465 - A Bonhoeffer Sermon

Third, for Bonhoeffer, the Psalms, and also the entire Old Testament, were the "Book of
Christ." The Old Testament should therefore be read in the light of both the Incarnation and
the Cross. A scholarly exposition of this vantage point has been offered recently by Martin
A Bonhoeffer Sermon Kuske of East Germany, The Old Testament as the Book of Christ: An Appraisal of
Bonhoeffer's Interpretation (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976). Kuske argues that Bonhoeffer
Translated By Daniel Bloesch
does not reject the Psalms of vengeance as being in opposition to New Testament morality, or
Edited By F. Burton Nelson
that they represent an early religious stage. The vengeance Psalms are "fulfilled in the
crucified Lord."
Eberhard Bethge, universally acknowledged as the foremost biographer and commentator on
the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, has called attention to the importance of preaching in
From Bonhoeffer's perspective, the first concern in considering the Psalms is not to ask what
evaluating Bonhoeffer's life and work. "Preaching was the great event in his life; the hard
they have to do with us, "but what they have to do with Jesus Christ."
theologizing and all the critical love of his church were all for its sake, for in it the message of
Christ, the bringer of peace, was proclaimed. To Bonhoeffer nothing in his calling competed
in importance with preaching" (Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pp. 174-5). But many
of Bonhoeffer's sermons are still not available in English translation. His Finkenwalde
lectures on preaching have only recently been translated (Worldly Preaching, by Clyde E. SERMON ON A PSALM OF VENGEANCE
Fant, New York: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1975). It is consequently no surprise that Bonhoeffer BY DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
is known more as theologian, teacher, resister, and martyr, than as preacher.
From Gesammelte Schriften, Band IV, pp. 413-422, "Predigt über einen Rachepsalm," July
Three brief comments may help orient readers to this newly translated "Sermon on a Psalm of 11, 1937.
Vengeance," four and one-half decades after its writing. First, the year 1937 was the fourth
year into the Hitler era and marked a stormy road for the Confessing Church. In February of PSALM 58
that year, the Ministry of the Interior issued an order which prohibited pulpit announcements
concerning persons who were leaving the church. Also there was an attempt to prohibit the 1.Do you indeed speak righteousness, Oyou judges, do you judge the children of men fairly?
practice of using intercessory lists in the churches. In June, the same government department
sought to prohibit the taking of collections during Confessing Church services. Several 2.No, at heart you work iniquity; you deal out the violence of your hands in the land,
pastors were arrested in Berlin, including Martin Niemoller on July 1. Bonhoeffer was in
Pastor Niemöller's house at the time of the arrest, together with Franz Hildebrandt, Eugen 3.The godless are perverse from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
Rose, and Eberhard Bethge. The sermon's reference at the outset to "the church's distress" is
linked, therefore, to an increasing wave of harassment, persecution, and imprisonments under 4.Their poison is like a serpent's venom, like a deaf adder that stops its ear,
the relentless hand of the Gestapo. It was written just ten days after the arrest.
5.So that it does not hear the voice of charmers charming ever so skillfully.
Second, the Book of Psalms constituted for Dietrich Bonhoeffer a rich treasury of the church's
inheritance. He referred to the Psalter as "The Prayer Book of the Bible" in a 1940 meditation 6.O God, break the teeth in their mouths; shatter the fangs of the young lions, OGod!
(translated by
7.Let them melt away like water that runs continuously. As he aims his arrows, let those be as
split apart.

Daniel Bloesch is the minister of the Community Church, Round Lake, Illinois. F. Burton Nelson is Professor of 8.Let them be like the snail which dissolves into slime, like an untimely birth that never sees
Theology and Ethics, North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. This Bonhoeffer sermon, previously the sun.
unavailable in English, will be of wide interest not only to Bonhoeffer students but to preachers and biblical
interpreters. Both translator and editor have supervised seminars here and in Germany dealing with the
continuing interest in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazis, April 9, 1945. In the style of the time, the 9.Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns whether green or ablaze, may he sweep
masculinist language has been retained. them away.

10.The righteous will ignore when he sees such vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood
466 - A Bonhoeffer Sermon
of the wicked,

James Burtness; published by Augsburg Press, 1970). In the Finkenwalde seminary 11.Men will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; there is truly a God who judges
community of which Bonhoeffer was the spiritual leader, every day began with readings from on earth."
the Psalms. All of the one hundred fifty Psalms were grist for the mill of daily devotion,
including the difficult imprecatory Psalms. Bonhoeffer insisted that one should not hurry by 467 - A Bonhoeffer Sermon
the passages of wrath and vengeance simply because they were jarring and bloody.
