are righteousness and wisdom, etc. For no one can honor and praise Thee without rebuking and dishonoring himself. No one can ascribe to Thee wisdom and righteousness unless he takes it from himself and ascribes to himself only sin and folly. For no one whom God does not send and in whom He does not speak can proclaim this doctrine or sing the praises of God.
And this is the greatest thing we can do for God. This is also what He desires above all else, that we give praise and honor and every possible good to Him. Therefore he says:
16. For Thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, Thou wouldst not be pleased.
That is, Thou wilt have no one ascribe praise and honor for his righteousness and wisdom to himself, but to Thee alone. Therefore Thou carest not for sacrifice—much less for the other, lesser works; for sacrifices are the greatest. Thou desirest to be merciful and not to be a judge. Thou dost not wish to see how pious we want to be, but how pious we wish to become through Thee, so that Thou and not we may be praised and honored, that we do not give Thee anything but receive from Thee righteousness, wisdom, truth, merit, good works, etc. And therefore
17. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
It is as if he said: Everything else He despises except a heart that is humble and broken, for it ascribes honor to God and sin to itself. Such a heart gives God nothing but only takes from Him. This is also what God wants so that He may be truly God. For it behooves God to give, not to take.
18. Do good to Zion in Thy good pleasure; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.
If the proud saints do not want to accept this doctrine but instead teach the others their own righteousness, do Thou show the others, the elect, Thy grace, not according to their merit but according to Thy good will. Then the walls may be built, that is, then there will be enlightened people in Christendom who preserve and teach others, to keep them from being misled by the false, self-righteous teachings and teachers. For the walls are the teachers who should be built up especially in this doctrine.
19. Then wilt Thou delight in sacrifices of righteousness.
This means: "They will not offer Thee goats and sheep and calves but sacrifices of righteousness, namely, themselves." For he offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving who gives to God what he owes Him.
How we owe God more than we have. Therefore we pay Him in no other way than by yielding up everything we ourselves are, and that with humble acknowledgment of our sin and confession of His righteousness and of His justice in whatever way His divine will deals with us. This attitude and resignation is the highest righteousness we can possess. It is also the proper sacrifice and is called burnt offering, as we read in the following:
In burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Thy altar.
In German one cannot express the Hebrew words, because we have only that one little word "sacrifice," and among us this can mean any kind of sacrifice. But in Hebrew there are many and varied names for offerings, as, for example, "sacrifice," that is, the offering which was sacrificed in the holy office and was expressed in the Law. Others were called "holocausts."16 In German this refers to the burnt offerings of which the priests or officiants retained nothing. Others were called death offerings and the like; these were occasional sacrifices, offered out of devotion.
Now he says that all these will be rightly offered at that time. This means: That they are offered now is of no value; for Thy pleasure is not in the sacrifice, as stated above. This is due to the fact that all outward sacrifices are in vain if the heart is not acceptable and is not itself offered first. If, however, the heart is acceptable and is offered inwardly, then all outward works are sacrifices of righteousness.
The calves he lists expressly, since they were the sacrifices he had just mentioned. And just as though they were not offered at that time, he says: "Calves shall then be, etc." It is as if he said: This is now only a symbol, this present sacrifice of calves. At that time they will offer the real calves, namely, the outer man of Adam on the cross. They will make him of no account and will crucify him with Christ, whose cross is the altar of all calves.
THE FIFTH PENITENTIAL PSALM 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to Thee!
2. Do not hide Thy face from me! In the day of my distress incline Thy ear to me! Answer me speedily in the day when I call!
3. For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
4. My heart is smitten like grass, and withered; I forget to eat my bread.
5. Because of my loud groaning my bones cleave to my flesh.
6. I am like a vulture of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; 7. I lie awake, I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
8. All the day my enemies taunt me, those who deride me use my name for a curse.
9. For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink, 10. because of Thy indignation and anger, that Thou hast taken me up and thrown me away.
11. My days have passed away like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
12. Bur Thou, O Lord, dost endure forever; Thy name endures to all generations.
13. Thou wilt arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come.
14. For Thy servants hold her stones dear, and have pity on her dust.
15. The nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory.
16. For the Lord will build up Zion, He will appear in His glory; 17. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their supplication.
18. Let this be written for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:
19. He looks down from His holy height, from heaven the Lord looks at the earth, 20. to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free the children of death;
21. that men may declare in Zion the name of the Lord, and in Jerusalem His praise, 22. when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.
23. He has broken my strength in midcourse; He has shortened my days.
24. O my God, I say, take me not hence in the midst of my days, Thou whose years endure throughout all generations!
25. Of old Thou didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.
26. They will perish, but Thou dost endure; they will all wear out like a garment. Thou changest them like raiment, and they pass away;
27. but Thou art the same, and Thy years have no end.
28. The children of Thy servants shall dwell secure; their posterity shall be established before Thee.
1. Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to Thee!
THE "prayer" is his desire for grace; the "cry" is his story of misery. This now follows.
2. Do not hide Thy face from me!
Do not be angry with me as I have deserved. To turn away the face is a sign of wrath, while to turn the face toward one is a sign of grace.
In the day of my distress incline Thy ear to me!
Hear me at the time I am distressed and am suffering. To incline the ear is nothing else than to heed the cry of a troubled heart. Yet this same inclining also means that though he cannot call or desire strongly enough to reach up to the ears of God, he prays that God may turn downward toward him to hear him.
Answer me speedily in the day when I call!
Not only when I am pursued and suffer from the others, as the foregoing verse indicates, but in every time of need. For this psalm, like the others, first describes the inner suffering which the saints bear because of their sins in a penitent spirit, then also the persecution by others on account of this same crucified life.
3. For my days pass away like smoke.
That is, my days become nothing and are spent uselessly, just as smoke passes away in the air and is gone. Blessed are they who realize that this earthly life is only vain because of Adam's sin, as we read in Ps. 78:33: "Their days vanish like a breath," that is, like smoke; for nothing of it remains that is of any use in yonder life. And even here in time it is more a symptom and a sign than a real life, just as smoke is only a symptom and a sign of fire and not the real thing.
My bones burn like a furnace.
Just as fire drains out all fatness and dries things up, so also affliction makes all the powers of the soul dry, feeble, and weary.
4. My heart is smitten like grass, and withered.
- 79 Grass that is cut off or broken loses its source of life, that is, the inflowing sap and moisture; it dries out and becomes good fuel. Thus we all are smitten in Adam by the devil and robbed of our source of life, namely, of God, through whose inflowing we should become green and grow. Therefore we are without grace, dried up, fuel for the everlasting fire. Yet, on the other hand, he says of the living (Ps.
72:16): "They will blossom forth like the grass on earth." Now the withered heart is one that has no pleasure in the eternal good, while the flesh blossoms forth to earthly things.
I forget to eat my bread.
Should I not wither away if I forget to eat? The bread of the dried-out heart is none other than God Himself, who alone can nourish the heart; for the heart must have eternal food if it is to be satisfied. But blessed is he who can realize this forgetfulness and complain about it. Accursed, however, are they who forget the forgetting, as, for example, the sensuous sinners and the proud saints who are sated, the former with outer goods, the latter with inner goods.
5. Because of my loud groaning my bones cleave to my flesh.
In my life of groaning I labor and fight against my evil nature so much that I am nothing but skin and bones, as Job says: "My bones cleave to my skin" (19:20). By this groaning, therefore, not only the bodily and momentary sobbing is to be understood, but the whole repentant life and the laborious desire for grace and comfort. Such people experience how profoundly original sin has corrupted us. However, the bones of those who do not blame themselves and do not know what is wrong with themselves do not cleave to their flesh. Such people are full of fresh blood and energy, and of a well-fed body. Thus we read in the first of these psalms (6:7): "I am weary with my moaning."
6. I am like a vulture17 of the wilderness.
When the world and those who are wise in their own conceit persecute, despise, and revile the laboring and repentant people, the other affliction begins. A good life must also be a foolish life, because such a person turns away from all the things to which the others turn.
Like an owl of the waste places.
