A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM CXLIV.
That our sons _may be_ as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters _may be_ as cornerstones, polished _after_ the similitude of a palace: _That_ our garners _may be_ full, affording all manner of store: _that_ our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: _That_ our oxen _may be_ strong to labour; _that there be_ no breaking in, nor going out; that _there be_ no complaining in our streets. Happy _is that_ people that is in such a case: _yea_, happy _is that_ people whose God _is_ the LORD. This is a blessed Psalm of thanksgiving for kings, princes, and all magistrates. David here, as a king and a magistrate himself, who had to govern the state and carry on wars, confesses that all prosperous and happy government, all success at home and abroad, all the arts of peace, and all victory in war, are the good gifts of God; and that a man can no more effect these things by human wisdom or strength, or by any ability of his own, than he can hold the millions of minds of nations bound unto himself, and make their multitudes obey him alone: for what could any mortal man do towards preserving whole kingdoms, and cities, and provinces in quiet from sedition and commotions amid all the infinite malice of the devil and the world? Every mortal man would fail, like a vanishing shadow, before the thought of such an undertaking.
But the God of all majesty, as Isaiah saith, is the Lord of all the kingdoms and kings of the earth. He, as Daniel saith, removes and establishes kingdoms. That monarch of heaven and earth also taketh down one king and sitteth up another. And he it is, who, in the time of peace, curbs the wills and holds the minds of the multitude, and stills all civil commotions like the waves of the sea, against all the raised winds of the devil. And it is the same God also, who, in the time of war, terrifieth the enemies of a nation, and maketh their hearts to tremble, when he thunders in the heavens, when he touches the mountains and great hills of nations and of peoples: he is terrible; and who can stand before him? When he strikes the hearts of the enemy with fear, it is easy for us to conquer. But what human wisdom or power can strike this terror, or do or ordain such mighty things?
David then prays against the deeds of his own people, and rebukes their ungodliness. The Israelites, because they had that especial honour and glory of being the people of God, were above all people of a stiff-neck; proud, seditious, avaricious, envious, unbelieving, and disobedient; and all these things they manifested in their conduct to Moses, to David himself, and to other godly kings. And although they saw David, in the same manner as Moses before him, with the manifest presence of God, and with great and divine miracles, governing the state, and conducting wars successfully, in the midst of the assaults of enemies on every side; yet falling into pride and security, from a confidence in their high title, as the people of God; they showed themselves to be no better than those of their forefathers, of whom Moses saith, “Ye have always been a rebellious and stiff-necked people before the Lord, from the day that I first knew you.” For the people of David were carnally affected and ungodly; and were as if they had said, ‘Command, and command again, if thou wilt; expect, and expect still; and why dost thou preach unto us faith, whereas we all the while continue in affliction? Those whom God favors, and to whom he shows mercy, he blesses: to them he gives wives, children, riches, houses, lands, and all things, and happiness in all things; and happy are the people that are in such a case.’ Nor were false prophets wanting, to dwell upon temporal promises in their preaching, and to withstand the true prophets; denying that those were the favorites of God who were not blessed with temporal prosperities; and saying that all the saints of God were so blessed.
Against these, therefore, David now most fervently prays, and encourages himself in heart and in faith by his past experiences of God’s mercies and deliverances. “If, (saith David,) thou hast aforetime delivered me from the sword of Goliath, and hast given me the victory, as thou hast done also unto other kings; so now defend me from this ungodly, hardened, and unbelieving people; who neither regard God nor his civil ministers; who care not with what evils a good king is surrounded in his government, nor what perils of war prevail, nor what blessings of peace are enjoyed; but are an ignorant and unfeeling herd; the very dregs and sink of men: yea, very swine, who regard nothing but their belly; whom it is more difficult to rule, than to conduct the most fierce and perilous wars.” Exactly like unto these are some of our nobles and citizens and countrymen now; who, for the sake of their belly, trample and spit upon all true religion and good learning; and indeed on all things human and divine. David here attacks these ungodly ones with a most severe rebuke; calling them “strange children;” hereby cutting up that glorying of theirs, wherein they boasted of being the children of Abraham, and the peculiar people of God: and yet were all the while worse than any heathen nation, and were false children and strangers; for they honoured God with their mouth and with their lips, while their heart was far from him.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.