To sing a psalm of David on high. 2)
What the "singing up" is, is said above [Ps. 62, § 1]. David made the psalm in the spirit of Christ, who speaks the whole psalm in his own person against Judah the betrayer and against all Judaism, and proclaims what will happen to them. So St. Peter also leads this Psalm Apost. 1, 16. ff. about Judah, where they are
2) Immediately after these words, in the old edition of Walch, the text of the whole psalm is printed, which differs only in a few variants from the one printed in the first scripture of the fourth volume. Because it is not found in the editions here either, we leave it out.
Not that he speaks of Judah alone, but, as St. Peter says there, v. 16, Judah was the head or most important thing that Christ was captured and martyred, and Christ himself confessed before Pilate that Judah had committed the greatest sin by handing him over.
2 Therefore the psalm is primarily against Judah, but also against all who are with Judah, and who continue and follow in his work; as Christ himself indicates here in the psalm, saying, "So must it be with all who oppose me," so that this psalm starts from Judah and goes over all who have Judah's way about them, as there are all persecutors and mobs against Judah.
Christ's word. For they all blaspheme the truth, and persecute the true Christians. This is a terrible psalm against them. For it curses and proclaims so much evil to the enemies of Christ that some have spread the rumor that the monks and nuns should pray it against their enemies, and if it were prayed against anyone, he would have to die; but these are lies and fairy tales.
Why then does Christ curse so badly, who nevertheless dents and teaches, Matth. 5, 44, that one should not curse, and he himself also did not curse on the cross, as St. Peter [1. Ep. 2, 23] speaks, but prays for his cursers and blasphemers? [Luc. 23, 34.], as I asked above [Ps. 94, § 6] also of vengeance. Recently the answer is: Love does not curse, nor does it avenge; but faith curses and avenges. To understand this, you must separate God from men, persons from things. As for God and things, there is neither patience nor blessing, but zeal, anger, vengeance and cursing. When the wicked persecute the gospel, that affects God and His cause, there is neither blessing nor happiness to be wished, otherwise no one would have to preach or write, even against heresy, since this cannot happen without cursing. For he who preaches against it wishes it to perish, and does the worst and best 1) for it to perish.
4 This is what I call curses of faith. For before faith would let God's word perish and heresy stand, it would rather that all creatures perish. 2) For through heresy one loses God Himself. Thus the cursing of Christ in this psalm is not for his own sake, but for the sake of his office and his word, that the Jews should confirm their error, and that they should perish from the gospel, and have no happiness with their Judaism; just as Moses, 4th book, chap. 16, 15, prays that God should not hear Korah's prayer, nor accept their sacrifice. Therefore it must be cursed, wished evil and asked vengeance, against the Evan-
1) Erlanger: "Böste" (that is, most evil), which is perhaps the correct reading.
2) Thus the Wittenbergers and the Erlangers. Jenaer: rmtergingen.
gelii persecution and error, and against those who do and cause such misfortune.
(5) But the person shall not avenge himself, but shall suffer all things, and do good even to his enemy, according to the doctrine of Christ and the kindness of love. For love, not faith, rules here, and concerns me, not faith. Likewise, a Christian may be a judge and condemn and kill the murderer, but not for his own sake, nor to seek his own in it, but for the sake of others, and ex officio. This is as much as if God himself had done it, for his order does it. Summa, to curse for the sake of God's word is right, but for your sake, or to avenge yourself, or to seek your own, is wrong.
6th And in such cursing it is good to call God's name, and to curse by God, even as one sweareth and blesseth by his name. Thus it is written in 2 Kings 2:24 that Elisha cursed the children of Bethel in the name of the Lord, because they tore the bears apart; and Zech. 3:2, the angel curses thus, "The Lord punish thee, Satan"; and Paul, Acts 23:3, "The Lord punish thee, Satan. 23, 3: "The LORD smite thee, thou whitewashed wall" 2c. Does he now speak thus:
V. 1. God of my praise, do not be silent.
Mostly he complains in this psalm about the mouths of the wicked, who always attack and condemn the doctrine of God, so that they gain cause to kill the same teachers as if they were doing right; and the quarrel is entirely for the sake of the doctrine. Therefore I also said that in this psalm it is the faith and the cause that curses, and not the love or the person. This is also what he means by saying, "God my praise," as if to say, "You see that they all revile, blaspheme and condemn me because of your word, but I have no one to praise me but you with yours. Therefore do not be silent, that is, praise, exalt, glorify, defend me, and prove that I teach rightly. Just as Christ [John 17:1] says to the Father, "Transfigure me, that your Son may transfigure you"; give the Spirit, perform miracles and signs, so that my teaching may be confirmed; so transfigure me.
3) Wittenberg and Erlangen: the same.
I then preach to you that you are true God and my Father; so they believe me and are both glorified.
