An Unknown Region

During sabbatical, I am spending a good bit of time, accompanied by Calvin, in the Psalms. The Reformer himself was profoundly impacted by God through his study of the Psalms, explaining that it is difficult to express in words the riches contained in this treasury.[1] I couldn’t agree more because my words frequently fail to capture the comfort derived from this collection of prayers. Today, I’d like to draw attention to a small detail that appears in the Preface to Calvin’s commentary.

Calvin was not very forthcoming with personal information in his writings. In general, he was shy about providing details because he didn’t think the purpose of his ministry was to focus upon himself. However, in the Preface to his commentary on the Psalms, he offers a great deal more autobiographical information than is normal, detailing the controversies and troubles of his years as a pastor in Geneva. Towards the end of the Preface, he explains the reason for this transparency: “This knowledge and experience have been of much service in enabling me to understand the Psalms, so that in my meditations upon them, I did not wander, as it were, in an unknown region.”[2] In other words, Calvin explains that his afflictions made it possible to understand what is happening in the Psalms. Without those experiences, he knows that he would be on unfamiliar ground.

Calvin highlights that a familiarity with affliction—the dangers that surround us and the trouble deep within us—are a prerequisite for reading the Psalms. Until we know the grammar of trial and trouble, the Psalms will speak a foreign language. Furthermore, without this knowledge of affliction, the comfort of God’s promises in the Psalms will also seem remote and distant.

This certainly resonates with my own experience. As a young man, I never connected with the Psalms, finding them to be somewhat obtuse and irrelevant. Preferring the “meatier” portions of Scripture, I passed over them. Sadly, I couldn’t appreciate how much my dismissal of the Psalms was a judgment of my own spiritual immaturity, manifesting my failure to grapple with the depths of sin’s ramifications and the heights of God’s grace in Jesus.

I didn’t value the Psalms because I was wandering in an unknown region.

Gracious Father, forgive me for judging your Word by my own measures and values. Thank you for your patience and for those afflictions—within and without—that have served to make this region of Scripture known. May this territory become more and more familiar as your Spirit illumines your liberality and graciousness amidst all the sadness of life in this world, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

[1] Preface, CTS 8:xxxvi-xxxvii.

[2] Preface, CTS 8:xlviii.