The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

⁶ He adds, “Thus have they rewarded me evil for good”. And as if we asked, what evil? For what good? “And hatred,” he says, “for my good will.” This is the sum total of their great guilt. For how could the persecutors injure Him who died of His own free-will, and not by compulsion? But this very hatred is the greatest crime of the persecutor, although it be the willing atonement of the sufferer. And he has sufficiently explained the sense of the above words, “In place of loving me,” since they owed love not as a general duty only, but in return for His love: in that he has here added, “for my good will.” This love He mentions in the Gospel, when He says, “How often would I have gathered your children together, and you would not!”