John Calvin Commentary Psalms 73

Regarding the author of this psalm, I am not disposed to contend very strongly, although I think it probable that the name of Asaph was prefixed to it because the responsibility of singing it was committed to him, while the name of David, its author, was omitted, just as it is usual for us, when things are well known, not to take the trouble of stating them.

It is easy to discover how much benefit we may derive from meditating on the doctrine contained in this psalm from the example of the prophet. Although he had been deeply experienced in true godliness, he still had great difficulty keeping his footing while reeling to and fro on the slippery ground where he found himself placed.

Indeed, he acknowledges that before he returned to a soundness of mind that enabled him to form a just judgment of the things which caused his trial, he had fallen into a state of almost brutish stupidity. As for ourselves, experience shows how slight an impression we have of God's providence.

We undoubtedly all agree in admitting that the world is governed by the hand of God; but if this truth were deeply rooted in our hearts, our faith would be marked by far greater steadfastness and perseverance in overcoming the temptations that assail us in adversity. But when the smallest temptation we encounter dislodges this doctrine from our minds, it is evident that we have not yet been truly and earnestly convinced of its truth.

Besides, Satan has countless artifices by which he dazzles our eyes and bewilders our minds. Then, the confusion of things that prevails in the world produces so thick a mist as to make it difficult for us to see through it and to conclude that God governs and extends His care to things here below.

For the most part, the ungodly triumph. Although they deliberately stir up God to anger and provoke His vengeance, yet because He spares them, it seems as if they had done nothing wrong in deriding Him, and that they will never be called to account for it. On the other hand, the righteous, pinched by poverty, oppressed with many troubles, harassed by numerous wrongs, and covered with shame and reproach, groan and sigh. And in proportion to the earnestness with which they exert themselves in trying to do good to all, is the effrontery with which the wicked abuse their patience.

When this is the state of affairs, where can we find anyone who is not sometimes tempted and urged by the unholy suggestion that the world's affairs roll on at random and, as we say, are governed by chance? This unholy idea has undoubtedly taken complete possession of the minds of unbelievers, who are not enlightened by the Spirit of God and thereby led to lift their thoughts to contemplate eternal life.

Accordingly, we see why Solomon declares that since all things come alike to all, and there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, the hearts of the sons of men are full of impiety and contempt of God (Ecclesiastes 9:2–3). The reason is that they do not consider that things apparently so disordered are under God's direction and government.

Some of the heathen philosophers discussed and maintained the doctrine of a Divine Providence. However, it was evident from experience that they nonetheless had no real and thorough conviction of its truth, for when things turned out contrary to their expectation, they openly disavowed what they had previously professed.

We have a memorable example of this in Brutus. We can hardly conceive of a man surpassing him in courage, and all who knew him intimately testified to his distinguished wisdom.

Being a Stoic philosopher, he spoke many excellent things commending God's power and providence. Yet, when finally vanquished by Antony, he cried out that whatever he had believed concerning virtue had no foundation in truth but was merely the invention of men, and that all the effort taken to live honestly and virtuously was only wasted labor, since fortune rules all human affairs.

Thus this man, distinguished for heroic courage and an example of wonderful resolution, shamefully fell away by renouncing virtue and, in doing so, effectively cursing God. Hence it is evident how the sentiments of the ungodly fluctuate with changing events.

And how can it be expected that the heathen, who are not regenerated by the Spirit of God, should be able to resist such powerful and violent assaults? Even God’s own people need the special assistance of His grace to prevent the same temptation from prevailing in their hearts, for they are sometimes shaken by it and ready to fall, just as David here confesses that his steps had almost slipped.

But let us now proceed to consider the words of the psalm.

Yet God is good to Israel. The adverb אך, ach, does not here imply a simple affirmation like certainly, as it often does in other places, but is used adversatively for yet, notwithstanding, or a similar word. David opens the psalm abruptly. From this we learn something particularly noteworthy: before he broke out into this language, his mind had been agitated with many doubts and conflicting thoughts.

As a brave and valiant champion, he had been engaged in very painful struggles and temptations. But, after long and arduous exertion, he finally succeeded in shaking off all perverse ideas and came to the conclusion that yet God is gracious to His servants and the faithful guardian of their welfare.

Thus, these words contain a tacit contrast between the unholy ideas suggested to him by Satan and the testimony in favor of true religion with which he now strengthens himself, denouncing, as it were, the judgment of the flesh for yielding to misgivings about God's providence.

We see then how emphatic this exclamation of the Psalmist is. He does not ascend a lecturer's chair to dispute in the manner of philosophers or deliver his discourse in a style of studied oratory. Instead, as if he had escaped from hell, he proclaims with a loud voice and impassioned feeling that he has obtained the victory.

To teach us by his own example the difficulty and arduousness of the conflict, he opens, so to speak, his heart and innermost being, and wants us to understand something more than his words express. The essence of his message is that although God, to outward appearances and human reason, may seem to neglect His servants, yet He always embraces them with His favor.

He celebrates God's providence, especially as it extends toward genuine saints, to show them not only that they are governed by God in common with other creatures, but also that He watches over their welfare with special care, just as the head of a family carefully provides for and attends to his own household. God, it is true, governs the whole world; but He is graciously pleased to take a more close and particular care of His Church, which He has undertaken to maintain and defend.

