The present psalm, attributed to Asaph, is in keeping with the previous psalm: it also forecasts the judgment to come and the manifestation of our God and Savior. But it forecasts as well the New Testament, showing worship according to the Law to be unacceptable to God.

Here the divine prediction clearly prophesies that God will come manifestly, meaning none other but the Word of God. And it shows the reason of his coming, again emphasizing the calling of all nations of the world. For it says, he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to the setting; and it teaches that the rejection of the outward worship according to the Mosaic law will follow hard after his manifestation and the calling of the Gentiles, a worship that actually ceased after the manifestation of the Word of God to all people. For from that day to this all people throughout all the world have been called, and all the nations of the east and west. And the former worship has ceased and been abolished, all people being called to worship according to the new covenant of the preaching of the gospel, and not according to the law of Moses. We might also apply these prophecies to our Savior’s second and glorious coming.

His charm, in fact, was evident from [Zion] even in the Old Testament. I mean, the temple, the Holy of Holies, all the worship and the living of the old legislation, the multitude of priests, sacrifices, whole burnt offerings, sacred hymns and psalmody and everything stemming from it—the type of things to come from this was sketched out ahead of time. But when the reality arrived, it took its beginning from there as well. From there shone out the cross. . . . There occurred the resurrection, there the ascension, there the prelude and commencement of our salvation, there the ineffable teachings began to be proclaimed. There the Father was first revealed, the Only-begotten known and the wonderful grace of the Spirit given. And there the apostles took the first steps of preaching about spiritual matters, about the gifts, the powers, the promise of good things to come. Considering all this, the inspired author calls it his maturity. God’s beautiful maturity, you see, is his goodness and lovingkindness and his beneficence to all people.

Our God will come openly. Our God is Christ. Christ will come openly in the flesh. We, therefore, understand that openly means in the flesh. And this flesh is perceived by the senses.

He presents his whole discourse as if God personally were present and judging, thus his addition of he will not keep silence, that is, he will choose to judge the judges in no other way than by personal inspection and as though by his very presence. Then, to bring out that he arrives in retribution and as a cause of deep fear, attended by sanctions like bodyguards, he goes on, A fire will burn in his presence, with a severe storm around him: just as the rulers of the earth have heralds going ahead to inspire submission with their shouting, so too God comes in person with fire going ahead and a severe storm to inspire fear in those due to be judged. By storm he refers to a power capable of drawing down to hades.

This storm will effect the winnowing that will separate every trace of impurity from the saints, all pretense from the faithful and every dismissive or proud person from the devout who tremble at God’s word.

He will surely come openly to judge the age through fire. Fire will burn in his countenance, and around him will be strong storms. Then apostles, martyrs and teachers will be gathered, those who have ordained his covenant over sacrifices. These will become the apostles, teachers and advisors in the present. These are the heavens who proclaim the glory of God. Then when God begins to judge they announce his righteousness and his mercy.

God came in a visible manner, and was made flesh and hung on the tree, that he might sum up all things in himself. . . . He is the Word of God, and very man, communicating with invisible beings after the manner of the intellect and appointing a law observable to the outward senses, that all things should continue each in its own order; and he reigns manifestly over things visible and pertaining to people; and he brings in just judgment and worth on all; as David also, clearly pointing to this, says, Our God shall openly come and will not keep silence. Then he shows also the judgment that is brought in by him, saying, A fire shall burn in his sight, and a strong tempest shall rage round about him. He shall call on the heaven from above, and the earth, to judge his people.

Do not think the second coming will be like his first: at that time he concealed his characteristic magnificence in lowliness and poverty, whereas in this case he will reveal plainly to everyone his lordship and kingship, no longer employing long-suffering but judging justly. As he said, he will not keep silence. A fire will burn in his presence, with a severe storm around him. Blessed Daniel had a vision of this: A river of fire, he says, was flowing in front of him, his throne a fiery flame, its wheels flaming fire.

