John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:56

"This I have had, Because I have kept thy precepts. HHETH." — Psalms 119:56 (ASV)

This was done to me. I do not doubt that the prophet, under the term זאת, zoth, includes all God’s benefits; but as he comes before God concerning the blessings he was then enjoying, he speaks as if he were pointing to them. Therefore, this term includes an acknowledgment of all the benefits with which he had been crowned; or, in any case, he declares that God had testified, by some remarkable deliverance, to the integrity of his conduct.

He does not boast of meriting anything, as the Pharisees in our day do, who, when they encounter such a passage in Scripture, distort it to prove the merit of works. But the prophet had no other intention than to place himself in direct opposition to those who despise God, who either attribute all their prosperity to their own efforts, or ascribe it to chance, and maliciously overlook or conceal God’s overseeing providence.

He therefore calls upon himself to return to God, invites others to follow his example, and exhorts them that, since God is an impartial judge, he will always reserve a reward for piety. Probably, also, by this holy boasting he repels the vile slanders of the ungodly, by which we recently saw he was severely attacked.