Why do the nations rage and the people speak in vain? The kings of the land rebel, and the lords counsel with one another against the Lord and his anointed.
(1) That this psalm was made by David and speaks of Christ, proves irrefutably (cogit) the reputation of the first church, of which Lucas, Apost. 4, 24-28, says: "They lifted up their voice with one accord to God, saying: Lord, you are the God who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and everything that is
who by the mouth of David your servant you said, "Why do the Gentiles rebel and the peoples take advantage of what is in vain? Why do the heathen rise up, and the nations take in vain? The kings of the earth are gathered together, and the princes are gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. Indeed, they have gathered together against your holy child Jesus, whom you anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do what your hand and your counsel purposed beforehand to be done" etc.
2 Therefore one's heart must be fixed in this mind, nor be weighed and swayed by any other wind of doctrine [Eph. 4:14], for this mind is confirmed from heaven; the place moved when they had finished this their prayer, as Lucas also writes [Acts 4:31].
It is therefore clear that by the "kings of the land" Herod and Pilate are understood, even though Pilate was not king. For these two at the same time worked together to fulfill what the council of God had decided, as they [the disciples] say here (that is, that they would destroy Christ). For no other kings did this, nor does he speak of any other matter than that which was done against Christ under Pilate.
It only remains that we untie this knot, which has nothing to mean at all. Either Pilate is called a king with Herod, or according to the way of the scripture the whole was called with the very common name of a part 1), like Israel is called the firstborn son, although many among them were idolaters; again all are punished, where only few had deserved it. Thus both men are called kings, because one is a king.
4 Thus it is also sufficiently clear that by "lords" (Principes) are understood the chiefs of the priests; by "Gentiles" the Roman soldiers under Pilate, who seized, scourged and crucified Jesus; by "people" the common people of the Jews or Israel, as they (the apostles) themselves say.
In this place "Gentiles" (gens) and "people" (populus) are obviously distinguished, but I do not dare to say, nor do I think, that this distinction is constantly running through everything, although the word "Gentiles" is very often used in contrast to Israel or the Jews, so that the church of the Gentiles, and Paul the apostle of the Gentiles, is now called so in many writings (auctoritate) and in common life in contrast to the church of the Jews or that which came from the Jews.
1) Baseler: patris instead of: xartis; a misprint.
Note the exact observation of the division: the pagans rage, the people talk in vain, the kings rebel, the lords confer with each other. The pagans, as unreasonable beasts, rage, because they did not know what they were doing; but the people gossiped and made their counsels together, namely, they spoke unworthy things against the Most High and showered him with hateful speeches, as in the 109th Psalm [v. 2. f.], where they said: Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And Caiphas Joh. 11, 49. f. said, when the council had assembled (concilio coacto): 3) "You know nothing, consider nothing; it is better for us that one man die for the people, than that the whole people perish." This, then, is the vain speaking (tractatus) by which they so often sought to destroy Christ, and the trumped-up accusations before Pilate; here he calls it vain speaking.
The kings, however, decided (statuerunt) (for this is how adstiterunt is to be understood according to the Hebrew), that is, determined, pronounced, confirmed the raving and speaking of those people when they passed judgment on Christ. It is said [Marc. 15, 15.], "Pilate, however, thought to do enough to the people, and released Barabbam to them, and delivered JEsum to them to be crucified." The lords came together, they contended, they at the same time persuaded [the people] and strengthened them in their desire to destroy JEsum, for [Marc. 15, 11.) "they provoked the people that they should much rather ask for Barabbam. "etc.
Pay attention to the restraint and modesty of the prophet's speech, how mildly and, as it were, compassionately he expresses their rage. For although he could have called their raging words: "Away, away with him, crucify, crucify him" [John 19:15], and other cruel cries of the Jews, with which they accused Christ, a frenzy and a murderous attack (impetus), he only calls it speech (meditationes). But meditatio, as we said above [Ps. 1, 2., § 38], is a chatter and a verbal sub-talk. For it is
2) In the issues: ks. 108.
3) Jenaer and Erlanger: consilio instead of: Concilio.
This is evil talk. For just as a lover gladly speaks many things of the beloved object, so also a hater speaks and chats on and on about the one he hates, and that the very worst. A similar moderation is in the words [according to the Vulgate] fremuerunt [they murmur], adstiterunt [they stand by], convenerunt [they come together], while the thing itself is far more terrible than the meaning of these words indicates.
(5) By this we are instructed not to magnify the evil that men do, as the slanderers do, but to minimize it as much as possible, that we may show that we are not indignant on our account, nor grieved for their misery. For the Holy Spirit is kind, not seeking glory in the evil that others do, but in His goodness having compassion on all. For St. Peter also mentions that Christ neither scolded nor threatened when he suffered, nor sought vengeance, but brought all things home to him who judges rightly.
6 "In vain" he says. With this word he understands almost everything that this psalm is about, because the prophet wants to show that Christ was set up as king by God the Father, which could not have been prevented by the counsels, efforts and the raging of many and great people from pagans and Jews, from kings and lords, who opposed it, but these would have done everything in such vain that they made a mockery of themselves, and just by opposing them only promoted the kingdom of Christ all the more, just as if he had wanted to prove by this psalm as by an example what he said in the first psalm: "And what he does is well done," as long as it is understood by Christ.
7 For the word in the 45th Psalm [v. 5, Vulg.], "Go forth in your adornment and in your beauty, and prosper and reign," belongs to this; and in the 118th Psalm, v. 25 f., "O Lord, help, O Lord, prosper! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" For the good pleasure of Christ is (as I have said [Ps. 1:3, § 62]) not temporal nor carnal, but spiritual. For who is there, that, when Christ suffered, would not have made my
Who should have believed that he would never be 1) even the very least man, and not come to life again, let alone that he would be a king over all things? Who should not have believed that the speeches of the people were confirmed and not in vain, since they boasted that he was also condemned by them to the curse of the cross [Matth. 27, 42. f.] because of God's sending (auctore Deo), and thought that their speeches were eternally fixed?
8) Faith and hope are always necessary in the works of God, not only that they may be accepted (ferendis), but also that they may be understood, since they are fulfilled against all understanding, above all comprehension.
9 And this also is a word of faith, "Against the Lord and his anointed." For they were regarded as acting for the Lord and for Christ, both by all others and especially in their own eyes. So also today and always the wicked work for the glory of God, against the glory of God, with frightening boldness (periculo). For God rules the world in such a way, and turns its wisdom into foolishness, that those who are judged to be acting for the honor of God are actually working to blaspheme Him, and those who are accused of blasphemy are actually fighting for the honor of God. His way is in secret, in faith, in holiness; "the court is not measured, for it is given to the Gentiles," Revelation 11:2. [Vulg.].t he: "Against the Lord," then: "Against His anointed," because every sin offends God first of all. For He is not only righteousness, but also the love of righteousness, and from Him all who love righteousness receive it, and it would not be a sin if it did not offend God.
11 But he also arranges the words in this way so that we may learn for our comfort and admonition that we never suffer a wrong without God being offended sooner and more than we are, and that God's care is so great.
1) In the original edition and the Erlanger: NULgnara, in the other editions: unguuin. We have followed the former reading, because in the latter the nou would have to be deleted.
that He feels our insult sooner and bears it with greater displeasure than we ourselves do, so that we should not be moved to revenge, indeed, we should rather have mercy on those of whom we see that they are running to their ruin against such a high majesty, since they not only cannot harm, but rather ruin themselves in a frightening way. Thus says God [Zech. 2, 8.], "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye."
12 For the prophet also, as if he were heartily sorry for their iniquity, begins with a question, "Why do they rage?" Why do they make a mockery of themselves? Why do the fools do impossible things? Oh that they would come to their senses and become wise. Then he admonishes them and urges them to do something right (solida) instead of futile things, that is, that they should rather be instructed and become wise, so that they serve Christ with fear.
Finally, he makes the inanitatem and the futile efforts even greater through the mild words. He says [Vulg.]: "They murmur, they talk, they decide, they counsel," as if he wanted to say: You may murmur, but you cannot do it; you talk and chatter a lot, but you will get nowhere; the kings decide, and nothing comes of it; the lords counsel, and it will be in vain. What else do you get out of it than that you wanted to accomplish a lot through your vain endeavors, that you undertook difficult things, that you put everything into it, and that you did not succeed in any of it, but everything turned out to be the opposite?
Thus God allows ravings and counsels and efforts to be made against the godly, but all this is like the swelling tides of water, which rush against the user with their surge, as if to break it down, and before they reach the shore, collapse in on themselves and disappear, or break down on the shore with empty talk. For the righteous, as a firm shore in faith in Christ, quite confidently despises these powerless threats and quickly collapsing surges. For he knows that Moab is very proud, and that his might
never so great as his presumption, and his wrath greater than his ability, as Isaiah [Cap. 16, 6.] and Jeremiah [Cap. 48, 29.f.] say.
15 With this cross the wicked are martyred quite cheaply, since it is an exceedingly great torture when someone wants to do harm in all things and can do harm in nothing, so that even the pagans have said of envy: The Sicilian tyrants suffered no greater torture than envy. This is all the more graceful in the matter of Christians, because not only are the wicked tormented, and not only can they do no harm, but out of God's counsel, by their torment, their futile attempts, they must most of all promote that which they strive to prevent, so that even friends cannot be of as much use to a Christian as enemies.
V. 3 Let us break their bands and throw off their ropes.
16. this verse must be connected with the words: "they rave, they talk, they rebel", so that the meaning is: Surely that is why they rave, that is why they chat, that is how they deal with it, that is what they have decided, that they want to pull the neck out of God's and Christ's yoke, to break their (eorum) bonds and say: "We do not want this one to rule over us", Luc. 19, 1) 14., or the word, Job 21, 14. 15.: "They say to God, 'Get thee away from us; we will not know thy ways.' Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? or what are we improved, if we call upon him?" For thus the prophet introduces the wicked speaking.
