V. 1. a golden jewel (miehtham) of David.
1 This word has been treated in many ways. The old Latin Bible has, as Augustine says: Tituli inscriptio, because the same Hebrew expression also means a mark or sign, so therefore XXXX, with a sign, with a mark, or 1) with a mark (titulo). But that this refers to the sign (titulum) of the cross is probably godly, but nevertheless forced. Jerome, however, reproduces it by two expressions, by going into the derivation of the words, as it were (etymologisans): Of the humble and righteous David. Lyra makes it the name of a particularly beautiful (decentioris) song, and I like his opinion almost best of all. For Burgensis refutes Jerome's opinion in an erudite manner. Burgensis himself, however, says that by this word gold, or a golden jewel (aureum), is signified, as it is said in High. 5, 11: "His head is the finest gold." Therefore, when the letter X is put in front of it, it becomes XXXX, that is, of gold or a golden jewel, and he says that by this is signified the suffering of Christ, which is sung about in this psalm.
2) Based on all this, I would like to assume that XXXX is the name of this psalm. For this is how the name of the psalm is usually placed next to the name of any author, as: a Song of David, a Psalm of David, a Testimony of Assaph, an Instruction of David, and the like, as we have seen and will see. So here, because this is an excellent psalm, and deals with a particularly glorious object, namely Christ, the head over all, he did not want to name it with an ordinary word, but distinguish it with a very special, new and lovely one, and call it David's, as if he wanted to say: A golden jewel of David. Thus com-
1) In the Erlanger and the Weimarschen: sive; in the Baseler, Wittenberger and Jenaer: sine.
Lyra and Burgensis agree on the same opinion, which they in any case drew from Hebrew sources.
But there are six Psalms in all distinguished by this title, this sixteenth, and the fifty-sixth with the four following. But those have many other things in their titles, this one as a special one before all, is simply called XXXX. For no other speaks so clearly of the suffering and resurrection of the person of Christ, therefore the apostles also use this psalm almost before all other scriptures to confirm the resurrection of Christ, as we can see in Apost. 2, 24-28. and Cap. 13, 35. where Peter says: "God raised Him up, and dissolved the pains of death, after it was impossible that He should be held by Him. For David says of him, "I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoiceth: for my flesh also shall rest in hope: for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known unto me the ways of life; thou wilt fill me with joy in thy sight." "Lovely is at your right hand forever", Ps. 16, 11. 2)
4 From this, the meaning of the whole psalm is easy to understand, and it does not need our explanation, as far as the brief epitome of opinion is concerned, but rather faith and emulation, since the holy apostles have interpreted it so clearly through the Holy Spirit. Yet it is full of very dark words.
5 And in this Psalm is founded the article of faith: "Descended into hell, on the third day risen again from the dead", so that it is to be wondered at that once
2) This last sentence, which is mentioned in all editions as part of the citation from the Acts of the Apostles, is only found in 1s. Psalm, and seems to have come by a memory mistake here into our text.
Theologians who have a great name have taken it upon themselves to deny that this article is found in the Holy Scriptures, namely after its first part: Descended into hell.
Keep me, God, for I trust in you.
This is the last part of the verse in Hebrew, because the first part consists of the title. But it is the words of Christ throughout the whole psalm. For he begins in such a way, that he must now perish, and be forsaken of all, and die, in this manner: Behold, now I die; my strength hath forsaken me, angels and men have forsaken me, yea, the devils and all men do destroy me. "I cannot escape, no one takes care of my soul" [Ps. 142, 5.], to all men I am regarded as one who is in despair and lost. Therefore thou preserve me, who alone art my sustainer, who savest the lost, quickenest the dead, exaltest the afflicted, as if to say the word [Luc. 23:46.], "Father, I commend my spirit into thy hands."
7 He does not only pray for the time of suffering that he will be preserved in this way, but confesses that in his whole life he clings to God, his sustainer, and dies daily, as Paul praises [1 Cor. 15:31]. Thus the godly always perishes and is always preserved. And this is the new life in faith and hope, which is praised in this psalm, namely the life in the cross, that is, in death, and also in this not different from the most shameful death.
8. Whoever, then, leads his life in peace, or preserves himself by his or man's strength, can he say to God, "Preserve me, God"? For he would receive the answer: What shall I preserve thee for, since thou art not yet perishing nor lost? So we should learn that we should cry out especially when we are perishing, when people cry out least of all, but rather despair.
9. "For I trust in you." Behold, trust and hope call. How should he call who did not trust? Trust itself is cited as the merit,
to whom, according to equity and dignity (as we see), eternal life is due. Why does he not cite works and virtues as merits? Of course, because nothing can stand and nothing can save in this tribulation but the pure and firm faith, which is based on the mercy of God alone, which builds nothing on itself, but provides everything for itself, as Christ shows here with his exceedingly beautiful example.
(10) This attitude of heart and the emphasis on these words, "I trust" and "in you," is abundantly spoken of in Psalm 5, 169 ff. has been abundantly spoken of. For if one trusted in anything other than in God, it could already no longer be said, "I trust in you." And who could be presumptuous on his merits, since here the head of all, Christ, is silent about his merits, and bases himself only on faith and trust in the merciful God? Therefore, this position of the heart in all things and everywhere fits those with whom it stands in despair.
V. 2. I said to the Lord, "You are the Lord; I must suffer for your sake. 1)
Jerome translates the last part thus: Bene mihi non est sine te [I am not well without you). It seems to me that rather it should have been translated like this: I have not been well with you, so that XXXX is a verb without closer relation (absolutum), which, if one might so say, could be expressed by bonavi, that is, I have been good and beautiful, so that the meaning is: Therefore I have said to the Lord that He would be to me God, from whom I would have everything, and He would have nothing from me (that is, in truth, to be God), because I have not been good to Him, for I have not done Him good. For, Rom. 11, 35. f.: "Who gave him anything before, that it should be repaid to him? For of him and through him and to him are all things." This sense was recognized by our Latin interpreter when he said: You do not need my good. And Jerome's opinion agrees in such a way that we GOtte not only nothing, but also nothing.
1) Vulgate: vixi voruluo: veus vaeus es tu, douorum meoruru uou Inäi^es.
can give, but have all good from him, and without him have nothing good.
12. But Christ says this in praise of the cross, looking at two opposite kinds of people, one of which, that of the godly, he sees being born of him, and being prepared for him for kingdom and inheritance; but the other, that of the ungodly, he has to let go, because it resents the cross. As if to say, Behold, I die, and in the eyes of the ungodly there is nothing less clear than that I please thee, or that I shall be king and thine heir. But thus they hold themselves, because they rely on their goods and powers and merits, and do not choose thee as their God, nor think that they receive all good from thee, but rather presume to do thee good, attaching to thee what they ought to expect from thee, since for this cause thou takest away all things from me, that thou mayest show that from us nothing comes to thee, but from thee all things come to us, if we trust in thee and put ourselves into thy hand.
(13) And so the duke of the new people teaches here by his example and pronounces in which goods the new people will have abundance, namely only in divine ones, while all others will be made nothing. The Jewish and ancient people, who were accustomed to the promises of temporal abundance, did not grasp this; but nature itself also bears this very unwillingly, indeed, in no way. But meanwhile there is no one who does not babble that the Lord is his God; but when he begins to show that he alone is their good, and takes away all else, then it is found that nothing less was their opinion. For they cannot suffer the taking away of their goods, their good name, their life, their righteousness, and the things that they have, that they should cry out in faith and hope alone, "Preserve me, O God, for I trust in thee," and, "I have said unto the Lord, Thou art the Lord; I do thee no good." For this is what the good deed of the cross entails, which kills us and all that is ours, so that through it we become partakers of the divine nature, as 2 Petr. 1:4 says.
14. and it is in truth something exceedingly hard, indeed, hell itself, to feel that all the
Our good is with God, and that there is nothing in us by which we can earn merit for Him, please Him or favor Him, and here the godless theology of those who presume to buy God's mercy by doing as much as is in them, or to do enough for sins by their wretched works, falls away fundamentally. For they do not know that all this is done by faith alone in the mercy of God, since it is precisely these wretched works that must be erased and completely despaired of, by which they endeavored to do enough and prepare themselves for the mercy of God.
