John Calvin Commentary Psalms 75

We will praise you, O God! Regarding the inscription of this psalm, I have spoken sufficiently when explaining Psalm 57. As for its author, this is a point I am not inclined to trouble myself much with determining. Whoever he was, whether David or some other prophet, he breaks forth at the very beginning into the language of joy and thanksgiving: We will praise you, O God! We will praise you. The repetition serves to express more forcefully his strong affection and ardent zeal in singing the praises of God.

The verbs in Hebrew are in the past tense, but the subject of the psalm requires that they be translated into the future; this can be done in perfect consistency with the idiom of the Hebrew language. The inspired writer, however, may declare that God had been praised among His people for the benefits He bestowed in past times, intending thereby to induce God to continue acting in the same manner, so that by remaining consistent with Himself, He might from time to time provide His people new cause for celebrating His praises.

The change of person in the concluding part of the verse has led some interpreters to supply the relative pronoun אשר, asher, who, as if the reading were, O Lord! We will praise you; and your name is near to those who declare your wondrous works. But the prophet, I have no doubt, puts the verb they will declare, indefinitely, that is, without determining the person; and he has used the copula and instead of the causal participle for, as is frequently done.

His meaning, then, may be brought out very appropriately thus: We will praise you, O God! For your name is near; and, therefore, your wondrous works shall be declared. He, no doubt, means that the same persons whom he said would celebrate the praise of God would be the publishers of His wonderful works.

And certainly, God, in displaying His power, opens the mouths of His servants to recount His works. In short, the design is to intimate that there is just ground for praising God, who shows Himself to be near to provide help to His people. The name of God, as is well known, is taken for His power; and His presence, or nearness, is judged by the assistance He grants to His people in their time of need.

When I shall have taken the congregation. The Hebrew verb יעד, yaäd, signifies to appoint a place or day, and the noun מועד, moed, derived from it, which is here used, signifies both holy assemblies, or a congregation of the faithful assembled together in the name of the Lord, and festival, or appointed solemn days. As it is certain that God is here introduced as speaking, either of these senses will agree with the scope of the passage.

It may be viewed as denoting either that, having gathered His people to Himself, He will restore to due order matters which were in a state of distraction and confusion, or else that He will choose a fit time for exercising His judgment. In abandoning His people for a season to the will of their enemies, He seems to forsake them and to exercise no care about them, so that they are like a flock of sheep which is scattered and wanders here and there without a shepherd.

His object, then, being to convey in these words a promise that He would remedy such a confused state of things, He very properly begins with the gathering together of His Church. If any choose rather to understand the word מועד, moed, as referring to time, God is to be understood as admonishing His people that it is their duty to exercise patience until He actually shows that the proper time has come for correcting vices, since He alone has the years and days in His own power and knows best the fit juncture and moment for performing this work.

The interpretation to which I most incline is that to determine the end and measure of calamities, and the best season for rising up for the deliverance of His people—matters, the determination of which men would willingly claim for themselves—is reserved by God in His own hands and is entirely subject to His own will.

At the same time, I am very well satisfied with the former interpretation, which refers the passage to the gathering together of the Church. Nor should it seem absurd or harsh that God is here introduced as returning an answer to the prayers of His people. This graphic representation, by which they are made to speak in the first verse while He is introduced as speaking in the second, is much more forcible than if the prophet had simply said that God would at length, and at the determined time, show Himself to be the protector of His Church and gather her together again when she should be scattered and rent in pieces.

In short, the point is that although God may not succor His own people immediately, yet He never forgets them but only delays until the fit time arrives the redress which He has in readiness for them.

To judge righteously is simply to restore to a better state matters which are embroiled and disordered. Thus Paul says,

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels (2 Thessalonians 1:6–7).

God, therefore, declares that it is His office to set in order and adjust those things which are in confusion, so that, entertaining this expectation, we may be sustained and comforted by means of it in all our afflictions.

The earth is dissolved, and all its inhabitants. Many commentators believe that these words are properly applicable to Christ, at whose coming it was necessary for the earth and its inhabitants to be shaken. He reigns, as we know, that he may destroy the old man, and he begins his spiritual kingdom with the destruction of the flesh; but he conducts his administration in such a way that afterward the restoration of the new man follows.

Of the second part of the verse, I will establish the pillars of it, they make the same application, explaining it as if Christ had said, "As soon as I come into the world, the earth with its inhabitants shall melt and be dissolved; but immediately after I will establish it upon firm and solid foundations; for my elect ones, renewed by my Spirit, shall no longer be like grass or withered flowers, but shall have new and unusual stability conferred upon them."

I do not, however, think that such a refined interpretation ever entered the prophet's mind. I consider his words to simply mean that although the earth may be dissolved, God has its props or supports in his own hand. This verse is connected with the preceding, for it confirms the truth that God, at the proper time, will manifest himself as an impartial and righteous judge. For it is an easy matter for him, even if the whole fabric of the world were to fall into ruins, to rebuild it from its decayed materials.

At the same time, I have no doubt that there is a reference to the actual state of things in the natural world. The earth occupies the lowest place in the celestial sphere, and yet, instead of having foundations on which it is supported, is it not rather suspended in the midst of the air?

