John Calvin Commentary Psalms 27

Jehovah is my light. This opening statement can be understood to mean that David, having already experienced God’s mercy, publishes a testimony of his gratitude. However, I am more inclined to another meaning: namely, that perceiving the conflict he had to wage with the sharpest temptations, he fortifies himself beforehand and, as it were, gathers reasons for confidence. For it is necessary for the saints to earnestly wrestle with themselves to repel or subdue the doubts that the flesh is so prone to cherish, so that they may cheerfully and quickly turn to prayer.

David, therefore, having been tossed by various storms, at last recovers himself and shouts triumphantly over the troubles with which he had been harassed, rejoicing that whenever God displays His mercy and favor, there is nothing to be feared. This is further intimated by the accumulation of terms he employs, when he calls God not only his light, but also his salvation, and the rock or strength of his life. His purpose was to set up a threefold shield, as it were, against his various fears, sufficient to ward them off.

The term light, as is well known, is used in Scripture to denote joy, or the perfection of happiness. Furthermore, to explain his meaning, he adds that God was his salvation and the strength of his life, since it was by His help that he felt himself safe and free from the terrors of death.

Certainly, we find that all our fears arise from this source: we are too anxious about our life, while we do not acknowledge that God is its preserver. Therefore, we can have no tranquility until we arrive at the conviction that our life is sufficiently guarded, because it is protected by His omnipotent power.

The question, too, shows how highly David esteemed Divine protection, as he thus boldly exults over all his enemies and dangers. Nor, assuredly, do we ascribe to God the homage that is His due unless, trusting in His promised aid, we dare to boast of the certainty of our safety. Weighing, as it were, in scales the whole power of earth and hell, David considers it all lighter than a feather, and considers God alone as far outweighing the whole.

Let us learn, therefore, to place such a value on God’s power to protect us that it puts all our fears to flight. Not that the minds of the faithful can, because of the weakness of the flesh, always be entirely devoid of fear; but immediately recovering courage, let us, from the high tower of our confidence, look down upon all our dangers with contempt.

Those who have never tasted the grace of God tremble because they refuse to rely on Him, and imagine that He is often incensed against them, or at least far removed from them. But with the promises of God before our eyes, and the grace that they offer, our unbelief does Him grievous wrong if we do not with unshrinking courage boldly set Him against all our enemies.

When God, therefore, kindly allures us to Himself and assures us that He will take care of our safety—since we have embraced His promises, or because we believe Him to be faithful—it is fitting that we highly extol His power, so that it may enrapture our hearts with admiration for Him. We must carefully consider this comparison: What are all creatures to God? Moreover, we must extend this confidence still further, in order to banish all fears from our consciences, like Paul, who, when speaking of his eternal salvation, boldly exclaims,

If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:34).

When the wicked, etc. There is no reason for translating this sentence, as some interpreters do, into the future tense. But while we retain the past tense which the prophet employs, the words may be explained in a twofold manner. The meaning but in the prophetic writings it is often used for the future.

There does not, however, as Calvin remarks, appear to be any necessity for translating the verbs into the future tense in this passage, in which David may be considered as contemplating the past evidences of the goodness of God towards him, and from them taking encouragement with respect to the future.

Either is, that David celebrates the victory which he had obtained by the blessing of God; or there is a reference to the manner in which he had encouraged himself to hope the best, even in the midst of his temptations, namely, by thinking of God’s former favors. The latter is the exposition which I prefer.

They both, however, amount to the same thing, and imply that David had no reason henceforth to doubt of God’s assistance when he considered his former experience; for nothing is of greater use to confirm our faith, than the remembrance of those instances in which God has clearly given us a proof not only of his grace, but of his truth and power.

I connect this verse, accordingly, with the following one. In the former, David recalls to mind the triumphs which, by God’s help, he had already obtained; and from this he concludes, that by what hosts soever he may be environed, or whatever mischief his enemies may devise against him, he would fearlessly stand up against them.

The Hebrew word קרב karab, signifies to approach; but here it refers to the irruption that David’s enemies made upon him when they assaulted him. Some translate it to fight, but this translation is flat. To testify his innocence, he calls them wicked or froward, and by saying that they came upon him to eat up his flesh, he expresses their savage cruelty.

Though armies should encamp. He infers from his past experience, as I have already mentioned, that whatever adversity may happen to him, he ought to continue to hope and to have no doubts about the divine protection, which had been so effectively granted to him in his previous need. He had asserted this, indeed, in the first verse, but now, with further proof of it, he repeats it.

Under the terms, camps and armies, he includes whatever is most formidable in the world. It is as if he had said, "Although all people should conspire for my destruction, I will disregard their violence, because the power of God, which I know is on my side, is far greater than theirs."

But when he declares, My heart shall not fear, this does not imply that he would be entirely devoid of fear—for that would have been more like insensibility than virtue. Instead, to prevent his heart from fainting under the terrors he had to encounter, he opposed them with the shield of faith.

