Athanasius wrote a letter titled “A Letter of Athanasius, Our Holy Father, Archbishop of Alexandria, to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms.” Revealing the Psalter’s unique ability to teach not only the “what”… but also to prescribe the “how.”

Bits of Athanasius — the Psalter

1. I marvel at your conduct in Christ, dear Marcellinus. Indeed you are successfully enduring the present trial, although you have suffered many tribulations in it, and you do not neglect the discipline. For when I inquired from your letter-bearer how you fare in your continuing illness, I learned that you maintain a studious attitude toward all the holy Scripture, but that you read most frequently the Book of Psalms, and strive to comprehend the meaning contained in each psalm. On the basis of this, then, I commend you, since I too have a great fondness for the same book—just as I have for all the Scripture. Indeed, it so happens that I had a conversation with a learned old man, and I wish to write you those things that old master of the Psalter told me about it. For there is a certain grace and persuasiveness combined with the reasonable statement. He said this:
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2. All Scripture of ours, my son—both ancient and new—is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, as it is written. But the Book of Psalms possess a certain winning exactitude for those who are prayerful. Each sacred book supplies and announces its own promise. The Pentateuch, for instance, relates the beginning of the world and the deeds of the patriarchs, both the exodus of Israel out of Egypt and the decree of the legislation. The Triteuch (Joshua, Judges, Ruth) tells the possession of the land and the exploits of the judges, as well as David’s ancestral line. The books of Kings and Chronicles recount the stories of the rulers. And Esdras describes the release from captivity, the return of the people, and the construction of the temple and the city. The books of the Prophets contain foretellings about the sojourn of the Savior, admonitions concerning divine commands and reprimands against transgressors, as well as prophecies for the gentiles. Yet the Book of Psalms is like a garden containing things of all these kinds, and it sets them to music, but also exhibits things of its own that it gives in song along with them.
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9. And not being ignorant, the old man then would say: In each book of Scripture the same things are specially declared. This report exists in all of them, and the same agreement of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, just as it is possible to discover in this book things in the others, so also things in this book are frequently found in others. For Moses writes a hymn, and Isaiah is hymning, and Habakkuk prays with a hymn. Furthermore, in each book one is able to find prophecies and legislations and narratives. For the same Spirit is over all, and in each case in accordance with the distinction that belongs to it, each serves and fulfills the grace given to it, whether it’s prophecy, or legislation, or the record of history, or the grace of the psalms. Since it is one and the same Spirit, from whom are all distinctions, and it is indivisible by nature—because of this surely the whole is in each, and as determined by service the revelations and the distinctions of the Spirit pertain to all and to each severally. Furthermore, according to the reserved need, each frequently, when the Spirit takes over, serves the Word. Therefore, as I said previously, when Moses is legislating, sometimes he prophesies and sometimes sings, and the Prophets when they are prophesying sometimes issue commands, like Wash yourselves, be clean. Cleanse your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, and sometimes recount history, as Daniel does the events surrounding Susanna and Isaih does referring to Rabshakeh and Sennacherib. In this way the Book of Psalms, possessing the characteristic feature of the songs, itself chants those things in modulated voice that have been said in other books in the form of detailed narrative, as already mentioned. And sometimes at least, it also legislates: Cease from anger, and forsake wrath, and Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace, and pursue it. And it narrates at times about the journey of Israel, and prophesies concerning the Saviour, as we said previously.
