Bible Verses and Early Church Commentary | Historical Christian Faith

[AD 56] Romans on Psalms 32:1-2

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. [Psalms 32:1-2] Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Psalms 32:1

May God at length grant you to see that night when darkness is turned into day, of which it was said “the darkness hides not from you, but the night shall shine as the day.” Then let the gate of paradise be opened to each man and each woman among you. Then may you enjoy waters that bear Christ and have his sweet savor. Then may you receive his name of Christian, and the capacity for heavenly things. And even now, I pray you, lift up the eyes of your mind: take thought now of angelic choirs, and God the master of the universe enthroned, with his only-begotten Son sitting on his right hand, and his Spirit with him, while thrones and dominations do him service, and likewise each man and woman of you as being in a state of salvation. Even now imagine that your ears catch those lovely strains wherewith the angels acclaim you saved. “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered” when, as stars of the church, you enter paradise with glorious body and radiant soul.

Source: Catechetical Lectures, Prologue, 15

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 32:1

The expression “pardoning sins” applies to their forgiveness, for he takes them away altogether, and what he remembers not are as though they did not exist.

Source: LETTER 70

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:1-2

"Blessed are they whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sins are covered" [Psalm 32:1]: and whose sins are buried in oblivion. "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, nor is there guile in his mouth" [Psalm 32:2]: nor has he in his mouth boastings of righteousness, when his conscience is full of sins.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Psalms 32:1

I class as enviable and blessed those who by the Lord’s lovingkindness receive forgiveness of sins apart from their works. To them, in fact, he exercises such generosity as not only to forgive them but also cover over their sins so that no trace of them remains.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 32:1

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:2

The person of God is one of that number of the blessed of whom it was foretold: “Blessed is the one to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, and in whose mouth is no guile.” For he confesses even sins of the just, asserting that they rather put their hope in the mercy of God than trust in their own justice, and therefore there is no guile in his mouth, or, indeed, in the mouths of all those to whose truthful humility or humble truth he bears witness.

Source: AGAINST JULIAN 2:8.29

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:2

Although he is a sinner, he does not proclaim that he is entirely holy; sin is a sickness by which humanity is grievously afflicted, but instead he acknowledges his transgressions and constantly perseveres in humble satisfaction. For the one who is not pleasing to himself is pleasing to the Lord. For when we find the fault in ourselves, the truth is spoken, but when we desire to praise ourselves, we speak what is false.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 32:2

[AD 399] Evagrius Ponticus on Psalms 32:3

Strong spirits do not wax old from continual shouting to God, but they are renewed from day to day. From silence they wax old, entangling people who are corrupted through false desires.

Source: NOTES ON THE PSALMS 31[32].3

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:3

"Because I kept silence, my bones waxed old:" because I made not with my mouth "confession unto salvation," [Romans 10:10] all firmness in me has grown old in infirmity. "Through my roaring all the day long" [Psalm 32:3]: when I was ungodly and a blasphemer, crying against God, as though defending and excusing my sins.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:3

Let no one think that something that he hides away in the innermost parts of his conscience can be hidden from the Lord.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 32:3

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:4

"Because day and night Your Hand was heavy upon me:" because, through the continual punishment of Your scourges, "I was turned in misery, while a thorn was fixed through me" [Psalm 32:4]: I was made miserable by knowing my misery, being pricked with an evil conscience.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:4

The hand that applies the lashes is oppressive to the sinner, and the hand that avenges is heavy. “Day and night” indicate continuous time so that the hand which did not draw back from punishment was rightly felt to be heavy. He would not have experienced this type of humiliation with such a happy demeanor unless it had been the hand of the Godhead that had pressed upon him.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 32:4

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Psalms 32:5

People had evil thoughts. They were revealed to bring them into the open and destroy them. Once they had been killed and are dead, they would cease to exist. He who died for us would kill them. For, as long as such thoughts were hidden and not brought out into the open, it was quite impossible to kill them. Thus, if we ourselves have sinned, we ought to say, “I made my sin known to you, and I have not hidden my iniquity. I said, “Against myself shall I proclaim my injustice to the Lord.’ ”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17:8

[AD 390] Diodorus of Tarsus on Psalms 32:5

Just as I sinned and was punished, so I acknowledged it and was saved.… He wishes to bring out also the promptness of God’s lovingkindness, saying, I shall confess, that is, I resolved to confess the fault to the Lord, and your pardon anticipated my confession.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PSALM 32

[AD 399] Evagrius Ponticus on Psalms 32:5

A righteous person accuses himself at the beginning of his speech.