Is this frightful Psalm of vengeance our prayer? Are we actually allowed to pray in such a
manner? At first the answer to this question is totally clear, "No, we are certainly not
permitted to pray like that. Indeed, we have to shoulder much of the blame for the hostility we
encounter and which gets us into trouble. We have to confess that it is God's righteous
punishment which strikes and humbles us sinful men." Even in these times of the church's
distress we are compelled to recognize that God himself in his anger has raised his hand
against us to afflict us with our own sin, all our spiritual indolence, our open or inward
disobedience, the profound lack of discipline in our everyday lives under his word. Or would
we want to deny that each personal sin, even the most hidden, must bring down God's wrath,
call down God's revenge on our enemies without this revenge hitting us even harder? No, we
are not able to pray this Psalm. Not because we would be too good for it (what a superficial
thought, what inconceivable arrogance!), but because we are too sinful, too evil for it.
Only he who is totally without sin can pray like that. This Psalm of vengeance is the prayer of
the innocent. "For the chief musician; to the tune, Do not Destroy, by David, a refuge Psalm."
It is David who prays this Psalm. David himself is not innocent. But it pleased God to prepare
for himself in David the one who will be called the Son of David, Jesus Christ. The reason
David must not lose his life is because the Christ is to come from him. David could never
have prayed for himself against his enemies in order to preserve his own life. We know that
David humbly endured all personal abuse. But Christ, and therefore the church of God, is in
David. Thus his enemies are the enemies of Jesus Christ and his holy church. For that reason
Christ himself is praying this Psalm in David-and with Christ the universal holy church. No,
we sinners are not praying this song of vengeance; innocence itself is praying it. The
innocence of Christ steps before the world and accuses it. We do not accuse it, Christ does.
When Christ takes action against sin, aren't we ourselves right in the midst of the accused as
well?
"Do you indeed speak righteousness, O you judges, do you judge the children of men fairly?"
It is an evil time when the world lets injustice happen silently, when the oppression of the
poor and the wretched cries out to heaven in a loud voice and the judges and rulers of the
earth keep silent about it, when the persecuted church calls to God for help in the hour of dire
distress and exhorts men to do justice, and yet no mouth on earth is opened to bring justice.
"Do you indeed speak righteousness, O you judges, do you judge the children of men? Must
children of men suffer injustice? Must that always be forgotten in such times? Do you hear it?
Children of men who are creatures of God like you, who feel pain and misery like you, you
who do violence to them; who have their happiness and hopes like you; who feel their honor
and their shame like you; children of men who are sinners like you and need God's mercy like
you; your brothers! Are you mute?" Oh, no, they are not mute, their
468 - A Bonhoeffer Sermon
voice is heard on earth. But it is an unmerciful, a partisan word they speak. It judges not by
what is right, but by a person's standing.
"No, at heart you work iniquity, you deal out the violence of your hands in the land." When
the mouths of the world's rulers remain silent about injustice, their hands invariably commit
acts of violence. This language of human hands where no justice exists is terrible. It is there
that the distress and pain of the body originates. It is there that the persecuted, captive, beaten
church longs for deliverance from this body. Let me fall into God's hands, but not into the
hands of men! Do we still hear it? Christ is speaking here! He experienced the unrighteous
judgment, he fell into the hands of men. Innocence is accusing the unrighteous world.
However, only God's righteous wrath befalls us sinners. But it can't be any other way.
It is not just a question here of particular transgressions which occur everywhere. No, here the
secret of godlessness itself is unveiled. "The godless are perverse from the womb, they go
astray from birth, speaking lies." Only perfect innocence looks into this abyss of evil. We
would all too gladly like to believe at least something could be changed, improved here, and
we try in innumerable ways to achieve something here or there. When serious wrong is done
again and again, it makes us very uneasy, repeatedly dismays us and fills us with indignation.
Innocence alone knows that everything has to happen here just as it does happen. It knows of
the dark mystery that Satan has already seized his own in their mothers' wombs and is now
driving them frantically on. Now they have to do his work. The world continues to be the
world, Satan continues to be Satan. At the same time, innocence gains complete peace of
mind in this abyss of knowledge. It has to be so, and it does not change.
