Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:34
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with [my] whole heart.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law – Give me right views of it, of its nature and obligation. It is not a prayer that God would give him the faculty of understanding or intelligence; but that he would enable him to take just views of the law. The word is the same as in Psa 119:27, rendered there, Make me to understand.
Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart – See Psa 119:2. I will keep it with undivided affections; I will make it the sole guide of my life.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:34
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Davids prayer and resolution
I. Their order. Knowledge must necessarily precede obedience, since there can be nothing chosen by the will but what the understanding has first allowed; the will being destitute of all light save what is borrowed: for as the stars derive their light from the sun, so does the will her light from the understanding, that directive faculty of the soul, the candle of the Lord, that light whereby we discern good from evil.
II. Their connection.
1. Knowledge and obedience are not things inseparable, for one may be without the other; we may have understanding, and yet not keep Gods law; for knowledge does not change the will, but direct it; it does only rationally persuade, not effectually convert it; so that the will must he sanctified, as well as the understanding illuminated, before our obedience to Gods law can be answerable to our knowledge of it.
2. We may both understand Gods law, and keep it. God that employs, enables us; lie that calls us gives us a power to come, otherwise His invitation would be a mockery; tie that saith, Depart from evil, and do good, has doubtless made us capable of so doing.
III. The main scope and design of the words. Do this for me, and I do promise on my part to keep Thy law, to meditate upon Thy precepts, and to have respect unto Thy ways, to delight myself in Thy statutes, and not to forget Thy Word. Our obedience must be–
1. Sincere. This renders our endeavours acceptable to God, and profitable to ourselves.
2. Universal. Catholic faith without catholic obedience is of little value.
3. Constant. If we faint, we shall never reap; if we are weary of running, we shall never obtain the prize. (E. Lake, D. D.)
The need of understanding
Understanding. That is what he urgently prays for. If only the poor man could understand what God was about; if only he could detect the track, catch the clue, hear the voice behind him saying, This is the way? what a relief, what a strength it would be. He is ready, eager, willing; his heart is aflame; he desires keenly to do the right, to walk with God–so, at least, it seems to him; so he thinks. He may discover, later on, that his will is not so strong as he imagines. But, at any rate, as he stands, it is his head, rather than his heart, which he feels to be at fault. He feels, but cannot see; he desires, but cannot decide. That will of God which he would so delightedly follow refuses to pronounce itself and give clear utterance. It vanishes. It hides itself. It is dissipated into hesitating and disappointing negations. Just when he fancied he had got his grip upon it it slips through his fingers. What ought he to do? What ought he not to do? How much does God ask of him? or how little? What is the rule he must obey? If he did but know, he would be loyal enough. O give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law! Yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart. His whole heart, for then the whole man would go along with what it saw to be so right. The fitness, the meaning, the method, the end would all commend themselves. As the reason joyfully assented, the heart would commit itself to a plan so sound and so intelligible. And there would be no disappointing blunders to check the hearts advance; no slips, no doubtful experiments, no foolish hesitation in moments of uncertain suspense. The heart would not cringe in fear, trying its road before it with trembling anxiety. It would go with a swing, sure of itself; sure of its direction, sure of its success. Oh! to have this confidence, this security, this understanding–then he would keep the law with all his heart and soul. Give me understanding! A true prayer for us all! What a lot of harm is done in the world by the folly, the stupidity, the blindness of those who are on Gods side, and genuinely desire to keep His law! We make so little way in carrying Gods law into effective action, because our grasp on its principles is so frail, our apprehension of its height and depth is so cheap, and poor, and thin. A whole world of assumptions, moral and religious, are under challenge; and are undergoing the transformation which such challenges enforce. We are compelled to reconsider our familiar language; to recast our phrases; to review our apologetics. A resettlement of the entire position is proceeding, in the sense that the proportion and balance of our modes of expressing and defending our convictions are shifting. It seems as if the world of spirit and of grace had slipped out of our ken–as if we had lost our way in it, and could not move in it with any confidence. It has grown to feel far-off and out of touch–a strange land, where we are not at home. So our religious life conies to a halt, gets in a tangle, grows timid and dolorous. If we did but know better what it is that God is saying to us! If our ears were but open, if our apprehension of Him were but more firm and clear! Understanding, moral insight, spiritual intelligence, an instructed conscience, a purer and truer judgment, a power to decide, to resolve, a skill in discernment. Oh, pray for that–our