5) Cursing Psalms - Who are the enemies?

go back

The Fathers of the Church allegorized the enemies cursed in the Psalms in various ways. The following is a list of some of their interpretations.

The enemy is death.

• “But who is such an enemy unless it is death, the enemy of life.” – Eusebius of Caesarea on the enemies in Ps 9:3

The enemy is the demonic.

• The enemy of Ps 9:6 who rules the cities is the devil. – Augustine


• The assailants of Ps 18:40 are demons. – Evagrius 


• “Pray the prayer of the present psalm, not against flesh and blood but against the spirits of the air who    daily harm us.... the invisible enemies.” – Arnobius the Younger on Ps 35


• “This has reference to the devil and his followers” – Cassiodorus on the enemies in Ps 35


• “I think this speaks about the cross on which the devil falls unknowingly.” – Evagrius of Pontus on the enemies in Ps 35:8


• "Hatred against the demons contributes greatly to our salvation and helps our growth in holiness. But we do not of ourselves have the power to nourish this hatred into a strong plant, because the pleasure-loving spirits restrict it and encourage the soul again to indulge in its old habitual loves. But this indulgence - or rather this gangrene that is so hard to cure - the Physician of souls heals by abandoning us. For He permits us to undergo some fearful suffering night and day, and then the soul returns again to its original hatred, and learns like David to say to the Lord: 'I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them my enemies'" (Ps. 139: 22). -Evagrius, Texts on Discrimination in Respect of Passions and Thoughts 

The enemy is iniquity.

• “Take up a love for justice and a hatred for iniquity…. It is possible at times to use hatred even praiseworthily.” - Basil the Great on hatred of enemies in Ps 139

The enemy is the self.

• “There is a war a person wages with himself” – Augustine on Ps 144

The enemy is sinful or filthy thoughts.

• The teeth which God breaks in Ps 3:7 are “the teeth of sinners [which] are thoughts foreign to reason coming to us on account of our nature by which our enemies approach us.” – Evagrius of Pontus


• “The ‘little ones’ of Babylon… are those troublesome sinful thoughts that arise in the soul.” – Origen on Ps 137


• The “little ones” are “all corrupt and filthy thoughts against Christ.” – Ambrose on Ps 137

The enemy is temptation.

• “While these temptations were still young, he caught hold of them and dashed them against Christ.” – Benedict on Ps 137

continue