Commentary on Psalms Volume 3 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 3 during the storms of adversity; and the scope of the passage would be, that the truly happy man is he who has so far profited, by the word of God, as to sustain the assault of evils from without, with peace and composure. But as it is added, whilst 28 the pit is digged for the wicked, it would seem necessary, in order to bring out the opposition contained in the two members of the sentence, to suppose that the Psalmist rather commends the wisdom of those who reckon that God afflicts them with a view to saving them from destruction, and bringing them eventually to a happy issue. It was necessary to state this second ground of comfort, because our hearts cannot fail to be affected with the most intense grief when we see the wicked triumph, and no Divine restraint put upon them. The Psalmist meets the temptation by appropriately reminding us that the wicked are left upon earth, just as a dead body which is stretched out upon a bed, till its grave be dug. Here believers are warned that, if they would preserve their constancy, they must mount their watchtower, as Habakkuk says, (Habakkuk 2:1) and take a view in the distance of God's judgments. They shall see worldly men rioting in worldly delights, and, if they extend their view no farther, they will give way to impatience. But it would moderate their grief, would they only remember that those houses which are nominally appropriated to the living, are, in fact, only granted to the dead, until their grave be digged; and that, though they remain upon earth, they are already devoted to destruction. 29
Psalm 94:14-15
14. Surely Jehovah will not cast off his people, and he will not forsake his inheritance. 15. But judgment will return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart after him.
In our English Bible it is "until the pit be digged:" on which Hammond, who gives the same translation as Calvin, comments as follows: — "The rendering of,עדuntil, in this place, may much disturb the sense, and make it believed that the rest,רע מימיfrom the evil days, i e., from persecution, (see Ephesians 5:16,) which God gives to good men, is to continue till the pit be digged for the ungodly, i e., till the measure of their sins be filled up, and so destruction be ready for them: whereas, the contrary of this is evident, that either the destruction of the wicked is first, and the quiet and rest of the good (oppressed by them) a natural effect of that, and so subsequent to it; or that both of them are of the same date, at once 'tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest,' 2 Thessalonians 1:6, 7. And this is evidently the meaning of it here, and so will be discerned, if only theאדbe rendered dum, whilst, (as it is elsewhere used, Jonah 4:2,אד ' ,היותיwhilst I was,' Job 1:16,' ,מדבר זה אדwhilst he was speaking,') for then thus it will run very fitly, 'That thou mayest give him rest — whilst the pit is digged —'" Horsley reads the verse —
"To produce ease for him out of the days of adversity, Whilst the pit is digging for the impious."
"Que les maisons qui sont destinees aux vivans, pour un peu de temps sont bien concedees aux morts cependant qu'on leur fait leur fosse; et qu'en ceste facon ceux qui neantmoins sont destinez a perdition, demeurent en vie," etc. — Fr.