Psalms 119

Just and right dealing grounds a plea not to be abandoned to oppressors. Arminian readers find a good-conscience appeal—not sinless perfection, but sincere equity that may ask God’s defense.

Both agree: the oppressed who have not repaid evil may cry for help.

Calvin: he implores help against wicked troublers while testifying the harassment was undeserved. If we would have God succor us, we must meet him with a good conscience. He promises aid to the unrighteously afflicted; the prophet protests he had not provoked enemies, restrained himself from injury, and did not requite evil. Doing judgment at all times means persevering in integrity in public and private.

Conscience testimony accompanies the plea. Integrity is witness, not purchase of grace.

Wesley: Surety—Do thou undertake and plead my cause.

Arminians hear God asked to stand between the servant and proud oppressors—comfort in divine advocacy. Shared refuge: when insolence rushes in, God as pledge is enough.

Calvin: Become surety for thy servant for good—better than “delight thy servant in good.” Since the proud rush to destroy, interpose as surety. Full of comfort: God performs the office of surety for our deliverance—as if finding us indebted he paid the creditor. Prayer: suffer not the wicked to exercise cruelty at pleasure; interpose as defender. Extreme danger left nothing to hope but God’s help.

Surety-language is gospel-shaped protection. God steps between us and the proud.

Wesley: The word—For the performance of thy faithful or merciful promise.

Arminians hear failing eyes still fixed on salvation and promise—waiting that asks fulfillment. Shared patience: long looking does not quit the righteous word.

Calvin: afflicted severely and long, yet heart never sank into despair. Failing for salvation: striving against temptation even to the soul’s fainting—perseverance with arduous effort, opposed to those who faint at once if God delays. Salvation is the continual course of grace unto complete deliverance. He waited by depending on God’s word—only then do we wait for salvation, and only then yield God the praise.

Eyes fail without abandoning the righteous word. Promise, not sight, holds the waiter.

Steadfast love and teaching asked together. Classical Arminians hear mercy as the climate in which statutes are learned—kind dealing that instructs.

Shared petition: deal gently by teaching. Happiness is wisdom from the word; hope of it rests on God’s goodness.

Calvin: not two separate asks—first deal well, then teach—but deal gently by instructing in the law. Object: teach me thy statutes; he begins with mercy as argument. Whole happiness is true wisdom from God’s word; only hope of obtaining it is God’s mercy and goodness displayed. He magnifies the excellence of being instructed when he requests it as free gift.

Lovingkindness teaches. Statute-learning is mercy’s shape, not a wage after self-prep.

Servant-identity asks understanding to know the testimonies. The emphasis is on sincere belonging that pleads for light—grace already tasting service, now seeking clearer knowledge.

Shared hunger: teach me that I may know.

Calvin: prayer of v. 124 repeated—ardent importunity. God teaches by illuminating understandings otherwise blind. Law in the ear or on the page, even expounded by man, profits little unless God corrects slowness and renders us docile by his Spirit’s secret influence. He does not boast merit as servant. Men imagine prior preparation then “subsequent grace”; the Prophet declares obligations to God. No man can make himself the Most High’s servant or bring a price for that honor; he adduces grace obtained as argument that God would perfect what he began (cf. Ps 116:16)—member of the Church, not boaster of services.

Servantship is gift; understanding is Spirit-illumination. Grace perfects grace—not wages after readiness.

Wesley: To work—To put forth thy power for the restraint of evil-doers. They—The wicked. Made void—Or, abrogated thy law, have openly cast off its authority.

Wesley’s heirs hear holy urgency for God to restrain law-breakers—zeal for God’s honor more than private revenge. Shared cry: when the law is openly voided, it is time for the LORD to work.

Calvin: fit time for executing vengeance had arrived—wanton forwardness against God carried far. “Doing” is emphatic: God would seem to delay too long if he did not now judge. Peculiar work of God to restrain and severely punish when repentance is hopeless. Zeal is not private wrongs but honest grief that the law is destroyed. Prayer that God restore order; when fear of him is almost extinct, call him to maintain his glory. Sustains hope when judgments delay.

Time to act is zeal for the violated law. Wait without denying that God will yet do.

Wesley: Therefore—Because the general apostacy of others makes this duty more necessary.

One hears love intensified when others abandon the word—gold outvalued because fidelity matters more amid collapse.

Calvin: connected with the preceding—therefore (illative). He esteemed the law above gold because persuaded that havoc of equity will not remain unpunished though God connive for a time. The more he saw outrageous wickedness, the more holy indignation incited love of the law. Evil example’s baneful influence is well known; therefore meditate: when the wicked claim unbridled liberty, contemplate God’s judgments by faith to be quickened to observe the law.

Apostasy around us should increase, not cool, love of the commandments. Faith in God’s judgments fuels love for his commands.

All precepts esteemed right; every false way hated. Wesleyan Arminians hear whole-Bible approval—no picking commandments that suit us.

Shared integrity: love of the law includes hate of lying ways. Do not erase precepts that cross the flesh.

Calvin: waiting for judgments and calling for their infliction, he subscribed to the law in every particular without exception, and hated every false way. “All commandments of all”—all God ordained, whatever they enjoined. Nothing more natural than to despise whatever in the law disagrees with us; we cannot add or take away; to separate one command is unwarrantable. Holy jealousy contended against rebellion. Approve the law wholly; hate every way of lying opposed to its purity.

All precepts right; every false way hated. Partial subscription is refused.