Their poison is like a serpent's venom, like a deaf adder that stops its ear so that it does not
hear the voice of the charmers charming ever so skillfully." The Orient is full of magicians
who subdue snakes with their voices so that they have to obey. A deaf snake, however,
doesn't hear this voice and goes after the magician. The godless are like such deaf snakes.
They are not able to hear the voice of the snake charmer even though he is able to charm
snakes quite skillfully. God himself is the snake charmer who skillfully charms snakes. He
charms and captivates our hearts with his word of grace. He attracts us with the sweet words
of his love. He persuades us and subdues our hearts so that we are compelled to listen to him
as if spellbound and be obedient to him. Yet the great mystery remains-there are some who
hear and some who have deaf ears and stop up their ears so that they are not able to hear.
Indeed, we know of ourselves that there are times when our ears are deaf. Those are the times
we harden our hearts against God's will in willful disobedience and heap sin upon sin until we
are finally no longer able to hear. At that point Satan has taken possession of us. So Satan
hardens the hearts of those who have to serve him in his struggle against God's kingdom and
Word. They are no longer able to hear or obey. However, because their ears are deaf to the
grace of God, their mouths
469 - A Bonhoeffer Sermon
are also mute to the righteousness of God. They are enemies of God and his church. David,
Christ, and the church of God recognize them as such.
This realization leads us into prayer. When this is the enemy, then no human skill or ingenuity
can help bring about peace. Then no human strength can help overcome these enemies. God's
name must be called. And now those horrible prayer requests we dread begin in our Psalm.
When we read these words, we can only repeat them with trembling and deep inner resistance.
God is called upon to take revenge on enemies. "O God, break the teeth in their mouths.
Shatter the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!" Above all let us learn here that faced with the
enemies of God and his church all we can do is pray. Our own courage-no matter how great it
may be-all our bravery is bound to snap in the presence of this enemy. Here we are dealing
with Satan's attack. Here the one who alone has power over Satan, God himself, must take the
initiative.
It would mean much if we would learn that we must earnestly pray to God in such distress
and that whoever entrusts revenge to God dismisses any thought of ever taking revenge
himself. Whoever does take revenge himself still does not know whom he is up against and
still wants to take charge of the cause by himself. But whoever leaves revenge in God's hands
alone has become willing to suffer and bear it patiently-without vengeance, without a thought
of one's own revenge, without hate and without protest; such a person is meek, peaceable, and
loves his enemies. God's cause has become more important to him than his own sufferings.
He knows God will win the victory in the end. "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will
retaliate" (Deut. 32:35)-and he will retaliate. But we are free from vengeance and retribution.
Only the person who is totally free of his own desire for revenge and free of hate and who is
sure not to use his prayers to satisfy his own lust for revenge-only such a person can pray with
a pure heart: "Shatter the fangs of the young lions, O Lord, break the teeth in their mouth."
That means, "God, it is your cause about to suffer damage here, your honor is being violated.
God, step in now and destroy your enemy, exercise your power, let your righteous anger be
aroused." God does not let himself be mocked. He will sit in judgment on his enemies. And
whether we are taken aback by the dreadful desire of the Psalm or not, God's power will be
even more dreadful for the person it strikes. And if we are frightened by human fists, how
much more must we be frightened by God's fist crushing the godless for the sake of his
kingdom, his name, his honor? The Lord of Creation is establishing his Kingdom. Vengeance
on his enemies is his.
Now David breaks out in immeasurable jubilation. He is fully certain that his prayer will be
heard. In images following in rapid succession he already sees the downfall of the godless in
the midst of strife, anguish, and suffering. "Let them melt away like water that runs
continuously." They will meet their end quickly and suddenly. They will no longer be there
just as water quickly runs off. "As he aims his arrows, let those be
470 - A Bonhoeffer Sermon
as split apart"-the deadly arrows are still whizzing by, but they can no longer do any damage,
they are powerless. "Let them be like the snail which dissolves into slime." How full of
contempt David speaks of his enemies here! God will crush the powerful and great people of
this earth just as one crushes a snail underfoot. "Like an untimely birth that never sees the
sun." They will be finished so quickly that they will remain in darkness and oblivion and no
one will ever ask about them. "Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether
green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!" God's wrath will not let his enemies' plans
mature. The godless are prematurely torn away-by force. They don't finish anything, that is
God's revenge. It will come quickly, more quickly than we suspected.
