That is, God is so disposed that He gladly hears those who cry and lament, but not those who feel smug and independent. Therefore the good life does not consist in outward works and appearances but in a lamenting and sorrowful spirit, as we read in the fourth of these psalms (51:17): "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." And again (Ps. 34:18): "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted." Therefore weeping is preferred to working, and suffering exceeds all doing.
9. The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord accepts my prayer.
These words refer to a soul that is poor in spirit and has nothing left but crying, imploring, and praying in firm faith, strong hope, and steadfast love. The life and behavior of every Christian should be so constituted that he does not know or have anything but God, and in no other way than in faith.
Therefore those who are not like this are not heard by God, for they do not call with the heart. They are not poor, nor are they in need of calling and praying; for they are sated and filled.
10. All my enemies shall be ashamed and sorely troubled.
That is, they stand there in their sense of well-being as a threat and a menace, and they glory in themselves as if all were well with them. O God, they do not know how devoid of all blessing they are!
It would be good for them if they came to their senses and realized how very shameful and poor they are in the sight of God. For the proud in spirit and the worldly-wise cannot but be satisfied with themselves, feel secure, esteem themselves highly, never feel foolish, always say the right thing, do the right thing, have holy intentions, stand out among others, and acknowledge few as their equals. This is the greatest blindness on earth; for to the extent that they think, esteem, and consider themselves great in these things, to that extent they are despised and dishonored before God. It is the psalmist's wish that they realize this, for they would be different if they came to their senses and were terrified at themselves.
They shall turn back.
For they have turned away to their own affairs and departed from God too profoundly and too far.
And be put to shame in a moment.
That is, inwardly, in their own eyes, since they hold themselves in such high honor, And also outwardly before men, if this is necessary for the inner feeling; otherwise the outward behavior alone, without the inner, is unfruitful and harmful.
THE SECOND PENITENTIAL PSALM 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3. When I declared not my sin, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
5. I acknowledged my sin to Thee, and I did not hide my iniquity. I said: I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. Then Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. Selah.
6. Therefore all those who are holy will offer prayer to Thee in the right time, in the rush of great waters; they shall not reach him.
7. Thou art a hiding place for me; Thou preservest me from trouble; Thou dost encompass me with deliverance. Selah.
8. I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
9. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not keep with you.
10. Many are the pangs of the wicked; but steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the Lord.
11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.
THIS is as if he were saying: "No one is without unrighteousness; before God all are unrighteous, even those who practice works of righteousness and imagine that thus they can escape from unrighteousness; for no one can rescue himself. Therefore blessed are they—not those who have no sin or work their own way out but only those whom God forgives by grace. But who are they? Verses six and seven will teach us who they are.
Whose sin is covered.
- 66 Nor is anyone without transgression, as God clearly sees in all of us. Blessed, however, are those whose sin He covers, does not see, does not remember, does not want to know about, but completely forgives by grace. They are those who do not cover, remit, forgive, and forget their sins themselves.
They look at, recognize, remember, and judge them.
2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity.
That is, not blessed but unblessed is he who does not impute sins to himself, is well pleased with himself, thinks himself pious, has no qualms of conscience, considers himself innocent, and takes this for his comfort and hope. The apostle says (1 Cor. 4:4): "I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted." This is the same as saying: "Blessed is he to whom God does not impute sin, of whose sin God is not mindful." They are those who constantly impute manifold sins and transgressions to themselves.
In whose spirit there is no deceit.
That is, his own heart does not betray him, so that outwardly he seems to be righteous and considers himself altogether pious and a lover of God, while inwardly this notion is false, and he serves God and is pious, not for God's sake but for his own sake. This evil, false, and deceitful guile seduces, above all, the outstanding, conspicuous, and spiritual people, who, because of their pious life and many good deeds, stand up boldly and do not recognize their inner, spiritual attitude. Nor will they take to heart the fact that this deceptive and harmful trickery spares no one but is the basic spirit of all men and can be driven out only by the grace of God. Therefore he calls it deceit of the spirit, not a deception which a person commits or deliberately devises against himself or against another, but one which he bears and with which he is born. This can be covered and adorned with a good life, so that man begins to think he is pure and free, while beneath lies the wicked filth which theologians call "self-love."7 Thus a man is pious out of fear of hell or hope of heaven, not because of God. But this is difficult to recognize and still more difficult to overcome. Indeed, it is impossible except through the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Now it must be noted here that the prophet mentions four kinds of evil, namely, "unrighteousness,"
"iniquity," "sin," and "deceit." To differentiate: "Unrighteousness" implies that man is not pious before God when he is stripped of what he should have, namely, piety and good works. This is the first evil.
