Psalm 119:36

(This is an entry from a devotional commentary I am working on from Psalm 119 entitled God and His Word.  The introduction can be found here, successive entries have covered the 22 sections of the Psalm, and following entries verse by verse.)

 

"Incline my heart to Your testimonies

And not to dishonest gain."

 

This hearkens back to the previous verse, Psalm 119:35, ‘make me walk’ and Ezekiel 36:26-27.  There it is placed in order of effect (walk), and here the cause (heart) is exposed.  It is almost as if the Psalmist catches himself; he senses both his inability and responsibility to walk in Your ways, the only solution to which is a changed heart.  ‘Incline’ is the Hebrew ‘נָטָה, nāṭāh: A verb meaning to stretch out, to extend; to pay attention.’  It occurs some 29 times in Psalms, 4 in Psalm 119, in Psalm 119:36 and Psalm 119:112 as an inclined heart toward Your word, and in Psalm 119:51 and Psalm 119:157 in the negative as turning aside from Your word.  Coercion will not do, for delight is a duty.  ‘…free affection is the foundation and beginning of duly obeying the Law, for what is drawn forth by constraint, or servile fear, cannot please God.’‘[1]  This is why there cannot simply be a turning from vanity, but a revival in Your ways as the delight of the soul.  The Psalmist had already found in v. 35 a delight in it, yet a heart that strayed.  He knew that it was of such benefit and delight that he seems to cry to be coerced!  Father, may it be my first and not my last inclination to move towards You.   The Psalmist implies here that there is no delight to be found in falsehood, so he asks You to incline his heart towards truth.  In the next verse, Psalm 119:37 he would further ask for eyes that turn likewise.  Surely ‘gain’ as the world sees it is no gain apart from Christ (Philippians 3:7-8, 1 Timothy 6:5-6).  Surely the heart determines the path.  Proverbs 4:23.

 

‘What would his goings be if his heart did not go?... The only way to cure a wrong leaning is to have the soul bent in the opposite direction. Holiness of heart is the cure for covetousness. What a blessing it is that we may ask the Lord even for an inclination. Our wills are free, and yet without violating their liberty, grace can incline us in the right direction. This can be done by enlightening the understanding as to the excellence of obedience, by strengthening our habits of virtue, by giving us an experience of the sweetness of piety, and by many other ways… Happy shall we be when we feel habitually inclined to all that is good. This is not the way in which a carnal heart ever leans; all its inclinations are in opposition to the divine testimonies… Our hearts must have some object of desire, and the only way to keep out worldly gain is to put in its place the testimonies of the Lord. If we are inclined or bent one way, we shall be turned from the other; the negative virtue is most surely attained by making sure of the positive grace which inevitably produces it.’[2]


[1] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, on Deuteronomy 11:1

[2] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Treasury of David, on Psalm 119:36, e-Sword edition



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