This is the reason why the prophet speaks expressly of Israel; and why immediately afterward he limits this name to those who are right of heart; which is a kind of correction to the first statement, for many proudly claim the name of Israel, as if they were the chief members of the Church, while they are merely Ishmaelites and Edomites.

David, therefore, intending to remove from the list of the godly all the degenerate children of Abraham, acknowledges none to belong to Israel except those who purely and uprightly worship God. It is as if he had said, “When I declare that God is good to His Israel, I do not mean all those who, content with a mere external profession, bear the name of Israelites, to which they have no rightful claim; but I speak of the spiritual children of Abraham, who consecrate themselves to God with sincere heartfelt affection.” Some explain the first clause, God is good to Israel, as referring to His chosen people, and the second clause, to those who are right of heart, as referring to strangers to whom God would be gracious, provided they walked in true uprightness.

But this is a cold and forced interpretation. It is better to adhere to what I have stated. David, in commending God's goodness toward the chosen people and the Church, found it necessary to exclude from their number many hypocrites who had apostatized from the service of God and were, therefore, unworthy of enjoying His fatherly favor. Christ's language to Nathanael (John 1:47) corresponds to David's words: Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! As the fear of God among the Jews was at that time almost extinguished, and almost nothing remained among them but circumcision made with hands, that is to say, outward circumcision, Christ, to distinguish between the true children of Abraham and hypocrites, establishes it as a distinguishing characteristic of the former that they are free from guile. And certainly, in the service of God, no qualification is more indispensable than uprightness of heart.

As for me, etc. Literally, it is, And I: which should be read with emphasis; for David means that those temptations, which are an affront to the honor of God and overwhelm faith, not only assail ordinary people or those who are endowed with only a small measure of the fear of God, but that he himself, who should have profited above all others in the school of God, had experienced his own share of them.

By presenting himself as an example in this way, he intended more effectively to arouse and incite us to be very watchful over ourselves.

He did not, it is true, actually succumb to the temptation; but, in declaring that his feet were almost gone, and that his steps had well nigh slipped, he warns us that all are in danger of falling, unless they are upheld by the powerful hand of God.

For I envied the foolish. Here he declares the nature of the temptation with which he was beset. It consisted in this: when he saw the present prosperous state of the wicked and, from it, judged them to be happy, he had envied their condition. We are certainly under a serious and dangerous temptation when, in our own minds, we not only quarrel with God for not setting matters in proper order, but also give ourselves free rein to boldly commit wickedness, because it seems we can do so and escape without punishment.

The sneering jest of Dionysius the younger, a tyrant of Sicily, is well known. After robbing the temple of Syracuse, he had a prosperous voyage with the plunder. “Do you not see,” he says to those who were with him, “how the gods favor the sacrilegious?” In the same way, the prosperity of the wicked is taken as an encouragement to commit sin, for we are ready to imagine that since God grants them so many of the good things of this life, they are the objects of His approval and favor.

We see how their prosperous condition wounded David to the heart, leading him almost to think that there was nothing better for him than to join their company and follow their course of life.

By applying the term foolish to the ungodly, he does not simply mean that the sins they commit are due to ignorance or carelessness. Instead, he contrasts their folly with the fear of God, which is the essential part of true wisdom. The ungodly are, no doubt, crafty. However, because they lack the fundamental principle of all right judgment—namely, that we must order and shape our lives according to God’s will—they are foolish. This foolishness is the effect of their own blindness.

For there are no bands to their death. The Psalmist describes the comforts and advantages of the ungodly, which are, as it were, so many temptations to shake the faith of God's people. He begins with the good health they enjoy, telling us that they are robust and vigorous, and do not have to draw their breath with difficulty through continual sicknesses, as will often be the case with true believers.

Some explain bands to death, as meaning delays, viewing the words as implying that the wicked die suddenly and in a moment, not having to struggle with the pangs of dissolution. In the book of Job it is reckoned among the earthly felicities of the ungodly that, after having enjoyed their luxurious pleasures to the full, they in a moment go down to the grave, (Job 21:13). And it is related of Julius Caesar that, the day before he was put to death, he remarked that to die suddenly and unexpectedly seemed to him to be a happy death.

Thus, then, according to the opinion of these expositors, David complains that the wicked go to death by a smooth and easy path, without much trouble and anxiety. But I am rather inclined to agree with those who read these two clauses jointly in this way: Their strength is vigorous, and, in respect to them, there are no bands to death; because they are not dragged to death like prisoners.

As diseases lay prostrate our strength, they are so many messengers of death, warning us of the frailty and short duration of our life. They are therefore with propriety compared to bands, with which God binds us to his yoke, lest our strength and rigor should incite us to licentiousness and rebellion.

They are not in the trouble that is common to man. Here it is declared that the wicked enjoy a delightful repose and are, as it were, by special privilege exempted from the miseries to which humankind in general is subject.

They also are, no doubt, involved in afflictions as well as the good, and God often executes his judgments upon them; but, for the express purpose of trying our faith, he always places some of them, as it were, upon an elevated stage, who appear to be privileged to live in a state of exemption from calamities, as is here described.

Now, when we consider that human life is full of labor and miseries, and that this is the law and condition of living appointed for all, it is a severe temptation to witness the despisers of God indulging themselves in their luxurious pleasures and enjoying great ease, as if they were elevated above the rest of the world into a region of pleasure, where they had a nest for themselves apart.