8. "God of my praise," though in Latin and German it reads, as, I praise God; yet in Hebrew it is said as much as: God praises me; or, I have no one to praise me but God; just as that, Ps. 89:27, "God of my salvation," does not mean that I help God, but that He helps me; and "God of my righteousness," Ps. 4:2, does not mean that I make God righteous, or help me to be right, but that He helps me to be right and to keep right. So here also, "God of my praise," that is, God holds above my praise, He glorifies and honors me, because for His sake I must be darkened, blasphemed and defiled.
V. 2 For the false mouths of the wicked have opened against me, and speak lies against me.
(9) That is, as it is said [§7], they lie and blaspheme me shamefully and falsely, that my doctrine, thy word, must be error, heretical, seditious, and condemned. Therefore do not be silent, and praise me against their reproach and reviling. This is what must happen to all preachers of the gospel.
V. 3: They talk to me with hateful words everywhere, and fight against me without a cause.
(10) That is, their venom is spreading far and wide, eating away at them like a crab, as Paul says [2 Tim. 3:13], "that they deceive much," and with such hateful words they make me hostile and worthless before everyone, fighting altogether against me without any cause. For I teach the truth, because of which they should fall more cheaply to me and assist me, so they fight against me.
V. 4. For loving them, they are against me; but I pray.
(11) "Without cause" (I say), for I show them much love by telling them the truth. But for love I must receive hatred and hateful words and slander. But what should I do in such a case? I pray. St. Paul also teaches Phil. 4:6: "In all things let your prayer be made known before God with supplication and thanksgiving." As
he should say, "What is to be done? You cannot suffer charity; well, then you must command God, and keep to prayer. Oh, what a pious child is the world! It does not want evil, it cannot stand good. What does it want, then? Hellish fire and the devil with it; that is what she will encounter.
V. 5 They do me evil for good, and hate for love.
(12) Beloved, behold how near he speaks to our Lord God, and how mightily he prays. They have no cause (he says) to fight against me; if I teach the truth, you know that, they have much less cause to do me evil. For if I do them good, they hate me. So that both my right doctrine and good works and miracles are hated and persecuted by them. What more shall I do? What is left but that they are worthy to lose both my word and my work? That is that they are cursed, for they want neither blessing nor good. Now it may not be otherwise. For he who does not want good must have evil. He who does not want to be blessed must be cursed, as follows:
V. 6. Set the wicked over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.
(13) I have not read in all Scripture more terrible, more horrible curses and calamities than these two verses, which alone should reasonably terrify, and make all the world narrow to all who persecute and dispute the word of God.
14 For here he says, "Set the wicked over them." This setting is called "Pakad" in Hebrew.
[XXX], that is, appoint and order to the office, as one appoints bishops, pastors, preachers, or also secular lords and officials. So here the opinion is: Because they do not like me and my doctrine badly, and want to have it so, so let go, let false teachers, red spirits and vain godless preachers come among them, who teach them vain lies, godless doctrine and error, and lead them from one error into another; so they want it.
15. for this "Satan stand at their right hand",
That is, the devil, through his apostles, is riding them in such a way that even if they would like to come out, and almost mean well, and pretend to want to know Mr. Right, 1) and would like to know right and truth, the devil is there, disguising himself as an angel of light [2 Cor. 11:14], and hinders them, and stops them with such appearances and beautiful thoughts and words, and entices and blinds them, so that they cannot come out, even though the truth is presented to them so brightly and thinly that they would like to grasp it.
(16) This is the punishment we see in the Jews today, that they do not depart from their mind, though they know that they are overcome with the Scriptures. Who does it? Not reason, nor human blindness (for that would be to control), but, as it says here, Satan is at their right hand. This is what all heretics have done; this is what our red spirits are doing now over the sacrament; this is also what the papacy is doing.
(17) But he speaks as of one, and not of many, though he hath hitherto complained of many. For it is chiefly about Judah the traitor, who (as it is said [§ 1]) led the multitude against Christ, as the centurion; but to all who are of his kind the same thing is contrary. Since he did not like to hear Christ, he had to hear the ungodly chief priests, and even though he repented afterwards and stood as if he wanted to go right, he did not come back, but despaired. For Satan stood stiffly at his right hand, and kept him. Paul also speaks of such punishment in 2 Thess. 2, 11, that God sends strong error to those who have not accepted the truth and must believe the lie. And Christ Joh. 5, 43: "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. Another shall come in his name, and the same shall ye receive." The same thing is happening now in Germany, and it will become even more so.
V. 7. When he is judged, he must go out condemned, and his prayer must be sin.
O fear and humble all the world before God's word! How horrible it is
1) That is, as if they wanted to drive correctly. Cf. 817.
that! All his life (he says), which he leads in the most holy way, and does not mean otherwise, because he leads it according to God's word, in the very best way, that must be condemned and be an unchristian, devilish life before God. What is the use of such a great, strict, hard life, so much fasting, discipline and such fine works?
