in number the fifty-first.
O God, have mercy on me according to your great mercy.
002 And according to the multitude of thy mercies blot out mine iniquity.
3. wash me more and more from my unrighteousness, and make me clean from my sin.
004 For I perceive that I am unrighteous, and my sin is always before mine eyes.
5. to you alone I am a sinner and an offender in your sight, so that you alone may be justified in your words and overcome (or stand) when you are judged.
6. Behold, in unrighteousness I was conceived, and in sins my mother conceived me.
7 Behold, the truth thou lovest; the inward and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast revealed unto me.
8. if you sprinkle me with hyssop, I will be clean; if you wash me, I will be whiter than snow.
9. give joy and comfort to my hearing, and so the bones that are bruised shall rejoice.
10. turn away your face from my sins, and wipe away all my iniquity.
(11) O God, create in me a pure heart, and renew in my innermost being a right spirit.
12. cast me not away from thy presence, and take not from me thy Holy Spirit.
13. give me again the comfort of your salvation, and fasten me with a voluntary spirit.
14. i will teach your ways to the wicked, and sinners will be converted to you.
15 O God, God of my salvation, deliver me from the blossoms, and with joy let my tongue proclaim your righteousness.
16 O God, open my lips and let my mouth declare your praise.
017 For if it had pleased thee, I might have offered a sacrifice: but in sacrifices is not thy pleasure.
18. the sacrifice that pleases you, my god, is a broken spirit; a contrite and humbled heart; oh god! you will not despise that.
19. be kind in your good will toward Zion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built.
020 Then shalt thou have acceptable the sacrifice of righteousness, the whole burnt offerings, and other sacrifices: then shall they offer calves upon thine altar.
V. 1. God, be gracious to me according to your goodness.
(1) A truly repentant heart has nothing before its eyes but its sins and misery in its conscience; therefore he may not speak these words in all seriousness, who still finds some counsel or reason in himself, so that he is not yet completely miserable, but feels a little comfort in himself apart from God's mercy. If now the meaning is: Oh God, no man nor creature can help me nor comfort me, so great is my misery; for not bodily nor temporal is my harm. Therefore you, who are God
and eternally, alone can help me. Have mercy on me, for without your mercy all things are terrible and bitter to me. a)
V. 2. And blot out my transgression according to thy great mercy.
2.b ) These are all words of a thorough repentance, which makes great and much the grace of God, in that it makes great and much their sin. For, as the apostle says [Rom. 5:20], "Where sins are great, grace is also great." Therefore grace does not taste good to the hopeful, for their sins do not yet taste evil to them.
V. 3. Wash me well from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
(3) Earlier, in the beginning, he asked for grace and indulgence for the sins he had committed, and for another life; now, almost to the end of the psalm, he asks in an increasing way that he be washed and cleansed more and more. For the first grace is a beginning of washing and cleansing, in which they do not persevere, even going back again, looking at the only real, outward sin, and persisting in it, with loss of grace, and becoming worse than before, even though they do not see it or think it. Now it is so with us that Adam must go out and Christ come in, Adam be destroyed, and Christ alone reign and be. Therefore there is no end of washing and cleansing in this time. For Adam, who was born to us, also makes our good works, which we do in lifting up and increasing, to be sins and to come to nothing, if God does not see the grace and washing that has begun.
V. 4 For I know my transgression, and my sin is always before me.
4. this is the difference between the true saints and the apparent saints, that the
a) f But now I ask for your mercy, not a little as you have mercy on the temporal need of the flesh, but according to your great mercy, as you have mercy on the need of the soul.
b) f Earlier he named the size, now the quantity.
1) Wittenberger, Jenaer l 2 > and Erlanger: Anheben des. - The sense is: in the manner of a man who anheben [to believej. Only the Jena (1) and the Weim. Edition have the correct reading.
1696 Erl. 37, ZS8-390. au[1. of the 7 penitential psalms. 1517 u. 1525. Ps. 51. W. IV, 2315-2317. 1697
[True saints see their infirmities, that they are not what they ought and want to be, and therefore they judge themselves and do not concern themselves with others. But the others do not recognize their infirmities, and think that they are now what they should be, always forgetting themselves, being other people's free judges; they turn this psalm thus: 1) I recognize the infirmities of others, and the sins of others are always before my eyes; therefore they have their sins on their backs, and the beam in their eyes. c)
V. 5: Against you alone have I sinned and done evil in your sight.
This is the verse that teaches 2) thoroughly not to respect our outward good works, not to believe men's praise and glory from them, for they are done in uncleanness and infirmity, nor are they considered good in the sight of God unless we confess them so. Therefore the gloss that interprets this verse of outward sins is far from the right ground; for because of outward sin, without doubt, we also sin and do evil, not only before God, but also before men.
