Verse 10. Who doeth great things and unsearchable and wonderful things, whereof there is no number. 19. We praise the works of God more eloquently by being astonished than by speaking. We fulfill the deeds of the divine might more worthily when we recognize that we cannot fulfill them; we speak the more eloquently when we fall silent in astonishment before them. For our failing possesses a tongue whereby to declare the works of God sufficiently, so that the things it is not competent to comprehend, these it may fittingly praise by being mute. Whence it is well said through the Psalmist: Praise him in his mighty acts, praise him according to the multitude of his greatness (Psalm 150:2).
For that man praises the Lord according to the multitude of his greatness who considers that he falls short in the accomplishment of his praise. Let him say therefore: Who doeth great things and unsearchable and wonderful things, whereof there is no number—namely, great in power, unsearchable in reason, innumerable in their manifoldness. The divine works, therefore, which he could not accomplish by speaking, he the more eloquently defined by failing. But in the contemplation of things, why are we led far outside ourselves, we who are ignorant even of this very thing which is wrought within us? Whence also fittingly it is subjoined: