John Calvin Commentary Psalms 119:80

"Let my heart be perfect in thy statutes, That I be not put to shame. KAPH." — Psalms 119:80 (ASV)

Let my heart be sound in thy statutes. Having, a little before, desired to be endowed with a sound understanding, he now prays, in a similar manner, for sincere affection of heart. The understanding and affections, as is well known, are the two principal faculties of the human soul, both of which he clearly shows to be depraved and perverse when he requests that his understanding may be illuminated and, at the same time, that his heart may be shaped for obedience to the law.

This plainly refutes all that the Papists babble about free will. The prophet not only prays here that God would help him because his will was weak, but he testifies, without qualification, that uprightness of heart is the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are, moreover, taught by these words what true observance of the law consists of.

A great part of mankind, after having carelessly ordered their life according to the Divine law by outward obedience, think that they lack nothing. But the Holy Spirit here declares that no service is acceptable to God except that which proceeds from integrity of heart. As to the word תמים, thamim, rendered sound, we have elsewhere said that a sound heart is set in opposition to a double or deceitful heart.

It is as if the prophet had said that those who are without dissimulation, and who offer to God a pure heart, yield themselves truly to Him. When it is added, that I may not be put to shame, it is implied that such will be the undoubted outcome for all the proud who, disdaining the grace of God, lean upon their own strength, and for all hypocrites who, for a time, make a showy display.

The substance, then, is that unless God governs us by his Spirit and keeps us in the performance of our duty, so that our hearts may be sound in his statutes, although our shame may be hidden for a time, indeed, although all men should praise us and hold us in admiration, yet we cannot avoid falling, eventually, into dishonor and ignominy.