Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinof life. Yea, rather let us learn betimes, while God spares us, to meditate on this truth, and derivethe aid which it is fitted to impart under calamity, that even in the most profound depths of adversityfaith may hold us up, and, what is more, may elevate us to God; there being, as Paul testifies,(Romans 8:39) no height nor depth which can separate us from the infinite love of Him who swallowsup all depths, yea, even hell itself.4. They who hate me without cause are more in number than the hairs of my head The Psalmistnow expresses without figure what he had said under the metaphors of the mire and of the impetuousrushing of the waters. Persecuted as he was by so great a multitude of enemies, he had too goodreason to be afraid of death in innumerable ways. Nor is his language hyperbolical, when herepresents his enemies as more in number than the hairs of his head, since he was mortally hatedand detested by the whole kingdom, it being the universal belief that he was a base and wickedtraitor to his country. Farther, we know from the sacred history how numerous and powerful thearmies were which Saul sent forth to pursue him. He expresses the mortal hatred which they boreto him, when he tells us that they were intently set upon his destruction, being eagerly desirous tohave him cut off by a violent death; and yet he avows that he had done nothing to merit suchunrelenting persecution. The Hebrew word , chinnam, which we have rendered, without cause,and which some translate, for nothing, intimates that they were impelled by a strong desire to dohim injury, although he had not done them even the slightest wrong, nor given them the smallestprovocation by ill usage of any kind. For this reason he applies to his enemies the appellation ,sheker, that is, liars, because they had no just ground to make war upon him, although they pretendedthe contrary. Let us, therefore, after his example, if at any time we are subjected to persecution,study to have the support arising from the testimony of a good conscience, and to be able freely toprotest before God, that the hatred which our enemies cherish against us is altogether causeless.This implies a self-control to which it is very difficult for a man to inure himself; but the moredifficult it is, the more strenuous ought to be his efforts to attain it. It is mere effeminacy to regardit as an intolerable evil to be unrighteously afflicted; and the folly of this is very happily exposedby that noble answer of Socrates to his wife, who, having one day lamented, in prison, that he wascondemned wrongfully, received from him this reply, “What then — would you rather that I shouldhave suffered death for my offenses?” Farther, David adds, that he not only had to suffer the wrongsof violence, but had also to bear much reviling and contumely, as if he had been convicted of manycrimes; a trial which, to an ingenuous mind, is more bitter and hard to bear than a hundred deaths.Many are to be found resolutely prepared to encounter death, who are by no means prepared toexhibit equal fortitude in the endurance of shame. Farther, David was not only despoiled of hisgoods by the violence of robbers, but he had been also mangled in his person, as if he had been athief and a robber: That which I took not by spoil, then I restored it 71 When his enemies thusplundered and maltreated him, they doubtless boasted that they were acting as the judges of a71 “There is an apparent impropriety in the language of this verse, though the sense is perfectly clear. It is a proverbialexpression, to mark the injustice and extortion of the enemies that are referred to, who compelled the speaker, without any right,to yield up his goods to persons to whom he was not indebted.” — Walford. Horsley observes, that this last clause is a proverbialexpression, the meaning of which is, “I have been accountable for the crimes of others.” Dr Adam Clarke also remarks, that thisis a sort of proverbial expression like these: “Those who suffered the wrong pay the costs” — “Kings sin and the people arepunished.” This pre-eminently applies to Christ, who was perfectly holy, but who, by bearing the punishment due to the guiltof man, made satisfaction to Divine justice for sins which he never committed, and restored those blessings which he never tookaway.30