John Calvin Commentary Psalms 30:7

"Thou, Jehovah, of thy favor hadst made my mountain to stand strong: Thou didst hide thy face; I was troubled." — Psalms 30:7 (ASV)

O Jehovah! of your good pleasure. This verse describes the difference that exists between the confidence founded on the word of God and the carnal security that springs from presumption. True believers, when they rely on God, are not, for that reason, neglectful of prayer. On the contrary, looking carefully at the multitude of dangers that surround them, and the numerous instances of human frailty they witness, they take warning from them and pour out their hearts before God.

The prophet now failed in duty in this matter because, by anchoring himself on his present wealth and tranquility, or spreading his sails to the prosperous winds, he did not depend on the free favor of God in such a way as to be ready at any time to resign into God's hands the blessings that He had bestowed on him.

The contrast should be observed between the confidence of stability that arises from the absence of trouble and that which rests on the gracious favor of God. When David says that strength was established to his mountain, some interpreters explain it as referring to Mount Zion. Others understand it to mean a stronghold or fortified tower, because in ancient times fortresses were usually built on mountains and lofty places.

I understand the word metaphorically to signify a solid support, and therefore readily admit that the prophet alludes to Mount Zion. David thus blames his own folly because he did not consider, as he should have, that there was no stability in the nest that he had formed for himself, but in God’s good will alone.

You have hidden your face. Here he confesses that after he was deprived of God’s gifts, this served to purge his mind, as if by medicine, from the disease of perverse confidence. A marvelous and incredible method indeed, that God, by hiding His face and, as it were, bringing on darkness, should open the eyes of His servant, who saw nothing in the clear light of prosperity.

Thus, it is necessary for us to be violently shaken to drive away the delusions that both stifle our faith and hinder our prayers, and that absolutely stupefy us with a soothing infatuation. If David needed such a remedy, let us not presume that we are endowed with such a good state of heart that we do not need the experience of want to remove this carnal confidence from us—a confidence that is, as it were, an unhealthy excess that would otherwise suffocate us. Therefore, we have no reason to wonder that God often hides His face from us, since the very sight of His face, even when it shines serenely upon us, makes us so miserably blind.