A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM CXXVIII.
_The sundry blessings which follow them that fear God._ A Song of degrees. Blessed _is_ every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy _shalt_ thou _be_, and _it shall be_ well with thee. Thy wife _shall be_ as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive-plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD. The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, _and_ peace upon Israel. This is a Psalm of consolation, wherein the Psalmist extols, with the highest praises, marriage, as a holy and godly kind of life, instituted of God himself. The Holy Spirit here comforts and encourages all husbands and wives with a divine consolation; and confirms and fortifies them against all those wrong cogitations and thoughts of human reason; which reason does not look at what good there is in marriage, but only beholds and exaggerates what of evil there may be in it; and thus blasphemes the glorious work of God in the two sexes. Hence, here arises all those blasphemous sayings among the heathen: ‘There are three great evils in life; fire, water, and woman.’ But Solomon saith, “He that findeth a wife findeth a good thing.”
This Psalm reminds husbands and wives that they should not look at the labours, the troubles, the cares, or the various temptations and trials which are to be endured in marriage; but that they should rather keep their eyes fixed on the word and will of God; from which they ought to hold themselves assured that marriage was not a human invention, nor a matter casually contrived of men; but that the whole human race were, from the beginning, created and formed of God, man and woman, and that neither of the sexes, nor their design can or ought to be altered or changed by men, by the devil, or any other creature, any more than the sun and moon and their offices can or ought to be altered or changed. God, saith the scripture, created them male and female, and blessed them. Marriage, therefore, is that kind of life, which, as being the creation and institution of God, greatly pleases him. If, therefore, thou shalt obey God herein, and shalt keep the eyes of thy faith fixed on the good, and on the blessings of marriage; if thou shalt obey the commandment and the call of God in taking to thyself a wife, the sexes created of God will not be vile, but precious in thy sight: and all the little troubles and trials of marriage shall be drowned and lost in that divine blessedness,—the knowing that God favours husbands and wives, and is present with them; that the joining of marriage is one of his own works; and that he provides for, and defends those who are joined together.
To fortify thyself, therefore, against all that blasphemy of human reason and of the devil, by which they condemn marriage, hold thou fixed in thine heart that heavenly word, “And the Lord made them male and female, and said, Be fruitful and multiply.” And if thou fear the Lord thou shalt be happy, and it shall be _well with thee_ in marriage, even though the virulent and blaspheming mouth of the devil, and the whole world together with him, should say it shall be _evil with thee_!
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.