15 “Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Or who will take my part against the evil doers?”. Many persuade us to various evils: the serpent ceases not to whisper to you to work iniquity: whichever way you shall turn, if perchance you have done well, you seek to live well with some one, and thou hardly findest any one; many wicked men surround you, for there are few grains of wheat, and much chaff. This floor has its grains of grain, but as yet they suffer. Therefore the whole mass of the wheat, when separated from the chaff, will be great: the grains are few, but when compared with the chaff, still many in themselves.
When therefore the wicked cry out on every side, and say, Why do you live thus? Are you the only Christian? Why do you not do what others also do? Why do you not frequent the theatres, as others do? Why do you not use charms and amulets? Why do you not consult astrologers and soothsayers, even as others do? And thou crossest yourself, and sayest, I am Christian, that you may repel them, whosoever they are; but the enemy presses on, urges his attacks; what is worse, by the example of Christians he chokes Christians.
They toil on, in the midst of heat: the Christian soul suffers tribulation: yet it has power to conquer: has it such power of itself? For this reason remark what he says. For he answers, What does it profit me that I now find charms for myself, and gain a few days? I depart hence from this life, and repair unto my Lord, who shall send me into the flames; because I have preferred a few days to life eternal, He shall send me into hell. What hell? That of the eternal judgment of God.
Is it really so (the enemy answers), unless indeed thou really believest that God cares how men live? And perhaps it is not an acquaintance who speaks thus to you in the street, but your wife at home, or possibly the husband to the faithful and holy wife, her deceiver. If it be the woman to her husband, she is as Eve unto him; if as the husband unto the wife, he is as the devil unto her: either she is herself as Eve unto you, or you are a serpent unto her. Sometimes the father would incline his thoughts to his son, and finds him wicked, utterly depraved: he is in a fever of misery, he wavers, he seeks how to subdue him, he is almost drawn in, and consents: but may God be near him....
Source: The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms (New Advent)