On the Saturday after Theophany, the Gospel reading is the passage from Matthew 4:1-11. Matthew recounts the temptations of Christ in the Judean desert during His forty-day fast. This passage offers us many spiritual lessons. In what follows, we will examine a striking example of how the devil can use even the Holy Scripture to deceive.
The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and challenges Him to jump from high up: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” (Mt. 4:6). To “support” his proposal, he quotes from Psalm 90:11-12: “For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'” The goal? To tempt Christ into an act of vainglory, testing God in an arrogant manner.
Psalm 90 is a hymn of trust in God: “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” It promises protection to the faithful who walk in the “ways” of God—that is, with obedience and humility.
The devil does not change the words, but the meaning:
In his quotation, he omits “in all your ways.” This changes everything! The protection applies only when one acts in obedience to God, not in dangerous displays. The devil presents it as a “magical” guarantee for any action, turning the Psalm into a pretext for pride.
He uses the Psalm to urge a testing of God—something forbidden (Deut. 6:16). Instead of trust, he promotes doubt and arrogance, as if saying: “Test if the promise holds.”
Saint John Chrysostom says that the devil “cuts and sews” the Scripture like “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Saint Gregory Palamas sees him as a “forger” of truth, who imitates God to deceive.
To understand the extent of the distortion attempted by the Devil, a simple example suffices: In the Jewish tradition, the Psalm is used in exorcisms against evil spirits, and in the Christian tradition as a prayer before sleep to avoid demonic temptations and attacks.
Matthew warns us: The Devil, as well as every wicked soul, can use “pious” arguments to justify sins and apostasy from God. We must study the Scripture with care, in a spirit of discipleship, with right interpretation (2 Tim. 2:15), within the Church and with humility. Christ overcomes the temptation with obedience to the divine will, replying: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Mt. 4:7). Let us be vigilant. The Scripture is light, but it requires a humble heart to shine.
+ Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong and South East Asia
