The whole human race is so deeply fallen and blinded by original sin that man does not only not know himself and God, but also not even his misfortune, which he feels and suffers; he does not recognize this, nor where it comes from, nor does he see what it leads to. So great is the misery that our first parents contracted through sin, and which they passed on to their descendants. For behold, how foolishly the wisest of men have spoken of the most grievous and dreadful punishment, namely, death, which, like a flood, has brought such great calamity upon the whole human race: some counsel that it should be despised, as he said: You must neither fear nor wish for your last day; others, however, who think that this is all too difficult, try to persuade people that, in order to alleviate this evil, they should let their lusts run free in the present, as is said in a well-known but corrupt little verse taken from the epitaph of Sardanapalns: Ede, bibe, lude, post mortem nulla voluptas [Eat, drink and play; after death there is no pleasure]. Thus the wise of the world only entangle themselves in all the greater sins by wanting to remedy the punishment of sin. For death is not overcome by despising it, as highwaymen and soldiers think that they give proof of their bravery, even if they jokingly wish upon others the pestilence, the French (pustulas gallicas), and such like misfortunes. Another art, another medicine is needed.
The newer theologians do almost the same thing when, following the example of the pagans, they say in their funeral sermons: one should not grieve over it as if it were an evil; death is a kind of harbor in which we are safe and secure from all suffering and misfortune to which the life of all people is generally subject. This is only the utmost blindness, and another misery, which is still heaped upon original sin, that we so conflate sin and death itself with all the other misfortunes of the human race.
and argue against common sense, against experience itself, and flatter ourselves with quite frivolous and null thoughts. For this is not the way to speak of death, but it is, that I say so, pagan blindness and a fruit of original sin, that someone claims of his evil that it is no evil, while he feels and experiences the opposite.
But our Moses speaks far differently about death in this psalm. Because he has to deal with it first, that he makes the death and all other misfortune in this life as big as possible. In this he is, as his legal office requires, an exceedingly strict (Mosissimus) Moses, that is, a strict servant of death, of the wrath of God and of sin. Therefore he administers the office of the law in an excellent manner, and paints death with the most frightening colors, that it is the wrath of God by which we are killed, yes, he shows that we were already killed before and overwhelmed by tremendous misfortune, and here makes use of a new oratory (rhetorica) by calling death the wrath of God [v. 7.]. He adds from his art of conclusion (dialectica) the causative and the final cause of death and all misfortune in this life, he holds out to us that God is angry [v. 11]. Who, he says, would have believed that your wrath was so powerful? For that we die, it is through the unbearable wrath of God against sin. If you pay attention to the following words, you will easily recognize that he is not only talking about bodily death. For if that alone were to be expected, we would speak with the poet: You must neither fear nor wish for your last day. But we are under eternal death, since we are under the wrath of God, which we cannot overcome. In this way, Moses speaks of death as a lawgiver against the hardened and unintelligent sinners. But those who are frightened by the knowledge of their sins and of death, he teaches by his example to pray that God will make them see that the number of their days is small 2c.
In this psalm, therefore, Moses wants to frighten the stubborn and secure Epicureans who think that it is their task in this life to despise the wrath of God and death and to live like cattle that have nothing to hope for after this life. Moses shows them that death is an eternal tyrant, so that they, thus frightened, may learn to recognize their misfortune and may also be brought to the desire to be given the medicine that must be applied in this extreme emergency. Therefore, he first frightens, not that he wants to plunge into ruin or leave them in despair, but to indicate comfort to the frightened and to those who no longer walk in safety, and to give them the opportunity to be refreshed. Thus he combines the teaching of the Gospel with the law, although he presents the Gospel somewhat obscurely, for this sermon was intended to be a warning to our Lord Christ.
JEsu and the time of the new testament reserved, Moses however had to be Moses. Therefore, he touches the gospel only sparsely, so that this glory remains completely for the better Master, of whom the Father says [Matth. 17, 5.]: "Him you shall hear."
These two pieces are to be noted in this psalm: first, that it magnifies the tyranny of death and the wrath of God, since it shows that human nature is subject to eternal death, namely, it scares the hard and unbelieving despisers of God; second, that it asks for a remedy against despair, so that people will not be left in despair. Therefore, it is an extremely useful psalm, in which we hear how Moses, in his actual ministry, terrifies sinners, and yet secretly (obscurely) indicates salvation, namely to humble the hopeful and comfort the humble.