(15) And from this it is evident what is the use of the great splendor of pardons and indulgences, which has been introduced into the Church of God by the most heretical Magistri nostri 1) through their ungodly statutes, decisions, reserved cases, indulgences (induitis), permissions (concessionibus) and such exceedingly pernicious and worthless things, with which they most shamefully ensnare the souls of the whole world. What do we learn from this other than that we believe that God requires our good, and that we would not become blissful through communion with the divine nature, but that God would become blissful through communion with our nature, in that we do not set about transforming ourselves into Him by faith, so that He would be our God, but strive to transform Him into us by our works and to make Him similar to our desires, so that we would be idols for Him? As he saith in Isaiah [Cap. 46, 5.], "After whom do ye form, and to whom do ye compare me?"
16 For does this not mean that I want to conform God to me when I strive for Him to conform to my opinion, inclination, sense and desire? if He does not, then I do not want to trust Him, nor suffer His hand, while we, on the other hand, should become nothing, and make Him powerful in us of His sense, desire and desire, that is, die, be condemned and be made nothing.
1) Cf. Walch, St. Louis edition, Vol. XVIII, 988 f.
17) The title of this psalm is therefore rightly: "A golden jewel", since it speaks of the highest and most important movement of the heart, and that in its highest and best way, as it was in the head of all things, Christ. For by this movement of the heart Christ's people are distinguished from those who are not His people, despising the prestige (personis) and name of all men and things (omnium), as follows:
V. 3. for the saints who are on earth and for the glorious ones; in them I have all my pleasure. 1)
18 Jerome: For the saints who are on earth and for the glorious ones; all my will [is] with them. The Hebrew text literally reads thus: For the saints who are on earth they, and the glorious ones, all my pleasure [is] with them. It should therefore have been omitted [in the Vulgate] the pronoun ejus, and in eis, which according to the Hebrew manner of speaking is wont to be added after the relative qui. And it is certain that the interpreter has put the verbum mirificavit instead of the noun, because in Hebrew it denotes glorious, great, admirable, as it is said in the 8th Psalm, "How glorious is thy name in all the earth." Then he omitted the connective et, which would have easily prevented him from making mirificavit out of magnificis.
19 So without Hebrew idiom the verse will read like this: In the saints, or with the saints that are on the earth, and the glorious ones, is all my delight; so that the meaning is, Since all are vexed with me, who are entrapped by the great prestige of things, and are enemies of the cross, I again let them go, whatever their generation or name may be, and it does not move me that they are the seed of Abraham. But I take care of those who are holy and excellent in spirit, but are despised by the world and by those people. In these I have my delight, my favor, my inheritance. These will be the people whom the Father has given me, wherever they may be on earth. They do not necessarily have to be in Jeru-.
1) Vulgate: Nanetis, aui in terra suat sjus, rniriUeavit ornnss voluntates ineas in eis.
salem or in Zion or in Rome, but as Peter says, Apost. 10, 34. f.: "Now I know with truth that God does not look at the person, but at all people, whoever fears Him and does right, He is pleased with. This is what the Jews did not want, this is what their kindred spirits (aemuli) deny even nowadays, the Romanists who strive to bind us to Rome, and in this they have the upper hand. This opinion will reinforce the following.
20. Christ thus says: "If I, who am the head, must despise everything and cling to God alone, and thus enter into my glory through suffering, then the people who are given to me as an inheritance will also be such that they will rely on no place, no family, no name, except on this one thing, that they have God with me, to whom they can assign nothing, but must receive everything from him; who must become nothing, so that he becomes everything. This is what he says Matth. 24, 23.: "If anyone shall say to you, Behold, here is Christ, or there, believe it not." For a Christian man knows of no place, not even of any temporal thing, although nowadays the godless Roman popes with their flatterers condemn this opinion as heretical and show us Rome as the place where one must find Christ, by pandering to God's foolish desires. But he himself not only teaches us the opposite, but also shows it in fact, by letting nothing but Satan reign in Rome under his name, as everyone grasps with his hands, and the whole world sees.
(21) We have said in the foregoing that holy is that which is set apart and hidden, and only before the face of God; not that worldly sanctuary, of which nowadays only houses, garments, the clergy (clerus) are called holy by the popes in order to deceive the minds of men, but that which the Holy Spirit sanctifies with His anointing. So the saints are not the Jews, not the clergy (clerus), not a man who has any name, but only the one who is attached to God through faith, who has become partaker of his nature through the same, whose life is with Christ in the Lord.
God is hidden. To all others Christ gives the letter of separation in this and the following verses, saying: My delight is in the saints on earth and in the glorious ones, as if he said the word Ps. 101, 6.: "My eyes look for the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me." Of this separation the Lord also says to the Jews, Mal. 1, 10. 11. "I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts: for my name shall be magnified among the Gentiles."
22. but in this verse the same expression "pleasure" (voluntas) is used as in the first Psalm, v. 2: "He has pleasure (voluntas) in the law of the Lord." Similarly, he calls them "glorious ones" in spirit, since they are reckoned before men among the wicked and despised and full of disease, like their Head, Christ. But by faith they are sanctified, by faith they are also great and glorious in the eyes of God, for with a great courage they despise everything, good and evil.
But he says, "For the saints on earth," not, "For the saints in heaven," so that he may indicate that he is speaking of men on earth, and at the same time, so that he may strengthen and fortify those who believe in him with a certain promise, so that they may know, no matter how great afflictions they may have to suffer, that they nevertheless please Christ their Lord, but the adversaries dislike him. Therefore, this verse is a word of sweet promise, which stimulates and sustains faith, just as the following one is a word of severe 1) threat, which condemns unbelief.
(24) It is easy to harmonize our translation with this, so that the meaning is this: My God has done to my saints everything that I have willed and desired. But I have willed nothing else than that they should be like me, slain with me according to the flesh, and made alive according to the Spirit; which is marvelous in the sight of all, that it should be said, and that it should be so, that the dead should live, that those who are corrupted by shame should be glorified, that the unholy (profanati) should be holy. But by the Spirit
1) aspere in the editions is to be resolved by asxeras and belongs to eonnninationis.
he has fulfilled and executed this wonderful will of mine. Therefore, only in these saints, but not also in others, is my pleasure. For since it is said that I have all my pleasure in them, it is shown that I have no pleasure in the others. Thus it happens that he who believes is saved, but he who does not believe is condemned, because Christ has all his pleasure in those, but no pleasure in these.
V. 4 But those who go after another will have great sorrow in their hearts. I will not sacrifice their libation with the blood, nor take their name in my mouth. 2)
In this verse he describes and rejects the other generation, which is hostile to the cross, in which he has no pleasure, because it does not receive him, the head, because of the lowliness of its death, nor does it allow itself to be transformed into God through faith, so that it has God as its Lord with Christ, but struggles with the idols of its heart and with its works. Therefore, we must look at the Hebrew words, because their meaning cannot be rendered in Latin. And Jerome differs from our Latin translation and translates thus: Multiplicabuntur idola eorum post tergum sequentium ; non libabo libamina eorum de sanguine, nec assumam nomina eorum in labiis meis [There will be many idols of those who go behind; I will not offer their drink offerings of blood, nor will I take their names on my lips]. For this verse we have divided [in the Vulgate] into two.
26. what Jerome rendered by idola eorum [their idols], we have rendered [in the Vulgate] by infirmitates eorum [their heartaches. The Hebrew text has XXXXXX. But the verbum XXX means to form something with sorrow and toil, as silversmiths labor to give images their form. Therefore, in the 115th Psalm, v. 4, of this sad and labored work, the idols of the Gentiles are mentioned, namely of
2) Vulgate: NuItiMeaMesunt inürinitateseoruin, postsa seeeleraverunt. Kön eon^rsAatio eonventieulu eorum 6s sanAuinidus, nee ineinor sro noininurn ooruin per ladia inva.
the art and effort with which they are formed. And Ps. 127:2 [Vulg.], "Ye that eat the bread of sorrows," is what some have rendered: The bread of them that labor in pain, others: A bread of sorrow. Now, however different this may be, all agree that 0'2.^ is that which is prepared and made with art and great labor.
(27) By this name the Spirit calls the teachers of ungodly doctrines and works, which are also their idols, because the lie requires much effort and care to appear as truth, whereas the doctrine of the wise is easy, as it is said in Proverbs (Cap. 14:6, Vulg.), and the truth is simple. But not only in this way are they sorrowful and miserable, but also by the works which are done according to these doctrines. For since they have no faith, they must necessarily be plagued without ceasing by the teachings and works of men. This we have described above in the words and in the 10th Psalm [§ 16 ff. § 61] enough in the verse [v. 2. Vulg.]: "They are seized in the plots which they devise."
