Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 44:25

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"For our soul is bowed down to the dust" (ver. 25). Where is it bowed down? "To the dust:" i.e. dust persecutes us. They persecute us, of whom Thou hast said, "The ungodly are not so; but are like the dust, which the wind driveth away from the face of the earth." "Our belly hath cleaved to the earth." He seems to me to have expressed the punishment of the extreme of humiliation, in which, when any one prostrates himself, "his belly cleaveth to the earth." For whosoever is humbled so as to be on his knees, has yet a lower degree of …

ON THE PSALMS, Psalm 44 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

As to the third he says, "Because our soul is humbled in the dust." Some are humbled in soul, some in body, some inwardly in spirit. And therefore he says, "Our belly has cleaved to the earth." And he puts "belly" for the whole body. Or what he says, "Our soul is humbled in the dust," refers to the effect in spiritual things: because "soul," that is, the thought of the soul, thinks of earthly things. Is. …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