To Your Testimonies - Psalm 119:36
Psalm 119:36 Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!
To be inclined to something is to feel a willingness toward it, or be agreeably and positively disposed to it. Notice this principle: it is not just the doing that should be desired - being led by the hand. But we ought also to willingly extend our hands toward our Father with eager anticipation that he would grab hold and lead us along. But this state of heart is not natural. Indeed, this state is unnatural. It is only with the new nature wrought in us by the Holy Spirit that enables us to become like a child, needy and wanting, delighting in the guidance of our Heavenly Father. And in this, our duty becomes our supreme pleasure when it is done from a heart predisposed to the Father’s will.
It is said that our reward is that which comes after the work - that which is the result of our labor. This is not false, for we eagerly await the reaping of our hope (Galatians 6:9). But it is likewise true that our joy should also be in the doing of that work. When the doing is a joy, and not merely the end result, that work of the Lord - whatever it may be - then becomes our food nourishing our souls, and its successful completion our constraint (John 4:34), and in this, we begin to love the work, and it is no longer simply a means to an end.
But here we are given a glimpse of that which robs us of this joy, and shown that there is nearly nothing more opposed to the righteousness of God as is covetousness. It is exactly this sin, which keeps our eyes off the joy of the work, and solely on the desired outcome, but in a way of concern for only ourselves, and not our neighbor. Notice the direction of the request: “my heart is naturally inclined to greed and self-serving, I don’t want this, O’ God, reverse my affections and make them righteous!”
It is with great enjoyment that our God desires to give us a heart of love and joy, we need only to ask with sincerity and he will do it. We are the children of God, and what Father doesn’t want to give his children whatever they ask for?
