Psalm 138:7-8
‘In the day when I cried out, You did answer me!… All the kings of the Earth shall praise You, O Lord — when they hear the words of Your Mouth!… Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me!…. Your right hand shall save me!… Your mercy, O Lord, endures for ever! Do not forsake the work of Your Own hands!’ Psalm 138:3-8.
Calvin comments: “God…commonly…stirs us up to prayer by the influence of His Spirit. And this — to illustrates His goodness the more, by our finding that He crowns our prayers with success…. Our prayers more nearly disclose His goodness to us!… ‘Let all kings of the Earth praise You!’ He declares that the goodness he had experienced, would extensively be known and the report of it spread over all the world….
“‘ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, (You will revive me)’! Here David declares the sense in which he looked, that God would act the part of his preserver — by giving him life from the dead!… This is faith’s true office — to see life in the midst of death, and to trust the mercy of God. Not as that which will procure us universal exemption from evil, but as that which will quicken us in the midst of death…. It is God’s method to exercise His children with a continual conflict. So that, having one foot as it were in the grave, they may flee…to hide themselves under His wings where they may abide in peace….
“‘Jehovah will recompense…me!’… It is added as a reason ‘that Jehovah’s mercy is everlasting’ — and ‘that He will not forsake the work of His hands’…. ‘Jehovah will perform for me’ — that is, will continue to show that He cares for my safety and will fully perfect what He has begun…. Having once been delivered by an act of divine mercy — he concludes that what had been done would be perfect…. God’s nature is unchangeable, and He cannot divest Himself of that goodness which belongs to Him. There can be no doubt that the way to maintain good hope in danger, is to fix our eyes upon the divine goodness on which our deliverance rests…. He promises to interest Himself on our behalf.
“David concludes with the best reason, from the eternity of the divine goodness, that the salvation granted him would be of no limited and merely evanescent character…. It is impossible God should leave His work…in an imperfect or unfinished state…. Nothing of this kind can happen with God…. We have no occasion to apprehend that our hopes will be disappointed in their course towards fulfilment…. God will never take from us, or allow to pass out of our hands!… ‘He Who has begun the good work, will perform it till the Day of Christ Jesus!’ (Philippians 1:6)…. Since God had wrought the beginning of our salvation in us, He will carry it forward to its termination!”
Calvin also says in his Institutes III:2:7: “‘I will praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth!’ (Psalm 138)…. Christ is the only pledge of love…. We shall…have a full definition of faith, if we say…it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favour toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds and sealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit!” Though I walk through the midst of trouble, God will revive me!
