John Calvin Commentary Psalms 39:10

"Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thy hand." — Psalms 39:10 (ASV)

Take away thy stroke from me. David here confirms the prayer he had already presented: namely, that having obtained pardon from God, he might also be gently treated by Him. This prayer, however, does not disturb the silence he had just mentioned; for our desires and prayers, if they are formed according to the rule of God’s word, are not thoughtless and noisy so as to provoke God's displeasure against us, but proceed from the calm stillness which faith and patience produce in our hearts.

It is indeed true that when anyone prays earnestly to God, he cannot fail to mix his own feelings with it, pour forth his complaints, and show extreme ardor. But we see that David, who formerly lamented his miseries with loud cries, now calmly sets himself to consider and weigh what he merited, and prays for pardon.

His meaning is that God would mitigate the punishment He had inflicted on him. The reason immediately follows: for I have fainted by the blow of thy hand. In speaking this way, David does not offer this as an excuse to lessen his fault, but desires to be patiently endured in his infirmity.

Just as David says about himself individually that he is consumed because he feels God's hand is against him, so he immediately states the same truth in general terms in verse 11. He tells us that if God were to begin to deal with us according to the strict demands of the law, the consequence would be that all would perish and be utterly overwhelmed under His wrath.

He plainly shows:

1. That he is not speaking of just any man, or even of men generally, because he uses a Hebrew word that denotes a man renowned for his valor, courage, or excellence.
2. That if God were to set Himself to chastise such persons, everything they esteem precious in themselves would be consumed or dissolved.

The sum is that among men there is no one endowed with such power and glory whom God's wrath, if it burns fiercely against him, will not immediately bring to nothing. But it will be necessary to examine the words more minutely. David does not simply describe the dreadful character of God’s wrath; but at the same time, he declares and shows His righteousness in all the punishments He inflicts on men.

The judgments of God sometimes strike fear and dread into the hearts even of unbelievers, but their blindness fills them with such rage that they still continue to fight against God. By the term rebukes, David means severe punishments, which are tokens of strict justice and signs of divine wrath.

We know that God often uses the rod of His chastisement on true believers. However, He does it in such a way that, in punishing them, He simultaneously gives them a taste of His mercy and His love. He not only tempers the chastisements with which He visits them but also mixes them with comfort, which serves to make them much more tolerable.

David, then, is not speaking here of fatherly chastisement, but of the punishment God inflicts on the reprobate, when, like a relentless judge in the exercise of His office, He executes against them the judgment they have merited. He tells us that when God makes this rigor to be felt, there is no one who does not immediately consume or pine away.

At first glance, the comparison of God to a moth may seem absurd. For what relation is there, one might ask, between a small moth larva and the infinite majesty of God? I answer that David has very appropriately used this simile, so that we may know that although God does not openly thunder from heaven against the reprobate, His secret curse nevertheless continues to consume them, just as a moth, though unnoticed, wastes a piece of cloth or wood by its secret gnawing.

At the same time, he alludes to the excellency of man, which he says is destroyed, as it were, by decay when God is offended, just as the moth destroys the most precious cloths by consuming them. The Scriptures often very appropriately use various similes in this way and tend to apply them sometimes in one way and sometimes in another.

When Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:13) compares God to a lion, he does so in reference to his own state of mind, because he was so prostrated and overwhelmed with fear and terror. But here David teaches us that although the world may not perceive God's dreadful vengeance, it nevertheless consumes the reprobate by secretly gnawing at them.

This sentence, that every man is vanity, is again very appropriately repeated; for until we are overcome by God's power and, as it were, humbled in the dust, we never search our own hearts, so that the knowledge of our own vanity may strip us of all presumption.

Why is it that people are so foolishly satisfied with themselves, yes, and even applaud themselves, unless it is because, as long as God patiently endures them, they are willfully blind to their own infirmities? The only remedy, then, by which people are cured of pride is when, alarmed by a sense of God’s wrath, they begin not only to be dissatisfied with themselves but also to humble themselves even to the dust.