at Wittenberg, the Friday after Jubilate, when Duke Frederick, Elector, died and was buried.*)
May 12, 1525.
Ps. 26 [vv. 1-5.].
Lord, do me justice, for I am innocent. I hope in the Lord, therefore I will not fall.
Test me, O Lord, and try me; purify my kidneys and my heart.
For your goodness is before my eyes, and I walk in your truth.
I do not sit with the vain people and have fellowship with the wrong ones.
I hate the assembly of the wicked, and sit not with the wicked. 1)
Your love has often heard that where God's word, the dear gospel, is preached and practiced purely and loudly, the devil does not rest and celebrate, but fights against it day and night, and opposes it with all power and force, also with all trickery and cunning. By force he attacks it in such a way that he murders and strangles the lovers of the divine word, torments and chases them away, and after that he also desecrates and blasphemes them in the worst way. If this does not help, he falls on the other side and tries to harm them with cunning and evil tricks, and uses false teachers and his lying prophets for this, who destroy God's word under the appearance of truth. This is how the divine word is in the world, and it will not be otherwise.
2 Therefore, whoever wants to be a Christian should not be surprised if God's Word has to suffer persecution in the world, or that secondary doctrine, error, and heresy have to be tolerated by the divine God.
1) The original says "2c.", although the sermon only goes up to v. 5.
words creep in as well. For this is how it must go. And when thou seest such things going on, know that they go on thus. So the world thinks that everything will fail, for here one falls, there one also lies on the ground. But those who have God's word with them remain and are preserved. Nevertheless, through tyranny and persecution, many also fall who have recognized God's word, who stagger and porcupine at the time of persecution. However, there are many more of them who turn to the other side and are challenged by heresy, and are torn away from the truth of the divine word and seduced. We are experiencing this in our time as well. We also have persecution and heresy, cults and sects that are against us; therefore, few are found who remain true to God's word.
3 All the prophets have complained about this very much, and this 26th Psalm is also one of these complaints, and teaches that in this case nothing can be done differently and better than to call upon God diligently, and to ask earnestly that He Himself will uphold the pure teaching of His Word. And the Psalm paints a Christian character and life as it should be, also as it pleases God, and complains about the false teachers and the rotten spirits, and prophesies that they shall yet be put to shame. This is what I have often said in the Psalms, that they do not only pray against those who persecute and kill them with fire, sword and water, but also against the evil spirits, seeking God's help to protect them, so that the doctrine may be and remain right, and that the divine word may be preached purely. For with the others
*) In the Eisleben edition, vol. II, p. 120, Aurifaber gave this sermon the above title and noted that it had never been printed before, but had been found among the books written by Philipp Fabricius. After that, it passed into the Altenburg edition, vol. II, p. 896; into the Leipzig edition, vol. VI, p. 88 and into the Erlangen edition, vol. 39, p. 106. We give the text according to the Eisleben edition.
To have patience, even though life is weak, if only the measure and the rule remain pure, according to which life is to be prepared. Therefore we should say, just as the prophet David does here, and puts the words into our mouths, and teaches how we should pray against the false teachers (and God wanted us to pray only in this way!), and says:
V. 1. Lord, do me justice, for I am innocent.
4 The "to establish justice" is said as much as if David said: "If you have a judgment, be a judge in this matter. Otherwise God will hold a court and judgment for the poor and orphans who are terrified or afflicted, persecuted, afflicted and challenged, but have no one to judge or deliver them from the mighty hand and tyranny.
(5) But God must execute judgment on earth, for there is strife, enmity and dissension in the world, between the world, between the true and false preachers; and there is no one who will or can still this strife, but the divine Word alone; which alone must judge in this, and be a divider or judge. For whom the devil captivates with false doctrine and rhetoric, he holds fast, he possesses their hearts, he makes them deaf and blind, so that they neither hear nor see, nor respect and hear the clear, bright and public testimonies of the holy Scriptures; for they are caught between his claws in such a way that they cannot be torn out of them. The Conciliation did not help in the past either, since they had great trouble and work between the pious teachers and heretics, and wanted to judge and determine how one should teach and believe correctly. But they have achieved little; the heretics have always continued with their false teachings and errors. The pope has banished them, but it has not helped at all.