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10. Let there be such a common grace of the Spirit in all, and let it be found existing in each one, the same grace among all, whenever the need demands and the Spirit desires. The more and the less in this need do not differ, as each unstintingly accomplishes and completes its own service. But even so, the Book of Psalms thus has a certain grace of its own, and a distinctive exactitude of expression. For in addition to the other things in which it enjoys an affinity and fellowship with the other books, it possesses, beyond that, this marvel of its own—namely, that it contains even the emotions of each soul, and it has the changes and rectifications of these delineated and regulated in itself. Therefore anyone who wished boundlessly to receive and understand from it, so as to mold himself, it is written there. For in the other books one hears only what one must do and what one must not do. And one listens to the Prophets so as solely to have knowledge of the coming of the Savior. One turns his attention to the histories, on the basis of which he can know the deeds of the kings and saints. But in the Book of Psalms, the one who hears, in addition to learning these things, also comprehends and is taught in it the emotions of the soul, and, consequently, on the basis of that which affects him and by which he is constrained, he also is enabled by this book to possess the image deriving from the words. Therefore, through hearing, it teaches not only to disregard passion, but also how one must heal passion through speaking and acting. Now there certainly are in other books preventive words that forbid wickedness, but in this book is also prescribed how one must abstain. Of such a sort is the commandment to repent—for to repent is to cease from sin. Herein is prescribed also how to repent and what one must say in the circumstances of repentance. Furthermore, the Apostle said, Suffering produces endurance in the soul, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. In the Psalms it is written and inscribed how one must bear sufferings, what one must say to one suffering afflictions, what to say after afflictions, how each person is tested, and what the words of those who hope in God are. Furthermore, there is a command to give thanks in all circumstances, but the Psalms also teach what one must say when giving thanks. Then hearing from others that as many as wish to live a godly life will be persecuted, from these we are taught how one must call out while fleeing, and what words must be offered to God while being persecuted and after being delivered subsequent to persecution. We are asked to bless the Lord and acknowledge him. But in the Psalms we are instructed how one must praise the Lord and by speaking what words we properly confess our faith by him. And in the case of each person one would find the divine hymns appointed for us and our emotional equanimity.
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11. There is also this astonishing thing in the Psalms. In other books, those who read what the holy ones say, and what they might say concerning certain people, are relating the things that were written about those earlier people. And likewise, those who listen consider themselves to be other than those about whom the passage speaks, so that they only come to the imitation of the deeds that are told to the extent that they marvel at them and desire to emulate them. By contrast, however, he who takes up this book—the Psalter—goes through the prophecies about the Savior, as is customary in the other Scriptures, with admiration and adoration, but the other psalms he recognizes as being his own words. And the one who hears is deeply moved, as though he himself were speaking, and is affected by the words of the songs, as if they were his own songs. And for the sake of clarity of expression, do not hesitate, as the blessed Apostle says, to repeat the very things they say. Most words belong to patriarchs, and were spoken as their own. And Moses used to speak and God answered, and both Elijah and Elisha, situated on Mount Carmel, would call on the Lord, and they would say: As the Lord lives, before whom I stand today. And principal words of the holy Prophets are those concerning the Savior. Thereafter, a great number have to do with both the gentiles and Israel. Nevertheless, no one would ever utter the words of the patriarchs as his own, nor would anyone dare to imitate and to say Moses’ own words; those of Abraham about his slave and Ishmael, and the things concerning the great Isaac no one, even if the same need might perforce seize him, would boldly utter as his own. And if anyone should sympathize with those who suffer, and at some time should hold a desire for something better, he would never speak as Moses: Reveal yourself to me! and again, If you will forgive their sin, forgive it; and if you will not forgive it, blot me out of your book which you have written. But neither would anyone, taking the books of the Prophets as his own words, blame or praise those doing things similar to these, whom the prophets blamed or praised. Nor would anyone imitate by uttering as if his own the saying, As the Lord lives, before whom I stand today. Indeed, it is clear that the one who reads the books utters them not as his own words, but as the words of the saints and those who are signified by them. But contrariwise, remarkably, after the prophecies of the Savior and the nations, he who recites the Psalms is uttering the rest as his own words, and each sings them as if they were written concerning him, and he accepts them and recites them not as if another were speaking, nor as if speaking about someone else. But he handles them as if he is speaking about himself. And the things spoken are such that he lifts them up to God as himself acting and speaking them from himself. For not as in the case of the sayings of the patriarchs and Moses and the other Prophets will he be cautious of these things, but he who chants these will be especially confident in speaking what is written as his own and about him. For the Psalms comprehend the one who observes the commandments as well as the one who transgresses, and the action of each. And it is necessary for everyone to be constrained by these, and either as a keeper of the law or as a transgressor, to speak the words that have been written about each.
