V. 1. A Psalm of David to be sung.
I trust in the Lord. How then do you tell my soul to fly like a bird on your mountains?
The holy fathers understood this psalm of the heretics, and rightly so; but by heretics we must understand all.
who teach a righteousness other than the righteousness that is valid before God, such as the Jews and all the value-mongers or all those who trust in their own righteousness, of which the church is full today; especially those who persecute the heretics. For with the first word with which he begins the psalm, "I trust in the Lord," he shows the
*) In the original edition of the Erlanger and in the Baseler from here on the counting of the Psalms is according to the Vulgate, but each time it is indicated next to it, how many Psalms it is in Hebrew. E.g. here: Kalmus äechmus, Ilodrueis unüeeirnus. On the other hand, in the Wittenberg and Jena tue counting of the Vulgate has been dropped and that of the Bible has been adopted. We will do the same.
794 L. xv, 188-190. interpretations on the psalms. W. iv,-ss-Mo. 795
The purpose (scopum) of the psalm clearly indicates that it wants to speak of the righteousness that comes from faith, which relies on God, against the scheming teachers of works and the flattering appearance of human righteousness. Therefore, in this psalm nothing is said about persecutions, but everything about all kinds of deceit, which Paul attacks with many words in the letter to the Colossians Cap. 2 by saying among other things [v. 8]: "Take heed that no man rob you through philosophy and loose seduction after the doctrine of men, and after the statutes of the world, and not after Christ" etc.
But he treats these seductive teachers in such a way that he presents them as incorrigible and as such who are kept only for God's judgment; and the godly can also be comforted in this matter by nothing other than the righteous judgment of God. In the meantime, according to the example of Christ [Matth. 15, 14.], they must be let go and allowed to lead the blind as the blind, and, as Paul says [2 Tim. 3, 13.], the longer the worse they become, the more they are deceived and seduced. However, this Psalm is to be referred mainly to the beginning of the Church, to which almost all the prophecies of the prophets have their reference, at which time (for Christ's sake) the greatest turmoil was aroused in the race. Therefore he says:
3. "I trust in the Lord," that is, this is my righteousness, that I believe and hope in the Lord, as it is said in Rom. 1:17, "The righteous shall live by his faith." For this is the rock upon which I have built my house. But you, who presume to teach my soul something else, by doing this or that work, in which I should put my trust, so that I may be saved, I accept you as if you told me to fly erratically, so that I had nowhere a sure and firm conscience, like a bird that leaves its nest and flies astray in the mountains, and turns here and there, and has nowhere its certain home. Thus it is said in Proverbs 27:8: "As a bird is that departeth from his nest, so is he that departeth from his place."
4 However, one does not have to think that those seductive work drivers speak in such a way, since they are in the
On the other hand, they want to consider their own behavior as the most solid and certain foundation of salvation, even more than the rock of true faith and solid righteousness. For they persuade themselves that there is nothing more certain and solid than their own works, just as Obadiah [v. 4] chastises them: "Though thou make thy nest among the stars, yet will I cast thee down from thence, saith the Lord." Same [v. 3.], "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, because thou dwellest in the clefts of the rock. "etc. Yes, they boast that they teach nothing but faith, hope, and love, and want it to be they alone who trust in the Lord, and contend for it. But [you will find] that in truth it is so, that if a man obeys them, instead of the well-grounded rock he finds unsteady mountains, and instead of the sure rest unsteady floods of the heart.
(5) For this is the origin of this unremitting and unceasing strife between the truthful and the deceitful, that both claim that their pretensions are well founded until the Lord himself judges, as between Esau and Jacob in the womb of Rebecca [Gen. 25:22 ff], and between the harlots before Solomon, who disputed about the dead and the living son [1 Kings 3:16 ff]. For here the decision of the church is not sufficient, as the sect of the Arians and all heretic cults have proven, until the Lord makes an end in his time, as we are comforted in this Psalm.
(6) Therefore, all those who leave Christ in place and teach in the church their poor works and the ways they have invented to live, as there are now many great fountains of this corruption, which John Tauler also mentions often and very well, do nothing but torture the consciences, always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. These have only the appearance of godliness, but they deny its power; they lead captive the women who are laden with sins [2 Tim. 3, 5-7], for in fact they load them more with sins and put them in trouble than they should release and comfort them. Among these are those who teach about pardons, indulgences, the
different ways to confess and countless such follies.
7 So you, says David, want to teach me your things! If I followed you, I would lose my trust in the Lord, like a fleeting bird that has lost its nest. That be far off, I will not follow. Hence the expression transmigra [XXX, it shall flee] in Hebrew denotes a casting out, a movement of fleeing and wandering, as Gen. 4:12: "Inactive and fugitive shalt thou be upon the earth." And afterwards [v. 16.], "He dwelt in the land of Nod," that is, as a fugitive. Hence the sign which the Lord made to Cain, lest he should be slain, namely, the trembling, fits these very deceivers of minds (phrenapatis), because they are never without a trembling and timid conscience, however much they do their good works; yea, after the likeness of their father, they fear to be slain by every man, at every flash of lightning they blanch, and are terrified by the rustling of a flying leaf. For "the wicked have no peace, saith the Lord," Isa. 48:22. but the wicked are like a boisterous sea, and the waves thereof overflow [Isa. 57:20. Vulg.]
(8) I would therefore translate the Hebrew thus: I trust in the Lord; how then do you say to my soul, Fly, bird of the mountain? that is, you shall be like a fleeting bird in the mountains. The adverb "like" is not in the text, because he wants to say: Be an unfaithful bird of the mountain. For it is a figurative speech. And "mountain" here actually means a multitude of mountains, such as are in deserts and forests, remote from the cultivation and intercourse of men, so that it actually indicates a soul that is fleeting, and from the nest on which it relied, cast out into the desert. For the same expression is used here as in Isa. 40:4: "What is mountainous shall become evil," since such mountainous regions are also impassable and difficult to walk on, where he sufficiently indicates that through Christ souls are led back from these mountains, that is, from the mountainous and impassable righteousness to the easy and level righteousness in faith.
