The Divine Tug: A Prayer for Holy Gravity Text: Psalm 119:33-40
Introduction: The War for the Heart
We live in a world that is constantly catechizing us. Every advertisement, every sitcom, every news broadcast, every scroll through your phone is a little sermon, teaching you what to love, what to desire, and what to live for. The world is not neutral; it is a relentless evangelist for its own godless religion. And the central doctrine of this religion is autonomy. You are your own. Your heart is your own. Your desires are your own. Follow your heart, they say. But the prophet Jeremiah tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.
So when we come to a passage like this one in the great Psalm 119, we are not coming to a quaint piece of devotional poetry. We are coming to a war manual. This is the prayer of a man who understands that the central battlefield is the heart, the affections, the will. He knows that left to himself, his heart will drift into the orbit of worthlessness and dishonest gain. He understands that true freedom is not found in being loosed from all constraints, but in being joyfully bound to the right constraints. True liberty is not the absence of a master, but the service of the right Master.
The psalmist here is not praying for God to do something for him so that he can remain passive. Rather, he is praying for God to work in him so that he might actively, wholeheartedly, and joyfully obey. This is the great paradox of the Christian life that the world cannot understand. We pray for God to cause us to walk, and then we get up and walk. We ask God to incline our hearts, and then we pursue His testimonies. This is not a contradiction; it is the biblical doctrine of divine enablement. It is what Paul meant when he said, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). This prayer is the "working out" of a man who knows that God must first "work in."
This section of the psalm is a cascade of petitions, each one beginning with a plea for God to act upon the psalmist. "Instruct me... Cause me to understand... Cause me to walk... Cause my heart to incline... Cause my eyes to turn away... Cause Your word to be established... Cause my reproach to pass away." This is the cry of a man who knows his own weakness and God's all-sufficient strength. He is praying for a divine gravity to pull his soul toward holiness, because he feels the constant tug of the world, the flesh, and the devil in the opposite direction.
The Text
Instruct me, O Yahweh, in the way of Your statutes,
That I may observe it to the end.
Cause me to understand, that I may observe Your law
And keep it with all my heart.
Cause me to walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
Cause my heart to incline to Your testimonies
And not to dishonest gain.
Cause my eyes to turn away from looking at worthlessness,
And revive me in Your ways.
Cause Your word to be established for Your slave,
As that which produces fear for You.
Cause my reproach which I dread to pass away,
For Your judgments are good.
Behold, I long for Your precepts;
Revive me in Your righteousness.
(Psalm 119:33-40 LSB)
Divine Instruction for Lifelong Obedience (vv. 33-34)
The prayer begins with a plea for divine education.
"Instruct me, O Yahweh, in the way of Your statutes, That I may observe it to the end. Cause me to understand, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all my heart." (Psalm 119:33-34)
The psalmist does not ask for abstract knowledge. He asks to be instructed "in the way" of God's statutes. This is practical, on-the-ground, shoe-leather instruction. He wants to know how to walk. The goal of this instruction is not to win a Bible trivia contest; it is perseverance: "That I may observe it to the end." Biblical knowledge that does not terminate in obedience is not biblical knowledge at all; it is just religious information. It puffs up. But the kind of teaching he desires here is the kind that builds up, the kind that equips a man for a marathon, not just a sprint.
In verse 34, he goes deeper. It is not enough to know the way; he must "understand" it. This understanding is not mere intellectual assent. The goal is to "observe Your law And keep it with all my heart." This is the heart of the matter. The Pharisees knew the law inside and out, but their hearts were far from God. They tithed their mint and dill and cumin, but neglected the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. God is not interested in a grudging, external compliance. He wants the heart. This is why the New Covenant promise in Jeremiah is that God will write His law on our hearts (Jer. 31:33). The psalmist is praying for a New Covenant reality. He wants God to perform heart surgery on him, so that his desires and God's law are moving in the same direction.
Enabled Walking and Inclined Affections (vv. 35-36)
The prayer now moves from understanding to action and affection.
"Cause me to walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. Cause my heart to incline to Your testimonies And not to dishonest gain." (Psalm 119:35-36 LSB)
He asks God to "cause me to walk." This is a petition for divine propulsion. He knows the path, but he needs God to move him along it. And notice the reason given: "For I delight in it." This is beautiful. He is not asking God to make him do something he hates. He is saying, "Lord, my heart's truest delight is in Your law, but my legs are weak and my feet wander. Please, empower me to walk in the way that I already love." This is the prayer of a regenerate man. The unbeliever sees God's law as a burden, a fence keeping him from what he truly wants. The believer sees God's law as the path of life and joy, and his great sorrow is that he so often fails to walk in it.
