John Calvin Commentary Psalms 28

Unto you, O Jehovah! I will cry. The Psalmist begins by declaring that he would turn to the help of God alone, which shows both his faith and his sincerity. Although people everywhere labor under a multitude of troubles, yet scarcely one in a hundred ever turns to God.

Almost all, having their consciences burdened with guilt and having never experienced the power of divine grace that might lead them to turn to it, either proudly chafe under restraint, fill the air with unavailing complaints, or, giving way to desperation, faint under their afflictions. By calling God his strength, David more fully shows that he confided in God’s assistance, not only when he was in the shade and in peace, but also when he was exposed to the severest temptations.

In comparing himself to the dead, too, he intimates how great his distress was, although his object was not merely to point out the magnitude of his danger, but also to show that when he needed help, he did not look here and there for it, but relied on God alone, without whose favor there remained no hope for him.

It is, therefore, as if he had said, I am nothing if you leave me; if you do not help me, I perish. It is not enough for one who is in such a state of affliction to be aware of his misery, unless, convinced of his inability to help himself and renouncing all help from the world, he turns to God alone.

And as the Scriptures inform us that God answers true believers when he shows by his actions that he regards their supplications, so the word silent is set in opposition to the tangible and present experience of his aid, when he appears, as it were, not to hear their prayers.

Hear the voice of my prayers when I cry to you. This repetition is a sign of a heart in anguish. David’s ardor and vehemence in prayer are also implied by the noun signifying voice, and the verb signifying to cry. He means that he was so struck with anxiety and fear, that he prayed not coldly, but with burning, vehement desire, like those who, under the pressure of grief, vehemently cry out.

In the second clause of the verse, by synecdoche, the thing signified is indicated by the sign. It has been a common practice in all ages for people to lift up their hands in prayer. Nature has prompted this gesture even from pagan idolaters, to show by a visible sign that their minds were directed to God alone.

The greater part, it is true, content with this ceremony, busy themselves fruitlessly with their own inventions; but the very lifting up of the hands, when there is no hypocrisy and deceit, is a help to devout and zealous prayer. David, however, does not say here that he lifted his hands to heaven, but to the sanctuary, so that, aided by its help, he might ascend more easily to heaven.

He was not so unrefined, or so superstitiously tied to the outward sanctuary, as not to know that God must be sought spiritually, and that people then only approach Him when, leaving the world, they penetrate by faith to celestial glory. But remembering that he was a human being, he would not neglect this aid provided for his infirmity.

As the sanctuary was the pledge or token of the covenant of God, David perceived the presence of God’s promised grace there, as if it had been represented in a mirror. Just as the faithful now, if they wish to have a sense of God’s nearness to them, should immediately direct their faith to Christ, who came down to us in His incarnation, so that He might lift us up to the Father.

Let us understand, then, that David clung to the sanctuary with no other purpose than that by the help of God’s promise he might rise above the elements of the world, which he used, however, according to the appointment of the Law. The Hebrew word דביר, debir, which we have translated as sanctuary, signifies the inner room of the tabernacle or temple, or the most holy place, where the ark of the covenant was contained. It is so called from the answers or oracles which God gave forth from there, to testify to His people the presence of His favor among them.

Draw me not away with wicked men. The meaning is that, in circumstances so dissimilar, God should not mingle the righteous with the wicked in the same indiscriminate destruction. Undoubtedly, too, in speaking of his enemies, he indirectly asserts his own integrity. But he did not pray in this manner because he thought that God was indiscriminately and unreasonably angry with people. Instead, he reasons from the nature of God that he ought to cherish good hope, because it was God’s prerogative to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked and to give everyone their due reward.

By the workers of iniquity, he means people wholly addicted to wickedness. The children of God sometimes fall, commit errors, and act amiss in one way or another, but they take no pleasure in their evil doings; the fear of God, on the contrary, stirs them up to repentance. David afterwards defines and enlarges upon the wickedness of those whom he describes. For, under pretense of friendship, they perfidiously deceived good people, professing one thing with their tongue while they entertained a very different thing in their hearts.

Open depravity is easier to bear than this craftiness of the fox, when people put on fair appearances to find an opportunity to do mischief. This truth, accordingly, admonishes us that those who attack the simple and unwary with fair speeches, as with poison, are most detestable in God’s sight.

Give them according to their works. Having thus requested God to consider his innocence, the Psalmist thunders forth a curse against his enemies. And the accumulation of words shows that he had groaned long and grievously under the burden before he broke forth to desire such vengeance.

He intimates that the wicked of whom he speaks had transgressed not once, nor for a short time, nor in one way, but that they had proceeded so far in their constant evil doings, that their audacity could no longer be endured. We know how troublesome and grievous a temptation it is to see the ungodly proceeding without measure or end, as if God were overlooking their wickedness.

