A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM XXXVI.
_The grievous estate of the wicked.—The excellency of God’s mercy.—David prayeth for favour to God’s children._ To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, _that there is_ no fear of God before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. The words of his mouth _are_ iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, _and_ to do good. He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way _that is_ not good; he abhorreth not evil. Thy mercy, O LORD, _is_ in the heavens; _and_ thy faithfulness _reacheth_ unto the clouds. Thy righteousness _is_ like the great mountains; thy judgments _are_ a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent _is_ thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee _is_ the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. O continue thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.
There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise. This is a Psalm containing a very necessary doctrine, and marks whereby heretics, false-teachers, and fanatical spirits may be discovered. And in the end he begs of God with a wonderful fervency that he may be guarded against all these pestilences. And after he had at the beginning of the Psalm exactly described these characters in their own colours, he takes courage, in the middle, himself, and comforts all those that fear God; and tells them, that, although Satan by his instruments roars and rages against the church, yet, that the word of God shall remain and the kingdom of God stand unmoved, against all the violence of Satan, and against the power of all the kingdoms of the world. “Thy righteousness (says David) is like the great mountains: and thy judgments are a great deep;” that is, as the rocks and mountains which God has fixed, no power can overthrow;—and as the great deeps of the sea are inexhaustible, so, thy word O Lord stands firm, and no human power can overthrow or subvert the truth: and although all the gates of hell and all the attempts of men and devils should set themselves against thy word and will, yet with thee is the fountain of life; that is, in thy house, where thou dwellest by the word in the midst of enemies: that fountain and river of life will still remain; that is, this word of thine, whereby afflicted consciences will be raised up and revived.
And here, if any where, the prophet expressively describes those false teachers. He _first_ of all breaks out against such, with the most fervent zeal at the beginning of the Psalm. ‘Certainly, (saith he) if there be any set of men, evil men, these are of all the worst: for they are men of an abandoned impudence, virulent, and destitute of the fear of God, and of faith in him; they are secure despisers of God and religion; they are proud, arrogant, precipitate, audacious, and prepared for every thing that is bad.’ In the _next_ place, they approve and commend no one but themselves. They hate all others most bitterly, and traduce and defame them: they excel in this one thing only,—in adorning and setting off themselves, in using boasted self-praising words, in contemptuously despising others, and in arrogating to themselves only the spirit and worship of God, and the appellation of the true church. In the _third_ place, their doctrines are most pernicious, and filled with lies: for they fight against the doctrine of faith and of grace, and deceive men by their outside daubing, and their hypocrisy. In the _fourth_ place, they are rashly precipitate, and will endure no monitor; for they are harder than any iron or any adamant: and if you do not applaud all they say and all they do, they immediately rage and make a tumult with all the fury of Satan.
In the _fifth_ place, they go out and diffuse their doctrines as widely as possible; and their speech, as Paul saith, eateth like a canker. For, for the most part, such men have an audacity above all sincere and good men, and a determinate spirit to accomplish all their own purposes; and they are restless, vehement, hot-headed, and so furiously and wickedly aim at the accomplishment of their own purposes, that you would think they would overturn everything else. And _lastly_, they hostilely persecute all those who do not subscribe to their creed. And all these enormities they perpetrate with a wonderfully unconcerned and insensible security; as if they were all the time pleasing God and doing him service.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.