In his regard for the afflicted, he says to the Lord in the manner of human weakness, Why have you withdrawn far away? This does not mean that God leaves a place and moves to another location since he is completely present in every place. But God is thought to have withdrawn when he is slow to help. . . . For we think that we are being spurned if we are put off even for the shortest time. But God’s presence is much more fruitful when he furnishes us with the consolations that come through great patience.

This is what the inspired author laments, that evil has so prevailed as to be something to be proud of and spoken openly about, and what is more regrettable, that it is shameless and not simply applauds itself for its achievements but also has others to applaud it.

When the evil person is praised, he becomes conceited; he does not give a thought to correcting his ways, provided that someone can always be found to praise him in spite of his faults. The exaltation of sin follows, so that the one known as an evildoer is blessed. Deceived by the insincerity of those who sing his praise, such a person lets himself get drawn into the excessive pride of tyranny. Strictly speaking, one ought to understand this passage as referring to the Antichrist; he is led to this point by the crowds of deceivers so that he proclaims himself not only as earthly king, but even as God of all things.

[The wicked] are chiefly of this type who lack wisdom and spiritual resources, nor do they hold to teachings of the faith correctly. They incur the judgment of wise providence when they praise the sinner indulging in his own desires. However, it becomes apparent enough that the sinner strives not for better things but for more pleasing and desirous ones. In addition to that mistake, they judge that they who have riches and human glory are taking part in blessing. Accordingly, they claim the wicked are blessed by God; but it is necessary to believe that blessing of God is granted to the religious.

The disease of pride is acute; it poisons from either side, and it wounds when least expected. For some boast of themselves because they are good, others because they are bad. Of the good who boast it is said, For God has scattered the bones of those who are pleased with themselves. Of the evil who boast it is said, For the wicked person is praised in the desires of his soul, and the worker of injustice shall be blessed.

In his wish to give vent to his anger and desires, [a wicked person] becomes so caught up in his passion as to be unaware that there is someone who has an eye to human affairs. . . . He acts as if God were not surveying what happens.

The unbeliever and the sinner never keeps God before his eyes; instead, each day and at every moment he soils and sullies his paths, not believing there is any judgment. Well, what is the reason for this? . . . He completely despises your laws; he spends all his time in lawlessness. The unbeliever, in fact, belittles and vilifies the commands of God.

Do you see the fruit of vice? Their light is extinguished, their thinking impaired, they are taken captive by wickedness. Just as the disabled person constantly falls into a pit, so too these people, since they do not have the fear of God before their eyes, are totally absorbed in vice—not a case of now in virtue and now in vice, but permanently in vice, mindful not of hell, or of the judgment to come or of accounts to be rendered. Instead, rejecting all these aids as though bridle and bit, they are like a ship without ballast that is at the mercy of winds and fierce billows with no one to guide their thinking. Do you see the wicked in the actual condition of vice having to give an account? After all, what is worse than an unbridled horse, a ship without ballast, a maimed individual? Yet more miserable than all these is the person living in vice, having extinguished the light coming from the fear of God and given over to captivity.

Do you see the folly? Do you see the unutterable ruin? Do you see the destruction gradually increasing? Do you see the things prized by the mindless, in reality full of deep misery, and now they sink from sight? Those people are applauded in their sins, commended in their wrongdoing. This is the first pitfall, sufficient to trip up the unwary. Hence it is much more necessary to welcome those who censure and correct us than those who applaud and flatter us to the point of destruction. The latter, in fact, prove the ruination of the stupid and impel them to worse evil—as though even by puffing up these sinners they led them on the way to folly.

One who holds tight his sin readies himself for a great outpouring of anger; since he does not seek God in the least he is ensnared. Hence it is said, Because of the greatness of his wrath he does not search and God is not in his sight. Indeed, so great is the power of the anger that fills his whole spirit that he has removed the natural ideas of God from his thinking. . . . One who does not put God before his eyes makes all the deeds of life as paths and ways befouled and polluted, since God is not in his sight. In as much time the wicked one, who is without God, was walking successfully in this life so that he dominated over his enemies, even in so much time is his wickedness, which overcame his enemies, punished.

