Eusebius of Caesarea

This verse serves as a lesson on how the great work of God is declared. People who have been blinded in the eyes of their minds have expelled from the natural order the hidden and invisible divine essence, which is incorporeal and uncreated, and cannot be touched in any way or recognized with carnal eyes. With a godless and wicked mouth they say that there is no God, that nothing excellent of a corporeal nature exists beyond its temporary appearance, and that the whole universe came together in a certain momentary and accidental coalescence and gathering of parts that previously existed by chance and without purpose. Thus, it was necessary in the present work by means of a psalm that the writer should prove through plain demonstration God’s omniscience and creative power. The nature of mortals is insignificant and fragile, the thoughts of people, foolish, and our reasoning uncertain. Therefore, we are no match for declaring the divine glory. For these worthy words and reflections about God cannot be proclaimed with human voices or with tongues or lips of flesh. If one who has the facility of a strong mind could hear that powerful and most worthy teaching that comes from the heavens, he would direct his mind and mount up to attend to those things, embracing them completely in himself, celebrating his Creator and the Maker of the universe with hymns and songs. For those heavens above us and those elements present in the firmament attest to a nature capable of being understood by and realized through the senses. They ascribe glory to God, not through any human language but through their adornment, by their very creation, through their ordered movement they teach his immeasurable majesty.… Whoever, therefore, thinks that such beauty and magnitude adorned itself or that the heavens created themselves, and then ascribes their harmonious and ordered motions to some process devoid of any divine power, is foolish and wicked. Therefore, those of sound mind confess that the part is a unified whole, and not only do they hear the cry of the heavens but also the proclamation from that very work together announcing glory to God, their Maker and Creator.

The days and the nights teach those people who desire to be taught what ineffable wisdom, what incomprehensible power God has, who has measured out the intervals of time for them. If there were no one who would determine the space and the intervals for the seasons, but they existed in a thoughtless and unconsidered way by chance, it would happen that the days would not be ordered in equal spaces through the ages and there would be a confusion of things, and likewise the times of the nights would pass by chance or happenstance. Even the state of related matters would be disordered because of thoughtless chance, and confusion would follow the confused matter; but … reason rules the right order, and wisdom administers harmony and order. There are mutual changes and alterations; for the days, as the nights yield, are longer, and then the nights claim their space, rightfully due and given mutually, having been increased by winter and season. These things, I say, are not only voiced, but as they announce the knowledge of God to people they declare that most wise order of all things constituted by God. So the voices of the days and nights, by their very work being done, call out to them who are able to hear as their teaching reaches all ears. And the universe that is inhabited by people is replete with songs of this type and like choruses.

The dogs that surrounded him and the council of the wicked were the rulers of the Jews, the scribes and high priests and the Pharisees, who spurred on the whole multitude to demand his blood against themselves and against their own children. Isaiah clearly calls them dogs when he says, “You are all foolish dogs, unable to bark.” For when it was their duty, even if they could not acquire the character of shepherds, to protect like good sheepdogs their master’s spiritual flock and the sheep of the house of Israel, and to warn by barking, and to fawn on their master and recognize him, and to guard the flock entrusted to them with all vigilance and to bark if necessary at enemies outside the fold, they preferred like senseless dogs, yes, like mad dogs, to drive the sheep wild by barking, so that the words aptly describe them that say, “Many dogs have surrounded me; the council of the wicked has hemmed me in.” And all who even now conduct themselves like them in reviling and barking at the Christ of God in the same way may be reckoned their kin; yes, they who like those impious soldiers crucify the Son of God and put him to shame have a character very like theirs. Yes, all who today insult the body of Christ, that is, the church, and attempt to destroy the hands and feet and very bones are of their number.