John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:39

"Turn away my reproach whereof I am afraid; For thine ordinances are good." — Psalms 119:39 (ASV)

Take away my reproach. It is not certain to what reproach he alludes. Knowing that many slanderers were watching for an opportunity to revile him, should they detect him in any offense, it was not without reason he dreaded that he might fall into such disgrace, and by his own fault.

Perhaps he was apprehensive of some other reproach, aware that wicked men generally slander the good shamefully and injuriously, and by their slanders, distort and pervert their good actions. The concluding clause, Because the judgments of God are good, is the reason why God should put to silence the mischievous tongues, which pour out the venom of their malice without shame against the innocent, who are reverently observing his law.

If anyone is inclined to view the word reproach as directed against God himself, such an interpretation is by no means objectionable. The meaning would be that the prophet, whose aim was to have his life approved in God’s sight, merely desired, when he appeared before God’s tribunal, not to be judged as a reprobate man. This is as if, with great zeal and magnanimity, he would despise all the empty talk of worldly people, provided he stood upright in God’s sight. Above all, it is fitting for holy men to dread the reproach of being suffused with shame at God’s judgment-seat.