Commentary on Psalms Volume 3 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
returns in mercy to his people, though this implies no change in him, yet there is a change apparent in the event itself. Thus he is said to repent when he begins to show mercy to his people, instead of manifesting his displeasure in just judgments against them. Again, he is said to receive consolation, or to be appeased and reconciled towards his people, when in remembrance of his covenant, which endures for ever, he visits them with everlasting mercies, though he had corrected them for a moment. (Isaiah 54:8.) The meaning, in short, is, that the displeasure of God towards his people is but temporary, and that, in taking vengeance upon their sins, he remembers mercy in the midst of wrath, as Habakkuk says. (Habakkuk 3:2.) Thus God is spoken of as man, manifesting a father's affection, and restoring his children, who deserved to have been cast off, because he cannot bear' that the fruit of his own body should be torn from him. Such is the sense of the passage — that God has a compassion for his people because they are his children, that he would not willingly be bereaved of them and left childless, that he is placable towards them, as being dear to him, and that having recoginsed them as his offspring, he cherishes them with a tender love.
Psalm 135:15-21
15. The images of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 16. They have a mouth, and will not speak: they have eyes, and will not see. 17. They have ears, and will not hear; also 608 there is no breath in their mouth. 18. Like be they to them who make them, whosoever trusteth in them. 19. Bless Jehovah, O house of Israel! bless Jehovah, O house of Aaron! 20. Bless Jehovah, O house of Levi! ye that fear Jehovah, bless Jehovah. 21. Blessed be Jehovah out of Zion, who dwelleth at Jerusalem. Hallelujah. 609
15. The images of the nations, etc. As the whole of this part of the Psalm has been explained elsewhere, it is needless to insist upon it, and repetition might be felt irksome by the reader. I shall only in a few words, therefore, show what is the scope of the Psalmist. In upbraiding the stupidity of the heathen, who thought that they could not have God near them in any
"Some persons takeאףas the adverb in the sense of even; as Kimchi; but the context, and also the corresponding passage in Psalm 115:6, show that it has the signification of nose,איןbecause it is followed by,ישhas merely the sense of not. (1 Samuel 21:9.) The meaning of this part of the verse is, that the idols of the heathen have not even breath to pass through the mouth and nostrils." — Phillips. ":אףI strongly suspect that a passage beginning with this word (noses have they) has fallen out of the text. It is found in one of Kennicotts MSS., and has been added in later times to the Septuagint." — Jebb's Translation of the Psalms, etc., volume 1.
The hallelujah with which this Psalm in the original text ends, has been transferred by the Septuagint to the title of Psalm 136.