Rejoice, therefore, in the Lord, O you righteous, not when the interests of your home are flourishing, not when you are in good health of body, not when your fields are filled with all sorts of fruits, but when you have the Lord—such immeasurable Beauty, Goodness, Wisdom. Let the joy that is in him suffice for you. . . . For the just person, the divine and heavenly joy is lasting, since the Holy Spirit dwells in him once and for all. But the firstfruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace.^[1] Therefore, rejoice in the Lord, O you just. The Lord is like a place capable of containing the just, and there is every reason for one who is in him to be delighted and to make merry. Moreover, the just person becomes a place for the Lord when he receives God in himself . . . . Let us, then, who are in the Lord and who, as much as we are able, observe closely his wonders, so draw joy to our hearts from the contemplation of them.

Who are the upright? Those who direct their hearts in accordance with the will of God. If human frailty unsettles them, divine tranquility consoles them, for although they may privately in their mortal hearts want something that serves their present purpose, or promotes their business or meets their immediate need, once they have understood and recognized that God wants something different, they prefer the will of One better than themselves to their own, the will of the Almighty to that of a weakling, the will of God to that of a human being. As God is infinitely above his human creatures, so is God’s will far above the will of men and women. This is why Christ took the mantle of humanity, set us an example, taught us how to live and gave us the grace to live as he taught. To this end he let his human will be seen. In his human will he embodied ours in advance, since he is our Head and we all belong to him as his members, as you know well. Father, he said, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.^[1] . . . See yourself reflected in me, Christ says, because you have the capacity to want something on your own account that is at variance with God’s will. This is natural to human frailty, characteristic of human weakness and difficult for you to avoid. But when it happens, think immediately about who is above you. Think of God above you, and yourself below him, of him as your Creator and yourself as his creature, of him as Lord and yourself as servant, of him as almighty and yourself as weak. Correct yourself, subject yourself to his will, and say, Not what I will, but what your will be done, Father.^[2]

The Lord is wise, so by rejoicing in the Lord, the righteous rejoice in wisdom.

Let the unjust dance for joy in this world, by all means; but when this world comes to an end, there will be an end to their dancing. Let the just dance for joy in the Lord, for the Lord abides forever, and so will the exultation of the just.

The harp and the lute are within us, or rather, we ourselves are the instruments when in their likeness we sing by the Lord’s grace through the quality of our actions.

It is necessary to praise the Lord on the harp; that is, to render harmoniously the actions of the body. Since, indeed, we sinned in the body, when we yielded our members as slaves of sin, to lawlessness,^[1] let us give praise with our body, using the same instrument for the destruction of sin. Have you reviled? Bless. Have you defrauded? Make restitution. Have you been intoxicated? Fast. Have you made false pretensions? Be humble. Have you been envious? Console. Have you murdered? Bear witness, or afflict your body with the equivalent of martyrdom through confession. And then, after confession you are worthy to play for God on the ten-stringed psaltery. For it is necessary, first, to correct the actions of our body, so that we perform them harmoniously with the divine Word and thus mount up to the contemplation of things intellectual. . . . One, therefore, who observes all the precepts and makes, as it were, harmony and symphony from them, this one, I say, plays for God an a ten-stringed psaltery.

Take up the psaltery and sing psalms to God on this psaltery with its ten strings. There are ten commandments in the law, and in these ten commandments you find the psaltery. . . . All these commandments are from God. They were granted to us as the gift of divine wisdom and are trumpeted from heaven. Pluck your psaltery, then, and fulfill the law, for the Lord your God came not to supersede it but to bring it to perfect fulfillment.^[1] . . . For the Lord will grant sweetness and our earth shall yield its fruit, so that you are enabled to carry through by love what you found difficult when your motive was fear.

Strip off your oldness; you know a new song. A new person, a New Covenant, a new song. People stuck in the old life have no business with this new song; only those who are new persons can learn it, renewed by grace and throwing off the old, sharers already in the New Covenant, which is the kingdom of heaven. All our love yearns toward that, and in its longing our love sings a new song. Let us sing this new song not with our tongues but with our lives.

The loud noise is a certain inarticulate sound, when those who are fighting side by side in a war shout out in unison with each other. Sing, then, in harmony and in agreement and in union through charity.

