Eusebius of Caesarea — Commentary on Scripture

Psalms 9:9

The righteous who now seek you know that you are not going to abandon them in the time of judgment. Let them hope strongly in you, having patience in everything awaiting the prepared retribution.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 9:10, 11

Psalms 9:14

David, … prophesying in the person of Christ, says somewhere of his resurrection after death: … “You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may tell all your praises.” I consider that not even the most obtuse can look these things in the face [and disregard them].

PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 3:2.101

Psalms 9:15

Whenever they desire to wipe out and abolish the race of the faithful, they themselves are lured into their own calamity; and in the very snares they have concealed for the people of God they are caught, and “their foot will fall.”

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 9:16-17

Psalms 9:18

In this life the wicked are raised up, in no sense comprehending their own wicked wrongdoing. But there will be a time of the judgment of God in which the crime that they have admitted will be overturned [in hades, when they are about to receive punishments; LXX]. Every person of God, however humbled in this life, whenever poor in spirit and however much he is trampled by the wicked so that it seems that God denies him by his forgetfulness, through it all is never rejected. “For the poor shall not be forgotten forever,” and the patience that he brings to this life and his calm spirit will not follow the end without fruit.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 9:18-19

Psalms 9:20

He urges God by his tolerance and the strength of his mercy and patience that he grant a time of trials of long duration to the people harassing him. Before he had prayed that the nations be judged in the sight of God; now he asks that a lawgiver be appointed for the nations before the future judgment, so that they might learn they are people and not brute animals, for the law was hardly given to brutish animals. This law is not from Moses, who once had carried it from the midst of people; it is not about the law given to the Jews alone, nor does he wish that another law be awaited, as the law of the New Testament stretches over the whole earth. Indeed, Christ is the Lawgiver, and the Gospel message applies to the nations.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 9:20, 21

Psalms 10:6

So bold is the person who does not look on God or recognize his judgment that he does not consider within himself his own audacious wicked deeds, believing that he will rejoice forever in his prosperity. His mouth swells up with blasphemies and irreverence. At length, the arrogant one blares out with fierce confidence countless blasphemies and curses, asserting that there is no God, nor does he look down on us, nor will he judge.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 10:27-31

Psalms 10:12

Through these words he asks that whenever the forbearance and kindness of God are being set in motion, and he is stirred to judgment against the wicked, in which judgment the uplifted hand of God, he will judge each one. With the figure of the lifted hand he indicates the power of divine judgment that seems to rest on and humble one until he sets in place justice against the wicked. When, however, he begins to exercise his power, giving to each one according to his merit, then he is said to be exalted. Wherefore you will not be forgetful of your poor who are poor in spirit, knowing that everything is under your hand and it is granted that none flee beyond it.… Do not yourselves seek revenge, O beloved, but give space to your wrath. “Vengeance is from me, I will repay, says the Lord.”

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 10:33-35

Psalms 10:17

The Lord has heard the desires of the poor.… They have suffered misfortune and endured affliction in this life, but he who is king of the ages and judge will vindicate them “lest people boast on the earth.”

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 10:38-39

Psalms 11:3

That which you have framed they have pulled down. Those were the seeds of the best ideas grafted by nature, which God impresses on each person, placing within their spirit the knowledge that is called natural.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 11:4-6

Psalms 11:4

He alone is judge of all, and the only true judge. What has the Lord done against the wicked who have drawn up a battle line against him, who rise up against the righteous? In his own temple, standing in the house of the heavens and sitting immovable on his royal throne, he overlooks nothing of the earthly creation with his gaze, and when he looks at the poor, he gives them the grace of his eyes. Those eyes are understood to be the merciful rewards of his gaze, through which he looks on the poor with generosity. His eyelids are the providence by which he judges, by which he discerns, by which he thoroughly searches deeds. Now since all stand in his judgment, it is said, “The Lord tries the just and unjust.”

