Now this is a very high psalm, which we poor people do not understand, and which belongs only to the great saints. The third psalm is about persecution, the fourth about tribulation, the fifth about heresies. So we go through and through in the temptations. This sixth psalm is about the spiritual temptation, which the monks call the spirit of blasphemy, that one is angry with our Lord God for not doing right. This is a challenge to faith and hope, that one only wants to despair.
V. 2. 3. O Lord, do not punish me in your anger, and do not chastise me in your wrath. Lord, be merciful to me, for I am weak.
2 These are excellent words that he speaks to God. He complains about no man, but about our Lord God Himself. It must be punished, he says; but, dear Lord GOD, that it be only the father's distemper, and not the judge's and stickmaster's. Although we cannot reach this psalm, it is useful to know it well, so that we may know that when we have this kind of affliction, it is not we alone who are to be punished.
are challenged in this way. For this is how it tends to happen, that reason makes a bad judgment according to its feelings, and says: He does not want mine; like Doctor Krause. 1) So here David feels the wrath and anger of God, and condemnation, not grace. Nevertheless he wakes himself up and says: "Do not do it, dear Lord, have mercy on me, for I am weak.
V. 4. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled, and my soul is greatly distressed. O Lord, how long?
This is an exposition of his distress. The whole life, marrow and leg trembles; everything in man cannot suffer this feeling. But no human heart can comprehend such a thing; experience alone teaches it. And yet it is good that we know 2) that we are not alone when it comes. This temptation is a stake in the flesh, as Paul calls it 2 Cor. 12, 7.
V. 5. Turn, O Lord, and save my soul.
This is a very simple prayer. He feels that God has turned away from him, has lost the promises, the word of grace and salvation, that there is nothing left but a vain example of wrath, Sodom and Gomorrah, the ruin of such a great nation as the Turks are today. For that the Lord had turned away signified that the word was lost, and that he was left alone, a man against Satan.
V. 6. Help me for the sake of your goodness.
(5) Then he abandons all works; he does not say, "Lord, help me, because I have made the temple and the service of God like this. It is the first commandment that he will have a gracious God.
For in death you are not remembered.
This is the other commandment. As soon as one loses God's mercy, one loses
1) About Doctor Krause (Lrauss) compare Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. IX, 262, § 33 and the note there. - Here the Latin has the note: Lie Haine Knxouum 86 ipsnru eentoäit, anno 28. The time determination is wrong; it should read: 1527.
2) We have taken the words "that we know" from the old translation. They are missing in the Latin.
also his praise. So there remains blasphemy and hatred, that one would have another God.
Who will thank you in hell?
Who told him that? He must have been in death and hell, otherwise he would not know how to speak of it. As I said, it belongs to the other commandment. For he asks that he may praise and glorify God.
V. 7. I am so weary with sighing, I wash my bed all night long, and with my tears I wet my bed.
(8) This is exaggerated speech as far as the body is concerned, but it is not exaggerated speech as far as the soul is concerned. For the pain that the mind feels is greater than all exaggerated speeches can represent. But the body cannot follow the heart in this. I am weary with sighing," he says, "just as it happens that someone weeps himself weary.
V. 8. My form is ruined by mourning.
These are tremendous descriptions of his fear. Here he starts to groan for the word and will also gradually come to the third commandment. What is written in the Latin text, furor [Grimm], is in the Hebrew Caas
Displeasure, mourning, disgruntled, unwilling. As is said of David, when he heard the news that his sons had been slain. It actually means to grieve. But this is what happens: sadness dries up the bones and corrupts the whole body; melancholy arises.
And has become old.
I am about to grow old and gray, because I am troubled everywhere. Wherever I look, there is cause for sorrow. No good thought comes to mind, but the devil possesses the heart with great heaps of evil examples and sayings, so that one becomes gray over them. Prayer or lamentation goes up to this point. Now the consolation begins.
V. 9. Depart from me, all evildoers.
11 "Evil doers" refers to the holy hypocrites who are not considered evil doers before the world. What do you teach? You
does not teach to flee to God's mercy, not to call, not to ask; as the papists also do now. But "not to pray" is to despise God, and to tread on works with presumption.
V. 10: For the Lord hears my crying. The Lord hears my supplication, the Lord accepts my prayer.
12. I am concerned about prayer; I am answered; as he boasts in the fourth Psalm, v. 4: "Recognize" 2c. We will not do otherwise, we must wait and call for mercy. And herewith he praises us his worship of God (religionem), of which he says that it is nothing else than weeping, supplicating and praying. Which
can do this in faith on mercy, they are right.