Everything done by [God] is firm and permanent. The insertion of both these phrases was necessary in the light of the foregoing: he had to recommend thanksgiving and show the justice of the victory and the permanence of the gift so that the thanksgiving and hymn singing to him would emerge as a response to both, the provision of just assistance and the gift of abiding beneficence. He is saying, then, that both these features characterize what is done by God, and if either is missing, the level of thanksgiving could be diminished. That is to say, if the assistance were unjust, it would not be appropriate to offer thanks on their behalf, even though thanks are due for what is received, or if it underwent rapid change, it thus would be unnecessary to give thanks for good things that do not last.

If you see the heavens, he says, and the order in them, they are a guide to faith, for through themselves they show the Craftsman; and, if you see the orderly arrangement about the earth, again through these things also your faith in God is increased. In fact, it is not by acquiring knowledge of God with our carnal eyes that we believe in him, but by the power of the mind we have perceived the invisible God through visible things. Therefore, all his works are done with faithfulness. Even if you consider the stone, it also possesses a certain proof of the power of its Maker. Likewise, if you consider the ant or the gnat or the bee. Frequently in the smallest objects the wisdom of the Creator shines forth. He who unfolded the heavens and poured out the boundless expanses of the seas, he it is who hollowed out the very delicate sting of the bee like a tube, so that through it the poison might be poured out. Therefore all his works are done with faithfulness. Do not say, This happened by chance and that occurred accidentally. Nothing is casual, nothing indeterminate, nothing happens at random, nothing among things that exist is caused by chance. And do not say, It is a bad mishap, or it is an evil hour. These are the words of the untaught. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?^[1] And yet not one of them will fall^[2] without the divine will. How many are the hairs of your head? Not one of them will be forgotten.^[3] Do you see the divine eye, how none of the least trifles escapes its glance?

This is typical of God, both to show lovingkindness and to judge—to show lovingkindness for those who hope in him and to condemn those who trust in themselves.

Grace and righteousness are characteristic of what is done by God. In other words, he said that loving is characteristic of him, speaking perhaps excessively and meaning that not only does what has been done in the past have these two characteristics, but also he is very fond of doing such things as happen to have these two characteristics.

He places kindness before judgment because God uses kindness, then judgment against those who continue in sin.

The Judge wishes to have mercy on you and to share his own compassion. . . . But if he sees your heart unrepentant, your mind proud, your disbelief of the future life and your fearlessness of the judgment, then he desires the judgment for you, just as a reasonable and kind doctor tries at first with hot applications and soft poultices to reduce a tumor, but, when he sees that the mass is rigidly and obstinately resisting, casting away the olive oil and the gentle method of treatment, he prefers henceforth the use of the knife. Therefore, God loves mercy in the case of those repenting, but he also loves judgment in the case of the unyielding.

Make no mistake, brothers and sisters: in God these two realities cannot be separated. We might think that they are mutually exclusive, so that a person who is merciful is not allowing judgment its rights, while someone who insists on judgment is forgetting mercy. But God is almighty, and he neither loses sight of judgment when exercising mercy nor abandons mercy when passing judgment. He looks mercifully on his image, taking our frailty into account, and our mistakes and our blindness; he calls us, and when we turn back to him, he forgives our sins. But he does not forgive those who refuse to turn back. Is he merciful to the unjust? He has lost sight of judgment, has he? Is he not right to judge between the converted and the unconverted? Or does it seem just to you that the converted and unconverted should receive the same treatment, that one who confesses and one who lies, the humble and the proud, should all be welcomed without distinction? Even as he exercises mercy, God has a place for judgment.

He describes the Lord by telling what he has done or what he does every day. We say that we love the things in which we are often engaged. So here the Lord’s love of mercy is celebrated in song . . . because he often imparts this mercy as a gift. . . . Since in this world he shows his love of mercy when he scatters it far and wide, when he bears with sinners, when he patiently waits for blasphemers, when he offers life to the unworthy and other similar acts that plainly ought to be attributed to divine compassion. . . . What follows is the statement that the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord. It is just this mercy that preserves us when we are miserable, when we struggle in the battle because of the devil’s attack, when we are distracted from the commands of heaven by the weakness of our flesh. . . . Therefore let us seek the mercy with which the entire world is filled.

