Ps 4:2

“David seems to be speaking here of those who, when being tested and put through various trials, would rather do anything than find refuge in God. Why is it necessary, he asks, to be disturbed and upset at the conditions of the times? What makes you hand yourselves over to vanity, you heavy-hearted people? Why do you seek lies and leave the truth behind? Rather than being informed by these things, know that the Lord God is the one who watches and controls everything, the one who never ever deserts his own righteous ones but always does miraculous things for them. You yourselves, as the upright, know that the Lord is going to be near to you and me whenever you will call out to him.”

“Let us flee from lying, brothers, as if it were a sword to the soul.… And just as in war allies are distinguished from enemies by the watch word, so also in the war of human affairs the friends of God are recognized by truthfulness and by not spreading falsehood; the liars slaughter themselves with the sword of their own tongue. The mouth that does not perjure or lie surely is pleasing to God in its speech. For if we respect the friend and family member who does not lie, and when he asks for something, we grant it, how much more God who has no respect for lying grants benefit to him. When he sees a pure and spotless truthful tongue, he receives his words just like a gift on a tray.… As purple and a crown befit the king, so not lying befits the Christian. So those close to him respect him, friends, neighbors and business associates: the demons fear him, the angels love him, and as they rejoice they open the gates of the kingdom of heaven to him.”

“Their deceit, in fact, was in claiming God does not exercise providence, and their futile thinking was the conviction that the judge does not exercise surveillance. This thought constantly overtakes sinners: they think they will not pay the penalty, rejecting the judge's role along with his providence. This is not so, however, he is saying, not so!”

“"Futile" is the word used of that thing that is empty, when there is something in name but nothing in substance. The Greeks have many names for their gods but not a trace of substance; so too in many other matters: wealth has a name but not a trace of substance; glory has a name but not a trace of substance; power has a name, and the name remains unsupported by fact. So who would be so heedless as to go in search of bare names of things and pursue hollow things that one ought avoid? Are not the pleasures and prosperity of life things of that kind? Do they not all mislead and deceive? Even if you cite glory and wealth and power, they are all futility. Hence Ecclesiastes also said, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." This is the very reason the inspired author is distressed, seeing such absurdity in life. I mean, it is like this: if you saw someone avoiding the light to seek out darkness, you would say, "Why are you doing this strange thing?" So too the inspired author: "Why do you love futility and seek falsehood?"”

“"O you sons of men, how long heavy in heart" [Psalm 4:2]. Let your error, says he, have lasted at least up to the coming of the Son of God; why then any longer are you heavy in heart? When will you make an end of crafty wiles, if now when the truth is present ye make it not? "Why do ye love vanity, and seek a lie?" Why would ye be blessed by the lowest things? Truth alone, from which all things are true, makes blessed. For, "vanity is of deceivers, and all is vanity." [Ecclesiastes 1:2] "What profit has a man of all his labour, wherewith he labours under the sun?" Why then are you held back by the love of things temporal? Why follow ye after the last things, as though the first, which is vanity and a lie? For you would have them abide with you, which all pass away, as does a shadow.”

“What are the lies you are seeking? I will tell you right away. You all want to be happy, I know. Find me someone, let him be a robber, a villain, a fornicator, a sorcerer, sacrilegious, defiled by every imaginable vice, up to his neck in misdeeds and crimes of all sorts, who does not want to live a happy life? I know you all want to live happy lives. But what is it that makes a person's life happy? That is something you are not all seeking after. You are seeking gold, because you imagine you will be happy with gold; but gold does not make one happy. Why seek after lies? Why do you want to get to the top in this world? Because you imagine you will be happy with honor from people and worldly triumphs; but worldly triumphs do not make one happy. Why seek after lies? And whatever else you may seek after here, when you seek it in a worldly way, when you seek it by loving earth, when you seek it by licking the dust of the earth, the reason you are seeking it is in order to be happy; but nothing at all that is of the earth will make you happy.… What you are seeking is deceptive; what you are seeking is lies.”

