Psalms 117
ECFPsalms 117:1
Augustine of Hippo: “O praise the Lord, all you heathen: praise Him, all you nations.” These are the courts of the Lord’s house, this all His people, this the true Jerusalem. Let those rather listen who have refused to be the children of this city, since they have cut themselves off from the communion of all nations. — Exposition on Psalms 117
Cassiodorus: Next comes, “And praise him highly, all you peoples.” High praise is the praise of all the faithful brought together as one; this is recognized to apply to the catholic church, which is gathered from various parts of the world. For all the Gentiles are generally reminded among their own peoples so that no one will say at the judgment of the Lord that he was passed over. — EXPOSITIONS OF THE Psalms 116:1
Cassiodorus: He added, “And the truth of the Lord remains forever.” Here “the truth” means “the Son of the Lord,” as he himself says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” As the Arian (who is out of his mind) thinks, there was a time when the Son did not exist (it is awful even to say this!); that would mean that there was a time when the Father was without the Truth, without the Way and without the Life. But because the Father cannot be believed to have ever been without these things, it accords well with our salvation and the truth itself to confess that the Son is coeternal and of one substance with the Father in all things. — EXPOSITIONS OF THE Psalms 116:2
Psalms 117:2
Augustine of Hippo: “For His merciful kindness is ever more and more towards us: and the truth of the Lord endures for ever.” These are those two things, loving-kindness and truth, which in the CXVth Psalm I admonished you should be committed to memory. But “the merciful kindness of the Lord is ever more and more towards us,” since the furious tongues of hostile nations have yielded to His Name, through which we have been freed: “and the truth of the Lord endures for ever,” whether in those things which He promised to the righteous, or in those which He has threatened to the ungodly. — Exposition on Psalms 117