This present time is the season for mercy, but the season for judgment will come later. Why do we say that this is the season for mercy? Because at this present time God calls those who have turned away from him and forgives their sins when they return; he is patient with sinners until they are converted, and when they are converted at last he forgets everything in their past and promises them a future, encouraging the sluggish, comforting the troubled, guiding the eager and helping the embattled. He deserts no one who struggles and calls out to him; he bestows on us the wherewithal to offer him sacrifice; and he himself gives us the means of winning his favor. Let us not allow this time of mercy to pass away, my brothers and sisters, let it not pass us by. Judgment is coming.

Effort and time on the part of workers was not required: a word was sufficient for creating on his part. He said, Let a firmament be made, and so it was. Let lights be made in the firmament of heaven, and it was.^[1] Such is the surface meaning of the text. True theology, however, gives a glimpse of God the Word with the all-holy Spirit making the heavens and the heavenly powers. The inspired composition of the Old Testament anticipates the Gospel teaching: as the divinely inspired John, the son of thunder, taught the whole world, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things were made through him, and without him was made not one thing that was made.^[2]

Is the preparation of the heavens a matter of time for God, so that a sudden movement of thought crept into his understanding, as if it had been previously inactive and dull, and in a human way he searched for material and instruments for the building of the world? The prophet, however, has a different explanation for the operations of God. The heavens were in need of a command from God in order to be established, for their splendor and power in this stability of their unshakable nature did not arise from the proper blending and mixture of any material but by the breath of the divine mouth.

You see, when it says mouth in these cases, it intends to indicate an operation affecting visible creation, as when it also says hand and feet and the like. Elsewhere, too, Scripture says, The mouth of the Lord said this, in the sense that God revealed what had been determined in our regard; nowhere does the divine Scripture by such corporeal expression describe the Lord’s nature or the creation of invisible nature, such as angels and the like, as in our case it is in the habit of saying, Your hands made me. So by breath of his mouth he means by his decision.

The Trinity is clearly declared here: Lord, Word, Spirit of the Lord.

There is clear demonstration in this verse that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the creators of all things.

If we examine the passage more carefully, he even indicates the holy Trinity here. For by using the term word he reveals the Son, by adding of the Lord he speaks of the Father, and with the phrase by the spirit of his mouth he surely wants the Holy Spirit to be understood, who proceeded from the Father before all time. And in order that you may understand the unity manifest in three persons, he refers to his mouth, rather than their mouths.

By the word we must here understand the Son, through whom, as St. John declares, all things were made. And what is the spirit of his mouth if not the Spirit whom we believe to be holy? Thus, in one text, you have the Lord, the Word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit making the full mystery of the Trinity.

The rule of the truth that we hold is this: There is one God almighty, who created all things through his Word; he both prepared and made all things out of nothing. . . . From this all nothing is exempt. Now, it is the Father who made all things through him, whether visible or invisible, whether sensible or intelligible, whether temporal for the sake of some dispensation or eternal. These he did not make through angels or some powers that were separated from his thought. For the God of all things needs nothing. No, he made all things by his Word and Spirit, disposing and governing them and giving all of them existence. This is the one who made the world, which indeed is made up of all things. This is the one who fashioned humankind. This is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, above whom there is no other God, or a Beginning, or a Power or a Fullness. This is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Where are those who set at naught the Spirit? Where are those who separate it from the creative power? Where are those who dissever it from union with the Father and Son? Let them hear the psalm that says, By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth. The term Word will not be considered as this common form of diction that consists of names and expressions; nor will the Spirit be considered as vapor poured out in the air but as the Word, which was in the beginning with God,^[1] and as the Holy Spirit, which has obtained appellation as its own. As, then, the Creator, the Word, firmly established the heavens, so the Spirit, which is from God, which proceeds from the Father, that is, which is from his mouth (that you may not judge that it is some external object or some creature but may glorify it as having its substance from God) brings with it all the powers in him. . . . Since, then, the Savior is the Word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit from his mouth, both joined with him in the creation of the heavens and the powers in them, and for this reason the statement was made: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth. For nothing is made holy except by the presence of the Spirit.

Now a spirit that is sent, and acts, and strengthens and maintains is not breath that is dissipated any more than the mouth of God is a bodily member. Both in fact are to be understood as appropriately referring to God.

Nothing in the Trinity can be called greater or less, for there is but one fount of deity, who upholds the universe by his word and reason and sanctifies by the spirit of his mouth all that is worthy of sanctification.

