John Calvin Commentary Psalms 109:8

"Let his days be few; [And] let another take his office." — Psalms 109:8 (ASV)

Let his days be few. Although this world is a scene of much toil and trouble, yet we know that these are pledges and proofs of God’s loving-kindness, since He frequently, as a token of His love, promises to prolong human lives. This is not because it is absolutely necessary for us to remain long here, but so that we may have an opportunity of sharing in God’s fatherly love which He has for us, by which we may be led to cherish the hope of immortality.

Now, in opposition to this, the brevity of human life is here introduced as a mark of God’s disapproval; for when He cuts off the wicked in a violent manner, He thus testifies that they did not deserve to breathe the breath of life. And the same sentiment is reinforced when, stripping them of their honor and dignity, He hurls them from their place of power and authority.

The same thing may also happen to the children of God, for temporal evils are common to the good and to the bad. At the same time, these are never so mingled and blended together as to prevent one from occasionally perceiving the judgments of God in a very manifest and marked manner.

Peter, quoting this verse (Acts 1:20), says it was necessary for this to be fulfilled in Judas, because it is written here, “let another take his bishopric.” And this he does on the assumed principle of interpretation that David here spoke in the person of Christ. No objection can be raised against this on the grounds that the Hebrew term פקודה, pekudah, generally signifies superintendence, because Peter very properly applies it to Judas’s apostleship.

In interpreting this passage, sometimes in reference to a wife, or to the soul (which is a precious jewel in a human being), or to wealth and property, there is good reason to believe that, in doing so, the Jewish interpreters are motivated by pure malice. What purpose can it serve to distort the meaning of a word whose sense is so clear and plain, unless it is that, under the influence of a malignant spirit, they endeavor to obscure the passage so as to make it seem that Peter did not quote it properly?

From these words we learn that there is no reason for the ungodly to be proud while their reputation is high in this world, since they cannot, after all, escape from the doom that the Holy Spirit here declares awaits them.

Here too we are provided with very valuable comfort and patience when we hear that, however elevated their rank and reputation may be now, their downfall is approaching, and they will soon be stripped of all their pomp and power.

In the two following verses the curse is extended both to the wife and children; and the desire that she may be left a widow and they become fatherless depends upon the brevity of that life to which the prophet previously referred. Mention is likewise made of beggary, and the lack of all life’s necessities, which is a proof of the magnitude of their guilt; for certainly the Holy Spirit would not denounce against them a punishment so severe for a minor offense.

In David’s words about delivering up his property as booty to the extortioners, he must be understood as alluding to the poverty that was to overtake his children.

He is not speaking of a poor and lowly person who at his death can leave nothing to his family. Instead, he refers to one who, regardless of right or wrong, has amassed wealth to enrich his children, but from whom God takes away the goods he had unrighteously taken from others.