1. 1) Now this is the third psalm of the person of Christ, and of his suffering and resurrection. He says of him that he first suffered and then was glorified, although he does not always keep the same order. It is one of the most beautiful and glorious psalms, which the apostles so powerfully led. And it appears from the title that David loved this psalm. Among the Jews, however, the songs have had various names, for they call them roses, lilies, cups, thimbles. In the books of the kings [2 Sam. 1, 18.] the author calls a song "the bow", like ours the long rainbow. Thus David calls this psalm o/M, a golden jewel. For means a piece of gold; hence a golden psalm.
1) Note in original: "On June 5, which was Pentecost."
V. 1. Preserve me, O God, for I trust in you.
(2) Thus he begins in the person of Christ, and, as in a draft, he stirs up the whole psalm, what it will become. Namely, that Christ suffered, and rose again, and that the law was done, and that the bill of divorcement was given to the synagogue; and that Christ merited with his suffering, and paid with his resurrection, that these things should be no more. [But nevertheless it is written that the Jews will not accept it.
Preserve me.
(3) This is what one says when he is about to go and die: "Preserve me. Thus says the Epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 5, 7: "He offered up his prayer and supplication to Him who was able to deliver him from death." And Cap. 2, 13: "I will put my trust in him.
set." So in this verse Christ praises the new service, which is to believe and trust in the God who raises from death. I die and perish, he says, but keep me, for I trust in you. And these two words, "keep" and "I trust", he will act and explain more abundantly throughout the psalm.
V. 2. I said to the Lord, "You are the Lord.
No one has given glory to God as fully as Christ. The others are all unwise and say in their hearts that there is no God. Christ is the first who began to honor God rightly, from whom we have it. This is the right worship that no one performs without Christ alone with His own.
I must suffer for your sake.
Here I doubt how this verse is to be given. Because it is here a Hebrew way to speak, which is unknown to me. Bonavi1 ) non propter te, is written in Hebrew. Now I assume that this is the opinion: for your sake I suffer. For your sake I do not have it good. I must suffer all misfortune. It is a confession of the cross. He cites his merit: You are my God, so it is the same for me. For as soon as one confesses grace, the cross follows immediately. When one speaks of it, the Rhine burns. The head himself complains that trust is the first thing. But trust is followed by preaching; preaching is followed by the cross; tribulation is followed by preservation. If therefore our Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer for his faith, we shall not have it better, nor worse, but we shall be preserved.
Now he says about the benefit of his suffering. My suffering shall be to me that I may get many saints and brethren, and that I may reject them which will not receive my passion.
V. 3. For the saints who are on earth and for the glorious ones, in them I have all my pleasure.
1) Luther took 'swiv for a verbal form. Cf. in this volume Col. 957, s 11.
(7) I suffer all these things for the saints who are on earth and for the glorious ones in whom I have all my pleasure. This is a beautiful and powerful verse, that the saints will esteem the suffering of Christ higher than all works. But it is also a secret complaint; as if he wanted to say: I suffer heavily, and it shall, unfortunately, not be accepted at all by those who should accept it most cheaply, namely, the Jews; although it is nevertheless not in vain. He speaks of the saints on earth, and of the grace that is to be extended bodily and with the voice. He calls them marvelous or glorious, because of their exceedingly great trust in Christ glorious, highly esteemed, the great saints, who are nothing before the world, but before God they are everything. This is the fruit of suffering, namely, that these saints rule over sin and death, and overcome the world; they are kings and priests, and glorious saints. Now this is what Christ seeks with his suffering, his worship, that we may believe that he suffered for us, and that through his suffering we have victory over death and sin, as he said in the other Psalm, v. 12. "Kiss the Son." Now he rejects the whole synagogue, which wants to be holy by its merits. In these saints, he says, I have my pleasure.
V. 4. But those who hurry after another will have great heartache (Sed istorum idola multiplicata sunt).
8 I do not like those. O, they cause much idolatry. The word XXXXX, which we translate by idolum, means sorrow and trouble. As Gen. 3:16, "With pains shalt thou bring forth thy children." Therefore it is applied in figurative speech (per metaphoram) to the idols and worship of works, because by them the consciences are much martyred. One has nothing from it, but pain; there he complains about. So now the letter of parting starts here. They do not want faith in suffering, but want to earn it by works. I have suffered for the saints, in whom I am well pleased. The others have made much of idolatry. It is a very true verse. They are not satisfied with any work, it must be said:
"made much". This is how the monks were, the Augustinians first, then came the other mendicant monks, for there is no stopping the increase of superstition. Thus they have made much without end of their pretensions, their masses, and their works, as those who are always learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth, 2 Tim. 3:7. Whoever therefore lacks faith in the suffering and resurrection of Christ falls into idolatry, and helps to make much of idols.
