Psalms 119

Classical Arminians hear Scripture as practical guide—not optional ornament but necessary brightness for walking.

Shared rule: oppose God’s word to private “what seems good.” Open eyes to the unerring light given.

Calvin: Divine Law as schoolmaster and guide; by example he prescribes the same rule—highly necessary, for while each follows what seems good, we tangle in mazes. Word set against all human counsels; what the world judges right is often crooked before God. Metaphor implies more: unless the word enlighten, whole life is darkness and miserable wandering; submitting docilely, we are in no danger of going astray. Unerring light is found there if we open our eyes (cf. 2 Peter 1:19).

Lamp and light require renouncing flesh’s wisdom first. Docility lets the word shine.

Oath sworn and confirmed to keep righteous rules. The emphasis is on solemn resolve—hearty, uniform dedication, not a passing mood.

Shared seriousness: vowing to God offers life to his service. Courage to swear leans on promised help, not bravado.

Calvin: constancy of purpose; swear intimates solemn pledge not to alter determination. True keeping receives heartily and uniformly lest ardor abate. Proper vowing offers ourselves and dedicates life. Is the oath rash beyond ability? The faithful, vowing, look not to what they can do of themselves but depend on God’s grace and Spirit—who supplies strength. Not sufficient of ourselves to think anything (2 Cor 3:5). No rashness when, confiding in promises that anticipate us, we offer ourselves. They also look to free forgiveness along the way.

Sworn keeping rests on Spirit-strength and mercy. Oath is grace-dependent consecration.

Severe affliction; life asked according to the word. Wesleyan Arminians hear prayer at the edge—quickening sought by promise, not by claim of desert.

Shared key: according to your word unlocks boldness in sorrow. Promise inspires courage to ask.

Calvin: under the law the fathers were exercised with grievous temptations—afflicted above measure. Quicken implies point of death; yet he leaned upon God. Extreme fear often extinguishes confidence; he implores grace to recover life lost—low condition and continued confidence. Observe: according to thy word—without the promise we pray coldly or not at all.

Severe affliction meets word-based plea for life. Promise is the key to the throne of grace.

Wesley: Offerings—The sacrifices of prayer and praise.

Arminian readers hear praise offered and teaching asked together—worship that wants to learn. Shared desire: accept our lips; teach us your rules.

Calvin: prefer reading as one sentence—accept sacrifices to this end, that thou teach me. Nothing more precious than understanding the law. Free-will offerings allude to law custom; praises as calves of the lips (Hos 14:2). He acknowledges unworthiness—if God hears, it is free grace. Ratsah: favor of mere good will; nothing meritorious in prayers; whenever God hears, it is free goodness.

Accepted praise and taught rules are both mercy. Chief desire is to be instructed aright.

Wesley: Is—Exposed to perpetual danger.

Arminians hear endangered life that still remembers the law—danger without amnesia. Shared courage: snares need not erase Scripture from the heart.

Calvin: no calamities withdrew him from service and observance. Soul in hand = life in danger, abandoned as to the wind. Not “I govern my life as I please”—rather, though tossed among shipwrecks with death in a hundred forms, he had not cast off love and study of the law.

Life in hand, law not forgotten. Extreme exposure tests memory of the word.

Snares laid; precepts not strayed from. Wesleyan Arminians hear refusal to wander into retaliatory craft—path of the word under trap-setters.

Shared counsel: when surrounded by wiles, follow where God calls; attempt nothing against his will.

Calvin: specifies carrying life in hand—hemmed by snares, scarcely any hope. Hard not to wander when enemies’ subtle arts seek destruction; depraved desire incites retaliation and howling among wolves. Best: follow where God calls; attempt nothing but what agrees with his will.

Snare without straying honors God’s ways. Refuse the wicked’s methods as path to safety.

The note struck is reordered treasure—word valued above riches and pleasures.

Shared delight: love sets the value; joy in the testimonies begins true observance.

Calvin: law more precious than pleasures, riches, possessions—repeated because few aim at the law while the world boils for lusts. Love alone leads us to value; begin with delight. Testimonies bring joy—heaven opened, adoption, pardon, God’s care. Inheritance: hold in highest estimation, content to lose all else for safe possession of that one thing. Other goods adventitious; word alone as inheritance.

Forever heritage and heart-joy dethrone rival treasures. Delight is the gateway to reverent observance.

Heart inclined to perform statutes forever, even to the end. This is willing, lifelong obedience—cheerfulness against constrained slavery.

The incline is resolve under grace; perseverance to the end is intended. Shared aim: statutes performed from the heart, not hands only.

Calvin: right observance begins with cheerfully and heartily preparing to do what the law commands; slavish obedience differs little from rebellion. He applied not only hands and feet but began with the heart’s affection. Inclination opposed to wandering lusts. Papists triflingly infer free will from “I inclined”; but he had prayed “Have set my heart,” acknowledging the Spirit’s peculiar work. It is no new thing for that to be ascribed to us which God works in us (Phil 2:13). He does not separate endeavor from the Spirit’s grace by whose inspiration he declared the whole was done.

Forever incline is Spirit-worked constancy confessed as ours. Free-will boasts from this verse miss the prayer and the Spirit.