Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinthat they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” He means tacitly to upbraidthe Jews, and to impress upon their minds the truth, that their own perverseness was the only causewhich prevented them from enjoying a state of great outward prosperity. If it is objected, that Godin vain and without ground utters this complaint, since it was in his power to bend the stiff necksof the people, and that, when he was not pleased to do this, he had no reason to compare himselfto a man deeply grieved; I answer, that he very properly makes use of this style of speaking on ouraccount, that we may seek for the procuring cause of our misery nowhere but in ourselves. Wemust here beware of mingling together things which are totally different — as widely differentfrom each other as heaven is distant from the earth. God, in coming down to us by his word, andaddressing his invitations to all men without exception, disappoints nobody. All who sincerelycome to him are received, and find from actual experience that they were not called in vain. At thesame time, we are to trace to the fountain of the secret electing purpose of God this difference, thatthe word enters into the heart of some, while others only hear the sound of it. And yet there is noinconsistency in his complaining, as it were, with tears, of our folly when we do not obey him. Inthe invitations which he addresses to us by the external word, he shows himself to be a father; andwhy may he not also be understood as still representing himself under the image of a father in usingthis form of complaint? In Ezekiel 18:32, he declares with the strictest regard to truth, “I have nopleasure in the death of him that dieth,” provided in the interpretation of the passage we candidlyand dispassionately take into view the whole scope of it. God has no pleasure in the death of asinner: How? because he would have all men turned to himself. But it is abundantly evident, thatmen by their own free-will cannot turn to God, until he first change their stony hearts into heartsof flesh: yea, this renovation, as Augustine judiciously observes, is a work surpassing that of thecreation itself. Now what hinders God from bending and framing the hearts of all men equally insubmission to him? Here modesty and sobriety must be observed, that instead of presuming tointrude into his incomprehensible decrees, we may rest contented with the revelation which he hasmade of his will in his word. There is the justest ground for saying that he wills the salvation ofthose to whom that language is addressed, (Isaiah 21:12,) “Come unto me, and be ye converted.”In the second part of the verse before us, we have defined what it is to hear God. To assent to whathe speaks would not be enough; for hypocrites will grant at once that whatever proceeds from hismouth is true, and will affect to listen just as if an ass should bend its ears. But the clause is intendedto teach us that we can only be said to hear God, when we submit ourselves to his authority.14. I would soon have brought their enemies low. Here the Israelites are taught, that all thecalamities which had befallen them were to be imputed to their own sins; for their enemies did notfight against them with any other strength than that with which they were supplied from above.God had promised that under his leading the chosen people would prove victorious over all theirenemies; and now to take away all ground for charging him with violating his word, he affirms thathe would not have failed to enable them to do this had he not been prevented by their sins. Hedoubtless intends tacitly to remind them that the victories which they had formerly achieved werenot owing to their own military valor, but to Him under whose conduct they had been placed. Now,he tells them that he was not only kept back by their sins from putting forth his power to defendthem, but that he was also compelled by their perverseness to rush against them with the sword inhis hand, while he left their enemies to remain in undisturbed tranquillity.15. The haters of Jehovah would have lied to him. Here the same thought is pursued, when theIsraelites are informed that their enemies would have humbly submitted to their authority had not194