Therefore you will remain right in your words and pure when you are judged.
What is this? Can't God be justified, because we are sinners? Or, who judges God? That God in Himself and in His nature is not judged or justified by anyone is obvious, since He is the eternal, constant, permanent and never-changing righteousness Himself, and the supreme judge of all things. But in his words and works he is constantly contradicted, resisted, judged and condemned by self-justifying and self-conceited people, and between him and them there is a constant warfare of judgment over his words and works. That is why it is immediately said: "That you will be judged in your words".
1) In the Erlanger "So" is repeated to the following.
c) t Item, the little word "and my sin is against me always", the "against me" should mean, as then translated, "before my eyes", or towards me, as a counter reproach, which one looks at.
2) In the old editions: learns.
justified" than that your words be justified and truly found and known.
Now, all the words that the hopeful suffer contradictions, it is not possible for us to tell now; let us take them all in one heap, thus: All Scripture and words of God point to Christ's suffering, as he himself testifies Luc. 24, 46. 47. that Scripture holds nothing else but promised grace and remission of sins, through the suffering of Christ; that whoever believes in him, and no one else, shall be saved. This truth and Christ's suffering and faith are opposed by all who do not want to be sinners, and especially by those who have begun to live, who do not want to believe that they are sinners, and do not almost sigh for Christ, when God has promised Christ in all His words to die for the sake of our sin.
(8) Therefore he that will not think himself a sinner, and be accounted so, will make God a liar, and himself the truth, which is the gravest sin, and idolatry above all idolatries. Therefore John the Apostle says 1 John 1:8: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Item, v. 10. "If we say that we do not sin, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us."
(9) Therefore the prophet saith, Lest this grievous sin of hope come upon me, I confess that I am a sinner before thee, and do no good; that thou mayest stand with truth, and be justified, and overcome all that contend with thee, and justify themselves, judging thee in thy words. For God will ultimately be right and overcome, either here with good or there with seriousness, and will not help whether we are justified before men or before ourselves. 4) For you must turn your eyes away from this and wait with fear to see what God thinks of it.
V. 6. Behold, I am made in iniquity, and my mother conceived me in sins.
(10) Behold, it is so true that I am a sinner before thee, that sin also is my nature,
3) "our" is found in the Wittenberg and Jena (2), missing in the other editions.
4) The same construction is found in § 27.
is my originating being, my conception, let alone the words, works and thoughts, and subsequent life. [How could I be without sin, if I am made in sins, and sin is my nature and kind? 1) An evil tree am I, and by nature a child of wrath and sin [Eph. 2:3]. And therefore, as long as the same nature and being remains in and on us, so long are we sinners, and must say, "Forgive us our trespasses" 2c. [Matth. 6, 12.] until the corpse dies and perishes. For Adam must die and decompose before Christ is fully born; and this is brought about by the penitent life, and is accomplished by dying. Therefore death is a salvific thing to all those who believe in Christ, for it does nothing but decompose and pulverize everything born of Adam, so that Christ alone may be in us.
V. 7. Behold, you delight in the truth.
(11) That is, outward righteousness and seeming godliness is all deceit, without cause and truth, because it covers inward sin, and is but a figure of thorough, true righteousness; of which thou art an enemy, but men love it. Therefore you love the inward truth, but they love the outward falsehood; you the reason, they the appearance; therefore they do not say, To you I am a sinner.
You let me know the wisdom secretly hidden.
(12) The wisdom of God is revealed to the hopeful only in outward appearance, but to the humble it is shown in inward truth and hidden reason. d) The outward appearance of this wisdom is that man thinks to serve and follow God with many words, poems, and works, all in outward appearance, which is apparent to every man and possible to do; for there are many givers and wise men. In them one seeks all things of God, but entirely with one's back and outwardly; inwardly they know his less than all the others, so they do not know him.
1) This is missing in 1517.
d) f And says, "Your wisdom"; for it is not ours, but God's who gives it to us.
to seek themselves, even without God, with the same ways of studying and knowing God 2c.