The actions of these people are punished by Isaiah Cap. 44, 9-20. in a very sharp equivocation by introducing an idol maker in a long sermon text. This passage fits very well to this verse; whoever wants to, may read it. Therefore, if one says "idols" or "heartache", one is speaking correctly, if one only understands the godless, useless, sad and sorrowful behavior of those who, without faith, want to repay God with their works and teachings, I don't know what, by not being formed by God, but wanting to form God.
For I have said above [§§ 15. 16], whoever thinks differently of God than one must think, makes God conform to himself, not to God. But without faith no one thinks rightly of God. Therefore Isaiah rightly says there [Cap. 44, 9]: "The idolaters are all vain. Who are they that make a god, and cast idols that are of no use? Behold, all their comrades become ashamed; for they are masters of men." For while they presume to make themselves vain by these
[If they try to strengthen their conscience, they only become weaker and weaker, and their conscience gets worse and worse day by day. Therefore, their idols, in which they trust, are their weakness, through which they get used to distrusting God more and more, and the more they distrust, the more idols they form.
30 Therefore the Hebrew text says: They will make their idols much, with an active (activo) verbum, to express the wrong and unfortunate actions of those who always learn and never come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Tim. 3, 7.For this reason they invent innumerable doctrines, sects and works in order to serve God, as can be seen today in the Jews, but much more in the Christians under the pope. For since their consciences are not calm, nor do they know any other way of peace than their works and doctrines, they inevitably engage in various questions and undertakings without ceasing, but do not hold fast to any of them and are not satisfied with them, as experience everywhere abundantly testifies.
What are the monasteries and convents of today, since they know nothing of the faith, but the most miserable torture chambers of consciences, which then blind the wretched people, whose leaders they are, with their godless opinions, instead of teaching their works of faith? Thus one blind man leads another, and both fall into the pit, so that it is far more desirable and safer nowadays to become an oxherd or some kind of craftsman, to take a wife and live in a common estate, than to become a monk or a priest, or even to occupy oneself with the sciences; 1) for these people are the least removed from the faith of all, have the best opinion of those others [the monks etc.], are not presumptuous of themselves. If now the faith would arise again, no state would be to be despised, or even dangerous.
1) The words: autliteris tantummodo are missing in the Wittenberg; in the Jena they are in parenthesis with the note: Haee nddita. snnt irr ellitions Lnkilisusi; but they are also found in the Weimar.
32. "After that 1) they hasten." This is also translated and interpreted in various ways. Some have: acclamaverunt, others: dotaverunt, Jerome: post tergum sequentium. I follow our Latin interpreter, so that the sense is: After 2) the wicked have put everything into it with unfortunate efforts, they finally attain nothing but only greater flight, terror and consternation of heart, as I have quoted from Isaiah [Cap. 44, 11.]: "All his comrades become ashamed." For he alone who trusts in the Lord will not flee (festinabit [Isa. 28, 16.)), but is as confident as a lion [Proverbs 28, 1.], and fears nothing that meets him, while the wicked flees and rushes at the sound of a flying leaf, as is said above, Ps. 1, 4. "The wicked are as chaff before the wind." So it is said Is. 30, 15-17.: "If you remained quiet, you would be helped; by being quiet and hoping you would be strong. But ye will not, saying, Nay; but on horses will we flee. (Therefore you will be fugitives.) And on runners we will ride. (Therefore your pursuers will overtake you.) For your thousand will flee from the rebuke of one, yea, from five will ye all flee, until ye remain, as a mast tree upon a mountain, and as a banner upon a hill."
(33) Such haste, fear and terror is just the evil conscience, which always flees and never escapes, always fears and always encounters what it fears, is never calm, because the wicked have no peace (Is. 48, 22.). Therefore he says quite rightly that in order to obtain peace of conscience they multiply their idols, and yet after all this have increased nothing but their haste (accelerationem), or rather, their flight and hurried terror.
34 [Vulgate:) "I want their heaps, the
1) In the text (before? 25) the Erlangen like the Vulgate has: postsa, hereabove: kosten,. The Basel has throughout posteu, the Wittenberg and the Jena throughout: post ea. That posteu is also read here proves? The Weimar has posteu.
2) Erlanger, Weimarsche and Baseler: post^uam, Wittenberger and Jenaer: postoa^uam. Because of the conjunctive ludoravsrint, the latter reading is preferable. The sense is the same in both cases.
(non congregabo - not to accept as a congregation). Here Christ clearly puts an end to the countless questions about his church, of which some have invented that it is a church of power (virtualem), others that it is a church of representation (repraesentativam), 3) others have brought up something else. Christ says: He does not gather those who are of the blood, as John 1:13 says: "Who are not born of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The same doctrine (locum) Paul acts upon, as everywhere, so also in the Epistle to the Romans [Cap. 9, 6. ff.) and in the Epistle to the Galatians [Cap. 4, 21. ff.) quite explicitly (ex professo) and quite gloriously, where he proves that not all who are children of Israel according to the flesh, but only the children born by promise, and the children of the free woman, Sarah, not those of the handmaid, Hagar, are the seed of Abraham, so that he takes away from the church of Christ all respect of person, and, as he says elsewhere (Gal. 3, 28.] says, in Christ is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, neither free nor bond, so also neither Roman nor German, but [Gal. 3, 9.], "They that are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham."
Therefore, Roman godlessness, which dreams its lies about the Church, must be detested, since the Church cannot be anything else than a spiritual gathering of people, not to any one place, but to the same faith, hope and love of the Spirit. But not satisfied with this, it (Roman godlessness) binds the church to one place, namely to Rome, and does not let anyone be a Christian who is not a Roman one, by directing its lie with impudent outrage against the article of faith.
For we believe that the holy universal (catholicam) Church is the communion of the saints. We do not say: the communion of the Roman or any other place. Also Christ says Luc. 17, 20. f.: "The kingdom of God does not come with outward gestures. Nor will it be said: See here or there it is. For
3) Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XVIII, 314.
behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Likewise Matth. 24, 4. 5. 23.: "See to it that no one deceives you. For many shall come under my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. If then any shall say, Behold, here is Christ, or there, believe it not." Against such revealed words these wicked dare to say, Behold, to Rome is the church, to Rome is Christ, to Rome is the governor of Christ.
37. Since this time of which Christ spoke is now present, and the raging of Roman godlessness so obviously resists the Gospel, neither recognizing itself nor allowing others to recognize what the church is, we must arm our minds with the word of God by firmly believing and knowing with the utmost certainty, that the Church of Christ is nothing other than a spiritual assembly of believers, wherever they may be in the world, and that everything that belongs to flesh and blood, that is, everything that concerns the appearance of the person, the place, the time and the things that flesh and blood can use, does not belong to the Church of God.
Therefore, we must be careful not to howl with the wolves and romanize with the Romans by blaspheming as heretics those who are not in the assembly of the Roman church or rather the Roman court. For since Christ and the apostles Peter and Paul saw that their bodies and names must necessarily be on earth in a certain place, and that this necessity would give rise to this superstition and godlessness, that they would bind the church to these places, and thus draw the church from the spiritual assembly to a temporal one, they have forestalled this and have diligently warned us. Moreover, in order that they might not turn to Christ Himself as their protector for this very ungodliness, He took care, according to His unsearchable counsel, that Jerusalem should be destroyed and trodden down by the Gentiles. If this had not happened, no one could have prevented them from making the place at Jerusalem, which had been favored with such a great appearance and name, the head of the church.
39 Since this was prevented, this evil was started in Rome under the title of St. Peter and St. Paul, by twisting the words of Christ: "You are Peter" and "Feed my sheep" with great pretense. But even here Christ resisted mightily, for he never allowed the whole world to be subject to the Roman Pontiff, which should have happened if this supremacy (primatus) existed according to divine right, because no one can resist the divine word and promise. And yet, since it stands thus, we do not open our eyes that we should see the deceits (figmenta) of Satan. Therefore Peter proclaimed these deceits even beautifully before, 2 Pet. 2, 1. 3.: "There shall be false teachers (pseudomagistri, he almost said magistri nostri eximii) among you, who by avarice shall deal in you with fictitious words." For how can there be a greater invention than to say that "the rock" [Matth. 16, 18.] means the governmental power of Peter, and "pasture" [Joh. 21, 15. ff.] means the sole rule of the pope? Or what is the purpose of this autocracy other than avarice, which is used for its manipulation of us?
