Psalms 73-150: Old Testament Volume 8

By Herman J. Selderhuis

"I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." (Ps. 121:1-2) Throughout the history of the church, Christians have often turned to the Book of Psalms in both rejoicing and suffering as a significant resource for Christian belief and practice, and as the church's prayer book and hymnal. The Protestant reformers also turned to the Psalms during their time of significant spiritual renewal, theological debate, and ecclesial reform. There they found comfort, guidance, and wisdom from God that applied to their context as much as it did to David's. As John Calvin explained, "The Holy Spirit has presented in a living image all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the emotions with which human minds are often disturbed." And as Martin Luther proclaimed, the reformers also heard a resounding affirmation of the good news of Jesus Christ: "The Psalter ought to be a precious and beloved book because it promises Christ's death and resurrection so clearly." In this volume, Herman Selderhuis guides readers through the diversity of Reformation-era commentary on the second half of the Psalter. Represented herein are well-known voices as well as lesser-known figures from a variety of theological traditions, including Lutherans, Reformed, Radicals, Anglicans, and Roman Catholics, many of whose comments appear for the first time in English. By making available a variety of resources—including commentaries, sermons, treatises, and confessions—this volume enables scholars to better understand the depth and breadth of Reformation commentary, provides resources for contemporary preachers, and offers keen insights to all who trust that their help comes from the Lord.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Release date: Nov 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9780830874071

Book preview

73:1-28 A Meditation on the Justice of God

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ Truly God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had nearly slipped.

³ For I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ For they have no pangs until death;

their bodies are fat and sleek.

⁵ They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;

violence covers them as a garment.

⁷ Their eyes swell out through fatness;

their hearts overflow with follies.

⁸ They scoff and speak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongue struts through the earth.

¹⁰ Therefore his people turn back to them,

and find no fault in them. a

¹¹ And they say, "How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?"

¹² Behold, these are the wicked;

always at ease, they increase in riches.

¹³ All in vain have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

¹⁴ For all the day long I have been stricken

and rebuked every morning.

¹⁵ If I had said, I will speak thus,

I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

¹⁶ But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,

¹⁷ until I went into the sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their end.

¹⁸ Truly you set them in slippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

¹⁹ How they are destroyed in a moment,

swept away utterly by terrors!

²⁰ Like a dream when one awakes,

O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

²¹ When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

²² I was brutish and ignorant;

I was like a beast toward you.

²³ Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength b of my heart and my portion forever.

²⁷ For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

²⁸ But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,

that I may tell of all your works.

a Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them b Hebrew rock

---

Overview: In commenting on this psalm, our early modern interpreters explore this perplexing dilemma: the seemingly ceaseless affliction of the godly and the continuous prosperity of the wicked. As they examine the psalmist’s candid expressions of bitterness toward this situation, the expositors call attention to the temptation to doubt God’s goodness and love toward his people. Throughout their expositions, these interpreters stress the irony of this dilemma in that trials experienced by Christians evince God’s paternal, loving discipline toward them in anticipation of eternal blessedness, while the prosperity enjoyed by the wicked serves only to increase their culpability at the final judgment. Furthermore, these interpreters highlight repentance as evidence of true justifying faith, which is aided by the means of grace provided by the church.

Consolation for the Afflicted. John Hooper: The matter and argument of this psalm is a consolation for them that are used much to be moved and afflicted, when they see the ungodly flourish and prosper in all wealth and pleasure; and contrariwise, the godly and good people oppressed with poverty, and all other calamities and afflictions. As you may see the prophet Asaph deals with this matter in this his first psalm. The same you may see also in King David, in his thirty-seventh psalm, wherein he exhorts people not to judge amiss of God, nor to leave off godly conversation, although the best get punished and the worst escape punishment. These two psalms, entreating of one matter, are to be read and known of us in these perilous days, lest the hatred and persecution that happens to God’s truth, and to the lovers thereof, might unhappily make us to judge of God, and to forsake his truth, as many have done, and daily the number of them increase, with the decrease of God’s honor, and the increase of their own damnation. For now Christ separates the chaff from the corn, the rust from the metal, and hypocrisy from truth. If we will not or cannot abide the hammer, or the trying-pot that God sets us in to explore and search whether our faith will be able to stand the fire of trouble and persecution, or not, that is, if we suffer not, all our religion is not worth a thing. For it is not words that prove faith, but deeds: If it abides the trial, it is true; and the more it is tried, the finer it will be, and at length brought into such fineness, as corruption shall never hurt nor harm it in the world of grace and virtue. God therefore grant us grace to suffer his trial, and search strongly, patiently, and thankfully. Amen. Exposition upon Psalms. ¹

73:1-3 The Psalmist’s Struggle

The Prosperity of the Impious. Johannes Bugenhagen: This sentence How good the God of Israel is to those who are upright in heart will especially be fought against and will waver in your heart if you begin to have regard for the crosses of the pious and the prosperity of the impious. Here you will fall unless you are supported by the hand of God, just as has been written in Proverbs 1: The aversion of the small will kill them, and the prosperity of fools will destroy them, however whoever will hear me will rest without terror. And he will enjoy abundance, raised above the fear of the wicked. Moreover, he graphically depicted this temptation in this way: I almost fell from God while I was jealous, moved by hatred against the peace and prosperity of the wicked, namely, was it not favorable for those who also died in prosperity, having enough of both wealth and friends by whom they even are pronounced blessed and the best after their death? Even when some sadness in life befell them, it immediately departs, for they are not pressed by poverty, they do not lack any comfort. . . . They do not labor in the sweat of their face, as elsewhere, even if God would send a scourge on human beings, such as famine, lack, ignominy, or loss, yet it does not come to them in whatever would befall the rest, they abound. And therefore, they are proud without ceasing, condemning the rest as if they were hardly human, and thought themselves better than the rest, and whatever they make, they do by faithlessness, by unjust gain, by usury, exactions, fraud, plunder, lies toward others, blasphemies toward God, blasphemies toward the creatures of God, and yet they prosper in all things. Interpretation of the Psalms. ²

