Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinto enter the holy place; the people worshipped in the court. By those who are planted in the Churchhe means such as are united to God in real and sincere attachment, and insinuates that their prosperitycannot be of a changeable and fluctuating nature, because it is not founded upon anything that isin the world. Nor indeed can we doubt that whatever has its root, and is founded in the sanctuary,must continue to flourish and partake of a life which is spiritual and everlasting. It is in this sensethat he speaks of their still budding forth, and being fat, even in old age, when the natural sap andjuices are generally dried up. The language amounts to saying that they are exempt from the ordinarylot of men, and have a life which is taken from under the common law of nature. 599 It is thus thatJacob, speaking of the great renovation which should take place in the Church, mentions, that atthat happy period he who was an hundred years old should be a child, meaning that, though oldage naturally tends to death, and one who has lived a hundred years is upon the very borders of it,yet in the kingdom of Christ; a man would be reckoned as being merely in his childhood, andstarting in life, who entered upon a new century. This could only be verified in the sense, that afterdeath we have another existence in heaven.15. That they may show that Jehovah is upright. It is evident from this verse that the great objectof the Psalmist is, to allay that disquietude of mind which we are apt to feel under the disorderwhich reigns apparently in the affairs of this world; and to make us cherish the expectation, (underall that may seem severe and trying in our lot, and though the wicked are in wealth and power,flourish, and abound in places and distinctions,) that God will bring light and order eventually outof confusion. That they may show, it is said particularly, that the Lord is upright; for through theinfluence of our corruption we are apt to conclude, when things do not proceed as we would wishin the world, that God is chargeable not only with neglect but with unrighteousness, in abandoninghis people, and tolerating the commission of sin. When God displays his justice in proceeding toexecute vengeance upon the wicked, it will be seen at once, that any prosperity which they enjoyedwas but the forerunner of a worse destruction in reserve for them. The Psalmist, in calling God hisrock, shows a second time that he reckoned himself amongst the number of those in whom Godwould illustrate his justice by extending towards them his protection.599 “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. Being thus planted and watered, they shall not only bring forth the fruits ofrighteousness, but shall continue and go on to do so, and even when they are grown old; contrary to all other trees, which, whenold, cease bearing fruit; but so do not the righteous; grace is often in the greatest vigor when nature is decayed; witness Abraham,Job, David, Zechariah, and Elisabeth, and good old Simeon, who went to the grave like shocks of corn fully ripe.” — Dr Gill.304