Psalms 94

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.

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.

"Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Or who will stand with me against those who work iniquity?" When he says "Who?", he signifies either something rare, or none at all. For the prophet speaks thus in the person of a weak man. "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?" Moses came, and could not make me better: the prophets came, and did not free me from the snares of sinners. Who then will rise up for me? Beautifully did he say "will rise up": as of one sleeping, as of one lying down. "Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord?" "Master, save us, we perish." Who will rise up for me against the multitude of demons? Who will furnish help? "Who will stand with me against those who work iniquity?" Beautifully did he say, "Who will stand with me?" For unless the Lord stand with us, who lay in his passion, unless he rise up who slept in death, we cannot overcome our adversaries. For this reason Stephen, doing battle against the assaults of the Jews, sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. He saw him standing, because he was fighting on behalf of his martyr. "Unless the Lord had helped me." Unless Christ had risen from hell, my soul would have descended to the netherworld.

"Understand, you who are foolish among the people, and be wise at last, you fools. He who planted the ear, shall he not hear?" He who is a potter, is he ignorant of his own vessel? He who makes another hear, shall he then himself not hear? He who gave me eyes, shall he then himself not see? He who is the author of my understanding, shall he himself not understand? This passage tells especially against those who are Anthropomorphites, who say that God has the members that we too have. For example, God is said to have eyes: "The eyes of the Lord look upon all things"; "the hand of God makes all things." "And Adam heard," it says, "the sound of the Lord's feet walking in paradise." These things they hear simply, and refer human weaknesses to the majesty of God. But I say that God is wholly eye, wholly hand, wholly foot. He is wholly eye, because he sees all things; wholly hand, because he works all things; wholly foot, because he is everywhere. So see what he says: "He who planted the ear, shall he not hear?" He did not say, "He who planted the ear, does he then himself not have an ear?" He did not say, "Does he then himself not have eyes?" But what did he say? "He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed the eyes, does he not consider?" He took away the members, he bestowed the functions.

"Understand, you who are foolish among the people; and you fools, at last be wise. Shall he who planted the ear not hear? Shall he who fashioned the eye not consider?" By an argument from nature he rebukes and convicts the sinners. O you who suppose that mortal things do not pertain to the Lord, you who, along with Epicurus, say that God's care is kept apart from human affairs, listen to the argument from nature: because you are little children, I will offer you little examples. He who gave hearing to man, shall he himself not hear? And at the same time, see what he says. He did not repay like with like: for he did not say, "Shall he who planted the ear not himself have an ear?" or "Shall he who fashioned the eye not himself have an eye?" But because in God there are no members, therefore he speaks in such a way that we, as often as we read such things about God as are frequently found in the Scriptures, may understand that an operation is signified, not members. In Solomon we read: "In the hand of the tongue are death and life." Does the tongue then have a hand? But in order that we may come more easily to the understanding of the sense above, we have brought forward this testimony: for by the same reasoning by which you would give the tongue a hand, by that same reasoning you are going to give God all members.

"Be exalted, you who judge the earth." You judge the earth, because heaven does not deserve to be judged. Listen, heretic, to how the Lord judges the earth. If there is a fall in heaven, why is there not also a judgment in heaven? If souls sinned in heaven, why is the earth alone judged? "Render their recompense to the proud." All sins indeed must be guarded against, because all are contrary to God; but they are so in various ways: proud sins are enemies to God. For "the Lord resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace." The devil is the prince of the proud. "Lest," he says, "puffed up in pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil." For everyone who exalts his own heart is a sharer with the devil, who used to say: "By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the boundaries of the nations" — and the rest, which it would be tedious to enumerate, in which the prophet describes the pride of the devil. The other vices earn the mercy of the Lord, because by their humility they are made subject to God: pride alone, which lifts itself up beyond its strength, resists God. The adulterer or the fornicator has not dared to lift his eyes up to heaven; with a downcast spirit he hopes, in supplication, for the mercy of the Lord; but the man whom his conscience makes turn away, it humbles upon the earth, yet it lifts him up to heaven. Pride and the appetite for glory, when they raise a man up, then abase him, because they make God the enemy of his sin.

"They will utter and speak iniquity." He speaks of this properly concerning the heretics. "All who work iniquity shall speak." See the sign: he who speaks evil must necessarily do evil. "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Wherever the conscience is wounded, there sin is easily committed in the mouth.

