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1 O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. 2 Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud. 3 LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? 4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? 5 They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage. 6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. 7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. 8 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? 9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? 10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? 11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; 13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. 14 For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. 15 But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it. 16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? 17 Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. 18 When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. 19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. 20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? 21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. 22 But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. 23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.
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[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:1
Let us now attend to the Psalm. "The Lord is the God of vengeance; the God of vengeance has dealt confidently" [Psalm 94:1]. Do you think that He does not punish? "The God of vengeance" punishes. What is, "The God of vengeance"? The God of punishments. Thou murmurest surely because the bad are not punished: yet do not murmur, lest you be among those who are punished. That man has committed a theft, and lives: you murmur against God, because he who committed a theft on you dies not....Therefore, if you would have another correct his hand, you must first correct your tongue: you would have him correct his heart towards man, correct your heart towards God; lest perchance, when you desire the vengeance of God, if it come, it find you first. For He will come: He will come, and will judge those who continue in their wickedness, ungrateful for the prolongation of His mercy, for His long-suffering, treasuring up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds: [Romans 2:4-6] because, "The Lord is the God of vengeance," therefore has He "dealt confidently."...Our safety is our Saviour: in Him He would place the hope of all the needy and poor. And what says He? "I will deal confidently in Him." What means this? He will not fear, will not spare the lusts and vices of men. Truly, as a faithful physician, with the healing knife of preaching in His hand, He has cut away all our wounded parts. Therefore such as He was prophesied and preached beforehand, such was He found....How great things then did He, of whom it is said, "He taught them as one having authority," say unto them? "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" What great things did He say unto them, before their face? He feared no one. Why? Because He is the God of vengeance. For this reason He spared them not in words, that they might remain for Him after to spare them in judgment; because if they were unwilling to accept the healing of His word, they would afterwards incur their Judge's doom. Wherefore? Because He has said, "The Lord is the God of vengeance, the God of vengeance has dealt confidently;" that is, He has spared no man in word. He who spared not in word when about to suffer, will He spare in judgment when about to judge? He who in His humility feared no man, will He fear any man in His glory? From His dealing thus confidently in time past, imagine how He will deal at the end of time. Murmur not then against God, who seems to spare the wicked; but be thou good, and perhaps for a season He may not spare you the rod, that He may in the end spare you in judgment....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:2
And what followed, because He dealt confidently? "Be exalted, Thou Judge of the world" [Psalm 94:2]. Because they imprisoned Him when humble, do you think they will imprison Him when exalted? Because they judged Him when mortal, will they not be judged by Him when immortal? What then says He? "Be exalted," Thou, who hast dealt confidently, the confidence of whose word the wicked bore not, but thought they did a glorious deed, when they seized and crucified You; they who ought to have seized on You with faith, seized You with persecution. Thou then who hast among the wicked dealt confidently, and hast feared no man, because You have suffered, "be exalted;" that is, arise again, depart into heaven. Let the Church also bear with long-suffering what the Church's Head has borne with long-suffering. "Be exalted, Thou Judge of the world: and reward the proud after their deserving." He will reward them, brethren. For what is this, "Be exalted, Thou Judge of the world: and reward the proud after their deserving"? This is the prophecy of one who does predict, not the boldness of one who commands. Not because the Prophet said, "Be exalted, Thou Judge of the world," did Christ obey the Prophet, in arising from the dead, and ascending into heaven; but because Christ was to do this, the Prophet predicted it. He sees Christ abased in the spirit, abased he sees Him: fearing no man, in speech sparing no man, and he says, "He has dealt confidently." He sees how confidently He has dealt, he sees Him arrested, crucified, humbled, he sees Him rising from the dead, and ascending into heaven, and from thence to come in judgment of those, among whose hands He had suffered every evil: "Be exalted," he says, "Thou Judge of the world, and reward the proud after their deserving." The proud He will thus reward, not the humble. Who are the proud? Those to whom it is little to do evil: but they even defend their own sins. For on some of those who crucified Christ, miracles were afterwards performed, when out of the number of the Jews themselves there were found believers, and the blood of Christ was given unto them. Their hands were impious, and red with the blood of Christ. He whose blood they had shed, Himself washed them. They who had persecuted His mortal body which they had seen, became part of His very body, that is, the Church. They shed their own ransom, that they might drink their own ransom. For afterwards more were converted....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 94:3
We have discussed the prayer of holy Job; now let us approach that prayer that we have found in the psalms. David spoke out in many passages in regard to worldly vanity; he often asserted that the supposed goods of this world were vain, especially in the thirty-eighth psalm, in which he says, “And indeed all things are vanity, every one living. Although a person walks in the image of God, yet he is troubled vainly. He stores up, and he knows not for whom he is gathering these things.” And in another passage he says, “How long shall sinners, O Lord, how long shall sinners glory?”—because here they have a shadow of glory, but, when they have departed from life, they will not have the benefit of consolation. Still, the same David introduced into the collection Psalm 72 [LXX]. In it he declares, under the title Asaph, that at first he almost fell, being afflicted with great pain. For he saw that sinners were wealthy and rich in this world and enjoyed prosperity and abundance, whereas he, who was just in his heart, was in afflictions and tribulations. He had committed a rather serious offense in the beginning; later he had been corrected and enlightened through the scourges of the Lord and had learned the course of true surrender by the gift of God’s knowledge.

