John Calvin Commentary Psalms 81:11

"But my people hearkened not to my voice; And Israel would none of me." — Psalms 81:11 (ASV)

But my people hearkened not to my voice. God now complains that the Israelites, whom he gently endeavored to draw to himself, despised his friendly invitation; indeed, that although he had for a long time continued to exhort them, they always closed their ears to his voice. It is not a rebellion of one day that he deplores: he complains that from the very beginning they were always a dull and hardened people, and that they continued to persist in the same obstinacy. It is truly monstrous perversity to prevent God from reaching us, and to refuse to listen to him, when he is ready to enter into covenant with us, making the terms almost equal on both sides. To leave them no room for extenuating their guilt under the pretext of ignorance, he adds that he was rejected with open and deliberate contempt: Israel would none of me. From this it is evident that their minds were bewitched by the god of this world.

This is the reason why, as is stated in the following verse, he gave them up to the hardness of their own heart, or, as others translate it, to the thoughts of their own heart. The root שרר, shorer, from which the word rendered thoughts is derived, properly signifies the navel. Accordingly, the translation is very fitting, which understands this word as either the thoughts concealed within people's hearts, or the hardness that possesses the heart.

However, since it is well known to be common in the Psalms for the same thing to be repeated twice, I have preferred the word thoughts, because it is followed immediately by, They shall walk in their own counsels. Besides, by these words, God testifies that he justly punished his people when he deprived them of good and sound doctrine and gave them over to a reprobate mind.

As in governing us through his word, he restrains us, so to speak, with a bridle, and thereby keeps us from going astray after our own perverse imaginations, so, by removing his prophets from the Jews, he gave free rein to their stubborn and corrupt counsels, which led them into devious paths.

It is truly the most dreadful kind of punishment that can be inflicted on us, and evidence of the utter hopelessness of our condition, when God, remaining silent and overlooking our perversity, applies no remedy to bring us to repentance and change. As long as he reproves us, alarms us with the dread of judgment, and summons us before his tribunal, he is, at the same time, calling us to repent.

But when he sees that it is entirely wasted effort to reason with us any longer, and that his admonitions have no effect, he remains silent, and by this shows us that he has ceased to make our salvation the object of his care. Therefore, nothing is more to be dreaded than for people to be so freed from divine guidance that they recklessly follow their own counsels and are dragged by Satan wherever he pleases.

The words, however, may be understood in a broader sense, as implying that, God's patience having been exhausted, he left his people—who, by their desperate perversity, had cut off all hope of their ever improving—to act without restraint as they chose. It is a very absurd conclusion that some draw from this passage, that God's grace is bestowed equally upon all people until it is rejected.

Even at that time, God, while he passed by all the rest of the world, was pleased to graciously bring the descendants of Abraham, by a unique and exclusive privilege, into a special relationship with himself. Today, this distinction, I admit, has been abolished, and the message of the gospel, by which God reconciles the world to himself, is common to all people.

Yet we see how God raises up godly teachers in one place rather than in another. Still, the external call alone would be insufficient if God did not effectually draw to himself those whom he has called. Furthermore, as this passage teaches us, there is no plague more deadly than for people to be left to the guidance of their own counsels; the only thing remaining for us to do is to renounce the dictates of carnal wisdom and to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.