V.11. All my enemies must become ashamed, and be very afraid, and turn back, and become ashamed suddenly.
(13) He has persecution of his doctrine by heart, but of the devil within. Therefore he asks that his enemies may be ashamed, frightened and retreat, and become so completely ashamed that they must first try again; then they would desist from their presumption and bear their shame, saying: "O Lord, you are righteous, but we must be ashamed" [Dan. 9:7]. Now follows the seventh Psalm, where he must also become a rebel.
About the same Psalm.
V. I. Pro octava.
1. the octava is a musical instrument with eight strings, since one was not allowed to sing this psalm without instruments. The instrument with ten strings was used for feasts and praises, like Ps. 33, 2. and the one with eight strings was used on weekdays and in mourning, like here.
V. 2. Lord, do not punish me in your anger, and do not chastise me in your wrath.
2. God's anger and wrath is what he feels who is forsaken by God, by the Word, by faith, and that by the effect of Satan, who is the author of death, sin and conscience, and presses on unbelief, despair and blasphemy with his fiery darts [Eph. 6:16], or as Job says [Cap. 6:4]: "The arrows are in me that drink out the spirit." But that this is not done by Satan, but rather that God alone presses on it, the heart feels and believes. For Satan disguises himself in the form of the majesty (which leaves him), as he did to Matth. 4, 9. Christ and said: "If you worship me" 2c. This is the greatest darkness, therefore he cries out: "Oh Lord", "you", "your wrath", "your anger", "oh, do not punish".
3 But by saying, "Do not punish," "Do not discipline," he confesses that he is a sinner.
and deserved the punishment. But he asks that it be a temporal and fatherly punishment, not an eternal one and that of an angry judge. Thus, he feels at the same time fear of his conscience, which bites him, even devours him, and of the punishment that follows the accusing conscience, namely, of hell.
4 Here you see that he is stripped of all reliance on works. Here even the best works are silent, yes, they are even accusers; for he must not dare to hold them against the wrathful God; but he is entirely a sinner, all his is sin. But of this the secure godless people do not know. Therefore, he takes refuge in the mercy of God alone, and confesses that it is not up to anyone's running or willing, Rom. 9, 16.
V. 3. Lord, have mercy on me.
5 It is the Holy Spirit who may rebel against wrath, and against hope he gains and draws hope. The sinner who has earned wrath, and bears witness to it against himself, seeks mercy by asking for forgiveness. For you see that he cites no particular sin here, but confesses his sin in general. Therefore, these are the words of believing sinners who learn to rely not on merit but on grace.
6. it does not
reason, nature, free will
to talk like this
and to call.
Therefore, as soon as they feel this, they despair, and either strangle themselves, drown themselves, hang themselves, or are moved by the blow, or fall into a constant melancholy (melancholia), as the physicians call it, and bring their lives to an end with constant sadness, or finally fall into madness, raving madness, or other terrible afflictions.
But this feeling is at the same time a kind of sight of all sad, frightening, horrible examples of terrible deaths, stories, works and words, in which God's wrath and vengeance have been shown. Satan presents all these in an instant (as he showed Christ the kingdoms of the world in an instant), and surrounds the conscience with them, as Saul did David [1 Sam. 23, 26.], so that, if the Holy Spirit did not assist here, a man would have to collapse and die in an instant, as if he had been struck by the blow. This is it, that he says: "I am weak", there is no more strength, nor any hope or help neither of life, nor of salvation, nor of righteousness, but death, sin, wrath, hell. I can never.
Heal me.
This is another execution of what he said. I can never, or am weak. Such feeling also weakens the bones, the strength, blood and marrow of the body. Then it shakes the soul even more violently, and brings such fear and terror into it that it cannot think anything, nor pray, nor desire, but only thinks it is lost with the wicked for eternity. Then a moment seems to us to be a whole year, an exceedingly long delay. It is a wonder that he does not curse and blaspheme as Job did, but even calls upon him with a frightened heart and bones. This is perhaps what the author of the book of Job meant, that a Gentile man could not do what David, a Jew, could do.
9. "The frightened soul" is the despair of life, and feeling of death by God's anger. "The frightened bones" are the penetration of the despair into the body, which is the
cannot bear it. This fright is from Satan, when man is abandoned from the Word, Spirit and grace, and he is left to himself in the fight against the devil.
