There is a difference here in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew reading . . . means for the death . . . for the death, therefore, of the Son, as the Hebrew text has it.

This psalm . . . contains a prophecy of Christ the Lord’s victory over death: having bravely and vigorously conquered sin without giving death any occasion of capture, he brought to an end its dominion. Now, the Septuagint called this mystery secret, since it escaped the notice of everyone, including the apostles themselves. The Evangelist is witness to this frequent statement of the Lord to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be handed over to be crucified, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise; and the Evangelist added, And this was hidden from their eyes.^[1] . . . It was proper, therefore, for the Septuagint to call the Son’s death a secret.

This ninth psalm has been divided into two in the Hebrew. That is likely to be the case, since this psalm seems to have two themes. Its first part contains thanksgiving for God’s ransoming them from neighbors and enemies against the odds at different times, whereas the other part of the psalm levels a clear accusation against the disdainful treatment by the wealthy of the poor members of the people.

Whoever entertains doubts about God’s providence in any particular does not confess to God with a whole heart. Wholehearted confession is, rather, the mark of the person who already discerns the hidden things of the wisdom of God, and how great is his invisible reward, the person who says, We even rejoice in our sufferings.^[1] Such people understand that all the hardships that are imposed on the body either offer training to those who have turned to God, or warn them to turn or else prepare the stubborn for the final and just judgment; and so they see that all things that the foolish think happen somehow by chance and at random, without any divine direction, are to be referred to the guidance of divine providence.

It is characteristic of the perfect to dedicate their whole heart to God and to consecrate their whole mind to him. You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, Scripture says, with your whole soul, with your whole strength and with your whole mind.^[1] Those who divide their thoughts between mammon and God, between Christ and gold, between the present and the future life, cannot truthfully say, I shall confess to you, O Lord, with all my heart.

This . . . is pleasure properly speaking; at least as far as all other things are concerned, they are pleasure in name only, bereft of substance. This lifts human beings above this world, this liberates the soul from the body, this gives it wings in heaven’s direction, this elevates it above worldly things, this gives freedom from evil, and rightly so. . . . After all, people loving those other things are quickly if unwillingly brought to a point of oblivion since what they love perishes and wastes away. By contrast, this love is infinite, everlasting, possessing the greater pleasure and the greater gain; furthermore, the lover is encouraged by the fact that this will never be destroyed.

Not now in this age, not in the pleasure of bodily caresses, not in the flavors of the palate and the tongue, not in sweet scents, not in pleasant sounds that fade away, not in beautifully colored objects, not in the vanities of human praise, not in matrimony and offspring that one day will die, not in the abundance of temporal riches, not in this world’s getting, whether it extend in space or be prolonged in the succession of time; but in you I will rejoice and exult, that is, in the hidden things of the Son, where the light of your face, O Lord, has been stamped on us. For indeed you will hide them, says a psalmist, in the hidden recess of your face.^[1]

This is a particular habit of a lover. Those in love, you know, sing songs to their beloved; even if they are not in sight, they comfort themselves with the song. That is just what the inspired author does. Since it is not possible to see God, he composes songs to him, holding converse with him in song, stirring up desire and gaining the impression of seeing him—or, rather, stirring up the desire of many people through the singing of hymns and songs. In other words, just as lovers recite the praises of their beloved and bandy their names about, exactly so does he.

Now, notice how he proclaims God’s strength: They will lose heart and perish before your face. Once more, on hearing face, do not form an impression of anything bodily. At this point, in fact, he is suggesting God’s power, his manifestation, the facility of his strength. Just as he says elsewhere, He gazes on the earth and makes it tremble, so here too he says the same thing. His gaze, you see, is sufficient to destroy his enemies.

These things, he said, I will assuredly do when my enemies are turned back. But who is such an enemy unless it is death, the enemy of life about which it is said, You knew the enemy death will be destroyed. Destruction will be Death’s end when he is turned back. But back where, unless the return into the pristine condition when he did not exist? For God did not make death, but through the envy of the devil, death entered into the world. When, therefore, as death is turned back, it will no longer be, then all the rest of the enemies will be enfeebled and the enemies of your Word will be destroyed before your face.

