Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvin13. O my God! make them like a whirling ball, 447 like stubble before the wind. 14. As fireburns a forest 448 and as the flame kindles the mountains, 449 15. So pursue them with thy tempest,450and terrify them with thy whirlwind. 16. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thyname, O Jehovah! 17. Let them be ashamed, and terrified perpetually, and let them be confounded,and perish. 18. And let them know that thou art, thy name Jehovah, thou alone the Most High overall the earth. 45113. O my God! make them like a whirling ball. As the ungodly, when they gird and preparethemselves for destroying the Church, are usually inflated with intolerable pride, the inspired bardbeseeches God to put them to shame, it being impossible to abate their pride until they are laidprostrate, confounded, and shamefully disappointed. When he declares (verse 16) that, as the resultof this, they will seek the name of God, he is not to be understood as speaking of their being broughtto true repentance, or of their genuine conversion. I indeed admit that the first step to genuinerepentance is when men, brought low by affliction, willingly humble themselves. But what is heremeant is nothing more than a forced and slavish submission like that of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Itis a case of frequent occurrence for the wicked, when subdued by adversity, to give glory to God,for a short period. But they are soon again carried away with a frantic madness, which clearlydiscovers their hypocrisy, and brings to light the pride and rebellion which lurked in their hearts.What the prophet desires is, that the wicked may be compelled by stripes to acknowledge God,whether they will or no, in order that their fury, which breaks forth because they escape withimpunity, may at least be kept under restraint. This is more clearly apparent from the 17th verse,where he distinctly prays that they may be destroyed for ever; which would not at all correspondwith his previous statement, were it regarded as a prayer for their being brought to repentance. Nordoes he needlessly heap together such a multiplicity of words. He does this partly because thereprobate, though often chastised, are nevertheless so incorrigible that ever and anon they aremustering up new strength and courage; and partly because there is nothing which it is more difficultto be persuaded of than that such as wallow at ease in great outward prosperity will soon perish.447 “Globum,” — Lat “Une boule,” — Fr The word , galeggal, thus translated, is interpreted by Lowth, “any light thingwhirled by the wind, chaff, thistle-down, etc.” “ seems here,” says Archbishop Secker, “especially on comparing Isaiah 17:13,to be not a wheel, but some light matter, which the wind whirls round and blows away; chaff.” In that passage of Isaiah, wherethe same Hebrew word occurs, the rendering in our English Bible is “a rolling thing;” and the marginal reading, “thistle-down.”This verse affords a striking exhibition of the nothingness of combined nations before the Almighty. He can make them “likethe thistle-down; like the stubble before the wind.”448 The allusion in this verse is to the fires, either accidental or designed, which frequently occur in hot and wooded countries,and which spread to a vast extent, devouring all before them, and continuing their ravages for a long time. Many Eastern andAfrican travelers describe these formidable and alarming fires from personal observation; and such descriptions serve to give amore adequate idea than would otherwise offer itself to an European mind of the Psalmist’s meaning. This language is anexpressive image for wide and quick destruction.449 “Kindleth the mountains, that is, the produce of the mountains, trees, plants, etc.” — Walford.450 “Pursue them with thy tempest, is an evident reference to the dissipation of the chaff, and what follows relates clearly tothe expansion of the flame.” — Note of Henley, in Lowth’s Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, volume 1, page 277.451 “The construction of the words in the close of the psalm lies most probably thus, , and they shall know, i e., it shall beknown by this means, , thou art thy name Jehovah, i e., that thou art what thy name Jehovah imports; and what that is,is expounded in the remainder of the verse, , thou only the Most High over all the earth; that being indeed the meaning ofJehovah, the infinite, eternal, and so the only supreme power over all the world.” — Hammond210