But there is. Summa Summarum, no other advice nor help in this matter, except that one only looks to heaven, sighs and asks that God will be judge in this matter, and so one says: You dear God, you know that we are right and they are wrong. But you cannot tell anyone, they let
They are tearing down more and more with their false teachings. Therefore, dear God, take the sword in your hand and strike, put an end to the game. As often happens, when the spirits of the wicked go down, and they are disgraced in their lies, and the divine word, which has long been disgraced and dishonored, becomes honorable again.
7 Thus our Lord God decrees that those who have the word of God shall first be defeated, oppressed and afflicted, but those who have long been above shall perish. So the Pabst's redness also falls away. Who does that? This Psalm, which cries out here: "Lord, do me justice, because I am innocent.
(8) We pray for such a judgment against the false teachers, saying: Dear God, make a judgment for me, pronounce justice for me. And because God hears the cries, therefore the enthusiasts and the fools must in time be disgraced and perish.
(9) But it is spoken thus in the Hebrew way, since one must often speak thus for the sake of the language. Otherwise it is called "to establish justice" when the judgment falls to one. So David wants to say: I cry out for it, and ask that my cause may be justified and judged; for it is just, and I am sure of my cause. So also the spirits of the wicked want to be just and certain, but they are not. For with them it is stubbornness and hardening of mind that they do not see the truth because of their devilish blindness. But a Christian knows that his teaching is from God's inspiration, and that it is true and righteous, and without change.
(10) It is not necessary here to understand life to be without change, that he calls life "innocent"; for we are all sinners, and unworthy to boast ourselves blameless. No one is righteous before God, and woe to those who boast so; for I must confess and say: Lord, I am reprehensible before you; coram te etiam innocens non est innocens.
11. "For I walk along innocently." It is also spoken in the Hebrew way, "walk along." When, in the fifth book of Moses [Cap. 23,
1. 3.] It is said that a man cut in pieces and an Amorite shall not enter into the church, that is, they shall not be princes nor rulers, and shall precede in his people those who are not qualified for it. Amos the prophet says [Cap. 6, 1.]: "Woe to you who walk along splendidly and mightily", that is, who are rulers and preach. So "to go forth" is to lead a class among the congregation. Just as when one preaches or rules, since he has a life and nature that he does not lead according to his person, but since he acts from God's word and speaks from the ministry of the word. Then a preacher knows and is certain that the teaching is right, and that he has a divine office, and walks in the church in God's office. Then I know for certain that my preaching ministry is pleasing to the divine majesty. Whether other people blaspheme me and pretend that I am a knave, I can still say, "I know that God will testify to me on the last day that I have preached rightly. If I were not sure of this, that I could build on it in my heart and rely on it, then it would be much better if I kept my mouth shut. But a preacher must have this defiance. So also St. Paul defies, that he leads not his word, but the word of the Lord Christ. So we can also say that he put it into our mouths; we did not think it up ourselves, but he gave it to us. And if we have Christ's word and speak it, then we also have this defiance, that we know we will remain and endure, even though the world and all the rotten spirits and heresies perish. And I can say, Lord, they are unjust, but I know that my cause is right, they will not reprove this doctrine; but if they reprove it, they do wrong, for I know that it is right in the sight of God.
