Psalm 119 V: The Peril of Half-heartedness

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and we are returning to Psalm 119, the chapter in the Bible that gives us the most full and complete picture of God's Word, but it does so in a very experiential way.

It shows us, we could say, the believer with an open book before their eyes, their feet on a very particular path, and their heart and face turned toward God. And I find that when we look at this, especially as 172 of the 176 verses are actually prayers or responses of the believer to God because of what the Word of God is.

I find this to be so helpful, particularly in the area of maintaining balance in the Christian life. It is easy at times to have our heart really engaged in Christianity, and we might really head toward one aspect of Christianity, whether it's an outward aspect like evangelism or discipleship or worship, or whether it's more of an internal aspect of Christianity like prayer, personal Bible study.

We run toward that and that's good, but if we're not careful, we become unbalanced. So I find Psalm 119 with the rapid interplay of these verses, you know, these are all short verses and one after the next, they demonstrate to me so many wonderful aspects of balance in the Christian life.

And today I want us to talk about the balance between the heart and the will, between the desires, the emotions and feelings on one hand, and the choices and the duty of the Christian on the other hand.

Psalm 119 helps us to keep these two connected and connected in a way that there's a wonderful, organic, living balance. For example, they keep us from drifting into what we might call kind of a sentimental mysticism.

And I know mysticism is a really dirty word right now, and I don't mean to use it in that way, I just mean the idea that Christianity is primarily my heart being warmed by the truths of the Bible and me loving the person of Christ, but not being careful to hold the balance, my warm heart drifts toward a self-indulgent, you know, emotionalism, where all I think Christianity needs to result in is my feelings for Christ.

So we want to avoid that type of a sentimental and self-indulgent approach, but we also want to avoid the approach of coming to the Bible as if it is primarily a list of things that I'm supposed to be doing for God or doing to be a better person.

And I find that my heart is not connected to the duties that I'm involved in, which to me always raises the question, well, then why am I doing this? And there's only one other option. Either I'm doing it for love of the King, or I'm doing it for love of me.

It is very easy to follow the words of God, the commands of God, with the goal of me becoming a better me, and that's a dangerous trap. So Psalm 119 helps us to hold these in balance. And that brings us to our verse for today, and that's verse 10.

Let me read that to you. With all my heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander from your commandments. So he starts off by talking about the theme of the heart or the core of the life of a believer.

It's a theme that we are often talking about on the podcast because we do try to, you know, stick close to the experiential aspects of the Christian life. The heart of the Christian life is the new heart.

The interiority of the Christian is primary. It's the way that we avoid being the Pharisee who simply keeps the exterior things that other people will notice, but neglects the heart issues which God sees.

John Flable, the Puritan, in his little book, Keeping the Heart, pointed out that there was a great distance between the intellect and the heart. So we can learn great things, but to really get them into the heart, that requires some effort.

But, Flable said, it is a very short step from the heart to the life. And I think we all know this just in normal life. When you're doing something that your heart is not in, it is a major, you know, it's an act of Congress to get yourself to do the smallest thing because you're not interested in it.

But if it's something that is motivated by love, so you're doing something for a loved one for a special occasion, even a very large task, a sacrificial task, one that requires a lot of work for a long time, it's as if it's weightless because love is the motive.

And it's the same thing in the Christian life. When love to God stirs the heart, then obedience is a short step from heart to life. I am grateful that in the work of redemption, regeneration, that act where God initiates the changes within us by making us alive, waking us up, bringing us up out of the grave, so to speak, making us a new creation, the new birth, must include a new heart.

I mean, the old covenant explained it, that when Christ came and when the new covenant comes with Him, one of the wonderfully distinguishing things about that is that every single person in this new covenant would have a new heart, a soft heart, a responsive heart, and no longer the stony heart.

So, our starting place for verse 10 is really not us saying to ourselves, I'm going to do better and make sure that my heart stays warm toward God. Our starting place is that we are confident in the work of our Redeemer that in dealing with us, He has given us a heart that can be responsive.

Now, because all of me, all of my faculties, the heart, the mind, the will, all are being redeemed by Christ, all are affected by regeneration. So, there is a new life, a new responsiveness in all of those, even though it's imperfect.

Then we would say that the response of the believer to God, faith, it includes all. Faith is a thing that includes my heart, it includes my mind, and it results in a change of my choices. So, the half-hearted response is an inadequate response.

Verse 10, with all my heart I have sought you. One of the things we want to beware of in the Christian life is thinking that a half-hearted response is half-pleasing to God and better than a no-hearted response.

So, you know, if we kind of think of it simplistically, only responding to God with 10 of my being, well, that's only 10 pleasing, 90 unpleasing. But what if I do it with 55 of my being? Well, that's more than half, and so God is more pleased than displeased.

But that is not how God views the Christian life. It is a thing that calls for all of us. It's not that we're earning God's love. It's not that we are keeping ourselves in the family of God. It is that because of who God is, anything less is grievous.

