they suppose that they are offering service to God (John 16:2). So it is that their seat is utterly inconsistent with the Law and teaching of God. These are the heretics and false teachers of whom we spoke earlier. But just as the tyrants get what is coming to them, so also the heretics will not be able to escape their judgment, which will be described later.
22. But the Lord is my Stronghold, and my God the Refuge of my confidence.
Let them preach, rage, and slaughter all they please! I am safe against them and mightily defended, for God is my Stronghold. Our teaching must abide, their fiction must pass away; for God is our
Stronghold. Therefore we shall remain safe against them both here and hereafter, for our God is our Refuge; He makes us bold and secure. Not only that, but as a God of vengeance He will also destroy them, as the next verse says:
23. He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the Lord our God will wipe them out.
Here is the ultimate and certain judgment: God will not let their wickedness go unnoticed but will wipe them all out in their wickedness, and their wickedness will stop. And this will be done by "our
God," whose Word we speak and whom they do not regard as God at all, supposing as they do that God is on their side, as we have heard above. Whoever believes this and is instructed by God can be patient and permit the wicked to rage, for he considers their end and waits it out.
A Psalm of David, to be sung high WE explained earlier what this "singing high" means.20 David composed this psalm about Christ, who speaks the entire psalm in the first person against Judas, His betrayer, and against Judaism as a whole, describing their ultimate fate. In Acts 1:20 St. Peter applied this psalm to Judas when they were selecting Matthias to replace him. He did not mean to say that the psalm speaks only about Judas; but, as he says there, Judas was the guide and ringleader in the capture and execution of Christ. Christ Himself testified before Pilate that Judas had committed the greatest sin by delivering Him (John 19:11).
The psalm is chiefly a denunciation of Judas, but also of all those who take Judas' part and continue to follow his lead. Christ Himself explains this here in the psalm when He says (v. 20): "May this be the reward of My accusers." The psalm begins with Judas and then extends to everyone of Judas' ilk, to all schismatics and persecutors of the Word of Christ; for they always slander the truth and persecute the genuine Christians. Against them this is a terrible psalm. It pronounces such curses and maledictions upon the enemies of Christ that some have made it a formula of imprecation for monks and nuns to pronounce against their enemies, and have said that if it is pronounced against anyone, he must die.21
But this is a falsehood and a fable.
Why does Christ pronounce such terrible curses when in Matt. 5:44 He prohibits cursing and He Himself did not curse on the cross, as St. Peter says (1 Peter 2:23), but prayed for those who cursed and slandered Him (Luke 23:34)? I asked the same question earlier with regard to vengeance.22 In brief, the answer is: Love does not curse or take vengeance, but faith does. To understand this, you must distinguish between God and man, between persons and issues. Where God and issues are involved, there is neither patience nor blessing but only zeal, wrath, vengeance, and cursing. When the wicked persecute the Gospel, for example, this strikes at God and at His cause. We are not to bless them or wish them luck when they do this. Otherwise no one could preach or write even against heresy, because that is impossible without cursing. Anyone who preaches against heresy wishes that it be destroyed and tries as hard as possible to destroy it.
These I would call "curses of faith." Before faith would permit the Word of God to be destroyed and heresy to stand, it would prefer that all creatures be wiped out; for heresy deprives one of God Himself.
The cursing of Christ in this psalm, then, is not on account of His person but on account of His office and His Word, because the error of the Jews is seeking to establish itself and to beat down the Gospel.
He wishes that they be destroyed and have no success with their Judaizing, just as Moses prays in Num.
16:15 that God would not hear the prayer of Korah or respect their offering. Therefore it is necessary to curse, to wish evil, and to pray for vengeance against the persecution and perversion of the Gospel and against those who are guilty of it.
But the person should not avenge himself but should bear everything and even do good to his enemy, in accordance with the teaching of Christ and with the way of love. For here love is in charge, not faith;
- 112 I am under attack, not faith. In the same way a Christian may act as a judge and sentence a murderer to death, yet not on his own behalf or for his own ends but on behalf of others and by virtue of his office.
Then it is the same as if God had done it, for His ordinance is doing it. In short, it is permissible to curse on account of the Word of God; but it is wrong to curse on your own account for personal vengeance or some other personal end.
In a curse on account of the Word of God it is correct to take the name of God and to curse by God, just as one swears and blesses by the name of God. Thus it is written in 2 Kings 2:24 that Elisha cursed the children of Bethel in the name of the Lord and the bears tore them up. In Zech. 3:2 the angel curses thus: "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan!" And in Acts 23:3 Paul curses thus: "God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall!" Now he speaks as follows:
1. Be not silent, O God of My praise!
Most of all He complains in this psalm about the mouths of the wicked, who always attack and condemn the teaching of God in order to gain a pretext for killing those who teach it. The whole issue in the conflict is this teaching; that is why I said that the curses in this psalm deal with faith and with the issues, not with love or with persons. That is also the meaning of the phrase "God of My praise"; it is as if He were saying: "Thou dost see that everybody is defaming, slandering, and condemning Me on account of Thy Word. But I have no one to praise Me except Thee and Thine. Therefore be not silent.
Praise, laud, glorify, and defend Me. Prove that I am teaching correctly." Just as Christ says to the Father (John 17:1): "Glorify Me that Thy Son may glorify Thee. Grant Thy Spirit, do wonders and miracles, that My teaching may be vindicated. Then I shall glorify and proclaim Thee as true God and My Father. I shall be believed, and We shall both be glorified."
"God of My praise" sounds in both Latin and German as though I were praising God, but in Hebrew it is equivalent to saying: "God praises Me" or "I have no one to praise Me but God." In Ps. 89:26 "the God of my salvation" does not mean that I help God but that God helps me. And in Ps. 4:1 "God of my right" does not mean that I make God righteous or help Him to be just but that He helps me to be right and to preserve the right. Thus "God of My praise" here means that God is in charge of My praise, glorifying and honoring Me because I have to be obscured, slandered, and defamed on His account.
2. For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against Me, speaking against Me with lying tongues.
As has already been said, this means that they slander and defame Me terribly by claiming that My teaching, Thy Word, is error, which is heretical and seditious and must be condemned. Therefore be not silent, but praise Me in opposition to their scolding and slanders. Such must be the lot of all preachers of the Gospel.