"How long shall sinners, O Lord, how long shall sinners glory?" The sinner who beseeches God earns pardon; but he who glories in his wickedness is proud: and pride has God for its enemy. This which he says, "how long?" — it is to be understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ ("in common," carried over), so that we may recognize it thus: "How long shall sinners glory? How long shall they utter and speak iniquity? How long shall they speak, all who work injustice?" Human impatience therefore marvels at the patience of God, and says: I, a sinner, cannot endure sinners; how can you, who are just, bear with them? "How long, O Lord, shall sinners glory?" He did not say, "How long shall sinners sin?" He has a great sin who sins, and moreover glories in his sin. "Shall they utter and speak iniquity?" All sins are cloaked with speech: but pride betrays its iniquity, while it glories in its own wickedness.

"Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?" The psalms are obscure, and they are always changing the speakers; and for this reason they are obscure, and it is of exceeding difficulty to know in each verse who is speaking. "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand with me against those who work iniquity?" These verses the Savior speaks. "I am holy, I was lifted up on the cross, I died, I rose again, and I ascended a victor to the heavens. Who, do you suppose, among the saints, is there who will rise again with me?" So what he says is this: For this reason I rose again, that others too might rise with me. "Who will rise up for me?" When he says "Who," he provokes the rest to rise. For just as we read in Isaiah, "Whom shall I send to this people, and who will go for us?" — as Isaiah himself offers himself, so the Lord too provokes us, saying, "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?" Whoever rises again, will rise for me, is of my army. "Against the evildoers": against the devil and his army. "Or who will stand with me?" See the order: he did not say first "who will stand," and "who will rise"; but "who will rise," and "who will stand." For first we rise, then we stand. "Or who will stand with me against those who work iniquity" — as a general might stand and say, "Who is coming in my army?"

"How long, O Lord, the sinners — how long shall the sinners glory?" Human impatience does not want God to have patience. Wretched are we, who want God to be patient toward us and impatient toward our enemies. Whenever we sin, we desire him to be patient; but whenever someone offends against us, we do not want God to be patient toward that man. "How long shall the sinners glory?" It is not enough for them to sin, but they even glory in their sins. The first misfortune is to sin; the second misfortune, or rather the last, is not to do penance. These sinners, therefore, not only do not bend the neck, but freely glory after their sin.

"He who chastises the nations, shall he not reprove?" He who teaches others, does he then himself not know? "He who teaches man knowledge." It is understood: does he then himself not have knowledge?

"He who instructs the nations, shall he not reprove?" This is what he says: he who gave the law, gave it for this purpose, that he might instruct those who hear, or punish those who despise. "He who teaches man knowledge." He did not add, "Shall he himself not have knowledge?" But what did he say?

"They have humbled your people, O Lord." Always the people of God are humbled, the people of God are oppressed. "They have humbled your people, O Lord." The people of God are humbled, and imitate God who was humbled and meek of heart.

"Your people, O Lord, they have humbled, and your inheritance they have harassed." Who? The proud.

"According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations have gladdened my soul." This very thing the Apostle too speaks of, namely that according to the labors and miseries which we suffer in this world, we have a reward with God in the heavens. The greatness of the tribulations is the greatness of the rewards. As many wounds as we suffer, so many crowns do we also deserve. This is what he says: The more I did penance, so many times did you console me. I shed one tear, I deserved one consolation: I shed ten tears, I deserved ten consolations. However great the weight of penance was, so great also was the number of consolations.

"According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations have gladdened my soul." This is what he said above: he pursues the same sense, the same intention. "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations have gladdened my soul." As great a sorrow as you saw in my heart from the groaning of repentance, so great a measure of your mercy will you minister: for the greatness of the sorrow became the material of consolation.

