Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Psalms 144
There are 24 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 83, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
Certain General Principles of Parabolic Interpretation. These Applied to the Parables Now Under Consideration, Especially to that of the Prodigal Son. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 800 (In-Text, Margin)
... call it forth) as those to which it coheres, and the selfsame “muttering,” of course, of the Pharisees at the intercourse between the Lord and heathens. Or else, if any doubts that in the land of Judea, subjugated as it had been long since by the hand of Pompey and of Lucullus, the publicans were heathens, let him read Deuteronomy: “There shall be no tribute-weigher of the sons of Israel.” Nor would the name of publicans have been so execrable in the eyes of the Lord, unless as being a “strange”[Psalms 144:7] name,—a (name) of such as put up the pathways of the very sky, and earth, and sea, for sale. Moreover, when (the writer) adjoins “sinners” to “publicans,” it does not follow that he shows them to have been Jews, albeit some may possibly have been ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 83, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
Certain General Principles of Parabolic Interpretation. These Applied to the Parables Now Under Consideration, Especially to that of the Prodigal Son. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 800 (In-Text, Margin)
... call it forth) as those to which it coheres, and the selfsame “muttering,” of course, of the Pharisees at the intercourse between the Lord and heathens. Or else, if any doubts that in the land of Judea, subjugated as it had been long since by the hand of Pompey and of Lucullus, the publicans were heathens, let him read Deuteronomy: “There shall be no tribute-weigher of the sons of Israel.” Nor would the name of publicans have been so execrable in the eyes of the Lord, unless as being a “strange”[Psalms 144:11] name,—a (name) of such as put up the pathways of the very sky, and earth, and sea, for sale. Moreover, when (the writer) adjoins “sinners” to “publicans,” it does not follow that he shows them to have been Jews, albeit some may possibly have been ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 65, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth years of his age, passed at Carthage, when, having completed his course of studies, he is caught in the snares of a licentious passion, and falls into the errors of the Manichæans. (HTML)
He Argues Against the Same as to the Reason of Offences. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 251 (In-Text, Margin)
... to one who is happy; or as he that is prosperous in anything to him who he fears will become equal to himself, or whose equality he grieves at; or for the mere pleasure in another’s pains, as the spectators of gladiators, or the deriders and mockers of others. These be the chief iniquities which spring forth from the lust of the flesh, of the eye, and of power, whether singly, or two together, or all at once. And so do men live in opposition to the three and seven, that psaltery “of ten strings,”[Psalms 144:9] Thy ten commandments, O God most high and most sweet. But what foul offences can there be against Thee who canst not be defiled? Or what deeds of violence against thee who canst not be harmed? But Thou avengest that which men perpetrate against ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 66, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth years of his age, passed at Carthage, when, having completed his course of studies, he is caught in the snares of a licentious passion, and falls into the errors of the Manichæans. (HTML)
He Refers to the Tears, and the Memorable Dream Concerning Her Son, Granted by God to His Mother. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 261 (In-Text, Margin)
19. And Thou sendedst Thine hand from above,[Psalms 144:7] and drewest my soul out of that profound darkness, when my mother, Thy faithful one, wept to thee on my behalf more than mothers are wont to weep the bodily death of their children. For she saw that I was dead by that faith and spirit which she had from Thee, and Thou heardest her, O Lord. Thou heardest her, and despisedst not her tears, when, pouring down, they watered the earth under her eyes in every place where she prayed; yea, Thou heardest her. For whence was that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 117, footnote 17 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. (HTML)
The Pious Old Man Rejoices that He Read Plato and the Scriptures, and Tells Him of the Rhetorician Victorinus Having Been Converted to the Faith Through the Reading of the Sacred Books. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 616 (In-Text, Margin)
4. O Lord, Lord, who hast bowed the heavens and come down, touched the mountains and they did smoke,[Psalms 144:5] by what means didst Thou convey Thyself into that bosom? He used to read, as Simplicianus said, the Holy Scripture, most studiously sought after and searched into all the Christian writings, and said to Simplicianus,—not openly, but secretly, and as a friend,—“Know thou that I am a Christian.” To which he replied, “I will not believe it, nor will I rank you among the Christians unless I see you in the Church of Christ.” Whereupon he replied ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 143, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and men. (HTML)
That in His Confessions He May Do Good, He Considers Others. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 827 (In-Text, Margin)
