1 O be joyful in God, all ye lands: sing praises unto the honour of his Name, make his praise to be glorious.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 ...Thence he beginneth, "Be joyful in God." Who? "Every land" (ver. 1). Not therefore Judaea alone. See, brethren, after what sort is set forth the universality of the Church in the whole world spread abroad: and mourn ye not only the Jews, who envied the Gentiles that grace, but still more for heretics wail ye.
2 Say unto God, O how wonderful art thou in thy works: through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies be found liars unto thee.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "But play ye to His name" (ver. 2). What hath he said? By you "playing" let His name be blessed. But what it is to "play"? To play is also to take up an instrument which is called a psaltery, and by the striking and action of the hands to accompany voices.
3 For all the world shall worship thee: sing of thee, and praise thy Name.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Say ye to God, How to be feared are Your works!" [Psalm 66:3]. Wherefore to be feared and not to be loved? Hear another voice of a Psalm: "Serve the Lord in fear, and exult unto Him with trembling." What means this? Hear the voice of the Apostle: "With fear," he says, "and trembling, work out your own salvation." [Philippians 2:12] Wherefore with fear and trembling?
4 O come hither, and behold the works of God: how wonderful he is in his doing toward the children of men.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Also in this place (which we have been quoting), the apostle to the Gentiles said that the wrath of God comes on the children of infidelity because of these evils. When, however, he says, "And you yourselves once walked in them when they were your life," he shows well enough that they were not their life then.
5 He turned the sea into dry land: so that they went through the water on foot; there did we rejoice thereof.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 O ye Gentiles, O most distant nations, leave lying Jews, come confessing. "Come ye, and see the works of the Lord: terrible in counsels above the sons of men" (ver. 5).
6 He ruleth with his power for ever; his eyes behold the people: and such as will not believe shall not be able to exalt themselves.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Wherefore what has He done by the terror of His counsel? He has turned the sea into dry land. For this follows, "That has turned the sea into dry land" [Psalm 66:6].
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 Then [Symmachus] outlines what was done of old. "He turns the sea into dry land; they will cross the river on foot." The tense has been changed here: he spoke of the past as future, whereas the others retained the tense, Symmachus saying, "He turned the sea into dry land, they crossed the river on foot." This is the God, he is saying, who will grant us salvation as well, who of…
7 O praise our God, ye people: and make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 In whom? "In Him that reigneth in His virtue for everlasting" [Psalm 66:7]. For what virtue have we and is it everlasting? If everlasting were our virtue, we should not have slipped, should not have fallen into sin, we should not have deserved penal mortality. He, of His good pleasure, took up that whereunto our desert threw us down.
8 Who holdeth our soul in life: and suffereth not our feet to slip.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Bless our God, you nations" [Psalm 66:8]. Behold, there have been driven back they that are bitter, reckoning has been made with them: some have been converted, some have continued proud. Let not them terrify you that grudge the Gentiles Gospel Grace: now has come the Seed of Abraham, in whom are blessed all nations.
9 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou also hast tried us, like as silver is tried.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Praise not yourselves, but praise Him. What is the voice of His praise? That by His Grace we are whatever of good we are. "Who hath set my Soul unto life" [Psalm 66:9]. Behold the voice of his praise: "Who hath set my Soul unto life." Therefore in death she was: in death she was, in thyself. Thence it is that ye ought not to have been exalted in yourselves.
10 Thou broughtest us into the snare: and laidest trouble upon our loins.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 "And lead us not into temptation, O Lord." Is it this then what the Lord teaches us to pray, that we may not to be tempted at all? How, then, is it said elsewhere, "an untempted person is a person unproved"; and again, "My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations"?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "For you have proved us, O God; You have fired us as silver is fired" [Psalm 66:10]. Have not fired us like hay, but like silver: by applying to us fire, You have not turned us into ashes, but You have washed off uncleanness, "You have fired us, as silver is fired." And see in what manner God is angry against them, whose Soul He has set unto life.
