are those who have not seen, yet will believe.^[2]

And why did he not say your hands instead of your fingers? To show that visible things are a work requiring the least power, and the extraordinary aspect of creation, namely, that the stars hang there without falling; at any rate, though the very nature of the foundations required, not that they be suspended above but lie below, still the excellent Architect and Creator produced a surprise in making most of the visible things surpass the logic of nature.

Now this Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not circumscribed to some place, nor is there heaven beyond him, but the heavens are the work of his fingers, and the whole earth is holden in the hollow of his hand.^[1] He is in everything, and yet nothing contains him. Do not imagine that God is smaller than the sun or that he is as large as the sun. For, as he made the sun, he must have been already incomparably greater than the sun and more resplendent with light. He knows what is to come, and nothing equals him in power. He knows everything and does as he wills. He is not subject to any law of sequence, or genesis, or fortune or fate. He is perfect by every measure. He possesses unchangeably every kind of virtue, never less and never more, but ever in the same degree and manner.

By saying founded he meant the stability and immutability of the order and succession given them by God.

Our very eyes and the law of nature teach us that God exists and that he is the efficient and maintaining cause of all things: our eyes, because they fall on visible objects and see them in beautiful stability and progress, immovably moving and revolving, if I may so say; natural law, because through these visible things and their order it reasons back to their author. For how could this universe have come into being or been put together unless God had called it into existence and held it together? For everyone who sees a beautifully made lute and considers the skill with which it has been fitted together and arranged, or who hears its melody, would think of none but the lutemaker or the luteplayer, and would recur to him in mind, though he might not know him by sight. And thus to us also is manifested that which made and moves and preserves all created things, even though he is not comprehended by the mind.

How great is the power of God! His bare volition was the creation of the universe. For God alone made it, because he alone is truly God. By the bare exercise of volition he creates; his mere willing was followed by the springing into being of what he willed. Consequently the choir of philosophers are in error, who indeed most nobly confess that humanity was made for the contemplation of the heavens but who worship the objects that appear in the heavens and are apprehended by sight. . . . Let none of you worship the sun, but set your desires on the Maker of the sun; nor deify the universe, but seek after the Creator of the universe.

You are mindful of man, and you have concern for him because you did not make him as if he were a small and worthless animal, but he is worthy of so much honor that he is celebrated with hymns from the mouths of infants and sucklings.

Those who bear the image of the earthly man, who is not a son of man, can be called men; but those who bear the image of the heavenly man are more truly called sons of men. For the former is also called the old man, the latter the new man; but the new is born from the old because spiritual regeneration is begun by a change of earthly and worldly life, and on that account the new man is called a son of man. Therefore man in this context is earthly, whereas the son of man is heavenly. The former is separated from God at a great distance; the latter is present with God. And that is why God remembers the one, as far away from him, but the other he comes to visit; and by his presence he illuminates him with his countenance. For salvation is far from sinners,^[1] but the light of your countenance is stamped on us, Lord.^[2]

What is it about human beings? . . . Taking full account of such marvelous care and such wonderful providence on God’s part, and the arrangements he put in place for the salvation of the human race, [the psalmist] is struck with complete wonder and amazement as to why on earth God considered them worthy of attention. Consider, after all, that all the visible things were for their sake. For them the design implemented from the time of Adam up to his coming; for them paradise, commandments, punishments, miracles, retribution, kindnesses after the Law; for them the Son of God became human. What could anyone say of the future they are intended to enjoy? So all those things are going through his mind when he says, to be thought worthy of such wonderful privileges, what must the human being be? I mean, if you consider what was done and is being done for their sake, and what they will enjoy afterwards, you will be stricken with awe, and then you will see clearly how this being is an object of such attention on God’s part.

Would that I might mortify my members that are on the earth! Would that I might spend all for the spirit, walking in the way that is narrow and trodden by few, not the way that is broad and easy! For what comes after this life is splendid and great, and our hope is greater than our worth. What is man that you are mindful of him? What is this new mystery concerning me? I am small and great, lowly and exalted, mortal and immortal, earthly and heavenly. I am connected with the world below, and likewise with God; I am connected with the flesh, and likewise with the spirit. I must be buried with Christ, rise with Christ, be joint heir with Christ, become the Son of God, even God himself. ON HIS BROTHER ST.

The psalmist is speaking here of the frailty of the body and of human weakness, and what does he say? If you consider his flesh, what is a person? If you consider his spirit, he is noble. Let us by no means scorn the flesh, but let us reject its works. Let us not despise the body that will reign in heaven with Christ. Flesh and blood can obtain no part in the kingdom of God; no, not flesh and blood of themselves, but the works of the flesh. Flesh and blood can obtain no part in the kingdom of God. How, then, are they going to reign together with Christ; how shall we be seated together in heaven in Christ?

