TRV
Augustine of Hippo
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500
7,530 passages across 62 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On Psalms
20 of 2,560-
Psalms 15:3
"Who speaks the truth in his heart." For some have truth on their lips, and not in their heart. As if one should deceitfully point out a road, knowing that there were robbers there, and should say, If you go this way, you will be safe from robbers; and it should turn out that in fact there were no robbers found there: he has spoken the truth, but not in his heart. For he supposed it to be otherwise, and spoke the truth in ignorance. Therefore it is not enough to speak the truth, unless it be so also in heart. "Who has practised no deceit in his tongue" [Psalm 15:3]. Deceit is practised with the tongue, when one thing is professed with the mouth, another concealed in the breast. "Nor done evil to his neighbour." It is well known that by "neighbour," every man should be understood. "And has not entertained slander against his neighbour," that is, has not readily or rashly given credence to an accuser.
-
Psalms 15:4
"The malicious one has been brought to nought in his sight" [Psalm 15:4]. This is perfection, that the malicious one have no force against a man; and that this be "in his sight;" that is, that he know most surely that the malicious is not, save when the mind turns itself away from the eternal and immutable form of her own Creator to the form of the creature, which was made out of nothing. "But those that fear the Lord, He glorifies:" the Lord Himself, that is. Now "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." As then the things above belong to the perfect, so what he is now going to say belongs to beginners.
-
Psalms 15:5
"Who swears unto his neighbour, and deceives him not." "Who has not given his money upon usury, and has not taken rewards against the innocent" [Psalm 15:5]. These are no great things: but he who is not able to do even this, much less able is he to speak the truth in his heart, and to practise no deceit in his tongue, but as the truth is in the heart, so to profess and have it in his mouth, "yea, yea; nay, nay;" [Matthew 5:37] and to do no evil to his neighbour, that is, to any man; and to entertain no slander against his neighbour: all which are the virtues of the perfect, in whose sight the malicious one has been brought to nought. Yet he concludes even these lesser things thus, "Whoso does these things shall not be moved for ever:" that is, he shall attain unto those greater things, wherein is great and unshaken stability. For even the very tenses are, perhaps not without cause, so varied, as that in the conclusion above the past tense should be used, but in this the future. For there it was said, "The malicious one has been brought to nought in his sight:" but here, "shall not be…
"Who swears unto his neighbour, and deceives him not." "Who has not given his money upon usury, and has not taken rewards against the innocent" [Psalm 15:5]. These are no great things: but he who is not able to do even this, much less able is he to speak the truth in his heart, and to practise no deceit in his tongue, but as the truth is in the heart, so to profess and have it in his mouth, "yea, yea; nay, nay;" [Matthew 5:37] and to do no evil to his neighbour, that is, to any man; and to entertain no slander against his neighbour: all which are the virtues of the perfect, in whose sight the malicious one has been brought to nought. Yet he concludes even these lesser things thus, "Whoso does these things shall not be moved for ever:" that is, he shall attain unto those greater things, wherein is great and unshaken stability. For even the very tenses are, perhaps not without cause, so varied, as that in the conclusion above the past tense should be used, but in this the future. For there it was said, "The malicious one has been brought to nought in his sight:" but here, "shall not be moved for ever." -
Psalms 16:1
Now He says as follows; "Preserve me, O Lord, for in You have I hoped."
-
Psalms 16:2
What in any case are my goods, if not what I have been given by you? And how can the one by whom every good is given be in need of any good?
-
Psalms 16:2
"I have said to the Lord, You are my God, for You require not my goods": for with my goods Thou dost not look to be made blessed.
-
Psalms 16:2
God does not derive any benefit from our worship, but we do. When he reveals or teaches how he is to be worshiped, he does so in our own highest interest, with absolutely no need of anything for himself. All such sacrifices are symbolic; they are a representation of certain things by which our attention is aroused to study or understand or reflect on the realities represented by them.
-
Psalms 16:2
It is man, not God, who benefits from the whole economy of worship.
-
Psalms 16:3
"To the saints who are on His earth" [Psalm 16:3]: to the saints who have placed their hope in the land of the living, the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose spiritual conversation is, by the anchor of hope, fixed in that country, which is rightly called God's earth; although as yet in this earth too they be conversant in the flesh. "He has wonderfully fulfilled all My wishes in them." To those saints then He has wonderfully fulfilled all My wishes in their advancement, whereby they have perceived, how both the humanity of My divinity has profited them that I might die, and the divinity of the humanity that I might rise again.
-
Psalms 16:4
"Their infirmities have been multiplied" [Psalm 16:4]: their infirmities have been multiplied not for their destruction, but that they might long for the Physician. "Afterwards they made haste." Accordingly after infirmities multiplied they made haste, that they might be healed. "I will not gather together their assemblies by blood." For their assemblies shall not be carnal, nor will I gather them together as one propitiated by the blood of cattle. [Isaiah 1:11-12] "Nor will I be mindful of their names within My lips." But by a spiritual change what they have been shall be forgotten; nor by Me shall they be any more called either sinners, or enemies, or men; but righteous, and My brethren, and sons of God through My peace.
-
Psalms 16:5
"The Lord is the portion of Mine inheritance, and of My cup" [Psalm 16:5]. For together with Me they shall possess the inheritance, the Lord Himself. Let others choose for themselves portions, earthly and temporal, to enjoy: the portion of the Saints is the Lord eternal. Let others drink of deadly pleasures, the portion of My cup is the Lord. In that I say, "Mine," I include the Church: for where the Head is, there is the body also. For into the inheritance will I gather together their assemblies, and by the inebriation of the cup I will forget their old names. "You are He who will restore to Me My inheritance:" that to these too, whom I free, may be known "the glory wherein I was with You before the world was made." [John 17:5] For You will not restore to Me that which I never lost, but You will restore to these, who have lost it, the knowledge of that glory: in whom because I am, You will restore to Me.
-
Psalms 16:5
[The psalmist is saying] “O Lord, why give me some other inheritance? Whatever you give, it isn’t worth much. You be my inheritance; I love you, I love you with all I am, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind I love you. What can it mean to me, anything you give me apart from yourself?” That is to love God freely, to hope in God for God, to hasten to be filled with God, to be satisfied with him. He, after all, is enough for you; apart from him, nothing is enough for you.
-
Psalms 16:6
"The lines have fallen to me in glorious places" [Psalm 16:6]. The boundaries of my possession have fallen in Your glory as it were by lot, like as God is the possession of the Priests and Levites. [Numbers 18:20] "For Mine inheritance is glorious to Me." "For Mine inheritance is glorious," not to all, but to them that see; in whom because I am, "it is to Me."
-
Psalms 16:7
"I will bless the Lord, who has given Me understanding" [Psalm 16:7]: whereby this inheritance may be seen and possessed. "Yea moreover too even unto night my reins have chastened Me." Yea besides understanding, even unto death, My inferior part, the assumption of flesh, has instructed Me, that I might experience the darkness of mortality, which that understanding has not.
-
Psalms 16:8
"I foresaw the Lord in My sight always" [Psalm 16:8]. But coming into things that pass away, I removed not My eye from Him who abides ever, foreseeing this, that to Him I should return after passing through the things temporal. "For He is on My right hand, that I should not be moved." For He favours Me, that I should abide fixedly in Him.
-
Psalms 16:9
"Wherefore My heart was glad, and My tongue exulted" [Psalm 16:9]. Wherefore both in My thoughts is gladness, and in my words exultation. "Moreover too My flesh shall rest in hope." Moreover too My flesh shall not fail unto destruction, but shall sleep in hope of the resurrection.
-
Psalms 16:10
Who save him who rose on the third day was in a position to say that his flesh rested in hope, that his soul, not left in hell, would swifty return to reanimate his flesh, that his flesh would not undergo corruption as other corpses rot away? Surely, no one can maintain that all of this was verified in David, king and prophet!
-
Psalms 16:10
"For You will not leave My soul in hell." For You will neither give My soul for a possession to those parts below. "Neither will You grant Your Holy One to see corruption." Neither will You suffer that sanctified body, whereby others are to be also sanctified, to see corruption.
-
Psalms 16:11
"You have made known to Me the paths of life." You have made known through Me the paths of humiliation, that men might return to life, from whence they fell through pride; in whom because I am, "You have made known to Me." "You will fill Me with joy with Your countenance." You will fill them with joy, that they should seek nothing further, when they shall see You "face to face;" in whom because I am, "You will fill Me." "Pleasure is at Your right hand even to the end." Pleasure is in Your favour and mercy in this life's journey, leading on even to the end of the glory of Your countenance.
-
Psalms 17:1
"Hear My righteousness, O God, consider My supplication." "Hearken unto My prayer, not in deceitful lips:" not going forth to You in deceitful lips.