"He who fashions toil in the commandment." No one is crowned while sleeping, no one at ease possesses the kingdom of heaven, no one with a stuffed belly can worthily discourse about fasting. You see, then, what he says: "He who fashions toil in the commandment." All the commandments of the Lord have toil: without toil we cannot possess the kingdom of heaven. Do you want to know that it is so? "If you wish," he says, "to be perfect, go, sell all that you possess, and give to the poor, and come, follow me." He who wants, he says, to attain the kingdom of heaven, let him pray day and night, keep vigil, fast, lie on a rush mat, not on a feather cushion, not on silk. Penance does not love luxuries. "For I ate ashes," he says, "like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping." "He who fashions toil in the commandment: they will hunt the soul of the righteous." See how it seems not to be consistent. For what is the logical connection: "He who fashions toil in the commandment: they will hunt the soul of the righteous"? But what the fleshly ear does not understand, the spiritual ear understands. What then does he say? "He who fashions toil in the commandment": therefore, he says, we toil in the commandments of the Lord day and night, we keep vigil, we pray, we fast, because we have many adversaries who hunt the soul of the righteous. See what he says: they hunt the soul of the righteous, not of the unrighteous. For they do not want to deceive those who have been deceived, but the righteous. Whence it is said in Habakkuk: "His food is choice." "And they shall condemn innocent blood." Some are accustomed to say: That man who was killed would not have been killed, unless he were a fornicator, or had had some sin; the collapse would not have overtaken him, unless he had been a sinner; the shipwreck would not have overwhelmed him, unless he had been a sinner. See, then, what holy Scripture says: "And they shall condemn innocent blood." As long as we are in this world, we suffer all things in common. The righteous man and the sinner are shipwrecked alike, they have equal flesh, and equal conditions of the flesh. The righteous man and the sinner perish alike: the righteous man and the sinner have a similar end, but different rewards. One is led to Gehenna, another is led to the kingdom of heaven. "And they shall condemn innocent blood." Your conscience is enough for you, O righteous man: and even if you are condemned, let your blood be innocent, and it will cry out to the Lord.

"Shall the seat of iniquity cling to you?" You who judge righteousness, can you have iniquity for a neighbor? "You who fashion sorrow in a commandment?" The commandments of God have the sorrow of repentance; but that sorrow itself is good, because it furnishes the medicine of sinners. For unless with sweat and toil, we shall not do the commandments of God. Let no one, then, suppose that he will be crowned amid delights. "The widow who is in delights, while living, is dead." What the apostle said of one person, let us apply to all: for the apostle's care was not for widows alone, since he stood forth as the teacher of the whole Church. Now, because he did not name the virgin, nor the monk, nor the churchman, ought a man for that reason not to hold himself back from delights? For if the widow is a human being, I think the rest are human beings too: who, on account of the common frailty, can incur through delights that which the widow dreads. Listen, then, to what he says, "You who fashion sorrow in a commandment." For it is commanded us that we fast, it is commanded us that we be sober, that to the one striking our cheek we offer the other, that to the one taking away our tunic we let go our cloak also. All these commandments are not accomplished without toil. "For on account of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways." You see, then, that no one is crowned amid delights. "For narrow and strait is the way that leads to life." For whatever virtues there are, they are not accomplished without difficulty. With immense toil we reach the summits of a mountain: how much more into heaven? This is what is said in the Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence." It suffers violence, because that which is not subject by nature is made subject to us through grace: so that from where the angels fell, men may ascend: so that where bodies did not fall, souls together with their bodies may go. Let someone say: How then will these same bodies of ours go into heaven? If Christ reigns, we reign with Christ: what he already possesses, he promises to us after the resurrection. If the firstfruits reign, the remnant also will reign. The flesh which reigns in Christ, why should it not reign in those who believe in Christ? "For when Christ shall appear, then we also shall appear with him in glory." If the flesh is adored by the angels in heaven, why should it not reign in men, who have merited the dignity of the kingdom? It is said elsewhere: "And adore his footstool, for it is holy." Some suppose it was said of the earth, "his footstool": but to me it seems that, in comparison with the divine majesty, the incarnation of the Savior is rightly named a footstool on account of the subjection of its lowliness; but because it is Christ's, it is adored. For nothing is lacking to the divinity: for whatever is οἰκονομία (the dispensation) in Christ is not added to him, but profits us: he is taken up into glory, so that the grace of our future hope may be shown to us, who have reigned with him. To whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

"Blessed is the man whom you shall instruct, O Lord." Happy is he who has God as his teacher. "And whom you shall teach out of your law: that you may soften for him the evil days." See what he says. "Blessed is the man whom you shall instruct, O Lord, and whom you shall teach out of your law" — that is, out of your Scriptures. But of what use is this, that he should be taught out of your law? "That you may soften for him the evil days." You see, therefore, that knowledge and practice and works drawn from the Scriptures soften for us the evil days. "Until a pit be dug for the sinner." When you are instructed out of the law of the Lord, one thing is divided for you into two: for it softens for you the evil days, and it digs a pit for the sinner.

