Commentary on Psalms Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS
5. There did they tremble with fear, 287 for God is in [or with, or for 288
] the generation of the righteous. 6. Ye deride the counsel of the poor, because Jehovah is his hope.
5. There did they tremble with fear, The prophet now encourages himself and all the faithful with the best of all consolations, namely, that God will not forsake his people even to the end, but will at length show himself to be their defender. Some explain the adverb of place there, as meaning that God will take vengeance on the wicked in the presence of his saints, because they exercised their tyranny upon them. But I rather think that by this word there is expressed the certainty of their punishment, 289 as if the Psalmist pointed to it with the finger. 290 It may also intimate what we may gather from Psalm 53, that the judgment of God would come upon them suddenly, and when they were not thinking about it; for it is there added, where no fear is, or, where no fear was. 291 Expositors, I am aware, differ in their interpretation of these words. Some supply the word equal
It is the general opinion that this psalm was composed during the alarm and danger which were occasioned by Absalom's rebellion, and that this is a prediction of the failure of the conspiracy. But Calmet and Mudge refer the psalm to the captivity in Babylon, and the latter supposes that in this and the preceding verse there is an allusion to the great terror into which the heathen were thrown, in the midst of their impious carousals; which some refer to the scene which took place at Belshazzar's feast, when the hand was seen writing on the wall. There is, however, great uncertainty as to the occasions on which most of the psalms were composed; and those who have examined the different opinions of interpreters on this subject must be convinced of the difficulty of arriving at any thing like certainty in regard to it.
"Avec ou pour." — Fr. marg.
Though punishment had not as yet been actually inflicted on the oppressors of the people of God, of whom the Psalmist had spoken in the preceding verse, he speaks of their punishment as if it had taken place. The reason of this manner of speaking concerning things future in prophetic poetry, Horsley explains to be this, "That a scene typical of futurity is presented to the prophet's imagination, and what he sees in that scene he speaks of as done."
The particle,שםis used demonstratively, in reference to the scene which lies before the inspired poet's fancy. "See there!" — Horsley.
In the Septuagint version, to the words, there were they in great fear, there is added the words οὑουκ ἠν ὁφόβος, Where there was no fear, the transcribers, perhaps, transferring it by memory from Psalm 53:6, or the translators adding the words by way of paraphrase.