Post quae accelerant.
9. "They hasten after them." They not only make much of them, but they hurry with the most persistent zeal. We do not push our faith so hard as the enthusiasts; they would gladly bring their error through and through all Germany. The reason is: as soon as someone falls away from the faith, the devil chases him and he must leave. As the prophet says here, "They have many idols, and they serve them with the greatest diligence. But that one would know who they were, of which he says, he adds:
I do not want to sacrifice their libation with the blood.
10. This is a short abolition of all sacrifices and the Old Testament. I will not sacrifice, neither will I take their name in my mouth. I will not have them that offer their sacrifices in blood: the sacrifices shall be abolished, and he that continueth in them shall be an idolater. But they do not turn back from it, as it is also now. Our priests are much stricter about what they do now than ever before. The devil does the same to him: if one wants to take a thing from him, he resists most fiercely. Well then, the death of Christ shall not be in vain; they must go, the works.
Nor carry her name in my mouth.
11. "Their name," that is, the same sacrifice: I will not preach it, that is, I will reject them; they shall preach that I have suffered. But he rejoices in himself that he has something better instead of the rejected and unbelieving Jews.
V. 5. But the Lord is my goods and my portion; you receive my inheritance.
This "part" (calix) is twofold, namely of wrath and of grace. The cup of wrath is the measured part of the punishment and forfeiture (mulctae). The cup of salvation is the added part of grace, salvation and help. He contrasts this as if to say, "They have their idols and sacrifices, but my worship is to be in them, that is, in simplicity and purity of faith, so that, in short, there is no trust apart from Christ; this alone is our protection.
(13) And so he removes from our sight everything on which we could rely, and leaves only the Lord, who promises us all good things and helps us, who is known by the word and by faith alone. One does not want to suffer the verse. It is not called works, it is called the Lord. And almost in the same way St. Paul speaks Rom. 14, 16: "Create that your treasure is not blasphemed." This goes against the glory of works. I know no defiance, he says, without the Lord. Therefore the church does not rely on works, but on the Lord alone, who holds the inheritance. But faith belongs to this.
V. 6: My fate has fallen on me in a lovely way; I have received a beautiful inheritance.
14 With this he expands the previous verse: "All my pleasure is in them. Funis [cord] is called a lot, because in ancient times the fields were measured and divided with cords. He wishes himself luck that instead of the unbelieving Jews, saints have become his prey. Therefore he gives thanks for his inheritance, which he calls a lovely one. I have fine, beautiful, lovely people, who do not go about in toil of works, but trust in me. Faith makes them 1) beautiful; they are fine, pure, and clean, in simplicity of faith. This is called a holy church, which has not a spot or a wrinkle, Eph. 5, 27. So he must comfort himself against the unbelief of the Jews, as Paul also says: "Should their unbelief nullify God's faith?" Rom. 3, 3. Rom. 3, 3. as if he wanted to say: Our Lord God will still have a church, even if they, the Jews, do not believe in suffering.
1) In the original: "machts" that is: makes them.
V. 7. I praise the Lord who has counseled me.
(15) Here he begins to give thanks in the person of Christ and to describe how he has fared. For above [vv. 2, 3] he said what the benefit of his suffering was, namely, that thereby a new church was established and the old synagogue with its ceremonies was rejected. About this benefit he now rejoices: Praise be to God, who has advised me. With this he confesses that he had been abandoned by everyone and that no man had helped him, but that, as he says in another place [Ps. 63, 9. and 138, 7.], his right had helped him. So now he says, "The Lord alone has been my counsel; he has taught me to trust and to wait. That means "to counsel.
Also, my kidneys chastise me at night.
This is the experience of suffering; therefore he draws on these two, the counsel of God and his own experience of the flesh. God has taught me, and I have experienced it myself in my suffering, as the Epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 5, 8. says, that Christ learned obedience through experience. This is a true doctor, who is first taught by God and then experiences it himself. But experience is when God helps with counsel, so that one thinks, "I will persevere;" as Ps. 130:6 says, "From one morning watch to the next." Above the council one learns. These doctors can preach about it, and certainly talk about it. Therefore Christ also boasts that he became such a doctor through experience.
