Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 2 the guilt of endeavoring to dispossess Him of his own inheritance. And, without doubt, they profanely poured abuse upon the true God, of whose sacred majesty they entertained the greatest contempt, their minds being besotted with their own inventions. But even granting that they abstained from gross blasphemies, yet whatever harassing proceedings are carried on against the godly redound to the dishonor of God, who has taken them under his protection. The appellation, the habitations or mansions of God, which is applied to Judea, is a form of expression, containing no small degree of comfort. God has united himself to us, with the view of having an everlasting residence amongst us, or rather that he may set as high a value upon his Church, and account it as precious, as a householder does his possessions which are most valuable, and yield him a large revenue.
Psalm 83:13-18
13. O my God! make them like a whirling ball, 928 like stubble before the wind. 14. As fire burns a forest 929 and as the flame kindles the mountains, 930 15. So pursue them with thy tempest, 931 and terrify them with thy whirlwind. 16. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Jehovah! 17. Let them be ashamed, and terrified perpetually, and let them be confounded, and perish. 18. And let them know that thou art, thy name Jehovah, thou alone the Most High over all the earth. 932
"Globum," — Lat "Une boule," — Fr The word,גלגלgaleggal, thus translated, is interpreted by Lowth, "any light thing whirled by the wind, chaff, thistle-down, etc." "גלגלseems here," says Archbishop Secker, "especially on comparing Isaiah 17:13, to be not a wheel, but some light matter, which the wind whirls round and blows away; chaff." In that passage of Isaiah, where the same Hebrew word occurs, the rendering in our English Bible is "a rolling thing;" and the marginal reading, "thistle-down." This verse affords a striking exhibition of the nothingness of combined nations before the Almighty. He can make them "like the thistle-down; like the stubble before the wind."
The allusion in this verse is to the fires, either accidental or designed, which frequently occur in hot and wooded countries, and which spread to a vast extent, devouring all before them, and continuing their ravages for a long time. Many Eastern and African travelers describe these formidable and alarming fires from personal observation; and such descriptions serve to give a more adequate idea than would otherwise offer itself to an European mind of the Psalmist's meaning. This language is an expressive image for wide and quick destruction.
"Kindleth the mountains, that is, the produce of the mountains, trees, plants, etc." — Walford.
"Pursue them with thy tempest, is an evident reference to the dissipation of the chaff, and what follows relates clearly to the expansion of the flame." — Note of Henley, in Lowth's Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, volume 1, page 277.