The Lord loves thankful people. They never cease to praise him, and they regularly thank him. In both good times and bad times they offer praise and thanksgiving to God. They worship the Lord, the God of times, without regard to what the times are like.

When are you to bless the Lord? When he showers blessings on you? When earthly goods are plentiful? When you have a plethora of grain, oil, wine, gold, silver, slaves, livestock; while your mortal body remains healthy, uninjured and free from disease; while everything that is born on your estate is growing well, and nothing is snatched away by untimely death; while every kind of happiness floods your home and you have all you want in profusion? Is it only then that you are to bless the Lord? No, but at all times. So you are to bless him equally when from time to time, or because the Lord God wishes to discipline you, these good things let you down or are taken from you, when there are fewer births or the already-born slip away. These things happen, and their consequence is poverty, need, hardship, disappointment and temptation. But you sang, I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be in my mouth always, so when the Lord gives you these good things, bless him, and when he takes them away, bless him. He it is who gives, and he it is who takes away, but he does not take himself away from anyone who blesses him.

Who is there who blesses the Lord at all times? The person whom good fortune does not corrupt or adversity frighten. This, then, is the first and real peace, to be at peace with God. When this has been accomplished, then we can also possess peace within ourselves. However, if a person is unwilling to have peace with God, he will not be able to possess peace with himself.

The prophet seems to promise something impossible. For how can the praise of God be always in a person’s mouth? When he engages in the ordinary conversations pertaining to daily life, he does not have the praise of God in his mouth. When he sleeps, he will keep absolute silence. And how will the mouth of one who is eating and drinking produce praise? We answer to this that there is a certain spiritual mouth of the inner person by which he is fed when he partakes of the word of life, which is the bread that comes down from heaven.^[1] Concerning that mouth the prophet also says, I opened my mouth and panted.^[2] The Lord even urges us to have it open wide so as to receive plentifully the food of truth. Open your mouth wide, he says, and I will fill it.^[3] The thought of God, therefore, having been once for all molded and, as it were, sealed in the authoritative part of the soul, can be called praise of God, since it is always present in the soul. Moreover, according to the counsel of the apostle, the zealous person can do all things for the glory of God, so that every act and every word and every work has in it power of praise. Whether the just person eats or drinks, he does all for the glory of God.^[4]

What prompts a person to bless the Lord at all times? Being humble. What does being humble consist in? Being unwilling to be praised in yourself. Any of us who want to be praised in ourselves are proud, but whoever is not proud is humble.

I sought the Lord not in the expansive space of lands nor through broad and expansive regions, but in the heart. If we reflect on his majesty there, we find it present in every way.

It is one thing to seek some favor from the Lord, quite another to seek the Lord himself. . . . Do not seek any extraneous thing from the Lord, but seek the Lord himself. He will hearken to you, and even while you are still speaking he will say, Here I am.^[1]

The whole life of the just person is filled with affliction. . . . But God delivers his saints from their afflictions. Though he does not leave them without trial, yet he bestows on them patient endurance. For if tribulation works out endurance, and endurance tries virtue,^[1] he who excludes tribulation from himself deprives himself of his tried virtue. As no one is crowned without an adversary, so also he cannot be declared tried except through tribulations.

By saying from all, nothing is left which you might have suspected was still standing in opposition.

Whoever approaches him in faith receives rays of intellectual light.

His light is said to be inaccessible when the unique and omnipotent character of its substance is described. But when the grace of the holy Godhead pours itself forth, one both approaches him and is offered blessed illumination.

The only red faces are those of the proud. Why is that? Because proud persons aspire to be high and mighty, and when they encounter insults, or ignominy, or make some faux pas or suffer some affliction, they are ashamed. But you need not be afraid; simply draw near to God, and there will be no shamefacedness for you. Your enemy may score off you, and in the eyes of the world he will seem to have demonstrated his superiority; but in God’s eyes you are superior to him. . . . As that Light cannot be extinguished, so he does not allow anyone whom he has illumined to be extinguished either.

Let us therefore also gaze on God, raising up and exalting his holy name in praise. Let us take refuge with his purity by continual recollection of his name; let us sculpt out the beauty of our souls by gazing on the likeness of his glory, so that we may be seen to be glorious statues of his divinity within creation.

Learn from my experience, he is saying, to trust in the God of all: though lowly and a mere shepherd, he accorded me his personal providence and rendered me superior to my enemies.

Draw near to him who is pure of heart, draw near and be enlightened. Let your faces not be ashamed in their poverty. If you remember the wealth of the Lord of heaven and earth was made poor for the sake of your poverty, tried for the sake of our tribulation, you will not be ashamed, nor will you fail. For that poor one cries from the cross. Who is this poor one? He who, although rich, was made poor: Made obedient even to the cross^[1] so that he could free you from crosses. He shouted, and the Lord heard. He sent his angels to guard his body and removed the stone and snatched him from the tomb.

Perhaps someone may object, How can I draw near to him? I am laden with grave offenses, burdened with serious sins. The foulest crimes raise their clamor from my conscience. How can I dare to approach God? How? Quite easily, if you have first humbled yourself in repentance. But I am ashamed to repent, you answer. . . . Think it through. If the fear of being put to shame deters you from repentance but repentance causes you to draw near to God, do you not see that you are wearing your punishment on your face? Your face has gone red because it has not drawn near to God, and the reason it has not drawn near to him is that it is unwilling to repent! The prophet bears witness that this poor man cried out, and the Lord heard. He is teaching you how to win a hearing. You see why you are not listened to: you are too rich. . . . Cry out in poverty, cry as a poor person, and the Lord will listen. But how am I to cry out as a poor person? Cry to him in such a way that even if you have possessions, you do not trust in your own resources, cry to him in a frame of mind that understands your need, cry to him in the knowledge that you will always be a pauper as long as you do not possess him who makes you rich. How did the Lord hear this poor person? He saved him from all his troubles.

Poverty is not always praiseworthy, but only that which is practiced intentionally according to the evangelical aim. Many are poor in their resources but very grasping in their intention; poverty does not save these; on the contrary, their intention condemns them. Accordingly, not he who is poor is by all means blessed, but he who has considered the command of Christ better than the treasures of the world.

The word this indicates the person poor in spirit who is not only devoid of worldly riches, but also of abundant vices. This is the poor person who is enlightened as he approaches God, whose face does not blush, and his prayer is heard appropriately, leading to his salvation when he cries to the Lord; afterwards he comes forth not to be freed from a single affliction, but from all earthly distresses. This takes places regularly for the just when they yield their souls to holy conduct and are taken from the chaotic disaster of this world to lasting freedom from care.

The one who was in need of everything and given up as lost by people implored God in a moment of tribulation, and the Lord heard him and saved him against the odds.

Christ is more capable of protecting his servants than the devil is capable of stirring up our enemies. For although the same devil gathers for himself hoards and arms them with cruel rage, they are still easily destroyed, because the Savior surrounds his people with his auxiliaries, for the prophet says: The Angel of the Lord places himself in the midst of those who fear him, and he will rescue them. If the Angel of the Lord rescues those who fear him from dangers, one who fears the Savior is not able to fear the barbarian, nor is someone who has kept the commandments of Christ able to fear the attack of an enemy. The commandments of Christ are the armor of the Christian, and the fear of God drives the fear of the enemy from us. These are our weapons, with which the Savior has equipped us: prayer, mercy and fasting. For fasting guards us more effectively than a wall, mercy liberates us more easily than pillaging, and prayer can wound from a greater distance than an arrow. For an arrow hits the enemy only when he is close at hand, but prayer wounds the enemy even when he is positioned far away.

God’s people have spiritual feasts and pure delicacies that it is healthy for them to look for and laudable for them to desire, for the prophet says in praise of them, Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. Whoever have touched with the taste of their hearts the sweetness of the justice and mercy of God, by which all his ordinances are carried out, and have drunk from the experiences of supernal joys never to be diminished by any pride, they will despise the corruptible and temporal good in their admiration of the eternal, and they will glow in that fire that the love of God kindles. As when cold is changed to warmth and night is changed to daylight, the Holy Spirit by one stroke in the hearts of the faithful takes away darkness and destroys sin.