He speaks in rather human terms by mentioning throne and seat, whereas the phrase giving right judgment is customary with God and expresses something remarkable of his essence. I mean, it is not something you can say in connection with human beings. They do not consistently give right judgments, you see, even if they are righteous over and over, ignorant as they are of what is righteous, sometimes from incompetence, sometimes from laziness. God, on the contrary, is free of all these impediments; knowing and willing a righteous verdict, he delivers it. So the phrase you have sat on your throne means God has judged, prosecuted, taken vengeance.

The same prophet showed elsewhere the difference between the present and future judgment of God. What did he say to the Lord about the verdict of the immediate trial? You have sat on the throne, you who judge justice. And what of God’s future and everlasting judgment? He shall judge the people in justice.^[1] By these words, he distinguished the time element between the present and the future judgments of God. To point to our present judgment, he wrote, You judge, and to distinguish the future from the present he later added, He shall judge.

You see how he has no need of weapons—sword, bows, arrows; rather, those things are mentioned in more human fashion. After all, God has only to censure, and those destined for punishment perish.

What is the age of the age, if not that of which this age is a kind of image and shadow? The cycle of times that succeed each other, while the moon wanes and again waxes full, while the sun each year finds its height again, while the spring, or summer, or autumn or winter passes only to return—all this is a kind of imitation of eternity. But the age of this age is that which consists in unchangeable eternity. It is like a verse that exists in the mind and a verse that is spoken. The former is understood, the latter is heard; and the former regulates the latter. That is why the former is effective in art and endures, whereas the latter sounds in the air and is gone. Likewise the mode of being of this changeable world is defined by that unchangeable world, which is spoken of as the age of this age. And for this reason the latter endures in the art, that is, in the wisdom and power of God; but the other is carried on through the providential administration of the created order.

From here on, the most sacred second advent of the Lord is explained, when unbelieving nations will be rebuked and the devil with his schemes will perish forever. For when the Lord is present, all things will be peaceful, and the devil’s feisty depravity will no longer remain. . . . The word forever indicates the Lord’s coming kingdom which will not end in any age or time. . . . Therefore let the heretics stop saying that at some point the devil and his followers can be summoned back to grace, since they hear so clearly that they will be condemned forever and ever so that not even a trace of their name is able to remain.

The expression you have rebuked indicates correction: You have blotted out his name. God blotted out the name Abram, making it Abraham, and Sarai, calling her Sarah, and Simon, naming him Peter. And thus it follows, the name of those are blotted out whom he has rebuked. . . . Observe, however, that it is not said, You have blotted out their names from the book of the living . . . but from the pledges that had been signed in the book of debtors or in the book of the dead among the household of the wicked; thus he inscribes the dead, and he registers their names on the earth. The Savior will inscribe the names of his disciples in the heavens.

The swords of the enemy have given way at the end. These swords . . . are to be understood as various misguided opinions by which the devil destroys souls.

From there by his grace [the apostles] were scattered abroad among all nations and preached the orthodox faith, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all the commandments of the Savior. So they gave light to the people that wandered in darkness and abolished the superstitious error of idolatry. Though the enemy chafes under his defeat and even now stirs up war against us, the faithful, persuading the fools and unwise to cling to the worship of idols, yet is his power grown feeble, and his swords have at last failed him by the power of Christ.

[The godless one] was stripped of his own weapons, having no supporters of his godlessness; instead, those who appointed themselves his instruments have now changed sides and taken up the fight against him. With the overthrow of godlessness practiced in them in former times, the cities took on the building up of true religion; it would have been impossible for them to develop true religion had not they overthrown godlessness first.

