Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

O Lord, who will dwell in Your quarters?
        And who will dwell on your holy mountain?
The one going without blame and working righteousness;
        the one speaking truth in his heart.
He who does not beguile with his tongue,
        nor does evil against his neighbor,
        and he does not take up a reproach against those near to him.
The one acting wickedly is scorned before him,
        but those fearing the Lord he honors.
He is one who swears an oath to his neighbor
        and does not break faith.
He does not give his money for interest,
        and he does not take a bribe against the innocent.
The one who does these things will not be shaken forever. (Psalm 14 LXX [Psalm 15])

And if you want to learn what sort of person the citizen of the kingdom of heaven is, then chant Psalm 14 [15].

Athanasius, To Marcellinus: On the Interpretation of the Psalms 16

It is not, like some of the psalms, wrapped, so to say, in profundity, but the Lord replies to the prophet’s questioning following the mode of the Decalogue, saying that one reaches the hall of His blessedness through ten virtues.…

The prophet longs to know whom the Lord has judged worthy of the Church, and like a devoted priest standing before Him, he seeks a reply and desires to be informed about his query. … Now in the Old Testament the Lord ordered a tabernacle to be made for Him when the people of Israel were in camp, so that in this way a house of God could be moved along with the Hebrews’ abodes. So it happened that the Catholic faith which has been spread through the Churches all over the world is called God’s tabernacle. … The holy hill means the Jerusalem to come. Note how splendidly suitable words distinguish different senses: Who dwells in Thy tabernacle? refers to the person still struggling in the contest of this world; Who rests on the hill? refers to any of the faithful who after this world’s toils are renewed by the calm of eternal peace.

This is the great divine Decalogue, the spiritual psaltery of ten chords. Here is the truly crowning number which only He could fulfill who with His Father laid low the sins of the world. Let us continually pray to His omnipotence that we who cannot of ourselves perform such acts as are enjoined on us may do them by being enriched with His gift.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 14