Commentary on Psalms Volume 3 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 3
5. What ailed thee, O see! that thou fleddest? and thou, Jordan, that thou turnedst back? 6. The mountains, that ye did leap like rams; and ye hills, like lambs of the flock? 7. At the presence of the Lord, tremble, thou earth, 362 at the presence of the God of Jacob; 8. Who turned the rock into pools of water, 363 and the mighty rock into a fountain of waters. 364
5 What ailed thee, O sea! The prophet interrogates the sea, Jordan, and the mountains, in a familiar and poetical strain, as lately he ascribed to them a sense and reverence for God's power. And, by these similitudes, he very sharply reproves the insensibility of those persons, who do not employ the intelligence which God has given them in the contemplation of his works. The appearance which he tells us the sea assumed, is more than sufficient to condemn their blindness. It could not be dried up, the river Jordan could not roll back its waters, had not God, by his invisible agency, constrained them to render obedience to his command. The words are indeed directed to the sea, the Jordan, and the mountains, but they are more immediately addressed to us, that every one of us, on self-reflection, may carefully and attentively weigh this matter. And, therefore, as often as we meet with these words, let each of us reiterate the sentiment, — "Such a change cannot be attributed to nature, and to subordinate causes, but the hand of God is manifest here." The figure drawn from the lambs and rams would appear to be inferior to the magnitude of the subject. But it was the prophet's intention to express in the homeliest way the incredible manner in which God, on these occasions, displayed his power. The stability of the earth being, as it were, founded on the mountains, what connection can they have with rams and lambs, that they should be agitated, skipping hither and thither? In speaking in this homely style, he does not mean to detract from the greatness of the miracle, but more forcibly to engrave these extraordinary tokens of God's power on the illiterate.
Street reads, "The earth was in pain." "All the ancient versions," says he, "have the preterperfect here. The Targum alone agrees with the present reading, if, indeed, that be an imperative mood. For I do not see whyחוליmay not be a participle passive with an yod added to it, asההפכיmay be a participle active with the same addition."
Hammond reads, "into a lake of water." "The",אגם מיםhe observes, "is best rendered a lake of water, to note the abundance of it; accordingly, the Chaldee renders it,לאריתה into a river: and so the Psalmist expressly describes the 'gushing out of the waters from the rock,' that 'they ran in dry places like a river,' Psalm 105:41."
"The divine poet represents the very substance of the rock as being converted into water, not literally, but poetically — that is ornamenting his sketch of the wondrous power displayed on this occasion." — Walford.