Commentary on Psalms Volume 1 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
10. Jehovah scattereth the counsel of the nations, and bringeth to nought the imaginations of the people. 678 11. The counsel of Jehovah shall stand for ever, and the thoughts of his heart from age to age. 679 12. Blessed are the people whose God is Jehovah, the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance.
10. Jehovah scattereth the counsel of the nations. After briefly touching upon the creation of the world, the Psalmist returns to his former subject, namely, to show that the events which daily come to pass are undoubted proofs of the providence of God. And lest any man should be surprised, that he should exhibit God as an adversary to men, scattering their counsels rather than establishing and bringing them to a happy issue, he selects an instance which had the greatest power to comfort the saints. We know how many things men continually venture upon and contrive against all law and justice, and how they endeavor by their devices to turn the world upside down, that they may tyrannically acquire power to trample upon the good and simple. What creatures then would be more miserable than we, if men, possessed of such a variety of wicked affections, were permitted to act with unlicensed wantonness towards us? But when God declares from heaven to us, that it is his work to dash in pieces their devices, and to bring their determinations to nought, there is no reason why we should not keep ourselves quiet, even when they bestir themselves most tumultuously. God is, therefore, said to overthrow the counsels of men, not because he professedly delights in frustrating them, but to check their wantonness; for they would immediately throw all things into confusion were they to succeed according to their wishes: yea, as in outraging equity, and vexing the upright and innocent, they fail not to fight against God himself, it is very necessary to consider that God's power and protection is set in opposition to their fury. And as the great majority of men, despising all modesty, rush headlong into indiscriminate licentiousness, the prophet speaks not only of individual men, but of whole nations; in other words, he affirms, that however men may conspire among themselves, and determine to attempt this or that with great hosts, yet shall their purposes be brought to nought, because it is as
The Septuagint here adds a sentence which is not in the Hebrew, namely, "Καὶἀθετεῖ βουλὰς ἀρχόντων"- "And frustrates the counsels of princes." The Vulgate, Arabic, and Ethiopic, copying from the Septuagint, have the same addition. But it is not in the Chaldee and Syriac versions, which agree with our Hebrew Bibles; and from this we are led to conclude that the translators of the Greek version have added this by way of paraphrase; a liberty which we find them using in other places.
Hebrews To generation and generation.