Monday, June 05, 2006

The Enlarged Heart

I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!
- Psalm 119:30-32


One of the things that I love so much about the Book of Psalms is how the authors, fully possessed by the Spirit, expressed such a radical and absolute dependence on God for enabling in all sorts of practical areas of life. No less so in these verses, the writer expresses to God his earnest desire to grow and be faithfully obedient and yet recognizes that there is nothing he can do in and of himself to accomplish what he has purposed to do.

These verses appear on the Daleth portion of Psalm 119. Interestingly enough, Hebrew poets seemed to love the acrostic form of poetry. This Psalm is an acrostic using each of the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. Each separate section functions almost as it's own separate Psalm but the whole is tied together by the author's longing after God through His Word IE: The Law.

Verses 25-29 in Daleth, the Psalmist expresses his absolute need for God to reveal to him and teach him the truth and meaning contained in the written revelation. His goal is seeking to have true understanding of God's Word is not simply the experience of knowing the Word because that would seem to be a rather meaningless and hollow dead end. Rather, He expresses that he desires to know and be taught the Word to the end that He might have life v.25, meditate on the marvelous character and workings of God in history v.27, be strengthened through joy v.28, and that he might reflect the glorious Holiness of God to those around him v.29. The author seems to genuinely perceive that the text of Scripture is the means that God's Spirit uses to grant greater fullness of communion with Himself. The inevitable outworking of this is that the Psalmist would be a man visibly passionate about the Law, the Glory of God and a man whose life radiated God's glory and holiness as expressed in the commandments of the Law.

It is with this knowledge and humble dependence that the Psalmist joyfully and triumphantly proclaims that he has "chosen the way of faithfulness" to God, that he clings to God's testimonies and that he will run (not walk or meander)the way of God's commandments. He resolves that his will be a life not of the dull humdrum of making it through life as comfortably as possible but rather the excitement of pursuing fullness of joy in God through relationship and fellowship with Him!

How is it possible now for the Psalmist to proceed with these bold and God-glorifying statements? It is unimaginable that after expressing such absolute inability in himself to grasp and be grasped by God's Spirit through His Word that he should now go out and expresses so much confidence in Himself to carry out what he has tasted in the Word. No, he tells us that not apart from God enlarging his heart will he be able to live any of the righteousness that he so desires. God must so work in his hard and stone-like heart that his heart is as if totally transformed into a heart that is soft and tender like young flesh. This was begun in nothing other than God's Sovereign act of recreating His whole soul (heart) and continues now as he grows through God's Sovereign grace that is poured out continually by the Holy Spirit.

I confess, along with the Psalmist, that apart from God sovereignly enlarging my heart, moving my will and directing my way, I have no hope of pursuing a life that will bring honor and praise and worship to Him. I don't say this with a mere stoic attitude of flippancy towards whatever happens. I recognize that unless God looks kindly on me and pours out Grace, that I would be left in the mess that I am continually being redeemed from.