Renewal in Christ: Athanasius on the Christian Life

Appendix 2: On the Psalms

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than she has. But David, from whose seed she happened to be, suitably addresses her as daughter.

§7 – The Psalms Foretell Christ’s Atoning Death on the Cross

After proclaiming that he would become man, it follows that the Psalter would make known his suffering in the flesh as well. Perceiving, then, there would be a treacherous scheme carried out by the Jews, it sings [about this] in the 2nd Psalm: Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers gather themselves together against the Lord and against his Christ. In the 22nd Psalm it speaks from the Savior’s own person of the kind of death he would undergo: You have brought me down into the dust of death. For many dogs have surrounded me, the assembly of the evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. They counted out all my bones. And after they considered and beheld me, they divided my clothing among themselves and cast lots for my clothing. To gouge the hands and the feet, what else can this indicate than that it is speaking about the cross? After teaching all these things it then adds that the Lord suffered these things not for himself, but for us. And he says this again in his own person in Psalm 88: Your wrath has rested upon me; and in Psalm 69: Then I restored that which I did not take away. For although he was not guilty, he died. But he suffered for us and endured the wrath that was meant for us because of our disobedience, as is spoken through the prophet Isaiah: He took on our weaknesses (Isa 53:4). And this is mentioned for us in the 138th Psalm: The Lord will pay them back for me. And speaking also by the Spirit in Psalm 72: And he will save the children of the poor, and he will humble the extortionists . . . for he has delivered the poor