John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:165

"Great peace have they that love thy law; And they have no occasion of stumbling." — Psalms 119:165 (ASV)

Great peace have they who love your law. If we take the word peace for a prosperous or happy condition of life — a sense in which the Hebrews often employ it — the word rendered stumbling-block, to correspond with it, will be used for adversity; as if it had been said that those who love God’s law will continually prosper and retain their position, although the whole world should fall into ruins.

But a different interpretation will be equally appropriate, namely, that they have great peace because, being persuaded that both their persons and their life are acceptable to God, they calmly rest on a good conscience. This tranquil state of conscience, this serenity of mind, is justly reckoned the chief point of a happy life; that is, it is so when it proceeds from God being reconciled to us and from his fatherly favor shining in our hearts.

The Prophet justly teaches that we attain this peace from the love of the law, for whoever would make it depend on anything else will be trembling from time to time at every little blast. If this sense is adopted, the word stumbling-block, in the second clause, will signify all the troubles and anxieties of mind with which all who do not rely on God’s word are miserably distressed and tormented, and by which they are driven about either by their own depraved passions or by the caprice of others.

But however we understand these two words, peace and stumbling-block, the Prophet’s design will remain the same: to show that those who are not devoted to God are miserable. For although they may applaud themselves for a time, they will yet meet with many stumbling-blocks to drive them suddenly out of their course.

From the term love, we gather that this peace is not acquired by a slavish observance of the law, but proceeds from faith. For the law has no sweetness to attract us to it unless it shows God to us in the character of a father and calms our minds with the assurance of eternal salvation.

Far from enjoying peace, all worldly people and despisers of God are justly punished by their own depravity and obdurate rebellion. For each of them is his own executioner, and the more fiercely they rage against the word of God, the more severely they are tormented, until they bring utter destruction upon themselves.

The godly, it is true, are also tormented or distressed. But this inward consolation wipes away all their sorrow, or, raising them up, enables them to surmount all stumbling-blocks, or so relieves them that they do not faint.