Here it is struck with fear, and worry about coming disaster there comes grief and sadness because of present evil. A human heart is like a ship on a wild sea, driven by the storm-winds from the four quarters of the world. And that is the richest thing about the saints that the Psalter gives us, - we can be certain of how their hearts were toward God, and what words they used to God and every man. And just as I would rather hear what a saint says than see the works he does, so I would far rather see his heart, and the treasure in his soul, than hear his words. The legends, or examples, which speak only of the works and miracles of the saints, do not and cannot do this for I cannot know how a man’s heart is, even though I see or hear of many great works that he does. Thus it lays before us, not only their words, rather than their works, but their very hearts and the innermost treasure of their souls, so that we can look down to the foundation and source of their words and works, that is, into their hearts, and see there what kind of thoughts they had, and how their hearts were set and how they acted in all kinds of cases, in danger and in need. It presents to us not the simple, common speech of the saints, but the best of their language, that which they used when they talked with God Himself, with great earnestness, on the most important matters. Moreover, the Psalter does still more than this. By the carver’s art a block of wood can be given the shape of a man, and a beast, as well as a man, can see, hear, smell, sing, walk, stand, eat, drink, fast, thirst, and suffer from hunger, frost, and a hard bed. Compared with a speaking man, a dumb man is to be thought a half-dead man and there is no mightier or nobler work of man than speech, since it is by speech, more than by his shape or by any other work, that man is most distinguished from other animals. The other legends and examples, when compared to the Psalter, present to us only dumb saints but the Psalter pictures really bold, living saints. But above all this, the Psalter has this fine virtue and quality: - other books make great ado over the works of the saints, but say very little about their words but the Psalter is a pattern it gives forth so sweet a fragrance, when one reads it, because it tells not only the works of the saints, but also their words, how they spoke with God and prayed, and still speak and pray. Thus, whoever could not read the whole Bible would here have almost an entire summary of it, comprised in one little book. It puts everything that is in all the Bible most beautifully and briefly, and is made an Enchiridion, or handbook, so that I have a notion that the Holy Ghost wanted to take the trouble to compile a short Bible and example-book of all Christendom, or of all saints. The Psalter ought to be a dear and beloved book, if only because it promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly, and so typifies His kingdom and the condition and nature of all Christendom that it might well be called a little Bible. For here we find not only what one or two saints have done, but what He has done who is the head of all saints, and what the saints still do - the attitude they take toward God, toward friends and enemies, the way they conduct themselves in all dangers and sufferings all this, beside the divine and wholesome and commandments of every kind that are contained there. If one were to wish that, from all the examples, legends and histories, the best should be selected and brought together and put in the best form, the result would have to be the present Psalter. I hold, however, that no book of examples or legends of the saints finer than the Psalter has ever come, or can come, to the earth. In past years very many books have been peddled around, legends of the saints and passionals, books of examples and stories, and the world has been filled with them, so that the Psalter lay, meanwhile, under the bench and in such darkness that not one Psalm was rightly understood and yet it gave off such a fine and precious fragrance that all pious hearts felt the devotion and power in the unknown words, and loved the book for them. Psa 33:18 | Luther | STEP | Many of the holy fathers praised and loved the Psalter above all other books of Scripture and although the work itself gives praise enough to its master, nevertheless we must give evidence of our own praise and thanks.
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