Others are of a different opinion about it, but in the meantime I stick to this understanding. Therefore, what has caused others concern, that it is said in the plural "their" (eorum and ipsorum), must be referred to "the Lord and his anointed". For these are undoubtedly two, God and man, the sender and the sent, as if it were said: The people have rejected both the sent and the prince, and they have not accepted their (eorum) counsel.
1) In the Latin editions: I.ue. 16.
260 L. xiv, so-52. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 2, 3. W. iv, 3isf. 261
(17) But that the divine commandments are signified by "bands" and "ropes" by means of a fancy or figurative speech is shown in Jer. 5:4 f.: "But I said, 'Well, the poor multitude is ignorant, they know not the way of the Lord, nor the right of their God. I will go to the mighty and speak to them; they will know the way of the Lord and the right of their God; but they all had broken the yoke and torn the cords. Ibid. Cap. 2, 20. [Vulg.]: "For thou hast always broken my yoke, and rent my bands," although this passage is corrupted, since in Hebrew God says in the first person: "I have always broken thy yoke, and rent thy bands," so that bands stand against bands, yoke against yoke, the way of God against the way of men, the judgment of God against the judgment of men.
"Bands" are the commandments of Christ, by which we are instructed to walk in his way; the yoke or "cords" are the judgment by which we are forbidden. The yoke or "ropes" are the judgment by which we are forbidden to do evil, so that the former is the justification of the spirit, the latter the putting to death of the flesh. But there are two things that are commanded: To cease from evil, and to do good; the former is to crucify the lusts of the flesh, the latter is to do good works. There is nothing wrong if someone wants to confuse these things with each other, so that he wants to take the bands for judgment and the ropes (jugum) for righteousness, because the meaning remains the same; if one has this, one should not quarrel about words.
But the whole verse is figurative, for "to tear" is taken for despising and making futile; "bands" for commandments; "to cast away" for disobeying, neglecting, not accepting; "ropes" (jugum) for instruction and discipline in mortification of the flesh. I do not mean, however, in a fanciful speech (allegoricum) after the manner of the moderns, as if another, historical (historicus) sense were to be sought under it than that which is expressed, but that he expressed the right and proper sense in figurative speech.
18 Behold, to the perverse all things are perverse, as it is written Ps. 18:26: "By
to the perverse thou art perverse." The law of Christ, which is a law of freedom and sweetness, they call "bonds" and "cords", considering it bondage and hard service; again, their law, which is a right bondage and inability (infirmitas), they believe is freedom and easy to fulfill (facilitatem). Even so, everything is evil to the wicked. Jer. 23:38-10: "Now ye call this word the burden of the Lord, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not call it the burden of the Lord: behold, I will take you away, and cast you out of my sight, and will bring upon you everlasting shame and reproach" etc. For inevitably the one who has pleasure in his own dislikes what is God's.
19 Again, eyes of faith are needed here, for the prophet does not say this as if he thought that they had in truth recognized the Lord and Christ when they said, "Let us break their bonds," believing that they were acting for God and His law when they rejected Christ; but the prophet calls "the Lord and His anointed," which he describes as having been despised by them because they did not recognize them. And behold, if for this reason he did not want to use the fanciful expression in the whole verse, to show that they hypocritically pretended something else than they did, and in their blindness did a kind of fanciful work (operis allegoriam) by rejecting the Lord and Christ, since they pretended to do the most for them.
Might it not also be that the prophet has put the pronoun "their" as a diminishing speech (per tapinosin), so that he at the same time refers to and understands it from the Lord and his Christ, and at the same time also punishes their exceedingly great contempt, in which they also do not consider Christ worthy of a name, let alone acknowledge him for the Lord and the Christ? Thus he has described their efforts so far, by which they wanted to bring it about that Christ would not be installed as king, whom the Lord had already installed, by which they not only oppose Christ, but much more oppose God's decree.
order, as is shown in David and Saul. For David also was anointed king by God's command, but Saul resisted both God's decree and David's most stubbornly, and in a not dissimilar manner he also raged, spoke much, resolved much, counseled much against him. But as he did all in vain, so did the Jews and the Gentiles against Christ, as follows:
V. 4. But he who dwells in heaven laughs at them, and the Lord mocks them.
20) This tautology or repetition of the same thing, which frequently occurs in Scripture, indicates certainty (firmitatis), as the holy patriarch Joseph confirms, Gen. 41, 32, where he says, interpreting Pharaoh's dreams [Vulg.]: "But that you have seen the thing concerning the dream the second time is a sign of certainty, because that which God has spoken comes to pass, and is fulfilled exceedingly quickly." So also here "he laughs at them" and "he mocks them" the same is repeated, so that there can be no doubt that everything will happen most certainly.
(21) This is what the good Spirit does for our encouragement and comfort, so that we do not fall away in the face of adversity, but rather build ourselves up to the most certain hope, because it will surely come and not be forgiven (Hab. 2:3). Therefore, although in human speeches such a repetition of what has been said (tautologia) seems erroneous and superfluous, yet in divine things it is most necessary, especially because hope (as the wise man says (Prov. 13:12)), which is consumed, anguishes the heart; true hope, I say, which has need in suffering and the cross. For all delay is hard for those who are exercised in the sufferings of Christ. Therefore, they need the firmest and most sure promise of God to sustain them.
(22) Again, as in promises of good things comfort cannot be sufficiently impressed upon the afflicted, so in threats of evil things terror cannot be sufficiently taught to the unintelligent, hard and unbelieving. For this reason, repetition of what has been said is also necessary in this piece, so that it can be understood by the quite certain and over
The people are terrified by a strong threat. For as those people have too much fear and too little hope and security, so with these there is too much security and hope, but in general no fear, as the 36th Psalm, 1) v. 2, says: "There is no fear of God with them. For these it is necessary that they fear the Lord, for those that they hope in His mercy, and on both sides the right middle road exists, which is described thus: "The Lord is pleased with those who fear Him, who hope in His goodness" [Ps. 147, 11.].
23 Now this is written, "that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" [Rom. 15:4]. For what is here written of Christ is an example to all Christians. For everyone who wants to be a sincere Christian, especially if he also teaches the word of Christ, must suffer his Herod, Pilate, lords, kings, pagans and people who rage against him, speak in vain, rebel against him and argue with each other. If this is not done by men, it will at least be done in the end by devils and finally in one's own conscience. Then it is necessary to remember these and similar comforts: "He who dwells in heaven laughs at them, and the Lord mocks them," and to hold fast to this hope and not waver from any cause.
24. And to fortify the confidence of the afflicted the more, he says especially strongly (ίμφατιχώς), "He will laugh and mock," as if to say: So certain is it that they make vain efforts, however firm their pretensions may be in the opinion of all men, that the Lord does not think it worth while to resist them "in earnest," or as if it were a great matter, but he laughs at and mocks them as in a very trifling matter, as is also said on the same stroke in the 37th Psalm. Psalm, v. 12. f., says: "The wicked threatens the righteous, and gnashes his teeth at him. But the Lord laugheth at him; for he seeth that his day cometh." Furthermore, we see that our adversaries will not only be humiliated, but also laughed at.
1) In the Latin editions: 14. In the Vulgate this word is found in the place where Ps. 13, 3. is inserted.
25 O how great strength of faith is required in these words! For who could have imagined that God would laugh, since Christ suffers and the Jews triumph? So also, when we are oppressed, when do we believe that our adversaries are laughed at by God, since it seems to us that we, both by God and by men, are laughed at and trampled underfoot.
26. but this mockery of God is, as I have said, that he made a mockery of the Jews and the Gentiles, who killed Christ, to the whole world, by raising him from the dead, and since there could be no hope that the kingdom of Christ could extend to even one people, he caused his eternal dominion to spring up over all creatures, and so perverted their proposals that it took just the opposite outcome with them, so that we can sing [Ps. 113, 4]: "The Lord is high above all nations; his glory reaches as far as the heavens", who was humbled below all Jews, and whose shame was also deeper than the earth. Therefore, as in the preceding verses the suffering and death of Christ is prophesied, so in this verse His resurrection, though somewhat obscure, is foretold.
But what is the purpose of these periphrasis: "He who dwells in heaven"? By these words, in order to strengthen our hope, he paints God at once as one at rest (quietum) and as a wonderfully hidden judge. He who takes care of us dwells securely and quietly, and when we are troubled, He who takes care of us is not troubled. We are tossed to and fro, but he sitteth, that he should not leave the righteous in trouble for ever [Ps. 55:23.].
(28) But all this is so hidden that you cannot know it unless you are in heaven. On earth, on water, in all creatures you have suffering; everywhere and in all things the hope of help is cut off from you, until you leap over everything by faith and hope, and seize him who dwells in heaven, for then you also dwell in heaven, but in faith and hope. Here, then, in all tribulations, we must cast out the anchor of our heart
In this way, the evil of the world will not only be easy for us, but also a source of laughter.
V. 5. He will speak to them in his wrath one day, and with his fury he will terrify them.
(29) What was said in the previous verse about the repetition of the same things (tautologia) must also be kept for this verse. For ignorant people and the despisers of God nothing can be said sufficiently. For the Leviathan, Job 41, 17-19. [loosely from the Vulgate], laughs at the whirring spear, and esteems a hammer like straw, and iron like chaff, and brass like rotten wood. An archer does not drive him away, the sling stones become on him like stubble etc., though perhaps there seems to be no tautology here.
030 But when did he speak to them in his wrath, or in what did his wrath consist? Certainly when he laughed at them; which we will know when we know what it means that God speaks in his anger. Jer. 18:7 says: "Suddenly I speak against a people and against a kingdom, to cut them off, to break them, and to destroy them" etc.