A Steadfast Assertion. Viktorin Strigel: This statement is a confident and steadfast assertion arising from a faith that confirms with certainty that God is both kind and a friend of the church, even if the church is pounded by the waves of earthly powers. For we have to judge the God’s intent from his Word, in which he reveals himself, but not by eventualities that are common to the pious and impious. A similar assertion is there in the thirteenth chapter of Job: Though he will slay me, still I will hope in him, because he will be my savior. But as for those who have unclean hearts, much is made of them elsewhere. For the term uncleanness should not be understood in terms of the purity of our nature, but in terms of the account taken of it. About this Peter says, Hearts are purified by faith. Commentary on the Psalms. ³

More Than Words. John Calvin: To teach us by his own example the difficulty and arduousness of the conflict, he opens, so to speak, his heart and bowels, and would have us to understand something more than is expressed by the words he employs. The amount of his language is, that although God, to the eye of sense and reason, may seem to neglect his servants, yet he always embraces them with his favor. Commentary on the Psalms. ⁴

Trials Will Not Cease. Konrad Pellikan: But as there was not absent a small temptation concerning the prosperity of the wicked and as I might have despaired of my calamity, I might have been deprived of a zeal for uprightness and a confidence in God. In fact, he signifies this by a slip and stumbling of the feet. My step almost tottered. I scarcely escaped the most serious fall in my life and conscience. For although the mature believer will not suffer a scandal in faith, yet it is not rare that even a firm faith is tested so that it would grow: and as long as we live trials will not cease. Commentary on the Bible. ⁵

Dangerous Temptations. John Calvin: We are certainly under a grievous and a dangerous temptation, when we not only, in our own minds, quarrel with God for not setting matters in due order, but also when we give ourselves loose reins, boldly to commit iniquity, because it seems to us that we may commit it, and yet escape with impunity. Commentary on the Psalms. ⁶

73:4-5 The Well-Being of the Wicked

Temporal Benefit. Cardinal Cajetan: Since there are no fetters for their death. The phrase is metaphorical, describing their delayed death, free, as it were, and not having fetters that bind it. Death is said to be bound by fetters, when it is hastened by mortal sicknesses or by other accidents; and by contrast, death without fetters is that which is not accelerated. Therefore, this is the primary temporal benefit for the wicked, that death for them is not hastened. For they are rich, and they look out for themselves and steer clear of trouble, and they live for as long as nature allows; but the death of the poor is hastened by a thousand chains of necessity. Commentary on Psalms. ⁷

True Felicity. John Hooper: To enter therefore into the knowledge of the matter, wherein the beatitude and felicity of humankind consists, it is requisite to cast some clouds and darkness on these worldly things that wicked people possess, and godly people think them thereby to be happy. Look, as the sun, at the rising and passing over the earth, hides and covers the globe and sphere of the moon, and darkens also the light and clearness of the stars; even so does the tranquility of conscience, and the brightness of faith and charity, that dwells in the heart of the faithful, darken and hide all things that seem beautiful and voluptuous to the world and carnal lusts of humanity. And the one who has a testimony at home in their own conscience, that they are in the favor of God, will not greatly care about of other people’s judgments, whether they save or damn, laud or dispraise. Nor does it matter to them although they lack such notes of riches and glory as worldly people judge and know felicity by. For they that know surely wherein felicity consists will not take the worldly opinion of people for their record, nor for their reward. Neither will they greatly fear for any damnation or punishment that the world can annex and join unto their life for this mortal time. It is therefore left to Christianity to know that felicity and beatitude rests in the riches of the mind, by God’s grace, wrought by the Holy Ghost for the merits of Christ. Exposition upon Psalms. ⁸

Christian Discipline Teaches Spiritual Warfare. Richard Hooker: Whatever nation feels these dangerous inconveniences may know that sloth and fullness in peacable times at home is the cause thereof, and the remedy a strict observation of that part of Christian discipline which teaches people in the practice of spiritual warfare against themselves those things that afterward may help them justly assaulting or standing in lawful defense of themselves against others. The very purpose of the church of God, both in number and in the order of her fasts, has been not only to preserve thereby throughout all ages the remembrance of miseries heretofore sustained and of the causes in ourselves out of which they have arisen, that people considering the one might fear the other more, but farther also first to temper the mind lest contrary affections coming in place should make it too profuse and dissolute. In this respect it seems that fasts have been set as the ushers of festival days for prevention of those disorders as much as might be, wherein notwithstanding the world always will deserve, as it has done, blame, because such evils being not possible to be rooted out the most we can do is in keeping them low; and (which is chiefly the fruit we look for) to create in the minds of people a love toward frugal and severe life, to undermine the palaces of wantonness, to plant parsimony as nature where riotousness has been as study, to harden whom pleasure would melt and to help the tumors which always fullness breeds, that children as it were in the wool of their infancy died with hardness may never afterward change color; that the poor whose perpetual fasts are necessary may with better contentment endure the hunger which virtue causes others so often to choose and by advice of religion itself so far to esteem above the contrary; that they which for the most part do lead sensual and easy lives, they who as the prophet David describes them are not plagued like other people are; finally, that every person may be everyone’s daily guide and example as well as by fasting to declare humility as by praise to express joy in the sight of God, although it has herein befallen the church as sometimes David, so that the speech of the one may be truly the voice of the other, My soul fasted, and even that was also turned to my reproof. Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. ⁹