40 Therefore, in order that I may save my conscience and not be called to account at the hour of my death and in the last judgment for ungodly silence, I confirm and confess by this writing before all who read and hear it, and before heaven and earth, the articles which I have undertaken to defend at Leipzig as evangelical and supremely Christian: The general (universalis) church is the entirety (universitas) of the elect (praedestinatorum), and the articles which follow therefrom. And I say and testify that they have been ungodly condemned, and the Concilium of Costnitz, as far as this piece is concerned, has been a wretched Concilium (conciliabulum) of Satan, since it has condemned them. I condemn, put in prison, shun and abhor all who have been present at this concilio and have given or still give their consent, be it the pope, or bishops, or kings, or any who will do so in the future, so that I will not be stained with innocent blood.
I further testify that if John Hus and Jerome of Prague were burned for no other reason than because of these articles, they were wronged, and that the pope and his followers were and are the most cruel and godless murderers, enemies of Christ and his church. All who read this shall be witnesses for this faith and confession of mine. At Leipzig, I truly did not yet know the meaning of these articles, whose words, as I saw, were exceedingly Christian. Thus, at that time, I could not refute the meaning that the flatterer of the pope gave them. But now, since the book of John Hus [de ecclesia]1 ) is available, I see from
what precedes and follows, that also the sense of the same is exceedingly Christian. What is the pope, what is the world, what is the prince of the world, that I should deny for his sake the truth of the Gospel, for which Christ died? Let it happen to me as it may, I will always hold on to this opinion, if God is merciful to me.
But let us return to our psalm. Christ first speaks against the presumption of the Jews and completely destroys everything they trusted in. They trusted in three things: first of all, that they were the seed of Abraham and of the flower of the patriarchs; therefore they alone wanted to be the people of God. But just this (he says), which you cite as a proof for yourselves, I turn against you, that just by this you are not my people, by which you test yourselves to be my people. Until me, you were my people according to the outward assembly (synagoga), but now that the promise and the law have been fulfilled, my people are not of the blood but of the spirit.
43 Secondly, they trusted that they would be many. For it did not seem credible to them that the whole nation or such a large
1) Marginal gloss in the Wittenberg and Jena editions: lüfter Huss 4s I^edesiu. - This writing was sent to Luther by Wenceslaus Rozdalowsky on July 17, 1519, and by October 3 it was in his hands. Cf. De Wette 1, 340; Enders, Luthers Briefw., II, pp. 79 and 183; Köstlin, Martin Luther, 1, 290 (Weim. Ausg.).
The part of it should be left. For the Hebrew expression in this passage, as Reuchlin testifies, means a great multitude of gathered people, as also Ps. 42:5: "For I would gladly go with the multitude," that is, I would go with a great multitude of gathered people, as if to say: I would gladly abide in the fellowship of the saints. So also here: I do not want to gather those who gather together in a great number, as if they wanted to be considered worthy of being excluded because of their multitude. But not so, ye wicked! For the destruction, and that the destruction be controlled, the Lord will do (and, as Isaiah Cap. 10, 22. says2 )), in such a way that "though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, yet the rest of them shall be converted. Against this reason of proof, which is taken from the multitude, and on which they rely no less stubbornly than on the reason of the lineage and the flowering, many things are said everywhere in the other prophets. For they boasted: Peace, peace, and God could not be angry with such a great multitude, and what such a great multitude held and believed could not be false. That is it that he says, "I will not gather their multitudes," I will not accept them, should they become as much as the sand of the sea.
44. the third thing [in which they trusted] was the glory and the name of righteousness and the worship of God (religionis), because of which they boasted especially one against the other as the people of God, since they alone had received the law and trusted in it, what God had spoken, as Paul says Rom. 3, 2. and Ps. 147, 19. 20.: "He shows Jacob his word, Israel his customs and rights. So he does not do to a Gentile, nor does he let them know his rights." With what vehemence Paul fights this their trust is shown before others by his letters to the Romans and to the Galatians. And they trusted in this piece more than in the
2) ait is found only in the Erlangen and Weimar editions. In all other editions available to us, the parenthesis is missing and a new sentence is started with "Lt", because they did not recognize that the preceding words are also taken from Isaiah, Cap. 10, 23 [Vulgch.
The first two, how even though they believed that they deserved the wrath of God because of their sins, even though they were Israelites and a great multitude of them, they could never abandon their trust in their righteousness. This confidence is the most stubborn, and against the same he says: "I will not carry their name in my mouth", rather I will blot out their names; they shall not be considered my people because they are called righteous, wise, God-fearing (religiosi), great, or with any other noble] names, but these shall be my people, born of me through the spirit of faith.
45 Now see if the same extremely frightening judgment is not passed in the church before our general public. Have we not also set up these three supports for our exceedingly hopeful confidence? First of all, they boast of [apostolic] succession and, as it were, of the apostolic lineage, and from the bloom and this empty splendor they want to be taken for the people of God, while they are without faith and spirit, and say: The pope is the head of the church. But they call this bunch of flowered people the church, and everything that is due to the apostles, they presume as if it were also due to them.
46 Then, with how full cheeks they raise the great multitude that is on their side, as if they had the right opinion because they held the same with many, as if Christ had not foretold [Matt. 24:5], "And shall deceive many," and Peter s2. Ep. 2, 2.]: "Many shall follow their destruction," indicating without doubt that few remain who are not deceived. But this reason of proof does not receive the pope less powerfully nowadays than the first, however much they always act without faith and spirit.
The third reason is the most powerful one, superstition, which they have established with laws and ceremonies in such a way that, although they are exceedingly godless, they nevertheless sell their righteousnesses and merits, as if they alone were Christians, to the others for all the good (substantia) of the world, because here too they rule only by name, without anything behind it (sine ulla re).
But Christ does not take their names in his mouth, nor do his own. He does not teach these their righteousnesses and ceremonies, yes, he condemns them and contends against them, so that he may establish the righteousness that is valid before God (which we [wrongly] offer to God by works of the law and in proud confidence), so that the word may stand [v. 2. Vulg.]: "You do not need my good" [§ 11], nor have we done anything good to you, but you to us. And this is Christ's pleasure in His saints, that they should be and act in this way, rejecting all others with their idols and their glory.
(48) So we see that this is the purpose (scopum) of this psalm [to show] that Christ, since it is proclaimed of Him beforehand that He will be a great King and Lord in a great and glorious people, begins to reign, which could not have occurred to any man. For other kings are born to reign, but this one dies to reign; to others also are born the nations over which they are to reign; so that this is a marvelous kingdom, which has its existence not from the bloom and dignity of a race, nor from the multitude and power of the world, nor from its own righteousness and strength, nor from any thing that is seen in the world, but from the Spirit before the face of God. Thus it is said in Ps. 22, 30. f.: "He will not let his soul live. A seed shall serve him; of the Lord shall they proclaim unto babes." 1) And Isa. 53, 10. 12.: "When he hath given his life for a trespass offering, he shall have seed, and shall live to the length of the days, and I will give him great multitude for a prey." So it is also said in Isa. 11, 10.: "His rest shall be glory."
In all these passages the death and resurrection of Christ is described, as also in this whole psalm. For reason does not understand that the honor of the reign (regni) should be given to him who died and rests in the grave, and that the new generation is the seed that serves him who gives up his life and does not give up his soul.
1) Thus, in the first translation of the Psalms in this volume, Luther translates this verse according to the Hebrew (cf. Lrl. 6X6A. opp. tönn. XV, p. 356 and 360), not, as Greifs says, according to the Latin Bible.
and that he who gives his life as a guilt offering shall see such a seed living forever. For who can say to a dying man, Behold, thou shalt be king, and the nations shall be thy subjects for ever? A king who is born is certainly wished for, so he had to rise again from the dead, so that this scripture would be fulfilled.
50. so also here; since he asks as a dying man to be preserved, and commands his soul into the hand of the Father, he nevertheless says that he has his pleasure in the saints, and that his inheritance will not consist of those of the blood, but of the glorious ones, as will be said, by apparently teaching by these wonderful words that he will rise again; for as a dead man he could not reign, and yet as a dying man he says that he reigns. Therefore Paul rightly writes to Timothy [2 Ep. 2, 8.] that he should have in remembrance that the Lord Jesus has risen, adding [1 Cor. 15, 4: "according to the Scriptures, 1) as we also sing in the Nicene Creed, namely, because it is most contrary to the mind of all men that one who has died should attain a kingdom, and it is necessary that we base ourselves on these Scriptural passages. Now if the Spirit had not interpreted them, who would have understood them? Who would have read in these verses that Christ will rise again? Or how many are there today who understand this passage in this sense?
