Martin Luther on Psalms 129:4

Verse. 4. The righteous Lord hath cut the cordes of the wicked.

These wordes are so full of consolation, that to the children of God in their calamities and afflictions, nothing can be more comfortable. For they knowe that no munitions, no furniture of war can be so strong. Firste of all therefore, wey and consider why he calleth the Lord Righteous, and you shall see that he so doeth, because that, when a man considereth according to the iudgement of the fleshe, the thinges which are here done, and how God gouerneth and ruleth the same, it seemeth no otherwise but that he is vnrighteous and vniust in supporting the tyranny of the wicked with great riches, power, dignitie, &c. When reason seeth this, it can iudge nothing else, but that, if there be a God, he is vniust. For first of all thus doth reason gather: If there be a God, he is able to resist the wicked, and vtterly to destroy them. For to be a God is to be almighty. Againe, thus carnall reason argueth. If there be a God, he must needes knowe those thinges which are done in the world. For it can not be said of God, that he is ignorant of any thing. Now, what else followeth heereof, but that if God knowe these thinges to be cruelly and vniustly done, and is able to resist them, he ought also to be no lesse willing to doe the same. For if we thinke that he wil not doe that whiche he knoweth and is able to doe, it must follow that he is not good, but euil: not iust, but vniust. Nowe lay these thinges togither. If God haue power, wisedom and goodnes in him: if he be able to helpe: if he knowe how and also be willing to help, why are all these things done and gouerned in the world in such sort, that the wicked haue power, riches and dignitie, as a rewarde of their impietie? and contrariwise the godly for their pietie and godlines are many wayes and most cruelly afflicted? All these thinges are a liuely testimony against God, as before we said of Diogenes. This argument of Epicurus and such like atheistes, is to the flesh inuincible. Wherefore reason beeing altogither blinded and wrapped in these snares, inclyneth to this opinion, that there is no God, or else that he regardeth not the affaires of men.

Of this offence and stumbling blocke the holy Ghost warneth vs when he attributeth this name vnto God, that he is righteous, whom vnrighteousnes and impietie pleaseth not. Therefore although he suffer the wicked to flourish for a time, yet at the last he cutteth their cordes, that is, he destroyeth both their power and them, according to that saying: Thou art not a God that loueth wickednes. Psal. 6. Wherefore let Christians learne to iudge, not by that which presently they fele, but by that which the word of God promiseth and shall assuredly come to passe: to witte, that the wicked when they haue long plowed vppon the backs of the faithfull and many wayes afflicted them, shal perish at the length. For God is iust, and his iustice wil not suffer the righteous to be oppressed.