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1 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. 2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. 3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. 4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. 5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. 6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. 7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. 8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping, 10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. 11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass. 12 But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations. 13 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. 14 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. 15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. 16 When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. 17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. 18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD. 19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; 20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death; 21 To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; 22 When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD. 23 He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days. 24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. 25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. 28 The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.
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[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:1-2
"Hear my prayer, O Lord: and let my crying come unto You" [Psalm 102:1]. "Hear my prayer, O Lord," is the same as, "Let my crying come unto You:" the feeling of the suppliant is shown by the repetition. "Turn not Your face away from me." When did God turn away His Face from His Son? When did the Father turn away His Face from Christ? But for the sake of the poverty of my members, "Turn not away Your face from me: whatsoever day I am troubled, incline Your ear unto me" [Psalm 102:2]....You are in trouble this day, I am in trouble; another is in trouble tomorrow, I am in trouble; after this generation other descendants, who succeed your descendants, are in trouble, I am in trouble; down to the end of the world, whoever are in trouble in My body, I am in trouble....Peter prayed, Paul prayed, the rest of the Apostles prayed; the faithful prayed in those times, the faithful prayed in the following times, the faithful prayed in the times of the Martyrs, the faithful pray in our times, the faithful will pray in the times of our descendants. "Right soon:" for I now ask that which You are willing to grant. I ask not earthly things, as an earthly man; but redeemed at last from my former captivity, I long for the kingdom of heaven; "Hear me right soon:" for it is only to such a longing that You have said, "Even while You are speaking, I will say, Here I am." [Isaiah 58:9] Wherefore do you call? In what tribulation? In what want? O poor one, before the gate of God all-rich, in what longing do you beg? From what destitution do you ask relief? From what want do you knock, that it may be opened unto you?

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:3
"For my days are consumed away like smoke" [Psalm 102:3]. O days! If days: for where day is heard of, light is understood. "My days," my times; wherefore, "like smoke," unless from the puffing up of pride?...See smoke, like pride, ascending, swelling, vanishing: deservedly therefore failing, and not steadfast. "And my bones are scorched up as it were in an oven." Both my bones, and my strength, not without tribulation, not without burning. The bones of the body of Christ, the strength of His body, is it anywhere greater than in the Holy Apostles? And yet see that the bones are scorched. "Who is offended, and I burn not?" [2 Corinthians 11:29] They are brave, faithful, able interpreters and preachers of the word, living as they speak, speaking as they hear; they are clearly brave, yet all who suffer offenses, are an oven to them. For there is love there, and more so in the bones. The bones are within all the flesh, and support all the flesh. But if any man suffer any offense, and endanger his soul; the bone is scorched in proportion as it loves....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Psalms 102:4-9
So then the prophet comforted David as we have seen, but that blessed man, though he received most gladly the assurance, “The Lord has put away your sin,” did not, king as he was, draw back from penitence. Indeed he put on sackcloth in place of his purple robe, and the king sat in ashes on the bare earth instead of on his gilded throne. And in ashes he did not merely sit but took them for eating, as he himself says, “I have eaten ashes as if bread and mingled my drink with weeping.” His lustful eye he wasted away with tears; as he says, “Every night I wash my bed and water my couch with my tears.” And when his courtiers exhorted him to take bread, he would not, but he prolonged his fast for seven whole days. Now if a king was apt to make confession after this manner, should not you, as a private person, make your confession? Again, after Absalom’s rebellion, when David was in flight, with many roads to choose from before him, he chose to make his escape by the Mount of Olives, as good as invoking in his own mind the Deliverer who should from there ascend into the heavens. And when Shimei cursed him bitterly, he said, “Let him be.” For he knew that forgiveness is for those who forgive.

Source: Catechetical Lecture 2:12
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Psalms 102:4-9
And after humility of mind, there is need of intense prayers, of many tears, tears by day and tears by night, for, he says, “every night will I wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears. I am weary with my groaning.” And again, “For I have eaten ashes as if bread and mingled my drink with weeping.”

Source: ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 9:8
[AD 422] Paulinus of Milan on Psalms 102:4-9
Indeed, to the penitent confession alone does not suffice, unless correction of the deed follows, with the result that the penitent does not continue to do deeds that demand repentance. He should even humble his soul just as holy David, who, when he heard from the prophet, “Your sin is pardoned,” became more humble in the correction of his sin, so that “he did eat ashes like bread and mingled his drink with weeping.” THE LIFE OF ST.

Source: AMBROSE 9:39
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:4
Look back to Adam, whence the human race sprung. For how but from him was misery propagated? Whence but from him is this hereditary poverty? Let him then, who in his own body was at one time in despair, now that he is set in Christ's body, say with hope, "My heart is smitten down, and withered like grass" [Psalm 102:4]. Deservedly, since all flesh is grass. [Isaiah 40:6] But how did this happen unto you? "Since I have forgotten to eat my bread." For God had given His commandment for bread. For what is the bread of the soul? The serpent suggesting, and the woman transgressing, he touched the forbidden fruit, [Genesis 3:6] he forgot the commandment: his heart was smitten as it deserved, and withered like grass, since he forgot to eat his bread. Having forgotten to eat bread, he drinks poison: his heart is smitten, and withered like grass....Now eat that bread which you had forgotten. But this very Bread has come, in whose body you may remember the voice of your forgetfulness, and cry out in your poverty, so that you may receive riches. Now eat: for you are in His body, who says, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven." [John 6:41] You had forgotten to eat your bread; but after His crucifixion, "all the ends of the earth shall be reminded, and be converted unto the Lord." After forgetfulness, let remembrance come, let bread be eaten from heaven, that we may live; not manna, as they did eat, and died; [John 6:49] that bread, of which it is said, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness." [Matthew 5:6]

