"The hidden things of God are threefold. First, according to approval. For thus He knows what He approves and does not know the things He disapproves. In this sense it is taken here. [Thus Ps. 11:7: “His countenance has seen uprightness.” Above (v. 2): “Let Thine eyes see the things that are equitable.” Hab. 1:13: “Thine eyes are pure, Thou canst not look on iniquity.”] Second, according to punishment. Thus He knows and sees what He punishes or wants to punish. Ps. 51:9 “Turn Thy face from my sins.” And above, Ps. 10:11: “He turns away His face so as not to see to the end.” However, He takes no notice, if you will, of the things that are hidden, which He forgives. Ps. 32:1: “Blessed are they whose sins are covered.” The things that are open are spoken of in the opposite way. Third, more in keeping with the argument or identical with the first, the hidden things are those which, humanly speaking, are openly carried on and which lie open in the view of men. These are the things that are something in the eyes of the world but are nothing in the eyes of God, as 1 Cor. 1:27 says: “He has chosen the weak things of the world.” On this account he adds here I will appear in Thy sight in righteousness (v. 15), “where not Thy hidden things but Thy bright things are.” Therefore, what is hidden before God is clear before the world, and vice versa."
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