If we taste the Lord, we taste through faith. If he is good, it is through the knowledge of his goodness that we taste.

Taste the body of life and see how sweet is the Lord. He has life in himself who eats his flesh and drinks his blood, and then he will be blessed.

Whoever does not trust in the Lord is in a wretched state. But who are they who do not trust in the Lord? Those who trust in themselves. Sometimes, brothers and sisters, there is an even worse condition: think now. There are some who do not even trust in themselves but put their trust in other people . . . . I’m all right, I’m under the protection of So-and-So. . . . How ready people are to talk like this, but not to say, I trust in God, and he will not let you hurt me. Nor do they say, I trust in my God, because even if he does give you some license to harm my property, he will give you no power over my soul.

As the nature of honey can be described to the inexperienced not so much by speech as by the perception of it through taste, so the goodness of the heavenly Word cannot be clearly taught by doctrines, unless, examining to a greater extent the dogmas of truth, we are able to comprehend by our own experience the goodness of the Lord.

Just as the body dies unless it is given proper food, even so does the soul if it is not given spiritual food. Why am I making such a point of this? Because there are some who insist on saying, I have no need for sacred Scripture; the fear of God is enough for me. That is, therefore, precisely why we affirm that just as there are foods for the body, so there are, likewise, foods for the soul, namely, the sacred Scripture.

In Christ we possess everything. Let every soul approach him, whether it is sick with the sins of the flesh, infixed by the nails of worldly desires, admittedly still imperfect, progressing by intense medication or already perfect in its many virtues. Everyone is in the Lord’s power, and Christ is all things to us. If you desire to heal your wounds, he is your doctor; if you are on fire with fever, he is your fountain; if you are burdened with iniquity, he is your justification; if you need help, he is your strength; if you fear death, he is your life; if you desire heaven, he is your way; if you are fleeing from darkness, he is your light; if you are seeking food, he is your nourishment. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy is the one who takes refuge in him.

Fear the Lord, all his saints, because the ones fearing him lack nothing—nothing of excellence in the present, nothing of perfection, nothing of future joy.

There are plenty of people who hesitate to fear the Lord, because they think they may go hungry if they do. They are told, Do not cheat. And they protest, How am I to eat, then? Handicrafts need a little dishonesty to succeed, and business cannot flourish without fraud . . . if I fear God, I will not have enough to live on. . . . If we entertain thoughts like these we are in danger of being throttled by the noose of scandal. We are seeking on earth food that will perish, and not seeking the true recompense in heaven. We are putting our head into the devil’s noose; it tightens round our throat, and the devil holds us enslaved to wrongdoing.

Unless fear disciplines our life, it is impossible successfully to attain holiness in body. . . . In him who fears there is not want, that is, he is failing with regard to no virtue who is prevented by fear from every absurd act, since he falls short of nothing good that belongs to human nature. As he is not perfect in body who is lacking in any necessary part but is imperfect because of what he lacks, so also he who is disposed contemptuously about one of the commands, because he is wanting in it, is imperfect in that in which he lacks. But he who has assumed perfect fear and through piety shrinks beneath all things will commit no sin because he despises nothing; he will not experience any want because he will possess fear sufficiently in all things.

It is not possible for the one who fears God and hopes in him to fail.

The rich dwell in uncertainty concerning the things the world gives. The riches that God gives do not fail, but they remain because these riches arise in the fear of the Lord.

Wealth is unstable and like a wave accustomed to change hither and thither by the violence of the wind. . . . God himself is absolute Good, and they who seek him will not be without him.

This is not the fear that leads to dread, but the kind that leads to love. Fear of people is full of bitterness, but this fear is full of sweetness. The first compels us to slavery, but the second draws us toward freedom. Finally, the first fears confinement, but the second opens up the kingdom of heaven. So he rightly professes that this second type of fear is useful and we ought to learn it with an eager mind.