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Psalms 102:4-9
“For I forgot to eat my bread. At the sound of my groaning, my bones stuck to my flesh.” I lost appetite for any food, and was completely bereft of my former good condition, my body being consumed by the wasting of discouragement; I am but skin and bones. The word of God, then, is our soul’s bread: just as ordinary bread nourishes the body, so the word from heaven [nourishes] the soul’s substance. In passing on the prayer, Christ said as much to the apostles, “Give us this day our daily bread.” So whoever forgets to eat it, that is, to be active (action, after all, constituting the eating of the spiritual bread, as is clear from the saying of the Lord to the apostles, “Be active, not for the eating, which perishes, but for that which endures to life eternal”), this one’s heart is stricken and dried up like hay. How does hay get stricken and dry up? When rain stops falling on it. As the heart, too, when suffering from a dearth of the word, is then stricken and dries up, the flower of virtue no longer has the strength to bloom.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 102:3
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:5
"For the voice of my groaning, the bones cleave unto my flesh" [Psalm 102:5]. For many groan, and I also groan; even for this I groan, because they groan for a wrong cause. That man has lost a piece of money, he groans: he has lost faith, he groans not: I weigh the money and the faith, and I find more cause for groaning for him who groans not as he ought, or does not groan at all. He commits fraud, and rejoices. With what gain, with what loss? He has gained money, he has lost righteousness. For the latter reason, he who knows how to groan, groans; he who is near the head, who righteously clings to Christ's body, groans for this reason. But the carnal do not groan for this reason, and they cause themselves to be groaned for, because they do not groan for this reason; nor can we despise them, whether they groan not at all, or groan for the wrong cause. For we wish to correct them, we wish to amend them, we wish to reform them, and when we cannot, we groan; and when we groan, we are not separated from them....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:6
"I have become like a pelican in the wilderness, and like an owl among ruined walls" [Psalm 102:6]. Behold three birds and three places: the pelican, the owl, and the sparrow; and the three places are severally, the wilderness, the ruined walls, and the house-top. The pelican in the wilderness, the owl in the ruined walls, and the sparrow in the house-top. In the first place we must explain, what the pelican signifies: since it is born in a region which makes it unknown to us. It is born in lonely spots, especially those of the river Nile in Egypt. Whatever kind of bird it is, let us consider what the Psalm intended to say of it. "It dwells," it says, "in the wilderness." Why enquire of its form, its limbs, its voice, its habits? As far as the Psalm tells you, it is a bird that dwells in solitude. The owl is a bird that loves night. Parietinæ, or ruins, as we call them, are walls standing without roof, without inhabitants, these are the habitation of the owl. And then as to the house-top and the sparrows, you are familiar with them. I find, therefore, some one of Christ's body, a preacher of the word, sympathizing with the weak, seeking the gains of Christ, mindful of his Lord to come. [Matthew 25:26] Let us see these three things from the office of His steward. Hath such a man come among those who are not Christians? He is a pelican in the wilderness. Hath he come among those who were Christians, and have relapsed? He is an owl in the ruined walls; for he forsakes not even the darkness of those who dwell in night, he wishes to gain even these. Hath he come among such as are Christians dwelling in a house, not as if they believed not, or as if they had let go what they had believed, but walking lukewarmly in what they believe? The sparrow cries unto them, not in the wilderness, because they are Christians; nor in the ruined walls, because they have not relapsed; but because they are within the roof; under the roof rather, because they are under the flesh. The sparrow above the flesh cries out, hushes not up the commandments of God, nor becomes carnal, so that he be subject to the roof. "What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on the housetops." [Matthew 10:27] There are three birds and three places; and one man may represent the three birds, and three men may represent severally the three birds; and the three sorts of places, are three classes of men: yet the wilderness, the ruined walls, and the house-top, are but three classes of men.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:7
...Let us not pass over what is said, or even read, of this bird, that is, the pelican; not rashly asserting anything, but yet not passing over what has been left to be read and uttered by those who have written it. Do ye so hear, that if it be true, it may agree; if false, it may not hold. These birds are said to slay their young with blows of their beaks, and for three days to mourn them when slain by themselves in the nest: after which they say the mother wounds herself deeply, and pours forth her blood over her young, bathed in which they recover life. This may be true, it may be false: yet if it be true, see how it agrees with Him, who gave us life by His blood. It agrees with Him in that the mother's flesh recalls to life her young with her blood; it agrees well. For He calls Himself a hen brooding over her young. [Matthew 23:37] ...If, then, it be so truly, this bird does closely resemble the flesh of Christ, by whose blood we have been called to life. But how may it agree with Christ, that the bird herself slays her own young? Does not this agree with it? "I will slay, and I will make alive: I will wound, and I will heal." [Deuteronomy 32:39] Would the persecutor Saul [Acts 9:4] have died, unless he were wounded from heaven; or would the preacher be raised up, unless by life given him from His blood? But let those who have written on the subject see to this; we ought not to allow our understanding of it to rest upon doubtful ground. Let us rather recognise this bird in the wilderness; as the Psalm expresses it, "A pelican in the solitude." I suppose that Christ born of a Virgin is here meant. He was born in loneliness, because He alone was thus born. After the nativity, we come to His Passion....Born in the wilderness, because alone so born; suffering in the darkness of the Jews as it were in night, in their sin, as it were in ruins: what next? "I have watched:" and "have become even as it were a sparrow, that sits alone upon the house-top" [Psalm 102:7]. You had then slept amid the ruins, and had said, "I laid me down, and slept." What means, "I slept"? Because I chose, I slept: I slept for love of night: but, "I rose again," follows. Therefore "I watched," is here said. But after He watched, what did He? He ascended into heaven, He became as a sparrow by flying; that is, by ascending; "alone on the house-top;" that is, in heaven. He is therefore as the pelican by birth, as the owl by dying, as the sparrow by ascending again: there in the wilderness, as one alone; here in the ruined walls, as one slain by those who could not stand in the building; and here again watching and flying for our sakes alone on the house-top, He there intercedes in our behalf. [Romans 8:34] For our Head is as the sparrow, His body as the turtle-dove. "For the sparrow has found her an house." What house? In heaven, where He does mediate for us. "And the turtle-dove a nest," the Church of God has found a nest from the wood of His Cross, where "she may lay her young," her children.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:8
"Mine enemies revile me all day, and they that praised me are sworn together against me" [Psalm 102:8]. With their mouth they praised, in their heart they were laying snares for me. Hear their praise: "Master, we know that You are true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest Thou for any man. Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?" [Matthew 22:16-17] And whence this evil repute, except because I came to make sinners my members, that by repentance they may be in my body? Thence is all the calumny, thence the persecution. "Why eats your Master with publicans and sinners? They that be whole need not a physician, but they that be sick." [Matthew 9:11-12] Would that you were aware of your sickness, that you might seek a physician; ye would not slay Him, and through your infatuated pride perish in a false health.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:9
"I have eaten ashes as it were bread: and mingled my drink with weeping" [Psalm 102:9]. Because He chose to have among His members these kinds of men, that they should be healed and set free, thence is the evil repute. Now at this day what is the character of Pagan calumny against us? What, brethren, do ye conceive they tell us? You corrupt discipline, and pervert the morality of the human race. Why do you attack us; say why? What have we done? By giving, he replies, to men room for repentance, by promising impunity for all sins: for this reason men do evil deeds, careless of consequences, because everything is pardoned them, when they are converted....And what is to become of you, miserable man, if there shall be no harbour of impunity? If there is only licence for sinning, and no pardon for sins, where will you be, whither will you go? Surely even for you did it happen, that that afflicted one ate ashes as it were bread, and mingled His drink with weeping. Does not such a feast now please you? But nevertheless, he replies, men add to their sins under the hope of pardon. Nay, but they would add to them if they despaired of pardon. Do you not observe in what licentious cruelty gladiators live? Whence this, except because, as destined for the sword and sacrifice, they choose to sate their lust, before they pour forth their blood? Would you not also thus address yourself? I am already a sinner, already an unjust man, one already doomed to damnation, hope of pardon there is none: why should I not do whatever pleases me, although it be not lawful? Why not fulfil, as far as I can, any longings I may have, if, after these, nothing but torments only be in store? Would you not thus speak unto yourself, and from this very despair become still worse? Rather than this, then, He who promises forgiveness, does correct you, saying, "As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." [Ezekiel 13:11] ...For in order that men might not live the worse from despair, He promised a harbour of forgiveness; again, that they might not live the worse from hope of pardon, He made the day of death uncertain: fixing both with the utmost providence, both as a refuge for the returning, and a terror to the loitering. Eat ashes as bread, and mingle your drink with weeping; by means of this banquet you shall reach the table of God. Despair not; pardon has been promised you. Thanks be to God, he says, because it is promised; I hold fast the promise of God. Now therefore live well. Tomorrow, he replies, I will live well. God has promised the pardon; no one promised you tomorrow....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:10
"And that because of your indignation and wrath: because you have taken me up, you have cast me down" [Psalm 102:10]. This is your wrath, O Lord, in Adam: that wrath in which we were all born, which cleaves unto us by our birth; the wrath from the stock of iniquity, the wrath from the mass of sin: according to what the Apostle says, "We also were once the children of wrath, even as others." For He says not, the wrath of God shall come upon him: but, "abides upon him:" because that wrath in which he was born is not taken away....Man set in honour, is made in the image of God: raised up to this honour, lifted up from the dust, from the earth, he has received a reasonable soul; by the vivacity of that very reason, he is placed before all beasts, cattle, birds that fly, and fishes. [Genesis 1:26] For which of these has reason to understand? Because none of them is created in the image of God....Therefore, "Because You have taken me up, You have cast me down:" punishment follows me, because You have given me a free choice. For if You had not given me a free choice, and for this reason did not make me better than cattle, just condemnation would not follow me when I sinned. Thus You have taken me up in giving me freedom of choice, and by Your judgment You have cast me down.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:11
"My days have declined like a shadow" [Psalm 102:11]....He had said above, "My days are consumed away like smoke;" and he now says, "My days have declined like a shadow." In this shadow, day must be recognised; in this shadow, light must be discerned; lest afterward it be said in late and fruitless repentance, "What has pride profited us? Or what good has riches with our vaunting brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow." [Wisdom 5:8-9] Say at this season, all things will pass away like a shadow, and you may not pass away like a shadow. "My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass." For he had said above, "my heart is smitten down, and I am withered like grass." But the grass bedewed with the Saviour's blood will flourish afresh. "I have withered like grass;" I, that is, man, after that disobedience; this I have suffered from Your just judgment: but what are You?

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:12
For not because I have fallen, have You grown old: for You are strong to set me free, who hast been strong to humble me. "But You, O Lord, endurest for ever: and Your remembrance throughout all generations" [Psalm 102:12]. "Your remembrance," because Thou dost not forget: "throughout all generations," forasmuch as we know the promise of life, both present and future. [1 Timothy 4:8]

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:13-14
But what have you heard about Jerusalem in the Psalms? “For its stones are dear to your servants; its very dust moves them to pity,” “You,” it says, “will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to it.” When the time came for God to show mercy, the Lamb came. What kind of Lamb is it whom the wolves fear? What kind of Lamb is it who, though killed, kills the lion? For the devil has been called a lion, going about and roaring, seeking someone to devour; by the Lamb’s blood the lion has been conquered. Behold the spectacles of Christians!

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 7:6.3
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:13
"You shall arise, and have mercy upon Sion: for it is time that Thou have mercy upon her" [Psalm 102:13]. What time? "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law." And where is Sion? "To redeem them that were under the Law." [Galatians 4:4-5] First then were the Jews: for thence were the Apostles, thence those more than five hundred brethren, [1 Corinthians 15:6] thence that later multitude, who had but one heart and one soul toward God. [Acts 4:32] Therefore, "the time has come." What time? "Behold, now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation." [2 Corinthians 6:2] Who says this? That Servant of God, that Builder, who said, "You are God's building." [1 Corinthians 3:9-11]

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:14
Here therefore what says he? "For your servants take pleasure in her stones" [Psalm 102:14]. In whose stones? In the stones of Sion? But there are those there that are not stones. Not stones of what? What then follows? "and pity the dust thereof." I understand by the stones of Sion all the Prophets: there was the voice of preaching sent before, thence the ministry of the Gospel assumed, through their preaching Christ became known. Therefore your servants have taken pleasure in the stones of Sion. But those faithless apostates from God, who offended their Creator by their evil deeds, have returned to the earth, whence they were taken. They have become dust, they have become ungodly. But wait, Lord; bear with us, Lord; be long-suffering, O Lord: let not the wind rush in, and sweep away this dust from the face of the earth. Let your servants come, let them come, let them acknowledge in the stones your voice, let them pity the dust of Sion, let them be formed in your image: let the dust say, lest it perish, "Remember that we are but dust." This of Sion: was not that which crucified the Lord, dust? What is worse, it was dust from the ruined walls; altogether dust it was, but nevertheless it was not in vain said of this dust, "Father, forgive them." From this very dust there came a wall of so many thousands who believed, and who laid the price of their possessions at the Apostles' feet. From that dust then there arose a human nature formed and beautiful. Who among the heathen acted thus? How few are there whom we admire for having done thus, compared with the many thousands of these converts? At first suddenly three, afterwards five thousand; all living in unity, all laying the price of their possessions, when they had sold them, at the Apostles' feet, that it might be distributed to each, as each had need, who had one soul and one heart toward God. Who made this even of that very dust, but He who created Adam himself out of dust? This then is concerning Sion, but not in Sion only.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:15
"The heathen shall fear Your Name, O Lord; and all the kings of the earth Your Majesty" [Psalm 102:15]. Now that You have pitied Sion, now that Your servants have taken pleasure in her stones, by acknowledging the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets; now that they have pitied her dust; so that man is formed, or rather re-formed, in life out of dust; hence preaching has increased among the heathen: let the heathen fear Your Name, let another wall approach also from the heathen, let the Corner Stone [Ephesians 2:20] be recognised, let the two who come from different regions, but who no longer differ in belief, meet in close union.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:16
"For the Lord shall build up Sion" [Psalm 102:16]. This work is going on now. O you living stones, run to the work of building, not to ruin. Sion is in building, beware of the ruined walls: the tower is building, the ark is in building; remember the deluge. This work is in progress now; but when Sion is built, what will happen? "And He will appear in His glory." That He might build up Sion, that He might be a foundation in Sion, He was seen by Sion, but not in His glory: "we have seen Him, and He had no form nor comeliness." [Isaiah 53:2] But truly when He shall have come with His angels to judge, [Matthew 25:31] shall they not look then upon Him whom they have pierced? [Zechariah 12:10] and they shall be put to confusion when too late, who refused confusion in early and healthful repentance.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:17
"He has turned Him unto the prayer of the poor destitute, and despised not their desire" [Psalm 102:17]. This is going on now in the building of Sion: the builders of Sion pray, they groan: He is the one poor, because the poor are many; because the thousands among so many nations are one in Him, because He is the unity of the peace of the Church, He is one, He is many: one, through love: many, on account of His extension. Therefore we now pray, we now run: now, if any man has used to be otherwise, and lived differently, let him eat ashes as it were bread, and mingle his drink with weeping. Now is the time, when Sion is in building: now the stones are entering into the structure: when the building is finished, and the house dedicated, why do you run, to ask when too late, to beg in vain, to knock to no purpose, doomed to abide without with the five foolish virgins? [Matthew 25:12] Therefore now run.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:18
"Let these things be written for those that come after" [Psalm 102:18]. When these words were written, they profited not so much those among whom they were written for they were written to prophesy the New Testament, among men who lived according to the Old Testament. But God had both given that Old Testament, and had settled in that land of promise His own people. But since "Your remembrance is from generation to generation," belongs not to the ungodly, but to the righteous; "in our generation" belongs to the Old Testament; while "in the other generation" belongs to the New Testament; and since the New Testament announces this that was prophesied, "Let these things be written for those that come after: and the people which shall be created, shall praise the Lord." Not the people which is created, but "the people which shall be created." What is clearer, my brethren? Here is prophesied that creation of which the Apostle says: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new." [2 Corinthians 5:17] "For he has looked down from His lofty sanctuary." He has looked down from on high, that He might come unto the humble: from on high He has become humble, that He might exalt the humble....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:19-20
"Out of the heaven did the Lord look down upon the earth" [Psalm 102:19]: "that He might hear the mournings of such as are in fetters, and deliver the children of such as are put to death" [Psalm 102:20]. We have found it said in another Psalm, "O let the sorrowful sighs of the fettered come before You;" and in a passage where the voice of the martyrs was meant. Whence are the martyrs in fetters?...But God had bound them with these fetters, hard indeed and painful for a season, but endurable on account of His promises, unto whom it is said, "On account of the words of Your lips, I have kept hard ways." We must indeed groan in these fetters in order to gain the mercy of God. These fetters must not be shunned, in order to gain a destructive freedom and the temporal and brief pleasure of this life, to be followed by perpetual bitterness. Accordingly Scripture, [Ecclesiastes 6:24-32] that we may not refuse the fetters of wisdom, thus addresses us: "...Then shall her fetters be a strong defence for you, and her chains a robe of glory." Let the fettered therefore cry out, as long as they are in the chains of the discipline of God, in which the martyrs have been tried: the fetters shall be loosed, and they shall fly away, and these very fetters shall afterwards be turned into an ornament. This has happened with the martyrs. For what have the persecutors effected by killing them, except that their fetters were thereby loosed, and turned into crowns?...The remission of sins, is the loosing. For what would it have profited Lazarus, that he came forth from the tomb, unless it were said to him, "loose him, and let him go"? [John 11:44] Himself indeed with His voice aroused him from the tomb, Himself restored his life by crying unto him, Himself overcame the mass of earth that was heaped upon the tomb, and he came forth bound hand and foot: not therefore with his own feet, but by the power of Him who drew him forth. This takes place in the heart of the penitent: when you hear a man is sorry for his sins, he has already come again to life; when you hear him by confessing lay bare his conscience, he is already drawn forth from the tomb, but he is not as yet loosed. When is he loosed, and by whom is he loosed? "Whatsoever you shall loose on earth," He says, "shall be loosed in Heaven." [Matthew 15:19] Forgiveness of sins may justly be granted by the Church: but the dead man himself cannot be aroused except by the Lord crying within him; for God does this within him. We speak to your ears: how do we know what may be going on in your hearts? But what is going on within, is not our doing, but His.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:21
"That the name of the Lord may be declared in Sion" [Psalm 102:21]. For at first, when the fettered were appointed unto death, the Church was oppressed: since these tribulations the Name of the Lord has been declared in Sion, with great freedom, in the Church herself. For she is Sion: not that one spot, at first proud, afterwards taken captive; but the Sion whose shadow was that Sion, which signifies a watchtower; because when placed in the flesh, we see into the things before us, extending ourselves not to the present which is now, but to the future. Thus it is a watchtower: for every watcher gazes far. Places where guards are set, are termed watchtowers: these are set on rocks, on mountains, in trees, that a wider prospect may be commanded from a higher eminence. Sion therefore is a watchtower, the Church is a watchtower....If therefore the Church be a watchtower, the Name of the Lord is already declared there. Not the Lord's Name only is declared in that Sion, but "His praise," He says, "in Jerusalem."