Verse 36 makes the internal battle explicit. "Cause my heart to incline to Your testimonies And not to dishonest gain." The heart is like a compass needle; it will point somewhere. Left to itself, it points toward the magnetic north of self-interest, covetousness, and earthly treasure. "Dishonest gain" here is not just about illegal business dealings; it is about any gain that is sought apart from God and His law. It is the desire to get, to have, to accumulate, which is the engine of our entire consumer culture. The psalmist recognizes this as a rival claimant for his heart's allegiance. He is praying for God to rig the scales of his affections, to make His testimonies so weighty and glorious that all the glittering baubles of the world appear as the cheap trash they are.
Guarded Eyes and Divine Revival (vv. 37-38)
The battle for the heart is fought through the gates of the senses, particularly the eyes.
"Cause my eyes to turn away from looking at worthlessness, And revive me in Your ways. Cause Your word to be established for Your slave, As that which produces fear for You." (Psalm 119:37-38 LSB)
Job made a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a virgin (Job 31:1). The psalmist knows he cannot even make such a covenant without divine aid. He asks God to "cause my eyes to turn away." The word for "worthlessness" is broad. It encompasses everything that is vain, empty, and fleeting. In our day, this is a firehose of digital vanity, a constant stream of pixels designed to capture our attention and sell us lies. The psalmist knows that where the eyes go, the heart will follow. He prays for God to be his divine censor, to put blinders on him so that he might see only what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable.
And he knows that turning from vanity is not enough. He must be turned toward something. The second half of the verse is the positive counterpart: "And revive me in Your ways." True holiness is not just about avoiding evil; it is about being alive to righteousness. The word "revive" means to give life, to quicken. He is praying for spiritual vitality, for the kind of life that flows from walking in God's paths. He wants to be so invigorated by God's ways that the ways of worthlessness lose all their appeal.
Verse 38 connects this revival to God's Word and the proper fear of God. He asks God to establish, or confirm, His promise to His servant. And what is the nature of this promise? It is that "which produces fear for You." This is not the cowering fear of a slave before a tyrant. This is the healthy, awesome, reverential fear of a son before a glorious and loving Father. It is the beginning of wisdom. In our therapeutic age, we have tried to domesticate God and remove all fear. But a God who cannot be feared is a God who cannot save. The psalmist understands that a right fear of God is the only thing that can cast out the thousand slavish fears of men, of failure, of reproach.
Reproach Removed and Righteousness Imparted (v. 39-40)
The prayer concludes with a plea for deliverance from shame and a final cry for life.
"Cause my reproach which I dread to pass away, For Your judgments are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness." (Psalm 119:39-40 LSB)
The psalmist dreads "reproach." This is the shame that comes from sin and failure, and also the scorn that comes from the world for trying to live a godly life. He knows that his own sin gives his enemies an occasion to blaspheme. He asks God to take this shame away, not by lowering the standard, but by enabling him to live up to it. And the ground of his appeal is beautiful: "For Your judgments are good." He is not arguing with God's standards. He is saying, "Your law is perfect, and my failure to keep it brings me shame. Please, deliver me from my failure so that my life might magnify the goodness of Your law."
The final verse is a summary of the entire prayer. "Behold, I long for Your precepts." This is a declaration of his deepest desire. Despite his failings, despite the pull of the world, his fundamental orientation is toward God's Word. It is what he craves. And so, the final petition is the same as in verse 37, but with a crucial addition: "Revive me in Your righteousness." He does not ask to be revived in his own righteousness, for he knows he has none. He asks for the life that comes from God's righteousness. This is a profoundly gospel-centered prayer. He is asking for the life that is found only in Christ, the one who perfectly kept the law, the one who is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).
Conclusion: The Prayer of the Enabled
This prayer is a model for every Christian. It is a prayer of radical dependence. The psalmist knows he cannot instruct himself, understand on his own, walk by his own power, incline his own heart, or guard his own eyes. In every respect, he is cast upon the sovereign grace of God.
But this dependence does not lead to passivity. It leads to longing, to delight, to active pursuit. Because God works in him, he can and he must work out. Because God inclines his heart, he must then choose to follow God's testimonies and not dishonest gain. Because God turns his eyes, he must then fix his gaze on Christ.
This is the engine of sanctification. We are not saved by our own efforts, and we are not sanctified by them either. At every point, from beginning to end, we are utterly dependent on God to "cause" us. But His causing is not a coercive force that bypasses our will; it is a creative power that liberates our will. He works in us to make us willing. He gives us the desire for His law, and then He gives us the power to pursue that desire.
So let this be our prayer. Lord, cause us. Cause us to understand, to walk, to love, to see, to fear. Revive us in Your righteousness. Pull our hearts with the holy gravity of Your glory, that we might escape the black hole of our own vanity and find our true orbit in joyful, wholehearted obedience to You.