John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:111

"Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage for ever; For they are the rejoicing of my heart." — Psalms 119:111 (ASV)

I have your testimonies as an inheritance forever. He again confirms the sentiment, which cannot be too often repeated, that the law of God was more precious to him than all the pleasures, riches, and possessions of the world.

I have said that it is not in vain that these things are so often repeated. For we see how violently the people of the world burn to gratify their unruly lusts, with what multiplied anxieties they are agitated while they are unceasingly coveting innumerable objects. In the meantime, scarcely one in a hundred is, to a moderate degree, aiming to apply his mind to the study of the Divine law.

The prophet, then, to stir us up by his own example, asserts that he took such pleasure in God’s testimonies as to esteem nothing more precious. It is only love that leads us to set a value on any object; and therefore, it is necessary, for us to observe the Divine law with the reverence due to it, that we begin with this delight in it.

It is not surprising if God’s testimonies convey to our minds a joy, which, causing us to reject and despise all other things, holds our affections firmly bound to them. What can be sweeter than to have heaven opened to us, so that we may come freely into the presence of God when, adopting us to be his children, he pardons our sins?

What can be more desirable than to hear that he is so pacified towards us as to take upon himself the care of our life? I have thought it good to observe this briefly, so that we might not think it strange to find David rejoicing so greatly in God’s law.

The analogy of inheritance frequently occurs in the Scriptures; and we apply the term inheritance to that which we hold in the highest estimation, so that we are content to be deprived of all other things, provided we retain safe and full possession of that one thing.

Accordingly, the prophet suggests that whatever good things he had obtained, he considered them incidental, and that the truths revealed in God’s word alone were to him as an inheritance.

Without the Divine word, all other things were in his estimation as nothing; so that he could willingly leave to others riches, honors, comforts, and pleasures, provided he possessed this incomparable treasure.

This does not mean that he altogether despised the temporal benefits which God bestows, but his mind was not firmly bound to them.