Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinin support of their doctrine of Purgatory, as if that were an upper hell, while there was anotherlower; 490 but this argument is too rotten to stand in need of refutation.14. O God! the proud are risen up against me. Instead of , zedim, the proud, some read, ,zarim, strangers; and, undoubtedly, the Scriptures often employ this word to denote barbarouscruelty, so that it is the same as if it had been said, the cruel. I, however, prefer following thegenerally received reading. As between the Hebrew word , zedim, the proud, and , zarim,strangers, there is only the difference of a single letter, the one having the letter , daleth, wherethe other has the letter , resh, it is obvious that, from the similarity of these two letters, the formermight easily have been changed into the latter. Besides, the word, proud, agrees better with thescope of the passage; for, in the same sense, the Psalmist immediately after applies the epithet,strong, to those who, with headlong impetuosity and fierceness, rushed upon him to destroy him;and we know that where pride reigns no moderation is observed. He expresses without figure whathe had just now said respecting the grave. Being as a lamb in the midst of wolves, he would havebeen quickly swallowed up, had not God miraculously delivered him, as it were, from the jaws ofdeath. In representing his enemies as having no regard to God, he means to set forth the extremeexcess of their cruelty. The fury of our lusts, unless we are restrained by the fear of God and thesense of his judgment, will become so great as to dare any thing, however atrocious. For thesecalamities he seeks a remedy, in the Divine mercy, in the following verse.15. And thou, O Lord! art God, merciful, ready to forgive. By immediately passing on to thecelebration of these divine attributes, he would intimate, that we have adequate strength andprotection against the audacity and rage of the wicked, in the divine goodness, mercy, andfaithfulness. Perhaps, also, from his feeling that the wicked were scourges in the hand of God, heset before himself the divine goodness and mercy, to allay the excess of terror with which he mightbe seized; for this is the true and the only source of comfort, that although God chastise us he doesnot forget his mercy. This sentence, as is well known, is taken from Exodus 34:6, where we meetwith a very remarkable description of the nature of God. First, he is called merciful; in the nextplace, ready to forgive, which he manifests by compassionating our distresses. In the third place,he is described as long-suffering; for he is not angry whenever an offense is committed againsthim, but pardons us according to the greatness of his loving-kindness. In short, he is said to beabundant in mercy and truth; by which I understand, that his beneficence is continually exercised,and that he is always true. He is indeed no less worthy to be praised on account of his rigour, thanon account of his mercy; but as it is our wilful obstinacy alone which makes him severe, compellinghim, as it were, to punish us, the Scriptures, in representing him as by nature merciful and readyto forgive, teach us, that if he is at any time rigorous and severe, this is, as it were, accidental tohim. I am speaking, it is true, in popular language, and such as is not strictly correct; but still, theseterms by which the divine character is described amount in effect to this, That God is by nature sogracious and ready to forgive, that he seems to connive at our sins, delays the infliction ofpunishment, and never proceeds to execute vengeance unless compelled by our obstinate wickedness.Why the truth of God is joined with his mercy has been considered in another place. As even thosewho are most generous sometimes desire to retract the promises which they have made, repenting490 Street reads, “That those who hate me may fear. The word ,” he observes, “if considered without the points, may be thethird person plural of , to fear; but the authors of all the versions seem to have derived it from , to see I read instead of.”235