Lord God, Keep Us to the End

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
PSALM 23:6
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Lord God, Keep Us to the End
Because the devil never stops tormenting the believers—inwardly with terror, outwardly with the wiles of false teachers and the power of the tyrants—the prophet here at the end earnestly asks that God, who has given him this treasure, would also keep him in it to the end. He says: "Oh, may the dear God grant His grace that goodness and mercy might follow me all the days of my life and that He might soon make manifest what He calls goodness and mercy," that is, that he might dwell in the house of the Lord forever. It is as though he would say: "Lord, Thou hast begun the matter. Thou hast given me Thy holy Word and received me among those who are Thy people, who know Thee, praise and magnify Thee. Continue to give Thy grace, that I may remain with the Word and nevermore be separated from Thy holy Christendom." Thus he also prays in the Twenty-seventh Psalm (Psalm 27:4): "One thing," he says, "I ask of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beautiful worship of the Lord, and to visit His temple."

From Commentary on Psalm 23 (Luther's Works 12:178-79)
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