John Calvin Commentary Psalms 66

Shout unto God, all the earth. The psalm begins with this general declaration, which is later reduced to particulars. He addresses the whole world, and from this it seems evident that he predicts the extent to which the kingdom of God would reach at the coming of Christ.

In the second verse, the call is repeated with increasing vehemence to stir up to the praises of God those who might otherwise be remiss in this service. The expression To sing the honor of his name, is sufficiently obvious, meaning that we should extol his sacred name in a manner suitable to its dignity, so that it may receive its due and deserved adoration.

But the following clause is rather ambiguous. Some think that it conveys a repetition of the same idea in other words and read, set forth the glory of his praise. I prefer taking the Hebrew word signifying praise to be in the accusative case, rendering the words literally, make a glory his praise. By this, I understand him to mean not, as some do, that we should glory exclusively in his praises, but simply that we should highly exalt his praises, so that they may be glorious.

The Psalmist is not satisfied with our declaring them moderately and insists that we should celebrate his goodness in some measure proportionately to its excellence.

Say to God, How terrible are you in your works! Here he proceeds to state the reasons why he would have us praise God. Many content themselves with coldly discoursing to others about His praises, but in order to awaken and more deeply impress our hearts, he directs us to address God directly.

It is when we converse with Him privately, with no human eye to witness us, that we feel the vanity of hypocrisy and are likely to utter only what we have well and seriously meditated upon in our hearts. Nothing tends more to instill a reverential awe of God in our spirits than placing ourselves in His presence.

What the Psalmist adds is fitted and designed to produce the same feeling: that through the greatness of God’s power, His enemies feign submission to Him. If those who would perversely and obstinately revolt from His service are forced to humble themselves before Him, whether they want to or not, how much more, then, should His own children serve Him, who are invited into His presence by the accents of tenderness, instead of being brought to subjection by terror?

An implied contrast is drawn between the voluntary homage they yield, attracted by the sweet influences of grace, and the slavish obedience reluctantly wrung from the unbeliever. The Hebrew word used here for to lie signifies yielding a submission that is constrained, not free or cordial, as in Psalm 18:45.

Neither the words nor the context favor the other interpretations that have been suggested, such as that His enemies would acknowledge they were deceived in their hopes, or that they would deny ever having intended hostilities against Him. There are many ways in which hypocrites may lie, but the Psalmist here means nothing more than that God’s power is such that it forces them into reluctant subjection.

All the earth shall worship you. The Psalmist had good reason for insisting on this one point again and again. Though all tongues were tuned to the praise of God, they never could adequately extol it; and yet such are the negligence and the perversity of men, that they will scarcely lift one feeble note in celebration of a theme which should command their united strength and might.

We have another prediction here, of a time to come when God would be worshipped, not only by the Jews, a small section of the human family, but by all the nations which would be eventually brought under his government.

And we are not to consider that he refers to such a worship as would be constrained, and only not withheld because resistance might be dangerous, but to the sincere homage of the heart—they shall sing to you! They shall sing to your name. Praise is the best of all sacrifices (as we are told in Psalm 50:14, 23) and the true evidence of godliness.

Come and see the works of God. An indirect criticism is made here of that almost universal thoughtlessness which leads people to neglect the praises of God. Why is it that they so blindly overlook the operations of His hand, if not simply because they never direct their attention seriously to them?

We need to be awakened to this subject. These words may receive some explanation by referring to a parallel passage, Psalms 46:8. But their main purpose is this: that the Psalmist seeks to withdraw people from the vain or positively sinful and harmful pursuits in which they are engaged, and direct their thoughts to the works of God.

He exhorts them to this, rebuking their reluctance and negligence. The expression, Come and see, suggests that what they blindly overlooked was open to observation; for if it were otherwise with the works of God, this language would be unsuitable. He next points out what those works of God are to which He wants our attention directed; in general, He wants us to look at the way God governs the human family.

This experimental or practical kind of knowledge, if I may call it that, is what makes the deepest impression. We find, accordingly, that Paul (Acts 17:27), after speaking of the power of God in general, brings his subject to bear upon this one particular point, and calls upon us to descend into ourselves if we are to discover the proofs of a present God.

The last clause of the fifth verse I would not interpret, as some do, as meaning that God was terrible above the children of men—superior to them in majesty—but rather that He is terrible towards them, showing an extraordinary providence in their defense and preservation, as we have seen noted in Psalm 40:5.

People need look no further, therefore, than themselves to discover the best grounds for revering and fearing God. The Psalmist passes next from the more general point of His providence towards humanity at large, to His special care over His own Church, referring to what He had done for the redemption of His chosen people.

What the Psalmist states here must be considered as only one illustration of many which he might have addressed, and as intended to remind God’s people of the infinite variety of benefits with which their first and great deliverance had been followed and confirmed. This appears obvious from what is added, there we rejoiced in Him.

It is impossible that the joy of that deliverance could have extended to the Psalmist or any of the descendants of the ancient Israelites, unless it had shared the nature of a pledge and illustration of the love of God to the Church generally. In that event, He showed Himself to be the everlasting Savior of His people, so that it proved a common source of joy to all the righteous.

He rules by His power over the world. The Hebrew word עולם, olam, which I have translated the world, occasionally signifies an age, or eternity; but the first sense seems to agree best with the context. The meaning of these words is that God is endowed with the power necessary for wielding the government of the world.

What follows agrees with this: that His eyes behold the nations. Under the Law, Judea was the proper seat of His kingdom, but His providence always extended to the world at large. The special favor shown to the posterity of Abraham, in consideration of the covenant, did not prevent Him from also extending an eye of providential consideration to the surrounding nations.

As evidence of His care reaching the different countries around, He takes notice of the judgments God executed upon the wicked and the ungodly. He proves that God overlooked no part of the human family by referring to the punishment of evildoers. There may be much in the Divine administration of the world calculated to perplex our conclusions; however, there are always some tokens of His judgments to be seen, and these are sufficiently clear to strike the eye of an acute and attentive observer.