Here’s Luther’s entire commentary:
PSALM • 117
- Praise the Lord, all you heathen! Extol Him, all you peoples!
- For His steadfast love and faithfulness toward us prevails forever. Hallelujah!
PREFACE
To the worshipful and honorable Hans von Sternberg, Knight, my gracious lord and friend.
GRACE and peace in Christ our Lord!
Your Worship and Honor, gracious lord and friend:
Not long ago I published a booklet on Ps. 117. But since it was hastily done and developed without deliberation, in fact, sent out quite bald and naked, I have thrust it back into the forge and improved it, though not much, that it might be more properly dressed, more pleasing, and more productive. The Scriptures surely deserve all we can do to honor and adorn them, that they might gain friends; for they already have enemies and persecutors in abundance.
I wanted to circulate this under your name, not only to give it respect among those who despise all art and teaching but also to have it prove that there are still some fine people among the nobility. For most Of the nobility are behaving at present in such a sacrilegious and scandalous fashion that they have created bad blood among the common people and the suspicion that the whole nobility is worthless. But such a suspicion among the common people is dangerous, and it is not good that those who should rule in this world are discredited and disrespected. Some future confusion could result, as the devil finds time and opportunity, such as he found in the uprising under Münzer.
We still have before us the example of the clergy, who were so smug and lived so scandalously that the whole world came to despise them, even though they thought it was impossible for them to be so despised and humbled. But it happened, and it is to be feared that they will never again attain the honor they once had. The nobility are trying hard to do likewise, and I am deeply concerned that they will be just as successful and fall heir to the same fate as the clergy if things go on as they are. For God did not lie when He said: “Those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam. 2:30). The nobles think that because they are getting away with it, there is no emergency. They defy both God and man; they despise God’s Word, laws, and honor. But just as God suddenly caught up with the clergy, so He will certainly catch up with the nobility. He is big enough, and He will give them such a beating and pounding that they will vanish like ashes in the wind.
If they want to be feared and respected, then certainly they should fear and respect God and gain a reputation for virtue among the people. If, however, they want to bluff their way through with vanity, pride, and defiance, and at the same time despise virtue and honor, this will soon make peasants out of the nobility. For they are actually peasants; only they parade as long as possible in the feathers and under the name of the nobility. But God is a master at humbling the proud and causing the despiser to be despised, and He will not put up with them.
Now in order to keep this evil suspicion from spreading too far, it is necessary to sing the praises of those among the nobility who certainly deserve it. God always takes care that in an estate which He Himself has ordained there are some devout and honest individuals, no matter how few, so that His creation and order are not wasted even if there is only one Lot in all Sodom. What estate on earth is so good that its major part is not bad? Thus when one looks at them individually, one gets the idea that the whole class is worthless. Even if one can come up with a few pious souls, still it is provoking that one has to put up with so many evil and wicked members for the sake of the few good ones.
Therefore because God the Father in heaven has endowed you with true earnestness and love for His holy Word and all virtue, I did not want to neglect praising this grace of God in you (for it is God’s grace and not your own ability), so that perhaps some of the ill-mannered and undisciplined nobles might be moved by your example to strive toward noble behavior and not that of peasants or pigs. As long as they want to be on top in the world, it is their obligation to give an honest and virtuous example to those beneath them. God demands this of them, and He will repay them for any evil that results from their offensive and scandalous life.
If I do not achieve this by my efforts, well, at least I shall have helped to correct that destructive suspicion and to show that neither the nobility nor any other estate is thoroughly useless, but that God has His share among them and gets His percentage.
But I want this and similar booklets to please you; and I hope that in them your heart will find a better and holier pilgrimage than, say, the one you made to Jerusalem. It is not that I look down on such pilgrimages, for I should like to make some of these trips myself; and now that I no longer can, I like to read about them, just as I listened to your account recently with such pleasure and attention. But we have not made such pilgrimages in the proper spirit. When I made my pilgrimage to Rome, I was such a fanatical saint that I dashed through all the churches and crypts, believing all the stinking forgeries of those places. I ran through about a dozen Masses in Rome and was almost prostrated by the thought that my mother and father were still alive, because I should gladly have redeemed them from purgatory with my Masses and other excellent works and prayers. There is a saying in Rome: “Blessed is the mother whose son reads a Mass on Saturday in St. John’s!” How I should have liked to make my mother blessed! But it was too crowded, and I could not get in; so I ate a smoked herring instead.4
Well, that is what we did. We did not know any better, and the Holy See did not punish such gross lies. But now, thank God, we have the Gospels, psalms, and other Holy Scriptures, in which we may make pilgrimages with profit and blessing. Now we can behold and visit the true Promised Land, the true Jerusalem, yes, the true Paradise and kingdom of heaven, making our way, not through tombs and the physical places of the saints but rather through their hearts, thoughts, and spirits. With this I commend you and all yours to God. Forgive me my wordiness; for it is a joy to see and listen to godly nobility, since the hue and cry of the other kind is so overwhelming. God help us all! Amen.
Out of the Wilderness, Yours obediently,
Saturday after St. Bartholomew’s, 1530.
MARTIN LUTHER
THIS is a short, easy psalm, doubtless made this way so that everyone might pay more attention to it and remember better what is said. No one can complain about the length or content, much less about the sharpness, difficulty, or profundity of the words. Here we find only short, precise, clear, and ordinary words, which everyone can understand if he will only pay attention and think about them. All God’s words demand this. We must not skim over them and imagine we have thoroughly understood them, like the frivolous, smug, and bored souls who, when they hear some word of God once, consider it old hat and cast about for something new. They think they have thoroughly mastered all they have heard. This is a dangerous disease, a clever and malicious trick of the devil. Thus he makes people bold, smug, forward, and ready for every kind of error and schism. This is really the vice known as ἀκηδία, slothfulness in God’s service, against which St. Paul exhorts us (Rom. 12:11) to be fervent in spirit. And in Rev. 3:15–16 the Spirit says of such people: “Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth.” It is true that such half-educated people are the most useless people on earth, and it would be better for them if they knew nothing; for they obey no one, can do everything better than anyone else, and can expertly judge all art and literature. In short, they can teach no one anything worthwhile, and they let no one teach them. They have devoured the whole schoolbag, which no one can master; and yet they do not have even one book that they could properly teach to others! The devil has many such vicious cases, particularly among the rabble. The meanest bungler who hears a sermon or reads a chapter in German immediately makes himself a doctor of theology, crowning his own asininity and convincing himself most marvelously that he can now do everything better than all his teachers. This is Master Smart Aleck, who can bridle a steed in its hind end.7 All this, as I see it, is the result of reading and listening to God’s Word carelessly instead of concentrating on it with fear, humility, and diligence.
I have often felt this particular devil and temptation myself, and even today I cannot guard and cross myself against it too carefully. I confess this freely as an example to anyone; for here am I, an old doctor of theology and a preacher, and certainly as competent in Scripture as such smart alecks. At least I ought to be. Yet even I must become a child; and early each day I recite aloud to myself the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and whatever lovely psalms and verses I may choose, just as we teach and train children to do. Besides, I must deal with Scripture and fight with the devil every day. I dare not say in my heart: “The Lord’s Prayer is worn out; you know the Ten Commandments; you can recite the Creed.” I study them daily and remain a pupil of the Catechism. I feel, too, that this helps me a lot, and I am convinced by experience that God’s Word can never be entirely mastered, but that Ps. 147 speaks truly: “His understanding is beyond measure” (v. 5), or Ecclesiasticus: “Who drinks of me shall thirst even more after me” (24:29). Now if I have such difficulties, what will happen to those smug, self-satisfied charlatans who neither struggle nor labor?
Therefore I certainly believe that there is not one who truly knows everything the Holy Spirit says in this short psalm. If they were forced to teach or instruct someone from it, they would not know at which end to begin. To put these vicious people to shame and to honor God’s Word, I have taken it upon myself to interpret this psalm, so that one may see how clear God’s Word is, how simple, and yet how altogether inexhaustible. And even though everything were reasonable, which is not the case, still it is inexhaustible in power and virtue. It renews and refreshes the heart, restoring, relieving, comforting, and strengthening us constantly. I see and learn daily how the dear prophets studied their Ten Commandments, and where lies the source of their sermons and prophecies. Let us, then, divide this psalm into four parts—prophecy, revelation, instruction, and exhortation.
