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Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10) QUOTES

Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10) QUOTES

1 " Here, too, there are some perverted people (as in the first part of the verse) who in a similar way twist and pervert this word of the Holy Spirit. Their meditation is not on the law of the Lord, but rather, to the contrary, the law of the Lord is in their meditation (which is a horrible situation). They are the ones who twist the Scriptures to their own understanding and by their own fixed meditation compel the Scriptures to enter it and agree with it, when it ought to be the other way around. In this way, then, the law of the Lord is in their meditation, and not their meditation on the law of the Lord. They do not want to agree with their adversary on the way (cf. Matt. 5:25), but they want the adversary to agree with them. They do not want to be holy with the holy, but they want the holy to be profane with them. Such were the heretics. Such are all who seek to approve their own empty opinion by the authority of Scripture, Judaizing with Jewish treachery. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

2 " Just as appearances of old happened for the direction of those for whom they happened, as also the Lord appeared to the two disciples going to Emmaus, so also Scripture speaks and appears in the manner in which we are disposed. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

3 " And Dan. 8:25 also writes concerning the Antichrist that he will kill the majority of people not through poverty but through an abundance of everything. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

4 " to live in good morals means calm and peace for the conscience, however much disquiet there may be in the flesh in public. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

5 " It is the nature of God’s Word and the regulation of His will first to destroy what is in us and reduce to nothing whatever we are, and then erect His own structure. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

6 " Augustine explains: The flesh needs many things even for this life, and this, too, it seeks from God, because not only spiritual things but also earthly things are to be sought from no one but God. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

7 " For “no one has ascended into heaven but He who descended” (John 3:13), that is, no one arrives at the understanding of divinity but he who has first been humbled and who has come down to an understanding of himself, for there he discovers the understanding of God at the same time. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

8 " For when the heart is evil, all its works are evil, no matter how splendid they are. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

9 " For when the heart is evil, all its works are evil, no matter how splendid they are. [And here it is clear that God is speaking, because He judges their hearts.] 1 And this word aptly and clearly expresses the nature of hypocrisy, which is a righteous performance in the eyes of men on earth, but is evil in the heart. Such are all heretics, all pretenders who create an appearance in public to which their heart does not correspond. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

10 " But iniquity on earth is to prefer one’s own righteousness to the righteousness of God; indeed, they want the very unrighteousness which they work to be righteousness. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

11 " This is the wonderful power of God, that He rules over all as individuals and over individuals as all. And He knows all things. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

12 " Hence the entire psalm accuses nothing but pride, as stated below (v. 23): The pride of those who hate Thee goes up continually. For this is the cause of unbelief and the beginning of all evils. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

13 " For even the heathen poet said, “I was wrong in thinking that that kingdom which is established by force is stronger than that which is joined together by friendship.“6 "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

14 " For it is the explicit statement of Sacred Scripture that one who is outside of tribulation is outside the condition and hope of salvation. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

15 " In all evils we must confess that God is the author and say: “Since You have done it, we must be silent and dumb,” lest we murmur or blaspheme against Him. And He must be implored to remove the evil. For he who does not know who brings in the evil becomes impatient in vain and attempts to banish it. It is as if a spear were hurled from an unknown place, and the one struck is angry in vain. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

16 " Iniquities forgiven and sins covered can be said to differ in this way, that iniquity is that by which a man is turned toward the creature because he prefers its love to the love of God, and that is evil; sin, however, is that by which a man is turned away from God, which is to transgress the commandment and law of God. According to Cassiodorus and blessed Jerome, iniquities "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

17 " Again, it is afflicted, but “Thou dost comfort it.” And so, universally, whatever is in the world has been made poor, but “Thou hast made it rich.” Then follows in Thy sweetness Thou, O God, hast provided for the poor. Thus: It is despised and rejected, but “Thou hast honored and received it.” For God has spurned those who please men. But those who are “the reproach of men and the outcast of the people” (Ps. 22:6) are “a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem” (Is. 62:3). “Therefore you see your calling” (1 Cor. 1:26). "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

18 " So the salvation of Christ is called “salvations” and “mercies” (cf. Ps. 28:8; 17:7; 25:6), because it saves many and ascribes a manifold salvation to all. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

19 " he says “firm place” because spiritual goods do not persist in themselves but in God, from whom they gush forth without ceasing. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)

20 " The third occurrence of the words4 fits our own and the last times, where the lukewarm, the presumptuous, and those easily offended abound, whom of all people it is most difficult to move forward to better things. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on the Psalms I: Chapters 1-75 (Luther's Works, #10)