Future Perfect // Present Tense

Martin Luther once preached a sermon on the phrase “I called upon the Lord”, taken from Psalm 118:5. Here’s what he said to his congregation:

“Call is what you have to learn. You heard it. Don’t just sit there by yourself or off to one side and hang your head and shake it and gnaw your knuckles and worry and look for a way out, nothing on your mind except how bad you feel, how you hurt, what a poor guy you are. Get up, you lazy scamp! Down on your knees! Up with your hands and eyes toward heaven! Use a psalm or the Lord’s prayer to cry out your distress to the Lord.”

[Quoted in Timothy George, Theology of the Reformers, p86]