3. They beset Me with words of hate, and attack Me without cause.
That is, their poison is broadcast, and it devours on every side, as gangrene23 does. As Paul says (2 Tim. 3:13), they deceive many, discrediting Me and painting Me as an enemy in everyone's eyes, attacking Me without cause. I am teaching the truth; it would seem more reasonable for them to agree with Me and to take My side than to attack Me this way.
4. In return for My love they accuse Me, even as I make prayer for them.
"Without cause," I say, because I show My great love to them by telling them the truth. But in return for My love I have to take hate and hateful words and slander. What am I to do in such a case? I pray.
Thus St. Paul also teaches in Phil. 4:6: "In everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God." As if he were saying: What is a person to do? They refuse to tolerate good deeds.
Very well, one must commit it to God and continue praying. Oh, how pious the world is! It does not want evil, and it cannot tolerate good. What, then, does it want? Hell-fire and the devil! That's what it is asking for, and that's what it will get!
5. So they reward Me evil for good, and hatred for My love.
See how strikingly He addresses the Lord our God, and how powerfully He prays! They have no reason to fight against Me, He says. Thou knowest that I am teaching the truth; therefore they have even less cause to do Me harm. I am doing them nothing but good, and they hate Me for it. They hate and persecute both My correct teaching and My good works and miracles. What more can I do? What other conclusion is there than that they deserve to lose both My words and My works? Because they simply refuse to accept a blessing or anything good, they are accursed. There is no other way; for whoever refuses good must have evil, and whoever refuses to be blessed must be cursed, as we hear next:
6. Appoint wicked men over him; let Satan stand at his right hand.
Nowhere in all the Scriptures have I read a more horrible curse or a more terrible misfortune than that described in these two verses, which are enough in themselves to bring terror and dread to all who persecute and attack the Word of God.
He says here: "Appoint wicked men over them." This "appoint" is דקַפָָּּ in Hebrew, that is, "to install and ordain to an office," as bishops, pastors, and preachers, or secular lords and officials, are appointed. The meaning here is this: They simply refuse to tolerate Me and My teaching. If this is the way they want it, then so let it be. Let only false teachers, schismatics, and godless preachers come among them, teaching them lies, godless doctrine, and error, and leading them from one error into another. This is what they want!
In addition, "let Satan stand at their right hand." That is, let the devil so control them through his apostles that despite their desire to escape, their good intentions, and their efforts to do right and to know the truth the devil will be there disguising himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14) and restraining them. Let him so captivate them, so dazzle them and blind them with his fine appearance and lovely thoughts and words that they cannot escape, even though one were to present the truth to them so clearly and forthrightly that they could almost touch it.
We can see this punishment being visited nowadays on the Jews, who will not surrender their ideas even though they know that they have been refuted from the Scriptures. What makes them that way? Not human reason or human blindness, for this could be budged; but, as this verse says, Satan is standing at their right hand. That has always been the attitude of heretics; it is the attitude of our schismatics toward the Sacrament, as well as that of the papacy.
But He is speaking about one person rather than about many, although previously He was complaining about many. For this concerns primarily Judas, the betrayer, who, as we have said, was the ringleader in guiding the mob against Christ; but it also concerns all others of his ilk. When he refused to listen to Christ, he had to listen to the wicked high priests; and although he was sorry afterwards and acted as though he wanted to do right, he did not return to the right path but fell into despair. For Satan was standing directly at his right hand and holding on to him. Paul speaks of such punishment in 2
Thess. 2:11 when he says that God sends strong delusions upon those who did not accept the truth and insisted on believing lies. And Christ says in John 5:43: "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive." This very thing is happening to us now in Germany, and it is going to get worse.
7. When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin!
Oh, let the whole world be afraid and humble itself before the Word of God! How terrible this verse sounds! His entire life, it says, which he has conducted in as holy a way as possible, in the opinion that he was living as well as possible according to the Word of God—all this must be condemned and be accounted an unchristian and demonic life in the sight of God. What is the use now of his great and stringent ascetic life, of his fasting, castigation, and other fine works?
In addition, "when he prays to God," as they do very vigorously, this is not only to be unheard but to be counted as sin. Through their prayer, therefore, they enter even greater condemnation, with which Christ, in Matt. 23:14, threatens the hypocrites who make long prayers.
The words "when he is tried" refer to the trial that takes place through teaching and preaching followed by works. In the preceding verse He spoke of the ministry of preaching. Therefore this trial is nothing else than the judgment or teaching in which evil is sentenced and condemned while the good life is proclaimed. So Ps. 122:5 describes the ministry of preaching in Jerusalem: "There thrones for judgment were set"; and Is. 9:7 and Jer. 23:5 both say that Christ is to rule with judgment and righteousness. In short, the judgment or trial is the teaching according to which consciences are to govern themselves and live, namely, that one should avoid evil and do good.
Now these wicked people are really in a bad way. They affirm justice and judgment; that is, they listen to preaching and advice and to the denunciation of evil, and they agree with it. Then they go and carry it out in their practice. But they do not realize that everything which they regard as precious and by which they intend to merit heaven is accursed! For the wicked have really established themselves in the government. They denounce evil and praise good; judgment and justice are on a firm foundation among - 114 them, as in the Talmud of the Jews, in the canon law of us Christians, and in the Koran of the Turks. Yet it is all accursed and demonic!
8. May his days be few; may another take his office!
St. Peter quotes this verse in Acts 1:20 and says: "Let another take his bishopric"; he applies it to the replacement of Judas by Matthias. This application is correct, except that the Greek word ἐπισκοπή and the word "bishopric" sound strange to us because we think of a type of bishops and bishoprics unknown to Judas and St. Peter. For ἐπίσκοπος or "bishop," strictly speaking, means nothing more than an official, and "bishopric" means an office. The word means the same as was said earlier (v. 6): "Appoint wicked men over them." It refers to an office and to officials; for they are to be Christ's officials and to carry out His command, that is, to preach and support preaching. How well the bishops are doing this now is obvious! Therefore they have lost their office, and others have replaced them, as Matthias replaced Judas; for they have become Judases.
What He wants to say is this: Judas and his people, the Jews, are really entitled to hold the apostolic office and to preach the Gospel, but they do not want to. Therefore Matthias replaces Judas, and the Gentiles replace the Jews, preaching the Gospel which they were to preach and which had been promised to them. Similarly, because the bishops do not preach and because they follow the pope, their
Judas, others who are not bishops will come to take over their office and to preach.
When He says: "May his days be few," He means that he should not continue long. This was fulfilled even physically in the case of both Judas and the Jews; for Judas hanged himself soon after the betrayal, and the Jews were wiped out by the Romans soon thereafter. Now there follows a description of what will happen to the Jews, Judas' people. For as we have said, He is speaking in particular about the Jews, although what He says applies in general to all wicked teachers.
9. May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow!
This is to happen to the women and children of the Jewish people, and it did when their men were killed by the Romans during the destruction of Jerusalem.
10. May his children wander about and beg; may they seek, because their habitation is in ruins!
He pronounces every spiritual and physical plague upon the Jews. We can see that since the time of their destruction they have been wanderers, driven out here and there, and having no place to settle down. Everywhere they must beg, not for bread but for a place to live in a country. They must seek a place to live everywhere; for their own place to live in Palestine was destroyed, and they have no land, city, town, or government of their own anywhere. This verse ought to cause the Jews to think, for they can see that this has happened to them and to no other nation under the sun. Every nation except the Jews has its own villages, cities, and country. But the Jews are everywhere and have nothing of their own anywhere, no country, no city, no villages. They are always insecure guests and beggars.
11. May the usurer seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
It would seem that the opposite of what this verse says ought to happen, for the Jews are notorious usurers and bleed everyone white. But the psalm means to say that they will have no good fortune, but only misfortune, in body and soul, in children, property, and honor. Great usurers though they are, an even greater usurer is to come along and take it all away from them, as the second part of the verse says:
"May strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!" This is what happens to the Jews. When they have saved for a long time, disaster strikes; they are hounded, robbed, punished, and deprived of what they have.
They know that this will happen, and they bemoan it daily.
12. Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children!
My God, this is all too true! People regard the Jews as dogs, and anyone who can harm them or do them dirt supposes that he is doing a good deed. Because they and their children refuse to accept Christ, there is no mercy for these obdurate people. And yet they put up with it and cling to the vain hope for something better. So entrenched is Satan at their right hand!
13. May his posterity be cut off; may their name be blotted out in the second generation!
Here He returns to a consideration of many; He says "their name," not "his name," to show us that He is talking about an entire nation. All this was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. Since that time there has never been a Jewish person who counted for much in Christendom and in the sight of God, except for the apostles. They were the last to have a name. Thus the memory and the name of the Jews have disappeared, although previously they had so many patriarchs and prophets whose names are not - 115 forgotten even today and whose teaching and life are praised throughout the world. But since that time they have had none such, and thus within one man's memory their name and honor have been blotted out.
If this verse were taken to mean that they would all be blotted out physically and have no memory of anyone even among themselves, it would conflict with the preceding verses, which say that their descendants are to beg and suffer want; if that is so, they must have some descendants. But it means that in the judgment of God and of God's people they no longer count for anything, as their forefathers and prophets do. They are indeed waiting for a prophet who will count for something, but they will be disappointed. This verse says that they have been done for since the time of the apostles.
14. May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
By "his" He means those of the Jewish nation. The verse means that everyone in the world will have to say what St. Stephen says to the Jews in Acts 7:51: "You have always resisted the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you." For it is evident that just as the fathers and mothers of the Jews, that is, their ancestors, always were disobedient to the prophets, so their children are today. They refuse to believe the same prophets their fathers refused to believe; the unbelief is identical. If their fathers had believed, they would not have persecuted the prophets. If the Jews today believed those same prophets, they would accept Christ. But they remain in the sin of their fathers. Therefore God does not forget them and continues to punish them as long as they go on sinning.
I would like to know what the Jews could say about this psalm. They have to admit that the Scriptures are talking about them, as St. Paul says in Rom. 3:19. All the verses of this psalm force one to the conclusion that they are describing a man, whether David or someone else, who is suffering this among the Jews and cursing them. History supports this text, because for the past fifteen hundred years no nation under the sun has been as cursed as the Jews. This did not happen to the enemies of David; but it is happening to the enemies of Jesus Christ, the Jews, just as these words describe it. This is incontestable. As I have said, reason could perhaps be persuaded; but Satan is standing at its right hand and refusing to let it understand.
15. Let them be before the Lord continually; and may their memory be cut off from the earth!
That is, let the sin of their ancestors, which has been spoken of earlier, be before the Lord continually. For they refuse to give it up. Therefore God cannot hear their prayer or accept their works.
This is why "they remain before the Lord continually." They always stir up their fathers' sin anew by the stubbornness of their hearts, and so they always remain accursed Jews, as He pictured them earlier.
In addition, "their memory is cut off even on earth." This does not mean that they will be unknown, but that they will not be referred to in sermons and narratives, as their patriarchs and prophets were. In this sense Ps. 16:4 says: "I will not remember them any more in My mouth." For in the Scriptures
"memory" does not mean that a person is only remembered—otherwise Judas, Pilate, and Herod would always be in our memory—but that he is lauded and praised, and has a good reputation. This does not happen to Judas and the Jews; they have been reviled continually ever since they were destroyed by the Romans. All this is spoken in particular about the Jews; for they committed their sin against Christ
Himself, and they also have children and descendants. But the heretics, the schismatics, and the papacy, who do not have children, still have their punishment; for they will finally be destroyed, and their memory will be cut off forever. This is happening to the papacy now, as has been said often enough elsewhere.
16. For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
Earlier, in the second of these psalms, we spoke of those who knock over a leaning wall or a tottering fence.24 Here He explains and clarifies this. They are such scoundrels that when they ought to help and comfort and, as He says, "show kindness" to someone who is poor, needy, and troubled, they are most cruel to him and try to kill him. And then they claim that they are doing God a service by such a deed (John 16:2)!
In our own day, similarly, our wrathful princes and bishops and learned hypocrites let the Turks and their like alone, no matter what great heretics and deceivers they may be in their judgment. For the wall is too strong, and the fence will not budge. But let a poor citizen come along, or a miserable pastor or - 116 preacher who has barely enough to eat and all sorts of troubles, and our great princes and wrathful bishops come down on him. He is the one who has to suffer. They have found a leaning wall and a tottering fence, and now they win their spurs on earth and gain heaven besides! A lion catches a mouse and acts as if he had slain a dragon! Nowadays Germany is full of nobles and knights who shout their curses in the taverns and wield their swords only against poor, needy, and defenseless people. And yet they belong to the nobility! A plague on those damnable men, those swine and savage beasts! We
Germans are going the way of the world because we have no courage or truly noble thoughts.
Now, He says, God will not forget about them. He has taken note of their wickedness; and though the world may regard them as pious and respectable people, He considers them murderers and criminals.
Here you see His accusations against them, and the names and actions He attributes to them. In the first place, they do not remember to show kindness to the poor and needy; that is, they are not kind even to the needy. Therefore they shall go to their destruction without kindness when they become poor and needy, so that the measure they gave will be the measure they get back (Luke 6:38).
In the second place, not only are they unkind, but they pursue the needy to their death. It is really an enormous sin to pursue and crush the needy, whom even wild beasts and irrational animals are willing to help. Yes, but who will believe that such is God's opinion of these men, and that they have this horrible sentence hanging over them and continually threatening them? To see this one needs spiritual eyes, until history catches up with these men, as it did with the Jews.
17. He loved to curse; let curses come on him! He did not like blessing; may it be far from him!
That is, he enjoyed cursing and malediction so much that he even cursed himself. Not that they overtly love cursing; but by these words the Holy Spirit indicates their horrible blindness and fearful obduracy, that they regard as a blessing what is the worst kind of curse and regard as a curse what is the most sublime blessing. Thus the Jews before Pilate cried out at Christ (Matt. 27:25): "His blood be on us and on our children!" I am of the opinion that this is a curse which is still bearing down hard on them.
But they thought it was a wonderful blessing, saying to themselves: "Getting rid of this evildoer is a good deed in the sight of God. We are willing to take our chances with whatever threats may be involved, for we know that we shall obtain a blessing for it. So let His blood pour right over us!"
In the same way, they did not like blessing when they refused to have Him as king and said (John 19:15): "We have no king but Caesar." As if they were saying: "To the devil with this king! All He would bring us is curses and trouble!"
The papacy and its supporters are doing the same thing now. They have become hostile to the Gospel and have condemned it; they regard what threatens them as a blessing. Indeed, they say: "Let the devil have your Gospel, and may God shield me from your prayers! I will take my chances with your threats." Even if such people had no other trouble, don't you think it is trouble enough to have such a stubborn, blind, and obdurate heart that it neither sees nor hears and will not listen, but goes right ahead in the opinion that it is being blessed rather than cursed and rejects true blessing as though it were a curse? O Lord God, if we are to sin, let us commit some other sin than this!
18. He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!
Here He shows that this stubbornness is so deeply seated and firmly established in their hearts that they simply cannot be converted. It does no good to preach to them or admonish them, to threaten them, sing to them, or speak to them. He describes their condition with three illustrations. The first is a "shirt" or article of clothing. Just as a man cannot be without a shirt or something next to his skin—for he should not go naked—and must have his clothes on every day, so the Jews must wear the stubbornness that makes them love their curse. There is no way out, because they cannot be without this stubbornness.
It is part of their everyday business, just as one wears everyday clothes. In addition, they suppose that it becomes them and that they are doing the right thing by wearing it, just as clothes become a man and he does the right thing by wearing them and would do wrong if he walked around naked and unclothed.
Thus the Jews suppose that they would be doing something shameful if they were to take off their stubbornness.
In the second place, when a man drinks water or something else—for by "water" Hebrew means any drink and by "bread" any food—and digests it to the point that it has become part of his flesh and blood, how can it ever be extracted from him? No bath, sweat, or medicine will do so; it has become part of his
- 117 nature and, as the psalm says here, "it has soaked into his body." There it must remain, to go with him, and he with it, into the eternal fire of hell. This is what has happened to the Jews. Their stubbornness has soaked into them so far that it has become their very nature, and they can never change. Still they suppose that it is a good thing, a real elixir and a fine drink to refresh them, quench their thirst, and nourish them. They drink it in great quantities every day and use it to stay alive, just as a person satisfies and cools, refreshes and sustains himself every day by drinking. For they love and enjoy hearing and teaching such curses, just as a thirsty man enjoys drinking. This, I believe, is what "loving to curse" means.
In the third place, he speaks here of "oil," that is, of the good off or balm with which one anoints oneself. For the oil from trees has the quality of being very beneficial to the body and making straight, strong, beautiful, and supple limbs. This is why boxers anoint their bodies with oil. Now when a man rubs off or salve on himself to the point that it penetrates into bone and marrow, as good salves are able to do, how can it ever be extracted from him? It is hard enough to extract it from clothing. Washing and rinsing, twisting and wringing, do no good. One would have to melt down the bones and marrow along with the salve, and even then one would not get it out! In the same way the curse and stubbornness of the Jews has so penetrated their heart, mind, and thought, their bones and marrow, that they are beyond help. They must be melted down in hell, and even then they will not be purged or cleansed of it. Still they suppose that it is a precious ointment, and that their teaching is as beneficial to them as oil is to the body. They imagine that it makes them strong, healthy, handsome, lovely, and shiny in the sight of God, as oil makes the body in the sight of men. And so they smear it on more and more all the time.
We see this in our daily contacts with Jews. How stiff and stubborn they are from one generation to the next! They are incredibly venomous and spiteful in their language about Christ. What we believe and teach about Christ they regard as sheer poison and a curse. They suppose that Christ was nothing more than a criminal who, because of His crime, was crucified with other criminals. Whenever they mention
Him, therefore, they refer to Him odiously as Thola, "the hanged one."25 For since they believe that Jesuswas a criminal, it is inevitable that they should regard us Christians as the most foolish and filthy people under the sun. Their reason must tell them that if a murderer were beheaded today and then tomorrow some people came along, worshiped him, and looked upon him as true God, this would be much more foolish than worshiping a log or a stone. It would be the most foolish thing imaginable.
What makes it worse is that we Christians are also bad and set a bad example. Thus they are so confirmed in their offense that this curse has penetrated into their bones and marrow and has poisoned them until they cannot escape and come to regard the crucified Jesus as Lord and God. It is always ridiculous to them that we Christians worship a condemned Jewish criminal, as though we worshiped
Cain or Absalom as gods. But there they are. The oil has soaked into their bones, and they go on soaking up the water. What a terrible judgment and illustration of divine wrath!
19. May it be like a garment which he wraps round him, like a belt with which he daily girds himself!
That is, let it happen to him as he wishes. Let the curse for which he is asking cling to him. Let him regard the Gospel as a poison and a curse, and Christ as a criminal. Let him be and remain so obdurate that God withdraws His hand and refuses to send His Spirit and Word among them for their conversion, as He threatens in Is. 5:6: "I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon them."
This does not mean that no Jew may ever come to faith again. Some crumbs must remain, and some individuals must be converted. But Judaism, as we call the Jewish nation, will not be converted. The Gospel, by which the Holy Spirit might find room among them, is not preached among them either. But where they gather in their synagogs, they keep their curse and poison; they curse Ghrist, regarding their poison as salvation and their curse as a blessing. Nevertheless, some will occasionally spring up individually from the group, so that God might still remain the God of the seed of Abraham and might not reject them altogether, as St. Paul says in Rom. 11:1–2.
You should note that He speaks here about the everyday "garment" and "belt," not the garment that lies in the chest or the belt that lies in the cupboard but the one he puts on and wears every day. This is to signify the obdurate mind which they never lose and the confirmed curse with which they deal every day and which they never give up, supposing that it becomes them very well.
20. May this be the reward of My accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against My soul!
- 118 The prayer in this psalm is answered. This will happen to all the enemies of Christ, but especially to the Jews (whom He has particularly in mind), as the obvious course of events also shows. The real issue is their word or speaking, that they teach against Christ, curse, condemn, and blaspheme Him, and would like to see Him destroyed. This is meant by: "They speak evil against My soul," that is, against My life. They would like to see Me dead and destroyed, so much do they hate Me. But the God of My praise is not silent. He praises and elevates Him even more when they curse and condemn Him.
Here we all might well have cause to fear, especially all heretics and false teachers. For what Christ asks here applies also to them. When a person commits the error of substituting his own opinion for Christ's in even one item, everything is gone, and the whole Christ is lost, as He Himself says in Matt.
5:18–19: "Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be the least in heaven. For not an iota, not a dot, will pass away."
Once such an opinion is set forth, men fall upon it; and it soaks like water into their body, like off into their bones and marrow, and it becomes their everyday garment. Then one side begins to anathematize the other, and each side regards the other side's teaching as pure poison and a curse, but its own teaching as pure salvation and a blessing. We can see this happening now among our schismatics and papists. When this happens, everything is gone. The great mob is not converted. A few individuals, whom God elects, come back; but the rest remain in their curse and poison, as the Jews do, and treat it as something precious.
That is what this psalm means when it says that all the enemies of Christ love to curse and do not like blessing, and that they do not change. Therefore St. Paul also says in Titus 3:10–11 that one should have nothing to do with a factious man after admonishing him twice, for he is perverted. I have never read of false teachers and instigators of heresy being converted. They remain obdurate in their own opinions. The oil has soaked into their marrow and bone; the water has become flesh and blood, part of their nature. They will not listen or discuss. This is the sin against the Holy Spirit, which cannot be forgiven. It will not repent or be sorry, but will only defend and excuse itself, as though it were something holy and precious and as though the Gospel which opposes it were something demonic.
21. But Thou, O God, My Lord, deal on My behalf for Thy name's sake; because Thy steadfast love is good, deliver Me!
Here He returns to God and prays that His cause may advance and prevail. Both are necessary—that the wicked ultimately lose, and that the righteous win. But He says that the cause belongs not to Him but to God Himself. It brings satisfaction and joy to a heart before God when it can pray for itself against the wicked in the assurance that our work and our suffering are on behalf of the Word and work of God, not on our own behalf. Therefore He says: "Deal on My behalf for Thy name's sake. Thou dost see that the cause is Thine. I am praising Thy name, Thy Word, Thy honor. They are blaspheming all this. If Thou dost forsake Me, Thou dost forsake Thy name. But that is impossible." Then what is God to do on His behalf? The steadfast love and kind deed of delivering Him, as He says: "Deliver Me!" For deliverance is sweet and pleasant to those who are caught in need and anxiety, as He says:
22. For I am poor and needy, and My heart is stricken within Me.
The meaning of this verse can be understood from the suffering of Christ. He was not only poor and needy outwardly, in His body, forsaken and persecuted by everyone, but also troubled and stricken inwardly. He had to hear all sorts of blasphemy and mockery, which are very painful to any pious
Christian heart that loves the truth of God.
23. I am gone, as a shadow flies at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.
"To depart like a shadow" means to be unsettled, to travel hither and yon, as the wind drives the clouds, so that their shadow is never at one definite place of its own. Thus the life of all men is described in Job 14:1–2: "Man lives a few days. He flies like a shadow, and continues not." Here to "fly" does not mean to fly as the birds do, but as David flew from his son Absalom (2 Sam. 15:14) and Jacob from his father-in-law Laban (Gen. 31:20); the Hebrew word is חרַבָָּּ This verse means: Man must pass away and go; he is driven and cannot abide. So Christ says here that during His life in the world the world cannot stand Him but hounds and pursues Him from one place to another until it runs Him down, as the wind pursues the clouds. The same thing happens to the Gospel; it finds no toleration anywhere, but the world huffs and blows until it drives the Gospel and its preachers away.
"To be shaken off like a locust" is the same thing. This phrase is obscure and difficult for us, because we do not know the animal called הבֶּרַאְ and its ways. We call it a locust; it is not really a locust, but it resembles the locust or grasshopper. It is a common animal in the East. The Parthians and Moors eat it, as well as our own locusts and grasshoppers, just as the Italians eat frogs and snails. St.
John the Baptist ate this same הבֶּרַאְ as the evangelists tell us (Matt. 3:4). These little animals have no eyes but wave their wings a great deal; therefore they stay together and fly in a great swarm, though they have no king, as Solomon says in Prov. 30:27. Wherever they come down, they devour everything green. In those countries there is a law that three times a year manpower must be assembled to destroy them: once when they are laying their eggs, again when they have been hatched, and a third time when they have grown to maturity. When they come upon a country, it is a special plague from God, like hard times, pestilence, or war; Egypt, for example, was visited by such a plague (Ex. 10:12–19).
The plague can be smothered in two ways: one, which we just mentioned, is by weapons and manpower; the other is by a wind which God sends to pick them up and throw them into the nearest ocean or sea, as happened in Egypt. Thus Isaiah writes of the King of Assyria that they will be dispersed and pursued as the locusts are when one agitates them.26 In the same way Nah. 3:15 says that the princes of Nineveh are to be dispersed and scattered like locusts. It is evident that the prophets used this image when they wanted to speak of a king or some other person being hounded and pursued, as we in our country would speak of the crows and jackdaws being chased out of their nests with their young and driven away.
Thus Christ wants to say here that He is pursued, scattered, dispersed, and shaken off like a locust.
This happened when He was captured and His disciples forsook Him and were scattered. It still happens every day, and always has happened, that when a persecution of Christians and of the Word of God arises, there is a shaking-off, a hounding, and a scattering. Thus this verse could be a motto for Christ and for His Christians. This Hebrew word רעַנָ means "to shake out" or "to dust off," as one shakes out or dusts off a coat; we also say: "I have dusted it off." This is why hunting dogs are called "dusters," because they spring the rabbits and other game and scatter them like dust. To be sprung and put to flight means to be like the dust which the wind scatters or like the rabbits and other game which the dogs, called "wind," pursue. If Christ were to say: "I am scattered as wild game is scattered by dusters and winds," this would be quite clear to us Germans.
24. My knees are weak through fasting; My body has become gaunt.
That is, they are full and sated, while I must suffer hunger and want. As St. Paul also says in 1 Cor.
4:11: "We hunger and thirst." Undoubtedly Christ and His disciples were often in need of food; for He was poor, and the rich gave Him nothing. Thus He wants to say here: "Why are they pursuing Me when
I am so poor and have neither money nor property? Indeed, they should give Me food before I starve.
Not only do they not give Me food, but they even pursue Me."
So it is in the world: the true preachers do not have bread enough to eat and must suffer need, trouble, and want. Meanwhile the deceivers have plenty; in fact, they control great principalities. Thus this verse remains true, that Christ must suffer hunger and want; for it means nothing else than that Christ and His followers do not get food in the world but are even pursued, as He will say on the Last
Day (Matt. 25:42): "I was hungry and you gave Me no food."
25. I was an object of scorn to My accusers; when they saw Me, they wagged their heads.
The preceding verse said that the world did not give Christ any food; this one says that it does not honor Him but mocks and despises Him. In other words, the world cannot grant Christ any possessions, honor, or life. He must bear poverty, need, and misery; He must know shame, mockery, and scoffing;
He must suffer pain and death—He together with all who are His. He wants to say here: "Whatever I said or did was an object of scorn. They would wrinkle their noses, wag their heads, and make mouths at it (Ps. 22:7). It was foolish and meaningless to them. What more was I to do? I did them every good, and they do Me every evil. (As He says earlier [v. 5]: 'They reward Me evil for good.') I suffer every evil and cruelty at their hands, and yet they refuse what I have to offer. Very well for them; so let it be! They have no excuse. I have done more than enough for them!"
26. Help Me, O Lord My God! Save Me according to Thy steadfast love!
- 120 He closes the psalm with the petition that God be with Him and make the wickedness of the Jews and of all His enemies evident, together with His righteousness, so that they may come to naught and He may be vindicated. And God is to do all this "according to His steadfast love." Previously He has shown the curses and evil being directed against Him by their obdurate and insane hearts. Now He asks that through the judgment of God this may become evident before the whole world, so that they may be deprived also of the fine outward appearance which they still have, be put to shame before the whole world, and thus be caught in both their sin and their shame, as we see happening now to the poor Jews.
27. Let them know that this is Thy hand; Thou, O Lord, hast done it!
Although they refuse to see that what Thou art doing to Me and to them is Thy work, let it become evident to the whole world, and let everyone say: "Of course, this is the work of God, that the Jews are defeated and on the decline, while Christ is soaring and increasing. Human powers could not have accomplished this."
28. Let them curse, but do Thou bless! If they arise, let them be put to shame; but let Thy servant be glad!
"Do not let their curses on Me and Mine accomplish anything; but the more they curse, the more do Thou bless. And if they arise against Me, let that be put to shame soon." It seems to me that the Jews ought to be very familiar with this verse! My God, how often in various countries have they started something against Christ, only to be burned at the stake, killed, and hounded for it! It never fails. When they arise, they axe put to shame, burned at the stake, or driven out. But Christ and His own remain joyous in God, for this confirms them in their faith.
29. May My accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle!
He returns now to the earlier analogy of the garment and the daily putting-on of the curse. Here He is speaking about the public shame before the world which comes from the curse. It is as if He were saying: "Just as they put the curse on their spirit as though it were an everyday article of clothing, so let them wear a garment of shame outwardly too. Thus they will be recognized by the entire world as My enemies and will be despised. Sin and shame will be their two everyday garments—sin before God and shame before the world." Here He explicitly mentions the ִע ילמְ, the long coat which reaches to one's feet, as though He wanted to indicate that they have nothing but shame from head to toe.
30. With My mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise Him in the midst of the throng.
That is, by this judgment and deed Thou wilt cause men to love and praise Thee from the heart as a God who is like a father in taking the side of the poor, not letting them go down to defeat, and frustrating the boasts of the wicked. We would say it this way: O Lord God, who would not praise and laud Thee before the whole world and everywhere for helping the poor so graciously and for toppling and punishing the proud and haughty tyrants so mightily? Or, as it continues:
31. For He stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who condemn him to death.
May God be praised forever and every day for taking the side of the poor and lowly instead of exalting the bigwigs and haughty tyrants, as they suppose that He will! He saves; yes indeed, He saves not only from occasional needs but also from those who condemn Him to death, judge and sentence Him as a heretic and a deceiver. For here this word "condemn" refers to those who occupy an office and condemn; in other words, to the secular government.
Let us be sure, then, that the secular government will never be completely Christian, but that the vast majority will always persecute Christ, His Word, and those who are His. As Ps. 2:1–2 says, "Why do the Gentiles conspire, and the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and His Anointed?" Here you see that it is the virtue of kings and rulers to do battle against God and Christ; and this is what they do. But it happens to them that they waver and are put down from their thrones (Luke 1:52), one after another, as that same psalm and other psalms tell us.
1Luther, M. (1999, c1958). Vol. 14: Luther's works, vol. 14 : Selected Psalms III (J. J. Pelikan, H. C.
Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Ps,37.1-109.31). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing WORKS ON THE FIRST TWENTY-TWO
A Composite Translation To the Most Illustrious Prince and Lord, Frederick, Grand Marshal and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, Duke of Saxony, Margrave of Meissen, Landgrave of Thuringia, and his Most Generous Patron, Brother Martin Luther sends greetings in the Lord.
THOSE who dedicate and inscribe their learned books and the products of their intellect to great men seem to be doing something wise and proper. By this device they provide their works with authority as well as with protection against an evil fate that is particularly hostile to them. For it is characteristic of human works that the better they are, the more they are subject to the envy and carping of those who wish them ill. This is why literature and everything else that depends on understanding and learning— since it is undoubtedly very good and worthy of a man's very best and most special attention—needs a Maecenas or an Augustus as well as a Ulysses to strike these Thersiteses with his eleven-branched staff.1
Some have another motive for their dedications: they want to celebrate and immortalize the names of those to whom they inscribe their books as a means of pointing to an example of the virtue they are praising and thus of arousing the same virtue in their descendants. Still others are motivated by a desire to express thanks and somehow to requite a kindness, giving concrete proof of their gratitude to those from whom they have received the kindness.
But I, Most Illustrious Prince, am motivated by none of these reasons. I know very well that what I manage to achieve is not the sort of work that merits a patron, and at least I am fortunate in being aware of my own ineptitude. But even if I were able to achieve something worth dedicating, I would not be anxious to preserve it by dedicating it to a patron. I have learned from the Holy Scriptures what a terrible and dangerous thing it is to sound forth and to speak in the church of God, in the presence of those of whom you know that they will be your judges on Judgment Day. (I am not as afraid of those who insult me at present.) But to speak in the presence of God, who sees everything, with the angels looking on and with all the creatures watching and listening and paying attention to the Word of God! (For it is correct to believe that everything reveres the Word of God, through which it was created, except for man and the devil, who became deaf through their ingratitude.) When I learned all this, there was nothing I wanted more than to keep silence and to expunge everything I had poured out previously. It is difficult and awesome to have to give account to God for every idle word! Nothing is keeping me in the ministry of the Word except my obedience to the will of another, namely, the will of God. Of my own free will I would never have gone into it or remained in it, so great is my awe!
In the second place, what fame, praise, or immortality could the name of Your Lordship hope to gain from me? You are a prince who, in addition to possessing the other princely gifts, has acquired such a glorious reputation for your love of scholarship and of scholars that not even Appion could immortalize your name; but you would immortalize his name and that of anyone else who might celebrate you.2 Who does not know that in sponsoring scholarship Frederick has set an example to all the other princes?
Greek and Hebrew are thriving quite well at your Wittenberg.3 The teaching of the liberal arts is enjoying better fortune than it used to. The pure theology of Christ is triumphing over the opinions and questions of men, which count for hardly anything at all. All this is prospering under your auspices, with your support, and under your protection. If only the big men of the church, who ought to set an example for lay princes in these matters, were at least following the example of the laymen! But the church has become too rich and powerful.
- 122 Then, too, how could I adequately thank you for the very generous favors with which you have endowed an undeserving man? It was at your expense that my insane head was adorned with a decoration which compels me to appear in public even though I am ashamed to do so.4 Still I have to wear it, at the behest of those whom I am obliged to obey. But, Your Lordship, what cares, troubles, expenses, and even dangers have come upon you as a result of the spectacle I have caused regarding indulgences! Your whole realm knows that my prince has been more solicitous for me than I have been for myself. I was willing to take a chance, and I threw the dice. I was always ready to wager and to await the worst. I was hoping that this would provide the occasion for relieving me of my teaching responsibilities, so that I could find a corner somewhere away from the public attention which I hate.
Yet your support of me persisted, My Lord; and though I wanted to suffer what my opponents earnestly wished to inflict on me, neither of us got his wish.
But though the end is not yet, I am pleased meanwhile that it has taken this turn, especially because it must be a shock to any Christian to find some people in the church of Christ so shameless that in the name of the venerable power of the church they presume to advance their own shameful desires. And the more generous, good, or learned one of the popes is, the greater are the atrocities which these wicked impostors allow themselves to commit under his aegis. How many obvious lies they have told about this one petty issue in order to terrify a single little friar and establish their tyrannies, profaning and besmirching the sacred name of Leo X!5 It is also despicable that there are people who prostitute the name of the supreme pontiff and take it in vain. Their ancestors, the false prophets, false apostles, and false Christs, all did the same thing; they even forced the holy name of God and of Christ to serve their lies. Thus it is by a special dispensation of God that the pure honor of the Roman Church and the reverence for the supreme pontiff have been preserved. But at least the sycophants have been beautifully and successfully set down, to teach them somehow that God, who laughs at the scoffers, is still living and reigning. May this God, I say, and our Lord Jesus Ghrist, to whom alone belongs everything that we admire in you, Most Illustrious Prince, watch over it, increase it, and preserve it eternally. Thus I am bringing you this prayer instead of an act of thanksgiving, since I am incapable of anything else.