V. 5. But the Lord is my goods and my portion; you receive my inheritance. 2)
Jerome translates the last part thus: Tu possessor sortis meae [you are the owner of my inheritance]. The pronoun mihi is too much. But this verse is taken from the Law of Moses, where it is written that the Levites and the priests have no inheritance among the children of Israel, but "the Lord" (Deut. 10:9, Deut. 18),
1) At the quoted place in the Epistle to Timothy is added: "according to my gospel".
2) Vulgate: vominus pars bsreäitLiis rnsas st ealieis mei. TU ss, Hui restitnes üei-ediUUsm msani Midi.
20. f.]) is their inheritance." According to this it is also said here: The Lord is my inheritance, and I believe that from this example, that the land was divided among the children of Israel, but the same was denied to the priests, the prophet, out of enlightenment of the spirit, drew the psalm in this place, namely, that the inheritance of Christ would not be an inheritance common among men, nor such an inheritance as was received by blood and by earthly things, just as the Levites had no inheritance among the children of Israel.
(52) But I believe that this is a Hebrew way of speaking, hereditatis instead of pars hereditaria, or a part that must be allotted to me. For many understand by the inheritance the church, of which it is certain that the Lord is its part. But it seems to me that Christ speaks for his person of the inheritance that falls to him. This is confirmed by the following: Et calicis mei [and my cup]. For we have said in the 11th Psalm [§ 50 ff.] that "cup" according to the use of Scripture means the measure which is appointed to each one by God, and which must be given to him according to his merits, and "to drink the cup" is to suffer, or to receive this appointed measure. And here is also a Hebrew expression: Dominus pars calicis mei (the Lord is the part of my cup] instead of: The Lord is my cup, or that which is appointed to be given to me, so that I receive nothing else as recompense but the Lord Himself.
(53) It is therefore a marvelous thing that a dying man should boast that he has the inheritance, which is the Lord Himself, again indicating that he must be raised from the dead in order to receive this promised inheritance. But what should he not have who has the Lord above all things himself? But who has the Lord above all things? He who has nothing else and seeks nothing but what is God's, even through death and all evil. Thus it happens that he finds everything, while he loses everything; while he chooses no inheritance, everything falls to him of its own accord.
54. Therefore he surely says [Vulg.], "It is you who restore my inheritance to me." Better according to the Hebrew, "You receive my inheritance," for he does not speak of the re-
but from the onset, as if he wanted to say: It is mine to do and suffer all things, to lose and forsake all things, that I may obey thee. You will, without me caring for it, preserve and fortify what is to be my possession. I do not seek it, and am satisfied that you are my heir and my portion. When I have that, my inheritance is well established and made secure.
Thus we see how Christ does not presume anything and how he is not at all concerned about himself; he only desires to obey God the Father and confidently relies on everything else being well taken care of. And we miserable people, how great a noise we make nowadays because of the [episcopal] parishes and spiritual (ecclesiasticis) dominions, in which we are only foreign servants, as if in our hands lay the salvation and the ruin of the church. Why do the Romans not entrust the cause of their servile primacy to God with the same confidence, since Christ, the heir and Lord of all things, nevertheless entrusts his cause to the Father and does not worry about it?
V. 6: The lot (funes) has fallen to me in a lovely way, a beautiful inheritance has become mine.
56 He sticks to the custom of the Scriptures, according to which funes or funiculi are called the measures, divisions or boundaries according to which the inheritance of the land is distributed, as Ps. 78, 55 [Vulg.]: "And by lot he divided unto them the land with the measuring cord (in funiculo distributionis), and Ps. 105, 11. [Vulg.]: "And said, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the cord (funiculum) of your inheritance." Hence Jerome translated, "The cord (lineae) is fallen to me most beautifully, for the most glorious inheritance is mine." Deut. 32:8, 9: "He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the cord of his inheritance."
57 He treats this here in a spiritual way, as if he wanted to say: Just as there the
1) In all editions: prassmnunt, for which probably praesarueus, or praksuruit, should be read. After that we have translated. - The Weimar one has assumed praesamit in the addenda.
The cord fell no further than where the number of the children of Israel was, and where the number of the children of Israel ceased, the borders of the nations began, from which he chose no one, but his part and cord was this people: so also now I will not suppose any yeast of men from the flower, but as there I made a bodily separation of the bounds of my people from the Gentiles, so now I have set much more spiritual bounds of the nations according to the number of spiritual children, so that whithersoever in all the world my faithful cease, as the nations of unbelievers begin, even according to the spirit they may not mingle with one another, though they may mingle according to the body.
58. But faith is this border or cord which distributes the inheritance, because it forms the border for the number of believers. Everything outside of it are the borders of the nations, and these are called Mal. 1, 4. "the damned border" (termini impietatis). For "he that believeth shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned" [Marc. 16, 16.]. Thus we see that nothing can be called a church but the church that believes. Therefore the Roman popes with their church are in truth idols and deceptions of godless men. For they strive to break this measuring cord (funes) and to extend it wherever they want, namely also to that which is not lovely, yes, to the utter darkness. But in vain. For he does not say, "The lot is extended," but, "It is fallen"; you will not be able to extend it, but it must fall from heaven.
So he describes the inheritance, which the Lord has determined for him, instead of those who are of the flower. He says [v. 4. Vulg.], "I will not gather those of the flower." Which ones? The glorious, the beautiful, the pleasant, the lovely. Which are they? They have no name nor great renown (personam), they are not Jews nor Gentiles, not Romans, not Babylonians, they are not here or there, but are in spirit, by faith pure, beautiful, lovely before me. For the Hebrew expression in praeclaris actually denotes the lovely and pleasant, so that they are the pleasing
Christ to His believers, in turn, also expresses the abomination He has for unbelievers and those who boast of their flesh and blood.
60 Again, as I said, the resurrection is witnessed because he says, "me." What "me?" Do you not say [v. 1.], "Preserve me, God"? It is so, I die in truth, but I shall rise again, and an exceeding lovely inheritance shall be given me. He says funes in the plural, because the whole church, although it is one, is scattered throughout the world because of the ministry of the word and baptism, since one cannot minister to all, so that the individual funes are the individual churches in which the same Christ, the same baptism, the same word is.
61 [The lot] "is fallen," because not by human agency and work, but by the power of God's grace are the faithful of Christ multiplied, and for us all who are converted are by accident, and people of whom we could not foresee it, as it is said Isa. 49:21: "Thou shalt say in thine heart, Who begat me these? I am barren, single. Who brought up these for me?" For so Christ also shows here that he received everything from the Father without his care, and that, as it were, by lot this inheritance fell most sweetly to him.
(62) Also this is not without emphasis, that he says: "It is pleasing to me" and: "beautiful to me" or "beautiful with me", namely everything against the pretence (larvam) of those who measure the church according to the outward appearance, and bind it to places and describe it according to the temporal boundaries of the parishes. For we say nowadays in another way that one church is greater than another, according to the earthly space and the number of people, while in truth it can be either great, or beautiful, or strong, by faith, hope, and love alone; indeed, because it is lovely and beautiful in the eyes of Christ (as he says here), it is understood by the contrast that it is bitter and shapeless before the world and itself, as it says [in Song of Songs Cap. 1, 5. 6.]: "I am black, but altogether lovely. Do not look at me that I am so black, for the sun has burned me like this," that is, Christ.
has subjected me to the cross and to misfortune, and so I am outwardly black, inwardly beautiful. For the one who wants to please Christ must be displeased with himself, he must appear unattractive (obscurum), if he wants to be glorious before Christ. For he who pleases himself belongs to the heap of the flower and the flesh.
(63) Why then do we presume to be great in the world and according to the flesh, one bishop above another, one church above another, since Christ here does not call the church good according to what can have prestige in the eyes of men, but according to what he himself sees, that is, in faith, which humbles and crucifies it among all? But we want to let it go. Our church regiment (hierarchia) has the name of a holy supremacy (principatus), therefore it falls under the word [v. 4.ft "I will not have their names in my mouth." They are works of men, therefore they please men.
V. 7. I praise the Lord who has counseled me; my kidneys also discipline me at night. 1)
Jerome and the Hebrew text have thus: I will praise the Lord, who has given me counsel; even by night my kidneys have instructed me. Here certainly a great and difficult work is indicated, namely to be a counselor, that is, who in death and suffering, when he is frightened on all sides and stands in terror, knows what he should do and where he should flee. For those who are without this counsel flee, but they do not escape. Therefore the prophet Isa. 11, 2. puts counsel and strength together, saying, "Upon him shall rest the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord." For if a man be not rich in counsel, there can be no strength in death.
