The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

⁶ And what comes to pass when they are all turned back and blush, whether it be they that seek my soul, or they that think evil things to me, or they that with perverse and feigned benevolence with tongue would soften the stroke which they inflict, when they shall have been themselves turned away and confounded; there shall come to pass what? “Let them exult and be joyous in You:” not in me, not in this man or in that man; but in whom they have been made light that were darkness.

“Let them exult and be joyous in You, all that seek You”. One thing it is to seek God, another thing to seek man. “Let them be joyous that seek You.” They shall not be joyous then that seek themselves, whom You have first sought before they sought You. Not yet did that sheep seek the Shepherd, it had strayed from the flock, and He went down to it; He sought it, and carried it back upon His shoulders. Will He despise you, O sheep, seeking Him, who has first sought you despising Him and not seeking Him?

Now then begin thou to seek Him that first has sought you, and has carried you back on His shoulders. Do thou that which He speaks of, “They that are My sheep hear My voice, and follow Me.” If then you seek Him that first has sought you, and hast become a sheep of His, and you hear the voice of your Shepherd, and followest Him; see what He shows to you of Himself, what of His Body, in order that as to Himself you may not err, as to the Church you may not err, that no one may say to you, that is Christ which is not Christ, or that is the Church which is not the Church.

For many men have said that Christ had no flesh, and that Christ has not risen in His Body: do not thou follow the voices of them. Hear thou the voice of Himself the Shepherd, that was clothed with flesh, in order that He might seek lost flesh. He has risen again, and He says, “Handle ye and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see Me have.” He shows Himself to you, the voice of Him follow thou. He shows also the Church, that no one may deceive you by the name of Church.

“It behooved,” He says, “Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day, and that there should be preached repentance and remission of sins through all nations, beginning with Jerusalem.” You have the voice of Your Shepherd, do not thou follow the voice of strangers: and a thief you shall not fear, if you shall have followed the voice of the Shepherd. But how shall you follow? If you shall neither have said to any man, as if it were by his own merit, Well, well: nor shall have heard the same with joy, so that your head be not made fat with the oil of a sinner. “Let all them exult and be joyous in You, that seek You; and let them say”— let them say what, that exult?

“Be the Lord always magnified!” Let all them say this, that exult and seek You. What? “Be the Lord always magnified; yea, they that love Your salvation.” Not only, “Be the Lord magnified;” but also, “alway.”...A sinner you are, be He magnified in order that He may call; you confess, be He magnified in order that He may forgive: now you live justly, be He magnified in order that He may direct: you persevere even unto the end, be He magnified in order that He may glorify. “Be the Lord,” then, “alway magnified; yea, they love His saving health.”

For from Him they have salvation, not from themselves. The saving health of the Lord our God, is the Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ: whosoever loves the Saviour, confesses himself to have been made whole; whosoever confesses himself to have been made whole, confesses himself to have been sick. Not their own saving health, as if they could save themselves of themselves: not as it were the saving health of a man, as though by him they could be saved. “Do not,” he says, “confide in princes, and in the sons of men, in whom there is no safety.” Why so? “Of the Lord is safety, and upon Your people is Your blessing.”