19. for this, he says, "when he prays to God" (which they do almost strongly), it is not only unheard, but also sin that they are condemned even more by their prayer; as Christ also forewarns the hypocrites who pray for a long time.
20 The word, "when he is judged," is said of the judgment that comes through teaching and preaching, if one follows it with the work. For in the previous verse he speaks of the preaching ministry. Therefore this judgment is nothing else than the law or teaching, in which evil is judged and punished, and right living is preached. Thus the 122nd Psalm, v. 5, speaks of the preaching office in Jerusalem: "There sit the chairs of judgment"; and Isa. 9, 7, also Jer. 23, 5, say that Christ should rule with judgment and justice. In sum, judgment or righteousness is the doctrine by which consciences are to be judged and live, to avoid evil and to do good.
(21) These ungodly men, then, are so troubled that they bring judgment and justice, that is, they have them preach and counsel, and punish evil, and think it is so right; they go out, do so, and bring it to pass; but know not that all this is condemned, which they think is a good thing, and that they deserve heaven by it. For the wicked have truly established their nature in the ius regiment, punishing evil and praising good, and walk in judgment and law, just as the Jews have their Talmud, we Christians have spiritual law, the Turks have the Alkoran; and yet everything is damned, a devilish thing.
V. 8: His days must become few, and his office must be received by another.
22 This verse is quoted by St. Peter Apost. 1, 20, where he says: "His episcopate must be taken by another", and interprets it to mean that St. Matthias came in Judah's place. And it is true, without the Greek word "episcopate", and now German "Bisthum", seldom used.
We see such bishops and bishoprics, of which neither Judas nor St. Peter saw any. For episcopus or bishop really means nothing else than an officer, and bishopric an office; and here it is like the word which is said above [v. 6], "Set ungodly men over them." In short, it is called office and ministers, for they are to be Christ's ministers, and to execute his command, that is, they are to preach and help preach. How the bishops do this now is evident. For this reason they have also lost their office, and others have taken their place, as Matthias took Judah's place, for they have become Judas.
023 Then shall he say, Judas and his people the Jews ought to have the apostleship, and to preach the gospel; but they will not: therefore shall Matthias come in Judah's stead, and the Gentiles in the Jews' stead, and preach the gospel which they should preach, and which was promised unto them. Therefore, because the bishops do not preach, and follow the pope, their Judas, let others come who are not bishops, and lead their ministry and preach.
24 This is that he says, "His days must be few," that is, he shall not last long. This was also bodily true of Judah and the Jews. For Judah soon fell away; so also the Jews were soon after cast out by the Romans. And now follows how the Jews, Judah's people, should fare. For, as [§§1. 2] said, he speaks especially of the Jews, although it also applies to all godless teachers in his way.
V. 9: His children must become orphans, and his wife a widow.
(25) That is, the children and wives of the people of the Jews 1) shall be so: as it came to pass, when their husbands were slain by the Romans in the spoiling of Jerusalem.
V. 10. His children must be unstable, begging and seeking, because their dwelling is desolate.
(26) All the plagues, spiritual and corporal, he tells about the Jews. For the people
It In the issues: of the people of the Jews children and women 2c.
We see before our eyes that they are unstable in the time of their destruction, are driven out here and there, and have nowhere safe to sit, and must beg everywhere, not for bread, but for a dwelling in the land. For they must seek a dwelling in every place, because their dwelling is in the Jewish land, and they have no land of their own, no city, no village, and no government. And yet this verse should move the Jews, because they see that they alone, and no nation under the sun, shall be so. For there is no nation that has its own villages, towns and country, without the Jews alone, who are everywhere, have nowhere of their own, land, town or village, are all the time uncertain guests and beggars.
V. 11. Let the usurer suck up all that he has, and let strangers rob his labor.
27) It should be contrary, because this verse says, 2) because the Jews, famous usurers, suck everyone dry where they are. But the Psalm wants to say so much, that they shall have no happiness, but vain misfortune in body, soul, children, 3) property and honor. For though they almost usury, yet a greater usurer than they cometh, and taketh it from them; as the other part saith, "that strangers rob their labor. For it so happens to the Jews that when they have been gathering for a long time, an accident comes that they are driven out, robbed, punished, and what they have is taken from them; as they well know and complain daily.
V. 12: And there must be no one to show him kindness, and no one to have mercy on his orphans.
28 O Lord God, this is all too true! The Jews are thought to be dogs, and he who harms them or makes fun of them is thought to have done well. Because they and their children do not want to accept Christ, there is no mercy for the stubborn people. Nor do they suffer it; so firmly does Satan stand at their right hand, and they hope in vain for a better.