And you have destroyed their cities: the cities, clearly, in which the devil rules, where deceitful and fraudulent purposes have something approaching the status of government. This sovereignty is maintained by the services of various parts of the body acting as satellites and ministers, the eyes for curiosity, the ears for lewdness or whatever else of ill repute is willingly listened to, the hand for looting or any other outrage or atrocity, and the other parts enlisted in a similar way under this tyrannical regime, that is, in the service of these evil purposes. The ordinary people, so to speak, of this city are all the self-indulgent desires and the unsettling emotions of the mind, whipping up insurrection within a person every day. Now where a king, a court, ministers and common people are to be found, there is a state. Such characteristics would not be found in evil states unless they occurred first in individual people, who are like elements and seed of city-states. God brought about the destruction of these states when he drove out their ruler, of whom it is said, Now has the ruler of this world been cast out.^[1] These kingdoms are laid waste by the word of truth, the wicked purposes are silenced, base desires are subdued, the activities of limbs and senses taken prisoner and handed over to the active service of justice and good works. This is to make sure that here and now sin shall reign no more in our mortal body,^[2] as the apostle says, together with other suchlike things. Then the soul is given peace and the person concerned put in proper order so as to receive serenity and blessedness.

God’s anger is like that, you see: it razes and destroys everything. Or what another translator teaches us in saying deserts, implying that he razed not only their inhabited places but also their uninhabited places, and laid waste their cities. Such, in fact, is the way the righteous person waged war, such the way he put down his foes, not employing light and heavy weapons but enjoying grace from God. Hence for him the war was glorious and famous, and his victory overwhelming. ^[1] NO POWER AGAINST US. ANTHONY THE GREAT (VIA ATHANASIUS): Once someone knocked at the door of my cell. And when I went out, I saw someone who seemed massive and tall. When I asked, Who are you? he said, I am Satan. I said, What are you doing here? And he asked, Why do the monks and all the other Christians censure me without cause? Why do they curse me every hour? When I replied, Why do you torment them? he said, I am not the one tormenting them, but they disturb themselves, for I have become weak. Haven’t they read that ‘the swords of the enemy have failed utterly, and that you have destroyed their cities’? I no longer have a place—no weapon, no city. There are Christians everywhere, and even the desert has filled with monks. Let them watch after themselves and stop censuring me for no reason! Marveling then at the grace of the Lord, I said to him, Even though you are always a liar and never tell the truth, nevertheless this time, even if you did not intend to, you have spoken truly. For Christ in his coming reduced you to weakness, and after throwing you down he left you defenseless. On hearing the Savior’s name, and being unable to endure the scorching from it, he became invisible. Now if even the devil confesses that he is able to do nothing, then we ought to treat him and his demons with utter contempt. For his part, the enemy with his dogs has treacheries of the sort I have described, but we are able to scorn them, having learned of their weakness. Therefore let us not be plunged into despair in this way, or contemplate horrors in the soul or invent fears for ourselves. . . . Let us consider in our soul that the Lord is with us, he who routed them and reduced them to idleness. Let us likewise always understand and take it to heart that while the Lord is with us, the enemies will do nothing to us. ^[1]

He prepared his seat when he himself was judged, for through his endurance and suffering, humankind won heaven, and God in man benefited those who believe. This is the Son’s hidden working. But he will also come openly and clear for all to see in order to judge the living and the dead.

These words warn that we must withdraw from evil and impiety and pursue excellence and righteousness. For who being prudent, if he believes this, would not fear that he might fall into the hands of judgment and rightly and properly so on account of his own blameworthy conduct and wicked thoughts? Indeed, under such judgment he will not avoid the curse.

While the general judgment is reserved for that time, the particular is for this; after all, he puts many things into effect here and now lest the heedless form the impression that present realities do not fall under his providence. If, on the contrary, not everyone receives their crown in this life, do not be surprised. He has prepared a day, remember, on which he intends to judge the world, whereas for the present there is an arena, contest, struggles. Hence not everyone receives their just desserts; instead, rewards are reserved there for those who do well and punishments for those who fail.