(13) The inner and hidden part of this wisdom is nothing else than to know oneself thoroughly, and thus to be averse to oneself, and to seek all righteousness not in oneself but in God, to always be angry with Him and to long for God, that is, to humbly love God and to let oneself be. 2) This inward, unknown righteousness is signified in all outward adornments, ways, words, works, in which the hopeful remain and harden. Therefore God, who loves the reason and truth, hates them, so that they love appearances and hypocrisy. 3)
V. 8. Defile me with hyssop, that I may be clean.
14. Here he proves immediately with an example, which he spoke before, as if he should say: That Moses and the priests of the law sprinkle themselves and the people with hyssop, dipped in goat's blood, and from this they consider themselves pure [on this the hypocrites, as well as on all other outward sanctification in the law, rely], 4) is only an outward appearance and figure, but not the truth, which is meant by it, which you mean and love, also not the inward of your wisdom, which you have revealed to me. Therefore, sprinkle me with the true goat's blood of JEsu Christ, and from it I shall be in truth and thoroughly inwardly clean, without all my working or laboring. 5)
Wash me so that I become snow-white.
(15) That is, the outward washing of hands and feet, according to the law, does not make me white, but deceives with its appearance those who do not know the inward thing which is signified therein, which is the right, true wisdom. Just as sprinkling with hyssop and washing with water is of no use externally for internal washing and sprinkling, but only as a figure and a sign; so also all other external ways and gestures, which want nothing else than that
2) Jenaer (1) and Walch: "hate".
3) Weimar and Erlangen: "Heuchel". Jenaer (1): "Gleisnerei".
4) This is missing in 1517.
5) In the old editions: "mügen".
The same inwardly God sprinkles, washes, works, 1) speaks, nurtures 2c. with the graces of the Holy Spirit. And so the old, dear fathers looked at the figure in the Old Testament, and understood by it the inward and hidden of the true mind and wisdom of God.
V. 9. Let me hear joy and gladness.
(16) That is, all outward righteousness, walk and dealings, cannot comfort my conscience and take away sin. [Above all works and good deeds remains the stupid and frightened, fearful conscience, until you sprinkle and wash me with grace, and thus make my conscience good, so that I hear your secret murmuring: 2) "Your sins are forgiven" [Marc. 2, 5]. No one is aware of this, for he who hears it, no one sees it, no one understands it. It can be heard, and the hearing makes a comforting, happy conscience and confidence in God.
That the bones you have crushed may become joyful.
(17) The bones,e ) which are equally weary and contrite because of the sinful conscience, rejoice and are refreshed when the conscience hears the joy of indulgence. For sin is a heavy, sorrowful, anxious burden,f ) and yet it cannot be removed by the outward works of man, but only by the inward work of God.
V. 10. Hide your face from my sins.
018 That is, take not strict heed to my works; for they are all sin, if thou puttest them in thy sight and judgment. Therefore he saith not, Turn away my sin from thy face. Just as if there were some works that God would suffer to be in his sight, so that he alone would turn away sin and let the good remain; but he must turn away his face, that the works and we may stand and remain, that is, that he will not reckon them.
1) ^wirke" is missing in the Erlanger.
2) Wittenberger: "Einrüffen".
e) Instead of "the bones": That is, all the powers of the soul.
f) t all the forces of the soul.
by grace, which by nature would probably be 3) sin, as in the 32nd Psalm, v. 2. "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven." g)
And wipe out all my iniquity.
19. that is what is not yet there of righteousness, forgive me, as I have asked of the evil that is still there. Turn away thy face have asked. For before God all our works, as it is said, have that which they ought not to have, that is, they are done in sins, wherein we were born; and have not that which they ought to have, that is, all the integrity of which we are deprived through Adam's sin.
V. 11. Create in4 ) me,GOD, a clean heart.
20. a pure hand, and beautiful words in outward appearance, is easy to do and man's power; but a pure heart separated from all things love, that is the work of the Creator and divine power, according to which the Scripture speaks that no one has a pure heart [Gen. 6, 5. 8, 21. Matth. 15, 19. Marc. 7, 21.] Therefore all are sinners before God [Rom. 3, 23.], to whom the heart is open, as to man the hand or work is manifest. In the hearth ) is the truth, which God loves; but inward righteousness is never fully 5) attained in this life, and yet is always to be sought.
And renew in me a willing spirit.
(21) A crooked spirit is the spirit of the flesh, and Adam's spirit, which in all things bends in on itself, seeking its own, is innate in us. The sincere spirit is the good will directed straight to God, seeking God alone, which must be made anew and infused by God into the innermost part of our heart, so that there is no deceitfulness in our spirit, but that God's will is loved from the bottom of our hearts. i)
V. 12. Do not cast me away from your presence.
022 Which is done unto all them that reject not themselves before their face, and are like unto them.
3) Wittenberger: "vol".
g) "Blessed is the man to whom God does not impute sin or guilt."
