Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinexperience of the past, that he is inclined compassionately to hear the prayers of his servants, andalways affords them succor when the exigencies of their circumstances require it; especially asthere remains at all times the same reason for continuing his goodness. Thus the prophet happilyapplies to believers of his own day, the benefits which God in old time bestowed upon their fathers,because both they and their fathers were called to the hope of the same inheritance.2 Thou hast taken away the iniquity of thy people. It was very natural for the faithful to feelalarmed and perplexed on account of their sins, and therefore the prophet removes all ground foroverwhelming apprehension, by showing them, that God, in delivering his people, had given anirrefragable proof of free forgiveness. He had before traced this deliverance to the mere goodpleasure and free grace of God as its source; but after it was wrought, the iniquities of the peoplehaving separated between them and their God, and estranged them from him, it was necessary thatthe remedy of pardon should be brought to their aid. In saying that their iniquities were taken away,he does not refer to the faithful being reformed and purged from their sins, in other words, to thatwork by which God, sanctifying them by the Spirit of regeneration, actually removes sin from them.What he intended to say he explains immediately after. The amount, in short, is, that God wasreconciled to the Jews by not imputing their sins to them. When God is said to cover sins, themeaning is, that he buries them, so that they come not into judgment, as we have shown more atlarge on the 32nd psalm, at the beginning. When, therefore, he had punished the sins of his peopleby captivity, it being his will to restore them again to their own country, he removed the greatimpediment to this, by blotting out their transgressions; for deliverance from punishment dependsupon the remission of sin. Thus we are furnished with an argument in confutation of that foolishconceit of the Sophists, which they set forth as some great mystery, That God retains the punishmentalthough he forgive the fault; whereas God announces in every part of his word, that his object inpardoning is, that being pacified, he may at the same time mitigate the punishment. Of this we havean additional confirmation in the following verse, where we are informed, that God was mercifullyinclined towards his people, that he might withdraw his hand from chastising them. What answerin any degree plausible can be given to this by the Sophists, who affirm that God would not berighteous did he not, after he had forgiven the fault, execute punishment according to the strictdemands of his justice? The sequence of the pardon of sin is, that God by his blessing testifies thathe is no longer displeased.4 Turn us, O God of our salvation! The faithful now make a practical application to themselves,in their present circumstances, of what they had rehearsed before concerning God’s paternaltenderness towards his people whom he had redeemed. And they attribute to him, by whom theydesire to be restored to their former state, the appellation, O God of our salvation! to encouragethemselves, even in the most desperate circumstances, in the hope of being delivered by the powerof God. Although to the eye of sense and reason there may be no apparent ground to hope favourablyas to our condition, it becomes us to believe that our salvation rests secure in his hand, and that,whenever he pleases, he can easily and readily find the means of bringing salvation to us. God’sanger being the cause and origin of all calamities, the faithful beseech him to remove it. This orderdemands our special attention; for so effeminate and faint-hearted in bearing adversity are we, thatno sooner does God begin to smite us with his little finger, than we entreat him, with groaning andlamentable cries, to spare us. But we forget to plead, what should chiefly engage our thoughts, thathe would deliver us from guilt and condemnation; and we forget this because we are reluctant todescend into our own hearts and to examine ourselves.222