John Calvin Commentary Psalms 68

God shall arise: his enemies shall be scattered. In this verse, the Psalmist indicates, as if by way of preface, the subject he intended to discuss in the psalm. This subject concerns the truth that God—however long he may seem to overlook the audacity and cruelty of the enemies of his Church—will eventually arise to avenge it and prove himself able to protect it by the mere exertion of his hand.

I agree with other interpreters in thinking that this sentiment is borrowed from Moses (Numbers 10:35). There can be little doubt that in prescribing the form of prayer referred to there, he intended it for the instruction and comfort of all future generations. He aimed to teach the Lord’s people to confidently rely for safety upon the ark of the covenant, which was the visible symbol of the Divine presence.

We may notice this difference, however: Moses addressed the words to God as a prayer, while David rather expresses his satisfaction and delight in what he saw daily being fulfilled before his own eyes. Some indeed read, Let God arise; but they appear to misunderstand the Psalmist's scope.

He means to say that observation confirmed the truth Moses had declared: God needed only to rise up for all his enemies to be scattered before his irresistible power. Yet I see no objections to the other reading, provided the idea just mentioned is retained, and the words are considered as indicating that God needs no extensive preparation to overthrow his enemies and can dissipate them with a breath.

We are left to infer that when his enemies at any time gain an advantage, it is due to an exercise of Divine forbearance. Rage as they may, it is only with his permission, because the time for his rising has not yet come. There is much comfort to be derived from the circumstance that those who persecute the Church are here spoken of as God’s enemies. When he undertakes our defense, he regards the injuries done to us as dishonors cast upon his Divine Majesty.

The Psalmist adds a striking figure to illustrate how easily God can overthrow the schemes of our enemies, comparing them to smoke which vanishes when blown upon by the wind, or wax which melts before the fire. We consider it utterly incredible that such powerful opposition could disappear in a moment. But the Spirit uses this method to rebuke the fearfulness of our carnal minds. The Spirit teaches us that our enemies do not possess the strength we imagine. Furthermore, it shows that we allow their smoke to blind our eyes, and the solid mass of resistance they present deceives us into forgetting the truth that the mountains themselves flow down at the presence of the Lord.

But the righteous shall be glad. It is here intimated by David that when God shows himself formidable to the wicked, this is with the intention of securing the deliverance of his Church. He would seem indirectly to contrast the joy of which he now speaks with the depression and grief felt by well-disposed men under the reign of Saul—suggesting that God follows a season of temporary trouble with returns of comfort, to prevent his people from being overwhelmed by despondency.

He also leaves us to infer that one reason for the joy they experience is derived from knowing that God is propitious to them and interests himself in their safety. The Hebrew words, מפני, mipne, and לפני, liphne, can have the same meaning; but I think that the Psalmist intended to note a distinction.

The wicked flee from the presence of God, because it inspires them with terror; the righteous, in contrast, rejoice in it, because nothing delights them more than to think that God is near them. When commenting on the passage Psalm 18:26, we saw why the Divine presence terrifies some and comforts others: for with the pure he will show himself pure, and with the froward he will show himself froward. One expression is heaped by the Psalmist upon another to show how great the joy of the Lord’s people is, and how entirely it possesses and occupies their affections.

Sing unto God, sing praises to His name: exalt Him that rides, etc. He now proceeds to call upon the Lord’s people to praise God. And he begins by pointing out the general grounds, as I have already hinted, which they have for this exercise: because He encompasses the whole world under His power and government, adding that He condescends to take the poorest and the most wretched of our family under His protection.

His infinite power is commended when it is said that He rides upon the clouds, or the heavens, for this proves that He sits superior over all things. The Holy Spirit may signify by the expression that we should exclude from our minds everything coarse and earthly in the conceptions we form of Him; but He would, doubtless, impress us chiefly with an idea of His great power, to produce in us a due reverence, and make us feel how far short all our praises must come of His glory.

We would attempt in vain to comprehend heaven and earth, but His glory is greater than both. As to the expression that follows, in Jah, His name, there has been some difference of opinion. The Hebrew preposition ב, beth, may here, as it sometimes is, be a mere expletive, and we may read, Jah is His name. Others read, in Jah is His name; and I have no objection to this, though I prefer the translation I have adopted.

It is of less consequence how we construe the words, as the meaning of the Psalmist is obvious. The whole world was at that time filled with the vain idols of superstition, and he would assert the claim of God, and set them aside when he brought forward the God of Israel.

But it is not enough that the Lord’s people should bow before Him with suppliant spirits. Even the wicked, while they fear and tremble before Him, are forced to yield Him reverence. David would have them draw near to Him with cheerfulness and alacrity; and, accordingly, he proceeds to insist upon His transcendent goodness shown in condescending to the orphans and widows. The incomprehensible glory of God does not induce Him to remove Himself to a distance from us or prevent Him from stooping to us in our lowest depths of wretchedness.

There can be no doubt that orphans and widows are named to indicate in general all such as the world is disposed to overlook as unworthy of its regard. Generally, we distribute our attentions where we expect some return. We give preference to rank and splendor, and despise or neglect the poor.

