John Calvin Commentary Psalms 105

Praise you Jehovah, etc. The object of these opening words simply is that the offspring of Abraham should place all their blessedness in the free adoption of God. It was indeed a blessing not to be despised that they had been created men, that they had been cherished in the world by God’s fatherly care, and that they had received sustenance from his hand; but it was a far more distinguished privilege to have been chosen to be his peculiar people.

While the whole human race are condemned in Adam, the condition of the Israelites was so different from all other nations as to give them ground to boast that they were consecrated to God. This is the reason why the prophet heaps together so many words in praise of this grace.

He does not treat of the government of the whole world as he did in the preceding psalm, but he celebrates the fatherly favor which God had manifested towards the children of Israel. He indeed names in general his works, and his wonders, but he limits both to that spiritual covenant by which God made choice of a church, that might lead on earth a heavenly life.

He does not intend to include among these wonders that the sun, moon, and stars daily rise to give light to the world, that the earth produces its fruit in its seasons, that every living creature is supplied with abundance of all good things for its food, and that the human family are liberally provided with so many conveniences; but he celebrates the sovereign grace of God, by which he chose for himself from among the lost race of Adam, a small portion to whom he might show himself to be a father.

Accordingly, he enjoins them to rejoice in the name of God, and to call upon him; a privilege by which the Church alone is distinguished. From this it follows that this language is addressed only to true believers, whom God would have them glory in his name, since he has taken them under his special protection.

Seek you Jehovah, and his strength. Although he had in the preceding verse characterized the faithful by the honorable designation, those who seek God, yet he again exhorts them to earnestness in seeking him, which is not an unnecessary exhortation. Seeking God, it is true, is the mark by which all genuine saints are particularly distinguished from the men of the world; but they come far short of seeking him with due ardor; and accordingly, they always need incitements to urge them on to this exercise, even though they run of their own accord.

Those whom the prophet here stirs up to seek God are not fickle persons, nor those who are altogether indolent and who cling to the impurities of earth, but those who with a prompt and ready mind already aim at doing this; and he thus stimulates them because he perceives that they are obstructed by many impediments from advancing in their course with sufficient rapidity.

However willing we may be, we still need such incitement to correct our slowness. The strength and the face of God, doubtless refer to that kind of manifestation by which God, accommodating himself to the simpler understanding of those times, then drew true believers to himself. The ark of the covenant is in many other places called both the strength and the face of God, because by that symbol the people were reminded that he was near them, and they also really experienced his power.

The more familiarly God then showed himself to them, with the more promptness and alacrity the prophet would have them apply their hearts in seeking him. The aid by which God relieves our weakness should prove an additional stimulus to our zeal. Modesty also is recommended to us, so that, mindful of our slowness in seeking God, we may keep to the way which he has prescribed for us and may not despise the rudiments through which he little by little leads us to himself.

It is added continually, so that no person may grow weary in this exercise, or, inflated with a foolish opinion of having reached perfection, may neglect the external aids to piety, as is done by many who, after having advanced a few degrees in the knowledge of God, exempt themselves from the common rank of others, as if they were elevated above the angels.

Again, the injunction is given to remember the marvelous works which God had performed, in the deliverance of his people from Egypt, when he displayed his power in new and unusual ways. By the judgments of his mouth, some understand the law. But as I interpret all three expressions, his marvelous works, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth, as referring to one series of events, I prefer explaining this last phrase as referring to the miracles by which God subdued the pride of Pharaoh.

However, there is still some doubt as to the reason for this manner of speaking. Some believe that these miracles are called the judgments of God’s mouth because he had foretold them by Moses, which is highly probable. At the same time, the expression might be taken more simply, as denoting that the power of God was manifested in an extraordinary manner in these miracles, from which it would be easy to gather that they were performed by him.

I do not mean to exclude the ministry of Moses, whom God had raised up to be a prophet to the Egyptians, so that by denouncing what was to come to pass, he might show that nothing happened by chance. Yet I think there is an allusion to the manifest character of the miracles, as if it had been said: Although God had not uttered a word, the facts themselves evidently showed that he was the deliverer of his people.

Ye seed of Abraham his servant. The Psalmist addresses his own countrymen by this title, whom, as has been stated, God had bound to Himself by a special adoption. It was a still more sacred bond of union that, by the mere good pleasure of God, they were preferred to all other nations.

By calling them the seed of Abraham, and the sons of Jacob, he reminds them that they had not attained such great dignity by their own power, but because they were descended from the holy fathers. He, however, affirms at the same time that the holiness of their fathers flowed exclusively from God’s election, and not from their own nature.

He expressly states both these truths: first, that before they were born as children of Abraham, they were already heirs of the covenant because they derived their origin from the holy fathers; and secondly, that the fathers themselves had not acquired this prerogative by their own merit or worth but had been freely chosen.

This is why Jacob is called God’s chosen. Although Abraham is also called God’s servant here (Genesis 26:24), because he purely and sincerely worshipped Him, it is testified in the second clause that the beginning of this distinction was not to be traced to men but to God alone, who conferred upon the Israelites the honor of choosing them to be His peculiar possession.

