John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:25

"My soul cleaveth unto the dust: Quicken thou me according to thy word." — Psalms 119:25 (ASV)

My soul cleaveth to the dust. He means that he had no more hope of life than if he had been shut up in the tomb; and this must be carefully attended to, that we may not become impatient and grieved, whenever it may please God to make us endure various kinds of death.

And, by his own example, he instructs us, when death stares us in the face and all hope of escape fails, to present our petitions to God, in whose hand, as we have elsewhere seen, are the issues of death, and whose peculiar prerogative it is to restore life to those that are dead (Psalms 68:21). As the combat is hard, he turns to the promises of God and invites others to do the same.

The expression, according to thy word, is an acknowledgment that should he depart from God’s word, no hope would be left for him. But as God has affirmed that the life of the faithful is in his hand and under his protection, shut up as he was in the grave, he yet comforted himself with the expectation of life.