John Calvin Commentary Psalms 92

It is good to give thanks unto Jehovah. There is no reason to doubt that the Jews were in the habit of singing this psalm, as the inscription indicates, on the Sabbath day, and it is apparent from various passages that other psalms were applied to this use. As the words may be read literally in the Hebrew, it is good for giving thanks to the Lord, some interpreters, basing their interpretation on the letter ל, lamed, prefixed to the verb, understand the Psalmist to mean that it was good to have a certain day set apart for singing the praises of God — that it was a useful arrangement by which one day had been chosen for the Lord’s people to be occupied in celebrating His works.

But it is well known that this letter, when prefixed, is merely the ordinary mark of the infinitive mood, and I have provided what is obviously the simple meaning. The reason why the Psalmist designated this psalm for the Sabbath is sufficiently clear. That day is not to be holy in the sense of being devoted to idleness, as if this could be an acceptable form of worship to God, but in the sense of our separating ourselves from all other occupations to engage in meditating on the Divine works.

Since our minds are fickle, we are prone, when exposed to various distractions, to wander from God. We need to be freed from all cares if we are to seriously apply ourselves to praising God. The Psalmist, then, would teach us that the right observance of the Sabbath does not consist in idleness, as some absurdly imagine, but in celebrating the Divine name.

The argument he presents is drawn from the benefit of this service, for nothing is more encouraging than to know that our labor is not in vain and that what we engage in meets with the Divine approval. In the following verse, he refers to the reasons we have for praising God, so that we may not imagine that God calls upon us to engage in this service without reason, or simply in consideration of His greatness and power, but in remembrance of His goodness and faithfulness, which should stir our hearts to such devotion, if we had any true understanding and experience of them.

He would have us consider, in mentioning these, that not only is God worthy of praise, but that we ourselves are guilty of ingratitude and perversity if we refuse it. We are the fitting recipients of His faithfulness and goodness, and it would indicate inexcusable indifference if they did not draw forth our heartfelt praises.

It might seem a strange distinction that the Psalmist observes when he speaks of our announcing God’s goodness in the morning, and His faithfulness at night. His goodness is constant, and not specific to any one time; why then devote only a small part of the day to celebrating it?

And the same may be said of the other Divine perfection mentioned, for His faithfulness is not shown merely in the night. But this is not what the Psalmist intends. He means that, beginning to praise the Lord from the earliest dawn, we should continue His praises to the latest hour of the night, as this is no less than His goodness and faithfulness deserve.

If we begin by celebrating His goodness, we must next take up the subject of His faithfulness. Both will occupy our continued praises, for they stand mutually and inseparably connected. The Psalmist is not, therefore, to be understood as wishing us to separate the one from the other, for they are intimately connected; he would only suggest that we can never lack reasons for praising God unless laziness overcomes us, and that if we would rightly fulfill the duty of gratitude, we must be diligent in it, since His goodness and His faithfulness are unceasing.

In the fourth verse, he more immediately addresses the Levites, who were appointed to the office of singers, and calls upon them to employ their instruments of music — not as if this were in itself necessary, but only because it was useful as a basic aid for the people of God in those ancient times.

We are not to imagine that God commanded the use of the harp because He felt a delight like ourselves in mere melody of sounds; but the Jews, who were yet underage, were restricted to the use of such childish elements. Their intention was to stimulate the worshipers and stir them up more actively to celebrate God’s praise with the heart.

We are to remember that the worship of God was never understood to consist in such outward services, which were only necessary to help advance a people still weak and undeveloped in knowledge, in the spiritual worship of God. A difference is to be observed in this respect between His people under the Old and under the New Testament; for now that Christ has appeared, and the Church has reached full age, it would merely bury the light of the Gospel should we introduce the shadows of a dispensation that has passed away. From this, it appears that the Papists, as I will have occasion to show elsewhere, in employing instrumental music, are not so much imitating the practice of God’s ancient people as they are aping it in a senseless and absurd manner, exhibiting a silly delight in that Old Testament worship which was figurative and ended with the Gospel.

Because you, Jehovah, have made me glad. The Psalmist repeats the truth that the Sabbath was not prescribed as a day of idleness, but a season when we should collect our whole energies for meditation upon the works of God. He intimates, at the same time, that those are best qualified for celebrating the praises of God who recognize and feel his fatherly goodness, and can undertake this service with willing and joyful minds.

His language implies that the goodness and faithfulness of God, which he had already mentioned, are apparent in his works upon a due examination of them. What produces joy in our hearts is the exhibition which God gives of himself as a Father, and of his deep and watchful concern for our welfare; as, on the other hand, the cause of our brutish indifference is our inability to savor or relish the end designed in the works of God. As the universe proclaims throughout that God is faithful and good, it is fitting for us to be diligently observant of these tokens, and to be excited by a holy joy to the celebration of his praise.

O Jehovah! how highly exalted are your works! The Psalmist, having spoken of the works of God in general, proceeds to speak more particularly of his justice in the government of the world. Though God may postpone the punishment of the wicked, he shows, in due time, that in permitting their sins, he did not overlook or fail to perceive them; and though he tests his own children with the cross, he proves ultimately that he was not indifferent to their welfare.

His reason for addressing this particular point seems to be that much obscurity is cast upon the plan of Divine Providence by the inequality and disorder that prevail in human affairs. We see the wicked triumphing and applauding their own good fortune, as if there were no judge above, and taking opportunity from the Divine forbearance to run into additional excesses, under the impression that they have escaped his hand.

The temptation is aggravated by that dullness and blindness of heart which lead us to imagine that God exercises no oversight over the world and sits idle in heaven. It is also known how quickly we are ready to sink under the troubles of the flesh. The Psalmist, therefore, intentionally selects this as an instance in which he may show the watchful care God exercises over the human family.

He begins by using the language of exclamation, for such is the dreadful malady and disorder by which our understandings are confused, that we cannot comprehend the method of God’s works, even when it is most apparent. We are to notice that the inspired writer is not speaking here of the work of God in the creation of the heavens and earth, nor of his providential government of the world in general, but only of the judgments which he executes among men.

He calls the works of God great and his thoughts deep, because he governs the world in a way completely different from what we are able to comprehend. If things were under our own management, we would entirely invert the order that God observes; and, this not being the case, we perversely remonstrate with God for not hastening more quickly to help the righteous and punish the wicked.

It strikes us as in the highest degree inconsistent with the perfections of God, that he should bear with the wicked when they rage against him, when they rush without restraint into the most daring acts of iniquity, and when they persecute at will the good and the innocent—it seems, I say, in our eyes to be intolerable, that God should subject his own people to the injustice and violence of the wicked, while he puts no check upon abounding falsehood, deceit, plunder, bloodshed, and every species of enormity. Why does he allow his truth to be obscured and his holy name to be trampled underfoot?

This is that greatness of the Divine operation, that depth of the Divine counsel, for which the Psalmist breaks forth in admiration. It is no doubt true that there is an incomprehensible depth of power and wisdom that God has displayed in the fabric of the universe; but what the Psalmist especially has in view is to provide a check to that disposition which leads us to murmur against God when he does not follow our plan in his providential ways. When anything in these ways may not agree with our common understanding, we ought to contemplate it with reverence and remember that God, for the better trial of our obedience, has lifted his deep and mysterious judgments far above our conceptions.

The foolish man shall not know them. This is added appropriately, to inform us that the fault lies with ourselves, in not praising the Divine judgments as we should. For although the Psalmist had spoken of them as deep and mysterious, he informs us here that they would be discerned without difficulty, if it were not for our stupidity and indifference.

By the foolish, he means unbelievers in general, implicitly contrasting them with believers who are divinely enlightened by the word and Spirit. The ignorance and blindness to which he alludes possess all without exception whose understandings have not been illuminated by Divine grace. It should be our prayer to God that he would purify our sight and enable us to meditate on his works.

In short, the Psalmist vindicates the incomprehensible wisdom of God from the contempt that proud men have often cast upon it, charging them with folly and madness for such conduct; and he would arouse us from that insensibility, which is too prevalent, to a proper and serious consideration of the mysterious works of God.

When the wicked flourish as the grass. He points out and exposes, by a striking and appropriate figure, the folly of imagining that the wicked obtain a triumph over God when he, perhaps, does not immediately restrain them. He concedes to some extent—he grants that they spring up and flourish—but immediately adds, by way of qualification, that they flourish like the grass, only for a moment, their prosperity being brief and fleeting.

In this way he removes what has been an almost universal stumbling block and ground of offense. For it would be ridiculous to envy the happiness of men who are doomed to be speedily destroyed, and of whom it may be said that today they flourish, and tomorrow they are cut down and wither (Psalms 129:6).

It will be shown, when we consider the psalm just quoted, that the herbs to which the wicked are compared are those that grow on the roofs of houses, which lack depth of soil and die on their own from lack of nourishment.

In the present passage, the Psalmist is content with simply using the figure that the prosperity of the wicked leads to their speedier destruction, just as grass, when it is fully grown, is ready for the scythe.

An antithesis is also drawn between their brief existence and the everlasting destruction that awaits them. For they are not said to be cut down so that they may flourish again, as withered plants recover their vigor, but are condemned to eternal perdition.

When he says of God that he sits exalted for evermore, some understand this to mean that God holds the power and office of governing the world, and that we may be certain nothing can happen by chance when such a righteous governor and judge administers the affairs of the world.

Various other meanings have been suggested. But it seems to me that the Psalmist compares the stability of God’s throne with the fluctuating and changeable character of this world, reminding us that we must not judge him by what we see in the world, where there is nothing fixed or enduring.

God looks down undisturbed from the height of heaven upon all the changes of this earthly scene, which neither affect him nor relate to him.

The Psalmist brings this forward with a further aim than simply to teach us to distinguish God from his creatures and to give due honor to his majesty. He would have us learn, as we contemplate God's wonderful and mysterious providence, to lift our thoughts above ourselves and this world, because our earthly minds can only grasp a dark and confused view.

It is to lead us to a proper discernment of the divine judgments, which are not seen in the world, that the Psalmist, in mentioning God’s majesty, would remind us that he does not work according to our ideas, but in a manner corresponding to his own eternal being.

We, short-lived creatures as we are, often thwarted in our attempts, hampered and interrupted by many intervening difficulties, and too eager to seize the first opportunity that presents itself, are accustomed to act hastily. But we are taught here to lift our eyes to that eternal and unchangeable throne on which God sits, wisely deferring the execution of his judgments.

Accordingly, these words convey more than a simple commendation of God’s glorious being. They are meant to strengthen our faith and to tell us that, although his people may sigh under many anxious fears, God himself, the guardian of their safety, reigns on high and shields them with his everlasting power.