TRV
Augustine of Hippo
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500
7,530 passages across 62 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On Psalms
241–260 of 2,560-
Psalms 18:39
"And You have girded me with strength to the war" [Psalm 18:39]. And the loose desires of my flesh have You bound up with strength, that in such a fight I may not be encumbered. "You have supplanted under me them that rose up against me." You have caused them to be deceived, who followed upon me, that they should be brought under me, who desired to be over me.
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Psalms 18:40
"And you have given mine enemies the back to me" [Psalm 18:40]. And you have turned mine enemies, and hast made them to be a back to me, that is, to follow me. "And You have destroyed them that hate me." But such other of them as have persisted in hatred, You have destroyed.
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Psalms 18:41
"They have cried out, and there was none to save them" [Psalm 18:41]. For who can save them, whom You would not save? "To the Lord, and He did not hear them." Nor did they cry out to any chance one, but to the Lord: and He did not judge them worthy of being heard, who depart not from their wickedness.
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Psalms 18:42
"And I will beat them as small as dust before the face of the wind" [Psalm 18:42]. And I will beat them small; for dry they are, receiving not the shower of God's mercy; that borne aloft and puffed up with pride they may be hurried along from firm and unshaken hope, and as it were from the earth's solidity and stability. "As the clay of the streets I will destroy them." In their wanton and loose course along the broad ways of perdition, which many walk, will I destroy them.
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Psalms 18:43
"You will deliver Me from the contradictions of the people" [Psalm 18:43]. You will deliver Me from the contradictions of them who said, "If we send Him away, all the world will go after Him."
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Psalms 18:44
"You shall make Me the head of the Gentiles. A people whom I have not known have served Me." The people of the Gentiles, whom in bodily presence I have not visited, have served Me. "At the hearing of the ear they have obeyed Me" [Psalm 18:44]. They have not seen Me with the eye: but, receiving my preachers, at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed Me.
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Psalms 18:45
"The strange children have lied unto Me." Children, not to be called Mine, but rather strange children, to whom it is rightly said, "You are of your father the devil," [John 8:44] have lied unto Me. "The strange children have waxen old" [Psalm 18:45]. The strange children, to whom for their renovation I brought the new Testament, have remained in the old man. "And they have halted from their own paths." And like those that are weak in one foot, for holding the old they have rejected the new Testament, they have become halt, even in their old Law, rather following their own traditions, than God's. For they brought frivolous charges of unwashen hands, [Matthew 15:2] because such were the paths, which themselves had made and worn by long use, in wandering from the ways of God's commands.
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Psalms 18:46
"The Lord lives, and blessed be my God." "But to be carnally minded is death:" [Romans 8:6] for "the Lord lives, and blessed be my God. And let the God of my salvation be exalted" [Psalm 18:46]. And let me not think after an earthly fashion of the God of my salvation; nor look from Him for this earthly salvation, but that on high.
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Psalms 18:47
"O God, who givest Me vengeance, and subduest the people under Me" [Psalm 18:47]. O God, who avengest Me by subduing the people under Me. "My Deliverer from My angry enemies:" the Jews crying out, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him." [John 19:6]
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Psalms 18:48
"From them that rise up against Me You will exalt Me" [Psalm 18:48]. From the Jews that rise up against Me in My passion, You will exalt Me in My resurrection. "From the unjust man You will deliver Me." From their unjust rule You will deliver Me.
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Psalms 18:49
"For this cause will I confess to You among the Gentiles, O Lord" [Psalm 18:49]. For this cause shall the Gentiles confess to You through Me, O Lord. "And I will sing unto Your Name." And You shall be more widely known by My good deeds.
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Psalms 18:50
"Magnifying the salvation of His King" [Psalm 18:50]. God, who magnifies, so as to make wonderful, the salvation, which His Son gives to believers. "And showing mercy to His Christ:" God, who shows mercy to His Christ: "To David and to His seed for evermore:" to the Deliverer Himself strong of hand, who has overcome this world; and to them whom, as believers in the Gospel, He has begotten for evermore. What things soever are spoken in this Psalm which cannot apply to the Lord Himself personally, that is to the Head of the Church, must be referred to the Church. For whole Christ speaks here, in whom are all His members.