9 Then, although such righteousnesses are difficult and full of bends and detours, like such paths in the mountains, they are nevertheless puffed up and hopeful, so that it was necessary to designate them by the high mountains. And so, with the same word, the prophet expressed at the same time the misery and hopefulness of them, since they boast about such a thing, in which they struggle quite miserably, while they should rather lament about it. Above we have heard that this unfortunate state of righteousness is called XXX and XXX, that is, toil and labor.
There is little concern that the Hebrew text for "bird" 1) has the general name XXXX, not the particular "sparrow" [as the Vulgate does].
V. 2: For behold, the wicked draw the bow, and put their arrows upon the sinews, to shoot the pious secretly. 2)
10 Jerome has it thus: For behold, the wicked 3) draw the bow. They put their arrow on the string to shoot secretly those who are righteous of heart. I would like to translate the middle part of the verse like this: They have aimed their arrow at the target (signum). For it seems to me that the Hebrew text speaks of those who want to shoot arrows and aim them at a predetermined target (metam), which is clear from the word "they have aimed. For I find neither "quiver" (pharetram [Vulg.]) nor "sinew" (nervum [Hier.]) actually expressed.
(11) But it is evident that the Psalm speaks of the wicked and hypocrites, of whom we have often said that they are called, walking in their own righteousness, enemies of the righteousness of God, for the sake of God and out of zeal for the truth. But he gives the reason of what has already been said, saying: I have said that the ungodly
1) In the Basel and in the Jena: "^.nen" ldas is W) instead of: uvein; in the Wittenberg: "^nenn".
2) Vulgate: tzuoninin eees pseontores intenükrunt uronin, pnruveruM snAittus suns in ut sn^lttent in odsvnro reotos eorüe.
3) In the original edition, in the Weimar and in the Wittenberg: tst6v.Ü6rnnt; this has been changed by the Erlangen, the Basel and the Jena in intsnüerunb.
798 L. xv, 192-ist. Interpretations on the Psalms. W. iv, ssr-W". 799
want me to become like a bird that flees in the mountains, and to leave the nest of my confidence in Christ; I have spoken rightly. For behold, while they teach in the best way, they deceive those who are righteous in heart, and destroy that which you have established. What do they do but make troubled and trembling souls?
(12) This is a very common figurative speech, of the bow and arrows, not only in the Scriptures, but also in proverbs used daily by the people, namely, that the bow is the tongue, or an orator, or the art of speaking; but the arrows are words, suggestions, and the like. Therefore, the ungodly direct their tongues and focus the words of their ungodly teaching to bring only harm and destruction, as it says in John 10:8, 10, 11: "All who came before me were thieves and murderers. A thief cometh not, but to choke and kill. But I am come that they might have life and full satisfaction." Why do you think that the evangelist, when he wrote that Christ spoke this, added this of his own [v. 6.], "But they did not hear what it was that he said to them," as because the wicked cannot understand that they are ravening wolves in sheep's clothing? That is why they certainly teach and also argue about it so persistently, because they make themselves think that they teach exceedingly right things, so that if the Lord alone did not judge here, no man could judge. That is why he does not desire any other judge for them than God, Ps. 5, 11, saying: "Blame (judica) them, God", although nowadays there are people who attach everything to the decisions of the church (that is, of a single man) 1) as if it were impossible for him to err.
(13) "To shoot the pious secretly," that is, to strangle the sheep. For since the doctrine of the wicked is practiced among the people of God, it seeks only to corrupt the godly souls who otherwise live in right and simple faith in God, as the apostle gives us an example of.
1) Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, vol. XVIII, 438 f.
to the Galatians. "The wicked devours him who is more righteous than he", says Habakkuk Cap. 1, 13. For what a righteous heart is, has been abundantly said in the preceding Psalms, especially in the seventh 76] and in the ninth 68 f.].
14. "Secretly" (in obscuro) here is a different word [ZZZ-ZZZ] than in the previous one.
Psalm is set [v. 8.ft "He strangles the innocent secretly" [XXXXXXX]. For here be
It means "darkness", which is not produced by art or human ingenuity, but is there by nature and happens as if someone would be wounded unawares at night and in the darkness, where he has not made it dark, but the malicious adversary has made use of the darkness, just as the wolf makes use of the night to attack the sheep. Therefore, "the secret" in this passage is the ignorance and simplicity of the people, which is exposed to the harmful teachers, that they play their game with it, as the apostle says Rom. 16, 18.: "By sweet words and splendid speech they deceive the innocent hearts." For since they, without judgment, are ready to believe anything according to their simplicity, they allow everything without distinction. And this is what makes birds of the air and troubled consciences, since they hear many things, and (as the apostle warned the Hebrews before) (Heb. 13:9.) are carried about with various and strange doctrines, and, as it is said elsewhere [Eph. 4:14.], are swayed by all kinds of winds of doctrine. For these believe every spirit (that is, wind) against the counsel of the wise [1 John 4:1].
15. but he uses spiteful names, "bows" and "arrows," which are deadly instruments, to frighten and warn us against the flattery and the beautiful appearance of the teachings. For the wicked do not mean that they have bows and arrows, but feathers, chests and paws (as it is said in Ezekiel Cap. 13, 18.), for they speak what pleases people and is gentle to them. By this we are instructed that we should know that whatever it is that is taught is deadly, which is gentle to us. For it seems to be pleasant to our senses and our opinion, but in fact they are deadly arrows, as Proverbs 5:3, 4 says:
"The lips of the harlot are sweet as honey gum, and her throat is smoother than oil, but afterwards bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword."
