f the righteous. As he looks upon you with gracious,
winning eyes, so also are his ears alert to even the faintest sound.
He hears your complaint, your sighing and prayer, and hears, too,
willingly and with pleasure; as soon as you open your mouth, your
prayer is heard and answered.

39. Again, Peter says: "The face of the Lord is upon them that do
evil." True, God's eyes are upon the righteous, but nevertheless he
sees also the others. In this case he beholds not with a friendly
look or gracious countenance, but with a displeased and wrathful
face. When a man is angry the forehead frowns, the nostrils dilate
and the eyes flash. Such a manifestation of anger are we to
understand by the Scripture when it refers here to "the face of the
Lord." On the other hand it illustrates the pleased and gracious
aspect of God by "the eyes of the Lord."

40. Now, why is "the face of the Lord" upon evil-doers and what is
its effect? Certainly God's purpose is not to heed or to help them,
to bestow blessing or success upon their evil-doing. His purpose is,
according to the succeeding words in the psalm, "to cut off the
remembrance of them from the earth." This is a terrible, an appalling
sentence, before which a heart may well be prostrated as from a
thunderbolt. And ungodly hearts would be thus appalled were they not
so hardened as to despise God's Word.

41. Notwithstanding the indifference of the wicked, the sentence is
passed. Verily it is no jest with God. It illustrates how sincerely
he cares for the righteous and how he will avenge them on the wicked,
toward whom his countenance bespeaks punishment in due time and the
cutting off of their memory from the earth. In contrast, the
righteous, because they have feared God and abode in their piety
though suffering for it, shall, even here upon earth, live to see
blessing and prosperity upon their children's children. Although for
a time the company of the wicked conduct themselves with pride upon
the earth, and imagine themselves secure beyond the possibility of
being unseated, nevertheless when their hour comes they are suddenly
hurled down from earth into the abyss of hell and must suffer the
righteous to remain in possession of the earth. So testifies Christ
in Matthew 5, 5, and Psalm 37 more fully explains the matter.

42. It is proven by all the examples of Scripture and also by the
experience of the whole world from the beginning, that God casts down
those who seek only to i