Source: THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID 3:1.1
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:3-4
"Lord, how long shall the ungodly, how long shall the ungodly triumph?" [Psalm 94:3]. "They answer, and will speak wickedness, they all will speak that work unrighteousness" [Psalm 94:4]. What is their saying, but against God, when they say: What profits it us that we live thus? What will you reply? Does God truly regard our deeds? For because they live, they imagine that God knows not their actions. Behold, what evil happens unto them! If the officers knew where they were, they would arrest them; and they therefore avoid the officer's eyes, that they may escape instant apprehension; but no one can escape the eye of God, since He not only sees within the closet, but within the recesses of the heart. Even they themselves believe that nothing can escape God: and because they do evil, and are conscious of what they have done, and see that they live while God knows, though they would not live if the officer discovered them; they say unto themselves, These things please God: and, in truth, if they displeased Him, as they displease kings, as they displease judges, as they displease governors, as they displease recorders, yet could we escape the eye of God, as we do escape the eyes of those authorities? Therefore these things please God....Some righteous man comes, and says, Do not commit iniquity. Wherefore? That you may not die. Behold, iniquity I have committed: why do I not die? That man wrought righteousness: and he is dead: why is he dead? I have wrought iniquity: why has not God carried me off? Behold, that man did righteously: and why has He thus visited him? Why suffers He thus? They answer; this is the meaning of the word "answer:" for they have a reply to make; because they are spared, from the long-suffering of God, they discover an argument for their reply. He spares them for one reason, they answer for another, because they still live. For the Apostle tells us wherefore He spares, he expounds the grounds of the long-suffering of God: "And do you think this, O man, who judges those who do such things, and does the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the long-suffering of God leads you to repentance?" "But you," that is, he who answers and says, If I displeased God, He would not spare me, hear what he works for himself; hear the Apostle; "but after your hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up into yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds." [Romans 2:5-6] He therefore increases His long-suffering, you increase your iniquity. His treasure will consist in eternal mercy towards those who have not despised His mercy; but your treasure will be discovered in wrath, and what thou daily layest up little by little, you will find in the accumulated mass; you lay up by the grain, but you will find the whole heap. Omit not to watch your slightest daily sins: rivers are filled from the smallest drops.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:5-6
..."They have humbled Your people, O Lord; and have troubled Your heritage" [Psalm 94:5]. "They have murdered the widow, and the fatherless: and slain the proselyte" [Psalm 94:6]; that is, the traveller, the pilgrim: the comer from far, as the Psalmist calls himself. Each of these expressions is too clear in meaning to make it worth while to dwell upon them.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:7
"And they have said, The Lord shall not see" [Psalm 94:7]: He observes not, regards not these things: He cares for other matters, He understands not. These are the two assertions of the wicked: one which I have just quoted, "These things have you done, and I held my tongue, and you thought unrighteousness, that I will be like yourself." What means, "that I will be like yourself"? You think that I see your deeds, and that they are pleasing unto Me, because I do not punish them. There is another assertion of the wicked: because God neither regards these things, nor observes that He may know how I live, God heeds me not. Does then God make any reckoning of me? Or does He even take account of me? Or of men in general? Unhappy man! He cared for you, that you might exist: does He not care that thou live well? Such then are the words of these last; "and yet they have said, The Lord shall not see: neither shall the God of Jacob regard it."

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:7
However, with the other class of unbelievers who either believe that there is no divine power or that it has nothing to do with human affairs, I am not sure that an argument should be undertaken on any subject of dutiful devotion, although hardly anyone can be found nowadays who is so foolish as to dare to say even in his own heart, “There is no God.” But other fools are not lacking who have said, “The Lord shall not see,” that is, he does not extend his providence to these earthly affairs. Accordingly, in those books which I wish your charity5 to read, along with the description of the city of God, if God wills and for whom he wills, I shall justify the belief that not only does God exist—and this belief is so ingrained in nature that hardly any impiety ever tears it out—but that he regulates human affairs, from governing human beings to rewarding the just with blessedness in the company of the holy angels and condemning the wicked to the lot of the bad angels.

Source: LETTER 184.a
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:8-11
Take care, then, to avoid what the great apostle sets forth so fearfully, and when you feel that you do not understand, make an immediate act of faith in what is divinely revealed, that there is both free will in humans and grace from God; and pray that what you religiously believe you may also wisely understand. Indeed, it is for this very reason that we have free will that we may wisely understand, for, unless our understanding and wisdom were regulated by free will, we should not be commanded in the words of Scripture: “Understand, you senseless among the people; and you fools be wise at last.” The very fact, then, that we are instructed and commanded to understand and be wise is proof of a demand on our obedience, which cannot exist without free will. But, if it were possible for this to be accomplished by free will without the grace of God, namely, that we should understand and be wise, we should not have to say to God, “Give me understanding that I may know your commandments”; nor would it be written in the Gospel, “Then he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures”;8 nor would the apostle James have said, “But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all people abundantly and upbraids not: and it will be given to him.”

