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 BS 1A29 
 Luther, 
 
 .L88 1903 V. 
 Martin, 1483 
 
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 Luther' 
 
 s commentary 
 
 on the 
 
 first 
 
 twenty-two Psalms 
 
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STANDARD EDITION OF LUTHER'S WORKS. 
 
 LUTHER'S COMMENTARY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FIRST TWENTY-TWO PSALMS 
 
 BASED ON DR. HENRY COLE'S TRANSLATION FROM THE ORIGINAL 
 
 LATIN. REVISED, ENLARGED, PARTS RETRANSLATED 
 
 AND EDITED IN COMPLETE FORM 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN NICHOLAS LENKER, D. D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS IN TRINITY SEMINARY OF THE UNITED 
 
 DANISH EV. LUTHERAN CHURCH, BLAIR, NEBRASKA, AND AUTHOR OF 
 
 "LUTHERANS IN ALL LANDS," "DIE LUTHERISCHE KIRCHE 
 
 DER WELT," ETC. 
 
 "The Old Testament will still be a New Testament 
 to him, who comes with a fresh desire for information." 
 
 —Fuller. 
 
 A^OI^. I. 
 
 LUTHERANS IN ALL LANDS CO. 
 
 SUNBURY, PENNSYLVANIA, U. S. A. 
 (PRINTED IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U. S. A.) 
 
 1903. 
 
Copyright, 1903, 
 
 BY 
 
 PROF. J. N. I^ENKER, D. D. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO LUTHER'S WORKS 
 IN ENGLISH 
 
 GOD'S BEST GIFT TO US IS A BOOK. 
 
 Dear reader, do you realize that the most precious gift of our 
 heavenly Father to us, his children, is in the form of a book? In 
 that book God has given us all that we need; outside of it he has 
 promised us nothing. We are indebted alone to the goodness of 
 God that we are able to read and that we have something really 
 good to read. Through his servant Moses, God commanded the 
 Israelites to preserve the book of the law in the ark of God and 
 put it under the care of the Levites. It grew until it became our 
 Bible, which means books or scriptures or writings. The Protest- 
 ant-Teutonic nations appropriately called it the Word of God or 
 God's Word, (in German Gotteg Wort; in Scandinavian 
 Gud's Ord). See Gen. 5:1; Exod. 17:14; 24:7; Num. 5:23; Deut. 
 17:18; 28:58; Josh. 8:34; 2 Kings 22:8-16; Neh. 8: 1-18; Ecc. 12:12; 
 Ezek. 2:9; Rev. 5:1-10; 22:7-19. 
 
 THE BIBLE IS THE DIVINE LIBRARY. 
 Really the Bible is not only a book, it is a collection of 66 
 books, 39 books in the Old and 27 in the New Testament. Moses, 
 the first divine writer, was also the first librarian of a library of 
 five books, called the five books of Moses. It was larger than 
 many think. Thus we see the idea of the library as well as that 
 of the book is divine in its origin. To these five volumes by Moses, 
 Joshua and Samuel added others. To the historical department was 
 added the poetical by David and Solomon, and then followed the 
 prophetical by Isaiah, Jeremiah and others. Under the new dis- 
 pensation the word of God continued to be written, collected and 
 preserved in the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles and Revelation. 
 God used 40 different holy men during the long period of 1600 
 years to write this divine book or library. He alone gathered 
 it, and He alone has preserved it. To His name alone be the praise! 
 Since the Canon closed, the Holy Spirit has been in the church 
 working through the Word of God, so that "of making many 
 books there is no end" is true in our day as it was already in the 
 time of Solomon. 
 
 OUR BIBLE AND THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. 
 
 The late German scholar. Professor Max Mueller, left coming 
 
 generations the following beautiful and learned christian testi- 
 
vi LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. 
 
 mony as a precious heritage, when he said: — "In the discharge of 
 my duties for 40 years as professor of Sanskrit in the University 
 of Oxford, I have devoted as much time as any man living to 
 tJie study of the Sacred Books of the East, and I have found 
 the one key-note — the one diapason, so to speak — of all those 
 so-called sacred books, whether it be the Veda of the Brahmans, 
 the Puranas of Siva and Vishnu, the Koran of the Mohammedans, 
 the Zend-Avesta of the Parsees, the Tripitaka of the Buddhists — 
 tlie one refrain through all is salvation by works. They all say 
 that salvation must be purchased, must be bought with a price; 
 and that the sole price, the sole purchase-money, must be our 
 own works and deservings. Our own holy Bible, our sacred Book 
 of the East, is from beginning to end a protest against this doctrine. 
 
 "Good works are, indeed, enjoined upon us in that sacred Book 
 of the East far more strongly than in any other sacred book of 
 the East; but they are only the outcome of a grateful heart — they 
 are only a thank-offering, the fruits of our faith. They are never 
 the ransom money of the true disciples of Christ. Let us not shut 
 our eyes to what is excellent and true and of good report in these 
 sacred books, but let us teach Hindus, Buddhists and Mohamme- 
 dans, that there is only one sacred Book of the East that can 
 be their main stay in that awful hour when they pass all alone into 
 the unseen world. It is the sacred Book which contains that 
 faithful saying, worthy to be received of all men, women and 
 children — that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners". 
 THE ISSUE BETWEEN THE ORIENT AND OCCIDENT. 
 
 These words of the learned German Professor, who has translat- 
 ed all the sacred books of the East into English, come from one 
 who speaks with authority. They certainly put in the clearest 
 language the fundamental issue between the Orient and the Occi- 
 dent, yea, the real issue in human history, past and future. We 
 make an unpardonable blunder if we think that the Church of 
 Christ will have fulfilled her mission in the Orient when she shall 
 have destroyed all the idols of wood and stone. The battle is 
 really not one with dumb material idols nor one of the sword, but it 
 is a battle of the mind and soul — of books — of one sacred book 
 of the East against all the other sacred books of the East. The bat- 
 tle was waged once in the Orient and once in the Occident. In the 
 Orient the one Book apparently lost and was exterminated from 
 the East by the cunning of Satan and the depravity of man. It 
 found a refuge in the West where it was again powerfully attacked 
 by the same everlasting enemies, but here however the one Book 
 gained the victory. The arts of Satan and the wisdom of man were 
 
LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. vii 
 
 put to flight, "and Jehovah caused his glorious voice to be heard", 
 Is. 30:30. To God's Word and God's Spirit be all the praise. 
 Bui they wrought through human agencies. God chose the battle 
 field, the soldiers and the leader. The prophet of the West, whom 
 God raised up for the occasion, was a poor monk who really 
 "shook the world." His inspired or semi-inspired pen wrote so 
 well that 
 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS BECAME THE SACRED BOOKS 
 OF THE WEST. 
 
 While reading so much about the sacred books of the East, 
 the inquiry naturally arises what about the sacred books of the 
 West, our half of the globe, where we live and labor? Has God 
 given us no prophet? Has the Holy Spirit been withheld from 
 one half of God's creation? Have we no talent and can we con- 
 tribute nothing toward uplifting the race? Against such thoughts 
 we naturally revolt. However little we may have we want to be 
 self-conscious of what we have, for "he that is faithful in a very 
 little is faithful also in much". Luther's writings offer nothing 
 new, they have made the one Book of the East, The Book of the 
 West, and restored the true religion of the East to the West. 
 DANGER OF ORIENTAL LEAVEN SPREADING IN THE 
 
 OCCIDENT. 
 
 But, alas! the West is in danger of being overwhelmed with 
 Orientalism through world's fairs, immigration and importation of 
 oriental ideas and customs, as Is. 2:6 says, it is being "filled with 
 customs from the East". But all that is not so dangerous as the 
 fact that the greater part of the so called Christian Church of the 
 West is to-day dominated by the false teachings of the East. The 
 whole Grecian or Russian Church, the world-embracing Roman 
 Catholic Church and some of the Reformed denominations. Thus 
 it seems the Christian Church may be taken captive into eastern 
 bondage as the Jewish Church was. While some so called Lutherans 
 may hold to the false teachings of the East, the Ev. Lutheran 
 Church with its 70,000,000 adherents in the world enthuses more 
 on justification by faith alone than on any other doctrine. Since 
 apostolic times no literature has taught and defended this central 
 truth of our sacred Book of the East as the writings of Luther, 
 the greatest Christian prophet of the West. Because of this, and 
 it cannot be put too strongly, because of this alone, we wish to 
 do all in our power to develop a world-wide movement to trans- 
 late, publish, sell, buy, read recommend and teach Luther's writ- 
 ings not only in English, but in every language. 
 
viii LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF PAUL AND LUTHER. 
 
 All agree that Paul is the greatest character in the Christian 
 Church and that since Paul's time none equals Luther. The one 
 was a Jew, "instructed according to the strict manner of the law", 
 the other a Gentile of the Gentiles, born in due time. They agree 
 perfectly and in their common doctrine alone the two divisions of 
 the race may be united. Paul's writings are circulated over the 
 earth in the Bible, and since no writer is more Pauline than 
 Luther, his writings should follow Paul's everywhere, as the 
 best commentary on Paul. The race, nation or nationality, that 
 understands, believes, appropriates their central doctrine the best, 
 will make the greatest progress in true culture and civilization, as 
 is seen in the German, Scandinavian and English nations com- 
 pared with others. The Scandinavians are the most universally 
 Protestant nation, hence their average in Christian culture and 
 civilization is the highest. The Catholic elements in the German 
 and English nations lower their average. 
 
 THE WRITINGS OF MOSES, PAUL AND LUTHER. 
 
 We may take a broader view and say, as Moses was the greatest 
 man in the Old Testament and Paul in the New, such is Luther 
 in modern times. Moses, Paul and Luther form a trinity on the 
 earth and in history whose unity can never be broken. If in the 
 providence of God a man is raised up to give a clearer and 
 stronger defense of the cardinal teachings of Moses and Paul on 
 sin and grace, then will Luther disappear from this trinity, and 
 not until then. As Moses and Paul live and bless humanity 
 through their writings, so Luther will live and bless mankind 
 through his words, which have been so faithfully handed down to 
 posterity. The highest recommendation of Luther's writings are 
 the writings themselves. The best we can do is to call attention 
 to this fact. It is what he wrote and not what others wrote about 
 him, that makes him Luther. 
 
 LUTHER AND BIBLE SOCIETIES. 
 
 While in London one place I especially desired to visit and 
 that was the large building of the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society. When we ascended the massive stairs there appeared a 
 large oil painting, the largest in the building. It stood alone as it 
 covered nearly the entire wall. It was not a scene from nature 
 but the full stature of a man. Not of a noted Englishman as one 
 might suppose, but of a foreigner. We had seen on the continent 
 many statues and paintings of the German Reformer, but never 
 did we see a finer painting of him, nor one in a more becoming and 
 significant place than this painting here at the very entrance to 
 
LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. ix 
 
 the greatest Bible Society in the world. There he stood as we 
 see him everywhere with a single book in his hands, the holy 
 Bible, and his eyes and head turned toward heaven in prayer that 
 its central truths might be faithfully taught and defended. Luther 
 knew that the Bible, "like a diamond, casts its luster in every 
 direction; like a torch, the more it is shaken the more it shines; 
 like a healing herb, the harder it is pressed, the sweeter is its 
 fragrance". He was really the founder of Bible Societies. The 
 Roman Catholic Church bitterly opposed them. The pope without 
 the Bible and Luther with the Bible are going everywhere. The 
 question is who shall dominate the civilization of the world? 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS IN THE REFORMATION OF 
 FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 
 
 Although in the Reformation period the University of Paris 
 condemned Luther's writings and thus determined the destiny of 
 France, yet he founded among his own "barbarian" countrymen a 
 Protestant University System that leads the world in thought and 
 places the Teuton race far in advance of the Latin. To-day a 
 Lutheran Faculty of Theology teaches .Luther's writings in the 
 very University of Paris that condemned them. Likewise in Eng- 
 land Luther's writings were opposed, even by the king with his 
 own pen, yet large numbers of "Lutheran books" were imported 
 into England as early as 1520, and some were early translated into 
 English, extensively circulated and read with avidity. Before the 
 English Bible and the Book of Common Prayer were printed 
 "England was full of Lutheran books". At Oxford University 
 Lutheranism was so strong in 1521 that cardinal Wolsey was en- 
 treated to check it. "Societies of those of Lutheran convictions" 
 were organized at the University of Oxford in 1527 and of Cam- 
 bridge in 1528. So many books of Luther were coming into Scot- 
 land that an act of parliament was passed in 1525 prohibiting 
 vessels to land with books of Luther or his disciples upon pain 
 of losing their cargo and the sailors themselves being imprisoned. 
 Thus the English world once welcomed Luther's writings though 
 opposed and we believe it will do so again. 
 
 LUTHER AND THE POPE IN AMERICA. 
 
 Why does the British Museum Library, the largest library in the 
 English world, take such a pride in its Luther literature? Not for 
 the sake of the Lutheran church, but for Luther's sake and Eng- 
 land's sake. Because of Luther's relation to all the problems of 
 England and of humanity. The Reformer has spoken almost on 
 every subject and there is a growing desire to know just what he 
 said. Should America fall behind England in its appreciation of the 
 writings of the hero of the Reformation? 
 
X LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. 
 
 Although the United States has received more from Martin 
 Luther, the father of modern civil and religious liberty, than from 
 any other uninspired man, yet the pope of Rome, the strongest 
 opponent of that liberty, has more influence in America than 
 Luther. Every public library of our land should be supplied with 
 his complete works in the original German, the classic language 
 of Protestantism, and also with his complete works in English, 
 as many do not read German. Give all Anglo-Saxons an oppor- 
 tunity to read the greatest Saxon in pure Anglo-Saxon! 
 
 The question has often been raised what is the foundation or 
 center of our modern culture and civilization? Can it be localized? 
 We answer yes, the Teutons, the Hanseatic Germans and the Viking 
 Scandinavians in Europe and America dominate it and not the 
 Latins, and Luther's writings have made the Teutons what they are. 
 He is the ideal child of the Teutons and their ideal father. They 
 moulded him before he moulded them. This is saying much, but 
 not too much, to those who read Luther and not only about him. 
 Germany, Scandinavia, England and America Germanica owe more 
 to Luther's writings and those who believe his teachings than to 
 the writings of all the popes and their followers: Neither the Slavic 
 nor the Romance nations have a Patriot or a Church Father equal 
 to the Teutonic, Protestant Luther. 
 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS AND THE WORK OF THE HOLY 
 
 SPIRIT. 
 
 More might be said as to the relation of Luther's writings to 
 the teachings of the Bible and to the Teutonic world-culture, but 
 space will not permit. Just a few words on the relation of those 
 writings to the work of the Holy Spirit. "And it shall be in the 
 last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh". 
 Acts 2:17. Where and when? In the Reformation. That was 
 a work of the Holy Spirit through the Word. Nowhere in the 
 Reformation do we see the work of the Holy Spirit more than 
 in the writings of the great Gentile prophet of these last days. 
 They were in part translated into all the languages of Europe 
 and have ministered to the Protestant leaders of every nation. 
 Wesley was converted by reading them, they inspired the Mora- 
 vians in their foreign missions and John Bunyan preferred them 
 to all books except the Bible. New Christian life came to Germany 
 under Francke, to Sweden under Rosenius, to Norway under Hauge 
 and to Denmark under Wilhelm Beck by circulating and reading 
 Luther's teachings. The Holy Ghost testified of Christ in Luther's 
 heart and he also bore witness. Do we not dishonor the Holy 
 Spirit when we do not honor the best christian writings since the 
 Apostles? If those writings were translated, published, sold. 
 
LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. xi 
 
 bought, recommended and taught in all languages as in the time of 
 the Reformation, we would see more of the power of the Holy 
 Spirit in converting sinners and edifying saints in the Occident and 
 in the Orient. Many see the work of the Holy Spirit only in 
 their own hearts and lives or in their own congregation and 
 synod, but not in the whole church and in the whole world of to-day 
 or of the past through the testimony of his chosen servants, hence 
 they have little faith and hope for his work in the future. While 
 Luther was not inspired like Isaiah or John, yet he was inspired 
 or semi-inspired and we are apt to give too little rather than 
 too much honor to the Holy Ghost for the heritage of classic 
 Protestant literature from his pen. We honor Luther most when 
 we honor him who honored Luther and whom Luther honored, 
 namely the Holy Spirit. The relation of the work of the Holy 
 Spirit to the central teaching of the Bible and of Luther's writings 
 is an interesting and important theme, as is suggested in the ex- 
 planation of the third article of the Creed in the small catechism. 
 A WORD IN BEHALF OF LUTHER TO LUTHERANS. 
 
 To the 7,200 pastors, 12,000 churches .and 10,000,000 adherents 
 of the Ev. Lutheran Church in the United States, with their 135 
 colleges and academies and 160 periodicals, this may seem un- 
 necessary. As we profess intelligently and conscientiously to bear 
 the name of this Teuton of the Teutons, the greatest prophet of 
 the West, let us grasp the full meaning in it. Let us not forget 
 the rock whence we were hewn! Is it not time that his writings 
 be given their deserving place? Inspired by what non-Lutherans 
 have done and will do to translate and circulate Luther in Eng- 
 lish, will we not do our part, for the sake of our pastors, con- 
 gregations and schools of the future, all of which will be English? 
 MORE LUTHERISM IN LUTHERANISM AND PROTEST- 
 ANTISM. 
 
 A careful examination of the bibliography of some 3,000 vol- 
 umes under the word Luther in the catalog of the British museum 
 library raises the question what Englishman did more for Eng- 
 land than Luther, as the Scandinavians and Finns say, what Scan- 
 dinavian has done more for us than the German Reformer? It is 
 a high compliment to Luther, if not to Lutherans, that nearly all 
 those English translations of Luther were made by scholars who 
 were not Lutherans. There is a difference between Lutherism 
 and Lutheranism, as there is between Calvinism and Calvinistic- 
 ism, if I may coin a word from the adjective of the proper noun. 
 The Germans and Scandinavians are more fortunate in their names; 
 they say, "Lutherthum" and "Lutherdom" or "Lutherismus". It 
 is safer to be disciples of Luther than of any disciple of Luther." 
 
xii LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. 
 
 The very word Calvinism suggests at once an appeal direct to 
 the w^ritings of Calvin, while Lutheranism suggests the teachings 
 of disciples of Luther, or of Lutherans. In this respect the Re- 
 formed Church honors her founder more than the Lutheran 
 Church does her leader, though her boast is that she does not bear 
 his name. 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS THE COMMON HERITAGE OF 
 PROTESTANTISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 The mere fact the restored apostolic church was called after 
 his name by his enemies has unjustly made Luther in the eyes of 
 many a sectarian, narrow personality, when the truth is, no broad- 
 er or more catholic, apostolic character is found in modern history. 
 He is greater than any denomination or nationality. Lutheranism, 
 Protestantism and Christianity in their future struggles will find 
 next to the Bible their greatest support and defense in the writings 
 of Luther. 
 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS ARE GROWING MORE POPULAR. 
 One reason Luther's works have not been issued in English is 
 that some have thought and advocated that only a few of his works 
 were worthy of translation. Such persons do not know Luther, 
 or the needs of our own times. Rome, religious fanaticism, and ig- 
 norance of the Word of God, should continually hear his voice. 
 The complete editions of Luther appeared in German as follows: 
 I, "Wittenberg Edition, 1539 — 1559; 2.Jena, 1555 — 1558; 3, Alten- 
 burg, 1661 — 1664; 4, Leipsic, 1729 — 1740; Walch, 1740 — 1753; 6, Er- 
 langen, 1826 — 1857; 7, Kaiser or Weimar, since 1883; 8, St. Louis- 
 Walch, since 1883. In the i6th century, two editions; in the 17th 
 one; in the i8th two, but in the 19th century three and they the 
 best three. Thus Luther is growing more popular in the best 
 educated nation in the world. He is one prophet who is honored 
 in his own country. When we think what an influence these eight 
 editions have had upon the life and the scholarship of the German 
 people, we realize what the English world has lost by never having 
 even one set of Luther's works complete. Dr. Cole started in 1823 
 with limited resources to issue several volumes, which were the means 
 of bringing a lady in Scotland to a knowledge of the truth, who 
 furnished the money to Issue other volumes, but in the midst of 
 his labor this faithful servant of Christ was called to his reward. 
 If those who are blessed by reading Luther in their vernacular, 
 contributed toward the issuing of other volumes, as this Scotch 
 lady did, we would have all of Luther instead of a little part of 
 him in English, and one complete edition after another would fol- 
 low as in the German, and this would be an inspiring example to 
 other nations. 
 
LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. xiii 
 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS IN LUTHERAN SCHOOLS AND 
 LIBRARIES. 
 
 During three annual visits to nearly all of the 156 Lutheran 
 educational institutions in America I learned to know their libra- 
 ries, and the state of things existing there is no honor to the 
 church nor to the institutions. Only two colleges have library 
 buildings, the Steensland memorial library of St. Olaf, Northfield, 
 Minn., and the Zimmerman memorial library, Wittenberg, Spring- 
 field, Ohio. In not one can all the 30 volumes of Luther's works 
 in English be found. Many did not know what volumes had been 
 translated. In a Lutheran college and theological seminary I re- 
 cently sought in vain for a set of Luther's works in the original, 
 and was told that there was not a set in the whole synod, and the 
 synod numbered over 10,000 communicant members. This suggests 
 the question, should not synods discuss the importance of circu- 
 lating Luther's writings. Paul wrote to Timothy, "Give heed to 
 reading," i Tim. 4:13. But what can the English Lutheran Timo- 
 thies read of their spiritual father? Why build a machine shop 
 or a work shop without machinery and tools. Let us examine 
 Luther's writings and take to heart what he said on the library. 
 Alas! Protestant schools have forgotten that Luther was the most 
 renowned university professor of his age, and a large proportion 
 of his writings were addressed to students. 
 
 Some pastors and laymen who are loud in their public praise 
 of the Lutheran church and of Luther, and Sunday school libraries 
 with hundreds of volumes, possess not a single book written by 
 Luther, and very little about him. Truly there is no greater need 
 than more Lutherism in our English Lutheranism. Institutions, 
 schools and congregations, with charter and constitution pledging 
 them to teach and defend the doctrines Luther taught and de- 
 fended, must be exhorted and urged as Lutherans to purchase 
 Luther's works in the only language thej^ understand, (and then 
 they often will not). Yet they would not change their name and 
 constitution under any consideration. They may think they have 
 found a better way to honor their name and gain the end of their 
 charter. Their libraries are filled with second and third class liter- 
 ature, an abundance of trash and hash, at a great outlay of cash, 
 and yet they do not complain. 
 
 THE MAGNETIC ATTRACTION OF GERMANY, WITTEN- 
 BERG AND LUTHER. 
 Some advocate we cannot be satisfied with translations and need 
 not go to Germany for scholarship. Even those who are indebted 
 to German scholarship for nearly all they have talk thus. German 
 patriotism has become world-wide, and is growing, and as the 
 
xiv LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. 
 
 Kingdom of God on the earth is not among angels, or birds or 
 cattle, but among human beings, who have formed different na- 
 tionalities, we may well honor those nationalities whom God has 
 honored. The Scandinavian countries, whose universities rank 
 next to the German, and all other European Protestants, have been 
 going to Germany for their education and theology ever since 
 the Reformation. This will continue, and as all America is fol- 
 lowing, it is impossible to turn the current. Where should we 
 Protestants go, except to our own fatherland, the birthplace, the 
 battlefield, the historic center and the classic land of Protestant- 
 ism? What Jerusalem is to the Jew and Rome is to the Catholic, 
 that the little university village of Wittenberg is to the Protestant 
 in general and to the Lutheran in particular. Let us honor our 
 father and mother, even if they be German, and translate more" 
 faithfully the best they have written or may write. The Protestant 
 universities of Germany, founded by Luther, are working out 
 problems that will be a blessing to all mankind, and they promise 
 to be a great defense of Luther's Bible and Luther's writings in 
 the coming battles with Orientalism. Luther's writings will in- 
 terest us more in the mission of Luther's fatherland in the world. 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS AND THE SCANDINAVIAN 
 AMERICANS. 
 
 As Luther on the Psalms has never been translated by the 
 Scandinavians, and as their literature on the Psalter, strange to 
 say, is rather meager, I take special pleasure, as an English pro- 
 fessor of theology in a Scandinavian seminary, in making this 
 permanent contribution to the exegetical and devotional literature 
 of the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish American Lutherans, who 
 in their native tongues have no access to this fundamental work 
 of "the mightiest post-apostolic master in Israel." As work in the 
 class room was the occasion that Luther's first original publica- 
 tion on the Psalms appeared, so the duties in the seminary last 
 year in teaching the exegesis of the Psalms with the help of 
 Luther and Delitzsch, brought the conviction that agitation must 
 give place to action. Since none of Luther's works are needed 
 more for immediate use in the school and the home than his com- 
 mentary on the Psalter, it therefore appears first in our series, 
 though I preferred to hold the manuscript for a few improvements. 
 As the most Germans will read Luther in the original, we must 
 look to the Scandinavian and English Lutherans for encourage- 
 ment. Therefore those volumes that are not accessible to the 
 Scandinavians and Americans will be issued first. 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS AND THE ENGLISH LUTHERANS. 
 
 Considering their age and strength few of Luther's writings arc 
 
LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. xv 
 
 found in the homes of English Lutherans. Germans and Scandi- 
 navians willingly become Americanized but they justly protest 
 against being Anglicized, either in the Episcopal or Non-Corform- 
 ist direction. How can pastors and members, synods and schools 
 enthuse over Luther and the Lutheran church and not over Lu- 
 ther's writings? The real Luther can not be separated from his 
 writings, as Moses and Paul can not from theirs. In America 
 the young say our greatest hope is in English, and the old reply 
 thoughtfully, there is also our greatest danger. That danger grows 
 less in proportion as both are dominated by Luther's writings. 
 WHO CAN DEVELOP AN APPETITE TO READ LUTHER? 
 
 Our professors, pastors, Sunday school teachers and church 
 members; our congregations, societies, synods, schools and church 
 papers. Will it pay for them to do so? Perhaps not in dollars 
 and cents. But it will pay all concerned in many ways. It is not 
 enough to translate, publish, and sell the books. The great task 
 is to develop the appetite to read them. To recommend Luther's 
 writings to Lutherans is like recommending the Bible to Christ- 
 ians. It is not a question whether Lutheran homes will have books 
 or no books, but will their books be Lutheran or un-Lutheran. The 
 latter will be the inevitable result unless the church bestirs herself. 
 She should first introduce Luther himself into her homes. 
 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS AND FUTURE REFORMERS. 
 
 Again, we should circulate Luther's writings because of their 
 vital relation to the future development of Protestantism. The 
 constant danger in Protestantism has always been two false tend- 
 encies, the one leading to high church ritualism, ceremonialism 
 and formalism, back to Romanism, and the other leading to ir- 
 reverent, radical fanaticism and all manner of excesses. There is 
 no better antidote against either than the writings of the Reformer 
 of reformers. To the Romanists they were too radical and to the 
 ultra-reformers too conservative. Therefore the Reformation under 
 Luther was not only a Reformation of Romanism, but it was a 
 sound Reformation of all the Reformations before his day, which 
 contained so many elements of weakness and error that they 
 themselves needed a reformation. 
 
 The many reformations in the East and the West since Luther's 
 day foreshadow an endless number of coming reformations, sects 
 and schisms, so that we have occasion to fear these future re- 
 formers as much as Romanism, because they do not hold firmly to 
 the central teachings of Moses, Paul and Luther. To the future 
 reformers in the Orient and the Occident we warmly recommend 
 the translation and study of the sacred writings of the greatest 
 Reformer in the Christian Church. 
 
xvi LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH. 
 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM. 
 
 In the i6th century, European society, being without the teach- 
 ings of the Bible, was dominated by humanism, a culture derived 
 from the heathen classics of the Latins and Greeks, and unrest 
 reigned everywhere, when as Dr. Schafif says, "The Protestant Re- 
 formation assumed the helm of the liberal tendencies and move- 
 ments of the reawakened life of the century, directed them into 
 the channel of Christian life and saved the world from a disastrous 
 revolution. It was negative and destructive towards error and 
 positive and constructive towards truth. It was conservative and 
 progressive." Our unprecedented material prosperity and the 
 elimination of the Christian element from all popular education 
 seem to threaten America with a like disastrous revolution, and 
 until God raises up a better refuge to which to flee, let us hold 
 firmly to the writings that saved the world from one such disaster. 
 As the Bible is the only book that will solve the social problem of 
 the world, the classic writings of Protestantism deserve careful 
 consideration in the future struggles of humanity. 
 WHAT WILL THE CIRCULATION OF LUTHER'S WRIT- 
 INGS ACCOMPLISH? 
 
 1st. They will help us to understand our Sacred Book of the 
 East and thus help us to hear the glorious voice of Jehovah's 
 grace. About 80 of the 107 volumes of Luther's works were writ- 
 ten to explain and enforce the teachings of Bible passages. 
 
 2d. As they are the best sacred writings of the West they prove 
 that the best sacred writings of the Orient and Occident agree, and 
 that they have a common enemy. As the East gave us the Bible, 
 we should gratefully give it back to the East accompanied with 
 the best Protestant defense of its teachings. 
 
 3d. They will strengthen the Protestant bulwark against Ro- 
 manism as no other writings can do. 
 
 4th. They will help us to appreciate the rich heritage of our 
 Protestantism, in the Protestant school, family and state. 
 
 Sth. They will be a valuable contribution to Homiletics, and 
 Exegetics, which to-day need Luther as a corrective. 
 
 6th. They will be a check to high church ritualism, ceremonial- 
 ism, and formalism. 
 
 7th. They will teach the excesses of the Non-Conformists that 
 there is a more excellent w^ay. 
 
 Sth. They will help to unite all the Teutons of the world and 
 teach them their true mission among other nations. 
 
 gth. They will fortify us against social disasters and lead us 
 to a sure refuge, if it come as in the Reformation. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT TO TRANSLATE LUTHER 
 INTO ENGLISH. 
 
 In 1881 — 2 while traveling through the European countries to 
 gather the latest material for "Lutherans In All Lands", an 
 opportunity was naturally afforded to study an intimately related 
 subject, "Luther In All Lands". It was found that since the 
 Reformation some of his writings had been translated in all 
 civilized languages, that they were gaining in favor and that 
 no better work could be done than to encourage Lutherans in 
 all lands to do their utmost to have Luther's writings translated 
 into all languages. En route to Egypt and Palestine in 1898 — 9. 
 I made a second tour through the European countries in order 
 to publish at Leipsic in the Reformer's mother tongue at the 
 opening of the 20th century a new book, illustrating Luther's ex- 
 planation of the third article of the Apostles' Creed, entitled "Die 
 Lutherische Kirche der Welt". In the midst of this work God 
 gave me the opportunity to examine 
 
 LUTHER'S WRITINGS IN THE LARGEST ENGLISH 
 
 LIBRARY. 
 In England I became interested in studying the influence of 
 Luther's writings among the Non-Conformists, as we are apt to 
 view the Lutheran movement in England only from the standpoint 
 of the Episcopal Church. While studying Luther in the British 
 JMuseum Library of London, the best place in the world to study 
 him. I was no less surprised than pleased to have handed me a 
 quarto double column catalog devoted exclusively to the literature 
 of Martin Luther, about 3,000 volumes in different languages. 
 This was a part of the catalog of the British Museum Library. 
 The equal of this Luther literature is not to be found in Germany, 
 Scandinavia or America. There are prospects, however, of it being 
 duplicated in some leading libraries in the United States. At once 
 two of the best theological second-hand book dealers were en- 
 gaged to purchase all the copies of these rare books possible, and 
 during the last three years quite a collection has been gathered, 
 which will be offered for sale. Brethren in America, who saw 
 some of these works, remarked: — "these books ought to be re- 
 translated and re-issued. You are known to the church as an 
 ecumenical Lutheran and you ought to agitate the matter. It 
 ought to be the work of all synods and nationalities and not of 
 
2 PREFACE. 
 
 one or two." As there was nothing I would rather agitate than 
 this, a beginning was made. But the coldness, indifference and 
 discouragements were so many and so great, that my judgment 
 said, it is best to drop the whole matter. However my heart re- 
 sented this and in the name of God and for the sake of his church, 
 encouraged by a few from every synod and nationality, this volume 
 marks the beginning of a movement, the success of which will 
 largely depend upon the 
 
 ADVANCE SUBSCRIBERS, 
 and what they do in helping to circulate the edition. From Dr. 
 Henry Cole, the best and most voluminous English translator of 
 Luther, it is in place to quote the following here, "We want, in 
 God's great and righteous cause, in our time, a few wealthy and 
 good Josephs of Arimathea, Matt. 27:57, to supply the poverty 
 of God's poor, James 2:5, and the covetousness of the world's 
 rich, Ps. 119:36." May this quotation help to issue Luther's works 
 in America as it did in England! Often $25,000 to $roo,ooo are 
 raised for a fine church edifice whose influence is confined to a 
 small locality. Why can not at least one like sum be raised to trans- 
 late, publish and circulate over the English world, Luther's works? 
 Lutheran benevolence can not be directed to a better cause. 
 OUR TRANSLATIONS OF LUTHER'S WORKS 
 v/ill be based on the new Kaiser or Weimar critical edition in the 
 original Latin and German, with reference to the Erlangen, the 
 Walch and the St. Louis-Walch editions. About one third of 
 Luther's works were written in Latin and the English translations 
 will be from the original Latin and not from the German trans- 
 lation of the Latin. The aim is to produce a complete, faithful, 
 critical but popular edition, and therefore the best features of the 
 different German editions will be appropriated. The texts and 
 numerous passages of Scripture will be quoted from the American 
 Revised Edition of the Bible of 1901. Instead of giving the varia- 
 tions of the Latin Vulgate text, from which Luther wrote his La- 
 tin books, in the original Latin in ( — ), as in the St. Louis-Walch, 
 a literal English translation of those variations will be given in 
 ( — ). Special care has been taken to compare the proof texts. 
 The verse and not only the chapter, as in the Erlangen Edition, is 
 given. In this the St. Louis-Walch Edition was very helpful. 
 THE MECHANICAL MAKE-UP OF THE VOLUMES. 
 Much attention has been given to the mechanical execution of 
 (he volumes, as to size, type, paper and binding, in order to secure 
 all in uniform binding. Seven of the eight editions of Luther in 
 German are in large, bulky quarto and folio volumes. The 
 
PREFACE. 3 
 
 volumes in the Erlangen edition are more handy but a little small, 
 therefore we adopted the most popular size of American books. 
 For convenience, practical use and completeness it will compare 
 favorably with any German edition. 
 
 THE BEST TRANSLATIONS ARE NOT TOO GOOD. 
 As we cannot have Luther in English after the idiomatic Ger- 
 man style, we will try to give the complete, pure sense of Luther 
 in the best, neatest, most elegant and most readable idiomatic 
 English yet attempted. In order to secure the best results we will 
 first thoroughly revise and reissue a few of the best of the trans- 
 lations by Dr. Henry Cole, as they are out of print and scarcely 
 known in America. Dr. Cole says his design in using the labors 
 of others "was not to avoid trouble; for it was as much labor to 
 transscribe, and to modernize the orthography, etc., as it would 
 have been to retranslate." While Cole's translations are deficient, 
 yet they are the best, and by retranslating some parts, by adding 
 the many portions he omitted and by carefully revising his work, 
 good results will be obtained, though the labor be as great as a 
 new translation. However even some of Cole's works will be re- 
 translated. 
 
 BETTER HAVE LUTHER IN "POOR ENGLISH" THAN NOT 
 HAVE HIM AT ALL. 
 True, it is not easy to translate Luther. However his voice 
 v.'ould be heard more in the English world to-day had the difficul- 
 ties in translating him not been exaggerated, and had not the 
 translations been so severely and unjustly criticized that few have 
 courage to undertake the task. All such should read what Luther 
 wrote to the polished Erasmus, when he said, I am a barbarian 
 and write barbarously, but consider, not how I write, the style, 
 but whaJ: I write, the thought. We had better have this thought in 
 I'oor English than not have it at all. To all who want to know 
 Luther's spirit and teachings, the "poor English" cry will be no 
 barrier. All the translators of Luther did the best they could 
 and we are very grateful for their labors. In our stafif of colabor- 
 ators the aim will be to secure scholars who will not merely trans- 
 vert words from one language into another, but will trans-convey 
 the mind and trans-fuse the spirit of Luther into classic English. 
 Here it is not only necessary to know the languages perfectly from 
 which and into which you translate, but the translator of the 
 Reformer must possess his faith and spirit, his religion and wor- 
 ship. We want Luther and not the translator in English. 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 ENGLISH SHOULD BE THE FIRST LANGUAGE TO 
 TRANSLATE LUTHER'S COMPLETE WORKS. 
 
 While eight editions of all of Luther's works have appeared in 
 German, they have never been issued complete except in Ger- 
 man. More, however, has been translated into English than into 
 Scandinavian or any other language, which is due to the high 
 appreciation of Luther in the British empire. As this apprecia- 
 tion is growing in England and America, and as Calvin has been 
 translated into English in 52 volumes, why should not the Eng- 
 lish people be the first to complete a translation of all the volumes 
 of the greatest Reformer? The late German editions are sold at 
 high prices, but not too high, considering the work and money 
 invested, and the discounts are consequently low. Hence in this 
 respect the first edition in English can not do differently. To ad- 
 vance subscribers, however, liberal terms will be made according 
 to the number of copies ordered, afterwards the discounts must 
 be small unless new editions are called for. The volumes will cost 
 from $1.50 to $2.50 each retail, neatly printed on good paper and 
 well bound, sent direct from the bindery to the advance subscrib- 
 ers, upon receipt of the price when notified the volumes are ready 
 for delivery. 
 
 TOPICAL AND TEXTUAL INDEX OF LUTHER'S WRIT- 
 INGS IN ENGLIS. 
 
 Many years may be required to complete the work and to the 
 impatient critic it may be said, the volumes will improve as the 
 work progresses. Therefore we will be thankful for any criticisms 
 or suggestions mailed to us direct. At present we are in position 
 to furnish to public and private libraries twenty five volumes of 
 Luther's works in English, though not all new and of uniform 
 binding. It is all important to issue a good topical and textual in- 
 dex to Luther in English, so that not only preachers, but everybody 
 may readily find what Luther said on any subject or any passage 
 of scripture. It may not be a Luther concordance but it will be 
 made as helpful to scholars as possible, like the index of the 
 Erlanger Edition. 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 PSALMS 
 
 The Name. In Hebrew there is no general name for the 
 I'sahns. Names of parts were appHed to the whole. Thus 
 Tephilloth, prayer-spngs or prayers from Psalm ^2 120 ; Tehil- 
 lim, praise-songs, as the element of divine praise pervades all 
 the Psalms; Shir, song, denotes the joyful song of praise; 
 Mizmor, applied to 65 Psalms, means "to adorn to the Lord". 
 The word Psalm is from the Greek translation of the Old 
 Testament, from "psallein", to touch or strike a cord, to play, 
 not to sing, except among those who took its usage from the 
 Septuagint. Stringed music is the natural accompaniment of 
 such poetry as proceeds from an immediate gush of feeling. 
 
 The Contents, ist. Here we are throughout on the terri- 
 tory of feeling and on strictly religious territory. 2nd. All 
 the Psalms are Songs of Israel, appointed to be used in the 
 services of the sanctuary. 3rd. They are such songs as had 
 been composed under the special co-operation of the Holy 
 Spirit. They do not present any new doctrine, they rest upon 
 the Pentateuch, the historic Word of God, and are "the heart's 
 echo to the spoken Word of God." Their value consists in that 
 they give us an insight into the heart of the Old Testament 
 saints and into the hidden wonders of the true religion. Their 
 buoyancy and freshness, their simplicity, their consoling and 
 elevating character, from Moses to Nehemiah, and the fact that 
 they compose a part of the Word of God, give them a dis- 
 tinction above our church songs. 
 
 Their Threefold Division, ist. Psalms that proceed from 
 a spirit chiefly moved and actuated by joy, in lively admira- 
 tion of God and in gratitude for his goodness. 2nd. Psalms 
 that proceed from a depressed and mournful frame of mind, 
 variations of the "Lord, have mercy on us," Vvdiich alternates 
 with the hallelujah in the lives of the saints. 3rd. Psalms that 
 proceed from a more quiet reflective state of mind, religious, 
 moral or didactic Psalms, designed to instruct. 
 
6 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The History of Psalmodic Poetry. The fact that more than 
 one half of the Scriptures of the Old Testament are poetical in 
 their form makes the Old Testament a book of poems. Since 
 poetry and music are as old as the race, the Bible gives us the 
 oldest samples, some even before the flood, as follows : Gen. 
 4:23-24; 9:25-27; 27:27-29; 49:1-27; Ex. 15:1-18; Num. 
 6:22-26; 10:35-36; 21:14-15, 17-18 and 27-30; Num. 23 and 
 24 chs. ; Deut. 32 and 33 chs. ; Josh. 10:13; Judges' 5 ch. ; i 
 Sam. 2 ch. Hence Hebrew poetry was born with the nation 
 in the age of Moses. No book of the Bible is more rooted 
 in the Pentateuch than the Psalms. Samuel laid the founda- 
 tion for the prosperity of Psalmodic poetry by his religious 
 revival and reformation, and especially by his schools of the 
 prophets. David's talents were called forth by his cross or 
 persecution and by his ascension to the throne, when he as- 
 signed poetry a prominent place in the worship of the sanc- 
 tuary, and he is considered the author of 80 Psalms. 
 
 The Book of Psalms is composed of the following five 
 books: Ps. 1-41 ; 42-72; 73-89; 90-106; 107-150; which are 
 the copy and the echo of the five books of the law or the Thora. 
 Each of the first four books concludes with a doxology, and 
 the place of the fifth doxology is Ps. 150. The composition 
 of the Psalter extends over 1,000 years of the national life, and 
 runs parallel with the Scriptures from the Pentateuch to Ma- 
 lachi. It was the Hymn Book of the Hebrew Church, and like 
 the Pentateuch it was used in divine worship. 
 
 The Poetic Structure of the Psalms. If we expect to find 
 our ideas of rhyme and meter in early Hebrew poetry we will 
 be disappointed. The versification of the poetry of all other 
 nations is verbal, that of the Hebrews real. In our poetry the 
 versification depends on the zvords and sound instead of simply 
 on the thought. In the Hebrew poetry all this is reversed. 
 The pause in the progress of the thought determines the point 
 at which the verse or line must end. Hence Hebrew poetry 
 can easily be translated verse for verse and line for line. The 
 relation is in the sense^ not in the sound. It is a relation not 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 of words but of things, called by Lowth parallelism. There 
 are (i) synonymous, (2) antithetic, and (3) synthetic or con- 
 structive parallelisms. See Henstenberg and Delitzsch. 
 
 I can do no better than add a few testimonials from leading 
 scholars in the Church as to the value of the Psalter. 
 
 "What the heart is in man, that the Psalter is in the Bible." 
 John Arndt, who explained the Psalms in 450 sermons. 
 
 "The Psalter is the first hymn-book of the Church and will 
 outlive all other hymn-books. It is still the Common Prayer 
 zind Hymn-Book of the Christian Church, as it was that of the 
 Jewish Church." Phillip Schafif. 
 
 "Not only was it used more than any other part of the 
 Old Testament, by the writers of the New, but it is, in a spe- 
 cial sense, the peculiar inheritance of the Christian Church 
 through all its different branches"; and "if we descend from 
 churches to individuals, there is no book which has played so 
 large a part in the history of so many human souls." Stanley. 
 
 "In consequence of the Reformation the rose garden of the 
 Psalter also began to diffuse its odours as in the renewed fresh- 
 ness of a May morning, and German hymns, born again out of 
 the Psalter, resounded from the shores of the Baltic to the 
 foot of the Alps, with all the fervor of a renewed first love. 
 Rendered into imperishable hymns, the old Psalms passed once 
 more into the congregational singing of the German as well as 
 of the Scandinavian Lutheran Church." Delitzsch, the motive 
 of whose life was to make the Old Testament better known to 
 the Christians and the New Testament to the Jews. 
 
 "In Luther, who began his academical lectures in 15 13 with 
 the Psalms, there is combined the experimental depth of the 
 Fathers with the Pauline recognition of the doctrine of free 
 grace, the knowledge of which was restored by means of him 
 to the Church. In respect to experimental, mystical, and yet 
 healthy knowledge of the meaning of Scripture, he is incom- 
 parable. His exposition of the Psalms, especially of the pe- 
 nitential Psalms and of Psalm 90, are superior to all previous 
 
8 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 works on the subject, and will always remain a mine of wealth 
 for future laborers." Delitzsch, 
 
 "Melanchton in his preface to certain expositions addressed 
 to students says: Luther's services in this province (the 
 Psalms) will be appreciated by all who will diligently compare 
 them with the ancient expositions, and especially with the best 
 ones. It is for you especially (students) to recognize Luther's 
 fidelity and industry, and to make it your endeavor to bring 
 to the reading of these expositions a pure heart, and to re- 
 press human opinions and prejudices — in brief that you read 
 the writings of Christ under the guidance of Christ. 
 
 "Where can a pastor find a treasure comparable to these 
 volumes of Luther in the elucidation of the Divine Psalter?" 
 Dr. E. J. Wolf. 
 
 Luther began his university career by giving lectures on 
 the writings of David and Paul, the pillars of his theology. 
 As early as 15 13 his exposition of the seven Penitential Psalms 
 was published in Latin. His first original work in German, 
 which appeared in March or April of 1517, was an exposition 
 of the same Psalms. In 15 16 he wrote a preface to his first 
 issue of that remarkable book, German Theology. Thus it is 
 clear that Luther's labors started in leading sinners to Christ 
 rather than in opposing the Pope. A full knowledge of his 
 early study in the Psalms gives us a new and a more correct 
 view of Luther's life, which in many respects resembled Da- 
 vid's. That study was a fit introduction to the reformatory 
 Theses, which enjoin true evangelical repentance. Luther him- 
 self wrote, "there is no book of the whole Bible, in which I 
 have been so much exercised as in the Psalms." The above is 
 the best recommendation of his commentary on the Psalms. 
 
 In closing I wish to make grateful acknowledgement of 
 valuable assistance received from E. F. Bartholomew, D. D., 
 English Professor in the Swedish Augustana College, Rock 
 Island, 111. J. N. LENKER. 
 
 Sunbury, Pa., Sept. 9, 1902. 
 
LUTHER'S PREFACES. 
 
 Preface to the Revised Edition of the German Psalter, A. 
 
 D, 1531. 
 
 The Psalter has been lauded and loved by many holy 
 fathers above the other books of the Scripture; and, indeed, 
 the work itself doth sufficiently praise its author. Neverthe- 
 less, we also must utter our praise and thanks for it. 
 
 In past years there was handed about almost nothing but a 
 multitude of legends of saints, passionals, lives of saints ; and 
 the world was so filled with them, that the Psalter lay under the 
 seat, and in such great darkness, that not one psalm was rightly 
 imderstood ; nevertheless, it shed abroad such an excellent 
 precious fragrance that all pious hearts drew devotion and 
 power even from the unknown words,' and the book was there- 
 fore dear to them. 
 
 For my part, I think that a finer book of lives and legends 
 of the saints has never appeared in the earth, nor ever can 
 appear, than the Psalter. For if one were to desire that out of 
 all the lives, legends, and histories, the best were picked out 
 and brought together and set forth to the best advantage ; why, 
 the book thus produced would be just the Psalter we now 
 have. For here we find, not what one or two saints only have 
 done, but what the Head himself of all the saints has done, 
 and what all the saints still do : how they are affected towards 
 God, towards friends, and towards foes ; how they bear them- 
 selves and act in every sort of peril and tribulation : — and 
 all this, besides the divine wholesome doctrines and precepts 
 of all sorts to be found in it. 
 
 Yea, the Psalter ought to be precious and dear, were it 
 for nothing else but the clear promise it holds forth respecting 
 Christ's death and resurrection, and its prefiguration of his 
 kingdom and of the whole estate and system of Christianity; 
 insomuch that it might well be entitled a Little Bible, wherein 
 
lO LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and 
 briefly comprehended, and compacted into a fine enchiridion 
 or Hand Manual. It seems to me as if the Holy Ghost had 
 been pleased to take on himself the trouble of putting together 
 a short Bible, or book of exemplars, touching the whole of 
 Christianity or all the saints; in order that they who are un- 
 able to read the whole Bible, may nevertheless find here almost 
 the whole sum comprehended in one little book. 
 
 But above all, there is this excellent quality and virtue 
 in the Psalter, that whereas other books prate much about 
 the deeds of the saints but say very little about their words, 
 the Psalter is the very paragon of books, yielding a most 
 sweet fragrance to the reader; since it relates not only the 
 deeds of the saints (or as editions render it : what Christ and 
 all the saints have done), but also their words — how they 
 spake and prayed to God, and do yet speak and pray: inso- 
 much that the other legends and lives, in comparison with it, 
 hold forth to us mere dumb saints, whereas the Psalter sets 
 before us right valiant, living saints. 
 
 And verily a dumb man, when you compare him with one 
 who speaks, is no better than a man half dead. Of all that a 
 man does, there is nothing more potent or more excellent 
 than speech; since it is by the faculty of speech that man is 
 chiefly differenced from other animals, rather than by his form 
 or his other works. For indeed a block can, by the graver's 
 art, receive the form of a man ; and a beast can see, hear, smell, 
 sing, walk, stand, eat, drink, fast, thirst and suffer hunger, 
 frost and a hard bed every whit as well as a man. 
 
 Moreover, it is not the poor every-day words of the saints 
 that the Psalter expresses, but their very best words, spoken 
 by them, in deepest earnestness, to God himself, in matters 
 of utmost moment. Thus it lays open to us not only what 
 they say about their works, but their very heart and the in- 
 most treasure of their souls ; so that we can spy the bottom 
 and spring of their words and works, — that is to say, their 
 
luthek's prefaces. II 
 
 heart, — what manner of thoughts they had, how their heart 
 did bear itself, in every sort of business, peril, and extremity. 
 This is what neither is done nor can be done by the legends 
 and lives of the saints, which boast of nothing but their works 
 and miracles. For I cannot know how a man's heart is af- 
 fected, although I should see or hear tell of ever so many ex- 
 cellent works he has done. 
 
 And as I had much rather hear a saint speak than behold 
 his works ; even so would I yet much rather spy his heart 
 and the treasure in his soul, than hear his words. And this 
 the Psalter enables us to do most plentifully with respect to 
 all the saints ; so that we can be certain as to how their hearts 
 were affected, and what was the tenor of their words, both 
 towards God and man. 
 
 For a human heart is like a ship on a wild sea tossed by 
 the four winds of heaven. Here it .is smitten with anxiety 
 and the dread of future destruction ; there it is driven with 
 dismay and sadness by reason of present evils. Now, there is 
 a soft breath of hope and presumption of future welfare ; again, 
 there is a breeze of security and gladness in present posses- 
 sions. 
 
 Now winds like these make a man earnest in his words, 
 make him open his heart and utter its secrets. For one who 
 is shut up in fear and necessity will discourse of calamity 
 very differently than one who swims in gladness ; and one 
 who swims in gladness will discourse and sing of gladness 
 very differently than one who is shut up in fear. It does not 
 come from the heart, as the saying is, when a mourner laughs 
 and a frolicker weeps ; that is, the bottom of his heart is not 
 uncovered nor utters itself at all. 
 
 What is the Psalter, for the most part, but such earnest 
 discourse in all manner of such winds ? Where are finer words 
 of gladness than in the Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving? 
 There thou lookest into the hearts of all the saints as into 
 fair and pleasant gardens, yea, as into the heavens, and seest 
 
12 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 what fine, hearty, pleasant flowers spring up therein, in all 
 manner of fair gladsome thoughts of God and his benefits. 
 And again, where wilt thou find deeper, more plaintive, more 
 sorrowful words of grief than in the Psalms of Complaint? 
 There thou lookest again into the hearts of all the saints, as 
 into death, yea, as into hell. How they are filled with dark- 
 ness and gloom by reason of the wrath of God ! So also, when 
 they discourse of fear and hope, they use such words, that 
 no painter could so pourtray, nor any Cicero or orator could 
 so express the fear or hope. 
 
 And, as I said, the best of all is, that these words of theirs 
 are spoken before God and unto God; which puts double 
 earnestness and life into the words. For words that are 
 spoken only before men in such matters, do not come so 
 mightily from the heart ; are not such burning, living, piercing 
 words. Hence also it comes to pass that the Psalter is the 
 Book of all the Saints ; and every one, whatsoever his case 
 may be, finds therein psalms and words which suit his case 
 so perfectly, that they might seem to have been set down solely 
 for his sake ; in such sort that anything better he can neither 
 make for himself, nor discover, nor desire. One good effect 
 of which, moreover, is that if a man take pleasure in the words 
 here set forth and find them suit his case, he is assured he is 
 in the communion of the saints, and that all the saints fared 
 just as he fares, for they and he sing all one song together: 
 particularly, if he can utter them before God even as they did ; 
 which must be done in faith, for an ungodly man relishes 
 them not. 
 
 Finally, in the Psalter we find such safety and such well- 
 assured guidance, that in it we can without danger follow all 
 the saints. For other exemplars and legends of dumb saints 
 bring forward works which it is impossible to imitate ; and 
 many more works do they bring forward which it would be 
 dangerous to imitate, and which commonly engender sects and 
 parties, seducing and withdrawing men from the communion 
 
LUTHEE S PREFACES. I3 
 
 of the saints. But the Psalter protecteth thee from parties 
 and keepeth thee in the communion of the saints : for it teach- 
 eth thee how thou mayest, in gladness, and fear, and hope, and 
 sorrow, cherish the same temper and speak the same words, 
 as all the saints have cherished and spoken. 
 
 To sum up ; wouldest thou see the Holy Christian Church 
 portrayed in living form and color, as it were in miniature? 
 Open the Psalter. Thus thou shalt have before thee a fine, 
 bright, spotless mirror, that will shew thee what kind of thing 
 Christianity is. Yea, thou shalt therein find thine own self, 
 and the right "know thyself"; God himself also and all his 
 creatures. 
 
 Let us, therefore, take heed also to thank God for such 
 unspeakable benefits, and to receive, use and discipline our- 
 selves in them, to the praise and honour of God, in order that 
 we bring not upon ourselves wrath by our unthankfulness. 
 For, formerly, in the time of darkness, what a treasure it 
 had been esteemed if men had been able rightly to understand 
 one psalm, and to read or hear it in plain German ; and yet 
 they were not able. Blessed now are the eyes which see the 
 things that we see, and the ears which hear the things that 
 we hear! And yet take heed, — alas we already see, that we 
 are like the Jews in the wilderness, who said of the manna, 
 "Our soul loatheth this light bread." It behooves us to mark 
 what is written in the same place, how they were plagued and 
 died ; in order that the same may not befall us. 
 
 To this end, may the Father of all grace and mercy help us 
 through Jesus Christ, our Lord : to whom be blessing and 
 thanks, honour and praise, for this German Psalter, and for 
 all his innumerable, inexpressible gifts, for evermore; Amen, 
 Amen 1 
 
14 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Preface to the Edition of the Psalter published at Neuhiirg 
 on tJie Danube in 1545. 
 
 Every Christian who would abound in prayer and piety 
 ought, in all reason, to make the Psalter his manual ; and, 
 moreover, it were well if every Christian so used it and were 
 so expert in it as to have it word for word by heart, and could 
 have it even in his heart as often as he chanced to be called 
 to speak or act, that he might be able to draw forth or employ 
 some sentence out of it by way of a proverb. For indeed the 
 truth is, that everything that a pious heart can desire to ask in 
 pra3^er, it finds here psalms and words to match so aptly and 
 sweetly, that no man — no, nor all the men in the world — 
 shall be able to devise forms of words so good and devout. 
 Moreover, the Psalter doth minister such instruction and com- 
 fort in the act of supplication ; and the Lord's Prayer, that the 
 one helpeth us finely to understand the other, and the two 
 together make a pleasant harmony. 
 
 Not only, therefore, ought the books of devotion formerly 
 in use to be forbidden and done away with, being little else 
 than unchristian lies and abuses, and that even in their best 
 parts, wherein our Lord's Passion is indeed introduced, not 
 however for the edification of faith, but only to be shamefully 
 abused for temporal gain, but care ought to be taken that no 
 new prayers break in again. For already it looks as if every- 
 body were beginning to compose Prayers, and Paraphrases 
 of the Psalter, according to his own devotional feeling, and 
 were seeking thus to have his work famous and in general 
 use in the Church and amongst the Christian people; just as 
 if the Psalter and the Lord's Prayer had been some wretched 
 trifling thing. If care be not taken to keep within measure, 
 the Psalter and Lord's Prayer will come to be despised as 
 before. I admit that some of these new compositions are 
 good ; but it is to be presumed that the Psalter and Lord's 
 Prayer are better, yea, the best. One who hath learned to 
 
luthee's prefaces. 15 
 
 pray them aright, hath learned to pray well, far above all 
 prayers, especially since the Psalter has now, by God's grace, 
 been rendered into intelligible German. 
 
 I have heard the story of a godly person to whom the 
 Lord's Prayer was so dear that he would ever pray it with 
 tears in his eyes, for deep devotion, A well meaning bishop, 
 thinking to improve the man's devotion, took from him the 
 Lord's Prayer, and gave him a multitude of other good pious 
 prayers ; but thereupon he lost all devotion, and was fain to let 
 those pious prayers go their ways and resume the Lord's 
 Prayer. In my opinion, any man who will but make a trial 
 in earnest of the Psalter and the Lord's Prayer, will very 
 soon bid the other pious prayers adieu, and say. Ah, they have 
 not the sap, the strenght, the heart, the fire, that I find in the 
 Psalter; they are too cold, too hard, for my taste! 
 
 Our Blessed Lord, who hath given us the Psalter and 
 Lord's Prayer and taught us to use them in prayer, grant us 
 also the Spirit of prayer and of grace, that with gladness and 
 earnest faith we may pray mightily and without ceasing; for 
 it is necessary for us to do this. So hath he commanded, and 
 so will He have it at our hands. To Him be praise, honour, 
 and thanks, for ever. Amen ! 
 
l6 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 LUTHER'S DEDICATION TO THE ELECTOR OF 
 SAXONY. 
 
 JESUS. 
 
 Martin Luther, to the most illustrious Prince and Lord, 
 Frederic, Archmarshal of the Holy Roman Empire, Elector, 
 Duke of Saxony, Marquis of Meissen, Landgrave of Thu- 
 ringia, his most gracious Patron, sendeth greeting. 
 
 Prudently and rightly do they act who dedicate and in- 
 scribe their studies and monuments of genius to illustrious 
 persons ; because in this way they procure for their works 
 both authority and protection against those aim.s of malignity 
 which are sure to be levelled at them : for such is the state 
 of human affairs, that the more excellent things are, the more 
 they are exposed to envy and to the shafts of the malevolent. 
 Whence it comes to pass, that laudable literature and all the 
 productions of genius and erudition, which are without doubt 
 some of the best things, and things worthy the particular and 
 serious attention of man, stand not a little in need of their 
 Mecsenas, their Augustus, and also of their Ulysses, who may 
 strike their Thyrsites with his ivory sceptre. Some also pro- 
 cure the sanction of the names of illustrious persons, that they 
 may thereby immortalize those names, and hand down to the 
 records of fame the individuals to whom they make their 
 dedication, with the view that posterity may be led to love their 
 virtues, and that many may be animated by the examples thus 
 held before them in such praises. 
 
 Others again do it from the motive to express thereby their 
 thanks, and thus in some degree make a return for benefits 
 received, and leave behind them a testimony of their gratitude 
 to those by whom they have been treated with kindness. 
 
LUTHER S DEDICATION. I7 
 
 But, most illustrious Prince, neither of these motives an- 
 swers my design. For, in the first place, I am aware that 
 none of the productions which proceed from me deserve a 
 patron ; and so far, it is fortunate that I know my deficiency. 
 Even if I could produce that which should be worthy of the 
 sanction of a patron's name, yet I should by no means be 
 anxious to put it under a patron's protection. Nay, as soon 
 as I learned from the Holy Scriptures how terror-filled and 
 perilous a matter it was to preach publicly in the church 
 of God, and to speak in the midst of those whom you know 
 will in the last day be your judges, for the present false accu- 
 sers I fear not thus, and indeed in the presence of God, the 
 beholder of all things, in the sight of angels, and in the sight 
 and hearing of all creatures who incline their ears to the word 
 of God (for it is right to believe that all things honor the 
 word of God by which they were created, except man and 
 satan, who have become deaf through ingratitude). For in- 
 deed I had no greater desire than that I might remain silent, 
 yea that a sponge might erase all that I had in my poor 
 foolish way published abroad. For it is a momentous and 
 awe inspiring matter to render an account unto God for every 
 idle word. Nor does he now keep me in the ministry of the 
 Word, but by an overruled obedience to a will above my own, 
 that is, his divine will; for, as to my own will, it always 
 shrunk from this ministry, nor is it fully reconciled unto it 
 to this hour. 
 
 In the next place, what fame, what praise, what immortal- 
 izing of a name, can your most illustrious Highness hope from 
 me? being yourself a Prince, who not only by all those other 
 endowments that exalt a Prince, but also by a distinguished 
 love of learning and learned men, have procured to yourself 
 that name and glory, that, instead of wanting an Appion to 
 immortalize your name, you yourself immortalize the name 
 of an Appion, and of all who attempt to give you celebrity? 
 Who is there that knows not that Prince Frederic has given 
 
l8 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 an example to all princes, by his patronage and promotion of 
 literature? Your Wittenberg now devotes itself to the Greek 
 and the Hebrew with very good results. The arts are taught 
 with greater success than ever. The true theology of Christ 
 now triumphs over the vain imaginations and disputations of 
 men, which have no scope for thought or research. All these 
 things flourish under your auspices, at your expense, and 
 under your protection. Oh, that the dignitaries, who ought 
 themselves to be the foremost in showing forth examples in 
 these things for the princes of the laity to imitate, would but 
 imitate the examples that the laity thus shows them ! But, 
 such is the unhappily fallen state of the ecclesiastical power 
 and opulence ! 
 
 Again, why should I attempt to render you gratitude for 
 the abundant kindness you have heaped upon me, when you 
 have thrown them upon one who never deserved them. At 
 your expense has honor, (the doctorate hat) been placed on 
 my head, which forces me into public life, of which I am 
 ashamed ; yet I must wear it, as it is desired by those I am 
 indebted to obey. What cares, attentions, expenses, and in- 
 deed, perils, did that monstrous production of mine cost your 
 gracious Highness which owed its birth to the indulgences ! 
 Your whole dominion knows that my prince showed a much 
 greater concern for me, than I did for myself. In my usual 
 daring" way I cast the die, being always ready to attempt and 
 to expect extremities ; for I hoped, upon that occasion, that, 
 if I should be removed from teaching others, I shouold find 
 some corner of the world into which I might retire, after I 
 had left public life, to which I was always averse. But the 
 persevering endeavors of your gracious Highness prevailed, 
 and when I was willing to sufifer those things which my 
 enemies longed to inflict upon me, neither they nor I had our 
 will. 
 
 But still, I am glad that such was the issue of matters, 
 if it were only on this account, that there is not a Christian 
 
LUTHER S DEDICATION. 1 9 
 
 that ought wot to feel a serious grief and concern, that the 
 impudence of a certain set of fellows proceeds to such a pitch 
 of audacity in the church of Christ, that they presume to 
 ensure themselves success in their filthy purposes and lusts 
 under cover of the venerable name and authority of the church. 
 The more kind, good, and learned the Pope happens to be, 
 the greater enormities these monsters promise to themselves, 
 by effecting them under the cloak of his authority. For, with 
 what numberless and manifest lies did they profane and defile 
 the sacred name of Leo X. in this one little point, the indul- 
 gences, in order to terrify the conscience of one poor brother, 
 and to establish their own horrible tyrannies? Though it is 
 not a thing so much to be wondered at, that there should be 
 found such characters to prostitute the name of the high Pope, 
 and to abuse it ; for the patriarchs of such fellows, that is, the 
 false prophets, false apostles, and false christs, did the same ; 
 who made the holy name of God and of Christ to serve their 
 lies. Of the holy name of that God and Lord, I say, even 
 our Lord Jesus Christ; whose are all those things which we 
 admire in you, most illustrious Prince ; and may he acknowl- 
 edge, increase, and preserve the same to all eternity. This 
 prayer I offer up, which is all I can do, as a return for the 
 favours I have received at your hands. 
 
 Hence, the reason why I wished to send forth these pro- 
 ductions, such as they are, for productions they certainly are, 
 though I cannot find confidence enough to call them interpre- 
 tations or commentaries, from a consciousness of my poor 
 ability betrayed in them, under the sanction of the name of 
 your most illustrious Highness, was none other, than because 
 I greatly love you. For I am fully persuaded of the pure and 
 chaste love which your heart hath for the Holy Scriptures: 
 and my heart, to use the words of Deborah, "is toward" such 
 Princes. Judges 5 -.g. 
 
 And why should I not here declare in full my thoughts 
 concerning you, and the cause of this my love for you, that 
 
20 - LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 those who boast themselves in the holy Scriptures may see 
 how far a hypocrite diliers from a true theologian ? My very 
 good and reverend father in Christ, John Staupitz, told me 
 upon a certain occasion, that once while he was staying with 
 your Highness the conversation turned upon those who preach 
 publicly to the people; and that, according to the wonderful 
 penetration of your judgment, you said, 'Those sermons which 
 are made up of the cunning and traditions of men, are but 
 frigid things, and too weak and ineffectual to persuade us to 
 our best interests ; for nothing of that kind can be brought 
 forth so acute, that may not be subverted and rooted up by 
 the same cunning. But the Holy Scriptures carry with them 
 a holy oneness, which sounds in our ears with such force and 
 majesty, even without any exertion of ours, that, leading cap- 
 tive and cutting up all the schemes of human cunning, it urges 
 and compels us to acknowledge "Never man spake like this 
 man." This is "the finger of God," for "he teaches as one 
 having authority, and not as the scribes and pharisees." When 
 Staupitz willingly coincided and expressed his commendation 
 of these sentiments, he told me that you put forth your hand 
 and demanded his and said, 'Promise me, I pray thee, that 
 thou wilt always think so.' 
 
 And were not this sentiment and this request such as 
 would become even a most holy and high Pope ? and the more 
 so, as it may be clearly perceived, that they were not only 
 expressed in word, but accompanied with a feeling of heart? 
 Can we not, then, clearly discern who are the true theologians ? 
 Let shame, therefore, seize those theologians and lawyers 
 especially, to whom the Holy Scriptures have become almost 
 an object of ridicule, and who, tacking to them their infinite 
 glosses, pestilently torment those, as Jerome says, Avho, in 
 every thing they say, wish to appeal to the Word of God. As 
 if Christ had said to Peter, 'command,' or 'lay injunctions on,' 
 'teach,' and not rather, "feed," my sheep; that is, deliver to 
 them that which will feed them. Such are fed by the Word 
 
LUTHER S DEDICATION. 21 
 
 of God only, and not by the opinions and traditions of men. 
 And moreover, that nothing so acute can be brought forward, 
 as you justly observed, which may not be rebutted by the same 
 human cunning, is abundantly shown us in that miserable 
 workhouse, in which the disciples of Scotus, Thomas, Alber- 
 tus, Modernus, and all others who have their peculiar follow- 
 ers, squander away their time. 
 
 I confess, most illustrious Prince, that by this sweet ac- 
 count of you which I heard, I was wholly captivated, and 
 constrained to love you. For I know not how it is, but I can- 
 not help loving all whom I hear to be lovers of the holy 
 Scriptures, and, on the other hand, hating those who are ob- 
 stinate and despise them; so that, in each respect, from the 
 force of my feelings, I am filled with vehemence, and, as cer- 
 tain of my good friends say of me, am -severe and vain-glorious. 
 But let them criminate me as they will : they may give me 
 epithets both good and bad, of the first, second or third kind, 
 and impose them upon me, but they wil' never take away from 
 me the grand essentials of theology, nor extinguish my love of 
 them if Christ but continue to smile upon me. I know what 
 scholastic theology did for me, I know also how much I owe 
 to it, and I am glad that I am delivered from it, and give 
 thanks for my deliverance to Christ the Lord. I have no need 
 that they should teach me what it is, for I know what it is 
 already; nor is it of any service for them to endeavor to recon- 
 cile me unto it, for I vv'ill have nothing to do with it. 
 
 Bear, therefore, most illustrious Prince, with my desire 
 to send forth this little work into the w^orld with the name 
 of your Highness affixed to it, and consider it as a token of 
 my love. I now for the second time undertake the Exposi- 
 tion of the Psalms in your Wittenberg, being requested and 
 urged to do so by my hearers, who are some of the best men, 
 and to whom I cannot deny that I am a debtor. But I so 
 profess to undertake them, as being quite unwilling that any 
 one should presume to expect that from me, which no one of 
 
22 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the most holy and most learned of the fathers could ever yet 
 pretend to, — that I should understand and teach the Psalms 
 in all respects according to their real sense and meaning. It 
 is enough that some men understand some parts of them. The 
 Holy Spirit always reserves much to himself in order that he 
 may keep us learners under him. Many things he only holds 
 out in order to allure us on; and many things he delivers to 
 us that they may work effectually in us. And, as Augustine 
 has truthfully remarked, 'No man ever yet so spoke as to be 
 understood by all in all things;' which leaves that great truth 
 the more manifest, that it is the Holy Ghost alone who has 
 the understanding of all his own words. 
 
 Wherefore, it becomes me candidly to confess, that I know 
 not whether or not mine is, to a certainty, the true meaning 
 of the Psalms, though I nevertheless hold no doubt, that what 
 I have delivered is truth. For what Augustine, Jerome, Atha- 
 nasius, Hilary, Cassiodorus, and others, have said upon the 
 Psalms, is truth, though it is sometimes very far indeed from 
 the literal meaning. And thus, this second exposition which 
 I have undertaken, is very different from my first. And indeed 
 there is no book in the whole Bible in which I have been so 
 much exercised as in the Psalms : till at last I came to this 
 opinion, that no man's interpretation, provided it be a godly 
 one, should be rejected, unless he that rejects it submit him- 
 self to the same law of retaliation. One man may fall short 
 in many things, and another in more. I may see many things 
 which Augustine did not see. And I am persuaded that others 
 will see many things which I do not see now. 
 
 What course then remains for us to pursue, but that we 
 mutually assist each other, and pardon those who fail, know- 
 ing that we are liable to fail ourselves ? For let us not by 
 any means follow the example of that most detestable and most 
 vile race of men, who, though they cannot themselves perform 
 one single thing that deserves not to be exposed, yet, when 
 they find the least imperfection of a hair's or straw's value 
 
LUTHER S DEDICATION. ; 23 
 
 in the productions of another, immediately consider them- 
 selves worthy of being rewarded with all the triumphs of 
 Pompey. I know it to be the most impudent height of teme- 
 rity for any one boldly to profess, that he understands any 
 one book of the Scriptures fully in all its parts. Nay, who 
 will presume to maintain that he understands fully and per- 
 fectly any one single Psalm? Our life is only a beginning 
 and a going on, and not a consummation. He rises the highest, 
 who comes the nearest to the Holy Spirit. HI can touch the 
 moon I am not immediately to imagine that I have touched 
 the sun also; nor am I to look with disdain upon the lesser- 
 stars. There are degrees in living and acting, and why not 
 in understanding also? 2 Cor. 3:18. The apostle says that 
 we are "changed from glory to glory." And, to open my 
 design plainly, I write only for the service of those, who know 
 not these things, but wish to know them : and therefore, it will 
 be at least a satisfaction to me to reflect that I have hereby en- 
 gaged myself and my hearers in a better employment of mind, 
 than if I had been adding new clouds of darkness, and fresh 
 toads and flies of corruption, to the books of human opinions. 
 
 This book of Psalms is, in my opinion, of a different nature 
 from all the other books. For in the other books we are taught 
 what we ought to do, both by precept and example. But this 
 book not only teaches us, but shows us in what way and man- 
 ner we may do the Word and imitate the examples it contains. 
 For it is not in our power or strength to fulfill the law of God, 
 or to imitate Christ : all we can do, is to desire and pray that 
 we might be able to do the Word, and imitate Christ's example; 
 and, when we have gained some power so to do, to praise, and 
 give thanks unto God. What else then is the Psalter but 
 praying to, and praising God? that is, a book of hymns? 
 
 Therefore, the most gracious and blessed Spirit of God, 
 the Father of his humble scholars, and the teacher of infants, 
 well knowing that "we know not how to pray as we ought," 
 as Paul saith in Rom. 8 :26, in order to help our infirmities, 
 
24 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 like schoolmasters who compose letters or subjects for their 
 pupils to write home to their parents, has prepared for us in 
 this book words and sentiments with which we may converse 
 with our heavenly Father, and pray unto him concerning those 
 things which he has taught us in the other books are to be done 
 and imitated ; that man may not want any thing that is neces- 
 sary unto his eternal salvation. So great are the care of God 
 over us and his kindness to us ! Who is blessed for ever. 
 And in him may your most gracious Highness live and prosper 
 now and for evermore ! Amen ! 
 Wittenberg, March 2.'], 15 19. 
 
COMMENTARY. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FIRST TWENTY-TWO PSALMS. 
 
 P S A L M I. 
 
 V. I. Blessed is the man that ivalketh not in the coun- 
 sel of the zvicked (ungodly) nor standeth in the zvay of 
 sinners, nor sittcth in the seat of scoffers (pestilence). 
 
 There is a common inquiry among men concerning blessed- 
 ness : and there is no one who does not wish that it may be 
 well with him, and does not dread the thought that it should 
 be ill with him. And yet all who have ever thus inquired have 
 wandered from the knowledge of true blessedness and they 
 have wandered the most widely who have inquired with the 
 greatest diligence, such as the philosophers, the greatest of 
 whom have placed true blessedness in virtue, or in the works 
 of virtue ; whereby, having rendered themselves more unhappy 
 than the rest, they have deprived themselves of the blessings 
 both of this life and of that which is to come. Whereas, the 
 common people, though their ideas were the more grossly mad, 
 by making blessedness to consist in carnal pleasure, enjoyed at 
 least the good of this life. 
 
 This teacher, however, deriving his doctrine from heaven, 
 and detesting all the devoted endeavors of men, gives this only 
 true definition of blessedness which is wholly unknown to men 
 — that he is the "blessed" man who loves the law of God. 
 It is, indeed, a short definition, but it contains a savour that 
 is contrary to all human ideas, and especially to human wis- 
 
26 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 dom. First of all let us consider the grammatical significa- 
 tion of this passage, with respect to the Theology contained 
 in it. 
 
 In the Hebrew, the word "blessed'4s a plural noun, ashre, 
 bUsscdiicsscs — that is, all blessedness are the portion of that 
 man who has not gone away, etc. As though it were said, 
 'all things are well with that man who, etc. Why do you hold 
 any dispute? Why draw vain conclusions? If a man has 
 found that pearl of great price, to love the law of God and to 
 separate from the ungodly, all blessednesses belong to that man, 
 but if he has not found this jev^^el, he will seek for all blessed- 
 nesses, but will never find one. For as all things are pure unto 
 the pure, so all things are lovely unto the loving, all things 
 good unto the good ; and, universally, such as thou art thy- 
 self, such is God himself unto thee, though he is not a crea- 
 ture. He is perverse unto the perverse, and holy unto the 
 holy. Hence nothing can be good or saving unto him who is 
 evil ; nothing sweet unto him to whom the law of God is not 
 sweet. 
 
 It is well known that "to walk," and 'to go,' in the scrip- 
 ture mode of expression are used figuratively, and are of the 
 same signification, as to have life and conversation. As in 
 Ps. 15:2, "He that walketh uprightly." And Ps. 101:6, "He 
 that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me." And again, 
 Rom. 8:1, "There is no condemnation to them vAio walk not 
 after the flesh." 
 
 The word "counsel" is without doubt here to be received 
 as signifying decrees and doctrines, seeing that, no society of 
 men exists without being formed and preserved by decrees and 
 laws. David, however, by this term strikes at the pride and 
 reprobate temerity of the ungodly. First, because they will 
 not humble themselves so as to walk in the law of the Lord, 
 but rule themselves by their ov/n counsel. And then, he calls 
 it their "counsel," because it is their prudence, and the way 
 that seems to them to be without error. For this is the de- 
 
PSALM I. 2^ 
 
 struction of the ungodly — their being prudent in their own 
 eyes and in their own esteem, and clothing their errors in the 
 garb of prudence and of the right way. For, if they came to 
 men in the open garb of error, it would not be so distinguishing 
 a mark of blessedness not to walk with them. But David does 
 not here say 'in the folly of the ungodly' or 'in the error of 
 the ungodly.' And, therefore, he admonishes us to guard with 
 all diligence against the appearance of what is right, that the 
 devil transformed into an angel of light may not seduce us 
 by his craftiness. And he contrasts the counsel of the wicked 
 with the law of the Lord, that we may learn to beware of 
 wolves in sheep's clothing; who are always ready to give 
 counsel to all, to teach all, and to offer assistance unto all, 
 when they are of all men the least qualified so to do. 
 
 The "ungodly" man, who in the Hebrew is called rascha, 
 is by Hilary most rightly defined to be 'he who thinks evilly 
 concerning God.' For ungodliness is properly the sin of un- 
 belief, and is committed in the heart. But the term has been 
 variously translated, and differently at different times. Do 
 thou, therefore, always understand these two to be contrary 
 the one to the other, — faith in God and ungodliness ; as also, 
 the law of God and the counsel of men. For when we speak 
 of godliness and ungodliness, we do not speak of actions but 
 of thoughts, that is, of the fountain-spring of actions. Be- 
 cause he who is rightly taught concerning God, cannot but 
 dc what is right, and lead a good life. For, if the just man 
 fall even seven times a day, he shall rise again ; but the un- 
 godly rush wholly into evil and do not rise again. These, 
 because they are in a state of unbelief, do not a single good 
 work, though every thing that they do may have a fair ap- 
 jcarance, being that shade that covers behemoth. Job 40:22, 
 whereby they deceive themselves and draw in the simple. 
 Hence, he is godly who lives by faith, and he who lives in un- 
 belief is ungodly. 
 
 Who "sinners" are we may plainly see, for this is the out- 
 
28 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ward man of the ungodly ; but the counsel and the ungodly 
 man that are hidden in the heart we see not. Here therefore, 
 David is speaking of those works, actions, and ways which ap- 
 pear outwardly ; and this he calls the "way," because now, 
 the inward counsel is supposed to have come forth into habit 
 and practice, as they say, and because the ungodly here com- 
 mit outwardly the evil which they imagined inwardly. But 
 this "way," as I have observed, is for the most part of a better 
 outward show than that even of the godly. For, as to those 
 grosser sinners, any one might easily beware of them without 
 this admonition, or at least, might know them. 
 
 The term "stood" describes their obstinacy, stifT-necked- 
 ness, wherein they harden themselves and make their excuses 
 in words of malice, having become incorrigible in their ungod- 
 liness, which they consider to be godliness. For, 'to stand,' in 
 the figurative manner of scripture expression, signifies to be 
 firm and fixed, as in Rom. 14 4. "To his own master he 
 standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able 
 to make him stand," Hence, the word 'column' is by the 
 Hebrews derived from their verb to stand, as is the word 
 'statue' among the Latins. For this is the very self-excuse 
 and self-hardening of the ungodly — their appearing to them- 
 selves to live rightly and to shine in the external show of 
 works above all others. 
 
 With respect to the term "seat," — to sit in the seat means 
 to teach, to act the part of an intsructor and teacher, as in 
 Matt. 23 :2. "The scribes sit in Moses' chair." So, to sit on 
 a throne is to reign or act as king as we frequently find it 
 expressed in the Books of Kings. So also, to sit on a chair 
 of state, signifies to act as ruler, and to sit on a tribunal, to 
 act as a judge. 
 
 In respect to "pestilence," — though the translation is not 
 literal, yet it is very forcible. The word in the Hebrew is 'of 
 the mockers,' or 'of tlie scornful.' But the scornful arc they 
 at whom he strikes in the Ps. under the terms 'deceitful,' and 
 
PSALM I. 29 
 
 'false tongues;' as being those who under a show of sound 
 doctrine diffuse the poison of erroneous doctrine. For the 
 pestilence in the bodies of men is not half so contagious as 
 that of ungodly doctrine for their souls ; "their word," saith the 
 apostle, 2 Tim. 2:17, "will eat as doth gangrene." As the 
 wise are called the health of the w^orld. Wis. 6 :26, so these un- 
 godly are rightly called the pestilence of the world. And 
 what mockery can be more pestilential, than to administer 
 deadly poison unto souls that are thirsting after the purity 
 of the truth ? 
 
 The Psalmist, therefore, according to that usual manner 
 adopted throughout the church of distinguishing the good life 
 from the evil by faith and walk, the former distinguishing the 
 godly from the ungodly, the latter saints from sinners, here 
 describes these two states, and to them adds a third. For, 
 after ungodliness has infected a man inwardly in his thoughts, 
 and outwardly in his life, it would not be able to go farther, did 
 it not rush forth and draw others along with it into the same 
 perdition. And therefore, ungodliness is not contented with 
 being wicked in thought and wicked in life, unless it teach 
 others ungodliness also. — So far, concerning the grammatical 
 part. 
 
 It is also especially to be observed in scripture — how 
 wisely it omits to mention the names of sects and persons. 
 For this Ps. without doubt strikes first at the people of the 
 Jews; as the apostle saith, Rom. i :i6, "to the Jew first and 
 also to the Greek." And Rom. 3 riQ. "We know that v/hat 
 things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the 
 law." Yet the Psalmist does not say, 'blessed is the Jew,' or 
 'blessed is that certain person' : nor does he say, 'in the counsel 
 of the Gentiles, or of these or those certain persons' ; but in 
 general or absolutely, "blessed is the man ;" and, "the counsel 
 of the ungodly ;" and, "in the way of sinners ;" and also, "in 
 the seat of the scornful ;" whoever they may be, for there is 
 no respect of persons with God. 
 
30 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 And this was highly necessary to be done, in order that 
 the Word of God, as it is eternal, should apply to all ages 
 of mankind. For although manners, persons, places, and 
 customs, may vary in different times, yet both godliness and 
 ungodliness are the same in all ages. Hence we see, that 
 the prophets used the same scriptures against the false prophets, 
 the apostles against the false apostles, and the true teachers 
 against heretics, though they found not in those scriptures 
 the names of the prophets, or the apostles, or the teachers, 
 or their adversaries, but only the godly and the ungodly. 
 
 Moreover, if any particular person were mentioned, then 
 the rest would not believe that the evil which was spoken of 
 belonged to them ; or, that the good which was spoken of 
 belonged to them only. Even as the Jews apply to themselves, 
 all the good that was spoken to the seed of Abraham and 
 to Israel. At whom, first, this Psalm undoubtedly strikes, as 
 1 before observed. Hence we also, after the example of the 
 holy fathers, apply this Ps. to the generation in which we 
 live ; or rather, we follow it while it leads us thereunto, seeing 
 that it goes before us arraigning all the ungodly, and is rather 
 found of us already doing this, than forced by us to do it. 
 
 Therefore, saith the Psalmist, "blessed is the man that hath 
 not walked ;" that is, while there are so many millions of 
 the ungodly around us, that you may well say with Ps. 12:1, 
 "help. Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail 
 from among the children of men." And as Micah 7 :2 also 
 saith, "the good man is perished out of the earth, and there 
 is none upright among men." And is he not a blessed man, 
 and a man truly strong in the faith, Vv^ho, in the midst of so 
 great a multitude, does not walk in the broad way? who, 
 moreover, suffers from the same, reproaches and many evils, 
 and yet, does not so consent unto them as to walk with them ? 
 and who is not deceived by the most specious counsel of the un- 
 godly, which might deceive the very elect ? 
 
 It is a great thing not to be overcome by riches, pleasures. 
 
PSALM I. 31 
 
 and honours : but, to overcome the specious righteousness and 
 wisdom of the ungodly, which direct their attack most of all 
 against pure faith, is the greatest of all victories ! 
 
 But you are to notice that these words are the words of 
 faith, and that they do not speak of men according to what 
 they appear to be. For, as I have already observed, no one 
 would imagine such to be the ungodly. The prophet speaks 
 in the spirit ; and, spiritually, that is ungodly which the world 
 considers to be the most godly, because it is devoid of faith, 
 as it is written in Eccles. 8:10 'I saw the wicked buried, who, 
 while they lived, had come and gone from the place of the 
 holy, and were praised in the city as the doers of righteous 
 works.' And again, Ps. 37 135. 'I have seen the wicked exalted 
 as a cedar in Lebanon.' These are awful things. Who could 
 have thought to find ungodliness here, and that so deep? 
 
 But listen ! This Psalm does not only strike at the ungodly 
 and sinners for every man out of Christ is an ungodly man 
 and a sinner, but chiefly at those who are twofold sinners, — 
 who, though they are ungodly, do not acknowledge it, but 
 all the while form to themselves a "counsel" to walk therein, 
 and to follow after ungodliness. For David does not say, 
 blessed is the man who does not walk an ungodly man, or, 
 who does not stand a sinner ; but "in the counsel of the un- 
 godly," and "in the way of sinners," for such are not contented 
 with being ungodly, but wish to be accounted righteous and 
 saints ; thus adding to their ungodliness the outside show 
 of godliness. 
 
 And at whom, think ye, does he strike in this our day? 
 I will not dare to mention by name any particular persons, lest 
 I should split upon the implacable rock of some religious ones, 
 priests or bishops. For such has ever been the nature of un- 
 godly men, that they will not endure the Word of God, but 
 will fill the world with martyrs ; and for no other reason, than 
 that they imagine that they thereby yield obedience unto God ; 
 and thus, while they seem to contend for godliness, thev are 
 
32 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 all the while most bitterly accusing the truly godly of ungod- 
 liness. 
 
 But know thou, and be well assured, that those are here 
 pointed out, who shine in ceremonies, rites, and other pompous 
 shows of godliness, and who measure their godliness by their 
 garments, meats, times, and places, or, more especially, by 
 their work and prayers; and more particularly, those who, on 
 account of their observances, privileges, dignities, powers, and 
 rights, divide themselves into implacable discords, and are 
 ready to do and suffer any thing rather than humble them- 
 selves and yield to each other in mutual charity. And that 
 tliese are the ungodly pointed at, you may conclude from this. 
 Such are secure and confident in their lives, and there is no 
 fear of God before their eyes. 
 
 And take this for a universal and infallible criterion, and 
 as they say, for a certain touchstone, that the peculiar marks 
 of the ungodly are, not to fear God, to be secure of his mercy, 
 and to presume in all things ! But on the contrary, of the 
 godly, like Job, to be afraid of all their works, to have no trust 
 in their own righteousness, and to account all their holiness 
 as dung! And therefore, the latter cannot contend for these 
 things, nor justify nor vindicate themselves, but consider them- 
 selves deserving the hatred and vengeance of all. Hence, as 
 I said, we must have the eyes and ears of faith to hear these 
 words of the Spirit and to understand their meaning, for man 
 of himself cannot understand them. 
 
 Think not, however, that I condemn all holy ceremonies 
 and good works. It is the false opinion, confidence, and de- 
 votedness that I call the pestilences ; for it is through these 
 thmgs, as we see, that men rush forth into sects, strifes, back- 
 bitings, and infinite enormities of sin ; all which by the veil 
 of their counsel, and the show of their doctrines, they cover 
 over with the name of godliness ; whereas, if all their works 
 were done in humility, they would certainly be good. 
 
PSALM I. 33 
 
 Nor standeth in the way of sinners. 
 
 After they have violated faith by ungodHness, what can 
 remain but that their works are evil, and sins ? But now thou 
 wilt say, can the works of Jews, of heretics, and of the proud, 
 be evil, when they fast, pray, do good, and accomplish all 
 those things which no man dares to call evil? I have said 
 that faith is wanting ! Therefore, all those works are so much 
 the worse, because they confirm their ungodliness, and cause 
 them to stand and persevere in their way of sin ; and they are 
 sins, because they proceed from the ungodliness of their hearts. 
 And, as saith the wise man. Sir. 34:4. 'what truth will be 
 spoken by a liar, or what godliness will be done by the un- 
 godly?' 
 
 Christ however has given us excellent instruction on these 
 points, when he taught us, that men are to be known by their 
 fruits. And they have two sorts of works : some which he 
 calls sheep's clothing, which are not their proper fruits, but 
 feigned according to their counsel and ways. But, when you 
 touch them and oppose them, then, behold, their proper fruits 
 burst forth — wrath, clamour, pride, backbiting, evil-speaking, 
 self-excusing, envy, blasphemy, and the like enormities — nor 
 can you ever gather other fruits from these thorns, than these 
 very sharp thorns. And such, as you may see, are our cere- 
 monial work-mongers. 
 
 Nor sifteth in the seat of pestilence (scoffers). 
 
 Yet this the Jews do, departing from Christ. Under their 
 lips is the incurable poison of asps, Ps. 140:4, and their wine 
 is the gall of dragons, Deut. 32 133, for they must of necessity 
 teach contrary to Christ. These other heretics follow, under 
 another name and person indeed, but with the same pestilence 
 of ungodliness. 
 
 And, to come to our own times, they sit in the seat of 
 pestilence, who fill the church with the opinions of philosophers, 
 with the traditions of men, and with the counsels of their 
 
 3a 
 
34 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 own brain, and oppress miserable consciences, setting aside, 
 all tbe while, the Word of God, by which alone the soul is 
 fed, lives, and is preserved. Whence it comes to pass that 
 men are ignorant of every other righteousness but that which 
 is obtained by works ; whereas this is ungodliness and sin 
 in the sight of God. For it is impossible that you can teach 
 the work of any laws whatever without peril, unless, by the 
 better doctrine and the better labor, you first teach in Christ. 
 In the Epistle to the Romans Paul sets forth faith as the 
 foundation in eleven chapters and then in five chapters the life 
 springing from it. In five chapters of Galatians he teaches 
 faith; and in one chapter, the sixth, life. He does the same 
 in his other Epistles. Christ in the Gospel requires faith only. 
 
 V. 2. But his delight (zvill) is in the lazv of Jehovah {the 
 Lord), and on his law doth he meditate day and night. 
 
 The grammatical and theological exposition of this passage : 
 
 See that thou distinguish, to tell thee once for all, the "law 
 of the Lord" as widely and as differently as possible from all 
 laws of men, and take heed with all diligence, that by con- 
 fusing all in one chaos, as the teachers of pestilence do, they 
 do not miserably destroy thee ; while they attempt to make the 
 traditions of men the law of God, and the law of God the 
 traditions of men. 
 
 Let me give thee examples of this. The law of God is, 
 "honor thy father and thy mother." Out of this law the 
 pharisees have made this tradition : 'The gift which is brought 
 to the alter is better than that which is given to the parents;' 
 as you read Matt. 15:4. Again: despising God in the true 
 commandment, they honor him according to another com- 
 mandment of their own law, thus establishing a law for God. 
 For the elders had said, 'wash thine hands when thou eatest :' 
 and not to hear the elders is the same as not hearing God. 
 Therefore saith Christ in the same chapter, Matth. 15:7-9, 
 "Ye hypocrites, v/cll did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this 
 people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from 
 
PSALM I. 35 
 
 me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doc- 
 trines the precepts of men." 
 
 Thus at this day matters are come to such a pass, that they 
 boldly affirm, that the voice of the Popes and of the Roman 
 council alone are to be heard with fear and trembling. When 
 all the commands of God are at the same time laughed at, yea 
 held in contempt; and not more so by any set of men than 
 by those very characters who boast of the to-be-feared voice 
 of their great council. In a word, they have carried these most 
 impious superstitions to the extreme, that mass-priests are 
 everywhere to be found, who imagine that they have sinned 
 the sin unto death if they have celebrated mass without their 
 stole or maniple, or any external that is attended to. Or, if 
 they have made any like mistake or omission in the canonical 
 form of celebrating mass, it is considered a most awful sin. 
 But I am ashamed to proceed any farther in the enumeration 
 of those ridiculous trifles with which the mass-priests and 
 other religious ones of the same kind terrify their consciences. 
 Whereas, all the while, if they have been living together in the 
 sins of lust, wrath, envy, covetousness, and pride, and that 
 for many years, and have despised God, they feel nothing 
 of it whatever. 
 
 The term "will" here, does not imply any power in man, 
 nor does it signify that inert habit which our modern theolo- 
 gians have dragged into their divinity out of Aristotle, to the 
 subversion of a man's true understanding of the scriptures, 
 nor, again, does it signify that act which they say is allured 
 fortJi out of that pozver or habit. No human being under 
 heaven has such a "will" as is here signified : it must be given 
 him from above. For since the nature of man is intent on, 
 and prone to evil, as the divine authority asserts, Gen.6 :5 ;8;2i, 
 and since the law of God is "holy, righteous, and good," Rom. 
 7:12; it follows, that the will of man is against the law, hates 
 the law, and flees from the law. And even if at any time from 
 the fear of punishment, or from a want to get at what is 
 
36 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 promised, it pretends a love for the law, yet, the natural hatred 
 of the law still remains within; nor can such a will love the 
 law freely, for it does not love it because it is good, but be- 
 cause it seems to promise some advantage. 
 
 The "will," therefore, here signified, is that delight of 
 heart, and that certain pleasure in the law, which does not 
 look at what the law promises, nor at what it threatens, but 
 at this only, that " the law is holy, righteous and good." Hence 
 it is not only a love of the law, but that loving delight in the 
 law, vv^hich no prosperity nor adversity, nor the world, nor 
 the prince of it, can either take away or destroy ; for it vic- 
 toriously bursts its way through poverty, evil report, the cross, 
 death, and hell, and, in the midst of adversities, shines the 
 brightest. 
 
 And this 'Svill" springs from faith in God through Jesus 
 Christ. Whereas, that will vv^hich is extorted by the fear of 
 punishment, is servile and violently forced; and that which is 
 drawn forth by a desire after the reward, is mercenary and 
 feigned. But this is a free, spontaneous, and happy will. And 
 hence it is that the people of Christ are called in the Hebrew 
 NEDABOTH, that is, 'spontaneous, voluntary, and free.' Ps. 
 110:3. 
 
 From the above it is manifest that this Psalm is to be 
 understood of Christ only. He is the mark and the goal to 
 which the man that is "blessed" is to direct all his aims, for 
 there is no one in this life who does not want something of 
 t-his "will," on account of the law and will in his members, 
 which are contrary to it ; as the apostle saith, Rom. 7 :23, which 
 latter will, according to true theology, is to be crucified, but 
 which, according to philosophy, is to be accounted a virtue. 
 
 To "meditate," as it is generally understood, signifies to 
 discuss, to dispute, and to exercise in words, as in Ps. 37 :30, 
 "the mouth of the righteous shall meditate wisdom." Hence 
 Augustine, in his translation, has "chatter,' a beautiful meta- 
 phor, as chattering is the employment of birds, so a continual 
 
P?A.LM I. 37 
 
 conversing in the law of the Lord, since talking is peculiar to 
 man, ought to be the employment of man. But I cannot 
 worthily and fully set forth the gracious meaning and force 
 of this word, for this 'meditating' consists first in an intent 
 observing of the words of the law, and then in a comparing 
 of the different scriptures, which is a certain delightful hunt- 
 ing, nay, rather a playing with stags in a forest or mountains, 
 where the Lord furnishes us with the stags and opens to 
 us their secret coverts, Ps. 29:6. And from this kind of 
 employment there comes forth at length a man well instructed 
 in the law of the Lord to speak unto the people. 
 
 For instance, "Thou shalt not kill," if you pass it over in 
 a cursory manner, is a frigid sentence, by which, according to 
 the sound of letters, you merely understand that the act of 
 murder is prohibited. But stop and meditate a little. It 
 is not said, thy hand shall not kill, but thou shalt not kill. And 
 what art thou? Soul and body, and thou hast many members 
 and faculties in each, hand, eyes, tongue, mind, will, etc. 
 When , therefore, thou art forbidden to kill, art thou not there- 
 by forbidden to kill with thy hand, or thy tongue, or thy will ? 
 for whichever of these shall kill, it is Thou that killest. There- 
 fore, we are not to be angry, we are not to wish evil, we are 
 not to speak evil, we are not to calumniate, we are not to 
 turn away our face, we are not to despise, we are not to injure, 
 we are not to wish to injure; but, on the other hand, we are 
 to love, to bless, to do good. What then is the purport of this 
 scripture. Thou shalt not kill ? Why this, that thou art not 
 to be bitter and angry with, but kind and gentle to, thy neighbor. 
 Therefore, look into what the scriptures teach concerning love, 
 kindness, suavity, benevolence, goodness, and tenderness ; and 
 when thou hast collected and compared them all, hast thou not 
 then well chattered and meditated in tlie law of thy Lord? 
 
 With respect to "day and night," whether you understand 
 them literally or figuratively for assiduosly, or allegorically 
 for the time of adversity and prosperity, it matters not at all ; 
 
38 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 for the righteous man, even when sleeping, loves and thinks 
 upon the law of the Lord. 
 
 The Psalmist saith then of this man that is "blessed," that 
 his "will"' will be in the law of the Lord. He will neither look 
 at, nor love, nor hate any created thing whatever, either good 
 or evil, but will, by this " will," be entirely raised above all 
 things that are created. What wonder therefore is it, that such 
 a man should be blessed, who, being endowed with this heaven- 
 ly will, has no taste whatever for those things by which the 
 ignorant judges of blessedness are dashed to and fro. 
 
 Moreover, as such an one is by this his will now made 
 one with the Word of God for love always unites the lover 
 and the object loved, he must of necessity taste how good, 
 sweet, and pure the holy and wonderful Word of God is, that 
 it is the greatest of all good ! But this they cannot taste, who 
 have their hand or their tongue only in the law, while their 
 will is immersed in the filth of the things of this world. 
 
 For there are many prating ones v/ho talk much about the 
 law of the Lord, and pretend much about it, but who do not yet 
 love it. It does not read, blessed is the man whose tongue 
 is in the law of the Lord, nor whose hand, nor whose mind 
 and speculations are in it; for by these things men are only 
 puffed up, and bless themselves, as if they were already saints 
 and saved. 
 
 Moreover, this "will" comprehends the whole life of man. 
 For if the man has his will, which is the fountain-spring of 
 his life, and his head, in the law, there is no fear that he will 
 keep any other member out of it. For wherever love leads, 
 the whole heart and body follow it And herein observe the 
 different conversation of the godly and the ungodly — The 
 ungodly begin their righteousness from without, and then go 
 on to that which is within They first feign works and then 
 words, and then they go on to the exercising of thoughts ; and 
 this is the greatest height to which they attain And here, 
 they begin to be teachers of others, and whatever they think. 
 
PSALM I. 39 
 
 say, or do, they will have to be holy and divine ; yet, after all, 
 they never attain unto this secret "will." But the godly begin 
 within from this holy "will," then follows "meditation," and 
 then the external work, and afterwards, the teaching of others, 
 as we shall see hereafter. 
 
 And in his lazv doth he meditate day and night. 
 
 Meditation is not without damnation, unless there be first 
 the "will ;" but love of itself leads to meditation. This "will" is 
 to be sought by us from heaven, as I have said, by humble faith 
 in Christ, when we are brought to despair of all strength in 
 ourselves. And mark this well. It is the manner and nature 
 of all lovers to talk freely, to sing, to write, to compose, and 
 to amuse their thoughts, on their loves, and to hear the same 
 things. And so also this lover, this n^an that is "blessed," has 
 his love, the law of the Lord, always in his mouth, always 
 in his heart, and always, if he can, in his ear. For "he that 
 is of God heareth God's words," John 8 47. "Thy statutes 
 have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage," Ps. 1 19 :54. 
 And again, "I will meditate always in thy statutes," ver. 16. 
 
 And thinkest thou that they are blessed men, who turn over 
 swine's husks, and who talk day and night about natural things, 
 about the opinions of men, about prebendaries, dignities, and 
 the power and privileges of churches, and a thousand other 
 vanities of the same kind ? No ! They are far more miserable 
 than those who talk about the loves of maidens and the fables 
 of the poets. For the latter know that they are acting foolish- 
 ly, and can sometime repent of what they have done. But 
 the former, thinking that they are all the while acting wisely 
 and holily, die in their ungodliness ; and too late to repent, 
 that the laws which they have made have only heaped destruc- 
 tion and ungodliness on their own heads, because they medi- 
 tated not on the law of the Lord. 
 
 V. 3. And he shall he like a tree (zvood) planted by the 
 streams of ivater, that bringeth forth (giz'eth) its fruit in its 
 season. 
 
40 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 I have said that the blessedness of this man is hidden in 
 the Spirit, in God; so that it cannot be known by faith and 
 experience. And that this is true thou shalt clearly see. If 
 thou look at his "will," in which alone his blessedness consists, 
 it does not stand in his riches, nor in his honors, nor in his 
 righteousnesses and virtues, nor, in a word, in any good that 
 can be mentioned excepting this will in the law itself either 
 in or out of the man. Nay rather, it is found in the midst 
 of the contraries, in poverty, in contempt, in foolishness, in 
 all the evils that can be mentioned either within or without 
 the man So that the man whom the prophet here calls "bless- 
 ed," is hated by the whole world, and they all judge him to be 
 the most miserable of mortals And this Isaiah saw in Christ, 
 the head and pattern of all these blessed ones, and therefore 
 said, "he was despised, and rejected of men," 53 :3. For the 
 world and its prince cannot endure that man who desires to 
 be blessed with this "will," but despises all his blessedness 
 together. And therefore it is, that David, contemplating the 
 fewness of such men, breaks out, 'O ! blessed is the man, who,' 
 etc. 
 
 Having thus described the "blessed" man in his own proper 
 definition, he goes on to set forth the same by a similitude no 
 Itss beautiful. The definition, indeed, was perfect, represent- 
 ing him as free from all evil, and filled with all good, which 
 is what the generality of men call blessedness, but their bless- 
 edness stands in present things, while this man's blessedness 
 stands in faith. And so also the similitude proves him to be 
 free from the same evil, and full of the same good. And since 
 this "blessed" man that is hidden in faith, could not be set forth 
 to view clearly by any farther definition, David, as it becomes 
 all definers to do, sets him forth under the similitude of a 
 visible thing. And since we know that he is describing a 
 rigteous man under a figure, we are not to quarrel about terms. 
 
 I however believe that it is the palm-tree that is alluded 
 to in the figurative description, for it is said in another Psalm, 
 
PSALM I. 41 
 
 "the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall in- 
 crease like a cedar of Lebanon," Ps. 92:12. And what is there 
 briefly alluded to, is here more fully enlarged upon. For the 
 palm tree loves the rivers of water as Pliny says and drinks 
 treely all the year round and is always green and brings forth 
 most sweet fruits. And perhaps this similitude is taken from 
 those palms on the Jordan near Jericho, which were so much 
 celebrated, for Jericho is on that account called the "city of 
 palms ;" and the Jordan is in many other places in the scriptures 
 spoken of mystically. Hence we have this passage, "A well of 
 living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon," Song 4:15- 
 
 Here the prophet gives you a rule for understanding the 
 allegories of trees and rivers which occur in the scriptures. 
 A tree signifies a man. The good tree signifies a good man, 
 and the evil tree an evil man, as Christ also teaches us. Math. 
 7:18. Though I know that Augustine, when he was so hotly 
 pressed by the Pelagians, that he might not in any way admit 
 that the children of the faithful were born holy, rather chose 
 by 'tree' not to understand man, but the will of man. And 
 this may perhaps be given in his favour, that by the tree here 
 the spiritual man is set forth, which is indeed the will itself, 
 or the spirit. But I think we may with no less, if not rather 
 with more propriety, here understand by "tree" the whole man ; 
 by the root, the will, and by the branches, the members and 
 powers. But I will not contend for this. 
 
 The Psalmist says it is "planted," wherein he distinguishes 
 this palm tree from those which grow of their own accord, and 
 represents it as being made what it is by the care and eultiva- 
 tion of another, and not becoming so by its own nature; that 
 is, as being cut oflf from that which grew of its own accord 
 and by nature, and planted by art as a branch in some other 
 place. And this is what I said before, that the "will" in the law 
 of the Lord is found in no man by nature, but brought down 
 out of heaven by the great planter and cultivator, our heavenly 
 Father, who transplants us out of Adam into Christ. 
 
42 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 The "rivers of water" certainly signify the rivers of vsrater 
 of divine grace. For the pahii is said to grow in a soft, sandy, 
 nitrous, and saline soil, and therefore it always loves rivers. 
 And so also the "will," which is the root of this tree, being 
 in this dry unfruitful life, thirsts the more after the rivers 
 of heavenly waters, the more it finds that there is nothing in 
 this world that can make it flourish, as Ps. 63:1, saith "my 
 flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and weary land, where no water 
 is." And thus, as Isaiah saith, 53 :2, "he grew up before him 
 as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." But, 
 is it not wonderful that a tree should grow in a barren soil, 
 being nourished by the rivers of water only? Blessed there- 
 fore is the man, who, the more he feels the barrenness of the 
 world, the more he thirsts after heavenly waters. Thus, this 
 tree does not grow by the richness of the earth, nor does the 
 "blessed" man grow by the luxuries of this world. 
 
 Some have inquired why the prophet here saith 'wood', 
 ligniini, rather than 'a tree,' arborcm, and, shall 'give' his fruit, 
 rather than shall 'bear' his fruit. The reading in Genesis, is, 
 that God created 'wood', lignum, not 'the tree,' arborem. And 
 hence the scripture still preserves the metaphor 'wood' for 
 'tree'. And the 'giving' of fruit shows that this blessed man 
 serves not himself, but his neighbors, with that charity which 
 we see to be commanded in every law of God. For there is no 
 tree that brings forth fruit for itself, but every tree gives 
 its fruit unto others. Nay, no creature only except man and 
 the devil lives to itself, or serves itself. Nor does the sun shine 
 for itself, nor the water flow for itself, etc. 
 
 Thus every creature observes the law of charity, and its 
 whole substance is in the law of the Lord ; nay, even the differ- 
 ent members of the human body do not serve themselves. It 
 is the affection of the mind only that is ungodly, for this not 
 only will not give every one his own, and will not serve any 
 one, nor wish well to any one, but, it takes all from all for 
 itself, and seeks its own profit in all things, even in God him- 
 
PSALM I, 43 
 
 self. So that you may truly say, that this is the tree, or thorn, 
 or brier, which grows of its own accord, cherished by the cul- 
 tivation of no other hand, nor delighting in the rivers of water ; 
 and bringing forth nothing but thorns, with which it goads, 
 tears, and chokes the fruits of all other trees that grow near 
 it ; and also pulls, plucks, and tears the garments, fleeces, skin, 
 ilesh, and every thing else of every object that passes by it. 
 The prophet, therefore, has here set forth the benefit of good 
 trees, — that, while they injure no one, they profit all, and give 
 forth their fruits willingly. 
 
