Psalms 104:35

Prayer is a great good: someone conversing with a virtuous person gains no little advantage from the experience, so how much good will the one communing with God be granted? Prayer, after all, is conversing with God. For proof of this, listen to the words of the inspired author: "Let my meditation be pleasing to God," that is, may my words seem acceptable to God. I mean, he is able to offer help before we ask for it, isn't he? Still, he wants so as to take occasion from us for daily bestowing on us providential care from himself. Accordingly, whether we have our requests granted or not, let us persist in asking, and render thanks not only when we gain what we ask but also when we do not. Failure to gain, you see, when that is what God wants, is not worse than succeeding; we do not know what is to our advantage in this regard in the way he does understand. The result is, then, that succeeding or failing we ought to give thanks.

Let sinners fail from the earth. He did not say that the sinners should perish, but that sin itself should, so that it may not appear. And with sin not appearing, of course there are then no more sinners, but all shall be found to be just. And the wicked, so that they shall be no more. So that they may be no longer wicked, but just.

"Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth" [Psalm 104:35]. He seems angry! O holy soul, which here does sing and groan! Would that our soul were with that very soul! Would that it were coupled with it, associated, conjoined with it! It shall behold also His loving-kindness when he is angry. For who but he who is filled with charity, understands this? Thou tremblest, because he curses. And who does curse? A saint. Without doubt he is listened to. But it is said unto the saints, "Bless, and curse not." [Romans 12:14] What is then the sense of the words, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth"? Let them utterly be consumed; let their spirit be taken away, that He may send forth His own Spirit, and they may be restored. "And the ungodly, so that they be no more." In what that they be no more, save as wicked men? Let them therefore be justified, that they may no longer be ungodly. The Psalmist saw this, and was filled with joy, and repeats the first verse of the Psalm: "Bless thou the Lord, O my soul." Let our soul bless the Lord, brethren, since He has deigned to give unto us both understanding and the power of language, and unto you attention and earnestness in hearing. Let each, as he can recall to mind what he has heard, by mutual conversation stir up the food you have received, ruminate on what you have heard, let it not descend in you into the bowels of forgetfulness. Let the treasure to be desired [Proverbs 21:20] rest upon your lips. These matters have been sought out and discovered with great labour, with great labour have they been announced and discoursed of; may our toil be fruitful unto you, and may our soul bless the Lord.

If God does not punish the sinner, what about the prophecy, "If the just person scarcely will be saved, where will the impious and the sinner appear?" And elsewhere: "Truly the wicked shall perish"; and again: "Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and the unjust, so that they be no more"; and finally: "As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish away: as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God." In these passages it is not so much the incredulous and the unfaithful whom I hear condemned, but the sinners. In a certain passage I read that our Savior said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Yet, those people believed in Christ and even called him Lord. Nevertheless, on that account alone the gate of the heavenly kingdom is not opened to them, because by their deeds they deny him whom they praise with their lips. Moreover, the apostle asserts that God is denied by deeds no less than by words: "They profess to know God, but by their works they disown him." And the Lord himself says in the Gospel, "Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out devils in your name and work many miracles in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.' " It is related that they were so strong in their faith that they worked miracles in the name of the Lord; nevertheless, their faith will not profit them, because they have not performed works of justice. […]

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth,.... Not in common, for all men are sinners, even good men are not without sin; but notorious sinners, whose lives are one continued series and course of sinning; such as will not have Christ to reign over them, and do not give him the glory due unto him; particularly antichrist, the man of sin, and his followers; they that worship the beast and his image: these will be consumed with the breath of his mouth, and with the brightness of his coming, and will perish out of his land, 2Th 2: