Commentary on Psalms Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS
7. Make marvellous thy mercies, O thou preserver of those who trust [in thee, 359 ] from those that exalt themselves against thy right hand. 8. Keep me as the apple, the daughter of the eye 360 hide me in the shadow of thy wings. 9. From the face of the ungodly, who go about to destroy me; and of mine enemies, who besiege [or encompass] my soul.
7. Make marvellous thy mercies. As the word,הפלהhaphleh, signifies sometimes to make wonderful, or remarkable, and sometimes to separate and set apart, both these senses will be very suitable to this passage. In
Psalm 31:19, the "goodness" of God is said to be "laid up" in store as a peculiar treasure "for them that fear him," that he may bring it forth at the proper season, even when they are brought to an extremity, and when all things seem to be desperate. If, then, the translation, separate and set apart thy mercy, is preferred, the words are a prayer that God would display towards his servant David the special grace which he communicates to none but his chosen ones. While God involves both the good and the bad in danger indiscriminately, he at length shows, by the different issue of things, in regard to the two classes, that he does not confusedly mingle the chaff and the wheat together, seeing he gathers his own people into a company by themselves, (Matthew 3:12, and Matthew 25:32.) I, however, prefer following another exposition. David, in my judgment, perceiving that he could only be delivered from the perilous circumstances in which he was placed by singular and extraordinary means, betakes himself to the wonderful or miraculous power of God. Those who think he desires God to withhold his grace from his persecutors do too great violence to the scope of the passage. By this circumstance there is expressed the extreme danger to which David was exposed; for otherwise it would have been enough for him to have been succoured in the ordinary and common way in which God is accustomed daily to favor and to aid his own people. The grievousness of his distress, therefore, constrained him to beseech God to work miraculously for his deliverance. The title with which he here honors God, O thou preserver of those who trust [in thee,] serves to confirm him in the certain hope of obtaining his requests. As God takes upon him the charge of saving all who confide in him, David being one of their number, could upon good ground
These words are supplementary.
The apple, [or pupil,] the daughter of the eye, is the literal rendering of the Hebrew words, and thus they very powerfully set forth the beautiful image contained in them. Allusion is here made to the extreme care requisite for the preservation of so delicate an organ as the eye. Compare Proverbs 7:2 " — French and Skinner's Translation of the Book of Psalms.