From here on the humility and glory of the Lord Savior is related. He was made less not because of any necessity inherent in his role as servant, but by his loving free wish; as the Apostle says, He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.^[1] The psalm continues with the words a little less than angels, because Christ took up the cross to win the salvation of all, since it was for this reason that the Creator of angels was made less than angels. The words a little less are well stated, since he took on himself a mortal body, though he had no sin. He was crowned with glory and honor when, after his utterly miraculous resurrection, as God he was exalted in as much as he had been made man, and he received the trust of the whole world.

From his Providence, humanity has received

All that he grasps with imperious hand:

All that the sky and the earth and the sea

Yields from the air and the waves and the fields,

This he subjects to me, me to himself. HYMNS

And this is a precise demonstration of your lovingkindness and power, he is saying, imbuing the lowly nature of human beings with wisdom so that they might have control over not only the land creatures but also those that fly and that swim and that do both, use their skills to hunt those in the heights and in the depths, and keep under control those that pass through the air and those hidden in the water. . . . Uncreated nature alone, you see, is separate from this subjection as something free. The nature that receives existence from it, however, is subject whatever it be—visible or invisible—to Christ the Lord, both as God and as man. Such is the honor human nature received from the God of all. Hence, as a conclusion he used the same verse as at the beginning: O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!

When it is says, You have set him over the works of your hand, clearly the word reveals that he is set over the heavens, a man established by the God of the universe. How and when are these future things unless when the kingdom of heaven is received as an inheritance according to the promises made and according to the word of the apostle: The heir of God and the coheirs of Christ?^[1] So in this age, let the earthly creatures as oxen, cattle, beasts of burden, birds and fish, be subject to humankind. To humankind is reserved the life common to angels in the heavenly city of God, when people are received into the kingdom of heaven and appointed over the works of the hands of God, and they will be the rulers and protectors of all things of the heavens, the moon and stars and everything of the heavens above. The letter to the Hebrews considering this word treats the statement for the future age: All things you have placed under his feet. For after the lower course of this life, whenever that new age comes in which the kingdom of heaven is awaited and following the glorious appearance of our Savior all things will be subjected, according to that witness that has been made by the promise from the Father to him: Sit on my right, until I place your enemies a footstool under your feet.

You have placed all things under his feet. . . . Just as nothing is independent of the work of the Lord, so nothing can be shown to be outside the power of Christ, since he is going to judge the world. For by saying all things, the psalm seems to have omitted neither earthly nor heavenly things. This interpretation is in harmony with what the divine interpreter, the Apostle testifies: In subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him.

There is no work of God that is exempt from the authority of the one appointed Lord.

The Father is not among all things, for to him it is confessed that all things serve you. Nor is the Son reckoned among all things, for all things were made by him, and all things exist together in him, and he is above all the heavens. The Son, therefore, exists not among but above all things, being, indeed, after the flesh, of the people, of the Jews, but yet at the same time God over all, blessed forever, having a name that is above every name, it being said of him, You have put all things in subjection under his feet. But in making all things subject to him, he left nothing that is not subject, even as the apostle has said.^[1]

One who, by way of ignorance, pretended to the insensibility and lack of knowledge characteristic of a beast begins to be a human once he has been encompassed by the grace of God. Indeed, if he is capable of reason and of grace, he is proved human by that very fact, and thus he rejoices that he has been separated from the dumb animals and has been admitted into the company of humankind, which God visits and protects. For what are human beings except that the Lord is mindful of them and that they are visited by the Lord?

What the psalmist said of the Father concerning our Lord as he rose from the dead, You have put all things under his feet, is surely the same as what our Lord himself said to his disciples as he rose, All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.^[1] Indeed, even before he rose from the dead, the angelic virtues in heaven knew that they were rightfully subject to the human nature they saw had been specifically assumed by their Maker. Blind human beings on earth, however, disdained to be brought into subjection to one they knew had put on mortality in common with themselves; they declined to understand the divine power in his miracles, since they discerned that there was human weakness present in his sufferings.

So, then, in accordance with the simile of the winepresses, not only the grapes but also the husks are trodden under his feet. This means not only sheep and cattle, that is to say, the holy souls of the faithful, either in the people or among the clergy, but, what is more, beasts of pleasure also and birds of pride and fish of inquisitiveness. All these types of sinners we see here and now in the churches mixed up with the good and the holy. Let God work, then, in his churches and separate wine from grapeskins. Let us cooperate with God so that we may be wine or sheep or cattle, rather than husks or beasts of the field or fish that weave their way through the pathways of the deep. This is not to say that these words can be understood and explained only in this way, but this is what the present context dictates. Somewhere else they may have a different meaning. This rule of thumb is to be upheld in every allegory, that what is expressed through a simile should be judged in the light of the immediate context. Such is the teaching of our Lord and the apostles.