There are here six different names by which the law of Jehovah is called, and six different statements regarding it, corresponding to these different names.
I. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Its very perfection fits it for being the instrument of the Spirit in effecting that result.
II. "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." The simple are the credulous ones who listen to any tale, the careless ones who will take no warning. The enmity of the sinner's carnal mind against God disposes him simply to believe the devil's lie. The soul must be converted. The simple must be made wise.
III. "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." By the statutes of Jehovah we may understand the separate and several precepts of the law, as it is broken up into particulars and brought to bear in detail upon the different realms of thought and affection, or of words and deeds, which it is designed to regulate and rule.
IV. "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." The law, which is manifold in its details, is yet one in essence, one in principle. The statutes, which are many, have one centre, the commandment of Jehovah, or, as I would understand the phrase, what is called, and called rightly, the spirit of the law, its general ruling spirit, as distinguished from its special minute requirements and applications. This spirit of the law is clear as crystal, clear as noonday. Hence it has a wondrous efficacy to enlighten the eyes.
V. "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever." It is a constant and consistent, a permanent and perennial, principle of thought and action. It implies a settled, serene frame of mind, always the same, reverential, conscientious, simple, and guileless, fixed in and on God. It is clean, purged from all sinister aims, all cherished lusts, and the whole miserable scheming of dead formality. And being thus clean, it endureth for ever.
VI. "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." The administration of the law, in the providence of God towards you, is in entire harmony with the establishment of the law in you, as Jehovah commanding and Jehovah feared. And now, as regards the enforcing of it on the part of God, it passes on into yet another formula, and becomes Jehovah judging.
R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness,p. 129.
Reference: Psalms 19:8. J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 36.