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Psalms 19:1
"The heavens tell out the glory of God" [Psalm 19:1]. The righteous Evangelists, in whom, as in the heavens, God dwells, set forth the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the glory wherewith the Son glorified the Father upon earth. "And the firmament shows forth the works of His hands." And the firmament shows forth the deeds of the Lord's power, that now made heaven by the assurance of the Holy Ghost, which before was earth by fear.
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Psalms 19:2
"Day unto day utters word" [Psalm 19:2]. To the spiritual the Spirit gives out the fullness of the unchangeable Wisdom of God, the Word which in the beginning is God with God. [John 1:1] "And night unto night announces knowledge." And to the fleshly, as to those afar off, the mortality of the flesh, by conveying faith, announces future knowledge.
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Psalms 19:3
"There is no speech nor language, in which their voices are not heard" [Psalm 19:3]. In which the voices of the Evangelists have not been heard, seeing that the Gospel was preached in every tongue.
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Psalms 19:4
"Their sound is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" [Psalm 19:4].
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Psalms 19:4
The sun’s maker could only be seen by the sun’s light, because he “set his tabernacle in the sun.” He who was before the sun that he made, before the day star and all stars, before all angels, the true Creator (for all things were made by him, and without him was nothing made), that he might be seen by the eyes of flesh that see the sun, set his own tabernacle in the sun—showed his flesh in manifestation by this light.
HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 1:2
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Psalms 19:5
"In the sun has He set His tabernacle." Now that He might war against the powers of temporal error, the Lord, being about to send not peace but a sword on earth, [Matthew 10:34] in time, or in manifestation, set so to say His military dwelling, that is, the dispensation of His incarnation. "And He as a bridegroom coming forth out of His chamber" [Psalm 19:5]. And He, coming forth out of the Virgin's womb, where God was united to man's nature as a bridegroom to a bride. "Rejoiced as a giant to run His way." Rejoiced as One exceeding strong, and surpassing all other men in power incomparable, not to inhabit, but to run His way. For, "He stood not in the way of sinners."
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Psalms 19:5
He came in the flesh intending to cleanse the vices of the flesh. He came, clothed in healing human clay, to cure our interior eyes that our outer earthy vesture had blinded, so that, with soundness of vision restored, we who had before been darkness might become a shining light in the Lord and so that the Light might no longer shine in darkness but might be clearly envisaged by those perceiving it. For this purpose, he came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber and “has rejoiced as an athlete to run the course.” Comely as a bridegroom, strong as a giant; amiable and terrible, severe and serene; beautiful to the good, stern to the evil—remaining in the bosom of his Father, he took possession of the womb of his mother. In this bridal chamber, that is, in the womb of the Virgin, he united human to divine nature. The Word was made flesh for us so that coming forth from his mother, he might dwell among us, and so that, going forth to his Father, he might prepare a dwelling place for us.
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Psalms 19:5
But our very life came down to earth and bore our death, and killed death with the very abundance of his own life. And thundering, he called us to return to him into that secret place from which he came forth to us—coming first into the virginal womb, where the human creature, our mortal flesh, was joined to him that it might not be forever mortal—and came “as a bridegroom coming out his chamber, rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.” For he did not delay but ran through the world, crying out by words, deeds, death, life, descent, ascension—crying aloud to us to return to him. And he departed from our sight that we might return to our hearts and find him there. For he left us, and behold, he is here. He could not be with us long, yet he did not leave us. He went back to the place that he had never left, for “the world was made by him.” In this world he was, and into this world he came, to save sinners. To him my soul confesses, and he heals it, because it had sinned against him. O mortals, how long will you be so slow of heart? Even now after life itself has come down to you, will…
But our very life came down to earth and bore our death, and killed death with the very abundance of his own life. And thundering, he called us to return to him into that secret place from which he came forth to us—coming first into the virginal womb, where the human creature, our mortal flesh, was joined to him that it might not be forever mortal—and came “as a bridegroom coming out his chamber, rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.” For he did not delay but ran through the world, crying out by words, deeds, death, life, descent, ascension—crying aloud to us to return to him. And he departed from our sight that we might return to our hearts and find him there. For he left us, and behold, he is here. He could not be with us long, yet he did not leave us. He went back to the place that he had never left, for “the world was made by him.” In this world he was, and into this world he came, to save sinners. To him my soul confesses, and he heals it, because it had sinned against him. O mortals, how long will you be so slow of heart? Even now after life itself has come down to you, will you not ascend and live?