V. 1, 2: A psalm to sing unto David the servant of the Lord, which spake the words of this song unto the Lord in the days when the Lord delivered him out of the hand of his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul, saying, I love thee, O Lord my strength.
There are many things in this psalm that compel us to understand it of Christ, and again many that compel us to understand it of David, and I myself have not yet become certain which view is the right and proper one, so that I cannot move freely here without danger. Augustine treats it, without being hindered, of Christ and his body, that is, the church, and Paul Rom. 15, 9. seems to agree with it, since he draws the penultimate verse of this psalm to Christ, saying: "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name." We also want to follow this for the time being, since it is safer to point too abundantly to Christ than to the Christian David, and easier to understand the model from the truth, since there is no doubt that David's wars and victories pictured Christ's suffering and resurrection. For St. Augustine says: "Everything that is said in this Psalm, which cannot really be attributed to the Lord Himself, must be related to the Church. For the whole Christ speaks here, in whom all are members.
(2) Let us assume, then, that David, while giving thanks for his victories, at the same time wove a prophecy into the person of Christ, who is the victor over sins, death, and the world, so that we understand the title to mean: "He who spoke the words of this song to the Lord," that is, he who wrote this song about the Christ who was to come, at the time when he was enjoying a quiet life, all his enemies having been defeated. Therefore, the whole psalm has words of the resurrected Christ. He may have wanted to show this mind in a hidden way, since he names Saul as the last enemy, who in truth was the first enemy of David, so that
he taught by this reversed order that he was not dealing with his victories but with Christ's.
He now says: "I love you dearly, O Lord, my strength. These are the words of one who has risen again, and who has experienced the power of God in tribulation. For in this way we tend to be seized by a sweet and joyful disposition toward those of whom we recognize that we have been saved from a great evil through their benevolence. For the purity of love is expressed when he says, "You, O Lord," not some creature, which was spoken of more extensively in the fifth Psalm.
V. 3. O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my savior, my God, my refuge, in whom I build, my shield and horn of salvation, and my protection. 1)
This is all one verse in Hebrew. Jerome has it thus: The Lord [is] my rock and my strength, and my savior, my God, my strong one, and I will hope in him, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, and who takes me up (susceptor meus). With the same words he translated the same song 2 Sam. 22, only that he said there for susceptor meus more correctly elevator meus [who elevates me]. Who can distinguish and describe by dignity these exceedingly violent movements of the heart? For the Spirit is not idle in his words, so that one might think there is something superfluous here. I am under this psalm, as I have said, and all others either say nothing, or I understand nothing, much less that they should give me any assistance. Nevertheless, I must continue, taking the liberty of allowing each one to speak of it as he understands it.
5 "My strength", which is written in the first verse, seems to me to be that by which man can
jutor HI6U8, spsrLbo in eum. krotsotor oasus 6t oornu salutis rasue, st susosxtor meus.
Inwardly he is made confident and strengthened with power from on high. SoPs. 147, 13: "For He makes firm the bars of your gates"; Is. 54, 2: "And set your nails firmly", so that it is the firmness by which He makes the soft and tender minds hard. This strength can only come to us from God, who, as much as there is in us, are extremely easily dissolved and melt like wax before the sun, both in misfortune and in happiness.
Firmamentum meum in Hebrew actually means "a rock", a foundation; it is a rock on which one builds, as Matth. 16, 18: "On this rock I will build my community. Thus, the Lord not only attracts Christ and His own with inner strength and firmness, but He is at the same time the very foundation on which they lean, like a strong house on a solid rock.
7 Refugium meum [Vulg.] or robur meum [Hieron] actually means "a castle," a tower, a house where one finds refuge, or a fortified place, as Ps. 31:3 [Vulg.], "Be thou unto me a GOOD that protecteth me, and a house of refuge, that thou mayest save me"; so that, adding the foregoing, the Lord is not merely the foundation, the solid rock, but also the fortified house itself, built upon the rock, which sustains and protects him that hath fled to it [the Lord^.
8. liberator meus ["my savior"] actually denotes an escape and the power by which one who is straitened and enclosed by all ropes is freed and escapes, as the children of Jfrael escaped from Pharaoh.
9 Adjutor meus [Vulg.] or fortis meus [Hieron.] in Hebrew again denotes a rock or a pebble, which is often translated by "a strong one. I hold that this is the strength by which one who has escaped and is taken up in a house of refuge remains secure and perseveres against all attempts of those who pursue him.
(10) And these five things belong to the suffering power or endurance of evils. For the first is to be strengthened inwardly. Then, when this strength is challenged, that, lest one fall, one may have a rock on which to rest and stand firm; then, that, lest even through
The last thing is, so that one does not give way, broken by the overconfidence that we have in devils and evil men, that one may be fortified by the power of perseverance.
(11) Very briefly, we can distinguish these five parts by referring the first simply to the adversity, the second to the size, the third to the quantity, the fourth to the strength, and the fifth to the perseverance of the enemies. For when an enemy first realizes that he is being resisted, he takes the great and powerful as his confederates; then he gathers the great multitude to himself. If he does not succeed in this way, he tries with them and through them all violence and artifices. Finally, if he cannot do it in any other way, he uses his perseverance to make the saints weak. "But he who perseveres to the end will be saved," Matth. 24, 13. One would almost like to believe that Paul set these five pieces, Rom. 8, 38. f., but in a different order [Vulg.]: "Neither the present nor the future, nor violence, neither high nor low, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God."
Now follow the active and driving forces. The first is "the shield" or [Vulg.] "my protector. For the one who wants to attack the enemies must be provided with a shield, with which he can catch the fiery arrows of the enemy and advance and kill the enemies. For he does not need a shield who runs to a place of refuge.
The other is "the horn of salvation," the very power that contends and overcomes. This seems to me to be the power of the word or the confident courage to preach. Thus it is said in Micah, Cap. 4, 13: "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion. For I will make you horns of iron and claws of brass,
1) The nou, which is in the original edition of the Erlanger, the Weimarschen and in the Baseler, the other editions have deleted. The sense remains the same.
And thou shalt thresh many nations: and I will utterly destroy their substance unto the Lord, and their substance unto the ruler of the whole earth." "Threshing" is the same as preaching, as the apostle proves 1 Cor. 9:9: "Thou shalt not bind the mouth of the ox that threshes." But what are the "horn of iron" and the "claws of brass" but the word of Christ [Luc. 21:15], "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not gainsay nor resist"? Therefore this power is called "a horn of salvation" because it overcomes the enemies and provides salvation from the enemies, Luc. 1, 69. 71. Some make a kingdom out of the horn, and this is not out of the way, since the kingdom of Christ consists only in the word of truth; this is indeed the kingdom of salvation, which overcomes everything.
The third power is "He who receives me," or "He who exalts me," that is, in whom I, exalted above my enemies, 1) triumph, as Paul says [2 Cor. 2:14], "Who always gives us victory in Christ." In the same way it is said Isa. 9, 11. [Vulg.], "And the Lord shall exalt the enemies of Rezin above him."
But we see how wonderful the power of Christ and His saints is. The former is the suffering power that develops the active power, as Paul says in 2 Cor. 12, 9: "The power is developed in weakness" (perficitur). Thus the world is overcome by no other weapons than patience and the word of God, as Is. 14, 2. says: "They shall hold captive those by whom they were held captive, and shall rule over their beaters." And Joel 3, 15: "The weak say, I am strong." 2 Sam. 22, 3. To this verse are added the words: "and my refuge, my Savior, who helpest me from iniquity." Why this is omitted in this Psalm, I do not know.
V. 4. I will praise and call upon the Lord, and I will be delivered from my enemies.
016 Where then is the title which says that this song was spoken when David was delivered from all enemies, and that it was spoken
1) In the Basel, Weimar, and Wittenberg: olvvatus; Erlangen and Jena: etevatos.
in the person of the risen Christ? Certainly, nothing else can be said here than what Augustine expresses as his opinion, that the whole Christ, that is, Christ speaks with his body and for his body, which is the church that always conquers and always fights, and after the past evils are overcome, prepares to overcome future evils. Or, if one must stand still at the person of Christ, it behooves one to understand it as being said according to the greatness of his heartfelt love (affectus) toward God, to whom he sets forth the willingness of his mind to suffer still more if God wills, as it is said in Ps. 108, 2. [Vulg.], "My heart is ready, God, my heart is ready," and Ps. 26, 2., "Test me, O Lord, and try me; purify my kidneys and my heart." For thus, after he is freed from evil and has experienced divine power, he desires nothing else than to suffer again, so that he may again experience divine power, and from this arises a certain wonderful thirst for suffering, and an immense confidence in the loveliness of God.
(17) But all these things are "written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" [Rom. 15:4]. For this reason he described the fivefold power of those who suffer and the threefold power of those who act, so that he might instruct us that nothing so evil, so much, so great, so powerful, so enduring, could not be overcome by the power of God, if we believe in the same; and especially then it is in the right place to hope in the power [of God] in us when many great, strong, lasting evils befall us, since this is characteristic of the divine power to help the weak, the few, the small, the unprofitable, the fainthearted, not only in evils of punishment, but also of guilt. For what kind of power of God would that be, which alone overcomes the punishments and not also the sins in us? This passage is so full of consolation, since it is contrary to nature and seems to be quite desperate when not only evils come, but many evils, great evils, enormous evils and long-lasting evils. For we see this also in the apostles, against whom, as soon as they had begun to
were done with power from on high, not only wicked men arose, but also many and great, and they were mighty. They were also persistent and persistent, as it says in Ps. 129:3: "The plowmen have plowed on my back and made their furrows long.
(18) In the same way, and in every man, Satan works in every temptation, so that he may particularly attack a man with unchastity, anger, pride, avarice, or any other evil. For where he finds a firm resolution to chastity or meekness, he not only sets in motion chastity or anger against it, but also introduces various kinds of thoughts, then makes them great and effective with incredible cunning; finally, he overcomes those whom he could not overcome either by quantity, nor by greatness, nor by powerful effect, more often by stopping and overpowering them, so that when they are tired, he brings them to ruin.
(19) O foolish and presumptuous praisers of free will and of our own actions (actuum elicitorum), who believe that Satan is asleep, do not learn to understand and prevent his thoughts, which are indicated to us in these passages of Scripture, and presume to be saved without struggle, surely, by good actions alone. Not so, ye wicked, not so; the enemy is there, numerous, great, very strong, and indefatigable. To say nothing of his multitude, greatness, strength and tenacity, we cannot withstand even a simple attack if the Lord is not our strength, since, even without the enemy's urging, we are inclined by ourselves to all evil.
020 But by what art shall it be, that, with this multitude, greatness, power, and obstinacy of the enemy, the Lord shall be our strength, our rock, our fortress, our deliverer, and our succor? The prophet answers: This will happen if you call on the Lord with praise; for by this praising call you will be saved from all enemies, as Rom. 10, 13. from Joel, Cap. 3, 5. it is said, "He that shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And Proverbs 18:10: "The name of the Lord is a sure thing.
Castle; the righteous runneth thither, and is protected." This is truly the noblest and most golden teaching in temptation, and the very best counsel by which we can be saved from all evils, if we can justify God in temptation, praising and glorifying Him, as the example of the three men in the fire, Daniel Cap. 3, shows. [Dan. 9, 7.:] "You, Lord, are righteous, but we must be ashamed, as it is now." It is unbelievable what an effective remedy this praise of God is in dangers, for as soon as you begin to praise God, the evil becomes mild, confidence grows and faithful invocation follows.
21. Therefore, all servants of God must be careful not to seek either to receive comfort or to conquer in any other way, even in any other order, than is prescribed in this verse. Not first shalt thou call, but first shalt thou praise. For there are those who cry out and are not heard, as it says afterward [v. 42.] in this psalm, "They call, but there is no helper, to the Lord, but he does not answer them." Why? Because they have called upon him not with praise but with displeasure (indignando), not setting the kindly Lord before themselves, but looking only at their own bitterness. But no one is freed from evils by looking at or detesting his evils, but by overcoming them and clinging to God and looking at his goodness, as we have seen in Ps. 16:8: "I have the Lord always before my eyes; for he is at my right hand, therefore I shall dwell." O a very difficult and rare advice, that in the midst of the ills one should model the Lord as lovely and praiseworthy, and that one should look at Him who is absent and incomprehensible more than the present ills that still prevent one from looking at Him. I cannot praise enough the sweetness and the power of this verse, since the words are set so appropriately and emphatically.
(22) But those who do not lift themselves up from the praise of the Lord to overcome, but look to the comfort of men, or turn to their merits, or cling to the hope that their lives will be better in the future, they will never overcome, because the word
is certain: He who calls on the Lord with praise will be delivered from his enemies, and no other. Thus we have quoted above from Isaiah, Cap. 48, 9. "I will restrain thy munt 1) with my praise, that thou perish not." And Isa. 50:4: "The Lord hath given me a learned tongue, that I may know how to speak in season with the weary." This is what we are commanded in the second commandment, "Thou shalt not uselessly take the name of the Lord thy God." And we pray, "Hallowed be thy name." This is the reason that he begins this psalm with so many praises to God and is joyful out of love for God, so that in this verse he seems to give the reason why he boasts so much in the Lord and hopes in Him, as if to say, "Thus, of course, one must start from love and praise and call upon the name of the Lord.
(23) Let someone try this when he is in a bad way, and take hold of some praise of God, and he will soon find relief. For every other consolation is either useless or deceptive, that is, it does a lot of harm; indeed, it has the same effect if you praise either the holy virgin or some saint, yes, even some godly person who still lives on earth, in the name of a disciple of the Lord. So great is the power and blessing of the name of the Lord. Thus it is said to Abraham in Gen. 12:3, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee." By this promise we are certain that we will be blessed by God if we bless His saints; how much more if we bless the Lord Himself! I confess that I have often lightened my heart in this way.
V. 5 For the bands of death encompassed me, and the streams of Belial terrified me. 2)
24. Jerome: Quoniam circumdederunt me funes mortis, torrentes Belial terruerunt me. 2 Sam. 22, 5. is in Hebrew another expression for funes [bands] than in this passage, which Jerome replaced by ooutritiouos
1) In the Vulgate, instead of: os turnn.
2) Vulgate: OireuinfleNtzrunt ine äolores rnortis, et torrentes ini^uitatis conturdaverunt ine.
Reuchlin seems to me to have translated it more correctly instead of "bands" as collections or heaps, like 1 Sam. 10, 5: "There shall meet thee a multitude of prophets", so that the meaning would be: Death has surrounded me with many and great troops, so that the troops of death are put together with the streams of Belial in the last part of the verse, so that it expresses on both sides the greatness and the multitude of the evils, which as it were break in with immense streams and many hosts.
(25) He had said and taught that the Lord must be called upon with praise and love by those who would be delivered from the enemy. Now he reports that he did this, and tells his story as an example of the teaching he had given, beginning with the very worst and most extreme enemies, death and hell. And although it is true that David himself often suffered these punishments of death and hell, as he himself often confesses in various Psalms, especially Ps. 116:3, 4: "The snares of death had compassed me about, and the fear of hell had fallen upon me; I came into mourning and distress. But I called upon the name of the Lord," where almost the same words are found [as in this psalm], not only the meaning coincides with this passage. But we have begun to understand this psalm of Christ, and have left the general sense for the time being; therefore we take it in this place of the death and hell of Christ.
(26) Now this verse speaks of death, the following of hell, and both speak the same thing by repeating the same opinion. For it is the same thing, "The bands of death compassed me about," and, "The streams of Belial terrified me," and likewise, "The bands of hell compassed me about," is the same as, "The cords of death overwhelmed me." This is our opinion; but we do not mind if someone wants to make four different things out of this.
27 The words are also actually and emphatically set. "They surrounded me" is not merely: they confronted me or: they pursued me, but: they held me and contained me on all sides^.
1048 XVI' S7-SS. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 5. 6. w. iv. 1350-1353. 1049
I, who am alone and a single one, they have included what tortures us the most in death. For if one could go to death in the company of a large crowd that one has before one's eyes, death would be a lesser evil.
28 "Ropes" or orders of battle (cunei), which our Latin translator calls "pains"; namely, not just one servant of death surrounds me, but many, yes, many troops, many hosts; which again expresses the extremely bitter loneliness in death. That by these ropes or orders of battle may be understood ungodly men, whose service death and devils use, we allow, according to the words of Ps. 22:13: "Great bullocks have compassed me about, fat oxen have compassed me about." And again [v. 21. 22.], "Deliver my soul from the sword, and save me from the unicorns."
But our Latin interpreter understands by these multitudes not unrhymed the multitude of pains, which break in at the hour of death, where there is no creature, which would not have to be subservient to death and terror. For everything that is looked at is death and not life. Thus death arms itself with the whole world, and all creatures fight against the dying man or the one who is afraid of death, abandoned and alone, and surrounded by all things. Hence it is that he can give them no other name than a figurative one, calling them battle formations or troops of death. For death, the outermost of evils, would be lessened if troops of some other evil surrounded it. But it has been said in the preceding Psalms that Christ has in truth suffered the terror and adversity (taedia) of death for us, even though we do not all have to suffer the same.
30 "The streams of Belial" is also a figurative speech, which indicates the attack and the army of evils without names. For indeed the pain of death is so great that it cannot be named or thought of, but only suffered. The dying feel that they are in a very bad way, but cannot indicate what it is, therefore
there is no remedy; just as the taste of eternal life is so great that they feel that they are very well, but still cannot tell or indicate what it is. Therefore the latter is called a river of God's pleasure, Ps. 36:9: "They are made drunk with the riches of thy house, and thou dost water them with pleasure as with a river"; but the latter is called a brook of Belial or wickedness, as he says here.
Belial" is a frequent expression in Scripture, which in Hebrew is supposed to mean wickedness, although it is almost everywhere translated by iniquitas, in a non-genuine meaning. Hence filii Belial (that is, of wickedness), Richt. 19, 22, "bad boys who are not useful." It comes from (meaning, not) and [2', (meaning, he is of use), since they live only to harm others. Therefore also the name was given to the devil, which we pronounce Belial. But that it is taken here for wickedness is certain, namely [the wickedness] of death, which in many ways inflicts evil on those who die and attacks them with streams of evils, since death is a sea and an epitome of evils.
Thus you see how he actually depicts the evils of death, although they cannot be named, that dying is nothing else (for those who lack faith) than suffering armies and whirlpools of evils, and that those who are alone and lonely are surrounded by them and are frightened on all sides, so that they have to say: "I am frightened everywhere" (Ps. 6, 8, § 51).
V. 6. The bonds of hell encompassed me, and the cords of death overcame me.
It is the same expression "the bands of hell" (dolores) as in the previous verse "the bands of death". Therefore the same is to be understood by it, namely that the bands or battle orders of hell are nothing else than the army of all things of the world, which all arm themselves for revenge on the damned. The word: "They surrounded me" has exactly the same meaning and opinion as in the previous verse. But it is the hell and
death is little different as far as the sensation of the one who suffers it (dolentis) is concerned. For the death is the bitter separation from the life, but the hell is that the death immediately accompanies the feeling of the soul that the punishment is eternal and inevitable (irreparabilis). For here the soul is caught and surrounded in truth, so that it cannot feel differently than that it must be damned eternally. For if it saw a way out, which would be only a hair's breadth, it would not be surrounded, would also feel neither hell nor death, but would be cheerful full of hope and confidence.
34 And therefore, because the scholastic theologians did not pay careful attention to these words of the Scriptures: "they encompassed", "they overwhelmed", then also never learned anything about these things, they quite certainly dream of the punishment of purgatory, which they only want by assuming that there is no despair in it, but only satisfaction. Nevertheless, they themselves confess that the punishment of purgatory and hell are one and the same, only that they differ in duration. But as they can make very fine distinctions, they say that the punishment is the same in both places, but not all [punishment in purgatory], but only that which is not at the same time guilt (culpa); but since they teach that despair and servile fear are guilt, they exclude them entirely from purgatory. But we, because the knowledge of this matter is based on experience and not on thoughts that one makes of it, will not argue about it, but simply cling to the words of Scripture, even though we do not understand what pains of death and hell the saints complain about, that they are caught and overwhelmed by the same. Those who have experienced such things may see what these words mean; those who have not experienced them we will not believe anywhere, who do not even understand what anger and unchastity are, which are the very grossest and most beastly movements.
35. the same is repeated, as I have said, "death's cords overcame me," where he indicates that he is caught by death, and so caught that he is taken from his
That is, the ropes of death overcame him and were stronger than him, so that he could not escape them. This means being in hell, from which there is no way back, just as a bird caught in a rope does not return. We believe that all this happened in Christ, even though in a miraculous way, that he was caught in truth by the pains, cords and armies of death and hell.
V. 7 When I am afraid, I call upon the Lord, and cry unto my God, and he heareth my voice from his temple, and my cry cometh before him in his ears.
This is a verse in Hebrew, and it has everywhere the verba in the future tense: I will call, I will cry, he will hear, it will come, as Jerome also translated it, and it is read 2 Sam. 22, 7. But there is little need for this, since the prophets have the peculiarity that they usually throw the tenses through each other; however, this does not happen without cause, as we have often said. So the prophet continues to show by his example that what he had taught was true, that all who call on the Lord with praise will be saved. He says: "I too have been in the greatest misfortune, that is, in the pains of death and the bonds of hell, but I have been saved from all these evils; because I have called upon the Lord and cried out to my God, therefore He has heard my voice, and my cry has reached His ears. Therefore, there is no doubt that there is no other way to deliverance than by calling upon the Lord and praising God. For it is said in the 16th Psalm [§ 13 ff.] what emphasis and meaning it has that God is "my God". For no one says: "My God", unless he praises and loves Him, even in the midst of death and hell, as it is written: "Love is strong as death" etc.
He makes many repetitions because his mind is full of joy, since it is almost the same: "I call upon the Lord" and "I cry out to my God. Likewise: "He hears my voice from his temple.
1052 ^vi, 6i-63. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 7. 8. w. iv, 1356-1359. 1053
and, "My cry cometh before him to his ears." For so he seems to say in the Hebrew. But it is all without difficulty, yet also full of the sweetest movements of the heart.
V. 8 The earth shook and was moved, and the foundations of the mountains were moved and shook because he was angry.
38 What David wants to say with what is found from this verse to the tenth, I can not obtain (consequi). Nowhere do we read that the earth was moved, the mountains shaken, and that other things which he lists here were done for David's sake; but neither do we read that it was done for Christ's sake. Others slip through here very easily by making spiritual interpretations (allegorias), and take no account of the context; for what is easier than to attribute to each individual piece its spiritual interpretation?
(39) Lyra says something that has reason, since he says that it is the way of the Scriptures that, in order to praise any particular good deed of God, either all the good deeds of God are repeated in general from the beginning, or from the number of them those that have been shown to the people of God, according to the words of Ps. 119:52: "Lord, when I remember how you have judged from the world, then I am comforted. And Ps. 77, 12. f.: "I remember the deeds of the Lord, yea, I remember thy former wonders, and speak of all thy works, and say of thy doings." Thus begins Deborah Not. 5, when she is about to sing to the Lord about the exodus from Egypt, saying [v. 4 f.], "O Lord, when thou camest forth from Seir, and wentest forth from the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dripped, and the clouds were filled with water. The mountains poured out before the Lord, Sinai before the Lord God of Israel." David follows this in the 68th Psalm, saying [v. 8. f.], "God, when thou wentest before thy people, when thou walkedest in the wilderness, the earth trembled, and the heavens dripped before this God in Sinai, before the God who is Israel's God." And Ps. 77, 17. f.: "The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and were afraid, and the deeps raged. The thick clouds poured
Water, the clouds thundered, and the rays drove along."
(40) Therefore, it may be that those who praise God tend to go far with the miraculous deeds of God, especially that they cite the miracle that was glorious before others, which He performed in the Exodus from Egypt; as the children of Israel are punished above all because they forgot this miracle, Ps. 78:11.And they doubtless learned many things by the remembrance of it, through the enlightenment of the spirit, so that they seem to have used it as a very common proverb, and then also to have treated the various pieces of it in various spiritual interpretations: yet I do not understand Lyra to interpret the words of this psalm to this very history.
Therefore I must also venture an interpretation (temerandum). First of all, it is my opinion that the past miracles, which happened at the time of the exodus from Egypt, are repeatedly mentioned here and mixed with the present miracles, according to the lovely liberty [which the prophets take] to wander and digress, since we see that this is the custom in Scripture. For even the secular orators teach that if one wants to state something clearly, not only the present, but also the past deeds of the ancestors of the one who is praised must be enumerated at the same time. However, I do not believe that David does only this, but at the same time, out of overflowing joy, he seems to play with the spiritual interpretations of the history in Egypt for the praise of Christ, of whom he clearly recognized that he is meant by this figure. And we see that those who rejoice exceedingly express their joy by spiritual interpretations and new images in speech, so that one might think they are nonsensical. For it delights them to clothe their joy in beautiful and lovely figures of speech and words; one calls what he praises a golden jewel, another its sweetness, another its manna, still another gives it other names. Everybody becomes a poet here, because joy itself teaches to speak in pictures.
This is what Christ does here. Since he rejoices,
that the Father heard him and brought him out of hell, he not only repeats the old miracles of God and mixes them in, but also changes and renews them at the same time by an exceedingly sweet spiritual interpretation, as Sirach prays, Cap. 36, 6: "Do new signs and wonders." For this reason, he does not treat the whole story according to its order, but chooses any piece that suits the matter.
Therefore, it is necessary to know the spiritual interpretation of this history, especially that which belongs to the fruit of Christ's resurrection, which is contained in these two pieces, the law and grace. The law humbles the arrogant, grace exalts the lowly; both happen in a miraculous and diverse way. And these are in truth new miracles of God, which He performs through no other weapons than the ministry of the Word, through the despised and unlearned fishermen and their followers. To all this, if I am not mistaken, the prophet alludes in the most delightful way through these figures and allegories.
44 We read now in the second book of Moses, chap. 19 and 20, when the Lord was about to give the law: "Now when the third day was come, there arose thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud upon the mountain. The whole mountain smoked, so the Lord came down on the mountain with fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook greatly. And the sound of the trumpet increased. Moses spoke, and God answered him loudly. When the Lord had come down to Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, He called Moses to the top of the mountain" [Ex. 19:16, 18-20].
This figure is too rich for me to attain with words; indeed, I cannot grasp it sufficiently even with my mind. And yet the prophet treats it in the most dignified manner. For the other prophets also have taken much from it, since it is exceedingly rich and full of the mysteries of Christ, for the works of nature, law and grace are treated here, that is, the epitome of the whole theology. Therefore, let us take the apostle
in the Epistle to the Romans as the first and best interpreter, who says Cap. 4, 15: "The law only brings wrath," and 1 Cor. 15, 56: "The power of sin is the law." Rom. 1, 18.: "God's wrath from heaven is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold out the truth in unrighteousness." And Rom. 5, 20.: "The law came in beside, that sin might become more powerful."
(46) It is therefore the work of the law to terrify, to shake the conscience, and to destroy all [false] confidence. And this is what is represented by the image of a great thunderstorm, in such a suitable way that it cannot be shown more pithily by any other simile (allegoria). For the thunderclaps and lightnings move the earth and make it tremble, they also shake and stir the foundations of the mountains, and as the poet says: The lightnings also shatter the top of the highest mountains. In this all fear the wrath of heaven, as it is said in Ps. 104:7 [Vulg.], "At the voice of thy thunder they shall tremble," which is what he says here [Vulg.], "For he is angry with them." But that such a thunderstorm was on Mount Sinai when the law was given is perfectly clear to everyone from the words previously spoken, so that at the same time it would be pictured by the figure what was going on in truth at that time, and the sign would be such as the thing itself was.
For this reason, the teaching and knowledge of the law, because it has to do with eternal threats and demands what we cannot bear, as it says in Heb. 12:20. It says, "For they could not bear what was said," which is frightening and unbearable to the sinful conscience, and all the more so the stronger and clearer its tone or its knowledge, that is, that through the law in truth comes the knowledge of sin, and that through the law wrath is caused, that is, that the conscience of all men is found guilty and worthy of eternal wrath. This knowledge inwardly in the heart fulfills all that turmoil and impetuosity of the storm, which was seen on the mountain Sinai, as it is described. There I the earth is stirred in truth and it trembles,
1056 L. xvi, ss-67. works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 8. 9. W. iv, 1362-^65. 1057
That is, the earthly-minded hearts, and not only the mountains themselves, but the foundations of the mountains will be shaken and stirred, that is, "those who are hopeful in their hearts will be scattered" [Luc. 1:51]. For the mountains are the hopeful, the foundations are confidence in power, wisdom, righteousness, and any things. For he who is instructed by the right knowledge of the law recognizes that all flesh cannot stand before God, because man is not justified by the works of the law [Gal. 2:16]. Neither power nor wisdom nor any other good (substantia) can be of use here, everything is shaken and falls away, because he is angry with them, that is, through the law the wrath of God is revealed, especially against those who, trusting in those foundations, hold court before others.
48. "The mountains" he says here without closer relation (absolute), because there are also holy mountains, Ps. 87, 1.: "It is firmly founded on the holy mountains," and in another Psalm [Ps. 36, 7.]: "Your righteousness stands like the mountains of God." But principally the foundations of the mountains are to be understood of confidence in works, or of the works of the law, or of the law and doctrines by which men dare to be justified. For the word and knowledge of the law is primarily intended to make sinners, and "all the world is indebted to God" [Rom. 3:19]. For this is how the apostle of the law primarily uses it against the arrogance of works, by saying Gal. 1) 3, 22. He says: "But the Scripture has decreed it all under sin," "that he might have mercy on all" [Rom. 11, 32:]. And the grace of Christ fights most against the righteousness of men, for this resists most stubbornly the righteousness of God, as it is said in Rom. 10, 3: "For they know not the righteousness that is before God, and seek to establish their own righteousness, and so are not subject to the righteousness that is before God."
49. this is wonderful and well to note-
1) In all Latin editions: "Rom. 3"; in the German translation: Rom. 11, 32. The Weimar version also has this passage in the margin.
The thunderbolts shake not only the peaks but even the foundations of the mountains, for the whole earth trembles, including the foot of the mountains. Thus, the law not only outwardly strikes arrogance, for even the punitive speeches of men can do that, but it also penetrates and shakes the innermost part of the heart, putting even the most secret trust of the conscience in fear, because the law is spiritual and a living word that penetrates more sharply than any two-edged sword [Heb. 4:12], and is no one who can hide from its heat [Ps. 19:7].
50. the hebrew text says with a lovely play on words XXXX XXXXX XXXXX [it wavered
and swayed the earth], which our Latin interpreter perhaps could not render, but said: Commota est et contremuit terra. But it denotes the trembling movement by which someone is moved to flee and run, expressing in the most significant way the power of the law and the fear of conscience. Thus the prophet is lovely, not only in the sayings, but also in the words and in the constructione of them, if one would take the time to notice everything.
V. 9. steam went up from his nose, and consuming fire from his mouth, it flashed. 2)
Jerome: Adscendit fumus in furore ejus, et ignis ex ore ejus devorans, carbones incensi sunt ab eo (Smoke rose in his fury, and consuming fire from his mouth; coals were ignited by him). This happens in visible thunderstorms, as often as that which is struck by lightning burns, for here smoke, fire and coals are seen. But that there was smoke and fire on the mountain Sinai, Moses sufficiently indicates, 2 Mos. 19, 18., nowhere however one reads there from coals, unless one wanted to understand that from coals that the mountain was fiery and burning. For it is certain that everything that was on the mountain and near the mountain shone, smoked, burned and steamed with fire, as it says in Deut. 5:23:
2) Vulgate: ^äscsnäit knrnns in ira esns, st iZnis a kaeis ss us exursit. Oarbonss sneosnsi snnt so.
"Ye saw the mountain burning with fire." Demi that what was seen was terrible, Paul writes Heb. 12:21, so "that Moses said: I am terrified and I quote". Therefore, at the same time as the fire, the prophet understands the coals, which Moses did not express, and speaks of the same.
52 But he does all this so that he may show by clear signs that he is turning from that history to the secret interpretation and is playing with secrets. Therefore he does not only add the coals, but also some other things, which are not found in the history, or are not read in the same way, like the fact that he says that the foundations of the mountains were moved, since there neither several mountains nor the foundations are thought of, by wanting it to be seen in such a way that the many arrogant ones with their presumptions (praesumtionibus) are represented by the One Mount Sinai. It is also of this kind that the Lord was angry with them, although history says nothing about the Lord's anger against the mountain (in montem) Sinai. It is also of this kind that smoke rose in his anger, while there is nothing said about the smoke of his anger; and, which most clearly indicates the secret interpretation of the history, that he says that fire was kindled from his face, or, as the Hebrew text has it more completely, it consumed from his mouth, for it is not written there either, that the fire from which Mount Sinai burned came from the mouth of God, unless we want to say for this reason that it came from his mouth, because the mountain burned by the lightning that was sent from above, as it were, from the mouth of heaven.
(53) The law, then, is that which proceeds from its mouth, that is, from the mouths of preachers, children, and infants, and inflames, burns, consumes, and devastates all that is prideful in human vanity, in order to prepare the place for grace. For the sound of the law is followed by fear and terror and flight; and since flight is nowhere feasible, fear arises. And this is the fire that consumes and devours all evil, burns out the evil desire, so that we no longer lust after what delighted us before. In such a way
The coals are lit by this same fire, so that sinners, after the evil desire has been burned out by the power of the law, burn, not yet sweetly in love, but mightily in the furnace of their fear, in which they are melted and prepared and purified, like gold in the fire.
54. But the smoke is set before the fire; why is that? Who has ever seen the smoke before the fire? But the smoke is a sign that the fire is present, and although it is not there first, it is visible first. Augustine understands by the smoke the tearful prayer of the penitent (poenitentiam), since they have recognized what God threatens the godless. We do not want to reject this view, but rather strengthen it, so that the smoke is also the outward confession of sins, and all the measurements (argumenta,) by which the inward flight and fear of the conscience is revealed, like those, Apost. 2, 37. to whom the words of Peter passed through the heart, and being terrified at them, said, "Men, brethren, what shall we do?" For by these words they indicate what they suffer inwardly. So the ransom rises in his wrath, because the wrath of God, having been recognized by the law, casts down the hopeful into the depths, and from these depths they send up this smoke of their repentance on high.
55) It says 2 Sam. 22, 9 [Vulg.]: "Smoke went up from his nose, and fire from his mouth consumed" (voravit), where our Bible editions (codices) have volavit by an error of the writer, wherein he seems to speak of the smoke of one who is angry, not of the smoke of one who repents. But since he acts a secret interpretation, it fits well that, as the mouth of the Lord is called the mouth of the preachers, and the fire from his mouth the power of the law in the sinner, so also the nose of the Lord are the same preachers, because by them he indicates and reveals his anger. Therefore, just as fire consumes in sinners, even though it proceeds from the nose of the Lord, so smoke rises in them, even though it proceeds from the nose of the Lord. For it is not possible, in the historical and literal sense, for the fire to come from the mouth, or from the nose.
