A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM XXVI.
_David resorteth unto God in confidence of his integrity._ A Psalm of David. Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; _therefore_ I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy loving-kindness _is_ before mine eyes; and I have walked in thy truth. I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil-doers; and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash mine hands in innocency; so will I compass thine altar, O LORD? That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men; In whose hands _is_ mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me. My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD. This is a prayer unto God, containing a complaint against hypocrites who want to be justified by the works of the law, and who always persecute the true doctrine of faith and condemn its supporters for heretics. David calls these characters dissemblers, heretics, bloody men, wicked persons. For although they boast of great sanctity, yet their hearts are full of hatred and bitterness against God, and craft and iniquity against their neighbour: as Christ says of all such pharisees when he rebukes them by Luke, “Ye are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts.” For such worship God with their lips, but their heart is far from him: they worship him not in truth, but do all for gain.
In a word they serve not God but Mammon and their own belly: as Paul saith to the Philippians. And this Psalm saith, “And their right hand is full of bribes.” Yet their hypocrisy has a wonderful outside appearance. And indeed the false church who has power and dominion on her side, has always a more wonderful and showy appearance than the true, which lies hidden under the various forms of the cross. Therefore we have need to pray in no slothful manner that God would preserve us in his true Church, and would not suffer us to be mingled and carried away with these characters, lest we have our portion with such hypocrites, whose end, though they may for a time make a show before the world, shall be destruction, and whose glory shall be turned into confusion: as we have seen it exemplified in the Pope and his kingdom. This Psalm belongs to the Third Commandment, and to the first and second petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: for it speaks of the true worship and kingdom of God.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.