Some, however, who have fallen into error, I know not how, worship God’s work instead of God himself—the sun and moon, and the rest of the starry choir—absurdly imagining these, which are but instruments for measuring time, to be gods; for by his word they were established, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

The reasons according to which he dispenses all things individually are stored up only in the knowledge of God. In fact, we learned in another psalm, which said, Thy judgments are a great deep,^[1] that the judgments made about each one are called a deep. Therefore, if you seek to know why the life of a sinner is continued but the days of sojourning of the just are cut short; why the unjust thrive but a just person is afflicted; why the young child is snatched away before coming to maturity; whence are wars; why there are shipwrecks, earthquakes, droughts, heavy rains; why things destructive of people are created; why one person is a slave, another free, one is rich, another is poor (and the difference in sins and in virtuous actions is great; she who was sold to a brothel keeper is in sin by force, but she who immediately obtained a good master grows up with virginity); why this one is treated with kindness and that one condemned; and what is the reward in the case of each of these from the Judge; taking all these questions into your mind, consider that the judgments of God are the depths and, because they are enclosed in the divine storehouses, are not easily grasped by those encountering them. To one who believes, a promise is given by God: I will give you hidden treasures, unseen ones.^[2] When we have been deemed worthy of knowledge face to face, we shall see also the depths in the storehouses of God.

Praise is the movement of the spirit translated from ignorance to virtue and knowledge.

The prophet rightly asks that all things be moved by the Lord, because everything that is arranged by his ordering is always applied to useful matters. But although he had earlier spoken about all things in a general way, he now turns his attention to people. Even though the universe needs to be administered by his command, the human race has the greatest need of such administration; the human race is known to be subject to acts of sin because it has become corrupted from its original nature because of vices that creep into it.

The psalm bids us to exult in the one who has come to earth from heaven, as in one who is set over the entirety, and who has brought the entirety into being from not being and who maintains all things in being, whose command becomes reality. For this is the meaning of the divine words, He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.

The plans of the nations and the councils of the leaders and the understanding of the peoples are tested by the Lord as contrary to his will—who desires all people to come to salvation and truth.^[1]

It is possible to refer these things to the time of Jesus’ passion when they thought that they were crucifying the King of glory, but he through the economy of the cross was renewing humanity. For in the resurrection the counsel of nations, of Pilate and his soldiers, and of whoever was active in the matter of the cross was brought to nought; the counsels of the princes were rejected, and also those of the high priests and scribes and kings of the people. In fact, the resurrection destroyed their every device. . . . Therefore, when you hear someone making great threats and announcing that he will bring on you all sorts of ill treatment, losses, blows or death, look up to the Lord, who brings to nothing the counsels of nations and rejects the devices of the people.

We properly understand his counsel as the secret of the incarnation, since it was known to have been granted in order to provide counsel for the human race. It is not undone in any age, but remains for eternity, because the triumphant death of the Lord forever abolished the destruction brought about by the devil.

Even if a vast number were scheming, while God wanted the opposite, the vast number would be of no significance to the schemes. Even if rulers planned something, the object of their concern would come to nothing, and they would get no benefit from the government or the vast number of the subjects. Then the more important consideration. . . . Not only can [God] render the schemes of others ineffectual, but also he can bring great reliability to his own. Now, thoughts of his heart is a bodily expression by which he refers to God’s determined limit and authoritative decree, as if to say, Such a decision of the Lord is irrevocable.

The Lord’s plan, according to which he grants happiness only to those who submit to him, abides forever. . . . The thoughts of his wisdom are not subject to change but abide forever and ever. . . . Before the world came into being, he saw us, made us, corrected us, sent to us, redeemed us. This is his plan, the plan that abides forever; this is the thought of his heart that endures from age to age.

There is no thought in him that varies with the passing of time nor, like human beings, did he think one way before he made the world, nor does he think another way after he made the world, nor will he think still another way after the appearance of this world has passed away; for the counsel of the Lord stands forever.

One should declare blessed, he is saying, not those priding themselves on their wealth but those trusting in God and enjoying aid from him.

You the people chosen by him are fortunate for the reason that the Lord’s kindness to you is unchanging.