Because he is forsaken and despised, he likens himself to lonely birds and such as do not come out in the daytime. People do not associate with him, they do not tolerate him in the daytime, that is, in the honor and fame of the world. Hence his life is like a desert and a night.
7. I lie awake, I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
I did not fall asleep or fail to watch over myself. The world sleeps, as the apostle says (1 Thess. 5:6):
"Let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober." For the temporal lusts are opposed to the eternal good as the pictures in a dream are the opposite of the real thing. Thus Isaiah says (29:8) that sinners have the same experience as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, and when he awakes his soul is unsatisfied. Hence this sleep is nothing but the love and lust for creatures. But to wake is to hold fast and to look to, and long for, the eternal good. But in this he is alone, and no one is with him; for all the others are sleeping. And he says "on the housetop" as if he meant: The world is a house in which all men are enclosed and are sleeping. I alone am outside the house, on the roof, not yet in heaven and still not in the world. The world is below me, and heaven is above me. I hover between the life of the world and eternal life, lonely in the faith.
8. All the day my enemies taunt me.
Those who are opposed to God's Word and this life and are pleased with their own life, judge and condemn me without ceasing, and they cast aside and despise my word and work.
These are the same enemies who praise me in mockery and derision, for such praise is worse than twofold mockery.
Use my name for a curse.
That is, they make of me an example, an oath, a curse and wish, as the saying goes: "May God do to you as He did to this one and that one!"
9. For I eat ashes like bread.
Not that he has actually eaten ashes, but Scripture calls the good food "bread" and the bad food "ashes." The eating of the upright is, like ashes, trifling and really nothing in comparison with the eating of those who live sumptuously and to satisfy the flesh. This is the meaning: Compared with their food,
- 80 my food is like ashes. I am downcast and miserable, so that I have no taste for anything; and even if it were good food, it would still seem as though I were eating ashes.
And mingle tears with my drink.
That is, because of my weeping no drink has any taste for me, either. They drink and laugh, sing and are happy; for they do not hear what God says (Luke 6:21, 25): "Blessed are you that weep now" and:
"Woe to you that laugh now." For one should live in affliction and not in pleasure according to the flesh if one would live rightly.
10. Because of Thy indignation and anger.
The sight of the severe judgment and wrath of God drives away all lust of the flesh and causes eating, drinking, and lying down to be distasteful. Thus the affliction becomes burdensome. Therefore those who are so secure in their life and righteousness make fun of these penitent and humble souls, as the next of these psalms points out.18
That Thou hast taken me up and thrown me away.
So it seems to every soul who feels God's wrath, as if it were cast away and eternally damned.
11. My days have passed away like an evening shadow.
My time has passed away vainly, and I have nothing to show for it. Just as nothing remains of a shadow, so also nothing remains of all life that is spent in fleshly and worldly lust. And yet there is no one without this life, for the flesh is in all of us. Therefore the life of all of us is a useless life. Fortunate is he who realizes this.
I wither away like grass.
As if he were saying: How short and vain, and at the same time how sinful and corrupt is the life of all men! O come, therefore, Thou who art eternal and abidest, and impart to us something of Thy life.
Up to this point he has poured out his troubles and pressed himself upon God. Now he begins to express his desire and longing for the life that is in God, and he calls to Christ and His grace. Thus we read Ps.
68:1:19 "My soul thirsts for Thee."
12. But Thou, O Lord, dost endure forever.
I pass away, and my days come to naught. Therefore I am sick of my life and desire Thy life, in which there is nothing that passes away.
Thy name endures to all generations.
That is, just as Thy essence, so also Thy name and Thy remembrance remain forever. My name, with its essence, passes away, as it is written (Ps. 9:6): "The very memory of them has perished." Therefore, my God, how do I get from myself to Thee, that my being and my name may also remain forever? Sad to say, I am too far away from Thee and too far down in the depths.
18. Thou wilt arise and have pity on Zion.
I cannot come to Thee. Therefore, O Lord, arise, come to me, and take me to Thyself. The arising refers to the very sweet and gracious coming of God into the flesh. At that time Jerusalem was prosperous; therefore such doleful crying and begging should be understood as referring, not to temporal help but to Christ and His kingdom. He came to us that He might raise us to Himself. He had pity on Zion, namely, His people.
