John Calvin Commentary Psalms 31:22

"As for me, I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications When I cried unto thee." — Psalms 31:22 (ASV)

And I said in my fear. David here confesses that because of his distrust, he deserved to be deserted by God and left to perish. It is true that he felt it was a shameful thing to confess this before men; but so that he might more fully illustrate the grace of God to him, he does not hesitate to make known the shame of his fault.

He repeats almost the same acknowledgment in Psalm 116:11, “I said in my haste, All men are liars.” I am aware that the Hebrew word חפז, chaphaz, is explained by some as meaning flight; as if David, in fleeing from death, because he was unable to make resistance, was stricken with this fear.

But I refer it rather to his trouble of mind. Whether, therefore, we translate it haste or fear, it means that he had been, as it were, carried headlong to entertain the thought that he was neglected by God. And this haste is opposed to calm and deliberate consideration, for although David was stricken with fear, he did not faint under the trial, and this persuasion did not continue fixed in his mind.

For we know that the faithful are often disquieted by fears and the heat of impatience, or driven headlong, as it were, by their too hasty or precipitate wishes, but afterwards they come to themselves. That David’s faith had never been overthrown by this temptation appears from the context, for he immediately adds, that God had heard the voice of his supplications. If his faith had been extinguished, he could not have brought his mind earnestly to engage in prayer, and therefore this complaint was only a lapse of the tongue uttered in haste.

Now if peevish hastiness of thought could drive this holy prophet of God—a man adorned with so many excellencies—to despair, how much more reason do we have to fear that our minds might fail and fatally ruin us?

This confession of David, as we have already observed, serves to magnify the grace of God. At the same time, however, he sufficiently shows in the second clause of the verse that his faith, although severely shaken, had not been altogether eradicated, because meanwhile he did not cease to pray.

The saints often wrestle in this manner with their distrust, partly so that they may not despond, and partly so that they may gather courage and stimulate themselves to prayer. Nor does the weakness of the flesh, even when they are almost overthrown, hinder them from showing that they are unwearied and invincible champions before God.

But although David stoutly resisted temptation, he nevertheless acknowledges himself unworthy of God’s grace, from which he, in some measure, deprived himself by his doubt.

For the Hebrew particle אכן, aken, is here to be understood adversatively and rendered yet, intimating that David had been preserved without any merit of his own, because God’s immeasurable goodness strove with his unbelief.

But as it is a sign of affirmation in Hebrew, I have considered it proper to translate it, Yet truly. I have no doubt that he opposes his language to the various temptations with which, it is probable, his mind had been driven back and forth.