16 Christ's arrows, on the other hand, are sharp as we feel them, but afterwards they are sweeter than any honey, for they kill to make alive, but those make alive to kill, as it is said in Ezekiel Cap. 13:19. You profane me among my people for a handful of barley and a morsel of bread, so that you condemn to death souls who should not die, and condemn to life souls who should not live, by your lies among my people, who love to hear lies" (credenti mendaciis). What is this, "that the people believe the lies" [Vulg.], but that it is dark and the simple-minded people are exposed to the deceitfulness (ludibrio) of superstition? Therefore, as stated above [§ 8], we must understand it in such a way that the figurative speech in words also indicates to us a picture in things, that something else is going on than one sees before one's eyes. The deceptive teachings seem to be feathers and honeycomb, while they are in fact the bow and arrows of death; on the other hand, Christ's arrows are thought to be the instruments of death, while they serve life.
(17) That he says that they have drawn the bow and put the arrows on the string, or aimed at the target, shows their effort and ungodly zeal. For as Judas with his multitude was more watchful against Christ in the darkness of the night, than the apostles were for Christ, who even slept: so the pernicious teachers are exceedingly diligent to abuse the simplicity of the people to their destruction, while the right shepherds scarcely breathe and live for the people, yea, almost all of them snore; and while the people sleep, the enemy soweth tares [Matt. 13:25]. For when did one watch with so great care (unless you exclude the apostles and a few of their successors) for the people and wholesome doctrine, as the ungodly have watched for their ungodliness? For the glory and gain of this life moves these people more than those the glory and honor of the life to come. For Paul also says of his time that all seek their own [Phil. 2, 4.], how much more
must it be understood that he also said this about the following time? And who is today who preaches Christ with so much care as the statutes of the apostolic see and of men? For [this does not happen] because with the teaching of Christ poverty, cross and shame are inevitable, with the deceptive teaching of men glory, goods and life.
(18) So then, if you say that their arrows are ready in the quiver, or put on the string, or aimed at the target, you must understand the same endeavor in which they strive not to teach in vain, but to hit and shoot to the mark, and to wound very many and draw them to their opinion. For they adorn their words, and color them so, they make them splendid, they stretch them, they set them, they direct them so, that it is impossible that a simple soul should not be caught by them. The examples are before my eyes, but I am silent about them. It is enough that by the word "stretch" and "prepare" and "judge" is signified the exceedingly great diligence of the ungodly teachers, with which they desire to speak as little in vain as possible to the simple, yea, if there be one that escapes them, they rush, as we have heard many in our time.
V. 3. for they overthrow the foundation; what shall the righteous do? 1)
19 Jerome: For the laws are destroyed; from this we see that this Psalm indeed understands by "arrows" the doctrines of the godless teachers, who are at all times among the people of God, as it is said in 2 Petr. 2, 1: "There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you" etc., and Paul says, Apost. 20, 29. f.: "This I know, that after my departure there shall come among you abominable wolves, which shall not spare the flock. Even from among yourselves shall arise men speaking perverse doctrines, to draw the disciples unto themselves." This and many other terrible things, which have been foretold to us with so much concern, we surely laugh at nowadays, and presume with the highest audacity to tell the miserable
1) Vulgate: Huoviuru, yua" perkeeisti, destruxeruut, sustus autem, teeit?
The people are not to be taught anything. False teachers also creep in among us and stand up among us; dear one, who can be sure?
The Hebrew text has actually so: Because they have overturned the pillars (positiones). But this word means the established, the ordered, the built, the erected. Therefore, as you can see, our Latin translator has not inappropriately tried to express it by the antithesis: "For what you have built, they have destroyed." Thus it is said in Malachi 1:4: "And if Edom should say: We are ruined, but we will build again the wilderness, thus saith the Lord of hosts, If they build, then will I break down." And Isa. 9:9 ff: "Let all the people of Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria take heed, who say with haughtiness and pride, Bricks have fallen, but we will build again with pieces; they have cut down mulberry trees, but we will put cedars in their place."
20. but we have above in the 5th Psalm
158 ff] The prophet says that this construction is understood to be the construction of doctrines, as depicted in the Tower of Babel, where the Lord is always against men, destroying what they build, and they in turn destroy what he builds. Therefore the prophet rightly says here: They tear down what you have erected and ordered, that is (as Jeremiah [Cap. 23, 36.] says): "They pervert the words of the living God", and Micah, Cap. 3, 9. f.: "Hear therefore this, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel, who spurn justice, and pervert all that is upright; who build Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity." For this is what happens when we force the holy words of God to serve our inclinations and opinions. This is called casting a calf and idols from the ear hangings of the daughters of Israel and the gold of the Lord, as they are therefore very often punished in the prophets. If you punish them today, you must be a heretic, since only those who do this today are the church, just as they were in the time of the prophets.
But the Hebrew text says without further reference and without designation of the person: For what is laid, or, for what is laid.
(not: What you have laid down, of which I do not know what greater emphasis it has), 1) as if he wanted only that to be established and ordered which God has established and ordered, and it would be wrong to even think of anything else, so that no distinction is necessary. So also the apostle says [Eph. 1, 10]: "It was good that all things should be gathered together under one head in Christ", as if there were no other good than the divine, as we speak of the sun, because there is only one, without any sign of distinction.
21 "What should the just man accomplish?" This is what Augustine draws to Christ, since he fights with his Donatists. So does Jerome, if it is otherwise his interpretation (commentarius). In my view, I take "the righteous" generally for all who have to deal with ungodly teachers, at all times, and hold that this question happens for them; first, from an afflicted heart, in this way: Since the power of the wicked prevails over justice (as Habakkuk says [Cap. 1, 3. 4. Vulg.]), and has the upper hand over the righteous, as it generally does, there is no one among men who makes justice for him or avenges him, but he is condemned as if he were guilty and wicked. Now here it is said, "What should the righteous man do," since he can offer no resistance? His truth is not heard, therefore he is forced to present his cause to the one who judges rightly, as Peter says of Christ 1 Petr. 2, 23: For what would it profit him if he also raged? Therefore he has to wait with groaning and patience for the divine judgment, and in the meantime let the wicked rage and become worse, so that whoever is unclean will always be unclean [Revelation 22:11].
