Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John CalvinPsalm 91:13-1613. Thou shalt walk over the lion and asp, the young lion and dragon shalt thou trample underfeet. 14. Because he hath trusted in me, I will deliver him; because he hath known my name, I willset him on high. 15. He shall call upon me, and I shall answer him: I will be with him in trouble;I will deliver him, and glorify him. 16. With length of days will I satisfy him, and I will show himmy salvation.13. Thou shalt walk over the lion and asp. The same truth is here expressed in different words.He had already spoken of the obstacles which Satan throws in our course under the figure of astone. Now he speaks of the formidable troubles to which we are exposed in the world under thefigures of the asp, lion, young lion, and dragon So long as we are here we may be truly said to walkamongst wild beasts, and such as threaten us with destruction. And in this case what would becomeof us did not God promise to make us victorious over the manifold evils which everywhere impendus? None who seriously considers the temptations to which he is liable will wonder that the Psalmist,with the view of removing apprehension from the minds of the Lord’s people, should have adoptedthe language of hyperbole; nor indeed will he say that it is the language of hyperbole, but a trueand exact representation of their case. We boast much of our courage so long as we remain at adistance from the scene of danger; but no sooner are we brought into action, than in the smallestmatters we conjure up to ourselves lions, and dragons, and a host of frightful dangers. The Psalmistaccommodates his language to this infirmity of our carnal apprehension. The Hebrew word ,shachal, which in the Septuagint is rendered asp, 581 signifies a lion, and such repetition in thesecond member of the sentence is usual in the Hebrew. There is therefore no occasion for seekingany nice distinction which may have been intended in specifying these four different kinds ofanimals; only by the lion and young lion we are evidently to understand more open dangers, wherewe are assailed by force and violence, and by the serpent and dragon hidden mischiefs, where theenemy springs upon us insidiously and unexpectedly, as the serpent from its lurking place. 582581 Calvin’s reading of this verse is different from that of our English Bible. According to it, thou, in the first clause, refers tothe Psalmist; while, according to him, it is to be understood of God. Hammond gives a similar version. “Because thou, O Lord!art my hope; thou hast made the Most High thy help or refuge.” All the ancient versions understand the first clause as spokenof God. In the Septuagint it is σὺ Κύριε ἡ ἔλπις μου, “thou, O Lord! art my hope.” Similar is the reading of the Chaldee, theSyriac, and Vulgate. But the last member of the verse, “thou hast made the Most High thy refuge,” is generally referred to thePsalmist, and regarded as a part of a soliloquy to which, when alone, his soul gave utterance.582ἀσπιδα. The most ancient versions correspond in this respect with the Septuagint, as the Vulgate, St Jerome’s, Apollinaris’,the Syriac, Arabic, and Æthiopic versions, rendering , shachal, not by the lion but by the asp, though they are not agreed asto the particular kind of asp which is intended. This opinion is adopted by the learned Bochart, (Hieroz. volume 3, lib. 3, cap.3,) who thinks it probable that throughout the verse serpents only are spoken of, and other interpreters have concurred in thesame view. He thinks , shachal, rendered “the lion,” is the black serpent, or hoemorhous; and , kepher, rendered “younglion,” has been supposed to be the cenchris, which Nicander (Theriac, 5, 463) calls λέων ἄιολος, the spotted lion, because heis speckled, and, like the lion, raises his tail when about to fight, and bites and gluts himself with blood. Bochart objects to thelion and young lion being meant, on the ground of the incongruity of animals of so very different a nature as lions and serpentsbeing joined together; and observes, that to walk upon the lion seems not a very proper expression, as men do not in walkingtread on lions as they do on serpents. But the lion and the young lion, the rendering of later interpreters, correspond to each other,and preserve the parallelism for which the Hebrew poetry is distinguished, and the reasons assigned by Bochart for setting itaside seem insufficient. The lion and the serpent are formidable animals to contend with; and Satan, one of the enemies to be“put in subjection under the feet of Christ,” is, in the New Testament, compared both to the lion and the dragon, (1 Peter 5:8;Revelation 12:9.) “Let it be added,” says Merrick, “that the Hebrew text says nothing of walking upon the lion, but has the word294