- Very pleasant ought it be to us, and we should rejoice because it is pleasant, to which this Psalm exhorts us. For it says, Praise the name of the Lord. And it immediately appends the reason, why it is just to praise the name of the Lord. Praise the Lord, you servants. What more just? What more worthy? What more thankful?…For if He teaches His own servants who have deserved well of Him, the preachers of His Word, the rulers of His Church, the worshippers of His name, the obeyers of His command, that in their own conscience they should possess the sweetness of their life, lest they be corrupted by the praise or disheartened by the reproach of men; how much the more is He above all, the unchangeable One, who teaches these things, neither the greater if you praise, or the less if you reproach. For you will do nothing out of place, by praising your Lord, as servants. And if you were to be for ever only servants, you ought to praise the Lord; how much more ought ye servants to praise the Lord, that you may hereafter gain the privilege of sons?
2…Therefore, You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise the Lord. Be thankful; you were without, and you stand within. Since then ye stand, is it a small thing for you to think where He should be praised, who raised you when you were cast down, and caused you to stand in His house, to know Him, and to praise Him? Is it a small boon, that we stand in the house of the Lord?…If one thinks of this, and is not unthankful, he will utterly despise himself in comparison with the love of his Lord, who has done so great things for him. And since he has nothing wherewith to repay God for so great benefits, what remains for him but to give Him thanks, not to repay Him? It belongs to the very act of thanksgiving, to receive the cup of the Lord, and to call upon His name. For what can the servant repay the Lord for all that He has given him?
-
What reason shall I give why you should praise Him? Because the Lord is good. Briefly in one word is here explained the praise of the Lord our God. The Lord is good; good, not in the same manner as the things which He here made are good. For God made all things very good; not only good, but also very good. He made the sky and earth, and all things which are in them good, and He made them very good. If He made all these things good, of what sort is He who made them?…
-
How far can we speak of His goodness? Who can conceive in his heart, or apprehend how good the Lord is? Let us however return to ourselves, and in us recognise Him, and praise the Maker in His works, because we are not fit to contemplate Him Himself. And in hope that we may be able to contemplate Him, when our heart has been purified by faith, that hereafter it may rejoice in the Truth; now as He cannot be seen by us, let us look at His works, that we may not live without praising Him. So I have said, Praise the Lord, for He is good; sing praises unto His Name, for He is sweet…He is Mediator, and thereupon is sweet. What is sweeter than angels’ food? How can God not be sweet, since man ate angels’ food? For men and angels live not on different meat. That is truth, that is wisdom, that is the goodness of God, but you can not enjoy it in like wise with the angels…That man might eat angels’ food, the Creator of the angels was made man. If you taste, sing praises; if you have tasted how sweet the Lord is, sing praises; if that which you have tasted has a good savour, praise it; who is so unthankful to cook or purveyor, as not to return thanks by praising what he tastes, if he be pleased by any food. If we are not silent on such occasions, shall we be silent concerning Him, who has given us all things?…
-
For the Lord has chosen Jacob to Himself, Israel for His own possession…Let not Jacob therefore extol himself, let him not boast himself, or ascribe it to his own merits. He was known before, predestinated before, elected before, not elected for his own merits, but found out, and gifted with life by the grace of God. So with all the Gentiles; for how did the wild-olive deserve, that it should be grafted in, from the bitterness of its berries, the barrenness of its wildness? It was the wood of the wilderness, not of the Lord’s field, and yet He of His mercy grafted the wild-olive into the (true) olive. But up to this time the wild-olive was not grafted in.
6… Because, says he, I know that the Lord is great, and our God is above all gods. If we should say to him, we ask you, explain to us His greatness; would he not perchance answer us, He whom I see is not so very great, if He be able to be expounded by me. Let him then return to His works, and tell us. Let him hold in his conscience the greatness of God, which he has seen, which he has committed to our faith, whither he could not lead our eyes, and enumerate some of the things which the Lord has done here; that unto us, who cannot see His greatness as he can, He may become sweet through the works of His which we can comprehend…