Versaht 13 to 26 June, issued in August 1530.
[D. Caspar Creutziger's] preface.
This psalm, because it is one of the noblest and most beautiful, so that it was known and sung daily by the Jews and the common people, and especially speaks of the time of the New Testament and the kingdom of Christ, and thus rhymes with this present time, to teach and comfort Christians usefully, it is well worth, as the venerable D. Martinus says in the preface of his interpretation, that it is held by every Christian as his dear psalm and beautiful Confitemini and is used daily for revival and strengthening of Christian invocation and consolation. Martinus says in the preface of his interpretation that it is held by every Christian as his dear psalm and beautiful Confitemini, and is used daily for revival and strengthening of Christian invocation and consolation.
For first, it teaches us to recognize and praise God's grace and good deeds, and to thank Him for preserving the kingdom of Christ, and with it all other gifts and benefits, so wonderfully in the world at all times, especially in the face of so great, so much, constant, unceasing, and ever new growing raging and raging of the devil and his crowd, that we should also daily, and the longer the more, feel God's benefits and wonders, and thus also boast the more strongly, and sing and repeat the verse of this psalm: "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is kind, and his goodness endures forever."
For in our remembrance we should now have learned so much from our own experience and know to say that what is now still good, first of all in secular government, as peace, protection, preservation of the lands and people, so much of it still
The German people have not been able to achieve and defend this until now, nor have they been able to do so by and through human beings. For as it has hitherto stood everywhere in Germany, so it should have come to this many years ago, since 1) the devil would like to bring it about even now, that poor Germany would now long since have drowned in its own blood, Ind, burned by its own fire, would lie in ashes.
That would have been gladly seen by the tiresome enemy of God and bloodthirsty, murderous spirit; as he 2) recently instigated it, both with secret, murderous tricks and pieces, treason, murder, burning, and to a large extent also with impudent, public, unpunished malice, for which he also found enough evil people ready and willing everywhere, so that there is no lack of will, There has been no lack of will, of plans and of ability, and everyone must realize that what has been hindered and delayed until now has not been and is still being done by any human prudence, power or resistance, but only by God's great, undeserved grace and goodness.
And so something good should still remain and exist, now that the fire of God's righteous wrath has started and burned over Germany, and wants to be unrestrained and unquenched for the sake of the world's great wickedness,
1) Walch and the Erlangeners: that.
2) "he" is missing in Walch and in the Erlanger.
2) Luther wrote this interpretation, as we see from a note by Veit Dietrich on the 18th Psalm (Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. IV, Col. 1504), at Coburg from June 13 to 26, 1530. Luther's letter to Abbot Friedrich at Nuremberg is dated: "From the desert, July 1, 1530. On August 22, Luther sent a finished copy to him from Coburg (De Wette, Vol. IV, p. 136). The first edition was published in Wittenberg in the same year by Hans Lufft under the title: "Das schöne Confitemini, an der zal der 6XVIII Psalm Ausgelegt durch Mart. Luther. MDXXX. Wittenberg." On the last page: "Printed at Wittemberg by Hans Lufft. M.D.XXX." By the same, a new edition appeared in 1531, and another without indication of the year of printing. In 1548 Cruciger organized a new edition by Hans Lufft, and provided it with a preface. Still in 1530, a reprint was published in Nuremberg by Georg Wachter. In the collections: in the Wittenberger (1553), vol. Ill, p. 556b; in the Jenaer (1566), vol. V, p. 43b; in the Altenbnrger, vol. V, p. 168; in the Leipziger, vol. VI, p. 506 and in the Erlanger, vol. 41, p. I. Luther's letter is also found in De Wette, vol. IV, p. 65. Walch reports in the preface to the 4th volume, p. 37 an event organized in 1719 by IVI. Joh. Christoph Crämer, which appeared in Halle. Ll. Johann Feeder translated the manuscript into Latin. This translation has been transferred to the Latin Wittenberg edition (1558), toi". VII, praise 524. In the Jena edition, Cruciger's preface is printed at the end of the interpretation (1. o. p. 70b), and provided with the wrong year 1546.
This must also be done solely through his causeless kindness to his poor church, so that he will spare his own holy name and not let his inheritance be destroyed.
Rather, the fact that the knowledge and light of his holy word and a small group of his church have remained in the spiritual regime until now, have not been suppressed and taken away soon in the beginning, and still remain with us this hour, is not our or some creatures' protection, work, or merit, but his pure grace and goodness. For the devil is especially in this matter wicked, fierce, cunning, powerful, and has been industrious and eager enough to soon eradicate it, even so much persecution, seduction, sects, and lies, which he has brought upon us through his dear obedient and disobedient to God, the pope and his bunch, that if it had stood with them, it would not have come so far (as praise to God now), but would have been dimmed and extinguished at first, before it was properly kindled and lit.
And, unfortunately, the ingratitude of the world and the overpowering, wanton contempt of such high, unspeakable, divine gifts and benefits is so great and strong that God alone should have taken it away from us again for half of it, as only for this and no other reason the world has been punished before, and must still be punished at last.
Therefore, it is of great importance to us, who still have this through such wonderful goodness, that we do not add this ingratitude to other great sins, but rather recognize and praise such great immeasurable grace and good deeds from the heart through true Christian repentance and correction; not to be angry and cry out in disgrace that we are in trouble, which we, alas, well deserve, but to complain and cry out that we have angered God so much with our sins, and to boast with heartfelt confession and thanksgiving that His goodness is still far too great toward us, and as the prophet Jeremiah says in the Song of Songs, Cap. 3, 22: "It is the Lord's goodness that we are not at an end, and his mercy is not yet at an end.
Yes, here we should sing all hours and moments with this Psalm: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is kind, and his goodness endures forever", who so graciously preserves his holy word for us against our great sin, so faithfully protects, saves and redeems his church against the ravings of the devil and the world, so that with such heartfelt thanksgiving we may provoke him all the more 1).
1) Walch and the Erlanger: irritate.
and moved that he would also henceforth preserve and strengthen with us such things as he has given us.
Above this teaching and admonition, the Church of God has in this Psalm its high, eternal comfort from the kingdom of Christ, wherein it has prophesied this beforehand through the Holy Spirit, that it must experience at all times in the world how the same, together with its prince, the devil, sets itself against it, and especially at the last time, the longer the more dreadful, it should be oppressed, plagued, crushed and trampled underfoot by the great tyranny and cruelty of the worldly power (as it now hardly feels enough), and in this it cannot rely on human assistance, salvation and help at all; although God gives some pious rulers or others, where she has shelter for a while, but still, against all misfortune, misery and distress, has security and overcoming in Christ, no matter how bad it may be, it goes, falls, topples, lies all over and over, and can happily sing the song of joy and this triumph, v. 18: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the work of the Lord"; as St. Paul also boasts, Rom. 8, 37: "In all this we overcome far in Christ"; and 1 Cor. 15, 57: "Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory" 2c. For we, praising GOD, know where we are to abide from the devil, death and hell, have in addition the certain promise that also the church on earth shall abide with and after us. For here is the precious cornerstone, which has been rejected by the builders (that is, the highest, noblest, and highest of the world), and yet God wants to keep it unthrown, but to keep it as the foundation and head of His whole church against the gates of hell, and has decreed that whoever rages against it must perish.
This glorious, joyful, eternal victory of our dear Savior is something that all Christian hearts, in the midst of these sorrowful last days of the world and against all terrors and temptations of sorrow and gloom, should take comfort in and heartily rejoice in, and, as this Psalm itself exhorts, keep and celebrate a daily, eternal feast of its joy in faith and spirit, in which we render to God His beautiful, pleasant services, that in our weakness, distress and anguish we call upon this our Lord and God, who enlightens us with divine grace and comfort, and has made a blessed day of eternal life and eternal joys, and cry the dear Hosanna into His ears, that He may graciously strengthen that which He has given, and thereby preserve His church. And then conclude this psalm with its Deo gratias, "Give thanks to the Lord," 2c. so that the beginning and the end are in unison, with eternal praise and joy.
We must give thanks to His unspeakable goodness, so that we do not sink into weeping and lamentation at the sight of all the evil done by the devil and the world, and especially our own sin.
This is what I have said recently, to exhort devout Christians to diligent meditation on this Psalm, through this beautiful interpretation of it, so that they may
not even be hindered and put under the bench, as happens to many other good comforting writings (most of the Holy Scriptures themselves). May the eternal God and Father of our Lord Christ keep all devout hearts in His holy Word, and in eternal praise and thanksgiving for all His causeless grace and mercy, amen.
Caspar Creutziger, D.