73:6-14 The Pursuit of Evil

The Prosperity of the Stupid. Wolfgang Musculus: We see here what the fruits of the prosperity of the wicked are. First, there is that diabolical pride and contempt. Fools magnify themselves and in view of themselves scorn the rest of those who are in the labor of human beings, they forget the misery of their own condition and mortality, and thereupon they grow haughty, from which if they were wise [but they are not], they ought to be humble. Thus the souls of the foolish are blind to the riches so that they think that they are already demigods, who have forgotten that they are human beings and they desire to be adored by all.

The second is that whoever is accompanied by contempt: namely, violence, by which they iniquitously and brazenly oppress the poor: of which is also made mention in the preceding Psalm in verse 14. For since they are impious and do not fear God, they are not touched by any consciousness of sin. Next, since they are not held by any bonds of laws, so that they commit whatever they wish and clothe [themselves] in pride, it happens that they more boldly inflict this on the poor. If the wealth and prosperity of the impious generates contempt and violence: then therefore poverty, the calamities of this miserable life, and the lash of the discipline of God produce humility and modesty of soul and take away the longing to inflict injuries: so that either from both of these fruits it is apparent whether it is better and happier, whether it is to be desired more by a Christian person, or what is given here to the impious, or what is ascribed to human misery and the discipline of God. Psalms of David. ¹⁰

Shaken by What We See. John Calvin: But the people of God, before these perverse and detestable thoughts enter deep into their hearts, disburdening themselves into the bosom of God, and their only desire is to acquiesce in his secret judgments, the reason of which is hidden from them. The meaning of this passage, therefore, is that not only the wicked, when they see things in the world so full of disorder, conceive only of a blind government, which they attribute to fortune or chance; but that even true believers themselves are shaken, so as to doubt of the providence of God; and that unless they were wonderfully preserved by his hand, they would be completely swallowed up in this abyss. Commentary on the Psalms. ¹¹

Making the Wrong Choices. John Hooper: Out of this we are admonished, that our nature is to be offended by and by with troubles for the glory of God. And even as we are unquiet with the troubles, so are we inconstant and unstable in the knowledge and truth that we suffer trouble for. Then we begin to repent that ever we began to favor or embrace the truth, and we wish also that we had used ourselves as other people did, and then that we had suffered with other people the common lot and fortune of the world, and not thus to have been given to a singular knowledge of God’s word, which brings with it a singular hatred and punishment in this world. Such is our nature, if we are by afflictions and troubles but for a day’s space made like unto Christ, we think it too long. But if we are by sin for all our lifetime made like the devil, we think the time too short, and wish longer to live, because we would longer work and delight in sin and abomination. Great and heinous is our offense in this respect. For a little time spent in well-doing we judge too long, and all time spent in evildoing we judge too short. All labors and pains be too little if they be bestowed in worldly things, but if they be appointed to heavenly things (be they never so few and slender), we think them too much. There is not sea nor land, with all the perils within them, but people dare adventure both their goods and their lives to win increase of worldly goods, but to win toward God and godliness, scarce one of a great many without danger will labor or take pains to gain it. So the prophet says in this place, that he had cleansed his heart in vain; because he saw cleanliness and virtue persecuted, and filth with iniquity honored and exalted. Christ in the Gospel of St. John, perceiving that, when virtue and well-doing should be troubled, people would wax weary of well-doing and virtue, he said to his disciples, Remember, when they come, that I spoke of them, and warned you before. Exposition upon Psalms. ¹²

Thoughts of the Flesh. Martin Bucer: Here he brings forth another rationale of doubt about the knowledge of God, of course, because he allows good people to be afflicted continuously, which he thinks should by no means occur if God had a certain knowledge of human affairs. Certainly (says anyone who is disturbed by this temptation), I have desired blamelessness in vain: for daily I am afflicted, and each day with its rising brings some trouble. To that extent he surveyed the thoughts of the flesh: in the following verses he sets forth the thoughts of the spirit taking itself back from the passion of the flesh.

If I thought I will speak in this way, look I would have been injurious to the people of your children. That is, if, as he had set out to employ that manner of speaking I brought into my soul, I would have done injury to the people of your children, all of whom you love, chastise, and called back to yourself through adversities from creatures. Namely, he says that the zeal for piety to which they are bound is in vain, and they are disregarded by God, and their life is unhappy, certainly there are atrocious injuries and indignities. Even if all things happen for them for good, the heavenly father has more than a paternal care for them. Holy Psalms. ¹³

Discontent with God’s Service Serves the Devil. Lancelot Andrewes: I have cleansed my heart in vain, for daily have I been punished. This dart makes us weary of well-doing; and then it follows, that we will serve the devil. Being discontent with God’s service, we undertake the service of his enemy; he requires nothing but a little falling down, and then if Simon shall come and require any unlawful thing at our hands, we are ready with Judas to meet him and say, What will you give me, and I will do it? though it be to the betraying of Christ. Seven Sermons upon the Temptation of Christ. ¹⁴

