Psalm 119:2,7,11,32
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Note how the heart has been spoken of up to this point: “whole heart,” verse 2; “uprightness of heart,” verse 7; “hid in mine heart,” verse 11; “enlarge my heart,” verse 32. There are many more allusions further on, and these all go to show what heart-work David’s religion was.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “Enlarge my heart.” What does that mean?
ROBERT LEIGHTON (1611-1684): It is said of Solomon, that he had “largeness of heart, as the sand of the sea shore,” 1 Kings 4:29; that is, a vast, comprehensive spirit, that could fathom much of nature, both its greater and lesser things. Thus, I conceive, the enlargement of the heart comprises the enlightening of the understanding. There arises a clearer light there to discern spiritual things in a more spiritual manner; to see the vast difference betwixt the vain things the world goes after, and the true solid delight that is in the way of God’s commandments; to know the false blush of the pleasures of sin, and what deformity is under that painted mask, and not be allured by it; to have enlarged apprehensions of God, His excellency, and greatness and goodness; how worthy He is to be obeyed and served; this is the great dignity and happiness of the soul; all other pretensions are low and poor in respect of this. Here then, is enlargement to see the purity and beauty of His law, how just and reasonable, yea, how pleasant and amiable it is; that His commandments are not grievous, that they are beds of spices; the more we walk in them, still the more of their fragrant smell and sweetness we find.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The melting of soul, and the enlargement of the heart, are sweet and gracious feelings.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The meaning of the prophet is, that when God shall inspire him with love for His law he will be vigorous and ready, nay, even steady, so as not to faint in the middle of his course. His words contain an implied admission of the inability of men to make any advancement in well-doing until God enlarge their hearts.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The Hebrew word translated as “when,” should be translated as “because;”—Because thou shalt enlarge, or dilate, my heart.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): This enlargement of heart in Scripture is ascribed to wisdom, 1 Kings 4:29, and love, 2 Corinthians 6:11, and joy, Isaiah 60:5—when Thou shalt knock off the fetters of remaining corruption, and give me a more noble and generous disposition towards Thee, and establish me “with thy free spirit,” as expressed in Psalm 51:12. Thus David both owns his duty, and asserts the absolute necessity of God’s grace to the performance of it.
HENRY MELVILL (1798-1871): His wish is that his heart might be enlarged; and this wish amounted to a longing that the whole of himself might act in unison with the heart, so that he might become, as it were, all heart, and thus the heart in the strictest sense be enlarged, through the spreading of itself over body and soul, expanding itself till it embraced all the powers of both. If there be the love of God in the heart, then gradually the heart, possessed and actuated by so noble and stirring a principle, will bring over to a lofty consecration all the energies—and he became, according to the phrase which we are accustomed to employ when describing a character of unwonted generosity and warmth, “all heart.” So that the desire after an enlarged heart you may fairly consider tantamount to a desire that every faculty might be brought into thorough subjection to God.
HUGH B. MOFFAT (circa 1871): It may not unnaturally excite surprise, that “the sweet singer of Israel,” he who was emphatically declared to be “a man after God’s own heart,” Acts 13:22, should nevertheless, in the words of the text, seem to imply that he was not yet “running the way of God’s commandments.’ But dear brethren, the greater an individual’s comparative holiness, the more intense will be his longing for absolute holiness. It was not the walking, but the running “the way of God’s commandments,” to which David aspired.
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): By running is meant a cheerful, ready, and zealous observance of God’s precepts: it is not go, or walk, but run. They that would come to their journey’s end, must run in the way of God’s commandments. It notes a speedy or a ready obedience, without delay—and it notes earnestness; when a man’s heart is set upon a thing, he thinks he can never do it soon enough. And this is running, when we are vehement and earnest upon the enjoyment of God and Christ in the way of obedience…This running is the fruit of effectual calling. When the Lord speaks of effectual calling, the issue of it is running; when He speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles, “Nations that know not thee shall run unto thee,” Isaiah 55:5; and, “Draw me, and we will run after thee,” Song of Solomon 1:4. When God draws there is a speedy, earnest motion of the soul. This running, as it is the fruit of effectual calling, so it is very needful; for cold and faint motions are soon overborne by difficulty and temptation: “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1. When a man hath a mind to do a thing, though he be hindered and jostled, he takes it patiently, he goes on and cannot stay to debate the business. A slow motion is easily stopped, whereas a swift one bears down that which opposeth it; so is it when men run and are not tired in the service of God.
HENRY MELVILL: So long as the dedication is at best only partial, the world retaining some fraction of its empire, notwithstanding the setting up of the kingdom of God, there can be nothing but a slow and impeded progress, a walking interrupted by repeated halting, if not backslidings, by much of loitering, if not of actual retreat; but if the man be all heart, then he will be all life, all warmth, all zeal, all energy, and the consequence of this complete surrender to God will be exactly that which is prophetically announced in Isaiah 40:31, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
THOMAS MANTON: Last of all, the prize calls for running—“So run that ye may obtain,” 1 Corinthians 9:24.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Begin, then, the course which David ran, and prosecute it with the ardour that filled his soul.
C. H. SPURGEON: There is an enlargement of the heart that is very dangerous, but this kind of enlargement of the heart is the most healthy thing that can happen to a man! A great heart, you see, is a running heart. A little heart goes slowly, but an enlarged heart runs in the way of God’s Commandments. Oh, for a heart full of love to God! And then to have that heart made larger, so as to hold more of God’s love! Lord! enlarge my heart in that sense!