2) The meaning is: One should probably assume that it happened just the opposite way than this verse says 2c.
3) In the issues: Children.
V. 13. His descendants must be cut off, their name must perish in One Limb.
29 Here he comes again to many, and says, "Their name," not, his name; that we may see how he speaks of a whole people. This is all fulfilled sint of the disturbance Jerusalem. For since that time no Jewish man has come who is respected in Christendom and before God, but with the apostles, who were the last to keep a name, their memory and name is gone, when before they had so many fathers and prophets, whose name is not silent to this day, but their teaching and life is praised in all the world. But they have had none of these since time immemorial, and thus in the memory of man 1) all their name and honor are gone.
(30) For that they should all be cut off in the flesh, and have no remembrance among themselves, would be contrary to the verses above, that their descendants should beg and suffer misery. If this is to be, then they must have descendants; but with God and God's people they are no longer valid, as their forefathers and prophets were; they are waiting for a prophet who is to be valid, but nothing will come of it. This verse says that it was over with them in the time of the apostles.
V. 14: Let his father's iniquity be remembered before the Lord, and let not his mother's sin be blotted out.
31. his (that is, this people, the Jews), and is of the opinion that it should be said in all the world, as St. Stephen Apost. 7, 51 to the Jews: "You have always resisted the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so also you." For so it is said: As the fathers and mothers of the Jews, that is, their ancestors, have always disobeyed the prophets, so are their children now. For they do not believe the same prophets that their fathers did not believe; it is the same unbelief. If their fathers had believed, they would not have strangled the prophets; if the Jews now believed the same prophets, they would accept Christ. But
1) That is, at the same time as the apostles.
They remain in their fathers' sin; so God does not forget them, and punishes them as long as they sin.
I would like to know what the Jews could say about this psalm. They must ever confess that the Scripture speaks of them, as St. Paul says Rom. 3, 19. All verses force them to do so, that it 2) speaks of a Jewish man, who suffers such things among the Jews and curses, he is David, or whom they want. So the experience agrees with the text, that over no people such curses go under the sun, but over them, probably fifteen hundred years. This did not happen to David's enemies, but to JEsu Christ's enemies, the Jews, it happened just as it says here; there is no getting around it. But, as it is said [§ 16], reason would have overcome; Satan stands at the right hand, and does not let them understand.
V. 15. They must be before the Lord forever, and their memory must be blotted out from the earth.
That is, the same sin of their ancestors, of which it is said, 311is always before the Lord. For they also do not leave it, so God cannot hear their prayer, nor accept their works. Therefore "they also always remain before the Lord," that is, they always stir up their fathers' sin anew through their hardened heart, because they always persist, and thus always remain condemned Jews, as he has painted them above 2 ff]. has painted them.
34] "Their memory also shall be cut off from the earth," not that they should not be known, but that they should no longer be remembered in sermons and examples, as their fathers and prophets were remembered; as the sixteenth Psalm, v. 4, says: "I will remember them no more in my mouth. For "remembrance" in Scripture does not mean to remember (otherwise Judas, Pilate, Herod would always be remembered), but to praise and extol him, and to have a good report of him; all which is not done to Judah and the Jews, but they are always reproached, from the time they were destroyed by the Romans. All these things are of the Jews in particular.
2) namely: the writing here.
who sinned against Christ himself and have children and descendants. But the heretics, the sects and the priesthood, who do not have children, also have their plague, that they finally perish, and their memory is eradicated, so that they are no longer valid; as is now happening to the priesthood, of which enough has otherwise been said.
V.16. Because he did not think to show mercy, but persecuted the wretched and the poor, and the sorrowful of heart, that he might kill him.
35. above, in the other Psalm fPs. 62, 4.It is also said of those who tread down a sloping wall and a broken fence; which he interprets here with clear words, and says that it is such a wicked trick that they take on a wretched, poor, and otherwise sufficiently distressed person, whom they should help out and comfort cheaply, and, as he says here, prove benevolence; so they do the very worst to him and only help him to death, yet they want to have done God a service by it.
Just as in our times, our angry princes and bishops and learned hypocrites leave the Turks and their kind in peace, no matter how great heretics and seducers they are considered among them; the wall stands too firm, and the fence resists. But where there is a poor citizen, or a wretched priest and preacher, who has hardly enough bread and suffers all hardships, the great, angry princes and bishops take care of him; he must suffer, then they have found a hanging wall and a bent fence, then they become knights here on earth, and deserve heaven for it. Here the lion has caught a mouse, and makes himself think that he has overcome the lindworm. Germany is now full of such Abels and Junkers, who pestilence and St. Vitus' dances in the alehouses, 1) and can only plunge the knife against poor, miserable, defenseless people; then they are of the nobility. Fie, what unholy people, yes, sows and wild beasts, are we Germans, that there is no noble thought or courage in us, even after the world!