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14. If the point needs to be put more forcefully, let us say that the entire Holy Scripture is a teacher of virtues and the truths of faith, while the Book of Psalms possesses somehow the perfect image for the soul’s course of life. For as one who comes into into the presence of a king assumes a certain attitude, both posture and expression, lest speaking differently he be thrown out as boorish, so also to the one who running the race of virtue and wishes to know the life of the Savior in the body the sacred book first calls to mind the emotions of the soul through the reading, and in this way represents the other things in succession, and teaches the readers by those words. In order that in that book one may observe closely this first of all, there are psalms that are said in narration, and those consisting of moral admonition, and those in prophecy, and those in prayer and those in confession. Those cast in the form of narratives are Psalms 18, 43, 48, 49, 72, 76, 88, 89, 106, 113, 126, and 136. Those in the form of prayer are 16, 67, 89, 101, 131, and 141. Those spoke in petition and in prayer and in entreaty are 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 15, 24, 27, 30, 34, 37, 42, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 63, 82, 85, 87, 137, 139, and 142. And that in the mode of appeal and thanksgiving is 138. Those that feature petition only are 3, 25, 68, 69, 70, 73, 78, 79, 108, 122, 129, and 130. Psalms 9, 74, 91, 104, 105, 106, 107, 110, 117, 135, and 137 have the form of confession. Those having confession and narrative interwoven are 9, 74, 105, 106, 117, and 137. A psalm that has confession interwoven with narrative, along with praise, is 110. And Psalm 36 features exhortation. Those containing prophecy are 20, 21, 44, 46, and 75. In 109 there is announcement along with prophecy. The psalms that urge and prescribe are 28, 32, 80, 94, 95, 96, 97, 102, 103, and 113. Psalm 149 was spoken as exhortation combined with the singing of praise. Those expressing praise are 90, 112, 116, 134, 144, 145, 146, 148, and 150. Psalms 8, 9, 17, 33, 45, 62, 76, 84, 114, 115, 120, 121, 123, 125, 128, and 143 are songs of thanksgiving. Those announcing a promise of blessedness are 1, 31, 40, 118, and 127. Another demonstrative of holy readiness in song is Psalm 107. Psalm 80 is one that exhorts courage. Those that lay charges against the impious and law-breakers are 2, 13, 35, 51, and 52. And the fourth psalm has to do with invocation. There are also those that announce supplications to God, like 19 and 63. Those proclaiming words that boast in the Lord are 22, 26, 38, 39, 41, 61, 75, 83, 96, 98, and 151. Those that arouse a sense of shame are 57 and 81. And Psalms 47 and 64 voice the phrases of a hymn. Psalm 65 is one of exultation, and concerns resurrection. Another that speaks only exaltant words is 99.
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15. Therefore, since the arrangement of the Psalms is of such a kind, it is then possible for readers (as I said before) to discover in each one the stirrings and the equanimity of the soul appropriate to them, just as they can discover in relation to each the type and teaching. And it can be learned, likewise, what one says to be able to gratify the Lord, and by what sort of expressions it is possible to make amends for himself and to return thanks to the Lord. All this is to prevent falling into impiety on the part of the one who speaks strictly according to such phrases. For not only because of deeds, but also because of idle speech, we are obliged to render an account to the Judge. And if you wish, moreover, to bless someone, you learn how you ought to do so, and in whose name, and what it is necessary to say, in Psalms 1, 31, 40, 111, 118, and 127. Should you wish to censure the treachery of the Jews against the Savior, you have the second psalm. If you are being persecuted by your own people, and you have many who rise up against you, say the third psalm. And if, being afflicted in this manner, you begged the Lord for help, and having been heeded, you desire to give thanks, sing the fourth, as well as Psalm 74 and 114. And whenever, spying the evildoers who want to set a trap for you, you want the Lord to hearken to your prayer, sing the fifth, rising early in the morning. And when you perceive a threatening from the Lord, should you see that you are disturbed for this reason, it is possible to say Psalm 6 and 37. And even if some people take counsel against you, as Achitophel did against David, and someone reports this to you, sing Psalm 7 and place your confidence in the God who defends you.
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16. When you behold the Savior’s grace, which has been extended everywhere, and the human race, which has been rescued, if you wish to address the Lord, sing the eighth. And once more, if you wish to sing of the vintage, giving thanks to the Lord, you have the same Psalm 8, as well as the eighty-third. But in honor of conquest of the enemy and the preservation of creation, not boasting in yourself, but knowing the Son of God who accomplished this, recite the ninth psalm, which is spoken to him. Whenever someone seeks to provoke you excessively, hold your boldness in the Lord, and sing the tenth. And when you see the arrogance of the multitude and the evil that abounds, so that nothing is holy as far as men are concerned, flee to the Lord for refuge and say Psalm 11. But if the treachery that comes from your enemies becomes chronic, do not become neglectful, like one forgotten by God, but entreat the Lord, chanting the twelfth psalm. Should you hear people blaspheming against God’s providence, do not share with them in their irreligion, but say Psalm 13 and 52, making your appeal to God. And then, if you wish to learn what sort of person the citizen of the kingdom of heaven is, chant Psalm 14.
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18. When you see that you are despised and persecuted for the truth’s sake by all your friends and relatives, do not give up concern either for them or yourself. And if you see your acquaintances turning against you, do not be alarmed, but separate yourself from them and turn your mind to the future and sing Psalm 30. When you see those who are baptized and redeemed from their corrupt birth, and you are filled with wonder over God’s love for mankind, before these people sing your praise in the thirty-first psalm. If you wish to sing in the company of many, gathering men who are righteous and erect in their living, recite also Psalm 32. When you encounter your foes, and wisely escape them and avoid their treachery, if you want to express gratitude, summoning gentle men, sing Psalm 33 in their presence. Should you spy the zeal for evil among those who transgress the Law, do not think that the evil is in their very nature, which is what the heretics assert. But say Psalm 36 and you will see that they themselves are responsible for the sinning. If you witness worthless people committing numerous lawless acts and exalting themselves against humbler people, and you wish to exhort someone not to devote himself to their service, nor to emulate them—for they are quickly vanished—say the thirty-sixth psalm both to yourself and others.
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20. But you sinned, and being ashamed, you repent and you ask to be shown mercy. You have in Psalm 50 the words of confession and repentance. And even if you suffer calumny from a wicked ruler, and you see the slanderer boasting, withdraw from that place and say also the things in the fifty-first. When you are being pursued and certain ones are perpetrating slander, hoping to deliver you up to justice, as the Ziphites and the alien tribes did in the case of David, do not succumb to weariness, but being confident in the Lord and hymning him, recite the things in Psalms 53 and 55. And even if your pursuer overtakes you, and without knowing it enters the cave in which you are hiding, you should not even so cower in fear, for you have in such a necessity the memorially inscribed words for encouragement found in Psalm 56 and 114. Should he who is plotting give the order for your house to be kept under surveillance, and you escape, express your gratitude to the Lord, inscribing it on your soul as on a monument—for it is a memorial to the fact that you were spared from destruction—and recite the verses in Psalm 58. And if the foes who afflict you hurl insults and the seeming friends, rising up, level accusations at you, and you are grieved in your meditation for a while, nevertheless you are also able to be consoled, praising God and speaking the words of Psalm 54. Against those who posture and are outwardly boastful, say—for their humiliation—Psalm 57. But against those rushing savagely toward you, desiring to seize your soul, render your obedience to God, and take courage. For the more they rage, the more you are to submit yourself to the Lord, and say what is in Psalm 61. And if, when persecuted, you go out into the desert, do not be afraid, as though alone, but having God there and rising before dawn, sing the sixty-second psalm. When the enemies frighten you away, never ceasing from their lying in ambush, and also searching everywhere for you, even if they are vast in number, do not give away, for when you sing Psalm 63, 64, 69, and 70, their wounds will be caused by the weapons of the foolish children.
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22. Wishing to praise the Lord in a festival, when you summon together the servants of God, sing the things in Psalm 80 and 94. And again, when the enemies are all gathered together from all points, and are both issuing threats against the house of God and forming a confederacy against true religion, lest you become despondent because of the magnitude of the crowd and its might, you possess as an anchor of hope the phrases in the eighty-second psalm. And seeing the house of God and his eternal tabernacles, should you have zeal for these, as the Apostle did, say also the eighty-third psalm. After the wrath has abated and the captivity is ended, if you wish to give thanks, you have what is in Psalm 84 and 125 for the reciting. And if you want to know the excellence of the Church catholic in comparison with the convictions and actions of the schismatics, and to reprove the latter, you may say the words in the eighty-sixth. If you intend to make yourself bold and others confident in right worship, since hope placed in God brings no shame, but instead makes the soul fearless, praise God with the expressions of Psalm 90. Do you wish to produce melody on the Sabbath? You have Psalm 91.
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25. You were enthralled by foreign thoughts, and you perceived yourself as one being seduced, and in repentance determining to desist from this in the future (though remaining among those who seized you when you were in error) now you must sit still and utter your lament, as the people of Israel did then, reciting what is in Psalm 136. When you think of temptations as a testing for you, if you want to give thanks after the trials, you have the one hundred and thirty-eighth psalm. You might find yourself beleaguered once more by the enemies. Do you want to be rescued? Recite Psalm 139. Do you want to offer up supplications and prayers? Chant Psalm 5 and 142. Should a tyrannical foe rise up against the people and against you, as Goliath against David, do not tremble in fear. You too must have faith, like David, and say the things in Psalm 143. After marveling at the kindness of God in all things and recalling his benevolence, which affects you and all the rest, if you wish to commend God on account of these, say David’s words that he spoke himself in the one hundred and forty-fourth psalm. You want to address your praises to the Lord? For your recitation you have Psalm 92 and 97. If, though insignificant, you are selected for some sovereignty over your brothers, do not be exalted against them, but attributing the glory to God who chose you, chant Psalm 151, which is Daivd’s own. Let us say you want to sing those psalms that contain the alleluia to indicate how God has answered prayer—you may employ Psalm 104, 105, 106, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 118, 134, 135, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, and 150.
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26. When you desire, in private, to extol the events concerning the Savior, you find such things in nearly every psalm, but you have particularly Psalm 44 and 109, which show forth his true generation from the Father and his incarnate appearance. There are Psalms 21 and 68, which foretell about the divine cross and what great treachery he submitted to on our behalf, and the number of things he suffered; and Psalm 2 and 108, which signal both the plotting and wickedness of the Jews and the betrayal of Judas Iscariot; and the twentieth, forty-ninth, and seventy-first, also making manifest his kingship, his power as judge and, again, his appearance in flesh for us, and also the calling of the gentiles. Psalm 15 demonstrates his resurrection from the dead. The twenty-third and forty-sixth announce his ascent into heaven, and while reading Psalms 92, 95, 97, and 98 you should be able to contemplate the benefits won for us by the Savior through his sufferings.
