Psalm 119:10

"With all my heart I have sought You;

Do not let me wander from Your commandments."

 

Another ‘with all my heart’ in Psalms.  Who can say this?  We see it also in Psalm 119:34 (‘keep it with all my heart), Psalm 119:58 (‘I sought Your favor with all my heart’), Psalm 119:69 (‘with all my heart I will observe Your precepts’), and Psalm 119:145 (‘I cried with all my heart’).  This is the oft forgotten verse between vv. 9,11 about hiding the word in the heart.  At the least it speaks of single-minded focus and a fighting of distractions.  ‘Sought’ is the Hebrew דָּרַשׁ, dāraš: A verb meaning to seek, to inquire of, to examine, to require.  When you require something, your focus is sharpened!  So it is for my need for Your word.  The meaning of ‘wander’ is straightforward, but the implications of wandering are stark in the Scriptures.  Those who wander from Your word are rebuked by You as arrogant and cursed (Psalm 119:21), and rejected by You for their useless deceit (Psalm 119:118).  Interestingly, it is used to describe the exhilaration of sex (Proverbs 5:19-20) and the intoxication of wine (Proverbs 20:1).  If there is anything we surrender to, may it be Your word!  So we see once again surrender to God is the key; I resolve to be single hearted towards You, with a cry for help not to wander.  ‘Unite my heart to fear Your name’.  Psalm 86:11

 

‘the more we have found of the pleasure there is in keeping God's commandments the more afraid we shall be of wandering from them and the more earnest we shall be in prayer to God for his grace to prevent our wanderings.’[1]

 

‘His heart had gone after God himself: he had not only desired to obey his laws, but to commune with his person. This is a right royal search and pursuit, and well may it be followed with the whole heart. The surest mode of cleansing the way of our life is to seek after God himself, and to endeavour to abide in fellowship with him. Up to the good hour in which he was speaking to his Lord, the Psalmist had been an eager seeker after the Lord, and if faint, he was still pursuing. Had he not sought the Lord he would never have been so anxious to cleanse his way… A true heart cannot long live without fellowship with God… We are to be such whole-hearted seekers that we have neither time nor will to be wanderers’[2]


[1] Henry, Matthew, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Psalm 119:10, e-Sword edition

[2] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Treasury of David, on Psalm 119:10, e-Sword edition

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