1060 n. xvi, 69-n. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 9-11. w. iv, 1368-1371. lytzl
The interpreter says that a burning fire and a smoke of wrath are consuming someone, or that the smoke rises from someone's nose, since a sneezer rather expels his breath downward from himself. But in Hebrew both expressions are ambiguous and the interpreter translates them in different ways, so that he says here: a burning fire and a smoke of anger, but there: a consuming fire and a smoke of the nose. I would say as it is spoken in this Psalm: a burning fire and a smoke of wrath.
V. 10. He bowed the heavens and descended, and darkness was under distant feet.
56. history also teaches this, as it says: "a very thick cloud began to cover the mountain", and Deut. 5, 22. f. and Hebr. 12, 18. the same darkness is remembered. And Ex 19:20 says: "The Lord came down to Mount Sinai, to the top of it, and called Moses to the top of the mountain."
Many have invented much of this darkness, especially the well-known (ille) Dionysius, whoever he may have been. We want to continue on the chosen path with our secret interpretation, according to which, as we 52 f.] said, the arrogant: are humbled by the service of the law, and that this is treated in this passage. Only the power of the law and the wrath of God revealed by it is not felt, it does not shake the foundations of the mountains nor make the earth tremble, it does not ignite the coals nor consume the sinners nor bring forth smoke, unless the Lord Himself inwardly moves, teaches and gives prosperity. For how many have heard John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles flashing and thundering with the thunderbolts of the future judgment and the wrath of God, who, hardened in heart like the Behemoth, who has a heart as hard as an anvil, could not be moved, just as we see many who despise and laugh at the bodily thunderbolts, even though they see that others are killed by them.
58. this is what he says here, and is modeled there, where it is written that the Lord came down to Mount Sinai.
[Ex. 19:20]. For: "He bowed the heavens", that is, he sent the apostles out into the world against the arrogant children of Adam, "and descended", working with them and confirming their speech, as it is said in Gal. 2, 8: "He who with Petro was strong for the apostleship among the circumcision, he also with me was strong among the Gentiles."
59 "And darkness was under his feet," that is, his works and ways cannot be known. This is done by working a strange work, that he might work his work; by condemning, that he might make blessed; by shaking the conscience, that he might bring it to peace. For the works of justification are contrary to all human sense, which cannot bear to be humiliated and made nothing by the power of the law, because it does not understand how well it is dealt with. For he thinks he will be destroyed, while in truth he goes out like the morning star. And he is scattered that he may be gathered, he is plucked up that he may be planted. So faith is needed in this darkness, as Job 3:23 says: "To the man whose way is hidden, and God covers it from him." Jer. 10, 23. f.: "I know, O Lord, that man's doings are not in his power; chasten me with measure, and not in thy wrath" etc.
V. 11. And he rode on the cherub, and flew along, floating on the wings of the wind.
(60) Nothing of this is read in the history, unless it refers to the fact that in Exodus 25:40 Moses was commanded to watch and make everything according to the image that was shown to him on the mountain. Among them were also the cherubim [Ex 25:18 ff], which were to be made of gold, in the midst of which was the mercy seat; of which the Lord spoke to Moses, as is said there. Thus the prophet, out of exuberant joy, connects at the same time also the mysteries of the tabernacle with the mysteries of Mount Sinai. For it is unbelievable how abundantly the secrets of the Scriptures play into each other and flow in heaps, when once the restlessness of the dangers has subsided, and man is free and joyful in spirit; for then knows
he does everything, dares everything, is able to do everything that the anointing that is with him teaches him [1 John 2:27]. Afterwards it became the custom in the holy Scriptures to call God the One who sits on cherubim, as, Ps. 99, 1: "The Lord is King, therefore the nations rage; He sits on cherubim, therefore the earth stirs." And Ps. 80, 2. f.: "Appear, thou that sittest over cherubim. Awaken your power, who are before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh" (that is, on the ark of the covenant, which was toward the west, where those three tribes were located).
(61) For the Lord always wanted and has always taken care that there should be some memorial and outward sign by which he would bind the faith of the believers to him, so that they would not be diverted by various and strange devotions (fervoribus) to self-chosen worship or rather idolatry. Thus in Gen 22:14 the mountain is called Moriah, that is, the Lord beheld, 1) because there he looked upon the sacrifice of Abraham. And Gen. 35, 1. Jacob is commanded to make an altar to the GOtte, who appeared to him at Bethel. Therefore Moses commanded [Deut. 12:5] that they should not set up any other place for worship than that which the Lord had chosen; but later they often transgressed this by setting up high places and groves. He also gave them the tabernacle of the covenant, the mercy seat, and the cherubim as a place where they could find and call upon Him, all of which is modeled on Christ.
For now we have no place, but we are not without signs and monuments, such as baptism and the mass, but even these are not bound to any place, for Christ now reigns everywhere, and one may baptize, preach and eat the holy bread wherever one wishes. Therefore, our mercy seat, our cherub are in secret, and can only be grasped by faith in the secret of the Word. Christ is the mercy seat, as Paul teaches Rom. 3, 25: "Whom God has set forth as a mercy seat in His blood," "in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" [Col. 2, 9.], and: "God was in
1) In the editions viäeditnr, for which with the Vulgate probably viäedit should be read.
Christ and reconciled the world to Himself" ^2 Cor. 5, 19.]. The two cherubim with wings, which touched each other above and covered the mercy seat, which, with their faces turned toward each other, looked toward the mercy seat, are the two testaments, one of which is the word of the law, the other the word of grace. These are also, as can be seen, opposed to each other (adversa), since the law increases sin, while grace takes it away. But in Christ they come together. "For that which was impossible for the law God did, and sent His Son, and condemned sin by sin, that righteousness required by the law might be fulfilled in us" [Rom. 8, 3. f.].
(63) This is also the intention of those who say that "cherub" means a multitude or fullness of knowledge, because the ministry of both words, that is, of the law and of the promise or grace, teaches all things when it is rightly done. So the Lord rides or rides on the cherubim in spirit and in truth, when he reigns in us through faith, which is prepared in us by the ministry of both words. For what our interpreter has given: Adscendit super cherubim, the Hebrew text expresses more appropriately: He rides or rides, to signify the life-working (vital) kingdom of faith within us. So our cherub 2) is not bound to any place, but everywhere, wherever the word of faith is, the Lord sits on the cherubim through Christ and reigns in us. Therefore, this was also observed in the example, that above the mercy seat and the cherubim nothing was placed that could have been seen, but by faith alone one believed that God had His seat there, and "from that place (says God [Ex. 25, 22.]) I will speak to you". Thus, it is only by faith that we believe that God dwells in Christ; we believe this through the testimony of the cherubim of both Testaments, and we may not expect the word of God from anywhere else than from this mercy seat, Christ.
64. the same thing now seems to be said again (per tautologiam): "He floated
2) In all editions: uoster ederndin, while everywhere else for the singular ädernd, for the plural ederndim.
on the fittest of the winds" or of the spirits. For he speaks of a spiritual wind, because it is the very word of the Spirit that interprets the law and shows grace. For this word comes quickly as the wind that blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know from where it comes or where it goes [John 3:8]. But the fittest of these winds are the oral words on which these spirits fly. For the pagans also invent of their Mercurius, by which they want to indicate the divine speech, that he is winged at the feet. So much is the inclination to spiritual interpretations implanted in the human mind by nature. So he hovers over us on the wings of the winds, that is, through the ministry of the oral word, through which faith is taught, he hovers over us, so that where the oral word is, grasped by the spirit of faith, there is no doubt that the Lord is and hovers over us.
He says "fly", although the cherubim, which were made of gold, could not fly, because he saw that the cherubim would not be given wings in vain in the law, since wings are given for flying. He understood that it was indicated that in the future there would be a flight of the Word through the whole world, which is the ministry of the Word, and above this flight, and above these wings, the Lord would hover and be present everywhere at His Word, as it says Marc. 16, 20: "The Lord worked with them, and confirmed the Word by signs that followed." Therefore this flying seems to me to indicate the swift running of the Word through the world, as it is also said in the 147th Psalm, v. 15: "His Word runs swiftly." But not only this, but also that it indicates that neither the Word, nor the Lord who cooperates, is idle in the church. For one must never let go of the word, but it must always be in use, in motion, in flight, so that the Lord Himself may always fly and move the faith in us. Although He is able to do everything by Himself, He has decided not to do it in any other way than through the ministry of the Word, so that faith may have a place, and so that we may be saved from our weakness, which cannot bear divine things unless they are wrapped up in the Word, through which, as it were, He has given us the power of the Word.
in the womb, as Isaiah Cap. 46, 3.
Therefore, it is not to be despised that he used the word "fly" twice; [this he did in order] to instruct us that the Spirit of the Lord is not carried over the waters of the nations, nor does he rule through his present deity (numine), but only those who are instructed with the word, so that the presumption of human power and free will may be destroyed, and the grace and blessedness of God our Savior may be praised toward those who hear and keep the word of God. It is also written in Deut. 32:11 that the Lord hovered over the people of Jacob, as an eagle carries out its young to fly and hovers over them.
But if someone wanted to take the flight on the fittest of the wind from the history of Mount Sinai, I would not argue very much against it. Perhaps it can be said that the Lord, when he descended on the mountain, hovered on the foothills of the wind. For he did not use the mountain as a support, since it must rather be said that he abstained in the air, since he is carried by nothing, but carries all things himself with his powerful word [Heb. 1:3], which is indicated by this flying.
V. 12. His tent was dark around him, and black thick clouds, wherein he was hid. 1)
(68) Since darkness is always fruitful, as is ignorance, it may again seem as if the prophet touches the twofold model (figuram) of Sinai and the tabernacle, at least in the first part [of this verse], which seems to speak of the darkness of the Holy of Holies and the tabernacle. For the fact that there was no light in the Holy of Holies signified that, since God dwells in His Church through Christ, faith is in their hearts, which neither comprehends nor is comprehended, neither sees nor is seen, and yet sees all things. For he is a certain confidence of things, which though present, yet is not seen.
1) Vulgate: posnit tenedras latidnlnin säum, in eirenitn esns taksrnaenlnin chns. "kenedro^a aqna in nnbibns aeris.
but were not seen at all, just as the ark of the covenant was most certainly present in the holy of holies, but was not seen. So his tent was around him, because he himself had his seat in the midst of the holy of holies. This indicates, as it is said in Ps. 46, 6, that God is in the midst of His church, therefore it cannot be made to waver. The prophets drew these and similar prophecies from this example.
For God does not rule in us only outwardly with the tongue and with the word, but in power; neither are those constant who believe in Him with the tongue and with words; but those who believe from the heart are righteous [Rom. 10:10]; in the midst of whom He Himself dwells. These are strong, and in all things they have help through the face of God (that is, through the presence of God), as it is said in Ps. 46:6, "God will help her with His face," or, "God will help her early," that is, with His certainly present Godhead and face itself.
70 But we will also come to Mount Sinai, of which it is written that when the Lord descended, the mountain began to be covered with darkness, and it is rightly said that on the summit and in the midst of the mountain He established darkness for His hidden abode (latibulum), signifying the same faith by which He dwells in the midst of His church in our hearts, where He is not seen. But since this darkness is apart from us, the letter that kills is terrifying to the prudence of the flesh, since it greatly fears to be killed, and yet it must be killed, as the law teaches that it must be killed, so that it may ascend with Moses to the top of the mountain, who had entered the darkness to the Lord. For one cannot come to the Lord in darkness unless the prudence of the flesh has been killed by the law.
71 In circuitu suo tabernaculum suum, namely posuit, is the same [as posuit tenebras latibulum suum] repetitively, although in Hebrew the preposition in does not stand, but so: Circuitum suum tabernaculum suum, that is, as he ordered that the darkness would be his hidden abode.
He has also arranged that his tent should be around him. This seems to me to be said in the sense that faith or the church sanctified by faith is that in which God dwells. For this reason He makes His tent only that by which He is surrounded, that is, closed and hidden, just as He was surrounded and closed by the Holy of Holies and surrounded by the cloud and darkness on Mount Sinai.
(72) And it is against the reputation of persons that he says his tent is that by which he is surrounded. Everything, whatever this may be, has neither name nor reputation of the person. For all who surround him and cling to him, whether they be Gentiles or Jews, become his tent, for there is no difference. But this is bitter (as I have said) for the flesh that is to enter [to God into darkness], lovely for the spirit that has entered. For man enters only through the darkness of faith, and faith only through the death of the flesh. Therefore, this darkness, as long as it is external, is death and hell; as soon as it has become internal, it is life and blessedness. For the letter holds the darkness and the cross against us, but the spirit of faith breaks through and finds the Lord after he has entered the darkness. Therefore, the one who flees and is terrified of the darkness, like the people of Israel who refused [and asked] that the word of the law not be spoken to them [Ex. 20:19 ff], does not reach the Lord. For if you do not hear the law, which must humble and crucify you, you will not hear the Lord speaking to Moses within. But also Moses does not go in any other way than that the Lord calls him, as the words 2 Mos. 19, 20 indicate.
73. tenebrosa aqua1 ) in nubibus aeris. Jerome: In nubibus aetheris. Certainly, according to the Hebrew, it can also be said: In nubibus nubium [in exceedingly dense clouds]. For each of these two expressions XXX
1) In all editions we find here- IsnedroZurn nqunin, for which, however, with the Vulgate: lenedrosn nqun is to be read, as the correction suggested by Luther immediately following proves.
1068 2- xvi, 77-79. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 12. 13. W. iv, 1380-1383. 1069
and XXXXX denotes a cloud, so that we must understand a dense and thick cloud as in thunderstorms; and better it would be in the accusative: tenebrosam aquam and without the preposition in, in this way: Posuit tenebras latibulum suum, circuitum suum tabernaculum suum, tenebrosam aquam nubem nubium, so that what follows explains what precedes. As if he wanted to say: He wanted the darkness to be his hidden abode, in the midst of which he wanted to dwell; this darkness was that black water in the exceedingly dense cloud of the storm. By all this is signified the killing of the old man, which the Lord exercises in his own by the word of the law; and yet he does not do this in a cruel way, since he is near to all those to whom he inflicts this evil, that he may do them good. That is why this happens "around him".
74 Although the dark waters in the clouds of the air are everywhere referred to speculations about dark prophetic passages, we who pay attention to the context of the words and sentences understand by the dark waters the work of the law, that is, the death of the flesh, the sadness of the conscience and the wrath of judgment, whereby the flesh is afflicted, just as those dark clouds full of water are both sad and burdensome to the senses during storms. For both water and darkness signify tribulation and persecution in the Scriptures.
The thick clouds (nubes nubium) or the clouds of the air are the apostles who proclaim sorrowful things to the world, by which they bring all men under sin through the word of the law, because they are around the Lord, and the Lord is present in the midst of them, hidden, and works all things through them by means of the word. Thus it is said of the vineyard of the Lord, which He calls Israel, Isa. 5:6: "I will command the clouds that they rain not upon it." And Isa. 60, 8. "Who are they that fly as the clouds, and as the doves to their windows?" But when the black clouds are dispersed, they send down a salutary rain, which before seemed to threaten doom by their black appearance. Thus, a preacher of the
Law and yet makes alive when he teaches that the Law is fulfilled in the Spirit through Christ. The figurative speech of clouds and rain is frequent in Scripture for the ministry of the Word.
V. 13. From the brightness before him the clouds parted, with hail and lightning (grando et carbones ignis).
I confess that I do not understand the meaning of this verse, according to which it should be connected with the previous one. Therefore, my first explanation shall be this word: I do not know. But in order to give rise to better things, let us talk about it in the uncertain. Augustine and Jerome understand it that the apostles turned from the Jews to the Gentiles, but they do not indicate the context according to which this must be understood that it happened from the splendor before the face of the Lord. And lest we think that we alone are struggling in this passage: even Cassiodorus thinks that "before the brightness" is an expression in the pluralis, which must be referred to the clouds, as if one said: very bright clouds. Admittedly, it is no wonder if we also miss something, since such great men speak almost nonsensically in such a tremendous misnomer (lapsu).
In the meantime, I will also give my thoughts. Up to now, the prophet has sung about the ministry of the Word according to its first part, the teaching of the Law, through which sinners are humbled, where the Lord is present. Now he also sings about the later and other part, through which, after the power of the law has been demonstrated, the word of grace exalts and comforts the humiliated. This will be the meaning: Those black and terrible clouds, in which the wrath of God is revealed by the word of the law, pass by, pass away, and are emptied before the exceedingly great brightness and clarity that is in His presence, that is, the revelation and knowledge of God, by which His mercy is known, is so lovely that the former unrest, which the word of the law caused, no longer grieves. For (as Bernhard says) just as self-knowledge without the
If the knowledge of God works despair, the knowledge of God without self-knowledge works presumption, if otherwise this can be called a knowledge of God that is without self-knowledge, since it is necessarily only a contemplative (speculativa).
(78) Thus Paul attributes joy and hope to the glory that is recognized, saying: "For if the ministry that preaches condemnation had clarity, how much more does the ministry that preaches righteousness have exuberant clarity. For even that part which was glorified is not to be regarded as clarity in comparison with this exuberant clarity. Because we now have such hope, we need great joy." And afterwards, v. 18: "But now in us all the glory of the Lord is reflected with unveiled face; and we are glorified in the same image, from one glory to another, as of the Lord, who is the Spirit." You see that the apostle, speaking of the clearness of the uncovered face, puts almost the same words that are in this verse [Vulg.]: "Before the brightness of his face." For what is the brightness of his face but the glory or the clearness of the uncovered face of God?