 In its season. 
 
 O golden and admirable word ! by which, is asserted the 
 liberty of Christian righteousness. The ungodly have their 
 stated days, stated times, certain works, and certain places, to 
 which they stick so closely, that if their neighbors were perish- 
 ing with hunger they could not be torn from them. But this 
 blessed man, being free at all times, in all places, for every 
 work, and to every person, will serve you whenever an oppor- 
 tunity is offered him; whatsoever comes into his hands to do, 
 he does it. He is neither a Jew, nor a Gentile, nor a Greek, 
 nor a barbarian, nor of any other particular person. He gives 
 his fruit in his season, as often as either God or man require 
 his work. 
 
 Therefore, his fruits have no name, and his times have no 
 name. He does not serve any particular person, nor in any 
 particular time, place, or work ; but he serves all in all things. 
 And he is indeed a man of all hours, of all works, of all per- 
 sons ; and, ?fter tlic likeness of his Father, he is all in all things, 
 and to all men. 
 
 But the ungodly, as it is written Ps. 18:45, (Weimar Ed. 
 2 Sam. 22 46) 'fall into their own pit, and are taken in their 
 own net,' and are tormented with the works, times, and places, 
 which they themselves have chosen, aside from which they 
 imagine nothing can be done rightly. And thus, being proud 
 
44 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of their own fruits, they do nothing but attack, judge, and 
 condemn the fruits of others, being most free and most ready 
 at all times to censure others; in a word, being just such in 
 evil doing, as the godly are in well doing. For they also are 
 men of all hours, calumniating and injuring, not in one way, 
 nor at one time, nor one person only, but all men in every way 
 and at all times, just as circumstances throw them in their 
 way. And even if they should turn this devotedness to what 
 they may call good, yet they would not any the sooner become 
 godly. 
 
 This I say indeed not because I wish to reject the cere- 
 monies of the church and of the monasteries, for the first duty 
 of those, who entered the monasteries, was to learn to be subject 
 to their superiors, and to undertake nothing of their own will, 
 but to be ready to serve all in all things. The monasteries 
 were truly schools to awaken and develope Christian liberty, 
 as they are still where they have maintained their primitive 
 spirit. This, I say, was the aim and character of the ceremon- 
 ies. For what are the works of love and mercy themselves 
 except a kind of free ceremonies, since they are external and 
 pertain to the body? 
 
 The ceremonies of the old law were likewise most useful 
 exercises in the true and free divine life. But since they began 
 to misuse them in a perverted way to the suppression of liberty 
 and in that they took them as a pretext to extinguish piety, 
 and instead of liberty, slavery reigns as a tyrant, it has become 
 necessary to abolish them altogether, as it is now the aim of 
 the pious pastor to do away with the unnecessary ceremonies, 
 where they act as snares of the soul and as a barrier to the 
 free divine life. 
 
 Whose leaf also doth not zvither. 
 
 He still pursues this most beautiful figure. This "leaf" 
 signifies the Word and doctrine. We have said that the palm 
 tree is always green in leaf and flourishing. But it is said, 
 
PSALM I. - 45 
 
 Jsaiah i 130, concerning the ungodly, "ye shall be as an oak 
 whose leaf fadeth." Now compare all these particulars. The 
 ungodly walk in their own counsel ; the godly man is fixed in 
 the love of the law, and planted by the rivers of Avater. The 
 former stand in the way of sinners ; the latter meditates in the 
 law of the Lord, and gives forth his fruit in his season. The 
 ungodly sit in the seat of the scornful; the leaf of the latter 
 never withers. 
 
 And note that he describes the fruit before he does the 
 leaf. And though it is the nature of the palm to put forth its 
 fruit, not among the leaves like all other trees, but among the 
 branches, having all its leaves on the top, so that it might 
 itself seem to produce its fruit before it does its leaves and 
 we have said that this figure is taken from the palm, yet the 
 Holy Spirit himself always teaches every faithful preacher in 
 the church to know that the kingdom of God does not stand in 
 Vv^ord but in power, i Cor. 4:20. Again, "Jesus beg'an to do, 
 and to teach," Acts i :i. And again, "Which was a prophet 
 mighty in deed, and in word," Luke 24:19. And thus, let him 
 who professes the word of doctrine first put forth the fruits of 
 life, if he would not have his leaf to wither ; for Christ cursed 
 the fig tree which bore no fruit. And, as Gregory saith, that 
 man whose life is despised is condemned by his doctrine; for 
 he preaches to others, and is himself reprobated. And con- 
 cerning such Matthew says, 7 :23, that in the day of judgment 
 they shall hear this sentence, "depart from me, ye workers of 
 iniquity ;" even though they may have prophesied in the name 
 of Christ, and done many wonderful works by his Word. 
 
 But some one may say, there have been many saints and 
 martyrs, but neither their fruits nor their leaves are now re- 
 maining, but all have perished with them ; nor indeed have we 
 the words of all the apostles. How, then, can this praise be 
 applicable to all blessed men ? 
 
 I answer : — their word was not their own word. "For 
 it is not ye that speak, saith Christ, but the Spirit of my Father 
 
46 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 that speaketh in you." All the saints were taught by, and 
 they all taught, the same Word ; as we read, i Cor. 10 :3, 4, 
 All did eat the same spiritual food, and all did drink the same 
 spiritual drink." And Ps. 119:89, "Forever, O Lord, thy word 
 is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations." 
 
 Thus it is apparent that this "blessed man" and this fruit- 
 bearing "tree," signify the whole church, or those who hold 
 the office of teaching. But there is nothing against its being 
 understood also as signifying every righteous man, because 
 he has likewise the same "leaf," for if he does not teach others, 
 he certainly teaches himself, meditating with his heart in the 
 law of the Lord, which word remains in him unto eternity, as 
 it does also in the whole church. And finally, as all the faithful 
 are one body, although this leaf is peculiar to the member that 
 teacheth, yet, by communion all things belong to all. For the 
 word is mine which my tongue preaches, though I may be only 
 the ear and not the tongue ; and so we may say of the other 
 members and of the whole body. 
 
 And whatsoever he doctli (nwketh) shall prosper. 
 
 If he saith this with reference to the tree or palm, he alludes 
 to the fact that the palm is said to be the only tree which still 
 grows upwards against every weight and pressure. And they 
 say that this is seen in beams made of palm trees. 
 
 And with respect to the word "doeth," in this passage if 
 I am not too bold, it does not signify the good works of a 
 righteous man for these have been sufficiently commended al- 
 ready under the term 'fruits', but rather, those performances 
 or productions which we achieve by means of the arts and 
 sciences. For so, the philosophers refer 'doing,' agere, to wis- 
 dom, and 'making,' facere, to art. And we may see the same 
 distinction in the Hebrew tongue according to my bold way 
 of proceeding. For I find that the verb asa generally signifies 
 'making', facere, and paal, 'doing', agere. Thus, Ps. 28:5, 
 "Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the opera- 
 
PSALM I. 47 
 
 tion of his hands ;" where "the operation of his hands" signi- 
 fies the very thing formed. As it is also in another place, 
 "Israel is the work of my hands." And in Gen. i 7, 16, 25, it 
 is said, "And God made," etc. And again, Ps. 95 :5, "The sea 
 is his, and he made it." But the works of God are those which 
 lie does by his creatures ; and especially, by his word and his 
 grace, by which he acts upon us and makes us act. 
 
 Let therefore this "doing" be considered to signify insti- 
 tuting, ordaining, distributing by various ecclesiastical mini- 
 strations, and as the apostles Peter, i Pet. 4:10, and Paul, 
 I Cor. 12 4 etc., did, acting as stewards of the manifold grace of 
 God, founding churches, and increasing them ; for thus, the 
 very faithful are said to be of their fo'rming, their work, and 
 their workmanship. Hence Paul 'travailed in birth,' for the 
 Galatians, 4:19, and 'begat' the Corinthians, i Cor. 4:15. And 
 again, "Are ye not my work in the Lord?" i Cor, 9:1. You 
 understand therefore that this is the spiritual workmanship of 
 a blessed man, not a tyrannical exercise of power, nor a pomp- 
 ous show, for these things even the gentiles can do and show 
 forth. But the 'doing' of this blessed man is, making many 
 good and blessed and like himself. 
 
 And with regard to this "prospering," take heed that thou 
 understand not a carnal prosperity. This prosperity is a hidden 
 prosperity, and lies entirely secret in the spirit ; and therefore 
 if thou hast not this prosperity that is by faith, thou shouldst 
 rarher judge thy prosperity to be the greatest adversity. For as 
 the devil bitterly hates this leaf and the Word of God, so docs 
 he also those who teach and hear it, and he persecutes such, 
 aided by all the powers of the world. Therefore, thou hearest 
 of a miracle, the greatest of all miracles, v/hen thou hearest 
 that all things prosper which a "blessed" man doeth. For 
 what is more miraculous than that the faithful should grow 
 while they are destroyed, should increase while they are di- 
 minished, should prevail while otliers prevail over them, should 
 enter while they are expelled, and should conquer while 
 
48 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 they are conquered? For thus the world and its prince are 
 overcome. Yet hath the Lord wonderfully ordained, that, to 
 his saint, Ps. 4 4, that should be the height of prosperity which 
 is the height of misery. This is the prosperity of the wise and 
 the conversion of men. 
 
 But now we see that word of Proverbs i :32, is fulfilled, 
 "For the careless ease of the simple shall slay them, and the 
 backsliding of fools shall destroy them." For in the present 
 state of the church, we have made names and persons, and 
 have turned the spirit into the flesh ; and therefore what is now 
 called a good state of the church, is opulence, tyranny, im- 
 purity, the peace of the flesh, and a pomp more than human. 
 For the devil has seen, and at length understood, this spiritual 
 prosperity, and therefore, he has turned himself round, and 
 attacking us in another way, triumphs in our horrible misery. 
 And thus, he who was conquered in a time of conflict, now tri- 
 umphs in a time of peace ; and God for wonderful ends has or- 
 dained both. Hence, Flilary has wisely and most truly said, 
 'that it is the nature of the church to increase in adversity, and 
 decrease in prosperity.' But this wisdom of the cross, and this 
 new signification of things, are not only unknown to the very 
 heads themselves of the church, but are considered by them the 
 most horrible of things. And no wonder, since they have left 
 the Holy Scriptures, and have devoted themselves to the un- 
 happy ordinances of men, and to casting up of accounts and 
 sums of money. 
 
 The zvicked (ungodly) arc not so. 
 
 In the Hebrew text "not so," "non sic," is not repeated, but 
 that has little significance. Vv^hen thou hearest the word "un- 
 godly," remember those things which we have said above con- 
 cerning ungodliness, lest, like the ungodly, thou shouldst banish 
 these words from thee as applying to the Jews only, and to 
 heretics, and I know not what others who are far ofif ; and 
 lest perhaps laying aside the fear of God, thou shouldst not 
 
PSALM I. I 49 
 
 tremble at this word of his. But as he is an ungodly one who 
 is without the faith of Christ, you should tremble at these 
 words, lest you also should be found to be one of the ungodly. 
 For every truly godly man trembles at every word of God ; 
 as Isaiah saith, 66 :2, "To this man will I look, even to him 
 that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my 
 word." And how wilt thou assure thyself that thou hast faith 
 enough? Remember then, that as much as thou art deficient 
 in faith, so much hast thou of ungodliness. 
 
 It is the way of the ungodly with confident security to ar- 
 rogate to themselves all those things that are good, and to refer 
 all that is evil unto others. On the other hand, it is the way 
 of the godly to believe all that evil of themselves which does 
 not belong to them, and to refer all good unto others ; nor can 
 tliey be brought to aspire after the better things without much 
 suffering of unworthiness, even though they seek those things 
 not on account of any merit in themselves, but only by a naked 
 hope in the mercy of God. 
 
 Therefore there is no prosperity to the wicked ; they have a 
 withering leaf, and are not planted by the rivers of water. 
 But hear in the spirit one who speaks in the spirit. For the 
 whole scripture declares that the ungodly flourish and prosper, 
 and we see the same in many of the Psalms ; so that it seem^' 
 as if one could say of them only, 'Their leaf is green, and all 
 that they do prospers.' Hence faith is necessary to understand 
 these things. i '^-^jS:^ 
 
 But are like the chaff (dust) ivhich the zvind driveth (scat- 
 ter eth) azvay. 
 
 In the Latin translation is added "from the face of the 
 earth." This does not affect the meaning. The Hebrew word 
 CAMOTz in this passage signifies 'chaff,' or 'the dust of chaff,' 
 oi 'the sweepings of a barn floor ;' yet, it is of no moment, for 
 it is the same thing whether you say dust, or chaff-dust, or 
 chafif, or ashes ; because the persons here represented are those 
 
50 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 concerning whom Luke saith, 3:17, "Whose fan is in his hand, 
 thoroughly to cleanse his threshing-floor, and to gather the 
 wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with un- 
 quenchable fire." And you need not have the least doubt that 
 it is this purging, this chaff, and this chaff-dust, that is sig- 
 nified in the present passage, though strictly and most properly 
 the word signifies small chaff and pieces of chaff. And Job in 
 the same way saith, 21 :i8, "They are as stubble before the 
 wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away." 
 
 Observe that he does not only call them chaff, but that 
 chaff which the wind scattereth away ; he does not wish to sig- 
 nify the chaff which lies still, but that which is driven about, 
 scattered and dispersed. And we may understand him first of 
 the Jews, for these are scattered away in a threefold sense. 
 First, corporally, by storms ; that is, by the will and indignation 
 of those men among whom they live, so that we plainly see 
 with our own eyes that they have no certain dwelling-place, 
 and are exposed every moment to a wind of this kind that 
 drives them here and there. Secondly, their minds are driven 
 about by the wind of various doctrine, by means of their pesti- 
 lent teachers, because they are not planted in the faith of 
 Christ, but their minds are scattered in different directions by 
 uncertain doctrines, while their consciences can find no certainty 
 or quiet. Thirdly, in the last day they will be scattered by the 
 eternal storms of the intolerable wrath of God, and will be 
 driven avv^ay never to have rest, not even for a moment. 
 
 And the same things, especially the two last-mentioned 
 storms, will also await all heretics. 
 
 And what else do you think it is in the church but the 
 storm of the wrath of God, that has scattered us away into so 
 many and different, such unstable and uncertain, and at the 
 same time infinite, glosses of lawyers and opinions of theo- 
 logians? While Christ in the meantime is utterly unknown, 
 and we are miserably driven and dashed upon so nrany quick- 
 sands, rocks, and straits of conscience? 
 
PSALM I. 51 
 
 Though all the rest of the ungodly have their storms and 
 hurricanes of pleasures and lusts, of riches, honors, favors, 
 and the other billows of this world, by which they are most 
 miserably dashed to and fro, because they despise the one only 
 rock and solid strength of our heart. 
 
 V. 5. Therefore the ivicked (ungodly) shall not stand in 
 the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation (counsel) of 
 the righteous. 
 
 We have already fully shown who are sinners and ungodly ; 
 and do thou take heed that thou hear not these words of God 
 without trembling, as if thou wert sure of being godly and a 
 saint. This fear itself is godliness ; nay, the very fountain- 
 spring and beginning of wisdom and godliness. 
 
 In the Hebrew it is "arise," not "be raised," and the con- 
 text does not treat of the resurrection of the dead. For he did 
 not say: men will not rise in judgment, but the ungodly. The 
 resurrection of men is different from that of the ungodly. 
 Therefore in the Apostle's Creed it is better the resurrection 
 of the flesh than the resurrection of men. The apostle calls it 
 a resurrection of the dead or of men, in that he holds to two 
 resurrections, one of the flesh and the other of the spirit. 
 "Shall not rise" here signifies that the ungodly shall not stand 
 before God, according to Ps. 5 :5 : "The foolish shall not stand 
 in thy sight. And Psalm 24 :3, "Who shall ascend into the hill 
 of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?" and this 
 is said also concerning Christ when he shall rise up in judg- 
 ment ; as is also Ps. 12:5, "Now will I arise, saith the Lord." 
 Therefore, "shall not rise," signifies that they shall not stand, 
 shall not serve, shall not minister unto God, as they most con- 
 fidently presume they shall do. 
 
 "Judgment" in this place, by a scriptural figure, signifies 
 office. Thus, the whole book of Judges is so called from the 
 Judges or rulers of Israel; as in Psalm 122:5, "For there are 
 set thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David." 
 
52 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 And so also Psalm no :6, "He shall judge among the heathen," 
 that is, he shall be the judge of the heathen. And Ps. 72 4, 
 "He will judge the poor of the people," that is, he shall rule 
 them. And again, Ps. 96:13, "He will judge the world with 
 righteousness, and the peoples with his truth." 
 
 The meaning therefore is, the wicked shall never rise to 
 that state so as to be the judges or rulers of the faithful, nor 
 even stand in their "counsel," that is, in their congregation; 
 which means, that they shall never be reckoned either among 
 the great or the small of the faithful. And, to explain the 
 whole more plainly, it signifies that the ungodly shall never 
 so rise in judgment nor in the congregation of the righteous 
 as to be considered the servants of God. 
 
 What ! shall we not then put down these ungodly rulers 
 and these wicked men, and cast them out from the midst of 
 us? Or, is that not a congregation of the faithful where un- 
 godly men rule and where sinners are intermingled? By no 
 means. 
 
 I before observed, that the prophet spoke spiritually, and 
 must therefore be heard spiritually. For Judas was an apostle, 
 and yet he was not an apostle. And as John saith, i Epist. 2:19, 
 "They went out from us, but they were not of us." And thus 
 the ungodly, while they rule, rule visibly as to their persons, 
 but in truth do not rule at all. For Zechariah, 11 wy, saith, 
 "Woe to the worthless (idol) shepherd that leaveth the flock." 
 Here he calls the same person a "shepherd," which was the 
 name with which he was honored among men, and also an 
 "idol," for which he was condemned before God. 
 
 In order that we may understand that precedence is not 
 that which essentially belongs to the faithful, Christ rewards 
 many of the ungodly in this life with a paltry pittance. Such 
 men, therefore, are to be borne with, as chaff is among wheat, 
 until the winnowing day shall come. 
 
 And see whether this be not plainly the prophet's meaning. 
 For, when he had before said "the ungodly are not so," it was 
 
PSALM I. 53 
 
 not necessary to repeat the same in another verse; it would 
 , have been sufficient to have said, 'therefore the ungodly shall 
 not rise in the judgment, nor in the congregation of the 
 righteous.' But he has spoken thus, that he may do away 
 with all outward person, and all the external appearance of 
 men ; because rich men, powerful men, and what other external 
 appearance soever there may be, may rise in the judgment, and 
 be in the congregation of the righteous, seeing that all these 
 things pertain only to the body. But ungodly men and sinners 
 never can. Therefore the whole force of the passage lies in 
 the terms 'ungodly" and "sinners." 
 
 For such never have the precedence in reality and in spirit. 
 The ungodly are never among the faithful, though they carry 
 so showy an appearance in external life that it may be thought 
 that none have so much precedence over, and such a place 
 among, the faithful, as they. And this hypocrisy and external 
 show of which they are so proud, on which they presume so 
 much, and by which they deceive so many, are the very things 
 at which the Psalm strikes. That this is the true meaning of 
 the verse is shown by the following verse. 
 
 V. 6. For Jehovah {the Lord) knozveth the ivay of th^ 
 righteous, hut the zvay of the wicked (ungodly) shall perish. 
 
 The Latin could have avoided the use of the two words 
 "viam" and "iter" and said "the way (via) of the ungodly," 
 since the diction is the same and a fine antithesis : "the way of 
 the righteous" and "the way of the ungodly," and thus as in 
 Hebrew the same word would have been retained. 
 
 So specious, saith David, is the way of the ungodly, that 
 unto men they may seem to rise in the judgment and to stand 
 in the congregation. But he who can not be deceived under- 
 stands their ways and knows that they are ungodly ; and in the 
 eyes of him they are not at all among the members of his 
 church. He knows the righteous only, and knows not sinners, 
 that is, he approves the one, and not the other. Therefore 
 
54 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 what they the least of all expect or believe, their way shall 
 perish — shall perish, I say, though it go on with such success 
 as to seem to be eternal. Behold, how he here terrifies us 
 away from all prosperous appearance, and commends to us 
 various temptations and adversities. For this "way" of the 
 righteous all men utterly reprobate, thinking also, that God 
 knoweth nothing about any such way, because this is the 
 wisdom of the cross. Therefore, it is God alone that knoweth 
 the way of the righteous, so hidden is it to the righteous them- 
 selves. For his right hand leads them on in a wonderful man- 
 ner, seeing that it is a way, not of sense, nor of reason, but 
 of faith only, even of that faith that sees in darkness and be- 
 holds things that are invisible. 
 
 When, therefore, we are subject to ungodly shepherds, we 
 do not obey the ungodly, but men^ for we do not hear or follow 
 their ungodliness, but we endure the precedence of their per- 
 sons. Again, when men put down and cast out such, as we 
 see in Bohemia, is it the ungodly that they put down ? no ! they 
 put down the persons. For the ungodly who are thus put 
 down remain ungodly still. It is then only that the ungodly 
 man is put down when he is led from ungodliness to godliness ; 
 which is not done by external violence but by love, internally 
 praying and externally admonishing, where God condescends 
 to work at the same time. 
 
 Whoso is not pleased to understand this passage thus, let 
 him abide by this interpretation, that the psalmist, in the first 
 place, directs his words against the ungodly Jews ; for he has 
 in many other places predicted that these shall be driven from 
 the church, as shall also heretics and all those who openly de- 
 clare their ungodliness, for they alienate themselves from the 
 church and the church alienates and expels them, however 
 much they may boast that they only are the church and the 
 people of God. 
 
 Finally, the admonition is to be given which the most illus- 
 trious fathers, especially Athanasius and Augustine, have given, 
 
PSALM I. 55 
 
 namely, that our affections and feelings be brought in accord 
 with, and be attempered to, the feelings described in the Psalms. 
 For since the Psalter is solely a certain school and place of 
 exercise for the affections, he harps without results, who does 
 not harp in the spirit. So that when thou readest, "Blessed is 
 the man that hath not gone away in the counsel of the ungodly," 
 thy feelings and affections ought to move at the same time and 
 to hate the counsel of the wicked and pray against it, not only 
 on account of thyself but on account of the whole church 
 also; and so they should also when thou readest of the "way of 
 sinners" and their "pestilence" of doctrine. For it is with 
 this fire, the affection of love, that heretics are to be burnt, 
 and all who savour of and teach, ungK)dliness. But since we 
 have despised that fire God has given us over to a reprobate 
 mind, to become murdering executioners, and to burn heretics 
 with natural fire, and to be burnt again ourselves in return. 
 
 And so also, when thou soundest forth, "But his will is in 
 the law of the Lord," thou art not here to snore in safety, and 
 securely bless thyself, as if thou wert already a lover of the 
 law of God ; but thou art, with all the ardor of the affection 
 of thy mind, to sigh unto him who alone came to send that fire 
 upon the earth; nor art thou, as long as thou livest, to think 
 otherwise of thyself than as one who does not yet love the 
 law of God, and who greatly needs this "will in the law." 
 
 Again, when thou hearest that all things "prosper" for the 
 righteous man, thou art to desire it for thyself and to sigh for 
 all those who are placed in any adversity, of what kind soever 
 it may be; and so, when thou hearest that their leaf doth not 
 wither and that the pure word of God flourisheth in the church 
 of Christ, all fables and dreams of men being cast out. And if 
 thou see any of these things so take place anywhere, thou art 
 to congratulate, to rejoice and to give thanks unto the divine 
 goodness. And do not think that thou art thus exhorted to 
 impossibilities ; only make the attempt, and I know that thou 
 wilt have to rejoice and be thankful. First, exercise thyself 
 
56 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 in one Psalm, nay in one verse of a Psalm. Thou hast done 
 much if thou hast learned to make one verse in a day, or even 
 in a week, a living and breathing word by being felt in thy 
 affections. And when thou hast attained unto this beginning 
 all the rest will follow, and there will open unto thee an over- 
 flowing treasure of knowledge and affection ; only, take heed 
 that thou be not frightened away from beginning by any weari- 
 ness or despair. This is truly to harp, or, as the scripture saith 
 of David, to strike the harp-strings with the fingers. For the 
 nimble fingers of the harpers which run over the strings and 
 strike them, represent the affections running over the words 
 of the Psalms and being moved by them ; and as the strings 
 do not sound without the fingers, so neither is the Psalm read 
 or sung unless it touch the affections. 
 
 I wished thus to premise these things once in this first 
 Psalm, that I might not have occasion to repeat the same 
 through every Psalm. Though I know very well, that if any 
 one be exercised in this matter, he will of himself find more 
 in the Psalter than all the commentaries of all commentators 
 put together can give him. I see that Bernard excelled in this, 
 and drew all his fund of understanding from it. And I know 
 that the same way was discovered and made sweet to Augustine 
 and many others. And so also, we ought to drink out of the 
 same fountain these waters of life, lest that cutting rebuke 
 should fall upon us which is found in the prophet Amos, re- 
 specting 'inventing for themselves instruments of music like 
 David,' Amos 6 :5. And again, "Take thou away from me the 
 noise of thy songs ; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols," 
 Amos 5 123. For what thinkest thou that all the muttering and 
 roaring which everywhere fills our churches without either 
 mind or spirit, appears to be in the sight of God ! nothing but 
 a swarm of flies making a buzzing noise with their wings. 
 And if thou addest to all this a belief that such things please 
 God thou makest the true and living God a laughing stock and 
 an idle phantom. 
 
PSALM II. 
 
 PSALM 11. 
 
 V. I. Why do the nations (people) rage, and the peoples 
 meditate a vain thing? 
 
 V. 2. The kings of the earth set themselves (stand up), 
 and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah (the 
 Lord) and against his anointed, saying. 
 
 That this Psahn was written by David, and that it speaks 
 of Christ, the authority of the primitive church compels us to 
 conclude ; concerning which Luke writes, Acts 4 :24-28, "They 
 lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, O Lord, 
 thou that didst make the heaven and the earth and the sea, 
 and all that in them is ; who by thy Holy Spirit, by the mouth 
 of our father David thy servant didst say, 'Why did the Gen- 
 tiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of 
 the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gath- 
 ered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed.' " 
 And the kings of the earth have set themselves in array and 
 the rulers have taken counsel together, against the Lord and 
 against his Christ. For, of a truth, in this city Herod and 
 Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles and the people of Israel, have 
 taken counsel together against thy holy child Jesus, whom 
 thou hast anointed ; for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy 
 counsel determined before to be done, etc' 
 
 Therefore the heart is to be established in this sense of 
 the Psalm, and not to be tossed about by any other wind of 
 doctrine, Eph. 4:14, because this meaning of it was confirmed 
 from heaven ; for, as the same Luke saith, "when they had 
 prayed the place was shaken wherein they were gathered to- 
 gether" Acts 4:31. 
 
 It is quite clear, therefore, that by "the kings" is signified 
 Herod and Pilate, even though Pilate was not king, for these 
 two co-operated together to fulfil that which the counsel of 
 
58 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 God had determined before to be done, as the disciples them- 
 selves here say, that is, to destroy Christ. 
 
 It now remains that we clear up the trifling difficulty con- 
 cerning Pilate. He is either called a king with Herod, or else 
 called so by a figure of speech most commonly used in the 
 scriptures, which gives an appellation to the whole people from 
 the name of a part. Thus, Israel is called the "first-born," 
 even though many among them were idolaters. And again, 
 they are all rebuked when only some of them deserved it. And 
 so also, the one being king makes both to be kings. 
 
 Again, by "rulers" are to be understood the heads of the 
 priests ; by "heathen," the Roman soldiers under Pilate, who 
 seized Jesus, scourged him, and crucified him ; and by "people" 
 we are clearly to understand the common people of the Jews, 
 or Israel, as the apostles themselves say. 
 
 In this passage therefore heathen and people are kept mani- 
 festly distinct. But I do not dare to affirm, nor do I believe, 
 that this distinction is maintained in all instances, though the 
 term heathen is most frequently used in contradistinction to 
 the Jews, or Israel. For thus, the church of the heathen or 
 Gentiles, and Paul an apostle of the heathen or Gentiles, is held 
 in universal authority and use, as distinct from the church 
 of the Jews, or that which is of the Jews. 
 
 And observe how this distinction is kept up, "the heathen 
 rage," and "the peoples meditate a vain thing," "the kings set 
 themselves in array," and, "the rulers take counsel together." 
 The "lieathcn," as irrational beasts raged, for they knew not 
 what they did. But the "people"' prated and conferred in 
 their councils speaking iniquity against the Most High, and 
 surrounded him on every side with words of hatred, as it is 
 set forth in Psalm 109 :2 etc., saying, "Come, let us kill him, 
 and the inheritance shall be ours," Hark 12:7. And Caiaphas, 
 John 1 1 : 49-50, having assembled the people, said, "Ye know 
 nothing at all : nor do ye take account that it is expedient for 
 you that one man should die for the people." These vain 
 
PSALM II. 59 
 
 addresses to the people, therefore, whereby they so often sought 
 to destroy Christ, and their fabricated accusations before Pi- 
 late, are what David here calls Vain meditations.' 
 
 For the "kings" decreed, because that is what we are here 
 to understand from the Hebrew 'stood up,' determined, issued 
 proclamations, and confirmed these their ragings and medi- 
 tations by giving their sentence concerning Christ. "And so 
 Pilate willing to satisfy the people, released Barabbas unto 
 them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be 
 crucified," Mark 15:15. And the "rulers" gathered together, 
 consulted, persuaded the people, and at the same time con- 
 firmed them in their determination to crucify Jesus ; for "the 
 chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should rather re- 
 lease Barabbas unto them," Mark 15:11. 
 
 Observe here the tenderness and modesty of the prophetic 
 mouth, how feelingly, and as it were sympathetically, he speaks 
 of the fury of these men. For when he might with justice 
 have called these enraged expressions, "Away with him, crucify 
 hmi!" John 19:15, and all those other infuriated clamours of 
 the Jews whereby they accused Christ, frenzy and maddened 
 violence, he calls them only meditations. And meditation, as 
 the object we have shown before, Ps. i :2, is a continual prating 
 or talking with the mouth ; and this is here a meditation in 
 a bad sense. For as a lover is always spontaneously saying 
 many things about the object beloved, so the hater is assiduous- 
 ly prating and saying the worst of things about the object 
 hated. And there is the same modesty also in the words "rage," 
 'stand up," and "take counsel together;" for the act itself was 
 far more atrocious than the purport of these words would seem 
 to indicate. 
 
 We are hereby taught that we ought not, after the manner 
 of detractors, to exaggerate the evil conduct of men, but as 
 much as possible to lessen it ; that we may snow that we do not 
 feei so much indignation on our own account, as pity on theirs. 
 
6o LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 For the Holy Spirit is kind. He does not glory in the evils 
 of others, but, in his kindness, pities all. And thus St. Peter 
 says of Christ, "who when he was reviled, reviled not again; 
 when he suffered, threatened not ; but committed himself to 
 him that judgeth righteously." i Epist. 2 123. 
 
 David says, "vain things," in which expression he com- 
 prehends the purport of nearly the whole of the Psalm. For 
 he wishes to show that Christ, who is set up as king by God 
 the Father, cannot be hindered nor prevented by all the many 
 and great resisting counsels, attempts, and furies of Gentiles, 
 Jews, kings, and rulers ; but all their endeavours are so utterly 
 spent in vain, that they make themselves a derision, and by their 
 very resistance further the kingdom of Christ. As if the pro- 
 phet wished in this Psalm, as an example, to prove that which 
 he had declared in the first Psalm, 'That all things whatso- 
 ever he doeth, as far as it is understood with reference to 
 Christ, shall prosper.' 
 
 For to this tend those words of Ps. 48 -.4, 'And in thy maj- 
 esty ride on prosperously,' etc. And Ps. 118:25, 26, "O Lord, 
 prosper thou. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord." For the prosperity of Christ, as I said, Ps. i :3, is 
 not worldly, nor carnal, but spiritual. For what man is there, 
 who while Christ was suffering, would not have thought, that 
 he should ever have been one of the lowest men living, and 
 that he was the farthest from being king of all. Who would 
 not have believed, that the meditations of the people were then 
 hrmly established, and the farthest from being vain, when 
 they gloried that he was condemned to the curse of the cross 
 by the authority of God himself, and thought that their medi- 
 tations were established forever? Matt. 27 42, etc. 
 
 So necessary always are faith and hope in the works of 
 God, not only in the things that are to be borne, but in those 
 which are to be understood : which are always accomplished 
 contrary to all human sense and apprehension. 
 
 /\nd this also is a word of faith — "As^aiiist the Lord and 
 
PSALM II. 6l 
 
 against his Christ ;" for they seemed, Doth to all others and 
 also to themselves, to be acting for God and for his Christ. 
 Thus also, at this day and always, the ungodly work against 
 the glory of God, when they imagine they are working for 
 the glory of God. And it is thus that God governs the world, 
 making all its wisdom foolishness. So that they who are :on- 
 sidered to be acting for the glory of God, are acting to the 
 blasphemy of him ; and those who are accused of blaspheming 
 him, are the very persons who are truly contending for his 
 glory. Thus his way is in a hidden path, in faith, and in 
 holiness ; but 'the court which is without the temple is not 
 measured, because it is given to the Gentiles,' saitli John, Rev. 
 II :2. 
 
 David saith, first, "against the Lord," and then, against 
 his anointed." For all sin first of all ofi:'ends God. Because 
 he is not only righteousness, but also the love of righteousness ; 
 and all who love righteousness receive it from him. If it 
 did not ofifend God, it would not be sin. 
 
 But he moreover orders his words thus, that we may learn 
 for our consolation and exhortation, that we never suffer any 
 injury, but what offends God first, and more than it does us; 
 and that such is the care of God our Father over us, that he 
 feels every injury done to us before we do, and levels a greater 
 indignation against it. This David holds forth to us, that we 
 may keep ourselves from all feeling of revenge ; nay, that we 
 may rather pity those whom we see rushing, on our account, 
 upon such majesty, unto their own perdition ; while they not 
 only do not in the least injure us, but merely horribly destroy 
 themselves. For God saith, "he that toucheth you toucheth 
 tlie apple of his eye," Zech. 2 :8. 
 
 Hence the prophet, sympathetically grieving from his heart, 
 as it were, at their rashness, first begins in an interrogative 
 form, asking why they raged? why they made themselves a 
 derision? why, like fools, they attempted impossibilities. O 
 that they would be wise and understand ! And then, fn a way 
 
62 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of exhortation, he admonishes them that they should attempt 
 soHd things instead of vain, that is, that they should rather 
 receive instruction and understanding, and be brought to serve 
 Christ in fear. 
 
 Moreover, by the very tenderness of his words, he sufficient- 
 ly extenuates their vanity and fruitless attempts, saying they 
 'raged,' 'meditated,' 'stood up,' and 'took counsel together.' As 
 if he had said, ye may rage but ye cannot destroy ; ye may 
 meditate, and talk, and prate much, but ye will effect nothing. 
 Let your kings decree, but it shall not come to pass ; let your 
 rulers take counsel, but it shall come to naught. What there- 
 fore is left you but that in vain ye wish to accomplish many 
 things, that ye attempt mighty things, and try every means, 
 and at last see nothing accomplished, but every thing turns 
 out just contrary to your wishes? 
 
 Thus God will permit ragings, counsels, and atempts, to 
 be stirred up by the ungodly against the godly. But all these 
 are like the swelling waves of the sea, which swell and rush 
 toward the shore, as if they would utterly overwhelm it ; but, 
 beiore they reach the shore, they sink into themselves and 
 vanish, or are dashed on the shore with a vain and empty noise. 
 For the righteous r-'an, like the shore, being firmly established 
 in the faith of Christ, confidently contemns all these unavail- 
 ing threats, and these swellings that will soon sink into naught ; 
 for he knov/s that Moab is exalted in pride and that his pre- 
 sumption is greater than his strength, and his indignation than 
 his power, as Is. i6:6, and Jer. 48 128, etc. teach 
 
 And by this cross the ungodly are tortured according to 
 their deserts, for it is a dreadful torment to wish to hurt all and 
 to be able to hurt none. And hence, the heathen have said 
 concerning envy, 
 
 Sicilian tyrants never could invent 
 A torment, like an envy-bitten heart ! 
 
 And this has so much the more wonderful effect in Christ- 
 ian matters; because, the ungodly not only are tormented 
 
PSALM II. 63 
 
 and cannot hurt any one, but, in the counsel of God, are 
 compelled by this their nature and their vain contrivances to 
 promote, more than any thing else does, that which they at- 
 tempt to hinder ; so that his friends cannot profit a Christian 
 so much as his enemies do. 
 
 V. 3. — Let us break their bonds (bands) asunder, and 
 east a-cvay their cords (yoke)froni us. 
 
 These words ought to be connected with the preceding, 
 they 'raged,' 'meditated,' 'stood up, etc ;' but the sense may be, 
 they raged and roared, they meditated this, they decreed this, 
 they concluded this, — to therefore take their necks from under 
 the yoke of God and of Christ, to break their bands asunder, 
 and to say, "we will not that this man reign over us," Luke 
 19:14; or Job 21:14-15, "Depart from us, for we desire not 
 the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty that we 
 should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray 
 unto him?" For the prophet represents the wicked as thus 
 speaking. 
 
 Some are of one opinion and some of another ; but I follow 
 this sense of the passage. And therefore, as to the scruple 
 that stands in the way of many that he here uses the plural 
 number "their;" that is all to be referred to the Lord and to 
 his Anointed, who are without doubt two Persons, the sender 
 and the sent. As if he had said, they rejected both the mes- 
 senger and the king, and would not receive their counsels. 
 
 And that by "bonds" and "yoke" are metaphorically or 
 allegorically signified the divine commandments, Jeremiah 
 proves in this passage, "Then I said, surely these are poor ; 
 they are foolish ; for they know not the way of Jehovah nor 
 the law of their God. I will get me unto the great men, and 
 will sneak unto them ; for they know the way of Jehovah, and 
 the justice of their God: but these, with one accord, have 
 broken the yoke and burst the bonds." Jer. 5 :4-5. And again, 
 "For of old time thou hast broken my yoke and burst my 
 bands," Jer. 2 :20. Though this passage is corrupted ; for in 
 
64 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the Hebrew it is God that speaks in the first person, "For of 
 old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds :" that 
 the one bond may be represented as being contrary to the 
 other, the one yoke to the other, the way of God to the way 
 of man, and the judgment of God to the judgment of man. 
 
 These "bonds" are the commandments of Christ, by which 
 we are taught how to walk in his way. And this 'yoke' or these 
 'cords' are his judgments, by which we are prohibited from 
 doing evil. The former is the justification of the spirit, the 
 latter the mortification of the flesh. For there are two things 
 commanded : to depart from the evil, and to do good. The 
 former of which pertains unto mortifying the desires of the 
 ilesh, the latter unto doing good works. Nor does it make 
 any difference if these be transposed, and 'bonds' be received 
 as signifying the judgments, and 'yoke' as signifying right- 
 eousness ; for the sense remains the same, and when that is held 
 firmly, all contention about words is to be despised. 
 
 The whole verse then is allegorical. For by breaking is 
 signified despising and making of none effect, by bonds is signi- 
 fied commandments, by casting away, not obeying, by disre- 
 garding, not receiving, and by yoke is signified instruction and 
 the descipline of mortifying the flesh. But when I say allegor- 
 ical I do not mean, as our moderns use that term, that another 
 and a historical sense is so sought in the passage, contrary to 
 V hat it really means ; but, that its true and proper signification 
 is expressed in a figurative way. 
 
 For always note, that to the perverse all things are per- 
 verse, as it is written, "with the perverse thou wilt show thy- 
 self froward," Ps. 18:26. Thus they call the law of Christ, 
 which is the law of liberty and sweetness, "bands" and a 
 "yoke," signifying thereby that it is a bondage and state of 
 labour and difficulty, but, on the other hand they believe their 
 law, which is in truth a bondage and state of labour , to be 
 liberty and sweetness. Hence, to the ungodly all things work 
 together for evil ; and therefore it is said, Jer. 23 :38, "But if 
 
PSALM II. • 65 
 
 ye say the burden of Jehovah ; therefore thus saith Jehovah : 
 Because ye say this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have 
 sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of Jehovah. 
 Therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast 
 you off : and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you 
 and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten, etc. !" For 
 it must of necessity be that he who is pleased with the things 
 of himself is not pleased with the things of God. 
 
 And here again there is need of the eyes of faith, for when 
 David says these things he does not intend to say that these 
 ungodly men really meant the Lord and his Anointed when 
 they said, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away 
 their cords from us ;" because, in rejecting Christ, they believed 
 that they were acting for the glory of God and of his law. 
 But the prophet who says, "the Lord and his Anointed" is 
 describing that Lord and his x^nointed as rejected by them 
 while they were ignorant of what they were doing. Observe 
 therefore, whether he does not use an allegory throughout the 
 whole verse, in order to show that they pretended one thing 
 and did another, and, in their blindness, exhibited a certain 
 allegory in their conduct, rejecting the Lord and his Anointed 
 at the very time that they pretended most of all to act for 
 their glory. 
 
 We may conclude, that David made use of the pronoun 
 "their" in this passage in order that he may both meditate on, 
 and understand, the Lord and his Anointed within himself, and 
 also at the same time set forth their open contempt of the 
 Anointed in not considering him worthy of that name, much 
 less acknowledging him to be both Lord and Christ. 
 
 Thus far, therefore, has the prophet been describing the 
 attempts of the ungodly in refusing to have liiui appointed 
 king whom God had already set up ; wherein they plotted not 
 only against Christ, but much more against the appointment 
 of God. Which same thing was exemplified in the case of 
 David and Saul ; for David was anointed king by the divine 
 
66 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 command, hut Saul resisted both God and David in this appoint- 
 ment with the most determined obstinac3^ And indeed he 
 raged, meditated many things, decreed niany things, and often 
 took counsels against him just in the same way. But as all 
 his presumptive attempts were vain, so were also all those 
 of the Jews and gentiles against Christ. It now follows ; 
 
 V. 4. — ''He that sittcth in the heavens will laugh (at 
 them) ; the Lord shall have them in derision." 
 
 This tautology or repetition of the same thing, which is 
 frequent in the scriptures, is a sign of the thing being establish- 
 ed ; according to the authority of the patriarch Joseph, Gen. 
 41 :32, where, having interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh, he 
 said, "and for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh, it 
 is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly 
 bring it to pass." And therefore, here also, "shall laugh at 
 them" and "shall have them in derision" are a repetition, to 
 show that there is not a doubt to be entertained that all these 
 things will most surely come to pass. 
 
 The gracious Spirit does all this for our comfort and con- 
 solation, that we may not faint under temptation, but lift up 
 otir heads with the most certain hope, because "he that shall 
 come will come and will not tarry," Heb. 10:37. Wherefore, 
 although in all human modes of expression tautology is a de- 
 fect and deemed superfluous, yet, in the things of God it is 
 most highly necessary ; because, "hope deferred," as the wise 
 man saith, "maketh the heart sick," Prov. 13 :i2, that true hope, 
 I mean, which labors under sufferings and the cross ; for all 
 delay is tolerable to those who are laboring in the sufferings 
 of Christ. Therefore, they have need of the all-firm and all- 
 sure promise of God to support them. 
 
 And as, on the one hand, consolation cannot be sufficiently 
 pressed upon the afflicted from the promises of good things, 
 so, on the other, terror cannot be sufficiently thundered against 
 the insensible, the hardened, and the unbelieving, from the 
 threatenings of evil things. Therefore, in these things there 
 
PSALM II. 67 
 
 is need of tautology, that the ungodly may be hurled into terror 
 by sure and certain denunciations. For as the former have 
 always too much fear and too little hope and confidence, so 
 the latter have always too much security and hope without any 
 fear; as it is written, Ps. 36:1, "There is no fear of God before 
 their eyes." Hence the latter want the fear of God, but the 
 former want a hope in his mercy ; that thus, the middle and 
 right way may be preserved which is thus described, "Jehovah 
 taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in 
 his loving kindness," Ps. 147:11. 
 
 These things, therefore, are written for our sakes, "that 
 through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we 
 might have hope," Rom. 15:4. For wh'at is here written with 
 reference to Christ is applicable to all Christians, for whoever 
 sincerely desires to be a Christian, especially if he teaches the 
 word of Christ, will bear with his Herods, his Pilates, his 
 rulers, his kings, his people, and his heathen, who rage against 
 him, meditate vain things, rise up, and take counsel together, 
 against him. For if these things are not done by men, they 
 will be done by devils, or at least by men's own consciences, 
 and certainly in the hour of death ; and then there is need of our 
 remembering this and the like consolations, "He that dwelleth 
 in the heavens shall laugh at them ; the Lord shall have them 
 in derision," and of standing firmly in this hope and being 
 moved by no circumstances whatever. 
 
 And, that the confidence of the afflicted may be the more 
 firm, he emphatically saith, "shall laugh at them" and 'shall 
 have them in derision." As if he had said, so certain is it 
 that they attempt vain things, although those things may appear 
 to all human sense to be the most firmly established that the 
 Lord will not deign to resist them as in any great and serious 
 matter, but, as in a trifling matter and a thing of naught, he 
 will "laugh at them" and "have them in derision." As it is 
 written also, Ps. 37:12-13, "The wicked plotteth against the 
 just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord will 
 
Ob LUTHEE ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 laugh at him ; for he seeth that his day is coming." And it 
 goes on to say that our adversaries are not only to be cut down 
 but to be held in derision. 
 
 O what a power of faith is required in all these words ! 
 For who would have thought, while Christ was sufit'ering and 
 the Jews triumphing, tliat God was laughing at them all the 
 while! And so also, while we are oppressed, how shall we 
 believe that God is holding our adversaries in derision, when it 
 seems to ourselves that we are held in derision both by God 
 and men? 
 
 But, as I have said, this derision is divine. For God made 
 the Christ-murdering Jews and Gentiles a derision to the whole 
 world by raising Christ from the dead and making, out of his 
 despairing kingdom among that one people, a kingdom that 
 shall flourish eternally over all creatures, thus turning all their 
 endeavours into an event the directly contrary of what they 
 expected; so that we can sing, Ps. 113:4, "J^^ovah is high 
 above all nations, and his glory above the heavens ;" and yet, 
 that same God was humbled under all the Jews and his ignom- 
 iny went even under the earth. Therefore, as in the preceding 
 verses the passion and death of Christ are prophesied, so in this 
 verse his resurrection is predicted, though by a somewhat ob- 
 scure allusion. 
 
 But what is the intent of these words "He that sitteth in 
 the heavens ?" It sets forth the quiet and wonderfully hidden 
 Judge for the raising of our hope. He sitteth in the heaven, 
 who is concerned for us. He sitteth there in quiet and safety. 
 Though we are distressed he is not distressed whose care we 
 are. We are tossed to and fro, but he sits unmoved that the 
 righteous may not be tossed to and fro for ever. Ps. 55 :23. 
 
 But his sitting in heaven is so secret and hidden, that unless 
 tliou be in heaven thou canst not know and understand it. 
 Thou art suffering upon earth, in waters, and under all creat- 
 ures, and the hope of help is denied thee by all and in all things, 
 until, rising by faith and hope above all these things, thou 
 
PSALM II. 69 
 
 mountest up to reach unto him that sitteth in the heavens ; and 
 then thou also sittest in the heavens, hut in faith and hope. 
 Here therefore it is, that the anchor of our heart is to be cast 
 in all tribulations, and in this way all the evils of the world 
 will not only be made easy to be borne, but will become a 
 derision. 
 
 V. 5. — Then zuill he speak unto them in his zvrath, and 
 vex them in his sore displeasure; 
 
 That which has been said concerning tautology in the pre- 
 ceding verse holds good also in this. For to the insensible and 
 haters and despisers of God, enough that is terrible cannot be 
 said. For that Leviathan, Behemoth, describer in Job 41 :i7-i9, 
 'esteemeth iron as straw, darts as stubble, and brass as rotten 
 wood. The arrow cannot make him flee, sling-stones are turned 
 by him into stubble,' etc. Though this perhaps may not be 
 considered as tautology. 
 
 When then does he "speak to them in his anger?" or what 
 is his anger? It is then, when he has them in derision. This 
 we shall see when we inquire from the scriptures what it is 
 for God to speak in his anger. Jeremiah saith, chap. 18:7, T 
 will speak suddenly against a nation and against a kingdom, 
 to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it,' etc. 
 
 Therefore, "to speak in anger" is to root up and to destroy ; 
 and this is what came upon the Jews, who said, "the Romans 
 will come and take away both our place and our nation. It 
 is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, 
 and that the whole nation perish not," John 1 1 148-50. All 
 these vain meditations the Lord had in derision, until that which 
 the wicked feared came upon them ; for the Lord rooted up, 
 pulled down, and destroyed them by the Romans. This "anger" 
 and "hot displeasure" of God, therefore, are the fury of the 
 Romans. Hence, Is. 10:5-6, "Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine 
 anger, the staff in whose hand is mine indignation. I will send 
 him against a profane, that is, an hypocritical and dissembling 
 nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a 
 
70 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 charge," etc. Which words, according to my judgment, are 
 spoken of the Roman army. For when he saith "I will give 
 him a charge," it is the same as is said in this verse, "shall speak 
 unto them;" because all things are done by the command and 
 Word of God, as it is written, ''He spake and it was done," 
 etc. Ps, 33 :g. 
 
 Wherefore, these words "shall speak" are to be taken ab- 
 solutely in this way : He shall speak, that is, he shall decree, 
 command, and ordain by his word ; but it shall be against them, 
 and not in their favor; and therefore, not in mercy but in 
 wrath. For he speaks also against the righteous and his own 
 children, when he commands the cross and death to be brought 
 upon them, according to that of 2 Sam. 16:10, "Jehovah hath 
 said unto him, curse David," but in mercy. And if the preposi- 
 tion 'unto' be changed into 'against,' and the verb 'speak' into 
 'command,' the text will be more clear, — "Then shall he com- 
 mand against them in his anger." 
 
 Nor will he only pull down and destroy them, he will also 
 distress them; for he shall consume them outwardly by arms 
 and inwardly by dread. And indeed he distresses his own 
 children also and terrifies them with alarming fears ; as was 
 the case with Christ in the garden. But he distressed the Jews 
 while they were in the act of being destroyed and slaughtered 
 by the Romans, with a perpetually foreboding dread. For it is 
 impossible that the ungodly man, when drawing near unto 
 death, should not be under unceasing dread and apprehension. 
 It would have been a light punishment if they had been des- 
 stroyed only, but their having been destroyed in anger was that 
 which increased the horror of their calamity ; and, what was 
 the most awful of all, after having been destroyed and slaught- 
 ered, they were destined to be punished in wrath and to be 
 launched through death into eternal horrors. 
 
 Behold, therefore, what a catalogue''' of dreadful punish- 
 
 *Weimar. catalogium for catalogum. 
 
PSALM II. 71 
 
 ments are prepared for the murderers of Christ. First, being 
 stripped of all their glory, in the pride of which chiefly they 
 raged against Christ, they are made a derision to God and to 
 all men, and see themselves surrounded by ignominious shame 
 on every side, which is no small calamity to proud and envious 
 men. Secondly, deprived of every thing that could afford them 
 any help, they are laid waste, rooted out, and destroyed ; so that 
 they have not, even with respect to their bodies, the least degree 
 of comfort. And lastly, the sum of all their calamities is that 
 tribulation and anguish will torture their souls to all eternity. 
 
 Thus, they are utterly destroyed in their fame, in their 
 bodies, and in things eternal ; and there is not one creature, nor 
 God himself, propitious toward them. Here then, I ask, who 
 would not pity his enemies ,who would not lament for them, 
 who would not endure all things for them, and even from them, 
 when he firmly believed that all these intolerable evils hung over 
 their heads ? For only observe the order of these evils. 
 
 First, they are laughed at and held in derision, while all 
 their glory is turned into the deepest confusion, which is the 
 greatest thing they possess. Secondly, they are destroyed and 
 deprived of all their property and patrimony, which is another 
 possession. Finally they are terrified with dreadful apprehen- 
 sions, all hope and confidence of spirit being taken away, which 
 is their inward and last possession. And these are they who 
 are made like dust before the wind. And again you see that 
 the punishment of the wicked is here described as being fear 
 and horror. For as the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, 
 and safety, so, of necessity, hell must be sin, dread, and horror. 
 
 V.6, Yet I have set my king upon my holy liill of Zion. 
 Rev. Ver. 
 
 V. 6. — Yet am I set by him as king iipon his holy hill of 
 Zion (Viilgate). 
 
 Here the person is changed, for it is not David now speak- 
 ing in his own person, but it is Christ that speaks. The Hebrew, 
 however, rather makes it to be the Person of the Father speak- 
 
']2 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ing and saying, "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of 
 Zion." But I do not think this a matter of so much moment 
 that there should be any contention or dispute about it, because 
 each sense is equally good, except that the Hebrew text, by a 
 figure of speech very usual in the scriptures, rather favors 
 that reading which gives the authority to the Father, according 
 to that of Ps. iio:i, "Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at 
 my right hand," and that of Ps. 89 127, "I also will make him 
 my first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth," Stapulen- 
 sis thinks that it may be rendered "But I have anointed my 
 king," resting upon those words of the believers. Acts 4 127, 
 where they say, 'Against thy holy Servant Jesus, whom thou 
 didst anoint were they gathered together.' But those believers 
 seem to have taken the word "hast anointed," not from the 
 present verse, but rather from the second, for citing that, they 
 had said just before 'against his Christ,' ver. 26, which is the 
 same as saying against his anointed, and which, from a holy 
 desire to confirm the truth, they repeat in verse 27. As if they 
 would say, most truly he is Christ, and the Anointed, whom 
 thou hast anointed, that is, whom thou has made Christ. 
 
 According to my poor way of judging, I think that "my 
 holy," if the Hebrew did not counsel us to couple it with Zion, 
 does not inappropriately apply to Christ ; so that the sense may 
 be, "I have set my king upon my hill of Zion," not an indiffer- 
 ent person, but him who is my "holy one" anointed of me by 
 the "Holy One of God," and, the Holy One of Israel, as in Ps. 
 x6:io, "Neither wilt thou sufifer thine Holy One to see corrup- 
 tion." And Ps. 89 :i8, "For our shield belongeth unto Jehovah ; 
 and our king to the Holy One of Israel." But the Hebrew, 
 as I have said, has it "my holy mountain." 
 
 The meaning of the passage therefore is. They have gather- 
 ed themselves together against me and my King, and would not 
 that he should reign over them. But my counsel shall stand 
 and I will perform all my pleasure. Who is able to stand be- 
 fore me ? They have killed him, but I have set him up as King ! 
 
PSALM 11. l^' I 73 
 
 They have withdrawn themselves from under him, but I have 
 placed my holy hill of Zion and all the kingdoms of the earth 
 in subjection to him! Thus, they are laughed at and held in 
 derision, and openly shown to have meditated vain things ! 
 
 This verse strikes at the general doctrine of pride and arro- 
 gance, than which nothing more insolently prevails at this time 
 in the church of Christ. For Paul thus applies this text, Heb. 
 5 :4-5, "And no man taketh the honor unto himself but when 
 he is called of God even as was Aaron." So Christ also glorified 
 not himself to be made a high-priest, but he that spake unto 
 him, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." And 
 again, Ps. iio:i, "Sit thou on my right hand." And this is 
 wiiat nearly the whole of this present Psalm inculcates ; which 
 describes all the things of Christ as ordained of the Father, 
 and not arrogantly assumed or courted by Christ. Whereas, 
 our decrees have now for many years scarcely been employed 
 about any thing else but dignity, power, privileges, and a great 
 and stinking filth of ambition, without any appointing or or- 
 daining from God. 
 
 The church of Christ is called "Mount Zion," because it 
 was there begun and instituted by the sending of the Holy 
 Ghost. And although it is confined to no particular place, yet 
 it was necessary that it should have a beginning from some 
 certain place. And from thence it was spread throughout all 
 the earth, that the words of Christ, John 4 :2, might be ful- 
 filled, "The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this moun- 
 tain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father." Thus new, 
 the church has every place and yet no place. 
 
 And, under the influence and teaching of the Holy Spirit, 
 such a modesty was preserved by the Jerusalem church, that 
 it never contended with other churches for precedence and 
 dignity, as the Roman and Constantinopolitan churches did, 
 in a long and scandalous warfare; whereas, if precedency be 
 considered, this church ought to have been preferred by all 
 right to every other, both because Christ was its high priest and 
 
74 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 appointed King by God the Father, and because the true church 
 rose there, from which all other churches sprung, which is the 
 mother of all others, and in which all the apostles and desciples, 
 the elders as it were, were born. But God would not permit 
 her to arrogate to herself any supremacy, that he might show 
 us how he reprobated such arrogance, and how he forbade such 
 to be assumed by any church whatever, even by his own to 
 whom it was due. 
 
 This I say not that I would condemn the supreme dominion 
 (monarchiam) of the Romish church, but because I detest that 
 it should ride with force and oppression and that it should usurp 
 its authority by virtue of the command of God, when it is 
 established by the mutual agreement of the believer and by 
 the bond of love, so that it is a dominion not of a commanding 
 force but of serving love. This arrogance I reject, the thing 
 itself I commend. Gold is not evil but avarice is. The flesh 
 is not evil but. the lust of the flesh is. And here has Christ 
 rendered vigilant resistance since he never suffered that the 
 churches of the orient should be subject to this church of the 
 Occident. 
 
 Therefore the church is called Mount Zion by the figure 
 of speech most common in the scriptures, synecdoche, which 
 speaks of the containing for the contained, as, the city of Jeru- 
 salem for the people of that city. Nor is it so called on that 
 account only, but also as conveying an allegory in its name, 
 nature, and form. 
 
 The naine Zion signifies 'a distant view' (spcculam), a 
 watch tower or observatory. And the church is called 'a distant 
 view' (specula), not only because it views God and heavenly 
 things by faith, that is, afar off, being wise unto the things that 
 are above, not unto those that are on the earth ; but also, because 
 there are within her true viewers, or seers, and watchmen in 
 the spirit, whose office it is to take charge of the people under 
 them, and to watch against the snares of enemies and sins ; and 
 such are called, in the Greek, bishops {episcopoi), that is, spy- 
 
PSALM II. 75 
 
 ers or seers ; and you may for the same reason give them, from 
 the Hebrew, the appellation of Zionians or Zioners. 
 
 The nature of Zion is that it is a mountain. So also is 
 the church before God lofty in spiritual height, on account of 
 the greatness of her virtues, gifts, graces, acts, etc. wherein 
 God has highly exalted her above all the power, wisdom, and 
 righteousness of men; according to Is. 2:2 and Mic. 4:1, "And 
 it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of 
 Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the moun- 
 tains, and shall be exalted above the hills." All this I am ob- 
 liged to interpret again and again on account of those carnal 
 dreamers, who are always twisting the words of God to favour 
 worldly pomp. But the church is exajted above all the power 
 and height of the world, not in riches and influence, but in faith, 
 hope, love, and all those virtues that despise the riches and 
 power of the world. For though the church is now exalted 
 in all this worldly wealth and power, i-t does not properly be- 
 long to it, but is a certain strange Leviathan that has intruded; 
 and therefore, it has in the same proportion decreased in the 
 wisdom of the word of God, in holiness of life, and in the virtue 
 of works, etc. ; for these are the true hills and mountains of the 
 church of Christ, in which the world cannot rival her, and in 
 which she has ever surpassed the world if she who does such 
 things may be called the church, for it is certain that the true 
 church of Christ ever remains the same. 
 
 Again, the form of Mount Zion was this. It rose into 
 a summit on the south and had the city of Jerusalem on its 
 declivity on the north side, the city itself being situated on the 
 side of the hill. Thus Ps. 48 :2, "Beautiful in elevation, the joy 
 of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, 
 the city of the great King." 
 
 Thus the declivity and acclivity may signify the internal 
 warfare of the people of Christ between the flesh and the spirit : 
 the flesh tendeth downward to the north, the spirit upward to 
 the south. Or, it may represent those two kinds of life, the 
 
76 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 working and the viewing. The one tends downward to an em- 
 ployment in temporal concerns for the benefit of others ; the 
 other ascends upwards unto heavenly things, and is always on 
 the hill of view, where the bishops or seers are, who excel in 
 the word and in life, and who drav/ others unto them. In the 
 midst of whom stands Mount Moriah, the Mount of the temple, 
 and that is Christ, both God and Man, who embraces both these 
 lives, and decrees in the midst of both ; even as Mount Moriah, 
 situated in the midst of Jerusalem under Mount Zion, repre- 
 sents in a figure. 
 
 For this Mount Moriah, that is, the Mount of Vision, is that 
 on which Abraham offered up his son and on which afterward 
 Solomon built the temple. And thus also, we are offered up 
 on Christ like Isaac, and are built up by the true Solomon a 
 temple of God. For Christ is our Mount Moriah ; because God 
 sees no one, and acknowledges no one, who is not offered up 
 and built up on this place, that is, on Christ, and in Christ, for 
 the eyes of God are on this place only. And therefore, he is 
 called the Mountain on which God will look for ever, Gen. 
 22:14. Whereas, the heretics and the proud raise to them- 
 selves other mountains of vision, or rather, of no vision, while 
 they wish by their righteousness and works to merit the respect 
 of God. 
 
 And this mountain is called "holy," not from that figurative 
 holiness of the law and external consecrations, for these things 
 are spoken in the spirit. And therefore, not being content with 
 saying "holy mountain," God adds "my." As if he had said, 
 the mountain which is holy from my holiness ; not that holi- 
 ness by which the stones, wood, and coals are sanctified, but 
 by which the mind and body are sanctified through the unction 
 of the grace of the Spirit and purified day by day through faith, 
 hope and love. For that is "holy" which is separated from 
 every profane use and dedicated to sacred and divine uses only. 
 This separation is made ceremonially and literally by high- 
 
PSALM II. 'J'J 
 
 priests who are men, but which, in truth and in spirit, is 
 wrought by the Holy Ghost being shed abroad in our hearts. 
 
 By all these things God manifestly distinguishes the king- 
 dom of Christ from every other kingdom. For it is concerning 
 this king only that he says, "I have set," or '*! am set." And, 
 as the person speaking is the invisible, spiritual God, it shows 
 that the appointer of this king is a spiritual appointer, for God 
 appoints all other kings not by himself as here, but apoints men 
 by the instrumentality of men, the visible by the instrumentality 
 of the visible. Therefore, the kingdom of Christ is not of this 
 world, but in spirit and in truth. And he says also "my king, 
 not a king of men, or whom men have appointed. Wherefore, 
 Christ is a king in spirit and before God, 
 
 And moreover, although he is set upon the hill of Zion, 
 yet to "hill of Zion" there is added "my holy," or "his holy," 
 that the kingdom of Christ may be understood to be the people 
 indeed of Zion, but that people who are made "holy" by a 
 spiritual holiness. 
 
 Here you again see, that the church of Christ does not 
 consist in the power, nor in the wisdom, nor in the dignity of 
 the world. Though there are some who pratingly affirm, that 
 outside of this new monarchy there is no Christian. Whereas 
 the power of such a monarchy has nothing whatever to do with 
 spiritual holiness. 
 
 V. 7. — / ivlll tell of the (declaring Jiis) decree, Jehovah 
 (the Lord) said unto me, Thou art my son, this day Jiave I 
 begotten thee. 
 
 The Hebrew in this passage begins this seventh verse thus, 
 "I will declare the decree : Jehovah said unto me," all which 
 agrees, and, according to my judgment, is intended to let us 
 know porticularly what "decree" it is, of which he would here 
 be understood as speaking, and which he says he will declare. 
 It is that which he immediately adds, "Jehovah hath said unto 
 me, thou art my Son," etc. This, saith he, I have given unto 
 me as a decree, and unto this I am appointed King, that I might 
 
78 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 declare unto all that I am the Son of God : for I ought to glori- 
 fy my Father. And this is the scope of the whole gospel, that 
 Christ is the Son of God. As in Matt. 16:15-16, "Who say ye 
 that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God." And upon this rock the 
 church is built. 
 
 Hence Paul saith, i Cor. i 124, 'But we preach Christ, the 
 power of God, and the wisdom of God.' And Christ himself 
 throughout the whole Gospel of John does nothing else than 
 manifest himself to be the Son of God, always speaking of 
 God as his Father. And this was what was brought against 
 him at his crucifixion as a capital crime. For Christ came to 
 plant and establish that faith w^hereby men believe him to be 
 the Son of God. And this faith is the fulfilment of all laws, the 
 righteousness that endureth for ever, the work of praising God, 
 the mortification of the flesh, the quickening of the Spirit, the 
 victory over the world, the victory over the flesh, and the vic- 
 tory over hell! as he himself saith, Matt. 16:18, "The gates of 
 hell shall not prevail against it." And so also John 8 124, "Ex- 
 cept ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." And 
 again, John 6:47, "He that believeth hath eternal life."*) 
 
 Hence, the epistles of the apostles are full of the doctrine of 
 faith, because that doctrine is eternal life, as John saith, chap. 
 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son, hath eternal life: but 
 he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of 
 God abideth on him." And again, chap. 12:49-50, Christ 
 saiih, "For I spake not from myself; but the Father that sent 
 me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say and 
 vvhat I should speak. And I know that his commandment is 
 life eternal," etc. It is fully manifest, therefore, that he de- 
 clared the commandment of God, that is, faith in himself as the 
 Son of God unto the salvation of all who should receive him 
 and believe on his name, etc. John i :i2. 
 
 *) St. Louis Walch gives John 11:26, "Whosoever liveth and 
 believeth on me shall never die." 
 
PSALM II. 79 
 
 But you will say, if this was the design of the holy Spirit, 
 why did he not make use of plainer words, in this manner, 'I 
 will declare the command of God, that I am his Son, and that 
 this day he has begotten me,' etc. I answer : The Holy Spirit 
 is ever like himself. For thus, Christ, throughout the Gospel 
 of John, whenever he is speaking of his own divinity, always 
 observes to bring in the authority of the Father, and to refer 
 unto the Father all that he himself is. "I speak not from my- 
 self," John 14:10, "My teaching is not mine," John 7:16, "The 
 Father abiding in me doeth his works," John 14:10. Together 
 Vv'ith many other scriptures of the same kind. 
 
 Thus also here, when he says that he will declare, by the 
 decree of the Father, that he is the Son of God, he first intro- 
 duces the Father as speaking unto him, in order that we may 
 hear more the Father in the Son speaking of the Son, than 
 the Son speaking of himself. So that the sense is, T will de- 
 clare the decree of God, that I am the Son of God. But I will 
 not do this by my own authority, lest I should seem to boast 
 of myself. Nay, I will rather declare unto you what the 
 Father has said of me, that ye may hear him speaking of me, 
 who commanded me to declare that which he said unto me; 
 that thus ye may believe me concerning myself upon his author- 
 ity. 
 
 And observe also this change of the persons. At one time 
 • L is the Fathers words ; at another, the words of the Son, de- 
 claring the words of the Father concerning himself, which 
 is a holy and sacred diversity, commending unto us the nature 
 and equality of the Godhead in a more holy manner than 
 I, from my impurity and unvvorthiness, dare to set forth 
 any farther. In a word this Psalm is one of the most im- 
 portant Psalms of the whole Psalter. This is sufficiently proved 
 upon the authority of the apostle Paul, who, when speaking 
 of the divine generation, says, Heb. i :5, "Unto which of the 
 angels said he at any time, thou art my Son, this day have I 
 begotten thee?" 
 
8o LUTPIER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Now every one will observe for himself that the words 
 of the Father express an only begotten Son. 'He said unto 
 me only, not unto many, Thou art my holy Son.' Distinguish- 
 ing most certainly by such remarkable and particular words 
 this one especial Son from all others, concerning which, Ps. 
 89:6 saith, ''Who among the sons of God is like unto Jehovah? 
 As if he had said, there are many sons of God but only One 
 among them who is God. And who is like unto him? And 
 again, 'I have begotten thee,' 'I only,' 'thee only,' etc. 
 
 And how discerningly and worthily have all the holy fathers 
 interpreted this passage, "This day have I begotten thee ?" that 
 is, in eternity. For that is an eternal generation which is born, 
 and will be born, without end. And to be a Son, is to be born 
 of a Father. But Christ neither began to be born, nor will 
 ever cease to be born, but is ever being born in a present nativ- 
 ity. He is rightly said therefore to be begotten "to-day," that 
 is, being always begotten. For "to-day" implies neither a ves- 
 lerday nor a to-morrow, but always a present time, a to-day. 
 As is is said, John 8 .-58, "Before Abraham was I am." 
 
 Where are ye now, ye miserable, proud mortals, who am- 
 bitiously seek, or hold the place of this king in the church ? who 
 declare not the command of God, nor preach Jesus Christ the 
 Sen of God crucified for the salvation of them that believe, but 
 amass riches, wallow in luxuries, and revel in a pompous show 
 of all things ? This Son of God who is appointed King does not 
 seek his own, but declares the decree of God, and receives his 
 kingdom, not for himself, but for the salvation of others, to 
 the glory of God the Father. 
 
 But this one office of the Word, which is the great duty of 
 bishops, is the one duty that is above all others omitted. And, 
 !t there be others who teach in their stead, they teach not the 
 "command" of God, not Christ, but their own fables, or, at 
 best, only the laws and traditions of men. Therefore, believe 
 not that the church, the holy mountain of God is there where 
 Christ does not teach Christ in all purity. For it is a word of 
 
PSALM II. Ol 
 
 important weight when Christ says, "I will declare the com- 
 mand "of God," not the command, counsel, and histories of 
 men. And "I" myself will declare it. For if Christ does not 
 speak in us, we shall never declare the command of God of 
 ourselves. He saith 'I will be in thy mouth,' Ex. 4:12, and, 
 "C>pen thy mouth wide, and I will fill it," Ps. 81 :io. 
 
 Our translation of this passage, therefore, does not in the 
 least differ from the Hebrew in sense. And though a diversity 
 in the reading will sometimes make a little difference in the 
 sense, yet if the same truth be held firmly the diversity in the 
 reading will do no harm ; therefore I wish not to be contentious. 
 
 This verse distinguishes the kind of doctrine taught in the 
 New Testament from that which was taught in the Old. In 
 tlie Old the law was taught, which work'eth wrath, Rom. 4:15, 
 and increases sin ; but now, faith, which worketh the re- 
 r.iission of sins and fulfilleth all righteousness. In the former 
 tlierefore was the manlawgiver and servant, Moses : in the lat- 
 ter the God-lawgiver, Christ, the Lord of all. The former made 
 men to be the servants of sin : the latter makes them free in 
 righteousness. 
 
 Not that the law is not taught now also, for Christ saith. 
 Matt. 13:52, that a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of 
 heaven brings forth things new and old ; but grace is the pecul- 
 "iar preaching under the New Testament, and the works of the 
 law under the Old. And as there is no one in this life in 
 v/hom all the fulness of the New Testament is accomplished, 
 so no one can be found, in w^iom there is not some part of the 
 Old Testament remaining. For this life is a certain passage 
 and transition out of the law into grace, out of sin into right- 
 euosness, and out of Moses into Christ ; but the consummation 
 will be after the resurrection that is to come. 
 
 V. 8. — Ask of me, and I ivill give thcc the nations (heath 
 en) for thine inheritanee, and the uttermost parts of the eartJi 
 for t/iy possession. 
 
 And this also belonsrs to the "decree" which Christ received 
 
82 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of the Father, who commanded him to declare it. The Lord 
 said unto me, and the Lord commanded me to ask of him the 
 heathen for my inheritance. And this command 1 will declare, 
 that ye may know and believe that I am appointed, not only 
 king over Mount Zion, his holy mountain, that is, over the 
 people of Israel, but also the heir and Lord of all things ; that 
 he who shall hear this command of the Father from me and 
 shall believe it may come unto the Father and be saved. 
 
 Here again, you see that the kingdom of Christ was not 
 assumed by him in arrogance, but confirmed unto him by the 
 authority and command of the Father. Hence the ambitious 
 are here so far from having any example or precedent set them, 
 that their vice is rebuked even by the authority of divine exam- 
 ple. Nor is this considered a sufficient reproof to their mon- 
 strous conduct, for Christ the Lord of all acts and does nothing 
 in the church without the command of God. But these wretch- 
 ed worms of men try and dare all things in their own rashness 
 in a church that is not their own. 
 
 . What is the reason, that, on being set as king upon Mount 
 Ziovi, he is not commanded to ask the kingdom of Mount Zion ? 
 and that the inheritance of the heathen is promised him, yet 
 not without his asking for it, nay, being commanded to ask 
 for it? Perhaps, it is because the blessing and kingdom of 
 Christ were promised to Israel in Abraham, but mercy was" 
 extended to the Gentiles without a promise. As in Rom. 1 5 : 
 8-9, "For I say that Christ hath been made a minister of the 
 circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the 
 premises given unto the fathers : and that the Gentiles might 
 glorify God for his mercy, etc." Thus, the truth was con- 
 firmed unto the Jews and the promises fulfilled unto them, but 
 mercy unto the Gentiles was freely and gratuitously imparted. 
 And hence mercy and truth are most frequently coupled to- 
 gether in the prophets. Though it was of gratuitous mercy 
 also that God condescended to make the promise. 
 
 Therefore, Zion is given to Christ for a kingdom, but the 
 
PSALM II, 83 
 
 Gentiles are given to him for an inheritance upon his asking 
 for them as a gift, as being those to whom the promise was 
 not made. Thus Is. 66:19-20. "And they shall declare my 
 glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your 
 brethren out of all nations for an offering unto the Lord." 
 Hence Israel is the kingdom and we Gentiles are the gift, like 
 the dowry of the daughter of Pharaoh, which Pharaoh king 
 of Egypt gave unto her. 
 
 In a word, when Christ is set as king upon Zion, he uses, 
 the plainest declarations of it, which at once show that such is 
 the case; but when he is declared to be the heir, he is first 
 commanded to ask, and it is promised unto him as that which 
 siiall be hereafter. All which things we see fulfilled in the 
 Acts of the Apostles ; for the disciples did not preach the Word 
 unto any but the Jews, until Paul being called from heaven 
 was sent unto the Gentiles. Christ, therefore, being now upon 
 earth, appointed king upon Mount Zion, asks for the Gentiles, 
 and when he reigns in heaven, he receives the Gntiles which 
 v/ere then promised unto him. Again, the words "of me" are 
 not spoken without a particular meaning. They are to show 
 that this kingdom and this inheritance of the Gentiles are con- 
 ferred on Christ, not by men, nor in any human way, but by 
 God, that is, spiritually. 
 
 And this is one of those passages against which they rashly 
 fight, who deny that any are Christians, except those who are 
 under the Pope of Rome. For such endeavor to make God 
 the Father a liar; because, he subjected the uttermost parts of 
 th.e earth unto Christ, whereas, they hold that all Europe is 
 not yet put under him. What ! can there be no Christians there 
 because the Turk or the Scythian reigns there temporally? 
 How then did there exist Christians at Rome under Nero and 
 Domitian ? What ! are there no bishops there because they do 
 not buy bishops' robes ? Are there no priests there because 
 they do not pay annats ? What if it be found, that those are the 
 more truly bishops wlio are the most free from opulence, pomp, 
 
84 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and pride and teach the word of God and oversee the people 
 cf Christ? For Paul certainly describes bishops, Acts 20:28, 
 as those who take heed unto the flock and feed the church of 
 God. "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock 
 in which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the 
 church of God." And though he is here speaking to the elders 
 as Jerome plainly collects from the text, and has shown from 
 the words, 'take heed,' which are, in the original, of a kindred 
 signification, yet cannot the ruling of the church and the taking 
 heed unto the flock be done by the ministry of the Word and 
 prayer only without all that noise and tumult of the bishops 
 which prevail at present everywhere? 
 
 Let us therefore, lest we should contract the inheritance of 
 Christ, not accuse the word of this psalm of a lie, either on 
 account of the perfidy of the Turks, or on account of any other 
 ni'dtitude of erroneous men. Otherwise, who even among us 
 shall know who are Christians in truth? Do not wicked men 
 abound among us also, while good men are few ? The author- 
 ity of the Word is greater than all our capacity. How much 
 greater, then, is it than all our suspicion and the phantom of 
 external appearance? 
 
 Augustine thinks that there is a tautology here, that is, that 
 the inheritance of the Gentiles and the possession of the utter- 
 most parts of the earth are the same, which tautology, as I 
 have before said, is a sign of the thing being established by 
 God, that our faith may rest upon it the more securely, namely, 
 that there are Christians also in other parts of the world, 
 where other apostles have preached, however much wickedness 
 may there prevail. 
 
 V. 9. — TJioii slialt break (rule) tJicm zvith a rod of iron, 
 and tJiou shalt dash (break) them in pieces like a potter's rcssel. 
 
 Here again the vain dreams of the flesh are to be removed 
 out of the way that no one might imagine that the kingdom of 
 Christ is either founded or preserved by iron or arms ; because 
 it is written, that he delighteth not in chariots, nor in horses. 
 
PSALM II. 85 
 
 nor in the legs of a man, Ps. 20:7; 147:10. And the apostle 
 saith, 2 Cor. 10:4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not 
 carnal." And the Turks, whom at this day we never seek to 
 conquer by any other means than by the sword, we ought to 
 conquer by increasing the number of Christians among them. 
 
 Why do we not attack with the sword also the wicked 
 among ourselves, especially the great ones of the people? But 
 God forbid. The kingdom of Christ consists in righteousness, 
 truth, and peace. By these it was obtained, and by the same 
 it Vv'ill be preserved. And hence when he said above that he 
 was appointed king, he recommended no other office whatever 
 besides that of the Word, saying, "I will declare the decree of 
 God ;" not, I will ride fine horses, I will lay waste cities, I will 
 seek the treasures of the world; but, I will do this one thing, 
 — declare those things which God hath commanded, that is, 
 that Christ is God and Man, which Paul, Rom. 1:1, calls the 
 gospel, saying, "Separated unto the gospel of God, which he 
 had promised afore, concerning his Son Jesus Christ, etc." 
 
 You see, therefore, that the whole of this verse is allegori- 
 cal; and not without cause, for it signifies a certain allegory 
 which really takes place in fact and life. For as the word of 
 Christ is the word of salvation and peace, not in the flesh, but 
 in the spirit, it of necessity follows, that it subdues and drives 
 out the safety, peace, life, and ease of the flesh. And where 
 it does this, it appears unto the flesh harder and more unfeeling 
 than iron itself. For wherever the carnal man is savingly 
 touched by the Word of God, one thing is felt, and another is 
 wrought, namely, that of i Sam. 2 16-7, "Jehovah killeth and 
 maketh alive ; he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. 
 tie bringeth low, he also lifteth up." 
 
 This allegorical work of God is beautifully described by 
 Is. 28:21, "That he may do his work, his strange work, and 
 bring to pass his act, his strange act." As if he had said, 
 though God is the God of life and salvation and these are his 
 proper works ; yet, in order to accomplish these, he kills and 
 
86 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 destroys, that he may thereby come unto his proper work. For 
 ]-ie kills our will, that he may establish his own in us. He 
 mortifies the flesh and its desires, that he may implant the 
 Spirit and his desires. 
 
 And this is the same thing as that which he said above 
 without allegory, "Declaring the command of God." For the 
 Spirit receives the Word of God as a most sweet command- 
 ment, and it is then that the holy mount Zion becomes his king- 
 dom, the heathen his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of 
 the earth his possession. But the flesh militates against the 
 command, or Word of God, with the greatest indignation, and 
 will not acknowledge it, because it is utterly and in all things 
 contrary to it. And therefore, it receives the word as a rod, 
 and as iron that breaks it in pieces. And this is the allegory 
 completed, both in the signification of this verse, and in the ex- 
 emplification of it in fact and experience. 
 
 "Thou shalt rule them," is, in Hebrew, throeim, which 
 Jerome translates, "Thou shalt feed them." But John Reuch- 
 Hu in his Rudiments gives us many significations of this word, 
 namely, 'to feed,' 'to rule,' 'to consume,' 'to afilict,' and 'to 
 shake,*) or break and bruise in pieces.' And this last significa- 
 tion, as far as I am capable of judging, is the most applicable to 
 the present passage. First, because a "rod of iron," as every 
 one knows, is more fit for bruising and breaking in pieces, than 
 for ruling or feeding. And secondly, had ruling been signified, 
 it would have been sufficient to have said "rod" only. And, for 
 feeding, neither iron nor a rod is rightely adapted. For what 
 can a 'rod of iron' do but bruise and break in pieces ? according 
 to that of Daniel 2 40. "For as much as iron breaketh in pieces 
 and subdueth all things ;" so also shall this break and bruise all 
 things in pieces. Add to this, that this kind of tautology beauti- 
 fully agrees with the meaning of the passage, because, it now 
 follows, "thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel ;" 
 
 ^) "Amicus cogitatio in the Basel and Weimar editions. 
 
PSALM II. 87 
 
 .^o that this ruHng and this dashing in pieces signify the same 
 thing. 
 
 Each of these expressions signifies the humbling of the 
 proud by the Word of God, because, he breaks and dashes in 
 pieces when he terrifies and humbles. The apostle says, Rom, 
 I "iS, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. Thus 
 those who were converted by the word of Peter and were 
 pricked in their hearts said, 'men, brethren, what shall we do?' 
 xA.cts 2 :37. And this is what is called in other places of the 
 scripture 'rebukes,' the 'moving of the world,' the 'shaking of 
 the earth,' etc. But ]\Iic. 4:13, the most beautifully of all 
 saith, "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion : for I will make 
 thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass ; and thou shalt 
 boat in pieces many peoples : and I will devote their gain unto 
 Jehovah, that is, the people themselves, as a spoil taken from 
 the devil, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth." 
 Behold, then, what it is to rule them with a rod of iron : name- 
 ly, to break in pieces many people with a horn of iron as the 
 prophet here saith. 
 
 This "rod," therefore, is the sacred, holy Gospel of Christ, 
 for this is the sceptre of his kingdom ; as in Ps. 45 :6, "A sceptre 
 of equity is the sceptre of thy kingdom." Amd Ps. 110:2, "Je- 
 hovah will send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion." 
 And also Is. 1 1 4, "And he shall smite the earth with the rod 
 of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the 
 wicked." And what is the rod of the mouth of Christ but 
 tiie Word of God, which breaks in pieces the earth, that is, those 
 that follow after earthly things? And what is the breath of 
 his mouth but the same word of his breath, with which he 
 slays the wicked that they might die unto ungodliness and 
 live unto godliness? This is the rod whose top, in the hand of 
 Joseph, Jacob adored. Gen. 47:31.* Heb. 11:21, This is the 
 
 *) In all editions Gen. 47, Weimar Edition, in the margin, Gen. 
 49:22 etc. is not correct. 
 
88 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 rod the top of which the blessed Esther touched, Esther 5 .2. 
 
 It is called a "rod" metaphorically or rather allegorically. 
 
 First, because it is slender and easy to be carried, so that 
 it may be borne in the hand, for the yoke of Christ is easy 
 and his burden is light. Matt. 11 :30. But the hands of Moses 
 are heavy, so that they were supported by stones put under 
 him by Aaron and Hur, Exod. 17:12, which signifies as Peter 
 explains it, Acts 15 :io the intolerable yoke of the law. Where- 
 as, on the contrary, the hands of Christ are laid even on infants 
 and on the sick throughout the Gospel, that they may be healed 
 and saved thereby. 
 
 Moses, moreover, has two great and heavy stone tables, 
 and the Levites also used of old to bear many and heavy vessels 
 belonging to the tabernacle, as we read Num. 4:31 ; and these 
 Moses calls their "burdens," and many and heavy burdens they 
 certainly are, considered in themselves ; but they are no burdens 
 at all, or at least but very light, when we look at the tyrannizing 
 laws and rites of the present day. For we at this day bear, not 
 tables and vessels, but whole woods and rocks, and such heavy 
 bands of popes, that the whole world together can scarcely 
 endure them. And all this is come upon us justly, because we 
 have cast away from us the "rod" of Christ. And therefore, 
 that has happened unto us which is written. Is. 8:6-7, 'Foras- 
 much as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that 
 go softly : now therefore behold tlie I-ord bringeth upon them 
 the waters of the river, strong and many.' 
 
 Secondly, because it is straight. For the gospel and the 
 law of the Spirit lead unto life by a straight, direct, and short 
 wa\. Whereas, the law of the letter, by long and winding 
 j).'itlis of figures and works, and, as it were, by a most tedious 
 desert journey, scarcely brings us after all even into the plains 
 of Moab, and never leads us into the land of Canaan, but with 
 Moses it fails. 
 
 Thirdly, because the law of Christ is open and revealed, as 
 a "rod" is carried without a case or sheath ; but the law of 
 
PSALM II. 89 
 
 Aloses and the tal3lcs were covered and carried in an ark, and 
 so also, every lav/ and every work of the law, without Christ, 
 is but a shadow and a sign of hidden righteousness, and not 
 the true righteousness itself ; for that is revealed by the law of 
 Christ, as it is set forth, Rom. i :i7, In the gospel is revealed 
 a righteousness of God from faith unto faith.' 
 
 Jt is called "of iron." 
 
 First, as I said, on account of the flesh, to which the law 
 of Christ is most galling, though to the spirit it is most sweet. 
 For it lays on all the desires of the flesh the cross and death, 
 and imposes on us poverty, humility, and patience. These are 
 the three horns of the cross. For poverty breaks in pieces the 
 lust of the eyes and avarice; humility, the pride of life and 
 ambition ; and patience, the lust of the flesh and pleasure. Hence 
 Is. 27 :i, calls it a great and strong sword, "In that day Jehovah 
 with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan 
 tlie swift serpent." 
 
 Secondly, because it is of inflexible and invincible rectitude, 
 or as the blessed Augustine here thinks of inflexible righteous- 
 ness. For however much many have tried to twist and bend 
 the Word of God to their own interpretations and lusts, yet it 
 has ever remained of invincible rectitude, proving all those to 
 be liars who have attempted to wrest and pervert it. For it 
 is not of reed, like the staff of Egypt, 2 Kings 18:21, and Is. 
 36*6, "Whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and 
 pierce it." The reed is the doctrine of men, which is shaken 
 by every wind of opinion. But this voice of one crying in the 
 wilderness, as it is not covered with soft clothing, so neither is 
 it, like the reed, empty or shaken with the wind, but full, solid, 
 and of iron. And as to some men attributing to the scriptures 
 a nose of wax, and saying that it is a reed that is moveable and 
 to be shaken, that all proceeds from the doings of those, who 
 abr.se the Holy Word of God to their own vain and unstable 
 opinions and glosses, making the Word of God to suit all, and 
 so to suit no one. 
 
go LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Thirdly, as iron conquers and breaks in pieces all things, as 
 Daniel 2 40 says, so, the Word of Christ breaks great things 
 in pieces, that is, humbles the proud ; it straightens the crooked, 
 that is, chatises the undisciplined ; it bends the straight, that 
 is, bends down the proud ; it smooths the rough, that is, cools 
 the passionate ; it lengthens the short, that is, comforts the weak 
 and helpless ; it shortens the long, that is, terrifies the presump- 
 tuous ; it widens the narrow, that is, makes the tenacious bounti- 
 ful ; it contracts the wide, that is, makes the prodigal frugal ; 
 it sharpens the blunt, that is, instructs the ignorant ; it blunts 
 the sharp, that is, makes the wise fools ; it keeps off rust, that 
 is, drives out acidity. In a word, it changes every thing that 
 is vicious and deformed into that which is pleasing unto God, 
 as the apostle saith, 2 Tim. 3:16-17, "Every scripture inspired 
 of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correc- 
 tion, for instruction which is in righteousness : that the man of 
 God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good 
 work." 
 
 Like a potter's vessel. 
 
 David here mingles a similitude with the allegory, to illus- 
 trate his meaning the more clearly. So the apostle, 2 Cor. 4:7, 
 uscf 'earthen vessels' in an allegorical way to signify the body, 
 or rather the man in the body. He says, "We have this treas- 
 ure, in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the 
 power may be of God, and not from ourselves." And these also 
 are the earthen pitchers of Gideon, which being dashed to pieces 
 and broken at the sound of the trumpets, burn and shine, and 
 rout and pursue the discomfited Midianites. That is, the bodies 
 of the martyrs and saints, being dashed to pieces by various 
 crosses and sufferings, instruct the world by their examples of 
 love and truth, and put the ungodly to flight, together with all 
 their ungodliness. And so, according to the figure, while the 
 flesh or the carnal man is broken in pieces by the Word of the 
 cross and the rod of iron, the confused multitude of sins and 
 lusts are dispersed from before the face of the Christian vir- 
 
PSALM II. 91 
 
 tues, and before the face of that grace which exalts the man. 
 
 Rut we are in this passage to attend to the simihtude, not to 
 the thing itself. For Christ does not shake and dash his 
 people in pieces and tear their bodies limb from limb, just as 
 earthen vessels, when broken, are scattered into many small 
 pieces. But this material dashing in pieces is an emblem of 
 the spiritual dashing in pieces, that is, though the members of 
 the body are not thus broken in pieces, yet they are dashed in 
 pieces with respect to their evil lusts and actions. 
 
 The tongue does not speak those things which please the 
 flesh, the ear does not hear calumny and detraction, the hand 
 does not take that v^diich is another's, nor meddle with those 
 things which are unlawful, and, in a word, the body of sin, 
 which before used all the members according to its own lusts, 
 being on a sudden, by the Word of God, deprived of the 
 members now scattered and disturbed by that Word, exhibits 
 a certain happy Babylon ; while, as the apostle saith, Rom. 6:19, 
 the members which were yielded up to be servants to un- 
 cleanness unto iniquity, are now yielded up to servants to right- 
 eousness unto holiness. And so also in the gospel, Luke 1 1 :22, 
 that "stronger than he," not only takes away the armour, but 
 divides the spoils. For the Hebrew word, thenaphzem^ signi- 
 fies, according to Reuchlin, 'thou shalt scatter,' 'thou shalt dis- 
 sipate,' 'thou shalt disperse.' 
 
 Therefore all Christians are "this potter's vessel." First, 
 because, as a potter's vessel is most easily broken, so tender 
 men, not rendered obstinate by the hardening nature of unbe- 
 lief, easily believe the Word of God and neither resist nor con- 
 tradict it ; whereas, those who are of a hardened mind rush 
 on into evil, as it is said, Prov. 28:12, and shall without doubt 
 be overturned like the mountains, and broken in pieces like the 
 rocks, according to that which Elijah saw, i Kings 19 :ii. 
 
 Secondly, because, when an earthen vessel is broken in 
 pieces it becomes utterly unfit for its former use. So that you 
 mav see Is. 30:14 fulfilled, "There shall not be found among 
 
92 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the pieces thereof a sherd wherewith to take fire from the 
 hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern." for the prophet 
 is there speaking of the breaking of a potter's vessel with a 
 powerful dashing in pieces, which agrees with the present verse 
 ahuost word for word ; for the ungodly man, being thus con- 
 verted and turned unto Christ, is rendered quite useless for his 
 former manner of life, saying with the apostle, "The world 
 has been crucified unto me and I unto the world." Gal. 6:14. 
 
 V. 10. — Nozv therefore he wise: O ye kings; be instructed^ 
 ye judges of the earth. 
 
 The Latin translator has in explanation of the word, "those 
 who judge the earth" instead of "judges of the earth." With- 
 out explaining the word he said "kings," not those who rule. 
 This is of little importance. 
 
 Having given a description of the kingdom of Christ, he 
 now subjoins a faithful, holy, and wise exhortation ; trying 
 all things and plying every means to bring all, especially the 
 greater ones, into subjection unto Christ. 
 
 But how bold and, as we are accustomed to say in our 
 limes, how seditious and offensive is this most daring prophet, 
 who lifts up his mouth into the clouds, and to heaven dares 
 • J attack, not the lowest of mankind and the common people, 
 but the loftiest personages, yea, kings themselves, and to in- 
 struct them, who, being inflated with both their title and their 
 office to instruct the people, and also, from their habits and 
 opinion of dignity, are most unprepared to endure such indig- 
 nity to be put upon them ; considering all others fools, and 
 ignorant, and standing in need of being taught and instructed 
 themselves. 
 
 ]t is easy indeed to make tlie ignorant common people, who 
 are accustomed to be under discipline, attend to what you say. 
 But to bring down kings, judges of the earth, masters, rulers, 
 teachers, and popes, to a level v/ith the common people, and 
 not only so, but to bring them down to the rank of pupils, after 
 such a long habit of ruling and teaching; yea more, to pass 
 
PSALM II. 93 
 
 over the common people in silence, and seek out them only 
 for pupils to be instructed — these things, I say, who can 
 bear to do ? Who will not here, like John the Baptist, tremble 
 to touch the head of Christ ? Yet he is to be touched and to be 
 baptized in the water of Jordan, as descending to the humble, 
 that all righteousness may be fulfilled, Matt. 3:15; and thus, 
 he who is the highest in majesty, humbles himself beneath the 
 lowest, and he who is lowest, trembles at the humility of his 
 high majesty. 
 
 But the benign and blessed Spirit knows that the entire 
 welfare of the common people depends upon their right subjec- 
 tion to those in authority and therefore he admonishes first 
 tl\ese in a friendly and fatherly manner, that they follow not 
 their own inclination but that they be more docile to be taught, 
 since they direct not their own affairs, but those of their sub- 
 jects, and because when they fall into error they bring all their 
 people with them into misfortune, as is said in Matt.. I5-I4» 
 "And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit." 
 
 But not only because of this reason does he admonish them, 
 but also because he knows, as I have said, that those v/ho are 
 puffed up yith their power and office have always in their 
 mouths that of John 9 134, "Dost thou teach us ?" And that 
 of Jer. 18:18, 'For the law shall not perish from the priest, 
 nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet." 
 And therefore, being puffed up v/ith this inflated and false 
 confidence, they resisted the true prophets, just in the same 
 way as, at this day, all those prating flatterers about the popes, 
 resist every appearance of the truth, because they cannot once 
 imagine, as they pretend, that the head of so high a personage 
 can err, etc. The church cannot err they cry. The pope cannot 
 err. The council cannot err, etc. 
 
 Those, however, under the Old Testament were more strict- 
 ly bound to obey the bishop ,pontHicum, than we Christians 
 are. For then, they were bound to hear the Levitical priests 
 under penalty of death. But, in our day, we are all priests and 
 
94 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 that word of 15.54:13, is fulfilled, "And all thy children shall 
 be taught of Jehovah," and that also of Jer. 31 :34, "And they 
 shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man 
 his brother, saying, Know Jehovah : for they shall all know 
 me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith 
 Jehovah ;" and Paul has plainly given us commandment, i Cor. 
 14:30, "But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let 
 the first keep silence." Since this is the case under the New 
 Testament, all superiors are so to be heard that every lovv^est 
 hearer be left free to judge what the higher person advances 
 in those things which pertain unto faith, as far as the law of 
 God will allow, which is a much greater liberty than was 
 allowed the prophets in their resisting the elders of Israel, 
 Deut. 17:8-12. For in the synagogue, Avhere the priesthood 
 had to do only with external ceremonies, an error in the priests 
 was not attended with peril. But in the church, where it is 
 a matter of the spirit and of faith, it is of the utmost moment 
 unto all to observe whether or not the priest be in error; be- 
 cause, God is wont to reveal unto the lowest what he does 
 not deign to reveal unto the highest, that his church may stand 
 firm in humility in which alone it subsists. 
 
 And mark the force of the adverb "now." "Now," saith 
 the prophet, that Christ is appointed king of all. At this time 
 there are two things that will hinder you in coming to the 
 knowledge of the things that are right. 
 
 First, it is that Christ, who was crucified by you, who died 
 and was condemned, and even accursed, according to the law 
 of Moses, by the will and authority of God, that is now pro- 
 claimed Lord of all lords. It will be the most difficult thing 
 possible to acknowledge him King who died such a desperate 
 and ignominious death. For sense strongly resists such, a faith, 
 reason abhors it, experience denies it, and there is no example 
 to support it. This is the height of foolishness to the Gentiles 
 and a stumbling-block to the Jews, unless ye raise your minds 
 far above all the external appearance of these things. 
 
PSx\LM II. 95 
 
 Secondly, this King so reigns as to teach that all things 
 which you have hoped for from the law are to be despised and 
 all things which you have feared are to be loved. He sets 
 before you the cross and death. He admonishes you to think 
 little of every thing human that appears either good or evil, 
 in order to transport you into far different and better things 
 v/hich neither the eye has seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it 
 ever entered into the heart of man to conceive. Ye must die 
 if ye would live under this King ; and the cross, the hatred of 
 the whole world, poverty, ignominy, hunger, thirst, and, in a 
 word, all the evils of this world, are to be endured, and cannot 
 be avoided. For this King is one who was himself made a 
 fool unto the world and died ; and he also bruises all his with 
 a rod of iron and dashes them in piece§ like a potter's vessel. 
 
 How then shall this King be endured by him who depends 
 on sense, measures every thing by reason, and stands at the 
 door of his tent, and will not look at the face of Moses? So 
 necessary are instruction and understanding in order to rise 
 above all these things, and, despising things that are seen, to 
 be carried up to things that are not seen, being made wise, 
 not unto the things that are on earth, but unto the things that 
 are above, where Christ is, etc. 
 
 Wlierefore, the expression "be wise," is, in the Hebrew, 
 ASCiLU, which, being put absolutely, signifies 'make wise,' that 
 is as Jerome explains it, yourselves or others, that is, so do, 
 so strive, that ye may be wise, may be wise unto spiritual and 
 heavenly things. In the same way also, Ps. 32 -.g speaks, "Be 
 ye not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understand- 
 ing," And this understanding is not that concerning which 
 philosophers dispute, but is faith itself, which, in times both of 
 prosperity and of adversity, is able to see those things which 
 are not seen. 
 
 Therefore, not fully describing those things which they 
 are to understand, he says, absolutely, "be wise," that is, take 
 heed that ye be wise, take heed that ye be in the faith. For 
 
96 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 those things which faith understands are not to be described 
 either in name or form. For the prosperity or adversity of 
 present things utterly subverts every man Vvdio does not, by 
 faith, understand the things which are not seen. And this 
 imderstanding comes of faith, according to that scripture, 'If 
 ye will not believe, neither shall ye understand.' This is that 
 entering into the cloud, Ex. 20:21, in which is swallovk^ed up 
 every thing that sense, reason, or the mind or understanding 
 of man can comprehend. For faith unites the soul to the invis- 
 ible, ineffable, unnamable, unimaginable, eternal Word of God, 
 and at the same time separates it from all things visible. And 
 this is the cross, and the nature of the things of God, where it 
 is necessary to preach this understanding. 
 
 Augustine receives "be instructed, ye judges of the earth" 
 as spoken tautologically. And these words also are put ab- 
 solutely, the same as the preceding "be wise;" and the mean- 
 ing is, be separated from all ignorant and carnal affections 
 and opinions, and all senses and sensible things, that ye think 
 not as children concerning Christ and his kingdom. For the 
 natural man understandeth not the things of God, i Cor. 2:14. 
 However, it seems to me, that this 'instruction' signifies a turn- 
 ing of the heart from all perishing things, just as understanding 
 signifies the conversion of the mind, and the apprehending of 
 eternal things. The former of which is wrought by the cross 
 in the mortification of the flesh : the latter by faith in the 
 renevv^ing of the spirit. 
 
 That "earth" signifies figuratively the men on the earth is 
 too well known to need any exposition, excepting that August- 
 ine seems rather inclined to understand it to signify figuratively 
 the body. 
 
 V. II. — Serve Jehovah {the Lord) zcith fear, and rejoice 
 (before him) zvifh trembling. 
 
 A wonderful expression this, and in our eyes absurd. For 
 fear works hatred and a fleeing from the object feared, not serv- 
 ing of it ; and trembling militates directly against rejoicing. 
 
PSALM II. 97 
 
 David in another Psalm speaks antithetically, wherein we 
 are commanded to "serve the Lord with gladness," Ps. 100:2. 
 What shall we understand, therefore, by these things? Let 
 us hear the apostle Paul, as an intermediate teacher, settle 
 the matter, who says, i Cor. i :2i, "For seeing that in the wis- 
 dom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it 
 was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preach- 
 ing to save them that believe." As if he had said, we must 
 be made wise by becoming fools. Thus, in peace and prosperity 
 we do not, as we ought, acknowledge God nor praise him. As 
 in security we do not serve God with gladness, it is pleasing 
 to him that we serve him in fear with gladness, and rejoice in 
 fear. 
 
 And in a word, as the world perverts all the things of God, 
 so does God pervert all the things of the world. The whole 
 creation was given to lift up and illuminate man, but he uses it 
 to blind and pervert himself ; and therefore God uses the whole 
 creation to blind and pervert man. This is the cross of Christ 
 and that foolishness of preaching whereby he saves them that 
 believe, for the reasoners, the disputers of this world, the wise, 
 the understanding, are oflended at, and destroyed by these 
 things. 
 
 The meaning therefore of this passage is this : Since 
 Christ the Lord rules with his rod of iron and breaks in pieces 
 the old man with the word of the cross, and that by the will 
 and according to the commandment of the Father, who has 
 put all things in subjection to him, it behooves you to acknow- 
 ledge yourselves subject unto him, and subject unto him in 
 fear, that ye may patiently and humbly bear his cross, fear- 
 ing lest, by becoming unwilling to bear his hand and counsel, 
 ye should prove to be reprobates, like those sons of Ephraim, 
 mentioned in Ps. 78 :g, "The children of Ephraim, being 
 armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." 
 
 And this ye will assuredly do if ye confess that you never 
 suffered unmerited punishment, but that you had deserved 
 
98 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 much. For the proud, who seem to themselves to deserve good 
 things only, are secure and are not Hke Job, 'afraid of all their 
 sorrows,' 9 :28. Therefore in the time of temptation they 
 stand not but, like the house of the foolish man, mentioned 
 in Matt. 7 -.26, etc. which was built upon the sand, they fall 
 with a terrible destruction and become worse and worse. Hence 
 this fear in a man's whole life and in all his works is a great 
 part of the cross, nay, nearly the whole of the cross. 
 
 But farther, we are, with the Apostle Paul, Rom. 5 :3, 'to 
 glory in tribulations also,' and to rejoice in them with trem- 
 bling. From all this we conclude that there are two kinds 
 of serving and rejoicing in God. 
 
 First, a serving in security and a rejoicing in the Lord 
 without fear : these are peculiar to hypocrites, who are se- 
 cure, who please themselves, and who appear to themselves 
 to be not unuseful servants and to have great merit on their 
 side, concerning whom it is said, Ps. 10:5, "Thy judgments 
 are far above out of his sight;" and also afterwards, Ps. 36:1, 
 "There is no fear of God before his eyes." These at all times 
 do righteousness without judgment and permit not Christ to 
 be the judge and to be feared by all, in whose sight no man 
 living is justified. Ps. 143 .2. 
 
 Secondly, a serving in fear and a rejoicing with trembling: 
 these are peculiar to the righteous who do righteousness and 
 judgment at all times, and always rightly attemper both; never 
 being without judgments, on the one hand, by which they are 
 terrified and brought to despair of themselves and of all their 
 own works, nor without that righteousness, on the other, on 
 which they rest and in which they rejoice in the mercy of 
 God. It is the office of their whole life to accuse themselves 
 in all things, and in all things to justify and praise God. And 
 thus they fulfil that word of Prov. 28:14, "Happy in the man 
 that feareth alway :" and also that of Phil. 4 -.4, "Rejoice in 
 the Lord alway." Thus, between the upper and nether mill- 
 stone, Deut. 24 :6, they are broken in pieces and humbled, and, 
 
PSALM II. 99 
 
 the husk being thus broken off, they come forth the pure 
 wheat of Christ. 
 
 And the emphatic force of the expression "serve Jehovah" 
 I leave to your meditation : he does not say serve yourself, nor 
 your own belly, nor your gold, nor, finally, your own right- 
 eousness, power, or wisdom, nor, in a word, any thing what- 
 ever that is your own or created; for all these things are a 
 kind of idolatry. Therefore rejoice "in him," not in your- 
 selves, nor in any creature, but in Jehovah alone. And this 
 thou doest when thou arrogatest to thyself nothing good what- 
 ever in any thing of thins own, so as to trust and glory therein, 
 but ascribest every thing unto God, and praisest, blessest, and 
 lovest him in all things : ascribing unio thyself at the same 
 time all evil, and fearing and trembling on account of it, 
 and having no confidence whatever therein, even as Job i :2i, 
 said, with respect both to his prosperity and adversity, "Je- 
 hovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away, blessed be the 
 name of Jehovah." 
 
 How difficult all these things are thou wilt see if thou con- 
 sider each time. For in adversity it is a hard matter not to 
 faint, not to complain, not to become impatient, and, from 
 the fear of evil, not to do things, and to leave them undone, 
 contrary to the commands of God ; and thus by the fear of 
 God, to overcome the fear of the creature, not to yield to 
 the senses and to sensible objects, but to cleave close unto 
 the Word of the Lord even unto death. For by these things 
 it is proved whether we serve God or not, or whether the will 
 of God is feared more than the violence of any creature. 
 Though, indeed, the trembling before God is more in peril 
 in prosperity than the fear of God is in adversity. Because, 
 in prosperity we rejoice in security, for it is difficult to fear, 
 much more to tremble, when everything goes as we wish. 
 
 Consequently, according to my judgment, David has very 
 appropriately connected trembling with rejoicing, and fear 
 with serving; because, serving implies the labor of adversity,' 
 
lOO LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 but rejoicing the ease of prosperity, and fear was to be recom- 
 mended in the former, that he might declare trembhng to be 
 necessary in the latter. As if he had said, there is more to 
 be feared where fear is not, and the more pleasantly all things 
 go the more anxiously ought we to fear ; and consequently, 
 we ought to tremble when at any time we exult and rejoice 
 more than usual. 
 
 V. 12, — Kiss the son (lay hold on discipline), lest he (the 
 Lord) be angry, and ye perish in the (right) zvay. 
 
 In the Hebrew the words 'Lord' and 'right' are not found, 
 though that does no harm to the sense. But the translation 
 "lay hold on discipline" is rejected by almost all. For in the 
 Hebrew it is nascu bar, which Jerome has rendered in the 
 Hebrew Psalter 'Adore purely ;' because bar signifies also 
 'pure' and 'elect.' And the same author in his short commen- 
 tary has these words, 'In the Hebrew it is read nascu bar: 
 which may be rendered 'Adore the Son.' For bar signifies 
 also a son. Hence we have in the Gospel Simon bar Jonah, 
 Simon the son of John. And bar Ptolemeus, the son of Pto- 
 lemy. And again Barnabas, the son of a prophet, and the like. 
 