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:22
And how is it declared? "In the nations gathering together in one, and the kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord" [Psalm 102:22]. How is this accomplished, unless by the blood of the slain? How accomplished, but by the groans of the fettered? Those therefore who were in tribulation and humility have been heard; that in our times the Church might be in the great glory which we see her in, so that the very kingdoms which then persecuted her, now serve the Lord.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Psalms 102:23-24
That which is said is also fulfilled in the saint: “I will recall you from there in the end.” For the end is considered to be the perfection of things and the consummation of virtues. Indeed for this reason also another saint said, “Don’t recall me in the midst of my days.” And again the Scripture bestows testimony on the great patriarch Abraham since “Abraham died full of days.” This statement, therefore, “I will recall you from there in the end,” is as if he had said, Since “you have fought a good fight, you have kept the faith, you have finished the course,” I will now recall you from this world to the future blessing, to the perfection of eternal life, to “the crown of justice that the Lord will give in the end of the ages to all who love him.”

Source: HOMILIES ON GENESIS 15:6
[AD 264] Dionysius of Alexandria on Psalms 102:23-24
And this is true. For no one is able to comprehend the works of God altogether. Moreover, the world is the work of God. No one, then, can find out as to this world what is its space from the beginning and to the end, that is to say, the period appointed for it and the limits before determined for it; in view of the fact that God has set the whole world as a realm of ignorance in our hearts. And thus one says, “Declare to me the shortness of my days.” In this manner, and for our profit, the end of this world [age]—that is to say, this present life—is a thing of which we are ignorant.

Source: FRAGMENT 1:3.11
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 102:23-24
Now as these things are written in the Scriptures, the case is clear, that the saints know that a certain time is measured to every person, but that no one knows the end of that time is plainly intimated by the words of David, “Declare to me the shortness of my days.” He desired information about that which he did not know. Accordingly the rich man also, while he thought that he had still a long time to live, heard the words, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” And the Preacher speaks confidently in the Holy Spirit and says, “A person also does not know his time.” Wherefore the patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, “Behold, I am old, and I know not the day of my death.”

Source: DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT 15
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 102:23-24
For although it is hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each and how it is allotted, yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written, there is a time to die and a time to live. And so the time of the generation that lived in the days of Noah was cut short, and their years were contracted, because the time of all things was at hand. But to Hezekiah were added fifteen years. As God promises to them that serve him truly, “I will fulfill the number of your days,” Abraham dies “full of days,” and David urgently begged God, saying, “Don’t take me away in the midst of my days.” And Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, being assured of this truth, said, “You shall come to your grave like ripe corn, gathered in due time, and like as a shock of corn comes in its season.” Solomon, confirming his words, says, “The souls of the unrighteous are untimely taken away.” And therefore he exhorts in the book of Ecclesiastes, saying, “Don’t be too wicked, neither be hard: why should you die before your time?”

