And how many more they have joined, by being given birth to by [the church]?^[1] How many members have adhered to the head and are adhering now? And these have been baptized, and others will be baptized, and after us will come others. Then, I say, at the end of the world the stones will attach themselves to the foundation, living stones, holy stones, so that at the end the whole building may be built up out of that church; indeed out of this very church, which is now singing the new song, while the house is being built. That, you see, is what this psalm says, when the house was being built after the captivity.^[2] What does it say? Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. What a great house it is! But when does it sing the new song? While it is being built? When is it dedicated? At the end of time? Its foundation has already been dedicated, because he has ascended into heaven and dies no more. When we too have risen again, so as never to die anymore, that is when we too will be dedicated.

As a door leads into a house, so the title of a psalm leads into understanding. Now this one has a heading as follows: When the house was being built after the captivity. You ask what house; the psalm shows you straightaway: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. There you are, that is what house it is. When the whole earth sings a new song, it is the house of God. It is built by singing, its foundations are believing, it is erected by hoping, it is completed by loving. So it is being built now, but it is dedicated at the end of the world. Let the living stones, then, come flocking together to the new song, come flocking all together and be fitted together into the fabric of God’s temple. Let them recognize their Savior and receive him as their occupant.

The rebaptizing Donatists^[1] should not think they belong to the new song. They cannot sing the new song, seeing that with insufferable impiety they have cut themselves off from the church that God willed to exist in every land. After all, the same prophet says somewhere else, Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord every land. So anyone who refuses to sing with every land and does not withdraw from the old man,^[2] does not sing the new song and does not play on the ten-stringed harp, because he is an enemy of charity, which alone is the fullness of the law and which we say is contained in the ten commandments that pertain to love of God and of neighbor.

The baptized have, then, something to do in themselves, that is, in the temple of God that is first built and dedicated at the end. It is built after the captivity, as the title of the psalm indicates: when the enemy who had taken them captive has been expelled. There is something noteworthy in the order of the psalms. The psalm of the dedication of the house precedes in order of numbering the psalm of the building of the house. The psalm of the dedication comes first, because the psalmist is singing of the house of which its Architect says, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.^[1] The later psalm, when the house was being built after the captivity, foretold the church. Moreover, its opening words are Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth. Let no one foolishly think that a baptized person is already perfect, therefore, merely because it has been said, For holy is the temple of God, and this temple you are,^[2] and, Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God?^[3]

We are aware, said Trypho,^[1] that you [Justin] have quoted those passages for us at our request. But the psalm of David that you just cited seems to have been spoken of nobody else than the Father, who created the heavens and earth. You, however, claim that it refers to him who suffered, and who you are anxious to prove is the Christ.

Please meditate, I [Justin] pleaded, as I repeat the words uttered by the Holy Spirit in this psalm, and you shall understand that I have not spoken maliciously, nor have you in truth been deceived. Besides, you will thus, when you are by yourselves, be able to grasp many other statements of the Holy Spirit. Sing to the Lord and bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day, his wonders among all people. With these words the Holy Spirit commands all those inhabitants of this globe who know this mystery of salvation [the passion of Christ], through which he saved them, to sing out and constantly praise the Father of all. They should do so since they realize that he is both to be feared and to be praised and is the Creator of heaven and earth. Christ, who redeemed the human race, after he died on the cross, was deemed worthy by him [the Father] to reign over the whole world. As also by^[2] . . . of the land into which it^[3] enters; and they will forsake me and will make void the covenant that I have made with them in that day. And I will forsake them and will hide my face from them; and there shall be devouring and many evils and afflictions shall overtake them, so that they shall say in that day: ‘In truth it is because the Lord my God is not with us, that these evils have come on us.’ But I will hide my face from them in that day, for all the evils that they have done, because they have followed strange gods.^[4]

We have said what house it is; now we must say after what captivity.^[1] The psalm shows you this^[2] too. Carry on a little: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, proclaim from day to day the gospel of his salvation. Proclaim among the nations his wonders, in all peoples his glory. Since all the gods of the nations are demons. There you are again, that is under whom the house was held in captivity. From the first transgression of the first human being, the whole human race, being born in the shackles of sin, was the property of the devil who had conquered it. After all, if we had not been held in captivity, we would not have needed a redeemer.

