John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:133

"Establish my footsteps in thy word; And let not any iniquity have dominion over me." — Psalms 119:133 (ASV)

Direct my steps according to thy word. By these words he shows, as he has often done before in other places, that the only rule for living well is for people to regulate themselves wholly by the law of God. We have already repeatedly seen in this Psalm that as long as people allow themselves to wander after their own inventions, God rejects whatever they do, however laborious the efforts they may put forth.

But as the Prophet declares that people's lives are then only rightly ordered when they yield themselves wholly to obeying God, so, on the other hand, he confesses that doing this is not within their own will or power. God’s law, it is evident, will not make us better by merely prescribing to us what is right.

Hence its outward preaching is compared to a dead letter. David, then, well instructed in the law, prays for an obedient heart to be given to him, so that he may walk in the way set before him. Here two points are particularly deserving of our notice:

1. That God deals bountifully with people when he invites them to himself by his word and doctrine.
2. And that all this is still lifeless and unprofitable until he governs by his Spirit those whom he has already taught by his word.

As the Psalmist desires not simply to have his steps directed, but to have them directed to God’s word, we may learn that he did not seek secret revelations and disregard the word, as many fanatics do, but connected the external doctrine with the inward grace of the Holy Spirit. And in this consists the completeness of the faithful: that God engraves on their hearts what he shows by his word to be right.

Nothing, therefore, is more foolish than the notion of those who say that in commanding people what he would have them do, God estimates the strength they have to perform it. In vain does divine truth sound in our ears if the Spirit of God does not effectively pierce our hearts.

The Prophet confesses that it is useless for him to read or hear the law of God unless his life is regulated by the secret influence of the Holy Spirit, so that he may thus be enabled to walk in that righteousness which the law commands. In the second clause, he reminds us how necessary it is for us to be continually presenting this prayer at the throne of grace, acknowledging that he is the bond-slave of sin until God stretches forth his hand to deliver him.

Direct me, he says, that iniquity may not have dominion in me. So long, then, as we are left to ourselves, Satan exercises over us his despotic sway uncontrolled, so that we do not have power to rid ourselves of iniquity. The freedom of the godly consists solely in this: that they are governed by the Spirit of God and thus preserved from succumbing to iniquity, although harassed with hard and painful conflicts.