Source: LETTER 214
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:8-11
When, then, that man, so learned in the Scriptures, was commenting on the psalm where it says, “Understand, you senseless among the people; and you fools be wise at last. He who has planted the ear, shall he not hear? or he who has formed the eye, does he not consider?” He said, among other things, “This passage is directed chiefly against the anthropomorphists who say that God has members such as we have. For example, God is said to have eyes: the eyes of the Lord look on all things;12 the hand of the Lord makes all things; and it says, “Adam heard the footsteps of the Lord walking in paradise.” They take these expressions literally, and they attribute our human inadequacies to the magnificence of God. But I say that God is all eye, he is all hand, he is all foot. He is all eye because he sees all things; he is all hand because he effects all things; he is all foot because he is everywhere present. See, then, what it says, “He who has planted the ear, does he not hear?” It does not say, “He who has planted, does he not then have an ear?” and it does not say, “Does he not then have eyes?” What does it say? “He who has planted the ear, shall he not hear? He who has formed the eye, does he not consider?” He brought together the members, he gave the faculties.

Source: LETTER 148
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:8-11
What is the topmost pinnacle of the building we are striving to construct? How far does the top of our edifice reach? I’ll tell you straightaway: as far as the sight of God. You can see how high that is, what a great thing it is, to see God. Any of you who long for this will understand what I am saying and you are hearing. We have been promised the sight of God, of the true God, of the supreme God. This really is a wonderful thing, to see the one who sees.I mean, those who worship false gods can easily see them, but they see gods who have eyes and do not see. But we have been promised the vision of the God who lives and sees, and so the God we should be yearning to see is the one of whom Scripture says, “Will he who planted the ear not hear? Does he who fashioned the eye not observe?” So does the one who made you something to hear with not hear himself? And does he not see, the one who created the means for you to see with?
In this psalm [the psalmist] very neatly prefaces those words with these: “Understand, therefore, you who are unwise among the people; and you fools, come sooner or later to your senses.” You see, this is why many people do wrong, imagining that they are not noticed by God. It is difficult, of course, for them to believe he cannot see, but they assume he does not want to. You won’t find many people so totally irreligious that they fulfill the text, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.” Few hold this crazy idea. Just as there aren’t many people who are deeply religious, so there aren’t many who are totally irreligious. But what I am going to say now is what the crowd says: “Look, do you really think God takes trouble to know what I do in my house, that God cares two cents what I choose to do in my bed?” Well, who is it that says, “Understand, you who are unwise among the people; and you fools, come sooner or later to your senses”? Being a mere human, it takes you quite a lot of trouble to know everything that goes on in your house and to insure that what your slaves say and do gets back to you; but do you imagine it is any trouble like that for God to pay attention to you, seeing that it was no trouble at all for him to create you? Having made your eyes, will he not turn his own on to you? You did not exist, and he created you, to bring you into being. Now that you do exist, will he not care for you, he that summons the things that are not, as though they were?

Source: SERMON 69:3
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:8-11
So this Peter, playing the great part I have suggested to you, is questioned by the Lord after the resurrection, as we had it read to us, and he said to him, “Simon of John”—you see, he was called Simon when he was born; he was the son of John—“Simon of John, do you love me more than these?” Who is doing the questioning? The one who knew everything. Is he like someone who does not know, this one “who has passed on knowledge”? It was not that the Lord wanted to be informed, but that he wanted Peter to confess.

Source: SERMON 229P.2
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:8-11
People argue against this evident truth. What else, after all, could you expect from mere people, who savor the things of humankind, but to argue about God against God? I mean, he is God, they are mere individuals. But God “knows the thoughts of people, that they are vain.” With worldly, materialistic people, what they are in the habit of observing entirely governs their manner of understanding. What they are accustomed to see, they can believe; what they aren’t, they can’t. God performs miracles that go beyond what we are accustomed to, because he is God. It is in fact a greater miracle, so many people being born every day who did not previously exist, than a few having risen again, who did exist; and yet this kind of miracle is not seriously considered and appreciated, but being so common is disregarded as uninteresting. Christ rose again; the case is complete and closed. He was body, he was flesh, which hung on the cross, gave up the soul, was placed in the tomb. He presented it alive, seeing he lived in it. Why are we astonished, why don’t we believe? It is God who did it. Reflect on the one who brought it about, and you eliminate all possibility of doubt.

Source: SERMON 242:1
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:8
"Take heed now, you that are unwise among the people: O you fools, some time understand!" [Psalm 94:8]. He teaches His people whose feet might slip: any one among them sees the prosperity of the wicked, himself living well among the Saints of God, that is, among the number of the sons of the Church: he sees that the wicked flourish, and work iniquity, he envies, and is led to follow them in their actions; because he sees that apparently it profits him nothing that he lives well in humility, hoping for his reward here. For if he hopes for it in future, he loses it not; because the time is not yet come for him to receive it. You are working in a vineyard: execute your task, and you shall receive your pay. You would not exact it from your employer, before your work was finished, and yet do you exact it from God before thou dost work? This patience is part of your work, and your pay depends upon your work: thou who dost not choose to be patient, choosest to work less upon the vineyard: since this act of patience belongs to your labouring itself, which is to gain your pay. But if you are treacherous, take care, lest you should not only not receive your pay, but also suffer punishment, because you have chosen to be a treacherous labourer. When such a labourer begins to do ill, he watches his employer's eyes, who hired him for his vineyard, that he may loiter when his eye is turned away; but the moment his eyes are turned towards him, he works diligently. But God, who hired you, averts not His eyes: you can not work treacherously: the eyes of your Master are ever upon you: seek an opportunity to deceive Him, and loiter if you can. If then any of you had any such ideas, when you saw the wicked flourishing, and if such thoughts caused your feet to slip in the path of God; to you this Psalm speaks: but if perchance none of you be such, through you it does address others, in these words, "Take heed now;" since they had said, "The Lord shall not see: neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." "Take heed," it says, "now, you that are unwise among the people: and you fools, some time understand!"