012 Otherwise a Christian shall say, for the life of him, that he is guilty therein; and therefore he shall hold his peace, and put his fingers to it. But here, where his word is, all is bright and good. But because of life we must not boast. But because of speech we shall boast before God and men, that we are sure the doctrine is right. I
1) Here in the original there is still a "become", which we have omitted just like Walch.
can say: My doctrine stands thus, therefore it is right; and that it is a good doctrine is indicated by the fact that it builds on the Lord Christ; it lets God be our Lord God, and gives glory to God. This doctrine is right, then, and cannot be lacking, nor will it be done better. If I do from the heart what God wills, and one apologizes here and humbles himself before God, the psalm praises and extols them here; but those he punishes, saying: "They hope in themselves, and defy that this one will wear a gray skirt, and that one will look sour; that one will wear a gray beard, and that one will otherwise become a Carthusian.
(13) And if you look at it in the light, their nature is such that they all trust in what they do, and if they did not have good works, they would let hope stand. But this is taking God's name in vain and blaspheming, and hanging on to temporal things with their hearts. For they teach: If you do this, you are a true Christian. Just as even now our fools say, "Oh, they only preach vain faith, faith; but one must also do the works to go with it. Item: One must not take a sacrament. Item: One should only strike the ungodly dead and tear down the images. Well, then, there is the Holy Spirit altogether. You judge for yourself which doctrine is right. The former leads me out to a work, but the latter says, "I know nothing, except to hope in the Lord. Here God can remain God, that is, to whom I turn for all good, and who will help in all troubles.
For the divine majesty is such that it gives to everyone and helps out of all concerns and needs. When I realize this, I realize that I cannot help myself. But if I say: O you must do this and that, then God is not God. That is, I hope in you; but you must go uncovered. And if this faith and doctrine stand, there is no need. Others who do not cling to doctrine are like a reed swaying with the wind, and must perish; but he who clings to God alone, and defies His grace, does not fall to the ground, nor perish, for the rock is too strong. Therefore he says, "I hope in the LORD, therefore I hope in the LORD.
I will not fall." As if to say: My hope will not deceive me. The works saints and heretics also have a hope, but they must despair and become ashamed.
(15) In these first two verses, the prophet David spoke of doctrine, asking that the doctrine be pure, and that the faith, confidence, and hope of the heart be pure; now he comes to life. The latter cannot be pure and pure at all. Or, since life is to be an exercise of faith and doctrine, the prophet asks in the following verse that God may also make the outward life pure. And there he has great cause to cry out earnestly to God for this. As the prophet says:
V. 2. Test me, O Lord, and try me; purify my kidneys and my heart.
16 As if to say, The doctrine is pure, and the words and the preaching are not wanting; so also is the heart right. But even so, I still feel the evil nature of the flesh, because in my flesh there is vain doctrine, evil lust, hatred and envy; and especially that this subtle poison, namely the lust for honor, also runs underneath, by which sin those often stumble who have grasped God's word purely. And from this sin all heresies have come; ambitio mater omnium haeresium et sectarum, that one goes out, and does not let it suffice him that he lives in the common heap, but he wants to be something special; by this one secretly gets off track, that one does not notice it.
(17) Against this secret mischief one must pray daily that God will suppress self-honor. As St. Paul also says [Rom. 12, 10]: Alterum honore praevenientes. As if he should say: It is natural that the old ass always wants to have his hand in the sod. When a man is enlightened, or can speak of God and the Lord Christ, he wants to be something from the beginning, so that all the world says: Yes, this is a man who can do it, he is learned, is a nobleman 2c. So the little cat can adorn itself finely, and soon faith and the divine word fall away. We cannot sufficiently guard against this shameful vice. Other bodily
Vices are so coarse that we feel them, but this little piece can always adorn itself with God's honor, and as if one had God's word before him; but behind the roguishness there is hidden vain teaching.
018 Therefore David saith, Try me. As if he should say: Attack me, give me trouble, put shame and persecution, cross and hardship on me. All the prophets have pleaded against this mischievousness. This testing and trying is to send temptation, lest he rise up; as St. Paul 2 Cor. 12:7 also says that a stake was thrust into his flesh, an angel of Satan beating him daily with fists, lest he should be overawed at the glorious revelation when he was raptured into the third heaven. St. Paul had a pure faith; nevertheless, he was afraid of this vice. Therefore, God must hang a shillelagh on the dog's neck and subdue him.
