Explanation of Psalm 21

1. Unto the end, for the morning raising, a psalm of David. The meaning of unto the end, and psalm, and of David, has been explained several times. We must explain the remaining phrase, for the morning raising, which we acknowledge as new. The morning raising is the time of the resurrection; as the gospel states, “On the first day of the week Mary cometh when it was still twilight unto the sepulcher” (Jn. 20:1), and the rest. The raising was when the Lord Christ in brightness laid aside the condition of the old man, and raised His mortal body to great glory. Before Him “every knee bows, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth” (Phil. 2:10). Morning was used to express early morning, the hour known from countless passages to be apt for the Lord’s resurrection. But since He will clearly have much to say in this psalm about His passion, let us see why its heading sought to mention only the resurrection. Often what has gone before is intimated by what follows. So when we speak of something done in the early morning, we realize that the night too has passed. Likewise when we speak of a freed individual, we realize that he has been a slave, and so on. This figure is called synechdoche [usually the part from the whole, but Quintiulian includes “what follows from what precedes.”], when we can understand what precedes from what follows. So there is no doubt that mention of the resurrection indicates also the blessed passion. The power and clarity of the psalm we can wholly grasp from the fact that the psalmist designated it with the heading of morning light; for it is certain that the Lord Christ’s passion which it recounts was granted for the salvation of the human race.

The Lord Christ speaks through the whole of the psalm. In the first section He cries that He has been abandoned by the Father, that is, He has undertaken the passion assigned to Him. He commends the great potency of His humility brought by the degradation imposed by men. In the second part He foretold the sacred passion by various comparisons, praying to be freed by divine protection from His savaging enemies. Thirdly, He advises Christians to praise the Lord for having looked on the Catholic Church at His resurrection, so that having heard of this great miracle they may continue in the most salutary constancy of faith. This was so that men’s weak hearts might not be in turmoil, if the passion alone had been foretold. Let us listen to this psalm with rather more attention, for it abounds in admiration of mighty events. In this way we can ascertain what we must spurn in this life, and what we must hope for in the next, by the admonitions of our Head Himself. Though many of the psalms briefly recall the Lord’s passion, none has described it in such apt terms, so that it appears not so much as prophecy, but as history.

2. O God, my God, look upon me: why hast Thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins. Christ the Lord who foresees and ordains all things, who sees all future events as present, cries out as though impelled by a passion close at hand: O God, my God. But these words are to be interpreted as coming from His human nature; by nature I mean strength and power of substance. The repetition itself indicates the emotion of compulsive prayer. The Son most dear in a double address invoked Him who He clearly knew would afford Him not safety in this world, but the brightness of eternal majesty. Deos is a Greek word rendered in Latin by timor, fear. This fact inclines me to the view that our forbears decided that God’s name is derived from fear; so one of the pagan poets says: “Fear was the first to create gods in the world” (Statius, Thebaid 3.661). When He says: Look upon me, He begs that the aid of the resurrection may appear most swiftly for Him. Next comes: Why hast Thou forsaken me? The word why is known to introduce a question; so the Master of consubstantial wisdom, the Spokesman of the Father is so confused by the impending death of His flesh that in apparent ignorance He asks the Father why He has been abandoned by Him. These and similar expressions seek to express His humanity, but we must not believe that divinity was absent to Him even at the passion, since the apostle says: “If they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). Though He was impassible, He suffered through the humanity which He assumed, and which could suffer. He was immortal, but He died; He never dies, but He rose again. On this topic, Father Cyril expressed this beautiful thought: “Through the grace of God He tasted death for all, surrendering His body though by nature He was life and the resurrection of the dead” (Ep. 17). Similarly blessed Ambrose says: “He both suffered and did not suffer, died and did not die, was buried and was not buried, rose again and did not rise again” (On the Incarnation of the Lord 5.36). In the same way we say that man too even today suffers, dies and is buried, though his soul is not circumscribed by any end. So He attests that He was forsaken when He was interrogated, though in fact he could not have been consigned to the hands of wicked men if the power of His majesty had not allowed such things to happen. In the gospel words: “Thou shouldst not have any power against me, unless it were given thee from above” (Jn. 19:11). He also broadcasts the experiences of the humanity which He assumed, repelling words of blasphemy and impious mouthings, for He says that words begotten by sins are far from Him. The salvation of His sacred soul was not to embrace the speech of sinners, but gladly to endure by the virtue of patience what He suffered through God’s dispensation. As He Himself says in the gospel: “Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me” (Matt. 26:39). Then He added: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” He also speaks of the words of my sins when they belong to His members. He who was without sin called our sins His, just as in another psalm He is to say: “O God, Thou knowest my foolishness, and my offences are not hidden from Thee” (Ps. 61:6). So let us hear from the Head’s lips the words of the members, and realize that He has rightly spoken in our name, for He offered Himself as victim for the salvation of all. Hence Paul says: “Him who knew no sin, He hath made sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). For in the law too offerings for sins are called sins.

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This is the psalm which the Church solemnly chants at the paschal service, so that we obtain the salutary teaching that in human affairs even the blessed are for a time abandoned by the Lord to some degree, though by the strength of His protection He leads them to eternal joys. As we listen to it, we happily weep, for we can be refashioned by it if after fixing our minds on it, we merit a similar affliction. How hard were the hearts of the Jews, how foolish their minds, bereft of all belief! Ought not this psalm alone to have been enough to inspire belief in the passion which Truth so obviously proclaimed about Himself? So that no excuse should be left to those of extreme hardness of heart, among succeeding psalms are others composed on this subject in clear and most obvious prophecy, namely, Psalms 34, 54, 68, and 108. So what was proclaimed by heralds of such eminence ought to be doubtful to none.

The number of this psalm, however, contains other mysteries of heavenly matters; for after the prophet Daniel had continually offered prayer to the Lord for three weeks so that he could ascertain what would become of the people Israel, the reply came by the voice of an angel. He said that he had been sent at Daniel’s first prayers, but had been delayed by grappling with the devil, and had been able to come down to him only on the twenty-first day to be able to answer his prayers (Dan. 10:2ff.). So this psalm too is seen to have been appropriately endowed with this number, for having destroyed the devil’s malevolence it unlocked the gifts of the healing passion, by the benefit of which the human race was freed from eternal death, and attained the gifts of enduring salvation.