31) So "to speak in anger" means to cut off, to break and to destroy; this is what happened to the Jews, who said [Joh. 11, 48. 504 "Lest the Romans come and take away our land and our people, it is better that one man die, than that the whole nation perish." These vain speeches the Lord ridicules, since (as Prov. 10:24 is written) that which the wicked fears will meet him; and by the Romans he cut them off, broke them, and corrupted them. So it was the wrath and fury of God that was the impetuous attack of the Romans, as Isaiah Cap. 19, 5. f. says: "O woe to Assyria, who is the rod of my wrath, and her hand the staff of my fury. I will send him against a deceitful (that is, a hypocritical, dissembling) people, and will command him against the people of my wrath" etc. According to my judgment, these words are definitely said by the Roman army. For that he says: "I will command him", he expresses it in this verse like this: "He will speak to them", because everything happens by the command and the word of God [Ps. 33, 9]: "For as he speaks, so it happens" etc.
32 Therefore this word: "He will speak" must be taken without special relation (absolute), from this way: He will speak, that is, he will determine, command, decree by his word, but that it shall be against them, not for them; then, not in mercy, but in wrath. For he also speaketh against the righteous, and against his children, commanding that the cross and death should be inflicted upon them, as it is said in 2 Sam. 16:10, "The Lord hath commanded him, Cursing David," etc.; but in mercy. If now [in the fifth verse of our Psalm] the preposition "with" is changed into "against", and the verb "he will speak" into "he will command", the text will be clearer: He will once command against them in his wrath.
He will not only break and destroy them, but he will also "terrify" them, for he has consumed them outwardly by strife and inwardly by fear. Of course, he also terrifies his children and puts them in extraordinary fear, like Christ in the garden, but in mercy. But the Jews, since they were devastated and killed by the Romans, he has set in terror for eternity by the beginning of fear. For it is impossible that the wicked, when he dies, should not fall into an eternal terror. It would have been a mild punishment if they had only been devastated; but that they were devastated in anger is terrifying. But by far the most terrifying thing is that, having been devastated and killed in anger, they were also terrified in fury and cast into eternal horror by death.
34) Now see the register 1) of the terrible punishments that are prepared for the murderers of Christ. First, they lose the honor for which they most raged against Christ, becoming a laughingstock before God and all men, seeing their shame everywhere, which is no small evil for arrogant and envious people. Then they lose everything they relied on and are devastated, wiped out, 2) destroyed, so that they have no comfort even in body. Finally, the greatest evil is added, that their gloom and anguish terrifies their souls with eternal fear.
1) Weimarsche: cstalo^ium instead of: eatuto^uiu.
2) Instead of raäicautur in the Baseler, in the Weimarsche and in the Erlanger, 4-raäic'niitnr is to be read.
35. Thus they are beaten in their good reputation, in bodily goods and in eternal goods, and no creature, not even God Himself, is inclined toward them. Dear one, who should not now let himself lament for his enemies, who should not weep for them, who should not suffer everything for them, let alone from them, who firmly believes that this unbearable misfortune is in store for them.
(36) First, they are ridiculed and mocked, because their honor is turned into the highest disgrace (for this is their outward possession). Then they are devastated, robbed of their goods and their father's inheritance (facultatibus), which is their other possession. Finally they are frightened with fear, so that all hope and confidence in the spirit is gone; this is their inner and last possession; and these people become like dust before the wind. And again you see that the punishment of the wicked is described as fear and terror. For as the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and safety, so hell must necessarily be sin, fear and terror.
V. 6. But I have set up my king on my holy mountain Zion. 3)
37 Here the person changes, because not David speaks of himself, but Christ. But the Hebrew text speaks in the person of the Father: "I have set my King on my holy mountain Zion" or decreed. Nor do I think that this matter is of such great importance that we should quarrel over a disputed word, since both minds are good, only that the Hebrew text is more suited to the mode of speech in use in Scripture, according to which authorship (auctoritas) is ascribed to the Father, as in the 110th Psalm, v. 1. Psalm, v. 1: "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand,'" and Ps. 89:28: "And I will make him the first son, most high among the kings of the earth." Stapulensis means that one could say: But I have anointed my king, in that he establishes himself
stitntns sum rex ak 60 super 2ion rnontern kunetnrn 6sn8 [But I am appointed by him king over his holy mountain Zion). The interpretation refers to this text.
on the word of the believers, Apost. 4:27: "They have gathered together concerning thy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed." But it is seen that they took the word, "Thou hast anointed," not from this verse, but rather from the second, when they said [Acts 4:26], "Against his Christ," which is as much as, "Against his anointed," which they repeat to confirm it the more strongly (confirmandi affectu). Truly," they say [v. 27], "he is the Christ and the anointed whom you have anointed, that is, made a Christian.
This I say in my low opinion: If the Hebrew text did not require that sanctum meum be connected with "Mount Zion," it might seem to refer to Christ, so that the sense would be: I have set my King on Mount Zion, not any man at random, but he who is "my Holy One," anointed by me with the Holy Spirit. For Christ is called in Scripture the Holy One of God and the Holy One in Israel, as Ps. 16:10: "Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to decay," and Ps. 89:19: "The Lord is our shield, and the Holy One in Israel is our King." But the Hebrew text (as I have said) has "my holy mountain."
So the meaning is: They have not wanted him to rule over them and have conspired against me and my king. But my counsel shall stand, and my will be done. Who can resist my face? They have killed him, I have made him king; they have withdrawn themselves from him, I have subdued to him the holy mountain of Zion and all the ends of the earth, and so they have become a laughing stock and a mockery, and it is publicly shown that they have spoken in vain.
This verse belongs to the doctrine (locum communem) of ambition and presumption, which nowadays prevail in the Church of Christ in the most impudent manner. For this is what the apostle says in his letter to the Hebrews, Cap. 5, 4. f.: "And no man taketh glory to himself, but he also which is called of God, even as Aaron. So also Christ did not take glory to himself, but he who said to him: You are my Son"; and again [Ps. 110, 1.]: "Sit down with me.
Right hand." This is what almost the whole psalm inculcates here, which describes that everything concerning Christ is ordered by the Father, not arrogated and sought by Christ himself. But for many years now our decrees have hardly been about anything other than dignity, power, privileges, which reeks very strongly of ambition, without the Father having decreed or instituted anything of this.
The church of Christ is called "Mount Zion" because it began there and was established by the sending of the Holy Spirit, and although it is not bound to any place, it was nevertheless necessary that it had its beginning in a certain place. Therefore it was spread out from there over the whole earth, so that the word of Christ Joh. 4, 21. would be fulfilled: "The time is coming that neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain will you worship the Father. And so the gospel has no place and yet has all places.
At the same time, through the Holy Spirit as a teacher, the Church of Jerusalem has preserved this modesty, that it has never quarreled with other churches over the primacy and dignity, as the churches of Rome and Constantinople had a protracted and annoying dispute, although the latter (if a primacy were to be sought at all) should have been fully preferred to the other churches: rightly should have been preferred to the other churches, both because Christ Himself was the bishop of them, the King appointed by God the Father, and also because the whole Church took its beginning there, and from there all churches arose, and it alone is in truth the mother of the churches, where all the apostles and disciples were, as it were, the elders. But God did not want this to happen, so that He would show us that this arrogation of primacy was reprehensible, and that no other church should seek it, since He did not allow it even to this one, to which it was due.
41 I say this not as if I condemn the supremacy (monarchiam) of the Roman Church, but because I detest that it is forced and imposed and arrogated to oneself, as if it were a commandment of God, when in fact it is a mutual agreement between the faithful and the Church.
should be established through the bond of love, so that it would be a supremacy, not of commanding power, but of serving love. The presumption I reject, the cause I approve. Gold is not evil, but avarice; the flesh is not evil, but the lust of the flesh. But even here Christ resisted quite vigilantly, because he never suffered the churches of the East to be subjected to this [our] church.
So the church is called Mount Zion, according to the quite common way of speaking (tropo) of the synecdoche, the containing for the contained in it, like the city Jerusalem for the people of the city. However, it is not only for this reason an obscure speech, but also in the name, the thing and the form lies the same. The name Zion denotes a waiting place. The church is not only called a lookout because it looks out for God and heavenly things by faith (that is, from afar), seeking what is above, not what is on earth, but also because in it are the right guards (speculatores) and the watchful in spirit, to whom it is incumbent to take care of the people who are among them, and to be careful of the wiles of enemies and sinners. These are called in Greek episcopi, as it were watchmen, and for the same reason you might suppose that they would like to be called from the Hebrew Zionists or Zionians.
But the thing is that Zion is a mountain. Thus the church is high in the sight of God through spiritual height, because of the greatness of the virtues, gifts, graces, effects etc. by which God has exalted it above all authority, wisdom and righteousness of men, as it is said in Isa. 2, 2. and Mich. 4:1: "The mountain where the Lord's house is shall be higher than all mountains, and shall be exalted above all hills." Again, I must interpret this for the sake of the carnal dreamers who always drag the word of God on the splendor of the world. The church will be exalted above all the power and height of the world, not by riches or painting, but by faith, hope, love, and the virtues that despise worldly riches and power. For the fact that the church is now high in these things is not the church's fault.
It is not a church of its own, but a foreign leviathan, and that is why it has decreased so much in wisdom in the word of God, in holiness of life, in the practice (virtute) of good works etc. For these are the mountains and the very heights of the church of Christ, in which the world cannot follow it. But in those things it [the Roman Church] has long surpassed the world, if it must be called a church that does such things. For it is certain that the true church of Christ will always remain the same.
The figure of Mount Zion was that it rose at the southern end [of the city of Jerusalem] and had the city of Jerusalem under it, sloping down on the north side, and [the city] rising up to it, as it says in Ps. 48:3: "Mount Zion, on the side toward the north, is the city of the great King."
