John Calvin Commentary Psalms 73:6

"Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck; Violence covereth them as a garment." — Psalms 73:6 (ASV)

Therefore pride compasseth them as a chain. This complaint goes further than the previous one, for we are here told that although God sees the ungodly shamefully and wickedly abusing His kindness and clemency, he nevertheless bears with their ingratitude and rebellion. The Psalmist uses a comparison taken from the dress and clothing of the body to show that such persons glory in their evil deeds.

The verb ענק, anak, which we have translated as encompasseth them as a chain, comes from a noun that means a chain. The language, therefore, implies that the ungodly glory in their audacity and madness, as if they were richly adorned with a chain of gold, and that violence serves them for clothing, thinking, as they do, that it makes them appear very dignified and honorable.

Some translate the Hebrew word שית, shith, which we have translated as raiment, as buttocks; but this is a meaning that the context of the passage by no means allows. David, I have no doubt, after having begun at the neck or head—for the Hebrew verb ענק, anak, which he uses, also sometimes means to crown—now meant to include, in one word, the whole clothing of the person.

Essentially, the wicked are so blinded by their prosperity that they become more and more proud and insolent. The Psalmist has very appropriately put pride first, and then added violence to it as its companion. For what is the reason that the ungodly seize and plunder whatever they can get from all sides, and exercise so much cruelty, except that they consider all other people as nothing in comparison to themselves, or rather persuade themselves that humanity is born only for them? The source, then, and, as it were, the mother of all violence, is pride.