Source: NOTES ON THE PSALMS 31[32]: 5, 6

[AD 399] Evagrius Ponticus on Psalms 32:5

Pray first to receive tears, so that through compunction you may be able to mollify the wildness that is in your soul, and, having confessed against yourself your transgression to the Lord, you may obtain forgiveness from him.

Source: CHAPTERS ON PRAYER 5

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:5

"I acknowledged my sin, and my unrighteousness have I not hid:" that is, my unrighteousness have I not concealed. "I said, I will confess against myself my unrighteousness to the Lord:" I said, I will confess, not against God (as in my ungodly crying, when I kept silence), but against myself, my unrighteousness to the Lord. "And Thou forgavest the iniquity of my heart" [Psalm 32:5]; hearing the word of confession in the heart, before it was uttered with the voice.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Psalms 32:5

When David said, “I have sinned against the Lord,” Nathan replied, “The Lord has put away your sin, you will not die.” He did, however, threaten to fill his house with calamities of all kinds; here too likewise, “You put away the impiety of my sin”: immediately after perpetrating such things, he is saying, I should have been consigned to death according to the law, but you applied your lovingkindness and did not so consign me, keeping my treatment to moderate censure.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 32:3

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Psalms 32:5

Just as we can never be without the wounds of sins, so we should never lack the remedy of confession. God wants us to confess our sins, not because he himself cannot know them but because the devil longs to find something to charge us with before the tribunal of the eternal Judge and wants us to defend rather than to acknowledge our sins. Our God, on the contrary, because he is good and merciful, wants us to confess them in this world so we will not be confounded by them later on in the world to come. If we confess our sins, he spares us; if we acknowledge them, he forgives.

Source: SERMON 59:1

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:5

Fools … think that God is unable to know what they are doing. In contrast, those who know that all things are known to him get down on their knees for humble confession and vows of repentance so that they may not experience a hostile Judge when they are able to have a merciful Advocate.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 32:5

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:5

He suddenly absolved his sins, for he judges the devoted prayer as if the work were already carried out. The penitent resolved in his heart that what he had done not be kept silent from the Lord. And then as if he had already made all of his sins known, he received forgiveness for everything that he wanted to confess. And rightly so, for the will alone either brings someone absolution or punishment. “I will pronounce,” means, “I will confess publicly” in order that my pious and faithful confession may draw others to imitate this action. From this self-accusation follows the saving remedy, since the Judge spares the defendant when he does not spare himself.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 32:5

[AD 390] Diodorus of Tarsus on Psalms 32:6

Immediately after the sin is a fitting time for confession … since a sin that lingers is entrenched.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PSALM 32

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:6

"For this shall every one that is holy pray unto You in an acceptable time:" for this wickedness of heart shall every one that is righteous pray unto You. For not by their own merits will they be holy, but by that acceptable time, that is, at His coming, who redeemed us from sin. "Nevertheless in the flood of great waters they shall not come near him" [Psalm 32:6]: nevertheless, let none think, when the end has come suddenly, as in the days of Noah, [Matthew 24:37-41] that there remains a place of confession, whereby he may draw near unto God.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:6

One who is no stranger to sin ought to immerse himself in prayers of supplication. O saving medicine! To counteract the diseases of all sinners, various remedies are offered to the ill. But this is a single remedy; if it is taken with a pure mind, the poisons of all transgressions are overcome.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 32:6

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 32:7

He caused a light to shine at the prayer of the psalmist, who said, “My Joy, deliver me from those who surround me”; this being indeed true rejoicing, this being a true feast, even deliverance from wickedness, to which a person attains by thoroughly adopting an upright conversation and being approved in his mind of godly submission toward God.