This descending and ascending can mean the inner struggle of Christ's people, which takes place between the flesh and the spirit; the flesh strives toward midnight, the spirit toward noon; or the two kinds of life (duas vitas), the active and the contemplative. The former descends to do temporal things for others, the latter ascends to heavenly things, and inclines to the watch where the watchmen (episcopi) are, all excellent in life and word, and draw others to themselves. In the middle between Mount Zion and Jerusalem) is Mount Moria, the mountain of the temple. Here is Christ, God and man, encompassing both, dwelling in both, as the same Mount Moriah, located in Jerusalem under Mount Zion, depicts.
For it is the mountain Moria, that is, of seeing, on which Abraham sacrificed his son, on which also Solomon built the temple afterwards, and we are sacrificed over Christ with Isaac and are formed into the temple of God through the right Solomon. For Christ is Mount Moriah to us, because God neither sees nor recognizes anyone who is not sacrificed and built in this place, that is, above Christ and in Christ, for only on this one do the eyes of the Lord look. Therefore the mountain is called: "The Lord sees" eternally [Gen. 22, 14]. But the heretics and the arrogant judge other mountains of the
They are not able to see, or rather not to see, because they want to merit by their righteousness and works that God will look upon them graciously.
"Holy" he is called, not because of exemplary (figurali) holiness of law or external consecration, for he speaks in the spirit. Therefore, he is not content to say: the holy mountain; he adds "my" as if to say: Who also is holy by my holiness, not by those by which stones, wood, walls are consecrated, but by which mind and body are consecrated by means of the anointing of the grace of the Spirit, and by faith, hope, and love are purified from day to day. For that is holy which, separated from common use, is consecrated only to holy and divine use. This is done as a ceremony (ceremonialiter) and in letter by men, the bishops, but in truth and in spirit by the Holy Spirit poured out in our hearts.
42 In all this he obviously distinguishes the kingdom of Christ from all other kingdoms. Of this king alone he proclaims, "I have instituted him," or [according to the Vulgate], "I am instituted." This person, because God is invisible and wholly spiritual (spiritualissimus), certainly indicates a spiritual appointor, since he does not appoint the others by himself, but men by men. Visible through visible. It is therefore Christ's kingdom not of this world, but in spirit and in truth. Likewise, "My King" does not mean a king of men, or which men appoint. Christ is therefore a king in spirit and before God.
43) Then, although he is appointed "on Mount Zion", nevertheless it is added: "my sanctify" (or/Vulg?: "his sanctify"), that it may be known that the kingdom of Christ is indeed a people in Zion, but such a people as is holy in spiritual holiness.
44 Again, you see that the church of Christ does not exist in worldly power, wisdom, or dignity, although there are people who say that there is no Christian outside the new supremacy, since the power of the supremacy has nothing to do with spiritual holiness.
V. 7. I will preach of such a way, 1) that the Lord has said to me: You are my son, today I have begotten you.
The Hebrew text begins the seventh verse in this way: "I will preach God's commandment, which the Lord has said to me: You are my Son, today I have begotten you." This connection has, I think, the effect of letting us know of what kind of commandment he wants to be understood that of which he says he will preach, namely, of that which he adds: "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son" etc. This, he says, I have as my commandment; to this end I am appointed as king, that I should proclaim to all that I am the Son of God, for I must transfigure the Father. For this is the purpose (scopus) of the whole Gospel, that Christ may be known as the Son of God, as it is said in Matth. 16, 15. f.: "Who do you say that I am? Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. The church is built on this rock.
46 Paul also says in 1 Cor. 1, 24: "We preach Christ, divine power and divine wisdom. And Christ Himself does nothing else in the whole Gospel of John than to prove Himself to be the Son of God (ostendat) by always preaching that God is His Father. This was also impressed upon him in his suffering as a crime worthy of death. For Christ came to establish the faith through which one believes in Him as the Son of God. But this faith is the fulfillment of all laws, the righteousness for all eternity, the work of the miraculous deed (magnificentiae) of God, the slaying of the flesh, the revival of the spirit, the victory over the world, the victory over the flesh, the victory over hell, as Christ says [Matth. 16, 18.]: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it"; in short, it is all in all. Thus he says John 8:24: "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins"; again John 11:2) 26: "He that believeth on me shall never die."
1) The preceding words are drawn in the Vulgate to the sixth verse and read there: krneäieans praeesvtnrn ejus findem ich sein Gebot predige).
47 Therefore the letters of the apostles are full of the teaching of faith, which is eternal life itself, as John 3:36 says: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him"; and Cap. 12:49: "I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me hath given me a commandment what I should do and what I should say. And I know that his commandment is life eternal. Therefore that I speak, I speak thus, as the Father hath told me." So it is clear that he preached the commandment of God, namely that of faith in him as the Son of God, for salvation to all those who receive him, who believe in his name etc. [Joh. 1, 12.]
48 But you will say: If the spirit wanted this, why did he not order the words more clearly, in this way: I will proclaim God's commandment that I am his Son, today he has begotten me etc.? I answer: The Holy Spirit remains the same everywhere. For he also observes this in the Gospel of John, when he speaks of himself and his divinity, that he always takes on the appearance of the Father, and attributes everything that he is to the Father. He says: "I do not speak of myself" [Joh. 14, 10.), "my teaching is not mine" [Joh. 7, 16.), and [Joh. 14, 10.): "The Father who dwells in me, the same does the works." And many other sayings.
So also here. Since he said that he will proclaim that he is the Son of God according to the commandment of the Father, he first introduces the Father speaking to him, so that we should hear more the Father in your Son speaking of the Son than the Son himself speaking of himself, so that the meaning is: I will proclaim God's commandment that I am the Son of God, but I will not do this out of my authority (auctoritate), lest it seem as if I were boasting. Rather, I will proclaim to you what the Father has said about me, so that you may hear him speak about me, who has commanded me to proclaim what he has said to me, so that you may believe me through his authority (auctoritate) in what I say about myself.
And notice, this change of persons, soon of the Father, soon of the Son, who proclaims the Father's words about him, is venerable
and holy, in that it presents the divine nature and the likeness [of the Son to the Father] more unbreakably than that I, impure as I am, should dare to expatiate on it more widely. Yes, this Psalm is one of the main Psalms in the whole Psalter. This suffices [to prove this assertion] that also according to the testimony of the apostle Paul this verse speaks of the begetting of the Godhead, since he says Hebr. 1, 5: "For to what angel did he ever say, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?"
Now everyone can see for himself that the words of the Father refer to the only begotten Son. It is said: "He has said to me", namely to One, not to many, "you are my Son", the only one, in that he undoubtedly designates him with such special characteristics as the Son exalted above all others, of whom the 89th Psalm, verse 7, says [Vulg.]: "Who may be like God among the children of God?" as if he wanted to say: There are many children of God, but among them is One who is God, who is like him? Likewise, "I begat you," I alone begat you etc.
And how watchfully and in what a dignified way the holy fathers have interpreted this: "Today I have begotten you", that is, for eternity. Eternity is that he has been begotten, is begotten, and will be begotten without end, he for whom this means "to be a son", that he is born of the Father; he has neither begun to be born, nor will he cease to be born, but is always born by a birth taking place entirely in the present (praesentissima). It is rightly said, "begotten today," that is, who is always born. For this "today" has not a "yesterday" or a "tomorrow", but it is perpetual, as He says John 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I am."
49. Where then are you, wretched and ambitious people, who either ambitiously seek the governorship (vices) of this king in the church, or fruitlessly hold it, who do not proclaim God's commandment, do not preach Jesus Christ the crucified, the Son of God, for the salvation of the faithful, but gather treasures, set up one merrymaking over another, and with every possible ostentation drive your wills.
This Son of God, appointed as a man to be king, does not seek what is his, but proclaims the commandment of God, who did not accept his kingdom for himself, but for others to be blessed, for the glory of the Father.
50 But this one office of the word, which is the bishops' alone, is neglected above all others. Then, if there are some who teach in their stead, they teach not the commandment of the Lord, not Christ, but their fables, or, if it is best, the laws and traditions of men. Therefore do not believe that there is the church, the holy mountain of God, where Christ does not teach Christ completely pure. For it is an exceedingly grave word that he says: "I will proclaim God's commandment." "God's," he says, not man's commandment, counsel, stories. And "I myself will proclaim"; for unless Christ speaks in us, we shall never proclaim the commandment of God. "I," says he, "will be with thy mouth" [Ex. 4:12.], and [Ps. 81:11.], "Open thy mouth wide, let me fill it."
Our translation [the Vulgate] thus agrees very well with the Hebrew in the sense, only that the different division 1) also tends to impair the sense; but if one has the sense, the division will not harm; therefore I will not argue about it.
(51) So this verse distinguishes the kind of doctrine taught in the New Testament from that taught in the Old Testament. Formerly the law was taught, which caused wrath [Rom. 4, 15.] and increased sin; now faith is taught, which works forgiveness and fulfills righteousness. Therefore the lawgiver there is Moses, a man and a servant; here the lawgiver is Christ, God and the Lord of all things. The former made slaves of sin, the latter free of righteousness.
Not as if the law should not also be taught now (since Christ says, Matth. 13, 52, that both are taught by a scribe, taught for the kingdom of heaven, both the old and the new), but that the preaching of grace is proper to the new testament.
1) namely, that the first words of this verse in the Vulgate are still drawn to the previous verse.
Since there is no one in this life in whom all the fullness of the New Testament has been fulfilled, no one will be found who does not still have some part of the Old Testament left. For this life is a transition and a kind of passage (phase) from law to grace, from sin to righteousness, from Moses to Christ; but the completion comes with the future resurrection.
V. 8: "Cry unto me, and I will give thee the heathen for an inheritance, and the end of the world for a possession.
(52) This also belongs to the commandment which Christ took upon himself to proclaim by the commandment of the Father. He says: "The Lord has said to me," and the Father has commanded me, "that I should ask of him the Gentiles for an inheritance," and this commandment of his I will proclaim, so that you may believe and know that I have been appointed as such a great king on his holy mountain Zion, that is, over the people of Israel, but also as heir and Lord over all things, so that whoever hears this commandment of God from me and believes may come to the Father through me and be saved.
