Goodness and Mercy Disguised

My soul also is greatly troubled. But You, O LORD—how long?
PSALM 6:3
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Goodness and Mercy Disguised
God's strength and consolation are given to no one unless he asks for it from the bottom of his heart. But no one who has not been profoundly terrified and forsaken prays profoundly. He does not know what ails him, and he remains secure in the strength and consolation of another, his own or that of creatures. In order, therefore, that God might dispense His strength and consolation and communicate it to us, He withdraws all other consolation and makes the soul deeply sorrowful, crying and longing for His comfort. Thus all God's chastisements are graciously designed to be a blessed comfort, although through weak and despairing hearts the foolish hinder and distort the design aimed at them, because they do not know that God hides and imparts His goodness and mercy under wrath and chastisement.

From Seven Penitential Psalms, on Psalm 6 (Luther's Works 14:141-42)
January 29
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