On arriving in an obvious manner, then, with fire and storm as his bodyguards, God will summon everyone from all quarters as if to appoint those present as witnesses of the judgment. So whom does he summon? The heavenly powers from on high (the sense of above) and the whole earth from below, and he will hold court on them.

On this score the other inspired authors leveled their accusations, remember, that they had bypassed the more important element of virtue and were resting their hope of salvation in these things. . . . Yet many are the words spoken about sacrifices, whereas the law about them was passed not because his wish was preeminently for such things but because he was showing considerateness for their limitations. . . . God should be worshiped, after all, not with fumes and smells but with an impeccable lifestyle, not bodily but of the mind. The demons of the foreigners were not inclined this way, however; rather, they even looked for these things. A poet of the Greeks even seems to be suggesting as much in saying, It is by the will of the gods, you see, we obtain this portion.^[1] But our God is not like that: whereas those gods thirsted for human blood and in their desire to lead them into this bloodguiltiness constantly made such demands, our God by contrast wanted to remove them gradually even from the slaughter of brute beasts and so employed this considerateness in allowing sacrifices so as to abolish sacrifices.

I do not accuse you of neglect of sacrifices, he is saying: you offer them continually; rather, I urge you not to confine righteousness to them.

Now what is a holocaust? A sacrifice entirely consumed by fire. This is what the word means. . . . So a holocaust is a sacrifice completely burned up. But there is another kind of fire: the fire of intense, ardent charity. May our minds be inflamed with charity, and may charity take possession of all our members for its own purposes, not allowing them to fight in the service of our wayward desires. Anyone who wants to offer a whole burnt offering to God must be wholly on fire with divine love. These are the kinds of whole burnt offerings that are before me always.

The Jews, hearing these things, did not believe, and they doubted they were able to happen. Now the word is proven. They no longer have the place of their sacrifice, since the temple has been destroyed, the altar collapsed and all their administration carried away, even the city overturned, in which it was necessary to sacrifice according to law.

He is foretelling the New Covenant, under which all those old sacrifices have ceased. They had a part to play in prefiguring a special sacrifice that was to come, by the blood of which we would be cleansed.

All created things are under the providence of God. Does not even one sparrow fall without the Father who is in heaven knowing?

If you are my servant, all your personal property belongs to me. If even the property a slave has gained for himself belongs to his master, it cannot be the case that the property the Master has created for the servant does not belong to its Creator.

God’s knowledge is one thing, human knowledge another, just as God’s manner of possessing is one thing and a human being’s way of possessing quite different. You do not own anything in the same way that God owns it. What you possess is not entirely in your power: as long as your ox is alive it is not in your power to decide that he will not die or will not graze. But in God there is supreme power, and there is supreme and secret knowledge. We must attribute this to God, and praise God for it. . . . So profound is God’s knowledge that created things were in some indescribable manner present to him before they had been created; and do you think he is waiting to receive anything from you, when he possessed it even before he had created it? . . . All things that would come to be in the future were with him, and all things that have been in the past are with him; but the future things are with him in such a way that they do not push the past things out of his sight. All things are established with him through a mode of knowing proper to God’s ineffable wisdom in the Word, and all of them are created for the Word. . . . Everything is with him, the whole of creation is with him, but not with him in such a way that he is contaminated by anything he has made or suffers any need for his creatures. You may have a pillar beside you as you stand there, and when you feel tired you lean against it. You need that thing you have with you, but God does not need the field that is with him. With him is the field, with him the loveliness of the earth, with him the fair heavens and with him all the birds, because he is present everywhere. And why are they all present to him? Because before ever they came to be, before they were created, all of them were known to him.

Although he had respect to the offerings of Abel and smelled a sweet savor from the whole burnt offering of Noah, yet what pleasure could he receive from the flesh of sheep or the odor of burning victims? And yet the simple and God-fearing mind of those who offered what they were receiving from God, both in the way of food and of a sweet smell, was favorably accepted before God, in the sense of respectful homage to God, who did not so much want what was offered as that which prompted the offering.

