John Calvin Commentary Psalms 81:15

"The haters of Jehovah should submit themselves unto him: But their time should endure for ever." — Psalms 81:15 (ASV)

The haters of Jehovah would have lied to him. Here the same thought is pursued, as the Israelites are informed that their enemies would have humbly submitted to their authority if their own impiety had not emboldened them to go to excess, when they shook off the yoke of God and grew rebellious against Him.

In calling these enemies the enemies of Jehovah, it is intended to censure the folly of the Israelites in breaking the bond of the covenant made between God and them, thereby separating themselves from Him, and preventing Him from immediately engaging in war on their behalf against those who were both their enemies and His.

Just as earthly princes, when they do not receive the assistance promised by their allies, are prompted to enter into terms of agreement with their enemies, and in this way avenge themselves on those found guilty of perjury and of breaking covenants; so God declares that He had spared His own enemies because He had been treacherously and wickedly deceived by the people of Israel.

Why does He permit His avowed enemies to remain unpunished, and cease for a time to maintain His own glory, if it is not because His object is to set them in contrast with His own rebellious and disobedient people, whom, by this means, He intends to subdue? The meaning of the word כחש, cachash, which we have translated as lied, has been explained in a previous psalm.

It is suggested here that peace with the reprobate cannot be expected except insofar as God restrains their rage by hidden chains. A lion shut up in an iron cage still retains its own nature, but it is kept from mangling and tearing to pieces those who are not even more than five or six feet distant from it.

So it is with the wicked. They may greedily desire our destruction, but they are unable to accomplish what their hearts are set on. Indeed, God humbles and abases their fierceness and arrogance, so that they put on the appearance of gentleness and meekness. The sum of it all is that it was the fault of the Israelites themselves that their enemies prevailed against them and insolently triumphed over them; whereas, had they continued as the humble and obedient children of God, these enemies would have been in a state of subjection to them.

When it is said, their time should have been everlasting, this expression refers to the promises. The same applies to the abundance of wheat and of honey, with which they would have been fully satisfied. God had solemnly declared that He would be their protector and guardian even to the end.

The change, then, which so suddenly befell them is set before them as a matter of reproach, since they had deliberately cast away their happy state all at once. The same remarks apply to the fruitfulness of the land. How can it be explained that they suffered hunger in the land where God had promised them an abundance of wheat and honey, except that God’s blessing had been withheld on account of their iniquity?

By the fat of corn is metaphorically meant pure grain, unless it is preferred to understand it as the finest wheat. Some believe that the expression honey out of the rock is hyperbolical, implying that honey would have flowed from the very rocks rather than God failing to satisfy His people.

But as it is evident from sacred history that honey was found everywhere in the hollows of the rocks as long as they enjoyed God’s blessing, the meaning is simply that God’s grace would have continued to flow in an unbroken and uniform course, had it not been interrupted by the perverseness and wickedness of the people.