A savior who is Christ the Lord has been born to you today in the city of David.^[1] It is good that [the angel] said has been born today and did not say this night, for with heavenly light he appeared to those who were conducting the watch by night and brought the good news that day was born, namely, the one concerning whom the psalmist foretold, saying, Announce well his salvation day from day. Indeed the salvation of God, that is, the Lord Jesus, is day from day because he who appeared temporally in the city of David as a human being from a virgin mother was, in truth, himself born before all time and without spatial limitation, light from light, true God from true God. Because, therefore, the light of life rose for those of us dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, the herald of this rising suitably says, A savior has been born to you today,^[2] so that being always advised by this word we may recollect that the night of ancient blindness is gone past and the day of eternal salvation has drawn near, and let us cast off the works of darkness.^[3] And let us walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light, as the same apostle [Paul] says, is in all justice and holiness.^[4]

Rightly, then, are we stirred by the voice of the psalmist as by the sound of a heavenly trumpet,^[1] when we hear, Sing to the Lord a new canticle; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name. Let us recognize, then, and proclaim the Day born of the day who became incarnate on this day. The Day is the Son born of the Father, the eternal Day, God of God, Light of Light; he is our salvation, of whom the psalmist says elsewhere, May God have mercy on us and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine on us. That we may know your way on earth; your salvation in all nations.^[2] The idea expressed in on the earth he expanded to in all nations and the significance of your way he repeated in your salvation. We recall that the Lord said, I am the way.^[3] And only recently, when the Gospel was read, we heard that the thrice-blessed old man, Simeon, had received a divine promise that he would not experience death until he had seen Christ the Lord and that, when he had taken the infant Christ into his hands and had recognized the mighty little One, he said, Now dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word, in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation.^[4] Gladly, then, let us announce his salvation, this Day born of the eternal Day, let us declare his glory among the Gentiles, his wonders among all people. He lies in a manger, but he holds the world in his hand; he is nourished at the breast, but he feeds the angels; he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, but he clothes us with immortality; he is suckled but is adored; he does not find room in the inn, but he makes a temple for himself in the hearts of believers. For Strength took on weakness that weakness might become strong. Therefore, let us marvel at rather than despise his human birth; from it let us learn the lowliness that such loftiness assumed for our sake. Then let us enkindle our love so that we may come to his eternal day.

True, Scripture says, Make no mention of the name other gods, neither let it be heard out of your mouth.^[1] What it stipulates is that we should not call them gods. For in the first part of the law it says, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, that is, apply it to an idol. So anyone who honors an idol with the name of God falls into idolatry. If I am compelled to mention gods, I must add something to show that I do not call them gods. Scripture uses the name gods but adds their or of the pagans, as when David, having used the name gods, says but the gods of the pagans are demons.

And it is not we alone who speak of wicked demons, but almost all who acknowledge the existence of demons. Thus, then, it is not true that all observe the law of the most High; for all who fall away from the divine law, whether through heedlessness, or through depravity and vice or through ignorance of what is right, all such do not keep the law of God, but, to use a new phrase that we find in Scripture, the law of sin.^[1] I say, then, that in the opinion of most of those who believe in the existence of demons, some of them are wicked; and these, instead of keeping the law of God, offend against it. But, according to our belief, it is true of all demons that they were not demons originally, but they became so in departing from the true way; so that the name demons is given to those beings who have fallen away from God. Accordingly, those who worship God must not serve demons. We may also learn the true nature of demons if we consider the practice of those who call on them by charms to prevent certain things or for many other purposes. For this is the method they adopt, in order by means of incantations and magical arts to invoke the demons and induce them to further their wishes. Wherefore, the worship of all demons would be inconsistent in us who worship the supreme God; and the service of demons is the service of so-called gods, for all the gods of the pagans are demons. The same thing also appears from the fact that the dedication of the most famous of the so-called sacred places, whether temples or statues, was accompanied by curious magical incantations, which were performed by those who zealously served the demons with magical arts. Hence we are determined to avoid the worship of demons even as we would avoid death; and we hold that the worship, which is supposed among the Greeks to be rendered to gods at the altars, and images and temples, is in reality offered to demons.