But are you so devoid of fear, or rather of faith, as not to believe the Lord himself, or Paul, who in Christ’s stead thus entreats, Taste and see that Christ is God? Faith will lead you in; experience will teach you; Scripture will train you, for it says, Come hither, O children; listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Then, as to those who already believe, it briefly adds, Who is he who desires life, who loves to see good days? It is we, we shall say—we who are the devotees of good, we who eagerly desire good things. Hear, then, you who are far off, hear you who are near: the word has not been hidden from any; light is common, it shines on all people. No one is a Cimmerian^[1] in respect to the word. Let us haste to salvation, to regeneration; let us who are many haste that we may be brought together into one love, according to the union of the essential unity; and let us, by being made good, conformably follow after union, seeking after the One who is good.

Do you not grumble every day, How long do we have to put up with this? Things get worse and worse by the day. Our parents had happier days, things were better in their time. Oh, come on! If you questioned those parents of yours, they would moan to you about their days in just the same way. . . . So you are looking for good days. Let us all look for them together, but not here. . . . There are always evil days in this world, but always good days in God. Abraham enjoyed good days, but only within his own heart; he had bad days when a famine forced him to migrate in search of food. But everyone else had to search, too. What about Paul: did he have good days, he who had often gone without food, and endured cold and exposure?^[1] But the servants have no right to be discontented; even the Lord did not have good days in this world. He endured insults, injuries, the cross and many a hardship.

Let us restrain our tongues from evil, since they have been sanctified by our confession of faith. Let us fear to use that [same tongue] with which we bless our God and Father to curse human beings, who have been made according to God’s likeness.

If . . . anger has got the start, and has already taken possession of your mind and mounted into your heart, forsake not your ground. Your ground is patience, it is wisdom, it is reason, it is the allaying of indignation. And if the stubbornness of your opponent rouses you and his perverseness drives you to indignation: if you cannot calm your mind, check at least your tongue. For so it is written: Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips that they speak no guile. Seek peace and pursue it. . . . First, then, calm your mind. If you cannot do this, put a restraint on your tongue. Last, do not neglect to seek for reconciliation. These ideas the speakers of the world have borrowed from us and have set down in their writings. But he who said it first has the credit of understanding its meaning.

The most common and varied sin is that committed through the tongue. Were you provoked to anger? The tongue is already running on. Are you possessed by concupiscence? Before all things you have a tongue, a sort of pimp and promoter, as it were, assistant to the sin, subduing your neighbors by histrionic arts. Your tongue is also a weapon for your injustice, not uttering the words from the heart but bringing forth those inspired by deceit. But what need is there to put in words all the sins committed through the tongue? Our life is filled with faults due to the tongue. Obscenity, scurrility, foolish talk, unbecoming words, slanders, idle conversation, perjuries, false testimony, all these evils, and even more than these, are the work of the tongue.

Let us train therefore our tongue to speak good words. For refrain, it is said, your tongue from evil. For God gave it not that we should speak evil, that we should revile, that we should calumniate one another, but to sing hymns to God, to speak those things that give grace to the hearers,^[1] things for edification, things for profit.

The peaceable person entertains peace toward everyone, not purloining the neighbor’s property furtively, not committing homicide, not undermining marriages, not speaking evil, not doing evil, doing favors, showing respect, sharing, lending support, sharing dangers and struggles—such is unalloyed love and genuine friendship.

The person of peace ought to seek and follow peace; he who knows and loves the bond of charity ought to restrain his tongue from the evil of dissension. Among his divine commands and salutary instructions the Lord now very near his passion added the following: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. This inheritance he gave us, all the gifts and rewards of his promise he assured us in the conservation of peace. If we are heirs of Christ, let us remain in the peace of Christ; if we are children of God, we ought to be peacemakers. Blessed, he said, are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. The children of God should be peacemakers, gentle in heart, simple in speech, harmonious in affection, clinging to one another faithfully in the bonds of unanimity.