David, therefore, wearied as it were with continual forbearance, and fainting under the burden, implores God, at last, to restrain the wantonness of his enemies, who recently did not cease to heap wickedness upon wickedness. Thus we perceive that there is nothing superfluous in this verse, when to works he adds the wickedness of their doings, and the work of their hands, and petitions three times that they may receive the reward which they have deserved.

Furthermore, he at the same time testifies to his own faith, a testimony that boasting hypocrites often compel God's children to make, while by their deceit and quibbles, they mislead the judgments of the world. We see how men who are marked by wickedness, not content with their own impunity, cannot refrain from oppressing the innocent with false accusations, just as the wolf, wanting to prey on the lambs, according to the common proverb, accused them of muddying the water.

David is therefore compelled by this urgent need to call upon God for protection. Here again the difficult question arises about praying for vengeance, which, however, I will address briefly, as I have discussed it elsewhere.

1. First, then, it is unquestionable that if the flesh moves us to seek revenge, the desire is wicked in God's sight. He not only forbids us to call down evil upon our enemies in revenge for private injuries, but it must be that all desires springing from hatred are disordered. David’s example, therefore, must not be cited by those who are driven by their own uncontrolled passion to seek vengeance. The holy prophet is not inflamed here by his own private sorrow to devote his enemies to destruction; but laying aside the desire of the flesh, he pronounces judgment on the matter itself. Before a man can, therefore, pronounce vengeance against the wicked, he must first shake himself free from all improper feelings in his own mind.

2. Second, prudence must be exercised, so that the heinousness of the evils that offend us does not drive us to uncontrolled zeal. This happened even to Christ’s disciples when they desired that fire might be brought from heaven to consume those who refused to welcome their Master (Luke 9:54). They claimed, it is true, to act according to the example of Elijah; but Christ severely rebuked them and told them that they did not know by what spirit they were motivated. In particular, we must observe this general rule: that we heartily desire and labor for the welfare of the whole human race. Thus it will happen that we will not only make room for the exercise of God’s mercy but will also wish for the conversion of those who seem obstinately to rush upon their own destruction.

In short, David, being free from every evil passion and also endowed with the spirit of discretion and judgment, pleads here not so much his own cause as God's cause. And by this prayer, he further reminds both himself and the faithful that although the wicked may give themselves free rein in committing every kind of vice with impunity for a time, they must at last stand before the judgment seat of God.

Because they regard not the doings of Jehovah. In this verse he reveals the root of impiety, declaring that the ungodly are so bold in doing evil because, while they are thus indulging their hatred and committing every kind of wickedness, they think that they have nothing to do with God.

And when conscience stings them, they soothe themselves with false hopes, and at last stubbornly harden themselves into insensibility. First, being intoxicated with prosperity, they flatter themselves that God is their friend, while He has no regard for those good men who are overwhelmed with so many afflictions; and next, they persuade themselves that the world is governed by chance, thus blinding themselves in the midst of the clear light of day.

In this way, David’s adversaries, willingly ignorant that God had appointed him to be king, emboldened themselves to persecute him. He therefore complains of their blatant ignorance of this, just as Isaiah (Isaiah 5:20) brings the same complaint, in general terms, against all the ungodly people of his time.

This doctrine, then, has a twofold use:

1. It is a great consolation to the children of God to be convinced, while they are unjustly troubled, that by the providence of God they are thus beneficially trained in patience; and that while the affairs of this world are all in a state of disturbance and confusion, God nevertheless sits supreme in heaven, conducting and governing all things.
2. This is a very fitting curb to subdue the passions of our flesh, so that we do not, like the Andabates, fight in the dark with eyes closed, as if God did not see and did not care about what is done here below.

Therefore, let us learn to consider carefully that the judgments God executes are themselves proofs of His righteousness in governing humankind; and that even if all things should be jumbled together in confusion, the eye of faith should be directed to heaven to consider God’s secret judgments.

And since God never ceases, even in the midst of the greatest darkness, to give some signs of His providence, it is inexcusable negligence not to pay attention to them. The prophet further emphasizes this perverseness by repeating the works of God’s hands. He thus intimates that the ungodly, by recklessly pursuing their course, trample underfoot whatever of God’s works they may encounter that could check their madness.

Let him destroy them, and not build them up. Some believe that the first part of this verse is the subject, functioning as a noun, for the verbs in the last clause, as if David had said, “This brutal madness will destroy them.” But the name of God should instead be supplied, and then the context will flow excellently.

However, since the verbs in Hebrew are in the future tense, the sentence may be explained as meaning that David now assures himself of the destruction of the reprobate for which he had recently prayed. I do not reject this interpretation; but, in my opinion, the words are simply a continuation of his petitions.

In this way, he prays that the wicked may be overthrown, so as not to rise again or recover their former state. The expression Let him destroy them, and not build them up is a common figure of speech among the Hebrews, according to what Malachi says concerning Edom: “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, They shall build, but I shall throw down” (Malachi 1:4). Therefore, lest we be struck with an incurable plague, let us learn to awaken our minds to the consideration of God’s works, so that we may be taught to fear Him, to persevere in patience, and to advance in godliness.