“Do you want to be happy? If you like, I will show you what will put it in your power to be happy. Continue with that text: "How long with a heavy heart? Why do you love futility, and seek after lies? Know." Know what? "That the Lord has magnified his holy one." Christ has come to our miseries; he was hungry, he was thirsty, he was tired, he slept, he performed wonders, he suffered evils, he was scourged, crowned with thorns, smeared with spittle, slapped around and beaten, nailed to a tree, wounded with a lance, laid in a tomb; but on the third day he rose again, all toil at an end, death dead. There you are, fix your eyes on his resurrection. Because hasn't the Lord magnified his holy one, to the extent of raising him from the dead and giving him the honor of sitting at his right hand in heaven? He has shown you what you should savor, if you really wish to be happy. Here, you see, you simply cannot be. In this life you cannot be happy. Nobody can.… But [Christ] came down and … he took your bad things.… He promised us his life, but what … he did is even more unbelievable; he paid us his death in advance. As though to say, "I am inviting you to my life, where nobody dies, where life is truly happy, where food does not go bad, where it provides nourishment and undergoes no diminishment. There you are, that is where I am inviting you, to the region of the angels, to the friendship of the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the everlasting supper, to be my brothers and sisters, to be, in a word, myself. I am inviting you to my life.… So now, while we are living in this perishable flesh, by a change of habits let us die with Christ, by a love of being just let us live with Christ. We are only going to receive the happy, blessed life, when we come to him who came to us and when we begin to be with him who died for us.”

“When I call (בְּקָרְאִי - be-kor'i): And the meaning of O God, my vindicator (אֱלֹהֵי צִדְקִי - Elokei tzidki, lit. "God of my righteousness") is: You are the primary cause (ha-sibbah ha-rishonah) for showing/revealing my righteousness (le-har'ot tzidki). And [regarding the word] in distress (בַּצָּר - ba-tzar): [The word tzar here is] a noun (shem davar - 'a word for a thing'), similar to [phrases like (Psalm 18:7) or (Psalm 66:14)] "in distress (ba-tzar) to me" [meaning "I was in distress"].”

“Answer me when I call, O God (Judge) of my righteousness: – It is certain that this Psalm likewise was uttered (by David) in his flight before Absalom; and he says, Answer me when I call, O God (Judge) of my righteousness, for Thou knowest that with me is the right, and with him who is against me the wrong and the violence; and Thou, Lord, art Judge over us. For in every instance where אלהים (‘Elohim) occurs it has the meaning “judge,” as we have interpreted the verse “Verily there is a God (Judge) that judges in the earth” (Ps. 58:12). And men who are judges are so called: “The cause of both parties shall come before the ’Elohim (judges)” (Exod. 22:8); “Then his master shall bring him unto ’Elohim (the judges)” (ibid. 21:6). Thou hast set me at large when I was in distress: Thou hast set me at large for “Thou shalt set me at large,” as we have explained that in the prophetical writings a past tense is used in place of a future, for the thing is as if it had already happened. So the Holy Spirit was making a revelation upon his tongue, and he says Thou hast set me at large. Be gracious unto me and hear my prayer.”

“Then when he says, "O sons," etc., he turns to the exhortation of others: and concerning this he does two things. First he rebukes sinners; second he exhorts them to amendment, at "And know," etc. Concerning the first he does two things. First he recalls their condition; second he charges their fault, at "Why do you love"; he recalls their condition saying, "sons of men": which can be understood in two ways. First in a bad sense, thus: "sons of men," as if men according to their lower nature, corruptible and prone to sin. Gen. 6: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever because he is flesh." And again, chapter 8: "The senses and thoughts of men are prone to evil from their youth." "Sons of men," therefore; as if to say, you show yourselves to be sons of men, that is, of sinners, namely of Eve and Adam. "How long will you be heavy of heart?" Is. 1: "Woe to the sinful nation, to the people heavy with iniquity," etc. Second in a good sense: because man insofar as he is man is the image of God: hence "sons of men," not of beasts. Ps. 48: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand," etc. And "O heavy of heart," that is, because you ought to have a heart that is grave and stable, how long will you not turn to God? And this is what Jerome has: "Sons of the noble, how long will my honored ones shamefully love vanity, seeking falsehood?" And so he fittingly charges the fault: "Why do you love," etc. For in sin two things are to be considered: namely, the will adhering to the thing, and the disordered intention. First, therefore, he touches upon the disordered love when he says, "Why do you love," etc., that is, something vain, not solid -- for temporal things are vain because they do not contain anything solid, but only a passing good. Eccl. 1: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." Why therefore do you love, etc., as if to say, why do you love temporal things? Second, he touches upon the depraved intention when he says, "and why do you seek after falsehood," that is, why do you love riches, so as to have sufficiency? For Eccl. 5: "The covetous man shall not be filled with money." Jer. 4: "I looked upon the earth," etc. Or "falsehood," that is, an idol, 1 Cor. 8: "An idol is nothing." How long, therefore, do you love and seek this, and do not turn to God?”

“"O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after falsehood? And know that the Lord has made His Holy One wonderful: the Lord will hear me when I cry to Him. Be angry, and do not sin: for what you say in your hearts, upon your beds be moved to compunction." He who has true knowledge and knows God and sees that he does not walk rightly or perfectly is in continual sorrow, because he sees that his affections and thoughts are scattered. Augustine: "Knowledge begets mourning."”