John Calvin Commentary Psalms 78:53

"And he led them safely, so that they feared not; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies." — Psalms 78:53 (ASV)

And he conducted them in safety, and they were not afraid. This does not imply that they relied on God confidently and with tranquil minds, but that, having God for their guide and the guardian of their welfare, they had no just cause to be afraid. When at any time they were thrown into consternation, this was owing to their own unbelief.

From this cause proceeded these murmuring questions which they uttered when Pharaoh pursued them, when they left Egypt, and when they were sore afraid: Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way, to carry us out of Egypt?

Is not this what we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone, so that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness (Exodus 14:11). This security, then, does not refer to a feeling of security in the minds of the people, but to the protection of God, by which it came about that, their enemies having been drowned in the Red Sea, they enjoyed quiet and repose in the wilderness.

Other benefits which God had bestowed on them are recited here, and at the same time other transgressions of which they were guilty. This shows their deep ingratitude even more clearly. After obtaining possession of the inheritance which was promised them, as if they were under no obligations to God, their hearts were always rebellious and intractable.

The accomplishment, and, so to speak, the concluding act of their deliverance, was putting them in possession of the land of Canaan. They had precluded themselves from entering it, and would have remained outside if God had not determined, despite their wickedness, to complete in every respect the work he had begun.

The land itself is called the borders of God’s sanctuary (Psalms 78:54), because God, in assigning it to his people, had also consecrated it to himself.

This, clearly, shows the iniquity of the people in a more heinous and aggravated light, as they brought into that land the same pollutions with which it had previously been defiled. What madness was it for the people of Israel, who knew that the old inhabitants of the country had been driven from it on account of their abominations, to strive to surpass them in all kinds of wickedness, as if they were determined to do all they could to bring down upon their own heads the divine vengeance they had seen executed on others?

The words this mountain are improperly explained by some as applying to the whole country of Judea; for although it was a mountainous country, there were in it plain and level grounds of large extent, both in breadth and length.

I have, therefore, no doubt that by way of amplification the Psalmist makes honorable mention of Mount Zion, where God had chosen a habitation for himself and his chief seat. I indeed allow that under this expression, by the figure synecdoche, a part is put for the whole; only I would have my readers understand that this place is expressly named because from it, as from a source or fountain, flowed the holiness of the whole land.

It is asserted that God, by his right hand, possessed or acquired this mountain (for the Hebrew verb קנה, kanah, may be understood in either of these senses), and this assertion is made so that the Israelites might not be lifted up with pride, as if they had achieved the conquest of the land or had obtained peaceable possession of it by their own power. As is stated in Psalm 44:3:

They did not get the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you had a favor to them (Psalms 44:3).