"Blessed is the man whom you shall instruct, O Lord, and shall teach him out of your law." You see, then, that the law is to be learned, so that the things which are obscure may be more diligently understood. For the apostle says that "the law is spiritual." And David: "Reveal my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law." This, then, is what he says. "Blessed is the man whom you shall instruct, O Lord, and shall teach him out of your law." Why do you teach him? Render the reasons. "That you may soften it for him from the evil days." Therefore you teach him, so that in the future you may spare him: therefore in the present you rebuke him, so that in the future you may not condemn him. For the judge's sentence is an evil to the one who endures the evils: not that the sentence is evil, but that the one suffering it, while he feels the punishment, feels a just and good sentence as evil. "Until the pit be dug for the sinner." Who is it that digs the pit for the sinner? Let us see what the prophet says elsewhere. "He opened a pit and dug it out, and he fell into the trench which he made." God, therefore, does not make the pit, but the sinner, so that he may fall into it. "The blind," he says, "if he offers guidance to the blind, both fall into the pit."

"If I said, My foot has slipped." Considering my frailty and human weakness, I did not think my foot stood on firm footing: wherever I set my foot, I feared a fall. Again I thought of your name, and I stood with firm foot.

"If I said, My foot has slipped: your mercy, O Lord, was helping me." The confession of weakness quickly earns God's help, and by however much pride gives offense, by that much is he appeased by humility. "If I said, My foot has slipped": if I confess my sins, if I say that my foot has stood on slippery ground, if I do not trust in my own strength, if I acknowledge that I am not, though fallen, strong, at once "your mercy helps me."

"The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain." We read in a secular poet: "O the cares of men, O how much emptiness there is in things!" Both the Gentiles and the philosophers lift this little verse to heaven. And what do they say? Nothing could be said more prudently. Behold, our rustic Hebrew, so many ages before, spoke this. And what did he say? "The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain." Do you want to know that the thoughts of men are vain? A father and mother rear their son: they promise themselves happiness from him, they send him to his studies, they educate him, he comes all the way to young manhood, they arrange that he should even serve in the army. When they have thought of everything over thirty years, one little fever comes and carries off all their thoughts. I have an enemy, and the day of judgment is thirty days off; by day and by night I think of nothing else except what I shall answer him. I am on my bed, and my thought is answering my absent enemy. The enemy is not there, and my words are answering the enemy: by day and by night I am wrapped in thought. But when the day of judgment has come, all those things that I had thought perish, and whatever God has said, that I speak. For this reason the Lord too says in the Gospel: "When you stand before the judges, do not think what you shall answer: for the Lord will give you in that hour what you shall answer." "The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain." One thought alone is happy: to think about the Lord.

"The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain." Men marvel at the philosophers and poets who say: "O the cares of men! O how much emptiness there is in things!" Behold, the psalm of David, many ages before, spoke the same sentiment. "The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain." As long as we are men, we have vain thoughts. "I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High."

We are always discussing the title, so that from the title the psalm too may be understood. "A psalm of David, on the fourth day of the week." The fourth day of the week is in the middle of the week, as if in the heart of the week — that is, in the middle of the seven days. For it is the fourth day, and the fourth day has an equal number of days on either side. For on one side it has the first, second, and third day; and on the other side it has the fifth, sixth, and seventh day. You see, therefore, that the fourth day — that is, the fourth day of the week — is made firm on either side by a double trinity. And at the same time it must be considered that the fourth number, in its power, is the tenth. How so? For if you count and make an ordered sum — one, two, three, four — the number ten is produced. You see, therefore, that the fourth number produces the tenth. And consider from this that the four Gospels are reckoned within the Decalogue, so that whatever was said in the Decalogue is fulfilled in the four Gospels, so that the old Law is not at variance with the dignity of the Gospel. So much, for the moment, we have said about the title; now let us come to the psalm.

"The Lord is the God of vengeances; the God of vengeances has acted freely." He who for so long lay hidden and did not appear among the people, afterward acted freely. He who before was unknown, afterward triumphed on the cross. "The Lord is the God of vengeances." If the Lord is the God of vengeances ("Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord"), why do you, O man, desire to avenge yourself? You have the Lord as your avenger. The Apostle says this too: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink: for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head." This does not seem to belong to kindness, but to cruelty. For if I do him good so that God may do him evil, this does not come from kindness, but from a cruelty of mind. For what does the Apostle say? "If your enemy is hungry, feed him." A dutiful utterance. "If he thirsts, give him drink." Up to this point it seems to be mercy. But what he adds — "for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head" — does not seem to belong to mercy, but to cruelty. For you seem to give bread and to give water to drink for this reason: that he may be tormented for ages. And does the Apostle say this — does the preacher of mercy teach cruelty? It must therefore not be taken so, but in another sense. If your enemy strikes you, offer him the other cheek as well; if he does you evil, do him good: for if you do this, you will heap coals of fire upon his head. What he says is this: you will cleanse him from sin; for his cruelty will be overcome by your patience. If you aim an arrow at a stone, and the stone is hard, not only is it not driven in, but it rebounds: so your enemy, if he has struck you and has not been struck back, overcome by your patience will return to better things.

