After the previous psalms (as has been said), in which the prophet ascended by divine mercy to the peak of all virtues, he addresses those who stand in the house of the Lord so that after all God’s immense acts of kindness have been conferred, the heavens and the earth would not cease to praise their Creator. And see with what distinction those commandments have grown in these two verses. First he said, Praise the name of the Lord. And lest you should think that this was commanded to any and all, he added, Praise the Lord, you servants, that is, You who are his servants, devoted with eager will, and sense that you have a Lord whom you do not despise by any superstition. Third, he says, You who stand in the house of the Lord, that is, You who stand in holy belief in him with a persevering and unvacillating will. This is said against those who have suffered a downfall and fallen suddenly from the honor conferred upon them. Next are the words, In the halls of the house of our God. The first entrance of a rather large home is called the hall. There those who live there have been known to make hearths for themselves to drive out the cold. And from the very murky billows of black smoke, these places were called halls (atria) on the grounds that they are pitch black (atra), as antiquity has passed down to us. And because no statement stands empty, which does not seem to contain some mystery, he also says that even those who seem to enter the first portion of the Lord’s house ought to praise the Lord.

But you say to me, What am I going to do? If there will be no use for my members there, what am I going to do? Does existing, seeing, loving, praising seem idleness to you? Behold! These holy days that are celebrated after the resurrection of the Lord signify the life that is to come after our resurrection. For just as the forty days before Easter symbolized the life full of suffering in this mortal period of distress, so these joyful days point to the future life, where we are destined to reign with the Lord. The life that is signified by the forty days before Easter is our burden now; the life that is symbolized by the fifty days after Easter is not possessed now but is an object of hope and is loved while it is hoped for. By that very love we praise God, who promised this eternal life to us, and our praises are Alleluias. For what does Alleluia mean? It is a Hebrew word signifying praise God, allelu meaning praise and Ia meaning God. Therefore, by our Alleluia we cry out, Praise God, and we arouse one another to praise God. We sing praises to God, we chant our Alleluias with hearts attuned to harmony far better than with the chords of the lyre. When we have sung our praises, impelled by our weakness we withdraw to refresh our bodies. Why do we do this, except because we are faint? Furthermore, the weakness of the flesh is so great and the annoyance of this life so oppressive that everything, no matter how great it be, eventually leads to aversion. When these days were drawing to a close, how we longed for those of the coming year, and with how much eagerness we approached them after a lapse of time! But, if we were given the command Sing Alleluias without ceasing, we would excuse ourselves. Why? Because in our weariness we would not be able to do so, because even in the face of such a good we would be overcome by our distaste. There [in the risen life] no weakness, no aversion will exist. Stand and give praise, you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Why do you question what you are going to do there? The psalmist says, Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord; they shall praise you forever and ever.^[1]

But as I said that the only thing the Almighty cannot do is what he does not will, in case anybody should consider it was very rash of me to say that the Almighty cannot do something, the blessed apostle said it too: If we do not believe, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself. But it is because he does not wish to that he cannot do it, because he cannot even have the will to. Justice, after all, cannot have the will to do what is unjust, or wisdom will what is foolish or truth will what is false.

Thus we are advised that almighty God not only, as the apostle says, cannot deny himself, but cannot do many things as well. Here I am saying it, and it is by his truth I dare to say what I dare not deny: almighty God cannot die, cannot change, cannot be deceived or mistaken, cannot be miserable, cannot be defeated. Perish the thought that the Almighty should be able to do these and similar things. And so it is that truth not only shows he is almighty because he cannot do these things but also requires anyone who can do them not to be almighty. God, you see, is willingly whatever he is; so he is willingly eternal, unchangeable, truthful, blessed and undefeatable. So if he can be what he does not wish, he is not almighty; but he is almighty, which is why he is capable of whatever he wishes. And therefore what he does not will he cannot be, the reason he is called almighty is that he is capable of whatever he wishes. As the psalm says about him, In heaven and on earth he has done whatever he has willed.