grievous lack! It can come from God only. He not only commands, but enables us to understand His commands. Yet this is left us–to bring our faculties under His handling, under His discipline. We have got minds; we have got the gift of reason. We can set these to work, with a little more seriousness and efficiency. First, we can recognize that this law of God which we do genuinely desire to keep with our whole heart is no light and easy affair, to be known straight off at a hearing. It is a serious business; and calls upon our reason to search it out. Can we apply the moral law, as Christ gave it to us, to modern life, to commerce, to luxury, to social intercourse? Can the modern conditions of big cities allow for Sunday? Can the Christian ideal of marriage stand the strain of the present freedom of relationship between man and woman? Can it justify its rigidity? Can we say why, or how it should be when we are asked? These questions cannot be answered without thought and care and trouble; they cry out for an intelligent understanding. Oh, grant us understanding that we may keep Thy law. Secondly, it is a prayer that implies the incessant revelation of fresh law to be kept. We desire to serve God not only better than we now do, but better than we yet know how to serve. He has a law for us which is far above out of our sight. His law is making demands of us of which we have as yet no intelligence. Oh, if we saw and knew, how bitter would be our shame at failing Him so totally! Oh, pray to understand more of what He wants of us! Be ever occupied in lifting your standard, in pushing forward your moral frontiers, in raising the demands. (Canon Scott Holland.)
On the identity of wisdom and religion
Let us survey,, one by one, the characteristic marks of wisdom; and examine whether they are not, singly and collectively, exemplified in the conduct of the man who fixes his heart upon God through Jesus Christ.
I. Wisdom selects such objects of pursuit as she discerns a satisfactory prospect of attaining.
II. Wisdom sets its affections upon those things which are in their own nature the most excellent.
III. Wisdom chooses for its portion those acquisitions which, in the possession, are accompanied with the highest delight. How, then, stands the case with respect to religion?
1. Consider the point first with regard to present satisfaction.
2. With respect to the life to come, comparison cannot be mentioned. Whether the blessedness of heaven or the pains of hell be preferable; whether it be wisdom to choose the future rewards of religion, or the future punishments of guilt; these are questions which require not an answer.
IV. Wisdom occupies itself in the pursuit of efficient remedies for evils actual or probable. Is this position descriptive of religion? Evils are temporal, or spiritual. Compare as to evils of each class the advantages of the righteous and of the unrighteous.
V. Wisdom fixes her attention on those desirable objects which, other circumstances being equal, are the most durable. Is this characteristic of wisdom to be found in religion? How long do the pleasures of sin continue? Suppose that the wicked man grasps his good things, be they what they may, until death. The righteous man, travelling by his side, enjoys his delights unto the same period. So far as to duration, the servant of God is not under any disadvantage. But from the instant of death how stands the comparison? That instant which for ever extinguishes the pleasures of the wicked, sees the happiness of the righteous only in its commencement. (T. Gisborne, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 34. With my whole heart.] I will not trifle with my God, I will not divide my affections with the world; God shall have all.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law,…. A spiritual understanding; an understanding of the law, the perfection, purity, holiness, and spirituality of it; an understanding of the Gospel, and of Christ and the things of Christ; from whom grace and strength are to be had for the due observance of the law, as in his hands; which understanding must be given, and is a gift of pure, free, rich grace, to such who have it; though they cannot keep the law perfectly, as no mere man can, yet will keep it spiritually, from a principle of love and gratitude, and with a view to the glory of God and Christ, 1Jo 5:20;
yea, I shall observe it with [my] whole heart; not only externally, and to be seen of men, and get applause from them; but doing the will of God from the heart, and with a good will and heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men; with a sincere affection for him, and with a single eye to his glory, Eph 6:6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
34. Make me to understand We are here informed that true wisdom consists in being wise according to the law of God, that it may preserve us in fear and obedience to him. In asking God to confer this wisdom upon him, he owns that men, in consequence of their natural blindness, aim at anything rather than this. And, indeed, it is quite foreign to the notions usually prevalent among mankind to strain every nerve to keep God’s law. The world esteems as wise those only who look well to their own interests, are acute and politic in temporal matters, and who even excel in the art of beguiling the simple. In opposition to such a sentiment, the prophet pronounces men to be void of true understanding as long as the fear of God does not predominate among them. For himself he asks no other prudence than the surrendering of himself entirely to God’s direction. At the same Lime, he acknowledges this to be the special gift of God, which none can procure by his own power or policy; for were each adequate to be his own teacher in this matter, then this petition would be superfluous.
