All Must Be Referred to God, and Upon Him Alone Must One Lean (Verse 3)

Ps. 33:3. In the Lord shall my soul make its boast.

Saint Basil the Great puts into the Prophet’s mouth the following words on this: “I do not boast, he says, in my own resourcefulness, by which I was saved from danger, but in the Lord, who saved me: for salvation is not in human strength or human wisdom, but in God’s grace.” Saint Athanasius the Great adds: “if, he says, I appear worthy of praise, because something good is found in my deeds—that ought to be ascribed not to me but to God: He has made me known; He has also made me worthy of praise.” Thus, to boast in the Lord means to refer all to the Lord and to lean on nothing of one’s own, but on God’s strength alone, and on God’s shelter and Providence.

A person always sees something of value in himself or in something of his own—and that he sets forward, on that he leans and his hope reposes and that he boasts of. In this lies the foundation of the feeling of security and the assurance of the possibility of well-being. Remove this support, and the person collapses in spirit, is crushed, falls into despair. But all that a person might boast of and lean upon—apart from God—gives him no true boast and no solid support. Boast of the fact that you are God’s and that God holds you as His own, helps you, and extends His protection over you. For it is written: let not the rich man boast in his riches, the wise man in his wisdom, the mighty man in his might; but let the one who boasts boast in this—in knowing and understanding the Lord his God — and in being known by Him (Jer 9:23–24). “In place (Saint Basil the Great) of any other honor, it is enough for us to be called servants of the Heavenly Lord of all—God. Does not the king’s servant boast of having been appointed to this or that rank of service? Can the one who has been granted to serve the true God devise praises for himself from some other source, as though to be called the Lord’s were insufficient for the fullness of his glory and renown? If someone boasts of his beauty, or the nobility of his birth, or his connections, and reposes on that—his boast is vain and his support is unstable: for his soul does not boast in the Lord. Likewise, if someone boasts of his intellect, his skill and resourcefulness—such as scholars, orators, rulers, physicians, builders of houses and cities and the like—and reposes his hope on that, their boast is vain and their support is not firm: for they do not place their soul in the Lord.”

To boast in the Lord, to refer all to Him and to repose with restful assurance on Him alone—this is a state of the spirit, not an isolated act. Until a firm conviction has been born and implanted in the heart that it is the Lord who holds and keeps a person and arranges all that is salvific for him—until then one cannot sincerely boast in the Lord, though one may do so with the tongue. Without this conviction a person ordinarily regards himself and his own mind as his keeper and guardian, and attributes everything good he manages to accomplish to himself and boasts of it.