Source: DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT 14
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:23
"She answered Him in the way of His strength" [Psalm 102:23]....The preceding words show, that either "His praise," or "Jerusalem," answered: for it was said, "And His praise in Jerusalem; in the nations gathering together in one, and the kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. Respondit ei." We cannot say, "the kingdoms answered," for he would have said responderunt. Respondit ei. We cannot say, "the nations answered," for he would have said, responderunt (in the plural). Since then it is Respondit ei, in the singular, we look for the singular number above, and find that the words, "His praise," and "Jerusalem," are the only words in which we find it. But since it is doubtful, whether it be "His praise," or "Jerusalem," let us expound it each way. How did "His praise" answer Him? When they who are called by Him thank Him. For He calls, we answer; not by our voice, but by our faith; not by our tongue, but by our life....From His elect and holy men, Jerusalem also answers Him. For Jerusalem also was called: and the first Jerusalem refused to hear, and it was said unto her, "Behold, your house shall be left unto the desolate." [Matthew 23:38] ...But that Jerusalem, of whom it was written, "Sing, O barren, you that did not bear," "She has answered Him." What means, "She has answered Him"? She despises Him not when He called. He sent rain, She gave fruit.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:24
Let not therefore heretics flatter themselves against me, because I said, "the shortness of my days," as if they would not last down to the end of the world. For what has he added? "O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days" [Psalm 102:24]. Deal Thou not with me according as heretics speak. Lead me on unto the end of the world, not only to the middle of my days; and finish my short days, that You may afterwards grant unto me eternal days. Wherefore then have you asked concerning the shortness of your days? Wherefore? Do you wish to hear? "Your years are in the generation of generations." This is why I asked concerning those short days, because although my days should endure unto the end of the world, yet they are short in comparison of Your days. For "Your years are in the generation of generations." Wherefore does he not say, Your years are unto worlds of worlds; for thus rather is eternity usually signified in the holy Scriptures; but he says, "Your years are in the generation of generations"? But what are your years? What, but those which do not come, and then pass away? What, but they which come not, so as to cease again? For every day in this season so comes as to cease again; every hour, every month, every year; nothing of these is stationary; before it has come, it is to be; after it has come, it will not be. Those everlasting years of yours, therefore, those years that are not changed, "are in the generation of generations." There is a "generation of generations;" in that shall your years be. There is one such, and if we acknowledge it aright, we shall be in it, and the years of God shall be in us. How shall they be in us? Just as God Himself shall be in us: whence it is said, "That God may be all in all." [1 Corinthians 15:28] For the years of God, and God Himself, are not different: but the years of God are the eternity of God: eternity is the very substance of God, which has nothing changeable; there nothing is past, as if it were no longer: nothing is future, as if it existed not as yet. There is nothing there but, Is: there is not there, Was, and Will be; because what was, is now no longer: and what will be, is not as yet: but whatever is there, simply Is....Behold this great I Am! What is man's being to this? To this great I Am, what is man, whatever he be? Who can understand that To Be? Who can share it? Who can pant, aspire, presume that he may be there? Despair not, human frailty! "I am," He says, "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." You have heard what I am in Myself: now hear what I am on your account. This eternity then has called us, and the Word burst forth from eternity. It is now eternity, it is now the Word, and no longer time.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 69] Hebrews on Psalms 102:25-27
For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. [Psalms 102:25-27] But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
[AD 220] Tertullian on Psalms 102:25-27
But it is not thus that the prophets and the apostles have told us that the world was made by God merely appearing and approaching matter. They did not even mention any matter but [said] that Wisdom was first set up, the beginning of his ways, for his works. Then that the Word was produced, “through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.” Indeed, “by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their hosts by the breath of his mouth.” He is the Lord’s right hand, indeed his two hands, by which he worked and constructed the universe. “For,” he says, “the heavens are the works of your hands.” Wherewith “he has measured out the heaven, and the earth with a span.” Do not be willing so to cover God with flattery, as to contend that he produced by his mere appearance and simple approach so many vast substances, instead of rather forming them by his own energies. For this is proved by Jeremiah when he says, “God has made the earth by his power; he has established the world by his wisdom and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding.” These are the energies by the stress of which he made this universe. His glory is greater if he labored.

Source: AGAINST HERMOGENES 45
[AD 220] Tertullian on Psalms 102:25-27
In like manner David says, “The heavens, the works of your hands, shall themselves perish. For even as a garment shall he change them, and they shall be changed.” Now to be changed is to fall from that primitive state that they lose while undergoing the change. “And the stars too shall fall from heaven, even as a fig tree casts its green figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.” “The mountains shall melt like wax at the presence of the Lord”;32 that is, “when he rises to shake terribly the earth.” “But I will dry up the pools”;34 and “they shall seek water, and they shall find none.” Even “the sea shall be no more.” Now if any person should go so far as to suppose that all these passages ought to be spiritually interpreted, he will still be unable to deprive them of the true accomplishment of those issues that must come to pass just as they have been written. For all figures of speech necessarily arise out of real things, not out of chimerical ones; because nothing is capable of imparting anything of its own for a similitude, except it actually be that very thing that it imparts in the similitude. I return therefore to the principle that defines that all things that have come from nothing shall return at last to nothing.

Source: AGAINST HERMOGENES 34
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 102:25-27
Therefore the Image of the unalterable God must be unchangeable; for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” And David in the psalm says of him, “You, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain; and they all shall grow old as does a garment. And you shall fold them up as a piece of clothing, and they shall be changed, but you are the same, and your years shall not fail.” And the Lord says of himself through the prophet, “See now that I, even I am he,” and “I change not.”

Source: Discourses Against the Arians 1.10.36
[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Psalms 102:25-27
For this very reason, a certain one of the interpreters seems to me to have handed over beautifully and accurately the same thought58 through another title, saying, “For the lilies,” in place of, “For them that shall be changed.” He thought that it was appropriate to compare the transitoriness of human nature with the early death of flowers. But, since this word has been inflected in the future tense (it is said: “For them that shall be changed,” as if at some time later this change will be shown to us), let us consider whether there is suggested to us the doctrine of the resurrection, in which a change will be granted to us, but a change for something better and something spiritual. “What is sown in corruption,” he says, “rises in incorruption.” Do you see the change? “What is sown in weakness rises in power; what is sown a natural body rises a spiritual body,” when every corporeal creature will change together with us. Also, “The heavens shall grow old like a garment, and as a robe” God “shall change them, and they shall be changed.” Then, according to Isaiah, “The sun will be sevenfold, and the moon like the present size of the sun.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 17:2
[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Psalms 102:25-27
Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, is to come from heaven, and to come with glory at the end of this world, on the last day. For an end of this world there will be; this created world will be made new again. Corruption, theft, adultery and sins of every kind have flooded the earth, and bloodshed has been paid with blood; so to prevent this wondrous dwelling place from continuing forever filled with iniquity, this world is to pass away, to make room for a fairer world. You want proof of this from Scripture? Listen to Isaiah: “The heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all their hosts shall wither away as the leaf on the vine or as the fig withers on the fig tree.” And the Gospel says, “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven.” Let us not grieve as though we alone were to die, for the stars also will die; but perhaps they will rise again. The Lord shall fold up the heavens, not to destroy them but to raise them up more beautiful. Listen to David the prophet: “Of old you established the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain.” But someone will say, “Behold, he says plainly that ‘they shall perish.’ Ah, but hear in what sense he says, ‘they shall perish’; it is clear from what follows: ‘though all of them grow old like a garment. Like clothing you change them, and they are changed.’ ” For just as humankind is said to perish, according to the text, “The just perishes, and no one takes it to heart,” and this is said, though the resurrection is expected, so we look for a “resurrection” of the heavens.

