Psalms 25:9

9. “Destroy not my soul with the ungodly” ( ver. 9 ). Destroy not then, together with them that hate Thee, my soul, which hath loved the beauty of Thy house. “And my life with the men of blood.” And with them that hate their neighbour. For Thy house is beautified with the two commandments.

10. “Let mount Zion rejoice, and the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Thy judgments, O Lord” ( ver. 10 ). O mount Zion, O daughters of Judah, ye labour now among tares, among chaff, among thorns ye labour: yet be glad because of God’s judgments. God erreth not in judgment. Live ye separate, though separate ye were not born; not vainly hath a voice gone forth from your mouth and heart, “Destroy not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men.” He shall winnow with such art, carrying in His hand a fan, that not one grain of wheat shall fall into the heap of chaff prepared to be burned, nor one beard of chaff pass to the heap to be laid up in the garner. Be glad, O ye daughters of Judæa, because of the judgments of God that erreth not, and do not yet judge rashly. To you let it belong to collect, to Him let it belong to separate. …

13. “And the Heaven shall declare His righteousness” ( ver. 6 ). Truly this righteousness of God to us the “heavens have declared,” the Evangelists have foretold. Through them we have heard that some will be on the right hand, to whom the Householder saith, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive.” Receive what? “A kingdom.” In return for what thing? “I was an hungred, and ye gave Me to eat.” What so valueless, what so earthly, as to break bread to the hungry? At so much is valued the kingdom of heaven. “Break thy bread to the hungry, and the needy without covering bring into thy house; if thou seest one naked, clothe him.” If thou hast not the means of breaking bread, hast not house into which thou mayest bring, hast not garment wherewith thou mayest cover: give a cup of cold water, cast two mites into the treasury. …

7. “He shall judge the poor of the people, and shall save the sons of the poor” ( ver. 4 ). The poor and the sons of the poor seem to me to be the very same, as the same city is Sion and the daughter of Sion. But if it is to be understood with a distinction, the poor we take to be the mountains, but the sons of the poor the hills: for instance, Prophets and Apostles, the poor, but the sons of them, that is, those that profit under their authority, the sons of the poor. But that which hath been said above, “shall judge;” and afterwards, “shall save;” is as it were a sort of exposition in what manner He shall judge. For to this end He shall judge, that He may save, that is, may sever from those that are to be destroyed and condemned, those to whom He giveth “salvation ready to be revealed at the” last time. …

14. “I will talk of Thy commandments, and have respect unto Thy ways” ( ver. 15 ). And thus the Church doth exercise herself in the commandments of God, by speaking in the copious disputations of the learned against all the enemies of the Christian and Catholic faith; which are fruitful to those who compose them, if nothing but the ways of the Lord is regarded in them; but “All the ways of the Lord are,” as it is written, “mercy and truth;” the fulness of which both is found in Christ. Through this sweet exercise is gained also what he subjoineth: “My meditation shall be in Thy statutes, and I will not forget Thy word” ( ver. 16 ). “My meditation” shall be therein, that I may not forget them. Thus the blessed man in the first Psalm “shall meditate in the law” of the Lord “day and night.”…

“Such was the corrupt opinion of the Arians; but on this the bishops, having detected their deceitfulness in this matter, collected from Scripture those passages which say of Christ that He is the glory, the fountain, the stream, and the express image of the person; and they quoted the following words: ‘ In thy light we shall see light ;’ and likewise, ‘ I and the Father are one .’ They then, with still greater clearness, briefly declared that the Son is of one substance with the Father; for this, indeed, is the signification of the passages which have been quoted. …