79) What then is the glory of the Lord? What the uncovering of the face? We have said in the fourth Psalm [64 ff] and in others that the face of the Lord and the face of God above us and set before us is nothing else than having the Lord present and gracious, trusting in him, and, as is the custom of Scripture, knowing the Lord, which in this world is only by faith. Thus the apostle Heb. 8, 11. says from Jeremiah [Cap. 31, 34.], "And let not a man teach his neighbor, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest." And Isa. 11:9: "For the land is full of the knowledge of the Lord, as it is covered with the waters of the sea." This knowledge of God makes the heart glad, just as self-knowledge grieves, because the latter presents mercy before our eyes, as Ps. 26:3 says; but the latter always presents our sin before us, and forces us always to think of our sin, as the 51st Psalm [v. 5] says. The face
The glory of God is therefore the revealed knowledge of God, in which the glory or clarity of God is seen. But the glory of God is our justification, which we see is not in the running of man, but in the mercy of God. Therefore we give glory not to ourselves but to the Lord, who, as the apostle says, does everything "to the praise of his glorious grace" [Eph. 1:6], so that "he who boasts may boast of the Lord" [1 Cor. 1:31], after our glory has been completely destroyed and our shame exposed by the word of the law.
80) But after the clouds have "passed by" and the sinners have been sufficiently humbled by the knowledge of sin brought about by the ministry of the law, and they are brought before the face of God, where they recognize the glory of God's grace, and are brought to peace: then they are joyful and praise, and at the same time the hail and the fiery coals also pass by (transeunt). For so, I believe, must be referred to the verb "pass by" both the clouds and the hail and the fiery coals.
81 "Hail" figuratively refers to the harsh and harsh words of the law, or as it is elsewhere [Ps. 9:6J], the rebuke among the nations.
But "the fiery coals," which the Latin interpreter calls "coals of fire" according to the Hebrew manner of speaking, we understand either from the same ones of which he said above [v. 9. Vulg.] that they are kindled by fire, namely the sinners themselves, who are burned by the fire 1) of fear; or the same words of the law, by which that fire of repentance is kindled in the conscience. I like the latter best, for all this passes away when the bodily knowledge of God's mercy is revealed. For then the clouds, which before were hateful, become pleasant, and the preachers of the law, whom we detested, we love, and finally approve of their hard and burning words, not unlike a child hates its disciplinarian and its discipline, until it has attained the inheritance and recognizes what it is for.
1) Erlanger and Weimarsche: i^ni instead of
1072 L. Lvi, 8i-"3. works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 13. 14. W. iv, i3ss-i389. 1073
the hard disciplinarian was useful. Paul uses this example in his letter to the Galatians [Cap. 4, 1. ff.], which is not unsuitable for the understanding of this passage.
(83) I believe that the prophet took all this from the part of history where it is written [Exodus 20:21] that Moses went up the mountain and entered into the darkness, that is, before the face of the Lord. For we understand it in this way, that this storm was not before the Lord, but only around him, as he also said in the previous verse. Just as the glory of the Lord appeared to Moses when he went in before the face of God, so also, because the Lord had spoken to him, he brought with him the brightness of his face, as it is written in Exodus 34:29. It is written that at the same time the clouds and the hail and the fiery coals passed away, and were no longer before His face because of the splendor of the face of God: so also, as the apostle teaches [2 Cor. 3:18, 12], in all of us the clarity of the Lord is reflected with His face uncovered, and we are transfigured into the same image through fellowship in the same clarity, and have great hope and joy. The driver ceases; the yoke of her burden, the rod of the driver, and the staff of her shoulder is broken by the child that is born to us, and the Son that is given to us, Isa. 9:4, 6.
Again, the prophet either adds something to the story, or he plays from his own spirit with a figurative speech. For we do not read explicitly in the second book of Moses that hail and fiery coals were sent down from heaven on Mount Sinai, but because it was a strong thunderstorm, it is understood that fire, hail, snow, and stormy winds intervened no less than they were mixed in with the plagues of Egypt [Ex. 9:23], since the office of the law is depicted in both places.
I say this according to my understanding; let another follow his sense. For that the word transierunt means a change is proven by the saying Matth. 24, 35: "Heaven and earth will pass away (transibunt), but my words will not pass away.
go"; this is the meaning I have adopted at this time and in this place. Now if someone wants to understand it in this way, "the clouds, the hail, the coals pass before the clarity of the Lord's face," that is, that the word and the rebuke of the law be strong and penetrate, and not be hindered from accomplishing in sinners that for which it is preached, because of the presence of the glory of God that is preached, which puts to shame the arrogance of men, as the prophet Ps. 77, 18. [Vulg.] seems to say: "For your arrows pass by" (transeunt), I do not reject it. Here, too, the transitive can rhyme beautifully with the preceding and the following, so that the power of the word is shown, as it says in Heb. 4:12: "The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," and it is not up to me to decide which of the two views is preferable.
V.14. And the Lord thundered in heaven, and the Most High let out his thunder (vocem) with hail and lightning.
This verse almost forces us to take the latter view of the previous verse, but we will look at both, and the former first. The prophet seems to refer to the fact that it is written in Exodus 19:19 that the Lord answered Moses when he spoke, after which thunder (voces [Exodus 20:18]) was heard, and the Lord spoke the Ten Commandments. The spiritual interpretation of this is that only through the voice of the Lord is the law fulfilled. For what is it but that Moses speaks, and the Lord answers him, that the law is given by Moses, but grace and truth are given by Christ, who answers the law and fulfills it alone? As it is said in John 1:17: "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth were given by Jesus Christ. So the Lord thunders from heaven (de coelo), that is, he preaches the word of grace from the host (de choro) of the apostles; and the same is said, "He sends forth his thunder" (dat vocem suam), repeatedly. For the voice of the Lord is a powerful voice,
As we will see Ps. 29, 4. and Ps. 68, 34.: "Behold, he will give strength to his thunder (voci suae)."
The 147th Psalm, v. 16-18, also plays beautifully with this image: "He gives snow like wool, he scatters frost like ashes. He casts his locks (crystallum suam, that is hail) like morsels; who can remain before his frost? He speaks, and it melts; he blows his wind, and it thaws." By all this is signified the ministry of preaching, which is rough in its first office, that of the law, but sweet in its later office, that of the word. In this sense, "hail and fiery coals" must be taken in a different sense than we took it in the previous verse. For there we 81 f.] said that they were the rough and burning words of the law, but here we shall have to say that sweet and refreshing words are signified. Now, even if we could assert to some extent (utcunque) through the expenditure of effort that the word of grace is harsh, burning for flesh and blood (for man does not recognize the value of it, as Jn 6:60, 63. to the Jews the speech of Christ, which was a speech of life, was harsh and a speech of death, and Paul confesses that it is a good smell of Christ, but only to some for life, to others for death), it is clear that this is violent and forced.
Then the order of the words would be this: The Lord hath omitted his thunder (vocem suam, which is hail and fiery coals, that is, rough and burning, "for our God is a consuming fire" [Heb. 12:29.], yea, as it is said in Jer. 23:29: "Is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh in pieces rocks?" Therefore we must also treat the other view and subject it to the judgment of each one. Although he had sufficiently said in the foregoing that the earth shook, that the foundations were shaken when the Lord was angry, and that He flew on the cherubim, and other things by which the power of the word of the law was pronounced, and the presence of the Lord in the ministry of the word: yet he deals with the same thing in these verses, in that he wants to inculcate and explain the same thing. For
He says that even the clouds had their effect (fuisse efficaces) before his brightness, and that the Lord thundered in them from heaven, letting out his thunder with hail and lightning, so that the work which the law does with threatening, terrifying, troubling, quarreling, scolding, punishing, burning and consuming (for we have seen that all these are given to the office of the law in these verses) should be ascribed to the clouds, to the apostles and preachers, but to the Lord alone, who gives that clouds, hail, and fiery coals pass by, for he himself lets out this his thunder (vocem) from heaven. For so we also read in history [Ex. 19, 16] that thunder and lightning arose before the sound of the trumpet, so that a clearer and clearer knowledge of the law is given through the constant stopping with teaching.
It is therefore obvious that the translators did not understand these verses either, since they translated against the manner of the language (per soloecum): Dedit vocem suam, grando et carbones ignis, whereas it should have been translated thus: Vocem suam, grandinem et carbones ignis, in the accusative, depending on the verbum dedit. Now there is nothing to do with distinguishing the thunder (vocem) from the coals and the hail, or with combining them, if only both are understood from the word of the sermon. As the same is various and serves for various movements of the mind, so it is also represented by numerous signs (impressionibus) of the heavens, as there are the stars, the rain, the hail, the mist, the snow, the lightning, the thunderclaps, and all things that can fall from the heavens, whether they make alive or kill; the former of these are to be referred to the word of life, the latter to the word of the law. The heavens are the apostles, as we shall see in the following Psalm.
2 Sam. 22, 12. ff. these verses are somewhat different, for there one reads thus: Posuit tenebras in circuitu suo latibulum suum (where latibulum suum is omitted, and instead of tabernaculum suum is put latibulum suum), cribrans aquas de nubibus coelorum (instead of densitas aquarum in nubibus nubium, for dense clouds seem to pass the water as through a sieve
1076 xvi, 85-87. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 14. 15. W. iv, 1343-1395. 1077
to pour down). Instead of prae fulgore in conspectu ejus [nubes] transierunt, [grando et] carbones ignis,1 ) our [Latin] text has there [2 Sam. 22, 13.]: Prae fulgore in conspectu ejus2 ) succensi sunt carbones ignis (for nubss is superfluous, and succensi sunt is the same verbum as transierunt, in that it means both), tonabit de coelo Dominus, et excelsus dabit vocem suam3 ) (where grando and carbones ignis is not repeated). I leave this diversity to those who have time and desire.
V. 15. He shot his rays (sagittas), and scattered them; he caused great lightning, and terrified them.
It is obvious that the prophet speaks figuratively of the arrows, since nothing is read of them in history; therefore he calls "arrows" the lightnings themselves, of which it is said in Exodus 19:16: "There arose thunderings and lightnings." So also the 77th Psalm [v. 18. f. Vulg.] calls them, "For his arrows go forth, there is thunder in heaven." Hence the words by which the conscience is struck are called arrows, Ps. 38, 3. "For thine arrows are in me." And Job 6, 4. "For the arrows of the Almighty are in me, the same fury drinketh out of my spirit, and the terrors of God are upon me." We read everywhere much of such arrows, as also Ps. 7, 14.: "His arrows have he prepared to destroy."
So these "rays", lightnings, arrows are the same words of the law, which frighten, disturb, pierce the heart of the sinner, because the prophet still remains to explain and inculcate the office of the law. Therefore, this verse also serves to prove that the preceding verses are to be understood according to the latter conception, more of the office of the word of the law, than of the word of the law.
1) Here the text of the editions is not in order, therefore we had to insert the words in square brackets. The confusion seems to us to have arisen from the fact that Luther quoted both texts (2 Sam. 22 and our Psalm), but the scribes could not follow him. The editors did not fix it either.
2) Here we have omitted undes according to the Vulgate. This also requires the explanation that follows immediately.
3) We have inserted this text from 2 Sam. 22, 14. instead of: "t intonnit Ü6 ooelo Domina" ot ultissirnns äoäit vo66in hardly what is found in our place.
from your word of grace, so that the right way of connection may exist. For we have said that the word of the law is diverse and manifold in its work, which it works in the heart of the sinner with terror, threatening, punishing, burning etc. Therefore it is also explained on Mount Sinai by various symbols of thunderstorms, and here and in other places by various words denoting a thunderstorm. All this is understood more and easier (felicius) by experience than it can be explained by words, since also the prophet, as if he could not achieve this with his words, turns to history and wanted to indicate more than explain with figurative words.
(92) Therefore, if we cannot understand other things, we should be satisfied that through all the storm on Mount Sinai and all the words with which it is told to us, all the turmoil that the Word of God stirs in the hearts of sinners is held up to us, so that they are changed to hate themselves and the world, and are salvifically killed. For these are the wars of the Lord of hosts, who wars against them from heaven, as Deborah Not. 5, 20. So that the summa, the goal and the right understanding of this psalm is that Christ, who suffered, is raised again, preached by the Holy Spirit, believed and worshipped, humbling the hope of the world. For this is the summary and brief understanding of this whole psalm, as anyone who is attentive can easily see.
But he says, "He scattered them," that is, he tore them apart and divided them. For he did not come to send peace, but the sword [Matth. 10, 34.], so that man would not only be separated from his household, but also from himself, through the hatred against his own soul in this world. And he did not merely send lightnings, but "he made lightnings many", so that he might draw the world into the turmoil of the cross through the multitude of preachers. Thus it says Ps. 68, 12: "The Lord gives the word with great multitudes of evangelists" (virtute is so much as exercitu [hosts]). He says Jer. 16, 16: "I will send out many fishermen, who will
they shall fish." This, then, is a wholesome dispersion and disturbance, by which they are brought to right unity and peace. 2 Sam. 22, 15. it is thus said: Misit sagittas et dissipavit eos, fulgur, et consum- sit eos. Some understand by the lightnings the miracles by which the Lord confirmed the word of the apostles. I leave these their opinion, because it is not clumsily spoken.
V. 16 Then water was poured out, and the ground was uncovered, O Lord, from your rebuke, from the breath and snorting of your nose.
94 This can in no way belong to history, in which nothing is said about the springs of water (de fontibus aquarum) and the foundations of the earth, if he does not refer to the word 2 Mos. 15, 27. The children of Israel came to Elim, and there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees," by which, according to the unanimous judgment of all, the twelve apostles and the seventy disciples of Christ are modeled, so that the prophet treats the history of the whole exodus piecemeal, and sings of the mysteries of the New Testament according to the freedom of his spirit. For indeed, through the ministry of the Word, the world has come to know that the apostles would be the fountains of water, the princes of the world, as was promised to Abraham and his seed. So it is also said in Ps. 45, 17: "Instead of your fathers you will have children, you will set them as princes in all the world." The same is said Ps. 68, 27. "Praise God the Lord in the assemblies, for the fountain of Israel."
95. Therefore, if we understand the living apostles and prophets or their books, it will come to the same thing. For just as no one would have considered the apostles and prophets to be such and such great men, if the Lord had not revealed and glorified them by the ministry of the Word and the powerful working of miracles, so no one would have considered their books and their minds to be such and so great as to be the fountains and foundations of the earth, if the Spirit of Christ had not revealed it. But it is rightly believed that the apostolic mind and sense was the best that was in the apostles, and that the relics of garments, ge
These are the foundations of the faith of the simple people, which are nothing compared to the relics of books or rather of the mind, which cannot be left behind by any books, but can only be preserved in the hearts of its believers by the benevolence of the spirit. These are the foundations of which Paul says Eph. 2, 19. 20.: "You are now no longer sojourners and strangers, but citizens with the saints and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets."
Therefore, this verse is also a part of the proof that the prophet in this psalm speaks in the spirit and literally treats the spiritual interpretation taken from history in Christ.
But he says that all this was not done by human will or by our care. For who has ever ascribed to his word such great power that what has happened through the ministry of the gospel in the whole world, the incredible great deeds of God foretold in this psalm and now fulfilled, should happen through it? This is what has happened, "O Lord, from your rebuke", for you have rebuked the Gentiles, and the wicked have perished, Ps. 9, 6, they have been salutarily rebuked and changed for the better. So it says John 16:8: "He will punish the world for sin," and Romans 11:32: "For God has decreed all things among unbelievers, that He might have mercy on all," and Romans 3:19, 20: "That every mouth might be stopped up, and all the world guilty before God; so that no flesh by the works of the law might be justified in His sight."
The second part of the verse is formed by the words: "From the breath and the blowing of your nose" (ab inspiratione spiritus irae tuae), because that is how it is divided in Hebrew. The snorting of God's wrath he puts together with the breath by which man is made alive or becomes a living being, as it is said in Genesis 2:7: "He breathed into his nostrils the living breath." Does not the breath of wrath (spiritus irae) rather kill than blow life into him? Yes, indeed, he is the spirit (spiritus) that punishes the world for sin [Joh. 16, 8.] and reveals God's wrath against all men, as
1080 L. XVI, 99-91. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 16. 17. W. IV, 1398-1401. 1081
Rom. 1, 18. is said. But just by this he breathes the life of grace into those who are humiliated by this wrath. Thus it is said in Isa. 11, 4: "He will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath (spiritu) of his lips he will slay the wicked."
We have described the ministry of the church and the fruit of the resurrection of Christ crucified. All this, he says, was done "through the Spirit who sanctifies," as Paul also speaks in his superscription Rom. 1:4, in which he very briefly and beautifully summarizes everything that is said in this psalm about the ministry of the word and the fruit of Christ's resurrection, as one can easily see if one carefully compares both and pays attention to it.
V.17. He sent out from on high, and took me, and drew me up out of great waters.
(99) Since Christ confessed in the foregoing that he suffered, called, and was heard, and then sang of the miracles wrought in the whole world by his resurrection through the ministry of the word, why does he again boast that he was drawn out of many waters? For after he was raised and preached, he was not drawn out of the waters again. I do not believe that he returns to what he had begun to tell about his salvation, as if he had inserted preaching of the miracles of the Word, but according to the simple nature of the connection I assume that he now speaks in the person of his church. For after the word of the cross was preached and sinners were frightened and converted to the faith, persecution began immediately, first among the Jews, so that the apostles were forced to go to the Gentiles because of their unbelief and rage.
Therefore, he sings about the story that Lucas writes about the apostles and the believers in the Acts of the Apostles. The following is very fitting [v. 28], where he contrasts the wretched people with the "arrogant" people of the Jews, and [v. 44. f.] the obedience of the Gentiles in contrast to their disobedience.
and [v. 50] says that he gives thanks among the Gentiles, which can certainly not be understood to mean that he spoke this in his own person. It also makes a difference that from this verse to the end of the psalm almost all verba are in the future tense, while until then they were in the past tense, so that we may recognize that Christ speaks of the church and in the church. For also Apost. 9, 4. Christ said from heaven to Paul: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" although he only persecuted the church of Christ.