The righteous who now seek you know that you are not going to abandon them in the time of judgment. Let them hope strongly in you, having patience in everything awaiting the prepared retribution.

He did not say, note, My armies have proved your refuge, or money or ramparts; instead, the Lord has proved a refuge for the poor. He personally established me in safety, he is saying; nothing, in fact, is equal to that refuge on the score of ease and security. The other refuges may be subject to scheming and cannot be found promptly and readily, but they are obstructed by time and place and countless circumstances; this, by contrast, you find close at hand, provided only you search for it diligently. Even while I am talking to you, lo, I am at hand, remember; and I am a God close by, not a God far off.^[1] Consequently, there is no need of running around or traveling about; rather, those sitting at home can gain this refuge.

The name of God is by now spread far and wide, but knowledge of that name exists only when he is known, whose name it is: a name is not a name for its own sake but for the sake of that which it signifies. Scripture says, The Lord is his name.^[1] This means that whoever has willingly subjected himself to God as a servant has come to know this name.

Those who know you, he is saying, your support and assistance, have hope in you as sufficient anchor, sufficient assistance, impregnable tower, the one who not only promises relief from problems but also does not permit us to be alarmed by the problems even when present.

Those who have a perfect knowledge of your name trust in no other thing. They are not abandoned by God. This word must be understood with wisdom and reverence, considering that one should not think that the person who lives rightly in his daily affairs is abandoned by God. One who thinks thus is deceived. Indeed, several of the impious have thus believed. Some say that Abel, who was killed, was abandoned, as also the prophets and apostles, for these individuals were afflicted continuously, and many of them even murdered by people. With this distinction made, we say that the person who is with God up to his last breath is not abandoned, even if he suffers innumerable wounds from his enemies.

So how can we seek God? When we earnestly direct our mind in that direction, when we free it from worldly interests. The seeker who drives out everything from the soul moves toward what is being sought. We must not simply seek but seek out. Those who seek out do not only take it on themselves to conduct the search but also enlist other aids to finding what is sought. But in the case of worldly things, we often do not find what we have sought for, whereas in the case of spiritual things this is impossible, as it is inevitable that the searcher makes the discovery. In fact, if we merely make the effort toward searching, God will not permit us to be rebuffed; hence he says, Everyone who seeks finds.^[1]

What do you mean? Does the one whose throne is heaven and his footstool earth, in whose hands are the bounds of the earth, dwell in Zion? Yes: he refers here to his dwelling, not for him to be circumscribed (his greatness, after all, is unbounded) but to indicate his affinity with the place and his feeling at home there with a view to winning the Jews over to him through this considerateness. . . . Now, in a spiritual sense Zion refers to the church: You have approached Mount Zion, remember, and church of the firstborn.^[1] Rightly is the church called a mountain on account of being firm, solid and unshakeable. You see, just as it is impossible to shake a mountain, so too the church of God.

A drastic alteration of circumstances took place in reality: ancient enemies became friends, those distant became close, slaves became sons, those ignorant became knowledgeable, those in darkness came to be in light, the dead in hope of life the poor became heirs of the kingdom of heaven, Jews came to be far away and Gentiles close at hand, sons became dogs, dogs sons. In short, the Savior’s devices took on a divine seemliness: the gift of immortality was given through mortality, life through death, honor through dishonor, blessing through curse, salvation through a cross—these are the devices, these the exploits of our God.

Those who are wild in respect of faith and polluted in life, not purified by the righteousness that is according to the law, are called wild beasts. But changed from wild beasts by the faith of the Lord, they become people of God, advancing from the wish to change to the fact. For some the Lord exhorts, and to those who have already made the attempt he stretches forth his hand and draws them up. For the Lord dreads not the face of anyone, nor will he regard greatness; for he has made small and great and cares alike for all.^[1] And David says, For the heathen are fixed in the destruction they have caused; their foot is taken in the snare that they hid.^[2] But the Lord was a refuge to the poor, a help in season also in affliction.^[3] Those, then, who were in affliction had the gospel seasonably proclaimed. And therefore it said, Declare among the heathen his pursuits, that they may not be judged unjustly.

