Nicetas of Remesiana

Praise issuing from a pure conscience delights the Lord, and so the same psalmist exhorts us, "Praise ye the Lord because a psalm is good; to our God be joyful and comely praise." With this in mind, aware of how pleasing to God is this ministry, the psalmist again declares, "Seven times a day I have given praise to you." To this he adds a further promise: "And my tongue shall meditate your justice, your praise all the day long." Without doubt, he had experience of the good to be derived from this work, for he reminds us [in the psalm before us]: "Praising I will call on the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies." It was with such a shield of praise to protect him that as a boy [David] destroyed the great power of the giant Goliath, and, in many other instances, came out victorious over the invaders.