Salmos 125

Salmos 125:4-5

God is good, but he is also just, and it is the nature of the just to reward in proportion to merit, as it is written: "Do good, O Lord, to those that are good and to the upright of heart. But such as turn aside to their own crooked ways, the Lord shall lead out with the workers of iniquity." He is merciful, but he is also a judge, for "the Lord loves mercy and judgment," says the psalmist. And he therefore also says, "Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord." We have been taught who they are on whom he has mercy: "Blessed are the merciful," says the Lord, "for they shall obtain mercy." You see with what discernment he bestows mercy, neither being merciful without judgment nor judging without mercy, for "the Lord is merciful and just." Let us not, therefore, know God by halves or make his loving-kindness an excuse for our indolence; for this, his thunders, for this, his lightnings—that his goodness may not be held in dispute. He who causes the sun to rise also strikes people with blindness. He who sends the rain also causes the rain of fire. By the one he manifests his goodness; by the other, his severity. For the one let us love him, for the other let us fear, that it may not be said also to us, "Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and patience and longsuffering? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to penance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you store up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath." — THE LONG RULES, PREFACE