He also touches on an important truth here: there is no murder committed that goes unpunished and is not fully avenged. Moses indicates as much in Genesis in the words I will avenge your blood.^[1] This is proof of God’s boundless providence, of his intense care. Yet if he does not promptly take vengeance, do not be surprised: he gives the sinner the opportunity of repentance.

Some . . . have proceeded to such a degree of temerity that they pour contempt on the martyrs and vituperate those who are slain on account of the confession of the Lord, and who suffer all things predicted by the Lord and who in this respect strive to follow the footprints of the Lord’s passion, having become martyrs of the suffering One; these we do also enroll with the martyrs themselves. For when inquisition shall be made for their blood and they shall attain to glory, then all shall be confounded by Christ, who have cast a slur on their martyrdom.

The Lord does not forget the cry of the poor, and especially of those who in the spirit ask of him vengeance for wrongs brought against them by demons. Those who pray that there may arise a Savior for those on earth in order to repress the second tyrannical man who waxed strong against us and to impose on us the spiritual law of the gospel, from which people who are rational may learn, no more to imitate senseless animals. They are also hastening to his coming, hoping for salvation.

See him given constantly to prayer: though freed from troubles and made secure, he does not cease from praying again in the words have pity on me and implores God for future benefits. You see, we always stand in need of God’s providence, but especially at a time of freedom from troubles. I mean, another battle follows that is more difficult than the former, that against indifference and obtuseness; then it is that the devil comes panting more aggressively. And so it is especially after being freed from troubles that we have need of that grace so as to cope with good times more easily.

For one who lives in this type of death and in the lusts of the world, with a depressed spirit, if he will perceive a sense of his own wrongdoing and the nature of divine goodness, let him say in the manner of a prayer: Have mercy on me and see my humility, which I suffer from my enemies. They have humiliated me, drawing me down. You alone are able to lift me up from the gates of death because of your essential goodness.

David, . . . prophesying in the person of Christ, says somewhere of his resurrection after death: . . . You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may tell all your praises. I consider that not even the most obtuse can look these things in the face [and disregard them].

In the Psalms the prophet gives thanks saying, He who lifts me up from the gates of death that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion. And from this we learn that it is never possible for anyone to be fit to declare the praises of God, unless he has been lifted up from the gates of death and has come to the gates of Zion.

The gates of the daughter of Zion, being opposed to the gates of death, are praiseworthy deeds and the contemplation on the works of God done according to excellence and wisdom.

I will rejoice in your salvation. This is my crown, this my diadem, erecting a trophy thanks to you, enjoying salvation thanks to you. Let us too in this manner seek not to be saved at any price, not to be freed at any price and in any fashion but in God’s way.

The salvation of the Father is Christ the Lord, his Strength and Wisdom, who has granted us eternal rest and salvation. Therefore the prophet rightly says that he rejoices in him in whom there is no end of joy.

We need to direct our whole intention, dearly beloved brothers, to learning the mysteries of the faith, and we need to show that our works accord with our faith. With all vigilance we need to beware of the multifarious and subtle snares of the gates of hell, so that, in accordance with the word of the psalmist, we may be worthy to be snatched from these [snares] by the Lord’s aid and to announce his praises at the gates of the daughter of Zion, that is, to enter into the joys of the heavenly city. And we should not think that it is sufficient for our salvation if either in our faith or our acts we [merely] come up to the level of the undiscerning and untaught crowd, for whom there is prescribed in the sacred literature only one rule of believing and of living. But as often as the examples of those who have gone astray are made known to us, let us immediately turn away the eyes of our mind so that they may not see vanity,^[1] and instead with attentive heart let us examine what truth itself discerns, following the example of blessed Peter. He rejected the false ideas of those who were in error, and with unhesitating words he delivered his confession of the hidden mystery of the faith he had come to recognize, and he kept [it] with unconquerable care in his heart.