When it is said, God is in the habitation of His holiness, this may refer either to heaven or to the temple, for either sense will suit the connection. God does not dwell in heaven to indulge His own ease, but heaven is, as it were, His throne, from which He judges the world.

On the other hand, the fact of His having chosen to take up His residence with men, and inviting them familiarly to Himself there, is one well fitted to encourage the poor, who are cheered to think that He is not far off from them. In the next verse, other instances of the Divine goodness are mentioned—that He gives the bereaved and solitary a numerous offspring, and releases the bonds of the captive.

In the last clause of the verse, he denounces the judgment of God against those who impiously despise Him, and this is so that he might show the Lord’s people the folly of envying their lot, as well as strike terror into their minds. The sense of the words is, that we ought to comfort ourselves under the worst afflictions, by reflecting that we are in God’s hand, who can mitigate all our griefs and remove all our burdens.

The wicked, on the other hand, may congratulate themselves for a time upon their prosperity, but eventually it will fare ill with them. By dwelling in a dry land, is meant being banished, as it were, to a wilderness, and deprived of the benefits of that fatherly kindness which they had so criminally abused.

O God! when you went forth before your people, etc. The Psalmist now proceeds to show that divine goodness is principally displayed in the Church, which God has selected as the great theater where his fatherly care may be manifested. What follows is evidently added in order to lead the descendants of Abraham, as the Lord’s chosen people, to apply the observations that had just been made to themselves.

The deliverance from Egypt having been the chief and lasting pledge of divine favor, which practically ratified their adoption under the patriarch, he briefly refers to that event. He implies that in that remarkable exodus, proof had been given to all succeeding ages of the love which God had for his Church.

Why were so many miracles performed? Why were heaven and earth put into commotion? Why were the mountains made to tremble—if not so that all might recognize the power of God as allied with the deliverance of his people? He represents God as having been their leader in leading them out.

And this was not merely in reference to their passage of the Red Sea, but also to their journeys while they wandered in the wilderness. When he speaks of the earth being moved, he does not seem to allude entirely to what occurred at the giving of the law, but to the fact that, throughout their entire journey, the course of nature was repeatedly altered, as if the very elements had trembled at the presence of the Lord.

It was upon Mount Sinai, however, that God displayed the chief manifestations of his awe-inspiring power; it was there that thunders were heard in heaven, and the air was filled with lightning. Accordingly, it is mentioned here by name as having presented the most glorious spectacle of divine majesty that was ever witnessed.

Some read, This Sinai, etc., connecting the pronoun זה, zeh, with the mountain named here. However, it is much more emphatic to join it with the preceding clause and to read, the heavens dropped at the presence of This God; David’s meaning is to commend the excellence of the God of Israel.

The expression is one frequently used by the prophets to denote that the God worshipped by the descendants of Abraham was the true God, and the religion delivered in his law no delusion, as in Isaiah 25:9, “This, this is our God, and he will save us.” To establish the Lord’s people in their faith, David leads them, as it were, into the very presence of God. He indicates that they were not left to such vague uncertainties as the pagans were, and indirectly censures the folly of the world in forsaking the knowledge of the true God and fashioning its own imaginary deities of wood and stone, of gold and silver.

You, O God! shall make a liberal rain to fall upon your inheritance. Mention is made here of the continued course of favor that had been extended to the people from the time when they first entered the promised land. It is called the inheritance of God, as having been assigned to his own children.

Others understand by the inheritance spoken of in the verse, the Church, but this is not correct, for it is afterwards stated as being the place where the Church dwelt. The title is appropriately given to the land of Canaan, which God made over to them by right of inheritance.

David notes that, from the first settlement of the seed of Abraham in it, God had never ceased to make the kindest fatherly provision for them, sending his rain in due season to prepare their food. The words translated a liberal rain, read literally in the Hebrew a rain of freenesses, and I agree with interpreters in thinking that he alludes to the blessing as having come in the exercise of free favor, and to God, as having of his own unprompted goodness provided for all the needs of his people.

Some read a desirable rain; others, a rain flowing without violence, or gentle; but neither of these renderings seems suitable. Others read a copious or plentiful rain; but I have already stated what appears to me to be the preferable sense. It was a proof, then, of his divine liberality, that God watered the land seasonably with showers.

There is clearly a reference to the land of Judea, which owed its fertility to dews and the rains of heaven. In allusion to the same circumstance, he speaks of its being refreshed when weary. The reason is assigned—because it had been given to his chosen people to dwell in.

On no other account was it blessed than as being the habitation of God’s Church and people. The more to impress upon the minds of the Jews their obligations to divine goodness, he represents them as pensioners depending upon God for their daily food. He fed them with the finest of the wheat, giving them wine, honey, and oil in abundance—still he proportioned the bestowal of his kindness so as to keep them always expectantly dependent on himself.

Some, instead of reading, You will prepare with your goodness, etc., render it, You will prepare with rich food; but, without absolutely objecting to this translation, I rather think that he refers to the circumstance of God's being moved to provide for his people entirely by his own good pleasure.