Martin Luther on Psalms 132:13

Verse. 13. For the Lord hath chosen Sion, and loueth to dwell in it, saying:

This is an amplyfication of the promise. As if he saide: Ye haue yt promise. But doe your indeuour, that ye may become righteous and keepe my couenant, shewing your selues obedient vnto my voice. Then shall this kingdome endure and I will dwel with you, and wil replenish you with all maner of blessinges both corporall and spirituall.

Here, of a singular purpose he vseth the same word which Moses vsed Deut. 16.26. In the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. For at the beginning there was no certaine place appointed wherin the tabernacle should remain, but it wandred, not onely from place to place, but also from tribe to tribe, as Ephraim, Manasses, Dan, &c. Moreouer by this word, God chooseth a place for his seruice: therefore we may not chose it. hath chosen, he ouerthroweth all kindes of worship, and religion of mans owne deuising and choosing, whereof there was an infinite number among the Iewes. For thus they thought: If it be lawful for the Priests to cary the tabernacle from one place to an other, why may not we also do sacrifice in moe places then one? This was plaine and grosse idolatrie. For seeing that God did bind him selfe to the Mercieseate by his worde, namely that there he would be, and there he would be found: therefore it was idolatrie to beleue that he was any where else, or to seeke him in any other place. Therefore, when the people did deuise or choose any kind of worship which God had not chosen, we see howe sharpely the Prophets did reproue them. For there is nothing which God so much detesteth, as to admitte or appointe for the seruice of God, that which he hath not commaunded. Wherefore election or choise belongeth not vnto vs: but we must yeelde obedience to the voice of the Lorde. Else shall that happen vnto vs which Ieremy threateneth: That they haue chosen will I reiect. These thinges destroy and confound the inuentions, the deuises and deuotions, the false and counterfet religions which we haue seene in the Papacie. For whereas some gaue them selues to this order of religion & some to that: whereas they had certaine daies of abstinence, certaine meates, certaine Sainctes to call vppon, and such other like, if ye aske who commanded all these thinges, their owne conscience will constraine them to aunswere that they were in deede of their owne choosing and their own deuising. But this is to serue not God, but Satan. For God is not serued but when that is done which he hath commaunded. Wherefore election or choise (as I said) pertaineth not to vs, but to God alone: but obedience belongeth to vs, so that what God hath commaunded, that must we doe.

Moreouer, the word of Choosing beateth downe all confidence and presumption of workes. For if he should say: I giue vnto you Sion for a reward, or this doe I to requite or to recompence you, it were as much as if he said, this doe I in respect of your desert. But when he saith: I haue chosen Sion according to myne owne will, he sheweth that he doth it without all respect of merites: If God doe choose, then commeth it not of our merite. so that he both condemneth all counterfet religion, and all cōfidence of merite. For voluntary worshippings and chosen religions perteine to the deuils diuinitie. And it helpeth vs nothing, that they are chosen of a good intent. For there is no good intent which is grounded vppon our owne iudgement, No good intent but that is groū ded vpon the word. and not vpon the word of God, which ought to be the groundworke of all good intents. For he onely intendeth well, which knoweth that he is constrained to do this thing or that by the word of God. This word who so hath not, although he seeme in all things as holy as an Angel, beware of him, and auoid him as a deadly poyson. This is a most certaine and infallible rule for vs to follow (which if we doe, we shall neuer be deceiued), if we demaund whether God hath required of vs or commaūded this thing or that. For he approueth nothing as good in his sight, which he hath not chosen. And this briefly as touching the word of Choosing, I thought good to note.