Psalm 61:6-8
‘I will abide in Your Tabernacle for ever!… You will prolong the King’s life, and His years like many generations! He shall abide before (the face of) God, for ever! O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve Him! So I will sing praise to Your name for ever, so that I may daily perform my vows!’ Psalm 61:4-8.
Calvin comments: “David…, it is true…, lived to an extreme old age — and died full of days…. But he did not exceed the period of one man’s life…. Therefore…the series of years and even ages of which he speaks, extends prospectively to the coming of Christ….
“Christ must be viewed as living in His members to the end of the world! To this Isaiah (cf. 9:7) alludes, when he says ‘Who shall declare His generation or age?’ — words in which he predicts that the Church would survive through all ages, notwithstanding the incessant danger of destruction to which it is exposed through the attacks of its enemies and the many storms assailing it. So here, David foretells the uninterrupted succession of the kingdom — down to the time of Christ….
“‘He shall abide before the face of God for ever!’… A simpler way of expressing what he had said before, ‘I will abide in Your Tabernacle for ever’…. He refers to the security and peace which he would enjoy under the protection of God, Who would effectually preserve his life.
“By ‘the face of God’ must be meant the fatherly care and providence which He extends to His people…. We could not stand a single moment, if His eye did not watch over our preservation….
“The true security for a happy life, lies in being persuaded that we are under divine government…. God would appoint ‘mercy and truth’ for preserving the king….
“God would gird Himself with clemency and truth, in order to…preserve…the king…. The true defence of the kingdom, was only to be found in the mercy and faithfulness of God…. How easily God can provide the means necessary for preserving His people!”
‘So will I sing praise to Your name — for ever!’ “In the concluding words, he expressed his resolution to persevere in the constant celebration of the praises of God — with a view to fulfilling the vows which he had contracted…. For David, while he applied to God for help…, showed himself uniformly grateful — when he had experienced deliverance!”
Calvin also says in his Psychopannychia that the annihilationistic Anabaptists argue that ‘I will praise the Lord in my life…as long as I have being‘ (Psalm 146:2), means that if David “is to praise the Lord in life and while he has being — he will not praise him after life…when he has no being!” But Calvin replied: “‘I will sing praise to Your name for ever!’…(Psalm 61:8).”
God prolongs the king’s life and years, like many generations! And yours?