THE PROPHECY
With a few short words the psalmist prophesies and proclaims the great work and wonder of God, namely, the Gospel and the kingdom of Christ, which was foretold but not yet revealed at that time, and he says: “Praise the Lord, all heathen!’ This is the same as saying that God is not only the God of the Jews but the God of the heathen also, and not only of a small part of heathendom but of all heathen throughout the world. For to speak of “all heathen” is to exclude none. Thus we heathen are assured that we, too, belong to God and in heaven, and that we shall not be damned, even though we are not of Abraham’s flesh and blood, as the Jews boast. As though only they, because of their physical descent from Abraham and the holy patriarchs, kings, and prophets, were God’s children and heirs of heaven! To be sure, this distinction is theirs alone, of all men, that they are the children of such holy fathers. But the distinction of being God’s children and heirs of His kingdom of heaven is not theirs alone. This psalm sings and proclaims that we heathen also have the very same distinction.
Now if all heathen are to praise God, this assumes that He has become their God. If He is to be their God, then they must know Him, believe in Him, and give up all idolatry. One cannot praise God with an idolatrous mouth or an unbelieving heart. And if they are to believe, they must first hear His Word and thereby receive the Holy Spirit, who through faith purifies and enlightens their hearts. One cannot come to faith or lay hold on the Holy Spirit without hearing the Word first, as St. Paul has said (Rom. 10:14): “How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?” and (Gal. 3:2): “You have received the Spirit through the proclamation of faith.” If they are to hear His Word, then preachers must be sent to proclaim God’s Word to them; for not all the heathen can come to Jerusalem or make a living among the small company of the Jews. Therefore the psalmist does not say: “Come to Jerusalem, all heathen!” He lets them stay where they are and calls upon them, wherever they may be, to praise God.
I point this out because someone might want to give this psalm a specifically Jewish interpretation, as if all heathen had to come to Jerusalem and become Jews. Jerusalem would be much too small, even if it were as large as the whole kingdom of David and Solomon used to be. For heathendom and the world are far too large, entirely apart from the lack of any such meaning in the text. Thus we are faced with the fact that God sent His apostles and disciples to all heathen, had the Gospel preached, gave His Holy Spirit, redeemed them from sin, death, and the devil, purified their hearts through faith, and thus accepted them as children and heirs and as His own people. He did not summon them to Jerusalem or command them to become Jews. And there are enough other verses in Scripture which declare that God’s Word should go to the heathen while they remain where they are. Thus, for instance, Ps. 19:5: “Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” In the same way the prophet Zephaniah prophesies that the heathen will remain heathen and still become God’s people. He says: “Yes, He will famish all the gods of the earth, and to Him shall bow down each in its place, all the islands of the heathen” (2:11). And there are many similar passages.
Now see what a commotion this little psalm causes throughout the world—how it storms and rages among idols! The world has always been full of idolatry, factions, and error, so that even the Romans, the cleverest and mightiest of all, had more than a hundred gods. The world is divided into countless errors, and yet this psalm dares include these thoughts and boldly declare that all such factions and idolatries must cease, and that all the heathen must turn to one faith and praise and honor one God. Through the Word of God there is to come out of such a variety of worship one harmonious flock under one Shepherd (John 10:16). It is truly wonderful that a human heart can dare conceive of this, believe in it, and firmly prophesy that it will happen, especially when one considers how hard the devil will oppose, resist, and block it with all the power and wisdom of this world, so that it would seem to be a sheer impossibility. Nevertheless, the psalmist has the courage to say it, and in spite of all it has come to pass. Both are great miracles: that a man should believe this, and that it should actually happen.
From this, we see that the Word of God must be an almighty power of God (Rom. 1:16). It has cleaned up the idolatry, sectarianism, and error that then prevailed in the world so thoroughly that not a shred remains, despite the fact that emperors, princes, wise men, saints, all devils, and the whole world raged with such stubborn violence against it. The world has never taken it upon itself to fight idolatry. It can put up with any amount of error. But when God’s Word comes, the world goes mad and refuses to stand for it. The world has had to stand for it, however, and has even been thoroughly defeated. This is the greatest work God has done on earth, much greater than leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt when only King Pharaoh and his followers were drowned in the Red Sea. But now the whole angry, perverse world has been drowned, and God’s Word and Christendom survive. Let us praise such a work, and let us comfort ourselves with the conviction given us by this example, that God’s Word will and must remain even though the devil and the world storm and rage against it ever so violently. The Word has done many wonders in the world, and it is not finished yet.
Then the heretics charged against the Word in great force, with might and craft. Where are they now? They are gone; but the Word remains, and the Christians are still here. In our own time the Turks, the Antichrist, and many sects are tilting against it; but they will gain no more than their predecessors. My advice is: When the Word confronts you, beware and yield. Give ground, and obey in good time; for it must conquer whether you bow gracefully or ungracefully, for we read (1 Peter 1:25): “The Word of the Lord abides forever.” If you choose not to believe this, well, then learn it by experience. The Word has broken the power of this world, which protects idolatry; it has conquered the craft of this world, which defends heresy; it will surely defeat the wickedness of the world, which is now defending both idolatry and heresy. Nothing will prevail against it. This is our present comfort, and it appears that the Word is about to gain the upper hand and prevail; for many plots and schemes have been utterly foiled, and great power and rage have been frustrated.
Praise the Lord, all you heathen!
“Heathen,” גּוֹיִם in the Hebrew, is the name generally given by the Jews to all peoples that are not Jews, just as we also call all peoples “heathen” that are not Christians. But its proper meaning is “nation,” or all the people of a given country, just as we Germans are a nation or גּוֹי, the Bohemians also, and the Hungarians, and the Poles, etc. Thus the Jewish people is often termed גּוֹי, as in Ex. 19:6: “And you shall be to Me a holy nation”; or in Is. 1:4: “Ah, sinful nation,” and in many other places. The Jews are certainly included in this verse when the psalmist says: “Let all גּוֹיִם praise the Lord,” that is to say, all nations, countries, peoples; all languages, kingdoms, and principalities, etc. Since we Germans have no specific word for this, I have stayed with the common usage, according to which גּוֹיִם means heathen, because the meaning is clear. But the word “peoples,” אֻמִּים—where he says: “Extol Him, all peoples!”—I take to mean the plebs, that is to say, the people of any city, or what one calls a community. The גּוֹיִם are the people of a whole country under one king, prince, or lord; אֻמִּים, however, are the people of any particular city or community.
I say this because the Antichrist and his followers believe that there are no Christians except under their tyranny. The Holy Spirit says: “All heathen, all people,” and He would not lie. But all heathen have never been under one lord or bishop, nor will they ever be; for such dominion over all the heathen belongs only to Him of whom this psalm sings: “Praise the Lord, all heathen!” Other princes and kings will have to be satisfied with portions and will not become God’s equals. Similarly, a man is not a heretic just because he is not subordinate to the pope. If it were a necessary article of faith that all the world should be under the pope, God would be a liar. Such an article of faith has never been established and fulfilled. Yet all the articles of faith must be established and fulfilled, since they are the Word and promise of God; thus the article about the resurrection to come has already been fulfilled in some, particularly in Christ Himself. But that all the world should become subject to the pope has never come true or been fulfilled, not even for a single moment. If what Christ intended is that the pope was to rule over the whole world, then this article of faith would be disproved by just one individual who did not have a pope, even though all other men had popes. Therefore it cannot be an article of faith. If this could ever have been fulfilled, then it would surely have been in the time of St. Peter, whom they make the first pope, and who was the greatest; for Christ Himself spoke to him and promised and gave him the keys (Matt. 16:18–19). If Peter was to have had this distinction yet did not have it, then Christ did not keep His word, and no pope dare hope that it will happen to him. It is all a silly lie.
