Psalms 103:2

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his rewards. The Lord has bestowed many rewards upon us, he has bestowed great benefits upon us: for he made the heaven, the earth, all the elements for us. The sun itself and the moon and the stars and all the elements run and run back again for our sake. O wretched creatures that we are: the elements serve us, and we do not serve the Lord. It is a great thing, therefore, that God made for our sake all the things we see. For a house is always made for the sake of the one who dwells in it. If we are the dwellers of the world, and the world is the house of men, and the house has been made for the sake of the dweller: it is a great thing, therefore, that he made for our sake all the things we see, that he made us to be born, to live, to move, to understand our Creator, that he set us apart from the beasts, that they look downward, bent toward the earth, while he made us stand upright to gaze upon heaven. And these things indeed are great: but greater is the fact that he was born for our sake. "Who, though he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made obedient even unto death, and death on a cross." Since we were mortal because of our sin, he himself deigned to die for us mortals, so that he might make us alive.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His rewards" (ver. 2). But the rewards of the Lord cannot be before thine eyes unless thy sins are before thine eyes. Let not delight in past sin be before thine eyes, but let the condemnation of sin be before thine eyes: condemnation from thee, forgiveness from God. For thus God rewardeth thee, so that thou mayest say, "How shall I reward the Lord for all His rewards unto me?" This it was that the martyrs considering (whose memory we are this day celebrating), and all the saints who have despised this life, and as ye have heard in the Epistle of St. John, laid down their lives for the brethren, which is the perfection of love, even as our Lord saith: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends:" this the holy martyrs, then, considering, despised their lives here, that they might find them there, following our Lord's words when He said, "He that loveth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall keep it unto life eternal." ..."Forget not," he saith, "all His rewards:" not awards, but "rewards." For something else was due, and what was not due hath been paid. Whence also these words: "What," he asketh, "shall I reward the Lord for all His rewards unto me?" Thou hast rewarded good with evil; He rewardeth evil with good. How hast thou, O man, rewarded thy God with evil for good? Thou who hast once been a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, hast rewarded blasphemies. For what good things? First, because thou art: but a stone also is. Next, because thou livest: but a brute also liveth. What reward wilt thou give the Lord, for His having created thee above all the cattle; and above all the fowls of the air, in His image and likeness? Seek not how to reward Him: give back unto Him His own image: He requireth no more; He demandeth His own coin. ...