Augustine of Hippo

"I have seen," he says, "the foolish, and I pined" [Psalm 119:158]: or, as other copies read, "I have seen them that keep not covenant:" this is the reading of most. But who are they who have not kept covenant, save they who have swerved from the testimonies of God, not bearing the tribulation of their many persecutors? Now this is the covenant, that he who shall have conquered shall be crowned. They who, not bearing persecution, have by denial swerved from the testimonies of God, have not kept the covenant. …

Exposition on Psalm 119 ↗