John Calvin Commentary Psalms 55:19

"God will hear, and answer them, Even he that abideth of old, Selah [The men] who have no changes, And who fear not God." — Psalms 55:19 (ASV)

God shall hear, and afflict them. As the verb ענה, anah, which I have rendered afflict, occasionally signifies to testify, some understand David to say that God would rise up as a witness against them. However, the syntax of the language hardly supports this, as, in Hebrew, the letter ב, beth, is generally appended in such a case.

There seems no doubt that the word here signifies to subject or punish, although this is rather its meaning implicitly and by a kind of irony; for, most commonly, ענה, anah, means to answer. Having said that God would hear him, he adds that God would answer him by avenging his cause in the punishment of his enemies.

The epithet, or descriptive title, which he applies to God is one calculated to comfort the devout mind in times of trouble and confusion. Much of the impatience into which we are hurried arises from not elevating our thoughts to God's eternity. Can anything be more unreasonable than that we poor mortals, who pass away like a shadow, should measure God by our feeble understanding? This is to cast Him down from His eternal throne and subject Him to the fluctuations of a changing world.

As חלף, chalaph, may signify to cut off as well as to change, some have supposed that David here complains that the destruction of the wicked has been too long deferred; but this is not a probable interpretation. The term has been more properly rendered changes. However, even those who have adopted this rendering have varied in the meaning of the passage.

Some understand it to mean that no change for the better was to be expected in their character; that they were so bent on evil as to be resistant to repentance, so entirely under the influence of a cruel disposition as never once to incline toward humanity or mercy.

Others, with more reason, consider that he refers, in the language of complaint, to the uninterrupted flow of their prosperity, which was such that they seemed exempt from the common vicissitudes of life. He represents them as being corrupted by this indulgence and casting off from their minds every principle of fear, as if they were privileged with immunity from mortal ills.

The connective particle will thus carry the force of a consequence: they have no changes, and therefore they fear not God. It is an undeniable truth that the longer the wicked are left to enjoy their pleasures, the more hardened they become in their evil ways; and that where pride has the ascendancy in the heart, the effect of the Divine indulgence is to make us forget that we are human.

In the connection between the two parts of the verse, there is an implied criticism of the infatuation of those who are led by their exemption from adversity to conclude that they are a kind of demigods. For, how insignificant is the course of human life when compared with God's eternity? We need to be on our guard in times of prosperity, lest we fall into the complacent spirit to which the Psalmist here alludes, and even carry our exultation to the point of defying the Almighty.