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:9-10
"He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? Or He that made the eye, does He not consider?" [Psalm 94:9] "or He that instructs the nations, shall He not reprove?" [Psalm 94:10]. This is what God is at present doing: He is instructing the nations: for this reason he sent His word to man throughout the world: He sent it by Angels, by Patriarchs, by Prophets, by servants, through so many heralds going before the Judge. He sent also His own Word Himself, He sent His own Son in Person: He sent the servants of His Son, and in these very servants His own Son. Throughout the world is everywhere preached the word of God. Where is it not said unto men, Abandon your former wickedness, and turn yourselves to right paths? He spares, that you may correct yourselves: He punished not yesterday, in order that today ye may live well. He teaches the heathen, shall He not therefore reprove? will He not hear those whom He teaches? will He not judge those to whom He has beforehand sent and sown lessons of warning? If you were in a school, would you receive a task, and not repeat it? When therefore you receive it from your master, you are being taught: the Master gives your task into your hands, and shall He not exact it from you when you come to repeat it? Or when you have begun to repeat it, shall you not be in fear of stripes? At present then we are receiving our work: afterwards we are placed before the Master, that we may give up to Him all our past tasks, that is, that we may give an account of all those things which are now being bestowed upon us. Hear the Apostle's words: "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ," etc. "It is He that teaches man knowledge." Does He not know, who makes you to know?

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 55] 1 Corinthians on Psalms 94:11
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. [Psalms 94:11] Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:11
"The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but vain" [Psalm 94:11]. For although you know not the thoughts of God, that they are righteous; "He knows the thoughts of man, that they are but vain." Even men have known the thoughts of God: but those to whom He has become a friend, it is to them He shows His counsel. Do not, brethren, despise yourselves: if you approach the Lord with faith, you hear the thoughts of God; these you are now learning, this is told you, and for this reason you are taught, why God spares the wicked in this life, that you may not murmur against God, who teaches man knowledge. "The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but vain." Abandon therefore the thoughts of man, which are vain: that you may take hold on the thoughts of God, which are wise. But who is he who takes hold on the thoughts of God? He who is placed in the firmament of heaven. We have already chanted that Psalm, and have expounded this expression therein.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:12
"Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord: and teachest him from Your law" [Psalm 94:12]. Behold, you have the counsel of God, wherefore He spares the wicked: the pit is being dug for the sinner. You wish to bury him at once: the pit is as yet being dug for him: do not be in haste to bury him. What mean the words, "until the pit be dug up for the sinner"? Or whom does He mean by sinner? One man? No. Whom then? The whole race of such that are sinners? No; them that are proud; for he had said before, "Reward the proud after their deserving." For that publican, who would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but "smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner," [Luke 18:13] was a sinner; but since he was not proud, and since God will render a recompense to the proud; the pit is being dug not for him, but for them that are such, until He render a recompense to the proud. In the words then, "until the pit be dug up for the ungodly," understand the proud. Who is the proud? He who does not by confession of his sins do penance, that he may be healed through his humility. Who is the proud? He who chooses to arrogate to himself those few good things which he seems to possess, and who does detract from the mercy of God. Who is the proud? He who although he does ascribe unto God his good works, yet insults those who do not those good works, and raises himself above them....This then is the Christian doctrine: no man does anything well except by His grace. A man's bad acts are his own: his good he does of God's bounty. When he has begun to do well, let not him ascribe it unto himself: when he has not attributed it to himself, let him give thanks to Him from whom he has received it. But when he does well, let him not insult him who does not as he does nor exalt himself above him: for the grace of God is not stayed at him, so that it cannot reach another.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:12-15
How much power in any case can mortals have? Let mortals hold on to justice; power will be given them when they are immortal. Compared with this, the power of those people who are called powerful on earth is shown to be ridiculous weakness, and “a pit is dug for the sinner” in the very place where the wicked seem to be able to do most. The just person sings, “Happy is the one whom you instruct, Lord, and teach from your law, in order to comfort him in evil days, until a pit is dug for the sinners. For the Lord will not reject his people or forsake his inheritance, until justice turns into judgment, and those who have it are all of an upright heart.” So in this time during which the power of the people of God is being deferred, God will not reject his people or forsake his inheritance, however bitter and humiliating the trials it suffers in its humility and weakness, until the justice that now belongs to the weakness of the godly turns into judgment, that is until it receives the authority to judge, which is being reserved for the just in the end, when power follows in its proper order on the justice that preceded it.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 13:13.17
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:12-15
What indeed does holy Scripture say in a psalm to those members who endure the wickedness of this age? “The Lord will not cast off his people.” His people, in truth, toil among the unworthy, among the wicked, among blasphemers, among murmurers, detractors, persecutors, and, if it be allowed, killers. It toils indeed, but “the Lord will not cast off his people, and he will not forsake his own inheritance until justice is turned to judgment.” “Until justice,” which the saints now possess, “is turned to judgment,” when what was said to them will be fulfilled: “You will sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” The apostle possessed justice, but not yet that judgment about which he says, “Do you not know that we shall judge angels?”

