Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John CalvinDavid my servant, 4. I will establish thy seed for ever, and will build up thy throne from age toage. Selah.1 I will sing of the mercies of Jehovah for ever. It must be borne in mind, as I have just nowobserved, that the Psalmist opens with the praises of God, and with calling to mind the Divinecovenant, to encourage the faithful to strengthen their faith against the formidable assaults oftemptation. If when we set about the duty of prayer some despairing thought, at the very outset,presents itself to us, we must forcibly and resolutely break through it, lest our hearts faint and utterlyfail. The design of the prophet, therefore, was to fortify the minds of the godly at the verycommencement, with stable and substantial supports, that, relying on the Divine promise, which,to outward appearance, had almost fallen to the ground, and repelling all the assaults of temptationwith which their faith was severely shaken, they might with confidence hope for the re-establishmentof the kingdom, and continue perseveringly to pray for this blessing. From the sad spectacle ofbegun decay, 522 which Ethan beheld, listening to the dictates of carnal reason, he might have thoughtthat both himself and the rest of God’s believing people were deceived; but he expresses hisdetermination to celebrate the mercies of God which at that time were hidden from his view. Andas it was no easy matter for him to apprehend and acknowledge the merciful character of God, ofwhose severity he had actual experience, he uses the plural number, the Mercies of God, that byreflecting on the abundance and variety of the blessings of Divine grace he might overcome thistemptation.2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever. He assigns the reason why he perseveresin singing the Divine praises in the midst of adversities; which is, that he does not despair of themanifestation of God’s loving-kindness towards his people, although at present they were undersevere chastisement. Never will a man freely open his mouth to praise God, unless he is fullypersuaded that God, even when he is angry with his people, never lays aside his fatherly affectiontowards them. The words I have said, imply that the truth which the inspired writer propounds wasdeeply fixed in his heart. 523 Whatever, as if he had said, has hitherto happened, it has never hadthe effect of effacing from my heart the undoubted hope of experiencing the Divine favor as to thefuture, and I will always continue steadfastly to cherish the same feeling. It is to be observed, thatit was not without a painful and arduous conflict that he succeeded in embracing by faith thegoodness of God, which at that time had entirely vanished out of sight; — this we say is to beparticularly noticed, in order that when God at any time withdraws from us all the tokens of hislove, we may nevertheless learn to erect in our hearts that everlasting building of mercy, which ishere spoken of, — a metaphor, by which is meant that the Divine mercy shall be extended, or shallobserved, from several allusions contained in it to events which happened even posterior to the days of David. A person of thisname was one of the chief musicians in the time of David, (1 Chronicles 25:1,) but he was a Levite; whereas this Ethan is calledan Ezrahite. Nichols thinks it probable that the author, like Heman, was of the family of Zerah, and wrote this psalm during thecaptivity, most likely in the time of Jehoiakim, whose misfortunes he seems here to describe in a spirit of despondency,notwithstanding the promises made to David.522 Ainsworth’s translation of this last clause is both literal and elegant. “The heavens, thou wilt establish thy faithfulness inthem.” Dr Kennicott, in his Remarks on Select Passages of the Old Testament, here refers to verses 37, 38, “where,” says he,“it appears that the sun, the moon, and the bow in the sky, were the tokens of confirmation given by God to the covenant madewith David.” “The meaning of this passage,” says Warner, “appears to be, that the constancy of the celestial motions, the regularvicissitudes of day and night, and alternations of the seasons, were emblems of God’s own immutability.”523 “Ex tristi ruinae spectaculo.” — Lat. “Voyant ce commoncement pitoyable d’une ruine.” — Fr.253