The Lord also says to the king Sanherib in 2 Kings 19:27 ff: "I know your living, your going out and your coming in, and that you rage against me. Because thou hast raged against me, and thy riotousness is come out in mine ears," though he persecuted only the people of Israel. Hence the 82nd Psalm, v. 3. dares to say, "For thine enemies rage, O Lord, and they that hate thee lift up their heads," and yet it follows [v. 4.], "They make crafty plots against thy people." For this He promised in Ex. 23:22, "I will be an enemy to thine enemies;" and Zech. 2:8, "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye;" and Gen. 12:3, "I will curse them that curse thee."
So Christ says in the person of his church, which is gathered from the Jews: "He will send (mittet) from on high, and fetch (accipiet) me, and draw me out of great waters" (assumet). This he did when he sent the Holy Spirit from heaven, and gathered out of the raging Jews all those whom he had previously ordained. For "the great waters" in this passage are the peoples of the Jews, as it is said in Revelation 17:15, "The waters which thou sawest are nations and Gentiles"; also in many other passages of Scripture they mean peoples in figurative speech. For these verba, which express an acceptance (accipiendi), do not denote a snatching out of the evil, which the following verse will describe, but the election and separation from others, as is said of Enoch Gen. 5, 24: "God took him away" (tulit) and Cap. 20, 3.: "For the sake of the woman whom you have taken" (tulisti) and it seems the prophet refers to the
She called him Moses, because she said: "I pulled him out of the water: I drew him out of the water." For the same verbum XXX which is put in that place is here also. And Moses has been a model of those who are drawn out of the water, that is, chosen out of others; hence the name Moses is not derived from Moys, 1) which means water, as some dream, but from assume (assumendo), the one assumed or drawn out, because he is taken out of the water.
V. 18. He delivered me from my strong enemies, from my haters who were too powerful for me.
102. "He will save me," it says in Hebrew (as I have said), so that this may be recognized as a word spoken by the Church, of which Christ prophesied. But they are words of confidence and hope in God, because she [the Church] confesses that the enemies would be stronger and the haters more powerful than she, so that we would know that we who want to be Christians would have to despair of all human protection. For it is not the true and genuine church that is protected by the worldly arm and the quite futile rays of banishment of those idols, but the fictitious one, which flaunts the name of the church, but denies the power of it. We read in the Acts of the Apostles how cruel and violent the Jewish people and their rulers were against the apostles and the disciples of the Lord. But when they were saved, they praised the Lord; and already in Paul alone they fulfilled this verse, because he had been converted.
V.19. They overcame me at the time of my accident, and the Lord became my confidence.
103) He explains the way of salvation, which was that in the midst of persecution He did not abandon the church, but assisted and protected it, so that the enemies who were stronger than it did not destroy it, and not only this, but also carried it out into space, as the following verse teaches.
by the Egyptian LIo, water, and ousoUe, save.
This is what he says: "In the time of my fall", that is, even in the time of persecution, when it seemed that I was completely abandoned, and those had the upper hand, he did not abandon me, but protected me. In this again we are praised that faith consists in what is not seen; but that we must believe we are strongest through the presence of the Lord then; when we are weaker than all, as Paul says [2 Cor. 12:10.], "When I am weak, then am I strong." And Joel 3:15: "Let the weak say: I am strong." For this the cleverness of the flesh comprehends not.
V. 20. And he brought me out into the room, he plucked me out; for he had a desire for me.
104. He will lead me out of the narrowness of affliction into the wide space of comfort. Thus Paul says 2 Cor. 1, 3. f.: "Praise be to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comforts us in all our tribulations" etc. For the breadth and narrowness allegorically signify comfort and affliction, Ps. 4, 2. [Vulg. 1: "In affliction thou hast made room for me," since affliction constricts the heart and countenance, but joy expands them, Prov. 15, 13: "A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but when the heart is troubled, then the courage falleth also." And Cap. 17, 22: "A merry heart maketh life merry, but a sorrowful spirit drieth the bones." And Cap. 15, 15: "A good heart is a daily good life."
105 For salvum me fecit Jerome has better: Liberabit me, likewise for quoniam voluit me Jerome has: Quia placui ei. But the meaning is: His pleasure and good pleasure rested on me, as it is said of Christ Matth. 3, 17: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And Luc. 2, 14. [Vulg.]: "And on earth peace to men of good will," that is, to those who are well pleased. But there is a very pure confession and an exceedingly confident thankfulness in the word: "The Lord has done this to me, not because I was worthy or deserved it by any works, but by grace, in vain, according to his mercy, because it pleased him thus to look on the lowly and to save it, that he might be pleased with the lowly, that he might be pleased with the lowly.
1084 xvi, 94-96, Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 20. 21. W. iv, 1404-1407. 1085
Let no flesh boast of him, but let him who boasts boast of the Lord, for it is not by our running but by God's good pleasure and mercy that we shall be saved.
V. 21: The Lord is well pleased with me according to my righteousness; he repays me according to the cleanness of my hands. 1)
This verbum retribuet should have been given in the preterite like the others, or also the others should have been translated in the future tense, so that the understanding and the order would not be confused. For here the church compares itself to the godless synagogue, in comparison with which it was worthy to be saved and carried out into the wide space, even though it had nothing to boast of in God's sight but the pleasure of God, by grace, in vain. We have seen both in the seventh and in the seventeenth Psalm [Ps. 7, 9. 17, 1.] that in the same movement of the heart, God was invoked for His judgment according to righteousness. For although we cannot be justified before God in any other way than by accusing ourselves, yet the wicked do us wrong in many ways, especially in the word of God. This is why he here cites his righteousness, for which, as he boasts, salvation from his enemies was recompensed to him. For the judgment between us and God is different from that between us and our ungodly adversaries. There is a great dispute about this between Job and his friends, in that the latter insist that man can bring himself to be righteous even before God, if he is not stained with sin before men; Job, on the other hand, claims that he is righteous before men, but confesses that he is a sinner before God, before whom all men are sinners and lack the glory that they should have in God [Rom. 3:23].
We have said in the thirteenth Psalm [§ 27 f.] that the word "recompense" in Scripture indicates more the change of suffering than the worthiness of merit. For our
inearuua rtztripust iniüi.
Merits are nothing in the sight of God, but He, rewarding according to His gracious mercy, changes our sadness into joy, our affliction into a wide space, as it is said in Is. 61, 3: "That ornaments may be given them for ashes, and the oil of gladness for mourning, and beautiful garments for a sorrowful spirit." Therefore, we must be careful not to understand "my righteousness" and "the purity" or innocence of "my hands" as if the church boasts of them before God; but the wicked are unrighteous against the church, which confesses its sins. By this righteousness she deserves to receive the opposite of what she suffers from the ungodly, and the ungodly the opposite of what they hope for.
(108) Thus God forbids Deut. 9:4-6, saying, "Now if the Lord your God has driven them out from before you, do not say in your heart, 'The Lord has brought me in to possess the land for my righteousness' sake, when the Lord has driven these nations out from before you for their wickedness. For you do not come in to take their land because of your righteousness and your upright heart, but the Lord your God drives out these nations because of their ungodly nature, to keep the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not to possess this good land for thy righteousness' sake." So we can and should boast against the wicked because of our righteous cause, but before God we must submit and be silent and give Him glory alone.
But I believe that "my righteousness" refers to suffering, 2) "the cleanness of my hands" to innocence, that is, that it [the church] has been unjustly injured by suffering evil for the sake of its righteous cause, and by not repaying or doing evil to anyone because of injustice. Namely, it is precisely because of this that it deserves to be carried out into the wide space, because the Lord, according to His gracious mercy, is well pleased with such people.
21 It seems to us here Mtikntia. has the meaning "suffering," as in the third Psalm, K 14.
V.22. For I keep the ways of the Lord, and am not ungodly against my God.
The church continues to compare itself to the synagogue, as the following will prove. For though the righteous have sin in their flesh, and their body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit lives because of justification, as the apostle says Rom. 8:10. On the other hand, the ungodly display their righteousness in their flesh, but there is falsehood in their spirit because of their ungodliness. Thus the righteous appear (agunt) outwardly as sinners, but inwardly they are righteous. The ungodly, however, are righteous on the outside, but sinners on the inside. But there is no comparison between the sin of the spirit (which is ungodliness) and the sin of the flesh (which is rebellious evil desire): neither is there any comparison between the righteousness of the flesh (which is dealing with the works [operatio] of the law) and the righteousness of the spirit (which is faith in Christ).
This is what it [the church] says here: "it keeps the ways of the Lord". But in what way are they kept? In the spirit, not in the flesh; by faith, not by works; by grace, not by free will. Therefore it adds, "And am not ungodly against my God." That is, this is keeping the ways of the Lord, that one be not ungodly against God. But ungodliness (as I have often said) is the unbelief that relies on being justified by its own works; where this is, there is no keeping of the ways of the Lord. But the Hebrew text says with a simple expression that is, if one could say so, impiavi, I have been ungodly from my God. But ungodliness is a going away and departing from God, as we have seen in the fourteenth Psalm 81 ff]. have seen. And Jer. 17, 5. it says: "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and taketh flesh for his arm, and departeth from the Lord with his heart." Therefore, the Latin interpreter speaks in Hebrew: Nec impius fui a Deo meo, I have not departed from my GOtte through ungodliness.
1) xeeeati is missing in the original and in the Basel.
Since the sin of ungodliness is so great in comparison to what is left of evil desire in the flesh of the godly, the church rightly boasts that it has not transgressed the ways of the Lord, nor has it been ungodly against him, as its adversaries are, who rage against it under the pretense of righteousness and zeal for God.
V.23. For all his judgments I have before me, and his commandments I do not cast away.
The church aims at the wicked, of whom it says in the 10th Psalm, v. 5: "Your judgments are far from him. Such was also the nature of her rival, the synagogue, which most of all wanted to be respected for having the rights (judicia) of God before its eyes, for not rejecting His commandments (justitias), yes, for always accusing the church of this offense. This dispute remains as long as flesh and blood remain; since the prudence of the latter does not grasp the righteousness of the spirit, nor suffer its righteousness to be punished, whereas the prudence of the spirit does not suffer the righteousness of the flesh to be praised, and preaches the righteousness of faith, so it happens that these two children, Esau and Jacob, clash in the body of Rebecca with perpetual warfare.
Blessed, therefore, is the man who speaks of the law of the Lord day and night, Ps. 1:2, for he has all the judgments of God before his eyes, and does not reject His commandments (justitias) (Hebrew: His justifications); he is the one who keeps the ways of the Lord, which are commanded in His judgments and commandments. But that one has the rights of God before his eyes indicates that he loves them. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," Matt. 6:21. But we need the law of God to be constantly before our eyes, because we are troubled and distracted by many things and incidents. But the desire for the law of the Lord will bring this about by itself; if this is not there, then we will soon throw the speeches of the Lord behind us, whereupon the neglect of the ways of the Lord immediately follows and godlessness against God etc.
114. i believe that "rights" (judicia) and "justifications" (justificationes) refer to the-
1088 L. xvi, M-ioo. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 23-25. w. iv. itio-uis. 1089
In this passage, we distinguish that the rights belong to the prohibitions by which the old man is judged, and the justifications belong to the commandments by which the spirit is justified, the new man.
V. 24. But I am without change before him, and beware of sins.
Here he clearly confesses 1) that there is still something left of the old man, against which he promises to fight, as the apostle Gal. 5, 24. Rom. 6, 6. and elsewhere teaches that one should kill the flesh and the members that are on earth [Col. 3, 5.]. Therefore, after all the ways of the Lord have been kept and ungodliness avoided, there still remains the task of crucifying the evil desire in us, that we may be cleansed from stains and renewed from day to day before God, and beware of our wickedness lest it overtake us. "For sin shall not be able to have dominion over us, because we are under grace" [Rom. 6:14.] Neither shall we yield obedience to the lusts of the flesh, that sin may reign in our mortal body [Rom. 6:12], though it shall not cease to provoke, that it may rule and reign.
This constant renewal and care for sin is despised by the wicked, because they think they are pure; because they do not have the rights and commandments of God before their eyes, they do not realize how great and complete (absolutam) purity they require. Therefore, for the same reason, he also adds an emphatic word (emphasin): cum eo, that is, "before him." For the wicked who despise these stains become more and more impure before the Lord from day to day, precisely because they are the most pure in their own eyes and in the eyes of men.
117. we have not yet had the expression XXX which the interpreter has translated by iniquitatem at this point. I do not know.
1) The logical subject here also remains "the church," as we see mainly from § 99, s 117 and s 130, but here another grammatical subject enters (86 puAnuturmn); as such (according to 8 99) either Christ is to be regarded, who speaks in the person of the church, or the prophet (according to § 131).
In what way I should distinguish this expression from other words that mean sin (iniquitatem). I would willingly allow that by the same the works of the flesh are signified, so that it would be referred to original sin, that is, the evil which the unleashed evil air commits, that is, when sin rules and reigns, and is put into operation. For the other words seem to refer more to the law that forbids than to the origin of the evil that rages. Thus it is said in Ps. 51:7: "Behold, I am begotten of sinful seed (in iniquitatibus)" etc. If this were true, it would be very fitting for our view, since the church intends to be careful that whatever sin is left in the flesh does not break out into the work.
V.25. Therefore the Lord repays me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
He repeats the same thing that he said above, in order to say it more clearly and to add more. All this goes against the godless adversaries, who both do not believe this and have a completely different opinion of themselves. For he continues to take sides against the godless synagogue, "this is the kind that thinks itself pure, and yet is not washed of its filth," Proverbs 30:12. Therefore, it continues to impute impurity and condemnation to the godly or the church, as if it were most against God, not to mention that it is undefiled before Him and is careful of its sinfulness.
119. against this now justifies (how I
[§ 106 ff., § 110, § 112]) the Church has said its thing, and indicates that, according to God's judgment, quite different things would be said by it than are said by the ungodly. For although she is not righteous, nor are her hands pure in the eyes of the ungodly, she is so in the sight of God's eyes, that is, of God and of all who have God's eyes, that is, who are spiritual. For the ungodly judge everything wrongly, God judges rightly; hence what follows here, that to the pure everything is pure, to the impure nothing is pure [Tit. 1, 15]. To the God-
The innocent is guilty; the elect is rejected, and he who is of God (divinus) must be possessed by the devil. In short, with a perverse person everything is definitely wrong. This is because he judges according to what his eyes see, not according to how God sees it with His eyes. Therefore, it follows:
V. 26. f. With the holy you are holy, and with the pious you are pious, and with the pure you are pure, and with the perverse you are perverse.
120 Here the prophet gives the reason why the wicked condemn everything about the godly. The cause is that they themselves are unclean and wicked, and each one judges as he himself is, as I have quoted from the apostle's letter to Titus [Cap. 1, 15J: "Nothing is pure to the impure, but both their mind and conscience are impure." So he said that he had purity of hands and righteousness, but not in the eyes of the ungodly, before whom all that the godly man is and does is rather abominable and intolerable unrighteousness and uncleanness. But for this contempt, God will give him glory and honor. Meanwhile, he consoles himself in faith and hope, saying:
121 Let it go [Revelation 22:11], "He that is unclean, let him be unclean after all"; let perverse men have their perverse ways. We boast in the best way, that we are rejected in their eyes, but holy in yours, because with the saints you are holy. That is, so that we may teach a new and wonderful gloss: With sinners thou art holy. For this saint, with whom God is holy, is none other than he who denies himself holiness and ascribes it to God alone, retaining sin for himself alone by this true confession, as they do, Dan. 9,1 ) 7: "Thou, O Lord, art righteous, but we must be ashamed; as it is now." And this very confession of truth, by which they ascribe holiness to God, causes it to flow back to them, and they themselves also to be ashamed.
1) In the Latin editions: Dau. 3.
be sanctified. For it is the truth that we are all unclean, and God alone is holy.
Therefore, those who are holy in this way, that is, truly humble and bad in their eyes, consider everything that God says and does to be holy and valid, and speak the word Ps. 119, 137: "Lord, you are righteous, and your word is right." And again, Ps. 145, 17.: "The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." For after their will is killed, they have pleasure only in the will of God, by which they praise and bless and worship all that befalls them.
On the other hand, the perverse and wicked, whose will is alive in all things, leaves nothing undone that God says and does. For he wants everything to turn out according to his will, which he considers 2) to be the holy of holies. Since this cannot happen, he perverts what is in fact the sanctuary of God and condemns it as the most unholy and accursed thing. An example of this is a godly person in whom God is, speaks and works, whom the wicked cannot stand. Thus, God is necessarily perverted in the case of the perverse, and instead of being considered holy, he is considered accursed. But as one thinks of God, God also proves Himself to man in the way he thinks of Him. Therefore, everything is wrong with a perverse person, even that which he has from God.
You see that God does not become holy, chosen, pious, or reverted according to His essence and nature, but according to His words and work, which He works in the good and evil spirits, and that both receive in themselves what they attribute to God. For just as the godly, by making himself unclean and sanctifying God, is sanctified in the best way in all that he lives and does, so the ungodly, by making himself holy and making God unclean, is defiled in the worst way in all that he lives and does. For he who makes himself holy cannot but make God unclean in all his words and deeds. But he who sanctifies God in all his words and deeds, the
2) Erlanger: Ipsi instead of: ipse.
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cannot but consider himself unclean. Is it not therefore something wonderful about this defilement and sanctification, that the one is defiled by his holiness, the other is sanctified by his sin? Is not therefore the wicked man the most unhappy man, who is himself stained by his holiness? Is not the godly man the most miserable man, who is himself sanctified by sin? Therefore he says afterwards [v. 28.], "For thou helpest the wretched people, and the high eyes thou bringest low."
Therefore, holiness is not so great that it should not defile a man if he assumes it for himself and does not attribute it to God alone; nor is sin so great that it should not sanctify a man if he ascribes it to himself by right confession and takes it away from God.
