Salmos 37
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Salmos 37:3
The "land" here indicates the heart of the listener and his soul. We are ordered, therefore, to indwell this land, that is, not to stray far from it, not to run to and fro, far and near, but to dwell and to stand firm within the bounds of our spirits and to consider the land very carefully and to become its tiller just as Noah was and to plant in it the vine and till the land that is within us, "to renew the fallowed ground of our spirits and sow not among the thorns." Namely, let us purge our spirit from faults, and let us refine rough and harsh ways with the gentleness and the imitation of Christ, and thus finally we may feed from its wealth. — HOMILY 1 ON PSALMS 37:3
Salmos 37:4
The expression "we have need" is applied to those things that are necessary for life. Consequently, applied to material things, it means that one does not need most things but only those of which Paul says, "but having food and clothing, we shall be satisfied with these things." Those things, [by contrast], that are accumulated in wealth and luxury are the result of abundance among those who live luxuriously. They are not considered to be necessary and absolutely essential but to be superfluous. So, therefore, there are also things that are necessary for us in the realm of divine matters, which bring us into life and cause us to be in the one who says, "I am the life." But what supersedes these things would be said to supersede need. It is said of such things, "Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the requests of your heart." These include all the things that are considered in relation to the paradise of luxury and in relation to wealth and glory, the things in the left hand of wisdom according to him who said, "For length of life and years of life are in her right hand, but in her left hand are wealth and glory." One would say that these go beyond necessity. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 32:106
Salmos 37:25
They can never be oppressed by the fasting of famine whose bread is that "they should do the will of the Father who is in heaven" and whose soul that "bread that comes down from heaven" nourishes. — HOMILIES ON PSALMS 16:3