Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John CalvinPsalm 85:5-85. Wilt thou be wroth against us for ever? wilt thou prolong thy displeasure from age to age?6. Wilt thou not turn again and quicken us? and thy people will rejoice in thee. 7. Show us thymercy, O Jehovah! and grant us thy salvation. 8. I will hear what God Jehovah will speak: surelyhe will speak peace to his people and to his meek ones, and they will not turn again to folly.5 Wilt thou be wroth against us for ever? Here the godly bewail the long continuance of theirafflictions, and derive an argument in prayer from the nature of God, as it is described in the law,—“The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodnessand truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin,”(Exodus 34:6, 7,)— a truth which has also been brought under our notice in Psalm 30:5, “For his anger endurethbut a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”It thus becomes us, when we engage in prayer, to meditate upon the Divine promises that we maybe furnished with suitable expressions. It may seem, at first view, that these devout Jews find faultwith God, as if he exhibited his character to them in a light very different from that in which hewas wont to exhibit it; but the object they had in view undoubtedly was to obtain, in the strugglethey were resolutely maintaining against temptation, hope of relief from the contemplation of thenature of God; as if they laid it down as a fixed principle, that it is impossible for Him to be angryfor ever. We may observe, by the way, that it is evident, from their praying in this manner, thatthey were weighed down with such an oppressive load of calamities, as to be almost unable anylonger to endure them. Let us therefore learn, that although God may not immediately grant usmanifest tokens of his returning favor, yet we must not cease to persevere in earnest prayer. If it isobjected, that then God has promised in vain that his anger would be of short duration, I answer,that if we entertain suitable views of our own sins, his anger will assuredly appear to be always ofshort continuance; and if we call to remembrance the everlasting course of his mercy, we willconfess that his anger endures but for a moment. As our corrupt nature is ever relapsing into thewanton indulgence of its native propensities, manifold corrections are indispensably necessary tosubdue it thoroughly.The godly, still dwelling on the same theme, ask, in the 6th verse, whether God will not turnagain and quicken them Being fully convinced of the truth of this principle, That the punishmentswith which God chastises his children are only temporary; they thereby encourage themselves inthe confident expectation, that although he may be now justly displeased, and may have turnedaway his face from them, yet, when they implore his mercy, he will be entreated, and raising thedead to life again, will turn their mourning into gladness. By the word quicken, they complain thatthey almost resemble persons who are dead, or that they are stunned and laid prostrate withafflictions. And when they promise themselves matter of rejoicing, they intimate that in the meantimethey are well nigh worn out with sorrow.7. Show us thy mercy, O Jehovah! In these words there is the same contrast as in the precedingsentence. In supplicating that mercy may be extended to them, and deliverance granted them, theyconfess that they are deprived of all sense of both these blessings. Such having been the state ofthe saints in old time, let us learn, even when we are so oppressed with calamities as to be reduced223