"Thy Righteousness"

"Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast 
done great things:O God, who is like unto thee!" 
Psalm 71:10

ACCEPT the sacrifice of my confessions from the ministry of my tongue,
which Thou hast formed and stirred up to confess unto Thy name.
Heal Thou all my bones, and let them say, O Lord, who is like unto Thee?1
For he who confesses to Thee doth not teach Thee 
what takes place within him;
seeing a closed heart closes not out Thy eye,
nor can man’s hard-heartedness thrust back Thy hand:
for Thou dissolvest it at Thy will in pity or in vengeance,
and nothing can hide itself from Thy heat.2
But let my soul praise Thee, that it may love Thee;
and let it confess Thy own mercies to Thee,
that it may praise Thee.
Thy whole creation ceaseth not, nor is silent in Thy praises;
neither the spirit of man with voice directed unto Thee,
nor creation animate or inanimate,
by the voice of those who meditate thereon:
that so our souls may from their weariness arise towards Thee,
leaning on those things which Thou hast created,
and passing on to Thyself, who madest them wonderfully;
and there is refreshment and true strength.

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[1] Psalm 35:10: All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which
deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and
the needy from him that spoileth him?
[2] Psalm 19:6: His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his
circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

Saint Augustine. (354–430).  The Confessions of St. Augustine.

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