Though I am Lord and Master of everything, I am ready to accept from you what is mine so as to win you over to love of me.

Be as companions of angels. Imitate the seraphim in glory. Tell the glory of God to the heavens; offer the burnt offering while one praises God continuously. Perhaps sacrifice of praise means virtues through which God is praised, that is, blessed and glorified, especially when he said to the apostles, Let your light shine before all people.^[1]

Praise, in fact, is nothing other than commendation, glory and blessing. So let your life be of such a kind as to bless your Master, and you have performed the perfect sacrifice.

The Master, brothers, has need of nothing at all. He desires not anything of anyone, save to confess to him. 1

God desires and seeks nothing more from us than that, through our actions, his name is magnified by all, as it is written: Offer to God the sacrifice of praise. This is the sacrifice that God seeks and loves in preference to all victims, namely, that through the works of our justice, his name may be glorified everywhere and that, by the actions and works of his servants, he may be proved to be the true God. They love God in truth who perform only actions by which his name may be glorified.

This is what I need, for you to be grateful, offering thanks and praise for what you receive from me—not because I need this, but out of longing for you to be appreciative, so that I may have occasion to give you further favors.

This is a sacrifice that cost us nothing, given to us gratis! I did not buy what I must offer; you gave it to me, for I could never have found it for myself. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise. The offering of this sacrifice of praise consists in giving thanks to him from whom you have every good thing you have, to him by whose mercy whatever evil you have from yourself is forgiven you. . . . The Lord delights in this sweet fragrance.

Offer me this sacrifice of praise. That is, offer yourself as a victim to me, taking pains to live in thanksgiving to me and devoting yourself totally to me. . . . Pray always to me about everything; render me this and perform it. The phrase pray to me about everything means, consider me responsible for all your good things, and receive from me all that is at any time good, no one being able to pray unless persuaded of this. . . . It will be no idle conjecture for you, since with this attitude you will, even if calling in the midst of afflictions, be heard and will attain what you aspire to, and so will take occasion from the beneficence to give even greater glory.

The fact, he is saying, that you take pains to read the law, mouth the words of its stipulations, and listen carefully to its being read is no excuse. It only sets me more against you, your knowing the law, listening to the commandments and putting them on your lips while in practice pursuing the opposite, the result being that the reading is useless for you. Instead, listening to me when I speak and give commands in the law is an insult to me when there is utter neglect of me in practice.

For even though he speaks the truth, the deceiver is not worthy of credit.

Discipline is the moderation of the emotions.

Not only do you not show any benefit from the teaching of the law, but even what you have by nature you have mutilated. The reasoning for what should be done and should not be done is set within us by nature, but you rejected it and had no recollection of it.

To declare the justices and the covenant of the Lord and not to do the same thing that the Lord did, what else is that but to cast aside his words and to despise the discipline of the Lord and to commit not earthly but spiritual robberies and adulteries? For one who steals from evangelical truth the words and deeds of our Lord both corrupts and adulterates the divine teaching.

Most people, after all, do not simply give a verdict on their behavior from their own judgment but are also corrupted by the support of others. If sinners see everyone opposed, they believe they have committed some great crime; but if they see them not only showing no anger or irritation but exhibiting tolerance and joining forces with them, the tribunal of their conscience is then corrupted because the verdict of the majority supports their corrupt attitude. So what crime will they not attempt? When, on the contrary, will they condemn themselves and give up sinning unscrupulously? Thus it is essential that, in the case of people committing sin, they condemn themselves (this, you see, being the path to refraining from wickedness), and even if not practicing good, commend the good. The path to performance, after all, is willingness. Yet in this case, since there have been accomplices in crime, it is appropriate to apply the goad with great severity. After all, if evil flourishes to this extent even when reproved, and virtue, even when commended, has difficulty summoning its practitioners to the effort required, what would happen if these conditions did not apply?

