hate to lose a blessing or have it fail to yield dividends." But God and His children do good without returns. They gladly waste their kindess on the ungrateful, as it is written (Prov. 16:4): "The Lord has made everything for its purpose." Therefore He does not stop doing good because of the wickedness of men. Thus He proves that He is good by nature, and that His goodness does not stand or fall by the vice or virtue of another, as human goodness may stand on the virtue of one and fall by the vice of, another and even become worse than he is. The entire thirty-seventh Psalm speaks of this,72 and the verse before us is explained sufficiently for the time being. May Christ, our Lord, make us human beings true, perfect
Christians. To Him be praise and thanks forever! Amen.
12. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
13. For He strengthens the bars of your gates; He blesses your sons within you.
14. He makes peace in your borders; He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15. He sends forth His command to the earth; His Word runs swiftly.
16. He gives snow like wool; He scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
17. He casts forth His ice like morsels; who can stand before His cold?
18. He sends forth His Word, and melts them; He makes His wind blow, and the waters flow.
19. He declares His Word to Jacob, His statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know His ordinances. Praise the Lord!
To the august and honorable Hans Löser, hereditary marshal of Saxony, my gracious lord and dear friend.
GRACE and peace in Christ, my august, honorable, and dear lord and friend:
When I was with you recently, trying to drive away the buzzing and weariness of my head through physical exercise, you showed me the honor and kindness of taking me along on a hunting trip. At the same time I did some spiritual hunting on my own as I sat in the carriage; I bagged Psalm 147, Lauda
Jerusalem, together with its exposition, and this was my happiest hunt and grandest game. Now that I have brought it home and carved it, I want to tell you about it, lest I have a bad conscience for having concealed a prize won on your estate and be found ungrateful and destructive. I am sending Your Honor the whole thing, and yet I am keeping all of it for myself. This kind of game can be shared among friends in such a wonderful way that everyone gets all of it while no one comes short. May it please
Your Honor to accept it, for I am glad to serve you.
God be with you and with your vine and olive plants!1 Amen.
Saturday after St. Lucy's, 1531.2
THROUGH the influence of its lord and master, the devil, this accursed world is so shamefully unthankful and so contemptuously abuses God's grace and gifts, both spiritual and physical, and thus acts contrary and hostile to His divine Word and command, that its hour of reckoning is surely coming.
Therefore I have taken it upon myself to sing and interpret this psalm that God may be honored and thanked. Perhaps there may be, somewhere, two or three devout Christians who will sing and praise with me, so that much more than ingratitude and contempt may be found in this life.
Primarily this psalm gives praise and thanks for the physical benefits of God, which means a good year or a good season in which God gives peace and fruitfulness on earth, so that men can feed and govern themselves. We must admit that this year 1531 has been a good year. Who knows when we shall do so well again?3 Yet there is no one in the world who is grateful to God. Instead, men in their avarice use everything in the most inconsiderate fashion, yes, even to persecute and pervert the Gospel and the glory of God. But the world straggles toward its eternal damnation; and this will most certainly burst upon it suddenly and without warning.
12. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
God does not demand great sacrifices or precious treasures of great price for His blessings. No, He asks for the easiest work of all, namely, to sing and praise, and this takes neither work nor effort. For what is easier to do than to say: "Praise be to Thee, O merciful God"? Or: "I thank Thee for Thy goods
- 50 and gifts." Or: "Thou art a holy, faithful God and a gentle Father." No one need run to Rome or even bestir himself. And finally, what a trilling work and effort it is to read or hear such a psalm! If we cannot perform such easy services for God, how would we then fare in those great and difficult ones, such as keeping the Ten Commandments or suffering all evil for His sake or risking body and life, property and honor for Him? Surely, whoever cannot or will not give thanks to God will never do or suffer everything for His sake.
And it is a great shame, if we are still capable of being ashamed, that, like sluggards, we must be goaded into giving thanks or, like sleepers, be shaken into an awareness of it, and that these gifts must be counted off, named, and pictured to us. We are daily so overwhelmed by them and use them so constantly that we really ought to goad and admonish ourselves to thanksgiving without psalms and outside reminders, being moved, enticed, and inspired by the gifts themselves. But this does not happen.
One must sing and blow at us to impress on us that we ought to praise the Lord, and even the words must be prefabricated and put into our mouths, as this psalm does. But still our flabby flesh will not be moved to such easy, delightful, and happy works and to such a pleasant service of God. Shame on us that we are not shocked or do not blush every time we hear or read a verse in the Psalms!
But it is even more shameful that one must even name for us the Benefactor Himself and say to Jerusalem: "Dear people, be so good as to praise the Lord!" or say to Zion: "Dear people, condescend to praise your God; He certainly deserves it, and it is such a fitting and becoming service." There are many who make use of all of God's benefits every day and see and know very well that they have great gifts and all that is good. But not once do they consider from whom they have these things or that it is God who gives them. They take them as though these things just happened, or as though they had earned them through their own labor, diligence, and wisdom. They imagine that God must give them these things and that they owe Him no thanks.
No animal would live as disgracefully as does this world, no, not even a sow. For a sow knows the housewife or maid from whom she receives her slops and swill; she runs after her and cries to her. But the world does not know and honor the God who so richly and boundlessly blesses it; much less does it thank and praise Him. Therefore one sees that despite the daily howling and bawling of this simple and sparkling psalm by the clergy in our churches4 it still remains unknown and uncomprehended by these blind and misguided people. And if one must encourage even Jerusalem and Zion, what can one expect of Babylon and Sodom? So stubborn is man's refusal to recognize God and His gifts, and to thank Him.
13. For He strengthens the bars of your gates; He blesses your sons within you.
Now the psalmist begins to count and name these blessings. The first is protection, that is, that God guards and keeps the gates of the city so that men can dwell there in safety and quiet. How many citizens or people have in their whole lives even once thought that the protection and security of a city is a gift from God? What peasant in his village thinks that it is a gift from God that he can sit behind his fence in security with his household? If every hour he could expect thieves and robbers to plunder his house, or in wartime fear that at any hour his house and home may be burned to the ground and, on top of this, that he himself may be beaten and tortured, then he would learn to sing this psalm and say: "O how happy they are" and "O what a great gift from God it is to be able to eat bread and drink water in peace and safety!"