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27. Such then, is the character of the assistance for mankind to be gained from the Book of Psalms, which contains psalms peculiar to itself, and has in the remainder more frequent prophecies concerning the bodily advent of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as I said earlier. It is important not to pass over the question of why words of this kind are chanted with melodies and strains. For some of the simple among us, although they believe indeed that the phrases are divinely inspired, imagine, however, on account of the sweetness of sound, that also the psalms are rendered musically for the sake of the ear’s delight. But this is not so. For Scripture did not seek out that which is pleasant and winning, but this also has been fashioned for the benefit of the soul, and for all number of reasons, but especially on account of two. First, because it is fitting for the Divine Scripture to praise God not in compressed speech alone, but also in the voice that is richly broadened. Things are said, then, in close sequence; such are all the contents of the Law and the Prophets and the histories, along with the New Testament. On the other hand, things are expressed more broadly; of this kind are the phrases of the psalms, odes, and songs. For thus will it be preserved that men love God with their whole strength and power. The second reason is that, just as harmony that unites flutes effects a single sound, so also, seeing that different movements appear in the soul—and in it is the power of reasoning, and eager appetite, and high-spirited passion, from the motion of which comes also the activity of the parts of the body—the reason intends man neither to be discordant in himself, nor to be at variance with himself. So the most excellent things derive from reasoning, while the most worthless derive from acting on the basis of desire, as is the case with Pilate when he says, I find no crime in him, and yet concurs in the purpose of the Jews. A person either craves the commonest things but is unable to do them, like the elders in the story of Susanna; or again he does not commit adultery, but he steals; or he forgoes stealing in favor of committing murder, or he does not commit murder, but commits blasphemy.
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29. Those who do not recite the divine songs in this manner do not sing them wisely. They bring delight to themselves, but they incur blame, because a hymn of praise is not suitable on the lips of a sinner. But when they chant in the way we mentioned earlier, so that the melody of the phrases is brought forth from the soul’s good order and from the concord with the Spirit, such people sing with the tongue, but singing also with the mind they greatly benefit not only themselves but even those willing to hear them. Blessed David, then, making music in this way for Saul, was himself well pleasing to God, and he drove away from Saul the troubled and frenzied disposition, making his soul calm. The priests who sang thus summoned the souls of the people into tranquility, and called them into unanimity with those who form the heavenly chorus. Therefore the Psalms are not recited with melodies because of a desire for pleasant sounds. Rather, this is a sure sign of the harmony of the soul’s reflections. Indeed, the melodic reading is a symbol of the mind’s well-ordered and undisturbed condition. Moreover, the praising of God in well-tuned cymbals and harp and ten-stringed instrument was again a figure and a sign of the parts of the body coming into natural concord like harp strings, and of the thoughts of the soul becoming like cymbals, and then all of these being moved and living through the grand sound and through the command of the Spirit so that, as it is written, the man lives in the Spirit and mortifies the deeds of the body. For thus beautifully singing praises, he brings rhythm to his soul and leads it, so to speak, from disproportion to proportion, with the result that, due to its steadfast nature, it is not frightened by something, but rather imagines positive things, even possessing a full desire for the future goods. And gaining its composure by the singing of the phrases, it becomes forgetful of the passions and, while rejoicing, sees in accordance with the mind of Christ, conceiving the most excellent thoughts.
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30. Now, my son, it is necessary for each of the readers of that book to read it in its entirety, for truly the things in it are divinely inspired, but then to take benefits from these, as from the fruits of a garden on which he may cast his gaze when the need arises. For I believe that the whole of human existence, both the dispositions of the soul and the movements of the thoughts, have been measured out and encompassed in those very words of the Psalter. And nothing beyond these is found among men. For whether there was necessity of repentance or confession, or tribulation and trial befell us, or someone was persecuted, or, being plotted against, he was protected, or if, moreover, someone has become deeply sorrowful and disturbed and he suffers something of the sort that is described in the things just mentioned, and he either attends to himself as one who is advancing, being set free from his foe, or he wants to sing praises and give thanks to the Lord—for any such eventuality he has instruction in the divine Psalms. Let him therefore select the things said in them about each of these circumstances, and reciting what has been written as concerning him, and being affected by the writings, lift them up to the Lord.

[The full letter can be procured from Paulist Press, see source credit below].

Source Credit: A Letter of Athanasius, Our Holy Father, Archbishop of Alexandria, to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms (ISBN 0-8091-2295-2) Published by Paulist Press. Translation Robert C. Gregg

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