Deus ultionum Dominus, Deus ultionum libere egit — "The God of vengeance is the Lord; the God of vengeance has acted freely." Whether you say the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, according to the principle of the Trinity which we set forth in the Gospel, he is both God and Lord. "The God of vengeance has acted freely": he who was despised in his lowliness will afterward take vengeance in his majesty.

"And the Lord has become a refuge for me." This passage tells against the Arians. For since they contradict the Lord the Savior, because he is said to be "made," behold, we say, "The Lord has become a refuge for me." No one doubts that this is interpreted of the Father. But if it is said of the Father, "The Lord has become a refuge for me," it must be understood in this sense: the Lord who always was, has become a refuge for me. So too the Savior who always was, has become a Savior for me.

"They have slain the widow and the stranger, and murdered the orphans: and they said, The Lord shall not see." Although this is plain according to the literal history — for always whoever needs protection is easily oppressed, and the more lowly anyone is, the more does the one who oppresses him offend God — nevertheless let us also interpret it according to the tropology. For I had said that this is said of the heretics: "They have slain the widow and the stranger." That widow — that is, the soul of the sinner, which has ceased to have God as its husband. A stranger is one who is not a resident — that is, one who does not dwell. He who had recently believed, being suddenly scandalized, perishes. "And they murdered the orphans; and they said, The Lord shall not see." Do we wonder that they are called orphans, where there is a widow? For just as the widow is the soul of the sinner, so he calls those orphans who have lost having God as their father. "And they said." What did they say? "The Lord shall not see, nor shall the God of Jacob understand." This everyone says who oppresses the saints. As they say this, see what the Holy Spirit answers.

"The widow and the stranger they have slain." The plain sense is clear: but if we should wish to interpret according to the anagogy, every day the proud devil with his satellites oppresses and harasses the humble in the Church. "Saying, The God of Jacob will not see, nor understand." They took the Lord's patience for ignorance.

"Unless the Lord had helped me, my soul had almost dwelt in hell." For this reason, O Lord, I rise again, because you were among the dead and rose again. My soul would have been held fast among the dead, if your soul had not risen again from the dead.

"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?

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; 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.

"And they have said, The Lord shall not see" (ver. 7): He observeth not, regardeth not these things: He careth for other matters, He understandeth not. These are the two assertions of the wicked: one which I have just quoted, "These things hast thou done, and I held my tongue, and thou thoughtest unrighteousness, that I will be like thyself." What meaneth, "that I will be like thyself"? Thou thinkest that I see thy deeds, and that they are pleasing unto Me, because I do not punish them. There is another assertion of the wicked: because God neither regardeth these things, nor observeth that He may know how I live, God heedeth me not. Doth then God make any reckoning of me? or doth He even take account of me? or of men in general? Unhappy man! He cared for thee, that thou mightest exist: doth 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."

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 charity 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.

"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.

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?

And what followed, because He dealt confidently? "Be exalted, Thou Judge of the world" (ver. 2). Because they imprisoned Him when humble, thinkest thou they will imprison Him when exalted? Because they judged Him when mortal, will they not be judged by Him when immortal? What then saith 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 Thee; they who ought to have seized on Thee with faith, seized Thee with persecution. Thou then who hast among the wicked dealt confidently, and hast feared no man, because Thou hast suffered, "be exalted;" that is, arise again, depart into heaven. Let the Church also bear with long-suffering what the Church's Head hath 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 doth predict, not the boldness of one who commandeth. 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 seeth Christ abased in the spirit, abased he seeth Him: fearing no man, in speech sparing no man, and he saith, "He hath dealt confidently." He seeth how confidently He hath dealt, he seeth Him arrested, crucified, humbled, he seeth 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 saith, "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. ...

"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.

"And the Lord shall recompense them according to their works, and after their own malice; the Lord our God shall destroy them" (ver. 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 trieth us, scourgeth us, by means of the wicked. To prepare us for what doth He scourge us? Confessedly for the kingdom of heaven. "For He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" and when God doth this, He is teaching us in order to an eternal heritage: and this learning He often giveth us by means of wicked men, through whom He trieth and perfecteth our love, which He doth 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. ...