But now that such divine protection and security are present in such abundance, no one pays any attention to this. Instead of giving thanks to God we proceed to misuse this peace in the most highhanded way, oppose God's Word, are rebellious and disobedient to the authorities, betray and deceive one another, raise prices and create hard times,5 practice usury and live as if we ourselves were
God and lord of the earth. Therefore in return God must give us fools our comeuppance and send us war, thieves, robbers, revolution, fire, flood, pestilence, and other such catastrophes to teach us what safety and security mean and what a noble gift of God they are. Otherwise we would never learn it.
The word "bars," however, we must understand not only as the iron bar which a smith can make but, by synecdoche,6 everything else that helps to protect us, such as good government, good city ordinances, good order, stern punishments, and pious, faithful, and wise rulers. Iron bars alone will not achieve secure protection for a city. This is why now and again in the writings of the prophets the princes and rulers are called the "bars" of the city or nation.7
- 51 In other words, wherever there is protection and security, it is not by human intelligence or power; this is a gift of God. Something more than iron bars or a smith is needed; God Himself, he says, must fasten the bars. We read in Ps. 127:1: "Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." Many stout cities have been taken and destroyed, even though they were thought to be impregnable. When He who makes fast the bars took away His hand, they perished. How often the great and seemingly almighty city of Babylon was ignominiously taken! How easily and quickly the empires of Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome were destroyed! Nothing will hold unless God holds it.
On the other hand, God does not want man to tempt Him by not making gates and bars or doing anything for the protection of the city, as though the gates should stand open, the walls be torn down, all arms and defense neglected, all order and punishment abolished, and thus the city be left to protect itself or God alone be expected to do everything. That would be wrong. You should build and forge bars, fortify the city and arm yourself, establish order and laws as best you can. But once you have done this, see that you do not depend on it and say: "Now I sit here safe and snug, and all is well." Thus the heathen did when the king of Babylon boasted of his city (Dan. 4:30), and Arbaces of his city,
Ecbatana;8 both had to change their minds. Instead, inscribe this motto on the gates: "Now God help us!
Otherwise all this is in vain."
God could easily give you grain and fruit without your plowing and planting. But He does not want to do so. Neither does He want your plowing and planting alone to give you grain and fruit; but you are to plow and plant and then ask His blessing and pray: "Now let God take over; now grant grain and fruit, dear Lord! Our plowing and planting will not do it. It is Thy gift." This is what we do when we teach children to fast and pray and hang up their stockings that the Christ Child or St. Nicholas may bring them presents. But if they do not pray, they will get nothing or only a switch and horse apples.
What else is all our work to God—whether in the fields, in the garden, in the city, in the house, in war, or in government—but just such a child's performance, by which He wants to give His gifts in the fields, at home, and everywhere else? These are the masks of God,9 behind which He wants to remain concealed and do all things. Had Gideon done nothing but take the field against Midian, the Midianites would not have been beaten; and God could certainly have beaten them without Gideon. He could give children without using men and women. But He does not want to do this. Instead, He joins man and woman so that it appears to be the work of man and woman, and yet He does it under the cover of such masks. We have the saying: "God gives every good thing, but not just by waving a wand."10 God gives all good gifts; but you must lend a hand and take the bull by the horns; that is, you must work and thus give God good cause and a mask.
Therefore the psalm says at this point: "He makes fast." What does He make fast? The bars of your gates He can and will make fast, but the gates and bars have to be there to be made fast. Without your bars He does not fasten the gates. At the same time, the bars are not fast of themselves. That is why both are necessary: You should make and supply the bars and gates, but He will make them fast. You are not to make them fast, and He does not want to make bars. That is a fair division of labor. Make the bars and gates, and let Him fasten them. Labor, and let Him give the fruits. Govern, and let Him give His blessing. Fight, and let Him give the victory. Preach, and let Him win hearts. Take a husband or a wife, and let Him produce the children. Eat and drink, and let Him nourish and strengthen you. And so on. In all our doings He is to work through us, and He alone shall have the glory from it, as Paul says in 1 Cor.
3:7: "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."
Now all this is said to refute those who tempt God, want to do nothing, and think God will give them whatever they desire without any work or diligence on their part. There is a fitting proverb for such people: "Sit still, and have faith; wait for the fried chicken to fly into your mouth." God wants no lazy idlers. Men should work diligently and faithfully, each according to his calling and profession, and then
God will give blessing and success. This is intended also for those who presume to think that results will come or have to come because of their industry and labor, or their cleverness and skill, and care nothing about God. But here again the right balance is this: "Don't be lazy or idle, but don't rely solely on your own work and doings. Get busy and work, and yet expect everything from God alone." That is to say:
Everything must be done in faith and trust in God. And if at times you see good fortune given to the lazy or arrogant, don't be angry. For it can't last or endure or be handed down; finally it will go to pieces. We
- 52 have seen right under our noses many examples of how quickly great possessions have been destroyed and are being destroyed daily.
Another gift is the good fortune that a city is full of people, well populated and well built. This is a blessing of God and a fruit of peace and protection, not of our power or skill. For if a city is untouched by war but is nevertheless poorly built and thinly populated, then it is not temporally blessed; it is probably half cursed. We are told in Ps. 127:3, 11 that children and strong young people are gifts of God; and in the prophets,12 when God is angry with a city, He always threatens to make it a widow, a desolate place, without inhabitants or children. For "children" means children not only of the house but also of the city, that is, all who live and are sheltered in it, whether young or old, man or woman, clergy or laity, with all they have and acquire.
