John Calvin Commentary Psalms 42:10

"As with a sword in my bones, mine adversaries reproach me, While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?" — Psalms 42:10 (ASV)

It is as a slaughter in my bones. This verse is somewhat complex in its wording, but its meaning is clear. David here affirms that the grief he experienced from his enemies' reproaches wounded him no less than if they had pierced his bones.

The word ברצה, beretsach, signifies killing; therefore, I have retained this idea in my translation. Yet I do not condemn the opinion of those who render it a slaughtering sword. There is a difference here regarding the reading, arising from the great similarity between the two letters ב, beth, and כ, caph, which often functions as a prefix indicating similarity.

As the letter ב, beth, is often superfluous, I would be more inclined, in a doubtful matter like this, to omit it altogether. But as I have said, the meaning is perfectly plain, except that interpreters do not seem to consider sufficiently that the phrase my bones refers to the bitterness of grief. For we feel an injury to the bones much more acutely than if a sword were to pierce our internal organs or other soft parts of the body.

Nor should God's children regard this comparison as hyperbolic. If anyone should wonder why David took his enemies' derision so deeply to heart, he only reveals his own insensitivity by doing so. For of all the bitter evils that befall us, nothing can inflict a more severe wound than to see the wicked tear apart God's majesty and try to destroy and overturn our faith.

The doctrine taught by Paul concerning Ishmael's persecution (Galatians 4:24) is well known. Many consider his childish mocking to be of little importance, but since it aimed to make God's covenant seem worthless, for that reason, according to the Holy Spirit's judgment, it is considered a most cruel persecution.

David, therefore, very appropriately compares his enemies' derision—by which he saw his own faith and God's word trampled underfoot—to a slaughtering sword that penetrates even to the bones and marrow. Oh, that all who call themselves His children would learn to bear their private wrongs more patiently and to show the same fervent zeal for which David is distinguished here, when their faith is attacked to God's dishonor, and when the word that gives them life is also included in the same reproach!