But, if he^[1] is of too little importance, according to their reasoning, to be capable of the partnership of the term Godhead with the Father and the Son, he is not worthy of sharing any other of the terms proper to God. For, if the terms are considered and compared with each other according to the significance observed in each, none will be found to be inferior to the title of God. And a proof of this is that many inferior things also are called by this name. Moreover, the divine Scripture does not refrain from using this equivocal term, not even in inconsistent matters, as when it calls images by the name of God. For, it says, let the gods who did not make the heaven and the earth be destroyed and be cast under the earth.^[2] It also says, All the gods of the Gentiles are devils. And the witch^[3] with her magic arts summoning up the souls sought by Saul said that she saw gods. Furthermore, even Balaam,^[4] a certain diviner and soothsayer, who bore his oracles in his hand, as the Scripture says, and who successfully procured for himself instruction from the demons through his divining trickery, is related by the Scripture to have taken counsel with God. And, it is possible, collecting many such passages from the divine Scriptures, to allege that this name has no precedence above the other appellations proper to God, since, as it has been said, we even find it used equivocally in incongruous matters. But the name of holiness, and of eternity, and of righteousness and of goodness, we are taught by the Scriptures, is nowhere communicated to things that are unfit. Therefore, if they do not deny that the Holy Spirit shares with the Son and the Father in the names piously used exclusively in the case of the divine nature alone, what reason is there to try to make out that he has no partnership in this one alone that both evil spirits and idols have been shown to share through a certain equivocal use?

But that God, whom the Hebrew sages worshipped, forbids sacrifice to be offered even to the holy angels of heaven and divine powers, whom we, in this our pilgrimage, venerate and love as our most blessed fellow-citizens. For in the law which God gave to his Hebrew people he utters this menace, as in a voice of thunder: he that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.^[1] And that no one might suppose that this prohibition extends only to the very wicked demons and earthly spirits, whom this philosopher^[2] calls very small and inferior,—for even these are in the Scripture called gods, not of the Hebrews, but of the nations, as the Septuagint translators have shown in the psalm where it is said, For all the gods of the nations are demons,—that no one might suppose, I say, that sacrifice to these demons was prohibited, but that sacrifice might be offered to all or some of the celestials, it was immediately added, save unto the Lord alone.

And if they^[1] say that they were chosen to act as priests and to offer worship to God, it can be shown that the Word promised that he would give to the Gentiles an equal share in his service, when he said, Render to the Lord, O you kindreds of the nations, render to the Lord glory and honor: bring sacrifices and come into his courts. To which the oracle in Isaiah may be conjoined: There shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt . . . and the Egyptians will know the Lord. And they shall sacrifice, and say prayers to the Lord and make offering.^[2] And in this you will understand that it is prophesied that an altar will be built to the Lord away from Jerusalem in Egypt and that the Egyptians will there offer sacrifice, say prayers and give gifts to the Lord. Yes, and not only in Egypt, but in the true Jerusalem itself, whatever it is thought to be, all the nations, including the Egyptians indeed, the most superstitious of them all, are invited to keep the feast of tabernacles, as a feast of the heart.

Furthermore, from a verse of the ninety-sixth psalm of David they^[1] have left out the short phrase from the tree.^[2] For they have changed the verse, Say to the Gentiles: The Lord has reigned from the tree, to Say to the Gentiles: The Lord has reigned. Now, no one of your people was ever said to have reigned as God and King over the Gentiles, except the crucified One, who (as the Holy Spirit testifies in the same psalm) was freed from death by his resurrection and thus showed that he is not like gods of the Gentiles, for they are but the idols of demons.

Come now, when you read in the words of David that the Lord reigns from the tree, I want to know what you understand by it. Perhaps you think some wooden king of the Jews is meant—and not Christ, who overcame death by his suffering on the cross and thence reigned! Now, although death reigned from Adam even to Christ, why may not Christ be said to have reigned from the tree, from his having shut up the kingdom of death by dying on the tree of his cross? Likewise Isaiah also says, For unto us a child is born.^[1] But what is there unusual in this, unless he speaks of the Son of God? To us is given he whose government is on his shoulder.^[2] Now, what king is there who bears the ensign of his dominion on his shoulder, and not rather upon his head as a diadem or in his hand as a scepter, or else as a mark in some royal apparel? But the one new King of the new ages, Jesus Christ, carried on his shoulder both the power and the excellence of his new glory, even his cross; so that, according to our former prophecy, he might thenceforth reign from the tree as Lord.

Furthermore, let no one maintain that the heavens or the heavenly bodies are animate, for they are inanimate and without feeling. So, even though sacred Scripture says, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, it is really calling on the angels in heaven and the people on earth to rejoice. Of course, Scripture can personify inanimate things and talk about them as if they were alive, as for example, The sea saw and fled; Jordan was turned back, and, What ailed you, O sea, that you did flee? and you, O Jordan, that you were turned back? and again, Mountains and hills are asked the reason for their skipping.^[1] In just the same way it is customary for us to say that the city was gathered together, not intending to mean the houses but the occupants of the houses. Still again, the heavens show forth the glory of God^[2] not by speaking in voice audible to sensible ears but by manifesting to us through their own greatness the power of the Creator, and when we make comments about their beauty, we give glory to their Maker as the best of all artificers.