Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinthe whole people. But these interpreters pass over without consideration the fact, which ought notto be overlooked, that the Ephraimites are purposely named because they were the means of leadingothers into that rebellion which took place when Jeroboam set up the calves, (1 Kings 12:25-33.)What we have already said must be borne in mind, that towards the close of the psalm, the rejectionof the tribe of Ephraim is, not, without cause, contrasted with the election of the tribe of Judah. Thechildren of Ephraim are also here spoken of by way of comparison, to warn the true children ofAbraham from the example of those who cut themselves off from the Church, and yet boasted ofthe title of the Church without exhibiting holy fruits in their life. 319 As they surpassed all the othertribes in number and wealth, their influence was too powerful in beguiling the simple; but of thisthe prophet now strips them, showing that they were deprived of the aid of God.10. They kept not the covenant of God. This is the reason assigned for the Ephraimites turningtheir backs in the day of battle; and it explains why the divine assistance was withheld from them.Others, it is true, were guilty in this respect as well as they, but the vengeance of God executed onthat tribe, which by its influence had corrupted almost the whole kingdom, is purposely broughtforward as a general warning. Since then the tribe of Ephraim, in consequence of its splendor anddignity, when it threw off the yoke, encouraged and became as it were a standard of shameful revoltto all the other tribes, the prophet intended to put people on their guard, that they might not sufferthemselves in their simplicity to be again deceived in the same manner. It is no light charge whichhe brings against the sons of Ephraim: he upbraids them on account of their perfidiousness indespising the whole law and in violating the covenant. Although he employs these two words, lawand covenant, in the same sense; yet, in placing the covenant first, he clearly shows that he isspeaking not only of the moral law, the all-perfect rule of life, but of the whole service of God, ofthe truth and faithfulness of the divine promises, and of the trust which ought to be reposed in them,320of invocation, and of the doctrine of true religion, the foundation whereof was the adoption. Hetherefore calls them covenant-breakers, because they had fallen from their trust in the promises,by which God had entered into covenant with them to be their Father. Yet he afterwards veryproperly adds the law, in which the covenant was sealed up, as it were, in public records. Heaggravates the enormity of their guilt by the word refuse, which intimates that they were not simplycarried away by a kind of thoughtless or inconsiderate recklessness, and thus sinned throughgiddiness, want of knowledge or foresight, but that they had purposely, and with deliberate obstinacy,violated the holy covenant of God.11. And they forgat his works. This shameful impiety is here represented as having originatedin ingratitude, inasmuch as they wickedly buried, and made no account of the deliverance wroughtfor them, which was worthy of everlasting remembrance. Truly it was stupidity more than brutish,or rather, as it were, a monstrous thing, 321 for the Israelites to depart from God, to whom they wereunder so many and strong obligations. Nor would it have been possible for them to have been sobewitched by Satan, had they not quite forgotten the many miracles wrought in their behalf, whichformed so many bonds to keep them in the fear of God and in obedience to him. That no excusemight be left for extenuating their guilt, the prophet ennobles those works by applying to them theterm wonderful, thereby intimating, that God’s manner of acting was not of a common kind, so as319 “Sans en monstrer les fruicts en leur vie.” — Fr.320 “De la verite et fidelite des promesses, et de la foy qu’on y doit adjouster.” — Fr.321 “A la verite une telle stupidite estoit plusque brutale, ou plustost comme une chose monstrueuse.” — Fr.143