Praise & Psalmody - Week 1: Wednesday

Psalms 33:2

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

St. Basil the Great, Homilies On The Psalms 16.1

The prophet seems to promise something impossible. For how can the praise of God be always in a person’s mouth? When he engages in the ordinary conversations pertaining to daily life, he does not have the praise of God in his mouth. When he sleeps, he will keep absolute silence. And how will the mouth of one who is eating and drinking produce praise? We answer to this that there is a certain spiritual mouth of the inner person by which he is fed when he partakes of the word of life, which is the bread that comes down from heaven. Concerning that mouth the prophet also says, “I opened my mouth and panted.” The Lord even urges us to have it open wide so as to receive plentifully the food of truth. “Open your mouth wide,” he says, “and I will fill it.” The thought of God, therefore, having been once for all molded and, as it were, sealed in the authoritative part of the soul, can be called praise of God, since it is always present in the soul. Moreover, according to the counsel of the apostle, the zealous person can do all things for the glory of God, so that every act and every word and every work has in it power of praise. Whether the just person eats or drinks, he does all for the glory of God.