Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 11:1

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

This title does not require a fresh consideration: for the meaning of, "to the end," has already been sufficiently handled. Let us then look to the text itself of the Psalm, which to me appears to be sung against the heretics, who, by rehearsing and exaggerating the sins of many in the Church, as if either all or the majority among themselves were righteous, strive to turn and snatch us away from the breasts of the one True Mother Church: affirming that Christ is with them, and warning us as if with piety and earnestness, that by …

Exposition on Psalm 11 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

The soul has wings by which it can raise itself free from the earth. But this movement of the wings is not of something constructed of feathers but a continuing series of good works, like those of the Lord of whom it is well said, "And in the shadow of your wings I shall take refuge." In the first place, the hands of our Lord fixed on the cross were extended like something in flight, and, second, the actions of God are like a refreshing shadow of eternal salvation that can regulate the conflagration raging in our world.

Concerning Virginity 18:116 ↗

Jerome

What the phrase "unto the end" signifies — for which Symmachus rendered ἐπινίκιον (a song of victory), while Aquila and the sixth edition rendered τῷ νικοποιῷ (to the giver of victory) — has been discussed more fully above. Now let us return to the order of the tenth psalm: a number which is both an end and a beginning, in which every reckoning is rolled around, and to which the decalogue also — that is, the first law — is owed. …

Homily 60, on Psalm 10 (Alternate Series) ↗