 Burgensis and Lyra render the passage thus, 'kiss the 
 Son.' But we no where find that bar signifies 'discipline.' 
 And by 'kiss' they consider to be signified 'do homage.' So 
 that the sense should be 'kiss the Son,' that is, hold the King 
 and Lord, Christ, in reverence with humility. 
 
 But let us try to harmonize all these renderings. First, 
 a kiss is a sign of reverence and adoration and a way in which 
 v/e kiss and adore sacred and divine things, as when, humbly 
 prostrating ourselves, we kiss the feet and footsteps of any 
 person in the same way as Mary Magdalene kissed Christ ; and 
 therefore, according to this, Jerome has rendered the passage 
 'adore purely.' 
 
 Secondly, it is a sign of acknowledgment and of a profes- 
 sion of fidelity, as when in doing homage, we are accustomed 
 to kiss the hand, acknowledging thereby that he whom we 
 
PSALM II. lOI 
 
 kiss is our Lord. Thirdly, it is a mark of the most perfect 
 friendship and affection, as when we kiss the eyes or face of 
 any one, concerning which the apostle commands us, Rom. i6: 
 1 6, "Salute one another with an holy kiss." And we read 
 that it was with such a kiss as this that Christ was used to 
 receive his returning disciples. Luke 7 45 ; Matt. 26 :49. And, 
 as those who kissed each other thus were accustomed to clasp 
 and embrace each other, therefore, our translation has "lay hold 
 on discipline." 
 
 But since David says absolutely 'kiss the Son,' not saying 
 any thing about his feet, nor his hands, nor his face, it is just 
 that we should take this kissing in its full latitude, that is, by 
 kissing his feet, we adore Christ as the Son of God and true 
 God, by kissing his hand we receive him as our lawful Lord 
 and our eternal helper and Saviour, by kissing his eyes or face, 
 we embrace him as our most beloved Brother and Friend and 
 the Bridegroom of our souls. Concerning these three kisses, 
 see Bernard, at the beginning of the Song of Solomon. So 
 that the sense is "kiss the Son," that is, worship Christ who is 
 God with the greatest reverence, be subject unto Christ with 
 the deepest humility, and cleave unto the Bridegroom Christ 
 with the strongest love. Behold, here are love and fear, with 
 humility between to keep both in their proper places. And 
 this is the most perfect service and worship of God. 
 
 With respect to the other word bar, which has been trans- 
 lated 'son,' 'pure,' and 'discipline,' let us bring these renderings 
 in such harmony that faith in Christ is our right discipline. 
 Therefore he who believes in Christ, that is, kisses the Son, 
 truly lays hold on discipline, carrying the cross of Christ in 
 himself, as we read in the Gal. 6 :i4, 17, For he does not kiss 
 nor lay hold of Christ according to the flesh, but in the spirit; 
 and that he does, when he lovingly undertakes his cross and 
 sufferings, which are the things by which we are disciplined, 
 Heb. 12:7, etc. Therefore our translation, though by no 
 
I02 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 means correct with regard to the hteral meaning of the Hebrew, 
 is yet most agreeable to truth and experience. 
 
 Moreover, 'to adore purely' touches upon that which is 
 written, i Kings 19:18, concerning the adoration of Baal. "Yet 
 will I leaye me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which 
 have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not 
 kissed him (kissing his hand)." In which passage to make 
 a cursory observation, kissing his hand is not in the original, 
 but the same verb nasca is there used, which is found in this 
 passage and which we now are showing signifies 'to kiss,' and 
 which, with reference to Baal, signifies to adore him; though 
 it was in all probability some Hebrew interpreter that added 
 the gloss "kissing his hand" that he might express the mode 
 of adoration used, and afterwards that gloss was by some ig- 
 norant author introduced into the vulgate text. 
 
 According to this sense of the passage. Job also speaks, 
 31:27, 28, "And my mouth hath kissed my hand. This also 
 were an iniquity to be punished by the judges ; for I should 
 have denied the God that is above." By which scriptural 
 trope is signified, as Gregory interprets it, a man that trusts 
 in his own works and glories in a righteousness not received 
 from Christ but gotten by his own works and performances. 
 For such a man as this adores and kisses his hand with his 
 mouth, because, he praises himself in himelf, and pleases him- 
 self with himself, but his soul does not praise God and rejoice 
 in him ; and therefore, it is the greatest of iniquities and denying 
 of the Most High, because such an one ascribes to himself 
 that which belongs to God, setting up himself for an idol Baal, 
 adoring himself, and making himself the author of all the 
 good that he enjoys. For Baal signifies an 'author,' or a 'lord.' 
 Thus, Is. 2:8, "They worship the work of their own hands, 
 that which their own fingers have made." But this is the 
 most impure of all adorations. Therefore to kiss Christ, to 
 acknowledge Christ as a Saviour, and to kiss his hand, — this 
 is truly and purely to adore the true and pure Christ, — this 
 
PSALM II. 103 
 
 is to adore the Son. And John saith, ''If therefore the Son 
 shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed," 8 :36. 
 
 We conclude therefore that the prophets meaning is that 
 men should serve Christ in fear, acknowledging themselves to 
 be sinners, ever accusing themselves, and justifying only God 
 in Christ. But as men may run against Christ, and pretend 
 that they have kept the law, are righteous, have not sinned, 
 and have no need of Christ for righteousness : therefore, 
 opposing this wicked presumption, David saith, do not think 
 that ye are righteous ; away with such an idolatrous imagina- 
 tion ; make not yourselves equal unto God ; trust not in your 
 own righteousness. Yea, kiss the Son, embrace the Son, and 
 his hand, his righteousness, and his salvation shall save you. 
 But if ye do not this he will grow "angry" with your right- 
 eousness, and ye shall "perish from the way," or 'Ye shall 
 perish together with your way,' for in the Hebrew it is some- 
 what obscurely expressed vethobedu deeecii, that is, literally, 
 'and ye shall perish, the way ;' which seems to me to be put 
 eliptically, for 'ye shall perish with your way,' according to 
 that of Ps. I :6, "but the way of the ungodly shall perish." 
 For I do not see with due deference to the opinions of others, 
 how tlicy can perish from the right way, who were never in 
 the right way. But they may be terrified to their destruction, 
 who, pleasing themselves with their own way as being the 
 right way, do not acknowledge Christ the true "way." 
 
 For (lulien) his wrath zvill soon he kindled (is kindled but 
 a little). Blessed are all they that take refuge (trust) in him. 
 
 This passage in the Hebrew belongs to that which pre- 
 cedes. The order of the whole is thus. Kiss the Son, lest he be 
 angry, and ye perish in the way ; for his wrath will soon be 
 kindled. Blessed are all they that take refuge in him. 
 
 The meaning therefore is, make haste and dday not to 
 adore Christ, lest ye perish in his anger. And do not deceive 
 yourselves as supposing that he is far from you ; but know 
 that his wrath is kindled in a moment, and that he may come 
 
I04 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 upon yon when you little expect him, according to Matt. 24 48, 
 50, "But and if that wicked servant shall say in his heart, 
 my Lord delayeth his coming. The Lord of that servant shall 
 come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour 
 that he is not aware of." And so also Prov. i \2'j. 'When 
 your calamity shall come suddenly,' etc. And, i Thess. 5 :2, 3, 
 "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so 
 cometh as a thief in the night. When they are saying, Peace 
 and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." Ter- 
 rible therefore is this threatening, because, if the wrath of 
 God thus suddenly overtake a man there will be none to deliver. 
 
 Finally David concludes his Psalm with a most beautiful 
 remark. This, saith he, is the blessing of all blessings — 
 "Blessed are all they that trust in him." For he therefore 
 suffered, he therefore rose again, he was therefore appointed 
 King, he therefore received the inheritance of all things, that 
 he might save all that trust in him. 
 
 And this trust alone it is that justifies without the works 
 of the law, as the apostle teaches in his Epistles to the Romans, 
 3 :28, and to the Galatians, 2 :i6. But it is a very hard matter 
 to hold fast this trust in the midst of so many resisting ad- 
 versities and so many alluring prosperities. 'Blessed are they, 
 therefore, who shall not be offended in him,' Matt. 1 1 :6. 
 This is a work of divine grace, and not of human power. 
 
 Thus the Holy and Gracious Spirit does not threaten to 
 all eternity, but to all eternity comforts those who are terri- 
 fied and alarmed. If, saith he, ye fear anger, do not despair, 
 but trust; and "Blessed are all they that trust in him," for 
 he therefore terrifies them that he might bring them to trust 
 in him. Amen. 
 
P S A L M I I I. 
 
 A PSALM OF DAVID WHEN HE FLED FROM THE FACE 
 OF HIS SON ABSALOM. 
 
 Why this Psahn is placed before others, which in the order 
 of history were written long before it, is a matter of no con- 
 sequence with me : for I have never yet found any exact order 
 for the Psalms. Thus the history of the fifty first Psalm con- 
 cerning the wife of Uriah, was without doubt before the 
 history of this Psalm : and the histories of many other Psalms 
 were before it. 
 
 With respect to the design and meaning of this Psalm, it 
 is not my intention to bring forward the opinions and interpre- 
 tations of all ; and yet, out of such a variety I cannot come to 
 a fixed determination in my mind which to choose. I am no 
 friend at all of allegories ; especially when I am searching after 
 that legitimate, proper, and genuine sense, which may put an 
 end to contention, and strengthen the instruction of faith. 
 
 But, that the meaning of this Psalm is not historical, i« 
 manifest from many particulars, which militate against its 
 being so understood. First of all, there is this which the 
 blessed Augustine has remarked; that the words 'T laid me 
 down to sleep and took my rest" seem to be the words of 
 Christ rising from the dead. And then, that there is at the 
 end the blessing of God pronounced upon the people, which 
 manifestly belongs to the whole church. Hence, the blessed 
 Augustine interprets the Psalm in a threefold Vv^ay : first, con- 
 cerning Christ the head ; secondly, concerning the whole Christ, 
 that is, Christ and his church, the head and the body; and 
 thirdly, figuratively concerning any private Christian. 
 
 I will let each have his own interpretation. I, in the mean 
 time, will interpret it concerning Christ, being moved so to 
 
I06 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 do by the same argument that moved Augustine — that the 
 fifth verse does not seem appropriately to apply to any other 
 than Christ. First, because 'lying down' and 'sleeping' signify 
 in this place altogether a natural death, not a natural sleep. 
 This may be concluded, because then follows, "rose again." 
 Whereas if David had spoken concerning the sleep of the 
 body, he would have said 'and awoke;' though this does not 
 favor so forcibly the interpretation of which we are speaking, 
 if the Hebrew word be closely examined. But again, what 
 new thing would he advance by declaring that he laid him 
 dovv^n and slept ? Why did he not say also that he walked, ate, 
 drank, labored, or was in need, or mention particularly some 
 other work of the body? Moreover, it seems an absurdity 
 under so great a tribulation to boast of nothing else than the 
 sleep of the body, for that tribulation would rather force him 
 to a privation from sleep and be in peril and distress, especially 
 since those two expressions, "I laid me down," and "I slept," 
 signify the quiet repose of one lying down in his place, which 
 is not the state of one who falls asleep from exhaustion through 
 sorrow. 
 
 But this consideration makes the more forcibly for us, 
 that he therefore glories in his rising up again, because it 
 was the Lord that sustained him, who raised him up while 
 sleeping and did not leave him in sleep. How can such a 
 glorying agree, and what new kind of religion can make it 
 agree, with any particular sleep of the body? In that case 
 would it not apply to the daily sleep also and especially when 
 this sustaining of God indicates at the same time an utterly 
 forsaken state in the person sleeping? Which is not the case 
 in bodily sleep ; for then the person sleeping may be pro- 
 tected even by men being his guards, but this sustaining being 
 altogether of God implies not a sleep but a heavy conflict. 
 
 Lastly, the word hekizothi itself favors such an inter- 
 pretation ; which, being here put absolutely and transitively, 
 signifies 'I caused to arise or awake.' As if he had said, 'I 
 
PSALM III. 107 
 
 caused myself to awake, I roused myself.' Which certainly 
 more aptly agrees with the resurrection of Christ than with 
 the sleep of the body, both because those who are accustomed 
 to be aroused and awaked and because it is no wonderful mat- 
 ter, nor a matter worthy of so important a declaration, for 
 any one to awake of himself, since that is what takes place 
 every day. But this matter, being introduced by the Spirit 
 as something new and singular, is certainly different from all 
 that which attends common sleeping and waking. 
 
 Since then these things are so, it follows of necessity that 
 where the title of the Psalm indicates something historical we 
 are not always necessarily to conclude, that the subject of it is 
 to be understood historically, but that the history was the 
 occasion or event wherein and whereby* the prophets were to 
 be instructed by the intuition of the Spirit in things that were 
 come. 
 
 Let the meaning therefore of the title of this Psalm be, 
 'A Psalm, a song of David, revealed unto him, or discovered 
 unto him by the Holy Spirit when he fled from the face of 
 his son Absalom,' that is, upon the occasion of that history 
 and circumstance. For it is not likely that the Psalm was 
 composed by him at the very time of that history and his 
 flight from his son, because he was at that time in a state of 
 the greatest inquietude from anxiety and gloomy apprehen- 
 sion. Whereas, the Holy Spirit requires a lucid and quiet 
 instrument, and it is not under the temptation, but after the 
 temptation, that the man at length perceives and knows the 
 tilings which have been done unto him. It is most probable, 
 therefore, that this Psalm was composed long after the histori- 
 cal event, when, in cjuiet meditation, he understood the myster- 
 ies contained in that event. 
 
 It is moreover to be observed that in all these titles, the 
 word David is in the dative case, which, in these instances, 
 is equal to an accusative with the preposition ad; and according 
 to the same mode of expression it is said in the other prophets, 
 
I08 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the Word of the Lord came unto this person or unto that, 
 Jer, I \2, or was m the hand of this person or that, Is. 20 :2. 
 And it is peculiar to this prophet to call the Word of God a 
 Psalm, or a song, or instruction, and to adorn it with various 
 other titles, as we shall see hereafter, and then, by putting 
 his own name, David, in the dative case, to signify thereby 
 that the revelation of that. same Word was made unto him. 
 Thus does the Holy Spirit commend unto us this peculiar 
 prophet and the peculiar prophesies of this book. 
 
 But it will be necessary also to be well acquainted with 
 the history contained in 2 Sam. 15:14, and to understand its 
 sacred mysteries. 
 
 In the first place, Absalom represents figuratively the peo- 
 ple of the Jews both in his actions and in his name. In his 
 name, because Absalom is, by interpretation, 'the father of 
 peace,' which is a name that seems to promise something bless- 
 ed, if all the other attending circumstances did not compel us 
 to understand it as representing, in a bad sense, that peace 
 which the world gives, that is, a hatred of the cross of Christ. 
 
 For that people hated in an especial manner the cross and 
 the evils of this world, because the good things of this world 
 and the peace of this life had been promised to them in the 
 law. Hence their cry of "Peace, peace," Jer. 6:14: whereas, 
 there was no peace, because they neither kept the law nor were 
 able to do it, and therefore, the apostle calls them "enemies 
 of the cross of Christ," Phil. 3 :i8. 
 
 In the next place, Absalom represents that people in his 
 actions; because he is said, 2 Sam. 14:25, etc. to have been 
 the most beautiful man in all Israel, and that there was no 
 blemish in him from the sole of his foot even imto his head ; 
 that his hair was of such an unheard-of thickness, that it was 
 cut every year and sold, and weighed two hundred shekels 
 after the king's weight; and it is also said that it was sold 
 to the women, who used it to ornament their heads. 
 
 Thus is represented that synagogue which shone conspicu- 
 
PSALM III. 109 
 
 ously above all other peoples of the earth, which was the glory 
 of our fathers and pre-eminently distinguished for its worship 
 of the one true God, its gift of a knowledge of the law, and 
 of the prophets, and many other things described, Rom. 3:2; 
 9 4 etc. And then, the very thick hair represents the splendid 
 order of priests and Levites at the head and in the highest place 
 of the synagogue, abounding in, overflowing with, and boasting 
 of their riches and luxuries, concerning whom, Is. 3:17, 24 
 says, 'And the Lord will make bald the head of the daughters 
 of Zion : and instead of hair there shall be baldness :' that 
 is, instead of their splendid priesthood. And again, Ps. 68:21, 
 "But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy 
 scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his wickedness." 
 
 Absalom's hanging suspended from an oak by his hair 
 between heaven and earth, to be killed in that situation, signi- 
 fies, that the priests hung by their carnal opinions, and were 
 not impressed by, nor understand either the heavenly or the 
 earthly things of the law. And the hair being shorn and sold 
 to women signifies that those priests being separated in spirit 
 from the head of the synagogue, gave themselves up wholly to 
 their own lusts and pleasures. And yet pleasures are no orna- 
 ment to any one, though they serve as an ornament and allure- 
 ment unto many, so that many rulers are addicted to, and 
 sold under pleasures. 
 
 More directly to the point. Absalom aimed at the kingdom 
 and the inheritance against his father David, and drove him 
 from the city, using the counsel of Ahithophel, who afterwards 
 hanged himself in his own house. So did the people of Israel 
 against Christ, Luke 20 :i4. They said, 'This is the heir, come 
 let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours." Mark 12:7. 
 And so, John 11:48, "If we let him thus alone all men will 
 believe on him." And they used for this end the counsel and 
 help of Judas, who, in the same manner as Ahithophel did, 
 armed himself with bands of men and coadjutors. And he 
 also, like Ahithophel, descending into the house of his own 
 
no LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 conscience, and being filled with despair, hanged himself. For 
 the name Ahithophel signifies, 'Brother of folly ; and this is 
 what David alluded to, 2 Sam. 15:30, when he said, "O Lord, 
 I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." 
 As if he had said, make him appear thereby to be a fool and 
 an infatuated man indeed. 
 
 And David's going out bare-footed and with his head cov- 
 ered, 2 Sam. 15 :30, signifies Christ's being led out to Golgotha, 
 who also literally went out bare-footed and having his head 
 covered with a crown of thorns and with blood. But, allegori- 
 cally, the head signified the divinity hidden under infirmity, 
 and the bare feet, the humanity left alone to itself. 
 
 The returning into the city after the slaying of Absalom is 
 the resurrection of Christ from the dead and his victory over 
 the people of the synagogue. For it was then that they were 
 smitten upon the cheek-bone and their teeth broken in pieces, 
 as this same psalm sings, for they could no more devour 
 Christ, because he died no more, Rom. 6 19, and death had 
 no more dominion over him. David saith, therefore, in this 
 Psalm, 
 
 V. I. — Jehovah, hoiv arc mine adversaries increased! 
 {Lord, zvhy are they increased that trouble me?) Many are 
 they that rise up against me. 
 
 The scope of this psalm is nearly th^ same as that of the 
 preceding, and the subject similar. For the psalmist begins 
 here also, by complaining of the vain presumption of the 
 adversaries of Christ, and concludes with a triumphant con- 
 solation, saying, "For thou hast smitten," etc. v. 8 ; and, "Sal- 
 vation belongeth unto the Lord," etc. v. 9. But he here treats 
 of the matter more briefly, and of the patience of the sufferer 
 more fully. 
 
 For there are three things that most severely try a suf- 
 ferer, his solitude, impotency, and despair; which the three 
 opposite things of the adversaries increase and strengthen, 
 their multitude, power, and confidence. 
 
PSALM III. Ill 
 
 He refers to his own solitude and the multitude of his 
 enemies, when he says, "O Lord, why are they increased that 
 trouble me?" For if it were otherwise, and he were not soli- 
 tary and left alone, how could he suffer? How could he be 
 tried, how could he be touched, if he were supported with a 
 greater or even an equal number of defenders contending for 
 him? as the devil saw in the case of Job and said, "Doth Job 
 fear God for naught? Hast thou not made an hedge about 
 him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every 
 side?" I .'9, lo. 
 
 He refers to his own impotency and the power of his ene- 
 mies when he says, "Many are they that rise up against me." 
 For he would not have suffered even though left alone, if he 
 had not been weak and helpless himsGlf, and oppressed with 
 more powerful enemies. For thus, Samson, though alone, 
 could suffer no hurt from the Philistines whom he destroyed 
 so often. Wherefore it is to be observed as a general rule, 
 that his suffering is nothing who has the means of returning 
 the injury he receives and of revenging it, and who has the 
 power of resisting so as to prevent himself from being op- 
 pressed. For the two things that concur to make a suft'erer are 
 an inability either to revenge or to resist. 
 
 But it is more terrible to rise up against a person, than 
 simply to distress him. Even as it is more terrible to be help- 
 less than to be alone, and more terrible for the enemy to be 
 powerful and invincible than for them to be many. Therefore 
 he saith, they "rise up against me" as in Ps. 2, they are excited, 
 strengthened, and banded together against me, they are too 
 strong for me, they by strength prevail over me, and I, being 
 too weak for them, totter, fall, and am laid utterly prostrate. 
 For this their superior might and his own bereft state are 
 signified by the words "rise up against me." As it was ex- 
 pressed also in the former psalm, "The kings of the earth stood 
 up," for that signifies the same power. But that which follows, 
 most strongly and extremely enforces these two points. 
 
112 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 V. 2. — Many there are that say of my soul, there is no 
 help for him in (his) God. Selah. 
 
 Christ certainly heard these words while hanging on the 
 cross, "He trusteth on God; let him deliver him now, if he 
 desireth him," Matt. 27 :43 ; according to that which was fore- 
 told, Ps. 22 :7-8, "All they that see me, laugh me to scorn : 
 they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, he trusted 
 on Jehovah that he would deliver him : let him rescue him, 
 seeing he delighteth in him." For certainly this boasting 
 confidence, this laughing to scorn, this derision, this insult- 
 ing mockery, which are the triumphal song and lauding en- 
 comium of the adversaries over an enemy when vanquished 
 and brought to utter despair, are the most bitter and extreme 
 of all tribulations. For to have fallen and entirely yielded to 
 many and powerful enemies, is then the most dreadful when 
 the hope of rising again, though in God himself, is denied ; as it 
 is written, Ps. 41 15, 8, "Mine enemies speak evil against me," 
 saying, "And now that he lieth he shall rise up no more." And 
 we know that Christ was in this state of despair, not that he 
 himself despaired, but he was despaired of by all, even by his 
 own disciples, that is, he was considered in their hearts as dead, 
 and they had no hope of his rising again, as it is written, Ps, 
 69:20, "I looked for some to take pity, but there was none." 
 Nay, for consolation they had nothing but desperation with 
 the most bitter derision, which is diabolical. 
 
 In the Hebrew the expression is simply "in God," without 
 the pronoun his, which seems to me to give clearness and force 
 to the expression. As if he had said, they say of me, that 
 I am not only deserted and oppressed by all creatures, but 
 that even God, who is present with all things, preserves all 
 things, and protects all things, forsakes me as the only thing 
 out of the whole universe that lie does not preserve. Which 
 kind of temptation Job seems to have tasted when he says, 
 "Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee," 7 :20. For there 
 is no temptation, no not of the whole world together, nor of 
 
PSALM III. 113 
 
 all hell combined in one, equal to that in which God stands 
 contrary to a man ; which temptation Jeremiah prays against, 
 17:17, "Be not a terror unto me; thou art my refuge in- the 
 day of evil:" and concerning which also the sixth psalm, v. i, 
 following saith, "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger ;" and 
 we find the same petitions through the v/hole Psalter. This 
 temptation is wholly unsupportable, and is truly hell itself, 
 as it is said in Ps. 6:5, "For in death there is no remembrance 
 of thee," etc. In a word, if you have never experienced it, 
 you can. never form any idea of it whatever. 
 
 Observe also the modesty, yea, the peculiar state of mind 
 of him who is under this temptation. He says, interrogatively, 
 "Why are they increased ?" wherein he desires to prove himself 
 innocent, and to show that he suffered undeservedly. Yet 
 he does not dare to accuse them and to address them with the 
 appellation of unrighteous and sinners, but using an ambiguous 
 expression he says, "why are they increased that trouble me?" 
 But at the conclusion, after his victory, he firmly and with 
 confidence calls them sinners and ungodly, saying, 'Tliou hast 
 smitten all those that are mine enemies without a cause, as 
 our text has it : thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.' 
 For while he is under the hand of these implacably raging 
 ones, he alone is the sinner, and all others are righteous ; and 
 while they are all, according to the will of God, fighting to- 
 gether against him, nothing is heard but this unutterable 
 groan, in which, being imperceptibly aided by the spirit, he 
 inquires and says, "why do so many of them rise up against 
 me, one person?" But David himself in this part of his history, 
 laboring under the same feelings, says, 2 Sam. 15:26, "But 
 if he say thus, I have no delight in thee ; behold here am I, let 
 him do to me as seemeth good unto him." O great self-denial, 
 to choose a God even when contrary to him ! etc. 
 
 At the end of this verse we have the Hebrew word 
 SELAH, which, as it will often occur, we will now consider 
 once for all. 
 
114 LUTHEU ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Concerning the Hebrew zvord ''selah/' 
 
 It is not at this day clearly known what this word signifies, 
 or what its true meaning is. The seventy translators have 
 rendered it by the Greek word diapsahna, which the sainted 
 Augustine interprets, a pause, an interruption or discontinua- 
 tion of the psalmody, as, on the contrary, he interprets sump 
 saluia, a making or continuation of the psalmody. He ob- 
 serves also, that wherever diapsahna or sela is put, a change 
 of the subject or of the persons is signified. And with him 
 Cassidorus agrees. 
 
 The blessed Jerome to Marcella, adducing many authori- 
 ties from Origen, thinks that the v/ord m.ore truly signifies a 
 connection of the preceding things in the Psalm with those 
 that succeed, or, certainly, that those things which are said 
 are eternal. Hence Aquila, a most diligent expounder of the 
 Hebrew words, has translated it, 'ever,' or 'for ever.' 
 
 Burgensis on the eighty-third Psalm says that it has no 
 signification at all, but is only a supplement to the music, and 
 refers to nothing but the music to which it is joined. He 
 denies that it has any such signification as 'for ever,' that 
 therefore it is found no v/here but in the Psalms, because they 
 are canticles, and sung or uttered to music, and that it is 
 found in one canticle of Habakkuk, and once in that canticle, 
 in this passage, "And the Holy One from mount Paran." 
 Habak. 3 13 . 
 
 Burgensis is closely followed by a more recent writer, 
 Stapulensis, who thinks that selah v/as of the same signi- 
 fication with the Hebrews, as the vowels, evo\'ae, are with 
 us in our ecclesiastical responses, which are the signature to 
 a pause or final tone, and signify, "For ever and ever. Amen ;" 
 but they are not sung with the response, though they are joined 
 to it in the music. 
 
 John Reuchlin in his Hebrew Rudiments brings forward 
 two opinions. The one, that of Jonathan the Chaldean, who, 
 he says, translated selah, 'in the power of ages.' To which 
 
PSALM III. 115 
 
 translation, Rabbi Eleazar added, 'that to whatever portion 
 of the holy scripture Selah is, added, that scripture will have 
 no end, either in this world or in that which is to come.' The 
 other opinion is that of Abraham Ben Esdras, who thinks that 
 SELAH is of the same signification as 'verily' or 'truly ;' and he 
 says that this interpretation was received by the Hebrews, and 
 that in their opinion also it has no meaning, except that it is 
 joined to the music, as Burgensis has also observed. 
 
 Such a diversity of opinions, therefore, causes me to con- 
 fess that I know not which of them comes the nearest to the 
 truth. But the arguments which move me to dissent from all 
 that they have advanced are these. 
 
 First, the examples taken from the Psalms and from Hab- 
 akkuk do not agree together. For the selah which is found 
 in the latter, though it favors the opinion of Augustine, yet it 
 is against Jerome, because it is the subject that is changed, 
 not the person ; nor are the things which precede and those 
 which follow connected by it. And yet, this same instance is 
 against them both, because, it is sometimes placed at the end 
 of the Psalms and sometimes repeated in the midst of the 
 words of the same person in the same continued exhortation, 
 as may be seen in the third and fourth Psalms, for at the end 
 of the third Psalm it is said, "Thy blessing is upon thy people, 
 Selah :" and, in the fourth Psalm it is said, "Commune with 
 your own heart upon your bed ; Selah. Offer the sacrifice of 
 righteousness." Here is a continued exhortation of the same 
 person to the same persons, and yet selah is found in the mid- 
 dle of it, which is against Augustine, and that it is found at the 
 end of the preceding Psalm is against Jerome. 
 
 If the opinion of each be defended in any manner, either 
 with respect to Selah signifying a connection or a distinction 
 of subjects or persons, even then no reason can be given why 
 it should not equally be put in all the Psalms where there is 
 either a connection or distinction of subjects or persons ; for 
 it might in many instances be put with greater propriety for 
 
Il6 LUTHEE ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 that purpose, than where it is now found, as is obvious to 
 every observant reader. 
 
 But that it does not signify 'for ever,' as Burgensis rightly 
 thinks, is evidently proved even by the verse now before us, 
 which saith, "there is no help for him in his god. Selah." For 
 who, I pray, would be so mad as to assert that Christ, or any 
 righteous man, could be in eternal tribulation without any 
 salvation of God? for Ps. 8:5, saith that it was 'for a little 
 time,' and short, as we shall hereafter see. And in Ps. 83 :8, 
 it is said, "Assur is also joined with them : they have holpen 
 the children of Lot. Selah." Did then Assur help the children 
 of Lot for ever? In a word Selah, received in that sense, 
 will accord with very few verses indeed. For when it is said, 
 Ps. 4:2, "And seek after lying," and, v. 4, "Be filled with 
 compunction on your beds. Selah." does it signify that the 
 sons of men shall be filled with compunction and shall seek 
 after leasing 'for ever?' 
 
 The remaining opinion, therefore, is that of Burgensis, 
 which I neither approve nor disapprove, though it may be said 
 against him, why should this appendage of music be affixed to 
 these, and not to other passages also ? 
 
 I, in the mean time, will stand by the septuagint trans- 
 lators, who in many instances seem to have had a certain 
 divine discernment, though they frequently departed from the 
 literal propriety of the original words. As for instance, how 
 clearly and appropriately did they render that passage, Ps. 2:12, 
 "Lay hold on discipline," which is in Hebrev/, though some- 
 what obscurely expressed, "Kiss the Son?" For truly, to 
 embrace Jesus Christ is to embrace discipline and the cross, 
 and, as Paul is wont to say, 'to have fellowhip with Christ 
 in his sufferings.' For otherwise, many may confess that they 
 know Christ, while in works they deny him. But, not he that 
 talks about Christ, but he that lives according to Christ cruci- 
 fied, shall be saved. And to live according to Christ cruci- 
 fied, is to be crucified ; as Paul says. Gal. 2 :20, "I am crucified 
 
PSALM III. 
 
 117 
 
 with Christ: nevertheless I Hve: yet not I but Christ Hveth 
 in me." Thus also with respect to their diapsalnias what 
 they meant to convey by it as to grammatical signification I 
 know not ; I shall divine its mystical meaning. 
 
 And they seem after their manner to intimate a mystery 
 when they made bold to interpret it 'a. division,' 'a pause,' or 
 'a resting ;' which Selah, in the Hebrew, does not signify, nor 
 were they a little moved by the consideration of the certainty, 
 that no one letter, point, or iota, is written in the scriptures in 
 vain. Matt. 5:18. 
 
 According to my bold way, therefore, I imagine this 'pause' 
 to signify a certain particular affection of the heart, which 
 the person feels while singing or meditating on the Psalms, 
 under the movings of the Spirit, which afifection of mind, as it 
 is not in our own power, cannot be commanded by us in every 
 psalm nor in every verse, but only as the Holy Spirit shall move 
 us. Therefore, the word Selah is introduced confusedly and 
 altogether without discernable order, to show, that the motion 
 of the Spirit is secret, unknown to us, and by no means possi- 
 ble to be foreseen by us; and that, wherever it comes, it re- 
 quires us to omit the words of the psalms, that the mind may 
 be in a pausing and quiet frame, and in a state for receiving 
 the illumination or feeling conveyed to us. Thus, in this 
 verse, where that singular temptation of the spirit is spoken 
 of, under which an angry God is sustained, and not the creature 
 only, the prophet is moved to contemplate and dwell upon 
 it with a deep affection of the mind. 
 
 Such is my opinion, without any prejudice against the 
 judgment of others. And let this suffice concerning the word 
 
 SELAII. 
 
 V. 3. — But thou, O Jchoi'ah, art a shield about mc {my 
 helper) ; my glory, and the lifter up of my head. 
 
 David here contrasts three things with three; helper, with 
 many troubling ; glory, with many rising up ; and the lifter up 
 of the head, with the blaspheming and insulting. 
 
Il8 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Therefore, the person here represented is indeed alone in 
 the estimation of men, and even according to his own feeHngs ; 
 but in the sight of God, and in a spiritual view, he is by no 
 means alone, but protected with the greatest abundance of 
 help, as Christ saith, John 16:32, "Behold, the hour cometh 
 when ye shall leave me alone : and yet I am not alone, because 
 the Father is with me.' 
 
 Hence such an one is weak and oppressed according to 
 outward appearance and in the sight of men, but before God 
 and in the spirit he is most strong; and therefore he glories 
 in the power of God with all confidence, like the apostle, 2 
 Cor. 12:10, 9, 'When I am weak then am I strong: most 
 gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power 
 of Christ may rest upon me.' And Ps. 68:9, 'Thou didst 
 confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. 
 
 Thus according to man and the views of the unwise, such a 
 person is in despair, and there is no salvation left for him in 
 God. But in the "secret place of thunder" he is heard and 
 lifted up, according to Ps. 81 :7, "Thou calledst in trouble 
 and I delivered thee, I answered thee in the secret place of 
 thunder." And truly it is in the "secret place" of thunder, 
 for this thunder-storm of tribulation so hides the knowledge 
 of our being heard and of salvation, that any thing but salva- 
 tion appears in view; and not a hearing God, but an angry 
 God only is felt. 
 
 He who has understood and experienced these things will 
 also know well how foolishly and rashly many teach, that 
 man by nature can love God above all things; but there is 
 no man, left to his own nature, who does not dread death 
 and the punishments that follow death, being unable to en- 
 dure the hell and the wrath of God let in upon him. And 
 God cannot be above all things, unless all these things be 
 overcome by the love of God. 
 
 Hence the words contained in this verse are not the words 
 of nature, but of grace; not of free-will, but of the spirit of 
 
PSALM III. 119 
 
 Strong faith, which, even though seeing God, as in the darkness 
 of the storm of death and hell, a deserting God, acknowledges 
 him a sustaining God ; when seeing him as a persecuting 
 God, acknowledges him a helping God ; when seeing him as a 
 condemner, acknowledges him a Saviour. Thus this faith does 
 not judge of things as they seem, or are felt, like a horse and 
 a mule which have no understanding, Ps. 32 :g, but it under- 
 stands things which are not seen, for "hope that is seen is 
 not hope; for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for?" 
 Rom. 8 :24. 
 
 Of the same import with the present passage is that also 
 which is written, Ps. 54:3, 'For strangers, (behold here are 
 many ,and strangers, that is, ungodly and advarsaries), are 
 risen up against me that is, against me deserted and alone, 
 and violent men have sought after my soul. Behold there 
 are strong ones, and they prevail against the one that is weak : 
 they have not set God before them." As if he had said, they 
 do not believe that God is with me, but that I am in despair, 
 and therefore they imagine that I am hated by God himself. 
 
 Likewise Ps. 86:14, "O God, the proud are risen against 
 me, and a company of violent men have sought after my 
 soul ; and have not set thee before them." That is, I am 
 left alone and am helpless, and they are multiplied and op- 
 press me; I am impotent and distressed, and they are power- 
 ful, and rise and stand up against me. I am in despair, and 
 they say there is no help for me in God ; and they are confident 
 and glory in their victory over me. 
 
 Hence we see that the life of a righteous man in this world, 
 after the example of Christ, is made up of these three parts 
 of the cross, solitude, impotency, and despair; that he may 
 thus be a proper object to find in God, a helper, a glorifier and 
 a lifter-up of his head. Thus Joshua with the children of 
 Israel, feigned a flight in the war against the people of Ai, 
 8 :5-i4, and by that very means destroyed them utterly. And 
 thus the children of Ijenjan.iin were slain by the children of 
 
120 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Israel, Judges 20 :32-35, in the same manner, for the latter 
 feigned a flight, and, returning afterwards, slew the former 
 almost completely. For the cross and suffering are most en- 
 snaring, and are most destroying flights to the world, and 
 the devil, the world, and the flesh are not overcome by any 
 powers more effectually than these, for here, by the wonderful 
 counsel of God, while they conquer, they are conquered. 
 
 It is clear, however, that "glory" in this passage is to be 
 received as signifying 'glorying,' or 'the thing gloried in,' 
 according to a figure of speech used in the scriptures, whereby 
 it is said, Jer. 17:17, "Thou art my refuge in the day of evil," 
 and also, Ps. 22 :g, "Thou didst make me trust when I was 
 upon my mother's breasts," and again, Ps. 142 15, "I said, 
 Thou art my refuge," tliat is, thou art that concerning which, 
 and in which, I hope. Thus my God is my mercy, thus the 
 Lord is my light and my salvation, etc. 
 
 In the same manner that it is said here, thou art "my 
 glory," that is, that in which I glory. So that the sense is, they 
 trust in their own glory, and glory in the multitude of their 
 riches, Ps. 49:7, (Vulgate), and their glory is their strength; 
 but I do not glory in my strength, and yet I am not confounded 
 in the impoten.cy v/hich I suffer; but I glory in thy strength, 
 and thy power is my glory, according to Ps. 89:17, "For thou 
 art the glory of their strength, and also Jer. 9:23, 24, "Let not 
 the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man 
 glory in his might ; let not the rich man glory in his riches : but 
 let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he hath understanding 
 and knoweth me," etc. And so again, i Cor. 1:31, "He that 
 glorieth let him glory in the Lord.' 
 
 Now if any one should wish to enter farther into gram- 
 matical particulars, — that cabod in this passage signifies, 
 properly, that which the Greeks express by dosa, glory, and the 
 Latins by gloria, glory ; and that therefore, it is a different 
 thing from glorying, which the Greeks are considered to ex- 
 press by koiicluDiia, and the Hebrew by pheer or tiprera; 
 
PSALM III. 121 
 
 — if the passage, I say, be so received, it will not even then 
 be properly understood, for it will then make God to be the 
 'glory' of the righteous man, in the same way as Paul, i Cor. 
 11:7, calls man "the glory of God," and woman "the glory 
 of man." Because, God is glorified, honored, and praised in 
 his saints whom he has redeemed ; and on the other hand, they 
 also are glorified on whom God has condescended to bestow 
 so great a benefit, while they confess concerning themselves 
 that they were holpen, not by their own strength, but by the 
 power of God. 
 
 But there is to me very little difference in these two words, 
 especially with respect to the present passage, except that 
 'glory' being unconnected with the feelings of the person 
 glorified, signifies the good opinion of others concerning him, 
 and his fame and renown ; but 'glorying' signifies the afifection 
 of mind in the person glorifying, and his confidence in God. 
 Let each one adopt that acceptation of the passage which 
 pleases him most, because, in the spirit and before God, there 
 can neither be glory without glorifying, nor glorifying without 
 glory. For in order to glory and happily boast in God, thy 
 opinion of thyself as to what thou art in the sight of God, 
 must be good, and thou must feel and firmly believe it to be so ; 
 and then, God being thy glory, and known and believed to be 
 so, makes thee rejoice and glory in God. For who may not 
 glory, exult, and, despising all things else, unspeakably re- 
 joice, who knows and believes that his opinion of himself, as 
 to what he is in the sight of God, is good? that is, that God 
 thinks well of him, is well pleased with him, is willing to 
 help him, will fight for him, and will give him favor in the 
 sight of all. 
 
 But again, it is not enough that thy opinion of thy self as to 
 what thou art in the sight of God, be good ; that is, tliat thou 
 art loved by him, praised by him, and well pleasing to him, 
 that is, that thou art in his glory, unless thou art and believe 
 this. And be assured that, when thou knowest and believest 
 
122 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 this, glorying and joy of conscience cannot by any means be 
 wanting. Whence it is certain that it must of necessity be, 
 that the glorifying of God and the glorying of the righteous 
 must go together; as we find it in Ps. 106:47, "That we may 
 glory in thy praise;" so that God is both the glory and the 
 glorying of the righteous, their 'glory' is in God, and the 
 'glorying' is in their own conscience. For the 'glory' is our 
 good opinion concerning another but the 'glorying' is our 
 rejoicing and confidence in that object of our glory. 
 
 You see therefore, what great faith and confidence are 
 manifested in these words. Although, saith he, many rise up 
 against me, imagine evil against me, and think the worst of 
 things concerning me, yet I know that I shall not be con- 
 founded. The Lord is my glory, and I firmly trust that his 
 thoughts concerning me are most favorable, and I glory in 
 this my persuasion. 
 
 "The lifter up of my head." Though I know that this 
 "head" is received by some as signifying Christ himself, and 
 also the mind itself of Christ, yet this acceptation seems to 
 be figurative. Therefore, according to my bold way, I rather 
 think that it should be received as signifying more simply, and 
 by a figure of speech most common in the scriptures, 'glori- 
 fication.' So that the plain meaning of the whole passage 
 should be, "The lifter up of my head," that is, he has lifted 
 me up and set me on high, according to 2 Kings 25 :27f. "Evil 
 Merodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, 
 did lift up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison ; 
 and he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne 
 of the kings that were with him in Babylon." Here it is clear 
 that 'lifting up the head' signifies to exalt the whole man, 
 and to place him in a state of glory and in a kingdom. And 
 so Christ, who was represented in a figure by Jehoiachin, king 
 of Judah, when he had died and descended into hell, and it was 
 now said of him that all was despair, and that there was no 
 hope for him in God, was soon after raised up by the right 
 
PSALM III. 123 
 
 hand of God from the depths of the earth above the heavens, 
 and above all powers, and was made King of kings, and Lord 
 of lords! Thus it is said in the same manner, Ps. 110:7, "^^ 
 will drink of the brook in the way, therefore will he lift up the 
 head," that is, shall be exalted above all. 
 
 And as 'to lift up the head,' in the scriptures, signifies a 
 kingdom and power, so also, with no dissimilar figure of 
 speech, to lift up the hand signifies to prevail and to be power- 
 ful in working, as in Is. 49 :22, ''Behold, I will lift up mine 
 hand to the nations, and set up my ensign to the peoples ; and 
 they shall bring thy sons in their bosom," etc. And so also Ps. 
 74 :3, 'Lift up thy hand against their pride.' And in the same 
 manner, 'to lift up the feet' signifies 'to go quickly,' as we 
 have it. Gen. 29:1, where we read, "Then Jacob went on his 
 journey," which is in the Hebrew 'and Jacob lifted up his feet.' 
 And we are accustomed in the German language also, by a 
 figure of expression, to exhort those whom we would have to 
 go quickly, by saying 'Lift up your feet.' 
 
 I have dwelt upon these particulars somewhat at length, 
 because, a great part of the knowledge of what is written lies 
 in the figures of speech ; and especially in the Holy Scriptures, 
 which have their peculiar idioms, an ignorance of which, some- 
 times raises great clouds where there is the clearest day. To 
 have the 'head lifted up,' therefore, is to be exalted to the 
 station of a king, and to be glorified. 
 
 Continually would I inculcate and bring to remembrance 
 that these are the words of faith, hope, and love ; whereby 
 we are instructed in Christ, that we faint not in every strait, 
 for all these things, as the apostle saith, Rom. 15 14, 'are written 
 for our instruction and consolation, that we through patience 
 might have hope.' For it is a hard matter and a work requir- 
 ing the power of divine grace to believe in God as the lifter 
 up of our head and our crowner in the midst of death and 
 hell. For this exaltation is a thing hidden, and that which is 
 seen, is only despair, and no help in God. 
 
 Therefore we are here taught 'to believe in hope against 
 
124 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 hope,' which wisdom of the cross is in this day deeply hidden 
 in a profound mystery. For there is no other way into heaven, 
 than this cross of Christ. Therefore we must take heed that 
 the active hfe with its works, and the speculative with its 
 speculations, do not delude us : they are each very pleasing 
 and quiet, and are on that account the more perilous, until 
 they be disturbed and tempered by the cross. The cross is 
 the safest of all things. Blessed is he who understands ! 
 V. 4. — / cry (cried) unto Jehovah with my voice, and he 
 answercth {heard) me out of his holy hill. Selah. 
 
 In Hebrew the verbs are future as Jerome translates them, 
 T will cry. and 'he shall hear,' and this pleases me better than 
 the perfect tense, for they are the words of one triumphing 
 in and praising and glorifying God, and giving thanks unto 
 him who sustained, preserved, and lifted him up, according as 
 he had hoped in the preceding verse. For it is usual with 
 those that triumph and rejoice to speak of those things which 
 they have done and suffered and to sing a song of praise unto 
 their helper and deliverer, as in Ps. 66:16, "Come, and hear, all 
 ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for 
 my soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was ex- 
 tolled with my tongue." Also Ps. 81 :i, "Sing aloud unto 
 God our strength." Again, Ex. 15:1, "I will sing unto Jeho- 
 vah, for he hath triumphed gloriously." And so here, being 
 filled with an overflowing sense of gratitude and joy, he sings 
 of his being heard, of his having slept and risen again, of 
 his enemies being smitten, and of the teeth of the ungodly 
 being broken. 
 
 This it is which causes the change ; for he who hitherto had 
 been addressing God in the second person, changes on a sudden 
 his address to others concerning God, in the third person, 
 saying, "and he heard me," not 'and thou heardest me;' and 
 also "I cried unto the Lord," not 'I cried unto thee,' for he 
 wants to make all know what benefits God has heaped upon 
 him, which is peculiar to a grateful mind. 
 
 However that expression of the Hebrew in the future, 'I 
 
PSALM III. 125 
 
 will cry,' and, 'he shall hear me,' carries greater force with 
 it than 'I cried,' in the perfect; though the future does not 
 exclude the perfect, but very forcibly includes it. And that 
 I may set forth the mind of the speaker if I can, his feelings 
 seem to be something like this. 'I, who have now experienced 
 how good and sweet the Lord is, how far he is from forsak- 
 ing and despising those who cry unto him, how faithfully he 
 sustains, preserves, and lifts up all who call upon him, I who 
 have experienced these things, will so carry myself tov/ards 
 him henceforth, that I will flee unto him only with the greatest 
 confidence. I will not be afraid of many hundreds of thousands 
 of people ; for I am prepared to hope in him, even though many 
 more and greater things are to be borne than those which I 
 have borne already; as Job 13:15 saith, "Though he slay me, 
 yet will I trust in him." This is that God in whom all may 
 confidently trust, and concerning whom they may be assured 
 no one has any reason to despair. O unhappy they, who, 
 when broken with either the multitude or the magnitude of 
 evils, do not understand how powerfully, how wonderfully, 
 and how gloriously this God saves those that cry unto him !' 
 
 That such were his feelings is manifest from what follows, 
 'T will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people." And 
 again, "Salvation is of the Lord." And so also with the same 
 feelings he says, Ps. 34:1, 'T will bless the Lord at all times." 
 As if he had said, 'Fool that I have been ! for hitherto I have 
 blessed the Lord at one time only, that is, in the time of pros- 
 perity and quiet, for I did not know how powerful he was 
 in the time of adversity also ; therefore, from this time for- 
 ward I will bless him in the time of evil also.' For there are 
 some who will praise God at the time when all things go well, 
 according to that word, 'He will praise thee when thou doest 
 good unto him.' Ps. 49 :i8. But in the time of temptation they 
 so draw back, that they will flee unto any thing rather than 
 unto God. In a word, they cannot even cry unto him, much 
 less praise and bless him. 
 
 But we are here taught that in the time of the cross we 
 
126 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ought to sing forth that of Ps. i8 :3, "I will call upon Jehovah, 
 who is v/orthy to be praised ; so shall I be saved from mine 
 enemies :" that God may then be precious unto thee and be 
 lOved by thee, when he seems to be the most displeasing and 
 the most worthy of being hated. This is the love of God that 
 is pure and solid. And this is what Is. saith, 48 -.g, "For my 
 praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off." For the 
 heart is bound and restrained with this praise in the midst 
 of the waters and storms of temptation, that it fall not away 
 from the love of God. But all these things are the operations 
 of the Holy Spirit, and not of nature ; they all were perfectly 
 accomplished in Christ, and are wrought and exemplified in 
 all who are Christ's. 
 
 As to the words "my voice," Augustine, and after him 
 Cassidorus, think they are not to be understood as meaning 
 the corporeal voice, but 'the voice of the heart,' that is, the 
 voice of the heart that is truly pure; and they are led to this 
 interpretation of the v/ords by the pronoun "my," because, 
 that is not the man's real voice, which is interrupted by im- 
 pure thoughts when in prayer. I think this is the true meaning 
 of the passage. And yet I do not consider that the corporeal 
 voice is excluded, because, when the feelings are powerful, 
 the voice cannot contain itself, but will burst forth into words 
 and expressions. For even Christ, when on the cross, cried 
 out with the natural voice, and has taught us also to cry out 
 in our straits, so that we may thus cry unto God with all our 
 powers, both inward and outward. 
 
 He says, "From his holy hill." I find this "hill" to be 
 variously understood. Some understand Christ here as speak- 
 ing concerning himself, others concerning his most high divin- 
 ity, and others give the passage different acceptations. I am 
 best pleased by understanding it to signify the "hill" of his 
 most high divinity ; only, you are to observe I speak in my 
 bold way that this "hill" has no name. For in the second 
 Psalm he spoke of the "holy hill of Zion," upon which he was 
 set as King; and therefore the "hill" v/as there to have a name, 
 
PSALM III. 127 
 
 because he could not rule upon it without its being known by 
 name . But this "hill" from which he is heard, is unnameable 
 and has neither form nor name. 
 
 And I conceive that by this we are all taus^ht that in the 
 time of temptation we ought to hope for the divine help from 
 above ; but that the time, manner, and nature of the help are 
 unknown to us ; that so, there may be room for faith and hope, 
 which always rest upon those things that are neither seen nor 
 heard, and that never entered into the heart of man. Thus, 
 the eye of faith looks toward the inner darkness and blackness 
 of the hill and sees nolhin.g; except that it is fixedly directed 
 upwards, expecting help will come unto it from thence. It 
 looks up on high and from on high expects a helper, but what 
 this on high is or what help it shall get it knows not. For 
 although Christ knew all things, yet he was in all things tempt- 
 ed as we are; so that he himself, in a certain sense, and in 
 respect to his humanity, had this hill unknown to him and 
 incomoprchensible during the hour of his passion ; for he 
 speaks of this same thing also in another place, Ps. 22 :3, "But 
 thou dwellcst in thy holy place," that is, in thy hidden and 
 unapproachable secrecy. For as God is ineffable, incompre- 
 hensible, and inaccessible, so are his will and his help also, 
 especially in the time of desertion. 
 
 But what this "holy liill" of God is no words can express, 
 nor can any one come to the least apprehension of it but he who 
 is brought to experience it by faith, and to prove it for himself 
 in the times of temptation. It is the same as if he had said, 
 'He heard froni his holy lull, which is the common rendering; 
 he heard me in an ineffable, incomprehensible manner, and 
 in a manner that I never thought of. I know that I was heard 
 from above, but how, I know not. He saved me from above 
 and received me from on high, as we shall hereafter hear him 
 speak, but what this 'above' and this 'on high' is, I know not.' 
 It is the same when God leaves us and does not hear us ; 
 for we know not whither the Spirit goes, nor whence he 
 comes, though we hear his voice when he speaks to us ; as 
 
128 . LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Christ saith John 3 :8, and Job 9:11, "Lo, he goeth by me, and 
 I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not." 
 Christ says, "so is every one that is born of the spirit." He 
 departeth when the Spirit departcth, that is, he is left alone 
 when the Spirit leaves him ; and he cometh when the Spirit 
 cometh, that is, he is heard when the Spirit heareth ; and yet 
 he knoweth neither the one nor the other, nor hov/ it is wrought 
 upon him. 
 
 This is what is contained in the word "holy," which, as I 
 have already shown, signifies separate and secret and, in a 
 word, that v/hich can be touched neither by sense nor by the 
 powers of the natural mind ; and into which whoever is taken, 
 is taken into the invisible God, and is perfectly purified, separ- 
 ated, and sanctified. But this is hard to be received by, and 
 unbearable to, human nature, unless the Spirit of the Lord 
 move upon these waters and brood over the darkness of this 
 abyss until the light shine. 
 
 Hence the folly lies here, that man endures not the coun- 
 sel of God, but wants to be helped at the time and in the way 
 that he himself chooses and that pleases him ; whereby he makes 
 out of the unmoveable hill of God a hill that has a name, and 
 profanes the holy hill of God by touching it with his own 
 thoughts as much as lies in his power. Ex. 19:12. For such 
 an one is like the horse or the mule : he endures the Lord as 
 long as he feels and understands him, but will not follow him 
 beyond the limits of his own understanding, because, he does 
 not live by faith, but by his own reason. This is proved by 
 examples contained in all the histories both of the Old and 
 New Testaments, as the Apostle has shown us in Heb. 11; in 
 which examples we find that God always saves his saints that 
 thev know nothing of the way, manner, and time of the sal- 
 vation. Salvation comes to all from on high and from above, 
 unlooked-for and unexpected. 
 
 Hence, it is very well said, "from his holy hill;" that is, 
 from his most high divinity. But all do not understand what 
 they say when they speak of this most high divinity. For 
 
PSALM III. 129 
 
 to be heard by the most high divinity is, as I have said, to be 
 heard in an unheard-of, unthought-of manner ; so that nothing 
 was less thought of than this help from, and this being heard 
 by the divine. For it is faith and hope that speak in this 
 passage ; or it is concerning faith and hope being heard that 
 the history speaks. When faith and hope are heard, they feel 
 nothing and experience nothing and understand nothing of the 
 being heard, because these are things that appear not. 
 
 This is what the word selah itself, at the end of this 
 passage, particularly intimates, viz. a deep subject and feeling 
 which require a pause, and which ought not to be passed light- 
 ly over ; so hard and diflicult a thing is jt to expect, and wait 
 for, salvation from the "holy hill' of God. The foolish man 
 does not understand these deep thoughts of God ; as is said 
 in Ps. 92 :6. Therefore, God reprobates the thoughts of the 
 people and the counsels of princes, Ps. 33:10; for "Jehovah 
 knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity," Ps. 94:11. 
 Nay, in these depths the faithful man is constrained to cry out, 
 "All men are liars," Ps. 116:11. So necessary is it in these 
 deep things, that all human understanding should be slain and 
 brought into captivity unto God. 
 
 V. 5. — / laid me dozvn and slept ; I azvakcd ; for Jcliorah 
 snstaineth me. 
 
 The words, "I laid me down" signify, in the Hebrew, the 
 posture of the person lying down or sleeping ; but, "and slept" 
 signifies the sleep itself. So that the sense is, I lay down, I 
 slept ; whereby he signifies, that he lay down and that he rested 
 in the tomb and was dead ; of which resting much mention is 
 made in many parts of the scriptures. Thus, Gen. 49 '.g, "He 
 stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness ; who shall 
 rouse him up?" And Ps. 4:8, "I will both lay me down in 
 peace, and sleep." In which passages, we find the very same 
 two verbs which are found in this verse, though they are not 
 translated by the same words ; so that, by the former you are 
 to understand the resting, and by the latter the sleeping. 
 
 This is that rest mentioned in Ps. 16:9, "My flesh also shall 
 
130 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 rest in hope." And Is. 11:10, 'And his sepulchre shall be 
 glorious' for it is thus that Jerome translates it, but the Septua- 
 gint has faithfully translated it 'And his rest shall be honor,' 
 or, as the Hebrew has it, 'And his resting place shall be glory.' 
 As if he had said, while the glory of all other kings is ended 
 by death, and their glory, as the apostle saith, ends in con- 
 fusion ; the glory of this King, on the contrary, begins in death, 
 and by death all his confusion is at an end. And so it is with 
 all who are Christ's, according to Ps. 116:15, "Precious in the 
 sight of the Lord is the death of his saints ;" because their 
 life is ignominious in the sight of men. But I have only hinted 
 at these things by the way. We now return to this "rest." 
 
 This is that "rest" which was signified by the Sabbath of 
 old, which means rest, and which is signified also by our holi- 
 days, on which days, figuratively and spiritually considered, 
 Christ causes us to be dead to, and to rest from all our works, 
 that is, our sins and to keep holiday, that we may live unto 
 God only, and no longer work ourselves, but let God work and 
 reign in us. Hence it is that it was so positively and rigor- 
 ously commanded of old, that no servile work should be done 
 on the Sabbath, but that it should be a day holy unto the Lord. 
 Concerning this Augustine, commenting on Genesis, says that 
 it is to be understood as referring to our works which are 
 always sins. Wherefore, nothing but the works of our master, 
 free works, principal v/orks, yea, divine works only, are to be 
 done, now that Christ has procured a Sabbath for us, or has 
 swallowed up and done away with all our works by his Sabbath 
 and rest. 
 
 And to this refers also the circumstance of Christ's lying 
 the whole Sabbath-day in the sepulchre; which was done that 
 the circumstance itself, the time, and the figure, may all concur 
 to show forth the same thing, and commend to us this all-sacred 
 rest. And a horrible thing it is for a man to be busily em- 
 ployed during this time of grace and holy rest in his own works 
 and to be found totally destitute of divine works. Like the 
 Jews, to wliom the words in Ex. 20 :8 were spoken, "Remember 
 
PSALM III. 131 
 
 that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day;" who, understanding 
 nothing about it, still continue in their own works, and by their 
 very keeping holy the Sabbath-day most awfully desecrate it. 
 But these remarks we have made mystically. 
 
 We now return to Christ. Christ, by the words of this 
 verse, signifies his death and burial, as we have shown at 
 the beginning of this Psalm. For it is not to be supposed 
 that he would have spoken so importantly concerning mere 
 natural rest and sleep ; especially since that which precedes 
 and that which follows compel us to understand him as speak- 
 ing of a deep conflict and a glorious victory over his enemies. 
 By all these things he stirs us up and animates us to faith 
 in God, and commends unto us the power and grace of God ; 
 that he is able to raise us up from the dead, an example of 
 which he sets before us, and proclaims it unto us as wrought 
 in himself. For there is no one thing that more deeply affects 
 and afiflicts us poor miserable men, than the terror and dread 
 of that death to which we are condemned in our first parent 
 Adam. Nor is there any news that we can hear more joyfully 
 than to hear that this curse is changed, and, what is greater 
 still, overcome, and that death is not only conquered but also 
 made the servant and helper unto a better life than that which 
 we had before. 
 
 Therefore by the death and rcssurection of Christ a greater 
 consolation is brought in and proclaimed to us than any other 
 that can be proclaimed unto the human race : namely, that 
 death, the evil incident to all, is so overcome, so put under 
 the feet of them that believe, that it is compelled to work to- 
 gether for the enjoyment of that very life which it seems to 
 put an end to and swallow up. Who therefore may not here 
 sing? Who may not rejoice with Christ? Surely this power 
 of Christ which is so full of joyful tidings ought to be uttered 
 forth, not with weeping lips and simple expressions only, 
 but in a Psalm and song of praise, as triumphal praises are 
 wont to be sung, in order that we may be the more animated 
 to a contempt of this life and to a love of death; for music 
 
132 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 itself has a certain peculiar effect in rousing and enlivening 
 our spirits. Thus Elijah had a minstrel, 2 Kings 3:15, and 
 Moses prepared trumpets for war, Numb. 10:9; and hence, 
 the Spirit makes use of music also in things so salutary and 
 necessary, because it is a hard matter to leave life behind and 
 long for death ; and therefore he would have this exhortation 
 in the manner of a song that he might the more easily move us, 
 and might show us that it is a way in which we may be the 
 easiest moved. 
 
 This is shown farther in his use of gentle words, and such 
 as tend wonderfully to lessen the horror of death. He says, 
 *T laid me down and slept." He does not say, I died and 
 was buried; for death and the tomb had lost both their name 
 and their power. And now death is not death but a sleep ; and 
 the tomb not a tomb, but a bed and resting place. This was 
 the reason why the words of this prophecy were put some- 
 what obscurely and doubtfully, that it might by that means 
 render death most lovely in our eyes, or rather most con- 
 temptible, as being that state from which, as from the sweet 
 rest of sleep, and undoubted arising and awaking are promised. 
 For who is not most sure of an awaking and arising, who lies 
 down to rest in a sweet sleep, where death does not prevent? 
 This person, however, does not say that he died, but that he 
 laid him down to sleep and that therefore he awaked. And 
 moreover, as sleep is useful and necessary for a better renewal 
 of the powers of the body, as Ambrose says in his hymn, and 
 as sleep relieves the weary limbs ; so is death also equally useful 
 and ordained for attaining a better life, Ps. 4:8, "In peace 
 will I both lay me down and sleep ; for thou, Jehovah, alone 
 makest me dwell in safety." 
 
 Therefore in considering death we are not so much to con- 
 sider death itself as that most certain life and resurrection 
 which are sure to those who are in Christ ; that those words of 
 John 8:51, might be fulfilled, "If a man keep my word, he 
 shall never see death." But how is it that he shall never see it? 
 Shall he not feel it? Shall he not die? No! He shall only 
 
PSALM III. 133 
 
 see sleep, for having the eyes of his faith fixed upon the resur- 
 rection, he so glides through death that he does not even see 
 death, for death, as I have said, is to him no death at all. 
 Hence John 1 1 125 says, "He that believeth on me, though 
 he die, yet shall he live." 
 
 All these things are begun in baptism and are consummated 
 at the end of life. For, as the apostle saith, Rom. 6:4, "We 
 were buried therefore with him through baptism into death ;" 
 which passage, as I understand it, does not refer to the spirit- 
 ual death of sin only, but unto corporal death also; because 
 sin does not die wholly until the body is extinct, or as Paul 
 expresses it, until this body of sin is .destroyed. Wherefore 
 in baptism we are immediately begun to be prepared for death, 
 that we may by death be brought the more quickly unto life. 
 
 Augustine here asks why David saith, in the future, "For 
 the Lord shall sustain me?" for it is thus that the Hebrew 
 has it, though our translation has rendered it by the perfect, 
 "sustained." And although it is true that in the prophets 
 the perfects are mingled with the futures, and thereby two 
 things are signified : That the things prophesied of were 
 future as to their events, but past and already accomplished 
 as to the clear knowledge of the prophets ; yet, this is perhaps 
 put in the future for our consolation and exhortation, when 
 it saith that the Lord not only sustained Christ our head, but 
 will sustain also all his members that follow him. So that 
 we are to imderstand him as speaking in his own person and 
 in the persons of us all, both for himself and for us also. 
 
 This Hebrew word, yismecheni, which Jerome renders 
 'raise me up,' and in other places 'sustaineth,' has a peculiar 
 force and energy which the Latin does not express and which 
 Reuchlin renders, 'shall put his hand on me,' 'shall approach,' 
 'shall draw near unto me ;' which is the sense that it conveys, 
 that he who dies, is not left of God, but is supported under- 
 neath as it were by the hand of God extended and put upon him, 
 that he might not fall into the deep, but rather be delivered 
 out of it, and raised up ; whereby the dying man and the manner 
 
134 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of his being sustained by God are descriptively set forth. For 
 he that dies seems to perish, and as it were to be swallowed 
 up in an abyss, but the hand of God drawing near to him from 
 above, preserves him from perishing, so that instead of sink- 
 ing, he is rather lifted up into life; thus he perishes and falls 
 indeed as to himself, but is preserved and rises in God. 
 
 V. 6. — / zvill not he afraid of ten thousands of the people 
 that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O 
 Jehovah; save me, O my God. 
 
 This third verse of the present song of triumph is of the 
 same nature as those that precede and those that follow, that 
 is, it sets forth and commends to us that proud but holy affec- 
 tion of mind that despises adversity. For we have said that 
 these things are spoken in the person of one, who rejoicing in, 
 and being grateful to God his deliverer, praises and pro- 
 claims his power and grace, i Pet .2 19 ; in which he is so con- 
 firmed and established by having experienced them in adversity, 
 that he resolves to fear no evil whatever hereafter, but to rest 
 safely in the protection of God, now known and experienced. 
 And although after Christ rose from the dead, neither tribula- 
 tion, nor death, nor surrounding thousands of the people, could 
 have any farther effect upon him; yet the affection of mind 
 and feelings, no doubt reigned and triumphed in him exactly 
 as the prophet foretold they would. And all this was not on 
 account of Christ only, who needed no such things, but for 
 our sakes ; who, although we may have overcome some tempta- 
 tions, have still many more to overcome. Therefore we have 
 need of exhortation that, having once tasted the grace of a 
 helping God, we may be encouraged and confirmed to the 
 enduring of much greater things, being most sweetly com- 
 forted by the example of Christ . And this is the reason, 
 according to my views, why the prophet so often varies the 
 tenses of his verbs, speaking sometimes in the perfect, as, "I 
 cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me," and also, 
 "I laid me down and slept ; I awaked ;" and sometimes in the 
 future, "I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people," 
 
PSALM III. 135 
 
 and sometimes again in the present, "Arise, O Lord ; save me," 
 and then again in the perfect, "Thou hast smitten all mine 
 enemies upon the cheek-bone," etc. Although he says all these 
 things in the person of the suffering Christ, yet he at the same 
 time shows us, in the example of Christ, that these same 
 things are accomplished and are to be accomplished in us. 
 
 Thus also, in John 12 127, Christ says at the hour of his 
 passion, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? 
 Father, save me from this hour : but for this cause came I 
 unto this hour." Here we would briefly observe that we ought 
 to make ourselves well acquainted with this manner of speech 
 peculiar to the scriptures and know that in the Prophets and 
 in the Psalms many things are said together and at the same 
 time, as to the order of the words, which are accomplished at 
 different times ; and some things spoken of first, as to order, 
 which are accomplished at a later time. As we have it here in 
 the person of Christ, where "Arise, O Lord; save me" refers 
 to his passion ; while that which precedes, "I cried unto the 
 Lord with my voice and he heard me," and "I awaked," refer 
 to the circumstances after his passion. But they are to be 
 understood, as I observed, as spoken for the benefit of his 
 members, out of a heart glorying on account of past triumphs, 
 expecting with courage future temptations, and arming and 
 fortifying itself with a confidence in the power of God. 
 
 Moreover it is too well known to need any explanation, 
 that such expressions as "Arise" are not addressed to God 
 as supposing him to be asleep or lying down, but, as Augustine 
 remarks on this passage, that is attributed unto God which 
 he does in us. So that he arises when he causes us to arise ; just 
 as he is said so to speak in the Prophets, when he causes them 
 to speak ; as the apostle saith, 2 Cor. 13 13, "Do ye seek a proof 
 of Christ speaking in me?" Or, he is then said to arise and 
 awake when he shows us, by a present influence wrought on 
 our minds, that he is then with us, which is a mode of speech 
 more common than the former, and by which things in the 
 scriptures are said to be done by God, when they are either 
 
136 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 felt or known by us to be done; as in Gen. 22:12, "For now I 
 know that thou fearest God," and also, Luke 7:47, where 
 Christ first said to Peter concerning Mary, "Her sins which 
 are many are forgiven her," but afterwards, revealing the same 
 to the woman herself, said, "Thy sins are forgiven." There- 
 fore, though there is no time when God does not help, yet 
 he is nevertheless called upon to help, nay, he first gives us the 
 power and helps us to call upon him and lest we should faint, 
 he helps us to continue calling upon him until he sends us the 
 help needed. 
 
 This verse, however, seems to be opposed to the first two ; 
 so that he says against the multitude of those that trouble him, 
 "I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people," and 
 against the power of those that rose up against him, "Arise, 
 O Lord," and against those who taunted him as being in des- 
 pair, "Save me, O my God." Or rather, this verse is set 
 against the multitude of those that troubled him; and the 
 following, against the power of those that rose up against 
 him, where he says, "For thou hast smitten all mine enemies 
 upon the cheek-bone," and the last against those who told 
 him he was in despair, saying, there is no help for him in 
 God, for in that last verse he says, "Salvation belongeth unto 
 Jehovah ; thy blessing be upon thy people." 
 
 The force of the whole lies in these words, "I will not be 
 afraid of ten thousands of the people that have set themselves 
 against me round about." As if he had said, from the deep 
 sense that he had of his strong trust in God, "I will not be 
 afraid though, not only any great one among the people, nor 
 any whole people, but even though many thousands of the 
 people rose up against me; and I will add, even though they 
 should so surround me alone and deserted, as to hedge me in 
 entirely and to leave me no way of escape : — even then I will 
 not fear, nay, I will rest secure, not in my own strength, but 
 because thou, O Jehovah, wilt arise, etc. Thus, I say, does the 
 Holy Spirit every where graciously invite us to a great and 
 full exercise of faith and hope in God. 
 
PSALM III. 137 
 
 V. 7. — For thou hast smitten all mine enemies {all those 
 zvho are viine enemies zvithout cause) ; thou hast broken the 
 teeth of the zvicked {ungodly). 
 
 The perfect is here put for the future, if it be understood of 
 the person of Christ before his passion : but if it be understood 
 of him after his resurrection, it is a continuation of his song 
 of praise and thanksgiving unto God for our exhortation, as 
 we have before observed. 
 
 Instead of 'without cause" Jerome has translated from the 
 Hebrew "cheek-bone," thus, "Thou hast smitten mine enemies 
 upon the cheek-bone." And with this rightly agrees that which 
 follows, "Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly." And 
 hence, it seems to be a repetition of the same thing. 
 
 The order, however, is T will not be afraid of thousands, 
 nor shall my followers fear any multitude, how ever wicked 
 and powerful they may be : for I now know by experience, 
 how thou art wont to smite and to consume my adversaries, by 
 raising me from the dead, so that they can no longer devour me, 
 and by comforting my believing ones by the spirit so that they 
 cannot hurt them.' 
 
 This smiting may be understood as referring to the destruc- 
 tion of the people of the Jews by Titus and Vespasian. For 
 although they are still open-mouthed, and maliciously inveterate 
 against Christ and his Christians, yet they are so smitten and 
 disabled that they cannot devour one of them ; as it is written, 
 Ps. 58 :6, "Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth : break 
 out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah." 
 
 He uses this metaphor of 'cheek-bones' and 'teeth' to repres- 
 ent cutting words, detractions, calumnies, and other injuries of 
 the same kind, by which the innocent are oppressed ; according 
 to Prov. 30:14, "There is a generation whose teeth are as 
 swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from 
 ofif the earth, and the needy from among men." It was by these 
 that Christ was devoured, when before Pilate, he was con- 
 demned to the cross by the voices and accusations of his ene- 
 mies. Hence the apostle saith, Gal. 5:15, "But if ye bite and 
 
138 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 devour one another, lake heed that ye be not consumed one of 
 another." This metaphor of 'teeth' and 'jaw bones' is to be 
 found in niany other piaces in the scriptures, and it is of itself 
 sufficiently illustrative of its own meaning. 
 
 On the other hand, the spouse of Christ has teeth also, as in 
 Cant. 4 :2 ; 6 :6, "Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes that are 
 newly shorn, which are come up from the washing," that is, 
 the reproofs by whicJi the church wounds and convinces sinners 
 and by which she coiu'crts them when thus wounded, and in- 
 corporates them with herself, are like shorn sheep mild, and re- 
 prove with out fui-y or heated zeal; they are shorn, because 
 they are devoid of all care about the things of this world, not 
 seeking gain and the wool of the sheep. For even the apostles 
 themselves could not preach the Word and serve tables, as it 
 is written. Acts 6 .2. Reference to this is made at another place. 
 
 These teeth are, figuratively, that jaw bone which Samson 
 took up and slew with it a thousand men. Judges 15 :i5. And 
 hence, in the more gracious application of the metaphor God 
 smites and bruises the teeth of the wicked in mercy, when by his 
 grace in their conversion he turns them from malice to kind- 
 ness and from being accusers and revilers of the just to be- 
 coming their favorers and applauders. Thus, he broke those 
 most powerful teeth of that terrible, devouring wolf, St. Paul, 
 and made him an apostle and the devourer of all nations unto 
 this very day. And ii is in this sense of the metaphor that 
 Is. 2 4, saith, "And they shall beat their swords into plough- 
 shares, and their spear: into pruning-hooks." As if he had 
 said, they shall change their noxious tongues into wholesome 
 ones that shall nourish the men of the earth ; so that they shall 
 become plough-shares for reproving, and pruning-hooks for 
 gathering people unto Christ. 
 
 These teeth may likewise be understood allegorically, ac- 
 cording to Augustine, for the rulers and leaders of sinners ; 
 by whose authority men are cut off from the society of those 
 who live rightly, and are incorporated with those who live 
 wickedly. In direct opposition to these are the leaders of the 
 
PSALM III. 139 
 
 righteous, as priests, who by their example and by the good 
 Word of God move men to beheve, to be separated from the 
 world, and to pass over among the members of the church. 
 And to this agrees tha*^, which Cant, chapters 4 and 6 says con- 
 cerning the teeth. But any one may pursue the applications 
 of these allegories taken from teeth still farther; therefore I 
 shall say no more about them here. 
 
 This Psalm, however, will not be inappropriately used to 
 comfort poor weak consciences, if it be taken figuratively, and 
 by oppressors and teeth we understand those most tormenting 
 assaults of sins and tHe consciousness of an ill-spent life. For 
 here the heart of the sinner is in real distress and is solitary, 
 helpless, and in despair. And if he does 'not accustom himself 
 to lift his eyes upward against the assault of his sins and to 
 call upon God against the accusations of his conscience, there 
 is much to be feared, lest evil and malicious spirits, who for 
 this purpose walk about in darkness and thirst for the destruc- 
 tion of souls, should swallow him up in distress and despera- 
 tion, Ps. 91 :6. 
 
 Therefore, the heart must be most firmly fortified, and be 
 enabled to say with Ghrist, whether it be against sin, persecut- 
 ing the conscience, or against those things that hinder our sal- 
 vation, the heart, I say, must be enabled to glory with Christ, 
 saying : 
 
 V. 8. Salvation belongcth unto Jehovah {is of the Lord) : 
 thy blessing be upon thy people. Selah. 
 
 A most beautiful conclusion is this, and as it were the sum 
 of all the previously mentioned affections of the heart. The 
 sense is, it is the Lord alone that saves and blesses; and even 
 though the whole mass of all evils should be gathered to- 
 gether in one against a man, still it is the Lord who saves : 
 salvation and blessing are in his hand. What then shall I fear? 
 What shall I not promise myself? When I know that no one 
 can be destroyed, no one reviled, without the permission of 
 God, even though all should rise up to curse and to destroy; 
 
140 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and that no one of tlu-ni can be blessed and saved without the 
 permission of God, however much they may bless and strive 
 to save themselves. And, as Gregory Nazianzen says, '\\'here 
 God gives, envy can avail nothing; and where God does not 
 give, labor can avail nothing.' 
 
 In the same way also Paul saith, Rom. 8:31, "If God be 
 for us, who can be against us?" So also, on the contrary, if 
 God be against them, who can be for them? Why? Because 
 salvation is of the Lord, and not of them, nor of us, for "vain 
 is the help of man,'' Ps. 60:13. And hence, we have it written 
 in Rev. 7:12, "Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanks- 
 giving, and honor, and power ,and might, be unto our God for 
 ever and ever." And so again, verse 10, 'Salvation unto our 
 God, and unto the Lamb.' And Ps. 109:28, "Let them curse, 
 but bless thou," And again, Mai. 2 :2, "I will curse your 
 blessings," and bless your cursings . 
 
 Therefore the blessed Christ and every Christian soul in 
 the midst of tribulations, say it matters not that they curse 
 and destroy me ; it is not theirs, but God's alone to serve and 
 bless. Nor is it of any avail that they in imagination save 
 themselves by their onn powers and bless each other ; salvation 
 and blessing are not or them, but of the Lord, and if he does 
 not save and bless them they may seem indeed to be blessed and 
 saved for an hour, but they shall in the end be cursed and 
 destroyed. On the other hand, when he saves and blesses us, 
 they may indeed apptar for an hour to curse and destroy us, 
 but we are in truth saved and blessed. This is taught by Ps. 
 146:3, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, 
 in whom there is no l:clp." 
 
 In order to encourage this consolation and confidence, it 
 was of old forbidde.i in the law 0/ Moses that one man should 
 bless another. For Cio 1 said, Num. 6 :23, "On this wise ye shall 
 bless the children of Israel: saying unto them, "The Lord 
 bless thee," etc. etc., and "I will bless them." O wholesome 
 and necessary precept ! 
 
 And why thinkest thou, was it that God would not have 
 
PSALM III. 141 
 
 any man blessed by another? Why, because he had those 
 things m his mind which were afterwards written, Matt. 5:11, 
 "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute 
 you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my 
 sake." Because men are dealt with, as is described in Ps. 10:3, 
 (Vulgate) 'For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and 
 the wicked blesseth himself,' and the just man on the contrary 
 is despised and cursed; therefore the Lord most justly and 
 piously saith, "I will bless them ;" and this is what the present 
 verse repeats as it were in confirmation, "Thy blessing be upon 
 thy people." 
 
 This verse, therefore, is to be read so that the emphasis and 
 stress be laid with an elevation of tone on the genitive "Lord," 
 and the pronoun "th\ ;" so that by the antithesis we may be 
 brought to experience that feeling of soul full of the sweetest 
 confidence, which laughs as it were at the evil attempts of our 
 adversaries and looks with contempt upon the confidence in 
 which they boast, saymg unto itself, "Salvation belongeth unto 
 Jehovah : and thy blessing be upon thy people." In which way 
 we may learn to contemn the curse of men, and not to seek after 
 their blessing; since we know, that it is of God alone to save 
 and to bless. And it is in this same way that Isaiah taunts those 
 described, 41 :2'i„ "Do good, or do evil," if ye can. As if he 
 had said, ye can neither injure us nor profit us. 
 
 First observe that he puts the salvation before the blessing; 
 and that is the right order, because a blessing in the holy 
 Scriptures implies a gomg on and a multiplying, according to 
 Gen. I :28, "And G<nl blessed them, and said, be fruitful and 
 multiply;" which cannot take place unless he that is blessed 
 be saved from perishing. And David aptly opposes these two 
 things to the first two verses ; that is, the salvation of the Lord, 
 to them that trouble and rise up, for these destroy by cursing 
 and saying, "There is no help for him in God ;" but blessing 
 is of the Lord. And thik cursing and tauntin.g of theirs is most 
 terrible to be borne. 
 
 For when the wicked have nothing more that they can do 
 
142 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 to the righteous whom they have destroyed, the one thing 
 remaining for them is, to cahimniate, curse, and blaspheme 
 them, as was shown us in the example of Christ upon the 
 cross ; whereby they strive to destroy their good report both 
 before God and before men. They aim at destroying before 
 men by defaming them; and before God, by attacking their 
 faith and trust of conscience, that they may not be able to 
 glory in God ; and thai thus they may be confused on both 
 sides. 
 
 At the same time is touched upon here, that terrible tempta- 
 tion of blasphemy, by which a man is urged on by devils to 
 desperation, and to think that the curse of God is upon him : 
 and thus he accounts God as an enemy, as long as he can feel 
 nothing of good coniing from God; and this is to blaspheme 
 God, for we are commanded to hope for, and promise to our- 
 selves, all good things fiom him ; and are required by the first 
 commandment to v.'orship him with faith, hope, and love : 
 and in Wisdom, i :i, ii is written, "Think of the Lord with a 
 good heart, and in simplicity of heart seek him." 
 
 And perhaps this is the reason why he so often changes 
 the person. For when he had said in the third person, "Sal- 
 vation belongeth unro Jehovah," thereby commending, as it 
 were ,God unto others, he directly after changes it to the second 
 person, saying, "Thy blessing." For as the temptation above 
 mentioned takes us mcst of all from God, and makes us shun 
 him as a curser, and seek another to bless, when there is no 
 other to bless ; he admonishes us to turn then most of all unto 
 God, when we the most turn from him by the temptation. And 
 this feeling of the heart, because it is very remarkable and 
 powerful, is not in vain marked with the word "Selah ;" con- 
 cerning which we have said sufficient. 
 
 Thus have we expounded this whole Psalm concerning 
 Christ, but if this interpretation does not please any, there will 
 be no difficulty in uncle i standing it concerning David, as being 
 a type of the same suffering and of the same feelings of mind; 
 which are all exemplified in Christ and in every Christian, 
 
PSALM III. 143 
 
 except that the ;itt]i verse will give us some little trouble in 
 such an exposition. We will therefore leave others to pursue 
 it farther and better, Vv'hile we only briefly set it forth thus : — 
 
 y. 1-2. "Jehovah, how are mine adversaries increased!" 
 That is, Absalom, Apithophel, and the whole people, as in 2 
 Sam. 15, "Many are they that rise up against me." 
 
 "Many there are that say of my soul, there is no help for 
 him in God!" This above all others did Shimei, 2 Sam: 16:7 
 cursing David and saying, "Begone, begone, thou man of blood, 
 and base fellow :" and he cast stones at David and said, verse 
 8, "Jehovah hath returned upon thee, -etc. Behold thou art 
 taken in thine own mischief." 
 
 V. 3. "But thou, O Jehovah, art a shield about me, my 
 glory, and the lifter up of my head." For David said in 2 Sam. 
 16:11, etc., "Let him alone, and let him curse, for Jehovah hath 
 bidden him . It may be that Jehovah will look on the wrong 
 done unto me, and that Jehovah will requite me good for his 
 cursing of me this day." By which words he showed that 
 he did not yet despai'% but firmly trusted in God, whose com- 
 mand and will he acknowledged and justified. 
 
 V. 4. "I cry unto Jehovah with my voice, and he answereth 
 me from his holy hill." This David did when he said, "O 
 Jehovah, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into 
 foolishness," 2 Sam. 15:31. And perhaps he did the same 
 at other times which are not recorded. For, as I have said, 
 it is not in the tribulation, but after the tribulation, that we 
 are to suppose the Psalm was written. 
 
 O strong faith ! which can speak unto an angry God, call 
 unto him when persecuting you, flee unto him when driving 
 you back, praise him as your helper, your glory, and the lifter 
 up of your head, when you feel him deserting, confounding, 
 and oppressing you ! This is a memorable example of Christian 
 faith indeed! He says, "I go whither I may," 2 Sam. 15:20. 
 As if he had said, T know not whither I am going:' and this 
 is to believe and to commit one's self into that darkness where 
 
144 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 you are utterly ignoiant what will become of you, and yet 
 have a good hope for the best and doubt not that you are heard. 
 
 V. 5. "I laid n.'e down and slept; I awaked; for Jehovah 
 sustaineth me." — Which, according to my bold way, I would 
 understand in this manner. David might say, 'I was in a 
 state that I despaired of my life, of my glory, and of my all. 
 I was like unto one dead and descending into the pit, as to all 
 external appearance in the sight of men ; nor was there any 
 thing left alive in n\t but faith, and it appeared to me that if 
 I should be again re-instated in my kingdom, it would be 
 nothing less than as -if I were raised from the grave and from 
 the sleep of death.' For into this state of things, and down 
 to these gates of hell, ii is that the Lord is wont to bring those 
 whose faith he desigjis to try ; and indeed, the man that is put 
 into this state differs I'ttle from one dead. 
 
 Or if this do not please, let the interpretation be this, 'I was 
 overwhelmed with this tribulation. And, as those who are sunk 
 into a deep sleep know not that they are alive, and are like unto 
 men dead ; so I, from the exceeding greatness of my affliction, 
 and from being put to the very extremity of my faith, had no 
 enjoyment whatever of this external life, and was almost dead; 
 after which manner it is said concerning Jacob, Gen. 45 127, etc., 
 that, when he heard that his son Joseph was reigning in Egypt, 
 he was as one awaking from a deep sleep, and did not believe 
 them ; that is, because he had been in such utter despair con- 
 cerning Joseph ; but that, when he saw the wagons and all the 
 things that Joseph had sent, his "spirit revived." 
 
 Thus David also says, that he revived and arose from the 
 deep sleep of his hear*-, and as it were from death. For as I 
 have confessed, I cannot understand it concerning natural sleep 
 and rest. But David himself also says, 2 Sam. 19:22, when 
 he returned, "Do not I know that I am this day king over 
 Israel?" wherein he plainly shows his former feelings of despair 
 concerning the kingdom, as to all present appearances. 
 
 V. 6. "I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people 
 that have set themselves against me round about." "Arise, 
 
PSALM III. 145 
 
 O Jehovah ; save me, O my God." This is what he said upon 
 his being recalled, 'I shall no more fear evil if thou be with 
 me, Ps. 22i '.4. Do thou only arise and save me, as thou didst 
 lately, and be my God ; then I will fear nothing.' 
 
 V. 7. "For thou hast smitten all mine eneniies upon the 
 cheek-bone ; thou hast broken the teeth of the wicked." For the 
 people and Absalom were slain, and there was a great slaughter 
 that day of seventy thousand men, 2 Sam. 18 7 . And thus were 
 all who devoured and afflicted him smitten and slain. 
 
 V. 8. "Salvation belongcth luito Jehovah ; thy blessing be 
 upon thy people. Selah." As if he had said, 'Although Shimei 
 with his followers gnashed their malicious teeth at me, saying 
 "There is no help for him in God," etc, yet, it is of God alone 
 to bless and save, to whom alone be glory for ever and ever. 
 Amen.' 
 
PSALM IV. 
 
 A PSALM OF DAVID, ON THE ORGANS, FOR VICTORY. 
 
 This Psalm is, according to my views, very obscure; and 
 there is no other so variously expounded, which diversity is a 
 proof of the real scope of it not being yet fully understood. 
 
 Let us first cons^'der the title, as we shall frequently have 
 the same hereafter. Lamnazeaii, was, before the translation 
 of Jerome, rendered by the ancients 'to the end,' which they 
 all unanimously interpreted to signify Christ, whom the apostle 
 calls "the end of the law,' Rom. 10:4, saying, "Christ is the 
 end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." 
 Which "end" they interpret two ways, — that Christ is the 
 end and sum intended by the law ; and that he himself put an 
 end to the law, so that we are no longer indebted to it. But 
 what these things have to do with the title of the Psalm, I do 
 not see ; it is only violently taking from one place, and adding 
 to another. For all the Psalms which have this title do not 
 speak of Christ, except it be in this way : that it is by the grace 
 of God only we speak of any work, and that we have nothing 
 either great or small without Christ. But in this way every 
 Psalm ought to have ihc same inscription. 
 
 Jerome therefore has translated it 'for the conqueror:' and 
 then was introduced, 'for victory,' because Lyra from Rabbi 
 Tal, supposed that it should be understood in this way that 
 the Levite singers, contending in alternate choirs, should strive 
 to excel each other. But this he said, perhaps, measuring that 
 divine melody of David, instituted for the praising of God, 
 according to the custom of those bawling men in our cathedrals, 
 who are called choristers. But to whom such men sing I 
 am sure I know not ; I can only hear the beams and stones 
 roar with their noise. And then, comparing this with the inter- 
 pretation 'to the end,' which some have given, he says, that the 
 
PSALM IV, 147 
 
 'end' meant was the victory that is, of the noise in singing, 
 which the choir -nought after in singing this Psahn. Such 
 hiclicrous things as these will men teach in a matter so serious ! 
 
 We read, i Chron. 15 :i6, that David appointed three kinds 
 of singers : one to sirg to the nablis, that is psalter; another 
 to sing to harps, or as the interpreters variously render it, the 
 lyres ; and another to sound on cymbals ; and to these, for a 
 time, were added the trumpet and the cornet. And the third 
 kind of singing there mentioned, verse 21, is the singing on 
 harps upon Lenazeah, which they have rendered by 'victory,' 
 that is, 'a song of victory.' And hence perhaps it is, that 
 Lamnazeah is translated 'for victory,' because the Psalm 
 that bears this title is a signal song of victory. 
 
 But here I confess my ignorance. For if these things be so, 
 I know not why all the other Psalms are not entitled 'for 
 victory,' which contain a subject matter equally, if not more, 
 applicable to that title than this Psalm and others like it. And 
 then again, there will be a difference of opinion about what 
 victory it is that is sung in the Psalm ; because, some Psalms 
 celebrate the victory of Christ, others the victory of any Christ- 
 ian placed in the midst of suffering and temptation. 
 
 John Reuchlin, in Iiis Septena, translates it 'for invitation;' 
 because, he will have it that Psalms of that kind are certain 
 incitements to awaken and encourage the spirit of man. And 
 to this rendering the root of the word admirably agrees. For, 
 as he says, naza signifies 'he was instant,' 'he stirred up,' 'he 
 forced,' 'he urged,' as in Ezra 3 :g, "To have the oversight of 
 the workmen in ihe house of God," and, verse 8, to have the 
 oversight of the work of the house of Jehovah," or "To set for- 
 ward the work of the Lord." And moreover, the content of 
 the Psalm does not at all disagree with this interpretation; 
 for this Psalm, according to my judgment, is merely exhorta- 
 tive to the work of the Lord, that is, to the enduring of the 
 cross and death. But whether this acceptation of the title will 
 uniformly and univei sally apply to all these Psalms, that I 
 leave to the consideration and judgment of the reader. 
 
148 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 I willingly receive this Psalm as being both a song of vic- 
 tory and an invitation ; because, all triumphal songs of this 
 kind are wont to rouse and animate the spirit to war in a won- 
 derful manner; and ylso do the Psalms wonderfully animate 
 the faithful of Christ both to the battles and the trophies of 
 the cross. And thus, I can reconcile all things, making the 
 title to signify, 'to --.'iotory,' 'to the conqueror,' 'for an invita- 
 tion.' In a word this seems to be the true meaning of the 
 title, because the whole Psalms tend to this, — that, being 
 animated by their incitements of the spirit, we may conquer 
 and gain the great object over all our enemies and sins, that 
 nothing may be left us but the triumph of glory. 
 
 By "organs," we are undoubtedly to understand that a 
 general kind is put for a particular; that is, that we are to 
 receive it as signifying harps, because it is said, i Chron. 15 :2i, 
 that the songs of victory should be sung to harps. For organ, 
 in this passage, is a noun which, in the Hebrew, signifies any 
 kind of musical instrument. 
 
 But concerning the effect of music and the praises of it, 
 I shall say nothing here, for they have been abundantly treated 
 by others ; except that it here appears that the use of music 
 was of old held sacred and applied to divine things, but in the 
 lapse of time it has, like every thing else, been abused to the 
 service of luxury and lust. It was by music that the evil spirit 
 was made to depart from Saul, i Sam. 16:23. ^"d by the 
 same a spirit of prophecy was communicated to Elisha, 2 Kings 
 
 3: 15- 
 
 This most obscure Psalm, as I have already observed, is 
 variously expounded. Augustine believes that they either are 
 the words of Christ after his resurrection, or of a member of 
 his church who is possessed of faith and hope. Of Lyra and 
 Burgensis I shall say nothing, the former of whom interpreted 
 it in a way that made against the Saulites, the latter against 
 idolatries. Jerome thinks it is to be understood of Christ only. 
 All and each of these interpretations and acceptations are out 
 of my way. I shall follow my own spirit and abound in my 
 
PSALM IV. 149 
 
 own acceptation of the Psalm, but without any prejudice 
 against the judgment of another. 
 
 I have thought that this Psahn is a general exhortation to 
 the people of God ; especially to those, who being ignorant of 
 the works and ways of God, hate the wisdom of the cross. 
 Among whom the Jews, the children of Israel, have been and 
 still are the first, and they should be the most experienced in 
 this. For. as the apostle saith, Rom. 3:19, "We know that 
 what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are 
 under the law." Wherefore, David being himself experiment- 
 ally taught by one, or rather by many of his temptations, 
 teaches them, from his own example, what they should do and 
 how they ought to conduct themselves under every tribulation. 
 And thus, according to its title, the Psalm will be an exhorta- 
 tion to victory ; which the words of the Psalm themselves show, 
 whereby he commends himself to them as their teacher, saying, 
 *0 ye sons of men,' 'know,' 'be ye angry,' 'offer sacrifices,' 'put 
 your trust,' etc. 
 
 V. I. Anszver me zvhcn I call, O God of my righteousness. 
 
 Rev. vcr. 
 
 Y, I, — When I called, the God of my righteousness heard 
 
 me. 
 
 At the beginning he instructs the tender and querulous, 
 teaching them that they are not to run any where else, but 
 to call upon God in all the tribulations that may come upon 
 them, of whatever kind they may be. As often, saith he, as 
 I called, and I called as often as I was in tribulation, as he 
 saith, Ps. 120:1, "In my distress I cried unto the Lord," so 
 often the Lord heard me ; so merciful is the Lord and so ready 
 to pity those that call upon him. Why, therefore, do ye tender 
 and fearful ones fill all things with complaints? Ye seek con- 
 solation in vain by fleeing unto man, and ye know not, nor 
 seek after this only remedy of fleeing unto God. 
 
 Observe here the divine art of the teacher and his incom- 
 parable oratory. In one and the same introduction he accom- 
 plishes three things. First, turning to the children of men, 
 
150 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and feeling a concern for them in brotherly love, he teaches 
 them all to what they should flee when in trouble; and this 
 ho does from his own example, and with a most modest glory- 
 ing. I, says he, was wont to do that myself which I now re- 
 commend to you. Secondly, that he may render them docile 
 and obedient to him, he commends to them the divine mercy. 
 He says, "And he heard me ;" as if he had said, I am per- 
 suaded that he will also hear you most mercifully, if ye do 
 but take courage and call upon him. Thirdly, and this is the 
 principal thing, like a most able orator, he begins with grati- 
 tude and praise, which is, in the things both of God and men, 
 the most effectual way of producing a willing mind. For 
 thus, we are commanded also to begin the Lord's Prayer with 
 "Our Father," repeating and comprehending in those words 
 and their all-sweet corresponding feelings, all the kindnesses 
 of God. 
 
 The reason why he addresses his words to the sons of 
 men, which he ought to address unto God, is this ; he did not 
 wish to leave them to come before God alone and empty, and 
 therefore, he is desirious of gaining their good will, and being 
 concerned for the salvation of his brethren, he instructs the 
 weak. For directly afterwards, in what follows, he addresses 
 his words unto God only, saying, "Thou hast enlarged me;" 
 wherein he now brings with him into the presence of God those 
 to whom he had spoken just before, that they not only may 
 sec what God did for him in his former troubles and tribula- 
 tions, but may behold also an example of the manner in which 
 he is v/ont to flee unto God in every present tribulation ; and 
 thus he most sweetly instructs and comforts both by word 
 and by example. 
 
 Now with respect to the words, "O God of my righteous- 
 ness," they may be also expressed without peril thus, "O God 
 my righteousness." For though I do not deny that the words 
 signify and imply that righteousness is of God, and that it is 
 God alone that justifies; yet, that prophet appears to me to 
 touch upon the main point of the question or complaint before 
 
PSALM IV. 151 
 
 him, namely, that complaint which the weaker ones are accus- 
 tomed to make, that they consider themselves to have heen in- 
 jured by their adversaries, and that, therefore, they may with 
 justice show indignation and be angry. These, therefore, the 
 prophet does not attack with severity, but, as I said, tenderly 
 admonishes them that they are to forget their own righteous- 
 ness and are to commit it, together with their whole cause, 
 unto God who judgeth righteously ; and to arrogate no more 
 of righteousness to themselves than shall seem good unto God, 
 as Peter saith concerning Christ, i Pet. 2 123, "who, when he 
 was reviled, reviled not again ; whea he suffered he threatened 
 not ; but committed himself unto him that judgeth righteously," 
 that is, he committed the matter unto God, who judgeth right- 
 eously. And thus David here saith, whenever I suffer injuries, 
 1 call upon the God of my righteousness, being willing and 
 rcc'dy to take for righteousness that which he shall adjudge. 
 And therefore, I know nothing of any righteousness of my 
 ov/n ; I know nothing but God only and his holy will. 
 
 Is not this then a most excellent way of consoling the 
 weak, not indeed to condemn their cause, nor yet to justify it, 
 but to take it out of their hands and to commit it unto God; 
 and thus to put both them and their cause into his hands, that 
 they may consider that to be righteousness which God may 
 think proper, and thus patiently submit to the will of God? 
 
 This interpretation of the passage I more willingly follow, 
 because "my righteousness," according to the mode of ex- 
 pression used in the scriptures, signifies more particularly a 
 man's own cause than that grace which justified, for that is 
 more usually called the righteousness of God; as in Rom. 1:17, 
 "Therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto 
 faith." And again, Ps. 31:1, "Deliver me in thy righteousness" 
 not in mine. Whereas, in the other case it is said. Gen. 30 133, 
 "So shall my righteousness answer for me hereafter." And 
 again, Ps. 7 :8, "Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my right- 
 eousness, and to mine integrity that is in me." For this is 
 the righteousness between man and man ; which also God 
 
152 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 jnclgeth, though it sufficeth not for any one before God. There- 
 fore does David rightly call men away from a trust in their 
 own righteousness, and transfer it over into the hand of God, 
 lest perhaps they should be found deserving to suffer much 
 greater things before God, however just they may be before 
 men. 
 
 Indeed this is a most useful doctrine, though it is always 
 neglected by men. For if this doctrine were held and acted 
 out, there would not be so many courts, causes, laws, strifes, 
 and contentions. All men have upon their tongues' ends jus- 
 tice ! justice ! — right ! right ! — but there are few who commit 
 their justice or righteousness unto God according to the exam- 
 ple and the word here set before us. Hence, the whole world 
 is in a tumult for justice and right, and contends for it by 
 wars, commotions, bloodshed, and innumerable enormities of 
 sins and evils ; and indeed, things are so that justice becomes 
 almost the only cause of all injustice. For error has so blinded 
 men that they immediately think that to be righteousness or 
 justice before God also, which they may have learned from 
 the dissertations, opinions, and decrees of men, to be justice. 
 Concerning this, much more might be said and ought to be 
 said, if we had not now another object before us. 
 
 Thou hast set me at large (enlarged unto me) wlien I 
 zvas in distress. 
 
 This is a repetition ; for to be heard and to be enlarged are 
 the same thing; as we find it also in Ps. 118:5, "Out of my 
 distress I called upon Jehovah : Jehovah answered me and set 
 me in a large place." 
 
 This, "thou hast enlarged unto me," or this 'enlarging,' 
 is a Hebraism and a mataphor or a metonymy peculiar to the 
 scriptures, which we without a figure call 'a comforting,' as 
 on the contrary we call sorrow and affliction 'a straitening.' 
 For as the heart and all the senses are contracted while they 
 flee from, and are in dread of sorrow, and as, when evil presses 
 on every side, there is a straitening and a total contraction into 
 a confined space ; so, the same senses are enlarged and dilated 
 
PSALM IV. 153 
 
 when the evil is taken away, and good and pleasant things are 
 again brought to us. And indeed, how very descriptively are 
 the natures of distress and joy set forth by that expression ? 
 For we see how the forehead and the whole countenance are 
 contracted by care and trouble, and dilated by joy and gladness. 
 Hence it is said concerning the wicked in the Psalms, 'They 
 sivall be afraid out of their close places.' Hence also the 
 apostle, Rom. 2 :g, joins "tribulation" and "anguish" together, 
 that is, evil and the attempted escape from evil, but from 
 which evil there is no escape. 
 
 It appears as if the expression 'ought to be, "Thou hast 
 erilarged me," rather than "Thou hast enlarged unto me." 
 But it is a peculiar idiom of the Hebrew verbs to stand absol- 
 uiely and to include, elliptically, an accusative case of the noun, 
 or to admit of being resolved into a verbal noun. As here, 
 "Thou hast enlarged unto me," that is, 'thou hast made an 
 enlargement unto me,' 'thou hast been my enlarger;' that is, 
 thou hast given me consolation whenever I have called upon 
 thee in my distresses. 
 
 Thus a willingness of mind is produced and the weaker 
 ones are instructed. Nay, if thou wilt, thou mayest under- 
 stand this verse to be the argument of the whole Psalm, for the 
 psalmist proposes to instruct the weak to call upon God, to 
 commit their cause into the hand of God, to praise the justice 
 of God, and to seek consolation no where else, but to expect 
 certain consolation from God, with all the great fruits thereof; 
 and this he teaches them most effectually by his own example, 
 but yet so, that he joins himself as a companion with them, 
 and makes their case one v/ith his own. 
 
 Haz'c vicrcy upon mc, and hear my prayer. 
 
 I confess, saith he, that thou hast heard me when I called 
 upon thee; for which, I not only give thee thanks, but rest 
 confidently assured, that, as sufferings will hereafter always 
 abound in us, so thou wilt always hear them that call upon 
 thee; under which confidence, being now again sunk into dis- 
 
154 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 tress, I again call upon thee that thou woulclst again hear 
 me. 
 
 As these words form in the Hebrew the latter part of the 
 first verse, I would, according to my judgment, understand the 
 whole of this verse as being a certain form prescribed to the 
 weaker ones, showing them the way in which they should 
 proceed when in tribulation from the injustice of others. I 
 would understand the last clause of it to be a piece of fore- 
 tasted food, as it were, whereby the prophet would teach them 
 ?.s children, and would have them use those words whenever 
 they approach God to call upon him ; namely these, "Have 
 mercy upon me, and hearken unto my prayer ;" that they may 
 first implore the mercy of God upon themselves and for their 
 sins, on account of which, perhaps, they have deserved far 
 worse things than those they now suffer, and that thus they 
 might first forget all revenge and commit their cause into the 
 hand of God, and then beg to be heard; for, "The just man 
 first accuseth himself," Prov. 18:17, And, 'He that pleaseth 
 God pitieth first his own soul,' Sir. 30 :24. Therefore, the 
 person first implores grace for himself, and then prays to be 
 delivered from punishment. But this I do not assert positively 
 to be the meaning of the passage. 
 
 But be it so, that this is a new tribulation and a new calling 
 upon God; yet, as I said, we may thereby be instructed, that 
 we are not to be so much concerned about the punishment as 
 about the sin ; and that we are first of all to obtain the mercy 
 of God, lest perhaps after the perverse manner of fools, we 
 should forget our own fault which merited the punishment and 
 look only at the fault of others, which was designed to work 
 our punishment, thus leaving the beam in our own eye and 
 setting about to cast the mote out of our brother's eye. Where- 
 as, he who is in distress is first of all to pray for mercy on 
 the cause of the distress, which is sin, not to pray against the 
 distress itself. Therefore God must first have mercy, and then 
 hear those on whom he has mercy. 
 
 Thus you see that the Psalms were written by the Holy 
 
PSALM IV. * 155 
 
 Spirit to this end, that they may administer consolation to those 
 who are under tribulation. Hence, what have they to do with 
 the Psalms who have nothing to do with tribulation? And 
 those who are less willing to suffer tribulation at this day, than 
 these who are employed in the Psalms day and night, or rather, 
 v/ho ought to be employed in them ? Does not, therefore, Amos 
 6 :5 apply unto such, where it speaks of certain characters in- 
 venting unto themselves instruments of music like David? For 
 how shall they harp, who fill the world with bloodshed for the 
 obtaining of their riches, privileges, and rites, not being content 
 with their own thundering decrees? Hence, at this day, the 
 I'salter is used for nothing else but for the noise of chantings 
 and mutterings, which is a use most unworthy of it and yet it 
 is perpetual. 
 
 V. 2. — ye sons of men, hozv long shall my glory he 
 turned into dishonor (hozv long zvill ye be of a heavy heart) ? 
 Why do ye love vanity, and seek after falsehood (lying) f 
 Selah. 
 
 Jerome translates the passage thus : "O ye sons of man, 
 how far, my renowned ones, will ye shamefully love vanity 
 and seek after lying?" This holy man certainly touches upon 
 the force of the Hebrew words, for this verse says nothing 
 whatever about the heart, and therefore it is clear that our 
 translator, whoever he was, was in error and read B for K; 
 and, what is more, divided one word into two, reading, instead 
 of LiCHLiMMA^ which signifies 'into shame,' leb lamma, which 
 signifies 'heart, why.' And therefore, that which Jerome has 
 tianslated, as from one word, 'shamefully,' our translator has 
 rendered, as from two words, 'heart, why :' and what is in the 
 Hebrew CHEr.ODi, which our translator has rendered "heavy," 
 Jerome has rendered 'my renowned ones,' or 'my glorious 
 ones,' for 'glory,' in the Hebrew, is expressed nearly by the 
 same word as 'heaviness.' 
 
 Nor has the Hebrew "sons of men," but sons isch, that is, 
 'sons of the hero;' just as it is said, Ps. i :i, "Blessed is the 
 man," or "Blessed man." For he is not here speaking of the 
 
156 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 sons of Adam, so as to mean the generation according to the 
 flesh : he does not seem to address the sons of the flesh, nor 
 to be speaking as to the sons of the flesh ; but, he seems to be 
 as a master, a preceptor, or one of some greater authority, 
 addressing his minors and sons. 
 
 First of ah I will pour out my spirit upon the passage, and 
 then we will see to all the rest. I, therefore, translate the verse 
 tl:us : "O ye sons of the man, how long will ye turn my glory 
 into shame, love vanity, and seek after lying ? Selah." Hence, 
 these seem to be the words of the prophet spoken in the person 
 of God the Father, or of Christ, who is speaking first of all 
 to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, as the apostle is accus- 
 tomed to speak. So that the sense is, O ye sons of Israel, how 
 long shall my name be polluted among you? How long shall 
 my glory be exposed to shame by you, while, leaving me who 
 am the truth and the life, ye love vanity and seek after lying? 
 And how this is done let us now see, 
 
 I have said that this Psalm is an exhortation unto those 
 who, being destitute of faith, are offended and cast down in 
 mind at the cross and at the injuries which they receive, which 
 is the evil of unbelief and the sin of spiritual idolatry ; and it 
 is of such sins that the children of Israel were accused in the 
 wilderness; as it is written, Ps. 78:8, "A stubborn and re- 
 bellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, 
 and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." Here, it is the 
 sin of the heart that is evidently meant, which was distrust, 
 ignorance of the cross, and no understanding in the way of 
 God, for the same is taught in Ps. 106:13: "They waited not 
 for his counsel ;" of which sin they are accused throughout the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 And it is from this sin that the various external forms oi 
 idolatry at present arise, diversified according to the infinitely 
 various inclinations of men, some worshipping this god, and 
 some that ; and every one transferring the glory due to God 
 unto the creature, unto that creature from which he has pros- 
 pect or hope of obtaining the consolation he requires. 
 
PSALM IV. 157 
 
 Now since the glory and worship of God consist in a sin- 
 cere faith, firm hope, and perfect love towards him, it of nec- 
 essity follows, that he who neither trusts nor believes in God, 
 nor loves him, but comforts himself in some creature or other, 
 turns the glory of God into shame, and seeks that name and 
 work in some creature which he ought to seek in God. And 
 this is what all do, who in the time of temptation draw back, 
 for it is ofsuch in particular that he is here speaking. 
 
 Hence it is, that the world, from its beginning to the present 
 has been full of idolatry. Although they have not at all times 
 adored the similitudes of creatures, yet they have the same 
 things in their hearts, which are the head and fountain of all 
 idolatries. But this is, as I have said, to trust in things and 
 creatures, and to be pleased and delighted with them, which de- 
 light, pleasure, and trust, are due to God alone. This is infidel- 
 ity and distrust, and from these come contempt and hatred of 
 God. 
 
 Thus, Ps. 106:20, "They changed their glory for the like- 
 ness of an ox that eateth grass ;" in which verse, is beautifully 
 described the power of idolatry. The Psalmist calls the glory 
 of God "their glory," because the glory of God, that is, the 
 true faith and worship of God, was with them only ; by which 
 glory of God it was, that they had glory both before God and 
 men. Hence it is said, i Sam. 4:21, "The glory is departed 
 from Israel." And Rom. i 123, "They changed the glory of 
 of the incorruptible God for the likenesse of an image of 
 corruptible man." For what is the changing of the glory of 
 God, but the changing of the worship of God ? For the wor- 
 ship of God is nothing else than the glory of God in a very 
 short compendium. The glory of God is nothing else than 
 believing in him, hoping in him, and loving him. Because, he 
 who believes in him, holds him as true, and thereby ascribes 
 truth unto him ; and he who hopes in him, holds him as pow- 
 erful, wise, and good, and as a God by whom he can be holpen 
 and saved, and thereby ascribes unto him a power that can 
 do all things, a wisdom that knows all things, and a goodness 
 
158 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 that is willing to afford all help. TRis is to make God the true 
 God and to hold him as such. Then, by and by, there is 
 kindled a love in him, who thus from his heart willingly de- 
 lights himself in such a God, and has such an all-precious view 
 and opinion of him. 
 
 Whereas, he that does not believe in God makes him a 
 liar ; he that does not hope in him makes him impotent, ignor- 
 ant, and unwilling to help ; which are horrible things, and from 
 these will of necessity follow a contempt of God, and then fol- 
 lows a going over to the creature. For the human heart must 
 have something to love and something to believe and trust in : 
 it will either trust in riches, or favor, or its own strength, or 
 in something else of the same kind, or in some absurd opinion 
 concerning the true or a false God that may be published to the 
 world. If by the permission of God a man should be left to 
 find any comfort therein he v/ill go after it with his whole 
 heart and affections; and thus, the power, the goodness, and 
 all things which belong to the glory of God, are turned into 
 shame and given unto that to which they are not due. 
 
 Thus also. Is. 42 :8, "My glory I will not give to another, 
 neither my praise to graven images." He gives indeed all good 
 things even unto his enemies, but glory he reserves to himself 
 only; for all good things that are sought after or received, 
 cannot be ascribed unto any but God alone, whose goodness 
 and true divinity are hereby declared. Matt. 19:17; John 17:3. 
 
 If we understand these things thus, I think the verse is 
 easily explained, and it shows that those who are ignorant of 
 the cross and destitute of faith, when they once begin to fight 
 against the glory of God, soon afterwards pollute and prostitute 
 it and flee unto any thing else rather than unto God for help 
 and seek counsel, assistance, and salvation, not from him whose 
 alone they are, but from his creatures whose they are not; be- 
 cause, they do not believe the last verse of the preceding Psalm 
 — "Salvation belongeth unto Jehovah, and thy blessing be 
 upon thy people." 
 
 Let us now see the peculiar force and experimental con- 
 
PSALM IV. 159 
 
 tents of this verse. First, as it is a powerful and close ex- 
 hortation, he addresses those to whom he speaks with the most 
 worthy appellation, "O ye sons of the man." By which "man" 
 whether we understand Israel or Christ, it is one and the same 
 thing. Though I should rather understand Abraham, because 
 I receive the Psalm as addressed, first, to the Jews, for Abra- 
 ham is called "the father of many nations ;" and it is said, not 
 in this passage only, but in Is. 51 :i-2, also, with a like ex- 
 hortation, "Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and 
 to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abra- 
 ham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you ; for when he 
 was but one I called him, and blessed him, and made him 
 many." As if he had said, attend, not to the manner of your 
 being born from him carnally, but unto my having called him, 
 and to his being justified, not by the flesh, but by faith in me. 
 And this is what ye ought to be and to do also, if ye would be 
 his children, as it is said, John 8:39, "If ye were Abraham's 
 children, ye would do the works of Abraham." 
 
 Hence, as he is not here setting Abraham before them as 
 their father according to the flesh, but is advising them to be- 
 come his spiritual children, he says, "O ye sons of the man," 
 rather than, "O ye sons of men," And though they are a 
 bastard and spurious offspring before God, and boast of Abra- 
 ham according to the flesh, being destitute of faith ; yet he 
 condescends to put the honor upon them, that he might the 
 more gently and effectually make them such as he calls them : 
 just in the same way as Paul addresses the Galatians as the 
 churches. Gal. i :2, when they were at the same time seduced 
 and fallen from the faith of the church. Nevertheless, David 
 by a side blow strikes at their degenerate mind, because though 
 they are the sons of so great a hero, they do any thing but 
 show themselves to be such. 
 
 Then there is that inquiry, "How long?" which carries 
 with it a wonderful force, because, it at the same time com- 
 mends to us the astonishing sweetness of the long-sufifering of 
 God and also pities their long and perilous neglect of their 
 
l60 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 salvation. As though he had said, since ye are, or rather ought 
 to be the sons of so great a man, in whom alone ye make your 
 boast ; how long, at the awful peril of your salvation, and by 
 the abtise of the long-suffering of God, will ye show yourselves 
 to be such as ye now are? How long will ye so degenerate, as 
 to be the sons of so great a man in name only? And this ye 
 do while ye neither believe nor hope in God, in whom he be- 
 lieved. Nay, ye turn this glory of confidence in me into your 
 own confusion and shame, and mine also ; for ye know not 
 ill the time of adversity, that there is no refuge to flee unto but 
 myself. For, as I have said in Is. 46 4, "I have made, and I 
 will bear: yea I will carry, and will deliver you." Why does 
 another enjoy my glory, who cannot fulfil it? Why is not that 
 glory given unto me, who alone am able to do all those things, 
 and am willing to do them, and to whom alone all the glory is 
 clue? You see therefore how sweet and yet how forcible, this 
 expostulation is. 
 
 Again, this carries with it a powerful weight, — his asking 
 liow k is that his glory is turned into shame? not any glory, 
 but his own proper glory? At the very hearing of which, 
 every godly mind ought to tremble. For it is a horrible thing 
 to hear that the glory of God is turned into shame and his 
 praise into blasphemy, w^hich glory every creature strives to 
 venerate with all its powers, Ps. 19:2. 
 
 And he himself makes this of so much moment that he 
 uses an elliptical mode of expression, omitting the z'c/b by an 
 aposiopesis, or silence, saying, "How long my glory into 
 shame?" that is, will ye change, or turn, etc., as Paul saith, 
 Rom. I :23, "And changed the glory of the incorruptible God," 
 etc. For by this aposiopesis, or silence, he intimates that this 
 crime is so great that it is too awful to be named, from the 
 horror of the wickedness implied in it. For he would say, the 
 sin would have been much less if ye had abused any of the 
 creatures and turned them into shame, and had brought the 
 glory of my works into contempt. But, not only to refuse to 
 give me the glory, but even to take it from me wilfully, to turn 
 
PSALM IV. l6l 
 
 it into shame, this is a wickedness at which the very heavens 
 themselves may tremble, which the ears cannot endure to hear 
 and which the tongue fears to utter. Behold with what power 
 of words our God urges us to believe in him, unto our salvation. 
 
 Now it will be easy to reconcile the other translations with 
 my own, though they do not so expressivel give the true sense 
 of the passage, "O ye sons of men," etc. As if ye would say, 
 ye are indeed the sons of men, rather than the sons of the man 
 whom ye ought to represent ; but ye savor of the flesh of him 
 and of your fathers, rather than of thejr faith. But "how long 
 v.'ill ye be of a heavy heart ?" How long will ye be unbelieving 
 in heart and rush backwards under the weight of unbelief, rest- 
 ing in a trust in created things, and giving unto creatures that 
 glory which ye ought to ascribe unto me? This we have al- 
 ready fully set forth. 
 
 Thus also that rendering of Jerome, "O ye sons of the man, 
 how long will ye shamefully love vanity, and seek after lying?" 
 As if he had said, this is to the shame both of my glory and 
 of yours, that, forsaking all trust in mc, ye love something else 
 rather than me, who alone am the truth, etc. 
 
 In a beautiful order David says first that "vanity" is loved, 
 and then that "lying" is sought after. For there is first of 
 all the aflfection of the mind itself, or the love, or will, or de- 
 sire; which, if it be perverse and wicked, immediately begets 
 wicked, false and lying opinions. For on these two, the will 
 and the opinion, turns the whole life of every man, as it is set 
 forth in the first Psalm. Hence it is that, contrary to what 
 Moses teaches, Deut. 12:8, "Every man doeth that which 
 seemeth right in his own eyes." This desire, this counsel of 
 the wicked, and these vain thoughts of man, the Holy Spirit 
 here reproves, calling them all lies ; and we see through all 
 the scriptures the same that we find throughout the Psalter. 
 Therefore the love of vanity turns away the affections, which 
 being turned away, the mind is at once infected with false 
 opinions ; and thus as it has a wrong love of things it forms a 
 wrong judgment of them, and while the man is walking in his 
 
l62 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 own blinded mind throug-h malice he imagines that he is 
 walking in the truth, in wisdom, and in the light, though he 
 is only walking in error and his own lies. 
 
 Every word in this passage has its peculiar force. The 
 whole book of Ecclesiastes defines fully that "vanity" is what- 
 ever is not God. If the salvation which a man seeks be vain, 
 how much more shall every thing else be vain? That truly 
 is vanity, when a man, ignorant of the cross and of grace, 
 seeks salvation and help, not in God, but in something else ; 
 for he can find neither salvation nor any other good in any 
 thing but in God : all things else are vexation of spirit and an 
 allurement and tickling enticement unto consolation, rather 
 than consolation itself; and an enticement unto salvation and 
 good, rather than salvation and good in reality. 
 
 Further, to have vanity is not the greatest of evils, for 
 every man is vanity, Ps. 39 :6 ; and there is nothing new under 
 the sun, Ecc. i :8 ; and though it be an evil, it is bearable. For 
 there is no one saint that does not hope, trust, desire, fear, love, 
 and hate, more or less, in a way and manner that he ought not. 
 But this body of sin and death, these laws of sin, these vani- 
 ties, he ought to hate, not to love nor to take pleasure in them. 
 To use the comfort and help of a creature is not sin nor 
 wrong; but to love them and rest in them alone, and from a 
 love of them, not to trust in God is a sin of ungodliness. 
 
 Again a lie is a less sin and evil than to seek lying; for 
 any one may embrace vanity instead of truth, but to seek it 
 is sin and ungodliness. For as all men are liars, Ps. 116:11, our 
 seeking is to be, not how we may obey and direct our lives 
 according to our own opinions, our own judgment, or, as they 
 say, the dictates of our own reason ; but our great seeking and 
 endeavoring are to be, how we may be kept from obeying 
 these, and how we may be led and guided by the dictates and 
 will of God. 
 
 Hence, nothing more pestilential and destructive can be 
 taught a Christian man than moral philosophy and the decrees 
 
PSALM IV. 163 
 
 of men, if they be so set before him as to make him believe 
 that he can walk in and by them so as to please God. For by 
 such instruction it will come to pass, that relying on this wis- 
 dom, he will judge, condemn, and persecute whatever he sees 
 is against him, and will thereby reject the cross of Christ and 
 utterly despise the way of God; which is in its best and most 
 prosperous state when we are living without our own guid- 
 ance and wisdom and are following, as through a desert and 
 wilderness, Christ in a pillar of fire. For this is loving, not 
 "vanity," but that which is solid and substantial, and seeking 
 not lies but the truth. But all these things are better felt by 
 experience in the time of suffering and adversity than they 
 can possibly be described in v/ords, or imagined by the heart; 
 for there must, as we have said, be an experience of these 
 things to understand the words of God : these things must 
 not only be spoken of and known, but be experienced in the 
 life and felt. Hence David saith, Ps. 116:11, "I said in my 
 haste, all men are liars." Why does he call them liars? Be- 
 cause, being in the extremity of suffering and living by faith 
 alone in God and being stripped of all confidence in created 
 things in which he sees all men immersed and overwhelmed, he 
 with certainty pronounces all their affections and thoughts 
 to be vain, and all their counsels and pursuits to be lies, be- 
 cause they are destitute of faith in God. If they are without 
 faith in God, then they are without the Word of God; and if 
 they are without the Word of God, then they are without the 
 truth. Thus all things are vain and lies which are without 
 faith; for faith is truth on account of the Word of truth in 
 which it believes and to which it cleaves by believing. 
 
 Thus then we have the true sense and meaning of this 
 verse, that all are ungodly idolaters and polluters of the glory 
 of God, who under any tribulation draw back from faith, hope, 
 and love, to a confidence and comfort in created things, and 
 protect and direct themselves by those means. 
 
 Concerning the small word "Selah" we have already said 
 
164 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 enough. It seems to be put here for the purpose of denoting 
 a particular feehng of the mind. And truly it is wonderful 
 above all things that the whole human race is so immersed and 
 implicated in depraved affections and opinions, that men love 
 vanity and seek after lying; and so awfully so that the matter, 
 from the greatness and extent of it, cannot be sufficiently set 
 before us and impressed upon our minds. 
 
 V. 3. But knozv that Jehovah hath set apart for himself 
 him that is godly (made his saint to he a zvonder) : Jehovah 
 zvill hear zvhen J call unto him. 
 
 A most wholesome instruction ! For the reason the sons 
 of men dread the cross which is the way of truth and of that 
 which is substantial, and rather choose to seek after vanity and 
 lying and trust in created things, is this, — they are in ig- 
 norance of God, as the apostle saith, i Cor. 15:34, "For some 
 have no knowledge of God" ; they know not, I say, what God 
 is doing, what he intends, nor what his thoughts are, when 
 he tries us by tribulations; for they judge like a horse or a 
 mule, according to that which is before their eyes and is seen 
 and felt. In such cases nothing appears to view but shame, 
 want, death, and all those things which are shown us in the 
 sufferings of Christ. And if thou view those things only, 
 do not acknowledge the divine will in them, and endure and 
 praise that will, thou must of necessity be offended at the cross 
 and flee to thine own counsel and wisdom ; and thus at once 
 become an idolater and give unto the creature that glory which 
 is due unto God alone. 
 
 When Christ, John 16:3, showed the reason the Jews 
 should persecute the apostles, and turn them out of the syna- 
 gogue, he said, "These things will they do, because they have 
 not known the Father nor me." But how was it that they 
 did not know, vdio had held such great contentions with Christ 
 about God ? To know Christ is to know the cross and to un- 
 derstand God in the midst of the crucifixion of the flesh ; this 
 is the design of God, this is the wiR of God, yea, this is God. 
 
PSALM IV. 165 
 
 Therefore their hating and persecuting the cross and the word 
 of the cross, as being contrary to their affections and opini- 
 ons, which were vanity and Hes, are the cause of their not 
 knowing God, or of their not knowing the will of God, which 
 is the same. 
 
 Thus also, when he said, John 6:53, "Except ye eat the 
 flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have not life 
 in yourselves :" it was to them "a hard saying," and many of 
 his disciples being offended from that time forward walked 
 no more with him. Why was it "a. hard saying?" Because 
 to eat the flesh of Christ and to drink his blood is to be in- 
 corporated into Christ by faith, and to have fellowship with 
 him in his sufferings. But this depraved human affection and 
 the heart that is corrupted by perverse opinions abhor above 
 all things. 
 
 To this David alludes when he says, Fear not; nor think 
 that ye are perishing, if your own affections and senses are 
 destroyed, and if all that ye suffer seems contrary to your 
 own opinions. But be ye wise and know the Lord and under- 
 stand his will and turn away your eyes that they behold not 
 vanity, for the Lord *is wonderful in his saints. His work 
 upon them is one thing in appearance, but quite a different 
 thing in reality. He seems to kill but in reality makes alive; 
 he wounds, but in reality heals ; he confounds, but at that very 
 time in reality glorifies ; he brings down to the grave, but at 
 that very time rather brings up from the grave. All his works 
 are thus, concerning which we have said much in the fore- 
 going. 
 
 What then is more wonderful than this divine will? It 
 dwelleth indeed on high, and yet hath respect unto lowly 
 things. It makes men fools that they may become wise; it 
 makes them weak that they may become strong. But it is the 
 former of these works that appears and is felt : thou wilt 
 never arrive at the understanding of the latter unless thou 
 have faith. Thus Peter saith that the prophets foretold first 
 
l66 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS., 
 
 the sufferings of Christ, and then the glories that should fol- 
 low, I Pet. I :ii. 
 
 Therefore we stand in need of admonition and exhorta- 
 tion that we may be raised up to knowing and acknowledging 
 God in such cases. David saith, "Know that he hath made his 
 saint to be a wonder." As though he had said, why are ye 
 thus tossed to and fro? Why seek ye comfort and counsel 
 from this quarter and from that? Why do ye love this and 
 that consolation ? Vain are all such things. They are not 
 only vain, so as not to be able to afford you any help ; but 
 they are lies also and miserably deceive you. "Know ye," and 
 be assured, hear ye and believe, that it is an immutably fixed 
 decree, that whoever will be a saint of God, whoever will ob- 
 tain his grace and be acceptable and well pleasing unto him, 
 must so suffer that God shall be wonderful in him ! Thus 
 wonderful he cannot be, if the counsel or consolation of your- 
 self or of any other creature can help you. For all such things, 
 which are not above and beyond your own ability and compre- 
 hension are not wonderful at all. But when ye shall be 
 brought to despair in yourselves and in every other created 
 thing, and shall commit and commend your cause to the will 
 of God only, then, behold, your righteousness shall break forth 
 as the light, and then shall God bring forth your judgment 
 as the noon-day, Ps. 37 :6, in a manner and at a time wholly un- 
 thought of either by yourselves or any other creature. 
 
 The word "saint" in this passage is in the Hebrew, hasid; 
 because he is properly a saint who has obtained mercy, and 
 who, as we term it, is justified by grace. We are to receive the 
 expression here as distributive and as containing a definite 
 number for an indefinite. "Know ye that the Lord hath made 
 his saint wonderful," that is, his saints. Which is the same 
 as if he had said, know ye that the Lord wonderfully works 
 in, and rules the man, whom he justifies and makes a partaker 
 of grace. From this learn that whoever will please God must, 
 as I said, know what this good, and acceptable, and perfect 
 
PSALM IV. 167 
 
 counsel and will of the Lord are? For Paul saith, Rom. 12:2, 
 that this "will" never can be proved, unless ye be "transformed 
 by the renewing of your mind ;" whereby God always destroys 
 our own affections and our own opinion. 
 
 "Jehovah will hear me," etc. Here again he teaches the 
 weak both by word and by example. For he might have re- 
 ferred this to the saint, who he before Said was made a wonder, 
 and have said, Jehovah will hear him when he calls unto him. 
 Or, he might have made the former part of the verse accord 
 with the latter, and have said, know ye that the Lord hath 
 made me a wonder. But as I said, 'these sudden changes of 
 the persons set forth the wonderful varieties and changes in 
 the feelings and affections ; we are therefore to consider the 
 person of the prophet accordingly and see how concerned he 
 is for the sons of men in all this variety, addressing the saints 
 at one time as in a body collected together, at another as 
 mingled among sinners, that he might thereby gain all. He 
 saith, "Jehovah hath made his saint a wonder :" and, he would 
 add, if this will not move you, I tell you that "Jehovah will 
 hear me," who also am one of the saints, that is, one of those 
 who have obtained his grace. 
 
 Behold the Psalmist's affection and state of mind. He per- 
 suades the sons of men to endure the hand of God ; but as that 
 is done in faith, he cannot show what nor how it is, for God, as 
 I said, is not visible. Therefore he does the utmost that he 
 can do and all that lies within his power : he promises them 
 the help of God. As if he had said, I can do this and this is the 
 only thing that I have power to do for your consolation : I can 
 with confidence promise you that you will be heard. Therefore 
 trust with firmness, love not vanity, nor turn the glory of God 
 into shame; but wait in expectation and take comfort from 
 this my example, for I am most fully persuaded that the Lord 
 will hear me, not in this hour only but as often as I shall call 
 upon him. 
 
 Thus we see the godly concern of a spiritual mind for the 
 
i68 Luther on the psalms. 
 
 brethren. David does not dare to boast of himself; but on ac- 
 count of the need and necessity of his brother, he is compelled 
 to bring forth himself as an example, as the apostle Paul also 
 does in many places : thus, "Be ye imitators of me, even as I 
 also am of Christ," i Cor. ii:i. Again, "We wronged no 
 man," 2 Cor. 7 :2. But it was to avoid this boasting as much 
 as possible, as it seems, that David spoke of the "saint" in the 
 former part of the verse in the third person, that he might 
 not in vain-glory boast that he was one with whom the Lord 
 dealt wonderfully ; and of which in the latter part he did omit 
 to speak; for to speak of calling upon God is not any great 
 incitement to boasting, but rather a proof of affliction. 
 
 The good Spirit therefore teaches us, that in our being made 
 wonderful, that is, in our tribulation, we should do nothing 
 else than endure our wonder-maker, the Lord, and call upon 
 him ; and not flee from sufferings nor seek after lies nor after 
 those things which seem unto vis to be right and good ; for 
 such things are alluring shadows, the most destructive of all. 
 
 V. 4. — Stand in azve, (be ye angry), and sin not ■.commune 
 until your ozvn heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. 
 (zuhich things ye speak in your hearts : and be filled with com 
 punction on your beds). 
 
 The Hebrew according to the authority of Jerome is, "Be 
 ye angry, and sin not : speak in your own hearts upon your 
 beds, and be silent." Whence it is manifest that the relative 
 pronoun 'which' and the conjunction 'and' are in our trans- 
 lation redundant ; and the words 'be filled with compunction' 
 also have forced our translators into a sense that is not agree- 
 able to the original text. Therefore let us first consider the 
 Hebrew of the passage. 
 
 The prophet in the third verse called back the sons of men 
 from vanity and lies ; that is, from corrupt affections and false 
 opinions, and therefore, as they might then say, what shall 
 we next do? What shall we strive after next? Are we thus 
 to leave all things? He answers them in this fourth verse by 
 
PSALM IV. 169 
 
 telling them, that they should trust in the Lord and rest upon 
 his mercy and know, tliat those things which they should suffer 
 from the injurious, would under the operation of God tend, 
 not to their destruction, but to their salvation, though in a 
 way altogether wonderful. 
 
 If they complainingly ask again, but who is there that can 
 avoid being moved and becoming angry? Who is there that 
 can help murmuring and accursing those who injure them ? He 
 kindly replies, "Be ye angry," but not so as to "sin" in being 
 angry. I know that the motions of anger are not in your own 
 power ; but take heed that ye consent hot to them. Thus Paul 
 saith. Gal. 5:16, "Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil 
 the lust of the flesh." And Rom. 6:12, "Let not sin therefore 
 reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey the lusts 
 thereof." Again, Rom. 13 :i4, "Make not provision for the 
 flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." 
 
 All these scriptures tend to show us that there are evil 
 desires as well of lust as of anger in us, but that we are to 
 take heed that they reign not, that is, that we "obey" them not, 
 as Paul saith. Thus he complains, Rom. 7:19, "The good 
 which I would, I do not : but the evil which I would not, 
 that I practice." Again, verse 25, "So then I of myself with 
 the mind indeed serve the law of God ; but with the flesh the 
 law of sin." How was all this? Because he wished to be 
 free from evil desires, but could not ; and to have pure desires 
 only, but could not. As he says again, Gal. 5:17, "For the 
 flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; 
 for these are contrary the one to tlie other ; that ye may not do 
 the things that ye would." 
 
 It is manifest therefore that the words here, "Be ye angry," 
 arc not words of command or of exhortation to anger, as 
 being proper and as being a something different from sin ; 
 but words of permission or of concession in the case of anger, 
 though evil, when any injury is received; on account of the 
 inevitable and invincible infirmity of the flesh. Thus August- 
 
f^O LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ine says on this verse, "Be ye angry and sin not," means that, 
 although the motion of anger should rise in the mind, which 
 now on account of the punishment of sin is not in our power; 
 yet, let not the mind and will, which are regenerate within 
 according to God, consent unto it ; that with the mind we may 
 serve the law of God, though with our flesh we still serve the 
 law of sin.' Thus Augustine speaks excellently and beauti- 
 fully. 
 
 The sense therefore is plain. "Be ye angry, and sin not;" 
 that is, forasmuch as ye complain that ye cannot help being 
 moved, being hurt, being angry, being put into a tremor, for 
 the Hebrew word bears all these significations, under so great 
 an evil as an injury received ; well ! your heavenly Father knows 
 this your infirmity : be ye moved and angry ; only proceed not 
 so far as to think, say, do, or allow, any evil against your 
 own soul, and thus sin against God, yourselves, and your 
 neighbor. 
 
 This sense I the more willingly embrace, because the spirit 
 of Paul, which I desire always to follow, has the same thing, 
 Eph, 4:26, where he saith, "Be ye angry, and sin not." That 
 he does not speak of anger here as proper or good, which would 
 be making it different from sin, is manifest from what follows, 
 "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath ;" which he cer- 
 tainly says as considering anger to be evil. And indeed it 
 was this passage of Paul that gave me the occasion for ex- 
 pounding this Psalm as applying to the injuries and complaints 
 of the weak, who are to be restrained by a godly exhorta- 
 tion and by exciting confidence in God. It is to the same end 
 that Paul uses and applies this verse of the Psalm, as is mani- 
 fest to every one. 
 
 But here that question concerning the first motions, as they 
 term them, will put forth its head, and will ask, where ends 
 the venial sin, and where begins the mortal sin ? The apostle 
 indeed gives the setting of the sun as a limit, when he says, 
 "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." But this, again, 
 
PSALM IV. 171 
 
 they call into question, whether we are by this to understand 
 the visible sun, which we see setting at a certain hour, or the 
 spiritual sun, Christ, which they think may, as to the human 
 senses, set in a moment. 
 
 For my part, I always avoid mystical interpretations of the 
 scriptures, where there is no cogent necessity for so doing, 
 and advise others to do the same, because they are very peril- 
 ous. I cannot suffer myself to understand by Paul's "sun" any 
 other than the visible, though I do not condemn the other 
 opinion. 
 
 Moreover, I know that there is no temerity more perilous 
 than the wishing to make a distinction between venial and mor- 
 tal sin, especially in the hour of the commotion of the flesh and 
 of temptation : between those sins, I say, which are com- 
 mitted by the motions of the raging mind ; for either lust, or 
 indignation, or some other motion, is wont to prevail in a 
 man, not for one hour only but sometimes for many hours 
 together, and in such a manner that he cannot be certain 
 whether he consents or not. Nay, very often, God so ordaining 
 it, the feeling of the motion of the good and pure mind is 
 so very low and involuntary and so hidden, that the man fears, 
 nay, almost believes, that he has consented. By this remedy 
 the divine mercy is wont to keep all its beloved ones, whom he 
 has adorned with conspicuous gifts above others in humility, 
 lest, being puffed up with them, they should be exalted in 
 pride above others, and perish. 
 
 Therefore, the doctrine and rule of the apostle appears 
 to me most safe and most wise, that every man should at 
 least return to himself at night; and, if he have conceived 
 any anger, should lay it aside before he goes to sleep, and be 
 reconciled to his brother. For no other time more proper 
 can be appointed for this purpose, than the setting of the sun, 
 and the end of the day, when all business and all works and 
 labor, etc. are finished, and when the mind is now more quiet 
 and in a proper state to lay aside this and every other feeling of 
 
ty2 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 malice, whether there has been a consenting unto it or not. 
 For who can understand his errors? And in every work we 
 are to fear the strict judgment of God. 
 
 Now follows, "Commune with your ov/n heart upon your 
 bed, and be still." It is manifest that 'upon your bed,' 'into 
 your bed,' and 'in your bed,' all signify the same thing; for 
 in the Hebrew the words imply motion to a place; the same 
 figure of speech Christ uses, Matt. 6:6, "But thou, when 
 thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut 
 the door," etc. 
 
 Now I must follow a most unskilful master, as we are 
 accustomed to say, that is, my own self; for I have never seen 
 this Hebrew text explained to my liking by any one, and as 
 far as I can I will follow my own spirit. 
 
 It is the custom of those who suffer injury to burst out, 
 make a clamor, and fill all ears with complaints ; which is the 
 reason the apostle, Eph. 4:31, enumerates "clamor" among the 
 effects of anger, saying, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and 
 anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you," etc. 
 Therefore the prophet, with a design to prevent the sons of 
 men from thus breaking out, as he had permitted them to be 
 angry in the first motion of their mind, and yet not so as 
 to sin, now teaches them, that they should make no tumult at 
 all, but commune and talk with their own hearts upon their 
 beds. Thereby he expressively shows them what they should 
 do to prevent themselves from sinning when moved with anger, 
 namely, that they should commune with themselves, and be 
 silent ; which I do not understand otherwise than according 
 to that of the prophet Is. 30:15, "In quietness and in confidence 
 shall be your strength." For the silence here spoken of is 
 not that which is kept by the mouth, but that patience and rest 
 which are the opposite of tumult ; as it is expressed in Ps. 37 -.y, 
 "Rest in Jehovah and wait patiently for him." And Ps. 65:1, 
 "Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion." Again, Is. 41 :i, 
 
PSALM IV. 173 
 
 "Keep silence before me, O islands : and let the people renew 
 ■ their strength." 
 
 But finally, to be silent, according to the figurative mode 
 of the scriptural expression, is of the same signification as to 
 lay aside one's impetuosity, to mitigate one's fury, to bridle 
 one's mind; which we Germans in our vernacular express by 
 saying to those whom we would restrain when angry, 'Still, 
 still, halt in!' Hence tomb is in the Hebrew expressed by 
 DUMA, from this true and real silence; because, there a man 
 ceases from every thing and remains wholly in silence. There- 
 fore Isaiah said, 30:12, "Ye trust in oppression and perverse- 
 ness;" for the mind of those who are angry and offended, is 
 irritated to oppression and perverseness : whereby it presumes 
 that it shall obtain revenge and prevail. But restraining this 
 irritated state of mind he saith, "In returning and rest ye shall 
 be saved ;" for you will overcome, not by making a tumult, but 
 by remaining still. Then follows, "and in quietness and con- 
 fidence shall be your strength ;" that is, if ye keep silent and 
 remain still, bridle your impetuosity, abstain from tumult, and 
 not seek revenge, but wait for my hand, and leave all revenge 
 unto me, and deliver your cause into my hand, behold then 
 ye shall be strong and shall overcome ; for I will fight for you, 
 but ye shall be still. 
 
 Thus Moses saith, Ex. 14:14, "Jehovah will fight for you, 
 but ye shall hold your peace." What mean these words, "Ye 
 shall hold your peace?" They mean, ye shall be still, ye shall 
 do nothing in the matter, but shall act just as if it did not at 
 all concern you. This being in peace and still therefore is 
 nothing else than exercising a quiet patience ; which is a figure 
 of speech most common in the holy scriptures. 
 
 Hence Isaiah, in the above passage, when they would not 
 listen to the admonition and exhortation to keep silence, adds, 
 30:16, "But ye said, no, for we will flee upon horses, and we 
 will ride upon the swift." And what is this, but declaring to 
 defend themselves by tumult, and not to wait to become strong 
 
174 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and be saved by quietness and confidence. Hence follows in 
 the same passage, verses i6, 17, "Therefore shall ye flee: and 
 therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. One thousand 
 shall flee at the threat of one ; at the threat of five shall ye flee : 
 till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as 
 an ensign on a hill." From these words I think it is quite clear, 
 what it is to be silent and still, and w^hat it is to make a tumult. 
 The one is to remain in patience and quietness : the other, 
 to be moved and to put every thing else in commotion, and, 
 as we say, to confound heaven and earth. The former is the 
 silence which this verse teaches. 
 
 The meaning of the passage is therefore, "Commune with 
 your own heart upon your bed ;" that is, as we say, ponder, 
 deliberate, be not precipitate, nor immediately bring forth that 
 which your anger may suggest. First consult with yourselves, 
 "for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," 
 James i :20. As a heathen writer has also written, 'Let nothing 
 be done or said in anger.' Gregory also said, Tt is better to 
 avoid anger by silence, than to overcome it by reply.' 
 
 Now let us look at the words more particularly. First, we 
 have "Commune, or speak, with your own heart;" that is, let 
 them meditate well with themselves and not obey the motions 
 of their anger, which is precipitant, and which always has its 
 words upon the tongue and not in the heart ; according to 
 Sirach, 21 :26, "The heart of fools is in their mouth : but the 
 mouth of the wise is in their heart." A beautiful and excellent 
 antithesis ! And the same admonition is given In the present 
 verse, that we should turn our mouth to our heart, and not 
 immediately utter forth what the temptation may suggest. For 
 to have our heart in our mouth, is to speak imprudently ; which 
 persons in a passion generally do. But to have our mouth 
 in our heart, is to speak prudently; which those do who are 
 still and quiet. 
 
 Therefore we may use the same antithesis here, and say, 
 to speak in our hearts and to think in our mouths, if I may 
 
PSALM IV. 175 
 
 SO say, are opposites; the one being a mark of wise men; the 
 other, of fools. 
 
 But that they may the more conveniently commune with, 
 or speak to, their hearts, he adds that they should do this upon 
 their "beds ;" that is, that they should seek solitude and avoid 
 all the irritation of a crowd. For when the body and all ex- 
 ternal tumults are reduced to quiet the mind may be the more 
 easily stilled, so as to be in a state to commune and meditate 
 with itself. But as avoiding the crowd and seeking solitude are 
 useful in this temptation, so are tliey perilous in many other 
 temptations. These things have I spok(!n according to my own 
 mind, without prejudice against any other expositor. 
 
 Now, how shall I make our received translation to accord 
 with the Hebrew? It is necessary to understand some other 
 verb, as Augustine teaches, who disposes of our translation 
 thus, "Which things, or the things which, ye say in your 
 hearts." Here understand, says Augustine, the verb 'say;' 
 thus, "The things which ye say, say in your hearts." This 
 may be made to accord with my rendering thus : seeing that, 
 when angry, ye are prompted to say whatever comes first upon 
 your tongue, do not precipitately utter abroad what ye wish to 
 say, but speak it in your hearts, that is, speak wisely what 
 ye desire to speak. For according to this figure of speech, 
 Christ said to Judas, John 13:27, "What thou doest, do quick- 
 ly," that is, what thou desirest to do, or what thou hast already 
 proposed to do. So here the things which ye say, that is, what 
 ye wish to say, say in your hearts. What, from your impatience 
 of anger, ye wish to say foolishly, take care to meditate in 
 your hearts, that ye may speak prudently. 
 
 Lastly how shall I reconcile, "And be filled with compunc- 
 tion on your beds." What concord can there be between 'sil- 
 ence' and 'compunction?' In my opinioin there may be this 
 concord ; that, by returning to his heart, the angry man feels 
 a compunction and is dissatisfied with himself that he has been 
 thus moved to anger ; and therefore by the silence referred to. 
 
176 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 he comes by the shortest way to the force of compunction. 
 Hence v/hile he communes or talks with his heart, especially 
 when on his bed, or sitting alone, he sees how foolish his 
 comniotion and impatience of anger were, which if he had 
 follov.-ed he would have basely fallen. And thus, being changed 
 by his compunction, he refrains from the tumult to which he 
 was moved, and now remains still and in silence, the flame of 
 revenge being not a little extinguished. Whoever can give a 
 better exposition of the passage, let him communicate it without 
 envy. This is the best I can produce. 
 
 I have already sufficiently shown Vv^hat "Selah" at the end 
 of this verse signifies. It is a signal gift of grace for that 
 man, who has been provoked to anger and impatience by in- 
 jury and the like temptation, to exercise the feelings here re- 
 quired, to refrain his tongue, and to withdraw himself aside 
 into secret, and remain silent. For it is to this end that Paul, 
 as I said, handles this Psalm, Eph. 4 -.2,2, where he says at the 
 end, ver. 32, "And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, 
 forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you." 
 
 V. 5. — Offer the sacriiice of righteousness, and put your 
 trust in Jehovah (hope in the Lord). 
 
 An admirable doctrine ! And what is this sacrifice ? Who 
 can ofifer unto God righteousness, when we ought rather to 
 ask of God for all our sacrifices? David here distinguishes, 
 in a few words, the sacrifice of righteousness from all the 
 sacrifices of cattle and of all other things. For these two 
 sacrifices are directly opposed to each other. The sacrifice of 
 righteousness makes men righteous : the sacrifice of things 
 makes them sinners. In the latter we seem to give something 
 unto God, and to work a righteousness : in the former we only 
 express our desire to receive of God, and to confess our sins. 
 Hence it comes to pass that the sacrifice of things, while it 
 puffs us up with self-righteousness and works, renders us im- 
 patient of injuries, making us appear to ourselves to be persons 
 of much and great merit ; and it inflames us the more unto 
 
PSALM IV. 177 
 
 revenge, because we then, as it were, stand up in defense of 
 our own righteousness. 
 
 The sacrifice of righteousness therefore is to justify and 
 praise God and to confess ourselves sinners and worthy of all 
 those things which we suffer, and causes us to exclaim with 
 Ps. 119:137, "Righteous art thou, O Jehovah, and upright are 
 thy judgments." As is described also by a most beautiful ex- 
 ample in the third chapter of Daniel and in The Song of the 
 Three Holy Children, i :8-9, which is the continuation of the 
 third chapter of Daniel in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament ; 
 "Wherefore all that thou hast brought upon us, and every thing 
 that thou hast done to us, thou hast done in true judgment: 
 and thou didst deliver us into the hands of lawless enemies." 
 Again immediately following, verses 16, 17, "Nevertheless, 
 in a contrite heart and humble spirit let us be accepted. Like 
 as in the burnt-ofiferings of rams and bullocks, and like as in 
 ten thousands of fat lambs : so let our sacrifice be in thy sight 
 diis day, and grant that we may wholly go after thee: for 
 they shall not be confounded that put their trust in thee." And 
 Baruch 1:15 teacheth the Babylonian captives the same thing, 
 "And ye shall say, to the Lord our God belongeth righteous- 
 ness, but unto us the confusion of faces, as it is come to pass 
 this day unto them of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jeru- 
 salem." 
 
 But this sacrifice must be offered out of a true heart and 
 mouth, and with a true work : out of a heart truly acknowledg- 
 ing its sin, out of a mouth confessing unfeignedly, and with 
 a work that willingly beareth the punishments which are in- 
 flicted. For there are many who say with their mouths that 
 they are sinners, but do not feel the same in theii hearts, and 
 evince it in their works. Which they manifestly show by their 
 being unwilling to be called and accounted sinners by others, 
 and to suffer injuries. But if thou art a sinner why dost thou 
 flee from the punishments? And if thou dost not appear to 
 thyself to deserve the name of sinner, why dost thou call thy- 
 
178 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 self one? The glory of the righteous is that they have "honor 
 and peace" laid up for them; but the things that are laid to 
 sinners are "tribulation and anguish," Rom. 2:9-10. 
 
 Those therefore who ascribe unto God righteousness, and 
 unto themselves sin, with a true heart, these are they who sacri- 
 fice those two sacrifices of righteousness commended in the 
 scriptures. The one of v/hich may be called the morning 
 sacrifice, concerning v/hich Ps. 50:23 saith, "Whoso ofiereth 
 the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me; and to him that 
 ordereth his way aright will I show the salvation of God." 
 The other is the evening sacrifice, concerning which Ps. 51 :i7. 
 saith, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken 
 and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." And 
 perhaps this is what the verse before us signifies, which in the 
 Hebrew has 'sacrifices' in the plural number, "Sacrifice the 
 sacrifices of righteousness ;" so that it includes both sacrifices. 
 
 In every temptation and under every injury therefore we 
 are not to arrogate righteousness to ourselves and hold 
 it fast, but to take it utterly from ourselves and ascribe it unto 
 God; and they v/ho do not this, are immersed in self-excuses, 
 accusations of their adversaries, self-justifications, and all kinds 
 of judgings, detractings, strivings, quarrelings, contendings, 
 brawlings, and those other works of the flesh which the apostle 
 enumerates, Gal. 5 :20. And it comes to pass that by mutual 
 bitings, such are consumed, not only in spirit, all love being lost, 
 but not un frequently in body also, by mutual slaughters and 
 by possessions spent in litigations. 
 
 But you will say perhaps if Christians used always these 
 sacrifices of righteousness, what would become of ordinances 
 and laws? But we are taught these sacrifices to this end, that 
 we might have no need of ordinances and laws. Thus the King 
 of Babylon acted lawlessly in leading the children of Israel 
 captive, as Three Holy Ciiildren i :9, says, "And thou didst 
 deliver us into the hands of lawless enemies, most hateful for- 
 sakers of God, and to an unjust king, and the most wicked in 
 
PSALM IV. 179 
 
 all the world." And yet King Zedekiah and those who were 
 left in Jerusalem, by resisting righteousness and expostulating 
 with God, offended him much more. Whereas those who, lay- 
 ing aside all boasting in their own righteousness, committed 
 themselves unto God, greatly pleased him. So that the latter 
 were preserved, honored, and multiplied in Babylon in the 
 midst of enemies ; while the former at Jerusalem in the midst 
 of friends perished, were confounded, and decreased. Because 
 the latter of the captivity sacrificed the sacrifices of righteous- 
 ness without cattle or any such things ; but the former offered 
 the sacrifices of cattle and of created things without righteous- 
 ness, because they wished to be righteous in themselves, and 
 did not acknowledge their sins ; whereas, those of the captivity 
 did acknowledge their sins and ascribed righteousness unto 
 God. 
 
 From this we understand, all that chaos and dark abyss of 
 forensic causes and Roman arts, together with the whole mass 
 of books, waxen tables, morals, uses, ordinances, and all such 
 judicial righteousnesses, are matters totally foreign to a Christ- 
 ian man and have nothing to do with that holy life of the 
 church which is in sincerity ; and are only tolerated for the 
 safety of the weak, that they may not do worse things in their 
 desire of revenging themselves, and may not be overcome by 
 the power of impatience. But at the present day, Rome and 
 the episcopal senate devote themselves so wholly to this judicial 
 righteousness, that they not only imagine that righteousness 
 rules there, but for the sake of increasing this kind of right- 
 eousness, they even procure strife by strife ; yea, they call to 
 themselves the quarrels and contentions out of every corner 
 of the whole world ; so that there never was a senate- house of 
 any Emperor, either gentile or profane, filled with such a con- 
 fusion of affairs and causes, and those the most profane ; and 
 yet, which may perhaps excite wonder, the whole is about sacred 
 and divine things most basely bought, redeemed, sold, re-sold, 
 taken by force, and squandered. 
 
l80 lUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Those lawyers call the Roman senate, at this day, the fount- 
 ain of justice and righteousness ; whereas it ought more proper- 
 ly to be called a deluge of iniquity, for it is from there that the 
 destruction and the oblivion of those sacrifices of righteous- 
 ness and of the knowledge of Christ proceed, which have 
 spread themselves with such force and violence throughout the 
 whole world. In a word, Rome at this day far more nearly 
 resembles the kingdom of hell than the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 But perhaps some will say, be it so that we give up all right- 
 eousness and confess that we are sinners, and condemn our- 
 selves to all the deserts of sinners : what then ? Are we to 
 perish and die in our sins ? Does not God hate sinners ? Into 
 what peril dost thou draw us by this thy doctrine? David 
 answers you thus : be of good cheer : only hope in God. For 
 thus the companions of Daniel did, as is recorded in the third 
 chapter of Daniel and in the apocryphal Song of the Three Holy 
 Children i :6, "For we have sinned, and committed iniquity." 
 But afterwards, being raised to hope, they say, ver. 17, "For 
 they shall not be confounded that put their trust in thee." Upon 
 this I spoke referring to Is. 30:15, "In quietness and con- 
 fidence shall be )^our strength." That is, we are not to avenge 
 ourselves as if we were righteous, but are to suffer in silence 
 without tumult ; confessing our sins, committing our cause 
 into the hand of God, and expecting his mercy with believing 
 confidence. For he that shall com.e will come, and will execute 
 judgment in favor of them that suffer injury, and will avenge 
 the poor; and thus, God will make his strength perfect in our 
 weakness. For if our confidence in our own righteousness be 
 not taken away, and if we do not confess ourselves sinners and 
 worthy of any and every evil, salvation and hope can have 
 no place in us ; for God will have respect only unto the humble. 
 
 V. 6. — Many there are that say, who zvill sJiozv us any 
 good? Jehovah, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon 
 us. 
 
 This verse among us is divided : the first part of it being 
 
PSALM IV. l8l 
 
 joined to the former verse, and the last part to the following 
 verse. The Hebrew, according to the translation of Jerome, 
 is, "There be many that say, who will show us any good? 
 Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." But 
 I think the verse should be rendered and punctuated thus, 
 "Many say, who will show unto us any good sign upon us? 
 Lord, the light of thy countenance." 
 
 David however turns his words unto God in a way of 
 complaint, but with admirable reverence and modesty, lament- 
 ing on account of the unbelieving, and those that will not be 
 persuaded ; such as were the stiff-necked Jews more especially, 
 because they could not believe those who rightly advised them, 
 unless, as Christ says, they should see signs and wonders, John 
 4 :48. Thus the apostle saith, i Cor. i :22, "That Jews ask for 
 signs, and Greeks seek after wisdom." Hence it comes to pass 
 that they are always offended at the Word of the cross and the 
 doctrine of faith. And this is what David here says : that 
 when he had advised them to cast away all their own righteous- 
 ness, and to hope in God, and expect all good from him, he 
 offended those who would not believe him, and who would not 
 be prevailed upon to hope, unless they saw some good sign by 
 which they may be assured concerning the future good which 
 they were commanded to hope for. They say, "Who will show 
 us any good sign upon us." Who will assure us that these 
 good things will come unto us? By what sign is it manifest 
 that we shall receive those things? As if they had said, all 
 things appear quite the contrary ; and the worst signs of things 
 seem to be upon us on all sides. Men of this kind are every 
 where numerous, who tempt the Lord with this unbelief, like 
 the children of Israel in the wilderness. 
 
 And from this same source you may trace a whole sea of 
 superstitions and of the most foolish desires even among 
 Christians, if the wind does not blow just to please them, if 
 their crops seem to be in danger, even if their leg pains them, 
 or if they are visited, or fear they shall be visited, with any 
 
l82 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 temporal inconvenience or loss. For in all these cases, how 
 anxious are we to know, by means of some good sign, that 
 these things will not come upon us, or that we shall be delivered 
 from them if they should come. We run here and there to 
 magicians, to diviners, yea, to devils also ; and the devices and 
 ways are innumerable, by which we endeavor to avoid this one 
 thing, hoping in God, or at least, that we might not be com- 
 pelled to hope in him without some good and certain sign. 
 
 The miser hopes in God, but it is only whilst his purse 
 keeps filling, and his barn continues to be stored with corn; 
 the strong man hopes in him also, but it is only so long as his 
 strength is sound; the powerful and ambitious man hopes in 
 him, but it is only so long as the authority of his name and 
 his power prevail : because, by these good signs they seem 
 to themselves to be sure that they have God propitious unto 
 them, but if any one of these things should fail, their hope 
 fails with it, unless some other or greater sign shows itself 
 for their support. 
 
 Thus it is also in spiritual things, in the remission of sins, 
 and the peace of conscience; wherein, not a few prepare to 
 themselves a security, not by faith, nor by hope, but by a 
 confidence in their own works, or by what others think of 
 them. And indeed, in every temptation, these seek for them- 
 selves a good sign as something whereon to rest their hope; 
 without which, they will not hope at all, and therefore, they 
 do not hope in God, because they do not hope purely, for, "hope 
 that is seen, is not hope," Rom. 8 :24. 
 
 The Psalmist might have spoken of all these, mentioning 
 them by their names ; such as temptors of God, unbelieving, 
 sons of distrust, infidels, and stiff-necked rebels. But, not men- 
 tioning their names, he sets forth their 7i'ork only, and that in 
 tlie most simple and modest words, "There are many that say, 
 who will show us any good," leaving the judgment of their work 
 unto God and to those with whom it ought to be left; because, 
 
PSALM IV. 183 
 
 with a godly affection he rather pities them and grieves for 
 their state, than bitterly accuses them. 
 
 Hence David condemns the error of such, and shows that 
 there is not that good sign upon us to be looked for which 
 they seek after, and that God is not propitious unto those on 
 whom he abundantly bestows such things. Nay, because such 
 things are the worst and the most fallacious signs, he brings 
 forward a much better and surer sign, namely this, "The light 
 of thy countenance, O Lord." As if he had said, to know 
 no sign but to rest in God by faith and hope only is the best 
 sign. 'For whosoever trusteth in him shall not be confounded ;' 
 as it is said in Daniel 3. Three Holy Children, 1:17. They 
 are fully satisfied concerning all good things, who, without any 
 sign whatever, firmly believe in God ; without which faith, no 
 works, no signs, no miracles, can make a man certain. 
 
 And faith is most rightly called 'the light of God's counten- 
 ?nce,' because it is the illumination of our mind inspired from 
 on high, and a certain ray of the divinity conveyed into our 
 heart, by which, every one is saved and directed, who is saved. 
 As it is described in Ps. 32:8, 'T will instruct thee and teach 
 thee in the way which thou shalt go : I will guide thee with 
 mine eye." And Ps. 44 :3, "For they gat not the land in pos- 
 session by their own sword, neither did their own arm save 
 them : but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy 
 countenance." Again, Ps. 89 :i5, "They walk, O Jehovah, in the 
 light of thy countenance." Hence David exults, Ps. 27 :i, 
 "Jehovah is my light and my salvation." 
 
 This was prefigured in the "pillar of fire" and in the 
 "cloud," by which the children of Israel were ruled and led 
 through the desert. For, just in the same way, it is by faith 
 alone that we are led through ways that we know not and in 
 paths wherein there is no help of man to be found, that is, 
 through sufferings and tribulations. And as, in the former 
 case, the pillar of fire was with them and w^ent before their 
 face ; so here, faith has God present. So that the illumination 
 
184 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of the heart proceeds, as it were, from the countenance of the 
 present God ; and hence it is most rightly and properly called, 
 the light of the countenance of God ; that is, an acknowledgment 
 of, and confidence in, a present God. For he that does not 
 know, and does not feel, that God is present with him, does 
 not yet believe and has not yet the light of God's countenance. 
 
 It matters not therefore whether the light of the counte- 
 nance of God be understood actively, as that by which, being 
 present with us, he illuminates us by lighting up faith in us ; 
 or passively, as signifying the light of the faith itself, by which 
 we believe with confidence and feel his countenance and pres- 
 ence. For, in the Holy Scriptures, as is well known, face or 
 countenance, signifies presence. And therefore, an illuminat- 
 ing God and an illuminated heart are one and the same thing; 
 as are also, God seen by us and God present. 
 
 This is the meaning of the name Israel, by which Jacob 
 was called when he had seen the Lord face to face. For by 
 his face he saw the face of God ; that is, God was made present 
 with him by faith, being, as it were, brought before his face ; 
 and he, on the other hand, beheld God present with him, and 
 ready to help him, and, as it were, brought before his face. 
 And hence, Israel is said to be "led" of God ; that is, he was 
 one that was ruled of God alone, or led by him in a right way. 
 And this is done by means of faith ; and therefore, Israel is 
 the same as faithful, or believer, except that Israel sets forth 
 the power and measure of faith with wonderful propriety. 
 
 Therefore, "Blessed is the man, as David saith, Ps. 94:12, 
 whom thou chastenest, O Jehovah, and teachest out of thy 
 law." For by Jer. 18:17, he threatens the Jews 'that he will 
 show them the back and not the face ;" that is, that he will 
 leave them in unbelief and ignorance of God. 
 
 We see, therefore, what a good sign is upon us : or, we 
 see who will show us good, namely, faith. Faith, I say, be- 
 cause it is the light which shows us the presence and the coun- 
 tenance itself of God; that is, it shows us all good even God 
 
PSALM IV. 185 
 
 himself, while it brings him before our face and works in us 
 a confidence in him. Thus no man can of himself teach another 
 these things. 
 
 And now it will be easy to make the other interpretations 
 harmonize with this. 
 
 The common reading is very near to this sense, — "O Lord, 
 the light of thy countenance is sealed upon us." The charac- 
 ters of whom we first spoke seek after a God that will show 
 them some good, desiring rather to see those things visibly be- 
 fore them, than to believe that they shall have them. But, 
 the believing characters of whom I spoke last, do not desire 
 that this sign should be shown them, but glory, that the light 
 of the countenance of God, that is, the knowledge of, and con- 
 fidence in, a present God, is sealed and impressed upon them, 
 as we may plainly understand from the words of the verse. 
 
 And with respect to the rendering of Jerome, "There are 
 many that say, who will show us any good : Jehovah, lift 
 thou up the light of thy countenance upon us :" This is the 
 same sense, only given in the form of a petition. For God does 
 lift up the light of his countenance upon us, when he lifts us 
 up by that light. For faith is a light above all our faculties 
 and powers. And hence, this lifting up is nothing else than 
 pouring out upon us that light of faith which is in itself 
 most high, whereby we are lifted up. And hence also it may 
 be said to be 'fixed' or "sealed," because it is enclosed and 
 incomprehensible to us, and yet comprehending us and leading 
 us captive into an obedience unto it. 
 
 Hence it is certain, that this verse cannot be understood 
 concerning natural reason as being the great director ; according 
 to the opinion of many, who say, 'that the first principles of 
 morals spring from themselves ;' for all such things are specu- 
 lative and false. Faith is the first principle of all good works, 
 and this is so hidden and unknown, that all reason utterly 
 shrinks from it. Reason, when at the summit of its power and 
 perfection, can only say, "Who will show us any good?" For 
 
l86 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 we find that "many" say this, that is, all who are led and 
 guided by reason. 
 
 V. 7. — Tliou hast put gladness in my heart. More than 
 they have zvhen their grain and their nczv zvine are increased. 
 (They are midtiplied by the fruit of their corn, and wine, 
 and oil) . 
 
 The former part of this verse is, with us, joined to the 
 verse preceding; which, with the one that follows it, makes, 
 in the Hebrew, one verse ; and which Jerome has rendered thus, 
 "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, from the time that their 
 corn, and wine, and oil increased." 
 
 According to my judgment, this verse draws the line of 
 distinction between the believing and the unbelieving; that 
 the God of the one is the true God, but the God of the other 
 is their belly. For faith in God, or the light of the countenance 
 of God, gladdens the heart, and diffuses throughout the in- 
 ward man a solid and true joy, while it produces a peace on 
 account of sins forgiven, and gives the man a sure confidence in 
 God even in the midst of sufferings ; for there can be no joy, 
 no peace, except in a pure conscience. Hence Paul, Gal. 5 •.22, 
 enumerates "joy" among the fruits of the Spirit. And David 
 says above, ver. i, "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in dis- 
 tress." And hence it comes to pass, that as the sufferings of 
 Christ abound in us, so does the consolation of Christ abound 
 in us also, through that faith whereby we rest in him ; as Paul 
 saith, 2 Cor. i -,3, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort ; 
 who comforteth us in all our affliction." For who can but 
 rejoice, and even exult over all the evils of the world and of 
 hell itself, saying, with Paul, Rom. 8:31, "If God is for us, 
 who is against us?" if he believe that God is with him and 
 for him? But, when will he ever believe firmly that God is 
 for him, vmless, from being proved by various temptations, and 
 having had his faith exercised, he has thereby learned that 
 God is for him? 
 
PSALM IV. 187 
 
 It cannot be therefore but that the man must rejoice with 
 his whole heart, who has the light of the countenance of God. 
 For such an one, because he is righteous ; and because he re- 
 joices, he fears no one and exultingly triumphs over all things, 
 even over death and hell, being certain that he has the approv- 
 ing presence of his God. And hence, after "O Lord, the light 
 of thy countenance," follows, "Thou hast put gladness in my 
 heart," As we have it also in Ps. 68:3, "But let the righteous 
 be glad; let them exult before God : yea, let them rejoice with 
 gladness." 
 
 But what shall we say, on the contrary, concerning the un- 
 believing? Have they ever any joy and gladness of heart? 
 No! For there is no peace to the wicked, nor any joy to the 
 ungodly, as Is. saith, 48 :22. Because Paul saith, 2 Cor. i 17, 
 "As ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also are ye of the com- 
 fort." But these never have been partakers of the sufferings, 
 and therefore, shall not be partakers of the consolation. And 
 it is said also, Prov. 14:10, "The heart knoweth its own bitter- 
 ness and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy." But 
 what joy have these? Why, they have that which they sought 
 after. "So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart," 
 saith the Lord, Ps. 81 :i2. And in Ps. 78, we read that God 
 satisfied their desires when they tempted him by asking food 
 for their lusts, and He rained down flesh upon them as dust ; 
 where follow, verses 30, 31, "Their food was yet in their 
 mouths, when the anger of God went up against them ;" which 
 the apostle also repeats, Eph. 5 :6, calling such 'the sons of 
 disobedience, upon whom the wrath of God cometh.' 
 
 God giveth unto these, instead of rejoicing of heart, the 
 vile gratifications of the belly; because they only ask, "Who 
 will show us any good." Savoring of nothing but present and 
 sensual things, and not having the light of the countenance of 
 God. And therefore David here saith, 'that their corn, and 
 wine, and oil are increased,' as they wished; thus describing 
 their misery in mild words and leaving us to judge how great 
 
l88 LUTHER OISI THE PSALMS. 
 
 that misery must be, by contrasting it with the joy which he 
 felt and with his enjoyments which were all directly contrary. 
 For what good has that man who has not God ? What joy 
 can he have whose heart does not rejoice in God? What de- 
 light can he know whose conscience is ever in a state of alarm ? 
 for such an one always feels that God is against him. 
 
 These words of David therefore display in him a most re- 
 markable humble mind and yet contain a most powerful com- 
 parison. The righteous have a rejoicing of heart in God. But 
 what have the unbelievers? An abundance, says he, of tem- 
 poral things and nothing more. O miserable pittance! O 
 worthless inheritance, the just desert of unbelief! For what 
 else is fit for swine but deceiving and empty husks, the refuse 
 and outside coverings of what is really good ! Thus, they have 
 the good which they wished to have shown unto them. They 
 have that good, for the sake of which they are willing to be 
 without the light of the countenance of God. They have those 
 rewards given unto them which were given unto the sons of 
 the concubines of Abraham, but they are separated from the 
 liaie heir, Isaac, to whom the whole inheritance is given. And 
 as the two are separated and distinct in desert, so are they in 
 fruit and reward. The unbelieving wanted visible good things, 
 and they have them : the believing desired invisible good 
 things, and they have them in the joy of their heart. And thus, 
 as he had shown in the preceding verse what the workmen 
 were, so now, in the present verse, he shows what fruits fol- 
 lowed their works ; how different they are from, yea, how con- 
 trary to each other. 
 
 You may see here, therefore, in what sovereign contempt he 
 held all the pomp and all the possessions of this world, from 
 the comparison which he draws between them and the good 
 things which he enjoyed; and from his showing that such are 
 the things which are given to unbelievers. 
 
 Now it is easy to harmonize the different translations. For 
 there is no difference whether one says as the Vulgate, they are 
 
PSALM IV. 189 
 
 multiplied by their gram and wine, that is, they are become 
 rich, great and strong, expanded by their temporal and earthly 
 possessions, or as Jerome, your grain and wine are increased, 
 as every grammarian knows. For it is a short description of 
 their prosperity as Job, in the 21 chapter and the 144 Ps. verse 
 II, etc. set forth more in details. 
 
 But that the Prophet does not speak here of the holy sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper, Augustine proves in that it is espec- 
 ially mentioned, your grain, your wine, not without specifying 
 more definitely grain and wine, since it is evident that he by 
 this pronoun your, speaks of many who say, "Who can show 
 us, what is good?" For it has reference to the godless and 
 the unbelievers, who have nothing to do with the Lord's Sup- 
 per, since they are swine and dogs, which can never be satis- 
 fied, as Is. 56:11 says. Therefore is would be wrong if he 
 broke the chain of thought and introduced foreign matter under 
 a similar name when he had not previously mentioned it. 
 
 Therefore it occurs that in Hebrew and in Augustine it is, 
 from the time a tempore, while in the Vulgate we have of the 
 fruit, a fnictu, since a fructu has frequently given occasion 
 among us to understand it referring to the Lord's .Supper, the 
 text in Hebrew gives just as much occasion that it speaks of 
 their grain, which they have "from time," that is, that he speaks 
 of temporal things. "From time" he says, we have what we 
 have, that which time provides to give according to temporal 
 necessities and luxuries. This seems to say to me that from 
 the eternal presence of God they have nothing, but that they 
 have their possessions from time. 
 
 According to our sense, a fructu can be so understood that 
 they were so enriched by the variety and superabundance of 
 their grain and wine, as if he would say, may their temporalities 
 prosper and bear fruit. This again is in the way of understand- 
 ing it in a becoming manner of the Lord's Supper, since the 
 believers in Christ are not multiplied by the fruit of the Lord's 
 Supper, but they themselves are the manifold fruits and re- 
 
IQO LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 suits of the Lord's Supper, so that according to this meaning 
 much more should be said : by their grain and wine the fruits 
 are multiplied. 
 
 But this is also the sign of an oblique accusation, since it 
 stands your grain, your wine, namely in that the prophet sharp- 
 ly attacks the evil of the cupidity of the unbelievers, as if he 
 would say : that is their characteristic nature, for they seek 
 these things, they love them, only these possesions do they know 
 how to enjoy. 
 
 It is only of minor importance that in the Hebrew "their oil" 
 is not mentioned after "their wine" as in the Vulgate, for it is 
 of no significance whether it is added or not. It is certain 
 that by this figure of speech in the scriptures a superabundance 
 of temporalities is meant, as Gen. 27 :37, "With grain and wine 
 and oil (Vulgate) have I sustained him," and then follows : 
 "What then shall I do for thee my son." Yet I suspect that was 
 through the permission of the Spirit introduced by the fluent 
 translator, so that those who would read, might be reminded 
 that nothing but temporal gifts should be understood, since oil 
 does not permit the least reference to the Lord's Supper. 
 
 By this however I will not detract from the interpretation 
 of those, who understand it to refer to the sacrament. Each 
 may advocate his own meaning if only faith and peace remain 
 undisturbed. It is not our task to confute the labors of others, 
 but as far as possible to come to the right understanding. The 
 good is not cast away, when we praise the better or the very 
 good more than the good. 
 
 V. 8, 9. In peace will I both lay me dozvn and sleep; for 
 thou, Jehovah, alone makest me divell in safety. Rev. ver. 
 
 V. 8, 9. — / zvill together lay me dozvn in peace to sleep, and 
 take my rest. For thou, O Lord, hast singularly established 
 me in liope. 
 
 These two verses are, in the Hebrew, only one : and Jer- 
 ome has translated them, "In peace together will I lay me down 
 
PSALM IV. 191 
 
 to rest, and sleep ; because thou, O Lord, hast made me in an 
 especial manner to dwell in safety." 
 
 The two expressions, "I will lay me down to sleep" and 'T 
 will rest," have been abundantly discoursed on in the preceding 
 Psalm, verse 6, where we have shown, that by them is signified 
 natural death and burial. Though I know that Augustine in- 
 terprets them, figuratively, in a different way, as signifying the 
 oblivion of temporal things ; yet he himself confesses that such 
 an oblivion cannot be attained unto in this life. 
 
 The words 'in id ipsum' in the Vulgate have the same signi- 
 fication as the verb simul, 'together,' 'with Jerome and they 
 imply concord and unity; as in Ps. 133:1, "Behold how good, 
 and how pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell in unity, in unum," 
 that is, 'together in unity.' 
 
 The sense therefore, is, being, O Lord, satisfied and assured, 
 from the light of thy countenance, that thou art with me and 
 for me, I am full of joy. I shall therefore die in peace and 
 willingly leave this life ; because as in Ps. 23 4, "Though I 
 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear 
 no evil ; for thou art with me." 
 
 Hence according to my judgment 'laying one's self down 
 to rest together,' and 'sleeping together,' are of the same signi- 
 fication as we now use those terms ; and they convey that mean- 
 ing, that would be conveyed by the Latin words condormire 
 and correquiesccre; and 1 think, that by those expressions David 
 declares his persuasion that he should sleep with his fathers. 
 For the same expressions are frequently made use of in the 
 books of Kings, "David slept with his fathers," i Kings 2 :io. 
 Again, in the Books of Moses, "I am to be gathered unto my 
 people," Gen. 49 :29, And again Moses, "Thou also shalt be 
 gathered unto thy people," Num. 27:13. Aaron shall be gath- 
 ered unto his people," Num. 20 •.24. And many more like pas- 
 sages. 
 
 Faith therefore after it has been exercised by various suf- 
 ferings and temptations, moves us to look upon death as a sleep 
 
192 L.UTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ill peace; which to the unbeHeving is a terrible and intolerable 
 vexation. For what else do you imagine David intends by this 
 his great glorying in death, and commendation of it, than that 
 he may not only give an example in himself of the way in 
 which we may come to a sweet and quiet death, but that he may 
 leave it also to every one to judge how terrible the death of the 
 unbelieving must be, and how full of unrest, dread and horror, 
 in whose death there is no lying down to rest and sleeping, but 
 according to the Psalmist, "Evil shall hunt the violent man to 
 overthrow him." Ps. 140:11. Again, 'The death of the wicked 
 is terrible.' And again, "Bloody and deceitful men shall not 
 live out half their days," Ps. 55 123. "When they shall say, 
 peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them," 
 1 Thess. 5 13. Therefore he terrifies them in the most mild 
 and quiet way by showing them their awful death, while he 
 commends his own death, which would be most happy ; because 
 he rather chooses to move them in a sweet way by his own ex- 
 ample than to urge them to the life of the cross and of faith ; 
 to effect which, he sets before their eyes that glorious death 
 which is the fruit of such a life. 
 
 For thou, O Lord, hast singularly established mc in hope. 
 
 This is taken from Deut. 33 -.28, and is frequently repeated 
 throughout the scriptures. Let us therefore come to the foun- 
 tain-head of it. Moses saith, Deut. 33 :i2, "The beloved of the 
 Lord shall dwell in safety." And in verse 28, "Israel shall 
 dwell in safety and alone." And Jer. 32 :37, "I will cause them 
 to dwell safely." It is consequently plain that Moses said 
 safely and alone, "eoniid enter et solus" where David uses here 
 singularly in hope, "singulariter in spe," in that the same words 
 are used in both places and in the same sense. Since therefore 
 the translator of the Vulgate added the conjunction "and" in 
 Deut. 33 :28, which is not in the text, so it ought to have been 
 inserted in this verse also, "singularly and in hope." For it 
 occurs frequently in the Bible that the conjunction is omitted, 
 which must be supplied by the translator, as Josh. 10:13, sun, 
 
PSALM IV, 193 
 
 moon stood still" instead of sun and moon. So also here : 
 safely and singularly, or safely and alone, that is in a special 
 and secure state, as if David wished to say : Verily that thou 
 hast fulfilled in me, since thou hast caused me to dwell singu- 
 larly and safely, which thou didst promise in Moses, where thou 
 saidst, "Israel shall dwell in safety and alone." 
 
 David, therefore, concludes his psalm with this general and 
 authentic truth of Moses : and thereby excellently shows, in 
 oppsition to the carnal opinion of the Jews, what Moses really 
 meant by those words, and also applies them to his own pur- 
 pose. For as Moses said, Israel should dwell in safety and 
 alone; and as Israel is most beautifully set forth in this Psalm, 
 for he is represented as seeing, like Jacob, God face to face, 
 and as having the light of his countenance, that is, believing 
 in God ; therefore, David rightly saith that the promise and 
 all the full salvation given to Israel belong to him, and that he 
 is made to "dwell in safety and alone." Jacob also declares that 
 he had the same confidence when he says, "My life is preserv- 
 ed" or saved, Gen. 32 :t,o. What else was this, but his dwel- 
 ling in safety in a singular manner, being satisfied concerning 
 the salvation of his soul ? For his soul was safe, but only in 
 hope and confidence. Tliis security and all-certain hope of sal- 
 vation, therefore, is that very spiritual safety, and spiritual 
 dwelling alone ; that is, a dwelling in God himself, which is 
 the salvation of the soul. 
 
 The prophet therefore fears not death, but says with con- 
 fidence that he shall sleep in peace with his fathers ; because 
 he is satisfied and fully assured of his salvation. Here we trace 
 David's reading and meditation in the writings of Moses, in 
 which he exercised himself, and from which he drew this spir- 
 itual understanding, having been taught it, and established in 
 it, by various temptations. 
 
 But what is this 'dwelling alone," or 'being established 
 singularly?' for to dwell in hope, or confidently, seems to be 
 plainly understood. According to my bold way of thinking, 
 
194 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 it seems to be the same as dwelling at liberty and in security ; 
 so that solitude is a state of liberty, according to Ps. 88 4-5, "I 
 am as a man that hath no help, cast off among the dead, like 
 the slain that lie in the grave ;" that is, alone and secure. More 
 to the point is Judges 18 :/. 'The five men saw the people that 
 were therein, how they dwelt in security, no one putting them to 
 shame, being of great wealth and far from the Sidonians, and 
 having no dealings with any man.' Here it is manifest that 
 their solitude was their security, for they had shunned and 
 separated themselves from all men to the end that they might 
 live in security. In this state they could not have lived, if they 
 had mingled among men. So now they who wish to live se- 
 curely and quietly, seek a sequestered and solitary place ; from 
 which desire it is that monks, that is, solitary ones, have their 
 rise ; who in order to dwell in security and to avoid those dan- 
 gers of the world that are among men, seek places of solitude. 
 
 Therefore 'singularly' and 'securely' mean the same thing; 
 except hat 'singularly' expresses the peculiar nature of security, 
 that is, a being removed to a solitary place out of the way of 
 danger. But if all these things be not done in the spirit, they 
 will only make men monks and hypocrites, who only avoid 
 external dangers. 
 
 David however is here speaking of spiritual security, which 
 is so great that a man may be safe in the midst of the perils of 
 the world, of death, and of hell, and yet be filled with no more 
 fear than if he were dwelling alone ; and indeed such an one is 
 roore alone in the greater number of perils and evils in which 
 he is involved. This is the powerful grace of faith, and the 
 effect of a good conscience toward God. 
 
 Now see whether Jerome did not truly feel this security in 
 the verse before us, when he translates it, "Because thou, O 
 Lord, hast made me in an especial manner to dwell in safety." 
 
 But to sum up the whole, 'to dwell singularly in hope," is 
 for a man to be satisfied and confidently secure concerning his 
 salvation in and by the mercy of God. In the enjoyment of 
 
PSALM IV. 195 
 
 which experience, he may wait for death as that which will be 
 to him a most grateful sleep. These things, I say, faith pro- 
 duces, exercised and tried by sufferings, these are the "peace- 
 able fruits," as Paul saith to the Hebrews, which it yields. 
 
 Wherefore those doctors of theology, as they are called, are 
 to be utterly detested and condemned, who teach us to remain 
 in doubt and uncertainty as to whether we are in the grace and 
 favor of God or not ; and also, whether God be our God, and 
 we his people. To establish this their doctrine, they invent 
 their distinctions and force them upon us; saying that the 
 sacraments and ordinances do work in us a certain effect of 
 grace, as to the authority and power of God ; but that, with 
 respect to the person receiving, they work doubt ; and they say 
 that this doubting is a godly feeling. O pestilent fellows ! For 
 if this be true, and if every Christian ought to doubt in this 
 godly manner, as they call it, then that article of the Creed,, 
 T believe in the Holy Church, and in the communion of saints,' 
 falls to the ground ; because, according to them, I ought not 
 to assert that 1 am a saint, nor art thou to make sucli an as- 
 sertion, nor any other Christian ; and therefore we are all to 
 remain in doubt whether we have a God for us or not, and 
 whether or not the whole Church will perish. 
 
 But away with all such most absurd and most impious 
 heresies ! Let every one take heed that he be not by any means 
 in doubt whether or not God be for him, that is, whether or 
 not he has God for his Father, his Saviour, and the giver of all 
 good things, that he may dwell securely alone and in hope, and 
 that he may not be in a continual state of fluctuating uncer- 
 tainty "like the troubled sea ;" which Isaiah saith is the state 
 of the wicked, 57 :20. For if thou believest concerning the 
 saints, that they are safely secure and confident, why shouldest 
 thou not believe the same concerning thyself, if thou desirest to 
 be like them, and if thou hast received the same baptism, the 
 same faith, the same Christ, and the same all things? 
 
 Nay, thou pestilent teacher, thou most impiously believest 
 
196 "LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 one thing concerning the saints, and another thing concerning 
 thyself, if thou impiously teachest them to doubt as thou thyself 
 doubtest. For thou art either wicked in teaching that doubt- 
 ing is a godly feeling, or else thou art wicked in believing that 
 to be sure and certain which thou commandest us to doubt, for 
 faith cannot rest upon that which is knowai to be uncertain. 
 Indeed, I never could have believed, that these impious fables 
 and these most pestilent opinions had ever crept into the Church 
 of Christ, even secretly, had I not both read and heard those, 
 who were considered to be great theologians , assert these 
 things as being most sure articles of faith, and establish and de- 
 fend them, and consider the contrary catholic doctrine to be 
 heretical. So great are the darkness and blindness of the 
 heads of the church, and so great is the wrath of God upon 
 us ! But more of this elsewhere, and addressed to others. 
 
P S A L M V. 
 TO victory: for the inheritances: a psalm of david. 
 
 What is meant by 'to victory' has been set forth in the pre- 
 ceding Psahn, once for all. 
 
 Concerning these "inheritances," I read a great deal, but I 
 read nothing that satisfies my dull comprehension. As to what 
 Lyra and his followers understand here, I can neither under- 
 stand nor receive. I will say what I think upon the subject. 
 
 It is certain that this Psalm does not treat of sufferings and 
 tribulations, for the person that harps does not say one word 
 about them. The whole Psalm is a complaint concerning the 
 ungodly, the unjust, and the wicked. The scope of the Psalm 
 therefore, according to my judgment is this; — the prophet is 
 praying against hypocrites, deceitful workers, and false pro- 
 phets, who seduce and deceive the people of God and the heri- 
 tage of Christ, by their human traditions, whom Christ calls, 
 Matt. 7:15, John 10:12, "ravening wolves," and the apostle 
 Titus I :io, "vain talkers and deceivers." 
 
 And that we may come to our own times, as in the preced- 
 ing Psalm David inveighed against a mere profession and 
 abuse of justice; so in this Psalm he attacks the godless teach- 
 ing and the misuse of theology. Because that is the most 
 destructive of all persecutions which rages under the cover of 
 truth and godliness, for such always professes the name of 
 God; and because it is that which most of all destroys the 
 heritages of God ; therefore it is, that the Psalmist is under 
 such powerful emotions, prays with so many different petitions, 
 accuses the ungodly with so many names, and so burns with 
 zeal, that he can say of himself what he said in Psalm 69:9, 
 "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." 
 
198 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Neither Christ himself, nor Peter, nor Paul, burned with 
 zeal, nor showed their indignation against any thing so much 
 as against these heady soul-deceivers and these reward-seekers, 
 against whom all the prophets set themselves. We shall there- 
 fore find that this Psalm is directed against all false prophets, 
 hypocrites, heretics, superstitious persons, and the whole gene- 
 ration of those who devour the people of God by an adultera- 
 tion of his Word and by a false show of works. 
 
 Rightly therefore is the title 'for the inheritances,' or, 'to 
 the inheritances,' given to this Psalm; because its design is to 
 preserve the people of God in safety for their rightful Lord. 
 For the people of God are the Lord's heritage, Ps. 33:12. 
 "Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, the people whom 
 he hath shosen for his own inheritance ;" and Ps. 47 4, "He 
 chooseth our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom he 
 loved." This is the same we have in Psalm 2 :8, "I will give 
 thee the heathen for thine inheritance." The same is found in 
 many other places. 
 
 But is is said 'inheritances' in the plural number, whereas, 
 the inheritance of Christ is but one. This is because it must 
 of necessity be that the one inheritance of Christ must be di- 
 vided into many parts and places, on account of the great mul- 
 titude which no one pastor could rule and teach. Therefore 
 as there must be many pastors and stewards in the one inheri- 
 tance of God, so there must be many inheritances which are 
 intrusted to them; whence it comes to pass, that many de- 
 ceivers and scatterers of the same will rise up in different 
 places. 
 
 The tender concern of the Psalmist is shown by his calling 
 the people of God an inheritance rather than a church, a people, 
 or an assembly; because he thereby excites greater envy in 
 those who aim to scatter it and produces a more gracious feel- 
 ing in himself and other pastors like him. For if an inheritance 
 is that which every one loves and is most zealously anxious 
 about, how much more so must it be with God. Hence he 
 
PSALM V. ^99 
 
 Hence 
 
 saith Ex 19:5, "Ye shall be mine own possession." Hence 
 at David saith in this Psah. v. 10 'for they have rebelled 
 
 '''"the metaphor contained in the title 'for the inheri- 
 tances ' at once shows the scope of the whole Psalm. For 
 inheritances must be cultivated, tilled, and worked, m order 
 hat they may be fruitful and improved. For that reascn. 
 they will have many snares and hindrances thrown m their 
 way, and will meet with many enemies and destroyers. There- 
 fore the people of God will need their laborers, thar teachers, 
 and their rulers, by the industry of ^hom the -bentance is 
 cultivated for God and wrought upon and prepared by h.s 
 Word; while it is also, on the other hand land waste and 
 destroyed by wicked teachers. Hence this Psalm is entitled, 
 'for the inheritances' and their cultivators. 
 
 We may add this Psalm is not only to be understood of the 
 church of Christ in general, but also of every part of the people 
 of God in every age, all of whom ever have the.r seducers 
 and persecutors, so that the Psalm in general, agreeably to its 
 title is 'for the inheritances.' 
 
 kor should I make any objection, nay I would rather 
 coincide with him, if any one should wish by 'inheritances to 
 understand the two opposite classes of men; that is those 
 who depend upon their own strength and those who depend 
 upon the grace of God, for this all comes to the point before 
 
 mentioned. . , ,. 
 
 V. I. Gwe ear to my zvords, Jehovah, consider my medi 
 
 tation (cry). 
 
 V. 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry {prayei), m) 
 King, and my God; for unto thee do I pray. . . . • • • • • • • 
 
 This is the way in which the Hebrew divides these two 
 verses though our common translation joins the last clause of 
 the second verse to the beginning of the third, making it begin 
 thus "For unto thee, O Lord," etc. The rendering by Je- 
 rome differs very little from this our received translation, ex- 
 
20O LUTHEE ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 cept that for "my cry" he has 'my roaring,' and Lyra has 'my 
 meditation,' and for "the voice of my prayer" he has 'the voice 
 of my cry,' 
 
 Here also I must venture my opinion concerning the mean- 
 ing of the Psahn. As I said above, this Psalm especially 
 strikes at self-justifiers and wicked teachers, the aim of all is 
 one and the same, to feed their own pride. For the blessed 
 Virgin describes such when she says, "He hath scattered the 
 proud in the imagination of their hearts," Luke 1:51. Be- 
 cause all wicked doctrines derive their origin from pride, and 
 therefore Augustine in many places calls pride the mother of 
 all heresies, for it is humility alone that teaches rightly. 
 Hence Prov. 1 1 :2, "When pride cometh, then cometh shame ; 
 but with the lowly is wisdom." The proud man must be con- 
 tumelious and contentious; he must judge and condemn all 
 others, as we see it evidenced by the Pharisee in the Gospel 
 in his conduct towards that poor humbled sinner, the publican, 
 Lukt 18; and also those in the house of Simon the leper, in 
 thei conduct towards the woman who was a sinner, Luke 
 18:11; 7:39. 
 
 TJie prophet therefore is intent upon inveighing against the 
 hypocrites of his time, who, being puffed up in a wonderful 
 manner with their own righteousness and works, thought 
 nothing at all of the enormous sins of envy, pride, avarice, and 
 the like, nor believed that they had any need of the grace of 
 God, walking securely in their own way without any fear of 
 God ; and this is what all proud men of this kind always do, 
 always have done, and always will do. 
 
 David begins the Psalm humbly with prayer, seeking tiic 
 grace of God, and thereby he plainly and powerfully, at the 
 very outset, condemns their pride. For it is as if he had 
 said, these ungodly characters are full, are holy are righteous, 
 are whole ; and therefore they want no physician, nor do they 
 seek, O Lord, thy grace to be justified thereby. But I, a poor 
 needy creature, full of every sin and brought to despair of 
 
PSALM V. 201 
 
 myself and all my works and powers, can do nothing but pray 
 unto thee and implore thy grace and mercy. 
 
 Here is given a beautifully marked difference between the 
 law and faith, or between the letter and the Spirit. This Au- 
 gustine in his work upon the difference between the letter and 
 the Spirit, sets forth thus : 'The law of works saith to the .n.. i, 
 do what I command ; but the law of faith saith unto God, give 
 what thou commandest.' Again, saith he, 'what the law of 
 works commands with threatening, that the law of faith (ob- 
 tains by believing.' Hence the people of the law "tlicoloi^i 
 justitiarii" , say, I have done so and so, and they boast in pride 
 as if they were justified by the works of the law; but the 
 people of faith say, I pray that I may be enabled to do it. 
 The former trusting in works do not seek the mercy of God : 
 the latter accounting all their righteousness as dung, Phil. 3 :8, 
 breathe after the mercy of God only. Hence the apostle saith 
 of the former, Rom. 10 13, "For being ignorant of God's 
 righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did 
 not subject themselves unto the righteousness of God." There- 
 fore the letter always puffeth up and killeth ; but the Spirit 
 humbleth and giveth life. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth 
 grace to the humble," James 4 :6, i Pet. 5 15. 
 
 Again he that prays in this threefold petition, must pray 
 with a deeply moved soul. He assigns no other reason for his 
 praying thus, than his confidence that he should both pray and 
 be heard; "O, Jehovah, in the morning shalt thou hear my 
 voice," verse 3. Why, David, wilt thou pray in the morn- 
 ing? and why shalt thou be heard? "For thou art not a God 
 that hath pleasure in wickedness," v. 4. And what is the 
 meaning of this? Why, that God loveth humble supplicators 
 for his mercy, but hateth the proud that presume upon their 
 own righteousness. 
 
 Behold, saith he, for this reason will I pray, because I 
 know that this pleases thee, that thou desirest this, and that 
 thou hast commanded this, that man should acknowledge him- 
 
202 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 self a sinner and that his whole life should be nothing else 
 than a state of praying for, desiring, groaning after, and 
 sighing after thy mercy; even as Luke i8:i, records the pre- 
 cept, "That they ought always to pray and not to faint." Ps. 
 105 4 says, "Seek his face evermore." But this, saith David, 
 these ungodly presumers never do; or perhaps they may oc- 
 casionally do it for a moment, or rather may pretend to do it, 
 though they are all the while in reality full and satisfied ; and 
 therefore thou, O Lord, hatest them, seeing that they neither 
 acknowledge their own things nor thine. 
 
 Now observe the order and force of the v/ords, "my cry," 
 "the voice of my prayer," "give ear," "consider," "hearken." 
 These expressions all evince the urgency and energy of David's 
 feelings and petitions. First we have, "Give ear;" that is, 
 hear me. But it is of little service for the words to be heard 
 unless the 'cry,' or the roaring, or the meditation, be 'con- 
 sidered.' As if he had said in a common way of expression, 
 I speak with deep anxiety and concern but with a failing utter- 
 ance ; and I cannot express myself, nor make myself under- 
 stood as I wish. Do thou therefore understand from my feel- 
 ings more than I am able to express in words. Therefore I 
 add my "cry," that what I cannot express in words for thee 
 to hear I may by my cry signify to thine understanding. 
 When thou hast understood me, then, O Lord, "Hearken unto 
 the voice of my prayer" and despise not what thou hast thus 
 heard and understood. 
 
 We are not however to imagine that hearing, understand- 
 ing, and hearkening, are all different acts in God, in the same 
 way as they are in us ; but that our feelings towards God are to 
 be thus varied and increased, that is, that we are first to desire 
 to be heard, then, that our prayers which are heard may be 
 understood, and then that, being understood, they may be 
 hearkened unto, that is, not disregarded. 
 
 The exordium of this prayer of David consists of these 
 three parts, whereby he desires that God would be favorably 
 
PSALM V. 203 
 
 inclined toward him, would fully understand him, and would 
 regard his petitions, because his requests are worthy of God's 
 attention, easy for him to grant, and to his honor to accom- 
 plish, and also most necessary for himself. 
 
 "My King and my God," continues he. Herein he plainly 
 strikes at the ungodly work-righteous persons, who act with- 
 out any king and without any God, being sufficient of them- 
 selves. This is one of the passages in which the scope of this 
 Psalm is touched upon. For to have a King and a God is 
 for a man to presume nothing in himself but to yield himself 
 up to be governed and ruled by God,' to become altogether 
 tractable, and to ascribe unto God every thing that has been 
 received, or that shall be received. This is what those self- 
 righteous ones never do, or at least they only do it feignedly, 
 because they ascribe not a little to themselves. Nay, in fact, 
 as they do not ascribe all things unto God, they ascribe noth- 
 ing, for he that ascribes any thing unto himself, ascribes unto 
 himself all the glory of it also ; and they who ascribe the glory 
 unto themselves ascribe all unto themselves and nothing unto 
 God, because he must have all the glory, or he can have none, 
 for he never divides his glory, nor has any partner therein, 
 as he saith. Is. 48:11, "My glory I will not give to another." 
 Such men therefore do certainly reign, but not by God; they 
 are their own kings and their own idols. 
 
 "For unto thee do I pray." Here he confesses his poverty 
 and has nothing, except the hope that as he prays he shall 
 receive, as not being a worker but one who prays. 
 
 Here again in these two particulars we have the whole sum 
 of our Christian life set forth : I mean, in our having a King 
 and a God. God rules us as King when he takes us away from 
 ourselves and leads us unto himself. He acts as our God, when 
 he receives us as we are coming unto him and fills us with 
 himself, that is, with all good. The former state is the cross, 
 the manifestation, the transition, or our being led out of the 
 world and out of our sins, or, in a word, the mortification of 
 
204 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 our flesh. The latter is our being received, or our accepta- 
 tion or glorification. 
 
 Hence Augustine says upon this passage, that the scrip- 
 tures generally call the Son, rather than the Father, King. 
 For Christ, by his twofold nature, has accomplished both the 
 above-mentioned things for us. By the kingdom or the rule 
 or the dominion of his humanity, or as the apostle calls it, 
 of his "flesh," which is carried on in the kingdom of faith, he 
 renders us deformed and crucifies us, making us, from having 
 been securely satisfied proud gods, miserable and wretched 
 sinners. For as, in our old Adam, we proudly ascend in self- 
 opinion, so as to imagine ourselves to be like God himself; 
 therefore he descends into our likeness, that he may bring us 
 back to the true knowledge of ourselves. All this is done by 
 his incarnation, that is, in the kingdom of faith in which the 
 cross of Christ rules, which casts down all that divinity that 
 we perversely aspired to in our imaginations and brings back 
 the true sense of our humanity and of the contemptible in- 
 firmity of our flesh which we had as perversely left behind. 
 
 But by the dominion, or in the kingdom of his divinity and 
 glory, he will make us like unto his glorious body, where we 
 shall be like him ; and then we shall be no more sinners, no 
 more weak, but shall ourselves be kings, the sons of God, and 
 as the angels that are in heaven ; then shall we say "my God" 
 in real possession, which now we say only in hope. 
 
 Hence, it is not without due propriety that he says, "my 
 King," before he says, "my God;" for so Thomas the apostle 
 also, John 20:28, saith, "My Lord and my God;" because, 
 Christ must first be apprehended as Man before he is ap- 
 prehended as God ; and the cross of his humanity must be 
 sought after and known before we can know the glory of his 
 divinity ; and when we have laid hold of Christ as Man, that will 
 soon bring with it the knowledge of him as God. 
 
 All these things are hard to be received by the flesh, for 
 that would rather have Christ to be God only than Man also, 
 
PSALM V. 205 
 
 because it is more ready to seek after the glory than the cross, 
 but to seek glory by the cross is what it abhors. Thus Moses 
 fled from before the serpent into which his rod had been 
 turned, but when he touched it and took it by the tail he be- 
 came glorious in miracles and was made a god to Pharaoh. Ex. 
 
 4:3-4; 7:1- 
 
 V. 3. O JcliovaJi, ill f/ic morning slialt ilion hear my voice; 
 in the morning zvill I order my prayer unto thee and zvill keep 
 zvatch (stand before t]iee,and zvill look up). 
 
 I must here labor a little before I enter into the sanctuary of 
 this verse and come at the full understanding of it. I know 
 two things. The one is ,that "morning" in the scriptures sig- 
 nifies mystically the time of grace; because, when Christ the 
 sun of righteousness graciously arises upon a man he illumi- 
 nates him, and does so as often as he vouchsafes those visita- 
 tions. The other thing is, that to the time of "morning," liter- 
 ally understood, are devoted, for the most part, sacred and 
 divine works, such as praying and teaching; whereby also the 
 mystical morning is figuratively represented. 
 
 Hence it is 'that the Lord looked upon the hosts of the 
 Egyptians in the morning watch and destroyed them.' Ex 14 :24. 
 Hence also it is written, Ps. 46:5, "The Lord shall help her, 
 and that right early." And Ps. 63 7, "I will meditate on thee 
 in the night watches." But concerning wncked and ungodly 
 teachers he saith, Ps. 127:2, "It is vain for you to rise up early 
 to eat the bread of toil." 
 
 And the prophet Micah, 2:1, says still more clearly on this 
 point, "Woe to them that devise unprofitableness, in the He- 
 brew AVEN, that is 'iniquity,' and work evil upon their beds ! 
 V\'hen the morning is light they practice it, because it is in the 
 power of their hand." This they did, when, as the prophet 
 Isaiah says, 10:1, they taught the people false laws and false 
 interpretations of the laws which they themselves invented, 
 whereby they devoured the people both body and soul ; whence 
 their throat is rightly called "an open sepulchre," Ps. 5 :io. 
 
206 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Agreeably to this it is said in the same place, Micah 2 :2, im- 
 mediately afterwards, "And they covet fields, and seize them ; 
 and houses and take them away : and they oppress a man and 
 his house, even a man and his heritage." God saith by Amos, 
 4:4, "And bring your sacrifices every morning." From all 
 this it is manifest that of old the morning was the time de- 
 voted to sacrifices and self-justifications, to teaching and read- 
 ing, in a word, to divine things, according to the custom which 
 is still preserved in the church at this day. 
 
 Setting aside therefore the mystical meaning of the word 
 "morning," I shall interpret it according to the temporal sense 
 as well as I can, not knowing whether I shall be positively 
 right. The morning as we have said is always devoted to them 
 rightly. The prophet therefore seenTs to me to separate him- 
 self, together with all the inheritances of God, if not in place 
 and time, yet certainly in affection and desire, both from all 
 ungodly teachers and hearers and also from all ungodly work- 
 ers. For he attacks both in the present passage, and thereby 
 shows that though there must be a meeting together with them 
 in the same place and at the same morning time, for divine 
 purposes, and to hear the law of God. 
 
 But they corrupt the law of God by their traditions, or at 
 least do not rightly teach it, and impiously live and act under 
 the appearance of what is holy and good, and yet at the same 
 time teach their own fables, that they may thereby grow fat, 
 which they are continually accused of doing by all the pro- 
 phets, and which we hear and see done everywhere throughout 
 our churches, by those who will say anything in the church 
 and that he may be favored to hear God himself; not the word 
 shows that while they act and proceed thus his prayers and 
 desires shall be that he may be accounted worthy of being heard 
 of man only, but the Word of God. 
 
 For all the other characters do as it is said of them. Is. 
 30:9-11, "For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children 
 and in their sermons for a little of the most filthy lucre. David 
 
PSALM V. 207 
 
 that will not hear the law of Jehovah ; which say to the seers, 
 see not ; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things ; 
 speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, get you out of 
 the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of 
 Israel to cease from before us." And these characters Paul also 
 describes in his Epistle to Timothy, saying, "And they will 
 turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside unto 
 fables," 2 Tim. 4 •.4. 
 
 The sense of the verse therefore is, woe is me that I must 
 dwell among a people who will not hear the truth and who 
 abhor the Word of the cross, but will heap to themselves 
 teachers having itching ears. As Is, 6 :5 saith, "I dwell in the 
 midst of a people of unclean lips," on account of their impious 
 doctrines. I assemble with them in the morning to hear thee, 
 but behold, I hear not thee, but men only. They teach their 
 own ways and the works of men. Therefore do thou, O my 
 King and my God, hear me in the mornings ; because at those 
 times I do not stand before them, but before thee, nor do I 
 direct my thoughts towards them, but the mouth of my heart is 
 opened unto thee ; it is before thee I stand, it is unto thee that 
 I offer myself, that thou wouldst instruct me that I may see 
 and understand, according to that Word, "And they shall all 
 be taught of God," John 6:45. 
 
 Hence you see that all the burning zeal of this prophet was 
 roused by his seeing the people of God and the inheritances of 
 Christ seduced and destroyed by those that taught what was 
 corrupt. Indeed all places are full of false teachers and vainly- 
 prating deceivers of souls ; which, as it is the most destructive 
 of all evils, so it the most heavily afflicts the godly mind. 
 
 For what sight can be more distressing, what spectacle more 
 miserable, than to see a wolf go through a flock of innocent 
 sheep, so tearing and devouring them as not to leave one of 
 them alive! It is thus that a wicked and impious teacher 
 rages among the simple sheep of Christ; for it is of this that 
 Paul warns with tears, Acts 20:29, saying, "For I know that 
 
208 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, 
 not sparing the flock." 
 
 In thus setting forth the sense of this verse and the feelings 
 of the prophet we almost repeat our exposition of the two verses 
 preceding; for we ought rightly to understand here that these 
 are the motions of an overflowing heart, under which the pro- 
 phet grieves at the multitude of these teachers, of whom we 
 shall hear him speak miore fully presently, when he beholds 
 their iniquity, and under which he calls upon his King and his 
 God with such repeated petitions against these tyrants of the 
 law and against these idols that take the teacher's chair. This 
 sense of the passage more aptly agrees with the scope of the 
 Psalm than that mystical interpretation of the word "morning," 
 though the latter does not differ widely from the same point. 
 
 This third verse also aptly accords with the former inter- 
 pretation, because he desires to be taught the Word and work 
 of God, and not those of men ; and it rightly agrees with the 
 verses preceding, "Give ear unto my words, O Jehovah ; con- 
 sider my meditation ; hearken unto the voice of my cry, my 
 King and my God, for unto thee do I pray." And for what 
 dost thou pray, David ? For that which is a gift above all 
 things necessary, that thou wouldst restrain these wicked teach- 
 ers, who occupy the morning time and the place in teaching 
 ungodly doctrines and that thou wouldst hear me in that for 
 which I pray unto thee at that time. For what dost thou pray 
 at that time? That I may stand before thcc and be thy hearer, 
 that I may be instructed by thine own teaching and be enlight- 
 ened by thine own illumination, and that I may not be deceived 
 together with those who have itching ears ; for thou art my 
 King who rules me and my God who preserves me. Thus the 
 prayer is directed absolutely against all corrupt doctrines and 
 works. 
 
 He says, *My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord ; 
 in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee. In that which 
 1 pray, do thou hearken unto me. I pray for all the true teach- 
 
PSALM V. 209 
 
 ers and hearers of the Word which are accustomed to be held 
 forth at that time.' There is not a more vehement prayer in 
 all the Psalms than this one, nor one that contains so many 
 earnest repetitions; and there is not one more necessary and 
 wholesome for all of us at this day, nor ever has been, nor ever 
 will be. 
 
 Let therefore the godly Christian's first and great concern 
 be to pray unto God most earnestly, according to the example 
 given in this Psalm, for all the inheritances of God, that his 
 Word may flourish among his people ; for it is by the Word 
 only that the people of God live, are fed and are preserved, as 
 Christ saith. Matt. 4 4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, 
 but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 
 For while the Word of God flourishes all things flourish and 
 go well in the church. What is the reason that at this day the 
 church has not only withered av/ay into luxury and pomp, but 
 is almost wholly destroyed ? What, but because the Word of 
 God is disregarded and the laws of men and the artful inven- 
 tions of Rome are taught? 
 
 Jerome translates the words according to their native energy 
 thus, "O Lord, in the morning shalt tliou hear my voice : in the 
 morning v/ill I be prepared for thee, and will meditate." And 
 does not this word "prepared" aptly agree with the sense 
 above mentioned ? For what else is it to be prepared for God, 
 than to become teachable and tractable in the hand of God? 
 David here shows that he does not want to be prepared by man. 
 Nor does it militate against this sense, that John Rcuchlin, 
 according to the opinion of the Jews, renders it, 'hi the morn- 
 ing will I order,' so as to make it the active verb which the 
 scripture uses when speaking of arranging and ordering sa- 
 crifices ; that thus it may signify a ready and prepared state 
 of mind, a mind that casts off every thing that stands in its 
 way and is resigned and devoted to the whole will of God. 
 For that is a true sacrifice and an acceptable offering unto God, 
 when a man orders himself in this way, thus prepares him- 
 
2IO LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 self, thus stands before God, and becomes thus teachable and 
 tractable. 
 
 It is manifest that, according to the Hebrew idiom, the verb 
 'to stand' (adstarc) is a verb substantive, or an absolute verb; 
 thus "I will stand," or, 'I will order,' that is, I will make an 
 ordering or an offering, that is, of myself. Hence it is not 
 inappropriately translated "I will stand." We are here at the 
 same time taught, that in hearing the Word of God we aro 
 not to be intent upon the man that is speaking, but upon God 
 who is teaching. 
 
 In the same manner the word 'see' or 'look up' is absolute ; 
 that is, I shall be seeing, I shall be illuminated, I shall be in- 
 structed, I shall become one that can see, that is, one that can 
 see truth and righteousness ; according to Micah 7 :g, "He Vvdll 
 bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteous- 
 ness." For no one can see or know the righteousness of God, 
 but he whom God instructs ; all others are only vain talkers who 
 speak out of their own brain. 
 
 Hence it is that Christ gave the Holy Spirit to his apostles 
 and to the church that he himself niay speak in us, and not we 
 from ourselves. If therefore David had stood before men 
 he would n.ot have seen, but would have been blind, according 
 to the words of Christ, "If the blind lead the blind," but now, 
 because he stands, orders himself, and is prepared, before God, 
 he shall see and be illuminated. 
 
 But if the mystical morning rather pleases any one, which 
 is the beginning of grace, wherein the church begins to stand 
 before God and to see, I make no objection to it. Though I 
 am never much in a hurry to follow mysteries where I can have 
 the plain letter. Nor should I say any thing in opposition to 
 it, if by 'morning' and 'standing' and 'seeing' any one should 
 wish to understand man's offering up himself, not as a self- 
 righteous sacrifice so as to boast of having given something 
 unto God, but as evincing a state of mind that is waiting to 
 receive the rig-htcousness of God. 
 
PSALM V. 211 
 
 V. 4. For tJiou art not a God that liath pleasure in zvicked 
 ness: evil shall not sojourn with thee {nor shall the malignant 
 man dwell with thee). 
 
 V. 5. The arrogant {the unrighteous) shall not stand in thy 
 sight; thou hatest all workers of iniquity. 
 
 V. 6. Thou zvilt destroy them that speak lies; Jehovah 
 abhorreth the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. 
 
 He here accuses corrupt teachers and their disciples under 
 seven different appellations, so great is his zeal for the true 
 life and doctrine of godliness. Hence we must understand 
 this part of God's Word, as well as every other, in the Spirit 
 and in faith. For the characters concerning whom David is 
 here speaking, if you look at their external appearance and 
 outward show, will seem to be every thing but what he here 
 declares they are, so deceptively covered are they with the 
 clothing of sheep and the name of Christ. In a word their 
 opinion is that these things which are said concerning them 
 belong altogether vnito others, whom they look upon as their 
 adversaries. Hence they acknowledge neither the names nor 
 the works which are here set forth, for they would turn them 
 thus, 'For thou art a God that hath pleasure in equity, and 
 we shal dwell with thee, for we are kind; and shall stand in 
 thy sight, for we are righteous. Thou lovest us the workers 
 of righteousness and thou shalt preserve us, for we are speakers 
 of truth. Thou shalt highly esteem us, for we are men gentle 
 and sincere.' Such are the glories which these ungodly ones 
 foolishly imagine concerning themselves ; but all that is here 
 said contrary to this, they transfer to the truly godly, righteous, 
 and lovers of God. 
 
 This perversion of things shall remain until the end of the 
 world. Thus we read, that Jacob and Esau struggled in the 
 womb of Rebecca, Gen. 25 -.22 ; and thus also the two harlots 
 contended before King Solomon for the living son, i Kings 
 3 :i6 etc. For heretics and false preachers always arrogate to 
 themselves the title of truth, righteousness, and the church, and 
 
212 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 they excel all men in external pomp and show, though they are 
 excelled by the just in the sight of God ; and in reality the truly 
 catholic and righteous alone are they who excel all, though 
 without any pomp and show, because they are righteous before 
 God. 
 
 Let us then dwell a little upon these seven terms, "wicked- 
 ness," malignant," "unrighteous," "workers of iniquity," "them 
 that speak lies," "bloody man,,' "deceitful man ;" under which 
 terms David sets forth six evils and sorts of characters : — a 
 God that has no pleasure, those that shall not dv/ell with God, 
 those that shall not stand in his sight, those that shall be hated, 
 those that shall be destroyed, and those that shall be abhorred. 
 
 First then we have "wickedness," which had been better 
 rendered ungodliness. For, as we have shov.ai in Psalm i, 
 RASCHA signifies ungodliness, that ungodliness whence proceeds 
 the "counsel of the ungodly." This ungodliness, as I have be- 
 fore observed, is unbelief itself and a perverse opinion concern- 
 ing God and his Word and works, though, as to its outward 
 appearance, it carries a show of godliness. Our God therefore 
 as he is just and righteous, has no pleasure in ungodliness, 
 that is he does not desire it, he cannot delight himself in it. 
 For the Hebrew word in this place is haphez, whence comes 
 HEPHZO, which is used in Psalm i :2, "his will is the law of 
 the Lord," or his 'desire,' or 'his delight.' The sense of the 
 present verse is appropriately set forth in Psalm 51 :i6, "For 
 thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it tliee : thou de- 
 lightest not in burnt-offering." Why does God not desire sa- 
 crifice? Why does he not delight in burntoffering? Because 
 the sacrifice of "a broken spirit," which is tlie sacrifice of god- 
 liness, is wanting ; and therefore, godliness is wanting, and that 
 want makes the sacrifices of the wicked "an abomination unto 
 the Lord," according to Prov. 15:8. 
 
 The sense of the whole Psalm is, I will therefore pray unto 
 thee, I therefore desire of thee to hear me, I will therefore 
 stand before thee and will look up, because I know that the 
 
PSALM V. 213 
 
 desires, the prayers, and the sacrifices of the ungodly do not 
 at all please thee, as they blindly presume and as they seduce 
 others to presume; for while they hide ungodliness under all 
 their works and sacrifices, they never acknowledge it nor are 
 humbled on account of it, but rest content as if all were going 
 on well because they had performed those works. 
 
 In this same way also Is, i :ii, exposes and condemns these 
 characters, saying, "What unto me is the multitude of your 
 sacrifices?" Again he saith just afterwards, verse 16, "Wash 
 you, make you clean." As if he had said, these works them- 
 selves, while ye remain unclean and ungodly and without either 
 faith or hope in my mercy, which alone justify and take away 
 ungodliness, cannot please, however specious they may be. Ye 
 rest wholly on works and judge according to external appear- 
 ance, and thus ye seem to yourselves to be godly and holy. 
 But I look at your heart and judge according to truth, and 
 thus I find you to be ungodly. As Christ said unto the Phari- 
 sees, "Ye are they that justify yourselves in the sight of men; 
 but God knoweth your hearts." Luke 16:15. 
 
 This is what is meant by the present verse, Thou art not 
 a God that hath pleasure in ungodliness. Thou art not de- 
 ceived by the outward appearance of works, so as not to dis- 
 cern the ungodliness of the heart. Such men are rather de- 
 ceived themselves, who, being led away by an external show of 
 works, never acknowledge their ungodliness, and who, while 
 they imagine that they please thee the most of all men, are of 
 all men the farthest from pleasing thee. 
 
 Secondly : We have, "Neither shall the malignant man dwell 
 with thee." In the Hebrew it is ra, that is, a bad man, or bad- 
 ness ; so that it may either signify an ungodly man, or ungod- 
 liness, because where ungodliness, infidelity, and unbelief reign, 
 there also malice or malignity reigns. For what can the man 
 do, who is destitute of the good grace of God, but sin? By 
 malignity in this passage we are to understand the very root 
 and the old leaven of malice and wickedness, whereby, being 
 
214 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 destitute of grace, we are prone to rush into every sin, when- 
 ever occasion is given us for so doing. As Christ saith to his 
 disciples, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
 unto your children," Matt. 7:11. 
 
 This malice however plausibly conceals itself under the cov- 
 ering of works that are holy and pious in appearance, until 
 some opportunity or occasion presents itself to irritate it and to 
 force it to display itself in its true colors. You may see many 
 who are gentle, humble, and kind in their words, actions, and 
 deportment, who, if you but touch them with your finger, be- 
 come in a moment most cruel, most austere, and ready to com- 
 mit every evil. Yet these characters in the present day go by 
 the honorable name of men of acute feelings, because on ac- 
 count of their external show of a good conversation they must 
 not be called "malignant;" though they all the while perish 
 themselves in security, and destroy all others who, after their 
 example, neglect to mortify this malignity. For all these pas- 
 sions and acute feelings are a proof of the root of malignity, 
 showing that godliness, or faith in God, is there wanting and 
 that ungodliness is in full dominion. Such therefore shall not 
 dwell with God nor tarry in his sight. 
 
