The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^10. He then begins to relate how it happened that they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people. “He calls,” he says, “for a famine upon the land: and broke all the staff of bread”. Thus it happened that they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people. But the expressions of the holy Scriptures are not to be negligently passed by. “He called,” he says, “for a famine upon the land;” as if famine were some person, or some animated body, or some spirit that would obey Him who called....Under this impression the old Romans consecrated some such deities, as the goddess Fever, and the god Paleness. Or means it, as is more credible, He said there should be famine; so that calling be the same thing as mentioning by name; mentioning by name, as speaking; speaking, as commanding? Nor does the Apostle say, “He calls those things which be not, that they may be;” but, “as though they were.” For with God that has already happened which, according to His disposition, is fixed for the future: for of Him it is elsewhere said, “He who made things to come.” And here when famine happened, then it is said to have been called, that is, that that which had been determined in His secret government, might be realized. Lastly, he at once expounds, how He called for the famine, saying, “He broke all the staff of bread.”

11. “But He had sent a man before them”. What man? “Even Joseph.” How did He send him? “Joseph was sold to be a bond-servant.” When this happened, it was the sin of his brethren, and, nevertheless, God sent Joseph into Egypt. We should therefore meditate on this important and necessary subject, how God uses well the evil works of men, as they on the other hand use ill the good works of God.