73:15-28 The Destiny of the Wicked and the Righteous

God Chastises Not Without Reason. Johannes Oecolampadius: Learn here that the vanity of this world has no usefulness, but a great amount of danger and damnation as much for the body as for the soul, by this very thing you should never turn aside from the path of truth. Persons of little faith meanwhile are overwhelmed with these thoughts; why, they say, am I continuously oppressed with poverty? Why am I so unhappy compared to the rest of humanity? I live blamelessly, I take care of the oppressed and the weak every day, yet I am more persecuted by various misfortunes, and I am surrounded by an endless number of evils. And the obstinate, whatever befalls the pious person, interpret these things in this way, as the blows of God, just as the friends and wife of Job did. Indeed, these things ought not to disturb the heart of the pious at all. Christ and the apostles were subjected to these afflictions, and will you be immune from them? Do you not know that the son whom the Lord most tenderly loves, he chastens, not in the manner of a severe judge so that he may perish, but in the manner of a most kindly father so that he may heal, and so that the lost son may be called back from countless evils that would befall him if he were not corrected by those paternal blows. Nor does this happen out of hatred or spite, as the world interprets it, but out of an intimate and paternal affection so that a son may not perish with the world. According to Hebrews 12 we have, My children, do not disregard the correction of the Lord—do you hear in this passage that the Lord appoints such things for you and corrects you?—and do not be discouraged when you are rebuked by him, for the Lord corrects the one that he loves. However he scourges every son that he receives. If you will endure the chastening, then do so with an upright heart. For the Father offers himself to you, his children, meekly with the rod. For what son is there whom a kind father does not chasten? The sons of God on this earth are roasted in the fiery furnace, they are the scum of the world, and overwhelmed with many trials. If, on that account, someone would say that they were wretched, they would be as far afield as the whole of heaven, and would cast aside the family of God, as the most deplorable sorts of people. May it never be that we would believe such a thing about God. If the Lord should chasten us, he knows the reason why he would correct us, although it may be secret to us. In fact, let us restrain [ourselves] by these things perhaps [in such a way that], if every happiness were relinquished, we would not fall. Sermons. ¹⁵

Word and Spirit. John Calvin: When, therefore, we are here told that people are unfit for contemplating the arrangements of divine providence until they obtain wisdom elsewhere than from themselves, how can we attain to wisdom but by submissively receiving what God teaches us both by his Word and by his Holy Spirit? David, by the word sanctuary, alludes to the external manner of teaching, which God had appointed among his ancient people; but along with the Word he comprehends the secret illumination of the Holy Spirit. Commentary on the Psalms. ¹⁶

Meditation as Remedy. Hieronymus Weller: This upright person shows that he has been affected in different ways on seeing the wicked flourish in this life: he could not understand why God would allow the wicked to prosper, while the upright suffer, until he came into the sanctuary of God and saw the destruction of the wicked.

He calls the gathering of the upright the sanctuary of God, the church where the word of God resounds and the wonderful works of God are preached. For only the word of God gives us the real reasons why, while God plies the wicked with so many blessings, he allows the upright to be oppressed so harshly.

The prophet then teaches in this passage that there is a remedy against the scandal and pain that the upright experience from the felicity of the wicked: to reflect and meditate on the word of God. This is how we learn why God allows the wicked to flourish in this life, and, conversely, why he oppresses the upright with so much care and suffering. Consequently, we call to mind examples in which the destruction of the wicked is clearly most miserable and tragic, in line with Psalm 31: The death of sinners is terrible.

It is incredible how these two things—meditation on the word of God, and reflection on the destruction of the wicked—can confirm and strengthen the hearts of the upright against the scandal that the wicked flourish so in this life.

Whenever, then, your mind is thrown into confusion by this scandal—when you see the most wicked of people are so blessed, rich, and esteemed—you should rush immediately to the word of God, and put their terrible destruction before your heart. Interpretation of Some Psalms. ¹⁷

Faith Beats Doubt. John Hooper: Because the wicked prosper so well in this world, the people of God conform and apply themselves to do as they do, and frame their lives and manners to the rule and fashion of such wicked people as prosper. And they suck and draw into their minds the wicked people’s opinions and conversations, and so replenish themselves with iniquity, as the thirsty replenish themselves with water. And when the people see the best part turn unto the manners of the worst, and be as evil or worse than the worst, they muse and think whether there be any God, or knowledge in God, that suffers these abominations. And not only the common people (says the prophet Asaph) stood in doubt whether God took any heed or cared for the world, seeing that wicked people did so prosper, and the godlier sort so vexed, but I myself also, considering these things with myself, fell into such madness and error of judgment, that I had done evil so to apply myself to virtuous and godly life, seeing I was vexed and troubled with continual miseries, and seeing that there was never a day that did not bring her cross and trouble to the servants of God and virtuous people. These things (says the prophet) fondly and foolishly I spoke to myself many times. But when I weighed the thing with more judgment, and considered the matter more deeply with myself, I thought, if I thus judge and speak of God, do I not reprove, reprehend, and condemn the life, conversation, and labors of all godly people? These believers will not be drawn nor enticed from godly life and the love of virtue by no misadventures nor afflictions in this world; neither do they judge that they have studied and followed godliness in vain, whatsoever trouble has happened to them in this world. And therefore, when I tried to compass the cause and verity of these things, the greatness thereof brought me into much fear and carefulness. And further, I perceived that I could not come to the knowledge of these things, except the Almighty God would reveal and open unto me the mysteries and secrets of his providence and wisdom, that I might see and understand what end and outgoing these wicked people should have, that with most abomination and blasphemy in this life had most felicity and pleasure. And by tarrying in the thoughts and cogitations of this case and matter, at last I found that these wicked men and women, whose felicity and prosperous estate tormented me, their end was most miserable, full of wretchedness and pain. Exposition upon Psalms. ¹⁸