 Thirdly : We have "unrighteous," whom the Hebrew calls 
 HOLOELiM, which signifies properly those who break forth into 
 the outward act, transgress, and commit evil both in deed and 
 word. Ungodliness, indeed, and malignity frequently lie hid- 
 den, except in those to whom the spirituality of the law has 
 been opened, for the latter confess themselves to be sinners 
 with the Apostle Paul, Rom. 7 -.g, and these make the 'tree evil.' 
 But these holoelim are they who bring forth the 'evil fruits' 
 by following the malignity of their ungodly hearts, concerning 
 whom Solomon saith, Ecc. 10:13, "The beginning of the words 
 of his mouth is foolishness ; and the end of his talk is holeloth 
 ra;" which translators have rendered 'the worst of errors,' mis- 
 chievous madness. 
 
 We still see therefore a beautiful order kept up in the words. 
 
PSALM V. 215 
 
 First, there is ungodliness, a state in which we are left to our- 
 selves without the assistance of the grace of God. This is 
 followed, secondly, by malice, by which w^e are inclined to 
 perform outwardly that which is in us, that is, every evil. And 
 thirdly, there is unrighteousnes, the transgression itself, that 
 is, the very fruits of this ungodliness and malignity. 
 
 These, saith David, "shall not stand in thy sight," or, as the 
 Hebrew has it, 'The iioloelim shall not make to stand in the 
 sight of thy eyes.' And this verb 'shall not make to stand,' or 
 'shall not place, or establish' (statiicnt), is exactly the same as 
 that verb in Ps. 2 :2, which the translators have rendered by the 
 perfect, "The kings of the earth stood up," instead of 'shall 
 make to stand' or 'shall establish ;' that is, in the full meaning of 
 the absolute verb, 'shall make themselves to stand.' So also here 
 "shall not stand," shall not make themselves to stand before 
 God, shall not appear before him, which nevertheless they most 
 confidently belive they shall do, being deceived by their false 
 opinions and works, for they do not believe that they do evilly 
 even when they are really doing evil. 
 
 Fourthly : "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity." We read 
 this same sentence in many places in the Old Testament, and it 
 is always written with the verb paal, which, as we have shown, 
 Psalm I, signifies 'to do or to work,' and the noun aven, which 
 is variously and differently rendered, as we have before seen, 
 verse 3 of this Psalm. 
 
 Now I see that the prophets, especially Hosea 10 :5, playing 
 as it were upon the word, have called that place Beth-aven 
 instead of Bethel, where Jeroboam the first king of Israel set 
 up the golden calves to be worshipped, lest the people of Is- 
 rael should go to Jerusalem to sacrifice and should ultimately 
 revolt from him to the king of Judah, as we read, i Kings 12: 
 26-33. Hence v^diere they ought to have called it Bcth-el, that 
 is the house of God, they call it Beth-aven, which some have 
 rendered 'the house of the idol,' that is, contrarv to the house 
 
2l6 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of God, or, more properly, 'the house of iniquity or wicked- 
 ness,' or 'the house of idolatry,' 
 
 Following the prophets therefore, I would rather understand 
 by AVEN 'iniquity and idolatry,' not that idolatry only which 
 serves idols of wood and stone, but rather that idolatry which 
 Samuel, i Sam. 15 :22, sets forth unto Saul in a powerful v/ay, 
 thus, "Hath Jehovah as great delight in burnt-olTerings and 
 sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold to obey 
 is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 
 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is 
 as idolatr}^ and teraphim." Here we see that this religion of 
 Saul was a furious disobedience, a perverse superstition, and a 
 wretched aven ; for of this we find him accused openly through- 
 out the Old Testament, as being the way in which he reigned. 
 
 So in our day, no pest more awfully rages than when men 
 leave the way v/hich God has ordained and make to themselves 
 another way of worshipping him entirely of their ovvai in- 
 vention, and attempt to serve him in it. 
 
 Thus the bishops, who are the best, delegate the office of 
 the Word and the care of the people to the most unworthy 
 and the most ignorant people, and they devote themselves with 
 all their power to add to their possessions, buildings, income, 
 and the appearance of their churches, and imagine that thereby 
 they do God a service in that they are disobedient. The priests 
 also and the spiritual leaders who are the holiest, do rather 
 anything else for God than fulfill their office. For here we do 
 not say any thing about the wicked ; for the Romish court does 
 not in the least come under consideration here, for it is totally 
 corrupt. 
 
 This unhappy fall into disobedience has gained ground much 
 more widely than any one can describe. For in every condi- 
 tion of life among Christians you find that, neglecting the ob- 
 servance of God's commandments, they v/orship God according 
 to their own traditions and opinions. 
 
 This, I say, is the aven, that outside show of works under 
 
PSALM V. 217 
 
 which, as I said hefore, they cover their iniquity, iingodhnes, 
 niahgnity, and every transgression, and this sheep's-clothing 
 and pestilent hypocrisy, lays waste the Christian reHgion more 
 dreadfully than any sword, famine, or pestilence. 
 
 Behold therefore how the prophet is inflamed with zeal 
 against this inipious piety and this irreligious religion, than 
 which there is no religion that he more bitterly hates, saying, 
 "Thou hatest all them that work iniquity." "All," saith he, 
 and "thou hatest." Here lest any should imagine that they 
 please God by such an accursed superstition, he declares that 
 "all" are under the hatred of God, without excepting one. 
 
 For in fact misdirected service is mischievous in human af- 
 fairs, which is apparent since the right obedience is thereby 
 neglected. For who would sufl;er that a shepherd, to whom the 
 care of the sheep had been committed, should leave the sheep 
 and begin to serve his lord in his bedciiamber? This is forci- 
 bly taught us in Aesop's fable of the ass, that tried to imitate 
 tlie ways of the little dog and v/as stricken with a cudgel, be- 
 cause it neglected its ov/n duty and meddled with the office of 
 another. 
 
 It is just this evil that causes many to be dissatisfied with 
 their own order, station or calling ; since they look at the oftice 
 of others as if it were better, and are displeased with their own. 
 One leaves the priesthood to become a Carthusian friar, another 
 leaves this calling for that. It is this of which Job speaks, 6 :i6, 
 "They that fear the hoary frost, the snow shall fall upon them." 
 (Vulgate). They flee from the rain and fall into the water. 
 
 These few observations will suffice concerning this greatest 
 and most widely prevailing depravity, which we shall hereafter 
 always express by the term 'disobedience' or 'idolatry' that is, 
 the externally holy vv'orship of tlie ungodly. For they do not 
 openly violate the commands of God, like the publicans and 
 harlots, but under a show of great works and singular piety, as 
 was the case with Bernard. Ps. 91 :6 calls these characters 
 "the devil, or the destruction, that wasteth at noon-day." The 
 
2l8 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 apostle Paul calls them "ministers of Satan fashioning- them- 
 selves as ministers of righteousness," 2 Cor. 11 :i5, a description 
 of whom we have plainly and strikingly set before us in the 
 above mentioned character of Saul, i Sam. 15:13 etc. 
 
 Therefore aven is rightly interpreted by many, not only 
 'iniquity,' but also 'pain' and 'labor' because this disobedience 
 has indeed in it much pain and labor. Hence as the common 
 proverb goes, 'It is harder work to merit hell than to merit 
 heaven.' For the devil presses these his martyrs most terribly 
 and never gives them any relief or refreshment. As the Lord 
 said by Moses, Deut. 31 :i6-i7, that he would deliver the people 
 of Israel into the hands of their enemies and that they should 
 there serve strange gods which should give them no rest neither 
 day nor night. 
 
 So Ecc. 10:15, "The labor of fools wearieth every one of 
 them." And it is said frequently in the same book, i :i4; 2:17; 
 4 :i6, that to such "all is vanity and vexation of spirit." Where- 
 as on the contrary, although Christ chasteneth, yet "his yoke is 
 easy and his burden is light," because he relieves and refreshes 
 all who are weary and heavy laden with a joyful confidence of 
 heart, if they will but come unto him. Matt. 11. But all the 
 former characters will have to say with Wisdom 2:1, "Our life 
 is short and tedious.""^ 
 
 Whoever wishes to study this subject further should read 
 Paul, Rom. 12 :3 etc, and i Cor. 12 :ii etc., where he treats of it 
 with all diligence, that each member should perform its own 
 ofhce, so that no confusion of the members would arise, which 
 would be the case if the eyes began to do the office of feet, or 
 the feet the office of the eyes, but hold to the rule of Prov. 4 :25, 
 "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight 
 before thee." Look before thee, and take heed to thyself." 
 
 Proverbs against this perversion have arisen among the 
 
 *) St. Louis Walch gives Wisdom 5:7, "We wearied ourselves 
 in the way." 
 
PSALM V. 219 
 
 heathen, as, "let each one work at the trade he has learned," 
 and "shoemaker stick to your last," and "let each one remain in 
 his own skin." 
 
 Fifthly : "Thou wilt destroy them that speak lies." Here 
 he attacks the teachers and the doctrine of iniquity; for the 
 Hebrew verb bibber seems to me to signify that kind of speech 
 whereby something is taught or spoken or recited in public. 
 Hence, the word dabar signifies the thing done or wrought, or 
 rather, spoken or narrated. This figurative mode of speech 
 has been preserved by Luke, 2:15, "Let us now go even unto 
 Bethlehem and see this word (rema) ," 'that is, this thing which 
 is done and spoken of. And indeed, in the book of Leviticus 
 a clear distinction is made between the words dibber and amar, 
 each of which signifies 'to speak' or 'to say.' For it is con- 
 tinually written, "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying :" where 
 the first verb is dibber, that is, 'spake.' Hence it is in constant 
 use with the prophets, as "And the Word of the Lord came 
 unto me, saying." Wherefore, dibber generally signifies 'to 
 speak any thing forth publicly in the way of doctrine' which 
 doctrine is particularly specified by the verb amar. Even if 
 this distinction and difference are not universally received and 
 allowed, yet let us use them thus until we shall have found 
 something better. It is at least certain that the word which 
 is here rendered 'to speak,' in many places signifies 'to teach,' 
 as in Ps. 119:46, "I will also speak of thy testimonies." And 
 Ps. 60:6, "God hath spoken in his holiness" or 'in his saint' 
 (sane to suo). 
 
 Therefore, as the life of the ungodly is, such is their doc- 
 trine ; as they act, so they speak. Hence the whole is ungodly, 
 evil, and iniquitous, all which David includes in the term "lies." 
 These "lies" he called, Ps. i, "the counsel of the ungodly," 
 nay, "the seat of pestilence and scofifers." The madness of such 
 characters as these rages and reigns at this day also, concern- 
 ing whom Paul said, 2 Tim. 3 :y, "Ever learning, and never 
 able to come to the knowledge of the truth." They strenuously 
 
220 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 devote themselves to the teaching of good works, as they 
 imagine them to be, whereas they have never yet known what 
 good works are, because they are utterly destitute of the 
 knov\Aledge of faith. Hence it comes to pass that they most 
 miserably crucify and murder the people by their lies and im- 
 pious fables which they take from the morals of philosophers, 
 the laws of men, and their own precepts and traditions, con- 
 cerning which I have spoken before and shall say more here- 
 after. 
 
 Sixthly : Jehovah abhorreth the bloodthirsty and deceitful 
 man." Here David shows, in a very few words, what sort of 
 men the above-mentioned characters are toward their neighbors, 
 in their manners and conversation ; that is, that they love no 
 one from their heart. For as they are destitute of grace and 
 true godliness and are left in their own malice, it of necessity 
 follows that they are polluted with the love and conceited 
 opinion of themselves from the crown of their head even unto 
 the sole of their feet. They feign indeed all things. They call 
 each other and all men their dearest friends, write to them as 
 such and speak with them as such. They appear to be humane 
 and sweet tempered, and, under that covering, they plausibly 
 conceal "bloody" men ; but all this is deceit. This is manifested 
 the very moment they begin to be offended, or whenever an 
 occasion presents itself wherein they are required to give proof 
 of their benevolence; for then the deceit immediately appears 
 and the blood-thirsty anger and hatred show themselves and all 
 the consequences which follow. For they never love any one 
 unless it be for their own- advantage ; it is never that they may 
 do others good, but that they may do themselves good. 
 
 These words therefore are to be understood spiritually, not 
 as having respect unto the external appearance, but a search- 
 ing of the heart and the reins. For the words of faith are di- 
 rectly contrary to all outward appearance and have respect 
 unto the things and times of the cross. It is by such words 
 tliat those vv'ho are of the character mentioned are discovered 
 
PSALM V. 221 
 
 and are found to hate every man and to love no one truly, be- 
 cause they love themselves. 
 
 Under this disease no set of men labor more than those 
 most holy and most religious martyrs of the devil, whom we 
 have already denominated ungodly, workers of iniquity, and 
 cl'ildren of disobedience; and all under the external garment 
 and show of godliness, the power of which they above all men 
 deny. 
 
 If thou dost not believe these things, or dost not know them 
 to be true, only consult experience. The whole world is full 
 of this complaint, that there is no faithfulness to be found 
 among men, that all things wdiich are either done or spoken 
 are feigned and dissembled ; so that they will aver the truth of 
 that word of Micah 7 :5, though they may never have read it, 
 "Trust ye not in a neighbor ; put ye not confidence in a friend ; 
 keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. 
 For the son dishonoreth the father, the daughter riseth up 
 against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother- 
 in-law ; a man's enemies are the men of his own house." 
 
 Hence it was that Christ gave this admonition, "Beware of 
 men," Matt. 10:17. For if thou indulge their wishes and be 
 useful to them, thou wilt find them deceitful friends ; and if 
 thou offend them or dissent from them, especially if thou do it 
 for God's or the truth's sake, thou wilt find them most bloody 
 enemies. Therefore, David could not describe the nature of 
 man in terms more apt and short than by calling it "bloody and 
 deceitful." 
 
 So rare a thing is it to find one who does not act deceitfully 
 with his neighbor and v/ho is faithful. A man will live with 
 you pleasantly, will speak to you courteously, and smile upon 
 vou; but if you ask him to help you with ten dollars of Iiis 
 large property you make him your enemy at once. Indeed, if 
 you do not serve him in all things, even in those things v/hich 
 are unjust and wrong, you are sure to lose your friend. In a 
 word, if you do not lay yourself out for his use to gratify him 
 
222 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 in all his desires, without making use of him in the least in- 
 stance for your own service, you wil not have your friend's ac- 
 quaintance long. These things we are taught by experience ; 
 so easy is it to understand the present verse. 
 
 Yet these characters will not acknov/ledge their miserable 
 state, for they all despise these things and believe themselves 
 to be the farthest of all men on earth from blood-thirstiness and 
 deceit. First, on account of their specious works ; for, being 
 inflated and blinded with these, they cannot see themselves. 
 Next they are so in love with themselves and so kindly indulge 
 their own vices, that they ahvays have before their eyes, not 
 how many evil things, but how many good things they have 
 done. This their blindness is increased by their considering it 
 to be a heavenly holiness to hate those by whom they have been 
 injured, or rather, by whom they imagine they have been in- 
 jured; for they look upon themselves as persons qualified by 
 their eminent righteousness to hold the unrighteous in hatred. 
 
 Being subverted by this madness, they proceed to such 
 lengths, that, neglecting the beam that is in their ov/n eye and 
 beholding the mote that is in the eye of another, they desire 
 to have themselves accounted humane and faithful while they 
 judge others to be the bloody and deceitful men. Thus, with 
 a perpetual perversion and madness they place upon others that 
 divine abhorrence v/hich is declared to rest upon tliemselves. 
 Whence it comes that if they read the scriptures they do not 
 understand them, and if they hear them, they do not receive 
 them, as considering that they do not belong to them ; and thus 
 they become wholly incorrigible, of whom we read. Matt. 1 1 : 
 16-17, iinto whom, if you pipe they will not dance, and if you 
 mourn they will not lament. God's Word and work on these 
 are lost. 
 
 It is also no small mantle for their wickedness that when- 
 ever they lose some of their friends they find or have others 
 with whom they associate in the same deceitfulness. Deceived 
 by the mutual understanding with these, as is the case with de- 
 
PSALM V. 223 
 
 ceit, they have no concern as to how many they hate and de- 
 spise, but toward how many they are benevolently disposed, 
 though it may be hardly the thousand thousandth part, and it 
 occurs not to them that Christ commanded to "despise not one 
 of these little ones." Matt. 18 :io. 
 
 Behold the fruits which this trusting in their own works 
 and their own righteousness brings forth ; namely, ignorance 
 of themselves, obstinacy, and incorrigibleness, together with all 
 the evils of ungodliness, malice, disobedience, and every other 
 sin. Such monsters are they v/ho can conceal, nourish, and 
 preserve themselves under a covering so light and trifling. 
 Moreover, horrible monsters like these can appear before God 
 in the morning, sacrifice to him, and believe that they can please 
 him ; nor do they ever implore his mercy, but give him tlianks, 
 like the ungodly Pharisee, that they are not as other men. 
 Is not this horrid to see and hear ! And is not the burning 
 zeal of the prophet against such instances of madness most just ! 
 
 Now let us sum up the contents of these three verses. The 
 two former describe the four sins whereby we sin against God. 
 Two are contained in the first verse, namely, ungodliness and 
 malignity. The former is an aversion from God, that is, a 
 being destitute of a pure love and a right opinion of God. 
 The latter is a turning towards self, that is, an inclination to 
 all evil works and an enmity against all good works, as pervert- 
 ed affections and a perverted opinion. By these two sins the 
 person himself is described, that is, the bad tree, such as these 
 characters are in the sight of God. 
 
 The other two sins are contained in the second verse, 
 nemely, unrighteousness and the working of iniquity. The 
 former of which is transgression or the effect of malignity and 
 the omission of the worship of God. The latter is the external 
 appearance of the worship of God, but in reality disobedience 
 and idolatry. For in these two sins are comprehended all 
 the evil fruits and works which we bring forth and do in divine 
 things. The one is, doing things contrary to really good 
 
224 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 works and to the true worship of God, which characters are 
 the HOLOELiM, the other is doing things feignedly which are 
 good in appearance but contrary to the obedience of God, which 
 characters are "the workers of iniquity." 
 
 The third verse describes those sins which are committed 
 against man, which are three. First, "Hes," whereby men 
 seduce others by word, example, and conduct from the true 
 worship of God into their own impious idolatries, making others 
 like unto themselves in tliose things which pertain unto God. 
 Secondly, Hatred and all those things which follow it, whence 
 they are called "blood thirsty" men. And thirdly, deceit and 
 all its consequences, whereby men make use of others only 
 for their own advantage, use, and pleasuree, and wherein are 
 included all the sins of a perverted love. For there are fraud 
 and deceit in all carnal love, as is abundantly manifest. For 
 as hatred and love are the grand and ruling affections v/hich 
 direct all their actions, it is evident that the whole viperous 
 poison of a vicious life and conversation lies in these, which 
 hatred is bloody and which love is deceitful ; for a right hatred 
 opposes all that is sin and a pure love seeks those things which 
 are to the profit of others, and not to its own profit. 
 
 To conclude the whole of this scripture, they that come 
 in the "morning," saith David, do not pray, O Lord ; neither do 
 they want thee, nor do they desire to be heard. They are 
 full and satisfied, being filled with all that mass of filth, their 
 own righteousnesses. Nor do they "stand" before thee, nor 
 do they ofifer themselves unto thee, that they may be formed 
 by thee, and that they may be illuminated in order that they 
 might "see" ; but they rather form themselves against thee, and 
 agreeably to the idol of their own hearts, as Isaiah saith, 46 :5, 
 having false opinions of thee; and therefore they see not, but 
 are rather blinded and hardened. This most certainly will be 
 their case, because thou hast not, as they imagine thou hast, 
 any pleasure in iniquity, but hatest the ungodly and utterly 
 abhorrest all such. But I, says David, come unto thee, stand 
 
PSALM V. 225 
 
 before thee, and offer myself unto thee, that I may be formed 
 by thee, that I may think of thee according to thy nature, that 
 I may be illuminated and may see. They come unto thee, 
 bringing with them, as an offering unto thee, their own good 
 works, deeds, and merits, and thereby take away with them 
 the greater evils and sins ; but I come unto thee to beg of thee 
 thy good things, confessing my own evils and sins. They 
 because they are whole, need not a physician ; but I, because I 
 am weak, and under dangerous disease, seek a physician. This 
 is now shown in the verse that follows. 
 
 V. 7. — But as for nic, in flic ahi'indancc of thy loving- 
 kindness {mercy), will I come into thy house: in thy fear will 
 I zvorship tozcard tJiy holy temple. 
 
 A blessed verse this ! a blessed saying ! The words and 
 the sense itself carry with them a powerful contrast. For there 
 are two things with which this life is exercised, hope and fear, 
 which are as it were those two springs of Judges 1:15, the one 
 from above, the other from beneath. Fear comes from behold- 
 ing the threats and fearful judgments of God, as being a God 
 in whose sight no one is clean, every one is a sinner, every 
 one is under condemnation. But hope comes from beholding 
 the promises and the sweet mercies of God ; as it is written, 
 Ps. 25 :6, "Remember, O Jehovah, thy tender mercies and thy 
 lovingkindnesscs ; for they have been ever of old." 
 
 Between these two, fear and hope, as between the upper 
 and nether millstone, we must always be ground and kept that 
 we never turn either to the right hand or to the left. For 
 this turning is the state peculiar to hypocrites who are exercised 
 with the two contrary things, security and presumption. By 
 security they decline to the left hand, neglecting the fear of 
 God, as in Ps. 36:1, "There is no fear of God before their 
 eyes" ; and by presumption they decline to the right hand, while, 
 having no fear of God, they presumingly imagine all that they 
 do pleases him. For while they do not acknowledge themselves 
 sinners it must follow that they fear not God, whose judgments 
 
226 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 they never consider, as it is written, Ps. 10:5, "Thy judgments 
 are far above out of his sight." Therefore, instead of the judg- 
 ments of God, they set before themselves a certain ignorant 
 idea of God, and instead of his mercy, their own righteousness. 
 Hence it follows that they can neither hope nor fear. 
 
 This therefore is the contrast which David uses. They who 
 are without thy fear, disregarding thy terrible judgments, wor- 
 ship thee in security like the Pharisee in the Gospel, Luke 18, 
 and they enter into thy holy temple in the multitude of their 
 own righteousness, and come into thy sight without feeling any 
 need of thy mercy. 
 
 But I, being conscious that I cannot be safe in the sight 
 of thee and of thy judgments, wholly despair of myself, and so 
 enter thy temple and stand before thee, as to have thy mercy 
 only before my eyes, which mercy I know to be great and in- 
 finite; and looking at that only, I find boldness and feel safe, 
 as in Ps. 26 13, "For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes, 
 and I have walked in thy truth." Entering with this con- 
 fidence therefore I will worship in thy temple ; but in thy fear, 
 not presumtuously imagining that I shall please thee of myself, 
 for I shall rather be in fear, lest my service and worship should 
 deserve thy reproof. By remaining in this fear I shall preserve 
 unto thee thine honor and keep myself humble ; while I do 
 not justify myself, but in a humble mind expect thy judgments, 
 having nevertheless a hope in thy pardoning mercy. 
 
 You clearly see therefore that the scope of this Psalm is 
 directed to show the difference between the religion of the godly 
 and the ungodly, the humble and the presumptuous. For he 
 draws a comparison between himself and them in this m.orning 
 service, which is, entering into the house of the Lord and wor- 
 shipping toward his holy temple ; for it is there that the works 
 and doctrines of all are especially and chiefly made known. 
 
 The contrast of the words is very beautiful, but somewhat 
 changed. For he puts the "mercy" of God, which is the object 
 of hope, without expressing the word 'hope'. Again, he puts 
 
PSALM V. ^T.'J 
 
 "fear", the object of which is the judgments of God, without 
 expressing the word 'judgments'; whereas, to have made the 
 antithesis quite correct, he should have put the words mercy 
 r.nd judgment, or hope and fear. But it was necessary to ex- 
 press mercy, the object of hope, as well as the nature of hope. 
 Nay rather, the object of hope is the multitude of the mercies 
 of God; which is set before the hope of the godly, because 
 they are too much inclined to fear and approach unto God and 
 divine works with great awe and reverence. 
 
 Hence these two, hope and fear, are the two sacrifices and 
 works that are by far the most acceptable unto God, which those 
 ungodly self-justifiers neither teach nor understand, and there- 
 fore they neither do them nor are able to do them. 
 
 The whole world, as I have said, is at this day full of the 
 ungodliness of these same characters, who draw men into a 
 confidence in their own works and righteousness and do not 
 permit them to attain unto the fear of God and to a hope in his 
 mercy; and such are ever learning, but never able to come 
 unto the knowledge of the truth, and as Christ saith, Luke 1 1 : 
 52^ "Ye too, took away the key of knowledge," namely, the 
 power of teaching, and the knowledge of God, "ye entered not 
 in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." 
 
 These presumptuous persons, these most secure despisers of 
 the judgments and mercies of God, Isaiah also copiously ex- 
 poses and condemns, i :ii, saying, "What unto me is the mul- 
 titude of your sacrifices ? saith Jehovah." And verse 15, "When 
 ye make many prayers I will not hear," etc. And why? It 
 is shown in what follows, verses 15, 16, "Your hands are 
 full of blood. Wash you, make you clean." 
 
 Hence, nothing can please God but that which is done in 
 humility, and humility cannot be exercised unless we fear the 
 judgment of God in every work we do however good it may 
 always be. Humility rests alone upon the goodness of God, 
 which he gratuitously bestows by grace. Against this kind 
 of godliness the people of Israel fought above all people in the 
 
228 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 world, from a natural and inbred presumption, being puffed up 
 in a wonderful manner with their law and works. 
 
 But you ask the question, perhaps, how can David promise 
 that he will enter into the house of the Lord and into his temple, 
 when, in his time, there was no temple or house of God, and 
 when the ark of the testimony in the tabernacle of Moses was 
 instead of a temple? David says in another place also, Ps.122 : 
 2, 3, "Let us go unto the house of Jehovah. Our feet are stand- 
 ing within thy gates, O Jerusalem." And Ps. 135 :2, "Ye that 
 stand in the house of Jehovah, in the courts of the house of 
 our God." From such passages one might suspect that these 
 were not the Psalms of David, or that they were altered by 
 Ezra afterwards. 
 
 According to my opinion, any place where God is wor- 
 shipped may be rightly called the house of God. For we well 
 know that the place where Abraham offered his sacrifice was 
 called Beth-el, that is, the house of God, Gen. 22 14 ; which 
 Jeroboam, having polluted with his golden calves, afterwards 
 was called Beth-aven, i Kings 12 129 ; Hosea 4:15; 10 :5, that is, 
 the house of iniquity. Jacob,Gen. 28 119, when he had slept on 
 Mount Moriah, 'the mount of reverence', or 'of the worship of 
 God', or, as others will have it, 'the mount of vision', on which 
 the temple of Solomon was afterwards built, 2 Chron. 3:1, set 
 up a stone and said, "This stone, which I have set for a pillar, 
 shall be God's house," Gen. 28 :22. 
 
 Wherefore laying aside all mystical interpretations, I wish 
 to understand by the house of God, a fixed place, in which there 
 is an assembling together to worship God and to hear his Word. 
 Such was the place in which Cain and Abel offered their offer- 
 ings and heard the Word of God, and such were afterwards the 
 altars of all the fathers, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job ; in 
 their different places ; until we come down to the tabernacle of 
 Moses and the temple of Solomon. 
 
 For as the Word of God never utterly failed in the world, 
 so neither did the worship of God. Therefore there must have 
 
PSALM V. 229 
 
 been places in every age in which divine works were performed. 
 For when Jacob, Gen, 35:1, etc., was going to build an altar 
 unto God and commanded them to put away the strange gods 
 from among them, what did he but preach the Word of God in 
 the same manner as we do now? 
 
 Since therefore we find that hypocrisy and false doctrine 
 reign most especially in the worship of God, for it always pre- 
 tends to, and defiles, the best things, and that true godliness 
 and specious hypocrisy contended with each other in the first 
 two brothers Cain and Abel; therefore it is that the present 
 Psalm strikes at that false show of godliness in the ungodly 
 and at its doctrine, which are found in the worship of God that 
 is performed in the morning. 
 
 For what degree of sincerity can he show in his dealings 
 and works among men, which are things so inferior, who acts 
 perversely and impiously in that first and most sublime of 
 all works, the worship of God? wherein a false outside show 
 is the more injurious, the more specious it is, and the more 
 it resembles a true and really holy work. In a word, there 
 is nothing in the world more perilous than false religion, or 
 idolatry, for this is the fountain of all evil, though under the 
 name of all good. 
 
 The house or temple of God therefore is that place in every 
 age and among any holy persons where God is worshipped. 
 For God may truly be said to dwell where he is truly wor- 
 shipped, but especially, in the general assembly of his saints. 
 Wherefore, one place is not called the house and temple of God 
 more than another on account of the magnificence, cost, or size 
 of the edifice, or on account of the multitude of the people, but, 
 as I said, on account of the assembling of many to pray and 
 worship God and hear his Word, according to Ps. 102 :22, 
 'When the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, 
 to serve Jehovah.". Whence, the place is called the house of 
 God on account of the people for that is indeed the house of 
 God, and not the people on account of the house. 
 
230 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 But there is a powerful superstition now prevailing that is 
 devoted to building, consecrating, and preserving temples of 
 this sort throughout the whole world, in which there is not so 
 much concern manifested about the people being godly, the 
 worship true, and the Word of God pure, as about making the 
 temples themselves magnificent in riches, splendor and pomp, 
 superb buildings, and all such kind of worldly vanity. To set 
 forth the whole state of the case after the manner of this Psalm, 
 every thing else, with shame be it spoken, seems to be attended 
 to in these places appointed for divine worship, except entering 
 into them in the multitude of the mercies of God, and worship- 
 ping him in his fear ; and every thing is taught in them except 
 that we ought to enter into them in the fear of God and worship 
 him in truth; whereas, it was for these purposes alone that 
 they were ordained. 
 
 Hence it is no wonder that they are often riven asunder with 
 lightning as profane houses; for there are no places under 
 heaven filled with greater abuses, iniquities, and deceptions, 
 than these which are expressly dedicated only to the most pure, 
 yea, divine works and duties. For though crimes are com- 
 mitted in other houses, yet the name of God is not so polluted 
 in them, because that holy name is not there called upon. For 
 in religious houses the sin is doubly great. 
 
 V. 8. — Lead me, O Jehovah, in thy righteousness, because 
 of mine enemies; make thy zvay straight before my face {direct 
 my i^my in thy sight). 
 
 The Hebrew, according to Jerome, is, "Lead me, O Lord, 
 in thy righteousness : because of mine enemies make thy way 
 straight before my face." 
 
 I have said that from the beginning of the world there have 
 been false workers and lying teachers as is taught in 2 Pet. 2:1, 
 and therefore, the world has never been without false religion 
 and idolatry. 
 
 These characters, 2 Pet. 2:14, "are enticing unstedfast 
 souls", for there is nothing more insidious than this iniquity of 
 
PSALM V. 231 
 
 the serpent; and of this iniquity Paul had many fears when 
 writing to the Corinthians, for he says, 2 Cor. 1 1 :3, "But I 
 fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his 
 craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity 
 that is toward Christ." 
 
 The Hebrew word schorerai may indeed signify "ene- 
 mies," as our translation has rendered it, but it signifies more 
 properly 'one that plots evil with a malicious design,' that is, 
 by treachery, and that too, under the appearance of doing good. 
 These characters the apostle calls phrcnapatai, that is, deceivers 
 of minds, as being men who corrupt others by false opinions, 
 especially in those things which pertain unto God. This signi- 
 fication of the word most strikingly accords with the design 
 of this Psalm; which shows that there is no pestilence more 
 to be dreaded by sincere and godly men than the crafty machin- 
 ations of false religion and false learning; and therefore it 
 teaches us that the only way in which such machinations can 
 be guarded against is by prayer. This is the serpent thai al- 
 ways insidiously lies at our heel that it may corrupt the way 
 of true godliness. Hence the word schorerai would not be 
 rendered improperly 'seducers' or 'defilers' or 'corrupters'. 
 
 By the righteousness of God, which we shall often meet 
 hereafter, we ought always to understand according to its can- 
 onical signification, not that righteousness whereby God himself 
 is just and whereby he condemns the wicked, which is the 
 righteousness that is generally understood to be meant ; but as 
 Augustine has beautifully said in his work on the 'spirit and 
 the letter', we ought to understand it as signifying that right- 
 eousness wherewith God clothes man when he justifies him, 
 that is, that mercy itself or that justifying grace, whereby we 
 are accounted before God ; concerning which the apostle saith, 
 Rom. i:iy, 'For therein is revealed a "righteousness of God 
 from faith unto faith : as it is written, "the righteous shall 
 live by faith." Again, Rom. 3:21, "But now apart from the 
 
232 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being wit- 
 nessed by the law and the prophets." 
 
 It is called the righteousness of God, because it is by his 
 grace freely given unto us, even as that is called the work of 
 God which he works in us, that the Word of God which he 
 speaks in us, and that strength of God which he makes perfect 
 in our weakness, etc. As in Ps. 31 :i, "Deliver me in thy right- 
 eousness." And Rom. 10:3, "For being ignorant of God's 
 righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not 
 subject themselves to the righteousness of God." Hence also, 
 that passage of Ps. 24 :5, is not improperly rendered by our 
 translator, "He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and 
 mercy (in the Vulgate) from the God of his salvation," though 
 the Hebrew has it 'righteousness' instead of 'mercy', because 
 the blessing of the Lord and the righteousness of the Lord are 
 the same thing, that is, they are both that mercy and grace of 
 God which are freely given us in Christ. 
 
 This scriptural manner of speaking of the righteousness of 
 God, because it is different from the usual mode of speech 
 among men, has been made the occasion of many difficulties in 
 many places. We are not indeed to cast away the saying that 
 the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which he is 
 righteous. So that we are made righteous by the same right- 
 eousness whereby God is righteous, even as we were made to 
 exist by the same word whereby God spoke us into being, and 
 as we exist now by his existence, and as also, his being is our 
 being. But these things are of a nature too high to be pursued 
 farther upon the present occasion and are deeper than most 
 men can comprehend, and though they are useful and necessary, 
 yet we must leave them for some other opportunity. 
 
 This translation of the Hebrew by Jerome is also most cor- 
 rect, "The way straight before my face," which we have ren- 
 dered, "My way in thy sight," a sense directly the contrary. 
 But the Hebrew agrees with the preceding clause and makes 
 it a repetition, because "thy righteousness" and "thy way" are 
 
PSALM V. 233 
 
 nearly the same thing ; for the "way" of God is the "righteous 
 ness of God, in which we are to Hve and walk and not in our 
 own way and our own righteousness. This is the way of God 
 and the way of the righteous, which are spoken of in Ps, i :6, 
 "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way 
 of the ungodly shall perish." This is what John meant, when 
 he said. Matt. 3 13, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." It is 
 the way of God, when, as he saith he will. Lev. 26:12, 'He walks 
 in us'; that is, works in us, lives in. us and speaks in us; for, 
 saith Christ, "It is not ye that speak," Matt. 10 :20. 
 
 Yet our translation does not wrongly or improperly render 
 this passage, "My way in thy sight"; because when God works 
 in us we are rightly said to work ; though this working" of ours 
 is a being influenced and led by, and a being passive under the 
 hand of an operating God, as this verse implies when it says, 
 'Lead me', "Direct my way", whereby it signifies that the man 
 does not act of himself but is lead and acted on of God. 
 
 Nor do these two "before my face" and "in thy sight" mili- 
 tate against each other. For each expression is peculiar to the 
 Holy Scriptures ; and they both show that all we do should be 
 done as in the sight of God, in his presence and before his eyes, 
 these things are in the power neither of our own free will nor 
 of our own righteousness, but are a work of divine grace. And 
 thus our Latin translation shows by these words that by "my 
 way" the way of God is to be understood, which the Hebrew 
 expressed by "the way". Again by "before me" the Hebrew 
 shows that the way of God is our way, which our Latin transla- 
 tion expresses by "my way" in order that we may turn our face 
 to the way of God and direct our way before the face of God. 
 The way of God before our face is the same as our way before 
 the face of God ; both necessarily take place at the same time. 
 
 This figurative expression strikes at the ungodly and their 
 perverseness, for they turn their faces to their own way and 
 their backs unto God and so walk on. Thus, Lev. 26 :27,etc., 
 'And if ye walk contrary unto me : then I will walk contrary 
 
234 LUTHEK ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 unto you in wrath', etc. These characters consider and follow 
 their own works only and disregard the way and works of God ; 
 as it is written, Is. 2 :8, "They worship the work of their own 
 hands, that which their own fingers have made." Again, Is. 
 5:12, "But they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither have 
 they considered the operation of his hands." And all this, as we 
 have said, proceeds from their hating the way of the cross and 
 the life of faith, which compel them to lay aside all that they 
 are in themselves and all that they know, and from their en- 
 deavoring in vain to worship God according to the command- 
 ments and doctrines of men; as saith Is. 29:13, and as it is 
 repeated in Matt. 15:9. 
 
 The verb "direct" or 'make straight' is of most frequent use 
 in the scriptures ; in which is set forth the rightness, or up- 
 rightness, or right direction of the heart, as in Ps. 119 7, "I will 
 give thanks unto thee with uprightness of heart." And Ps. 
 73 :i, "Surely God is good to Israel, even to such as are pure 
 (upright) in heart." Again, Cant, i 4, "In uprightness do they 
 love thee." Hence the word uprightness is sometimes put ab- 
 solutely, as in Ps. 99 14, 'Thou executest uprightness' ; namely, 
 thou alone makest uprightness ; whatever uprightness of heart 
 there is to be found any where, the whole is thy gift. Those 
 that are made thus upright are the only persons who truly love 
 and please God. 
 
 This uprightness is a sound opinion and right knowledge 
 of God, Contrary to it, is the corruption or perversion of heart, 
 which latter, as we have frequently shown, is the state of heart 
 in the proud, "the counsel of the ungodly", and "the wisdom of 
 the flesh", and there are many other terms whereby it is set 
 forth in the scriptures. That is called an upright heart, which 
 seeks not what is its own, but what is God's, and which looks 
 with a single and unaltered eye to the will of God ; on this will 
 alone its eye is fixed in all things, both prosperous and adverse, 
 and it will look at and know nothing else. 
 
 Whereas, a corrupt and perverted heart is that which seeks 
 
PSALM V. 235 
 
 its own, has its eye only on its own advantage, and always looks 
 two ways, pretending that it seeks the will of God, whereas it 
 is all the while seeking its own profit. This depravity and per- 
 suasion lie so deeply hidden in the corruption of nature that 
 God alone can discover it, as Jer. saith,i7:9, "The heart is de- 
 ceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt : who can 
 know it ? I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart." 
 
 David therefore fearing he should be led into this depravity, 
 prays in this Psalm 'For the inheritances', that the way of the 
 Lord may be made plain before his face ; that he may persever- 
 ingly walk, and always live, in uprightness of heart, which can 
 only be where pure and full faith of heart exist. 
 
 This verse therefore is directed against the ungodly and 
 workers of iniuqity, who leaving the true obedience of God wor- 
 ship him by their own works ; for it opposes to such worship 
 the "righteousness" of God and the "way" of God, that is, the 
 obedience of God. In this "way" David desires to be led and 
 directed like a tractable sheep, on account of his enemies, the 
 deceivers, the crafty and the all-destructive corrupters of the 
 inheritances of God. All this is more especially practiced by 
 those deceivers and destroyers in that greatest of all works 
 which we call worship, than which no one work is more ex- 
 posed to ungodly abuses, superstitions, heresies, hypocrisy, and 
 vanity; for the deepest iniquity of these corruptors is their 
 clothing themselves in the outside show of the best intentions 
 and their puffing themselves up, so that caution against them 
 cannot be too earnestly inculcated. 
 
 V. 9. — For there is no faithfulness in their mouth, their 
 inward part is very wickedness ; their throat is an open sepiil 
 chre; they flatter zvith their tongue. 
 
 The clauses of the verse are divided thus in the Hebrew, 
 but we make of it two verses. Jerome translates the Hebrew, 
 'For there is no faithfulness in their mouth : their inward parts 
 are snares : their mouth is an open sepulchre : they speak 
 lightly with their tongue'. All this is quite correct, except that 
 
236 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 it is generally and more rightly considered that the Hebrew 
 word signifies 'vanities' and not "snares", but that is of no 
 moment. 
 
 It is evident however that the prophet is speaking now es- 
 pecially of the doctrine of those whom he accuses first of lying, 
 then of vanity, then of destructiveness, and of deceivableness ; 
 for they so teach this their word of doctrine, that under the 
 appearance of being good it is incurably destructive. All these 
 accusations from what has preceded, are plainly and manifestly 
 just. 
 
 These lying teachers, says David, are all ready to teach ; they 
 are all open mouthed and full of words, but as Paul saith, i 
 Tim. I 7, "They understand neither what they say, nor whereof 
 they confidently affirm" ; that is, they neither understand their 
 ovv^n words, nor that of which they speak. Therefore "there 
 is no faithfulness in their mouth" ; though they seem to teach 
 the truest and purest doctrine. In a word, "As Jannes and 
 Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth", 
 2 Tim. 3 :8 : they dare to contend with all and even to persecute 
 those whom they are convinced know better than themselves. 
 Hence we have the declaration. Job 42 :/, "For ye have not 
 spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." 
 
 The reason such persons do not speak what is right is, be- 
 cause they work iniquity and depravity ; that is, in all their doc- 
 trine they aim only to make man seek only his own, and to 
 trust in his own merits and works ; or at least, they do not take 
 this evil out of the way, nor correct it, nor bring man down to 
 nothing that he may become a fool and acknowledge himself 
 a sinner. Hence it comes to pass that, whereas God is to be 
 worshipped in fear, to be served in fear, to be rejoiced before 
 with reverence, and to have every work done before him with 
 a trusting only in the multitude of his mercy, they make men 
 secure and presumptuous dependers upon their own works. 
 
 This is what those three friends of Job did through all their 
 contention with him. They said nothing about the mercy of 
 
PSALM V. 237 
 
 God, which is what Job above all things dwells upon and extols 
 in the fear of his judgments, but disputed only about that right- 
 eousness which praises the good and condemns the bad. Hence 
 they are justly reproved of God as not having "spoken the thing 
 that is right". Because the real truth is that no one can be 
 found righteous before God on account of his works, however 
 many and great they may be. On the other hand it is certain 
 that he who trusts in God only is righteous, even without works. 
 While he abides in that trust and confidence he is assured that 
 his works please God, and that God views him now as neither 
 sinning nor having sinned ; whereas, it was for such an assertion 
 as this that Job's friends condemned him as a blasphemer, con- 
 cluding from the calamity that had befallen him that he had 
 sinned and was now under the wrath of God. 
 
 But you will say, what am I to do when these characters 
 speak things so excellent and so consistent and true, that no 
 reasonable argument can disprove them ? as was the case with 
 the friends of Job, and in a word when they bring forth out of 
 the scriptures the very words of God ? 
 
 I answer, David is here speaking especially concerning those 
 characters who adulterate and corrupt the ^^"ord of God. It 
 is the covering of the wickedness of such that he is here laying 
 open, when he says, "Their inw^ard parts are snares", or 'vani 
 ties'. As if he had said, their words are plausible and appar- 
 ently holy and true, but they are not applied to a right and true 
 purpose, but are made use of to produce a false understanding. 
 Hence Jeremiah saith, 5 :i, "Run ye to and fro through the 
 streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the 
 broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that 
 doth justly, that seeketh truth; and I will pardon her. And 
 though they say, as Jehovah liveth ; surely they swear falsely". 
 And again, 23 128, "He that hath my Word, let him speak my 
 Word faithfully." What do all these scriptures show and 
 prove, but that the Word of God may be spoken both truly and 
 vainly ? 
 
238 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 These therefore are faithful and true as to all outward ap- 
 pearance indeed, but their inward parts are vain and their heart 
 is vain. They do not savor of that in their heart, which their 
 words outwardly teach ; though they wish it to appear that they 
 hold in their hearts that which they teach with their mouths. 
 Thus truth is used by them only as a covering for lies and van- 
 ity, and hence these words, "Their inward parts are vanities", 
 descriptively set forth the real nature of the doctrine of hypo- 
 crites, that they pretend one thing outwardly, but cherish and 
 foster another inwardly, that they pretend to godliness, but 
 foster ungodliness. This is to be a minister of Satan trans- 
 formed into an angel of light, 2 Cor. 1 1 114. This is the subtlety 
 of the serpent, saying that the knowledge of gods may be at- 
 tained unto, Gen. 3 15. This is the religion of angels, of which 
 Paul speaks. Col. 2:18. 
 
 Nor do they speak absurdly who render this same Hebrew 
 word HAVOTH, not 'snares' only and Vanities', but also 'per- 
 versions', because such men are in truth perverters of the words 
 of God, as is written in Jer. 23 136, "For ye have perverted the 
 words of the living God". By these perversions they become 
 vain in themselves and snares in the way of the truth and of 
 those that seek it, according to the words of Paul, 2 Tim. 3:13, 
 "But evil men and imposters shall wax worse and worse, de- 
 ceiving and being deceived". 
 
 This perversion of mind was prefigured in all the idols of 
 old that were either graven or molten, and this Moses has 
 by no means obscurely intimated, Ex. 32 :2, etc., where, when 
 he describes the making of the golden calf, he says 'That Aaron, 
 after he had received the ear-rings of the women at their hands, 
 made or melted them into a calf, and fashioned it with a graving 
 tool' ; in which passage, the Hebrew has 'with a pen', intimating 
 that it should come to pass that these ungodly teachers should 
 change the words of God, which are the ear-rings of believing 
 souls, the true daughters of Israel, and their only ornament into 
 forms of their own, so as to make them convey their own sen- 
 
PSALM V. 239 
 
 timents ; and that the people also should "heap to themselves 
 teachers having itching ears" and deceitful rulers, and be turned 
 unto fables, as Paul saith, 2 Tim. 4 •.2,-4. For Jeremiah, writing 
 as it were a comment on Moses, says, 8 :8, "Behold, the false 
 pen of the scribes hath wrought falsely" ; and chapter 9.* Is. 
 44:12 etc., also gives us a full and particular description of the 
 formation of an idol. Ezekiel 16:17, Jerusalem is accused of 
 having taken her ornaments of gold and silver which the Lord 
 had given her, and made unto herself idols and images of men 
 and committed fornication with them. 
 
 However all these things are but a mere joke if we compare 
 them with what has taken place in our times, in which nothing 
 is so much boasted of as the worship of God and the church 
 and the house of God ; when at the same time, there are none 
 that worship God less than those, who by their numerous rites 
 and ceremonies and their newly-invented works, have given 
 themselves up, some to the sowing of discord, others to seeking 
 after glory, others to hunting after gain, and all to seeking their 
 own profit and advantage. 
 
 In all these things they use as a pretext the Word of God, 
 when they teach that we ought to pray, to do good works, and 
 the like. Indeed, what evil, what enormity, what monstrous sin 
 is not at this day committed under the cover of the terrible name 
 of God, of St. Peter, St. Paul, and the church? For, to say 
 nothing about the rest, some of these holy sects are religious 
 above all others, merely to foster mutual hatred and to fill their 
 own bellies ; and yet these mutter over this and other Psalms 
 for the salvation of others with a brow so impenetrably fortified 
 with brass, that they cannot feel any thing of the vehement zeal 
 with which the words of the Psalmist inveigh against those who 
 do thus mutter them over. 
 
 Their throat is an open sepulchre. 
 
 There is no doubt that by these words written in so forcible 
 
 *) St. Louis Walch gives Jer. 10:3 etc. 
 
240 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 a way David wishes to shew the insatiable voracity of these 
 characters, for not being content with having compared their 
 throat to a sepulchre, which is that which devours all things, he 
 heightens the representation by adding the epithet "open", to 
 show their continual readiness to devour v/ith insatiability. 
 
 The holy scriptures iiideed have ascribed to these characters, 
 above all others, an insatiable avarice, and a devouring of the 
 people. Hence Christ saith, Luke 20 47, 'They devour widows' 
 houses, and for a pretence make long prayers'. And Micah 3 :3, 
 "Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from 
 off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces as for 
 the pot, and as flesh within the caldron". Again directly after- 
 wards, verse 5, "Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets 
 that make my people to err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, 
 peace ; and whoso putteth not into their mouths, they even pre- 
 pare war against him". Again, Amos 4:1, "Hear this word, 
 ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, that 
 oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say unto their lords, 
 bring, and let us drink." But Is. 56 : 10-12, describes them much 
 more fully and particularly thus, "His watchmen are blind, they 
 are all without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they can- 
 not bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea tlie 
 dogs are greedy, which can never have enough, and these are 
 slieperds that cannot understand ; they have all turned to their 
 own way, each one to his gain from every quarter. Come ye, 
 say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong 
 drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, a day beyond 
 measure". 
 
 This will need no explanation if you look at the leaders in 
 the church at the present time and those who are considered 
 the teachers of the people. For why is it necessary to call atten- 
 tion to the incredible avarice, gluttony, pomp and the more than 
 worldly luxury of the bishops at Rome and all bishops, priests 
 and leaders of orders, since they do that daily by their talk to 
 the people and confirm the same by deed? For where do they 
 
PSALM V. 241 
 
 not sing publicly of the avarice of the clergy ? And this is all 
 done under the cloak that they are the leaders of the people of 
 God. Does not the prophet rightly call their throat an open 
 sepulchre. For they rob every one of every thing, and yet they 
 are not satisfied, but are full of greed, as to-day so to-morrow, 
 to swallow still more. 
 
 Offence is taken when these things are mentioned, they are 
 revolutionary and scandalous words to their saintly ears. But 
 they gave offense and were revolutionary when the prophets 
 spoke there to the rulers of the synagogues, so that they were 
 shamefully put to death as heretics in the church and traitors 
 in the government. 
 
 Isaiah says of them, 5 '.y-^, "He looked for justice, but, behold 
 oppression ; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry. Woe unto 
 them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be 
 no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the 
 land ! This is before the ears of Jehovah of hosts". Amos says 
 the same, 6:1-6, "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and 
 to them that are secure in the mountain of Samaria, the notable 
 men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel 
 come ! Pass ye unto Calneh, and see ; and from thence go ye to 
 Kamath the great ; then go down to Gath of the Philistines ; 
 are they better than these kingdoms ? or is their border greater 
 than your border ? Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause 
 the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, 
 and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out 
 of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall ; that 
 sing idle songs to the sound of the viol ; that invent for them- 
 selves instruments of music, like David ; that drink wine in 
 bowls, and annoint themselves with the chief oils ; but they are 
 not grieved for the affliction of Joseph". 
 
 But I must be temperate and not add more in order that 
 I may not be thought to have sinned aga-nst the holy spiritual 
 canons and to have stolen the patrimony of Christ and the 
 possessions of the church by disregarding the discipline of the 
 
242 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 church, and to have insisted that these temporal possessions of 
 nches and lands are not allowed. For I would not be sufficiently 
 secure here before the most holy papal laws although all the 
 prophets and apostles stood with me. 
 
 It is sufficient that the prophet Amos esteemed the king- 
 doms that surrounded Israel, although they were great and very 
 lich, less than the riches of the priests and the luxuries of the 
 elders of the people, by which he shows us what their throat is 
 that the psalmist calls an open sepulchre. At the present day you 
 might much better call it the throat of hell as Is. 5 114 says, "hell 
 hath opened its mouth without measure". New devices are al- 
 ways being used to get the little that is yet among the people, 
 and of it which they can hardly live, since all the rest is already 
 swallowed and the word of Ps. 14:4, is fulfilled, "they eat up 
 my people as they eat bread". 
 
 Since it is evident therefore from these statements that such 
 ungodly teachers do not teach the way of the Lord, nor seek any 
 thing else, even in the things of God, than their own profit, it 
 follows that they seek much more their own profit in things 
 pertaining unto this life. Hence it was that Paul with so much 
 boldness and confidence dared, Phil. 3 :2, to call them dogs, say- 
 ing, "Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware 
 of the concision". And in verse 19, "Whose end is perdition, 
 whose God is the belly". In his epistle to Titus i :i2, he calls 
 them "liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons" : in both places he is 
 speaking of seducing teachers. 
 
 Therefore David, detesting with a holy indignation the wick- 
 edness of such, exposes their lusts by a most filthy comiparison. 
 As if he had said, what do these swine, by their ungodly doc- 
 trine whereby they destroy souls, but serve their own bellies, 
 whilst by preaching this their doctrine they so deceive the people 
 as to seize upon, collect, and increase an immense store of 
 worldly things with unending and insatiable voracity? In a 
 word, he speaks of their "throat" as Paul in his epistle to Titus 
 did of their "belly". As if he had said, ye are all "throat" and 
 
PSALM V. 243 
 
 nothing else, and that throat is Hke an "open sepulchre", for ye 
 devote yourselves to nothing else but to devouring the substance 
 of men. 
 
 I would add to this another way in which these words may 
 be understood, namely, that they are called a "throat" which is 
 like an "open sepulchre", because they lead the souls of those 
 men by their impious word and works into the swallowing jaws 
 of hell ; and this is the way in which Augustine understands and 
 treats the passage, though it seems sotnewhat remote from the 
 literal meaning; and I shall not dwell upon it myself here, be- 
 cause it is more easily explained than the literal meaning, on 
 account of its agreement with the succeeding and preceding 
 context; but I entertain no prejudice against the judgment of 
 another as to the propriety of the spiritual interpretation. 
 
 Since therefore these teachers of the people reap their tem- 
 poral harvest, as in the case of the Levites, but under the most 
 plausible cover and pretext, while they sow unto them their 
 spiritual things, as they pretend, there grows and increases from 
 this their dominion an avarice and also an ignorance of the 
 "way" of God, Thus, instead of sowing spiritual things, they 
 sow the most impious doctrines which savor only of the flesh ; 
 and because these doctrines please the common people more 
 than those which are truly spiritual they are easily seduced and 
 their teachers in the mean time reap their temporal fruits, until 
 they have swallowed their farms together with all their sub- 
 stance. Thus the teachers for their ungodly labor obtain and 
 enjoy the happiness of the ungodly in this world ; while the 
 people, on account of their ungodly religion, are destroyed with 
 a double destruction, the destruction of both body and soul. 
 
 Nor is it without its peculiar appropriateness that David 
 compares the "throat" of these to an "open sepulchre", rather 
 than to any other kind of voracity? For why does he this? 
 Perhaps it is because the whole substance and possession of 
 those things which are acquired by a wicked ministry and under 
 a wicked pretence, is of that unhappy nature, that it returns 
 
244 LUTHEE ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 to no g^ood use whatever, but is like dead bodies which, when 
 once buried, never return to Hfe. For David does not say, their 
 throat is a coffer or chest, so as to leave some hope of that 
 coming into use again which has been put into it ; but he says 
 "sepulchre", from which there is no hope of ever regaining that 
 which has been once placed into it. 
 
 So it is at this day, for the possessions of the church, espec- 
 ially the greater ones, are of that character and appropriated to 
 such use, that they are made to serve grooms and harlots and 
 the most infamous of mankind, and are left for that purpose by 
 wills and successions ; so that the poor believers in Christ are 
 not considered worthy of them. This is well known, not only 
 by general report, but by actual experience. Wherefore, to de- 
 vour substance and to communicate it to none of the faithful 
 in Christ is the peculiar privilege and characteristic of the 
 "workers of iniquity", namely, the martyrs of the devil. There- 
 fore has come the proverb that it is injurious to have any con- 
 tact with or make any use of the so called spiritual possessions, 
 and that they consume every thing they touch. This some think 
 takes place, because they are so holy an'^i are dedicated to uivine 
 services, others say because they are deserted and like Jericho 
 cursed, Josh. 6 :26, wherefore they shall never be of any service 
 with their possessions that are for good uses, since they have 
 robbed them of their right use. 
 
 Lastly we have, "They act deceitfully with their tongues," 
 or 'They speak lightly with their tongues,' as the Hebrew has 
 it, 'They fawn and flatter with their tongues.' This belongs to 
 that which precedes, for they do not consider that their duty 
 is to teach such things as shall lead the people to godliness, but 
 to tell such impious fables as shall please them. 
 
 All their concern is not to offend the ears of the people to 
 the end that they may grow fat and increase in wealth. They 
 are of those, whom Is. 30 :io, describes as saying, "Speak unto 
 us smooth things." Paul saith of them, 2 Tim. 4 13, "They 
 having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their 
 
PSALM V. 245 
 
 own lusts." And Rom. 16:18, "For they that are such, serve 
 not our Lord Christ but their own belly ; and by their smooth 
 words and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent." 
 Such therefore speak not the truth from fear of ignoble pover- 
 ty, but they willingly speak those things which please the peo- 
 ple, from the hope of amassing wealth, and therefore they be- 
 come ''an open sepulchre." 
 
 It is at these light, flattering, or as our translation has it, 
 "deceitful" tongues, that the present verse strikes, for such 
 tongues are more destructive and pestilential than all the poi- 
 son of asps. The reason such characters act thus is because 
 truth is unpalatable and the word of the cross rougher than 
 the camel's hair of St. John the baptist; for he that lifts up 
 his voice in the desert of ungodliness is not clad in soft cloth- 
 ing. Therefore a messenger of the Word of God must be poor, 
 or at least cannot long be rich. 
 
 Hence arises that excuse which is so universally made at 
 this day, 'That they do not teach and declare the truth, because 
 by their doing so the ruin of the church and of the rich wealth 
 of the monasteries of Christ would soon follow, and no small 
 portion of dainties would be taken from the throat and the 
 belly.' Therefore that the "throat" may not be robbed and that 
 the yawning "sepulchre" may be kept open, there must be 
 speaking lightly with the tongue, there must be flattering the 
 people, and conniving at their vices ; and if they be of the 
 higher class their vices must be called virtues, whatever they 
 say or do or leave undone, must be called unalterably right, and 
 every thing that is the contrary must be condemned as heretical 
 and ungodly and be persecuted. 
 
 Proceed thus and your throat will be safe and your belly 
 secure ; you will not be excommunicated nor deprived of your 
 benefice. If you will speak a little more lightly still with your 
 tongue and flatter a little more brazenly your throat will be 
 distended, the sepulchre will open wider, and your belly will 
 be made to give more room ; you will be loaded with benefices 
 
246 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and donations and adorned with honors ; your sermons will be 
 looked upon as letters of gold, your books will be immortalized, 
 and every place on which you tread will be considered a bed 
 of roses. 
 
 I believe it is quite clear and manifest to every one, that 
 the vv'orld is at this day filled wiih flatterers of this kind, for 
 all the religious persons have their mouth filled, and their zeal 
 fraught with flattery and levity of speech. Thus is fulfilled that 
 which Ezekiel saith, 13 riS-ip, "Woe to the women that sew 
 pillows upon all elbows and make kerchiefs for the head of 
 persons of every stature, to hunt souls ! Will ye hunt the souls 
 of my people and save souls alive for yourselves? And 
 ye have profaned me among my people (that is, by 
 teaching a false opiiiion of me instead of the truth) for hand- 
 fuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that 
 should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, 
 by your lying to my people that hearken unto your lies ?" 
 
 How beautifully applicable is this scripture and how it il- 
 lustrates the words of David before us, is shown in what im- 
 mediately follows, verse 21, "Your kerchiefs will I tear (that 
 is, your flattering speeches and "cJirastologiai," as the apostle 
 calls them), and deliver my people out of your hand, and they 
 shall be no more in your hand to be hunted." Then follows, 
 verse 22, "Because with lies ye have grieved the heart of the 
 righteous, whom I have not made sad (for flatterers must not 
 only teach the ungodly false things, but must also persecute 
 the doctrines of the truly righteous, otherwise their throat 
 would soon be stopped up), and the hands of the wicked 
 strengthened, that he should not return from his wicked way, 
 and be saved alive : therefore ye shall no more see false visions, 
 nor divine divinations, etc." 
 
 It is manifest therefore that by deceitful tongue our trans- 
 lator understood flattering and fawning tongue, that is a tongue 
 that will teach the ungodly for the sake of those worldly ad- 
 vantages. Therefore no faithfulness is in their mouths, their 
 
PSALM V. 247 
 
 inward parts are vain, perverse, and deceitful. Such then is 
 the meaning of this verse. 
 
 I am incHned to be displeased with myself for having been 
 so diffuse and prolix and for having used so many words in 
 my endeavor to explain the meaning of so short a sentence of 
 the Holy Spirit. But when I consider that I am not writing for 
 the learned, the acute, and the skilful, but for the simple and 
 the inexperienced and particularly for those who are in the 
 ministry also, I seem to myself to have been even now too brief 
 and sparing ; and especially as these are some of those things 
 that are essentially necessary to be known and that have been 
 buried throughout the world under superstitions and idolatries 
 and have now for a long time and by long habit been driven out 
 of the hearts of men. This makes it in my opinion highly ne- 
 cessary that they should be sounded forth with the continual 
 thunder of voices, that the sleeping may be roused and awak- 
 ened. Let the delicate reader therefore either know that these 
 things are not written for him, or let him remember that his 
 duty is to exercise patience for the benefit of the weak and in- 
 experienced ; and let him leave me, after the manner of the 
 patriarch Jacob of old. Gen. 33 :i etc., to follow on softly with 
 the children, the flocks of sheep, and the heards of oxen, as I 
 see they shall be able to bear it, lest, if I should outdrive them 
 one day, all the flock should die. 
 
 V. 10. Hold them guilty (judge tJieni), O God, let them 
 fall by their own counsels; thrust (cast) them out in the mul 
 titude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against thee 
 {provoked thee to anger, O Lord). 
 
 The first part of this verse is attached by us to the verse 
 preceding, but this improves the sense but little. The prophet 
 having hitherto described and condemned all ungodly hypocrites 
 and "workers of iniquity," now prays that such may be marked 
 by the judgment of God; because they are excused, approved, 
 and defended by the judgment of men, and considered to be 
 just and true, and that their name and reputation as such can- 
 
248 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 not be taken away from them. As if he had said with Jere- 
 miah, 5:30-31, "A wonderful and horrible thing is come to 
 pass in the land : the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests 
 bear rule by their means ; and my people love to have it so : 
 and what will ye do in the end thereof?" For who can resist 
 those who are defended by the voice of the common people and 
 by the great? Yet thus in truth are the ungodly workers of 
 iniquity armed against one poor preacher of the truth ! Such 
 a preacher therefore must of necessity make many open declar- 
 ations that shall be deemed scandalous and seditious, that shall 
 give offence to the ears of these righteous ones, and that shall 
 be judged by the people to be erroneous and heretical. What 
 can he do in the meantime? Nothing but call upon God for 
 his judgment, committing his cause into his hands. 
 
 The Hebrew word, which is rendered "judge them," Je- 
 rome translates 'condemn them.' The word signifies properly 
 that judgment by which men are made manifest, their ungod- 
 liness being laid open to view. In this sense Paul also saith, 2 
 Tim. 3 :g, "But they shall proceed no further : for their folly 
 shall be evident unto all men, as theirs also came to be." It 
 is therefore as if David had said, grant that, as they have lately 
 been approved, loved, and boasted of by all, so their folly may 
 be now made manifest and they themselves hated, cast out, and 
 detested by all, that every person may see that they have ap- 
 proved of that which thou hast condemned. For I have seen 
 and still do see it happens to all heretics that they first of all 
 please men, but afterwards their bones are scattered, Ps. 53 :5, 
 and they are put to shame, because God hath rejected them. 
 Their glorying and boasting and their applause and pomp are 
 therefore in the meantime to be borne with. Hence we hear Je- 
 remiah say, 20 7-9, "I am become a laughing-stock all the day, 
 every one mocketh me. For as often as I speak, I cry out : I 
 cry, violence and destruction; because the word of Jehovah 
 is made a reproach unto me, and a derision." 
 
 These words of David therefore do not only refer to the 
 
PSALM V. 249 
 
 last judgment, but are a prayer that the truth may triumph 
 through the judgment of God, which such characters oppress 
 through the judgment of men. Do thou, O Lord, says David, 
 rise up and judge, for men do not judge rightly. 
 
 "Let them fall from their own thoughts." Thoughts here 
 is of the same signification as "counsel of the ungodly" in Ps. 
 1:1, and rendered from the same original word. Wherefore 
 it does not mean simply "thoughts," but as we fully showed in 
 the first Psalm, ungodly opinions, sentiments, ideas, disputa- 
 tions, human reasoning concerning God and divine things, and 
 also human inventions delivered to others as true doctrines. 
 Hence there is a peculiar force lying in each word, both in 
 "thoughts" and "own." These are their "own" thoughts in- 
 deed, and not God's, according to Is. 55 18-9, "For my thoughts 
 are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saitli 
 the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so 
 are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than 
 your thoughts." 
 
 And what does the prophet show by these words, but that 
 the thoughts of men, however holy they may appear, are but 
 earthly, vain, and lying; according to Ps. 94:11, "Jehovah 
 knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity." 
 
 Hence David calls them "thoughts" by way of expressive 
 force, intimating that they are vague, unstable motions of the 
 mind, for that is the nature of a mere thought, though they 
 are considered to be decrees more stable and durable than the 
 rock by the sea-shore. Hence the apostle admonishes the He- 
 brews, 13 :9, "Be not carried away by divers and strange doc- 
 trines." In Eph. 4:14, he exhorts not to be "tossed to and fro 
 and carried about with every wind of doctrine." What these 
 wandering flies of doctrine are, is fully set forth in the plague 
 of Egypt. Therefore Christ said. Matt. 1 1 7, that the doctrine 
 of John was not like "a reed shaken with the wind ;" for the 
 doctrine of our faith is a firm key-stone, a mountain, a rock 
 that laughs both at the winds and the waves of the whole sea, 
 
250 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and it will do so for ever, because the righteousness of God 
 is for ever and ever. 
 
 But what means this praying of David that not their 
 thoughts only, but the persons themselves should fall? Au- 
 gustine thinks that this verse contains the words of one prophe- 
 sying, and not praying; or that if they are a prayer, they pray 
 that these persons may fall saved and be changed to sound 
 thoughts concerning God ; and his interpretation is good and 
 admissible. But the figure of speech here used still induces me 
 to consider the meaning to be like that of Ps. 81 :6, "I removed 
 his shoulder from the burden." Because in the world, where 
 the powers of darkness still rule, it is in vain for any one to 
 try to prevent the existence of ungodly doctrines and thoughts, 
 for it must be that oflfences come. But our care is to be that 
 we turn away from such doctrines and thoughts themselves, as 
 being those which closely cleave unto us and therefore will 
 never fall from us of their own accord, but will be continually 
 rushing on us and most obstinately assaulting us. 
 
 If these things be so it appears therefore that those who 
 wish to have no errors and heresies left and no impieties to 
 exist, only attempt the burning of all heretics, and remain in 
 the end free heretics themselves. For I consider that it is a 
 conflict and not a state of ease, that is intimated by the verse 
 in question, a conflict against the thoughts of men, for he does 
 not pray that the thoughts might fall from the men, but the 
 men from the thoughts. Because the human heart and its own 
 thoughts or its own counsel are so inseparably and, as it were, 
 adulterously connected together and in love with each other, 
 that to separate them nothing less than the great and divine 
 power and operation of the grace of God are required. 
 
 David wished rather to say "fall from" than 'turn from,' 
 because he wishes such persons to come down from pride to 
 humility, for "thoughts" puff up to that height, that such men 
 cannot acknowledge themselves sinners, nor be humbled to the 
 grace of God. 
 
PSALM V. 251 
 
 However he that would understand the passage rather as 
 a prophecy, which is the sense that I prefer, may easily satisfy 
 himself with the propriety of such an interpretation, namely, 
 that the ungodly fall from their thoughts when their confidence 
 in them fails and they cannot establish them. An example of 
 this we have in the building of the tower of Babel, for there 
 the attempt, the labors, the work, and the end of all ungodly 
 teachers are most beautifully represented, v/hich, when those 
 impious ones had begiui, they were, not able to finish. This 
 Christ has also set forth, Luke 14 :28, in the parable concerning 
 the man beginning to build a tower. In the same way also 
 Ps. 21 :ii, "They conceived a device, which they are not able to 
 perform." 
 
 Such therefore "fall from their thoughts" when they perish 
 in the execution of them and leave a monument and example 
 behind them that all might see v/hat they imagined and at- 
 tempted, and how they failed of accomplishing their purposes. 
 In this way it was that the Arians fell and left their memory 
 and their thoughts which they could not accomplish, a subject 
 of derision and a fable in the mouths of all. It is such a judg- 
 ment as this that the prophet here predicts, and prays that it 
 might fall upon all ungodly teachers and performers of "their 
 own thoughts," that they may not be able to accomplish that 
 which they imagine against true godliness. This takes place 
 in the execution of it when they are judged of God, as David 
 says, for as long as they are judged of men, they increase and 
 prosper in their thoughts. 
 
 Why did he not simply say "Thrust them out?" Why did 
 he add "in the multitude of their iniquities?" Moreover the 
 verb 'Thrust out' signifies, according to the original Hebrew 
 word, 'a dispersing;' in the same way as the builders of the 
 tower of Babel were scattered abroad thence upon the face of 
 all the earth, and abandoned the building of the city. Gen. 1 1 :8. 
 In the same way the blessed virgin saith, Luke i :5i, "He hath 
 scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts." This 
 
252 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 scattering Samson prefigured by his foxes, Judges 15:4, and 
 the same is represented by the scripture, "A kingdom divided 
 against itself is brought to desolation," Matt. 12:25. 
 
 For no heretics have ever been conquered by force or craft, 
 but by dissension among themselves only; nor did Christ con- 
 tend with them in any other way than by sending among them 
 the spirit of confusion and dissension. Such a spirit as this 
 was sent among the Shechemites, Judges 9 :2t,, and among the 
 builders of the tower of Babel ; and under the New Testament, 
 among the Arians, Donatists, and Pelagians, And indeed the 
 Jews perished by their final destruction through dissension. 
 Hence the holy man Hilary, in his book upon the Trinity, glo- 
 ries in declaring 'that the war of the heretics is the peace of 
 the church ;' for upon their dissension is sure to follow their 
 dispersion. 
 
 This Christ also refers to, when in describing "the strong 
 n-;an armed" who is to be despoiled of his armor by a stronger, 
 he says that his armor in which he trusted is to be "divided" 
 and dispersed. So Hosea, 10:1-2, comparing iniquity to a 
 multitude, says that they are to be dispersed by division. "Is- 
 rael is a luxuriant vine, that putteth forth his fruit : according 
 to the abundance of his fruit he hath multiplied his altars : 
 according to the goodness of their land they have made goodly 
 pillars. Their heart is divided ; now shall they be found guilty : 
 he will smite their altars, he will destroy their pillars ;" which 
 words beautifully explain this present verse of David. For 
 what does this increasing of altars and multiplying of images, 
 according to the goodness of their land, mean, but that Israel 
 multiplied into many states and cities and erected unto them- 
 selves as many altars ? As we read, Jer. 2 •.28, "For according 
 to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah." Upon 
 this division soon followed their dispersion, while each city 
 or division watched and wished for the ruin of the other that 
 his own might stand. 
 
 The meaning of David therefore is, 'They are ungodly in 
 
PSALM V. 253 
 
 irany ways, they invent many superstitions and practice various 
 kinds of idolatry ; they are also divided among themselves like 
 the sadducees and pharisees of old and like their imitators and 
 followers in our day. According therefore to this multitude 
 of their iniquities, do thou, O Lord, thrust them out, that their 
 ungodliness may be brought to naught by the strength of their 
 concord being broken.' 
 
 If then these things be true and will take place according 
 to David's prayer, there appears to be a great persecution, de- 
 vastation, and scattering hanging over the present state of the 
 church, which being divided into so many sects, and the mem- 
 bers all seeming to fight against each other, threatens a terrible 
 shaking and an awful destruction ; for there are not only now 
 as many altars as there are cities, but almost as many as there 
 are heads, so wholly has brotherly love gone to ruin ; and there- 
 fore it must of necessity follow, that whatever exists without 
 that is idolatry, for it does not seek that which is God's. Hence 
 all the specious lives and conversations of all our priests and 
 religious people, being destitute of, and disregarding this love, 
 for such is the present state of the church, may be rightly 
 called a multitude of iniquities ; and thus we are divided and 
 scattered more and more daily, each one according to Is. 53 :6, 
 turning "to his own way ;" all this, as I have before observed, 
 was beautifully prefigured by the foxes of Samson, Judges 15 4, 
 which had their faces turned from each other, and fire-brands 
 tied to their tails ! 
 
 "For they have provoked thee to anger." This in the He- 
 brew is 'they have embittered thee.' As I have observed, 
 above all other sins that are committed, this kindles God's 
 wrath the most, when men omit that which is commanded 
 and do something else which they think is better and which 
 is not commanded at all. This is that aven, that disobedience 
 itself, and that idolatry and working of iniquity. Hence the 
 prophet says of them that they "provoked God to anger" and 
 made him bitter. Other prophets do the same, where they call 
 
254 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the house of Israel the one that makes God bitter, provokes 
 him to anger, irritates him, and kindles his wrath, etc. 
 
 We particularly observe that the word "iniquities" in this 
 verse is in the original a word different from all those pre- 
 ceding. For it is not aven nor rescha, but pescha, that we 
 here find in the Hebrew; which is a general noun that signi- 
 fies all transgression, as in Is. i :2, "I have nourished children, 
 and they have rebelled against me," that is, they have sinned 
 against me or they have despised me by their transgressions. 
 Hence Jerome translates this clause "according to the multi- 
 tude of their wickedness ;" and what these transgressions are 
 in their nature and character, he has enumerated above where 
 he said, "Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness." 
 For David designs by all these things to show that these char- 
 acters sinned, transgressed, and prevaricated in many ways, 
 and so as to provoke God to anger, even while they thought 
 they were pleasing him. Hence by saying 'the multitude of 
 their iniquities,' he does not only mean that they were di- 
 vided, as we have observed, into many and various sects, but 
 also that every separate one of those sects sinned in many 
 ways, which ways we have described under our foregoing 
 seven heads. 
 
 V. II. But let all those that take refuge {hope) in thee 
 rejoice, let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest 
 them : Let them also that love thy name be ioyful in thee. 
 {they shall shout for joy and thou shalt du'ell in them. And 
 they that love thy name shall glory in thee.) 
 
 All this is one verse in the Hebrew, and Jerome translates 
 it, "And let all who hope in thee rejoice, they shall praise for 
 ever ; thou shalt defend them ; and they that love thy name shall 
 be joyful in thee." In this last clause our translator has put 
 "shall glory" for "shall be joyful." But others again vary 
 wonderfully in rendering these words which contain so many 
 feelings and aft'ections, so that we cannot harmonize all their 
 
PSALM V. 255 
 
 variations without going to the original Hebrew, the fountain 
 head. 
 
 We here find four words put together to convey a fulness 
 of expression, 'To rejoice,' 'to hope,' 'to shout for joy,' and 
 'to glory.' But the expression "shall dwell in them" indicates 
 the affection of hope. How then do they differ ? This is diffi- 
 cult to be investigated and learned, because these affections 
 are of a high and sublime nature and can neither be taught 
 nor understood but by those who have experienced them. 
 
 This one thing however is certain, according to the tenor 
 and scope of the whole Psalm, namely, that David is speaking 
 of that joy and quiet safety of heart, which arise from, and 
 stand, not in the removal of external evils, for that is where 
 patience more properly reigns, but in the remission of sins and 
 impurity and good assurance of conscience where hope reigns. 
 For the object and intent of the Psalmist is to show in what 
 way men may become righteous and godly, namely by the 
 mercy and through the fear of God and not by works of in- 
 iquity. All men seek to be glad and to rejoice, but all do not 
 seek rightly, and therefore they find not that for which they 
 seek. 
 
 Hence we will divide this verse into two, that it may as 
 it were be a repetition, and that "And let all those that hope 
 in thee rejoice: they shall shout for joy for ever, and shall 
 dwell therein" may be the same as, "And they also that love 
 thy name, shall glory in thee". 
 
 For the Psalmist seems to contrast these affections of joy 
 to the POELE AVEN, that is, the "workers of iniquity", or as it is 
 very frequently translated 'the workers of pain'; because as 
 I have observed, this idolatry and outward show of works is 
 the labor of fools, which afflicts them and kills them with 
 sorrow and never suffers them to know real joy of heart; as 
 they themselves say, Mai. 3:14, "And what profit is it that we 
 have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?" Is. 58:3, 
 "Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not? Wherefore 
 
256 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?" 
 The remaining part of the chapter and also that which follows 
 abundantly set forth this misery. 
 
 Dost thou desire to know then, where true joy of heart is 
 to be found and in what it consists? David says, "Let all 
 those that hope in thee rejoice". This truth therefore re- 
 mains firm and this definition sure, that the heart of man can- 
 not rejoice in works, nor in any thing else but in a pure hope ; 
 he therefore that seeks to rejoice in any other way besides 
 this hope, will toil much and will find all his labor in vain 
 at last ! For, as it happened to the woman with a bloody issue, 
 mentioned in the Gospel, that she spent all her substance upon 
 physicians and only grew worse ; so it happens to all who, 
 under perturbations of conscience, run about to this place and 
 that, consult now this person and now that, now doing this 
 and now that, and trying all ways to obtain rest for the heart ; 
 but they seek not after this hope, which alone can bring them 
 the quiet they seek. And in this soul killing work are all those 
 lying teachers engaged, who impiously teach their works, satis- 
 factions, indulgences, and pilgrimages, and who administer 
 their false consolations, and, by other works of darkness like 
 these, deceive mankind ; the number of these in the present day 
 is out of one's power to count. 
 
 CONCERNING HOPE AND SUFFERINGS. 
 
 Since this 'hope' is so often taught throughout the Psalms 
 let us make a more extensive and full digression than usual, 
 that we may consider once for all the force and nature of this 
 term 'hope' ; for these things are very necessary to be known by 
 trembling, weak, and simple consciences. 
 
 Just as impatience, dejection, and confusion do not properly 
 and primarily proceed from the multitude or magnitude of the 
 afflictions, adversities, or evils, of whatever kind they may 
 be, but rather from the feelings of the person who is alarmed 
 at them and who is in an unwise way thirsting after the con- 
 trary, prosperity, happiness, and honor; so, despair, spiritual 
 
PSALM V. 257 
 
 dejection, and the confusion of a restless conscience do not 
 properly and primarily arise from the multitude or magnitude 
 of sins, but rather from the feelings of the person who is 
 alarmed at them and who is in an unwise way seeking after an 
 abundance of good works and righteousness and salvation. 
 
 The first part of my observation is clear ; for David here 
 says, "Let all those that hope in thee rejoice". If then, he says, 
 "all" shall rejoice in the Lord who hope in him he does not 
 permit us to understand that any are excepted, not even those 
 who are in tribulation ; nay, it is concerning such that he more 
 particularly speaks, when he says that such hope in the Lord 
 while they are afflicted in themselves and by men. These are 
 the faithful in Christ, in whom, as the sufferings of Christ 
 abound, so do the consolations of Christ abound also, as the 
 apostle saith, 2 Cor. 1 15. For they know where and in whom 
 they ought to rejoice and to glory, namely, in the Lord. There- 
 fore through this their wisdom they are not cast down, they are 
 not confounded, they are not impatient, because they do not aim 
 at things prosperous, things pleasant, nor things honorable. 
 Hence they pass through a tranquil medium between good and 
 evil as it is written, 'Nothing that happeneth to the just shall 
 disturb him'. And in Prov. 28:1, it is said, "The wicked flee 
 when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion". 
 
 But they who are ignorant and unwise and will not under- 
 stand that rejoicing and glorying is to be in God alone, what 
 else do such, than become dejected, confounded, and impatient? 
 and that, not because adverse or afflicting circumstances come 
 upon them, but because when these come upon them they do not 
 turn unto God which proceeds from their foolish feelings, but 
 look anxiously after the prosperous and pleasant things which 
 they have lost. Thus they flee but cannot flee away nor escape, 
 because they know not whither to flee. Hence the whole cause 
 of every one's sorrow is the unwisely anxious search after joy 
 and honor; for if men were not glued to these things, adver 
 sities would cause them no uneasiness, according to the trite 
 
258 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 proverb, 'The world is ruled by opinions : and such as each 
 man's opinion of his condition is, such is his condition'. Hence 
 contempt can neither profit nor injure any one, but when it is 
 regarded then it profits or hurts, and then only. 
 
 The second part also is equally certain ; because, many and 
 great sinners have been saved. The very persons who David 
 here says rejoice in the Lord, would say with Job, 9 13, "We 
 could not answer him one of a thousand", and hereby they 
 acknowledge both the multitude and magnitude of their sins. 
 Herein God shows that the cause of despair is not the multi- 
 tude or magnitude of the sins but the wrong affection in those 
 who seek after good works in the time of their trouble of con- 
 science, in order to set these against their sins as a counter- 
 balance and satisfaction. For such imagine by this their de- 
 praved opinion that their sins have been and can be, overcome 
 by such works ; and therefore not being able to gain the victory 
 for which they labor and not knowing that they ought to turn 
 to the mercy of God, desperation of necessity follows ; for he 
 must necessarily become impatient, who neglecting all regard of 
 God attempts to put good for evil and cannot succeed, because 
 no works whatever can make satisfaction for one sin even 
 though it be a venial sin. 
 
 In the same way the conscience of an ungodly man at the 
 point of death and drawing near to the judgment of God dis- 
 putes with itself thus : O miserable man that I am ! O if 
 I had but now done many good things ! O if I had but never 
 done any evil ! If I had but remained pure ! And these words 
 full of folly and iniquity most eminently prove that the saying 
 of Augustine is true, 'The unhappy change overtakes the un- 
 godly man that when living he forgets God, and when dying he 
 forgets himself. Hence such an one seeks the good and hates 
 the evil, and 3'et does not feel that he never did so much evil, 
 nor less sought good than in this ver}' hour, when he says these 
 things and acts thus unwisely. For he proves that he does not 
 hope in God, but presumes upon his own works, while he thus 
 
PSALM V. 259 
 
 looks back upon his past works and presumes; whereas, these 
 are not things upon which he has any right to presume. If he 
 imagines that he can hope in God on account of his works, in 
 which case he dreams that he shall hope in God more con- 
 fidently and more joyfully, if he can but see before him plenty 
 good works, it is plainly manifest that he hopes more in his 
 own works than in God, than which nothing is more horrible or 
 more impious ! 
 
 Whereas the righteous even though they sin despair not. 
 Because as among temporal evils, that is, the sufferings of 
 this life, good things are intermingled ; so it is also with respect 
 to spiritual evils, namely, sins ; for spiritual good things are in- 
 termingled with them also. These righteous persons therefore 
 neither presume upon spiritual blessings when they live in the 
 enjoyment of them, nor despair when they sin, for they know 
 that they ought neither to be elated by the one nor cast down 
 by the other, because they feel that the one state proceeds from 
 God's gifts being bestowed upon them, and the other from their 
 being taken away; and whichever of these takes place, they 
 still remain cleaving close to the giver himself. 
 
 This is taught in Prov. 24:16, "For a righteous man falleth 
 seven times, and riseth up again : but the wicked are over- 
 thrown by calamity" : that is, they rise not again but fall into 
 despair. If thou hopest and canst hope only when thou doest 
 good, thou wilt certainly despair when thou doest evil. Take 
 heed therefore lest that of Ps. 49 :i9, "He v/ill praise thee when 
 thou doest well unto him", and that of Luke 8:13, "And in 
 time of temptation fall away", be applicable unto thee; take 
 heed that thou add not iniquity unto iniquity and blasphemy 
 unto disobedience. 
 
 Hence it is greatly to be feared lest a twofold evil should 
 befall these ungodly. First, when they find all things going 
 prosperously and gloriously with them, they should imagine 
 they are rejoicing and glorying in God, when in truth they 
 are not trusting in God, but in his gifts, that is, in their pros- 
 
260 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 parity, as temptation will in the end prove. And next, lest, 
 when they are looked upon by all as living a holy and religious 
 life, especially in this our most perilous day, which is so much 
 devoted to the observance of the outward show and bug-bears 
 of works, they should imagine that they are hoping most firmly 
 in God, when they are all the while ignorantly hoping in their 
 own sanctity, as the hour of death will prove. For when such 
 are drawing near to judgment and are dying in full confidence 
 under a self-persuasion of their good life which is the ground of 
 their confidence in God, the destruction of all good hope, it 
 will happen unto them just as it does unto a man who sets his 
 foot upon a log of wood swimming in the sea — the log slips 
 aside and he is suddenly lost in the deep, or, as Isaiah saith of 
 them, 30:13, "Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a 
 breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose break- 
 ing cometh suddenly in an instant'". 
 
 Therefore just as that patience which is exercised in pros- 
 perity is no patience, so the hope that is exercised in merits is 
 no hope. And, as it is possible and easy to have patience in 
 prosperity, so it is possible and easy to exercise hope in merits. 
 In each case there is eminent peril. In the former, lest the 
 man should become proud and secure ; in the latter, lest, being 
 puffed up with his own righteousness, he should disregard the 
 fear of God, in which fear lies the exercise of true hope. For 
 the nature of patience is to be exercised only in adversity, and 
 that of hope to be exercised only under sin. Not, however, 
 that we should sin, in order that we may be in a state to hope ! 
 No, God forbid ! We have sins enough already, both of those 
 which we have committed ourselves and of those in which we 
 were born, for all our own good works are but sins before 
 God, to make us fit subjects for the exercise of hope. 
 
 Is God cruel then, who condemns all our works and per- 
 formances? No. But his mercy is unspeakable in his con- 
 descending to communicate himself unto us and to take away 
 all our own confidence from us, which is the only thing that 
 
PSALM V. 261 
 
 opposes his mercy. He has given a law, in and by which he 
 has shut up "all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy 
 upon all", Rom. 1 1 :32. For where there is no low there is 
 no sin; where there is no sin there is no mercy; where there 
 is no mercy there is no salvation; and where there is no sal- 
 vation there is no God. Hence the strength of sin is the law, 
 I Cor. 15:56, the strength of the law is mercy, the strength 
 of mercy is hope, the strength of hope is salvation, and the 
 strength of salvation is God through Jesus Christ our Lord; 
 for he "is the God of deliverances and unto Jehovah, the Lord, 
 belongeth escape from death", Ps. 68 :20. For the law works 
 sin in us, mercy works, that is, fulfils the law, hope works 
 mercy, salvation works hope, and God works salvation, and all 
 is in Christ. Hence salvation descends from God through 
 Christ unto sin, and we ascend from sin through Christ unto 
 God. 
 
 From this it follows, that as in temporal affairs good things 
 are given unto us of God, that we may by them be led the 
 more to worship him, hope in him, and love him, since, from the 
 depravity of our nature, we worship, hope in, and love him 
 less in tlie time of prosperity than in the time of adversity ; nay, 
 in the latter we worship, hope in, and love him, more than in 
 the former. So in spiritual things, the blessings and merits 
 of grace are given unto us of God, that by them we may be . 
 led the more fully to hope in him. And behold, by the depravity 
 of our nature, we presume upon these freely given blessings 
 and exercise imdcr them the least hope of all and are more 
 easily brought to hope in him under sin. Hence it seemed 
 necessary to the divine goodness to raise the cross, and by the 
 preaching of it to save fools and sinners that believe, and to 
 reprobate the self-wise and saints, as the apostle saith, i Cor. 
 I :23 etc., "But we preach Christ crucified, unto Gentiles, that 
 is, to the wise foolishness, and unto Jews, that is, the saints, a 
 stumbling-block ; but unto them that are called, both Jews and 
 Greeks, that is, sinners and fools, Christ the power of God 
 
2.62. LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and the wisdom of God" ; and so on as it is there beautifully set 
 forth. 
 
 Wherefore as it is most perilous for a man to be left always 
 in prosperity, because in such a state he never or very rarely 
 learns to love God ; so it is more perilous for a man to be left 
 in great spiritual prosperity all his life long, for he will scarcely 
 ever learn to hope in God. Hence when God begins in mercy 
 to visit such they do not only fall into perturbation of con- 
 science, but if they happen to be of a more incorrigible nature 
 than usual, they will sometimes even fall into the open act of 
 sin, that is, into fornication or something of that kind. God 
 thinks fit to deal with them thus, leading them as it were to 
 his mercy in a way that is contrary to mercy and permitting 
 them to fall into sin in order to deliver them from sin. 
 
 But these things are higher than many can grasp and under- 
 stand, and perhaps they may say by way of objection, well then ! 
 we had better sin only, and lay aside doing good altogether ! 
 Or, as the apostle says, in stating the objections that such will 
 make, "Let us do evil that good may come", Rom. 3 :8. For 
 when we speak as I do now we seem to many to be opening 
 the door to sin and shutting it against good works unto the 
 injury of salvation. To such we will give this answer: Good 
 works are not only not prohibited, but are greatly commended 
 by these words, and sin is by the most effectual discipline taken 
 out of the way, while they teach that these good works are to 
 proceed from within and that sin is to be destroyed within. 
 For it is that depraved affection, the head of the old serpent, 
 which is so secretly and subtlely carnal and which trusts in 
 these works and most obstinately resists that hope which rests 
 in the mercy of God alone, that is to be bruised, plucked out, 
 and destroyed. And we are to understand that even if our 
 mind has not been employed well we are not to despair, and 
 that, on the contrary, we are not therefore to hope, because it 
 has been employed well ; the former of which is very difficult 
 to be put into practice, though the latter is much more difficult 
 
PSALM V. 263 
 
 Still; because, in the former we fight only against sins, but 
 in the latter, against good works and sins both, that is, against 
 that feeling of presumption which always accompanies good 
 works. 
 
 Moreover, when I say that patience cannot exist in pros- 
 perity, do I therefore condemn possessions, power, peace, the 
 happiness of life, etc., things without which we cannot live, 
 and which are prized by the best of all beings ? By no means ! 
 I only condemn the state of our miiids under the enjoyment 
 of them. In the same way, these things are elsewhere compelled 
 to be called by a name descriptive of them, as in Ecclesiastes 
 they are called "vanity", and by Christ in the Gospel "thorns" ; 
 not from any evil that there is in these things themselves, but 
 from the vanity of men, under which vanity, as the apostle 
 saith, Rom. 8 :20, 22, "For the creation was subjected to vanity, 
 not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in 
 hope". 
 
 Hence these very good works of the ungodly, which are 
 themselves gifts of God and by which others are often bene- 
 fited while the ungodly themselves are destroyed by them, are 
 called AVEN^ that is, iniquity, idolatry, and disobedience; not 
 on account of the evil in the works themselves, but on account 
 of the evil and contagious depravity in those that perform them. 
 And Moses speaks of these things thus, Deut. 28 130, with the 
 veil upon his face, "Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man 
 shall lie with her : thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not 
 dwell therein : thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not use 
 the fruit thereof" ; and many other things he says in the same 
 spirit, wherein he foretells the labors that such shall endure, but 
 of which others shall reap the fruit ; ^or what else does Moses 
 here say than that such do good works, but that those works 
 end only in their own punishment and the benefit of others ? 
 
 Hence, the argument which many adduce by way of ob- 
 jection is answered and disposed of. They ask how a work 
 done without grace, such as, giving of alms, helping a needy 
 
264 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 person, and the like, can be sin ? As if Christ did not know that 
 to prophesy, to do wonderful things in his name, and to hear his 
 Word, were good works ! And yet he says that he will con- 
 demn all such works as iniquities and will say to the performers 
 of them, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity". So, when 
 a harlot is adorned with gold and jewels it of necessity follows, 
 that it is she that sins, and not the goodly ornaments that she 
 wears. Therefore the ungodly may do good to profit others, 
 but not to benefit themselves. For it is rather God that works 
 by them in these works, who worketh all in all. 
 
 All these things are also proved by the firm and conclusive 
 argument, that according to the opinion of all, hope is a spirit- 
 ual and powerful principle which in its acting has God for its 
 object, and God is goodness, and that mercy which is promised 
 unto us. Wherefore, if a person hope in any thing else than 
 that promised mercy, that is, in God, he does not hope, but 
 presumes and misses hope altogether. The same also does he 
 who hopes in God and his own merits. For, as God cannot be 
 loved together with another as Augustine says, for then he is 
 not loved above all things ; so, neither can he be hoped in to- 
 gether with any other, because then he is not hoped in above 
 all things. These three things, therefore, are of a divine 
 nature: — there is a divine object, a divine subject, and a 
 divine agent ; wherein are contained the work, the manner, and 
 the act. Here are the bridegroom and the bride and all the 
 secrets of the marriage-bed, the bridegroom alone with the bride 
 alone. All other works are carried on by the daughters of 
 Jerusalem and by the companions, all others halt between two 
 opinions, worshipping their Baal and God together! 
 
 Finally, these things are further proved thus. 'Hope acts 
 upon things which are not seen', as does faith also, for the 
 apostle saith, Rom. 8 -.24, "But hope that is seen is not hope : 
 for what a man seetli why doth he yet hope for?" So if a man 
 believe in that which he seeth, why doth he yet believe? If 
 these men hope in, believe, and love what they see, what do 
 
PSALM V. 265 
 
 they hope auJ beheve in? In nothing but a carnal bugbear, 
 in something for beneath God, that is, not in a reahty, but in 
 a deceptive hobgobHn of appearance. Such hope in, see, hold, 
 possess, and feel their own works, and in them they trust, but 
 not in the invisible, intangible, incomprehensible promiser who 
 is heard, and who reveals himself in his Word only ! These 
 things are too high, too difficult, too hard for our flesh, because 
 they are the death of it. 
 
 Hence, all that is said in the Song of Solomon concerning 
 the bridegroom and the spouse in a lascivious manner, as it 
 were, and according to the carnal love of men, and also all 
 those things which are there represented as transacted between 
 the male and female sex have a signification directly the con- 
 trary to those pleasures ; for they represent the most perfect 
 works of faith, hope, and love, that is, they show such works to 
 be as strong as death and hell ; as it is there written. Song 8 :6, 
 "For love is strong as death ; jealousy is cruel as the grave". 
 Again, ver. 7, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can 
 floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his 
 house for love, he would be utterly contemned" ; which things 
 can by no means be understood concerning the flame of lust. 
 
 Many men have vamped up and fabled many things about 
 mystical, negative, proper, and symbolical theology, "not know- 
 ing what they say nor whereof they affirm" ; for they know 
 not what either negative or affirmative theology is, nor the 
 relative nature of either. Nor can the commentaries of such 
 men be read without peril, because such as the men are them- 
 selves such are their writings ; as they felt, so they spoke. They 
 felt every thing the contrary to negative theology, that is, they 
 never knew nor ever felt death and hell, nor loved such ex- 
 perience ; and therefore, it is impossible but that they should 
 deceive themselves and their readers, 
 
 I wished to say these things by way of admonition, because 
 the commentaries of Dionysius upon mystical theology are 
 every where circulated both from Italy and from Germany; 
 
266 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 which are mere "oppositions of science", vaunting and puffing 
 off itself. Let no one therefore consider himself to be a theo- 
 logian in mysteries because he has read, understood, and taught 
 these things, or rather because he imagines that he has under- 
 stood and taught them. For a man becomes a theologian by 
 living, or rather by experiencing death, and condemnation, not 
 by mere understanding, reading, and speculation. 
 
 Again they may bring forward, by way of objection to 
 what I have said, the saying of Paul, Rom. 5 :3-5, "Tribulation 
 worketh stedfastness (patience) ; and stedfastness, approved- 
 ness ; and approvedness, hope ; and hope putteth not to shame". 
 'Here, they say, the apostle seems to place hope among merits.' 
 Thus they will make the great master of all doctrines, Peter 
 Lombard, to give this definition of hope in unison with the 
 opinions of the whole multitude of theologians : — 'That hope 
 is a certain expectation of a reward springing out of merits.' 
 For such have no other hope than that which preceeds from 
 merits. From which opinions, what else can follow than the 
 ruin of all theology and the ignorance and oblivion of Christ 
 and his cross, and the forgetting of God for ever. 
 
 But what will such say when we bring before them their 
 own confessions, 'that faith, hope, and love are infused virtues, 
 and the principles of all good things?' Hence they themselves 
 declare that merits cannot exist before love. They moreover 
 constantly assert, 'that hope and faith are infused together with 
 love'. According to their own assertions therefore it is cer- 
 tain that hope does not proceed from merits, but merits from 
 hope. Yet, when they define hope they controvert this assertion 
 and contradict themselves, making hope to proceed from merits. 
 
 What will they say to the apostle, when he makes patience 
 to be the work of tribulation ? Rom. 5 :3. But who can endure 
 any tribulation without hope? For the man that is in despair 
 will never come to any patience, nor to any approvedness, nor 
 to any glorying in tribulation, by tribulation, but on the con- 
 trary will only become worse and worse by it ; as Christ teaches 
 
PSALM V. 267 
 
 US in his discourse, Matt. 7 •.26 etc., concerning the house built 
 upon the sand, the fall of which was great when the winds blew 
 and the floods came; and as we are also taught by his parable 
 of the seed, which when sown fell upon a rock, Luke 8 :6, and 
 soon sprung up, but was scorched by the sun ; these parables 
 represent those who in time of temptation fall away. Hence 
 there must be hope in the beginning of tribulation in order to 
 its working patience. 
 
 But further; only reason upon this definition, 'Hope pro- 
 ceeds alone from merit'. Therefore no sinner can ever hope 
 except the righteous alone! If this argument stand good, who 
 will be converted to repentance? Who will be righteous, if no 
 sinner repent? And how will any one repent, without hoping 
 in the mercy of God? Are we then to say to a dying sinner, 
 'Thou hope ! far away be it from thee to attempt to hope. Thou 
 hast no merits from which thou canst possibly derive any hope ?' 
 This would not be acting the theologian, but acting the devil. 
 , For the voice of the devil is always, 'Do not thou presume to 
 hope, for thou hast no merits!' Whereas the point of death 
 is the greatest, the most important, and the best place and cir- 
 cumstance in which hope can act, and death itself is most es- 
 pecially adapted to work together for the exercise of hope. 
 Such a definition of hope therefore is most false, and I would 
 rather confess that I did not understand one word of the apostle, 
 than admit that such a definition of hope could be drawn from 
 him. 
 
 I will therefore give my opinion. First of all, it is certain 
 that grace, namely, faith, hope, and love, are not infused or 
 communicated without sin being also infused or felt at the 
 same time; that is, the sinner is not justified unless he be first 
 condemned, he is not made alive unless he be first killed, he 
 ascendeth not into heaven unless he first descend into hell, as 
 the whole scripture plainly shows. Wherefore the infusion of 
 grace must of necessity be attended with bitterness, tribulation, 
 and suffering, under which the old man groans, not being able 
 
268 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 to bear his casting out with any kind of patience. But if under 
 , this tribulation the man be patient and wait for the hand of 
 him that is working in him and infusing or communicating 
 grace unto him, he is thereby proved and he shall find hope, 
 faith, and love, which under such an experience are infused. 
 This takes place as often as things turn out contrary to our 
 will, and the effects are the greater, the more contrary those 
 things are. 
 
 This I say is the way in which grace is infused or com- 
 municated not only at first, but also at every subsequent com- 
 munication. For the old man is always more and more ex- 
 pelled, as grace more and more enters in even unto death ; 
 according to Rev. 22:11, "He that is righteous let him do right- 
 eousness still ; and he that is holy let him be made holy still" ; 
 and according to John i :i6, "Grace for grace" ; and Paul, Rom. 
 I :iy,'A righteousness of God is revealed from faith unto faith' ; 
 and 2 Cor. 3 :i8, 'We are transformed from glory to glory'; so 
 Ps. 84 :y, "They go from strength to strength". And in the 
 same way we may rightly be said to go from hope to hope. 
 
 It is quite manifest therefore that the apostle is not speak- 
 ing so much of the hope itself which is obtained, as of the 
 certain assurance of heart under that hope; while the man, 
 after the tribulation and infusion or communication of hope, 
 for under the tribulation he appears to himself to have no hope 
 at all, feels that he hopes, believes, and loves ; for he then tastes 
 how sweet the Lord is, and begins to hunger and thirst after 
 more suffering, that the tribulation may work in him a greater 
 degree of hope. Hence it is necessary that there be faith, hope, 
 and love, in the beginning of every good work and suffering; 
 but it is after the work and suffering that the hope which lay 
 hidden is made manifest ; and it is then that the persons are 
 approved and manifested. In this way Job and Abraham were 
 tried, that they might be made manifest and known to them- 
 selves and might be assured that they believed in, hoped in, and 
 
PSALM V. 269 
 
 loved God. "Now know I that thou fearest God", that is, now 
 have I made thee to know, etc., as Augustine expounds it. 
 
 For a man must not only beheve, hope, and love; but he 
 must know and is certain that he believes, hopes, and loves. 
 The former takes place in the hidden circumstances of the 
 storm, the latter after the storm is over. 
 
 Thus, Peter exhorts you to "give the more diligence to 
 make your calling and election sure". 2 Pet. i :io. For it is 
 one thing for a man to be, or to be made, good and another for 
 him to know that he is so made. Just in the same way as a 
 "blood thirsty and deceitful man", when he is irritated, becomes 
 manifest and is found to be a blood thirsty and deceitful man ; 
 whereas before, he seemed to others and also to himself to be of 
 a very sweet disposition and a simple character. 
 
 In like manner the cross operates in those who endure it 
 and are proved by it, even unto the end, until they arrive at 
 solid hope ; that is, the hope begins, increases, and goes on, and 
 makes the man's knowledge of the goodness of his state sure 
 and certain. But in those who do not endure it and are not 
 proved by it, but found reprobate, it works the most impotent 
 despair from the very beginning. Hence Tauler, a man of 
 God, said, as all who experience the same thing say, 'God is 
 never more pleasing, more lovely, nor more sweet to his chil- 
 dren than after their probation under tribulation. 
 
 This is the hope that the apostle says is wrought by ap- 
 provedness". Rom. 5 4. And as children of the flesh love their 
 natural father more sweetly after correction by the rod ; so 
 the bridegroom Christ visits his bride after his embraces with 
 a pleasure which is contrary to the flesh, which embraces are 
 themselves death and hell to the flesh. Herein does that great 
 mystery, "And thy twain, Christ and the Church, shall be one 
 flesh", Eph. 5:31, rule and reign; which is indeed a great 
 mystery. It is very hard to be borne in its operation, but it 
 produces the sweetest fruits, bringing forth an ofifspring most 
 like unto God and works that are blameless. For it is thus that 
 
270 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the vine is purged, that it may bring forth more fruit. If 
 then it be true that every degree of hope is wrought by ex- 
 perience how much more is the apostle to be understood as hav- 
 ing spoken and thought in the same way also of perfect hope, 
 which proceeds from many and different tribulations? 
 
 Let us now look farther into the v/ords of the apostle. He 
 calls hope the work of approvedness, approvedness the work of 
 stedfastness, and stedfastness the work of tribulation. But that 
 great master of doctrines says too much if he calls those 'merits' 
 from which hope proceeds ; at least, the persons who so under- 
 stand him do not comprehend what he means by those 'merits'. 
 For, most certainly that active life in which many too rashly 
 confide and which they generally understand to be signified by 
 the term merits, does not produce or work merits, but presump- 
 tion; just as knowledge puffeth up. Therefore v/e must call 
 in another kind of life to be understood as here signifying 
 merits, namely, that passiz'c life which mortifies and destroys 
 all this active life, so that nothing of the merits of the latter 
 remains in which the proud person may glory. 
 
 Where this takes place, if the man persevere, hope is 
 wrought in him ; he learns that there is nothing in which he 
 can rejoice, hope, or glory, but God. For tribulation, as it 
 takes away all things from us, leaves nothing but God ; it cannot 
 take away God, but rather brings him nearer to us. If, when 
 all cur own affairs are taken away, even our works and our 
 merits, if, I say, we here endure and stand, we find God in 
 whom alone we trust, and thus "we are saved by hope". 
 
 Wherefore though those holy work-mongers say they trust 
 in God with all their confidence, yet, when their active life, 
 which is all their dependence, begins to be tried, either with 
 contempt in the sight of men, or with trouble of conscience 
 before God, they all give way and fall, thereby showing that 
 they trusted more in their own life, than they hoped in the 
 mercy of God. There is no active life which can sufiice before 
 God, or can so suffice before men as to be satisfactorily pleasing 
 
PSALM V. 271 
 
 to all unto the end. Hence David saith, Ps. 143 :2, "Enter not 
 into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight no man living 
 is justified". 
 
 It is the passive life only that is most pure, and therefore 
 it is only that which works hope and glory. In this we ought 
 to be conformed to the example of Christ our King and Captain, 
 who began indeed with the active life, but finished with suffer- 
 ing, all his works, though so great, so many, and so wonderful, 
 being accounted as naught, that is, in the sight of men, as our 
 own works should be in our own sight, that he was not only 
 numbered by men among the wicked, but was thought to be 
 deserted by God. 
 
 All things therefore are to be so entirely taken from us, that 
 not even the best gifts of God, that is, the merits above-men- 
 tioned themselves, shall be left, in which we may trust ; so that 
 there may be pure hope in an all-pure God, and then the man 
 is truly pure and holy. This matter is attended with various 
 tribulations and with many pains; but the greatest pains are, 
 when we begin to approach towards the perfection of hope, 
 that is, to the being stripped of all our good works and of trust 
 in our good life. For in the loss of all other things, such as 
 property, health, and honor, it is not so much hope that is ex- 
 ercised, as it is patience that is contending against impatience 
 and the natural man ; under which the man is so exercised and 
 instructed, that he learns patiently to despise his present 
 troubles as being those which he will never have to endure 
 again. 
 
 But in these storms of conscience and in these ruins of 
 merits, hope itself fights against desperation and oftentimes 
 against itself, nay, even against God ; vvhom L ; c feels to be 
 angry with her^ because sle has no merits whatever; and 
 though she cannot endure being without these nvaits, yet she 
 is forced to be without them, which so miser.- ' . iucifies the 
 spirit of the man, that it makes him almos ab! , like Christ, 
 to tell all his bones. Ps. 22 :i8. 
 