Now how can it be true that all the heathen will become subject to one Christ and praise God, when all heathen persecute Christ, as He Himself says in Matt. 5:11: “Men shall revile you for My sake”? The answer: The psalm does not say that all men, or even all those among the heathen, will praise Him, but “all you heathen.” That is to say: Wherever there are heathen—or a country or a city—there the Gospel will penetrate and will convert some to the kingdom of Christ. Regardless of whether all people believe it, still Christ rules wherever there are people: He preserves His Word, His Baptism and Sacrament, despite all devils and men. For the Gospel and Baptism must come to the whole world, as they have indeed come and every day come again. Thus He has said (Mark 16:15): “Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation”; and (Ps. 19:1): “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork.” That is, Christ is preached as far as the heavens and the firmament extend. Wherever one finds the Gospel, Baptism, and the Sacrament, there is His church, and in that place there are certainly living saints. There men praise Him, and He rules over them, even though they are but young people and children. Inevitably, however, there will be old people too.
You may say: “This is a small kingdom, to have so few Christians among the heathen!” Friend, this is not a small kingdom, nor is it an insignificant power. First of all, even for those few Christ must be in command, in order to have the devil, the world, death, life, and everything in His hand. Were this not true, the devil would not allow Christ’s Gospel or His Baptism to last for an hour, not even for a moment; and the world would not let a single Christian live even for an hour. The persistence of the Gospel, Baptism, and Christians demonstrates Christ’s almighty power over all devils and men among all heathen in all places, as Ps. 110:2 says: “Rule in the midst of Thy foes!” and Ps. 45:5: “Royal people will worship Thee in the midst of Thy enemies.” Secondly, He protects and preserves His Christians with this power, and, in addition, rules in a very special way, namely, with the Holy Spirit, redeeming them from sin, death, and damnation, and making them righteous, alive, and blessed. Therefore the fewer Christians and the more non-Christians and devils there are in any one place, the more mightily and powerfully Christ reigns in that very place. If He has little there to rule over, He has all the more to defend and protect. So much for the first point.
THE REVELATION
This psalm also reveals a peculiarly great mystery, one little known at the time of the apostles and almost faded away under the papacy, namely, that the kingdom of Christ is not a temporal, transitory, earthly kingdom, ruled with laws and regulations, but a spiritual, heavenly, and eternal kingdom that must be ruled without and above all laws, regulations, and outward means. He tells the heathen to remain heathen; He does not ask them (as I pointed out before) to run away from their countries or cities to go to Jerusalem. He does not demand that they give up or abandon their secular laws, customs, and habits to become Jews, just as He does not demand of the Jews that they abandon their laws. What He demands is something different from, and higher than, external, worldly laws or ceremonies. Every country and city can observe or change its laws. He does not concern Himself about this. Where laws are retained, they do not hinder His kingdom; for He says: “Praise the Lord, all you heathen!” Heathen, however, as I have already said, are people in various countries and cities. Countries and cities cannot maintain themselves without laws, customs, and ordinances with which they govern, judge, punish, protect, and keep the peace. They may change these things on occasion, but they cannot get along without them.
Whenever we hear of heathen or kings in Scripture, we must not think only of persons with crowns but of their whole government, with laws, offices, ordinances, customs, usages, and habits by which their kingdoms are maintained and managed. What kind of kings or lords would they be otherwise? Plaster kings and painted lords! We read in Ps. 72:10: “May the kings from the seashore and from the isles render Him tribute.” With such expressions the Holy Spirit confirms the secular laws and government of all countries and calls them “kings,” giving us to understand that they are to retain their authority, and that everyone is to be obedient and subject to his lord and master. He does not rebuke them for being kings or heathen or nations. He Himself created and established them, and divided up the world for them to rule, as Paul also testifies in Acts 17:26. If He wanted to upbraid or scold them, He would certainly not call them kings, heathen, or nations; in that case He would address them in a different way. Since He does name and confirm them as kings and heathen, we should all the more let them be kings and heathen—that is, nations or worldly authority—and honor them as such.
At the same time He confirms all crafts, classes, and trades existing under such secular governments, regardless of name, insofar as they are honest and praiseworthy according to their own law. They may be citizens, farmers, shoemakers, tailors, clerks, knights, masters, servants, etc.; for without such, as Ecclesiasticus says, no city or country could exist (38:32). One must recognize that in themselves such occupations are not contrary to God; and if one wants to serve God, one should not turn up one’s nose at them and creep away into a monastery or set up some other sect. Yes, these are all estates established by God to serve Him according to the words of Gen. 3:19: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” This is the way He intended it to be. What He demands of countries and peoples in this psalm is something entirely different. He does not say: “Go about your work, all you heathen”; for this is already commanded in Gen. 3:19, as we have heard. It is not enough for Him that you become a Carthusian monk, a nun, or a priest. To Him that is lower than the lowliest manual labor on earth. He rejects and damns these self-chosen orders which flee, avoid, and despise the sweating (ordained for all men in Gen. 3:19), as though they could invent a finer service to God than God Himself has established in the sweating of our faces. The cunning, rascally power of reason always wants to master God and seek its own advantage with Him.
What is it, then, that He demands? It is the praise of the Lord. Oh, this is a great demand and, as this world understands and interprets it, a most unbearable and insufferable levy and tax on mankind! Then this psalm becomes a heresy and the most poisonous preachment ever proclaimed on earth, for what does it mean to praise the Lord? It means to deny all other gods, to give up serving all other gods, to damn all our own holiness, wisdom, and achievement. No country or people, no king or master, can tolerate this, to damn their own gods and holy works and cast out their own wisdom and holiness. “My friend,” they say, “this teaching aims to take our gods away from us (as Demetrius complains in Acts 19:26)! Our religious services are to amount to nothing, and our fathers and we are to be taken for fools! Our habits, customs, and traditions are to be considered wrong! These villains are revolutionaries and blasphemers. They want to make us a new god and teach us a new faith! To the stake with them, to the gallows, to the hangman with these villains!”
Here the words of the second psalm apply: “Why do the heathen conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? Why do the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst Their bonds asunder, and cast Their cords from us!’ ” (Ps. 2:1–3). It truly astonishes us and raises the question why they should rage so against the Lord, whom they really ought to praise, and why they curse His kingdom and dominion as bonds and cords, as if they were His prisoners. He does them no harm, robs them of nothing. He calls them kings, nations, and people; He lets them remain kings, countries, and people, and retain all that they have. He desires only to be their God, and this certainly does them no harm. Instead, it brings them all good things, both temporal and eternal (as we read in verse two), helps them out of the toils of the devil, and frees them from the bonds of death and sin. He wants nothing except what is justly His; and He demands what is His own, namely, His divinity, that He may be God, and that He may give them what is most necessary and useful, namely, their own life and salvation.
But this is how it is: The Word is seen as a rope and a chain, a code of unbearable restrictions, heresy and the doctrine of demons (1 Tim. 4:1), sedition, dissent, and disturbance, a novel god and a novel faith. And all the violence and raging which they begin is blamed on the teaching of God. They claim to be the children, fathers, masters, and friends of peace, though they are insane with murder, arson, and persecution. Yet the gracious Word lets them remain and sees them as kings, princes, lords, nations, and people; and it teaches peace with all vigor. Thus the world shows that it is the devil’s own—blind, possessed, crazed, and foolish—to persecute the God who gives, allows, and preserves temporal peace and all good things, and, even beyond this, directs us to eternal peace, heavenly goods, and unending, blessed life. For this, He is blasphemed as a heretic and a disturber of the peace, and He must bear the blame for the madness that man commits and perpetrates. Whoever has not read or heard about such things in the times of the apostles, martyrs, and heretics, let him now observe and comprehend it in our own times in the case of our sophists and papists. They are deprived of nothing, but everything they have is established by this teaching. They are asked only to praise the Lord, to forsake their old idolatry, and to change their unchristian worship, in order that they may have peace and life in this world and in the next. But everybody sees their attitude toward this; no further discussion is needed here.
And even today this is what hinders and prevents the Jews from becoming Christians; they cannot bear to see the heathen called God’s people while still remaining heathen. They think one should be circumcised and obey their ancient Mosaic Law. They neither hear nor see that in this psalm and in many other places God calls the heathen to praise Him and yet lets them remain heathen, or nations, according to their outward organization and laws. Thus He most impressively annuls the Law of Moses as not necessary in order to praise God or become His people. He calls upon the heathen to praise God, even though they are uncircumcised and live without the Law of Moses according to their own law. They could not praise God without first becoming God’s people through His Word, as I have said above.
