Commentary on Psalms Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS
seeking a remedy. When he says, that his strength failed under his sorrow, some interpreters prefer reading, under his iniquity; and I confess that the Hebrew word,עוןon, bears both significations, 644 nay, more frequently it signifies an offense or a fault. But as it is sometimes used for punishment, I have chosen the sense which appears most agreeable to the context. And although it is true that David was accustomed to ascribe the afflictions which he at any time suffered to his own fault, yet, as he is only recounting his miseries here, without mentioning the cause of them, it is probable that, according to his usual manner, he expresses the same thing twice by different words.
11. I was a reproach by reason of all mine enemies. Others translate thus - more than mine enemies, and as the Hebrew letter,מmem, is often used as a sign of comparison, they interpret this clause to mean that David's friends and acquaintances reproached him more than all his enemies. But, in my opinion, he intended to express a different idea, namely, that as he was everywhere hated, and his enemies had induced almost the whole realm to take part with them against him, he had an evil name even among his friends and neighbors; just as popular opinion, like a violent tempest, usually carries all before it. I suppose, therefore, that the Hebrew copula,וvau, is used for the sake of amplification, to show that David was an object of detestation, not only to strangers to whom he was formerly unknown, but also to his principal friends. He adds, likewise, that when they saw him abroad they fled from him By the adverb, abroad, he means to say, that they did not think the miserable man worthy of a near approach to them; nay, that they fled from the very sight of him, at however great a distance, lest the contagion of his misery should reach them, and because they reckoned it would be injurious and disgraceful to them to show him any sign of friendship.
12. I am forgotten as one dead. The Psalmist still pursues the same idea, and complains that he was as completely blotted out of all men's remembrance as if he had been dead. The memory of some men after their death flourishes for a time among survivors, but it more frequently vanishes; for there is no longer any intercourse between the quick and the dead, nor can the living be of any farther service to the dead. David illustrates this idea by the metaphor of a broken vessel, 645 which denotes utter contempt
"The word",עוךsays Hammond, "as it signifies sin, so it signifies also the punishment of sin, Isaiah 53:6, 11;" and in this last sense this critic here understands it, that it may be connected with grief and sighing, which are mentioned in the preceding clause, and may express those miseries which David's sins had brought upon him. ""וזעobserves Rogers, "signifies here and in some other places, affliction, the punishment or consequence of sin; see Genesis 4:13; 1 Samuel 28:10; 2 Kings 7:9," etc. - Book of Psalms in Hebrew, metrically arranged, vol. 2, p.188. The Septuagint reads, in poverty or affliction, in which it is followed by the Syriac and Vulgate.
"I am become like a broken vessel;" that is, utterly neglected as being worthless.