1) that is, m anwüoschen curses pestilence and St. Vitus dance.
37. Now God (he says here) will not forget them again. For he has distinguished their wickedness, and even though they are considered pious and righteous people in the eyes of the world, he still considers them murderers and evil-doers. For here you see what he accuses them of, and what names and things he ascribes to them. First of all, that they do not think to do good to the poor and miserable, that is, they are unmerciful, even to the miserable; therefore they must perish without all mercy, even when they come to distress and misery, that they may be measured as they have measured.
38 Secondly, that they are not only merciless, but also persecute the same wretched people to death. It is sinful beyond measure to persecute and strangle the wretched, whom the wild beasts and unreasonable creatures gladly help. But who believes that they are considered such by God, and that such terrible judgments hover over their heads and loom all hours? Spiritual eyes must be closed until experience comes, as happened to the Jews.
V.17. And he loved the curse, and it shall come upon him: and if he would not have the blessing, it shall come far enough from him.
(39) That is, he wished to be cursed and maligned, and cursed himself; so great was his delight in his cursing. It is not that they love public cursing, but the Holy Spirit shows by the words their horrible, miserable blindness and obduracy, that they take for blessing that which is the worst curse, and again, for cursing that which is the noblest blessing. As when the Jews cried out about Christ before Pilato: "His blood come upon us and our children" (Matth. 27, 25.]. I think this is a curse that still weighs hard enough on them. Nevertheless, they considered it the best blessing. For they thought: Oh, that we should kill this wicked man is well done in the sight of God; we will dare to do what we are urged to do, knowing full well that a blessing will come upon us in return. Therefore, let his blood be freshly poured out upon us.
040 So neither would they have the blessing, since they denied him, to be king.
and said: "We have no king, without the emperor" [Joh. 19, 15.]. As if they should say: The devil has this king! it would be vain cursing and misfortune 2c.
41 The papacy is now doing the same with its own. They have become enemies of the gospel and have condemned it; what they are threatened with, they consider a blessing. Yes, they say, the devil desires your gospel, and God protects me from your prayer; but I will dare and wait for your urging 2c. If such people have no other misfortune, don't you think it is misfortune enough to have such a stubborn, blinded, hardened heart, which neither sees nor hears, and does not allow itself to be told bad things, and thinks that it walks in blessings and not in curses, and shuns the blessings as a curse? O Lord God, let us do other sins than those which we ought to sin.
V. 18. and put on the curse like his shirt, and it went into his inward parts like water, and like oil into his bones.
(42) Here he shows how deep such hardening is in their hearts, and how firm it is that they cannot be converted. All preaching, exhorting, warning, singing and saying is lost. And he illustrates this with three different similes. First, with the "shirt" or garment. Just as a man cannot be without a shirt, or without the next garment on his body, for one should not go naked, so that his garment must be on his neck every day: so also the Jews are attached to the hardening, that they love the curse; there is no counsel, they cannot be without such hardening, is also their daily exercise, just as a daily garment is attached to the body. Nevertheless they think it is right for them, and they do well by it; just as a man's garment is right for him, and he does well to wear it, and does wrong to go naked without it. So the Jews also think they are doing a shameful thing when they take off their stiffening.
43) Secondly, when a man drinks water or anything else (for by "water" the Hebrew language understands all kinds of drink, and by bread all kinds of food), and has now come so far into it that [it] is digested and
has become flesh and blood, who will bring it out again? No bath, sweat or medicine will help; it has become nature, and, as he says here, "has come into his innermost being"; it must remain inside, and go with him, and he with him, to hell, into eternal fire. So it is also with the Jews; their hardening has come so far into them that it has become their nature, and now they can never do otherwise. They still think it is a good thing, yes, it is a pure refreshment and noble drink that restores them. Quench their thirst, nourish them well. For they drink and water themselves daily with it, and sustain themselves with it, just as a man refreshes, cools, quenches and sustains himself daily with drink. For they teach and hear such curses with pleasure and great desire, as a thirsty man drinks with great desire. This is what I mean by loving the curse.
44 Third, he speaks here of "oil," that is, of good oil or balsam to anoint oneself with; as the nature of tree oil is that it is very useful to the body, making straight, strong, healthy, beautiful and dexterous limbs. Therefore the fighters use to anoint their bodies with oil. Now if a man smears himself with oils or ointments, and brings it so far that it goes through the bone and marrow, as the good ointments do after their kind, who will bring it out again? It is hard to get it out of clothes, and no amount of washing or wiping or sweeping will help; you would have to melt the bone and marrow together with the ointment and still not get it out. So the curse and hardening of the Jews has gone so completely through heart, courage and mind, driven through marrow and bone, that there is no help nor advice, but they must be melted in hell, and yet they are not swept away or cleansed. Nevertheless, they think that it is a delicious ointment, and that such teaching is as healthy for them as oil is for the body, and they think that they will become strong, fine, beautiful, pleasant and shining before God with it, as oil makes the body before people, and they always smear themselves with it the longer the more.
