[from the twelfth verse to the end]. *)
V. 12. Praise, Jerusalem, the Lord; praise, Zion, your God.
The content of this psalm is in the first word: "Praise". What does praise mean? Preaching of the first commandment, that is, of God's benefits. So this psalm is a thanksgiving for the benefits that God has shown His people.
V. 13: For he maketh strong the bars of thy gates.
2 First, he thanks him for the temporal regiment and the temporal kingdom: "You have made firm the bars of your gates." The iron that the smiths put on does not fortify, nor does it make the city secure, but there must be something greater in it for you to do it (tuum). Therefore he says, "You make firm." By human counsel the land and the people cannot be elevated; it is divine power that sustains the dominions. But just as the
Iron or bars alone do not make firm where the Lord does not keep: so again the Lord does not make firm without bars. He wants the bars to be there, wants our work and stops, does not want us to be idle, although we can do nothing without him.
And bless your children inside.
When the secular regime is established in peace, it is followed by the discipline of children and instruction in God's word and good manners, which is neglected in times of war.
V. 14: He makes peace within your borders.
So far he has said about the regiment at home. Now he says how the regiment should also be ordered outwardly with welfare and blessing. Our Lord God must also ride on the borders, defend against the violence of the enemies.
*) The first eleven verses are the 146th Psalm in the Vulgate.
And satiates you with the best wheat.
5 This is said of the blessing on the fields. He gives the daily bread with abundance. For this he indicates by saying, of the "best," full. And notice that he says, "He satisfies," as if to say that God showers us with all kinds of benefits.
But what do we do about it? We enjoy the gifts of God, but we do not add the first word of this psalm, but are ungrateful, and do not praise God for His many and great benefits. It is a strange thing: He gives peace and protects against enemies, blesses the fields, the household, the worldly government, gives food to all flesh; and yet we, as people full of unbelief, are neither grateful to Him for this, nor do we believe that God does this. If we are afflicted by a small affliction, we immediately want to despair and mourn, and do not believe that God, who has preserved, protected and nourished us for so many years, will also protect and nourish us in the future. So, too, when He has helped us out of the temptation, we forget such help as soon as we no longer feel the evil. We now live as if there had never been a pestilence, a theuerung, and as if a Turk had never besieged Vienna, and as if there had never been a sweating sickness (sudor anglicus) 2c.
However, this happens even more grossly in spiritual things. We have the gospel, therefore we live as if there had never been a pope, no indulgence, no purgatory, no confession, no pardon. Our nature is so bad and corrupt that it forgets even the greatest benefits of God. That is why David, after recounting the many benefits, punishes our ingratitude by saying only: "Praise". He does not say: We praise, or: People praise God.
V. 15. He sends his speech on earth.
8 Here he teaches how he gives the fruits by the change of the weather, namely this weather he creates with his word. "He sends his speech on earth", that is, he gives to the earth, and says: The earth shall bear fruit.
His word runs fast.
9. as in the first book of Moses [Cap. 1, 3.^ it says: "He spoke, and it came to pass." When he says it, it is already there before him. Here we see the diligence with which the holy fathers read the first chapter in Moses, from which all divine wisdom flowed.' And David very often uses this expression of Moses: "The Lord spoke," as, in the 107th Psalm, v. 20.: "He sent his word and made them well." But how did he make them well? With one word: "He speaks, so it happens" sPs. 33, 9.]. We must therefore refer to the word
pay careful attention. Our sacramentarians want to throw it through each other, and invent from the words of John at the first [v. 1.] [Λό^οζ] XXX. Assaph makes use of this way of speaking only once, in the place I have quoted [Ps. 50, 1], for it is actually David's way of speaking in this way.
V. 16. 17. He gives snow like wool, he scatters hoar-frost like ashes, he casts his locks like morsels.
10. all this, he wants to say, happens by the word, all such changes of the weather, without which the earth cannot give its fruits, he creates by the word. He says: It snows, so it snows 2c. But here is a theological question: How do such comparisons fit together, that he compares snow to wool, which are quite different things? For wool clothes and warms us, as do ashes; but snow and frost do the opposite. So also: morsels nourish us; but closed ones do not nourish. It seems to me that David secretly wanted to indicate the temptations by such a comparison, so that when it snows, when it ripens, when it closes, we do not despair or give up the hope that we will be nourished, but believe that God wants to have and give morsels and wool and ashes under such snow, ripeness and closes, although it seems much different. For in comparisons the Holy Spirit does not consider the appearance, but the benefit of the exceedingly great things that are given.
Who can stay before his frost?
It changes with the weather. After the winter he gives the summer, otherwise would have to
if it were always winter, we would die of frost. But how does he give summer?
V. 18. He speaks, so melt it.
(12) By the word he accomplishes all things; he requires no more than a word. That may be a Lord! When the Prince of Saxony says something, there is no one to do it.
He lets his wind blow, so it thaws.
13 A whimsical change, from wind he makes water. The master can make what he wants and out of what he wants.
V. 19, 20: He showed his word to Jacob, his customs and his judgments to Israel. He does not do this to the nations, nor does he let them know his rights.
14 Here he also tells about the spiritual benefits, the word and the worship," and the promises given to Jacob and Israel, he calls it in repetitive speech (per tautoloZiam repetit). But he says about the special privilege of this people, of which also St. Paul deals with Rom. 9, 4. 5.