All the Passions of This World Are Transitory. Johannes Oecolampadius: If a human being reckons human affairs according to the propriety of their own nature, they are deservedly led to admiration, if they would consider those things that occur in the world. But in general we act like little girls that care about nothing, whatever happens. They search for childish games, to lead choirs pleasing to themselves and jovial things, and think that they live most handsomely if they grab whatever sorts of things they desire. Moreover, if this should occur, then they are led to nothing other than to vanity as much to impudence. If they were instructed in the word of the Lord, they would live much differently and would dwell with greater modesty before the eyes of others. Their parents are responsible for such shallowness, who both live shamefully and speak much more shamefully in their presence. In the world, there is toil and hardship, a cross and difficulties. The miserable object, God behaves unjustly toward me as it were, I think is frequently silent because I am a poor and needy person, and others who are wealthy whom God pursues with hatred, are healthy and dwell in the highest honors. But the Lord orders all things differently, which we accept and can do. The latter are happy before God who are considered of little importance in the world. If God does not punish a proud, haughty, greedy, and murderous person in this life, it is a certain indication of the wrath of God. A doctor gave up hope on the healing of a certain sick person, he did not permit him to eat or drink anything; that was also the most certain sign that the doctor would not provide any more assistance to that man. In this way even God deals with wicked and sinful persons. Finally, it will be clear that when the end of the world threatens, then Christ is about to render judgment concerning his own, just judgment. Place before your eyes the Gospel concerning Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 and elsewhere, if you would say that God did not judge fairly. All the passions of this world are transitory, and they will not last very long. Moreover a perpetual and unending punishment remains for the impious, whereas the pious will at the same time live before God with eternal joys. Sermons. ¹⁹

Rays of the Break of Day. John Calvin: We never, it is true, see things so well adjusted in the world as we would desire. For God, with the view of keeping us always in the exercise of hope, delays the perfection of our state to the final day of judgment. But whenever he stretches forth his hand against the wicked, he causes us to see as it were some rays of the break of day, that the darkness, thickening too much, may not lull us asleep, and affect us with dullness of understanding. Commentary on the Psalms. ²⁰

Three Understandings of Awaking. The English Annotations: In waking has bred a variety of interpretations; there are at least three to be preferred, because all are warranted by the original words, affording a good sense, and vouched by good authors, even though it is not easy to determine. First, in awaking, that is, when you awake; when you show your mighty power, hidden for a time, as a man awaking. Again, in waking, that is, when you awake them, say some, that they may see that they have been all this while but in a dream, that all their greatness and supposed felicity was but imaginary. It is no small aggravation of their misery that they, before they die, shall know that they have been deluded all this while, when they thought themselves most happy, which must need end in great pangs and agonies of the soul. Or last, in waking, that is, when you awake us, and shall remove the cloud from before our eyes, that we may clearly see and discern the vanity of all worldly things. How quickly this life passes away, and everything with it. How inconsiderable at best, and by consequence, how foolish we are, or as he himself speaks afterward, how foolish and ignorant, indeed, brutish, that make such a matter of wicked people’s worldly prosperity. This knowledge, though of itself incurrent enough into the eyes of those who have their eyes open, yet how apt we are either to be lulled asleep by our own, or to be dazzled by the temporal welfare and prosperity of others, so that we need God’s continual help and assistance to keep us awake, that is, in right judgment, appears by the psalmist, who elsewhere expressly calls on God for it. Annotations on Psalm 73:20. ²¹

Sincere Confession. Wolfgang Musculus: These two verses hold the first part of right and sincere confession and repentance. This is the recognition and confession of one’s own fault. For without this no one can truly repent before God. He condemns himself of a bitter heart and likewise of senselessness, nor is it unmerited. For it is not for the pious that they should be bitter in heart: nor is it for them that they may be foolish, like irrational mules in knowing the works and judgments of divine providence. Would that today, those who prowl in the church of God with such harshness that with the most bitter hearts of all, they cannot satisfy an imagined, preposterous zeal (although they might have poured out a great amount of innocent blood and are touched without any shame for every kind of inexcusable filthiness) were endowed with [such] a heart: yet in no way do they support acknowledging both the ignorance and error in matters of faith and of the Christian religion, so that they have seduced the little sheep of Christ’s flock with their miserable ways. Psalms of David. ²²

Without Christ There Is No Salvation. Johannes Oecolampadius: You lead me, O Lord of the ignorant, unaware and wandering into the right path, which tends to celestial joys. I never would allow that I would be wrested from you, while you would firmly hold me so that I would not fall from the path of life. How are we truly before God? Of course by a pure love and firm confidence (John 15), Whoever remains in me and I in him, here will bring forth much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Accordingly, the Father most clearly, just as we also are in this age in God, God himself may be in us. Such a desire, so that they may live according to the word of God, is in all believers, and this excites another mind that they previously had. Not so that they may arrogate to themselves something of holiness or piety, since they know the one from whom they have all things, live, and can work. No one denies that there are gifts and works of God, if only that which was known by us would be as well-known as possible among all. There is here a beautiful comparison. Just as a faithful leader of the way seizes by the right hand someone whom he knows wanders, leading them out of sheer kindness into the right way: so also, Christ leads his own into the way to the heavenly country so that they may not be a prize for Satan. For without Christ there is no salvation, nor will we be safe in the way of this world unless he would be present by his Spirit, comforting and defending us from various dangers whether from Satan or the impious. Sermons. ²³

