You have dealt well with your servant, O LORD, according unto your word.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
62. "Thou hast dealt in sweetness with Thy servant: according unto Thy word;" or rather, "according unto Thine utterance" (ver. 65). The Greek word xrhstothj hath been variously rendered by our translators by the words "sweetness" and "goodness." But since sweetness may exist also in evil, since all unlawful and unclean things afford pleasure, and it may also exist in that carnal pleasure which is permitted; we ought to understand the word "sweetness," which the Greeks termed krhstothj, of spiritual blessings: for on this account our translators have preferred to term it "goodness." I think therefore that nothing else is meant by the words, "Thou hast dealt in sweetness with Thy servant," than this, Thou hast made me feel delight in that which is good. For when that which is good delighteth, it is a great gift of God. But when the good work which the law commandeth is done from a fear of punishment, not from a delight in righteousness, when God is dreaded, not loved; it is the act of a slave, not of a freeman.
