John Calvin Commentary Psalms 10:17

"Jehovah, thou hast heard the desire of the meek: Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear;" — Psalms 10:17 (ASV)

O Jehovah, you have heard the desire of the needy. In these words the prophet confirms what I have just now said: that when hypocrites prevail in the Church, or exceed the faithful in number, we ought, unceasingly, to beseech God to root them out. For such a confused and shameful state of things ought surely to be a matter of deep grief to all the true servants of God.

By these words, also, the Holy Spirit assures us that what God granted to the fathers in the past in answer to their prayers, we today will obtain, provided we have that anxious concern for the deliverance of the Church which we ought to maintain. The clause that follows, You will direct their hearts, is variously interpreted by commentators.

Some think it signifies the same thing, as if it had been said, You will give success to their desires. According to others, the meaning is, You will shape and sanctify their hearts by your grace, so that they may ask nothing in prayer but what is right and according to the divine will, as Paul teaches us that the Holy Spirit stirs up within us groanings which cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26).

Both these interpretations are perhaps too forced. David, in this clause, magnifies the grace of God in sustaining and comforting his servants in the midst of their troubles and distresses, so that they may not sink into despondency; in furnishing them with fortitude and patience; in inspiring them with good hope; and in stirring them up also to prayer.

This is the meaning of the verb כין, Kin, which signifies not only to direct, but also to establish. It is an exceptional blessing that God confers upon us when, in the midst of temptation, he upholds our hearts and does not allow them to recede from him or to turn elsewhere for support and deliverance.

The meaning of the clause that immediately follows, You will cause your ear to hear, is that it is not in vain that God directs the hearts of his people and leads them, in obedience to his command, to look to Himself and to call upon him in hope and patience. It is not in vain, because his ears are never shut against their groanings.

Thus, the mutual harmony between two religious exercises is here commended. God does not allow the faith of his servants to faint or fail, nor does he allow them to desist from praying; but he keeps them near him by faith and prayer, until it actually becomes apparent that their hope has been neither vain nor ineffectual. The sentence might, fittingly, be translated this way: You shall establish their heart, until your ear hears them.