Again, you see that Christ's kingdom is not one that he has subjected himself to out of his own presumption, but it is established by the prestige and command of the Father. For not only did the ambitious have to be left no example or remedy (patrocinium), but their vice also had to be kept in check by divine prestige; but even so this so strong abomination is not sufficiently resisted. Christ, the Lord of all things, acts and does nothing in the church without God's command, and the little worms of men undertake and dare everything out of their own iniquity in the church, which is not theirs.
54. But what is the meaning of this, that when he goes to Mount Zion, he is not commanded to seek the kingdom over Mount Zion, but that the inheritance over the Gentiles is promised to him only upon his seeking, and is even commanded to seek it? Perhaps because Israel was promised the blessing and the kingdom of Christ in Abraham, but to the Gentiles it is given without promise out of mercy, as it says in Rom. 15:8, 9: "But I say that Jesus Christ has been a servant of the circumcision of the Lord.
to confirm the promise made to the fathers for the sake of God's truth, but that the Gentiles praise God for the sake of mercy" etc. The truth has been proven to the Jews and the promise fulfilled, but the Gentiles have been granted free mercy. Therefore, in the prophets "mercy" and "truth" are very often connected with each other, although this was also a work of free (gratuitae) mercy, that he [God] had the grace (dignatus est) to do the promise.
Therefore Zion is given to Christ as a kingdom without him asking for it, but the Gentiles are given to him as an inheritance at his request, as it were as a gift of Christ, since nothing was promised to them. Is 66:19, 20: "They shall declare My glory among the Gentiles, and shall bring all your brethren from all the Gentiles for a meat offering unto the Lord" (donum). Thus Israel is the kingdom, we Gentiles the gift, as it were as a gift for Pharaoh's daughter, which Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave her as a gift [1 Kings 9:16].
56 Finally, when Christ is appointed King over Zion, the prophet uses words of the present time, indicating that the thing itself is done. But where it is proclaimed that he is an heir, he is first commanded to heal, and it is promised to him in the time to come. We see all this fulfilled in the Acts of the Apostles, when the disciples preached the word only to the Jews, until Paul, called from heaven, was sent as an apostle among the Gentiles. Therefore Christ, who was already appointed King over Zion on earth, but since He reigns in heaven, receives the Gentiles promised to Him at His bidding. Also here he does not say in vain (otiose) "from me", so that he may show that this kingdom and the inheritance of the Gentiles were not transferred to Christ by men and in a human way, but by God, that is, in a spiritual way.
This is one of the passages against which those who say that those who are not under the Roman Pontiff are not Christians fight sacrilegiously. For they presume to make God the Father a liar, since He has given Christ the
The Christians have subjugated the ends of the world, but they do not even subjugate all of Europe to him. Can't Christians be there because the Turk or the Scythe rules there in time? How could they be in Rome under Nero and Domitian? Are there not bishops because they do not buy the pallia? Can't there be priests because they don't pay the annals? How? if they were therefore all the more true bishops, the more they, free of wealth, court and pomp, teach the word of God and govern the people of Christ? At least the apostle Paul describes the bishops Apost. 20, 28. in such a way that they take care of the host and govern the church of God. He says: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and unto all the host, among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed (regere) the church", while he was speaking to the elders, as St. Jerome clearly takes from the text, which he also proved by the word "take heed", which has a corresponding (vicina) meaning. But to feed (regere) the community and to take care of the herd, can this not be done only by the service of the word and by prayer, without the disorderly nature (tumultum) of the bishops, as it is now?
(58) Therefore, let us not accuse the word of this psalm (so that we do not stretch the inheritance of Christ too thin) of falsehood, either because of the shameful behavior (perfidiam) of the Turks, or because of the multitude of others who are in error. For who else could know among us who are Christians in truth? Are there not also among us a great many evil people, and few good? The power (auctoritas) of the divine word is greater than we can comprehend, how much more is it greater than our suspicions (suspicio) and our imaginations (phantasia), which are occupied with the appearance of outward customs.
St. Augustine thinks that here is a repetition of the same thing (tautologiam), namely, the same thing is expressed by "the Gentiles for inheritance" and "the end of the world for ownership". This [repetition] is (as I have said) always an indication of certainty (firmitatis), by which our faith is strengthened all the more: namely, that there are Chri-
The same is true in other parts of the world where the other apostles preached, as much as the godless nature prevails there.
V. 9. You shall smash them with an iron scepter; like pots you shall break them.
(59) Again, we must put away carnal imaginations, lest anyone imagine that the kingdom of Christ is established and maintained with sword and weapons, since it is written [Ps. 147:10, loosely from the Vulgate], "He hath no pleasure in chariots and horses, nor in any man's legs," and the apostle says 2 Cor. 10:4, "Our weapons are not carnal." For even the Turks, whom we nowadays seek to overcome only by the sword (quaerimus), we should defeat by increasing the number of Christians who are among them.
60 Or why do we not pursue with the sword the wicked who are among us, especially the nobles of the people? Be far from that! The kingdom of Christ stands in righteousness, truth and peace; by these it is established, by these it is also maintained. Therefore, when he said above that he was appointed king, he did not think of any other office than the office of the word, saying: "I will preach in such a way that the Lord has said"; not: I will ride proud stallions (caballos); not: I will devastate cities; not: I will seek the treasures of the earth, but this one thing: I will preach what God has commanded, namely Christ, who is God and man, what Paul calls Rom. 1, 1-3. calls the gospel, saying: "Sent forth to preach the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand of his Son" etc.
(61) You see that this verse is also an allegoricum, not without reason, since it represents an allegory that takes place in reality and in life. For since the word of Christ is a word of salvation and peace, a word of life and grace, and this is not effective in the flesh but in the spirit, it must necessarily suppress and expel the salvation, peace, life, and grace of the flesh. If it does so, it appears harder and more unbearable to the flesh.
more than iron. For something quite different is felt than happens when a carnal man is touched in a healing way by the word of God, namely, as it is written in 1 Sam. 2:6, 7: "The Lord killeth, and quickeneth; he leadeth into hell, and bringeth up again; he bringeth down, and exalteth."
62 This secret (allegoricam) effect of God paints Isaiah, Cap. 28, 21, when he says [Vulg.]: "In order to do his work, he performs a foreign work; in order to do his work, he lets his work be far (peregrinum) from him," as if he wanted to say: Although he is a God of life and salvation, and these are his proper works, he nevertheless kills and destroys in order to accomplish this. These are foreign works to him [but he does them], that he may come to his own work. For he kills our will in order to establish his will in us. He kills the flesh and its lust, in order to make the spirit and what he desires alive in us. This is what he said above, without any fancy speech, "I will preach of such a manner that the Lord hath said unto me" (praeceptum Domini - the commandment of the Lord). For the spirit accepts the word of God as an exceedingly sweet commandment. For then it happens that the holy mountain Zion becomes his kingdom, and the Gentiles his inheritance and the end of the world his property. But the flesh bears the commandment or word of God with great reluctance, and does not recognize it either, because it is completely and in every way opposed to it. Therefore, it receives the word as a rod and an iron and as something that crushes him, and so the image (allegoria) is fulfilled, both in that this verse indicates it and proves it in deed and work.
63: "You shall smite them" (reges eos) in Hebrew is 2^8^, which St. Jerome translated: Thou shalt feed them. But John Neuchlin, in his "Beginning Reasons" (rudimentis), indicates many meanings of this word, namely: to feed, to govern, to take away, to smite, 1) or to bruise and to crush. And this last meaning is, in my low opinion, for this passage the very-
1) Here, the original still contains the words: amions, evMtMio, which has been retained in both the Basel and Weimar editions.
Firstly, because an iron rod, as everyone knows, is better suited for crushing and smashing than for grazing and negating. Secondly, for negating it would have been sufficient to say: with a scepter (virga), but for grazing one can appropriately speak neither of a scepter nor of an iron [scepter]. But what will be accomplished by an iron scepter but crushing and breaking? as Dau. 2:40, it is written, "As iron crusheth and breaketh all things, so shall it crush and break all things." In addition, in this way what is repeated rhymes finely with what is said (tautologia), because it follows: "Like pots you shall break them," so that "break" is the same as "smash" or "pasture" (reges seu pasces).
For both words denote the humbling of the proud by the word of God, which then shatters and crushes when it terrifies and humbles. Thus the apostle Rom. 1, 18. says that through the gospel the future wrath will be revealed from heaven. Thus those who were converted at the word of Peter and felt struck (compuncti), Apost. 2:37: "Men, brethren, what shall we do?" This is what Scripture elsewhere calls rebuke, shaking of the ground, and trembling of the earth. Most beautifully, however, it says Blich. 4, 13. "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion. For I will make thee horns of iron, and claws of brass; and thou shalt break in pieces many nations: so will I banish their goods (that is, they themselves, which are as it were a spoil taken from the devil) unto the Lord, and their substance unto the ruler of the world." See what it means to rule them with an iron scepter (regere), namely (as he says here) to crush many nations with an iron horn.
64. the scepter (virga) is therefore the most holy gospel of Christ, for this is the scepter of His kingdom, as Ps. 45, 7. says: "The scepter of Your kingdom is a straight scepter," and Ps. 110, 2.: "The Lord will send the scepter of Your kingdom out of Zion." So also says Isaiah, Cap. 11, 4. "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." What is the rod (virga) of the mouth
What is the word of Christ other than the word of God with which he crushes the earth, that is, those who are earthly minded? What is the spirit of his lips but the same word of the Spirit with which he kills the wicked, that he may live unto godliness, having died to ungodliness? This is the scepter, against the tip of which in the hand of Joseph Jacob bowed down, Gen. 47, 1) 31 [Heb. 11, 21], this is the scepter, the tip of which St. Esther touched, Esther 5, 2.