Accordingly, there is no doubt that human wills cannot resist the will of God, who has done whatsoever he pleased in heaven and on earth and who has even done the things that are to come.^[1] Nor can the human will prevent him from doing what he wills, seeing that even with the wills of people he does what he wills, when he wills to do it. Take, for instance, the case of Saul. When God willed to give the kingdom to Saul, was it in the power of the Israelites to subject themselves to him or not to subject themselves? In a sense, yes; but not in such a way that they were able to resist God. As a matter of fact, God carried the matter through by means of the wills of people themselves, having, as he undoubtedly does, the almighty power to bend human hearts whithersoever he pleases. So it is written, And Samuel sent away all the people, everyone to his own house. Saul also departed to his own house in Gabaa; and there went with him a part of the army, whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said, Shall this fellow be able to save us? And they despised him and brought him no presents.^[2] Surely, no one will say that any one of those whose hearts God had touched, that they should go with Saul, failed to go with him, or that any of the children of Belial, whose hearts God had not so touched, did go with him.

Providence, then, is the solicitude that God has for existing things. And again, providence is that will of God by which all existing things receive suitable guidance through to their end. But, if providence is God’s will, then, according to right reason, everything that has come about through providence has quite necessarily come about in the best manner and that most befitting God, so that it could not have happened in a better way. Now, the Maker of existing things must be the same as their Provider, for it is neither fitting nor logical that one should be their creator and another their provider, because in such a case they would both be definitely wanting—the one in the matter of creating and the other in that of providing. Hence, God is both Creator and Provider, and his power of creating, sustaining and providing is his good will. For whatsoever the Lord pleased he has done, in heaven and in earth, and none resisted his will. He willed all things to be made, and they were made; he wills the world to endure, and it does endure; and all things whatsoever he wills are done.

The sky above, the earth and ocean’s mightydepths,

The orbs presiding over day and over night,

The winds and tempests, lightnings, showers of rain and clouds,

The polar stars, the star of evening, heat and snow,

The fountains, hoarfrosts, precious veins of ore and streams,

One in their might one both the Father and the Son,

And that one splendor generated by one light

With all the Godhead’s plenitude of brightness shone.

In God one undivided being operates,

And by one power was created all that is,

The rugged cliffs and level plains and mountain dells,

Wild beasts, the fowl of air and reptiles, all that swim,

The beasts of burden, cattle, oxen, mammoth brutes,

The flowers and shrubs, the vines, the herbs and woodland groves,

All plants that shed their fragrance, plants that food supply. BOOK

I am the Lord your God. You shall not make for yourselves idols fashioned by the hand, neither set up a graven image. Nor shall you set up a remarkable stone in your land [to worship it]: I am the Lord your God.^[1] These words indeed were first spoken by the Lord by the lips of Moses, being applicable certainly to whomsoever the Lord God of Israel may lead forth in like manner from the Egypt of a most superstitious world and from the place of human slavery. But from the mouth of every prophet in succession sounds forth also utterances of the same God, augmenting the same law of his by a renewal of the same commands, and in the first place announcing no other duty in so special a manner as being on guard against all making and worshiping of idols; as when by the mouth of David he says, The gods of the nations are silver and gold: they have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and hear not; they have a nose, and smell not; a mouth, and they speak not; hands, and they handle not; feet and they walk not. Like to them shall be they who make them and trust in them.

Therefore, who would not blush, if they had any humanity, to close the day without a number of psalms, when the birds themselves prance about in the sweetness of a psalter as their way of giving thanks? Who would not blush to fail to make his glory resound with the sweetness of verses, when the birds proclaim his praise with the song they sing? Therefore, brother, imitate the tiny birds by rendering thanks to the Maker morning and evening. And if you are more pious, imitate the nightingale; because the day alone does not suffice for speaking praises—it passes through the watches of the night in its all-night song! Therefore, you too overcome the day with your praises and add to your work the courses of the night, and comfort with a series of psalms the sleepless industry of the work you have undertaken! And because I have mentioned these birds which keep watch at night, I do not want you to imitate the owl; although it keeps watch at night, it is nonetheless lazy or blind during the day; with its big eyes it is content with the dark shadows and abhors the splendor of the sun. In a marvelous manner, it finds light in the darkness, but is blinded by the light. That animal is an example of the heretics and heathen. They embrace the shadows of the devil, abhor the light of the Savior, and with the big eyes of their arguments they discern empty matters but do not look towards eternal things. The Lord says about them: They have eyes and yet do not see; they walk in darkness.^[1] Their eyes are keen when it comes to superstition, but are dim when it comes to divine matters; although they think that they fly away by their subtle discourses, nonetheless like true owls they are thrown into confusion by the splendor of the light.