Psalm 119:34 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.

This is not a new desire of the psalmist. He is continually asking for the Lord to give him understanding (Psalm 119:27). This repeated request is not vain redundancy, or futile repetition. This is the freedom of a child to continually request good things of a Father who delights to give abundantly (Luke 18:1-8; James 1:5). The psalmist is pleading for more conformity, more instruction, more wisdom, more knowledge. In our day, he might be called a “goody-two-shoes” or “a teachers pet” but his heavenly Father would call him his “beloved son, in whom [he is] well pleased.” What’s more, implicit in his request is the acknowledgement that this is not the natural desire of men. We would rather aim our sights at anything other than the law of God due to the blindness of mankind. We would be more pleased to entertain despots than submit to the Lord of heaven. Today, it is the self-interested, political man with a silver tongue and salon hair who is esteemed. The psalmist, however, acknowledges that all who are void of the fear of the Lord and esteem him not, have no understanding whatsoever. 

But notice the end in mind. The want of understanding is not for academics. The man who desires understanding from God with genuine love is not after only intellectual stimulation, but desires to put that understanding to action. This desire is indicated by the two words employed: “keep” and “observe.” In keeping, he intends to allow this law to be a hedge about him, and in observing he intends to be a hedge around it. He is indicating the dual nature God’s law - as it is heeded and obeyed it protects and preserves. 

Moreover, observe the heart. This is a central aspect that we mustn’t miss. Those who seek to obey the law of God by the letter only, are shown here just how far it is they are from the righteousness they desire and pursue. When those who would seek to appear spotless before men, pursue obedience of the law by the letter and do not allow it to sink into their hearts, they betray the very ordinance they desire to make them clean. It is in the heart that the Lord has established the principle foundation for righteousness or for evil (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 15:19). So, it is with great yearning that the psalmist would observe the law with his whole heart, as a result of the understanding the Lord grants, despite his innate inability to keep it perfectly through his actions.