Context No. 2860 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 119:33-48: in context

33Teach me, LORD, the way of your statutes. I will keep them to the end. 34Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart. 35Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them. 36Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain. 37Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways. 38Fulfill your promise to your servant, that you may be feared. 39Take away my disgrace that I dread, for your ordinances are good. 40Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness. 41Let your loving kindness also come to me, LORD, your salvation, according to your word. 42So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in your word. 43Don’t snatch the word of truth out of my mouth, for I put my hope in your ordinances. 44So I will obey your law continually, forever and ever. 45I will walk in liberty, for I have sought your precepts. 46I will also speak of your statutes before kings, and will not be disappointed. 47I will delight myself in your commandments, because I love them. 48I reach out my hands for your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes.

This stretch of the long psalm on God's word is one prayer after another to be taught and transformed. Teach me the way of your statutes. Give me understanding. Direct me in the path of your commandments. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things, and revive me.

Notice how the psalmist prays. He does not merely resolve to do better; he asks God to change his wants. Incline my heart, turn my eyes. He knows his own heart drifts toward selfish gain and his eyes toward worthless things, and he asks God to redirect the very desires underneath his behavior. And the freedom he expects is not a cage but the opposite: I will walk in liberty, he says, for I have sought your precepts. To him, obeying God's word is where a person finds room to breathe, not confinement.

Do I ask God to change what I want, not just what I do, and do I believe his commands are the path to liberty rather than a cage?

Sources

Psalm 119:36: "Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain."
Psalm 119:45: "I will walk in liberty, for I have sought your precepts."
John 8:32: "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."