There is no need to repeat again and again what is meant by to the end, for Christ is the end of the law, bringing justification to everyone who believes, as the apostle Paul says.^[1]

The theme refers to Sennacherib at the time when he sent the Rabshakeh to prevail on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, make war on them, take them captive and make them slaves of the king of the Assyrians, namely, Sennacherib.

There is no God. There is no foundation, then how does the building stand? There is no keel, then how does the ship stabilize? There is no captain, then how is the ship readied? There is no builder, then how is the house built? There is no architect, then who founded the city? There is no farmer, then how do the fields bear their bundles? There is no music, then how can there be the harmony on the lyre of the world? There is no one to foresee, then how does foreknowledge permeate everything? There is no charioteer, then how is the chariot of the four elements driven? There is no sculptor, then how are statues of people in the world crafted? There are no builders of arches, then who has built the arch of heaven for you? There is no gold worker, then who has placed the golden disc sun in heaven as on a table? There is none who brings a torch, then who gave the moon of the night to you as a silver torch? There is none who brings light, and who has given to you a light with clear splendor? There is none who alone makes great lights, then who has put the ascending lamps of the stars in the sky for you? . . . Is there no Creator about whom the creature testifies?

Some have denied that there is a divine spirit altogether. They have openly professed that God is not the ruler of everything, that his name is nothing but empty and that he is of no substance. Others worship gods who do not exist, denying him who is God alone. Some suggest that indeed there is a God in name, but they contend that he does not oversee earthly matters or look on human affairs. In summary, therefore, all these people have come together into the single position of atheism (godlessness), believing that there is no God. Since they are not bold enough to announce this openly, they persuade themselves in their hearts, being foolish and senseless in the matter of truth, that God does not exist. (A natural understanding about God and the innate seeds of the instinct drive all of them to confess a recognition of God; they are not so bold to deny this fact with their lips, so they pretend to recognize him not as the only God but as an innumerable plurality.) . . . Their godless position is brought to light from their works (as indeed a tree is judged by its fruit), with their villainy and a way of living like it. They have poisoned their own spirit, betraying it to their bodies with whatever corruption, and as men act in madness with men and through whatever other monstrous and abominable acts, they defile their own selves. In this way it was shown that even if they mustered ten thousand gods, even if they blared out with their lips and confessed God governs all things, in their hearts, and really in their minds, there is not the least recognition of God. Such, therefore, was the life of these people before the advent of our Savior.

It was the fool who said through Pharoah, I have not known this God; and the depth of the sea became a tomb for him. The fool said through Sennecharib, God is not able to snatch Hezekiah from my hands, and he was killed by his sons. The fool said through Nebuchadnezzar, Who is this God who can snatch you from my hand? Who is the most powerful of men?. . . Judas the denier of God was destroyed by a noose because he had deemed God as a man to be betrayed.

The fact that God exists is not doubted by those who accept the sacred Scriptures—both the Old and New Testaments, I mean—or by the majority of the Greeks, for, as we have said, the knowledge of God’s existence has been revealed to us through nature. However, since the wickedness of the evil one has so prevailed over people’s nature as even to drag some of them down to the most unspeakable and extremely wicked abyss of perdition and to make them say that there is no God, . . . then the Lord’s disciples and apostles, made wise by the all-Holy Spirit, did by his power and grace show signs from God and draw up those people alive in the net of their miracles from the depths of the ignorance of God to the light of his knowledge.

[Like the Assyrian army in the days of Hezekiah], all will come to know through experience the one fighting against them; fear will strike them from a source they did not expect. I mean, who would have thought they would be destroyed by an angel? That God cares for the Jews? Those who mocked the counsel of poor and lowly Hezekiah for trusting in God rather than arms will realize that the one who made himself dependent on God enjoyed a hope that was not disappointed.

This statement [about fools] is directly followed by one pointing out that their actions correspond with their thoughts: They are corrupt, and their behavior is evil. The unrighteous person corrupts his body in every possible way: stealing, committing adultery, cursing, getting drunk, and doing similar things. . . . Count on it: those who are fools in their thoughts will do wicked deeds. As the Lord said [to the Pharisees], How can you speak good things when you are evil?^[1] And they truly were evil, because their thoughts were wicked.

They are corrupt. By turning away from the sound thinking found in the Scriptures, they show that they have fallen into corrupt patterns of thought. The punishment for sin comes next. Defiled by their despicable unbelief, they become abominable to the Lord by their errors.

