The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.
Read Chapter 39
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
78. Mountains we understand to be all the lofty ones of this world, who were swollen in their hearts with earthly loftiness. But since the Lord engrains [‘inviscerat’] even such, when converted, into the body of His Church, and, turning them from their former pride, transforms them into His own members, these are mountains of His pasture; doubtless, because He is satisfied with the conversion of the wandering, and the humility of the proud. As He Himself says, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me. [John 4, 34] And as He commanded the Apostles, when sent forth to preach, saying, Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto eternal life. [John 6, 27] Of these mountains it is said by the Prophet, The Lord will not reject His people, for in His hand are all the ends of the earth, and the heights of the hills He beholdeth. [Ps. 95, 4. LXX.] For the heights of the mountains are surely the loftinesses of the proud. Which the Lord is said to behold, that i...
64. The mountains of his pasture are the lofty contemplations of inward refreshment. For the more holy men abase themselves outwardly with contempt, the more abundantly are they supported within with the contemplation of revelations. Whence it is written; He hath disposed the ascents in his heart in the valley of tears; [Ps. 84, 6] because those, whom the valley of humility outwardly imprisons in tears, the ascent of contemplation elevates within. The mountains of pasture are also the lofty powers of angels: which therefore refresh us here by ministering and assisting, because they are fattened there with the inward dew of contemplation. And because, by the bounty of God, they protect us in every contest, they are well said to be beheld around. For we behold them present on all sides around us, by whose defence we are protected against our adversaries on every side. The mountains of pasture can be taken, still further, for the lofty sentences of Holy Scripture, of which it is said by t...
Then he adds, “Who has let the wild ass go free?” “Who has disposed things in this manner?” he says. “Who has established the laws of nature?” These are, he says, permanent laws that never change. This animal is strong and untamed. Even if you multiply your efforts, you will never have it under your control. “Who will destroy the decisions that God has taken?” You see that according to Providence and because God wants that, everything yields and obeys us. But if he does not want us to obtain obedience, we can use every means, and it will be of no use. We will gain nothing. Therefore, why is our effort useless, even though we want to get results? That is because when we see a domesticated animal we can admire the docility in which it has been established. But God has left things out of our reach in order that, before those things that are subjected to you, you may not admire your own wisdom and may not attribute to your capability the obedience of that animal. - "Commentary on Job 39.5a...