65. but [the gospel is called] a scepter figuratively (μετα^οριχώς) or rather figuratively (άλληγομιχώς), first because it [the scepter is] thin and light, so that it may be carried in the hand, for the yoke of Christ is gentle and its burden is light, Matth. 11, 30. But the hands of Moses are heavy, Ex. 17, 12. so that they had to be supported by Aaron and Hur with stones placed under them, that is, as Peter interprets Apost. 15, 10, that the burden of the law is unbearable. On the other hand, the hands of Christ are laid on the little children and the sick everywhere in the Gospel, so that it might be better with them. But Moses also has two large stone and heavy tablets. Furthermore, the Levites formerly carried large and many tables of the tabernacle, of which it is said in 4 Mos. 4, 31: "These are their burdens"; in truth heavy and many burdens, if they are considered alone, but none, or certainly only little, if one looks at the ecclesiastical laws and rights, which nowadays exercise their tyranny. For we carry nowadays not tablets, but whole forests and rocks, and the hands of bishops so heavy that the whole world could not bear it; and it serves us quite right. Because we have cast away the scepter of Christ, therefore has happened to us that which Isaiah Cap. 8, 6. f. says: "Because this people despise the waters of Siloam, which stand still, the Lord will bring upon them strong waters and many waters of the river."
66. secondly, because it [the scepter] is straight, for the gospel and the law of the Spirit lead us on a straight and short (compendii) road to life, where the law leads us
1) In all editions: Oen. 49. Weim. Ausg. (not correct) in the margin: I Mos. 49, 22. ff.
The author of the letter, who, through long detours of figures and works and, as it were, through an exceedingly vexatious desert path, nevertheless hardly reaches the climes of Moab, nor does he arrive at the land of promise, but falls away with Moses.
Third, because the law of Christ is bare and unveiled, as a scepter is borne without a covering. The law of Moses was carried in the ark of the covenant, and the tablets were carried veiled, because every law, every doing without the law of Christ is a shadow and a sign of a hidden righteousness, but not the thing itself, which is revealed by the law of Christ. Rom. 1, 17.: "The righteousness that is before God is revealed in the gospel by faith in faith."
68. but it is called a scepter of iron, first of all (as I said) for the sake of the flesh, because the law of Christ is exceedingly hard, although it is very gentle for the spirit. For it lays upon all its lusts the cross and death, poverty, lowliness, patience. These are the three points (cornua) of the cross: poverty curbs the lust of the eyes and avarice; lowliness resists hope in life and ambition; patience nullifies the lust of the flesh and pleasure. Therefore it is called Isaiah Cap. 27, 1. a hard and strong sword: "At that time the Lord will strike down Leviathan, the serpent, with his hard, great and strong sword."
Secondly, this scepter cannot be bent and cannot be brought out of its right nature (invincibilis rectitudinis), or (as St. Augustine holds here) has an unbending righteousness. For as much as many have tried to twist and bend the word of God to their sense, it has nevertheless remained of unconquerable straightness, convicting as liars those who have bent it. For it is not a reed like the rod of Egypt, 2 Kings 18:1, 21 and Isaiah 36:6, "which, if any man lean upon it, it entereth into his hand, and pierceth it. But the reed is the doctrine of men, which is moved to and fro by every wind of opinion.
2 Sam. 17. - Bas: Isn. M.
But this voice of the one calling in the wilderness, as it is not clothed with soft garments, neither is it an empty reed which the wind can weave to and fro, but full and firm and iron.
(70) But that some ascribe a waxen nose to the Scriptures, saying that they are as it were a movable reed, is due to the actions of those who misuse the holy Word of God for their unrhymed and unstable opinions and glosses, and they bring it about that the Word of God, while it rhymes with everything, rhymes with nothing.
Third, as the iron crushes and breaks everything, as Dan. 2, 40. the word of Christ crushes the great, that is, it humbles the proud, the crooked makes it straight, that is, it chastises the unchastised, the straight makes it crooked, that is, it bends the hopeful, the rough makes it smooth, that is, 2) it makes the angry kind, the short makes it long, that is, it comforts the fainthearted, the long makes it short, that is, it frightens the presumptuous, the narrow it makes wide, that is, the meager it makes liberal, the wide it makes narrow, that is, the profligate it makes thrifty, the blunt it makes sharp, that is, the unlearned it makes learned, the sharp it makes blunt, that is, the wise it makes fools, it takes away the rust, that is, it drives away sloth. In short, it destroys every defective form, and changes it into another that pleases God, and, as the apostle says 2 Tim. 3, 16. f.: "All Scripture inspired by God is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for chastening in righteousness, that a man may be perfect unto all good works."
72. like pots. Here the prophet mixes a simile into the fictitious speech to make the opinion clear. In 2 Cor. 4, 7, the apostle uses "earthly (fictile) vessel" to refer to the body, yes, to the man in the body. "We have (he says) such treasure in earthly vessels, that the super-
2) Until now, in all editions "iü est" is fully expressed; in the Wittenberg and Jena editions also before the following explanatory words. In the Basel edition, however, the abbreviation ".i." appears from here on. In the Erlangen and Weimar editions, however, "iä est" is missing from here on.
pregnant power be of God, and not of us." These are the earthen jars of Gideon [Judges 7, 16. ff.], which at the sound of the trumpets burn shattered and broken, and shine, and pursue the terrified Midianites, and put them to flight; that is, that the bodies of the martyrs and Gentiles, broken by many a suffering of torture, have instructed the world by examples of love and truth, and have driven out the ungodly with their ungodly nature. And according to the moral interpretation (tropologice)1) : when the flesh or the carnal man is broken by the word of the cross or the iron scepter, the army of vices and evil desires goes down defeated before the virtues and the grace that enlightens man.
(73) Care must be taken at this point, not only for the thing itself, but also for the likeness. For Christ does not break and destroy his own in such a way that he tears one member of the body from the other, as broken pots are broken into many parts, but this bodily dispersion is to be a likeness of the spiritual destruction (dissipationis), that is, that the members of the body, which have not been bodily torn from one another, are destroyed in their evil lusts and actions.
74. The tongue no longer speaks what is pleasing to the flesh, the ear does not listen to slander, the eye does not look at shameful things, the hand does not steal other people's goods, does not handle illicit things, and in general: the body of sin, which before used the members for its lusts, is now suddenly deprived of these members, since they have been destroyed by the word of God, and this deprived of its service (officio), and forms as it were a blessed Babylon, since, as the apostle Rom. 6, 19, the members, who before were given to the service of uncleanness, and from one unrighteousness to another, are now given to the service of righteousness, so that they become holy. So also in the Gospel [Luc. 11, 22.] the stronger one not only takes away the armor, but he also distributes the robbery. For the Hebrew word XXXXX means, like
1) tropoIoAies is the same as moraliter. Cf. Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. XXII, 1341, 8 5. el. § 8.
Reuchlin confirms, you shall scatter them, divide them, throw them apart.
Therefore, "the pots" are all Christians, first of all because a potter's vessel is very easily broken. Thus, gentle people who are not hardened by the hardness of unbelief easily yield to the word of God; they do not contradict or resist it. But those who are stiff-necked (as they are called in Prov. 28:14) will fall into misfortune and, as Elijah saw in 1 Kings 19:11, will undoubtedly be torn apart like the mountains and broken like the rocks.
76. secondly, because a broken pot is completely unfit for its former use, so that you see how the word Isa. 30, 14. is fulfilled': "One will not find a shard of its pieces, in which one can get fire from the hearth, or draw water from a well." For he speaks of a brazen pitcher that shall be broken by a strong casting, and it agrees with this verse almost word for word. So also an ungodly man, converted and changed into Christ, is made quite useless for his former life, and he speaks with the apostle Gal. 6:14: "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."
V. 10. Let yourselves therefore be instructed, O kings, and let yourselves be chastened, O judges of the earth.
The interpreter, as a word clarifier (etymologiis), has said instead of: "judges of the earth": "You who judge the earth". But without word explanation he has said: "kings", not: you who rule; but this is of little importance.
After the kingdom of Christ has been described, he adds a holy and faithful and instructive exhortation, trying and offering everything to make all men subject to Christ, especially the great. But how bold and, as we are wont to speak nowadays, how rebellious and vexatious is this exceedingly insolent prophet, who sets his mouth in heaven, and presumes to attack not the lowliest and the common people, but the highest chiefs and even kings, and to teach those who, puffed up by the title and office of being teachers of the people, and secure by the custom and honor due them according to their delusion (opinionis
Lonore), cannot stand this exceedingly great insult, namely, that they are fools and unlearned people, and should need to be taught and instructed.
For it is easy to have the unlearned people as disciples, who are accustomed to be disciples, but to put the kings, the judges of the earth, the magistrates, the regents, the doctors, the bishops, not only on a par with the rabble, and to put them in the ranks of the disciples, after they have been so accustomed to teaching and governing, but even to pine for the people, and to demand them alone as disciples: Dear, who could suffer this? Who should not tremble here with John the Baptist to touch the head of Christ? But it must nevertheless be touched and baptized with the water of Jordan, namely in his condescending humility, so that all righteousness may be fulfilled [Matth. 3, 15.], in that he who is the highest humbles himself among the lowest, and the lowest fears the humility of the exalted (sublimitatis).
(79) But since the kind and worthy Spirit knows that the whole salvation of the common people rests on the right instruction of the rulers, he first of all admonishes them kindly and fatherly, that they do not follow their own sense, and are all the more ready to be instructed, since they do not conduct their own affairs, but the affairs of all their subjects, and since they, when they fall into error, also bring the whole people with them into misfortune, as the saying says [Matth. 15:14], "If one blind man lead another, they both fall into the pit."
