John Calvin Commentary Psalms 97

Jehovah reigns. His invitation for people to rejoice is proof that the reign of God is inseparably connected with the salvation and best happiness of humankind. And, since the joy he speaks of is common to the whole world and to the regions beyond the seas, it is evident that he predicts the enlargement of God’s kingdom, which had previously been confined within the narrow boundaries of Judea, to a far wider extent.

The Psalmist, in setting forth the various particulars of the Divine glory in the four verses that follow, seeks to impress all people with a reverential fear of him. Thus he gives us a representation of God’s formidable majesty, so that he may dash and humble vain confidence and carnal pride.

A cloudy sky overawes us more than a clear one, since darkness produces a peculiar effect upon the senses. The Psalmist, no doubt, uses this symbol to impress the world with a greater reverence for God. Others interpret the words more subtly and think that clouds are said to be around God to check human rashness and presumption, and to restrain that excessive curiosity that would pry more than is proper into the mysteries of the Godhead.

This interpretation of the words conveys a very useful lesson, but I am against all overly subtle interpretations. I think that the Psalmist, in associating darkness with God, intended to impress upon the hearts of people a general fear of him.

The same meaning is conveyed in the remaining context, when fire is said to go before him, and burn up his enemies, his lightnings to shake the earth, and the mountains to flow down. If anyone objects that this does not agree with what was said about the joy his kingdom diffuses, I might answer, first, that although God is ready on his part to spread blessedness wherever he reigns, not all are capable of appreciating it.

Besides, as I have already hinted, this truth is useful to believers, humbling the pride of the flesh and deepening their adoration of God. God’s throne is represented as founded on justice and judgment, to denote the benefit we derive from it. The greatest conceivable misery is living without righteousness and judgment, and the Psalmist mentions it as a matter of praise exclusively due to God that when he reigns, righteousness revives in the world.

He just as evidently denies that we can have any righteousness until God subjects us to the yoke of his word by the gentle but powerful influences of his Spirit. A great proportion of people obstinately resist and reject the government of God. Hence, the Psalmist was forced to portray God in his more severe aspect to teach the wicked that their perverse opposition will not pass unpunished.

When God draws near to people in mercy, and they fail to welcome him with appropriate reverence and respect, this implies a very aggravated form of impiety. For this reason, the language of denunciation is fitting for the kingdom of Christ. The Psalmist intimates that those who despise God in the person of his only-begotten Son will certainly feel in due time the awful weight of his majesty.

So much is implied in the expression used—The earth Shall See. For when the wicked find that their attempts to fight against God are vain, they resort to subterfuge and concealment. The Psalmist declares that they will not succeed by any such vain artifice in hiding from God.

The heavens have declared his righteousness. Here, the psalmist states that there will be such an illustrious display of God's righteousness that the heavens themselves will herald it. The meaning is not the same as in the beginning of Psalm 19: The heavens declare the glory of God, and so on (Psalms 19:1).

In Psalm 19, David simply means that God's wisdom and power are as evident in the structure of the heavens as if God were to declare them with an audible voice. The meaning of the present passage, however, is that God's spiritual righteousness will be so remarkably manifested under the reign of Christ that it will fill both heaven and earth.

This personification carries great force: the heavens, as if even they were imbued with an awareness of God's righteousness, are depicted as speaking of it. It is equally probable, however, that by "the heavens" the psalmist here means the angels, who are contained in heaven, using a figure of metonymy or synecdoche. This interpretation is supported because, in the corresponding clause, instead of mentioning the earth, the psalmist speaks of the peoples who live on it. The angels can very properly be said to announce and celebrate the Divine glory.

Confounded be all those who serve graven images. The Psalmist draws a broad distinction here, as in the psalm next to this, between the true God and the false gods which men form for themselves. He does this so that the praise he had ascribed might be applied only to the true God.

Men are all ready to admit that they ought to celebrate the praises of God, but, naturally prone as they are to superstition, few indeed will commit to worshipping God in the right manner. As soon as they concern themselves with God, they deviate into the most baseless delusions.

Each fashions a god for himself, and all choose what suits them best in the medley of inventions. This is the reason why the sacred writers, concerned that men may turn to false gods, are careful, when giving exhortations to the worship of God, to state at the same time who the true God is.

