Chapter V.
The prophet, overwhelmed by miseries, implores divine mercy, which is especially manifested in adversity. God is the creator of man, both because He has the same rights over us as a potter has over his clay vessels, and because He preserves the life granted to man through His defense.
19. Finally, when David realized that the waves of secular distractions were coming upon him, which we must necessarily experience in the sea of this life, remembering the Lord's mercies that he promised in countless oracles, he turns to God in prayer, knowing that his mercy is commanded in the light, that is, in the Law; for your precepts are the light (Isaiah 26:9): but in temptations, it is manifested as in the darkness of the night. As a traveler who desires to return home and reach his destination, but who is weary from the arduous journey of life, he calls upon a guide and pleads for relief.
20. 'In my presence,' he said, 'is a speech to God about my life; I will say to God: You are my protector (Psalm 41:10).' He seeks well-known help for himself, and he meets the author of the promise, and the provider of the usual favor; so that in helping, if he offends the merit of man, he does not offend the divine example. Someone says: When does God undertake him? In order to demonstrate this, come with me to the beginning of the Holy Scriptures (Genesis 2:7), and see how the Lord fashioned man with his own hands from clay. And here He Himself says in the later passage: Your hands have made me and fashioned me (Psalm 118:73). Like a certain potter, God has worked the structure of human flesh. And it is said to Jeremiah: Go down to the house of the potter, and there you will hear my words (Jeremiah 18:2). Certainly, it often happens to a potter that while a vessel is being shaped, it falls from his hands, and he gathers the clay again to reshape the vessel. Finally, Jeremiah also says: I went down and saw how the vessel, which he himself was making in his hands, had fallen (ibid. 3, 4). And again he says: He made another vessel as it pleased him. (Ibid.) Therefore, he is rightly called a potter, because he himself took us up with his own hands, he himself formed us. Those vessels of the human potter are some for honor, others for dishonor. We are all earthen vessels: and if anyone is a king, he is an earthen vessel; and if an apostle, he is an earthen vessel. Hence Paul also says: We have, he says, this treasure in earthen vessels. (II Cor. IV, 7). And the prophet says about the king: Jechonias has been despised like a vessel, whose work is not necessary (Jeremiah 22:28). And he adds: Land, hear the word of the Lord, write down this man as rejected (Jeremiah 22:28). Just as our God is accustomed to reject degenerate sons by paternal right; therefore, he also writes them down on the earth, because they are sons of the earth. Thus, when the Jews were accusing the adulteress, the Lord Jesus was writing with his finger on the ground. But rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).
Therefore the Lord received us when he formed us; he also received us when he commanded us to be born. Hence the just one says: He received me from my mother's womb (Ps. 138:13). Whose mother? Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you (Jer. 1:5). He receives and forms those who come forth. And before you come out of the womb of your mother, I sanctified you. He is the receiver who receives with his hands, and is called the receiver of the human race; and he receives by visitation, in order to protect. Where the Prophet says: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High, says to the Lord: You are my protector and my refuge (Psalm 90:1-2). The first reception is of action, the second of defense. Finally, listen to Moses saying: He spread his wings and took them, and carried them on his shoulders (Deuteronomy 32:11): just as an eagle carries its offspring, which it is accustomed to examine; in order to hold and nurture those who have the true nature of birth, and to observe the grace of incorruptible nature; or to reject those in whom it has detected the weakness of a degenerate origin at a tender age.