"The righteous will rejoice when he sees such vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of
the wicked." Once again we shudder at this Psalm. Isn't this ending really quite impossible for
us to pray as Christians? Brothers and sisters, if we are still evasive there, we have understood
nothing of it at all. Nothing less than God and his righteousness is at stake here. The godless
must die so that God's justice may be triumphant. Human friendship and human sympathy are
no longer at issue here. The only thing that matters is that God wins the victory in the end.
Whoever recoils from this expression of joy at God's revenge and the blood of the godless still
doesn't know what happened on the Cross of Christ. God's righteous vengeance on the godless
one has already come over us. The blood of the godless one has already flowed. God's death.
sentence on the wicked is pronounced. God's justice is fulfilled. That has taken place in the
Cross of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ died the death of the ungodly, struck down by God's wrath and vengeance. His
blood is the blood God's justice demanded for the transgression of his commandments. God's
vengeance has been carried out right here on earth, more terribly than the psalmist himself
knows. Christ, the innocent one, died the death of a sinner so that we do not have to die. Now
we stand as sinners at the foot of his cross and now a puzzle difficult to understand is solved:
Jesus Christ, the innocent one, prays as God's vengeance on the godless is fulfilled, he prays
as our Psalm is fulfilled: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:24).
The one who bore the vengeance, he alone has set us free from God's wrath and revenge; he
has brought forgiveness to his enemies and no one before him was allowed to pray like that.
He alone is allowed to. If we look at him, the crucified, we recognize God's true and living
anger at us, godless, and at the same moment we sense our liberation from this anger, and we
hear "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
"The righteous will rejoice when he sees such vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of
the wicked." Is not that true delight in God? Is not that the joy of the righteous at the triumph
of God's justice on the Cross, joy at Christ's victory? God's vengeance has died and the blood
of the godless one in whom we bathe ourselves gives us a share in
471 - A Bonhoeffer Sermon
God's victory; the blood of the godless one has become our redemption, it cleanses us of all
our sin. That is the miracle.
Thus the image of the blood-stained Savior emerges from the midst of this Psalm, the Savior
who died for the godless, struck down by God's revenge, for our salvation. No one is excluded
here. Christ bore all of God's vengeance for everyone. God's wrath and vengeance will no
longer rest on anyone who comes to him, and stays on his side. They are under the protection
of Christ's righteousness, whoever they may be. Yet whoever does not want to come, whoever
does not want to prostrate himself at the foot of Christ's Cross as a godless sinner, whoever
defies the Cross of Christ, God's wrathful judgment will come over himGod's vengeance as it
came over Christ, however not for life, but for eternal death.
"Men will say, 'Surely there is a reward for the righteous.'" Not happiness or power or honor
in this world is the fruit of the righteous. It is nothing other than the fellowship of Christ's
Cross, the redemption from God's wrath. "There is truly a God who judges on earth." Where
is God's judgment on the godless of this world? Not in visible misfortune, failure, or disgrace
in the eyes of this world, but solely in the Cross of Jesus Christ. Isn't that enough for us? Don't
we see all the enemies of God already fallen and condemned in this Cross? What is the good
of all our anxiety which wants to see even more than this judgment of God? For that reason,
when we begin to doubt God's justice on earth, let us look to the Cross of Christ-here is
judgment, here is free pardon.
Today the crucified One in this love is still concealing from us what we will see one day at the
Last Judgment, the salvation of the just and the damnation of the godless. We couldn't bear it
on this earth. But we may be certain that everything will serve to increase the joy of the
righteous. On that day, the victory and triumph of Christ will be made known in salvation and
judgment. Until that day, however, Satan will continue to incite the enemies of Christ and his
church to commit acts of injustice and violence and tell lies. In the middle of this raging
battle, Christ vicariously prays this Psalm for us. He accuses the godless, he calls down God's
vengeance and justice on them and gives himself up for the benefit of all the ungodly with his
innocent suffering on the Cross.

And now we pray this song with the psalmist, in humble gratitude that we have been granted
deliverance from wrath through the Cross of Christ. We pray in fervent supplication that God
may bring all our enemies under the Cross of Christ and grant them mercy. We pray with
burning desire that the day may soon come when Christ will visibly triumph over all his
enemies and establish his Kingdom. We can learn to pray the Psalm in this way. Amen.