Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
9. Surely 956 his salvation is near to them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. 10. Mercy and truth shall meet together; righteousness and peace shall kiss each other. 11. Truth shall spring [or bud] out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. 12. Likewise, Jehovah will grant prosperity: and our land shall yield her increase. 13. Righteousness shall go before him; and set her steps in the way.
9 Surely his salvation is near to them that fear him. Here the Psalmist confirms the statement made in the preceding verse. He encourages both himself and other servants of God in the hope, that although to outward appearance God was far off from his people, yet deliverance was near at hand; because it is certain, that God secretly regards those whom he seems openly to neglect. If it is considered preferable to take the particle,אךach, adversatively, Yet his salvation, etc., — a sense in which it is often used in Hebrew — the sentence will be fuller. The prophet had just now said, that God continues to lengthen out the chastisement of his people, when he perceives that they are too prone to fall anew into sin; and here, lest his slowness in removing the stroke of his hand should prove too much for their patience, he qualifies the above statement, by observing, that even when the Divine help seems slowest in coming it is then near at hand. The glory which in the second part of the verse he anticipates will dwell in the land, is undoubtedly set in opposition to the ruinous appearance it then presented to the eye, which was a token of the dreadful anger of God, and which consigned the land to ignominy and reproach. 957 By this language, therefore, he encourages himself and other genuine believers to repentance,
Walford, who thinks that the composition of this psalm is referable to some period subsequent to the return of God's ancient people from Babylon, explains this concluding clause of the 9th verse as follows: — "The glory that is here spoken of is that which was formerly enjoyed, when they were surrounded on all sides by prosperity; and when especially they were favored with the tokens of the divine presence, in the performance of all the instituted worship of the sanctuary, when the ark, the temples etc., were in their pristine beauty and splendor."
Mercy and truth are very generally applied by commentators to God; and the passage is understood as the celebration of the harmony of the divine attributes in the salvation of man. The description is one of great beauty and sublimity. "How admirable," says Bishop Lowth, in illustrating this verse, "is that celebrated personification of the divine attributes by the Psalmist; How just, elegant, and splendid does it appear, if applied only according to the literal sense, to the restoration of the Jewish nation from the Babylonish captivity! but if interpreted as relating to that sublimer, more sacred, and mystical sense, which is not obscurely shadowed under the ostensible image, it is certainly uncommonly noble and elevated, mysterious and sublime." — (Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Poetry, volume 1, page 284.)
Dr Adam Clarke gives a turn to the text, which still more heightens its effect. "It would be more simple," says he, "to translate the original,
'Mercy and truth have met on the way; Righteousness and peace have embraced.'