John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:149

"Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: Quicken me, O Jehovah, according to thine ordinances." — Psalms 119:149 (ASV)

Hear my voice, O Jehovah! according to your mercy. In the first place he declares that the goodness of God was the only ground of his hope of being heard by him. Whatever blessings the saints may plead for in prayer, their opening argument must be the free and unmerited grace of God.

Nor is the term judgments in the second clause to be taken in a different sense. As God has revealed his goodness in his word, his word is the source from which we must derive our assurance of his goodness. The Prophet, then, aware that he needed the divine mercy, turned directly to the word, in which God, sweetly alluring people to himself, promises that his grace will be ready and open for all.

So that each person, therefore, may be confidently persuaded that God will be merciful to them in particular, let them learn from the example of the Prophet to entreat God to show himself as he has promised to be. Some expound the word judgments as manner or custom, because God’s usual way is to deal graciously with all his people.

I would not altogether reject this exposition; but I think it is harsh and foreign to the scope of the text, while the meaning which I have presented emerges very naturally. Moreover, he desires to be quickened, to testify that even in the midst of life he is dead, except insofar as he is sustained by the power of God.

And assuredly, all who are truly acquainted with their own infirmity, considering their life as nothing, will crave to be quickened every moment. It should also be added that God often so tested his servant, that with good reason he might send up his prayers, as it were, out of the tomb, to be restored from death to life.