Augustine of Hippo

"The Lord is near unto all that call upon Him" [Psalm 145:18]. Where then is that, "Then shall they call upon Me, and I will not hear them"? [Proverbs 1:28] See then what follows: "all who call upon Him in truth." For many call upon Him, but not in truth. They seek something else from Him, but seek not Himself. Why do you love God? "Because He has made me whole." That is clear: it was He that made you so. For from none else comes health, save Him. "Because He gave me," says another, "a rich wife, whereas I before had nothing, and one that obeys me." This too He gave: you say true. "He gave me," says another, "sons many and good, He gave me a household, He gave me all good things." Do you love Him for this?...Therefore if God is good, who has given you what you have, how much more blessed will you be when He has given you Himself! You have desired all these things of Him: I beseech you desire of Him Himself also. For these things are not truly sweeter than He is, nor in any way are they to be compared to Him. He then who preferrs God Himself to all the things which he has received, whereat he rejoices, to the things he has received, he "calls upon God in truth."...

May the Lord grant me the ability to say something worthwhile to you about the words of this psalm that we have sung just now. What we said was, “I will praise the Lord all my life, I will play music to my God as long as I live.” The first thing I would do regarding these words is warn you, dear friends, against assuming, when you hear or say “as long as I live I will play music to my God,” that when this life comes to an end that is the end for us of God’s praises. Not at all; we shall praise him then much more, when we are living without end. If we praise him during the exile we are passing through, how, do you think, shall we praise him at the home we are never going to leave? As it is said, read and sung in another psalm, “Blessed are those who dwell in your home; they shall praise you forever and ever.” Where you hear “forever and ever,” there is no end. And living the blessed life in which God is to be perceived without any uncertainty, to be loved without any weariness, to be praised without end, why, yes indeed, that will be what our being alive consists in—seeing, loving, praising God.

But who says it, and to whom says he it? What shall we say, brethren? Is it the flesh that says, "Praise thou the Lord, O my soul"? And can the flesh suggest good counsel to the soul? However much the flesh be conquered, and subjected as a servant to us through strength which the Lord imparts, that it serve us entirely as a bond slave, enough for us that it hinder us not....For the body, inasmuch as it is the body, is even beneath the soul; and every soul, however vile, is found more excellent than the most excellent body. And let not this seem to you to be wonderful, that even any vile and sinful soul is better than any great and most surpassing body. It is better, not in deserts, but in nature. The soul indeed is sinful, is stained with certain defilements of lusts; yet gold, though rusted, is better than the most polished lead. Let your mind then run over every part of creation, and you will see that what we are saying is not incredible, that a soul, however blameable, is yet more praiseworthy than a praiseworthy body. There are two things, a soul and a body. The soul I chide, the body I praise: the soul I chide, because it is sinful; the body I praise, because it is sound. Yet it is in its own kind that I praise the soul, and in its own kind that I blame the soul: and so in its own kind I praise the body, or blame it. If you ask me which is better, what I have blamed or what I have praised, wondrous is the answer you will receive....So you speak of the best horse and the worst man: yet you prefer the man you find fault with to the horse you praise. The nature of the soul is more excellent than the nature of the body: it surpasses it by far, it is a thing spiritual, incorporeal, akin to the substance of God. It is somewhat invisible, it rules the body, moves the limbs, guides the senses, prepares thoughts, puts forth actions, takes in images of countless things; who is there, in short, beloved brethren, who may suffice for the praises of the soul? And yet such is the grace given to it, that this man says, "Praise the Lord, O my soul."...It is not the flesh that says it. Let the body be angel-like, still it is inferior to the soul, it cannot give advice to its superior. The flesh when duly obedient is the handmaid of the soul: the soul rules, the body obeys; the soul commands, the body performs; how then can the flesh give this advice to the soul? Is it then perchance the soul herself, who says to herself, and in a manner commands herself, and exhorts and asks herself? For through certain passions in one part of her nature she wavered; but in another part, which they call the reasonable mind, the wisdom whereby she thinks, clinging to God, and now sighing towards Him, she perceives that certain inferior parts of her are troubled by worldly emotions, and by a certain excitement of earthly desires, betake them to outward things, leaving God who is within; so she recalls herself from things outward to inward, from lower to higher, and says, "Praise the Lord, O my soul."...The soul itself gives itself counsel from the light of God by the reasonable mind, whereby it conceives the wisdom fixed in the everlasting nature of its Author. It reads there of somewhat to be feared, to be praised, to be loved, to be longed for, and sought after: as yet it grasps it not, it comprehends it not; it is, as it were, dazzled with brightness; it has not strength to abide there. Therefore it gathers itself, as it were, into a sound state, and says, "Praise the Lord, O my soul."...And then the soul, weighed down, as it were, and unable to stand up as is fitting, answers the mind, "I will praise the Lord in my life" [Psalm 146:2]. What is, "in my life"? Because now I am in my death. Therefore first encourage yourself, and say, "Praise the Lord, O my soul." Your soul answers you, I do praise so far as I can, slightly, poorly, weakly. Wherefore? Because, "while we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord." [2 Corinthians 5:6] ...

A Christian sees this, poor, proletarian, moaning and groaning at his daily drudgery, and perhaps he says to himself, "What's the good of my having become a Christian? Has it made me any better off than that fellow who isn't, than that guy who doesn't believe in Christ, than that so-and-so who blasphemes my God?" That psalm warns him, "Do not put your trust in princes." Why do you take pleasure in the flower of the field? "All flesh is grass," says the prophet. He does not merely say it, he shouts it. The Lord shouts to him: "Shout," he says. And he answers, "What shall I shout? All flesh is grass, and all the honor of the flesh as the flower of the field. The grass has withered, the flower fallen." So has everything perished then? Heaven forbid! "But the word of the Lord abides forever." Why take pleasure in grass? Look, the grass has perished. Do you want to avoid perishing? Hold fast to the Word.So too in this psalm. Perhaps a poor, lowly Christian had his eyes fixed on a pagan, rich and powerful perhaps, had his eyes fixed on the flower of the field, and was perhaps halfway to choosing him for a patron rather than God. The psalm has a word for this person: "Do not put your trust in princes and in the sons of people, in whom there is no help." He immediately replies, "It cannot be speaking of this person, can it? He was very well off. Look how healthy he is. This very day I see him flourishing. It is me, rather, who am constantly and miserably ill." Why are you obsessed with these things as the only means of pleasure and satisfaction? That is not well-being. "His spirit will go out, and he will return to his earth."

Who is this, "Lord his God"?..."To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things." [1 Corinthians 8:6] Therefore let Him be your hope, even the Lord your God; in Him let your hope be. His hope too is in the lord his god, who worships Saturn; his hope is in the lord his god, who worships Neptune or Mercury; yea more, I add, who worships his belly, of whom is said, "whose god is their belly." [Philippians 3:19] The one is the god of the one, the other of the other. Who is this "blessed" one? For "his hope is in the Lord his God." But who is He? "Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them" [Psalm 146:6]. My brethren, we have a great God; let us bless His holy Name, that He has deigned to make us His possession. As yet you see not God; you can not fully love what as yet you see not. All that you see, He has made. Thou admirest the world; why not the Maker of the world? Thou lookest up to the heavens, and art amazed: you consider the whole earth, and tremblest; when can you contain in your thought the vastness of the sea? Look at the countless number of the stars, look at all the many kind of seeds, all the different sorts of animals, all that swims in the water, creeps on the earth, flies in the sky, hovers in the air; how great are all these, how beautiful, how fair, how amazing! Behold, He who made all these, is your God. Put your hope in Him, that you may be happy. "His hope is in the Lord his God." Observe, my brethren, the mighty God, the good God, who makes all these things....If he mentioned these things only, perhaps you would answer me, "God, who made heaven and earth and sea, is a great God: but does He think of me?" It would be said to you, "He made you." How so? Am I heaven, or am I earth, or am I sea? Surely it is plain; I am neither heaven, nor earth, nor sea: yet I am on earth. At least you grant me this, that you are on earth. Hear then, that God made not only heaven and earth and sea: for He "made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them." If then He made all that is in them, He made you also. It is too little to say, you; the sparrow, the locust, the worm, none of these did He not make, and He cares for all. His care refers not to His commandment, for this commandment He gave to man alone....As regards then the tenor of the commandment, "God does not take care for oxen:" [1 Corinthians 9:9] as regards His providential care of the universe, whereby He created all things, and rules the world, "You, Lord, shall save both man and beast." Here perhaps some one may say to me, "God cares not for oxen," comes from the New Testament: "You, Lord, shall save both man and beast," is from the Old Testament. There are some who find fault and say, that these two Testaments agree not with one another....Let us hear the Lord Himself, the Chief and Master of the Apostles: "Consider," says He, "the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them." [Matthew 6:26] Therefore even beside men, these animals are objects of care to God, to be fed, not to receive a law. As far then as regards giving a law, "God cares not for oxen:" as regards creating, feeding, governing, ruling, all things have to do with God. "Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing?" says our Lord Jesus Christ, "and one of them shall not fall to the ground without the will of your Father: how much better are you than they." [Matthew 10:29] Perhaps you say, God counts me not in this great multitude. There follows here a wondrous passage in the Gospel: "the hairs of your head are all numbered." [Matthew 10:30]