80 Not only for this reason does he admonish them, but also because he knows (as I said) that they, puffed up because of their power and office, always have the word John 9:34 in their mouths: "You teach us? You teach us?" and the word Jer. 18, 0 18.: "The priests cannot err in the law, the wise cannot fail in counsel, the prophets cannot teach wrong." For inflated by this bubble of water and this false confidence, they used always to resist the right prophets, not unlike how today any truth is resisted by
1) Wittenberg, Jena and Erlangen: Hivre. 28.
the flatterers of the popes, who say that it cannot be supposed that such an exalted head can err, and that the church cannot err: The church cannot err, the pope cannot err, a concilium cannot err etc.
81) But the people of the Old Testament were more strictly bound to obedience to the bishops (pontificum) than we Christians, because at that time they had to listen to the Levitical priest under penalty of death, but today we are all priests, and now the word of Isaiah Cap. 54, 13. is fulfilled: "I will make all thy children to be taught of the Lord", and Jer. 31:34: "No man shall teach another, nor brother another, saying, Know ye the Lord: but they shall all know me, both small and great, saith the Lord"; and 1 Cor. 14:30. Paul evidently commands that if a revelation should happen to one sitting there, the first should keep silence.
Therefore, in the New Testament, any superiors are to be heard in such a way that every lowly one is free to judge the opinion of the superior in matters concerning faith, much more than the prophets were free to resist the superiors in Israel, despite the commandment of God [Deut. 17:8-12]. For in the synagogue, where the priesthood had to do only with external ceremonies, any error of the priests was without danger. But in the church, where it is a matter of spirit and faith, it is very important to everyone that the priest does not err, since God is in the habit of revealing to the lowliest what He Himself does not deign to reveal to the highest, so that His kingdom may stand firm in the humility on which alone it is based.
Note the emphasis on the circumstantial word (adverbii) "now". "Now," he says, after Christ is established as King over all things. At this time there are two things which will hinder you most from knowing what is right. First, that this Christ, who was crucified, killed and condemned by you, even after God's saying (auctore) cursed according to the law of Moses, is preached as a Lord over all lords. For this is the most difficult thing, to acknowledge him as a king who died such a desperate and shameful death. The feeling
Reason has an abhorrence of it, custom speaks against it, there is no example of it: so then it must obviously be foolishness to the Gentiles and an annoyance to the Jews if you do not lift up your hearts above all this.
Secondly, that this king reigns in such a way that he teaches that everything you hoped for in the law is to be despised, everything you feared is to be loved; he puts forward the cross and death; he advises you to disregard the good you see and likewise the evil, since he wants to put you in far different goods, namely those which no eye has seen, no ear has heard and have not entered into the heart of any man. You must die if you want to live under this king, you must bear the cross and the hatred of the whole world, you must not flee shame, poverty, hunger, thirst, in short, the misfortune of all the floods 1) of the world. For this is the king, who also became a fool to the world and died, after which he smashed his own with an iron scepter and broke them like pots.
How can he suffer this king who is based on his feelings, who wants to measure things with reason, who stands in the door of his tabernacle, who cannot see the face of his Moses? Therefore instruction and chastening are necessary, that ye may go beyond these things, despising the visible things, and be drawn unto the invisible things, not seeking the things that are on earth, but the things that are above, where Christ is etc.
86 Therefore the word: "Let yourselves be instructed" in Hebrew, where it stands without reference to another word (absoluto statu), means: Make yourselves wise (as Jerome interprets it) or others, that is, act in such a way, strive to be wise and to strive for spiritual and heavenly things, which we say in German: "Be wise and understanding," in the same sense as Ps. 32:9, "Be not as horses and mules that have no understanding." But this understanding is not what the worldly wise think about,
1) Basel and Weimar: ünetuum; Wittenberg, Jena and Erlangen: truotuuin.
but faith itself, which is able to see in fortune and misfortune what one does not see.
Therefore he does not express in what they should be instructed, but says without further specification (absolute): "Let yourselves be instructed", that is, create that you may have understanding, see to it that you may have faith. For that which faith knows (intelligit) has no name, not even an outward appearance. For happiness or unhappiness in the present things completely destroys every man who does not recognize the invisible things by faith. For this knowledge comes from faith, as it is written, If ye believe not, ye shall not understand. 2) And this is the entering "into darkness" [Exodus 20:21], in which everything is consumed that the sense, the reason, the mind and the understanding of man can comprehend. For faith connects the soul with the invisible, ineffable, unnameable, eternal, unthinkable word of God, and at the same time separates it from all visible things, and this is the cross and the passage (phase) of the Lord, in which he preaches this necessary instruction.
"Let yourselves be chastened, you judges of the earth", Augustine takes as something that is said repetitively (tautologice). But also this word, "let yourselves be chastened" (erudimini), is without further definition (absoluti status), instead of: Let yourselves be chastened (eruditi), that is, let yourselves be taken out of the raw and natural inclinations and opinions of the senses and sensual things, so that you may not be childishly minded with respect to Christ and His kingdom, for, 1 Cor. 2:14, "the natural man hears nothing of that which is of God." But it seems to me that the "chastening" (eruditio) means the turning away of the heart from perishable things, just as the "instruction" (intellectus) means the turning to eternal things and the "knowledge" (intellectus).
2) Is. 7, 9. it says in the Vulgate (also in our Bible): 8i non cr^äeritis, non pvrmanebitis. Luther interpreted "kerrnnnökitis" here by intelliSstis, as also the Epistle to the Hebrews Cap. II, 3. thut: D'iiw inwlli^imus etc. Compare Luther's interpretation of this saying in the Table Talks, Cap. 50, s 5. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 1331.
The same is attained. The cross works the latter by killing the flesh, the faith works the latter by the spirit that makes alive.
It is too well known that "the earth" in figurative speech means the people on earth to indicate this, except that Augustine, who prefers to interpret it in a moral way (tropologisans [cf. § 72]), thinks it means the body.
V. 11. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
This is a strange saying and inconsistent in our eyes. For fear works hatred and fleeing, not service (famulatum), and trembling is completely opposed to joy. Then he also says here the opposite of what is said in another Psalm [Ps. 100, 2.], where we are asked to serve the Lord with joy. How now? We want to hear the apostle Paul as an arbitrator (mediatorem), who says 1 Cor. 1, 21: "Because the world through its wisdom did not recognize God in His wisdom, it pleased God well to make blessed through foolish preaching those who believe in it," as if he wanted to say: In foolishness one must become wise. Thus, since we did not recognize God as our Benefactor in peace and well-being (as it should be), nor did we praise Him, it pleased Him that we now recognize and praise Him in cross and adversity. Thus, since we did not serve God with joy in safety, it pleases Him that we serve Him with joy in fear and rejoice with trembling. 1)
In short, as the world perverts all that is of God, so God in turn perverts all that is of the world. All creatures are given to guide and enlighten man, but he uses them to blind himself and to overthrow himself (incurvandum). Therefore, God again uses all creatures to blind and bend man. This is the cross of Christ and the foolish preaching by which he makes blessed those who believe in it [1 Cor. 1:21]. For those who believe their sense, their reason, their wisdom,
1) Jenaer and Erlanger: timore instead of: tremore.
follow their mind, bump into all of them and get lost.
90] So it is that since Christ the Lord rules with a scepter of iron, and breaks the old man by the word of the cross, according to the will and command of the Father, who has subjected all things to him, you must acknowledge yourselves as those who are subject to him, but subject in fear, that you may patiently and humbly bear his cross, fearing that if you will not bear his hand and counsel, you may become reprobate, like those in the 78th Psalm. Psalm, v. 9. "The children of Ephraim fell away in the time of strife."
91 But you will do this when you realize that you will never suffer undeserved punishment, but would have deserved much greater. For the hopeful, who consider that only good things must happen to them, are secure, not afraid, like Job [Cap. 9, 28. Vulg.] 2), of all his works, therefore they do not stand in the time of trial, but (as Matth. 7, 26. f. is said of the house of the foolish man, which was built on the sand) they do a great fall and become worse. Therefore this fear in the whole life, in all works, is a great part of the cross, yes, almost the whole cross.
(92) Yes, one should be on top with the apostle, Rom. 5:3, boast in tribulation, rejoice with citation. From all this it can be seen that there are two kinds of service and joy in God. There is namely a service in security and joy in the Lord without trembling. These are found in the hypocrites, who are secure, have pleasure in themselves, nor think that they are useless servants, having many merits, of which the 10th Psalm, v. 5, says: "Thy judgments are far from Him," which is soon followed in the 36th Psalm, 3) v. 2: "There is no fear of God with them." These accomplish justice without judgment at all times, and do not let Christ be a judge before whom all must tremble, before whom no living man is righteous [Ps. 143, 2.].
93. service with fear and joy with trembling is found in the righteous, who have
2) Weim. Ed. (erroneous): Job 8, 15.
3) In the Latin editions: ?s. 14. Edition "Ps. 14, 5. (?)"
294 L. Liv,W-"s. Interpretations on the Psalms. W. iv, M-Mi. 295
They do justice and judgment at all times, and always mix the two together (temperantes), and are neither ever without judgment, by which they are terrified and despair of themselves and their works, nor without justice, by which they trust and rejoice in the mercy of God. The office (officium) of these people in their whole life is that they accuse themselves in all things, find God righteous in all things and praise Him, and thus fulfill the word, Prov. 28, 14: "Blessed is he who fears always", at the same time also the saying 1 Thess. 5, 16: "Be joyful always" in the Lord. Thus they are ground and humbled between the lowest and the highest millstone, Deut. 24, 6. and after they are freed from the husk of the grain, they become a very pure flour of Christ.