Mere abstinence from evil is not a characteristic of a perfect person, but for one recently instructed in basic principles it is fitting to turn aside from the impulse to evil and, being delivered from the habits of a depraved life as from a bad road, to pursue the performance of good. In fact, it is impossible to cling to the good unless one has withdrawn entirely and turned away from the evil, just as it is impossible to repair one’s health unless one rids himself of the disease, or for one who has not completely checked a chill to be in a state of warmth; for, these are inadmissible to each other. So also, it is proper for one who intends to live a good life to depart from all connection with evil. . . . Yet, as long as we were bound to the flesh, we were yoked to many things that also troubled us. Seek, then, after peace, a release from the troubles of this world; possess a calm mind, a tranquil and unconfused state of soul that is neither agitated by the passions nor drawn aside by false doctrines that challenge by their persuasiveness to an assent, in order that you may obtain the peace of God that surpasses all understanding and guards your heart.^[1]

To see good days it is insufficient simply to abstain from evil acts; our compassion must also compel us to perform good works. The first stage of virtue is not to covet what belongs to others, but then the higher stage is not to hold back our own possessions from those in need. In the first stage, we escape blame, but in the second we win the palm of compassion.

In this life there is no true peace, no tranquility. We are promised the joy of immortality and fellowship with the angels. But anyone who has not sought it here will not find it on arriving there.

God takes care of the righteous (by eyes referring not simply to sight but also to what is done by God in beneficence and providence). . . . He also accepts their requests. . . . But he has an eye also for the wicked, though not in the same way as for the good. To what effect? To destroy remembrance of them from the land: . . . God gives evidence of great care for the righteous, accepting their supplication while completely disregarding those guilty of wrong actions and inflicting destruction on them.

But if he heard me, he would take my trouble away; I appeal to him, but I still have the trouble. Just hold steady and keep to his ways, and when you are in trouble he hears you. But he is a physician, and there is still some diseased tissue in you. You cry out, but he goes on cutting, and he does not stay his hand until he has done all the cutting he knows to be necessary. In fact, it is a cruel doctor who listens to the patient’s cries and leaves the festering wound untouched. And think how mothers rub their children down vigorously in the bath, for their own good. The little ones cry out in their mothers’ hands, don’t they? Does that mean the mothers are cruel in not sparing them, in ignoring their tears? Are they not really full of tender love? All the same, the children cry, and they are not let off. So too our God is full of charity, but he seems to be deaf to our entreaty because he means to heal us and spare us for all eternity.

After explaining the grace toward the just, he now turns his attention to the punishment of the wicked. . . . Understand that he sees both groups, but his gaze results in a different outcome for each group; he looks at the just to hear them, but looks upon sinners to destroy them. When he says from the earth, he means the future homeland, which only those who have pleased God will possess. The remembrance of the sinners will perish, because there will not be any recollection of them among the just. . . . Those who leave the Lord’s memory surely go on to eternal punishments.

The cry of the just is a spiritual one, having its loudness in the secret recess of the heart, able to reach even to the ears of God. . . . They sought after nothing petty, nothing earthly, nothing lowly. For this reason the Lord received their voice, and he delivered them from all their tribulations, not so much freeing them from their troubles as making them victorious over the circumstances.

But what about me? I cried to him, and he did not rescue me; so either I am not righteous, or I am not following his instructions or perhaps he cannot see me. Do not be afraid, just do what he orders; and if he does not rescue you in bodily fashion he will rescue you spiritually. . . . God rescued Peter when the angel came to him as he lay in fetters and said to him, Get up and leave;^[1] the fetters were suddenly loosened, Peter followed the angel, and so God delivered him. But he did not rescue Peter from the cross. . . . But did God really not deliver him from the cross? . . . Perhaps God heard him at that later time even more surely, because this time he truly did deliver him from all his pains. When Peter was rescued the first time, what a lot of suffering still lay ahead of him! But at this later time God sent him to a place where he would never suffer again.

What then do we say about the martyrs, since it is well known that they were not freed from the torments of the tyrants? They were certainly set free when they were conducted to the kingdom of heaven; they were plainly released from all their troubles. For the cry of the just is always heard, not only for this life, but most of all for their eternal benefit.

He did not apply the terms lowly and contrite of heart simply to those reduced to this condition from the disasters but to those in this condition by intent and resolve. Even if tested by disasters, on the basis of their lowliness of intent they thought that they received their just deserts, asked God with due reverence for help and received it by gift. So it is clear from this that even by saying above let the gentle hear and be glad he refers neither to those humbled of necessity by disasters nor to those in this condition by nature, whom the general run of good people like to think gentle, but to those in this condition in heart and purpose, who emerge by their zeal in bearing nobly the wrongs done them since they look to God for help. This, in fact, is gentleness, not being insensitive or keeping complete silence while ignoring sensation even in situations that are often unavoidable, when it is possible to effect a greater good.

