Psalms 13:6

12. But concerning true patience, worthy of the name of this virtue, whence it is to be had, must now be inquired. For there are some who attribute it to the strength of the human will, not which it hath by Divine assistance, but which it hath of free-will. Now this error is a proud one: for it is the error of them which abound, of whom it is said in the Psalm, “A scornful reproof to them which abound, and a despising to the proud.” It is not therefore that “patience of the poor” which “perisheth not forever.” For these poor receive it from that Rich One, to Whom is said, “My God art Thou, because my goods Thou needest not:” of Whom is “every good gift, and every perfect gift;” to Whom crieth the needy and the poor, and in asking, seeking, knocking, saith, “My God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the lawless and unjust: because Thou art my patience, O Lord, m …

7. “For God is in the just generation.” It refers to what went before, so that the sense is, “shall not all they that work iniquity know that the Lord is in the just generation;” that is, He is not in them who love the world. For it is unjust to leave the Maker of the worlds, and “serve the creature more than the Creator.” Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, for the Lord is his hope” ( ver. 6 ): that is, ye have despised the humble coming of the Son of God, because ye saw not in Him the pomp of the world: that they, whom he was calling, should put their hope in God alone, not in the things that pass away.

6. “Shall not all know that work iniquity, that devour My people for the food of bread”? ( ver. 5 ).…There is therefore here a people of God that is being devoured. Nay, “There is not one that doeth good, there is not so much as one.” We reply by the rule above. But this people that is devoured, this people that suffereth evil men, this that groaneth and travaileth amid evil men, now out of sons of men have been made sons of God: therefore are they devoured. For, “The counsel of the needy man thou hast confounded, because the Lord is his hope.” For ofttimes, in order that the people of God may be devoured, this very thing in it is despised, that it is the people of God. …

11. And first of all, let us discipline our tongue to be the minister of the grace of the Spirit, expelling from the mouth all virulence and malignity, and the practice of using disgraceful words. For it is in our power to make each one of our members an instrument of wickedness, or of righteousness. Hear then how men make the tongue an instrument, some of sin, others of righteousness! “Their tongue is a sharp sword.” But another speaks thus of his own tongue: “My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” The former wrought destruction; the latter wrote the divine law. Thus was one a sword, the other a pen, not according to its own nature, but according to the choice of those who employed it. For the nature of this tongue and of that was the same, but the operation was not the same. And again, as to the mouth likewise, we may see this same thing. …