Bede : He has kept the feet of His saints, etc. He has defended the actions and minds of the pious, by which they advance towards perfection as though by steps, from the snares of the impious; and these same impious people, in the dark devices which they set for the good, will perish. Therefore, one of the saints, giving thanks to the Savior for the safety of his feet, sings: I will exult in your salvation; the nations are sunk down in the pit that they made, etc. (Psalm IX.) — Commentary on Samuel Bede : For a man will not be strengthened by his own strength. He looks up. Therefore, the impious who, trusting in their own strength, despise seeking divine help, should finally be silent in darkness, that is, condemned at last to cease from blind impiety; because whoever rightly desires to be called a true man will be strengthened not in his own strength but in the grace of his Creator. — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : As if to say: Under such immense burdens they would collapse, if the Lord did not preserve their feet. The feet of His saints are indeed the affections of their minds. These are truly preserved by the Lord, because through Him the grace of wondrous devotion is poured in, by which they bear so great a burden willingly. The Lord is said to preserve the feet of His saints because they would flee the mass of so great a weight, if charity infused from above did not lighten what would otherwise be intolerably heavy for them. The standing of fortitude can also be signified by the term "feet." The Lord preserves the feet of His saints when He strengthens them with wondrous fortitude, so that under such immense burdens they by no means fall. And because He is said to preserve not one foot but feet, what do we understand by each foot of the saints, if not fortitude and humility? For lest we fall, we stand on both feet. For whoever presides over faithful flocks, on the way by which they journey toward the heavenly homeland, encounters now prosperity, now adversity. For prosperity itself, because it stirs up elation in the mind, assails it greatly toward a fall; yet lest the chosen mind fall, it strives to stand firm on the foot of fortitude on one side, and stands on the foot of humility on the other. It would indeed retain a firm standing between each temptation, if it stood with such solid humility that no prosperity would lift it up and no adversity would cast it down. What then does it mean when it says, "He will keep the feet of His saints," except that all human virtue is weak without the help of the Creator? For our weak humility, while it is soothed by the favor of prosperity, is overthrown by the impulse of foolish joy. Our weak fortitude, while it is struck by adversity, is easily overcome. But we are crushed by sorrows and enfeebled by joys when Almighty God abandons us to ourselves, not when He bestows the help of His protection. Therefore He says, "He will keep the feet of His saints," because Almighty God aids our weakness in bearing the burdens of those subject to us, so that neither adversities wear us down nor joys seduce us. Our feet are indeed preserved by the Lord when, strengthened by divine help, we despise the joys of the world that confront us, fear no adversities, when with steadfast patience we willingly bear evils, and with unshaken humility we restrain our lofty spirit from vain delight. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 1, Chapter 3 Gregory the Dialogist : Moreover, the feet of the saints can be understood as faith in and love of the Redeemer. By these feet indeed they walk, when they follow with love Him whom the faithful believe through faith. He who prayed was indeed asking that these feet be preserved for him by the Lord, saying: 'Set me upon the heights, that I may conquer in His glory' (Hab. 3:19). He is set upon the heights to whom the divinity of the Redeemer is revealed. And he conquers in His glory, because while he is illuminated by the rays of His glory, all the temptations of the evil spirit are destroyed. He keeps his feet set firm upon the mountain who is lofty in the contemplation of truth and kindled with love for Him whom he believes to be the Only-begotten of the most high Father. Peter indeed was set upon the heights, who, when he confessed the Lord, saying: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God', immediately heard: 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 16:16-17). For founded in faith, kindled with charity, he also preached Him whom he loved. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 1, Chapter 3 Gregory the Dialogist : For who are understood as the ungodly in this place, if not the Jews, who are strangers to the devotion of the true faith, and stained with the blood of the Redeemer's death? Of whom it is rightly said: "In darkness they shall be silent," because the saints, established upon the heights, confess with eternal praises the Redeemer of the world, whom they behold in the brightness of the divine majesty. Therefore the ungodly are silent in darkness, because the Jews do not proclaim the Redeemer, since that ineffable brightness of divinity does not illuminate them. For it is written: "Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord" (Isa. 26:10). Indeed, beholding them condemned in these darknesses, John says: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:5). Hence David, not wishing but prophesying, says: "Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always" (Ps. 68:24). Therefore the ungodly are silent in darkness, because even though the Jews utter the words of divine Scripture in the praises of God, while they deny the Son, they consecrate no service of their voices to God the Father. For he is silent before God who, while praising the Father, is silent about the praise of the Only-begotten. But Him whom they despise as crucified, when He comes as Judge they shall tremble before. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 1, Chapter 3 Gregory the Dialogist : 23. By these words indeed the help of divine protection and propitiation is shown in such a way that the grave dangers of temptations are indicated. For it is as if she were saying: They endure such great trials from the world to which they had clung, that only He suffices to help who cannot be absent from His faithful ones in tribulation. For to preserve the feet of His saints is to strengthen by grace the shaken affections of the elect in temptation, lest they fall. Hence also the prophet, who had wavered toward falling and yet had been preserved by the Lord, said: "But my feet were almost moved, my steps were nearly poured out" (Psalms 72:2). Hence again: "I was pushed and overturned so that I might fall, and the Lord upheld me. The Lord is my strength and my praise, and He has become my salvation" (Psalms 117:13, 14). And concerning the weakness of the enemies she added, saying: "And the wicked shall be silent in darkness." 24. But what does it mean that when the Lord is said to guard the feet of the saints, the silence of the wicked is mentioned, unless that we are never driven to the fall of sin except when the perverse temptations of malign spirits are suggested to us? When therefore the Lord guards our feet, the wicked are silent in darkness, because while we are protected by divine grace, the unclean spirits are utterly unable to give us the voice by which they might cast us down. Indeed they are silent in darkness, because they possess the darkened hearts of the reprobate, from whose obscurity they dare not advance toward us. Moreover, he explains why he guards the feet of the saints, saying: "For a man shall not be strengthened by his own might." 25. As if to say: Therefore He holds them, because without Him they could not stand. For even if a man is recognized as a man of virtue, in his strength he has the fear of falling, he does not have the firmness of strength, and he falls by desiring unlawful things as often as his inner steps are abandoned by the Lord who holds him. Was he not indeed a man, he of whom it was sung in the chorus of young women: "Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (1 Samuel 18:7)? Who indeed, when he was left amid his burdens to his own strength, fell driven into the sin of his flesh, and learned by experience in himself that a man does not have in himself the firmness of strength, but the fall of weakness. Whence also, fearing to fall back, he earnestly seeks Him by whom he ought to be held firm, saying: "Do not utterly forsake me" (Psalms 119:8). Let no one therefore deceive himself, as if he might find in himself the strength to stand, because even if we often overcome the great wars of hidden enemies, if we worthily pursue them by rejecting their persuasions as though turned to flight, the fleeing spirits do not then fear us, but Him whom they behold in us. Or certainly, if they also fear us, they fear us for this reason indeed: because they see us taken up into the strength of divine grace. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 1