Psalms 71

Psalms 71:1

Augustine of Hippo: “O God, in You I have hoped, O Lord, I shall not be confounded for everlasting” [Psalms 71:1]. Already I have been confounded, but not for everlasting. For how is he not confounded, to whom is said, “What fruit had ye in these things wherein ye now blush?” [Romans 6:21] What then shall be done, that we may not be confounded for everlasting? “Draw near unto Him, and be ye enlightened, and your faces shall not blush.” Confounded you are in Adam, withdraw from Adam, draw near unto Christ, and then you shall not be confounded. “In You I have hoped, O Lord, I shall not be confounded for everlasting.” If in myself I am now confounded, in You I shall not be confounded for everlasting. — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:2

Augustine of Hippo: For this John, my dearest brothers, was one of those mountains about which it has been written, “Let the mountains receive peace for your people; and the hills justice.” The mountains are eminent souls; the hills are little souls. But the mountains receive peace for this very reason, so that the hills can receive justice. What is the justice that the hills receive? Faith, because “the just person lives by faith.” The lesser souls, however, would not receive faith if the greater souls, who were called mountains, were not illuminated by wisdom itself, so that they can convey to the little ones what the little ones are able to grasp, and so that the hills can live by faith because the mountains receive peace. By these very mountains it was said to the church, “Peace be with you.” And the mountains themselves, in announcing peace to the church, did not set themselves apart in regard to him from whom they receive peace so that they might announce peace truly and not deceitfully. — TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF John 1:2

Cassiodorus: “Deliver me in your righteousness and rescue me; incline your ear to me and deliver me.” When he says “in your righteousness,” he seeks divine mercy. In other words it pertains to his righteousness to spare a suppliant. For thus it pleased his righteousness to forgive a person who is known to condemn his own deeds. He says, “Deliver me from the pressing dangers; rescue me from the power of the devil,” so that he may not be condemned with him forever. When he says “incline,” he professes that he is humbly prostrate, because unless divine grace is inclined to freeing someone, he is not able to arrive by his own merits at that mercy which he desires. For it is not the merit of anyone that reaches God, but rather he himself is merciful and comes straightaway to sinners. — EXPOSITIONS OF THE Psalms 70:2

Psalms 71:3

Augustine of Hippo: “Be Thou unto me for a protecting God” [Psalms 71:3]. Let not the darts of the enemy reach unto me: for I am not able to protect myself. And a small thing is “protecting:” he has added, “and for a walled place, that You may save me.” “For a walled place” be Thou to me, be Thou my walled place….Behold, God Himself has become the place of your fleeing unto, who at first was the fearful object of your fleeing from. “For a walled place,” he says, be to me, “that You may save me.” I shall not be safe except in You: except You shall have been my rest, my sickness shall not be able to be made whole. Lift me from the earth; upon You I will lie, in order that I may rise unto a walled place. What can be better walled? When unto that place you shall have fled for refuge, tell me what adversaries you will dread? Who will lie in wait, and come at you? A certain man is said from the summit of a mountain to have cried out, when an Emperor was passing by, “I speak not of you:” the other is said to have looked back and to have said, “Nor I of you.” He had despised an Emperor with glittering arms, with mighty army. From whence? From a strong place. If he was secure on a high spot of earth, how secure are you on Him by whom heaven and earth were made? I, if for myself I shall have chosen another place, shall not be able to be safe. Choose thou indeed, O man, if you shall have found one, a place better walled. There is not then a place whither to flee from Him, except we flee to Him. If you will escape Him angry, flee to Him appeased. “For my firmament and my refuge You are.” “My firmament” is what? Through You I am firm, and by You I am firm. “For my firmament and my refuge You are:” in order that I may be made firm by You, in whatever respects I shall have been made infirm in myself, I will flee for refuge unto You. For firm the grace of Christ makes you, and immovable against all temptations of the enemy. But there is there too human frailness, there is there still the first captivity, there is there too the law in the members fighting against the law of the mind, and willing to lead captive in the law of sin: [Romans 7:23] still the body which is corrupt presses down the soul. [Wisdom 9:15] Howsoever firm thou be by the grace of God, so long as thou still bearest an earthly vessel, wherein the treasure of God is, something must be dreaded even from that same vessel of clay. [2 Corinthians 4:7] Therefore “my firmament You are,” in order that I may be firm in this world against all temptations. But if many they are, and they trouble me: “my refuge You are.” For I will confess mine infirmity, to the end that I may be timid like a “hare,” because I am full of thorns like a “hedgehog.” And as in another Psalm is said, “The rock is a refuge for the hedgehogs and the hares:” but the Rock was Christ. [1 Corinthians 10:4] — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:4

