John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:174

"I have longed for thy salvation, O Jehovah; And thy law is my delight." — Psalms 119:174 (ASV)

I have longed for your salvation, O Jehovah! Although all people desire to be in happy circumstances, and no one openly repudiates God’s favor, yet their ideas about what constitutes a happy or upright life are so confused and uncertain that very few are found directing their aspirations to God.

Some are carried away by their own ambition, some are wholly possessed with avarice, and others burn with lust, all imagining that the farther they recede from God, the better everything will prosper for them. In short, to the degree that each person desires to be safe, to the same degree they provoke God’s anger by seeking their safety in all directions.

The construction in the Hebrew text denotes steadfastness, or constancy of desire, for it literally means that He Had longed for the salvation of God, and not that he only now began to long for it.

Next, he expresses how we are to long patiently for salvation: by seeking consolation and relief from God’s word in all our calamities. For whoever does not comfort themselves by relying on the grace promised in the word will falter at the slightest assault made against them. The Prophet, therefore, wisely fixed his thoughts on the divine word, so that he might not be turned away from hoping for God’s salvation.