... back by my own weight? To such will I declare myself. For it is no small fruit, O Lord my God, that by many thanks should be given to Thee on our behalf, and that by many Thou shouldest be entreated for us. Let the fraternal soul love that in me which Thou teachest should be loved, and lament that in me which Thou teachest should be lamented. Let a fraternal and not an alien soul do this, nor that “of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood,”[Psalms 144:11] but that fraternal one which, when it approves me, rejoices for me, but when it disapproves me, is sorry for me; because whether it approves or disapproves it loves me. To such will I declare myself; let them breathe freely at my good deeds, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 275, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the punishment and results of man’s first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust. (HTML)
Of the Justice of the Punishment with Which Our First Parents Were Visited for Their Disobedience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 739 (In-Text, Margin)
... but disobedience was the punishment of disobedience in that sin? For what else is man’s misery but his own disobedience to himself, so that in consequence of his not being willing to do what he could do, he now wills to do what he cannot? For though he could not do all things in Paradise before he sinned, yet he wished to do only what he could do, and therefore he could do all things he wished. But now, as we recognize in his offspring, and as divine Scripture testifies, “Man is like to vanity.”[Psalms 144:4] For who can count how many things he wishes which he cannot do, so long as he is disobedient to himself, that is, so long as his mind and his flesh do not obey his will? For in spite of himself his mind is both frequently disturbed, and his flesh ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 350, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)
Of the Substance of the People of God, Which Through His Assumption of Flesh is in Christ, Who Alone Had Power to Deliver His Own Soul from Hell. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1063 (In-Text, Margin)
... substance of His people, of whose nature His flesh is. “For not in vain,” he says, “hast Thou made all the sons of men.” For unless the one Son of man had been the substance of Israel, through which Son of man many sons of men should be set free, all the sons of men would have been made wholly in vain. But now, indeed, all mankind through the fall of the first man has fallen from the truth into vanity; for which reason another psalm says, “Man is like to vanity: his days pass away as a shadow;”[Psalms 144:4] yet God has not made all the sons of men in vain, because He frees many from vanity through the Mediator Jesus, and those whom He did not foreknow as to be delivered, He made not wholly in vain in the most beautiful and most just ordination of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 419, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
A review of the philosophical opinions regarding the Supreme Good, and a comparison of these opinions with the Christian belief regarding happiness. (HTML)
Of the Peace Which is Enjoyed by the People that are Alienated from God, and the Use Made of It by the People of God in the Time of Its Pilgrimage. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1303 (In-Text, Margin)
Wherefore, as the life of the flesh is the soul, so the blessed life of man is God, of whom the sacred writings of the Hebrews say, “Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.”[Psalms 144:15] Miserable, therefore, is the people which is alienated from God. Yet even this people has a peace of its own which is not to be lightly esteemed, though, indeed, it shall not in the end enjoy it, because it makes no good use of it before the end. But it is our interest that it enjoy this peace meanwhile in this life; for as long as the two cities are commingled, we also enjoy the peace of Babylon. For from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 422, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
That in the Mingled Web of Human Affairs God’s Judgment is Present, Though It Cannot Be Discerned. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1316 (In-Text, Margin)
... useful to society is cut off by premature death, while those who, as it might seem, ought never to have been so much as born have lives of unusual length; why he who is full of crimes is crowned with honors, while the blameless man is buried in the darkness of neglect. But who can collect or enumerate all the contrasts of this kind? But if this anomalous state of things were uniform in this life, in which, as the sacred Psalmist says, “Man is like to vanity, his days as a shadow that passeth away,”[Psalms 144:4] —so uniform that none but wicked men won the transitory prosperity of earth, while only the good suffered its ills,—this could be referred to the just and even benign judgment of God. We might suppose that they who were not destined to obtain those ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 470, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
Against Those Who Fancy that in the Judgment of God All the Accused Will Be Spared in Virtue of the Prayers of the Saints. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1552 (In-Text, Margin)
