John Calvin Commentary Psalms 136

For his mercy, etc. The insertion of this clause again and again in so many short and abrupt sentences may seem like a vain repetition. However, verses repeated by way of a chorus are both allowed and admired in secular poets, and why should we object to the repetition in this instance, for which the best reasons can be shown?

People may not deny that divine goodness is the source and fountain of all their blessings, but the graciousness of His bounty is far from being fully and sincerely recognized, even though the greatest stress is laid upon it in Scripture.

Paul, in speaking of it (Romans 3:23), emphatically calls it by the general term, the glory of God, intimating that while God should be praised for all His works, it is His mercy principally that we should glorify.

It is evident from what we read in sacred history that it was customary for the Levites, according to the regulation laid down by David for conducting the praises of God, to sing in response, for his mercy endureth for ever. This practice was followed by Solomon in the dedication of the Temple (2 Chronicles 7:3, 6) and by Jehoshaphat in that solemn triumphal song mentioned in 2 Chronicles 20:21, of the same book.

Before proceeding to recite God’s works, the Psalmist declares His supreme Deity and dominion. This comparative language does not imply that there is anything approaching Deity besides Him; rather, people have a disposition, whenever they see any part of His glory displayed, to conceive of a God separate from Him. They thus impiously divide the Godhead into parts and even proceed so far as to fashion gods of wood and stone.

There is a depraved tendency in all to take delight in a multiplicity of gods. For this reason, apparently, the Psalmist uses the plural number, not only in the word אלהים , Elohim, but in the word אדונים , Adonim, so that it reads literally, praise you the Lords of Lords: he would intimate that the fullest perfection of all dominion is to be found in the one God.

Who alone hath done great wonders. Under this phrase, he encompasses all God’s works, from the least to the greatest, to awaken our admiration for them. For despite the evident marks of inconceivably great wisdom and divine power of God which are inscribed on them, we are prone, through thoughtlessness, to underestimate them.

He declares that whatever is worthy of admiration is solely made and done by God, to teach us that we cannot transfer the smallest portion of the praise due to him without awful sacrilege, there being no trace of divinity in the whole expanse of heaven and earth with which it is permissible to compare anything or treat anything as his equal.

He then proceeds to praise the wisdom of God, as particularly displayed in the skill with which the heavens are framed, giving evidence to a surprising degree of the intricate design with which they are adorned. Next he comes to speak of the earth, to lead us to a proper appreciation of this great and memorable work of God, stretching forth as it does a bare and dry surface above the waters.

As these elements are spherical, the waters, if not kept within their limits, would naturally cover the earth, if God had not seen fit to secure a dwelling place for the human family. Philosophers themselves are forced to admit this as one of their principles and maxims.

The earth’s expanded surface, and the vacant space not covered with water, have therefore justly been considered one of the great wonders of God. And it is ascribed to his mercy, because his only reason for moving the waters from their natural place was the regard which he, in his infinite goodness, had for the interests of man.

Who made the great lights, etc. — Moses calls the sun and moon the two great lights, and there is little doubt that the Psalmist here borrows the same phraseology. What is immediately added about the stars is, as it were, accessory to the others. It is true, that other planets are larger than the moon, but it is mentioned as second in order on account of its visible effects.

The Holy Spirit had no intention to teach astronomy. In offering instruction intended for the simplest and most uneducated people, He, through Moses and the other Prophets, used popular language. He did this so that no one might take refuge behind the pretext of obscurity, as people sometimes readily pretend an inability to understand when anything profound or difficult to grasp is presented to them. Accordingly, since Saturn, although bigger than the moon, does not appear so to the eye due to its greater distance, the Holy Spirit would rather speak childishly than unintelligibly to the humble and unlearned.

The same observation can be made about what the Psalmist adds regarding God having assigned the sun and moon their respective roles, making the one to rule the day, and the other to rule the night. We are not to understand from this that they exercise any actual government; rather, God’s administrative power is very manifest in this distribution. The sun, by illuminating the earth during the day, and the moon and stars by night, may be said to offer reverential homage to God.

Who smote the Egyptians in their first-born; some read with their first-born, but the other rendering reads better. As we do not intend to sermonize on the passage, it is unnecessary to detain the reader here with many words, as nothing is mentioned other than what has been treated elsewhere.

We may note that the Egyptians are rightly said to have been struck in their first-born. Although the other plagues occasionally terrified them, they continued in their outrageous obstinacy; however, they were broken, subdued, and submitted because of this last plague.

Since it was not intended to recount all the wonders performed in succession in Egypt, the whole is summarized in the statement that He led His people out from its midst with a mighty and a stretched out arm. For, being hard-pressed on every side, it was only by a wonderful display of divine power that they could make their escape.

The figure of an outstretched arm is appropriate, for we stretch out our arm when a great effort is required. This implies that God exerted an extraordinary, and not a common or slight, display of His power in redeeming His people.

Who divided the Red Sea. I have already (Psalms 106:7) spoken of the word סוף, suph, and have therefore not hesitated to render it the Red Sea. The Psalmist speaks of divisions in the plural number. This has led some Jewish authors to conjecture that there must have been more passages than one—an instance of their solemn trifling in things about which they know nothing, and of their method of corrupting the Scriptures entirely with their vain fancies.

We may well laugh at such fooleries, yet we are to hold them at the same time in detestation, for there can be no doubt that the Rabbinical writers were led to this by the devil, as an artful way of discrediting the Scriptures. Moses plainly and explicitly asserts that the heaps of waters stood up on both sides, from which we infer that the space between was one and undivided.

But as the people passed through in troops and not one by one—the pathway being so broad as to allow them to pass freely, men and women, with their families and cattle—the Psalmist very properly mentions divisions, with reference to the people who passed through. This circumstance greatly enhanced the mercy of God, in that they saw large depths or channels dried up, so that they had no difficulty advancing in troops abreast.

Another circumstance that confirmed or enhanced the mercy shown was that Pharaoh was shortly afterwards drowned. For the very different outcome proved that it could not be due to any hidden, merely natural cause that some should have perished while others passed over with entire safety. The distinction made provided a conspicuous display of God’s mercy in saving his people.

Much is included in the single expression that God was the leader of his people through the wilderness. It was only by a succession of miracles of various kinds that they could have been preserved for forty years in a parched wilderness, where they lacked all means of subsistence.

So, we are to understand that this expression encompasses the various proofs of divine goodness and power that Moses mentioned as having been graciously given: feeding his people with bread from heaven, making water to flow from the rock, protecting them under the cloud from the sun’s heat, giving them a sign of his presence in the pillar of fire, preserving their clothing intact, and shielding them and their little ones in their exile wanderings under tents of leaves, along with innumerable other instances of mercy that must occur to the reader.