"Who will rise up for me against the wicked? or who will take my part against the evil doers?" (ver. 16). Many persuade us to divers evils: the serpent ceaseth not to whisper to thee to work iniquity: whichever way thou shalt turn, if perchance thou hast done well, thou seekest to live well with some one, and thou hardly findest any one; many wicked men surround thee, for there are few grains of wheat, and much chaff. This floor hath its grains of corn, 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 livest thou thus? Art thou the only Christian? Why dost thou not do what others also do? Why dost thou not frequent the theatres, as others do? Why dost thou not use charms and amulets? Why dost thou not consult astrologers and soothsayers, even as others do? And thou crossest thyself, and sayest, I am Christian, that thou mayest repel them, whosoever they are; but the enemy presses on, urges his attacks; what is worse, by the example of Christians he choketh Christians. They toil on, in the midst of heat: the Christian soul suffereth tribulation: yet it hath power to conquer: hath it such power of itself? For this reason remark what he saith. For he answereth, What doth 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 answereth), unless indeed thou really believest that God careth how men live? And perhaps it is not an acquaintance who speaketh thus to thee in the street, but thy 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 thee, or thou art a serpent unto her. Sometimes the father would incline his thoughts to his son, and findeth him wicked, utterly depraved: he is in a fever of misery, he wavers, he seeketh how to subdue him, he is almost drawn in, and consenteth: but may God be near him. ...

..."They have humbled Thy people, O Lord; and have troubled Thine heritage" (ver. 5). "They have murdered the widow, and the fatherless: and slain the proselyte" (ver. 6); that is, the traveller, the pilgrim: the comer from far, as the Psalmist calleth himself. Each of these expressions is too clear in meaning to make it worth while to dwell upon them.

...Do thou rejoice beneath the scourge: because the heritage is kept for thee, "for the Lord will not cast off His people" (ver. 14). He chasteneth for a season, He condemneth not for ever: the others He spareth for a season, and will condemn them for evermore. Make thy choice: dost thou wish temporary suffering, or eternal punishment? temporal happiness, or eternal life? What doth God threaten? Eternal punishment. What doth He promise? Eternal rest. His scourging the good, is temporary: His sparing the wicked, is also temporary. "Neither will He forsake His inheritance."

For at present it is not the time of judging, but of tolerating the wicked. Therefore, let the body of Christ bear at present, and tolerate the wickedness of evil livers. Let it, however, have righteousness now, for by righteousness it shall come to judgment. And what saith the Holy Scripture in the psalm to the members, namely, that tolerate the wickedness of this world? "The Lord will not cast off His people." For, in fact, His people labors among the unworthy, among the unrighteous, among blasphemers, among murmurers, detractors, persecutors, and, if they are allowed, destroyers. Yes, it labors; but "the Lord will not cast off His people, and He will not forsake His inheritance until justice is turned into judgment." "Until the justice," which is now in His saints, "be turned into judgment;" when that shall be fulfilled which was said to them, "Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." The apostle had righteousness, but not yet that judgment of which he says, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" Be it now, therefore, the time for living rightly; the time for judging them that have lived ill shall be hereafter.

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.

"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.

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."

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.

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.

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."

"Wilt Thou have anything to do with the stool of iniquity, who makest sorrow in learning?" (ver. 20). He hath said this, No wicked man sitteth with Thee, nor shall Thou have anything to do with the stool of iniquity. And he giveth an account whereof he understandeth this, "For Thou makest sorrow in learning." For from this, because Thou hast not spared us, do I understand that Thou hast nothing to do with the stool of iniquity. Thou hast this in the Epistle of the Apostle Peter, and for this reason he hath adduced a testimony from the Scripture: "for the time is come," he saith, "that judgment must begin at the house of God;" that is, the time is 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?" How then shall the wicked be with Thee, if Thou dost not even spare Thy faithful, in order that Thou mayest exercise and teach them? But as He spareth them not, for this reason, that He may teach them: he saith, "For Thou makest 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." ...Behold our Lord Himself, how He showeth Himself a potter. 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 saith, "Hast Thou anything to do," etc., he saith, out of grief makest learning for us, so that grief itself becomes our instruction. How is sorrow our learning? When He scourgeth thee who died for thee, and who doth not promise bliss in this life, and who cannot deceive, and when He giveth not here what thou seekest. What will He give? when will He give? how much will He give, who giveth not here, who here teacheth, who maketh sorrow in learning? Thy labour is here, and rest is promised thee. Thou takest thought that thou hast toil here: but take thought what sort of rest He promiseth. Canst thou conceive it? If thou couldest, thou wouldest see that thy toil here is nothing toward an equivalent. ...