One is not held by the sin and unrighteousness of another; rather, each one will die in his own sin. The wicked, first harming themselves, strive deceitfully to drive others into the same curse. Secretly they build traps of deceit with their own plans and words, so they may seize someone unsuspecting. But by that very trap that they have hidden they are punished, for vindicators will keep those very ones they have caught. This punishment is done by the providence of God. For what other is the judgment of God than that the sinner is caught by his own deeds, because he holds the reason for his own condemnation for those who live unrighteously. This agrees with that which is said before: He who has opened a pit for his neighbor will fall into it.^[1]

Whenever they desire to wipe out and abolish the race of the faithful, they themselves are lured into their own calamity; and in the very snares they have concealed for the people of God they are caught, and their foot will fall.

Notice how the punishment is reserved for the sinner from out of his own deeds. . . . Their own foot has been caught in the very trap that they set. This hidden trap is deceitful scheming. The foot of the soul is properly understood as love. When it is misshapen, it is called concupiscence or lust; when it is well formed it is called love or charity. Love moves a thing in the direction toward which it tends. But the dwelling place of the soul is not in any physical space that the form of the body occupies, but in delight, where it rejoices to have arrived through love. Destructive pleasure follows greed; fruitful delight follows love. . . . The foot of sinners, that is, their love, is caught in the trap that they themselves hide. This is because when pleasure has followed deceitful action, when God has handed them over into the lusts of their heart, the pleasure already binds them in such a way that they do not dare to tear their love from it and apply it to useful objects. When they try to do so, they will suffer great inner pain, longing to pull their foot from the snare. Conquered by this pain, they refuse to withdraw from the harmful things they love. In the trap that they have set, therefore, that is, in deceitful plotting, their foot has been caught, for their love has led them to empty pleasure, from which pain results.

Nothing . . . is so destructive as vice. In fact, nothing is weaker than the wicked; they are undone by their own weapons, as iron is by rust and wool by a moth—so too is the wicked person by vice.

When he says that the Gentiles got stuck, he means not those who are held by the fear of the Lord, but those who are so pinned down by the nails of their sins that they are not able to cast them off; unyielding bands appear to restrain them. . . . For we describe as captured those who are entangled by an intricate deceit. Foot here refers to the mental steps and the depraved desire which cause men to pursue vice. This is what Solomon says in Proverbs: Their feet rush into evil and are quick to pour out blood.^[1]

The truth of this judgment will be fulfilled when the Lord at last executes his judgments in plain sight, when sinners are handed over to eternal torment. Because they have the freedom to commit offenses in this life, some may think that these acts will escape punishment. But when that day of his appearance arrives and the Lord Savior sits upon his majestic throne, then all will acknowledge that his judgments are in effect, when the human race is separated by his judgment either to his right or to his left. For in order to make fair judgments one must determine the merits of each person without partiality. A plain explanation of this thought follows next. For it shows how one can know that the Lord makes fair judgments. His justice can be observed when a sinner becomes caught in his own tangled deeds, and he receives a punishment commensurate with his actions.

For if the whole psalm is called a song because of its tone and force, then the term song would be placed at the beginning of [the psalm], as it is in a number of psalms. But here it is otherwise, and after the diapsalma he begins the song; the title is placed between the diapsalma and song. It is reasonable, therefore, that the following has the sense of a psalm.

O what a terrible disgrace! In the world you went about praised as one of the elect, and when you arrive in the valley of Josaphat, the place of judgement, you are found naked, and all see your sins and ugliness laid bare to God and people. Woe to you at that moment! Where will you turn your face? Will you open your mouth? To say what? Your sins are etched into your soul, which is as black as a hair shirt. What will you do at that moment? Weep? There will be no one to accept your tears. Pray? No one to accept your prayers, for those to whom you are handed over are pitiless. How awful the moment when you hear the terrible, cutting voice, Sinners, go to hell, and, Depart from me, you damned, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,^[1] and again, I have detested those who transgress.^[2] I must wipe out of the city of the Lord all who commit iniquities.^[3]

They forget, plainly, him whom they formerly remembered and dismiss him whom they knew previous to forgetting him. There was then a dim knowledge of God also among the nations.