Augustine of Hippo: “O God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner” [Psalms 71:4]. Generally, sinners, among whom is toiling he that is now to be delivered from captivity: he that now cries, “Unhappy man I, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” [Romans 7:24-25] Within is a foe, that law in the members; there are without also enemies: unto what do you cry? Unto Him, to whom has been cried, “From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from strange sins spare Your servant.”. ..But these sinners are of two kinds: there are some that have received Law, there are others that have not received: all the heathen have not received Law, all Jews and Christians have received Law. Therefore the general term is sinner; either a transgressor of the Law, if he has received Law; or only unjust without Law, if he has not received the Law. Of both kinds speaks the Apostle, and says, “They that without Law have sinned, without Law shall perish, and they that in the Law have sinned, by the Law shall be judged.” [Romans 2:12] But thou that amid both kinds dost groan, say to God that which you hear in the Psalm, “My God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner.” Of what sinner? “From the hand of him that transgresses the Law, and of the unjust man.” He that transgresses the Law is indeed also unjust; for not unjust he is not, that transgresses the Law: but every one that transgresses the Law is unjust, not every unjust man does transgress the Law. For, “Where there is not a Law,” says the Apostle, “neither is there transgression.” [Romans 4:15] They then that have not received Law, may be called unjust, transgressors they cannot be called. Both are judged after their deservings. But I that from captivity will to be delivered through Your grace, cry to You, “Deliver me from the hand of the sinner.” What is, from the hand of him? From the power of him, that while he is raging, he lead me not unto consenting with him; that while he lies in wait, he persuade not to iniquity. “From the hand of the sinner and of the unjust man.”… — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:5

Augustine of Hippo: We saw the martyr so patiently enduring the most monstrous torments; but his soul was submitting itself to God, because it was from him that his patience came. And lest human frailty should fail through lack of patience and deny Christ, and contribute to the enemy’s joy, he knew to whom he should say, “My God, rescue me from the hand of the sinner, from the hand of the lawbreaker and the wicked, since you are my patience.” In this way, you see, the person who sang these words signified how Christians should ask to be rescued from the hands of their enemies; not, certainly, by suffering nothing but by enduring what they suffer with perfect patience. “Rescue me from the hand of the sinner, from the hand of the lawbreaker and the wicked.” But if you ask how he wants to be rescued, look at what follows: “since you are my patience.” You will find a glorious passion, wherever there is this devout confession, so that “whoever boasts, may boast in the Lord.” — SERMON 277A.2

Augustine of Hippo: We have been watching a magnificent spectacle with the eyes of faith, the holy martyr Vincent everywhere victorious. He was victorious in his words, victorious in the pains he endured; victorious in his confession, victorious in his tribulations; victorious when burned with fire, victorious when submerged in the waves. When his flesh, which was a kind of tribute to the victorious Christ, was thrown into the sea from the boat, it silently said, “We are cast down but not lost.” Who can have endowed this soldier with such patience but the one who first shed his blood for him? The one to whom it says in the psalm, “Since you are my patience, Lord, my hope from my youth.” A great contest earns great glory; not human or temporal glory, but divine and eternal. Faith is doing battle; and when faith is doing battle, nobody can overthrow the flesh. Because even if it is mangled and torn to shreds, when can anyone perish who has been redeemed by the blood of Christ? A powerful person cannot lose what he has bought with his gold, and can Christ lose what he bought with his blood? — SERMON 274

Augustine of Hippo: Lastly, there follows the reason why I say this: “for You are my patience” [Psalms 71:5]. Now if He is patience rightly, He is that also which follows, “O Lord, my hope from my youth.” My patience, because my hope: or rather my hope, because my patience. “Tribulation,” says the Apostle, “works patience, patience probation, but probation hope, but hope confounds not.” [Romans 5:3-5] With reason in You I have hoped, O Lord, I shall not be confounded for everlasting. “O Lord, my hope from my youth.” From your youth is God your hope? Is He not also from your boyhood, and from your infancy? Certainly, says he. For see what follows, that you may not think that I have said this, “my hope from my youth,” as if God noways profited mine infancy or my boyhood; hear what follows: “In You I have been strengthened from the womb.” Hear yet: “From the belly of my mother You are my Protector” [Psalms 71:6]. Why then, “from my youth,” except it was the period from which I began to hope in You? For before in You I was not hoping, though You were my Protector, that led me safe unto the time, when I learned to hope in You. But from my youth I began in You to hope, from the time when You armed me against the Devil, so that in the girding of Your host being armed with Your faith, love, hope, and the rest of Your gifts, I waged conflict against Your invisible enemies, and heard from the Apostle, “There is not for us a wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers,” etc. [Ephesians 5:12] There a young man it is that does fight against these things: but though he be a young man, he falls, unless He be the hope of Him to whom he cries, “O Lord, my hope from my youth.” “In You is my singing always.” Is it only from the time when I began to hope in You until now? Nay, but “alway.” What is, “alway”? Not only in the time of faith, but also in the time of sight. For now, “So long as we are in the body we are absent from the Lord: for by faith we walk, not by sight:” [2 Corinthians 5:6] there will be a time when we shall see that which being not seen we believe: but when that has been seen which we believe, we shall rejoice: but when that has been seen which they believed not, ungodly men shall be confounded. Then will come the substance whereof there is now the hope. But, “Hope which is seen is not hope. But if that which we see not we hope for, through patience we wait for it.” [Romans 8:24] Now then you groan, now unto a place of refuge you run, in order that you may be saved; now being in infirmity you entreat the Physician: what, when you shall have received perfect soundness also, what when you shall have been made “equal to the Angels of God,” [Matthew 22:30] will you then perchance forget that grace, whereby you have been delivered? Far be it. — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:6

Augustine of Hippo: Lastly, there follows the reason why I say this: “for You are my patience” [Psalms 71:5]. Now if He is patience rightly, He is that also which follows, “O Lord, my hope from my youth.” My patience, because my hope: or rather my hope, because my patience. “Tribulation,” says the Apostle, “works patience, patience probation, but probation hope, but hope confounds not.” [Romans 5:3-5] With reason in You I have hoped, O Lord, I shall not be confounded for everlasting. “O Lord, my hope from my youth.” From your youth is God your hope? Is He not also from your boyhood, and from your infancy? Certainly, says he. For see what follows, that you may not think that I have said this, “my hope from my youth,” as if God noways profited mine infancy or my boyhood; hear what follows: “In You I have been strengthened from the womb.” Hear yet: “From the belly of my mother You are my Protector” [Psalms 71:6]. Why then, “from my youth,” except it was the period from which I began to hope in You? For before in You I was not hoping, though You were my Protector, that led me safe unto the time, when I learned to hope in You. But from my youth I began in You to hope, from the time when You armed me against the Devil, so that in the girding of Your host being armed with Your faith, love, hope, and the rest of Your gifts, I waged conflict against Your invisible enemies, and heard from the Apostle, “There is not for us a wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers,” etc. [Ephesians 5:12] There a young man it is that does fight against these things: but though he be a young man, he falls, unless He be the hope of Him to whom he cries, “O Lord, my hope from my youth.” “In You is my singing always.” Is it only from the time when I began to hope in You until now? Nay, but “alway.” What is, “alway”? Not only in the time of faith, but also in the time of sight. For now, “So long as we are in the body we are absent from the Lord: for by faith we walk, not by sight:” [2 Corinthians 5:6] there will be a time when we shall see that which being not seen we believe: but when that has been seen which we believe, we shall rejoice: but when that has been seen which they believed not, ungodly men shall be confounded. Then will come the substance whereof there is now the hope. But, “Hope which is seen is not hope. But if that which we see not we hope for, through patience we wait for it.” [Romans 8:24] Now then you groan, now unto a place of refuge you run, in order that you may be saved; now being in infirmity you entreat the Physician: what, when you shall have received perfect soundness also, what when you shall have been made “equal to the Angels of God,” [Matthew 22:30] will you then perchance forget that grace, whereby you have been delivered? Far be it. — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:7

Augustine of Hippo: “As it were a monster I have become unto many” [Psalms 71:7]. Here in time of hope, in time of groaning, in time of humiliation, in time of sorrow, in time of infirmity, in time of the voice from the fetters— here then what? “As it were a monster I have become unto many.” Why, “As it were a monster”? Why do they insult me that think me a monster? Because I believe that which I see not. For they being happy in those things which they see, exult in drink, in wantonness, in chamberings, in covetousness, in riches, in robberies, in secular dignities, in the whitening of a mud wall, in these things they exult: but I walk in a different way, contemning those things which are present, and fearing even the prosperous things of the world, and secure in no other thing but the promises of God. And they, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” [1 Corinthians 15:32] What do you say? Repeat it: “let us eat,” he says, “and drink.” Come now, what have you said afterwards? “for tomorrow we die.” You have terrified, not led me astray. Certainly by the very thing which you have said afterwards, you have stricken me with fear to consent with you. “For tomorrow we die,” you have said: and there has preceded, “Let us eat and drink.” For when you had said, “Let us eat and drink;” you added, “for tomorrow we die.” Hear the other side from me, “Yea let us fast and pray, ‘for tomorrow we die.’” I keeping this way, strait and narrow, “as it were a monster have become unto many: but You are a strong helper.” Be with me, O Lord Jesus, to say to me, faint not in the narrow way, I first have gone along it, I am the way itself, [John 14:6] I lead, in Myself I lead, unto Myself I lead home. Therefore though “a monster I have become unto many;” nevertheless I will not fear, for “You are a strong Helper.” — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:8

Augustine of Hippo: “Let my mouth be fulfilled with praise, that with hymn I may tell of Your glory, all the day long Your magnificence” [Psalms 71:8]. What is “all the day long”? Without intermission. In prosperity, because You comfort: in adversity, because You correct: before I was in being, because You made; when I was in being, because You gave health: when I had sinned, because You forgave; when I was converted, because You helped; when I had persevered, because You crowned. — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:10

Augustine of Hippo: Why do I say this? “For mine enemies have spoken against me, and they that were keeping watch for My soul, have taken counsel together [Psalms 71:10]: saying, God has forsaken Him, persecute Him, and seize Him, for there is no one to deliver Him” [Psalms 71:11]. This has been said concerning Christ. For He that with the great power of Divinity, wherein He is equal to the Father, had raised to life dead persons, on a sudden in the hands of enemies became weak, and as if having no power, was seized. When would He have been seized, except they had first said in their heart, “God has forsaken Him?” Whence there was that voice on the Cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” So then did God forsake Christ, though “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,” [2 Corinthians 5:19] though Christ was also God, out of the Jews indeed according to the flesh, “Who is over all things, God blessed for ever,” [Romans 9:5] — did God forsake Him? Far be it. But in our old man our voice it was, because our old man was crucified together with Him: [Romans 6:6] and of that same our old man He had taken a Body, because Mary was of Adam. Therefore the very thing which they thought, from the Cross He said, “Why have You forsaken Me?” [Matthew 27:46] Why do these men think Me left alone to their evil? What is, think Me forsaken in their evil? “For if they had known, the Lord of glory they had never crucified. [1 Corinthians 2:8] Persecute and seize Him.” More familiarly however, brethren, let us take this of the members of Christ, and acknowledge our own voice in these words: because even He used such words in our person, not in His own power and majesty; but in that which He became for our sakes, not according to that which He was, who has made us. — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:12

Augustine of Hippo: “O Lord, my God, be not far from me” [Psalms 71:12]. So it is, and the Lord is not far off at all. For, “The Lord is near unto them that have bruised the heart.” “My God, unto my help look Thou.” “Be they confounded and fail that engage my soul” [Psalms 71:13]. What has he desired? “Be they confounded and fail.” Why has he desired it? “That engage my soul”? What is, “That engage my soul”? Engaging as it were unto some quarrel. For they are said to be engaged that are challenged to quarrel. If then so it is, let us beware of men that engage our soul. What is, “That engage our soul”? First provoking us to withstand God, in order that in our evil things God may displease us. For when are you right, so that to you the God of Israel may be good, good to men right in heart? When are you right? Will you hear? When in that good which you do, God is pleasing to you; but in that evil which you suffer God is not displeasing to you. See ye what I have said, brethren, and be ye on your guard against men that engage your souls. For all men that deal with you in order to make you be wearied in sorrows and tribulations, have this aim, namely, that God may be displeasing to you in that which you suffer, and there may go forth from your mouth, “What is this? For what have I done?” Now then have you done nothing of evil, and art you just? He unjust? A sinner I am, you say; I confess, just I call not myself. But what, sinner, have you by any means done so much evil as he with whom it is well? As much as Gaiuseius? I know the evil doings of him, I know the iniquities of him, from which I, though a sinner, am very far; and yet I see him abounding in all good things, and I am suffering so great evil things. I do not then say, O God, “what have I done” to You, because I have done nothing at all of evil; but because I have not done so much as to deserve to suffer these things. Again, art you just, He unjust? Wake up, wretched man, your soul has been engaged! I have not, he says, called myself just. What then do you say? A sinner I am, but I did not commit so great sins, as to deserve to suffer these things. You say not then to God, just I am, and You are unjust: but you say, unjust I am, but You are more unjust. Behold your soul has been engaged, behold now your soul wages war. What? Against whom? Your soul, against God; that which has been made against Him by whom it was made. Even because you are in being to cry out against Him, you are ungrateful. Return, then, to the confession of your sickness, and beg the healing hand of the Physician. Think thou not they are happy who flourish for a time. You are being chastised, they are being spared: perchance for you chastised and amended an inheritance is being kept in reserve….Lastly, see what follows, “Let them put on confusion and shame, that think evil things to me.” “Confusion and shame,” confusion because of a bad conscience, shame because of modesty. Let this befall them, and they will be good…. — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:14

Augustine of Hippo: “But I always in You will hope, and will add to all Your praise” [Psalms 71:14]. What is this? “I will add to all Your praise,” ought to move us. More perfect will you make the praise of God? Is there anything to be superadded? If already that is all praise, will you add anything? God was praised in all His good deeds, in every creature of His, in the whole establishment of all things, in the government and regulation of ages, in the order of seasons, in the height of Heaven, in the fruitfulness of the regions of earth, in the encircling of the sea, in every excellency of the creature everywhere brought forth, in the sons of men themselves, in the giving of the Law, in delivering His people from the captivity of the Egyptians, and all the rest of His wonderful works: not yet He had been praised for having raised up flesh unto life eternal. Be there then this praise added by the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ: in order that here we may perceive His voice above all past praise: thus it is that we rightly understand this also…. — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:15

