There is also a third entreaty, for although David was set in the midst of people doing evil deeds, he eagerly desires that his case be separated from contagion with them.^[1] Many suppose that this sentiment should be attributed to the Lord Jesus, because it belongs to him alone not to fear judgment, as the one who overcomes when he is judged.^[2] Indeed, he has judgment from the unjust man, and into it Christ entered willingly, as you find it written, O my people, what have I done to you? Or wherein have I grieved you? But since the Father has given all judgment to him,^[3] not indeed as if to one that was weak but as if to a Son, what judgment can he undergo? If they think that the Son must undergo the Father’s judgment, surely the Father does not judge any man, but all judgment has been given to the Son, that all men may honor the Son even as they honor the Father.^[4] The Father honors the Son, and do you not put him to judgment? We have expressed this thought here, so that no one would think that we substituted the figure of the psalmist in the Lord’s place out of fear of inquiry. Holy David foresees in spirit that the Jews will rise up against the Lord in his passion. Since he is not greatly afraid of the judgment upon his own faith, he beseeches that his own case be distinguished also from a nation of persecutors. Else, the stock of the entire Jewish race could be implicated with those wicked heirs of his own race and posterity.

For the Lord will judge his people, and he will [give] comfort among his servants.^[1] The reason for the previous praise is stated: For the Lord will judge his people, that is, the Jewish people, to whom he revealed great miracles and assigned his prophets so that the people would not sin. He also sent to them his own Son, so that their accursed hardness could finally be melted. But because they persisted with accursed obstinacy, he will certainly judge them, because they were unwilling to be his, though he had chosen them from all nations as his possession. To them he says, Hear, O people, and I will speak,^[2] and elsewhere, My people, what have I done to you? So he will judge them. But hear what follows as it concerns the faithful: He will again have compassion upon us.^[3] He means when he will render their promised rewards to those on earth afflicted with harsh contempt on account of his name. Scripture says of them, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,^[4] and in another place are the words He that believes in me is not judged but will pass from death to life. But he that does not believe is already judged.^[5]

Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened? O my people, what have I done to you, or in what way have I injured you, or wherein have I wearied you? This language indeed is more fit from me to you who insult me. It is a sad thing that we watch for opportunities against each other and having destroyed our fellowship of spirit by diversities of opinion have become almost more inhuman and savage to one another than even the barbarians who are now engaged in war against us, banded together against us by the Trinity whom we have separated. We are not foreigners making forays and raids upon foreigners or nations of a different language, which is some little consolation in the calamity. But we are making war upon one another, and almost upon those of the same household. Or if you will, we the members of the same body are consuming and being consumed by one another. Nor is this, bad as it is, the extent of our calamity, for we even regard our diminution as a gain. But since we are in such a condition and regulate our faith by the times, let us compare the times with one another; you your emperor, and I my sovereigns; you Ahab and I Josiah.

You see the Lord is teaching you a lesson, challenging you to goodness by his own example, teaching you even when he reproves. When accusing the Jews, for instance, he says, O my people, what have I done to you? Or wherein have I grieved you? Or wherein have I offended you? Answer me. Is it because I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and delivered you out of the house of bondage? adding, And I sent before your face Moses, Aaron and Miriam. O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised. You were indeed oppressed, an exile in foreign lands, laden with heavy burdens.

For what is asked of you, O man? Only that you fear God: seek for him, walk after him, follow in his ways.^[1] With what shall I win over the Lord? Shall I win him over with burnt offerings? The Lord is not reconciled, nor are sins redeemed, with tens of thousands of young goats or thousands of rams or with the fruits of unholiness, but the grace of the Lord is won with a good life.

Is everyone who is turning from sin to faith, turning from sinful practices (as if they were his mother) to life? I shall call in evidence one of the twelve prophets, who says, Am I to make an offering of my firstborn son for my impiety? Should I offer the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? Can the mother buy her way to God by giving up her firstborn? This must not be taken as an attack on the words increase in numbers.^[1] Micah is naming, by using the word impiety, the first impulses after birth, which do not help us to knowledge of God. If anyone misuses this as a basis for saying that that birth is evil, he should also use it as a basis for saying that it is good, in that in it we come to know the truth. Come back to a sober and upright life and stop sinning.^[2] But the sinner knows nothing of God. We are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against spiritual beings, potent in temptation, the rulers of this dark world,^[3] so there is forbearance. This is why Paul says, I bruise my own body and treat it as a slave, because every athlete goes into total training.^[4] By total training we understand not that he abstains from absolutely everything but that he shows self-control in those things he has taken a deliberate decision to use. They do it to win a crown which dies, we for one which never dies,^[5] if we win the contest. No effort, no crown!

But God,[adulterers and fornicators say,] is good and most kind. He is merciful, compassionate and rich in mercy,^[1] which he prefers to every sacrifice.^[2] He desires not so much the death as the repentance of the sinner.^[3] He is the Savior of all people, and especially of the faithful.^[4] Therefore the children of God must also be merciful^[5] and peacemakers,^[6] forgiving each other as Christ also forgave us,^[7] not judging, lest we be judged.^[8] For to his master a man stands or falls; who are you to judge the servant of another?^[9] Forgive, and you will be forgiven.^[10] Yet many such things as these are only said, not done, merely bandied about, unmanning rather than strengthening discipline, flattering God and pandering to themselves.

You have been told, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy and to be prepared to walk with your Lord? Accordingly, the gospel says to you, Arise, let us go from here,^[1] while the law says to you, You shall walk after the Lord your God. You have learned the method of your flight from here—why do you delay?

Here is a priest who serves at every hour with great fear while walking humbly with the Lord his God in accordance with the word of the prophet. Meanwhile another priest is hardly capable of having that much fear even when he is about to die and enter into the last judgment before his Lord. But the full expression of the priesthood is comprised of the combination of the teaching of truth with good works. This is in accord with blessed Luke’s comment that in writing his Gospel he had composed a treatise concerning all the things that Jesus began both to do and to teach.^[1]

Forget about burnt offerings, countless sacrifices and oblations of firstborn, he is saying. If you are concerned to appease the divinity, practice what God ordered you in the beginning through Moses. What in fact is that? To deliver fair judgment and decision in all cases where you have to choose better from worse, to continue giving evidence of all possible love and fellow-feeling to your neighbor, and be ready to put into practice what is pleasing to God in every way. He means, in short, You will love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul, and you will love your neighbor as yourself,^[1] as was said of old through Moses. Do this, he is saying, as something preferable to sacrifices in God’s eyes.

You ask what you should offer: offer yourself. For what else does the Lord seek of you but you? Because of all earthly creatures he has made nothing better than you, he seeks yourself from yourself, because you have lost yourself.