But what are we boasting and proud of? There are many students here, if they have been at Wittenberg for half a year, they are so full of arts that they let themselves be thought more learned than I am. When they come to the country to other people, their art breaks like a cloud breast, and makes itself seem heavy to a centner; but if you put it on a scale, it would only be heavy to a quintlein. This is what hope does, that they have learned only a word or two, or have heard a single word. Then it becomes like Adam and flesh, that they turn all their art to that they would only be lifted up. That is why they do so much with it, as we, unfortunately, see now in the day that they raise such a bunch of enthusiasts that we have enough to feed on it. Once they have heard us, they think they can do everything, and they know and understand much more than those who preach.
(20) But if God were brought before their eyes, and it were remembered that they must answer and give an account to Him for the Teaching, they would probably forget about it. Therefore, it is good that they be dragged and armored through the scroll, so that the doctrine may receive a little in life. But because they do not learn anything, so they know
They do not preach what they preach; we can honestly extinguish what they set on fire and make burning. Now David wants to be shaken, so that the old Adam falls down and does not rise up, and says: "Test me, Lord, and try me; purify my kidneys and my soul.
(21) He wants God to purify him, just as a goldsmith passes silver through the fire and melts it, making it pure and clean: so the human heart is so deeply poisoned that it does not feel itself. Therefore he says, "Lord, you feel my heart, but I do not see it, unless I am rumbled and put into the barrel, so that everyone spits on me and despises me. If then I am despondent and foolish, and if I am displeased when men fall away from me, it is evil; but if I laugh when they despise me, it is good.
(22) I know many preachers now who stand and preach with confidence, for many are attached to their doctrine, and so they preach with confidence. But if the hearers were to fall away from their doctrine, they themselves would stop preaching and fall away from their own doctrine. The heart is not there. They call Christ with their mouths, but there is no earnestness. But a Christian says: "I hope in God, they praise me or disgrace me, they fall down or fall away. I do not preach for my own sake; I do not need to preach. For my own sake I would keep silent, but I do it for your sake. If then thou cleave unto the preaching, it is well with thee: but if thou faint from it, thou hast a judge over thee. And as I preach not for mine own sake, so for mine own sake thou shalt not receive it. When one sees the falling away and falling in, and that God sends persecution, then only the heart sees. If one can then let go of favor, honor, chance and attachment, then it is good. But it is innate and deep within us that we like to see people favor us; again, when they fall away, it upsets us. This truly indicates that the heart is unclean. As if he were to say, "Just sweep me off my feet.
The "heart" is the opinion of how a man is minded. "Kidneys" is the lust and pleasure of this flesh when it comes here,
what I feel like doing and what I mean. Such opinion and desire is called heart and kidneys in Hebrew. A false preacher's heart is set on that, that is where it aspires, that is where his heart is, that is where he takes pleasure, that he may seek his own honor. Therefore David says, "This is the false opinion that I desire and love; therefore take care that I do not seek to be honored and celebrated for the sake of the preaching of the divine word.
(24) Therefore it is a dangerous thing when a preacher who is right in the word of God has a great following and chance that he is praised; and again, when he is spoken evil of, he is promised, mocked and despised. For praise and honor tickle a man; but blasphemy and reproach grieve and hurt him greatly. There stands one between two spears. If he stands in honor, and the old Adam feels it, it does him gentle. Just as the tongue soon tastes and feels what is bitter and bitter as wormwood, or sweet as sugar and honey, so it hurts when someone hears shame and vice spoken of him. But if one is false, whose kidneys are not armored, he drinks praise and pleasure into himself, and laughs to death when he is praised and glorified. There, where one blasphemes him, there one grieves to death. He directs and guides the thistle 1) with the preaching ministry so that he is tickled by it, casts his eyes away from the divine word to his own pleasure, and does not say, "Rattle me well," as David says here. As if he were to say, "Let me not take pleasure in myself, nor in my own honor," but to say, "I mean your honor, and I seek your neighbor's happiness. Otherwise, if I do not seek these two things, let me rather be silent and not preach, for I have known what is right; therefore I pray, let me also be constant in this.
