John Calvin Commentary Psalms 4:7

"Thou hast put gladness in my heart, More than [they have] when their grain and their new wine are increased." — Psalms 4:7 (ASV)

You have given more joy to my heart. By another comparison, he better expresses and illustrates the strength of his affection, showing that, having obtained the good for which he had longed, he does not in the least degree envy the wealth and enjoyments of others but is altogether content with his own lot.

The sum is that he had more satisfaction in seeing the reconciled countenance of God beaming upon him than if he had possessed granaries full of corn and cellars full of wine. Interpreters are not agreed on the word מעת, me-eth, which we have translated, in the time. Some give this rendering: You have put gladness into my heart, Since The Time that their corn and wine increased; as if David had said, "I rejoice when I see my enemies prospering in the world."

But the former translation appears to me much more suitable. According to it, David declares that he rejoices more in the favor of God alone than earthly people rejoice when they enjoy all earthly good things, with the desire for which they are generally inflamed. He had represented them as so bent upon, and addicted to, the pursuit of worldly prosperity as to have no great care for God; and now he adds that their joy in the abundance and increase of their wine and corn is not as great as his joy in a sense of the divine goodness alone.

This verse contains very profitable instruction. We see how earthly people, after they have despised the grace of God and immersed themselves completely in transitory pleasures, are so far from being satisfied with them, that their very abundance inflames their desires all the more. Thus, in the midst of their fullness, a secret uneasiness renders their minds uncomfortable.

Never, therefore, will we obtain undisturbed peace and solid joy until the favor of God shines upon us. And although the faithful also desire and seek their worldly comforts, yet they do not pursue them with immoderate and irregular ardor; but they can patiently bear to be deprived of them, provided they know themselves to be the objects of the divine care.