1. This is a thanksgiving for the fruits.
V. 2. Sing joyfully to God.
(2) He should have said, Hail to the weak idol, that he forsake his own, leaving us in all manner of trouble and distress; and yet he is a God of strength, but in faith.
Which is our strength.
3. who makes all things needless to enjoy, sustains, protects, saves, heals [1 Tim. 6:17].
Rejoice to the God of Jacob.
4. whom the whole world ridicules, not only as a weak but also foolish God.
V. 3. 4. Take the psalms, and give the timpani, the sweet harps with the psaltery. Blow
in the new moon the trumpets, in our feast of deciduous breasts.
5 By this he means the preaching of the word, that the priests and Levites should instruct and lead the people in the fear of God and in the knowledge of the gifts which he mildly gives daily.
V. 5 For this is a way in Israel.
(6) As if to say, I am not offering you anything new, I am not bringing you a new service; this is what our ancestors did, whom we should imitate in this matter.
And a right of the God of Jacob.
7 This is to be noted very well, that he commands his people such a way, which has God's word. Secretly he keeps them from other gods.
The people of the world are not used to the services, sages and orders that have no basis in God's Word.
V. 6: These things he bore witness to Joseph when they came out of Egypt.
Is it not a miracle that in our hearts there is so much laziness, security and carelessness that we can forget even our greatest misfortune, and it must be called to our remembrance again? The Jewish people in Egypt had been most severely afflicted with slavery, and yet it was so soon forgotten by their descendants that the good prophet had to make a public song about it, because otherwise it would have been forgotten. So now we have also forgotten the misery that our consciences, bodies and goods had to bear under the papacy. Now it is no wonder that we forget the benefits of God, because our misfortune and our danger so soon vanish from our memory. Therefore, in order to praise them even more for this song with which they thank God for His gifts, he adds this: "Your gratitude is pleasing to God, and He commands that we thank Him, since He redeemed our ancestors from the miserable bondage in Egypt.
And have heard foreign language.
(9) This also makes the misery even greater, that one must be so plagued and oppressed by such a people, whose language one cannot understand.
V. 7: When I had removed the burden from their shoulders (divertit ab oneribus dorsum ejus), and their hands were loosed from the pots.
10 He uses this oratorical figure of the hypallage 1) in quite an actual way, because he has brought the people to other places and let the burden remain in Egypt. As if he wanted to say: The burden remained on the people sin Egypt], but my people was relieved of it.
U Hypallage - an inverted composition of the word Here after the Latin: He took away their backs from the load, instead of: He has taken away the burden from their backs.
V. 8 When you called on me in trouble, I helped you out and listened to you when the weather overtook you and tried you at the water of the ravine.
(11) Do not become ungrateful, and if any need distresses you, do not fall away from me; for my custom is to save from need. For this reason he remembers the worshipper, that he may also remind them of their sins. In the same way, we should not forget the grace that has come to us through the gospel, since we all led a troublesome life, weighed down by the most abject sins in the ministry.
V. 9. Hear, my people.
(12) You gladly accept good things done to you, but you do not want to know the one from whom you receive all kinds of good things. You are my people, whom I have preserved, fed and redeemed; hear me also. But just as the beginning of this psalm is an imperative of its commandment, so it also remains an imperative, and will never, or only with the very few, become an indicative of its reality]. So it is also with this verse, it remains with the Audi [hear], but of those who say: I hear, is none, or even the very fewest.
Instead of: Israel, si me audieris, must be translated: Israel, me audias.
Israel, you shall hear me.
(13) This is a heretical text, and it contends against itself. He calls them God's people, and then accuses them of not hearing God. As if to say: You want to be my people, but you follow and listen to the idols in Gilgal, Bethel and other places. To them you attribute it when the fruits turn out well, to them you seek help when something bad happens to you. Do not do it, but hear me.
V. 10. That there be no other god among you, and that you worship no strange god.
(14) It is a terrible and more than heretical accusation that he blames them for having strange gods among them and falling away from the right God; what more terrible thing could he say of them?
V. 11. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.
15. you are not, they [said to Davids, you are a heretic, and your GOd is an idol; but we follow the right GOd and worship him at Bethel 2c.
Open your mouth wide, let me fill it.
Let my praise always be in your mouth; boast about me, learn about me, plant me in the hearts of others; let nothing else come out of your mouth but me and my word. But this prayer remains an imperativus, which can never be made into an indicativus. Thus we see that under the papacy innumerable books have been written on the invocation of the saints, the merits of works, the rules of monasticism, the dignity of the celibate life, and other ungodly things, while in the meantime not a single syllable has been written on the merits of Christ and our salvation, 2c. as follows:
V. 12. But my people will not obey my voice, and Israel will not obey me.
The idols are more pleasing to him. For the human heart is so clever that it can more easily believe and trust all other lies and useless fables than the true God. Thus we have been able to put our trust in a cap; but in the true God, who promises us forgiveness of sins by grace, in vain, we have not been able to trust, and even now we cannot fully do so, since we are overwhelmed with so many testimonies of Scripture. But it is all the more difficult that he says: "My people" and "Israel". If they were strangers to whom I had not shown any special kindness, nor had they been helped by me out of any special need 2c.
V.13. Thus I have left them in the stupor of their hearts to walk according to their counsel.
18) Those who did not want to believe in the Lord Christ, who promises and offers free grace, believed in the fictitious intercessions of the saints, and not only in the prayers of the monks, but also in their merits, fasting, vigilance, and observance of mass. But it is something very difficult to believe in this rain.
Christ] to be given up and left alone, and to be exposed to all kinds of error and all the deceit of Satan [Eph. 4:14].
V. 14. If my people would be obedient to me, and Israel would walk in my way.
19 Thus he resolves the arguments which the wicked reproach the true GOD and the prophets with. For thus they say: Why should we cling to the God whom you praise, because he leaves us in so many troubles? No one is worse off, as he said, than he who serves Christ and the emperor. Therefore let us take refuge in Bethel, in Astaroth, and in other gods of the Gentiles. For we see that it is well with the heathen, that they are fortunate against us, that they defeat us. So now he answers: "Do not put your misfortune on me. The fault is yours, you are to blame for your misery; your idolatry and your false trust are the cause that you are so afflicted. Return to me, repent, and you will find that I will be with you. Only be righteous in faith, and let me seek to deliver thee from thine enemies, or thou shalt find no help: as it is written in the fifth book of Moses.
V.15. So I would soon "subdue" their enemies and turn my hand on their enemies.
020 But now, since you will not do this, and continue in your idolatry, I must humble you before your enemies. This is how you want it; you want me to be your friend as much as your enemy.
V. 16: And they that hate the Lord must lack Him.
021 Thou shalt not think that I am favorable unto them, but they are mine enemies also. But therefore they become too strong for thee, that thou hast forsaken me. Else thou shalt leave them. It is not the enemies that afflict thee; but it is I. It is my hand that presseth thee when thine enemies press thee.
But their time would last forever.
22. I would protect you, preserve you and keep you always.
V. 17. I would feed them with the best wheat, and satisfy them with honey from the rock.
(23) For there are two things of which we have need, to nourish and to defend: God therefore promises that if they are converted, He will not be their warrior alone to fight for them.
but also their husbandman; so that the godly should lack nothing that is necessary for this life. But it is a promise, therefore it is understood, accepted and fulfilled in faith. And even though he does not usually give his believers everything in abundance, they shall not die of hunger.