Secondly, this question can arise from such an attitude as is found in a disputant and in one who confronts another. This is a much more violent movement, out of which Paul speaks 1 Cor. 15, 29. f. 32. against the deniers of the resurrection: "What else do those do who let themselves run over the dead, if the dead do not rise? And what do we
1) These brackets are set by us.
every hour in the drive? Have I, in human opinion, fought with the wild beasts at Ephesus? What good is it to me if the dead do not rise?" And in the 73rd Psalm the prophet, seeing that the sinners were so well off [v. 12. f.], says: "Behold, these are the wicked, who are blessed in the world and grow rich. Shall it then be in vain that my heart lives blamelessly, and I wash my hands in innocence?"
23 So also here. If the wicked have the upper hand like this, if there is no other judge than themselves, what has the righteous man achieved? Why has he labored in vain? Why did he not keep quiet and live without danger? Has he done everything in vain? Far be it from him! He did not work in vain. There is a judge who judges rightly, as follows. This sense pleases me, because the word "fecit" is the past tense of which means: he does, so that he includes the whole life of the godly, as if he wanted to say: Why then has the righteous been so active in vain? Then this also agrees with the following in a very puffing way, and expresses very beautifully the sorrowful sense of the righteous, from which they suffer, since justice and truth are suppressed, and they dispute about it. Although they are quite sure that the righteous will not be forsaken, they are both indignant and grieved because of the multitude of the oppressors and those who are subject to the truth, and raise a question in which they contradict, and address an exceedingly vehement address to the wicked, and, the last thing they have, take recourse to judgment and say:
V. 4. the Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven; his eyes look upon it, his eyelids examine the children of men. 1)
This verse is divided into two [in Latin]. The Hebrew way of speaking: Dominus in coelo sedes ejus, would have been interpreted by the interpreter if he had used the pronoun Hus.
1) Vulgate: Dominos in templo sanoto suo, Dominus in ooeio seäes ejus. Oculi Hus in paupersm respioiunt, xalpedrae Hus interrogant Llios Nominum.
and changed the nominative to the genitive: Domini in coelo sedes. Because one does not speak so in Latin like Ps. 68, 17: Mons, in quo beneplacitum est Deo habitare in eo, so also not: Dominus in coelo sedes ejus. It could also be this distinction: The HER 2) in heaven his (sua) chair, add: "is". It is also not in pauperem [on the poor] in Hebrew, but it is without a word to which it refers (absolute), and far more expressively, "His eyes see," so that the sense of this verse is: the righteous does not labor in vain. Even though the wicked have the upper hand in the land and in the visible dominion, I am comforted by the fact that the Lord is in his holy temple, where the wicked do not see, and that his throne is in heaven, which they do not know. And he is not alone there, but his eyes see, they are open upon all things, because all things are bare before his eyes; "the keeper of Israel sleepeth not, neither slumbereth" [Ps. 121:4.]; from thence I await my judgment. Thus we are taught to be proud and presumptuous in the Lord against those who are proud and presumptuous of men.
25 Here the question arises: What is the temple of the Lord? That he did not want to understand the physical temple of Solomon can be assumed from the fact that it did not exist at the time of David. Then he also added: "His throne is in heaven," so that we must understand another temple, which is holy, that is, separated from all worldly (profano) use; for this is called holy. I am not displeased if also in this place what was said in the 5th Psalm 98] is said, that the temple of the Lord is called any place where the people of God come together to hear His word. Since they are in truth the temple of God, they do not call the place after themselves unrighteously. Thus, "church" refers to both the people and the house.
So the meaning will be: Let them go, they are blind and leaders of the blind. They do not know the Lord, they are other people,
2) Held in the Basel Domini: Dominos.
who know him. If he is not in those unholy people, yet he is in his temple, that is, in his own, and in the place where his own are gathered. "For where two are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" [Matt. 18:20], says the Lord. He wanted to indicate this emphasis by the adjective "holy". "But if some do not believe, what is the matter? Should their unbelief nullify God's faith? Far be it from them!" [For this reason there will not be a lack of people who trust in the Lord, because the wicked shoot many in secret, and pervert the faith of some; the sanctuary of the Lord remains, and he remains in it, as if he wanted to say the word 2 Tim. 2:19: "The firm foundation of God stands, and has this seal: The Lord knows those who are his, and he knows them: Let him who calls on the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness."
26. the same is that which he repeats, "the throne of the Lord is in heaven"; for since his people are his holy temple (that is, set apart), his walk is in heaven [Phil. 3:2O], where Christ is, and yet he himself, while yet on earth, said [John 3:13], "No man goeth up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." Listen, the Son of Man on earth is in heaven. And what is "the throne of God," even in heaven, but a spiritual and holy creature? But a godly soul is holy and heavenly. And so in the spirit heaven and earth come together in one, and are distinguished in nothing but in faith and sight. But a more excellent holy temple and chair of God are the angels in heaven (whose comrades are the saints in a dark word [1 Cor. 13:12]).
27. but the emphasis of this saying lies mainly in the fact that it says: "His eyes see", and it is the same meaning with the words Ps. 33, 13. 14.: "The Lord looks from heaven, and sees all the children of men. From His firm throne He looks on all who dwell on the earth," and Ps. 102:20, 21:
1) Only the Jena has correctly according to the Vulgate: 61seeäat, the other editions: äiseküit.
"For the Lord looketh from his holy height, and the Lord seeth from heaven upon the earth, to hear the groaning of the captive. "etc. For these are words of faith and of the Spirit. For even the ungodly do not deny this when you say, "His eyes see," yes, they boast and preach this above all others. But they do not believe that this is said against them, since they make themselves believe that they are doing God a service by destroying the laws of God and secretly deceiving those who are righteous of heart, and it seems to them as if they were establishing the laws and teaching the erring ones the right way, and they play their game with this figurative speech, so that it must be just the opposite of a figurative speech that deals with the godly. Since they ignore everything with deaf ears, the whole thing must be brought before God's eyes, as Jeremiah says Cap. 11, 20: "But you, O Lord of hosts, you righteous judge, who test the kidneys and the hearts, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have commanded you my cause.
