Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinname. This interpretation seems to agree with the language of Christ in John 10:34, where he speaksof those as called gods to whom the word of God came. The passage, however, may be appropriatelyresolved thus: I grant that ye are gods, and the sons of the Most High 427 But this does not materiallyalter the meaning. The object is simply to teach that the dignity with which judges are invested canform no excuse or plea why they should escape the punishment which their wickedness deserves.The government of the world has been committed to them upon the distinct understanding that theythemselves also must one day appear at the judgment-seat of heaven to render up an account. Thedignity, therefore, with which they are clothed is only temporary, and will pass away with thefashion of the world. Accordingly, it is added in the 7th verse, But ye shall die as men. You arearmed with power, as if he had said, to govern the world; but you have not on that account ceasedto be men, so as to be no longer subject to mortality. The last clause of the verse is translated bysome expositors, Ye shall fall like one of the princes; 428 but in my opinion improperly. They thinkthat it contains a threatening of the violent death which would befall these unrighteous judges,corresponding to the sentiment of these lines of a heathen poet: —“Ad generum Cereris sine caede et sanguine pauci,Descendunt reges, et sicca morte tyranni.”“Few kings and tyrants go down to Pluto, the son-in-law of Ceres, without being put to a violentdeath, before they have completed the ordinary term allotted to the life of mortal man.” 429 Thattranslation being forced, and not such as the words naturally suggest, I have no doubt that princesare here compared to the obscure and common class of mankind. The word one signifies any ofthe common people. Forgetting themselves to be men, the great ones of the earth may flatterthemselves with visionary hopes of immortality; but they are here taught that they will be compelledto encounter death as well as other men. Christ, with the view of rebutting the calumny with whichthe Pharisees loaded him, quoted this text, John 10:34, 35, “Jesus answered them, Is it not writtenin your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, andthe Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into theworld, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” By these words Christ did notmean to place himself among the order of judges; but he argues from the less to the greater, that ifthe name of God is applied to God’s officers, it with much more propriety belongs to his onlybegotten Son, who is the express image of the Father, in whom the Father’s majesty shines forth,and in whom the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells.8 Arise, O God! judge the earth. The reason why this psalm concludes with a prayer has beenalready stated at the commencement. The prophet, finding that his admonitions and remonstranceswere ineffectual, and that princes, inflated with pride, treated with contempt all instruction on theprinciples of equity, addresses himself to God, and calls upon Him to repress their insolence. By427 “Ye are all the children of the Most High, an Hebrew idiom, signifying men of the highest rank and power. Comp. Psalm29:1; 89:7.” — Cresswell.428 This is the reading in our English Bible, on which Archbishop Secker remarks, “It seems needless to say that these princesshall fall like one of the princes.” He thinks with Bishop Hare that the true reading is not , hassarim, the princes, as in ourpresent copies, but , harsaim, the poor The translation, however, given by Calvin, who takes in the vocative case, O yeprinces! and who, after the word , cheachad, for as one of, supplies the people, makes any alteration of the text unnecessary.Gataker also considers , to be in the vocative case, which is approved by Horsley, Berlin, and others. Dathe takes in thesense of tyrants, but brings no authority to prove that the word has this sense. Le Clerc, in the latter part of the verse, after likeone of, supplies the many, reading, “And fall, O ye princes! like one of the many.”429 This is the translation given of these lines in the French version.201