John Calvin Commentary Psalms 19:9

"The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring for ever: The ordinances of Jehovah are true, [and] righteous altogether." — Psalms 19:9 (ASV)

The fear of Jehovah is clean. Here, by the fear of God, we are to understand the way in which God is to be served; and therefore it is taken in an active sense for the doctrine which prescribes to us the way we ought to fear God.

The way in which men generally manifest their fear of God is by inventing false religions and corrupted worship; by doing so, they only provoke His wrath all the more. David, therefore, here indirectly condemns these corrupt inventions, about which men torment themselves in vain, and which often sanction impurity. In opposition to them, he justly affirms that in keeping the law there is an exemption from everything that defiles.

He adds that it endures for ever; as if he had said, "This is the treasure of everlasting happiness." We see how mankind, without carefully considering what they are doing, pursue with impetuous and ardent desires the transitory things of this world; but, by thus grasping at the empty shadow of a happy life, they lose true happiness itself.

In the second clause, by calling the commandments of God truth, David shows that whatever men undertake to do merely at the suggestion of their own minds, without regard for the law of God as a rule, is error and falsehood. Indeed, he could not have more effectually stirred us up to love and to live zealously according to the law than by giving us this warning: all those who order their life without any respect for the law of God deceive themselves and follow mere delusions.

Those who explain the word judgments, as referring only to the commandments of the second table are, in my opinion, mistaken. For David’s purpose was to commend, using a variety of expressions, the advantages which the faithful receive from the law of God.

When he says, They are justified together, the meaning is, they are all righteous, from the greatest to the least, without a single exception. By this commendation, he distinguishes the law of God from all the doctrines of men, for no blemish or fault can be found in it; rather, it is in all points absolutely perfect.