Therefore, not only is it God's gift to suffer misfortune and death, but also to know how to bear them and from where to seek help, as it says in Wis 8:21: "When I learned that I had no other choice
1) Vulgate: Bsusäisain Domiuuiu, triduit midi iuteNvetum, in super st usyus a<I noetsru inerspusrunt ws reues msi.
could be chaste, if God would give it to me (and that same was also prudence, recognizing that such grace is)."
What then was the counsel that was given to Christ? Without a doubt, that he did not flee in death, did not go behind himself, but said, "Protect me, God," and commanded his whole cause to God. For this is how we are wont to boast in exuberant joy when we are saved from danger, not both because we are saved, but because we behaved in such a way that we could be saved. There is a lovely narrative of the dangers avoided, the accidents averted, the enemy's ambushes thwarted, and all the taking of the anxious care that had made us wise in the present danger. 1) So Christ also boasts that he did wisely in enduring adversity, and that in his divine office, that he did not answer the blasphemies [Isa. 52:13, 53:7], did not flee from death, and was not moved by any words or deeds. For it is sweet to remember that by which one has obtained help, as one knows.
(67) One finds people who, when they are healthy, can give good advice to the sick, and as long as there is no danger for them, they know everything in the best way and can teach everyone; but when the floods rise up to heaven and fall down again into the depths, their soul despairs in misfortune, they fall into fear and stagger like drunkards, and all their wisdom falls away, as it says in the 107th Psalm, v. 26 f., so that no one is more in need of advice than these masters in counsel.
(68) Therefore, the divine mercy shines forth excellently and gloriously here, which is near in the time of such great need, and enlightens a frightened, helpless and poor heart with the counsel for which it asked above, when it said, "Keep me, God. For by this counsel the soul is preserved in the midst of the shadow of death. But
1) In the original of the Erlanger, in the Weimarschen, in the Baseler and in the Wittenberger ksosrat, what the Jenaer and the Erlanger changed (not well) in ksesrant.
He will also say in the following verse what kind of advice this was.
69 From this it can be seen how our translation can be drawn to the same meaning, so that intellectus is the very counsel by which he knows what he should do and not do in the midst of adversity, so that he does not offend God, but by which he can rejoice, exult, and praise the Lord for being saved.
70 But what is this: "My kidneys also chastise me at night"? What are the kidneys of Christ that either mend (emendant) him, as Augustine reads, or rebuke (increpant) him, as our Latin translator gives it, or chasten (erudiunt) him, as Jerome and the Hebrew text have it? It is nothing else than what the apostle Hebr. 5, 8. f. wants: "He has learned obedience from what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became to all them that obey him a cause of eternal blessedness," and the word Matt. 26:41: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." For although he was full of counsel, he nevertheless felt the weakness of our nature, which resists this counsel. Through this struggle he learned from experience to be obedient, just as we are instructed all the more the more we are attacked by temptations, if we can suffer them wisely and willingly (consulte), as then what seemed to work against the willing spirit of counsel, where one has carried away the victory, is found to be of such a nature that it only stimulated it the more and made it more lively, as Paul boasts 2 Cor. 12, 10. 9. "When I am weak, I am strong. For [Vulg. strength becomes strong in weakness." And Ps. 68:10, [Vulg.] "Your heritage has become weak, but you have made it strong."
Thus the kidneys of Christ, though holy and undefiled, yet, being also weak, were afraid of suffering and death, since the weak nature rather desires to live and to have good days, yet through this fear the council drove him to be all the more watchful and careful in that which was of God. It has been said above in the 7th Psalm [§ 69] that the kidneys have the pleasures or the capacity
The spirit of the Lord means to lust (vim concupiscibilem), which hates everything that grieves (tristitias), loves pleasures and tranquility, which causes suffering and death to be hard and bitter in all men, including Christ; this must be overcome by the spirit of counsel and strength.
He expressly adds: "at night" (noctibus), which is better than "until night" (usque ad noctem) in our Latin translation. Although the night could be taken figuratively for repulsiveness, - for the kidneys or the faculty of desire (vis concupiscibilis) do not chastise when there is no repulsiveness, because then it [the faculty of desire] neither penetrates nor is penetrated, so that it is proper for it to discipline and awaken the spirit in temptations, - so here we simply assume, without figurative speech, the time of the night, which is suitable for fear and terror and all the secret workings of God, so that in this way the time also corresponds to the work.
73 Thus we read in Gen. 15, 12, that after the sun had set, darkness and great terror overtook Abraham, and Cap. 32, 24, that Jacob wrestled most fiercely with the angel until the dawn broke. So it is also said in the following Psalm [Ps. 17:3], "Thou provest my heart, and visitest it by night." For just as the night is the best time to pray, as we read of Christ that he often prayed at night, so also to ponder and suffer all that God sends us (omnia divina). So also Christ began to tremble at the coming of night [Matth. 26, 37]. Thus it is said, Job 4, 13. f.: "When I contemplated visions in the night, when sleep falls on the people, fear and trembling came upon me, and all my bones trembled" etc.
In the Scriptures we read many such things. For since at night man is free from business and everything is quiet, night makes man most fit for those divine effects, that is, for inward sufferings, such as the fear and terror of death, by which the spirit of man is violently chastened, if he is wise and lets it pass over him. Therefore, this is also a proverb in our prophet.
He speaks this without doubt as one who has learned this through much experience, as he says in the 91st Psalm, v. 5: "So that you do not have to be frightened by the horror of the night," by not expressing what this horror of the night is, because it is learned only through experience. If you want to know more about these nights in a figurative sense, read Tauler's sermons.
V. 8. I have the Lord always before my eyes, for he is at my right hand; therefore I will abide.
(75) Here he reveals the secret of his counsel, on account of which he praised the Lord, namely, that he has set the Lord alone before his eyes, but as one who is at his right hand, that he may not be made to waver, that is, as a gracious and merciful Lord.
This was indicated in the beginning of the Psalm: "Keep me, O God, for I trust in You," that is, what is so often said in the previous, that no one can endure suffering or death unless he uses this counsel and models the Lord on Himself in the most merciful way, as it is said in Wis 1:1. 1, 1 [Vulg.]: "Remember therefore the Lord, that he is good," and Ps. 3, 3 f.: "Many say of my soul, It has no help from God. But you, O Lord, are the shield for me, and the one who sets me in honor" etc. And Ps. 26, 3: "For your goodness is before my eyes, and I walk in your truth."
For we have said that what hope is based on (objectum spei) is nothing other than the pure and undeserved goodness of God, which is promised freely by grace and is to be invoked by those who are not worthy of it; therefore, those are exceedingly wicked and devilish counselors who either press their sins hard upon those who are in suffering or dying, or present God to them, as it were, as a hard driver, by holding up satisfaction and good works. The Lord did not give them this advice, but Satan did, and therefore they come closer to despair and blasphemy than to praise and thanksgiving.
78. [Instead of: I^rvviäedain Ovminuni ete. in
The Vulgate has] the Hebrew text and Jerome: I have set the Lord always before my eyes [proponebam etc.]. But this imagining of the Lord makes the heart brave, joyful, and willing to do all good works and to suffer all evil, and from this imagining, as is often said, the good life and the good work must begin. For what should he not do and dare with exceeding pleasure who has confidence that he pleases God, and that God is favorable and well-disposed toward him? What sin, no matter how lovely, should he not despise, since he bases himself in this trust in God? Truly, this faith does not and cannot do evil, just as it cannot be overcome by evil.
No one who has not experienced evil can believe that this confidence will move him away from evil and toward good. Therefore, in this verse the spirit paints for us the nature, the attitude and the work of faith directed toward God in the most beautiful way. For what does believing in God mean but to firmly imagine that the Lord is at his right hand so that he will not waver? And whoever persists in imagining this (in eo proposito), how can he not always live and work in the right way? What storm of misfortune could overthrow him? He is founded on a solid rock.
Therefore, the Hebrew text uses more emphatic words. First of all, "I have put", because "put" indicates a firmness and strong foundation, so that it shows that faith is a constant and exceedingly firm disposition of the heart, which does not waver or waver at any time.
Secondly: "The Lord", because faith is not directed to our works, not even to any creature, but only to God, therefore it is also called a theological virtue, because it has to do with divine mercy; but the evil conscience and godlessness has to do with one's own sin and free will.
