Fret not yourself because of evildoers, neither be you envious of the workers of iniquity.
Read Chapter 37
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
2. This it is that disturbs you who are a Christian; that you see men of bad lives prospering, and surrounded with abundance of things like these; you see them sound in health, distinguished with proud honours; you see their family unvisited by misfortune; the happiness of their relatives, the obsequious attendance of their dependants, their most commanding influence, theirs life uninterrupted by any sad event; you see their characters most profligate, their external resources most affluent; and your heart says that there is no Divine judgment; that all things are carried to and fro by accidents, and blown about in disorderly; and irregular motions. For if God, thou sayest, regarded human affairs, would his iniquity flourish, and my innocence suffer? Every sickness of the soul hath in Scripture its proper remedy. Let him then whose sickness is of that kind that he says in his heart things like these, let him drink this Psalm by way of potion. ...
1. With terror do they hear of the coming of the last day, who will not be secure by living well: and who fain would live ill, long. But it was for useful purposes that God willed that day to remain unknown; that the heart may be ever ready to expect that of which it knows it is to come, but knows not when it is to come. Seeing, however, that our Lord Jesus Christ was sent to us to be our "Master," He said, that "of the day not even the Son of Man knew," because it was not part of His office as our Master that through Him it should become known to us. For indeed the Father knoweth nothing that the Son knoweth not; since that is the Very Knowledge of the Father Itself, which is His Wisdom; now His Son, His Word, is "His Wisdom." But because it was not for our good to know that, which however was known to Him who came indeed to teach us, though not to teach us that which it was not good for us to know, He not only, as a Master, taught us something, but also, as a Master, left something u...
Himself. Hebrew has simply, "for David "(Calmet) as well as the Greek of the Vatican. "It is a mistake in Bell anger to say in general that the Greek adds "a psalm "since this is true only with respect to the edition of Aldus and Complutensian, says Berthier. But he is not quite accurate, as Erasmus inserts "a psalm "in his edition of St. Jerome's Septuagint; and the Alexandrian copy, which is equally famous with that of the Vatican, has for David. Grabe has indeed marked all but the last word as a peculiarity, or not to be found in Origen's copy. But he has published his edition with such accuracy, that we may distinguish what his manuscript contained from other interpolations. It were to be wished that the same attention had been paid to the Vatican copy. But hitherto all the editors have taken the liberty to make alterations without specifying where; so that we can have no security that we ever quote the real manuscript of the Vatican. The learned prefect, Zac Agni, gives abundant p...
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Reflect on God's will. (Haydock)
Laboras; sed in viâ Dei. (St. Augustine)
Hebrew, "be not angry nevertheless (ac, a word which Houbigant deems useless) to do evil "(Montanus) or "against the wicked "(Prin. dis.) as lehareah may be perhaps signified; though it is more usually taken for a verb, as the points decide. (Berthier)
