Luther on Psalm 22

In the book The Freedom of a Christian I came across this sentence:

Further light can be shed on Luther’s new understanding of God by following his interpretation of the Psalms. We know that Luther regularly meditated on the Psalms, and we have many commentaries on them from this crucial span of years. Luther prized the Psalms especially for the way they expressed the highs and lows of the life of faith. They also helped him to clarify the meaning of Jesus’ death on the cross. For example, while reflecting on Psalm 22, (emphasize added) Luther was struck by the first verse: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

However, for the life of me I can not find Luther's sermon on Psalm 22 in my resources - https://www.logos.com/product/15485/luthers-works

Any help would be much appreciated. As a matter of fact how would one go about finding his sermons on any Book not topic, but a Bible Book?

mm (milkman)

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Colin

Hi Milkman,

I can say something about Luther, but I'll leave it to someone else to answer your specific question at the end about searching for Luther's sermons. I'll just say that in my own studies, I've simply made a collection of all my Luther resources and can then search within it for specific passages. While this still involves trawling through a number of results to find a particular sermon or commentary, I'm sure you could focus the search so you received less hits.

In the passage you have quoted from your study edition of The Freedom of a Christian, the editor is drawing here from Ronald Bainton's book on Luther, Here I Stand. I'm not sure though that Bainton is right in what he says. He is referring to Luther's first series on the Psalms in 1513-1515. Not only is that very early to speak about Luther's 'new understanding of God,' I'm not sure that Luther's commentary on Psalm 22 from that period is even available to consult. It's certainly not available in the American Edition of Luther's Works which you have in Logos format. Another Logos user has made available an index of Luther's works which you can find by searching the forums. It shows that Volume 10 includes Luther's first series on the Psalms, but omits Psalm 22 (along with many others).

Luther's Operationes in Psalmos (WA 5: 598-672) is planned for inclusion in the new series of Luther's Works to be published by Concordia, somewhere in Volumes 64-66. No doubt these will be made available within Logos as the other volumes have.

The best book I have read on Luther's interpretation of Psalm 22 is The Judaizing Calvin by G. Sujin Pak, published by Oxford University Press which is unfortunately not yet available in Logos. One chapter is devoted to Luther's interpretation of certain messianic Psalms.

Colin.

Milkman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/792101#Comment_792101

Thanks Colin, I did find his sermons in Vol. 10 but as mentioned no luck on Ps 22. Thanks for the reply. It was very helpful. [Y]

Hi Milkman,

I can say something about Luther, but I'll leave it to someone else to answer your specific question at the end about searching for Luther's sermons. I'll just say that in my own studies, I've simply made a collection of all my Luther resources and can then search within it for specific passages. While this still involves trawling through a number of results to find a particular sermon or commentary, I'm sure you could focus the search so you received less hits.

In the passage you have quoted from your study edition of The Freedom of a Christian, the editor is drawing here from Ronald Bainton's book on Luther, Here I Stand. I'm not sure though that Bainton is right in what he says. He is referring to Luther's first series on the Psalms in 1513-1515. Not only is that very early to speak about Luther's 'new understanding of God,' I'm not sure that Luther's commentary on Psalm 22 from that period is even available to consult. It's certainly not available in the American Edition of Luther's Works which you have in Logos format. Another Logos user has made available an index of Luther's works which you can find by searching the forums. It shows that Volume 10 includes Luther's first series on the Psalms, but omits Psalm 22 (along with many others).

Luther's Operationes in Psalmos (WA 5: 598-672) is planned for inclusion in the new series of Luther's Works to be published by Concordia, somewhere in Volumes 64-66. No doubt these will be made available within Logos as the other volumes have.

The best book I have read on Luther's interpretation of Psalm 22 is The Judaizing Calvin by G. Sujin Pak, published by Oxford University Press which is unfortunately not yet available in Logos. One chapter is devoted to Luther's interpretation of certain messianic Psalms.

Colin.

Colin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/792140#Comment_792140

Hi again Milkman,

I have to say that I was intrigued by this reference to Luther on Psalm 22 and searched to see if I could find Luther's commentary on it online in English translation. Eventually I found it freely available here:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=f6IRAAAAYAAJ

The book is Volume 4 of "SELECT WORKS OF MARTIN LUTHER: AN OFFERING TO THE CHURCH OF GOD IN THE LAST DAYS," translated by Henry Cole back in 1826.

The commentary on Psalm 22 starts at page 344. The commentary is from his Operationes in Psalmos and comes from 1521, just before Luther went to the Diet of Worms.

Milkman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/792181#Comment_792181

Perfect. Thanks. I'll have to take time to read it. Thanks again for your searching!

Hi again Milkman,

I have to say that I was intrigued by this reference to Luther on Psalm 22 and searched to see if I could find Luther's commentary on it online in English translation. Eventually I found it freely available here:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=f6IRAAAAYAAJ

The book is Volume 4 of "SELECT WORKS OF MARTIN LUTHER: AN OFFERING TO THE CHURCH OF GOD IN THE LAST DAYS," translated by Henry Cole back in 1826.

The commentary on Psalm 22 starts at page 344. The commentary is from his Operationes in Psalmos and comes from 1521, just before Luther went to the Diet of Worms.

Matthew Miller

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/792184#Comment_792184

For those interested:

We have the complete set of Cole's translation working its way through Community Pricing.

https://www.logos.com/product/54495/henry-coles-select-works-of-martin-luther

Milkman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/792192#Comment_792192

It would be nice if these and the others were fully tagged to Luther's Works.

Just as an aside: When a footnote to Luther's writings refers to;

See WA 7:52:34–36 in Luther, M. (2012). Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings. (W. R. Russell & T. F. Lull, Eds.) (Third Edition). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

where can you or how do you find that reference in Luther's Works? That is the FL edition as noted above.

Colin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/792192#Comment_792192

Brilliant - thanks Matthew - I hadn't noticed this one. It's well worth bidding on even just for the commentary on the Psalms since they won't be available in the Concordia edition for some time.

Colin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/792208#Comment_792208

That particular reference seems to be for pages 34-36 of Luther's Basic Theological Writings which are excerpts of Luther's works. The WA reference is to a German edition of Luther's works. So you would want to download the index to Luther's writings which cross-rrferences WA and LW and see if it gives you enough information to find the reference in LW, if it has been included there. If I were at my computer I would find the thread with the index and link to it but I'm on my phone. Still, I hope this helps.

Colin