John Calvin Commentary Psalms 144:2

"My lovingkindness, and my fortress, My high tower, and my deliverer; My shield, and he in whom I take refuge; Who subdueth my people under me." — Psalms 144:2 (ASV)

My goodness, etc. This way of using the word in a passive sense, as in the Hebrew, sounds harsh in Latin; just as elsewhere (Psalms 18:50) he calls himself “God’s king,” not in the sense of his having dominion over God, but of being made and appointed king by him.

Having experienced God’s kindness in so many ways, he calls him “his goodness,” meaning that whatever good he possessed flowed from him. The accumulation of terms, one upon another, which follows, may appear unnecessary, yet it tends greatly to strengthen faith. We know how unstable human minds are, and especially how soon faith wavers, when they are assailed by some trial of more than usual severity.

If God is to sustain us under such weakness, it is not enough for him to promise us his help in individual or single expressions; and, no matter how many aids he supplies us with, we are subject to very great vacillations, and a forgetfulness of his mercy creeps in upon us which almost overwhelms our minds.

We are to remember that it is not merely as a sign of his gratitude that David heaps together so many terms in declaring the goodness of God, but to fortify God’s people against all attacks of the world and of the evil one. He had a reason for reckoning it among the greatest of God’s mercies that God controlled the people under his government.

For עמי, ami, my people, some read עמים, amim, peoples; and it is surprising that they prefer such a forced rendering, as David simply means that the settled state of the kingdom was owing not to any counsel, valor, or authority of his own, but to God’s secret favor.

The verb רדד, radad, is used appropriately, signifying to spread out. The idea some have, that by a people spread out is meant a people set down at ease in a prosperous and happy condition, is far-fetched. I have as great objections to the idea of others, that it means a people laid prostrate, so that they may be trodden under foot; for a violent domination like this would not have been desirable over the chosen people, and sacred inheritance of the Lord.

When a people yields cordial and willing obedience to the laws, all subordinating themselves to their own place peaceably, this signally proves the divine blessing. And in such a settlement as this, where there is no turbulence nor confusion, the people are appropriately represented, according to what we have said above, as being spread out.

Accordingly, David, having ascribed the victories he had gained over foreign enemies to God, thanks him at the same time for the settled state of the kingdom. Raised indeed as he was from an obscure station and exposed to hatred from calumnious charges, it could scarcely have been believed that he would ever obtain a peaceable reign. The people had suddenly and beyond expectation submitted to him, and so surprising a change was eminently God’s work.