The Four Winds that Blow in the Human Heart (Martin Luther’s Map of Human Emotions)

This is a nice little paragraph in Martin Luther’s introduction to the book of Psalms in which he sketches out the four winds that toss around the ship of the human heart. It is a map to man’s emotions. Nice.

For the heart of man is like a ship upon a troubled ocean, driven about by winds from every corner of the earth. Care and fear, under the apprehension of impending evils, impel it one way; grief and fear, under the influence of present distress, impel it another; hope and presumption, and the prospect of future prosperity, another; the actual possession of prosperity and the breezes of security and of pleasure, another.

But these tempests of the heart induce us to hold the language of earnestness, and to examine the bearings and the recesses of the soul. For he who is weighed down by fear and poverty speaks of misfortunes in a very different way from him who basks in the sunshine of prosperity; and he who is elated by prosperity speaks and sings of joys in a totally different strain from him who lives under the trammels of fear. It has been well said that it comes not from the heart when a wretched man is to laugh, and a happy man is to weep; the avenues to his heart are closed, and the whole effect is disappointment. 

But what is the chief subject of the Psalms, if it is not earnestness of language in all the storms and contradictions of life? Where shall we find words more adapted to express joy, than what are contained in the Psalms of thanksgiving and of praise? We see here the hearts of saints.

Martin Luther, Prefaces to the Books of the Bible

Excerpted from Martin Luther’s Prefaces to the Books of the Bible (tr. by sir G. Duckett) ed. by T.A. Readwin (1863). For a free download or to purchase this book, click here.

Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Bryan Wolfmueller, pastor of St Paul and Jesus Deaf Lutheran Churches in Austin, TX, author of "A Martyr's Faith for a Faithless World", "Has American Christianity Failed?", co-host of Table Talk Radio, teacher of Grappling with the Text, and theological adventure traveler.

2 Comments

  1. Pastor Wolfmueller, first a huge “thank you!” for all the wonderful ministry you do online. Your pastoral care has kept my soul afloat during many difficult times.

    When you assign “evil” to fear and sorrow and “good” to hope and joy, are you making a moral judgment of these two types of emotions of the human heart? Or, are you using good and evil in a descriptive manner, i.e. positive vs. negative?

    I don’t ask to criticize your designations, but in order to understand better what you mean.

    He is risen! 🙂

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