Renewal in Christ: Athanasius on the Christian Life

Appendix 2: On the Psalms

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are sung about in the Psalms, and in each of the other books of Scripture they are foretold as well.

§9 – Similarities between the Psalms and the Rest of Scripture

Moreover, the old man said, I am not unaware that in every book of Scripture the same things concerning the Savior are given special prominence. In fact, this common argument is in all of them as all share in the same symphony of the Spirit. For just as one can find some things in the book of Psalms that are also in the others, so also material in the book of Psalms is often found in the others. Moses, for example, writes a song and Isaiah sings and Habakkuk prays with a song. And again, in each of the books you can perceive prophecies, legislation and historical accounts. For the same Spirit is over all, and each book ministers and fulfills the grace that is given to it according to the apportionment of the Spirit in each, whether it is prophecy, legislation, or a narration of the historical accounts, or the grace of the Psalms. And inasmuch as it is one and the same Spirit, certainly they are not all divided since the Spirit is indivisible by nature. Because the Spirit is given in its entirety, the manifestations and divisions of the Spirit are also distributed to each in order to serve the needs they are addressing. Furthermore, each [book] often ministers the Word as the Spirit instructs according to the need that has been laid bare. Therefore, as I said previously, when Moses enacts laws sometimes he prophesies, other times he sings. When the prophets prophesy sometimes they command: Wash yourselves, be clean (Isa 1:16). Cleanse your hearts from evil, Jerusalem (Jer 4:14); and other times they narrate history, such as Daniel does about Susannah (Dan 12), and Isaiah about Rabshakeh and Sennacherib (Isa 36–37).