He who has despised present things, and has given himself to the word of God and is using his mind for thoughts that are above and are more divine, he would be the one who has a contrite heart and has made it a sacrifice that is not despised by the Lord. For a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise.^[1]. . . He who has no vanity and is not proud of anything human, he is the one who is contrite in heart and humble of spirit.

These are the great mysteries, brothers and sisters. God is above all things; if you lift yourself up, you do not touch him, but if you humble yourself, he comes down to you.

He who says that affliction is not proper to the just says nothing else than that an adversary is not proper for the athlete. But what occasions for crowns will the athlete have who does not struggle?

One who does not suffer trial, therefore, is not just.

The afflictions of the just are certainly many, for the devil pursues them with great power and people also often oppress them out of jealousy. The wicked can be afflicted sometimes too, if they suffer something adverse by themselves, but the just are oppressed both by their own sufferings and when they share in those of others through love.

While God allows them to descend into the arena of tribulations, he comes to their assistance and renders them superior to the calamities besetting them, confirming their resolve and making it strong.

It often happens that the righteous are put to the test in extreme troubles and severe tribulations. . . . Even if they are tested by many troubles and many tribulations, God allowing this to their advantage, he nevertheless definitely frees them from the troubles, not allowing them to be overcome by the disasters in the end. . . . He rescues them after allowing the tribulations for a while to their advantage, keeps those in the midst of tribulations free from harm and preserves their strength completely.

The prophecy was fulfilled in our Lord, because as he hung on the cross he expired before the soldiers arrived; they found his body already lifeless, so they had no wish to break his legs; thus the Scripture was fulfilled. But the promise was made to all Christians.

The bones are the firm supports of the faithful. In our bodies the bones provide strong support, and in the same way faith provides firm support in the heart of a Christian; and endurance born of faith is like a spiritual skeleton. These are the bones that cannot be broken.

There should also be certain bones of the inner person in which the bond of union and harmony of spiritual powers is collected. Just as the bones by their own firmness protect the tenderness of the flesh, so also in the church there are some who through their own constancy are able to carry the infirmities of the weak. And as the bones are joined to each other through articulations by sinews and fastenings that have grown on them, so also would be the bond of charity and peace, which achieves a certain natural junction and union of the spiritual bones in the church of God.

Who else is this just one, but our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also the propitiatory offering for our sins? Those who hate him therefore do meet that most wretched death, because all who are not reconciled to our God through him die in their sins.

Not only do sinners meet such a fate, but also those hostile to the righteous will fall foul of troubles. Now, he says this to bring out the extent of the providence that God shows for the righteous. Will come to grief means that they will stumble, will trip up, will fail in their hostile intent against the righteous by being punished by God; come to grief meaning missing the mark, which means failing to achieve a purpose and intent at odds with that prescribed—hence our calling a wrong action a sin as being at odds with the proper intention.

What looks like a good death to you would seem very dreadful if you could see the inner side of it. Outwardly you see him lying in bed, but do you see the inner reality, as he is dragged off to hell? . . . Do not put your questions to beds draped with costly coverings, or flesh muffled up in rich clothes, or mourners with their extravagant laments, or a weeping family, or a crowd of flunkeys before and behind when the corpse is taken out for burial or monuments marble and gilded. If you put your questions to these, they tell you lies, for many people there are who have not merely sinned in small matters but have been thoroughly wicked, who yet have had a plush death like this, who have been judged worthy of being mourned, embalmed, clothed, carried in procession to the grave and buried in no other fashion than this. Put your questions rather to the gospel, and it will reveal to your faith the soul of the rich man burning in torments, helped not a whit by the honors and obsequies that the vanity of the living has lavished on his dead body.

This psalm has certainly ended well in the hope of those who are good that, after forsaking the association of the wicked, they may instead reach toward the good things yet to come.