Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord, and who hath not had regard to vanities and lying follies (Psalm 39:5).
I. Consider first, which of the Lord’s names is the one that must be the foundation of your hope. Without any doubt it is that name which is above all names, the name of Jesus; the name which He has this day purchased for Himself by His Blood. The simple knowledge that He bears such a name ought to inspire complete confidence: “Let them trust in Thee who know Thy name.” For the Lord is not, like men, given to empty boasting. He cannot be called your Saviour, and not be so. It needs only that you let Him work in His own character: “Know ye that no one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.”
II. Consider secondly, how justly is he called blessed who puts his hope in the Lord, for he puts it in Him Who is Supreme Power, Supreme Knowledge, and Supreme Goodness, and therefore in One Who is not only able to do us every great good, and not only knows how to do it, but Who is also supremely anxious to do it. Not so shall he be blessed who puts his trust in men. Nay, rather, how unfortunate is he! Very seldom indeed are men desirous to do us much good. When they are desirous to do so, they fail in the necessary knowledge, and when they possess the knowledge they lack the power: “Our eyes failed, expecting help for us in vain, when we looked attentively towards a nation that was not able to save us.” And would you, then, have such as these to be your saviours?
III. Consider thirdly, it is not so easy, as at the first sight it seems, to have this hope in the Lord. Therefore he, whose truly happy lot it is to have attained thereto, is styled not a human being, homo, but “a man” — vir, “a blessed man” — beatus vir, inasmuch as more than ordinary courage is required for attaining this result, courage in order to begin to hope, courage in order not to cease hoping. Many do not make a beginning because, appalled by their own wretchedness, they do not believe that they can ever be fit to receive great graces. Many make a small beginning, but do not follow it up, as though their hopes had been found vain, either because God requires His graces to be longed for, or because He bestows them unobserved. Not so you, not so! but be always “a man,” that is to say, ever have the courage to hope without faltering. There is, however, another reason for calling him, who sincerely hopes in the Lord, “a man,” and that is, because his hope itself makes him such. For what is it, after all, which constitutes the strength of man’s soul? It is hope. “I will keep my strength to Thee, for God is my protector.” So spoke David to God. But do you not see what he meant by saying “my strength”? He clearly meant, “my hope.”
IV. Consider fourthly, what is the natural fruit of such a hope. Contempt for the goods of this world, styled, some of them, “vanities,” and others, again, “follies.” Some of these goods may be lawfully enjoyed, and these deserve at least to be called vanities, for they possess not a particle of substance or solidity; they do not satisfy the human heart: “Surely our fathers have possessed lies, a vanity which hath not profited them.” Others, again, may not be enjoyed without sin, and these deserve not only to be called vanities, but follies; for what greater folly can be committed by men here on earth, than to place their delight in goods which shall have to be changed into so great an evil? Of a truth, such men “are mad when they are merry.”
V. Consider fifthly, what little store you must set by such goods as these. You must not deign even to cast a look at them; as we are told: “He hath not had regard;” and this the more because they are able to seduce you very easily. Insanity in the natural order can be recognized at once, but it is not so with the insanity of worldlings, which may be called insanity in the moral order. This with multitudes passes for wisdom, and therefore to distinguish it from the former it is said to be false, that is to say, fallacious, as it is said of more serious delusions that they are false: deceptiones falsa, incantationes falsa, illusiones falsa, not because they do not contain real fraud, but because they keep it hidden. Beware, then, how you look upon such follies as these, lest they seduce you also. It is enough for you to know that they are follies, as those who now take them for wisdom shall one day know to their cost. “For,” said the Prophet, with reference to idols, “seeing they are but of wood, and laid over with gold and with silver, it shall be known hereafter that they are false things.” This, too, ought to be your language with respect to these follies. For the present they are veiled, laid over as it were with gold and with silver; but what then? Will not the time come when their deceitfulness will be but too clearly shown? Hark! how all their followers cry out from the abyss of Hell: “Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us;” if it be not, that in their folly, they wish to impute the guilt of their own blunder to the sun.