because I am afflicted.
My eye was troubled in anger,
my soul also, and my belly.
For my life died with distress,
and my years were weakened with groaning in poverty.
My strength and my bones were troubled.
From all my enemies I became a reproach,
and to my neighbors exceedingly so,
and I became a fear to my acquaintances.
The ones looking at me outside fled from me.
I was forgotten from hearts like a corpse.
I became like a broken vessel.
For I heard the censure of many,
dwelling from all around,
while they gathered at once against me.
They deliberated to take my soul.
But I hoped in you, O Lord.
I said, “You are my God.”
My portion is in your hands.
Rescue me from the hand of my enemies,
and from the ones who are persecuting me.
Show forth your face upon your servant.
Save me with your mercy. (Psalm 30:10–17 LXX [Ps 31:9–16])
I am become a reproach above all my enemies, and very much to my neighbors: and a fear to my acquaintances. The phrase, Above all, rather than “among all,” is not idle; Above all my enemies is said by way of amplification. Whilst the enemy were indeed a reproach, Christ the Lord though innocent and stainless was regarded as a reproach among those who contaminated themselves with wicked sin. Next comes: I am become a reproach; not “I was truly a reproach,” but “I was thought to be what I was not by those who erred through being deceived by baseless persuasion.” Reproach (probrum) means “opposed to the worthy” (contra probum), that is, dishonorable and unfitting. A reproach suggests an extremely loathsome deed, which was clearly ascribed to the Lord Savior among the wicked Jews when they said: This man is not of God, who keeps not the Sabbath, and elsewhere: Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil. Neighbors He calls those close to Him in proximity of faith, men who as yet had not believed, but were disposed to believe. But when they saw that He hung on the cross, they were shifted from their proximity to belief once they saw the suffering of Him who they thought should be adorned. Though they saw inevitably come to pass what was foretold in faith, they remained unaware of it, and then they were all the more withdrawn from firm belief. Note that He spoke first of enemies, and then of neighbors; next he advances to acquaintances. This denotes the apostles, thrown into utter confusion by His passion. Of them Scripture says: I shall strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.
The order of the phrases is marvelous and most sacred. When His enemies dwelt round the synagogue and put their hope in their strength, He says that He trusted the Lord, for He knew that their power was non-existent, and that they were attempting to kill themselves rather than Him by such plots.… The Lord Christ says: You are my God, but He speaks from the standpoint of the humanity which He assumed, and which as He later says was subject to both time and death. He does not, as His enemies thought, state that His life was to be ended by their persecution, but He places His life’s times in the Lord’s power; for we exist through His creation, wax strong through His dispensation, and also pass on at His command. So it was necessary that He kept His hope implanted in the Lord, for He knew that His life and death were in His power.
Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 30.12, 15–16
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