O my people, what have I done unto you? and in what have I wearied you? testify against me.
Read Chapter 6
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
There is also a third entreaty, for although David was set in the midst of people doing evil deeds, he eagerly desires that his case be separated from contagion with them. Many suppose that this sentiment should be attributed to the Lord Jesus, because it belongs to him alone not to fear judgment, as the one who overcomes when he is judged. Indeed, he has judgment from the unjust man, and into it Christ entered willingly, as you find it written, “O my people, what have I done to you? Or wherein have I grieved you?” But since the Father has given all judgment to him, not indeed as if to one that was weak but as if to a Son, what judgment can he undergo? If they think that the Son must undergo the Father’s judgment, surely “the Father does not judge any man, but all judgment has been given to the Son, that all men may honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” The Father honors the Son, and do you not put him to judgment? We have expressed this thought here, so that no one would think...
“For the Lord will judge his people, and he will [give] comfort among his servants.” The reason for the previous praise is stated: “For the Lord will judge his people,” that is, the Jewish people, to whom he revealed great miracles and assigned his prophets so that the people would not sin. He also sent to them his own Son, so that their accursed hardness could finally be melted. But because they persisted with accursed obstinacy, he will certainly judge them, because they were unwilling to be his, though he had chosen them from all nations as his possession. To them he says, “Hear, O people, and I will speak,” and elsewhere, “My people, what have I done to you?” So he will judge them. But hear what follows as it concerns the faithful: “He will again have compassion upon us.” He means when he will render their promised rewards to those on earth afflicted with harsh contempt on account of his name. Scripture says of them, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,” and i...
Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiffnecked and hardened? “O my people, what have I done to you, or in what way have I injured you, or wherein have I wearied you?” This language indeed is more fit from me to you who insult me. It is a sad thing that we watch for opportunities against each other and having destroyed our fellowship of spirit by diversities of opinion have become almost more inhuman and savage to one another than even the barbarians who are now engaged in war against us, banded together against us by the Trinity whom we have separated. We are not foreigners making forays and raids upon foreigners or nations of a different language, which is some little consolation in the calamity. But we are making war upon one another, and almost upon those of the same household. Or if you will, we the members of the same body are consuming and being consumed by one another. Nor is this, bad as it is, the extent of our calamity, for we even regard our diminu...