28) "His eyes search or examine the children of men. Now he applies in particular what he had said in general: "His eyes see," that is, they are open and see everything; then they not only see the children of men in particular, but also investigate, examine and see through them. Augustine refers these "eyelids" of God to the holy scripture, which is open in some places and closed in others, in a beautiful secret interpretation. Others interpret it differently. According to the simple letter, I like the image that is taken from men, especially the great ones, with whom it is mainly found that they make use of waving with the eyes; for those whom they honor with their favor, they look at kindly with open eyes, but those whom they detest, they meet with closed eyes and clenched eyelids, or in such a way that they direct them unfriendly upwards.
Therefore the eyelids of God are graciously opened upon the godly, but upon the wicked they are either closed or grimly turned upward. These two pieces are
in the 34th Psalm, v. 16. 17., thus expressed: "The eyes of the Lord look upon the righteous, and his ears upon their crying; but the face of the Lord is over them that do evil, that he may cut off their memory from the earth. Thus the eyes of God behave differently toward the righteous than toward the wicked, and soon He will interpret Himself as searching out and seeing all the children of men, but pleasing the righteous and condemning the wicked. But this again is spoken in the spirit until it is fulfilled; it is grasped in faith alone, since the ungodly think far the opposite of themselves.
V. 5. The Lord tests the righteous; his soul hates the wicked, and those who gladly transgress).
(30) The division in the Hebrew is different, namely: The Lord tests the righteous; and the ungodly and the one who loves iniquity his soul hates; and the noun justum [the righteous] is before the verb interrogat [he tests], so that it is uncertain whether we must translate "the Lord, the righteous", or "the righteous" or "the righteous". For Jerome also concludes the first part thus: "The Lord tests the righteous"; after that he connects "the wicked" and "he who loves iniquity" with the verb "he hates", not with the verb "he tests", so that I almost assume that this part: "The Lord tests the righteous" is a sentence existing by itself, without a closer relation (absoluta sententia), and expresses this: The righteous Lord examines (that is, he is an examiner), that is, he who examines and investigates all men is not a man who lies, but the Lord himself, who judges rightly, whom no one deceives, whom no one can bribe, to whom nothing is hidden, as is said in the 7th Psalm, v. 10. Psalm, v. 10: "Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, and promote the righteous; for you, righteous God, test hearts and kidneys," so that "you, righteous God, test hearts and kidneys" is the same as here: "the righteous Lord tests." For the verb probat and interrogat is not different in meaning from the verb-.
1) Vulgate: Dominos interro^at jostom et impinm, yoi audern üiiißit mi^uitatem, oüit animam soam.
bum "to scrutinize" (scrutandi), since it denotes such a test by which the gold is tried in the fire, examined, investigated, tested, which is by all means as much as scrutari. Since God does not judge by appearance, but tests the spirits, He opens or closes His eyelids, depending on whether the spirit of the children of men is found righteous or wicked; therefore He is rightly called a righteous examiner.
31 Therefore, in my opinion, I divide this verse according to its distinctive signs (per cola et commata) like this: The righteous Lord, he proves; and the ungodly, and him that loveth iniquity, his soul hateth; so that the sense is, The Lord is righteous, and he proves; therefore his soul hateth both the ungodly, and him that loveth to hurt, or to do iniquity. For he who is righteous, when he examines, cannot but hate the ungodly and him who loves iniquity. According to this sense this verse explains the preceding one by an amplification (auxesin), that the eyes of the Lord stand and his eyelids test the children of men, but in such a way that he tests in a righteous way, as if someone who comforts himself in exceedingly great confidence against the power of the ungodly said: Well, let him do what he will; I know that the Lord sees and examines all things, and not only examines, but examines in a righteous manner; and since he is righteous, he will not be able to love him who acts ungodly against me (meum impium), and who delights in sacrilege, but he will not be able to hate me who suffer, as Jeremiah also defies, Cap. 17, 16. 15.: "Thou knowest what I have preached, that is right in thy sight: and they say unto me, Where is the word of the Lord? Dear, let go!" This defiance and certainty of heart was also indicated above [v. 3. Vulg.] by the question, "What then hath the righteous done?"
32 "Iniquity" in this passage is the same word that we have said in the 7th Psalm, v. 17, that it means injustice, insult, injury: "And his iniquity shall fall on the top of his head", which is XXX. For he speaks of the wrong that the wicked do to the godly, shooting at those who are righteous of heart, and destroying the laws of God. In addition there is the exceedingly
Evil, that they not only injure, but love to injure, as it is said in the 4th Psalm [v. 3.], "They love vain things so well, and lies so gladly." For the wicked, according to his disposition, is most anxious that he should do harm to the godly being; if he is able to do this, he rejoices that he has done it and is doing it, as it is said in Proverbs 2:1, 14: "They delight to do evil." For in this way they think they have done God a service.
33 And also this is impressive, that he does not simply say: he hates, but: "his soul hates", so that he expresses with how great and complete movement God hates it, namely with his whole life and senses; not as if God had a soul, as he also does not have eyes, but the prophet speaks figuratively, according to the words 4 Mos. 21, 5: "Our soul is disgusted with this loose food. For we see how he who feels disgust turns away with his whole movement and gesture, even with all his senses, again, as someone turns toward something when he loves it and desires it; for desire and disgust are actually attributed to the soul in Scripture. Thus it is said in Deut. 26:30, "My soul shall be disgusted with you." So also here. Although the wicked make themselves believe that they are such people whom God desires even with great desire, in truth they are those whom God rather detests and whom His soul hates.