Moreover, as the observance of the law is no common occurrence, he employs two terms in reference to it. “Lord, it is a high and hard thing to keep thy law strictly as it ought, which demands from us purity beyond what we are able to attain; yet, depending on the heavenly illumination of thy Spirit, I will not cease my endeavors to keep it.” The following, however, renders the meaning more clear: “Give me understanding to keep and observe thy law with my whole heart.” Mention is made of the whole heart, to tell us how far they are from the righteousness of the law who obey it only in the letter, doing nothing deserving of blame in the sight of men. God puts a restraint principally on the heart, that genuine uprightness may flourish there, whose fruits may afterwards appear in the life. This spiritual observance of the law is a most convincing evidence of the necessity of being divinely prepared and formed for it.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
DISCOURSE: 700
WISDOM OF TRUE PIETY
Psa 119:34. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
A SPIRITUAL discernment essentially differs from the mere exercise of our intellectual powers. A man may have the richest stores of human knowledge, and the most discriminating faculty in various branches of science, and yet be under the dominion, the allowed dominion, of his own lusts and passions. But spiritual knowledge is always accompanied with gracious dispositions: and for the sake of its practical effects alone is it to be desired. This appears from what St. Paul says respecting the intercessions which he continually offered before God in the behalf of his Colossian converts: We do not cease, says he, to pray for you, and to desire that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing [Note: Col 1:9-10.]. In a foregoing part of this psalm it might seem, as if knowledge alone had been the end for which David desired a spiritual illumination: Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. But we see in our text, that he had far other ends in view: he longed for knowledge, only that he might have his soul the more enlarged by it to run the way of Gods commandments: Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
From these words we will take occasion to shew,
I.
How true wisdom will operate
The provisional engagement which David entered into was no other than what must necessarily result from an answer to his petition. If God give to any of us a spiritual understanding, we shall immediately begin,
1.
To keep his law
[Whatever God has revealed will be a law unto us. Has he bidden us repent? We shall humble ourselves before him in dust and ashes Has he enjoined us to believe in his dear Son? We shall receive him into our hearts, and embrace him as all our salvation and all our desire Has he commanded us to obey his precepts? We shall endeavour to search out his will, and to conform ourselves to it in all things Whatever temptations may assault us, we shall not suffer them to turn us aside from the path of duty. Whatever opposition we may have to encounter, we shall hold on our way, determined to keep Gods law, yea, to keep it to the end [Note: ver. 112.]. This alone is true wisdom [Note: Job 28:28.]; yea, this is the first beginning of wisdom in the soul [Note: Psa 111:10.].]
2.
To observe it with our whole hearts
[There are two things which a spiritual understanding will most assuredly teach us, namely, the beauty and excellency of Gods law, and the folly of rendering to it a merely partial obedience.
To an unenlightened mind many of Gods commands appear absurd: and men are ready to say of them, This is a hard saying; who can hear it? But, in the view of one who is taught of God, there is no commandment grievous: the scope of every thing which God has spoken, is, to produce the present and eternal happiness of his creatures: the language of every injunction is, Be holy, be happy To attempt to lower any command to the standard of mans opinion, or of our own wishes, is seen to be the most horrible infatuation: for, if we can deceive man, we cannot deceive God: to him all things are naked and open. As he knows the extent of his own commands, so he knows the precise measure of obedience which we pay to them: He weighs, not our actions only, but our spirits also.
Hence a partial obedience is the same kind of folly as if a man should request permission to take a poisoned cup, because it was sweet; or as if he should shut his eyes, and say, that no man can see him. Convinced of this, he begs of God to put truth in his inward parts, and desires to be an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.]
As from a root which is acknowledged to be good we may anticipate a corresponding produce, so from fruit that is excellent we may infer with certainty the goodness of the root. In proof of this we will proceed to shew,
II.
Wherein its operation will approve itself to every reflecting mind
The observing of Gods law with our whole hearts necessarily evinces the existence of true wisdom in the soul; because,
1.
