PSALM SIXTY-NINE

“When people say, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them.” So it happened to the Sodomites and the people at the time of the flood (Luke 17:26 ff.). So it happened later to the Jews when they were destroyed. Therefore the charge is made against the last of the seven angels, that of Laodicea, that he was neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm (Rev. 3:15–16), that is, secure in peace.

A person cannot finish one day unless he regards it as his last.

A person will not worthily finish one hour or moment, unless he seriously regards it as his last. Such a person will be humbled and will fear. And so God will give him His grace, and His Spirit will rest upon him.

No one can worthily pray the prayers of affliction unless, as I said above, he goes down to death and hell, so, on the contrary, no one can worthily and joyfully speak praises, unless he ascends to heaven with the attitude of hope and, as intensely as he can, think of himself as being in fact already in the midst of the angels and saints. So also no one can love (according to the spirit) worthily, except one who takes on the attitude of the Lord Jesus, that is, one who thinks as follows. If he were the highest, noblest, richest, most powerful, and filled with the greatest love, he would give himself over into every evil and death for his enemy or the most loathsome criminal. The more earnestly you do this, the more you will understand the love of Christ and ascend to love toward Him. –Martin Luther