Now this blessing, that a city is hall of people, includes all other gifts necessary for the maintenance of the people—such as house, property, money, clothes, cattle, wives, children, servants, also all handicrafts and trades—so that nothing shah be lacking but things shall daily improve, grow, and prosper. For where such things decline or lapse, there the city goes to ruin and is so depopulated that it cannot be built up again in a lifetime. But how many people are there in such a city who thank God for such blessings and good fortune? Indeed, how many of you recognize that it is God's gift and blessing?
How many people right here in Wittenberg have ever thanked God for the two streams, the sluggish stream and the rushing stream,13 from which for years they have brewed and drunk many a pleasant drink and which they have used generously in their homes for every need, a blessing not to be paid for with any amount of money? I shall not speak of the other gifts and blessings of house, home, children, cattle, etc.
It is the devil who is to blame that there are not many such thankful people, but that instead they scorn God in all things and do not recognize His kindnesses and blessings. They prefer to think: "It is all the result of our doing and our work; and we have earned and achieved it." And then they shamefully misuse it all against God and their neighbor, are proud and boastful, exploit and betray others, overcharge, cheat, and behave arrogantly. But finally God will be aroused at our evildoing and send wars or tyrants upon us to give us our deserts and take away His gifts and blessings, leaving behind a poor, miserable city. Then we will learn how great God's gifts and blessings were in former times, to have a city full of people, well built and well supplied.
There are some idiots, however, who regret that a city is so well blessed that it is full of people, etc.
For they would prefer to see it lean and empty, so that they alone might grow thick, fat, and great in it.
When there are many people, they are afraid that they may come short in their greed and pride, and that others will also eat and live alongside them. They calculate and measure everything exactly, according to person and wealth, not considering that the wealth of all the cities in the world is far, far too little to supply their people. God's blessing alone, as David says, can do this. A proverb teaches the same thing:
"The more people, the more prosperity."
And tell me how things are. A day laborer earns about a groschen a day. In a year this amounts to hardly fifteen gulden, not counting holidays and other days when he does not work.14 With this he must feed himself, his wife, and five or six children. Now you can figure out how much per day there is to squander, for clothes, fuel, etc. Our children are still as fat as snails, and there is no hunger in their eyes; even the children of princes and lords are not as well fed. Must we not here fall back on this psalm: "He has blessed your children within you"? It is certainly true that when someone is in prison, or where one wants to starve a person into submission and take away his property, as the peasants, the nobility, and tyrants are now doing to the clergy, there lean and hungry bodies will result. Therefore it has surely been the blessing of God, not our labor, effort, and cunning, when a city is full of people, prosperous, and flourishing.
14. He makes peace in your borders; He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
The third blessing is peace, that there is not only protection and prosperity in the city, but peace and good times in the countryside round about. There men are able to live in safety, plow, plant, raise cattle, or carry on other activities. And this peace includes loyal neighbors and an obedient nobility and peasantry, as the saying goes: "Peace lasts as long as your neighbor wants it." Or again: "That's the price of this neighborhood."15 It is not the least misfortune on earth to have unfaithful, hostile neighbors.
Now run the gamut from peasant to emperor, and observe what damage, treachery, hindrance, scorn, and - 53 real heartache can be inflicted by one peasant, one citizen, one lord and ruler, one king on another. Also among the Jews there is a curse: "May God give you a bad neighbor."16
On the other hand, it is not one of the smallest blessings on earth to have God-fearing, loyal neighbors. They can do no end of good, and thus peace is better established than if a city were to surround itself with all the power in the world and be guarded by walls of solid iron. Even the heathen know this. Terence says, for example: "Whoever thinks that a dominion is better maintained by force than by friendship is sadly in error."17 And Aristotle: "Whatever is maintained by force cannot last."18
The reason for this? It is said: "No one ever became so bad that someone worse did not follow." Or again: "Jack is no better than John," and "People are people everywhere." The Babylonian empire was bad, but the Persians were even worse and dismembered it. The Persian empire was bad, but Alexander was even worse and gobbled up the Persians. The Romans were also bad; but the Goths, the Wends, and the Turks were even worse and plundered Rome with a will. Just now the Turk is bad; but if the world stands a while longer, he, too, will bow to someone worse.
Therefore Cato, the wise Roman, tells us in his advice on conducting a household: "One must be diligent and conduct oneself so that our neighbors love us and are friendly toward us; this helps in making a living."19 The Holy Scriptures also praise such good will, as in Ecclus. 25:2 f.: "In three things
I was beautified, and stood up beautiful before the Lord and men, the concord of brethren, and friendship of neighbors, and a woman and her husband walking together in agreement." And Solomon praises it also in Prov. 27:10: "Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off." Of what help are a thousand brothers who live far away? I would trade them all for a good neighbor, and I would hesitate to anger or neglect a neighbor for the sake of the whole lot.
This is not the place to tell how one is to behave so that one's neighbors will be friendly and well disposed. Both the heathen and our own reason say: Patience and benevolence will do it. We must be patient and not be too severe or seek revenge when they happen to hurt us. Instead, we should overlook it and be friendly to them in word and deed. It is well said, and it is also the teaching of Scripture, that we should love our neighbor, even our enemy. But then one sometimes finds neighbors so crude and coarse, so full of hatred and envy, that patience and kindness make them worse. Therefore we are told that beyond all the skill and power of man "God makes peace in your borders." And it is nothing but the gift of God if such peace prevails in the land. He must hold, guide, and turn the hearts and hands of neighbors toward peace and check and repel those who are without principle.
Of course, it is true, as I said before, that we should do our utmost to make peace prevail in our country, just as we should plow and sow to raise grain. To keep the peace, we should also be patient and friendly toward our neighbors. And our rulers should establish borders, build roads, and arm themselves against enemies and evil neighbors. But when all this has been done, one should say: "Well, I have done everything necessary to keep the peace, and all that is required for defense. But all this is nothing. Lord
God, give Thou Thy blessing to this work, and establish peace within our borders. Our efforts can do nothing, our plowing and sowing cannot produce the fruits we need, no matter how gladly we work at it." Truly God will bless such faith in your diligence and such work for peace, and He will grant and maintain His gift of peace.
