Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinweak, or ill bent, or crooked and flexible, so it is stated, that this people turned back, and slippedaway by their deceitful and tortuous craftiness, that they might not be governed by the hand of God.58. And they provoked him to anger with their high places. We have here adduced the speciesof defection by which the Israelites afforded incontestable evidence that they refused to be faithfulto God, and to yield allegiance to him. They had been sufficiently, and more than sufficientlywarned, that the service of God would be perverted and contaminated, unless they were regulatedin every part of it by the Divine Word; and now, disregarding his whole law, they recklessly followtheir own inventions. And the fruits which uniformly proceed from the contempt of the law are,that men who choose rather to follow their own understanding than to submit to the authority ofGod, become wedded to gross superstitions. The Psalmist complains that the service of God wascorrupted by them in two ways; in the first place, by their defacing the glory of God, in setting upfor themselves idols and graven images; and, secondly, by their inventing strange and forbiddenceremonies to appease the anger of God.Psalm 78:59-6659. God heard it, and was wroth, and exceedingly abhorred Israel. 60. And he forsook thehabitation of Shiloh, 358 the tabernacle where he dwelt among men. 61. And he delivered his strengthinto captivity, and his beauty into the hand of the enemy. 62. And he shut up his people to thesword, and was wroth with his own inheritance. 63. The fire devoured their chosen; 359 , and theirvirgins were not applauded. 360 64. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made nolamentation. 65. But the Lord awoke as one asleep, as a mighty man that crieth out by reason ofwine. 66. And he smote his enemies behind; he put upon them everlasting disgrace.59 God heard it, and was wroth. The prophet again shows that God, when he found that nogood resulted from his long-suffering, which the people abused, yea, even treated with mockery,and perverted as an encouragement to greater excess in sinning, at length proceeded to inflict severepunishments upon them. The metaphor, which he borrows from earthly judges, is frequently to bemet with in the Scriptures. When God is said to hear, it is not meant that it is necessary for him tomake inquisition, but it is intended to teach us that he does not rush forth inconsiderately to executehis judgments, and thus to prevent any from supposing that he ever acts precipitately. The amountof what is stated is, that the people continued so pertinaciously in their wickedness, that at lengththe cry of it ascended to heaven; and the very weight of the punishment demonstrated the aggravatednature of the offense.358 Shiloh was a city in the tribe of Ephraim, (the son of Joseph,) where the tabernacle and the ark had for a long time theirfixed abode; (see Joshua 18:1,) but from whence the ark was taken by the Philistines, in the time of Eli the priest.359 “C’est, l’elite et la fleur du peuple.” — Fr. marg. “That is, the choice and flower of the people.”360 Fry renders this verse: —“A fire consumed their young men,And their virgins had no nuptial song.”“ , (pro ,) laudatae, celebratoe sunt, scil. epithalamiis.” — Simonis “Were not praised, i e., remained unmarried; asmarriage songs were sung at nuptials.” — Bythner161