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.

For how great can be the power of mortals? Therefore let mortals cleave to righteousness; power will be given to immortals. And compared to this, the power, how great soever, of those men who are called powerful on earth, is found to be ridiculous weakness, and a pitfall is dug there for the sinner, where the wicked seem to be most powerful. And the righteous man says in his song, "Blessed is the man whom Thou chasteneth, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law: that Thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance, until righteousness return unto judgment, and all who follow it are upright in heart." At this present time, then, in which the might of the people of God is delayed, "the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance," how bitter and unworthy things soever it may suffer in its humility and weakness; "until the righteousness," which the weakness of the pious now possesses, "shall return to judgment," that is, shall receive the power of judging; which is preserved in the end for the righteous when power in its due order shall have followed after righteousness going before.

"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.

And if in labor we faint, let us implore help. He helps the one fighting, who started the contest. For God does not watch you fighting as the people watch the charioteer; he does not want to shout, he does not know how to help. God does not watch you fighting as the trainer watches the athlete; he prepares a wreath of straw, but does not know how to supply strength to the laborer, nor can he; for he is a man, not God. And perhaps while he watches, he labors more by sitting than the other by wrestling. For God, when he watches his fighters, helps those who are called upon. For the voice of his athlete is in the Psalm: "If I said: My foot is moved, your mercy, Lord, helped me." Therefore let us not be lazy, my brothers, let us ask, seek, knock. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

However, do not think that you will always or immediately be strong, nor completely despair. That alternation of weakness and strength in the hands of God's servant Moses might have been your alternation. Sometimes you falter in temptations, but you do not succumb. He would drop his hands for a little while, but he did not fall completely. "If I said: My foot slipped; Your mercy, O Lord, supported me." Therefore, do not fear: a helper is present on the journey, the one who was not absent in Egypt as a liberator. Do not fear, undertake the way, proceed confidently. Sometimes he lowered his hands, sometimes he raised them; yet Amalek was defeated. He could rebel, yet he could not overcome.

Therefore, to conclude our discussion from where we began, let us pray, and presume upon God: let us live as He commands, and where we falter in this life, let us call upon Him, just as the disciples called upon Him saying: "Lord, increase our faith." And Peter presumed, and faltered: yet he was not despised and drowned, but was uplifted and raised up. Indeed, from where did he presume? It was not from his own strength: it was from the Lord. How? "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." For the Lord was walking on the water. "If it is You, command me to come to You on the water. For I know that if it is You, You command and it is done." And He said: "Come." He descended at His command, and trembled in his own weakness. Yet when he trembled, he cried out to Him: "Lord," he said, "save me." Then the Lord reached out His hand to him, and said: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" He Himself invited, He liberated the one who was faltering and trembling; so that it might be fulfilled, what is said in the Psalm: "If I said, My foot slips; Your mercy, O Lord, supported me."

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.

"Until righteousness," he saith, "turn again unto judgment, and all they that have it are right in heart" (ver. 15). Listen now, and gain righteousness: for judgment thou canst not yet have. Thou shouldest gain righteousness first; but that very righteousness of thine shall turn unto judgment. The Apostles had righteousness here on earth, and bore with the wicked. But what is said unto them? "Ye shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 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 cometh. 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 endureth the wicked, and afterwards judgeth them. Let there be righteousness now: afterwards it shall turn again unto judgment. And so long He endureth wicked men, as God doth 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 spareth sinners: thou dost wish Him at once to destroy sinners. Thy heart is crooked and thy will perverted, when thy will is one way and the will of God another. God wisheth 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 thy will, but rather correct thy will to His. The will of God is like a rule: behold, suppose, thou hast twisted the rule: whence canst thou be set straight? But the rule itself continueth straight: for it is immutable. As long as the rule is straight, thou hast whither to turn thyself, and straighten thy perversity; thou hast a means of correcting what is crooked in thee. 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 willeth. ...

"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.

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.