Source: FESTAL LETTERS 14:1

[AD 420] Jerome on Psalms 32:7-8

[Daniel 11:1] "And from the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up that he might be strengthened and confirmed." Daniel implies, "From the first year of the reign of Darius, who overthrew the Chaldeans and delivered me from the hand of my enemies to the extent of his ability (for even his sealing of the pit of lions with his signet ring was for my protection, lest my adversaries should slay me), I for my part stood before God, and I besought God's mercy upon him, in view of the man's love for me, in order that either he or his kingdom might be strengthened and confirmed. And since I persevered in my prayer, I was answered by God and given to understand the following information. After all, it is a customary thing with the prophets to bring in new speakers abruptly and without warning. So it is in Psalm Thirty-one: for when the prophet has petitioned God and said: "Thou art my refuge from my tribulation which compassed me about; O Thou, who art my rejoicing, deliver me from those who now encompass me," then God is abruptly brought in as the speaker, replying, "I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way in which thou shalt go; I will fasten Mine eyes upon thee" (Psalm 32:7-8). So also here, as the prophet relates, "From the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up and interceded that he might be strengthened and that his rule might be confirmed," God suddenly responds:

Source: St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER ELEVEN

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:7

"You are my refuge from the pressures, which have compassed me about:" You are my refuge from the pressure of my sins, which has compassed my heart. "O Thou, my Rejoicing, deliver me from them that compass me about" [Psalm 32:7]: in You is my joy: deliver me from the sorrow which my sins bring upon me.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:7

A refuge is a place to which one flees so that dangers may be avoided. But this man did not take flight to remote and solitary places, to the fortifications of the camps or to the help provided by men, but to God who was able to scatter the spiritual enemies encircling him.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 32:7

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:8

Diapsalma. The answer of God: "I will give you understanding, and will set you in the way in which you shall go;" I will give you understanding after confession, that you depart not from the way in which you should go; lest you wish to be in your own power. "I will fix Mine Eyes upon you" [Psalm 32:8]; so will make sure upon you My Love.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:8

You see here that sinners do not possess understanding except when the gracious Lord grants it to the converted, for understanding implies doing the right thing and directing one’s prayers to the Lord’s commands. This is the understanding which the psalm’s heading indicates and that the Lord’s power pours out in mercy on the penitent.

Source: EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 32:8

[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Psalms 32:9

The one who was God pursued the nations who pursued gods that were not gods at all. And [using] words like bridles, he turned them away from many gods [and brought them] to one.

Source: HOMILY ON OUR LORD 5:1

[AD 390] Diodorus of Tarsus on Psalms 32:9

The person with understanding and reason perceives the sin, whereas the one without understanding does not perceive it, not wanting to.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PSALM 32

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 32:9

Why do you dishonor yourself by surrendering to the allurements of the body, a slave to the whims of appetite? Why do you deprive yourself of the intelligence with which the Creator has endowed you? Why do you put yourself on the level of the beasts? To dissociate yourself from these was the will of God, when he said, “Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.”

Source: SIX DAYS OF CREATION 6:3.10

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 32:9

Fools are not free.… Many blows are necessary that their wickedness be controlled. Training, not harshness, exacts this. Besides, “he who spares the rod hates his son,” since each one is punished more heavily for his sins. The weight of sin is heavy, the stripes for crimes are heavy; they weigh like a heavy burden; they leave scars on the soul and make the wounds of the mind fester.

Source: LETTER 37

[AD 399] Evagrius Ponticus on Psalms 32:9

He calls the irrational movement of spirit “horse” and “mule.” Intellect is rational thinking and judgment.

