John Calvin Commentary Psalms 10:4

"The wicked, in the pride of his countenance, [saith], He will not require [it]. All his thoughts are, There is no God." — Psalms 10:4 (ASV)

The ungodly, in the pride of his countenance, etc. Others translate the words, The ungodly man, by reason of the violence of his anger, or, in the pride which he displays, does not inquire after God. But this partly perverts the meaning and partly weakens the force of what David intended to express.

In the first place, the word inquire, which is used here absolutely (that is, without any noun that it governs), is, according to this translation, improperly limited to God. David simply means that the ungodly, without examination, permit themselves to do anything. They do not distinguish between what is lawful and unlawful, because their own lust is their law. Indeed, as if superior to all laws, they imagine that it is lawful for them to do whatever they please.

The beginning of well-doing in a person’s life is inquiry. In other words, we can only begin to do well when we restrain ourselves from following, without choice and discrimination, the impulses of our own imagination, and from being carried away by the wayward propensities of our flesh. But the exercise of inquiring proceeds from humility, when we assign to God, as is reasonable, the place of judge and ruler over us.

The prophet, therefore, very properly says that the reason the ungodly presume to do whatever they desire, without any regard or consideration, is because, being lifted up with pride, they leave God none of the prerogative of a judge. The Hebrew word פף, aph, which we have translated countenance, I have no doubt is here taken in its proper and natural meaning, and not metaphorically for anger; because haughty persons show their effrontery even by their countenance.

In the second clause, the prophet more severely, or at least more openly, accuses them, declaring that all their wicked imaginations show that they have no God. All his devices say, There is no God. By these words I understand that through their heaven-daring presumption, they subvert all piety and justice, as if there were no God sitting in heaven.

If they truly believed that there is a God, the fear of the judgment to come would restrain them. Not that they plainly and distinctly deny the existence of a God, but they strip him of his power. Now, God would be merely like an idol if, contented with an inactive existence, he were to divest himself of his office as judge.

Whoever, therefore, refuses to admit that the world is subject to the providence of God, or does not believe that his hand is stretched forth from on high to govern it, does as much as is in their power to put an end to the existence of God. It is not, however, enough to have some cold and superficial knowledge of him in the head; it is only the true and heartfelt conviction of his providence that makes us reverence him and keeps us in subjection to him.

Most interpreters understand the last clause as meaning generally that all the thoughts of a wicked person tend to the denial of a God. In my opinion, the Hebrew word מזמות, mezimmoth, is here, as in many other places, taken in a negative sense to mean cunning and wicked thoughts, so that the meaning, as I have noted already, is this: Since the ungodly have the audacity to devise and perpetrate every kind of wickedness, however atrocious, it is sufficiently clear from this that they have cast off all fear of God from their hearts.