John Calvin Commentary Psalms 109:26

"Help me, O Jehovah my God; Oh save me according to thy lovingkindness:" — Psalms 109:26 (ASV)

Help me, O Jehovah! The prophet repeats his prayer because the more we are assailed by the cunning and deceit of Satan, the more necessary it is for us to strive more fervently and display greater boldness. We may indeed have the full assurance of God being favorable toward us, yet when He delays to reveal it, and when the ungodly slander us, various doubts inevitably intrude upon our minds.

Therefore, it is not without reason that David, to withstand such attacks, places himself under the protection of that God who, according to His mercy and goodness, helps His people in their time of need. He implores that deliverance be extended to him, not by ordinary means, but by a unique and special display of God’s power, so that his enemies may stand ashamed and not dare to open their mouths.

We know that God sometimes secretly grants aid to His servants. At other times, He stretches out His hand in such a visible manner that the ungodly, though they shut their eyes, are compelled to acknowledge the divine intervention connected with their deliverance.

Since his enemies had exalted themselves against God, he desired, after they were subdued, to exult over them in the name of God. In cherishing this desire, he had no wish to gain for himself the reputation of being brave in war, but rather that God’s power might be displayed, so that no flesh may glory in His sight.

The words may also be viewed as referring both to his deliverance from his enemies and to his affliction. His desire was to attribute his deliverance mainly to the grace of God, because by contrasting God's hand with fortune and all human means of deliverance, it is clearly his intention that God should be recognized as the sole author of it.

We should carefully consider this. For however anxious we are to be delivered by the hand of God, there is scarcely one in a hundred who makes the manifestation of God’s glory his chief end—a glory for which we ought to have greater regard than for our own safety, because it is far more excellent.

Therefore, whoever desires that the ungodly may be compelled to acknowledge the power of God ought more carefully to pay attention to the help of God which he himself experiences. For it would be most absurd to point out the hand of God to others if our own minds have not recognized it.