Luther’s Works: The American Edition, published by Concordia and Fortress Press between 1955 and 1986, comprises fifty-five volumes. These are a selection representing only about a third of Luther’s works in the Latin and German of the standard Weimar Edition, not including the German Bible.
The commentaries contained in this volume show conclusively that Luther achieved great things in the field of Biblical scholarship. Luther’s language is simple and always to the point. He curries to no one’s favor as he goes to the heart of the sixteen psalms expounded in this volume. His attention to the texts is “personal, devotional, political, exegetical, polemical— all at the same time,” writes Jaroslav Pelikan. His commentaries contain many references and allusions to errors and false practices prevalent in his time, but after the lapse of more than four centuries the commentaries still have the quality of timelessness. Both clergy and laity will profit much—spiritually as well as intellectually—from Luther’s incisive and straightforward words.
This third volume contains lectures on selected Psalms.