Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinupon us, we immediately magnify a fly into an elephant; or rather, we rear very high mountains,which keep the hand of God from reaching us; and at the same time we basely limit the power ofGod. The exclamation of David, then, Who is like thee? tends to teach us the lesson, that we shouldforce our way through every impediment by faith, and regard the power of God, which is wellentitled to be so regarded, as superior to all obstacles. All men, indeed, confess with the mouth,that none is like God; but there is scarce one out of a hundred who is truly and fully persuaded thatHe alone is sufficient to save us.Psalm 71:20-2420. Thou hast made me to see great and sore troubles, but turning, thou wilt quicken me, andturning 116 thou wilt lift me up from the deep places of the earth. 117 21. Thou wilt multiply mygreatness; and turning, thou wilt comfort me. 22. I will also, O my God: praise thee, for thy truth,with the psaltery; I will sing to thee with the harp, O Holy One of Israel! 23. My lips shall rejoicewhen I sing to thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed. 24. My tongue also shall daily declarethy righteousness: for they who seek my hurt are confounded and brought to shame.20. Thou hast made me to see great and sore troubles. The verb to see among the Hebrews, asis well known, is applied to the other senses also. Accordingly, when David complains that calamitieshad been shown to him, he means that he had suffered them. And as he attributes to God the praiseof the deliverances which he had obtained, so he, on the other hand, acknowledges that whateveradversities he had endured were inflicted on him according to the counsel and will of God. But wemust first consider the object which David has in view, which is to render by comparison the graceof God the more illustrious, in the way of recounting how hardly he had been dealt with. Had healways enjoyed a uniform course of prosperity, he would no doubt have had good reason to rejoice;but in that case he would not have experienced what it is to be delivered from destruction by thestupendous power of God. We must be brought down even to the gates of death before God can beseen to be our deliverer. As we are born without thought and understanding, our minds, during theearlier part of our life, are not sufficiently impressed with a sense of the Author of our existence;but when God comes to our help, as we are lying in a state of despair, this resurrection is to us abright mirror from which is seen reflected his grace. In this way David amplifies the goodness ofGod, declaring, that though plunged in a bottomless abyss, he was nevertheless drawn out by thedivine hand, and restored to the light. And he boasts not only of having been preserved perfectlysafe by the grace of God, but of having also been advanced to higher honor — a change which was,as it were, the crowning of his restoration, and was as if he had been lifted out of hell, even up toheaven. What he repeats the third time, with respect to God’s turning, goes to the commendationof Divine Providence; the idea which he intends to be conveyed being, that no adversity happenedto him by chance, as was evident from the fact that his condition was reversed as soon as the favorof God shone upon him.116 “Et to retournant, estant appaise.” — Fr. “And returning, being appeased.”117 “The depths of the earth, expressive of the lowest state of misery and suffering.” — Hewlett.59