It is consonant with right reason
[What is disobedience, but a preferring of the creature to God, the body to the soul, and time to eternity? And will any one say that this is reasonable, or that it has even a shadow of reason in it? Reason requires the very reverse of this: and the yielding up of our soul and body to God, as a living sacrifice, is expressly called a reasonable service [Note: Rom 12:1.]. If we consider ourselves only as the work of Gods hands, this kind of service is reasonable: but, if we consider ourselves as redeemed by the blood of Gods only dear Son, it is infinitely more reasonable: for, having been bought with a price, we are not our own, but are bound to glorify God with our bodies and our spirits, which are Gods.]
2.
It is conducive to our best interests
[We will concede, for argument sake, all that the slaves of pleasure can say in its behalf; yea, we will concede ten times more than its most infatuated votary ever ventured to assert: but, having done this, we will ask, What good will it all do you in a dying hour, and at the bar of judgment? Godliness, we are told, is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. But of ungodliness no such thing can be asserted. Granting, that the ungodliness may be of the least offensive kind: yea, that it shall be so specious, as to assume the appearance, and to gain from many the applause, of piety; still we ask, What will it avail in the day that God shall judge the world? But it is not true, that the pleasures of sin are so great or so satisfactory. On the contrary, there is no comparison between the peace that flows from piety, and the gratifications that result from any criminal indulgence. The work of righteousness is peace; but the way of transgressors is hard. And, as to the eternal world, there can be no doubt Inasmuch then as piety is most consonant with right reason, and most conducive to our best interests, it approves itself, beyond a possibility of doubt, the genuine offspring of true wisdom.]
Address
1.
Those who live in the allowed violation of any one commandment
[The world may count you wise: yea, if you are doing well unto yourselves, (that is, are advancing your own temporal interests,) all men will speak well of you [Note: Psa 49:18.]. But what does God say of you? They have forsaken the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them [Note: Jer 8:9.]? Ah! what indeed? To the rich man, whose heart was elated with his temporal prospects, God said, Thou fool: and no better character will he assign to you. Think only with what an eye the heart-searching God beholds you; or what the angels think of your conduct; or what you yourselves will think of it in a little time; and you will be at no loss to form a right estimate of it. If you would be truly wise in Gods estimation, your obedience to him must be uniform and unreserved [Note: Mat 7:24-27. Deu 4:6.].]
2.
Those who profess to be endued with true wisdom
[If God have given us an understanding, then we must evidence it by the purity of our hearts and lives. But many there are, who can talk very fluently and speciously about religion, who yet are very far from being wise in the sight of God. Hear the judgment of God himself on this subject: Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts (and these are no uncommon inmates with the professors of religion), glory not, and lie not against the truth. (Let proud, conceited, and contentious professors hear this; They are liars against the truth.) This wisdom descendeth not from above; but is earthly, sensual, devilish. But the wisdom that is from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy [Note: Jam 3:13-17.]. Here is the test of true wisdom; here is the evidence of a sound understanding. The man that is destitute of these gracious tempers, is in darkness even until now: but the man who from love to Christ is enabled to live in the habitual exercise of them, has surely an understanding heart, and is made wise unto salvation.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with [my] whole heart.
Ver. 34. Give me understanding ] We can neither know nor do God’s will without divine light and aid, as appears clearly by this fifth octonary, which, therefore, Austin made so great use of against the Pelagians.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Give me: Psa 119:73, Psa 111:10, Job 28:28, Pro 2:5, Pro 2:6, Joh 7:17, Jam 1:5, Jam 3:13-18
I shall: Deu 4:6, Mat 5:19, Mat 7:24, Jam 1:25, Jam 2:8-12, Jam 4:11
observe: Psa 119:10, Psa 119:58, Psa 119:69
Reciprocal: Lev 19:37 – General 1Ki 3:9 – Give therefore 1Ki 4:29 – God 1Ch 28:8 – keep 2Ch 1:10 – Give me Psa 119:44 – keep Psa 119:55 – kept Psa 119:66 – Teach me Psa 119:125 – give Psa 119:144 – give me Psa 143:8 – cause me Pro 2:3 – if Pro 3:1 – let Pro 10:8 – wise Pro 14:8 – wisdom Col 3:23 – whatsoever 1Ti 5:21 – that Heb 10:22 – a true
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
119:34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with [my] whole {b} heart.
(b) Not only in outward conversation, but also with inward affection.