John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:17

"Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live; So will I observe thy word." — Psalms 119:17 (ASV)

Do good to your servant. The term גמל gamal, which some render to requite, does not, among the Hebrews, imply mutual recompense, but frequently signifies to confer a benefit, as in Psalm 116:7, and many other passages. Here it must be viewed as expressive of free favor. The words, however, may admit of two senses.

They may be read as a separate clause, in this manner: O God! display your goodness to your servant, and thus I shall live, or then I shall consider myself happy. Or the verse may form one connected statement: O God! grant to your servant the favor that, while I live, I may keep your commandments.

If the former reading is adopted, then, by these words, the prophet declares that, without the favor of God, he is like a dead man; that though he might abound in everything else, he could not subsist without feeling that God was propitious towards him. The latter interpretation is preferable. According to it, the prophet asks as a principal favor that, while he lives, he may devote himself entirely to God, being fully persuaded that the grand object of his existence consists in engaging in His service—an object which he firmly resolves to pursue.

For this reason these two clauses are connected together, that I may live, and keep your word. “I desire no other mode of living than that of showing myself to be a true and faithful servant of God.” All wish God to grant them a prolongation of their life, a wish for which the whole world ardently aspires, and yet there is scarcely one among a hundred who reflects upon the purpose for which he ought to live.

To withdraw us from cherishing such irrational propensities, the prophet here describes the main object of our existence. He declares that it is due to the peculiar grace of the Holy Spirit that any person keeps the law of God. Had he imagined that preparing oneself for the observance of His law depended on one's own free will, then this prayer would have been nothing else than downright hypocrisy.

Very similar is the doctrine contained in the next verse. Having acknowledged that power to keep the law is imparted to people by God, he, at the same time, adds, that every man is blind, until He also enlightens the eyes of his understanding. Admitting that God gives light to us by His word, the prophet here means that we are blind amid the clearest light, until He removes the veil from our eyes.

When he confesses that his eyes are veiled and shut, rendering him unable to discern the light of the heavenly doctrine until God, by the invisible grace of His Spirit, opens them, he speaks as if he were deploring his own blindness and that of the whole human race. But, while God claims this power for Himself, He tells us that the remedy is at hand, provided we do not, by trusting to our own wisdom, reject the gracious illumination offered to us.

Let us learn, too, that we do not receive the illumination of the Spirit of God to make us despise the external word and take pleasure only in secret inspirations, like many fanatics who do not regard themselves as spiritual unless they reject the word of God and substitute their own wild speculations in its place.

Very different is the prophet’s aim, which is to inform us that our illumination is to enable us to discern the light of life that God manifests by His word. He designates the doctrine of the law as marvelous things. This is to humble us, prompting us to contemplate its height with admiration, and to convince us more deeply of our need for the grace of God to comprehend mysteries that surpass our limited capacity.

From this we infer that not only are the Ten Commandments included in the term “law,” but also the covenant of eternal salvation, with all its provisions, which God has made. And knowing, as we do, that Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom, and who is the end of the law, we need not be surprised at the prophet commending it because of the sublime mysteries it contains (Colossians 2:3; Romans 10:4).