The Help of the Spirit. John Calvin: The reason then why we do not succumb, even in the severest conflicts, is nothing else than because we receive the aid of the Holy Spirit. He does not indeed always put forth his power in us in an evident and striking manner (for he often perfects it in our weakness); but it is enough that he comes to help us, although we may be ignorant and unconscious of it, that he upholds us when we stumble, and even lifts us up when we have fallen. Commentary on the Psalms. ²⁴

God Guides the Upright. Hieronymus Weller: That is, By your wonderful and mystical counsel you lead and guide me up beyond my comprehension. You take me down to the depths, and you bring me back. You put me to death, and you bring me back to life. At the last you will take me away, save me, and raise me up to glory. May your name, Lord, be sanctified; may your glory shine.

This passage teaches that God wonderfully guides the upright according to his secret purposes. This is for two reasons:

First, in order to show his wisdom and power as against the wisdom and power of the world. He wanted to make the example of the people of Israel—when the Lord led them out [of Egypt] by his wonderful and admirable purposes—a sign to demonstrate his wisdom and power. There are other examples from Scripture that make this point.

Second, in order to utterly confound the cleverest intuitions and purposes of the devil by which he strives to mar the works of God and to hinder the endeavors of the upright. Interpretation of Some Psalms. ²⁵

God Satisfies All Desires. Jacobus Arminius: He is infinite in his essence, his wisdom, his power and goodness. He is the first and chief verity, and truth itself in the abstract. But the human mind is finite in nature, the substance of which it is formed; and only in this view is it a partaker in infinity—because it apprehends infinite being and the Chief Truth, although it is incapable of comprehending them. David, therefore, in an exclamation of joyful self-congratulation, openly confesses that he was content with the possession of God alone, who by means of knowledge and love is possessed by his creatures. If you are acquainted with all other things any yet remain in a state of ignorance with regard to him alone, you are always wandering beyond the proper point, and your restless love of knowledge increases in the proportion in which knowledge itself is increased. The man who knows only God, and who is ignorant of all things else, remains in peace and tranquility, and . . . he congratulates himself greatly and triumphs. The Object of Theology. ²⁶

Our Nothingness Before God. John Calvin: It is highly necessary for us to consider what we are without God; for no one will cast themselves wholly on God, but the one who feels in a fainting condition, and who despairs of the sufficiency of their own powers. We will seek nothing from God but what we are conscious of wanting in ourselves. Indeed, all people confess this, and the greater part think that all that is necessary is that God should help our infirmities, or give us some support when we have not the means of adequately relieving ourselves. But the confession of David is far ampler than this when he lays, so to speak, his own nothingness before God. Commentary on the Psalms. ²⁷

Stick with God. Johannes Bugenhagen: This is the glory by which you receive freely as a sinner so that you alone can boast that totally all the things done in us and we cannot boast that anything has been done by our zeal [or] our works, concerning which Paul says, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You see how great is the kindness of God toward us, even when he led us to hell, [it was] so that he may lead us back. Therefore freed from that foolish zeal, you should say, what is there for me in heaven. . . . There is no creature either in heaven or on the earth that will ever call me from you. All sense and reason has here deserted me; however, the Lord has become my possession. Those drawing back from God will perish (as I would perish unless his hand had held me) so that they especially seem to themselves as the holiest and wisest of persons, they all will be slaughtered who abandon God, to whom they owe all things, as a wife abandons her husband, and all things in which people vainly confide will perish in the judgment of God: with whatever appearance of holiness they gleam, for they are adorned whores and adulterous hypocrites, about which spiritual fornication and adultery, the prophets often speak (see Jeremiah 2–4). Therefore it is good for me to cling to God, my husband, and to have confidence in him alone, so that when the arguments of my reason have been rejected, which had almost carried me away lapsed by a foolish zeal, on account of an image of the impious in the city of God, I will declare all his preaching; that is, I will retain only his word, I will only consider his works, I will declare only those things to others, and I will not speak foolishly beyond that. In vain I have made my heart righteous. . . . Therefore, see the one who had said he was a brute beast how much of the divine wisdom abounds in his arguments and how wise the one who is foolish to the world is to God. Indeed, these things mock those who ignore the first verse of this psalm, which is the summary of the whole psalm: How good the God of Israel is to those who are upright in heart! Interpretation of the Psalms. ²⁸

Spiritual Idolatry. Johannes Oecolampadius: Divine Scripture calls fornication idolatry in many places. If a wife does not keep a covenant with her husband once it is begun and conjoins herself to another, she becomes an adulteress. If we depend on creatures and have regard for them, we fall from God, and break faith that was given in baptism, and in fact we are spiritual adulterers, we turn from a shining light to the densest darkness, from God our Creator and benefactor to Satan the destroyer of the human race, our most hostile enemy. In the Old Testament adultery was most harshly punished. In fact, by a most horrendous punishment, in this way someone surrounded was buried by stones being hurled at them, and that was done even by their friends. How much more cruel a death ought to follow those who scorn the heavenly Father, who most lavishly supplies every good thing? Even if spiritual adultery is reputed by hypocrites in our day as if it were not a sin, or at least a trivial one, they will see the one they offended and whom they led astray. I warn you, as much as I am able, do not become like those that whatever they do and say does not flow from their heart. They are whitewashed tombs inwardly full of filthiness and abomination. They know [how] to speak the truth, but not so that truth may be obtained by anyone, even the vilest person, not to mention the most powerful, but so that they may cloak their own hypocrisy by the many things that they impose. Sermons. ²⁹

74:1-23 Zion Attacked, the Temple Destroyed

A Maskil a of Asaph.

¹ O God, why do you cast us off forever?

Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

² Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old,

which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!

Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.

³ Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;

the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

⁴ Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;

they set up their own signs for signs.

⁵ They were like those who swing axes

in a forest of trees. b

⁶ And all its carved wood

they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire;

they profaned the dwelling place of your name,

bringing it down to the ground.

⁸ They said to themselves, We will utterly subdue them;

they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹ We do not see our signs;

there is no longer any prophet,

and there is none among us who knows how long.

¹⁰ How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?

Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?

Take it from the fold of your garment c and destroy them!

¹² Yet God my King is from of old,

working salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³ You divided the sea by your might;

you broke the heads of the sea monsters d on the waters.

¹⁴ You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

¹⁵ You split open springs and brooks;

you dried up ever-flowing streams.

¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours also the night;

you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.

¹⁷ You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;

you have made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember this, O L ORD , how the enemy scoffs,

and a foolish people reviles your name.

¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;

do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰ Have regard for the covenant,

for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

²¹ Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;

let the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Arise, O God, defend your cause;

remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!

²³ Do not forget the clamor of your foes,

the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

a Probably a musical or liturgical term b The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain c Hebrew from your bosom d Or the great sea creatures

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Overview: Both early modern Protestant and Catholic interpreters derive literal and spiritual meanings from this psalm. Literally, they all acknowledge the psalm as an earnest prayer to God to take vengeance on Israel’s enemies for the desecration of the temple. Spiritually, these same expositors understand the victim to be the church, which is beset by internal corruption and external persecution by hostile princes. Moreover, the commentators appeal to God’s covenant promises as they express confidence in his steadfast defense of the church against the vast array of its enemies.

A Prayer for Preservation. Jeremy Taylor: O Lord God, blessed Jesus, who, with your precious blood has purchased to yourself and redeemed a church, that it should serve you in holiness and righteousness, being delivered from fear of all their adversaries—forget not the congregation of your poor people forever; maintain your own cause; deliver your turtle dove from the multitude of her enemies. Preserve with your right hand all the places appointed for your public service; let a guard of flaming cherubim (as at the gate of Paradise) stand sentinel, and keep from the invasions of sacrilegious persons, and the pollutions of all impure church robbers, all your dwelling places, that you may forever dwell among us, defending the poor, bringing help to all your people, and particular blessings and assistances to the tribe of your own inheritance, which you have sanctified to your worship and service; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Collect for Psalm 74. ¹

Questions of Authorship and Occasion. The English Annotations: There is no certainty, neither concerning the authorship of this psalm, nor concerning the time it was composed. First, for the author, it is not improbable that Asaph, who lived in David’s time, a prophet and the author of some sacred hymns, was the author of some of those psalms that in this book of Psalms have this name prefixed, but the occasion of this, having been, as it appears by it, some notable profaning and devastation of the temple, such as happened many ages after the Babylonian captivity, and since that, once or twice, this Asaph, who lived in David’s time, could not have been the author of it. That he should write prophetically so long before is the opinion of some, I know, but grounded on very little probability, as I conceive. They that shall read it and well consider of all particulars will hardly believe that it is of a prophetical style.

Others therefore, and those of eminent learning, have rather chosen to refer it to what we read in 1 Samuel 4 of the taking of the ark by the Philistines. It is likely that so judicious a man could have said more to make this opinion more plausible than it appears to me, but it is little that he has said, and less do I find in the history, to which he refers us, to persuade me. I should sooner believe what some others have conceived, that either it was another of the name who lived in those days when these things happened, or that the author, however called, delivered it to some form of Asaph’s posterity, to be tuned and published and so to have that name prefixed. But all this is very uncertain, neither does it very much concern.

It will more conduce to the right understanding of the psalm to know the time and particular occasion, but that too has difficulties. For if we refer it to Antiochus, as Junius and Bucer are of opinion, he did indeed much profane the temple by idolatrous sacrifices and by erecting his idols in the sanctuary; but that he made such havoc of these magnificent structures, according to the expressions of the psalmist, importing little less than absolute destruction, we read not, and certainly he did not. It is answered by some, first that these expressions may be intended not of the temple, but of diverse religious houses, called synagogues, erected in diverse places in the land for religious meetings, of which frequent mention is made in the New Testament. I will easily grant that synagogues by some of those expressions may be meant particularly, or comprehended in the generality of the word mō’ad, which, though it is used of the tabernacle that particularly stood in Moses’ time and of Solomon’s temple afterward, yet because it properly signifies a meeting, and then, as ekklēsia in Greek, a place of meeting, it may be fitly used of synagogue also, which is a Greek word almost of the same signification, as if we said, a gathering together, that being the proper use of synagogues, where people did meet to pray, and to read, and to expound, and exhort, but not to sacrifice or to perform any other religious services appointed by the law, proper to the people only. So mō’ad may properly be rendered in verse 8 as They have burned all the synagogues of God in the land, as it is in the English, though some, even there, choose rather to translate tabernacle, by which they understand no other than the temple, expressed so plurally (as elsewhere it is, and has been noted before) because of the several rooms and divisions in it. But to leave that as a thing either way not improbable, yet that by qōdos̆ in the third verse, where perpetual desolations are mentioned, or by miqdās̆ or mis̆kān in the seventh, they have cast fire into the sanctuary, they have defiled [by casting it down] the dwelling place of thy name to the ground synagogues should be intended, it is altogether unlikely. Neither do those expressions in verses 5 and 6 so well agree to synagogues (of the magnificence, or costly building we do not read elsewhere) as to the temple.

