Odes of Solomon

Harris1911 source page 171

THE ODES OF SOLOMON 1 27 soul for life, that his soul may be saved, ^°or who can rest on the Most High, so that with His mouth he may speak ? "Who is able to interpret the wonders of the Lord? ""^For he who could interpret would be dissolved and would become that which is interpreted 1. ''^For it suffices to know and to rest'-: for in rest the singers stand, ''^like a river which has an abundant fountain, and flows to the help of them that seek iV. Hallelujah. Ode 26. This beautiful song of praise recounts the goodness and greatness of the Lord. All within the writer magnifies the great Name, but all within is insufficient to tell out what waits to be told. His praise is widespread to the utmost bound of earth and beyond the bound of the everlasting hills. The creature cannot express God's praise perfectly ; if he could, he would be no longer a creature : he would be the Word, and not the interpreter of the Word. So it suffices to know and to rest, while at our feet the river of grace rolls on, an unchanging flood : Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum. It is impossible to say whether the Psalm, as detached from the rest of the collection, is Jewish or Christian. ODE 27. H stretched out my hands and sanctified my Lord'*: ^for the extension of my hands is His sign : ^and my expansion is the upright tree (^?' cross). Ode 27. This tiny Psalm is Christian, and is based upon the early Christian fondness for finding the Cross everywhere in the outward world : in the handle of the labourer's plough, in the mast and yards of the seaman's ship ; and in the human body, when the man stands erect in the act of prayer with outstretched arms. There can, therefore, be no doubt that this is a Christian Psalm, and the figurative language which it employs is characteristic of the second century and not unknown in the first century. Justin Martyr, for example, sees the 1 Cf. Lactantius, Div. Inst, praef. : 'there would be no difference between God and man, if human thought could reach to the counsels and arrangements of that eternal Majesty.' 2 Cf. Clem. Alex. Paed. i. 6 (p. 115) cLVre 17 ^Iv -yvi^ocns iv ry ^coTLafian- to de iripas TTJs yvwcreus, 17 avdwavcns. =* Cf. Lactantius, £>zv. Inst. iv. 30 'Si quis aquam vitae cupial haurire, non ad detritos lacus deferatur, qui non habent venam, sed uberrimum Dei noverit foiitem, quo irrigatus perenni luce poliatur.' * U.-S. : und heiligte [sie] meinem Herrn.