Saturday December 7

I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my heart. Psalm 119:32

And I will walk at liberty, for I have sought Thy precepts. Psalm 119:45

Meditations on Psalm 119 (8)

Enlarging the heart is a poetic description of liberty and freedom. Men have always been looking for these things, and the psalmist gives us two principles. The first one is in verse 32. He says “I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.” We could paraphrase this, “freedom leads to obedience.” Because, he reasons, God has given me freedom, and has enlarged my heart, I will run the way of His commandments. Real Christian liberty leads to obedience to the Word of God. We have the same thought in verse 45, but the other way around, “And I will walk at liberty, for I have sought Thy precepts.” Or as the esv puts it: “I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.” So the reverse is true also, “obedience leads to freedom.” He says, “Because I seek Thy precepts I will walk at liberty.” We are strangers here, and the world does not understand this thought. What does obedience have to do with liberty? For them the thoughts contradict each other, because they think liberty means being able to do what they want, not being obedient to anyone, but that is not what the Bible says. These things go together in His Word.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage … For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another (Gal. 5:1, 13 nkjv).

Michael Vogelsang

O teach us so the power to know
Of risen life with Thee;
Not we may live while here below,
But Christ our life may be.

J. G. Deck