It is time to favor her.
The time of grace and, as St. Paul says, the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4).
The appointed time has come.
It is time for Thee Thyself to come. God does not give grace unless it is just the right time. When that is, is shown in the following:
14. For Thy servants hold her stones dear.
He speaks of Jerusalem as a city which is to be built, where stones and earth are provided in such delightful abundance that it is a joy to behold. He speaks of a spiritual structure; for Jerusalem herself was standing there in all her glory, as has been said. The meaning is this: Lord, come soon, and build; it is time. Stones and lime are at hand, and everything in such quality and abundance that Thy servants take pleasure in it and would gladly help build. That is to say: they want to hear and learn the Gospel. It is the right time for the Gospel, when people have a desire for it. Thus Christ says (John 4:34): "See how the fields are already white for harvest," and again (Luke 10:24): "Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see."
- 81 And have pity on her dust.
He speaks of the "dust of Jerusalem," that is, the excavated earth, out of which cement and clay are made. Out of this Adam, too, was made (Gen. 2:7). But in an indirect way he points out that the poor and lowly desire the Gospel, as in Matt. 11:5: "The poor have the Gospel preached to them."
15. The nations will fear the name of the Lord.
He desires a future and a kingdom of God in which not only the Jews but also all heathen are included (Ps. 2:8): "Ask of Me, etc." It is evident what kind of Zion he means.
And all the kings of the earth Thy glory.
That is, through the Gospel they will recognize Thy power and might in Christ and honor it in fear and humility.
16. For the Lord will build up Zion.
That is, the city of God, or holy Christendom, which began at Zion, will not be built with man's doctrine or work but only with the work and grace of God.
He will appear in His glory.
That is, He is revealed through His Word and Spirit, so that He becomes known as the one who alone is and does everything, while we are nothing. Is. 11:9: "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord." Ps. 19:1: "The heavens are telling the glory of God."
17. He will regard the prayer of the destitute.
It is a mark of His kingdom that it contains poor, crying, praying people who suffer much on His account. Likewise His way and rule is none other than to help, hear, and lend assistance to the poor, the afflicted, the dying, and the sinners. Is. 61:1: "I am sent to bring good tidings to the afflicted," etc. Matt.
11:28: "Come to Me, all who labor."
And will not despise their supplication.
It is not an earthly kingdom in which one must help, support, and assist the government, but a spiritual kingdom, in which everyone is helped out of every need of body and soul.
18. Let this be written for a generation to come.
These things will be preached, written, said, and remembered for all time. This will not cease until Judgment Day. This and nothing else shall be the subject of preaching for all children's children.
So that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord.
As is written in Ps. 72:17:20 "Under the sun His name shall reach to the descendants." It is a strange thing about this doctrine, that if the teachers are slain the doctrine arises first of all among their descendants. Thus God is preached and praised.
19. He looks down from His holy height.
Christs kingdom depends on God alone. It looks to Him and recognizes Him, and He, in turn, recognizes it from heaven. This verse also expresses the fact that it is a heavenly, spiritual kingdom, and that all the poor are helped by God.
From heaven the Lord looks at the earth.
It is a hidden, spiritual kingdom; yet it is on earth among men, though hidden in faith and spirit.
20. To hear the groans of the prisoners.
It is, as stated above, the characteristic of His kingdom that God permits His own to suffer much and to be children of death and sheep for the slaughter, as St. Paul says (Rom. 8:36). But they are not forsaken on this account; they are certain that He hears their groans and their misery.
To set free the children of death.
In Hebrew those are called "children of death" who are doomed to die, just as we say "child of life,"
"child of iniquity," etc. For Christians are subject to death (Rom. 6:3).
21. That men may declare in Zion the name of the Lord.
Not the name of men, for the honor and name of God is praised in all Christendom when it is known and preached that He is the Helper of all the poor and dying Christians.
And in Jerusalem His praise.
Whoever performs the work, to him belongs the name; and whoever has the name should have the praise; and whoever has the praise, to him the honor is due.
22. When peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.