11 Thou sufferedst men to ride over our heads: we went through fire and water, and thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
Athanasius of Alexandria · AD 373 And although the entrance is "straight and narrow," once inside we see a vast and limitless space, greater than any other anywhere. We have been told of these things by eyewitnesses and heirs. They speak of their trials and distresses: "You have placed afflictions before us," but then they add, "You brought us out into a spacious place"—and, "You gave us space in our distress."
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Thou hast laid tribulations on our back:" "Thou hast set men over our heads" (ver. 11). All these things the Church hath suffered in sundry and divers persecutions: She hath suffered this in Her individual members, even now doth suffer it. For there is not one, that in this life could say that he was exempt from these trials.
12 I will go into thine house with burnt-offerings: and will pay thee my vows, which I promised with my lips, and spake with my mouth, when I was in trouble.
Desert Fathers · AD 500 [Syncletica] also said, 'When the devil does not use the goad of poverty to tempt us, he uses wealth for the same purpose. When he cannot win by scorn and mockery, he tries praise and flattery. If he cannot win by giving health, he tries illness. If he cannot win by comfort, he tries to ruin the soul by vexations that lead us to act against our monastic vows.
Philoxenus of Mabbug · AD 523 And again listen unto him, for he teacheth thee in another place that before a man hath gone through tribulations and hath been tried in the furnace of enduring labours patiently, he cannot go forth into the wide place of spiritual happiness, saying, "Thou hast brought me through fire and water, and hast brought me out into a wide place;" now he likeneth unto fire and water the…
13 I will offer unto thee fat burnt-sacrifices, with the incense of rams: I will offer bullocks and goats.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 If you require evidence from the Old Testament also in order for me to convince you that the judgment of God occurs in this way [as I have presented it], Moses says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength," and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." To this the Lord adds, "On these two commandments depend the…
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Observe how not only concerning a cool place, but neither of that very fire to be desired he has been silent: "I will enter into Your House in holocausts" [Psalm 66:13]. What is a holocaust? A whole sacrifice burned up, but with fire divine. For a sacrifice is called a holocaust, when the whole is burned.
Fulgentius of Ruspe · AD 533 Therefore, because we have been speaking of the nature of marriage as the Lord has given it, consequently, this must be examined with the greatest care, namely, what you devoutly willed beforehand (if there could have been anything).
14 O come hither, and hearken, all ye that fear God: and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "I will render to You my vows, which my lips have distinguished" [Psalm 66:14]. What is the distinction in vows? This is the distinction, that yourself thou censure, Him thou praise: perceive yourself to be a creature, Him the Creator: yourself darkness, Him the Enlightener, to whom you should say, "You shall light my lamp, O Lord my God, You shall enlighten my darkness." For w…
15 I called unto him with my mouth: and gave him praises with my tongue.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And my mouth has spoken in my tribulation." How sweet ofttimes is tribulation, how necessary! In that case what has the mouth of the same spoken in his tribulation? "Holocausts marrowed I will offer to You" [Psalm 66:15]. What is "marrowed"? Within may I keep Your love, it shall not be on the surface, in my marrow it shall be that I love You.
16 If I incline unto wickedness with mine heart: the Lord will not hear me.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Come ye, hear, and I will tell, all you that fear God [Psalm 66:16]. Let us come, let us hear, what he is going to tell, "Come ye, hear, and I will tell." But to whom, "Come ye, and hear"? "All you that fear God." If God ye fear not, I will not tell. It is not possible that it be told to any where the fear of God is not.
17 But God hath heard me: and considered the voice of my prayer.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "How great things He has done to my soul." "To Him with my mouth I have cried" [Psalm 66:17]. And this very thing, he says, has been done to his soul; that to Him with his mouth he should cry, has been done, he says, to his soul. Behold, brethren, Gentiles we were, even if not in ourselves, in our parents. And what says the Apostle?
18 Praised be God, who hath not cast out my prayer: nor turned his mercy from me.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "If I have beheld iniquity in my heart, may not the Lord hearken" [Psalm 66:18]. Consider now, brethren, how easily, how daily men blushing for fear of men do censure iniquities; He has done ill, He has done basely, a villain the fellow is: this perchance for man's sake he says.