John Calvin Commentary Psalms 15:5

"He that putteth not out his money to interest, Nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved." — Psalms 15:5 (ASV)

In this verse David urges the godly neither to oppress their neighbors by usury, nor to allow themselves to be corrupted with bribes to favor unrighteous causes. With respect to the first clause, as David seems to condemn all kinds of usury in general, and without exception, the very name has been everywhere held in detestation.

But crafty men have invented specious names under which to conceal the vice; and thinking by this artifice to escape, they have plundered with greater excess than if they had lent on usury avowedly and openly. God, however, will not be deceived or imposed upon by sophistry and false pretenses.

He looks upon the thing as it really is. There is no worse species of usury than an unjust way of making bargains, where equity is disregarded on both sides. Let us then remember that all bargains in which one party unrighteously strives to make gain by the loss of the other party, whatever name may be given to them, are here condemned.

It may be asked whether all kinds of usury are to be included in this denunciation and regarded as equally unlawful. If we condemn all without distinction, there is a danger that many, seeing themselves brought into such a difficult situation that they find sin must be incurred no matter what they do, may be made bolder by despair and may rush headlong into all kinds of usury, without choice or discrimination.

On the other hand, whenever we concede that something may be lawfully done in this regard, many will give themselves free rein, thinking that a liberty to practice usury, without control or moderation, has been granted to them. Therefore, I would, above all things, first counsel my readers to beware of ingeniously contriving deceitful pretexts by which to take advantage of their fellow-men, and let them not imagine that anything can be lawful for them which is grievous and hurtful to others.

With respect to usury, it is scarcely possible to find in the world a usurer who is not at the same time an extortioner and addicted to unlawful and dishonorable gain. Accordingly, Cato of old justly placed the practice of usury and the killing of men in the same rank of criminality, for the object of this class of people is to suck the blood of others.

It is also a very strange and shameful thing that while all other people obtain the means of their subsistence with much toil—while farmers tire themselves with their daily work, artisans serve the community by the sweat of their brow, and merchants not only labor but also expose themselves to many inconveniences and dangers—money-mongers should sit at their ease without doing anything and receive tribute from the labor of all other people.

Besides, we know that generally it is not the rich who are drained by usury, but the poor, who should instead be relieved. It is not, therefore, without cause that God has, in Leviticus 25:35, 36, forbidden usury, adding this reason: And if thy brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him; take thou no usury of him or increase. We see that the purpose for which the law was framed was that people should not cruelly oppress the poor, who should instead receive sympathy and compassion.

This was, indeed, a part of the judicial law which God appointed for the Jews in particular; but it is a common principle of justice, extending to all nations and all ages, that we should keep ourselves from plundering and devouring the poor who are in distress and want.

Hence it follows that the gain which someone who lends money at interest acquires, without doing injury to anyone, is not to be included under the category of unlawful usury. The Hebrew word נשך, neshek, which David employs, being derived from another word that signifies to bite, sufficiently shows that usury is condemned insofar as it involves or leads to a license of robbing and plundering our fellow human beings.

Ezekiel, indeed (Ezekiel 18:17 and Ezekiel 22:12), seems to condemn taking any interest whatsoever on money lent; but he undoubtedly has in mind the unjust and crafty methods of gain by which the rich devoured the poor. In short, if we had engraved on our hearts the rule of equity which Christ prescribes in Matthew 7:12, Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, it would not be necessary to enter into lengthy disputes concerning usury.

What follows next in the text properly applies to judges who, being corrupted by gifts and rewards, pervert all law and justice. It may, however, be extended further, since it often happens that even private individuals are corrupted by bribes to favor and defend bad causes. David, therefore, generally includes all those corruptions by which we are led away from truth and uprightness.

Some think that what is intended here is the rapacity of judges in extorting money from accused innocent people as the price of their deliverance, when they should instead have protected and assisted them freely. But it appears from passages in Ezekiel similar to this one, which we have quoted, that the meaning is different.

He who doeth these things. This conclusion warns us again that all who thrust themselves into the sanctuary of God are not permanent citizens of “the holy Jerusalem which is above;” but that hypocrites, and all who falsely assume the title of saints, shall eventually be “cast out” with Ishmael whom they resemble. That which is ascribed in Psalm 46, to the whole Church, David here applies to each of the faithful: He shall not be moved for ever. The reason for this, which is expressed there, is that God dwells in the midst of Jerusalem. On the contrary, we know that he is far from the perfidious and the wicked, who approach him only with the mouth and with feigned lips.