The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^10. I will now explain who are they who fall on the right hand of Christ....And because many have fallen from that hope of being judges, but yet many, many more from that of being on His right hand, the Psalmist thus addresses Christ, “A thousand shall fall beside You, and ten thousand at Your right hand.” And since there shall be many, who regarded not all these things, with whom, as it were with His own limbs, Christ is one, he adds, “But it shall not come near You.” Were these words addressed to the Head alone? Surely not; surely neither (does it come near) to Paul, nor Peter, nor all the Apostles, nor all the Martyrs, who failed not in their torments. What then do the words, “it shall not come near,” mean? Why were they thus tortured? The torture came near the flesh, but it did not reach the region of faith. Their faith then was far beyond the reach of the terrors threatened by their torturers. Let them torture, terror will not come near; let them torture, but they will mock the torture, putting their trust in Him who conquered before them, that the rest might conquer. And who conquer, except they who trust not in themselves?...Who will not fear? He who trusts not in himself, but in Christ. But those who trust in themselves, although they even hope to judge at the side of Christ, although they hoped they should be at His right hand, as if He said to them, “Come, you blessed of My Father,” etc.; yet the devil that is at noon overtook them, the raging heat of persecution, terrifying with violence; and many fell from the hope of the seat of judgment, of whom it is said, “A thousand shall fall beside you;” many too fell from the hope of reward for their duties, of whom it was said, “And ten thousand at your right hand.” But this downfall and devil that is at noon-day “shall not come near you,” that is, the Head and the body; for the Lord knows who are His.

11. “Nevertheless, with your eyes shall you behold, and see the reward of the ungodly”. What is this? Why “nevertheless”? Because the wicked were allowed to tyrannize over Your servants, and to persecute them. Will they then have been allowed to persecute Your servants with impunity? Not with impunity, for although You have permitted them, and Your own have thence received a brighter crown, “nevertheless,” etc. For the evil which they willed, not the good they unconsciously were the agents of, will be recompensed them. All that is wanting is the eye of faith, by which we may see that they are raised for a time only, while they shall mourn for evermore; and to those into whose hands is given temporal power over the servants of God, it shall be said, “Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” But if every man have but eyes in the sense in which it is said, “With your eyes shall you behold,” it is no unimportant thing to look upon the wicked flourishing in this life, and to have an eye to him, to consider what will become of him in the end, if he fail to reform his ways: for those who now would thunder upon others, will afterwards feel the thunderbolt themselves.

12. “For Thou, Lord, art my hope”. He has now come to the power Which rescues him from falling by the “downfall and the devil of the noon-day.” “For Thou, Lord, art my hope: You have set Your house of defence very high.” What do the words “very high” mean? For many make their house of defence in God a mere refuge from temporal persecution; but the defence of God is on high, and very secret, whither you may fly from the wrath to come. Within “You have set your house of defence very high. There shall no evil happen unto You: neither shall any plague come near Your dwelling”.