It hurts the Christian. We grieve over our sin, and it grieves God that we are willing to be half-hearted about a person who, of all persons, calls for the whole of our heart. So, half-heartedness is not half-pleasing to God.

Charles Bridges, in his commentary on this verse in Psalm 119, gives some really wonderful statements, and I'm going to read a few of those quotes, and you try to stay with me. I'll try to read clearly.

This is what Bridges says about the dangers and defects of a religion that is half-hearted. He writes this, How much do we lose of the comfort of our religion and obscure the glory of our profession by neglecting to bring our whole heart to this work, to Christianity?

When sin is vigorous and our spiritual affections are dull and various hindrances combine in prayer, at this crisis, strong faith is needed to overcome and to persevere. But here, the soul too often yields to the difficulty.

In other words, when you're half-hearted, any difficulty that comes in prayer or Bible study or in obedience, you're so ready to yield. You just think, well, it's too high of a wall. I can't make it over.

So he says, we too commonly yield to the difficulty and we content ourself either with heartless complainings or with just sufficient exertion to quiet the voice of conscience and produce a deceptive peace.

Now, that's very perceptive. When we are half-hearted, we will notice a few things. We are easily stopped in our determinations to press on as a Christian. We are easily diverted. We easily give up. Also, it doesn't mean that we necessarily become irreligious.

We may still be religious, but we go through the motions in such a half-hearted way that we receive no benefit, he goes on to say, except we do enough to quiet our conscience so that we're not bothered.

What does it look like if you're half-hearted? It can be difficult to spot because it's the interior. Well, Bridges goes on to say this, in a careless or half-hearted state, wanderings are not watched or not guarded against so long as they do not lead to an open declension.

So again, what he's saying is this, when we're half-hearted, we're not worried about those little aspects in the soul where we are drifting just a little away from obedience, drifting away from love to Christ, drifting from a God-oriented life.

As long as it doesn't lead to some really embarrassing sin, we're okay with it. He goes on to say, secret prayer will be hurried through. Worldly thoughts are unresisted and a waste of time in frivolous pursuits will be indulged and it will not concern us.

Are you half-hearted? Well, Bridges describes wholeheartedness. Let me just give you what he says here. He says, wholeheartedness, when the heart is fully in pursuit of its object, there is a carefulness.

Lest wandering thoughts should become habitual, there is a resistance of the very first step off the path that might lead to a devious path. This blessed state of mind, the flock of Christ should cherish with a godly jealousy.

So that's the first half of the verse. Verse 10, with all my heart I have sought you. That's the healthy Christian, wholehearted response to God. Not a sinless perfection, but the whole of my being is being bent and turned toward its appropriate object.

But that leads to the second half. Do not let me wander from your commandments. This wholeheartedness, this carefulness, must lead to the second half or all we've got is that sentimental religion. I remember reading in one of my biographies that I've got on the life of Robert Murray McShane.

One of these lesser known biographies mentioned a friend of McShane's. After the death of his friend, he was in London and someone who had read Andrew Bonnard's memoirs of McShane had been really stirred.

He was in a Christian bookshop and he sees this man and he realizes somehow that this man actually knew Robert Murray McShane. And so he said to him, what do you think was the secret of McShane's holiness?

And the friend said, his carefulness. Now that's very helpful. One writer said that McShane's holiness almost seemed to come naturally to him. And if you believe that, then it's hopeless for us because it doesn't come naturally to us.

And it did not come naturally to Robert Murray McShane. There is the issue of carefulness and carefulness is connected with wholeheartedness. We are not careless in any activity, in any relationship, in any plan that our whole heart is involved in.

It is when we are half-hearted that carelessness comes. And it's just inevitably that way. So ask yourself, in my walk with the Lord, am I wholehearted? In my treasuring of this book, the Bible, am I wholehearted?

In my turning my face toward God, am I wholehearted? Or am I being okay with a half-hearted, a divided heart? Carefulness is at the heart of following. Carefulness leads to the prayer of the second half of this verse.

Do not let me wander from your commandments. God, because of the wholehearted pursuit of you, I want to be very careful with the daily practical choices I'm making. I want to be sure that I'm not just being a good person, I'm not just being a wholehearted person, but I am actually keeping the individual commands of Scripture for love of my King.

So do you see the perfect balance here? With my whole heart, I have sought God. What evidence do you have of that? I am being very careful, and I am crying out to God, keep my feet on the very specific path of a biblical obedience.

So good questions for us to ask ourselves this week. Is your heart whole in the matter of your walking with God in this world? Is it divided? Look back and look for evidence. Does your carefulness to keep your heart undivided toward God result in a constant cry of the heart that God would keep you from drifting from obedience?

My whole life, we say to God, my whole life, I want it to be love to you. But God, make my love to be obedience, not just sentiment. Verse 10, wonderful balance, help from the psalmist in Psalm 119. We'll see you next week.