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 11:4-6

Psalms 12:1

There is no righteous one left anywhere, he said, who can become the author of my deliverance. Truly I lack a Savior, and since there is none, you yourself, Lord, be my Savior.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 12:2-3

Psalms 12:6

In the same manner silver is purified by fire after it is drawn through the flame two or three times, nor is that enough, but again and again being purged thoroughly by the furnace, never will it have any false or foreign material, so also the words of the Lord genuinely spoken are full of truth, as pure and undefiled, including no falsehood.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 12:7

Psalms 13:3

The face of God, full of light, is a certain power looking to confer gifts, by which each partaker will be enlightened, as if they were enjoying the rays of the sun. But if one has turned away, his spirit lives in the shadows without light; because the eyes within, namely, the thoughts of the mind, can see nothing. When one persists in sin, more and more shadows come, because deep within him the face of God remains turned away.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 13:3-5

Psalms 13:4

As we sin, the adversary becomes haughty and domineering over us, and we are pressed down by our sin; this is really the nature of sin, to cast down and to oppress the spirit.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 13:1-4

Psalms 14:1

Some have denied that there is a divine spirit altogether. They have openly professed that God is not the ruler of everything, that his name is nothing but empty and that he is of no substance. Others worship gods who do not exist, denying him who is God alone. Some suggest that indeed there is a God in name, but they contend that he does not oversee earthly matters or look on human affairs. In summary, therefore, all these people have come together into the single position of atheism (godlessness), believing that there is no God. Since they are not bold enough to announce this openly, they persuade themselves in their hearts, being foolish and senseless in the matter of truth, that God does not exist. (A natural understanding about God and the innate seeds of the instinct drive all of them to confess a recognition of God; they are not so bold to deny this fact with their lips, so they pretend to recognize him not as the only God but as an innumerable plurality.) … Their godless position is brought to light from their works (as indeed a tree is judged by its fruit), with their villai…

Some have denied that there is a divine spirit altogether. They have openly professed that God is not the ruler of everything, that his name is nothing but empty and that he is of no substance. Others worship gods who do not exist, denying him who is God alone. Some suggest that indeed there is a God in name, but they contend that he does not oversee earthly matters or look on human affairs. In summary, therefore, all these people have come together into the single position of atheism (godlessness), believing that there is no God. Since they are not bold enough to announce this openly, they persuade themselves in their hearts, being foolish and senseless in the matter of truth, that God does not exist. (A natural understanding about God and the innate seeds of the instinct drive all of them to confess a recognition of God; they are not so bold to deny this fact with their lips, so they pretend to recognize him not as the only God but as an innumerable plurality.) … Their godless position is brought to light from their works (as indeed a tree is judged by its fruit), with their villainy and a way of living like it. They have poisoned their own spirit, betraying it to their bodies with whatever corruption, and as men act in madness with men and through whatever other monstrous and abominable acts, they defile their own selves. In this way it was shown that even if they mustered ten thousand gods, even if they blared out with their lips and confessed God governs all things, in their hearts, and really in their minds, there is not the least recognition of God. Such, therefore, was the life of these people before the advent of our Savior.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 14:1

Psalms 14:3

It was right to show openly the magnitude of the disease that lingered with sinister purpose for all people before the advent of the Savior: as it was manifested to all, his sojourn on earth became straightforwardly necessary. As all have sinned, all lacked the glory of God, and now they are all justified by his grace.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 14:3

Psalms 14:6

These words that are now put forth can be understood in my opinion in light of the Jews trying to upset the plan of the Savior, because they thought that he was lacking power. They did not consider carefully the treasure of his divinity. So they always contradicted his teaching, and the power of his miracles they misrepresented as not from divine power but as having been worked through some other source.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 14:6

Psalms 17:1

We speak fully and clearly when we use words taken from divine Scripture.… The righteous person alone cleanses his tongue, lips and the voice itself from using more common words, as one acquainted with that verse: “You will give an account of every careless word on the day of judgment.” The ears of God do not hear words offered from lying lips, but they receive any word offered from a cleansed tongue accustomed to meditating on divine words.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 17:1

Psalms 17:3

Who can with confidence say, “I am pure from sins”? Christ alone is truly and properly able to say these words.… When gold is tested by fire, it remains pure and shining. According to Isaiah, out of all people since the beginning of the age, Christ alone “did not sin, nor was there any deceit found in his mouth.”

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 17:3

Psalms 17:13

That sword will be the “word of God living and more active than any double edged sword,” here in the place of a straight sword, which is entrusted to my spirit for driving out the enemies.

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 17:13, 14