But it is very difficult not to presume holiness and not to ascribe sin to God. For who is constantly so minded in all things that God does to us that he should hold every word and work of his sacred, that is, revered and held as a holy thing? Who considers punishments, ignominies, deaths and all evils as holy things that he should receive with reverence? Job was one of the saints to whom everything that God sent him was holy, and said [Job 2, 10.], "Have we received good from God, and should we not also accept evil?" [Cap. 1, 21.:] "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away," as it pleased the Lord, so it was done, "the name of the Lord be praised!"
Ask the wicked, to whom (as they say) even a hair is bent, how he himself has chosen it, and see if he will not utter innumerable curses and cry out that what has happened to him is unjust, wicked, criminal; it has also not come from God, but from the devil, what has happened to him, such a holy, pious and chosen man. For the perverse man adorns himself with these beautiful names and pretends to be so, while in this nonsense of his he ascribes to God (that is, to the works and words of God) criminal and unrighteousness and all evil that there is.
128. from this now these whole two
verses can be easily understood. For "with the pious you are pious" (cum innocente innocens eris) is nothing other than that in the eyes of the godly everything that God says and does is considered blameless, for they praise and justify everything in Him. But just by this their confession and attitude they are also blameless before God in all things that they do and say. For they have an exceedingly blessed exchange with God: as they hold of God, so God in turn holds of them. Innocens [blameless] in this place is XXXX, that is, sincere, proven, perfect, without change, as in the 119th Psalm, v. 1: "Blessed are those who live without change", and Hohel. 5, 2: "My dove, my pious"; German: "pious", who hurts no one, does everything that he is obliged to do.
(129) So also the word: "And with the pure you are pure" (cum electo electus eris), is in the same sense nothing else than that the godly are so minded that they had everything that God does with them for a chosen (electa) thing, and did not want it to happen otherwise. They are well pleased with it, praise and bless the Lord, and please themselves only by recognizing that it is God's good pleasure, as it is written in Matt. 11:25 ff. that Christ rejoiced and gave thanks that the Father had revealed this to babes and hidden it from the wise, for no other reason than because it was thus pleasing in His sight. But by this disposition they are also chosen before God, and as they choose, so they are chosen again.
(130) But that it is so, the flesh did not sit down. Nor do the wicked understand it, but rather it seems to them that the opposite is true, namely, that the ways of the Lord are not kept by the godly, nor that they guard against sins, nor that they are forgiven according to the cleanness of their hands, nor that God is holy, pious and elect with them, but rather that everything they do is utterly ungodly against God and man. Therefore, they also condemn as foolishness, error, sin, heresy, everything that the godly have done and are doing, so that all these words of the Church can only be accepted in faith as
The truth of the matter is that, as we have often said, it looks far different in appearance and in the eyes of the people.
From this we see that the prophet does not speak of the election of eternal providence, nor of the first grace of justification, but of the fruit, benefit, work and reward of grace. For he wants to show what the word and the grace of faith work and achieve in man, as also the saying 1 Sam. 2, 30.: "Who honors me, him I will also honor, but who despises me, he shall be despised again." For man does not honor God until he is visited and honored by God with grace. But when he has received grace, he strives not to fall away from grace for the sake of men, whether they be friends or enemies, and to do what offends God. If, then, he endures reproach from men for God's sake, and persists in honoring God, God will give him honor for reproach, and he will be holy with the Holy One and chosen with the elect, contrary to all human understanding.
132) That this is the right understanding is clearly shown by the preceding and the following, since he says that he will be recompensed according to his purity, by which he shows that he is already in the first grace and suffers injustice, but will finally be chosen and honored by God; and afterwards [v. 28]: "For you help the wretched people," where he explains that he experiences in the hopeful that he has received grace.
But I have already said above that an interpreter of the holy scriptures must be careful not to draw the words of God, which speak of the use and work of grace, to the beginning of grace itself, and from this draw the poison of that heresy, which ascribes to the free will the power to make itself capable of accepting grace, as is done with the words of Zech. 1, 3: "Turn to me, and I will turn to you", and similar. Therefore, in this passage we have to imagine a holy, pious, elect person as a godly person who, for the sake of the word and faith in God, is considered to be an exceedingly nefarious, harmful person,
He is considered a rejected man in his own eyes and in the eyes of men, and is not worthy to live because he is the least and the most obsolete. But that the Lord is holy, pious and elect with him, must be understood in no other way than that he despises the appearance of the person, but that he only looks at the lowly and despised, and finally declares them holy, pious and pure, because they have confessed and received him as holy, pious and pure.
Thus it can be understood in two ways that the Lord is holy with the saints, in an active and in a suffering way: that he is both sanctified by them and sanctifies them in turn, which is also what Christ says [Matth. 10, 32.]: "Whoever confesses me before men, him will I also confess before my Father." And again [John 12:26.], "Whosoever shall serve me, him will my Father honor." But how does he honor him but by declaring that he is holy, pious, and elect, whom the ungodly have thought and declared to be an unholy, harmful, and lost man? For these are words of comfort addressed to those who live godly in Christ but are despised in this world.
135. "But with the perverse you are perverse," "as God does, so it is not right"; therefore, conversely, "as they do, so it is not right". Here is that proud Moab, who is always ready to teach God, and to judge all that God says and does in his own, but in the meantime has nothing else in his mouth but God, and misses to teach and do good and holy things, which was the vice peculiar to the Jews, before all nations. For God is not perverted in His nature, but in His word and work, by which He rules in godly men.
Therefore, taking care of the prophet speaking in the spirit, we understand by this perverse one such a man, who is not only not perverse in his own eyes and in the eyes of men, but only holy, pious, chosen, completely the most holy, who builds his nest under the stars, and considers himself a ring on the right hand of God, before whom everything is impure what the godly say and do; but all his own shines beautifully. But by this very traffic
1096 L-xvi, I06-IV8. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 26-29. W. iv, 1422-1126. 1097
heil, because he has a wrong opinion of God and himself and of everyone, he deserves that, as he transgresses God, he in turn be transgressed by God, and be made known to everyone as a transgressor.
137 St. Jerome translates thus: With the perverse you will perverse, and the other word: With the blameless you will act blamelessly, by which he indicates that he understood these verses in an active way. According to this view one should also say: With the holy you will sanctify, and with the elect you will elect; or so: The holy you will sanctify, the pious you will make pious, the elect you will elect, the perverse you will perverse; only that I do not know what task the peculiar way of speaking (idiotism) seems to attach to GOtte according to the Hebrew, since he says: With the holy you will be holy, with the perverse you will perverse, as if he wanted to say: The task of being holy, of being perfect, of being chosen, of being perverse, is given to you by the wicked, since they perverse all yours and justify themselves alone.
V. 28. For you help the wretched people, and the high eyes you bring low.
You see that this is said in the person of Christ's people, who are holy, pious, chosen, but "wretched" (humilis), as I said, that is, despised, and who are nothing less than holy and righteous and chosen in the eyes of those who are perverse and arrogant. Thus he gives the reason for all that has been said before, and praises the righteous judgment of God. For this reason he sanctifies the saints, because he helps the miserable; thus the saints are miserable, that is, lowly and despised; for this reason he also perverts the perverse, because he lowers the high eyes; thus the perverse are the haughty and honored and glorious. As if he wanted to say: This is thy righteous judgment, yea, thy nature, that thou exaltest the lowly, and art with them, but abasest the haughty, and art against them; whereof we have said many things, and of which the Scripture is full.
139 But he actually says: "the eyes of the arrogant" (oculos superborum), not: the arrogant. For the vice of the haughty
They are arrogant in their eyes because they seek high things and see in themselves what is nowhere to be found, so that it is not necessary to make the things themselves low, because of which they are arrogant, but only the eyes with which they look down on the lowly with contempt and admire themselves. Proverbs 30, 13. is said of these same Jews: "A kind that carries its eyes high, and holds up its eyelids." Paul says Rom. 12, 16. "Do not seek high things, but hold yourselves down to the lowly." Job 22:29: "He exalteth them that humble themselves: and he that bringeth down his eyes shall recover." Thus the wicked have high eyes, which are set on their strength, righteousness, and wisdom; but the godly cast down their eyes, and look on their weakness, sin, and foolishness. Therefore it is said in Proverbs 29:23: "The hope of man shall overthrow him: but the humble shall receive glory." And there Cap. 16, 18: "He that shall perish shall first be proud; and proud courage cometh before the fall." Oh, how powerful words these are, how important speeches!
V. 29. For you illuminate my lamp; the Lord my God makes my darkness light.
It is clear that this also refers to the people of Christ. For Christ has no darkness that needs to be illuminated. But what he says is this: Those have high eyes, and every arrogant one is his own guide and his own light. He hears no one, he departs from no one, not even from God Himself, whom he also departs from with all that is His. But your wretched people become foolish so that they may be wise, despair of themselves, give you their hand and submit to your guidance (magisterio), and want to be guided by your light, as it is said in Ps. 89, 16: "Lord, they will walk in the light of your countenance," and Ps. 4, 7: "Lord, lift up over us the light of your countenance," and Ps. 32, 8: "I will guide you with my eyes."
This is also taught by the figure of the Exodus from Egypt, where the children of Israel passed through the cruel desert, in which, as it says in Deut. 8:15, "there were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought", not by their own guidance, but by the clouds and fire.
The Lord's glory rose over her, so that the Gentiles were also enlightened by the light of the Lord. So also in Christ Jerusalem arose and was enlightened, Isa. 60, 1. 3. and the glory of the Lord rose over her, so that also the Gentiles walk in her light, and the kings in the brightness that rises over her. And there it is said [v. 19.], "The sun shall no more shine unto thee by day, neither shall the brightness of the moon shine unto thee: but the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and thy God shall be thy praise."
Of this light it is abundantly said in the fourth Psalm [§ 64 ff.] that it is the word of the Gospel, as Peter also says, 2 Pet. 1:19: "We have a strong prophetic word, and you do well to heed it, as a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts." For in so much turmoil in fortune and in misfortune, as it were in a very dark storm, we have no other little or great bear (elicen = ίλίχην), that is, Leit
stern on the sea, as the Word of God, by which we all, as much as we are saved, are guided. What then is our lamp that is illuminated by this light of the Word? Without a doubt, our heart; whether you call it conscience or intellect, there is nothing to it.
And behold, nothing is ascribed to what nature has instilled and to all the cleverness of the flesh. He calls this his darkness, everything that is in us without the word of God, and asks that this darkness be illuminated by the light of the word of God. This is easily understood by the one who is in temptation, for he understands that all reason cannot advise him; indeed, the wiser one is, the more incomprehensible he becomes in danger. But the word of God upholds and gives advice on what to do, namely to trust and expect salvation from God, as follows:
V. 30. For with you I can smite warriors, and with my God I can leap over the wall. 1)
1) Vulgate: HuoniLm in t6 srisuar a tsntutione, st in vso inso ti-ansgrsdiar ninrnni.
143. "With you," not in me; if you guide and enlighten me, not by my running and working, I will escape the temptations, knowing that when I have reached out to you, I must expect your counsel. Thus it is said in Ps. 44, 4-7: "They took not the land by their sword, neither did their arm help them; but thy right hand, thine arm, and the light of thy countenance: for thou wast well pleased with them. God, you are the same my King who promised help to Jacob. Through you we will crush our enemies; in your name we will subdue those who oppose us. For I do not rely on my bow, and my sword cannot help me" etc. Behold, the true Christian Church knows nothing of the worldly arm, which nowadays the godless bishops alone seize, invoke and fear. How beautifully their life and their mind fit the holy scripture!
144 Jerome and 2 Sam. 22, 30. [Vulg.] more correctly: Quoniam in te curram accinctus, et in Deo meo transiliam murum. For he takes the image from the soldiers who are very stout-hearted in war. For accinctus his armed one], which is called in Hebrew, is called 2 Kings 24, 2. latrunculus [a war servant], for which we say a soldier. For so it is said there, "And the Lord sent upon him soldiers from Chaldea, from Syria, from Moab, from the children of Ammon." So he wants to say, "Trusting in you and your enlightenment, I will not be afraid to oppose anyone; I will fight against every kind of enemy; I will overcome a wall, and everything that opposes me; that is, I who am weak in myself will be unconquerable in you, and, as Paul boasts, Phil. 4, 13: "I can do all things through him who makes me mighty," and 2 Cor. 2, 14: "Thanks be to God, who always gives us victory in Christ."
Therefore, "wall" in this passage does not only denote sins, but also the power of the enemy, against whom the church of Christ fights through faith in the Word of God, as one fights in war against the walls of the enemy. For towers and walls in the Scriptures figuratively designate the leaders, the patrons, and the rulers.
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among the nations, as Ps. 122, 7: "Let there be peace within thy walls, and happiness within thy palaces" (turribus), that is, among the rulers and regents of the church. Isa. 49:16: "Behold, thy walls are ever before me." Thus he has here set "the wall" for the walls, that is, all the violence of this world, with which the strong man keeps his palace, until a stronger one comes upon him, and overcomes him.
And actually he says "I will leap over" or "I will climb over", not "I will tear down" or "I will destroy", because the power of the world is not abolished by the word of faith, but only overcome. For Christ did not abolish Caesar's kingdom, but established a more exalted kingdom, that of truth. And Paul subjects all men according to the flesh to the authorities, Rom. 13, 1, while he firmly teaches that according to the spirit all are free in Christ, 2 Cor. 3, 17. In the same way Peter, 2 Pet. 2, 10, scolds the future despisers of the authorities, who also preaches Christian freedom. Thus we overcome everything, and most of all when we are subject to all.
V. 31. God's ways are without change, the speeches of the Lord are purified. He is a shield to all who trust in him. 1)
147. meus is not in the Hebrew, but without closer determination (absolute)Deus. This is spoken according to the Hebrew way, for which we would say: God's way is undefiled. For the Hebrew speaks thus: God's, undefiled is His way, as Ps. 68, 17. [Vulg.]: "The mountain on which it is the good pleasure of God to dwell on it", and Gen. 2, 17.: De ligno, quod est in medio paradisi, non comedes ex eo. This way of speaking has also our German language, since we say: "Of the wood in the middle of paradise, thou shalt not eat of it." Likewise: "A regent of the church, it is not due to him to argue" etc.
148. so he goes in a lovely movement of the heart, in which he has his pleasure
1) Vulgate: Deus M6U8, impoHuta via sjus, eloqma Domini i^ns "xaminata, proteetor 68t omninm Kpsranrium in 86.
to God, he continues to praise the words of God as he has praised the works, both against the works and against the words of the arrogant and the wicked. For that God is holy with the saints, and strengthens those who trust in Him, He does this through a clear conscience, for a clear conscience is cheerful and courageous. But it is not purified by any works or doctrines of men, but by the law and the way of the Lord, as it is said in Ps. 19:8: "The law of the Lord is without change, and restoreth the soul." For as the word of the Lord is, so is the way, that is, the life according to the word; as the life is, so is the conscience. But "the speech of the Lord is pure, as silver plated through, proved seven times" [Ps. 12:7]. And this makes it so that the wicked cannot rejoice in God, but all theirs is perverse, because their ways are defiled, from which they walk at all times according to the doctrines and commandments of men, and please themselves in the same, drawing even the law of the Lord upon these their opinions.
Therefore, attention must be paid to the comparison in which, throughout the whole, the church compares itself to the synagogue, boasting in God, who not only approves of all the works of the church, but has also given it the completely pure doctrine of the Word, according to which it lives holy, pure and pious. On the other hand, he makes both the works and the words of the synagogue impure, however much it may appear otherwise in the eyes of men. For as the ungodly consider the life of the godly to be unclean, so they also consider the teaching of the same to be unclean, not knowing the righteousness of faith, which is of God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, which is of works. Nothing else can follow from this than defiance and presumption. Against these he says here: "He is a shield to all who trust in Him." For those who walk in the way of God and cling to His word do not trust in themselves, but in God, by whom alone they are also protected, while those protect themselves by their powers, works and teachings. For the godly have need of God as their protector, since, because of the way of the Lord, which is without change, and because of
of the Lord's truthful speeches must always suffer from the wicked, who seek to corrupt them.
For where is there a God without the Lord? Or a refuge without our God? 1)
He is a shield to all who trust in Him, because He is, therefore, able to protect, since there is no other God besides Him who could harm. Thus it is said in 1 Sam. 2, 2: "There is none holy, like the Lord; beside thee there is none; and there is no stronghold, like our God is." From this passage David took the last part of this verse, for they are the same words. Jerome also translates the Hebrew XXX not by Deus, but: Fortis, by saying: Et quis fortis, sicut Deus noster? Here also the separating conjunction aut must not be put, but the connecting et; because this verse says twice the same thing (est tautologicus).
151) So this sense is a comforting one for the church against the insult and the glorification of this Peninna [1 Sam. 1, 4. 6.], the synagogue, as if the prophet wanted to say: If He protects, who can harm? "If God is for us, who can be against us?" [Rom. 8:31] "Who is there that can harm you, if you do what is good?" 1 Petr. 3, 13. So also Hannah says 1 Sam. 2, 2. the same against her presumptuous rival, and adds [v. 3. 9.]: "Let your great boasting and defiance be; for much ability helps no one."
V. 33. God equips me with strength and makes my ways without change.
152 Again, here [in the Vulgate] is a Hebrew idiom: Deus, qui praecinxit instead of: Deus praecinxit, or: He who has prepared, just as [v. 31.]: My God, undefiled is His way. And here is the same word immaculatam, as there [v. 31.] impolluta, namely, that is, pious (innocentem), as before [v. 26.], "With the pious thou art pious." Above [v. 31.] the Church said that the way of the Lord was without change, here she boasts that her own way is without change; and since above [v. 21. f.] she was to the Ge
1) Vulgate: HuoniLin (Mis Deus praeter Dominum, aut Huis Deus praeter veum iwstruui?