But now, to get back to the psalm, where are those who give thanks to God for this gift of peace?
Yes, where are those who even recognize it as a God-given gift or do not, on top of everything else, show contempt for God? We exploit Him for our own pleasure and liking, and act as though such a peace were our birthright in which to live and act as we choose, against both God and man. It is unspeakable how insolent and presumptuous the peasants have become through these years of peace.
Their very skin seems to itch, almost like a sow fattened for the slaughter, as though they could not and would not put up with these good times any more and would not rest until the butcher seizes them and makes sausage of them. This is the thanks God gets for having given these villains such precious peace.
But see how long He will put up with it!
Our own young lordlings of the nobility, especially these incorrigible young roughnecks—are they to be expected to thank God for this peace? That would be humiliating to the whole nobility! They are the ones who establish peace within our borders! Furthermore, it was wrong of David to sing such a song about God. He should have sung about the nobility, and clothed and decorated these gentlemen with the beauty of this psalm. Since he did not do so, they appropriate it and adorn themselves with it.
- 54 For they assume that they are lords over both war and peace. They will take orders from no prince or lord, even if God were to come with all His angels. They alone must protect and save; they alone must keep the peace. Without their help God Himself might be driven out of heaven! And for this they need neither luck nor blessing. It is enough that they draw their swords and utter a resounding curse, whereupon peace, war, and everything else comes about just as they wish.
I fear greatly that such slanderers, blasphemers, and loudmouths will one day suddenly waken the Lord, who will pluck this psalm from them, take it back as His own, and then let them see just what they can achieve with all their boasting and blustering if they do not have His gifts. Thus they and all others will learn that it is God who establishes peace within our borders. And if it should ever happen that they must defend and protect us, or establish the peace, then may God have mercy on us and take us away!
For then most certainly the sheep would be entrusted to the wolf for peace, and the poor sinner to the devil for help against death.
Finally—and listen well, you who want to learn—we are to work for peace by showing patience and friendliness toward our neighbors, by preparing our land and roads, by fortifying cities and borders against the enemy. In no case, however, are we to boast or strut about it; we must rely on God, who will give and maintain peace for us if we are worthy of it; and if we are not, well, then no arms will help.
These very lord protectors who are supposed to establish peace will be the first and worst offenders and will inflict all sorts of misfortune and misery on us, as we hear they did in Vienna and wherever they are sent.20 This is because they do not know God and His gifts and rely on themselves. Therefore they cannot perform any honest21 work for peace. Instead, when they boast of making peace, they accomplish the opposite.
In God's peace are to be included all other good things that belong to peace, such as health of the body in the face of pestilence, flood, fire, poison, and all sorts of miseries and sickness. For where such misfortunes prevail, the condition of the country is not good, and the devil has a field day with calamity and distress. It is God's gift alone, not our precautions or efforts, that prevents the daily raging of pestilence, sicknesses, and other torments of the devil. And if God does not ordain peace here too, then all our pharmacies, physicians, skill, aid, and advice will be far too weak. We should make diligent use of these means and skills without relying on them, as has been said, but always with this prayer: "Lord
God, grant Thy grace and peace to this work. We have done our best; we have planted; grant Thou the fruits," as I told you before.
The fourth gift is our blessed daily bread, as is said: "He fills you with the finest of wheat." That is to say, He gives you grain and the produce of the field in abundance, and all things necessary to eat and drink for sustenance. But more: He gives not only grain but the "finest" grain, select and tender wheat.
And He not only gives it; He satisfies us with plenty. Thus the psalmist wants to show that God will provide enough to eat and drink, as St. Paul says (1 Tim. 6:17): "Who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy." And this is certainly true; for every year so much is grown (where God is merciful and does not want to punish us) that the world cannot eat it, but much is left over. Of course, there is never enough for greed. If the earth were made of grain and the seas were all wine and the mountains pure gold, they could never satisfy a greedy man, even though he had it all to himself.
But now who believes that it is God's gift when we have such an abundance of grain and wine and all kinds of crops? Where are the people who thank and praise Him for this? O yes, they are carousing and dissipating. Or they are cheating, raising prices, and grinding down the poor and whomever they can. We use this gift as though we, not God, had made it. We do not ever give God a thought, just as these peasants and noblemen do as they please with their price fixing. They own the granaries and the crops; and now they also want the money, so that others will have nothing and they alone will own everything.22 Very well, time will tell if they are right, when they themselves shall have nothing. Just let them go ahead.
We are to learn from this and to praise and thank God for making the grain grow. We are to recognize that it is not our work but His blessing and gift that grain, wine, and all kinds of crops grow, for us to eat and drink and use for our needs, as is shown in the Lord's Prayer when we say: "Give us this day our daily bread." With the word "give" we concede that it is God's gift, not our creation. If He did not give it, not a single seed would grow, and all our agriculture would be for nothing. In truth, this gift is so tremendous that it must be miraculously preserved through God's power until such time as we
- 55 can receive and enjoy it. For how quickly the seed in the ground could rot, freeze, mold, be eaten by worms, or be washed away by water! And even when it sprouts, how quickly it could be destroyed by heat, weather, and hail, or eaten up by bugs and other animals! And who can count all the dangers to which the grain and vines are exposed before they are brought to the barns? Even there it can still be devoured by worms and be gone. The devil would not let a blade or leaf sprout or grow were God not constantly on guard.
Therefore when we see a whole field or one grain, we should recognize not only God's goodness but also His power and say to ourselves: "O lovely grain! God gives you to us in abundance out of His great goodness. And with what great power He protects you! What dangers have you not survived from the hour when you were sown until you are put on the table! With what mighty power has He not torn you from the devil's fingers and hands, which clutch and snatch to destroy you and starve us!"
