The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^4. 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?...

5. “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....

7. “All whatsoever the Lord willed, He made in the heaven, and in the earth, in the sea, and in all its deep places”. Who can comprehend these things? Who can enumerate the works of the Lord in the heaven and earth, in the sea, and in all deep places? Yet if we cannot comprehend them all, we should believe and hold them without question, because whatever creature is in heaven, whatever is in earth, whatever is in the sea and in all deep places, has been made by the Lord....

8. “Raising the clouds from the ends of the earth”. We see these works of God in His creation. For the clouds come from the ends of the earth to the midst thereof, and rain; you scan not whence they arise. Hence the prophet signifies this, from “the ends of the earth,” whether it be from the bottom, or from the circumference of the ends of the earth, whencesoever He wills He raises the clouds, only from the earth. “He has made lightnings into rain.” For lightnings without rain would frighten you, and bestow nothing on you. “He makes lightnings unto rain.” It lightens, and you tremble; it rains, you rejoice. “He has made lightnings unto rain.” He who terrified you, Himself causest that you should rejoice. “Who brings the winds out of His treasures,” their causes are hidden, you know not whence they come. When the wind blows, you feel it; why it blows, or from what treasure of His wisdom it is brought forth, you know not; yet you owe to God the worship of faith, for it would not blow unless He had bidden who made it, unless He had brought it forth who created it.