Psalm 119:36 Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Incline my heart; "Quicken me in thy ways." There is marked difference between "being made" to go in the way of righteousness, and "wanting" to go in the way of righteousness. And creating and sustaining the want is precisely what is here called the "inclining" and "quickening" work of God's Spirit in men's hearts. He puts the laws into our hearts, and in our minds he writes them. When a child wants to obey, he ceases to need any formal law - he is a "law unto himself." With the inclined heart the life of obedience becomes easy, becomes even a delight. I. THE CONDITION OF MAN'S HEART IN WHICH GOD WORKS. By the heart here is meant the seat of motives and impulses by which the will is moved, and action inspired and directed. The heart is regarded as subject to outside influences, and as actually in the sway of influences both bad and good. It can be moved by the self-spirit to things that are evil. It can be moved by the Divine Spirit to things that are good. It can be inclined. If a thing is moving, the least deviation from the straight line involves an ever-widening departure. In man there is always a sort of centrifugal tendency to fly away, and the constant need of a centripetal tendency to restrain it, and keep it in the right line. "Covetousness" is named as the representative of all the alien inclinations, because the very essence of covetousness is "getting for self." And that is a perpetual enticement to the natural man, which only the grace of God can enable him to overcome. The point of this prayer is that the good man, in the experience of life, will be sure to find the old evil inclinations return upon him as temptations, especially when anything appeals to covetousness. So he finds that he always needs the preventive, and the readjusting, inclinings of God. II. THE KIND OF WORK WHICH GOD DOES IN MEN'S HEARTS. This is often represented as quickening, the renewing of vitality, strength, right purpose, energy. What is here set forth is a more precise, and more unusually recognized, form of Divine dealing with men. The Spirit is the inward power that sways decisions, inclines to good judgments, by putting force into the good motives, reasons, and considerations. Or, to express it in the mode of the psalmist, he inclines to righteousness by making God's testimonies more attractive and persuasive than our own covetousness. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.WEB: Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain. |
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