If I want to publish these works of mine under the name of Your Illustrious Lordship—no matter what they may be like, "works" they certainly are; I do not dare call them "interpretations" or "commentaries," for I am very conscious of their shortcomings6—it is for no other motive than my love.
I have experienced how purely and chastely your heart loves the Holy Scriptures; and, to use the words of Deborah (Judg. 5:9), my heart goes out to such princes. And why should I not express what I think, the basis for the love I have, so that those who boast of the title "Doctor of the Holy Scriptures" might see the difference between a hypocrite and a real theologian? My good and reverend father in Christ,
John Staupitz, once told me this story:7 During a conversation in Your Lordship's presence the subject of public speakers came up. With your remarkably keen discernment you said that those addresses which are based on the arguments and traditions of men are extremely cold, unconvincing, and weak; for nothing can be adduced that is so keen that it cannot be refuted by other arguments. Only the Sacred
Scriptures have such a majestic and powerful tone, even without our effort, that they can meet and dispose of all the debating tricks and compel one to say (John 7:46; Matt. 7:29): "No man ever spoke like this man! He teaches as one who has authority, not as the scribes and Pharisees!" When Staupitz heartily applauded and praised this sentiment, you stretched out your hand to him and asked for his in return; and you said: "Please promise me that you will always feel this way!"
I ask you, is this not a statement and sentiment that would do honor even to the most holy supreme pontiff, especially since it was obviously expressed not only with your voice but with your heart? What?
Is it not yet evident who the real theologians are? Shame on the theologians and the jurists, particularly those to whom the Sacred Scriptures are almost a joke! By stringing out their endless glosses they try to make an impression on those who want whatever they say to be regarded as the Word of God (as St.
Jerome also complains), as though Christ had said to Peter: "Command, order, teach" rather than (John 21:17): "Feed My sheep"! This means: Bring out that by which they are fed. And they are fed only by the Word of God, not by the opinions and traditions of men. In addition, what you so truly said—that no argument is so keen that it cannot be refuted—is abundantly substantiated by the miserable treadmill in which the Scotists, Thomists, Albertists, modernists, and all the sects into which these are subdivided waste their time.8 I must admit, Most Illustrious Prince, that this delightful story made me love you very
- 123 much. I do not know why; but I cannot help loving those about whom I hear that they love the Holy Scriptures, and hating those who distort and despise them—so much so that toward both I am too violent, as love tends to be, and, as those friends of mine accuse me, caustic and vainglorious. But let them accuse me all they please. They may impose bad names or good names on me of the first or second or third intention—I mean imposition; I do not want to commit anything against their dialectic!9 But they will never take theology itself away from me or extinguish my love for it, as long as Christ remains gracious to me. I know what scholastic theology did for me, and I know how much I owe it! I am glad that I have escaped from it, and for this I thank Christ my Lord. They do not have to teach it to me, for I already know it. Nor do they have to bring it any closer to me, for I do not want it!
So please grant permission to this love of mine, Most Illustrious Prince, to publish this book under Your Lordship's name. At the urging and insistence of my fine students I am expounding the Psalter for the second time in your Wittenberg,10 and I cannot deny that I owe them much. As I expound it, I do not want anyone to suppose that I shall accomplish what none of the most holy and learned theologians have ever accomplished before, namely, to understand and teach the correct meaning of the Psalter in all particulars. It is enough to have understood some of the psalms, and those only in part. The Spirit reserves much for Himself, so that we may always remain His pupils. There is much that He reveals only to lure us on, much that He gives only to stir us up. And, as Augustine has put it so clearly, if no human being has ever spoken in such a way that everyone understood him in all particulars, how much more is it true that the Holy Spirit alone has an understanding of all His own words! Therefore I must openly admit that I do not know whether I have the accurate interpretation of the psalms or not, though I do not doubt that the one I set forth is an orthodox one. For everything that blessed Augustine, Jerome,
Athanasius, Hilary, Cassiodorus, and others assembled in their expositions of the Psalter was also quite orthodox, but very far removed from the literal sense.11 For that matter, this second exposition of mine is vastly different from the first. There is no book in the Bible to which I have devoted as much labor as to the Psalter.
I have now come to the conclusion that as long as someone else's interpretation is pious, one should not reject it unless he wants his own to be rejected in turn, according to "the law of the fang."12 One falls short in some ways, another in more ways. I see some things that blessed Augustine did not see; on the other hand, I know that others will see many things that I do not see. What recourse do we have but to be of mutual help to one another and to forgive those who fall, since we ourselves have already fallen or are about to fall? Otherwise we shall be adjudged as members of that wicked and corrupt class of men who cannot do anything worthwhile themselves but celebrate Pompeian triumphs if they can catch some more illustrious person in a trivial mistake. I know that a person would be guilty of the most shameless boldness if he dared claim that he had understood even one book of the Scriptures in all its parts. In fact, who would even dare assert that anyone had completely understood one single psalm? Our life is one of beginning and of growth, not one of consummation. That person is better who has come closer to the Spirit. If I have reached the moon, I must not immediately suppose that I have reached the sun as well; nor should I then despise the lesser stars. There are degrees of living and of working; then why not of understanding? The apostle says (2 Cor. 3:18) that we are being changed from one degree of clarity to another. To speak of the matter at hand, then, I am serving only those who do not know any of this and would like to. At least it will serve the purpose of occupying me and my students with better subject matter than if I were to create new darknesses and frogs and flies by expounding the Sentences!13
There is, in my opinion, one difference of content between this book of the Bible and the others. In the other books we are taught by both precept and example what we ought to do. This book not only teaches but also gives the means and method by which we may keep the precept and follow the example.
For it is not by our striving that we fulfill the Law of God or imitate Christ. But we are to pray and wish that we may fulfill it and imitate Him; when we do, we are to praise and give thanks. And what is the Psalter but prayer and praise to God, that is, a book of hymns?
When the blessed Spirit of God, the Father of orphans and the Teacher of the ignorant, sees that we do not know what to pray for or, how to pray, as the apostle says (Rom. 8:26), He helps us in our weaknesses. As a teacher will compose letters or little speeches for his pupils to write to their parents, so by this book He prepares both the language and the mood in which we should address the Heavenly
Father and pray for that which the other books have taught us to do and to imitate. Thus man need not