Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
by observing, that he could perceive no way of escape from his calamities: I am shut up that I cannot go forth. 994
9. My eye mourneth because of my affliction. To prevent it from being supposed that he was iron-hearted, he again repeats that his afflictions were so severe and painful as to produce manifest traces of his sorrow, even in his countenance and eyes — a plain indication of the low condition to which he was reduced. But he, notwithstanding, testifies that he was not drawn away from God, like many who, secretly murmuring in their hearts, and, to use a proverbial expression, chafing upon the bit, have nothing farther from their thoughts than to disburden their cares into the bosom of God, in order to derive comfort from Him. In speaking of the stretching out of his hands, he puts the sign for the thing signified. I have elsewhere had an opportunity of explaining the import of this ceremony, which has been in common use in all ages.
Psalm 88:10-13
10. Wilt thou perform a miracle for the dead? shall the dead 995 arise to praise thee? Selah. 11. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the
This verse has been supposed to contain a reference to the condition of the leper under the law, which much resembled the picture here drawn.,חפשיchophshi, from,חפש chophash, "is free," says Hammond, ("in opposition to servitude,) manumitted, set at liberty The use of this word may more generally be taken from 2 Chronicles 26:21, where of Uzziah, being a leper, it is said, that he dwelt,' ,החפשית ביתin an house of freedom, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord.' The meaning is, that after the manner of the lepers, he was excluded from the temple, and dwelt,,ירושלם מן ברsaith the Chaldee, there, in some place without Jerusalem, which is therefore called the 'house of freedom,' because such as were there were exempt from the common affairs, and shut up from the conversation of men. And in comparison with these, they that are, as it were, dead and laid in their graves, are here said to be free, i e., removed from all the affairs and conversation of the world."
"This verse," observes Dr Adam Clarke, "has been supposed to express the state of a leper, who, because of the infectious nature of his disease, is separated from his family, — is abominable to all, and at last shut up in a separate house, whence he does not come out to mingle with society." "Heman means," says Walford, "either that the character of his disease was such that men could not endure to be near him, or that the state of his mind was so disordered that he became wearisome and intolerable; perhaps he includes both."
According to Cresswell, the meaning of this clause is, "That the Psalmist confined himself to his house from the fear of encountering, if he were abroad, the revilings of his former friends." Walford explains it as follows — "Either his state of feeling was such as induced him to withdraw himself altogether from society, or he was so environed by hopeless misery, that he regarded himself as a wretch confined in a dungeon, whence he could not escape." Horsley reads, "I am shut up apart, and am not permitted to come out." He observes, that shut up apart is the proper sense of,כלאand adds, that "when it denotes confinement, it always implies solitary confinement."