Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 17:7 Go To Jeremiah 17
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
It is said, “It is by his own fault that anyone deserts the faith, when he yields and consents to the temptation that is the cause of his desertion of the faith.” Who denies it? Because of this, perseverance in the faith is to be said to be a gift of God. For a person daily asks for this when he says, “Lead us not into temptation.” If he is heard, it is this that he receives. Thus, as he daily asks for perseverance, he assuredly places the hope of his perseverance not in himself but in God. I, however, am loath to exaggerate the case with my words, but I rather leave it to them to consider and see what it is of which they have persuaded themselves—“that by the preaching of predestination, more despair than exhortation is impressed on the hearers.” For this is to say that a person then despairs of his salvation when he has learned to place his hope not in himself but in God, although the prophet cries, “Cursed is one who has his hope in humankind.”
