John Calvin Commentary Psalms 19:7

"The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul: The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple." — Psalms 19:7 (ASV)

The law of the Lord. Here the second part of the psalm begins. After having shown that the creatures, although they do not speak, nevertheless serve as instructors to all humankind, and teach all people so clearly that there is a God as to make them inexcusable, the Psalmist now turns towards the Jews, to whom God had communicated a fuller knowledge of himself by means of his word.

While the heavens bear witness concerning God, their testimony does not lead people so far that by it they learn truly to fear him and acquire a well-grounded knowledge of him; it serves only to make them inexcusable. It is undoubtedly true that if we were not very dull and stupid, the signs and proofs of Deity which are to be found on the stage of the world are abundant enough to prompt us to acknowledge and reverence God. But as, although surrounded with so clear a light, we are nevertheless blind, this splendid representation of the glory of God, without the aid of the word, would be of no profit to us, even if it were to us as a loud and distinct proclamation sounding in our ears.

Accordingly, God grants special grace to those whom he has determined to call to salvation, just as in ancient times, while he gave to all people without exception evidences of his existence in his works, he communicated his Law to the children of Abraham alone, thereby to provide them with a more certain and intimate knowledge of his majesty.

From this it follows that the Jews are bound by a double tie to serve God. As the Gentiles, to whom God has spoken only by mute creatures, have no excuse for their ignorance, how much less is their stupidity to be endured—those who neglect to hear the voice that proceeds from his own sacred mouth?

The end, therefore, which David here has in view, is to encourage the Jews, whom God had bound to himself by a more sacred bond, to obey him with more prompt and cheerful affection. Furthermore, under the term law, he not only means the rule for living righteously, or the Ten Commandments, but he also includes the covenant by which God had set apart that people from the rest of the world, and the whole teaching of Moses, the parts of which he afterwards enumerates under the terms testimonies, statutes, and other names.

These titles and commendations by which he praises the dignity and excellence of the Law would not apply to the Ten Commandments alone, unless there were, at the same time, joined to them a gracious adoption and the promises which depend upon it; and, in short, the whole body of teaching of which true religion and godliness consists.

Regarding the Hebrew words which are used here, I will not spend much time trying to give the precise particular meaning of each of them, because it is easy to gather from other passages that they are sometimes confused or used interchangeably. עדות, eduth, which we translate as testimony, is generally understood as the covenant, in which God, on the one hand, promised the children of Abraham that he would be their God, and on the other, required faith and obedience on their part. It, therefore, signifies the mutual covenant entered into between God and his ancient people. The word פקודים, pikkudim, which I have followed others in translating as statutes, is restricted by some to ceremonies, but incorrectly, in my opinion; for I find that it is everywhere taken generally for ordinances and edicts. The word מצוה, mitsvah, which follows immediately after, and which we translate as commandment, has almost the same meaning. As to the other words, we shall consider them in their respective places.

The first commendation of the law of God is that it is perfect. By this word David means that if a person is duly instructed in the law of God, they lack nothing necessary for perfect wisdom. In the writings of pagan authors, there are undoubtedly to be found true and useful sayings scattered here and there; and it is also true that God has put into the minds of people some knowledge of justice and uprightness. But because of the corruption of our nature, the true light of truth is not to be found among people where revelation is not present, but only certain fragmented principles which are shrouded in much obscurity and doubt.

David, therefore, justly attributes this praise to the law of God: that it contains in it perfect and absolute wisdom. As the conversion of the soul, of which he speaks immediately after, is undoubtedly to be understood as its restoration, I have had no hesitation in translating it this way. There are some who reason with too much subtlety on this expression, by explaining it as referring to the repentance and regeneration of humankind.

I admit that the soul cannot be restored by the law of God without being at the same time renewed to righteousness; but we must consider what David’s actual meaning is, which is this: that as the soul gives vigor and strength to the body, so the law in the same way is the life of the soul.

In saying that the soul is restored, he makes a reference to the miserable state in which we are all born. There, undoubtedly, still remain in us some small remnants of the first creation; but as no part of our constitution is free from defilement and impurity, the condition of the soul thus corrupted and depraved is not much different from death, and leads entirely to death.

It is, therefore, necessary that God should use the law as a remedy for restoring us to purity; not that the letter of the law can do this of itself, as will be shown later more at length, but because God uses his word as an instrument for restoring our souls.

When the Psalmist declares, The testimony of Jehovah is faithful, it is a repetition of the previous sentence, so that the integrity or perfection of the law and the faithfulness or truth of his testimony signify the same thing; namely, that when we submit to be guided and governed by the word of God, we are not in danger of going astray, since this is the path by which he securely guides his own people to salvation.

Instruction in wisdom seems here to be added as the beginning of the restoration of the soul. Understanding is the most excellent endowment of the soul, and David teaches us that it is to be obtained from the law, for we are naturally lacking it. By the word babes, he is not to be understood as meaning any particular class of persons, as if others were sufficiently wise of themselves; but by it he teaches us, in the first place, that none are endowed with right understanding until they have progressed in studying the law.

In the second place, he shows by it what kind of scholars God requires: namely, those who are fools in their own estimation (1 Corinthians 3:18), and who come down to the rank of children, so that the pride of their own understanding may not prevent them from submitting themselves, with a spirit of complete teachableness, to the teaching of the word of God.