Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
feign submission] unto thee. 4. All the earth shall worship thee, and they shall sing unto thee; they shall sing thy name. Selah.
1. Shout unto God, all the earth The psalm begins with this general declaration, which is afterwards reduced to particulars. 467 He addresses himself to the whole world, and from this it would seem evident, that he predicts the extent to which the kingdom of God should reach at the coming of Christ. In the second verse the call is repeated with increasing vehemency, to stir up to the praises of God, such as might otherwise be remiss in the service. To sing the honor of his name, is an expression sufficiently obvious; meaning, that we should extol his sacred name in a manner suitable to its dignity, so that it may obtain its due and deserved adoration. But the clause which follows is rather ambiguous. Some think that it conveys a repetition of the same idea contained in other words, and read, set forth the glory of his praise. 468 I prefer taking the Hebrew word signifying praise to be in the accusative case; rendering the words literally, make a glory his praise. And by this I understand him to mean, not as some do, that we should glory exclusively in his praises, 469 but simply, that we highly exalt his praises, that they may be glorious. The Psalmist is not satisfied with our declaring them moderately, and insists that we should celebrate his goodness in some measure proportionably to its excellence.
3. Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! Here he proceeds to state the grounds why he would have us to praise God. Many content themselves with coldly descanting to others of his praises, but with the view of awakening and more deeply impressing our hearts, he directs us to address ourselves immediately to God. It is when we hold converse with him apart, and with no human eye to witness us, that we feel the vanity of hypocrisy, and will be likely to utter only what we have well and seriously meditated in our hearts. Nothing tends more to beget a reverential awe of God upon our spirits than sisting ourselves in his presence. What the Psalmist adds is fitted and designed to produce the same feeling, that through the greatness of God's power, his enemies feign submission to him Are they who would perversely and obstinately revolt from his service, forced to humble themselves before him, whether they will it or not, how much more, then,
"Generalis est praefatio, quam mox sequentur hypotheses." — Lat. "C'est une preface generale, dont les applications speciales suivent incontinent apres." — Fr.
Hammond's objection to this is, that if,כבורglory, were in the construct state, governing the noun which follows, and giving this reading, the glory of his, praise, the vowel should be changed from kamets, to segol
This is Aben Ezra's view. He would read, "Make your glory his praise;" that is, let it be your glory to praise him.