But you suffered wrong at his hands: why, then, do wrong to yourself? Those who take revenge, after all, strike themselves with a sword. I mean, if you want to do yourself a favor and have revenge on him, speak well of the wrongdoer; in this way you will turn many people into accusers in your place and earn yourself a great reward, whereas if you speak ill of him, you will not be believed, being suspected of bias. And so the results of your exertion go in the opposite direction: whereas you are anxious to undermine his reputation, the opposite happens; it is by commendation, not accusation, that this happens, you see. You bring yourself into disrepute, while your shafts in his direction are wide of the mark. Bias in fact is the impression on the mind of the listeners, not allowing your words to gain entry to their ears. The same thing happens as in judicial objections: when someone raises an objection to evidence in court, the whole process is put on hold. Exactly so, in this instance, suspicion of bias prevents the case becoming admissible. Do not speak ill, accordingly, in case the black mark attaches to you, and instead of preparing mud with clay and bricks, you weave for him wreaths from roses, violets and other flowers. And do not bear dung in your mouth, like beetles (this is what slanderers do, you know: they are the first to be affected by the stench), but bear flowers, like the bees, and make honeycombs like them, and be gentle to everybody. Everyone feels revulsion for slanderers like a bad smell, as if they were some bloodsucker, fed on others’ problems like a beetle on dung; with the person bearing a word of commendation, on the other hand, everyone associates like a member of their own body, their own brother, their son, their father.

Beware also of a blabbing tongue and of itching ears. Neither detract from others nor listen to detractors. . . . Keep your tongue from caviling, and watch over your words. Know that in judging others you are passing sentence on yourself and that you are yourself guilty of the faults that you blame in them. It is no excuse to say, If others tell me things, I cannot be rude to them. No one cares to speak to an unwilling listener. An arrow never lodges in a stone: often it recoils on the shooter of it. Let the detractor learn from your unwillingness to listen not to be so ready to detract.

I saw these crimes committed by you, I practiced long-suffering, I waited for your repentance. But you took even my long-suffering as an excuse for impiety, guessing that I was pleased with your lawlessness and would not inflict punishment. . . . Since you were not cured by the mild remedy of long-suffering, I shall prepare more painful ones for you and apply burning by censure. Now, this is in keeping with those words of the apostle, Do you not realize that the goodness of God leads you in the direction of repentance, but by your obduracy and unrepentant heart you store up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath, revelation and just judgment of God, who will repay everyone according to their works.^[1]

The Savior comes again, but not to be judged again, for he will pass judgment on those who passed judgment on him, and he who aforetime kept silence as they judged him now reminds those lawless people who did their outrageous deeds to him on the cross and says, These things have you done, and I kept silence. He adapted himself when he came then and taught people by persuasion, but this time it is they who will be forced to bow to his rule, whether they will or no.

Give careful thought, he is saying, to each of my words; and you who suffer forgetfulness of God—forgetfulness of God being a source of sin—cure your wounds with the remedies of repentance before you are carried off by death, which like a lion falls on human beings, no one capable of checking its fierce assault.

Who among us is of such measure and kind to offer to God salutary sacrifices and a sacrifice of praise? I believe that one to be a person who praises God in all his actions and fulfills through him what our Lord and Savior says: That people may see your good works and praise your Father who is in heaven.^[1] Therefore, this one offered a sacrifice of praise for whose deeds, doctrine, word, habits and discipline, God is praised and blessed. Just as, on the contrary, there are those of whom it is said, Through you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles.^[2]

Let us . . . earnestly strive to be found in the number of those that wait for him, in order that we may share in his promised gifts. But how, beloved, shall this be done? If our understanding is fixed by faith toward God; if we earnestly seek the things that are pleasing and acceptable to him; if we do the things that are in harmony with his blameless will; and if we follow the way of truth, casting away from us all unrighteousness and iniquity, along with all covetousness, strife, evil practices, deceit, whispering and evil speaking, all hatred of God, pride and haughtiness, vainglory and ambition. For they that do such things are hateful to God; and not only they that do them, but also those that take pleasure in them that do them. 1