Here he concludes the psalm on a threatening note, terrifying the wicked with God's power, judgment, and punishment. He wants to say: It tickles you and makes you feel so good that you are at court and have Saul as your gracious lord. Now you are all set! You imagine that you have a safe seat. It does not bother you, but it only amuses you that you do me an injustice or bully and beat me and people like me. We have to take it from you and dare not denounce you. For your lord is guarding you, and you are depending on him. But I advise you not to do this. Do not be too certain and smug. Do not set vain hopes; that is, do not build your hopes on princes and other men who are a mere nothing. For if you do, you, too, will be nothing; that is, you will be dealing with nothing, you win gain nothing, and everything will vanish.
I will go farther and say: Even if you should become rich justly and with God's help, do not depend on this either, and do not make mammon your god. Property is not given to you for you to build your trust on or boast about, all of which is vanity and nothing, but for you to use, enjoy, and share with others. But men are not content with this. They make princes and property their boast and build their confidence on them, that is, on nothing; and nothing is what they get from the deal. For gold makes one bold; but it is not really gold, and it does not keep one bold.14 Setting one's heart on something is equivalent to becoming involved with it; not to set one's heart on it means not to become involved with it and to have it as though one did not have it. For this is what the Hebrew says: "to put it over one's heart" or "to put it into one's heart," to become involved with it and to take it to heart. Possessions belong in your hands, not in your heart, as Paul says in 1 Cor. 7:31 that we should deal with the world as though we had no dealings with it.
11. Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God.
In our language we would say it this way: There is one thing that I know for sure. For God Himself has spoken it, and He cannot lie. God is Lord, as I have heard more than once. Do not be so wicked and vain. But if you refuse to listen, and want to make men your boast, very well. Then I will tell you that power belongs to God, and that He is the real emperor, king, prince, and lord over everyone, even over you and over your lords. To this you should listen. For God Himself has spoken it, and I have often heard it and experienced a demonstration of it when He put down the mighty from their thrones (Luke
1:52). Be sure that this does not happen to your lords! Let Saul be Saul; let the emperor be the emperor; let the princes be princes; let men be men! But fear God! For it is only one little word, that God has
"power"; but the word is loud and clear. The truth of it has been experienced over and over. Surely He will not spare you or pass you by, even though you now despise Him in your vanity and unjustly abuse us at the behest of other men.
12. And to Thee, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For Thou dost requite a man according to his work.
God has power to punish all the wicked severely, and they cannot escape Him; for He alone is the Lord, and all lordship is His and proceeds from Him. In the same way He is also kind and merciful to help the suffering. He cannot let them be destroyed, vanquished by the hypocrites and the Saulites, and forsaken. But, as it is written in Luke 1:52, He exalts those of low degree in the same way that He puts down the mighty from their thrones—the latter through His power, the former through His steadfast love. Therefore the psalmist continues:
"Thou dost requite a man according to his work." He requites the wicked with power, just as they have exercised power; and he requites the poor with love and grace, just as they have been loving and gracious and without power. But the world does not care about this. It goes right ahead in its vanity and blasphemy. God lets this happen, and He goes right ahead too with His power and His steadfast love.
Thus there have been many demonstrations of this one word of God among the many words of God, and there have been all sorts of histories to explain this one text. As a powerful Lord, God overthrows and breaks the bigwigs; and as a gracious and loving Father, He helps the poor and forsaken.
He showed this in the cases of Saul and David. He is showing it now in the cases of the pope and the Gospel, of the bishops and the Christians. And He will go on showing it more and more until they are brought down and learn by experience that what David says here is true: this is only a single word of God, that He is powerful and loving; but it is often heard and repeatedly experienced. He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Mark 4:9)!
1. O Lord, Thou God of vengeance, Thou God of vengeance, shine forth!
- 105 THIS psalm is clearly a prayer that is common to all the pious children of God and members of His spiritual people, to be prayed against all their persecutors. Therefore it can be prayed from the beginning of the world to its end by all pious and devout people, be they Jews, Christians, or patriarchs. For they all have to suffer from the two groups of persecutors about whom this psalm complains: first, the tyrants, who use force to persecute the body on account of the Word; secondly, the false teachers, heretics, and sectarians, who use lies and mockery to persecute the soul.
For this reason we, too, may pray this psalm in our day against both groups: the pope and the bishops, the princes and lords, who use force to persecute us physically on account of the Gospel; and the sectarians, who persecute us spiritually with their false and perverted interpretation of the Scriptures.
In the same way the pious and faithful Jews prayed it against both groups: the Gentiles, who raged about them and continually persecuted them; and the false prophets, who arose in their midst and misled the people with their perverted understanding of the Scriptures. Therefore he says now:
"O Lord, Thou art a God of vengeance, that is, Thou alone art the Avenger and Punisher of all wickedness, both physical and spiritual." He says "God of vengeance" twice, as people tend to do when they are excited and very earnest; they will say something over and over to stir God. Another reason he says it twice is to indicate that he is complaining about two groups of persecutors and asking for vengeance and punishment on both of them—tyrants and heretics.
"God of vengeance" is a Hebrew way of speaking; it means "He who alone can and should take vengeance." Paul, too, often uses this way of speaking, as in Rom. 15:13: "the God of hope" and in Rom. 15:5: "the God of steadfastness and encouragement." In 2 Cor. 1:3 he says: "Blessed be God, the Father of all mercies and God of comfort," that is, God, who gives hope, patience, and comfort. So also here "God of vengeance" means "the one who takes vengeance." For the Scriptures give Him His names on the basis of His works. But because no one but God can do such works, no one but God is entitled to the names that are based on such works. No one but God can give comfort, hope, patience, and the like; thus also no one but God can punish sin and avenge evil. How could men avenge all evil when they cannot even know all evil? Indeed, they regard most evil as virtue, though it is evil and deserves to be avenged, just as the hypocrites regard their teaching and works as good and refuse to let this be identified and denounced, though it is nothing but wickedness. Therefore the name "God of vengeance," like "God of steadfastness" and "God of hope," is appropriate only to God.
"Shine forth!" he says. The word עהֹוִפִפ י ַ means "to come out," "to break forth," as a beam does, "to become visible and evident to everyone." Thus Moses says in Deut. 33:2: "The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon us; He shone forth from Mt. Paran." What he wants to say here is this:
"Tyrants and false prophets have the upper hand. They have come to the fore and have made themselves evident, and they are well established. But Thou art altogether silent. Thou dost conceal Thyself as though Thou weft buried and unable to act, for Thou dost not prevent or punish such wickedness.
Therefore we ask Thee to shine forth, peek out, and let Thy countenance look out at them—and to do it soon! For Thou art a God of vengeance, and it is fitting for Thee to avenge and punish. Avenge Thyself then! If vengeance is Thy work and is so very necessary now, why dost Thou conceal Thyself in the darkness and make Thyself so invisible?"
Here the question may arise how pious and spiritual people can ask for vengeance when Christ says in Matt. 5:44: "Pray for your persecutors, do good to those who hate you, love your enemies." In other words, desiring vengeance and punishment conflicts with love toward the neighbor, since we ought to desire and do only good (Rom. 12:17). I reply: There is a distinction between faith and love. Faith tolerates nothing, love tolerates everything; faith curses, love blesses; faith seeks vengeance and punishment, love seeks reprieve and forgiveness. Therefore where faith and the Word of God are at stake, it is not right to love or to be patient but only to be angry, zealous, and reproving. That is how all the prophets behaved; in matters of faith they manifested no patience or kindness. But since this psalm becomes more vehement later on and not only asks for vengeance but actually curses, we shall postpone a more detailed reply until then.15
2. Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render to the proud their deserts!
Just as God alone is the Avenger, so He alone is Judge of the earth. For all the judging and avenging done by the government comes from His command and ordinance, as though He were doing it Himself.
But what the government cannot judge or avenge, that He does, so that it may be true that He alone is - 106 the Avenger and Judge of the earth, as Ps. 7:8 says: "The Lord judges the people." Now because He is the Avenger and Judge, pious men ask Him to rise up, that is, to take His seat high up as Judge, to demonstrate His work, and not to let Himself be suppressed as though He were nothing. He says everything two ways in this prayer. He invokes God as Avenger and as Judge, as though it were not enough for Him to be only the Avenger. He is serious about this; and, as we said earlier, he is praying against two groups of enemies. Very fittingly he asks for vengeance on the tyrants and for a judgment on the false teachers. For the tyrants operate by brute force, without any attempt to conceal it; therefore they deserve vengeance and are already condemned. But the sects dress themselves up and put on a fine front; therefore they must be condemned by means of a trial and a judgment.
By the "proud" here he means not only those who are arrogant in their hearts but also those who have gained the upper hand by either persecution or deceit (he is talking about both the tyrants and the heretics) and act as though they had already prevailed and smothered the pious. This is also the meaning of our word "proud," those who fly high and soar,16 as it is of the Hebrew word ִא יםגֵּ, just as Moses says about God Himself in his song in Ex. 15:1: "The Lord rides high." Thus the meaning here is as follows:
"Isn't it time to judge and to avenge? Thou hast kept silence until both the tyrants and the heretics have prevailed. They are soaring high and celebrating a triumph, as though they had managed to smother us altogether, as though they were everything, and we were nothing." Whenever I use the two words
"tyrants" and "heretics," I mean by them the two groups of persecutors of all the pious children of God.
Thus it will not be necessary for me each time to mention the Gentiles and the false prophets in the Old Testament, the tyrants and the heretics in the New Testament, and the princes and the fanatics in our day. With these two words I wish to designate all the persecutors of the Word, past, present, and future, who are of two kinds, as I have said.
3. O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?
That is: "Thou hast permitted them to go so far and to gain the upper hand so completely that they have become smug. They are boasting, rejoicing, singing, and dancing, as though we were done for. All
Thou art doing while this triumph continues so long is looking on! Even a pious man might get the impression that Thou and Thy Word amount to nothing." But God does not act otherwise; He lets them continue so long to make us ask Him. Here you see once more that he mentions the "wicked" twice in order to complain about the two groups of persecutors.
4. They pour out their arrogant words, they boast, all the evildoers.
This verse cannot be translated literally from Hebrew into our language; therefore we must help it along. What it means is this. Both the tyrants and the heretics have become very mighty. The tyrants pour out their bragging words as though their cause were everything and our cause were nothing.
Likewise the heretics have begun to pour them out until their dreams are all you can hear. Our teaching and faith hardly dare peep. This is what happens when sects and tyrannies arise. They intrude themselves and grow until people pay attention to nothing else and refuse to listen. Thus St. Paul says in 2 Thess. 2:11: "God sends upon them a strong delusion"; and again in 2 Tim. 3:8: "They oppose the truth"; and again in 2 Tim. 3:13: "The wicked go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived."
Therefore the Hebrew reads as follows: "They spill over an old thing with their speech, and all the wicked make themselves braggarts." Just as a boiling kettle runs over and spills out, so they run over and spill out with all the bragging that fills their heart. For the great heat and desire of their dreams is boiling and cooking, and they can neither keep quiet nor listen to anyone else.
He calls the subject of their speaking "an old thing," that is, stiff, hard, and firm, something that is not new. For what is still new is not yet so well established and firmly set; it can still be bent, twisted, or changed. But what is old is well established and firmly set; people are accustomed to it and like to stick to it. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, and you can't make an old scoundrel pious. Thus the heretics are stiff and unbending in their teaching, and they brag much about it. So Hannah sings in 1
Sam. 2:3: "Keep the old thing out of your mouth"; Ps. 31:18 says: "Let the lips be dumb which speak something old against the righteous"; and Ps. 75:5 says: "Do not lift up your horn on high, or speak something old."
5. They crush Thy people, O Lord, and afflict Thy heritage.
- 107 This is what the tyrants do when they use force to persecute the Word of God and to kill and torment people for its sake; and the heretics help them along. Of this he now complains to God and asks for vengeance. The Gentiles treated the Jews this way, and the Romans treated the Christians this way. Now the bishops and the princes are treating us this way, and they will get what the earlier persecutors got.
For God cannot ignore a prayer which reminds Him that His people and His heritage are being destroyed.
6. They slay the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless.
The tyrants and heretics are so ferocious and so smug that they not only persecute the people of God but do not spare even the poorest among the people, the widows and orphans, who surely deserve pity if anyone does. There is no pity in the persecutors of the Word of God, for the devil is more in control of them than of anyone else. The devil hates the Word of God more than any other thing.
7. And they say: The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.
This does not mean that they deny God altogether. For the existence of God is not at issue, and they all acknowledge God. Indeed, the persecutors suppose that God is on their side and that they are offering service to God when they persecute the pious (John 16:2). What is at issue is the Word and the works of God. The persecutors refuse to admit that this is the Word of God; they condemn it and regard the pious as fools and deceivers. Therefore they say: "Let us choke these deceivers, for their God is nothing. What they are telling us is a lie. Their God neither sees nor hears. He neither will nor can take vengeance on us for this, even if He wants to." So stiff, self-confident, and smug are they in their ideas and their unbelief!
8. Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise?
