Augustine of Hippo

"And He remembered that they are flesh, a spirit going and not returning" [Psalm 78:39]. Therefore calling them and pitying them through His grace, He called them back Himself, because of themselves they could not return. For how does flesh return, "a spirit walking and not turning back," while a weight of evil deserts does weigh it down unto the lowest and far places of evil, save through the election of grace?...For thus also is solved this no unimportant question, how it is written in the Proverbs, when the Scripture was speaking …

Exposition on Psalm 78 ↗