John Calvin Commentary Psalms 22:9

"But thou art he that took me out of the womb; Thou didst make me trust [when I was] upon my mother`s breasts." — Psalms 22:9 (ASV)

Surely thou. David again here raises a new fortress, in order to withstand and repel the machinations of Satan. He briefly enumerates the benefits which God had bestowed on him, by which he had long since learned that he was his father. Indeed, he declares that even before he was born God had shown toward him such evidence of his fatherly love, that although now overwhelmed with the darkness of death, he might with good reason venture to hope for life from him.

And it is the Holy Spirit who teaches the faithful the wisdom to gather, when they are brought into circumstances of fear and trouble, the evidences of the goodness of God, in order thereby to sustain and strengthen their faith. We ought to regard it as an established principle that since God never wearies in the exercise of his liberality, and since the most exuberant gift cannot exhaust his riches, it follows that, since we have experienced him to be a father from our earliest infancy, he will show himself the same toward us even to extreme old age.

In acknowledging that he was taken from the womb by the hand of God, and that God had caused him to confide upon the breasts of his mother, the meaning is that, although it is by the operation of natural causes that infants come into the world and are nourished with their mother’s milk, yet therein the wonderful providence of God brightly shines forth.

This miracle, it is true, because of its ordinary occurrence, is less appreciated by us. But if ingratitude did not put the veil of stupidity over our eyes, we would be enraptured with admiration at every childbirth in the world. What prevents the child from perishing—as it might, a hundred times, in its own corruption, before the time for bringing it forth arrives—except that God, by his secret and incomprehensible power, keeps it alive in its grave?

And after it is brought into the world, since it is subject to so many miseries and cannot stir a finger to help itself, how could it live even for a single day if God did not take it up into his fatherly bosom to nourish and protect it? It is, therefore, with good reason said that the infant is cast upon him; for, unless he fed the tender little babes and watched over all the duties of the nurse, even at the very time of their birth, they are exposed to a hundred deaths that would suffocate them in an instant.

Finally, David concludes that God was his God. God, it is true, to all appearance, shows the same goodness which is here celebrated even to the animal creation; but it is only to mankind that he shows himself to be a father in a special manner. And although he does not immediately endow babes with the knowledge of himself, yet he is said to give them confidence, because, by showing in fact that he takes care of their life, he in a manner allures them to himself, as it is said in another place:

He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry (Psalms 147:9).

Since God in this manner anticipates little infants by his grace, before they yet have the use of reason, it is certain that he will never disappoint the hope of his servants when they petition and call upon him. This is the argument by which David struggled with and endeavored to overcome temptation.