34 Our Latin translation refers "his soul" to the wicked and the one who loves iniquity. This opinion is true, but forcibly drawn, not even common in the Scriptures, and has the nature of a human view, according to which it is said, more astutely than appropriately, that he hates the good who loves the evil (that is, is considered by his actions to love it). For no one loves evil of his own free will, provided it is evil. Now if anyone wants to follow the whole verse [in the translation] of our interpreter, the meaning will be this: The Lord, who sees all things, and whose eyelids search all the children of men in common, searches without doubt also every righteous man and every godly man.
1) In the Latin editions: ?rov. 1.
The righteous in particular, that he may crown him as one who has been instructed; the wicked, that he may condemn him as one who is wicked, and that not through his [God's] fault, for Hos. 13:9, it says, "Israel, you bring yourself into misfortune." For he who loves iniquity hates and corrupts his soul, doing to his soul what he would not do to any of his enemies, even the most bitter.
V. 6. He will rain lightning, fire and brimstone on the wicked, and will give them a weather for their reward. 2)
35 In the Scriptures there is frequent mention of the rain and the cup, and of the rain it is well known that by it the preaching of the doctrine is understood, as Deut. 32:2: "Let my doctrine drip like the rain, and let my speech flow like the dew. Hence also the well-known word Isa. 45, 8.: "Drip, ye heavens, from above; and the clouds rain righteousness," from which the teachers of the church are called clouds and heavens everywhere in Scripture. It can also be seen that this verse is taken from Genesis 19, when the Sodomites were consumed by fire and brimstone from heaven. He gives a picture of that here, and every single word has a special emphasis.
36) "He will make it rain", by this he means the exceedingly great amount of calamity (it would have been milder if he had drizzled or wetted), so that we should understand a great amount of teachers of ungodliness, yes, that the sinners, that is, the ungodly, would hear nothing else from God's wrath but teachers of ungodliness. This happened above all to the Jews, 3) as the 81st Psalm, v. 12. f., says: "But my people do not obey my voice, and Israel does not want me. So have I left them in their heart's conceit, to walk after their counsel." For what have the wretched people of the Jews today but clouds and showers of iniquity? Such people
2) Vulgate:?Iu6t super peeeutores iaqueos, ißpis st sulpüur et Spiritus proeeliarulu pars ealieis eoruua.
3) Thus the Jenaers: eouti^it. , Basel, Weimar and Erlangen: coutiuKit; Wittenberg: eotiu^it.
find the heretics, such are all who tyrannize with human laws, and all who are not satisfied with the truth; these are the plagues and the evil angels who struck Egypt, which was a model of the perishing synagogue. So also Sodom was a model of the same.
(37) "Ropes" (laqueos) [it is said], namely in the plural, so that we understand errors of various kinds, by which they are caught in such a way that they seem to them to be nothing less than ropes, since the appearance of truth and godliness glitters so much. Paul also predicted [Thess. 2, 11] that it would happen in the last days that God would send powerful errors. Thus it is said in Ps. 69, 23: "Let their table become a snare before them, a retribution and a trap." For what is this, that one perverts God's word and stains it with human opinions, other than to lay snares for the souls, since one, while looking at God's truth, follows error?
38 Ignis [the fire would be better put in the accusative: Ignem et sulphur [fire and brimstone] so that it would be made dependent on the verb pluet [he will rain], as it is written that he rained fire and brimstone on Sodom. This indicates the zeal and raging of the wicked who race for their doctrines. For [Proverbs 17:12], "It is better to meet a bear whose cubs have been stolen than a fool in his folly," that is, in his wisdom, in his cords, in his errors. For these are the signs of the wrath of God, and of his eyelids, that he not only does not acknowledge the wicked, nor does he enlighten them with his eyes, but with closed eyelids he lets them go astray according to all their desires, and with burning anger when someone either resists them or does not follow them. Hence arises anger, envy, discord, and (as you can see, the apostle 1 Tim. 6, 4. 5. has interpreted this verse beautifully and says:) "they are addicted to questions and wars of words, from which arises envy, strife, blasphemy, malicious suspicion, school quarrels of such men who have broken senses and are deprived of the truth" etc.
39. under "sulfur" have the fathers, because
he stinks so badly, not badly understood the evil rumor. For it is known that "the smell" in figurative speech means the rumor, 2 Cor. 2, 15. f.: "We are a good smell of Christ; to some a smell of life unto life, to others a smell of death unto death." Hence also we are wont to say and command that it should be someone's scent or smell, when we call upon him to inquire and investigate a person's reputation or rumor. Thus the teachers and the disciples of the ungodly are not a good smell of Christ, but a stench of Satan, and a mighty stinking brimstone, which is in great abundance with them, in that the Lord rains upon them in his wrath. Thus it has come to pass in the church that there is no more shameful and disgraceful name than that of heresy and faithlessness, so that even intercourse or any kind of intercourse is subject to the heaviest suspicion, and this agrees very much with the sulfur, as far as the smell is concerned.
40 But let us look at the Hebrew text, which divides thus: He will rain upon the wicked ropes, fire and brimstone, and winds of tempest the lot of their cup, where Johann Reuchlin thinks that instead of "ropes" should be said coals. If this is true, one may assume that "rope fire" is the same as coals of fire, that is, glowing coals, as Ps. 18:14 [Vulg.] says: "hail and coals of fire," instead of: fiery coals. But he seems to treat figuratively the lightnings, the thunderbolts, and all the violence of the tempest, as we read that it happened in Egypt and Sodom. For in thunderstorms the fire of the lightnings crackles and the storm wind rushes. Then lightnings and thunderclaps have the smell of sulfur, and even their light is sulfuric, as Pliny says in the 35th book Cap. 15. Therefore I could translate without inconsistency thus: He will rain on the wicked coals of fire and sulfur, that is, fiery and sulfuric coals, since the lightning has ignited them with its sulfuric fire. For he shows the power and effect of the lightnings and thunderbolts, by which everything that is seized by them is turned into burning coals,
ashes and dust. For so it is written, Ex. 9, 23. f., that in the seventh plague hail, thunderbolts, lightnings and fires went in confusion over the whole land, as we will see more extensively in the 18th Psalm. And 2 Mos. 9, 8. it is said [Vulg.] "Take your hands full of ashes from the furnace," where there is an expression related to that in this passage, which he translated "ashes," namely, such ashes as are mixed from burning coals and hot ashes.