When, by faith and knowledge, the Lord’s people have embraced true life, they surely receive the joy of heaven. The wicked, however, since they do not care about the Lord’s life, are rightly deprived of its blessings. For let the wicked be taken away so that he shall not see the glory of the Lord.^[1] In the end they, like everyone else, shall hear the universal proclamation of the promise, Awake, sleeper, and rise up from the dead.^[2] They shall rise and knock on the doors of heaven, saying, Open to us.^[3] The Lord, however, will rebuke them for rejecting knowledge of him and will tell them, I do not know you.^[4] And the Holy Spirit speaks against them, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God.

They are shut off, he said, in that they, since they are turned in the opposite direction within, do not see the spirit of Jesus ascending and descending.

Even if by some permission his people suffered and were humbled, yet God will not forget his own forever. The perseverance of the needy will not be lost forever; instead, he trains his own in perseverance, and when he sees them persevering properly, the patience he produces in them is not without purpose.

All who are proud should realize that since the beginning of the world they have been, are and should be rebuked in all kinds of publications. However, in both the Old and New Testaments all the humble and mild have been, are and should be blessed, because God does not lie when he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.^[1]

In this life the wicked are raised up, in no sense comprehending their own wicked wrongdoing. But there will be a time of the judgment of God in which the crime that they have admitted will be overturned [in hades, when they are about to receive punishments; lxx]. Every person of God, however humbled in this life, whenever poor in spirit and however much he is trampled by the wicked so that it seems that God denies him by his forgetfulness, through it all is never rejected. For the poor shall not be forgotten forever, and the patience that he brings to this life and his calm spirit will not follow the end without fruit.

If patience is lacking in any hardships, the soul is not able to be perfect. For patience is the act of giving thanks, maintained continuously in the fear of the Lord throughout the anxious trials of life to the point of death.

Let Christian kindness overflow in you, dearly beloved. As you desire the recurring seasons of the year to be filled with fruit, so let your hearts be generous in feeding the poor. Assuredly, God . . . could produce the necessary materials for them, since all things are his. He could distribute so much goods to them that they would need nothing from your generosity. Much of the matter of virtue would be lacking to them and to you, if their want did not drive them to the crown of patience or your abundance lead you to the glory of compassion. Divine Providence has wonderfully arranged it that there should be in the church both holy poor and good rich people, who in turn benefit each other from their very diversity. In order for the eternal and incorruptible rewards to be gained, those receiving give thanks to God, and those distributing give thanks to God, for as it is written, . . . the patience of the poor will not perish forever, and God loves a cheerful giver.^[1]

When the prophet was discussing the end of the world, through the illumination of his heart he foresaw the coming of the Antichrist. Terrified by the magnitude of the danger, he shouted out with a loud voice, Arise, O Lord, let not humankind prevail. For the Antichrist is certainly the most wicked man and one which human nature is not able to withstand. He possess such great cunning and power that only the Lord’s might is able to overcome his wickedness.

He urges God by his tolerance and the strength of his mercy and patience that he grant a time of trials of long duration to the people harassing him. Before he had prayed that the nations be judged in the sight of God; now he asks that a lawgiver be appointed for the nations before the future judgment, so that they might learn they are people and not brute animals, for the law was hardly given to brutish animals. This law is not from Moses, who once had carried it from the midst of people; it is not about the law given to the Jews alone, nor does he wish that another law be awaited, as the law of the New Testament stretches over the whole earth. Indeed, Christ is the Lawgiver, and the Gospel message applies to the nations.^[1]