Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 2
10. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. 11. Be thou exalted, O God! above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.
7. My heart is prepared, O God! 344 Some read fixed, or confirmed, and the Hebrew word,נכוןnacon, bears that signification as well as the other. If we adopt it, we must understand David as saying that he had well and duly meditated upon the praises which he was about to offer; that he did not rush into a hurried and perfunctory discharge of this service, as too many are apt to do, but addressed himself to it with steadfast purpose of heart. I prefer, however, the other translation, which bears that he was ready to enter upon the service with all cheerfulness and cordiality. And although, wherever this spirit is really felt, it will lead to steadfastness of religious exercise, it is not without importance that the reader should be apprised of the force of the word which is here employed in the Hebrew. The ready heart is here opposed by David to the mere lip-service of the hypocrite, on the one hand, and to dead or sluggish service, on the other. He addressed himself to this voluntary sacrifice with a sincere fervor of spirit, casting aside sloth, and whatever might prove a hinderance in the duty.
8. Awake up, my tongue David here expresses, in poetical terms, the ardor with which his soul was inspired. He calls upon tongue, psaltery, and harp, to prepare for the celebration of the name of God. The word ,כבודcabod, which I have translated tongue, some have rendered glory; but although this is its more common signification, it bears the other in the sixteenth psalm, and in numerous places of Scripture. The context proves this to be its signification here, David intimating that he would celebrate the praises of God both with the voice and with instrumental music. He assigns the first place to the heart, the second to declaration with the mouth, the third to such accompaniments as stimulate to greater ardor in the service. It matters little whether we render the verb,אעירהairah, I will be awaked, or transitively, I will awake myself by dawn of day. 345 But one who is
This psalm consists of two parts. The preceding verses, which contain the first part, express deep distress and extreme danger, and are of a plaintive and imploring strain. But here, where the second part commences, there is an elegant transition suddenly made to the language of exultation and triumph, which continues to the close of the psalm.
Hammond reads, "I will awaken the morning." Dr Geddes, Archbishop Secker, Street, and Fry, give a similar version. "The verb",אעירחsays Street, "is in the Hiphil conjugation; and therefore transitive; and the wordהשחרis the objective case after it." As to translating,שחרearly, Archbishop Secker says, "שחרis not elsewhere used adverbially, nor, I believe, with an ellipsis of";כand he observes, that "'I will awaken the morning' is more grammatical and poetical." A similar thought frequently occurs in poetry. Thus Ovid says, "Non vigil ales ibi cristati cantibus oris evocat auroram." "The cock by crowing calls not up the morning there." And in Milton's Allegro we meet with the following couplet: —