John Calvin Commentary Leviticus 26:11

"And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you." — Leviticus 26:11 (ASV)

And I will set my tabernacle among you. He alludes, indeed, to the visible sanctuary in which He was worshipped. Still, He would show them that it would be effectually manifested that He had not chosen His home among them in vain, since He would exert His power by sure proofs to aid and preserve them.

In a word, He signifies that the sanctuary would not be an empty sign of His presence, but that the reality would correspond with the sign. This He further confirms in the next verse, where He says that He would “walk among” them.

For they had not yet arrived at their place of rest and therefore needed Him as their Leader, so that their journey might be prosperous.

Although He does not explicitly say that they would be spiritually blessed, still there is no doubt that He lifts their thoughts above the world when He promises that He would be their God. For this expression, I will be your God, contains, as Christ interprets it, the hope of eternal immortality, because He is the fountain of life, and not the God of the dead (Matthew 22:32).

The true and solid blessedness, then, is now promised, which was typically represented. For this reason David, although he greatly magnifies the earthly blessings of God, yet, by the conclusion which he adds, demonstrates that he did not stop short with them:

God’s mercy (he says) shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, to length of days²¹³ (Psalms 23:6).

And elsewhere, when he had said that they are happy to whom God abundantly supplies all things (that are needed,²¹⁴) he then adds, as if in explanation:

Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord (Psalms 144:15).

Finally, He reminds them that He had been their Deliverer, so that they may confidently gather from the past that the flow of His grace would be continuous, if only they themselves run the course to which He had called them.

²¹³ See Margin A..V..

²¹⁴ Added from Fr..