Psalm 119:33

We now come to the fifth octave of Psalm 119 bearing the title of the Hebrew letter Hë. The pronunciation of this letter is close in sound to our words hay or hey. I would like to begin today’s meditation with this Hebrew letter. Hë! Are you ready to study Psalm 119:33? Okay, I know it’s not the greatest joke. But I think it’s cute. And it is original. Could you tell?

Psalms 119:33 HE. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.

This is the third time in this psalm that the psalmist petitions the Lord to teach him. He seasons his prayer with that interjection O, which expresses emotion. This psalmist is in earnest about this. He really wants to learn the way of God’s statutes. The following words of D. H. Mollerus give us an insight into why the psalmist repeats this prayer so often and so earnestly. Read this carefully. It is powerful!

“And the prayer is full of the most ardent longings, which is manifest from the same resolve being so frequently repeated. For the more he knows the ignorance, obscurity, doubts, and the imbecility of the human mind, and sees how men are impelled by a slight momentum, so that they fall away from the truth and embrace errors repugnant to the divine word, or fall into great sins, the more ardently and strongly does he ask in prayer that he may be divinely taught, governed, and strengthened, lest he should cast away acknowledged truth, or plunge himself into wickedness.”

The psalmist asks the Lord to teach him the way of His statutes. This petition agrees with the one we found in verse 27: “Make me to understand the way of thy precepts.” As we noted then, so we note again: all God’s precepts or statutes cohere together to form a single way. People tend to think of the many different ways one can choose to believe, the different ways one can interpret the Bible, the many different ways one can live. But all the different ways really distill down to just two ways: the right way and the wrong way. Or, as we saw in Psalm 119:29-30, the way of truth and the way of lying. Of course, the right way is the way that falls within the guidelines of God’s statutes. And remember that the way that seems right to you is not necessarily the right way.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

You need to always consult with God and not just with yourself to discover the right way. S. Bernard said, “He who is his own pupil, has a fool for his master.”

Now our Saviour described these two ways as the broad way and the narrow way.

Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

In this passage our Lord teaches us that most people choose the wrong way. This is even true with respect to the choices people make in the realm of professing Christianity, as Christ later taught in this same chapter.

Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Now our psalmist desperately did not want to make the wrong choice. That is why he so earnestly asked God to teach him the way of His statutes.

As we noted in a previous meditation, God uses instruments when He teaches us. We pointed out that He uses the Scriptures themselves as we read and study them. He also uses tribulation to teach us patience (Romans 5:3) and chastening to correct us (Proverbs 3:11-12). He uses parents to teach children. He uses the pastors and teachers He has given to His churches to teach us. And He uses our fellow believers to teach us as we teach, comfort, edify, admonish, and exhort one another. And, as we learned last Sunday, God uses creation to teach us. But remember that all these are God’s instruments. It is God that is teaching you. Always look beyond the instrument to God. If you would learn the right way, pray to the right One to teach you.

Now the psalmist adds this to his petition: and I shall keep it unto the end. The psalmist tells the Lord that if He will teach him the way of his statutes, he will keep that way with a constancy that will endure to the end. That end could be the end of one’s life or the end of the world, whichever comes first. Matthew Henry said it well: “It will not avail the traveler to keep the way for a while, if he do not keep it to the end of his journey.” God is not honoured by starts and stops in His service. Our obedience must not be tied to the fickle ups and downs of our ever changing emotions. The Lord wants constancy, stedfastness, endurance to the end. Said Christ:

Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Shakespeare put it so well:

“O heaven! were man
But constant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all th’ sins:
Inconstancy falls off ere it begins….”

If you would have God to teach you the way of His statutes, be sure that you are sincere in your resolve to keep that way unto the end. And be sure you do just that, even if you fail in everything else.

Psalm 119:32

We now arrive at the last verse of the fourth octave of Psalm 119 entitled Daleth.

Psalms 119:32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.

Charles Spurgeon observed: “What a change from verse 25 to the present, from cleaving to the dust to running in the way.” When we talk about running, we are talking about moving at a faster pace than walking, a pace that requires greater exertion, a greater expenditure of effort. Now there is a reason why someone would exert themselves to run when a slower pace is so much easier. That reason might be to win a race, to escape danger, to make an appointment on time, or to improve one’s endurance and fitness. In the verse we consider today the psalmist uses the word run in a figurative sense. Just as person exerts himself in running to achieve his objective, the psalmist resolved to exert himself, to increase his output of effort in conforming his life to the way of God’s commandments. This conformity to God’s commandments was his reason for running. There is no better reason to exert oneself than that!

The Christian life can be summed us as patterning one’s life after the commandments of God. That being the case, it is interesting to note how the Christian life is described as running a race, which agrees with the thought expressed in today’s verse.

1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

In this passage Paul teaches the importance of temperance, of self-control in running this race. If we would win the prize in this race, we must be temperate in all things. We must keep our bodily appetites and passions under control or we will lose the race. That is, we will fail at being the Christians we should be and end up being rejected.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us….

Here Paul exhorts believers to run this race with patience. Patience calls for endurance, not giving up. We must develop the ability to stay the course in the face of opposition, discouragement, and weariness.

Now the psalmist resolves to run the way of God’s commandments. But he hinges his ability to carry out his resolve on this condition: when thou shalt enlarge my heart. How the psalmist will go about keeping God’s commandments will be determined by the condition of his heart. Commenting on this verse Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“Yes, the heart is the master; the feet soon run when the heart is free and energetic. Let the affections be aroused and eagerly set on divine things, and our actions will be full of force, swiftness, and delight.”

It is a fact of life that the more the heart is involved in what we are doing, the more energetically and enthusiastically we will go about it. Have you ever quit doing something just because your heart wasn’t in it anymore? If so, then you can better understand the lesson of today’s verse. If we would exert more effort in keeping God’s commandments, we need more heart to do it. That is, we need to have our heart enlarged. Now let’s define what it means to enlarge the heart.

To enlarge the heart: to ‘expand,’ ‘swell’ the heart with gratitude or affection; now usually, to increase the capacity of the heart for affection, widen the range the affections.

Keeping God’s commandments flows out of love and affection for Him as the following verses declare:

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words….

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

When God enlarges our heart, we love Him more and we are more thankful to Him. As a result, we exert more effort to keep His commandments. When God enlarges our heart, we have an increased capacity to know Him, His will, and His ways. When God gave Solomon “wisdom and understanding exceeding much,” it was said that God gave him “largeness of heart” (1Kings 4:29). A person who knows God, loves Him, and is filled with gratitude to Him for His goodness is a person who will make a greater effort to keep His commandments.

When you step back from this verse and look at the larger picture it comes down to this: we are entirely dependent upon the power of God to enable us to obey Him to the best of our ability. Only by His strength can we practice self-control and endure the rigours of this race to keep His commandments. Increased strength from God equals increased capacity. Left to our own strength our hearts will become straitened and constricted so that we will give up and give in to the pressures and temptations to depart from the way of God’s commandments. We just won’t have the heart to stay the course. Therefore, we need to be ever praying for God to enlarge our hearts, to increase our capacity so that we may run the way of His commandments. You can hear echoes of this prayer in these prayers:

Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

Colossians 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness….

1 Thessalonians 3:12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you….

So if today you are feeling slow, dull, sluggish, or apathetic in serving the Lord, call upon Him to enlarge your heart. But when you ask Him to do this, be sure to tell Him that you will - no maybes about it - run the way of His commandments. Tell Him that you will do your best to serve Him. God will not increase your capacity to serve Him more if He knows you are not serious about doing it.