John Calvin Commentary Psalms 42:4

"These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, How I went with the throng, and led them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holyday." — Psalms 42:4 (ASV)

When I remember these things. This verse is somewhat obscure because of the variation of the tenses in the Hebrew. And yet I have no doubt that the true and natural sense is that David, when he recalled his former condition, experienced all the more sadness by comparing it with his present condition.

The remembrance of the past, I say, significantly aggravated his misery, stemming from the thought that he—who had formerly acted as a leader and standard-bearer in conducting others to the holy assemblies—was now barred from access to the temple. We know that those who have been accustomed to suffering from their childhood become numb to it, and the very continuance of misery produces in us a certain degree of callousness, so that we cease to think of it or to regard it as anything unusual.

It is different with those who have not been so accustomed to it. Therefore, it is no wonder that David—who had not been one of the common people but had recently occupied a chief place among the princes and led the foremost ranks among the faithful—was more deeply distressed when he saw himself utterly cast off and not even admitted to a place among the lowest.

Accordingly, I connect the demonstrative pronoun these with the following declaration: that he remembered how he had been accustomed to mingle with the godly and to lead them to the house of God. To pour out the soul is taken metaphorically by some to mean expressing his grief; others believe it signifies to rejoice greatly, or, as we commonly say, to be melted or dissolved in joy. It appears to me that David rather means that his affections were, as it were, melted within him, whether from joy or sorrow.

Just as the soul of man sustains him as long as it keeps its energies collected, so it also sinks within him and, as it were, vanishes, when any of the affections gains ascendancy through excessive indulgence. Accordingly, he is said to pour out his soul when he is so excited that his affections lose their vigor and begin to flow out.

David’s language implies that his soul melted and fainted within him because of the greatness of his sorrow, when he thought of the condition from which he had fallen. If any would rather understand it of joy, the language allows for an illustration like this: Formerly I took such a delight in walking foremost in the ranks of the people, and leading them in procession to the sanctuary, that my heart melted within me for joy, and I was quite transported by it; if, therefore, I should again be restored to the same happy condition, all my feelings would be enraptured by the same delight.

I have, however, already stated what appeared to me to be the best exposition. We must not suppose that David had been overwhelmed with the sorrow of the world; but, since in his present misery he discerned the wrath of God, he sorrowed in a godly way, because by his own fault he had provoked God’s displeasure against himself.

And, even without addressing this reason for his sorrow, we see the source from which it came. Even when afflicted by so many personal privations, he is nevertheless grieved only for the sanctuary, thereby showing that it would have been less distressing to him to have been deprived of life than to continue in a state of exile from the presence of God.

And indeed, the way we ought to regulate all our affections is this: that on the one hand, our joy should relate to the paternal love and favor of God toward us, and that on the other, the only cause of our grief should arise from feeling that he is angry with us.

This is the “godly sorrow” of which Paul speaks (2 Corinthians 7:10). By the term number, which in the Hebrew is called סך, sach, David, I have no doubt, intended ranks, or companies in procession; for when they went to the tabernacle on the holy days, they did not go in confusion or in crowds, but walked in regular order (Luke 2:44).