My kidneys.
17 This is my flesh. The word "heart" in the Scriptures means the secret deceitfulness, but the word "kidneys" means the lusts, inclinations, and everything that one has a desire for. So then he says, "I have bitten myself with my kidneys. My affections (affectus) would gladly not have suffered; as he says Matth. 26, 41: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." The affectus would rather have pleasure than suffering, joy than pain. But with the kidneys one learns, as Paul says Rom. 7, 25. "With the flesh I serve the law of sin"; and Christ [Matth. 26, 39. Luc. 22, 42.], "O Lord, if it be possible, remove this cup from me." The
have been the kidneys; but it will not do. The kidneys chastise at night, even as it is written. For an evil thought is one more grievous by night than by day. The flesh did not like to die, but still overcame it. So now he says: I thank my GOt, who has taught me to overcome my kidneys. Now he continues to tell what kind of advice it was.
V. 8. I have the Lord always before my eyes.
(18) With this our Lord God has preserved the heart, that I have always hoped, though I die, yet He will be at my right hand. Therefore, when the kidneys become unwilling, exercise yourself against them and stand firm, remembering that God is at your right hand. Let Satan be on the left side of the kidneys, our Lord God is nevertheless on the best side, Christ also had to do the same to him.
I have the Lord always before my eyes.
I have set him before mine eyes, that no temptation should remove him out of mine sight. This is how all temptations go about, wanting to take Christ from us and put the devil in his place. The head of all the saints complains about this, so we will also have to suffer this.
For he is at my right hand, therefore I will abide.
20 That I perish not, nor be moved out of the place where there is grace and salvation. These are public confessions of the cross, for the contrast clearly indicates that things are going badly on the left, that there is always knocking and banging.
V. 9. Therefore my heart rejoices.
(21) This is my consolation, that I have kept myself in counsel, that I should have our Lord God before my eyes, though I felt otherwise on the left.
And my honor is joyful.
22. "My glory", that is, the instrument for praising, namely the tongue, so that I praise God, as above in the 9.0 Psalm, v. 3.
1) In Latin: ks. 4; in the old translation: Ps. 4, 3" but this does not seem to fit us. "4" will be a misprint.
My heart is glad, and so is my tongue; for as we believe, so we speak, whether in gladness or in sadness. "When the heart is full, the mouth overflows," says Christ Matt. 12:34. "Is glad," that is, preaches it with gladness.
My meat will also lie safely.
(23) He confesses that though his body is dead, yet it is safe in the certain hope that it will not decay. Even though I am dead, he says, no worm shall touch my flesh.
V. 10. For you will not leave my soul in hell.
(24) Though I come into suffering and death, yet my body remains incorrupt, and my life shall not remain in hell. "Hell" is the name of everything that we go to after this life, be it the grave or something else. But I think that the word "hell" has its name from Schaal fordern, which can never be satisfied, that it always wants to have more. The word "soul" he has put for life.
And do not admit that your saint is decaying.
25. Shachath means a pit and decay. You will not let me see the pit, that is, what happens in the pit, namely decay. This is a very clear text of the resurrection, which cannot be understood by anyone else but Christ alone, who, because he is holy and pure, cannot be held by death; he must rise again.
V. 11: You make known to me the way.
These are the words of a dead man, for he speaks here in the person of a dead man. He is in hell, but he will not remain there. The flesh is also in the pit, but it will not feel the decay. It must come together again. He wants to have his inheritance on earth, his saints, and also wants to be in hell. Therefore he must necessarily rise again, and hell and the grave will not have power over him. Therefore he will also overcome death, sin and Satan, therefore he will also be a king and a priest for eternity. Thus it is that after death he must come to life again. That is why he says:
You show me the way to life.
That is, you have raised me up again. Here is the article of our Christian faith founded: Descended into hell, which the Scotists say cannot be proved from the Scriptures.
Borne to you is joy the fullness.
He distinguishes his life from the life of others. I will live," he says, "not in the sight of men, but in your sight. And this text is against the Jews who are waiting for a bodily Messiah. He will live and rejoice, he says, before God.
And lovely beings at your right hand forever.
29 Namely, with this you will satisfy me. The left he has here in this life, but the right he has there in eternal joy and sweetness. This is how he describes eternal life, where there is no more suffering, but only joy and delight, and there is no end to it.