When she has said that she was not wicked against God, and praised her righteousness and the cleanness of her hands, why does she repeat the same thing so often, and say it again and again, making a babble, as it were, with superfluous words?
I have said that in my opinion the prophet in this psalm sings of the state of the first church in the person of Christ until the calling of the Gentiles. Therefore, its head, Christ, is introduced in the beginning, then the preaching of the gospel and the emergence of the church among the Jews, and the comparison of it with the rejected and abandoned part of the synagogue, which, proud of its own righteousness, ridiculed and despised the faith of the church, yes, even forbade and persecuted, as Pharaoh oppressed the children of Israel in Egypt, so that they would not multiply.
Now, however, he seems to be singing about the progress and increase of the same; the more the wicked tried to hinder them, the more the faithful increased. That this is the meaning is shown by the words and also by what follows. For the power with which she is armed, as she says here, is such a power as is ascribed to a great multitude and a war army, as it is said Isa. 60, 5.: "When the multitude of the sea turneth unto thee, and the power of the Gentiles cometh unto thee," that is, a great crew (vis), a great multitude of the Gentiles. Ex. 15:4: "Pharaoh and his power he cast into the sea." Hence this expression XXX more often stands for an army, which here and in other places is translated "power." So also the Latins say of a great power (vim) of money, of men, of horses etc. when they denote the multitude.
(155) That the church should therefore be equipped and surrounded with power is the same thing that Lucas Apost. 2, 47: "But the Lord added to the church daily them that were saved. And Cap. 5:14: "And there were added more and more that believed on the Lord, both men and women." The same means that, while before she had said that the way of the Lord was without change, now she says that her way is without change, since her way and the way of the Lord are one and the same.
1104 L. Lvi. ii5-ii7. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 18, 33. 34. W. iv, 1435-1438. 1105
is the same. For it walks in the way of the Lord, not in its own way, which is not the way of the Lord. For this is the way of the synagogue, as Isaiah Cap. 53, 6. says: "We all went astray, each one looking to his own way." And Gen. 6:12: "All flesh had perverted his way." That therefore the way of the church without change be made (poni) or (as it is called in Hebrew) given (dari), that is, that it be proved and strengthened by the following of many. If this did not happen, the church would finally fall away, since there are so many wicked people who accuse it of being harmful and impure.
Therefore, what is said in Exodus 1:7 as an example had to happen: "The children of Israel grew and begat children and multiplied, and became so many that the land was filled with them. And again, v. 12. "The more they pressed the people, the more they multiplied and spread." Hence the Church here puffed exceedingly, "My way," because by her example of walking in the way of the Lord she drew many into the same path. For she had in the apostles directly from God the way of the Lord, but the others through the ministry and example of the apostles and the disciples who preached to them. God always keeps this way in the church, so that although all are taught by Him alone, He nevertheless draws all through the service, the word and the example of men, and guides them through the way of the church to His way, which is the same. Jerome translates 2 Sam. 22, 33: Et complanavit perfectam viam meam (God has paved my perfect way), which will easily be drawn to the same meaning.
V. 34. He makes my feet like the deer, and sets me on my high place. 1)
Jerome has here and 2 Sam. 22, 34: Coaequans pedes meos cervis, et super excelsa mea statuens me. I know that in the foregoing I have interpreted "the feet" from the movements of the mind and the disposition of the heart, as in the 14th Psalm [§ 96): "Their feet are hastening to shed blood."
1) Vulgate: Hui perkooit pocles Eos tLNHuam osrvoruin, et super oxMlsa [Mtueus ius.
This interpretation is puffing in many places of the Scriptures, perhaps also here. But I will again dare to follow my own opinion, and understand the feet of the church in such a way that it is more fitting to the context, because we move with the prophet in the spirit. For this verse seems to me to indicate the reason for the preceding, where she said that her way was increased and strengthened by the following of many. This has happened by no other power than by the ministry of the gospel, which has not gathered so many to the church so quickly without a great miracle of divine power, although the way of the Lord that the church walks is contrary to all prudence of the flesh, nor can be considered undefiled by any man unless God has changed his heart; this he has now accomplished with incredible speed through the ministry of the Word.
The feet of the church are therefore the ministry of the word, or, which makes little difference, the evangelists themselves. Thus Paul writes to Timothy [2. Ep. 4, 7.] that he has completed the course; and Apost. 20, 24: "That I may finish my course, and the ministry which I have received." And to the Galatians, Cap. 2, 2. "That I might not run, or have run, in vain." Of these feet speaks the vision of Ezekiel, Cap. 1, 7. where he writes that the four feet of the beasts would have stood straight, and Isa. 52, 7. which Paul cites Rom. 10, 15: "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of the messengers who preach peace, preach good things" etc., that is, how lovely is a preacher who preaches grace and forgiveness of sins. And Micah 4,2 ) 13. "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion. For I will make you horns of iron and claws of brass." Again Isa. 32:20: "Blessed are ye that sow by the waters, for there ye may let go the feet of oxen and asses." And many similar sayings are found throughout the Scriptures.
Therefore to the apostle Paul an ox that threshes with its feet on the threshing floor means a preacher of the gospel, 1 Cor. 9:9: "Thou shalt not bind the mouth of the ox that threshes." But it is the
2) In the Latin editions: LUeNons 5.
1106 xvi. 117-iis. Interpretations on the Psalms. W. iv, ins-im. 1107
The extraordinary swiftness of the deer is well known, which is also attributed to the word, Ps. 147, 15: "His word runs fast."
What is this "height" to which the Lord has placed him? And how do the feet and the height agree? then also the swiftness and the standing? Some understand by this the heavenly things on which the church is based; but it seems to me that he is still speaking of the feet. For in the Hebrew text it is said, He hath made me to stand; but this properly comes to the feet. Therefore I simply think that the same is said here as Isa. 40, 9: "Zion, you preacher, climb up a high mountain. Jerusalem, thou preacher, lift up thy voice with power, lift up, and fear not; say to the cities of Judah, Behold, there is your God." In the same opinion he added Cap. 52, 7: "On the mountains," saying, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of the messengers who proclaim peace." Perhaps this is also taken from the way of the deer, which train their young to run and teach them to be careful of flight; they lead them to precipitous slopes and show them how to jump. Running and standing on one's feet do not conflict with each other, as Ezek. 1, 21. 25. is written that they walked and stood.
But by the "height", whether it be mountains or slopes, I understand nothing else than multitudes of many peoples, in the midst of which the preacher stands and confidently proclaims the word of God, which is not in human power, as Christ indicates when he says Luc. 24, 49: "You shall be clothed with power from on high. Therefore it is said: He has made me stand. Thus Peter stands, Apost. 2, 14, and lifts up his voice to the Jews; so also Paul in many places; and Christ, Ps. 82, 1, stands in the midst of the gods. This standing is explained by Isaiah Cap. 40, 9. f. in his glorious exhortation. That the hosts of the nations are called mountains is evident from many passages. For Jeremiah Cap. 51, 25 calls Babylon a mountain, and every church is called a mountain, as the general church is called the mountain of the Lord.
Ps. 68, 16. and Is. 2, 2. etc. The Hebrew text, however, says "my height", by which it either designates the providence of God, which has worked that the ministry of the word has been useful only to those who should be called to the church, or it designates thereby par excellence every special (partial) church.
V. 35: He teaches my hand to fight and my arm to draw a bow of brass.
He continues to praise God's speeches and their power. For they are not only without change and purified, they do not only teach and convert many to the faith through the ministry of preachers, as he has said so far, but they are (as Paul teaches in 2 Cor. 10, 4. f.) also mighty before God, to disturb the fortifications, to disturb the attacks and all height that rises up against the knowledge of God, and to take all reason captive under the obedience of Christ. Thus, in the letter to Titus, Cap. 1, 9, he commands that a bishop should not only be able to exhort by sound doctrine, but also to punish the gainsayers, and not otherwise than by the word of faith, which is according to the right doctrine, not by human subtleties or miserable philosophical reasons. This is what he says here.
163. "He teaches my hand to fight." For the Church is not involved in worldly warfare. She has her own battle, as I have already mentioned from Paul's writings, namely with the adversaries of the Word. If the Lord does not teach us to fight with our hands and gives us arms of brass 1), we will fight against them in vain. For even Moses and Aaron could not overcome Jannes and Jambres in any other way than by the finger of God [2 Tim. 3, 8]. From human reasons only harmful quarrels, hatred and mobs arise, as Paul also teaches [2 Tim. 2, 23].
164 But I believe that it is easy to understand that this equation, which is taken from warfare, in which everything is done mainly with the hands and the arms, does not mean anything else.
1) In the Vulgate, the second part of this verse is called: You have made my arms like a bow of brass.
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than that the preachers who are taught by God are given an untiring and unconquerable power to teach the word to punish all adversaries, as Christ also promised [Luc. 21, 15.]: "I will give you mouth and wisdom, which shall not gainsay nor resist all your adversaries." So says Apost. 6, 10. [Of Stephen], "They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit out of which he spake." This was also confirmed by Gamaliel Apost. 5, 39. by saying, "If the work is from God, you cannot dampen it."
V. 36. And thou givest me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand strengtheneth me; and when thou humblest me, thou makest me great.
I do not know where this verse [in the Vulgate: Et dedisti mihi protectionem salutis tuae, et dextera tua suscepit me. Et disciplina tua correxit me in finem, et disciplina tua ipsa me docebit] came from. In Hebrew for all this is A verse which reads thus, And thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand hath strengthened me, and thy meekness hath made me great. Here nothing is said about chastening, about correction, about the end, about teaching. But also 2 Sam. 22, 36. this piece is omitted: "And thy right hand strengtheneth me." There we also read by an error of the scribe: Et mansuetudo mea instead of: Mansuetudo tua.
Thus, all the victory that the Church, with hands that had learned to fight and with arms of brass, has won over the adversaries, she does not attribute to herself, but with godly gratitude to the one who won it, as if she wanted to say: That I have not been defeated in this battle for godliness, and that the true doctrine of faith has remained unharmed to me, is because your salvation was my protection and your favor preserved me, and through this miracle I see that it was your goodness alone that, after the adversaries have been overcome, my number has increased.
However, no one who has not experienced it can easily believe how great and dangerous this struggle for doctrines is. We see it in Pau
lus in the epistle to the Galatians and in all the epistles, with how great a spirit and with how great a care he himself labors in this battle and arms us. For the old serpent is exceedingly crafty, and deceives the hearts of the simple very easily; yea, whom does he not deceive? To this difficulty is added that the doctrine of the Church is higher than men can comprehend. If God does not alone teach it, preserve it, give it victory, make it great, everything else is on the side of the adversaries, the multitude, the greatness, the power, the eloquence, the talent, the learning, the beautiful appearance, the riches, so that it is only in God's protection and in the preservation of His rights that those are preserved who already believe and those are added who contradict.
Therefore, Paul also acts before God more with godly prayers for the churches, that God may guard the hearts and minds of the believers, so that their senses will not be deceived by the cunning of the serpent and the wickedness of men, than that he should rely on words alone, even though he also has these from God, as it were, as weapons of God.
Therefore, it is a grace to be equipped for battle, but it is a greater grace to overcome in battle and to preserve the citizens and subjugate the enemies, to increase one's cause, not merely to protect it. Who are we, then, that we either presume to protect the truth and overcome the enemies, or if we cannot do so, become unwilling? The kindness of our God causes us to be preserved and increased, not our presumption, so that God's glory alone may stand.
What shall we do now with our Latin translation? It could probably give the same sense: Corrigi per disciplinam Domini in finem unb doceri per disciplinam Domini, namely: To become great through the goodness of God. But this would require so much violence and torture to express this meaning, which the words do not want to suffer, that it is better to pass over it altogether and to be content with the text and the sense of the Hebrew.
V. 37. You make room for me to walk underneath so that my ankles do not slip. 1)
Namely, after the opponents of the Word have been overcome and the speech of God has been affirmed, thereby preserving and increasing the believers, not only are they not constricted and diminished, which the opponents wanted, but their steps have room and are strengthened, which is the result of the kindness of God, who has made the Church great against the will of her oppressors, because many more enter through them than before they were oppressed, as I have shown above with the image of the children of Israel in Egypt.
The same is repetitive: Vestigia mea non sunt infirmata [my footsteps are not weakened], that is, they are most strongly fortified, since the wicked undertook to weaken them. For we have said that the negative language in the Scriptures is often stronger than the affirmative. I believe that this Hebrew way of speaking is known, that firmare means: to establish, to fulfill, to maintain, as the apostle Rom. 3, 31. says, that the law is not abolished by faith, but established (statui), of which he Rom. 8, 3. that it is weakened by the flesh (infirmari); and again he says Rom. 4, 16. 20. that the promise is made firm (firmari) by faith; again [v. 14.] that it is not only not established by the law, but is also taken away. In the same way, it must be said here that the steps are strengthened, that is, that the way of God in which the church walks is strengthened, which happens when the believers who walk with one another in it are strengthened.
But why the church calls them her steps and her footsteps, when they are the steps of God and the ways of the Lord, has been said above [§155 f.]. For the church, by its example, makes the ways of the Lord its own, and before men, where the example applies, it seems to be only the way of the church, but in faith it is recognized that all this, whatever it is, is God's work.
1) Vulgate: vilatasti Aressus rueos sudtus me, et Lon sunt intirinatu vekti^ia rosa.
To others, it seems that space is made for the church to walk, to do works of joyful love, overcoming the fear of persecution. For a wide space is cheerfulness and comfort. But this does not fit well in the context.
V. 38. I will pursue my enemies and seize them, and will not turn back until I have killed them.
After the Church has experienced the marvelous goodness of God, that He increases it while the adversaries diminish it, creates space for it while the latter oppresses it, gives it strength while the latter weakens it, it even takes confidence in pursuing the enemies and persecuting them until it destroys them, so that it is all over with them. And so it has happened and still happens in every victory of God's people that the enemies seem to be superior and insurmountable in the beginning of the war; but after the attack has happened, it is strengthened, the enemies give way and are defeated. Then the Church does not cease to pursue the battle begun, until it exterminates all the adversaries.
Therefore, this verse describes the perseverance in war or victory, and the tireless bravery of the Church to the end. This is also sufficiently proven by the words: "I will pursue", likewise: "I will seize", "I will not turn back until I have killed them", or as Jerome translates: "Until I consume them". For "I will pursue" does not denote a new beginning of the war, but the continuance of the war begun, as Ps. 34:15: "Seek peace and pursue it," that is, follow it to the end. And "I will seize them," means that they will be completely captured and totally mastered.
177 This is illustrated in the war of Joshua against the inhabitants of Ai [Jos. 7, 1. ff. 8, 1. ff.], in which the children of Israel were first beaten and weakened, so that they became despondent; then they fled out of cunning, until they lured the enemies far away from the city, and then they turned against them and completely destroyed them. By this the Spirit signified that the church at first by pretended flight, that is, by suffering according to the flesh
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Weakened, it would appear to give way, while strong in the spirit of faith, it would finally defeat and completely exterminate its enemies. Thus the Arians, who were strong at first, were finally completely destroyed. In the books of Judges, on the other hand, it was not so, for there it is often written that the children of Israel were not able to destroy the Jebusites.
V. 39. I will smite them, and they shall not withstand me; they must fall under my feet.
From what has been said before, the meaning is clear, namely, that the church seizes the adversaries, strikes them down and destroys them, so that they, having lost their strength, cannot stand up nor resist the one who strikes them. For this verse describes the weakness of the adversaries, as the preceding ones describe the bravery of the Church. "Falling under the feet," I think, is spoken in a simple figurative, instead of: that the adversaries be humbled and converted to the faith. But I will leave it to the reader to understand here also the feet of the church from the ministry of the Word, as Lucas says in the Acts of the Apostles [Cap. 6, 7.], "There were also many priests obedient to the faith." Then "falling under the feet" will be the same as obeying the Gospel.
V. 40. You can arm me with strength for battle; you can throw under me those who oppose me.
Again, the same strength is in this passage that was thought of above [v. 33]: "God equips me with strength," that is, you have surrounded me with the multitude of the faithful. But here he adds, "To the battle," by which the church boasts that it is not merely increased by the multitude of believers, but also by the multitude of warriors. For out of the defeated and defeated adversaries many have been converted and have become leaders and shepherds of the churches, powerful to build up and to fight in the salvific doctrine at the same time, holding the sword in one hand and building with the other, as is said by Nehemiah [Cap. 4, 17].
But after the warriors are increased in this way, it becomes easy to throw down all those who rebel and rise up against the knowledge of God. That is, after the church is multiplied, it is multiplied more and more, and grows up and sprouts, which we have seen fulfilled in the first church from the Jews.
The words "under me" (subtus me) belong to the verb "to throw under the feet" (supplantasti), as above [v. 37] in the words: "You make room to go under me", to the verb "you make room" (dilatasti). I leave it to the grammarians to judge the awkward expression subtus me instead of sub me or subter me.
V. 41. You put my enemies to flight, that I may destroy my haters.
So far he has spoken of the Jews, who, overcome and humbled by the Word, contributed to the growth of the church; now he speaks of those who are hardened and persist in unbelief, whom he calls enemies and haters. For the church has suffered no more cruel hatred than from its own brethren, the Jews. But mark the real meaning of the words [Vulg.], "Thou hast put them to flight from me, and hast disturbed them." These are terrifying words: the synagogue is defeated and flees; the church is victorious and persecuted. For this is the meaning of the saying, Inimicos dari in dorsum, as Gen. 49:8: "Judah, thy hand shall be upon the necks of thine enemies."
