PSALM SIXTY-NINE

My eyes have failed, while I trust in My God.
This is a horrible word, and I cannot adequately express it, “My eyes have failed.” For one who does not fear everything from all sides does not look around. But he who is afraid will neglect nothing, because he is thoroughly alert and afraid of everything. Therefore, to fight that failure, the Lord so anxiously commands us to be watchful and always to have open eyes and wait for His coming. Therefore we need to fear Him who will stir up this lukewarmness and shake off this sleep, namely, that we may think and evaluate, since smugness is worse and more dreadful than all adversity. For that reason so fear and flee it, so hate it and consider it suspect, as if it were the greatest evil of all, because it lulls to sleep and causes the eyes to fail. And you must keep in mind that this is something you should be advised against, because prosperity is a double adversity and security is twice a danger. Just as there is no greater iniquity than the highest equity, no greater injustice than the highest justice, no greater loss than the greatest gain, so there is no greater adversity than prosperity and no greater danger than no danger at all. This is so because it makes people careless. “When they shall say, ‘peace and security,’ then shall sudden destruction come upon them” (1 Thess. 5:3). Nothing is safe where everything is safe, nothing so sick as when everything is healthy; there is no temptation when all is temptation, no persecution when all is persecution. Thus the devil now fights the church with the greatest persecution, because he fights with no persecution, but rather with security and idleness. Therefore woe to us, who are so snatched away by present things and foolishly do not see the devil’s trap! We act like the foolish heir who knew only how to squander the magnificent estate left by his parents and did nothing to build it up but always carried away from the pile. –Martin Luther