Martin Luther, Der hundert und siebenzehende Psalm, Coburg 1530 (Landesbibliothek Coburg, Lu Ia 1530,13)

During his stay at Coburg Fortress, Martin Luther (1483–1546) among other things engaged with the Psaltery (Book of Psalms) of the Old Testament. He intensively devoted himself to the 117th Psalm.

The Psalm only contains four verses: “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” However, Luther developed the essential features of his theology in its interpretation. For him, the Psalm contains a prophecy, a revelation, a doctrine and an admonition. He arranges his work accordingly. The core is the revelation, in which the doctrine of the two regiments is developed. As part of the worldly regiment, the estates of the realm are confirmed. At the same time, all manifestations of the papacy as well as the religious orders are presented as completely inept as regards the future kingdom of Christ.

In accordance with the initial verse, Holy Scripture is “heathen-friendly” in that they are allowed to maintain their earthly laws and ways of life, as long as they recognise only the one God, believe in him and give up all idolatry. Luther’s effort to postulate something akin to a Jewish or pagan nation in analogy to the German, Bohemian, Polish and Hungarian nations is remarkable. In the third part, Luther’s doctrine of grace is to be found, in the last, among other things, stands an evaluation of the oath.

According to a note (colophon) on the last page, Hans Beer in Coburg is said to have printed the work in 1530. However, since Luther normally had all his Coburg writings printed in Wittenberg, this fact has not yet been fully established.

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