Whatever people do, good or bad, their motive is always to get rid of their misery and win happiness; invariably they want to be happy. People who lead good lives and people who lead bad lives, they all want to be happy; but what they all want does not come the way of all. They all want happiness, but the only ones who will get it are those who want to be just. It may even happen that someone wants to be happy in order to do wrong. And where do people look for happiness? To money, silver and gold, estates, farms, houses, slaves, worldly pomp, the prestige that will swiftly slip away and be lost. They want to be happy by possessing things. . . . He who poured all your gifts on you, who brought you into existence, who bestows on you his sun and his rain in common with all your neighbors even if they are wicked, who gives you crops, springs of water, life, health and immense consolations, he is keeping for you something that he will give to no one else but you. What is this that he is keeping for you? Himself. Ask for something else, if you can think of anything better. God is reserving himself for you. . . . Our happiness, then, will consist in possessing God. How should we understand this? We shall possess him, yes; but will he not also possess us? . . . God both possesses and is possessed, and all this is for our benefit; for although we possess him in order that we may be happy, the converse is not true: he does not possess us in order that he may be happy. He possesses us, and he is possessed by us, to no end other than our happiness.

Consider the lofty spectator; consider him who is bending down regarding the affairs of humankind. Wherever you may go, whatever you may do, whether in the darkness or in the daytime, you have the eye of God watching. From his habitation that he has prepared. The gates are not being opened, the curtains are not being drawn together, the habitation of God is ready for viewing. He looks on all people. No one escapes his sight; no darkness, no concealing walls, nothing is a hindrance to the eyes of God. He is so far from failing to look on each individually that he even looks into the hearts, which he himself formed without any admixture of evil. God, the Creator of humankind, made the heart simple according to his saving image; but later we made it, by union with passions of the flesh, a complicated and manifold heart, destroying its likeness to God, its simplicity and its integrity. Since he is the Maker of hearts, therefore, he understands all our works. But we call both words and thoughts and, in general, every movement of a person, his works. With what feelings or for what purpose they are, whether to please people or to perform the duties of the commands given us by God, he alone knows, who understands all our works. Therefore, for every idle word we give an account.^[1] Even for a cup of cold water, we do not lose our reward,^[2] because the Lord understands all our works.

A person does not look to the Lord, but the Lord looks to a person . . . for when it says and he looks upon, it indicates the graces of the One who shows compassion, for we say that we look upon those to whom we claim that something has been bestowed. Consider that he does not say that sins were looked upon, but people. When he looks upon sins, he punishes, but when he focuses his attention on a person, then he pardons.

From that abode where he took on human nature, the dwelling he made ready for himself. . . . He has looked in mercy on all who dwell in the flesh, willing to be their leader and rule them.

The God of all looks down . . . not as ignorant and anxious to learn but as judging and sentencing. How could the one who made the soul be ignorant of its movements?

Some commentators thought that here blessed David means that he individually formed people’s souls apart from their body, as though hearts meant souls. Whether this is so or not (it is a topic requiring fuller treatment), here it does not have that sense. Rather, their hearts means them, referring to the whole from the part. So he forms them individually means that none of humankind was in existence, as if to say, when they did not exist, he produced them.

God has fashioned the hearts of those to him he has granted the gifts of his understanding. We say that modelers fashion, since they compose forms in accordance with the needs of their work. Likewise, the Lord also forms the minds of the just and sets them in order to guide them to the gifts of his mercy.

One human being sees the actions of another by observing that person’s bodily movements, but God sees within the heart. And because he sees inwardly, the psalm says, He has understood all their actions. Suppose two people give alms to the poor: one is seeking a heavenly reward in doing so, the other seeks human approval. You see the same action in both cases, but God understands the two as different, for he understands what is within and appraises what is within; he sees their purposes, he sees their intentions.

Nothing done by human beings can escape [God’s] attention, since he is the creator of the thoughts’ inner chamber, namely, the heart. In fact, this was the meaning, completely consistent with what went before: Blessed are you who are devoted to him who conducts an examination of everything that is done; instead of anything escaping his notice, he has a precise knowledge of everything.

The demons do not know our hearts, as some people think, for the Lord alone is knower of hearts,^[1] who knows the mind of human beings^[2] and who alone fashioned their hearts.^[3] Rather, [demons] recognize the many mental representations that are in the heart on the basis of a word that is expressed and movements of the body.

When we fail to remember the one who formed each one of us in the womb, and formed all our hearts individually and understands all our works, we do not perceive that God is a helper of those who are lowly and inferior, a protector of the weak, a shelterer of those who have been given up in despair and Savior of those who have been given up as hopeless.