Some transfer the phrase translated in this to the following verse, meaning that he was confident that he would dwell in God’s house. However, I am of the opinion that it belongs more to the preceding doctrine.

For it is then that faith produces its fruit in due season: when we remain firm and fearless in the midst of dangers. David, therefore, suggests that when the trial comes, his faith will prove invincible because it relies on the power of God.

One thing have I desired. Some consider this a prophecy of the perpetuity of David’s kingdom, on which not only his own personal happiness depended, but also the happiness of his whole people; as if he had said, "I am so well contented with this singular proof of God’s favor, that I can think of nothing else night and day."

In my opinion, however, it seems a simpler interpretation to view the words as meaning that although David was banished from his country, deprived of his wife, bereft of his relatives, and, in short, dispossessed of his possessions, yet he was not as eager for the recovery of these things as he was grieved and afflicted by his banishment from God’s sanctuary and the loss of his sacred privileges.

Under the word one, there is an implied antithesis, in which David, disregarding all other interests, displays his intense affection for the service of God, so that it was more bitter to him to be an exile from the sanctuary than to be denied access to his own house. Therefore, David's desire for only one thing—namely, to dwell in the house of the Lord—must be understood as a single, focused longing. For there is no probability that he means by this some secret wish which he suppressed, since he distinctly proclaims what it was that chiefly troubled him. He also adds steadiness of purpose, declaring that he will not cease to reiterate these prayers. Many may be seen initially driven by great impetuosity, whose ardor, over time, not only languishes but is almost immediately extinguished. By declaring, therefore, that he would persevere in this wish throughout his whole life, he thus distinguishes himself from hypocrites.

We must, however, observe what motive so powerfully stimulated David. "Surely," some may say, "he could have called on God beyond the precincts of the temple. Wherever he wandered as an exile, he carried with him the precious promise of God, so that he did not need to place such great value on the sight of the external edifice. He appears, through some crude notion, to suppose that God could be confined by wood and stones."

But if we examine the words more carefully, it will be easy to see that his object was altogether different from a mere sight of the noble building and its ornaments, however costly. He speaks, indeed, of the beauty of the temple, but he places that beauty not so much in the beauty visible to the eye, as in its being the celestial pattern that was shown to Moses, as it is written in Exodus 25:40:

And look that thou make them after this pattern which was showed thee in the mount.

Since the design of the temple was not framed by human wisdom but was an image of spiritual things, the prophet directed his eyes and all his affections to this. Therefore, the madness of those who twist this passage to support pictures and images is truly detestable; these, instead of deserving to be numbered among temple ornaments, are more like dung and filth, defiling all the purity of holy things.

We should now consider whether the faithful are to be like-minded under the Christian or Gospel dispensation. I admit, indeed, that we are in very different circumstances from the ancient fathers. However, insofar as God still preserves his people under a certain external order and draws them to him by earthly instructions, temples still have their beauty, which deservedly should draw the affections and desires of the faithful to them. The Word, sacraments, public prayers, and other similar aids cannot be neglected without a wicked contempt of God, who reveals himself to us in these ordinances as in a mirror or image.

For he shall hide me in his tent. Here the Psalmist promises himself that his prayer would not be in vain. Although he is deprived of the visible sanctuary for a time, he does not doubt that, wherever he may be, he will experience the protecting power of God. And he alludes to the temple because it was a symbol to the faithful of the divine presence; as if he were saying that in making the request which he mentioned, he by no means lost his labor, for everyone who seeks God sincerely and with a pure heart will be safely concealed under the wings of His protection.

The figure of the temple, he therefore affirms, was not meaningless, for there God, so to speak, spread out His wings to gather true believers under His protection. From this he concludes that, since he had no greater desire than to flee for refuge under these wings, a shelter would be ready for him in times of adversity under the divine protection.

He tells us that this divine protection, under the figure of a rock, would be impregnable, like towers which, for the sake of strength, were customarily built in ancient times in lofty places.

Although he was, therefore, at this time, surrounded by enemies on every side, yet he boasts that he will overcome them. It is, indeed, a common form of speech in the Scriptures to say that those who are oppressed with grief walk with a bowed back and dejected countenance, while, on the other hand, they lift up their heads when their joy is restored.

Thus David spoke (Psalms 3:4): Thou, Lord, art the lifter up of mine head. But because besieging is here put in opposition to this, he meant to say that in that divine refuge he would be, as it were, lifted on high, so that he might fearlessly disregard the darts of his enemies, which might have otherwise pierced him.

And in hoping for victory, though he was reduced to such straits as threatened instant death, he gives us a remarkable proof of his faith; by which we are taught not to measure the aid of God by outward appearances or visible means, but even in the midst of death to hope for deliverance from His powerful and victorious hand.