(94) I leave it to you to pay special attention to the emphasis with which the prophet says, "Serve the Lord," not you, not the belly, not the gold, not even your righteousness, your power, your wisdom, nor any thing at all. For these are different kinds of idolatry. So he also says, "Rejoice in him" (exultate ei), not in you, not in any of your creatures, but in the Lord alone [Phil. 4, 4.] But this happens when you presume nothing good in all things, in which you trust and boast, but ascribe everything to God alone, and praise, adore and love Him in all things, but ascribe everything evil to yourself, because of which you must fear, tremble and be despondent, as Job said at both times [Cap. 1, 2l.]: "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, the name of the Lord be praised!"
95 You will see how difficult all this is if you pay attention to both times. For in adversity it is difficult not to fall away, not to complain, not to become impatient, and not to do or refrain from doing anything against God's commandment for fear of evil, and thus to overcome the fear of the creature through the fear of God, not to give way to the inclinations of the heart and the circumstances (objectis), but to hold fast to the word of the Lord even unto death. For this is where it is proven whether one serves the Lord, whether one does the will of the Lord or not.
God more than the violence (violentia) of any creature. Above this, trembling before God in prosperity is also in greater danger than the fear of God in adversity. For here [in good days] one lives securely in joys, and it is difficult to fear, let alone cite, when everything goes as one wishes.
Therefore, the prophet very appropriately, as I think, connected trembling with joy, and fear with service, because service brings with it the laborious life (laborem) of adversity, but joy brings with it the leisurely life (otium) of well-being; and therefore it was necessary to recommend fear so much, that he might also say that trembling is necessary there, as if he wanted to say: We must fear most where there seems to be no cause for fear, and the happier everything is going on, the more fearful (sollicitius) we must be, and even tremble, when joy and great gladness befall us.
V. 12: Kiss the son so that he will not be angry and you will perish on the way. 1)
In Hebrew the words "HErr" (dominus) and "right" (O^ta) are not found, but there is nothing wrong with that. Almost everyone rejects this translation [of the Vulgataff: "Take heed". For in the Hebrew it says: XXXXXXX, what Jerome in the Hebrew
translated the Psalter: Worship in a pure way (pure), because ^3 also means pure and chosen. The same one says in his small interpretation (commentariolo) thus: In Hebrew one reads: Nescu bar, which can be interpreted: Worship the Son, because bar also means a son. Therefore Simon bar Johanna in the Gospel [Matth. 16, 17.] is called "Jonah's son", and Ptolemaeus Ptolemy's son, Barnabas the son of a prophet, and the like.
Burgensis and Lyra give it thus, "Kiss the son." Nowhere, however, is it said to denote "chastening." "Kissing" however they put
reatis äe via susta, that is: Take discipline, lest the Lord be angry once, and ye perish from the right way.
296 L. xiv, 8S-87. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 2, 12. W. iv, Wi. 297
from: Pay homage, so that the meaning is: "Kiss the Son", that is, accept with reverence and humility the King and Lord Christ.
But we want to try to harmonize everything as well as possible 1) with each other. A kiss is first of all a sign of reverence and adoration, as we kiss and honor holy and divine things or humbly inclined (prostrati) kiss the feet and footsteps, as Mary Magdalene kissed Christ [Luc. 7, 38.]. After this, Jerome translated: Worship in a pure way.
Secondly, the kiss is a sign of recognition and loyalty, which one wants to render, as in the homage, where we are used to kiss the hand and just thereby acknowledge the one as master, whom we kiss. Thirdly, it is a sign of the fullest friendship and love, since we are wont to kiss the eyes or face, of which the apostle commands Rom. 16:16, "Greet one another with the holy kiss." We read that Christ used to greet His disciples with this kiss when they returned [Luc. 7, 45. Matth. 26, 49.]. But since those who kiss each other in this way tend to apprehend and embrace each other, our (Latin) translation offers: "Take discipline" (apprehendite disciplinam).
But since he says without further specification (absolute): "Kiss the Son", not mentioning the feet, not the hand, nor the face, it is reasonable that we understand it of the kiss in its broadest meaning, so that by the kiss of the feet we adore Christ as the Son of God, true God, by the kiss of the hand we receive Him as our right (legitimum) Lord and eternal Helper and Savior, by the kiss of the eyes or face we grasp Him as our most beloved brother, friend and bridegroom of our soul. About this threefold kiss, see Bernard at the beginning of the Song of Songs; so that the meaning is: "Kiss the Son," that is, honor Christ, who is God, with the highest reverence, be subject to Christ, the Lord, with the highest humility, cling to Christ, the Bridegroom, with the highest respect.
1) In the Basel and in the original of the Erlangen utruncjue instead of: utenn^ue.
tigam, with the highest love. Behold, fear and love, the right measure and the means between the two, humility, that is the complete worship (latria).
Now we can harmonize the word ", 3, which is translated by "son", "pure", "discipline", in such a way that faith in Christ is in truth our discipline. Therefore, he who believes in Christ (that is, kisses the Son) truly takes discipline, bearing Christ crucified to himself (as is written in the Epistle to the Galatians [Cap. 6, 14. 17.]). For Christ is not kissed or grasped according to your flesh, but in the spirit, that is, when His cross and suffering, whereby we are chastened (Heb. 12, 7. ff.), is gladly (amanter) received. Therefore, our (Latin) translation, as far as the words are concerned, is not correct (nihil est), but quite suitable in the sense.
Furthermore, "to worship in a pure way" points to what is written 1 Kings 19:2) 18. about the impure worship of Vaal, saying [Vulg.], "I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not worshipped him by kissing his hand," where, as I will say parenthetically, it does not say in the text: "by kissing his hand"; but the same word nasca, which has just been said to mean kissing, is placed where it is said, "who did not worship him," which some Hebrew may have interpreted and glossed, "by kissing his hand," to indicate the manner of reverence, and after that it is brought into the text by an ignorant scribe.
But on this opinion nevertheless Job 31, 27. f. speaks. [Vulg.]: "Have I kissed my hand with my mouth? This is an exceeding great iniquity, and a denial against God, the Most High." St. Gregory interprets this in such a way that by this way of speaking Scripture means the man who trusts in his works and boasts of a righteousness that he did not receive from Christ, but achieved by his own powers.
2) This citation is correct in the Wittenberg and the Jena: "3 lie]. 19." In the Basel: 3 RoA- 11; in the Erlangen: 1 He. 19; in the Weimar in text: III ke. IX.
I have brought. For such a person worships his hand with his mouth, because he praises himself, is pleased with himself, but his soul is not praised in the Lord. Therefore it is "an exceedingly great iniquity and a denial of the Most High"- since it ascribes to itself what is of God, sets itself up as an idol of Baal for itself, and worships itself, making itself an author of its goods (for Baal means an author or a lord). Thus it is said Isa. 2:8, "They worship the work of their hands, which their fingers have made." But this is quite impure worship; therefore this is to kiss Christ, to recognize Christ as one's Savior, and to kiss His hand, in truth and in a pure manner, and to worship the pure One, that is, to worship the Son. It is said [John 8:36], "If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed."
Therefore we will conclude: The prophet wants them to serve Christ with fear, to recognize themselves as sinners and always accuse [themselves], and let God alone be righteous in Christ. But since they can confront him and pretend that they have kept the law, that they are righteous, that they have not sinned, and that they have no need of Christ for their righteousness, he confronts this exceedingly wicked presumption and says: "Do not think that you are righteous, renounce this idolatrous opinion, so that you do not make yourselves like God; do not trust in your righteousness, but rather kiss the Son, seize the Son, his hand, his righteousness, his salvation will sustain you. And if you will not do this, he will be angry with your righteousness, and you will perish from your way (de via), or (as methinks), you will perish with your way (cum via). For in the Hebrew it says rather darkly
XXX XXXXXX, that is, et peribitis via, which seems to me to be said by an ellipsis for: Ye shall perish with the way, as it is said in the 1st Psalm, v. 6, "The wicked way perisheth." But I will let every man have his own way; but I see not how they shall perish from the right way, which are not yet in the right way. But those can be frightened
by their danger, who please themselves in their way, as if it were a right way, but do not recognize Christ, the right way.
For his wrath will soon burn. But well to all who trust in him.
97) This piece belongs in Hebrew to the preceding verse, 1) which is completely (totus) arranged like this: "Worship the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish with the way, for his wrath will soon burn. Blessed are all they that trust in him." So the meaning is, "Arise quickly and make haste, worship Christ, lest you perish in his wrath, and deceive yourselves, as if there were still a long time. You should know that his wrath will burn up quickly and in a short time, suddenly, if you do not take care of it, he will come, as it says Matth. 24, 48. 50. "But if that wicked servant will say in his heart, My lord is not yet coming for a long time, then the lord of that same servant will come in the day that he does not take care of it, and at the hour that he does not take care of it." Thus it is said in Prov. 1:27 [Vulg.], "When suddenly calamity cometh," and in 1 Thess. 5:2 f., "For ye yourselves know assuredly that the day of the Lord shall come, as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, There is peace, there is no danger; then destruction shall quickly overtake them." So this threat is terrible, because when the wrath of God will suddenly seize them, there will be no one to save them.
At the end, he closes the psalm with an exceedingly beautiful summa. This is, he says. Summa Summarum, "But good to all who trust in him." For this is why he suffered, this is why he rose from the dead, this is why he was appointed king, this is why he received all things as an inheritance, that he might save all who trust in him.
99. But this trust alone makes one righteous, without the works of the law, as the apostle teaches in the letter to the Romans [Cap. 3, 28.] and to the Galatians [Cap. 2, 16.]. But it is exceedingly difficult [to have this confidence], since so many adversities are set against it, and so much good draws us away from it.
1) Wittenberg and Jena: uckv^rsurn; Erlanger: Ä<I Ääversurn.
So it is good for those who are not annoyed by the fact that divine grace is needed for this, but not human strength. For in such a way the benevolent spirit does not dwell eternally, but comforts the frightened again without
End. He says, "If you fear his wrath, do not despair, but trust. "Blessed are they that trust in him." For this is why his wrath terrifies, so that he may urge you to trust in him. Amen.