It is not as though here God were despising or damning the Law of Moses as sin or error in itself. But He demands something higher than a life according to the Law of Moses, something different, namely, that one should praise the Lord among all the heathen. Where they will not do this, all their being and doing according to the Law of Moses is lost, damned, and sinful. In the same way Paul invariably permitted the Jews to circumcise themselves and keep the Law of Moses, provided only that beyond all this they believed in Christ and held faith alone necessary for salvation, even without the Law. Paul also let the heathen retain their laws and customs if they but believed in this same Christ and held faith alone essential to salvation, even without their laws and customs, as he says in 1 Cor. 7:19: “For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God”; or again (Rom. 3:20): “For no human being will be justified in His sight by works of the Law”; and again (Gal. 6:15): “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation”; and in 1 Cor. 7:18: “Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of his circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision.”
“Yes,” they say, “we praise the Lord in the Law of Moses; therefore we are certainly His people.” Answer: But they do not praise that Lord who wants to be praised by all heathen and is so praised, for they do not want to believe that the heathen may praise God without the Law of Moses. Therefore the Jews do not hold God to be that Lord who is praised among all the heathen, as we are told in this psalm and indeed throughout Scripture. For if what this psalm says is true, then God must really be God among all the heathen, despite the fact that they remain heathen and outside the Law of Moses. But where has there ever been a god whom all the heathen praise, except our God, whom we Christians honor and praise? And where is any god whose word has sounded so far out into all the world and, despite the incessant opposition of kings and princes, has been so vigorously accepted and maintained as the Gospel of Christ? How can a god ever come whom all heathen are to praise, if they have to become Jews and cannot remain heathen, as this psalm prophesies? If all heathen are to praise God and still be called and remain heathen, without having to become Jews, then it is certain that the Law of Moses is not necessary in order to praise God or become His people. Therefore it is also certain that the Law of Moses is at an end and has been annulled, since the prophecy of this psalm has been fulfilled, namely, that all heathen shall praise God and become God’s people without the Law or circumcision. It is the Jews who must become heathen. That is, they must believe that the God whom all heathen praise is their own true God and the God of all their fathers and prophets; He tells them in this psalm that He must become the God, not of the Jews alone but of all the heathen. If they do not do this, then they deny their own God and do not believe His Word, which here declares that He wills to be the God of all the heathen.
God Himself promised this to Abraham before He gave him circumcision, and long before the time of Moses, when He said to him: “No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen. 17:5). Here God declares plainly that Abraham is not to be the father of only one nation but of many nations, or heathen. It is also clear that the Jews are only a single גּוֹי, not many גּוֹיִם. If Scripture is true, then Abraham’s God must be the God of many heathen, not only of the Jews. The heathen would no longer be heathen if they all had to become a Jewish people. Therefore the Law of Moses is no longer necessary once that God has come whom all heathen are to praise and take as their God. If, beyond this, they also want to circumcise themselves and keep the Law of Moses, God will not question this, provided that they do not make it a requirement for remaining God’s people. For where they do require it, they are saying that the heathen may not be God’s people, and that God cannot be the God of the heathen without the Law of Moses. This is the same as saying that God lies and deceives us in this and similar psalms.
How could the idea arise that all heathen peoples would have to keep the Law of Moses if they wanted to be God’s people? It was not true in ancient times, when Jerusalem and the Jews and Moses were at the peak of their power, before God even went out among the heathen. For the prophet Jonah testifies abundantly that the city of Nineveh was called the city of God and had the true God of the Jews; and still the people were heathen and remained uncircumcised, and lived according to their own law without the Law of Moses. Lot and Job were also God’s servants, without benefit of circumcision or the Law of Moses; similarly King Pharaoh of Egypt and his people, at the time of Joseph; also Prince Naaman of Syria, at the time of Elisha; or the widow of Zarephath, at the time of Elijah; and many more who all knew and praised the true God of Abraham and still did not become Jews. It is palpable blindness, therefore, to hope to make all the heathen into Jews at the time of the Messiah; for before then this was not necessary for any heathen to become God’s people. It is enough that one praise God, the psalm says; that is, acknowledge, believe, praise, and give thanks. These things make God’s people.
I have said this not only against the errors of the Jews but much more against certain misguided spirits who want to impose on us heathen the Law of Moses, which God has taken away even from the Jews. These spirits prate away with the purpose of arranging temporal and spiritual institutions accordingly, of confusing consciences and changing secular laws, just as if the Gospel taught nothing higher than worldly laws or outward custom. It is certainly true that in the Mosaic Law secular government and outward custom are more finely framed than in all the laws and customs of heathendom, and it would be well if the whole world had more of such laws. But since this is not necessary, and since such a change could not be effected without unbearable dangers and damage, then let it be our one wish that each country keep its own laws, habits, and customs, as the saying goes: “Many lands, many customs.” Keep your conscience free and objective toward the Mosaic Law, and know that God demands of the heathen nothing but that He be praised and honored as the Gospel has proclaimed Him to the entire world. And be obedient to all that He teaches and commands in the Gospel. Then you will be His people and, together with all heathen and Jews in one faith and service, you will praise the one true Lord.
Yes, it is well and good that God dealt with Jerusalem as He did, abolishing the government of the Jews and annulling the Law of Moses, so destroying them that they will never rise again. For if they are so stubborn that they will not accept the God of the heathen, who is also their own God, and for this very reason have been so terribly tormented and leveled to the ground, what would they do if they still had all their authority, Law, and Jerusalem? To tyrants such things are a terrible example of God’s wrath in these matters, and to believers throughout the world they are a comfort. I call this terrible because if God did not want to spare Jerusalem, the finest city there ever was on earth, His most beloved, His own house and dwelling and holy of holies, within the walls of which lie the greatest saints and prophets; and if He did not take into Consideration the most perfect Law and government on earth, which He Himself established; if He ignored the fact that the Jews were His own people and the heirs of the holy patriarchs and their flesh and blood but tore all this to shreds and scattered it because they would not acknowledge this Lord of all heathen as their God—then why should He spare other kings, countries, and peoples among the heathen, who also refuse to accept this Lord?
In our own day the same thing should happen to the monasteries and convents. They should be torn down and destroyed; and this has already begun, no matter how fine, beautiful, and useful they may appear. They, too, blaspheme this Lord of all heathen, whom they should praise. Instead of accepting Him, they magnify their own work and organization to such a degree that they not only want to be Christians and gain salvation but want to be above and better than ordinary Christians. Besides, they do business with the works and virtues of other Christians and presume to use them to help gain heaven. All this is an unspeakable abomination! What else is this but saying by means of actions: “Compared with us, a simple, ordinary Christian is nothing. The status of a Christian is far below ours. By Baptism no one can rise to the level we achieve with our tonsures and cowls. A Christian would never be saved without the help of our estate”?
What is all this but saying: “Baptism is nothing, the blood of Christ is nothing, Christ’s death and resurrection are nothing, God’s Word is nothing, God Himself is nothing; we, we are more and better than Baptism, Christ, and God”? If they really valued themselves less than God, they would value themselves less than Christ and His blood. If they valued themselves less than Christ’s blood, they would value themselves less than Baptism, which is sanctified through Christ’s blood and baptizes with Christ’s blood. If they valued themselves less than Baptism, they would value themselves less than the ordinary Christians, and their own estate lower than that of ordinary Christians. But if they were to value their own estate less than that of ordinary Christians, then where would they be? If they are to remain in their present pomp and pride, they must make themselves into something higher, better, and holier than ordinary Christians. That is to say, they must consider themselves above the whole Christian Church or all Christendom, higher than Baptism, higher than Christ’s blood, higher than the Holy Spirit and God Himself. This is truly to praise oneself and to blaspheme the Lord of all heathen. Nobody can deny that they have done just that and have exalted their own estate above that of the ordinary Christian. There are letters and books and acts enough to convince anyone.
But if they considered and used their foundations and monasteries as places where Christian youth should be trained and faith and discipline are taught, that we might have fine persons for Christian service, and thus the foundations and monasteries were nothing else than Christian schools, as they were originally founded—and if they called the prelates provost, deacon, scholar, cantor, and the like—then the foundations would be fine. But to make of them an estate superior to the ordinary class of Christians, that is all wrong; it denies and curses Christ. They should serve and promote the Christian estate, as do the schools, home training, secular government, and the rest of creation; but they should not be better or higher than the common order of Christians. The estate of the Christian should hover above all things like heaven above earth, for it is the status of Christ Himself and God’s own work. Because they do not want to do this, they will have to be torn to bits and scattered like stubborn Jerusalem; there is no help for it. This Lord of all heathen we must praise and let remain, lest everything go to wrack and ruin.