(25) But it is a look of faith, recognizing and seeing that good works, personal honor and holy living do not do it, but God's goodness. As the Psalm says:
1) Deistel - drawbar.
302 Erl. [s, H7-IW. Interpretations on the Psalms. W. v, iss-tio. 303
V. 3. Your goodness is before my eyes, and I walk in your truth.
(26) David's heart also trusts in this, saying, I am in the right way; the divine word has set me on the right course. I have nothing before my eyes but your goodness. My wickedness is also there, my heart and kidneys are husks; from them I turn, and turn to thy goodness. But we cannot do this unless we pray daily, saying, "Help God that my life may be rightly ordered. I am not so pure without sin, but I have begun to walk in the right way, even though I am still shabby and crooked, and there is much sin and infirmity in me.
27. in your truth, in God's truth. "Truth" is that which is right, that which is not false, that which does not have a glitter and a shine, but is right before God, as one who walks and walks in faith before God, and thereafter walks in the way of love, that he may serve his neighbor. This is the right way, that one is inwardly set before God on the right faith in His word, and is outwardly on the path, and walks on it, and lives according to faith; although one does not lead life in such a straightforward manner.
28 Now he breaks out and says why he has written these verses. Because he always looks askance at the false teachers and the spirits of the wicked, he has asked for justice and judgment against them, and says: "I pray daily that I may be purified the longer, and that my way and teaching may be pure. Now I will tell you who they are.
V. 4. I do not sit with vain people, nor have fellowship with the false.
29) To sit with the vain means: I do not stay with the people who are vain, who deal in vanity; they have something in mind, but there is nothing behind it; their doings are called vain. Such are preachers and teachers who rule and preach, and when you look at their doings, they are a vain pretense. O their doctrine is false, neither is the life right; and they are the same fellows that
1) In the original: je ich.
They do not preach faith in Christ, but lead people only to good works. When the common man hears the doctrine of works, he praises such doctrine, and then it becomes only a sham. Just as we also fasted in the priesthood, and walked in great holiness of caps and plates, and stooped and bowed down, and pretended: He that goeth this way goeth by the right way. But the preaching of the Gospel teaches us that this is nothing but lies, and is only a pretense that deceives, that it has only the color, form and appearance of a worship of God, and is only idolatry. For what does God ask for plates and caps, for food and drink? You will not please God by it, nor will you attain blessedness. Therefore, it is a vain being. He does not want to deal with hypocrites and glitterers. The Lord Christ [Matth. 23, 25.] called them hypocrites, vain or hypocrites, who have an outward appearance; their thing glitters, it has a pretty color, and yet it is not true. Just as brass also appears from afar as if it were vain gold; but it is therefore not gold. So it is a hidden filth. Just as a copper chain is painted with gold, so that it is gilded and sold for a gold chain, so a false service can be painted with a color, so that it is considered a true service.
(30) The Lord Christ calls such heretics and the teaching of the spirits of the pagans "whitewashed tombs of death", Matth. 23, 27, because the bones of the dead lie hidden in them; inside the tombs there are stinking, rotten, decayed bodies, bones of the dead, snakes and toads; nor are the tombs hung and adorned with golden pieces, black velvet or other silken cloths. Thus, the Lord Christ Himself describes and depicts the spirits of the wicked and the false teachers.
