Psalm 40:1 Douay-Rheims

Unto the end, a psalm for David himself.

Gregory of Nyssa

c. A.D. 335–395 Patristic

The Word defines blessedness for us in another way than at the beginning. For in the first psalms, to depart from evil was blessed, but here to know the good more fully is pronounced blessed. Now the nature of the good … is the "only-begotten God," "who, though he was rich, for our sake became poor." The Word here predicts his "poverty" in the flesh, which is pointed out to us through the Gospel account, pronouncing the one who has recognized that "poverty" with understanding blessed. He was "poor" in relation to the "form of a servant" but blessed in relation to the nature of deity. For in the opening words of the psalm the Word calls him "needy and poor"; at the end of the section he says, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from eternity to eternity. So be it. So be it."

Source details
A.D. 395 · on Ps 41:1 (ON THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PSALMS 2:12.157-58)

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.

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