V. 4. Ah Lord, how long?
This is the inexpressible groaning that the spirit expels, Rom. 8, 26. For it is the feeling as if he must remain eternally under God's wrath. Will there be no end to it? I could despair. For a fearful man sees no end to his distress.
V. 5. Turn, Lord.
He confesses that he feels that God has turned away from him, that is, that the Word, the Spirit of grace, and the merciful disposition of God have been taken away from him. And it is the same inexpressible groaning as above. He asks that the abandoned soul may be saved from death, from sins and from the devil.
For the sake of your goodness.
12 There it is. David, who is full of spiritual and worldly good works, yes, even of miracles, and also of promises and experiences of grace, forgets all these things, is abandoned by everyone in this fear of his, so that he does not dare to mention one of them, but calls on mercy as the greatest sinner. This may be a faith that fights in the most manly way over things that are not seen. Who believes that God is pleased with it?
V. 6: For in death you are not remembered.
(13) Thus he feels death and hell, in which there is neither faith, nor hope, nor supplication, nor the word, therefore neither salvation nor redemption, therefore neither thanksgiving nor praise. Where there is no thanksgiving, there is cursing and blasphemy. So he has an abomination of blasphemy in hell. What good would it do you if I blaspheme you? It is better that I praise thee; for thou art ever worthy of praise, not of blasphemy. Wilt thou then that all men should be lost, and that none should be saved? "Wilt thou then have created all men in vain?" [For so it seems before them,
who are in such temptations as if all men were lost. For there he sees no holy man, but only condemned, because he sees no example of life or grace, but only examples of wrath and eternal death.
V. 7. I am so tired of groaning.
(14) I have sighed myself weary, so that my body aches with groaning. For these two verses represent the outward appearance of the body, how it has shrunk through the anguish of the soul. For a soul that is thus troubled brings forth such sighs that any one of them could make the body weary. Therefore they do not last long (for that would not be possible), but soon pass.
I wash my bed all night long, and with my tears I wet my bed.
15 This is an exaggerated speech, as we say in German: He cries that he wants to wash hands and feet with it. So also here: I would like to wash my bed with it. For he indicates that he is exhausted from weeping. And yet this was not done to be a satisfaction, but only an indication of the recognition of the sin, how great it was, and how abundant the grace of forgiveness, so that the mercy of God would not be disregarded if the sin were forgiven without punishment, or remained unpunished.
in bed, where / great rest and peace are sought. With this he wants to indicate that such affliction cannot be helped by our efforts, but must be alleviated by God's grace alone. While otherwise in bed and at night everyone is naturally refreshed, the temptation becomes much greater through such means of help (solatiis). But it is alleviated by the word of grace alone.
V. 8. My form is ruined by mourning.
(17) For the afflictions of the soul also extend to the body, so that the face becomes pale, the eyes darken, the brow wrinkles, and the whole appearance appears old. He speaks
but especially from the time of this temptation; for apart from this hour one has another form; although if such temptations are often repeated, the body and the whole life is also very much changed.
V. 9. Depart from me all evildoers.
18 For this challenge teaches the knowledge of sin, grace and its power, against which the works saints fight with all their might (since they are not subject to the righteousness of God). Therefore he turns his speech to them, and becomes unwilling that they despise the grace and mercy of God; and not only that, but they also persecute him who suffers for sins and confesses grace.
V. 10: For the Lord hears my weeping.
This verse proves that with God it is grace and not merit that counts, because he does not praise merit but the grace of the one who hears him. With this he clearly confesses that it is because of God's mercy and not because of someone's running, Rom. 9, 16. But he says it three times ["The Lord hears" [v. 9.], "The Lord hears" [v. 10.], "The Lord accepts" [v. 10.)] because of the hardened heart of his adversaries and for his strengthening. For he who asks, or gives thanks for that for which he has asked, shows by this that he is needy, that he has received, and has had nothing. Therefore the righteous man lives by faith [Rom. 1:17] and is a child of mercy, not a master or father of works.
V. 11. It must become shame.
(20) He desires that they may know these things, that they may be saved. He confesses that they are enemies and persecutors, but he also confesses that they are in high honor. They will have happiness, welfare and joy. For otherwise, if they were in disgrace and were downcast, he would not wish for them to be disgraced and to return.
It turns:
Those who are in honor will be disgraced. Those who live in joy will be frightened.
Those who are in welfare and happiness will return.
And let this happen soon. Amen.
1408 L. xvii, 5s-6i. Short Au[1. on the first 25 Psalms. Ps. 7. w. iv, isog-isi2. 1499