Second, therefore, it is answered that the author or psalmist, though the particular occasion was Antiochus, his present persecution and profaning, yet on that occasion much describes former sufferings of the temple by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, which, if one considers not only how much time has passed between, but also that they were different temples, that which was destroyed by the Chaldeans and that which was profaned by Antiochus, and apply to this the tenor of the words all along, one will think this in no ways credible. These things considered, there is more probability that the absolute demolition and destruction of Solomon’s magnificent temple by the Chaldeans should be deplored, neither is there any considerable objection against it, but this, that whereas Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel (all noted prophets) lived and prophesied in those times, it is said in verse 9 we see not our signs, there is no more any prophet and so forth. But if it be considered how long those desolations lasted before the Israelites returned out of Babylon and the rebuilding of the temple, it will easily be granted that those few named prophets did not so constantly prophesy, but that there might be a long time of intermission. Neither could their prophesying, when they did prophesy, supply the defect of those constant and ordinary prophets (the word prophet being of a very large notion and use) and sacred ministers, which should have administered comfort to the people, and taught them out of the law, in their several habitations, which they stood so much in need of in this their general calamity. This we take to be the most probable opinion, but we will not oppose it on any others, wherein we acknowledge ourselves not yet fully satisfied. Annotations on Psalm 74. ²

74:1-9 God’s Rejection of Israel

Deserved Anger. John Calvin: Properly speaking, God is not angry with his elect, whose diseases he cures by afflictions as it were by medicines; but as the chastisements that we experience powerfully tend to produce in our minds fear of his wrath, the Holy Spirit, by the word anger, admonishes the faithful to acknowledge their guilt in the presence of infinite purity. When, therefore, God executes his vengeance on us, it is our duty seriously to reflect on what we have deserved, and to consider that although he is not subject to the emotions of anger, yet it is not owing to us, who have grievously offended him by our sins, that his anger is not kindled against us. Commentary on the Psalms. ³

Do Not Destroy Us. Viktorin Strigel: Save, guide, and defend the church, which you chose before the founding of the world, and which you redeemed, not with gold or gems, but by the precious blood of the unblemished lamb, and in which you dwell, a special abode, if you will, your magnificent inheritance. Ward off the wolves walking among your lambs, and do not show the fury of your wrath, since you are God and not human, and are holy in our midst. For no one can sustain the magnitude of your most righteous wrath, as it is written, Lord, if you take note of our iniquities, who will bear it? And since You have revealed yourself to us through the Word that you handed down, do not allow us to be completely destroyed, and save remnants from among us, and in your anger may you remember mercy, so we can exclaim with Jeremiah, It is by God’s mercy that we have not been consumed. Commentary on the Psalms. ⁴

Infinite Love. John Calvin: As the Holy Spirit has dictated this form of prayer, we may conclude from it, in the first place, the infinite love that God bears toward us, when he is pleased to punish so severely the wrongs inflicted on us. And, in the second place, the high estimation in which he holds the worship devoted to his divine majesty, when he pursues with such rigor those who have violated it. Commentary on the Psalms. ⁵

Destructive Enemies. Konrad Pellikan: Your sacrilegious enemies have not honored the place or the time in the midst of your meeting place where your people ought to assemble legitimately for worshiping you. The profane murderers invaded with a barbaric roar and uncivilized shout in your sanctuary. They have most cruelly abused all things according to their desire and avarice. They have set up their own signs in the public places and established them as trophies. In the place consecrated for God alone they have raised their own arrogance, scorning you, for the purpose of irritating your believers, who are compelled to see their own glory and the glory of God, of the entire divine worship, collapsed, and like the devouring of lions roaring in the place consecrated for the praying and hearing of the word of God. At that place they put the signs of their victory where previously all things are full of the signs of the divine benevolence. Commentary on the Bible. ⁶

Mortal and Secret Enemies. Lancelot Andrewes: There is much in these enemies: some reach into our states, lands or livelihoods; for some others, nothing will satisfy them but our lives. Every enemy is not mortal; however, wherever the enemy is, the danger is deadly. Ours were such who sought to bring utter destruction upon us: and not on us alone, but on ours; nor on us and ours only, but on the whole land in general.

Again among those who are deadly, some are roaring enemies, as the psalm calls them and as such threaten and proclaim their enmity like those in 1588. Others lurk like vipers that sting to death without any hissing at all, as were our enemies this day, who are a great deal more dangerous. Of the Gunpowder Treason. ⁷

Pollution of the Sanctuary. Johannes Oecolampadius: In this passage, the fire signifies tribulation, cross, and difficulties. When we have abandoned the word of God, at this point we depart beyond the justice of God, so that we pursue our insane desires which cast us headlong to eternal damnation. Some interpret this verse as regarding the conjugal state, and these are truly mistaken. But we assent to the interpretation of Paul, who says that we are the temple of God, because he makes mention of the fornicator. If we give place to our desires, which Satan supplies at every moment, who strikes us down, our body is scattered, and the whole people of God is besmirched, and thus if we would not repent, we will heap