45 We can see this in the daily experience of the Jews, how stiff and obdurate they are from child to child; so poisonous and ugly can they speak of Christ that
[it is beyond all measure. For they think that what we believe and teach about Christ is a vile curse and poison, and that Christ was a bad man who was crucified with other bad men because of his wickedness. Therefore, when they call him, they shamefully call him Thola, that is, the hanged man. For because they believe that Jesus was a knave, it cannot be otherwise, they must consider us Christians to be the very most foolish, obscene people under the sun, because reason here must say that if a murderer were beheaded today, and in the morning some people came and worshipped him, and considered him to be a true God, that would be much more foolish than someone worshipping a block or stone; and could not be more foolish.
46 To this be added that we Christians also are wicked, and give wicked examples. So they are hardened and angered everywhere, that such a curse must go through their bones and marrow, and poison them so deeply that they cannot come out and take the crucified Jesus for a Lord and God. And so it remains a ridiculous thing with them that we Christians worship a wicked and damned Jew, as if we worshiped Cain or Absalom for gods. There they are, the oil has gone into their bones, they digest the water without stopping. O a terrible judgment and example of divine wrath!
V. 19: Let it be to him as a garment to put on, and as a girdle to gird himself with.
47 That is, let it be done to him as he wills, and let the curse, which he wants to have, cling to him, and let him consider the gospel a poison and a curse, and Christ a knave; so that he is and remains obdurate, so that God removes his hand, and does not give his Spirit and word among them, so that they may be converted; as he also prophesies Isa. 5:6, "I will command my clouds not to rain upon them.
(48) Not that no Jew should ever come to faith, for there are still some fragments to be left, and some individuals to be converted; but Judaism,
1) Taken by us from Walch's old edition. In the other editions: in the morning.
which we call the Jewish people, is not converted. Neither is the gospel preached among them, so that the Holy Spirit may find room among them; but where they are together, and their synagogues are, they remain with their curse and poison, so that they must curse Christ, and take their poison for salvation, and curse for blessing. Nevertheless, in the lines, some of the multitude jump off one by one, so that God may nevertheless remain God of the seed of Abraham and not cast them out altogether; as St. Paul says Rom. 11:1, 2.
49 And here thou seest that he speaketh of the daily "garment" and "girdle," not of the garment that lieth in the coffer, or of the girdle that lieth in the ark, but which he weareth and putteth on daily; signifying the hardened mind, from which they never depart, and the hardened curse, that they go about daily, and do not cease, and think that it is well with them.
V. 20. So be it done to them of the Lord that are against me, and speak evil against my soul.
50 The prayer in this psalm is answered, and will be so to all the enemies of Christ, especially to the Jews, whom he especially means, and proves the work in public experience. For it is all about the word or speech that they teach against Christ, curse, condemn and blaspheme him, and would gladly have him under them. That is, "They speak evil against my soul," that is, against my life; they would gladly have me die and perish, so hard are they against me. But the God of his praise is not silent, praises and exalts him, the more they curse and condemn him.
(51) And here we may all fear, especially all heretics and false teachers. For what Christ asks here also applies to them. Wherever the accident occurs, that one lacks Christ's opinion in one piece, and teaches his own opinion, then all is lost, and the whole Christ is lost; as he himself says Matth. 5:18, 19: "Whoever breaks one of the least commandments, and teaches men so, he also shall be the least in heaven. For not one jot or tittle shall perish" 2c.
After that, one falls on it, and such sense, like water, goes into the innermost,
and like oil through bone and marrow, and the daily garment is made of it. Then one part curses the other, and each part's doctrine is a poison and a curse to the other part, and its own doctrine is a blessing and a salvation; as we see now also in our sects and papists. Here then it is lost. The multitude does not convert; some and a few, whom God saves, get right again, the others remain in their curse and poison, like the Jews, and think it a delicious thing.
(53) This is what he says here, how all the enemies of Christ love the 1) curse and hate the blessing, in which they also remain. This is why St. Paul speaks of Titus 3:10, 11, that one should shun the red man, after two admonitions, because he is a sinner. I have also never read that the teachers of heresy are converted; they remain stubborn in their conceit, the oil has passed through marrow and bone, and their water has become flesh and blood, completely their nature, they do not allow them to say nor refuse. This is the sin in the Holy Spirit that has no forgiveness. For it also has no repentance nor contrition, but defense and excuse, as if it were a holy, precious thing, and the true gospel that teaches against it is a devil's thing.
