John Calvin Commentary Psalms 130:3

"If thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" — Psalms 130:3 (ASV)

If You, O God! should mark iniquities—here the Prophet acknowledges that although severely afflicted, he had justly deserved the punishment that had been inflicted on him. By his own example, he gives a rule that the whole Church ought toobserve: let no one presume to intrude into the presence of God, but approach by humbly pleading against His wrath. And especially when God deals severely with us, let us know that we are required to make the same confession that is expressed here.

Whoever either flatters himself or buries his sins by ignoring them deserves to waste away in his miseries; at least he is unworthy of obtaining from God the smallest relief. Whenever God then shows the signs of His wrath, let even the man who seems to others to be the holiest of all his peers humble himself to make this confession: that if God were to determine to deal with us according to the strict demands of His law, and to summon us before His tribunal, not one of the whole human race would be able to stand.

We grant that it is only one man who prays here, but he at once pronounces sentence on the whole human race. “All the children of Adam,” he essentially says, “from the first to the last, are lost and condemned, if God should require them to give an account of their life.” It is therefore necessary that even the holiest of men should pass under this condemnation, so that they may turn to the mercy of God as their only refuge.

The Prophet, however, does not mean to lessen his own fault by thus involving others with himself, as we see hypocrites do. When these dare not altogether justify themselves, they resort to this excuse: “Am I the first or the only man who has offended?” And thus, by mingling themselves with a multitude of others, they think themselves half absolved from their guilt.

But the Prophet, instead of seeking to shelter himself under such an excuse, rather confesses—after having thoroughly examined himself—that if not even one of the whole human race can escape eternal perdition, this, instead of lessening, rather increased his own liability to punishment. Whoever, as if to say, comes into the presence of God, whatever his eminence in holiness, must yield and stand confounded; what then will be the case for me, who am not one of the best?

The right application of this doctrine is for every person to examine earnestly his own life by the perfection that is required of us in the law. In this way, he will be forced to confess that all people without exception have deserved everlasting damnation; and each will acknowledge in respect to himself that he is a thousand times ruined.

Furthermore, this passage teaches us that since no one can stand by his own works, all who are accounted righteous before God are righteous as a result of the pardon and remission of their sins. In no other manner can anyone be righteous in the sight of God. Very differently do the Papists think.

They indeed confess that the deficiencies of our works are supplied by the leniency that God exercises towards us; but at the same time, they dream of a partial righteousness, on the ground of which people may stand before God. In entertaining such an idea, they go very far astray from the meaning of the Prophet, as will appear more plainly from what follows.