We are told in the second psalm that this Lord is to be King and God among all the heathen. Whoever refuses will be reduced to ruin, regardless of his size, might, intelligence, elegance, or holiness. All heathen are to praise this Lord. We have seen how He reduced to ashes the greatest of cities, Rome, the greatest empire on earth, ripping and smashing its mighty power so that hardly any pieces are left. For He has said: “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps. 2:9); or again: “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way” (Ps. 2:12). That is to say: “Look out. For if you do not worship the Son, there shall be no mercy, but only destruction. And both you and your way, your life, works, government, laws, ordinances, worship, etc., must perish and never rise again. He will tolerate no worship, government, holiness, cleverness, power, greatness, population, country, or people unless they praise the Lord, who is proclaimed King and God among all the heathen, just as this psalm says.” This is final! Whoever will not agree must learn by experience, as the Jews and Romans have had to learn it. This is a comfort and a certain hope of salvation to us who believe.
Let this be said about the revelation of this psalm. Even today it requires a great and lofty insight to understand that the substance of Christianity is a much nobler thing and altogether different from all secular and spiritual laws, outward holiness, government, and whatever other such things there may be among the Jews or heathen. St. Paul himself affirms in Eph. 3:5 that it came as a revelation even to the apostles that the heathen could be God’s people without the Law of Moses, yes, without and beyond all law. Thus we read in Acts 10 and 11 that St. Peter himself did not know until it was revealed to him in a vision from heaven when he was to go to Cornelius, the heathen. As I see it, the whole Book of Acts was written because of this psalm and similar passages, to demonstrate that the heathen are able to become God’s people without the Law of Moses. In Acts 15 we find a special assembly held in Jerusalem on this very question; and only Peter, Paul, and Barnabas stood for this point against the whole body of the faithful. So difficult it is for our reason and nature to comprehend that the secular and ecclesiastical estate are nothing when compared with the Christian estate! Our reason always wants to mix the two, making out of the Christian estate a worldly or ecclesiastical structure framed and governed by laws and works. And in the process it forgets and no longer knows what truly belongs to Christ and the Christian calling, as, unfortunately, we have seen demonstrated under the papacy.
It is called a revelation, and it remains a revelation; for you will find nothing about this in all the books of canon law or in all the pronouncements of all the popes—whether they are called Decretals, Sextes, Clementines, Extravagantes, or by any other term. In all the compendia, maxims of the copyists, monks’ sermons, regulations of the synods, formularies of monasteries and orders, rules of monks and nuns, all the statutes of councils, the whole of St. Jerome or St. Gregory, all the theses of theologians or lectures at the universities, all Masses and vigils, all ceremonies of all the churches, all foundations for souls, all the brotherhoods of all the sects, all pilgrimages to all places, all the worship of Mary and all the saints, all indulgences of all papal bulls, the whole chancellery of the pope, the entire court of the popes or of all the bishops—nowhere in all this, I say, will you find a trace of this truth, but rather only obstacles and perversion of this revelation.
What have the popes and bishops made of the Gospel and the Christian Church except a completely ecclesiastical, yes, even a worldly dominion? What else are all the new sectarian spirits, fanatics, and foolish saints trying to do but to turn the Gospel into outward holiness or a new monastic order of grey coats and a long face? We are told: “Praise the Lord, all you heathen. Be heathen, remain heathen, become heathen. Establish ecclesiastical orders, set up rules and codes, make laws and secular government. Be chaste, marry, and devise whatever outward doings and forms you please. But take care that you do not think it possible to become Christians or be saved by such means. Do not imagine for a moment that such things are Christianity or of its essence. For such things as I have just enumerated can all be thought out and established by reason without the help of Christ. One thing must rise high above all that you can devise and do, namely, that you praise the Lord. The things just mentioned praise you yourselves, not the Lord. For these things are yours, developed by you in yourselves out of your mind and previously planted and established in nature.”
THE INSTRUCTION
In this part the psalmist teaches us the greatest wisdom on earth, namely, the wisdom of faith. This wisdom is divine and not human, secret and not revealed, heavenly and not earthly; no man knows it, as Paul says, not even the princes of this world (1 Cor. 2:8). Therefore it will be a heresy to this world and be damned as a doctrine of the devil (1 Tim. 4:1). It is an insufferable truth that this psalm dares sing out: “God’s steadfast love toward us prevails.” This is the reason why all the heathen should praise God, namely, because from God they receive grace, mercy, and all good things absolutely free, without any merit, works, or laws. In contrast, the Jews boast that they have God’s Law and their own works, as St. Paul points out to the Romans (2:23). We also read in Ps. 147:19–20: “He declares His Word to Jacob, His statutes and ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any of the heathen; they do not know His ordinances.” It is true that until the time of Christ the Jews alone had the Law and the prophets, as St. Paul says in Rom. 3:2. But after Christ and in Christ all heathen have the Gospel, that is, the declaration of grace, of which this psalm speaks.
But there are unusually fine words in this verse, words which we should not skim over coldly or without feeling. In the first place, the psalmist speaks of “His steadfast love.” This is not our doing, holiness, or wisdom; it is His grace and mercy. What, then, is the grace of God? It is this, that from sheer mercy, for the sake of Christ, who is our beloved Bishop and Mediator, God forgives all our sins. He abates all His anger, leads us by faith from idolatry and error to truth. And the Holy Spirit purifies our hearts, enlightens, sanctifies, and justifies us, chooses us as children, and heirs, adorns us with His gifts, redeems and protects us from the power of the devil, and finally gives us eternal life and blessedness. And yet He also supplies this transitory life with everything needful, gives and preserves it, through the service and co-operation of all creatures of heaven and earth. The whole world could not deserve even the tiniest of these gifts, much less all of them, or even some of the greater ones. In fact, because of its idolatry, ingratitude, contempt, and continual manifold sinning it has deserved nothing but anger, death, and hell.
If this is true—and it undeniably is—then it follows that our works, wisdom, and holiness are nothing before God. For if it is God’s love, then it cannot be our merit. And if it is our merit, then it is not God’s love (Rom. 11:6). This is why the Jews get nowhere with their Law and works, much less the heathen with their idolatries. The same thing is true of the sophists with the abomination of their Masses, institutions, monasteries, pilgrimages, and innumerable other human devices and works. Why do they all fight this teaching of God’s grace and call it heresy? Because they do not want to see their own teaching and works despised and discarded. That God’s grace gives us so much, as I said above, they are willing to accept; but that their own doings should be nothing and only pure and simple grace should count before God, why, that has to be heresy. They want to have a hand in the game and through free will do so much that they will earn God’s grace and buy it from Him, together with all the aforementioned goods. Then not the love of God but our own merit achieves grace. Then we are the workmen who lay the cornerstone on which God then builds His grace and love, so that He must praise, thank, and adore us. Then we become His gods instead of the other way around; as this psalm says, we must thank, praise, and worship Him, and He must be our God. Then we have initiated all good things and with our merit have laid a foundation for His grace.
These people babble this psalm with their mouths, but in their hearts they interpret and read it this way: “Let all the world praise us, and all people admire us; for our works prevail over them, and our views shall endure forever.” They cannot deny that this is their heartfelt interpretation. All the letters of their orders and brotherhoods are convincing; in them they assure, certify, promise, and sell—all very honestly and properly—the eternal purchase and possession of their meditations and Masses, and all their good works. And they share all this with the purchasers, both their forefathers and their descendants, so that by such means they are redeemed and saved from purgatory, even though they were never even baptized or had never been Christians. How does God’s grace come first here, to accomplish this with no works at all? Oh, then it must first be bought with the works of others! Is this not a blasphemous and monstrous exaltation of our own works in place of and above God’s grace? Nor do they repent of this and mend their ways, but they even want to conceal and prettify them. But their letters and seals, bulls and books, are too much in evidence; they testify too loudly against them, and they will not permit concealment or sugar-coating.