They are corrupt—wounded and rotten, smelling rank, seeping foulness and poison, not seeking medicine. They become abominable like pigs rolling in the mud of sin; like dogs returning to vomit, they run with rage. . . . Because they have despised the thinking of God, pious people despise them. They are corrupt like worm-infested garments, as rusted iron, as those who have touched death and the ashes of dead bones. . . . There is no one who does good, not one.^[1] Not Herod killing innocent babies, not the Jew who called Jesus Beelzebub when he cast out demons, not the one endeavoring to keep the law perfectly, not priests acting dishonorably, not scribes writing for naught, not Pharisees pressing and pushing rules, not Sadducees debating, not Judas selling him, not the master boxing the slave’s ear, not Pilate condemning him, not the people shouting. . . . There is no one who speaks good, when all the disciples fled as they abandoned him. John ran off naked. Peter denied him, the disciples fled, the spear of doubt pierced the soul of Mary. There was no one who showed the fruit of love in his suffering. . . . Even after his death, the soldier pierced his side. . . . Surely he has visited us and wants to save, but none desires to be shown the medicine.

We cannot do good unless we have come to Christ through God’s mercy. For when we approach him and do not turn away from him, without a doubt every good is performed. This is the end that was promised in the heading of the psalm.

When you hear the Lord looks down from heaven, think not of his divine and incorporeal nature that he has bowed and bent down, or has bent his knee or nodded his head, but realize his visitation, forgiveness and kindness. Although he is said to have a head, ears, eyes, mouth and hands, and to sit and to rise, yet he is not altogether constituted of members and parts. So he does not literally look down but shows his own mercy. He looks down from heaven, not through fences and gates in the sky, but because from heaven he has visited humankind. . . . He sees them to serve them and to embrace them as a friend. . . . He appears to them who have faith in him in order that he may see who is sick and who needs the doctor and who is poor and who requires Christ, the storehouse of the Father. . . . Then after they see the Lord of the prophets has looked down from heaven so that he may see, . . . they say, It is not enough, Lord, that you look down from heaven. Descend. . . . Come, . . . Son of the Father. Seek what is made in your image.

Everywhere they all have turned to tyranny. They no longer cling to the prophets. Come, King, appear, and they will fear your authority. All have turned from the ways of the prophets. Come, O Way, and lead back those who have wandered away. . . . Humankind was created right by God, . . . but they have turned away by choice to evil. . . . They have turned away from their right nature. . . . There is no one who does good, no, not one. From head to foot, from rich to poor, the whole world grows sick.

What do they know? That God is an avenger. He is coming as judge of the living and the dead. They know that he is going to return to each one according to his works. . . . And what do they not know? That God looks down from heaven. What do they not know? That those who do evil displease him. What do they not know? They do not wish to know the ways of God. . . . And now there are wars, pestilence and volcanoes [earthquakes]. Many never come to their senses concerning their sins, and they are punished with threatening evils. What do they not know? The will of God, his good and celestial promises, his treasures, the delights of paradise, eternal life.

It was right to show openly the magnitude of the disease that lingered with sinister purpose for all people before the advent of the Savior: as it was manifested to all, his sojourn on earth became straightforwardly necessary. As all have sinned, all lacked the glory of God, and now they are all justified by his grace.

Such people will never learn from experience what a harsh thing it is to do wrong to the Lord’s people, so bitter are they toward us as to wish to treat us like a meal of bread. . . . Since they are ready to swallow us raw, then, and do not have the Lord before their eyes, fear will overtake them from a quarter where they do not expect it.

Like the general over the soldiers and the king over the senate, God is over the generation of the righteous. . . . If God is in the midst of two or three, how much more is he found in the generation of the righteous where there is a battle-free life, a lack of sadness, rest and inheritance and a kingdom without end.

These words that are now put forth can be understood in my opinion in light of the Jews trying to upset the plan of the Savior, because they thought that he was lacking power. They did not consider carefully the treasure of his divinity. So they always contradicted his teaching, and the power of his miracles they misrepresented as not from divine power but as having been worked through some other source.

Who will give Israel salvation out of Zion? We must supply, other than the one whose humility you have despised? For he himself will come in glory to judge the living and the dead and to usher in the kingdom of the just. This would mean that, as by his coming in humility blindness fell on part of Israel until the full tally of the Gentiles should come in, so, by that glorious coming, the rest of the prophecy may come true and all Israel be saved. For the apostle takes as reference to the Jews that testimony of Isaiah where it is said, From Zion shall come the one who will turn away ungodliness from Jacob,^[1] as though it were an answer to the question in this psalm, Who will give Israel salvation out of Zion?