John Calvin Commentary Psalms 41:11

"By this I know that thou delightest in me, Because mine enemy doth not triumph over me." — Psalms 41:11 (ASV)

By this I know that I have been acceptable to you. David now proceeds to the exercise of thanksgiving. However, some would rather read this verse in connection with the preceding by altering the tense of the verb, in this way: “In this I shall know that you favor me, if you do not allow my enemies to triumph over me.” But it suits much better to understand it as an expression of joy on account of some deliverance God had granted him.

After offering up his prayers, he now ascribes his deliverance to God and speaks of it as a manifest and singular benefit he had received from him. It might, however, be asked whether it is a sufficiently sure method for us to come to the knowledge of God’s love towards us, that he does not allow our enemies to triumph over us.

For it will often happen that a man is delivered from danger, whom God, nevertheless, does not regard with pleasure. Besides, the goodwill of God towards us is known chiefly from his word, and not simply by experience.

The answer to this is easy: David was not destitute of faith, but for its confirmation, he used the helps which God had afterwards added to his word.

In speaking this way, he seems to refer not only to the favor and goodwill which God bears towards all the faithful in common, but also to the special favor God conferred upon him in choosing him to be king. It is as if he had said, “Now, Lord, I am more and more confirmed in the belief that you have seen fit to adopt me as the first-born among the kings of the earth.”

Thus, he extends to the whole state of the realm the help of God, through which he had been delivered from some particular calamity.