John Calvin Commentary Psalms 35:18

"I will give thee thanks in the great assembly: I will praise thee among much people." — Psalms 35:18 (ASV)

I will magnify thee in the great congregation. In this verse, David again commits to giving thanks to God for all His goodness, since the faithful can offer Him no other return than the sacrifice of praise, as we will see in Psalm 116:17. Thus, even while he was surrounded by the impetuous waves of fear and danger, he devotes himself to giving thanks, as if he had already obtained his desire; and by this, he intended to encourage and confirm himself in the assurance of obtaining his requests.

Here we can discern a striking and clear evidence of invincible fortitude, for though an outcast and a fugitive, lacking all help, and, in short, in a state of great extremity and despair regarding all his affairs, yet he still thinks of praising God’s grace and makes vows of solemn sacrifice to Him, as if, in the midst of the darkness of death, he saw deliverance clearly shining upon him.

And he speaks not only of giving thanks in private, but also of the kind of thanksgiving that those who were delivered from any great perils were accustomed to offer in the public assembly, as prescribed by the Law. Some translate the latter clause of the verse as a strong and powerful people, but I do not see the appropriateness of this.

It is a mere subtlety to argue that the Church is endowed with great strength and therefore is called a strong people. But as David simply means the great crowd and multitude of people who were accustomed to go up to the sanctuary to hold their solemn assembly before God, I have no doubt that when he speaks of the great congregation, and then of much people, he only repeats, according to his custom, the same thing twice, for the Hebrew word is used in both these senses.