Commentary on Psalms Volume 3 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
be taken more simply, as denoting that the power of God was manifested in an extraordinary manner in these miracles; from which it would be easy to gather, that they were performed by him. I do not mean to exclude the ministry of Moses, whom God had raised up to be a prophet to the Egyptians, that in denouncing what was to come to pass, he might show that nothing happened by chance. Yet I think there is an allusion to the manifest character of the miracles, as if it had been said, Although God had not uttered a word, the facts themselves evidently showed, that he was the deliverer of his people.
Psalm 105:6-11
6. Ye seed of Abraham his servant, the sons of Jacob his chosen. 7. He is Jehovah our God: his judgments are through all the earth. 8. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; 206 9. Which he made with Abraham; and his oath which he swore to Isaac; 207 10. And established it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: 208 11. Saying, I will give thee the land of Canaan, the cord [or measuring line 209 ] of your inheritance.
6 Ye seed of Abraham his servant. The Psalmist addresses himself by name to his own countrymen, whom, as has been stated, God had bound to himself by a special adoption. It was a bond of union still more sacred, that by the mere good pleasure of God they were preferred to all other nations. By calling them the seed of Abraham, and the sons of Jacob, he reminds
See Genesis 15:17, 18; 17:2; 22:16; 26:3; 35:11.
See Genesis 26:3.
To Jacob also he renewed at Beersheba all the gracious assurances of the covenant which he had made with Abraham, and ratified to Isaac, (Genesis 28:10-15;) and he again renewed them at Padan-aram, (Genesis 35:9-15; 13:1-5,) when he changed his name from Jacob to Israel.
In our English version it is lot. But the original word signifies a cord or line. There is here an illusion to the several lots or portions into which the land of Canaan was divided among the twelve tribes; which were measured by lines. See volume 1, page 225, note 4. It being thought by some learned men that the descendants of Heber possessed the land of Canaan before the Canaanites, and that the latter unjustly dispossessed them, (see volume 3, page 264, note 3;) Dimock supposes that the phrase, "the lot of your inheritance," refers to this prior and rightful possession. But the appellation given them in verse 12th, as strangers in it, seems to militate against such an opinion. Nor is it necessary for vindicating God to have recourse to such a supposition. As he is the supreme proprietor of all the earth, he has a right to give it to whomsoever he pleases; and the wickedness of the Canaanites sufficiently justified their expulsion.