4) "in" is missing in the Erlanger.
h) Pure heart is the 2c.
5) Erlanger: probably.
i) be loved.
do not care that they are rejected from God's presence; yes, they sit down before God's presence and exalt themselves, therefore they are humiliated and rejected. For they think that they are pure, and pious, and enlightened, and therefore unworthy of rejection. But these feel and know that they are reprobate because of their sin; therefore they come first with fear, and ask away with humility that which others think they have won with holiness.
And do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
23. for of me I am corrupt; your Spirit must sanctify mek ) and keep me; even without the Holy Spirit Himself no gift or grace is sufficient in the sight of God.
V. 13. Let the comfort of your salvation return to me.
For through Adam and sin such 1) is lost to us all, and must be restored without merit, by grace. That is, give me again a cheerfully secure conscience in your salvation. l)
And the free spirit abstain from me.
(25) That is, with the Holy Spirit, who makes voluntary people who do not serve God out of embarrassing fear or disorderly love. For all those who serve out of fear are not constant and firm, without as long as the fear lasts; indeed, they are compelled and serve Him with reluctance, so that if there were no hell or punishment, they would serve nothing. Thus, those who serve God even out of love of reward or good are not constant either; for if they knew no reward, or if the good departed, they would also cease. These all do not have joy in the salvation of God, nor a pure heart, nor a right spirit, but are their own lovers above God. But those who serve God out of a good, right will are firmly in God's service, be it here or there, sweet or sour; for they are endowed with a noble, voluntary, princely, unencumbered, and unrestrained love of God.
k) alive.
1) In the 1525 editions, "they" is left here, referring to "the joy of your salvation" in the first edition.
l) Instead of the last sentence: The salvation of God is called Christ in the Scriptures, who is given to us a salvation and blessedness from God, in whom is all comfort and joy for souls who feel their sin.
new will firmly and steadily made by God. For the little word, "voluntarym ) spirit", which is written here, means in Hebrew language also a voluntary or favorable, unforcedn ) spirit. What is held by force, does not have the dignity; but what is held with will, remains constant.
V. 14. I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may turn to you.
(26) This is why I will never teach the righteousness and ways of men, as those who hope do, but the way of grace and your righteousness; (o ) so sinners come to you and are truly converted. For out of man's righteousness one is ever more turned from God in the way of hope, which must be where there is no grace.
V. 15. Save me from the blood debt, O God, who art the God of my salvation.
27. bloodguilt" is that one has deserved death, and before God according to the law of all sins are guilty of death, Rom. 2, 2. 5 Mos. 27, 26. but he touches here especially the sin committed with Bathsheba and Uriah, wherein he had deserved death [2 Sam. 11, 4. 15.]p )
That my tongue may praise your righteousness.
028 This is, I will never preach the righteousness of men, nor praise their works, but only thy works; and that there be no more but thy righteousness, whereby all the righteous are justified, beside whom all others are sinners. For if you do not
m) princely.
n) t and unstirred
o)t because
2) 'Erlanger: in.
p) Instead of s 27: "The bloomers" are the hopeful, who were born from Adam, strive after the blood always against this teaching and right wisdom, and whoever teaches them, must suffer objection and persecution from them. For they especially do not want to suffer that their thing is nothing, who are not yet in grace, but are pious in the flesh and in bloom according to human convenience and appearance, and think much of it, and want to be held to it. Therefore he says, "O God, who art the God of my salvation, that is, with whom alone is my salvation, and not in me, nor in my righteousness, nor in any creature, deliver me from the children of the blood, who place their salvation in their piety, and therefore resist this doctrine, which alone converts sinners; as the Jews do to the apostles, the Gentiles to the martyrs, the heretics to the doctors, the hopeful to the simple.
1704 Erl. 37, 3S7-40V. Au[1. of the 7 penitential psalms. 1517 u. 1525. Ps. 51. W. iv, 2325-2328. 1705
no one is justified by his works. Therefore it is called "your righteousness" that you give it to us by grace, and we do not obtain it by works. And therefore:
V. 16. Lord, open my lips.
(29) That is, give me strength and courage, that I may preach the same freely and boldly against the ungodly and hypocrites. q)
That my mouth may proclaim your glory.