"Take heed now, ye that are unwise among the people: O ye fools, some time understand!" (ver. 8). He teacheth His people whose feet might slip: any one among them seeth 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 seeth that the wicked flourish, and work iniquity, he envieth, and is led to follow them in their actions; because he seeth that apparently it profiteth him nothing that he liveth well in humility, hoping for his reward here. For if he hopeth for it in future, he loseth it not; because the time is not yet come for him to receive it. Thou art working in a vineyard: execute thy task, and thou shall receive thy pay. Thou wouldest not exact it from thy employer, before thy work was finished, and yet dost thou exact it from God before thou dost work? This patience is part of thy work, and thy pay dependeth upon thy work: thou who dost not choose to be patient, choosest to work less upon the vineyard: since this act of patience belongeth to thy labouring itself, which is to gain thy pay. But if thou art treacherous, take care, lest thou shouldest not only not receive thy pay, but also suffer punishment, because thou hast chosen to be a treacherous labourer. When such a labourer beginneth to do ill, he watcheth 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 worketh diligently. But God, who hired thee, averteth not His eyes: thou canst not work treacherously: the eyes of thy Master are ever upon thee: seek an opportunity to deceive Him, and loiter if thou canst. If then any of you had any such ideas, when ye saw the wicked flourishing, and if such thoughts caused your feet to slip in the path of God; to you this Psalm speaketh: but if perchance none of you be such, through you it doth 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 saith, "now, ye that are unwise among the people: and ye fools, some time understand!"

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"; 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."

Let us now attend to the Psalm. "The Lord is the God of vengeance; the God of vengeance hath dealt confidently" (ver. 1). Dost thou think that He doth not punish? "The God of vengeance" punisheth. What is, "The God of vengeance"? The God of punishments. Thou murmurest surely because the bad are not punished: yet do not murmur, lest thou be among those who are punished. That man hath committed a theft, and liveth: thou murmurest against God, because he who committed a theft on thee dieth not. ...Therefore, if thou wouldest have another correct his hand, do thou first correct thy tongue: thou wouldest have him correct his heart towards man, correct thy heart towards God; lest perchance, when thou desirest the vengeance of God, if it come, it find thee 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: because, "The Lord is the God of vengeance," therefore hath He "dealt confidently." ...Our safety is our Saviour: in Him He would place the hope of all the needy and poor. And what saith He? "I will deal confidently in Him." What meaneth 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 hath 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 hath said, "The Lord is the God of vengeance, the God of vengeance hath dealt confidently;" that is, He hath 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 seemeth to spare the wicked; but be thou good, and perhaps for a season He may not spare thee the rod, that He may in the end spare thee in judgment. ...

"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.

"If the Lord," he saith, "had not helped me: within a little my soul had dwelt in hell" (ver. 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 hath 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; Thou hast flown into heaven, as Elias did! Men do these things, so that sometime, when he listeneth 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. ...

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."

And again, in another place, he [David] ascribeth blessedness to the man who feareth God, and he maketh known what good things the fear of God worketh in him that feareth [Him], saying, "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord", and here the fearer of God is accounted blessed. And although our Lord ordained blessings for other things, the prophet David accounted blessed the fearer of the Lord. "Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the way of the wicked", and it is well known that he walketh not in the way of the wicked because he feareth God. And again he saith, "Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt correct, O Lord, and whom Thou shalt teach Thy law", and it is manifest that the fear of God teacheth the laws, and that the man who feareth confesseth his correction. And again he said, "Blessed are those who are without blemish in the way, and who walk in the law of the Lord", and here again the fear of the Lord preserveth [a man] from blemishes, and urgeth him to walk in the way of the law. And again he saith, "Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and whose sins are covered", and it is well known that here also the fear of God bringeth to repentance, through which the forgiveness of sins is given, and through the suffering and tears which are produced by the fear of God the form of a man's sins is covered before his eyes. And again he saith, "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord, and who walketh in His ways", and here again the prophet David sheweth that a man walketh in the way of the commandments through the fear of God. And in another place he saith concerning him that feareth the Lord, "He taketh heed to the commandments which are given by the Lord."

"He who chastises the nations, shall he not rebuke, he who teaches man knowledge?" The Psalm of David says that the great teacher of knowledge is God. You know that if someone must draw water, he more willingly draws it from its original source than from a rivulet. Therefore, if the Lord is the great teacher and giver of the gift about which we intend to speak, it is necessary that we have recourse to that font in order to obtain illumination. Thus did the Psalmist, thus did Solomon, and he became a great scholar. In the beginning it is necessary that we lift up our souls and beseech the bestower of gifts, because we do not seek temporal things, but the benefit and salvation of our soul; and this is pleasing to God, just as Solomon did, who sought wisdom from the Lord. Let us therefore beseech the Lord, that he himself may open the eyes of our mind and grant me the light of knowledge, so that I may be able to say something concerning the gift of knowledge, which may be to the honor of God.