272 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 So that, any one may rightly call hope, spiritual patience, 
 or patience in enduring accusations ; as, on the contrary, 
 i patience may be called spiritual hope, or hope in enduring pun- 
 ishments. For what is it to be tried and tempted in the con- 
 science and with despair, but to feel that our sins are unpar- 
 donable, that God will not be merciful to us, and that all our 
 works are naught? Yet, if the man persevere and hope against 
 hope, Rom. 4:18, he shall be found proved and approved; and 
 being by this tribulation stripped of all his merits, he shall be 
 furnished with hope and be crowned with an incorruptible 
 crown that shall not fade for ever and ever. For God is not 
 really angry nor is it his will to refuse pardon to such an one's 
 sins, he only tries him to see whether he will hope in his mercy 
 rather than in his own works. 
 
 Whereas our self-justifiers who are daily filled and crammed 
 with the merits of their active life dread nothing so much as 
 having this cross laid upon their merits, being deceived in the 
 words of our great master of theology, where he says that hope 
 proceeds from merits, which they understood to be good works. 
 But the apostle calls them "tribulations", that is, mortifications 
 and crucifixions of the flesh. 
 
 Behold therefore how far we have strayed from the true 
 knowledge of hope by misunderstanding one word of the 
 apostle ; and this error has produced an infinite number of con- 
 science-murders and perhaps eternal damnations. For while 
 such have tried to find hope and peace by works, tribulation 
 either of conscience or of body, which are the true workers of 
 hope, opposed them in their attempt ; and they, not knowing 
 what that tribulation was and rejecting it, did not find the hope 
 and peace they wanted and therefore despaired. And no won- 
 der, for they sought hope in that way which leads to presump- 
 tion ; and being hindered, or, as Hosea 2 :6 saith, finding 'their 
 way hedged with thorns,' and not understanding this hinder- 
 ance they fell away. 
 
 Hence we have today that multitude of poor, weak, fearful, 
 
PSALM V. 273 
 
 and scrupulous consciences, which are unstable in all their ways. 
 Thou art not, poor soul, thus tried with despair or v/ringings 
 of conscience, that thou shouldst be driven to run to trusting in 
 thy works, but on the contrary, that thou may est be called away 
 from those works. This is a truly spiritual conflict, though it 
 be most bitter, and it is between thee alone and God ; where 
 hope alone can support thee by waiting and expecting, commit- 
 ting its whole cause unto God and overcoming God against 
 God ; as Jacob did, Gen. 32 124, etc., .Avhere it is recorded of 
 him that he being alone wrestled with God and prevailed 
 against him and therefore received the blessing from him in 
 the same place ; but the name of the one who blessed him it was 
 not lawful to know : so he called the name of the place Penuel, 
 saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is pre- 
 served." 
 
 If any one be permitted to go on prosperously in the way 
 of presumption and to increase his works without this tempta- 
 tion, what will he come to? Perhaps he will not run into des- 
 pair but despair will come into him, because he knoweth not 
 God nor has learned hov/ wonderful he is in these his counsels 
 and workings. 
 
 Now we can see the contents and weight of that famous, 
 much admired saying of Cicero, 'The consciousness of a well- 
 spent life is a most sweet reflection.' True! But the sweeter 
 such a reflection is, the more destructive is it. This sentiment 
 does not at all savor of the Christian ; for, to a Christian the 
 consciousness of a life that has well suffered, that is, has been 
 reduced to nothing, is most sweet ; for, "He that glorieth let 
 him glory in Jehovah," Jer. 9 124. Job did not speak like 
 Cicero; for though he said, 27:6, "My heart shall not reproach 
 me so long as I live," yet he did not dare to glory but prayed 
 that God would not enter into judgment with him. Nor did 
 Paul speak like him when he said, i Cor. 4:4, "For I know 
 nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified." Nor 
 Jer. 9 :23, 24, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. 
 
274 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not tne rich 
 man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth glory in 
 this, that he hath understanding and knoweth me, that I am 
 Jehovah who exerciseth loving kindness, justice, and righteous- 
 ness in the earth : for in these things I delight, saith Jehovah." 
 
 Consequently we are not to believe in, hope in, cleave to, 
 or glory in, any gifts of God, lest we should commit fornication 
 with them, as is often said in the prophets, but in God himself 
 the giver and in him alone. This is what is meant, Ps. ii6:ii, 
 "I said in my haste, all men are liars." Now this "haste" was 
 tribulation, by which we are instructed to know how vain and 
 lying every man is who hopes not in God alone. For man is 
 man until he is made like unto God who alone is true, by par- 
 taking of whose truth, man becomes true also, which he does 
 by cleaving unto God in true faith and hope, being reduced 
 to nothing in himself. 
 
 For to what can the man come, who hopes in God, but to 
 nothing in himself? Where can the man go who is brought 
 to nothing, but unto him from whom he came ? He came from 
 God and from nothing ; and therefore, he who returns to noth- 
 ing returns unto God. He that fails from himself and all 
 creatures cannot fall from the hand of God also, for the hand of 
 God upholds all things; he holdeth, as Isaiah saith, 40:12, the 
 world in his hand. If therefore thou fall through the whole 
 world, where canst thou fall but into the hand and bosom of 
 God ? Thus the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, 
 because their safety is out of the world. They seem in the eyes 
 of the foolish to fall utterly and perish. Wis, 3 :i-2, in the same 
 manner as they see a ston^ go through the air or the water ; 
 but the stone, remember, does not fall through the earth also ! 
 
 But, as to those active workers and self-justifiers, who, being 
 deluded by their own opinions, seek only by all their works and 
 righteousnesses to increase and become fat and great, and who 
 by no means wish to come to nothing, but to become something 
 great — to what think ye such will come ? Why, they too will 
 
PSALM V. 275 
 
 be made to fall back into their nothing; not, however, to be 
 brought into the hand of God but to fall utterly and perish 
 everlastingly. 
 
 But I know how many things are brought forward out of 
 the holy scriptures and out of the sayings of the fathers and the 
 lives of the saints in opposition to these teachings. But I also 
 well know how perilously all those things are understood, if 
 they be not brought down to the rule and standard now before 
 us, for they all make to this same point. I will, however, for 
 example's sake, produce one of these. 
 
 We read upon the authority of Jerome that Hilary said to 
 his soul, while he was fearing to die, 'Leave this body, O my 
 soul ; what fearest thou ? Thou hast now served Christ for 
 these ninety-three years; and dost thou fear to die?' If there- 
 fore he be understood to have spoken as the words imply, that 
 is, if he thus trusted in the works of his life, we must conclude 
 that he went to hell and not to heaven. 
 
 But why do they not look into those different words of St. 
 Agathon? who, when he had been looking up to heaven with 
 steady and unaltered eyes for three days, and was asked by his 
 disciples why he feared and why he did not trust in his well- 
 spent life answered, 'I do fear in reality. I know indeed that 
 I have kept the commandments of God, as well as I could ; but 
 the judgment of God and the judgment of men are very differ- 
 ent from each other.' But the fear of Hilary proves the same 
 thing. For if he had found his works sufficient he would not 
 have been filled with fear. He was forced therefore to seek 
 some other anchor for his confidence and trust and to set before 
 himself the mercy of God, from the remembrance of his past 
 benefits and mercies toward him. For it is no slow motive to, 
 and excitement of, hope, to call to mind the past or present 
 benefits of God which have been bestowed or are now bestowed 
 upon us ; nay it is a ray of the countenance of God shining upon 
 us and a good sign in our favor, and very encouraging to faith 
 and hope. Thus the children of Israel were commanded to re- 
 
276 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 member the works of the Lord and his bringing them out 01 
 Egypt, Deut. 8:14; that their mouths being thus stopped and 
 filled with the praise of God ; they might not perish, as Isaiah 
 saith, 48 :g. 
 
 But you will ask, perhaps, are there then no merits at all? 
 Why are we enjoined by so many precepts both of Christ and 
 his apostles to do good works, to sow our seed, to build gold, 
 silver, jewels, etc.? I answer: this is what I said before, that 
 most men are deceived by misunderstanding good works. Good 
 works are certainly to be done and the tree of the spirit ought 
 to bring forth those fruits which are described. Gal. 5 :22, 23. 
 But men do not understand those words of Christ, John 12 124, 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into 
 the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it 
 beareth much fruit." And those words in John 15:2, "Every 
 branch in me that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it that it may bear 
 more fruit." 
 
 For this mortification and purgation, which take place by all 
 the infusion of faith, hope, and love, strip a man of all his own 
 works, that he may learn to trust in God alone and to do good 
 works ; not that they may be merits to him, for which he may 
 seek and expect his reward, but he does them gratuitously with 
 a free mind and with a mind ready and willing to please God, 
 not trusting at all in them himself, but doing them to promote 
 the glory of God ; as Christ saith. Matt. 5 :i6, "Even so let your 
 light shine before men ; that they may see your good works, 
 and glorify your Father who is in heaven." 
 
 They who do good works in this way do them not for them- 
 selves but for God, as instrumxcnts to his glory. They arrogate 
 nothing to themselves in doing them, being satisfied with God 
 only in whom they hope. Those who do not their works in this 
 spirit and for these ends are only apes of the true saints. 
 
 Hence of necessity unbelief follows from tlie life of all 
 saints, unless they have learned to glorify their heavenly Father 
 by their works. Rightly is it said, therefore, Ps. 25 :io, "All 
 
PSALM V. 2'J'7 
 
 the paths of Jehovah are lovingkindness and truth" ; that is, 
 truly good works are done when God only and totally does them 
 in and by us, so that no part of the work whatever pertains unto 
 us. 
 
 Wherefore, let this be thy standard rule ; wherever the holy 
 scriptures command good works to be done, understand that it 
 forbids thee to do any good work of thyself, because thou canst 
 not ; but to keep an holy Sabbath unto God, that is, a rest from 
 all thy works, and that thou become dead and buried and permit 
 God to work in thee. Unto this thou wilt never attain, but by 
 faith, hope, and love ; that is, by a total mortification of thyself, 
 Col. 3 :5, and all thy own works. 
 
 Consequently there are merits and yet no merits in us. 
 There are merits, because the gifts of God and his own works 
 are merits. Yet there are no merits, because we cannot any 
 more presume upon them, than any sinner can who knows noth- 
 ing at all about them and in whom God has not yet wrought 
 any thing. Thus we all are, all have been, and all shall ever 
 remain, upon an equal footing before God, so that the glorying 
 of one over another must for ever perish ; according to i Cor. 
 4:7, "For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that 
 thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, v;'hy dost 
 thou glory as if thou hadst not received it ?" Mark the words ! 
 He who is puffed up with, and boasts of, the gifts of God does 
 the same as if to say he had received nothing ! Where then is 
 a difference to be found ? Nowhere. As the apostle here saith, 
 "Who maketh thee to differ?'' Who has declared that thou art 
 better than others ? As if he had answered, no one. 
 
 From all these things, then, consider the equal judgment 
 and justice of God, and how he would have held up to contempt 
 all that external bug-bear and outward show of life and works. 
 Because in his eyes the just and the unjust are alike as to the 
 merits of their works. For he has ordained this law for all that 
 live in this mortal life : — that they should be made to know, 
 that, as the righteous have no cause or ground for presuming, 
 
278 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 SO sinners indeed have no cause or ground for despairing 
 He has given to each the same law for their hoping in him, 
 which law alone makes the distinction between the righteous 
 and the wicked, between those that despair in themselves and 
 those that presume. Hence in Ps. 119:75, David sings rightly, 
 "I know, Jehovah, that thy judgments are righteous, and that 
 in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me." Behold, before the face 
 of the truth of God David is nothing, and in the judgment of 
 a just and righteous God he is as the greatest novice, the great- 
 est sinner of all sinners. 
 
 The end of the law of faith, hope, and love, is to make us 
 all the greatest and least instructed of all sinners, that is, to 
 make us all equal ; and yet, to work thereby the most unequal 
 and the most strange things. Truly God is wonderful in his 
 saints ! 
 
 We are all therefore by the commandment of God urged 
 to hope in him, and are by the same commandment deterred 
 from despair and presumption ; and thus, truly God is in all 
 things and in all, equal and the same ; and yet, he is most un- 
 equal and most different. For he is a God who is simple in 
 multiplicity and multiplex in simplicity, equal in inequality and 
 unequal in equality, low in loftiness, deep in height, and far in 
 nearness, and their contraries. So he is powerful in the weak, 
 weak in the powerful, wise in fools, and foolish in the wise, in 
 a word, he is all in all. But I wish to say these things apart 
 from the pious ears of those who are offended at the truth, 
 which by all their unhappy reasonings and questionings they 
 could never learn. 
 
 But perhaps the weak and infirm conscience may yet say, 
 'But suppose I cannot believe, and thus find my despair to be 
 misurmountable ?' I will answer : Thou art not even then to 
 despair when thou thus feelest thyself to despair. For that is 
 not despair when thou desirest not to despair and grievest that 
 thou dost despair, it is only the trial and temptation of hope; 
 though that is certainly by far the most heavy of all tempta- 
 
PSALM V, 279 
 
 tions, because it involves in its sensations the greatest, the eter- 
 nal hatred of God, blasphemies, curses, and all the evils of hell, 
 which we dare not openly mention, in a word, it involves in an 
 awful degree the ever-blessed and glorious Majesty. 
 
 What therefore shalt thou do in this case? Why, first 
 acknowledge that thou deservest all this and that it is due unto 
 thy sins. Here thou art to be wise, thou art to praise and give 
 thanks unto God, and thou art to endure this infirmity and 
 temptation, according to Eccl. 10:4, "If the spirit of the ruler 
 rise up against thee, leave not thy place ; for gentleness allayeth 
 great offences." Hence what thou hast to take care of is, that 
 thou do all in thy power not to yield to this hatred, blasphemy, 
 and desperation ; but that thou cry unto God, if it be but in one 
 single sigh or groan; and that thou assure thyself that, ac- 
 cording to Is, 42 :3, "A bruised reed will he not break, and a 
 dimly burning wick will he not quench." 
 
 I will say first in my free way, there are none nearer to God 
 in this life than these kind of haters and blasphemers of him, 
 nor any sons more pleasing to him and beloved by him ! Thou 
 mayest in this state make more satisfaction for sin in one mom- 
 ent than ever thou couldst by repenting for many years under 
 a diet of bread and water. Hence it is true that, in death, where 
 this temptation prevails most, a Christian may in one moment 
 get rid of all his sins, if he act wisely under the temptation. It 
 is in this state those "groanings that cannot be uttered" are 
 exercised and prevail. Rom. 8 126. 
 
 Secondly, remember throughout thy whole life, that thou 
 pray for hope ; but so that thou refuse not the will of God in this 
 tliy infirmity but that thou endure it even unto death, saying 
 with thy Lord and Master, Matt. 26:38, "My soul is ex- 
 ceeding sorrowful even unto death". Pray so as not to doubt 
 that hope will be given thee of God. For he, who willed 
 that thou shouldst pray, yea rather, who taught thee to pray 
 thus without any of thine own seeking after it, willed thee 
 to pray thus, because he had purposed to hear thee. There- 
 
280 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 fore, bear all delays with patience but doubt not that thou 
 slialt receive; that which will come, "shall surely come, it will 
 not tarry", Hab. 2 :3, and do thou in the mean time hope against 
 hope. 
 
 - ■' But to this end you will have the rod and staff of God 
 to sustain and comfort you, namely the first and greatest of 
 all the commandments of God ; "Thou shalt have no other 
 Gods before me". In this commandment w^e are not only re- 
 minded, warned and persuaded to hope in him, to love him, but 
 it is commanded us under the greatest punishment and obliga- 
 tion, for it teaches that we have a God. By this command- 
 ment you are not freed from any sin, yea it outweighs all 
 sin, whenever the opportunity is at hand to keep and fulfill 
 
 ;this commandment. For if thou hadst sinned against all other 
 commandments, and that in various ways, thou didst not sin 
 as much as when thou this moment dost doubt this first 
 commandment. For this would be the same as to deny God, 
 which is horrible only to think of. For v/ho can say in the 
 face of his God, thou art not God? Yea, who can hear this? 
 Yet, he who doubts, says this with the full and everlasting 
 fervor of his heart. The tempted one does not think he says 
 it, yea. indeed, he does say something like this, or what is 
 nearer the truth, he suffers satan to say it in him. 
 
 But how 3'ou will say if he torments me concerning pre- 
 destination and makes me uneasy, so that I hope in vain, if I 
 am not predestined? Concerning this I will say more under 
 Ps. 22, if Christ give us grace. In the meantime it is sufficient 
 that this is the most dangerous of all temptations. If thou 
 knowest why satan and the wisdom of the flesh thus move you, 
 you will at the same time know with what means you can meet 
 them. 
 
 First you must hold firmly and be perfectly sure that this 
 thought is not of God, and therefore with all diligence banish 
 it as one that in many wa3^s is displeasing to God. That it 
 is not of God thou canst know by this, that whatever is of 
 
PSALM V. 281 
 
 God moves us to keep his commandments and do his will, 
 for God does, thinks and wills nothing more than that his 
 will may be done. But this overcurious solicitude, whether 
 you are predestinated or not, he has not commanded you, 
 since he has forbidden you the same, Ps. 55 :22, "Cast thy bur- 
 den upon Jehovah", and Matt. 6:31-33, "Be not anxious. 
 Seek ye first the kingdom of God etc." 
 
 Satan occupies your attention with these useless and in- 
 jurious cares for no other reason than that you should under 
 their weight forget the commandments of your God, in which 
 he has commanded you to hope and believe, and he at the 
 same time deceitfully leads you to think only of yourself and 
 love yourself, when you begin to seek your own. For this 
 is his last and greatest trick, by which he leads us so that 
 our care is self love, and he makes us thus guilty before the 
 commandment of God. What will it profit, if you are occu- 
 pied with this thought to the end of the world ? Nothing will 
 result from it ; thou wilt not be secure by it, neither will God 
 think differently of you. 
 
 Therefore you should hurl the thunderbolts of the scrip- 
 tures against the work of such fools and against satan, who 
 suggests such things. First the words of Ps. i :2, "Blessed 
 is the man whose delight is in the law of Jehovah, not in his 
 own predestination, day and night." And this saying from 
 Sirach 6 137, "Let thy thoughts be upon the precepts of the 
 Lord, and meditate continually in his commandments". Ex. 
 13:19, "It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thy hand, and 
 for a memorial between thine eyes". And Matt. 7:21, "Not 
 every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father 
 who is in heaven", and many like passages. 
 
 For God requires nothing more than that his will be 
 commended unto us with assiduous solicitude. When we do 
 that our predestination will be spontaneously accomplished 
 and that without any anxiety on our part. The tempter how- 
 
2^2 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 ever wills that you should first be concerned about yourself, 
 and then about the commandments of God, whereby you in 
 this way prefer yourself to your God, and do not love him 
 above all things, yea you do not have a God. For if they 
 hardly persevere who hold most faithfully to the command- 
 ments of God, where will they be who forsake them and en- 
 gage in strange and useless thoughts? Then you should say 
 to satan and to your heart : God has not commanded that, 
 but has called me to hope; and about this alone am I con- 
 cerned; should I wish to do that, I Vv'ould not be able. 
 
 Secondly you can readily see that this thought is not of 
 God in that satan with these strokes intends two great evils 
 for you ; first that you should tempt God, which he had in 
 mind with Christ on the pinnacle of the temple. For he is 
 concerned to occupy you with this theme, in order that you 
 should wish to be certain of your predestination or to see a 
 sign from heaven. For what is it for man to be tormented 
 about his predestination, except to be impatient concerning 
 the uncertainty of the divine decree? What does this im- 
 patience do except tempt God in that it desires to be certain of 
 the counsel of God as far as it concerns each individual? In 
 short such a person has a hatred toward God, that he is God, 
 since he will not that he should know more than he knows. 
 
 Therefore you should meet this awful sin with the word 
 of God as Christ did, when he said, Matt. 4:7, 'Tt is written, 
 thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God". For thou 
 must not desire to know his secrets concerning which he has 
 willed that you should not know them, and be happy in this 
 his will, which he has commanded you to observe in all things. 
 But if you love this will of his unrevealed decree, then thou 
 art already predestinated. Hence there follows naturally from 
 the keeping of the commandments, without all this worry of 
 ours, that which we so anxiously and in vain seek by a per- 
 verted study in the face of the commandments, and yet never 
 find it, because the commandment of God is the way to God. 
 
PSALM V. 283 
 
 If we have lost it, in that we through the temptation of satan 
 wish to accompHsh this by our own care for our salvation and 
 predestination, we are necessarily lead into error and loose 
 both the way of God and our own way and thereby both our 
 predestination and our salvation. 
 
 The other very great evil is, that satan labors to bring you 
 into the same deep fall, which he himself experienced and into 
 which he plunged Adam. For what is his aim with this anxie- 
 ty about your predestination, except .that you should wish, as 
 I have said, to know the decrees of God? But if man wills to 
 know God's counsels, that means that he wills to be like God, 
 as satan willed it, as he said. Is. 14:13-14, "I will ascend into 
 heaven ; I will make myself like the Most High", and to Adam 
 he said. Gen. 3 15, "Ye shall be as God, knowing good and 
 evil". This means again that you will not that he should be 
 your God, which is the greatest of all sins. Thus you see how 
 subtly through his horrible deeds he stirs you against the com- 
 mandments of your God in order that you may experience the 
 same fall which he experienced. 
 
 Therefore he must be crushed by the word of God, which 
 says, "It is not good to eat much honey ; so for men to search 
 out their own glory is grievous". Prov. 25 127. Again, "Seek 
 not the things that are too hard for thee, neither searth the 
 things that are above thy strength. But what is commanded 
 thee, think thereupon with reverence ; for it is not needful for 
 thee to see with thine eyes the things that are in secret. Be 
 not curious in unnecessary matters ; for more things are showed 
 unto thee than men understand. For many are deceived by 
 their own vain opinion ; and an evil suspicion hath over- 
 thrown their judgment". Sirach 3:21-24. 
 
 Therefore this over-curious concern about the works of 
 God is forbidden by the word of God, in which we are taught 
 that they are above our reason and sense and his judgments 
 are incomprehensible, and we should rather exercise our- 
 selves in fear in order that we may hope in him with con- 
 
284 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 fidence, and turn this impractical undertaking back upon sa- 
 tans own head, and, comforted with Joab, being armed with 
 the word of God, say, "Be of good courage ; and Jehovah do 
 that which seemeth him good", 2 Sam. 10:12. Oh beautiful 
 example! If he had disputed before whether the victory were 
 predestinated, he would not have fought, moreover by dis- 
 puting he would have become indifferent, and interested in 
 other affairs, and thus been shamefully defeated. 
 
 Here we see our most impious impiety, our most stupid 
 stupidity and our perverse perversity. We marry wives, 
 build houses, plant vineyards, buy goods, and no one first dis- 
 putes whether it is predestined or not, whether the wife is 
 chaste or an adultress, whether the house will be destroyed 
 by fire or stand, whether the goods will perish or endure. In 
 short all our works, especially our sins, we courageously begin 
 and do without being concerned about what God has predes- 
 tined as to them. Here the most high counsel is very clear in 
 the face of our rashness. There is no one who is not first 
 thoughtful, solicitous and zealous as to how he shall accom- 
 plish what he undertakes, before he investigates and disputes 
 about predestination. 
 
 Why is this ? Because as they are not the precepts of God, 
 they are truly our own and chosen by us. But when it comes 
 to the works of God and his commandments, then the question 
 at once arises, the counsel of God is attacked, yea, then we 
 begin to dispute whether we will obey the commandments of 
 God before we know his secrets. Does it not provoke the 
 divine majesty with the most bitter perverseness that w^e are 
 so patient and oblivious in our own affairs as to his counsel, 
 and so impatient and inquisitive as to his aft'airs ? Is it not 
 time that just as no leaf of a tree falls to the ground without 
 his will, so no soul can be saved without his counsel ? No 
 hair grows upon your head without his counsel ; without his 
 counsel neither do you eat bread nor drink water. Here you 
 do not dispute nor hesitate, here you are not concerned about 
 
PSALM V. 285 
 
 his counsel, you are at once settled down to work. But then 
 you are truly full of questions and hesitation. 
 
 Now therefore understand at least that these offensive and 
 .crafty thoughts have not come to you from God but from 
 satan, in order to draw you by these unnecessary things from 
 the commandment and most agreeable will of your loving God. 
 Right and most suitable are the words of the preacher, Solo- 
 mon, Ecc. .11:4 etc., "He that observeth the wind shall not 
 sow ; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. As thou 
 knowest not what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones 
 do grow in the womb of her that is Vv'ith child ; even so thou 
 knowest not the work of God who doeth all". 
 
 How is it? Shall we do nothing since he does all, and 
 we do not understand it? That be far from us, for it follows, 
 Ecc. II :6, "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening 
 withhold not thy hand ; for thou knowest not which shall pros- 
 per, whether this or that, (that is that sown in the morning or 
 in the evening), or whether they both shall be alike good". 
 You see how God teaches us that we do not know all and 
 yet, therefore we should not cease, moreover he commands us, 
 that we should labor the more, because we do not know what 
 shall come to pass, while those perverted people will do nothing 
 because they do not know what shall take place. 
 
 For the devil seeks this in order that they may not do any- 
 thing in life nor die in peace and hope, and at both times be 
 rebellious against God and disobedient as to God's will, yet in 
 such a way that they may not have the blame but God himself, 
 since he did not first by revelation make void his decree and 
 annihilate the glorious majesty of his Godhead by making his 
 counsel of none effect, as if he had burdened these people with 
 his commandments. For these very sanctified people would 
 have gladly done all that was commanded, if they only knew 
 first, what God had thought concerning them, that is if they 
 had had no God and no lawgiver; for he can not be God if 
 
286 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 he is not different, and does not think and know different than 
 we do. 
 
 But see again, when God reveals to ns his counsel, we 
 first fear then contemn and despair, as there are now people 
 who think it is injurious to preach grace and predestination 
 \ since many take offense. Thus man who is only dust dishonors 
 everything that God wills and does and is warm only on one 
 subject, namely, that he is without the fear of God, that is, 
 without God. For God cannot be feared if he have not secret 
 thoughts concerning us ; then neither faith, hope nor love could 
 exist. Woe to thee, most raging impiety. 
 
 We will return to the subject of hope in order to bring 
 our long discourse to an end. 
 
 Now there are two things to be observed in hope, our own 
 merits and the promise of God. In the mJdst of these thou 
 art to understand hope. Thou art to know that hope depends 
 on the promise of God and that merits proceed from hope; 
 so that merits are not the rich foundation of hope, but hope 
 is the work of the Word or promise of God. 
 
 Wherefore, merits are not necessary unto a man's hoping. 
 Thou art rather to look with the purest simplicity at the Word 
 of the free promise, by hoping in which thou mayest afterwards 
 bring forth merits. Thus the apostle Paul, in his Epistle to 
 the Galatians, does nothing but prove that our righteous- 
 ness does not proceed from the law, nor works, but from 
 the promise and blessing of God. For the mercy of a freely- 
 promising God and his truth which fulfils that promise are the 
 true causes of hope; by these the mind is encouraged and 
 drawn out to hope, to call upon God, and to live well ; for 
 if these things did not exist or were not revealed unto us there 
 wo-ild be neither faith nor hope. 
 
 Wherefore, the object of faith and of hope is a freely prom- 
 ising God, or the Word itself of God promising, and nothing 
 else. If this Word be not observed always and every where 
 hope must of necessity fall, just as the house which is built 
 
PSALM V. 287 
 
 upon the sand must fall when the floods and winds beat upon 
 it. For upon this rock of the sure promise and infallible Word 
 of God is the church of Christ built; as it is written, Prov. 
 i8:io, "The name of Jehovah is a strong tower: the right- 
 eous runneth into it, and is safe" ; also Ps. 61 13, "For thou 
 hast been a refuge for me, a strong tower from the enemy". 
 There is nothing here about merits ; all that is said is about 
 God himself and his name in which alone man is to place his 
 hope. 
 
 « It follows therefore that hope does not proceed from merits, 
 but, on the contrary, merits proceed from hope. Or hope goes 
 on from hope to hope ; and so it is before all merits and goes 
 on with merits after merits. Even as in this life we do not lay 
 hold of righteousness, but are always stretching forth after it 
 and seeking it, always seeking to be justified, always seeking 
 to have our sins forgiven, always seeking that the will of our 
 Father which is in heaven may be done, and always desiring 
 that his name may be sanctified. Yet in this very state we 
 are accounted righteous before God ; as he saith. Matt. 5 :6, 
 "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
 for they shall be filled." So that hope may rightly be under- 
 stood as increasing from itself while tribulations work it if they 
 be but so endured that we may be found proved by them. 
 
 From this it seems to follow that other virtues may be ptr- 
 fected by doing; but faith, hope, and love, only by suffering; 
 by sufifering, I say, that is, by being passive under the divine 
 operation. Because the works of the other virtues are the fruits 
 of faith, hope, and love ; for who can expect to see incarnate 
 faith, incarnate hope, and incarnate love? In a word, all the 
 other virtues are exercised only in the grosser works. 
 
 Here the spouse of Christ again defiles her feet which she 
 gloried in having washed, again puts on the garment of which 
 she gloried in having been stripped, because those things which 
 are done by the flesh cannot be done without sin and pollution. 
 But the works of faith, hope, and love, appear to be the same. 
 
288 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 For what is faith, but that motion of the heart which is called 
 beHeving? What is hope, but that motion of the heart which 
 is called hoping? And what is love, but that motion of the 
 heart which is called loving? For all those phantasms are 
 merely human, the habit is one thing and the act another. 
 Especially in these divine matters in which there is nothing 
 but a passive suffering or being acted upon, a being moved, a 
 being carried along by the Spirit, whereby the soul is moved, 
 formed, cleansed, and impregnated by the Word of God. So 
 that the business of these virtues is nothing else than a purging 
 of the vine-branch, as Christ saith, that, being purged, it may 
 bring forth more fruit. John 15:2. 
 
 Finally, other virtues are employed in courser things and 
 things outwardly carnal ; but these inwardly, with the pure 
 W^ord of God, whereby the soul is taken hold of and does not 
 take hold of any thing itself; that is, it is stripped of its own 
 garments, of its shoes, of all its possessions, and of all its 
 imaginations, and is taken away into the wilderness by the 
 Word, to which it cleaves, or rather which lays hold of it, and 
 leads it in a wonderful way, as Hosea saith, 2 114, to the invis- 
 ible, into the banqueting house. Song 2 4, and into the marriage 
 chamber. Song i 4. 
 
 But this leading, this taking her away, and this stripping 
 her, miserably tortures her. For it is a hard path to travel 
 and a strait and narrow way, to leave all visible things, to 
 be stripped of all natural senses and ideas, and to be led out 
 of all those things to which we have been accustomed ; this, 
 indeed, is to die and to descend into hell. For the soul seems 
 unto herself to perish utterly, when all those things in which 
 she stood and was employed and to which she cleaved are 
 destroyed, and when she herself can neither touch earth nor 
 heaven nor feel herself nor God, and saith, 'Tell my beloved 
 that I am sick from love,' Song 5 :8. As if she had said, I am 
 brought to nothing and I know nothing, I am come into black- 
 ness and darkness, I can see nothing, I live and am made strong 
 
PSALM V. 289 
 
 by faith, hope, and love only, that is, I am wholly passive, for 
 when I am weak then am I strong. 
 
 This leading or being led is what the mystical theologians 
 call 'going into darkness' and 'ascending above entity and non- 
 entity.' But I much question whether such understand them- 
 selves, for they make all these things to be elicited acts and 
 do not believe them to be sufferings and feeling sensations of the 
 cross, death, and hell. But the theology of the cross alone is 
 our theology! 
 
 From these things I think we may clearly understand the 
 Vv^ord of the apostle, where he makes hope to be the ark of 
 patience, proved by tribulations polished, refined, and beaten 
 out as it were, like a vessel from the hand of the artificer, so 
 that he shines forth far beyond all visible and comprehensible 
 things, being taught to trust, not in merits, but in God alone. 
 So a golden vessel wrought out with file and hammer is not 
 formed for showing the color of it only nor yet for displaying 
 the workmanship, but is made a vessel that it may be of some 
 service. Nor is it polished that it might be made gold, but 
 it is formed into a vessel that its owner might use it. So man 
 is formed by hope for the use of God. But the works them- 
 selves do not produce this hope, for this would be to make that 
 first which is last. 
 
 Wherefore, that figurative language of the scripaure which 
 describes this purging and operation of hope to be a work- 
 manship or a vessel sent forth from the hand of the Word 
 pleases us well ; as, Prov. 25 :4, 5, "Take away the dross from 
 the silver, and there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner. 
 Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne 
 shall be established in righteousness". Thus the golden calf, 
 Ex. 32, is said by the same figure to have been sent forth from 
 the hand of the workmen, that is, formed and fashioned by 
 them. Hence we have the scripture, Ps. 121 :8, "Jehovah will 
 keep thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth 
 and for evermore"; that is, the beginning and the end of all 
 
290 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 thy temptations ; as Augustine saA'S, in his observations upon 
 that passage. 
 
 It is an error, therefore, to hold that free-wih has any 
 hand in a good work, for when we say a good work, as we 
 have said of beheving, hoping, and loving, is a moving, a 
 carrying along, and a leading, wrought by the Word of God, 
 and a continual purging and renewing of the mind and un- 
 derstanding day by day in the knowledge of God ; and though 
 that passive reception of the teaching of God is not always 
 the same in degree and extent, yet it is a being continually 
 taught while lying passive in the hand of God. "Behold, says 
 the Lord by Jeremiah, 18:6, "as the clay in the potter's hand, 
 so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel". What power of 
 action has clay, I ask you, while it lies in the potter's hand 
 and he is forming it into shape? Is it not seen to be wholly 
 passive? And yet by this its passive and shapeless state it is 
 rendered fit to be moulded into the form that shall please the 
 potter. 
 
 In the same manner we. by growing hope while tribulation 
 worketh for that end, are conformed to the divine likeness and 
 are renewed after the image of him that created us, as Paul 
 saith. Col. 3 :io. But the incarnate will or that which is con- 
 nected with the external act may rightly be said to co-operate 
 and to have in that sense activity. Just in the same way as the 
 sword can do nodiing whatever by any power in itself to move 
 but is merely passive, but in giving the wound it co-operates 
 with the person who cuts by its means. Wherefore, as the 
 sword does not at all co-operate as to putting of itself in mo- 
 tion, so neither does the will co-operate in the putting of itself 
 in motion to do good, for that is a moving v.a-ought by the 
 W^ord of God where the will is merely passive; which never- 
 theless when put in motion co-operates to perform the work 
 of the hands in praying, in walking, in laboring, etc. 
 
 But I have now digressed, perhaps, somewhat too far, I 
 will therefore return to the Psalm. 
 
PSALM V, 291 
 
 But let all those that take refuge (hope) in thee rejoice, 
 let them ever shout for joy {they shall shout for joy for ever). 
 
 Let us first look at the force of the words, and then at the 
 occasion on which, or the reason why, the prophet spoke thus. 
 Only "those that hope" are to rejoice ; and who these that hope 
 are, we have already fully shown. And they shall hope "in 
 thee" ; not in any thing of their own, nor in any creature, for 
 there are some that trust in man. 
 
 We also remark that the word olam is of very frequent 
 use in the scriptures and has been rendered 'for ever', 'always', 
 'for ever and ever', and in many other ways bearing the like 
 signification. In the Hebrew, by a manner of speech peculiar 
 to that language, it signifies time of an uncertain and indefinite 
 duration ; at least, it does not always signify 'eternity'. Hence 
 in the Law of Moses it is often said, 'A certain rite, etc., shall 
 be observed by your generations for ever' ; whereas, it is cer- 
 tain that all those cities, etc. were at some time to have an 
 end. Therefore the word appears to me not to be translated 
 improperly by the Latin words semper, perennitcr, and per- 
 pctno. 
 
 But what was it that moved the prophet to set forth these 
 feelings so copiously and fully? Doubtless the conversation 
 of the wicked whom he saw spending their days in wealth", 
 as Job saith 21 :i3, and so to live as if it were their peculiar 
 privilege to rejoice, exult, and glory; which was an offence 
 so deceitful and had such an effect upon the saints, that many 
 prophets complained of this as their greatest temptation and 
 were moved with murmuring and revenge. For as the state 
 of such persons is an offence unto the saints from the appear- 
 ance of works and temporal merits; so it is also from the ap- 
 pearance of temporal rewards which it carries with it. Hence 
 Asaph saith, Ps. 73:1-6, "Surely God is good to Israel, even 
 to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet were 
 almost gone: my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was 
 envious at the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the 
 
292 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but their 
 strength is firm. Tliey are not in trouble as other men ; neither 
 are they plagued Hke other men. Therefore pride is as a chain 
 about their neck". 
 
 And Jer. 12:1, "Wherefore doth the way of the wicked 
 prosper ? wherefore are all they at ease that deal very treacher- 
 ously?" Again more fully, Job 21 :'], etc. "Wherefore do the 
 wicked live, become old, yea, wax mighty in power?" 
 
 The prophet therefore in order to fortify the godly against 
 being deceived by these external appearances and ofifences 
 calls them aside and exhorts them to despise the rejoicings of 
 such as these and to turn themselves to true rejoicing, which is 
 rejoicing in God. Wherefore we are through this whole verse 
 to observe a twofold antithesis, as it were, in this way. V\^e 
 appear to such men as these to be miserable, because we are 
 in tribulation and are deprived of all those temporal things in 
 which they abound and rejoice. And thus there is an offence 
 given to both these characters by that which they behold ex- 
 ternally, and this outward appearance deceives very many. 
 But inwardly, where we live by hope, they die. There we re- 
 joice and shall rejoice for ever, but there they neither can, nor 
 ever will rejoice, if they die as they now live. And our joy 
 is so real and solid that we are the only persons of whom it 
 can be truly said, 'they shall rejoice' ; whereas, their joy is 
 more a sorrow than a joy if you look within them. 
 
 Therefore he condemns the joy of the wicked altogether 
 and commends the joy of the godly. As the joy of the latter is 
 without any outward show and that of the former with a 
 great deal of such outward show, there is need of faith to un- 
 derstand the words of the Spirit which are spoken in the 
 Spirit ; otherwise, thou wilt not understand them and wilt be 
 offended with the appearances of these characters. For the 
 carnal man cannot savor the things of God ; that is, he cannot 
 understand how a man can rejoice under the privation of all 
 enjoym.ents, even spiritual, because he knows not that there 
 
PSALM V. 293 
 
 can be any joy but in present things sensibly enjoyed ; whereas, 
 our glorying and rejoicing are in the cross of our Lord. 
 
 But as the Hebrews have no optative mood and therefore 
 use the future of the indicative in its stead and as we have 
 seen from the preceding observations that these words and 
 feelings of this Psalm are full of burning zeal, it is just to 
 understand this verse as spoken under a feeling of holy in- 
 dignation and having such a meaning as this — Why do these 
 ungodly ones rage thus? Why do they delude the souls of 
 men by a fallacious and destructive external appearance ? Con- 
 demn, O Lord, I pray thee, their joy and expel them ; make 
 their hypocrisy manifest and let them fall from their deceitful 
 appearances, that those only may rejoice who hope in thee; 
 that it may be made manifest and that all may know that there 
 is no joy anywhere but in the multitude of thy mercies. I 
 burn and am grieved, O Lord, that I cannot persuade them to 
 these things, for they will not hear them. Do thou therefore 
 judge them and make manifest their vanity and our truth. 
 
 Here then we have it told us, where and what true joy is, 
 namely, a good confidence and a conscience resting in the mercy 
 of God. For they that have had experience in these things say, 
 'that there is no joy above that of a pure conscience, nor any 
 sorrow greater than that of a guilty and troubled conscience; 
 as the wise man saith, "He that is of a merry heart hath a 
 continual feast", Prov. 15:15. Again, Ps. 26:3, "For thy 
 loving-kindness is before mine eyes ; and I have walked in 
 thy truth". 
 
 A pure and joyful conscience comes in no other way than 
 by looking steadfastly to the mercy of God ; as it is said, Ps. 
 4:6, 7, "Jehovah, lift thou up the light of thy countenance 
 upon us : thou hast put gladness in my heart". But what is 
 the joy of the characters before mentioned? A plenty of corn, 
 wine, and oil! that is, the joy of swine, consisting in the surfeit 
 of the body. 
 
294 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Let them ever shout for joy. 
 
 This verb Jerome translated not improperly 'shall praise' ; 
 for some will have it that vocal joy is here meant, either that of 
 singing or that of speaking; just as, when we are joyful we 
 are accustomed to talk pleasantly or even to sing, and to talk 
 much of, praise, and boast of, him in whom we rejoice; as in 
 Ps. 35 :28, "And my tongue shall talk of thy righteousness, 
 and of thy praise all the day long", that is, shall proclaim it 
 with joy. 
 
 Whether therefore the words "for ever" refer to "rejoice", 
 or to "shall shout for joy", the prophet still goes on in the 
 same zeal and holy jealousy; as if he had said, let them talk 
 largely of their good things, let them boast of themselves and 
 theirs, let them sing of themselves ; they not only do not truly 
 exult and rejoice, but will not even rejoice as they now do for 
 ever. "The joy of the godless," as Job saith 20 15, "is but for 
 a moment." And as he says again, 21 :i3, "They spend their 
 days in prosperity, and in a moment they go down to the 
 grave". 
 
 So uncertain and unstable is their boasting; and even that 
 does not last long but is disturbed by many calamities and 
 sorrows. Even if all should go on well and prosperously yet 
 their joy ends in sorrow at last and their folly shall be made 
 manifest to all, as was that of Jannes and Jambres, 2 Tim. 3 :8, 
 etc. Why therefore do they thus miserably deceive and destroy 
 themselves? But all they that hope in thee shall rejoice and 
 shall shout for joy for ever, and no stranger intermeddleth 
 with their joy, as the wise man saith, Prov. 14:10. 
 
 Here we see the fruits from which we may know whether 
 we are under grace or not ; for as Paul saith. Gal. 5 :22, "The 
 fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, etc."; and we cannot say that 
 we do not know whether or not we have this fruit, for if our 
 joy be continual and stable and our praises of God persevering, 
 even under sufferings and afflictions it cannot be a deceiving 
 sign ; for, "by their fruits ye shall know them". The cross 
 
PSALM V. 295 
 
 proves all things ; wherefore, if thou canst say with Ps. 18 :3, 
 "I will call upon Jehovah ; so shall I be saved", thou shalt 
 indeed be saved ; for this cross and calling upon God under 
 affliction the joy of the wicked cannot endure, and therefore 
 they neither call upon God continually nor is their joy stable. 
 
 The other fruit that follows is to talk of, to speak freely 
 of, to proclaim joyfully, and to hear the Word of Christ, to 
 extol his righteousness, to sing of his mercy ; and to detest un- 
 godly fables, calumnies, obscenities, and such like dregs of the 
 world. And can we not feel and know these things for our- 
 selves? especially if we are tempted, tried, and opposed on 
 account of them and because of them, suffer envy, reproach, 
 terrors and other evils? This therefore will be by no means a 
 fallacious sign of Christ living in thee, if thou persevere in 
 thus praising, rejoicing, and proclaiming the grace of God 
 in the face of, and in opposition to the pride of men. 
 
 It is not in vain, therefore, tliat David has added 'continu- 
 ally' or "for ever" to the word "shall shout for joy"; because 
 when this joy of the Spirit breaks forth it is sure to raise up 
 against it the adversaries of the truth, as we see it happened 
 to the apostles. Acts 2 :3, 4, 5, etc. ; and because many are to 
 be found who praise Christ and the mercy, truth, righteous- 
 ness, and grace of God, but do it not continually, because they 
 do not truly hope, and truly rejoice in God; f-?r they fall away 
 in time of temptation, and do not persevere in the face of ini- 
 quity, nor at all times nor in all things, nor do they dare at 
 all times to glory in God, that is, in the grace of God. 
 
 There are many of this sort in the present day, who speak 
 the truth only before those of the common people who bear 
 all things, and never before those whom they fear and have 
 any reason to believe will become their persecutors ; whereas 
 it is before the latter that it is more especially to be spoken. 
 If thou reply, but such are rulers of the people and they will 
 put us out of the synagogue, will excommunicate us, and cast 
 us out of the city, — hear what follows, 
 
296 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Because thou defendest (shalt dwell in) them. 
 
 This Jerome renders, 'And thou shalt protect them.' And 
 who shall prevail against us when God himself is our pro- 
 tector? If it were not so hard and difficult a matter to rejoice 
 in, and proclaim the mercy of God against the workers of 
 iniquity and the speakers of lies, there would be no need that 
 such an exhortative promise should be made to us. David 
 himself knew that the gates of hell would rise up against our 
 joy, and therefore he says, but still trust. The God of Jacob 
 is our helper. They will not prevail. He himself will dwell 
 in us. And i John 4:4, says, "Greater is he that is in you 
 than he that is in the world". And Paul, Rom. 8:31, "If God 
 is for us, who is against us?" 
 
 By consulting the Hebrew, I find here an absolute verb, 
 the same which we have in Ps. 2 :6, "Yet have I set my king", 
 etc.; which verb, according to Reuchlin, signifies 'to ordain', 
 'to constitute', 'to set over'. Hence, according to the proper 
 meaning of the Hebrew this passage is, "Thou shalt dwell in 
 them"; that is, thou shalt ordain over them, thou shalt con- 
 stitute over them, thou shalt be an ordainer over them, thou 
 shalt have them for thy care, thou shalt rule over them ; which 
 Jerome has rightly, though not fully, rendered, :Thou shalt 
 protect them', for the signification of the Hebrew word is 
 much more extensive. 
 
 In the same way this also is absolute, 'They shall rejoice, 
 or praise'. As if he had said there shall be, and may there be, 
 preachers and evangelists, which is the meaning that the signi- 
 fication of the Hebrew more immediately conveys, for to 
 evangelize or to preach the Gospel is to proclaim glad, happy, 
 sweet and good tidings ; which is what the Hebrew word 
 TERARENU signifies. There are no other tidings that are truly 
 glad tidings, but the remission of sins, the multitude of the 
 mercies of God, and comfort for an afflicted conscience. Yet 
 that which happened to these messengers and proclaimers of 
 grace we may see in the apostles, martyrs, and all saints. On 
 
PSALM V. 297 
 
 the other hand we know how Christ dwelt in them, ruled them, 
 and preserved them. But, who will dwell in these their ene- 
 mies ? Who will protect them ? Who will rule them ? They 
 want no protectors, they are strong, they are giants of the earth, 
 they are the powerful gates of hell and the seat of the devil, 
 for there the prince of this world is and in them he dwells. 
 Now follows the remaining part of the verse. 
 Let them also that love thy name he joyful {shall glory) in thee. 
 
 Although Jerome rightly translates these words 'And they 
 also that love thy name shall rejoice in'thee', yet our translator 
 has beautifully expressed the meaning of the Hebrew word, 
 which signifies another kind of joy than that meant by the first 
 verb "rejoice". As I am inclined to divine, the former signi- 
 fies properly to have joy, to receive and enjoy in one's self; and 
 the latter word, to cause to be, or to make joyful, to rejoice 
 another, or, as the Latins say, to be pleasant, juciindus. If any 
 one is pleasant and happy from the joy which he experiences 
 in himself there is a rejoicing in gladness ; as is written Ps. 
 68 13, "Let them rejoice with gladness". Again, Ps. 21 :6, 
 "Thou makest him (the king) glad with joy"; otherwise, as 
 we say, we should be filled with joy in ourselves and afford 
 joy to others. Hence we have in i Sam. 2 :i, "My heart exult- 
 eth in Jehovah" ; that is, is happy, ready to proclaim its joy. 
 And so also, i Chron. 16 132, "Let the fields exult and all that 
 is herein". Here the poet figuratively called the fields 'joy- 
 ful', because by their gladdening nature they make us joyful. 
 
 Perhaps it is folly in me to dwell so much upon words, 
 when there are many other words in the Hebrew language 
 which signify joy, the difference in which, I neither can nor 
 wish to undertake to set forth. It is sufficient for us to suppose 
 that the kind of joy here mentioned pertains to that affection of 
 gratitude which renders us grateful to, and happy in, our bene- 
 factor, rejoiced at his gifts, and joyful in such gratitude; thus 
 bringing our returns to our benefactor and his gifts, as the 
 fruitful field does to its cultivator. That this is the true signi- 
 
298 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 fication appears, because at the beginning of the verse an ab- 
 solute verb is used, "and they shall rejoice" ; but here it is 
 said "and they shall rejoice in thee". The former verb plainly 
 indicates the feeling on account of a benefit received ; but the 
 latter, the joyful returns of gratitude to the benefactor. For 
 this rejoicing in joy is set forth in Ps. 122:1, "I was glad when 
 they said unto me, etc" ; where we find the same vv^ord that 
 we have in the beginning of the present verse. I do not say 
 that this is a standard rule for understanding these two verbs, 
 but I observe that they are so to be understood in this passage 
 from their ruling and absolute state. For in the passages "Be 
 glad in Jehovah", Ps. 32:11, and "Be glad in Jehovah, ye 
 righteous", Ps. 97 :i2, we find the same verb with another 
 governed word as that with which the present verse begins 
 in a absolute position. The signification therefore of the verbs 
 which I have given must be right, unless they say that you may 
 rejoice in God and in his benefits without any feeling of grati- 
 tude. 
 
 This moreover exactly agrees with the meaning of the con- 
 text. For as in the former part of this verse he describes the 
 joy in tribulation, so in the latter part he describes the joy 
 in prosperity, or the rejoicing in joy, which rejoicing cannot 
 be true and sincere unless it be a rejoicing -in God only; ac- 
 cording to the words of Isaiah 61 :io, "Rejoicing I will rejoice 
 in the Lord". All these things we cannot vuiderstand better 
 than by setting before us, as we have said, the generation that 
 is contrary to all such rejoicing; in speaking of whom, we 
 must invert the whole of this verse, for they being in adversity 
 are in sorrow instead of rejoicing, and despair of God. They 
 do not rejoice continually and speak good concerning God, 
 but continually murmur and speak evil of him. Therefore God 
 does not protect them nor dwell in them. On the other hand 
 when they abound in prosperity they glory as fools, not in 
 the Lord, but in their own works, please themselves, admire 
 their own, love their own name, and seek their own glory. 
 
PSALM V. 299 
 
 We may rightly invert the whole of this verse making it thus 
 applicable to them, and say 'And they shall all sorrow who 
 hope not in thee, they shall always murmur ; thou shalt forsake 
 them ; and all they that love their own name shall glory in 
 themselves'. 
 
 Therefore this verse, in a wonderful and brief way makes 
 a distinction between each prosperity and adversity, between 
 each generation of men, and between each kind of affections, 
 and works ; and the spirit of the prophet describes the whole 
 with a most appropriate antithesis. For it is impossible that he 
 should not be filled with sorrow, who does not hope in the 
 Lord, when tribulation comes upon him ; and he who is in sor- 
 row cannot but continually murmur, because there isnopraising 
 God without joy of heart, and this sorrowful and impatient 
 murmurer must displease God and be more and more forsaken 
 of him ; for God dwelleth not in Babylon but in Salem ; his 
 tabernacle is in a place of peace, Ps. 76 :2. And his spirit rests 
 upon the quiet and the humble. Is. 66 :2. 
 
 On the other hand, it is impossible that he should not re- 
 joice, who hopes in God ; even if the whole world should burst 
 upon the head of such an one he would stand unmoved amid 
 the falling ruins. He who is joyful in such hope cannot but think 
 well of God, exult in his praise, and encourage himself in him. 
 The man thus rejoicing therefore is patient, happy, and in a 
 state to be protected and dwelt in of God. Nor will such an 
 one be permitted to rejoice, hope, or exult in vain, for God 
 preserving will preserve him. This is the dividing road where 
 'The men of blood' and 'the deceitful nien' separate from the 
 men of mercy and the men of a willing mind, in the time of the 
 storm and in the hour of temptation. 
 
 Wherefore as I have often said, our Saul has no better 
 remedy against the evil spirit from the Lord than that our 
 David seizes the harp and plays with his hand, i Sam. 16 :23. 
 That means if thy soul be sad and cast down begin some joyful 
 song or psalm or something that brings thy God to thy memory. 
 
3CXD LUTHER ON THE PSALAIS. 
 
 and thou wilt soon find relief and wilt prove that the counsel 
 of the wise man is good, "In the day of evils be not unmindful 
 of good things", Sir. ii :27. Again, "Sadness hath killed many, 
 and there is no profit in it', Sir. 30 125. For in this case, music 
 in the midst of mourning, even contrary to the proverb, is a 
 most appropriate remedy ; thus David saith, Ps. 43 15, "Why art 
 thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within 
 me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him who is the 
 health of my countenance, and my God". 
 
 Again it is impossible that the man should not please him- 
 self, be puffed up, and glory and rejoice in himself, who, as 
 soon as any prosperity happens to him, loves and praises his 
 own name and glory, and not those of God. While he pleases 
 himself in his prosperity, what does he else than fulfill that 
 common proverb, 'Mules rub each other'. For in the same 
 way he blesses them who bless him, and praises them who praise 
 him ; they in their turn bless him who blesses them, and praise 
 him who praises them; according to Ps. 10:3,* "The sinner 
 is praised in his lusts and the impious are blessed". The god- 
 father jumped the fence and back again, etc. The last thing 
 that they can do, is to vainly boast of, vaunt, and preach them- 
 selves, whose end is confusion, Phil. 3:19. 
 
 On the other hand, it is impossible that he should please 
 himself and rejoice and glory in himself, who, however much 
 serenity and happiness attend him, loves not his own name, 
 but the name of God. For while a man is thus displeased with 
 himself and vile in his own eyes, he will of necessity seek, 
 love, and speak of the name, praise, and glory of God, saying, 
 "Hallowed be thy name", but let my name and the name of all 
 men be profaned. Let all the works of the Lord bless the 
 Lord. Let none bless the righteous but thou alone : let the 
 blessing of the wicked be considered a curse. 
 
 If therefore thou wouldst rightly understand this verse of 
 
 *)This saying was introduced by Roth. 
 
PSALM V. 301 
 
 the Psalmist suppose him, or rather, view him, as placed in 
 3 situation, where beholding the life of the wicked he is vexed 
 with a two-fold offence. The one, because all things turn 
 out unfavorably for him, and all his words and actions are 
 accounted folly and impiety, hereby he is moved to sadness, 
 impatience, and desperation. The other, because all things turn 
 out favorably for the wicked, and all their actions and words 
 are praised and held in esteem ; and are immediately consecrated 
 to immortality ; which is the most galling of all, and more es- 
 pecially irritates to offence. Then growing angry but not sin- 
 ning, he speaks in his heart, he is silent on his bed, and waits 
 for the end, saying the words of this verse. For if any one ask 
 what it is to speak and talk upon the bed concerning which we 
 have spoken, Ps. 4 •.4, it may be rightly answered, it is nothing 
 else than those things which are delivered to us in this verse, 
 for a man to comfort himself in God, while the characters here 
 described are glorying in themselves. 
 
 Hence David here preserves a most appropriate order. For 
 the temptation on flic left hand comes first and is less perilous, 
 because on that side only "a thousand" fall, Ps. 91 :"/, but on 
 tlic right hand ''ten thousand" ; which latter temptation is much 
 more heavy and perilous, and is not undergone except by those 
 who have been long exercised by the former. 
 
 Each temptation is a furnace of probation, as is written, 
 Sir. 27 :5, "The furnace proveth the potter's vessels ; so the 
 trial of man is in his reasoning". Again, Prov. 27:21, "The 
 refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold ; and a man 
 IS tried by his praise". But how ? Because by the former, men 
 are rendered sorrowful and made to murmur ; while by the 
 latter they become vain-glorious, loving their own name, and 
 blessing themselves. In the former case is found more gener- 
 ally the destruction of the common people and those whom we 
 despise as sinners ; but in the latter is the perdition of the fat 
 ones of Israel and the chosen ones among them, and those 
 whom we venerate as the wise and the righteous, that is, the 
 
302 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ungodly, according to Ps. 78:31, "He slew of the fattest of 
 them, and smote down the young men of Israel". And Is. 5 :i4, 
 "And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he 
 that rejoiceth among them descend into it", that is, into hell. 
 
 Therefore God has ever smitten down the high ones and 
 the potentates, that he might terrify us and teach us humility 
 as the safest. And hence it is properly concerning the great 
 ones of the earth that Ps. 76:12 speaks, "He shall cut off the 
 spirit of princes, he is terrible to the kings of the earth". But 
 this has been of no profit whatever to tyrants. Of whom do 
 we read in the Holy Scriptures, that held the highest place, 
 who did not make his glory and loftiness memorable by some 
 signal fall, even if you number the whole of them from Adam 
 down to Peter? Such a care has God ever taken to humble 
 the lofty and great, seeing that it is necessary for the salvation 
 of those who are under them to cut down the flourishing state 
 even of their honor or dignity, lest they should become im- 
 pious lovers of their own glory and admirers of their own name. 
 But on the other hand, there is hardly recorded here and there 
 one of the commonalty as having rendered himself notorious 
 by a crime. We have an Achan, and him who gathered sticks 
 on the sabbath day, Num. 1 5 :32-36, etc. 
 
 CONCERNING THE NOMEN DEI TETRAGRAMMATON^ OR 
 FOUR LETTERED NAME OF GOD. 
 
 It is necessary to consider also what 'the name of the Lord' 
 in this passage is, concerning which many different things 
 have been written in different languages. The Jews boast of 
 ten names of God, according to the testimony of Jerome, and 
 one of these,, which they call the Tetragrammaton, jehovah, 
 they celebrate with great superstition ; by virtue of which they 
 promise to themselves I know not how many safeguards and 
 effects; whereas, by an impious disbelieving and blaspheming 
 of the name of Christ they are all the while continually taking 
 
PSALM V. 303 
 
 the name of God in vain; and they think of any thing else 
 but looking to and trusting in the name of God for the salvation 
 of their souls. And this same superstition has crept also into 
 Christendom ; where many continually boast of, rub with their 
 fingers, fix to their bodies, and carry about with them, these 
 four letters, not at all regarding whether they themselves be 
 godly or ungodly. Like the Magi, who pretend and presume 
 that they can do great wonders with certain letters and char- 
 acters. 
 
 But we as becometh Christians ought to know that without 
 godliness which accompanies faith all things are superstitious 
 and damnable ; so that neither Christ, nor God, will be of any 
 saving benefit to any one, unless they be held by faith. But 
 every name of God, yea, every word of God is of almighty 
 power unto the salvation both of soul and body, if it be 
 possessed in the reverence of faith. It is not the name of God, 
 therefore, but faith in the name of God that does all things; 
 nor is one name more afficacious than another. For if the 
 four-lettered name of God only has all this virtue and efficacy, 
 the church acts foolishly, by not baptizing and performing all 
 her sacraments in that name, instead of performing them in 
 the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, It 
 might well excite w^onder that the church of Christ, which has 
 the Spirit of God, did not find out this before, since she knows 
 all the things of God. 
 
 If you reply, 'But the Tetragrammaton contains all these 
 things in it and the perfections of all the other names ; so that 
 when you name the holy Trinity, or God, or the Lord, the 
 Tetragrammaton is named at the same time'. Why then is it 
 separated from the rest ? Why has it not the same effect when 
 joined with the rest as when it is venerated apart from them? 
 Is it so very holy that when mixed with the others it is polluted 
 bv their profanity? Or is it so invidious that it envies the 
 others the honor of being placed with it? Let ll.en all such 
 things be considered as mere figments of the Jews. Let all 
 
304 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Christians be wiser, and know that all the names of God have 
 the same power and virtue. Have thou godly faith without 
 which not even the name of the holy Trinity can be of any 
 profit to thee. 
 
 But as all those things were intended to be figurative, and 
 as we believe that not one jot or tittle was written in vain, I 
 will not deny that in the four-lettered name there was a figure, 
 peculiar and different from the rest, which was to be revealed 
 in the New Testament, and therefore, it is even now held 
 ineft'able and incommunicable, and is still held as it was before 
 by the Jews, because they most obstinately hate and recoil at 
 the mystery of it which is now revealed. Wherefore let us 
 consider (v/hetther we be thought to trifle or merely to cavil 
 with the Jews), that the four-lettered name is a symbol or sign 
 of the name of the holy Trinity, and the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Spirit, now revealed, but then shadowed forth 
 under Four letters. That we may bring this to some kind of 
 proof, let us argue from the Letters themselves, from their 
 number and from their signification. 
 
 The signification is this. Jod signifies beginning (priiisip- 
 ium), He this {ista) Vaf and. He this {ista) ; which, if gram- 
 matically put together, according to the Latin language, will 
 form this sentence, Principium istius et istiiis; which in all 
 things agrees with the name of the Holy Trinity; for, in the 
 Godhead the Father is the beginning of this, that is, the Son ; 
 and of this, that is the Holy Ghost. To these pronouns this 
 (istius) and this(istiits) represent, in an obscure manner, the 
 Son and the Holy Spirit ; even as it was meet so to be in the 
 Old Testament, wherein the mystery of the Trinity was not 
 to be revealed, but only to be shadowed forth. Nor indeed is 
 even the name of the F'ather clearly revealed, though by the 
 name beginning he was more distinctly pointed out than the 
 Son or the Koly Ghost. In the whole of which is signified that, 
 as Christ sailh, Matt. 1 1 127, neither the Father nor the Son 
 is known by any one but by him to whom they are revealed ; 
 
PSALM V. 305 
 
 even as at this day also the mystery of the Holy Trinity, how- 
 ever much the name may be professed, is known to none but 
 by the teaching of the Spirit of faith. 
 
 It appears therefore that the number and nature of the 
 Persons of the Godhead were not less shadowed forth to the 
 Jews under the tetragrammaton than they are to us under 
 the name trinity. For as when this latter word 
 Trinity is unfolded, its meaning gives us the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; so when the Tetragrammaton 
 is unfolded it gives us Priiicipiuni istiiis et istius, 'The Be- 
 ginning of Him and of Him' ; which, though somewhat ob- 
 scurely, is the same, for in each there are alike Three Persons 
 and Two proceedings set forth to us, and in the name of the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
 
 Secondly, the mnnhcr is Four. Here we have a quadrate 
 or square plane : the first of which itself consists of two simple 
 proportions equal to the first ; of which, one is equal to one and 
 tvv'o equal to two. From this two-fold proportion or proceed- 
 ing, therefore, there proceeds a square figure, consisting of 
 one equal to one, and two equal to two, beginning from unity 
 and ending in quaternity. These proportions are unequal ac- 
 cording to arithmetic, but according to geometry they are 
 equal. 
 
 Thus in the square of this divine name is signified the unity 
 of the paternal substance; from which proceeds the Son, equal 
 to him by the first simple proportion ; and from both proceeds 
 the Holy Spirit, by a second simple proportion, equal to the 
 Father and the Son ; as the proportion of two to two, and one 
 to one, are equal in geometry. And as this simple proportion 
 is of all the most perfect, and as the first is the fountain or 
 head of all proportions, and the hole is a figure V\'herein neither 
 part exceeds the other, nor is exceeded by the other, because 
 one is equal to one, and tv/o are equal to two in all things ; it is 
 clear that by these two proportions or proceedings in this most 
 beautiful square, or quadrate plane, where the substance is all 
 
306 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 one and the same, or, by the symbol of this Tetragrammaton, 
 the equahty of the Persons in the Godhead was set forth to 
 the primitive fathers in a hidden way. For the Son is equal 
 to the Father by the first proceeding, and the Spirit by the 
 second proceeding is equal to the Father and the Son. 
 
 Now to this we may easily refer those four relations which 
 are so commonly used by theologians, active generation (gene- 
 ratio) and passive generation, active breathing (spiratio) and 
 passive breathing. For these four constitute, so to speak, the 
 Triune-God, even as the four letters in the Tetragrammaton 
 constitute his name. 
 
 Thirdly. The letters themselves. The first syllable termin- 
 ates the first proportion in the letter He, which is a soft breath- 
 ing, indicating that the proceeding in the divine Persons is not 
 carnal but spiritual, and altogether sweet and gentle. For if the 
 aspirate letter be extended in sound it is nothing more than a 
 certain soft proceeding of wind or gentle blast ; so that it most 
 appropriately figures forth the proceeding of the Son. In like 
 manner the whole name is terminated by the second proportion 
 in the same letter of a soft breathing ; so that we are to under- 
 stand that the second proceeding is also spiritual and not at 
 all difTering from the former, except its being the second and 
 proceeding from the first. So neither does the Spirit differ 
 from the Fether and the Son, except in his proceeding only, 
 which is from both. Since therefore these proceedings are 
 spiritual and of a most spiritual nature, it of necessity fol- 
 lows that the whole beginning flows into the two proceedings, 
 because the substance is indivisible. Thus the inestimable plur- 
 ality subsists in an all-simple unity. 
 
 These things, I say, and others that may be adduced of the 
 same kind seem to have been figured forth to them of old in 
 the Tetragrammaton or four-lettered name, but which are now 
 indeed made known in all languages, so that there is no more 
 particular need of the Tetragrammaton to understand God, 
 than there is of the whole Hebrew language, and what I say 
 
PSALM V. 307 
 
 is supported by the words of Burgensis when he says, 'The 
 Tetragrammaton was therefore called ineffable or incommuni- 
 cable, because it was not reducible to the etymology of any 
 Hebrew word, and its signification could not be known by any 
 analogy'. Whence it appears that these letters were joined 
 together by the divine wisdom and purpose, and so that they 
 might form a name without a communicable signification, ex- 
 traneous, and not reducible to the nature of the Hebrew lan- 
 guage; in the same way as any ward may be made up of 
 Roman letters, unknown to grammarians and used merely for 
 the sake of a certain signification or commemoration ; which 
 the Valentians seem to have initiated in their Greek word 
 abraxas. 
 
 That name of God, therefore, was rightly called inefifable 
 or incommunicable, because the sacred mystery of the Trinity 
 was not then revealed, though it was secretly figured forth. 
 And this name was rightly said to be applicable to God alone, 
 because it figured forth God according to his substance and 
 internal nature. For the true God is none other in himself 
 than Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or the Trinity, and all that 
 is said of the unity and the proceedings, which can be found 
 in no creature whatever; and therefore, the Tetragrammaton 
 can be applied to no creature. For in other respects the names 
 King, Lord, God, High, and the like, might be applicable and 
 ascribable to any one that stands in the place of God, because 
 angels and men may be likened unto God as to his external 
 works, but they cannot be likened to him in the Trinity in 
 Unity. Therefore they may bear the names of God, but the 
 Tetragrammaton or four-lettered name and the name Trinity 
 they cannot make use of. 
 
 Now as I think that difficulty, Exod. 6 :2 etc., may easily be 
 solved, where many make a great noise about what the Spirit 
 means when he saith, "I am Jehovah : and I appeared unto 
 Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; but 
 
308 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 by my name Jehovah I was not known to them" : whereas, 
 the four-lettered name is found, long before in Gen. 4:1, and 
 afterwards. Now I do not here understand it to be signified 
 that those letters of the Tetragrammaton were not then made 
 known, except it be signified that they were not then composed 
 or written, but that the force and true signification of that 
 name, that is, faith in the Trinity, or the knowledge of Christ, 
 was not abroad in the time of the fathers, nor of Moses, nor 
 of the whole of the Old Testament, but only secretly inspired 
 and shadowed forth under figures. 
 
 But there are some who think that the Tetragrammaton 
 is the name of Jesus, the letter Shin being added ; which, in- 
 deed, I wish were true and proved. But since the Evangelist 
 Matthew, 1:21, gives to his name the meaning of salvation, 
 where the angel says to Joseph, "And thou shalt call his name 
 Jesus ; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins", 
 and since the Tetragrammaton, as I said, is of no etymology 
 at all, it will be difficult to defend such an opinion. Not to 
 mention also that in the Hebrew word which signifies sal- 
 vation, or saviour, there is the necessary or substantial letter 
 as they call it, ain, which the Tetragrammaton will not admit, 
 and which the name Jesus, formed from it has not. But I 
 leave others to exercise their judgment in this matter. I have 
 thus made these observations to guard all against the supersti- 
 tion of the Jews. 
 
 What, then, is the name of God, which the prophet in this 
 verse says is to be loved? This name is not one only, for 
 Paul, I Tim. i :i7, calls him "wise", saying "The only wise 
 God". And in the same place he calls him "The King eternal, 
 immortal, invisible'. And i Tim. 6:15, 16, he calls him "the 
 blessed and only Potentate; who only hath immortality". 
 I John 4 :8, saith, "God is love". And he is not ashamed to 
 be called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Heb. 11 :i6. 
 
 But what would it profit us to bring forward all the writings 
 
PSALM V. 309 
 
 of Dionysius concerning the names of God? What would it 
 profit us to bring forward all the works of the same upon mys- 
 tical theology ? We may do this until we should leave no name 
 to God at all. Indeed how can he that is incomprehensible in 
 nature be affable or communicable in name? Let us leave all 
 speculative attempts of this kind to those who have nothing 
 else to do ; and let us by a simple understanding receive the 
 name of God in the scripture before us as signifying, not that 
 merely by which he is called ,but that which is proclaimed of 
 him abroad; according to Prov. 22:1, "A good name is rather 
 to be chosen than great riches". Again, 10 :/, "The name of the 
 wicked shall rot". And Ps. 22 :22, "I will declare thy name 
 unto my brethren". 
 
 The name of God therefore, is a good report, praise, glory, 
 the preaching and proclamation of a saving God ; as is clearly 
 shown, Ps. 102 :2i, "That men may declare the name of Jehovah 
 in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem". Here David says that 
 the name of the Lord and his praise are the same and are pro- 
 claimed by the same preaching. Again we have, Ps. 148:13, 
 "Let them praise the name of Jehovah ; for his name alone is 
 exalted ; his glory is above the earth and the heaven". 
 
 But since it is God alone that worketh all in all, it is a 
 necessary consequence that the name and glory of all good 
 v/orks ?rc due to God only. He alone therefore is good, wise, 
 just, true, tender, merciful, holy. Lord, Father, Judge and what- 
 ever else can be named or applied to any one in a way of praise. 
 
 From this truth it is manifest that as nothing is left to us 
 either of power, merit, or operation, so we cannot arrogate to 
 ourselves any thing of name, and that as we are men and are 
 nothing but sin, lie, vanity, and can work nothing else, we have 
 a putrid and rotting name. So that "All men are liars", and, 
 "Every man at his best estate is altogether vanity", Ps. 116:11, 
 and Ps. 39:5. 
 
 Wherefore, our name is sin, lie, vanity, unrighteousness, 
 malice, perverseness, and whatever evil may be said of any 
 
310 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 one. When we acknowledge these things and confess them 
 we do rightly ; and then we hate ourselves our own words, our 
 own name, and cast them away and lose sight of them alto- 
 gether, and love, desire, and seek God, his works, and his 
 name, saying, with Ps. 54:1, "Save me, O God, by thy name". 
 As if he had said I shall perish in my own name, yea, I am 
 undone already, but in thy name I shall be saved. 
 
 It is sufficiently manifest therefore that all these things are 
 spoken by the prophet against the godless vain glory of im- 
 pious hypocrites. For as these have the audacity to justify 
 themselves with the Pharisee, Luke i8:ii, and with Simon 
 the leper, Luke 7 :39, so it is equal madness for them to boast 
 of themselves, and to love their own name and preach it abroad, 
 to insult others, and to accuse, expose, and upbraid publicans 
 and sinners with the worst of appelations. But if godly and 
 faithful men glory, they glory in the Lord and desire that the 
 name of the Lord should be sanctified, magnified, and glorified. 
 All such as these accuse, judge, and condemn themselves ; they 
 take the lowest seat, and so are ignorant of their own name 
 and honor altogether. 
 
 But here, again, the cross alone is the judge and test of 
 truth, foi* there are some who boast that the name of the Lord 
 is loved by them. They with great confidence commit to paper 
 such expressions as, 'In the name of the Lord' etc., 'Glory to 
 God only', and, 'Glory to God'. 'In the name of Jesus', and the 
 like. In a word in whose mouth and use is there not that signal 
 and most christian expression, 'Thanks be to God' ? 
 
 What could be more fortunate for the church today, than 
 if there were none who lied and took the name of God in vain 
 when they boastingly make use of all these expressions? But 
 alas, to find such a one is to find a rare bird indeed! For if 
 all such love the name of God indeed, and do not rather love 
 their own names, why do they feel indignant and swell with 
 fury when they are touched by being addressed in their own 
 name? that is, when they are called fools, or evil men, or are 
 
PSALM V. 311 
 
 loaded with any such reproach of the same kind. Why do they 
 not here acknowledge their name and say, 'Thanks be to God' 
 and 'Glory be to God only'? Why do they so pertinaciously 
 resist the truth which another professes before them, when 
 they, according to their own account, profess the same them- 
 selves? Therefore, the cross itself makes all men manifest. 
 So that he spoke truly who uttered these words, "I said in my 
 haste, all men are liars", Ps. 116:11. 
 
 You see therefore how soon such an one's pretended hatred 
 of his own name is turned into a most powerful love of his 
 own name, as soon as his false love of God is made manifest. 
 For such an one will by no means patiently bear his own name 
 to be taken away from him, which he nevertheless continually 
 casts away and takes away from himself, saying, 'Glory be to 
 God', 'Thanks be to God', 'But I am a sinner'. Who then could 
 ever discover this most deeply hidden hypocrisy, if Christ did 
 not take care to make such manifest by the cross and by re- 
 proach ? The words of Gregory therefore are most excellent 
 and true, 'The being reproached w^ill manifest openly what a 
 man is secretly in himself. For when this falls upon a hypo- 
 crite he will soon turn his thanks unto God into blasphemies 
 against him. 
 
 But this ostrich finds a leaf under which to conceal himself 
 and makes excuses for his sins. First of all he lays hold of 
 Augustine, 'He that neglects his own reputation is cruel'. This 
 also, 'Thy conscience is necessary for thyself, and thy reputa- 
 tion for thy neighbor'. Also that of i Pet. 4:15, 16; "For 
 let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, 
 or as a meddler in other men's matters : but if a man suffer as 
 a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God 
 in this name". Jerome plainly teaches that no one ought to 
 rest patiently under the suspicion of heresy. 
 
 First, in these matters we speak in the Spirit with the pro- 
 phet, and before God, — that we ought to provide all things 
 honest not only before God, but also before all men, Rom. 
 
312 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 12:17. And 2 Cor. 4:2, "Commending ourselves to every 
 man's conscience in the sight of God". Again, i Thess. 5 •.22, 
 "Abstain from every form of evil". Christ in Matt, 5 :i6 says, 
 that they who suffer persecution are blessed; but then, it is 
 those who suft"er it "for righteousness' sake". 
 
 Wherefore it is true that we ought not to lie and acknow- 
 ledge a crime before men of which we are not guilty, but rather 
 die like the woman mentioned by Jerome, who was beaten 
 seven times. As we ought thus to suffer death and every other 
 evil for righteousness' sake, when innocent; so we ought also 
 to suffer the injury of our reputation, and not attempt any tum- 
 ult to regain it, nor to retaliate with injury; but, though inno- 
 cent before men, we ought to confess before God that we de- 
 served these and much greater evils and losses, not only of our 
 property and possessions, but of our good name also. For 
 we ought to acknowledge, not our property and life only, but 
 our good name also, to be good creatures of God and the best 
 of gifts. We are not to think that we deserved these things, 
 nor to consider that any injury is done us if they are taken 
 away; nay, we are to consider ourselves wholly unworthy of 
 all these things and are patiently to suffer the loss of them if 
 such be the will of God. 
 
 Therefore it is not required of thee that thou shouldst con- 
 fess thyself a murderer or an adulterer, if thou be not one; 
 or that thou shouldst acknowledge any such crime if laid to thy 
 charge. Nay, thou oughtest not to confess or to acknowledge 
 it, lest thou also shouldst lie as well as the person who may thus 
 falsely accuse thee. Yet thou ought to be ready to bear it, and 
 be patient under such trial, if, when thou shalt bear testimony 
 of innocence concerning thyself, thou shalt not be believed, 
 but still criminated. In the same way thou art not to con- 
 fess that thy life is nothing, or that thy flesh is a mere shadow 
 of naught, or that thy gold is not of the value of copper, so 
 as to carry an appearance of humility. But thou art to confess 
 these things to be what they really are; and yet, if they are 
 
PSALM V, 313 
 
 taken away thou art not to resist, nor to recover them, nor to 
 revenge the injury done thee. 
 
 So also thou art not to resist those who vilify and calumniate 
 thee; though thou oughtest to protest and stand by thy inno- 
 cence and not to confirm their lies by thy silence. Thus the 
 Christians of Lyons in France who were some time ago accused 
 of devouring their infants in secret, firmly denied it unto their' 
 death. And, Jer. 37:13, v/hen Irijah accused Jeremiah of flee- 
 ing to the Chaldeans, he answered, "It is false, I am not falling 
 away to the Chaldeans". Nevertheless he was not believed, 
 and he suffered himself to be beaten and to be sent into prison 
 though innocnt. So Christ before Annas constantly defended 
 his doctrine, concerning which the high priest interrogated him, 
 and which he in a sinister way denied; and yet Christ received 
 a blow from the servant, suffering innocently, and permitting 
 himself to be accused of the crime of falsehood by the unbe- 
 lieving. 
 
 By this same rule we all must v/alk in our day, when those 
 most ungodly flatterers of the great, like furies and madmen, 
 most insidiously brand the righteous with the appelations of 
 heretics, offensive, erroneous, seditious, offenders of pious ears, 
 detractors from the reverence of the popes, and such like, just 
 as their own opinions lead them on. 
 
 All these enormities I say, are to be borne, but not to be 
 acknowledged as true. Even if they prevail over us and are not 
 content with the defence which we make, let them go on raging 
 and let us confess to God that we suffer no more than what 
 we deserve, and that it is not our good name, but God's, that is 
 thus taken away, and that it is justly lost by us because we are 
 unworthy of such a good name. Nevertheless let us within 
 by faith and a good conscience, and without by confession, most 
 firmly cleave unto it, for they do not take away the good name 
 from us, for it does not belong to us, but from God whose gift 
 it was and from whom we received it. Nay, they take away 
 our good name from themselves, because it was therefore given 
 
314 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 unto US, that they might by it be moved towards God, being in- 
 structed by the Hght of our good works, that they might glorify 
 our Father who is in heaven. Therefore they do not in reality 
 take any thing of our good name from us, because they cannot 
 take it from our conscience nor from our confession, but can 
 only extinguish it in their own opinion, and that to their own 
 loss. Therefore we have more reason to condole with their 
 misery, than to be dejected at our own loss. Hence when 
 we confess ourselves to be innocent, and by an honest defence 
 repel the evil name which they would put upon us, we do not 
 serve ourselves so much as we serve our calumniators, and that, 
 against their will. 
 
 But these ostriches do not defend their name with this 
 affection and according to this rule, but only seek how they 
 may avoid infamy, and they never rest until they have overcome 
 their own adversaries, if they can, and have regained their 
 own name, according to the rule of right, or rather, the mistaken 
 idea of right, by repelling force by force. That they may 
 not become cruel, as they imagine, by neglecting their own 
 name, they become both impious and cruel by avenging their 
 good name, not as if it w^ere God's, but as if it were their own. 
 
 Thus such most perversely abuse those beautiful words of 
 Augustine, 'He that neglects his ov/n reputation is cruel', and 
 'Thy reputation is necessary for thy neighbor'. For we are not 
 on that account to rage furiously, and contrary to the Gospel, 
 to demand a cloak for a coat, because a cloak is necessary for 
 our neighbor; nor are we to refuse to lay down our property, 
 nor even life itself, because our neighbor has need of them. 
 In the same manner our fame is not to be regained by force, 
 because it may be necessary for our neighbor. It is enough in 
 all these things not to acknowledge the crime laid to our charge, 
 and having done that we ought to be willing to suffer greater 
 things for God and to have our other cheek ready though not 
 to acknowledge that the blow on the first was deserved by 
 our sfuilt. 
 
PSALM V. 315 
 
 But that all this zeal in such pugnacious and pertinacious 
 defenders of their good name is mere pretense and that they 
 speak most falsely when they say that they do all these things 
 from love of the name of God and that they seek not their own 
 name, but the name and glory of God. That all such zeal is false, 
 I say, you may prove by this sign. First, such are found most 
 unconcerned in all other matters where God is concerned. They 
 make not all this bustle to do the will of God and to seek the 
 glory of his kingdom, which they certainly would do if they 
 sincerely loved the name of God. Moreover they must patiently 
 suffer the same name of the Lord and the same good fame to 
 perish in their neighbor. Nay, they are themselves the first 
 to establish the name of God in themselves and to destroy it 
 in their neighbors. Thus at this day there are many who think 
 they cannot be Christians and of the Catholic faith unless they 
 go and search out those whom they may brand with the appella- 
 tion of the heretics, thereby proving that they hold one name 
 of the Lord and worship one God in themselves and persecute 
 another in their neighbors. 
 
 Wherefore believe not that they are lovers of the name of 
 the Lord, who are always ready to brand others with opprobri- 
 ous names and to commend their own good name only. A truly 
 good name is the same in all and cannot be loved in thyself 
 more than in thy neighbor. Thou errest if thou art offended at 
 being called a heretic thyself and yet laughest and rejoicest 
 when thy neighbor is accounted a heretic. In how much 
 worse state art thou then, if thou defame another that thou 
 thyself mayest have a name? for on the contrary, thy good 
 name ought to be used in covering the reproach of another, 
 as the comely members are said to give more abundant honor 
 to those members which are less comely, i Cor. 12 123. 
 
 But let us return to the words of the prophet. 
 TJiat love thy name. 
 
 We have said that the name of the Lord is the fame, the 
 knowledge, and the praise of the Lord ; and these also must be 
 
3l6 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 in others, that is, in us by faith and confession : it is not our 
 righteousness, strength, and wisdom, that are to flourish, but 
 those of God are to be revealed in us and in us to increase and 
 reign. Thus we are baptized in the name of the Lord that 
 we might not live ourselves, but that God might live in us, and 
 that the name of the wicked might perish in order that the 
 name of God only might reign in us. And hence, as all our 
 actions are his so is our name. Thus both our actions them- 
 selves and our name are to be ascribed, not unto ourselves but 
 unto God, 
 
 Therefore it is not improper to say that by the name of 
 the Lord we may understand Jesus Christ, or Father, Son, 
 and Holy Spirit ; for all these are names of God to whom be- 
 longs every good name. Hence they who love the name of Jesus 
 love also the salvation of God, the truth of God, the mercy of 
 God, the wisdom of God, and all good, for all these things are 
 included in the name of the Lord. If a man love these he must 
 of necessity hate his own name and cannot glory in the wisdom, 
 the salvation, and the power of man, because they are vain ; and 
 in this way only will he be in a state to love the name of the 
 Lord that he may be saved by it and that God may be glorified. 
 
 Wherefore let us observe the peculiar force of each word, 
 "love" and "name" ; for David does not say, who write of, talk 
 about, sound forth, explain, think about, acutely dispute about, 
 or profess to know, thy name; but "they who love thy name". 
 For who does not see how many there are who talk much about 
 God and his name and yet do not glory in it. The heart of such 
 therefore is vain and their inward parts perverse. Where these 
 are perverse nothing can be done rightly ; and on the other hand 
 where they are right nothing can be done perversely, for God 
 shows himself pure unto the pure and unto the perverse he 
 shows himself perverse, Ps. i8 -.26 etc. 
 
 What loving the name of the Lord is, cannot, I think, be 
 understood in any other way better than by considering the 
 power and nature of love, which is not to seek that which is its 
 
PSALM V. 317 
 
 own but the things of the object beloved. Wherefore he will 
 be proved and found to love God, who, despising his own name 
 and the name of all others, desires from his heart to see only 
 the name of God exalted, spread abroad, magnified, and known 
 to all. That this may be accomplished, such an one must think 
 of all things, which he shall think likely to promote the know- 
 ledge and exaltation of the name of God ; and that too at the 
 expense of his own property, name, and life, if necessary. 
 Hence such an one cannot be vain-glorious but must be a 
 prodigal despiser of himself; nor can he be proud of, or glory 
 in any thing else than in the Lord whose name he loves and 
 seeks to promote. 
 
 He therefore who in the time of quiet and prosperity looks 
 at his own, pleases himself and, with the full bent of his will, 
 seeks after his own name, will be proved by that furnace of the 
 mouth that praiseth him, mentioned in Prov. 27:21, not to love 
 the name of God but his own. And it is such ungodly charac- 
 ters as these that the prophet is attacking in the present Psalm, 
 as glorying and trusting in their own righteousness. Concern- 
 ing whom also the scripture speaks thus, i Sam. 2 13, "Talk 
 no more so exceeding proudly ; let not arrogancy come out of 
 your mouth ; for Jehovah is a God of knowledge, and by him 
 actions are weighed". 
 
 Paul also glories that he can do all things, but it is through 
 him who strengtheneth him, Phil. 4:13. Otherwise he glorieth 
 not, except it be in his infirmities, 2 Cor. 1 1 :30. The blessed 
 \lrgin speaks of these things briefly and beautifully, Luke i :49, 
 in these words, "For he that is mighty hath done to me great 
 things, and holy is his name". As if she had said, I have done 
 nothing, but he hath done great things to me, who alone work- 
 eth all things and who alone is mighty in all, to whom on that 
 account belongs all the name, and whose is all the glory, for 
 he alone hath done it. That is, the name "holy" which no man 
 can attain unto, nor arrogate unto himself belongs only unto 
 him, for when he knows that he did not himself perform the 
 
3l8 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 work, how can he have the temerity to take unto himself and 
 glory in a work that was not his own ? 
 
 He therefore truly hallows the name of the Lord, who keeps 
 himself from usurping it. This he does when he acknowledges 
 that no good work belongs unto him but unto God only, and 
 when he confesses him to be that which he is praised as being, 
 Ps. 145 :i7, "Jehovah is righteous in all his ways". Behold, this 
 is what is enjoined in the second commandment. Thou shalt 
 not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain'. This is what 
 we pray for when we say 'Hallowed or sanctified be thy name'. 
 This also is what is intended in Ps. 11 1 19, "Holy and reverend 
 is his name". 
 
 But these impious justifiers of themselves rushing on rashly, 
 continually pollute the name of the Lord, while they ascribe 
 unto themselves righteousness, power, and wisdom, and are 
 pleased with hearing their own name praised in these things. 
 
 Whence it follows that the greater the num.ber of the gifts 
 of God any one of them is adorned with the more perilously 
 he lives ; and therefore no mortal has more need of the fear of 
 God than such an one, lest he should pollute his name and as- 
 cribe unto himself those things which are the gifts of God, or 
 should patiently sufifer them to be ascribed unto himself by 
 others. This is that temptation "on the right hand" where ten 
 thousands fall. This is that "arrow that flieth by day" and that 
 "demon or destruction that wasteth at noon-day". 
 
 For this cause Gregory teaches in many places that the good 
 works of all saints are unclean, because they cannot sufificiently 
 avoid the name of God, nor hold him so holy and terrible as 
 they ought to hold him, nor will they do so until the passions 
 of nature be wholly mortified, which never will be done in this 
 life. For how rare a thing it is to find a man who is frightened 
 and terrified at the name and praise bestowed upon him and 
 shrinks from putting his hand on it as a most holy thing of 
 God, which it is terrible to touch ? Nay, we rather smile sweet- 
 
PSALM V. 319 
 
 ly as if pleased, and like swine quietly suffer ourselves to be 
 rubbed with this kind of praise. 
 
 Where then shall they appear who like the giants of old, 
 from an insatiable and maddened love of praise and of fame, 
 carry on war against the Lord and his name by mountains 
 heaped on mountains, thereby endeavoring to take from the 
 Lord both his work and his name and to usurp it for them- 
 selves ? Yet such in the meantime prate nothing else but 'Hal- 
 lowed be thy name', 'Glory to God alone', 'Thanks be to God' ! 
 'In the name of the Lord, Amen' : and with such plastering 
 and daubings as these they color, paint, and set off their Jeze- 
 bel faces. Indeed the world is so filled with the robbery of 
 the divine equality, with the profanation of the name of God, 
 and with the pollution of the name of God that there is not one 
 of them who sees that, instead of fighting for the name of God, 
 they are horribly fighting against it and implacably resisting it. 
 
 What a sacrilege it is considered for the cups, the coverings, 
 and the linen of the churches and the altars to be touched by 
 the laity, because they are consecrated in the name of the Lord ? 
 Yet none more awfully pollute and defile the name of the Lord 
 than those very blind consecrators, those reprobate selfjusti- 
 fiers, and those most vain boasters of the works and words of 
 God themselves, by their polluted touching of his glory. 
 
 He therefore reverently loves the name of the Lord, who 
 with pious awe trembles to touch his praise and good name 
 and abstains from it as from that ointment, mentioned in Exod. 
 30:22-23, which was commanded to be kept holy, and that no 
 other composition should be made like it, that the flesh of man 
 should not be anointed with it, but only the tabernacle and the 
 vessels thereof. Fer he that thus worships and sanctifies the 
 name of God shall be sanctified by it, according to Ps. 18 :26, 
 "with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure". Because such an 
 one not only reverences the name of God that he might not 
 touch it himself, that he might not usurp it, and that he might 
 not anoint himself with it ; but he desires that this same name 
 
320 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 should in the same way be reverenced and held holy by all and 
 that this may be brought to pass he omits nothing- either by do- 
 ing or by suffering. Thus we read of the saint, Thomas 
 Aquinus, that he made the sign of the cross under his clothes 
 as often as he heard himself praised. Which is certainly a 
 good and pious custom, to show reverence to the name of God. 
 
 Now the sum of all that we have said may be set forth in 
 a plain way, thus. That no one should be elated by prosperity. 
 This is indeed a thing easy to be said but it is most hidden 
 and most deep to be understood and can be known by none 
 but by those who are brought to experience it ; as it is written, 
 Ps. 111:9-10, "Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of 
 Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom ; a good understanding 
 have all they that do his commandments ; His praise endureth 
 for ever". 
 
 But they who do not understand the fear of the Lord in 
 any other way than in being terrified from the commission of 
 sin by the fear of punishment, do not understand it at all ; nor 
 will such ever learn to glory in the Lord, for the fear of the 
 Lord is that whereby we fear to arrogate to ourselves, or arro- 
 gantly pollute, any of those things which are the Lord's, that is, 
 his glory and his name, and when we fear to touch such things 
 lest we should defile them. In this fear we must proceed so 
 far as not to usurp to ourselves either temporal things or spirit- 
 ual, or to imagine that there is any thing of ours in them 
 but the being allowed to use them to supply our necessities 
 and those of our neighbors ; and as being granted to us by the 
 free bounty of God, to be possessed with godly reverence, and 
 to be returned to him with faithful gratitude. 
 
 The praise of such endureth for ever, that is, that they did 
 not glory in themselves nor in any men that praised them, but 
 according to Paul, i Cor. 1:31, desired only to "glory in the 
 Lord"! As he saith again, i Cor. 4:5, "Then shall each man 
 have his praise from God". And Ps. 34:2, "My soul shall 
 make her boast in Jehovah". Again, 2 Cor. to :i8, "For not he 
 
PSALM V. 321 
 
 that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord com- 
 mendeth". God praises and commends those only who take all 
 praise from themselves and give it unto him and who do not de- 
 sire their works to be seen for any other end than that their 
 Father who is in heaven might be glorified, whose name they 
 love ; and therefore he loves and praises them, as he saith, i 
 Sam. 2 :30, "For them that honor me I will honor, and they 
 that despise me shall be lightly esteemed". 
 
 It is however very hard, though necess^ary, to expect praise 
 and a name from God, neglecting in the meantime all the names 
 and praises given us by men, and when they happen to be given 
 us, to give them all back to God as being borne with in fear, 
 rather than possessed for the salvation .of others. This is serv- 
 ing Jehovah with fear and rejoicing before him with trembling, 
 Ps. 2:11. This is not being in despair when tried and not lifted 
 up in presumption when comforted and favored. 
 
 V. 12. For thou zvilt bless the righteous, O Jehovah, thou 
 ivUt compass him with favor as zvith a shield (thou hast crozvn 
 ed us zvith the shield of thy favor). 
 
 Jerome translates it 'For thou, O Lord, wilt bless the righte- 
 ous ; as thou wilt crown him with the shield of favorable kind- 
 ness' ; he omits the pronoun "thy", and the pronoun "him" is 
 more appropriate than the pronoun "us" for it refers to the 
 "righteous". But I think that this genitive would be better 
 turned into the ablative, thus, 'With thy favor, as with a shield'. 
 But the force lies in the punctuation : our translator begins 
 the last verse with the vocative "O Jehovah", which in the 
 Hebrew is the end of the middle one of the last three verses. 
 
 The sense of this verse is the same as that of Psalm 3 :8, 
 though the words are somewhat different. "Salvation belong- 
 eth unto Jehovah, and thy blessing be upon thy people". As all 
 the force and emphasis of this passage lie in the pronoun 
 "thy" and the words "unto Jehovah", so in the passage now 
 before us they lie in the pronoun "thy" and the vocative "O 
 Jehovah". The understanding of which depends upon the con- 
 
322 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 trast drawn between the righteous and wicked generation. 
 Men bless the wicked and curse the righteous ; but thou, O 
 Lord, says David, shalt bless the righteous ; on which we have 
 before spoken more at large in the end of the third Psalm. 
 
 But David is here explaining also the preceding verse where 
 he said that all those rejoice who hope in God, that they re- 
 joice in the time of adversity, and are the care of God, and that 
 in prosperity all glory in God v/ho love his name. This they 
 do, O Lord, says David, because they know that thou only 
 blessest the righteous ; and being instructed in this knowledge, 
 they despise all the blessings and cursings of men, who bless them 
 only that love their own name, but curse all those who love the 
 name of the Lord only, that is, the righteous. Wherefore it is 
 not without a forcible meaning that he adds "the righteous", 
 thereby making a manifest distinction between them and the 
 wicked whom men bless, and not God, with a very different 
 kind of blessing. 
 
 Here again we are to esteem the words of the prophet as 
 spoken in the Spirit. For as he had before called these charac- 
 ters the workers of iniquity, malignant, and ungodly, who be- 
 fore men have any thing but this evil appearance, nay, have an 
 appearance and form of godliness vvhile they deny the power 
 thereof, 2 Tim. 3 15. Therefore the prophet by "righteous" 
 here means those v/ho are such in spirit, but who before men 
 and in their eyes seem unworthy not only of the name of "right- 
 eous", but of the name of men, and who are always considered 
 fools, evil men, and mad men in the sight of those externally 
 ?howy saints who rest securely in the blessing. 
 
 This disease or rather impetuous flood of ungodliness pre- 
 vails at this day in the church even unto despair of all remedy. 
 Therefore whatever the great ones choose to do they have plenty 
 to favor and bless them, as if what they did were the will and 
 pleasure of God also ; and if you doubt this at all, or mutter any 
 thing against it, you must be immediately called a heretic, a 
 son of the devil, and a son of perdition. 
 
PSALM V. 323 
 
 In this way does the holy and reverend name of God suffer 
 at present, in this way is it prostituted in the holy lusts of such 
 men, thus is it made to serve the cruel tyranny of the Turkish 
 ecclesiastics, and thus is it made a mantle to cover all things of 
 iniquities and all kinds of evils. So that there is nothing more 
 horrible to be seen, if thou open the spiritual eye, than that 
 which is in our day ascribed to the Word of God ; for to it are 
 attributed works the most numerous and those diabolical ; and 
 on the other hand, to the name of the devil are attributed the 
 best and most Christian works. Nor does any one at present 
 dare to resist and condemn, if any one of these flatterers of the 
 great has prefixed to any work, though the most diabolical, the 
 name of the Lord ; and has dared thus 'to introduce the plans and 
 designs of the devil under the authority of God, of Christ, and 
 of the apostles. Unless thou hast made up thy mind to burn as 
 a heretic thou must adore this Satan and Antichrist, and on 
 account of the cover of Christ's name which they bear com- 
 memorate all their works as divine. 
 
 On the other hand if God do any thing in the name of the 
 Lord to oppose these monsters, you must not favor it nor con- 
 sent nor assent to it, but you must believe and affirm that all 
 such things are carried on under the name and authority of the 
 devil. What else does such maddened ingratitude to Christ de- 
 serve, than that we should be thus delivered over to a reprobate 
 mind and be left to commit the unpardonable sin against the 
 Holy Ghost upon every occasion continually and without fear? 
 thus condemning God under the name of the devil and worship- 
 ping the devil under the name of Christ. Thou art righteous, 
 O Lord, and righteous is thy judgment. For if God gave up 
 the Gentiles to a reprobate mind, because when they knew 
 God they worshipped him not as God, and if they were left 
 to commit all those enormities which are recorded, Rom. i, and 
 if he also visited the Jews with such terrible calamity because 
 they did not receive Christ, what evil do we most justl}'^ de- 
 serve to have brought upon us, who, after we have received 
 
334 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and professed his name, have been subverted with such maHce 
 as to mock and defile it? But what a cross, think ye, these 
 things are to those who love the name of the Lord ! How 
 horrible it is to live in these times, to hear and see the horrible 
 insults and indignities which are offered to God's holv name I 
 
 Let us therefore learn to know ourselves, and let us set be- 
 fore our eyes the contrary judgments of God and of men, lest 
 we should err with the unwise and lest we should be ignorant 
 of the judgment of God and should fail. This then is a truth 
 that stands firm. He that will become righteous must become 
 a sinner; he that will become sound, good, upright, and, in a 
 word, like unto God, a Christian, and of the true faith, must 
 become unsound, bad, perverse, and, in a word like a devil, a 
 heretic, and a Turk; as Paul saith, i Cor. 3:18, 'Tf any man 
 thinketh that he is divine among you in this world, let him be- 
 come a fool that he may be wise". This truth, I say, stands 
 firm. For such is the will that is settled in heaven that God has 
 determined to make men wise through foolishness, good 
 through evil, righteous through sin, upright through perverse- 
 ness, men of a sound mind through madness, of the true faith 
 through heresy. Christians through infidelity, and of the image 
 of God through bearing the image of the devil. 
 
 Do you ask how this is done ? The answer is ready and may 
 be given in a few words. Thou canst not become such an one 
 in the sight of God as thou wouldst be unless thou first become 
 such an one in thyself and before men as he will have thee to be. 
 He will have thee to be in thyself and before men that which 
 thou really art, that is, a sinner, an evil person, mad, perverse, 
 of the devil, etc. These are thy names, this is all that thou hast 
 of thine own, this is the truth itself, this humility; when all 
 these things have been brought to pass, then thou art such an 
 one before God as thou wouldst wish to be, that is, hol}^ good, 
 true, upright, godly, etc. In this way thou wilt be one thing 
 before thyself and men, and another before God. Why then 
 dost thou wonder? Why art thou disturbed if thou neither 
 
PSALM V. 
 
 325 
 
 pleaseth thyself nor men? "If I were still pleasing men, I 
 should not be a servant of Christ", saith Paul, Gal. i :io. 
 
 But we are deceived here, we do not think that these leaders 
 of Israel are men nor those who rage to please them. As 
 though we never had heard that snares were laid for the 
 apostles themselves by the false apostles under the name of 
 Christ ! so delighted are we to be deceived by their appelation of 
 blessed apostles and apostolicals, if we can but find that we 
 please them; so that the words of Ps. 53:5, (Vulgate), are 
 fulfilled, 'God hath scattered the bones of them that please men : 
 they have been confounded, because God hath despised them'. 
 And that of Is. 3:12, "O my people, they that lead thee cause 
 thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths". 
 
 Observe, I pray you, how plain and powerful this defini- 
 tion is. All are deceived who are praised, and all praisers are 
 deceivers. Who then would not tremble at being praised? 
 Who ought not rather to be dispraised ? Are those then, you 
 will say, the only persons who speak and think rightly, who 
 reprove all our actions and account us miserable ? Yes ! That 
 is the true state of the case. For, in Rev. 3:17, it is said to 
 !he church of Laodicea, "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and 
 have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest 
 not that art the wretched one, and miserable, and poor, and 
 blind, and naked". 
 
 As therefore these things are so, every Christian should 
 lake the most diligent care not to despise or praise according 
 to the judgment of the multitude those whom men despise and 
 praise. For there is danger here lest we run against the 
 l.ord of life and glory who as numbered with the transgressors 
 and still remains with those who are accounted such, and will 
 do so unto the end of time; because he justifies sinners before 
 men and condemns the righteous ones of this world. For ni 
 ihe former, his own name is lost and the holy and reverend 
 name of God dwells and they are thereby sanctified ; but in the 
 hitter, the name of God is cast out, and there dwells in them 
 
326 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the profane and abominable name of men whereby they are 
 polluted. 
 
 For the same reason you dare not despise yourself nor 
 despair concerning yourself, the less so the more miserable 
 you are. For as no man dare judge and condemn a sinner, 
 nor despair of him, so you dare not judge and condemn your- 
 self, though you have sinned against yourself and your fellow 
 men. Just so you dare not praise and justify yourself nor be 
 presumptuous, though you do appear to be something in your 
 own eyes and the eyes of your fellows ; but you are to glory 
 in God alone and find your pleasure in his name which is 
 ^'ood in the presence of his saints", 
 
 I take it for granted that the figure synechdoche is very well 
 iiuown by which "the just", jiisto, is put for the just, jiistis, m 
 the plural, or for a general and distributive sentence, thus, 
 "Thou wilt bless the just", that is, every one who is just. 
 Moreover all know that to "bless", according to the manner 
 of expression used in the scriptures is the same as to praise, 
 to glorify, to wish well, to wish all good ; and is contrary to 
 cursing, reproaching, and wishing ill, either of which, when 
 it is done of God, is done indeed and in reality, because he saith 
 and it is done; but if it be done of men it is nothing and 
 amounts to nothing. 
 
 As we said at large in the first Psalm he is called a just 
 or righteous man, who is so in secret ; not in his own eyes nor 
 in the eyes of men, but in the sight of God. Such an one be- 
 lieves and trusts in God, and of such an one you may say that 
 he is a righteous sinner ; but, as we have said, in a different 
 way and view from all human estimation. 
 
 Thou zvilt compass him with favor as with a shield. 
 
 That is, thou hast surrounded or encompassed him, accord- 
 ing to Ps. 125 -.2, "The Lord is round about his people". And 
 Ps. 34 -.y, "The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about themi 
 that fear him". Again, Deut. 32 :io, "He compassed him about, 
 he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye". But 
 
PSALM V. 327 
 
 all this is done insensibly in the spirit, while you are sensibly 
 feeling that of Ps. 118:12, "They compassed me about like 
 bees", etc. 
 
 Wherefore this favor, this good-will, and this lovingkind- 
 ness of the Lord are to be apprehended by faith that he fail not 
 when our Saul compasseth us about as with an hedge, that he 
 may bring us over to trust in him, i Sam. 23 :26. Thus we see 
 the various consolation which God holds forth unto us, but all 
 in the Spirit, that he may allure us to trust in him, as we have 
 it, Deut. 32:11, 'As an eagle enticeth her young to fly, and 
 hovereth over them', etc; for, as it is written, Ps. 18:10, "He 
 rode upon a cherub and did fly ; yea, he soared upon the wings 
 of the wind". 
 
 Thus have I spoken at great length concerning these affec- 
 tions of faith, hope, love and joy, that when they shall occur 
 again we may dismiss them sooner, and, having thus indulged 
 prolixity once for all, we may be more brief hereafter. Let 
 us therefore at the end of this fifth psalm pause that when we 
 have recruited ourselves by a little rest we may enter with 
 more alacrity upon the sixth psalm. 
 
 As we have thought proper to rest here a little we will 
 for the use of some few just add to these crowning graces and 
 blessings which pertain unto life those two verses which are 
 often sung at the end of the Psalms in the church, 'Glory be to 
 the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost', etc., for 
 these are so much like the last two verses of the present Psalm 
 in which we are taught that the name of the Lord is to be 
 praised and loved. They are as follows : 
 
 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy 
 Ghost. As it zvas in the beginning, is nozv, and ever shall be, 
 world zvifhoiif end. Amen. 
 
 In using these godly verses the affections are to be engaged, 
 so that what is sung by the voice may be sung in mind and 
 spirit also ; for in these is contained the sum of all prayers and 
 affections in the same way as in that part of the Lord's prayer, 
 
328 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 'Hallowed be thy name', are contained all the following peti- 
 tions, and as all the following precepts of the decalogue are con- 
 tained in the first commandment. Thus as the first command- 
 ment is the sum and substance of all the rest and that first 
 petition of the Lord's Prayer is the sum and substance of all 
 the rest, so the affection of this verse is the sum and substance 
 of all affections, for no prayer ought to be offered but that 
 which has for its object the glory of the divine majesty, that 
 his name may be sanctified ; nor ought any thing to be done 
 in work but that wherein those things are sought which are 
 God's that we may have no strange god ; so that we ought to 
 be proved by no other motive but the glory of God. 
 
 In a word, by these verses, if we use and sing them in mind 
 and spirit, we in a short way offer all the numerous sacrifices 
 commanded in the Old Testament. For what was their offering 
 unto God slain sheep and cattle, but the same as our offering 
 ourselves unto God as men slain by sin, and living unto right- 
 eousness unto the praise and glory of his grace? as Hosea saith, 
 14:2, "So will we render unto thee the calves of our lips": and 
 Ps. 51 :t9, "Then wilt thou delight in the sacrifices of righteous- 
 ness, then will they offer bullocks upon thine altar". And 
 Heb. 13:15, "Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of 
 praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips, which make 
 confession to his name". 
 
 Nor is the sacrifice of the New Testament any thing else 
 than that which is contained in these verses, so that the sacra- 
 ment of the altar may be called the Eucharist, that is, a giving 
 of thanks, because in performing that service we properly fulfil 
 the force and meaning of these verses. For it is not enough 
 to partake of the body of the Lord unless we do it "in remem- 
 brance" of him. as it is commanded. 
 
 But how many are there who daily mutter over this verse 
 while there are but few who really do that which it signifies. 
 Wherefore it is necessary that every one watch himself and 
 
PSALM V. 329 
 
 remind himself, from the admonition and invitation contained 
 in this verse, what he owes to God. 
 
 Here we do not say Glories be to the Three Persons, but, 
 "Glory be', etc., because the glory of the Triune God is equal 
 and the same, even as their majesty and divinity are the same; 
 and therein we confess the revealed holy name of the true God. 
 In this the highest faith is necessary, which is called into exer- 
 cise in the verses before us. For those things of which we 
 are now speaking are incomprehensible and the highest points 
 of our faith. 
 
 But that we may speak of these things in a more practical 
 way, we would say, let power and might be ascribed unto the 
 Father, wisdom and counsel unto the Son, and goodness and 
 love unto the Holy Ghost. So that let him who sings glory to 
 the Father, offer up his own vain-glory, confessing his own 
 weakness and infirmity, and let him never desire to be strong 
 or mighty but in God the Father. 
 
