Acts 1:20

26. “Let the habitation of them become forsaken” ( ver. 26 ). This is now evident. For in the same manner as He hath mentioned not only a secret deliverance of His, saying, “Give heed to My soul, and redeem her;” but also one open after the body, adding, “because of mine enemies deliver me:” so also to these men He foretelleth how there are to be certain secret misfortunes, whereof a little before He was speaking.…For the blindness of the Jews was secret vengeance: but the open was what? “Let their habitation become forsaken, and in their tabernacles let there not be any one to inhabit.” There hath come to pass this thing in the very city Jerusalem, wherein they thought themselves mighty in crying against the Son of God, “Crucify, Crucify;” and in prevailing because they were able to kill Him that raised dead men. …

4. “The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob” ( ver. 2 ). I have made the foregoing remarks, that ye may not imagine the gates are one thing, the foundations another. Why are the Apostles and Prophets foundations? Because their authority is the support of our weakness. Why are they gates? because through them we enter the kingdom of God: for they proclaim it to us: and while we enter by their means, we enter also through Christ, Himself being the Gate. And twelve gates of Jerusalem are spoken of, and the one gate is Christ, and the twelve gates are Christ for Christ dwells in the twelve gates, hence was twelve the number of the Apostles. …

8. “Set thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand” ( ver. 5 ). Though the complaint had been before concerning many, the Psalm is now speaking of one.…Since therefore he is here speaking of the traitor Judas, who, according to the Scripture in the Acts of the Apostles, was to be punished with the penalty due to him, what meaneth, “set thou an ungodly man over him,” save him whom in the next verse he mentioneth by name, when he saith, “and let Satan stand at his right hand”? He therefore who refused to be subject unto Christ, deserved this, that he should have the devil set over him, that is, that he should be subject unto the devil.…For this reason also it is said of those who, preferring the pleasures of this world to God, styled the people blessed who have such and such things, “their right hand is a right hand of iniquity.”…

2. Now in that some have believed that the Psalms are divided into five books, they have been led by the fact, that so often at the end of Psalms are the words, “so be it, so be it.” But when I endeavoured to make out the principle of this division, I was not able; for neither are the five parts equal one to another, neither in quantity of contents, nor yet even in number of Psalms, so as for each to contain thirty. And if each book end with, “so be it, so be it,” we may reasonably ask, why the fifth and last book hath not the same conclusion. We however, following the authority of canonical Scripture, where it is said, “For it is written in the book of Psalms,” know that there is but one book of Psalms. And I see indeed how this can be true, and yet the other be true also, without contravening it. …

Then after the event, he appositely brings in the Prophet, saying, “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein” ( v. 20 ) ( Ps. lxix. 25 ): this is said of the field and the dwelling: “And his bishopric let another take; that is, his office, his priesthood. So that this, he says, is not my counsel, but His who hath foretold these things. For, that he may not seem to be undertaking a great thing, and just such as Christ had done, he adduces the Prophet as a witness. “Wherefore it behooves of these men which have companied with us all the time.” ( v. 21 .) Why does he make it their business too? That the matter might not become an object of strife, and they might not fall into contention about it. For if the Apostles themselves once did this, much more might those. This he ever avoids. …