John Calvin Commentary Psalms 37:5

"Commit thy way unto Jehovah; Trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass." — Psalms 37:5 (ASV)

Roll thy ways upon Jehovah. Here David illustrates and confirms the doctrine contained in the preceding verse. For God to accomplish our desires, it is necessary for us to cast all our cares upon him in the exercise of hope and patience. Accordingly, we are taught from this passage how to preserve our minds in tranquility amidst anxieties, dangers, and floods of trouble.

There can be no doubt that by the term ways we are here to understand all affairs or businesses. Therefore, the person who leaves the outcome of all his affairs to the will of God, patiently waiting to receive from his hand whatever he may be pleased to send (whether prosperity or adversity), is one who casts all his cares and every other burden he bears into God's bosom. In other words, by committing all his affairs to him, such a person rolls his ways upon Jehovah. Therefore, David again emphasizes the duty of hope and confidence in God: And trust in him. By this he intimates that we render to him the honor to which he is entitled only when we entrust to him the government and direction of our lives. Thus, he provides a remedy for a disease with which almost all people are infected.

Why is it that the children of God are envious of the wicked, are often in trouble and perplexity, yield to excessive sorrow, and sometimes even murmur and complain? Is it not because, by involving themselves excessively in endless cares and cherishing too eagerly a desire to provide for themselves apart from God, they plunge, so to speak, into an abyss, or at least accumulate for themselves such a vast load of cares that they are finally forced to sink under them?

Desiring to provide a remedy for this evil, David warns us that we are greatly deceived when we presume to take upon ourselves the government of our own lives and to provide for all our affairs as if we were able to bear so great a burden. Therefore, our only remedy is to fix our eyes upon the providence of God and to draw from it consolation in all our sorrows. Those who obey this counsel will escape that horrible labyrinth in which all people labor in vain, for once God has taken the management of our affairs into his own hand, there is no reason to fear that prosperity will ever fail us. Why is it that he forsakes us and disappoints our expectations? Is it not because we provoke him by pretending to greater wisdom and understanding than we possess? If, therefore, we would only permit him, he will perform his part and will not disappoint our expectations—which he sometimes does as a just punishment for our unbelief.