John Calvin Commentary Psalms 73:22

"So brutish was I, and ignorant; I was [as] a beast before thee." — Psalms 73:22 (ASV)

And I was foolish and ignorant. David, rebuking himself sharply here, as was fitting for him to do, first declares that he was foolish; second, he charges himself with ignorance; and third, he affirms that he resembled the brutes. Had he only acknowledged his ignorance, it might have been asked, from where did this vice or fault of ignorance come?

He therefore ascribes it to his own folly; and to express his folly more emphatically, he compares himself to the lower animals.

The point is that the perverse envy he has spoken of arose from ignorance and error. The blame for having thus erred was to be imputed wholly to himself, because he had lost sound judgment and understanding. This loss was not in an ordinary way, but even to the point of being reduced to a state of brutish stupidity.

As we have previously stated, it is undoubtedly true that men never form a right judgment of the works of God. For when they apply their minds to consider them, all their faculties fail, being inadequate to the task. Yet David justly lays the blame for this failure upon himself, because, having lost the judgment of a man, he had fallen, so to speak, into the rank of the brute creatures.

Whenever we are dissatisfied with the manner of God’s providence in governing the world, let us remember that this is to be traced to the perversity of our understanding. The Hebrew word עמך, immach, which we have translated with you, is here to be taken by way of comparison for before you. It is as if David had said: “Lord, although I have seemed in this world to be endowed with superior judgment and reason, yet in light of your celestial wisdom, I have been as one of the lower animals.”

It is entirely appropriate that he has inserted this particle. Why is it that men are so deceived by their own folly, as we find them to be? Is it not because, while they look at each other, they all inwardly flatter themselves?

Among the blind, each thinks that he has one eye—in other words, that he excels the rest. Or, at least, he pleases himself with the reflection that his fellows are in no way superior to himself in wisdom. But when people come to God and compare themselves with him, this prevailing error, in which all are fast asleep, can find no place.