Thirdly: "Before my eyes", by which he expresses the liveliness and vigilance of faith. For faith is not, as those who dream, a habit (habitus) that lies and snores in the soul below, but
The reason is that he is also the author and the origin of works, indeed, the first and the last in all good works and in the whole of life.
He adds "all the time" because there are two times. For at the time of peace faith does good, at the time of war it suffers evil; it is never idle, but always exceedingly busy. Thus we see how excellent a dialectician David is, who indicates faith in God in such an appropriate description (definitione). And what are all the Psalms but a kind of description of faith, hope and love? For all the Psalms are concerned with these movements of the heart, and they show that faith, hope and love are actually the very best and divine movements of the heart.
For he is on my right hand," that is, in secret, in spirit, he is present, while on my left hand, in what is before my eyes, in the flesh, my enemies persecute me. In the same way it is said in Ps. 20, 7: Et in potentatibus salus dexterae ejus, that is, his right hand is mightily sustained, however weak his left may become. So also here Christ is left on the left in weakness, but he is received in power on his right. The Scripture uses the image of the right and the left for the inward and the outward man, as Christ says Matth. 6, 3. 4.: "But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be hidden," where he interprets himself by attributing that the alms are hidden to the right hand, that they are revealed to the left hand, of which perhaps more will be said elsewhere.
85. [Vulgate "So that I may not waver." He does not say, Lest I be touched, lest I be challenged, lest I feel it. For faith is a mighty movement of the heart, it wants to be exercised and cannot rest; neither is it left [in peace]; but it always remains victorious and cannot be made to waver
nor fall. For this is our victory, our faith, as it says in 1 John 5:4, and Paul says that we are always led in triumph (triumphari) (that is, become victors) in Christ [1 Cor. 15:57].
V. 9. Therefore my heart rejoices, and my honor is glad, and my flesh shall lie secure.
This is what I have said, that this good trust of the heart in God is infallibly followed by joy of the heart and an exceedingly loving disposition toward God and all creatures. For in this way the Holy Spirit is poured into the heart of the believer, which in turn pours out and expands the heart of man to all willingness to do and suffer everything in vain, both before God and before men. Then he loves his enemies no less than his friends and gladly becomes the servant of all people, so that he can benefit all, since he has not only abandoned care for himself, but has also become a prodigal. Thus in the 4th Psalm, after he had said, v. 7: "Lift up the light of your countenance upon us," he immediately adds, v. 8: "You make my heart glad," by combining these two parts, faith and gladness of heart, as he also does here.
But this joy is soon followed by praising, praising, thanking and praising the divine mercy with the highest joy of the heart. Therefore, he does not simply say: My tongue will give thanks, but: "it will exult" (exsultabit), that is, it will speak with exultation and delight (tripudians). This strong movement of joy (affectum) the Hebrew text still expresses by burying another word and emphatically thus: "My glory is joyful." We have [in Latin] lingua [tongue] instead of "honor," and it seems to me that David has this as a special thing before others, that he calls "his honor" the verbal and outward praise and boasting in which he not only glorifies God, but because of the deep feeling of this movement also boasts of this praise of God. For thus he speaks in the 106th Psalm, v. 47. [Vulg.]: "That we may give thanks to thy holy name, and boast in thy praise." And Ps. 30, 13: "That my glory may sing to thee, and not be silent.
I will. O Lord, my God, I will give thee thanks for ever and ever." And Ps. 108, 2. [Vulg.]: "I will sing and write poetry in my honor." And Ps. 57, 9. "Awake, my glory, awake, psaltery and harp, early will I awake."
From all this it is clear that "my glory" is the same as my song, or my voice with which he praises and extols. Therefore, even in this Psalm, we must be careful not to think that Christ calls "his glory" his good rumor (famam); but rather the office of which he boasts in God, indeed, praises God boastfully and cheerfully; and I do not recall reading "my glory," used in this way, elsewhere in Scripture. Therefore, these are words of bursting joy and overflowing exceedingly strong emotion, which again experience teaches, not speech or pen.
Now the question may be raised whether all this was said in the person of Christ at the time of his suffering? For if this is admitted, it is evident that Christ rejoiced with the greatest gladness in the midst of suffering, as these words of the psalm prove. Many have raised questions about this, but I do not know if they have found it. But I believe that it is not necessary to refer it to the time of suffering, because the prophets do not keep the order of events as Christ performed them, nor do they sing everything in one place, and leave many things unsaid (in medio relinquunt). Nor is it necessary to perform the events in strict succession when a prophecy is given in the person of Christ or another. It is enough if the truth is told in all things, and the order is left to the execution of the events. Even the evangelists do not observe order everywhere.
90 It is a well-known rule for the understanding of Scripture, especially prophetic Scripture, that much is said in such a way that it is anticipated (per anticipationem), and other things are repeated. So also here. Since Christ confesses that he rejoices in the Father and glories and praises, he is silent about all his works and virtues, which he has accomplished in the Father.
988 L. LV, 376-378. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 16, 9. 10. W. IV, 1248-1252. 989
He jumps over to the last ones as if he wanted to say: "I will not only praise and glorify, but for the sake of my works and virtues and my whole life, I will also gladly die: I will not merely praise and boast, but, to say nothing of my works and virtues and my whole life, I will also gladly die, and am certain in this very confidence that my dead flesh will indeed lie secure, but in the most certain hope and expectation of the resurrection.
The Hebrew verb "will lie down" [XXXX] is the same as the one in the previous Psalm [Ps. 15:1]: He will rest or "he will dwell on your holy mountain". Therefore Jerome translates here: My flesh shall dwell securely, and it denotes, as is said, a quiet and peaceful dwelling, as if he spoke the word Ps. 4, 9. "I lie down and sleep altogether with peace." In another sense it also denotes buried, Ps. 7, 6. "And lay my honor in the dust," that is, bury, so that it might also be so translated, or yet at least understood: My flesh shall be buried in hope. But Peter introduces Apost. 2, 25. f. this verse not according to the Hebrew, but according to the Septuagint, using neither the word "bury" nor "my honor"; but neither translation affects the sense.
Therefore this is a new prophecy of a thing of which no one has heard before. For this Christ alone is the cause of the general punishment that has been decreed for the whole human race, Genesis 3:19: "You shall be turned into dust. Nor does the Scripture speak of anyone else in this way, although we, in a godly way, assume the same of the Blessed Virgin and St. John. For the Scripture hands over all men to dust. He alone, in the new and truly golden, brings the exceedingly joyful message that his flesh shall not turn to dust, but shall die and dwell in peace.
Therefore, all the individual words are golden and should be considered carefully. "My flesh", in that he takes his flesh alone from the flesh of all men, none of which has remained or lain secure, but all the flesh of all men has turned to dust. There he indicates death, because his flesh,
since the spirit was separated from it, had died in truth, like that of all other people. So it is a tremendous miracle that he dies in the same way, but yet does not decompose in the same way.
94. "And my flesh shall rest," that is, even though it will be buried like that of other men, it will have rest and peace, for it will not be touched by any rot or worms. No other flesh has this peace and rest.
95 [Vulgate:] "In hope." For it will not thus rest forever, but will expect to be awakened again and to live.
96) See how the prophet proclaimed in very proper words that Christ would rise from the dead, indicating that he had a very clear and complete knowledge of Christ, that he would die and rise from the dead, and the apostles rightly exalted this passage above others.
V.10. For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you allow your Holy One to decay.
97. He declares what he had said [Vulg.], "It [my flesh] will rest in hope." This is the hope, namely, that thou wilt not forsake me, nor suffer me to decay, that is, that thou wilt raise me up without doubt. And it pleased him to say, not: my spirit, but "my soul," Hebrew XXXX, because in Scripture the soul is wont to be taken for life, or for the soul, inasmuch as it quickeneth the body, and giveth it prosperity, that the spirit might show that Christ should truly be recalled again into bodily life.
98 "Your Holy One" in this place is n'yy, who is sanctified by the grace of the Spirit, and Christ is actually called the Holy One of God everywhere in Scripture, as is also the Christ of the Lord. And it is not easy to find any human being who is called a Holy One of God in the singular, or "your Holy One", except Christ alone, whom David also praises here alone.
99. I believe that the Hebrew expression is known: to see the decay instead of: to ver-.
just as seeing death means dying, not seeing death means not dying, as it is found in Lucas Cap. 2, 26. and John Cap. 8, 51. Perhaps the scripture uses this expression to indicate the divine power, before which everything lives and nothing perishes or decays, but before us we perish, and before us we die and decay.
