John Calvin Commentary Psalms 95:3

"For Jehovah is a great God, And a great King above all gods." — Psalms 95:3 (ASV)

For Jehovah is a great God. By these words, the Psalmist reminds us what abundant grounds we have for praising God, and how far we are from needing to employ the lying panegyric with which rhetoricians flatter earthly princes. First, he extols the greatness of God, drawing a tacit contrast between him and such false gods as people have invented for themselves. We know that there has always been a host of gods in the world, as Paul says, “There are many on the earth who are called gods” (1 Corinthians 8:5).

We are to notice the stated opposition between the God of Israel and all others that humanity has formed through an unrestrained imagination. If anyone objects that “an idol is nothing in the world” (1 Corinthians 8:4), it is enough to reply that the Psalmist aims at denouncing the vain delusions of people who have framed gods according to their own foolish contrivance.

I admit, however, that by this term he may have included the angels, asserting God to possess such excellence as exalted him far above all heavenly glory, and whatever might be considered Divine, as well as above the false deities of earth. Angels are not indeed gods, but the name can be improperly applied to them because they are near to God, and still more, because they are regarded as no less than gods by people who excessively and superstitiously extol them.

If the heavenly angels themselves must yield before the majesty of the one God, it would be the height of indignity to compare him with gods who are the mere fictions of the brain.

In proof of his greatness, he directs us to look to his formation of the world, which he declares to be the work of God’s hands, and subject to his power. This is one general reason why God is to be praised: he has clearly displayed his glory in the creation of the world and intends for us to recognize him daily in its government.

When it is said that the depths of the earth are in his hand, the meaning is that it is ruled by his providence and subject to his power. Some read, the bounds of the earth, but the word means abysses or depths, as opposed to the heights of the mountains. The Hebrew word properly signifies searching.