Source: Catechetical Lecture 15:3
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 102:25-27
Heaven is of the world, humanity above the world; the one is part of the world, the other an inhabitant of paradise, Christ’s possession. Heaven is considered incorruptible, yet it passes away; humanity is regarded as corruptible and is clothed with incorruption; the figure of the one perishes, the other rises as being immortal. Yet, according to the authority of Scripture, the hands of the Lord fashioned both. We read of the heavens: “The heavens are the works of your hands.” Humankind, too, says, “Your hands have made me and formed me,” and “The heavens declare the glory of God.” As heaven is lighted with the splendor of the stars, so do humans shine with the light of their good works, and their deeds shine before their Father in heaven. The one is the firmament of heaven on high, the other is a similar firmament of which it is said, “On this rock I will build my church”;20 the one is a firmament of the elements, the other of virtues, and this last is more excellent. They sucked oil out of the hard stone, for the rock is Christ’s body that redeemed heaven and the entire world.

Source: LETTER 49
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 102:25-27
But this opinion could not withstand the words of the prophet, which the divine majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, has confirmed in the Gospel. For David has said, “In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain, and all of them shall grow old as a garment. And as a robe you shall change them, and they shall be changed. But you are always the same, and your years shall not fail.” To such a degree did the Lord confirm this that he said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

Source: SIX DAYS OF CREATION 1:6.24
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 102:25-27
“When he has gone to sleep, he will not rise again even until the heaven is unstitched.” This appears to mean, until heaven is made new. “For there will be a new heaven and a new earth,” just as it is written. For what is stitched up is old, and what is old will be changed. Then listen as the psalmist says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain; and all of them shall grow old like a garment, and you shall change them like a garment, and they shall be changed.” We are able also to weave on the garment, because what is old is stitched on, whereas what is new suffers violence. “From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” The synagogue stitched on it in the case of a few; the church forces it in the case of thousands. Or else the meaning is that heaven now appears to be stitched on, being often interwoven with clouds and mist and the darkness of night and the golden redness of the rising day, a various and multicolored sight. Then “night shall be no more, and they shall have no need of light of lamp and light of sun, because the Lord will shed light on them,” even as John said. Or else, “Woe to those who sew pillows to overthrow the souls of the people.” The prophet was lamenting the wretched frailty of our condition, that has no rest in this life and loses everything by death’s sudden onset. For the Holy Spirit revealed to him that man would not arise for so long a time, until he should come who would not stitch the old to the new nor join new material to old material46 but would make all things new, even as he said, “Behold, I make all things new!” For he is the resurrection, the firstborn from the dead, in whom we have all indeed received the prerogative of a future resurrection; yet till now he alone has risen in a perpetual resurrection.

Source: THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID 1:7.24-25
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Psalms 102:25-27
But, if you think the word through implies inferiority, listen to [the prophet] saying, “In the beginning you did establish the earth, and heaven is the work of your hands.” What is said of the Father as Creator is meant also of the Son; he would not have said it if he had not the same opinion of him as Creator, and as not inferior to anyone. And if the words “through him” are used here, they are employed with no other view than that no one may subscribe to the idea that the Son is unbegotten.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:25-27
There are many allusions to the last judgment in the Psalms, but for the most part only casual and slight. I cannot, however, omit to mention what is said there in express terms of the end of this world: “In the beginning hast Thou laid the foundations of the earth, O Lord; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shall endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; and as a vesture Thou shall change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.”

Source: City of God 20.24
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:25-27
Suppose they say, though, that the Lord’s own divine substance is not the same when he is with the Father as it was when he wished to show himself on earth without taking a body, then what else have the poor fools committed themselves to, but saying that the divine substance is subject to change in place and time? They do not want to read, or they find it difficult to understand, what is said by the prophet, “They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them, and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end”; and what is written in the book of divine Wisdom about Wisdom: “While remaining in herself, she renews all things.”

Source: SERMON 12:10
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:25-27
If, however, they do not say “so impure” but “so weak,” we agree entirely. And that is why Christ is our strength, because he was not changed by our weakness. Here I recognize the aptness of the prophet’s words, “You will change them, and they shall be changed; but you yourself are the same, and your years shall not fail.” Not only did the weakness of the flesh not change him for the worse, but by him it was changed for the better.

Source: SERMON 12:12
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:25-27
These things that we hold according to our faith, and which reason also demonstrates, can be supported by testimonies from the divine Scriptures, so that the less intelligent who cannot follow the argument may believe on divine authority and so may deserve to reach understanding. Those who understand, and are less instructed in ecclesiastical sacred books, are not to think that we have produced them out of our heads and that they are not in the Scriptures. That God is immutable is written thus in the Psalms: “You shall change them, and they shall be changed; but you are the same.” And in the book of Wisdom it is written of Wisdom: “Abiding in herself she renews all things.” The apostle Paul says, “To the invisible, incorruptible, only wise God.” The apostle James writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Because the Son was not made, but all things were made through him, it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.”

