by Doctor Martin Luther at the school in Wittenberg in 1534 in a public lecture.
Short preface [Luther's].
Since God has called us to be teachers of the churches, I have often said this about our ministry: Since there will be many after our death, and indeed there are already many today who despise theology and all studies, it is necessary that there be some who praise God and strive to propagate His word far and wide. Since we must persevere on this path until we complete our course and reach the goal of salvation set before us, I have decided, after having interpreted many Psalms, on well-considered advice, to explain this Psalm of Moses now, and then to spend the rest of my life, which the Lord will give me, on the interpretation of Moses.
turn. Because Moses is the source from which the holy prophets and also the apostles have drawn divine wisdom by inspiration (beneficio) of the Holy Spirit, we cannot do our work better or more correctly than if we also lead our disciples to this source and, according to our ability and the measure of our gift, indicate the seeds of divine wisdom which the Holy Spirit has scattered through Moses in such a way that no reason, no power of human insight (if it lacks the Holy Spirit) can see or understand them. But before we go to the title or to the Psalm itself, we must first talk a little more in detail about what this Psalm is about.
*The interpretation of this Psalm was begun in public lectures in 1533 (Köstlin, Martin Luther, Vol. II [3rd ed.], p. 307 f.), finished in 1534. In 1541 Veit Dietrich published it with a letter to D. Johann Heß, preacher in Breslau, in which he mentions that Luther had explained this Psalm, the prayer of Moses, before he went to the interpretation of Genesis. Therefore, he also wanted to begin with this Psalm before he started to work on the Genesis (which he himself had not heard from Luther's mouth). The title is: Enarratio Psalmi XC per Doctorem Martinum Lutherani in Schola Vitebergensi, Anno 1534. publice absoluta. Vitebergae M.D.XLL. Dietrich's letter is dated: Datae Noribergae ex parochia Sebaldiana, idibus Junii. 1541. Two different German translations of this writing are available. One, which is literal, but often ponderous in expression, was published at Nuremberg without indication of the year and the translator under the title: "Der Neüntzigst Psalm. Ein Gepet Mosi was sterben sey, vnd wie man dem todt entpfliehe, ausgelegt durch D. Mart. Luther. Printed at Nuremberg by Christoff Gutknecht." The other translation (more correctly: free adaptation) is exceedingly verbose and completely arbitrary. The first sentence of Luther's preface is spun out to half a folio page. Between this preface and the description of the contents of the psalm, there is a section that takes up more than a whole folio page, in which the thoughts that Dietrich expressed in his letter to Hess, and the like, are discussed. The title is: "The Prayer of Moses, the Man of God. The XO Psalm By D. Mart Luther, jnn. Latin language interpreted, vnd jtzt verdeudscht, Durch, ^l. Johann Spangenberg, the imperial staff Northausen preacher." At the end: "Printed at Wittemberg, by Georgen Rhaw. N.D. in XDVI jar." The Latin is found in the Wittenberg Latin edition (1549), tom. Ill, col. 550b; in the Jena (1570), torn. IV, col. 5I2b (without Dietrich's attribution); in the Erlanger, opp., tow. XVIIl, p. 260. Spangenberg's translation is found in the Wittenberg (1553), vol. Ill, p. 419; in the Altenburg, vol. VIII, p. 164 and in the Leipzig, vol. VI, p. 313. The Nuremberg translation is found in the Leidiger, vol. VI, p. 286 and in Walch, vol. V, 1074. Dietrich's attribution is missing in all German editions; we also omit it. We have translated anew from the Latin according to the Erlangen edition, which contains an imprint of the first edition, but we have compared the Wittenberg and Jena editions.