John Calvin Commentary Psalms 68:30

"Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds, The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples, Trampling under foot the pieces of silver: He hath scattered the peoples that delight in war." — Psalms 68:30 (ASV)

Regarding the phrase Destroy the company of spearmen, some read rebuke. However, I approve of the distinction noted by those most skilled in the Hebrew language: while the verb גער, gear, has this meaning when the letter ב, beth, is interposed, it signifies to destroy without it. The word חית, chayath, which I have rendered company, has been translated as beast, but such a meaning cannot apply here.

David evidently prays in this passage that God would deliver His chosen people by destroying their cruel and bloody enemies. In calling these enemies the company of the reed or cane, he does not mean to say that they are weak. Instead, he alludes to the kind of armor they wore, namely lances or spears.

The reed grows in some countries to the size of a tree, or at least has all the consistency of wood, and the people are in the habit of making darts from it. In the East, missile weapons are commonly used in war. He compares the enemy for their fierceness to bulls, which is how I have rendered the word אבירים, abbirim. Although it may be translated as strong or stout persons — the congregation of the strong — it occasionally bears the other meaning. Since David adds calves of the people, it seems evident that he uses a figure of speech to represent the enemy's rage and fury, and perhaps their strength, which the Israelites were entirely unable to combat without Divine assistance.

It is not so easy to discover the meaning of the next clause in the verse: treading upon pieces of silver. The Hebrew verb רפס, raphas, signifies to tread or, literally (as it is here in the hithpael conjugation), causing themselves to tread. Some consider that the allusion is to the enemy's arrogance and vain-glorious boasting.

Others attach the exact opposite meaning to these words, holding that they denote submission and that the enemy would bring pieces of silver as a token of subjection. But how could we suppose that David would pray for the destruction of enemies who were already subdued and paying tribute as suppliants?

In reply to this, it has been said that enemies may retain their animosity with all its force within their own breasts, ready to vent itself in rebellion at the first opportunity. Although deprived of arms, they cannot display this animosity openly. This is especially true of the enemies of the Church, whose antipathies are virulent, always breaking forth afresh as soon as an opportunity arises.

But I see no necessity for doing violence to the Psalmist's words and would take them in their plain meaning, signifying that the enemy, in their pride, trampled upon pieces of silver. The reference may be to silver ornaments on their sandals, as Eastern nations were always proverbial for their luxury.

What immediately follows by no means favors the meaning we previously discussed: scatter the people who delight in war. Here, the Psalmist hints that they sought groundless occasions for quarrel and tumult and gratuitously attacked those who were disposed to peace.

When we find David, after all the victories he had gained, still commending himself and his people to God's protection, it should teach us to abandon the hope of ever seeing the Church placed in a state of perfect tranquility in this world. It is exposed, as it is, to a succession of enemies raised up by the malice of Satan and designed by God for the trial and exercise of our patience.

In comparing their enemies to the beasts mentioned here, and in noting that they delighted in war, it was undoubtedly David's intention to influence the minds of God's people toward the contrary dispositions of clemency and mercy, as this was the frame of spirit by exercising which they might expect to receive Divine assistance.

The more violently their enemies raged and the more lawless their attempts might prove, the more reason they had to expect God's interposition, who humbles the proud and the mighty ones of this world. Such being God's character, let us learn from this prayer of David to turn to Him with confidence whenever we are subjected to unmerited persecution, and to believe that He is able to deliver us at once from all our enemies.