Source: ON THE NATURE OF THE GOOD 24
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:25
"You, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth: and the Heavens are the work of Your hands" [Psalm 102:25]....God laid the foundation of the earth, we know: the heavens are the works of His hands. For do not imagine that God does one thing with His hand, another by His word. What He does by His word, He does by His hand: for He has not distinct bodily members, who said, "I Am That I Am." And perhaps His Word is His hand, assuredly His hand is His power. For inasmuch as it is said, "Let there be a firmament," [Genesis 1:6] and there was a firmament; He is understood to have created it by His Word; but when He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness;" [Genesis 1:26] He seems to have created him by His hand. Hear therefore: "The heavens are the work of Your hands." Lo, what He created by His word, He created also by His hands; because He created them through His excellence, through His power. Observe rather what He created, and seek not to know in what manner He created them. It is much to you to understand how He created them, since He created yourself so, that you may first be a servant obeying, and afterwards perhaps a friend understanding. [John 15:15]

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Psalms 102:25-27
Even in the case of our own soul, when we say that it cannot die, we do not predicate weakness of it, but we proclaim its capacity of immortality. And similarly when we confess the immutability, impassibility and immortality of God, we cannot attribute to the divine nature change, passion or death. Suppose they insist that God can do whatever he will, you must reply to them that he wishes to do nothing that it is not his nature to do. He is good by nature; therefore he does not wish anything evil. He is just by nature; therefore he does not wish anything unjust. He is true by nature; therefore he considers falsehood abominable. He is by nature immutable; therefore he does not admit of change. If he does not admit of change, he is always in the same state and condition. This he himself asserts through the prophet: “I am the Lord; I change not.” And the blessed David says, “You are the same, and your years shall have no end.” If he is the same, he undergoes no change. If he is naturally superior to change and mutation, he has not become mortal from immortal or passible from impassible, for had this been possible he would not have taken on him our nature. But since he has an immortal nature, he took a body capable of suffering, and with the body a human soul. Both of these he kept unstained from the defilements of sin and gave his soul for the sake of the souls that had sinned and his body for the sake of the bodies that had died. And since the body that was assumed is described as the body of the very only-begotten Son of God, he refers the passion of the body to himself.

Source: LETTER 144
[AD 533] Fulgentius of Ruspe on Psalms 102:25-27
Hold most firmly and never doubt that the holy Trinity, the only true God, just as it is eternal, is likewise the only one by nature unchangeable. God indicates this when he says to his servant Moses, “I am which I am.” Hence, it is said in the psalms, “In the beginning you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure.”

Source: TO PETER ON THE FAITH 4:50
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:26
"They shall perish, but You shall endure" [Psalm 102:26]. The Apostle Peter says this openly: "By the word of God the heavens were of old," etc. [2 Peter 3:5-6] He has said then that the heavens have already perished by the flood: and we know that the heavens perished as far as the extent of this atmosphere of ours. For the water increased, and filled the whole of that space in which birds fly; thus perished the heavens that are near the earth; those heavens which are meant when we speak of the birds of heaven. But there are heavens of heavens higher than these in the firmament: but whether these also shall perish by fire, or those only which perished also by the flood, is a much harder question among the learned, nor can it easily, especially in a limited space of time, be explained. Let us therefore dismiss or put it off; nevertheless, let us know that these things perish, and that God endures....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:27
Perhaps by the heavens we here may understand, without being far-fetched, the righteous themselves, the saints of God, abiding in whom God has thundered in His commandments, lightened in His miracles, watered the earth with the wisdom of truth, for "The heavens have declared the glory of God." But shall they perish? Shall they in any sense perish? In what sense? As a garment. What is, as a garment? As to the body. For the body is the garment of the soul; since our Lord called it a garment, when He said, "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" [Matthew 6:25] How then does the garment perish? "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." [2 Corinthians 4:16] They then shall perish: but as to the body: "But You shall endure."...Such heavens therefore shall perish; not, however, for ever; they shall perish, that they may be changed. Does not the Psalm say this? Read the following: "They shall all wax old as does a garment; and as a vesture shall Thou change them, and they shall be changed." You hear of the garment, of the vesture, and do you understand anything but the body? We may therefore hope for the change of our bodies also, but from Him who was before us, and abides after us...."But You are the same, and Your years shall not fail" [Psalm 102:27]. But what are we to those years with these beggarly years? And what are they? Yet we ought not to despair. He had already said in His great and exceeding Wisdom, "I Am That I Am;" and yet He says to console us, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob:" [Exodus 3:6] and we are Abraham's seed: [Galatians 3:29] even we, although abject, although dust and ashes, trust in Him. We are servants: but for our sakes our Lord took the garb of a servant: [Philippians 2:7] for us who are mortal the Immortal One deigned to die, for our sakes He showed His example of resurrection. Let us therefore hope that we may reach these lasting years, in which days are not spent in a revolution of the Sun, but what is abides even as it is, because it alone truly Is.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 102:28
"The children of Your servants shall dwell there: and their seed shall stand fast for ages" [Psalm 102:28]: for the age of ages, the age of eternity, the age that abides. But, "the children," he says, "of Your servants:" is it to be feared lest we be the servants of God, and our children, and not ourselves, dwell there? Or if we are the children of the servants, inasmuch as we are the Apostles' children, what are we to say? Can those children rising after have so unhappy a presumption, as to boast in their late succession, and so to venture to say, We shall be there; the Apostles will not be there? May this be far from their piety as children, from their faith as little ones, from their understanding when of age! The Apostles also will be there: rams go before, lambs follow. Wherefore then, "the children of Your servants;" and not in brief, "Your servants"? Both they are Your servants, and their children are Your servants; and the children of these, their grandsons, what are they but Your servants? You would include them all briefly, if You should say, Your servants shall dwell therein...."The children of Your servants," are the works of Your servants; no one shall dwell there, but through his own works. What therefore means, Their children shall dwell? Let no man boast that he shall dwell there, if he calls himself God's servant, and has not works; for none but children shall dwell there. What means therefore, "The children of Your servants shall dwell there"? Your servants shall dwell there by their own works, Your servants shall dwell there through their own children. Be not therefore barren, if you dost wish to dwell there; send before the children whom you may follow, by sending them before you, not by burying them. Let your children lead you to the land of promise, the land of the living, not of the dying: while you are living here in this pilgrimage, let them go before you, let them receive you....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 102