Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 2 been uttered in memorable circumstances, and in circumstances of great danger.
Psalm 57:1-3
1. Be merciful unto me, O God! be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee; and in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, 336 until wickedness 337 pass over. 2. I will cry unto God most High, to God that performeth all things for me. 3. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. 338 God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
1. Be merciful unto me, O God! The repetition of the prayer proves that the grief, the anxiety, and the apprehension, with which David was filled at this time, must have been of no common description. It is noticeable, that his plea for mercy is, his having hoped in God. His soul trusted in him; and this is a form of expression the force of which is not to be overlooked: for it implies that the trust which he exercised proceeded from his very innermost affections, — that it was of no volatile character, but deeply and strongly rooted. He declares the same truth in figurative terms, when he adds his persuasion that God would cover him with the shadow of his wings. The Hebrew word,חסהchasah, which I have translated to hope, signifies occasionally to lodge, or obtain shelter, and in this sense it may be understood with great propriety in the passage before us, where allusion is made to the shadow of wings. David had committed himself, in short, entirely to the guardianship of God; and now experienced that blessed consciousness of dwelling in a place of safety, which he expresses in the beginning of the ninetieth psalm. The divine protection is compared to the shadow of wings, because God, as I have elsewhere observed, the more familiarly to invite us to himself, is represented as stretching out his wings like the hen, or other birds, for the shelter of their young. The greater our ingratitude and perversity, in being so slow to comply with such an
"Ou, hebergeray." — Fr. marg "Or, will lodge."
The original word,,הוותha-uoth, for wickedness, the Septuagint here renders sin — "Until sin pass away." Symmachus explains it in Psalm 55:12, by επηρεια, insulting injury "Simon, from Schultens, has, I think, given the true meaning.,הוהbarathrum — est desiderium, idque pravum v. c. cupiditas devorandi — cupiditas dicitur profundum quod, barathrum, quod expleri non potest." — Fry French and Skinner read, "until their mischief pass away;" "the mischief," they observe, "now directed against me by my enemies."
"Ou, a la confusion de celuy qui m'a guette." — Fr. marg. "Or, to the confusion of him who hath laid wait for me." See note on Psalm 56:1, where the same original word is used.