Commentary on Psalms Volume 3 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 3 of praise, which are soon forgotten; but the prophet distinguishes between the salvation of the Church, for which he makes supplication, and common benefits. By the word register, he means that the history of this would be worthy of having a place in the public records, that the remembrance of it might be transmitted to future generations. There is in the words a beautiful contrast between the new creation of the people and the present destruction; of which interpreters improperly omit to take any notice. When the people were expelled from their country, the Church was in a manner extinguished. Her very name might seem to be dead, when the Jews were mingled among the heathen nations, and no longer constituted a distinct and united body. Their return was accordingly as it were a second birth. Accordingly, the prophet with propriety expects a new creation. Although the Church had perished, he was persuaded that God, by his wonderful power, would make her rise again from death to renovated life. This is a remarkable passage, showing that the Church is not always so preserved, as to continue to outward appearance to survive, but that when she seems to be dead, she is suddenly created anew, whenever it so pleases God. Let no desolation, therefore, which befalls the Church, deprive us of the hope, that as God once created the world out of nothing, so it is his proper work to bring forth the Church from the darkness of death.
Psalm 102:19-22
19. For he hath looked down from the high place of his holiness; 152
Jehovah hath looked down from the heavens unto the earth, 20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to release the sons of death; 153 21. That the name of Jehovah may be declared in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; 22. When the peoples [or the nations] shall be gathered together, and the kingdoms to serve Jehovah.
19. For he hath looked down from the high place of his holiness Now the prophet contemplates the deliverance after which he breathes with anxious desire, as if it had been already accomplished. That the malignity of men might not attempt to obscure such a signal blessing of Heaven, he openly and in express terms claims for God his rightful praise; and the people were constrained in many ways to acknowledge therein the divine hand. Long
"Du haut lieu de son sanctuaire." — Fr. "From the high place of his sanctuary."
"C'est, ceux qui estoyent jugez a mort." — Note, Fr. marg. "That is, those who were appointed to death, or destined to be put to death." "Sons of death" is a Hebraism. "According to the Hebrew idiom, the thing which is the effect, the object, the production of another thing, or in almost any way can be said to belong to it, is called 'the son' of that other. The expression is so thoroughly naturalised with us, that we are hardly aware of its origin, which appears to be in the Hebrew writers." — Mant.