Yes, yes, is this what we are supposed to think? But we have other things to do besides acknowledging the mercy and power of God. We are the ones who worked hardest for this grain. If we had not done the work, God could not have given us anything. Thus we go our way like the very sticks and stones and commit usury, greed, and debauchery on these mighty and merciful gifts of God, thus persecuting both God and our fellow men.
But a devout and believing heart understands well how useless all our plowing, sowing, and the like would be without the help of God's gifts. Although we are to do such work with diligence and seek our nourishment from the soil (Gen. 3:19), we are not to depend solely on this as though it could be done with our hands. More than our hands is necessary. God must bless and prosper it, and then mightily defend it against all devils. And this is true not only of the fourth gift but also of the three listed earlier.
The devil would grant us none of them; God must give them and protect them against his malice.
15. He sends forth His command to the earth; His Word runs swiftly.
Here we are told of the marvelous way in which God translates His blessings into action and gives them to us. It takes only one word from Him, and that is fiat, as in Gen. 1:3. To make fast the gates He does not need forge, hammer, anvil, or tongs. He needs neither brick nor mortar to build peace. He does not need the help of women, merchants, or manufacturers of coin to make His children rich and happy.
He needs neither plow nor harrow to satisfy us with wheat; but He need only say to the bars: "Be fast," and they are fast. And to the populace: "Be rich and happy," and they are rich and happy. And to the borders: "Peace be within you," and peace is there. And to the earth: "Bring forth wheat," and there it is, just as we are told in Ps. 33:9: "For He spoke, and it stood fast," or again in Ps. 105:31:23 "He spoke the word, and there came all manner of flies."
Therefore when it says here: "He sends forth His command to the earth," we should understand that He sends His command to the earth and to all that is on the earth. This is the sense of Ps. 107:20 when it speaks of those who are deathly sick and yet recover: "He sent His Word and healed them." That is, He commands: "Be healed," and one is healed. He needs no medicine but heals by the utterance of His
Word. Now take Ps. 148:8:24 "Fire and hail, snow and vapors, stormy wind, fulfilling His Word." This means that they do what He says. His command or speech is equivalent to creation, as we read in Gen. 1 that He created the world by His Word. And Paul says (Rom. 4:17): "God gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist."
And His Word, says the psalmist, "runs swiftly"; that is, everything that God wills happens quickly, instantly. And as soon as He speaks, there it is. Thus in Gen. 1 God spoke, and it was so. His Word is not a rotten, sickly, or dead word, like the words and commandments of men. Let men order and command as they will; nothing happens, or at least very little. For even the words and commands of the king or of our masters are done piecemeal and slowly. Their words do not run swiftly; they creep and crawl, taking their time. As the saying goes: "It's only an order from the boss!"; that is, no one pays any attention to it. Truly, if God's Word is not added, saying: "What you, king or prince, have ordered, let that be done," nothing will happen. His Word must be added in order to give force to the rulers command and respect and obedience to the subject. Otherwise what the ruler says will remain just "an order from the boss."
But when God says to the earth: "Be verdant," everything is green; when He says: "Grow," the blades spring up; when He says: "Produce wheat," the wheat flourishes. And all this happens soon and quickly, as we can see with our own eyes, so that His Word does not creep but runs, yes, even leaps and - 56 is there in one jump. Therefore when He commands peace within our borders, then there quickly follows a peace which no prince's order could create or maintain. When He blesses the people in the city and commands their prosperity, then there is at once a prosperity which neither commerce nor industry can produce. When He commands the bars to be fast, then the city is well secured and protected, better than any wall or cannon can secure or protect it.
Thus this verse confirms what we said before about the four blessings: that they are the result, not of our power or skill but are, and should be called, God's blessings. And unless God creates with His
Word, all our work and effort is for nothing. For with all our human labor we are not able to make a single blade of grass grow out of the earth or to sustain it, much less satisfy ourselves with wheat. We cannot even defend a dog, much less keep the peace within our borders. We cannot earn a single heller, much less grow rich and happy; or swat a fly, much less make fast the gates. "His Word," not "our hand"; "His Word," not "our technique," makes and accomplishes all things. Therefore this verse shows the reasons why David ascribes the four blessings, not to us men but to God, and tells us to be thankful.
"God is the reason," he says; "for you do nothing and can do nothing; but when God speaks, then you have it. His Word and command creates all that you have."
But this is also said in order to comfort us, to arouse and strengthen our faith. For when we hear that we have a God who so easily creates and accomplishes all things, that it takes only one word from Him, then we should gladly and confidently trust and believe that He can and will give all things despite the gates of hell (Matt. 16:18). The man who could believe this, that God with one word can easily do all things, of whom should such a man be afraid? Even if the Turks or all the world were to besiege him, what could they do to one who believes that God's Word has such strength and power? Before such a man the Turks would be as weak as flies. We, however, do not believe but look to our own strength.
Whatever this cannot accomplish we think impossible for God also, and we constantly doubt and despair. Or, on the other hand, if we do have or accomplish something, we do not believe that God did it for us. O we are unbelieving, ungrateful, shameful, wicked children!
16. He gives snow like wool; He scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
17. He casts forth His ice like morsels; who can stand before His cold?
Here the psalmist gives an example of winter, in order to confirm his view. In a sense, winter is the exact opposite of summer; for in winter the land lies waste and desolate, and produces neither grain nor fruit, so that it seems as though nothing more would ever grow out of the earth. A man who had never experienced a winter might well despair and think that heaven and earth had become our enemies and wanted to kill us with hunger and frost. Or a type of Manichean belief might arise, with a god of summer, who would be good and merciful enough to increase and nourish mankind, and a second god of winter, who would be angry and evil, to starve and extinguish the human race.25 But now it is the same one God, both in summer and in winter, even though in winter He puts on an appearance different from the one He puts on in summer. Winter looks like death, anger, and everything bad, as compared with the summer, which looks like life, grace, and all good things.
