Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
God felt in finding that he who hitherto had been accustomed to grant their requests shut his ears to them, and was called upon in vain. It appears more probable that the prophet either speaks of the present feeling of his mind, or else calls to remembrance how he had experienced that God was inclined and ready to hear his prayers. There can be no doubt that he describes the greatness of the sorrow with which he was afflicted; and, in nay opinion, he denotes a continued act both by the past and the future tenses of the verbs. In the first place, he declares that he did not foolishly rend the air with his cries, like many who pour forth bitter cries without measure and at random under their sorrows; but that he addressed his speech to God when necessity constrained him to cry. The copula and, which is joined to the verb cried, should be resolved into the adverb of time when, in this way, When I cried my voice came to God At the same time, he also shows, that although he had been constrained often to reiterate his cries, he had not given over persevering in prayer. What is added immediately after is intended for the confirmation of his faith: And he heard me. The copula and, as in many other places, is here put instead of the causal adverb for. The meaning is, that he encouraged himself to cry to God, from the consideration that it was God's usual manner to show his favor and mercy towards him.
2. I sought the Lord in the day of my trouble. In this verse he expresses more distinctly the grievous and hard oppression to which the Church was at that time subjected. There is, however, some ambiguity in the words. The Hebrew word,ידyad, which I have translated hand, is sometimes taken metaphorically for a wound; and, therefore, many interpreters elicit this sense, My wound ran in the night, and ceased not, 767 that is to say, My wound was not so purified from ulcerous matter as that the running from it was made to stop. But; I rather take the word in its ordinary signification, which is hand, because the verb,נגרהniggera, which he uses, signifies not only to run as a sore does, but also to be stretched forth or extended. 768
Now, when he affirms that he sought the Lord in the day of his trouble, and that his hands were stretched out to him in the night season, this denotes
This is the rendering in our English Bible, which Dr Adam Clarke pronounces to be "a most unaccountable translation." The reading of the margin, however, "my hand," favours the sense given by our Author.
This is the translation adopted by many critics, and it appears to be the true signification of the passage. Thus Symmachus' version is, ἡχειρ μου νυκτοςἐκτετατο διηνεκως, "my hand was stretched out by night continually;" and, in like manner, Jerome, "Manus mea nocte extenditur, et non quiescit." Parkhurst renders the verse thus: "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out by night and ceased not," or, "without interruption." With this agree the versions of Horsley, Mant, Fry, Adam Clarke, Walford, and others. The stretching out of the hand was an usual gesture in prayer. Instead of,ידיthe Chaldee reads" ,עיניmine eye trickled down," which Archbishop Secker and Green think likely to be the true reading.