On Giving Thanks to God for All Things at All Times (Verse 2)

Ps. 33:2. I will bless the Lord at all times.

To bless the Lord means to speak a good word concerning Him. In this sense it is the same as praising the Lord. But ordinarily to bless is to give thanks. Thanksgiving to God is a form of prayer distinct from praise of God. The latter is prompted by the contemplation of the divine perfections and the great works of God, while the former is prompted by the awareness and feeling of God’s benefactions to us and to all. Holy David gives thanks and praises—he does not petition, which is the third form of prayer. He does not petition because he has attained to self-surrender to God, that perfection of spirit in which one does not importune God with requests but, ascending to Him in heart alone, says: Lord! All things are known to You. Dispose of me as Your holy will sees fit.

On the words I will bless the Lord at all times, Saint Basil the Great says: “having escaped death, the holy Prophet as it were lays down rules for his life, training his soul so that not a single moment may pass without the blessing of God. Whether in prosperity, he says, or in need and sorrow—at all times I will not cease to bless the Lord, believing that all things come from Him and that nothing happens by a chance confluence of circumstances.” “I will not cease to hymn my Lord—both in good fortune and in misfortune, both when pursuing enemies and when saving myself by flight from them” (Theodoret). The holy Prophet here showed by deed what the Apostle afterward enjoined in words: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks (1Thes 5:16–18).

“See (Saint Basil the Great) what the soul of the holy Prophet is like! Unceasing misfortunes did not weaken his equanimity and his warm turning toward God. Banished from his homeland, separated from his wife, kinsmen, and household, stripped of property and compelled to wander—he even involuntarily fell into the hands of enemies and was nearly torn apart by them. Enduring all this, he did not say: where is God? And how long will these sorrows continue? But on the contrary, he was thereby all the more kindled with love for God and hope in Him. Truly, in him was fulfilled what the Apostle afterward wrote: affliction works endurance, and endurance works proof, and proof works hope (Rom 5:3–4)”.

Indeed, afflictions for those who are rightly disposed are, as it were, strengthening nourishment. The more they endure, the stronger and more unconquerable they become in the struggle with the unpleasant contingencies of life. It is also a school of learning for them. By this path they go from strength to strength and are made worthy of the glory with which the Ordainer of contests and Distributor of crowns will at last crown them. Therefore when reviled, they bless; when persecuted, they endure; when slandered, they take comfort (1Cor 4:12–13). It would be shameful for them to bless in happiness yet keep silence in sorrowful and straitened circumstances, when it is precisely then that one should give thanks all the more, knowing that whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives (Heb 12:6). And what is to be said of those who forget God in prosperity and pour out words of complaint in misfortune! (abridged from the same source).

“You sing with David, says Blessed Augustine: I will bless the Lord at all times. But when, according to that word, will you bless the Lord? When all goes well with you? When you abound in temporal goods? When you have much of every good thing—bread, oil, wine, cattle, gold, silver? When all are in good health and no one has died before his time, when good fortune flows abundantly into your house—is it then only that you will bless the Lord? No—not then only, but at all times bless the Lord. Bless Him both when such goods are sent, and when they are, by God’s designs, taken away. For that happens too. Then poverty, want, sorrow, and toil arrive. But you, who have been singing: I will bless the Lord at all times — both when He gives those goods, bless Him, and when He takes them away, bless Him. He gives, He also takes away. But Himself He will not take away from you, if you bless Him. Even so Job blessed the Lord not only when he abounded in all that made him rich—cattle, servants, children, and all possessions; but also when it was all suddenly taken from him, he fulfilled what is written in this psalm, saying: the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. As it pleased the Lord, so it has come to pass. Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). Here is the one from whom to learn to bless the Lord at all times!”

It is easy to bless the Lord in happiness. A gladdened heart moves the tongue as well to thanksgiving. But how does one rouse this blessing within oneself in times of grief and sorrow? The holy Apostle, in giving the commandment to give thanks for everything, placed before it another: rejoice always (1Thes 5:16). Here, then, is guidance for us in how to dispose the heart toward the blessing of God in sorrowful times. One must discern and feel within troubles and sorrows something capable of bringing joy—for example, that the bitterness of life is a sign of God’s special care, like that which a father shows a son in chastising him; that afflictions and calamities are God’s means of healing us, like the cutting and cauterizing used by physicians; that through them we are purified and, being purified, become capable and worthy of blessedness alongside the pure, in a glory whose anticipation should dispose us to count all the sufferings of the present time as nothing. When you perceive as great a good in sorrows—or even greater—as in prosperity itself, as was the case with the martyrs, then you will have planted joy in the heart, and from it you will at once pass to thanksgiving. Feelings cannot be controlled at will, as we control the movements of the body. They must be moved gradually, and the stirring of one must prepare the generation of another. And feelings in relation to God do not all arise at once, nor do they all at once reach their perfection, but are cultivated gradually through labors and ascetic efforts in a devout life. The chief thing here is a strong and deep assurance of the heart concerning God’s Providence over us—that God cares for us as a father cares for his children, and that therefore everything He permits and arranges for us is essentially necessary for the salvation of each one of us. In all of this, however, life itself teaches us, when lived with attentiveness to oneself and a prayerful turning to God. Hence in the Apostle, after rejoice always, there stands pray without ceasing, as a transition to in everything give thanks. This tells us that prayer is the mediator of everything here. Prayer, growing stronger, gives the power to perceive the joyful within the sorrowful, and to draw from a heart pressed by sorrow grateful songs to God. A prayer-filled life in God introduces one into God’s designs and teaches one to receive everything gladly from the Lord’s hand.