The second is "iniquity." This refers to the wicked deeds which follow as the second evil after the first.
Thus theft, adultery, betrayal, and the like may be the result of poverty, and this includes good works done after the loss and in the absence of true piety, which is born of grace. The third, "sin," is the evil in our nature which has remained and always remains when iniquity and unrighteousness occur. It is the evil lust, love, and fear which have grown and have been born into our very being. It provokes the first two and is the prevalent sin of our time. In itself it is deadly unless God in His grace removes it from those who repent and desire to be healed of it. Therefore the psalmist says that God does not impute them. As if he were saying: "The sins are there, but God in His grace does not charge them." Therefore it is daily present and becomes deadly as soon as man becomes proud and does not repent without ceasing. Thus it is deceit and subtle cunning for all who practice good works and consider themselves pious, thinking that now they are pure, and not believing that by grace God's goodness does not impute their iniquity.
3. When I declared not my sin.
That is, I did not want to recognize or acknowledge my sin. I thought I was pious. I did not see the deceit of it.
My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
That is, I had no peace but always a burdened and evil conscience, which made me weak and miserable and left me no rest, because I did not confess the sin or search for grace.
4. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me.
This is due to an evil conscience, which envisions only God's wrath, as if He were standing over me with a club; hence there can be no peace of heart.
My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah.
For this burden causes heart, courage, and mind to dry up, with the result that man fails also in body.
5. I acknowledged my sin to Thee.
- 67 Now I see that there is nothing better than to confess before Thee that there is only sin in me and nothing good, so that only Thy grace may be praised and desired, and all pride and trust in merit and good works may cease.
And I did not hide my iniquity.
This is in contrast to those in whom deceit of the spirit produces such false confidence that they can unabashedly justify and excuse themselves. Because of this they get into quarrels with other people and lapse into pride, anger, hatred, impatience, condemning, and slander. Their innocence makes them really guilty, and yet they claim to have done justly and rightly and to have acted fairly. They conceal deeply their own iniquity, for they look at their own righteousness and do not confess their sins to God sincerely and without deceit of the inner spirit. Righteous people, however, do not hide their iniquity, do not become angry, do not grow impatient even when they are wronged; for they do not feel that they can be wronged, since they find no righteousness in themselves. These are the blessed to whom God remits iniquity and cancels it because they confess it. Since they do not hide and cover their sin, God covers and hides it.
That is, now I see that one must speak and act thus; it cannot be otherwise. As if he were saying:
"Thou art so gracious, and Thou hearest true acknowledgment and humble confession so gladly that Thou at once comfortest and liftest up as soon as man decides to humble himself. As soon as he realizes that he is a sinner and brings his complaint to Thee, he is justified and acceptable to Thee."
I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.
That is: "I will rebuke myself; then God will praise me. I will degrade myself; then God will honor me. I will accuse myself; then God will acquit me. I will speak against myself; then God will speak for me. I will speak of my guilt; then He will speak about my merit, as he did to Mary Magdalene in the house of Simon the leper (Luke 7:44–47)."
Then Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. Selah.
Thou forgavest because I have taken an account of my iniquity and confessed it.
6. Therefore all those who are holy will offer prayer to Thee.
That is, they will be holy because they confess their iniquity to Thee and ask for grace; and note, to Thee! For although they may appear holy before men, they do not consider this; but they fear Thy judgment, and they know that their holiness is nothing in Thy sight. They wait humbly for Thy grace.
This is whenever man realizes what he is, or in the time of grace. That is the opportune time to ask, as the prophet Isaiah says (49:8): "In a time of favor I have answered you," the time in which the saints are when God touches and visits them with the light of grace.
In the rush of great waters.
That is, that person is holy8 who stands, not on his own holiness but on the Rock of Thy righteousness, which is Christ. Everyone who is his own accuser, punisher, and judge is founded on Him when many blows and cruel tribulations come over him like a great flood of water, or when he is persecuted on account of his humble life.
