Commentary on Psalms Volume 1 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
3. Yet thou art holy, who inhabitest the praises of Israel. 4. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. 5. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 6. But I am a worm, and not a man; the scorn of men, and the contempt of the people. 7. All those who see me mock at me: they thrust out the lip, and shake the head. 8. "He has committed," say they, "his cause unto [or, devolved his cause upon] Jehovah: 502 let him deliver him, let him deliver him, 503 seeing he delights in him."
3. Yet thou art holy. In the Hebrew, it is properly, And thou art holy: but the copula,וvau, ought, without doubt, to be rendered by the adversative particle yet. Some think that the eternal and immutable state of God is here set in opposition to the afflictions which David experienced; 504 but I cannot subscribe to this opinion. It is more simple and natural to view the language as meaning, that God has always shown himself gracious to his chosen people. The subject here treated is not what God is in heaven, but what he has shown himself to be towards men. It may be asked, whether David, in these words, aggravates his complaint, by insinuating that he is the only person who obtains nothing from God? or whether, by holding up these words as a shield before him, he repels the temptation with which he was assailed, by exhibiting to his view this truth, that God is the continual deliverer of his people? I admit that this verse is an additional expression of the greatness of David's grief; but I have no doubt, that in using this language he seeks from it a remedy against his distrust. It was a dangerous temptation to see himself forsaken by God; and, accordingly, lest by continually thinking upon it, he should nourish it, he turned his mind to the contemplation of the constant evidences afforded of the grace of God, from which he might encourage himself, in the hope of obtaining succor. He, therefore, not only
In the Hebrew it is, "He rolled [himself] upon God." In the Latin version our author reads, "Devolvit ad Jehovam;" and in the French, "Il a remis disent-ils, au Seigneur son a l'aime."
"Let him deliver him, let him deliver him. This repetition is also the rendering adopted by Street, and it is approved by Poole. "The same thing," says Poole, "is twice repeated, to show both the vehemence of their hatred and their confidence of success against him."
not only signifies to inhabit, but also to remain or continue, (see Psalm 102:13,) Hammond thinks this last is the meaning here, and renders the word, "But thou remainest or continuest to be holy, O thou, the praises of, or who art the praises of Israel, that is, the object of all their praises; or more simply, But thou remainest holy, the praises of Israel."