Now choose which of the three interpretations of this verse you prefer. The first is: Our works prevail over God’s grace toward us. The next is: Our works prevail without Christ but still alongside the grace of God toward us. The third is: God’s grace prevails over us without and instead of all works, through Christ. The first two are inventions spun from the brains of Jews, Turks, sophists, and all false Christians. The third is the meaning of the Holy Spirit and all true Christians. That the first two belong also to the sophists, so that in this they really are Jews and Turks, is not only proved by their letters and seals, bulls and books but is also demonstrated by their deeds. They still defend their doings; and in defense of them they murder, burn, and persecute in the most monstrous fashion. For if they were convinced of the third meaning, they would not only cease their persecutions but would change and improve their institutions, their monasteries, and their whole system. To date it has been the whole practice of this system to sell its own works to people in order to redeem them from their sins and expedite them to heaven. This is unchallenged, for I and all of us were ourselves once bogged down in this mess and helped to teach and do it! Praise God for rescuing us!
Secondly, the psalmist uses the word “prevail”; that is, God’s grace “rules” over us. It is a kingdom of grace that is more powerful in and over us than all anger, sin, and evil. No sophist or believer in works has ever understood this word, nor can he understand it any better than a Jew and a Turk. As long as they want to present their works to obtain grace, they cannot possibly know what the kingdom of grace or the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of Christ means. In their hearts they think, as I also thought when I was a sophist: “If we do good, then we have grace; if we sin or fall or feel sin, grace falls too and is lost; and we must again seek and find it through our works.” They cannot think otherwise. But this implies, not a kingdom of grace that prevails over works but a kingdom of works that prevails over grace. But “prevail,” גָּבַר in Hebrew, means to be supreme, to be great. You must think of the kingdom of grace as a child might, in this way: God, through the Gospel, has set a new and great heaven over us who believe, and this is called the heaven of grace. It is far, far more immense and beautiful than this visible heaven; and it is eternal, certain, and indestructible as well.
Now whoever is under this heaven cannot sin or be in sin; for it is the heaven of grace, infinite and eternal. And if someone should sin or fall, he would not fall out of this same heaven unless he did not want to remain under it but preferred to go to hell with the devil, as unbelievers do. Although sin makes itself felt, death bares its teeth, and the devil frightens us, still there is far more grace to prevail over all sin, far more life to prevail over death, and far more God to prevail over all devils. In this kingdom sin, death, and the devil are nothing more than the black clouds of the material heaven. For a time they may well conceal heaven, but they cannot prevail. They must stay beneath the heavens and suffer it to remain, prevail, and rule over them; and at last they must pass away. Therefore although sin bites us, death frightens us, and the devil throws his weight around with temptation, these are still only clouds. The heaven of grace prevails and rules; in the end they must remain below and surrender. This cannot come through works, but only through the faith which is certain that such a heaven of grace is above it, without works, and which looks to this heaven as often as it sins or feels sin, comforting itself without merit or works.
Whoever wants to drown out sin and death with works will, of necessity, fail; for it is impossible to recognize all sins (Ps. 19:12). Only the lesser part of sin is recognizable, and the devil or God’s judgment will reveal those sins that man cannot recognize or know. Then the conscience will be terrified and say: “O Lord God, I have done nothing to atone for this sin!” For it thought that sins could be paid for with works, and now it is suddenly faced with many and great sins which it knew nothing of, much less paid for. Then this conscience is cast down into despair, and the devil lends a hand and turns all the good works into sins. What can be done then? This soul knows nothing of the kingdom of grace, or that God’s steadfast love prevails over us; nor is it in the habit of trusting in His grace. Then both, the works and the teaching of salvation by works, collapse and disappear like smoke. Yes, it is good to talk about works and make money at it, until that certain hour comes when the devil and God’s judgment stir up the conscience. Then one finds out how dangerous, poisonous, destructive, and damnable such a teaching is; but then it is too late, unless God chooses to perform a special sign or miracle.
But he who is in the kingdom of grace is of a different heart, regardless of what sins he feels, what sins the devil invents, whether the devil undoes his good works, or God’s judgment frightens or threatens him. This heart will still declare that these are certainly terrible, dark clouds; but God’s grace prevails and rules over us. The heaven of grace is mightier than the clouds of sin. The heaven of grace remains forever; the clouds of sin dissolve. For this verse does not deny—no, it affirms—that believers are well aware of God’s judgment, of sin, death, and the devil, and are even terrified by them. But it also says that they have courage, and that grace is above all and retains the upper hand and dominion, so that they can sing: “Praise be to God that His grace prevails over us and is mightier than our sins.” Remember that all this is done without works, and must be done without works, lest both grace and heaven be lost in a single moment. David was often tempted like this, and he complains in Ps. 119:92: “If Thy Law had not been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction.” Whoever has not been tempted cannot understand this and will probably have to attack his sins with good works, to atone for them and to stifle them. But that is like trying to put out a fire with straw, or measure the air with a spoon, or similar useless and worthless efforts.
Thirdly, the psalmist says: “Over us.” Whom does he mean? With this word “us” he separates himself from all those who are not with us. As said before, the Lord’s grace is over only those poor sinners who recognize and feel that they are bogged down in sin, death, and all misfortune. The work-righteous do not need grace. They feel in themselves no sin, death, or devil; instead, they feel only holiness, life, and heaven. They are the perfect darlings! That makes this verse false and deceiving in two respects: first, our opponents consider our teaching and faith to be not God’s grace but purely the doctrine of devils (1 Tim. 4:1) and the wrath of God. Secondly, our outward life can mean only that God is our enemy and has handed us over to the devil. Thus both our teaching and our life are controlled by the devil and not by God’s grace. On the other hand, the lot of our enemies makes it seem that God is their friend and controls their teaching and life. Therefore these words are spiritual; they can be understood only by faith and in the Spirit, and they cannot be judged by outward appearance, lest the psalm degenerate into sheer nonsense and falsehood. For what we see with our eyes is different from what these words proclaim. Therefore the psalm might conceivably read: “Cry out and blaspheme, all heathen! For God’s wrath and vengeance are over us forever without end!”
Now see how in this psalm David, the holy prophet and king, becomes an apostate Jew and associates himself with the heathen. He abandons Moses and all Judaism and becomes a heathen. For he sides with the heathen and not with the Jews. He Calls upon them to praise the Lord; this is clear and certain. But he does not write: “For God’s love rules over you heathen”; instead, he writes “over us,” as if he were among the heathen and were himself a heathen. He makes himself a heathen, not Jews out of the heathen. At least he makes heathen and Jews one people under one God, without any law or any Moses, solely on the strength of the fact that they praise and glorify God. Thereby he annuls the old Law in its entirety and shows that it is not necessary to observe it. And that it has been observed was only a sign of such praise and not a work or special offering to God, as the Jews, Turks, sophists, and reason itself maintain. But now that the praise of God has gone out to the heathen throughout the world, we are not to respect the signs of praise so much; but we should devote ourselves to praise itself, becoming men of praise rather than remaining Jews or heathen.
The fourth element of which the psalmist speaks is “His faithfulness.” This means God’s truth, to which He has bound and committed Himself through His dear Word, namely, to be our God and not to deprive us of His grace, so that we may be certain of His grace. As it was in the beginning, so it shall remain and endure forever. This should encourage us not to doubt His promise, even though its outward appearance, as I pointed out above, is far different and seems to be sheer wrath and no grace at all. For He will be faithful and keep His promise if only we hold fast to our faith and do not fall away in unbelief or impatience. The big thing is that we wait a little and bear our cross without wearying; for “hope does not disappoint us,” says St. Paul (Rom. 5:5). God cannot lie (Rom. 3:4 and Titus 1:2). Therefore we must learn that the aforementioned love and mercy are not visible but only cross and adversity, and this we feel. Our opponents have outward love and grace, although they do not recognize it. Much less do they respect the secret wrath with which God threatens them in His Word.
Therefore the kingdom of grace is and remains a secret kingdom, concealed from this world, maintained in Word and faith until the time of its revelation. Consequently, the godless do not like or desire it but say (Ps. 2:3): “Let us burst Their bonds asunder, and cast Their cords from us.” They say: “We will not permit such a kingdom to rule over us,” as is written Luke 19:14: “We do not want this Man to reign over us.” Why not? Because such a kingdom, as I said before, condemns and rejects all their outward works and ways in which they trust and asks them instead to trust in God’s grace, which is mysterious and concealed, being promised solely by His Word and comprehended only by faith. Instead of praise and thanksgiving, therefore, they choose to blaspheme, curse, and persecute the dear kingdom of grace like madmen who fight against their own salvation and blessedness until they are destroyed and have achieved the goal of their struggle, as we read in Ps. 109:17: “He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him!” An injury is not an injury if a man accepts it voluntarily. You cannot force a man to be thankful.