In order that we may become stronger in faith and not doubt that God can easily and with one word create and do all things, David asks us to consider winter as compared with summer; for in this contrast
God portrays what He can do and how He always works. In winter He sends snow, rime, and frost, so that no man can bear it. Surely nobody could survive a real winter if he had to do without fire and warmth and depend only on the sun, as he does in summer. The whole creation is powerless to make even a grain of wheat grow or any fruit ripen in winter, but God can change the winter, banish it, and bring the summer again, so that one forgets the winter. And He does this so easily that it costs Him only one word. Shouldn't you, then, the more easily believe that He can help you out of your winter and all distress, easily and with a single word? He can certainly find wheat when you are starving. He knows well how to make peace when you are threatened by war. He can give prosperity to a city when it has been mined. He can make the bars fast, if they are weak or broken. And He can do this easily, with one word. This is logical, since He can make summer out of winter with one word, which is really more and greater than helping you out of your distress.
After all, how can the misfortune of an individual, a city, or a country compare with the winter, which is a misfortune to the whole human race and all the world? What else is winter but an annual deluge or a yearly destruction of the entire world, so that it is dead, just as the first world was drowned
- 57 in the Flood? What are the living rooms, ovens, fireplaces, fire, straw, wood, and furs with which we warm ourselves but so many Noah's arks, in which we survive the winter and do not freeze, just as Noah in his ark escaped drowning? Without these we should most certainly be destroyed by the winter, as the psalm says here: "Who can stand before His cold?"
Now consider: If God every year helps the entire world out of winter, its annual flood and death, should you not learn from this mighty example of God's power, performed annually before your very eyes, to trust and believe in Him in every need? Look how even the godless, who believe in nothing, are able to say in winter: "O yes, summer will come again," and are convinced that it will not be winter forever. Therefore you and everyone should learn to say in the midst of his winter: "Very well, let there be snow, frost, and freezing. No matter how bad things get, summer will come again. God will not let it snow and freeze forever," as we are told in Ps. 55:22: "He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
And then the psalmist tells us something even more comforting. Snow, rime, and frost, he says, are the Lord's. He Himself causes them, and they are not controlled by the devil or any hostile force. He commands them. Therefore they cannot be colder or freeze us more than He wishes or than we can bear, just as St. Paul taught the Corinthians that God does not let us be tempted beyond our endurance but directs the temptation so that we may be able to endure it (1 Cor. 10:13). If the devil controlled the frost, there would not only be incessant winter and eternal frost with never again a summer; it would freeze so hard that we would all freeze to death in a single day and become nothing but chunks of ice. But God's winter and frost are not everlasting. And though the winter is hard and in itself hardly to be borne, still
He gives us so much fire, warmth, straw, etc., that we can bear it until the summer puts an end to it.
David shows this with great finesse by comparing the snow to wool, frost to ashes, hail to morsels of food. How sharply and accurately this man has studied God's creation! Why does he not compare the hail to pebbles, frost to sand, and snow to water? Wasn't he able to find closer comparisons than these, which would then also fit together better? The first two are not too badly paired, but what is one to make of ice and morsels? Well, he is trying to comfort us. He wants to teach us the real nature of winter, so that we will love and praise God even for the winter itself.
He says that winter and frost are unbearable; but in order that you may see and understand how it can be borne and that it need not destroy you, God has drawn and formed signs in the snow, frost, and hail, which should comfort and teach you something different from what they threaten. Look! The form of snow is like wool, as if God wanted to say: "The snow shall not kill you; it signifies wool, and you shall have wool and warmth, so that you can endure the winter, and if not, then the snow itself shall turn to wool and not only symbolize it. Nor shall the frost kill you; it indicates ashes, which are the bed of fire where it is warm, so that you may know that you will not be left without warmth and thus will be able to overcome the frost. Neither shall the hailstones kill you; they indicate morsels of food, so that you may be assured that even in winter, when nothing grows, you shall not die of hunger but shall have something to eat."
Therefore these three things—wool, ashes, and morsels—are three prophets, not only proclaiming that the winter shall end and the summer come again with warmth and food but also, like three preachers, comforting and teaching that even in winter, before summer returns, there will be enough warmth and food to overcome the winter. Thus the coming summer is not only predicted and preformed in snow, frost, and hail by the symbols of wool, ashes, and morsels but is embodied right into winter, so that it is never entirely winter without a little summer in it. Whatever warmth and nourishment there is in winter is just so much of summer, just as the winter sun, although paler and weaker than the summer sun, nevertheless shines and warms. Such a portrait and picture is also painted for us in the clouds, where the rainbow tells us that we are safe from the Flood, etc.
This is now the fifth blessing: God gives us summer, even in the winter, besides the symbol and promise of summer in the form of snow, frost, and hail. But who notices these benefits? Who thanks
Him for them? Of course, He uses the winter for His own glorification, so that He can demonstrate His power by so easily transforming such a cold, hard, unfruitful time into a luxuriant, pleasant, and joyous summer. But He also wants to teach and warn us at the same time to recognize His benefits and be thankful. For the winter teaches us plainly what a wonderful time the summer is—when we want to recognize it, that is, or our stony hearts permit us to notice it—and what praise and thanks we owe to God for it. But we are used to it, just as we are used to the sun itself; and such daily use of Coifs gifts
- 58 demeans them for us, making them insignificant and contemptible. The result is that we look on them as nothing, or at best as nothing special. But if we receive a gift of a hundred gulden from someone, we consider this a tremendous gift, and it gives us more pleasure than God with His whole summer and winter. Shame on you for such base lack of faith!
18. He sends forth His Word, and melts them; He makes His wind blow, and the waters flow.
We read that snow, hail, and frost must vanish, that, as is now stated, the summer must come again, and that the driving out of winter is not the work of man, just as snow, rime, or frost are not man's work.
For they do not come when and as we like; but He speaks—that is, as I said before, He sends His Word, or speaks to the winter and commands it to retreat—and that is what happens forthwith; and snow, frost, and ice melt away.
