A manual of the book of Psalms — Context and Discussion

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Authors: Luther, Martin, 1483-1546, Cole, Henry, 1792-1858 [Translator] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2025 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 108,318

Reading time 471 min

Text sections 18

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #75892

Martin Luther's commentary on the Psalms, translated by Henry Cole, focuses on the spiritual struggles of believers, the hypocrisy of religious leaders, and God's judgment. The work applies Psalms to contemporary foes like the papacy and the Turk, emphasizing trust in divine grace over outward forms.

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an doctrines and works without faith are an abomination in the sight of God; and that the God of all such hypocrites (of which kind are the pope and his papists) is their belly; for they serve their belly, not God or Christ, and devour widow’s houses.

But such hypocrites, although they have always in their mouth the name of God, and boast of the law and the works of the law, know not what the true worship of God is, but always hate and persecute the name and word of God, but the true doctrine, concerning faith and the fear of God, they will not hear.

Against such characters as these we must fight by prayer; which prayer will certainly be heard, as is intimated in the last verse of this Psalm, which promises the kingdom and dominion of Christ. For this Psalm especially strikes at those seemingly holy pharisees, those teachers of the law, who, before the coming of Christ, by enforcing works and the righteousness of the law, were cruel torturers, and tormented men’s consciences. And this Psalm promises that wished-for day of Christ, and the redemption that should be wrought by his coming. For the gospel was revealed from Zion, and the Spirit was poured out upon the apostles at Jerusalem.

This Psalm has reference to the First and Second Commandment: for it gloriously exalts the word of God and promises the day of salvation, that is, of Christ: but it rebukes hypocrites who despise the true worship of God, and his faith and fear, and who serve not God but their own belly. And it refers also to the first and second petition of the Lord’s Prayer: where we pray, “Hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come.”

_David describeth a citizen of Zion._

LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

_He that_ backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. _He that_ sweareth to _his own_ hurt, and changeth not.

_He that_ putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these _things_ shall never be moved.

This Psalm strikes at the hypocrites who say that holiness stands in the pretended works of the law of God, or in the vain and foolish works of human invention and tradition; and it teaches us how to understand the law of God rightly, and to live godly and righteously. It shows us that we are to walk in the spirit and to mortify the desires of the flesh. For the sum of all godliness is this;—to love and worship God with a pure heart by faith, and then, to direct our lives for the good of our neighbour; and to avoid all those things which militate against these two; that is, to shun all hypocrisy and pretended holiness, which militates against both faith and love: for such an one is ignorant of the true worship of God, and neglects all truly good works, which should be done for the benefit of his neighbour.

It has reference to the Third Commandment of the Decalogue, concerning keeping holy the sabbath day, which is done when we hear and learn the word. And it refers also to the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer.

_David, in distrust of merits, and hatred of idolatry, fleeth to God for preservation.—He sheweth the hope of his calling, of the resurrection, and life everlasting._

Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.

_O my soul_, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou _art_ my Lord: my goodness _extendeth_ not to thee;

_But_ to the saints that _are_ in the earth, and _to_ the excellent, in whom _is_ all my delight.

Their sorrows shall be multiplied _that_ hasten _after_ another _god_; their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

The LORD _is_ the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant _places_; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night-seasons.

I have set the LORD always before me: because _he is_ at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

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Martin Luther’s manual on the Psalms, here translated by Henry Cole, does not offer verse-by-verse exegesis but rather a concentrated distillation of each psalm’s “subject-contents.” The translator’s preface frames the work as a weapon against “the vanity and delusion of all forms” of godliness, a phrase that signals Luther’s relentless concern with the gap between outward profession and inward reality. Throughout the excerpts, Luther reads the Psalms as immediate addresses to his own sixteenth-century conflicts, treating ancient enemies—Chaldeans, Antiochus Epiphanes—as types of the papacy and the Turk. The result is a commentary that is at once devotional and polemical, personal and political.

Luther’s Polemical Reading of the Psalms

Luther consistently interprets the Psalms as prophecies and prayers against contemporary foes. In his note on Psalm 74, he writes that the devastation depicted was wrought by “the Chaldeans, and by Antiochus Epiphanes,” but immediately adds: “We also use this Psalm against the Turk and Mahomet; and also against our Antiochus, the pope; who destroys daily the true church.” This move—collapsing biblical history into present struggle—is characteristic. The psalmist’s enemies become Luther’s enemies; the temple’s destruction becomes the desolation of true preaching under papal authority. The language is blunt: the pope “stirs up and diffuses abroad the poison of the devil and every abomination.” Such direct identification leaves no room for allegorical distance; the Psalms are weapons in an ongoing war.

The Voice of the Afflicted Church

Luther repeatedly insists that the true church is a company of “poor and afflicted people, who are burdened with sins, filled with fears, covered with infirmities, and despised by the world.” This description, drawn from the translator’s preface, echoes through the commentary. In Psalm 75, Luther contrasts the “turbulent and hardened hypocrites” who boast of their church and authority with the godly who wait on God’s judgment. The hypocrites speak arrogantly—“Who shall teach us?” “Who is Lord over us?”—while the righteous are those who “bear up and sustain this world upon their shoulders.” Luther’s diction is concrete: the wicked “lift up the horn” and speak with a “stiff neck,” while the godly are the “pillars of the earth.” The Psalms, for Luther, give voice to this embattled minority.

God’s Judgment and the Cup of Wrath

A striking image recurs in Luther’s treatment of Psalm 75: the cup of God’s wrath. The psalm itself speaks of a cup “full of mixture” whose dregs the wicked must drink. Luther seizes on this as a promise of divine retribution. He admonishes the people of God to “know and acknowledge, that there is a God who will surely judge all iniquity, if we do but wait his time.” The God who “maketh the mountains to tremble” on Sinai is the same God who “visits the wicked in his own appointed time.” Yet Luther balances judgment with preservation: God “preserves the pillars of the earth,” the righteous, even as he overthrows nations. The example of Lot and the believing Jews in Jerusalem serves as proof that God knows how to “preserve his own” amid destruction.

Translator’s Frame and Rhetorical Strategy

Henry Cole’s preface shapes how the reader approaches Luther’s commentary. Cole enumerates the “great and heavenly things” Luther opens up: the vanity of mere forms, the persecution of true disciples, the grounds of Christian hope, the blessedness of a nation governed by God’s word, and the destruction of kingdoms that oppose it. This list is itself a rhetorical structure, preparing the reader to find these themes in every psalm. Cole also emphasizes that Luther “repeatedly shews” that the true church is the despised and afflicted. The translator’s voice thus amplifies Luther’s own, creating a double-layered exhortation. The reader is not simply studying the Psalms but being drawn into a tradition of suffering and hope.

Readers approaching this manual should expect not a neutral commentary but a passionate appropriation of the Psalms for Reformation-era struggles. Luther’s voice is urgent, his targets specific, his comfort directed at the beleaguered. The work rewards those who attend to its rhetorical moves—how it collapses past and present, how it names enemies, how it insists on God’s ultimate justice. Cole’s translation, with its nineteenth-century idiom, adds another layer of historical distance and immediacy. To read this manual is to overhear a conversation across centuries about what it means to be the people of God under pressure.

Reading Luther on the Psalms reminded me of sitting with my grandfather, who underlined everything. That quiet insistence on trusting grace over outward show—it stirred the same ache I felt years ago, wrestling through A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. — Context and Discussion. Both books made me feel less alone in doubting what I’d been told was solid ground.