John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:135

"Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; And teach me thy statutes." — Psalms 119:135 (ASV)

Make your face to shine upon your servant. This is a repetition of a prayer we have encountered several times before in this Psalm. The Prophet intimates that he regarded nothing as more important than rightly understanding the divine law. When he beseeches God to make his face to shine upon his servant, he, in the first place, seeks to win the fatherly favor of God—for nothing is to be hoped for from Him unless we share in his favor—but he, at the same time, shows the greatness of the blessing.

There is no testimony of God's love, as if he had said, which I am more desirous to obtain than to be enabled to make progress in His law. From this we gather, as I have lately observed, that he preferred divine truth to all the possessions of the world.

Oh, that this affection were vigorous in our hearts! But what the Prophet extols so highly is neglected by the great proportion of mankind. If individuals are found who are stimulated by this desire, we see them soon falling back to the measurements of the world, so that there are very few indeed who, renouncing all other desires, earnestly seek with David to become acquainted with the doctrine of the law.

Besides, since God vouchsafes this privilege only to those whom he has embraced with his fatherly love, it is proper for us to begin with this prayer: that he would make his face to shine upon us.

This form of expression, however, conveys something more—it implies that it is only when God illuminates the minds of his believing people with the true knowledge of the law that he delights them with the beams of his favor. It often happens that, even concerning them, God’s countenance is overcast with clouds in this respect—namely, when he deprives them of tasting the sweetness of his word.