Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for your mercies' sake.
Read Chapter 6
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
5. "Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul" (ver. 4). Turning herself she prays that God too would turn to her: as it is said, "Turn ye unto Me, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord." Or is it to be understood according to that way of speaking, "Turn, O Lord," that is make me turn, since the soul in this her turning feels difficulty and toil? For our perfected turning findeth God ready, as says the Prophet, "We shall find Him ready as the dawn." Since it was not His absence who is everywhere present, but our turning away that made us lose Him; "He was in this world," it is said, "and the world was made by Him, and theworld knew Him not." If, then, He was in this world, and the world knew Him not, our impurity doth not endure the sight of Him. But whilst we are turning ourselves, that is, by changing our old life are fashioning our spirit; we feel it hard and toilsome to be wrested back from the darkness of earthly lusts, to the serene and quiet and tranquillity of the divine light. And ...
Turn. God never abandons us first, Jeremias ii. 27. (Berthier)
We drive him away by sin. (St. Athanasius)
Sake. I cannot take one step without thee. (Calmet)
Treat me not as my sins deserve; but mercifully restore me to favour. (Worthington)