The order observed by the Psalmist suggests the observation that corrupt superstitions will never be removed until the true religion prevails. Prevented from coming to the true God by the slowness of their spiritual apprehension, men inevitably wander in vanities of their own; and it is the knowledge of the true God which dispels these, as the sun disperses the darkness.

All have an innate religious sense born with them, but owing to the blindness and stupidity, as well as the weakness of our minds, the understanding we form of God is immediately depraved. Religion is thus the beginning of all superstitions, not in its own nature, but because of the darkness that has settled upon the minds of men, which prevents them from distinguishing between idols and the true God.

The truth of God is effectual when revealed in dispelling and dissipating superstitions. Does the sun absorb the vapors in the air, and will not the presence of God himself be much more effectual? It is no wonder then that the Psalmist, in predicting the Kingdom of God, triumphs over the ungodly nations, which boasted in graven images, as when Isaiah, speaking of the rise of the Gospel, adds,

Then all the idols of Egypt shall fall, (Isaiah 19:1)

Since the knowledge of God has been hidden from mankind, we are also taught that there is no reason to be surprised at the multitude of superstitions that have spread over the world.

We have an example of the same truth in our own day. The knowledge of the true doctrine is extinguished among the Turks, the Jews, and Papists, and, as a necessary consequence, they lie immersed in error; for they cannot possibly return to a sound mind, or repent of their errors, when they are ignorant of the true God.

When the Psalmist speaks of their being confounded, he means that the time had come when those who were given to idolatry should repent and return to the worship of the true God.

Not that all without exception would be brought to genuine repentance—for experience has taught us in our own times how atheistical men will cast off superstition and yet assume the most shameless effrontery—but this is one of those consequences which the knowledge of God should bring about: the turning of men from their errors to God.

There are some who obstinately resist God, of which we have many examples in the Papacy; but we have every reason to believe that they are secretly prostrated by that which they affect to despise and confounded despite their opposition.

What the Psalmist says a little after, Let all the gods worship before him, properly applies to the angels, in whom some small portion of divinity shines forth. Yet it may, though less appropriately, be extended to fictitious gods, as if he had said: Whatever is accounted or held as a god must yield its place and renounce its claims, so that God alone may be exalted.

Therefore, it can be gathered that the true definition of piety is that the true God is perfectly served, and that He alone is so exalted that no creature obscures His divinity.

Accordingly, if we do not want true piety to be entirely destroyed among us, we must hold to this principle: that no creature whatever be exalted by us beyond measure.

Zion heard, and was glad. In the former part of the psalm, he had spoken of that joy which should be common to all the world. Now he makes special mention of God’s chosen nation; and this partly because they were to enjoy the first-fruits of this joy, and partly because he would remove all occasion for rivalry or envy.

Accordingly, having said that the Gentile nations should be brought to equal privileges with the posterity of Abraham, he adds that the Jews would not suffer any diminution of honor by this co-partnership of privilege, but might rather reasonably rejoice in being chosen by God to be the fountain from which the world was to be watered and refreshed.

Those of whom the Psalmist speaks were the true children of Abraham, and only them. They had a double reason for rejoicing when God extended his government and glory from the rising to the setting sun; for while he exhibited to them in Christ the complete fulfillment of the redemption that was promised, they, at the same time, saw the glory of God diffused from the narrow limits of Judea to all parts of the world.

When the nations were blessed in the seed of Abraham, in agreement with the prediction that had gone before, this was no inconsiderable confirmation of their faith, as it also was when they saw a religion that had been hated and despised universally embraced. But why, it may be asked, does he speak of those things being heard, rather than seen?

Two reasons may be given for this: first, he would have God’s believing people anticipate the blessing by hope before its consummation arrived; and second, the language intimates that the glory of the Gospel would be spread to such distant quarters that the Jews would rather hear of it by report than witness it with their own eyes.

For you, Jehovah, are high above all the earth. Having already explained these words in another place, I will not say more about them now.

However, it should be noted that a comparison is drawn between God, the angels, and whatever has any claim to eminence. The Psalmist limits all other excellence in such a way as to leave no room for questioning that all majesty is contained in God alone.

This was especially the case when God manifested himself in his only-begotten Son, who is the express image of himself. Before that period, his greatness was less apparent because he was less known.