The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

¹ “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Your Name give the praise”. For that grace of the water that gushed from the rock (“now that rock was Christ”), was not given on the score of works that had gone before, but of His mercy “that justifies the ungodly.” For “Christ died for sinners,” that men might not seek any glory of their own, but in the Lord's Name.

2. “For Your loving mercy, and for Your truth's sake”. Observe how often these two qualities, loving mercy and truth, are joined together in the holy Scriptures. For in His loving mercy He called sinners, and in His truth He judges those who when called refused to come. “That the heathen may not say, Where is now their God?” For at the last, His loving mercy and truth will shine forth, when “the sign of the Son of man shall appear in heaven, and then shall all tribes of the earth cry woe;” nor shall they then say, “Where is their God?” when He is no longer preached unto them to be believed in, but displayed before them to be trembled at.

3. “As for our God, He is in heaven above”. Not in heaven, where they see the sun and moon, works of God which they adore, but “in heaven above,” which overpasses all heavenly and earthly bodies. Nor is our God in heaven in such a sense, as to dread a fall that should deprive Him of His throne, if heaven were withdrawn from under Him. “In heaven and earth He has made whatsoever pleased Him.” Nor does He stand in need of His own works, as if He had place in them where He might abide; but endures in His own eternity, wherein He abides and has done whatsoever pleased Him, both in heaven and earth; for they did not support Him, as a condition of their being created by Him: since, unless they had been created, they could not have supported Him. Therefore, in whatsoever He Himself dwells, He, so to speak, contains this as in need of Himself, He is not contained by this as if He needed it. Or it may be thus understood: “In heaven and in earth He has done whatsoever pleased Him,” whether among the higher or the lower orders of His people, He has made His grace His free gift, that no man may boast in the merits of his own works....

4. “Their idols,” he says, “are silver and gold, even the work of men's hands”. That is, although we cannot display our God to your carnal eyes, whom you ought to recognise through his works; yet be not seduced by your vain pretences, because ye can point with the finger to, the objects of your worship. For it were much worthier for you not to have what to point to, than that your hearts' blindness should be displayed in what is exhibited to these eyes by you: for what do ye exhibit, save gold and silver? They have indeed both bronze, and wood, and earthenware idols, and of different materials of this description; but the Holy Spirit preferred mentioning the more precious material, because when every man has blushed for that which he sets more by, he is much more easily turned away from the worship of meaner objects. For it is said in another passage of Scripture concerning the worshippers of images, “Saying to a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth.” But lest that man who speaks thus not to a stone or stock, but to gold and silver, seem wiser to himself; let him look this way, let him turn hitherwards the ear of his heart: “The idols of the Gentiles are gold and silver.” Nothing mean and contemptible is here mentioned: and indeed to that mind which is not earth, both gold and silver is earth, but more beautiful and brilliant, more solid and firm. Employ not then the hands of men, to create a false Deity out of that metal which a true God has created; nay, a false man, whom you may worship for a true God....

5. “For they have mouths, and speak not: eyes have they, and see not”. “They have ears, and hear not: noses have they, and smell not”. “They have hands, and handle not; feet have they, and walk not; neither cry they through their throat”. Even their artist therefore surpasses them, since he had the faculty of moulding them by the motion and functions of his limbs: though you would be ashamed to worship that artist. Even you surpass them, though you have not made these things, since you do what they cannot do. Even a beast does excel them; for unto this it is added, “neither cry they through their throat.” For after he had said above, “they have mouths, and speak not;” what need was there, after he had enumerated the limbs from head to feet, to repeat what he had said of their crying through their throat; unless, I suppose, because we perceive that what he mentioned of the other members, was common to men and beasts? For they see, and hear, and smell, and walk, and some, apes for instance, handle with hands. But what he had said of the mouth, is peculiar to men: since beasts do not speak. But that no one might refer what has been said to the works of human members alone, and prefer men only to the gods of the heathen; after all this he added these words, “neither cry they through their throat:” which again is common to men and cattle....How much better then do mice and serpents, and other animals of like sort, judge of the idols of the heathen, so to speak, for they regard not the human figure in them when they see not the human life. For this reason they usually build nests in them, and unless they are deterred by human movements, they seek for themselves no safer habitations. A man then moves himself, that he may frighten away a living beast from his own god; and yet worships that god who cannot move himself, as if he were powerful, from whom he drove away one better than the object of his worship....Even the dead surpasses a deity who neither lives nor has lived....