From this covenant, the Psalmist infers that although the government of God extends throughout the whole world, and although He executes His judgment in all places, He was nevertheless especially the God of that one people (verse 7), according to the statement in the song of Moses:

When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people, according to the number of the children of Israel: For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:8, 9)

The prophet again intended to show that the reason the children of Israel excelled others was not because they were better than others, but because such was the good pleasure of God. If the divine judgments extend throughout all regions of the globe, the condition of all nations is in this respect equal.

From this it follows that the difference referred to proceeded from the love of God—that the source of the superiority of the Israelites to other nations was His free favor. Although, then, He is the rightful proprietor of the whole earth, it is declared that He chose one people over whom He might reign.

This is a doctrine that also applies to us today. If we duly ponder our calling, we will undoubtedly find that God has not been induced by anything outside of Himself to prefer us to others, but that He was pleased to do so purely from His own free grace.

He hath remembered his covenant for ever. The Psalmist now celebrates the effect and actual fulfillment of the covenant, and proves from the deliverance brought about for the Israelites what he had stated before: namely, that God, while he reigned alike over all nations, extended his peculiar favor to the offspring of Abraham alone.

How does it happen that God, in delivering his people, displayed the might of his arm by so many miracles, if it was not so that he might faithfully perform the promise which he had made to his servants in the past? It is evident, then, that the ancient covenant was the cause of the deliverance granted to the chosen tribes, for in order that God might faithfully keep his promises, it was necessary for him first to be merciful.

As a long series of years had elapsed between the promise and the performance, the prophet uses the word remember, intimating that the Divine promises do not become obsolete through length of time. Even when the world imagines that they are extinguished and wholly forgotten, God retains as distinct a remembrance of them as ever, so that he may accomplish them in due season.

This is more strongly confirmed in the next clause, where the correspondence between the form or tenor of the covenant and its accomplishment is celebrated. It is not for a day, he would say, or for a few days, that God has made a covenant with Abraham, nor has he limited the continuance of his covenant to the life of man; rather, he has promised to be the God of his seed even to a thousand generations. Although, therefore, the fulfillment was for a long time suspended, God nevertheless showed by the effect that his promise did not fail through length of time.

As Abraham was the first who was called when he was living among idolaters, the prophet begins with him. He, however, afterwards declares that the covenant was also confirmed to his son and his son’s son. God then deposited his covenant with Abraham, and by solemn oath pledged to be the God of his seed.

But to give greater assurance of the truth of his promise, he was graciously pleased to renew it to Isaac and Jacob. The effect of such an extension of it is that his faithfulness takes deeper hold on the hearts of people; and, besides, his grace, when it is thus testified on frequently recurring occasions, becomes better known and more illustrious among them.

Accordingly, it is here declared progressively how steadfast and immovable this covenant is, for what is affirmed concerning each of the patriarchs belongs equally to them all. It is said that God swore to Isaac. But had he not sworn to Abraham before? Undoubtedly he had. It is also said that it was established to Jacob for a law, and for an everlasting covenant. Does this mean that the covenant was previously only temporal and transitory, and that it then had changed its nature?

Such an idea is entirely inconsistent with the meaning of the sacred writer. By these different forms of expression, he asserts that the covenant was fully and perfectly confirmed, so that, if perhaps the calling was obscure in one man, it might become more evident through God’s transmitting its testimony to posterity; for in this way, its truth was more clearly shown.

Here again we must remember that God with great kindness considers our weakness when, both by his oath and by frequently repeating his word, he ratifies what he has once promised to us. Our ingratitude then appears even more shameful in disbelieving him when he not only speaks but also swears.

Saying, I will give thee the land of Canaan. As this was only a small portion of the blessings offered to the fathers, the prophet seems at first glance too much to limit the covenant of God, which extended even to the hope of an eternal inheritance. But he considered it enough to show, by the figure synecdoche, that a part of what God had promised to the fathers had received its complete fulfillment.

His purpose is to indicate that they did not possess the land of Canaan by any other right than because it was the legitimate inheritance of Abraham according to the covenant which God had made with him. If a man presents the promised pledge of a contract, he does not violate the contract.

When, therefore, the prophet proves by a visible symbol that God did not make a covenant with His servants in vain, and that He did not disappoint their hope, he does not take away or abolish the other blessings included in it. Rather, when the Israelites heard that they possessed the land of Canaan by right of inheritance, because they were the chosen people of God, it was appropriate for them to look beyond this, and to take a comprehensive view of all the privileges by which He had graciously distinguished them.

Therefore, it should be noted that when He partly fulfills His promises to us, we are base and ungrateful if this experience does not lead to the confirmation of our faith. Whenever He shows Himself to be a father to us, He undoubtedly seals on our hearts the power and efficacy of His word.

But if the land of Canaan should have led the children of Israel in their contemplation of heaven, since they knew that they had been brought into it on account of the covenant which God had made with them, then the consideration that He has given to us His Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen, (2 Corinthians 1:20), ought to have much greater weight with us.

When it is said, I will give thee the measuring line of Your inheritance, the change in number indicates that God made a covenant with all the people in general, though He spoke the words only to a few individuals, just as we have seen a little earlier that it was a decree or an everlasting law. The holy patriarchs were the first and principal persons into whose hands the promise was committed; but they did not embrace the grace which was offered to them as belonging only to themselves, but as what their posterity, in common with them, were to become sharers of.