30 That is, by your strength let mer be bold to punish and convince all men that they are sinners, and that nothing in them is worthy of praise or honor, only deserving of shame and punishment. That they may know that praise and honor are yours alone, therefore that righteousness is yours alone, and wisdom 2c. For no one can honor and praise you, but he reproaches and disgraces himself; no one can ascribe wisdom and righteousness to you, but he takes them from him, and ascribes to him vain sin and foolishness. This praise and honor shalls ) my tongue preach unto thee when thou openest it. For whom God does not send and speak in him, he cannot preach this doctrines and bring in God's praise.
(31) And this is the greatest thing that we can do to God, which He also desires most, that praise and honor be given to Him, and all good things that are. Therefore he speaks:
V.17. For you have no desire for sacrifice, otherwise I would give it, and burnt offerings are not pleasing to you.
(32) That is, you do not want anyone to praise him, but you alone, to receive the glory of righteousness and wisdom. Therefore you do not ask about the sacrifice, much less about the other, lesser good works, since the sacrifice is the greatest. Thou wilt have mercy, and not be a judge; thou wilt not consider how pious we will be, but how pious we will become of thee. So that you, and not we, are praised and honored; that we give you nothing, but take from you righteousness, wisdom, truth, 1) merit, good works 2c. And therefore:
q) blossoms. r) I will apply s)
1) "Truth" is missing in the Erlanger.
V. 18. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and bruised heart You, God, will not despise.
33 As if he said, "He despises everything else without a heart that is humbled and broken. For the same gives glory to God, and sin to Himself. The heart gives nothing to God, but only takes from Him; this is also what God wants, so that He, God, may be true. For God's due is to give and not to take.
V. 19. Do good to Zion according to your good will; build the walls of Jerusalem.
34 If the trustworthy saints will not receive this doctrine, and teach others their righteousness, give grace to the rest of the elect, not according to their merit, but according to your good will: That the walls may be built up, that is, that there may be enlightened men in Christendom to keep and teach others, that they be not led astray by the false doctrines and teachers which are their own. For the walls are the teachers,n ) who are to be edified primarily in this doctrine.
V. 30. So you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness.
35 As if he said, "They will not offer you goats and sheep and calves, but sacrifices of righteousness, that is, themselves. For he offers a sacrifice of righteousness who gives to God what he owes. vNow we owe God more than we have; therefore we pay Him no other way, but by giving over all that we ourselves are, and this with humble recognition of our sin, and confession of His righteousness, that He is righteous, as His divine will is with us. This way and serenity is the highest righteousness we can have, and the right sacrifice, which is called burnt offering,w ) as follows:
2) "also" is missing in the Erlanger, t) in
u) prelates of the church, 3) give over - let drive. v)f have and what we rv) Loloenustum.
For the burnt offerings and whole sacrifices, they will put bullocks from your altar.
The Hebrew words cannot be expressed in German, becausex ) we only have the word sacrifice, which means all kinds of sacrifices in general. y) In Hebrew, however, there are many and different names of sacrifices, as sacrificium, that is, the sacrifice offered in the sacred office, expressed in the law;z ) among them were some that were called holocausta, that is, in German, the burnt offerings,a ) of which the priests or sacrificers kept nothing. Others were called deadly sacrificesb ) and the like, which were random sacrifices offered out of devotion. c)
(37) Now he says, all of these will be sacrificed first of all. As if he should
x) when.
y) common.
z) t as in the church the mass, matins, vespers 2c.
a) burned completely,
b) üostias pacitid, vietirnae,
c) t as now the specially accepted works, or prayers and sages.
Saying, That now they are offered is nothing offered: for thy good pleasure is not in the offering, as it is said. All this because 1) if the heart is not acceptable, and is offered beforehand, all outward sacrifices are in vain; but if the heart is acceptable beforehand, and is offered within, then all outward works are sacrifices of righteousness. d)
38. but the calves he expresses 2) which 3) were nevertheless the sacrifice, which are named now; and just as if they were not sacrificed at that time, he speaks: "Then they will sacrifice calves 2c. As if he said: It is only a figure, this time calves sacrifice; then they will sacrifice the right calves, that is, sacrifice the outer Adam man on the cross, and make him void, and crucify him with Christ, whose cross is the altar of all calves.
1) In the old editions "when", that is, because.
d) t Partly burned, partly by appointment, partly by accidental devotion; as God gives grace to each one to do in his state.
2) namely (nhemlich) - by name.
3) Jn der Weimarschen und Jenaer (I): "welcher".