Psalm 119:36

As we are moving through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Hë, we come to a verse that strikes at the root of all sin, that being the sin of covetousness.

Psalms 119:36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

Having resolved that he will consistently and wholeheartedly keep the law of God, the psalmist seeks help from God to keep this resolve. He prays to the Lord, Incline my heart unto thy testimonies.

Incline – To bend (the mind, heart, will, etc.) towards some course or action; to give a mental leaning or tendency to (a person); to dispose.

Although God does not force our will to keep His commandments, He does incline our wills in that direction, if we ask Him. He brings gracious influences to bear that bend our hearts to do what He commands. When the Lord gives us assurance that our sins are forgiven, when the Lord gives us information that helps us cope with life, when He gives us peace in the midst of our tribulations, when He gives us comfort and encouragement from His word and from others, when He answers our prayers, when He opens the riches of His word to us, or when He shows us the glories of our Saviour Jesus Christ and thereby rejoices our souls, all of these things bend our hearts and wills to keep His commandments. It is like the clear shining of the sun that causes plants to bend toward its light. So God’s gracious influences incline our hearts unto His testimonies. Indeed, “we love him, because he first loved us” (1John 4:19).

According to this verse our hearts can be inclined in one of two different directions. They can be inclined unto God’s testimonies or inclined unto covetousness. Before getting into this, let’s define covetousness.

Covetousness – Inordinate and culpable desire of possessing that which belongs to another or to which one has no right.

To covet is the same as to lust or to desire, as the following two verses establish.

Romans 7:7 …I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

Deuteronomy 5:21 Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Covetousness is lusting after or desiring something forbidden by the law of God.

Now observe that covetousness is placed in contrast to God’s testimonies, plural. Commenting on this, Richard Capel wrote:

“He saith not, this or that testimony, but (as including all the laws of God) he saith, 'testimonies'; to show us that covetousness draws us away, not from some only, but from all God’s commandments.”

This point is confirmed by the words of the apostle Paul as he speaks of the evils that arise from covetousness.

1 Timothy 6:9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Every sin has an element of covetousness or lust in it. Paul warns us against obeying sin “in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6:12). You see, every sin contains a lust. We sin because we desire, we covet something that God’s testimonies forbid.

James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

The extreme danger of this sin may be concluded from how much of the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ was directed against it. Charles Bridges said it well:

“There is probably no principle so opposed to the Lord’s testimonies. It casts out the principle of obedience, since the love of God cannot co-exist with the love of the world (1John 2:15); and the very desire to serve Mammon is a proof of unfaithfulness to God (Matthew 6:24).

As I have taught my congregation in the past, in order to resist sin one must deal with it at the level of the lust. Resist the desire to sin, and you will resist the sin itself. Kill the covetousness and you will have killed sin at its root. An effective way to attack covetousness is to pray for God to incline, to bend your heart in the direction of His testimonies and away from covetousness. And mean it when you pray it!!!