Verse 4. For the arrows of the Lord are in me, the indignation of which drinks up my spirit. 13. The good are transfixed by scourges and the terror of judgment; yet it is better to be moved by love. — But behold, as was said above, we are both transfixed by the blow of the divine correction, and yet that is still more grievous which we dread from the terror of the coming Judge out of eternal chastisement. Whence at once it is added: And the terrors of the Lord war against me. Yet the soul ought to be shaken free from fear and grief, and to be extended to the sole desires of the eternal homeland. For then do we show the nobility of our regeneration, if we love as a Father Him whom now with a base mind we dread as a Master. Whence also it is said through Paul:
You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of the adoption of sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father (Rom. viii, 15). Let the mind of the elect therefore set aside the weight of dread, let it exercise itself in the strength of love, let it long for the dignity of its renewal, let it pant after the beauty of its Creator; and so long as it is unable to behold Him, it must, hungering for His eternity — that is, for its inmost food — wait in expectation. Whence also it is fittingly added: