John Calvin Commentary Psalms 31:19

"Oh how great is thy goodness, Which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, Which thou hast wrought for them that take refuge in thee, Before the sons of men!" — Psalms 31:19 (ASV)

Oh, how great is your goodness which you have hidden for those who fear you! In this verse the Psalmist exclaims that God is incomprehensibly good and beneficent toward his servants. Goodness here means those divine blessings which are the effects of it. The interrogative form of the sentence has a peculiar emphasis, for David not only asserts that God is good, but he is overwhelmed with admiration of the goodness which he had experienced.

It was this experience, undoubtedly, which caused him to break out into the rapturous language of this verse, for he had been marvelously and unexpectedly delivered from his calamities. By his example, therefore, he urges believers to rise above the limits of their own understanding, so that they may promise themselves and expect far more from God's grace than human reason can conceive. He says that the goodness of God is hidden for his servants, because it is a treasure which is peculiar to them. It, no doubt, extends in various ways to the irreligious and unworthy, and is set before them indiscriminately; but it displays itself much more plentifully and clearly toward the faithful, because they alone enjoy all God’s benefits for their salvation.

God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good (Matthew 5:45), and shows himself bountiful even to the irrational creation; but he declares himself a Father, in the true and full sense of the term, only to those who are his servants. It is not without reason, therefore, that the goodness of God is said to be hidden for the faithful, whom alone he considers worthy of enjoying his favor most intimately and tenderly.

Some give a more subtle interpretation of the phrase, the goodness of God is hidden, explaining it as meaning that God, by often testing his children with trials and afflictions, hides his favor from them, although, at the same time, he does not forget them. It is more probable, however, that it should be understood of a treasure which God has set apart and stored up for them, unless, perhaps, we choose to refer it to the experience of the saints. They alone, as I have said, experience in their souls the fruit of divine goodness, whereas brutish stupidity prevents the wicked from acknowledging God as a beneficent Father, even while they are greedily devouring his good things.

And so it happens, that while the goodness of God fills and spreads over all parts of the world, it is nevertheless generally unknown. But the intent of the sacred writer will be more clearly understood from the contrast between the faithful and those who are strangers to God’s love.

Just as a prudent man will manage his generosity toward all people in such a way as not to defraud his children or family, nor impoverish his own household by spending his resources lavishly on others, so God, similarly, in exercising his beneficence to those outside his family, knows well how to reserve for his own children what belongs to them, as it were, by hereditary right—that is to say, because of their adoption.

Augustine's attempt to prove from these words that those who, in unbelief, dread God’s judgment have no experience of his goodness is most inappropriate. To perceive his mistaken view of the passage, one only needs to look at the following clause, in which David says that God makes the world perceive that he exercises inestimable goodness toward those who serve him, both in protecting them and in providing for their welfare.

From this we learn that the Psalmist here is not speaking of the everlasting blessedness reserved for the godly in heaven, but rather of the protection and other blessings that belong to the preservation of the present life. He declares these blessings to be so manifest that even the ungodly themselves are forced to become eye-witnesses of them.

The world, I admit, passes over all the works of God with its eyes shut and is especially ignorant of his fatherly care for the saints. Still, it is certain that such daily proofs of it shine forth that even the reprobate cannot help but see them, except insofar as they willingly shut their eyes against the light.

David, therefore, speaks truthfully when he declares that God gives evidence of his goodness to his people before the sons of men, so that it may be clearly seen that they do not serve him unwisely or in vain.