John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:21

"Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, That do wander from thy commandments." — Psalms 119:21 (ASV)

You have destroyed the proud. Others render it as, You have rebuked the proud; a translation that the Hebrew term גער, gaar, allows when the letter ב, beth, is joined with it in construction. But since this is absent, it is better to render it destroy.

However, it makes little difference to the main drift of the passage, as there is no doubt that the prophet's intention is to inform us that God’s judgments instructed him to apply his mind to the study of the law. And certainly, this is an exercise that we ought on no account to postpone until God visits us with chastisement.

But when we witness him taking vengeance upon the wicked and the despisers of his word, we must be truly foolish if his rod does not teach us wisdom. And, undoubtedly, it is an instance of special kindness on God’s part to spare us and only to terrify us from afar, so that he may bring us to himself without injuring or chastising us at all.

It is not without reason that he calls all unbelievers proud, because it is true faith alone that humbles us, and all rebellion is the offspring of pride. From this we learn how beneficial it is to consider carefully and attentively the judgments of God, by which he overthrows such arrogance.

When the weak in faith see the wicked rise in furious opposition against God, arrogantly casting off all restraint and holding all religion in derision with impunity, they begin to question whether there is a God who sits as judge in heaven. God may, for a time, overlook this; then, after a while, we witness him setting forth some indication of his judgment to convince us that he has not in vain uttered threats against the violators of his law. And we ought to bear in mind that all who depart from him are reprobate.

Let it be carefully observed that by wandering from his commandments is not meant all kinds of transgression indiscriminately, but rather that unbridled licentiousness which proceeds from impious contempt of God.

Indeed, it is given as a general sentence that “Every one is cursed who continueth not in all things which are written” (Deuteronomy 27:26). But as God, in his paternal kindness, bears with those who fail through weakness of the flesh, so here we must understand these judgments to be expressly executed upon the wicked and reprobate. And their purpose, as Isaiah declares, is, “that the inhabitants of the earth may learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9).