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28:6.2
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:13
"That You may give him patience in days of malice: until the pit be dug up for the ungodly" [Psalm 94:13]. Have patience therefore every one, if you are a Christian, in time of malice. Days of malice are those in which the ungodly appear to flourish, and the righteous to suffer; but the suffering of the righteous is the rod of the Father, and the prosperity of the ungodly is their own snare. For because God gives you patience in time of adversity, until the pit be dug up for the ungodly, do not think that the Angels are standing in some place with mattocks, and are digging that great pit which shall be able to contain the whole race of the ungodly; and because ye see that the wicked are many, and say unto yourselves carnally: Truly what pit can contain so great a multitude of the wicked, such a crowd of sinners? Where is a pit of such dimensions, as to contain all, dug? When finished? Therefore God spares them. This is not so: their very prosperity is the pit of the wicked: for into that shall they fall, as it were into a pitfall. Attend, brethren, for it is a great thing to know that prosperity is called a pitfall: "until the pit be dug up for the ungodly." For God spares him whom He knows to be ungodly and impious, in His own hidden justice: and this very sparing of God, causes him to be puffed up through his impunity....The proud man raises himself up against God: God sinks him: and he sinks by the very act of raising himself up against God. For in another Psalm he thus says, "You have cast them down, while they were being exalted." He said not, You have cast them down, because they were exalted; or, You have cast them down, after they were exalted; so that the period of their exaltation be one, of their casting down another: but in the very act of their exaltation were they cast down. For in proportion as the heart of man is proud, so does it recede from God; and if it recede from God, it sinks down into the deep. On the other hand, the humble heart brings God unto it from heaven, so that He becomes very near unto it. Surely God is lofty, God is above all the heavens, He surpasses all the Angels: how high must these be raised, to reach that exalted One? Do not burst yourself by enlarging yourself; I give you other advice, lest perchance in enlarging yourself you burst, through pride: surely God is lofty: do thou humble yourself, and He will descend unto you.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:14
...Do thou rejoice beneath the scourge: because the heritage is kept for you, "for the Lord will not cast off His people" [Psalm 94:14]. He chastens for a season, He condemns not for ever: the others He spares for a season, and will condemn them for evermore. Make your choice: do you wish temporary suffering, or eternal punishment? Temporal happiness, or eternal life? What does God threaten? Eternal punishment. What does He promise? Eternal rest. His scourging the good, is temporary: His sparing the wicked, is also temporary. "Neither will He forsake His inheritance."

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:15
"Until righteousness," he says, "turn again unto judgment, and all they that have it are right in heart" [Psalm 94:15]. Listen now, and gain righteousness: for judgment you can not yet have. You should gain righteousness first; but that very righteousness of yours shall turn unto judgment. The Apostles had righteousness here on earth, and bore with the wicked. But what is said unto them? "You shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." [Matthew 19:28] Their righteousness therefore shall turn unto judgment. For whoever is righteous in this life, is so for this reason, that he may endure evils with patience: let him suffer patiently the period of suffering, and the day of judging comes. But why do I speak of the servants of God? The Lord Himself, who is the Judge of all living and dead, first chose to be judged, and then to judge. Those who have righteousness at present, are not yet judges. For the first thing is to have righteousness, and afterwards to judge: He first endures the wicked, and afterwards judges them. Let there be righteousness now: afterwards it shall turn again unto judgment. And so long He endures wicked men, as God does will, as long as God's Church shall endure them, that she may be taught through their wickedness. Nevertheless, God will not cast off His people, "all such as have it are right in heart." Who are those who are right in heart? Those whose will is the will of God. He spares sinners: thou dost wish Him at once to destroy sinners. Your heart is crooked and your will perverted, when your will is one way and the will of God another. God wishes to spare sinners: thou dost not wish sinners spared. God is of long-suffering to sinners: thou dost not wish to endure sinners....Wish not to bend the will of God to your will, but rather correct your will to His. The will of God is like a rule: behold, suppose, you have twisted the rule: whence can you be set straight? But the rule itself continues straight: for it is immutable. As long as the rule is straight, you have whither to turn yourself, and straighten your perversity; you have a means of correcting what is crooked in you. But what do men will? It is not enough that their own will is crooked; they even wish to make the will of God crooked according to their own heart, that God may do what they themselves will, when they ought to do that which God wills....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:16
"Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Or who will take my part against the evil doers?" [Psalm 94:16]. Many persuade us to various evils: the serpent ceases not to whisper to you to work iniquity: whichever way you shall turn, if perchance you have done well, you seek to live well with some one, and thou hardly findest any one; many wicked men surround you, for there are few grains of wheat, and much chaff. This floor has its grains of grain, but as yet they suffer. Therefore the whole mass of the wheat, when separated from the chaff, will be great: the grains are few, but when compared with the chaff, still many in themselves. When therefore the wicked cry out on every side, and say, Why do you live thus? Are you the only Christian? Why do you not do what others also do? Why do you not frequent the theatres, as others do? Why do you not use charms and amulets? Why do you not consult astrologers and soothsayers, even as others do? And thou crossest yourself, and sayest, I am Christian, that you may repel them, whosoever they are; but the enemy presses on, urges his attacks; what is worse, by the example of Christians he chokes Christians. They toil on, in the midst of heat: the Christian soul suffers tribulation: yet it has power to conquer: has it such power of itself? For this reason remark what he says. For he answers, What does it profit me that I now find charms for myself, and gain a few days? I depart hence from this life, and repair unto my Lord, who shall send me into the flames; because I have preferred a few days to life eternal, He shall send me into hell. What hell? That of the eternal judgment of God. Is it really so (the enemy answers), unless indeed thou really believest that God cares how men live? And perhaps it is not an acquaintance who speaks thus to you in the street, but your wife at home, or possibly the husband to the faithful and holy wife, her deceiver. If it be the woman to her husband, she is as Eve unto him; if as the husband unto the wife, he is as the devil unto her: either she is herself as Eve unto you, or you are a serpent unto her. Sometimes the father would incline his thoughts to his son, and finds him wicked, utterly depraved: he is in a fever of misery, he wavers, he seeks how to subdue him, he is almost drawn in, and consents: but may God be near him....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:17
"If the Lord," he says, "had not helped me: within a little my soul had dwelt in hell" [Psalm 94:17]. I had almost plunged into that pit which is preparing for sinners: that is, my soul had dwelt in hell. Because he already began to waver, and nearly to consent, he looked back unto the Lord. Suppose, for example's sake, he was insulted to tempt him to iniquity. For sometimes the wicked flock together, and insult the good; especially if they are more in number, and if they have taken him alone, as there is often much chaff about one grain of wheat (though there will not be when the heap has been fanned); he is then taken among many wicked ones, is insulted, and surrounded; they wish to place themselves over him, they torment him and insult him for his very righteousness. A great Apostle! say they; You have flown into heaven, as Elias did! Men do these things, so that sometime, when he listens to the tongue of men, he is ashamed to be good among the wicked. Let him therefore resist the evil; but not of his own strength, lest he become proud, and when he wishes to escape the proud, himself increase their number....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:17-19
But why is there no fear of uttering an indirect lie? We do not deny that free will is healed by the grace of God, but we believe that we make progress through the daily grace of God, and we trust in its help. And people say, “It is in my own power to do good.” If only people did do good! O empty boasting of wretchedness! Every day they disclaim sin, and in their boasting they attribute to themselves unaided free will, not scrutinizing their conscience, which cannot be healed but by grace, so as to say, “Be merciful to me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.” What would those do who boast of their own free will—which is not denied so long as it is helped by the grace of God—if death had now been swallowed up in victory, if our mortal were putting on immortality and our corruptible were putting on incorruption? Behold, their wounds fester, and they seek a remedy in pride. They do not say with the just person, “Unless the Lord had been my helper, my soul had almost dwelled in hell.” They do not say with the saint, “Except the Lord guards the city, he watches in vain that guards it.”

