preached and interpreted in 1539. **)
1. this is the right high main psalm made by our dear Lord Jesus Christ, in which both, his person, who he is, namely both, David's promised son according to the flesh and God's eternal son, in addition an eternal king and priest, and his resurrection, ascension and whole kingdom are described so clearly and powerfully, that the like is nowhere to be read in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Therefore it is worthy and appropriate that it be sung and performed at such feasts of the Lord Christ as Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. Just as it is often referred to in the New Testament Scriptures, both by Christ Himself and the apostles, as the most prominent one that establishes and confirms the article of the person of Christ and His spiritual kingdom and righteousness.
2) In particular, it is clearly prophesied and described how he should be the one King and Lord promised to this people, especially to David, and also the eternal priest, through whom all the world should be blessed and reconciled, as promised to Abraham and modeled through the priest Melkizedek, and to whom the entire Levitical priesthood points and shows that he is much more than the king.
would be another king and priest than he ever was, or still wants to be. For no one has ever been prophesied and praised, who has been so gloriously proclaimed beforehand by the mouth of God, and consecrated and crowned by Himself, as this Psalm begins: "The Lord said" etc.
3. And is it ever a marvelous enlightenment that the holy prophet David speaks so excellently of the things that were to happen so long afterwards, and which we now believe to have happened, and yet none of us could speak of them in such a way, and almost precedes the apostles themselves, that he sums it up so powerfully, and with such bright, clear words, and yet all with one another so excellently briefly, that it is not human, nor of a small spirit, to reach with words such a high, incomprehensible and unfathomable mystery of the divine majesty, which was to be revealed in the Gospel, much less to grasp it so briefly and powerfully, especially so long before it was to happen, and no beginning, no miracle work, no public sermon had yet been seen or heard. He still clings so firmly with faith to such things as he does not see, nor understand with reason, and is so certain of them that he also speaks of them as if he saw them.
*Luther preached about this Psalm in 1838 (not only in 1539, as the editions indicate), probably after Easter in continuous sermons (Köstlin, M. Luther f3, Aufl.T Bd. II, p. 437 f.). These sermons were copied by v. Cruciger and put into print. The printer Nickel Schirlentz in Wittenberg had his concession revoked because he had printed the epigrams of Lemnius. Luther pleaded with the Elector in a letter at the beginning of September 1538, in which he asked that he be allowed to print this interpretation of the Psalm Vlxit Vominns and "sunst noch ein buchlein. This permission was granted and the concession restored by a electoral rescript to the university, dated Thursday after Xativ. s^Iarine) (Sept. 12) 1538. (Burkhardt, Briefwechsel, p. 311.) Thus our psalm appeared with him under the title: "Der 6X Psalm Dixit Dominus, gepredigt und ausgelegt, durch D. Mart. vuther. Wittemberg. 1. 539". At the end: "Printed at Wittemberg by Nickel Schirlentz. M. D. XXXIX." In the collective editions: in the Wittenberg (1553), vol. Ill, p. 483; in the Jena (1568), vol. VII, p. 305; in the Altenburg, vol. VII, p. 328; in the Leipzig, vol. VI, p. 404 and in the Erlangen, vol. 40, p. 38. According to the latter, which brings the original print, we give the text comparing the Wittenberg and the Jena.
**) In the Erlanger here is the text of the IIO. Psalm is printed here, as it is in our Bible. We have omitted the same, as well as Walch, since each time the text of the verse precedes the interpretation.
If you are now seeing it fulfilled and come to pass before your eyes, and thus chat with him about it out of a happy, joyful spirit, as if your heart were on fire and completely overflowing with joy toward your Lord Christ, whom he was waiting for in faith when he was promised to him and was to be born of him.
4. just as Christians also believe (though almost weakly compared to this spirit and faith), but do not presently see or understand that our bodies (after this life) will come out of death, the grave and decay and float with the Lord Christ, much more glorious, beautiful and luminous than the sun and all other creatures etc. And since we know that our Lord Christ has gone before us and is already reigning at the right hand of God, so that he may also bring us to such glory, we ought to hold this article more strongly and firmly than we do, if we can see it, how the dear holy fathers in the Old Testament have conceived their article of the future Christ, and so joyfully and wholeheartedly waited for it, as if they had no other joy nor comfort on earth, and so much more certainly and strongly believed than we do our glorious resurrection and eternal life; Which, if we also could so surely and cheerfully (expect, and our heart of faith were so full, what should we lack that we should not also make such beautiful, cheerful psalms?
5) But unfortunately, our faith is nothing compared to the faith of these people, that we must leave them the glory that they are our fathers, teachers and masters, and we will be glad that we remain their disciples, and still have enough to do that we follow in their footsteps, even if we could not reach their measure and goal; and may it be enough for us that we may feel and see their spirit, and thereby be aroused a little to also receive a spark of such spirit and faith. Therefore, let us consider and act upon the words of this psalm one by one, and as much as God gives grace, let us grasp and learn from them.
1) So the Wittenbergers and the Jenaers. Erlanger: "like them".
2) Erlanger: the.
V. 1. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand etc.
6) First, when he speaks thus: "The Lord spoke to my Lord" etc., this is according to the Hebrew language, and with us not so clearly spoken. For they are two different words, both of which we interpret into our German by the word "Lord". Therefore we have distinguished them throughout the whole Bible, so that one is always written with large letters, the other with small letters. 3) The great Lord, which is written here: "The Lord said", is the name, so that only the divine majesty is named, and is not given to any creature. Which, according to the common German language, we would have to say: GOtt hat gesagt etc. The other (which follows here: "to my Lord") is the word by which we also commonly call a lord in our language, as a householder, or sovereign, or as a servant or subject calls his lord. Therefore he says of two kinds of lords: the first, who speaks as he says, "The Lord spoke," must be the right true God; the other, to whom is spoken, who must be a right natural man, and yet at the same time also true God; as we shall hear.
(7) Now it is known by everyone, even by the Jews, that by the word "my Lord" he means the Messiah or Christ, who was promised to the fathers, and especially to David the king himself, that he should come from him [2 Sam. 7:12], so that it means just as much as if he said, "God has said to my son Christ, who is promised to me. For herewith he looks back to all the promises, which were made both to the fathers and to him by Christ, that he should be and be called a seed of David, that is, his natural blood and flesh. Just as it was clearly said to Abraham [Gen. 22:18], "In your seed (that is, by your natural flesh and blood) shall all the families of the earth be blessed": there he is called a true man, and naturally a child of Abraham. For in Scripture that is called seed, which we call a natural fruit or child. So he is also called "the seed
3) In the old editions the first" is printed "Lord", the other "HErr".
of the woman", Gen. 3, 15, that is, a quite natural child, born of a woman.
(8) Thus it is proved, as I have said [§7], that this Lord, or Christ, is a true man, or of course the flesh and blood of David, that he may and ought to call him his Son, and also to take him as his own, that he (as it is said) may look to the promise. For the word "my" is a word of faith, who takes upon himself the promised Christ, and does not doubt that which was prophesied of this seed, and presents it to him as present, and takes all such great things as he wills to say of the Christ, with the one word into faith, and makes them his own.
Now he does not want to call him his son or promised seed, nor his Messiah or anointed one, but has his pleasure in the word that he says, "to my Lord", so that he shows what and how high he wants to think of Christ, that he is something more and a higher person than a bad son of David; as the Jews and scribes held him, when they asked Christ who he was? [Matth. 22, 42. ff.]
(10) But before we speak of this, let us first see what a heart full of glorious spiritual joy he has over the Lord Christ, of whom he speaks; how low he regards all the glory, honor, power and good that is on earth, and that he himself is able to do with all the world. May he call him his son with all right and to special glory and great honor, both of his tribe and of his person, which also the Scriptures often praise and acclaim in his honor, and praise and cry out the great grace and glory, given to him before all other kings on earth (that Christ should come from his blossom). Now he is silent about all these glories and honors, which of course no man would like to have taken away from him, nor would have wanted to be silent about, and he throws himself down most deeply, and lays aside his crown and majesty, and his paternal name and right, and all that he is and has, and lays it under the feet of this Christ (by this word "my Lord").
011 For he was also with honor a king, and had his crown, and land, and people,
He was, of course, the greatest and most famous in the sight of God, above all kings and lords on earth (although he did not have as much property, power, land and people as many others), because of his honors, so that he was honored by God, who himself crowned him king, established the kingdom, confirmed and preserved it, and graced it with his word and promises, and was also an excellent hero and warlord, with great deeds, fortune and victory; And summa, what is to be praised in a king especially before God, that he may also boast of. He still expresses all this, rejoices and boasts only that he has a Lord, whom he may call his Lord (as promised to him by God and come from him), to whom all things shall be subject, and he himself willingly and gladly makes himself subject to him.
(12) Therefore the Lord Christ does not ask the scribes in vain, Matt. 22:42 and following, what they had of Christ; and when they answer from the Scriptures, that he is the Son of David; which is a great honor, that (as they thought) nothing greater and more glorious should be said of him: for, is this so great (saith he), why then doth David himself in spirit call him his Lord? He is silent about the fact that Christ has it from him (that he is David's son and is called), and boasts nothing of his fatherly authority, royal majesty, wisdom and power, but is glad that he can call him his Lord, and recognize himself subject to him. This must be something high and great, so that he smites and drops all his royal majesty and all that he has to boast of, and thus says: "Let go my crown and glory, my honor and all that I have! This is my honor and glory, therefore I am great, and boast above all lords and kings of the earth, that I have the Lord, who is called "my Lord," as he was promised to me by God and is to come from me [2 Sam. 7:12]. He is to be and be called my Lord, and I love him with all my heart; for he is also much more of a Lord and King, crowned and set up as King by one greater and higher than I and all the kings and lords of the earth. Now, why does he honor him so highly, or what is so highly praiseworthy about this Lord? It is this, he says, because
God said a word about him, so I had him for my Lord, that is:
Sit at my right hand.
13 "Sit down," he says, "on a royal throne, reign, and be Lord and King. Where there? On the throne and in the house of David, says the prophet Isaiah [Cap. 9, 7.] and the angel Gabriel Luc. 1, 32. according to the promise, happened to David. But here he goes much further and higher; he does not say: "The Lord said, sit on David's throne, or, be mine, David's throne heir;" but thus: "Sit on my right hand." That is, by one word, to be exalted, and to be made a glorious king; not above the castle of beggars at Jerusalem, nor the empire of Babylon, nor Rome, nor Constantinople, nor the whole face of the earth, which would ever be a great power; yea, nor above the heavens, nor the sterile, nor all things that can be seen with the eyes, but much higher and farther: Sit thou, saith he, beside me, upon the high throne where I sit, and be thou like me. For that is what he means, to sit beside him; not at his feet, but "at his right hand," that is, in the same majesty and power that is called a divine power.
14 This may be called a king, more glorious and greater than anyone can understand or pronounce, and truly with one short word Christ brought up from the earth above all heavens and exalted (as St. Paul says [Eph. 4:10]). Would it not be enough that he said (as the Jews always thought and still think of him) that he should sit on David's throne and rule in his house, and that his kingdom should become so powerful that all others should fear him, and that he should finally make all other kingdoms subject to him? How then does he so suddenly ascend above all heights that he so soon sets him at the right hand of the Majesty, as high as God himself sits and reigns? I thought he should put him there, where the psalm is made, and of it was said before to David, and let him remain on earth, as a man and king over men, as is written in other psalms about him. But this is far too small for him, that he is a Lord and King over all the kings of the earth, but wants him to be praised, recognized and honored, to be lifted up.
And sitting on high, where God Himself sits, over all the angels, and such a King who reigns not only over all men, but also over heaven, angels, and all that is under God, that even the angels must call Him their Lord, as they do Luc. 2:11.
15 Who then could speak of Christ in this way, and prophesy so powerfully of his ascension and kingdom? Yes, who could grasp and believe such things enough, not only at the time when they were not yet before our eyes, but also now, when this holy prophet has spoken them so certainly and clearly before? This is why he rightly and justly calls him his Lord, that he and all kings and lords, yes, the whole world, and (as the Scripture also says) all angels should worship him. For what are all kings and princes, with all their power and rule, compared with him who sits and reigns in the throne of divine majesty? They are poor beggars and wretched men, who themselves cannot advise, help, or save them, even in the smallest accident concerning this body and this temporal life.
(16) So then, what we both teach and believe about the person of the Lord Christ and also about His kingdom is powerfully founded in this verse, and is powerfully concluded from it. Namely, first of all, that he is at the same time both a true, natural man and also a true God. He must be a true man, as was said above [§ 7], because the prophet calls him his Lord, as the one who was to be born of his blood and flesh (as was promised to him), and to sit on his throne or in his house, and to be a ruling or reigning lord over men in his people; as he himself will subsequently indicate, that he is to reign in a physical place and in the people of Zion. But that he is also truly God is proved strongly enough by these words, that he makes him equal to the Lord of all things, namely, at his right hand, in the same majesty and power that cannot be attributed to any creature.
(17) That he is truly man is easy to believe, and no one would have disputed or denied it if only this thing were said of Christ. But that he was not only man, but also at the same time true, eternal, all-
mighty God is to be believed, then it clashes, and all other faiths on earth separate. For this is the article that is too high for reason and human wisdom, and has always had to stand up and fight against the clever, sharp spirits, and is still blasphemed and ridiculed by Turks, Jews and other overwise masters of God's word. And the Arians and others have masterfully twisted themselves about this, and want to bore a hole through this article with their glosses and interpretations. But God's word cannot be overturned with twisting and interpreting; it is too clear and too powerful, and stands against everything that is brought up against it by men.
(18) For this reason, the reason is given here, and it has been decided, because it says that this Lord (the promised Son of David, Christ) is seated at the right hand of God, in the place where it is not fitting for a mere man, or even an angel, to sit, that is, on God's own throne or throne; so it is not fitting to say or believe that he is a mere man, or that another creature (as it should be called, as the Arian dream would have it) is under God. For this is strictly forbidden in Scripture, that one should not make any creature like God, nor put any other god next to him, as Isaiah Cap. 44, 6. He says: "I am the first and the last, and beside or apart from me there is no god; whom then will you make like me?" etc. And the first commandment suffers no other God beside him, but he alone will remain God and Lord over all that is. Because here and elsewhere he makes this Christ himself equal to him, since no one can sit beside God, he must be of the same divine nature and equal to omnipotent, eternal power and majesty. And because he sits at the right hand of God, not only David and all the kings on earth, but also all the angels in heaven must call him Lord and worship him, Psalm 72:11. As they speak to the shepherds Luke 2:11, and are not ashamed to call this infant lying in the manger their Lord.
019 Now he cannot have these things of human nature, or of the flesh and blood, which he has of David; whereof the divine glory would not be given him, that
He should sit at the right hand of God, and be a Lord over all creatures, if he had not been so before by nature and from eternity. For we men are not lords of angels, but they are over us, and we under them. But this one is set over them, and is called by them a Lord. But he who is set apart from and above the angels must certainly be more naturally or essentially God himself. The epistle to the Hebrews [Cap. 1, 13.] also shows this, from this verse: "To what angel (saith he) hath he ever said, Sit thou at my right hand?" Because he says to Christ, "Sit at my right hand," which has never been said to any angel, nor can it ever be said; so this Christ must be the true, eternal God. In the same way Christ himself says Matth. 28, 18: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" etc. If he has all authority, not only over all that is on earth, but also over all that is in heaven, then he must also have authority over the angels and all that may be called God. Therefore also Paul Phil. 2, 9. 10. says: "God has given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus all their knees should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth" etc. And 1 Petr. 3, 22: "He has ascended to the right hand of God in heaven, and the angels and the mighty and the powers are subject to Him" etc. But such power would not be given to him, if he was not like him and the same God.
20. although such sayings are said of the man Christ, after he rose from the dead in the same human nature and ascended to heaven; yet he actually has this because he is truly God by nature, from eternity. As St. Paul also says in Rom. 1, 4, that Christ was powerfully proved to be a Son of God, because he rose from the dead. And here, when he says, "Sit at my right hand," he does not give him deity, but transfigures it, as he is truly, eternally God with the Father, and is now also exalted in human nature to the same glory, so that one must believe and confess that Christ, the man, sits at the right hand of God, and has power over the angels,
and there is nothing in heaven and earth that is not under him. And so both, true man and true God, seated at the right hand of the Father, are called Lord over all creatures, who in divine majesty, and yet also in human nature, rules us mightily as our Lord and King for ever, that we may have all things from and through him. For because he is the Son of God by nature, he has all authority and power with the Father. But because he is truly man, so that he belongs to us, and is also Adam's child (yet without sin) as we are [Heb. 4:15], he has given and bestowed such his authority and all power upon us, as we should be of the same nature and be his brothers and fellow heirs.
(21) This is our doctrine and faith; but to reason and human wisdom, which is clever in it, and seeks to search out and find out all things after its own head, it is foolish and ridiculous, and even vexatious and blasphemous. Hence we see that so many heresies have arisen against it, even among Christians, and both Jews and Turks have always blasphemed and raved against it. For it is not rhyme or reason with such people (who want to judge by reason) that we should say such an abominable thing about Christ, that the one person should be God and man, that is, both Creator and one creature, and that the majesty should descend so low, and walk along in this wretched nature. How can he (they say) who sits above, and is a Lord over all creatures, become a poor man, who serves and is subject to everyone? Item: How do you say that he is God, who is not God either, but a man? Or, how can he be a man who is not supposed to be a man but God? You yourselves say that there is no more than One God; how then do you make two Gods? Yes, you also make two things out of the same One Christ, so that one must not be one, but two, namely God and man.
(22) This is the high prudence of the sharp mind against this article, which we, praise God, also know and understand very well and can find in ourselves as well as others. But it does not apply to the Christians' disputing, researching, cleverness and mastery of our own.
We must not listen to and glorify reason, but God's word, and remain with it, through which alone we have and attain what we know of God and divine things. And not from ourselves, but from Him we must 1) hear and learn what we are to think and believe about Him. For no one knows him better than he himself, and no one can speak so well of him as he himself. Therefore, we should do him the honor and let what he tells us be true, and not try to overpower him and his word with our reason.
23 Since he clearly says here that this Christ, the Son of David, sits at the right hand of God, that is, has the same image, honor, right and power, and yet is no more than one true God, it must also follow irrefutably and be believed that Christ is the same true God, because of the divine essence, and yet another person, according to whom he is and is called the eternal Son of God, and also a true man. But how these things come to pass is not for us to inquire into, nor to know, and we will leave it unexplored and unfounded in this life until we come to the point where we will no longer hold it in the dark word by faith, but will see it publicly [1 Cor. 13:12, 13].
(24) Now this is said first of the person of the Lord Christ, what and who he is. In the same way his kingdom is described, what and how it is done, namely, that it is not a physical or worldly, earthly regiment, as other lords and kings rule on earth, but a spiritual, heavenly regiment, which does not go beyond temporal goods, nor does it concern this physical life, how one should rule and protect land and people, maintain justice and peace, distribute goods, feed wife and child, keep house, cultivate fields, raise cattle etc. For these things are already sufficiently ordered in the world, by God's order Gen. 1, 28. and given to it all this world's goods, power, wealth, honor, art and wisdom etc., but about the hearts and consciences, how to live before God, to obtain his grace, from sins and
1) This "we" was inserted by Walch; style m deü alter issues.
It is not a temporal kingdom that must end like all kings and lords have power and rule on earth, but like the Lord and head of this kingdom above in heaven. Summa, it is not a temporal, transient kingdom, which must cease, like all kings and lords rule and reign on earth, but, as the Lord and head of this kingdom lives up in heaven, at the right hand of God, eternally and without end, so he must also rule in the heavenly, eternal being, and give vain imperishable, eternal goods.
(25) Therefore this king, with his dominion and rule, is far above all emperors, kings, and lords that have ever been on earth, or that may yet be; yea, all of them, especially with their power, crown, splendor, and honor, are not worthy to be called against this Lord, and to be called kings or lords. For what is all the world's power, glory, and rule, where it is best, but a short, transient being? For a lord or king reigns forty or fifty years at the longest (which seldom happens), and his dominion seldom endures long to his descendants; and though it stand well for a long time, yet at last it must cease and come to an end, both with lands and people; In addition, all temporal power and government, even if it stands and works at its best, is still a weak, even a rather poor, miserable beggar's kingdom, and no one can ever bring it to work as he would like, but always disobedience, strife and other misfortunes remain. For the people are too wicked and disobedient, and the things too dangerous and often out of the hands of men, and all reason and wisdom too weak and small, that it is nothing else than an old, torn fur, which one must always patch and mend, with great effort and work, and yet cannot help the things to work as they should.
(26) Now all this is done in the things where they are lords, and have power and authority to help with money and goods, and so far as the same reacheth. But when this comes to an end, it is so utterly powerless that no one, no matter how glorious and powerful he may be, could save himself or others with all his goods, power and authority from physical hardship and sickness, or in mortal danger from death for an hour.
even all must despair of all human help, and lie down under a pestilence or fever. But this King is such a Lord, who, though he does not rule with money and goods and outward appearance, yet has all things powerfully in his hand, and his power and authority is an everlasting power and authority, that he rules and is mighty when all men's power and authority cease, wisdom ceases, and can save and help where no man, indeed no creature on earth or in heaven, can help, namely against sin, so that it does not condemn us, against death, so that it does not devour us, against the devil, so that he does not have to hold us captive.
27 Thus you see why David praises this Lord so highly, that he submits to him with all his crown, kingdom, glory and power, and wants to be ruled by him, which he would not be allowed to do, if it were not for another kingdom, power and dominion, neither of which he had before. For after this physical and temporal reign he was 1) himself a mighty lord, and everything that belonged to it had been given to him by God himself, and he was not allowed to receive fiefs from anyone else on earth, nor to be a subject to anyone. But to this king he does fair honor, that he bows down before him and confesses his Lord (although he is his son), so that he has a seat and kingdom where neither he nor any king on earth can reach with any power, namely, to the right hand of God, since everything that is under God must be subject to him, and so he rules, that he redeems from the devil, sin and death, under which all men lie, and no creature can help them from it, and in return gives heavenly, imperishable goods, eternal life, eternal peace.
For this reason also it is said of him in the prophets, that he shall have an everlasting kingdom, whose end shall never be; and Isaiah 9:6 is called by that name, that he is called Pater futuri saeculi, Everlasting Father etc. Which regiment does not go nor stand for the sake of this life, how to make or keep money and goods, or temporal peace, but is to be done that we may have a Lord also after this life, where we shall be helped, that we may have the kingdom of God.
1) "he" is missing in the Erlanger.
not remain in death and damnation. But if we are to be redeemed from death, we must also be saved from the sin and God's wrath, for which death came upon us, and be restored to eternal righteousness and innocence through this Lord, so that we may be God's children and heirs [Rom. 5:12, 18].
29. Now this is a marvelous kingdom, that this king sits above at the right hand of God, being invisible, an eternal, immortal person, and yet his people and people here on earth in this miserable, mortal being, subject to death and all kinds of accidents (which a person can encounter on earth), so that we all have to be buried under the earth and become ashes, and this king's power and authority (which is praised so highly here that it is called an eternal, almighty power) seems to be nothing at all everywhere, because the Christians on earth have nothing better than other people, and are even much more afflicted with all kinds of misery and heartache; not only outwardly by poverty, misery and all kinds of bodily suffering and persecution, but also inwardly, with fear, sorrow and temptation of sin and death; which the wicked do not feel, but can safely despise until the hour comes that it comes into their hands, that, as St. Paul says [1 Cor. 15:15], they will not be able to see it. Paul [1 Cor. 15:19] says, to reckon by this life, we are yet the most miserable people on earth.
30. Since this Lord Christ sits above at the right hand of God, and does not have and lead a kingdom of death, sorrow and misery, but a kingdom of life, peace, joy and redemption of all evil, it must happen that his people do not remain in death, fear, terror, temptation and suffering, but are snatched out of death or the grave and out of all misery, and thus live with him without all sin and evil, just as he also in his own person, when he became man and lowered himself into this wretched nature of ours (as it is now), that he might begin his kingdom in us, and therefore also took upon himself all human infirmities and misfortunes, and for this reason also had to die [Heb. 2, 18.]. But should he as a
If the Lord and King of all creatures were to sit at the right hand of God, he could not remain in death and suffering, but had to pass through God's power, through death and the grave and everything, and sit down there, where he could also create and give such things in us.
Behold, this is the glory of this King over all that is glorious and mighty, both in heaven and on earth, that he is a Lord, not, as others, over land and people, cities and castles, silver and gold, body and goods, but a Lord and King of the eternal goods that are God's own, of peace and joy and all wealth, of everlasting righteousness and life. Although these temporal things are also under his hands, namely all the power and authority of the world, so that he can do with them as he pleases, that all princes and lords must be subject to him, and not reach any further than he wants them to, but especially the devil, death and sin are placed powerfully under his feet, as the following verse will show.
32 To this now belongs the faith that accepts the King, and thus learns to look at this Christ and to certainly believe that he has such a Lord in him, who does not sit idle for himself up in heaven or amuse himself with the angels; but leads such a reign powerfully everywhere, has all hearts in his hand, and truly rules and guides his Christianity, saves, protects and preserves it, and certainly gives such goods to all who believe in him and call upon him; as St. Paul Ephesians 4:8 from Psalm 19 says that he therefore went up and sat down at the right hand of God, so that he can give such goods to all who believe in him and call upon him. Paul Eph. 4, 8. from the 68th Psalm, v. 19, says that he therefore ascended on high, and sat down at the right hand of God, that he might give such divine gifts to men.
But where such faith is to be established and maintained, it is not necessary to look at the outward appearance and nature, nor to follow the dictates of reason, nor the feelings of our own heart, but as the manner and art of faith is described in Heb. 11:1, that he hold fast, and not doubt that which he does not see. For according to our seeing and feeling there seems to be nothing everywhere (as was said before) that Christ reigns so mightily with us, but rather we see and feel the contradiction, and it is nothing but vain weakness.
and powerlessness before the eyes of Christianity, as if it were utterly miserable and abandoned, without help and salvation, oppressed and trampled underfoot by the world, and in addition attacked and harassed by the devil with sin, the terror and fear of death and hell, without which all kinds of other common bodily accidents, journeys and hardships come upon it, more than upon other people. Therefore, such an art of faith and masterpiece must be done here, that he fights and fences against such feelings and senses, and holds on to the mere word, which he hears here, that this Christ (although invisible) is set up above at the right hand of God by God, and shall and will remain there, and rule over us mightily; yet secretly and hidden from the world. For this Sheb Limini [XXXX XX] (sit down
at my right hand), because God Himself says it, must be true and remain true, and no creature will overthrow it, nor make it false; so He will not deny it Himself, let everything appear, feel and turn out as it will.
34 You can see this kind of faith in the prophet David, because he speaks so confidently and powerfully of something that was not yet seen or present, but he alone believes it to be future, and thus relies on it as if it were already fulfilled before his eyes in work or deed, and so boldly sets himself up for glory and defiance against everything that would challenge him, that he knows and has such a Lord, who should be his natural blood and flesh, and yet sit at the right hand of God. This is his highest consolation and joy, so that he has been able to withstand all hardships, both outwardly against violence and persecution, and inwardly against the severe temptations of conscience and the sorrow of sin and death, and has thus overcome everything. For his heart has had to stand thus: There is now no more need, come death, devil, world or hell, I will not perish. Let them come, thrusting and tumultuous, whatsoever may thrust or affright, and be as wicked as they will, yet will I keep myself from it, through this Lord. Even if I am oppressed, persecuted and driven away by my enemies and all the world, I have a Lord, who is called my Lord and will be, promised to me by God, who sits higher and is mightier than all of them, and therefore sits so high that he will defend and protect me.
will. Likewise, though sin and the wrath of God afflict me and make my heart heavy and sorrowful, I shall not despair because he also sits above, so that neither sin nor anything else shall condemn me or cast me into hell. Even though death falls upon me and devours me, it does not keep me, but because this Lord sits above and lives forever, I too must come to life again.
(35) So this verse is not only a prophecy or teaching about Christ, but also a confession of his faith, set as an example for us to see what power such faith has, how it makes such a heart and courage that can despise everything on earth, and fear nothing, but joyfully defy the one Christ, who reigns forever, a Lord over temporal and eternal, death and life, sin and righteousness, evil and good. Such faith made this David so merry and full of spiritual joy to sing these psalms, and to boast so defiantly of this Christ, who was yet to be born for a long time. What would he have done if he had lived to see the day when these things were fulfilled and proclaimed to the world, as they are now? For should he not heartily rejoice that his own natural flesh and blood, born of him, should rise so high that he should sit in God's throne, and be declared and worshipped by all creatures right, true God?
36. Although David has this fleshly advantage (on account of his person), that Christ should be born of him in the flesh, which we do not have, we nevertheless have nothing less to rejoice in and boast of the common honor and glory, to which we, as well as David and the holy fathers of the Jewish people, are entitled, that this same one of our flesh and blood (that is, of human nature) is sitting up in heaven at the right hand of God, and wants to be our Lord as well as David's and the others'. For this is the unspeakable, great glory and honor of the human race, that it should be so highly exalted, not lowly in heaven among the holy angels or archangels, which after all is perfectly great for-
The Lord is not only the most holy and lordly, but also the most evil of all. How could the high majesty humble himself more deeply than to honor and lift this poor flesh and blood with his divine honor and power, so that he lowers himself into this nature of ours, and himself becomes a member of the human race? which honor has not been granted to any angel in heaven [Hebr. 2, 16].
37 Therefore it is not surprising that this prophet, David, forgets his royal glory and honor, and does not consider it worthy of remembrance, and only this leads to his highest glory, publicly in all the world, above all glory, honor and fame that may be called there. As if he should say: "I should also boast of great honor and dignity, which God has given me, that he has taken me from the lowly shepherd's estate and from the sheepfolds (as he says in Psalm 78:70, 71), and has made me king and lord of his people, and has given me many wonderful deeds and victories through me; but all this I regard as nothing, for this majesty, crown, kingdom, land and people must all pass away. But this is another glory, above all glory, that it is promised to me that into my flesh and blood shall come and be born of me the true Son of God, and in this flesh and blood shall be set on the right hand of God, the Lord over all. He would gladly pour out such joy and defiance and share it with everyone, so that we too might think and boast with him about this Lord and become as full of joy as he is in his heart.
038 But where are the people who can boast and rejoice in this way? Not because they have great treasures of gold and silver, great favor and friendship, for which the world rejoices and throws up its hands, but because they have Christ as their Lord, seated at the right hand of God, and say, "This is my glory and praise, that I have been baptized into this man, and have been taken and incorporated into the Lord's kingdom, of which David says here, who sits above in the divine majesty, and yet is my flesh and blood, and (as he calls himself) my brother. What is all the world's good, honor, splendor and power?
for a wretched, perishable being, yes, a stink and muck, against this?
(39) Such joy would surely follow if faith were in us as it was in David, and would also bring with it a certain comfort and defiance against all temptation of sin, death, the devil and the world. For whoever believes without doubt that he has the Lord sitting above, who is our flesh and blood, must not despair or despair because of sin. For he did not take on this flesh and blood to condemn human nature, but to save it from sin, from God's wrath and from all the misery in which it had been before. He did not go up and enter this realm to beat those who were baptized into Him and believed in Him over the head, but to represent, forbid and reconcile them to God without ceasing, as the true, faithful and eternal high priest [Rom. 8, 34. 1 Jn. 2, 1. Hebr. 7, 24. f.], as He is described below.
40 So a Christian can also defy death: Though I be buried in the earth, and be turned to ashes, yet have I the Lord above, who is of my blood and of my flesh, who never dieth, and is the life of the world in him, and is become my Lord, that I should not abide under the power of death, nor of the devil, but should live with him; that death cannot strangle so much, but Christ can and will give much more life, as St. Paul saith, Romans 14:8, 9. Paul says Rom. 14, 8. 9.: "Whether we are dead or alive, we are the Lord's, for this cause he died and rose again, that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living." Therefore, though I die, yet will I live; for my Lord liveth, who is Lord even in death; and will not leave me in death, but as he liveth, even so shall I live: as he himself saith Joh. 14:19, "I live, and ye shall live"; item, Joh. 12:26, "Where I am, there shall my servant be also."
41 St. Bernard also had such joy and consolation in his heart (from this article) that he could say: "How should I mourn or despair? my flesh and blood sits above in heaven, he will (I hope) not be hostile to me. This is a quite spiritual, heavenly, divine thought of the
Faith, which can attribute such things to him and boast. For he was also something in the world, rich, noble, learned and holy enough; but before God he knows nothing to boast about nor to comfort himself, except this Lord.
The same is read about the holy martyr St. Stephen in Apostles 7, 56. 7, 56, when he was about to be stoned, how he had this verse in his heart, so much so that it was visibly revealed to him, as he says: "Behold, I see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. This is a true vision, which sees nothing but life in Christ in death, which he now sees before his eyes. Then he defies all the raging and fury of his enemies, the terror and fear of death, so that he enters death with such joy as if he were entering life.
(43) Thus, from the beginning to this day, all of Christendom has placed its comfort and defiance in this verse, and has been preserved and maintained by it. For it has never been protected and sustained by any human or physical strength and power, but in contrast, in the highest weakness and lack of strength, against all devils and all the world's anger and rage, only through faith and defiance in this Lord, to whom this Sheb Limini (sit at my right hand) is said, since he has built himself so high and so firmly that he can remain seated before everyone, and still has so much power and strength that he can maintain defiance against their rage and anger.
44. Therefore, as Christians, let us also have such faith and get used to put our glory and defiance, joy and comfort in him when we are challenged, especially because we see how the devil rages and rages against this kingdom of Christ at the last time through his scales, popes, bishops, tyrants, with plagues, chasing away, tortures, murders; In addition, they are plotting so many and various counsels, secret practices, wicked trickery and cunning, that they may be able to overthrow Christ from the throne to the right hand of the Father before he realizes it or understands it. But let them do and try what they can; if they are the people who can make this Sheb Limini wrong and extinguish it, we will gladly give them the glory and the prize.
and soon become one with them and consider them lords of all lords and gods of all gods. But take heed, ye prudent and wrathful lords, that ye lack not art and might, lest ye cause this Lord to sit a while longer with your scorn and reproach, and he smite you down with thunder and lightning, that ye, with others that have been before you, and have also risen up in hostility against him, should be his footstool, as the following verse doth threaten you:
Until I lay your enemies at the footstool of your feet.
(45) This must be a strange and wondrous kingdom, which shall be above all rule and authority on earth, and yet shall be regarded as false and forged, as if all that is praised and said of it were false and forged. For how does it rhyme that this king should sit at the right hand of God, be an almighty God and Lord, and yet be so disposed about his kingdom that he should always have enemies and opposition; not of one kind, but many and various, yes, surrounded with enemies everywhere? as he says more clearly afterwards: "Rule in the midst of your enemies. How is this to be said of such a mighty King and Lord over all creatures, that he must suffer such enemies to be set against him, and show themselves to be enemies? O my dear David, art thou drunken, or mad and foolish? How high do you look, and lift this Lord with one word into the divine majesty above all, and now make him so weak that he must have enemies and be challenged by them, until they all cease so lukewarm?
(46) Now in this, as I have said [§§ 24, 25], he will paint this kingdom with its color, as it is done, that it may be rightly seen, not according to reason and outward appearance, but according to the Word and in faith, and so that it may be called before all the world a wonderful kingdom, both being with and by one another, the highest power and might, and yet beside it weakness and impotence, that it may be called and be God's power and government, who can rule otherwise than all men understand and comprehend.
47 But that we may consider these things a little, let us first ask how it is with the enemies? Whence and how did he come to have enemies, and who are they that may set themselves against him? What cause have they for such a thing? Or, what do they know that they may rely upon to oppose him? What can they do or harm, and why does he allow this to happen?
For first of all, it is ever a wonder that this Lord and King should have any adversaries and enemies. I wept, because he is so highly honored and set by God, and because he is so gloriously praised, that all the world should run to him with joy, and obediently accept this king with praise and thanksgiving, and in all submissiveness, and fall at his feet, as he is set and given to them by God Himself as Lord, and not that he should harm or hurt anyone, but that he should help and do good to everyone. Who would not like to be under such a king? And how can a man be so wicked that he should be hostile to such a Lord and rebel against him? Answer: This is certainly true, if this king ruled with his kingdom or regiment in such a way that he visibly and publicly led in divine majesty and power, and let himself be seen (as he will do on the last day), or, if it was thus recognized and believed, as is said of him here, then without a doubt no one would set himself against him. But now he reigns in his whole government and nature, so that it is hidden from eyes and senses, and is only spoken of in the word, which does not rhyme with human reason and understanding; therefore they also think nothing of it. For this is their nature and manner, that they think of nothing but what they see and understand before their eyes. And such natural blindness is a good beginning to despise Christ and his kingdom and to consider them as nothing, because nothing seems to be seen here that is equal to and in accordance with such power, yes, it seems to be a contradiction, as already said and to be said further on.
49 Moreover, when the word comes that reveals this Christ, and wants to discover or reveal and take away the blindness, then it is first necessary to disagree on the matter.
and the enmity is lifted. For the world does not want to be punished or scolded for being blind and ignorant, and for its things to be nothing, but also wants to be wise and prudent, even in divine matters. Therefore she is displeased and does not like to hear it when God tells her that this king alone is everything in the sight of God, and that no doctrine, no faith, no worship, no life and no work are valid before him, except from and by and in this Lord, and that no one is to be found before him, except under this Lord and in his kingdom. For she makes herself believe that she has wisdom, understanding, and everything she needs to live before God and to please him. And because she sees that this Christ with his words does not compare with her wisdom, but is contrary to it, she thinks she is well justified in acting contrary to it.
(50) And the fact that they may dare to contend against this kingdom also makes the very thing that is said [§33.48], that they consider it a powerless, impotent, and void thing, because it does not appear before the eyes; but on the other hand they consider their own wisdom and prudence, might and power, which fill the eyes, because the multitude and following are great, and they have money and goods, land and people, armor and weapons enough. This makes them bold, proud and joyful, that they boast about it, rely on it and insist on it, and certainly think what they undertake to accomplish; yes, they do not wish them luck before great security. What can this poor, powerless, miserable beggar, or king of deeds, with his miserable, naked, defenseless heap, do? So they confidently run to him and rush to him with all their might, so that at the beginning it looks as if they would push him off his chair so soon. But what the end of it will be, we will soon hear.
51 So we see that it is not bad people who make enemies of this Lord, but the most powerful. Most powerful, and the best on earth. These are the very ones whom the other Psalm, v. 1, 2, calls by name, saying: "Why do the nations rage and the people speak in vain?
Lords counsel with one another against the Lord, and against his anointed." There you hear them all in one heap. They are called nations and peoples, or country and people, kings, princes and lords, or councils, that is, the great, the mighty, the rich, the noble, the wise, the learned, the holy. And summa, it is all that is called the world, and just the right core, the orderly regime, both spiritual and secular, with everything that belongs to it; everything, everything must be set against this Lord, who is anointed by God and consecrated as king, and all his enemies are called, who are unanimously directed against him, and set together with council and armament, with shouting and raving, and as they know and are able.
52. For they consider that they have good, honest reasons, that they must defend themselves here, and put their power together, namely, because it wants to meet their honor and glory, which they want to have before all the world, also before God Himself, the wisdom and holiness; They must defend and maintain them, so that they may be called and kept wise and wise, holy and pious, and by these rule the world, and do everything without God and his Christ, and in short, remain unpunished, unmastered and unregulated by this king. For that would be too close to their honor, and would not be good for them. Therefore, everything must converge here and help each other with body and soul, with counsel and action, to save their honor and power. Here there is no joking, nor looking through the fingers, but to fight with all force and all seriousness, no diligence, effort nor work spared, so that one does not let this king rule, nor his kingdom get out of hand.
(53) And that they may have the greater appearance of such causes, and stir up and move the people against them, God's name and commandment must come to this, and help them to adorn their cause against Christ, that he may be guilty that this preaching causes disobedience against God, both in spiritual and temporal government; namely, that it reproves the beautiful spiritual being and life that is going on in the world, attacks and punishes the pious and the saints, forbids good works, and puts down divine service; item
disrupt common peace and obedience to the worldly authorities commanded by God, and give cause for rebellion, bloodshed etc., because it teaches that one should be more obedient to this Lord than to men [Apost. 5, 28. f.].
Here they have the right cause against Christ and his Christians, that they must, because of God and out of his obedience, persecute Christianity to protect his name and commandment and obedience, and thus become God's children, true, living saints, who are driven by necessity, by God's commandment, to fight over your faith, worship and obedience, and to punish the heretics, blasphemers and rebels. And to such appearance and cover they are helped by the very teaching of the Gospel, from which they have heard and learned that worldly authority is God's order and His commandment, that one should be obedient to it, and that it is their duty to handle and protect God's commandment and worship [Rom. 13, 1.]. As they now also thank and reward our Gospel, having learned such things from it, which they did not know before, and thereupon confidently rage and rage against the Christians, and do all that they desire, to God's hurt and displeasure, against His word and obedience; and yet all things shall be called kept according to the obedience of the authorities and God's commandment.
(55) So you see who are the real enemies of this kingdom. And those who want to be called its enemies also turn out to be enemies. For notwithstanding that they are many and mighty in number, and that they attack with great earnestness and try their utmost and best that they know and are able, and do great harm, and would like to do much more, they are also violent beyond measure, bitter and venomous, brewing with great hatred and wrath against Christ, which cannot be quenched nor quenched; not content with 1) cooling their stripes against Christians by murdering, persecuting, driving out etc., but think to wipe out and exterminate the whole of Christ, and can never be satisfied nor desist. And the less they can do what and how they would like (as they do not want to do), the less they can do what and how they would like (as they do not want to do).
1) Erlanger: the.
The more they become fierce and evil and rage with vengeance, the more they can and must do it; and yet they do all this 1) under the pretense and name that it must be called a right thing, praiseworthy and well-done, yes, divine zeal and service to God [John 16:2]. 16, 2.] Not that they seek God's honor, or ask for His commandments, but for their honor and glory, that they want to be right, and all their doings unpunished, as if they were lords over God and His word.
56. Now, in truth, they have no just cause for such bitter hatred and anger against Christ, for he never does them any harm or damage with his kingdom, lets them be kings, lords and princes, rich and powerful, and remain in their regiment as they are; He does not interfere with them; he grants them all these things, and even confirms them; he commands them to be subject and obedient; he rejects rebellion and sedition; he does nothing more than offer them his grace and help, so that they may be saved from their blindness, sin and death. This is the guilt that he deserves, so that they become enemies to him and persecute him. What more should he do for them, but to give them all good things, and to save them from all evil? Nor can he have anything to thank them for, but that they have begun to rage and rage against him and all his Christianity, to lust and persecute as they can, as if it were a harmful, pernicious doctrine, which is bad not to suffer, and against which everyone is obliged to help, that it may be subdued and eradicated, when otherwise they can well suffer and tolerate all kinds of error, seduction, blasphemy, immorality and wickedness.
Now such enmity cannot be natural nor human, otherwise it would not be possible that they should be such wicked and bitter enemies without cause, and neither tire of it nor desist from it, especially when they see and discover that this is the right truth and a harmless, wholesome doctrine, as is now, praise God, also evident to our enemies, and to prove it by their own confession. But it is actually the work of the wretched devil; for he is also the right arch- and
1) "they" is missing in the Erlanger.
God himself says: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. For because he knows that by this seed his kingdom shall be weakened and destroyed, he will not, and cannot, suffer Christ with his kingdom, as much as there is in him, nor be pleased. But since he is a prince, even a god of the world (as Christ himself [Joh. 14, 30.] and St. Paul [2 Cor. 4, 4.If he holds men's hearts captive in his chains, he drives them with all power and force to serve his will, blinds and stifles their reason with false doctrine, so that they cannot recognize or accept this Christ, and poisons and embittered their hearts with hatred and envy, He makes them so mad and foolish that they do not want to suffer this blessed kingdom of grace, even though the light shines in their eyes so clearly that they cannot deny it and see that they cannot overthrow it: Nor does he drive them so that they run headlong against it, as raging and furious, and so these enemies are and must be nothing but the devil's instrument, so that he storms against this kingdom and gets it.
So you see how many great, powerful, wrathful, harmful and abominable enemies set themselves against this kingdom of Christ. Now, on the other hand, there seems to be no power, strength or might on this side, but only weakness, so that his Christians must be held up to the devil and the world, who are poor, weak, miserable people, against so many and so great enemies and their power and might; They have no armor and defense, but have to serve the enemies, to be tortured and martyred, to be killed and strangled, so that it all feels and looks as if this Christ can and is not able to do anything against such enemies, but has to succumb and fail with his kingdom and small group. This is also the great annoyance to which reason and all the wisdom of the world is offended. For if this Christ were such a king, seated at the right hand of God, then he would have to
And if it should be called God's kingdom, he would not let them be so weak, nor suffer them to be challenged and afflicted by everyone (as they always judge and master God's work). How does he allow such things to happen that the pious are oppressed and the wicked float above, since he is supposed to be the most wise, the most pious and the most powerful? Does he know everything and has the power to defend himself, why does he not defend himself? If he is pious and righteous, why does he see through his fingers and let so much injustice happen?
(59) Now the highest justice, power, and wisdom, as if he could not or would not do anything about it, or did not see or know anything about it, must therefore be regarded by the world as foolishness, his power as nothing, his work and deeds as unjust; so that many people, out of such thoughts of their own cleverness, have fallen into this, and still fall into this, that they say badly: either there must be no God, or nothing must be taken care of by men on earth. For it does not rhyme in their mind that a true God, who is mighty, pious and wise, suffers such things; therefore one thing would have to follow, that he either does not know everything, or cannot do it, or will not do it. If he knows and does not do it, he is not pious; but if he does not know, he is not the highest wisdom; if he cannot do it, he is not omnipotent. Now which of these I take from him, thereby have I denied him, and taken away his deity, and made of him a powerless, vain idol, or fool, and mischievous. This is now the faith of the Turks, Jews, and also of our papists, and can be no other with all those who do not know this Christ.
(60) Now why does he do this? Those wise men and masters of God and His word and work do not know or understand this, but in their cleverness and wisdom they become fools [Rom. 1, 22] and deceive themselves. But the Christians are shown this, that they may learn the right divine wisdom, in which he wants to be known. For this is why this kingdom is to be a kingdom of faith, in which God reigns wonderfully, and is not to be controlled by men.
and understand, namely, that he hides his wisdom, power and authority from all reason, and wants to prove it precisely through the contradiction that is called foolishness and impotence in all men, indeed, nothing everywhere, so that it may be known, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1, 25. states: "That which is in his word and works as foolishness is wiser than all men's wisdom and prudence," and that which is in him as weakness is stronger than all men's strength and might; And that he should and will be called in this kingdom a God and Savior, not of the strong, mighty, wise and holy (as reason seeks and paints him), who have no need of this God, but of the weak, unwise, vain, wretched and afflicted poor sinners, who have need of such a God and Savior; And so that He may make them strong in the midst of weakness, righteous and joyful in the midst of the feeling and terror of sin, alive and blessed in the midst of suffering and death, as He says in 2 Cor. 12:10, "My power is made stronger through weakness." This is what he does and must do to these very enemies of his, both contrary to the devil and the world, and to their chagrin, so that they may finally experience what his wisdom, power and might are and are capable of, which they consider powerless and nothing, so that he may overcome their pride and defiance of their own wisdom and might not by great manifest power and wisdom of majesty, but by foolishness and nothingness, and thus disgrace them in their wisdom and destroy them in their power.
So you see, what this kingdom's quality and consecration, and the Christian faith's art is, that we learn (which no other faith or doctrine does not know) that this God is at the same time the all-weakest, and yet alone all-powerful. For of course no other God will and can suffer so much from so many and various enemies, Jews, Turks, pabst, mobs (who also want to be God's people and servants), as well as from all the devils in hell, who rage against his kingdom and torture and strangle his saints, and hinder all his will, cause vain disobedience, and do everything that is unpleasant to him. Item, he is the most wise; still everything that he speaks and does must be mocked and ridiculed by all the world, yes, blasphemed to the utmost and desecrated.
will be condemned. Therefore, his righteousness and truth must also be judged and condemned as the highest heresy, injustice and lies.
62) Now this is said of the weakness under which this kingdom is hidden, that he must have enemies on earth, and (as he says here) as long as the world stands, he must always be at war with them. But besides this it is not forgotten about the power and the victory, which he shall have against his enemies, so that no one fears or worries, as if this Christ in his kingdom here on earth must even be defeated, although he is described for his person sitting up in heaven. Here is a word that says: "Until I put your enemies at your feet. There you hear, first of all, that these enemies, with their raging and raging against Christ, should not (as they think and defy) accomplish what they have in mind and would like, but that he should nevertheless remain before them. And not only this, but also that he should become mighty over them, so that they must come under him, and that he should be subject to them and have the upper hand.
63 Secondly, that it may be known what power and might it is, that he should overcome his enemies, he saith plainly, Till I destroy thine enemies etc. For he does not say, as it should be said of such a mighty king: Till thou lay them at thy footstool, but: I myself (saith he) will lay them down, and cast them under thy feet. Then you hear who the man is who will do it and can do it, namely, that he should be an almighty, eternal power and might, and in short, the divine majesty itself. For I (says he), who have set thee on the throne at my right hand by my sanctifying thee, will also press with it, and these enemies, who lay hold on thy crown, and will not suffer thy kingdom, but will themselves reign, and cast all Christendom under their feet, them will I thrust down, that they must make thee sit, and so rumble with them, that they must lie eternally under thy feet, trodden down, and made ashes.
64 And yet it shall not come to pass that Christ or his people shall do this with bodily force, nor with fist and armed hand shall they set themselves against the enemies. For his kingdom, as it is now said, must be established here on the earth.
The kingdom of God will go and remain on earth in weakness and suffering, but it will still be protected and preserved against all enemies by miraculous power and might, so that it must be said that it is not human or any creature's power and might that this kingdom exists and its enemies are thrown down and overthrown, but without God's help from heaven. Which yet does not appear, nor is it seen, until they lie there under his feet.
For before, while they are at work with their raging and raging against Christ, he does not act differently than if he knew and saw nothing, or could do nothing about it; he lets his son be crucified so miserably and shamefully, and his Christians shed their blood, that these enemies now certainly think that they have already won, and now want to run over Christ and his little group with their feet. But beware, when he is so weak, and God blinks at him, as if he sees and can do nothing at all. For then it is nearest to them that he will disturb them in their best thoughts and highest power, and in the midst of their work seize them in the dice, and with them turn the supreme thing to the bottom, that they suddenly lie fallen to the ground before they look around, and so go with them that in the very thing that they run and storm against him they run and fall themselves down, and just by this are overthrown and laid at his footstool, so that they want to have him fall down and throw him under their feet.
So this victory and overcoming is done, that it is said, without sword, armor and guns, and in short, without all bodily power and resistance of the Christians, the enemies are defeated and put down, only by divine power and miracles. For I (says he here) will do it myself, and so that they need neither armor, nor sword, nor weapons, but shall sit quietly, and do nothing but wait for their office, that they may preach of this Lord and his kingdom, and say how he, the King, sits at the right hand of God, and how the Lord is to be set over all creatures by God. But those who despise it and will not accept it, or who oppose it and persecute it, let them be commanded to me, as they have smelled, and as they have done with their spirits.
I will be subdued and overthrown by their power and authority. For I still have power and strength enough to lift them out of their chair and throw them under the feet of this Christ. Let it be enough for them, and take comfort in the fact that the enemies will not carry out against them what they intend, but I have decided and pronounced the sentence that they should and must become the footstool of this Christ without their thanks.
67 And this he has not only done in word, but has also proved honestly and powerfully by deed and experience. For there have always been many enemies who have set themselves against this king, and have dared to remove him from the throne and to destroy his name, but so far they have let him sit, and because of this, because they would not desist, they themselves have been struck to the ground and have fallen, so that they lie there under the earth. First of all, the city of Jerusalem and all the Jewish people with their kingdom and priesthood have been overthrown and destroyed, so that they have neither land nor place, nor a common rule and authority or office, and like dogs they are despised and rejected by everyone, and this verse is also fulfilled in them physically, so that they are trampled underfoot by everyone and are the footstool of all the world, even of the least on earth. After this the Roman empire set itself with all power against Christ, and purposed to cut off his name altogether, martyring and murdering Christians without number; but what did they accomplish, except that they all expired in Christ, and must lay their heads under him in the earth? And because there was no end to the persecution and raging against Christ, God attacked them in such a way that their kingdom, power and authority, both by themselves among themselves with rebellion and murder, and also by foreign peoples, was so torn apart that it almost fell and could never return to its former nature. In addition, the glorious city of Rome itself has often been turned upside down, razed to the ground, and finally thrown into dust and ashes, and still lies there, that nothing but a few destroyed and decayed pieces of Rome, as it was before times, remain to be seen. Likewise, he has also destroyed other great kingdoms, and especially the beautiful lands of Greece and
All Asia, as punishment for the despised and persecuted Gospel, was miserably and shamefully devastated and destroyed by the Saracens and Turks.
68. and summa: He has always had to rumble, both with small and great enemies, who sat down against him, until they were pushed to the ground, and Christianity remained before them and smelled them; will also continue and press until the last day, and act with them so that they are not badly pushed before the head or knocked down, but must forever be called his footstool and be trampled on, so that they never arise again, nor the slightest thing against the Christians can move or defend themselves. For as they always continue and do not cease to rage against Christ, because they are able to move, and still want to remain his enemies and die, so he must also deal with them in such a way that they must come down completely, and also not cease, until they finally and forever lie there, and are and remain nothing more than a footstool; So that they must be brought in with their eternal loss, which they did not want to believe before, that this Christ is the Lord, even over them and over all the world, in whose name every knee must bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth [Phil. 2:10], and let it be known that no one can gain anything from this Lord, nor break him off, no matter how hard and firm they are set against him. For he can be hard against hard, and evil against evil, and it is a matter of who is the strongest and overthrows the other, because they do not want it any other way.
For if they themselves would, and could only sit still, and let this Lord (who neither harms them nor hinders them in their worldly rule, but helps and promotes them) remain unchallenged, then they would remain well. But now they run against him, and seek nothing else, but as they tread him under their feet, so he must do the antagonism with them, that they must let him remain without their thanks, and themselves perish without all grace, and lie crushed and dead over one another with a great heap, that he may come to his glorious, great throne at the right hand of the Father, which is all heaven, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth, and the earth.
mel, also have a footstool on earth on which to set his feet. It does not have to be of common, bad people, but mostly of the high, great heads of the world, emperors, kings, princes and lords, mighty, prudent and wise, so that it may also be according to the glory of this king and his throne.
Therefore we can also be prophets from this text, and certainly prophesy to the present enemies of Christ and persecutors of the Gospel, as both the Turk with his Mahometan, and the Pope with his Antichristian sect and mob, who also have it in mind to throw down this Lord with his throne: that they will neither create nor carry out anything, but shall and must also fulfill this verse, as it has been fulfilled so far, that they must also lay their heads under this Christ. For he will also find some 1) power against them, that he may overthrow them, as he found before. As he can punish his enemies by other enemies, the Jews by the Romans, the Romans by Goths and Wends etc. Alfo he will find both, Turks, Pabst and his tyrant, also their destroyer, or even decide the end with them from heaven down, and strike with the last day three, that they all are put at the same time on a heap under his feet. As it is proclaimed in the Scriptures about the Antichrist, that he shall be destroyed without hand, and his end shall be made by the final, glorious appearing and future of Christ [Dan. 8:25, 2 Thess. 2:8].
(71) But let them, our enemies, by no means believe these things, as others have done before them, until they, like them, learn them, and faith comes into their hands; otherwise this prophecy might fail them, and the punishment be averted by repentance. But because they do not want to hear or believe when it has been said to them enough, and are faithfully warned to beware of this little verse, which is called, "Till I be thine enemy," etc., this is a sure sign that it will be fulfilled in them the sooner, that they will suddenly lie there before they know it. For one sees and experiences how our tyrants, bishops and priests are so un-
1) stho somewhere.
and struggle for it, that they would gladly lead Germany into misery and drown it in blood for the sake of the Gospel. And yet (praise God!) they have so often failed with their murderous plots and treacherous practices, both for the benefit of Christendom and as a warning to themselves, that they should see how God resists them, and resists that it does not have to go as they would like, and they must stand without their thanksgiving this verse (Dixit Dominus) and let Christ sit at the right hand of God. But they have set their minds on tearing through it with their hard heads and deliberately strive for it to go out over their heads. Therefore he must also help them to it, since they want to fall down the sooner without all grace, to become his footstool forever. As they wish, so shall it be done to them, amen.
Seventy-two You may want to ask: Why does he look through his fingers so long, and let such enemies become so many, so strong and powerful, and rage and rage against the Christians so long, that there is no end to it? If only he could soon fight them off, or put an end to all of them at once, so that none of them would have to be any more, or would have to stop immediately. Answer: This is only good for us and for the whole of Christendom. For if he should have struck down the Roman Empire and other enemies in the beginning or all at once and thrown them into the ashes, where would we have remained who were not yet born? Or, if he were still doing it, where would those remain who are still to be baptized? But now it must be (says the Epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 11, 40.), 2) that the saints who were before us should not be perfected without us, or come to glory. Therefore, although this throne has long since been established, and the judgment against the enemies has been pronounced and passed so long before, it must not and cannot be executed so soon, nor all at once, but must proceed slowly and gradually until its kingdom is fully spread throughout the world, and more and more of those who belong to heaven are brought here. When this has happened, then, on the following days
2) Erlanger: "zun Ebräern 12."
Once all the enemies of this kingdom will be destroyed, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:25 from this verse: "He must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet. However, it must happen that he always has enemies (as the following verse continues), who storm against his Christianity and do what they can, but no longer than he has measured out the goal, determined the time, and seen the hour in which he wants to put an end to it.
(73) Therefore let no one think or hope that we, who are Christians, will have peace on earth or be rid of our enemies, but let us cheerfully consider and take care that Christianity will always be challenged and persecuted by enemies, and will always have one after another until the last day, not for our sake, but for the sake of our dear brothers who will be born after us and will also come to Christ. Our fathers before us had to suffer for our sake and comfort themselves that we should also come afterwards, so that Christianity would not perish. For this reason they still have to lie under the earth and wait for their final redemption until we also come to them [Revelation 6:11]. Why would we want it better and not suffer for the sake of our brothers, even our own children and children's children? It is better that we suffer for a little while, and that both the Turks, the pope, the tyrants, and all the world exercise their will of mercy on us, than that one of our brothers should be lost or remain behind.
Therefore we should gladly see this, and, if it was not promised beforehand, ask God not to destroy all our enemies at once, and suffer with joy everything they could do to us, with this comfort, that there are still many who will follow us and fill up the number. As also Revelation 6:10, 11 to the souls (lying under the altar, strangled for the sake of God's word, and crying out to God: "Lord, how long will you judge and not avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?") it is said, "that they should rest a little while, until their fellow servants and brothers come to completion, who shall also still suffer death like them. There must be
We will look as he himself looks, namely, at the number that is not yet full, and must be filled daily until we are all gathered together, and in the meantime comfort ourselves that we have set this King as Lord, who has already thrown many of these enemies under his feet, and is always overthrowing one after another, but will finally wear them all out at once. And whether we lay our head, oppressed by them, and with. He will not forget us, but in his time he will bring us up again and set us on high, so that they will be under our feet forever.
(75) For Christianity on earth must be like the Lord Himself [John 15:20], that it must serve the devil and the world, that they walk and tread over it, that it feels and mournfully laments, as Isaiah chap. 54:11 and chap. 62:4. and says, "You wretched and desolate woman, and poor widow, over whom all weathers pass, and everyone steps on your head and runs over you, but I will make you trample again those who have trampled you, and trample them so that they will not suffer from them for a time, as you are suffering from them now, but will have to be trampled by you forever. For as this king's throne is set and abideth for ever, so shall the footstool at his feet be for ever.
But what it is to be the footstool of this king, that they shall know and feel all too well. All those who have written about it say that there will be no more severe torment for the damned than that they will see that they must be eternally separated from God and His chosen ones. And it is to be believed that this will be intolerable to them above all flames and bright embers. But now he says here that they will not be badly cut off from Christ and his saints, and will have no part with them, but will have to lie eternally under their feet before all creatures, because they did not want to suffer this King, whom they should have accepted and kissed with all joy (as the 2nd Psalm, v. 11, says), when he brought them all good and happiness, and claimed them to his eternal glory, but only the more disgracefully forfeited such grace.
960 Erl. 10, 8S-81. Second interpretation of the 110th Psalm. Ps. 110, 1. W. V, I3S6-IZ9S. 961
and have beaten to death his Christians who told them about it, and have chased them out of the world.
(77) St. Paul, 1 Cor. 15:25, 26, has considered this text more sharply, and has further interpreted these words "your enemies," namely, that the enemies of Christ or of Christianity are called not only the devil and the world, but also death, which he calls the last enemy, and says: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death. But death comprehends in itself all that causes death, that is, both sin and the law, which stirs up sin and drives it into the conscience so that it becomes powerful to kill, as St. Paul also says there, v. 56: "The sting or spear of death is sin, but the power of sin is the law."
For since this Christ is and shall be a Lord and King of righteousness, life, peace and comfort, it must follow that he considers everything that is opposed to it, or hinders us from it, as sin, death, terror of the law, discord and sadness of conscience, to be his enemies and adversaries. For all this is also the armor and weapons of the archenemy, the devil, that he may storm against this kingdom, and his own work; as he is called in Scripture a master of death [Heb. 2:14], and all his power and dominion is nothing else, but that he lead men through sin to death, both in body and soul. Therefore Christ, in order to destroy the devil's power over his Christians, must also put an end to death in the flesh, as he is already doing to them spiritually, so that they may overcome him through faith and take hold of life in him until the last day, when he will cast him out altogether, so that people may boast and defy death and hell [1 Cor. 15:55]: "Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is thy victory?" as he says in the prophet Hosea [Cap. 13, 14.) says: "Death, I will be thy death; hell, I will be a poison unto thee" etc.
79 Therefore note here for comfort that such enemies are not called our enemies or the enemies of Christendom, but the enemies of the Lord Christ; "your enemies" (he says), although they actually attack and strike Christendom, so that it must be plagued by them and suffer. For Christ himself, who is above
They must now leave him unchallenged, and will not be able to harm him, much less tear him down from his throne; but they are not called our enemies, and they truly are, but his enemies. For that the world and the devil assail and afflict us is not because of worldly things, nor because of our merit or demerit, but only because we believe in this Lord and confess his word; otherwise they would be one with us, and be satisfied before them. Therefore he must show himself against them, as against his own enemies, and accept everything that happens to every Christian, whether of the devil or of the world, terror of sin, anguish and sadness of heart, torture or death, as if it happened to him. As he also speaks through the prophet Zachariam, Cap. 2, 8: "He who touches you touches the apple of my eye." Item, Matth. 25, 40.: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And to Paul, when he went to Damascum to deliver the Christians bound, Apost. 9:4, he says from heaven, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Item, v. 5: "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest."
80 Therefore, whether we feel the terror of sin, anguish and sadness of heart, torment and death, we should know that these are not our enemies, but the enemies of our Lord (who is our flesh and blood), and so look upon him as being an enemy to such of our enemies, and comfortingly turn them away from us to Christ: Knowest thou not who the Lord is, who sitteth on the right hand of God, to whom thou art already spoken and judged to be the footstool of God? Go and try what you are able. You may well fight and bite me, and you must allow yourself to attack and scratch me; but you shall not win anything against me, because my Lord is set above your head, so that he can and will trample you underfoot. For he has not overcome all such enemies for his own person alone.
and threw them under themselves (as they attacked him first and foremost in his own body and soul and caused him such pain when he wrestled and fought with them that he sweated mild blood [Luc. 22:44],
But in the same he has also overcome us, and taken from us all their right and power, so that the devil, death, the law, and all hell have as little right to us who are in Christ as they have to him, and because they challenge and afflict us on this account, they are only the more indebted to Christ, and he has the more right to throw them under our feet.
But all these things are conceived and begun here in faith. For in our feelings and in this life we have not yet overcome them (otherwise we would neither fear nor be terrified of them everywhere, but cheerfully despise them), but must suffer that they are still strong in us, and do all harm to us. But faith must keep the field on this Christ, who sits above, and already has them in his power, so that they may not overcome us nor bring us under themselves, and on the last day also bodily and visibly redeem us from them, and make them manifest that they must be his footstool for eternity.
In this verse, then, we have briefly and abundantly stated both who this Lord and King is, what power and authority he has, and how his reign or rule is done; which is Christianity on earth, what and who it is, and how it is done, namely, that it should exist and remain forever, as long as the world stands, because Christ sits above, contrary to the world and the devil; as we then say in faith, "I believe a holy Christian church," etc.., but yet miraculously, and by secret divine power, is protected and preserved under the cross and suffering; and that this is actually Christianity, which suffers persecution for the sake of this Lord's name, faith and confession, and has the devil and the world as enemies on its account; that one does not make such a kingdom out of it, nor does one seek such a church, so as to rule bodily on earth, with external, worldly power, as the pope has led and has claimed and praised for such a regiment of the church; or, as the Anabaptists and such erroneous spirits dream, as if such a church should be brought together before the last day, where vain pious and Christians (as before all enemies through them also
bodily redeemed) should reign peacefully without all resistance and contestation. For this text clearly and powerfully says that as long as this Christ reigns on earth, enemies will remain forever, and it is certain that death will not be removed until the last day, when all his enemies will be removed at once.
V. 2. The scepter of your kingdom the Lord will send out of Zion.
83 In this verse he now describes where and in which place, and by what means or in what way this king is to begin and lead his kingdom. For since it is said that he shall reign among men on earth, where also his enemies are, it is necessary to show a place where his people are, where his kingdom is to be found or met, and by which it is to be recognized. For there must not be a lord or prince without a country; and, if he should reign on earth, he must not make it so secret and hidden that one should not see nor know where he reigns, but must be done in such a way that one knows who belongs to his kingdom and how one may come to it. Therefore there must also be some outward sign and way, so that it may be recognized: who else could know something about this kingdom, or come to it? Yes, how could it have enemies and be persecuted, if they neither knew about it nor learned about it? Now, above all, the hearts and consciences of the people who waited and hoped for this king and were to accept him, had to be assured by God where they should look for him and where he would show himself, so that they would be sure of the things and not miss, nor accept a false Messiah for the right one.
Therefore he says: "This is how it will be, and this will be the way and a certain sign, that your and our true God ("the Lord") will send or send out the scepter of your kingdom out of Zion, that is, out of this place in Jerusalem, where King David reigned, to whom also the promise was made clear and plain, that Christ would be born out of his flower and reign on his throne [2 Sam. 7, 12]. Therefore also God from the beginning has given these
He chose the place for it, even set apart the whole Jewish people from all the other nations of the earth, and placed them in this land, and instituted and established the whole priesthood and their worship for it; and in short, all that he did among them was done for the sake of the coming of Christ, that a certain place might be known where to wait for him.
Thus it is prophesied here in the summary, that first of all the Lord Christ should appear bodily in this place, and be present in his own person, and thus begin his reign there, according to the promise made to King David. Which he also hereby touches and indicates that it was thus said and decided by God that he should reign on his throne, and after that that he should spread his rule everywhere in the world by sending out the scepter, by which he should lead his rule and direct everything.
By giving this kingdom a scepter, he shows that it is to be an obvious regiment and an outwardly recognizable sign in which this kingdom will walk and stand. For just as the scepter is a public sign and document of royal or judicial rule and authority, so also this king shall bear a scepter, which may be seen openly and thereby recognize his kingdom.
But he clearly adds that it should be such a scepter that is sent out or goes out, that is, does not stay in one place, but goes on and on and comes. Now messenger runners belong to it. For if it is to be sent out and go forth, there must be people to carry or guide it, and to carry it on and on. So that it is not a stationary but a running scepter, and yet the beginning of such running or going out is to be to Zion or Jerusalem.
Therefore, this scepter is nothing else than the public preaching ministry, which the Lord Christ Himself began and then commanded to be extended through His messengers, the apostles and their descendants, until the last day [Ps. 19:5, 2 Cor. 5:20]. In this is his whole kingdom and regiment, as much as it can be seen outwardly and he can be seen in it.
can grasp. For he does not show or signify anything else here by which this king is to rule, except this scepter alone, and there is to be no other outward sign or emblem by which his kingdom may be known. For above
64] Enough has already been said that he will not rule with the sword or with bodily power and authority (like worldly kings and lords, in their regiment), but that just such worldly power and rule will be set against him. But he must also have a power, by which he rules and brings forth and maintains his kingdom. This is to be done only through the oral word or the ministry of preaching, so that it may resound among the people from this king and thus come into the hearts, so that he may be recognized and accepted.
89. But that this should happen is God's work and power, so that such a scepter, both of them, is sent forth (that is, the preaching of Christ continues and is spread) and is also accepted by the people that they are subject to and obedient to this king, although the power and authority of the world is opposed to it. Therefore he also speaks here: The Lord will send out this scepter, so that he himself will be present through his divine power and might, against the devil's and the world's fighting and raging, so that it will go and run unchecked and unobstructed, wherever and however far he wants. Now such a scepter is no more than the mere word or oral sermon, and a bodily voice; that is the armor and armor only, such mighty kingdom and power to approach, to increase and to maintain. Truly, a poor, weak, even futile armor, as it seems, against the power and authority of the world; and yet by it all that belongs to this kingdom is to be done and accomplished, that it may go and continue everywhere, that it may stand and penetrate against the enemies, and be subject to them (as the following part of this verse further says). For it has a strong backer and protector behind it, who drives it and holds it, who is called "the Lord"; he has strength and power enough against all devils and the world, and must have no other power, armor or weapons for it, but this sent out scepter, that is, the oral word or preaching ministry.
90 Therefore, he also calls it a scepter.
of his kingdom, or of his power, sceptrum potentiae, that is, by which he shall rule mightily and powerfully, that it may be called a power or strength of God (as St. Paul also calls the gospel Rom. 1, 16.), both, against the enemies, of which 77 ff]. is said, and also with his own. For by this scepter, as 89] is said, all things are directed that are to be done in Christendom, concerning the regiment of the Lord Christ, which is done very much differently from all other regiments on earth.
91. For he sets this very word, "the scepter of your kingdom," in distinction from all others, as they are also called, and gives to understand that he speaks of a new regiment, which does not go in a worldly way, like other lords and princes, or also like Moses' regiment, which must be driven and maintained with the sword and the fist, or with terror and dread of punishment; And what is to be preached or taught there, and done or lived, and by which it is to be protected, endure and remain, all this has already been ordered, and is in progress, so that this new king, nor the sending forth of his scepter, is not needed for it. But here a new one is to begin and be set up, namely such a scepter, which does not say, nor order or command from the outward, bodily being and doing, nor is to rule with bodily compulsion, nor, like Moses, with terror and driving of the law, but only a word or a sermon that proclaims how we are to be saved, that is, redeemed from sins and death, and brought to eternal righteousness and life through this Lord and King, to which no worldly rule nor even the law of Moses can help us.
For this reason this scepter has the price and title, Ps. 45:7, that he calls it "a straight or true scepter," as a beautiful white stick, most straight, equal and bad, without all branches and knots. This alone is the price of this preaching of the gospel. For such good, straight, equal, and well-ordered law is not to be found on earth, and all men, no matter how clever, wise, and highly learned they may be, are not able to establish it, so that there are not bends and knots, that is, various branches and twigs.
to break. For we also see in the Law of Moses, which was given and established by God, that Moses himself and all the prophets complain about it, that it would not work as it should, nor would it work among the people for which it was given. And lords and princes, councillors and all those who have to govern, have experienced that their law and order, which have been set up and made in the best way, still do not work as they would like, and need constant mending and tinkering, so that they can bring it about, and there are so many cases (which cannot be grasped or measured with laws, nor can they be known and seen beforehand), where the law must be bent and directed somewhat, according to which it sometimes wants to suffer the necessities of things and dealings.
For it can happen that the law wants to be too strong, and thus injustice or harm would be done, where it should be kept so tightly and exactly as it is set, that it must give way or ever be alleviated. Just as builders must do when they cut away only the roughest part of a tree or timber, and not allow themselves to be mistaken whether it is not straight and bad everywhere, and whether some chips or knots of branches remain, if it is only otherwise according to the measure or guideline. Or, like the masons, they do not pay attention to whether one or two stones in the wall go out too far or make a bend, if only the main wall conforms to the measure and lead and remains in the right direction. For the sake of such individual branches or bends (if one often cannot improve), one does not have to throw away the whole tree or slacken the construction.
(94) But such infirmities and defects are not here in this kingdom, but is even a like right cord, and hath no bend nor crook, and maketh all things straight and true; for it is called not our, but God's rule, or rod and scepter, and such law and righteousness as is Christ's, and is not in our doings or wisdom. For even if we ourselves were Moses, or David, or prophets, and were to make law and justice, and rule the people with it, nothing would come of it, for such coarse, uncut trees, full of boughs and knots, even if we were to forest-right and beat at it for a long time, and the cord so good, would not be able to be used.
than it could become. For we are too coarse, uneven pieces of wood and blocks, and in human life and being there is no other way; sometimes the cord must give way to the tree, and many things must be done that should not be, lest they be spoiled. But this rule and measure is on another, who has no defect, bend or fault, and his word is such truth and righteousness that it cannot be mended or improved, it goes straight through and makes a straight line without any bend or crookedness. For it is thus said [Marc. 16, 16.], "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Item [John 8:51], "He that keepeth my word shall never see death." In short, everything is placed on this Christ, so that no one may look for it in Himself or elsewhere, nor complain that it is too difficult or too much for him, that he cannot keep it, or that he must have something else.
95. summa, all other righteousnesses stand on our life and works; "whoever does these things (says Moses [3 Mos. 18, 5.]) will live by them" [Luc. 10, 28.But it is the tree with the coarse branches that rhymes nowhere according to the standard, and as one does it, so it will not go right; as Solomon also complains in his Ecclesiastes [Cap. 1, 14. 15.] everywhere; and even if one has worked long and done much, yet nothing is helped for the conscience, nor is the heart satisfied. But here, when God Himself takes it in hand and attacks it, and preaches to us, not of our works, but what He wants to do for us, proclaiming His righteousness, which is grace or forgiveness of sin through Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, all things are made right, so that we become competent and skillful for His kingdom, and such men as serve Him and are useful for all good.
(96) For this reason also such a building grows and continues (as he says here that this scepter is sent forth and runs), and is active and powerful, so that it creates and accomplishes what it is supposed to accomplish, converts and changes hearts, so that they cling to this King Christ, are voluntarily subject to him, and submit to him.
No other power or rule on earth could do this. For no kingdom has ever been brought and spread without sword or war and coercion, only by sending the scepter, and no country or people have ever willingly submitted to a foreign lord or king of their own. So also Moses with his law and regiment was never able to bring it further than among his people, the Jews, that it is neither accepted nor kept by the Gentiles until this day.
97 Therefore it cannot be understood by the same, what is said here and everywhere in the prophets [Isa. 2, 2. 11, 10.) that the Gentiles should fall with multitudes to this people; item, that the city of Jerusalem should become so great that its walls should stand at the end of the world; but this is it, as fact and experience testify, that this kingdom of Christ (begun in Zion or Jerusalem) is spread throughout the world, and this king, born of the Jewish people, is accepted everywhere, only through this word of the gospel preached by the apostles, which has gone into all the world, and is still going on, as the 19th Psalm says: "Their cords are in their mouths. Psalm, v. 5, says: "Their cord goes out into all the earth, and their speech to the end of the world"; and God makes this scepter or preaching ministry so powerful that thereby the hearts are torn out of their blindness and the devil's power, and brought to the right knowledge and obedience of God, that they become righteous, pious, holy and blessed, which neither Moses' law nor any other teaching could accomplish before.
For here he has established such a regiment, since he himself is present, and himself leads and drives, that it goes as it should go, as Ps. 22:32 says, "that one should preach his righteousness to the people who are to be born, that he should do it"; since it should once be said: Dominus fecit, since he himself is master, and (as one speaks) himself is the man. For what is done by others, or by command, is never done rightly; but what the Lord himself does, that goes and stands to be called done, and must be said to be God's work. Before that, he sent Moses and others, commanding and ordering many things to be done;
and yet nothing was done. Therefore I will come myself once and do it myself. How? By placing his Son Christ, with him of divine, omnipotent being, and by letting him shed his blood, die and rise again, and by preaching himself and giving the Holy Spirit from heaven, so that it may be preached and accepted strongly to the end. This is not the work of Moses or of any man, but his own. This is how it will be when he himself preaches and drives the preaching, and also does and creates what he preaches.
Notice, however, that he says that such a scepter should go out from Zion. For this is also such a necessary text as is to be found against all the rotten and erroneous spirits of the devil, that God hereby ordains a certain place on earth where this preaching of the gospel shall begin, and binds the ears and hearts of all men to know which is the right doctrine or word of God, and not to gape or flutter to and fro, nor to say, our preaching and worship in Assyria or in Babylon, or as the Jews said, in Samaria and Bethel etc., is also right, because we have the same God, and sit under the same heaven, under which you dwell. As now Mahomet's mob boasts, "We worship the true, one God, who created heaven and earth; just as the Jews also boast of the same true God who spoke to Moses etc.
100 But here let us ask: Where did such preaching or faith come from? Is it also the teaching (of the apostles) sent out from Zion by this King who sits at the right hand of God, of which the prophets proclaimed before, and of which Christ himself commanded his disciples after his resurrection, saying Luc. 24, 47. 48.: "You shall be my witnesses to the end of the world, preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins in my name among all nations, and beginning these things in Jerusalem"? Not in Bethlehem, where he was born, nor in Nazareth or Capernaum, where he was brought up and lived, not one here and another there, but the preaching shall go forth publicly from Jerusalem.
It also happened that the Holy Spirit was sent down from heaven and appeared in no other place than there. For he did not send forth such preaching in a corner or in an uncertain place, but among the people, and in the place where the king David (to whom Christ promised) had his royal throne; not secretly or among a few, but by public preaching and visible manifestation of the Spirit. Now no other doctrine has gone forth from Zion than that which we have and preach in the four evangelists, and preached by the holy apostles.
10l. Therefore this is the touchstone for judging all doctrine, that one may take heed and see whether it is this doctrine which is spread out of Zion through the apostles, or not. As for the doctrine of Mahomet with his Turks; item, the doctrine of Pope and his monks, we should and can cheerfully condemn it, because it does not come from Zion, nor from the Gospel, but from their Alkoran or decree, or from their own heads and dreams. Likewise also our Jews, who reject this Christ and his apostle's preaching, and now seek and hope for another Messiah.
102) Therefore, all other spiritualities are rejected, which seek and pretend special enlightenment and secret revelation from heaven, besides the common preached word of the gospel, when the apostles themselves preached nothing else but this public sermon to the people, which was commanded to them from heaven to preach in all the world until the end [Matth. 28, 19. Marc. 16, 15]. That is why they are also called apostles (as the word "send" is used here), that is messengers, or in very old German, messenger (therefore they are also called twelve messengers [2 Cor. 5, 20.)), as they did not produce their sermon by themselves, but received it through the evident sending and command of the Holy Spirit, and preached it to the world. Therefore we are to remain in this alone, and neither hear nor accept any other doctrine or preaching; for this alone (as [§§ 94. 95) said) is the right doctrine, which gives right understanding and comfort to the heart, and makes just and blessed in the sight of God.
Thus you see how this king's rule is done, who sits at the right hand of God in an invisible being, but still visibly rules and works on earth through outward, visible signs, which are primarily the preaching of the gospel and the holy sacraments, item, the public confession and fruits of the believed gospel. These are the true signs by which the kingdom of the Lord Christ and the Christian church can actually be recognized and met, namely, where such a scepter goes, that is, the preaching of the gospel, which was carried into the world by the apostles and which we received from them. Where this is had and held, that is certainly the Christian church and the kingdom of Christ, however small or few such a group may be. Again, those who do not keep and practice these things, or even persecute them (as the papal authorities do), are not to be considered the Christian church, nor are they to be heard, even though they most gloriously and defiantly use the name and title of it and boast that they are the heirs of the apostles' chairs. For they do not speak the same word and preach the same sermon; therefore their boasting is not valid and will not help them, but rather condemn them for sitting in the place and office of the apostles.
Zion" or Jerusalem was also the place chosen by God for this scepter and kingdom of Christ to go out, and had the glory that all the Gentiles had to receive it from them. But since they did not want to accept or keep the word that God gave them first of all, but persecuted it, and drove out and killed the apostles, God also reversed it with them, so that both the place and the whole people were devastated and rejected, and all their defiance and glory was taken away from them. And yet the same true word and gospel that came out of Zion remains until the last day. Thus God also preserves His Church, which was planted by the apostles and has come down to us from them, and yet rejects and condemns the Pope and his followers, even though they possess and hold the same See.
Rule in the midst of your enemies.
Here he shows what kind of power and authority this king's scepter is supposed to have, and he calls it the king's scepter.
the land and people where it will come, and where he will lead and exercise his regiment or rule. For he shall "rule" mightily by his scepter, and in addition he shall exercise such rule "among his enemies". Not only does it say (as in the first verse above) that he shall have enemies, so that his kingdom shall be contested from without, as by strangers, but also within and among those where his kingdom goes, there shall be enemies who shall set themselves against him. Help God, what kind of regiment will this be? What lord or prince could rule in his kingdom or principality, if not only strangers and neighbors, but also his citizens and subjects were to be hostile to him, and he could not provide himself with anything other than all unfaithfulness and wickedness? Now it says here not otherwise than that this king shall rule and reign, not outside nor beside, but "in the midst of his enemies," so that he shall be surrounded with enemies, and in the midst of the ring all shall be full of enemies, and sets no other sign where Christ shall reign, and where his church shall be found, but among enemies. Who would seek such a thing here, or believe that it would thus stand and be preserved?
106. The world praises the Turks' and Pabst's regiment, since it is quiet and they rule in peace and obedience, feared and honored by their subjects; as has happened until now, when a powerless priest or monk could, with a small piece of paper, not more than a finger long and wide, enforce and compel all lords and princes, however proud and powerful they were, as he only wanted, and no one was allowed to publicly protest against some Plätting 1) nor to harm a hair of his head, because he wanted to be cursed under hell, and also be deposed and chased away from lands and people. This was truly a beautiful, delicious rule for the world, and there is no better one for it, because God punishes one bad guy by another.
But now, when the gospel has been brought to light and is running again, everything is stirred up and agitated with hostility, just like the waves when Christ was sitting in the ship [Matth. 8, 24], and all the world complains about discord, strife, rebellion, and the like.
1) Plätting plate carrier, monk.
and all kinds of troubles, blame all this on no one but the dear Gospel, and thus make this doctrine highly embittered, blasphemed, and detestable to everyone, as if nothing else but such vain misery had come from it, which had never been before. And now also princes, lords and noblemen, who are above all good and freedom, so that they are all free of papal coercion, plagues and terror, and have also become rich from the gospel, thank him for persecuting both preachers and the doctrine, and would gladly even exterminate them, so that they, without all gospel and God's word, would only live and do what they desire. Well, what is to be done about it? The gospel must suffer this, for the prophet has clearly proclaimed here that this king and his kingdom would have to reign in the midst of enemies, and that he would set this as a sign: Wherever this scepter or message comes and goes, there will be hostility and resistance everywhere, both from without and within, and so (as the old Simeon prophesies over the infant [Luc. 2, 34.]) this Christ must be a sign or mark that is opposed, but without all his guilt.
(108) For what is it that one cries out in such a hostile manner, 1) "Wherever the gospel goes, strife, discord, and rebellion arise? Who sows such things but the devil and his comrades? But what is this sermon for, or what can it do that the devil and the world are so wicked? What does it do that one could justly blame him, and therefore someone should be hostile to him and persecute him? Nothing, except that it wants to bring people out of their darkness and blindness to the right knowledge of God, and shows how one should truly be rid of sin, saved from death, God's wrath and all evil, become eternally righteous, alive and blessed. Do no harm or damage to anyone, neither to body nor goods, let all regiments, offices and estates on earth go and remain in their essence, unhindered and unweakened, yes, confirming and
1) "feindlich" as an adverb occurs in Luther only in the meaning of vkUeinentkr, gar sehr, (Dietz). Cf. St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, 1392; vol. Ill, 161, Z16. idi6.Col. 208, 829. idiä. Vol. VIII, 1002, tz 2.
To honor them means to be obedient to them and to keep peace, even to suffer injustice and violence, so that no one can have any cause to complain about this teaching. What then shall it do that thou wilt not suffer it? Is it because of this that you have caused strife and rebellion, that you rage and rage against it without any cause and right, as a senseless devil?
Yes, say now our clever ones: We do not persecute Christ, nor the gospel; for we are also Christians, have the holy Scriptures and the gospel, and want to keep the Christian church and faith, and it behooves us not to suffer the heretics and apostates and disobedient etc. Here is first great holiness, that under the appearance and name, as of the Gospel and Christ's friends and lovers, they can persecute Christ and his Christians. Yes, the world has now become so pious and holy that no one can be found whom one may call an enemy of the gospel and of Christ, or punish with God's word, even though they prove themselves to be the worst enemies by deed, chasing away and persecuting pious preachers and innocent people who have done nothing but believe and live according to Christ's word and command; make the churches and preaching stands empty and desolate; want nothing preached without what they like to hear; believe and live like the Epicureans and swine, and want to do everything they desire, freely, unpunished and unhindered; and yet want to call all obedient to the holy church, pious, Christian gentlemen and friends of the gospel.
I have also heard one of these excellent, holy men who said that people were being wronged, that no man had been hostile to the Gospel. O excellent friendship! How could the devil come to the point, but that he might persecute the gospel under such pretenses, torment and murder Christians, and then wipe his mouth, be beautiful and holy, and be called a friend of the gospel and of Christianity, and if he were punished for it, would still have the right to rage and rage, cry and complain, that one was doing him wrong, and speaking against the Christian church, one was attacking the authorities, and (as some say, if one were to ignore their public
What should they do? Should they be ordered to believe against Christ and the Word, and live and rage as much as they want? Yes, that is what they should be ordered to do, that they should believe and live against Christ and his word, rage and rage as they wish. And we should not consider them enemies, but be called the Lord of mercy, and condone their wickedness with our silence; or if we did not, we would have to bear the guilt of causing enmity, strife and discord.
But such let them go. For that they are enemies of the Lord Christ and his kingdom does not bear much witness; their own actions prove it all too clearly. And indeed, they do it so roughly that they (praise God!) have also almost lost the pretense. For they themselves must confess that our doctrine is right and the truth, and must now be ashamed of their former doctrine and nature. And yet they are so desperately wicked that they run headlong against it, and will neither hear nor suffer the evil, and afterward blame the gospel for causing trouble and misfortune, which they themselves do. But so it goes: what the devil and the world can do evil, the dear gospel and the pious Christians must have done.
112 But I say this so that one may not be surprised or astonished at the common anger against the gospel, which both the wise and the unwise are now blowing and crying out. What is the meaning of such a misguided nature, discord and rumor? Before, there was such a beautiful peace and a fine, quiet life. Could one not preach so that such disruption and indignation would not arise? Come on, what are you talking to me about? Talk to this David about it. If he had said that his kingdom should be among friends, we would gladly have seen it. For we also would gladly trust that peace would be everywhere, and that everyone would accept the gospel, so that we would not suffer persecution. But what is lacking? Unless such things cannot be obtained from the world, and it will not let us have peace, but we must take nothing but enmity for love and friendship, and strife and persecution for peace. Who can have peace longer than his neighbor wills? That is why quarrels and
The Christians must neither give advice nor do anything about it, but suffer alone, and bear the blame for it, being called disobedient and rebellious.
There is no one but the devil who does this in the world, but the true arch-enemy of Christ and Christianity, who cannot suffer his lies and wickedness to be attacked and weakened by the gospel. Therefore he must rumble and stir up everything, make hearts bitter and full of fierce hatred against Christ, and fight with all his might and power, as much as is in him, so that no one will come to Christ and be saved.
(114) There are now some smart people who have started to mend things, want to advise and settle disputes, and pretend that one should give way and give in on both sides. We let them do and try what they can, grant them the effort; but if they make the devil pious and one with Christ, they are the first. But I think that such patchwork (as Jesus tells Sirach in 22, v. 7) is like patching up broken pieces. There have been many cobblers who have done this, but they have worked in vain, and both wire and stitch have been lost. In other matters, which concern our work, or ceremonies and such outward things, one may compare and patch up what one can; but as far as the faith and Christ's kingdom are concerned, where one wants to bend his scepter and make it uneven, he wants neither better nor patches. And even if one subjects himself to it, he only makes it worse by losing it; for this scepter should and must remain whole and straight, without any breaks and gaps, as the rule and measure by which one should believe and live.
There is no need for them to look at things only from the outside, as they are before their eyes, and what we are and do, since they should first see what the thing is and what it is. If it were man's doing and man's action, and if it were in our power to do and not to do in this, as in other matters of the world and government, then I would also confidently advise and help with defense and punishment, so that one would have to become one in these matters. But because we
hear and see that it is the kingdom and scepter of this Lord who sits at the right hand of God, and God calls him to rule among his enemies - who are we to master and teach this Lord to yield and give way to his enemies, the devil and the world? It is not said that he, but all the world, yes, all creatures, should yield to him and let him rule, or, if they do not want to, they should lie under his feet forever.
Therefore, do not swear to such a patch, and let him do it; he will see how to keep his scepter straight. But if we do not accept it, and if our nature, rule, order and peace are torn apart because of it, we must not blame or thank anyone but ourselves. Christians should not be afraid of this, nor fall away from Christ, if we see such trouble, but rather be strengthened and comforted by it. For it is not an evil sign, but the very emblem of the kingdom of Christ, when the devil thus begins to rage and to rumble, and drives and incites the world to rage and to rage, where this preaching of Christ is concerned, that he alone is the Lord and Savior, that they persecute and murder men with sword, fire, water, etc., for no other cause, unless they confess this Lord and are obedient to him.
The devil is not to be blamed for this, for he does not like it when his power and obedience are weakened, and he has to suffer that a stronger one comes over him (as Christ says Luc. 11, 22), and takes away his armor etc.; this cannot happen peacefully, nor without rumbling and unrest. Therefore he rumbles and rumbles, and defends himself, because he can; and if he can no longer, he cries out about disobedience and riot. But it is right. For this is why Christ is a Lord and "came to destroy the devil's kingdom" (says the Scripture [1 John 3:8]). Therefore he himself says Matth. 10, 34. ff: "You should not think that I came to send peace on earth; I did not come to send peace, but the sword", and so "that the son is against the father, the daughter against the mother, and a man's enemies must be his own household".
118. what can be used for greater discord and
For if not only one country, one city, one citizen and neighbor is against the other, but in one house, father and son, mother and daughter are against each other, and a man must separate from his nearest and dearest friends, be segregated and persecuted, and become disobedient to his fatherly or governing authorities, to whom he otherwise owes all obedience in their rule, for Christ's sake, lest he be obedient to the devil? But what is to be done? It cannot and must not be otherwise. It is said (say the jurists and wise men in worldly matters): Fiat justitia et pereat mundus, let what is right be done, and let the world perish because of it. How much more must such things be said and kept in these high heavenly things and regiments, that the kingdom of Christ and his obedience may stand, though all the world should perish thereat; as also shall at last come to pass.
119 But this is said unto us, first, that we may be prepared to suffer, because we hear that in the kingdom of Christ we must live among enemies. For Christ is not the one who starts this strife and makes enmity or discord, but must suffer it from his enemies; and it is not the opinion that we should set ourselves physically against our enemies, as the Anabaptists and other rebels intend. For Christ has nothing to do with such worldly power and rule in his kingdom, and we Christians cannot beat the devil and the world with bodily force or weapons, nor bring them under us, but they are far superior to us in this, and have and hold us with body and goods in their power. And we must not hope that they will keep us well in their kingdom and show us much friendship, but should provide us with nothing else than that they will play along with us, that we know and feel that we have enemies, and all kinds of torture and death, sword and fire await us from them, therefore we must consider the suffering here and surrender in patience.
120) But the least suffering that the devil brings upon us through the world is when he attacks Christianity outwardly and with bodily weapons, such as the sword, the candle, and the pestle.
ker, robbery of goods and body to it. But this is much more serious, when he himself drives inwardly, attacking, torturing and tormenting the hearts with his lost fiery arrows, that is, with the terror and fear of sin and God's wrath, since he gives man, who is otherwise stupid and fearful, a little drink, not of bitter wormwood and gall, but which is called the fear of hell; and leads him into a bath, where he lies as in a fiery furnace, that his heart may melt; as he himself did to Christ in the garden, that he had to sweat mild blood [Luc. 22, 44.]. This is the true suffering, which surpasses all torture and suffering, because Christians have to endure it and run through the spears; as St. Paul complains [1 Cor. 15, 31. 2 Cor. 4, 11.] that he dies daily and feels the same death in his body, that such a one should rather suffer all bodily torture and death.
But nothing else comes of it, we have to serve the devil. Because he must suffer and feels that Christ wants to step on his head through us (as Genesis 3:15 says), we must also suffer so that he shoots his poison at us and bites with all his might into our heels, bites and stabs with death and hell, and so that it hurts us and goes through our hearts.
122. But here we are also shown and given comfort and help, namely, that we should believe and be certain, even if we have to suffer and be scratched, bitten and stung, both inwardly and outwardly, that this King of ours should reign and have the upper hand over and against all these enemies, devils, sin, death, the world, which are not primarily our enemies but his, and which afflict us for his sake; And so he shall reign and prevail, that in his Christians, though they be exceedingly afraid and weak, and lie under death and hell, yet he will be mighty through his consolation, power and victory, joy and life, against the devil's terrors, sin, fear, and anguish of death; and they shall overcome and prevail in such warfare by faith and consolation of this word, that he is the Lord and sovereign, even in the midst of his enemies: so that they may
1) that is, poisoned.
Sin, if it terrifies and afflicts them, shall not condemn them, and death shall have no power over them; but in this Lord they shall have forgiveness of sins and redemption from death, that is, eternal righteousness, life and joy. For this purpose he gave and sent this scepter (the word of the gospel), and also maintains it, so that he will stand by the Christians in their suffering, weakness, struggle and anxiety, and protect and finally redeem them.
123) Secondly, for the consolation of Christianity, the victory and dominion against the outward persecution of the devil and his scales, who have in mind to dampen and destroy both the gospel and the church or Christianity. And indeed the devil does such work, both through the tyrants with bloodshed and violence, and through his mobs and false Christians with distortion and falsification of doctrine; or in each case with shameful ingratitude, excess and contempt of the word, that it seems as if it would soon be over with the gospel and the Christian church. But so that this does not happen, this saying should be good for us, since God wants this king with his scepter and means to rule, let the devil or the world rage and rage against it as they can, and fall or remain as they please.
124 Experience has proven this enormously since the time of the apostles and the first church. For the world has always tried and proven itself honestly against this king, but especially the Roman Empire, when it was in its best nature and highest capacity, which has set itself against Christianity with all seriousness, and so attacked that it is called attacked. And if one were to count what Christian blood has been shed by it, I think that the city of Rome alone should have more than twice a hundred thousand martyrs, for there lie in one churchyard alone ten thousand martyrs and six and forty bishops. And it is written that in one day in the Roman Empire six times a hundred thousand Christians were executed.
(125) This was a serious attack on the matter, and would truly end it, and make this David a liar, and set the contradiction: Thou shalt not rule; and
It could be seen as if it were so. But it was not done so soon. For they still let this Christ remain with his kingdom. And as long as this defiance and comfort remains under the left teat, that Christ is believed to be seated at the right hand of God, and that he is commanded by God to reign, then he shall remain well in the sight of all the world. For they have not yet been able to throw him down, nor to destroy his kingdom. And I hope that the Roman Empire alone will deliver up to God twenty times a hundred thousand martyrs on the last day, without what the Jews executed before, and what the Turks executed afterwards in large numbers, and what Christians died in the cradle or otherwise.
But the pope has only done the best to weaken the kingdom of Christ and to strengthen and increase the devil's kingdom (but under Christ's and the church's name), so that there is no doubt in my mind that he will deliver countless more souls to the devil than he has sacrificed to Christ. As he himself, as a prophet, testifies about his own neck, about himself, and unashamedly, as a public and by himself known and condemned Antichrist and devil apostle, proclaims such glory, and writes in his praiseworthy book: 1) If all the world would see a pope lead innumerable heaps of souls to the devil in the abyss of hell, nevertheless, no one shall punish him, nor shall defend him, and say: Why do you do this?
127 Now this is what is meant by grabbing hold of things and making them so that this King, Christ, does not reign. But what have they all accomplished? The Christians have died in Christ and have their eternal life, and their name is praised and glorified forever; but those who wanted to suppress it lie in ashes with their power and dominion, and must suffer eternal shame and torment for it. And the mighty imperial see of Rome has left it undamped, indeed, has fallen to the ground just because of it, and has probably been burned three times and turned back, and Christianity has only increased, grown and spread from its persecution, until they themselves have had to repent of the gospel.
1) The "laudable book" is the jus eanonieum.
and become Christians. That these remaining fires, the Turk and the pope, and what is attached to him, which are now subjected to dampen the gospel with their smoke, must also be completely reduced to ashes and powder. The pope with his triple crown and power has already begun to fall down with all shame and mockery, and is also being kicked into the mud by his own relatives, and is running with the Plätting regiment to the end.
And what more can be said of this? That this kingdom of Christ alone exists and is maintained by divine, almighty power and authority may well be grasped from the fact that baptism, the sacrament, the preaching chair, faith, holy scripture and the confession of the name of Christ are still in the world to this day. For if this were not the case, the devil would be so powerful and strong, and such an evil enemy, and would have tried and worked on it for so long, that he would have long since suppressed and eradicated everything a thousand times over, so that in the wide world and under the sun there would be no baptismal font, no altar, no preaching chair, indeed, no confession of Christ, and we would now know less to say about him than the children know about the Tatars or the red Jews.
But now a baptized Christian still lives on earth, and a preaching stand still stands, yes, that the name of Christ still remains somewhat known, against the devil's fierce anger and rage, that is vain high, heavenly power of this Lord. And so this article, that he sits at the right hand of God with his power, is not only testified by faith, but also by public experience. And from this it is once again powerfully proven that this Christ must be a real, true God, that he has such power and strength to maintain his kingdom against this mighty spirit, even against sin and death. For this is not a foreign or granted power (that only the Father does this), but his own power and authority; as he speaks here, that he should not rule through the help or protection of another, but himself (as a God), through his word or sent scepter, over and against all power of all enemies, whether in heaven, on earth, or in hell.
130 Therefore, whoever wants to stay in front of the
If anyone is afraid of the terror and dread of the world, and of the devil's wrath and raging, lest he fear to death and despair of Christ and his kingdom, he may hold to this verse and defy the present enemies of the gospel by trying to see if they will be the first to destroy him. If they do so, let us trust in them and worship them for this Lord. But I hope they will leave it a little while longer, since the others have left it, so that he may remain before them, as he has remained until now, and let us sing this verse together with our descendants even longer. For if it had been extinguished, it would have been extinguished a thousand years ago by the mighty empire of the world, against which the present kings and lords are nothing. Now they have left this psalm behind them without their thanks, yes, with their raving and raging they have only brought it further, and we have to thank them that we know about this Lord. The enemies themselves see this and know it well; they still want to fight against this rock with their mad head, as if they were the people who could or should overthrow it, and they will not stop until they have run off their heads and lie down in the ashes with their power and authority, just as Jerusalem and Rome have done.
V. 3. After your victory, your people will willingly sacrifice to you in holy adornment.
(131) He has described both the person and power of this king and where and how he is to rule. Now he tells what kind of people he will have and how they will oppose him. For he said nothing before but of vain enemies, and showed that he would have enemies wherever he went with his scepter, and that especially there his kingdom should begin and his scepter go out, that is, in Zion and among the Jewish people. These were the ones who were to be his dear children and friends, and who received and accepted him with all honors as the true Messiah and King, who had been promised to them by God, and for whom they had waited so long. But now he comes to them, not with worldly, royal splendor and power, but preaching and preaching to them alone.
they will not and do not want to be; yes, they become his bitterest enemies, began to persecute him, and cannot stop until they have brought him to the cross and killed and driven away his apostles or messengers, just for the sake of such preaching that he wants to be the King of Israel and the Son of God, until they themselves fall to the ground because of it and are destroyed. So it had to happen to this king that his own people, especially the rulers and the best core of them, did not want to hear him or suffer, as John Cap. 1, 11. says: "He came into his own possession and his own did not receive him. And the prophets (as Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea) had clearly proclaimed beforehand that his own people would fall away from him, and not respect him, so that he also had to let them go, and send his scepter among the Gentiles.
Because it was said of him that he would have enemies everywhere, and that his Jews themselves would fall from him first, one would be surprised if he wanted to take people and nations. For who would be willing to join such a king, to whom he would see all the world at enmity, and his own people set themselves against him? Or, how is it to be hoped that foreign people (as we are Gentiles), who have known nothing of him, should accept him, if his own cannot stand him? Now the prophet says in this verse that this king will nevertheless have a people who will be his people, even in the midst of his enemies. And gives us the comfort that there should always be and remain in the world a holy Christian church, as the article of our faith teaches us, that is, such a group (whoever and wherever they are), who cling to this Lord with one accord, publicly leading and confessing his scepter and word in the world.
133 And this very verse is set against the great, excellent glory of the synagogue, or the Jewish people, and against the great trouble that the apostles and first Christians had to see and suffer, that they had to separate themselves from the people and preach against those who were called God's people, chosen and set apart by God Himself with the law, temple, priesthood, promises etc. As they also stubbornly and proudly insisted on it
and defied as if no other people should be or could be, and therefore so hostilely and horribly persecuted those who believed in this Christ and preached about Him to the Gentiles that they should be saved through Him, without the Law of Moses, as apostates from God's people, disobedient to God, tearing apart and destroying His law, priesthood, the beautiful service of God and all God's order, and for this reason, as blasphemers and rebels, should be condemned and executed by God.
Against such an uproar, he strengthens the believers or Christians here, so that they should not turn their minds to whether they would see the Jewish synagogue fall away from Christ, and his Christians be persecuted by them, with a perfect pretense, as God's people and in God's name, but know that it is no longer the Jews, but this little group that believes in Christ, that is to be the right people of God. And that hereby the synagogue is given leave, and the little song of separation is sung, which is called: Let go what will not remain; and: As thou wilt, so will I. For because they neither like nor want this Lord and King, who is promised and given to them by God above all others, that they should boast of Himself to the highest degree in the sight of all the world, but go away and become His enemies, and so turn away, that those who should be His people do not want to be, and (as St. Paul Apost. Paul Apost. 13, 46. says) consider themselves unworthy of eternal life, so he also turns it around with them, that they also should not be worthy of him, and so that now is not God's people, so is called God's people, and again, that is God's people, which was not God's people, as the prophet Hosea Cap. 2, 23. says. And because they are no longer His people, all their glory and deeds, worship, temple, priesthood, shall be no more, and they themselves, with their lands and people, shall be rejected. For no nation, no priesthood, no worship, no life shall be of any value in the sight of God, except that which is of this king; as it is said hereafter of his new priesthood, and here of God's new servants and worship.
So it has always gone, and so it still goes in the world, since one argues about it,
which is called God's people, the Christian church, the service of God, that those who most gloriously lead the appearance and glory of the same are not; and again, those who are, must be persecuted by those, and do not have the name. As hitherto and still the whole papacy alone want to be called the church, boast of the apostles' descendants, heirs and possessors of the same see etc., and yet are nothing else but just the right opponents and enemies of Christ, persecutors and destroyers of his kingdom or the Christian church, as their public, known deed proves and testifies.
(136) Therefore, as to who are the people of God, or the church of Christ, there is no other rule or test by which it can be said and concluded with certainty, except this alone: where there is a company of those who accept the word of the Lord, teach and confess it purely against those who persecute it, and suffer for it what they ought, as we shall hear. Now this is that he saith, Thy people shall willingly sacrifice unto thee; as if he should say, Though thine own people fall from thee, and all the world be set against thy kingdom, yet shalt thou have a people, who shall gladly receive thee, and be glad that they may be thy people.
137 And by the word "willingly offering" he describes what kind of people it will be, or what kind of people they must be, who are this Lord's people or his Christian church; item, what the worship of them is, so that he distinguishes or separates them from the seeming false church and false worship. For first of all, he calls such a people spontaneous, who are unconstrained and without hypocrisy, "willingly" and with pleasure and love obedient to and subject to this Lord, and are thus minded that they want to remain with him and not let themselves be torn away from him, regardless of such annoying examples that the greater and best part of the world, the wise, scholars, saints, and those who want to be called God's people, deny him and blaspheme and rage against his word; Not to be terrified nor disparaged by any violence, oppression, terror, persecution or suffering, whether from the world or from the devil himself; and, in sum, to hold fast to Christ, that they be not vexed nor hindered,
They must despise everything, be it evil or good, or ever overcome it, and thus remain firmly and always with this Lord, even if they have to be alone and stand against all men on earth, and forfeit everything they have, property, honor, friendship, life and limb, because of it.
This is why the word "willing" is used to indicate the quality and power of this kingdom, as opposed to all other regimes on earth, whether they are called the emperor's or Moses', secular or spiritual regimes, where people are to be made religious with laws and commandments, and with coercion or punishment against the disobedient. As one must do in the worldly government, which rules externally over life and limb. For men are wicked, and would not be obedient of themselves unless they were compelled by force, and kept in fear with sword, gallows, and all manner of punishment, that they should be obedient, though they would not, and should forbear that which they would otherwise willingly do. So also in the Law of Moses, and in the regiment that goes not only over the body, but also over the conscience, and demands how one should live against God and be obedient to Him, this is also done so that it forces people and drives them to obedience, with the threat of God's wrath and eternal death and damnation, as well as temporal punishments and plagues.
But none of these regiments is able to make such people willingly and gladly obedient and pious, and no force or power on earth can bring them to that point. They may do this by enforcing outward discipline and obedience; as it should and must be, that naughty, coarse people are thus kept in check, and the youth are accustomed and instructed by various commandments and laws, that they may live in a fine manner, chastely and obediently before the world; for which purpose the whole worldly government with its orders, rights and arts is directed.
Item 140: If it comes to teaching people what God wants from us, and preaching the Law or the Ten Commandments, urging punishment, and luring or tempting the good things promised to the pious, some may still be tempted by it.
are moved to attack each other and want to be pious and serve God, practicing the works of the law with diligence and earnestness; just as Paul did before he was converted and became a Christian. But this is still vain hypocrisy and only outward piety, enforced by the law, which is not valid before God; there is still no heartfelt love and desire of the heart for the law, no true inward obedience, fear, faith nor knowledge of God. Yes, such people do not know and do not understand that the law demands such perfect, heartfelt obedience, cannot see or recognize their sin and disobedience, see the law only through a curtain, and always remain blind, so that they never understand what God demands of them and how far they are from it.
141. But when the law reaches its highest point and accomplishes its best and most noble work, namely, that it brings man to the realization that he sees and understands how God's commandment demands perfect, heartfelt obedience from him, and how he neither keeps nor can keep it, and thus feels nothing but sin and God's wrath in and over him: Only then does the right, horrible disobedience to God arise, and he feels well how nature is not able, nor can it be brought by laws, to be obedient to God from the heart and willingly, but the contradiction is found. For when it is condemned by the law, cast under God's wrath and condemned to hell, it begins to become hostile to the law and harbors a terrible, bitter anger and hatred against God; it falls into blasphemy, despair and eternal death, unless it is helped out of it by the gospel of Christ.
Since it is said of this kingdom of Christ that he shall have such a people and people who are willingly and gladly obedient, it is thus sufficiently indicated that he shall not rule in a worldly manner, nor bring the people to himself by sword or bodily force and keep them in his obedience, as the kings and lords of the earth do. Nor is his rule like Moses' or the law's rule, because the latter, as has been said, only drives, frightens and torments people with the fear of divine wrath and punishment, so that they flinch before God and finally despair,
990 Eri. io, iis-iis. Interpretations on the Psalms. W. v. nsv-mo. 991
and therefore is nothing else than what St. Paul calls it in the other [Epistle to the^j Corinthians Cap. 3, 7, an office of death.
143. and in sum, he shows that this king must rule in a different way, and establish such a kingdom, in which he makes this whole present nature new or different, and restores all the damage in which human nature has fallen. For the same is so utterly corrupted by the same fall of inheritance that it neither wants nor is able to be obedient to God; as St. Paul Rom. 8, 7. says: "To be carnally (or naturally) minded is enmity against God" etc. And even if she practices outward works of the law, the right knots, evil desires, unbelief, secret disgust, anger and hatred against God always remain in the heart, until it finally breaks out in public disobedience, contempt and blasphemy against God, or final despair.
Since there is no ability in this entire human nature to obey God, and God still wants the Ten Commandments and His obedience to be kept, He must intervene so that the old disobedient, corrupt nature is changed and made new, and so that hearts, minds and spirits are created that willingly and with pleasure show perfect obedience to God. Now how does this happen, and what is it that brings it about? Nothing else, but (as stated in the previous verse) the scepter sent forth, that is, the preaching of the Gospel, by which this king reigns and does everything. And herewith it is shown what kind of word and preaching it should be, which should have such power that people are drawn to come willingly, which otherwise cannot be done by any power or force on earth; namely, that does not, as the law does, drive upon us with demands of things we cannot do, nor afflict us with dread, terror, and condemnation, but shows us counsel, comfort, and help against these things, so that we do not remain under God's wrath and condemnation (to which we are condemned by the law), but instead obtain God's grace and salvation, both from sin and death, and receive such power that we live in new, right obedience to God.
Now this is the sweet, joyful preaching of the gospel of Christ, which proclaims,
What we have from this King; namely, that although we were born and live in sins and under God's wrath, condemned to eternal death by the law, yet God had mercy on us and sent his Son Christ into the flesh, born of a virgin without sin, and gave him to us so that we might have forgiveness of sins, be redeemed from death, have eternal righteousness and eternal life; All this by pure grace and mercy, without any merit on our part, for the sake of Christ alone, who paid for our sin with his suffering and death, reconciled the Father, and by his resurrection overcame death and redeemed it in himself, appropriating and giving all these things to us.
To this end he promises and gives us the Holy Spirit, and through him works in us that our hearts may take such comfort, and so begin to be obedient to God, giving strength and power against sin and the terror of death, and protecting and preserving us against all the power of the devil. For this is why he ascended to heaven, that he might rule in us mightily, so that we might overcome sin, death and the devil. And even if we still have sin in us, and cannot do such obedience purely and perfectly as we should, it should not be imputed to us, because he as our mediator and high priest forbids and represents us to the Father [Rom. 8, 34. 1 Joh. 2, 1.], as we will hear later about his priesthood.
(147) Behold, by such preaching we come to be his people, and to be such people (as this text says) as willingly obey God. For when we hear that God is no longer angry with us, nor condemns us for our sins, as we deserve, but offers and gives us His grace and mercy, then the heart, which before fled from God and was hostile to Him, can have a childlike, joyful confidence in Him. And when a person is thus comforted and uplifted by faith, he gets new thoughts, courage and mind towards God, begins to love Him and to call upon Him from the heart and to wait for help in all troubles; he gets desire and love for His commandments, is ready to do anything for the sake of God.
and suffer what he should. For he is now governed by the Holy Spirit, so that he may not be driven or compelled by law or punishment, as before. And even though obedience is still weak, even impure and imperfect, and there is still much disobedience, he takes comfort in grace and forgiveness through Christ, and to this end he struggles and resists the sinful inclinations through the help and strength of the Holy Spirit and overcomes them, until both sin and death cease altogether and are put to death in this sinful and mortal body.
So you see in this such a kingdom of this Christ, in which he makes new the whole human nature by divine power and strength; so that in us a new light, and right complete knowledge of God and new courage grows, so that we are redeemed from blindness, unbelief, evil desire and all works of disobedience and live pure, without sin and death, eternally righteous and blessed with God. This begins here in this life with the Christians, but will only become perfect in that life after the resurrection, when the whole nature, body and soul, will live in pure, eternal obedience to God.
And from this is also to be seen the power of this preaching of the gospel, so that Christ thereby proves himself above all power and authority of the world and of all creatures, that he, without any coercion or outward power, by the word alone draws hearts to himself and "brings them to his obedience" out of the power of the devil, sin and death (to which all men, except Christ, must be eternally subject and captive), and brings them to eternal, divine freedom, righteousness and life. All these great and excellent things are accomplished through the preaching of the gospel, which may be considered small and without power, as the voice and word of a man, but he does it through invisible, divine power, and works in the heart through the Holy Spirit, so that St. Paul calls the gospel "a power of God that saves everyone who believes in it" [Rom. 1:16].
150 This is what has been said about this king's people or his Christianity, namely, those who have been brought here by the word of the gospel, so that they may willingly believe through faith.
cling to him. From this it follows what is the right worship of them, which the prophet here indicates by the word "willingly offering", and thus shows the worship of the New Testament. For since this is to be a new kingdom and a new people, there must also be new worship, in which Christ has begun to change the nature, so that they serve him in right, willing obedience. Therefore he sets this word against the worship of the Old Testament, and against all other worship of the world, which is not in Christ. As the world always and still pretends and praises many and excellent worship services, and all worship services are called what each one thinks of, and yet none of them is valid before God, but everything is rejected herewith.
For all such worship is only in outward works, of which they think that if they do them much, it must please God, when inwardly in the heart there is no right knowledge, fear, faith, invocation, love, nor obedience to God, indeed, the heart is without God, and yet they court Him with various outward works, that they sacrifice much, pray, fast, and lead a strict life, and by such works they presume to propitiate God's wrath, to atone for sin and to pay for it; and the most shameful thing about it is that it is vain such works, which they devised and chose without God's word itself, which are everywhere rejected in Scripture as vain heathen worship and true idolatry, which the world has always been full of, even among the Jews, who were called God's people, as the prophets everywhere cry out against it; but much more and more abominably prevailed in the church, especially at this last time, under the papacy, with so many kinds of monasticism, sacrificial rites, holy services, pilgrimages etc. and such innumerable abominations, which alone have been praised for spiritual, holy life and excellent worship, so that the faith and the works commanded by God have been forgotten, even despised, and not considered worthy to be called worship.
But let these go, for they are not so good as to be spoken of here. We are now talking about those who, according to GOt-.
The first commandment is to serve God; as among the Jews, those who were the best, and kept the Law of Moses, given to them by God, and practiced daily all the works that were enjoined upon them therein, even the Ten Commandments. Which were the right works, and were called righteousness and the service of the law: yet are they not yet the right services which please him. For such works, in those who do not have the gospel or knowledge of Christ, are not done out of a right heart, trusting in God, or out of a right desire and love for God, but are still in unbelief and doubt against God, do not call upon Him from the heart, and are still full of evil desire and disobedience against God; nevertheless, they go about in such delusion as if they had kept the law, and rely on such works as if they had served God well with them. Therefore, apart from Christ, there can be no worship that pleases God, for it is all still the old nature, since the heart remains unregenerate and unchanged in its unbelief and disobedience to God.
When Christ is known and believed in through the gospel, as we obtain forgiveness of sins from God through him and please God for his sake, then right worship follows inwardly from the heart. For with such faith the Holy Spirit works in the heart, as was said above [§ 146], so that it acquires the desire and love to be obedient to God; it begins to fear Him from the heart, and to trust Him in all its life, to call upon Him in all its needs, to hold fast to the confession of His word, to praise Him with its life before all the world, and for His sake to gladly suffer and bear what God inflicts upon it etc. These are the right services that please God, because they are done in faith in Christ and come from within the heart, which has now become a new creature in Christ, as St. Paul calls it Gal. 6, 15.
154 Thus the whole essence of the Old Testament with its outward worship is abolished, as it was not able to make such obedience and willing servants of God. And even though much outward worship, sacrifice and work was given to this people, it was not.
But in those who did not have the knowledge of Christ and faith, they did not please God. For this purpose, all of them were arranged for the same people no more than for the time being, so that they would be thus conceived, and only be their figures and images, by which they would remember the promise of Christ, until he himself would come and establish the right services (formed by that). For this reason they have also ceased from themselves since Christ came, and through the gospel created vain new ministers and services, which are not in an outward manner and gestures, but inwardly in the heart, and are not dead images, but truly new beings and life.
He now goes on to praise such willing sacrifices and new worship, and adds: "in holy adornment. With this word he makes this king's people (that is, his believing Christians) all priests, and says of a new and different priesthood or priesthood, as the Levitical was, which among the Jews alone had priestly honor and office; therefore make them, as standing there in their priestly garments (as those priests had to have in their office), gloriously and beautifully adorned for sacrifice and worship. For these words, "holy ornaments", according to the Scriptures, means nothing else than the beautiful priestly garments; as in Exodus 28, v. 2, God says to Moses, "You shall make Aaron holy garments, which shall be glorious and beautiful", and otherwise the word holy ornament or adornment often stands for priestly garments. For God commanded that the priests in their office and service should not be clothed in common garments, but in beautiful, holy garments, which no one else was permitted to wear; as these are all described in Exodus 28.
The prophet points to such a priestly office and adornment for the Christians, or the people of the New Testament, and says that their worship should be a beautiful, glorious priesthood, as those who always stand before God and perform holy sacrifices. And praise them with the highest divine glory and honor. For there is no higher name and honor before God and man than to be a priest, which is such a person and office,
so actually acts with God, and is closest to God, and deals with vain divine things. He gives such honor (I say) to all Christians here, that they, as the right priests, stand deliciously and beautifully adorned before God, and serve Him with right, holy worship.
What then is this "holy adornment" or priestly garment, so that Christianity is adorned and its holy priesthood is called? Nothing else, but the beautiful, divine, various gifts of the Holy Spirit (as St. Paul [Rom. 12, 6. Eph. 4, 7.] and Peter [1. Ep. 2, 9.] say), which are given to Christianity so that God may be known and praised through them. This is done primarily through the preaching of the gospel. For such gifts are to serve (says St. Paul [1 Cor. 12, 7.]) for the common benefit of Christianity, so that through our preaching, confession etc. the people may be brought to the knowledge of God, and He may be honored thereby. For this reason we are ministers of God, and are called priests, so that all our actions, teaching and life may shine forth to the knowledge, honor and praise of God, as Christ says Matth. 5, 16, and St. Peter 1. Ep. 2, 9. says: "You are the royal priesthood, the holy people" etc., "that you should proclaim the virtues of Him who has called you to His wonderful light.
Behold, such priestly sacrifice and service is required here, and that is the right holy adornment or priestly garments, which are glorious and delicious in the sight of God, and honor and praise Him, preach and confess the gospel, praise and give thanks for His grace, so that others may also be brought to such a kingdom of Christ. Which only the Christians can do, as true, holy priests before God, and much differently adorned than those Levitical priests in their outward splendor with gold, precious stones and silk [Ex. 28, 5. ff. 39, 2. Sir. 45, 12. ff.], also much differently consecrated and anointed, than our Pabst's larvae and Niclas bishops with their Chresem and oil, which all with their consecration, adornment and splendor, so that they want to be considered priests, may well be unholy and godless people. But the Christians must be vain holy priests, and have holy adornment. For here is another man who makes them priests.
The one high priest Christ [Hebr. 5, 5. 6. Hebr. Cap. 8 and 9^j, of which we will hear soon, and another Chresem or anointing and priestly ordination, namely the Holy Spirit, who adorns and clothes them gloriously and holy with His power and gifts (2 Cor. 1, 21. 22.). The same must be in the people who are to lead such a priesthood before God, and even put on the holy adornment and priestly garments for them. The regalia and splendor, choir caps, pointed hats, staffs, and what is more, in which the pope's larvae are resplendent, do not apply and do not serve this purpose.
By such an outward image it is well painted and indicated by the ancient fathers what the right priesthood or bishop's office and work should be. For they drew it all on the office of preaching. As that the hat goes together with two points, and on top of it a little cross; item, two ribbons hanging down behind, indicates that a bishop should have a right understanding, both of the Old and New Testament, and unite both together in Christ; item, that he should let such understanding of the Scriptures flutter freely and publicly through the preaching office. It would be right and fine, if they only kept it that way; but they have made a louder mask out of it, so that they ape the people, let themselves be called bishops, and yet none of them holds the office of a true bishop, indeed, many of them have never read a letter in the Scriptures, and some do not even know the infantile faith and the Ten Commandments.
160) But the Christians who believe, preach and confess the Word of God (as we, praise God, have) also have the right ornaments, the right episcopal hats on their heads; not adorned with precious virgin pearls, but with beautiful sayings and examples of Scripture, so that they can instruct and comfort the people, etc. and a right golden or pearl crown on top of the hat: Hat, as those who for the confession of Christ (who is our Lord, and the glory of our Head, 1 Cor. 11, 3.) are willing to suffer all things; clothed also in pure white linen or albumen, that is, with good assurance, "pure" life, and good works.
161. the prophet looked at such holy ornaments with spiritual eyes here and
as glorious and splendid in the sight of God and all the angels, although it is neither valid nor recognized in the sight of the world, because it does not glitter and adorn like the crown and splendor of the pope and his bishops; indeed, it considers such divine, holy adornment to be stink and filth. For as it persecutes Christ the Lord, so it must also persecute his priests, and condemn, blaspheme and defile their preaching and confession as heresy. Thus the true priestly sacrifice is performed in the Christians, that they sacrifice themselves with body and life according to the example of Christ, their head and high priest, and for the sake of his honor. etc. But because the dominion and kingdom of this Lord (as stated above, v. 2) shall remain, even in the midst of His enemies and persecutors, the adornment and glory of His priests with God, together with His angels and elect, shall be praised and preserved, in the face of the devil's and the world's reproach and raging. The others may boast of their "own piety and priesthood, and be resplendent with vain gold and precious stones (like the males at the dance), but with that they will count for nothing before God, yes, their adornment and splendor will be a stink and abomination before God, and their honor will be vain shame.
In this verse we have shown what kind of people this king has, and what the Christian church is, and how he rules and works in it powerfully through the word, so that it voluntarily adheres to him and is obedient to him, and what its service is, namely, a new, holy priesthood, in which God's glory and the knowledge of Christ are spread. All this is to take place (he says here) "after your victory", that is, after Christ in himself has overcome his enemies, sin, death, hell, the devil's power and the world's power through his resurrection and ascension, and has taken over the kingdom and dominion, and has publicly proclaimed this to the world through the gospel.
Your children will be born to you like the dew from the dawn.
A kingdom must be made so that children are always conceived in it and people grow up in it, so that it is preserved, so that it does not become desolate and perish. Thus must
This kingdom must also be governed so that it always increases and grows with people and has descendants, otherwise Christianity will exist and be a lasting being. This is also much more and more necessary in this kingdom. Because it (as 45 ff.Since it must be among enemies (as stated in 45 ff.), since the Christians must endure, leave house, court, life and limb and suffer as much as the devil's wrath and the wickedness of the world are always able to do, which they intend to eradicate and exterminate, that it is to be seen as if Christianity could not exist for long, and could not be preserved by any human counsel or power, and would therefore have to be devastated and soon perish, if it were not preserved by God's miraculous power and might; That is why he promises here that Christianity shall be raised up in such a way that new Christians shall be born and grow up daily, so that it can remain on earth forever.
How is this to happen, and where do such children come from? He says: "Your children will be born to you like the dew from the dawn. What is this, children are born out of the dawn? That must be a strange birth and strange mother and children. Who has ever heard of children being born out of the dawn, and how does that rhyme with Christianity? And who told this prophet such a thing? Yes, who could have understood it, if it was not revealed through the gospel, since it is understood by few, even now that it is fulfilled?
He has set this as a similitude, so that these spiritual things may be delicately illustrated and painted, namely, that this birth of the children of this kingdom (that is, of the Christians) is like the dear dew that falls in the spring every day early in the morning, and yet no one can tell how it is made, or where it comes from, nor does it lie on the grass every morning; and the same time of the dew is the very funniest among the dawns. And summa, nothing more of it can be shown or seen, without it coming early in the morning with the dawn, before the sun comes out, and thus the dawn of the dew is called mother, but yet it cannot be seen from where or of what it is made.
will. For it is not rain falling from the clouds that can be seen and felt, but God's own work that such dew falls every morning, and yet it is the most gentle rain, and the noblest water and sap, so that leaves and grass and the whole earth are refreshed, so that the plants do not wither from the heat of the day.
166) The prophet Micah Cap. 5, 6. also made this 1) similar statement in the same case of the kingdom of Christ (perhaps from this Psalm): "The remnant of Jacob," he says, "shall be among many nations, as the dew of the Lord, and as the drops of the grass, waiting for no man, nor waiting for men." That is, the apostles and the rest of the Christians of the Jewish people are to come among the Gentiles and gather a people to Christ, not by the sword or by bodily force and power, but by divine power (as he shows in the preaching of the gospel), just as the dew comes from heaven without any human intervention and moistens the earth and makes it fertile.
Thus it shall be also in this kingdom, that children shall be born unto the Lord Christ; not naturally of flesh and blood, nor by man's help and consent, nor such as men can understand and comprehend; but it is a spiritual, heavenly birth, by the invisible, divine power of the Holy Ghost, which worketh in man by the word, and maketh new believing hearts. For, as above
143. 144] It has been said that what is of this kingdom and belongs to Christ, the old nature must cease and become a new nature; so that nothing helps flesh and blood, father or mother, and what is the property of men; for Christians are not born of blood and flesh, but only sinners, and what men are (born in sins and to death), God's children cannot make, as Christ says John 3:6: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." Item, v. 3: "Unless a man be born again, he cannot enter into God's kingdom."
168 Therefore, this is a tremendous down-
1) In the old editions: the.
But especially here the prophet has cut off both horns of his Moses, and has put on his people, the Jews, high glory and defiance, which they had from the fact that they were Abraham's seed and the holy patriarchs' children and heirs, and therefore were called God's people and children of the kingdom alone, as the right nobility in the world, and the inheritance of all Gentiles was promised to them [John 8:33]. 8, 33.] They also proudly boasted and proudly boasted about it, and were so stubborn about it that no one could take it away from them, and they did not want to hear or suffer when they were punished by the prophets, and therefore they also persecuted the apostles and preachers of the gospel until they fell to the ground because of it. For this was (as they thought) their certain reason, and irrefutably decided: We are children of the holy fathers, have the law given by God, and the promise of Christ; God will not cast off His people etc. As they cannot let go of the sense even today, whether they are so shamefully lacking and destroyed, that experience, over fifteen hundred years, should have taught them otherwise. They are so tickled by the honor that they would like to be called God's people alone, and to become masters of the whole world through their Messiah.
Now this Psalm clearly states the contradiction, that in God's kingdom the birth or filiation and origin of Abraham, or his blood and tribe, nor what may be born of flesh and blood, should not be valid. For if one were to become a Christian from this, then all the Jews, or even several of them, should also have accepted this Christ (who was of their stock and also Abraham's seed) as their blood and flesh; but it must be a different birth, from heaven, that they become other people by divine power through faith in Christ. As if he meant to say, "You are indeed the children of Abraham and of the holy fathers, of the stock and blood to whom Christ is promised; but for this reason you are not yet the children of God, and such a natural birth and blood will not help you, if you do not, like your fathers, take such things for granted.
and all your glory, and accept this Christ with faith [Rom. 9:7, 8]. For even your father Abraham did not become God's child through his birth (even though he came from the old holy archfathers), and had to accept another birth himself and become a believer, so that he would become God's friend and a father of many Gentiles. So also those who are to become true children of Abraha, that is, Christians (be they Jews or Gentiles), do not attain this either from themselves or from their fathers, unless they are born anew through faith in this Christ; as St. Paul abundantly emphasizes to the Romans on the 4th, v. 5 [Gal. 3, 6].
But rather, the shameful presumption and boasting of ours, who want to make Christians and God's children with their doctrine of works, is put down and condemned here, putting the Christian essence on external things, conceived by men, and binding the Christian church to such external laws, order, manner and giving. And to strengthen this, they lead and praise the holy fathers, Concilio, as the descendants of the apostles; they do not speak of the faith in Christ that those who were holy had or taught, but lead the people only to external human statutes, as if one had to keep them out of necessity. They pretend that anyone who is not obedient to the See of Rome and its bishops, and who does not keep with them all that they have established and ordained, is not a Christian, even though he believes in Christ and lives a Christian life. They then sanctify and exalt those who have taught with them and confirmed it with their lives and example; they condemn as heretics and unbelievers those who hold otherwise.
But what shall we say of these, who are much, much more foolish than the Jews, who had the glory that they were true natural children and heirs of the holy fathers, and that their laws were all ordained and given by God, but who cannot boast of this by birth, nor that their thing is thus commanded and imposed by God, but is all of their own choosing by man? Nor has there been such an appearance that all the world has fallen for it and been so deeply immersed in it that
This alone would be the right Christian nature and the rule of the Christian church. And who can persuade our people this very day to recognize and understand this, which every sensible man would like to grasp? If the glory and honor of the Jewish people's natural birth and blood from the holy fathers, item, from the law, priesthood, worship, which they kept by God's command, did not help them to become God's children, but because they did not want to accept this Christ with faith, even because they defied him in such a fleshly birth, they are completely rejected with everything they boasted of, and yet Christ has his people and children: [then it is certain] 1) that much less will these with their self-chosen, own deed and glory be counted, and he also can make them lack and fall with their boasting and name of the church.
Therefore let us well learn, as the prophet here shows and interprets to us the true church and true Christians, that it is not such a thing, which one could understand and measure according to outward nature, or grasp with rules and order, or put the persons before the eyes, and say: These, who are born of this blossom and tribe, live like this or otherwise, keep such manner and order, these are Christians, or the Christian church. Summa, it is none of these that men do out of their own initiative and ability that makes them Christians, or from which the Christian church comes. But thus it is said, "Thy children shall be born unto thee as the dew out of the morning light." It is not possible to say how it happens, or how it is made, nor can man do anything about it, nor help it; but it is a purely divine work, which happens without all our thinking and worrying, so that the dew lies there every morning, and the droplets are seen on the leaves and grass, as if from a rain, since there is neither rain nor pellets, or anything from which water tends to be made, but a beautiful, bright sky; and comes not at noon, evening, how or when we will, but only in the morning, when the dawn shines and wants to bring the day.
1) Added by us.
1004 Erl. 40, 1Z3-1S5. Second interpretation of the HO. Psalm. Ps. 110, 3. 4. W. V, 1456-1462. 1005
So shall it be with the Christian church and children of his kingdom. They are to be born, says this verse. This is not done by painting or carving, as one makes children from sheets of card, or carves and colors a wooden bishop; as they want to work and form themselves and others with works until they can make a Christian, or form a Christian church with laws; it remains unformed and uncarved; but the whole being must be there at once. Just as the dew does not fall with individual droplets one after the other, or is collected, but lies all at once completely on the earth. And as a natural fruit or child in the womb is not put together piecemeal, or by individual members, nor is it born, but is formed and born all at once, whole and entire, and when one member grows, they all grow.
But here it must be a different birth (as has been said) than from father and mother, or through man. It is indeed God's work that man is born naturally, for no man of himself could make a hair or a drop of blood; yet God does so through father and mother, and such birth comes from their flesh and blood. But to the Christian birth no man can give or do anything, and must be called (as Jn. 1, 13.), "not of the flower, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of the man" (that is, not men, nor of the holy fathers natural, nor of corneous or chosen children, as the pope wants to make Christians by his own choice through his law), "but born of God", through a new heavenly birth (namely "of water and the Holy Spirit" [Jn. 3, 5.]), which cannot be understood or felt by reason, but happens and is accomplished by faith, which the Holy Spirit gives into the heart through the Word.
(175) As Christ also declares in the same sermon to Nicodemo, John 3:8: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. There he also leads a likeness and picture of the spiritual birth of the wind, almost like this one
from the dew of the dawn. For in both it is finely shown that this work, which is called becoming a Christian or God's child, is not done by human power or understanding, but from heaven, by the Holy Spirit alone, and yet by the word or preaching of the gospel and baptism. Just as one sees nothing of the dew, nor learns how or of what it is made, until the droplets lie on the earth; and of the wind neither knows nor feels where it comes from, or where it remains, except that one hears it whirring and blowing; and yet this happens daily, both that the dew from heaven makes the earth fertile, and the wind cools it.
So it is also in this divine birth out of water and the Spirit. You see the water of baptism as the dew, and hear the outward oral word as the wind; but you cannot see, hear or understand the spirit and what is accomplished there, namely how a man is cleansed from baptism and becomes a saint in the hand of the priest, and a child of hell becomes a child of God; And yet such things are truly accomplished, and are proved by power, that it must be said that the Holy Spirit was there, and by water and word made believing men; which could not be done by any human power.
177. Therefore, whoever teaches and holds otherwise that a man becomes a Christian or a child of God by work or obedience to the pope and the commandment of the church (as they call it), is lying to this holy prophet and to Christ Himself, and is doing violence and injustice to the true Christian church, which confesses, teaches and believes the contradiction with her Lord Christ and the holy fathers, that we are not called children of God made by works, or born of man's choice and obedience, nor even grown by ourselves, but born again of God through the Holy Spirit and water, without any action on our part: That it may be a pure work of God, and that the glory and honor of His divine grace may remain pure and unadulterated.
The other part.
V. 4. The Lord has sworn and will not repent. You are a priest forever, after the manner of Melchizedek.
1006 Hurry. 4V, l"-i 17. interpretations on the psalms. W. V, lu>2-um. 1007
Up to this point the prophet has prophesied mightily, both of the kingdom of Christ, his reward, and yet also true Lord and God, and of his people. Now he continues, not leaving it enough that he has made him king and Lord over all, but also makes him priest and pope (with leave that I take this word to this person). For since we commanded above [§ 137] that this king should have a new people, he must also have a priesthood for such a people, that he may rule them in conscience and against God. For where there is a kingdom and God's people, there must also be a priesthood and service, to show the people God's word and will, and to act between God and them. Therefore give the one Christ both offices, that he should be the eternal king and also the eternal priest.
(179) But these are strange and strange words; for he is nowhere else called by such a name in the Scriptures, and the Jews have little understood (as they do not yet understand) that their Messiah should be a priest; yea, it has also been said by them in a very vexatious and lying manner. For they all know this well, that by the ordinance of God the people of Israel were divided into twelve tribes or families (after the twelve children of Jacob), and so distinguished that they should not be cast and mingled together. Although he did this mostly for the sake of the Lord Christ, so that it would be known where he was born from and of which family, he also wanted to arrange the government differently, especially the spiritual or priestly office, separated from all the others.
180: For first of all, he made the temporal or princely rule almost through all families and tribes (as Joshua and the book of Judges testify), and also gave them the first king Saul from the tribe of Benjamin [1 Sam. 9:1], until he chose David from the tribe of Judah [1 Sam. 16:1], and made a covenant with him that the kingdom should remain in his tribe and his house until Christ [2 Sam. 7:16]. Nevertheless such a kingdom was divided (after King Solomon), and a separate one was set up by the ten tribes.
(1 Kings 12:19). But for the priesthood and the spiritual government he set apart and ordained the one tribe of Levi from the beginning, and especially the house or family of Aaron [Exodus 28 and 29, Numbers 8:16], and also kept it so that it always remained with this tribe, so that no one else had to be subject to this office, not even David himself.
181 Now he goes to all of this and also takes hold of the priestly regiment, and says: this promised son of his, Christ, shall not only be king (as it is due to him according to God's order), but also priest at the same time, since he was not of the priestly tribe of Aaron and Levi, and according to them could not be a priest, but should be born from Judah. This means that he spoke against Moses and against God's order, and this David could be called a heretic or a rebellious prophet and teacher, who was allowed to take the priesthood without God's command and commandment, and to combine the two persons, king and priest, and to make one out of them, which God wanted to separate, and which also had to be different offices, according to worldly and external ways.
The Jews are blind here and know nothing about this; but we Christians see that, as David saw here, when this King, Christ, would come, Moses with his priesthood and all his rule and laws should leave and cease. For all things are also set and directed to this person; he shall be the man who is not called, as Moses was (says the epistle to the Hebrews on the 3rd, v. 3.) servant in the house, but the Lord himself. For what Moses ordered (even though it was done by God's command), he did only for the future Christ, and thereby prepared the people and made them ready for him to dwell in them as in his own house and to rule them himself. Therefore, if he were here, both the Law of Moses and everything else would give way to him and look like what the Lord would do, to whom God has given it into his hands. Therefore, neither Moses nor the priesthood is of any value to him, but all of them must and must be given to him.
(as your right Lord) hand over the keys and serve, and Moses [shall] say: I am not your Lord, but was this Lord's servant. So Aaron also shall say, I am indeed high priest (by God's command), but my priesthood is no further than from this Lord. Now that he is coming, I and all the people should accept and honor him as the right high priest.
In the time of Christ and the apostles, the chief priests and the whole synagogue should have done the same, and our Jews still do to this day, against this Lord. Now, however, they are going to preserve their Mosaic and Levitical priesthood forever, against this Christ. And because we believe and hold Christ (as this Psalm says), that he alone is both eternal King and High Priest, they condemn us, as they do not hold the Moshe and the Scriptures, when they openly lust and rage against their own King and Prophet David, yes, basically against all the Scriptures that prophesy of this Christ.
184 But it is sufficiently indicated in this verse that this priesthood of Christ is to be a new and much different priesthood, neither that was in the Old Testament, Aaron and his family. For he is silent about it and mentions a new priesthood, which was not in use at that time, nor was it known, namely, such a priest and priesthood, which was after the manner of Melchizedek. This must be different from the way of Aaron; nevertheless, so that he does not touch Aaron and his priesthood too closely, he leaves him his order, way and right of his priesthood. Since Christ is to be both king and priest in one person, and since it has been said that he is not a king in the world or in the flesh, his priesthood must also be not in the flesh but in the spirit, otherwise he could not hold both offices at the same time and without distinction.
There is much to be said about this priesthood, for it is a very rich text, setting forth the high principles of Christian doctrine, and there is nothing in all Scripture more comforting than what is said about the priesthood of our dear Christ. This text in the Epistle to the Hebrews is also beautifully and deliciously composed.
that it is the right gloss and interpretation of this psalm, and in this piece a right noble epistle, and therefore well worthy to be written with gold. But before we say any more about it, let us first go over the text and see that it speaks:
The Lord has sworn and will not repent.
Of course, this must be something very great, and for no small reason that he does not badly say that God has made him a priest, but shows a divine oath to this effect, that he has sworn it, and assured it with a solemn oath. He uses this word, first of all, against his own people, the Jews, because he has seen that they are hostile to it, and would hardly believe it, indeed, the majority of them blaspheme against it, and defy God's commandment and order of their old priesthood; it is not possible that God should speak against himself, and overturn his own order, therefore God must not have said it, or ever not be God's opinion.
187 Against this he says that God not only said it (as it says above, v. 1.He says that God not only said it (as it says of the kingdom above, v. 1: "The Lord spoke to my Lord"), but swore an oath to it, and so that it should remain irrevocably and unchanged, and that all the world (especially its Jews) should renounce that it is His earnest and final opinion that they should accept this priest, even if they had to let go of their Levitical priesthood because of it (as it fell from Himself, for the sake of their stubborn opposition and raving, so that they thought they could keep it against Christ). If not, it shall nevertheless continue, and they (who did not accept it) shall have no excuse, and in vain hope and wait that God will do otherwise with them, and restore their former kingdom and priesthood; as they have now waited and waited in vain for more than five and ten years.
(188) Now to us both it is appointed for doctrine and comfort, that we may be assured and certain that this Christ, whom we know to be born of the tribe of David according to the Scriptures, is truly the King and Priest,
as promised in the Scriptures, and that we who believe in him alone have the right faith, worship and priesthood, and are the right church or God's people, and that before God no other faith or religion nor worship shall be valid but this of Christ and his church, and have comfort in this, whether we are persecuted and condemned because of this priesthood and faith, and both the devil and the world storm and rage against it, and are subject to restrain, that he who has said these things and sworn to them, will also protect and preserve this priesthood, so that the infernal gates shall not overpower it [Matth. 16, 18], as we will hear further on in the word "eternal priest".
But especially this oath serves for the strength and comfort of the poor, afflicted consciences, who are troubled and afflicted with the heavy temptations of God's wrath and despair of the devil, that they may have a firm ground against it, and (as the epistle to the Hebrews says [Cap. 6, 19.]) a secure and firm anchor of our souls, on which they can satisfy their hearts, and certainly rely on the fact that they truly have such a high priest in Christ, who represents them against God, and speaks the best for them [1 John 2, 1.God has not only promised this, which would be enough, since He is true and cannot lie [Joh. 8, 26. 1 Sam. 15, 29. Tit. 1, 2.He has also given and confirmed it with an eternal, irrevocable oath, so that we may hold fast to it and not be torn away from it by any challenge or trouble, but hold such an oath (which the Majesty in heaven Himself has made and does not want to change or alter) higher and more precious than anything our eyes and ears see or hear, and our senses and hearts feel and sense. But more of this hereafter.
190) This oath is also taken from the sayings or promises, which actually speak of the priesthood of Christ, as it happened to Abraham [Gen. 12:3], that in his seed all generations on earth should be blessed. For such blessing is the very priesthood of Christ (as we shall hear). Such a promise will be repeated again.
confirmed by the oath of God [Gen. 22, 16-18], when He says: "By Myself I have sworn that I will bless and multiply Your seed; and in Your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Therefore also such an oath is often referred to in Scripture, and the epistle to the Hebrews on the 6th, v. 13 ff. lays it down abundantly and powerfully, for the comfort of the faithful, as you may read there.
This is one thing that makes the priesthood of Christ glorious and great, that he is consecrated by God and made a priest by a much more glorious profession and anointing than Aaron and other priests, namely, with the solemn oath that sets him apart and exalts him above all others, that his priesthood alone should do and be valid before God. The other is when he speaks:
You are a priest forever, according to the way of Melchizedek.
Hereby he sets a clear distinction between this priesthood of Christ and the old Levitical priesthood, thus tearing and breaking through the whole of Moses, going about it as if he did not want to know anything about it; yes, he diligently adds this addition "after the manner of Melchizedek" to it, lest anyone think and err as if Christ should be a priest like Aaron, and keep such manner of priesthood as was commanded and ordered in the law.
193. This is once again annoying to say and to hear to the Jewish people, who had the defiance and testimony of the Scriptures that their priesthood was instituted and established by God Himself in His way and order, and that there was no other on earth (without this one) that could be called God's foundation and a right priesthood; and this David is allowed to raise up and establish a new, foreign priesthood, of which there is no command nor foundation in the Scriptures; without that in the history of Abraham (which happened long before, before the law and the same priesthood was given) a priest is remembered, who was called Melchizedek [Gen. 14, 18], but nowhere else is it said that such a priest and priesthood should arise again. And it seems that among the Jews such, so of the priest
1) Erlanger: "to" instead of: "with".
Melchizedek is now useless and in vain, as it has long since become obsolete, and they have instead another, better priesthood, conceived and confirmed by God, that they admittedly do not know how to make anything out of this text, nor do they yet know what this way or order of Melchizedek is.
194 But again it seems and is clear that the prophet looks at the Scriptures much differently and with spiritual eyes, and also points us to them so that we can learn to look at and understand them correctly; he shows the right handle, where all Scripture points and points primarily, namely to this promised Christ; therefore we must also look at this history of Melchizedek a little.
195. Gen 14:15 and following, Moses wrote of the wonderful battle and victory that the patriarch Abraham had committed against four mighty kings who had fallen into the land of Sodom and Gomorrah (where his cousin Lot lived) and had smitten everything far and wide, plundering five kings with lands and people, and carrying away captives what they had captured, including Lot, Abraham's cousin, with his wife and children. And it came to pass, when Abraham was told these things, (who dwelt in Hebron at that time as a sojourner and stranger,) that he armed his own servants three hundred and eighteen, and upon his own pay and carriage, without any help of strangers, pursued after the four kings and all their power unto Dan, and thence unto Damascus, (which is nigh unto fifty or sixty German miles,) and smote them, and took, and brought again great spoil, and the captives with their wives and children, and all their substance. When he returned from this battle, and the king of Sodom came to receive him, Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who was a priest of the Most High (Gen. 14:18, Heb. 7:1), came forth and brought bread and wine for Abraham and his people, and blessed him; and Abraham gave him a tithe of all the spoils.
Who this Melchizedek was, I will not argue now. St. Jerome writes from the old Hebrew teachers that it was the old archfather Shem, the son of Noah [Gen. 10, 1.], who was the oldest father at the time, when the five hundred year after
of the flood; and the account gives that he survived his children and descendants to the ninth generation (Gen. 11:10, 11.), and lived thirty-five years after Abraham, until the fiftieth year of the patriarch Jacob; that he was at that time the oldest, most excellent and highest man and held by the pious, as he had seen and heard much of the old fathers (as Enoch and Methuselah) before the first world before the flood, and without doubt after his father Noah, from whom he heard and received God's word, he was the highest and right pope, and God's word was done through him to the other fathers (as, both to Abraham and Isaac).
Therefore I also gladly believe and hold that this Melchizedek was the same holy archfather Sem. For such a priest of the right God (as he is called here) could certainly be none, but who received God's word from the dear old fathers, and the right service of the same drove and heard. And he must not have been a lesser man, that in this oldest history he is specially remembered, and this name "a priest of God the Most High" is given to him. For there has never been a greater, more glorious name and office (as in truth there is no greater honor and more glorious office before God) than to be a priest. That Moses does not praise him without reason, that he was a priest of the most high God. As if to say: There were also many other false, idolatrous priests (as there have always been in the world, from Cain, who was the beginning of it), but this one was the true priest at that time, who taught and practiced God's word and right worship.
198. but that he is called Melchizedek (which means a king of righteousness), he has such a name from his ministry, that he governed the people with God's word, taught them and kept them to live rightly before God and the world, just as St. Peter, almost like this, calls Noah a "preacher of righteousness", 2 Petr. 2, 5, and the pious people with this name also honored this Shem, that he was praised for his righteousness. Peter, almost like this, calls Noah a "preacher of righteousness", 2 Petr. 2, 5. and the pious people with this name have honored and praised this Sem, that he was among the others, who were vain ungodly tyrants and wicked people (like Nimrod of Babylon [Gen. 10, 8.] and those of Sodom and Gomorrah).
(Gen. 19, 4.), is only called a king of righteousness; and without a doubt that is why God gave him such a long life, that through him God's word and the church would be preserved in time. But especially with this name he had to indicate the Lord Christ (as in Hebrews 7, v. 17, this name is used), as the true King of righteousness, who rules us through his priestly office, so that we come to eternal righteousness before God, redeemed by him from sins and the power of the devil.
Now, this history or story the epistle to the Hebrews has diligently considered, and from it interpreted this text: "You are a priest after the manner of Melchizedek", and showed the difference between the priesthood of the New and the Old Testament, and concludes that this priesthood of Christ (so modeled by Melchizedek) must be much higher and better than the Levitical. First of all, this priest Melchizedek blesses the patriarch Abraham and takes the tithe from him [Hebr. 7, 6]. For since he who is blessed is lesser and less, neither he who blesses him, and not the greater is wont to tithe to the lesser, but the subject to the greater, this Melchizedek must be more and greater than Abraham. But if he is greater than Abraham, he must also be greater than Aaron. For Abraham is the highest man among all those whom the Jews can boast of as the head and source or tribe and root of the whole people, and greater than Levi and Aaron, who were born of his blood and flesh. Therefore all who come from him (including Levi with his priesthood) must be under this Melchizedek, who blesses their archfather and highest man, and takes tithes from him. Yes, they themselves are tithed in Abraham (says the same epistle Cap. 7, 9. 10.), since they were still in his loins and not born.
200 Secondly, the same epistle has also noted that this priest Melchizedek is thus briefly remembered, and nothing is said about him, where he came from or where he remained, but neither the beginning nor the end of his lineage and origin are reported, but still
He wrote everything about Aaron with diligence, and his whole lineage from Abraham onward was clearly and differently accounted for, item, how he was called and appointed to the priesthood, yes, also how he died, and to whom the priesthood was inherited. This holy prophet also considered this, and the little word "eternal priest" was derived from this, that, just as this Melchizedek is found without father and mother, beginning or end (not that he had no father and mother, but that nothing is written about it): so Christ (who is modeled by him) is truly such a priest, who did not begin, nor shall he have an end, but is from eternity and remains forever etc.
If the Jews had opened their eyes and looked rightly into the Scriptures, they would have noticed that their Levitical and Aaron's priesthood with its descendants was not the right lasting priesthood, but should wait for another priest and priesthood, which would be higher and better than both their temporal kingdom and priesthood and all their forefathers had been. For herewith (that he calls Christ "a priest forever after the manner of Melchizedek") he abolishes all that, and throws it under his feet; since the word "priest after the manner of Melchizedek," as being blessed by Abraham, sets him, as [§ 199] said, above Abraham and all his people, even above King David. But the little word "everlasting," that exalts him not alone above Abraham and David, but above all kings and kingdoms, yea, above heaven and earth. For it shows and proves that he must not only be a true man (which the word "priest" implies), but must also be true God, because he is without beginning and end, and before both Abraham and David were; as he also called him his Lord above [v. 1], so long before he was born.
Now this is said of the person of this priest, that he is a different man from Aaron, Abraham, and all the Jewish people. But we must also consider the difference in office between Aaron's and Christ's priesthood. This is also shown by the words: "after the manner of Melchizedek", that is, how
is written and read by Melchizedek. For thus it is written, as [§ 195] said, Gen. 14, 18. when Abraham came from the battle which he had conquered of the five kings, this Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine, and when he was a priest of God, he blessed Abraham with a beautiful, glorious blessing etc.
Here our papists fell into the text, and did not see anything else in it, neither that which is written of bread and wine. For when they saw the same words, this text had to serve them for their sacrificial mass; they did violence to the text in the Latin interpretation, and read for the word proferens, offerens; that the word "bore forth" had to mean sacrifice to them. For the text does not say that he sacrificed, but that Abraham with his people, as three hundred and eighteen men, and the captives whom he brought back, being weary and hungry from the long journey, he opened his cellar and kitchen, brought bread and wine, and fed and refreshed them. You hear nothing about the sacrifice he made for himself, but that he gave the people food and drink. Just as Christ instituted the holy sacrament of his body and blood in bread and wine for the Christians, so that they should come together, not to offer it (which he alone, as the true high priest, offered once on the cross [Hebr. 7, 27]), but to eat and drink with one another, which is why St. Paul [1 Cor. 11, 20] calls it "the Lord's Supper" etc.
But such a wholesome custom of the holy sacrament has had to be perverted and defiled by the pope and his mobs, so that he instigates and carries out his blasphemous idolatry and arch-abomination (as the true Antichrist) in the holy place (that is, in the Christian church) [Matth. 24, 15.]. For by this he has committed his own sacrilege against this holy priesthood of Christ and his sacrifice, through his smeared and smeared platitudes, that they should not give the sacrament to the Christians in general to eat and drink, as Christ did and commanded to do, but should snatch and offer it to themselves alone.
205. for the common Christian custom of the
The sacrament, which after Christ's institution was administered to the laity (without their taking the one form of it by sacrilege and force), did not have to be called mass nor sacrificed, but only received the sacrament. And praise be to God, who protected them from this, and yet kept the Sacrament in its proper use with them. But the work of the priests, when they traded bread and wine on the altar and kept it for themselves alone, had to be the daily sacrifice for the whole of Christendom to acquire forgiveness of sins; just as if Christ had not done this on the cross, and his sacrifice should now no longer apply and be nothing. And, most disgraceful of all, they have made a public fair out of the mass, since they have sold such sacrifices both to the living on earth and to the dead in the imaginary purgatory; and summa, as the prophet Daniel [Cap. 11, 38] prophesied, they have made such an idol out of it, whom they have served for gold and silver, and have become a veritable money pit, which has snatched up goods from all the world and thrown them to them etc. But against this abomination of the priests' mass I have said and written enough elsewhere 1).
Here we are to see what the true priesthood of Christ is, according to the way of Melchizedek, which is much a different, higher and better priesthood than that of Moses and Aaron (which was also instituted by God Himself); certainly also much better than that of the pope and his priests, who make their own priesthood without (yes, against) God's and Christ's order and command, and in which nothing is better (does not want to say worse), neither the heathen's nor the Turk's priests. But the difference between this priesthood of Christ and Aaron is this: First, that this is an eternal priesthood, which never ceases, just as the priest himself (Christ, modeled by Melchizedek) is eternal according to his person [Heb. 7:24], which cannot be said of any other priest or priesthood. For Aaron, together with his children and descendants, all had to die, and did not have the promise that there would be
1) "Von dem Greuel der Stillmesse," Walch, Hit. Louis, vol. XIX, 1198.
2) Thus the Wittenberg; Erlangen and Jena: befsers.
eternal; just as it could not, because it was only appointed for the one people of the Jews, and had to do with external, perishable things etc.
207) Secondly, in the story of Melchizedek it is also shown that he was not a priest according to the law (like Aaron and his family), but a long time before, and before the law was given. And so he has another priestly office, which is not to preach the law, but rather to bless the forefather Abraham and all who came from him, that is, to proclaim and promise God's grace, salvation and blessedness. In the two pieces the right office of Christ and his priesthood of the New Testament is shown.
In order to understand these things better, one must know what a priest is and what the priesthood consists of or what belongs to it. We will see this recently. A priest is called such a person (as the Scriptures paint him), who is appointed and commanded by God to act between God and men, that is, to go forth from Him and bring and teach His word to us; and again, to stand against God and sacrifice and pray for us etc.
209) Therefore, there are three things that belong to the priesthood, namely, teaching or preaching God's word, sacrificing and praying, etc. all three of which are often and frequently referred to in Scripture. Whoever does not hold such office, and yet wants to be called a priest or pope, is not worthy of the beautiful, glorious name. As our Pabstlarven and Niclasbischöfe with their smeared and beschornen bunch are, which this noble name with their whole nature and life only desecrate and dishonor, that it is not held so high and noble, as it should be held. For it has always been, and should still be, the highest, most glorious name and title that can be called or praised on earth, and the highest honor next to the divine majesty; for God is also the closest person, so he himself honors and praises the highest. Hence also the priests by Malachia Cap. 2, 7. are called God's angels, since he says: "The priest's lips shall keep the teaching, that one may seek the law from his mouth; for he is an angel of the Lord", as the one given by God Himself.
and receives from him the calling and the office to teach the people. And in turn, brings and carries his sacrifice and prayer for the people up before God.
The first office of a priest is to be called, consecrated and anointed by God Himself to teach the people such doctrine and word as is not his own, but the word of God. But it must be such a sermon and word that not only teaches us (like Moses with his priests) by demanding and doing the Law or the Ten Commandments, how we should live and do toward God, but also shows and tells us what God wants to give us and do with us, so that we may do this. For if only the one part (the preaching of the law) were taught and practiced, we would not be helped, and the right office that a priest is supposed to do (namely, to bring us to God through him and to make us pleasant and holy with him) would not be accomplished. For since we are not able to keep the Ten Commandments (which are indeed a delicious, divine teaching) in this depraved, sinful nature, which was inherited by us through Adam's fall, such preaching and demanding (if it were done alone) would be in vain, yes, would only be enough to condemn us (as St. Paul [1 Cor. Paul [1 Cor. 15, 56] says that the law is the power of sins and only causes wrath [Rom. 4, 15]), and could therefore never come to God, nor be reconciled, but would only be further separated from Him.
211. But if the right priesthood is to be established and carried out, for which it was instituted and ordained by God, that we may be reconciled to Him and become one, then such a word must be brought and preached to us, which not only says what we are and should do (which we are not able to do), and thus only proclaims wrath, but also shows how we may come from sin and wrath, in which we are, to grace and righteousness. For this reason Aaron and his priests have not yet performed the right priestly office, in that they preached and practiced the law. For it is not yet what a priest should do, that he should bring people to God. It is also necessary to preach and drive, so that the people learn to recognize their sin, and through it, to be frightened and to be under the spell of God.
be driven to groan for grace and reconciliation. For where sin and God's wrath are not recognized or felt, repentance and forgiveness cannot come. That is why Christ himself and the apostles began with the preaching of repentance, thus confirming the preaching of the law. For this reason, the law had to go before this priest Christ and had to be practiced by Moses and his priests among his people, so that they would be prepared for Christ.
And although their priestly office was primarily to keep the law, both with its promises and punishments, they also had the promise of Christ and his gospel. For the sake of which the whole nation, with its priesthood and whole service, was chosen and set apart by God to keep the promise of the future Christ and His gospel until He Himself came and spread them throughout the world.
Although such a teaching office was established among them more by the prophets than by the priests, whom God especially awakened and gave to lead both, the preaching of the law, according to its right custom and work, namely to punish sin and to drive to repentance, and besides that to further spread the promise of Christ (given to the fathers), and to prophesy and proclaim gloriously about his right priesthood, so that they led the right priesthood in that part. Meanwhile the other Levitical priests mostly dealt with their sacrifice and outward service, which were nothing else 1) but shadows and images of the future priesthood of Christ and his sacrifice, and for this reason also the priestly name was given to them, to indicate in such images and shadows that the true priest, the promised Christ, should come, who by his sacrifice would reconcile all men, and preach and let this out into all the world through the gospel. Therefore, after the coming of Christ himself, the outward Jewish priesthood has ceased.
1) In the issues: "which were not different."
214. From this you see that the proper priestly office is actually to preach the gospel, which is nothing else than a public preaching of God's grace and forgiveness of sins, which Christ himself commanded to be preached and given publicly, in general, and everywhere, to all who believe in him. And this is called the proper office of the New Testament, to have and to execute such a command and office, given by Christ, to proclaim forgiveness of sins; and thus such priestly office actually belongs to Christ himself, and even springs and flows from him. For he alone is the person for whom and on whose account God's grace and forgiveness are given to us. Thus he also began and led in his own person such a public ministry of preaching the gospel on earth, and commanded the apostles to spread it into all the world until the last day, and is himself the high priest, from whom alone this ministry proceeds, and also preaches from him alone, so that in the New Testament no priesthood should be or apply apart from him, or otherwise, than preaches from him.
215 Such priesthood is now shown by Melchizedek, Genesis 14:19, in that he blessed Abraham, so that he is not only a figure or image of Christ and His priesthood, but has truly practiced the same office as a preacher of the gospel, and therefore is also called a priest of God, since Aaron's priesthood was not yet. For the fact that he blesses Abraham is nothing other than that he promises and promises him God's grace, help and protection. And he takes such a blessing from the promise that was made to Abraham by Christ, that from him should be born the seed in which all the world should be blessed [Gen. 12:3, 22, 18, 26:4]. Because he had such a promise and believed in it, Melchizedek said to him [Gen. 14:19, 20], "Blessed art thou, Abram, to the most high God, and praised be God, who hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. "etc. And Abraham also accepted and believed such a blessing, as such a sermon, which proclaimed to him forgiveness of sin, grace and help from God. Such preaching then continued and went on from Abraham to
His descendants, Isaac, Jacob, and through all the prophets and holy fathers, who preached and proclaimed this promise of blessing in Christ, and all received it through faith, until Christ came and fulfilled that which was believed of Him, and afterward had it preached publicly in the world, so that it would be known and believed everywhere.
This is enough of the first part of the priestly office. The other two are the same, namely, sacrifice and prayer. For a priest is appointed (says the Epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 5, 1.) to sacrifice for the sin of men, that he may obtain atonement and forgiveness for them with God, and such office was especially commanded by God through Moses [to] Aaron and his sons. For the ministry of preaching (as now said) is more through the prophets than through them. This office also actually belongs to Christ, and also remains on his person alone, that he himself, as the high priest, must make the sacrifice for our sin, so that we might be reconciled to God. For there is no other person nor sacrifice by which sin can be taken away and purged; as this same epistle powerfully proves, Cap. 10, 4.That Aaron did not take away sin with his sacrifice, "because it is impossible to take away sin with the blood of oxen and goats," and he himself, together with the other priests, was not without sin, nor could he be, so that they had to sacrifice for themselves all the time, and he had to go every year anew with blood into the holy place for his sin, so that they confessed that they could not yet be free from sin, nor be pure, as long as they lived. etc.
But if these priests with their sacrifice, since both persons and office were commanded and instituted by God, could not take away sin and bring forgiveness, much less can sin be paid for and enough done or forgiveness obtained by a single human work, self-chosen worship services, priestly masses and monasticism, for which the pope has falsely and blasphemously raised and praised his own priesthood against Christ. But this Christ is the only priest, appointed by God to reconcile us against God and to obtain forgiveness.
and he did not make his sacrifice out of his own intention or devotion, but out of God's command and obedience. Therefore he also has the certain testimony that his sacrifice is pleasing and acceptable to God, because he is without all sin and guilt, that everything he does is delicious in the sight of God and heartily pleasing to Him [Heb. 7:26].
Therefore, it is much different sacrifice than that priest was, with their ox and goat blood, etc. which was (as [§213] said) only an example. But because it shows that no reconciliation or forgiveness with God could take place without blood and death, as the epistle to the Hebrews says on the 9th, v. 22, this priest's sacrifice of Christ also had to take place through the shedding of blood, not of another's, but of his own innocent blood. Such he once offered for all the sins of the world, by his death on the cross [Hebr. 7, 27. 10, 14.], which was the altar on which he presented such a living, holy sacrifice of his body and blood to God the Father with fervent prayer, great crying, and hot, fearful tears, consumed by the fire of causeless love that burned from his heart [Cap. 5, 7.].
This is the true sacrifice, which takes away and blots out all the sin of the world at once, and brings eternal reconciliation and forgiveness. This is to be praised with all honors, to be exalted and magnified, especially against other false sacrifices of lies of our own works, invented to deny and blaspheme this sacrifice. For this is also the priest, who may well be called a priest in the sight of all; who will or can exalt and praise him highly enough, who is called and is truly, the only Son of God? He willingly and freely put Himself in the middle between God's wrath and our sin [Gal. 1, 4. 1 Tim. 2, 5.], and offered Himself as a sacrifice or payment through His blood and death, and so that both of these were so far and high outweighed that no sin, wrath, hell or damnation could be so great and heavy, this holy sacrifice is even higher and greater.
220. so he also fulfilled the third part of the priesthood, which is to pray; since he, besides and above his sacrifice, also made his prayer to God the Father for all of us; as also Isaiah Cap. 53, 12. of such a prayer.
1024 Erl. 4v, iss-158. Second interpretation of the 110th Psalm. Ps. 110, 4. w. v, e-i4so. 1025
In his priesthood he says: "He bore the sins of many, and prayed for the transgressors and sinners. And Hebr. 5, 7: "In the day of his flesh he offered up prayer and supplication, and was heard, because he honored God. For this was due to him alone, because he alone was the one who could come before God without means, and had the right and power to pray, and also alone had this testimony that his prayer should be heard and yes, because the Father says of him, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. "etc. [Matth. 3, 17. 17, 5.] So he made the beautiful and heartfelt prayer for all of Christendom Joh. 17, 20. and through such prayer he acquired and shared with us the power and merit of his sacrifice, namely forgiveness of sins, righteousness and eternal life etc. And such prayer is eternal, and its power is effective in all of Christendom. Item, he still leads this ministry, that he is our mediator and intercessor before God, as St. Paul says Rom. 8, 34 [1 Joh. 2, 1].
For though it is enough that he once made the sacrifice for all the sins of the world until the last day, yet because we are still in sins and weak, he must represent us to the Father without ceasing and plead that such sin and weakness not be imputed to us, and give strength and power of the Holy Spirit against it. For this reason he went up to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God, so that through his intercession he might keep us forever in grace with God and give us strength and victory against the terrors of sin, the devil, the world and the temptations of the flesh. And not only does he pray for us, but he also gives us that we may and can pray to God ourselves, and carry our prayer before God, and assure us that such prayer for his sake is pleasing to God and will be heard. As He promised [John 16:23]: "Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you" etc.
222) Behold, this is the priesthood of this Lord Christ, which he calls here "after the manner of Melchizedek"; that is, not only as Aaron and his generation, with the preaching and teaching of the law and outward worship, sacrifice and holiness deal, which are
The priest of the Lord has not been a mere image and sign of what is to come, but has led the right office, as a right priest should lead, and has proven through his power and deeds that what is indicated and signified in the images and shadows is truly given through him. For he proclaims such word and sermon, in which he promises us God's grace and forgiveness of sins, and thus brings and gives us the right priestly blessing. In addition, he also offered the right priestly sacrifice for us, which has the power to reconcile God and to take away our sin from us, and also represents us to God through his intercession, so that we may remain and be preserved in the same reconciliation and grace.
The priesthood of Christ is the right, high comfort for all poor sinful people and for all sorrowful hearts. For in it we hear and see that in his kingdom on earth he does not have such excellent saints who are completely pure from sins and perfectly holy, but his rule and the highest office, which acts before God, is done in such a way that he deals with those who are weak, infirm and sinners, and have a heavy and sorrowful conscience, and does not want to push such away from him, nor deal with them severely and strictly, with the dread and terror of wrath and condemnation, but most kindly, sweetly and sweetly entices and tempts such to come to him and to seek and wait for comfort and help from him; as he says Matth. 11:28: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. "etc. Item, Cap. 9, 13. "I am come to call the sinners, and not the righteous."
For a priest is such a person, who is appointed for the sake of sinners alone, and must take care of them, so that he may intervene between God and them, and make atonement for them and forbid them; otherwise a priest should not be allowed anywhere where the people are holy and not sinners beforehand, for whom he must sacrifice and pray. Therefore, if we consider this Lord Christ to be a priest and want to accept him, we must confess that we are sinners and believe that he has been set up and given to us as a priest by God for this reason, so that we may seek comfort and help from him against sin, and so that we may be able to find the Lord's help.
as the one who gave himself as a sacrifice for us, so that he might reconcile us before God and bring us to grace, and that through his intercession he might obtain and give us the spirit and power to be freed from sin and thus attain eternal righteousness, holiness and life [1 Pet 2:24].
(225) Therefore we must learn to use this priesthood for our comfort and strength, through faith, which assures us that we truly have in Christ such a high priest, who gives us his word or preaching of the gospel, that is, of divine blessing and grace, and thereby assures us of the forgiveness of sins and inheritance of eternal life, which he has earned and purchased for us through his sacrifice. For this purpose he stands before the Father daily and without ceasing, and speaks the best for us, and brings all our troubles before him [Rom. 8, 34]. And indeed, there is no doubt that such intercession of his is heartily pleasing to the Father, and obtains for us what he asks of him; moreover, it also gives us such power that we may also come before God and pray in his name [1 John 5:14], and makes such our prayer pleasant and pleasing that it must be heard and yes.
What can be more glorious and higher for us than to have such a man as our High Priest, who is the Son of God Himself, seated in majesty at the right hand of God? And what could or would we, should we ourselves desire, desire greater and better than to have such a mediator and intercessor against God? Now we hear that God Himself has appointed this Christ, yes, confirmed Him with His high oath (as is said [§ 185 ff.]), that He should be such a high priest, and therefore sit at the right hand of the Father, so that we should fear neither wrath nor disfavor, if we believe in Him, but provide us with eternal, fatherly grace, comfort and help.
For how can or should he not hear this priest, his one, dear Son? How can he deny him, or make him lack what he asks? Now he asks nothing else but for us, that we may obtain grace and mercy, and we are sure, if we ask such things ourselves, for his sake, that it is pleasing to God and fully heard. Why
Do we still want to doubt or fear? Why do we not come before him with all joy to such a mercy seat (as the epistle to the Hebrews says Cap. 4, 16), and warmly rejoice and comfort ourselves in this high priest? 1) Let us see how this holy prophet of his rejoices and boasts here, for he certainly speaks these words out of a rich, strong spirit and faith, and hereby confesses that he considers this Christ to be his right priest before God, through whom he truly has forgiveness of sins and a gracious God, and has comforted himself against all terror and temptation, suffering and hardship, and is also preserved thereby, both in life and death.
228] Summa, that we may come once to the end, it is in this verse, since he calls it "priest forever" or eternal priest, a great, rich fountain, yes, treasure and treasure trove of all Christian doctrine, understanding, wisdom and comfort, as nowhere else in the Scriptures in one place is so rich and complete with one another. For herein is fully given, as [§ 199] said, the difference of the Old and New Testament, and all is shown what our faith holds and teaches.
For first, he describes (as stated above [§ 201]) the person of this priest much differently from all others, namely, that he alone is both true God and true man, in one, unseparated person, and gives him everything that belongs to these two natures, divine and human. For since he is our priest, and mediator between God and us [1 Tim. 2, 5.], he must also be a man, of our nature, flesh and blood, since (as the epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 5, 1. says) "every high priest is taken from among men, and set apart for men against God". Again, because he is called an eternal priest, as he is eternal for his person, he must be truly God. But if he should be
1) Here, the Erlanger has adopted Walch's alteration: "und wollen uns dieses Hohenpriesters nicht herzlich" etc., instead of the reading of the original and the other editions set by us. The alteration expresses the meaning, but is not necessary, because the original reading has only inverted word order, instead of: und freuen uns herzlich und trösten uns dieses Hohenpriesters?
to be the one who reconciles us to God and heals us from sins, he had to be conceived and born pure without any sin; and yet, if he, as the high priest, should take our sin upon himself and pay for it, he had to shed his blood and die [Hebr. 9, 22]. But because the true divine nature was in him, and his priesthood was to remain forever, he could not remain in death and the grave [Acts 2:24], but had to rise from the dead and enter into another, eternal life, where he can be our priest with the Father without end.
230 Secondly, because this person is eternal, and lives as the Lord of all creatures, and has all things powerfully in his hand, he must also give to those of whom he is a priest (that is, to us men) his eternal goods, namely, that through him we may have redemption from sin, death, and all power of the devil and all evil, and also that we may be made in us a completely new nature and being, that we may also be raised from the dead, both in body and soul, completely pure and perfect, living with him in eternal glory. For this cause he became our priest, and did all things, that we might obtain and have these things of and through him. No other priesthood can and never has been able to do this, not even Moses, who was ordained by God; much less any other person, service, holiness, wisdom, nor authority and power on earth. For since all these things, both person and what they have, are temporal and transitory, that they must die and cease, they cannot create or give such an eternal thing. Therefore, all these things have been abolished here, and the glory that should be before God has been taken away from him, and all things have been drawn into this one person, so that faith may adhere entirely to him alone, and obtain all that we are to have from God, which belongs to eternal righteousness and eternal life.
231 Thirdly, there is also the article of the Christian church, that it should remain on earth forever, and that the ministry of the gospel, baptism and sacrament, and the power thereof, should continue as long as the world stands. For if he is to be a priest forever, he must always have a people or a congregation,
In whom his priesthood is recognized and who believe in him, preach about him, and confess his name with word and life, walk in his power. For if he no longer had such a group, he could no longer be called a priest. Therefore he preserves Christianity on earth until the last day, against all power and authority that fights and rages against it; And in it he reigns as a priest or true pope, through the ministry of preaching and the power of the Holy Spirit, so that even in this life he may begin to make new men of us, and communicate his eternal divine goods to us, that here we may all have daily and eternal forgiveness of sins, and may work in us power and strength, and conquest of death, the devil, and hell, and may bring about eternal righteousness and life.
232 Therefore, although he has gone to heaven and no longer preaches personally or bodily on earth, he has not ceased to speak through his apostles and their descendants, and will not cease to speak and to spread his gospel further and further, and to work powerfully in them through the Holy Spirit: Holy Spirit to work powerfully in the same. For if he did not himself do this mightily, the whole Scripture, preaching chair, baptism, sacrament, together with the name of Christ, would have long since been eradicated and wiped out. And if he did not himself drive and sustain our hearts through his Holy Spirit, no man would believe the gospel or remain in it.
How purely the devil has swept up and exterminated the gospel and the Christian faith in Greece, through Mahomet and the Turks! They did not lack fine, learned, reasonable and pious people; as they still have many fine, great, wise people. But this has done the damage, and devastated and ruined everything, so that Christ has ceased to preach there. Which is not the fault of the devil nor of his 1) Mahomet's raging, blustering and malice, but of the grievous ingratitude and contempt of the gospel among those who have it, and yet do not think with earnestness and sorrow how they may keep it: as then Rome and the
1) Wittenberg and Jena: his.
Because they no longer want to hear Christ, but have begun to preach themselves, and have raised their own priesthood, worship, sacrifice and holiness apart from Christ, he is also silent. For where they preach of our own merit, monasticism, indulgences, masses, pilgrimages, purgatory, Christ is gone, and there can be no faith, nor spirit, nor Christian church there; without God nevertheless having hitherto raised up the name of Christ, the Scripture and text of the Gospel, baptism, sacrament and absolution for the sake of his elect, whom he miraculously saved in this Sodoma and Babylon of ours, and now has again brought forth the right doctrine, that he may be heard speaking again.
Therefore it is his work and power alone that the gospel, faith and the true church remain in the world, and he himself, both of them, puts his word into the mouth and heart, so that it may be preached and accepted. And if in one place he will not be heard, nor suffer, in another he will come. Just as he preached on earth from one city to another, and commanded his apostles to go into all the world [Marc. 16, 15.], so he does not cease to walk through the world with his gospel until the last day. Jerusalem, Greece and Rome did not want to suffer him, so he came to us; and where we also do not want to hear him, he will find others who will hear him.
Behold, this is the glory, power and authority of this eternal priesthood of Christ, how therein is all our comfort, and what is to be preached and believed for our salvation: that whoever could take this into his heart and keep it, would have comfort and joy enough, and could not be afraid all his life long. For here he hears that Christ, the Son of God, should and will be our priest, not for an hour or a day, and his mass or priestly office should not last as short as a papal priest's mass; but he is priest from the day he became Christ, and began to offer his body, and still presents such sacrifice to the Father, and thereby forbids us without ceasing, until the end of the world.
Who wants to or can harm us, if we have this mediator and intercessor with God in heaven? Who wants to accuse or condemn us (says St. Paul Rom. 8, 34.), if God's Son represents us and justifies us? And in short, who is he who is against us, if he himself stands for us? Where God is gracious, there happiness strikes, whether all the world is angry. If I may not fear God, why do I ask for the devil's wrath and terror? If Christ, my Lord, protects me, what harm can the enemy do me? If God himself fights for me, who will overcome me?
From all this you see what a shameful and harmful abomination it is for the Pope's doctrine, since people have been taught nothing at all about this priesthood of Christ, and even, to contradict it, have held him up as a terrible judge, and have so imagined his severe and serious wrath that they have had to flee from him, and have driven this so deeply into their hearts that I and others were frightened when we heard the name of Christ. For we were all instructed that we ourselves must be sufficient for our sin, and Christ on the last day would demand from us an account of how we had atoned for our sin and how many good works we had done.
237 And because we could never do enough penance and deeds, but were always terrified and afraid of his wrath, they directed us to the saints in heaven, who were to be mediators between Christ and us; they taught us to call upon the dear Mother of Christ, and to admonish her of the breasts she had given to her Son, that she might abate his wrath against us, and obtain his mercy. And where our dear Lady was not enough, we took to our aid the apostles and other saints, until at last we came to the saints, whom one does not know whether they are saints, indeed, most of whom have never been. St. Anne, St. Barbara, St. Christopher, St. George etc., all of them had to be called upon as intercessors and helpers in need; pilgrimages were made to them, masses were offered, and the pope gave indulgences and blessings.
And what do they do in their daily parish mass? Precisely when they perform the reverend sacrament and say the words
In the same moment, they both turn their words and hearts around and ask God to be merciful to them, not for the sake of the same sacrifice that Christ made, but for the sake of their work, that they offer Christ's body and blood anew (as they themselves blaspheme) and immediately fall upon the intercession of Mary and other saints, who are to be mediators before God. Thus, instead of the priesthood of Christ, they have erected a priesthood of their own, contrary to it.
After that, the monks approached and wanted to improve such sacrifices with their monasticism, and boasted that if one of them said his first mass, he would give birth to a virgin (thus the devil himself mocked her). And whoever enters a monastery sacrifices both his body and soul to God; the body through poverty and chastity, the soul through obedience and denial of himself; yes, he would become as pure and innocent in the monastery when he puts on the cap as if he were coming out of baptism. They made vain sacrifices of all this, so that they might earn not only for themselves but also for others, and told them that whoever wished to be saved would have to buy their mass and monastic earnings for money; until at last they succeeded in persuading people to put on the cap at the place of death and to be buried in it, but with the understanding that they would have to give them enough money for it.
240. Behold, is not this an abomination upon abominations, and an outrageous, wanton blasphemy and mockery of this priest of Christ, and of his sacrifice and merit? Such a fruit is the whole Pabstry, as a mother of all abominations and fornications, as St. John Revelation 17, v. 5, says of her, that on her forehead are written the names of blasphemy, that is, so many, innumerable, self-chosen services and works, which she at all times publicly and insolently praised and raised up for sacrifices, to the oppression of the sacrifice of Christ, and to the miserable harm and destruction of souls. It must have been a great wrath, and more terrible, than any one
can believe or pronounce. It would be no wonder that God would have long since reduced the bets to ashes with fire from heaven for such blasphemy, and it would still be desirable that He would strike all monasteries, convents and churches into a heap with thunder and lightning, the sooner the better, since one does not want to desist from such blasphemy, and even knowingly defend it.
241. But so it goes, and so it must go, where this priest, Christ, does not preach and teach himself, and men subject themselves to govern the church in his stead; as the pope has done: That it may well be seen how it is his own work and deed alone that right doctrine, faith, and divine service are carried out, and that his church or Christianity is rightly governed and preserved, otherwise such a misery will certainly result that one will forget this priest altogether, and instead seek and choose his own priesthood and sacrifices, until it is all filled with vain abominations, idolatry, and blasphemy against Christ. For where this priest is lacking, human reason and wisdom can come no higher than to atone for sin, to obtain grace and salvation through their own work, strict and hard life, or through the merit of other people who pray and sacrifice for them.
Now we have heard here again in this verse that Christ alone is and shall be the only true priest before God for eternity, and that which is not the priest's shall not be valid before God. For the two cannot and do not go together, Christ's merit and sacrifice, and my own sacrifice and work; one alone must do it, either Christ, or my own work. If he is to be our priest, and by his sacrifice and intercession reconcile us and bring us to God, our own sacrifice and work will not achieve this, for it is not Christ nor his sacrifice. But if it is our sacrifice and work that is to do it, then Christ with his priesthood, suffering, death and everything is in vain, and this verse is denied and blasphemed. For what may I add to Christ's sacrifice, if I think I have or deserve it in myself and through myself?
That is enough, and probably too much, of this verse. Now I should also say something about how we Christians are also priests. For whether
Although Christ is the only high priest between God and all of us, he also gives us this name, so that we who believe in him may also be and be called priests, just as we are called Christians after him.
244 But here a distinction must be made between the office or service of bishops, pastors, and preachers, and that of common Christians. For pastors and preachers are indeed in the office of the church, but they are not priests (as the Scriptures call sacerdotes, or priests); just as they are not Christians. For since we have heard that we have no other high priest than Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, no one else can be called a priest, either from and through Christ, as a child of his Father, having such a name and right as a native inheritance, so that those who are to be priests must be children born of this priest, and those who are born of him are and shall be called all priests.
Now he said above [§163 ff] that he should have children and heirs, not by man and woman, natural or human, but by a spiritual, heavenly birth, without human intervention, only by divine work, which he does through the gospel and holy baptism. Such children are true priests' children and inherit the same name from their father. Therefore every baptized Christian is already a priest; not ordained or made so by a priest or man, but begotten and born a priest by Christ Himself in baptism.
This is necessary to know, also for the sake of the papal abomination, which has taken the name of "priest" only on its own resembling and shameless bunch, and have thereby separated and separated themselves from the common Christians, and called themselves only clerum Dei, God's inheritance and chosen people, who have to help other Christians by their sacrifice and worship. Yes, that is why they impudently say in their decree translato sacerdotio etc. that Christ has transferred his priesthood to St. Peter, and St. Peter to the chair of Rome, so that the priesthood
Now he alone stands with him, and he alone has power and right to set and do what he wills. Is this not a blatant lie and blasphemy, that they may publicly teach that Christ has given up his priesthood and transferred it? just as if we were no longer allowed to be priests, and that he now sits idle in heaven and has nothing to do with us; in direct contradiction to this verse, which says: "You are a priest forever.
Dear, what kind of priests would St. Peter be, and all the popes with their priests, if Christ himself were not and did not remain the high priest? I would not look at St. Peter (much less the pope at Rome) if I did not have Christ himself, and should have another as priest in his place. But so the pope, as a true anti-Christian, should throw away Christ with his priesthood, prove the Scriptures false, and strike the Holy Spirit in the mouth; then raise up a priesthood of his own, of which Christ, nor the Scriptures, knows nothing.
Therefore we Christians should hold fast to this, and know that Christ has never thrown away his priesthood, nor laid down the office, nor given it to others, but is and remains the true priest before God, speaking to us there, sacrificing and praying for us forever, and neither St. Peter nor any man on earth is a priest, as if Christ had ceased to be a priest, or had given him over to be a priest in his place. God forbid that we should have another priest! For if we did not have this mediator before God, we would all be condemned and lost, with all our own actions, holiness and worship.
Now it is he alone, and must be he alone, who brings us to God through his own priesthood, and also communicates it to us. And as we all enjoy the power of his priesthood for our comfort and salvation, so that not only St. Peter or the apostles, nor pope and bishops, are made partakers of it, but all who are to be saved, so he also imparts the same name to all Christians, that as they are called children and heirs of God through him [Gal. 3, 26. 4, 7.], so they are also called priests after him, and so every baptized Christian is both a priest and called a priest.
than St. Peter or St. Paul. For the fact that St. Peter is a priest is due to the fact that he believed in Christ, as I also am. So we all (as I said) became priests' children in baptism [1 Petr. 2, 9. Revelation 1, 6. 5, 10. 20, 6.]. Therefore, as common as the name Christian is, and as common as God's child is (namely, of all who believe in Christ), so common should also be and be understood the name priest. For we all have at the same time and in common one baptism, gospel, one grace and inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, one Holy Spirit, one God the Father and Lord Christ [Eph. 4, 4-6], and are all one in him; as he says John 17, v. 22, and St. Paul Gal. 3, 28: "You are all one in Christ JEsu" etc.
250 This is said of the priesthood, which is a common good of all Christians. But it is another thing to say of those who have an office in Christendom, as church ministers, preachers, pastors, or pastoral caretakers. These are not priests (as the Scriptures use to call priests) for the sake of the profession or office which they have, but are so already before their office, from their baptism; and are called in Scripture ministers, bishops, that is, overseers, or, as the apostles call them, presbyters, seniores, that is, elders [1 Cor. 4:1, 1 Tim. 3:2, Tit. 1:5]. For the word presbyter means nothing else than an old man, hence that the best men were chosen for such office, who had come to their age, were well tried, learned, practiced and experienced. As is proper in all regiments, and Scripture commands that such people be elected.
251 These are therefore chosen and separated from the common group of Christians in the church for the sake of office alone, no differently than how some officials are chosen and appointed in secular government from a whole citizenry or community. There, a person does not become a citizen because he is elected mayor or judge, but because he has the right of citizenship beforehand, and is a member of the entire citizenry, he is then elected to office, thus bringing his citizenship with him into the mayoralty. So also, a woman or wife in the house does not become a woman because she takes a husband.
For if she were not first a woman's image, she would never become a housewife through marital union, but she brings her feminine nature into the marriage state, after which she receives the keys to the house. The same is true of all other offices and positions, such as father, mother, schoolmaster, magistrate, and office; there the office does not give the nature and right that each one has, but the same must first be there from birth, and make him fit for it, so that he can hold the office. For God has made and created it so that we must first be born men, male or female; but after that he gives each one his office and position as he wants, and knows how to divide them in various ways.
252 So it is in Christendom also. Every man must first be a Christian and a born priest before he becomes a preacher or bishop, and neither the pope nor any man can make him a priest. But if he is born a priest by baptism, then comes the ministry after that, and makes a difference between him and other Christians. For there must be taken out of the whole multitude of Christians some who are to preside over others, to whom God gives special gifts and skill, that they may be fit for the office. As St. Paul says in Eph. 4:11, 12: "He gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, that the saints (that is, those who are already Christians and baptized priests) might be sent to the work of the ministry or service, by which the body of Christ (that is, the Christian congregation or church) might be built up.
For though we are all priests, yet we cannot and ought not all preach, or teach, or govern; but some must be separated and chosen out of the whole multitude, to whom such office shall be committed. And he who has this office is not a priest for the sake of the office (as the others all are), but a servant of the others of all. And if he can or will no longer preach and serve, he rejoins the common multitude, commands the office to another, and is nothing else than any common Christian.
(254) Thus the office of preaching or ministry must be separated from the common priesthood of all baptized Christians. For such an office is no more than a public service, if it is commanded by the whole congregation, who are all priests at the same time.
(255) Do you ask what the priesthood of Christians consists in, or what are their priestly works? Answer: Just the same as those mentioned above [§ 209 ff.], namely, teaching, sacrificing and praying. But this must be known, as I have said [§ 242 f.], that Christ is the only high priest, which priestly office we must have beforehand, as having been given to us for our benefit, yes, given to us as our own, before we do such priestly works afterward. For from Him I have the doctrine and preaching which He brought from heaven, that we might be saved; so also He alone has done and accomplished the sacrifice for us all, that we might be reconciled to God [Rom. 5:10]. So he is also the only one who pleads for us all before God without means, without which mediator no prayer is valid before God etc.
(256) If we have become Christians through this priest and his priesthood, and have been incorporated into him through faith in baptism, we also have the right and authority to teach and confess the word we have from him to everyone, each according to his profession and position. For even though we are not all in public office and profession, every Christian should and may teach, instruct, admonish, comfort, and punish his neighbor by the word of God, when and where anyone needs it; as father and mother their children and servants, one brother, neighbor, citizen, or farmer another. For a Christian of the Ten Commandments, of faith, of prayer, etc. can instruct or admonish another who is still ignorant or weak, and he who hears it is obliged to accept it as God's word from him, and to confess it publicly.
257 So also Christians have and practice their priestly sacrifice, not so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins for themselves or others; for this they have only through Christ's sacrifice, which alone is for reconciliation for all men, but such sacrifices so that they may praise God and
praise. These are the sacrifices of which St. Paul says Rom. 12, 1: "I exhort you, brethren, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God" etc. Such sacrifice is in the cross and suffering. For if we are to confess Christ, we must risk our goods, honor, body and life. Therefore, if such things are taken from us for the sake of confession, it is rightly called our body, life, goods, and honor sacrificed to God. And these are the right sacrifices, which are pleasing to God and a sweet savor. For they are done for God's praise and honor, and for the people's good example etc.