Now in order that we may not only believe but also comprehend that God's Word alone melts the frost and snow and drives out the winter, it is done, as everyone must admit, without fire or heat, which we must use when we want to melt something. Nor does He use the sun, for ice usually freezes even harder after sunshine. Then, when all is frozen hardest, the snow is deepest, and the ice thickest, at that very moment there is a turning point; the weather breaks, and there is a mighty thaw. Guess how this comes about? What causes it? There has been no fire or heat before the thaw, but only the sharpest cold.
Nor did the sun cause it, for the sun need not be shining; the thawing can take place even when the sun is not visible in the sky.
The only answer reason can make to this is: "The weather changes." Who changes it? This question it cannot answer. But David says God changes it, and he shows with what He changes it: not with fire or heat but with His Word. When He speaks His Word to the winter, the frost, and the snow, then their hold is broken, and His winds come and melt away in two or three days what it took a whole winter to freeze.
Where would the world get enough wood and fire to melt the frost and ice of even one day, much less a whole winter's freezing? These are sheer miracles of God; but because one sees them every day, they are despised. No thanks is given for them.
Here, too, David says it is "His wind," just as before he said "His frosty For a very particular wind is necessary to bring about a thaw. Not every wind will suffice; God must produce and command it with His Word. Otherwise not all the bellows in the world or no amount of blowing would melt the snow or drive out the winter. But when God's proper wind comes, then there is a quick thaw even though there has been no preceding warmth to soften the snow and ice. Yes, at times the thawing wind is almost cold, so that God seems to be driving out cold with cold and winter with winter, to prove to men that it is not the work of any creature but of His Word and utterance. It was He who cooled the furnace for the three men in Babylon without cold and extinguished the fire without water, so that the fire was fire and still could not bum. It is all the same to Him whether He puts out fie with fie or warms cold with cold.
This is what astonishes David here and bids him praise God, who drives out winter so marvelously that He needs neither fie nor heat but only a cool wind or air. How could it be more marvelously done than that the air, which is really much thinner and softer than water, should nonetheless so easily break the hardest ice and turn it to water? Water could not do this. Therefore this wind is called God's wind and a very special wind, which, not by nature but by God's Word and command, so easily turns snow and ice to water.
And it is good that God takes a wind—not something else-to bring about the thawing, for thus the image and its spiritual significance are suited to each other. The winter of the spirit must also be driven out by nothing else than wind. This spiritual winter has two aspects. The fist is when the inner man is frozen in sin and has perished in its cold. There snow, frost, and ice are at their hardest. This winter is brought on by the Law, and by the devil with his temptations. Since this is not a sin against the Holy
Spirit but involves only poor, troubled consciences, the snow is like wool, the frost like ashes, the ice like morsels. There is hope and promise that such a winter, as above, will be overcome, and that summer, namely, the forgiveness of sins, will come. And when the time is right, then the wind, the Holy
Spirit, comes and blows the Gospel among such frozen sinners, forgives their sins, and comforts them.
Then it thaws and flows, and the winter is gone.
The other aspect of this winter is when the outer man lies beneath the cross in deep distress. Our evil and malicious world causes this kind of winter; for it shows us no fie of love but only the frost of hate, and it intends simply to kill us off. But here, too, the snow is like wool, the frost like ashes, and the ice
- 59 like morsels. For there are always some faithful hearts who will love, feed, and help us until the wind of God comes in good time to release us from such frost or to convert the hearts of our enemies and make them friends, turning winter into summer, like Saul into St. Paul. In Scripture there are many such comforting promises, according to which the heathen who persecute Christians shall afterwards honor them, and the kings who have fist raged against them shall become their caretakers and servants, having been softened and melted by the Spirit of God.26
These are the truly wonderful miracles signified by nature's winter and summer. But it is the very devil that God never reaps any thanks for this! For where are those who praise and thank God for the balmy breeze of the Gospel, through which we have been thawed out from the terrible frost of papal tyranny, under which everything was frozen down to the very ground by God's permission, who sent us just such violent cold and error because of our own spitefulness? Well, God is used to it. His happiness has always consisted in doing good in the world, in return for which He must suffer ingratitude, forgetfulness, and even blasphemy, shame, and all kinds of malice, just as the Children of Israel did when they served other gods and killed His servants.
19. He declares His Word to Jacob, His statutes and ordinances to Israel.
Up to this point David has thanked God for the blessings of temporal goods and worldly conditions.
Now he gives thanks for spiritual blessings, and they are incomparably greater than temporal goods, although not of such outward magnificence and not highly respected, namely, preaching and God's
Word. This is the costly treasure which brings all blessedness, both in this life and the next, and brings it so abundantly that he who has it is happy even in the direst misery and poverty and would rather give up all he possesses, even life itself, and have this blessedness in death than live frivolously without it. But there are few who really have this.
Therefore David put this blessing at the end, where a song should sound best. Who can completely express the greatness of this gift? For who can exhaust all the virtue and power of God's Word? The Holy Scriptures, sermons, and all Christian books do nothing but praise God's Word, as we also do daily in our reading, writing, preaching, singing, poetizing, and painting.27 This blessing abides and sustains us when the temporal blessings vanish and when through death we part from them and from one another.
This blessing does not leave us or part from us; it goes through death with us, tears us out of it, and brings us to eternal life, where there is neither death nor fear of dying. But of this more later.
The psalmist gives us three names for God's Word. First he speaks of "His Word," then of "His statutes," and finally of "His ordinances," all of which we now want to distinguish. "Word" means
God's promise, in which we are to believe; for promise and believing belong together before all other laws or works, "Statutes" are the order and manner of divine worship as it used to be, such as priesthood, temple, and altar, with their gestures, garments, sacrifices, dogmas, etc. "Ordinances" are the Law under which God commanded the people of Israel how to conduct themselves toward others and practice good works of love, as the commandments of the Second Table teach, together with those regulations which Moses deduced from them, as given particularly in Deuteronomy. These three must exist in every people that wants to be a people of God, just as we Christians also have the promise of the Gospel, the Sacraments, the office of the preaching ministry, and lastly, the doctrine of good works.
20. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know His ordinances.
The heathen were hostile to the Jews throughout the world, especially as neighbors, largely because the Jews gloried in being God's only people, thus damning all heathen as enemies of God. The devil cannot contain himself when he sees the people of God; he has to stir up the whole world against them.
And those who desire to be God's people must accept the hostility of the whole world. On their part the heathen boasted of this and despised the Jews intensely, particularly because they saw that the Jews were such a small group and tiny kingdom as compared with all the heathen, who had great kingdoms and empires.
That is the subject of this verse, and David praises this prime blessing above all others, almost as if he were saying: "Very well, boast if you must. I admit that the heathen are equal or even far superior to us in the aforementioned blessings and temporal goods. They have stronger gates, more people and property, a broader peace, more and better wheat than we have. God gives them winter and summer, sun and rain, heaven and earth just as generously for their use, or even more generously than He does for us.
But I know well that they cannot boast of this one thing, that is, that they have God's Word, and that the - 60 Lord is their God and they are His people. This glory they must concede to us; they cannot imitate us here. We know and may certainly glory in this, that He is our God and we are His people. For we have
His Word, which He gave to us and to no heathen."
Furthermore, because they cannot glory in God or in His Word, they cannot really glory in the temporal and bodily blessings of God either. They do not even know that these things are gifts of God.
Therefore they cannot thank Him for them but glory in their wealth and power as such, and not as gifts of God. This means that the wealth and property of which they boast in proud defiance are really their god. O miserable boasters, full of pride and defiance, who neither know nor have God, who neither have nor understand His blessings but turn the creature into gods whom they trust and praise! What would it profit the heathen even if each one owned a whole world, as long as he could not recognize it as a gift of God and had neither God nor His Word, acknowledging instead the world as his god, comfort, and confidence? I would rather have one city, or a house, a room, yes, even a pigsty, if only the Lord were my God, and the sty His gift. For what can he lack who has God or God's Word, even if he had nothing else, or were like poor Lazarus, or even lay in death?
And again, when the heathen boast of their wealth and power, they are boasting as thieves and robbers boast of their loot and plunder, in fact, as enemies and blasphemers of God, and their glory is thus only shame. For because they possess God's goods but do not acknowledge that they are God's and come from Him and do not thank Him for them—all of which they do not know, because they do not keep His Word—therefore their wealth is no better than stolen and plundered goods, especially because, on top of everything else, they deny and blaspheme God and trust in other gods which they make from their own possessions. It is the same as if a prince were to grant land, and the vassal did not acknowledge receiving the land from the prince but denied, cursed, and persecuted him, and finally took another prince as liege lord. He would be a thief and a robber and an enemy of the prince while living on his very estate. This is why Ps. 76:4 calls such heathen kingdoms "mountains of prey," for they steal their wealth and power from both God and the world.
On the other hand, a God-fearing David and God's people may glory that they have robbed and stolen nothing. He confesses that it all belongs to God, who gives or lends to him all that he owns; therefore his own glory is purely the honor of being a loyal servant of God, whom he acknowledges, thanks, and serves. All this comes from having God's Word, which enlightens and teaches one to recognize God and His blessings. Whether he has as much as the heathen, that is unimportant, because he has received his own with honor and grace from God, so that he sings with Ps. 37:16: "Better is a little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked." For they have theirs in shame and dishonor before God, like robbers. Now I would rather have a penny as an honest man than many thousand gulden as a scoundrel. But the godless person does not bother about this. Money is his god, and he clings to it.
O that we could so glory and sing this verse! For we surely have God's Word! The other crowd is defiant and boastful; they rely on emperors, kings, and princes, that is to say, on their own wealth and power. They have neither God nor His Word. Nor do they consider, or give thanks for, their riches as a gift of God; they make a god of their own wealth and power. Thieves and scoundrels before God, they rob and steal all that they have; they possess it all in shame and dishonor. Their boasting is vile and loathsome; for they deny, blaspheme, and persecute God, their liege lord, with all His servants and His whole kingdom. God grant them small success and fortune in their doings. Amen!—as He no doubt will anyway.
But we can boast that God has given us His Word. Let it happen that others are rich and we poor, they powerful and we weak, they happy and we sad, they admired and we despised, they alive and we dead, they everything and we nothing—what of it? Still they have no God but must make a worthless, miserable god out of their own pittance. What poor material for a god! O pitiable godsmiths! But we have God, and we glory in the right God. This ruby they must leave with us; in comparison with it all their kingdoms are rotten dung and dirt. Even though we must suffer much, what difference does it make? It is written that if you want to be a Christian, "My grace is sufficient for you (2 Cor. 12:9). Be grateful that you have My Word and Myself in My Word. How can distress, hunger, and pestilence hurt you? What damage can be done to you by the feuding of the bigwigs,28 the malice of the peasants, the rage of the papists, the censure of the whole world, or the anger of all devils? You have God's Word;
- 61 they don't! You are in My grace; they are not! You are My child; they are My enemies! Beloved, let My Word as Myself be a treasure, a kingdom, even a heavenly kingdom, to you in your poverty, misery, and woe. My Word is eternal, and in this Word you are eternal. Your29 misery and their pride shall both pass away sooner than you think."
But note this in conclusion: David does not glory in the great miracle that God has performed on His people Israel, though this would be right and noble; he glories in God's Word. For among all the miracles, signs, and deeds the Word is certainly the greatest, the best, the most certain. Therefore do not forget that God's people are best identified and best comforted by their possession of God's Word, as David says here. In this he challenges the whole world and proclaims: "Go on; keep what you have. God will give to no other people what He has given reel They still do not have God's Word, nor do they want it. Furthermore, they are not worthy of it; for they persecute it and consider it an abomination. But it is my highest treasure and comfort. Therefore praise such a Lord, Jerusalem. Rejoice in such a God, Zion!
Praise and rejoice, all things that have life! Amen."