Only [God] can cure our hearts, he who alone created our hearts and perceives all our deeds. He alone has the power to enter into our conscience, touch our thoughts and comfort our soul. And if he does not console our hearts, all that people may do is superfluous and unprofitable. Just as when God comforts and pacifies us again, even if people greatly disturb us with myriad troubles, they will be unable to injure us in anything, for when he strengthens our heart, no one is able to shake it.

The king is not saved through much strength. In vain we care for the strength of the body, and we rashly judge our power from the ones near us, friends and money: for nothing except help sent from heaven is able to save us. Take the example from Goliath or Pharaoh. He, a giant, although he was the strongest, was overcome easily by the simple boy David. The other [Pharaoh] pursued Israel with large chariots and a multitude of horses; he has the sea for a grave.

All things that are at once human, when compared with the true power, are weakness and infirmity.

All of us should be looking to the Lord, all of us should be grounded in God. Let God be your life, let God be your strength, let God be your constancy, let him be the focus of your most earnest entreaty, let him be the object of your praise, let him be the end in which you find rest, let him be your helper when you are tackling hard work.

You will not be safe any more than the man who trusted in his own horse, of whom it was sung, He cast the horse and its rider into the sea.^[1] The horse failed to save him. And so even if you are a giant in courage you are not safe in your own strength.

For the eyes of the Lord are not looking on those trusting in their own strength but those hoping in his mercy. He will snatch their spirits from death and shelter them.

He who does not trust in his own good deeds or expect to be justified by his works has, as his only hope of salvation, the mercies of God. For, when he considers that the expression Behold the Lord and his reward^[1] refers to each according to his work, and when he ponders his own evil deeds, he fears the punishment and cowers beneath the threats. There is good hope that gazes steadfastly at the mercies and kindness of God lest it be swallowed up by grief. He hopes that his soul will be delivered from death and will be fed by him in famine.^[2]

If it is salvation that you seek, be aware that the elective love of the Lord rests on those who fear him and trust in his mercy, rather than putting their hope in their own strength.

God is said to watch over the just, that he may maintain and protect them. Watchfulness by his gracious divinity is the function of his relationship with people.

Those who fear him, those who hope for his mercy, he saves from spiritual death and nourishes in a spiritual way, that they may also say, Let your mercy be on us, Lord, as we have hoped in you.

These are the two prayers of the most faithful Christian: to be rescued from eternal death at the coming judgment and to spend time here with spiritual nourishment. The Lord rescues the souls of the just from death when he raises them from the power of the devil, when by his kindness he frees those held captive by sin. In hunger, he feeds them while they are in this world, when there is a lack of good things. He does not cease to nourish with spiritual food those whom he has redeemed.

When the psalmist says he waits, he indicates the endurance of the Christian . . . since it is endurance that makes the martyrs glorious, that watches over the good things of our faith, that conquers everything that stands against us, not by fighting against God’s will, but by enduring, not by complaining, but by giving thanks. Endurance suppresses deceptive luxury, it overcomes the heat of anger, it removes the jealousy that lays waste the human race, it renders people gentle, it smiles appropriately at the kind, and it sets the cleansed in good order for the rewards that are to come. Endurance wipes away the dregs of every pleasure; it makes souls appear bright. Through endurance we serve as God’s soldiers, through it we conquer the devil, through it we arrive as the blessed to his heavenly kingdom, for it is written, in your endurance you will gain possession of your souls.^[1]

[God] is always helping and providing us with salvation. The term protector, you see, is a metaphor from those thrusting their own shields among the enemy and by protection from these often sheltering others and freeing them from every disaster.

Even in this hour, we are hungry and thirsty and naked, yet our spirits act patiently and are not disturbed, for the Lord sustains us. He is our helper and protector, and, as it says in the heading of the psalm, we are commanded to rejoice in the Lord, righteous ones, let your heart be joyful in him, and hope in his holy name. He brings his mercy over us as we hope in him.

The heart of the righteous does not delight in food and drink but in justice, knowledge and wisdom.

Not in ourselves, where there is nothing but vast penury without him, but in him will our heart rejoice. . . . This is why we have hoped that we shall reach the Lord: while we are still at a distance he has put his own name on us through our faith.