It irks the prophet and, for that matter, any Christian that people refuse to accept Him as God whose Word is his boast. Therefore he gets into a squabble with them on God's account and in defense of God's glory. He calls them "fools" and the "dullest of the people," though they give the appearance of being very wise and are regarded as outstanding teachers. But he says: "They are fools, and they are making fools of the people too."
9. He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see?
That is: "Our God, whose Word we have and whose work we proclaim, is the true God, Creator of all things. And you blaspheme Him when you say: 'He does not see or perceive anything.' Rather, it is your god who is vanity and nothing, as are your thoughts about him. (This will come later.) If He is the true God, why would He grant to others the good and useful gifts of sight and hearing, and Himself be unable to see and hear what concerns Him, what is done against Him or for Him? Then He would have to grant something that He does not have. But since He does grant ears and eyes, you must be utterly blind and mad fools not to know Him and to say that He does not see and hear.
10. He who chastens the Gentiles, does He not chastise? He teaches men knowledge.
"When the Gentiles and the whole world punish evil and chastise mischievous children and rascals, this comes from our God, who enables them to know and do this. Would He Himself be unable to chastise and chasten those who are mischievous against Him? If you can chastise what you regard as mischief, can He not chastise what He regards as mischief, since you learned about it from Him? If you, fools that you are, can still see and hear what you regard as mischievous or good, should He not be able to see and hear what He regards as mischievous or good, since He is the one who enables you to see and hear? As Christ says in Matt. 7:11: 'If you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?' For God enables you to know this and everything else that you know." Yet all this squabbling is useless. In their vanity and stubbornness they stick to the same old ideas.
11. The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.
This is as if he were saying: It is all in vain. They are not being converted, but they go right ahead in their opinion that their campaign against us must succeed. But our joy and comfort is that it will not succeed, for God is laughing at them and all their smart ideas and fancy plans. He knows that they are but a breath, that is, that they are nothing and that nothing is exactly what will come of their plans. We must only wait it out, for in just a little while everyone will come to recognize that their campaign actually amounts to nothing. As Ps. 33:10–11 says, "The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nought; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of - 108 His heart to all generations." Ps. 2:1–2. testifies that the Gentiles rage in vain, the kings set themselves without success, and the princes take futile counsel against the Lord and His Christ. For He laughs at them and mocks them because they cannot accomplish their goal. Ps. 21:11 says: "If they plan evil against you, if they devise mischief, they will not succeed." In 1 Cor. 3:20 St. Paul quotes our passage this way: "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." For it is the wise people who make the biggest and the most ambitious plans; they try to advise everybody and to set the world straight. But it is all futile.
12. Blessed is the man whom Thou dost chasten, O Lord, and whom Thou dost teach out of Thy Law.
We should thank God, he says, for granting us the great favor of knowing that the plans and actions of the wicked are futile and fleeting, in spite of their self-confidence and the success which makes them exult, sing, and speak so boastfully. The pious, meanwhile, amount to nothing; indeed, they are persecuted and killed, as has been said above.
Here human nature and reason is impotent and ignorant of the true state of affairs. It judges on the basis of its feelings and no more; it cannot see anything that is still far away in the future, but it clings to what is present. This is why he says here that God must be a disciplinarian and teach this. Blessed are those whom He teaches!
But where does He teach it? Does He impart it to each person individually? By no means. He teaches it out of His Law; that is, He teaches it to us out of the Sacred Scriptures. There we find both precepts and examples to tell us that the plans and actions of the wicked are fleeting and have always been futile. There you can see what happened to Pharaoh, Sihon, Og (Num. 21), and all the kings of the Gentiles; throughout the Bible you will find that their ideas have always been a failure. So also Ps.
73:16–17 speaks about the prosperity of the wicked: "When I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task [that is, I could not grasp it with my reason], until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end." That is, I found it in the Sacred Scriptures. There I learned to look, not at the present but at their end and their eventual outcome. There I saw that despite their magnificent appearance they amount to nothing.
This also provides an answer to the question which the weak ask: "You say that the plans and actions of the wicked are futile, but I see them accomplishing great things. What about this?" I reply: Yes, they have to begin something; but watch how they finish it! For they plan not only to begin it but to finish it.
Alexander the Great began many great things, more than he himself knew. But his ultimate plan was even greater, namely, to conquer the whole world. And we know that he failed in this. The Romans also intended to establish an eternal empire, as Vergil says: "An empire without end";17 but we know that they failed in this too. The Turk has also accomplished much, and he has even greater plans; but these plans, too, must fail. How miserable has been the continual failure of the pope, of great kings and princes in our own day! And yet they do not fear God, nor do they desist from their wicked plans. They do not believe and ask God for His grace, nor do they entrust their cause to Him. Therefore failing and falling is all you see them do.
Principally, however, we are discussing the undertakings of the wicked in opposition to the pious and to the Word of God. For when one wicked man battles against another, it comes out any way God pleases; this comfort does not apply there. For the Scriptures do not comfort the wicked or give them any promises, even though such smug and conceited plans always fail too. The comfort of the Scriptures, therefore, is their instruction to us not to look at how the wicked begin but to wait and watch how they achieve what they planned. Their plan is simply to wipe out the people of God and the Word of God. But then the tables are turned; they are destroyed, while God remains with those who are His, although at the beginning some of these are persecuted and killed. Thus St. Paul also testifies about the Scriptures in Rom. 15:4: "Whatever was written, was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope," as the following verse also says:
13. That he might be still in days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.
"Still" means patient, not raging or angry with the persecutors who are bringing days of trouble upon him. By "days of trouble" he means the time when the tyrants and heretics rage, that is, launch their campaign. For the tyrants attack body and property; the heretics attack soul and spirit. How can there be good days when body and soul are in daily peril? Thus St. Paul also says (Eph. 5:16) that "the days are evil." This agrees especially well with this psalm, as does the following verse (Eph. 5:17), which teaches
- 109 us to comfort ourselves with the Sacred Scriptures and to be patient in any persecution. But that is the usual course of the Gospel or the Word of God. When it arrives on the scene, days of trouble begin. The reason for this is that the devil cannot stand it and goes to work raising up tyrants and heretics. Hence there is never less peace, and there are never more wicked people and more offenses than in a time of grace and peace. In other words, when the grace of God and peace are being proclaimed, which happens through the Gospel, it is amazing that people are more wicked than they used to be. But this is how it must be; for here you see him complaining about days of trouble and urging stillness and patience, which are unnecessary in good days.
This stillness and patience are not supposed to be eternal, for the end is already in sight. The wicked will not accomplish their end, as the psalm says: "Their pit and their destruction are at hand." St. Peter agrees with this verse when he says (2 Peter 2:1): "They are bringing upon themselves swift destruction." For in Hebrew this verse could also read: "until destruction is dug for the wicked."
"Destruction" and "pit" are synonyms. God must teach us all this in days of trouble, to make us believe that the wicked will be destroyed. To our reason it seems that the pious will be destroyed and that the wicked will abide forever, because everything looks so bleak.
14. For the Lord will not forsake His people; He will not abandon His heritage.
This makes it clear that this psalm is speaking about the plans of the wicked against the people of God. For God cannot forsake His own; this is certain, as he says here. Therefore it is impossible for the wicked to accomplish what they set out to do. It must fail, as certainly as God is God. Only there must first be days of trouble, in which one must be still and patient while the wicked begin their campaign and then come to naught. As Ps. 91:8 also says, "You will look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked." If you are killed before seeing it in this life, you will come back to life and see it in the life to come. But the living will see it even in this life.
For those who believe it, then, this verse comforts the pious and emboldens them mightily, while it pronounces a fearful judgment on the tyrants and the heretics. For this is the certain outcome, in spite of thousands upon thousands of popes, emperors, princes, scholars, and heretics piled on top of one another, just as the following verse also says:
15. For justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.
From what I know about Hebrew18 it seems to me that the original of this verse means: "For righteousness will still restore justice." In days of trouble might makes right, and lies pass for truth; but eventually injustice and deception will not abide. Righteousness will arise and make its presence felt, crushing injustice and magnifying justice. Although the whole world will not accept justice, the pious will perform it anyway, doing what is honest and upright that justice may remain and injustice be put down.
Just look at the example of John Hus.19 In the day of trouble he was condemned, violently and unjustly, but now righteousness has made its presence felt and is vindicating him. And everything the papacy has tried to do against him—all its excommunications, its preaching, its burning, its ranting—has been unable to prevent this; their plans have failed. The same thing happened to the Jews in their plans against Christ and to the Romans in their plans against the Christians.
16. Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?
Here he begins to thank God for providing him with this comfort and insight. What he intends to say is this: "When the wicked rose up against me, there was no one else who stood by me; I was alone and forsaken. Everyone supposed that I was done for and that the wicked had won out." As another psalm says (25:16): "Be gracious to me, for I am lonely." That is, no one will comfort me, and everyone is despairing of me except God, my Master and my Teacher. As the next verse says:
17. If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the land of silence.
If it had been up to my own resources and those of other people, I would have been ruined, and the wicked would have achieved a splendid success against me; for everyone else deserted me, and my own heart was palpitating. But it is God who gives me patience, who instructs me above and beyond my reason, who topples the wicked. He permits me to suffer so terribly at the hands of the wicked to teach me that I would be ruined without His help and that my own power is useless. Thus this verse and the two that follow are nothing but a thanksgiving for the grace that God comforts us in the day of trouble, when the tyrants and the heretics rage, as we have heard.
"To dwell in the land of silence" is המּדּו ָָ in Hebrew, and it denotes a different silence from the one spoken of earlier. It refers to the silence when a thing no longer exists, when it can no longer be seen, heard, or felt, like the silence of the dead, who have completely disappeared from sight and perception.
Hence it is used by the Hebrews for hell, that is, for the place where the dead are (whatever it may be).
He intends, therefore, to say: My soul, that is, my life, would have been wiped out completely, like a man who is dead and buried; for that was how he felt in the day of trouble.
18. When I thought, My foot slips, Thy steadfast love, O Lord, gave me balm.
This, too, is part of his thanksgiving, as he shows what kind of thoughts he had in the day of trouble.
I thought, he says, "My foot slips." That is, I began to despair and to be convinced that I would be destroyed and the wicked would prevail eternally. Every genuine temptation has to bring a man to the point of despair, as though his enemies had won out and he had lost. Then the "steadfast love" of God comes and "gives him balm." That is, He comforts him through the Holy Scriptures, as we have said above, and assures him that the wicked will not succeed and that God's own people will not be forsaken.
19. When the cares of my heart were many, Thy consolations cheered my soul.
The meaning of this verse is almost the same as that of the preceding. The preceding verse gives voice to the despair he felt in the day of trouble, and it describes the balm he received by the grace of God in the Scriptures. This verse describes the various thoughts of escape which one has amid such despair. He looks hither and yon into every nook and cranny, but there is no escape. Thus he says now:
"When I was in torment and was trying to find comfort and could not, Thou didst come to prop me up with Thy comfort. Thou didst address me kindly through the statements and stories of the Holy
Scriptures. Therefore I can say (v. 12): 'Blessed is the man whom Thou dost chasten and teach out of 20. Has the wicked seat any fellowship with Thee, who commands labor by statute?
For shame! What are our teachers and preachers really doing when they fail to show how a soul is to be comforted out of the Scriptures? How sharply they clash with Thee! And their seat has no fellowship with Thee. Thou dost teach altogether differently. They sit on the seat; they are teachers and have the keys to knowledge. But what do they teach? They teach misery and heartache! The word ּוֹותהַ means
"trouble" and "heartache," as in German we say of a scoundrel: "You are asking for trouble," that is, you will commit a wrong that will bring heartache and all sorts of evil upon you. Thus "trouble" in this saying means both the transgression and the punishment. By the seat ּוֹותהַ he means here the accursed preachers who bring heartache upon people because they teach and live wrongly and are, therefore, subject to God's punishment. They know very well how to bind, fasten, and pervert consciences, but not how to give them comfort and balm.
In the same way "they command labor by statute." That is, they enact many laws, command this and that, and create labor for people. As Christ says in Matt. 23:4, "They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders." The purpose of all this is to persuade God to remove the anguish and persecution. They want to abolish evil simply by their own works, when they should urge patience and trust in the grace and mercy of God. In our own day, similarly, when a disaster is threatening, the preachers urge people to go on procession, to fast, and to do this or that. In other words, with their terrible statutes they command labor not only for people but for bells, candles, incense, etc. But meanwhile no one preaches about patience or the steadfast love of God. The preachers among the Jews were doing the same thing, as he complains here. For the precise meaning of the word קחֹ which appears here, is the commandments which are arranged and set down each day, what are called ceremonies or external rites. He says that the wicked seat commands and invents them; that is, God did not prescribe them, but people made them up out of their own heads.
21. They band together against the life of the righteous, and condemn innocent blood.
Such actions, too, are quite understandable. Instead of preaching about the comfort and grace of God, they stand pat and cling firmly to their invented statutes. When anyone refuses to obey them or speaks against them, as the righteous do, they show neither kindness nor patience. "They band together against them"; they arm themselves with all their weapons, power, and might against them. This is to be the greatest of battles with the greatest of weapons. Swords are not enough; no, water, fire, earth, air, and everything must go to war against the righteous. Thus they "condemn innocent blood," although