John Calvin Commentary Psalms 66:3

"Say unto God, How terrible are thy works! Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee." — Psalms 66:3 (ASV)

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.