John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:30

"I have chosen the way of faithfulness: Thine ordinances have I set [before me]." — Psalms 119:30 (ASV)

I have chosen the way of truth. In this and the following verse, he affirms that he was so inclined as to desire nothing more than to follow righteousness and truth. It is, therefore, with great propriety that he employs the term to choose.

The old adage—that human life is, as it were, at a point where two ways meet—refers not simply to the general course of human life, but to every particular action of it. For no sooner do we undertake anything, no matter how small, than we are grievously perplexed and, as if hurried away by a tempest, are confounded by conflicting advice.

Hence, the prophet declares that, in order to constantly pursue the right path, he had resolved and fully determined not to relinquish the truth. And thus, he intimates that he was not entirely exempt from temptations, yet he had surmounted them by dedicating himself to the conscientious observance of the law.

The last clause of the verse, I have set thy judgments before me, relates to the same subject. There would be no fixed choice on the part of the faithful unless they steadily contemplate the law and do not allow their eyes to wander to and fro. In the subsequent verse, he not only asserts his cherishing this holy affection for the law but also combines it with prayer, so that he might not become ashamed and enfeebled by the derision of the ungodly while he devoted himself entirely to the law of God.

Here, he employs the same term as previously, when he said his soul cleaved to the dust, and in doing so, he affirms that he had so firmly taken hold of God’s law that he cannot be separated from it. From his expressing a fear that he might be put to shame or overwhelmed with reproach, we learn that the more sincerely one surrenders to God, the more one will be assailed by the tongues of the vile and the venomous.