Cassiodorus: Then follows the clause “because I have not known business transactions.” That part of the verse is recognized to create a problem unless it is well investigated. For if every person of business must be altogether condemned, not even those who are known to exercise the remaining arts are able to escape this condemnation. For what else is “business” other than to wish to make more expensive those things which can be sold for cheaper? We read in the lives of the fathers that that most holy man, Paphnutius, was obtained by a businessman in accordance with a revelation, and today in the church of God there are those who handle merchandise but are in the faith. A most foul deed is condemned, not an honest matter, just as we read that a rich man will not enter into the kingdom of heaven, although Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the patriarchs were nonetheless wealthy in their possessions. Therefore, this passage is thinking of those horrible people of business, who give no thought at all to the righteousness of the Lord but, owing to their immodest quest for money, are contaminated by their burdening their merchandise more with their perjuries than by their prices. The Lord threw such people out of the temple and said, “Do not make the home of my Father a place of business, a den of thieves.” Therefore, as I think, we must adopt the following understanding so as to read, “My mouth proclaimed your righteousness because I did not know business transactions, namely those which are stained with bad deeds.” — EXPOSITIONS OF THE Psalms 70:15

Psalms 71:16

Augustine of Hippo: With reason there follows, “I will enter into the power of the Lord:” not my own, but the Lord’s. For they gloried in their own power of the letter, therefore grace joined to the letter they knew not….But because “the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive:” [2 Corinthians 3:6] “I have not known literature, and I will enter into the power of the Lord.” Therefore this verse following does strengthen and perfect the sense, so as to fix it in the hearts of men, and not suffer any other interpretation to steal in from any quarter. “O Lord, I will be mindful of Your righteousness alone” [Psalms 71:16]. Ah! “alone.” Why has he added “alone,” I ask you? It would suffice to say, “I will be mindful of Your righteousness.” “alone,” he says, entirely: there of my own I think not. “For what have you which you have not received? But if also you have received, why do you glory as if you have not received.” [1 Corinthians 4:7] Your righteousness alone does deliver me, what is my own alone is nought but sins. May I not glory then of my own strength, may I not remain in the letter; may I reject “literature,” that is, men glorying of the letter, and on their own strength perversely, like men frantic, relying: may I reject such men, may I enter into the power of the Lord, so that when I am weak, then I may be mighty; in order that You in me may be mighty, for, “I will be mindful of Your righteousness alone.” — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:17

Augustine of Hippo: “O God, You have taught me from my youth” [Psalms 71:17]. What have you taught me? That of Your righteousness alone I ought to be mindful. For reviewing my past life, I see what was owing to me, and what I have received instead of that which was owing to me. There was owing punishment, there has been paid grace: there was owing hell, there has been given life eternal. “O God, You have taught me from my youth.” From the very beginning of my faith, wherewith You have renewed me, You taught me that nothing had preceded in me, whence I might say that there was owing to me what You have given. For who is turned to God save from iniquity? Who is redeemed save from captivity? But who can say that unjust was his captivity, when he forsook his Captain and fell off to the deserter? God is for our Captain, the devil a deserter: the Captain gave a commandment, the deserter suggested guile: where were your ears between precept and deceit? Was the devil better than God? Better he that revolted than He that made you? You believed what the devil promised, and found what God threatened. Now then out of captivity being delivered, still however in hope, not yet in substance, walking by faith, not yet by sight, “O God,” he says, “You have taught me from my youth.” From the time that I have been turned to You, renewed by You who had been made by You, re-created who had been created, re-formed who had been formed: from the time that I have been converted, I have learned that no merits of mine have preceded, but that Your grace has come to me gratis, in order that I might be mindful of Your righteousness alone. — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:18

Augustine of Hippo: “And even unto oldness and old age” [Psalms 71:18]. These are two terms for old age, and are distinguished by the Greeks. For the gravity succeeding youth has another name among the Greeks, and after that same gravity the last age coming on has another name; for πρεσβύτης signifies grave, and γ — Exposition on Psalms 71

Tertullian: Hear now also the Son’s statements about the Father: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.” He speaks of himself likewise to the Father in the psalm: “Forsake me not, until I have declared the might of your arm to all the generations that are to come.” Also with the same substance in another psalm: “O Lord, how many are they that trouble me!” But almost all the psalms that prophesy of the person of Christ, represent the Son as conversing with the Father—that is, represent Christ [as speaking] to God. Observe also the Spirit speaking of the Father and the Son, in the character of a third person: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Likewise in the words of Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord to the Lord my anointed.” — AGAINST PRAXEAS 11

Psalms 71:19

Augustine of Hippo: “Your power and Your righteousness” [Psalms 71:19]. That is, that I may tell forth to every generation that is yet to come, Your arm. And what has Your arm effected? This then let me tell forth, that same grace to every generation succeeding: let me say to every man that is to be born, nothing you are by yourself, on God call thou, your own are sins, merits are God’s: punishment to you is owing, and when reward shall have come, His own gifts He will crown, not your merits. Let me say to every generation that is to come, out of captivity you have come, unto Adam you belonged. Let me say this to every generation that is to come, that there is no strength of mine, no righteousness of mine; but “Your strength and Your righteousness, O God, even unto the most high mighty works which You have made.” “Your power and Your righteousness,” as far as what? Even unto flesh and blood? Nay, “even unto the most high mighty works which You have made.” For the high places are the heavens, in the high places are the Angels, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers: to You they owe it that they are; to You they owe it that they live, to You they owe it that righteously they live, to You they owe it that blessedly they live. “Your power and Your righteousness,” as far as what? “Even unto the most high mighty works which You have made.” Think not that man alone belongs to the grace of God. What was Angel before he was made? What is Angel, if He forsake him who has created? Therefore “Your power and Your justice even unto the most high mighty works which You have made.” — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:20

Augustine of Hippo: “How great troubles have You shown to me, many and evil!” [Psalms 71:20]. Deservedly, proud servant. For you have willed perversely to be like your God, who had been made after the image of your Lord. [Genesis 1:27] Would you have it to be well with you, when withdrawing from that good? Truly God says to you, if you withdraw from Me, and it is well with you, I am not your good. Again, if He is good, and in the highest degree good, and of Himself to Himself good, and by no foreign good thing good, and is Himself our chief good; by withdrawing from Him, what will you be but evil? Also if He is Himself our blessedness, what will there be to one withdrawing from Him, except misery? Return thou then after misery, and say, “O Lord, who is like You? How great troubles have You shown to me, many and evil!” — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:21