Source: LETTER 216
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:17-19
The one who arranged the contest helps the contestant. God, you see, does not watch you in the ring in the same way as the populace watch a charioteer; they know how to shout, they do not know how to help. God does not watch you battling in the ring in the same way as the president at the games watches an athlete and prepares a crown of leaves for the winner; he does not know how to give strength to the man struggling in the arena, and he cannot do it anyhow; after all he is a man, not God. And perhaps while he is watching, he endures more weariness sitting there than the other does as he wrestles. God, you see, when he watches his champions, helps them when they call on him. I mean, it is the voice of his athlete in the psalm, “If I said, my foot is slipping, your mercy, Lord, came to my help.” So, my brothers and sisters, do not let us be slow about it; let us ask, let us seek, let us knock. “For everyone who asks receives, and who seeks will find, and who knocks will have the door opened.”

Source: SERMON 343:10
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:17-19
All the same, you must not think that you are in every respect or immediately going to be strong or … going to fail utterly by despairing. After all, that alternation of failure and of strength in the arms of God’s servant Moses was, perhaps, your alternation. Sometimes, you see, you fail in your trials and temptations, but do not totally succumb to them. Moses let his arms droop a little but did not collapse altogether. “If I were to say, my foot has slipped, behold, your mercy, Lord, would come to my help.” So do not be afraid; the one is present on the journey to help you along, who was not absent in Egypt to set you free. Do not be afraid, step out along the road, be confident and throw care to the winds. Sometimes he lowered his arms, sometimes he lifted them up; anyway, Amalek was defeated. They were able to wage war, they were not able to win.

Source: SERMON 352:6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:17-19
So, to conclude this sermon where we began it, let us pray and put all our trust in God; let us live as he commands us, and when we stumble and stagger in this life, let us call on him as the disciples called upon him when they said, “Lord, increase our faith.” Peter too was full of confidence and staggered; yet he was not ignored and allowed to drown but given a helping hand and set on his feet. Just what, after all, did he place his confidence in? It was not in himself, it was in the Lord. How is that? “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you over the water.” The Lord, you remember, was walking over the waters. “If it is you, bid me come to you over the water.” I know, you see, that if it is you, you have only to command, and it will happen. And he said, “Come.” Peter got down from the boat at his command; he began to tremble at his own weakness. And yet when he grew afraid Peter cried out to him: “Lord, deliver me,” he said. Then the Lord took him by the hand and said, “Little faith, why did you doubt?” It was Jesus that invited him, he that delivered him when Peter tottered and staggered. “This fulfilled what was said in the psalm, “If I said, My foot has slipped, your mercy, Lord, would come to my help.”