The meaning is therefore quite obvious and abundantly and diligently explained by the apostles. But even here men, trusting in their wisdom, have begun to dispute whether Christ was in hell according to his soul or according to his substance, and what it is that he was in hell.
(101) A large part of them have presumed to contradict the spirit that Christ's soul was not in hell, but only according to its effect; these are, of course, very good interpreters of the word of God: "My soul," that is, the effect of my soul, "you will not leave in hell. "He descended to hell," that is, he had an effect on hell.
But let us despise these frivolous and ungodly sayings, and let us understand the words of the prophet, which are plainly spoken, and if we cannot understand them, let us believe them faithfully. Augustine says: "The prestige of this scripture is greater than anything human cleverness can muster. For the soul of Christ has in truth, by its very nature, descended into hell. But what this descent was or is, I believe, is not yet sufficiently revealed, at least not to all.
103 Peter says Apost. 2:24 [Vulg.]: "Him hath God raised up, and dissolved the pains of hell," or, as the Greek text has it, "of death," by which he seems to indicate that Christ was delivered from the pains of death or hell in the resurrection. But I consider the pains of death and hell to be the same thing. For hell is the terror of death, that is, the sensation of death according to which the damned have a horror of death and yet cannot escape. For death, which is despised, is not felt and is, as it were, a sleep.
(104) We see that the Scriptures ascribe two kinds of death to the dead: the pit to the body and hell to the soul. But Peter does not say here that only hell or death is dissolved in Christ, but the pains of hell or death. For although it is believed that many saints have been without pain in the grave and in hell, who also died in peace, yet Christ, just as he died with the greatest pain, seems to have endured pain in hell after death, so that he might overcome all things for us.
(105) Meanwhile, I will stand by the words of Peter until I am taught otherwise, so that I believe that Christ, before all others, felt not only death, but also the pains of death or hell; that his flesh rested in hope, but that his soul tasted hell, and that is what he says here, "You will not leave my soul in hell."
But these negative expressions (negativae): "Thou wilt not let, neither wilt thou admit" etc. are exceedingly strong affirmations (affirmativae) and testify to the resurrection more strongly than if he had said: "Thou wilt lead my soul out of hell, and wilt preserve thy saint, as [Luc. 10, 42.] in the passage: "Mary has mentioned the good part, it shall not be taken away from her", that is, it shall remain for her in the most certain way. So also here: "Thou wilt not leave," that is, thou wilt bring her out again as quickly as possible; and, "Thou wilt not allow thy saint to decay," that is, thou wilt hasten to bring me back to health and bodily life.
(107) For it seems to me that the spirit in these words speaks in a simple way and looks more at the time than at the place or any other circumstance, so that the meaning is: You will not leave me as long as the corpses decay according to the course of nature, but within the time when they begin to decay, you will raise me up. Otherwise, it might seem that this speech was said by someone who would be miraculously preserved in hell and in the grave until the day of judgment, although no man has been preserved in such a way.
992 L. XV, 379-381. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 16, 10. 11. W. IV, 1256-1259. 993
at least not in the presence of Christ, of whom he speaks first. For although the bodies (as in Egypt) are anointed and preserved with myrrh, which serves against rottenness, yet the flesh is consumed and withered; whereas here it is said: "My flesh shall rest in hope."
V. 11. You make known to me the way to life; before you there is fullness of joy, and sweetness at your right hand forever. 1)
108 Jerome: Ostendis mihi semitam vitae, plenitudinem laetitiarum ante vultum tuum, decores in dextera tua aeternos, where it seems that by the one verbum ostendis the three accusatives are governed, one of which our Latin interpreter has changed into the verbum adimplebis, and the third into the nominative delectationes. But this does not affect the sense, for also Peter, Apost. 2, 28, follows our Latin translation.
But he describes the glory of the resurrection in three pieces: the immortal life, the inward joy, and the eternal sweetness. It is called "a way to life" because he goes from death to life, as if he said the word of the apostle Rom. 6, 9. "Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth not henceforth; death shall not have dominion over him." For Christ did not know beforehand the way to life from experience, since this way is nothing other than the way of death, or rather a course to death. But to rise again to immortal life, that is in truth to know the way to life. This alone is in the power and right hand of God, as he says here: "You make known to me the way to life", and Ps. 89, 49: "Where is there anyone who lives and does not see death? Who shall deliver his soul out of the hand of hell?" as if to say: No one. Thus Ps. 68, 21. is called the Lord: "the Lord who saves from death" and "the God who helps", because after death is swallowed up by victory, He leads out into eternal life, as He promised Hos. 13, 14. f.: "But I will deliver them out of hell, and save them from death. Death, I will be a poison to you, hell,
1) Vulgate: Notas miUi kooisti via8 vitae, a<1impledis mo laetitia eum vultu tuo, deleetationes in Ubxtsra toa U8HO8 in Liiern.
I want to be a pestilence to you. But the consolation is hidden from my eyes. For it shall bring forth fruit between brethren. An east wind shall come; the Lord shall come up out of the wilderness, and shall dry up her fountain, and dry up her spring," that is, sin, which is the vein, the fountain, the sting, and the power of death etc.
The internal joy, which Jerome understands not badly from the fullness of joy before the face of God, is that in which God is seen above all gods [Ps. 97:9] in Zion as He is, and face to face, where there is full satisfaction of our heart, so that it is rightly called emphatically a fullness of joys. For in this life "our knowledge is piecemeal, and our prophesying is piecemeal"; so also our joy is piecemeal, and all we have but piecemeal. "But when the perfect shall come, then shall the piecemeal cease," 1 Cor. 13:9, 10. There shall not be laughter mixed with sorrow, nor consolation with grief, as must necessarily happen in this life, so long as we walk, and are not at home with the Lord [2 Cor. 5:8], and see through a mirror in a dark word [1 Cor. 13:12].
111 Therefore we can call the joy of this life a joy in a dark word, but the joy of that life the joy of the face of God or the Lord. For so it is said in the Hebrew without the preposition cum [as in the Vulgate] and ante [as in Jerome]: the fullness of the joys of thy face, that we may know that the fullness of joys depends on the face and manifested glory of God, as he will say in the following Psalm [Ps. 17, 15. Vulg.]: "I shall be filled when thy glory shall appear." And Christ says John 14:21: "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." This is the eternal joy, because it is the fullness of joys, while the joys that are allotted to the saints in this misery are but a few drops and a little taste that soon passes away; but the fullness that is revealed through the face of God is perfect and abides forever. For "this is eternal life, that
They will know that you alone are the true God and the one you sent, Jesus Christ," John 17:3.
112 "Lovely being at thy right hand forever," where Jerome [instead of jucunditates in finem in the Vulgate] has placed decores aeternos, seems to me to mean the other gifts of body and soul and all things, or, as our theologians call it, objectivas delectationes, the actual enjoyments which Christ has of his glory. For as on the left hand of God, that is, in this life, he has had tribulation in all things, so on the right hand, that is, in the life to come, he will have delight in all things. For he who is blessed in the sight of God is blessed in all things at once. Here is no sad sight, but everything is lovely, everything works with him, applauds him, is favorable to him, laughs at him, as Lactantius sings:
Ecce renascentis testatur gratia mundi, Omnia cum Domino dona redisse suo.
[See, the grace of the universe coming back to life is testified:
All the gifts of the Lord returned with Him now].
Here is the same expression in the feminine gender that was above [v. 6] in the masculine gender [Vulg.]: "My lot is fallen on the beautiful" or on the lovely, teaching in both places the lovely nature of Christ in the things that are apart from God (existentibus). In the Hebrew
The construction of the last expression which the Latin interpreter has rendered by in finem, Jerome by aeternos, is doubtful, so that it can be drawn to all three pieces, to "the way to life", to "joy the fullness", and "lovely being at the right hand of God", so that we can take each one as eternal; or to "lovely being" (jucunditates) alone, which Jerome calls an adornment (decores), perhaps because we are delighted and pleased by dainty and beautiful things. This will take place when our bodies, heaven and earth will be transformed into new creatures at the end of the world, where everything will be pleasant and lovely. In the meantime the creature waits, longs with us and is anxious until it too will be freed from the perishable nature and vanity, to the glorious freedom of the children of God, Rom. 8, 21. 22.
114. "The right of God" means (as we have said) the future life or the life before the face of God, which now begins by faith and must be completed by sight. Amen.
So we see how this psalm, above all others, preaches the resurrection and the glory of the resurrection so clearly that it has rightly been called XXXX, a golden jewel of David, who in this passage has displayed his knowledge of divine things so magnificently.