Such sacrifices were strongly practiced and practiced in the time of the dear martyrs, who gave their bodies and lives for the confession of Christ, not only the bishops and preachers who presided over others, but also young children and virgins (as St. Agnes, a maiden of thirteen years). These were all true holy priests and priestesses, who sacrificed their bodies and honored God with such service and obedience, strengthening and comforting others with their example. According to this, all Christian lives, deeds and sufferings are holy, pleasing sacrifices before God, if they are done in faith, so that through his sacrifice we may have forgiveness of sins and please God, and are done so that God may be praised and honored, and others may be corrected, and also that God may be praised and thanked [Matth. 5, 16].
In addition to such sacrifice, Christians also pray, for they are driven to do so by all kinds of suffering and affliction. They do not pray on themselves or on their own merit, but on the mediator Christ, who carries their prayer before God and makes it acceptable and heard by Him. And this is the high honor of Christians, that we are so highly consecrated and dignified by Christ that we are allowed to come before God and pray. For those who are not Christians cannot and do not know how to teach, pray or sacrifice properly, even though they boast and boast a lot, want to teach and master all the world, sacrifice day and night in the churches, chatter, sing and make noise; for they do not have this mediator and high priest,
1040 Eri. 4v, 174-17". Second interpretation of the 110th Psalm. Ps. 110, 4. 5. w. v, isos-isn. 1041
from which it must flow, and everything is valid through him alone before God. But that a young baptized child says his ten commandments, faith and Our Father in the morning, in the evening, and over the table, that is rightly prayed and heard by God; for he prays as a Christian and priest, born in baptism and consecrated by Christ.
(260) Thus every Christian has and practices such priestly works. But over this is the common office, which publicly leads and drives the teaching, to this belong pastors and preachers. For in the congregation they cannot all attend to the office; nor is it fitting to baptize and administer the sacrament in every house. Therefore, some must be chosen and appointed to preach and to practice the Scriptures, who can lead the teaching office and defend it; item, the sacraments must be administered on behalf of the congregation, so that it is known who has been baptized and everything is done properly. Otherwise a church would slowly become, or be appointed, where each neighbor preached to the other, or did everything among themselves without order. Such, however, is not the priesthood in itself, but a common public office for those who are all priests, that is, Christians. But more than enough of this. Now follows in the Psalm:
V. 5 The Lord at your right hand will smite the kings in the time of his wrath.
The holy prophet has so far prophesied gloriously, both of the kingdom and eternal priesthood of Christ, for the consolation of all miserable, poor sinners and afflicted hearts, and has presented this dear man in such a way that it could not be made any sweeter. For that we hear how we have in him a pious, faithful, dear bishop and advocate up in heaven, against divine wrath and eternal death, to whom we shall have our refuge in our last needs, and know that he will not forget us, nor cease to represent us: of this all men should indeed rejoice and be comforted, and accept this Lord with great thanksgiving, reverence and obedience.
262 But this verse says how the world shows itself against such a king and priest, and how the world shows itself against such a king and priest.
He will thank him, namely, that the 1) power on earth will set itself against him in a spurious manner, and will be obliged to destroy his kingdom; but that God himself must do this by force, so that he will defend this priest and all of us who believe in him. For there shall rise up against him, not one or two peasants, or lowly and loose men, but the proper authorities of the earth, which are called lords and kings; not murderers or tramps, but the high and mighty lords, which rule the world, and have their authority from God. If reckless men and wicked men did it, it would not be a great wonder, but it is strange that they should do it, who are the highest, wisest and best in the world. For when he calls them kings, he is referring to the right, orderly rule set by God; the highest authority, wisdom, prudence, and core of the best 2) on earth; as David also laments and says in another Psalm, v. 1, 2: "Why do the nations rage, and the people speak in vain? The kings of the land rebel, and the lords counsel with one another against the Lord and his anointed."
We must also know and be accustomed to this. As comforting as this sermon is about Christ, our king and priest, against sin, death and the devil, it must still be met with the fact that people do not want to suffer this same priest and king, when they can otherwise suffer all kinds of idolatry and error, and that this king's enemies should be precisely those who are the very best. This is an abominable, shameful thing, that they should set themselves against their own Lord, who wants to redeem them and help them. And who could believe such a thing to be possible if we did not see it before our eyes? Everyone thinks: Who would want to be such a foolish, even cursed, devilish man, who would not gladly hear and accept this sermon? Yes, who would not run after it for a hundred miles, and fall against it on foot? But now we see and learn how many pious Christians have been judged, burned, drowned, murdered and chased away in all countries, France and the Netherlands,
1) Wittenberg and Jena: all.
and among our neighbors, for no other reason than that they know Christ to be the only priest and savior. Otherwise, they will surely let the most wicked, evil-doers and murderers go, if only they do not adhere to this preaching, but help them to blaspheme and persecute.
264. But we are told, first of all, that we should not be surprised or angry if we see emperors, kings, princes, lords, wise, highly learned, excellent people condemning this doctrine, and not begin to doubt and think as the fickle spirits do: Well, perhaps it will not be right, otherwise the great, the mighty, the learned would certainly accept and believe it; if emperors, kings of France, great princes, lords and bishops had it preached, I would also believe it. Nay, not so, but think the contrary: it must surely be the right doctrine; for I hear and see that kings and lords, who otherwise can suffer and practice all idolatry and lies, will not suffer this to be preached of Christ and believed in, since otherwise they cannot blame us for harming or hurting them, but would gladly see them and all the world, along with us, helped, pray for them, teach everyone to be obedient to them. But this is the sin that is not to be suffered, and therefore we must die, that we preach that Christ is our Savior and the Savior of all the world, and that we are redeemed and saved by His blood alone, and that we want to remain on it, and take and administer His Sacrament as He commanded.
Now you see what the Scripture says about great kings and lords of the world: "By God, no one should wish to be called a king because of this text, because they are so shameful and are accused of murder, crucifying the Son of God and their own Savior, as much as there is in them. Should someone be frightened when he hears a king called. It is too much for great lords to have such things sung and said of them publicly, and to stand and be proclaimed in the Scriptures as the enemies of this man, who is called their priest and savior, and who bought and saved them with his blood, even from whom they are said to be kings.
and sit on their chairs. Let him now be proud and boast whoever wants to be called king or prince, and insist on his great power, honor and property, so he hears here that his hair may well stand on end, and he may be afraid of himself, and would rather not have been born a prince and lord, where he does not put down his feathers and humble himself before this Lord, and submit his crown, power and honor to him.
But lest anyone become fainthearted and think that such enemies will always come to this end, or fear that Christ's kingdom and priesthood must perish because of it, he adds and says what they deserve with such bluster and opposition, and what God wants to do about it. Truly, such great heads are terribly afraid that if they wanted to hear it and could believe it, they would be scared to death of it. In fact, he would like to provoke them to repentance and move them to convert and stop raging against this Lord. But if they will not, let them know what shall come upon them. Therefore he tells them beforehand that they will have no excuse afterwards, and that they will bring upon themselves the well-deserved punishment, that they will feel it, and that faith will come into their hands of that which they despised before.
267 But it is also said to the Christians for their comfort, that we know that they 1) should not carry out what they have in mind against this Lord and his company. For if they should continue to persecute in this way, we would not be able to stand, and in the end the Christians would become very few and fall behind. That is why we must have a savior who will ward off and prevent the persecution. Only the divine power, which is called in this verse, must and can do this: "the Lord at your right hand". I, I will be it myself (says God), and also do it myself, by my divine, almighty power; so great, so mighty shall they not be, I will meet them and pay them.
268 And that it be seen that it should not be a joke, but that he should be punished with the punishment.
1) The words: "the enemies of our Lord Christ" are added in the Wittenberg and the Jena.
He says, "He will smite the kings, or he will smite them. Then hear thou what the strength and power of his right hand is, and what earnestness he will use and exercise against such. They shall not be too strong nor too powerful for him, as it seems, when they are in the work, and rage against Christianity, as if they have already subdued and suppressed it, and now sit so firm and strong that no one can resist them or weaken their power. No (he says), he is not so weak and powerless. For he has such power that when he begins, he can attack them in such a way that it will not be called smitten or overthrown, but smashed, as one smashes a pot, Ps. 2:9, so that they will lie in ashes and dust at once with their lands and people, and will never be able to come up again.
269 Therefore he also says that he will do this in the day of his wrath. For he gives them time and time enough, so that they may convert and stop until his day and hour comes; he admonishes and warns them to beware of the day (which is called a day of wrath [Isa. 13:13]) and to anticipate the punishment with repentance. For since thou high priest (he will say) still reignest and preachest on earth, it is the day of grace and mercy. Therefore, whoever wants to convert and be saved, let him do so because the sun of grace is shining; for he still has a day of wrath, which will pass over those who do not want to accept this day of grace. When that day of grace is over and missed, they will find what they have done and deserve; and as they now run and storm against Christ with fierce anger and raging, so then he will also run and bring his wrath upon them, so that they will perish under it.
270 For they also want to have it that way. They will not and cannot suffer mercy and kindness, to which they are kindly and fatherly enticed and admonished, but want to pass badly with their heads, and will not stop until he lets his anger go, and calls and heaps it upon himself to the utmost, so that it must suddenly burn up, as the 2nd Psalm, v. 12, says; not individual people, but kings and lords with lands and people.
consume them like stubble or dry leaves, and thus put the bottom out of the barrel, and even make up with them, so that one must say: Behold, here were great kings and princes, mighty countries and people, where are they now?
The first kings of Jerusalem (when Christ came) were the three: 1) Herod, item, the chief priests, together with the whole council and city, who all with one accord crucified God His Son, and confidently persecuted and executed His Christians. Well, he watched them long enough; but when the day of wrath came (more than forty years after Christ's ascension), not only was there no Herod, Caiphas or Annas to be found, but not one stone was left upon another [Luc. 19, 44.], and the city and country lay in ashes for fifteen hundred years. Rome was also a mighty city, and held other kings for nothing, was also angry and wicked, tortured and murdered Christ's dear saints with great multitude, like sheep for the slaughter, that even in one day seventy thousand Christians were put to death, and thought to control things by force. But what is it now? Christians have remained, and still remain; baptism, gospel and sacrament still stand and go; yes, the more one has persecuted it and wanted to dampen it, the further and more it has spread and gained the upper hand. Rome, however, has been razed three times, so that it lies two men deep under the earth, and has now become a rat's nest of the pope and his cardinals, the devil's secret chamber, and no longer worthy to be called a city, compared to the one it was. That is what it has wanted and deserved with its raging and raging against this king and high priest, Christ.
So it will happen, as I unfortunately fear, after this prophecy about Germany, that people will say: dear Germany lies destroyed and devastated, because of our ingratitude, and because of the bishops, priests, tyrants, raging and raging. For they also want to bring it down by force, so that God should play with them the game that he played with Rome and Jerusalem.
1) Only the Jena one has an interpunction sign after "three". The other editions offer: "the three Herods".
1046 Eri. 4", 181-183. Interpretations on the Psalms. W. v. isi6-isis. 1047
God grant that we and our children may then be dead and not see the calamity.
273. Therefore, as I have said, He hereby wants to strengthen and equip the Christians, so that they will not fret about this, nor be afraid of whether kings and princes will oppose this Lord, and not consider that they are kings and mighty lords, as if one must therefore be obedient to them, and let this Lord go, or despair of him, as if his kingdom must fall, but know that God wants us to be obedient to this Lord, and to crush with one another the disobedient, the rebellious, both kings and princes, and those with them who rage against Christ and help persecute his Christians.
274 Our tyrants and their hypocrites have now looked on, and pretend to the people that because they no longer want to believe and live according to the supposed spiritual authorities (as they themselves no longer obey or respect them, for as far as they desire to do so), they should believe and live according to the temporal authorities, and say that everyone must be obedient to his sovereign and lord. This is something that the drops did not know before, but now they have learned from our gospel and are persecuting us with it. And now they cannot force the people with spiritual command and ban, they turn against the gospel before princely authorities, and say: I command you these things, not as a bishop, but as your prince and authority, ordered by God, whom you are obliged to obey. This is just the right thing to do, that they want to become the people whom this verse shall strike, and be crushed by God. For they want to use royal and princely power against him. But if they can use royal and worldly power (given to them by God) and rage against God and His Christ, then He can also strike them and throw them down, as under the pots (as Psalm 2:9 says), so that they are shattered and the broken pieces lie there and can never be brought together again.
This is our consolation, which sustains us and makes the heart glad and courageous against the persecution and raging of the world, that we have such a Lord, who not only redeems us from sin, God's wrath and eternal death,
but also protects and saves us in suffering and persecution, so that we will not perish. And even though they rumble against the Christians in the most horrible way, neither the gospel nor Christianity shall perish, but their heads shall be crushed for it. For if their persecution should continue and endure without ceasing, Christianity could not remain. Therefore he gives them a time and says that he will watch them for a while, but not longer, until the hour comes, which is called "the day of wrath". If they do not want to stop in God's name, then they must stop in the devil's name.
276 But the prophet has his way of speaking here, that he does not say that Christ will do this, but "the Lord (he says) at your right hand" etc.., so that Christ may remain in a sweet and lovely image of grace and comfort, as the one who sits above for us; remembering neither vengeance nor punishment, but, as St. Peter says 1 Ep 2:23, he has given it home to him who judges rightly, and on the cross neither mourns nor curses his crucifiers [Luc 23:34], but pleads for them with weeping and great crying [Heb 5:7]. So he still does, and so remains, as the previous verse said, always and forever our dear, faithful priest. But to those who are his enemies and do not want to have him as their priest, the Father will not give them the benefit of the doubt, nor let them go unpunished; for he is at his right hand the high, eternal power and majesty, who will not finally suffer their defiance and raving against Christ. And because they only want to be enemies, they will also have an enemy in him, and such an enemy against whom they will not be able to do anything, but will lie crushed in ashes by him (when he hits them).
V. 6: He will judge the nations, he will do great battle, he will crush the head of great nations.
The previous verse was spoken primarily to the Jewish people and country, to whom Christ was promised, and both the kingdom and the priesthood were given to them by God, so that they might first accept Christ as their rightful king and priest.
But where they would not, it was prophesied to them beforehand that the kingdom and royal lineage would come to an end, the land would be laid waste, and the people scattered and destroyed; after which Christ would also come among the Gentiles. Now this verse prophesies of this, and reaches out and goes into all the world, telling both how he will spread his kingdom everywhere through the gospel, so that everyone who wants to hear and accept it will be saved, and again also that those who do not want to suffer it, like those, will be punished, no matter how powerful, great and mighty they may be.
278 He is to rule and reign through his word or ministry and the Holy Spirit, so that he punishes sin and brings it to righteousness, gives grace to poor sinners and helps them, and condemns others who do not want it. For these are the two parts of the judging or governing ministry, to take away and to control wrong and evil, and to help to right. So by his word he will bring all the Gentiles from sin to his obedience and to salvation, wherever there are Gentiles. But they that will not, and set themselves in defiance against his rule, that they should be kings, princes, and chiefs of the earth, he will punish them, that they also shall be brought down, as they that were his own people, and so shall lie down with a great multitude, as in a great battle, when it lieth full of dead bodies.
So this Lord is still today a judge among the 1) Gentiles, and so rules that we have his Word and Sacrament. For he teaches, baptizes, absolves, feeds, comforts, and preaches eternal life throughout the world. But because the heathen also rage against him, he must also control the same, and cast it among them, so that they must cease; and shall be such a great, dreadful punishment, that it shall be called beaten with a great heap, and the whole heathen nation made full of dead corpses; that is, all kings, lords, countrymen, and people, who will not cease to persecute the gospel, must finally and eternally be overthrown, and their heads laid in ashes, that they shall never again-" (John 1:9).
1) Thus the Wittenbergers and the Jenaers. In the original "and". The Erlanger has the Conjectur: "us".
who may arise. For since they set themselves against him with all their might and power, he must also strike and punish them with great force, so that he may defend and preserve his kingdom and Christianity, as it is written in Wis 6:7: potentes potenter tormenta patientur, "the mighty shall be mightily punished.
In particular, he says, he will crush the head of great countries, that is, the highest power in the world. He who will have the reign and the emperorship, let him beware. He does not say who will be the head, because in David's time there was still nothing about Rome; but Daniel set four emperorships in succession, until Christ [Dan. 7], at which time the Roman Empire was the head, as it still is in part, but not so great and powerful as before. For such empire is now divided, that one part towards the morning, and almost the greater, is held by the Turkish tyrant, the other towards the evening by the pope, and what is left of the Roman empire by the German emperors. All these, who will also be the head, who persecute the gospel (as the Turk, the pope with emperors and kings, who were attached to him, did so far and still do), shall be crushed, until they finally perish, and will be nothing anymore; as Daniel also prophesies in the other chapter, v. 34, about the stone, which crushes the great image, with iron, clay, silver and gold, that is, all kingdoms on earth.
281 He has also done so up to now, as above.
[The experience of these fifteen hundred years bears ample witness to how he has rumbled and raged among the great heads of the earth. How is the beautiful land of Asia, Egypt, and Greece so miserably devastated and desolate? What is the famous city of Athens (which was a star and pearl in Greece) but a desolate place, where about one or two fishermen live, and hardly so much of it remains that one can notice that there was a city there. What is the old Rome but a churchyard, yes, a loud Schindeleich, where the great lords of the world lie buried, and their houses and magnificent, mighty buildings thrown on them.
When he has thus destroyed and reduced to ashes the excellent empire, since it was the highest and was called and praised with honor as the head of the world, he will not be very afraid of the remaining fires that are still burning, that is, of the poor Plätting lind Schürling, Pabst, Cardinals and his scales. Angry and wicked they may be, hanging kings and princes upon them, presuming to exterminate us: but how soon are they also crushed, that they all lie in ashes, like those before them! For what are they but beggars to them? yet are they down, and lie in the mire. And he that smote and destroyed them shall yet be able to smite an angry plague and a wicked tyrant, that he may lay down his head with all the enemies of the gospel; but it is not yet time, and the day of grace must yet shine and go for our sakes; after that it shall come to pass, and such things shall be done unto them, that it shall be said: Here a few years ago was a mighty prince, a mighty bishop; where are they now?
This is written for our comfort, that we may not be afraid of it, though the pope, the emperor, the Turk, the dodderer, and the devil himself be almost angry and furious; for we hear, and shall be assured, that the man reigneth and liveth, who hath hitherto crushed all his enemies, that these also shall not escape him.
V. 7. He will drink from the brook on the way, therefore he will lift up his head.
This is a strange verse, and the Jews have perverted it with strange, unrhymed interpretations and glosses. For they are exceedingly fond of the sayings of the glorious Messiah, and tickle themselves with them, when they hear that their Messiah is to be king over all the nations, and that God will punish and destroy those who will not obey him, so that they, the Jews, may come into power and become mighty in the great king's court. For they dream and imagine that he will sit down in Jerusalem, rebuild the city, and establish the kingdom there, and from there spread it through his Jews to all the earth.
285. But again, they do not like at all that the Scripture says back and forth like this, that he is
shall suffer and die; it is not acceptable to them that the Messiah, the Son of David and of God, of whom such a glorious thing is written, should allow himself to be tortured and killed by his enemies. This is the word of the cross, of which St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:18, which causes such great trouble among this people that the great multitude falls away and is lost, and only a handful of them come to the Christian faith. For they cannot rhyme the two together: that Christ should be the supreme King over all kings, and yet should suffer and be put to death. Reason stands there and is distraught, and yet it cannot even agree that such a mighty King, who will slay and destroy all kings, should himself be slain by them. What shall we do, they say, with such a king who begins his kingdom in such a way that he is the first to be shamefully tortured and killed as a thief and murderer?
286. But this verse clearly teaches us that this Messiah or Christ is not to have and lead a temporal kingdom in the flesh, in a worldly way, but another, spiritual kingdom, in which the King is to rule eternally, not with external power, army strength, sword and weapons, but by invisible, divine power, And so he himself shall come to earth, and dwell here in the way, as a wayfarer, sojourner and pilgrim among the people, like another man, that his life shall be called a journey or wandering, as in Scripture is called the common daily life of men on earth [Gen. 47:9], that in the sight of the world and the eyes of the flesh he should have no other appearance or reputation than another man (as St. Paul says in Phil. 2:5 ff.), and should not have the appearance or splendor of a worldly king, but should be a contradiction and nothing else than a poor, suffering, despised, even condemned man.
This is how it should go for him on the way, and this should be the way through which he enters his kingdom; as he himself also calls it John 16:16, "going to the Father"; namely, that he has departed from this world through death, and has gone from this life into that, sitting down at the right hand of the Father in his eternal kingdom.
Thus the prophet, after having said such great and glorious things about this king, interprets himself how he shall rule over all, and how he shall crush all kings, and all that is great which sets itself against him, lest anyone should understand this to be a Jewish delusion, as if it were to happen in a fleshly, worldly way. It is true that he will be great and mighty above all the kings of the earth; but I will tell you the right gloss, and show you how he will set himself, and what will be the manner and form in which he will come to such dominion: He will not be such a worldly lord and king as I and my descendants are in Jerusalem, and other kings, but he will come on earth, into this common life and being, and will walk and go the way here like a common man, neither looking at anything special in front of others, nor giving orders.
289. and in the same (says he) he shall "drink of the brook", that is, suffer and die; for that is called "drink" in the Scriptures; and "cup", have all kinds of torment, sorrow and suffering [Matth. 20, 22.], even as Christ in the garden, sweating blood, prayed and said, Matt. 26:39, "Dear Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; but if it cannot be otherwise, I will drink it, and thy will be done." Behold, this is the very drinking of which this verse speaks. So also the prophets speak of it, and call it drunk, when God punishes [Ps. 60, 5.), item, poured out or watered and made drunk they call, having great torture and suffering. And the "cup" or chalice is called every man's part and measure, to suffer allotted to him by God; as Ps. 75, 9. [Jer. 25, 15.) and in many more places.
290] So Christ also had to drink a cup here on earth and become drunk, that is, suffer torture and torment, and thus become a disgrace before all the world, and in addition so miserable and poor in his kingdom, that he did not have so much of his own, where he could lay down his head [Matth. 8:20], and there was no crown, nor royal ornament, nor splendor, but only a cross, nails and blood to be seen, and so he hung there most shamefully, being unable to move heaven or earth, nor to stand with his feet.
Therefore he is not called bad here (as elsewhere) from the cup, but "drunk from the brook," to show that he should not feel low or common sufferings and miseries, but bear the very highest, bitterest and most horrible suffering and torture, and die the most terrible death. For this little word torrens means a water or stream that runs and rushes swiftly and strongly, as if it were poured down by a heavy rain, and runs and tears along in a full stream, unstopped. Thus, Christ's suffering is not called a little drink or a cup full, but a whole stream or brook drunk. Just as Psalm 42:8 says of such suffering, "All your floods, waves of water and waves go over me." The river is now the whole world with its power; for the Scriptures also call rivers and waters great and many nations, Isa. 8:7 [Revelation 17:15], as there was Herod, the high priest, Pilate and the Romans' power; last of all the devil, with all his hell, sin, and the terror and fear of death, and what is more of misery; all this fell on him, that he had to drink it out and overcome it.
292 So he now decides and says: "Therefore (that is, when he has thus drunk and suffered) he will lift up his head", that is, become glorious and rule mightily over all. This is to be his manner and grasp, that he may come to glory. Other kings and lords, when they want to rise high, take hold of the land and the people by force and power, and are themselves the waters and rivers that pass over others. But this king shall thus begin to let all the power and authority of the world pass over him, and shall do nothing but be crucified and slain. This is the course he takes in the way.
But precisely because he suffers and lies there, overwhelmed with all the wrath of God, with our sin and the devil's power, he comes to lift up his head. This should be the means and the cause of his glory, that because he is thus cast down, under competition, the devil, death and hell, God must exalt him again, and badly set his head on high again, as St. Paul Phil. 2, 8-10. says, Christ humbled himself, and was lifted up.
1054 Erl. 40, iso-rss. Interpretations on the Psalms. W. v, isW-issi. 1055
became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. "Therefore God has exalted Him, and given Him a name above all names, in which all the knees of those in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, must bow."
He has accomplished this with his drink of suffering, that he is the highest above all, and sits at the right hand of God, of which the first verse of this psalm says. This is the height in which he soars and rises above all kings and all that is high in heaven and earth, so that everything must come under this Lord unless it wants to be struck down and crushed. But those who are under him and obedient to him, he will also bring to such glory, which he has acquired, over sin, death, the devil and all power. For what he suffered and did here, he did not suffer and do for his own sake, but for their benefit. For it pleased God that he should drink for us, and through his obedience drink out and purge our sin, God's wrath and hell, and thus be our dear priest and king, who through his priesthood conferred on us what he had done, and through his kingdom protected and preserved us against all things.
But as we have heard that Christ had to enter his glory through suffering and death for his person [Luc. 24, 26.], so we should also know that in his kingdom on earth, that is, in Christianity, it must still be so; for it is prefigured in his person, and all who are Christians must become like his image. Therefore, from the beginning of the world His kingdom has always been under the cross and suffering, and we also have to go the way afterward through misery, persecution, shame and death, to glory and life [Acts 14:22, 2 Timothy 3:12]. For since he, our Lord and Head, had to do these things, why should we want it any better? Summa, whoever wants to be under this Lord must be accustomed to drink and suffer with Him on the way, so that he may also (as St. Paul says) be exalted with Him to glory, Rom. 8, 17. 2 Tim. 2, 11.
296 Behold, thus is this verse clear, of the passion and resurrection of Christ, how he should die, and yet not abide in death, but through the same into life and his
eternal kingdom. And so the whole psalm is nothing else but a prophecy of the spiritual kingdom of Christ, and everything must be understood spiritually, that is, not according to what the eyes see and reason comprehends, but faith grasps; That is, that he is a man, the Son of David, and yet the eternal God, seated at the right hand of the Father; so also that he should reign among his enemies, and that his people should willingly sacrifice to him in beautiful adornment, and that his children should be born to him like the dew from the dawn. These are all spiritual things, which no one can see with the eyes of the flesh. So also that he is an eternal priest, and makes us all priests, seeing that there is neither church, nor altar, nor priestly ordination. Item, that he destroy all kings and heads of the earth, which set themselves against him. And summa, that he may reign, that both he and his Christians may come through the cross and death to glory and life. All this cannot be seen in the flesh, and no one understands it, except he who believes such a word.
297 Thus we have this beautiful psalm as a special core and example of the whole of Scripture, the like of which prophesies so abundantly and completely and paints for us the Lord Christ with His whole kingdom, and is full of all comfort for Christians. For he is 1) a lovely, comforting king and priest for the poor, miserable, suffering and afflicted Christians on earth. But he shall be terrible to them that will not receive him, nor believe; but also to us for good and comfort, that we fear not his enemies. Therefore let him be our dear king and priest, who represents us eternally before God. His enemies, by whatever name they may be called, be they as clever, wise and powerful as they can, he will find in his own time, crush and exterminate them, and cast them into the abyss of hell and condemn them eternally. But God help us to stay with this Lord, and to be found grateful to Him, and to sing this Psalm to Him with right faith and joy. To our dear Lord and Savior alone be praise, honor and glory, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.
1) "is" is missing in the Erlanger.