John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:142

"Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And thy law is truth." — Psalms 119:142 (ASV)

Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Here the law of God is honored by the additional praise that it is everlasting righteousness and truth, as if to say that all other rules of life, whatever attractions may seem to recommend them, are merely a shadow, which quickly vanishes away.

The Psalmist, no doubt, indirectly contrasts the doctrine of the law with all the human precepts which were ever delivered, so that he may bring all the faithful into subjection to it, since it is the school of perfect wisdom. There may be more plausibility in the refined and subtle disquisitions of men, but there is fundamentally nothing firm or solid in them, as there is in God’s law.

He proves this firmness of the divine law in the following verse from one instance: the continual comfort he found in it when severely harassed by temptations. And the true test of the profit we have reaped from it is when we counter all the distresses, of whatever kind, that may afflict us, with the consolation derived from the word of God, so that all sadness may thereby be erased from our minds.

David here expresses something more than he did in the preceding verse; for there he only said that he reverently served God, although, considering his rough and hard treatment, he might seem to be laboring in vain. But now, when distressed and tormented, he affirms that he finds in the law of God the most soothing delight, which mitigates all griefs, and not only tempers their bitterness but also seasons them with a certain sweetness.

And assuredly, when this taste that gives us delight is absent, it is most natural for us to be swallowed up by sorrow.

Nor should we fail to notice the form of expression the Prophet uses, through which he teaches that, although he was besieged and confined on all sides, he found a sufficiently powerful remedy by making use of the consolation offered to him by the word of God.

Since this could not be true of the mere commandments, which, far from remedying our distresses, instead fill us with anxiety, there is no doubt that the word commandments, by the figure of synecdoche, encompasses the whole doctrine of the law. In this doctrine, God not only requires what is right but also, by calling His elect to the hope of eternal salvation, opens the gate of perfect happiness.

Indeed, the term law also encompasses both free adoption and the promises that flow from it.