Augustine of Hippo: But this was discipline; admonition, not desertion. Lastly, giving thanks, he says what? “And being turned You have made me alive, and from the bottomless places of the earth again You have brought me back.” But when before? What is this “again”? You have fallen from a high place, O man, disobedient slave, O thou proud against your Lord, you have fallen. There hast come to pass in you, “every one that exalts himself shall be humbled:” may there come to pass in you, “every one that humbles himself shall be exalted.” [Luke 14:11] Return thou from the deep. I return, he says, I return, I acknowledge; “O God, who is like You? How great troubles have You shown to me, many and evil! And being turned You have made me alive, and from the bottomless places of the earth again You have brought me back.” “We perceive,” I hear. You have brought us back from the bottomless places of the earth, hast brought us back from the depth and drowning of sin. But why “again”? When had it already been done? Let us go on, if perchance the latter parts of the Psalm itself do not explain to us the thing which here we do not yet perceive, namely, why he has said “again.” Therefore let us hear: “How great troubles You have shown to me, many and evil! And being turned You have made me alive, and from the bottomless places of the earth again You have brought me back.” What then? “You have multiplied Your righteousness, and being turned You have comforted me, and from the bottomless places of the earth again You have brought me back” [Psalms 71:21]. Behold a second “again”! If we labour to unravel this “again” when written once, who will be able to unravel it when doubled? Now “again” itself is a redoubling, and once more there is written “again.” May He be with us from whom is grace, may there be with us the arm also which we are telling forth to every generation that is to come: may He be with us Himself, and as with the key of His Cross open to us the mystery that is locked up. For it was not to no purpose that when He was crucified the veil of the temple was rent in the midst, but to show that through His Passion the secret things of all mysteries were opened. [Matthew 27:51] May He then Himself be with men passing over unto Him, be the veil taken away: [2 Corinthians 3:16] may our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ tell us why such a voice of the Prophet has been sent before, “You have shown to me troubles many and evil: and being turned You have made me alive, and from the bottomless places of the earth again You have brought me back.” Behold this is the first “again” which has been written. Let us see what this is, and we shall see why there is a second “again.” — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:22

Augustine of Hippo: “For I will confess to You in the vessels of a Psalm Your truth” [Psalms 71:22]. The vessels of a Psalm are a Psaltery. But what is a Psaltery? An instrument of wood and strings. What does it signify? There is some difference between it and a harp:…there seems to be signified by the Psaltery the Spirit, by the harp the flesh. And because he had spoken of two bringings back of ours from the bottomless places of the earth, one after the Spirit in hope, the other after the body in substance; hear thou of these two: “For I will confess to You in the vessels of a Psalm Your truth.” This after the Spirit: concerning the body what? “I will psalm to You on a harp, Holy One of Israel.” — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:23

Augustine of Hippo: Again hear this because of that same “again” and “again.” “My lips shall exult when I shall psalm to You” [Psalms 71:23]. Because lips are wont to be spoken of both belonging to the inner and to the outward man, it is uncertain in what sense lips have been used: there follows therefore, “And my soul which You have redeemed.” Therefore regarding the inward lips having been saved in hope, brought back from the bottomless places of the earth in faith and love, still however waiting for the redemption of our body, we say what? Already he has said, “And my soul which You have redeemed.” — Exposition on Psalms 71

Psalms 71:24

Augustine of Hippo: But lest you should think the soul alone redeemed, wherein now you have heard one “again,” “but still,” he says; why still? “but still my tongue also:” therefore now the tongue of the body: “all day long shall meditate of Your righteousness” [Psalms 71:24]: that is, in eternity without end. But when shall this be? Hereafter at the end of the world, at the resurrection of the body and the changing into the Angelic state. Whence is it proved that this is spoken of the end, “but still my tongue also all day long shall meditate of Your righteousness”? “When they shall have been confounded and shall have blushed, that seek evil things for me.” When shall they be confounded, when shall they blush, save at the end of the world? For in two ways they shall be confounded, either when they shall believe in Christ, or when Christ shall have come. For so long as the Church is here, so long as grain groans amid chaff, so long as wheat groans amid tares, so long as vessels of mercy groan amid vessels of wrath made for dishonour, so long as lily groans amid thorns, there will not be wanting enemies to say, “When shall he die, and his name perish?” “Behold there shall come the time when Christians shall be ended and shall be no more: as they began at a set time, so even unto a particular time they shall be.” But while they are saying these things and without end are dying, and while the Church is continuing preaching the Arm of the Lord to every generation that is to come; there shall come Himself also at last in His glory, there shall rise again all the dead, each with his cause: there shall be severed good men to the right hand, but evil men to the left, and they shall be confounded that did insult, they shall blush that did mock: and so my tongue after resurrection shall meditate of Your righteousness, all day long of Your praise, “when they shall have been confounded and shall have blushed, that seek evil things for me.” — Exposition on Psalms 71