They shall not reach him.
That is, they will not harm him in his soul, even if he must lose life and limb.
7. Thou art a hiding place for me.
In all these onrushing waters of affliction Thou art my Rock on which I stand so that they do not drown and devour me.
Thou preservest me from trouble.
Afflictions round about, those are the waters.
Thou dost encompass me with deliverance. Selah.
This means, that I may praise Thy grace, overcome the affliction, and be saved.
8. I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go.
This is where I want you to be. You ask that I deliver you. Then do not be uneasy about it; do not teach Me, and do not teach yourself; surrender yourself to Me. I am competent to be your Master. I will lead you in a way that is pleasing to Me. You think it wrong if things do not go as you feel they should.
But your thinking harms you and hinders Me. Things must go, not according to your understandingbut - 68 above your understanding. Submerge yourself in a lack of understanding, and I will give you My understanding. Lack of understanding is real understanding; not knowing where you are going is really knowing where you are going. My understanding makes you without understanding. Thus Abraham went out from his homeland and did not know where he was going (Gen. 12:1 ff.). He yielded to My knowledge and abandoned his own knowledge; and by the right way he reached the right goal. Behold, that is the way of the cross. You cannot find it, but I must lead you like a blind man. Therefore not you, not a man, not a creature, but I, through My Spirit and the Word, will teach you the way you must go.
You must not follow the work which you choose, not the suffering which you devise, but that which comes to you against your choice, thoughts, and desires. There I call; there you must be a pupil; there it is the time; there your Master has come; there you must not be a horse or an irrational animal. If you follow Me and forsake yourself, behold, then
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
"I will not leave you; you shall not go down and perish; I will not forget you. Your eyes shall be closed because My eyes are open over you. Have you not read (Ps. 34:15) that 'the eyes of God are toward the righteous,' and that Mt. Moriah is called 'the Lord shall behold' (Gen. 22:14)? Surely I alone shall see, just as I did when Abraham failed to see; and yet he did not fail to see." In brief, God wants us to have a true, simple faith and firm trust, confidence, and hope. While faith, hope, humility, and patience are not mentioned by name in these words, yet the mode and the true nature of such virtue are expressed. There are many who write about virtues, but they praise their names rather than teach their nature.9
9. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding.
"These are the people who do not let Me rule. Like dumb animals, they obey where they agree; and where they do not agree or approve, they do not obey. They do not understand the Spirit. For horses and mules were not made to understand things that are beyond the senses; hence they are not moved to love or sorrow. And those human beings who will not do, avoid, or suffer anything unless they can measure, grasp, feel, or examine it cannot grasp My understanding. In their reason they are like horses with their senses; both go no farther than to act according to impulse."
Which must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not keep with you.
That is to say: "I do not like those who must be forced by law, like animals with a bridle, but those who serve Me freely and willingly without the pressure of the Law, in spirit and in love."
10. Many are the pangs of the wicked.
These are they who rule themselves and do not want God's rule. They act only according to their own judgment. And yet they think they respect and honor God in the best possible way, as the most obedient, the most pious, and the most righteous; for they have good intentions and consider right what their good intention suggests. God always opposes them, for they are of a proud spirit and are not obedient to the will of God. Hence they will suffer much and have many sorrows. It is all in vain, without merit and comfort; for they do not have a good conscience, but only sorrow and labor in their good life, to which the Law and a heavy and evil conscience drive them as horses and mules are driven.
But steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the Lord.
The others are surrounded by the judgment and wrath of God, from which they receive much misfortune and no good fortune; for they depend on themselves and set their hopes on their own good intentions. In like manner, the righteous, who do not rely or smugly depend on themselves or their good intentions, are embraced by goodness, and this brings them good fortune and many blessings. Therefore he concludes concerning them:
11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous.
That is, you may rejoice in the Lord, you who trust in the Lord, who do not trust or rejoice in yourselves but rather despair of yourselves and are sorrowful, who are your own enemies and find no satisfaction in your own opinion.
And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
That is, be bold and courageous; rise up and sing praises; be of good cheer, like a man who shouts for joy. For the heart that is right with God and is not wrapped up in itself or in something other than
God is founded on the eternal good and stands firm. Therefore it has an abundance out of which it can praise, glory, strut, and boast, as the apostle says (1 Cor. 1:31): "Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord."