John Calvin Commentary Psalms 146:3

"Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." — Psalms 146:3 (ASV)

Trust not in princes. This admonition is appropriately inserted, for one way people blind themselves is by entangling their minds with various schemes, and thus being prevented from engaging in the praises of God. So that God may receive all the praise due to Him, David exposes and overthrows those false supports on which we would otherwise be too inclined to trust.

His meaning is that we should withdraw our trust from humanity in general, but he specifically names princes, from whom there is more to be wary of than from common people. For what promise could poor people offer, or those who need the help of others? The great and wealthy, on the other hand, possess a dangerous attraction through the splendor associated with them, tempting us to take shelter under their patronage.

Since the naive are fascinated by their grandeur, he adds that the most powerful of the world’s princes is only a son of man. This should be enough to rebuke our folly in worshipping them as a kind of demigods, as Isaiah says (Isaiah 31:3), The Egyptian is man, and not God; flesh, and not spirit. Although princes, then, are equipped with power, money, armies, and other resources, David reminds us that it is wrong to place our trust in frail, mortal men, and futile to seek safety where it cannot be found.

He explains this more fully in the following verse, where he tells us how short and fleeting human life is. Though God may loosen the reins and allow princes even to invade heaven in their wildest enterprises, the passing of the spirit, like a breath, suddenly overthrows all their counsel and plans.

Since the body is the dwelling-place of the soul, this can certainly be understood in that way; for at death, God recalls the spirit. However, we may understand it more simply as referring to the vital breath, and this will fit better with the context—that as soon as a person has ceased to breathe, their corpse begins to decay.

It follows that those who put their trust in human beings depend upon a fleeting breath. When he says that in that day all his thoughts perish, or flow away, perhaps by this expression he censures the madness of princes in setting no bounds to their hopes and desires, and scaling the very heavens in their ambition—like the insane Alexander of Macedon, who, upon hearing that there were other worlds, wept that he had not yet conquered one, although soon after, the funeral urn was enough for him.

Observation itself proves that the schemes of princes are deep and complicated. Therefore, so that we do not fall into the error of connecting our hopes with them, David says that the life of princes also passes away swiftly and in a moment, and with it, all their plans vanish.