Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinthine: thou hast made the world, and the fullness thereof. 12. Thou hast created the north 530 andthe south: 531 Tabor and Hermon 532 shall rejoice in thy name. 13. Thou hast a mighty arm: thouwilt strengthen thy hand, thou wilt exalt thy right hand. 14. Righteousness and judgment are theplace of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.9. Thou governest the pride of the sea. I have already observed that what the prophet has hithertospoken generally concerning the power of God, is to be referred to the miracle of the deliveranceof the Israelites from Egypt, which he now celebrates in express terms. According to theinterpretation of some, God is said to still the impetuous waves of the sea, because he does notsuffer it to break forth and overflow the whole world by a deluge. But I would read the 9th and10th verses connectedly, and would understand the prophet as speaking of the Red Sea, which Goddivided to make a way for the chosen tribes to pass over. The Psalmist adds immediately after, thatall the land of Egypt was overthrown as a wounded man By these words he magnifies the grace ofGod, which was displayed in the deliverance of the Church. He intended, there can be no doubt,to set before his own mind and the minds of others, the paternal love of God, to encourage bothhimself and others to have recourse to Him for succor, with the greater freedom and alacrity. Andin affirming that God had broken in pieces his enemies with his mighty arm, he concludes from thepast experience of the Church, that his mode of acting will be always similar, whenever in hisinfinite wisdom he sees it to be required.11 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine. He again repeats, the third time, that the sameGod who had been the deliverer of the chosen people exercises supreme dominion over the wholeworld. From the fact that God created all things, he concludes, that it is He who actually presidesover, and controls whatever takes place in heaven and in earth. It would be absurd to suppose, thatthe heavens, having been once created by God, should now revolve by chance, and that thingsshould be thrown into confusion upon the earth either at the will of men, or at random, when it isconsidered that it belongs to God to maintain and govern whatever he has created; unless, like theheathen, we would imagine that he enjoys himself in beholding all the works of his hand, in thisbeautiful theater of the heaven and the earth, without giving himself any farther trouble about them.In speaking of the south and the north, and also of the mountains, Tabor and Hermon, the prophet530 Horsley renders the clause thus: — Thou hast crushed Rahab, that she lies gasping with her wounds; and has the followingnote: — “The word ,” [for lies gasping with her wounds,] “as it is used here, and in Psalm 88:5, signifies not a dead carcass,but a person left for dead, under his wounds, upon the field of battle; a person so wounded, as to be fallen, and incapable ofrising to defend himself, or annoy the enemy. It answers exactly to the Greek word, τραυματιας, by which the LXX. render it.We have no corresponding word in the English language.” Dr Adam Clarke reads, “Thou, like a hero, hast broken down Egypt;”and observes, “Dr Kennicott has largely proved, that , chalal, which we render wounded, slain, etc., means a soldier, warrior,hero; and it is certain that this sense agrees better with it than the other in a great number of places.”531 “The Hebrew word for ‘the north,’ is derived from a root signifying ‘to hide, conceal.’ The ‘north’ is probably so named;because in our northern hemisphere of the earth, the sun appears to move from east to south, and from south to west, and, towardsmid-day, is at all times of the year southerly; whence the north side of a building, tree, or mountain, is usually ‘concealed’ or‘hidden’ from his direct rays, and is, as we express it, in the shade. (See Parkhurst on , 4.) Simonis, also, assigns this as thereason of the name, in the judgment of some critics, or, in that of others, because the north is covered with snow, and of othersagain, with darkness; and so the Greek word for darkness, ζοφος, is continually used by Homer for the north: for the ancientsthought that the north was always buried in gloom and thick darkness.” — Mant532 The original word , yamin, for “the south,” signifies literally “the right hand.” As the Hebrews, when they engaged inprayer, turned their faces eastward, they called the East , the face, and the West, , the hinder part The South, therefore,would necessarily be on their right hand; and hence, , yamin, came to be used to denote the south257