John Calvin Commentary Psalms 59:9

"[Because of] his strength I will give heed unto thee; For God is my high tower." — Psalms 59:9 (ASV)

I will entrust his strength to you. The obscurity of this passage has led to a variety of opinions among commentators. The most forced interpretation proposed is that which supposes a change of person in the relative his, as if David, in speaking of himself, employed the third person instead of the first: I will entrust my strength to you.

The Septuagint, and those who adopt this interpretation, have probably been led to it by the insufficient reason that in the last verse of the psalm it is said, I will ascribe with praises my strength to you, or, my strength is with you, I will sing, etc. But when we come to that part of the psalm, we will have an opportunity to see that David there appropriately asserts of himself what he here, in another sense, asserts of Saul.

There can be no doubt, therefore, that the relative here is to be understood as referring to Saul. Some consider that the first words of the sentence should be read separately from the others—strength is his—meaning that Saul had the evident superiority in strength, so that he is triumphant at present.

Others join the two parts of the sentence and offer this explanation: Although you are his strength at the present moment, insofar as you sustain and preserve him on the throne, yet I will continue to hope until you have raised me to the kingdom, according to your promise.

But those who construe the words as one continuous sentence—I will entrust his strength to you;—seem to come nearest to the Psalmist's meaning. This interpretation means that however excessively Saul might boast of his strength, David would rest satisfied in the assurance that a secret divine providence was restraining Saul's actions.

We must learn to view all people as subordinated in this manner, and to conceive of their strength and their undertakings as depending on the sovereign will of God.

In my opinion, the following version is the best—His strength is with you, I will wait. The words are parallel with those at the end of the psalm, where there can be no doubt that the nominative case is used, My strength is with you; I will sing. However, as far as the meaning of the passage is concerned, it does not matter which of these latter interpretations is followed.

It is evident that David is here enabled, from the high vantage point of faith, to despise the violent opposition of his enemy, convinced that his enemy could do nothing without divine permission. But by taking the two parts of the sentence separately, in the way I have suggested—His strength is with you, I will wait,—the meaning is more distinctly brought out.

First, David, in vindication of that power by which God governs the whole world, declares that his enemy was under a secret divine restraint. He was so entirely dependent for any strength he possessed upon God that he could not move a finger without His consent. He then adds that he would wait for the event, whatever it might be, with composure and tranquility.

For the word we have translated I will entrust, may here be taken as signifying I will keep myself, or quietly wait for the Lord's will. In this sense, we find the word used in the conjugation Niphal (Isaiah 7:4). Here it is put in the conjugation Kal, but that is no reason why we may not render it, I will silently wait for the issue which God may send.

It has been well suggested that David may allude to the guards sent to besiege his house. He might then be seen as countering this with a watch of a very different kind, one that he himself maintained as he looked for God's outcome with quietness and composure.