Source: SERMON 80:6
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:18-19
"If I said, My foot has slipt; Your mercy, O Lord, held me up" [Psalm 94:18]. See how God loves confession. Your foot has slipt, and you say not, my foot has slipt; but you say you are firm, when you are slipping. The moment you begin to slip or waver, confess thou that slip, that you may not bewail your total fall; that He may help, so that your soul be not in hell. God loves confession, loves humility. You have slipped, as a man; God helps you, nevertheless: yet say, "My foot has slipt." Why do you slip, and yet sayest, I am firm? "When I said, My foot has slipt, Your mercy, O Lord, has held me up." Just as Peter presumed, but not in strength of his own. The Lord was seen to walk upon the sea, trampling on the heads of all the proud in this life. In walking upon the foaming waves, He figured His own course when He tramples on the heads of the proud. The Church too does trample upon them: for Peter is the Church Herself. Nevertheless, Peter dared not by himself walk upon the waters; but what said he? "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto You on the water." [Matthew 14:28] He in His own power, Peter by His order; "bid me," he says, "come unto You." He answered, "Come." For the Church also tramples on the heads of the proud; but since it is the Church, and has human weakness, that these words might be fulfilled, "If I said, My foot has slipt," Peter tottered on the sea, and cried out, "Lord, save me!" [Matthew 14:30] and so what is here put, "If I said, My foot has slipt," is put there, "Lord, I perish." And what is here, "Your mercy, O Lord, has held me up," is there put, "And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, saying, O thou of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?" [Matthew 14:31] It is wonderful how God proves men: our very dangers render Him who rescues us sweeter unto us. For see what follows: because he said, "If I said, My foot has slipt, Your mercy, O Lord, has held me up." The Lord has become especially sweet unto him, in rescuing him from danger; and thus speaking of this very sweetness of the Lord, he exclaims and says, "O Lord, in the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, Your comforts have refreshed my soul" [Psalm 94:19]. Many sorrows, but many consolations: bitter wounds, and sweet remedies.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:19
And thus the devil, the prince of the impious city, when he stirs up his own vessels against the city of God that sojourns in this world, is permitted to do her no harm. For without doubt the divine providence procures for her both consolation through prosperity, that she may not be broken by adversity, and trial through adversity, that she may not be corrupted by prosperity; and thus each is tempered by the other, as we recognize in the Psalms that voice which arises from no other cause, “According to the multitude of my griefs in my heart, Thy consolations have delighted my soul.” Hence also is that saying of the apostle, “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation.”

Source: City of God 18.51
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:19
This, then, is the way now in which one living according to Christ acts in regard to his flesh when he struggles against his evil lustfulness. He restrains it in order to be healed, but he retains it even though his flesh is not yet healed. Still he nourishes and cherishes his flesh’s good nature, since “no one ever hated his own flesh.” In this way also Christ regards the church, insofar as we may compare lesser things with the greater. He both curbs it by corrections lest it be dissolved through the inflation of impunity, and he cheers it by consolations lest it succumb to the weight of its infirmity. In reference to this we have both the words of the apostle: “But if we judged ourselves, we should not thus be judged. But, when we are judged, we are being chastised by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world,” and those of the psalm: “According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your comforts have given joy to my soul.” We must hope for the perfect soundness of our flesh, free from any resistance, because at that time the church of Christ will have a certain security that is free from any fear.

Source: On Continence 11:25
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:19
Dearly beloved, as I have already said, the devil is always either raging or lying in ambush. So, it behooves us to be always prepared by keeping our hearts fixed on the Lord. It behooves us to exert ourselves to the utmost in beseeching the Lord for fortitude in the midst of those harassing trials and tribulations, for of ourselves we are nothing but little children. What should we say with regard to ourselves? You have heard the answer from the apostle Paul during the reading of the epistle, in which he says, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Christ does our comfort abound.” In the psalm, it is expressed in this way: “According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your encouragements have given joy to my soul.” The psalmist expresses it one way, the apostle expresses it in another, but each of them tells us that if the Comforter were not with us we would yield to the persecutor.

Source: SERMON 13:5
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:19
Remember how often I remind you of this, and let us not think that we ought now, in this life, to be happy and free from all trials; let us not sacrilegiously murmur against God in the straits of our temporal affairs, as if he were not giving us what he has promised. For he promised what we need for this life, but the comforting of the sad is one thing, the joys of the blessed something quite other. “Lord,” the psalmist says, “according to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your comforts have given joy to my soul.” Let us not, then, murmur in our trials, lest we lose the inclusiveness of good cheer, of which it is said, “rejoicing in hope,” followed by “patient in tribulation.” Therefore, the new life begins now by faith and is carried on by hope, but then will come the time when “death shall be swallowed up in victory,” when that “enemy, death, shall be destroyed last,” when we shall be changed and shall become like the angels, “for we shall all indeed,” he says, “rise again, but we shall not all be changed.” And the Lord said, “They will be equal to the angels of God.” We have now mastered fear by faith, but then we shall have the mastery in love by vision. “For as long as we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight.”

