PSALM SIXTY-NINE

3. I have labored with crying, My jaws have become hoarse. First, because the Word of God is being gospeled and shouted and toiled but is listened to so very little, it is so despised that one is thought not to shout it, but barely to grow hoarse. Indeed, according to blessed Augustine, the voice of the preacher is hoarse when he who hears it listens to it poorly, but it is clear and bright when it is heard clearly and brightly.
But now we pray in a hoarse and laborious way. For that reason this verse briefly depicts the labored, dry, and irreverent prayer of the church in our time, or in a time soon to be. Thus formerly out of a rich anointing there were joyful praises of God in their jaws, and their tongue rejoiced over the righteousness of Christ. But now, from a lack of fat and fullness the jaws of Christ are hoarse, and the rough voice grates and groans in a dry throat. Such a voice is not yet entirely ruined or silenced, like that of the unbelievers, who will not cry in their throat, because they have been made like their own images, because only a believer can speak. “I believed, therefore I have spoken” (Ps. 116:10). –Martin Luther