31 Therefore David says, "Do not deal with such hypocrites, who outwardly have a holy and beautiful and glorious appearance, but inwardly they are unclean; outwardly they lead a fine and honorable life and manner, but inwardly their heart is full of despair, of pride and ambition, of avarice and usury and all filthiness; and where there is room, they break
These vices all come out. For when they are in fear and distress, they despair; then they hope, defy, and insist on the multitude and the multitude that adheres to their doctrine. So their heart is full of hope, even though they could be much different by heart.
32 Therefore he says, O Lord, judge me not to deal with such fellows; for we shall find such men while we live in the world. Our fools can also pretend to be delicious, as now and then they fester, and the fanciers become many; but one must always pray against them in this way.
But how to do it? How can we avoid them? I must be among them physically, we must consider this; but we must not accept their teaching. This then is a spiritual shunning or fleeing, when one separates himself from them with his heart, though he remains with them with his body. He who is a Christian and adheres to the true, pure, divine word, and hears a preacher who may be or be called his good friend, but if he does not preach the divine word, he does not hold with him if he is wrong, or uses the word of God as a pretense, or as a camouflage. Therefore it is said: Either preach differently and rightly, or, if you do not want to, then I will not keep it with you. We cannot avoid outward fellowship, for we must eat and drink, buy and sell with one another; but we must not take their doctrine into our hearts, nor hold it there with them, even as they do not accept my doctrine; and I do not hope that the whole world will accept the gospel.
V. 5. I hate the assembly of the wicked, and do not sit with the wicked.
I am still an enemy to them and will have nothing to do with the wicked. I mean it from the heart, as the mouth says. I turn away from them with my heart. For one should have nothing to do with the wicked and the ungodly; as otherwise the Psalm says: Perfecto odio oderam eos [Ps. 139, 22], and the first Psalm also blessedly praises the Christians who speak out and refrain from the ungodly, since David says Ps. 1, 1: "Blessed is he who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor treads in the way of the wicked.
in the way of sinners, or sit where scoffers sit." For if one otherwise deals much with them, then one also makes oneself partaker of their false teaching, lies and error in the end. For he who attacks mockery defiles himself with it. Thus the 18th Psalm, v. 26, also says: "With the saints you are holy, and with the pious you are pious." Item, v. 27: "With the pure you are pure, and with the perverse you are perverse."
35 Now a question arises: Does not the Lord Christ command us to love our enemies? How does David boast that he hates the assembly of the wicked and does not sit with the wicked? Shall we do them all good, and gather fiery coals upon the heads of their enemies? Yes, I should hate them, but not otherwise than for the sake of doctrine; otherwise I should leave my service, whether I might yet convert some of them. For the sake of the person I should love them, but for the sake of the doctrine I should hate them. And so I must hate them, or hate God, who gives and wills that one should cleave to his word alone. Then it is a blessed hatred and enmity that proceeds out of love; for love goes under faith, and faith is a master in love. Then a Christian says: I will not forsake God for the sake of man. For what I cannot love with God, that shall I hate. If then they preach something that is against God, all love and friendship perish; there I hate thee, and do thee no good. For faith is to be above, and there hatred begins, and love is out, when it concerns the word of God. But where it concerns my person, also my goods, or my honor and body, there I should show him vain honor and service. For these goods of God are given by God to help your neighbor, and they are not the word of God, and they may be put in the redoubt and put away. But do not put the word of God into the redoubt, for that is the word of our Lord God. Then say, I will gladly leave that which I have from God, which is given me for your sake; but that which is God's own, and which is due to our Lord God, I will not lose, nor let it go. And give
If I give you my temporal goods, God may give me others, but I will keep God for myself. Thus, the temporal gifts and goods that we have received from God can be given away. Therefore, faith is the rule, the measure, and the master of love, as long as the word of God remains pure and faith continues to flourish.
(36) Then David said, "I do not hate them because they do me harm and evil, or because they lead a wicked and evil life, but because they despise, desecrate, blaspheme, falsify and persecute the word of God. So you see how one should stand, also how one should be prepared against the false teachers and the false spirits.