Source: LETTER 55
[AD 420] Jerome on Psalms 94:20
“Who cause toil by your law.” No one receives a crown while he is asleep; no one is secure in his possession of the kingdom of heaven; no one with a full stomach is fit to discourse on fasting. You grasp now the force of the versicle: “who cause toil by your law.” All the commandments of the Lord demand effort. Without labor and toil, we cannot possess the kingdom of heaven. Do you want to know why? “If you will be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me.” In other words, a person who desires to attain the kingdom of heaven, let him pray night and day; let him keep watch; let him fast; let him make his bed on rushes, not on down and silk. Penitence has no fellowship with soft luxuries. “For I eat ashes like bread and mingle my drink with tears.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 22
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:20
"Will You have anything to do with the stool of iniquity, who makest sorrow in learning?" [Psalm 94:20]. He has said this, No wicked man sits with You, nor shall Thou have anything to do with the stool of iniquity. And he gives an account whereof he understands this, "For You make sorrow in learning." For from this, because You have not spared us, do I understand that You have nothing to do with the stool of iniquity. You have this in the Epistle of the Apostle Peter, and for this reason he has adduced a testimony from the Scripture: "for the time has come," he says, "that judgment must begin at the house of God;" that is, the time has come for the judgment of those who belong to the house of God. If sons are scourged, what must the most wicked slaves expect? For which reason he added: "And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?" To which he added this testimony: "For if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" [1 Peter 4:17-18] How then shall the wicked be with You, if Thou dost not even spare Your faithful, in order that You may exercise and teach them? [Proverbs 11:31] But as He spares them not, for this reason, that He may teach them: he says, "For You make sorrow in learning." "Makest," that is, formest: from whence comes the word figulus (from fingo), and a potter's vessel is called fictile: not in the meaning of fiction, a falsehood, but of forming so as to give anything being and some sort of form; as before he said, "He that fabricated (finxit) the eye, shall He not see?" Is that, "fabricated the eye" a falsehood? Nay, it is understood He fashioned the eye, made the eye. And is He not a potter when He makes men frail, weak, earthly? Hear the Apostle: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." [2 Corinthians 4:7] ...Behold our Lord Himself, how He shows Himself a potter. [Romans 4:20-21] Because He had made man of clay, He anointed him with clay, for whom He had not made eyes in the womb. And so when he says, "Have You anything to do," etc., he says, out of grief makest learning for us, so that grief itself becomes our instruction. How is sorrow our learning? When He scourges you who died for you, and who does not promise bliss in this life, and who cannot deceive, and when He gives not here what you seek. What will He give? When will He give? How much will He give, who gives not here, who here teaches, who makes sorrow in learning? Your labour is here, and rest is promised you. You take thought that you have toil here: but take thought what sort of rest He promises. Can you conceive it? If you could, you would see that your toil here is nothing toward an equivalent....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:20
But, instead, I was in a ferment of wickedness. I deserted you and allowed myself to be carried away by the sweep of the tide. I broke all your lawful bounds and did not escape your lash. For what person can escape it? You were always present, angry and merciful at once, strewing the pangs of bitterness over all my lawless pleasures to lead me on to look for others unallied with pain. You meant me to find them nowhere but in yourself, O Lord, for you teach us by inflicting pain, you smite so that you may heal, and you kill us so that we may not die away from you.

Source: Confessions 2.2
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:21
For what follows? "They will be captious against the soul of the righteous" [Psalm 94:21]. Why will they be captious? Because they can find no true ground of accusation. For how were they captious against our Lord? They made up false accusations, [Matthew 26:59] because they could not find true ones. "And will condemn the innocent blood." Why all this takes place, he will show in the sequel.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:22
"And the Lord has become my refuge" [Psalm 94:22], he says. You would not seek such a refuge, if you were not in danger: but you have therefore been in danger, that you might seek for it: for He teaches us by sorrow. He causes me tribulation from the malice of the wicked: pricked with that tribulation, I begin to seek a refuge which I had ceased to seek for in that worldly prosperity. For who, that is always prosperous, and rejoices in present hopes, finds it easy to remember God? Let the hope of this life give way, and the hope of God advance; that you may say, "And the Lord has become my refuge:" may I sorrow for this end that the Lord may become my refuge! "And my God the help of my hope." For as yet the Lord is our hope, since as long as we are here, we are in hope, and not in possession. But lest we fail in hope, there is near us a provision to encourage us, and to mitigate those very evils which we suffer. For it is not said in vain, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able: but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it:" [1 Corinthians 10:13] who will so put us into that furnace of tribulation, that the vessel may be hardened, but not broken. "And the Lord has become my refuge: and my God the help of my hope." Why then did He seem to you to be as it were unjust, in that He spares the evil? See then how the Psalm is now set right, and be thou set right together with the Psalm: for, for this reason the Psalm contained your words. What words? "Lord, how long shall the ungodly, how long shall the ungodly triumph?" The Psalm just now used your words: use therefore yourself the Psalm's words in your turn.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 94:23
"And the Lord shall recompense them according to their works, and after their own malice; the Lord our God shall destroy them" [Psalm 94:23]. The words, "after their own malice," are not said without meaning. I am benefited through them: and yet it is said to be their malice, and not their benefits. For assuredly He tries us, scourges us, by means of the wicked. To prepare us for what does He scourge us? Confessedly for the kingdom of heaven. "For He scourges every son whom He receives; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?" [Hebrews 12:7] and when God does this, He is teaching us in order to an eternal heritage: and this learning He often gives us by means of wicked men, through whom He tries and perfects our love, which He does will to be extended even to our enemies.. ..Thus also they who persecuted the Martyrs, by persecuting them on earth, sent them into heaven: knowingly they caused them the loss of the present life, while unconsciously they were bestowing upon them the gain of a future life: but, nevertheless, unto all who persevered in their wicked hatred of the righteous, will God recompense after their own iniquities, and in their own malice will He destroy them. For as the goodness of the righteous is hurtful unto the wicked, so is the iniquity of the wicked beneficial unto the righteous....

Source: Exposition on Psalm 94