... the children of the promise, of whom the prophet himself was one; for when he had said, “Shall God forget to be gracious? shall He shut up in His anger His tender mercies?” and then immediately subjoins, “And I said, Now I begin: this is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High,” he manifestly explained what he meant by the words, “Shall he shut up in His anger His tender mercies?” For God’s anger is this mortal life, in which man is made like to vanity, and his days pass as a shadow.[Psalms 144:4] Yet in this anger God does not forget to be gracious, causing His sun to shine and His rain to descend on the just and the unjust; and thus He does not in His anger cut short His tender mercies, and especially in what the Psalmist speaks of in the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 493, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which is considered the Council of Carthage, held under the authority and presidency of Cyprian, to determine the question of the baptism of heretics. (HTML)
Chapter 31 (HTML)
... a right hand of falsehood: whose sons are like young shoots well established, and their daughters polished after the similitude of the temple. Their garners are full, affording all manner of store; their sheep are fruitful, bringing forth plenteously in their streets; their oxen are strong: there is no breaking down of their fence, no opening of a passage out, no complaining in their streets. Men deemed happy the people that is in such a case; rather blessed is the people whose God is the Lord."[Psalms 144:11-15] If, therefore, those are strange children who place their happiness in temporal things, and in the abundance of earthly prosperity, and despise the commandments of the Lord, let us see whether these are not the very same of whom Cyprian so speaks, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 558, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face. (HTML)
Chapter 47 (HTML)
... words have no reference even to Simon Magus, who yet received the same holy baptism; and because he would not use it in a holy way, he did not therefore pollute it, or show that in such cases it should be repeated. But since you have made mention of Goliath, listen to the psalm which treats of Goliath himself, and see that he is portrayed in a new song; for there it is said, "I will sing a new song unto Thee, O God: upon a psaltery, and an instrument of ten strings, will I sing praise unto Thee."[Psalms 144:9] And see whether he belongs to this song who refuses to communicate with the whole earth. For elsewhere it is said, "O sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth." Therefore the whole earth, with whom you are not in unity, sings ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 303, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Rise and Origin of Evil. The Exorcism and Exsufflation of Infants, a Primitive Christian Rite. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2307 (In-Text, Margin)
... delivered from the power of darkness; nor is it in the books of Manichæus that we read how “the Son of man come to seek and to save that which was lost,” or how “by one man sin entered into the world,” with those other similar passages which we have quoted above; or how God “visits the sins of the fathers upon the children;” or how it is written in the Psalm, “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;” or again, how “man was made like unto vanity: his days pass away like a shadow;”[Psalms 144:4] or again, “behold, Thou hast made my days old, and my existence as nothing before Thee; nay, every man living is altogether vanity;” or how the apostle says, “every creature was made subject to vanity;” or how it is written in the book of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 451, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xvi. 9, ‘Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3509 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Psalm, “O Lord, deliver me out of the hand of strange children, whose mouth hath spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are as new plants, firmly rooted from their youth. Their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple. Their storehouses full, flowing out from this into that. Their oxen fat, their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their goings forth. There is no breach of wall, nor going forth, no crying out in their streets.”[Psalms 144:11] Lo, what sort of happiness the Psalmist has described: but hear what is the case with them whom he has set forth as children of iniquity. “Whose mouth hath spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity.” Thus has he set them forth, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 480, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3725 (In-Text, Margin)
... Prophets teach it, Elias fasted forty days. As a figure that the Gospel teaches it, the Lord fasted forty days. And therefore in the mount too these three appeared, the Lord in the middle, Moses and Elias at the sides. Wherefore? Because the Gospel itself receives testimony from the Law and the Prophets. But why in the number forty is the perfection of righteousness? In the Psalter it is said, “O God, I will sing a new song unto Thee, upon a psaltery of ten strings will I sing praises unto Thee.”[Psalms 144:9] Which signifies the ten precepts of the Law, which the Lord came not to destroy, but to fulfil. And the Law itself throughout the whole world, it is evident, hath four quarters, the East, and West, South, and North, as the Scripture saith. And hence ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 110, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1007 (In-Text, Margin)
... “roaring with the groaning of my heart.” In what way do His enemies “live,” in that He hath said of them already, that they have “spoken vanity”? Hear in another Psalm also: “Whose sons are as young plants; firmly rooted.” But above He had said, “Whose mouth speaketh vanity. Their daughters polished after the similitude of a temple: their garners full bursting forth more and more; their cattle fat, their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their streets; no hedge falling into ruin; no cry in their streets.”[Psalms 144:12-14] “Mine enemies” then “live.” This is their life; this life they praise; this they set their hearts upon: this they hold fast to their own ruin. For what follows? They pronounce “the people that is in such a case” blessed. But what sayest thou, who ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 110, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1008 (In-Text, Margin)
