Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 2 subtilely, and not with an open wound like a sword; but perhaps they may be construed with more propriety as applying to the tongue, 276 although there can be no doubt of the reason of the comparison.
The term,בלעbalang, in verse fourth, which has been translated destruction, I prefer understanding in the sense of hiding or concealment.
He seems to allude to the drawing back of the tongue when we swallow; and under this figure, to describe the deceitfulness of Doeg's words, by which he devoured the unsuspecting and the innocent. 277 The great design of David, as I have already remarked in the preceding verses, is to encourage himself in the hope of deliverance by dwelling upon the extreme character of that wickedness which his enemy had displayed.
Psalm 52:5-7
5. God shall likewise destroy thee for ever: he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah 6. The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him. 7. Lo! this is the man that made not God his strength; and trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. From these words it is made still more evident that his object in dwelling upon the aggravated guilt of Doeg, was to prove the certainty of his approaching doom, and this rather for his own conviction and comfort, than with a view to alarming the conscience of the offender. Accordingly, he declares his persuasion that God would not allow his treachery to pass unpunished, though he might for a time connive at the perpetration of it. The ungodly are disposed, so long as their prosperity continues, to indulge in undisturbed security; and the saint of God, when he sees the power of which they are possessed, and witnesses their proud contempt of the divine judgments, is too apt to be overwhelmed with unbelieving apprehensions. But in order to establish his mind in the truth which he announces, it is observable that the Psalmist heaps one expression upon another, — God shall destroy thee, take thee away, pluck thee out, root thee out, — as if by this multiplicity of words he would convince
According to the first sense, the meaning is, that as a razor cuts so easily, that the wound is at first hardly perceptible, in the same manner, the deceitful tongue works its purposes of mischief before the objects which it means to ruin are conscious of their danger. It is like a sharp razor, that cuts the throat before a man is aware of it. "If, however, we take the words, thou workest deceitfully, as being descriptive not of the razor but of the tongue, the sense will be, that such a tongue is capable of inflicting deep and dreadful wounds like a sharp razor." — Walford.
is to swallow, to devour, with the idea of eagerness, greediness." — Gesenius
JOHN CALVIN
himself more effectually, that God was able to overthrow this adversary with all his boasted might and authority. 278 In adding that God would root him out of his dwelling-place or tent, 279 and out of the land of the living, he insinuates that the wicked will be destroyed by God, however securely they may seem to repose ir the nest of some comfortable mansion, and in the vain hope of living upon earth for ever. Possibly he may allude, in mentioning a tent, to the profession of Doeg, as shepherds have their dwelling in tents.
6 The righteous also shall see, and fear 280 He here adduces, as another reason why the ruin of Doeg might be expected, that an important end would be obtained by it, in so far as it would promote religion in the hearts of the Lord's people, and afford them a refreshing display of the Divine justice. Should it take place, it would be witnessed by the ungodly as well as by the righteous; but there are two reasons why the Psalmist represents it as being seen especially by the latter. The wicked are incapable of profiting by the judgments of God, being blind to the plainest manifestations which he has made of himself in his works, and it was only the righteous therefore who could see it. Besides, the great end which God has in view, when he prostrates the pride of the ungodly, is the comfort of his own people, that he may show to them the care with which he watches over their safety. It is they, therefore, whom David represents as witnessing this spectacle of Divine justice. And when he says that they would fear, it is not meant that they would tremble, or experience any slavish apprehension, but that
"Wonderful," says Bishop Horne, "is the force of the verbs in the original, which convey to us the four ideas of 'laying prostrate,' 'dissolving as by fire,' 'sweeping away as with a besom,' and 'totally extirpating root and branch,' as a tree eradicated from the spot on which it grew." The second verb,,יחתךyachtecha, Bythner explains, "will snatch thee away, as one snatches fire from a hearth. From,חתהchatheh, he snatched off live coals or fire from one place to another."
There is another interpretation of this expression which may here be stated. It has been thought that the allusion is to God's tabernacle. ",מאהלmeohel," says Hammond, "is literally 'from the tabernacle,' not 'from thy dwelling-place:' and so the LXX. render it, 'Απὸσκηνώματος,' 'from the tabernacle;' and though the Latin, and Syriac, and Arabic, have added tuo, thy, yet neither will the Hebrew bear, nor do the Chaldee acknowledge it, who read by way of paraphrase, 'He shall cause thee to depart from inhabiting in the place of the Schechina, or tabernacle, the place of God's presence.'" Hammond supposes that the expression is to be understood "of the censure of excommunication, which in the last and highest degree was Schammatha, delivering up the offender to the hand of heaven to be cut off, himself and his posterity." "Doeg," says Archbishop Secker, "had no office in the tabernacle; but it seems, by his history, that he frequented it, which he might do to seem a good man. And there seems an opposition between his being plucked out of God's dwelling-place, and David's continuing in the house of God, verse eighth."
French and Skinner read, "The righteous shall see it, and feel reverence; — feel reverence, i.e., in the punishment of this wicked man, find additional reason to reverence
God, and to observe his righteous laws."