Whoever knows what gives joy or delight in the soul knows how great an evil it is to be abandoned by the light of truth. People consider physical blindness, which means the withdrawal of daylight, a great evil. Just imagine, then, how great the punishment people suffer who, while their sins are a roaring success, are led to the point where God is no longer in their field of vision and where their ways are defiled all the time, which means that their thoughts and machinations are absolutely filthy!

This is the reason why the sinner provokes the Lord, because he does not keep him before his eyes, because he turns himself away from God. The one who sins conducts himself in this way. Concerning all of this, God says, They have shown me their backs and not their faces.^[1] Cain, the offspring of this wickedness, departed from the face of the Lord God.^[2] That is, he turned himself away from him. Inasmuch as these words are spoken about people being sinners, even more so do they speak about the devil. His ways are profaned at all times. For of which people are the ways profaned for all time, since even the wicked often live with much honesty? He enters without permission to draw people to corrupt deeds and even to deny the providence of God. And so he persuades many to believe that the world is without the direction of God, and later he falls away from right ideas concerning the governing of God and the knowledge of judgment.

So bold is the person who does not look on God or recognize his judgment that he does not consider within himself his own audacious wicked deeds, believing that he will rejoice forever in his prosperity. His mouth swells up with blasphemies and irreverence. At length, the arrogant one blares out with fierce confidence countless blasphemies and curses, asserting that there is no God, nor does he look down on us, nor will he judge,

What could be more stupid than this attitude in a human being, subject to death, caught up in affairs of the moment, subject to countless changes, to come up with such fantasies? Now, where did this spring from? From stupidity. You see, whenever a heedless person enjoys great prosperity, prevails over his enemies, is praised and admired, he proves more to be pitied than anyone. In fact, by not expecting any change he does not even cope with prosperity sensibly; but on falling on hard times he is disturbed and upset, being out of practice and heedless. . . . These people . . . once corrupted, have no regard for human limitations but consider their state immovable on account of their success—the basis of ultimate folly and destruction and the occasion of utter ruin.

Just as the inspired author describes them as a wild beast, so he talks about them in those terms, making a show of their tricks, ambushes, schemes. What could be more pitiful than this, what could be more desperate, to feel the need of the possessions of the poor? So shall we call these people rich, tell me? . . . Do you see their moral bankruptcy and cruelty? Moral bankruptcy, because they lust after the goods of the poor; cruelty, because far from being moved by their plight they aggravate their penury when they should pity it and ameliorate it. Still, they do not get up to this with impunity: when they exert their power, when they seem to prevail, when they think they are unassailable, then it is they perish, so that the inventiveness of God, the patience of the poor, the errors of these miscreants and the forbearance of God’s long-suffering may come to light. Hence it is that justice does not follow close on their heels, since God in his long-suffering summons them to repentance; but when they profit nothing from the long-suffering, then he admonishes them with retribution.

He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den or a savage lion in his cave so that he may drag off the poor by crafty speech and, equally often, by their deeds. After he has caught him in the trap he will draw him to apostasy. Wild beasts are threatening, and especially so the lion. Often, therefore, lying in wait, while he discusses fasting, he openly persuades them to greed; and addressing modesty, he introduces them to a certain appearance of luxury. Thus, he pushed Eve deceptively in the garden to commit transgression, saying she was going to be equal to God. Thus he lured Judas by greed.

In earlier times, the persecution of the church was merely violent, when Christians were being pressed by pagans through proscriptions, torture and beatings to sacrifice to idols. A second type of persecution is through deceit, which is currently being carried out by heretics and false Christians. A final form still remains, and it is predicted to come through the Antichrist. No form of persecution is more dangerous than this, since it will be extremely violent because of the power of this unique kingdom, and it will result in deception through miraculous signs. As a result, just as the Lord says in the Gospel, it will deceive, if possible, even the elect.^[1] The word lion refers to the violence of this kingdom, and the phrase in his den, predicts its deceit.

His wickedness is described as a two-fold corruption, for in his mouth he will have a blasphemous cursing when he makes the false claim that he is the Son of God. He will also have bitterness when he imposes the death penalty on those who resist him, and he will hand over to punishment whoever refuses to worship him as the deity. He will have these things in his mouth, which he will speak in public. But under his tongue, as the psalmist says, indicates that he will have the most savage thoughts, so that since he himself is already destroyed he may hasten to destroy everything.

[By contrast] the righteous person praises God at all times.

The human mind seems to prosper in the midst of its iniquities and thinks that it is being spared, whereas it is instead being blinded and kept on hold for the final and timely punishment. . . . The people who maintain that God does not see them to the very end are those who assert that he does not concern himself with human and earthly affairs. This earth is like the end, in that it is the last element in which men and women work according to a very definite order, though they are unable to see the ordered pattern of their labors, for this belongs particularly to the hidden things of the Son.

Through these words he asks that whenever the forbearance and kindness of God are being set in motion, and he is stirred to judgment against the wicked, in which judgment the uplifted hand of God, he will judge each one. With the figure of the lifted hand he indicates the power of divine judgment that seems to rest on and humble one until he sets in place justice against the wicked. When, however, he begins to exercise his power, giving to each one according to his merit, then he is said to be exalted. Wherefore you will not be forgetful of your poor who are poor in spirit, knowing that everything is under your hand and it is granted that none flee beyond it. . . . Do not yourselves seek revenge, O beloved, but give space to your wrath. Vengeance is from me, I will repay, says the Lord.

He will find that the one whom he had hoped had forgotten has remembered, and he will realize that the sins that he had believed to be too numerous to be remembered, even to the point of being immeasurable, are actually taken into account.

Even if those living in impiety claim countless times, he is saying, that you are not looking at human affairs, we know that you are studying and considering their crimes and requiring due penalty of them.

When he says, he is left to you as a poor man, he shows that the one who is left to him is not cheated of any advantage, for to be left to the devoted Prince is the same as to be handed over to all good things.

The poor abandon themselves to you. You will care for his deliverance so that you may make him rich in heavenly goods. So also, the orphan is helped, protected and nourished like a son. It is important to understand here that the orphan is one whose father is the devil because of iniquity but who has cast him out through the practice of repentance.

What is the meaning of up to the point of their being given into your hands? It is a rather human expression, but what it means is this: You bide your time, you are forbearing, with the result that they are given over to the excess of wickedness. You are capable, of course, of destroying and subduing them from the outset; yet beyond telling is the ocean of your forbearance, observing them, not pursuing them but awaiting their movement to repentance. If, however, they prove unresponsive, then you will punish them when they profit nothing from your long-suffering.

The sinner is the one who sins out of lust and weakness; the wicked one is he who follows after evil with a deliberated plan.

Let no one be arrogant about the pinnacle of power or be puffed up; it is a precarious and risky position and topples the careless with great ease.

Therefore we define him to be earlier than any beginning and exceeding any end.

The land of God is the good heart; from this land the nations perish when they are driven by whatever destruction of mind and every evil thought. . . . No sinner is allowed to walk in this land, for the righteous alone possess it. It is said by a good man: I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.^[1]

After the universal calamity has been abolished, the psalmist turns to the new order of things. For after the Antichrist has been killed, the eternal, holy and benevolent kingdom of the Lord will come. Wicked evil is permitted to advance quite far in order that the longed-for kingdom of the Lord may be received with greater thanks. For in God’s kingdom, the blessed are without worry and find rest, nor is there any more fear of the traps that the holy are compelled to endure in this world.

Your ear has heard. We should regularly note that God does not have any physical members, but the the power by which he hears is called his ear, that by which he sees his eye, and that by which he acts his hand. These ideas should be committed to memory so that we may not seem to offend you by repeating them, because they often need to be repeated.

The Lord has heard the desires of the poor. . . . They have suffered misfortune and endured affliction in this life, but he who is king of the ages and judge will vindicate them lest people boast on the earth.