John Calvin Commentary Psalms 78:59

"When God heard [this], he was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel;" — Psalms 78:59 (ASV)

God heard it, and was wroth. The prophet again shows that God, when He found that no good resulted from His patience, which the people abused, indeed, even treated with mockery, and perverted as an encouragement to greater excess in sinning, finally proceeded to inflict severe punishments upon them.

The metaphor, which he borrows from earthly judges, is frequently found in the Scriptures. When God is said to hear, it is not meant that it is necessary for Him to make an inquiry, but it is intended to teach us that He does not act rashly in executing His judgments, and thus to prevent anyone from supposing that He ever acts hastily.

The point is that the people continued so stubbornly in their wickedness that eventually the cry of it ascended to heaven; and the very weight of the punishment demonstrated the aggravated nature of the offense.

After it is said that Israel, whom God had loved so much, had become an abomination in His sight, it is added (verse 60) that they were deprived of the presence of God, which is the only source of true blessedness and comfort under calamities of every kind. God, then, is said to have abhorred Israel, when He permitted the ark of the covenant to be carried into another country, as if He intended by this to indicate that He had departed from Judea and bid the people farewell.

It is indeed very obvious that God was not fixed to the outward and visible symbol. As He had given the ark to be a token or sign of the close union that existed between Him and the Israelites, in allowing it to be carried away, He testified that He Himself had also departed from them.

Shiloh having been for a long time the abode of the ark, and the place where it was captured by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:11), it is termed the habitation or dwelling-place of God. The manner of His residence, in short, is beautifully expressed in the next sentence, where Shiloh is described as His dwelling-place among men.

God, it is true, fills both heaven and earth. However, since we cannot reach that infinite height to which He is exalted, in descending among us by the exercise of His power and grace, He approaches as near to us as is necessary, and as our limited capacity will bear.

It is a very emphatic manner of speaking to represent God as so enraged by the continual wickedness of His people that He was compelled to forsake this place, the only one He had chosen for Himself upon the earth.