182 But it is also lamentable that the synagogue always remains in such a way that it turns its face away from the church, that is, it hates it continuously. It does not want to and cannot recognize it, and does not give up its hatred; yet it does nothing against it, but always flees and is forced to give way. This we see before our eyes in the Jews to this day, so that their situation cannot be expressed more appropriately in a few words than that they are set at a back (positi dorsum), given only to hate and suffer misfortune.
So, that they are also disturbed, we see more clearly than we read it; but even more lamentable is what follows:
V. 42. They call, but there is no helper, to the Lord, but he does not answer them.
It is also said of them, Proverbs 1:28: "Then they will call to me, but I will not answer; they will seek me early and not find me. With this, Solomon refers to the utterly futile behavior of the synagogue and the vain prayers by which they believe they are serving God and appeasing Him, while He, after Christ has been proclaimed to them, will hear no one else and make them blessed except in Christ. For there is no other name under heaven given, wherein we are to be saved, Acts 4:12. Therefore they labor in vain in all things, they call in vain, they pray in vain; they have no helper, no one to hear them. Nevertheless, being hardened, they do not cease from their presumption. Many and frightening things are said about this misery in the prophets.
V. 43. I will crush them like dust before the wind; I will clear them away like the dung in the street.
184] Of this crushing and making small has been sufficiently dealt with in the first Psalm 66 ff. that the Jews are crushed by a twofold crushing, and have become like chaff that the wind scatters [Ps. 1, 4]. We see that they are scattered over the face of the whole earth, that they have nowhere quiet and certain to dwell, that they have no kingdom, no principality, and absolutely no power. But they are even more spiritually scattered in various ungodlinesses, since they leave the faith in Christ standing, and are driven about by various and strange teachings. They are also given to all nations throughout the world to be trampled on, like the dung in the street, which, when thrown out, is of no use to anyone, except to soil the feet. Thus it is said in Isa. 10:6 [Vulg.], "It shall be trodden down as dung in the street." And in Hebrew it is said: I will empty it as dung in the street, that is, as Christ said Matt. 5:13. of the salt that became dumb: "It is of no use henceforth, but to pour it out, and let men tread it down." But for the Jews also here
a twofold trampling, that they are both bodily subjected to all, and despised like useless dung, and spiritually [trampled] by the devils with shameful doctrine.
Note the emphasis: "dust" and "dung on the guest. The elect are a solid, good, and fruitful earth, not barren dust blown away by the wind; and precious polished stones held in honor, not a little dung that is without all use. But as out of the dust and dung is taken all that is of any use, so also out of the rejected, so that there is nothing left among them that can be used.
V. 44. You save me from the quarrelsome people and make me a leader among the Gentiles; a people I did not know serve me.
Here Christ speaks in his own person, but everything said above can also belong to his person, because he himself did everything and caused the church to do the same. He clearly prophesies of the rejection of the synagogue and that the church of the Gentiles will be accepted. In Haggai 2:8 Christ is called the "comfort of the Gentiles", and Gen 49:10: "The Gentiles will hope in Him", and Isa 11:10: "The root of Jesse, which is a banner to the nations, the Gentiles will ask for it", and in many other places, as Paul Rom 15:9 ff. gives some passages with this present.
187 But he speaks spitefully of "the quarrelsome people", thereby praising the justice of God and making the guilt of the Jews heavy, as if he wanted to say: There is nothing but contradiction among this bitter and stubborn people. It would have been a small thing if they had not believed or despised, but now they pursue the offered mercy even with violence and resist and contradict with unrestrained fury, by which they force it that they have to be left and I become the head of the Gentiles, as it is said in Ps. 110, 6: "He will judge among the Gentiles, he will do a great battle."
(188) And here it is to be noted that the prophet does not speak of the beginning of ungodliness, fon-
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but of the perseverance in it and the retribution of it, as he spoke above of the perseverance in godliness. For no one knows the beginnings of mercy and hardening, for God's judgments are incomprehensible, Rom. 11:33.
And lest someone think that he will be the head of the generations of this very contradictory people, he himself declares himself more clearly and distinguishes them completely from the Jews by saying: "A people that I did not know serves me", so that they cannot continue to boast that God alone is known in Judah [Ps. 79, 1]. Thus it is said in Gen. 32:21: "They have provoked me in that which is not God; with their idolatry they have provoked me to anger. And I will provoke them again in that which is not a nation; in a foolish people will I provoke them to anger." Thus Hos. 2:23: "I will say unto him that was not my people, Thou art my people;" and [Cap. 1:10] "It shall come to pass in the place where it was said unto them: Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Ye are the children of the living God."
190) The fact that he says: "Which I did not know" refers to the bodily presence of Christ, in which he visited the Jews. But it can also, and better, be referred to everything else that he showed to this people in particular, such as: the law, the promises, the miracles, and what Paul also mentions in Rom. 9, 4. ff. that he did not show to the Gentiles, by which, as is said, he recognized them alone. Whereas to the [foolish] virgins, Match. 25, 12., and to the hypocrites, Matth. 7, 23. he says, "I know not yours."
V. 45. It obeys me with obedient ears; yes, the foreign children have disobeyed me. 1)
He compares the stubborn faithlessness of the Jews with the willing faith of the Gentiles. They are honored with many signs and wonders, instructed by the law and the prophets, and finally, since Christ himself and the apostles taught them, called.
1) Vulgate: In anditu auris odkäivit inilii, ülii alloni inontiti kunt rniUi.
they did not come to believe. None of this was shown to the Gentiles, but only the hearing and the sound of the Gospel came to them, and immediately they obeyed, because God had decreed it beforehand. This is why he praises with such special emphasis the willingness to believe: At the hearing of the ear they will be obedient to me (audient mihi) (as the Hebrew text has), because the Gentiles became believers only by the word which they heard with their ears, although they did not have the prophets and the law.
The Spirit uses the hearing or hearing (auditus seu auditio) after the manner of the [Hebrew] language actually for the oral word, as Isa. 53, 1: "Lord, who believes our sermon?" [auditui) that is, the word which we preach that it may be heard. Hab. 3, 2. "O Lord, I have heard thy rumor (auditionem tuam, that is, thy audible word), that I am astonished."
193 And this peculiarity pleases me extraordinarily, since by it the spirit seems to indicate a twofold mystery; first, that the word of God is of such a nature that unless one closes all the senses and receives it with the ear alone, and believes it, one cannot grasp it, as it is said in Is. 7, 9: "If you do not believe, you will not abide. For the word of God makes foolish and blind, or, as the apostle says [2 Cor. 10, 5.], takes all reason captive under the hearing of Christ. Speaking in this manner, Christ also said to the Pharisees [John 8:37.], "My speech do not sow among you." No one understands this, except at the time of tribulation, when man is completely without all good counsel and simply clings to the word, letting himself be guided by the divine preaching (auditui).
194 Therefore this complaint about the Jewish people is written, that they did not hear with their ears, nor did they incline their ears to the voice of the Lord, nor did they obey it, because they did not want to be guided by the word of God in the time of tribulation, but wanted to govern themselves by their own counsel and eyes, that is, they did not believe, but wanted to feel like horses and mules do [Ps. 32:9].
195. therefore, I do not know how to use the hand-
The people of the Gentiles have been foolish in their own eyes, so that they believed me in things which they could not see or understand. Who now does not see how beautifully that fable of the Gallic Hercules 1) could be drawn here? What are the golden chains, which people gently pull through their ears, other than the verbal word of God, through which the faithful are drawn to Christ? But even if this is something pagan, it is still subject to Christ and serviceable.
The other mystery is that it is not enough for books to be written and read in the church, but it is necessary to speak and hear in it. For this is why Christ wrote nothing, but spoke everything; the apostles wrote little, but spoke much. Thus, as he could have said Psalm 19:5: Her book goeth forth into all the earth, he rather said [Vulg.], "Her sound is gone forth," that is, the living voice, "and to the end of the world," not the writing, but: "her speech." Likewise [v. 4.], "There is no speech nor language, since their voice is not heard." Note: "Since their voice is not heard," not: since their books are not read. For the ministry of the New Testament is not formed in tables of stone and death, but in the sound of the living voice. Hence he says elsewhere [Ps. 60, 8.], "God speaketh in his sanctuary." For now he speaks in the church, whereas formerly he wrote in the synagogue, and proclaimed by the sacred Scriptures, Rom. 1, 1. f.; but by the living Word he completes and fulfills the gospel. Therefore one must strive more for many preachers than for good scribes in the church. In this sense Paul also writes
Image of the Gallic Hercules (Ogmios). In his right hand he holds the club, in his left hand the bow; therefore the chains are attached to his tongue; smiling Hercules turns back to his entourage. As explanation Lukian gives: Hercules had not overcome all by his strength as well as by his eloquence. (Weim. ed.)
to the Galatians [Cap. 4, 20.]: "But I would that I were now with you, and that my voice might walk," because many things, and more effectual, can be done orally, which cannot be done by writings.
197 "Strange children will lie to me" (mentientur mihi). He calls them strangers because they have turned away from Christ, having become unbelievers. For this is what the Hebrew word means in this passage. But with this he secretly praises the fathers and punishes the degenerate children. For they are children of the fathers according to the flesh, but strangers according to the spirit, since they do not follow in the footsteps of the fathers, of whom, as may be seen, it is said in the fourth Psalm [v. 3, § 11 ff.], "Ye children of man (filii viri, that is, ye children of men and of nobles, spoken according to the synecdoche), how long shall my honor be profaned?"
198] "They have lied," that is, they have become liars against me, since they boast that they are heirs of the fathers and the people of God, while they prove nothing less. On the other hand, the people of the Gentiles boast neither of the fathers nor of worship, but have become the son of the house, doing the truth by faith, by which they prove themselves to be the people of God. But those who do not believe do not have the truth of God, therefore they always remain liars, since only faith makes people truthful. He thus shows the future faithlessness and obduracy of the Jews, that they do not only err, but also establish and defend error as truth.
V. 46. The foreign children pine away and flounder in their bonds. 2)
For since they lie and persistently contradict the truth, not only are they not renewed in their minds, but they also become hardened and inveterate in their opinions. For an erring man can easily be set right, but who can set right a liar who deliberately argues against the truth? Thus it is said in the
2) Vulgate: I'iiii alieni invetörati sunt, etcüacMioaverunt a semitis suis.
1120 V. xvi, izi-134. works on the first 22 psalms. Ps. 18, 46. 47. W. iv, 1459-1463. 1121
Fourth Psalm, v. 3: "How do you love vain things so much and lies so much? We see enough that this is fulfilled in the Jews.
200. et claudicaverunt a semitis [and they limped from their paths]. For this we read 2 Sam. 22, 46. and in Jerome thus: Et contrahentur in angustiis suis [and they will be constricted in their narrowness]. Others render it thus: And they will limp from their bonds. And 2 Sam. 22, 46. is by transposition of the letters the verbum for which XXX is here put, perhaps because the Spirit wished to indicate that it mattered little whether he said: they limped, or: they were bound together with bands. For it is the sense that the Jews, who, despising the faith, cast away the liberty of Christ, are given up to their wrong mind, so that they entangle themselves with their own doctrines, as it were with bands, afflict and torture, and yet never walk rightly, but always limp, so that accident and heartache are in their ways [Rom. 3:16]. The same meaning is Ps. 81, 12. f.: "My people do not obey my voice, and Israel does not want mine. So have I left them in their heart's conceit, to walk after their counsel." And Proverbs 1:31: "They shall eat of the fruit of their substance, and be satisfied with their counsel."
201. Nor could this work-sanctified nature (res justitiaria) of the wicked be more aptly and appropriately expressed than that they are constricted in their narrowness. For we see how all such people are full of misgivings and have a captive conscience, so that they fear even where there is nothing to fear, and suspect sin where there may be merit. So narrowly do they make their own way both with their opinions and with their statutes: they are always restless, always questioning, always fearing. Paul meets these beautifully in the letter to the Colossians Cap. 2, 21. ff., where he mocks their words, saying, "Thou shalt not touch this, thou shalt not taste this, thou shalt not touch this, which yet all things are consumed under hands, fund is men's commandment and doctrine,] which have a semblance of wisdom." For this is instilled in them by their statutes: you must not do this, you must not do that; finally, nothing is permitted to them except that
they are ungodly against God and man. Examples of this in our time are the customs and practices of priests and monastics.
There are people whose hearts always want the wrong way, and they do not want to learn the way of the Lord", as it says in Ps. 95, 1) 10. This forms Elijah before 1 Kings 18:21, where he scolds the servants of Baal, saying, "How long do you limp on both sides?" For they are limpers, because they walk with only one leg, or yet not with both; and yet, because they move, they are like the walkers. This is because they walk in the letter of servitude in an ungodly spirit, presuming to serve God with their works and in their ways.
V. 47. The Lord lives, and blessed be my refuge; and the God of my salvation must be exalted.
Now, after his and the church's history or prophecy is finished, he returns to praising and glorifying God. But it can be understood in such a way that from a praising heart it is said, "He lives", that is: His is the life and the praise, as one says: To God alone be glory and honor. So also the apostle says 1 Tim. 6:16, "Who alone hath immortality." Thus he alone lives, and he alone is eternal, so it is he alone who must be exalted, so that glory may be his alone.
204. In this way is spoken against the faithlessness of the Jews, who through their narrowness seek the life, praise and honor that they alone should ascribe to God, and thank Him for it. Hence he says, "God of my salvation," that is, who makes me blessed; not I myself by my powers; according to the ordinary way of speaking, as one says, "God of my righteousness," Ps. 4:2, that is, who makes me righteous. But in the Hebrew, instead of [in the Vulgate], "Praised be my GOtt," XXXX is said, which is sometimes translated by rock, sometimes by hoard, as we saw in the beginning of this Psalm [v. 3.], "My hoard (fortitudo), in whom I hope." So also here he praises God, since he confesses that in Him stands his strength, not in himself.
1) In the issues: ks. 9, (10).
This verse can also be spoken from a glorifying heart, in contempt of those who are constricted by their narrowness, because they have neither life, nor strength, nor the glory of God, and therefore also no salvation, which one can only have in the Lord through the freedom of faith.
V. 48. The God who gives me vengeance and forces the nations under me.
He says: "The God who gives me", 1) instead of: "who gives me", according to his way [see § 147 and § 152]. This may be said here in two ways, first: He who gives me vengeance, that is, who avenges me, as Ps. 110:1: "Until I lay your enemies at the footstool of your feet." Secondly: Who gives me to execute vengeance, because he is appointed judge of the living and the dead, and, as John 5:27 says, "He hath given him power to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man," where it is taught that he did not glorify himself, nor avenge himself, for an example to us, lest we should be presumptuous and ambitious. Thus Christ takes vengeance on the godless Jews and rules over the believing peoples of the Gentiles, being exalted by the right hand of God and made Lord over all.
V. 49. who delivers me from my enemies, and lifts me up from them that set themselves against me, thou savest me from the wicked (a viro iniquo).
These last four verses seem to be a kind of conclusion of what has been said in the whole psalm. Therefore, their meaning is sufficiently clear from the preceding. That which in Latin is called viro iniquo (that is, of the people of iniquity, according to the synecdoche), is in Hebrew the XXX, that is, the injustice that injures the neighbor and causes him harm, which the interpreter could have given quite appropriately by iniquitatem (iniquity), if he did not also like to make other changes.
V. 50. Therefore I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.
1) In the Vulgate, the second person is here.
This verse is cited by Paul Rom. 15, 9, as we have said [§ 1], which also forces us to understand this Psalm actually from Christ. After Christ is delivered from the Jews, who are angry with him, his enemies, rebel against him and commit sacrilege, and is now recognized in the church of the Gentiles through faith, he praises the name of the Lord and sings to him, that is, after he has given the gifts of his Spirit, he works that we give thanks and sing praises. Furthermore, that we give thanks and sing praises to him indicates that we live and are in the Church free of charge, not through our righteousness, but through the benefits of God by grace, so that only the faith and mercy of God may be honored.
V. 51: He who shows great salvation to his king, and favor to his anointed, David, and to his seed forever.
209. but it is "great salvation" by which he saves Christ his King and his Christians, because he saves from death, from sins, from hell, and from all evils; for this salvation is eternal, life, righteousness, and glory. But the bodily salvation is small, indeed, nothing. Thus we are taught that we should despise bodily salvation, and that it is Christian to look to the great, eternal salvation. For it belongs to the new testament to have great salvation, as little salvation was appropriate for the old testament.
210 It is the same thing that he says: "And good deeds to his anointed. This is the end of the middle of the verse. For this salvation is not given to those who have earned it, but solely from God's mercy. Therefore he understands here by "his anointed" the One in whom it is promised that mercy shall be bestowed; therefore, he says here, it is also proved to him, that is, fulfilled in him.
211) "David and his seed forever." Since this is the second part of the verse, it seems to me to say this, that salvation was fulfilled in that king and 2) mercy in the Lord's anointed, so that David and his seed might be satisfied, to whom the promise of the king and the anointed of the God of Jacob had become,
2) Erlanger: M instead of: et.
1124 XVI, 136-138. Works on the first 22 Psalms. Ps. 19, 1. W. iv, 1166-1172. 1125
as 2 Sam. 7,1 ) 12. ff. is said. So everything that is said in the first part that it happened in Christ must be understood in such a way that it happened to David and his seed forever, as it is said in Isa. 55, 3: "I will give you the certain graces of David. This is expressed by Lucas, Apost. 13, 34, as follows: "I will give you
1) In the Latin editions: 2 Ultimo.
keep faithfully the grace promised to David," that is, eternal salvation and mercy. For the prophets held fast to the promises of God, and often repeated them and inculcated them, yes, they also expanded them and explained them. This is also necessary for all who will be saved, since salvation lies in them alone, not in commandments or any works.