V. 21. But you, O Lord, do to me for your name's sake, for your goodness is lovely; save me.
Here he turns back to God and also prays for his cause to be promoted and to prevail. For it must be both that the wicked will finally be defeated and the righteous will win. But he says that his cause is not his, but God's own. For this makes a meager and joyful heart before God, to plead for oneself against the ungodly, when one is certain that we act and suffer for the sake of God's word and work, and do not seek ourselves. Therefore he says, "Do thou in me for thy name's sake"; that is, you see that the matter concerns you; your name, your word, your honor I praise, so they blaspheme all this. If thou forbear me, then thou shalt also bear thy name: but this is impossible. What
1) "den" is missing in the Wittenberg and in the Erlanger.
But shall he do to him? The loving kindness, the kind benefit, that he may save him; as follows: "And save me." For salvation is sweet and pleasant to those who are in distress and anguish, as he says:
V. 22. For I am wretched and poor; my heart is troubled within me.
55 This is well understood from the suffering of Christ, since he was not only outwardly miserable and poor in body, abandoned and persecuted by everyone, but also inwardly afflicted and distressed, and had to hear all blasphemy and abusive words, which almost hurt, even to all devout Christian hearts that hold the truth of God dear.
V.23. I pass away as a shadow flitting, and am cut off like a locust.
(56) To "move like a shadow" is as much as to be inactive, to move to and fro as the wind moves the clouds, so that the shifting has no certain, secure, own place. As Job Cap. 14, 1. 2. says of all human life: "Man lives a little while, and flees like a shadow, and does not remain. To flee does not mean here, as the birds flee; but as David fled from his son Absalom [2 Sam. 15, 30.], and Jacob from his brother-in-law Laban [Gen. 31, 17. ff.], in Hebrew "Barach" [XXX] that so much is said: Man must depart, and from it, he is driven and cannot remain. So Christ also says here that his life in the world is done in such a way that it cannot bear him, chases him and drives him from one place to another, until it even drives him away, as the wind drives the clouds. So it is with the gospel, nowhere is it comfortable, the world weaves and blows until it chases it away with its teachers.
(57) "To be stunned like locusts" is just the same. But it is spoken darkly and obscurely by us, who do not know the animal's "work" or its species. We call it light grasshoppers. However, they are not locusts, but similar to grasshoppers or locusts. It is a common animal in the Orient, and the Parthians and Moors eat it, as well as our locusts and crickets, as the whales eat frogs and snails. St. John the Baptist
has also eaten the same work, as the evangelists write. But there are such little beasts that have no eyes, but they scratch very much with their wings; therefore they keep together, and fly with great multitudes, without a king; as Solomon says in his Proverbs Cap. 30, 27. 30, 27. And where they fall down, there they devour everything that is green, so that in these countries it is a law of the land to destroy them three times a year with man power. First, when they lay eggs; second, when they have hatched; third, when they have grown up. And it is a special plague from God when they come, like an evil time, pestilence or war; as Egypt was also plagued with it, Ex. 10, 12. ff.
(58) They will be subdued in two ways, first with weapons and manpower, as is now said; and secondly, that a wind will come (of God's order) to take them and throw them into the nearest sea or lake, as happened in Egypt. So Isaiah writes of the king of Assyria, that they shall be shooed and driven away, as the beetle when one rumbles among them. The same Nahum, Cap. 3, 15, also says that the princes of Nineveh shall be chased and scattered like the beasts. It is evident how the prophets used this simile when speaking of a king or person who had been chased out and driven away. Just as we in our country would say of jackdaws or crows when they are driven out of their nests with their young and chased away.
(59) So Christ is saying here that he was driven out, scattered, and scattered, as the work. Which also happened when he was caught, and his disciples left him, and were scattered. As it still happens daily, and has always happened, that when persecution arises against the Christians and God's word, there is a scouring, a chasing, and a breaking up, that this verse may well be called the title of Christ and his Christians. And this Hebrew word "Naar" means to dust out or shake out, as one shakes out or dusts out a coat; and we speak in German thus, we have dusted them out. Therefore the hunting dogs are called stands, which flush out and dust the hares and game, so that the hares rise up and run to the ground.
wipe, here and there, like dust. That is, dispersed and flown away, as the wind scatters the dust, and the dogs, which are called "winds," do also to the wild beasts and hares. Now if Christ had said here, "I will be scattered, as the game is scattered by robbers and winds," it would have been almost easy and light for us Germans.
V. 24 My knees are weak from fasting, and my flesh is lean, having no fat.
That is, they are full and satisfied, but I must suffer hunger and need; as also St. Paul says 1 Cor. 4:11: "We suffer hunger and thirst" 2c. That Christ and his disciples often lacked food, there is no doubt; for he was poor, and the rich gave him nothing. So now he will say, "Why do they persecute me who am so poor, since I have neither money nor goods? Yes, if I were to be fed by them, I would have to die of hunger. Not only do they not feed me, but they also persecute me.