... their cattle fat, their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their streets; no hedge falling into ruin; no cry in their streets.” “Mine enemies” then “live.” This is their life; this life they praise; this they set their hearts upon: this they hold fast to their own ruin. For what follows? They pronounce “the people that is in such a case” blessed. But what sayest thou, who “hast a care for thy sin”? What sayest thou, who “confessest thine iniquity”? He says, “Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.”[Psalms 144:15]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 223, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2105 (In-Text, Margin)
15. “In whatsoever day I shall have called upon Thee, behold I have known that my God art Thou” (ver. 9). A great knowledge. He saith not, “I have known that God Thou art:” but, “that my God art Thou.” For thine He is, when thee He succoureth: thine He is, when thou to Him art not an alien. Whence is said, “Blessed the people of whom is the Lord the God of the same.”[Psalms 144:15] Wherefore “of whom is”? For of whom is He not? Of all things indeed God He is: but of those men the God peculiarly He is said to be, that love Him, that hold Him, that possess Him, that worship Him, as though belonging to His own House: the great family of Him are they, redeemed by the great blood of the Only ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 223, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2106 (In-Text, Margin)
... that worship Him, as though belonging to His own House: the great family of Him are they, redeemed by the great blood of the Only Son. How great a thing hath God given to us, that His own we should be, and He should be ours! But in truth foreigners afar have been put from holy men, sons alien they are. See what of them is said in another Psalm: “O Lord, deliver me,” he saith, “from the hand of alien sons, of whom the mouth hath spoken vanity, and the right hand of them is a right hand of iniquity.”[Psalms 144:11] …
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 538, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4926 (In-Text, Margin)
... thou an ungodly man over him,” save him whom in the next verse he mentioneth by name, when he saith, “and let Satan stand at his right hand”? He therefore who refused to be subject unto Christ, deserved this, that he should have the devil set over him, that is, that he should be subject unto the devil.…For this reason also it is said of those who, preferring the pleasures of this world to God, styled the people blessed who have such and such things, “their right hand is a right hand of iniquity.”[Psalms 144:11] …
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 340, footnote 7 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1055 (In-Text, Margin)
... tribulation, whom we must applaud, emulating those who live virtuously, and cultivate piety. For so speaks the prophet: “Their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. Their daughters beautified, ornamented after the similitude of a temple. Their garners full, bursting from one into another; their sheep fruitful; abundant in their streets; their oxen fat. There is no breaking down of the fence, nor passage through; nor clamor in their streets. They call the people blessed whose affairs are in this state.”[Psalms 144:11-15] But what dost thou say, O prophet? “Blessed,” saith he, “the people whose God is the Lord;” not the people affluent in wealth, but one adorned with godliness; that people, saith he, I esteem happy, although they suffer innumerable hardships!
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 74, footnote 7 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the words Incarnate, and Made Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1372 (In-Text, Margin)
... nature; from the feet to the head there was no soundness in it; none could apply mollifying ointment, neither oil, nor bandages. Then bewailing and wearying themselves, the Prophets said, Who shall give salvation out of Sion? And again, Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, and upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself: so will not we go back from Thee. And another of the Prophets entreated, saying, Bow the heavens, O Lord and come down[Psalms 144:5]. The wounds of man’s nature pass our healing. They slew Thy Prophets, and cast down Thine altars. The evil is irretrievable by us, and needs thee to retrieve it.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 472, footnote 4 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Letters of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Miscellaneous Letters. (HTML)
To Theodore, Bishop of Tyana. (HTML)
Letter CXXI. (HTML)
We rejoice in the tokens of love, and especially at such a season, and from one at once so young a man, and so perfect; and, to greet you with the words of Scripture, stablished in your youth,[Psalms 144:2] for so it calls him who is more advanced in wisdom than his years lead us to expect. The old Fathers prayed for the dew of heaven and fatness of the earth and other such things for their children, though perhaps some may understand these things in a higher sense; but we will give you back all in a spiritual sense. The Lord fulfil all thy requests, and mayest thou be the father of such children (if I ...