A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM XXXV.
_David prayeth for his own safety, and his enemies’ confusion.—He complaineth of their wrongful dealing.—Thereby he inciteth God against them._ A Psalm of David. Plead _my cause_, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear, and stop _the way_ against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I _am_ thy salvation. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase _them_. Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them. For without cause have they hid for me their net _in_ a pit, _which_ without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares, and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction, let him fall. And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, LORD, who _is_ like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?
False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge _things_ that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good _to_ the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing _was_ sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though _he had been_ my friend _or_ brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth _for his_ mother. But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: _yea_, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew _it_ not; they did tear _me_, and ceased not: With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. LORD, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: _neither_ let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against _them that are_ quiet in the land. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, _and_ said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen _it_. _This_ thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O LORD, be not far from me.
Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, _even_ unto my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge me, O LORD my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify _themselves_ against me. Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness _and_ of thy praise all the day long. This is a prayer wherein David complains bitterly against those worst of all men who are found about palaces, and who flatter kings and rulers, and, for their own gain and advantage, tickle their ears with adulation in order to please them; and at the same time, speak evil of the innocent, enflame the powerful against the preachers and professors of the word of God, endeavour to suppress the truth, and cause awful injuries both to churches and to states. Thus such characters as these traduced David before king Saul, though they were men to whom David had rendered the greatest services, for whom he had often most fervently prayed, and in endeavouring to save and protect whom he had brought upon himself much misery and distress.
The matter of this Psalm may be a great consolation to us when we see the doctrines of truth and the gospel of God to be hated and traduced before kings and rulers, with the most impudent lies, and the most virulent speeches of the enemies of true piety, nay of every thing that is honest and becoming man. Thus, a certain man, remarkable for the fear of God, once told me that, at the tenth year of the August Assembly, by the impudent and malicious report of some present, nothing was talked about in the pope’s palace concerning Luther, but, ‘that he denied the Lord Christ, that he despised the Virgin Mary, and contemptuously set aside baptism, the sacraments, and all religion; and that he winked at theft, adultery, and other open sins, and permitted them to pass by with impunity.’ These forgers, however, of this manifest lie were put to shame openly when Charles V. himself was present and heard me when I made a confession of my doctrine; and then also, the devil, the father and fountain of lies, was himself confuted. Thus are these wretches wont to traduce the godly in this malicious manner, and to defame them, while they themselves in the mean time enjoy all the secular benefits of the gospel. Of this stamp there are thousands before us in our day.
Hypocritical (or halting) mockers (saith David), who halt between two desires,—who want to serve both God and men,—conspire together against me. For these when they have been raised at the expense and loss of the godly, and have golden riches and honours, trample those very godly ones under their feet. Such ungrateful wretches as these are all hypocrites and fanatical spirits, who serve not the Lord or Christ but their own belly. And just such now are all those who enjoy and squander all our property, and persecute us into the bargain. In a word, as it happened to Christ our head, so it is now with the church and all who fear God. He that eateth my bread, saith Christ, trampleth me under foot, and that for the hire of thirty pieces of silver. These are those hypocrites who consider their own belly above every thing else, whose unbounded and insatiable cruelty is ever raging against those that fear God; as David here complains.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.