Augustine of Hippo

"And the Lord has become my refuge" [Psalm 94:22], he says. You would not seek such a refuge, if you were not in danger: but you have therefore been in danger, that you might seek for it: for He teaches us by sorrow. He causes me tribulation from the malice of the wicked: pricked with that tribulation, I begin to seek a refuge which I had ceased to seek for in that worldly prosperity. For who, that is always prosperous, and rejoices in present hopes, finds it easy to remember God? Let the hope of this life give way, and the hope of God advance; that you may say, "And the Lord has become my refuge:" may I sorrow for this end that the Lord may become my refuge! "And my God the help of my hope." For as yet the Lord is our hope, since as long as we are here, we are in hope, and not in possession. But lest we fail in hope, there is near us a provision to encourage us, and to mitigate those very evils which we suffer. For it is not said in vain, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able: but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it:" [1 Corinthians 10:13] who will so put us into that furnace of tribulation, that the vessel may be hardened, but not broken. "And the Lord has become my refuge: and my God the help of my hope." Why then did He seem to you to be as it were unjust, in that He spares the evil? See then how the Psalm is now set right, and be thou set right together with the Psalm: for, for this reason the Psalm contained your words. What words? "Lord, how long shall the ungodly, how long shall the ungodly triumph?" The Psalm just now used your words: use therefore yourself the Psalm's words in your turn.

"And the Lord shall recompense them according to their works, and after their own malice; the Lord our God shall destroy them" [Psalm 94:23]. The words, "after their own malice," are not said without meaning. I am benefited through them: and yet it is said to be their malice, and not their benefits. For assuredly He tries us, scourges us, by means of the wicked. To prepare us for what does He scourge us? Confessedly for the kingdom of heaven. "For He scourges every son whom He receives; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?" [Hebrews 12:7] and when God does this, He is teaching us in order to an eternal heritage: and this learning He often gives us by means of wicked men, through whom He tries and perfects our love, which He does will to be extended even to our enemies.. ..Thus also they who persecuted the Martyrs, by persecuting them on earth, sent them into heaven: knowingly they caused them the loss of the present life, while unconsciously they were bestowing upon them the gain of a future life: but, nevertheless, unto all who persevered in their wicked hatred of the righteous, will God recompense after their own iniquities, and in their own malice will He destroy them. For as the goodness of the righteous is hurtful unto the wicked, so is the iniquity of the wicked beneficial unto the righteous....

"O come, let us sing unto the Lord" [Psalm 95:1]. He calls us to a great banquet of joy, not one of this world, but in the Lord. For if there were not in this life a wicked joy which is to be distinguished from a righteous joy, it would be enough to say, "Come, let us rejoice;" but he has briefly distinguished it. What is it to rejoice aright? To rejoice in the Lord. You should piously joy in the Lord, if you dost wish safely to trample upon the world. But what is the word, "Come"? Whence does He call them to come, with whom he wishes to rejoice in the Lord; except that, while they are afar, they may by coming draw nearer, by drawing nearer they may approach, and by approaching rejoice? But whence are they afar? Can a man be locally distant from Him who is everywhere?...It is not by place, but by being unlike Him, that a man is afar from God. What is to be unlike Him? It means, a bad life, bad habits; for if by good habits we approach God, by bad habits we recede from God....If therefore by unlikeness we recede from God, by likeness we approach unto God. What likeness? That after which we were created, which by sinning we had corrupted in ourselves, which we have received again through the remission of sins, which is renewed in us in the mind within, that it may be engraved a second time as if on coin, that is, the image of our God upon our soul, and that we may return to His treasures....

"Let us prevent His face by confession" [Psalm 95:2]. Confession has a double meaning in Scripture. There is a confession of him who praises, there is that of him who groans. The confession of praise pertains to the honour of Him who is praised: the confession of groaning to the repentance of him who confesses. For men confess when they praise God: they confess when they accuse themselves; and the tongue has no more worthy use. Truly, I believe these to be the very vows, of which he speaks in another Psalm: "I will pay You my vows, which I distinguished with my lips." Nothing is more elevated than that distinguishing, nothing is so necessary both to understand and to do. How then do you distinguish the vows which you pay unto God? By praising Him, by accusing yourself; because it is His mercy, to forgive us our sins. For if He chose to deal with us after our deserts, He would find cause only to condemn. "O come," he said therefore, that we may at last go back from our sins, and that He may not cast up with us our accounts for the past; but that as it were a new account may be commenced, all the bonds of our debts having been burnt....The more therefore you despaired of yourself on account of your iniquities, do thou confess your sins; for so much greater is the praise of Him who forgives, as is the fullness of the penitent's confession more abundant. Let us not therefore imagine that we have receded from the song of praise, in understanding here that confession by which we acknowledge our transgressions: this is even a part of the song of praise; for when we confess our sins, we praise the glory of God.

"And make a joyful noise unto Him with Psalms." We have already said what it is "to make a joyful noise:" the word is repeated, that it may be confirmed by the act: the very repetition is an exhortation. For we have not forgotten, so as to wish to be again admonished what was said above, that we should make a joyful noise: but usually in passages of strong feeling a well-known word is repeated, not to make it more familiar, but that the very repetition may strengthen the impression made: for it is repeated that we may understand the feeling of the speaker....Hear now: "For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods" [Psalm 95:3] "For the Lord will not cast off His people." Praise be unto Him, and shouts of joy be unto Him! What people shall He not cast off? We have no right to make our own explanation here: for the Apostle has prescribed this unto us, he has explained whereof it is said. For this was the Jewish people, the people where were the prophets, the people where were the patriarchs, the people begotten according to the flesh from the seed of Abraham; the people in which all the mysteries which promised our Saviour preceded us; the people among whom was instituted the temple, the anointing, the Priest for a figure, that when all these shadows were past, the Light itself might come; this therefore was the people of God; to it were the prophets sent, in it those who were sent were born; to it were delivered and entrusted the revelations of God. What then? Is the whole of that people condemned? Far be it. It is called the good olive-tree by the Apostle, for it commenced with the patriarchs....This then is the tree itself: though some of its boughs have been broken, yet all have not. For if all the boughs were broken, whence is Peter? Whence John? Whence Thomas? Whence Matthew? Whence Andrew? Whence are all those Apostles? Whence that very Apostle Paul who was speaking to us but now, and by his own fruit bearing witness to the good olive? Were not all these of that people? Whence also those five hundred brethren to whom our Lord appeared after His resurrection? [1 Corinthians 15:6] Whence were so many thousands at the words of Peter (when the Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke with the tongues of all nations [Acts 2:4]) converted with such zeal for the honour of God and their own accusation, that they who first shed the Lord's blood in their rage, learned how to drink it now that they believed? And all these five thousand were so converted that they sold their own property, and laid the price of it at the Apostles' feet. That which one rich man did not do, when he heard from the Lord's mouth, and sorrowfully departed from Him, [Matthew 19:21-22] this so many thousands of those men by whose hands Christ had been crucified, did on a sudden. In proportion as the wound was deeper in their own hearts, with the greater eagerness did they seek for a physician. Since therefore all these were from thence, the Psalm says of them, "For the Lord will not cast off His people."...

But I do not somehow think that this is what the Holy Spirit was chiefly concerned to remind us of in this psalm, where it says, “Let us weep before the Lord who made us.” In another place it says, it is “he who made us, and not we ourselves,” which, as I remarked, no Christian doubts. Because not only did God create the first human being, from whom come all people, but God also creates each and every human being today—he who said to one of his saints, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” So at the beginning he created people without other people; now he creates people from people. Still, whether it is people without people or people from people, it is “he who made us, and not we ourselves.”8So at the first and easy sense of these words—still a true one, of course—“let us worship him, brothers, and prostrate ourselves before him and cry before the Lord who made us.” He did not, after all, make us and now desert us. He did not go to the trouble of making us only to abandon us. “Let us worship before the Lord who made us,” because we did not worship when he made us, and yet he made us all the same. So having made us before we worshiped him, is he going to desert us when we worship him? If someone were doubting whether he would be listened to when he prayed, Scripture reassures him when it says, “Let us cry before the Lord who made us.” Of course he listens to those he made; of course he cannot fail to care for those he made.

"For He is the Lord our God" [Psalm 95:7]. But that we may without fear fall down and kneel before Him, what are we? "We are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." See how elegantly he has transposed the order of the words, and as it were not given its own attribute to each word; that we may understand these very same to be the sheep, who are also the people. He said not, the sheep of His pasture, and the people of His hand; which might be thought more congruous, since the sheep belong to the pasture; but He said, "the people of His pasture." The people are therefore sheep, since he says, "the people of His pasture:" the people themselves are sheep....He praises these sheep also in the Song of Solomon, speaking of some perfect ones as the teeth of His Spouse the Holy Church: "Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which come up from the washing; whereof every one bears twins, and there is none barren." What means, "Your teeth"? These by whom you speak, for the teeth of the Church are those through whom she speaks. Of what sort are your teeth? "Like a flock of sheep that are shorn." Why, "that are shorn"? Because they have laid aside the burdens of the world. Were not those sheep, of which I was a little before speaking, shorn, whom the bidding of God had shorn, when He says, "Go and sell that you have, and give to the poor; and you shall find treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me"? [Matthew 19:21] They performed this bidding: shorn they came. And because those who believe in Christ are baptized, what is there said? "which come up from the washing;" that is, come up from the cleansing. "Whereof every one bears twins." What twins? Those two commandments, wherefrom hang all the Law and the Prophets. [Matthew 22:40]

Rightly, then, are we stirred by the voice of the psalmist as by the sound of a heavenly trumpet, when we hear, "Sing to the Lord a new canticle; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name." Let us recognize, then, and proclaim the "Day born of the day" who became incarnate on this day. The Day is the Son born of the Father, the eternal Day, God of God, Light of Light; he is our salvation, of whom the psalmist says elsewhere, "May God have mercy on us and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine on us. That we may know your way on earth; your salvation in all nations." The idea expressed in "on the earth" he expanded to "in all nations" and the significance of "your way" he repeated in "your salvation." We recall that the Lord said, "I am the way." And only recently, when the Gospel was read, we heard that the thrice-blessed old man, Simeon, had received a divine promise that he would not experience death until he had seen Christ the Lord and that, when he had taken the infant Christ into his hands and had recognized the mighty little One, he said, "Now dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word, in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation." Gladly, then, let us announce his salvation, this Day born of the eternal Day, let us declare "his glory among the Gentiles, his wonders among all people." He lies in a manger, but he holds the world in his hand; he is nourished at the breast, but he feeds the angels; he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, but he clothes us with immortality; he is suckled but is adored; he does not find room in the inn, but he makes a temple for himself in the hearts of believers. For Strength took on weakness that weakness might become strong. Therefore, let us marvel at rather than despise his human birth; from it let us learn the lowliness that such loftiness assumed for our sake. Then let us enkindle our love so that we may come to his eternal day.