About the same Psalm.
V. 1. Preserve me.
This psalm contains the article: Descended to hell. Here it is disputed whether he went down according to his nature or according to his effect. But we leave such disputations, and remain with the simple childlike faith and word. The real hell of fire is not yet here, which, as Christ says, is reserved for the devil and the
is prepared for the wicked. I would like hell to mean that the soul is insensible, like the body in death, and deprived of the feeling of this life and all its sensations, as the body rests without all sensation. This is how I believe this word is taken in Scripture, especially when it is used with the word "buried," as it is here, to mean that Christ is buried after the body and after the soul.
The soul is set outside the boundaries of this life and goes to its place, as it were to its grave. There it also remains in rest. When Jacob says [Gen. 37, 35]: "I will go down with sorrow into the pit" (inferos), he does not say about the pain after death, because peace follows those who have died in the Lord.
If then death is something greater than swoon (syncopis [sic] seu defectiones animae) and the like, nothing can be felt in death; otherwise it must be less than swoon, as in sleep, where terrible images occur to us, and we make ourselves believe that we are in fire, water, 2c., which, as it seems, cannot be admitted. Therefore I hold that it [hell] is nothing but the grave of souls; but these things cannot be comprehended.
3 And yet I do not dislike the paintings and songs of Christ's descent into hell and the redemption of the fathers, 2c. as if such things had happened in a bodily way. For it cannot be modeled in any other way than with such images.
(4) But those questions, whether Christ descended to hell according to his nature or effect, are nothing, for such thoughts are already in another world. Notice what Paul says, Eph. 4:9: "That he ascended, what is it but that he descended first?" If he ascended, he descended before into the lowest parts of the earth, that is, outside this world, under the earth.
Preserve me.
The word "preserve" brings suffering with it. "Preserve, for you are the Lord.
Because I trust.
6 That is, keep him who trusts in you. After all, God is a God of those who trust, not of those who deal in works.
V. 2. I said to the Lord.
(7) For I am sure that thou art the Lord, because of which I suffer; I stand upon it; for thou art the Lord, and the thing for which I suffer is thine; for it is for thy sake that I rely upon it. "For thy sake," that is, for thy word's sake.
I said to the Lord.
8. it is you, it is your command, that I know; whether it hurts, but I am comforted by it 2c.
V. 3. for the saints, so on 2c.
9 This is also a comfort: I do it for the sake of my saints. But make a distinction between the saints of Christ and those of Moses and others 2c.
My favor.
(10) The contrast is, they please no one but me. These are the true saints who are sanctified by me, against the law of Moses.
And for the glorious ones.
11 Paul Rom. 8, 30. says: "Whom he has justified, he has also glorified. He does great things through them, overcoming the world, sin and the devil through them. Other saints can't get rid of lice in the cap, let alone do miraculous works. And notice that he says:
For the saints who are on earth.
This is fine: Christ's kingdom is on earth, and there these miraculous works are done over all the power of the enemy.
I have all my favors in those.
013 Namely, to sanctify them; by them will I avenge myself.
Has been much.
14. the other false saints, even those who are the best according to the law, as Moses with the whole law; all those who cling to it fall down, because they do not want Christ and his despised saints.
V. 4. I do not want their drankopser 2c.
15 I will no longer teach or preach about it.
Infirmitates.
16. heartache 2c. which is produced by false righteousness. They have no peace, neither inwardly nor outwardly, as is said in another place. They will
feel two kinds of sorrow and heartache. "With the blood, that is, with all the righteousness of the law.
V. 5. The Lord is my good and my portion.
17. my inheritance, my righteousness and everything, not in the law, nor in myself, Phil. 3, 9.
V. 6: The lot.
I have a beautiful, magnificent inheritance.
Inheritance.
19. is the Church, the saints, gifted with the Spirit and His gifts.
V. 7. I praise the Lord.
20. who advised me, who was with me when I suffered, and gave me good counsel.
My kidneys.
(21) The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The flesh contends against it; it grieves the spirit greatly. This is the right sacrifice, namely, to remember and want what is right, and yet not be able to follow it.
V. 8. I have the Lord always before my eyes, for he is at my right hand.
22. that is, he holds me, "now that he is exalted by the right hand of God," Apost. 2, 33.
V. 9. my flesh will lie secure. .
23. the flesh is also made glorious.
B. 10. You make known to me the way to life.
24. that is, you help me out of death 2c.