 When he sings glory to the Son, let him hate all his own 
 wisdom and counsel, and, having sacrificed these beasts, let 
 him offer them up, confessing his own ignorance and foolish- 
 ness and not wishing to be accounted wise and prudent neither 
 by himself nor others but in the Son, his God. 
 
 When he sings glory to the Holy Ghost, let him lay aside all 
 confidence in his own righteousness and goodness, confessing 
 his sins, desiring to be made righteous and good by God the 
 Floly Ghost, and offering up the opinion of his own righteous- 
 ness. Hereby it comes to pass that we leave all things unto 
 God and nothing unto ourselves but confusion and the con- 
 fession of our evils, our nothingness, and our misery. Thus 
 we are just and render to all their dues. 
 
 But let no one so think as to believe that he can worthily 
 sing these verses. Let him rather sing desiringly than posi- 
 tively, that his singing may be rather a prayer, a praise, and a 
 giving of thanks. For there is no one without a vain-glorious 
 opinion of his own power, wisdom, and goodness, and no one 
 
330 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 to be found who does not take something from the glory of 
 God, and does not impurely make this sacrifice. 
 
 This prayer is to be offered as a common prayer, 'As it was 
 in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, 
 Amen'; that is, he who sings this ought to wish that all the 
 creation from the beginning would unto all eternity glorify 
 God with him. Therefore this prayer is most weighty and ef- 
 ficacious, because it is the most universal, wherein that which 
 is deficient in us is supplied by the communion of all saints 
 and especially by Christ himself, with which universality we 
 may sing in concert most safely, for there the deficiency of our 
 voice will be assisted and perfected by the multitude of the 
 perfect. 
 
 Hence it is impossible that any man given to vain-glory 
 should sing these verses unless he would by his horrible noise 
 confound the sweet harmony of the whole creation and thereby 
 call down and hasten evil upon his own head. For such im- 
 portunate discord which would disturb the harmony of God 
 would not be tolerable. From this destructive vain-glory there- 
 fore may Christ himself deliver us, who is our glory for ever 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
 Wittenberg, in the year of our Lord, 1519. 
 
PSALM V I. 
 TO victory; on the organs; upon the eighth, a psalm 
 
 OF DAVID. 
 
 Concerning 'victory' and the 'organs' we have spoken, 
 in the fourth psahn. But the mystical signification of this 
 'Eighth' has been minutely handled by many, whom we will 
 allow to indulge in their own opinions, and we will follow those 
 who speak simply and without any mystery, considering that 
 the grammatical or historical signification of the 'eighth' is, 
 that it means an organ, or a harp with eight strings. For Ps. 
 33:2, indicates that the psaltery was an instrument of ten 
 strings. So that the meaning is that this Psalm is one of those 
 which were sung 'to victory' on the organs, concerning which, 
 we have spoken in Ps. 4 from i Chron. 16:19-21, but so that it 
 was sung on the particular instrument of eight strings, that is, 
 the harp ; and the word "eighth" is added in the title to signify 
 the kind of instrument mentioned in the Psalm. I am not 
 certain whether the eight-stringed harp was of the highest, 
 the middle, or the lowest kind. It appears that the psaltery of 
 ten strings was of the highest, so that we find that to have been 
 used in the joyful and festive Psalms. And it is certain that 
 the Psalms 'to victory' were accustomed to be sung on the harps 
 which, by a general appellation, are called 'organs' in the titles 
 of the Psalms. 
 
 It is not however to be doubted that all these things were 
 figures of things to come, and that these eight strings were not 
 then instituted in vain nor commended in vain. Though indeed 
 I am not inclined to apply them to the eighth day of the future 
 resurrection only, but to the present state of the church and to 
 a certain afifection and experience of the believers in Christ. 
 
332 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Not that there was not the same state also under the Old Testa- 
 ment, but it was not then revealed. Wherefore let us meditate 
 for our mind's edification and consider that the harp of eight 
 strings was the highest, the chief, and superior to all the rest, 
 even as we consider that the psaltery of ten strings was the 
 highest, and that it was for that reason distinguished in this 
 title by the name 'eighth'. 
 
 We have mentioned in the beginning that the psaltery and 
 harp differ in this, that the psaltery, from having the cavity in 
 the upper wood, sends its sound downwards from the top, 
 whereas the harp, from having the cavity in the lower wood, 
 sends its sound upwards from the bottom. By which particulars 
 are figured forth those two sacraments of the death and resur- 
 rection of Christ, and the mortification of the flesh, and quick- 
 ening renewal of the spirit in us. So that the singing on the 
 harp, in the revelation of the truth, signifies nothing else than 
 the work of the cross, the mortification of the members, and 
 the destruction of the body of sin, whereby we are raised above 
 all our earthly wisdom and brought to savor those things which 
 are above where Christ sits. The singing on the psaltery sig- 
 nifies the work of the Spirit, justification, peace, and the like, 
 which through faith and hope come down from above. Hence 
 the harps were properly adapted, as we have said, to the Psalms 
 'to victory', because the work of the Lord, that is, the cross of 
 Christ, requires exhortation that we may endure unto the end 
 and may by perseverance obtain the victory. 
 
 Since in this Psalm that sum of the "ross and mortification 
 and that very brink of death, that is, hell, are described, it was 
 not properly said to be on the highest harp, that is, the 'eighth', 
 and the eighth number very frequently occurs and is a sacred 
 number in the Holy Scriptures ; as Jerome shows from the 
 eighth day of circumcision and from the eight souls that were 
 saved in the ark of Noah, and David also is said to be the eighth 
 son of Jesse, and Zacharias the father of John received his 
 speech on the eighth day, and the like. Moreover eight is i 
 
PSALM VI. 333 
 
 solid number, a square, and an equal to equal, consisting of six 
 equal sides, having twenty-four plane-triangles and eight solid 
 ones, like a die; which square figure is also frequently used 
 in the Holy Scriptures, and it is by philosophers applied to sig- 
 nify equality and stability. Again the number six, which is the 
 number of this Psalm, is the first number of perfection, so that 
 by it is signified the solid, stable, perfect, and absolute morti- 
 fication of the old man by what is sung on this harp, which mor- 
 tification is truly described in the present Psalm. But why this 
 same title is not prefixed to all the Psalms on the same subject 
 we desire to remain in ignorance, to use the words of Augustine, 
 because God has not willed that we should know the reason. 
 
 Wherefore the words of this Psalm will suit him who is 
 singing on the eight strings, that is, who is exercised under the 
 extreme pains of death and hell, as the words of the Psalm 
 themselves show. Hence according to my judgment, this Psalm 
 contains the experience of what was taught in the Psalm pre- 
 ceding. For we there said that the nature and power of hope 
 were shown and exercised in man while laboring in the midst 
 of evils and sins. What the feelings, the surges of mind, the 
 groans, and sighs, and the words and counsels of such an one 
 are, we have set forth in the Psalm under consideration. 
 
 Wherefore we are to consider that the words and doctrine 
 contained in this Psalm are general, that is, are applicable not 
 only to Christ himself, but unto any Christian who suflfers these 
 things. Now according to my opinion when the pain of purga- 
 tory, the fear of death and the horror of hell present themselves 
 because of the lack of the right and perfect love, it is very be- 
 coming for the church to pray this psalm in the person of the 
 dying. Nothing more suitable can be prayed. 
 
 For those who are in this state and exercised with these 
 things and are instructed thereby, are sure to have an impla- 
 cable war raised against them by the workers of iniquity who, 
 depending on their ov/n works and teaching others to do the 
 same, always most pestilentially resist this mortification. For 
 
334 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 it is not our works, but the work of God, that is here going on, 
 which must be endured alone by a patiently-suffering hope; 
 for such an one cannot be delivered from, nor conforted under 
 this work by any works of men ; nay when placed in this excess, 
 one sees that "all men are liars". Hence the Psalmist here most 
 severely attacks, not persecutors, but the workers of iniquity 
 and crafty counsellors, who under a show of kindness are in- 
 jurious opposers of this work of God, for their opinion will 
 never endure to hear that these things are sent and wrought 
 of God, being always authors and teachers of despair and pre- 
 sumption but never of hope. 
 
 Nor are we to think that all believers in Christ are exercised 
 with the things which are set forth in this Psalm. For all are 
 not proved by all kinds of temptations, though all are proved 
 by many and various temptations. So in the Gospel we do not 
 read of more than one, the woman of Canaan from Syropheni- 
 cia, who was exercised with this kind of temptation and passion, 
 which was when Christ refused to hear either her own cry or 
 the intercession of his desciples, and while she suffered being 
 compared unto dogs and not unto the children, and being most 
 positively denied. The rest ere blind, or halt, or laboring under 
 some such bodily calamities and diseases. 
 
 So also the temptations here described happen principally 
 unto those who are of great faith, and, as it was said of David, 
 who are men "after God's own heart". Yet the nature of this 
 temptation is to be learned that we may readily if at any time 
 God shall will to prove us by such a day of trial. 
 
 Why should we not endeavor also, as many have, to find 
 the order which is observed in the preceding Psalms with the 
 intent to seek and know their peculiar variety ? for these various 
 Psalms contain various and particular designs and experiences. 
 
 The First Psalm seems to set forth to us the perfect image 
 of a godly man or of the people of God, though in short 
 and general words and terms, and there is set forth such a godly 
 man as all the Psalms afterward speak of, one that is spirit- 
 
PSALM VI. 335 
 
 ual, that is delighted only with the law of the Lord, and that 
 is not moved by any prosperity or adversity. Then it sets 
 forth the opposite image of the ungodly, and afterwards the 
 end of each, showing that God knows the former but not the 
 latter, and that therefore the latter shall perish, but the former 
 shall be saved. So that the First Psalm seems to be placed 
 most rightly at the beginning as the argument of, or introduc- 
 tion to, all the rest, in which we may see what is taught 
 throughout the whole Psalter. 
 
 The Second Psalm teaches that Christ is the head and 
 author of the godly people. Then it shows where and whence 
 his kingdom is and to what extent it shall be enlarged ; namely, 
 that it is from Zion and shall be extended to the uttermost parts 
 of the earth in defiance of, and contrary to, the will of all the 
 adversaries who shall fight against it in vain. Lastly it shows 
 the nature and manner of this kingdom, that all the subjects 
 of it serve in fear and joy and are prepared to trust and hope 
 in Christ in the time of his anger. 
 
 In the Third Psalm the Head and King of this faithful 
 people himself is introduced as an example of suffering and of 
 glorification, showing that he is not a leader in name only, who 
 commands and requires many things to be done and does noth- 
 ing himself; but one who goes before the people over whom 
 he is appointed in the most lawful office of leader, one who 
 is powerful and "mighty in word and deed", and who begins 
 "to do and to teach". 
 
 In the Fourth Psalm the people thus constituted follow 
 their leader through sufferings. First of all, they are led 
 into temporal and lighter sufferings in which they are exercised 
 and, despising all the abundance and good things of this life, 
 which are signified by the abounding in corn, wine, and oil, 
 they are led into hope, in which they sleep in pc.ice. This is 
 the first and lowest degree of the cross which is thus set forth 
 for beginners and those who are more tender. 
 
 In the Fifth Psalm this people, being strengthened by 
 
336 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 temporal sufferings, are brought under the spiritual and more 
 perilous temptations described by the Word, wherein Satan 
 attacks them with heretical cogitations, that is, perverse opin- 
 ions, which fight against pure faith and hope. They have, 
 moreover, to contend against that greatest of all spiritual beasts, 
 pride, which arises out of their very prosperity and through 
 v/hich the angels fell from heaven. Here therefore the feel- 
 ings and exercises are more vehement and increased. Here 
 the powers of the soul especially suffer and the spirit agonizes 
 for the truth and the sincerity of faith. 
 
 This is the kind of exercise which we find in Paul when con- 
 tending against the Jews and the false apostles. 
 
 Then in the Sixth Psalm which contains the last and 
 finishing conflict we have their contending with death and 
 hell, which kind of conflict is endured, not with men, nor 
 with temporal nor spiritual things, but it is inward in the 
 Spirit ; nay rather, it is out of, and above the Spirit, and is in 
 that extreme ecstasy where no one hears, sees, or feels any 
 thing but the Spirit who with groanings that cannot be uttered, 
 makes intercession for the saints and wrestles in a certain 
 way with God himself. No name can be given to this wrestling 
 prayer, nor can any one know what it is but by experience. 
 But let us now enter the particulars of this Psalm. 
 
 V. I. — O Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither 
 chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 
 
 A question has been raised whether there is any difference 
 between anger and hot displeasure, and any difference between 
 rebuking and chastening. Now we know that in other places 
 of the scriptures, rebuking and chastening are put together, 
 as in Rev. 3:19, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten : be 
 zealous therefore and repent"; so that this last word is the 
 same as chastening or disciplining. Those who wish to con- 
 sider this as a repition only Ave will leave to indulge their own 
 opinions. But we will, in the mean time, make this distinction, 
 that rebuking is reprehending, and cliastening, chastising or 
 
PSALM VI. 337 
 
 striking the person when reprehended; which is according to 
 general usage among men, where the criminal is first accused 
 and reprehended and then, after the sentence has been pro- 
 nounced, led to punishment. So when children have done 
 wrong they are first rebuked and chided and then beaten. 
 
 This rebuking in the experience of the heart and spirit is a 
 dread and horror of conscience before the face of God, under 
 which Christ groaned for us in the garden ; as Isaiah predicted 
 of him, 53 :ii, saying, "He shall see of the travail of his soul". 
 
 And when he began to be sorrowful and very heavy he said. 
 Matt. 26 138, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death". 
 For in this state the soul, being left destitute of all confidence, 
 finds herself in a horrible condition as a guilty criminal stand- 
 ing alone before the tribunal of the eternal and angry God. 
 Of this state Job saith, 9:12, "If He examine on a sudden, 
 who shall answer him?" For in this examining every one 
 must be dumb, like that guest mentioned, Matt. 22:11, 12, who, 
 when asked why he came in not having on a w^edding gar- 
 ment, was speechless. Then that which is mentioned in the 
 same chapter, verse 13, "Bind his hand and foot and cast him 
 out into the outer darkness", expressed what is here exper- 
 ienced in the being 'chastened in anger'. For the conscience, 
 being reprehended and convicted, immediately feels nothing 
 else than that eternal damnation is its portion. 
 
 No one can understand this deep experience nor indeed the 
 inferior kinds of it but he who has tasted it ; and therefore we 
 cannot fully describe it. Job experienced it more than any 
 other, and that frequently. And after him David and king 
 Hezekiah, as recorded, Isaiah 38:10 etc., and a few others. 
 Lastly the German divine John Tauler makes frequent men- 
 tion of it in his sermons. 
 
 This temptation seems to me to be the same as that which 
 Christ mentions, Luke 21 :25 etc., where, among other evils 
 of the last time, he enumerates terrors from the heavens, under 
 which men's hearts shall fail them for fear and for looking 
 
338 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 after those things which are coming on the earth ; so that the 
 worst and most perilous tribulation shall be in the last and 
 most perilous time. But we see many even now suffering 
 those things, and, from not knowing any remedy turning away 
 into madness and continually sorrowing, wasting away, and 
 consuming. Under this some of the fathers have also labored 
 in the desert. 
 
 Let no one pratingly contend with us nor presumie so much 
 upon his stupid brains, as to pretend to come forward and 
 make a seperate distinction between servile fear and love, and 
 say that they do not exist together. This work of God is not 
 to be comprehended by any capacious understanding: there 
 is darkness upon the face of this deep ; and there may be to- 
 gether a most servile fear, a fleeing from punishment, and a 
 most servile fear, a fleeing from punishment, and a most ardent 
 love. As Christ saith, Ps. 142:4, "Refuge hath failed me; and 
 no man cared for my soul". Love lies in a most secret depth, 
 but servile fear appears and is felt with intolerable violence ; 
 the spirit is borne upon the top of the waters and nothing is 
 left but a groan that cannot be uttered. Finally what this tribu- 
 lation is and v/hat it worketh may be collected from the various 
 features of it v/hich this Psalm enumerates. 
 
 First of all David prays for the removal of the wrath and 
 fury of God, v/hich he would not have done if he had not felt 
 his anger and fury. He does not however refuse to be rebuked 
 and chastened but prays that it may be done in mercy; as we 
 have it also, Ps. 26 :2, "Examine me, O Jehovah, and prove me; 
 try my reins and my heart". And Ps. 139 -.22), 24, "Search me, 
 O God, and know my heart : try me, and know my thoughts ; 
 and see if there be any wicked way in me". 
 
 Wherefore in this verse we have a twofold rod of God 
 described ; the one of mercy and the other of anger; This 
 also Jeremiah saith, 10:24, "O Jehovah, correct me, but in 
 measure ; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing". 
 And Job says, 7 :20, "Why hast thou set me as a mark for 
 
PSALM VI. 339 
 
 thee?" And verse 17, "What is man, that thou shouklst mag- 
 nify him? and that thou shouldst set thine mind upon him?" 
 This tribulation is also called in the scriptures the day of visita- 
 tion and the day of beholding ; because God tortures the wicked 
 only by his looking upon them, which is intolerable; as we 
 have it, Hab. 3 :6, "He beheld, and drove asunder the nations, 
 and the eternal mountains were scattered". Thus also, Exod. 
 14 :24, we read that the Lord only "looked" upon the hosts of 
 the Egyptians, and that terror and confusion immediately 
 seized them. In a word, this is that day of judgment and 
 eternal destruction, which no one can ward off, no one can 
 avoid or escape, unless by hope he lay hold of the mercy of 
 God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 This Psalm teaches us that if any one be pressed in these 
 straits, he should flee unto no other than the angry God 
 himself. But this is a matter most difficult and painful ; in a 
 word, this is hoping against hope and indeed a striving against 
 impossibilities, as far as the feelings and apprehension of the 
 person are concerned. For here is that most miserable conflict 
 which Hezekiah describes in his own experience, Is. 38:14, 
 "O Jehovah, I am oppressed, be thou m^y surety". And im- 
 mediately afterwards, as if he had felt a denial, he adds, 'what 
 shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath 
 done it'. As if he had said, like Job 9:16, "If I had called 
 and he had answered me, yet would I not believe that he had 
 hearkened unto my voice". So much do hope and despair al- 
 ternately prevail here, that even if those who call upon God 
 are heard ,yet they feel it not and do not even believe that their 
 voice is heard. 
 
 Therefore when this Psalm saith "in fliy fury", the Psalmist 
 thereby confesses that what he suft'ers is from God ; so that he 
 might say, what shall I say? what will he answer me? will 
 he hear me? will it do me any good to pray when I know 
 that he himself has done these things? 
 
 Wherefore if men have not learned in lighter temptations to 
 
340 LUTHEK ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 flee unto him that smiteth them, that is, unto God, as the 
 prophet Isaiah, in the eighth chapter, most fully teaches ought 
 to be done, how will they turn and flee unto him under this 
 greatest of all pressures where it is felt that God himself 
 worketh them? 
 
 Wherefore all other temptations are the most perfect exam- 
 ples of this, and are, as it were, pre-instructions and preludes 
 to it, wherein we are taught always to flee unto God against 
 God as it were. From this verse I have taken what I dis- 
 cussed before concerning suffering of the soul in purgatory, 
 that doubt seemed to me to like purgatory and almost hell 
 itself, from which souls could not be delivered through inter- 
 cessions or indulgences, but only through the prayers of the 
 church, or they may be purified and perfected in love by 
 the punishment of purgatory, or make satisfaction for their 
 sins, which is something I do not understand. For indulgences 
 can not help the living who tolerate these things. For only 
 the intercession of believers can help them. 
 
 Here then we are to know that the doctrine of this Psalm 
 is most diligently to be observed by them that suffer these 
 things ; that they may not wander away, may not complain, 
 and may not seek the consolations of men, but may stand alone 
 and endure the hand of God, and, with the prophet may never 
 turn any where but unto God, saying, "O Lord, rebuke me not 
 in thine anger". If they do not continue in this prudence, as 
 those consecrated to these things recommended, then to their 
 great ruin they fall from the hand of God, who heals and 
 cleanses them, in that they flee to the miserable consolation 
 of a weak creature, just as when the clay falls from the hand 
 of the potter and is crushed to pieces, so that it is entirely 
 useless or it deserves to be cast away as good for nothing. 
 
 This is what Jeremiah in Lam. 3 :24-2g, most fully and 
 beautifully teaches, "Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul ; 
 therefore will I hope in him. Jehovah is good unto them that 
 wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a 
 
PSALM VI. 341 
 
 man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah. 
 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let 
 him sit alone and keep silence, because he hath laid it upon 
 him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may 
 be hope" ; that is, he hideth his face and sayeth nothing, as 
 if he were buried in the dust with the dead. 
 
 And it is under the same feelings that those words of Ps. 
 143 :3, 4, were written, "He hath made me to dwell in dark 
 places, as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my 
 spirit overwhelmed within me ; my heart within me is desolate". 
 In this silence and in this solitude, this purging and cleansing 
 are accomplished. As is also in Ps. 55 :4-8, "My heart is sore 
 pained within me : and the terrors of death are fallen upon 
 me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror 
 hath overwhelmed me. And I said, O that I had wings like 
 a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest. Lo, then would 
 I wander afar off, I would lodge in the wilderness, Selah. 
 I would hasten my escape to a shelter from the stormy wind 
 and tempest" ; which in the Hebrew is, from the commotion of 
 the wind and storm, which is the same thing. 
 
 V. 2. — Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am withered 
 azvay (zveak) : O Jehovah, heal me, for my bones are troubled 
 (vexed). 
 
 Here he in the second place confesses himself withered 
 away, that is, destitute of strength, and therefore unable to 
 endure that unsupportable rebuke and chastisement of the anger 
 of God. As if he had said, the terror of thy anger is more 
 than I can bear ; and unless thou communicate to me the power 
 of thy grace, I must utterly despair and perish. Thus Moses, 
 Ps. 90:11, "Who knoweth the power of thine anger", that is, 
 the violence and force of it, "And thy wrath according to the 
 fear that is due unto thee". 
 
 And the force of this feeling is moreover shown by the fre- 
 quent repetition of the name of Jehovah, "Have mercy upon 
 me, O Jehovah", "O Jehovah, heal me", O Jehovah, how 
 
342 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 long"? For these are the feehngs and cries of those even, 
 who are oppressed with Hghter temptations ; they call con- 
 tinually in heart and mouth upon the helping name of God. 
 
 Some will have it, that "Have mercy" in this passage sig- 
 nifies properly, not the remission of sins, which is generally 
 expressed by a word signifying clemency or pity, as in Ps. 
 Ill 4, "gracious and full of compassion", but grace or strength, 
 whereby the soul may be strengthened; which aptly agrees 
 with the word "weak", "For I am Vv^eak" or 'impotent' ; and 
 it is weakness that is helped by strength. Such therefore is 
 the nature of this temptation, which is most appropriately 
 described in the words of this Psalm, though it can be really 
 known by no one but through experience, as I have before 
 said. For this expression "weak" touches the weakness of 
 the spirit, not that of the flesh; that is, that weakness which 
 neither hope nor love, no, nor even faith is able to support, 
 unless it be thus strengthened. 
 
 In the third place he says that his "bones are vexed" and 
 therefore he prays to be healed. But who understands what 
 this vexing of the bones is? For David is not here speaking 
 of a corporal vexation of the bones by a fever or any other 
 disease. This inexperience gave occasion to many illustrious 
 fathers also to understand by "bones" the powers of the soul, 
 whose opinion I do not condemn. But, as I have observed 
 already, the powers or faculties of the soul, such as the under- 
 standing, the will, the reason, the memory, and the like, were 
 signified in the former part of the verse under the term "weak". 
 Grace properly, for which he prays in the words "have mercy", 
 strengthens the heart and its powers against that spiritual 
 weakness, for it is in the spirit that he speaks. 
 
 Wherefore "bones" ought here to be received as signifying 
 according to their grammatical meaning the very bones them- 
 selves which are in the flesh of our bodies and v^-hich, by this 
 weakness and perturbation of spirit, are vexed that they tremble 
 and have no strength whatever and indeed are then no longer 
 
PSALM VI. 343 
 
 bones, nor are they able to support only the body itself. For 
 thus it is written, Is. 38:13, "As a lion, so he breaketh all my 
 bones". This is what we sometimes find in them also who 
 are brought to the point of death, where many tremble and 
 are horribly wracked with straits and agonies. For God often 
 works this tribulation in that state, where the man can no more 
 run to human comforts, and is forced to bear the hand of him 
 that purifieth him. For it is necessary that sin should be 
 destroyed is this manner, and be driven from us, that we may 
 love God above all things, and may burn with an unspeakable 
 thirsting after him . And those earthly effections which are 
 wrought by sin are beyond all comparison less and weaker than 
 this thirst of the man who thus seeks after God, that is, his 
 grace and mercy. 
 
 That is what we mean when we say that we must love 
 God just as much and more than we love the creature. Those 
 who postpone it to death must then suffer this great purification. 
 God would however not be loved and desired with so great 
 ardor if man were not weighed down by these great troubles, 
 which force him to seek and say unto God with powerful ex- 
 clamations of the heart, especially if he be deeply sunk in 
 vice, and had been inactive in crucifying the flesh. For this 
 crucifying of the flesh will be the harder, the more lively the 
 manifold development of sin formed his character. It is to 
 be hoped that those who have sufifered this death and hell in 
 this life will have less when they die. 
 
 Here perhaps I may seem to advance unheard-of and ab- 
 surd things in the estimation of those, who imagine that they 
 can find an easy way to heaven by their indulgences, their 
 letters, or their works. And though I know that I cannot 
 prove the truth of what I thus advance to the satisfaction of 
 those who do not believe the words of the prophet, yet I will 
 not, on their account, deviate from the vrords of the prophet. 
 Let every one abide by his own understanding of the scriptures. 
 I know what I say; and let them take heed that they fully 
 
344 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 know and understand what they say. This is certain, that no 
 one will come to the mercy of God, but he who most cravingly 
 hungers and thirsts after him; like him who said, Ps. 42:1, 
 "As the heart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, O God. My tears have been my meat day 
 and night". Again, Ps. 63 :2, "My soul thirsteth for thee, my 
 flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and weary land, where no water 
 is." 
 
 Let no one ever think that a full and satisfied soul will be 
 filled of God ; he only "fills the hungry with good things". 
 How much less then will he give eternal life to those who 
 disdain it ; na}', who despise it in comparison with the good 
 things of this life. No ! He will give it to those who most 
 ardently, and with groan ings that cannot be uttered, seek after 
 it, crave after it, and knock at the door for it. As we should 
 not thus seek, crave, and know it otherwise, especially if we 
 enjoyed a quiet life, God has set before us death and various 
 tribulations, that being pressed under these, we may be forced 
 to seek for mercy and life; as Job saith, 10:12, "Thou hast 
 granted me life and lovingkindness ; and thy visitation hath 
 preserved my spirit". 
 
 It is certain therefore that the bones of those who suflfer this 
 tribulation are so vexed that they cannot perform the office of 
 bones. On the contrary we see that where the heart exults 
 and is kept filled with joy, the bones are as it were strengthened 
 and made ready to leap and to bear the heavy and filthy burden 
 of the flesh, and there is nothing that they are not able to bear. 
 So that the joy is felt through all the bones like a certain 
 watering. As in Prov. 3:8, "It will be health to thy navel, 
 and marrow to thy bones". Nay even a poet of old said. 
 Through all his bones a chilling tremor ran. 
 
 So that the afifections of the mind penetrate through the 
 body. Rightly therefore does David say, "O Jehovah, heal 
 me" ; because he is so broken down, even in body, that his 
 bones have lost all their strength. So great is this tribulation 
 
I'SALM VI. 345 
 
 that there is not a corner in the frame or in all its powers which 
 it does not vex and wear down. 
 
 V. 3. — My soul also is sore troubled. 
 
 In the fourth place he complains that his "soul" is sore 
 troubled ; that is, the lower and inferior part of it, namely, the 
 sensible life. For when the spirit is vexed and the bones also 
 there is no part of the sensible frame that is not filled with sor- 
 row, so that now there is nothing remaining either in spirit, 
 body, or soul, that is not possessed and filled with the most 
 bitter sorrow and terror. The soul or life feels the attack 
 of death, which is the most distressing of all to the feelings, 
 and the spirit feels hell which is intolerable. And what this 
 sensation of death and hell is, in this conflict and perturbation, 
 is shown in the following part of the Psalm. In the meantime, 
 however be it known, that to those who are exercised under 
 this tribulation there is nothing in the whole creation so pleasant 
 as to be able to give relief even to one hair of the head, nothing 
 so sweet in sound as to be able to soothe the ear, nothing so 
 delightful, either to eat, to drink, or to touch, that does not 
 seem to be very bitterness. Death is in every thing that is 
 either seen or touched. The man is most miserably wracked 
 between life and death, he dreads death and has not life. 
 
 I presume it is known to every one that life or soul and 
 spirit dififer from each other, according to the scriptural usage 
 of those terms, though philosophers will go according to their 
 opinions. For the apostle in Thess. 5 :23, gives it thus, "And 
 the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly ; and may your 
 spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at 
 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ". Upon these points 
 Origen and Jerome have disputed much in various parts of 
 their works. But the apostle prays that they may be preserved 
 separately and particularly in spirit, soul, and body. And in 
 the Evangelists, Mark 12:30, we have "With all thy heart, 
 and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all 
 thy strength". But upon this we cannot enlarge farther here. 
 
346 LUTHEH ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 And thou, O Jehovah, hozv long? 
 
 Here some understand a word ; thus, "how long" 'wilt thou 
 refuse to deliver me', or, 'to strengthen me'? and such a read- 
 ing the pronoun "thou" favors, "And thou, O Jehovah, how 
 long"? Under these same feelings David saith, Ps. 13 :i, "How 
 long, O Jehovah wilt thou forget me for ever ? How long wilt 
 thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel 
 in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day"? Where 
 he not only prays the Lord to hasten his help but, being as it 
 were impatient of delay, he complains of his distress on account 
 of the delay ; because in every feeling of fear, love, hope, and 
 hatred, etc., delay is always distressing and grievous ; as Prov. 
 13:12, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick". And under 
 this sensation of death and hell the delay is above all the most 
 distressing. For here that common saying is true 'One hour 
 in hell is longer than many years in this world'. 
 
 In a word human nature cannot bear to endure this tribula- 
 tion even the shortest time, nor does it suffer the whole of it at 
 all, it only tastes a few drops of it, as on the other hand, it is 
 said of those who under the experience of the heavenly feelings, 
 that they scarcely taste one drop, because this life cannot bear 
 all the riches of the pleasures of that life to come. Indeed 
 when either of these feelings or sensations exceeds the common 
 measure the m.an thinks that his soul will leave the body, unless 
 a miracle of divine power prevent. Wherefore in these words 
 "And thou, O Lord, how long"? is particularly indicated that 
 unutterable groan of the Spirit which man under these feelings 
 breathes forth. 
 
 v. 4. — Return, O Jehovah, deliver my soul; save me for 
 thy lovingkindness' {mercy's) sake. 
 
 He again indicates in this verse that his soul is lost and that 
 he himself is condemned, for these are his feelings in the hour 
 of this excess, when he prays that his soul might be saved ; 
 that is, from the death that presses upon him ; and that he 
 might be delivered from the hell that now with open mouth 
 
PSALM VI. ^4P 
 
 is ready to swallow him. Ps. 9:13, "Thou that liftest me up 
 from the gates of death". Again Hezekiah saith, Is. 38:10, 
 "I shall go into the gates of hell". 
 
 The Psalmist also beautifully shows the power of hope while 
 he sets nothing before his eyes but the mercy of God, saying, 
 "For thy mercy's sake". As if he had said, not for my merits, 
 for I have none, as is sufficiently manifest from this my terror 
 at thine anger, from my perturbation of heart, and from the 
 vexation of my bones and of my soul; therefore save me for 
 thy mercy's sake, that the glory and praise of thy mercy may 
 be exalted in my salvation unto all eternity. For though I be 
 unworthy of being delivered and saved yet thou art worthy 
 of being praised, glorified, and loved, to all eternity ; and yet, 
 thou canst not be praised, nor can thy mercy be glorified, un- 
 less there be some whom thou shalt save from death and deliver 
 from hell. 
 
 Thus Manasseh, king of Judah, in his prayer, verse 15 etc., 
 says, 'For thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to 
 thy great mercy. Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the 
 days of my life; for all the powers of heaven do praise thee'. 
 Behold in this way does God render his mercy most lovely, most 
 sweet, and most desirable to be sighed after. This is how it 
 ought to appear unto us, as it is eternal and of a majesty so 
 great, he is bringing upon us those evils and temptations which 
 we have deserved. But, as to those whom he does not try with 
 these temptations, what wonder is it if such should look upon 
 the mercy of God as a thing of no value and nauseate the 
 heavenly manna. 
 
 Here at one blow and in one moment perishes all the prat- 
 ing of those vv'ho talk about meriting grace by works of con- 
 gruity and gaining heaven by works of condignity, and who, by 
 an incredible madness, prepare to meet the intolerable judg- 
 ment of God by the works of their own righteousness. There- 
 fore, David, at the end of this Psalm, attacks such with a fiery 
 zeal of spirit, inveighing against them in words addressed 
 
348 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 especially to them, saying "Depart from me, all ye workers 
 of iniquity". So that this truth stands firm and certain, "O 
 save me for thy mercy's sake" ; for my iniquity is found to 
 be unto death and hell, my righteousness is all vanished, my 
 strength has failed, and my merit has come to naught. Blessed 
 •^an that I shall be, if I be but allowed to breathe unto, and 
 rest in, thy mercy ! 
 
 Here therefore we are taught that as we ought not to pre- 
 sume at all concerning ourselves, so we ought not by any 
 means to despair of the mercy of God, but ought, however 
 unworthy we may be, to call upon that mercy to save us from 
 the power of death and hell. For what sins or what evils can 
 there be so great that they should lead thee to despair, when 
 thou hearest from this scripture that no one ought to be led to 
 despair when under the feelings of death and hell, where there 
 must of necessity be the greatest of all sins and evils? 
 
 V. 5. — For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in 
 Sheol {the grave) who shall give thee thanks? 
 
 Here David plainly opens to us the experience and feelings 
 contained in the whole Psalm, where he confesses that he feels 
 death and hell. For he does not speak these things like the 
 sophists, who have the audacity to divine and imagine any thing, 
 as being matters of which he in reality knew nothing, but he 
 speaks from what he himself experiences and paints forth the 
 whole just as he himself feels it. "Save me," saith he, that I 
 may proclaim thy mercy to all eternity : and rebuke me not in 
 this thy anger, for therein there is nothing but death and hell 
 and no remembrance nor praise of thee. For here, the words 
 of Prov. 16 :i4, are found to be true, "The wrath of a king is as 
 messengers of death". 
 
 Hence Hezekiah saith, Is. 38:18, 19, "The living, the living, 
 he shall praise thee, as I do this day : for the grave cannot 
 praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee : they that go down 
 into the pit cannot hope for thy truth". And Ps. 115 ri/, "The 
 dead praise not Jehovah, neither any that go down into silence". 
 
PSALM VI, 349 
 
 These feelings are set forth in many other places in the Psalms. 
 
 What then is this being in death and hell? It is, first of 
 all, to be in an eternal forgetfulness and oblivion of God, and 
 next to be in eternal blasphemy. For here the care for the 
 love of self reigns with a most powerful and confused concern ; 
 and therefore it is impossible for such to have the mercy of 
 God before their eyes. They seek refuge and escape, and find 
 none ; and then they are presently involved in a most burning 
 hatred of God. They first of all desire that there were another 
 God, and then that they themselves had no existence ; and thus 
 they blaspheme his divine Majesty. They wish, as I said, with 
 all their heart that no such majesty existed; and if they could, 
 they would destroy his existence ; and this fleeing from and 
 this hatred against God are eternal. 'Thus that scripture of 
 the first Psalm is fulfilled, "For the ungodly are like the chafif 
 which the wind scattereth away" ; that is, they are ever fleeing 
 but never escape. 
 
 But here some will open their mouths with this objection, 
 what then did those words mean so often found in the scriptures, 
 'There is no redemption in hell' ? For, according to this it ap- 
 pears that the pains of hell can happen to none but to the 
 damned ? I answer, though I do not remember that I have read 
 these words in the holy scriptures, yet they seem to be taken 
 out of this verse of this Psalm, and also out of other like places 
 of the scriptures. But such scriptures are not understood by 
 these carnal ones, nor by any inexperienced theologians. As 
 though no one could taste of hell, because there is no redemp- 
 tion from hell ! According to the same argument, we might say 
 that Paul never tasted heavenly things, because the blessedness 
 of heaven can never be lost, and sin can never be felt there, 
 because it is forgiven. 
 
 Wherefore it is true that in the present conflict and agony 
 nothing is present in the feelings but hell, without any prospect 
 of '"edemption, for all that is felt seems as it it would be eternal. 
 For the anger of a mortal man when felt is attended with the 
 
350 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 hope that it will have an end, but no hope accompanies this 
 anger of an eternal God, nor any expectation of its coming to 
 an end. 'Rebuke me not, O Lord, in thine anger', saith David : 
 but, to be brought under the mortal anger of a mortal man is 
 nothing. 
 
 All that takes place in hell takes place in the soul ; even 
 the hatred and blasphemy are almost the same. "For love is 
 strong as death, jealousy is cruel as hell", Song: and therefore 
 the man under this temptation prevails in praising God. Love 
 however most severely, sharply, and vehemently wrestles 
 against hatred, hope against despair, mercy against wrath, 
 praise against blasphemy, perseverence against flight, and, in a 
 word, heaven against hell, to the unspeakable torture of the 
 soul. 
 
 But why do we spend words in vain, when we can effect 
 nothing by thousands of words? because, nothing can give a 
 man a judgment in, and an understanding and comprehension 
 ot this tribulation, but the feeling, sensation and experience of 
 it. Though every one, if he be not devoid of all feeling and 
 callous in heart and conscience, v/hen he hears these things, 
 must say ihat there is something signified by these words, which 
 he does not 3'et know ; and it is terrible to be brought to the 
 knowledge of it. 
 
 V. 6. — / am zveary zi'ifh my groaning; every night make 
 I my bed to szvini, I zvaler my conch zvitJi my tears. 
 
 This verse may be arranged in the translation two ways : 
 either by making the words 'T am weary" to stand alone, or 
 by joining them to "with my groaning". Though the former 
 order is the most generally used, yet we will upon the present 
 occasion pass it by and confine ourselves to the latter, by doing 
 which, as I think, we shall more properly preserve the repetition 
 which the passage contains. So that, washing the bed under 
 sighing and groaning will be the same as watering the couch 
 with tears; thus taking together the sighs and groans with the 
 
PSALM VI. ^^l 
 
 tears, the washing with the watering, and the bed with the 
 couch. 
 
 In the Hebrew it is, 'I will make my bed to swim ; and water 
 my couch'. Here the question may justly be asked, how any 
 man should have so many tears? Augustine according to his 
 custom has recourse to a mystical understanding of the passage, 
 in which he is followed by many others. We however will un- 
 derstand "bed" and "couch" according to their plain grammati- 
 cal signification as being those places where men, according to 
 the common usage, recline for the night. The groans and tears 
 we will understand as spoken hyperbolically or comparatively, 
 when they are said to wash and water the couch. For it was 
 never, nor in any place, heard that any one saint ever shed so 
 many tears in one night even, much less* every night, as to water 
 his couch, to say nothing about its being made to swim. 
 
 But we will understand the hyperbole or the comparative 
 expression as applying only to the act or state of crying itself. 
 But as the words of the Spirit are always to be understood in 
 the Spirit, there will be no hyperbole at all if you consider the 
 affection of mind in the person who experiences these things, 
 for then this will signify, not what the person could really do, 
 but what he wished and desired to do. For so the fathers say 
 of Mary Magdalene, that she did not speak according to her 
 natural bodily strength, when she said to the gardener, John 
 20:15, "Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou 
 hast laid him, and I will take him away". For all things are 
 considered possible in the feelings of those who believe, hope, 
 and love. Since therefore God v/eigheth the spirits, and not the 
 works, and does not look at the external appearance of the 
 works, but at the reins and hearts of men, David says these 
 words without any hyperbolical or comparative figure at all ; 
 nav, he speaks from his heart when he says that he would wash 
 his couch with his sighs and tears. Though he cannot really do 
 this yet, because his wish is so ardent, that which he would do is 
 accounted done before God. Hence we shall do rightly if we 
 
352 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 understand the passage in an optative sense, thus; 'O I wish 
 I had so many tears that I could every night make my bed tc 
 swim'. As Jeremiah saith, 9:1, "Oh that my head were waters, 
 and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and 
 night for the slain of the daughter of my people". 
 
 This verse therefore is another testimony of the terribleness 
 of the agony when conflicting with death and hell. The man 
 wishes to do impossibilities, that he might be delivered from it. 
 Hence, I can easily believe the accounts of those who have 
 said that many souls under these agonies have confessed that 
 they would rather endure the greatest punishments that could 
 be inflicted by men in this life, even unto the day of judgment, 
 than to suffer these things in their reality for the shortest space 
 of time. 
 
 This is more particularly confirmed by the repetition in the 
 passage, which, as I have said before, always strengthens the 
 confirmation ; and thereby is confirmed also the all-serious truth 
 of this experience. See therefore with what proofs he sets forth 
 the cross of this most miserable conflict and how he would pre- 
 fer suffering any evil of the world to this under which he says 
 he could weep with so many tears. What then is there left in 
 the world that can give any delight or ease to such an one? 
 Is he not most completely dead to the flesh since he has under- 
 taken to live God in the Spirit ; and has chosen to weep not at 
 the table, nor at work, nor by day, nor in business, where others 
 weep, but in his bed, upon his couch ; and in the night, when 
 others are accustomed to rest and quicken their tired spirit, he 
 has undertaken the great and unheard of task to shed tears unti? 
 he could swim m them? Perhaps those who were once sud- 
 denly in danger of death have experienced to some degree 
 ^■he meaning of this verse, while in the real battle of 
 death and hell such a wish and undertaking are easily 
 wrung from man, yea, he readily undertakes and does it, it he 
 is able, and is prepared to promise and do even greater things. 
 
 'T am weary," saith David. A most appropriate word this 
 
PSALM VI. 353 
 
 for the present description, signifying that he was in the ut- 
 most anxiety and difficulty. For so Isaiah 53 4, "He hath borne 
 our griefs ;" that is, he was most distressed, as Christ himself 
 saith. Matt. 26 :38. Here I say distress forces him to be ready 
 to do and suffer such difficult and great things. Blessed are 
 they that mourn for they shall be comforted, Matt. 5 4, namely, 
 those who bewail and afflict and humiliate themselves in order 
 that they may not be forced to suft'er this distress. "My soul is 
 exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." The rest I leave to 
 practice and experience. 
 
 V. 7. — Mine eye zvasteth azvay (is consumed) because of 
 griei {anger); it zvaxeth old because of {among) all mine 
 enemies. 
 
 Reuchlin renders the passage, 'My visage is worm-eaten 
 from anger' ; wishing by 'worm-eaten' to signify corroded, as a 
 garment is eaten and consumed by moth. But the sense is the 
 same as that of our translator. For the prophet means to 
 say that the power and effects of this conflict are so great, that 
 it alters the appearance of the whole man. No wonder David 
 should say that he has become pale and worn by it, when it 
 consumes the bones and the blood. And indeed any sorrow or 
 grief alters and wears the appearance and the countenance of a 
 man, but the changes which other troubles make by degrees 
 this conflict produces in a very short time. We have read of 
 many who have become grey on a sudden through trouble and 
 grief ; how much more then shall men be so altered, and decay, 
 and waste into a state of old age by this conflict ? 
 
 We have the same thing, Ps. 39:10-11, "Remove thy stroke 
 away from me : I am consumed by the blow of thy hand. When 
 thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest 
 his beauty to consume away like a moth". In the Hebrew it is, 
 'Thou hast made his comely parts like a moth' ; that is, his face 
 or his visage or appearance. And in the same way Reuchlin has 
 here rendered this passage, 'My visage is worm-eaten'. For the 
 face is the part where man's comeliness consists. Finally, we 
 
354 LUTHEE ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 have the same words, Ps. 31 :g, "Mine eye is consumed with 
 grief", which we find in the present verse. 
 
 By "eye" therefore he means visage or appearance, for the 
 same word in the Hebrew signifies eye and appearance. So that 
 the sense is ''Mine eye is consumed", that is, I am suddenly 
 changed in my whole body and am become deformed. These 
 are the effects which this "anger" produces. He does not say 
 7ny anger, but the word anger is put alone; that is, it is the 
 very tribulation of death and hell. Thus also the apostle often 
 expresses it by wrath, or death, or hell, only ; as Rom. 5 :€}, 
 "Much more then being now justified by his blood shall we be 
 saved from the wrath of God through him". 
 
 That which follows is the same. "I h.ave waxed old among 
 all mine enemies". Which is much better in the Hebrew, 
 "Among all my tribulations". Which is the same as if he 
 had said, 'I have straps on all sides; all sides cause me tribula- 
 tion ; the whole creation is against me ; I have no place to flee 
 10; an'l therefore I grow old before my day, under the weight 
 of my anxietv, and my whole appearance is changed'. 
 
 The present verse shows also another powerful cause of 
 this mifeci y ; that in addition to being alarmed and terrified by 
 the anger of God. he can find consolation in no creature, but 
 v/hateve- he looks at seems to be against him. For the whole 
 creation acts with its Creator, especially when a man's own 
 conscience is opposed to God, and therefore, every thing around 
 is wrath, every thing increases the tribulation, all around are 
 enemies. This is more particularly shown in his saying not 
 merely "my enemies", but "among all my enemies"; that is, 
 among all those who are mine enemies ; for I am in that place 
 and state that no-body and no-thing agrees with my sensations ; 
 as Job saith, 9:19 (Vulgate). "No man dare bear witness for 
 me". 
 
 It is my belief also that David under the exercise of these 
 tribulations was brounght to that state, that toward the end of 
 his life he was very much weakened and so cold continually, 
 
PSALM VI. 355 
 
 that he could not keep himself warm with many garments ; as 
 we have it recorded i Kings i :i. For, as I have said, this 
 wrath consumes and withers all things. Thus then have we 
 this terrible temptation described with all its attendant signs, 
 feelings, counsels, and thoughts. Now follows the consolation 
 and the bringing back and deliverance from this death and hell. 
 
 V. 8. — Depart from me, all ye zvorkers of iniquity, for Je- 
 hovah hath heard the voice of my zveeping. 
 
 Now I ask you why he thus indignantly rejects these work- 
 ers of iniquity in particular and above all others? For we 
 have said, Ps. 5 :5, that poela aven signifies those who are 
 of the religion of disobedience, of self-righteousness, and of 
 spiritual idolatry. These he commands to depart from him. 
 Whereas before he had made no complaint about these in this 
 psalm, but had been complaining only of the wrath and fury of 
 God. What then have these workers of iniquity to do with 
 the fury of the Lord? especially when such being most secure 
 and presuming every thing against God could not at all inter- 
 fere with him in the temptation of which he is complaining in 
 this psalm? To increase the apparent absurdity he therefore 
 commands them to depart, because the Lord had heard the 
 voice of his weeping. Did then these workers of iniquity pre- 
 vent the Lord from hearing him before? 
 
 We will observe that the whole of this lies in the feelings 
 of David, and those are the most powerful and exalted ; and 
 therefore he does not describe zvhy he does it but zvhat he 
 does. Thus we see that those who are carried along with 
 any powerful feelings, often talk to themselves, act as apparent 
 madmen, and say strange things, but we are ignorant of the 
 cause why they say those things. Let us then enter into the 
 feelings and experience contained in these words. 
 
 I see this to be particularly worthy of remark throughout 
 the Psalms, that whenever the prophet speaks under any pecul- 
 iar ecstacy he immediately adds a word addressed to the ad- 
 versaries full of indignation and complaint against them, as 
 
356 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 in these passages: Ps. 116:10, 11, "I believed, therefore have 
 I spoken : I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men 
 are liars". And Ps. 39:11, "Thou makest his beauty to con- 
 sume away like a moth : surely every man is vanity". But 
 VvX see in human affairs also that those v/ho meet with oppres- 
 sion experience something of the same. However it is univers- 
 ally the case, that when any one apprehends the truth in the 
 experience of it, he is soon led to inveigh v/ith indignation and 
 complaint against those who savor of, or teach the contrary. 
 
 We have a striking example of this in Augustine who, in 
 the ninth book of his Confessions, in his exposition of the 
 fourth Psalm inveighs with impetuous zeal against the Ma- 
 nicheans. The great art of all exposition is so to teach the 
 subject in question as to root out at the same time all that is 
 contrary to it and launch out against the adversaries ; for how 
 can we, when we are teaching right and true piety, refrain 
 from inveighing at the same time against ceremonialists and 
 crafty workers of the Word, while we feel an indignation that 
 they did not know the truth that we teach, or that they once 
 taught us the contrary? 
 
 Hence David also did the same when he had been taught 
 by this his ecstasy and particular experience to trust in God 
 alone and to feel and know that no righteousness of his own 
 would avail. For he knew that those, who had not been in- 
 structed by these temptations, taught and did foolish and im- 
 pious things under the garb of piety and were wholly inex- 
 perienced in these things v/hen they happened to con:ie upon 
 them ; and yet such are ready to teach the whole world, for men 
 of this stamp always act thus, who are the most foolish vvdien 
 most wise, and the most wise when most foolish, becoming 
 blind leaders of the blind, "always learning and never able to. 
 come to the knowledge of the truth", and, which is the greatest 
 evil of all, such are unteachable, unpersuadable, incorrigible. 
 
 Yea, as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these 
 resist those who have attained unto this sound wisdom through 
 
PSALM VI. 357 
 
 the experience of great temptations and withstand them con- 
 tinuallv with impudent temerity; by such therefore the godly 
 man is afilicted with tribulation upon tribulation. Hence 
 David from a zeal of love, whereby he desires that the truth 
 may be known to all in common with himself and that the con- 
 trary error may be exposed and condemned, inveighs against 
 such characters with the most just indignation, saying, "De- 
 part from me, all ye workers of iniquity". In a word, we 
 shall scarcely find a psalm which contains a complaint of this 
 kind, where the psalmist does not accuse and condemn these 
 workers of iniquity; and this we shall see as we proceed. 
 
 The whole therefore lies in the particular feelings of the 
 psalmist, that he commands them to. "depart", because the 
 Lord had heard him. And what the cause for his so doing 
 is, he leaves us to understand from what has preceded ; that is, 
 his knowing and experiencing that God saves those who cry 
 unto him for his own mercy's sake only ; before whom no one 
 is righteous, as Moses saith, Deut. 34, tliat no one is guiltless 
 in himself. As these things are so therefore, and he has de- 
 clared that they are so throughout the whole psalm, he rightly 
 concludes and says that he will not know those v/ho savor of 
 jnd teach the contrary; and that it is enough for him to know 
 tliat 'the Lord has heard the voice of his weepmg', etc. And 
 lo this same point refers also Matt. "^ '2^^, wnere ci:e Lord de- 
 clar.^s that he will say to those that have prophesied in his 
 name, and done many wonderful works, "Depart from me, all 
 ye workers of iniquity". For the Lord referred to these words 
 as applying, according to the general sense oi this psalm, to 
 all those who trust in themstjives, and not in his mere mercy. 
 
 V. 9. — Jehovah hath Jieard my supplication; Jehovah will 
 receive my prayer. 
 
 I-Je had said in the preceding verse in a general u^ay " lehov- 
 ah hath heard, the voice of my weepir-g was heard". He now 
 defines the particular nature of that voice of weeping £nd 
 shows what it was. It is observable that he here repeats the 
 
358 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 name of Jehovah three times, "Jehovah hath heard", "Jehovah 
 hath heard", "J^^^ovah hath received", to signify thereby his 
 feeUng of confidence and his confirmation of hope against the 
 adversaries whom he here attacks. 
 
 The word in the Hebrew which is rendered "supphcation" 
 is a word which signifies properly imploring mercy or grace ; 
 so that it ansvv^ers to the former word, "Have mercy upon me, 
 O Jehovah", and to that which follows ; whereby, as we have 
 said, grace or power was implored. The latter word "prayer" 
 signifies, in the Hebrew, a praying against evil ; and therefore 
 answers to the words, "O Jehovah in thine anger", etc. Un- 
 less any one would rather understand the whole as signifying 
 a repetition that betokens a confirmation and exultation of the 
 affections. 
 
 These are the words of hope, raising up and exhorting the 
 conscience and now prevailing over all surrounding difficulties. 
 In the same way as the preceding words were those of hope 
 sufifering, laboring, and almost yielding. Here we see those 
 things which were spoken in the fifth Psalm, not only taught, 
 but experienced; those things, I mean, which are contained in 
 the words, "And all they that hope in thee shall rejoice". 
 
 The words themselves plainly show the prophet's state of 
 mind and feelings ; under which he has before his eyes the 
 mercy of God, which he sets against the disturbing views of 
 sui, death, and hell. For, as it is certain that he speaks in hope 
 and in the Spirit, yea, in the presence of God and in the enjoy- 
 ment of the present vision ; it is also certain that he was saved 
 by hope, that he attained unto the grace of the power of God 
 by hope, and that he was consoled by hope ; and all these 
 things show the way in which he drove away the distressing 
 crowd of evils. 
 
 This is the reason why he impresses upon himself the mercy 
 of God in so many repetitions ; which are, as it were, so many 
 strong and heavy blows with which he follows up his advers- 
 aries and all the things that are against him, and so many 
 
PSALM VI. 359 
 
 powerful words whereby he exhorts and encourages his own 
 infirmity and hope. 
 
 Hence, according to the instructions given us by this our 
 teacher, when heaviness or sin distresses our conscience we are 
 to be active and not to fall asleep, nor to yield. Nor are we 
 to wait until the tribulation goes away of its own accord, nor 
 until the consolation itself comes to us ; for all these things are 
 those that accompany perdition. But we are to fight, to cry 
 again and again, to strive with all our might, until we are as- 
 sured of the good will of God toward us ; according to Ps. 3 13, 
 "But thou, O Jehovah, art a shield about me, my glory, and 
 the lifter up of my head". And in Ps. 30 :5, complaining of 
 the like tribulation, David strengthens himself in the good 
 opinion of God concerning himself, saying, "For his anger is 
 but for a moment ; his favor is for a lifetime", that means our 
 God wills not death and hell but life and salvation . As also 
 in Ps. 32 :7, "Thou art my hiding-place ; thou wilt preserve 
 me from trouble; thou wilt compass me about with songs of 
 deliverance". 
 
 Yea, in all the psalms where this or similar suffering is 
 lamented there is at once introduced how hope may be created 
 and confidence in God established according to the Vv^ord of 
 Wisdom I :i, "Think of the Lord with a good heart". For 
 unless this meditation and this confidence should rise up and 
 overcome the tribulation, no one could stand. But these are 
 not attained and we are not established in them except by the 
 word of God and by Jesus Christ. 
 
 So here, when as yet he knew not that his weeping was 
 heard, he conceives and strengthens himself in this persuasion, 
 repeating and maintaining it so as to attack his adversaries, 
 being fully persuaded that such as he assures himself he is in 
 the sight of God, such he is. Therefore as his hope is, such is 
 his state in reality ; for in these matters also man is ruled by 
 opinions, but they are opinions of God, that is, concerning God, 
 
360 LUTHER ON THE tSALMS. 
 
 and the difference lies here, whether those opinions be good 
 or bad. 
 
 V. 10. All mine enemies shall be put to shame and sore 
 troubled : they shall turn back, they shall be put to shame 
 suddenly. 
 
 This verse may be understood as applying to persecutors, 
 because he calls them his "enemies". But that these last words 
 may agree with the preceding, let us understand these "ene- 
 mies" to be none other than the poele aven themselves, "the 
 workers of iniquity". For we have observed that in every 
 Psalm where this tribulation is described the spirit of the pro- 
 phet inveighs against those characters; for, as I have said, 
 there is a continual war and contention with these ungodly 
 ones, because they not only will not hear of this humility of 
 the godly and this commendation of the grace of God, but they 
 even persecute it; as it is said, Ps. 109:16, "But persecuted the 
 poor and needy man, and the broken in heart, to slay them". 
 Ps. 69:26, "They persecute him whom thou hast smitten". 
 These are they who, like Job's friends, talk to the increasing 
 of those tribulations which are justly inflicted of God, and who 
 set themselves against such afflicted ones as standing on the side 
 of God, and pronounce that God is justly angry with them and 
 become their enemy; while they themselves are most secure 
 as to their thoughts about God, as if they should escape his 
 judgment. 
 
 Since therefore all these things when spoken to these im- 
 pious ones are like a story told to one that is deaf, for they 
 cannot understand the things of the Spirit by reason of their 
 carnal senses, or their inflated pride, the prophet prays for 
 a speedy and sudden destruction and subversion of their in- 
 iquity; that they themselves might be overtaken by this kind 
 of temptation, that they might feel the wrath of God, and the 
 tribulation of death and hell; as Jeremiah also saith, 17:18, 
 "Let them be put to shame that persecute me, but let not me 
 be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dis- 
 
PSALM VI. 361 
 
 mayed". And in the verse preceding he says, "Be not a tefror 
 unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil". Ps. 9:17, 20, 
 "The wicked shall be turned back into hell, even all the nations 
 that forget God. Put them in fear, O Jehovah, let the nations 
 know themselves to be but men", that is, vain and liars. 
 
 "For the law worketh wrath", as Paul saith, Rom. 4:15, be- 
 cause it revealeth sin, by which the conscience is confounded ; 
 and when the conscience is confounded it is distressed and put 
 in perturbation by wrath and death, which the soul sees that it 
 deserves by the law revealing them. This excess, when men 
 fall into it, suddenly and terribly vexes and confounds and dis- 
 turbs the proud, bringing thena to nothing and forcing them 
 to lay aside all supercilious conceit of iheir own righteousness 
 and to seek the mercy of God. If these characters of which 
 we are now speaking have not proved these things in their 
 own feelings and by their own experience they will read, hear 
 of them, and do all that they do, in vain. For it is vexation and 
 tribulation, as Isaiah shows, 28:19, which alone give under- 
 standing to the hearer; that is, the Word of God becomes in- 
 telligible unto them only who have felt what it contains, and 
 who have been well exercised and vexed with tribulations. 
 The cross of Christ is the only way of instruction in the Word 
 of God, and the only true theology. 
 
 These words "sore" and "suddenly", however, may be un- 
 derstood tvv'o ways. They may be referred either to the thtie 
 or to the kind of temptation. Their meaning with reference 
 to the time of the temptation is this, — that such may not be 
 long left thus, but that they may be vexed suddenly, in order 
 that being quickly turned from their iniquity they may thirst 
 .after the mercy of God. But when referred to the kind of 
 .temptation it means, that they may not be vexed with any light 
 tribulation but with the storm of this greatest and most severe 
 vexation, the force and nature of which are to be most power- 
 ful ; and therefore it most powerfully humbles and instructs 
 imto grace. For the self-wisdom and self-righteousness of 
 
362 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 these workers of iniquity render them so obstinate and stub- 
 born, that if they be touched with certain Hght temptations 
 only, they glory in them without any fear, and in the midst of 
 these tribulations think themselves to be smcere and true 
 martyrs, so pertinaciously do these ravening wolves imitate 
 sheep's clothing. Hence they become hardened and confirmed 
 in their ungodliness by those very temptations whereby they 
 are visited that they may be reformed. 
 
 But they cannot stand before the face of this visitation when 
 they are vexed with the confusion of sins and the wrath of 
 God. This is the vexation which subverts the securely im- 
 pious, and in which none persevere but sincere and upright 
 hearts, who are rightly instructed in the fear of God and in 
 hope. Wherefore as the enduring of the wrath of God is im- 
 possible, so it is most especially necessary for these unbelieving 
 and insensible ones, as being that alone which is sufficiently 
 powerful to humble them effectually. 
 
 It was with such a visitation as this that St. Paul was over- 
 taken, which came upon him immediately from heaven, when 
 he was filled with the most secure violence and impetuously 
 perverted zeal ; for being on a sudden surrounded with a light, 
 and all trembling, he said, Acts 9 :6, "Lord, what wilt thou have 
 me to do ?" And here is proved that word of Jeremiah, 23 •.2g, 
 "Is not my word like fire? saith Jehovad; and like a hammer 
 that breaketh the rock in pieces"? And Ps. 21 19, "Thou wilt 
 make them as a fiery furnace in the time of thine anger : 
 Jehovah will swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall 
 devour them". David would not have said these things if he 
 had not experienced them. For this "furnace" and this "fire" 
 are the 'rebuking in anger' and the 'chastening in his hot dis- 
 pleasure', which drive guilty consciences into inextricable and 
 inevitable straits by setting before them a view and a realizing 
 sense of the judgment of God. 
 
 In this verse moreover he compares, or rather sets forth 
 in other words, the fury and the anger of Jehovah. For to 
 
PSALM VI. 363 
 
 be 'rebuked in the Lord's anger' is nothing else than, for the 
 conscience of man to be ashamed, to be confounded, and to 
 be found guihy, before the eternal judgment. And there is 
 no man whose conscience is not found guilty before that judg- 
 ment; as it is said, Ps. 143:2, "Enter not into judgment with 
 thy servant, for in thy sight no man living is righteous". What 
 is it not to be righteous but to be found guilty and to be con- 
 founded? Again David saith, Ps. 116:11, "I said in my haste, 
 all men are liars". 
 
 Therefore he desires all these insensible ones who still se- 
 curely glory in themselves, to be brought to this and be con- 
 founded. "Thy hand will find out all thine enemies ; thy right 
 hand will find out those that hate thee". Again, Ps. 83 :i6, 
 "Fill their faces with confusion, that they may seek thy name, 
 O Jehovah". 
 
 For as I have often said, the ungodly differ from the godly 
 in this. They are both indeed liars and unjustified before God 
 and are both vanity of vanities. But this tribulation turns the 
 godly to a knowledge of themselves ; and having attained unto 
 this knowledge, they flee from the anger of the judgment of 
 God to his mercy and are saved. As is said, Prov. 12 :/, "The 
 wicked are overthrown and are not". Which some have un- 
 derstood thus, "turn away" that is, unto a knowledge of them- 
 selves ; and when they have been thus humbled they will cease 
 to be ungodly, having thus obtained grace. But when such are 
 turned away they do not come to a knowledge of themselves, 
 and therefore do not seek grace, but remain in their vanity, 
 lies, and iniquity. 
 
 Again 'to be corrected in anger' is nothing else than to be 
 "sore vexed", as David says ; that is to be under a conflict with 
 death and hell. When this anger is kindled, yea but a little, as 
 David saith, Ps. 2:12, "Blessed are all they that put their trust 
 in him". But this the wicked do not. For in the same psalm 
 he sets forth two evils, where he saith, verse 5, "Then shall he 
 ipeak unto them in his wrath, that is, shall rebuke and convict, 
 
3^4 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and vex them in his sore displeasure", that is, shall correct 
 and chastise them, i Sam. 2:10, teaches, "They that strive 
 with Jehovah shall be broken to pieces; against them will he 
 thunder in heaven". And we have many other like passages 
 in the scriptures where this powerful confusion and vexation of 
 heart are described, both as they are experienced in the hearts 
 of the saints and as they are foretold to await all the wicked ; 
 by which the former being humbled are comforted and raised 
 up, but the latter when humbled are only afflicted more and 
 overwhelmed. David says this, therefore, as wishing all men 
 to be saved, and that none should perish. 
 
 There is moreover in the Hebrew a beautiful allusion in 
 these two verbs "turn" and "ashamed", which the Latin lang- 
 uage is not capable of rendering. For in this passage we have 
 by a change of letters jasobu for jesobu; and David repeats 
 the word jesobu, "let them be put to shame", from a vehem- 
 t-nce of feeling, desiring that those things which he himself 
 suffers may be turned upon his adversaries, that they also may 
 cease to be proud and to persecute the humbled. As we have 
 it also, Ps. 54 :5, "He will requite the evil unto mine enemies". 
 
 "The righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked 
 cometh in his stead", Prov. 11 :8. And Ps. 32:10, "Many sor- 
 rows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in Jehovah, 
 lovingkindness shall compass him about". In the same way 
 he prays, Ps. 79 :$, 6, that the anger of the Lord may be turned 
 from him upon his enemies, saying "How long, O Jehovah? 
 wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire? 
 pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and 
 upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name". He also 
 prays in this psalm, that he might not be rebuked by the anger 
 of the Lord, but that they might feel this rebuke who 
 call not upon him nor fear his wrath. 
 
 We have observed that the enemies of the godly are more 
 especially those who are called "workers of iniquity", advisers 
 to a presumptuously secure heart and to an ignorant faith and 
 
PSALM VI. 365 
 
 hope in God ; and therefore the godly have a continual warfare 
 with these, which warfare they would not have, if they had at 
 some time been vexed with this kind of tribulation themselves. 
 
 But if any one chooses rather by "workers of iniquity" to 
 understand devils, who in the hour of temptation fearfully 
 assault the godly and urge and drive them to desperation, set- 
 ting before their eyes good works and telling them that if they 
 do these they will have no reason to despair, and thus con- 
 firming desperation by presumption, and presumption by des- 
 peration, and all the while entangling their souls in these 
 trammels of iniquity, that they might not worship God in true 
 godliness of faith and hope. If any one, I say, wishes to un- 
 derstand the passage thus, I will not oppose it; for devils are 
 certainly the most crafty persuaders 6f souls to disobedience 
 under a show of obedience, because it is peculiar to them to 
 transform themselves into angels of light, and then more es- 
 pecially when they least ought to do it, that is, in the time of 
 tribulation. 
 
 I believe hov/ever that the prophet speaks against those 
 men v/ho are the enemies of true godliness, that is, those who 
 cannot endure the knowing or being told that their ignorant 
 wisdom will drag thousands together with themselves into hell. 
 
PSALM VII. 
 
 THE INNOCENCE (iGNORANCE) OF DAVID, WHICH HE 
 SUNG UNTO THE LORD CONCERNING THE WORDS OF THE ETHIOP- 
 IAN, THE SON OF JEMINI. 
 
 Many have spent much labor upon this psalm in order to 
 show what the scope of it is and what the title indicates, and 
 it still remains as much as ever in dispute. We in the mean 
 lime will follow Burgensis who seems to me to come nearer 
 to the true point than any other, when he judges that the 
 Psalm is not to be understood of Saul but of Shimei. That 
 we may see the propriety of thus understanding it, let us cite 
 the words of the history recorded in 2 Sam. 16:5-8, "And when 
 king David came to Bahurim, behold, there came out thence a 
 man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, 
 the son of Gera ; he came out and cursed still as he came. And 
 he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David : 
 and all the people, and all the mighty men, were on his right 
 hand and on his left. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, 
 Begone, begone, thou man of blood, and base fellow : Jehovah 
 hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in 
 whose stead thou hast reigned ; and Jehovah hath delivered the 
 kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son ; and, behold, thou 
 art taken in thine own mischief, because thou art a man of 
 blood." When the servants of David wanted to kill Shimei 
 David said, "Let him alone, and let him curse, for Jehovah hath 
 bidden him". Who is there that would dare to say, why dost 
 thou do so? And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, 
 "Behold my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeketh my 
 life: how much more may this Benjamite now do it"? 2 Sam 
 16:11. 
 
PSALM VII. 367 
 
 It is evident therefore that he calls this cursing- Shimei, 
 in the title, the son of Jemini, and it is he who cursed David, 
 although Saul is also called the son Jemini, i Sam. 9:21, be- 
 cause they were of the same tribe, 2 Sam. 16:15. 
 
 Therefore, we have here also at the same time the words on 
 account of which he sung this psalm, namely, on account of the 
 curses of Shimei, by which, as a most bitter and persevering 
 calumniator, he loaded him with false accusations. For we 
 do not find in the history of Saul that he vomited forth any 
 such words as these against David. Hence it must of necessity 
 follow that it is concerning the dreadful injury done him 
 by these words that David speaks, as the text of the Psalm 
 itself will show. 
 
 It now remains to be shown why he particularly calls him 
 Cush, which signifies an Ethiopian. Almost all commentators 
 agree that this is a metaphor, because blackness always indic- 
 ates wickedness of character. As the poet of old also saith — 
 Romans ! of this man beware ; 
 He is a dark — black character ! 
 
 As on the other hand we call him white who is sincere and 
 upright and of a candid heart, and who is without any dark 
 cast, as the proverbial term goes. Commentators suppose there- 
 fore that the proper name of the man was omitted by David 
 in the title, and that he made use of a new appellation suited 
 to his heart and disposition. But if we do not admit this we 
 may consider that he had two names, which we frequently find 
 in the sacred scriptures, as may be collected from the lineage 
 of Christ, Matt, i and Luke 3, and as we find with respect to 
 Zacharias the son of Jehoida, 2 Chron. 24 :20, is called in Matt. 
 23 :35 the son of Barachiah. Still the same point remains, that, 
 being silent about the name Shimei, he chose to call him 
 by another name, "Ethiopian", rather than Shimei, as being 
 an appellation more suited to his bad and malicious nature. 
 
 Now if we receive these things the ignorance here men- 
 tioned will discover itself of its own accord and show what 
 
368 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 its meaning is. For as David was so far from acknowledging 
 the justice of the curses of Shimei, as, even on his death bed, 
 to command Solomon, i Kings 2 19, that he should 'bring 
 down his, Shimei's, hoar head to the grave with blood', as 
 a revenge for the curses that he had received from him; it is 
 manifest that he, David, had confessed his innocence unto God, 
 and that this "ignorance" is nothing else than innocence, for 
 that of which we are not conscious, we may be rightly said not 
 to know or to be ignorant of. 
 
 But as it is wicked for any one to trust in his own devices, 
 Prov. 12:2, and according to "He that trusteth in his own 
 heart is a fool", Prov. 28 126. Therefore we are so to stand in 
 this innocence of ours as yet to fear the judgment of God, 
 and not to glory in our innocence in a way of security ; but we 
 are first to give glory to God and confess before him that his 
 judgment is one thing, and man's another; that having thus 
 received permission from him, we miay profess our innocence 
 before men, and yet not injure, but glorify, his judgment; and 
 this we learn by temptation. Therefore David, though he knew 
 that false things were laid to his charge, that is, as far as his 
 conscience v/as concerned, yet, as he knew also that God had 
 bidden Shimei thus to curse him, feared lest they were true 
 and just in the sight of God; nor had he a sufficient confidence 
 in his own conscience. In the same way, the apostles had not 
 sufficient confidence in themselves when they heard that one 
 of them should betray their Lord. For such is the tender 
 state of every godly man's conscience, that although innocent, 
 he fears sin where sin is not. Such is the case where there is 
 the fear of God and a sense of the inscrutable depth of his 
 judgment. 
 
 Hence David, though innocent, fears that he was guilty of 
 those things v.'hich were laid to his charge; and especially in 
 '•his time of temptation, in which God seemed to favor the 
 cause of his adversaries, and to strike him because of those 
 things which are laid to his charge, though he knows nothing 
 
PSALM VII. 369 
 
 of them. Tlierefore though he is not conscious of any crime 
 either to himself or before men, yet, fearing lest he should 
 be guilty in heart, for God searcheth the heart and trieth the 
 reins, he teaches us in this Psalm, that which is taught by the 
 Apostle, 2 Cor. 10:18, "For not he that commendeth himself 
 is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth". 
 
 Wherefore although this Psalm is written concerning David 
 and his ignorance, yet, as this evil of calumny is common and 
 frequent in the world we are to believe that these things are 
 written as a doctrine applicable in general unto all of us ; as 
 Paul saith, Rom. 15:4, "For whatsoever things were written 
 aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience 
 and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope". 
 
 Here we see what are and ought to be the mind and feel- 
 ings of all those who would faithfully, and in the fear of God, 
 bear and overcome calumny. For this kind of persecution 
 David has here set forth to us in this seventh psalm. He 
 has in the preceding Psalms instructed us in those evils and 
 temptations whereby we are purified from sin ; and now he 
 would more perfectly instruct us in the perfect fear of God ; 
 that we may there fear that we have sinned where we really 
 have not sinned ; and that we may be perfected in such a hatred 
 of sin and such a love of God, that we may be brought to fear 
 as sins those sins of which we are ignorant, and which are 
 indeed no sins at all. 
 
 To attain unto this perfection, we have need, not of a per- 
 secuting Absalom whom we know for certain persecutes us 
 unjustly, but of a calumniating Shimei whose curses we may 
 fear as true, though we know ourselves innocent all the while. 
 For we are not to be satisfied with this our innocence and rest 
 in contented security, but are to say with Job, 2y :5, 6, "Far 
 be it from me that I should justify you : till I die I will not 
 put away mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold 
 fast and will not let it go : my heart shall not reproach me so 
 long as I live". Thus, as we touched upon these points in the 
 
370 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 fifth Psalm, we are to confess our ignorance before God, who 
 alone knows the hearts of men ; but before men, we are to hold 
 fast our innocence, if our heart does not condemn us. For, as 
 before God sins are not to be denied, before whom no man 
 living is justified; so, before men, the truth is to be asserted 
 and maintained, before whom we can and ought to live without 
 sin. David therefore having received this instruction by his 
 own experience, imparts it unto us also, by which we avenge 
 ourselves of calumny much easier than Apelles some time since 
 took vengeance by his own picture. He saith therefore, 
 
 V. I. — O Jehovah my God, in thee do I take refuge (put 
 my trust) : save me from all them that pursue {persecute) 
 me and deliver me. 
 
 The first feeling here set forth is not that of heated revenge 
 and zeal against the calumniators and persecutors, as is the 
 case with man accustomed to vanity and lies, for God saith, 
 "vengeance is mine, I will repay", but we are first of all to 
 flee unto God and are to lay both our calumny and our per- 
 secution before him with that full hope and confidence which in- 
 nocence and a good conscience will in such cases afford us. 
 
 Here then, you see, David prays to be saved from all his 
 persecutors ; for there were two that persecuted him, Absalom 
 with smiles and by action and strength, and Shimei with the 
 scourge of the tongue and calumny; and without doubt the 
 latter was not alone, or at least, he did not do this to please 
 himself only; and therefore David saith, "Save me from all 
 them that persecute me", with the same feelings as those under 
 which he said, Ps. 6 :y, 'Mine eye waxed old because of all mine 
 enemies". Because those who suffer both violence and calumny 
 seem to have all things against them ; and it appears to them 
 that there is not one left to help them ; as indeed all things do 
 seem to one thus alone. Therefore he saith, "from all them 
 that persecute me"; that is, for I find all men and all things 
 against me. 
 
 And as to what difference there may be between "save me" 
 
PSALM VII. 371 
 
 and "deliver me", I do not think that of any consequence what- 
 ever; unless we wish to understand "save me" as referring to 
 the good, and "deliver me" to the evil. But rather, the whole 
 is to be understood as a repetition, and indicative of the power 
 of his feelings. 
 
 This verse we may bring forward against those who do not 
 believe that faith and hope are necessary either for prayer or 
 for receiving the grace of God or for receiving the benefit, as 
 we term it, of the sacraments. As the prophet prays to be 
 saved or delivered, and as he glories that he hopes in the Lord, 
 it is certain that these things will follow to those that believe 
 in, hope in, and love the Lord. He says moreover, "In thee 
 do I take refuge", not in myself, nor any man. We have spoken 
 more at large of these things in the fifth Psalm. 
 
 V. 2 — Lest they tear my soul like a lion, rending it in 
 pieces, ■li.'hilc there is none to deliver. 
 
 Jerome translates the passage from the Hebrew, "Lest he 
 seize my soul like a lion, and tear it, and there be none to 
 deliver'. 'Seize', says David, and 'tear', as a furious beast does, 
 which words he uses that we may not understand that any com- 
 mon kind of seizing is spoken of. Then he says, "like a lion", a 
 most implacable beast, and "tear me in pieces". Tear what in 
 pieces ? my house or my cattle ? no ! my soul ; that is, my life, 
 that life which my body has from my soul, as we have shown 
 from the preceding Psalm. 
 
 All these things David magnifies with the power of language 
 ihat he may set forth his extreme necessity, and put it in its 
 most alarming light, that he may be the sooner heard ; or rather, 
 that he may excite himself to a more ardent intentness of soul, 
 for we must pray with earnestness and seriousness if we would 
 ever be heard. It is not to be stated, however, that David 
 was at this time in that state, that he feared lest he should be 
 seized by Absalom and Shimei as by roaring lions, and should 
 be torn in pieces by them ; and he knew there was no hope nor 
 help for him but in God. In a like situation are all those who 
 
372 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 suffer violence and calumny, who will well understand the 
 sense and meaning of these words. 
 
 V. 3. — O Jehovah my God, if I have done this; if there he 
 iniquity in my hands; 
 
 V. 4. — // / have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace 
 with me {did me evil); yea, I have delivered him that zvithout 
 cause was mine adversary; 
 
 Here David enters upon the very theme of his Psalm and 
 according to the title speaks of the words of the Ethiopian, 
 Shimei. This calumniator first cast in his teeth that he 
 was guilty of the blood of the house of Saul, when he said, 
 'Come out, come out, thou man of blood, and thou man of 
 Belial' ; In the second place that he had invaded his kingdom 
 by violence; and that therefore both these things had now 
 come upon his own head. That, first of all, his blood should 
 be shed by his own son, and that, in the next place, the kingdom 
 should be transferred to him. Of both therefore David com- 
 plains and confesses himself innocent. 
 
 The nature and experience of the second namely 'innocence', 
 he teaches us to understand in two ways, negatively and con- 
 ditionally. That we should maintain our confidence in an 
 innocent conscience, as far as the sight of men is concerned, arid 
 should yet fear our own secret sinfulness in the sight 01 God, 
 our judge. For the experience of each is set forth in these 
 verses in this manner, 'O Jehovah my God, so far am I from 
 having done this, so far are my hands from being guilty in ihis 
 matter, so far am I from being the cause of the bloodshedding 
 of Saul's family and of the loss of his kingdom, that I did not 
 even return him and his evil for the evil the 7 did me, even 
 when it was in my power to do it, when I caught him in the cave 
 alone, i Sam. 24:5, and when I took away his spear out of his 
 camp, I Sam. 26:11, etc. 
 
 Moreover he says I have not only not rendered evil for 
 '.vil, but have, on the contrary, rendered good for evil. Thus 
 Saul himself testified, i Sam. 24:17, saying, "Thou art more 
 
tsALM vii. 373 
 
 righteous tlian I; for thou hast rendered unto nie good, where- 
 as I have rendered unto thee evil". So far is it, says David, 
 from being- possible that I can be a man of blood. But if there 
 be any secret sin in me, in that I did not do these things faith- 
 fully, and thou judgest me thus, on that account, I am ready 
 before thee. Punish me as I deserve. "Let mine enemy per- 
 secute my soul and take it". 
 
 Further, the expression "iniquity" seems to refer to the 
 latter accusation of Shimei, and "if I have done this" to the 
 former. So that the meaning is, I have not committed any 
 act of blood at all, with which he charges me. Nor is there any 
 iniquity va my hands, as to my having gotten the kingdom ; be- 
 cause I have done no one any injury in this matter, for I did 
 it, not by any temerity of my own, but according to thy com- 
 mand. 
 
 But where he imprecates so many evils upon himself if he 
 had done any such thing, the feeling grows more powerful 
 than it is where he merely says that he did it not. Whereby we 
 are taught to pray with an earnest heart against calumny ; yet 
 so, that we may testify our innocence, and at the same time fear 
 the secret judgment of God, being prepared to suffer any evils 
 if we are found blamable. For although according to the best 
 of your own judgment you have the command of God on your 
 side in any work, yet you ought to fear lest you should not 
 have acted rightly, and be apprehensive lest any commandment 
 should be against you. Even as Abraham, though he had re- 
 ceived the renewal of the promise in Isaac, yet fearing the judg- 
 ment of God, he willingly offered him up as a burnt-sacrifice. 
 
 So David, in this case, though conscious of no s'n, yet he 
 resigned the kingdom, saying, 2 Sam. 15:26, "But if he say 
 thus, I have no delight in thee ; behold, here am I, let him do to 
 me as seemeth good unto him." So he permitted Shimei to 
 curse on and even believed that he was commanded of God to do 
 it, fearing that it might all be just and right that happened 
 unto him. 
 
374 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Wherefore, however just, holy, innocent, true, and divine 
 your cause may be, you must conduct it in fear and humiHty, 
 always fearing the judgment of God and having confidence in 
 nothing of your own but in the mercy of God alone. Judas 
 Maccabee was engaged in a most just war, and many others 
 were overcome in most just causes, and in divine matters; as 
 is written in Judges 20:21-25; because they did not go forth 
 in fear, but depended upon the justness of their cause, and not 
 on the mercy of God only. But the apostle saith, i Cor. 4 4, 
 *'For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby 
 justified". 
 
 This is what David, being placed under tribulation, teaches 
 by his example, namely : that no one is at liberty to arrogate 
 justice unto himself so as to make a tumult on account of the 
 justice of his cause, or to rage with revenge because of it, or 
 to meditate any retaliation either by force or by law. It is 
 in this way that the church leaders who wish to seem just and 
 wise above all men madly rage ; but they ought first to be con- 
 cerned with humble fear lest they have merited all those things 
 before God, and they ought to offer themselves for deserved 
 punishment. 
 
 Then they ought to pray against their adversaries according 
 to the innocence of their conscience. This they may do, for 
 no adversary can have a just cause against any man who has 
 an innocent conscience ; for this God alone can have, and this 
 he does have. For the judgments of God are far different from 
 the judgments of men. Man sees those things only which are 
 open to view ; but God beholds the heart. Therefore when any 
 man judges otherwise than according to outward appearance, 
 he becomes a calumniator like this Shimei. 
 
 In order to set forth this humility and fear of God, David 
 carefully entitled the Psalm 'Concerning the words of Gush'; 
 because he was not ignorant that he deserved the persecution 
 of Absalom his son, and yet he does not excuse it. But the 
 curses of Shimei he does not acknowledge; or, if they are 
 
PSALM VII. 375 
 
 true, he confesses that he does not know his guilt. He deserved 
 by his adultery and murder the evils that came upon him from 
 Absalom ; but he is not conscious that he deserves the curses 
 of Shimei concerning the blood of Saul. Yet he fears that 
 he deserved it on account of the secret and fearful judgment 
 of God. How these things are the godly and God-fearing heart 
 well knows and feels when it is vexed and afflicted either by 
 accusing men or accusing devils. 
 
 The word, moreover, which the translator has rightly ren- 
 dered "iniquity" is in the Hebrew aval^ which signifies properly 
 that which the Latins express by 'iniquity' (iniquitas) that is, 
 a hurting or injuring a person more or less, so as to transgress 
 the bounds of what is right, as it happens in the affairs of men. 
 Thus here it would have been unjust to invade the kingdom 
 of a neighbor against his will, if he had done it. And what 
 our translation has *T will justly depart empty from mine 
 enemies" Jerome renders, 'Yea, I have not sent my enemies, 
 that is my persecutors, away empty'. Here Jerome wishes to 
 convey that signification which I have mentioned, that David 
 not only did not render evil for evil, but even did not send 
 his enemies empty away' ; that is, he rewarded them good for 
 evil. For this also is a kind of revenge, to force benevolence 
 and good-will from those who offend us ; for even our enemies 
 are to be loved. Though I know not whether this translation 
 fully gives the meaning of the Hebrew. 
 
 Observe here how David exemplified the evangelical stand- 
 ard of righteousness. For to render evil for evil seems agree- 
 able to the feelings of the flesh ; and this was prohibited by the 
 law of Moses, unless it were done by the sentence of a superior, 
 for no one was permitted to do it by his own authority. The 
 contrary is the rendering of good for good ; but this is mercen- 
 ary and servile. This is how those serve God who wish to 
 suffer neither evil nor death. For God oppresses us with evils, 
 that we may learn to serve him purely, without any expectation 
 either of good or reward on account of our service. The third 
 
376 LUTHEK ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 kind of return is, rendering evil for good, which is helHsh, 
 yea, worse than hellish. The fourth kind or return is rendering 
 good for evil. This is the gospel of Christ. David says he 
 acted according to this last ; because, he not only did not render 
 evil for evil, but rewarded good unto them, who, after they had 
 received good from him, ungratefully returned him evil, for 
 so the words are ; as we have before shown from the confession 
 of Saul, I Sam. 24:17. 
 
 V. 5. — Let the enemy pursue {persecute) my soul, and 
 overtake it; yea, let him tread my life down to the earth, and 
 lay my glory in the dust. 
 
 These words do not seem to me to be spoken under a feeling 
 of confidence as many think, though David was certain that 
 these things would not take place, because he did not deserve 
 them. For as he began in humble prayer, so we strive to sing 
 these things in the same fear of God. Because, as I said, 
 though he was not conscious that he merited this cursing, nay, 
 though he knew that he was called to the kingdom by the 
 command of God, yet, for many reasons, he could not glory long 
 and boast in this long: first, because God is wonderful in all 
 his ways ; and then, because we do not sufficiently know our 
 own hearts. By these things it may come to pass, that you 
 either may not rightly understand the command of God, or 
 may not rightly fulfill it. Thus you will be guilty though in 
 a most hidden way; and either the commandment of God must 
 be made null or altered, or God must stand against you, whom 
 you thought to be on your side. 
 
 It was in this fear that Abraham, as I before said, was in- 
 structed when he offered up his son Isaac. This indeed is an 
 exalted degree of the fear of God ; where thou art obliged to 
 apprehend that God and his commandment are not for thee, and 
 to fear that they are both against thee. In a word, where thou 
 hast to fear God did not wish, but forbade those very things 
 which he really did wish and command. Whereas in all other 
 
PSALM VII. 377 
 
 cases the fear is only that we have not done those things which 
 we know are plainly commanded. 
 
 Who can endure this most constant inconstancy of the 
 divine contradiction, so to speak, with an all-constant though 
 incomprehensible constancy, but he who is a "man after God's 
 own heart", as David and Abraham were? For here the very 
 truth of God itself seems to totter and excite hatred according 
 to all human judgment. But in this way must that mercenary 
 principle of our servile nature be destroyed, whereby we wor- 
 ship God only for our own advantage ; and under the influence 
 of which we are inflamed towards God, and for God's sake, as 
 we imagine and are filled with pride, zeal, and hatred for his 
 cause's sake, and ready and willing to endure any thing for 
 his name and worship and for the salvation of the souls of 
 men, as we call it. For who of us that had the promise of 
 David or of Abraham would not show forth and maintain 
 this command of God even before angels, if any one should 
 oppose him with a denial upon that ground ? So deeply there- 
 fore are the bent and feeling of the flesh rooted in man that 
 God must show himself to us as if he were a God inconstant 
 and faithless, in order that we may be rightly instructed there- 
 by not to trust to any thing, even divine or eternal, with a per- 
 verted afl:'ection. 
 
 David here mentions the three things to be destroyed, which 
 we surrender with the greatest grief, namely, soul, life, and 
 honor. He devotes his soul a prey to persecution and his life 
 to a trampling under foot, and his honor to a burial. For 
 in the Hebrew it is said, 'And let him bury, set up, my glory 
 in the dust' ; which indeed is the same as our translation but 
 somewhat clearer. 
 
 He seems to distinguish "soul" from "life", in that "soul" 
 should be understood as signifying, as I have already observed, 
 the substantial life which gives life to the body, but "life" the 
 conversation or the things done in the body by the soul. This 
 is the distinction which the Greeks seem to retain in their Zoa 
 
378 LUTHEK ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and Bios. Though we use the same word lehen, yet, we use 
 it in different senses when speaking of the natural Hfe and 
 of the works of that Hfe. 
 
 In these words he explained what his mind and feelings 
 were when he said, 2 Sam. 15 :26, "But if he say thus, I have 
 no delight in thee; behold, here am I", etc. And also when he 
 said, 16:11, "Let him curse; for Jehovah hath bidden him". 
 For then he was ready to lose his soul, his life, and the glory 
 of his kingdom, as is manifest. Therefore he now sings these 
 same things under the same feelings, that by his own example 
 he may instruct us all how we ought to think, how to speak, 
 and how to act, and instructs those who may be brought to 
 suffer the same things. 
 
 The sense is therefore, 'If I am such before thee, let that 
 be done which is now done. I willingly submit. Let Absalom 
 and Ahithophel seize me, neither let there be any one to save me 
 from my persecutors, nor to deliver me from the hand of him 
 that seizeth me. I am ready to bear thy will and to endure the 
 punishment due to me. 
 
 Moreover let them tread all my life and the actions of my 
 life down to the ground ; that is, let them destroy and cast away 
 all of them, that nothing whatever may any more remain before 
 the eyes, in the ears, or in the memory of men : I willingly lose 
 all. Let me be found evil in my Hfe, useless, and pernicious, 
 worthy of being vilely trampled under foot, of being sup- 
 planted by all, and of being cast away as dust shaken from the 
 foot. But let all raise and exalt my enemy and extol him to 
 the skies, let all his life and actions be great and wonderful 
 before thee and before all men, and let all that he has done, or 
 now does or will do, be honored in the same way. 
 
 Not content with this, he says, 'Yea, let him not only cast 
 down my present and future glory and power, but let him 
 bury them in the dust ; so that they shall be cast away for ever, 
 and never more appear. Let the throne of my kingdom, the 
 wife of my bosom, my children, my friends, my riches, and all 
 
PSALM VII. 379 
 
 that I have, go to obHvion. Yea, let that glorious promise 
 made me concerning a future Christ, which I held more dear 
 than all things else, and in which my only hope, glory, and 
 rejoicing stood, go also; so that, behold, I also like my father 
 Abraham bring and offer up my most beloved Isaac'. 
 
 O "man according to God's own heart", indeed! who can 
 rightly value this state of heart and mind? who can rightly 
 speak of it? We think it the greatest of all things to die 
 voluntarily, and lay down our life. But here, David is pre- 
 pared, not to die merely, but to be seized by a persecutor, to be 
 delivered into the hand of enemies, to be put to death. Not to 
 fall asleep gently in the midst of the tears of a circle of dear 
 relatives, but to be put to death in the midst of enfuriated, 
 mocking, and triumphant enemies. But, as to us, what do we 
 not perpetrate, what tragedies do we not act out, if even one 
 of our works or our words be blamed, or we are not highly 
 celebrated ? Whereas here, one that was universally renowned 
 for so many triumphs in war, for so many miracles, for a 
 conquered Goliath, for a vanquished bear, for so many godly 
 works, for so many augmentations of divine worship, not only 
 permits all his actions to lose their praise, but to be cast away 
 as dust from the shoes and trodden under foot for ever, and 
 so trampled upon by all till they are reduced to nothing ! 
 
 But as to us, what murders and acts of violence do we not 
 plan, if not carry into execution, even upon the whole race, either 
 for the maintaining of some old honors and dominions, or for 
 defending some present privileges of our own ? Whereas, 
 David, though having been anointed king three times by the 
 divine command, and having received the infallible declaration 
 and promise of the Christ that should be born from him, not 
 only lays down the whole kingdom and all that distinguished 
 honor, but is prepared never to receive it again, and to remain 
 as a cast-away and dishonored for ever, permitting all those 
 unspeakable honors and ornaments to be trodden down and 
 buried in the dust. What feeling can be conceived more un- 
 
380 LUTHER ON THE TSALMS. 
 
 bearable, more sublime, more deep, and, in a word, more won- 
 derful than this ! 
 
 David had all these things by divine command and by com- 
 mands repeated in more places than one. Why then does he 
 not in a rage stand up for the defence of the divine right ? Is 
 he then ungodly for not maintaining, defending, and preserving 
 the kingdom thus given him by the divine command, by blood 
 and by death ? But we at this day seem the most godly of all 
 men, if we confound heaven and earth in defending temporal 
 things, having affixed to them ourselves the title of divine 
 right, without any fear of God whatever ; whereas, if we really 
 had any of these things by divine right, God vv^ould justly 
 take the whole from us, being offended at our pride and con- 
 tention. 
 
 If David feared that the command which he received from 
 God had been altered by him, after he had been created king of 
 all prophets by so many signs, miracles, and unctions, and 
 after he had received the future Christ by so firm a promise, 
 I ask you, what command, what promise of God, we can have 
 that can give us cause for so much pride, war, contention, and 
 for tragedies of the like kind? We may well fear therefore 
 that there is the least vestige of the true Church there, where 
 there is the most noise about the Church. For we see that 
 God is most jealously impatient of all abuse of his promises, 
 and terrible in his counsels and commands to the children of 
 men. 
 
 But this is enough. I do not say these things as wishing 
 that any one's right and aim should be taken from him or en- 
 croached upon. But what I believe is, that we are taught by 
 the words and the example of this scripture, that whosoever 
 holds or possesses any thing, however just and right his title 
 to it may be, should possess it in fear, and not defend it by 
 force but by prayer and patience, and be prepared to yield it up 
 if God so please. Indeed the true force and meaning of this 
 scripture could not be fully understood and set forth were it 
 
PSALM VII. 381 
 
 not for the examples of the present age, to which it is so 
 exactly adapted and which it so clearly portrays. 
 
 For in this way do the Roman and Greek churches both 
 sin in their contentions for superiority and dominion, while 
 neither yields to the other; whereas, if they acted in the fear 
 of God each would yield to the other. Neither of them would 
 have lost their superiority, but would have preserved it much 
 more effectually if they had attempted by prayer instead of 
 aiming- at it by the contentions of popes and high-priests ; that 
 is, if they had not sought to do it by the will and favor of men 
 but by the mercy of God, for it would not then have been pre- 
 served by the former, but by the latter. For in this way David 
 also prays, and yet offers himself up : he asks with Christ 
 that the cup might pass from him, and yet obediently yields 
 to the will of God. As it is written in the law of Moses, "And 
 thou shalt do righteously that which is right". Hence we see 
 that he who has a most just cause is blamable before God, If 
 he does not defend it in the fear of God. God regardeth not 
 the proud and contentious, however righteous they may be. 
 
 Thus we read it was in the case of Job, in favor of whose 
 cause God himself bore testimony, yet he himself reproved Job 
 at the same time. 
 
 SuclWiumility and fear are necessary in the present day for 
 us, who are contending for the truth of theology and the power 
 of the church ; for we shall in both causes be condemned by 
 God, though they are causes most just, if we do not seek the 
 mercy of God by prayer, rather than aim at victory by a re- 
 liance upon the justice of our cause. We are indeed to pray 
 that the truth may triumph ; but if it does not please God that 
 it should be accomplished by us, let it be accomplished by 
 whomsoever he will. For let no one think that he shall accept- 
 ably do the commands of God, or defend them, if he offends 
 at the same time and transgresses that greatest of all the com- 
 mandments, the worshiping of God in fear and humility. For 
 
382 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 all the other commandments are regulated by this, and without 
 this all the other commandments come to nothing- at all. 
 
 Nothing therefore is acceptable except that which is done 
 in fear and humility. But where shall we find this state of 
 things in the church at present? What is the church in our 
 times but a certain confusion of schisms, where a tumult and 
 noise are made everywhere about the justness of causes and 
 the divine right, but all without any fear? and thus while 
 we fulfill all commandments, we set aside the very head, life, 
 and standard rule of all the commandments. Oh, blindness, 
 blindness, blindness ! 
 
 V. 6. — Arise, O Jehovah, in thine anger, lift up thyself 
 against the rage (in the borders) of mine adversaries, and 
 azvake for me; thou hast commanded judgment {awake, my 
 God, in the commandment for me; thou hast commanded). 
 
 These v/ords in the Hebrew are given in one verse, but it 
 is a verse the most obscure; nor is it fully understood to this 
 day what or concerning what it speaks. Jerome translated 
 it, 'Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, and lift up thyself with 
 indignation above mine enemies : awake for me in the judg- 
 ment which thou hast commanded'. But, 'with indignation 
 above mine enemies' is not in harmony with the Hebrew. I 
 therefore will make bold to translate the passage verbatim from 
 the Hebrew thus, 'Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, and lift up 
 thyself in the furies of my persecutors, and awake up for 
 me from the judgment, thou hast commanded'. The word 
 which we render 'in the borders' is, in the Hebrew, equivalent 
 to and nearly the same as the word 'furies', or angers, and 
 therefore, following Jerome, I have rendered it 'furies' rather 
 than "borders". 
 
 But this solecism, 'thou hast commanded', which our trans- 
 lators have made sense by the addition of the relative pronoun 
 "which" is found also in other places of the scriptures. As 
 in Psalm 51 :8, "The bones, thou hast broken, shall rejoice". 
 Where we render it, "The bones which thou hast broken", or, 
 
PSALM VII. 383 
 
 "the broken bones"; as here also, "the judgment commanded", 
 or, "the judgment which thou hast commanded". But, ac- 
 cording to my judgment, I should add not, "which", but 'be- 
 cause', or, "for"; thus, 'because', or, 'for', thou hast broken 
 them', and, 'because or, 'for', thou hast commanded'. And 
 this "arise" or, "lift up thyself", or, "awake up", is equivalent 
 to 'take out of the way', or, 'destroy' ; because it is here put 
 alone and implies power, as signifying that the Lord would 
 send a destruction upon the anger or rage of his enemies : in 
 this manner, 'Lift up thyself against the wrath of mine 
 enemies' ; that is, 'make a destruction and overthrow of those 
 ragings whereby my persecutors rage against me', namely, 
 Absalom and his party. The same meaning is to be applied, 
 "awake", or lift up thyself, or arise; for David wishes to say, 
 do thou raise or lift up thy hand against these furies. Just 
 in the same sense as he says, Ps. 138:7, "Though I walk in 
 the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me; thou wilt stretch 
 forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies". 
 
 Then there is that expression, "awake up for me" ; where, 
 instead of "for me", our translation has "O Lord my God"; 
 because, without the points, the Hebrew may read "my God", 
 or, "for me". And "awake" applies to him who is waked up 
 and who arises as out of sleep ; as David says also in another 
 place "awake, O Lord, why sleepest thou"? 
 
 Again, 'from the judgment", which our translation has 
 "in the commandment", seems to me to mean the office from 
 which judges and kings derive their name; concerning which 
 it is said, Ps. i :5, "The wicked shall not stand in the judg- 
 ment". And Ps. 122:5, "For there are set the thrones of 
 judgment". So that "from jugdment" should signify the same 
 as for judgment, or for the purpose of judgment. As it is in 
 Ps. 68 :29, "From thy temple at Jerusalem, that is, because of 
 thy tempel at Jerusalem, kings shall bring presents unto thee". 
 In the same manner, Ps. 4 :/, "From the time of their corn and 
 wine are they increased". For this use of the letter Mem or the 
 
384 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 preposition a or ab seems to have a force equivalent to a con- 
 junction, according to the sense of that passage, Ps. 81 14, 
 "For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of 
 Jacob". So here "from judgment", because that is the judg- 
 ment which thou hast commanded. 
 
 Jehoshaphat giving commandment to the judges said, 2 
 Chron. 19:6, "Consider what ye do, for ye judge not for man, 
 but for Jehovah". Directly afterwards he commanded them, 
 that they should judge for the judgment and the cause of the 
 Lord when they returned to Jerusalem. Therefore David 
 prays to God that he would rise up for him unto judgment, 
 that the ungodly may not prevail, who always exercise among 
 the people their own tyranny instead of the judgment of God. 
 If, therefore, we receive the meaning of the passage thus, it 
 will easily appear that 'commandment' and 'judgment' will 
 signify one and the same thing; because, in judgment judges 
 execute the command of God, whereas tyrants rather subvert 
 it, as has been said. 
 
 The meaning is therefore according to the peculiar gram- 
 matical construction, 'Arise, O Lord, and show thy wrath, 
 that thou mayest no longer suffer these things ; oppose and pre- 
 vent the fury of my persecutors, and stretch out thine hand 
 against their rage, and prevent their impetuosity from falling 
 on me. Finally awake and remember me. This I pray, not on 
 my own account but for thy judgment's sake; lest all things be 
 rashly perverted and confounded while there is none to ad- 
 minister and govern affairs ; and especially at a time when 
 all things ought to be governed by thine own immediate order 
 and command'. So far the grammatical meaning. 
 
 Now calling theology to our aid, let us inquire why he prays 
 for the anger of God upon his enemies and why he arrogates 
 to himself the kingdom when just before he had been so willing 
 to give up the whole, and to benefit his enemies. 
 
 First of all, as he had offered himself and his in fear and 
 humility, it is certain that this prayer was not uttered in a 
 
PSALM VII. 385 
 
 wrong spirit. After he has ascribed all glory and righteous- 
 ness to God, he prays in safety against those who exercised 
 tyranny by force. For the fear of the Lord causes a man 
 to execute the divine command faithfully; by which he knew 
 that the kingdom and the administration of judgment were 
 committed to him. Add to this, that he does not seek his own 
 here but the things of God ; for he says, thou hast commanded 
 that I should hold the office of judgment among the people. 
 Therefore he chose rather to use the word "judgment" than 
 'kingdom' ; that he might show that he was concerned in the 
 cause of God, and that he did not desire a mere pompous out- 
 side show, but a good work. Hence Paul says, i Tim. 3:1, 
 "If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good 
 work". 
 
 He prays then for the wrath of God upon them, not as 
 desiring that they should be destroyed, but that, according to 
 what he had said in the preceding Psalm, they might feel the 
 wrath of God and God himself resisting them and making all 
 their attempts vain, and might be led to repentance and be 
 brought right ; for if they felt not this wrath, they would go 
 on multiplying their sins and remaining insensible and perse- 
 cuting the godly, the ways of the godly, and the commands of 
 God without end, thinking all the while that they were ren- 
 dering God the greatest service. How then could a church of 
 the godly subsist in the world, if God did not at some time 
 manifest his anger against the ungodly, and judge the needy, 
 and avenge the poor? 
 
 Therefore as he himself makes stormy the depths of the 
 sea, so he again stills its waves, setting bounds to the surges, 
 saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here 
 shall thy proud waves be stayed", as it is written in Job 38:11. 
 So, he who raises the fury of the ungodly can also restrain it 
 at his pleasure, in order to show his anger against it, and to 
 manifest that its malice does not please him. 
 
 David therefore prays for three things : First, that God 
 
386 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 would arise and show his anger and take away that will from 
 the enemies upon which they presume. Secondly, that he 
 would restrain their fury and subvert their base attempts. And, 
 thirdly, that returning to him he would restore the judgment 
 of God. Thus, not because he deserved it, but because God had 
 not only promised it and done it himself, but had commanded 
 that it should be so; wherein the prophet seeks nothing else 
 than that the truth of God may be established and that his 
 command might be fulfilled: and he says, if this may not be 
 he will willingly yield to their fury. 
 
 And here he begins to touch upon the feelings under such 
 temptation, that, after the darkness of the tribulation is past 
 his confidence in the mercy of God began to brighten. He 
 teaches us that we should also learn to do the same in all our 
 tribulations. For all these things took place and were re- 
 corded for an example unto us. 
 
 V. 7. — And let the congregation of the people compass 
 thee about; and oz'cr them return thou on high {for their sakes 
 therefore return thou on high). 
 
 In this verse, to keep to the sense and meaning already 
 proposed, David shows that his concern was not for himself 
 but for the people. For he first prays to be restored to his 
 office, not for his own sake, nor for the sake of the people, 
 but solely because God had commanded, that the will of God 
 in this matter might be done first. From the love of God he 
 comes down to the love of the brethren and of his neighbor, 
 that by this same command of God he might serve his fellow 
 men. Grant, says he, that the congregation of the people may 
 again compass me about, cleave to me, and be subject to me, 
 for he speaks in an optative sense by the future indicative, 
 as he glories also, Ps. 144 .2, "Who subdueth my people under 
 me", for this redounds to their salvation if they obey thee who 
 hast set me as king over them. Let them not stray as sheep 
 without a shepherd, lest, as men without a guide, they fall into 
 the hands of robbers. If I am unworthy, yet thou art worthy 
 
PSALM VII. 387 
 
 whom I should obey, and they deserve not on account of me 
 to be deHvered over to scattering and destruction. O do thou, 
 therefore, restore me to the head of affairs and gather the 
 outcasts of Israel, Ps. 147:2, and the members into the body. 
 
 Thus the godly ruler of the people, as far as he himself is 
 concerned, will Avillingly lose all things, will only desire to 
 do his duty to God and men, and will fear lest his evils should 
 be the cause of his people's peril and destruction. 
 
 As examples of this, look either at St. Athanasius or Hilary, 
 or like characters, who in the time of the Arian heresy were 
 driven from their stations into exile ! For I do not see that it 
 is possible to adduce any example from our own times, be- 
 cause none now a-days dare to do any thing that is likely 
 to subject them to exile. These holy fathers, though they were 
 most free from all iniquitous ambition, yet, as Hilary him- 
 self confesses, from the debt they owed to the ministry and 
 priesthood committed to them, they prayed that the Arians 
 might be cast down and that they might be permitted to min- 
 ister unto God in their stations, and to profit the people ; for 
 while they were absent, they anxiously and grievously feared 
 for the people intrusted to their care, lest they should be torn 
 in pieces by heretical wolves ; and they were deeply concerned 
 also lest violence should be done to the word of God. If there- 
 fore the present verses be prayed in their persons and if the 
 example of David be considered, it will be found that these 
 words exactly agree with the feelings of those who are brought 
 into such a state. 
 
 A parallel example would be, if a bishop or prelate were 
 excommunicated and banished for the sake of the truth or 
 because he was faithful in his office, and the people became 
 alienated from him, being misled by pernicious entreaties, dis- 
 tractions and lies. 
 
 For if the people were not led into danger by any other 
 evil they surely would be stirred up to lies and hatred of the 
 truth by the slander and abuse of their prelate, a good maa 
 
388 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Since all Israel was perverted and corrupted by these means 
 David sighed the more eagerly that he in a prayer called the 
 wrath of God upon their fury, which was surely necessary to 
 restrain the people. For it is better that the godless perish, 
 than that the people should be ensnared by godless teaching, 
 as the apostle, Gal. i :8-9, uttered the wish that those who 
 turned the Galatians from the truth might be anathema. 
 
 He has skilfully chosen his words ; so as not to say, shall 
 compass "me about", but "shall compass thee about" ; that is, 
 shall be gathered unto thee. That he might show forth that 
 which we mentioned before, that the judgment is not of man 
 but of God. Therefore, they who are gathered unto ihe man 
 that ministers in the work of God are gathered unto God, 
 and not unto man. He has reference to that figurative expres- 
 sion in the sciptures where the Lord is said to be in the midst 
 of his people; as in Ps. 16:5, "God is in the midst of her, she 
 shall not be moved". And 2 Cor. 6:16, which is taken from 
 Lev. 26:12, "And I will walk among you and will be your 
 God, and ye shall be ray people". 
 
