Psalms 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
This is a prayer to God that He would not permit the psalmist to wander from His commandments. That the psalmist was in earnest with this petition is seen again in the usage of the interjection O at the beginning of the prayer. The psalmist was emotional about this; he was not indifferent.
Now just exactly what it is to wander from God’s commandments? Let’s define that word wander.
Wander – Of persons or animals: To move hither and thither without fixed course or certain aim; to be (in motion) without control or direction; to roam, ramble, go idly or restlessly about; to have no fixed abode or station. fig. or in fig. context: Of persons (also of the mind, thoughts, desires, etc. personified): To turn aside from a purpose, from a determined course of conduct, or train of thought; to digress; to pass out of the control of reason or conscience; to fall into error (moral or intellectual), etc.
The person who wanders from God’s commandments loses focus on keeping them. Something else or perhaps several things are distracting him from God’s commandments. Making sure that his entire life is in conformity to God’s commandments is no longer his chief priority. He has lost that direction.
Notice that this petition is made by someone who could say of himself: “With my whole heart have I sought thee.” This is a true believer. We discovered when we considered Psalm 119:2 that seeking God with the whole heart involves a willingness to do anything and everything that God commands the way He commands us to do it. King Hezekiah is a good example of one who sought God with His whole heart. The following verse describes Hezekiah:
2 Chronicles 31:21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
Observe from this verse that seeking God with the whole heart involves the house of God (the church), the law (the Bible), and the commandments (obedience). Don’t think you are seeking God with your whole heart if these three things are not given paramount consideration in your life. Seeking God with your whole heart means that every other desire or ambition you might have takes a backseat to pleasing the Lord. Now anyone who has ever sought God with his whole heart has discovered the richest and best life that a human being can have on this earth. Wholehearted service to God brings a joy that nothing else in this world can offer. If you have had that joy, then you have a dread of ever losing it. Therefore, you should earnestly pray to God to never let you wander from His commandments. If you have never had that joy, then you have never yet sought God with your whole heart.
The believer who seeks God with his whole heart is the one who is most keenly aware of a propensity within himself to be drawn away from that purpose and course of life. He is the one Satan will try hardest to lead astray. Therefore, for him to stay the course is a constant battle. Let me recall a previous quote I gave you by C. S. Lewis from Mere Christianity: “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all…you find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.” That soul who seeks God with his whole heart will not be self-confident in his obedience. He will rather acknowledge his proneness to wander from it and will constantly strive and pray against that proneness.
On the other hand, if you do not have a struggle with a tendency to wander from God’s commandments, you have likely wandered already. You probably do not seek the Lord with your whole heart and, therefore, you perceive no danger.
Now here is a frightening thought: if we ever become lackadaisical and careless in seeking the Lord, if we do not give Him His due place in our hearts and lives, then He will withdraw His hand and let us wander from His commandments.
Psalms 81:11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
And when we wander from God’s commandments, we will inevitably find ourselves in a way that is not good, even though we may think it is.
Isaiah 65:2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.
May this meditation on today’s verse give you a deeper appreciation of these words taken from the song Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing:
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandr’ing heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
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