John Calvin Commentary Psalms 33:15

"He that fashioneth the hearts of them all, That considereth all their works." — Psalms 33:15 (ASV)

He who fashioned their hearts altogether. It appears that this is added for the express purpose of assuredly persuading believers that however the wicked might craftily, deceitfully, and by secret stratagems attempt to withdraw themselves from God’s sight and hide themselves in caverns, yet His eyes would penetrate into their dark hiding-places.

And the Psalmist argues from the very creation that God cannot but bring men’s devices and doings into reckoning and judgment. He reasons this because, though each man has intricate recesses concealed in his bosom, so that there is a wonderful diversity of different minds in this respect, and this great variety creates a most confounding obscurity; yet the eyes of God cannot be so dazzled and darkened that He would not be a competent judge and take cognizance of His own work.

By the adverb together, therefore, he does not mean that the hearts of men were formed at the same moment; but that all of them were fashioned, every single one, without a single exception. Consequently, those who attempt to hide or to withdraw the knowledge of their hearts from Him who framed them demonstrate great folly.

This passage may also be understood to mean that men cannot, by the erring devices of their own thoughts, diminish the authority of God over them, so as to prevent Him from governing by His secret providence the events which seem to them to happen by chance.

Indeed, we see how in forming their vain hopes, they strip God of His power and transfer it to created things—at one time to this object, and at another time to that. They imagine they have no need of His aid as long as they are provided with outward means and helps to protect themselves.

It therefore follows, A king is not saved for the multitude of his host, etc. By this, the inspired writer means to teach us that the safety of men’s lives depends not on their own strength, but on the favor of God.

He names particularly kings and giants rather than others because, not being of the common class of men but of a higher condition, they appear to themselves to be beyond the reach of all danger from darts. If any adversity befalls them, they promise themselves an easy deliverance from it.

In short, intoxicated with a presumptuous confidence in their own strength, they scarcely think themselves mortal. They are still more hardened in this pride by the foolish admiration of the common people, who stand amazed at the greatness of their power.

If, therefore, neither a king is saved by his troops nor a giant by his strength when they are exposed to danger, then mankind in vain neglects the providence of God and looks around for human help.

From this it follows that the condition of both the strong and the weak is miserable until they learn to rely on the protection of God.