Source: NOTES ON THE PSALMS 31[32].9

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:9

"Be not ye like horse or mule, which have no understanding:" and therefore would govern themselves. But says the Prophet, "Hold in their jaws with bit and bridle." Do Thou then, O God, unto them "that will not come near You" [Psalm 32:9], what man does to horse and mule, that by scourges Thou make them to bear Your rule.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:9

To have a soul and not to have an understanding, that is, not to use it or to live according to it, is a beast’s life. For there is in us something bestial by which we live in the flesh, but it must be ruled by the understanding. For the understanding rules from above the impulses of the soul when it moves itself according to the flesh and desires to pour itself out immoderately into carnal delights.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 15:19.2

[AD 460] Arnobius the Younger on Psalms 32:9

He gives instruction to us, and thus he teaches us on the way by which we walk so that he may fix his eyes upon us and so that we do not become as a horse or a mule. Those reluctant to draw near will have their jaws restrained with a rein of tribulation and a curb of judgment.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 32

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Psalms 32:9

Our Lord admonishes us through the prophet: “Be not senseless like horses or mules.” … As the ass or mule is tied to a grindstone with his bodily eyes weakened or closed with rages, so the dissipated soul has the eyes of its mind put out by the filth of its life, and through the errors of its thoughts is guided, as it were, around the turning millstone through laborious compassion, without its own sight and working with that of another. [A dissipated person] stands on the road of sinners, fettered with the bonds of his passions. He is his own prison, filled with the darkness of his error, stiff with the squalor of his conscience, enduring within himself the imprisonment of a mill. He turns the rock of his heart, which has been hardened by perseverance in iniquity, like a grindstone, making flour for his enemy out of the corrupt grain of his soul.

Source: SERMON 120:3

[AD 9999] Pseudo-Athanasius on Psalms 32:9

People have special need of [understanding], for when they have lost it, they become like horses and mules. Thus he says: I was turned to misery when thorns were thrust in me—that is, the sin that tormented him. On that account he says to God: I have shown you my sin, and my lawlessness I did not hide from you; and you removed my wickedness. The first duty of repentance is for a person to confess his sin, according to [the saying]: God will have mercy on him who confesses his sins and abandons them.

Source: EXPOSITION ON PSALM 32

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:10

"Many are the scourges of the sinner:" much is he scourged, who, confessing not his sins to God, would be his own ruler. "But he that trusts in the Lord, mercy compasses him about" [Psalm 32:10]; but he that trusts in the Lord, and submits himself to His rule, mercy shall compass him about.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Psalms 32:10

All people, even if adorned with the works of virtue, stand in need of divine grace; hence the divine apostle also shouts aloud, “By grace you are saved through faith; this is not of your doing—it is God’s gift.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 32:6

[AD 460] Arnobius the Younger on Psalms 32:10

Many are the punishments of sinners, but those who hope in the Lord, he will surround with his mercy.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 32

[AD 9999] Pseudo-Athanasius on Psalms 32:10

Even if there are many scourges of the sinner, yet mercy will surround one who trusts in the Lord, and the just will rejoice because their boast is in the Lord.

Source: EXPOSITION ON PSALM 32

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 32:11

"Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous:" be glad, and rejoice, you righteous, not in yourselves, but in the Lord. "And glory, all you that are right in heart" [Psalm 32:11]: and glory in Him, all you who understand that it is right to be subject unto Him, that so ye may be placed above all things beside.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 32

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Psalms 32:11

So let no one rejoice in his or her own achievements but rather exult in God and find satisfaction in that. This is in keeping with the apostolic statements, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 32:7

[AD 460] Arnobius the Younger on Psalms 32:11

You of good will come to the Lord. Rejoice and exalt in the Lord, you righteous ones, and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ in a right heart.

Source: COMMENTARY ON PSALM 32

[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Psalms 32:11

The just should “be glad in the Lord,” not in themselves, for one who rejoices in himself is deceived by a false presumption … but one who finds joy in the Lord enjoys perpetual delight.

Source: Explanation of the Psalms 32:11