Now what is true of grace is also true of God’s faithfulness or truth. Outwardly His grace seems to be nothing but wrath, so deeply is it buried under two thick hides or pelts. Our opponents and the world condemn and avoid it like the plague or God’s wrath, and our own feeling about it is not different.
Peter says truthfully (2 Peter 1:19) that the Word is like a lamp shining in a dark place. Most certainly it is a dark place! God’s faithfulness and truth always must first become a great lie before it becomes truth. The world calls this truth heresy. And we, too, are constantly tempted to believe that God would abandon us and not keep His Word; and in our hearts He begins to become a liar. In short, God cannot be God unless He first becomes a devil. We cannot go to heaven unless we first go to hell. We cannot become God’s children until we first become children of the devil. All that God speaks and does the devil has to speak and do first. And our flesh agrees. Therefore it is actually the Spirit who enlightens and teaches us in the Word to believe differently. By the same token the lies of this world cannot become lies without first having become truth. The godless do not go to hell without first having gone to heaven. They do not become the devil’s children until they have first been the children of God.
As his fifth point the psalmist says “forever,” that is, without interruption and without end. This kingdom of grace is not only to prevail and last here on earth during our lifetime, but forever, after this life, in heaven. In the present time, too, it is to be so firm that it will never waver and fall. Even though we are uncertain and at times stumble and fall through sin and error, still grace does not waver and fall. Nor may we seek a new grace or another kingdom, because that heaven is still open and that same kingdom of grace awaits me when I return. It is not true, as some falsely and deceivingly say, that Christ has atoned only for sins that precede Baptism, and that we must atone for the sins committed after Baptism. Nor are the dangerous and evil words of St. Jerome true, namely, that penance is the other plank to which we must cling when the ship of innocence has been wrecked after Baptism. Do not talk to me of “another plank”! The ship is not wrecked; Baptism does not cease; the kingdom of grace does not collapse. Rather, as the psalm says, it “endures forever.” But if I fall out of the ship, very well, I climb back in; if I turn away from Baptism, I return to it; if I stray from the Kingdom, I come back to it. Baptism, ship, and grace endure forever and do not wobble or fall because I wobble and fall. Otherwise God Himself, who has promised that His faithfulness will endure forever, would fall.
To summarize, the devil does not become and is not a devil without first having been God. He does not become an angel of darkness unless he has first been an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). For what the devil speaks and does must first have been said and done by God. This the world believes and would have us believe. Therefore these are deep words, and a profound understanding is required to grasp that God’s grace and truth, or His love and faithfulness, rule over us and prevail. But it is comforting to him who can grasp it, if he is sure that all is God’s grace and truth, even when it seems to be the opposite, and if he can then say in spiritual defiance: “I know well that God’s Word must first become a great lie, even in myself, before it can become truth. I also know that the devil’s word must first become the delicate truth of God before it can become a lie. I must grant the devil his hour of godliness and ascribe devilhood to our God. But this is not the whole story. The last word is: ‘His faithfulness and truth endure forever.’ ”
THE ADMONITION
The psalmist admonishes and instructs us how to serve the Lord. He urges us to give praise and thanks. Since of ourselves we are nothing but have everything from God, it is easy to see that we can give Him nothing; neither can we repay Him for His grace. He demands nothing from us. The only thing left, therefore, is for us to praise and thank Him. First we must recognize in our hearts and believe that we receive everything from Him and that He is our God. Then out with it, and freely and openly confess this before the world—preach, praise, glorify, and give thanks! This is the real and only worship of God, the true office of the priest, and the finest, most acceptable offering—as St. Peter says (1 Peter 2:9): “You are a royal priesthood, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Yes, our mouths will be slapped for such praise; for the world does not want to hear it and cannot stand it. But that is the risk if one wants to bring this sacrifice to God; for it is written: “Praise the Lord, all heathen.” It does not say that we should praise men or this world, but the Lord and His work or grace, not the works of men; for these are condemned.
This offering of praise, this thank offering, fulfills all that is meant by worship and service in the Old Testament, and we no longer need them. This psalm requires of the heathen no other offering to God than to praise and thank Him, confessing and preaching God’s grace and faithfulness. Yes, even the offerings of the Old Testament were nothing; they were condemned and cursed if they were made with the intention of serving God with them in the sense of giving Him something through the offering or work. In this connection read Ps. 50:8–14; Is. 1:11–17; Jer. 7:21–23, and many other passages. For that was not the intent of Moses’ command. Instead, as he says in Deut. 26, they were not to bring such offerings except as thanks or as a sign of thanks and praise. Not as though they wanted to do God a great service with them, or as though God needed the flesh of oxen and the blood of calves; but He says: “Offer Me thank offerings,” or “Thank offerings praise Me.” This is especially clear in wonderful Ps. 51: “For Thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, Thou wouldst not be pleased” (v. 16). As though he were to say: “If offerings or works could do it, I would be a king. I could find ten gulden to buy a cow to sacrifice. But another kind of sacrifice is demanded here.” Since, however, they would not give up their sacrificing, God thoroughly destroyed them and instituted throughout the world the true sacrifice, the offering of praise, as He says in this psalm and in Mal. 1:10–11: “I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its setting My name is great among the heathen, and in every place incense is offered to My name and a pure offering.” This is the offering of thanks, when by preaching and confession in all the world the name of the Lord is magnified and glorified. To make His name great is the fine, pure offering of which the psalmist is speaking here.
Since offerings were damned among the Jews because of the misguided desire to make works and merit of them, what value can we Christians grant to such practices as offering Masses, monastic vows, pilgrimages, saint worship, and the like—especially since they are far worse than the offerings of the Jews? For one thing, the offerings of the Jews were at least instituted by God and were based on, and commanded by, Scripture. But our offerings and vows are unscriptural, nothing but figments and inventions of men. This in itself is enough to condemn them, for no man should institute or begin the worship of God, instruct God, or prescribe how He should be worshiped. Furthermore, in the New Testament the offering of thanks is to be the true worship of God, and no works are to count at all. Grace cannot stand it when we want to give to God or establish merit or pay Him with our works. This is the greatest of blasphemies and idolatries and is nothing less than the denial and even ridicule of God. These offerings of works spell the elimination of thank offerings, which cannot exist alongside them. Whoever wants to earn and win by works certainly does not expect to receive anything for nothing or through grace. Instead, he wants to do business and haggle with God. But whoever receives nothing by grace will not give thanks either.
They counter by saying: “A promise must be kept; this is the teaching of both divine and human law.” Answer: There are two kinds of promises: a promise to God and a promise to man. We can promise nothing to God except that we want to accept Him as God and praise and thank Him for all His benefits and grace, as the patriarch Jacob promised and spoke (Gen. 28:21): “The Lord shall be my God.” This is the promise asked of us in the First Commandment. We can give Him nothing, nor does He need what we have; for He has given us all that we have anyway. But He wants to be our God. This explains why the sophists cannot understand the sayings in the Psalter and elsewhere in Scripture concerning vows to God. They apply them to their own self-imposed vows, whereas only the vow of thanks is meant, and obedience to the First Commandment, as Ps. 116:12–14 tells us: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord; I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people.” Here you see that he knows no other way to repay the Lord except to preach God and thank Him in the presence of all His people and thus keep his vow according to the First Commandment. This he calls his cup of salvation; that is, it makes him blessed, as Ps. 50:23 says: “He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors Me; to him I will show the salvation of God!” Also in Rom. 10:9 we read: “If you confess with your lips, you will be saved.” In Scripture “cup” means that Which is one’s portion. This is the sense: “Some want to buy God with works; they receive their portion, a cup of destruction. My cup, my portion, shall be to praise God; this is salvation and blessedness.”
Now when vows conflict with the promise to give thanks, then they should be condemned and annulled, as in the case of monastic vows and others mentioned above. For these vows are made with the godless and damnable intent of buying God’s favor and of deserving grace; they do not leave the way open for pure, undeserved grace. The pope himself says: “One need not keep bad vows.” Similarly, when we promise something to man, it should and must be done with the understood provision, even though not stated, that it not be contrary to God. For one can promise nothing against God. When, for instance, the emperor, at his coronation, swears this and that to the pope and finds afterwards that one or more points are contrary to God, then he needs no absolution from his oath; for it never was a genuine oath and could never have been meant or sworn in the power of an oath.37 Long before, at Baptism, he swore not to do anything contrary to God, but to help, praise, and glorify His name and Gospel. In the face of such an oath the pope can demand nothing from him, no matter what it may be.
But what I have said of the emperor’s oath I say of all men’s oaths. One cannot deny that some oaths are bad, and in taking an oath one can err just as easily as in all other matters. Therefore one should not put up such a howl, protesting: “Yes, yes, you have vowed and sworn; hence you must keep it.” My dear fellow, it is not enough that I have sworn something. I might swear that I want to be a Turk or a Jew; but I promised God more at my Baptism, and I am more obligated to keep this than any other vow. And if my later vows deviate a hairbreadth from my first promise, then I shall trample them underfoot in order not to deny my God or despise His grace. It is highly necessary to make a careful and sharp distinction between oaths, because these are serious and solemn matters and are like a divine service. Even distinguished ecclesiastical personages can easily make a mistake here. And this is not a matter for just anyone to judge, as some wild and insolent fellows think.
These four principal parts I should like to have emphasized in this little psalm. And note that this is the proper and fruitful way to deal with Scripture, as Paul (1 Cor. 14:6) also exalts four such points that he would treat in Scripture: “Now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how shall I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?” He refers to “speaking in tongues,” which is nothing else than reading Scripture orally. Yet he wants to treat such tongues or simple Scripture in four ways, not because he wants to derive various meanings from it, as Origen, Jerome, and men of the same kind do with their allegories. No, Paul wants to give a simple meaning to Scripture, just as I (I hope) have done here. Paul says that prophecy is the interpretation of the writing of prophets in the sense of Christ. Instruction, he says (Titus 2:1), is to preach the faith that saves us through grace without merit. Knowledge, he says, is advice and discrimination in outward usages and custom (1 Cor. 8:1–13), which I have here called admonition, even though in such advice I have touched on offerings and vows. Revelation is, of course, something more than allegory, namely, the capacity to hit upon something in Scripture that not everyone discovers, although he may have some or all of the other three things.
My main reason for doing this is to move and instruct all who need it, to search out and deal with the core of our Christian doctrine, wherever it may be found throughout the Bible. And the core is this: that without any merit, as a gift of God’s pure grace in Christ, we attain righteousness, life, and salvation, and that there is no other way or path, no other means or effort, that can help us to attain it. Every day I experience only too well how insistently the devil assails this core in an effort to wipe it out. And although tired “saints” consider it unnecessary to keep at this matter—they imagine that they know it inside out and have learned all there is to know—still I know how wrong they are, and that they know absolutely nothing about the importance of this point. If this one teaching stands in its purity, then Christendom will also remain pure and good, undivided and unseparated; for this alone, and nothing else, makes and maintains Christendom. Everything else may be brilliantly counterfeited by false Christians and hypocrites; but where this falls, it is impossible to ward off any error or sectarian spirit. This I know indeed, and I have experienced it so often that without this teaching I could never refute what either the Turks or the Jews believe.
And wherever sects arise, you may be sure that they have certainly fallen away from this principal teaching, regardless of the fact that they do a great deal of mouthing about Christ and put on much polish and finery. This doctrine permits no sects to arise, because without fail the Holy Spirit is there; He lets no sectarianism take root, but gives and maintains harmony. Particularly when you hear an immature and unripe saint trumpet that he knows very well that we must be saved through the grace of God, without our own works, and then pretend that this is a snap for him, well, then have no doubt that he has no idea of what he is talking about and probably will never find out. For this is not an art that can be completely learned or of which anyone could boast that he is a master. It is an art that will always have us as pupils while it remains the master. And all those who do understand and practice it do not boast that they can do everything. On the contrary, they sense it like a wonderful taste or odor that they greatly desire and pursue; and they are amazed that they cannot grasp it or comprehend it as they would like. They hunger, thirst, and yearn for it more and more; and they never tire of hearing about it or dealing with it, just as St. Paul himself confesses that he has not yet obtained it (Phil. 3:12). And in Matt. 5:6 Christ calls those blessed who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Whoever is interested may learn a lesson from my example, which I shall now confess. A few times—when I did not bear this principal teaching in mind—the devil caught up with me and plagued me with Scripture passages until heaven and earth became too small for me. Then all the works and laws of man were right, and not an error was to be found in the whole papacy. In short, the only one who had ever erred was Luther. All my best works, teaching, sermons, and books had to be condemned. The abominable Mohammed almost became my prophet, and both Turks and Jews were on the way to pure sainthood. Therefore, dear brother, be not proud or smug, and certain that you know Christ well. You hear what I confess to you, admitting what the devil was able to do against Luther, who is supposed to be a doctor in this art, who has preached, composed, written, said, sung, and read so much in these matters but must still remain a student and sometimes may not be either master or student. So take my advice, and do not celebrate too soon. Are you still standing? Then see that you do not fall (1 Cor. 10:12)! You can do anything? Watch out that your skill does not desert you! Be concerned, be humble, and pray that you may grow in this art and be protected against the crafty devil, who is called “Smart Aleck” and “Quick Fist,” who can do anything and learn anything very quickly.
If by choice or of necessity you must deal with matters concerning the law, works, sayings, and examples of the fathers, then remember first of all to keep this principal teaching before you, and do not be caught without it, so that the dear sun of Christ will shine in your heart. Then you can freely and safely discuss and discriminate in all laws, examples, sayings, and works. If there is something good or true in it, then I know that it is good and right for this life only, because Christ alone is good and right for grace and the life to come. And whenever you neglect this, be assured that the laws, sayings, examples, and works, with their attractive appearance and the great reputation of the persons concerned, will so confuse you that you will not know whether you are coming or going. I have observed this in St. Bernard: whenever he begins to speak of Christ, it is a pure pleasure to follow; but when he goes beyond this and talks of rules or works, then it is no longer St. Bernard. The same thing happens to St. Augustine, Gregory, and all the rest; when Christ is not in them, they are nothing but secular professors, like philosophers or lawyers.
Therefore in Scripture Christ is called the Cornerstone on which all that is to stand before God must be founded and built. Whatever is not founded and built on Him, but without Him, will be destroyed and cannot endure. What else is lacking in these sects and foolish religionists but that they have forsaken this Cornerstone and have slipped back into works? They cannot get out of the predicament but must reduce to mere human works even Baptism and the Sacraments, which are God’s Word and institution. Thus the Anabaptists claim that Baptism is nothing if one is not previously sanctified. They do not want to acquire holiness through and from Baptism, but by their piety they want to make Baptism holy and wholesome. As I see it, this is to lose the Cornerstone completely and to be justified, not through the grace of Christ in Baptism but through one’s own self, so that Baptism gives nothing, creates nothing, brings nothing. Instead, we bring and give everything to Baptism beforehand, so that it is nothing but an unnecessary symbol by which one is supposed to be able to recognize such pious folk. But Baptism is not a permanent enough sign or mark to guarantee that one should be recognizable by it, since it happens only once, and then nobody can see it anymore.
The fanatics do the same thing with their Sacrament, which does not sanctify or bring grace but shows and demonstrates how blessed and holy they are without the Sacrament. And what else have such divisions, countless sects, factions, and idolatries of all manner of foolish fanatics, priests, monks, and nuns accomplished in the papacy than that they have turned away from Christ to gain righteousness through their works? This is why St. Paul taught the Ephesians and the Colossians so vigorously that Christ is our Head, and that we should cling diligently to this Head and thus stay together and grow as members of one body. The devil wastes no time on vacations and sleep. He would gladly tear us away from this Head. He knows well that this central teaching will break his neck and crush his serpent’s head, as is foretold in Gen. 8:15.
But God, our dear eternal Father, who through His dear Son and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has so richly enlightened us—may He strengthen us with perfect faith through His Holy Spirit and give us power to follow His light faithfully and diligently, and praise and extol Him together with all heathen, both in teaching and in life. To Him be praise and honor forevermore for a
