Psalms 116:9

"I shall please in the sight of the Lord, in the land of the living."...We "labour" indeed now, because we are awaiting "the redemption of our body:" but, "when death shall have been swallowed up in victory, and this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality;" then there will be no weeping, because there will be no falling; and no falling, because no corruption. And therefore we shall then no longer labour to please, but we shall be entirely pleasing in the sight of the Lord, in the land of the living.

I will please in the sight of the Lord in the land of the living. I seem, he says, to men to be just, though I have no good works: I seem to men to be holy, though I have no good words. Now this is what David says, this is what the saints say, this is what the apostles speak: for a sinner does not say this. What does the just man say? Though I have no good words and works, yet I seem holy, and am praised by men: but I know my own conscience, I know with what sort of thoughts my heart is tossed, I know how great the lusts are that come upon me, and "I see another law fighting against my mind and leading me captive in the law of sin." Therefore I say: "Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death?" And therefore I say: "From my hidden faults cleanse me, and from those of others spare your servant." From those of others. It is not mine, that which I bring to birth: I do not want to think evil things, and I think them: I do not want to think evil, and as though unwilling and captive I am dragged into an evil thought. But since it is not in my power either to think or not to think the things that are evil, therefore I say: These things indeed that come into my heart are another's: but since a kind of necessity is imposed upon me, therefore I say, From my hidden faults cleanse me. The sins indeed are another's: but because I take them up, therefore I say, In the sins of others spare me your servant. Now why have I said this? Because the prophet said, I will please the Lord. He did not say, I please; but, I will please: for here, in what I do, I cannot be perfectly just. Therefore the apostle also says: "In part we know and in part we prophesy," and "now we see through a mirror in an enigma." Therefore we have now used a long discourse: because in the present world no one can be perfectly just, neither David, nor the apostles, nor any of the saints. "For no one is clean from sin, not even if his life be of one day." Since indeed the apostles and the saints did not dare to say, we are holy; nor did they dare to say, I please, but I will please. He who has promised for the future confesses concerning the past that he has not done it. I will please the Lord. Where will I please? In the land of the living. For this is the land of the dead: the land of the living is another. Since David too was in this land, and truly in the land of promise;…