(41) By all these things I understand nothing else than that the teachings of the wicked and the righteous are compared under one image, so that the rain falling on the godly may be taken from the rain in due season, the early rain and the late rain, by which the earth is watered in a beneficial way and made fertile so that it bears its fruit. This rain is spoken of very often in the prophets. This is the beneficial word of God, which brings justice and judgment to growth. Of this benefit Ps. 85, 13. is said: "The Lord will do us good, so that our land will give its growth." Because the wicked turn their backs on this word, yes, persecute it with its fruits, God also turns his goodness into wrath and lets his anger and displeasure go against them, and lets them be afflicted by evil angels, as Ps. 78, 49 [Vulg.] is said of the Egyptians. Namely, instead of the salutary rain, he sends lightnings, tempests and hail, by which the earth is not only not made fruitful, but is set on fire and laid waste, that is, the deadly word of ungodliness, by which arise useless babblers and seducers of souls, unfit for all good work, as the apostle says in the Epistle to Titus [Cap. 1, 10. 16.) says. For [Rom. 3, 16. f.], "In their ways is vain accident and heartache; and the way of peace they know not," Ps. 13, 3 [according to the Vulgate count].
42. for a man's word can also make nothing but a troubled, fearful, restless, erring conscience, yea, which is also useless, desolate, and unfruitful, and the more so the longer it lives among these teachers, where man, as well as the bloody
liquid woman [Marc. 5, 26.], turned all his goods over to these murderous physicians, and yet bought nothing but that it became worse with him.
There is no more tangible image of ungodly and human doctrine than a thunderstorm with lightning, thunderclaps, winds and hail, and such manifestations of the wrath that is above, but in such a way that the heavens not only crackle and threaten from above, but [these plagues] also come down to the earth and strike, devastate everything and set it on fire, and make the earth unfit so that it cannot provide sustenance for man. To indicate this, he wanted to say coals of fire and sulfur, not simply: fire, because the lightning, if it only shines, lights nothing, also neither makes fire nor coals, also does not produce the smell of sulfur, but such only threatens. Therefore, for the sake of emphasis, he wanted to express by "coals, fire and sulfur" the violence of the lightning and the weather, which does damage by its effect and in fact, or the igniting, burning lightning, which makes coals, dust and ashes, which smells strongly of sulfur and devastates and destroys everything, as this is shown by the Egyptian plague.
44. the sixteenth chapter of Revelation is full of these teachings, where the seven angels (that is, bishops or teachers) blow on trumpets [Revelation 8:6], and where it is written that after this followed many terrible things in the church. See, then, what an evil omen and sad horror it is, as often as cities, countries, fields, and everything in them is set on fire and devastated by a weather from heaven, how terrible this fire is compared to our ordinary fire, then also foul-smelling with sulfur, and how it strikes our churches exceedingly often: this is certainly a great sign of how much God detests the ungodly doctrine of man in the church.
45) On the other hand, how lovely it is when the rain falls at the right time in the springtime, testifying to the grace of the reawakening weather, and that all the gifts have returned with their Lord, where everything is green, blossoming, and growing, and the earth, with sweetness, is full of life.
The two pieces of scripture are full of figurative speeches that refer to both pieces of scripture. For the Scriptures are everywhere full of figurative speeches, which refer to both pieces.
(46) But all this is done in the spirit, so that it can only be known by faith. For in this Psalm it is not described how the wicked are before men, but how they are before God in spirit and in themselves. For what is more respectable on earth than a Saul and an Absalom? Is not the land of the Sodomites like the garden of the Lord? Gen 13:10 For these are the most useful, the most fruitful, the most upright in the sight of the world, and have the sweetest smell; there is nothing here of coals, fire, brimstone, tempests, but everything green with flowers, fruits and fragrances. It says the 38th Psalm, v. 35. f. [I have seen a wicked man defiant, spreading himself out and green as the cedar of Lebanon. When one passed by, behold, he was gone; I asked for him, and he was not found."
47. Therefore, when one turns from what it looks like before men to what it looks like before God, it becomes apparent what the wicked are and what they are not. Before God, all that is yours has become coals, dust, ashes, fire and brimstone. This appearance (before God) was modeled by Abraham in Gen. 19, 27. f., where it says: "Abraham rose up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord (see what it looks like before the Lord), and turned his face toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the land of the region, and looked; and behold, there arose a smoke from the land, as smoke from the furnace." Namely, this is how it is with the wicked in the eyes of the godly and in truth, while they shine most gloriously in the world. Therefore it is said that everything that grows on the dead sea has an unusual shape, is black and empty, and, as it were, crumbles to ashes. 1) What is indicated by this miracle of nature other than what is said in this verse about the wicked?
1) Cf. Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. I, 851, s 80.
(48) On the other hand, God seems to rain upon the pious, because they are subject to all calamities through the word of the cross according to the flesh, rather ropes, burning coals, brimstone and all kinds of storms and tempests. For thus in the second Psalm [v. 3] they [the ungodly] call the word of Christ "bands" and "cords," of which they are more afraid than of the lightning and tempest, with which, in fact, instead of that (the word of Christ), they are overwhelmed and devastated by their ungodly teachers. Hosea, Cap. 8, 7. also says in reference to the same storm wind: "For they sow wind and will reap thunderstorms," and again Cap. 12, 2.: "Ephraim feeds on the wind, and runs after the east wind, and daily makes more idolatry and harm." By such words the prophets portray the vain nature of the wicked, then also the restless conscience, and their complete incapacity for good, each prophet according to his own way.
(49) "Cup," according to a very common way of speaking in Scripture, means the vessels of doctrine, that is, the words or eloquence through which the mind is poured into the soul, as through a vessel the wine is poured into the body. Thus St. Augustine says about the Manichaean Faustus and his eloquence in his "Confessions", book 5: What good is the most skillful cupbearer, who offers me the most precious cups, to quench my thirst? And afterwards: Wisdom and foolishness are just like useful and useless food; but both kinds of food can be presented with adorned and unadorned, as with fine and coarse words. Therefore, the golden cup of Babylon, which made all the world drunk, Jer. 51:7, and the golden cup in the hand of the great whore, full of abomination and the wine of her fornication, Revelation 17:4, are mentioned everywhere by the fathers. Then also all the vessels of the tabernacle and temple represent either books or speeches containing doctrines, and under the law the chief use of the bowls was to catch, pour out and sprinkle the blood, because the doctrine of the law deals with and reveals sin. From these
It is not the place to speak of secrets. Thus it says afterwards in the 16th Psalm [v. 5. Vulg.]: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup."
(50) But "the cup" must not only be understood to indicate a spoken or written word, but also to indicate what is meant by it. For thus Christ prayed [Matt. 26:39] that the cup might be taken from Him, by which we all understand that this was His suffering. And Jeremiah, cap. 25, 17, takes the cup of wine full of the Lord's wrath from the Lord's hand and pours it out to all nations and kings. And Isaiah says in Cap. 51, 17, that Jerusalem has drunk the cup of the Lord's wrath to the bottom and the lees.
(51) Now, if we combine both meanings into one from these and other scriptural passages, it will be seen that "cup" is nothing other than the prediction and announcement of the punishments and wrath of God. So also the cup of Christ is the wrath of God and His suffering, which was foretold in the Law and the Prophets. Micah 7:9 says, "I will bear the Lord's wrath, for I have sinned against Him," just as the apostle 1 Peter 1:11 says that the prophets testified beforehand to the sufferings that are in Christ and the glory that follows. Therefore it must be said of him that he gives the cup, who either by speaking or by writing announces the punishments, as the prophets and the apostles do everywhere. For each one must drink his cup, that is, he must bear the cross and suffering that is appointed for him in the Scriptures or with God.
52 Therefore, there are two kinds of cup: one belongs to the godly, the other to the ungodly. The cup of the godly is the carnal and temporal suffering that is appointed over them until sin is destroyed in them. When this is drunk, the soul is the more preserved and renewed, although the outward man decays day by day [2 Cor. 4:16] by this very powerful purification of the cup, until at last the soul is delivered from the body.
53. whereas the cup of the wicked is the inward and spiritual suffering, until the
righteousness and godliness is destroyed. When they have drunk it, their souls are corrupted from day to day, although they flourish and prosper in great reputation and abundance according to the outward man, until they perish in soul and body at the same time, and must drink the lees of the cup for all eternity, as it is said in the 75th Psalm, v. 9.The Lord has a cup in his hand, full of strong wine, and pours out of it; but the wicked must all drink, and drink up the lees"; that is, (as Peter 1 Ep. 4:17 says), "If the judgment of God first begin at us, what end shall it be to them that believe not the gospel?" So "cup" is a word, but such a word that predetermines the suffering and cross, or the suffering predestined by the word. Thus it is said in Ps. 116:13: "I will take the healing cup (that is, the healing sufferings, which Paul [2 Cor. 1:5, 7] calls the sufferings of Christ, I will gladly bear), and preach the name of the Lord."
If we follow this sense, then in this verse the cup of the wicked will not be their doctrine, as we said above [§ 49], but the word of God, which foreshadows their desolation, fire, brimstone, storm wind. And lest all should be far apart [we shall say] that their cup is the ungodly doctrine, and all the evil which it brings about, in that it burns, devastates, troubles their souls, as [this cup is] foretold, announced and prepared by the certain predestination of God and by the word of Scripture.
55. pars [part, "reward"], according to the use of the Scriptures, does not mean a part, as the philosophers tend to take it, in order to distinguish it from a whole, but is just as much as lot, inheritance, share, because in former times the inheritance was divided among the twelve tribes. Thus it is written [Ps. 16, 5. Vulg.], "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup," and [Ps. 142, 6.], "Thou, Lord, art my portion in the land of the living," and Jeremiah says in Lamentations Cap. 3, 24: "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul." And one must get used to this meaning of "cup" and "portion" because of the usage
820 L. LV, 214-216. Works On the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 11, 6. 7. 12, 1. 2. W. IV. S96-1E. 821
of the holy scripture. So the meaning is: The wicked will inherit what is predestined for them by God, namely your rain of fiery and sulfurous coals, and storm winds, that is, wickedness and the wages of wickedness, desolation and misery of the soul and eternal unrest.
V. 7: The Lord is righteous, and loveth righteousness: therefore their faces look upon that which is right (aequitatem vidit vultus ejus).
Jerome: Rectum videbit facies eorum [on the right their face will look^ (if there is not a mistake in the copy). Righteousness and piety have been abundantly spoken of in the seventh Psalm [§ 76] and in the ninth [§ 64 ff]. And here it is uncertain whether rectum is its neuter, or whether it] stands for the righteous in the masculine gender according to the figure of the synecdoche, and whether the righteous should be called "the righteous" instead of "the righteous".
(justitias) should be said. But there is little in this; for he who looks at righteousness and piety looks also at the righteous and the pious.
57 The prophet closes the psalm against the presumption of the wicked, saying: "Man judges unrighteously and praises the wicked, but it is the Lord who is not deceived by outward appearances, nor moved by the greatness and multitude of the unrighteous. He holds fast to righteousness and loves it, and his face looks upon those who are righteous in heart. Therefore, it is nothing for the wicked to be presumptuous in his sight and hope that the godly will be despised by him. His face looks at something other than the face of men, indeed, the appearance before God and the appearance before men are completely contrary to each other, "for what is high among men is an abomination in the sight of God" [Luc. 16:15].