John Calvin Commentary Psalms 35:4

"Let them be put to shame and brought to dishonor that seek after my soul: Let them be turned back and confounded that devise my hurt." — Psalms 35:4 (ASV)

Let those who seek my soul be confounded. David now calls upon God to take vengeance upon his enemies; and he asks not only that God would disappoint and destroy their designs, but also that he would recompense them according to their deserts. In the first place, he desires that they may be confounded and put to shame in seeing their expectation and desire fail; and then he proceeds further, desiring that while they imagine themselves to be firmly established and deeply rooted, they may be like chaff or stubble.

As the chaff is driven by the wind, so also he desires that, being disquieted by the secret impulse of the angel of the Lord, they may never have rest. The imprecation that follows is even more dreadful, and it is this: that wherever they go they may meet with darkness and slippery places; and that in their doubt and perplexity the angel of the Lord would pursue them.

Ultimately, whatever they devise, and to whatever side they turn, he prays that all their plans and enterprises may come to a disastrous end. When he desires that they may be driven by the angel of the Lord, we learn from this that the reason the ungodly are troubled, though no one pursues them, is that God strikes them with a spirit of amazement and distracts them with such fears that they tremble and are troubled.

He expresses the same thing more clearly in the following verse, praying that the angel of the Lord would drive them through dark and slippery places, so that reason and understanding might fail them, and that they might not know where to go, nor what to do, nor even have time given them to draw their breath.

We need not be surprised that this work should be assigned to the angels, by whose instrumentality God executes his judgments. At the same time, this passage may be interpreted as referring to devils as well as to holy angels, who are always ready to execute the divine commands. We know that the devil is permitted to exercise his dominion over the reprobate; and hence it is often said that an evil spirit from God came upon Saul, (1 Samuel 18:10). But as the devils never execute the will of God unless compelled to do so when God wishes to make use of them, the Sacred Scriptures declare that the holy and elect angels are in a much higher sense the servants of God.

God, then, executes his judgments by the wicked and reprobate angels; but he gives the elect angels pre-eminence over them. For this reason, also, good angels only are rightfully called “principalities,” as in Ephesians 3:10; Colossians 1:16, and other similar passages. If it is objected that it is not fitting that the angels, who are the ministers of grace and salvation and the appointed guardians of the faithful, should be employed in executing judgment on the reprobate, the explanation is simply this: they cannot watch for the preservation of the godly without being prepared for fighting — that they cannot aid them without also opposing their enemies and declaring themselves to be against them.

The style of imprecation that the Psalmist here employs can be explained only by bearing in mind what I have elsewhere said. Namely, David does not plead simply his own cause, nor does he rashly utter the dictates of passion, nor with unadvised zeal desire the destruction of his enemies. Rather, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he entertains and expresses against the reprobate desires characterized by great moderation. These desires were far removed from the spirit of those who are impelled by a desire for revenge, hatred, or some other inordinate emotion of the flesh.