PSALM SIXTY-NINE

27. Add thou iniquity upon iniquity. This must be understood as I stated earlier; if they remain as they are. For in their present state they cannot enter into the righteousness of God, yet all the people of this sort presume to do so, thinking that they are offering homage to God in their very iniquity. For that reason this verse speaks against their proud presumption, as if to say: “Do not approve of their works, nor credit to them as righteousness whatever they do, but always impute it to them as iniquity through all their generations.” Thus God adds “iniquity upon their iniquity” when, in the same measure as to their fathers, He imputes iniquity to the descendants who imitate the works of their fathers; second, when He turns them over to a reprobate mind, so that they continually become worse in their perfidy and hatch ever greater plots against Christ. But this is understood mystically by adding to the preceding, “because they have persecuted Him whom Thou hast smitten,” for they tickle the contrite and humbled spirit and stir up sensual impulses and always attempt to destroy it. “And they have added to the grief of My wounds,” that is, “to My contritions with which I groan spiritually for sins,” and they even add their vexations of the troublesome feeling while they egg me on to gluttony, luxury, anger, pride, satiety, and the rest of the works of the flesh. [Then grief is added to grief when one sins again after grace. For since the members have been killed through the cross of Christ and condemned, to revive them is to renew the cause of Christ’s suffering.] “Add iniquity upon iniquity,” that is, add its punishment and loathing and scourging more and more, and impute and make me impute to the flesh even the faintest impulses to evil. Teach me to regard its suggestions as the greatest evil. And let them not come into Thy righteousness. Do not permit me to regard anything carnal as pleasing to Thee, as righteous and holy in Thy sight. Thus in Job 3:1 f. the flesh is cursed, and Job prays that it may not be numbered with his senses, so that the spirit might be saved. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living (v. 29), let them not appear as works of life and salvation. And let them not be written with the righteous, but let them be distinguished from them as thoroughly evil. But how rarely do we find such zeal over the flesh! We are in the habit of going easy on ourselves and more gently reproving the flesh with its desires, just as the children of Israel did not drive out the Jebusites and Canaanites from their borders, because they were not entirely displeased with them, but rather catered to them. Consequently they stayed and were intermingled with them (Joshua 15:63; Judg. 1:21). –Martin Luther

Psalm 69
1Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
2I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
5O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
6Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
7Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
8I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.
9For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
10When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.
11I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.
12They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.
13But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
14Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
17And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.
19Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.
20Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
24Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
25Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
26For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
27Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
29But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
32The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.
33For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.
34Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.
35For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.
36The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.