John Calvin Commentary Psalms 21:9

"Thou wilt make them as a fiery furnace in the time of thine anger: Jehovah will swallow them up in his wrath, And the fire shall devour them." — Psalms 21:9 (ASV)

Thou shalt put them as it were into a furnace of fire. The Psalmist here describes a dreadful kind of vengeance, from which we gather that he does not speak of every kind of enemy in general, but of the malicious and frantic despisers of God, who, in the manner of the giants of old, rise up against His only begotten Son.

The very severity of the punishment shows the greatness of the wickedness. Some think that David alludes to the kind of punishment which he inflicted upon the Ammonites, an account of which we have in the sacred history; but it is more probable that he here sets forth metaphorically the dreadful destruction that awaits all the adversaries of Christ.

They may burn with rage against the Church and set the world on fire by their cruelty, but when their wickedness has reached its highest pitch, this is the reward God has in reserve for them: He will cast them into His burning furnace to consume them.

In the first clause, the king is called an avenger; in the second, this office is transferred to God; and in the third, the execution of the vengeance is attributed to fire. These three things agree very well. We know that judgment has been committed to Christ, so that He may cast His enemies headlong into everlasting fire; but it was important to express distinctly that this is not the judgment of man but of God.

Nor was it less important to show how extreme and dreadful a kind of vengeance this is, in order to arouse from their stupor those who, unaware of danger, boldly despise all the threats of God. Besides, this also serves significantly for the consolation of the righteous. We know how dreadful the cruelty of the ungodly is, and that our faith would soon sink under it if it did not rise to the contemplation of the judgment of God.

The expression, In the time of thy wrath, admonishes us that we should patiently bear the cross as long as it pleases the Lord to test and humble us under it. If, therefore, He does not immediately put forth His power to destroy the ungodly, let us learn to extend our hope to the time which our heavenly Father has appointed in His eternal purpose for the execution of His judgment, and when our King, armed with His terrible power, will come forth to execute vengeance.

While He now seems to take no notice, this does not imply that He has forgotten either Himself or us. On the contrary, He laughs at the madness of those who go on committing every kind of sin without any fear of danger, becoming more presumptuous day after day.

This laughter of God, it is true, brings little comfort to us; but we must, nevertheless, complete the time of our warfare until the day of the Lord’s vengeance comes, which, as Isaiah declares (Isaiah 34:8), will also be the year of our redemption.

It does not seem out of place to me to suppose that in the last clause, a destruction is denounced against the enemies of Christ like that which God long ago sent upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

That punishment was a striking and memorable example, above all others, of God’s judgment against all the wicked. Or rather, it was, so to speak, a visible image on earth of the eternal fire of hell which is prepared for the reprobate; and so this comparison is often found in the sacred writings.