Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 40:12

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"Innumerable evils have compassed me about" [Psalm 40:12]. Who can number sins? Who can count his own sins, and those of others? A burden under which he was groaning, who said, "Cleanse Thou me from my secret faults; and from the faults of others, spare Thou Thy servant, O Lord." Our own are too little; those "of others" are added to the burden. I fear for myself; I fear for a virtuous brother, I have to bear with a wicked brother; and under such burthen what shall we be, if God's mercy were to fail? …

Exposition on Psalm 40 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Another cause is the necessity of evils. And he presents a twofold evil: namely evils inflicted from without, and evils from within, at "My iniquities have overtaken me." As to the first he says, "For evils without number have surrounded me," namely evils that are inflicted upon me both by the world and by enemies: Ps. 117: "They surrounded me like bees"; and he says, "without number," because there are infinite dangers in the world and infinite wicked people: Eccl. …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