CHAPTER 7

From Psalm cvii.

The Word of God sent forth for the Healing and Salvation of Souls Long Time afflicted with Evil.

[Passages quoted, Ps. cvii. 15-19, 32-36.]

THIS clearly gives the good news of the Descent of God the Word from heaven, Who is named, and of the result of His Coming. For it says, "He sent his Word and healed them." And we say distinctly that the Word of God was He that was sent as the Saviour of all men, Whom we are taught by the Holy Scriptures to reckon divine. And it (265) darkly suggests that He came down even unto death for the sake of those who had died before Him, and in revealing the redemption of those to be saved by Him it shews the reason of His Coming. For He saved without aid from any one those that had gone before Him even to the gates of death, healed them and rescued them from their destruction. And this He did simply by breaking what are called the gates of death, and crushing the bars of iron. And (b) then the prophecy proceeds to predict the state of desolation of those who rejected Him when He came. For it says, "He turned rivers into a wilderness, and rivers of waters into thirst, a fruitful land into saltness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein": which you will understand if you behold Jerusalem of old, the famous city of the Jewish race, her glory and her fruitfulness, despoiled now of her holy citizens and pious men. For (c) after the coming of Christ she became as the prophet truly says without fruit or water, and quite deserted, "saltness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." - 8 - 

To this is added quite in the prophetic manner a veiled prediction of the change of the long-time desert and thirsty land, referring either to the individual soul, or to the turning of the Gentile Church to holiness, and of its fertility in divine words. This is clearly predicted in a veiled way, when it says, "He made the desert into pools of water," and that which follows. But to understand this one must have wisdom from God; according to the monition at the end of the Psalm, which says, "Who is wise, and he will (d) keep this? "and that which follows.