Renewal in Christ: Athanasius on the Christian Life

Appendix 2: On the Psalms

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apprehend and are taught the movements of your own souls. Consequently, when the passions take their toll on you, you are able to bring to bear the image of the words gleaned from the Psalms so they not only teach you, when you listen to them, to elude passions, but also what you need to say or do in order to heal the passions. Now there are words of warning also in the other books when they, for example, forbid evil. But in the Psalms you are also told how to keep away from evil. For instance, the command to repent is like this—repentance means to stop sinning. But the book of Psalms also tells how to repent and what is necessary to say for repentance to actually take place. Moreover, Paul says: Tribulation produces endurance for the soul, endurance produces character, and character hope, and this hope does not disappoint (Rom 5:3–5). In the Psalms too you are told how it is necessary to bear afflictions, and what you should say to someone who is suffering and what to say after the suffering has occurred. It relates how each person is tested and what words have been written and inscribed for those who hope in the Lord. In addition there is the command to give thanks in all things (1 Thess 5:18), but the Psalms also teach what you should actually say when giving thanks. Then, hearing from another [book]: As many as desire to pursue a godly life, they will be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12), from the Psalms we are also taught what to cry out when fleeing and what words should be offered to God while we are being persecuted, as well as what to say after the persecution when we have been delivered. We are encouraged to bless the Lord as well as to confess our praise to him. But in the Psalms we are even informed how one ought to praise the Lord and what words to say in order to confess him rightly. In fact, in every case we will find that these divine songs have been provided for us and