 Reasonably and most appropriately does David thus speak 
 in this matter ; for Absalom and those who imitate him do not 
 seek to gather people unto God but unto themselves. They 
 themselves wish to be idols surrounded by the people ; for they 
 seek not the glory of God and the salvation of the people, as 
 all faithful men who stand between God and the people ought 
 to do, but they seek the increase of their own power. 
 
 By this word therefore he strikes at the arrogance and am- 
 bition of those who command the people only to aggrandise 
 their own power. That this may not be done is what the man 
 after God's own heart ardently prays for. But this evil most 
 certainly increases in the church at this day beyond all bounds, 
 and that by the wrath of God, for our fearing the censures of 
 men far more than the threatenings of God, and for our losing 
 sight of God altogether by having respect to the persons 
 of men. 
 
PSALM VII. 389 
 
 Then with respect to these words, "For their sakes there- 
 fore return thou on high", or as the Hebrew has it, "return 
 thou" etc. He does not say, put mc again on high, but "Return 
 thou on high". Nor does he say, for my sake, but 'For their, 
 the people's sake". "For he says it is they that I pity, it is 
 their calamity and their being seduced that fills me with so 
 much grief. It is for them that I pray, not for myself. Be- 
 hold therefore, as before in the love of God he prayed for the 
 judgment which God had commanded; so here in the love 
 of the brethren he prays for their salvation; thus, equally 
 anxious in both respects lest the judgment of God should not 
 be satisfied, and that men may not perish on his account ; that 
 the office of ruling the people which God has commanded, and 
 the obedience of the people who submit themselves to it, may 
 stand, that there may never be a people without a God nor a 
 God withoujt a people. O, that is a word that ought to be com- 
 mended to all the bishops, pastors, rulers and leaders in the 
 church, and held in memory and faithfully observed by them. 
 
 But when did God leave his seat on high so as to make 
 it necessary for him to return unto it? Why, it is so often as 
 any proud and ambitious one sits in the place of God. For- 
 while such an one subjects the people of God unto himself 
 rather than unto God, he certainly, as far as lies within his 
 power, is 'exalted, as Paul saith, 2 Thess. 2 4, above all that 
 is called God or that is worshipped'. Such an one as this is 
 ANTI-CHRIST ! As this is a time when all these popes and 
 high-priests in the church are thus ambitious and domineer over 
 the people and subject them unto themselves and not unto 
 Christ, who can doubt that Antichrist is reigning? But God 
 returns on high when, casting down all these Absaloms, he 
 again restores his judges as of old, who gather together people 
 unto God, teach the commandments of God, as of old, and set 
 aside all the traditions of men. 
 
 Let no one wonder that the returning of God on high is 
 his reviving his judgment, his power, his office, and his min- 
 
390 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 istry; for the prophet, as we know, speaks in the spirit, and 
 therefore he is to be understood as speaking of a spiritual 
 exaltation of God, who is exalted when we are brought to 
 submit to him, when we hear his word, and when we see his 
 works, and when all these are wrought by the ministration of 
 man. ■ -^^ril 
 
 Wherefore this Psalm is the most fervent prayer for se- 
 curing good bishops and leaders in the church. Would God 
 that we each to-day might, with special fervency as becomes 
 the words, offer this prayer in behalf of the church of Christ, 
 for there never was a time when such a prayer was more 
 needed. 
 
 But what do we see at present in the church that at all 
 answers to these words? Where are to be found men who 
 gather people together unto Christ, with the same anxiety as 
 they gather them together unto themselves? Who is now 
 as anxious to see the people fear Christ, as to see them fear 
 the power of the pope ? We unconcernedly smile at those who 
 ofifend God by their sins, but when any offend the pope, we 
 vent all our fury against them. 
 
 Then we compel them to observe our pomps, ceremonies, 
 ordinances, and laws; but so far are we from gathering them 
 together to the words of Christ and to the love of the Spirit, that 
 we labor with all our endeavors to prevent the people from 
 understanding Christ and the truth, and to hinder the believers 
 in Christ from being in peace and union with each other, es- 
 pecially kings and princes. We have dared even to teach that 
 it is an offence to teach the true godliness of Christ, that is, 
 we teach that in our estimation it is a matter of no small peril 
 for the people to be admitted to a true knowledge of the gospel, 
 to prefer the Word of God to the words of men, and to value 
 the works of true godliness above all the foolish outside show 
 of works. For we begin to think that if such knowledge pre- 
 vails we shall meet with famine on the one hand and poverty 
 on the other, and that all the pomp which we have scraped 
 
PSALM VII. 391 
 
 together from the whole world will fall to the ground. In 
 a word, in such perilous times do we live that we are compelled 
 to adore not God but man. 
 
 V. 8. — Jehovah ministereth judgment to the peoples: 
 judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness, and 
 to mine integrity that is in me. 
 
 Here he plainly shows himself and discovers to us what he 
 meant by God's returning on high, by the judgment commanded 
 of God, and by the congregation of the people which com- 
 pass God about. Why, says he, should I not speak thus? It 
 is not we that rule, that judge, it is the Lord that judgeth the 
 people, and the judgment of the people belongeth to him alone, 
 it is he that speaks, that judgeth and does all things in us. 
 Thus Gideon saith, Judges 8:23, "I .will not rule over you, 
 neither shall my son rule over you : Jehovah shall rule over 
 you". Behold the holy man ! he will not permit the people to 
 be gathered together unto himself even though requested to 
 do it ; he gives all over unto the Lord. 
 
 On the other hand, i Sam. 8 7, the Lord said unto Samuel, 
 "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that 
 I should not be king over them". Not that there was any evil 
 in asking a king, or in having one, for afterwards God gave 
 them kings, but they by a blinded heart and affection were more 
 anxious about a king than about God ; for they did not desire 
 the king that by him they might be brought nearer unto God ; 
 and therefore they were just such as ought to be under such a 
 tyrant as would subject them to himself and not to God; and 
 this is what happened unto them in Saul whom they desired 
 for their king. 
 
 From all these things it is manifest that it is an evident sign 
 of the wrath of God when he himself does not reign but per- 
 mits ambitious Absaloms to hold the place of judgment, con- 
 sidering us unworthy to hear the Word of God or to see his 
 works; as he himself foretold, Luke 17:22, saying, "The days 
 
392 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the 
 Son of man and ye shall not see it". 
 
 In the Hebrew the verb is in the future, "he shall judge 
 the people" ; which, by the optative, may be understood in a 
 petitionary sense, in this way. I pray thee that thou wouldst 
 be the judge of the people, and that thou wouldst not suffer men 
 to judge, nor thy people to be seduced by the words of men, 
 nor by the burdens which they may lay upon themselves. Or 
 it may be understood assertatively and in a way of hope from 
 his feeling a confidence that his prayer was heard. In this 
 way I prefer to understand it. I feel confident and am certain 
 that I am heard in praying, that thy Word, thy work, and thy 
 judgment, may gather thy people together again whom these 
 ungodly ones have scattered by their words and works, and 
 have drawn them from thee on account of me. 
 
 After he had expressed his concern for the cause of God 
 and of the people, he begins with his own cause, praying that 
 his innocence might be made manifest ; because the cause of 
 God and of the people could not be restored in this instance 
 unless the ungodly were cast down and his innocence were de- 
 fended. Therefore the necessitous state of the glory of God 
 and of the safety of the people compel him to pray that his 
 own cause might be justified. For as long as he is condemned 
 unjustly, so long it must appear that neither the judgment of 
 God nor the obedience of his people is true, because he is not 
 heard, though the accusations and condemnations of his ac- 
 cusers and persecutors must of necessity be heard. 
 
 Hence we see, that it is not enough that any one in a just 
 cause suffer for the truth and commit the matter unto God, and 
 be prepared to yield and to be brought down to the dust to- 
 gether with al! bis glory; but he must pray anxio'isly that 
 God would iudge and justify the cause of truth, not for his 
 sake aud advantage but for the vindication of the ministry of 
 God and for the salvation of his people, which is not without 
 peril nor withoiit thy fault, if from a foolish humility thou 
 
PSALM vir. 393 
 
 dost not pray most fervently for the preservation and mani- 
 festation of the truth and of thine own righteousness. For 
 thoii oughtest not so much to care about how humble and 
 abject thou rnavest be, as to fear that the people be drawn 
 away from the truth and from righteousness by lies and iniqui- 
 ty. Thou art indeed to bear evils and injustice, but so, that 
 thou may est not throw away thy love upon others, for love ought 
 to be solicitous about, not how thou mayest thyself rise, but how 
 the godl} may be prevented from offences and from perish- 
 ing. "For my brethren and companions' sakes", says David, 
 Ps. 122:8, 'T will now^ say, peace be within thee". Thus Paul 
 also gives thanks unto God that his bonds had not caused any 
 impediment to the gospel, but had even furthered it. Phil. 
 1:12-13. 
 
 David says therefore as thou art about to judge the people, 
 as that belongs to thee alone and as it is thus that the people 
 shall compass thee about again, and that thou shalt be again 
 in the midst of them, as I have prayed thou mayest be; now, 
 therefore that this may be brought about more effectually, 
 judge me according to my righteousness and according to mine 
 integrity that is in me, and thereby show how false and lying 
 these curses of the Ethiopian the son of Jemini are, lest my 
 righteousness being falsely accused should in any way hinder 
 this thy judgment and the salvation of the people. 
 
 We have before shown in the third Psalm, that in the 
 scriptures the righteousness of man and the righteousness of 
 God are different things ; that a man's righteousness is that 
 V. hereby he is unblamable before men and in his ow^n con- 
 science, though that righteousness sufticeth not before God. 
 But the righteousness of God is the grace and mercy of God 
 which justify us even before God. Hence David most care- 
 fully adds "my righteousness", that he might distinguish it 
 from that of which he speaks at the end of the Psalm, saying, 
 "I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness". Per- 
 haps he says "my righteousness" and "mine integrity" with 
 
394 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 reference to the two things which he had before said, ver. 3, 
 "If I have done this" and "if there be iniquity in my hands" ; 
 which he had said in defiance of Shimei. So that his "right- 
 eousness" is his not being guilty of the blood of Saul, nay, 
 his not having rewarded evil unto them that did him evil and 
 his not having sent his enemies empty away. His "integrity" 
 or 'innocence' or 'simplicity', for the Hebrew word means all 
 these things, are his not having invaded the kingdom of Saul 
 by his own authority. 
 
 But what means this "upon me"? Jerome translates it 
 "which is in me": but whose righteousness is not in him? 
 Does he add this in order to make a greater difference and to 
 show more distinctly that the righteousness whereby we are 
 justified before God is not in ourselves, but in God and out 
 of ourselves? Yes, he does it to leave no one any opportunity 
 of being puffed up in himself on account of his own righteous- 
 ness before God ; though for the sake of the salvation of others 
 we are to seek to have our innocence or integrity justified 
 before men, as was said. 
 
 V. 9. — Oh let the zvickediiess of the zvicked come to an 
 end, hilt establish thou the righteous (thou shall guide the 
 just) ; for the righteous God trieth the minds and hearts {the 
 hearts and reins). 
 
 Here the Latin translator varies after his custom ; for what 
 he translated in Ps. 5 :5, "The malignant shall not stand in 
 thy sight" he here translates 'wicked' or "wickedness". What 
 he had rendered, Ps. 1:1, "ungodly" he here renders "sinners". 
 But what ungodly and ungodliness, malignant and malignity 
 are, I have abundantly shown, Ps. i and 5. Aside from this 
 the Latin translator took the word "just" from the end of this 
 verse and joined it to the following verse against the Hebrew 
 and Greek, but not without difficulty, in that he says in verse 
 II, "Just is my shield v/ith the Lord,,' as if the righteous could 
 have with God another, that is an unjust shield". 
 
 The Hebrew and Jerome's translation run, "The wicked- 
 ness of the ungodly shall come to an end, and the just shall 
 
PSALM VII. 395 
 
 be established; the righteous God trieth the hearts and the 
 reins". 
 
 David teaches us in this example that we also ought to 
 contend more in prayer unto God against the malignity of the 
 ungodly and for the innocence of the just, than in our own 
 strength and with our noise and tumult. For we are to fight 
 with weapons different from those of the ungodly. They con- 
 tend with noise and tumult, but we are to contend with prayer, 
 the Word, and patience. 
 
 Let it ''come to an end", says David, which is the same 
 as, let it be finished, end, and cease; as we have it, Ps. 104:35, 
 "Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked 
 be no more". On the other hand, contrary to this, he prays 
 that the just may be established; that is, that he may prosper, 
 be guided, and be confirmed, and the more so by the wicked 
 being consumed. Nor would it be at all absurd if we were to 
 read it 'justice' (jiistuni) in the neuter gender, in opposition 
 to the "wickedness" of the wicked ; thus taking it in the abstract 
 for righteousness, or for a righteous thing, or the cause of a 
 righteous person; as the apostle speaks, Rom. 5 -.y, "For scarce- 
 ly for a righteous man will one die". But these things are of 
 little moment, 
 
 David then is to be understood to have prayed this verse as 
 an example unto us in order to instruct us in right affections ; 
 for he did not offer up this prayer from a desire of revenge, 
 but from a zealous love toward God and men, in the same way 
 as he prayed in the verse preceding. For those who are desir- 
 ous of revenge do not seek the fall of their adversaries in the 
 last place but in the first. Whereas David here is concerned 
 about God in the first place and about the people in the next, 
 and then he comes to his own case in due order, and lastly unto 
 his adversaries, whom he desires thus to be brought to an end, 
 that the ministrations of God and the salvation of the people 
 may not be endangered, as we before said ; which peril cannot 
 be taken out of the way unless the malignity of the ungodly be 
 
39^ LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 brought to an end, and the cause of the innocence of the just 
 be estabhshed; and that by the judgment and avenging hand 
 of God. Wherefore as the wickedness of the wicked in the 
 time of David's tribulation was the tyranny of Absalom and 
 his party who oppressed justice, so in every state of the church 
 each just man's oppression is the wickedness of his Absalom 
 and the violence and tyranny which he endures. 
 
 CONCERNING THE REINS AND THE HEART. 
 
 We have not yet spoken on "the reins and the heart", of 
 which frequent mention is made in the scriptures, and there- 
 fore we must once for all treat the subject here. 
 
 In the book of Leviticus nearly the whole of the third 
 chapter, which instructs the priests concerning peace-offerings, 
 speaks of the sacrifice of the reins or kidneys {renihiis) or 
 small kidneys {rcnunculis) , of the parts that hold or contain 
 the vitals, and of the fat and caul of the intestines. It is prob- 
 able that the frequent mention that is made of kidneys or reins 
 is taken from this part of the scripture, and therefore we must 
 come to the nature and meaning of the words. 
 
 Physicians say that the two kidneys are connected to the 
 loins and that they are the organs of lust and pleasure, as the 
 heart is of fear and confidence, the spleen of laughter and joy, 
 and the liver of love and hatred. Hence, they will have it that 
 ren is derived from the Greek rco which signifies to flow, be- 
 cause the obscene humor of lust flows from the kidneys. Hence 
 to the loins in which the kidneys are seated is ascribed by the 
 scriptures the shame of lust; as in the passage, Luke 12:35, 
 "Let your loins be girded about". Heb. 7:10, "For Levi was 
 yet in the loins of his father Abraham". Again, Gen. 46 :26, 
 "And the souls which came out of Jacob's loins were threescore 
 and six". It is manifest therefore that by reins are to be un- 
 derstood delights or pleasures, which must be offered as sac- 
 rifices to God by the mortification of the flesh. 
 
 These same pleasures or the sensations of delight that ac- 
 company them are signified by the caul and all the fat. Be- 
 
PSALM VII. 397 
 
 cause all this delight and all this love and the pleasures at- 
 tending it are to be offered to God, and we are to rejoice and 
 delight in nothing but in God who alone is to be loved ; as he 
 saith, Lev. 3:17, 'And all the fat shall be the Lord's, by a per- 
 petual statute'. This is v/hat Paul also saith, Phil. 4 14, taking 
 away the veil from Moses' face, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, 
 and again, I say re-rejoice". David understanding Moses thus 
 in the same spirit shows that fat signifies joy, saying, Ps. 63 15, 
 "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and 
 my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips". 
 
 Therefore he that loves God enjoys God, delights in God, 
 and rejoices in those things that are of God, he offers up to 
 God the liver, the reins, the fat, and the caul, mortified to- 
 gether with all their carnal and corporal lusts, delights, pleas- 
 ures, and gratifications. This is what the law enjoined the 
 priests to do ; that is, all Christians are priests and are "an elect 
 race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation", i Pet. 2 :g. 
 
 To all this Augustine agrees who everywhere by reins un- 
 derstands sensual pleasures. 'Rightly, says he, is the pleasure 
 of earthly and temporal things attributed unto the reins, be- 
 cause that is itself the inferior part of man, and is that part in 
 which is seated the pleasure of carnal generation, through 
 which the human race are sent forth, by a succession of off- 
 spring, unto this life so full of all sorrowful and fallacious joy'. 
 
 But the "heart", because it is the seat of the understanding, 
 signifies the counsels of the man, his pursuits, mind, judgment, 
 opinions, affections, thoughts, powers of valuing and esteem- 
 ing, and the like. Hence, heart is put before reins, because it 
 seeks the pleasure by imagination, and then pleasure 
 follows ; and every one is delighted with those things which he 
 judges will be good for him, when he obtains them. Hence 
 the mind of the flesh is said by the apostle to be enmity against 
 God, Rom. 8 :7, because it seeks pleasures which are contrary 
 to him, and is affected, delighted, and carried away with those 
 things which God has prohibited. The sense of the passage is 
 
398 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 therefore that God alone searcheth, knoweth, examineth, and 
 proveth the thoughts, dehghts, desires, and pleasures of all; 
 because he is a weigher of the spirits, Prov. 16 :2. Thus far 
 the grammar of the words. 
 
 But why did David wish to say these things here? Or 
 how do they at all agree with what preceded? He had said, 
 "Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish 
 thou the righteous". As the judgment of men and the judg- 
 ment of God are two very different things, nay, quite contrary 
 to each other, David in the sight of men who see things as they 
 outwardly appear, was judged by Absalom and Shimei to be a 
 man of blood and guilty of many crimes ; for as it is said, 2 
 Sam. 15:13, "The hearts of the men of Israel are after Ab- 
 salom". Thus Absalom shines as just, righteous, and good; 
 and in the eyes of all David was vile, ungodly, evil, and in- 
 jurious. Hence as it is a most powerful temptation to be left 
 and deserted by all, and to have all our friends go over to our 
 adversary, David of necessity calls upon the judgment of God, 
 that he would judge according to the heart. 
 
 In this way David consoles himself and confirms his hope, 
 holding a good and right opinion concerning God. As if he had 
 said, although all should forsake me and should flee unto Ab- 
 salom, though he should be established and I should be con- 
 sumed and brought to naught ; yet thou, O Lord, who art a 
 just God, judging in a manner far different from man, and 
 trying all men according to their hearts and reins, knowest 
 how iniquitously they act ; for thou seest the heart and the 
 reins and thou knov/est what they think, what they seek, and 
 in what they rejoice. On the other hand thou art not ignorant 
 of my thoughts and wishes, though my enemies' outward ap- 
 pearance and mine are both very different from our heart and 
 reins. Therefore I pray that thou wouldst consume their 
 wickedness and establish my righteousness. For this verse, 
 in the Hebrew, is manifestly a petition, because the word na 
 is added, which is translated by the interjection 'O', or by the 
 
PSALM VII. 399 
 
 verb 'I pray' ; thus, "Let, I beseech thee, the wickedness of the 
 wicked come to an end". As it is in Ps. 118:25, "Save now, 
 I beseech thee, O Jehovah". 
 
 We are instructed in this verse therefore not to yield in 
 defending the cause of truth, however many, nay if all, fall 
 off from us and go over to our adversaries ; for it is no new 
 thing at this day even for a whole multitude together with 
 all the great ones of the land, to hold an error and to defend 
 an unjust cause. Though it is difficult and hard to bear this 
 being left alone, because when this is the case fools all glory 
 that their cause is true and invincible. But God liveth, whose 
 judgment must be called in to our aid, and firmly to be adhered 
 to ; for he trieth the reins and the heart, because he is a just 
 God. Hence the word "just" belongs peculiarly to this verse, 
 because the whole force of the scripture lies in it, and by it is 
 signaled that all men are unjust judges. 
 
 From all this it will follow that heart and reins are to be 
 understood in a twofold way : as being unmortified and not 
 offered up to God, and on the contrary, as being rectified and 
 purged by grace. For David speaks directly afterward of the 
 upright in heart, and shows what hearts God tries, searches, and 
 accepts, saying, 
 
 V. 10. — My shield {defence) is with God, zvho saveth the 
 upright in heart. 
 
 The Hebrew is thus translated by Jerome, 'My shield '.s 
 in God' ; for it signifies protection and defence. These are 
 the words of David exhorting himself unto hope in God against 
 the multitude of men, who are his adversaries, and who trust 
 in themselves, and especially against the words of Shimei, 
 where he said, 2 Sam. 16:8, "Behold thou art taken in thine 
 own mischief, because thou art a man of blood ; and Jehovah 
 hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son". 
 Be it so then, says David, trust ye in man who judges accord- 
 ing to appearance. I have found my defence, I trust in God 
 who judgeth according to the heart. Wherefore all the force 
 
400 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 lies in the pronoun "my" and "Lord", and those two words are 
 set against 'your' and 'man'. Your defence, says he, is in man, 
 but mine is in the Lord. This is how we are to act in all like 
 cases. There is another force contained in the pronoun "who" 
 and in the accusative "upright", in this way. Man saves the 
 corrupt in heart, but God the upright in heart. These words 
 are very necessary for those who are enduring tribulation, that 
 they may thereby cherish in their hearts a firm persuasion con- 
 cerning the mind of God toward them, and may hold it fast 
 against all arguments that may be urged to the contrary, that 
 they may not faint in their hope of divine help. 
 
 What this upright heart is we have fully shown in the first 
 Psalm, when speaking of the "counsel of the wicked". This 
 upright heart is when a man has a right apprehension of God 
 and when he is not led according to his own senses, that is, 
 when he believes and hopes in God. For it is faith alone that 
 justifies, purifies, and establishes the heart by setting it in a 
 right, true, and holy apprehension of God. This agrees exact- 
 ly with the subject of the Psalm; for Shimei endeavored to 
 prove the justness of his curses even upon the authority of 
 God. And it rightly accords with the expulsion of David and 
 the usurpation of Absalom. For David in these words shows 
 how men of false and depraved hearts are accustomed to show 
 themselves off under a specious appearance and to revile the 
 upright in heart, especially when the applause of the people 
 joins with them. 
 
 V, 1 1. God is a righteous judge, yea, a God that hath indig 
 nation ei'ery day. Rev. Ver. 
 
 V. II. God is a judge, just, strong, and patient; will he 
 he angry every day? 
 
 The Hebrew is different from this translation and runs 
 thus, 'God is a judge, righteous, and strong, being filled with 
 indignation every day'. That which we render "strong" is 
 a name of God, and is the same as el : so that it might be 
 more properly rendered 'God is a righteous judge, and God 
 
PSALM VII. 401 
 
 is angry all the day' ; and therefore the word ''patient" is added 
 and is generally called in by interpreters in their rendering of 
 the verse, though it is not in the original text. 
 
 Hence the hope of David so grew in this temptation that 
 now he not only has no doubt that he is heard and will be 
 delivered, but also begins to admonish his adversaries to fear 
 the judgment and vengeance of God. Then he openly declares 
 that all that they had devised against him shall fall upon their 
 own head. Although David sang these things after his tempta- 
 tion, so that we may plainly see, that he offered this consola- 
 tion to the persecuted, and denounced this anger upon the 
 persecutors, after he had been taught by the very event of his 
 tribulations, and that he instructed others by his own success- 
 ful example and by the perils of his adversaries ; yet, we arc 
 to believe that he meditated upon those things in the midst of 
 his tribulation which he afterwards sang in his psalms in public. 
 For he never despaired of God and therefore he knew that all 
 these things would come upon his adversaries. So now also and 
 always every just man who sees the ungodly unjustly doing 
 violence to the righteous may with confidence think and say 
 that God, whom he knows to be a just judge, will not sufifer 
 these things. As David says, Ps. 9:18, "The expectation of 
 the poor shall not perish for ever". And this he by no means 
 obscurely indicates, when in the same history which is now 
 before us he gave such anxious injunctions that his son Absalom 
 should be preserved, because he knew and feared, that the evil 
 he had done would fall upon his own head, as it also happened. 
 Here he declares that the same shall come upon all who follow 
 his steps. 
 
 Let us therefore hear this holy preacher and listen to those 
 things which he declares to his ungodly adversaries with pious 
 solicitude, desiring to rescue them from dangers, and thus 
 truly rendering good for evil. Know this, God is a judge, but 
 he is a just one, who has no respect of persons, is not moved 
 
402 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 with any craft, nor changed by any favor, nor corrupted by 
 any gift. For by these things men are not only rendered un- 
 just judges, but even despisers of God the just judge, for they 
 think it enough to please men. God as judge does not con- 
 demn, for the sake of pleasing men, either the solitary, the re- 
 viled, the cursed, the oppressed, the poor, or the despised. In 
 a word, even this one word, 'God is a righteous judge', is 
 enough if it be truly felt and apprehended to comfort the 
 humble and to terrify the proud ; and this had great weight 
 with Christ ; as i Peter 2 :23 says, "But committed himself to 
 him that judgeth righteously". For he that thinks on this 
 word soon lays aside all thoughts of revenge, nay, he even 
 pities his adversaries who run upon the judgment of God. 
 
 "Strong, he is angry all the day" ; that is, continually. Do 
 not think, ye ungodly, says David, that God is favorable to you 
 because ye are exalted and become powerful in your iniquity. 
 Know ye and believe that things are otherwise than they really 
 appear. God is wroth and hates you, he is indignant at you, 
 he threatens you all the day, for the Hebrew word, as they say, 
 has all these significations. These things must of necessity 
 be said to the ungodly, who, because they feel not the anger of 
 God, neither believe it nor fear it. For the words of the Spirit 
 are spoken concerning things absent and not appearing, which 
 are to be apprehended by faith. 
 
 But our translation seems to reverse the whole of this, mak- 
 ing the former part refer to the ungodly and the latter to the 
 godly. For we understand that God is just and patient towards 
 the wicked who are to be alarmed ; and that his not being angry 
 every day refers to the godly whom he consoles and com- 
 forts ; according to Ps. 103 ig, "He will not always chide, 
 neither will he keep his anger for ever". Again, Ps. 55 :22, 
 "He will never suffer the righteous to be moved". But the 
 Hebrew more appropriately accords with that which now 
 follows. 
 
 V. 12. — If a man turn not, he zvill whet his szvord (unless 
 
PSALM VII. 403 
 
 ye he converted, he ivHl brandish his szvord) : he hath bent 
 his bow and made it ready. 
 
 The Hebrew runs thus, 'If he turn not, he will whet his 
 sword'. Though he that whets his sword and prepares it, 
 makes it fit for brandishing; so that whetting and brandishing 
 do not differ much from each other. But it is doubtful whether 
 the expression "If he will not turn" refers to God who is 
 threatening, or to the wicked who is to be converted ; though 
 Jerome applies it to the man to be converted, saying, 'He will 
 whet his sword against him that will not turn'. Perhaps the 
 verb is put absolutely "If he will not turn', that is, if there 
 shall be no turning. But whether you say 'Unless ye turn', or 
 'against him that will not turn', or 'if there be no turning', the 
 sense remains exactly the same. Let us therefore proceed to 
 inquire into this sense. 
 
 The prophet makes use of a plain and coarse similitude for 
 striking terror, because he is speaking against the insensible 
 and hardened, who will not understand the severity of the 
 divine judgment concerning which he has been speaking, un- 
 less it be set before them by some similitude taken from that 
 which betokens severity among men. Therefore he does not 
 speak of a rod, nor a staff, nor of any thing that betokens 
 severity of discipline among men, but brings forward that 
 which threatens death, namely, the sword and the bow which 
 betoken eternal judgment, eternal death, and eternal wrath. 
 For what is the sword of God but the word of eternal judg- 
 ment? concerning which Paul saith to the Hebrews, 4:12, "For 
 the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any 
 two-edged sword" ; by which Word it is that God wdll say unto 
 them "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire". And the 
 word "sword" signifies cutting and slaying, especially when 
 it is spoken of as being whetted and brandished. 
 
 His words are addressed to these same insensible persons 
 when he is not only not contented with saying that the 'sword 
 is whetted', but that the 'bow is bent' ; and not only so, but he 
 
404 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 describes the 'arrows' also. So hard is ungodliness in its front 
 and face, that all these threats are necessary, nor will it be 
 softened even by these. The bow has the same signification as 
 the sword, namely, the Word of judgment; which is the same 
 things signified and represented by these various things. When 
 David saith he hath 'made them ready', it is the same as he 
 meant before when he said, "and guide thou the just". So that 
 you are to understand that the bow is prepared, bent, and 
 made ready to strike the wicked immediately, even as the sword 
 also is brandished to cut them in pieces. 
 
 In these words he beautifully describes the wrath of God 
 as about to fall immediately upon the ungodly, of which never- 
 theless they never understand any thing until they feel it. Yet 
 what would it have profited Absalom and Ahithophel even if 
 they had succeeded and prospered for many thousands of years 
 in their malice and wickedness, if they were to be overtaken by 
 the sudden sword of the wrath of God at last, and cut ofif, and 
 sent to eternal death? For the sudden wrath of God would 
 be all the while hanging over them. Hence Sirach, 5 4-7, 'Say 
 not, I have sinned, and what harm hath happened unto me? 
 And say not. His mercy is great ; for mercy and wrath come 
 from him, and his indignation resteth upon sinners. Make no 
 tarrying to turn to the Lord, and put not off from day to day : 
 for suddenly shall the wrath of the Lord come forth, and in 
 thy security thou shalt be destroyed, and perish in the day of 
 vengeance'. And Ps. 34:16, "The face of Jehovah is against 
 them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from 
 the earth". 
 
 V. 13. — He hath also prepared for Iiiui the iiisfniineiits 
 (vessels) of death; he makcth his arrozvs fiery shafts {he hath 
 ordained his arrows for t/ie burning). 
 
 The Psalmist still pursues his similitude and he now aptly 
 describes the eternal torment, which is to die and to burn. 
 "Vessel" according to the Hebrew signifies, by a general term, 
 every instrument of every kind; as in Ps. 71 -.22, "I will praise 
 
PSALM VII. 405 
 
 thee with the vessels of the psahii" ; that is, with instruments 
 of music. And Ezek. 9:1, "And every man had a vessel of 
 slaughter in his hand" ; that is, an instrument of death or an 
 instrument for slaughter. So, Acts 9:15, Paul the apostle 
 is said to be "a vessel of election", which those who are ig- 
 norant of the Hebrew idiom do not understand to be, though 
 it is so, the same as the Latin expression instrumentiim electum, 
 'chosen vessel' ; because Christ's will was to use him in pre- 
 ference to all the rest of the apostles to convert the Gentiles. 
 They understand it as signifying only that he had received 
 electing grace ; whereas, Christ most particularly added that 
 he was therefore "a chosen vessel" unto him, because he should 
 bear his name before the Gentiles and the children of Israel, 
 and should suffer many things for his name and Word's sake. 
 
 So here, by the same idiom, "vessels of death" signify dead- 
 ly darts and weapons ; which words he uses that these insensible 
 ones might not account this threatening a thing of naught, but 
 that from the apprehension of temporal death they might feel 
 the terror of eternal death. 
 
 "He hath ordained his arrows for the burning". These 
 words he uses by way of increased force of expression, thereby 
 either repeating or explaining the words "vessels of death". 
 That they might not think lightly of these arrows, he calls 
 them deadly, and for terrible purposes ; thus, still keeping up a 
 weighty power of expression, and making use of striking and 
 forcible words. Jerome thus renders the passage, 'He that 
 hath wrought his arrows for burning'. Our translation renders 
 the passage obscurely and almost barbarously. For what is 
 the meaning of "He has made his arrows for the burning"? 
 Does it mean that he made arrows for those who were burning 
 to cast? The reason of their translating it thus, was the He- 
 brew word being in the plural, ledolkim ; which Jerome has 
 rendered 'for burning'. It might have been rendered, 'He hath 
 prepared for him the vessels of destruction, he hath made ready 
 his arrows to burn'; or 'that they may be burning'. For the 
 
406 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Hebrew cannot be rendered literally thus, 'He hath wrought 
 his arrows to be burning'. 
 
 Nor is it full enough to say 'he has made his arrows burn- 
 ing' ; though this is also signified, because the verb "he hath 
 ordained" or 'wrought', of which we have spoken, Ps. i, is in 
 this passage paal ; which has not the signification of any work- 
 manship or art, but of a use or a person using. So that it 
 signifies both that the vessels of death are now ready and the 
 arrows made burning, and also that God is so using and hurl- 
 ing them, that they slay and burn ; and therefore it sets the 
 wrath and severity of God immediately before our eyes as pre- 
 paring for its execution. For he is now preparing to execute 
 his wrath that the ungodly may die and burn, though they do 
 not yet die and burn. 
 
 Moreover the word "burning" signifies also persecution 
 and devastation, Ps. 10:2, "In the pride of the wicked the poor 
 is hotly pursued" ; that is, they sufifer persecution. 
 
 The sum of the whole is, there is no doubt that under these 
 terms "death" and "burning" he represents death and hell, 
 concerning which we have spoken more at large, Ps. 6, under 
 the words "anger" and "fury", "rebuke" and "correct", and 
 also, "confounded" and "put to shame". Concerning these 
 arrows Job 6 4, complains, and we find them spoken of in many 
 other places in the Psalms. 
 
 It is observable that we have not before had any such 
 threatening and indignation denounced against the ungodly, 
 nor has the Holy Spirit inveighed against them with such a 
 power of language. In what follows he enumerates their pur- 
 suits and attempts, which were not indeed wholly in vain, 
 for he shows that they all turned upon their own heads, that 
 all who sufifer the violence of calumny may plainly see for their 
 consolation, how hateful calumniators are, above all others, in 
 the sight of God. 
 
 V. 14. — Behold, he travaileth ivith iniquity {ungodliness) ; 
 
PSALM VII. 407 
 
 yea, he hath conceived mischief {pain), and brought forth false- 
 hood {iniquity). 
 
 Here he describes their mahgnant purposes which eventually 
 prove injurious to no one but to the authors themselves; V\^hich 
 purposes he calls "unrighteousness", "pain", and "iniquity". 
 Jerome translates the passage, 'Behold he travaileth with ini- 
 quity, he hath conceived pain, he hath brought forth falsehood'. 
 
 The first word which we have rendered "ungodliness" or 
 "iniquity" is, in the Hebrew, the very word aven, by which 
 is signified as we have observed in Psalms 5 and 6 "the workers 
 of iniquity" ; on which passages we remarked that the word is 
 more frequently rendered 'pain'; as in Ps. 10:7, "Under his 
 tongue is labor and pain". And so again, Ps. 90:10, "Yet is 
 their strength but labor and pain". Hence it may be here ren- 
 dered "Behold he travaileth with pain". 
 
 These two words amal and aven, 'labor' and 'pain', are 
 generally found together, as here and in the Psalms above- 
 mentioned. Hence it may be here more properly rendered "he 
 hath conceived labor"; for it more properly signifies 'labor', 
 from the act of laboring; as in Ps. 127:1, "They labor in vain, 
 that build it". We have in the German language this manner 
 of expression in the same number of the words and with a 
 like meaning : "it is pain and labor", so that aven is pain from 
 causing pain, amal labor, from to labor, in order to express 
 the labor and distress in the anxious intention of the heart and 
 in the severe struggle, fatigue, weakness and disgust of the 
 mind. 
 
 We have said that the lives of those who act impiously are 
 thus, for "there is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked. Is. 
 48 :32. Such know nothing of the rest of which Christ speaks, 
 Matt. II :28, 29, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
 heavy laden, as if he had said who are in amal and aven, and 
 I will give you rest". That is, the punishment of the wicked 
 so closely presses upon them that they are afflicted and dis- 
 tressed in and by the very act of doing wrong. Nay, says 
 
408 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 David, their very pleasure is labor, Pliny says, "even every 
 pleasure engenders nausea if it is continuous". Augustine in 
 his Confessions, Book i, observes, "Thou, O Lord, hast com- 
 manded ; and hence it cometh to pass that every disobedient 
 and insubordinate soul is its own punishment'. And Wisdom 
 5 :/, "We wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness and des- 
 truction : yea, we have gone through deserts, where there lay 
 no way : but as for the way of the Lord, we have not known 
 it". 
 
 This punishment or trouble or labor, especially and terribly 
 distresses men Vvdienever they endeavor with devoted industry 
 to establish their own purposes against godliness, and, as the 
 apostle saith, Rom. 10:3, "being ignorant of God's righteous- 
 ness and seeking to establish their own righteousness" ; that is, 
 that righteousness which is exercised in the work of all iniquity 
 and in spiritual wickednesses. Therefore, as I have said, this 
 evil falls principally upon those, who, under a superstitious re- 
 ligion, idolatry, and disobedience, seek to justify themselves by 
 self-invented works and devotions, setting aside all the while 
 the commandment of God and indeed of men also which they 
 bound themselves to observe. As such they walk contrary to 
 God, God walks contrary to them ; and hence, they must of 
 necessity suffer a great deal of uneasiness ; and they can have 
 nothing but labor and pain in all that they can do. Hence the 
 Preacher in many places : i :i4 ; 2 :i i, 17, 21 ; 4 4, 6, 8, has called 
 all this "vanity and vexation of spirit". Whereas, on the other 
 hand, those who are led by the Spirit of God and yield them- 
 selves up to be guided by it, enjoy much peace in God, even 
 while they themselves are in tribulation. 
 
 Hence \we find that aven was rendered "ungodliness" before 
 "unrighteousness" here, and "pain" a little later; and if all 
 these renderings be put together they will give us that "malice" 
 which strives so hard to carry the plausible appearance of right- 
 eousness and godliness ; whereas, true godliness needs take no 
 labor or pains at all to give itself the appearance of godliness. 
 
PSALM VII. 409 
 
 Thus David here, being confirmed in hope and having come 
 out of his temptation victorious, laughs at all the violence and 
 all the efforts of his calumniators and persecutors ; nay rather, 
 he pities them, saying before them all, 'Behold in what a state 
 my calumniators are. Let any one behold in wh it misery they 
 are involved and how much more Vvretched the} are than I am. 
 Not only does God threaten them continually, not only does 
 he hang over them with a drawn sword and with a bow, with 
 the instruments of death and with arrows that shall burn them 
 up ; but they are tormented with present punishment, and they 
 now receive in themselves the due reward of their malice ; while, 
 with anxiety and rage, they wrack their inventions to find out 
 a way wherein they may oppress me, and whereby, after they 
 have destroyed me, they may remain in security themselves. 
 They in their misery have more distressing anxiety about the 
 way in which they shall destroy me, than I have about thinking 
 by whose hands I shall perish. Nay, for my part, as I commit 
 myself wholly unto the will of God, I expect all that may come 
 without emotion. But they cannot be quiet nor in any rest 
 until they have brought forth all that with which they are tra- 
 vailing, and have accomplished all their thoughts ; and yet, as 
 their thoughts are against righteousness and against God, they 
 are vexed with all such thoughts in vain, "for they conceived 
 devices which they are not able to perform". Ps. 21 :ii. 
 
 David however touches upon that which Absalom said, 2 
 Sam. 16 :20, "Give your counsel what v/e shall do" ; at which 
 time many ways were anxiously discussed in many counsels 
 how they might kill David ; but by the wonderful providence 
 of God all were in vain. Just in the same way as the Jews 
 tried with much labor and pain to destroy Christ. 
 
 'We always find', saith Augustine, 'that those who inflict 
 punishment suffer greater punishment than those who endure 
 it ; nay, this is always the case in the perpetration of any crime. 
 What secret snares does not the robber or murderer fear ! what 
 hour, what place, what man, does he consider safe! With what 
 
4IO LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 fears is not the adulterer tormented ! in what stratagems is he 
 not entrammelled before he once perishes' ! Hence, in every 
 kind of crime, and especially in that of calumny, the punish- 
 ments suffered are far greater than the advantages gained ; for 
 the miserable wretch is compelled to expect every kind of evil 
 and every kind of danger. Whereas in the meanwhile, he who 
 trusts in God, like a fearless lion, despises all things in happy 
 security, relying upon a consciousness of truth and innocence. 
 
 We are thus taught in this verse to embrace the best con- 
 solation when in straits and tribulations ; that having committed 
 our cause unto God, we may not be distressed, nor over anxious, 
 nor in perturbation. It is sufficient for us to know that we are 
 acting in the cause of God, in which case, let us divide the suf- 
 ferings with our enemies. Let us be vexed by them externally, 
 while they are tormented by themselves internally. Let them be 
 our burden, while not only we are a burden to them, but they 
 are the greatest burden to themselves. 
 
 Behold therefore the most miserable condition of all calum- 
 niators and ungodly men ! God is a burden to them, we are a 
 burden to them, and they are an intolerable burden to them- 
 selves ! Who would not rather pity such wretched characters 
 than be impatiently indignant against them? Every one of us 
 knows that all these things await the wicked, and that they un- 
 dertake such things as are here mentioned. But when the hour 
 of calumny arrives, we do not all continue in the same mind, 
 being in perpetual fear that all things will turn out prosperously 
 unto our adversaries and against us, though we are always 
 ready to affirm that they would not so turn out against others. 
 
 Let us then inquire further into the propriety of these words. 
 "Behold", says David, struck as it were with wonder and ad- 
 miration, he calls upon all to behold this singular sight, because 
 it is contrary to all natural sense. 
 
 "He travaileth with pain". Here he very appropriately com- 
 poses his words ; for to be in travail is the same as to struggle 
 with pain. As if he had said, such meditate pain in pain. 
 
PSALM VII. 411 
 
 Which is a metaphor taken from women in child birth, in which 
 he beautifully describes the anxious striving of the ungodly and 
 of calumniators, which are, as I have said, to establish with 
 much care and peril their own inventions against the truth ; in 
 doing this, as the saying is, one lie requires seven others to 
 make it good, and to make all appear truth. Jerome saith, 
 'Falsehood requires much to give it the appearance of truth'. 
 
 "And hath conceived pain". It seems proper that he should 
 have reversed this and have said, "Behold, he hath conceived 
 labor and travailed with iniquity" ; because conception is prior 
 in order. This seems to me to be intended to describe to us 
 the mind and ingenuity of the ungodly, who, when they are 
 about to oppress the innocent, are mo^t impatient of delay ; 
 and are more intent upon venting the malice of their minds, 
 than upon consulting prudently : they begin before they delib- 
 erate. They are not guided by reason and counsel, but carried 
 headlong by impetuosity and temerity. They think more about 
 seeing the thing done than about consulting. When they have 
 accomplished their wicked design, they enter into consultation 
 about defending properly what they have done. Here begins 
 their labor, here is the anxious concern about defending the 
 iniquity which they have presumptuously committed. 
 
 So Absalom, after he had driven out his father David and 
 had brought forth his aven, said, 2 Sam. 17 :20 and 17 :5, "Give 
 your counsel what we shall do". So also the Jews first appre- 
 hended Christ and then sought false witnesses against him, that 
 they might accuse him. Thus also every calumniator first 
 brings forth his aven and imposes upon his neighbor, and after- 
 wards seeks to persist therein under a show of justice and 
 security; concerning which character, Prov. 30:20, "So is the 
 way of an adulterous woman ; she eateth, and wipeth her 
 mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness". "Travail with 
 pain" and "conceive labor" we are accustomed to express In 
 German", you start a misfortune and then you will have some- 
 thing to do". And the proverb, "You have broken in and you 
 
412 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 will hardly find your way out". These imprudent workers of 
 iniquity therefore begin both difficulty and peril; that is, they 
 bring forth their pain and then with much labor and toil en- 
 deavor to defend what they have done. 
 
 David teaches us therefore most beautifully that an evil com- 
 mitted before counsel is taken brings on pain, and counsel after 
 the commission, labor. Both kinds of temerity and folly await 
 such ungodly calumniators, both the act before the counsel, 
 and the counsel after the act ; for to the perverse all things are 
 perverse. But one may understand this conception of labor as 
 being together with the bringing forth of pain. For ungodly 
 calumniators say thus, when they enter upon the commission 
 of their evil, let us go on and act. After the act is committed 
 something will follow which will enable us to answer for what 
 we have done, or to defend it. As the Jews acted, according to 
 the history in Matt. 28:14, when they corrupted the guards 
 with money that the truth of Christ's resurrection might not 
 be published abroad : for they said, "And if this come to the 
 governor's ears, we will persuade him and rid you of care". 
 Only behold here how they conceive pain, while they burden 
 themselves with a pledge that they will find future security. In 
 this way did Absalom and his party audaciously bring forth 
 their aven ; but they have not yet brought forth the counsel 
 while they bring forth the act ; as we have it written, Prov. 
 14:16, "A wise man feareth and departeth from evil; but the 
 fool beareth himself insolently and is confident". That which 
 they bring forth from this conception is shown in the following. 
 
 "And brought forth iniquity" ; which in Hebrew is lying 
 or falsehood, or vanity ; and this exactly accords with that 
 which I have mentioned as the design of this psalm. For these 
 are the counsels, the defences, and the excuses of the godly 
 after their wickedness is committed. They are mere frigid 
 evasions, lying delusions, and vain deceptions, with which they 
 set themselves off, persuade the people, and destroy those whom 
 they oppress. Such are also all their vain attempts to establish 
 
PSALM VII. 413 
 
 their own temerity. In all which they lose much labor and 
 pains, and yet all is in vain. These things we find are con- 
 tinually taking place in our day. But in this place we are more 
 particularly to understand the deceiving and vain birth than 
 the iniquitous birth. For he is speaking of the vain attempts 
 and fruitless counsel by which Absalom was deceived, and in 
 which he was disappointed, when, collecting all Israel together, 
 he sought to destroy David. For in all this his counsel and birth 
 all proved so vain, that they fell upon his own head ; and the 
 very snares he had laid for David destroyed himself, as follows. 
 
 V. 15. — He had made a pit {opened a lake) and digged it, 
 and is fallen info the ditch ivhich he made. 
 
 Here the prophet allegorizes, so that, as I have said under 
 the allegory he might set forth the true state of things. In 
 the same manner as the cross of Christ is an allegorical life, 
 appearing to kill while it makes alive; for in the same way 
 Absalom here opens a lake and digs it that he might drive David 
 into it, not knowing that by this stratagem he should deliver 
 David and destroy himself. And David touches upon this ; that 
 Absalom, relying on the multitude, thought that he should soon 
 destroy David, one poor solitary creature, left and forsaken by 
 all. For this is signified by the lake of death which he prepared 
 and dug. But behold, this very thing happened unto himself; 
 for being deserted by all and being hung up alone upon an 
 oak, he was pierced through and thrown into a deep pit in the 
 wood, and a very great heap of stones was cast upon him ; as 
 is recorded in 2 Sam. 18:17. This is the pit of which David 
 here speaks and which he uses for the allegory. But Absalom 
 had not prepared that pit for David, though he intended that 
 death for him which he himself suffered. Hence we say often 
 in common life that a certain trap was laid for us and that 
 our adversary fell into it himself, though he himself did not 
 intend any such thing. Wherefore this verse is proverbial 
 and contains a common saying; according to the well-known 
 hi es of the poet, 
 
414 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 No law's more just than when the wicked schemes 
 
 Of wicked men upon themselves are turn'd. 
 
 These things, as I have said, are spoken for the consolation 
 of the oppressed, that they may rest assured that the evil which 
 is planned against them will fall upon the head of their slander- 
 ers. They are spoken also to strike terror into these calumniat- 
 ors and persecutors, whose daring presumption and security 
 are to be alarmed, and the weakness of the oppressed to be 
 confirmed and strengthened. 
 
 Observe how he describes the ardor and the panting fury 
 of the ungodly. For he does not simply say "hath made a lake", 
 as he afterward said "hath made a pit" ; but he says hath 
 "opened" and "dug" a lake. As if he had said with Prov. 
 I :i6, "For their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed 
 blood". So busy and laborious are they in digging and pre- 
 paring their lake. They leave nothing untried, they search into 
 all things, and dive into every expedient. Not content with 
 "opening" only, they "dig" the lake and make it deep, that 
 they may the more terribly and effectually destroy the innocent. 
 
 Thus the Jews, though they hastened to destroy Christ and 
 made every preparation for that purpose; yet, they were not 
 content with any simple kind of death, but digging as it were 
 a most deep pit, they procured for him the most ignominious 
 death of the cross. So no calumniator is content with destroy- 
 ing his neighbor in the most dreadful manner, but he will do 
 it in the most ignominious manner also. 
 
 This ignominious death is indicated by digging the lake 
 deeper which was already prepared ; because the persons cast in 
 is the farther from the light and hope of recovery the deeper 
 he is plunged. For no ungodly man is such a fool as to suffer 
 the least appearance of his having destroyed the innocent with- 
 out cause ; nay, the more malignant he is, the niore he seeks to 
 make that his own cause was most just and that his neighbor 
 was destroyed as having most basely deserved it. Therefore 
 such an one must dig the lake deep that is already opened 
 
PSALM VII. 415 
 
 and prepared. But on the other hand he is not said to have 
 'opened', nor to have 'dug' the pit for himself, but to have 
 'made' it ; because he did not seek his own destruction and 
 shame, but fell into them when he least expected it. 
 
 Again, here is a solecism. "He is fallen into the ditch, he 
 made" ; where our translators add the relative "which", but 
 I should have put 'because' or 'for', as I have observed at verse 
 6. Where we have "he hath opened" the Hebrew has "he hath 
 prepared". Though tliese are things of no consequence, be- 
 cause in either case we understand it that the lake was prepared 
 before it was dug, which is contrary to the general ideas of 
 all ; because David would have us to understand by it that 
 which I have set forth. 
 
 V. 16. — His mischief (pain) shall return upon his oivn 
 head, and his violence (iniquity) shall come down upon his 
 own pate. 
 
 The word here is not aven but amal, which properly sig- 
 nifies pain and labor, as I have before observed. "His labor, 
 says David, shall return upon his own head". And "iniquity" 
 here is in the Hebrew a word that we have not had before ; it is 
 iiAMAS, which properly signifies rapacity, violence, or an in- 
 jury which by force arrogates to itself a tyranny, in the same 
 way as hawks seize upon little birds. For Reuchlin says that 
 the night hawk is named from this word hamas. 
 
 David has respect to that which he said in the beginning, 
 "Lest he seize my soul like a lion". For Absalom, having 
 collected all the people, had prepared to seize David by force 
 and to devour him ; whereas, he as miserably seized and de- 
 voured himself, and thus his attempts and his labor all fell 
 upon his own head. The sense seems to be the same as that 
 contained in the preceding verse, the allegory of which he 
 here explains in plain words. Unless it be considered to dififer 
 from the preceding in this, that in the preceding verse the 
 work or act was designed, that is, death and perdition, set forth 
 by the "lake" and "the pit" ; and in this, the counsel and wis- 
 
4l6 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 dom by which the lake and pit were prepared and dug; that 
 we may understand that God is so concerned for those who are 
 oppressed with cahminy, and so wroth against their calumniat- 
 ors, that he turns the evil which they planned and the counsel 
 by which they planned it upon themselves ; and that thus we 
 may not faint nor fall from our hope. 
 
 For this is the incomprehensible of the judgment of God, 
 that he takes the ungodly by their own counsel and casts them 
 into the destruction which they had themselves prepared and 
 invented. Thus Goliah fell by his own sword. Thus it is 
 said, Job 5 :i2 etc., "He frustrateth the devices of the crafty, 
 so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh 
 the wise in their own craftiness ; and the counsel of the fro- 
 ward is carried headlong. They meet with darkness in the 
 day-time, and grope in the noon-day as in the night" ; that is, 
 they are then the most foolish and most blind when they are, 
 in their own views, the most clear-sighted and wise. 
 
 With a powerful force of language therefore he calls their 
 counsels, their craftiness, and their wisdom, labor. Indeed 
 they have nothing from all this but labor; for the expected 
 fruits of all their devices never follow because God resists 
 them. So in the case of the Jews who meditated the destruc- 
 tion of Christ, what did they else but labor in vain, and, as it 
 is said in Ps. 2:1, "meditate a vain thing"? But David here 
 does not only call it labor, but says that it 'returned upon their 
 own head' ; for by that very counsel which Absalom had formed 
 for the destruction of David, relying upon the multitude, he 
 himself perished : who would have been safer, if, according to 
 the counsel of Ahithophel, he had remained in the city and 
 sent out those two thousand nien. But as the scripture saith, 
 by the will of God the useful counsel of Ahithophel was dis- 
 regarded, that the Lord might bring upon Absalom the evil 
 intended. 
 
 The scripture holds out consolation to us when it teaches 
 us that the ferocity of the wicked is nothing but a mere great 
 
PSALM VII. 417 
 
 and vain attempt rather than any act, and such an attempt as 
 will surely fall upon the heads of the projectors of it. So 
 the waves and swellings of the sea seem as if they would over- 
 whelm the shore, but it presently falls back upon itself and 
 vanishes, leaving its threatening surges a laughing-stock to 
 the spectators. 
 
 This figure of speech is very common in the scriptures, this 
 returning, or falling, or descending upon the head and upon 
 the pate, etc. Thus Sirach 27:25-27, "Whoso casteth a stone 
 on high casteth it on his own head ; and a deceitful stroke shall 
 make wounds. Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein : and 
 he that setteth a trap shall be taken therem. He that worketh 
 mischief it shall fall upon him, and he shall not know whence 
 it Cometh". With the same figure it is said, 2 Sam. i :i6, "Thy 
 blood be upon thy head". And indeed all things both evil and 
 good that are invoked, are invoked upon the head. So Deut. 
 33:16, 'Let the blessing of him that dwelt in the bush come 
 upon the head of Joseph'. Because the head is the first and 
 most worthy member of the whole body. 
 
 David indicates at the same time that both good and evil 
 are sent down upon the head by God, both the punishment of 
 the ungodly and the salvation of the godly. Therefore it is 
 by the commandment of God that the iniquity of the calumniat- 
 or descends upon his own pate and his labor upon his own head. 
 
 But by a repetition the returning of the labor upon the 
 pate and the descending of the iniquity upon the head seem to 
 indicate the same thing. It is thus repeated that its certainty 
 might be set forth, as we have observed. For the ungodly 
 being insensible laugh at all the threatenings of God, as if 
 they would never take place, or at least were put off for a 
 considerable time; and therefore these terrible things are to 
 be inculcated into them repeatedly. 
 
 V. 17. — / ivill give thanks unto Jehovah according to his 
 righteousness, and zvill sing praise to the name of Jehovah 
 Most High, 
 
4l8 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 He concludes this Psalm and prayer in a beautiful way. As 
 if he had said, all these things have been said and all these 
 petitions have I offered on account of the cursings, the calum- 
 nies, and the injuries of Shimei and of his men, in defence 
 of my ignorance and righteousness as far as my conscience 
 is concerned, and with respect to these things in the sight of 
 men. But I do not trust in this my righteousness, nor do 
 I consider it to be such that I can stand in it before God ; as 
 the apostle saith, i Cor. 4:4, "I know nothing against myself; 
 yet am I not thereby justified". And again, 2 Cor. 10: 17-18, 
 "He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord". "For not he 
 that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord 
 commendeth". So also, I have another righteousness in which 
 I glory, namely, the righteousness of God, and his mercy and 
 grace whereby he pardons all my sins and justifies me in his 
 sight. In this righteousness I do not boast, nor do I make 
 a confession of it as if it were my own, but I praise God for it 
 to all eternity. Wherefore, by means of my own righteousness 
 I willingly serve God and the people and resist the ungodly, 
 and in the righteousness of God I will seek my salvation. 
 
 In a wonderful manner in the same verse and in the same 
 words David gives thanks unto God and praises his righteous- 
 ness, and also describes the nature of it. He says it is the 
 free gift of God, for which he is to be praised and celebrated. 
 Wherefore "according to his righteousness" is here to be un- 
 derstood as signifying the same as 'on account of, or for, his 
 righteousness'. So that the sense is, 'I will praie the Lord 
 for ever, because it is he that justifieth; which if he did 
 not do, my righteousness which I have in my own conscience 
 could never stand'. This sense is supported by what follows, 
 which is as it were a repetition of these words, "And will sing 
 praise to the name of Jehovah Most High". 
 
 For the name of Jehovah, as we have said, is his praise 
 which is proclaimed abroad, that he is merciful and a Saviour, 
 etc. ; and the man that believes in this name is justified and 
 
PSALM VII. 
 
 419 
 
 saved, for God is such as he is beheved to be by every man. 
 But the damned and the ungodly ascribe to him no name 
 at all. The former, because they cannot hope any good from 
 him; and the latter, because they do not feel the want of him. 
 Hence it is written, Prov. 18:10, "The name of the Lord is a 
 strong tower ; the righteous runneth into it and is safe". And 
 Rom. 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of 
 the Lord shall be saved". 
 
 As therefore righteousness, salvation, and a joyful con- 
 science, come from this name only by our firmly believing in 
 it, and not from our own strength, doings, or works, the 
 Psalmist rightly teaches that righteousness is to be ascribed 
 only unto the Lord and that he only is to be sung to, praised, 
 proclaimed, and celebrated ; in order that others, being brought 
 to the knowledge of that name of this confession and proclaim- 
 ing, may believe in it and be saved. David saith almost the 
 same thing in Ps. 51 :i3, "Then will I teach transgressors thy 
 way, and sinners shall be converted unto thee". Again, Ps. 
 35 :28, 'And my tongue shall talk of thy righteousness". Where- 
 as the ungodly do not exalt his righteousness, as we have often 
 said before. 
 
 Wherefore this confessing and singing do not in this place 
 signify any private duty of gratitude only, but also the public 
 ministry of the Word of grace, whereby the name of the Lord 
 is manifested to sinners. 
 
 The prayer of this Psalm is very necessary and very useful 
 when prayed against the devil, either in the hour of death or 
 in any time of deep temptation. For the devil himself is proper- 
 ly^ that calumniator who accuses us and confounds our con- 
 science even for those things which we have done rightly and 
 which please God, as well as magnifies beyond measure these 
 wicked things which we have done; and he is therefore in both 
 cases a most oppressive and unwearied Shimei, a most black, 
 a cursing, and an insulting Ethiopian, continually coming upon 
 us with such words as these, 'Behold thine evils are now come 
 
420 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 upon thee. Come out, come out, thou bloody man. The Lord 
 is now bringing upon thy head all the blood of the house 
 of Saul'. And indeed we may take all the rest of this history 
 as having a figurative meaning; wherein David is an example 
 of us all and teaches us that we ought to bear these things and 
 at the same time to expect the blessing of God for all such 
 cursing and affliction. 
 
PSALM VIII. 
 
 TO victory; for the wine-presses; a psalm of DAVID. 
 
 We have here a new title; and what David means by the 
 wine-presses has been discussed so differently that I am ready 
 to confess myself in total ignorance as to who, among so many, 
 comes the nearest to the truth. For three Psalms have this 
 title Tor the wine-presses' ; the present Ps. 8 of David, the 70, 
 of Asaph, and the 84 for the sons of Korah. It is not likely, 
 however, that David, which is granted by all the most eminent 
 Hebrews, composed this Psalm in the wine-presses of Pales- 
 tine; because then for the same reason it would follow that 
 Asaph and the sons of Korah composed their Psalms in the 
 same place. Nor do we read that David was ever in the wine- 
 presses of Palestine, but in those of Gath, which afterwards 
 by a lengthening of letters was called Gaza, a city of Palestine ; 
 though Gath signifies a wine-press (torcnlar) and has the same 
 signification as the words al gitith have here, which is 'On 
 the wine-presses'. Nor am I satisfied with the opinions of 
 some who suppose that this Psalm was composed to be sung at 
 the feast of tabernacles, here thanks were given to God after 
 the harvesting of all the fruits and the gathering of the grapes. 
 
 Therefore as we are here going according to the literal 
 meaning I am inclined to coincide with the opinion of Lyra, 
 who thinks that gitith is a name proper to some musical in- 
 strument. Or else we must agree with the ancient fathers, 
 who, following a mystical meaning, understand by wine-presses 
 (torcularia) the martyrdoms and sufferings of Christ and the 
 Church. Indeed there are other Psalms entitled by some word 
 or other that is not in common use, as we shall see in their 
 spiritual meaning. Leaving therefore every one to his own 
 
422 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 judgment in this matter, we rightly affirm that wine-presses do 
 signify mystically sufferings ; as in Is. 63 :2, "I have trodden the 
 wine-press alone" ; which all understand as having reference 
 to the sufferings of Christ. 
 
 But Augustine very learnedly and discerningly understands 
 by wine-press (torcnlar) the ministry of the Word of God 
 in the church ; consonant with which are many scriptures, as 
 that of Is. 5 :2, "And also hewed out a wine-press therein". 
 For as oxen treading out the corn in the barn signify the 
 preachers of the Word, i Cor. 9:9: so the treaders in the 
 wine-press signify the same. Hence grapes and ears of corn, 
 wine and wheat, every where in the scriptures signify the 
 people who are either instructed or hardened by the Word of 
 God, of whom we have not time to say more now. 
 
 This meaning exactly agrees with the scope of the Psalm, 
 wherein is described the name of the Lord which is great 
 throughout all the earth, the people of Christ who are obedient 
 to his government, and his enemies who are destroyed. When 
 it is said that he hath perfected praise and exalted his own 
 glory out of the mouth of babes and sucklings ; by that is 
 doubtlessly signified the preaching of the Gospel and of the 
 Word of the cross ; by which all these things have ever been 
 and still are accomplished. For certainly the Word of the 
 cross, like a wine-press, bruises and humbles the men of the 
 world and collects many into one body, as the wine is collected 
 into the receiving vessel. Hence, it was the design of the 
 Prophet to sing here of a spiritual wine-press. It is not, how- 
 ever, foreign to the scope of the Psalm, to understand by wine- 
 presses, sufferings ; because the word of the cross crucifies the 
 old man and compels him to endure many and various suffer- 
 ings. 
 
 V. I. — O Jehovah, our Lord, lioiv c.vccUcnt {admirable) 
 is thy name in all the earth. Who hast set thy glory above 
 the heavens! 
 
 This is one verse in the Hebrew. One of these names is 
 
PSALM VIII. 423 
 
 the sacred Tetragrammaton Jehovah, and the other the name 
 Adon, which is common and appHcable to men also. Our 
 translator has moreover thought proper to put "our Lord", 
 (Dominus noster), in the nominative, which Jerome has more 
 properly rendered by the vocative, O Lord, our Ruler, {Domine, 
 Dominator noster). 
 
 "Admirable", in the Hebrew adir, signifies high, great, ex- 
 cellent, etc. Hence Jerome has rendered it 'How great is thy 
 name'. That which our translator has rendered "greatness", 
 he has translated 'glory'. But the Hebrew word hod signi- 
 fies properly praise and confession.. It is from this word 
 that the names of Judah and Judea are derived, which have 
 the signification of praising or confessing. Hence we have 
 it, Gen. 49 :8, "Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise". 
 
 "Who has set thy glory above the heavens". In the 148th 
 Psalm, verse 13, David said, "His praise or glory, is above the 
 earth and the heaven". He seems therefore to say the same 
 thing in both Psalms. In Ps. 148:13, he says, "his name alone 
 is excellent" : here he says, "how excellent is thy name". 
 There he says, "his praise is above the earth and heaven" : 
 here, "his greatness is above the heavens", "magniiicentia super 
 coelos". 
 
 I here take it for granted that it is clearly known, from what 
 has been said, that the name of God is not one but many ; name- 
 ly, every thing that can be said that is good. Hence the name 
 of God is that good report, glory, estimation, and celebration, 
 whereby he is proclaimed, believed, hoped in, known, loved, 
 and feared, that is, truly worshipped and honored, as the only 
 wise powerful, good, just, true, sweet, etc. Whereby at the 
 same time all the glory and good opinion of man perishes ; and 
 no one is any longer found to be powerful, wise, and good, but 
 all are found to be as the apostle saith sinners, and to come 
 short of the glory of God, who before were impiously righte- 
 ous and full of their own glory ; as it is said also, Ps. 9 :5, 
 
424 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 "Thou hast rebuked the nations, thou hast destroyed the wick- 
 ed; thou hast blotted out their name for ever and ever". 
 
 No one now who beHeves in Christ is strong by his own 
 power, but is weak and suffers all things. Nor does he re- 
 venge or deliver himself even when it may be in his power ; but 
 he gives glory to God and waits for his dehvering and aveng- 
 ing power; even as Paul, 2 Cor. 12 :5, glories in his infirmities. 
 No one who thus believes is wise in his own wisdom, but be- 
 comes a fool in his own eyes and before all men, and gives all 
 the glory of wisdom unto God, who, when he hath proved 
 him, will give him the glory of wisdom in the heavens. 
 
 So no Christian is righteous in his own righteousness, but 
 gives all the glory of righteousness unto God, while he himself 
 in his own eyes and in the estimation of men is numbered among 
 the ungodly; so that 'in his humiliation his judgment is taken 
 away'. Is. 53 :8, and he is justified by faith and hope, expecting 
 the righteousness of God as that alone which can commend 
 him ; "For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but 
 whom the Lord commendeth", 2 Cor. 10:18. 
 
 This is the meaning and force of the name of the Lord to 
 all the names and glory of men; and shows that the Lord's 
 name is then magnified, exalted, and loved, when our name is 
 reduced to nothing and hated both by ourselves and all others. 
 
 The same is expressed in Ps. 113:3, "From the rising of 
 the sun unto the going down of the same, Jehovah's name is 
 to be praised". Again verse 4, "Jehovah is high above all 
 nations, and his glory above the heavens". Mai. i:ii, "For 
 from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the 
 same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles". Again, 
 verse 14, "My name is terrible among the Gentiles". Is, 11 :g, 
 "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain". 
 Why shall they not destroy? "For, saith he, the earth shall be 
 full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea". 
 As if he had said, the knowledge of God and the magnifying 
 of his name, which by means of the Gospel shall fill the whole 
 
PSALM VIIL 425 
 
 world like an overflowing sea, shall make men gentle, mild, and 
 innocent ; because they shall contend neither for wisdom nor for 
 power nor for righteousness, for they shall know that these 
 are not theirs, but the Lord's only. To the same end are the 
 words of Isaiah 2:17-18, "And the loftiness of man shall be 
 bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low ; 
 and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols 
 shall utterly pass away". 
 
 We would, however, distinguish the two words "Lord" 
 and "our Lord" in this way. By the former is represented the 
 most-high Godhead dwelling in himself; and by the latter, his 
 kingdom and care whereby he holds dominion over us and rules 
 us by the word of faith, which is fulfilled by the incarnation 
 of Christ, who is our propitiation, "in whom dwelleth all the 
 fulness of the Godhead bodily". Col. 2:9; for it is by that we 
 are brought nigh unto the Father, and ruled in the world. 
 As John, 14:6 says, "No one cometh unto the Father but by 
 me". Hence it is not without reason that the pronoun "our" 
 is joined with "Lord" rather than with "Jehovah". Therefore 
 God was first known in Judea, and his name was great in 
 Israel. But now, saith David, thy name is great in all the 
 earth, and among all nations. Hence you see how well this 
 verse accords with the title, seeing that the name of the Lord 
 being made great by the wine-press of preaching has humbled 
 some out of the nations of the whole world into the one faith 
 and grace of Christ. 
 
 But it is of much greater moment for us to know what 
 follows. "Who hast set thy glory above the heavens". The 
 Hebrew and the translation of Jerome are 'who hast set', not 
 "is lifted up". I find that by this glory or greatness, or praise, 
 almost all understood Christ the Son of God, who, being re- 
 ceived into heaven and seated at the right hand of God, sent 
 down the Holy Spirit, who, by the apostles magnified the name 
 of God throughout the whole world. 
 
 Nor am I displeased at the opinion of those who say that 
 this latter clause of the verse gives the reason or cause of the 
 
426 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 former; that is, that the name of God is magnified because 
 Christ ascended into heaven. For Christ could not have been 
 glorified but by the sending of the Holy Ghost ; as it is written, 
 Rom. I 4, "who was declared to be the Son of God, with 
 power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection 
 from the dead". And John 16:14, "He shall glorify me: for 
 he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you". The 
 Spirit could not have been sent if Christ had not risen from 
 the dead and ascended into heaven, unto the appointment of 
 king over all nations ; as it is written, John 7 :^g, "For the 
 Spirit was not yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glori- 
 fied". So also. Psalm 2. Christ said that he would declare 
 the command, which is fulfilled by the Holy Ghost, after he 
 had said that he was appointed king upon God's holy hill of 
 Zion. 
 
 It seems, however, to be against this acceptation, that 
 Christ being called the 'praise', or 'confession', does not seem 
 to agree well with that verse of Ps. 148 :i3, "His glory is above 
 the earth and heaven"; nor with that of Ps. 113:4, "Jehovah 
 is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens" ; 
 because in those passages the confession is not only said to be 
 above the heavens, but above the earth ; and no one understands 
 that Christ is intended by confession in those passages. But 
 these things ought not to move any one, because Christ is 
 called the glory of God. Is. 46:13, "I will place salvation in 
 Zion for Israel my glory". 
 
 And it is in the same manner that the apostle dares to call 
 him the righteousness, the power, the wisdom, the glory, the 
 redemption, and the sanctification of God; because by and 
 through him we acknowledge and confess God to be powerful, 
 wise, glorious, etc. Again, while we honor and worship God by 
 this sacrifice of righteousness, wisdom, power, etc., he justifies 
 us, strengthens us, and makes us wise ; as he saith, i Sam. 2 :30, 
 "Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me 
 shall be lightly esteemed. "For this is the sacrifice of praise, 
 
PSALM VIII. 427 
 
 by which, as he saith, Ps. 50:23, he is honored, and which 
 is the way to the salvation of God. No one offers this sacri- 
 fice but he who has experienced the destruction of his own 
 name, and' calls upon the name of God in faith ; that is, upon 
 the wisdom, power, and righteousness of God, as I said, per- 
 mitting himself in the meantime to be weak, a fool, and unright- 
 eous. So that we are glorified with the same glory as God is 
 glorified, made righteous with the same righteousness, and 
 wise by the same wisdom as God. And 2 Peter i 14, says, by 
 Christ are given unto us exceedingly great and precious prom- 
 ises, that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature ; 
 which are things, as he saith, i Pet. i :i2, that angels desire 
 to look into. 
 
 Hence by this "confession" or glory lifted up into heaven 
 we understand Christ. But we also learn the benefits which 
 we derive from his being thus lifted up, or having thus ascend- 
 ed. "It is expedient for you, saith Christ, John 16 :/, that I 
 go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come 
 unto you ; but if I go, I will send him unto you". For the 
 prophet wishes to say, that the praise wherewith God is praised 
 in us and we in him is far different from all the praise of men. 
 Our praise, as it is the praise of God, or from God, is not 
 openly visible, or open to the eyes of the world, nor apparent 
 unto men, nor even unto ourselves. Nay, as our life is hid 
 with Christ in God, Col. 3 :3, that we may be wise unto the 
 things that are above, so our praise is taken up into heaven 
 with him, and hid with him in God, that our hope may be in 
 that, and not in any thing present. 
 
 Hence the praise of God wherewith both he and we are 
 praised is the same, and it is the same glory and greatness ; as 
 is written in Ps. 106 47, 'To triumph in thy praise'. Again, 
 Ps. 20:7, "But we will make mention of the name of Jehovah 
 our God". Also, Ps. 34 :2, "My soul shall make her boast in 
 Jehovah", Because while we are stripped of all our own name, 
 and suffering under ignominy, we are those truly humble ones 
 
428 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 whom God regards, and those hungry souls whom God satisfies. 
 It was right that the prophet should use this summary term 
 'praise' or 'glory' or 'greatness', because he spoke at a time 
 when the truth was not yet revealed. But what this praise 
 was and what it contained, was left for the apostles to show 
 forth clearly. These taught that he who would be praised 
 rightly and truly should praise God above all things ; and that 
 he praises God above all things who ascribes unto God alone 
 righteousness, wisdom, power, and all good things, and gives 
 back the glory of them all to him when he receives them. This 
 no one does but he who lives in faith, hope, and love, being 
 oppressed in the world with weakness, foolishness, and sins, 
 both in his own eyes and in the sight of men; and none can 
 endure this easily but those who are partakers of faith and 
 hope. 
 
 The sum therefore of the verse is, that there is a certain 
 intercourse between God and men through Christ, formed by a 
 wonderful and all-sweet communion {commcrcie) . Men have 
 nothing in the world more sweet than the name of the Lord; 
 him they praise, proclaim, and confess before men, as alone 
 powerful, wise, holy, and righteous. And this is for the name 
 of the Lord to be great, admirable, celebrated, and of great 
 estimation in the world; and this is what was wrought by the 
 coming of Christ. On the other hand Christ himself stands 
 round about those who thus proclaim him, confess him before 
 men, and acknowledge his name ; and passing by he administers 
 to them, praises them, proclaims them, and confesses them be- 
 fore his Father and his angels in heaven ; he acknowledges their 
 name, and is himself their glory and praise in heaven, as they 
 are his glory and praise on earth. 
 
 This is what David means when he says, "Hast set thy 
 glory above the heavens". So that this glory is the glory of God 
 whereby we are praised and glorious before him, and whereby 
 his name is excellent in being praised and glorified by us before 
 men. 
 
PSALM VIII. 429 
 
 In this mutual interchange of names and praise many pass- 
 ages of the scriptures agree, and are by it made plain to our 
 understanding. It is to this that Ps. 72:14 refers, "And 
 precious will their blood be in his sight". Again, Ps. 91 :i4, 
 "I will set him on high because he hath known my name". 
 So the spouse in Song 2 :i6, "My beloved is mine and I am his". 
 Ps. Ill :3, "His work is honor and majesty". Again, "The 
 earth was full of his praise", Hab. 3 13, "The heavens and the 
 earth are full of his glory". For in this communication stands 
 that righteousness of God by which we are justified ; while we 
 proclaim and honor him in that which we ought, he on the 
 other hand honors us. 
 
 But as I said, as it is easy to utter and to understand this 
 communication of praise between God .and us, it is difficult to 
 come to the experience of it. For it is a difficult matter to be 
 stripped of all our name both in this world and in that which is 
 to come, and to become nothing both in our own eyes and be- 
 fore all men ; and yet if it be not so, the name of God cannot 
 be great unto us upon earth, nor his praise above the heavens ; 
 for the name of the Lord must first of all be magnified upon 
 the earth before his praise can be lifted up above the heavens. 
 Hence the Blessed Virgin saith, "My soul doth magnify the 
 Lord", Luke i 46 ; and then, being certain that she was mag- 
 nified in heaven because of this her magnifying the Lord, she 
 says, "And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour". For 
 it is impossible that he should not be blessed of God who bless- 
 eth God. Nor is it possible that any one should love, praise, 
 and delight in God, without God's loving, praising, and de- 
 lighting in him in return. 
 
 But here perhaps the simple soul will raise a scruple, who 
 has so often heard, that our love to God does not precede his 
 love to us ; as it is written, John 4 :io, "Not that we loved God, 
 but that he loved us". And Rom. 11 135, "Who hatE first given 
 to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again"? Again, 
 John 15 :i6, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you". 
 
430 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Also, John 6:44, "No man can come unto me except the Father 
 which hath sent me draw him". 
 
 How then, it will be asked, can we first magnify him that 
 he may magnify us ? The answer is, The Holy Scripture des- 
 cribes both of these, both the grace of God, and the fruits of 
 that grace. Therefore a great deal of care must be taken that 
 we do not understand that of the tree itself which is said of the 
 fruits ; for if this chaos be introduced, that error of the Pela- 
 gians concerning free-will will follow ; which ascribes unto 
 man the beginning of a good work. Whereas God alone makes 
 the tree good before us, and without us, which must of necessity 
 precede the fruits ; but it must equally of necessity follow that 
 the fruits must precede the reward. 
 
 Wherefore this part of the Psalm, and all other passages 
 like it, do not refer to initial grace, but to the final grace, that 
 is, the reward itself, which is given to the first grace and its 
 fruits ; therefore we are not to understand by these passages 
 any kind of exhortation to a perseverance in good works from 
 this promise of the mutually rewarding goodness of God. Thus 
 him who, being converted, praises God, that is, lives from re- 
 ceived grace to the glory of God on earth, God praises in re- 
 turn, at the same time, and for ever in heaven : at the same 
 time, I say, and for ever; that is, at the present time and for 
 ever. For he that glorifies God in his life cannot but feel a 
 joyful and quiet trust in the mercy of God, by which he knows 
 that he in return pleases God and is praised in heaven. There- 
 fore, our praise of the name of the Lord in the earth is almost 
 heavenly, though before men we are continually vexed with 
 ignominy. Then if the praising ones persevere, their praise in 
 God will endure for ever. Thus we must understand Zechariah 
 I :3, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you", and similar 
 passages. 
 
 But according to the opinion of those who understand that 
 the latter part of this verse is, as it were, the cause of the 
 former, among whom is our translator also, we must say, that 
 
PSALM VIII. 431 
 
 the praise of God above the heavens is prior to the greatness 
 of the name of the Lord upon earth ; and that Christ effected 
 the latter by his ascending above the heavens, and by sending 
 down the Holy Spirit to magnify the name of the Lord upon 
 the earth, as we have said. Therefore John 7 139 saith, "For 
 the Spirit was not yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet 
 glorified". Hence by the 'praise' of God here nothing can be 
 understood but the personal exaltation of Christ into heaven. 
 
 It would not require much trouble to defend both these 
 interpretations of the passage, for they are not very different 
 from each other; because it is manifest that by the exaltation 
 of Christ it comes to pass, that, having received the Holy 
 Spirit, we believe in God, and that we are well-pleasing and 
 commended in heaven ; and that it is by the same spirit that we 
 are emboldened to magnify the name of the Lord upon the 
 earth. By all this is signified, that Christ's being exalted would 
 have been of no service to us, unless he had been exalted for us; 
 that is, unless, when he ascended up on high, he had given 
 gifts unto us men, whereby we might magnify him upon earth. 
 But all these things I here leave to each one's own judgment. 
 
 V. 2. — Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou 
 established strength (perfected praise), because of thine ad 
 versaries, that thou mightcst still the enemy and avenger. 
 
 This verse appropriately follows the one where we said that 
 by the 'glory lifted up' we ought to understand the ascension 
 of Christ ; though it does not inappropriately agree with the 
 other sense also ; wherefore we will show that it harmonizes 
 with both in this way. Thy name, O Lord, is magnified, but 
 in a far different way from that in which it is magnified among 
 men. For the manner of men is, if it may be called a manner, 
 not to be praised by the humble and the contemptible, but by 
 the very wise. They wish to please the few, as they term it, 
 and to be looked upon by the great, the wise, and the powerful. 
 Again, those praisers, as they are the vainest of men, never 
 praise any but with a view to their own profit, that they also 
 might be praised or might reap some advantage. Thus, mules 
 
432 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 rub each other; and in the same manner neither those who 
 praise are sincere, nor are those upright who are praised. This, 
 I say, is the way with all those who are influenced and led by 
 the appearance of things present. 
 
 But thou, O Son of God, David would say, as all thy things 
 are hidden and only to be understood by faith, thou dost not 
 find any among these great ones who will praise thee; nay 
 rather, they are the very persons who most pertinaciously ic- 
 sist thy praise and glory from a maddened love of their own 
 glory. Wherefore thou hast chosen the despised and the 
 humble to set forth thy praise and to magnify thy name, who 
 hate their own name upon the earth, being content that thou 
 shouldst be their praise in heaven. That thou mightest mani- 
 fest this, after thou hadst assumed thy glory, thou didst send 
 thy Holy Spirit from heaven, being thyself the apostle of all 
 apostles, and didst instruct the ignorant and simple, and from 
 their mouth didst perfect thy praise. 
 
 But the authority of Christ has given rise to a great 
 question in this passage. In Matt. 21 :i6, He applies it to the 
 children that praised him in the temple, saying unto the chief- 
 priests and the scribes who wanted to hinder them, "Did ye 
 never read, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast 
 perfected praise"? Now if this Psalm be understood as ap- 
 plying literally to these children, as some will have it, then 
 neither that which precedes nor that which follows will har- 
 monize with it; for he is speaking of the name of the Lord 
 magnified throughout the whole world, which took place after 
 the passion. Again if we stick so closely to the literal mean- 
 ing, these children were not "infants" nor "sucklings", for 
 they blessed Christ and sang praises to Him in plainly articu- 
 lated words, crying "Hosanna in the highest". Matt. 21 '.g. 
 
 But again, we ought not in any way to dissent from Christ 
 who applied this verse to them, for this authority is to be pre- 
 ferred to that of the Psalm. It follows therefore that the 
 words of this Psalm are general and applicable to all who are 
 
PSALM VIII. 433 
 
 simple and upright in heart, who are not wise above others, nor 
 prudent in the things of the world, that is, who are the children 
 of light ; the generation of whom are not confined to any 
 particular age, but are found in every generation and in every 
 age of man ; and the words are peculiarly applicable to children, 
 not only because they are thus simple and sincere, but also 
 because, by this simplicity and innocence, they figure out to 
 us corporally the simplicity of the faith of Christ ; according 
 to I Pet. 2 :2, "As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of 
 the Word". For children do not affect delight and overcome 
 us by their wisdom, power, or greatness, but by their im- 
 potence, ignorance, and littleness. So, the praisers of Christ 
 conquered the world and magnified the name of the Lord in 
 all the earth, not by human strength, not by the words of 
 human wisdom, not by the magnitude of giants, but by the 
 foolishness of the Word and by the offence of the cross. 
 
 This verse therefore sings of the wonders of divine power, 
 which could magnify its name throughout the world in so 
 miraculous and unthought of manner. This was done, first 
 in the midst of those who most madly magnified their own 
 name, and moreover most pertinaciously resisted the name 
 of the Lord. It would have been a great thing for God only 
 to have destroyed the name of all the kings, the wise ones, and 
 the righteous ones upon earth, and to have reduced them to 
 nothing, and have erected his own name in their stead. But 
 in the second place, he whose name was thus magnified never 
 appeared anywhere, but was made known by the Word only. 
 Whereas, the great ones of the earth could be present them- 
 selves and could openly show their possessions and the things 
 v.'hereby they raised to themselves a name. In the third place, 
 which was perhaps the greatest of all, this invisible Christ 
 was magnified in the fall of all visible pomp; and that, not 
 by giants, by men of fame, of learning, of wealth, or of nobility, 
 but by fishermen, by fools, infants and without any appear- 
 ance of power or wisdom : whereas, their adversaries were sur- 
 
434 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 rounded by multitudes and attended by the voices of the most 
 wise, most eloquent, and most powerful. 
 
 Hence it is said, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings 
 hast thou established strength," that the expression may convey 
 the greater wonder. But some being offended at the word 
 "strength", have rendered it 'praise', considering the former 
 an absurdity, perhaps, as not properly agreeing with the words 
 "Out of the mouth," and therefore they used the word 'praise' 
 as more agreeable to the general ideas and apprehensions of 
 readers. Although by "strength" here may rightly be un- 
 derstood the strength preached, by a figure of speech, and by 
 a Hebrew idiom, yet, in my judgment, we should rather un- 
 derstand that which is strong, powerful, and mighty, and which 
 all the adversaries are not able to resist ; as it is said also, Ps. 
 141 :6, "They shall hear my words, for they are able ;" that is, 
 for they are made firm and mighty. 
 
 So that we are here to understand also at the same time 
 that Christ has wrought all things in the world by the mouths 
 alone of those who preach the Gospel, and has by their weak- 
 ness subverted all strength and power, by their foolishness all 
 wisdom, and by their offence all religions. For the weakness 
 of God is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is 
 wiser than men. In this manner also Luke frequently men- 
 tions, in the Acts of the Apostles, that the Word of God in- 
 creased greatly and was mighty ; thereby proving and exempli- 
 fying the substance of this verse. 
 
 And here also the rulers of the church of Christ are to 
 be called together, that being instructed by these words they 
 might learn their duty. For the power and strength of Christ 
 and the church are not procured from the world ; the church 
 does not call for the aid of the secular arm, it does not threaten 
 fire and sword, it does not trust in the arms of kings and 
 princes, but its strength is perfected out of the mouth of babes 
 and sucklings. David therefore, without doubt, here teaches 
 that he who studies to magnify the name of God otherwise upon 
 
PSALM VIII. 435 
 
 the earth than by the mouth of babes and sucklings, rather 
 blasphemes, and is proved to magnify his own name rather than 
 the name of the Lord. And such are all those who madly 
 imagine that the Turks, infidels, and heretics at the present 
 day are to be attacked, not by the Word of God, of which 
 they know nothing, but by war and worldly tumult, or by the 
 clamors of abuse and revilings ; that is, they presume to con- 
 quer by those very things which are themselves conquered by 
 the mouth of babes and sucklings ; and thus they turn the mild 
 and gentle mouth of sucklings into the bloody mouths of giants, 
 that is, they turn the sweet Word of God into the tyrannies of 
 their own traditions. If therefore any one sees this evil and is 
 willing to leave it, let him at length learn what he ought to do 
 and how to act, that he may rule the people rightly. 
 
 First then "Out of the mouth," saith David. A most im- 
 portant admonition, but a most faithful one unto those who are 
 employed in the ministry of the Word in the church. For the 
 Word is rightly handled when the mouth is distinguished from 
 the Word, and when it is known that the Word is not his who 
 preaches, nay, that it is not he who preaches at all, but Christ 
 who speaks in him. Hence Paul, 2 Cor. 13 13, 'Seeing that 
 ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me.' He might have 
 here said, Babes have perfected praise ; but rash fable-followers 
 are to be blamed, who, without paying any regard to the Holy 
 Spirit, pour out upon the people whatever comes into their 
 mind, or rather into their mouth. 
 
 Nay, further, some search and strive that they may not 
 preach solid things; that is, that Christ may not preach his 
 own Word, but that they may teach theirs. Hence it follows 
 that they not only do not destroy the enemy and avenger, but 
 even strengthen his hands and make him a mocker. Of this 
 same sort are those also, who, being confident of the greatness 
 and importance of the doctrine that they have conceived in 
 their own brain, dream that their peril is great if they do not 
 teach it to others also, imagining to themselves that they have 
 
436 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 a talent committed to them and that they are burying it in the 
 earth, and must therefore expect the severe sentence of their 
 Lord. With such ridiculous baubles does the devil laugh at 
 their phantoms ! 
 
 Such therefore being instructed by this verse, ought to 
 know that it is not we who teach nor our word which is taught ; 
 and that it is only our mouth that is made to observe in his 
 Word when he pleases to call us to that office. "TJioii, says 
 David, hast established praise," not they nor zve. So in the 
 Gospel, also, a certain lord did indeed give talents, but is was 
 to those who were "called". Do thou therefore wait also till 
 thou art called ; and in the meantime neither teach after this 
 office of teaching nor plunge thyself into it, for thy knowledge 
 will not burst thee, though thou keep it in long. 'They ran 
 saith the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah, 23 :2r, but I never 
 sent them : I have not spoken unto them, yet they prophesied.' 
 This temptation miserably vexes many, so that they are con- 
 tinually weary of, and sorry for that which they have under- 
 taken. The devil does these things that he may distress the 
 minds of those who have begun well, and at length wears 
 them out by making them weary of the work. Therefore let 
 him who is called, offer his mouth unto God, that he may 
 receive the Word, and may be an instrument only and not the 
 author. And let him who is not called, pray the Lord of the 
 harvest that he would send forth laborers, and perfect his 
 strength out of the mouth of sucklings. 
 
 Secondly, we have the words "babes and sucklings." Here 
 the minister of the Word is taught that he should be a babe 
 among babes, and, according to the v^-ords of Paul, i Cor. 9 122, 
 should become all things to all men that he might by all means 
 save some; and above all things take care tliat he never despise 
 nor disdain any one. In the same manner as infants, from their 
 simplicity, are utterly unacquainted with any distinction or re- 
 spect of persons, but are equal and the same to all. 
 
 P'or what is more danp:crous in a minister of the Word of 
 
PSALM VIII. 437 
 
 God, than to be one thing to the great and the rich, and another 
 to the weak and poor ? Whereas they are sent to this ministry 
 to serve all men, to flatter none, and to hate none. You will 
 scarcely find in the holy scriptures any one thing against which 
 the Spirit so much contends, as against an unjust respect of 
 persons; for it is difficult to despise the external persons and 
 appearances of men, and yet to love and seek the good of the 
 men themselves as they are in the sight of the invisible God. 
 
 They are moreover taught that they should be gentle and 
 not railers, nor, as it is written, Titus i 17, self-willed, nor 
 soon angry, nor strikers ; for such are not babes and sucklings. 
 
 Moreover in this scripture is condemned all the proud os- 
 tentation of those who deal in great and wonderful things which 
 are above them, teaching lofty and difficult things which do 
 not at all tend to the main object, which the people do not at all 
 understand, and from which, if they did understand them, they 
 could reap no solid advantage. In a word, the passage con- 
 demns all doctrine conceived and delivered by men, with what- 
 ever adulteration of human and carnal knowledge they may be 
 infected, while it is contrary to the doctrine that is divinely 
 inspired. 
 
 In the third place, we have 'thou hast established or per- 
 fected.' For it is not enough to teach the Word of God, if it 
 be not rightly taught. Thus Paul instructed Timothy that he 
 should handle the Word "lawfully." For there are many 
 wrongly-anxious and vain preachers, who rage and make a 
 great ado, not knowing all the while that it is one thing to plant 
 and another thing to give the increase : and these want all 
 things to he done as soon as they have spoken the words, not 
 so much desiring to be heard, because they speak forth the 
 Word of God, as because they are the teachers of the Word; 
 thus striving that the instrument should be commended rather 
 than the Word sounded forth. 
 
 This is the case with those who promise to themselves that 
 they shall touch, work upon, and immediately convert, now 
 
438 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 these persons and now those, by words that they have previous- 
 ly conceived and meditated. Whereas by the wonderful man- 
 agement of God, it comes to pass that they are the farthest 
 possible from accomplishing that which they have framed out 
 in their thoughts. For the soul naturally feels that all such 
 are the words of the man himself, composed by himself, and 
 covered with human filth as Ezekiel saith, 4:1, that is polluted 
 v/ith human affections ; and therefore the soul nauseates such a 
 word, and is rather stirred up to wrath against it than con- 
 verted by it. 
 
 The soul is the rather moved when it hears nothing of the 
 attempt of the speaker but the free Word of God only. For the 
 Word being free and pure will have itself spoken forth in pub- 
 lic, and will touch those of whom the preacher himself knows 
 nothing. Of this we have many examples upon record. 
 
 Therefore let it be ours only to offer up our mouth to the 
 Word, and let it be God's to accomplish the work and to give 
 the increase. Hence Christ, Matt. 21 :2 etc., told his disciples, 
 w^hen he sent them, that they should find an ass and a foal ; 
 which they saw not and of which they knew nothing, and yet 
 they went and fetched the ass and the foal, though they were in 
 this ignorance about them. 
 
 Wherefore, laying aside this foolish confidence, as if we 
 could do anything towards co-operating with the Word in the 
 hearer, let us rather give ourselves to continual prayer that 
 God would himself without us accomplish in the hearer what 
 he speaks by the preacher ; for it is he that speaks and he that 
 hears and works all in all : we are only his instruments and 
 able neither to give nor to receive any thing, unless he him- 
 self give and receive. Hence Ps. 68:18, with a word watchful 
 over the honor of God, saith, "Thou hast ascended on high, 
 thou hast received gifts among men." But the apostle, Eph. 
 4 :8, saith, "Gave gifts unto men." 
 
 Fourthly, now if the ministers of the Word were like these 
 it would without doubt be effectual and powerful and would 
 
PSALM VIII. 439 
 
 not be spoken forth in vain; as it is said, Is. 55 :ii, 'The word 
 that goeth forth out of my mouth shall not return unto me 
 void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.' Observe the 
 words, "That which I please,' not that which the minister 
 pleases. And, 'it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it,' 
 not in them to whom the minister in his rash fancies shall 
 send it. 
 
 Hence there is a most perilous thing both ways, either to 
 teach the word of man under the name of the Word of God, 
 or to hurl the pure Word of God, just according to our own 
 whims and feelings ; each of which monstrous perversions has 
 held the church at this day under the most oppressive tyranny. 
 
 For this reason therefore let every one that is set over the 
 people of Christ in the ministry of the Word be humble and 
 fear, and let him study, by purity of prayer, more than by in- 
 dustrious strength, to deliver the Word free, pure, and simple, 
 just as it is, committing unto God both his own tongue and the 
 souls of the hearers. For it is a decreed truth, that there is no 
 master in the church of God but he who says, Matt. 23 :io, ''One 
 is your master, even the Christ." And Ps. 60 :6, "God hath 
 spoken in his holiness," or saint, that is, in his sanctuary, which 
 is the church. But where men or Satan speak, there without 
 doubt is a brothel and synagogue of Satan ; for such as the 
 W^ord is, such are the people, such is their God, such their wor- 
 ship, such their faith, such their conscience, such their works, 
 and such all that belongs to them. Therefore all things are 
 wrought in men by the Word only. 
 
 Hence I fear that infinite number of books, both of rites and 
 of theolog}', which prevail at this day in the church over and 
 above the Gospel, are those bowls of the wrath of God men- 
 tioned in Rev. 15:7 etc. which, being poured upon the earth, 
 the sea, the rivers, the sun, the air, etc., are described as bring- 
 ing many dreadful plagues on men. For what wrath or what 
 plague from God can be more dreadful, than that Christ should 
 not be taught among Christians, nor his faith known, but that 
 
440 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the souls of men should be employed in and oppressed with 
 Decrees, Decretals, Sextaries, Clementines, Extravagaries, Mo- 
 rals, Summaries, and the like. 
 
 Now, as we have said that no one ought to teach in the 
 church but he who is called of God, lest any one should be at 
 a loss to know what this call of God is, let him observe this, 
 whether or not the person be called to the ministry of the Word 
 by the authority of his elders, either ecclesiastical or secular, 
 without, nay contrary to, his own will and inclination. For 
 there is no power but that which is ordained of God, Rom. 13:1. 
 Therefore whatever both powers command is without doubt 
 the command of God. Moreover we do not read in the Old 
 Testament of any undertaking that prospered, unless God was 
 first consulted and an answer obtained either by means of some 
 angel or some man. For how unsuccessfully did the children 
 of Israel fight when they fought without the command of God ! 
 as vv^e read in Numbers 14:40 etc. ; and we see the same in the 
 Maccabees. If God want thee, he will undoubtedly seek thee 
 out and will rather send an angel down from heaven to fetch 
 thee to him. 
 
 This I believe is the reason why the popes, priests, and re- 
 ligious ones do not teach the Word of God in the church, be- 
 cause there is no longer any one of them who waits for the 
 call of God, but they all seek after dignities, prebendaries, and 
 the ease and gratification of their bellies. So that despair and 
 a certain slothfulness of spirit do not now make men monks 
 only, but the same things move our popes and priests also to 
 their offices. 
 
 Thou wilt not better understand this call of God, therefore, 
 than by observing the scripture histories and the histories of 
 all the saints of the church. For all those who were called of 
 God always wrought some great works ; as Augustine and Am- 
 brose, and before them Paul the apostle, etc. And, that I may 
 not raise any scruple or doubt in any one's mind, I am speak- 
 ing of those who have come and still come forward to teach the 
 
PSALM VIII. 44i 
 
 Word of God. It behooves these, I say, to take the greatest 
 heed that they go forth with the commission of God ; as Paul 
 saith, Rom. 10:15, "How shall they preach except they be 
 sent?" as it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of them that 
 preach the Gospel of peace." Again, Mai. 2 7, "For the priest's 
 lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at 
 his mouth : for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts." But 
 as to all the rest who come to episcopal sees, to canonries, and 
 all such priestly offices, in which there is not the ministry of the 
 Word, I do not see that they have need of any calling at all. 
 For in all these offices there is nothing more sought at this day 
 than a private serving of God, in which, as Paul saith, i Cor. 
 -j-.-j, "Every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this 
 manner and another after that." 
 
 Yet those are not to be rejected and cast out, who, moved 
 
 by godly desire and despising riches, fame, and their own life, 
 
 have a desire to teach the Word, though their cases are very 
 
 rare, nay, they are rather to be commended ; as the apostle saith, 
 
 I Tim. 3:1, "Faithful is the saying, if a man seeketh the office 
 
 of a bishop, he desireth a good work." But why the apostle 
 
 says it is a "faithful saying" and why he calls it "a good work" 
 
 is shown in what immediately follows : "The bishop therefore 
 
 must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, 
 
 sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach" etc. 
 
 As therefore the apostle would say these are the works of a 
 
 bishop, he that desireth the office of a bishop, desireth a good 
 
 work. For that office requires one that is a despiser of glory, of 
 
 fame, of his own life, and of all things, because it is a ministry 
 
 of truth. And these things Christ foretold when he said, IMatt. 
 
 10:22, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." 
 
 And as those can scarcely endure this who were drawn to the 
 
 work against their will by the power of God, that man must 
 
 in vain hope to endure it who has sought after the office of his 
 
 own accord, or who has not been moved to it by some singular 
 
 impulse of grace within. 
 
442 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 It now follows in the verse, "because of thine enemies ;" that 
 is, thine adversaries, or as we have already often translated that 
 noun, thine oppressors. As this, therefore, may be rightly said 
 of the incarnate God, for God himself cannot be oppressed nor 
 suffer from adversaries, that we may go on with the same ac- 
 ceptation of the Psalm as that with which we began, let us un- 
 derstand all these things as spoken of the Son, as those of the 
 verse preceding were of the Father. We are comforted by this 
 Word, because we hear the Holy Ghost declare that these ad- 
 versaries are not ours but the adversaries of God, for they are 
 the adversaries of him whose Word and v/ork they persecute. 
 And as it is not we that speak and work, but God in us ; so it 
 is not we that suffer and are despised, but God in us. Thus 
 the apostle dares to say, Eph. 4 :30, "And grieve not the Holy 
 Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of re- 
 demption." And Zech. 2 :8, "For he that toucheth you toucheth 
 the apple of his eye;" though our ecclesiastical ones have 
 twisted this around as applying to priests only, as if the laity 
 were not also partakers of the Holy Spirit. Again, i Sam. 2 130, 
 "And they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.." Why 
 then are we filled with fear and disquieted if ungodly men fight 
 against our word or work ? Let us leave them to rage on ; or 
 rather, let ws pray for them that their eyes may be opened and 
 that they may see that it is not against us they run but against 
 God himself. 
 
 What is it then 'for strength to be perfected out of the 
 mouth of babes and sucklings, because of the enemies ?' Why, 
 David here still goes on to comfort us under all our weakness, 
 and so hold forth to our view the wonderful power of God. As 
 if he had said. There shall rise up against these helpless infants 
 a powerful Pharaoh, and the sons of men shall open their 
 mouths against them ; magicians shall not be wanting, nor a 
 Jannes and a Jambres who shall be most powerful both in might 
 and craft, and shall resist the Word of truth. Because of these, 
 I say, saith David, that they might not prevail, but, as Paul 
 
PSALM VIII. 443 
 
 saith, 2 Tim. 3 -.g, that their folly might be made manifest to all 
 men, he shall give them a mouth and wisdom which all their 
 adversaries shall not be able to resist or gainsa3^ For, as the 
 Hebrew terms them, there are always "giants" and '"murderers" 
 upon the earth and "men of renown," who, trusting to their own 
 strength and violence, rush upon and oppress the weak and 
 simple infants who are preachers of the Word of truth. But all 
 this is permitted that the power of the Word which proceeds 
 from their mouth might be made manifest and perfected, while 
 God confounds the mighty by the weak and the wise by the fool- 
 ish, and brings to naught things that are by the things that are 
 not. Hence it now follows, 
 
 "That thou mightest still the enemy and avenger." Jerome 
 translates it, 'that the enemy and avenger might rest ;' that is, 
 that he might cease, desist, and rest from his evil works. The 
 Hebrew is, that a sabbath, that is, that rest might come ; that 
 it might show that the enemies and avengers must either cease 
 or be destroyed ; according to Ps. 104 :35, "Let sinners be con- 
 sumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more." Or 
 else it shows, that they are to be changed into friends, and those 
 that shall suffer also ; according to the words of the prophet Is. 
 2 :4, "And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and 
 their spears into pruning-hooks ;" which is an allegorical figure 
 to signify the changing of evil and destructive into wholesome 
 tongues. 
 
 The words "enemy and avenger" signify figuratively all 
 enemies and avengers. All are enemies who think and act con- 
 trary to us. They are moreover called "avengers" because they 
 madly contend against the babes and sucklings of God in de- 
 fence of their own principles and pursuits, as they say, Ps. 2 13, 
 "Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords 
 from us." But there follows, in the same place, the manner 
 in which such shall be destroyed, ver. 5, "Then shall he speak 
 unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure." 
 Though, as for myself I believe it is a saving destruction that 
 
444 LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 is signified in this Psalm, by which, as I said, the ungodly man 
 is destroyed, in order to his becoming godly; for this is the 
 peculiar work of Christ in the church, and this is the work of 
 the Holy Spirit, and is wrought by the peaceful Word of the 
 Gospel rather than by the impetuous violence of wrath and 
 fury. The proof of this seems to be David's saying, that all 
 these are to be wrought by no other means than out of the 
 mouth of babes and sucklings, and that it is out of their mouth 
 only that this strength is to be perfected. 
 
 Now he goes on to show what are the disposition and man- 
 ners of these adversaries of the Word. In the first place, he 
 shows that they are flesh and blood; as he saith, Ps. ii6:ii, 
 "All men are liars :" they are above all things unable to endure 
 that truth which mortifies the flesh. For the wisdom and pru- 
 dence of the flesh is "enmity against God, because it is not sub- 
 ject to the law of God neither indeed can be," as Paul saith, 
 Rom. 8 :/. Moreover when this truth is spoken by babes, those 
 wise ones of the world, considering that understanding in- 
 sulted in which they boast themselves, not only become enemies, 
 but under a false external pretext, and under the name of truth, 
 arm themselves with zeal to revenge the insult offered to their 
 understandings, and never rest until they have suppressed and 
 slain these apostles of the truth under pretence of defending 
 the glory of God and the truth, or as the common term is now- 
 a-days, for the honor of the holy church. So general, usual, 
 nay necessary a consequence is it, that he who is an enemy to 
 the truth of God must also become an avenging defender of his 
 own lies. Though we find this evil to be general in all causes 
 both profane and sacred, yet, in the latter, where a holy pre- 
 tence can be more conveniently made, it triumphs with ease and 
 security. 
 
 Let every one therefore who is called or who attempts to 
 teach the Word, be instructed and assured, that he will have 
 adversaries who will not only not hear what he has to say, but 
 will, when he offends against their opinions and pursuits, which 
 
PSALM VIII. 445 
 
 he must of necessity do, become his most bitter enemies and 
 persecutors. These words of the Spirit however which bring 
 the babes into a contention with enemies and avengers will 
 not lie ; the contest may be fearful, but it is so managed by di- 
 vine power, and will end so well, that if the babe does but be- 
 lieve that the matter is conducted by the counsels of God and 
 not by his own, and if he does but concern himself about of- 
 fering his mouth to him that speaketh in him, and does but 
 leave himself in his hands as the mere instrument of the Word, 
 that Word perfecting will perfect strength, and destroying will 
 destroy the adversary. 
 
 Moreover, he that so teaches as not to find an enemy to re- 
 sist, and an avenger to persecute, because he teaches out of the 
 rule laid down in this verse, let him not presume to himself 
 that he is a perfect and pure preacher of the Word. But if 
 enemies and avengers rise up and rush upon him, saying, "Let 
 us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from 
 us," or if they shall taunt him as they did the prophets, saying, 
 "What is the burden of the Lord?" or shall serve them as Ze- 
 dekiah did Micaiah, i Kings 22 124, and say, "Which way went 
 the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee ?" Art thou 
 the only wise one in the world? Let such an one be of good 
 J.o]K\ knowing,according to this verse, that he is a babe and a 
 suckling, but that his enemies are Nimrods and giants : for this 
 is v»hat we see came upon all the prophets, upon Christ himself, 
 upon the apostles, and upon all the ministers of the Word. 
 The example of whom, like a thick cloud, ought to animate us, 
 for we see all such examples to accord most exactly with this 
 scripture. 
 
 From this it follov/s that all those laws and rites of men 
 and also all those dumb and sleepy systems of theology drawn 
 up by mere oppositionists, were never the strength that was 
 perfected out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, and that 
 I hey have nothing whatever in them that agrees with the 
 description given in this verse, because no one of all such com- 
 
44^ LUTHER ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 pilers was ever known to suffer any evil or persecution on ac- 
 count of their profession or writings ; unless perhaps it be a 
 little abuse in a bickering or quarrelling, like that of women, 
 for they are never compelled by mere opinions to suft'er the 
 peril of fire and death, until they have been brought forth and 
 instructed in the scriptures, and have begun to preach the Word 
 of God. Nay rather, such are adorned with titles and honors 
 and high places and names; they are saluted in the market 
 place, and are called Rabbi, as is the case with all otir great 
 doctors and teachers. 
 
 Such a doctrine as this of human framing, therefore, has 
 no enemies and persecutors, except it be in the same way as 
 Pilate and Herod contended together, and the Pharisees and 
 Sadducees. For it would not take much to stir up all the dis- 
 ciples of Thomas, of Scotus, of Modernus, together with all 
 the priests, bishops, and religionists at this day, and to bring 
 them all to stand together against Christ, though they are al- 
 ways in a continual state of contention among each other ; thus 
 the prophet justly wonders, in the second Psalm, that all the 
 kings of the earth, though the greatest enemies to each other, 
 yet stood up against him. And so, all the princes and elders 
 among priests, though completely divided among each other 
 in mutual factions, yet all assemble together against the Lord 
 and against his Christ. 
 
 These things I wished to say unto those who desire to 
 speak the Word of God and administer it purely, that they 
 m.ay know that, according to this verse, they will ever have 
 the more and greater enemies and avengers, the more corrupt 
 these latter times are, and the more specious outside show there 
 is of titles, names, dignities, offices, and rites, under the name 
 of Christ. Let such, therefore, bear in mind, that this truth 
 is certain. 'Out of the mouths of both babes and sucklings, 
 saith God, I only perfect strength ; which shall have enemies, 
 but which shall destroy the enemy and avenger'. 
 
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