Selected Psalms I Quotes

“We must not be dependent on the judgment of the world or the flesh; in fact, we must not be dependent on the judgment even of our own hearts regarding ourselves.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“We have to learn that a Christian should walk in the midst of death, in the remorse and trembling of his conscience, in the midst of the devil’s teeth and of hell, and yet should keep the Word of grace, so that in such trembling we say, “Thou, O Lord, dost look on me with favor.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“Who can love Him if He wants to deal with sinners according to righteousness? Therefore remember that the righteousness of God is that by which we are justified, or the gift of the forgiveness of sins.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“Those who are already righteous and heirs of eternal life through Christ, whose merit they accept by faith — they do good, not with the purpose of attaining eternal life, to which they are already entitled by an alien merit, namely, Christ’s, but with the purpose of being pleasing and obedient to the divine voice, so that the glory of God as well as holy teaching and life are promoted.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“In everything we do or experience we should have a happy heart and know that for Christ’s sake we are in grace and that everything we do pleases God, even the fact that out of the needs of the body we eat and drink and do our work.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“Let us seek the sprinkling of the Spirit and the inward washing which Peter (1 Peter 1:2) calls “sprinkling with Christ’s blood,” by which all of us who hear and believe the Gospel of Christ are cleansed.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“In the eyes of the world nothing is holy except what departs as much as possible from the usual customs of life.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“If we want to talk about natural powers on the basis of this psalm and on the basis of the Holy Spirit’s manner of speaking, then we should call “natural” the fact that we are in sin and death and that we desire, understand, and long for things that are corrupt and evil.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“So we are not sinners because we commit this or that sin, but we commit them because we are sinners first.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“The human seed, this mass from which I was formed, is totally corrupt with faults and sins. The material itself is faulty. The clay, so to speak, out of which this vessel began to be formed is damnable. What more do you want? This is how I am; this is how all men are. Our very conception, the very growth of the foetus in the womb, is sin, even before we are born and begin to be human beings.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“That is, my sin drives me on, it will not give me rest or peace. Neither wine nor bread nor sleep will drive away this feeling of wrath and death.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“If, therefore, you acknowledge that you have sin, if you tremble, if you are troubled by a feeling of God’s wrath and by a horror of God’s judgment and of hell, then have confidence. You are the one with whom God wants to speak, to whom God wants to show His mercy, and whom He wants to save.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“This knowledge of sin, moreover, is not some sort of speculation or an idea which the mind thinks up for itself. It is a true feeling, a true experience, and a very serious struggle of the heart, as he testifies when he says (v. 3), “I know (that is, I feel or experience) my transgressions.” This is what the Hebrew word really means. It does not mean, as the pope taught, to call to mind what one has done and what one has failed to do; but it means to feel and to experience the intolerable burden of the wrath of God.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“I know (that is, I feel or experience) my transgressions.” This is what the Hebrew word really means. It does not mean, as the pope taught, to call to mind what one has done and what one has failed to do; but it means to feel and to experience the intolerable burden of the wrath of God.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“Hence it is great wisdom to know that we are nothing but sin, so that we do not think of sin as lightly as do the pope’s theologians, who define sin as “anything said, done, or thought against the Law of God.” Define sin, rather, on the basis of this psalm, as all that is born of father and mother, before a man is old enough to say, do, or think anything.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“This is shown by the history of Saul. Although he had sinned against the voice of the Lord, this would have been forgiven him if he had not added a defense of his sin and said (1 Sam. 15:13), “I have performed the commandments of the Lord.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“For it is difficult to believe in God without an example, to be led by God as He led Abraham, a solitary individual, to see all the other peoples having an abhorrence for the religion you follow, to find that you alone believe and follow something different from all other men.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“So if you wish to rejoice in Christ, for His sake you must bear sorrow, confusion, inward and outward vexations. The reason is that you cannot hold to Christ without offending the prince of the world. You cannot hold fast to the God of life without rousing against yourself the author of death.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“And the way Christ treats the works of Satan, so Satan attempts to destroy the works of Christ, such as life, righteousness, joy, and the like.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“Moses could not sing this way. He is a minister of prison, a teacher of drudgery, an originator of servitude, or, as Paul usually calls him, “A minister of death, sin, and sadness” (2 Cor. 3:9). In antithesis to him we wish to sing of a kingdom that is delightful, free, and full of joy.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“The rabbis have written that when the earth had opened up and consumed Korah with the rest, his sons had by an apparent miracle stood firm above the abyss as though suspended in the air, because they would not depart from the tabernacle, but had admonished their father and his followers to desist from error.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“But it is an insight of faith to know and to see that good works, self-glory, and holy life do not do it, but only God’s kindness.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“The world glories and trusts in honor, power, riches, and the favor of men. Our psalm, however, glories in none of these, for they are all uncertain and perishable.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“It is indeed pitiful that a monk who does nothing else night and day except chastise his body achieves nothing by this diligence than to be cast into the flames of hell.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“He does not care whether you fast or eat, if only you do it for your own good. “All that,” He says, “has nothing to do with Me and My worship. For to worship Me means for you to reverence Me, to accept all things from Me, to acknowledge Me, to speak of Me, to praise Me, because everything in the whole world is Mine, to confess that when you are without Me, you are sinners, foolish, and weak. It means to acknowledge that I am not a tyrant, that I humble you not as if I wished you lost, but so that I may call you back from pride and teach you to be humble. Since I did this through a cross, I wish that you would be lifte up so that you would raise your heads and eyes to My Christ. For if you lack wisdom, righteousness, or strength, you have there the fountain of all wisdom and righteousness. Thus you will serve Me with fear and rejoice with trembling.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“Therefore neither discipline nor other virtues which can be invented by the will, nor works taken upon oneself, no matter how difficult, merit forgiveness of sins or reconcile us with God, but only faith in the Son of God.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“And the Son is ordered to demand this authority so that He might actually show reverence toward the Father and His inexpressible humility.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“For He has His strength in His mouth, not a sword in His hand.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works

“The present facts are that the world is insane and rages when we confess Christ and believe in Him.”
― Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 12: Selected Psalms I (Luther's Works