John Calvin Commentary Psalms 33:12

"Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, The people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." — Psalms 33:12 (ASV)

Blessed are the people whose God is Jehovah. This verse excellently agrees with the preceding, because it would benefit us little to observe what is said about the stability of God’s counsel if that counsel did not refer to us. The prophet, therefore, in proclaiming that they are blessed whom God receives into his protection, reminds us that the counsel which he had just mentioned is not a secret that always remains hidden in God, but is displayed in the existence and protection of the Church, and may be seen there.

Thus we see that it is not those who coldly speculate about the power of God, but those alone who apply it to their own present benefit, who rightly acknowledge God as the Governor of the world. Moreover, when the Psalmist places all our blessedness in this: Jehovah is our God, in touching upon the fountain of divine love towards us, he encompasses in this single phrase whatever is usually desired to make life happy.

For when God condescends to undertake the care of our salvation, to cherish us under his wings, to provide for our necessities, and to aid us in all our dangers, all this depends on our adoption by him. But, so that it would not be thought that people obtain so great a good by their own efforts and industry, David teaches us expressly that it proceeds from the fountain of God’s gracious electing love that we are accounted the people of God.

It is indeed true that, in the person of Adam, human beings were created at first for the very purpose that they should be the sons of God; but the estrangement that followed sin deprived us of that great blessing. Therefore, until God freely adopts us, we are all by nature wretched, and we have no other entrance to or means of attaining happiness but this: that God, of his own good pleasure, should choose us who are altogether unworthy.

Accordingly, it appears how foolishly they corrupt this passage who transfer to people what the prophet here ascribes to God, as if people would choose God for their inheritance. I acknowledge, indeed, that it is by faith that we distinguish the true God from idols; but this principle must always be firmly held: that we have no part in him at all unless he precedes us with his grace.