John Calvin Commentary Psalms 28:8

"Jehovah is their strength, And he is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed." — Psalms 28:8 (ASV)

Jehovah is their strength. By way of explanation, he repeats what he had said before: that God had been his strength, namely, because He had blessed his armies. David had indeed employed the hand and labor of men, but he ascribes the victory to God alone. Because he knew that whatever help he had obtained from men came from God, and that his prosperous success also flowed from His free favor, he discerned God’s hand in these means as clearly as if it had been extended from heaven.

And surely it is exceedingly shameful that human means, which are only the instruments of God’s power, should obscure His glory, although this sin is very common. It is a way of speaking that carries great weight when, speaking of his soldiers, he uses only the pronoun their, as if he pointed to them with his finger.

The second clause gives the reason for the other. He declares that he himself and his whole army were endowed with victorious valor from heaven because he fought under the standard of God. This is the meaning of the word anointed; for if God had not appointed him king and freely adopted him, He would not have favored him any more than He did Saul.

By this means, in praising only the power of God which advanced him to the kingdom, he attributes nothing to his own policy or power.

Meanwhile, we may learn that when one is convinced of the lawfulness of his calling, this doctrine encourages him to have good hope for the successful outcome of his affairs.

In particular, it is to be observed, as we have briefly noted in another place, that the fountain from which all the blessings God bestows upon us flow is that He has chosen us in Christ.

David employs salvations or deliverances in the plural number because he had been often and in various ways preserved.

The meaning, therefore, is that from the time God had anointed him by the hand of Samuel, He never ceased to help him but delivered him in innumerable ways until He had accomplished the work of His grace in him.