John Calvin Commentary Psalms 59:4

"They run and prepare themselves without [my] fault: Awake thou to help me, and behold." — Psalms 59:4 (ASV)

Awake to hasten for my help, and behold. In using this language, he refers to the eagerness with which his enemies, as he had already said, were pressing upon him, and states his desire that God would show the same haste in extending help as they did in seeking his destruction.

To conciliate the divine favor, he once more calls upon God to be the witness and judge of his cause, adding, and behold. This expression reflects at once faith and the infirmity of the flesh. In speaking of God as if His eyes had been until now shut to the wrongs he had suffered, and needed now for the first time to be opened to discover them, he expresses himself according to the weakness of human understanding. On the other hand, in calling upon God to behold his cause, he shows his faith by virtually acknowledging that nothing was hidden from His providential knowledge. Though David may use language of this description, suited to the limitations of human perception, we must not suppose him to have doubted before this time that his afflictions, his innocence, and his wrongs were known to God. Now, however, he lays the whole before God for examination and decision.

He continues the same prayer with even greater vehemence in the following verse. He addresses God under new titles, calling Him Jehovah, God of Hosts, and the God of Israel, the first of these names denotes the immensity of His power, and the second the special care which He exerts over the Church and over all His people.

The manner in which the pronoun is introduced, and Thou, etc., is emphatic, denoting that it was as impossible for God to lay aside the office of a judge as to deny Himself or divest Himself of His being.

He calls upon Him to visit all the nations: for although the cause which he now submitted was of no such universal concern, the wider exercise of judgment would necessarily include the lesser. Furthermore, if Gentiles and foreigners were subjected to the judgment of God, it followed that an even more certain and heavy doom would be awarded to enemies within the Church, who persecuted the saints under the guise of brothers and overthrew those laws which were of divine appointment.

The opposition David encountered might not encompass all nations; but if these were visited in judgment by God, it was absurd to imagine that those within the Church would be the only enemies who should escape with impunity. In using these words, it is also probable that he was struggling with a temptation with which he was severely assailed, connected with the number of his enemies, for these did not consist merely of three or four abandoned individuals.

They formed a great multitude, and he rises above them all by reflecting that God claims it as His prerogative not only to reduce a few rebellious individuals to submission but also to punish the wickedness of the whole world. If the judgments of God extended to the furthest parts of the earth, there was no reason why he should be afraid of his enemies, who, however numerous, formed only a small part of the human race.

We will soon see, however, that the expression can be appropriately applied to the Israelites, divided as they were into so many tribes or peoples.

In the words that follow, when he pleads against God extending mercy to wicked transgressors, we must understand him as referring to the reprobate, whose sin was of a hardened character. We must also remember, as has already been observed, that in such prayers he was not influenced by mere private feelings of a rancorous, unhealthy, and excessive kind. Not only did he know well that those of whom he speaks with such severity were already doomed to destruction, but he is here pleading the common cause of the Church, and this under the influence of the pure and well-regulated zeal of the Spirit. He therefore sets no example for those who resent private injuries by uttering curses on those who have inflicted them.