Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:1
"How good is the God of Israel!" But to whom? "To men right in heart" (ver. 1). To men perverse what? Perverse He seemeth. So also in another Psalm He saith: "With a holy man holy Thou shalt be, and with the innocent man innocent Thou shalt be, and with the perverse man perverse Thou shalt be." What is, perverse Thou…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:2
But what to you? "But my feet were almost moved". When were the feet moved, except when the heart was not right? Whence was the heart not right? Hear: "My steps were well near overthrown." What he has meant by "almost," the same he has meant by "well near:" and what he has meant by "my feet were almost moved," the…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:3
But why even this? "For I was jealous," he says, "in the case of sinners, looking on the peace of sinners". I observed sinners, I saw them to have peace. What peace? Temporal, transient, falling, and earthly: but yet such as I also was desiring of God. I saw them that served not God to have that which I desired in…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:4
But why sinners have this, he says briefly: "Because there is no avoidance of their death, and there is a firmament in their scourge". Now I have perceived, he says, why they have peace, and flourish on the earth; because of their death there is no avoidance, because death sure and eternal does await them, which…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:5
"In the labours of men they are not, and with men they shall not be scourged". Does not even the devil himself escape scourging with men, for whom nevertheless an eternal punishment is being prepared?
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:6
Wherefore on this account what do these men, while they are not scourged, while they labour not with men? "Therefore," he saith "there hath holden them pride" (ver. 6). Observe these men, proud, undisciplined; observe the bull, devoted for a victim, suffered to stray at liberty; and to damage whatever he may, even up…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:7
At first these men are being described. "There shall go forth as if out of fat their iniquity" (ver. 7). ...A poor beggar committeth a theft; out of leanness hath gone forth the iniquity: but when a rich man aboundeth in so many things, why doth he plunder the things of others? Of the former the iniquity out of…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:8
"They have thought and have spoken spitefulness" (ver. 8). But men do speak spitefulness even with fear: but these men how? "Iniquity on high they have spoken." Not only they have spoken iniquity; but even openly, in the hearing of all, proudly; "I will do it;" "I will show you;" "thou shalt know with whom thou hast…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:9
"They have set against Heaven their mouth, and their tongue hath passed over above the earth" (ver. 9). For this, "hath passed over above the earth" is, they pass over all earthly things? What is it to pass over all earthly things? He doth not think of himself as a man that can die suddenly, when he is speaking; he…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:10
"Therefore there shall return hither My people". Now Asaph himself is returning hither. For he saw these things abound to unrighteous men, he saw them abound to proud men: he is returning to God, and is beginning to inquire and discuss. But when? "When full days shall be found in them." What is "full days"? "But when…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:11
"And they said, How has God known, and is there knowledge in the Most High?". See through what thought they pass. Behold unjust men are happy, God does not care for things human. Does He indeed know what we do? See what things are being said. We are inquiring, brethren, "How has God known," etc. (no longer let…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:13
"And I said, therefore without cause I have justified my heart" (ver. 13). In that I serve God, and have not these things; they serve him not, and they abound in these things: "therefore without cause I have justified my heart, and have washed among the innocent my hands." This without cause I have done. Where is the…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:14
"And I have been scourged all the day long". From me the scourges of God do not depart. I serve well, and I am scourged; he serves not, and is honoured. He has proposed to himself a great question. The soul is disturbed, the soul does pass over things which are to pass away unto despising things earthly and to…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:15
"If I said, I shall declare thus; behold, the generation of Your sons I have reprobated": that is, I will teach thus. How will you teach? That there is no knowledge in the Most High, that God does not know? Will you propound this opinion, that without cause men live justly who do live justly; that a just man has lost…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:16
And what followeth? That he might not reprobate, he did what? "And I undertook to know" (ver. 16). May God be with him in order that he may know. Meanwhile, brethren, from a great fall he is being withheld, when he doth not presume that he already knoweth, but hath undertaken to know that which he knew not. For but…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:17
...And he hath done this; for he saith how long labour is before him; "until I enter into the sanctuary of God, and understand upon the last things" (ver. 17). A great thing it is, brethren: now for a long time I labour, he saith, and before my face I see a sort of insuperable labour, to know in what manner both God…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:18
To wit, "because of deceitfulness You have set upon them". Because deceitful they are, that is fraudulent; because deceitful they are, they suffer deceits. What is this, because fraudulent they are they suffer a fraud? They desire to play a fraud upon mankind in all their naughtinesses, they themselves also suffer a…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:19
"How have they become a desolation suddenly?" (ver. 19). He is wondering at them, understanding unto the last things. "They have vanished." Truly like smoke, which while it mounteth upward, doth vanish, so they have vanished. How doth he say, "They have vanished"? In the manner of one who understandeth the last…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:20
"Like as the dream of one rising up". How have they vanished? As vanishes the dream of one rising up. Fancy a man in sleep to have seen himself find treasures; he is a rich man, but only until he awakes. "Like as the dream of one rising up:" so they have vanished, like the dream of one awaking. It is sought then and…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:20
"Because my heart was delighted" (ver. 21). He is saying with what things he is tempted: "because my heart was delighted," he saith, "my reins also were changed." When those temporal things delighted me, my reins were changed. It may also be understood thus: "because my heart was delighted" in God, "my reins also were…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:20
And hear how. "And I was brought unto nothing, and I knew not". I, the very man, who now say these things of rich men, once longed for such things: therefore "even I was brought to nothing" when my steps were almost overthrown. "And I was brought unto nothing, and I knew not." We must not therefore despair even of…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:20
What is, "I knew not"? "As it were a beast I became to You, and I am always with You". There is a great difference between this man and others. He became as it were a beast in longing for earthly things, when being brought to nothing he knew not things eternal: but he departed not from his God, because he did not…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:20
And he is beginning to think of that same Heavenly felicity, and to reprove himself, because he has been a beast, and has longed for things earthly. "For what have I in Heaven, and from You what have I willed upon earth?". By your voice I see that you have understood. He compared with his earthly will the heavenly…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:20
"My heart and my flesh has failed, O God of my heart". This then for me in Heaven has been reserved, "God of my heart, and my portion is my God." What is it, brethren? Let us find out our riches, let mankind choose their parts. Let us see men torn with diversity of desires: let some choose war-service, some advocacy,…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:20
"Behold, they that put themselves afar from Thee shall perish" (ver. 27). He therefore departed from God, but not far: for "I have become as it were a beast," he saith, and "I am alway with Thee." But they have departed afar, because not only things earthly they have desired, but have sought them from demons and the…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 72 · on Psalm 72:20
But thou doest what? "But for me to cleave to God is a good thing" (ver. 28). This is whole good. Will ye have more? I grieve at your willing. Brethren, what will ye have more? Than to cleave to God nothing is better, when we shall see Him face to face. But now what? For yet as a stranger I am speaking: "to cleave,"…
Every note is a real passage, quoted word for word from a published English translation, with its source. Nothing here is summarised or written by us. Some verses have many notes and some have none, because the Fathers wrote more on some passages than others.
Blessed Augustine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, tr. A. Cleveland Coxe from the Oxford translation, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888).
Scripture: the Septuagint, in the translation of Sir Lancelot Brenton (1851), with spelling updated by Adam Boyd (2020); the Greek is Brenton's Septuagint text.
All of these translations are in the public domain. The passages were matched to their verses by the Historical Christian Commentaries project, which also hosts the full texts we link to. The Fathers are a treasury of the Church's mind, and they are best read alongside the life of the Church: if a passage raises a question, bring it to your priest.