If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Read Chapter 130
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
2. "Lord, hear my voice. O let Thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint" (ver. 2). Whence doth he cry? From the deep. Who is it then who crieth? A sinner. And with what hope doth he cry? Because He who came to absolve from sins, gave hope even to the sinner down in the deep. What therefore followeth after these words: "If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is amiss, O Lord, who may abide it?" (ver. 3). So, he hath disclosed from what deep he cried out. For he crieth beneath the weights and billows of his iniquities. ...He said not, I may not abide it: but, "who may abide it?" For he saw that nigh the whole of human life on every side.was ever bayed at by its sins, that all consciences were accused by their thoughts, that a clean heart trusting in its own righteousness could not be found.
Mark. Hebrew, "observe or keep. "
It. Hebrew, "who shall stand upright, (Calmet) or make opposition. "(Haydock)
We all stand in need of mercy, as none can stand before the rigours of divine justice. (Worthington) Si quoties homines peccant, sua fulmina mittat Jupiter, exiguo tempore inermis erit. (Trist. ii. ) (Haydock)
