Psalms 116:3

Do you hear him [the psalmist] saying, "The sorrows of death have compassed me"? "Still, I have loved the Lord even in the sorrows of death. The perils of hell have found me, not fearing indeed, but loving, but hoping, because no distress, no persecution, no dangers, no sword shall separate me from Christ." Therefore, he accepted tribulation and sorrow willingly, knowing that "suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." As a good athlete, he sought the contest that he might gain the crown, but he knew that this was given to him not through his own strength but by the aid of God. He could not have been victorious had he not called on him who helps contenders.

The sorrows of death surrounded me. It seems to me that the sorrows of death are foul thoughts. When the soul is thinking, and desires to sin, when it is in travail with sins, it is near to death. The perils of hell found me. O how unhappy and wretched and pitiable we are, because sin is always seeking us! But if sins are always seeking us, let us make haste that they may not find us. Now this is the difference between the sorrows of death and the perils of hell: the sorrows of death are evil thoughts, the perils of hell are evil deeds. That I may put it thus: one thing is in contemplation, another in action, that is, in practice. For there is the sorrow and the travail, but here is the peril that is near to death.

I found tribulation and sorrow. He says a strange thing. He does not say, I found rest: he does not say, I found abundance. Now if he had said, tribulation found me, sorrow found me, there would be no question. But now what does he say? I found tribulation and sorrow. As one seeking, so he found: for nothing is found except what is sought. The holy man does not seek rest, but tribulation: for he knows that "tribulation works patience, and patience trial, and trial hope, and hope does not confound." Something of the same kind is said also in Jeremiah: "Tribulation," he says, "and misery I called upon." "Because," he says, "at your bitter word I shall laugh": that is, in this world I want nothing else but tribulation, that in the world to come I may have rest and happiness. And therefore, he says, I now endure bitterness, that afterward I may enjoy sweeter things. And the people of the Lord, going out from Egypt, came to Marah, which is interpreted "bitter," and from Marah to Sinai, which is interpreted "temptation." And again Jeremiah: "I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness."