John Calvin Commentary Psalms 7:8

"Jehovah ministereth judgment to the peoples: Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness, and to mine integrity that is in me." — Psalms 7:8 (ASV)

Jehovah shall judge the nations. This sentence is closely connected with the preceding verse. David had prayed God to show himself as judge to the nations; and now he takes it for a certain and admitted truth that it is the specific office of God to judge the nations; for the word put in the future tense, and rendered shall judge, here denotes a continuous act, and this is the meaning of the future tense in general sentences.

Besides, he does not here speak of one nation only, but includes all nations. As he acknowledges God to be the judge of the whole world, he concludes a little later from this that God will maintain his cause and right. And as often as we seem to be forsaken and oppressed, we should recall this truth: that as God is the governor of the world, it is as utterly impossible for him to abdicate his office as to deny himself.

From this source, a continual stream of comfort will flow, even if a long succession of calamities may press upon us. For from this truth we may confidently conclude that he will take care to defend our innocence. It would be contrary to every principle of just reasoning to suppose that he who governs many nations neglects even one man.

What happens with the judges of this world can never take place with him. He cannot, as may be the case with them, be so preoccupied with great and public affairs that he neglects the concerns of individuals because he is unable to attend to them. He reasserts his integrity so that he may not seem, like hypocrites, to use the name of God as a mere pretext to better advance his own purposes.

Since God is no respecter of persons, we cannot expect him to be on our side and to favor us if our cause is not good. But it is asked, how can David here boast of his own integrity before God when in other places he pleads against God entering into judgment with him? The answer is easy: The subject being discussed here is not how he could answer if God should demand from him an account of his whole life.

Rather, comparing himself with his enemies, he maintains, and with good reason, that in comparison to them, he was righteous. But when each saint comes under the review of God’s judgment, and his own character is tried on its own merits, the matter is very different, for then the only sanctuary to which he can turn for safety is the mercy of God.