"Who keeps truth for ever." What "truth for ever"? What "truth" does He "keep," and wherein does "He keep it for ever"? "Who executes judgment for them that suffer wrong" [Psalm 146:7]. He avenges them that suffer wrong. There comes at once to you the voice of the Apostle: "now therefore there is altogether a fault among you, that you go to law one with another: why do ye not rather suffer wrong?" [1 Corinthians 6:7] He urged you not to suffer annoyance, but to suffer wrong: for not every annoyance is wrong. For whatever you suffer lawfully is not a wrong; lest perchance you should say, I also am among those who have suffered wrong, for I have suffered such a thing in such a place, and such a thing for such a reason. Consider whether you have suffered a wrong. Robbers suffer many things, but they suffer no wrong. Wicked men, evil doers, house-breakers, adulterers, seducers, all these suffer many evils, yet is there no wrong. It is one thing to suffer wrong; it is another to suffer tribulation, or penalty, or annoyance, or punishment. Consider where you are; see what you have done; see why you are suffering; and then you see what you are suffering. Right and wrong are contraries. Right is what is just. For not all that is called right, is right. What if a man lay down for you unjust right? Nor indeed is it to be called right, if it is unjust. That is true right, which is also just. Consider what you have done, not what you are suffering. If you have done right, you are suffering wrong; if you have done wrong, you are suffering right....

"The Lord looses them that are fettered; the Lord lifts up them that are dashed down; the Lord makes wise them that are blind" [Psalm 146:8]. Perfectly has he by this last sentence explained to us all the preceding ones: lest perchance, when he had said, "the Lord looses them that are fettered," we should refer it to those fettered ones, who for some crime are bound in irons by their masters: and in that he said, "He lifts up them that are dashed down," there should occur to our minds some one stumbling or falling, or thrown from a horse. There is another kind of fall, there are other kinds of fetters, just as there is other darkness and other light. Whereas he said, "He makes the blind wise;" he would not say, He enlightened the blind, lest you should understand this also in reference to the flesh, as the man was enlightened by the Lord, when He anointed his eyes with clay made with spittle, and so healed him: that you might not look for anything of this sort, when He is speaking of spiritual things, he points to a sort of light of wisdom, wherewith the blind are enlightened. Therefore in the same way as the blind are enlightened with the light of wisdom, so are the fettered set free, and those who are dashed down are lifted up. Whereby then have we been fettered? Whereby dashed down? Our body was once an ornament to us: now, we have sinned, and thereby have had fetters put on us. What are our fetters? Our mortality...."The Lord loves the righteous." And who are the "righteous"? How far are they righteous now?