Besides, since so many waters penetrate and pass through its veins, would it not be dissolved if it were not established by the secret power of God? However, while the prophet alludes to the natural state of the earth, he, nevertheless, rises higher, teaching us that, even if the world were in ruins, it is in God's power to re-establish it.

I said to the fools, Act not foolishly. After the psalmist has fully acknowledged God's authority, both for himself and for the faithful, he now triumphs over all the ungodly. He accuses them of madness and blind rage, which results from their contempt for God and leads them to indulge excessively in pride and self-glorification.

This holy boasting that he expresses depends on the judgment which, in God's name, he declared to be near. For when God's people expect Him to come and execute judgment, and are convinced He will not long delay His coming, they boast even in the midst of their oppressions.

The madness of the wicked may boil over, swell with rage, and pour out floods to overwhelm the faithful; but it is enough for them to know that their life is protected by God's power. He can, with perfect ease, humble all pride and restrain the most daring and presumptuous attempts.

Here, the faithful mock and despise whatever the wicked plot and conspire to do, and they call on them to stop their madness. In doing so, they imply that the wicked are making all this stir and commotion in vain, like madmen drawn here and there by their own disordered imaginations.

It should be observed that the Psalmist represents pride as the cause or mother of all rash and audacious undertakings. The reason people rush so recklessly into unlawful projects is most certainly that, blinded by pride, they form an excessive and exaggerated estimate of their own power.

Since this is a malady not easily eradicated from human hearts, the admonition, Lift not up your horn on high, is repeated again and again. They are next instructed not to speak with a fat or a stiff neck; which means that they should not speak harshly and hurtfully, for it is usual for proud people to straighten their necks and raise their heads when they issue their threats. Others translate the words, Speak not stiffly with your neck; but the other translation is more correct.

For exaltations come neither from the east nor from the west. The prophet here provides an admirable remedy for correcting pride when he teaches us that promotion or advancement does not proceed from the earth but from God alone. What most frequently blinds people is their looking to the right and to the left and gathering from all directions riches and other resources, so that, strengthened by these, they may be able to gratify their desires and lusts.

The prophet, therefore, affirms that by not rising above the world, they are making a great mistake, since it is God alone who has the power to exalt and to abase. “This,” it may be said, “seems to be at variance with common experience, since the majority of people who attain the highest degrees of honor owe their elevation either to their own strategy and deceitful practices, or to popular favor and partiality, or to other earthly means.”

The reason given for this assertion, God is judge, also seems unsatisfactory. I answer that although many attain high positions either by unlawful methods or by the help of worldly means, yet that does not happen by chance. Such people are advanced to their high position by the secret purpose of God, so that He may then scatter them like refuse or chaff.

The prophet does not simply attribute judgment to God. He also defines what kind of judgment it is, affirming that it consists in this: by casting down one person and elevating another to dignity, He orders the affairs of the human race as seems good in His sight. I have stated that considering this is the most effective way to humble proud spirits; for the reason worldly people dare to attempt whatever comes into their minds is because they imagine God is confined to heaven and do not think they are restrained by His secret providence.

In short, they would strip Him of all sovereign power so that they might find a free and unhindered path for the gratification of their lusts. Therefore, to teach us to remain content with our own condition with all moderation and humility, the Psalmist clearly defines what God’s judgment, or the order He observes in governing the world, consists of: it belongs to Him alone to exalt or to abase whomever of humankind He pleases.

From this it follows that all those who, spreading the wings of their vanity, aspire to any kind of exaltation without any regard for or dependence on God, are guilty of robbing Him, as much as they can, of His prerogative and power. This is very apparent not only from their frantic plans but also from the blasphemous boasts in which they indulge, saying, “Who will hinder me?”

“What will withstand me?” As if, indeed, it were not an easy matter for God, with His nod alone, suddenly to place a thousand obstacles in their way to make all their efforts ineffective. Just as worldly people, by their recklessness and perverse schemes, are guilty of trying to strip God of His royal dignity, so whenever we are dismayed by their threats, we are guilty of wickedly setting limits to the sovereignty and power of God.

If, whenever we hear the wind blowing with any violence, we are as frightened as if we were struck by a thunderbolt from heaven, such extreme readiness to be thrown into a state of alarm clearly shows that we do not yet thoroughly understand the nature of the governance God exercises over the world.

We would, no doubt, be ashamed to rob Him of the title of judge; indeed, there is almost no one who would not shrink with horror at the thought of such great blasphemy. And yet, when our natural understanding has forced from us the confession that He is the judge and the supreme ruler of the world, we imagine Him as holding only a kind of inactive sovereignty—which I do not know how to describe—as if He did not govern humankind by His power and wisdom.

But the person who believes it to be an established principle that God disposes of all people as seems good in His sight, and shapes for every person their condition in this world, will not stop at earthly means; they will look above and beyond these to God.

The application of this doctrine is that the godly should submit themselves completely to God and beware of being lifted up with empty confidence. When they see the wicked growing proud, they should not hesitate to despise their foolish and misguided presumption.

Again, although God has in His own hand sovereign power and authority, so that He can do whatever He pleases, yet He is called judge, to teach us that He governs the affairs of humankind with the most perfect equity. From this it follows that every person who refrains from inflicting injuries and committing evil deeds may, when injured and treated unjustly, turn to the judgment seat of God.