For so it shall be in the world, that the right preachers shall not have bread to eat, but shall suffer all want, miseries, and distresses. But the deceivers shall have enough, even great principality, that this verse may remain true, that Christ must suffer hunger and want. For this verse means nothing, except that Christ and his followers should not be fed in the world, but should also be persecuted, as he will say on the last day: "I was hungry and you did not feed me", Matth. 25, 42.
V. 25. And I was their mockery; when they looked at me, they shook their heads.
The previous verse says how the world does not honor Christ; this one says how it does not honor him either, but mocks and despises him. Summa, the world cannot grant Christ good, honor and life, but poverty, hardship and misery he must bear, shame, scorn and ridicule he must have, pain and death he must suffer, along with all his own. So he wants to say here: What I said or did had to be mocked, they wrinkled their noses, shook their heads and opened their mouths [Ps. 22:8], they thought it was foolishness and nothing. What more could I do? Everything
If I do them good, they do me harm; as he says above [v. 5], "They do me harm for good," I suffer all harm and evil from them, nor do they want mine. Well, let them go. They have no excuse, I have done more than enough to them.
V. 26. Help me, O Lord, my God, help me according to your goodness.
63 Then he concludes the psalm, that God would be with him, and make manifest the wickedness of the Jews and of all his enemies, and his righteousness, that they might be put to shame, and that he might abide in honor; and all this "for his goodness' sake. For hitherto he hath shewed what curses and evils befell him through their hardened and blinded hearts. Now he asks that this be revealed to all the world by divine judgment, so that the shine and glitter that they still have may be removed and become a disgrace in the eyes of all the world, and so that both of them may remain in sin and disgrace, as we see that the wretched Jews are now.
V. 27. That it may be known that this is thy hand, that thou, O Lord, doest these things.
(64) Whether they will not perceive that all these things which thou doest unto me and unto them are thy work, that they may be made manifest before all the world, and that every man may say, Well then, this is the work of God; that the Jews so perish and are destroyed, but Christ so ascendeth upward and increaseth; for the power of men could not have done it.
V. 28. If they curse, bless them. If they rebel, they must be put to shame; but let your servant rejoice.
(65) Let it not be accepted nor helped that they curse me and mine; but the more they curse, the more thou blessest. And if they rebel against me, let them soon be put to shame. I think this verse should be well known to the Jews. Help God, how often and in many lands have they made a play against Christ, and have been burned, strangled and driven away. It is not lacking, if they rebel, then they come into all disgrace,
are miserably burned or driven away. But Christ and His own remain joyful in God, as they are confirmed in their faith.
V. 29. My adversaries must be clothed with shame, and be clothed with their disgrace, as with a garment.
66 There comes again the same thing, above [v. 18. 19.j said about the garment, that a daily hanging is of the curse. But here he speaks of the public shame before the world, which they have full of such a curse. As if he should say: As they put on the curse in the spirit, as a daily garment, so let them also wear a public garment of shame outwardly, so that they may be recognized and despised before all the world for my enemies, that sin and shame are two daily garments: sin before God, and shame before the world. And especially here he calls the skirt, which in Hebrew means the long skirt that goes on the feet. As if to say that they must be ashamed from the crown of their head to their heels.
V. 30. I will diligently give thanks to the Lord with my mouth, and praise him among many.
That is, by such judgment and work you will obtain that people will love and praise you with all their hearts, as you are such a God who takes care of the miserable so fatherly, and does not let them succumb, nor do the wicked lead out their defiance. This is what we say in German: Oh Lord God, who should not praise and glorify you before all the world and in all places, that you so graciously help the poor, and so mightily overthrow and punish the proud, the despisers and the tyrants?
V. 3i. For he is at the right hand of the poor, that he may save his soul from them that judge his soul.
68) This is God's eternal and daily praise, that He takes care of the poor and lowly, and does not celebrate the great men and proud tyrants, as they think, but He helps; indeed, He helps, not only out of random needs, but also from those who live His life.
1) Jenaer: lässet.
judge, condemn and sentence to death, as a heretic and seducer. For this little word "judge" here means those who sit in office and judge, as secular authorities.
69 For it is only free that the worldly authorities will never become completely Christian, but that the greater, greatest, highest part will always persecute Christ, His Word, and His own; as the other Psalm, v. 1, 2, says: "Why do we rage?
the heathen, and the kings of the earth, rebel, and the princes contend with one another against the Lord and his anointed? Here you hear that the virtue of kings and princes is to fight against God and Christ; this they also do. But it also happens to them again that they are porcelain and are overthrown from their seats, one after the other; as the same Psalm and others also report 2c.